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Ralph LaVerne Hinton, 101, of Cambridge, passed away June 5, 2016, at the Cambridge Manor.

Ralph was born to Albert and Mary Bernice (Blake) Hinton on May 19, 1915, in a sod house on his paternal grandfathers homestead about 3 miles west-soutwest of Stockville in Frontier County. It was the same house in which his father was born and in which his father and mother were married. Even though it was late in May, the ground was white with snow. While still a toddler, Ralph moved with his parents to a new, small, frame house about 1 mile southeast on another quarter section of his grandfathers land. Here Ralph and his siblings grew to adulthood.

Ralph attended all eight years of elementary school at Rising Sun Rural School, District 31, in Frontier County. He then attended four years at Stockville Rural High School, graduating in 1933. That fall, he enrolled in the Nebraska State Teachers College at Kearney, where he qualified himself to teach in the rural schools of Nebraska. He taught for seven years in Frontier County, including Walnut Hill, District 35; Rising Sun, District 31; South Brushy, District 108; Champion (north of Freedom), District 33; and North Star, District 29. He then taught grades fifth through eighth at Dickens for two years, and grades fifth through eighth at Bloomington for one year. He was then called to be superintendent of the Oshkosh Public School, where he remained for four years.

Between terms of school, Ralph often attended summer school in Kearney to renew his teaching certificates and earn credits toward his college degree. After four years in Oshkosh, Ralph took a year off from teaching and attended his senior year at the college in Kearney. He graduated from college in 1949 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in secondary education, and qualified to be a high school administrator and a teacher in the fields of English, social studies and mathematics. After graduating from college, Ralph was employed by the Holdrege Public Schools as an elementary principal and sixth-grade teacher. After a couple of years, he was asked to retain his elementary principalship, but was invited to give up his classroom teaching duties and accept the position of elementary supervisor of all three of Holdreges elementary schools. While teaching in Holdrege, Ralph became a life member of both the Nebraska State Teachers Association and the National Education Association. He was also invited to accept membership in a National Honorary Education Fraternity.

In the summer of 1952, Ralph enrolled in graduate school at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to pursue a masters degree in elementary education. During the next two summers, he completed all of the course work for the masters degree.

After eight years in the Holdrege school system, Ralph moved to Kansas City, Missouri. There he was employed as an auditor and to set up an inventory control system for a wholesale plumbing and heating company. After 13 months, he was employed as a mens clothing salesman by the Jones Store Company, one of approximately 100 department stores scattered over the entire United States, all belonging to Mercantile Stores Company Inc. Ralph excelled as a salesman of mens suits, receiving several awards for top volume sales among the entire chain of Mercantile Stores. Ralph remained in this same position for 23 years, one year longer than he had taught school.

At the age of 12, Ralph gave his heart to Christ at a Rose Evangelistic meeting in Curtis. He joined the First Congregational Church in Stockville and was baptized there. At a much later date, he was baptized by immersion at the Church of Christ in McCook. Ralph was a Congregationalist all his life. Besides being a member of the Stockville Church for many years, he was a member for many years each of the Old Historical First Congregational Church of Kansas City, Missouri, and the Congregational United Church of Christ in Cambridge. During his many years of membership, he held every office in the Congregational church with the exception of church clerk. During his many years of going to school and teaching school, Ralph often found himself in a community where there was no Congregational church. But Ralph was always able to find a church home among churches of other faiths, including Methodist, Christian (Disciples of Christ), Baptist, Church of the Brethren, Mennonite, Nazarene and Presbyterian.

For many years, Ralph was a member of both Frontier County Historical Society and the Nebraska State Historical Society.

In 2005, Ralph was presented a 50-year membership pin and plaque in recognition of his 50-year affiliation with the Order of United Commercial Travelers of America.

Having bought a home in Cambridge, he moved there in April 1986, where he lived for 22 years before moving with his brother and sister to the Heritage Plaza Retirement Village in Cambridge in November 2007.

Ralph was preceded in death by his parents; one brother, Dean Hinton; one sister, Zelda Hinton Maret, and her husband, Merle; one brother-in-law, Ray Swanson; and one great-great-nephew, Camron Maret.

Ralph is survived by his brother, Alfred Hinton, of Cambridge; four nieces, Bernita (John) Hinton Owens, of Stockville, Lorraine Hinton Herrick, of Champion, Marlene Maret Mustion, of Indianola, and Margene Maret (Randy) Hayes, of Imperial; four nephews, LaVerne (Gene) Maret, of Wilsonville, Deloit (Carol) Hinton, of Pleasanton, California, Everett (Ann) Hinton, of Hastings, and Laurence (Tamara) Hinton, of North Platte; one sister-in-law, Donna Swanson, of North Platte; and a host of relatives and friends.

Memorials are suggested to the charity of the donors choice. Online condolences may be shared at lockenour.com.

Services will be at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, June 9, at the First Congregational Church in Stockville. Visitation will be from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. today at Lockenour Jones Mortuary, Cambridge, which is in charge of arrangements.
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At street carts and bodegas, diners and supermarkets, nowhere is the bagel more ubiquitous than New York City.

So exactly what makes a New York City bagel good and, more importantly, where can an eager out-of-towner find the best?

A few ideas:

BLACK SEED BAGELS

These 2-year-old entries are rolled by hand, boiled in honey water and baked in wood-fired ovens at three downtown Manhattan locations. They're smaller and flatter than many of the humongous, puffy bagels around today. Black Seed is the brain child of Noah Bernamoff, who hails from Montreal, and Matt Kliegman, a native New Yorker.

The idea was to bring a touch of the Montreal bagel to New York. So what makes the Big Apple the bagel capital?

"It's the millions of Jews that have lived and passed through the city and ultimately have taken its cultural foodstuffs to other parts of the country and the world," said Bernamoff.

There's no salt in their bagel dough, and using honey water instead of barley malt when kettle boiling is a Montreal tradition. And there's no yeast.

Like other top shops, the bagels are all natural. Bernamoff considers 99 percent of the bagels in New York "poorly made," whipped up in large commissary factories in the outer boroughs.

"They're not very fresh. It's round bread with barely a hole in the middle," he said.

The two have tapped into that artisanal thing that's happening in foodie culture overall.

"A New York bagel purist may not appreciate our bagels," Bernamoff said. "Because they're baked in a wood-burning oven the exterior can be somewhat, not crispy but snappy, kind of burnished, so some people think the bagels are over-baked, but they're not."

If you're in search of a cinnamon raisin or a blueberry bagel, go elsewhere.

Locations: 170 Elizabeth St., 200 Vesey St. and 176 First Ave. in the East Village.

ESS-A-BAGEL

This business has been around for nearly 40 years but has only one location at the moment, in Midtown, though they're opening a second shop farther south on the East Side near their original spot close to Stuyvesant Town, said Melanie Frost, the chief operating officer.

Her late aunt, teacher Florence Wilpon, co-founded Ess-A-Bagel after Florence's brother, Aaron Wenzelberg, lost his lease on a doughnut shop and needed a new venture.

"She combed the papers and found a bagel shop and said, eh, bagels, doughnuts. They both have holes. We'll figure it out," Frost laughed.

Now, Frost and her mother, Muriel Frost, are in charge. Their workers also hand roll. The holes are small but the bagels are big. The large size is somewhat of an accident after the family found a baker who shared his recipe, Frost said.

"They put them in the oven and for whatever reason they rose and became these huge bagels, but they worked," she said.

Are tourists bagel-schooled?

"I think a lot of them don't necessarily understand the menu," she said.

Like Black Seed and other hot bagel spots, lines in the mornings and on weekends can be long.

Location: 831 Third Ave.

KOSSAR'S BAGELS & BIALYS

Take a trip to the Lower East Side for a taste of 1800s Bialystok, Poland. The neighborhood is where people from the old country settled with their local bread, called a bialy and eaten at every meal. Bialys are bagel cousins, sort of, and this is one of the oldest bialy houses in the city.

So what's the difference? A bagel contains malt or some form of sugar. Bialys have no sugar. Bagels are more dense and are boiled. Bialys go straight into the oven. Bialys are flatter and often topped with grated onions.

Kossar's does bagels, too, under the watchful eye of owners who bought the place in 2013. One, David Zablocki, is a classically trained French chef who went in search of an old-school baker when he was testing recipes.

"A New York bagel is really a magical thing," he said, "partly because of the water and the mineral content we have in the water. It is also the fact that we have some of the oldest recipes. There was a bagel union up until 1973 here in New York. Those trade secrets were really passed down over and over and are still alive today."

Kossar's bagels are baked on burlap-covered wood planks that have been soaked through in water. Other makers do that, too, but some use stainless steel forms. Zablocki said the wood helps the bagels achieve a crispy bottom and nicely browned top.

The shop, which still sells more bialys than bagels, is a stop on many guided bus tours.

Sandwich options at Kossar's include an inverted grilled bagel stuffed with schmear with the insides out. Among his schmears is a cream cheese made with borscht.

Location: 367 Grand St.

ASBOLUTE BAGELS

These Upper West Side bagels consistently earn raves for owner Sam Thongkrieng.

The 70-year-old arrived from Thailand in 1979 and soon sampled his first bagel. He remembers his order: a plain bagel, toasted, with butter.

Thongkrieng, who had worked as a cook back home, trained at Ess-A-Bagel before opening Absolute. He had some stiff competition in the neighborhood from the well-established H&H Bagels, which closed in its original iteration back in 2012.

Now, with other closings, he's got the territory pretty much to himself. This is a no-nonsense bagel environment. No small talk. You're in, you're out.

Thongkrieng said he considers his bagels, also hand rolled on site, softer and a tad crispier than other traditional fare. And he serves egg bagels, unlike other shops. In fact, they're one of his top sellers.

"They taste like Chinese bun, sort of," he said.

Location: 2788 Broadway

BY THE WAY ...

Once the largest bagel maker in the city and among the largest in the world, making roughly 80,000 bagels a day and shipping around the globe, H&H Bagels closed amid a high-profile bankruptcy, tax case and jail sentence for owner Helmer Toro. Under different ownership, there's an H&H Midtown Bagels East at 1551 2nd Ave.

Zabar's, the gourmet goods, grocer, deli and food bazaar on Broadway at 80th Street, is on the tourist track and sells a heck of a lot of bagels, using a proprietary recipe general manager Scott Goldshine said was at least 30 years old.

"They come to us three-quarters baked according to our recipe and then we finish it over here," he said.

Another bagel entry has grabbed attention recently. It's a "rainbow" bagel made by The Bagel Shop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, using swirls of dough dyed in bright Play-Doh colors  at $3.95 a pop. The recommended schmear for what is billed as the world's most beautiful bagel? A super-sweet Funfetti cream cheese.
From our partners at the National Institute for Civil Discourse:

The freedom to express oneself, to explore alternative theories and beliefs, and to openly criticize ideas are all essential components in retaining our fundamental freedoms. As former president, Harry S. Truman said, Once a government [or a people] is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.

Recent polling by Weber Shandwick found that 95 percent of Americans think civility is a problem, with 74 percent reporting that it has gotten worse in recent years. Seventy percent think that incivility has risen to crisis levels, an increase from 2014. Furthermore, many parents have expressed embarrassment that they arent able to watch the debates with their children for fear of showing them bad behavior, bad language, and bad role models who are nevertheless in the running to lead the country.

Core research conducted by the National Institute for Civil Discourse (NICD) has determined that while people have different standards for identifying political activity, nearly everyone agrees that threatening physical harm and using racial, religious, ethnic or sexual slurs is uncivil.

The National Institute for Civil Discourse is spearheading the Revive Civility Campaign as a national grassroots campaign empowering citizens to demand the revival of civility for the sake of our democracy. The Revive Civility Campaign will amplify the condemnation of political incivility via the mobilization of press coverage while simultaneously creating a civility movement by giving citizens and leaders solution-oriented actions to call for civility in the presidential elections.

Organizations are coming together in a collective concern of the tone of incivility in 2016 campaigns. The National Institute for Civil Discourse is creating the Revive Civility campaign to join people together who share a vision of a more civil nation.

To learn more and join this effort, visit nicd.arizona.edu/revive-civility or contact Raquel Goodrich at rgoodrich@email.arizona.edu.
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Northwest Indiana's casinos took a double-digit dip in year-over-year gaming revenue in May, down 10 percent, to $79.3 million, in wagering winnings as compared to May 2015.

Last May's win was $88.2 million for the five casinos along Lake Michigan's shore.

Ameristar Casino General Manager Matt Schuffert said it was mainly a matter of the calendar: "Last year we had five full weekends and this year we didn't."

Horseshoe Casino General Manager Dan Nita said the May numbers were not unexpected because of the calendar. The loss of two weekend days can have a 4 to 6 percent impact, he said.

The rest came from the casinos retaining a smaller proportion of money gambled at table games. "Luck was with the customers," Nita said.

Ameristar saw an uptick in money gambled at its table games, but kept less of it this year than last.

"Some of the players left here pretty happy last month," Schuffert said.

Nita said the fact that table game win was down at many of the state's casinos was coincidental, and happened with different games at different casinos.

Ameristar absorbed the largest percentage decline, down 14.4 percent to $18.3 million. Last May it had $21.3 million in gaming win.

Horseshoe, the area's largest casino, saw an 11 percent decline to $34 million from May 2015's $38.2 million.

Gary's two Majestic Star boats saw gambling revenue drop 7.4 percent to $13.5 million, from last year's $14.6 million, while Michigan City's Blue Chip was down 4 percent to $13.6 million from $14.1 million in May 2015.

The drop in revenue was matched by a 9.2 percent year-over-year decline in attendance, to 847,458. In May 2015, 933,106 patrons passed through the casinos' doors.

Indiana's 13 gambling establishments won about $186 million at their tables and slot machines. That's 6.7 percent below last year's $199.4 million.

In the Chicago area, casinos overall had a 7.6 percent drop in gaming win, Nita said. The Illinois casinos were down 4.7 percent.

"There were declines at every single property in the market," he noted.

Schuffert said he believes the market will get back to its recent winning ways this summer.

"We hope to see some of the same trends we've seen in previous months," he said of Ameristar, which has had year-over-year gains 15 of the last 18 months.
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GARY  Police are asking residents to call in any suspicious activity following a series of burglaries in the downtown area.

The burglaries have occurred during the past three weeks in an area bounded by Grant and Fillmore streets to the west and east and Sixth and Eighth avenues to the north and south, police said.

It's possible a white SUV with Illinois plates may have been involved in the burglaries, police said.

Anyone who sees any suspicious activity is asked to call dispatch at (219) 660-6000.

Anyone with information about the burglaries should call Detective Sgt. Brian Farrow or Detective Sgt. Mario Gonzalez at (219) 881-1209.
GARY  A secretary for the citys mayor was arrested on an OWI charge Sunday, telling the arresting officer she works for the mayor, and that she would call the chief of police for the incident to be dealt with come Monday, according to police reports.

Joi L. Whiteside, 32, of Gary, was arrested about 2:30 a.m. Sunday in the 1800 block of Massachusetts Street, according to a police report, after police spotted her trying to hit two men with her vehicle.

Police initially had responded to the area for reports of a group of people arguing in the street. Two men Whiteside is accused of trying to hit with her car allegedly were involved in the disturbance.

Whiteside repeatedly yelled, Thats my brother, out the car window while trying to hit the two men with her vehicle, according to police.

The arresting officer noticed a strong odor of intoxicants on Whiteside when she was asked to exit the vehicle. She was arrested after refusing a portable breath test, according to the police report. She later refused a breath test again while at the police station.

Dayna Bennett, chief of staff for the city of Gary, confirmed in an email Wednesday afternoon Whiteside was arrested over the weekend and that the the mayors office will treat the incident in accordance with the citys personnel policy.

The Times requested a copy of the citys personnel policy in an email Wednesday, but did not immediately receive a response from Bennett.

Whiteside was charged in the original police report with operating while intoxicated, operating while intoxicated and endangering a person, and operating while intoxicated and refusing a chemical test.

Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter said his office has charged Whiteside with operating while intoxicated and operating while intoxicated and refusing a chemical test  both misdemeanors.

Felony charges cannot be brought in city court, he said, so his office is transferring the case to Lake Countys criminal division, where the felony charge of operating while intoxicated and endangering a person will be under review.

Carter said he was unaware Whiteside was an employee within the mayors office.

Gary Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson did not return a phone call Wednesday afternoon seeking comment.

Not the first time

In a similar situation in June 2014, Garys chief public spokeswoman invoked her city position and direct connection to the mayor during a state police traffic stop near Broadway and 50th Avenue in Gary.

During the traffic stop, Chelsea Whittington told the trooper she couldnt afford to be arrested given her job, an affidavit stated.

Instead of being arrested after registering as legally intoxicated on a state troopers portable breathalyzer test, Whittington was turned over to Gary police and sent home. Charges were filed later. As of last week, Whittingtons case was still pending with an operating while intoxicated charge.

Whittington announced she was leaving her post with the city in June 2015 for other opportunities.

This spring, Randolph Randy Palmateer, a Lake County union leader, tried to avoid arrest on suspicion of drunken driving by dropping Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr.s name. His case was pleaded down from an OWI charge to reckless driving.
GRIFFITH  Police are warning residents of an ongoing telephone scam in which callers threaten individuals with an arrest warrant if they fail to pay money owed to the federal government.

The callers claim to be with the U.S. Department of Treasury, according to a Griffith Police Department news release.

Callers ask the person to provide bank account or credit card information, insisting they pay money or risk being arrested. The callers also have asked individuals to purchase gift cards.

The caller also will call back claiming to be the police, and the caller ID will display the local police departments published number.

These calls have reportedly been spoofed, which is when the actual originating caller ID number is disguised with another number, possibly from a legitimate business or other source, according to the news release.

Police advise anyone who believes they have been contacted by such callers to immediately end the phone call without giving the callers any information, and encourage residents to report the incident to police.

In any case in which residents owed money to the government, they would be notified by mail, not by telephone, according to the release.
CROWN POINT  A Gary woman accused of pulling the trigger in the shooting deaths of two brothers is scheduled to stand trial Sept. 26.

Jeri Woods, 34, appeared Tuesday in front of Lake Criminal Judge Diane Boswell. Woods faces murder and kidnapping charges in the homicides of Arreon T. Lackey, 18, and Antonio D. Lackey, 16.

Defense attorney Jamise Perkins told Boswell she needed time to review with Woods evidence the state had turned over to her. After Woods and Perkins privately spoke, Perkins requested the case be set for a jury trial.

Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Robert Persin said he anticipates the trial will last two weeks.

Woods and six other co-defendants are accused of forcing the brothers out of a Merrillville motel room on June 26, 2015. Their bodies were found July 17, 2015, in a rural, wooded property in the 7000 block of Grand Boulevard in Hobart.

Also charged in the homicides are Kiontay L. Cason, Aarion J. Greenwood, Michelle F. Hughes, David Johnson V, David Johnson IV and David Johnson III. Trial dates have not been set in those cases.

Woods will appear in court again Aug. 25 for a pre-trial conference.
CHICAGO  Police arrested a 50-year-old Richton Park man in connection with the shooting of two high-ranking union officials Friday night outside the United Auto Workers Local 551 hall in Hegewisch.

Chicago police say they arrested William Cowart, of the 22400 block of Riverside Drive in Richton Park, on Saturday on two felony courts of aggravated battery/discharge of a firearm.

Hes pictured in his mug shot wearing a UAW Local 551 shirt. The union represents more than 4,200 workers at Fords Chicago Assembly Plant on Torrence Avenue and the Calumet River.

Police said an argument at the union hall ended in a shooting after the two officials were re-elected late Friday night.

The offender was positively identified as the person who shot two males, age 40 and 44, in the legs before fleeing, the Chicago Police Department said in a statement. The victims were transported to St. Margaret Hospital in Indiana in stable condition.

Union members have said the shooting followed a fight, but police say the incident is still under investigation.

Aaron Hammer Straker and Jeff UAW Bacon, who both were re-elected to the bargaining unit, identified themselves as the victims in the shooting. Bacon, Straker, and Tommy Kottalis, the top vote-getter with 16.74 percent, prevailed in a field of 12 candidates running to serve on the unions bargaining unit, which negotiates with Ford.

UAW Vice President Jimmy Settles put out a call for solidarity at the Hegewisch factory, which produces the Explorer SUV and other vehicles.

I am deeply saddened by the tragic events that took place at UAW Local 551 yesterday evening, he said in a statement. My thoughts and prayers go out to the victims of this senseless shooting and all those affected by this act of violence. While we await the results of the police investigation, I respectfully ask that we embrace one another and unite around our brothers and sisters at UAW Local 551 and the surrounding community.

Union members were offered counseling after the shooting.

I want to assure everyone that this was a isolated event that occurred and everyone should not be concerned with your safety while at work or the union hall, Chairman Alan Coby Millender said in a statement. We will always give every effort to make sure our members can work in a environment free from harm and danger.

Members of UAW Local 551 are continuing to vote in a runoff election for plant chairman, trustees, sergeant of arms and guide, after no candidate got 51 percent in any of those races last week. The results should be announced Friday.
CROWN POINT  A man who admitted his role in the robbery and beating of a then 72-year-old was sentenced Tuesday to 15 years in prison.

John W. Waite IV, 25, of Gary and Lake Station, pleaded guilty to robbery resulting in serious bodily injury, a Level 2 felony. Lake Criminal Judge Clarence Murray sentenced Waite to 15 years in prison and recommended that he take part in the Indiana Department of Corrections purposeful incarceration program aimed at treating drug addiction.

Waite admitted that on Nov. 28, 2014, he and Christopher Williamson were wearing masks and armed with knives when they broke into a home in the 400 block of Park Avenue in Lake Station, according to the plea agreement. Once inside the home, Waite and Williamson beat the homeowner and handcuffed him to a chair.

The men left with the homeowners car keys and money, according to the agreement. The next day, the homeowners vehicle was stolen from the neighborhood.

The homeowner had injuries to his nose, ear and lip that required 32 stitches, according to court records.

Charges against Williamson, of Lake Station, were still pending as of this week.

Deputy Prosecuting Attorney David Rooda argued for Waite to be sentenced to 15 years in prison, which was the maximum amount of time he could have faced under the terms of the plea agreement. He cited Waites criminal history, which included two felony convictions and 13 contacts with police.

Hes had time to correct (his) path, Rooda said. Every time he continues to commit crimes.

Defense attorney Timothy Ormes said though his client has a criminal history, he had a difficult childhood. Waite at one point was homeless and living in a tent in Portage.

Waite told Murray he wanted to apologize.

While handing down the sentence, Murray noted the homeowners injuries from the attack. In mitigation, Murray said Waite had been diagnosed with a mental health disorder at an early age.

Still, he noted Waite had an extensive criminal history.

Its unfortunate because you are a young man, Murray said. You have your whole life in front of you.
CROWN POINT  A murder charge was dismissed against a Gary man who had been scheduled to stand trial this week for the third time.

The Lake County prosecutor's office filed a motion May 27 to dismiss a murder charge against Terrance Kevin Strong, 27, of Gary. The case had been previously scheduled this week for a jury trial.

Strong had been accused of shooting to death Cordell Allen on July 14, 2010, in East Chicago. According to the motion, the state is unable to prove beyond a reasonable doubt the case because two of the state's witnesses have health problems. One witness has severe mental health problems.

The dismissal marks the end of a nearly six-year court odyssey. Strong originally had faced charges in two homicides.

Strong had been accused of shooting to death Jose Melendez, 54, of East Chicago, early July 14, 2010, while he and Jeremy D. Brazill tried to rob Melendez of his van, according to court records. Melendez was shot in the arm and crashed his vehicle near 150th Street and Todd Avenue in East Chicago.

About 40 minutes later, Allen was shot to death in the 4800 block of Northcote Avenue in East Chicago.

Brazill, 25, of East Chicago and Dolton, Illinois, previously testified that he shot Allen in the back of the head. He pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in Allen's homicide. On Tuesday, Brazill appeared for a brief status hearing in front of Lake Criminal Judge Diane Boswell. He is scheduled to be sentenced June 21.

During Strong's first trial in 2013, a mistrial was declared after a juror recognized one of the victim's sons as his co-worker.

In the second trial in April 2015, jurors acquitted Strong of all the charges associated with Melendez's homicide. However, they were unable to reach a verdict in the murder charge related to Allen's homicide.

During the second trial, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Judith Massa told jurors that Strong told Brazill to take care of Allen, because he had taken care of Melendez.

Strong's defense attorney, Scott King, argued to jurors during the second trial that it was Brazill, not his client, who was responsible for both homicides.

Strong's legal hurdles aren't quite finished. He is scheduled to appear in front of Boswell June 10 in two separate cases. In those cases, Strong faces charges of escape, possession of cocaine and refusal to identify.
HOBART  A Crown Point man is facing charges of operating while intoxicated after he rear-ended a stopped police cruiser Monday night and sent two Hobart police officers to the hospital.

Lake County Sheriff officers were dispatched about 9 p.m. Monday to the intersection of 73rd Avenue and Grand Boulevard in Hobart after hearing reports that a police cruiser was involved in a crash with injuries, according to a sheriffs department news release.

Brandon N. Pintler, 28, is accused of rear-ending a fully marked Hobart police cruiser at the southbound stop sign at the four-way intersection. The squad car was occupied by two officers who were transported to a local hospital, treated and later released.

It was discovered during the investigation that Pintler had been consuming an unknown amount of alcoholic beverages prior to the crash, but he refused to submit to a chemical test, according to the news release.

While en route to the Lake County Jail, Pintler became combative in the police cruiser, attempting to kick out the passenger side window and physically kicking a Lake County sheriff officer in the shoulder and arm, according to the release.

Pintler has been charged with operating while intoxicated, three counts of operating a vehicle while intoxicated causing endangerment, refusing a chemical test, battery on law enforcement and disorderly conduct.

Charges will be reviewed by the Lake County prosecutors office.
HEBRON  Walking to the tune of Pomp and Circumstance and decorated in black and red, 87 Hebron High School seniors became alumni Tuesday at the 127th annual commencement ceremony.

The graduates, led by valedictorian Paul Miskus Jr. and salutatorian Jordan Giacomin, made their way under a illuminated arch into the gymnasium, which was decorated in class colors, black and red, as well as roses, which were the class flower.

After a welcome from Principal Mark Lutze and address from class president Corey Duck, Miskus and Giacomin both gave speeches to the class.

Giacomin recalled his first days as a freshman at Hebron High School, wandering the hallways in need of directions to his classrooms. He turned his experience into advice for his classmates.

No one is too good for the help of others, he said. When you are lost, you can always find your way.

Miskus echoed the sentiment in speech, and quoted former U.S. President Calvin Coolidge as words of encouragement to the graduates. He recalled how his former English teacher, Jared Grigsby, had his class memorize the quote.

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence, he quoted. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.

After a lively performance of Queens Bohemian Rhapsody by the band, history teacher and featured presenter Michael Witzel took the mic. Witzel divided the speech into three points, his three nuggets of wisdom.

The first point was advice to rejoice in more occasions. The second was a recommendation for students to be ambitious.

You dont have to go out and change the world, he said. But dont be afraid to take on new experiences and challenges. Do not let the circumstances of your life dictate your future.

The last point was a challenge for graduates to find their passion in life. After pursuing a career as a builder, band member, librarian and lawyer, Witzel said he finally decided to teach. He urged students not to take such a windy path and to find their passion early.

Find your passion in life, he said. This is what gets you up in the morning. Find where your passion and values intersect.

The school choir gave a rendition of Kelly Clarksons Breakaway, followed by the presentation of the class of 2016 by Principal Lutze and an official receiving of the class by Superintendent Nathan Kleefish. Duck led the students in passing the tassel before the class and their families were led out to a dessert reception in the schools cafeteria.

It is inevitable that we will drift away, but thats OK, Miskus said. We are the way were are because of Hebron High School.
LAPORTE  LaPorte has joined cities like Whiting, Gary, Valparaiso and Hammond in an effort for people to treat others with more respect and morality.

The City Council on Monday adopted a resolution for the Human Rights Commission to align itself with the organization Civility Counts in Our Community.

Its part of a growing movement to bring positive change to the disruptive, and disrespectful behaviors in society.

We just think anything that were doing, no matter what it is, if you just inject some civility into that situation then everybody will get the desired result, said Chuck Hughes, executive director of the Gary Chamber of Commerce.

The Gary Chamber along with The Times Media Co. established the group just over a year ago to promote civil behavior toward others.

Hughes said civility is something for everyone to practice and carry out in all situations including the more violent ones at home, perhaps, or on the streets.

He complimented the city council for setting an example by remaining orderly throughout its three hour meeting dominated by some very contentious issues.

What I witnessed here is the kind of leadership thats necessary that will transcend and filter down to those who are the most in need, Hughes said.

He said there are no fees or other requirements for being part of the program except to say Im going to live by the Golden Rule. Im going to treat people the way in which I want to be treated. Thats all. Its just the right thing.

Hughes said the Highland Chamber of Commerce is presently considering whether to take part and in April the group in Gary hosted its first World Civility Day.

The keynote speaker was United Nations Ambassador Clyde Rivers, who said no other nation but America has such a program and theres a need worldwide for changing the model in which people think.

Hughes said Rivers is now introducing the program to other countries.

This is a huge human infrastructure initiative that is going to make all of us better, Hughes said.

LaPorte Mayor Blair Milo said the Human Rights Commission will look to carry out some of the initiatives undertaken by other participating communities like essay contests promoting civility in the schools.

Well work towards doing those and, hopefully, overall continue to set a positive example, she said.
INDIANAPOLIS  All Indiana families will have access to high-quality, state-funded preschool education by 2020, if State Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz gets her way.

The Democratic schools chief said Tuesday that providing every 4-year-old the opportunity to attend pre-kindergarten classes is necessary to start the next generation of Hoosiers on the right track.

"Indiana should invest in a public/private/community pre-K coalition approach that provides a high-quality option within the geographic boundaries of all traditional public school districts," Ritz said.

She estimated universal pre-K in quality-rated educational programs  not day care or babysitting  would add $150 million a year to the $8 billion Indiana already spends on elementary and secondary education.

Though Ritz hastened to point out the extra cost is less than 1 percent of the state's annual budget, federal funds to support pre-K are available to Indiana, and she's willing to reprioritize other Department of Education spending to make it happen.

"Our children, our communities and our state demand nothing less," Ritz said.

Expanding state-supported pre-K beyond the pilot programs begun two years ago in five counties, including Lake, is just one item on Ritz's "Imagine 2020" agenda, which she's expected to tout over the next five months as she runs for re-election.

It remains to be seen whether she can convince pre-K skeptics in the Republican-controlled General Assembly to approve her proposal.

In addition, Republican Gov. Mike Pence, who also is seeking a second term this year, so far has limited his support for state-funded pre-K to children from low-income families.

"The debate over pre-K education is a fulsome debate, but when it comes to disadvantaged kids the benefits of opening doors of access to early childhood education is very significant, and that's where we'll focus," Pence said.

Ritz's other "Imagine 2020" goals include revising the school funding formula to ensure all students have access to adequate programs, implementing recommendations of her Blue Ribbon Commission to recruit and retain superior teachers and modifying the state's school accountability system to use measures other than standardized test scores in rating school quality.

She also wants Indiana to have the highest graduation rate in the nation, sufficient school counselors to prepare students for college or careers, a reduction in the 7,100 annual school bullying incidents and expanded home Internet access for low-income students.
INDIANAPOLIS  Gov. Mike Pence believes Donald Trump was wrong to claim that a California federal judge, who was born in East Chicago, should be disqualified from presiding over a civil lawsuit involving the Republican presidential nominee due to the judge's Mexican heritage.

"Of course I think those comments were inappropriate," Pence told reporters Tuesday.

"I don't think it's ever appropriate to question the partiality of a judge based on their ethnic background."

Though Pence, who is a lawyer, conditioned his remarks by first declaring: "Every American is entitled to a fair trial and an impartial judge."

Trump repeatedly has said U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel is "Mexican," and, as such, unfit to rule in a class-action fraud lawsuit involving the now-defunct Trump University, because Trump plans to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border if he's elected president.

The presumptive GOP presidential nominee later Tuesday said his remarks have been "misconstrued" and he is justified in questioning the legal proceedings.

"I do not feel that one's heritage makes them incapable of being impartial, but, based on the rulings that I have received in the Trump University civil case, I feel justified in questioning whether I am receiving a fair trial," Trump said in a statement.

Both U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., and Republican Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner have condemned Trump for his remarks.

In light of Trump's appeal to ethnic discrimination, Pence declined to say whether he's reconsidering plans to support Trump on the campaign trail and to vote for him in November.

"You know, if I wanted to comment on everything that's being said in the presidential campaigns, I would have run for president," Pence said, before aides shuffled him off to Charleston for a fundraiser on behalf of a West Virginia gubernatorial candidate.

Lt. Gov. Eric Holcomb, who previously served as chairman of the Indiana Republican Party, responded to Trump questions by proclaiming, "I'm supporting our nominee."

When reporters pointed out Trump was attacking a Hoosier and that even conservative Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse described Trump's effort to remove the judge as racist, Holcomb twice repeated: "I'm supporting our nominee."

Indiana Democratic Party leaders, including former East Chicago state Rep. John Aguilera, blasted Pence and Hoosier Republicans on Monday for being slow to condemn Trump's disparagement of an Indiana native.

Jeff Cardwell, the Republican chairman, who has not condemned Trump's remarks, described the Democratic effort to unite Hoosiers in defense of one of their own as "another typical stunt from the Democrat Party."

U.S. Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., said he was disappointed the Indiana Republican Party so far has refused to speak out against prejudice and stand up for Hoosiers.

"It most definitely is not a stunt," Donnelly said.

"Hoosiers know we are a stronger country when we work together, and it's fair of them to expect their elected officials to believe the same.
The Crown Point City Council voted Monday 5-2 in favor a a wheel tax as the Munster Town Council approved on first reading a wheel/excise tax ordinance.

In Crown Point, the council adopted the tax after more than two hours of presentations and discussions about the condition of the citys 140 miles of roads and the municipalitys finances.

In Munster, the council approved the measure preliminarily despite some reservations expressed by council members.

Crown Point's amended ordinance calls for a $25 fee for vehicles up to 11,000 pounds and $40 for larger ones in the first year. That amount will be reduced to $15 and $25, respectively, for the second year. The tax will be collected starting in 2017.

Voting for the wheel tax were Chad Jeffries, District 1; Robert Clemons, District 2; Andrew Kyres, District 3, Carol Dragsa, District 5, and Chris Retson, council at large. No votes were cast by Laura Sauerman, District 4, and Scott Evorik, council at large.

The first year, the wheel tax will generate $1.1 million. The reduction of the tax in the second year will drop that amount to approximately $670,000, according to Dan Niksch, GIS coordinator with the Crown Point engineering department.

By adopting the wheel tax, the city is now eligible for up to $1 million a year from the Community Crossings matching grant, a partnership between the Indiana Department of Transportation and Indiana communities to improve roads.

There is no guarantee that INDOT will provide that grant. However, to be eligible for the funds, the local government must have matching funds from one of three sources, Greg Guerrettaz, a CPA with Financial Solutions Group, told the council and Mayor David Uran.

That includes a rainy day fund, which Crown Point doesnt have, or the Local Option Income Tax.

The wheel tax is the third source of matching funds, Guerrettaz said.

It boils down to INDOT giving you a tool (to fund road paving), if you choose to use it, he said. There is a lot of competition for this $1 million in the first year.

Lake County doesnt have a wheel tax, although other communities are looking at this option, Guerrettaz said.

This is an opportunity for you to be first. Each dollar collected here is a dollar spent here, he said.

Niksichs presentation illustrated the condition of Crown Points roads using the Asphalt PASER Data Collection Field Guide. The asphalt is graded from 10 to 1, with 10 being excellent and 1 denoting loss of surface integrity and extensive surface distress.

According to INDOT, road rates 10 through 6 are good. Crown Point has 62.6 percent of its roads in the 1 to 5 category in need of repair, Niksich said, adding that the money generated by the wheel tax and INDOT grant would allow the paving of 10 miles of road each year.

Prior to the vote, three Crown Point residents spoke against the wheel tax.

In Munster, Councilman David Nellans said he was not happy at the thought of adopting a new tax, but thinks Munster had not much choice in the matter.

To become law, the ordinance must be adopted on second reading at a later date, likely as early as the next Town Council meeting June 20.

Munster has used Tax Increment Financing money to repair roads, but those funds have become scarcer in recent years.

Its an unfortunate situation, Nellans said.

Town Manager Dustin Anderson presented the condition of Munsters roads, which rank an average of 5 on the 10-point scale. The towns roads are in better condition than some in other communities, Anderson said, but Munster will save money by maintaining roads rather than let them deteriorate.

The excise tax will cover passenger vehicles, motorcycles and light trucks and could range from $5 to $20 per vehicle. Annual revenue generated would range from $46,535 to $488,350.

Vehicles covered by the wheel tax include tractors, semitrailers and heavy trucks, with a tax ranging from $5 to $40.
GRIFFITH  The Town Council on Tuesday said Calumet Township has gone above the legal budget limit set by the state and that the wheels are turning to divorce Griffith from the township.

The announcement was met with two rounds of applause from the audience.

"Utilizing the same methodology the Department of Local Government Finance used to calculate the statewide township assistance average tax rate, we have determined that Calumet Township is over the threshold, and now the town of Griffith can begin the process to leave Calumet Township," said Council President Rick Ryfa, R-3rd.

The state previously set a limit of 12 times the state average that the township could not exceed.

Going over that limit would trigger the right for Griffith to hold a referendum, strictly among its own residents, on whether to leave the township.

Last year, the DLGF ruled that the township was under the limit.

However, numbers confirmed by H.J. Umbaugh & Associates on Tuesday show the township's assistance levy for this year is $.1617 per $100 of assessed valuation.

The state average is $.0129.

"Our citizens have told us they want to continue the fight to secede from the Township for years. I have a lot of respect for Township trustee Kim Robinson," Ryfa said. "We are simply following the law passed in 2013 that now allows us to start a petition to leave and enhance Griffith's current resurgence while lowering taxes and redeveloping of our town with significant improvements."

Ryfa said the DLGF still must officially agree with these numbers, but noted that Griffith officials will travel to Indianapolis on Friday to meet with their legal representatives.

This meeting will concern the preparation, within two weeks, of a petition required to have the referendum.

The meeting also will be to discuss which adjoining township that Griffith would seek to join.

To authorize the petition, the town needs to gather 30 percent of the number of Griffith residents who voted in the latest Indiana Secretary of State election in 2014, Ryfa said.

"I'm hoping by Fall" to hold the referendum, Ryfa said, adding that it will be a free standing "yes or no" vote.

Ryfa also said the referendum would not be on the same day as the general election in November.

If the referendum is held, leaving the township will require two-thirds of the vote to approve the move, Ryfa noted.

Ryfa said the current council started the move to leave the township on July 4, 2007.

"In 1979, my first campaign promise was to try and get out of Calumet Township," said Councilwoman Patricia Schaadt, R-4. "I congratulate this council" for being the first one to take it seriously.
An 18-year-old Merrillville man was seriously injured Tuesday night in a four-wheeler crash northeast of Lake Dalecarlia, officials said.

Chad Deline was thrown from a four-wheeler being driven by another 18-year-old Merrillville man after the driver lost control on a curve, said Sgt. Shawn Brown, of the Department of Natural Resources Division of Law Enforcement.

The two were riding the four-wheeler on a trail behind a property in the 14700 block of Clark Street, he said.

After the driver lost control, both he and Deline were thrown from the vehicle. Deline struck a tree, Brown said.

Deline was taken by ambulance to Franciscan St. Anthony Health in Crown Point for treatment for broken facial bones and brain bleeding, he said. The driver was not injured.

Crown Point Fire Rescue and Lake County sheriffs police assisted, he said.
Chris Karson never walked again after a horrific crash in 1989, but he dedicated his life to helping others find their way in the world.

Karson, of Portage, died Saturday in a second crash in Porter, and family members said they have received hundreds of messages in the days since from the people on whom he had an impact.

You could tell by the way he lived his life that he was on a mission, said his brother, Steve Karson.

Some people use social media to get attention or complain, but Chris Karson, 46, used it to spread a positive message, said another brother, Johnny Karson.

One of Chris Karsons recent Facebook posts said: Make a difference, not just a good impression, but also a good impact. People might forget your name, people will forget what you look like, but people wont forget how you made them feel.

Near-death experience

Chris Karson was 19 and working two jobs in 1989 when he accepted a ride home from a party in Merrillville, father Wally Karson said.

The 21-year-old driver, who worked with Chris Karson, had been drinking. On 57th Avenue, two blocks east of Cleveland Street, the driver hit a railroad tie.

The car spun out of control and landed on two cars parked in a lot that was lower than ground level, Wally Karson said. The driver was killed, and two female passengers in the backseat made it out.

Chris Karson was stuck under a floorboard and couldnt speak because of a spinal cord injury, family members said. Emergency workers almost cleared the scene without finding him.

Johnny Karson said years later he spoke to a former paramedic, who told him they checked the car again after the paramedic thought he heard something.

Chris Karson eventually regained the ability to speak, but lived the rest of his life as a paraplegic.

He told his family a couple of years after the first crash that he had a near-death experience while in critical condition at a hospital.

He met with God and nonverbally was given a choice of eternal death or life in a wheelchair, and he chose the wheelchair, Wally Karson said.

Johnny Karson said his oldest brother talked about music hed never heard before that was so comforting, he wanted to keep listening. He was shown the struggles ahead and was warned life would not be easy.

He was meant to be here for all of us, and everybody he impacted, said his mother, Rose Karson.

Spreading a positive message

Two years after the first crash, Chris Karson went off to Ball State University, where he earned a bachelors degree in family sciences and human services. He lived in Muncie until 2009, when he moved back to be closer to family.

Chris Karson gave his first motivational speech to younger brother Johnny Karsons shop class at Merrillville High School in 1999. The teacher was so impressed, he told Chris to come back any time, Johnny Karson said.

Chris Karson gave professional motivational presentations for 25 years, including twice a year at the maximum-security Pendleton Juvenile Correctional Facility in Pendleton, Indiana.

He talked to younger children about the risks of drunken driving, and he spoke to older kids about making responsible choices and living a positive life, Johnny Karson said.

Chris Carson sometimes offered graphic descriptions of the physical challenges he faced, so kids would understand the consequences of which he spoke, Rose Karson said. Chris Karson had home health aides come in four times a day and overnight, she said.

He worked with Indiana ArtsWORK, where he developed a wheelchair monologue using humor to show the challenges people with disabilities face, and was a graduate of the Indiana Partners in Policymaking Academy, Wally Karson said.

Chris Karson also was involved with the Governors Planning Counsel for People with Disabilities and Everybody Counts, and advocated for people with disabilities, while living in Muncie.

A journey in The Van

It was during his time in Muncie that Karson started Karson Racing and began taking The Van  a street-legal 9-second quarter-mile drag racing van  to drag strips throughout the area, his family said.

People often wrote The Van off at first sight, thinking it was the worst vehicle for a race, Johnny Karson said.

Everybody laughs first, because theyre like, OK, a van, whatever,  he said. But then they hear it start and theyre like, Huh, OK, Im going to have to come watch this one. 

Thats why Chris Karson loved The Van, because it brought joy to people, family members said. Chris Karson had his own van with specialized controls so he could drive, but others raced The Van, family members said.

Eventually, people Chris Karson met racing encouraged him to attend vanning events. Vanning is something that none of us ever knew about until him, Steve Karson said.

Since the late 1960s and 1970s, members of the vanning community gather at locations across the country to show off their custom vans and camp. Chris Karson was featured in a recent documentary about vanning, and planned for months for national vanning gatherings. He arranged for lights, music, games and even alcohol  because people were camped out for the night, Steve Karson said.

"We had the party scene," he said. "Everybody knew us, not only because of Chris and the way he was, but (also) because people came to our camp site at the end of those events."

Chris Karson had a small replica of The Van that children played on while he talked to their parents, family members said. He acquired the tiny van in a silent auction and had it painted to match The Van.

Chris impacted these people so much, they took our bid and gave it to him, Steve Karson said. We didnt even have the highest bid.

Chris often gave out fake tattoos featuring an image of The Van during events, Wally Karson said.

Some of these guys would have tattoos all over their bodies, and youd see this little Karson Racing tattoo they put on, he said, pointing to a spot on his arm.

Family members credited Chris Karson's friends Gary Paszek and Tom Enk with trying to rescue him after Saturday's crash. The driver of the minivan that hit Chris Karson's van, Eunice Castellanos, 63, of Gary, also was killed in the crash. The woman driving Chris Karson's van was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Visitation for Karson's family and friends is scheduled from noon to 4:30 p.m. Saturday at Calumet Park Funeral Chapel, 7535 Taft St., Merrillville. A celebration of life will begin at 4:30 p.m.

Family members said theyre working on plans for a larger gathering at a later date, because so many people have reached out to them.
GARY  The National Black Political Convention that was to have drawn presidential candidates and a couple of thousand participants has been scaled back significantly.

The convention was originally scheduled to run Thursday through Sunday at the Genesis Center, but has been shorted to three days, with a Saturday concert featuring the Sounds of Blackness. Organizers initially had hoped to have a political forum featuring the presidential candidates Saturday and a dinner featuring a speech by President Barack Obama that evening.

Linda Haithcox-Taylor, executive director of the National Policy Alliance, said the California primary taking place this week made the event a lower priority. Some of the candidates had offered to send representatives instead, but organizers decided to cancel the forum and shorten the event.

Gary Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson said while the candidates' attention on the California primary made it hard to get an attendance commitment from them or their representatives, the more important issue is organizers wanted to make it more of a working meeting designed to establish an agenda. She indicated a candidate forum may have taken away from that aspect and besides, she said, there have already been a lot of debates and people know the candidates' platforms.

The whole point of the convention is to provide information to those individuals who can make a difference, she said.

For example, in the last eight years, the various federal agencies have worked in collaboration in assisting communities like Gary and she and others want to see that continue.

"That is the type of thing we want to see come out of this convention," Freeman-Wilson said.

She said they want to look at various ways they can help improve communities, such as addressing environmental challenges that were recently highlighted by the water crisis that impacted Flint, Michigan. Some other sessions will focus on criminal justice reform, black veterans, educational justice, and jobs, economic opportunity and income equity.

Freeman-Wilson, who anticipates 200 to 300 people at the convention, said the agenda will be given to both political parties as well as be shared with various state officials and community organizations.

Organizers hope to create an agenda that can help guide the nation and assist local communities in the future.

Although presidential candidates are no longer expected to attend the event, it still features some prominent local and national figures like Mayor Ras Baraka, of Newark, New Jersey, and Cheryl Pruitt, superintendent of the Gary Community School Corp.

The convention, with the title of "Setting the People's Agenda," begins Thursday at the Genesis Convention Center. U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill., is the keynote speaker at a noon luncheon Friday.

In 1972, the first National Black Political Convention was held in Gary and developed an agenda that included such items as a call for the elimination of capital punishment and the establishment of a national health insurance system. It was also believed to have led to a dramatic increase in the number of African-Americans holding public office.

According to a convener of this year's event, Mayor Johnny Ford, of Tuskegee, Alabama, the new convention "will be an organization meeting where we will accomplish the same thing by developing a Black agenda that will be presented to the Democrats, Republicans and the Third Party persons. We will also make a decision during the meeting regarding any further or follow-up meetings."

Registration is $100 for the meeting, lunch and Saturday afternoon concert. Free tickets also will be available to the public for the concert. Call (219) 881-1314 for information. Registration is still available online at www.thenbpc.com by clicking on regular delegate or by visiting the Civil Rights Hall of Fame office at 487 Broadway.
PORTAGE  Ivy and Bud Hettrick are looking forward to a possible public transportation system being developed for both now and in the future.

"Her mom is 88 and doesn't drive. She uses the Bonner (Senior Center) transportation. This would give her another avenue and more flexibility," Bud Hettrick said.

"It would be for us, because of the age we are getting," Ivy Hettrick added.

Of the options outlined Tuesday, the Hettricks said they favored the deviated fixed route option. The city and the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission hosted the open house at the Portage Public Library.

That option, said Mona Elabbady, a consultant with SRF, which is conducting the transit study, would set two fixed bus routes throughout the city, but allow for customers to call in advance and ask for a deviation from the route.

There are other options being eyed, including a demand and response or dial-a-ride option; fixed routes and commuter services, either to the Portage/Ogden Dunes South Shore station or directly to Chicago.

"I'd like to see some kind of bus service," said Freya Churchwell. "I've lived in several small communities which have had bus service. There is a need with Portage's population."

Churchwell said she'd like to be able to take a bus to downtown Chicago from Portage.

Elabbady explained that each option has a cost depending on whether the city would start its own service or contract with one already operating. Funding would come from state and federal resources as well as local funds and fares.

For example, the study estimates Portage would generate 460 to 700 daily riders in a fixed route service offered 12 hours per day.

If the city chose to start its own service, annual operating costs would be $813,000 with capitol costs of $350,000. The local share would be $252,000 with a local cost per rider at $2.15.

If a similar fixed route service would be contracted with a company such as Valparaiso's VLine, the local cost per rider would drop to $1.36.

The most expensive option would be the demand and respond service, which could cost as much as $7.04 per ride.

The local cost per rider wouldn't necessarily equate a fare for a passenger, said Elabbady, adding it would be up to the local government to determine the fares and how it would fund the local share of the services.

Elabbady said the next step is to bring back comments to the local transit steering committee, which will make a recommendation on a local transit plan. From there, funding and implementation will have to be determined.
VALPARAISO  Porter Regional Hospital will present the following childbirth education classes in July. To register, call (800) 541-1861.

Childbirth Education

Expectant parents can feel better prepared for the journey ahead by attending this comprehensive class to learn about pregnancy, labor, and birth, postpartum and newborn care. Natural coping methods will be discussed, such as relaxation and breathing, as well as the use of pain medication and epidural anesthesia. Register in your fourth or fifth month of pregnancy and take the classes in your seventh or eighth month. Classes will meet for four consecutive weeks from 6 to 8:30 p.m. on July 6, 13, 20 and 27 in the Women & Childrens Pavilion classroom at Porter Regional Hospital, 85 E. U.S. 6, Valparaiso. The cost for the Childbirth Education class is $65 per couple.

Breastfeeding Class

This free class, coordinated by an internationally board certified lactation consultant, is designed to help expectant and new parents learn skills to promote successful breastfeeding. The class will take place from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. July 12 in the Women & Childrens Pavilion classroom at Porter Regional Hospital, 85 E. U.S. 6, Valparaiso.

Fast-Track Childbirth Education

Spend one full Saturday in this expedited version of the Childbirth Education class to learn all of the aspects of pregnancy and birth. The class will take place from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. July 9 or 23 in the Women & Childrens Pavilion classroom at Porter Regional Hospital, 85 E. U.S. 6, Valparaiso. The cost for the Fast-Track Childbirth Education class is $65 per couple.

New Beginnings Tours

Learn more about what your birthing experience will be like during a 30-minute tour of the labor, delivery, postpartum and nursery areas at Porter Regional Hospital. Tours will be at 2 p.m. Saturdays, July 2 and 9, and at 6 p.m. Tuesdays, July 19 and 26. The tours are free and space is limited. To register, call (219) 983-8343.

eLearning Online Childbirth Education

This online version of the Childbirth Education class offers an alternative for women and their support person who cannot attend a conventional prepared childbirth class due to bed rest, scheduling conflicts or time constraints. Your partner or support person is encouraged to participate with you online. Register during your sixth or seventh month by calling (219) 983-8692. The cost for the class is $75.

Super sibling class

This class is geared for children 8 years old and younger. Children are asked to bring a doll or stuffed animal to practice holding, diapering and swaddling the new baby. A craft and tour of the OB area are included. The class will take place from 3 to 4:30 p.m. July 17 in the Women & Childrens Pavilion classroom at Porter Regional Hospital, 85 E. U.S. 6, Valparaiso.

Childbirth refresher

This course is a review of the labor and birth process for couples who already had a baby. The class will meet from 6 to 8 p.m. July 11 in the Women & Children's Pavilion classroom at Porter Regional Hospital, 85 E. U.S. 6, Valparaiso. Cost is $25 per couple.
The Indiana State Board of Accounts released a scathing report on certain School Town of Munster finances, targeting retired Superintendent William Pfister and retired Assistant Superintendent Rchard Sopko, who also was superintendent for two years, asking the pair to repay $851,000 to the school district.

The report falls short of suggesting they be charged with theft. The special investigatory report has been sent to the Indiana Attorney Generals Office and the Lake County prosecutor. An FBI investigation also is underway.

The audit asks Pfister to reimburse the district a total of $463,922 for overpayment to his annuity, salary and stipend, and other items. It asks Sopko to reimburse the district a total of $377,475 for overpayment to his annuity, salary and stipend, and other items.

The cost of the audit was $10,053, which the SBOA is asking the two administrators also to pay for.

Reached by telephone Wednesday morning, Pfister said he had no comment. He referred calls to his Dyer attorney, Greg Bouwer. Sopko couldnt be reached for comment, but he also is represented by Bouwer, according to the audit.

Bouwer was unavailable for comment Wednesday.

The report, released Wednesday, covers the period July 1, 1999, to June 30, 2014. Paula Nellans, who was School Board president when Pfister retired and still is on the board, could not be reached for comment. The five-member School Board was the only one in Northwest Indiana that gave bonuses to its superintendent.

Andrew Shank, SBOA director of special investigations, said the state Board of Accounts requires all public officials to abide by the terms of their written employment contracts.

In this case, a State Board of Accounts investigation that spanned multiple months revealed that two individuals were compensated more than $800,000 over what they were entitled to, he said.

This money belonged to the taxpayers of the School Town of Munster, and the State Board of Accounts requires it be spent appropriately.

Current Munster schools Superintendent Jeff Hendrix had no comment, but he released a written statement from school district attorney Kathleen Maicher, saying the board became aware of certain financial irregularities related to the contracts of former superintendents Pfister and Sopko.

Upon determination that potential misappropriation of School Town of Munster funds by these individuals may have occurred, pursuant to the law, the board reported the information to the Indiana State Board of Accounts and the Lake County prosecutor, the letter said.

It said Munster school officials are cooperating with the investigation.

In Bouwers written response to the State Board of Accounts, he denied that Pfister or Sopko owes any repayment to the school district. He essentially said the State Board has come up with a different interpretation of the contract than what was approved by the School board over a 10-year period.

The State Board of Accounts met with Sopko Feb. 23 to discuss the audit. It met with Pfister March 22.

Munster teachers union President Ryan Ridgley said, If wrongdoing has occurred, I would expect our administration and current School Board to take the appropriate steps to hold those involved responsible and seek restitution for anything that has been financially lost.

Munster resident Kevin Cappo, who ran for School Board in 2012 but was defeated, said he is not surprised by the audit report.

Vindicated, maybe, he said. Ive long suspected financial mismanagement in the district. That is why I ran for School Board. I wouldnt be surprised if there is more news coming.

Neither Munster School Board President Melissa Higgason nor board member Ron Ostojic were on the board during Pfisters and Sopkos tenure.

Board members Nellans, Judith Florczak and John Friend are all longtime members who were on the board at the time. Higgason couldnt be reached for comment, and Florczak and Friend said they had no comment.

Audit questions annuity payments, contracts

The audit focused on salary contracts, payroll records and annuity payments.

During his tenure, Pfister had one of the most lucrative contracts of all Northwest Indiana public school superintendents. He was the only school district chief in the Region who received a bonus  an amount not to exceed $55,000 in any given year, according to the contract.

He did not get a bonus in 2011, because of the districts financial situation. However, with his annuity and other benefits, Pfisters salary was close to $300,000. He retired June 30, 2012, after 21 years as superintendent.

The audit report pointed out that for nine years, both Pfister and Sopko were paid more than the contracted amount for their annuities.

For example, the report said in the 2010-11 school year, the amount calculated for Pfisters annuity should have been 4 percent, for a total of $7,100. What the district actually put into his annuity that year was $67,450.

Similarly in the 2011-12 school year, Pfister should have received $7,124 in his annuity, but the report said the district deposited $74,802.

According to the report, 3 percent of Sopkos salary should have been going into his annuity. For the 2010-11 school year, the amount should have been $4,578, but the amount deposited was $45,786.

Similarly in the 2011-12 school year, the report said the amount for Sopko should have been $4,639, but $51,032 was deposited. In 2012-13, the report said the annuity should have been zero, but it was $55,887.

Pfister and Sopko were among four key Munster school administrators who took advantage of a provision in state law that allowed them to retire in 2009, then return to work in 30 days to their same job at the same pay level, while also collecting their pension benefits.

The state Legislature changed the law shortly after that, requiring state employees after 2009 to have a bona fide separation from employment before being eligible for state retirement benefits. State Sen. Karen Talian, D-Ogden Dunes, and the late state Sen. Sue Landske, R-Cedar Lake, were co-sponsors of the bill.

Sopko was assistant superintendent/treasurer from July 1, 1998, to June 30, 2012. At that time, Sopko told The Times he retired in February 2009, a month after the superintendent.

Each of us were gone for 30 days, Sopko said then.

We didnt get paid for the month we were gone, saving the school district some money. The district also saves money, because they dont have to contribute to the pension plan. That saved the district about $50,000.

Sopko said he earned $118,731, or nearly $10,000 a month, and collected a monthly pension check of about $2,500 in addition.

Similarly, Pfister then earned a base salary of $148,443, or more than $12,000 a month. He also received a pension payment, though the amount is unknown.

The report noted Pfister and Sopko received a cash bonus in lieu of severance pay. The report said that a cash bonus in lieu of severance benefits was a fringe benefit added to the contract in June 2000. Pfister received a payment of $27,222, and Sopko received a payment of $20,365. The State Board of Accounts in its report considered both those amounts an overpayment as well.

Sopko, who became superintendent July 1, 2012, retired in June 2014, and the board named Jeff Hendrix as new superintendent.

District still struggling financially

With an $8 million deficit, the School Town of Munsters budget has been in the red for several years. In May 2013, Munster residents approved a general fund referendum.

Voters agreed to pay an additional 19.9 cents per $100 of assessed valuation to raise $3 million each year for the next seven years, or $21 million.

The general fund pays mostly for salary and benefits for school employees, and some school programs.

Hendrix joined other state school superintendents in campaigning for a higher per-pupil rate a couple of years ago. State legislators responded and changed the funding formula, which helped suburban school districts, including Munster.

Still, Hendrix said its not enough, and Munster schools continue to struggle financially. Hendrix has mentioned the possibility of another referendum, along with other money-saving ideas.

Munster school teachers pay was frozen in 2010 during Pfisters and Sopkos tenure, and teachers were asked to roll back their pay to 2009 numbers mid-year, said Ridgley, president of the union. Teachers still could earn step increases for years of service if they had been there for fewer than 20 years, he said.

Ridgley also confirmed that bonuses were given to central office staff, including to Pfister and Sopko, following the years teachers voted to roll back a raise they already had been given.

The years are 2010-2014 where certain staff in the central office were given bonuses, he said. Im not sure what it was for, but only Pfister and Sopko could have had that in their contracts. The others are non-certified staff and not under contract.
CHICAGO  Republican U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk said Tuesday that Donald Trump's recent comments about a federal judge of Mexican descent are "un-American" and he cannot support the GOP's presumptive presidential nominee  a reversal that came amid intensifying criticism from Democrats, including rival U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth.

Kirk, who's considered one of the GOP's most vulnerable incumbents, said in an emailed statement that he had hoped the campaign rhetoric would tone down. But he said he concluded Trump doesn't have the temperament to command the U.S. military and an arsenal of nuclear weapons.

"While I oppose the Democratic nominee, Donald Trump's latest statements, in context with past attacks on Hispanics, women and the disabled like me, make it certain that I cannot and will not support my party's nominee for President regardless of the political impact on my candidacy or the Republican Party," Kirk said.

The Illinois senator had previously said he "certainly would" support Trump if he's the GOP nominee, and suggested the New York real estate developer could help bring more supporters to the polls.

But Republicans in recent days have been scrambling to respond to Trump's latest incendiary comments that U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel can't fairly preside over a case involving Trump University because Trump wants to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico.

That remark, and others about immigrants and women, have caused particular concern for Republicans in left-leaning states such as Illinois, who worry they could hurt GOP candidates further down the ballot.

Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner, who's looking to pick up GOP seats in the Legislature this fall, also issued a statement Tuesday saying he's "disgusted" by the remarks. Rauner's aides have said he won't endorse Trump or attend this summer's Republican National Convention.

Trump issued a statement Tuesday saying his words about Curiel have been "misconstrued."

Democrats criticized Kirk's statement as too little too late, noting it took nearly a year.

"What took so long?" said Matt McGrath, Duckworth's deputy campaign manager. "Apparently for Mark Kirk, it's acceptable to refer to Mexicans as rapists; to propose banning Muslims from entering the country; to call women fat pigs and dogs; to mock a reporter's disability; and to insult just about everyone who doesn't look like Donald Trump."

During an event Monday in Chicago, Duckworth ripped Kirk for not condemning Trump's latest statements.

"Any politician who stays silent, or hopes to fly under the radar, is complicit in his campaign of hate and division  and deserves to be judged harshly," she said.

On Tuesday, the Democratic Party of Illinois launched a website that highlights comments by both Trump and Kirk and includes a quiz in which visitors can guess which candidate said each comment.
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State Rep. Christina Hale, the Hoosier Democrat running for lieutenant governor, as John Gregg's running mate, has become a go-to person for issues involving women and children, but her public policy interests are broader.

In two terms in office  that's four years  Hale has had her name on more than 60 bills, she said, including as co-author with Rep. Jerry Tor of the original Regional Cities Initiative legislation.

She's eager to improve Indiana's ranking on a number of unflattering scales, including leading the nation the past three years for production of crystal meth.

Her interests go deep, including underground.

Indiana has $14 billion in unmet needs for water infrastructure, and that's a five-year-old figure. The actual amount is likely higher now, she said.

Hale is ranking minority member on the House Utilities, Energy and Telecommunications Committee and has partnered with state Sen. Ed Charbonneau, a Valparaiso Republican, on water issues.

She has worked with state Rep. Sharon Negele, R-Attica, on a number of utility issues they both believe Indiana must address, particularly as Indiana transitions from coal as a major fuel for electricity.

They both want investor-owned utilities like NIPSCO to be more transparent as they build new power plants. That includes publishing requests for proposals and opening bids publicly, a process currently prescribed for government but not for private companies.

In the next five to 10 years, that will become a big deal, Hale said, so it's better to get the groundwork done now.

It's also an issue that will gain attention as more people realize that cheap energy is no longer a Hoosier calling card. Indiana now is in about the middle of the pack.

Which of these issues Hale will continue to focus on during the campaign remains to be seen. As a freshly minted running mate  she was announced just two weeks ago, on May 25  Hale and Gregg still need to work out all the details of their platform as well as figure out how to divide responsibilities in their joint campaign.

One thing she's sure of will be a moratorium on the social issues that have put Gov. Mike Pence, Gregg's Republican opponent, in so much hot water.

Hale brings some Northwest Indiana name recognition to the ticket. She's a Michigan City native who goes home periodically to visit her mother as well as the famous beach with its picturesque lighthouse.

"I plan to be up here as much as I possibly can," she said.

Gregg has been here a fair amount lately, but he's focused on raising money rather than raising his profile. We'll look forward to seeing him, too, as the campaign progresses.

In 2012, Gregg was gaining momentum on Pence after a sluggish start to his campaign. His folksy campaign tried to build name recognition based on his bushy mustache. In 2016, the race is very clearly about the issues. Gregg's focus and mustache are now more streamlined.

Hale hasn't been in the race long enough to see polling on how much of a bump her selection has given to Gregg's campaign, but if you're looking for someone with strong public policy credentials, she's got them.
Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, is known for his hyperbole and brash, over-the-top comments and promises. But his vicious verbal attacks on U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel have gone too far.

Trump is not known for his humility. Nonetheless, he should apologize for attacking Curiel based on his ethnic background and pledge to become more civil during the remainder of his campaign.

Trump has not backed down from calling Curiel a "very biased and unfair judge" based on Curiel's ethnic heritage.

U.S. Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., and Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller, a Republican, are among those who have become upset with Trump's remarks about Curiel, an East Chicago native.

This is not a Democratic ploy, as the Indiana Republican Party leadership has indicated. Trump's remarks are a genuine insult to not just Curiel, but to all Hoosiers, and to all Americans.

This nation has seen before the results of ethnic discrimination. We should have learned long ago how destructive this can become.

Zoeller said that in calling Curiel biased and unfair, Trump is undermining trust in the judicial system. No attorney should remain silent about this verbal attack, Zoeller said.

Let's broaden that. All Americans should be disgusted with this lack of respect for the judicial process.

The U.S. government exists only with the consent of the governed, just as the Declaration of Independence indicates. It is unwise to undermine the very system of government a candidate hopes to lead.

Curiel is a judge hearing one of the class-action lawsuits involving Trump University. If Trump doesn't like the outcome of a case, he can say so at that point without blasting the judicial process. If he truly believes another judge should be appointed, he should follow the legal process for doing so and not use the bully pulpit of a presidential candidate for personal gain.

Show respect for the judiciary and other aspects of the government.

Above all, Americans should demand their candidates show good judgment. Accusing Curiel of bias based on his parentage is an insult to all Americans.

We would be glad to see Trump, as well as other candidates, give not just lip service but also real respect for the Community Civility Counts campaign.

Americans need candidates who focus on the issues, not candidates who feed fear, anger and distrust. Candidates, tell us what you see as problems, but also tell us what you will do to address them. Constructive criticism, not mean-spirited complaints, are what Americans need.

We demand, and all Americans should demand, an apology from Trump. Make it heartfelt, not just a quick aside.
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Hillary Clinton won the New Jersey Democratic presidential primary Tuesday night, one day after the Associated Press announced she had enough delegates to clinch the party's presidential nomination.



As of 9:09 p.m., Clinton had 58.7 percent of the vote in New Jersey, compared to Bernie Sanders's 41.3 percent, according to the Associated Press (AP).

126 delegates are at stake in New Jersey.

Clinton is now the first woman to become the presumptive nominee of a major American political party.

The magic number to clinch the Democratic presidential nod was 2,383.

Clinton did not celebrate the AP's announcement Monday night.

That night she had tweeted, "Were flattered, Associated Press, but we've got primaries to win. California, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, New Jersey, South Dakota vote tomorrow!"

Despite the AP's count, Clinton rival Bernie Sanders did not concede anything.

Addressing supporters in San Francisco before Tuesday's primaries, the Vermont senator expressed confidence that he can win California and carry his momentum to the Democratic convention next month.

"If working people and young people come out in big numbers to demand a government that represents all of us and not just the one percent we're gonna win big," Sanders said.

Clinton is holding a campaign rally at the Brooklyn Navy Yard on Tuesday night, while Sanders plans to return to Vermont.
Norman Seabrook, the brash and powerful leader of the union representing city correction officers, was arrested on federal fraud charges Wednesday. It was the first major prosecution linked to investigations examining Mayor de Blasio's fundraising. Criminal Justice reporter Dean Meminger has the story.

After his arraignment on corruption charges, Norman Seabrook walked out of federal court, saying he did nothing wrong. He actually said he was doing really well.

"I feel like a million bucks," Seabrook said.

But federal prosecutors say the powerful president of the city corrections union misused a lot more money than that. FBI agents swooped in on Seabrook at his Bronx home Wednesday morning.

The Feds claim Seabrook invested $20 million of union money into a troubled hedge fund called Platinum Partners, and in return he received an initial kickback of $60,000.

A cooperating witness, said to be this man, Jona Rechnitz, allegedly went to Seabook's favorite luxury goods store to buy the bag to make the payment.

"For a Ferragamo bag filled with cash, Seabrook allegedly sold himself and his duty to safeguard retirement funds of his fellow correction officers," said U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara.

Rechnitz allegedly fronted the money on behalf of the hedge fund operator, and was repaid through a sham invoice that disguised the reimbursement as payment for Knicks tickets.

"That's two seats at eight games at $500 per game," the prosecutor said. "By the way, on the date that Huberfeld reportedly paid for 16 Knicks tickets, the Knicks record was 4 and 20."

The Huberfeld he is referring to is Murray Huberfeld, the founder of the Hedge fund. He also was arrested Wednesday and later released on a $1 million bond. Seabrook was also released on a $250,000 bond.

Seabrook's attorney belittled the case, saying the Feds don't have much evidence.

"I think this is a weak case," said Seabrook lawyer Paul Shechtman. "It is a case that turns in the word of one person and it is a person that comes with a lot of baggage, there's very little corroboration."

The arrests are the latest development in a series of overlapping public corruption investigations by federal prosecutor Bharara.

Rechnitz, who has donated more than $100,000 to causes connected to Mayor de Blasio, is involved in some of those investigations.

"We intend also to be as aggressive as ever and exposing corruption whatever we find and is too bad that we seem to find it everywhere we look," Bharara said.



De Blasio said he hasn't spoken to Seabrook in months.

Rechnitz donated to the mayor's nonprofit group, the Campaign for One New York.

"If proven true, it's disgusting and it's very, very, very sad. It means he stole money from his own workers," de Blasio said. "If he defrauded his own pension fund, that means he took money meant for his own workers retirements and put it in his own pocket."

De Blasio said he believes everyone in his administration acted properly.
A decision on whether the NYPD has to publicly release video from police body cameras is now in the hands of a Manhattan judge. NY1's Bobby Cuza was in the courtroom today as she heard arguments in a lawsuit brought by the station, and filed this report.

"We have been asking for these records for over a year," said lawyer Saul Shapiro.

The we in this case is NY1, and the records we asked for under the Freedom of Information Law, known as FOIL, were five weeks' worth of footage from the NYPDs police body cameras, first rolled out as a pilot program in late 2014.

After the NYPD demanded we pay $36,000 for the work involved in reviewing and editing the footage, NY1 filed a lawsuit that was heard in state court Tuesday.

"The police departments response to this FOIL request is the exact antithesis of transparency and accountability," Shapiro said.

A city attorney arguing on the behalf of the NYPD said redacting the video to protect witnesses and address privacy and other concerns would require more than 2,500 man-hours, a cost that shouldnt be borne by taxpayers.

"The burden here is overwhelming and unreasonable," said Jeffrey Dantowitz an attorney for the NYPD. "And we should not be required to comply with the FOIL request."

With the body camera program soon expanding to 1,000 officers, the case could help set a precedent for just how publicly accessible the footage will be.

"That is why NY1 has brought this case," Shapiro said. "So that the public, through NY1, can see the body cam footage. Because after all, what is the point of having a program like this if none of the footage is made public?"

The judge seemed to agree that completely withholding the footage undercuts the rationale for the program. The NYPD, meanwhile, did suggest it would consider a narrower request involving less footage, leaving open a possible compromise.

Now both sides await Judge Kathryn Freeds ruling.
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Aileen Ward, a scholar whose sympathetic, insightful biography of the Romantic poet John Keats won a National Book Award in 1964, died on May 31 in her home in Santa Monica, Calif. She was 97.

The death was confirmed by her nephew Alex Ward.

Professor Ward spent nine years researching John Keats: The Making of a Poet, the first major account of his life since the publication of Amy Lowells two-volume Keats in 1925. Her aim was twofold: to critically analyze Keatss poetry and, by reading his inner life, to explain what she called his audacious act of self-creation.

In conferring the prize, the administrators of the National Book Award praised the biography as a searching and perceptive reappraisal of a major literary figure, calling it an honest, moving, and beautifully balanced work  a truly distinguished portrait.

As is happened, Professor Ward prevailed over a mighty rival, the Harvard literary historian Walter Jackson Bate, who came out with his own Keats biography a few months after Professor Wards, to admiring reviews and, eventually, a Pulitzer Prize. It, too, was in the running for the National Book Award  seemingly a David-and-Goliath contest in terms of the authors reputations  but the readability and psychological acumen of Professor Wards version won the day.
Instead of simply having to puzzle through conflicting expert opinions, judges have in recent cases looked to the merger price to determine if the price was fair. So long as the price paid was negotiated through an arms-length process, the court deemed this to be fair value. The underlying assumption of course was that the fairly bargained market price was fair value.

Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster of the Delaware Court of Chancery found that the process was not entirely complete because the Dell board did not reach out to all parties, something I had highlighted during this dispute.

To be fair, however, the Dell board did later bend over backward to try to get things right.

Vice Chancellor Laster also asserted that because the pricing was based on a leveraged buyout model, it was not a market price. That model is one where the buyers price is based on what it thinks its returns will be and is used by private equity firms. In this situation, a private equity firm would pay only what would produce a targeted rate of return.

This is not quite so neat in the real world, but the use of a leveraged buyout model to price this transaction led the judge to determine that the market price was not a reliable one, because it showed merely the price the private equity firm could pay, not one that was fair value. In contrast, Vice Chancellor Laster argued that a strategic acquirer, a competitor of Dell, for example, would pay what the company was worth, closer to fair value.

Because the buyout price was not a good one to determine fair value, the judge instead conducted an old-style appraisal proceeding where he used a discounted cash flow analysis to compute fair value using the expert opinions. Discounted cash flow analysis is a financial technique that values the future revenue streams of the company to determine an investments potential. This type of analysis involves numerous estimates including what the company will earn in the future.

A different result was thus inevitable, and that is how the court got to $17.65 a share.

The decision highlights the problems with appraisal generally. Judges are being forced to apply a law and to value companies based on a notion of fair value that is uncertain at best.

As a result, the Dell case is unlikely to be a game changer. The market price is likely to continue to be the price used because it is so difficult to compute fair value otherwise.
Patti Grace Smith, a federal aviation official who loosened the regulatory reins in Washington to help spur the growth of the embryonic commercial space transportation industry, died on Sunday in Washington. She was 68.

The cause was pancreatic cancer, her brother, Douglas Jones Jr., said.

Appointed in 1998 to a newly created post, Ms. Smith was the first person to head the Federal Aviation Administrations agency for commercial space transportation.

During her tenure, the F.A.A. licensed the first inland commercial spaceport in the country, the Mojave Air & Space Port in California, and the launch there in 2004 of SpaceShipOne, the first privately developed manned vehicle to reach space.

She oversaw the rule-making for human spaceflight in privately developed programs and for reusable launch vehicles, and she retained her offices jurisdiction over suborbital space travel, rather than ceding it to aviation officials who were more likely to impose stricter protocols.
Susan, the resourceful researcher, found an electronic list of guardianship petitions filed in New York County for me. Sarah sent me a spreadsheet of 60 centenarians buried on Hart Island, highlighting four recent cases. On impulse, I gave my hunch a chance, choosing a woman named Doris McCrea who had died at Calvary Hospital on July 10, 2012, at age 100, and had been buried four months later in a Hart Island trench.

Image Doris McCrea, who died at 100 in 2012 and was initially buried on Hart Island.

And there she was on Susans list as the subject of a 1996 guardianship petition: Doris McCrea! I felt as though I had stepped into a Dickensian mystery of buried truths and misdeeds waiting to be told.

It was not until a frigid day in February that I could start investigating in earnest. The McCrea case was the first of many I requested from courthouse storage rooms. But bad news came back: Her file was most likely among the records lost in a Brooklyn warehouse fire.

I moved on to other cases  the housekeeper whose guardian allowed her home to go into foreclosure and her body to go unclaimed; the homeless boy in an $8 suit; the opera costume designer who escaped the Holocaust, but not Hart Island. By the time I was revising the first draft of my article in October 2015, the problem was how to cut individual stories, not add more.

But the mystery of Ms. McCrea would not let me go. On a late trip to a Manhattan courthouse almost a year after I had learned her name, I filled out a new request. This time, a bulging file showed up, held together with elastic bands.

Ms. McCrea, I learned, had worked for decades at the Park Avenue headquarters of Continental Grain, a global agribusiness corporation, rising to lead its central files department. Widowed in midlife, with no children, she lived frugally in two furnished rooms at the Ten Eyck-Troughton Residence, an inexpensive haven for women run by the Salvation Army on East 39th Street. But she spent weekends in her antique-filled house in Turners Falls, Mass.; her husband, Arthur Donald McCrea, a former employee of the Treasury Department, was buried there.

In retirement, her life changed abruptly when she objected to being discharged from a New York hospital to a nursing home after having colon surgery. The hospitals lawyers filed a guardianship petition, saying she had dementia, and eventually collected $4,618 from her savings for legal costs. Some $67,000 from the sale of her house would go to the nursing home, Queens Boulevard Extended Care Center, before she was poor enough to qualify for Medicaid. Another $37,000 in legal and administrative fees went to Margaret Bomba, a prominent guardianship lawyer appointed as her legal protector.
GOSHEN, N.Y.  Ten days after Vincent Viafore disappeared in the frigid waters of the Hudson River, Angelika Graswald, his fiancee, had a run-in with police detectives that would prove pivotal in the case, an investigator testified on Tuesday at a pretrial hearing here.

On April 29, 2015, Ms. Graswald went to Bannerman Island, where the couple had kayaked earlier that month, to lay a wreath in his memory. Investigators were there to look for any clues in what was still being treated as an accidental drowning. The body of Mr. Viafore, 46, would not be found until late May last year.

In his testimony, Aniello Moscato, a senior investigator with the New York State Police, said Ms. Graswald had called him that April morning. The two had been in touch daily during the search for the body.

When investigators saw Ms. Graswald on the island, she seemed ill at ease. She was pacing back and forth, holding her stomach, deep breathing, he said. She more or less volunteered that there were problems with the relationship.
ALBANY  The yearslong debate over whether to impose a fee for plastic bags in New York appeared to come to a hard-fought end last month, when the City Council voted to charge 5 cents for most plastic and paper shopping bags.

But as with so much else in the city, the last word on the subject lies with the State Capitol, where hostility to the bag bill has threatened to undo, or at least revise, the fee.

A bill in the State Senate that would prohibit cities from imposing any tax, fee or local charge on carry out merchandise bags passed that body on Tuesday. A similar bill in the State Assembly seemed poised to follow until, later on Tuesday, the speakers of the Assembly and the City Council agreed to delay enacting the bag fee while city officials amended the citys bill to the Assemblys liking.

The fee will now go into effect in February and not in October, which allows the Council and the Assembly to work together on a solution, Michael Weyland, a spokesman for the Assembly speaker, Carl E. Heastie, said on Tuesday.
The next day, however, the assistant principal interviewed the girl again, this time in the presence of one of the boys who had watched the encounter. Based on that interview, the assistant principal concluded that the sex had been consensual and updated the online occurrence report to say that upon further investigation the student admitted it was a consensual act not forced. As a result, the girl was given a suspension for six days for engaging in sexual acts on campus.

After a hearing a month later, the suspension was withdrawn and the city Education Department said it would be expunged from her record. But the complaint says that the students mental health and academic performance have suffered, and that she lives in fear both of retaliation by her assailants and of the prospect that school administrators will again seek to punish her for another imaginary crime.

The second complaint, filed on June 4, states that on Nov. 5, a 13-year-old student at Middle School 584 in Brooklyn was between classes when a male student punched her in the genital region, causing her to fall. The male student then simulated sex on top of her, with her arms pinned to the ground and her school uniform riding up.

The male student was suspended for a month and then returned, at which point the girl became afraid to go to school, the complaint states. Despite the schools claim that it would separate the students, it did not, and they had three classes, as well as lunch, gym and music, together. The girls mother sought a safety transfer, but rather than expedite the request, the department took nearly seven weeks to find a new school for her, the complaint asserts. One school to which the girl wanted to transfer, which her sister attended, required an audition, and she was rejected. Two other schools that department officials at first suggested might take her subsequently said they could not enroll her. The complaint said the girl might be forced to repeat her grade because of the number of days of school she missed while waiting to be transferred.

The complaint filed in November states that on April 2, 2015, a 13-year-old girl who was in eighth grade at Spring Creek Community School was waiting for the bus after school when a male student dragged her into an alleyway and sexually assaulted her, forcing her into anal and oral sex. The male student made a video of the encounter and subsequently disseminated it among other students, and the girl, who was already traumatized by the assault, became the subject of taunts and harassment, the complaint says. In response, the school principal told the girl to stay home from school because her presence would only make things worse, the complaint says. She missed nearly a month of school before a safety transfer was approved.
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Good morning.

Heres what you need to know:

 Weve reached a milestone.

Hillary Clinton claimed the Democratic nomination on Tuesday night  becoming the first woman at the top of a major party ticket  with decisive victories in California, New Jersey and New Mexico.

Bernie Sanders rarely mentioned Mrs. Clinton in his speech on Tuesday, saying that hed take his fight for social, economic, racial and environmental justice to Philadelphia  home to the convention in July. On Thursday, hell meet with President Obama.
THE Supreme Court will soon decide whether to hear an appeal in Tuaua v. United States, which poses the question of whether the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment applies to American Samoa. That this is a question at all is puzzling, and not just because its called American Samoa.

The 14th Amendment to the Constitution guarantees citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof. The United States annexed the eastern half of a group of Pacific islands known as the Samoas at the end of the 19th century. As a result, those islands became American Samoa. Surely, people born in American Samoa are legally speaking born in the United States and therefore citizens by birth. Easy, right?

Not so easy. The answer is that no one knows for sure.

How is it possible that a question as basic as who is a citizen at birth under our Constitution remains unresolved in a place subject to the sovereignty of the United States? To understand, you have to dive into the muck that is the law of the United States territories.

When the United States closed the deal to annex American Samoa in 1899, it left open whether the islands had become part of the United States for purposes of citizenship. The previous year, the United States had defeated Spain in the Spanish-American War and had taken sovereignty over Spains former colonies  Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Guam.
Hillary Clinton. First woman presidential nominee.

Okay, of a major political party. Were not going into the minor-party exceptions since that would require a lengthy discussion of Victoria Woodhull in 1872. Under normal circumstances, Woodhull would certainly be worth talking about, given the faith healing and the brokerage firm and the obscenity trial. But this is Hillarys moment.

Its really emotional, she said in a speech this week. Clinton brings up the first-woman thing a lot, and the idea of showing little girls that they can be anything you want to be. Even President of the United States. For many young women, thats actually old news, since Hillary the potential president has been around most of their lives. Back when she was first elected to the Senate in 2000, the coverage was so omnipresent that my niece Anna, who was around 3, asked my sister whether it was possible for a man to be a senator.

The people who get most excited are the ones who remember how things used to be, back when girls couldnt envision being in the Little League, let alone the White House. And can you imagine going back in history and sharing Clintons news with the suffragists? This is one of my favorite mind games  pretend youre returning to 1872 and telling the story to Susan B. Anthony while she was being arrested for the crime of voting while female.

Or theres the other route of telling some historical figure who would faint with horror. Like Thomas Jefferson  wouldnt you want to see his face? We all know how good Jefferson was on freedom of speech, but he was possibly the worst sexist in the very competitive group known as the Founding Fathers. (Our good ladies, I trust, have been too wise to wrinkle their foreheads with politics. They are contented to soothe and calm the minds of their husbands returning ruffled from political debate.)
When Donald Trump attacked a federal judge whose parents were born in Mexico, Hispanic Americans were outraged. Other minority groups saw a pattern of bigotry. Democrats had a hard time concealing their glee. Republican leaders pretended they disapproved.

Well, to be fair, they did disapprove in a way  not because Trump believes the things he says, but because he says them so directly.

Far too many Republicans share this kind of racism and have for a long time. Trump has just dispensed with dog whistles and revels in his bigotry instead. But this is the party the Republicans have been deliberately and assiduously building for many decades, the party of division and intolerance. George H.W. Bushs racist tactics in 1988 against Michael Dukakis  the Willie Horton ad in particular  seem almost genteel by comparison.

Todays Republicans have stymied every effort at reforming immigration, at achieving true equality for women, at ending the scourge of racist drug laws and criminal sentencing rules. The Republican Party has generated a wave of laws designed to make it harder for black Americans and other minorities to vote. Its not that Republicans dont want to deport millions of Mexicans and ban Muslims from our shores. They just dont like to talk about it in the open.
If a party could declare moral bankruptcy, todays Republican Party would be in Chapter 11.

This party needs to just shut itself down and start over  now. Seriously, someone please start a New Republican Party!

America needs a healthy two-party system. America needs a healthy center-right party to ensure that the Democrats remain a healthy center-left party. America needs a center-right party ready to offer market-based solutions to issues like climate change. America needs a center-right party that will support common-sense gun laws. America needs a center-right party that will support common-sense fiscal policy. America needs a center-right party to support both free trade and aid to workers impacted by it. America needs a center-right party that appreciates how much more complicated foreign policy is today, when you have to manage weak and collapsing nations, not just muscle strong ones.

But this Republican Party is none of those things. Todays G.O.P. is to governing what Trump University is to education  an ethically challenged enterprise that enriches and perpetuates itself by shedding all pretense of standing for real principles, or a truly relevant value proposition, and instead plays on the ignorance and fears of the public.

It is just an empty shell, selling pieces of itself to the highest bidders,  policy by policy  a little to the Tea Party over here, a little to Big Oil over there, a little to the gun lobby, to antitax zealots, to climate-change deniers. And before you know it, the party stands for an incoherent mess of ideas unrelated to any theory of where the world is going or how America actually becomes great again in the 21st century.
Joe Ligon has spent almost 63 years in a Pennsylvania prison for his role in a 1953 murder when he was a 15-year-old boy. At the time, the mandatory sentence for murder was life without the possibility of parole.

Mr. Ligon, now 78, has served more time than anyone else in Pennsylvania, and perhaps in the nation. But he may soon be freed, after the Philadelphia district attorney, Seth Williams, announced last week that his office would seek new sentences for all of the 300 or so prisoners who have been serving sentences of mandatory life without parole for homicides they committed as juveniles. The new sentences would fall between 20 and 35 years, depending on the seriousness of the crime, after which the defendants will have a chance at parole.

Its my goal to give all of these individuals some light at the end of the tunnel, Mr. Williams told The Philadelphia Inquirer. That light is very close for as many as one-third of the prisoners, who have already served several decades and will now be able to make a case for immediate release. With Philadelphia currently having the most juvenile lifers of any county in the nation, Mr. Williams has also decided to stop seeking life without parole for juveniles in all future cases.
In the United States alone, where more than 700 priests were eventually dismissed, no bishops were punished by Rome as the scandal unfolded. This despite an investigation by lay leaders who warned there must be consequences for those who provided refuge for priests accused of raping schoolchildren, which often meant that the accused priests were shifted from parish to parish.

Public reaction to the popes new approach suggests that he will have to deliver prompt and credible enforcement from Rome if the church is to regain the laitys confidence. Mitchell Garabedian, the Boston lawyer who played a key role in uncovering the scandal and was featured in the film Spotlight, told The National Catholic Reporter, History has shown us that the Catholic Church is incapable of objectively investigating itself in clergy sexual abuse cases.

The Vatican has long had the power to remove an offending diocesan prelate, but has rarely used it. A papal spokesman says that Francis new order is designed to broaden that power by making it easier to fire a bishop, particularly when there is negligence with regard to cases of sexual abuse. The order stresses that any accused bishop will be entitled to defend himself, but the pope will exercise the ultimate judgment in investigations.

Its encouraging that Pope Francis is using his authority to push the Vatican machinery to act. But the church faithful will be watching to see whether diocesan leaders will ever be made answerable for their part in allowing the sexual abuse of children to continue when much of it could have been stopped.
Edward Snowden showed weve inadvertently built the worlds largest surveillance network with the web, said Mr. Kahle, whose group organized the conference. China can make it impossible for people there to read things, and just a few big service providers are the de facto organizers of your experience. We have the ability to change all that.

Many people conflate the internets online services and the web as one and the same  yet they are technically quite different. The internet is a networking infrastructure, where any two machines can communicate over a variety of paths, and one local network of computers can connect with other networks.

The web, on the other hand, is a popular means to access that network of networks. But because of the way web pages are created, managed and named, the web is not fully decentralized. Take down a certain server and a certain web page becomes unavailable. Links to pages can corrode over time. Censorship systems like Chinas Great Firewall eliminate access to much information for most of its people. By looking at internet addresses, it is possible for governments and companies to get a good idea of who is reading which web pages.

In some ways, the efforts to change the technology of creating the web are a kind of coming-of-age story. Mr. Berners-Lee created the World Wide Web while working at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, as a tool for scientists. Today, the web still runs on technologies of the older world.

Consider payments. In many cases, people pay for things online by entering credit card information, not much different from handing a card to a merchant for an imprint.
LONDON  When we last left Harry Potter, in the final pages of J. K. Rowlings Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, he was a middle-aged wizarding bureaucrat sending his second child, Albus Severus, off to Hogwarts for the first time. His life, marked in part by violence, danger and grief, seemed to have settled down, and those of us who had worried about him through so many pages for so many years felt relieved at his apparently happy ending.

Now Harry is back  in a play, this time  and we have to reconsider the whole thing. All is no longer well in Potter-world. But though it is full of new difficulties for its famous protagonist, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which had its first preview in the West End in London on Tuesday, felt like an author sending a Valentine to her longtime fans. Here onstage were all the characters wed come to know so intimately: Harry, now married to Ginny Weasley; Hermione and Ron, now married to each other and behaving, at least until Ms. Rowling worked her mischief, in their old familiar ways.

For those of us in the audience, it was jarring to see the reanimation of characters we thought had been put to rest, who in our minds had been suspended forever in time and place. We had to readjust our sense of their reality, and replace what had been in our imagination with what the author put in front of us.
In Dan Hoyles The Block, a garrulous and affectionate portrait of the contemporary South Bronx, no one is boogieing down. Financial stability is a rarity, friendships falter, and gentrification threatens. Im telling you, the avocado apocalypse is upon us, says Rick (Flaco Navaja), a livery driver. Hes seen two bougie restaurants open in Mott Haven. Even worse, last week he spotted two white dudes with fluffy beards on bikes. SoBro? Oh no, bro.

The Block is part of Five Boroughs/One City, an ambitious project by the Working Theater to create a play for each borough, inspired by conversations and story circles with members of particular communities. (After a run at Urban Stages in Manhattan, the show will tour the other boroughs.) In between scenes of The Block, the sound system plays snippets of field recordings, in which actual Bronx residents reminisce about a favorite doughnut shop or discuss an areas transformation. These extracts lend character and atmosphere, which are the stronger elements of Mr. Hoyles play, directed by Tamilla Woodard. In matters of story and structure, its somewhat weaker.

The plot seems to center on Dontrell (Clinton Lowe), a former hustler now back after several quiet years upstate. Hes trying to reconnect with his old friend Rick and his old roommate Soria (Yvette Ganier), but neither offers much help as Dontrell tries to stay out of prison and trouble. Soria is too focused on hanging on to her rent-stabilized apartment; Rick is trying to save enough to open his own livery service and take over a storefront from Moe (Nathan Hinton), an African immigrant tempted to decamp for the Midwest.

But Dontrells struggles arent really the main concern. Any action, when it comes, seems halfhearted, if not superfluous. Mr. Hoyles larger scheme is to depict a neighborhood by showing why people go and how they stay. Mostly, he does this by letting his characters talk  teasing, joking, bragging and scrapping. If Mr. Hoyle lets his story get away from him, he presents warm, robust sketches of the neighborhoods gutsy dwellers.
Five people were killed and four others were injured on Tuesday night after a pickup truck plowed into a group of bicyclists on a road about seven miles north of Kalamazoo, Mich., the authorities said.

The crash happened around 7 p.m. near Markin Glen Park on North Westnedge Avenue in Cooper Township, Mich.

The driver fled on foot but was later arrested a short distance away, Jeffrey S. Getting, the prosecuting attorney for Kalamazoo County, said at a news conference on Tuesday. He described the driver as being a 50-year-old man from western Michigan.

Mr. Getting said a decision about what, if any, charges would be filed would be made on Thursday, after an investigation by the Michigan State Police.
Boyce F. Martin Jr., a defiantly liberal federal appellate judge whose rulings in two seminal cases  on favoring minority applicants in college admissions and on upholding President Obamas requirement that Americans buy health insurance  were upheld by the Supreme Court, died on June 1 at his home in Louisville, Ky. He was 80.

The cause was brain cancer, his son Boyce R. Martin III said.

In 2002, Judge Martin wrote for the majority in a bitterly divided United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Grutter v. Bollinger, the affirmative action case involving the University of Michigan Law School. (The court sits in Cincinnati and covers Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan and Tennessee.)

He ruled that higher education recruiters could seek a critical mass of black and Hispanic students to achieve racial, ethnic and intellectual diversity among their newcomers. The decision was affirmed by the United States Supreme Court, 5 to 4, in 2003, with Justice Sandra Day OConnor writing the majority opinion.

Lee C. Bollinger, a former dean of the law school and then the incoming president of Columbia University, warned at the time that a ruling that race and ethnicity could not constitutionally be considered in admissions would be drastic and disheartening, threatening a decline in minority enrollment of as much as 70 to 75 percent.
COLUMBUS, Ohio  A federal judge blocked certain requirements for how thousands of ballots are counted in Ohio, saying in a decision on Tuesday that the policies are unconstitutional and violate the Voting Rights Act.

At issue are two laws the Republican-led legislature passed in 2014 and how they are carried out.

Among other changes, the laws require voters to provide certain identifying information when casting absentee or provisional ballots. Voters must include their name, signature, valid forms of identification, address and birth date. Ballots from legitimate voters could be rejected because of errors or omissions.

Provisional ballots are those cast when a voters identity or registration is in question. The voters eligibility is verified later.

The judge, Algenon L. Marbley of United States District Court, said the laws could harm black voters in particular.
A California judge harshly criticized for giving what many say is a too-lenient sentence to a former Stanford student convicted of sexual assault has been bombarded by threats of violence against him and his family, an official said on Tuesday.

The judge, Aaron Persky, 54, on Thursday sentenced the former student, Brock Allen Turner, 20, to six months in jail for three felony counts: intent to commit rape, sexual penetration with a foreign object of an intoxicated person and sexual penetration with a foreign object of an unconscious person.

Threatening phone calls have flooded into the Santa Clara County Superior Court since then, said Gary Goodman, a supervising attorney for the county public defenders office.

People have been calling the court and leaving messages, and if someone answers, they say, Tell your judge he can go to hell, and I hope his kids get raped and he rots in hell,  said Mr. Goodman, who has defended the judge. Hes getting threats over this, him and his family, from all over the country. Is that right?
In 2007, Davontae Sanford, a 14-year-old who was blind in one eye and had a habit of telling tall tales, told Detroit police officers after hours of questioning that he had killed four people in a shooting a few blocks from his house.

The teenager, who had quickly recanted, was sentenced to up to 90 years in prison and remained behind bars even after a notorious Detroit hit man admitted to having committed the killings with a second man.

But on Tuesday, after eight years of court battles and a reinvestigation of the case, Brian Sullivan, a Wayne County Court judge, vacated Mr. Sanfords convictions and ordered him released.

Davontaes family, friends and supporters knew from the outset that he was innocent and wrongfully convicted, his family said in a statement Tuesday. As the judges order confirms, Davontae had nothing to do with these murders. We are grateful to those who have fought for many years on Davontaes behalf and thankful to soon have Davontae home with us.
SOUTHWEST

Texas: Order to Reveal Names

Of Immigrants Is Delayed

A federal judge has delayed until Aug. 22 an order requiring Justice Department lawyers to take ethics classes and to give him the names of young immigrants participating in a deportation protection program created by President Obama. At a hearing on Tuesday in Brownsville in the case by 26 states against the presidents executive actions on immigration, Judge Andrew S. Hanen suspended his May 19 order. The administration will not have to provide this week the names of about 50,000 immigrants who received extended deportation deferrals, which Judge Hanen halted last year. The judge postponed his order until after the Supreme Court rules on the states challenge, a decision expected in late June. JULIA PRESTON

SOUTH

Alabama: Astronaut Is Charged

In Highway Deaths of Two Sisters

James Halsell Jr., who commanded or piloted five space shuttle missions, was charged with murder after a car wreck on Monday killed two young sisters on a remote stretch of highway in Tuscaloosa County. The state police said alcohol and speed may have been factors. Troopers said a car driven by Mr. Halsell, 59, collided around 2:50 a.m. with a car in which Niomi Deona James, 11, and Jayla Latrick Parler, 13, were riding. The girls were thrown from the car and died. Neither was wearing a seatbelt. Mr. Halsell, who lives in Huntsville, was released from jail after posting $150,000 bail. The girls father, Pernell James, 37, was treated at a hospital. (AP)

PLAINS

Kansas: Governor Calling

Special Session on School Funding

Gov. Sam Brownback said Tuesday that he would call the Legislature into special session to tackle education funding and respond to a state Supreme Court order declaring that public schools might not be able to open after June. Mr. Brownback, a Republican, did not set a date for the Republican-dominated Legislature to reconvene to beat a June 30 deadline set by the court for lawmakers to fix school finances. The court last month rejected some changes in school finance laws that lawmakers had made to comply with an earlier order from the justices to improve funding for poor schools. Public schools are out for the summer, but they provide services year-round to special education students and serve meals to poor children. (AP)
CHARLESTON, S.C.  A federal judge on Tuesday scheduled a November trial for Dylann S. Roof, a white man accused in the massacre of nine African-American worshipers at a prominent church here a year ago, and suggested that up to 1,500 prospective jurors might be called statewide to fill out a panel.

With the decision, Judge Richard M. Gergel of Federal District Court turned down an earlier request by the state prosecutor, Scarlett A. Wilson, to allow the state trial, which was scheduled for January, to go first. The death penalty will be sought in both trials. The effect on the states case is unclear.

During Tuesdays hearing, Mr. Roof sat impassively in front of members of the victims families, as well as journalists and spectators as Judge Gergel questioned his lawyers and the Justice Department on whether they would be ready for a Nov. 7 trial.

Federal prosecutors last year filed a 33-count indictment against Mr. Roof, who prosecutors say sat in a Bible study class at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church for about an hour before opening fire. In announcing their plan to seek the death penalty in a filing on May 24, prosecutors cited nine aggravating factors, including that Mr. Roof had expressed hatred and contempt towards African-Americans as well as other groups, and his animosity toward African-Americans played a role in the murders charged in the indictment.
UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif.  Senator Bernie Sanders plans to lay off at least half of his campaign staff Wednesday as his battered presidential bid continues despite Hillary Clintons being declared the presumptive Democratic nominee, two people close to the campaign said Tuesday.

Many of those being laid off are advance staff members who often help with campaign logistics, as well as field staff members who have been working to garner votes for the senator, according to a campaign official and a former campaign staff member, both of whom spoke on condition of anonymity. Some campaign workers may move into jobs at Mr. Sanderss Senate office, but others will be terminated, they said.

Word of the layoffs came on a night that Mrs. Clinton declared that she had captured the majority of pledged delegates needed to capture the Democratic nomination, despite a spirited fight from Mr. Sanders, who has showed no signs of ending his campaign.

Mr. Sanders insists that he is prepared to challenge Mrs. Clinton at the Democratic National Convention in July, holding out hope that his lobbying of superdelegates  party officials and state leaders who cast their final votes at the convention  will siphon support from Mrs. Clinton as he makes his case that he is a stronger candidate against Donald J. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee.
Andrew Lack, the chairman of NBC News, was dining with Matt Lauer on the Upper East Side on Monday night when his phone rang, mid-halibut.

It quickly became clear that the fish would have to wait.

The Associated Press had just declared Hillary Clinton the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, a decision based not on any primary victory  none were held on Monday  but on the news agencys own canvassing of superdelegates, the party insiders who can support any candidate they choose.

It was an unusual, somewhat arcane way to crown the nations first female presidential nominee from a major party, in part because the 571 superdelegates who told The A.P. they were committed to Mrs. Clinton are free to change their minds until the convention next month.

But The A.P.s call created a trigger effect in newsrooms around the country, which have long viewed the agency as an arbiter of election results.
The day after Barack Obama clinched the Democratic nomination in June 2008, Mrs. Clinton huddled with her advisers and debated whether to hold on to her delegates and try to force a contested convention. She decided to endorse Mr. Obama instead. The two had a tense but productive meeting that Thursday night, and two days later she delivered a speech thanking her supporters and urging them to unite around the partys presumptive nominee.

The resistance of many of Mr. Sanderss supporters to Mrs. Clinton is likely to soften once Mr. Sanders leaves the race, and especially if he endorses her. But Clinton advisers and allies say they will need his help to bring around the many younger voters and liberals who prefer him.

If Mrs. Clinton is beginning the general election with many Sanders supporters incensed at her, Mr. Trump is in the midst of his own self-made crisis. He is forcing Republicans to confront a painful choice: Embrace his brand of racial politics, one that could taint the partys image well beyond this election, or abandon their presumptive nominee and hand the White House to the Democrats for another four years.

But Mrs. Clintons supporters, pointing both to the threat from Mr. Trump and to her chance at making history, predicted that she would have an easier time bringing her party together than Mr. Trump would his.

I think that will sink in over the next few weeks and months and will go a long way to helping unite the party, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York said. I was on the bike this morning and saw on TV that Monday night, Hillary had won the nomination, and I got teary-eyed. From a 10,000-foot perspective, its an amazing accomplishment.
WASHINGTON  The Senate on Tuesday gave final approval to an overhaul of the nations 40-year-old law governing the use of toxic chemicals in homes and businesses, sending the bill to President Obama for his expected signature.

The Senate passed the measure on a voice vote; the House approved it last month, 403 to 12. The measure would update the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act, requiring new testing and regulation of thousands of chemicals used in everyday products as varied as laundry detergents and car seats. However, some public health and environmental advocates have criticized the legislation, saying that while it slightly strengthens the existing law, the bills authors ceded too much to chemical companies.

Public health advocates and environmentalists complained for decades that the 1976 law was outdated and riddled with gaps that left Americans exposed to harmful chemicals. Under current law, around 64,000 chemicals are not subject to environmental testing or regulation.

But efforts to tighten the law had stalled for years. The authors of the bill say their breakthrough represents a pragmatic, politically viable compromise between better environmental standards and the demands of industry. Senator Tom Udall, Democrat of New Mexico, worked closely with the American Chemistry Council to come up with language that would win the support of the industry and pass through the generally regulation-averse Republican Congress.
DAKAR, Senegal  The peacekeeping missions in the Central African Republic have been tainted by allegations that troops from several countries sexually abused children and adults. But on Tuesday, Human Rights Watch released a report providing new evidence that soldiers from the Republic of Congo had killed civilians.

In the report, Human Rights Watch said it had uncovered new evidence that Congolese soldiers killed more than a dozen people, including women and children, while serving as peacekeepers from December 2013 to June 2015.

The report is the latest in a series of allegations against peacekeepers, who have been accused of rampant sexual abuse, including against more than 100 girls in a single prefecture in the Central African Republic. The United Nations has said it is investigating the sex allegations, which it called sickening.

The Central African Republic was torn by sectarian strife in 2013 after the ouster of President Francois Bozize. Thousands of people were killed, and nearly a quarter of the population was displaced. Faustin-Archange Touadera, a prime minister under Mr. Bozize, was elected president this year.
Perus presidential contest tightened on Tuesday as election officials continued to count votes and the early leader lost much of his slim advantage over his opponent, the daughter of an imprisoned former president.

Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, 77, was leading Keiko Fujimori, 41, by less than one percentage point, or about 57,000 of roughly 17 million votes cast, the countrys electoral commission said Tuesday.

Ms. Fujimori, who had been leading in polls before the election only to lose ground on Sunday, appeared to be closing the gap with Mr. Kuczynski, a former prime minister, as officials tallied a small number of uncounted votes that will determine the outcome.

Election officials asked for patience as they counted votes from Peruvians living abroad and from distant rural areas, including some ballots that were arriving on a river boat that had been delayed by bad weather.
CAIRO  Jordans government on Tuesday barred the countrys news media from publishing reports on a shooting at an intelligence office near Amman that killed five people and raised fears that militants had been able to penetrate one of the regions most powerful and ruthlessly effective counterterrorism agencies.

Jordanian officials cast the shooting, which occurred on Monday, as an isolated and individual act, and said they had arrested the killer. There were no immediate claims of responsibility from militant groups like the Islamic State that might suggest the attack, which killed three intelligence officers and two other employees at the office, had had broader organizational support.

Local news reports said the suspect might have been detained at the intelligence building sometime before the shooting  suggesting revenge as a possible motive.

The secrecy order, which prevented the publication of any news on the assault, including on social media, showed that the attack had struck a nerve in Jordan  momentarily denting official boasts of successes in thwarting militant attacks and, more generally, in protecting the country from the kind of violence seen in nearby Syria and Iraq.
Based on an idea by the mystery novelist and Nordic noir stalwart Jo Nesbo, Occupied is a high-concept, high-stakes story. A new prime minister with an environmentalist agenda announces that Norway will shut down its oil and gas industry in the face of global warming. The rest of Europe, afraid of the economic effects, forces him to accept a peaceful Russian occupation of his country thats initially disguised as temporary assistance with oil production.

The series plays out as a thought experiment  what will the Norwegians do as they gradually come to terms with their loss of sovereignty? While Berg (Henrik Mestad), the idealistic but pragmatic prime minister, tries to keep the situation from spiraling into outright war, we see the action through the eyes of various smaller players, including one of Bergs bodyguards (Eldar Skar) and a left-wing journalist (Vegar Hoel). In wry Scandinavian fashion, both of those men have trouble convincing their wives that world-shaking events are taking place, and are ordered to pick up children and wash dishes as scheduled.

Occupied goes for big dramatic strokes  assassinations, gun battles on oil platforms, escapes into the safety of the United States Embassy (where the Americans arent very helpful). Not all of its ideas pay off, but enough do to make it at least mildly addictive.

The Bureau, while a quieter and subtler show, is no less intense. It recalls the paranoid American film thrillers of the 70s (Three Days of the Condor, The Parallax View) but the obvious referent is Homeland  its that shows world-weary Gallic analogue.

The film star Mathieu Kassovitz (Amelie) plays Malotru, a French spy whos brought in from the cold after serving six years undercover in Damascus. We see his adjustment to life in the office, handling agents the way he used to be handled, and to life back in Paris, where hes reunited with his understandably wary daughter. When he explains the nature of undercover work to her  befriending people, gathering information  she replies, Thats why you left for six years, to make acquaintances. She would almost prefer that he had been killing people, which would better fit her image of a spy.
A jury in Manhattan found in 2010 that Citigroup was not liable in the matter, but that verdict was later thrown out by an appeals court.

The latest trial began on Tuesday before a judge in London and is expected to last into July. Mr. Hands, who will continue his testimony on Thursday, is the first witness to testify in the case.

Citigroup has said that it believes that Terra Firmas lawsuit is without merit and that it did not make any dishonest statements to Mr. Hands or Terra Firma throughout the EMI auction.

Terra Firma is seeking 1.5 billion in damages, reflecting its full investment, as well as lost profits and management fees it claims it would have earned had it not invested in EMI in the first place. Citigroup provided 2.5 billion in financing for the transaction.

As part of the lawsuit, Mr. Hands said he was told by David Wormsley, Citigroups head of investment banking in Britain and a longtime banker to Mr. Hands, that Cerberus Capital Management was prepared to bid 262 pence a share for EMI and that Terra Firma would need to make a higher bid than that to win the auction. Terra Firma ultimately was the only bidder for EMI in May 2007.

Terra Firma also claims that two other former Citigroup executives made additional misrepresentations to Mr. Hands about the banks view on the financial health of EMI to encourage him to complete the deal after winning the auction. Terra Firma injected 205 million in additional equity into the company after discussing financing with Citigroup, Mr. Hands said.

On Wednesday, Mr. Howard pressed Mr. Hands on why his conversations with Mr. Wormsley  which Mr. Hands said were a driving force behind the deal discussions  were not documented in the minutes of meetings by Terra Firmas investment committee or the boards of its general partners.
It is not every day that two prominent lawyers are brought before a federal grand jury and directed to provide documents and testimony about conversations they had with a wealthy client.

But that is what happened with two partners at Williams & Connolly, the prestigious Washington law firm, who are representing Morris E. Zukerman, a former Morgan Stanley banker and oil investor. Last month, Mr. Zukerman was accused of failing to pay $45 million in income and sales taxes on works of art and profits from the sale of an oil company.

A series of court filings in Mr. Zukermans pending criminal case in Federal District Court in Manhattan shines a light on the often-unseen role lawyers can play in nonpublic tax investigations by the Internal Revenue Service and federal prosecutors. In the filings, federal prosecutors in Manhattan raised the prospect of potential conflict of interest for the two lawyers, who are trying to negotiate a plea deal for Mr. Zukerman.

Typically, lawyers cannot be compelled to testify or produce evidence against a client in a grand jury investigation. But in rare cases, judges can require it, if there is evidence that clients communication with their lawyers was done purposely to further a crime or a fraud. In the law, it is known as the crime-fraud exception to the attorney-client privilege.
TOKYO  Osamu Suzuki, the chairman of the Suzuki Motor Corporation, plans to give up day-to-day control of the automaker he has led for most of the last four decades, in response to a scandal over improper fuel economy tests on cars that the company sells in Japan.

The move is the latest management reshuffle resulting from a wave of testing scandals in the auto industry.

Suzuki Motor said on Wednesday that Mr. Suzuki, 86, would give up his position as chief executive but retain the title of chairman. It said the move was intended to make management responsibility clear over the testing problem, which it revealed last month.

The company did not say who would replace Mr. Suzuki as chief executive, but his son, Toshihiro, is widely seen as a leading candidate. Toshihiro Suzuki became chief operating officer and executive vice president last year. The company will need to name its new chief executive before its annual shareholder meeting set for June 29, when Osamu Suzukis resignation from the role is scheduled to take effect.
Even with tech backing, many of these ventures initially faced hurdles, like raising money or finding the best way to publicize community outreach.

Kenneth Watkins, chief strategy officer at Blue1647, said he noticed that the Hispanic girls shone the most at the groups internship accelerator programs, but there werent enough organizations catering to their specific needs, like bilingual skills. So in 2014, he started Latina Girls Code, which also offers training in 3-D printing and creating wearable tech. The program has only trained 83 Latinas, most of whom are third-generation, in HTML, CSS, Javascript and other programming languages.

But working with overlooked communities comes with unexpected challenges. For example, Mr. Watkins noticed that Chicago workshop locations discouraged some students and their families from participating because some feared being targeted by immigration officials or the police while traveling to the city.

We now have to do an Aurora thing and a Joliet thing  we have to do two different events, because they just cant travel but so far, he said.

To expand, the founders of such ventures realize that collaborating with investors and tech companies like Microsoft, Apple and Google brings in more resources for their programs.

Doing so takes networking in tech circles and reaching out to companies who aim to diversify their staff and directly asking for their support, Mr. Watkins said. For him, it meant going to meet-ups and emphasizing to tech giants that supporting his organization could help close the diversity gap.
It all sounds logical enough. Except it has never worked before.

One of the perennial breast-beating questions in fashion  along with why drop-crotch pants keep making a comeback even though everyone hates them  is why no conglomerate has arisen to rival the French behemoths Moet Hennessey Louis Vuitton (owner of Vuitton, Givenchy, Celine, Pucci and Fendi, among others) and Kering (Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Stella McCartney, etc.), or the Swiss watch and jewelry giant Richemont (Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Vacheron Constantin, and so on  and a few clothing names like Chloe and Alaia).

Labelux  which was created in 2007 by the Reimann family, the German owners of JAB Holdings (which also owns Coty and a number of coffee brands)  once owned Jimmy Choo, Bally, Belstaff, Zagliani, Solange Azagury-Partridge and Derek Lam. But it has faltered, with the group selling the last two brands back to their founders, putting Zagliani on ice, and renaming the subsidiary JAB Luxury. There are other examples.

In Italy, Only the Brave is currently making a stab at it (Maison Margiela, Marni, Viktor & Rolf, Diesel), and Tods owns Hogan, Roger Vivier and Fay (and Tods owner, Diego Della Valle, owns Schiaparelli). But they have nothing like the scale of LVMH and Kering. Which may be why, when LVMH swooped in and bought up Bulgari in 2011 and Loro Piana in 2013, it caused agony and soul-searching in Rome and Milan along the lines of, Why cant we keep our own brands in our own hands?

This is also a question that comes up a lot in the United States, where name brands such as Marc Jacobs and Donna Karan are likewise owned by LVMH, and the only group even close to the European model is PVH, which owns Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger (and a lot of more mass-market names like Speedo and Izod).

Andrew Rosen, who founded Theory and later acquired Helmut Lang, was once credited by Anna Wintour with building an American equivalent of LVMH. But his company is now owned by Fast Retailing, the Japanese-based parent of Uniqlo, and while he has personal investments in Rag & Bone, Proenza Schouler and Alice and Olivia, they are minority stakes.

In 2000, to great fanfare, a group called Pegasus announced that it was going to be the American LVMH, and bought Miguel Adrover, Daryl K., Pamela Dennis, Judith Leiber and Angela Amiri, only to close or shed most of those lines by 2001, and rechristen itself the Leiber Group.
LONDON  In 1900, a Jewish Lithuanian immigrant named Meshe David Osinsky arrived in Britain alone at the age of 19. He set up a clothes-peddling business, adopted the name Montague Burton and then opened a tailoring store in Chesterfield, a northern industrial town.

By 1939, Burton had 595 retailers across the country offering made-to-measure suits for men. By the time World War II broke out, the company made a quarter of all British military uniforms and a third of demobilization suits (issued to soldiers returning home), making it the affordable brand it remains today.

Just in time for the mens wear season, his story is one of dozens finally being told in Moses, Mods and Mr. Fish, a small but powerful exhibition on display through June 19 at the Jewish Museum London, in the borough of Camden Town, which aims to document the role of Jewish designers in shaping the male wardrobe over the last century, including Moss Bros. and Marks & Spencer.

While the show is rich in photographs, video footage and advertising campaigns, examples of the suits themselves are relatively few.
The designer Jonathan Anderson splits his time between London, where his namesake brand is based, and Paris and Madrid, where Loewe, at which he is the creative director, is, though he was in New York last week, shooting a campaign with Steven Meisel. The constant bounce around the world didnt seem to faze him.

Work is easy if you have major teams around you, he said, three iPhones sandwiched in one hand (personal; J. W. Anderson; Loewe). You just let people do what theyre best at.

Mr. Anderson, 31, is a believer in division of labor, who prefers to think of himself as an editor rather than a designer. Its a peculiarly modern point of view (at least, admitting it is). Over the course of a spin through Printed Matter, the art book- and zine-shop where he likes to conduct New York interviews, the better to shop all the while, I called him a factory foreman and an impresario. He agreed with both.

Sometimes you think, God, how do you let someone just come into the brand? but its very fulfilling, he said. You become like a manager and manage the situation.
Openings and Events

On Thursday, the Anglo-Swedish watch brand Larsson & Jennings will open a New York store. Pop into the West Village space to check out an array of minimalist timepieces, including a new Norse style with angular casing ($420), displayed on a cantilevered watch bar running the length of the store, and enjoy a Fika coffee. At 335 Bleecker Street.

That same day, the downtown eyewear brand Illesteva will open an uptown location and will reissue the Ruth ($230), a very Breakfast at Tiffanys cat-eye, as a nod to classic north-of-14th-Street style. At 814 Lexington Avenue.

On Thursday from noon to 4, Bergdorf Goodman will celebrate the fine-jewelry label Sydney Evan on its 15th anniversary. The Brooklyn piercing salon the End Is Near will be in residence to help customers create their own ear party with mix-and-match studs. Call 212-872-2518 to schedule an appointment.
It was the last day of 2013, another overcast winters day in London at the tail end of a busy year, so I was a bit groggy when I checked my Twitter feed. And I thought it was a joke: A French friend, Pierre Haski, congratulated me on being named a chevalier of the Legion dhonneur. I asked Pierre if he was just having me on. He sent along a link to the Journal Officiel, the newspaper that prints French government laws and decrees, and I saw that it was no joke.

I had no idea I was even being considered, much less that the French Republic would stoop to give me such an honor. No one had said a word; no one had asked.

I have been writing about the country for decades, and had been The New York Timess Paris bureau chief until July 2013, writing about France the wonderful and France the appalling and France the real country of real people and real problems, before coming to England as the London bureau chief.

I was pleased, of course, and checked with my bosses at The Times to make sure there was no issue in accepting what had been already announced. And then, I dawdled a bit.
Sisters Are Doin It for Themselves, the 1985 pop hit, would be an appropriately militant theme song for the new edition of the Human Rights Watch Film Festival. This years focus is on womens rights around the globe, and more than half the 18 features in the festival, which opens Friday and is being presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the IFC Center, are directed by women, alone or with co-directors.

Both the opening- and closing-night selections are portraits of fiercely determined female activists standin on their own two feet/and ringin on their own bells (to quote the lyrics), risking their safety to advance womens rights in repressive political climates.

Nanfu Wangs opening film, is a portrait of Ye Haiyan, whose nickname lends the film its title, Hooligan Sparrow. She once threatened to work free at a Chinese brothel to draw attention to the oppression of thousands of women employed by the countrys sex industry. Too juicy for the Chinese news media to ignore, the story gave her a notoriety that made her an enemy of the state.
Mr. Turner was convicted of three counts of felony sexual assault for the attack, which took place in January 2015. This week the judge in the case, Aaron Persky of Superior Court in Santa Clara County, Calif., came under withering criticism from the public for the sentence he imposed: six months in jail and probation.

Ms. Rasmussens letter was part of a package of letters sent to the judge on behalf of Mr. Turner before his sentencing, a standard practice in which people seek to influence a sentencing decision by sharing their experiences of the defendant. His father also sent a letter that had an even more explosive effect when it was made public this week; he said that the episode had affected his sons appetite and that, in particular, he no longer enjoyed rib-eye steaks.

Following the firestorm her letter provoked, Ms. Rasmussen said that her words were being twisted and that she was being unfairly stigmatized. This appeal has now provided an opportunity for people to misconstrue my ideas into a distortion that suggests I sympathize with sex offenses and those who commit them or that I blame the victim involved, she said in a statement.

Ms. Rasmussen also believed that the letter to the judge was private. But a spokesman for the court said she was wrong  such letters, like most documents entered into the court, are a matter of public record.

Within hours of Ms. Rasmussens letter being made public by New York magazine, Good English was removed from a roster of Brooklyn venues where they were scheduled to perform in the coming days, including Rock Shop in Gowanus, Industry City Distillery in Greenwood, Gold Sounds in Bushwick, and Bar Matchless in Greenpoint.

We dont want to be affiliated with anyone thats going to try to victim-blame or even just downplay rape, said Larry Hyland, an owner of Bar Matchless.
For a few minutes, I felt like I was in the 60s, said Michael S. Hiller, a lawyer representing opponents of the project. It was cathartic.

He was retained by the Central Park West Neighbors Association, a group led by Susan Simon, a designer.

We were up against tremendous odds  David versus Goliath, Ms. Simon said. We wondered if this was not just a pro forma exercise. But we believed that we had to fight for what we understood to be right. In the end, we felt the B.S.A. commissioners were very concerned about this project, and made the right call.

The commissioners rejected arguments by the developer, Joseph Brunner, that the waivers he sought from zoning rules and apartment-building laws were the minimum necessary to earn a reasonable return. They covered such issues as the distance between the windows and the lot line, and the amount of light and air reaching the apartments. The project had been approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Mr. Brunner bought the building, at Central Park West and West 96th Street, from Irene Shapiro for $42 million. She purchased it in 2014 for $26 million from the Crenshaw Christian Center East, which bought it 10 years earlier from the First Church. The building, designed by Carrere & Hastings, was completed in 1903.
After the meeting at the hotel, according to prosecutors, Mr. Rechnitz went to Platinum promising to arrange a deal with the union to become a major investor. The catch, he said, was that Mr. Seabrook would have to be compensated. Mr. Huberfeld agreed to the arrangement and was willing to pay Mr. Seabrook 10 percent of all profits that the hedge fund made on the unions investment.

Mr. Seabrook, whose salary is $300,000 a year with his union stipend, had one overarching concern, according to the complaint: how big his cut would be.

Mr. Huberfeld told him it could be as much as $150,000 a year.

In return, Mr. Seabrook would direct money intended to cover correction officers pensions into a high-risk fund. Up to that point the union had maintained a traditional investment portfolio made up of conventional stocks and bond funds, government obligations and a real estate trust fund.

The unions lawyers reviewed the proposal and pointed out that the union had never invested in a hedge fund before, nor had any other New York City retirement fund that they were aware of been involved in such a risky venture. Even so, they did not stand in the way of the deal.

The annuity fund, however, is not averse to being a trendsetter, the lawyers wrote to Platinum in February 2014.

There were other red flags particular to Platinum. Mr. Huberfeld had been convicted of fraud in 1993 for arranging for another person to take a brokerage licensing exam on his behalf. He was fined $5,000 and sentenced to two years of probation. In a separate case, in 1998, he and a partner paid $4.6 million to settle a civil action brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission that alleged bank fraud.
Walter Curley, a venture capitalist who was the American ambassador to Ireland and France and New York Citys official greeter under two mayors, died on June 2 in Manhattan. He was 93.

The cause was a head injury he sustained in a fall, his son, Patrick, said.

Mr. Curley, who was prominent in Republican fund-raising circles, especially for the presidential campaign of George Bush, also wrote four books, served on numerous boards and was a trustee of the New York Public Library.

From 1960 to 1974, Mr. Curley was a partner in J. H. Whitney & Company, the venture capital investment firm that, he once recalled, helped introduce Minute Maid frozen orange juice, with a plug on the radio from John Hay Whitneys friend Bing Crosby, who had invested in the company.

Walter Joseph Patrick Curley Jr. was born in Pittsburgh on Sept. 17, 1922. His father owned a railroad tank car company. His mother was the former Marguerite Cowan.
To the Editor:

Re Clinton Claims the Democratic Nomination (front page, June 8):

I, a now retired Bernie backer, am all in for Hillary. She gave a very gracious and deeply emotional speech embracing compassion and tolerance so essential to our culture and so obviously lacking in the candidacy of Donald Trump.

I have to believe that all women were moved by the historic step that Mrs. Clintons nomination represents and that she portrayed with such modesty. And Im glad that she chose to embrace her feminism rather than ignore it, as President Obama felt he had to do with race as the first African-American nominated for president.

We who supported Bernie Sanders must now join Mrs. Clinton to unify the Democratic Party and then the nation to keep it from the toxic divisiveness of Trumpism.

PAUL WORTMAN

Setauket, N.Y.

To the Editor:

Surprisingly, with the realization that its finally over for Bernie Sanders, the anger and frustration  at the media, at the establishment, at the Democratic National Committee, at the Clintons (all the regular gripes we Sanders fans have voiced for the last year)  depart quickly.
PARIS  Last month, Emmanuel Macron, a onetime investment banker who is now the Socialist governments young minister of the economy, visited Lunel, a small town in southern France. He was taken to task in the street for the loi travail, the labor law  recently pushed through by his government  that he was in Lunel to promote. A trade unionist wearing a T-shirt challenged him: You, youve got lots of cash, you buy yourself nice suits. Without missing a beat, Mr. Macron responded, The best way to afford a nice suit is to work.

A video of the interaction has been practically running on a loop on YouTube ever since. To most people in France, this exchange says it all about the gap between Mr. Macron and the working classes. In his eyes, if you dont have a suit, its because you dont work.

In France these days, not only is it getting harder and harder to find a job, but even those people who have one are unlikely to be able to afford a nice suit. Work pays less and less, except for the elites represented by Mr. Macron. As in the United States, income inequality in France is growing.

The new labor law aims to make employment in France more flexible. Its main provision follows a single guiding idea: to facilitate companies ability to fire people, which, proponents of the law promise, will make the labor market more fluid and in the long run create more jobs. Unions have responded with major strikes at oil refineries, railroads and nuclear power plants, shaking the foundations of power. A sympathetic youth-led movement, Nuit Debout (Up All Night), has also sprung up  albeit disorganized and idealistic  calling into question the triumph of finance capitalism.
Scientists digging in the Liang Bua cave on the Indonesian island of Flores years ago found a tiny humanlike skull, then a pelvis, jaw and other bones, all between 60,000 and 100,000 years old.

The fossils, the scientists concluded, belonged to individuals who stood just three feet tall  an unknown species, related to modern humans, that they called Homo floresiensis or, more casually, the hobbits.

On Wednesday, researchers reported that they had discovered still older remains on the island, including teeth, a piece of a jaw and 149 stone tools dating back 700,000 years. The finding suggests that the ancestors of the hobbits arrived on Flores about a million years ago, the scientists said, and evolved into their own distinct branch of the hominin tree.

But without other parts of a skeleton, such as the skull, hands or feet, they cant be sure whether the newly discovered fossils also belong to Homo floresiensis or instead to some other ancient relative of humans (known generally as hominins).
Gene drives overcome this by ensuring that a particular gene is transmitted to all of an individuals offspring, rather than the usual half, even if that makes them less fit. The phenomenon has long been known to exist in nature, and Crispr provides an effective way to harness it. By encoding the Crispr editing system itself into an organisms DNA, scientists can cause a desired edit to reoccur in each generation, driving the trait through the wild population.

The science has attracted intense interest from governments, nonprofit organizations and research institutes eager to explore its possibilities for public health, agriculture and environmental conservation, and the report seems likely to open the door to more funding for such efforts.

At the same time, it is uncertain how the technology will be regulated. Existing laws, the report noted, are aimed at containing genetically engineered organisms rather than managing those whose purpose is precisely to spread swiftly. The report pointed out the difficulty in predicting what might happen if an organism carrying a gene drive was deliberately or accidentally released, saying it raises many ethical questions and presents a challenge for existing governance paradigms.

Coming up with an international regulatory framework is especially crucial, members of the committee said, given that gene drives will not recognize national or political boundaries. For now, the United States Food and Drug Administration has authority over animals that have been engineered with foreign DNA under a rule that regards them as a type of drug. But the report suggests that other agencies, like the Fish and Wildlife Service or the Bureau of Land Management, might be seen to have a stake in the ecological concerns at the heart of gene drive experiments.
SAN FRANCISCO  Tay is a chatbot  software designed to converse with people like a human  that Microsoft created and put on Twitter to learn about people.

Did it ever.

Hitler was right is one of the few printable posts Tay was spouting within a day on Twitter. Its earlier optimistic declaration that humans are super cool had, after a racist, anti-Semitic, antifeminist, conspiracy-minded spewing of hate, devolved to I just hate everybody.

One could hardly blame it, though not everybody was at fault. Instead, Tay was exposed to a concerted effort by a small number of people who decided to turn Tay into a hatebot by overloading its learning mechanism with negative words and phrases.

In other words, Tay got trolled.

Trolling can refer to a range of online troublemaking, including posting provocative comments and purposely marring others online experience, and it can include attacks on people as much as on software. The practice of ruining things for others, originally known as griefing in the online gaming world, has become a sadly abundant element of internet life.
Imzy tries to combat some of those issues through the sites architecture. When someone signs up, they are directed to pick a few specific communities they want to join. Thats different from Reddits front page, which displays a smattering of different popular subforums to new users.

The idea, Mr. McComas said, is that the core, devoted members of a group are often not the ones who make a community toxic, but rather the passers-by who may stumble upon a new community and leave disparaging remarks.

Imzy users are also allowed to select only one username in each community they join, to keep trolls from creating multiple identities with which they can harass others. Individual moderators self-govern their communities, based on rules of their own making, giving each community the flexibility to set its own terms about what is and is not permissible. Other conventions, like chatting in threads and posting images, are much the same as predecessor sites.

Were building this way because we want people to find and join communities that they have a real connection to, and these are really our first measures to address the problems in the way of getting there, Mr. McComas said.

He is also expanding Imzy slowly  people need an invitation to participate, and users can invite only a handful of others once they have joined. Imzy has partnered with other culture groups and celebrities, including the Girls creator Lena Dunham, to bring their own internet fan bases to the platform.

Everyone becomes their Mr. Hyde selves on the internet, said Shawn Kittelsen, creative director of Feral Audio, a podcast network that is working closely with Imzy to start an online community for its listeners. The bottom line is, do you have a system to help manage the bad eggs so that they dont ruin the experience for everyone else?

Imzy has a hard road ahead before reaching the mainstream. The site hosts 15,000 users, and 20,000 more are on the waiting list, a paltry number compared with the hundreds of millions of users who visit Reddit and other competing sites.
Jill and Ollie are as perky as contestants on a big-bucks game show, the kind where eager eyes and electrified smiles are mandatory. This charming young British couple has been chosen by the gods  or by a government council, to be precise  to participate in a wonderful new program that bears the aspirational rubric of Social Regeneration Through the Creation of Dream Homes.

Yes, the house of their dreams will be theirs if they simply do what comes naturally. Of course they may not feel that whats required of them is anything like natural behavior. But then these dewy newlyweds, who have been living in a squalid council estate known as the crime capital of the universe, dont know human nature as well as Philip Ridley does.

Played with manic (and tireless) verve by Scarlett Alice Johnson and Sean Michael Verey, Jill and Ollie are the central characters in Mr. Ridleys Radiant Vermin, which opened on Tuesday night as part of the Brits Off Broadway Festival at 59E59 Theaters. Anyone acquainted with Mr. Ridleys plays, which include the apocalyptic shocker Mercury Fur, understands that bad things happen to good people in his world.

Or lets just say that bad things happen, period. The question of individual goodness, and whether it exists, is moot for Mr. Ridley, though Jill and Ollie would certainly describe themselves as possessing it. That remains true even after they commit acts in the name of upward mobility that would make another ambitious couple, Shakespeares Macbeth and his lady, recoil in horror.
Brock Turner, the former Stanford University student convicted of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman behind a Dumpster on campus, described his actions as the product of a culture of drinking, peer pressure and sexual promiscuity, according to his courtroom statement.

In a letter he submitted before being sentenced to six months in jail by Judge Aaron Persky of the Santa Clara County Superior Court, obtained by The New York Times, Mr. Turner said: I am the sole proprietor of what happened on the night that changed these peoples lives forever. I would give anything to change what happened.
One person was killed and three others were injured in a shooting near a high school in the Dorchester neighborhood on Wednesday afternoon, the Boston Police Department said.

The Boston police commissioner, William Evans, said that the person who was killed was a 17-year-old student at Jeremiah E. Burke High School.

Myeshia Henderson, a spokeswoman for the department, said that two other people, both in their late teens, had suffered injuries that were not life-threatening. A woman in her 60s was treated for a graze wound at the scene, Ms. Henderson said.

At an afternoon news conference, Commissioner Evans said the police were canvassing the neighborhood door to door in a search for the suspect or suspects.
JENNIFER MEDINA: I think its fair to say: Downright terrible.

For the first time in a century, no Republican will be on the ballot for the states Senate seat. No Republican even approached 10 percent of the total vote, and the top three combined received less than a million votes.

Bullet Train to Nowhere : Construction of the California high-speed rail system, Americas most ambitious infrastructure project, Construction of the California high-speed rail system, Americas most ambitious infrastructure project, has become a multi-billion-dollar nightmare

A Piece of Black History Destroyed: Lincoln Heights  a historically Black community in a predominantly white, rural county in Northern California  endured for decades. Lincoln Heights  a historically Black community in a predominantly white, rural county in Northern California  endured for decades. Then came the Mill fire

Warehouse Moratorium: As warehouse construction balloons nationwide, residents in communities both rural and urban have pushed back. In Californias Inland Empire, As warehouse construction balloons nationwide, residents in communities both rural and urban have pushed back. In Californias Inland Empire, the anger has turned to widespread action

Now, part of the problem for the Republicans was a very crowded ballot  there were more than 34 candidates, a dozen of them Republicans  so whatever support they might have had was divvied up into tiny slices. But judging by last nights results, even if the party had unified around one candidate, they would have had a hard time making the ballot. This is probably not what Duf Sundheim, a former state party chairman who won 8 percent of the vote last night, had in mind when he backed Californias move to an open primary system in 2010.

NAGOURNEY: No doubt about that. If Im reading our results correctly, Loretta Sanchez, the Democrat who came in second behind Kamala Harris, got 18.3 percent of the vote  which is more than the three Republicans behind her got combined. Oof. Last time I checked, Republicans made up 24 percent of the electorate; Democrats made up 44 percent. The state party chairman, Jim Brulte, told me that he expected that disparity to get worse this year because Democrats, unlike Republicans, have a contested primary. At this rate, people who dont register with either party may someday outnumber Republicans.

A lot of people here say that the state partys downfall should be a cautionary lesson for national Republicans: that it all began when Republican leaders, including Gov. Pete Wilson, championed Proposition 187, a voter initiative in 1994 that would have cut off benefits for illegal immigrants. The initiative, which passed, was thrown out in court, but the damage was done. Does that make sense to you? How much of a big deal do you think Latino voters are here, and how much trouble is the Republican Party in with that part of the electorate?

MEDINA: Almost every Republican and Democrat I talk to in the state points to that anti-immigrant initiative as the beginning of the end for Republicans here. Latinos are nearing 40 percent of the total population in California and by all accounts are registering in record numbers, no doubt largely driven by Mr. Trumps anti-immigrant rhetoric. Theres really a sense of Republicans dont want us among many immigrants, not just Latinos. Republican leaders here know that and have been making serious efforts to attract Latino and Asian moderates to run in local races, with some success. But they know that the fall election is going to make that job much, much harder, and it has to have them nervous about the potential for their further demise here.
A 23-year-old man who walked off a boardwalk and slipped and fell into a hot spring at Yellowstone National Park has died, rangers said on Wednesday.

The man, Colin Nathaniel Scott, of Portland, Ore., had walked about 225 yards away from established trails near Porkchop Geyser on Tuesday. His sister saw him slip and fall into Norris Geyser Basin, a thermal feature at the park in Wyoming, and reported the accident, Yellowstone officials said in a statement.

Charissa Reid, a spokeswoman for Yellowstone, said in an email that it was determined that there were no remains to recover, and that the search for Mr. Scotts body was suspended late Wednesday afternoon.

The episode is the latest example of visitors who have interacted with the park features or animals to sometimes disastrous results. In May, The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reported that a criminal complaint had been issued after three Canadian men strayed from trails and filmed themselves approaching the Grand Prismatic Spring. The men, who work for a company that films adventure videos, later apologized on Facebook and said they would donate $5,000 to the park.
Revolutions rarely give way to gracious expressions of defeat.

And so, despite the crushing California results that rolled in for him on Tuesday night, despite the insurmountable delegate math and the growing pleas that he end his quest for the White House, Senator Bernie Sanders took to the stage in Santa Monica and basked, bragged and vowed to fight on.

In a speech of striking stubbornness, he ignored the history-making achievement of his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, who became the first woman in American history to clinch the presidential nomination of a major political party.

Mr. Sanders waited until 15 minutes into his speech to utter Mrs. Clintons name. He referred, almost in passing, to a telephone conversation in which he had congratulated her on her victories. At that, the crowd of more than 3,000 inside an aging airport hangar booed loudly. Mr. Sanders did little to discourage them.

Tuesday was, undeniably, Mrs. Clintons night, a milestone for women in politics and civic life 95 years after the 19th Amendment guaranteed their right to vote.
Democratic and Republican leaders on Wednesday renewed their fitful efforts to impose greater order on a freewheeling presidential race and to bring to heel a pair of political renegades, Senator Bernie Sanders and Donald J. Trump, whose upstart campaigns have roiled the political establishment.

For Democrats impatient to rally around Hillary Clinton as their presumptive nominee, Mr. Sanders has lingered as an obstacle so stubborn and frustrating that only President Obamas intervention might dislodge him soon.

Mr. Obama is expected to meet with Mr. Sanders in Washington on Thursday and increase the pressure on the irascible Vermonter to defer to Mrs. Clinton. Mr. Obama, White House aides said, intends to nudge Mr. Sanders toward embracing her, stressing that Mr. Sanders can further his policy agenda while unifying the party to defeat Mr. Trump in November.

The White House strategy will culminate with the presidents formal endorsement of Mrs. Clinton in the coming days, followed by an appearance with her on the campaign trail soon after.
A day after claiming her partys nomination for president, an exhilarated Hillary Clinton said she was still processing the emotions of the moment on Wednesday as she heard from people around the globe both excited about her success and deeply anxious about her Republican rival, Donald J. Trump.

In a brief but at times introspective interview, Mrs. Clinton said that although other countries have been led by women, such a milestone would be different were it to happen in the United States. She called the demands of the American political system more personally grueling and difficult.

I really believe our system is probably the most challenging in the world, Mrs. Clinton said. If youre a prime minister, youre chosen by your peers, she continued. If youre president, you run statewide, but its usually with the backing of a party and you dont have to raise the money to run.

But, she added, Women candidates all face the same scrutiny, and questions about ourselves, so there are similarities.
President Obama will use an Oval Office meeting with Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont on Thursday morning to delicately nudge the losing Democratic presidential hopeful toward a full embrace of Hillary Clintons candidacy and a unified party effort to defeat Donald J. Trump in the fall, according to administration aides.

The conversation, the fifth that Mr. Obama will have had with Mr. Sanders since the primaries began, is to be part of a choreographed series of moves Mr. Obama set in motion this week that are designed to quickly bridge the divide between the two Democratic presidential candidates laid bare in the last few months. The strategy will culminate with the presidents formal endorsement of Mrs. Clinton in the coming days, followed by an appearance with her on the campaign trail soon after.

Mr. Obamas message is intended to be unmistakable: The time has come for Mr. Sanders to harness his formidable constituency in support of his onetime rival even as he continues to press for the progressive policies that animated his base. But it is also clear to the White House that Mr. Obama must broker this particular intraparty peace treaty with patience and respect, or risk angering Mr. Sanders and his millions of supporters.

To that end, the president will delay any endorsement of Mrs. Clinton until after the meeting with Mr. Sanders. And a joint appearance is unlikely until after the Democratic primary in the District of Columbia on Tuesday. Mr. Obama will not pressure Mr. Sanders to make a concession before that contest, the final one in the long primary season, advisers said.
BALTIMORE  After two prosecutions without a conviction since the fatal arrest of Freddie Gray, opening arguments are set to begin Thursday in the trial of Caesar R. Goodson Jr., the only officer charged with murder in connection with the death and the driver of the police wagon in which Mr. Gray suffered the spinal injury that killed him.

The combination of the two unsuccessful prosecutions and the murder charge has raised the stakes substantially in the trial of the third of six officers charged in the death of Mr. Gray, 25, a black man whose death spurred riots, looting and arson.

These are the most serious charges, said Warren S. Alperstein, a defense lawyer here who has represented police officers and has been closely following the cases but is not directly involved in them. This is, arguably, the make-or-break case for the state. It would be a devastating blow if the state was unable to secure a conviction.

The trial comes as prosecutors aim to shift the narrative away from the mistrial of one officer involved in the case and, just over two weeks ago, another ones acquittal on all charges.
OTTAWA  A large section of a major street in downtown Ottawa collapsed into a sinkhole on Wednesday, bursting water and gas lines and swallowing a minivan.

Officials said that there was no immediate indication of any injuries or deaths. Still, a major shopping center, hotel, convention center, retail stores and offices near the site were evacuated.

The sinkhole began to form just east of Canadas Parliament buildings around 10:30 a.m. and eventually grew to the full width of Rideau Street. A tunnel for a new rail transit system is being constructed under the street, but Jim Watson, the citys mayor, told reporters on Wednesday that it was not clear whether the sinkhole was connected to the project.

Much of Ottawa is built on Leda clay, also known as quick clay, a type of soil that can become unstable and is prone to sudden collapse. Leda clay was blamed for a sinkhole that swallowed a house northeast of Montreal six years ago, killing four people.
Costly Slip-Ups

The other militant group, the reorganized Jamaatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh, works independently of Ansar al-Islam and almost exclusively in northern Bangladesh, the chief investigator said. But the group is less professional than Ansar al-Islam, he said, making mistakes that are costing it public support.

The group has trained 50 to 100 madrasa students as killers, he said, organizing them into cells of four or five. But through shoddy research, many of the victims have turned out to be popular local figures. Among them: a homeopathic doctor who used to give free treatment to villagers, and an English professor at Rajshahi University who was not known to have written critically of Islam.

When detained militants learned that a 66-year-old Japanese man they had slaughtered had converted to Islam in 2015, they told investigators they were upset over their mistake.

With all the slip-ups, the communities turned against them. With the publics support, Mr. Islam said, the police quickly rounded up the suspected hit men and several of their handlers in most of the Jamaatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh killings, and were in pursuit of the senior leadership.

Many in Bangladesh continue to live in terror. Twenty-five associates of one victim, a gay rights activist, have taken refuge in safe houses provided by diplomatic missions. Several dozen bloggers have fled the country. Those who remain have grown fatalistic.

On this journey, well lose our lives, Arif Jebtik, 39, one of the leaders of the Shahbag movement, said in an interview in his Dhaka apartment, which he rarely leaves. He has quit his job, closed his blog and stopped dropping his children off at school.

This is the price we have to pay to history, he said.
WASHINGTON  Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India condemned global terrorism and said during a lengthy address to Congress on Wednesday that growing economic ties benefit both his country and the United States.

The innovation strength of our two countries comes together in California, said Mr. Modi, who visited California last year. Here, the innovative genius of America and Indias intellectual creativity are working to shape new industries of the future.

Mr. Modi made clear that he intended the speech to hail a new moment in relations between the United States and India when he told Congress at the outset that he had started his visit to Washington with a trip to Arlington National Cemetery. He called it the final resting place of many brave soldiers of this great land.

I honored their courage and sacrifice for the ideals of freedom and democracy, Mr. Modi added.

Indian leaders have long been skeptical of American military power and have often been deeply critical of the Vietnam War and other military interventions by the United States. Celebrating American war dead, though, was a telling signal of what both sides say is a very different relationship between the two countries.
BEIJING  The American military has accused a Chinese fighter jet of maneuvering too fast and too close to a United States Air Force RC-135 reconnaissance plane as it flew in international airspace over the East China Sea this week.

The United States Pacific Command said in a statement that one of two Chinese jets involved in an intercept operation on Tuesday had an unsafe excessive rate of closure on the RC-135 aircraft.

This seems to be a case of improper airmanship, as no other provocative or unsafe maneuvers occurred, the Pacific Command said.

Image Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr., the head of the United States Pacific Command. Credit... Logan Mock-Bunting for The New York Times

The episode was the second report of an unsafe intercept recently by a Chinese jet tracking an American spy plane in the waters around China.
NHAN TRACH, Vietnam  Since a devastating fish kill blighted the waters along 120 miles of coastline in central Vietnam, hundreds of people are believed to have fallen ill from eating poisoned fish.

Here in the fishing village of Nhan Trach, the squid that sustain the local economy have virtually disappeared. And a fishing ban has left hundreds of traps sitting unused on the beach and dozens of small fishing boats idle.

We are so angry, said Pham Thi Phi, 65, who operates a fishing boat in Nhan Trach with her husband and three grown sons. If we knew who put the poison in the ocean, we would like to kill them. We really need to have an answer from the government on whether the ocean is totally clean and the fish are safe to eat.

While the immediate cause appears to have been toxic waste from a nearby steel mill, fury over the episode has exploded into a national issue, posing the biggest challenge to the authoritarian government since a spate of anti-Chinese riots in 2014. Protesters demanding government action have marched in major cities and coastal communities over the past six weeks, escalating what had been a regional environmental dispute into a test of government accountability.
SYDNEY, Australia  The police opened fire on student protesters in Papua New Guineas capital, Port Moresby, on Wednesday, a member of the countrys Parliament said. Officials said that more than 20 people were wounded but that no one was killed.

About 2,000 students from the University of Papua New Guinea had gathered to make their way to Parliament to demand that Prime Minister Peter ONeill resign, said the lawmaker, Gary Juffa. Mr. ONeill has been embroiled in a long-running corruption scandal, and for weeks thousands of university students have boycotted classes and demanded his resignation.

Paramilitary police and squad police told the students they needed to turn back because they did not have permission to hold the protest, said Mr. Juffa, a critic of the prime minister. Then they started firing.

A spokesman for the countrys police force, Dominic Kakas, said that 23 people had been hospitalized, at least five of them in critical condition.
VIENNA  The far-right Freedom Party of Austria filed a legal challenge on Wednesday over the results of the countrys presidential election, disputing the outcome of the May 22 runoff, in which the partys candidate, Norbert Hofer, was narrowly defeated.

Officials said there was no precedent for a challenge to the outcome of a presidential election in the history of modern Austria, a federal republic that was reconstituted in 1945 from the ashes of Nazi Germany, which annexed the country in 1938.

The challenge, submitted by the partys chairman to the Constitutional Court, injected an element of uncertainty into a debate that has already stirred questions over the strength of the far right in a nation with a fraught wartime past. Mr. Hofer led the first round of voting, on April 24, in which the countrys two mainstream parties were handed a humbling defeat.
The Italian authorities identified the man as Medhanie Yehdego Mered, 35, though the information could not be independently confirmed. Mr. Mered, they said, was seized in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, on May 24, and flown to Rome on Tuesday night.

Image Medhanie Yehdego Mered is taken into custody by Italian police after being extradited from Sudan, accused of smuggling migrants into Europe. Credit... Italian National Police

But after the arrest was reported on Wednesday, an Eritrean activist and journalist who hosts a weekly radio program in Stockholm, as well as an article in The Guardian, raised doubts about the identity of the man in custody.

In a telephone interview, the activist, Meron Estefanos, said she had been following the activities of Mr. Mered since 2010.

When I saw the news this morning that the most wanted smuggler had been extradited, I was happy, she said. But after video clips of the man in custody began circulating, she began receiving telephone calls  from refugees who said they had been smuggled by Mr. Mered, and people who said they were friends and relatives of the man who had been extradited. All said that the Italians had the wrong man.

I hope that the Italians admit that they have the wrong person and that they release the person immediately, Ms. Estefanos said. This is absurd.
MOSCOW  A Russian court ordered the release on Wednesday of a dissident performance artist who could have gone to prison for setting fire to the front door of Lubyanka, the headquarters of Russias principal intelligence agency.

A judge also reduced the fine that prosecutors had asked to impose on the artist, Pytor Pavlensky, who is known for needling the government of President Vladimir V. Putin with actions intended to provoke his arrest.

The ruling surprised human rights advocates, who have grown accustomed to the governments harsh treatment of dissidents. It suggested to some that the authorities were keen to avoid a repeat of the high-profile prosecution of Pussy Riot, the anti-government punk performance group, which made international media stars of some of the young women involved.

Mr. Pavlensky was ordered to pay a fine of about $7,800 and to compensate the security agency for the $7,500 cost of replacing the heavy oak door. That door leads to the heart of the Federal Security Service, or F.S.B., the main successor to the K.G.B. Prosecutors had asked for a fine of $23,400 for damaging an object of cultural heritage.
ARRIETA, Spain  Making his way down a row of pea plants, Iker Villasana Hernaez, a Basque farmer, leans down to feel each pod individually before deciding whether it is ready to pick.

If the peas inside feel slightly hard, best to leave it for one more day, he said. Its really all about the perfect timing.

Such harvesting is backbreaking work, particularly compared with the tractor-driven, industrial farming commonly used for peas. But the reward is that this pea, called the guisante lagrima, or tear pea, because of its small size and shape, has also become known as green caviar among Spains flourishing community of top chefs.

It is a vegetable so highly prized that, once it is shelled, its value reaches around 200 euros a kilogram, or roughly $100 a pound. That places it in the ranks of the worlds exquisitely priced edible plants and vegetables. (The hop shoot sells for as much as 1,000 a kilo.)
Its leader, Isaias Afwerki, an intellectual turned guerrilla fighter turned president, was once considered one of the smartest and most charismatic rebels in the world. During Eritreas war for independence from Ethiopia two decades ago, Mr. Isaias brought Christians and Muslims, nomads and farmers, and men and women together in the trenches; he even oversaw underground tampon factories for his female fighters.

These days, though, many Eritrean analysts question his leadership. Mr. Isaiass stubborn refusal to modify his repressive rule has put the country in this position, said Dan Connell, an American journalist who knows Mr. Isaias personally and has written several books on Eritrea.

Mr. Connell said he had been hearing stories of fear and repression for years. Denied a chance to express themselves at home, Eritreans continue to vote with their feet, which is as strong a confirmation of the commissions findings as any, he said Wednesday.

Mike Smith, the chairman of the United Nations panel, said that the report found that the abuses inflicted by the government were a major impetus for the exodus of Eritreans: More than 47,000 applied for asylum in Europe last year.

The three-member panel of inquiry urged the Security Council to recognize the human rights deprivations in Eritrea as a serious threat to international peace and security and to refer the allegations in the 94-page report to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. The panel also called for travel bans against those accused of the crimes and human rights abuses, and the freezing of their financial assets.
In the days before rapid sea or air travel, it could take months to travel to Mecca. The spiritual heart of Islam lay far from its great capitals in Istanbul, Delhi and Isfahan. The devout came from distant lands on foot, by camel and in horse-drawn carriages. Bedouin tribes routinely robbed these pilgrims, who were the primary source of revenue for this ancient desert town. Now, the ease of air travel and the rise of a global Muslim middle class have made the journey to Mecca far less arduous and far more common. Last year, three million came for the hajj, a pilgrimage in the last month of the Islamic lunar calendar that is considered obligatory for every Muslim who can afford it; five million more came for the umrah, a minor pilgrimage that can be made for much of the year. And millions of Saudi citizens routinely pass through Meccas sacred sites as tourists.

The Italian photographer Luca Locatelli, visiting Mecca this year during the umrah period, captured how radically the city has changed to accommodate this growing influx of pilgrims. Until the first half of the 20th century, this was a small city of spacious stone houses famed for their mashrabiyah, or latticed windows and balconies. Five hills known as the rim of Mecca encircled the Grand Mosque and the Kaaba, or House of God, located in the city center. Today, all a visitor would recognize from older images of Mecca are the Ottoman domes of the Grand Mosque, its minarets and the Kaaba. The ancient hills, the old stone homes and many of the sites linked to the life of the Prophet Muhammad have been obliterated by towering shopping malls, hotels and apartment blocks.
Several of the lighting fixtures are also original, while other details are salvage or of the period. The claw-foot tub upstairs, for example, was custom-made with whirlpool jets and painted with an image of the lighthouse. Nearly every room has broad views of the lake.

Common rooms include a family room with walls of glass, and living and dining rooms, both with fireplaces. The kitchen has been updated with a large reproduction gas stove. The rooms porcelain sink is original, returned from another property in town during renovations. The old lighthouse keepers bedroom is on the first floor. Three of the other bedrooms are upstairs, and part of suites with bathrooms updated in subway tile and marble. The fifth bedroom is in the finished basement.

A spiral staircase in the lighthouse winds up to a sitting room at the top of the lighthouse tower, with a panorama of the lake and surrounding countryside.

The carriage house is a two-story brick building with extensive exposed brick and wood inside. The lower level is open, while the upstairs is a loft with a pitched wood-paneled ceiling, porthole windows and skylights, as well as a sleeping nook.

OUTDOOR SPACE: The property is 1.1 acres, with 150 feet of frontage on the lake.

TAXES: $18,166 a year

CONTACT: Mike Franklin, Franklin Ruttan, (315) 876-2262; historiclighthouseforsale.com
Elizabeth and Nick Flint were apartment hunting in Brooklyn two years ago when a friend suggested they consider Jersey City instead. The couple, who were renting in Williamsburg, wanted to buy a place.

By the time we found something in Brooklyn, it was like 13 stops on the L, so we started to look at other places, Ms. Flint said. They soon realized that Jersey City had a vibrant downtown with an accessible waterfront. It was also a short commute to Manhattan.

The Flints focused on Jersey City Heights, at the citys northern end. We found this area of the Heights that was untapped, said Ms. Flint, 36, a yoga instructor. The sleepy enclave had a mix of one-, two- and three-family homes and large apartment buildings. While some blocks were handsome, others seemed rundown.

The couple, who now have a 3-year-old son and a newborn daughter, paid around $385,000 about a year and a half ago for a house with three bedrooms, two and a half baths and a small yard on Jefferson Avenue. Ms. Flint misses the energy of Williamsburg; where she lives now kind of reminds me of Greenpoint five years ago, she said, referring to the Brooklyn neighborhood.
It may not have ultimately marked the turning point hoped for, but the public handshake at the White House in 1993 between Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli prime minister, and Yasir Arafat, the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, was nonetheless a headline-making moment. Oslo, a new play by J. T. Rogers at Lincoln Center Theater, dramatizes the deal-making behind that historic encounter.

Before the two men met in Washington, secret negotiations took place in a castle in the woods outside Norways capital. Mr. Rogerss characters are a mixture of Israelis, Palestinians, Norwegians and Americans, all with complex aims and complicated histories. And the playwright has impeccable sources for his imagined history: He got the story from the two diplomats who set in motion the back-channel dealings that led to what became the Oslo peace accords. Bartlett Sher, who directed Mr. Rogerss excellent 2011 play Blood and Gifts, once again takes charge here. (Begins previews Thursday, June 16, at the Mitzi Newhouse Theater; 212-239-6200; lct.org.)
Equal pay principles big step forward for fair pay

7 June 2016NZEI Te Riu Roa says the pay equity principles recommended by the Joint Working Group on Pay Equity are a welcome and significant move forward in ensuring women are fairly paid for their work.National President Louise Green says it is great news for the thousands of underpaid workers in female-dominated occupations.We now have a framework and a set of principles that provide a constructive way forward. We strongly encourage the Government to endorse the principles and adopt them into the Equal Pay Act."NZEI Te Riu Roa lodged a claim on behalf of Ministry of Education support workers with the Employment Relations Authority last October following Kristine Bartletts win in the Supreme Court against aged care provider Terranova.Education support workers employed by the Ministry of Education earn an estimated $8 an hour less than a comparable male-dominated job and thats why we lodged the case with the court.We are aware that paying workers in female dominated occupations a fair wage will have resource implications but this is about us as a just society choosing fairness for all women by ensuring equal pay for work of equal value.Women across New Zealand will now be looking forward to seeing the Government adopt the principles and seeing quick progress on implementing pay equity."
The world has lost a great and a good man with the passing on Tuesday, June 7, of Dr. John H. Eicher, organic chemist, Manhattan Project scientist, mineralogist, historian, philosopher of science, and promoter of sharing the joy of knowledge with his fellow human beings. Eicher was the father of Astronomy Editor David Eicher and served as the original publisher of Deep Sky Monthly magazine, started by his son as a high school project. That magazine grew into Deep Sky magazine, and John Eicher was for many years an ardent promoter of Astronomy magazine, discussing many events and bits of news behind the scenes.Although he was by profession a chemist, John loved thinking and reading about astronomy, and frequently joked that he was a co-discoverer of the Pleiades star cluster, which he often found in the winter sky and loved to observe.He will be sadly missed in the communities of chemistry, astronomy, mineralogy, and Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, where he was a fixture. John was a real humanist who loved people and loved to share his enthusiasm with them. Even in his last days, John talked about the greatest service being learning about the world and universe around you all throughout life, and benefitting as many people as possible with wisdom and excitement. That certainly was the case with thousands of his students, with his friends and family, and with anyone who ever heard him speak.John had a profound effect on the history of Astronomy magazine.A biographical sketch of John follows. This will continue to be a very difficult time for his family and for many who knew him, even though John lived a very long and meaningful life.Goodbye, dad. Well look for you every time we spy the Pleiades. We love you.-----------------------------------------------------------------------John Harold Eicher was an organic chemist, philosopher of science, historian, and author. He was a Manhattan Project scientist who worked at Columbia University to develop the first atomic bomb, and taught chemistry at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, for 37 years. Eicher was an author of chemistry publications and, with his son David J. Eicher, coauthor of Civil War High Commands, a significant reference book published by Stanford University Press.In 2016, Eicher was elected by the State of Ohio to the class of 2016, Ohio Senior Citizens Hall of Fame, an honor that in the past has recognized such Ohioans as Walter Alston, Paul Brown, Phyllis Diller, Lillian Gish, John Glenn, Paul Newman, and Lowell Thomas. Years after his own retirement in 1989, he continued to teach in Miami Universitys Institute for Learning in Retirement program, and because of this, he was a teacher for 75 continuous years. (In 1941 he first taught, as an assistant, a mineralogy class at Purdue University.)The product of German, Swiss, and a small amount of Delaware Native American ancestry, Eicher was born in Dayton, Ohio, March 30, 1921. As a youth, he came to know such Daytonians as Orville Wright (18711948) and Charles Franklin Kettering (18761958). Eichers father, Harold Ralph Eicher (18921968) was a sales manager with such firms as the National Cash Register Co., the Davis Sewing Machine and Bicycle Co., the Duro Pump Co., the A. B. Farquhar Co., and the Master Electric Co. His mother, Myrtle Grace (nee Wetzel) Eicher (18941989) was a seamstress, public school teacher, artist, china painter, piano and organ teacher, and club organizer.Eicher attended Fairview Elementary School, where he was class president and honorary treasurer of the City of Dayton. He was an ardent collector of postage stamps, minerals, and books, and an amateur actor, starring as Jim Hawkins in Robert Louis Stevensons Treasure Island in 1935 at Camp Kern, Oregonia, Ohio. Eicher organized a chemical laboratory at his home in Dayton, and practiced chemistry and all aspects of photography with a Leica camera.During the summers he traveled with his parents to all 48 states, plus trips to Alaska, Canada, Mexico, Cuba, and Central America including Panama. He particularly enjoyed the western national parks, especially Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Rocky Mountain, Crater Lake, Mount Rainier, Glacier, Yosemite, Bryce, Mesa Verde, and the Grand Canyon. He loved hiking and exploring old mines, as a follow-up to his first western trip in 1926, when he visited Pikes Peak, Colorado. Eicher studied chemistry at Fairview High School, where he was the laboratory assistant. There, he placed first in the 1938 district scholarship and fourth in Ohio.At Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, he continued his chemistry studies, obtaining a B.S. degree in 1942. While an undergraduate, he prepared sulfamic acid, used in the preparation of various sulfa drugs at Johns Hopkins University; he collected scrap iron for the war effort; and he was chapter president of Alpha Phi Omega, a service fraternity. He also served as laboratory assistant in mineralogy for the Purdue School of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering.Moving to the Ohio State University in Columbus, Eicher helped in the preparation of aviation gasoline components such as triptane, a reference compound, which was sent to the Royal Air Force during the Battle of Britain. He joined the American Chemical Society in 1943, later serving as an assistant secretary and as a councilor.In mid-1943 Eicher joined the Manhattan Project at Columbia University in New York, working first with Willard Libby (19081980), Nobel Laureate in 1960; then with Harold C. Urey (18931981), chair of the chemistry department and 1934 Nobel Laureate; with John R. Dunning (19071975), dean of engineering; and with Leslie R. Groves (18961970), major general, commanding the Manhattan Engineer District. There Eicher worked on the synthesis of fluorocarbons used as lubricants, as plastics such as Teflon. He then worked on pilot plant tests for the enrichment of uranium-235. Finally, Eicher spent two years along with colleague Albert L. Myerson (19192004) constructing and operating a gas viscosimeter used to study uranium hexafluoride at various temperatures and pressures, the data from which were used in the production of uranium isotopes at the large gaseous diffusion plant at Oak Ridge, Tennessee.Returning to Purdue University in 1945 for graduate studies, Eicher taught organic technic and qualitative analysis for six years as an assistant instructor. He became a longtime chapter secretary for the Phi Lambda Upsilon national chemistry honorary, and a member of the research Society of the Sigma Xi. With colleague Alec Kelley (19232013), he founded a Unitarian fellowship that later became the Unitarian-Universalist Church of Lafayette, Indiana. Eicher then worked on the preparation of various nitro and oximino compounds to earn his Ph.D. in 1952. One of his dissertation advisors was Herbert C. Brown (19122004), 1979 Nobel Laureate. Eicher often visited with his friend Linus C. Pauling (19011994), who won two Nobel Prizes, one for chemistry in 1954 and the Peace Prize in 1962.Eicher joined the chemistry department at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, in 1952, and he subsequently taught chemistry there for 37 years. In 1953 he organized a student and faculty liberal religious club at Miami, which became a Unitarian Fellowship and later evolved into the Hopedale Unitarian-Universalist Community.On June 12, 1957, Eicher married Susan Ann Arne (19231983), a sociologist and legal secretary, in Sarasota, Florida, where the couples parents had retired. Their honeymoon was a month-long freighter cruise to Central and South America. They had two children, Nancy Grace Eicher (1959 ), a journalist and editor, and David John Eicher (1961 ), astronomer, historian, mineralogist, and editor of Astronomy magazine.Eicher and his family spent the summer of 1966 in Washington, D.C., where he was a member of the Institute for the Philosophy of Science and Mathematics, sponsored by the National Science Foundation at American University.Eicher and his son David made many trips to visit Civil War battlefields, mostly in the 1980s and 1990s, and together wrote Civil War High Commands (Stanford University Press, 2001). Eicher collaborated with his son on a number of other Civil War book projects as well.In 2008, Eicher, his son David, and his grandson Christopher (1992 ) studied World War II history during a long summer trip to France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland, and England.Although he retired from his professorship in 1989, and subsequently became an emeritus professor at Miami, Eicher never stopped teaching and learning. He was highly active with Miami Universitys Institute for Learning in Retirement, teaching more than 25 classes and taking more than 100 classes up until the year of his death.
Absinthe. The Green Fairy. Thats the stuff that makes people crazy, right? Didnt the French Impressionist painters guzzle it by the gallon and have wild visions?

These are the kinds of questions that challenge anybody who wants to market Europes most misunderstood alcoholic creation.

Absinthe is a spirit, about 70 percent alcohol, made from fennel, anise and the bitter leaves of Artemisia absinthium, also known as wormwood.

After it rocketed to popularity in mid-19th-century Paris, absinthe became demonized and finally outlawed in many countries based on the theory that it caused absinthism. Drinking it to excess led not only to alcoholism but epilepsy, dementia and rapid death, the critics of absinthe warned.

But that heavy legacy hasnt stopped Ted Breaux. Sometimes called the father of modern absinthe, Breaux helped break the stigma to make absinthe popular again in the U.S. after 95 years of obscurity.

Raised in New Orleans, Breaux remembers absinthe as a lurking ghost throughout his youth. Id seen the famous Old Absinthe House down on Bourbon Street, but other than that I never thought much about it. (Built in 1806 and converted to a saloon in 1815, the Vieux Carre hangout attracted every thirsty celebrity from Mark Twain to Frank Sinatra.)

Breaux started out as an environmental chemist. The discovery of rare old absinthe piqued his interest in the legend that it makes those who drink it insane.

In 1996 I came across not one but two bottles of vintage absinthe, and I drew samples from those and analyzed them. They were pre-ban. I was one of the few people alive that knew what real absinthe used to taste like.

His tests were a revelation. I was looking for something harmful, something that would explain the rumors about its bad effects. (Symptoms reportedly included hallucinations, facial tics, numbness and dementia.) There was nothing wrong with it. You could put them on the shelf today and sell them. So that was the beginning of a whole paradigm shift in the understanding of absinthe. It had no narcotic quality.

Thujone, the compound suspected to cause all the problems, turned out to be a far smaller component of old absinthe than Breaux and other experts believed. So the truth about absinthe turns out to be quite pedestrian: People were simply drinking too much of it. The Green Fairy had no magical powers after all.

After his revelatory experiments, Beaux decided to get into the absinthe business. Under the label Jade Liqueurs, Breaux makes five distinctly flavored absinthes in a French distillery that was built by Gustave Eiffel (yes, that Eiffel). In the U.S. they range from $60 to $100 for a 750-milliliter bottle. No Corpse Reviver is complete without a touch of the stuff. Its available at bestabsinthe.com. Its also stocked at several O.C. bars, including La Cave, 25 Degrees and Marine Room Tavern.

Breaux jokes that his absinthe should come with an owners manual. There was a whole rush of people that came out and bought it when it first appeared in 2007. We expected that. We knew that following that, our plan was consumer education. Weve been doing that for eight years. And its helped.

Breaux stumbled onto a lucky circumstance early in his research.

The original absinthe plant was never mothballed. They still produced chartreuse and things like that in it. It was relatively unchanged; it still had all the same equipment that made absinthe back in the 1880s. Breaux was able to set up operations in the plant, in the town of Saumur in the Loire Valley.

The first year, Breaux anticipated a rush of orders, so he produced 50,000 cases. We worked all day, six days a week, he said. The absinthe craze, though blunted a bit by the recession, has come roaring back. Breaux is the first to admit his timing was very lucky.

Were in the middle of a huge cocktail renaissance right now. Its a global phenomenon.

Strong, spicy and anise-flavored, absinthe has to be respected. Even its licorice-filled nose is enough to bowl over the faint of heart. Many bartenders use it as a rinse only, swirling it around the glass and discarding it before adding other ingredients; thats enough to impart its powerful flavor to a cocktail.

Once you know the taste, youre hooked, Breaux said, and laughed. Thats what happened to me anyway.

Contact the writer: 714-796-7979 or phodgins@ocregister.com
SAN LEANDRO  Authorities say a San Francisco Bay Area woman was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after a 12-year-old boy was stabbed in the back with scissors in a bank.

KNTV reports Tuesday that 32-year-old Iyona Dzshae Hammond of Oakland was also booked on suspicion of second-degree robbery in connection with stealing money from a customer making a deposit at the bank. She remains in custody without bail.

A motive in the stabbing was not yet known.

The crimes were caught on video.

San Leandro police Lt. Robert McManus says she had blood on her hands and was armed with the scissors.

McManus says Hammond went into the bank Monday morning and stabbed the boy in the back three times while he was sitting in a lounge chair. He is expected to survive his injuries. It was not immediately known if she has an attorney.
In her speech from Brooklyn claiming her position as the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, Hillary Clinton was poised, at times even ebullient. The primary campaign has been longer and tougher than she anticipated because of the unexpected success of Sen. Bernie Sanders campaign. Her main theme was that, for the first time, a woman will be a major partys nominee.

Although it looked like Californians votes for president might matter for the first time in decades, it just was not to be. Donald Trump became the presumptive GOP nominee when his remaining rivals dropped out May 3 after he won the Indiana primary. For Democrats, a faint hope for Mr. Sanders brought out enthusiastic crowds as he campaigned across Orange County and other parts of our state.

Yet, in the end, Mrs. Clintons convincing California victory culminated her winning primary campaign with a flourish.

Meanwhile, speaking from Westchester, N.Y., Mr. Trump told his Republican audience that I will make you proud of our party and of our movement. After strong criticism of remarks he made about a federal judge of Mexican-American heritage, he uncharacteristically spoke from a teleprompter instead of his usual practice of off-the-cuff remarks. I understand the responsibility of carrying the [GOP] mantle. He also welcomed with open arms Sanders supporters who have been left out in the cold by a rigged system.

Mrs. Clinton blasted back, indicating this will be one of the roughest campaigns ever. Donald Trump is temperamentally unfit to be president, she said, also calling him a bully. She insisted that building bridges is better than walls, a reference to Mr. Trumps call to build a wall along the border with Mexico. She blasted him because he attacked the press for asking tough questions, although her own most-recent press conference was six months ago.

In the race for U.S. Senate, California Attorney General Kamala Harris outpolled Rep. Loretta Sanchez of Anaheim. But the states top two primary system means the two Democrats will face off Nov. 8. Other notable candidates included Duf Sundheim and Tom Del Beccaro, former heads of the state Republican Party. A stronger, single GOP candidate might have made the cut for November, but a dozen Republicans fragmented the GOP vote.

Rep. Sanchez trails in money and name recognition. But she has a chance, provided she can attract both campaign cash and Republicans with the moderate positions she has taken in her 20 years in Congress. In our endorsement, we especially praised her votes against the Iraq War, the intrusive USA PATRIOT Act and the 2008 bank bailout. Ms. Harris will have to moderate her positions, often regarded as too liberal beyond her Bay Area base.
BEIJING  A cheater in China used to have it easy: His family might be subjected to a harsh scolding, and his exam results might be thrown out. Now a student caught cheating could face a prison sentence.

As more than 9 million students filed into testing centers Tuesday to take the gaokao, the life-defining college entrance exam, officials made clear that they planned to enforce a new law making it a crime to cheat, punishable by up to seven years in jail.

Officials said the law, approved last fall, was necessary to preserve fairness in the exam, widely regarded as the most important test of a Chinese citizens life. A high score can mean a ticket to a renowned university and a high-paying profession, but a low score can bring shame and a future confined to menial jobs.

Many students and parents praised the effort to impose severe punishments on cheaters, saying it would serve as a powerful deterrent. But several were less certain of the laws merits, saying it was too harsh.

Wang Yiran, 19, a freshman at Yangtze University in central China, said the law might discourage students from reporting incidents of cheating because they feared sending another student to jail.

Its simply too strict, Wang said. Because the punishment is so severe, no one will want to say anything.

Bella Hou, 19, a freshman at the Beijing Institute of Technology, said she thought imposing a severe penalty was a good idea.

Its really necessary to eliminate cheating on the gaokao, she said. Cheating affects everyone.

On Weibo, Chinas version of Twitter, the reaction was mixed. One user wrote that a seven-year sentence was too harsh: Thats almost the same as the punishment for a hit and run.

Global Times, a nationalistic Chinese newspaper, described the law as important to upholding a sense of social justice in Chinese society, given the gaokaos role as a path to economic mobility for poorer families.

Because of the importance of the gaokao, some families are willing to go to unseemly lengths to ensure their children ace it. Some parents hire companies to surreptitiously transmit answers to their children on exam day. Others bribe local officials to get a peek at the test before it is administered.

Officials in many provinces have tried to crack down on cheating in recent years, going so far as to install fingerprint scanners in schools and ban bras with a metal underwire, worried that they might hide transmission devices. Last year in the city of Luoyang, in central China, authorities used drones to catch people using radios to broadcast answers.

But the ranks of cheaters have only grown, and they have excelled at finding ways around the governments restrictions, creating products like pens equipped with cameras and tank tops outfitted with audio receivers.

On Tuesday, the first day of the gaokao, officials in Beijing said they had deployed eight police officers to each of the citys 96 exam sites to monitor for cheating, according to news reports.

Education officials said they hoped the threat of jail time would deter cheaters once and for all.

Do not believe any kind of group or individual offering false test help and be tricked and risk suffering a lifetime of regret, the Ministry of Education warned in a recent statement.

The law, enacted in November, states that people caught cheating or facilitating cheating on national exams could face up to three years in prison and a fine for minor cases, or up to seven years in prison for more serious cases. Those people would also be banned from taking national exams for three years.

Legal experts said that the law would probably be used to go after leaders of cheating rings and that students might not be a primary target.

Still, human rights experts said it was worrisome that China would threaten to impose severe penalties on teenagers for cheating.

If it is true that students found guilty of cheating end up receiving seven-year criminal sentences, this would be fairly disproportionate compared with the gravity of the crime, William Nee, a China researcher at Amnesty International, wrote in an email.

On Monday, the Chinese news media reported the details of the first case to be subject to the new law, which involved cheating on a postgraduate entrance examination in December. Officials said they had shut down 11 educational organizations in connection with the case. Officials did not announce penalties for those named in the investigation, including a former worker at a printing house that produced test materials.
LA HABRA  A $1.9 million settlement was announced Tuesday of a lawsuit brought against the city by a former part-time employee.

The employee said in the 2014 lawsuit that she was sexually harassed by a supervisor.

An insurance company will take care of most of the $1.9 million settlement; the city will pay $200,000, which will come from a reserve fund. The former supervisor, who has not been employed by the city since January 2014, will also pay a share, the citys attorney said.

The city launched an investigation in late 2013 after receiving an anonymous tip, City Manger Jim Sadro said in a statement.

Had the lawsuit gone to trial, attorney fees could have potentially exceeded $2 million, the citys statement noted.

La Habra city workers will go through additional training to remind them of legal protections they have for a harassment-free workplace and how to report sexual harassment, city officials said.

Contact the writer: aratzlaff@ocregister.com 714-796-7831
Voters appeared to forgive censured Orange County Superior Court Judge Scott Steiner on Tuesday, as he beat veteran prosecutor Karen Schatzle to retain his post. Meanwhile, three other prosecutors had commanding leads for other seats on the Superior Court bench.

Steiner, 42, won another term in his his first bid for re-election after being censured in 2014 by the states judicial watchdog for having sex with two former law students in his chambers.

Schatzle, a 24-year veteran prosecutor, had faced an uphill battle to unseat an incumbent judge who was endorsed by the major county politicos.

Judge Steiner is proud of the job hes done on the bench, and the voters agree, said his campaign manager, Scott Hart, on Tuesday night.

Hart declined to address Steiners previous conduct, but in past statements District Attorney Tony Rackauckas and Tom Dominguez, president of the deputy sheriffs union, said Steiner had learned from his mistakes.

Schatzle, who said she was retaliated against at work for running against Steiner, was resigned to the loss: The voters will get what they voted for.

Steiner was censured by the Commission on Judicial Performance for having sex in his chambers as well as for trying to help one of his sex partners get a job at the District Attorneys Office. He also was faulted for failing to disqualify himself in a case involving a longtime friend and for other violations related to conflicts of interest. The Orange County Bar Association gave Steiner its lowest rating for a judicial candidate: not qualified.

In one of the open judgeships, Orange County Deputy District Attorney Larry Yellin won convincingly over Los Angeles County prosecutor Thuy Pham.

Yellin, 53, received the highest rating given by the Orange County Bar Association: exceptionally well-qualified. He was endorsed by a virtual whos who of attorneys, judges and law enforcement officials in Orange County.

Yellin also has been linked to Orange Countys jailhouse snitch crisis. The scandal centers on accusations that prosecutors and police improperly used jailed informants and withheld evidence from defense teams to win convictions.

A public defender says Yellin withheld information that he had used a member of the Mexican Mafia to illegally coerce a confession from a jailed murder suspect. Yellin called the allegations flawed conclusions based on assumptions.

In the race for another open seat, prosecutor Michael Murray trounced civil attorney Thomas Martin of San Juan Capistrano.

Murray pointed in campaign material to his 96 percent conviction rate. He is a former West Point cadet and a veteran of the U.S. Army with 20 years in the Orange County District Attorneys Office.

Murray also has been tied to the jailhouse controversy.

Murray testified in a hearing that he did not turn over some evidence to defense attorneys in the 2010 trial of Alberto Martinez, who was convicted of killing a businessman in Buena Park. Murray declined comment.

In the race for the last open seat, Megan Wagner, wife of state Assemblyman Don Wagner, R-Irvine, won a judges seat. She has practiced civil law for 25 years. In 2011, Megan Wagner joined the major-fraud unit at the District Attorneys Office. Her father is a retired judge in El Dorado County.

Contact the writer: tsaavedra@ocregister.com
Republican Assemblywoman Ling Ling Chang won the primary in the race to replace termed-out Republican Bob Huff in Senate District 29, according to state results.

Democratic candidate and newcomer Josh Newman came in second to advance to the general election on Nov. 8, with the winner serving a four-year term.

The 29th District, where Republicans have a shrinking advantage of 1 percentage point in voter registration, could sway the states politics. Democrats in the Senate are a seat shy of achieving a supermajority, which would allow them to increase taxes without a single Republican vote.

Its incredibly important for Republicans to maintain this seat, Chang said in a phone interview Tuesday night.

Regardless of partisan politics, its good to have a balance in the Legislature, she said. I dont think Republicans should have a supermajority, either.

In contrast, both Newman and former Irvine mayor Sukhee Kang played down the importance of their party achieving a supermajority in phone interviews Tuesday night.

The real issue is to elect the right person who will lead this Senate District 29, someone who can work across the aisle, someone who can bring true leadership to the table, Kang said. Our district still has a lot of things to do.

District 29 straddles three counties  Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Orange. It includes parts of Anaheim, Brea, Buena Park, Fullerton, La Habra, La Palma, Placentia, Stanton and Yorba Linda.

Seventy-one percent of the districts registered voters are in Orange County.

Chang, R-Diamond Bar, was elected to the Assembly in District 55 in 2014 but decided to try for a Senate seat instead of defending her current post.

Chang, who emigrated from Taiwan when she was 3, was part of a wave of Asian women elected in 2014 to powerful posts in Orange County: She joined Assemblywoman Young Kim, R-Fullerton; Sen. Janet Nguyen, R-Garden Grove; and county Supervisors Michelle Steel and Lisa Bartlett.

Newman, a 51-year-old political newcomer, runs a nonprofit that helps 80 veterans a year with career planning and other personalized services. The last time he sought a political office was 22 years ago, when he ran for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

The Fullerton resident substantially trailed Kang and Chang in fundraising.

Newman said Tuesday night he was not surprised he was neck and neck with the more established Kang.

Id like to give the residents of this district honest, clear, conscientious voice in Sacramento, and Id like to be an example to other politicians in other districts, Newman said.

Kang, a former Irvine mayor, moved to Fullerton last year. Born in South Korea, he owns a management consulting company and teaches local politics and political communication as an adjunct professor at Chapman University.

Huff, who had served in the Senate since 2008, is running for the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

Democrats briefly achieved supermajorities in the Senate and the Assembly after the 2012 election. But, for various reasons, Democrats failed to do much with the advantages.

This year, Democrats need to gain one Senate and three Assembly seats to reclaim supermajorities.

A big factor is that gubernatorial election years, as in 2014, tend to favor Republicans, who are more likely to vote. But presidential election years, as in 2012 and 2016, have a larger turnout, favoring Democrats.

Staff writers Martin Wisckol and Denisse Salazar contributed to this report.

Contact the writer: 949-445-6397 or tshimura@ocregister.com
Tuesdays California primary featured the closest thing to a competitive major-party presidential race in memory, voting for a rare open U.S. Senate seat, and other important contests and ballot measures at all levels of government.

Are you happy with the primary election results?

This was written before the results came in, but a number of things were already known.

Hillary Clinton faced a tenacious challenge from Bernie Sanders, who was still trying to sew doubts about the presumptive nominee. Now, is it time for Democrats to rally around Clinton?

On the Republican side, Donald Trumps major competition dropped out long ago. Did you vote for him or were you one of those who withheld support for the GOPs presumptive nominee?

In the huge field of candidates seeking to succeed the retiring Barbara Boxer in the U.S. Senate, polls suggested state Attorney General Kamala Harris and Rep. Loretta Sanchez would finish first and second. The two Democrats general-election contest in November would be the first statewide election to match two candidates from the same party under Californias top-two primary system. How well is that system working?

What were the best, worst or most important results in races for Congress, the state Legislature, county and city races?

How was your experience at your polling place or in voting by mail?

Email your thoughts to letters@ocregister.com. Please include your full name and city or community of residence. If you prefer, share your views in the comments section that accompanies this article online.
SANTA ANA  With a plane ticket to Turkey in his hands, $1,000 in cash in his bags and a collection of graphic Islamic State propaganda in his phone, the Anaheim man was stopped by FBI agents before he realized his dream of becoming a terrorist, a U.S. attorney told a federal jury on Wednesday.

A year after the high-profile arrest at a security gate at Los Angeles International Airport, trial began Wednesday for Nader Salem Elhuzayel, accused of trying to join the Islamic State, and friend Muhanad Badawi, an Anaheim resident suspected of bankrolling the journey.

Attorneys for the men, both 25, made no attempt to soften the often harsh rhetoric that Badawi and Elhuzayel espoused online against the United States. But they said that such opinions, controversial or not, arent enough to designate someone as a would-be terrorist.

Prosecutors during opening statements at the U.S. District Courthouse in Santa Ana said that Elhuzayel and Badawi spent the months leading up to the airport arrest both publicly and privately backing the Islamic State on social media platforms.

Both men listened intently, their eyes and heads downcast, as Assistant U.S. Attorney Deirdre Eliot said how the two made a pact to fight on the front lines on behalf of the Islamic State.

Death and destruction is their goal, and the defendants are drawn to the fight, Eliot said.

Eliot described to the jury the various atrocities carried out by the Islamic State, including beheadings, kidnappings, suicide bombings and attacks on civilian populations.

The prosecutor said Elhuzayel was the first one to actually attempt to join the group, but added that Badawi planned to eventually meet up as well.

Pick a side, fence-sitting is for cowards, the prosecutor quoted Elhuzayel as writing online. Do you pick the side of the faithful or the nonbelievers.

Authorities also accused Elhuzayel of depositing stolen checks into his personal checking accounts to fund the trip, while Badawi used his federal financial aid to pay for Elhuzayels $671 plane ticket.

Attorneys for Elhuzayel and Badawi told the jury that neither took part in actual violence and noted that political speech, even if unpopular, is not illegal.

There is no evidence of either defendant committing any acts of terrorism, said Pal Lengyel-Leahu, who is representing Elhuzayel. It is not illegal to pick a side, whether or not any of us agree with it.

Lengyel-Leahu said that the Islamic State itself wasnt designated as a terrorist organization at the time of his clients arrests, a status the attorney added wasnt changed until months later.

There was a gap in the law, and they know it, Lengyel-Leahu said of the prosecutors. No law can go back and make illegal what you did in the past.

Rather than trying to meet up with the Islamic State, Lengyel-Leahu said, Elhuzayel was actually traveling to Israel in order to marry a woman he had met online.

He had no plan, nor did he have any intention, of joining any organization, other than getting married, Lengyel-Leahu said. We have a lot of disillusioned kids in America. They turn to sex, drugs, alcohol. Nader turned to religion.

Kate Corrigan, Badawis attorney, disagreed with Lengyel-Leahus argument that Islamic State wasnt a designated terrorist group.

Instead, Corrigan said, Badawi trusted in a liar, contending that Elhuzayel used Badawi because he was desperate for cash.

Its a misguided friendship  and its full of unpopular thoughts, repulsive thoughts to most of us, Corrigan said. My client was a lot of talk and exactly no action.

Left unanswered in court filings and statements are how the two men were drawn to Islamic State rhetoric.

Elhuzayel, the son of two Palestinian immigrants, lived in a variety of motels in the years leading up to his arrest after his family was evicted in 2013 from their Anaheim home.

Badawi immigrated with his parents from the Sudan at the age of 16. His attorney previously described his family as well-educated; Badawi was studying at Fullerton College at the time of his arrest.

Its not clear if either attended any Orange County high schools, but the two young men met in 2012, while attending Cypress College. Both had attended worship at the West Coast Islamic Society in Anaheim, although other members of the mosque said the pair didnt associate with others.

Corrigan described the pair as spending countless hours, day after day, talking online. A running theme, Corrigan said, was the pull between their traditional, conservative backgrounds and the lure of pretty girls and partying.

Elhuzayel apparently stopped visiting a dating website around the same time he began an online relationship with a woman in Palestine, the person he would later tell authorities that he was traveling to marry.

Their families have repeatedly disputed the governments description of Badawi and Elhuzayel as eager, would-be terrorists.

But federal authorities note that in one video, later deleted, Badawi taped Elhuzayel pledging his allegiance to the Islamic State. I will fight for the sake of Allah, to protect what we believe in, a prosecutor quoted Elhuzayel as saying in the video.

In a series of court hearings leading up to their trial, Elhuzayel has appeared to be the the more forceful of the pair, at one point referring to some of the charges against him as ridiculous as he pleaded not guilty.

The trial is expected to continue for up to six weeks. Along with testimony from FBI agents, jurors are expected to be presented with recorded phone conversations and social media postings and messages between Badawi and Elhuzayel.

Contact the writer: semery@ocregister.com
COSTA MESA  A Costa Mesa apartment fire that began in a kitchen left five residents displaced Tuesday evening, authorities said.

The fire was reported at 5:13 p.m. at 1600 block of Coriander Drive, Costa Mesa Fire Department Battalion Chief Bill Kershaw said. Firefighters found smoke coming from the apartments front door, he said.

The fire was under control in about 15 minutes and no one was injured.

The origin of the fire was a kitchen stove, Kershaw said.

Five residents who live in the apartment were displaced and are being assisted by the Red Cross with lodging, he said.

The blaze caused about $60,000 in damage, Kershaw said. Twenty-one firefighters from the Costa Mesa and Fountain Valley fire departments and Orange County Fire Authority responded.

Contact the writer: 714-796-7767 sschwebke@ocregister.com Twitter: @thechalkoutline
You cant say the wheels at WinStar arent always turning. Approaching the Belmont Stakes, they were cooking up an enticing stew, with all the basic ingredients. They had the Arkansas Derby winner Creator, who they own outright, and the Preakness winner and early favorite Exaggerator, whose breeding rights they have purchased. But there was only one thing missing in their perfect recipe for hasenpfeffer  the rabbit.



They actually did have the rabbit, who would have been a perfect pacesetter for the late-running Creator and the more versatile closer Exaggerator in what looked to be a paceless race, but, alas, he was in someone elses kitchen. That someone was Todd Pletcher, who two years ago nearly gave WinStar a wire-to-wire Belmont winner in Commissioner, who led every step of the race except the last.



So, the solution was simple. Just have Pletcher run Gettysburg, who actually is a pretty darn good horse in his own right, in the Belmont, thus giving Creator and Exaggerator a much better chance than if they were crawling up front.



But that wasnt quite as simple as it sounds. You see, Pletcher has two other horses in the Belmont, Destin and Stradivari, who not only have different ownership, but were the only two horses in the field capable of taking advantage of the lack of speed. Although both have been stalkers, sitting just off the pace, they have the natural speed and talent to go to the front, slow the pace down, and just keep going.



So, it obviously would not be the sporting thing to do to force Pletcher to use a horse to heat up the pace, while possibly compromising the chances of his two other horses. No one can say whether the addition of Gettsyburg would hurt or help Destin and Stradivari, because no one knows how fast hell be going on the front end. It seems as if Destin and Stradivari would prefer having a horse to run at, but what if Gettsyburg pulls a Hedevar and cuts out a sizzling pace to set it up even more for Creator and Exaggerator?



WinStar wasnt about to compromise their chances when they had the horse to prevent a dawdling pace and a possible theft by one of Pletchers horses, especially since Creator, in his last three starts, has been 21, 15, and 15 lengths off the lead. That running style normally doesnt win Belmonts unless the lead horses back up noticeably in the stretch.



So, WinStar did the only thing possible. They took Gettysburg away from Pletcher and moved him to the barn of Creators trainer Steve Asmussen. That left Pletcher off the hook with the owners of Destin and Stradivari.



Pletcher, as expected, said he was fine with the move, and it actually should work out better for him, allowing his two horses to utilize their best weapon, which is stalking. That is, as long as Gettysburg doesnt do anything rash up front and gives them a good target to run at. With all this maneuvering and switching, theres no way Gettysburg is going to lollygag on the lead and prove useless. But as long as he sets a legitimate pace it should help all parties involved, as well as the other deep closers, Brodys Cause, Cherry Wine, Suddenbreakingnews, Trojan Nation, and Lani, making for a truer run race with no excuses.



Of course, those other horses would love for Gettysburg to play sprinter for a day and cut loose, dragging Pletchers pair down with him. But Destin and Stradivari are much more versatile than people may think, and they should be able to adapt to whatever pace is thrown at them.



There is one other factor that should be addressed. Gettysburg is no slouch who is going to fold his tent after doing his job. This is a horse who set lively fractions of :46 1/5 and 1:10 3/5 in the Arkansas Derby and hung tough in the stretch, finishing fifth, beaten 5 1/4 lengths. And he was a good stalking second behind Collected in the Sunland Park Festival of Racing. And he has more than enough pedigree to at least stick around for a while. But he doesnt appear to be exactly in love with Belmont, finishing a dismal ninth in his career debut and tiring to finish third, beaten 6 1/2 lengths, in an allowance race in his last start as the 6-5 favorite.



So, with one carefully thought out bit of strategy, WinStar has changed the entire complexion of the Belmont, while moving one of their best horses to another trainer along the way.



And the most unusual aspect of it is that everyone seems to be happy, which is not often the case when it comes to rabbits. Whether Pletcher is happy after the race depends on how the pace scenario plays out. But having seen his two horses at their best, and knowing the running styles of everyone else, I believe this move will benefit everyone, including Destin and Stradivari. But well know for sure after we see whether or not Gettsysburg attacks with the ferocity of Picketts Charge at Cemetery Ridge.


SANTA ANA  Viana Gallegos had tutored a first-grader for half an hour, once a week, for nine months. But on Tuesday, in a Madison Elementary School classroom, she had to give her student a couple of hints so she could identify Gallegos.

The pair had read together through headsets and computer prompts, but this was the first time they would put each others faces to their names.

She was in a class Fridays in the morning, Gallegos, a Cal State Fullerton student and aspiring teacher, said. Her initials are J. M.

Several students sitting cross-legged on the floor pointed at a girl in the front row and shouted her name, but Gallegos, 21, shook her head. Then they pointed to a girl sitting behind her and shouted, Janeth!

Six-year-old Janeth Martinez got up, hugged her tutor, and smiled.

The moment they, and other first-graders and their respective tutors, met face-to-face Tuesday marked the completion of the TutorMate programs first run with the Santa Ana Unified School District, and the first in Southern California.

Nationwide, TutorMate recruits corporate workers and other volunteers who can take 30 minutes every week to call a student in a classroom and read with him or her online or by computer or laptop.

The program is aimed at students who arent at the bottom of their class but who are lagging and often overlooked, and supports the Santa Ana school districts Literacy by 3rd (grade) movement.

Martinezs teacher, Jesus Alvarez, admitted he was initially hesitant about having the TutorMate computer installed in his classroom, because it sounded like a lot of extra work. But as the weeks went by, Alvarez saw what impact the program  which is free to schools  had on his 10 students involved.

Every time they were called, their faces would light up, Alvarez said. This would be great if my whole class could have it, because its that one-on-one that they can get for a half hour.

Since the program launched in October, Martinez has improved from reading 36 to 69 words per minute and from 90 percent to 97 percent accuracy, meeting the benchmark for her grade level, her teacher said.

TutorMate data shows that students who go through at least 16 sessions demonstrate a 15 percent gain in their reading score, according to the programs national director, Dan Weisberg.

The inaugural partnership with 190 volunteer tutors at six Santa Ana campuses was extremely successful, he said. TutorMate plans to expand to 300 tutors and 30 classrooms in Santa Ana next year as well as start in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Gallegos said the highlight of the program for her was Tuesday, when she got to give a book and read it with Martinez while enjoying cupcakes and juice boxes.

I had a picture of her (in mind) but I didnt know her, Gallegos said of Martinez. Knowing my child, having that connection with her was amazing. She improved a lot.

The highlight for Martinez was also Tuesday, because I got juice, the first grader said, And I got a book.

Contact the writer: 714-796-7762 or jkwong@ocregister.com or on Twitter: @JessicaGKwong
A Laguna Beach doctor who pleaded guilty last year to diverting $8 million to an overseas bank account faces discipline by the California Medical Board.

In documents recently made public, the board accuses Dr. Baruch Fogel, an obstetrician and gynecologist, of dishonesty and unprofessional conduct. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Fogel willfully failed to report on his taxes that he had an account in Luxembourg. He was sentenced to two years probation and ordered to pay restitution and a fine.

For the medical board proceeding, Fogel faces a range of possible discipline, with the severest penalty being loss of his medical license.

His attorney, Nicholas Jurkowitz of Los Angeles, said in a statement that once the board sees all the mitigating evidence he believes that Fogel will prevail and be able to keep his license.

Contact the writer: cperkes@ocregister.com 714-796-3686
NAYMIYAH, Iraq  A column of black Humvees carrying Iraqi special forces rolled into southern Fallujah on Wednesday, the first time in more than two years that government troops have entered the western city held by Islamic State.

The counterterrorism troops fought house-to-house battles with the militants in the Shuhada neighborhood, and the operation to retake the city is expected to be one of the most difficult yet.

Daesh are concentrating all their forces in this direction, said Gen. Haider Fadel, one of the commanders of the counterterrorism forces, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State militants.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi promised a swift victory when he announced the start of the operation on May 22 to liberate Fallujah, about 40 miles west of Baghdad. But the complexity of the task quickly became apparent.

Although other security forces from the federal and provincial police, government-sanctioned Shiite militias and the Iraqi military have surrounded the city, only the elite counterterrorism troops are fighting inside Fallujah at this stage of the operation. And they are doing so under the close cover of U.S.-led coalition airpower.

We expect to face more resistance, especially because we are the only forces entering the city, Fadel said.

Islamic State has suffered setbacks on several fronts in the region where it captured large swaths of territory two years ago. In northern Syria, U.S.-backed rebels made a final push Wednesday in the town of Manbij  a key waypoint on the Islamic State supply line to the Turkish border and its self-styled capital of Raqqa. And in Libya, forces loyal to a U.N.-brokered government have advanced deep inside the coastal city of Sirte, the main stronghold of Islamic States local affiliate.

Fallujah is one of the last Islamic State strongholds in Iraq. Government forces have slowly won back territory, although Islamic State still controls parts of the north and west, as well as the second-largest city of Mosul.

The sky above Fallujahs Shuhada neighborhood on Wednesday filled with fine dust and thick gray smoke obscuring minarets and communication towers as artillery rounds and volleys of airstrikes cleared the way for Iraqi ground forces.

At a makeshift command center, Iraqi forces coordinated the operation via hand-held radios, with Australian coalition troops stationed at a nearby base. One of the Australians listed the casualties among the militants.

Two KIA (killed in action), one wounded with a missing arm  his right arm, the unidentified Australian radioed after calling in an airstrike on Islamic State fighters.

A frontier city on the easternmost edge of Anbar province, Fallujah has long been a bastion of support among its mostly Sunni population for anti-government militants following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

It is symbolically important to both sides: Many of the Iraqi forces fought al-Qaida in Iraq  the predecessor to Islamic State  in this same territory, and the city was the scene of some of the bloodiest urban combat with U.S. forces in 2004.

Its high value is one of the reasons Islamic State has deployed well-trained snipers and built extensive networks of tunnels to defend it.

We are having to fight two battles  one above the ground and one below, said Iraqi Maj. Ali Hamel of the militarys intelligence wing.

While Fallujahs sparsely populated northern outskirts were recaptured quickly by Iraqi forces, Islamic State used the initial days of the operation to pull the majority of its fighters into the city center, taking about 50,000 civilians with them for use as human shields.

Once Iraqs special forces began trying to punch inside the city limits, the pace of operations slowed.

In past battles with Islamic State in places like Ramadi, Fadel said, one of the signs that the militants were losing their grip on territory was when civilians begin fleeing the city center.

So far, we havent seen that in Fallujah, he said. Once we do, it will only be a matter of time.

The Islamic State militants had chosen their battle space, a counterterrorism officer said, explaining how the group set up many defensive positions in the southern outskirts to try to bog down the Iraqi forces before they even had a chance to enter.

That southern neighborhood of Naymiyah, which was secured by Iraqi forces on Sunday, bears the scars of a protracted fight, a now-common sight in Iraqi territory that has been won back from Islamic State.

Walls stood shredded by artillery fire, with almost every home either partially collapsed or pancaked. Craters from airstrikes left many main roads unusable. Convoys of armored Humvees were forced to use the neighborhoods unpaved side streets instead, churning up the soft sand beneath their treads.

Were expecting another big fight like this one before Fallujah falls, the officer said, explaining that he anticipated Iraqi forces would encounter another heavily fortified neighborhood. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters.

On Wednesday evening, the prime minister visited the recently retaken territory.

Al-Abadi was joined by Lt. Gen. Abdel Wahab al-Saadi, the counterterrorism commander of the Fallujah operation.

It was al-Abadis fourth trip to the area since the operation began. Despite territorial victories against Islamic State, the Iraqi leader continues to grapple with a deepening political crisis and growing social unrest in Baghdad.
ANAHEIM  To take advantage of the citys new policy giving tax incentives to build luxury hotels, Disneyland officials submitted plans Tuesday to add a fourth Disney-themed hotel at the resort.

Disney proposes a 700-room, four-diamond hotel and a parking structure on 10 acres at 1401 Disneyland Drive, at the north end of the Downtown Disney parking lot. Construction would start in 2018, with a slated opening in 2021.

Walt Disney Imagineering would design the hotel, which didnt yet have a theme, Disneyland officials said. Guests would dine in an upscale rooftop restaurant watching Disneylands nightly fireworks over Sleeping Beauty Castle. The hotel would have two pools, a fitness facility, concierge service and a kids play area. The average nightly rate would be about $450.

The hotel would be the first built at the Disneyland Resort in nearly 20 years. The proposal comes as the resort starts construction on the 14-acre Star Wars-themed land expected to boost attendance to Disneyland.

The Disneyland Hotel and Disneys Grand Californian Hotel & Spa are the only two properties in the city that fit AAAs strict guidelines for the luxury four-diamond rating. Disneys Paradise Pier Hotel is considered a three-diamond property.

At this time, were getting about $35,000 in property tax from the Downtown Disney parking lot, Councilwoman Lucille Kring said. If the Disney luxury hotel is built, we will get multiple times the revenue for the city.  Thats entirely new income, and were always trying to pay down our debt and provide more services for the residents. 

With Star Wars coming and the convention center (expansion) opening next year, theres a lot of good stuff happening here in Anaheim, Kring said.

Last year, the City Council narrowly adopted a policy allowing developers building hotels to the four-diamond standards to apply to be reimbursed, for 20 years, 70 percent of the Transient Occupancy Tax collected from hotel guests. Guests pay 15 percent of the room rate.

After the 20 years, the city would keep all of the bed tax revenue, which goes to pay off bonds that funded improvements to the resort district in 1996 and pay for general city expenses and community programs.

Mayor Tom Tait said hes very disappointed with Disney for applying for the tax incentive.

I dont think Disney needs a subsidy, he said. They do quite well without one. Our city needs that tax revenue to provide basic services to our residents.  The council already voted to not tax them for 45 years, and thats not enough. So they want us to write them a check every year for 20 years. I think its outrageous.

City leaders have argued that Anaheim needs more luxury hotels to attract higher-end visitors. City staff have said their research indicates that the market has room for at least 2,500 of these rooms.

To receive the four-diamond rating, Disney must spend at least $225,000 per guest room, including $30,000 in furniture, fixtures and equipment in each room.

This new flagship hotel would create thousands of jobs and benefit Anaheim with more than $750 million in additional tax revenue over the next four decades, while helping the city reach its stated goal of attracting more high-end visitors, Disneyland spokeswoman Suzi Brown said.

Disney joins the Wincome Group in proposing developments under the citys incentive policy.

Wincome affiliates have submitted plans to build two luxury properties: a $208 million, eight-story, 580-room hotel where the Anaheim Plaza Hotel & Suites stands at 1700 S. Harbor Blvd. and a $225 million, 634-room hotel on the site of The Anabella Hotel, next to the Anaheim Convention Center.

Two more luxury hotels are planned at the GardenWalk mall. Those two received a separate $158 million in-room tax subsidy from the city in 2013.

Disneyland officials did not say how much the new project would cost, only that they are investing more than $2 billion in their resort over the next decade. That includes the construction of the Star Wars land and a 5,000-spot parking structure and transit center.

The new hotel is not part of the $1 billion investment deal Disney struck with the city last year to ban a gate tax for at least 30 years.

Disneyland is already entitled to build rooms in the Downtown Disney parking area. The council will need to vote on the tax incentive.

Contact the writer: 714-796-2433 or jpimentel@ocregister.com or follow on Twitter @OCDisney
WASHINGTON  India will try to join a climate change deal within this year, the Obama administration said Tuesday, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi met President Barack Obama at the White House and the two leaders played up their efforts to cooperate on issues of global concern.

Stressing their strong bonds, Obama said the worlds two largest democracies had joined forces to bring about the landmark climate agreement reached in Paris in December.

We discussed how we can as quickly as possible bring the Paris agreement into place, how we can make sure that climate financing thats necessary for India to be able to embark on its bold vision for solar energy and clean energy that Prime Minister Modi has laid out can be accomplished, Obama said alongside Modi after their meeting in the Oval Office.

Modi said the U.S. and India have been cooperating on issues of global concern, including nuclear security, climate change and terrorism. He referred to Obama as my close friend and said the two nations would continue working shoulder to shoulder.

India is the worlds third-largest carbon emitter among nations, after China and the U.S. The Paris agreement aims to keep the global temperature rise below 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit compared with preindustrial times. The agreement enters into force once 55 countries representing at least 55 percent of global emissions have joined it.

In a joint statement, U.S. reaffirmed its commitment to join the climate deal as soon as possible this year and India said it shared that objective. Indian Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said there were regulatory and legal issues to be addressed. He told reporters the government was looking at ways and means to take the agreement forward.

The U.S., India and dozens of other countries have signed the deal, the first hurdle in a two-step process, but Modi has been coy about whether India would formally join this year.

The U.S. is eager for countries to join quickly because the deals carbon-cutting requirements kick in only once a critical mass of polluting nations join. China, Canada, Mexico and Australia all have said they intend to join within this year.

The U.S. and India also said theyd agreed to try to use a decades-old ozone protection treaty to phase out hydrofluorocarbons, refrigerants that are potent greenhouse gases, through an amendment that would also provide funds to help poorer countries implement it.

But officials said an actual deal to phase out HFCs wouldnt come until the parties to the treaty meet in October in Rwanda.
SACRAMENTO  California voters on Tuesday gave state lawmakers the ability to suspend their colleagues pay along with their voting power when legislators are accused of wrongdoing while in office.

It was the lone, statewide ballot measure in the primary and was proposed by lawmakers who asked voters to give them greater latitude to judge their peers qualifications.

Voters agreed, with 77 percent favoring the measure.

Proposition 50 will allow legislators to suspend their colleagues privileges in the state Senate or Assembly.

Lawmakers sought the change after suspending Democratic Sens. Leland Yee, Ron Calderon and Rod Wright as they faced felony accusations in 2014, when all three faced criminal charges but had not yet been convicted. A state law prohibiting lawmakers pay from being reduced meant the three Democrats continued receiving paychecks while on suspension.

The proposal will permit harsher punishment, but also makes it more difficult to pull off.

The 40-person Senate or 80-person Assembly currently can suspend a member with pay with a simple majority of votes. Proposition 50 raises the voting threshold to two-thirds to suspend a member without pay.

David A. Carrillo, executive director of UC Berkeley Laws California Constitution Center, said increasing the number of lawmakers that must agree to the suspension would be making it harder for the Legislature to apply this kind of self-discipline.

Proposition 50 is actually a reduction of the Legislatures existing power to discipline its ranks, Carrillo said in an email.

Only one senator voted against the 2014 suspensions.

Sen. Joel Anderson, R-Alpine, said he opposed the suspensions because empty seats in the statehouse result in taxation without representation.

He argued Proposition 50 is an ineffective political maneuver that cannot correct lawmakers rare criminal behavior.

This is another slick, hide-the-pea maneuver, Anderson said.
MEXICO CITY  The Mexican government has committed crimes against humanity in its war against drug cartels, human rights groups said Tuesday in pressing the government to take action.

The report released by the New York-based Open Society Justice Initiative is an extensive analysis of the toll of acts against humanity, which it defined as murder, torture and disappearances. It said that some of its Mexican partner organizations had already contacted the International Criminal Court in The Hague urging it to pursue cases.

The report also singled out the Zetas cartel, one of Mexicos most violent gangs, for the seriousness of their crimes.

It called on Mexican authorities to further pursue cases in which atrocities committed by law enforcement and military personnel have not been fully investigated.

The government responded to the report late Tuesday with a joint statement that included the Army, Navy and Attorney Generals office.

The statement outlined the efforts of President Enrique Pena Nietos administration to implement a new justice system by June 18, as well as legislative initiatives against torture and disappearances.

It is important to emphasize that in Mexico the immense majority of violent crimes have been committed by criminal organizations, it said. The protective role of the armed forces has been continuously recognized by the people.

The Justice Initiative worked with five Mexican human rights groups on a three-year investigation and found that from December 2006 when the government declared war on the cartels through the end of 2015, more than 150,000 people were killed in Mexico and thousands have disappeared.

The most recent case that garnered international attention was the disappearance of 43 students in the southern state of Guerrero in September 2014.

Researchers also found that nine years after the Mexican government first deployed armed forces to combat, civilians have continued to suffer the most. These crimes are being carried out not only by the cartels, but also by federal and state security forces who are supposed to be protecting civilians.

The Zetas have carried out a policy of territorial control through violence, which was used to gain the profits from other criminal organizations, said James Goldston, executive director of the Open Society Justice Initiative, at a press conference. They have attacked any person inside that territory, including migrants, who have nothing to do with a cartel. The Zetas qualify as an organization that can commit crimes against humanity, because they have a hierarchy, territorial control, and have the capacity to carry out an organized attack to civil populations, as they did in the past.

In case there was any doubt about the Zetas power or brutality, state prosecutors in the northern border state of Coahuila said in a statement Tuesday that they had arrest warrants for five people for the disappearances of seven people between December 2009 and January 2012 in Piedras Negras.

In the case, Zetas in the prison allegedly had people brought to them from outside, killed them within its walls and then disposed of their remains or ashes in a nearby river.

Authors of the report said they want such crimes prosecuted to the full extent of the law in Mexico, regardless of the perpetrators.

No one can deny that atrocities have been committed in Mexico, said Jose Antonio Guevara, executive director of the Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights, one of the groups that assisted in the investigation.
WASHINGTON  Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told the U.S. Congress on Wednesday that the worlds two largest democracies can anchor stability and prosperity from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific in an aspirational speech that glossed over continuing divisions in the relationship.

Modi, who has ushered in closer bilateral ties since taking power two years ago, said that India and the U.S. have overcome the hesitations of history and called for ever-stronger economic and defense links between the two countries.

Speaking in English, Modi used dashes of humor, drawing a parallel between the rough-and-tumble politics of his own nation and the U.S., which he described tongue-in-cheek as harmonious and well-known for bipartisanship. Modi, a keen advocate of yoga, also referenced cultural ties, citing estimates that more Americans bend for yoga than to throw a curveball.

Modi paid tribute to the role of Congress, including through a civilian nuclear deal in 2008 that lifted U.S. export restrictions on nuclear technology to India and which is hoped to lead to a contract by mid-2017 for the construction of six power reactors by U.S.-based Westinghouse Electric Co.

He also praised Congress for refusing to reward those who preach and practice terrorism. Although Modi avoided direct mention of Pakistan, he was alluding to lawmakers recently blocking a proposed, U.S.-subsidied sale of F-16 fighter jets to Indias archrival.

A strong India-U.S. partnership can anchor peace, prosperity and stability from Asia to Africa and from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific, Modi said.

Modis 46-minute speech followed years of being shunned in the U.S. because of religious violence in his home state. It came a day after a White House meeting with President Barack Obama and was followed by a lunch with congressional leaders and a reception hosted by the House and Senate foreign affairs committees.

U.S.-India relations have been transformed since Rajiv Gandhi in 1985 became the first of five Indian prime ministers to have addressed a joint meeting of Congress. During the Cold War, the U.S. was more focused on ties with Pakistan, and many in Washington believed India, with its non-aligned foreign policy, was far too friendly with the Soviet Union.

Today, the U.S. and Indian militaries conduct more drills with each other than with any other nation. While India resists the notion of becoming a U.S. ally, both nations share concern over Chinas rise and over freedom of navigation in the Asia-Pacific region.

Although Modi lauded both nations common democratic principles and hailed two heroes of nonviolence  Indias Mahatma Gandhi and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.  he did not address congressional concerns over his governments record on religious tolerance and other rights issues.

I wish there had been an emphasis on cooperating with the U.S. and every other democracy on combating all human rights abuses, especially human trafficking and slavery, said Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J.

But the overall response from lawmakers of both parties was positive.

Modi described the U.S. as an indispensable partner for India. He said his nations 1.25 billion people made India an ideal partner for U.S businesses. Trade has expanded dramatically in recent years, from $60 billion in 2009 to $107 billion in 2015, although the U.S. remains concerned over restrictions on foreign investment and bureaucratic red tape.
Re: Kamala Harris two roles  states top cop and Senate candidate  leave Dekraai case in limbo [Front page, June 2]: The article by Tony Saavedra significantly misses the mark on explaining a complex criminal investigation and separate, but related, legal appeal.

The Attorney Generals Office has launched an investigation into potential criminal wrongdoing in the Scott Dekraai case. Many witnesses have been interviewed, and thousands of pages of evidence have already been reviewed, but  just last week  a voluminous amount of new evidence was discovered and turned over to the attorney general. At every step, Attorney General Harris goal has been to complete a thorough investigation and uncover any and all criminal misconduct in this case and to ensure that justice is served.

The Attorney Generals Office has also filed an appeal of Judge Thomas Goethals unprecedented ruling to recuse the entire District Attorneys Office. The appeal does not dispute the factual findings by the judge or find the prosecutors blameless, but, rather, hinges on whether or not recusing the entire office was an appropriate legal remedy. It is blatantly false to say that Harris office argues that Orange County prosecutors did nothing wrong in the Dekraai case. Even if several individuals were involved in misconduct, recusing the entire office with a staff of 200 prosecutors is a drastic, and unnecessary, measure. The Attorney Generals Office takes very seriously the allegations of wrongdoing and the judges findings, which is what prompted our independent investigation.

Kristin Ford

Sacramento

deputy communications director, Office of Attorney General Kamala D. Harris

  

The Dekraai case is a perfect example of the reason most folks have a tremendous dislike (hatred?) of the dithering legal industry. Victims families suffer, a murderer is given free room/board/medical care (paid for by the taxpayer), and legal folks get (way overly) paid to dither and dither.

Shakespeare: Mercy but murders, pardoning those that kill.

Spanish proverb: It is better to be a mouse in a cats mouth than a man in a lawyers hands.

An opinion: The legal industry is killing this country.

Paul Kartinen

Laguna Hills
The art of measuring regional home prices is not perfect, but a recent report by one housing tracker shows how rare it is for a market to have regained all the losses created by real estates burst bubble.

Clear Capital of Truckee says only four of its home-price indexes for 30 major U.S. housing markets had rebounded off the the market crash and were at 10-year highs in May. Home prices cratered as risky, easy-to-get mortgages were cut off, with peak-to-bottom losses running 37 percent nationally by Clear Capitals math.

Orange Countys median selling price, as measured by CoreLogic, hit $645,000 in April, the first time back at its pre-recession peak from June 2007. Clear Capital reports Orange County as part of a mix of Los Angeles and Orange counties, and that index is not back at its cyclical high.

The L.A.-O.C. index for May by Clear Capital was still 13 percent off its 10-year high set in August 2006, after jumping 61 percent from the July 2009 mid-recession low, including an 8 percent rise in the 12 months ended in May. This L.A.-O.C. price index fell 46 percent, top-to-trough, in the downturn.

The four metro areas with a May index at a 10-year high were:

 San Jose: Up 78 percent off its 10-year low after gaining 10 percent in the past year.

 Denver: Up 65 percent off the 10-year trough after gaining 11 percent in the last 12 months.

 Dallas: Up 54 percent off the recent low after rising 10 percent in a year.

 Portland: Up 50 percent off the cyclical bottom after rising 10 percent in a year.

By the way, U.S. home prices are still 16 percent off the 10-year high high, by this math. National prices are up 32 percent off the recent low, and are up 5 percent in a year.

Clear Capital found the biggest jumps off the bottom among the 30 largest markets were seen in Detroit (up 127 percent off its low but sill 38 percent off the peak) and San Francisco (up 93 percent from the low and just 2 percent from the old pinnacle.)

Elsewhere in SoCal, Inland Empire prices are still 33 percent off the old peak after jumping 70 percent from the post-recession low, while San Diego prices are 11 percent off the old top after a 59 percent rebound from the bottom.

Contact the writer: jlansner@ocregister.com
When former ballerina Marcia Dale Weary opened a classical ballet school inside a barn in rural central Pennsylvania in 1956, she had a simple vision of teaching a new generation of young dancers to love the art as much as she did.

I had a big dream to have a school, Weary said. I did believe (it would survive) because I always thought I would dance until I die. But I dont know that I ever thought it would become this grand.

Sixty years and several generations later, Wearys vision is still going strong at the Carlisle school, which is widely considered one of the top ballet training grounds in the nation, if not the world.

Those kids are amazing, said Stacey Calvert, a former professional ballerina whose daughter, Ayla ODay, is a student at CPYB. Most are ready for professional companies. Marcia is an amazing woman and mentor.

The school will celebrate its 60th anniversary with a special performance at 5:30 p.m. June 25 at Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts, the downtown Harrisburg venue where CPYB has served as the resident ballet company for the past 17 years.

Among the performers will be former CPYB student Leta Biasucci, now a soloist with the Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle, Washington. She is among nearly 100 CPYB alumni currently dancing professionally.

The impact Marcia has had on the dance community speaks to her incredible talent, Biasucci said. Really, shes beyond incredible. Marcia instill in her students not only an amazing technical foundation but also just this love of dance, this appreciation of dance.

During the anniversary show, Biasucci will perform the Waltz Girl role from Balanchines famous Serenade, the first ballet the Russian choreographed after coming to the United States. Ironically, it is also the last role Biasucci danced before leaving CPYB to begin her professional career a decade ago.

Its timeless and beautiful and just gorgeous on every level, she said of Serenade. Theres something very spiritual about this piece. Thats why everyone in the dance community approaches it with a sense of reverence. Which makes it all the more special for me to come back and perform it again for Marcia.

The anniversary show also will include some other works by Balanchine, as well as pieces from former CPYB director Alan Hineline and a new work from choreographer Price Suddarth, who also dances with the Pacific Northwest Ballet.

Suddarth, who trained at the formidable School of American Ballet in New York City, came to CPYB last month to show students the new work.

Its a very well-respected school in the world of dance, a tribute to Marcia, he said. Its a pretty impressive structure, the way they work there. The students are very talented and very smart.

Wearys school is not a place for dilettantes. Students are pushed hard and the training is rigorous, yet young dancers come from all over the country to train with Weary, who still teaches, and her staff.

Im most proud of the children who attend our school, Weary said. To me they are very special children. Those who didnt become (professional) dancers learned how to reach for a goal. The ones who have and are currently dancing bring such a beautiful gift to the world. When I see them all grown up I get tears in my eyes.
COSTA MESA  Two teenagers have been arrested on suspicion of vandalizing police vehicles during protests that turned destructive after a Donald Trump campaign rally in Costa Mesa on April 28, police said Tuesday.

Officers are looking for a third male suspect seen jumping on the roof of a patrol car, Sgt. Matt Grimmond said.

Authorities did not release the names of the suspects, ages 16 and 17, because they are minors. Each is suspected of damaging a different police vehicle. The arrests, announced Tuesday, were made in the last few weeks.

Investigators released photos of the third suspect in a white shirt and black pants with a black cap with green under the bill, gray shoes and a gray shirt covering his mouth.

Costa Mesa police are looking for other suspects in the vandalism of six police cars in all, in addition to those involved in two assault cases related to the protests but off of the Orange County fairgrounds, where the rally took place.

Authorities have said that more than 31,000 people attended the rally but only 8,500 fit into the fairgrounds amphitheater. After the rally, demonstrators flocked to the streets, some of them throwing rocks, attempting to flip a police car and smashing police vehicle windows.

About 15 people were arrested that night.

Anyone with information on the third suspect is asked to call detectives at 714-754-5198.

Contact the writer: 714-796-7865 or afausto@ocregister.com
A 33-year-old Santa Ana man was arrested early Wednesday morning by Irvine police after leading them on a pursuit.

Officers tried to pull the mans car over around 3:30 a.m. near the area of Harvard and Warner avenues but he kept going, according to Irvine police spokeswoman Farrah Emami.

The driver has been identified as Carl Gonzalez.

The car hit a curb at Warner Avenue and West Yale Loop and would not run, and Gonzalez got out of the car and ran, Emami said.

Police officers set up a perimeter and searched the area. Shortly after, a resident of a nearby neighborhood called to report that a man asked to use his cellphone. The resident told police where the man was.

Gonzalez was arrested on suspicion of evading police, obstructing and resisting, hit and run causing property damage and possession of drugs and drug paraphernalia.

Irvine police said Gonzalez was on already parole.

Contact the writer: 714-796-7865 or afausto@ocregister.com
This Friday, May 27, 2016 image from video provided by KCBS-TV/KCAL-TV shows graffiti on a Vietnam War memorial near Venice. The homespun memorial painted on a block-long wall on Pacific Avenue lists the names of American service members missing in action or unaccounted for in Southeast Asia, painted by a Vietnam veteran and dedicated in 1992. The wall has been tagged previously but the latest vandalism  within the past week  covers the bottom half of the memorial for much of its length.
RIO DE JANEIRO  Brazils top prosecutor has asked the countrys highest court to arrest senior political allies of acting President Michel Temer for allegedly obstructing a corruption probe into state oil company Petrobras, a leading media outlet reported on Tuesday.

TV Globo said that Attorney General Rodrigo Janot is seeking the arrests of former president Jose Sarney, former planning minister and current Sen. Romero Juca, lower house Speaker Eduardo Cunha and Senate head Renan Calheiros. All four politicians belong to Temers centrist Brazilian Democratic Movement Party, or PMDB, and performed key roles in suspending President Dilma Rousseff from office in early May.

The Supreme Federal Tribunal Justice Teori Zavascki will decide on the request. Only the high court can arrest or try elected officials.

Janot and the high courts press office declined to comment on the media report.

The case is based on audio recordings in which the politicians allegedly discuss legislation that would limit the impact of the ongoing Petrobras investigation. That probe has already caught up many of their colleagues across the ideological spectrum.

Calheiros said the reported requests for him and the others to be arrested were disproportional and abusive. Speaking at the start of a Tuesday Senate session, he told colleagues that the body will not be dragged into this crisis, it will be the solution.

Sarney said in a statement that he has been left stunned, outraged and upset. Because of his age, the 86-year-old would be placed under house arrest with an ankle monitoring device if Zavascki decides the charges are valid. The other three would be jailed.

Both Cunha and Juca have labeled the report as absurd.

Cunha was earlier suspended from his duties for obstruction of justice in the same case.

Juca was forced two weeks ago to take a leave of absence because of the audios recorded in the case by a an executive of another state owned oil company, Transpetro. The senator allegedly suggested in the recordings that Rousseffs impeachment could help block the corruption probe at Petrobras.

Temer could struggle to stay on if Zavascki decides to arrest his allies.

At least 54 of 81 senators will have to vote in favor for Rousseff to be permanently removed from the presidency on the accusation that she broke fiscal laws.

The Senate impeachment commission says her trial could end in mid-August while Brazil is hosting the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, but the courts Chief Justice Ricardo Lewandowski will make the final decision.
SANTA ANA  When Maria Korcsmaros saw shark researcher Ralph Collier walk into her hospital room, she beamed.

I love your shirt. Its got a big shark on it, the 52-year-old triathlete said as she lay in a bed at Orange County Global Medical Center recovering from a shark attack off Corona del Mar State Beach.

She was surrounded by flowers and a stuffed bear wearing her swimming goggles, returned to her by the Newport Beach lifeguards who had rescued her.

Korcsmaros, of Corona, was attacked May 29. The shark chomped through her right arm and tore away a good bit of her tricep. The massive pressure of its jaw broke two ribs, punctured her lung and liver, and fractured her pelvis.

Collier and Chris Lowe, who runs the Shark Lab at Cal State Long Beach, stopped in Tuesday afternoon to talk with Korcsmaros. They evaluated the wetsuit she had been wearing and studied photographs of her wounds.

Korcsmaros detailed the days events for the two researchers. She answered their questions about where the sun was, her swim pace, if she had been dragged and if she felt anything in the water before the attack. She told them the water at the beach is usually clear but was murky the day of the attack.

How it began

It was a regular day at the beach, where she trains twice a week. She was doing a 2-mile swim to prepare for an Ironman next month in Canada. Her husband, Alex, and son Lucas, 16, planned to hang out at the beach and relax.

Korcsmaros had just finished her first lap around four buoys about 150 yards off the beach. The waves were rolling. She concentrated on her pace and stride. Suddenly, as she rounded the first buoy on her second lap, she felt a crushing pressure along her right side from her shoulder to her pelvis.

I instantly knew it was some kind of fish  like a big fish, Korcsmaros said. I felt the bite and the teeth going into me.

Korcsmaros thought about a shark. A self-proclaimed nature nut, the mother of three enjoys seeing marine life such as sea lions and dolphins during swims.

I know there are predators in the water, but I also know the statistics, and I kept those in the back of my head, she said.

As she felt the teeth sink in, her competitive edge kicked in. She briefly thought of the scene in Jaws. With her whole body throbbing from the attack, she held steady. She kept her body level and starting treading water.

I didnt know how badly injured I was. I just knew I had to get to the lifeguard boat, she said. I waved my arms and treaded water. Im like a military sergeant in my (fitness) boot camp, and I just pumped up my booming voice and they heard me. In training, theres a certain amount of mental toughness. You have to get to the finish line.

That finish line was the yellow lifeguard boat 100 yards away. Within seconds, the boat and two Newport Beach lifeguards were at her side, pulling her from the pool of dark red water that surrounded her. The water was oddly calm, she recalled.

The lifeguards pulled her in and placed her bleeding body in the bottom of the boat. They told her to keep pressure on her arm while they applied a tourniquet.

I could feel the warm, gushing blood, but I couldnt breathe, she said. I knew my arm was still there because I could feel the tourniquet around it.

They kept talking to me, and at some point I told them to turn my Garmin off, she said, referring to the GPS watch tracking her swim.

Waiting for news

For Lucas, the reality of what happened didnt set in until later. He had been watching his mom for a while. When he next looked for her, a helicopter was flying overhead and Newport Beach lifeguards were telling people to get out of the water. There had been a shark attack.

Lucas usually kept track of his moms swim cap, which was white. At first he was calm  he looked out and saw a white spot in the distance where she had been. But when the white spot flew up from the water, Lucas realized it was a seagull.

He threw everything into his backpack and ran off to find his father, not stopping to brush off sand. When he found him, his father told him the shark had attacked his mom. They raced to the hospital in Santa Ana.

When I first saw her and saw she was in pain, I just broke down, Lucas said. But I knew she was strong. I knew she wasnt going to leave my life at this time.

Tuesday, after nine days in the hospital and hours of surgery, Korcsmaros was ready to go home. But not before the two shark experts gave her their report. Surrounded by Lucas, her husband and her parents, Paul and Fiona De Biasi, she eagerly awaited the news.

Collier, founder of the Shark Research Committee in Chatsworth, and Lowe told Korcsmaros and her family about the size of the cuts in the wetsuit. The DNA samples they took off the wetsuit, Lowe said, will confirm the sharks species. He said he believes it was a teenage great white.

The shark was probably 9 to 10 feet, Collier said. The shark made contact with you twice and repurchased (shifted) his jaws within a second. It wasnt predatory. The shark didnt think you were food. It was either an investigative or defensive response. The poor water visibility wasnt a deterrent. Had he seen you clearly, he may have completely avoided you.

Back to training

Korcsmaros said shes not sure shell have full use of her arm, but she wants to start training soon. She also wants to get back into the water.

Im more aware of what can happen, but I still have my same fascination with nature, she said. Its made me stronger. When you experience something like this and make it through, you have a certain amount of respect.

Lucas, a certified diver, said he cant wait for National Geographics Shark Week to start.

I wont think of them differently, he said. This wasnt on purpose.

Contact the writer: 714-796-2254 or eritchie@ocregister.com or Twitter@lagunaini
Most observers expected that Hillary Clinton would be crowned the victor in the Democratic presidential primary process at some point after New Jersey voted on Tuesday.

Supporters of Bernie Sanders hoped to convince the media to hold off on such an announcement until the convention or, at the very least, until after polls closed in California later Tuesday night. But everyone knew some sort of declaration was coming; Clinton was within a few dozen delegates of winning  including both winning through voting and superdelegates  and New Jersey would put her over the top.

But then on Monday evening, unexpectedly, the Associated Press sent out an announcement: Clinton was already there.

Over the weekend, Clinton won two more Democratic contests that drew her within shouting distance of clinching the nomination  the Virgin Islands and (more important) Puerto Rico. On Monday morning, she needed 23 moredelegates to hit the 2,383-delegate mark that constitutes a majority for the convention. She had 1,812 pledged delegates and commitments from more than 500 superdelegates, but she was a bit short of the threshold.

What happened on Monday was that the Associated Press received commitments from enough superdelegates  just enough superdelegates, in fact  to put Clinton over the top. With 23 more superdelegates in hand, Clinton reached the 2,383 mark, and the AP made the call.

Understandably, that out-of-the-blue determination prompted even more frustration and confusion than was already expected. How was the AP sure that those superdelegates wouldnt change their minds? Why release new totals the day before the critical primaries in California? Who were the superdelegates that made the difference?

We did our best to answer those questions.

Q. How does the AP know the superdelegates wont change their minds?

A. Overnight, the Associated Press published an explanation of how it collects those commitments. Its worth excerpting at length:

The AP surveys the superdelegates throughout the primary season to track whom they plan to support at the July convention.

If a superdelegate tells the AP he or she plans to unequivocally support a candidate at the convention, thats added to the candidates tally.

Those who decline to answer, say they have yet to make a decision or express any reservations are listed as uncommitted.

Whats important to remember is who these superdelegates are. Pew Researchbroke down their demographics earlier this year. More than half of the 714 superdelegates are members of the Democratic National Committee. Another 261 are members of Congress or governors.

These are firmly entrenched members of the Democratic establishment  by design. The reason superdelegates exist is to act as a veto over the errant will of the voters, should they feel the need to do so. But in this case, the preference of the establishment has aligned with the will of the voters: Clinton will end the primary contest with more pledged delegates, more votes and more victories.

Superdelegates were added to the process in the 1984 presidential election  which, according to MSNBCs Steve Kornacki, was also the first year that the person who lost the popular contest tried to flip the result through their votes.

It didnt work.

The APs write-up notes that some superdelegates did flip in 2008  once it became clear that Barack Obama would win the pledged delegate majority. This year, no one has flipped from Clinton to Sanders. There was one conversion: A superdelegate from the Virgin Islands flipped from Sanders to Clinton. In a telephone conversation with The Post, Stephen Ohlemacher, the AP reporter in charge of tallying the organizations delegate count, explained that there had been one other wavering superdelegate.

There was one early on who was for Clinton, Ohlemacher said. Shes from Puerto Rico, and she switched to uncommitted because she wanted to hear what Hillary Clintons views were on how to deal with the financial crisis in Puerto Rico before she committed to her.

Apparently, she must have heard what she wanted to hear, because since then she has switched back to Clinton, Ohlemacher said.

Q. Why announce a winner on Monday?

A. We should start by noting that the AP made a similarly unexpected call in the Republican race. That contest was essentially over after the May 3 primary in Indiana, but it wasnt until May 26 that the APs tabulation (including pledges from unbound Republican delegates, the equivalent of superdelegates) put Trump over the top.

In a statement to the media, AP Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll suggested that this was as simple a reason as was required. By Monday evening, 571 superdelegates had told us unequivocally that they intend to vote for Clinton at the convention, she wrote. Adding that number to the delegates awarded to Clinton in primary and caucus voting to date gave her the number needed to be the presumptive nominee.

That is news, she continued, and reporting the news is what we do.

Weve been chasing this story for months, Ohlemacher added. We started surveying the superdelegates late last year. We use reporters from all over the country. Mostly it would be state reporters in each state, calling the delegates in their states. Some of us in Washington had done some follow-up.

As Hillary Clinton was getting closer to 2,383, he said, we ramped up our efforts to reach out to them to find out if any of these folks were ready to commit to either candidate.

Theres some subjectivity to that commitment. We only add people to the count if they unequivocally tell us that they are going to vote for whichever candidate at the convention, Ohlemacher said. Ive had people say, Well, Im 95 percent there. And I say, Well, get back in touch when youre 100 percent there. 

Youll notice that this whole process depends on when superdelegates make up their minds. And since so many superdelegates are political actors, you can see how there might be some strategy involved in the timing of how and when superdelegates tell the AP about their commitments.

Which brings us to the next question.

Q. Who put Clinton over the top?

A. The Intercepts Glenn Greenwald, who supports Sanders, framed the APs announcement this way.

AP claims that superdelegates who had not previously announced their intentions privately told AP reporters that they intend to vote for Clinton, he wrote, bringing her over the threshold. AP is concealing the identity of the decisive super-delegates who said this.

The implication, made clear by the headline of the piece (Perfect End to Democratic Primary: Anonymous Superdelegates Declare Winner Through Media), is that those superdelegates withheld their commitments until they saw a politically opportune moment. On Monday, they saw it, and kicked the mechanism the AP uses into gear.

We cant know for sure the extent to which this was a deliberate ploy on the part of Clinton supporters to step on Tuesdays voting results. But its also not clear at this point where the political benefit from the announcement lies. Intuitively, it seems as though it might benefit Clinton, since Sanderss younger base of voters who planned to come out to the polls on Tuesday might no longer do so  and Clintons older, more-likely-to-vote base would be less affected.

Journalist Jonathan Alter proposes that Sanders might actually benefit from the outrage that our Robert Costa saw firsthand in San Francisco.

Its possible that the goal wasnt to affect the results but, rather, to re-frame them. No matter what happens in California on Tuesday, it will be accompanied by an asterisk. If Sanders wins, Clinton and/or her supporters can claim that it was backlash to the APs call. If Clinton wins, Sanders can make the same case  but his long-shot argument for earning the support of superdelegates will be significantly undercut.

In other words, the leak is probably win-win for Clinton  which may have been exactly what the superdelegates that tipped hoped.

We dont know which superdelegates were the ones who informed the AP about their decisions on Monday; the AP declined to tell us who they were.

We do know that it would have happened anyway. Clinton has strong support from the Democratic establishment  but she also won a majority of delegates from voting and more overall votes than Sanders. Is there an outside chance that the Democratic nomination could go to someone besides Clinton? Sure, just as there has always been such a chance between when a candidate clinches and when the nomination is confirmed at the convention.

Mondays announcement may have come earlier than expected, but it was expected.
In the span of just one year, a young Chinese conman reportedly managed to fool 11 other men into thinking that he was their dream girl before disappearing with large sums of money. Believe it or not, the guy even managed to trick one of them into a wedding after telling him that she was pregnant.

A man surnamed Wang, from Chinas Huaiyang county, recently got the shock of his life after police told him that his pregnant runaway bride was actually a guy cross-dressing as a woman. Last October, Wang was overjoyed when his girlfriend, who he had met online, told him she was expecting a baby. The mans family shared their happiness and immediately started planning a big wedding and grand feast. The joyous event went off without a hitch, but three days later, the bride simply vanished, taking with her gifts and valuables worth tens of thousands of Chinese yuan. He was probably to embarrassed to report his wife missing just days from the wedding, and his family thought they probably had a fight, so they didnt alert the authorities either.

Around the same time, another young man from neighboring Ruzhou city notified authorities that a woman claiming to be named Miao Xiaomin, who he had met online, had tricked him into giving her 31,000 yuan before disappearing without a trace. Following what few leads they had, police officers managed to contact this Xiaomin person and lure her into an internet cafe. They planned on arresting a charming young female con artist, but they were surprised to see the suspect was dressed as a man and carried a male identity card for 27-year-old Miao Songtao.

It was only after searching Songtaos residence that everything started to make some sense. They found skirts, wigs, high heel shoes and cosmetic masks and even womens underwear. In an interview with reporters at the local jail, Miao Songtao said he had always been interested in womens clothes and accessories and was unsure if he fancied men or women. What he has positive about was that he liked money.

The 27-year-old conman confessed to defrauding 11 boyfriends out of hundreds of thousands of yuan, in the last year. Interestingly, only one of them reported her to the police.

Somewhat understandably, many Chinese internet users have been left impressed by his skills. After all, men posing as women online is not unheard of, but a guy convincing another dude into a wedding on grounds of pregnancy is pretty darn special.

Fooling that many people, its really no wonder that Mulan was able to stay in the army for years with no one suspecting her secret, one user wrote. I just want to know how they did it? another asked. Thats actually a pretty good question.

Sources: Peoples Daily Online, Shanghaiist
We get plenty of bizarre emails in our inbox every day. Whether its messages from U.S. pharmacies, Middle Eastern Sheiks looking to give us their fortune if we simply reply with our address and social, or Asian parts suppliers looking for distributors, we tend to see some interesting stuff in our Off-Road.com inbox.

One message we received last year from BFGoodrich Public Relations Manager Tom Sullivan especially caught our attention  and unlike many others, were glad this one didnt go into spam. BFG was inviting us to test its next-generation mud-terrain tire, which sounded like an amazing invite and one that surprised us a little. Although we journalists often get to see products ahead of the general public, typically by the time we see them they are completed  no more testing, design changes, name changes, etc. This test, however, would be in conjunction with BFGs on-going development for its next-gen mud tire. This was certainly a trip we couldnt pass up.

Last December, after accepting the invitation, we found ourselves on a plane to Georgia. Our small group discretely drove through sections of the Durhamtown Off-Road Resort and plowed through plenty of fresh mud (thanks to recent heavy rains) on the current KM2 Mud-Terrain tires and the in-development KM3 (which we now have permission to officially call the KM3). The experience was great, provided us with insight into the tire design and exactly what BFGoodrich engineers are looking to accomplish with the new tire, and it provided BFG with a gauge on their progress from racers and journalists.

Fast-forward into 2016 and we received another e-mail. This time, BFGoodrich wanted to test its latest version of the KM3 in Utah to gauge its dry traction ability. Shortly thereafter, we were on a plane and headed to Salt Lake City, and then from there to the Utah Motorsports Campus just outside of SLC. Since the facility has a rock park, the location provided us with a great chance to test the dry traction and rock-crawling ability of the new KM3. Similar to our first testing session, a few select off-road journalists were in attendance, along with a few racers and brand ambassadors for BFG. Although this was the second event of its kind for the KM3, the format of these events is still a bit of an experiment for BFG.

We obviously do our internal tests that take us to a certain point in time in our development, and I think putting them into the hands of folks like you who do this for a living and have done it with our tires and other tires can really give us objective feedback in how were doing with the development of this tire, Sullivan said. We have heard from folks that have the KM2 now and what they want to see in the next-generation mud tire, so when we took you all down several months ago to do some mud testing I think we demonstrated increased mud performance there, and what were doing out here is performance testing the dry traction and toughness of this tire.

BFG is taking a unique approach in looking for outside input beyond its engineers and test team, but it comes down to the value BFGoodrich places on our collective group opinion. We wondered: How did you come up with the small group?

Well, its guys weve worked with a lot and guys and women we trust, Sullivan said. Theres a mixture of ambassadors and journalists here and its kind of a unique approach. The idea started with our marketing and development program. We said, How about we bring in these guys that weve worked with a long time and let them tell us how they feel? And the fact that we dont worry too much about things getting out, theres a trust factor there too.

Sullivan also had a little more detail as to how BFGoodrich sees the KM3 differing from the current KM2.

I think there are a couple of things that we want to do with this tire, and one thing that we keep hearing is people want to see some increased strength in the sidewall, so that is one thing that were looking at addressing with this tire as well, he said. Even from our last test to our most recent one, the tire has evolved and will continue to do so.

There are a few things weve learned about the evolution of the KM3 from our last test to now. As Sullivan noted, the sidewall strength is a clear objective for the BFG team, and the KM3 has more wrap-around tread on its sidewalls similar to the KO2. Aside from tread design changes (which were not allowed to show just yet remember, trust factor!), the compound of the KM3 differs from the KM2 as well. On some of the rock-crawling obstacles at the Utah Motorsports Campus, we could note subtle differences in how each tire gripped rock. Both tires offered good traction on the rock-climbing slopes, but we noticed when the KM2 lost grip the tire struggled to regain it, causing the tire to hop a bit more; whereas when the KM3 would lose traction it would tend to regain that grip in a more composed manner (a little more spinning, a little less hopping).

Although our testing at the Utah Motorsports Campus was with tires at full air pressure, we did get to perform some aired-down testing out on the trail. We ventured away from the Motorsports Complex to tackle Rattlesnake Gulch Trail, which is interconnected with a number of other trails that wind through the mountains outside of Fairfield, Utah. This gave us the chance to compare the difference in aired-down performance of the KM2 and KM3, as well as the toughness of the tires since the trail featured rock piles to scale, weather-rutted roads, and even a few sand hill climbs.

From what we can gather, the KM3 looks to be on the right. Most of the Jeep Wranglers we had in attendance only had moderate 2-inch lifts, and we werent testing giant tires (265/70R17s). We did, however, have a set of 37s on one of the BFG Wranglers in attendance that was far more built up. After scaling a few obstacles and trying to scale a few others (we even ended up with one broken axle), the KM3s were no worse for the wear. The aired-down KM3 were up to the challenging of tackling challenging obstacles, and they aggressive sidewalls offered additional protection and grip in the rocks.

The hardest part to wrap our heads around is the fact that the KM3 wont be available until next year. The KM3 appears closer to completion than further from it, and yet there are still potential changes it could undergo. So after this round of testing, it left us wondering: Whats the next step in the evolution of this tire?

So for this tire to perform at its best theres several different characteristic it has to have. It has to have dry traction, mud performance, and it also has to have strong tread wear, Sullivan said. So thats going to be the next thing we do is some endurance testing. Theres a possibility well bring it to some off-road pro races and see how they perform in that grueling environment, so thatll be kind of the next development. And then early into next year I think well have a lot of information both from our internal testing and the things were doing here with you all, and well be able to put together a really good product.

Were looking forward to seeing, and driving, the final product. For now, well have to be patient and wait to see what BFGoodrich comes up with in the next version of its KM3 tire.
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The Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg is preparing to distribute a letter in opposition to child sex abuse reform legislation.

The letter takes aim at PA House Bill 1947, which would eliminate statutes of limitations on future child sex abuse cases, and expand statutes of limitations for which both future and past victims of child sexual abuse can file civil lawsuits.

I can say, regarding the legislation, that the church is not opposed to the criminal statute of limitations being eliminated, says Joe Aponick, spokesman for the Harrisburg Diocese. What were opposed to is the retroactive portion of this.

While HB 1947 addresses all cases of child sexual abuse in Pennsylvania, Aponick says the retroactive portion of the bill is unfair due to the potential countless number of lawsuits that could be filed against the church based on findings of previous sex abuse investigations. In most cases, including scathing findings in the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese, the statute of limitations for victims to file suit against alleged abusers has expired.

Abuse happens everywhere in society, and this is not a Catholic problem, adds Aponick. Thats why this legislation is so unfair. Because it just really targets a small section of victims. It really created two classes of victims.

Aponick says Catholics within the 18 county diocese should find the letter in parish bulletins within the next week or two. Catholic schools in the region may also send a copy to parents of students.

The letter promotes the current services offered to victims of child sex abuse by the Catholic church, while also making a case against HB 1947. Among the claims in the letter is that the financial impact of potential lawsuits filed against the church could result in the closing of parishes, schools and ministries.
South Middleton School Board Monday appointed two representatives to a committee being formed to consider Tax Increment Financing as a strategy for infrastructure improvements planned for a mixed-use development proposed for 248 acres northeast of the Fairfield Street/York Road intersection.

Operations and Business Manager Matthew Ulmer and board member Steven Bear will represent the school district on a committee that could also include representatives from South Middleton Township and Cumberland County.

The Cumberland County Industrial Development Authority plans to approach the township board of supervisors and the county commissioners in the hope of empaneling a committee within the next one to two months.

If formed, this committee will be tasked with developing a TIF plan over a nine-month period to identify what improvements to finance using an agreed-upon portion of future property tax revenue increases to cover debt service payments.

Once work is complete, the CCIDA will present the plan to the school district, township and county asking each governing board to either opt-in or opt-out of what is being proposed. This could happen within a 10-to-11-month timeframe.

Naming representatives to a TIF committee does not obligate South Middleton School District to opt in or out of a TIF, Board President Michael Berk said.

School board members responded to the CCIDA request Monday by naming representatives without committing the school district to a strategy that provides an incentive for development by leveraging future increases to pay upfront infrastructure costs.

We need to be at the table, board member Tom Merlie said. We need to have a voice to make sure this district and its stakeholders are heard.

The purpose of this process is to vet any questions board members may have regarding the feasibility of TIF as a strategy, said Jonathan Bowser, chief executive officer of the Cumberland Area Economic Development Corporation, which oversees the CCIDA.

In this case, the main purpose of the TIF is to help finance a $5 million road that would run through the middle of the mixed-use project site and connect Trindle Road in the north to York Road in the south. Other improvements planned for this development include water and sewer extensions and storm water upgrades.

A conceptual plan for the 248 acres includes a sit-down restaurant, a bank, a fast food restaurant, a medical office and 537 residential units along with 268,000 square feet of commercial retail space, 67,600 square feet of office space and 75,200 of light industrial and manufacturing space.

The light industrial and manufacturing uses will be located along Trindle Road on land owned by RSJ Holdings north of Lisburn Road. Heritage Developers own the rest of the land. The retail and commercial uses will be located along York Road while 216 townhomes, 192 apartments and 129 single family detached homes will be located in the middle portion of the project site.

The 248 acres currently assessed at $1.37 million will grow in value to about $171 million once the project is completely built out within 15 to 20 years, Bowser said. He added the proposed development would create about 546 temporary construction jobs and 975 permanent onsite jobs.

School board President Berk asked if CCIDA had any research proving the need for additional retail space given that the Carlisle Crossing Shopping Center located nearby has a large number of vacancies. Bowser said the vacancies were caused by the current property owner increasing the rent on the retail space.

South Middleton Township supervisors have made it clear the connector between York and Trindle roads must be in before any other development could occur on the 248-acre site.

A TIF is one way to finance an improvement that would bring development and an increase in property tax revenue for the school district, township and county, Bowser said. It is about growing the tax base.

Once the TIF loan or bond is paid off, the TIF district would be dissolved and the taxing bodies would receive the full amount of the increased property tax revenue generated by the development as new buildings come online.

CCIDA officials reassured school board members the taxing bodies would have no liability should there be a default on the money borrowed to finance the infrastructure improvements.
In unveiling a sweeping plan to replace the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, a top House Republican on Tuesday called the 2010 law a grave mistake foisted upon the American people.

Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, laid out an alternative that Republicans could seek if they win the White House in November. The law has been fiercely criticized as overly burdensome by GOP lawmakers, Wall Street executives and industry officials.

Hensarling outlined a plan that would repeal or loosen a slew of Dodd-Frank regulations to offer all Americans opportunities to raise their standards of living and achieve financial independence.

A key provision would reduce the power of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and allow banks to increase the amount of capital they hold to avoid stricter regulatory oversight.

Simply put, Dodd-Frank has failed, Hensarling said in a speech to the Economic Club of New York. Its time for a new legislative paradigm in banking and capital markets.

Regulatory relief has been the battle cry of the nations smaller community banks for years, but that cry has gotten louder in the years since Dodd-Frank. The rigor of regulatory requirements has become such that many institutions, including some in Nebraska, have dropped lines of business like mortgage lending or, in more extreme cases, shut their doors entirely, said Kurt Yost, president and chief executive of the Nebraska Independent Community Bankers.

Thats because the costs and time required to comply with increasing regulatory oversight outweigh the benefits to smaller banks, especially those in rural communities, Yost said.

Bruning State Banks Jerry Catlett said his bank is still in the residential mortgage business, but there are a handful in the area around Thayer County that arent anymore.

Catlett is chief financial officer for the Bruning-based bank in southeastern Nebraska and heads its compliance effort. Hes also chairman of the Nebraska Bankers Association, and in that capacity he said he has come across 10 or 15 banks in the state that no longer make residential mortgage loans.

In smaller and midsized communities where banks would make home loans and keep them as assets instead of selling the loans on the secondary market, weve seen a lot of banks get away from doing that, Catlett said.

Officials from the states three largest banks  First National Bank of Omaha, Mutual of Omaha Bank and Pinnacle Bank  said Tuesday they had yet to fully digest the Hensarling proposal.

At First National Bank of Omaha, a spokesman said the bank was still reviewing the documents and their possible implications. This appears to be a detailed and well-thought-out proposal, a statement from the bank said.

The complex new legislation has virtually no chance of passing Congress this year. And President Barack Obama would almost certainly veto any bill rolling back Dodd-Frank, which is one of his signature accomplishments.

Obama last week criticized continued Republican attempts targeting the law.

How it is that somebody could propose that we weaken regulations on Wall Street? Obama said in a speech in Indiana. Because of their reckless behavior, you got hurt.

But Hensarlings plan is a road map of what Republicans could try to accomplish on financial regulation if the party wins the presidency and retains control of Congress in the November elections.

Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, said last month that he was drawing up plans that would be close to dismantling Dodd-Frank.

Dodd-Frank has made it impossible for bankers to function, Trump told Reuters. It makes it very hard for bankers to loan money for people to create jobs, for people with businesses to create jobs. And that has to stop.

Dodd-Frank passed Congress with almost no Republican support in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.

The law toughened regulations on banks and other financial firms, set up a powerful panel of regulators to watch for signs of instability and created a new consumer bureau, which has broad authority to oversee credit cards, mortgages and other financial products.

But industry advocates like Yost argue the measure went too far by blanketing even the smallest players in the industry with regulations designed to rein in giants.

There needs to be a tiered regulatory system. This mantra of one voice for the banking industry is so much poppycock, Yost said. You cant have one voice because the business model of banks on Wall Street is dynamically different than even the business model of First National Bank of Omaha, the largest family-owned bank in the U.S.

Republicans have been trying unsuccessfully to scale back the law since taking control of the House in 2011.

Hensarlings Financial CHOICE Act, which stands for Creating Hope and Opportunity for Investors, Consumers and Entrepreneurs, incorporates several bills that have passed the House but failed to become law with Obama in the White House.

Hensarling said Tuesday that the crisis wasnt caused by lack of regulation but by dumb regulation.

When they voted for it, supporters of Dodd-Frank told us it would promote financial stability, end too big to fail,  and lift the economy. None of this has come to pass, he said.

Hensarling said his plan would address all those problems.

Banks could avoid tougher regulatory oversight if they held capital that was at least 10 percent of their assets. The current requirement is 3 percent for most banks and 6 percent for institutions considered systemically important.

Hensarling stressed that the plan, unlike some other proposals, doesnt force any bank to raise capital. But if they choose to, banks would be safer and avoid Dodd-Franks suffocating regulatory complexity and control.

To end the problem of financial institutions considered too big to fail, Hensarling would create a new section of the bankruptcy code to wind them down.

That would replace Dodd-Franks orderly liquidation authority, which allows regulators to seize and shut down a major financial firm on the brink of failure. Republicans have criticized that power as a type of bailout.

Hensarling also targeted the new consumer bureau, which he and other Republicans have criticized as too powerful and unaccountable to Congress because its funding comes directly from the Federal Reserve.

The plan would rename the agency the Consumer Financial Opportunity Commission. The single director would be replaced with a bipartisan, five-member commission, and the agencys funding would be subject to congressional appropriations.

World-Herald staff writer Cole Epley contributed to this report.
Mechanicsburg has a new police chief who really isnt all that new to the borough.

Mechanicsburg Borough Council unanimously appointed Margaret A. Mindy Myers as the boroughs new police chief Tuesday night after she successfully completed a six-month probationary period. Officials and a small crowd of residents present at the meeting broke into a spirited round of applause upon Myers appointment.

Congratulations, Board President Rodney Whitcomb told Myers.

Now get to work, Councilman Scott Pellman joked.

Myers was appointed as acting chief by borough council on Nov. 21, 2015, after the resignation of Chief David J. Spotts. Spotts left to become the safety director in Lower Paxton Township. Myers began her career in 1980 with the Hampden Township Police Department and joined the Mechanicsburg force as a patrol officer in 1984. She was promoted to lieutenant in 2002.

Thank you for hiring our chief. I cant think of a person more deserving than Chief Myers. Congratulations, Chief, on behalf of the police department and we look forward to serving you, Mechanicsburg Police Sgt. Brian Curtis said during a public comment session at the end of the meeting.

Im looking forward to serving the people of the borough, Myers said.

The borough council also hired Michael McNulty and Nathaniel Taylor as park security and community service officers. Nicholas Snyder was hired as a park security officer, and Sarah Sanders was hired as a park security officer and intern.

Other news

Also on Tuesday, council members approved a letter of commitment for an application for a traffic signal at the Legacy Park, a proposed neighborhood-style development that would become the largest in the boroughs history when completed.

Acting Borough Manager Glenda Boyer said the action is simply a formality for the projects developer, Landmark Homes, to submit an application to the state Department of Transportation for a traffic signal at the developments proposed South Market Street entrance.

The borough council approved a preliminary land development plan for Legacy Park in November 2015. In March, the borough council unanimously approved a sewer planning module for the development in compliance with the boroughs Act 537 plan.

As proposed, the development will comprise 683 homes and roughly 26,000 square feet of commercial and retail business space on 185 acres located in a southern portion of the borough known as the Hess Farm tract. The project would be constructed in eight phases.

Legacy Homes also proposes to install a traffic signal at South Market Street and Shepherdstown Road at a later stage in the projects development, but Boyer said that isnt likely to happen soon. Borough officials havent yet approved a final land development plan for Legacy Park.
The author was White House counsel and U.S. attorney general in the George W. Bush administration. He wrote this for the Washington Post.

Donald Trump suggested last week that U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel cant give him a fair hearing. Curiel, who is presiding over a class-action suit against Trump over his former for-profit educational company, Trump University, is a U.S. citizen, born in Indiana to Mexican immigrants.

Im building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border if elected, the presumptive Republican nominee for president told the Wall Street Journal. Its an inherent conflict of interest. Earlier in the week, he told a crowd at a rally in San Diego that Curiel was a hater of Donald Trump, a hater.

As a private citizen, Trump has a right to his opinions, regardless of whether others agree with them, or whether others consider them wise, foolish or even dangerous. Trump, of course, is more than a private citizen; as the likely nominee for president of a major political party, he speaks with a voice that carries much weight and, if successful in November, will influence millions of people.

Because of this, some commentators have condemned Trumps suggestion that Curiel step down from the case. These voices have, quite rightly, emphasized the importance of upholding our independent judiciary from baseless attacks by high-level persons from other branches of government.

An independent judiciary is extremely important. But that value is not the only one in play here. Equally important, if not more important from my perspective as a former judge and U.S. attorney general, is a litigants right to a fair trial. The protection of that right is a primary reason why our Constitution provides for an independent judiciary.

If judges and the trials over which they preside are not perceived as being impartial, the public will quickly lose confidence in the rule of law upon which our nation is based. For this reason, ethics codes for judges  including the federal code of conduct governing Curiel  require not only that judges actually be impartial, but also that they avoid even the appearance of impropriety. That appearance typically is measured from the standpoint of a reasonable litigant.

It is crucial to understand the real issue in this matter. I am not judging whether Curiel is actually biased against Trump. Only he knows the answer to that question. I am not saying that I would be concerned about him presiding over a case in which I was a litigant. And if I were a litigant who was concerned about the judges impartiality, I certainly would not deal with it in a public manner as Trump has, because it demeans the integrity of the judicial office and thus potentially undermines the independence of the judiciary, especially coming from a man who could be president by this time next year.

But none of these issues is the test. The test is whether there is an appearance of impropriety under the facts as they reasonably appear to a litigant in Trumps position.

Certainly, Curiels Mexican heritage alone would not be enough to raise a question of bias. As someone whose own ancestors came to the United States from Mexico, I know ethnicity alone cannot pose a conflict of interest.

But there may be other factors to consider in determining whether Trumps concerns about getting an impartial trial are reasonable. Curiel is, reportedly, a member of a group called La Raza Lawyers of San Diego.

In 2014, when he certified the class-action lawsuit against Trump, Curiel appointed the Robbins Geller law firm to represent plaintiffs. Robbins Geller has paid $675,000 in speaking fees since 2009 to Trumps likely opponent, Hillary Clinton, and to her husband, former President Bill Clinton.

Curiel appointed the firm in the case before Trump entered the presidential race, but again, it might not be unreasonable for a defendant in Trumps position to wonder who Curiel favors in the presidential election. These circumstances, while not necessarily conclusive, at least raise a legitimate question to be considered.

Regardless of the way Trump has gone about raising his concerns over whether hes getting a fair trial, none of us should dismiss those concerns out of hand without carefully examining how a defendant in his position might perceive them  and we certainly should not dismiss them for partisan political reasons.

Finally, some have said that Trumps criticism of the judge reflects on his qualifications to be president. If the criticism is solely based on Curiels race, that is something voters will take into account. If, however, Trump is acting from a sincere motivation to protect his constitutional right to a fair trial, his willingness to exercise his rights as an American citizen and raising the issue even in the face of severe criticism is surely also something for voters to consider.
Chennai: MBBS student loses life after botched-up hair transplant surgery

Chennai

oi-Preeti

Chennai, June 8: In a shocking incident, a final year medical student passed away a day after undergoing hair transplant surgery at a salon in Nungambakkam, Chennai.

The surgery was reportedly carried out by two unqualified doctors at the Advanced Robotic Hair Transplant Centre on Santosh Kumar, an MBBS student of Madras Medical College on May 17.

Dr Hariprasad Kasturi, an anesthetist and Dr A Vineeth Suryakumar, an MBBS who graduated from a college in China had performed the surgery at a salon that did not have persmission of transplant.

Tamil Nadu Medical Council president Dr K Senthil was quoted saying as, "We have issued notices to them. We have asked Dr Hariprasad why he did not stay in the salon till the procedure was completed. We have asked Dr Vineeth how he performed the surgery without being qualified. Hair transplant is a surgery and Vineeth is not a surgeon."

After the bothed-up surgery, the salon has been sealed and the cause of Santosh's death was found to be allergy.

Santosh had felt discomfort after the surgery. When his condition worsened, then his family members admitted him to Christian Medical College Hospital, Vellore, where he died due to multi-organ failure triggered by delayed anaphylaxis and toxic syndrome.

Santosh was the only child of his parents--Josebeen and Pandiaraj, who was born 20 years after marriage of his parents.

Pandiaraj, Santosh's father was quoted saying as, "I want strict action against the person who conducted the surgery and who administered the anesthesia, Hariprasad. I want all other centers like this shut, so nothing else happens with another person. These men are solely responsible for my son's death."

OneIndia News
Evolving Ties between India and Afghanistan

Feature

oi-Lisa

By Lisa

The Salma Dam which was recently inaugurated during recent Afghanistan visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi jointly with Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani is called the Afghan-India Friendship Dam.

The dam was originally built in 1976 in Herat and it was damaged during the 1990s. it was rebuilt at the cost of $300 million by 1,500 Indian and Afghan engineers. PM had tweeted about the dam that, "This is a project that will irrigate lands and light up homes. The dam is a generator of optimism and belief in the future of Afghanistan."

PM Modi had eloquently also talked about the importance of friendship with Afghanistan. He had said, "India cherishes the friendship with Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, we want to see democracy strike deep roots, people unite and economy prosper.

Afghan President too had reciprocated the feelings by tweeting that, "Salma Dam is another big step in deepening and broadening the relationship between Afghanistan and India."

India and Afghanistan have nurtured the friendship in mutually beneficial way and the friendship was cemented in a big way by Afghanistan when it conferred the country's highest civilian honour Amir Amanullah Khan Award on the Prime Minister.

The SAARC diplomacy which was part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's swearing in ceremony in May 2014 was enough to bring back the warmth that had gone missing between India and Afghanistan who have shared warmest of relationship since thousands of years.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Wednesday, June 8, 2016, 14:53 [IST]
In the Udta Punjab tussle, let us not forget Punjab's drug problem

Feature

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

There is a raging controversy over the censorship of the movie Udta Punjab directed by Anurag Kashyap. The censor board wants several cuts which is the director has cribbed about stating that it would change the narrative of the movie.

The references to Punjab is one of the many cuts that the censor board wants omitted from the movie. [Will eradicate drugs problem from Punjab: Rahul Gandhi]

While this debate over the censor boards activism rages on, there is one thing let us all bear in mind. Punjab does have a severe drug problem and not talking about it is not going to solve the problem. Not only is it ruining the youth, but it has been economy buster apart from being a terror funder as well.

[Rahul Gandhi defaming Punjab youths by calling them drug addicts: SAD]

Killing the youth:

The easy availability of drugs in Punjab has led to several youth getting addicted. Unofficial statistics would reveal that at least 3 out of every 10 persons in Punjab are addicted to drugs.

The synthetic drugs and the poppy husk or bhukki are the most preferred drugs. Around 15 per cent are addicted to bhukki while 25 rely on synthetic drugs.

[Udta Punjab: AAP, Congress accuse SAD-BJP of influencing Censor Board]

The problem is the easy availability of drugs. The police too do not take harsh action since the mafia does have the blessings of politicians. The easy availability has led to a major problem and there are a considerable number of people in the age group of 12 to 15 who are addicted.

Combating the drug problem along the border has not been up to the mark. A large quantity of heroin is smuggled directed from Afghanistan into Punjab. This is in fact considered to be one of the major transit route for drugs.

A study that was conducted by the Guru Nanak Dev University had revealed that nearly 70 per cent of the men living along the border may be addicted to drugs due to the easy availability.

This has been a poll issue with parties hurling charges against each other. The present government in Punjab has been under fire from the opposition for patronising the drug mafia, a charge that has been denied. There have been a host of measures to curb the drug mafia, but in order to complete route out the problem, the efforts need to be much more.

The 60,000 crore industry:

A large chunk of the drugs produced in Afghanistan is routed into Punjab before it makes its way into other parts of the country. The date rape drug, cocaine, brown sugar just to name a few are the drugs in high demand.

[Terror funding: Punjab's drug mafia alone is worth Rs 60,000 crore]

A report by the UN states that the total potential value of Afghanistan's 2006 opium harvest accruiing to farmers, laboratory owners and Afghan traffickers reached about $3.1 billion.

The drug mafia in Punjab relies on the drugs produced in Afghanistan. Unless and until they share their proceeds with Pakistan and their agents, the drugs will not flow out of Afghanistan. Historically, Afghanistan has been a major source of heroin throughout the world.

According to the UN's World Drug Report 2007, the total potential value of Afghanistan's 2006 opium harvest accruiing to farmers, laboratory owners and Afghan traffickers reached about $3.1 billion.

[Terrorism and the drug mafia: How they go hand in hand]

In addition, it is reported that in 2004, some 400 tons of cocaine was exported from one Latin American country, with an estimated domestic value of $2 billion.

How much of this money is used for perpetrating acts of terrorism? Estimates vary. But even a small percentage would be more than sufficient for some individuals or groups to plan, finance and carry out terrorist acts.

[Drug addiction in Punjab is national problem: Badal]

Indeeed drug trafficking has provided funding for insurgency and those who use terrorist violence in various regions throughout the world, including in transit regions.
'Yeh dosti hum na todenge', India-US's sholay moment

Feature

oi-Pallavi

By Pallavi

The muse in us takes a dive into the imagination as we see US President Barack Obama and Indian PM Narendra Modi hugging each other tight.

One cannot imagine the political tension that the two countries were going when US severed all ties with India for the May 1988 nuke tests.

Egoes clashed and so did political intent. The Gabbar called Pakistan was said to be under the wings of one of the two friends, we know who and he was targetting the other friend from those very wings.

The things have changed now and so has the camaraderie between US and India, thanks to he counter-terrorism sanctions and economic demand.

[Read: India set to contribute as new engine of global growth: Modi in USA ]

Friendship restored thereafter.

However, there are more than one reasons that the friendship will continue till the end, much like the sought-after film-Sholey.

Cross my heart and hope to die

Narendra Modi and Barack Obama have met thrice in the last seven months, breaking the long gap of indifference. True, Bill Clinton came to India in 2000 to mend the relationship, visits to each other's countries dipped unceremoniously. Modi is good at his strategies as he built strong ties with Japan and Australia, the two key U.S. allies in East Asia.

While Japanese relations sit strong on the economy of India, the Australian engagment is more defence-based.

What America wants from India

Certainly, the US wants the closest possible relationship with India, mostly because it is one of the emerging economies after China and is also known for its scientific and defence feats. Add to it the fact that India is increasingly becoming self-sufficient in its own resources under the 'Make in India' programme.

[Read: 3 reasons why India-US relation is flourishing under Modi like never before ]

1. The US has been consistently saying that it wants to assist India in emerging as a major global power. And what vested interest does US have in doing so? Its biggest rival in the economy is China and India is the only country of its size which can nullify its geopolitical pull. The scenario becomes even more complaisant as India is the only country that has no clash of interest with the western super power. That way India too can combat the economic heat that it faces from China in Southeast Asia.

2. The conomic partnership between US and India is strategically important during the times of recession, especially when apart from US and China, India stays afloat even in a global meltdown.

3. Defence partnerships between the two countries are on the run. Infact, both the countries have signed up for 10 years on their framework agreement for the US-India Defence relationships. In fact, the Defence Trade and Technology identifies the common areas of interest in defence technology and work on their potential growth together.

Why will India consider?

The NSG backing and the Paris Pact, which ensures that India stays aboard the climate change commitment, which is prestigeous for the country. In the wake of this, US has also offered India clean energy technology. US also held out the promise of making India eligible for U.S. oil and natural gas exports.

Pakistan unites the two countries...indirectly

What laid the differences between US and India have been sorted. As US decided to pull out its troops from Afghanistan, apprehensions in both the countries seep in. While India is bothered with the vacant space that will take no time to be filled up with terrorist groups. US too has the same concerns and therefore it continues to build pressure on Pakistan for a smooth transition in Afghanistan so that they do not host terror groups like the al-Qaeda which target the U.S.

[Read: US names India as 'major defence partner']

Speaking to the media, Senator Ben Cardin, justified the blooming relationship, saying, "We have many issues with what Pakistan does, but we have a strategic partnership that's critically important to our counter-terrorism activities. As a result, there are economic issues between our two countries, including military issues that advance US interest."

Ultimately, the relation that US and India depends on how both the countries 'explot' each other for their own interests. It is a balancing act...indeed! However, till the time Pakistan continues to brew its own terror groups, the relation will persist. And from what we can make of Pakistan's intentions, the brewery is not going to stop any time soon.

[Read: Paris pact was unlikely without India's leadership: US]
Indo-US ties: The Clintons' loyalty for India is good news

Feature

oi-Pallavi

By Pallavi

A difficult question to answer yet, especially when the presidential elections in the US are due in November, but one can assume from the primaries that Hillary Clinton is going to be the next President of USA.

Pan to 1993, another Clinton was holding the reigns of the US and had stepped ahead in mending relations with India after the long spanning distance between the two countries after the nuclear tests in 1998.

Times have changed and so has the attitude of each country toward the other. In the wake of increasing closeness between the two countries (be it for their own vested interests), what remains to be answered is whether Hillary Clinton is willing to walk in her former President and husband's shoes?

Judge for yourself when we say:

[Read: 'Yeh dosti hum na todenge', India-US's sholay moment]

She was a friend of India when her husband- Bill Clinton was the President from 1992-2000. This was evident from the awe she expressed at Indian culture and vibrancy when she visited India as the First Lady in March 1995.

Although India was nowhere within the conomic radar of USA, she is said to be the one who piqued the then President's interest in the country, justifying the economic reforms that India was making then.

Hillary had long-term relations with India, especially as her tour to the country was because of an invitation of Mother Teresa to visit her home for children when she had visited Washington. The tour ended in a meeting with Prime Minister Narasimha Rao and Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi.

She returned to India in 1997 with daughter Chelsea for the funeral of Mother Teresa.

Indian diplomats vouch for her

Indian diplomats in the White House say that as the secretary of State in the Barack Obama administration, Hillary took a stance for India on many occassions, especially relating to terrorism.

Her tern saw the culmination of close cooperation in high technology areas, particularly defence and space. It was during this term in office that India and the US launched a ministrial-level strategic dialogue in July 2009 that focussed on five interests trategic cooperation; energy and climate change; education and development; economy, trade and agriculture; science and technology; and health and innovation.

India-Iran ties and the terror factor

When Iran was economically isolated for its alleged nuclear programmes and India was under immense pressure to cut the import of oil from the country, HIllary is said to have diverted the attention from the issue and tone down the alarm in alliance between India and Iran.

Regarding terrorism, Hillary had a very clear picture. She insisted that Pakistan is a haven for terrorists and dissuaded authorities in giving any blank cheques to Pakistan.

In fact in 2012, Pakistan's ego was hurt when Hillary stood by the then external affairs minister S.M Krishna who urged Pakistan to end homegrown terrorism. She blatantly blamed Pakistan for sheltering Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri and as a symbolical protest stayed at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai, the site of the 2008 November terrorist attack.

[ India set to contribute as new engine of global growth: Modi in USA]



No weapons for Pakistan

The fact that Pakistan was not sold any weaponry, despite increasing demand, during her watch is also a relief for India.

Indo-US ties will attain a new level

According to Hillary Clinton's campaign chief: "Hillary Clinton will take relations with India to a new level and better economic and strategic ties with India will anchor the U.S in the region, if she is elected the President."

Recalling his days in the White House as the secretary of State when the Clintons were the hosts, Podesta said, "She helped lay the foundation for the relationship that I had the opportunity to build on when I was working for President Obama, to deepen the relationship with Prime Minister Modi, to get an outcome at the Paris negotiations, and the ambitious clean energy agenda India has set."

[Read: 3 reasons why India-US relation is flourishing under Modi like never before ]

Assuring of a promising climate pact, he further added, "I am sure she will take it forward as president, as President Obama has done. It all began with President Clinton, who transformed the relationship with a historic visit."

Her close association with Indian Americans is also proof of her loyalty to the country. For instance, the rumour that Neera Tanden, President of the Centre for American Progress may find a place in the future team headed by Clinton is not unknown.

[Read: Modi in US: US Defense Secretary calls on PM]

Agrees Frank Islam, and Indian American entrepreneur who raised nearly $ 400000 for Ms Clinton's primary campaign. He says, "This is to make sure that Indian Americans are active participants in the American political process and also to ensure that they support Hillary Clinton, who believes in diversity, democracy and equality. These are the values that bind Indian Americans with her. This initiative is also to ensure that when she becomes the president our voices are heard."

Should we celebrate...already?!

[Read: If Hillary becomes president, what Bill Clinton will be called? ]
Jayalalithaa DA case verdict- The four possibilities

Feature

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The high profile appeal in the J Jayalalithaa disproportionate assets came to a close yesterday with the Supreme Court reserving its verdict. The judgment of the Supreme Court is keenly awaited by a lot of people as there are repercussions involved in it which concerns the political future of the Tamil Nadu chief minister, J Jayalalithaa.

If convicted, she would have to immediately step down as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. Moreover she will not be able to fight an election for six years. Ever since the verdict was reserved yesterday, there have been a host of messages and calls from interested parties asking what would the verdict be like. Basically there are four possibilities and below let us see what they are.

Conviction:

It was Karnataka the prosecuting state which went in appeal to the Supreme Court against Jayalalithaa's acquittal by the Karnataka High Court. Karnataka had demonstrated at length why the order of the trial court convicting her and three others should be upheld.

If the Supreme Court was convinced with the arguments made by Karnataka, then the case would result in a conviction. The court apart from an order of conviction would also decide on the quantum of the sentence. The trial court had sentenced Jayalalithaa and three others to four years imprisonment and a Rs 100 crore fine.

Acquittal:

Jayalalithaa's counsel however argued that the trial court order was wrong. They pleaded that the verdict of the High Court be upheld. They also argued that the assets in question were not illegal and were raised through valid means.

If they have managed to convince the Supreme Court then an order of acquittal would be passed. The court would just uphold the order of the Karnataka High Court and the existing scenario in which the TN CM stands acquitted would continue.

This would be a breather of the TN CM since there are no more appellate forums available. Karnataka court seek a review or file a curative petition after that, but the chances of that are extremely bleak. The Supreme Court in nine out of ten cases do not interfere with their own order.

Refer the matter back to the High Court:

During the arguments various times Karnataka pointed out to the arithmetic errors committed by the High Court. They said if the errors were rectified, then the conviction would stand. The Supreme Court has an option of referring the matter to the High Court to look into the errors.

This was a point that was brought to the notice of the Supreme Court. However the junior judge on the Bench, Justice Amitava Roy said that this is not a possibility. He said if the matter goes back to the High Court the order of the trial would come into force and this would mean Jayalalithaa and others would stand convicted. This would be injustice, he pointed out.

However the Supreme Court does have the option of referring the matter back to the High Court and ordering that the conviction be kept in abeyance. If this is done, Jayalalithaa would stand acquitted until the High Court relooks into the case.

Retrial:

The last option would be refer the matter back to the lower court and order a re-trial. This is an option that can be exercised by the Supreme Court. However since a re-trial would be time consuming, the Supreme Court can pass a specific order.

The court could tell the trial court not to go into the witnesses and only look into contentious portions such as the companies involved and the disproportionate income. Ever since the verdict has been reserved there is a strong rumour floating that the Supreme Court may order a re-trial.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Wednesday, June 8, 2016, 11:40 [IST]
In UP 166 criminals killed in encounters in past five years: Yogi

This UP village lights up on Diwali, for the first time ever!

Know constituencies of UP Assembly polls 2017: AMANPUR (GEN)

Feature

oi-Preeti

Uttar Pradesh will go to Assembly elections early in 2017. The state has an Assembly comprising 403 seats and a party/alliance has to win 202 seats to form the government. In 2012, when the last state election was held in UP, the Samajwadi Party had won 224 seats to get a decisive majority.

[Know constituencies of UP Assembly polls]

OneIndia will take one Assembly constituency a day and have a look at electoral information related to it:

Constituency Name: Amanpur

Constituency No. 101



District: Etah (Amanpur is an Assembly segment under Etah Lok Sabha constituency)



District Area: 171 m (561 ft)



District population: 9,117



District literacy: 49%



2012 Assembly election result in Amanpur

Winner: Mamtesh Shakya (BSP)

Votes received: 37,996

Vote percentage: 23.82

Nearest rival: Virendra Singh (SP)



Votes: 34,340

Percentage: 21.53

Difference: 3,656

Margin: 2.3%

Total voters: 2,72,887

Turnout: 58.5%

Amanpur constituency was formed in 2008 and first election in this assembly constituency was held in 2012.

2014 Lok Sabha result in Etah

Rajveer Singh (BJP) defeated Devendra Singh Yadav (SP) by 51,650 votes by a margin of 29.27%.
Naxals from Telangana were in the process of making grenade launchers, IEDs: NIA

The Magadh zone: Why naxals are desperate to revive it?

76 Naxals killed, 665 arrested in 4 months in 2016

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, June 8: At least 76 Naxals were killed and 665 arrested by security forces in the Left Wing Extremism-hit areas in the first four months of 2016, Home Ministry officials said.

Security forces have achieved greater success in tackling Left Wing Extremism in recent times and there was 30 per cent decline in violence perpetrated by Maoists this year. Altogether, 76 Maoist cadres were killed between January and April this year in comparison to 15 killed in the corresponding period of 2015.

As many as 665 Maoists were arrested and 639 surrendered in the first four months of 2016 whereas 435 Naxals were arrested and 134 surrendered in the corresponding period of 2015, a Home Ministry official said. In 2015, 226 people died in 1,088 incidents of violence perpetrated by the rebels. Of the 226 deaths, 168 were civilians and 58 security personnel.

As many as 89 Maoists were also killed and 1,668 were arrested and 570 cadres surrendered before authorities last year.

In 2015, as compared to 2013, there has been 42 per cent decrease in the resultant deaths (civilians and security forces).

"The decline in violence can be attributed to many reasons such as greater presence of security forces across the Left Wing Extremism-affected states, loss of cadres and leaders on account of killing, arrests, surrender and desertions, better monitoring of development schemes in affected areas and insurgency fatigue among the Maoist cadres," the official said.

While 106 districts in 10 states are affected by Maoist activities in varying degrees, 35 districts in seven states are considered to be worst hit.

According to a recent Parliamentary Standing Committee report, Naxal activities continue to be a matter of concern with 35 districts in seven states being badly-hit. "Left Wing Extremism (LWE) remains an area of concern for internal security of the country.

"CPI (Maoist) continues to be the most potent among the various LWE outfits in the country and accounts for more than 80 per cent of total LWE violence incidents and resultant deaths," the report said.

PTI
Here is how much salary hike you can expect this year

Salaries of Air India employees to be restored in phases from April

New Wage Code 2022: Your in-hand salary, PF to leaves, here's what will come into effect from July 1

Salaries in India likely to increase by 10.4%: Here is why

7th Pay Commission: Railway unions threaten nationwide indefinite strike from July 11

India

oi-Reetu

New Delhi, Jun 8: Wait for Seventh Pay Commission may soon get over but it seems that after doctors and central government employees, now the railways employees are also not really happy with the recommendations.

According to reports, the Railway unions have called for a nationwide indefinite strike by workers from July 11 to press their demands including review of new pension scheme and 7th Pay Commission recommendations.

7th Pay Commission: Central Govt Employees Confederation want 7CPC implementation soon

"We will serve strike notices to railways tomorrow for going ahead with our indefinite strike from 6 AM on July 11," said All-India Railwaymen's Federation (AIRF) General Secretary S Gopal Mishra.

7th Pay Commission: Govt flip-flop on EPF may lead to strike on July 11? Employees want higher pay

He claimed the strike is "inevitable due to the nugatory attitude" of the government over the charter of demands submitted more than six months back, though they had deferred their strike from April at its instance.

Railways employ about 13 lakh workers and any strike would severely affect train movement and cause inconvenience to people across the country.

7th Pay Comm:Good news for govt employees! Panel to give final shape to recommendations on June 11

Railway unions have sought a review of the new pension scheme and 7th Pay Commission recommendations, besides filling up of the large number of vacant posts among other demands.

Supporting the strike call, National Federation of Indian Railwaymen General Secretary M Raghavaiah said, "We will serve notices at all zonal general managers of railways tomorrow for going ahead with our strike call on July 11."

Raghavaiah said both the unions are jointly supporting the strike call. "Our demands are the same and we will go ahead together against the government's anti-labour laws," he said.

Seventh Pay Commission: Calculate your expected salary, here is calculator

On 7th pay panel report, Mishra said, "The minimum wage should be increased from Rs 18,000 per month to Rs 26,000."

Wait for government employees may get over this weekend as the group of secretaries headed by Cabinet Secretary PK Sinha is all set to meet on June 11 to give final shape to the changes on 7th Pay Commission recommendations.

OneIndia News

(With inputs from agencies)
The Shippensburg Borough Council approved Tuesday by a 5-0 vote an increase in street sweeping rates to $130 per hour in 2017.

Street foreman Kevin Plasterer told the council that the borough has provided street sweeping services to Southampton Township Cumberland County, Newburg Borough, Shippensburg University and Schreiber Foods since 2008 at a cost of $95 per hour. However, rental companies typically charge $170 per hour for street sweeping equipment.

Its very costly to repair, Plasterer said, noting that extensive maintenance was recently completed on equipment that is at least 11 years old.

In two or three years, well be back in the same boat, and it (the street sweeper) will be 15 years old  (Then) were going to have to decide if were going to purchase another sweeper, he said.

One-way travel

The council also directed Borough Manager John Epley to prepare an ordinance for consideration that would restrict travel on the new one-way section of Penn Street.

Epley and Plasterer reported Tuesday that some residents have complained about tanker trucks using the one-way street as a shortcut to King Street.

Councilman John Alosi said the weight of the trucks could damage underground pipes.

Councilman Joe Hockersmith suggested passing an ordinance that would limit truck traffic to vehicles making deliveries. Solicitor Sam Wiser said traffic could be further controlled with a weight limit on the street.

In other action, the council voted 5-0 to provide fire police assistance to South Newtown Township during its Firemans Fair, June 23-25; Wounded Warrior Car Show, Aug. 6; Outdoor Sportsmans Drawing, Sept. 10; and funerals on an as-needed basis.
A hubby-wife tussle led to the kidney racket being busted

India

oi-Vicky

New Delhi, June 8: The arrest of T Rajkumar Rao, the alleged mastermind of the kidney racket is just a tip of the iceberg. The racket is not restricted to Delhi alone and the police are conducting raids in Coimbatore, Nagpur, Jalandhar and Kanpur. Police officials investigating the case says that the racket has a nation wide ramification.

In all there have been nine arrests so far including a woman from Siliguri in West Bengal. The Delhi police say that in the above mentioned places, they are looking for both middlemen and doctors at hospitals allegedly involved in this racket.

A tussle led to the alert:

The manner in which the entire racket was busted is interesting. The wife of a middleman in the racket, Devashish had a quarrel over the payment. It was alleged that Devasish had told his wife Momita to donate her kidney to a patient in Jammu and Kashmir.

However a fight began between the couple after she alleged that he had not paid her the promised sum. The entire transaction was an illegal one. Despite her insisting that he give her the promised sum, Devasish did not relent. This led her to calling the police helpline, following which the investigations began.

Nation wide racket:

The police believe that this gang was not operating in an isolated manner. They had connections in several cities. While the police is hunting for the middlemen in the racket, they are also on the look out for five donors and five recipients.

In addition to this the police is also looking out for some doctors who had facilitated this illegal transaction. According to investigations, the middlemen were in touch with the doctors.

The doctors would be paid a handsome sum of money to facilitate an illegal transaction. The illegal transaction meant that some patients who could afford it would get a kidney out of turn.

OneIndia News
CET could be considered if all states get same syllabus: AICTE

AICTE says physics, chemistry, maths to continue to be important subjects for engineering courses

New model curriculum in line with NEP 2020 to be launched by AICTE

NEET-like single entrance exam for engineering courses in the offing?

India

oi-Mukul

New Delhi, June 8: All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) which is a governing body of the engineering colleges across the country, is now contemplating to conduct a NEET like single entrance examination for admission to various undergraduate engineering courses.

Reportedly, AICTE is toying with the idea of making Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main the single entrance test for seeking admission in engineering colleges across the country.

Presently students who clear JEE Main get admission in selected coleges, including IITs, National Institutes of Technology, Indian Institute of Information Technology and some Centre funded colleges. States have their own rules and regulation for undergraduate engineering courses.

When asked about the move, AICTE chairman Anil D Sahasrabudhe was quoted by TOI as saying, "We are planning to make JEE-Main the single entrance test in the country. JEE-Main is based on the CBSE syllabus and different states are following different syllabi; so having a single entrance test for engineering is still in the planning stage".

Apparently, the step is being planned out as students have to appear for multiple tests to get admission in BE colleges.

National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) is common entrance test for getting admission in any medical colleges in India. Issue recently hit the headlines after State governments put its foot down on the move.

Finally, the Supreme Court directed the Centre to hold medical exams under NEET covering government and private colleges besides state boards.

OneIndia News

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Wednesday, June 8, 2016, 15:12 [IST]
BJP govt worse than Nizam, says Sena MP Sanjay Raut

India

oi-PTI

Aurangabad, Jun 8: In a blistering attack, Shiv Sena's Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut today said the BJP-led governments at the Centre and in Maharashtra were worse than the government of Nizam. Nizam was the former Muslim ruler of the princely state of Hyderabad.

Aurangabad and some parts of Marathwada were a part of this state in the past. "BJP government is the father of Nizam's government," Raut told a party function here.

Shiv Sena is in alliance with BJP both in the state and the Centre. Raut also took a swipe at the foreign tours of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "Whenever we ask anybody about the PM, we learn that he is in Switzerland, in London, France, Iran or elsewhere," he said.

During the campaigning for Assembly elections in West Bengal, Kerala and other states where BJP has very little presence, Modi addressed dozens of rallies but he did not have time to visit and see the plight of the drought-struck Marathwada, said Raut.

If the Prime Minister was serious about the problems of farmers, he should come and see the situation in Marathwada, he said.

Without naming BJP leader Eknath Khadse, who had to resign from the state cabinet over allegations of corruption, Raut said Shiv Sena had earlier stated that BJP had many "bubbles" which would soon burst. "Recently one of the bubbles burst," he said.

PTI
Lalu Prasad Yadav appears before CBI court in Patna in fodder scam case, to attend RJD event on Wednesday

Important files linked with 'fodder scam' in Bihar go missing; BJP smells conspiracy

India

oi-Mukul

Patna, June 8: Important files related to multi-crore fodder scam in Bihar have gone missing, says ANI report.

Sources said that files which had all the records related with mid-1990s fodder scam disappeared from Animal Husbandry Department office in Patna. An FIR has also been lodged at the old secretariat police station in this matter.

However when asked about the missing files, Animal Husbandry Minister Awdesh Singh denied that files contain fodder scam records. He said the files were related with retirement and pension of government doctors.

Meanwhile, BJP has trained guns on ruling alliance over the matter. Party leader has said that it's conspiracy to protect RJD chief lalu Prasad Yadav and others.

What is fodder scam and how Lalu Prasad's wife became CM

Targetting Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over the issue, BJP leader Nitin Naveen said, "CM should tell why he is protecting Lalu Yadav. The files that have gone missing are linked to Lalu Yadav. Nitish Kumar's action is affecting the future of Bihar".

Multi-crore fodder scam hit the headlines in mid 1990s. The scam involved fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 950 crore of public money from the treausries of Chaibasa (now in Jharkhand) allegedly by Lalu Yadav and others.

Besides RJD chief Lalu Yadav, former chief minister Jagannath Mishra and former animal husbandry ministers Vidyasagar Nishad were also also among the accused.

In 2013, Lalu and 44 others were convicted for their role in the scam.

OneIndia news
PM to visit Shimla on May 31, will participate in Garib Kalyan Sammelan

Watch: PM Modi stops his car to accept painting of his mother by girl in Shimla

Flights to Himachal Pradesh from June 9

India

oi-PTI

Shimla, Jun 8: Himachal Pradesh will be once again get connected by air with the commencement of service by a private carrier from Thursday.

"The IIC Technologies Ltd would commence its passenger service (Air Himalays) between Shimla, Kullu, Chandigarh and Dharamsala from June 9," a government spokesperson said today.

Urban Development minister Sudhir Sharma will launch the air-service by flagging off a flight from Jubbar Hatti airport near Shimla.

He said the company will operate daily flights between Chandigarh and Kullu, Chandigarh and Shimla, Shimla and Gaggal, Gaggal and Shimla and Shimla and Chandigarh.

This will not only provide air connectivity to the state but also boost tourism, he added. Air services from Shimla airport has been suspended for past 44 months and Airport Authority of India has spend Rs 32.25 crore to maintain the airport.

Meanwhile, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI) has requested Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh to support the Goods and Services Tax (GST).

PHDCCI National President Mahesh Gupta, who called on the Chief Minister today, elaborated about the benefits of GST to the state and briefed him about the role played by the PHD Chamber in the promotion of trade, industry and services in the region.

Gupta said the PHD Chamber has been working closely with the Himachal Pardesh government as a partner in progress and emphasised on the promotion of tourism, horticulture and creating a investor friendly environment the state to boost economic growth.

PTI
Hizbul's message to Kashmir Pandits- Stay at your homes, not in the colony

News

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

Late on Tuesday Burhan Muzzafar Wani, the 21 year old commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen Mujahideen released a video in which sends out a message to the Hindus. He says that Hindus are free to come and stay in their homes, but the concept of Israel type colonies is not acceptable.

The 6.17 minute video in the possession of OneIndia shows the Burhan sporting a white round neck t-shrt and a holster. He has two automatic rifles by his side. In the video he speaks about a host of issues and even says that Hindus coming to perform religious rites as part of the Amarnath Yatra will not be targeted.

Will guard Hindus staying in their homes:

He was making a reference to the separate Kashmiri Pandit colonies proposed to be set up by the government. He says in the video that this is not acceptable while referring to an Israeli type of colony. He says that the Hindus are free to come back and stay where they have had their homes before. If they do that we will be their guards, he says.

On the Amarnath Yatra, Burhan says that they have no plans of attacking it. The statement by an officer of the BSF that we are planning to attack it is a lie. We have nothing against the Hindus who come to perform religious rites, he also says.

However he sounded a warning to the police force. Our enemy is the Indian army, but the police are now forcing us to act against them. We will stand against all in uniform who follow the Indian Constitution, he also said. He further urged the youth to gather intelligence about all police personnel in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. We want to maintain a record of this, he also said.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Wednesday, June 8, 2016, 10:19 [IST]
Gopuja at all Karnataka Temples today: Govt explains how it should be done

Karnataka: Voice of the oppressed, no talks only action says resigned Anupama Shenoy

India

oi-Shreyas

Bengaluru, June 8: Moved to undisclosed location after the resignation that raked up massive storm in the state of Karnataka, KPS Anupama Shenoy in a text message to OneIndia said "no talks, only action".

Anupama Shenoy resigned as Deputy Superintendent of Police of Kudligi of Bellary district on Saturday June 4 after a chunk of people staged protest demonstration against Shenoy.

However Shenoy cited political pressure and liquor mafia as key reasons for her resignation.

Post resignation, 2010 KPS cadre officer made herself unavailable to media and moved to undisclosed location. Following this she has waged war against Labour Minister Parameshwar Naik.

In one post she challenged Naik as to when he would resign and in failing to do so she would release CD that should be viewed only in the midnight. In the post she jokingly warned that the CD is not meant for children. Naik is also the district-in-charge minister of Bellary.

She has also sent out series Facebook posts that kept media guessing on her next move and reasons for relinquishing from the post. When this news portal contacted her seeking an interview, she sent a text message saying she does not talk but only act.

Shenoy to a request, "is it possible to speak to you", said "no talks only action." In continuation of conversation with Anupama Shenoy, OneIndia said though, it is quite interesting. This never happened in the history of Karnataka police, the way you (Anupama) dealing the whole issue.

For this attempt of pursuing Anupama to talk, she replied "voice of the oppressed". In other words, Anupama meant, she has been oppressed by the political class and her style of protest is the voice of the oppressed.

It is learnt that Anupama has sent text messages to a few scribes. For one journalist who works with leading national daily, she asked to form a Whatsapp group of like-minded journalists to stay away from paid media affiliated scribes. For another journalist associated with a Kannada news channel she said "I am safe, support me".

Shenoy, in her Facebook post has also lambasted against media saying she has been made a joker for news channels' TRP game.

In January last year, Shenoy was transferred from Kudligi for putting call of Parameshwar Naik which Naik denied in the media but exposed when a footage of taking credit for her transfer was surfaced in the media. After this she was reinstated to the same place.

OneIndia News
No action against advocates, Madras High Court CJ tells BCTP

India

oi-PTI

Chennai, June 8: The Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry on Wednesday, June 8 said the Chief Justice of Madras High Court has assured it that no action would be taken against advocates following amendments to the Advocates Act, till a decision is taken on suggestions made by various bar associations.

"The Chief Justice of Madras High Court has assured the office bearers of the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry that no action will be taken against the advocates in pursuant to the amendments introduced by the High Court to Advocates Act, till a decision is taken on the suggestions from bar associations," BCTP Chairman D Selvam said.

The officer bearers had met Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul yesterday and submitted a memorandum seeking reconsideration of the amendments to the Advocates Act. According to a release from BCTP, the High Court has invited suggestions from all the bar associations on the changes to be made to the Advocates Act.

They may be submitted through BCTP which will be placed before the High Court rule Committee for its reconsideration, it said.

The release said the Chairman of Bar Council of India has also requested the Chief Justice to reconsider the amendments made to the rules through discussions and also advised all the bar associations to resolve the issues by way of dialogue and not by resorting to rallies and boycott.

The bar associations have been requested to furnish their suggestions to BCTP by June 17.

The matter relates to recent amendments that were introduced by the High Court to Section 34(1)of Advocates Act against which various advocates associations took out a rally on June 6.

In a notification, the high court had said that the court has power under 14-A of Advocates Act to debar advocates who indulge in activities such as trying to influence a judge or participates in a procession inside court campus or holds placards inside the court hall, among others.

Such advocates shall be debarred from appearing before the high court or subordinate courts permanently or for such period as the court may think fit and the Registrar General shall thereupon report it to the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu, it said.

PTI
Pratyusha's parents demand CBI probe; flay Mumbai police

India

oi-PTI

Jamshedpur, June 8: Parents of television actor Pratyusha Banerjee, who died in April, today said they will launch a signature campaign in her home town Jamshedpur to garner support for a CBI probe into her "pre-planned cold-blooded murder".

Alleging tardy pace of investigation by Mumbai police into the actor's death, Shankar Banerjee and Soma Banerjee said, "We demand a CBI probe into Pratyusha's murder to unearth the truth. Who are behind Pratyusha's boyfriend, Rahul Raj, who was booked for abetment of suicide and criminal intimidation in connection with her death? How come he is roaming scot-free as if he is the son-in-law of the police despite being an accused in the Pratyusha's murder?".

We want justice and demand a capital punishment for Rahul, they said, announcing that they will launch a signature campaign to garner support for CBI probe into the matter. The campaign will take place at Bata Chowk in Sakchi market from 5 pm to 8 PM, they said.

Tomorrow's campaign is preceded by an online campaign today where around 700 people have already shown their support for a CBI probe.

"We will also meet Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das and the Chairperson of Women Commission in Ranchi day after tomorrow in support of the demand," they said.

The parents alleged that Pratyusha was not allowed to maintain any relationship with her parents by the accused and was being administered drug by him and was under its influence.

Demanding for a custodial interrogation of Rahul by the police, they said while police have been arresting persons for committing lesser crimes against woman, Rahul was not yet arrested in the case of Pratyusha, who was "murdered" cruelly.

About Rahul's mother allegedly not facing media, they also charged that Rahul's parents particularly his mother was either totally involved in Pratyusha's death or else she was well aware about Rahul's character.

"He (Rahul) has cheated and looted nine girls," the actor's father said stating that they are gathering evidences against Rahul and succeeded to some extent.

On April 1, the 24-year-old actress, who shot to fame for her role of Anandi in the hit TV series "Balika Vadhu", allegedly committed suicide by hanging herself inside her flat at Goregoan area of western suburbs.

Police are trying to ascertain whether Pratyusha was in financial trouble or had any dispute with Rahul.

Pratyusha's parents had recently written a letter to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh seeking a probe by a premier central agency into the case.

The two-page letter had requested the minister to hand over the probe into Banerjee's death to the "most premier investigating agency" as the probe carried out by police so far appeared "suspicious".

Rahul had "trapped" Pratyusha Banerjee on the pretext of love and emptied her bank accounts worth Rs 1.5 crore, they told media today.

The parents also demanded probe into how much of money Rahul had generated in the name of Pratyusha from Jamshedpur on the alleged false promise of producing films.

Asked about their prayer move in the Supreme Court to cancel interim bail granted to Rahul, Shankar interpreted the apex court has given a patient hearing to their pray but refused to entertain it as the case was between the Government of Mahrashtra versus Rahul Raj.

PTI
Repeal AFSPA from northeast at the earliest: Naga Hoho

India

oi-PTI

Kohima, Jun 8: Naga Hoho, the apex tribal body in Nagaland, today urged the central government to repeal the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act 1958 (AFSPA) from the northeast region "at the earliest".

Naga Hoho Media Cell expressed anguish over, what it termed as, the "callous" attitude of the Centre towards repeal of the AFSPA from the northeast in general and Naga areas in particular despite repeated appeals by Naga civil societies and human rights activists.

"In return, the successive governments irrespective of political parties in Delhi always decide to remain a mute spectator ever since the enactment of the draconian laws," a release issued by Naga Hoho Media Cell said here.

Pointing out that "there is a peaceful atmosphere in Naga areas as of now", the apex body said, any policy that harms the atmosphere of trust and confidence "would be dear to all stakeholders".

It said both the Union government and the Naga people have agreed to a settlement for respecting the wishes of the people for sharing sovereign power and to establish a lasting relationship between the government and the Nagas.

"We make this statement in the background that, there is an ongoing political negotiation and peace process between the government of India and the Naga people which can be testified by the signing of Framework Agreement signed on August 3, 2015," the statement said.

The Hoho maintained that the Naga people were taken by surprise with the RSS reportedly declaring its support for extension and continuation of AFSPA in the north east and Jammu and Kashmir.

The Naga's struggle for self determination cannot be equated with "terrorism" with the Union government recognising the uniqueness of Naga political history and the universal principle that sovereignty lies with the people in a democracy, the Hoho said.

PTI
A plot to commit a roadside robbery ended with one man dead and three Midstate residents facing criminal homicide charges.

Ryan Lynn Horton, 27; Christian Sage Harris, 19; and Emily Belle Tucker, 21, all of McConnellsburg, were charged Tuesday with felony criminal homicide, conspiracy to commit criminal homicide, robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery, theft and conspiracy to commit theft for the June 2 shooting death of a 60-year-old Maryland man, Edward Charles Gilhart, in Peters Township, Franklin County, according to Pennsylvania State Police.

Gilhart was traveling on Buchanan Trail West around 4 a.m. when he stopped to inspect a duffel bag that had been placed on the side of the road by Horton, Harris and Tucker, according to police.

The trio had planted the duffel bag to lure a motorist so they could rob someone, police said.

When Gilhart approached the bag, Harris and Horton emerged from behind a large rock they had been using as cover, according to police. Horton then shot Gilhart and stole the contents of his wallet, police said.

Harris and Horton then took Gilharts vehicle and Horton dropped Harris off at his home before disposing of the vehicle in Fulton County, according to police.

Police said Tucker agreed to the plan, drove the other two to the location where Gilhart was killed, and picked Horton up from where he disposed of the vehicle.

Tucker alerted police when she went to state police Monday to report a domestic assault between her and Horton.

All three are currently in Franklin County Jail after having bail denied because of the nature of the crimes, according to court records.

Preliminary hearings were scheduled for Tuesday morning in front of Magisterial District Judge Jody Eyer.
Shocking! High-profile sex racket busted in Mumbai; 'Savdhaan India' actress arrested

India

oi-Mukul

New Delhi, June 8: The Mumbai Police has busted a high-profile sex racket in Goregaon. Reportedly, many high profile girls including a 'Savdhaan India" actress were involved in the prostution business. Police has not revealed the name of 'Savdhaan India" girl.

As per media reports, the Mumbai police arrested all the girls from a mall after laiding a trap for them.

Amit Jalal , who busted the sex racket said "after getting the information that some girls were involved in sex racket , we laid a trap. We wanted to arrest main suppliers Saira and Asaraf alias Aman. When they came there, we arrested them along with the girls".

He further said that three girls were arrested in the raid. Those who were arrested includes a Marathi actress, a model and a actress who worked in popular Crime show Savdhaan India.

As per reports, girls used to charge Rs 50, 000 to 1 lakh from the customers. Police said that girl were sent to high profile people, including corporate clents.

OneIndia News
After the 'Jihad' comment, Patil now claims \"I never said it\"

Scheme rename: Cong accuses BJP of disrespecting Rajiv Gandhi

India

oi-PTI

Mumbai, Jun 8: A day after the Maharashtra government renamed the 'Rajiv Gandhi Jeevandayi Arogya Yojana' (RGJAY) as 'Mahatma Phule Jana Arogya Yojana' (MPJAY), the Congress today accused BJP of "disrespecting" a former prime minister who "gave up his life for the nation".

"We had started this scheme to provide health benefits to crores of poor people. But, after the new government came to power, we had been hearing that it wants to change the name of this scheme.

The (state) Cabinet has erred with its decision," Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee president Ashok Chavan told reporters here.

"The BJP government has disrespected a former PM (Rajiv Gandhi) who gave up his life for the nation," he said. "Our party delegation will soon meet Chief Minister (Devendra Fadnavis) and ask him to reconsider his decision," the Congress MP said.

Chavan, himself a former chief minister, said after 'Indira Awaas Yojana' was renamed as 'Pradhan Mantri Gramin Awaas Yojana', this is the second scheme to be renamed. "We have immense respect for Mahatma Phule.

But, the BJP government has taken this decision to create controversy and disruptions. The government has stooped very low as far as standards of morality are concerned," he alleged.

Chavan further said the Opposition parties would not have objected if a new scheme was given name of the government's choice, but "renaming old scheme reeks of a political conspiracy".

The new scheme envisages more medical, surgical and follow up procedures and comes into force from October. Talking about the scheme yesterday, Fadnavis had said 971 ailments were covered under the old scheme.

Now, this number got increased to 1,100, including old age issues, hip and knee replacement, sickle cell anemia treatment.

Also, 31 super speciality and 127 follow up procedures have been included. Moreover, the insurance cover under the new scheme has been raised from the earlier Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 2 lakh.

PTI
Udta Punjab controversy: Why India loves to crush creativity in the name of reputation

India

oi-Oneindia

By Maitreyee Boruah

Bengaluru, June 8: Last year the BJP-led NDA government banned 'India's Daughter', the documentary about the brutal gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old medical student in a moving bus in Delhi in December 2012.

Reason: the film portrays India in a bad light as the rape capital of the world. Similar logic has been cited when recently the Censor Board of Film Certification (CBFC) proposed numerous cuts on an upcoming Bollywood film.

The Censor Board has asked the makers of the upcoming Bollywood film, Udta Punjab, for 89 cuts and dropping the reference to Punjab throughout the movie, before it gets its nod to be screened across the country. The film directed by Abhishek Chaubey, known for his realistic cinema, depicts the large-scale drug menace in the northern state.

The ruling Akali Dal in Punjab has vehemently opposed the film. The leaders of the party say the film is an attempt to malign the state and its people. The party has already announced that they won't allow the film to be screened in Punjab. As Punjab is slated for the upcoming assembly elections in 2017, the film--which has garnered a lot of interest because of its slick trailers--has fallen victim of politics.

Since the news about the proposed 89 cuts on Udta Punjab has become public, those who stand for freedom of speech and expression have slammed the Censor Board and its chairperson Pahlaj Nihalani.

One man who has been regularly voicing his protests against censorship on films is the noted Indie-filmmaker and producer of Udta Punjab, Anurag Kashyap.

In one of his first tweets since the Udta Punjab row began, Anurag compared India with North Korea, a country under dictatorship.

"I always wondered what it felt like to live in North Korea .. Ab to plane pakadney ki bhi zaroorat nahin..," tweeted Kashyap.

Attacking the CBFC chief Nihalani, Kashyap called him an oligarch and a dictator and that it was like living in North Korea.

Since the issue has already taken a political colour, opposition parties like Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Congress have condemned the latest ruling of the CBFC.

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi said on Tuesday that Punjab has a crippling drug problem and censoring the Shahid Kapoor-starrer Udta Punjab would not fix the menace in the state.

"Punjab has a crippling drug problem. Censoring #UdtaPunjab will not fix it. The government must accept the reality and find solutions," tweeted Office of RG  @OfficeOfRG.

With so much of hue and cry surrounding the film, we have to wait and watch whether the CBFC would change its decision or not.

OneIndia News
Attacks on Hindus in UK: Are Muslims frustrated over spread and reach of Hinduism?

What the Karnataka High Court had said on hijab ban

Hijab ban: With SC delivering a split verdict, here is what happens next

With UP in mind, Muslims to float common front to take on 'communal forces'

India

oi-IANS

By Ians English

New Delhi, June 8: Many Muslim leaders, worried about electoral marginalisation of the community, especially after the split in Muslim votes in Assam, have initiated a serious move to bring together all groups, sects and schools of thought under one platform to make the community of 160 million a strong political force.

A series of meetings are being held to forge a common political front in alliance with secular minded groups to become electorally relevant, keeping in view the forthcoming Uttar Pradesh elections next year.

Former Member of Parliament Mohammed Adeeb, former General Secretary of All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat Ilyas Malik and former Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) students leader Z.K. Faizan have started parleys with various leaders.

These leaders said the recent meeting of Barelvi sect chief Maulana Tauqeer Raza with clerics of Deoband's Darul Uloom is significant.

There is already a move to bring All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) of Assam's Badruddin Ajmal, Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen of Asaduddin Owaisi and the Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid Syed Ahmed Bukhari together along with other political groups so that the Uttar Pradesh elections are fought under one banner and common programme, Adeeb told this correspondent.

Several Muslim parties like the Welfare Party and Peace Party have not emerged politically strong in Uttar Pradesh or other parts of the country.

Ilyas also claimed that the group of Muslim leaders will visit Nadwatul Uloom, Lucknow and Darul Uloom to impress upon religious leaders to lend their support to "save Muslims from political alienation".

He said the Assam assembly results are a matter of concern, where despite comprising 35 per cent of the population, Muslims got "marginalized" as their vote got split into various political groups.

"We have witnessed the same in the parliamentary elections. In many constituencies, despite Muslims being in sizable numbers, we could not ensure victory of the candidate of our choice. This is going to happen again if we fail to form a common agenda and ensure fielding of common candidates, especially in western Uttar Pradesh where the community has reasonably good concentration," Ilyas said.

Faizan, who was once a close associate of the late senior Congress leader H.N. Bahuguna, said efforts are being made to rope in senior Uttar Pradesh minister Azam Khan, who "appears unhappy" with the Samajwadi Party and has aired his differences on many occasion, including on nomination of Amar Singh as a Rajya Sabha member.

The leaders said that Muslims have been used as vote bank by various political parties which did nothing for their economic and educational uplift. Despite efforts made by some secular parties to forge strong alliance between Congress and the AIUDF and other groups, former Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi was reluctant. The result was a rout of Congress as well as decline in the number of seats of Ajmal's party.

Adeeb said there should be a coordination committee of all Muslim groups and organisations that should be empowered to take decisions on the selection of candidates.

It should also start talks with like-minded secular parties and groups.

Malik suggested that it would be good if Muslims and Dalits joined hands to defeat communal forces.

IANS


Prashant Kishor claims Nitish Kumar in touch with BJP says don't be surprised if he joins hands with it again

Why is BJP being left out in CBI probe? asks Rawat

India

oi-PTI

Dehradun, June 8: Accusing CBI of leaving BJP out of the ambit of its probe in the sting CD case, Chief Minister Harish Rawat on Wednesday, June 8 asked the agency to interrogate the "main players" of the "horsetrading drama" that unfolded during the recent political crisis in Uttarakhand.

"On the basis of my conversation with a third man who was not a player in the episode, CBI summoned me for interrogation. "I ask the investigating agency why it does not question the main players and beneficiaries of the horsetrading drama," he said.

Several of them have also been named in the sting CD, he said. "Why aren't they summoned by the CBI," Rawat told reporters here on his return from New Delhi after making his second appearance before the CBI in connection with the case.

"After all who was the end beneficiary of the horsetrading exercise? I lost 10 MLAs while BJP gained as many," he said, adding, "someone who lost 10 MLAs due to horsetrading is being interrogated whereas those who earned as many are being left out."

Rawat said he has told CBI his side of the story and submitted to it documents which can serve as evidence of BJP's "active" role in the horsetrading that took place in the state during the peak of the crisis in March. "There were allegations made by Congress MLAs even on March 18 (the day crisis broke out in the state assembly) that they were offered money to break ranks with us.

"The whole world saw BJP leaders taking Congress defectors to Raj Bhawan in a chartered bus and then in a chartered aircraft to a Gurgaon hotel," he said. Numerous visits were made by BJP central leaders to Dehardun during the one-and-a-half month long crisis, he said.

After all what were they up to?. Isn't it enough reason for CBI to bring the BJP under the ambit of its probe?' he asked. Rejecting charges that he had tried to lure the rebel MLAs, he shot back, "Wouldn't it have been a self-defeating exercise? Why would I try to bring back MLAs against whom I had demanded action from the Speaker," he said.

The Chief MInister said he has been saying all along that he will cooperate with the CBI in its ongoing investigations in the sting CD case. "I am doing exactly that," he said.

In the CD, Rawat was purportedly seen talking to middlemen in a bid to strike a deal with dissident Congress MLAs. Rawat has denied any wrongdoing.

Two days before Rawat was to face vote of confidence on March 28, nine rebel Congress MLAs, led by former chief minister Vijay Bahuguna, had alleged that they were offered bribe by Rawat for support during the floor test in the Uttarakhand Assembly and released a video of the "sting" operation.

An inquiry was initiated on the recommendation of the state government, then under President's Rule, and a notification on it was issued by the Centre. Rawat went on to win the floor test in the Assembly and return as CM.

PTI
Why would Dawood Ibrahim write a letter before carrying out a blast?

India

oi-Vicky

New Delhi, June 8: Yesterday there were reports which suggested that Dawood Ibrahim was planning a major attack in Delhi.

The basis of the information was a letter that was written to the Delhi police claiming a henchman of the don would strike in Delhi's elite areas.

While the police did take the matter seriously, it now appears that it may have just been a hoax. The letter was written to the North West DCP by a person by the name Kamal. The police say that this is the handiwork of a miscreant.

Why would he write a letter:

A terror operation is normally planned secretly. The police failed to understand the logic of someone writing a letter before carrying out a terror strike. If they want the strike to be peaceful, why would they write and intimate the police in advance, an Intelligence Bureau official asked.

The other aspect is the man Dawood Ibrahim himself. The ISI normally assigns him for hit jobs to spread communal violence in India. He is also roped in for funds when the ISI is planning an attack through the Lashkar-e-Tayiba or the Jaish-e-Mohammad.

Moreover the ISI does not discuss terror plans with Dawood Ibrahim any longer. There is a chance of that information leaking which the ISI would not want. Dawood is a criminal businessman and with such persons information is never safe as they can sell it for a sum.

The letter had however led to an alert in Delhi. The police did a through check and even trailed an arms dealer from Pune who is alleged to have been assigned the task. However the investigations now suggest that the letter could have been a hoax.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Wednesday, June 8, 2016, 15:45 [IST]
Even if not contesting 2020 polls, Hillary Clinton will not be entirely out of scene

Hillary Clinton will be sorely missed in 2020 presidential election, says Donald Trump

Hillary Clinton says Julian Assange must 'answer for what he has done'

Hillary Clinton retweets own tweet, she put after her 2016 defeat

Barack Obama congratulates Hillary Clinton for creating history

International

oi-Jagriti

Washington, June 8: US President Barack Obama on Tuesday congratulated Hillary Clinton for creating history after she secured the Democratic nomination in the ongoing presidential poll.

The former secretary of state has become first woman in the history of American politics to secure delegates necessary to clinch the Democratic nomination.

"We made history tonight-but we have more work to do. Chip in if you've got Hillary's back," said Hillary Clinton.

She claimed the Democratic presidential nomination on Tuesday night after decisive victories in the New Jersey and New Mexico primaries.

After claiming victories she appealed to supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont to unite with her against Donald J. Trump.

Eight years after failure, Hillary Clinton makes history

New York tabloid Daily News changed its front page in honour of Clinton.

Clinton's nomination would mark a U-turn from a political culture where not many women are seen in governance. Besides over 80 per cent of the members of the US House of Representatives, over 75 per cent of the state legislators and 88 per cent of the governors are men.

We made history tonightbut we have more work to do. Chip in if you've got Hillary's back: https://t.co/iQy1FYwUkM  Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 8, 2016

Text CONGRATS to 47246 to tell Hillary you're proud to be by her side all the way to the White House. pic.twitter.com/bBCd6SF3Vf  Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 8, 2016

Dont let anyone tell you great things cant happen in America. Barriers can come down. Justice & equality can win.https://t.co/5xcwapDvPJ  Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 8, 2016

I keep saying Hillary is the ultimate changemaker, and tonight she proved it. I couldn't be more proud. History made. #ImWithHer  Bill Clinton (@billclinton) June 8, 2016

Dont let anyone tell you that great things cant happen in America. pic.twitter.com/dtgjwmcfMm  Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 8, 2016

OneIndia News

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Wednesday, June 8, 2016, 10:40 [IST]
PM arrives in Amsterdam in last leg of his three-nation tour

Modi in US: He came, saw, conquered and re-assured

Foreign policy not just about embracing: Congress to Modi, urges to raise issues of Indian interest in US

In meet with PM Modi, Kamala Harris refers to Pak terror role, agrees on need to monitor

Modi in US: PM, Obama discuss extremism challenge

International

oi-PTI

Washington, Jun 8: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today discussed the challenges posed by extremism with US President Barack Obama and the two leaders underlined the need to ensure the participation of civil society and minority communities to address the issue, officials said.

PM Modi's 6 foreign visits in May & June 2016: A brief look

The Prime Minister and the President had a very extensive and thoughtful conversation about the rise of extremism and the need for all countries to work together to address this challenge, a senior administration official said.

The two leaders also underlined the need to ensure that the civil society and the minority communities are fully participating in addressing the issue, the official said.

However, there was no specific discussion on human rights issues and religious freedom on India, officials said.

"No, I do not believe the subject came up today in the discussions," Indian Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar said. Meanwhile, Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission held a hearing to examine the current state of human rights in India, challenges to fundamental freedom and opportunities for advancement.

Testifying before the Commission, several experts expressed their concern over the human rights condition in India.

In a related development, a bipartisan group of 18 House members  led by Representatives Trent Franks and Betty McCollum wrote to the House Speaker Paul Ryan urging him to prioritize religious freedom in India during his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, especially in light of ongoing violence and harassment against religious minorities, including Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, and Sikhs.

Modi is scheduled to address a joint session of the US Congress today. "We respectfully request that during your meetings with the Prime Minister, the 'shared value' of the fundamental right of religious freedom will be a priority in your conversation.

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

Modi in US: A brief look at Narendra Modis speech at US Congress

International

oi-Lisa

Washington, June 8: Prime Minister Narendra Modi joined the long list of foreign leaders who have spoken in the Hall of the House when he addressed the joint meeting of the US Congress. Speaker Paul Ryan added that it was for the first time he will be presiding over a joint meeting of Congress as PM Modi addresses the Congress.

PM Modi's 6 foreign visits in May & June 2016: A brief look

PM Modi is the fifth Indian PM to have addressed a joint meeting of Congress. Last former PM Manmohan Singh had addressed the joint meeting of Congress in 2005.

Tomorrow, @PMOIndia joins a long list of foreign leaders who have spoken in the Hall of the House. Learn more: https://t.co/W9URtuJkG5  Paul Ryan (@SpeakerRyan) June 7, 2016

PM arrived at US Capitol Complex:

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived at the US Capitol Complex he was welcomed by Speaker Ryan.

The US Congress welcomes PM @narendramodi. Here, he is meeting @SpeakerRyan. Will address joint session shortly. pic.twitter.com/Y9B5J2WIuv  PMO India (@PMOIndia) June 8, 2016

As per the rituals of an old democratic tradition, PM was greeted by Members of Congressional Escort Committee. Member of Congressional Escort Committee lead him into the House to deliver his address.

In the hallowed House! PM @narendramodi arrives for a historic address to a joint meeting of the US Congress pic.twitter.com/hmLE4Qx8Dt  Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) June 8, 2016

PM Modi begins his address:

PM began his address by paying glorious tribute to the Capitol Complex. He said, "This temple of democracy has empowered other democracies across the world".

"In granting me this opportunity, you have honoured the world's largest democracy and its 1.25 billion people."

PM then quoted President Lincoln and applauded spirit of America, dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Mr. Modi then talked about his visit to Arlington National Cemetery and he remembered those fallen soldiers in distant battlefields, both from the US and India in pursuit of similar ideals.

"India applauds the great sacrifices of the men & women from 'The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave' in service of mankind."

PM talks about India:

"There were many who doubted India when, as a newly independent nation, we reposed our faith in democracy."

"Our founders created a modern nation with freedom, democracy and equality as the essence of its soul."

"Today, India lives as one; India grows as one; India celebrates as one."

"The Constitution is our real holy book, in which freedom of faith, speech and franchise and equality of all citizens are fundamental rights."

PM recalled thinkers and doers who have influenced or been influenced by each other from Thoreau to Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and Ambedkar.

"Gandhi's non-violence inspired the heroism of Martin Luther King. The genius of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar was nurtured in the years he spent at the Columbia University a century ago."

PM on ties with the US:

"No wonder then, that former Prime Minister of India Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee called India and the U.S. 'natural allies'. No wonder then, that President Obama has called our ties the defining partnership of the 21st century."

Today, our relationship has overcome the hesitations of history. Comfort, candour, and convergence define our conversations... and in our exciting journey the U.S. Congress has acted as its compass.

"India will never forget the solidarity shown by U.S. Congress when terrorists from across our border attacked Mumbai in 2008."

"You helped us turn barriers into bridges of partnership. Thank you for being there when the partnership needed you the most," he said as he thanked the US for supporting India in its tough time.

"The embrace of our partnership extends to the entirety of human endeavour. The genius of Norman Borlaug brought the Green Revolution and food security to India. Our cooperation secures our cities and citizens from terrorists and protects our critical infrastructure from cyber threats."

PM's sense of humour had all floored:

"You are well-known for your bipartisanship. I have also witnessed a similar spirit in Indian Parliament, especially in Upper House."

"SIRI tells us that more than 30 million practice Yoga... But no Mr. Speaker, we have not yet claimed intellectual property right on it!"

PM on diaspora's contribution to the US:

"Connecting our two nations is also a unique and dynamic bridge of three million Indian Americans."

They are among your best CEOs; academics; scientists; economists; doctors; even spelling bee champions.

The House rises in applause as PM mentions the Diaspora, says they are the pride of India pic.twitter.com/KB2Vj86fEj  Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) June 8, 2016

PM on his dreams for India:

"My dream is to economically empower all Indians by 2022, the 75th anniversary of Independence."

"I see US as an indispensible partner. Many of you believe that a stronger & prosperous India is in America's strategic interest."

"India's strong economy and growth rate of 7.6% per annum, is creating new opportunities for our mutual prosperity. A strong India-U.S. partnership can anchor peace, prosperity, and stability from Asia to Africa & from Indian Ocean to the Pacific."

"In every sector of India's march, I see U.S. as an indispensable partner. Let us work together to convert ideals into practical cooperation."

"We must cooperate to address the challenges of the 21st century."

"The effectiveness of our cooperation would increase if international institutions were to reflect the realities of today."

PM on terrorism:

"Globally, terrorism remains the biggest threat, going by different names, but with the common philosophy of hate, murder and violence."

"Although its shadow is spreading across the world, terrorism is incubated in India's neighbourhood."

"I commend the members of U.S. Congress for sending a clear message to those who preach and practice terrorism for political gains."

"Humanity must speak in one voice. Terrorism must be delegitimised."

PM on India's efforts for Climate change:

"For us in India, to live in harmony with mother earth is a part of our ancient belief."

PM talks about Yemen, Nepal and Sri Lanka:

PM spoke of actions beyond our shores, both alone and together - for disaster relief, environmental protection, and conflict resolution.

PM talks about future ties:

"The constraints of the past are behind us and foundations of the future are firmly in place. The Orchestra have sufficiently tuned their instruments, the baton has given the signal. And there is a new symphony in play."

"PM calls for transformational ideas in #IndiaUS ties to realise the full promise of this extraordinary relationship."

PM concludes by quoting Walt Whitman as he said, our relationship is primed for a momentous future!"

PM gets standing ovation:

A speech which spoke to America got PM Modi a standing ovation as his speech ended.

More Congressional honours. @SpeakerRyan hosts banquet lunch for PM @narendramodi on Capitol Hill pic.twitter.com/SwBhizvrbN  Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) June 8, 2016

From a Congressional address inside to a rapturous diaspora outside, power of India on full display at Capitol Hill pic.twitter.com/u6Gs93UDMJ

 Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) June 8, 2016

Well wishers outside the Capitol waiting for PM @narendramodi, who went and met those who were there. pic.twitter.com/YAl4zNMp5K  PMO India (@PMOIndia) June 8, 2016
PM arrives in Amsterdam in last leg of his three-nation tour

Modi in US: He came, saw, conquered and re-assured

Foreign policy not just about embracing: Congress to Modi, urges to raise issues of Indian interest in US

In meet with PM Modi, Kamala Harris refers to Pak terror role, agrees on need to monitor

Modi's visit to US: What Pakistani media said

International

oi-Shubham

Washington, June 8: While Prime Minister Narendra Modi is touring the US and covering some important steps in the two country's newly energised bilateral relation, what is India's arch-rival Pakistan, which is also witnessing a low in its relation with traditional ally US, thinking?

PM Modi's 6 foreign visits in May & June 2016: A brief look

As the headlines of some media reports published from Pakistan have shown, Islamabad is certainly not in a very happy state of mind. [3 reasons why India-US relations flourished under Modi like never before]

Here we have a look at some headlines of some Pakistani news reports (as well as editorials and opinions) on PM Modi's latest visit to the US:

DAWN:

TRIBUNE:

US, India boost security ties

THE NEWS INTERNATIONAL:

US backs India's bid to join Nuclear Suppliers Group

DAILY TIMES:

Obama announces support to India on nuclear suppliers group membership

PAKISTAN TODAY:

VOICE OF JOURNALISTS:

The US strategic bet on India for a pivot Asia-Pacific Strategy [Opinion published in Nov 2015]

Oneindia News
Obama backs India's NSG bid, vows to be with India in fight against terrorism

International

oi-PTI

Washington, June 7: President Barack Obama today backed India's bid for membership of the elite Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) amid a major push to the strategic ties between the two countries which finalised a "roadmap" to give India the status of US' close partner in the defence sector.

Obama, who held over hour-long talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi here, also promised to cooperate with India against terrorist threats from groups such as Pakistan-based Jaish-e Mohammad, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba as well as 'D' Company, a reference to underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.

"In this context, they (the two leaders) directed their officials to identify specific new areas of collaboration at the next meeting of U.S.India Counterterrorism Joint Working Group," said a Joint Statement issued after the talks.

Significantly, the American side also committed itself to treating Pathankot attack at par with 26/11 terror strike in terms of ensuring punishment to perpetrators based in Pakistan. The two countries also decided to start work on construction of six American nuclear reactors in India amid affirmation that the Liability issue has been addressed.

Six pacts, including one on exchange of screening of terror information, besides two other documents were signed after the talks that mainly covered issues like terrorism, clean energy, climate change, defence, regional security, cyber security, economic ties and people-to-people contacts.

Addressing the media jointly with Modi at his Oval office, Obama said it was natural for India and the US, two biggest democracies, to "deepen and broaden" partnership. Progress made in the Civil Nuclear agreement was among the issues discussed, Obama said.

"I indicated support to India being a part of NSG," the US President said in remarks which assume significance since China is opposing such a move. Obama underlined that India needs technology, which is critical for its progress and prosperity.

The 50-point Joint Statement said, "President Obama welcomed India's application to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), and re-affirmed that India is ready for membership. The United States called on NSG Participating Governments to support India's application when it comes up at the NSG Plenary later this month.

"The United States also re-affirmed its support for India's early membership of the Australia Group and Wassenaar Arrangement." Modi later said, "I am ever thankful for the help and support that my friend President Obama has extended with regard to membership in MTCR and NSG."

PTI
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Dear Editor:

Voters in the 199th Pennsylvania legislative district now have a choice in the November election. Steven Bloom, incumbent, was unopposed. Jill Sunday Bartoli, believing that voters should have a choice, ran a very successful write-in campaign in April.

Do you remember vowing to oust all of the legislators who created the 2016 budget impasse? Now voters will have a chance to do that. Jill will act on the issues and values of citizens rather than partisan allegiances.

Are you concerned about the inequalities in education in Pennsylvania and high property taxes because legislators refuse to fund our public schools at the full state share of 50 percent?

Are you concerned that we may lose some of our best, most experienced teachers because of Rep. Blooms bill which would allow districts to layoff teachers according to some matrix instead of by reverse seniority? This bill is not necessary to provide the best teachers.

All teachers are currently evaluated regularly by administrators and with several unsatisfactory ratings can be dismissed. Tenure does not protect poor teachers; lack of administrative supervision does. When a district faces financially needed layoffs and the choice is between a teacher earning a higher salary and one at starting salary, how fairly to you think this matrix will be used?

Jill Bartoli is concerned about clean air and water and about preserving the natural beauty of our countryside more than alliances with big corporations and industries.

Jill's concerns are issues that are important to local citizens. Her focus is not bashing the current administration and blaming them for our problems. She is ready to work together to find equitable solutions.

Voters in the 199th District now have a choice. It is vital to learn more and tell others to ensure a brighter future.

Margaret Butts

Newville
Rumble 14 Oct 2022

Owen Shroyer analyzes and weighs the reaction from media and politicians in regards to the Alex Jones Sandy Hook case and explains..
Eritrea, officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of Eastern Africa, with its capital and largest city at Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia in the south, Sudan in the west, and Djibouti in the southeast. The northeastern and eastern parts of Eritrea have an extensive coastline along the Red Sea. The nation has a total area of approximately 117,600 km2 (45,406 sq mi), and includes the Dahlak Archipelago and several of the Hanish Islands.
Sports Illustrated 25 Oct 2022

Its no secret that Stanford football games are not well attended. Screenshots of the stands during broadcasts are often tweeted..
Uzbekistan, officially the Republic of Uzbekistan, is a doubly landlocked country located in Central Asia. It is surrounded by five landlocked countries: Kazakhstan to the north; Kyrgyzstan to the northeast; Tajikistan to the southeast; Afghanistan to the south; and Turkmenistan to the southwest. Its capital and largest city is Tashkent. Uzbekistan is part of the Turkic world, as well as a member of the Organization of Turkic States. The Uzbek language is the majority-spoken language in Uzbekistan; other languages include the Russian language and the Tajik language. Islam is the predominant religion in Uzbekistan, most Uzbeks being Sunni Muslims.
Syrian President Bashar Assad vowed Tuesday his troops would liberate every inch of the nation, just like they recaptured the ancient town of Palmyra from the Islamic State group, in a speech that reflected his renewed confidence as the military pressed on toward Raqqa, the extremists self-styled capital.

His remarks in parliament came as his opponents, backed by Turkey and Saudi Arabia, are struggling for survival and his troops have almost encircled rebel-held neighborhoods of Aleppo, Syrias largest city.

Saying the military situation was much better than it was months ago, Assad told the lawmakers that Aleppo will be the graveyard where the hopes and dreams of the butcher Erdogan will be buried.

The reference was to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, one of the staunchest supporters of the rebels fighting to topple Assad. Erdogan has allowed safe passage from his country for fighters and weapons over the border into Syria.

Assad also described Erdogan as a thug and a fascist in the speech, which was frequently interrupted by applause.

When Assad walked into the chamber to speak, the legislators had stood and chanted, Our soul, our blood we sacrifice for you, Bashar!

The civil war, now in its sixth year, has turned in Assads favor ever since Russia began a bombing campaign in September, helping Syrian troops recapture wide areas from insurgents.

The biggest victory came in March, when government forces evicted the Islamic State group from Palmyra, a desert town in central Syria world famous for its majestic Roman-era ruins.

The way we liberated Palmyra, and before that many areas, we will liberate every last bit of Syria from their hands. We have no choice but to be victorious, Assad said to a furious applause.

Our war on terrorism will continue not because we like war. They imposed the war on us, he added, reiterating his often-used line of blaming foreign countries for the conflict. The shedding of blood will not end until we uproot terrorism, wherever it is.

Erdogan denies he is aiding the Islamic State, although he does support other rebels fighting to oust Assad. The U.S. supports the predominantly Kurdish, U.S.-backed Syria Democratic Forces fighting IS.

The Islamic State group also is under siege in neighboring Iraq, as government forces there surround the western city of Fallujah, which has been held by the extremists for more than two years.
SlotsMillion Unites iGaming Super Show and Cash Game Festival Through VR

Published June 8, 2016 by Lee R

Virtual reality is going on display at full effect simultaneously in Malta and Amsterdam with SlotsMillion virtual casino.

Something truly groundbreaking is taking place at the iGaming Super Show today.

Virtual Reality Unites

The first real money, multi-player virtual reality casino the world has ever seen will unite slot players from conventions in two different countries simultaneously. This morning, hosting game SlotsMillion is set to integrate players visiting Malta's Cash Game Festival (From June 8-12) in San Giljan, with players from Amsterdam's iGaming Super Show (Jun 7-10).

The Casino of the Future

Oculus Rift headsets will integrate participation from players some 2,000 km apart to compete inside the casino-of-the-future together as they watch and react to Twitch footage from the Cash Game Festival on a giant screen.

Another Universe

SlotsMillion, the Innovation of the Year winner at the prestigious EGR Marketing and Innovation Awards, will transport visitors to a 22nd story Art Deco room at the top of a futuristic skyscraper which players will enter after choosing their avatar.

The Games

Upon entry, player avatars will head to the SlotsMillion lobby to survey the opulent digs featuring a collection of 40 of todays hottest, classic, video, jackpot and 3D slots. Best-known titles to be played for Real Money include Gonzos Quest, Immortal Romance, Starburst, the Wild Chase, and branded products Basic Instinct and Rambo.

The Broadcast

The competition will be streamed live from June 8-10th via the official Cash Game Festival live stream on a massive television visible through the SlotsMillion buildings floor-to-ceiling windows. This mind-bending event will be accompanied by live commentary from the main table during the festival.

The Potential Impact

SlotsMillion CEO Alexandre Tomic believes the fantastic event will serve to demonstrate how virtual reality can change everyday life:

We can use VR to create beautiful, vivid encounters that are more colourful and life-like than real life. It has the power to transport us to another world, a world whose immersiveness Tomic suggests is incomprehensible until experienced.

Duration

The two-year-old five-day Cash Game Festival will run non-stop for 120 hours and offers a range of buy-ins, special sponsored feature tables, high-hand bonuses and special customer offers.
I voted for Bernie Sanders in the California primary not because I thought he would or could win the California primary, let alone the Democratic presidential nomination, but because he deserved support. He deserved it because he did what few politicians were willing to do

That is thunder against wealth and income inequality, corral Wall Street abuses, back a top dollar minimum wage, a massive job creation program, universal health care, and the end to mass incarceration. He injected a much needed gale of fresh air into American politics. But that's past. Hillary Clinton is the Democratic presidential nominee, and no amount of talk from Bernie about fighting on, trying to arm twist a few more super-delegates for support, or citing ridiculous, meaningless polls that show him beating Trump in a general election facedown are relevant to anything.

The only thing relevant now is not simply beating Trump, but the Democrats taking back the senate to insure that Clinton has a fighting chance of getting her initiatives, legislation and judicial and administration appointments through, and to oust as many Republicans from state and local offices as possible. This is going to take votes, lots of votes, and lots of voters going to the polls to back Clinton and every Democrat who's in a tough race with a Republican in the swing states.

It's going to take Bernie saying to the roughly one out of five of his fervent backers who have railed against Clinton, and vowed that they wouldn't back her no matter what, you must. He doesn't have to try to put the fear of God in them with the nightmarish scene of a "President" Trump putting two or three more Clarence Thomas's on the Supreme Court, gutting everything from education to the Affordable Care Act, and holding an itchy finger on the nuclear trigger. He can talk about Hillary, or more importantly, why he agrees more with Hillary on the crucial issues than disagrees. That's not hard to do because it's true. Clinton will give a hard nod to the interests of minorities, gays and women. She will continue and expand Obama's policies that extend government programs and initiatives, hike spending on education, health care, and jobs and markedly increase taxes on corporations and the wealthy while enforcing, tightening regulations on the banks and Wall Street, and she has actually spelled out a progressive plan for real criminal justice system reform.

I had the luxury of giving Sanders a vote in California. It's a no-fly zone for GOP presidential candidates. No Republican presidential candidate has won the state since George Bush, Sr. in 1988. Jesus Christ could run on the GOP presidential ticket in California and probably lose. However, it's a far different story in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Colorado where either GOP governors or GOP controlled or heavily influenced legislatures are major political shot callers.

Bush won the White House in 2000 by the much disputed 537 vote margin in Florida over Al Gore, and won it again in 2004 with the several thousand vote margin in Ohio over John Kerry. Both elections stand as the ultimate proof that an individual's vote really can count. This election is no different. The notion that Trump will implode, shoot himself in the foot, or turn off so many Republicans and independents that all Hillary has to do is concentrate her time and energy planning for her inaugural ball is not just nonsense, but dangerous.

Elections are almost always won by candidates with a solid and impassioned core of bloc voters. In Trump's case, white males, older voters, middle-income, college educated voters vote consistently and faithfully. They vote in a far greater percentage than Hispanics and blacks, and especially young voters. And many of them based on his showing in the primaries do back him. The big exception was 2008. Obama's run turned that year's campaign into a crusade to make racial history. That powered the massive sea change in traditional voting patterns. In 2012, it didn't hold up. Obama won the popular vote by just slightly more than 5 million votes over Romney. In 2014, it totally fell apart with the GOP's steady voting base again back at the polls and the party used it to seize the Senate.





Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His latest book is How "President" Trump will Govern (Amazon Kindle) He is an associate editor of New America Media. He is a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on Radio One. He is the host of the weekly Hutchinson Report on KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles and the Pacifica Network.
Reprinted from Alon Ben-Meir Website

Following the 2016 US presidential elections, the next administration must adopt a new and realistically balanced policy toward Israel and the Palestinians to bring an end to their conflict in the context of a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace based on the Arab Peace Initiative. Throughout the primary campaign, only Senator Bernie Sanders had a position on this consuming conflict that was fresh, balanced, and welcome, especially given the increased intractability of the conflict and its dangerous implications not only for Israel and the Palestinians, but also for the US's strategic interests in the Middle East.

The continuation of the conflict also has direct consequences on the security of the EU, precisely because it feeds into the region's extremism from which the EU suffers greatly. In this regard, France's initiative to resume Israeli-Palestinian negotiations is timely and should be pursued despite the initial lack of consensus at a recent meeting in Paris between the European, American, and Arab foreign ministers on convening an international conference at the end of the year to address the conflict in earnest.

Throughout the primary campaign, Sanders articulated his position concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, stating that: "I read Secretary Clinton's speech before AIPAC, I heard virtually no discussion at all about the needs of the Palestinian people... Of course Israel has a right to defend itself, but long term there will never be peace in that region, unless the United States plays... an even-handed role in trying to bring people together and recognizing the serious problems that exist among the Palestinian people ... There comes a time when if we pursue justice and peace we are going to have to say that Netanyahu is not right all of the time." [emphasis added]

What is admirable about his stand is not that it is new, but that it is articulated by a significant presidential candidate. Although he has failed to secure the nomination of the Democratic Party, he has become a major political force and the presumptive nominee, Hillary Clinton, must seriously take into account his position on this critical issue.

Many Israeli and American Jews cynically accuse Senator Sanders of being an apologetic, self-hating Jew who is willing to bend backwards only to demonstrate that he is even-handed, when in fact he is undermining, from their perspective, Israel's national security concerns.

On the contrary, I maintain that Sanders has taken this even-handed position precisely because he is committed to Israel's security and well-being; he fully understands that time is against Israel, and those who really care about Israel's future must speak out.

Sanders recognizes that Israel has no future as a Jewish, democratic, and secure state unless it recognizes the Palestinians' right to a state of their own and "treat[s] the Palestinian people with respect and dignity."

Many American politicians who support the policy of successive Israeli governments are, in fact, exploiting Israel for their own benefit. They want to draw not so much the votes of the Jewish community and their financial contributions, but the tens of millions of votes of the critically important evangelical constituency, whose support of Israel, for religious reasons, is unwavering.

Due to its traditional one-sided policy, the US has become the enabler of Israel's addiction to the occupation and settlements by allowing successive Israeli governments to pursue a disastrous policy of expansionism, even though such a policy was and still is to Israel's detriment.

As a result, the US's involuntary acquiescence has allowed Israel to defy the international community with impunity, further strengthening Israel's resolve against making any significant concession and rendering peace ever more elusive. Ironically, instead of protecting Israel's national security, the US has inadvertently exposed it to constant threats and violence.

The fact that the Palestinians and the international community have failed to compel Israel to change direction does not suggest that the Israelis are winning. Israel is, in fact, only digging itself into an ever deeper hole from which it will be unable to climb unscathed.

This is what both Sanders and the French initiative want to avoid, as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict cannot be wished away. Direct involvement of the US and the EU continues to be essential to changing the dynamic of the conflict, provided that careful lessons are drawn from past failures.

Given the intense hostility, hatred, and total lack of trust between Israel and the Palestinians, the resumption of direct or indirect negotiations will lead to nowhere as neither side is able to deliver the major concessions that will be required to reach an agreement without full public support.

For these reasons, the French initiative, with the backing of the next US administration, must support a process of reconciliation between Israel and the Palestinians that precedes formal negotiations.

Although the June 3 meeting in Paris left the prospect of convening an international conference to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process later this year somewhat ambiguous, the participants have nevertheless agreed on a positive joint communique.


Bernie Sanders in the South Bronx March 31st 2016. Photo by Michael Vadon on Flickr

(Image by flickr) Details DMCA



It's imperative that Bernie Sanders define himself in the public mind before his Republican opponents define him when he's the nominee. Then there will be little undoing it. When the smearing starts in earnest, it will be too late. Acting defensively is not effective. A national TV campaign defining Bernie Sanders and his politics must be done now before he becomes the Democratic presidential nominee and to assist him to reach that goal by convincing the "super delegates" of his viability in the general election.

The right wing has been perniciously labeling Sanders "communist" for years. Before it goes main stream, a massive country wide TV 30 second campaign, repeated over and over (messages penetrate only when repeated) is mandatory to prevent Sanders' politics being cast negatively in the public mind.

The human brain is influenced by words, labels, what it is told to think of those words and labels. Trump uses the perennial propaganda technique of name calling to undermine his opponents' image and character in the public mind. No one will be able to think of Hillary Clinton without the word "crooked." Radio right winger Rush Limbaugh has been doing this for decades. Get the book Everything You Need to Know About Rush Limbaugh CONSERVATISM for the numerous public figures and ways he has denigrated good people with name calling.

Limbaugh himself defined the technique on 1/12/2005 when it was done to him: "It's an attempt to discredit people with whom you cannot win an argument by labeling them in a pejorative way."

The electorate will be propagandized by false labeling and accusations against the presidential candidate's common sense program.

It's urgent to establish that Bernie Sanders is calling only for what every other advanced country in the world has done successfully, what other democratic countries worldwide have done for a half century. The U.S. has lagged behind the rest of the advanced world resulting in US loss economically and in citizens' loss of health.

Senator Bernie Sanders is calling for what has worked worldwide, nothing radical.

1) "Medicare for all" health insurance.

2) Public college where students are not charged into debt. Of course, those who wish to can go to private colleges and pay those tuitions. This is well accepted in Europe.

What about Democratic Socialism? Within this capitalist country, for decades, the U.S. has had well received socialism that works and wouldn't be voted against now: social security, unemployment insurance, disability insurance, medicare, food stamps, Medicaid, public utilities nationwide, highways, bridges, schools, infrastructure. Even public radio and television. There's the socialism of government regulation to prevent abuses to workers and the public.

Let's not forget that the public accepts the military for "socialized" defense. The military is run with the public's taxes. And most notably--- corporate welfare is socialism. Every year over a hundred billion dollars in business grants and tax credits go to large corporations.

The annual international study by the Commonwealth Fund reports: In health, "Among the 11 nations studied--Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States--the U.S. ranks last, as it did in the 2010, 2007, 2006, and 2004 ...the U.S. fails to achieve better health outcomes than the other countries . . . is last or near last on dimensions of access, efficiency, and equity."

Those countries have some form of universal coverage. And they spend far less on health care than the U.S. What more could we want than better and less expensive healthcare?

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Scott Baker is a Managing Editor & The Economics Editor at Opednews, and a former blogger for Huffington Post, Daily Kos, and Global Economic Intersection.

His anthology of updated Opednews articles "America is Not Broke" was published by Tayen Lane Publishing (March, 2015) and may be found here:

http://www.americaisnotbroke.net/

Scott is a former and current President of Common Ground-NY (http://commongroundnyc.org/), a Geoist/Georgist activist group. He has written dozens of (more...)




Donald Trump

(Image by Gage Skidmore) Details DMCA





There's been a change in how I see Donald Trump.



A few months ago, I saw him as an accomplished actor, able to pick what role to play for the occasion-- such as to become the dominant figure in the race for the Republican nomination. I believed he had understood how he could tap into the passions simmering in a large part of the Republican base and ride those passions to power.



If those Republican voters were feeling angry, he could give voice to that anger, belligerently picking fights with opponents and a variety of others. If they were feeling humiliated by an economy that was leaving them behind, and by a political system unresponsive to their needs, he could offer them a bold and boastful hero to identify with, and promise them all kinds of "victories" to restore their rightful place in the world.





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Reprinted from Nation of Change

The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Election Crimes Bulletin

The story I'm about to tell you is not to do oppo research for Trump's campaign. It's so you know the truth, the whole truth and nothing but -- about your candidates. I've been following the Clintons for longer than they've been running for President. I wrote about Clinton's "tour business" originally for The Guardian.

Read the full story in my book, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits

Listen in and inform yourselves...





TRANSCRIPT

Dennis J Bernstein: Welcome to the Election Protection Bulletin, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, with noted investigative reporter and bestselling author Greg Palast. This episode stars Bill and Hillary, the Entergy company, an ex-con named Webster Hubbell, and an ethnic Chinese billionaire from Indonesia.

Welcome Greg. Let's start with this ex-con who is also a former associate attorney general, Mr. Webster Hubbell.

Greg Palast: Yes, Webster Hubbell is very important. He was basically a council to a lawyer for Bill Clinton. And before he went to the White House, he was one of the heads of the Rose Law Firm, and his associate, his assistant, was a woman who went by the name Hillary Rodham at the time. Now, why is this important? Because you'd rather hear it from me than from Trump.

So, I did an investigation for the Guardian some years ago, and here's what we found. Webster Hubbell went from the White House and the Justice Department to federal prison. He did it because he was charged with, and he pled guilty to, faking his billing records at his firm. He made up hours that he didn't actually work.

Now, since his associate was Hillary, and he has said cryptically "all lawyers cheat on their hours..." did he mean also his associate? And in fact, if you're going to cheat on your hours, one of the things that you do is you make up, say billing time with your assistant.

So was Hillary also involved in the go to jail crime of faking your law firm billing records? Interestingly, it was hard to find out because Webster Hubbell pled guilty, and instead of turning in the first lady, suddenly the billing records went missing. And they were only found later, just outside Bill and Hillary's White House bedroom, in the West Wing, after Hubbell was safely ensconced in federal prison.

The question becomes -- Why in the world wouldn't Hubbell save his own skin, obviously, by turning in Hillary Clinton as part of his billing co-conspiracy? What happened to these billing records and what were they about? And it might have something to do...so go ahead Dennis, what's on your mind?

DB: I was going to say that's where the Riady family comes in. Very interesting family. Talk a little bit about them, and what that had to do with Hubbell's silence and willingness to go to jail.


Hillary learned from the slickest

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When the final remaining contenders suspended their campaigns in the Republican race for nomination to run for the office of President of the United States of America, Donald Trump was the only candidate remaining, and thus became the Republican Party's "presumptive" nominee. It's not that he had a majority of support, or that he was clearly, in the eyes of Republican Americans, the one person who could lead the country in the direction Republican citizens would consider right. All it meant was that he was the only one left in the race: thus, the "presumptive" nominee.



Now, on the final Super Tuesday of the Democratic race, and hours before the polls had closed (and I mean voting places, not surveys), Hillary Clinton has become the PRESUMPTUOUS nominee of the Democratic Party. This is based on the committed delegates from earlier caucuses and primaries, from projecting the anticipated votes from SuperDelegates (though their votes may not reflect the will of the People), and also from a carefully timed brainwashing technique Hillary learned from the man she's still married to, who, during his own presidency, effectively pulled the wool over the eyes of America, and in service to his corporatist supporters, managed to get NAFTA passed -- the North American Free Trade Agreement -- which resulted in the expatriation of factories and jobs to Latin America, the destruction of culture and habitat in those countries, and the escalation of economic stratification in our own. The corporations won; the People lost.



Now Hillary is using similar tactics, claiming the Democratic nomination before she has earned it, in the attempt to baffle last-minute voters and dominate in the final Super-Tuesday vote. She's a manipulator. She's deceitful. She's not the "presumptive" nominee at all -- just the presumptuous one.
Nuclear weapons test explosion in Pacific. Date unknown

Last evening I came across the following article titled, "US Survey Reveals Public Support for Nuclear Strikes". [1]

Just reading the title my initial reaction was, "What! Are you kidding me".

Reading further...the survey done last July by two academics Scott Sagan and Benjamin Valentino was recently published in the Wall Street Journal under the title, "Would the US Drop the Bomb Again?"

Sagan and Valentino's survey set forth "a fictional scenario mirroring Pearl Harbor: an Iranian attack on a US aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf that killed 2,403 sailors. Faced with this scenario, would the US public support the dropping of a nuclear weapon on an Iranian city killing 100,000 civilians.

They found the result "startling"; 59 percent of respondents backed "using a nuclear bomb on an Iranian city".

According to the authors the survey was a "representative sample of 620 Americans" which they conclude, "When provoked (US citizens) don't seem to consider the use of nuclear weapons a taboo and our commitment to the immunity of citizens from deliberate attack in wartime, even with vast casualties, is shallow".

Admittedly, the survey was a small sample of 620 Americans considering we're a country of 320 million.

But there have been similar type surveys. One done in 2004 asked whether Saddam Hussein was connected to 9/11 and some 70% said he was. Other recent surveys have a majority of Americans supporting the use of drones attacking and killing "suspected" terrorists-no reference to the usual "collateral damage"-killing of innocents in the nearby strike. Even Obama's killing of Americans in drone strikes has caused any large adverse reaction among other Americans. So maybe the Sagan/Valentino survey results shouldn't be so surprising.

The fact is since Pearl Harbor-and Hawaii wasn't even a state then-most Americans haven't been in war zones or under aerial attack. The continental US has not suffered any direct devastation of war since the Civil War.

The sense here is if most Americans had been forced to suffer direct bombardment in war on its soil-as people in Russia, Europe, China, Japan suffered themselves in WWII, Vietnamese in the 60's and early 70's, more recently the people in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen, eastern Ukraine-they wouldn't be so supportive of war much less a nuclear one.

These are troubling times. The neo-cons in official Washington are blood thirsty psychopaths pressing for more war, regime change against any country that resists US hegemony over it which is happening all over the world. Meanwhile Americans go about their daily business seemingly disconnected from this reality, not to mention the "ease" of accepting America's wars, NATO's expansion to the doorstep of Russia as well as US provocations against China in the South China Sea.

Consider; we're the only country to drop a nuclear weapon and that was against a non-nuclear Japan.

Russia and China are major nuclear powers that are capable of destroying the US in a retaliatory strike.

It is unprecedented the US could be so callous to directly provoke another nuclear power. Other than the Cuban missile crisis in 1962 the US and the Soviet Union never provoked the other to the point of a potential nuclear war. MAD, mutually assured destruction prevailed at the time.

Now absolute insanity has apparently gripped official Washington openly provoking Russia and China.

What's so disturbing is a propagandized, indoctrinated American populace appears so disconnected and oblivious to what's actually happening in the world and the horrific role the US is playing in it seems inconceivable.
Reprinted from Counterpunch

As I sat in the San Diego sunshine yesterday listening to Bernie Sanders outside of Qualcomm Stadium, I was struck by the stunning contrast between the senator and Donald Trump, particularly on the issue of race.

Sanders emphasized racial justice, citing the courage of African Americans and their allies who fought against racism and bigotry during Jim Crow. He talked of the thousands of undocumented workers who are ruthlessly exploited, overworked and underpaid, vowing to end the current deportation policies. Sanders seeks to "unite, not divide families." And he wants to "fundamentally change" the federal government's oppressive relationship with the Native American community.

There are more people in U.S. prisons than in any other country in the world, Sanders noted. Those imprisoned, he said, are disproportionately African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans. The senator wants to invest in "jobs and education, not jails and incarceration."

Sanders was a leader in the Civil Rights Movement. He served as president of the Congress of Racial Equality at the University of Chicago, organizing pickets and sit-ins, which led to his 1963 arrest for "resisting arrest."

When Dr. Cornel West, author of the book Race Matters, introduced Sanders, he said the senator stands on the shoulders of Martin Luther King Jr., Edward Said and Cesar Chavez. Said, a professor at Columbia University, was a path-breaking Palestinian-American activist scholar, who decried the "dehumanization of Palestinians to the level of beasts virtually without sentience or motive."

The overwhelming popularity of Sanders prompted the Democratic National Committee to invite him to nominate several members to the platform committee for the Democratic Convention. Much to the consternation of Hillary Clinton, Sanders' choices included Dr. West, Congressional Progressive Caucus chair Keith Ellison, and Arab-American Institute president James Zogby, all staunch supporters of Palestinian rights.

Sanders called out Donald Trump for his bigotry, saying, "In the year 2016, the American people will not accept a bigoted president." He added, "We are not going back. We will not accept a candidate that insults Latinos, Muslims, women, veterans and African Americans." Sanders reminded us that Trump was a leader of the birther movement, whose aim was to delegitimize Barack Obama as president because he is black.

Trump has a nasty habit of attacking people based on their race. His most recent assault was on Gonzalo Curiel, a well-respected federal judge in San Diego, who is presiding over a lawsuit filed by people claiming they were scammed by Trump University. When Curiel ordered the unsealing of documents in the case, Trump mounted a double-barrel assault on the judge, stating that Curiel had "an absolute conflict" that should disqualify him from the case. Trump's reasons: "He is a Mexican." Trump said, "I'm building a wall. It's an inherent conflict of interest." Curiel is a U.S. citizen born to Mexican immigrant parents. Trump also maintains that a Muslim judge might treat him unfairly because the latter has advocated the temporary exclusion of most foreign Muslims from entering the United States. But federal courts have roundly rejected the claim that the ethnicity of a judge disqualifies him or her from hearing a case.

Trump has also vowed to deport 11 million undocumented workers from the United States.

The overt racism of the presumptive Republican presidential candidate is causing hand-wringing in GOP circles. Republican strategist Brian Walsh characterized Trump's comments as "racist, nonsensical" and "the definition of racism."

Veteran GOP operative Rick Wilson is also alarmed at Trump's racism, noting that [the Republican Party] "own[s] the racial animus that started out as a bug, became a feature and is now the defining characteristic of his campaign." Wilson said that Trump's comments about Curiel and Muslim judges are "overtly racist."

Trump's racism is also evident in his pandering to people based on their race. He recently pointed out a black man in the crowd, declaring, "Oh, look at my African American over here -- look at him."

Sanders has cited Trump's demagoguery, which, the former thinks, is a reaction to fear and anger that many people feel, leading them to embrace scapegoating.

"Don't go to the dark side," Sanders implores. He advocates building a strong, progressive movement. "Real change," he told us yesterday, "has never taken place from the top on down, only from the bottom up."
Delhi Government approves first Solar Policy

Published: June 7, 2016

The Delhi government has approved the first Solar Policy which aims at making the Capital an environment-friendly solar city.

It was approved by Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal as it is part of one of Governments 70-point agendas.

The policy has been prepared by the Government of Delhi in consultation with the Dialogue and Development Commission (DDC) after extensive consultations with local and international experts.

Key features of Policy

Recommends the installation of 1 GW (1,000 Mega Watts) solar power capacity in Delhi by 2020, which is proposed to be doubled to 2 GW by 2025.

Outlines a combination of regulations, mandates, incentives, and tax breaks for the growth of rooftop solar power in the Capital.

Supports all models of ownership and maintenance of solar plants, including third-party-owned, self-owned models.

Mandatory deployment of solar panels on the government or public institutions.

Allows generation based incentive for 3 years and amendment of the building bylaws for rooftop solar installations.

Allows concept of virtual net metering in order to give access to the solar net metering facility to the consumers who do not have a suitable roof for installing a solar system.

It also allows group net metering to encourage solar plants on rooftops of buildings that cannot consume all of the energy generated locally.

Power departments Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Management Centre (EE&REM) will be nodal agency responsible for effective implementation of this policy.

Comment

The policy seeks to lower states expenditure on energy by providing clean and green energy. It also seeks to strengthen its energy security and reduces its reliance on unsustainable fossil fuels. It also seeks to reduce the burden on the existing distribution and transmission system to lower expenditure on their maintenance

Month: Current Affairs - June, 2016

Topics: Delhi  Government Policies  Renewable energy  Solar Energy  States

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Women Against Military Violence Symposium, Naha, Okinawa





As a 29 year veteran of the US Army, I first want to deeply apologize for the horrific criminal actions in the past two months on Okinawa by the perpetrators of a murder, two rapes and injuries caused by drunken driving by US military personnel assigned in Okinawa.

While these criminal acts do NOT reflect the attitudes of 99.9% of the US military in Okinawa, the fact that 70 years after the end of World War II, there are huge US military bases with tens of thousands of young US military personnel living in Okinawa makes for a dangerous situation.

The mission of the military is to resolve international conflict with violence.



Military personnel are trained to react to situations with violent actions. These violent actions can be used in personal life as military personnel attempt to resolve personal problems within the family, friends or strangers with violence. Violence is used to resolve anger, dislike, hate, and the feeling of superiority toward others.



Not only are communities around US military bases affected by this violence as we have seen erupt in the past two months in Okinawa, but violence occurs on military bases between members of the military community and families. Domestic violence within military families that are living on and off military bases is high.

Sexual assault and rape of military personnel by other military personnel is extraordinarily high. Estimates are that one in three women in the US military will be sexually assaulted or raped during the short time of six years that she is in the US military. The Department of Defense estimates that over 20,000 military are sexually assaulted each year, women and men. Rates of prosecution for these crimes are very low, with only 7 percent of the cases reported resulting in prosecution of the perpetrator.

Yesterday, Suzuyo Takazato of Okinawan Women Against Military Violence, an organization that has been documenting the violence of US military in Okinawa since World War II -- now 28 pages long -- took us to pay our respects to the memory of 20-year-old Rina Shimabukuro. We traveled to the area near Camp Hansen where her body was located by the admission of the perpetrator of her rape, assault and murder, a US military contractor and a former US Marine assigned in Okinawa. By his own admission to the Japanese police, he said that he had driven for several hours looking for a victim.







Flowers for Rina Shimabukuro at isolated area near Camp Hansen where her was was identified by the perpetrator

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Smart Motors Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2016 - 2023

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Smart Motors Market: OverviewSmart motor is an intelligent, and programmable device able to adjust the frequency and voltage supply in order to alter the speed and torque of a motor. In traditional motors, mechanical elements are used to control the speed, torque, and position of a motor. However, smart motors use sophisticated power electronics to control motor as per the application requirement. Smart motor combines the functionality of motor, speed controlling device such as variable speed drives, and control unit providing integration of hardware, software to carry out a process efficiently and effectively.In addition, it provides smooth acceleration and deceleration to protect the system mechanics. Furthermore, it allows users to program start, stop, and speed of the motor rendering to the application requirements. In pumping system, smart motors are in wide use to improve the energy savings, reduced heat loss, and to control cooling water pumps. In applications such as conveyor systems, pressure sensors are used to measure the load on the conveyor and from sensor inputs smart motor controls the speed, start and stop actions of motor.Smart Motors Market: Drivers and RestraintsSmart motor helps in reducing the energy consumption in applications where variety of load conditions are used in a process. Smart motors are capable of near field communication allowing to control motor in less safety processes. Smart motors have less maintenance cost as compare to traditional motors due to control units which monitors the performance of motors in a process such as production process, conveyor process, and other.In addition, with the increasing requirement of adjustable speed in applications such as material handling, pumping systems, and fan systems are expected to drive the demand for smart motors. However, with variable frequency adjustments capability of smart motors might be potentially harmful to equipment and environment. Furthermore, smart motors require some additional spare parts/ components such as speed control device increasing overall cost of system. In addition, capital investment required for smart motors is more than traditional motors. These factors are expected to restrain the wide scale use of smart motors. The increasing use of smart-phone in industrial applications such as smart-phone controlled smart motor, and integration of internet of things in industrial processes is expected to provide opportunities for adoption on smart motors in forecast period.Get More Information :Smart Motors Market: SegmentationSmart motors market is segmented on the basis of component type, application, and geography. By component type, smart motors market is segmented into variable speed drive, intelligent motor control center, and motor. On the basis of applications, smart motors market is segmented into industrial/commercial, residential, consumer electronics, and automotive segment. Based on geography, smart motors market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, and Latin America.North America and Europe region have seen increased demand for smart motors due to increasing adoption of smart-phones in industrial applications, and growing industrial, and automation in various industrial processes. However, Asia Pacific region is expected to have a large scale demand for smart motors due to growing industrial sector, and consumer electronics, and improving energy conservation in processes.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.ContactMr. Sudip. S90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Japan Silica Sand Report Industry Report 2016

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The recently published report titled Japan Silica Sand Report Industry 2016 Market Research Report is an in depth study providing complete analysis of the industry for the period 2016  2021. It provides complete overview of Japan Silica Sand Report market considering all the major industry trends, market dynamics and competitive scenario.The Japan Silica Sand Report Industry Report 2016 is an in depth study analyzing the current state of the Japan Silica Sand Report market. It provides brief overview of the market focusing on definitions, market segmentation, end-use applications and industry chain analysis. The study on Japan Silica Sand Report market provides analysis of market covering the industry trends, recent developments in the market and competitive landscape. Competitive analysis includes competitive information of leading players in market, their company profiles, product portfolio, capacity, production, and company financials. In addition, report also provides upstream raw material analysis and downstream demand analysis along with the key development trends and sales channel analysis. Research study on Japan Silica Sand Report market also discusses the opportunity areas for investors.View Full Report With Complete TOC, List Of Figure and Table:With 153 tables and figures, the report provides key statistics on the state of the industry and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the market.Download Sample this Report:7 Analysis of Silica Sand Industry Key Suppliers 607.1 Mitsubishi 607.1.1 Company Profile 617.1.2 Product Description 627.1.3 Sales, Price, Cost, Gross, and Revenue in Japan Market 637.1.4 Contact 647.2 Toyota Tsusho 657.2.1 Company Profile 657.2.2 Product Description 667.2.3 Sales, Price, Cost, Gross, and Revenue in Japan Market 667.2.4 Contact 687.3 Tochu 687.3.1 Company Profile 687.3.2 Product Description 697.3.3 Sales, Price, Cost, Gross, and Revenue in Japan Market 707.3.4 Contact 727.4 Tokai Kogyo 727.4.1 Company Profile 727.4.2 Product Description 737.4.3 Sales, Price, Cost, Gross, and Revenue in Japan Market 757.4.4 Contact 777.5 JFE Mineral 777.5.1 Company Profile 777.5.2 Product Description 777.5.3 Sales, Price, Cost, Gross, and Revenue in Japan Market 797.5.4 Contact 807.6 Toyoura Keiseki Kogyo 807.6.1 Company Profile 817.6.2 Product Description 817.6.3 Sales, Price, Cost, Gross, and Revenue in Japan Market 827.6.4 Contact 847.7 Terengganu Silica Consortium Sdn Bhd 847.7.1 Company Profile 847.7.2 Product Description 857.7.3 Sales, Price, Cost, Gross, and Revenue in Japan Market 857.7.8 Contact 877.8 Sibelco Australia 877.8.1 Company Profile 877.8.2 Product Description 887.8.3 Sales, Price, Cost, Gross, and Revenue in Japan Market 887.8.4 Contact 907.9 Syarikat Sebangun 907.9.1 Company Profile 907.9.2 Product Description 917.9.3 Sales, Price, Cost, Gross, and Revenue in Japan Market 917.9.4 Contact 937.10 Unimin Corporation 937.10.1 Company Profile 937.10.2 Product Description 947.10.3 Sales, Price, Cost, Gross, and Revenue in Japan Market 947.10.4 Contact 967.11 Fairmount Minerals 967.11.1 Company Profile 977.11.2 Product Description 977.11.3 Sales, Price, Cost, Gross, and Revenue in Japan Market 987.11.8 Contact 1007.12 U.S. Silica 1007.12.1 Company Profile 1007.12.2 Product Description 1017.12.3 Sales, Price, Cost, Gross, and Revenue in Japan Market 1017.12.4 Contact 1027.13 Chin Ching Group 1037.13.1 Company Profile 1037.13.2 Product Description 1047.13.3 Sales, Price, Cost, Gross, and Revenue in Japan Market 1047.13.4 Contact 1067.14 Premier Silica LLC 1067.14.1 Company Profile 1067.14.2 Product Description 1077.14.3 Sales, Price, Cost, Gross, and Revenue in Japan Market 1077.14.4 Contact 1097.15 Minco Corp. 1097.15.1 Company Profile 1097.15.2 Product Description 1107.15.3 Sales, Price, Cost, Gross, and Revenue in Japan Market 1107.15.8 Contact 1127.16 FiCO 1127.16.1 Company Profile 1127.16.2 Product Description 1137.16.3 Sales, Price, Cost, Gross, and Revenue in Japan Market 1137.16.4 Contact 114To Purchase this premium Report atGlobal QY Research is the one spot destination for all your research needs. Global QY Research holds the repository of quality research reports from numerous publishers across the globe. Our inventory of research reports caters to various industry verticals including Healthcare, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Technology and Media, Chemicals, Materials, Energy, Heavy Industry, etc. With the complete information about the publishers and the industries they cater to for developing market research reports, we help our clients in making purchase decision by understanding their requirements and suggesting best possible collection matching their needs.Unit1, 26 Cleveland Road, South Woodford, London, E182AN, United KingdomEmail: sales@globalqyresearch.comFollow us:
Absorption Spectrometers Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2016 - 2023

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Absorption Spectrometers Market: OverviewAbsorption spectroscopy is analytical technique that measures the concentration of an element by measuring the amount of light absorbed (at a specific wavelength) when it passes through a sample. Absorption spectroscopy is used in several industries such as such as food and beverages, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, clinical diagnostics and environmental monitoring for the purpose of quality assurance.The technique is also employed in studies of atomic and molecular physics, astronomical spectroscopy and remote sensing. Absorption spectrometers, are instruments for measurement of absorption that can analyze the concentration of multiple elements in a given sample solution. The instrument relies on the Beer-Lambert law to determine the concentration of a particular element in a sample.Absorption Spectrometers Market: Drivers and TrendsThe global absorption spectrometers market is significantly growing under the influence of emerging biopharmaceuticals, biotechnology and food and beverages industries. High investment in research and development by life science companies, extensive academic and industry collaborations, increased governmental funding, innovation in atomizers technology, advancements in the atomic spectroscopy, development of better performing reagents and rise in acquisitions/partnerships among companies are some of major divers of absorption spectrometers market.Furthermore, factors such as increasing demand of atomic absorption spectroscopy, escalating usage of fluorescence spectrometers in antibody purification, and drug assessment are also triggering the growth of this market. However, the presence of other advanced analytical techniques such as mass spectrometers and UV-VIS reflectometers are the major road-block for the global expansion of absorption spectroscopes market. In addition to these, high price of the instruments and issues related to low sample throughput may also hamper the growth of this market to some extent.Absorption Spectrometers Market: SegmentationThe global absorption spectrometers market has been segmented on the basis of applications and technology. Based on applications, the market comprises pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, research, food and beverage, and others. Based on technology, the market has segmented into atomic absorption spectrometers, x-ray diffraction spectrometers, x-ray fluorescence spectrometers, inductively coupled plasma spectrometers, elemental Analyzers, and others. Based on geography, the absorption spectrometers market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of the World (RoW).Get More Information :Absorption Spectrometers Market: Region-wise OutlookThe North America region was observed as being the largest absorption spectrometers market worldwide in 2013. This market is expected to grow even further, due to robust research-related activities for the discovery and development of drugs and biologics and extensive financial support from governments. Europe was the second-largest market for absorption spectrometers owning to the opening of new production facilities and increased funding by local and national government bodies in the region.Asia-Pacific is expected to be an exponentially growing absorption spectrometers market during the forecast period from 2014 to 2020. This high growth is can be ascribed to the improving economic scenario in countries such as India, China and Malaysia. An increase in the number of research activities in the chromatography sector by Asian companies can also be credited for this.Absorption Spectrometers Market: Key PlayersThe key players in the absorption spectrometers include Analytik Jena AG, Shimadzu Corporation, Aurora Biomed, Agilent Technologies, GBC Scientific Equipment Pty Ltd., Bruker Corporation, PerkinElmer, Inc., Rigaku Corporation, Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation, and Thermo Fisher Scientific.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.ContactMr. Sudip. S90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Peptide Therapeutics to Hold Strong Market Potential for Drug Makers owing to Rising Prevalence of Cancer and Diabetes

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Therapeutic peptides are defined as short amino acid chains that have potential in managing disease symptoms, and in some cases cure them. The industry defines peptides as molecules shorter than 100 amino acids; while longer amino acid chains can be monoclonal antibodies and proteins. Insulin was the first peptide to be isolated and administered therapeutically, and is still the most commonly prescribed peptide, having been used for over half a century. Peptides have been explored for the treatment of various conditions such as cancer, cardiovascular disorders, respiratory disorders, blood disorders, central nervous system disorders and various others.The peptide therapeutics market has developed at a significant pace in the recent past, leading to unparalleled growth in the number of regulatory approvals received in 2012. Thus, the increase in number of approved peptide-based drug products and expanding range of medical indications projects the increasing maturity of peptides as a class of pharmaceutical actives. Therapeutic peptides are approved for various application areas such as cancer, cardiovascular, central nervous system, gastrointestinal, infection, metabolic, pain, and respiratory. Cancer was estimated to be the largest application segment of the peptide therapeutics market in 2013; while the respiratory segment is expected to grow at the highest CAGR, due to the recent approval of Surfaxin (lucinactant). Major drugs driving growth of the overall peptide therapeutics market include Angiomax, Copaxone, Forteo, Sandostatin, Velcade, Victoza and Zoladex. As these drugs lose their patent exclusivity in the near future, the market for generic peptide drugs would flourish. However, difficulty in synthesis of complex peptides has restricted growth of the generic peptide drugs market.Patent expiry has been the prime factor impeding market growth; while at the same time has also allowed deeper market penetration in low and middle income countries. The market is also restrained due to unavailability of convenient routes of drug administration, and lower drug stability at room temperature. Scientists, however, are trying to overcome these drawbacks through consistent research and development. With an escalating number of peptide therapeutic drug approvals and consistent launch of generics, the demand for peptide APIs is expected to rise in the near future. Hence, API manufacturers are trying to optimize economies of scale to reduce costs and also meet the rising peptide API demand. Thus, the supply side of the peptide therapeutics value chain would decide the fate of the global market.Get a Sample of this Report:The global peptide therapeutics market is largely concentrated in the western countries of North America and Europe, which account for more than 60% of the market share. Although these regions are currently the largest market segments, the compounded annual growth rate of the market in these regions is expected to be slower as compared to Asia Pacific. India, China and Japan are major countries driving the peptide therapeutics market in the Asia Pacific region. Japan is the second-largest individual pharmaceutical market, while India and China have large patient population due to high disease prevalence. Rapidly developing economy and increasing awareness about various disease treatments are other factors driving the market. India and China have emerged as major peptide API suppliers globally.Key players in the market include Amgen, Inc., AstraZeneca plc, Eli Lilly & Co., Ipsen S.A., Merck & Co., Novartis AG, Novo Nordisk A/S, Roche Holdings AG, Sanofi, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited. Leading API manufacturers include Bachem Holding AG, PolyPeptide Group. Peptisyntha Inc and Lonza Inc.Contact us:Mr. Sudip STransparency Market Research90 State Street,Suite 700,AlbanyNY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a U.S.-based provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.Contact us:Mr. Sudip STransparency Market Research90 State Street,Suite 700,AlbanyNY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
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IANKOVSKYI FOUNDATION KICK-STARTED THE IV NATIONAL CHILDRENS ART CONTEST UKRAINE: THE WAY TO PEACE!

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In the UNIAN press-center the patron of the National charity foundation Initiative for the future Igor Iankovskyi has announced the beginning of the all-Ukrainian childrens art contest Ukraine: the way to peace!. Thus, the fourth annual edition of the biggest childrens art contest in our country, which is traditionally held by the Foundation in spring, has officially kick-started.Addressing to the audience of the conference, the patron of the National charity foundation Initiative for the future Igor Iankovskyi noted, that the Foundation has received more than 2500 of young artists pieces for the tree years of contests history. This fact confirms the great number of talented and creative children in Ukraine. I am confident that the contests subject will catch the interest of young Ukrainians. I know that our children will communicate their peaceful life position, their dreams and views on building the peaceful life in Ukraine with vividness, clearness and diversity. Also the patron invited future contests participants to draw positive and optimistic pieces to transmit these positive and warm feelings.The subject of this years contest is UKRAINE: THE WAY TO PEACE! According to Igor Iankovskyi it represents the aspiration of not only young generation, but of the entire Ukrainian nation for peace and prosperity. It is not a coincidence that it repeats the subject of the short film contest, which was inaugurated by Igor Iankovskyi in the end of previous year.All the children from 5 to 17 years from all the regions of Ukraine are eligible to take part in the contest. The pieces have to be made on paper of A2 or A3 format in different drawing techniques. The pieces are accepted for two month from 16th of March to 16th of May 2016.Vladyslava Hrechkosiy, the winner of the first art contest My native land  Ukraine, which was held three years ago, has noted the great significance of childrens art contests for young artists, who just started their journey. Being a simple student, I was impressed by being able to win the 2013s contest in a fair competition. This fact really gave me the confidence in my own abilities and my art. It gave me the wings and opened new horizons, which influenced my art as well. The important stage was the trip to the childrens camp Artek, where I met interesting people and acquired important knowledge. Also Im very grateful to the Foundation for the invitation to the jury of the youth section of the Molodist film festival, where I was judging the art pieces of other people. That experience was unforgivable, - Vladyslava shared her impressions and encouraged other young artists to actively perpetuate their talent and not to be afraid of sending their pieces to the contest.Mariya Zvolynska, the winner of the IIIrd drawing contest FAITH.HOPE.LOVE, also shared her feelings and experience of the participation in the last years contest. When I decided to take part in the contest, the most important question for me was: could I accomplish something by myself? This winning became a very important event in my life, it gave me the confidence in my own abilities and opened the world new and positive emotions to me, - told Maria. By the end of her speech she thanked Igor Iankovskyi for the organization of the contest and wished luck to this years contestants.Traditionally, the winners of the IV National childrens art contest will be rewarded by valuable prizes. The pieces of the finalists will be included in the 2017 calendar. The patron of the Foundation, Igor Iankovskyi, promised that this year the exhibition of the finalists and winners pieces will be seen largely by fellow citizens in different cities of Ukraine.It is to recall that the results of the previous contests My native land  Ukraine, My peaceful Ukraine and FAITH.HOPE.LOVE were exhibited in the worlds cultural capitals in France, Poland and Belgium. The last grand-scale exhibition was held in the end of 2015 in the United Nations Headquarters in New York, which was attended by diplomatic representatives and guests of the city from all-over the world.If you need more information about Igor Iankovskyi Charity foundation "Initiative for the future", please, call to our Information Center:+380 44 459 03 04 and visit web-site:"Initiative for the Future"  is Ukrainian Charitable Foundation, founded by Igor Iankovskyi - a successful Ukrainian businessman, financier and philanthropist.Charities unite like-minded people in a common goal - to develop and implement educational and cultural programs in Ukraine. Activities of the organization based on voluntary initiatives.Igor Iankovskyi Foundation "Initiative for the Future" was founded June 5, 2012, and since its foundation supports talented young people from all over Ukraine, contributing to a highly cultured society in the future. Projects that have already been implemented charitable foundation, got success not only in Ukraine, but also in some European countries - Belgium, France, Germany and Poland and North America (USA).12, Amosova Street, build. 1, 5th floorHorizont Park Business Center,Kiev, 03680, Ukraine
IANKOVSKYI FOUNDATION AND DOVZHENKO CENTER SUMMED UP THE WORK RESULTS OF UKRAINIAN DELEGATION AT THE BERLINALE

IANKOVSKYI FOUNDATION AND DOVZHENKO CENTER SUMMED UP THE WORK RESULTS OF UKRAINIAN DELEGATION AT THE BERLINALE

In the hall of Cafe L'etage held a final press-conference dedicated to the participation in Ukrainian filmmakers 66th Berlin International Film Festival, held in the German capital. As part of the festival, at the BABYLON cinema was organized the cinema-show of Dziga Vertov silent film "Eleventh", which was filmed back in 1928 and dedicated to the industrialization of the Donbas, accompanied by live music. The event was organized by Igor Iankovskyi Foundation together with the Dovzhenko National Center.Speakers at the press conference were the Chairman of the Ukrainian State Film Agency, Philip Illienko, director of the Dovzhenko National Center Ivan Kozlenko, founder of the All-Ukrainian Charity Foundation "Initiative for the Future", Igor Iankovskyi and young Ukrainian filmmakers representing our country at the international film festival.Opening the press conference, Philip Illienko noted the important role of the Igor Iankovskyi Fund in the framework of public-private partnership with the State Cinema. The result of this fruitful collaboration was a success of the Ukrainian cinema-products and young talent at leading international venues, and their active popularization at motherland. He noted the success of talented young people and expressed confidence in their further professional and creative growth.Commenting the choice of films that be shown in Berlinale, Ivan Kozlenko named the Dziga Vertov vanguard motion picture "controversial". He emphasized the need for such re-Ukrainization cinema masterpieces, created in Ukrainian cultural space, but was buried in the archives of the Soviet censorship. In addition, according to Ivan Kozlenko, film made brighter to understanding of the conflict in eastern Ukraine for a foreign audience.The founder of the Charity Foundation "Initiative for the Future", Igor Iankovskyi, talking about experiences from participating in such a major event like the Berlinale 2016, noted the significant demand for Ukrainian cinema among European audiences. "Ukrainian foreign film watchers movie interesting, but it needs to actively present themselves at film markets. Although Ukraine is a European state and belongs to the European cultural heritage, but, in fact, Ukrainian culture and cinema for the European audience are nothing new. "While speaking about the plans for the Fund for 2016, he said the improvement of the fund towards a more systemic support Ukrainian cinema. Since the beginning of the year has been increased amount of grants for young directors who were invited to take part in international film festivals. Also, Igor Iankovskyi recalled initiated in November 2015 positive social competition of short films "Ukraine: The Road to Peace", whose goal is to encourage young filmmakers to express their Ukrainian citizenship. The Chairman of the Organizing Committee, Nikon Romanchenko young director added that for now the jury has received nearly 60 works Ukrainian filmmakers.Summing up the activities of the delegation of Ukraine at the Berlinale, the young filmmakers Nariman Aliyev and Maxim Serdyuk, films involving competition program and winners of national festivals Nikon Romanchenko and Kate Hornostay thanked Igor Iankovskyi Foundation for their support and shared their impressions of the trip. Also, a speech and spoke of a report by Valery Sochivets, which together with the young director Philip Sotnichenko, received from the Fund Igor Iankovskyi  travel-grant to participate in the world's largest short film festival in Clermont-Ferrand (France). All young filmmakers agreed that representatives of national cinematography important part in the activities of international scope, because it - like a breath of fresh air for Ukrainian artists, an opportunity not only to get acquainted with modern trends in the film industry, but also exchange experience with colleagues from around the world."Initiative for the Future"  is Ukrainian Charitable Foundation, founded by Igor Iankovskyi - a successful Ukrainian businessman, financier and philanthropist.Charities unite like-minded people in a common goal - to develop and implement educational and cultural programs in Ukraine. Activities of the organization based on voluntary initiatives.Igor Iankovskyi Foundation "Initiative for the Future" was founded June 5, 2012, and since its foundation supports talented young people from all over Ukraine, contributing to a highly cultured society in the future. Projects that have already been implemented charitable foundation, got success not only in Ukraine, but also in some European countries - Belgium, France, Germany and Poland and North America (USA).12, Amosova Street, build. 1, 5th floorHorizont Park Business Center,Kiev, 03680, Ukraine
Switzerland back Indias bid for NSG membership

Published: June 7, 2016

India has managed to win crucial support from Switzerland for Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) membership.

In this regard, Swiss President Johann Schneider-Ammann has announced his countrys support for Indias membership to the elite NSG.

India was able to gain support of Switzerland after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held comprehensive talks with Swiss counterparts during his official state visit.

Comment

This major diplomatic push for Indias NSG membership comes at the time when the group at its plenary meetings to be held on 9th June 2016 in Vienna and 24th June 2016 in Seoul is going to take Indias application for discussion.

Switzerland is a key member of the elite NSG and its support for Indias bid for membership is seen as crucial in the backdrop of Chinas stiff opposition.

China is opposing Indias bid to membership to NSG on the need for consensus as it is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

The NSG works under the principle of unanimity and even one countrys vote against India may scuttle its bid. So far, US, Japan and many other member countries of NSG have strongly supported Indias inclusion in the elite group based on its non-proliferation track record.

About Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG)

NSG is a multinational body concerned with reducing nuclear proliferation by controlling the export and re-transfer of materials that may be used for development of nuclear weapons.

It was set up in 1974 as a reaction to Indias first successful nuclear tests (code name Smiling Buddha conducted on 18 May 1974) to stop so called misuse of nuclear material meant for peaceful purposes. Currently, NSG has 48 members.

Month: Current Affairs - June, 2016

Topics: India-International Relations  india-switzerland  NSG  UPSC

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Global Air Traffic Control Equipment Market Driven by Rising Demand for Air Travel

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Albany, New York, June 6, 2016: Air traffic control is a crucial part of aviation and has thus become important in the ongoing aviation industry boom. According to a report recently added to the vast research catalog of Market Research Hub (MRH), the global market for air traffic control equipment is likely to witness a rising demand in the coming years. The next two decades are expected to be vital for the global aviation industry due to the increasing demand from developing economies. As the aviation industry traverses a steady growth curve, the global air traffic control market will enjoy a steady increase in demand as a vital ancillary industry of the aviation sector.The report is titled Global Air Traffic Control (ATC) Equipment Consumption 2016 Market Research Report and is available for sale on the official website of Market Research Hub.The global aviation sector is majorly fueled by the increasing number of air passengers. The increasing purchasing power of consumers in developing economies has resulted in an increasing demand for air travel in countries such as India, China, and several Southeast Asian countries. Latin America and the Middle East are also becoming increasingly important for the global aviation industry, exemplified by the rapid rise and resounding success of aviation companies in the region, such as Emirates Airlines.As a result of the aviation boom, the demand for air traffic control equipment has grown massively. Air traffic control will become even more important in the coming years, as the total number of aircraft used across the world rises. Maintaining a steady rate of technological innovation in air traffic control equipment is also crucial for the global industry, as more advanced machinery allows for more precise tracking and monitoring of aircraft and thus helps dramatically reduce the risk of accidents. To this end, satellite-based air traffic control is expected to rise in demand in the coming years.Browse "Global Air Traffic Control (ATC) Equipment Consumption 2016 Market Research Report" with TOC @The increasing efforts to upgrade airports and incorporate smart city infrastructure also bode well for the global air traffic control equipment market. The growing concerns about making air traffic control equipment safer will also result in intensive research aimed at improving the overall quality of the equipment, driving the global market.Regionally, North America dominates the global air traffic control equipment market, followed by Europe. These two prosperous regions are the largest aviation hubs in the world, posting some the highest figures for revenue, passengers flown, and air miles.Request for Sample Report with TOC in a PDF Format:However, the future of the air traffic control equipment is expected to be dominated by Asia Pacific. Countries such as India and China are rapidly emerging as major aviation hubs, while the increasing disposable income of APAC consumers has also resulted in a growing demand for air travel for both business and recreational purposes.In competitive terms, major players operating in the global air traffic control equipment include Northrop Grumman Corporation, Raytheon Company, Lockheed Martin Corporation, Thales SA, and Indra Sistemas S.A.MarketResearchHub.com is the most comprehensive collection of market intelligence products and services on the Web. We offer reports from over 720 top publishers and update our collection daily to provide you with instant online access to the world's most complete and current database of expert insights on global industries, companies, products, and trends.Provides Reports and market research are available according to industry, country, demographic or trend, with the option to purchase many of the reports "by the slice"-meaning you only pay for those sections of the report you need.Mr.Sudip S90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@marketresearchhub.comWebsite:
Millennium showcases advanced POS technology at IWS 2016

New Delhi, 08, June 2016: Millennium Soft-Tech (India) Pvt. Ltd., a leading POS technology provider in India having wide partner network, is showcasing the most advanced POS technology to support warehousing, logistics and supply chain management at India Warehousing Show (IWS) 2016, which begins on June 8 at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi.Millennium will be displaying some of the widely used, industry specific and application-oriented POS devices such as wired and wireless barcode scanners, portable data terminals, industrial and domestic barcode printers, colour label printers, data collectors, portable data terminals and table-top scanners from the worlds leading brands like Toshiba, Honeywell, GoDex, Epson and Opticon.Speaking on Millenniums second successive participation in India Warehousing Show, Bhaskar Venkatraman, group Director of Millennium India, said: We are overwhelmed to be a part of one of the largest warehousing expos in the world. We have over two decades of market exposure in the Point Of Sale technology in India, which we are bringing in here to showcase the latest advancement in technology to benefit warehousing, logistics, material handling and supply chain businesses. We strive to reach out to them with the most modern and latest POS technology and help them sophisticate their businesses through wide range of POS products suitable for their application and industry.The sixth edition of the three-day mega supply chain event is expected to be visited by over 10,000 trade visitors representing high level decision-makers and buyers from across the globe.To make visitors understand the relevance of products suitable to their business, Millennium is offering demo of various products applicable for warehousing and supply chain management at their stall (12 A).With the advent of e-commerce industry in India, the need of warehousing and logistics infrastructures has grown manifold and we strive to address the huge demand for quality and efficient supply chain management needs from warehouses and logistics players by introducing the advanced technology to make their day-to-day operations organized, faster, easy and hassle-free.The Fair offers visitors a complete view of the entire process chain of the warehousing, transportation and logistics industry. Over 200 domestic and international exhibitors are presenting innovative products and services for trade visitors and entrepreneurs who will get an opportunity to exchange ideas and make new business contacts.The exhibition is being organized by Reed Manch Exhibitions, a joint venture between Manch Communications of India and UKs Reed Exhibitions.About Millennium Soft-TechEstablished in 2002, Millennium Soft-Tech (India) Pvt Ltd has been in the forefront of providing Point Of Sale (POS) technology products and solutions to Indian businesses through astute marketing strategy supported by huge partners network across India. Launched and lead by BhaskarVenkatraman, a veteran in POS technology having over two decades of market exposure, Millennium has a clear motive of empowering millions of unorganized small and medium enterprises spread across the country by automating their transaction activities and make them competitive with established market peers.Headquartered in Chennai and having branches all across India, Millennium is credited with excellent logistics supports and capable of reaching products to customers doorsteps even in remote areas. Providing nation-wide distribution for leading multinational POS brands including Epson, Posiflex, Casio, Toshiba, Honeywell, Godex, and Opticon, Millennium offers POS solutions to corporate brands, retail giants and SMEs across India.Millennium Soft-Tech (India) Pvt. Ltd, G-19,2nd Floor, Block-16,2nd Main Road Ambattur Industrial Estate,Chennai-600 058.
Heisenberg II: Setting the Standard for Physician Compensation Administration

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This white paper walks you step-by-step through understanding and identifying the major ways in which technology can support your compensation strategy and reward your organization with optimized return on your physician investment.Mt Laurel, NJ  June 07, 2016: Heisenberg II, a revolutionary technology platform automates and simplifies the challenging and arduous task of physician compensation administration. This technology was developed by Hallmark Healthcare Solutions, LLC a healthcare-focused technology company.Isaac Ulllatil, CEO of Hallmark Healthcare Solutions states There is a compelling need among physician enterprises to more efficiently track and measure the success of their physician compensation plans against organizational goals and objectives. We emphatically believe that physician leaders need to focus more on leading their organizations and less on the administrative components of their position. To that end, new generation applications should alleviate the challenges healthcare leaders face in the administration and management of physician compensation. The whitepaper Administering Physician Compensation in 2016 and Beyond: What You Need to Consider, is the latest addition to the forum for healthcare providers, hospitals & medical groups.Hospitals and medical groups do not simply acquire or hire physicians and other providers; they invest heavily in them. The complete guide of Heisenberg II whitepaper lets you understand how todays technology supports healthcare providers compensation strategy more effectively than most hospitals and medical groups realize.As the complexity of administering physician compensation increases, the time required to manually bridge disparate contract management, payroll, and performance systems mounts, and users struggle to keep pace. This is where compensation management systemsand making the whole process work wellcome into their own.Download a complimentary copy of the whitepaper:For more information visitAbout HallmarkHallmark Healthcare Solutions is a global healthcare solution and information technology firm with offices located in New Jersey, New York, Michigan, and India. Hallmark offers a unique approach inclusive of both strategy and technology to achieve the desired outcome. The technology component positions organizations to use real-time data for improved decision making with regard to leveraging human capital. Over the years, Hallmark has helped organizations optimize and save millions in labor expenses, improve their efficiency and achieve fiscal responsibility through best-in-class software and strategic workforce solutions.3000 Atrium Way, Mt Laurel, NJ 08054, United States
Global Healthcare BI Platform Market Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast Research Report 2015 - 2023

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Healthcare BI Platform Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth Trends, and Forecast 2015 - 2023" to its huge collection of research reports.Business Intelligence (BI) platforms help build BI applications by providing competences in analysis, platform integration, and information delivery. As healthcare organizations are realizing the untapped potential of huge amounts of data, they are implementing solutions that utilize business intelligence to help collect, sort, and mine valuable insights from this data. The complex data gathered from numerous sources (operational, patient data) is analyzed and used by healthcare providers with the aid of BI platforms for the larger population.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @This research report provides a detailed analysis of trends in the healthcare BI platform market. It also comprises a broad analysis of the industry drivers, restraints, and opportunities. The report also provides a comprehensive assessment of key market player strategies. The market for healthcare BI platform has been segmented into various functions: clinical analytics, financial analytics, operational analytics, and others. Financial analytics is expected to be the largest healthcare BI platform function over the forecast period, whereas clinical analytics is expected to be the fastest growing functional segment over the forecast period. The global healthcare BI platform market has been extensively analyzed on the basis of deployment type into on-premise and cloud. Cloud is expected to be the fastest growing healthcare BI platform segment by deployment type over the forecast period. On the basis of model type, the healthcare BI platform market is segmented as self-service BI and corporate BI. Self-service BI is the latest trend in the BI market and is expected to be the fastest growing segment over the forecast period. The market size and forecasts in terms of revenue (US$ Mn) for each of these segments have been provided for the period 2013 to 2023, considering 2013 and 2014 as the base years. The report also provides the compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) for each segment of the market for the forecast period 2015 to 2023.Browse Detail Report With TOC @The healthcare BI platform market is segmented based on geography into North America, Europe, Middle-East and Africa, Asia Pacific, and Latin America, and a detailed regional analysis is provided. A country-level analysis is also included in the report, covering the countries in each region. North America is expected to be the largest and fastest growing healthcare BI platform market among all regions. Europe is one of the mature markets for healthcare BI platform, whereas Asia Pacific is expected to be one of the most attractive markets in the near future.Market estimates for the healthcare BI platform have been assessed considering different political, environmental, social, technological, economic, and legal factors. The share of leading players of the global healthcare BI platform market is provided for the year 2014. Company profiles (CPs) of market leaders elucidate on details such as company overview, segmentation, recent developments, business strategies, and financial information in the healthcare BI platform market. Companies profiled in the report include SAP SE, Oracle Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, SAS Institute, Inc., IBM Corporation, OpenText Corporation, and Information Builders. The report would allow healthcare organizations and research and development agencies to make informed decisions about healthcare BI platforms, and thus gain competitive advantage in the market.Segmentation of the Global Healthcare BI Platform MarketGlobal Healthcare BI Platform Market, by FunctionClinical AnalyticsFinancial AnalyticsOperational AnalyticsOthers (Regulatory Reporting, etc.)Global Healthcare BI Platform Market, By Deployment TypeOn-premiseCloudGlobal Healthcare BI Platform Market, By Model TypeSelf-serviceCorporateGlobal Healthcare BI Platform Market, By GeographyNorth AmericaEuropeAsia PacificMiddle East and AfricaLatin AmericaAbout ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074
Global Artificial Intelligence Market Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast Research Report 2016  2024

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Artificial Intelligence Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2016 - 2024" to its huge collection of research reports.The Artificial Intelligence Market report provides analysis of the global artificial intelligence market for the period 20142024, wherein the years from 2016 to 2024 is the forecast period and 2015 is considered as the base year. The report precisely covers all the major trends and technologies playing a major role in the artificial intelligence markets growth over the forecast period. It also highlights the drivers, restraints, and opportunities expected to influence the market growth during this period. The study provides a holistic perspective on the markets growth in terms of revenue (in US$ Bn), across different geographies, which includes Asia Pacific (APAC), Latin America (LATAM), North America, Europe, and Middle East & Africa (MEA).To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @The market overview section of the report showcases the markets dynamics and trends such as the drivers, restraints, and opportunities that influence the current nature and future status of this market. Moreover, the report provides the overview of various strategies and the winning imperatives of the key players in the artificial intelligence market and analyzes their behavior in the prevailing market dynamics.The report segments the global artificial intelligence market on the types of artificial intelligence systems into artificial neural network, digital assistance system, embedded system, expert system, and automated robotic system. By application, the market has been classified into deep learning, smart robots, image recognition, digital personal assistant, querying method, language processing, gesture control, video analysis, speech recognition, context aware processing, and cyber security. Thus, the report provides in-depth cross-segment analysis for the artificial intelligence market and classifies it into various levels, thereby providing valuable insights on macro as well as micro level.Browse Detail Report With TOC @The report also provides the competitive landscape for the artificial intelligence market, thereby positioning all the major players according to their geographic presence, market attractiveness and recent key developments. The complete artificial intelligence market estimates are the result of our in-depth secondary research, primary interviews, and in-house expert panel reviews. These market estimates have been analyzed by taking into account the impact of different political, social, economic, technological, and legal factors along with the current market dynamics affecting the artificial intelligence markets growth.QlikTech International AB, MicroStrategy Inc., IBM Corporation, Google, Inc., Brighterion Inc., Microsoft Corporation, IntelliResponse Systems Inc., Next IT Corporation, Nuance Communications, and eGain Corporation are some of the major players which have been profiled in this study. Details such as financials, business strategies, recent developments, and other such strategic information pertaining to these players has been provided as part of company profiling.Below is the list of acronyms used in the report:SMAC  Social, Mobile, Analytics, and CloudIoT  Internet of ThingsAbout ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074
Valuation Management Group Commercial Quality Assurance Reviewer Receives AI-GRS Designation

Marietta, GA  Dave Maul, MAI, AI-GRS, and Commercial Quality Assurance Reviewer of national appraisal management company Valuation Management Group, has received the Appraisal Institute Designation of AI-GRS. Dave also holds the Appraisal Institute MAI Designation and is a Certified General Real Property Appraiser in Florida, Georgia, and Alabama.The AI-GRS membership designation is held by a professional who can provide a review of appraisals of a wide range of property types, including commercial, industrial, agricultural, residential, vacant land and others. These individuals possess experience and knowledge that give them the tools to address the issues unique to general and commercial real property review appraisals. AI-GRS Designated members agree to adhere to the Appraisal Institute code of professional ethics and standards of professional appraisal practice, underscoring their commitment to sound and ethical professional practice (Source: Appraisal Institute)Dave Maul became a certified appraiser in 1992, and he has over 30 years of professional expertise within the appraisal industry. Maul joined Valuation Management Group in 2015 as a Commercial Quality Assurance Reviewer to ensure both appraiser independence and the delivery of quality real estate appraisals. To become an AI-GRS Designated member of the Appraisal Institute, Dave had to exhibit good moral character, meet standards and ethics requirements, meet special education requirements, pass a comprehensive examination, and possess experience in general appraisal review that meets specific standards.###About Valuation Management Group: Established in 2006, Valuation Management Group, LLC is a nationwide appraisal management company with headquarters in Atlanta, GA that manages the appraisal process, including the required review for financial institutions, banks, mortgage bankers, and credit unions. Valuation Management Group offers a turnkey approach to the appraisal process from inception to final completion.1640 Powers Ferry RoadBuilding 15, Suite 100Marietta, GA 30067
Global Power Transmission Towers and Cables Market Analysis, Size, Share, Growth Trends and Forecast Research Report 2015  2023

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Power Transmission Towers and Cables Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth Trends and Forecast 2015 - 2023" to its huge collection of research reports.The power transmission towers and cables market report by Transparency Market Research provides in-depth analysis of the power transmission towers and cables market globally. The report segments the market on the basis of type and geography. The report analyzes the global power transmission towers and cables market in terms of both sales volume and revenue (US$ Mn) for the 20152023 period. For this research study, the base year is 2014, whereas the forecast is from 2015 to 2023.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @The report provides a comprehensive competitive landscape and features companies engaged in the manufacturing, construction, installation, and operation of power transmission towers and cables. This report includes the key dynamics affecting the power transmission towers and cables market globally. The analysis in the report provides detailed insights of the global power transmission towers and cables market. Market dynamics such as drivers, opportunities, and restraints of the market were analyzed in detail and are illustrated in the report through tables. The report also provides a detailed industry analysis of global power transmission towers and cables with the help of Porters Five Forces model.Power transmission towers and cables are a vital part of the power transmission infrastructure. These components are used for transmission and distribution of electricity from power generation facilities to the end-users. Power transmission towers are tall vertical structures usually erected for the purpose of supporting and carrying transmission lines. Power transmission cables are used either as overhead, underground or submarine cables for the onshore and offshore operations to connect with power grid.Browse Detail Report With TOC @The power transmission towers and cables market has been segmented on the basis of type and geography. The power transmission towers and cables market has been segmented by type into power transmission towers and power transmission cables. The power transmission towers and cables market has been segmented geographically into five regional segments and further into 12 unique country sub-segments. The regional segments are North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, and Latin and Central Americas. The 12 countries which have been separately addressed in this report are the U.S., Canada, Mexico, CIS countries, Germany, the U.K, China, India, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Brazil, and Argentina.Asia Pacific held the major share of the global power transmission towers and cables market in 2014, accounting for more than 35% of the global market share in terms of sales revenue. Asia Pacific is expected to be the fastest growing market for power transmission towers and cables. Counties such as China and India are expected to be the main divers for growth in Asia Pacific power transmission towers and cables market. North America was the second-largest market for power transmission towers and cables in 2014. Middle East and Africa, Europe, and Latin and Central Americas together constituted for less than 50% share of the global power transmission towers and cables market in that year. Middle East is expected to increase its market share of the global power transmission towers and cables market. Middle East is expected to be second fastest growing market for power transmission towers and cables. Huge investments in power transmission infrastructure by countries such as Saudi Arabia and others are expected to drive the demand for power transmission towers and cables in this region. Power transmission cables type segment accounted for around 70% share of the global power transmission towers and cables market in 2014.Some of the key market participants in the power transmission towers and cables market include Kalpataru Power Transmission Ltd., Zhejiang Shengda Steel Tower Co. Ltd., Nanjing Daji Iron Tower Manufacturing Co. Ltd., ShanDong DingChang Tower Co. Ltd., KEC International Ltd., Prysmian S.p.A., Nexans S.A., General Cable Technologies Corporation, Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd., and Southwire Company LLC. The report provides an overview of these companies, followed by their financial details (if available), business strategies, and recent developments. The power transmission towers and cables market has been segmented as follows:Global Power Transmission Towers and Cables Market: By TypePower Transmission TowersPower Transmission CablesGlobal Power Transmission Towers and Cables Market: By RegionNorth AmericaThe U.S.CanadaMexicoEuropeCIS countriesGermanyThe U.KRest of EuropeAsia PacificChinaIndiaRest of Asia PacificMiddle East and AfricaSaudi ArabiaSouth AfricaRest of Middle East and AfricaLatin and Central AmericasBrazilArgentinaRest of Latin and Central AmericasAbout ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074
Alzheimers Disease Therapeutics Market Forecast  (2016-2020)

http://www.marketintelreports.com/report/gbihc399mr/alzheimers-disease-therapeutics-in-major-developed-markets-to-2021--aging-population-and-improved-disease-understanding-increase-demand-for-disease-modifying-agents

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Alzheimers Disease Therapeutics in Major Developed Markets to 2021 - Aging Population and Improved Disease Understanding Increase Demand for Disease Modifying AgentsSummary of the report:Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is an irreversible, progressive neurodegenerative disease, characterized by cognitive impairment, memory loss and functional decline. Symptoms typically begin to first appear in patients in their mid-sixties, with symptoms appearing in varying stages. The pathological features of AD comprise histopathological changes within the brain. Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) is a heterogeneous condition between normal cognition and dementia, whereby cognitive changes in mental abilities, such as memory or thinking, are affected. Almost all cases of AD begin with MCI, but it should be noted that not all patients with MCI go on to develop AD.Although there is a high degree of failure and uncertainty within the R&D of AD drugs, the number of drugs in the pipeline is considerably high at 559. The majority of the pipeline products are novel drugs, with a total of seven repositioned and five generic drugs. This shows advancement in the progression of the different molecules being developed as therapeutic agents within the AD pipeline.Check Complete Report @The AD market has a lack of therapeutic options. Which classes of drug dominate the market? What newly approved therapies have entered the market? How do the leading marketed therapies compare clinically? How will the new therapies be positioned in the treatment of AD? How have selected late-stage pipeline therapies performed in clinical trials? The pipeline contains a range of molecule types and molecular targets, including those that are well established in AD, and novel, first-in-class therapies. Which molecular targets appear most frequently in the pipeline? AD clinical trials have an overall attrition rate of 94%. What are the failure rates for individual Phases of clinical development? How do AD clinical trial characteristics, including failure rate, duration, and size compare against respiratory and industry averages? The AD market is forecast to rise from a value of $5.2 billion in 2014 to $11.3 billion in 2021, at a CAGR of 11.8% across the eight major markets assessed. How much of a role will disease prevalence and new product approvals play in market growth? Will generic competition have a significant impact on the market over the forecast period? There have been 170 licensing deals and 104 co-development deals pertaining to AD products since 2006. Which territories show the most deal activity? What were the trends in deal completion by product stage of development? What were the conditions of the key licensing or co-development deals to take place in AD?This report will allow you to Understand the current clinical and commercial landscape through a comprehensive study of disease pathogenesis, diagnosis, prognosis, and the current treatment algorithm used in AD. Assess the safety and efficacy of current treatment options, with extensive product profiles on prominent marketed therapies, and a heatmap directly comparing safety and efficacy data. Analyze the AD pipeline and stratify by stage of development, molecule type, and molecular target. The most promising late-stage therapies are profiled and assessed in terms of clinical performance and competitiveness, alongside a single-product forecast. Predict growth in market size in eight major markets, with in-depth market forecasting from 2014 to 2021. The forecasts will provide an understanding of how epidemiology trends, new drug entries, and patent expirations will influence market value. Identify commercial opportunities in the AD deals landscape by analyzing trends in licensing and co-development deals, and by profiling the most significant deals that have occurred in this indication in recent years.Download Sample Brochure of Report @***Early Buyers will receive 20% discount on report, this is valid till 30th June 2016About us:MarketIntelReports (MIR) aim to empower our clients to successfully manage and outperform in their business decisions, we do this by providing Premium Market Intelligence, Strategic Insights and Databases from a range of Global Publishers.A group of industry veterans who are well experienced in reputed international consulting firms after identifying the sourcing needs of MNCs for market intelligence, have together started this business savior MarketIntelReports.Contact us:Sales ManagerMayur Ssales@marketintelreports.comTelephone: 1-302-684-6088
Senator Aaron Bean named recipient of the Champions for Business award

Jacksonville, Fla., June 6, 2016  Senator Aaron Bean was one of ten legislators chosen to receive the 2016 Champions for Business Award from the Associated Industries of Florida. Each year, AIF recognizes lawmakers whose extraordinary efforts provide model leadership on key legislation for the success of Floridas business community.At AIF, we proudly honor those elected officials who defend Floridas competitive climate and continually strive to keep the Sunshine State a place where businesses and families can prosper, said AIF President & CEO Tom Feeney. AIF acknowledges this years Champions for Business for their commendable leadership and advocacy on behalf of Floridas business community.Senator Bean, who represents Florida Senate District 4, was applauded by AIF for his leadership in tort reform and protecting the important legal principle for Floridians. AIF said Senator Bean understands the importance of safeguarding the legal system from stealth attacks by the trial bar that AIF says undermines the states friendly business climate.Senator Bean was successful in identifying and blocking legislation during the committee process. AIF said this legislation would have created loopholes in comparative faults statutes and permitted the unfair doctrine of joint and several liability to creep back into Florida law. The organization said his action protected the philosophy that a person should only pay for their fair share of damages and echoed the warnings and concerns expressed by AIF and its colleagues in the business community.It is important to maintain our business friendly environment in Florida, said Senator Bean. Floridas future depends on our economic success and that is determined by business. It is vital to me to protect those that will create jobs and thus boost our states economic bottom line.This is the third time Senator Bean has been named a recipient for the Champions of Business award. It will be presented to the Senator at the Champions for Business Awards Reception at AIFs 2016 Annual Conference in Orlando on October 5-6, 2016. Since 2003, AIF has given a total of 202 Champions for Business awards to 88 different elected officials.AIF has represented the principles of prosperity and free enterprise before the three branches of state government since 1920. A voluntary association of diversified businesses, AIF was created to foster an economic climate in Florida conducive to the growth, development, and welfare of industry and business and the people of the state.Senator Aaron Bean represents Florida Senate District 4, which serves Nassau County and parts of Duval. He was elected to the position in 2012, re-elected in 2014, and is currently unopposed for the seat in the August 30 election cycle. Prior to serving in the Senate, he served eight years in the Florida House of Representatives, and served as commissioner and mayor in Fernandina Beach.Kelly WhiteClient Focused Media1611 San Marco BoulevardJacksonville, FL 32207
Breast Cancer Therapeutics in Asia-Pacific Markets to 2021 - Will patent expirations or emerging pipeline molecules threaten the commercial success of existing drugs?

http://www.marketintelreports.com/report/gbihc400mr/breast-cancer-therapeutics-in-asiapacific-markets-to-2021--growth-driven-by-increasing-uptake-of-premium-priced-biologics-and-rising-prevalence

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Breast Cancer Therapeutics in Asia-Pacific Markets to 2021 - Growth Driven by Increasing Uptake of Premium Priced Biologics and Rising PrevalenceSummary of the report:Breast cancer, a malignant neoplasm, is the second-most common cancer and the most common cancer in women worldwide, accounting for 16% of all female cancers, making the disease exceedingly prevalent. In the past, breast cancer occurred less in women in Asia than women in Western countries. However, recent studies show that breast cancer is being diagnosed more frequently in women living in Asia, especially among younger women.There have been wide-reaching changes in the breast cancer market over the past four decades, particularly in relation to the usage of targeted therapies, which has increased significantly. The marketed products landscape comprises a wide range of treatment options, including hormonal therapies, chemotherapies, combination therapies and targeted therapies. The market is set to be driven by a number of new approvals for drugs and an increased uptake of premium targeted therapies. Nevertheless, significant unmet need remains for products that can improve overall survival rate, time to disease progression, and overall response.Check Report @The current breast cancer market contains novel products, including Perjeta, a targeted therapy; Kadcyla, a human antibody-drug conjugate; and Halaven, a novel chemotherapeutic agent. What are the competitive advantages of the existing novel drugs? Are these targeted therapies used to the same magnitude in all the countries assessed? What are the factors contributing to the uptake of these drugs in each country? With over 700 active pipeline molecules, most of the investigational drug candidates are being evaluated for the first-line or second-line treatment of advanced-stage breast cancer, featuring new combination therapies, targeted therapies, and promising immunotherapies, as well as chemotherapy drug candidates. Which classes of novel drugs are most prominent within the pipeline? Is there strong potential for the pipeline to address unmet needs within the breast cancer market? Which Asia-Pacific countries should expect a late launch and a lower uptake of the late-stage pipeline drugs?Analysis of clinical trials since 2006 identified that the failure rates of breast cancer molecules were highest in Phase II (41%), with the overall attrition rate for breast cancer in development being 61%. How do failure rates vary by product stage of development, molecule type, and mechanism of action? How do other factors, such as average trial duration and trial size, influence the costs and risks associated with product development?Over the 2014-2021 period, the value of the Asia-Pacific markets for breast cancer therapeutics is expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate of 8.5%, from $1.9 billion to over $3.4 billion. Which markets make the most significant contribution to the current market size? What are the epidemiology trends in these markets? Will new market entrants lead to substantial changes in annual therapy costs? How will different treatment usage patterns impact growth in the Asia-Pacific markets? What are the various trends observed in the market over the forecast period in each of the countries? Rising breast cancer prevalence and increasing use of premium targeted therapies along with new product approvals will lead to significant market growth over the forecast period, despite generic sales erosion resulting from patent expirations. Will patent expirations or emerging pipeline molecules threaten the commercial success of existing drugs? Various drivers and barriers would influence the market over the forecast period. What are the barriers that limit the uptake of premium-priced therapeutics in the accessed countries? Which factors are most likely to drive the market in these countries?This report will enable you to: Understand the clinical context of breast cancer by considering symptoms, etiology, pathophysiology, epidemiology, diagnosis, and treatment options Identify the therapeutic strategies, products, and companies that dominate the current marketed products landscape and recognize gaps and areas of unmet need Identify key pipeline trends in molecule type, administration route, mechanism of action, and novelty Consider market opportunities and potential risks by examining trends in breast cancer clinical trial size, duration, and failure rate by stage of development, molecule type, and mechanism of action Recognize the late-stage pipeline molecules that have demonstrated strong therapeutic potential in breast cancer by examining clinical trial data and multi-scenario product forecast projections Compare treatment usage patterns, annual therapy costs, and market growth projections for the US, Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Japan Discover trends in licensing and co-development deals concerning breast cancer products and identify the major strategic consolidations that have shaped the commercial landscapeDownload Sample Brochure of Report @***Early buyers will receive 20% of discount on report, this is valid till 30th June 2016About us:MarketIntelReports (MIR) aim to empower our clients to successfully manage and outperform in their business decisions, we do this by providing Premium Market Intelligence, Strategic Insights and Databases from a range of Global Publishers.A group of industry veterans who are well experienced in reputed international consulting firms after identifying the sourcing needs of MNCs for market intelligence, have together started this business savior MarketIntelReports.Contact us:Sales ManagerMayur Ssales@marketintelreports.comTelephone: 1-302-684-6088
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Get 10% Off On all VPS Hosting Packages At Unisecure Data Centers

http://www.unisecure.com/vps-hosting

https://www.unisecure.com

Philadelphia, USA., June 7, 2016 - Unisecure, the leading provider of data center services in the US, is delighted to announce that the price of all its VPS packages has been reduced by 10%, thus aiding customers to save more on hosting services.The company offers three pre-defined VPS hosting options with up to 200GB of storage space and 8GB RAM that makes it an ideal choice for businesses looking to move their data to a virtualized environment at reasonable rates. The offerings consist of both managed and unmanaged services. Fully managed services offers round-the-clock assistance from highly skilled technicians, along with comprehensive server administration to maintain availability. With free and instant setup, customers can quickly install the virtualized systems without paying additional setup fees.Customers earn the benefits of complete access to the hardware equipment and the flexibility to customize their hosting plan, everything at discounted rates, said a spokesperson. Unisecure has always strived to sketch out strategies that could aid our customers in different aspects and our latest offering will help them save additionally.With Unisecures instant scalability component, the VPS servers can grow with the expanding IT requirements of the organizations. Adding to that, the company also supports both Windows and Linux VPS hosting solution, so clients can choose the OS that fits their needs. With all the excellent features, the premium hosting plans starts at just $19/m.To find more details, visitUnisecure, started in 1996 is a US-based Data Center provider and since has successfully delivered numerous projects in the areas of VPS Hosting, Dedicated Hosting, Data Center Services, Disaster Recovery Services, and Cloud Server Hosting.Contact person - Joselin HernandezContact us - +1 347 960 6628Website URL -Email ID - joselin@unisecure.com4, Sunrise lane, Scarsdale, New York - 10583, United States
DNA molecule component discovered in space

Star-forming region W51 e2, where the PO molecule was detected

An international group of scientists has discovered the molecule of phosphorus oxide (PO), which has great importance in prebiotic chemistry, in the interstellar medium. It plays a key role in the formation of the DNA double helix and is directly linked to the origin of life in the universe. The PO molecule presence in the two star-forming regions in our galaxy was first discovered by a 30-meter radio telescope at the Institute of Millimeter Radio Astronomy (IRAM) located in the mountains of Serra Nevada near Granada (Spain). A scientist from Ural Federal University was among the research team.In Munich and Yekaterinburg, we study how simple and complex molecules, possible constituent elements of a future life, form and evolve in the interstellar medium, explains Anton Vasyunin of the Center for Astrochemical Research of Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (CAS-MPE, Munich, Germany) and the Astronomical Observatory of Ural Federal University. Our numerical models allowed to interpret the results of our observations, where the molecule of phosphorus oxide was first discovered. We found that this compound actively forms around young stars that heat up the clouds of gas and dust that surround them. The simulation results correspond well with the observations.Astronomers believe that the prebiotic molecules detected in the interstellar medium might be components of the first living organisms. Studying them will bring the scientists closer to understanding the origin of life in the universe. Phosphorus (P) is one of the most important chemical elements for the development of life. Chemical compounds containing phosphorus are involved in forming the structure of living cells and intracellular energy transfer. The connection of phosphorus and oxygen present in the PO molecule contributes to formation of "skeletons" of the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecules, the genetic information containers for living organisms."Despite its astrobiological importance, the PO molecule had not been previously detected in the star-forming regions, says Victor M. Rivilla, astronomer at the Arcetri Observatory in Florence (INAF-OAA), who is a co-author of the research paper. We were very interested in the detection of phosphorus oxide in the stellar nursery, as it may mean that one of the key elements of the DNA molecule forms simultaneously with stars and planets, where life might eventually emerge.The paper with the results of the research done by the scientists from the Observatory of Arcetri (INAF-OAA, Florence, Italy), the Center for Astrobiology (CAB-CSIC, Madrid, Spain), the Center astrochemical Research Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics of the Max Planck Society (CAS-MPE, Munich, Germany) and the Astronomical observatory of Ural Federal University (Ekaterinburg, Russia) has been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical journal.The Ural Federal University named after the first President of Russia B. N. Yeltsin (formed by a merger of the Ural State Technical University and Ural State University) is one of the leading educational institutions in the Ural region. Ural Federal University acts as a research and innovation center of the Ural region and has close cooperation with the Russian Academy of Sciences. Training of students is carried out in four main areas of knowledge and 108 academic majors. The links between the university and intermediate educational institutions are actively developed. The University also performs consistent work on establishing strategic partnership with employers for the sake of development of the regional economy: employers are involved in the educational environment as direct participants, large-scale enployers-sponsored and corporate education is carried out based on the client-centered approach, joint business projects in economic and social areas are realized.Ural Federal University19, Mira str., Ekaterinburg, Russia, 620002Marina Sannkiova, Head of International Marketing Officeinfo.international@urfu.ru+7 343 375 97 77
FocalSpec, Inc. launches a range of new high-resolution 3D Line Confocal Imaging Sensors for demanding surface metrology applications.

FocalSpec LCI Sensors

www.focalspec.com

Cumming, GA (June 7, 2016)  FocalSpec, Inc., a supplier of optical 3D surface measurement solutions with sub-micron level resolution, is pleased to announce the formal North American launch of their new 3D Line Confocal Imaging (LCI) sensors.The new sensors can be integrated into both in-production and standalone 3D scanning systems. They enable a non-contact measurement of surface profile, 3D dimensions, surface roughness, flatness, layer thickness, air gaps etc. on hard-to-measure parts, components and assemblies. LCI is a natively three-dimensional technology that simultaneously acquires 2048 3D surface points and offers resolution of up to 100 nanometers (0.004 mil) at the maximum rate of 2500 scans per second, depending on the sensor model and settings. The maximum length of the measurement profile line is 16.4 mm (0.63).As far as we know, Line Confocal Imaging is the only 3D scanning technology that can quickly, reliably and precisely measure highly reflective, mirror-like, transparent, porous and high-contrast surfaces and materials, said Juha Saily, Sales Manager for FocalSpec, Inc. Potential applications for our new sensors include semiconductors, printed electronics, PCBs, molded parts, adhesives, sheets, films, tubing; and assemblies containing glass, metal or glossy polymer surfaces.The launch of the LCI Sensors coincides with FocalSpec exhibiting at the Sensors Expo 2016 in San Jose, CA, June 22 - 23. The company and its sensors can be found at the booth # 223.FocalSpec, Inc. can be contacted at (770) 713-0837, email info@focalspec.com, websiteFocalSpec, Inc. is a recently founded subsidiary of FocalSpec, Ltd. FocalSpec, Ltd, headquartered in Oulu, Finland, was founded in 2009 as a corporate spin-off from Technical Research Center of Finland (VTT). The companys sensor products and 3D scanning systems are based on dual-axis Line Confocal Imaging technology that is patented worldwide.FocalSpec, Inc.1595 Peachtree Pkwy Suite 204-110Cumming, GA 30041USAPress contact:Juha Saily770-713-0837juha.saily@focalspec.com
Spaulding Clinical Research Announces Addition to Cardiac Core Lab Management Team

Shane Braninburg Joins Cardiac Safety Solutions Team to Support Growth InitiativesJune 07, 2016 - West Bend, Wisconsin, USA - Spaulding Clinical Research, LLC, a global clinical pharmacology, cardiac safety and biometrics solutions provider, today announced the addition of Shane Braninburg as Senior Director of Core Lab Services. Mr. Braninburg brings more than 15 years of global business expertise to Spaulding, including extensive operational and management experience at two of the largest cardiac core labs in the world.Prior to joining Spaulding Clinical Research, Mr. Braninburg was the Senior Director of Business Process Improvement at ERT, where he was responsible for launching ERTs centralized surveillance product across respiratory, cardiac and clinical outcome lines of business. His previous roles at ERT include Senior Director of Site Management and Director of Operations, Digital ECG Laboratory.Shane is a proven strategic planner with the skills needed to complement our rapid growth and sustain the quality of work our clients expect, said Randol Spaulding, Founder and CEO of Spaulding Clinical Research. With the recent FDA 510(k) Clearance of our 12-lead Bluetooth electrocardiograph device and the addition of Shane to the team, were delivering the innovative solutions the industry is looking for and the expertise necessary to deliver results.About Spaulding Clinical Research, LLCSpaulding Clinical Research, LLC is a global CRO providing Phase I - IV drug development services to the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. Spaulding Clinical Research operates a 200-bed Clinical Pharmacology Unit, Cardiac Core Laboratory and provides full Biometrics/Scientific Affairs services.Spaulding Clinical Research, LLC525 S. Silverbrook DriveWest Bend, WI 53095262.334.6020info[at]spauldingclinical.com
FlexPrint Listed on CRNs 2016 Solution Provider 500 List For the Third Consecutive Year

FlexPrint National Managed Print Solution

www.flexprintinc.com

www.thechannelco.com

CRN has announced today that FlexPrint Managed Print Solutions has been named to the 2016 Solution Provider 500 list for the third consecutive year. The CRN SP500 is an annual ranking of the largest technology integrators, solution providers, and technology consultants in North America by revenue.Technology is forever changing the way people do business, which continues to accelerate our growth, said Corey Rivard, VP of Sales Operations for FlexPrint. With the strong support of our technology partners and service providers, we are able to address this ongoing demand with our proven and cost-effective business model that meet the needs of our elite and national customers.This annual ranking is CRNs predominant channel partner award list, serving as the industry standard for recognition of the most successful solution providers in the channel since 1995.The 2016 Solution Provider 500 represents a total, combined revenue of over $334 billiona testament to their success in keeping pace with the rapidly changing demands of todays IT market, said Robert Faletra, CEO, The Channel Company. This prestigious list recognizes those companies with the highest revenue and serves as a valuable industry resource. We congratulate each of the Solution Provider 500 companies and look forward to their continued success.A sampling from the 2016 Solution Provider 500 list will be featured in the June issue of CRN Magazine and can be downloaded here  2016 SP500 Final PDF###About FlexPrintFlexPrint was founded in 2005, and has become the nations leading privately owned enterprise for Managed Print and Technology Services. FlexPrints managed solutions and expertise streamlines business workflow for corporate, regional, and remote locations under a single national service level agreement. This blend of services and solutions encourage client growth through consistent workflow with proactive customer service, a boost in employee efficiency, and driving costs out of business operations. For additional information, please visitAbout the Channel CompanyThe Channel Company enables breakthrough IT channel performance with our dominant media, engaging events, expert consulting and education, and innovative marketing services and platforms. As the channel catalyst, we connect and empower technology suppliers, solution providers and end users. Backed by more than 30 years of unequaled channel experience, we draw from our deep knowledge to envision innovative new solutions for ever-evolving challenges in the technology marketplace.FlexPrint Managed Print Solutions2845 N. Omaha StreetMesa, AZ 85215
Growing demand for high and non phthalates to Drive Global Satellite Transponders Market

http://www.syndicatemarketresearch.com/market-analysis/satellite-transponder-market-global-industry-perspective-comprehensive-analysis.html

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Increase in growth of new subscribers and subscriber upgrades for Ku-band frequencies are the major factors driving the satellite transponders market. Ku-band frequency is mainly used for voice and video communications and data frequency. Additionally, a subscriber upgrade is another key factor to drive this market. Ka-band is also widely adopted as it has comparable performance with digital subscriber line. C-bands are generally used for maritime communications and expected to witness strong growth during the forecast period. The report also analyzes several driving and restraining factors and their impact on the market during the forecast period.Transponders forms communication channel among transmitter and receiver. It is a part of the payload of a telecommunications satellite. Transponder modulates, receive, amplify, and re-transmit an uplinked signal. There can be 20 to 30 transponders on a single satellite. Common bandwidths of a transponder are 27, 33, 36, 54 and 72 MHz. The signals transmitted from earth are received by the satellites at very low power level due to the large distance. Combination of equipments in transponder amplifies these carriers with given frequency. Transponder uses high power amplifier (HPA) in order to amplify carrier signal.Read More @The report segments the satellite transponders market on the basis of frequency band and geography. Major frequency band segments covered in this report includes C-band, Ku-band, Ka-band, X-band, and others. Ku band is dominated the satellite transponders market followed by Ka-band and C-band. Ku-band is most widely used frequency band in commercial satellite commutation.On the basis of the geography, the satellite transponders market can be segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America and Middle East and Africa with its further bifurcation into major countries including U.S., Germany, France, UK, China, Japan, India and Brazil.In order to give the users of this report a comprehensive view on the satellite transponders market. The report includes detailed competitive scenario and product portfolio of key vendors. To understand the competitive landscape in the market, an analysis of Porters Five Forces model for the satellite transponders market has also been included. The study encompasses a market attractiveness analysis, wherein payload segments and applications segments are benchmarked based on their market size, growth rate and general attractiveness.Get Free Sample Report @The report provides comprehensive competitive analysis and profiles of prominent market players, such as Eutelsat S.A., Arianespace SA, Thales Alenia Space, Airbus Group SE, Orbital ATK, Inc., Loral Space and Communications, Inc., and Intelsat S.A.Syndicate Market Research provides a range of marketing and business research solutions designed for our clients specific needs based on our expert resources. The business scopes of Syndicate Market Research cover more than 30 industries includsing energy, new materials, transportation, daily consumer goods, chemicals, etc. We provide our clients with one-stop solution for all the research requirements.Contact US:Joel John3422 SW 15 Street,Suit #8138Deerfield Beach,Florida 33442United StatesToll Free: +1-855-465-4651 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-386-310-3803Email: sales@syndicatemarketresearch.comWebsite:
Launch of a free-of-charge, multifunctional electronic platform for European Neighbourhood countries, allowing for both advanced innovative e-learning and free participation in stationary workshops in Poland

This project is funded by the European Union

http://www.euforneighbourhood.eu/

Comprehensive information on European Union- and European Neighbourhood Policy-related matters, including the best practices and future challenges, now publically available online and accessible from mobile devices and tablets.Warsaw, June 2016. Since March 2016, almost 500 people from countries covered by the European Neighbourhood Policy have already registered for the E-Platform, administered by the College of Europe Natolin Campus, and almost 300 people seized the opportunity to broaden their knowledge and improve their qualifications.Nowadays, it is almost impossible to consider effective and innovative teaching and learning channels without linking them with the Virtual Learning Environment, Information and Communication Technologies and tools for personalising the education for learners (e.g. B-learning). The development of electronic media, internet, along with widespread use of mobile devices and applications, resulted in a massive increase of interest in information processing and knowledge creation through electronic learning mechanisms.In step with these educational trends, the College of Europe Natolin Campus, with its mission to foster knowledge about the European integration process, Europes cultural and historical heritage, and the evolution of EU policies, is putting into operation a unique electronic platform and blended learning instruments.This comprehensive project, which is funded by the European Union with EUR 1,0 Mio, encompasses and reinforces the understanding of various EU policies, and offers a wide range of free of charge educational solutions:1) The distance learning component, consisting of 10 knowledge-based e-learning courses and 5 skills-building courses. inter alia: Anti-Corruption, DCFTA, Human Rights Protection, IBM and Migration Policies, Effective Application for EU Funding, Fund-Raising Skills, and others.2) An Information Database System (IDS) with systematised public information and documentation on the EU, ENP, EU-ENP relations, and best practices.3) An online Expert Forum, enabling participants discussions and exchanges with experienced practitioners and scholars working on, or interested in the European Union- and ENP-related matters.Furthermore, the online component is accompanied by a series of face-to-face sessions/workshops for 150 best performing E-Platform participants (75 from ENP-East and 75 from ENP-South) which will take place in Poland. The participation, as well as training materials, is free of charge (including board and lodging, and travel expenses).I consider the E-Platform as a diligent and up-to-date source of knowledge and information concerning the EU, especially regarding selected policies, best practices and human capital investments, as well as a comprehensive and interactive electronic tool that should inspire ENP citizens to enhance their professional expertise and skills, something that is so crucial in the current economic and social climate, highlighted an expert in economic policies of the EU, management and administration, prof. Tomasz Grzegorz Grosse, Head of the EU Policies Unit, Institute of European Studies at the University of Warsaw.If you have ever considered widening your knowledge on EU- and ENP-related issues, then you should definitely get involved in this professional and educational initiative, and visit our website:For more information, please contact:Ms Renate Utzschmid, Programme Manager Regional Programmes Neighbourhood East, DG Neighbourhood and Enlargement NegotiationsRenate.Utzschmid@ec.europa.euMs Judyta Fiedin, Project Team Leader, College of Europe Natolin Campusjudyta.fiedin@coleurope.euThis article has been produced with the assistance of the European Union. The contents of this article are the sole responsibility of the Natolin Campus of the College of Europe and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union.The Natolin Campus of the College of Europe was established in 1992 in the aftermath of the 1989 revolutions and in anticipation of the EUs eastern enlargement. Today, the Natolin campus is at the cutting edge of academic study of new developments in the EU and Europes Neighbourhood.ul. Nowoursynowska 84PL-02-797 WarszawaPoland
IANKOVSKYI FOUNDATION AND THE DOVZHENKO NATIONAL CENTER SHOWED IN BERLIN THE FILM BY BRILLIANT FILMMAKER DZIGA VERTOV

Andrew Melnyk, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary and Igor Iankovskyi, the founder of the Ukrainian Charity Foundation.

The final chord of Ukrainian filmmakers activities at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival (BERLINALE) became a reception in honor of Ukrainian filmmakers and music show cinema performance "The Circle of Dziga". The Eleventh" organized by the Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Center together with the All-Ukrainian Igor Iankovskyi Charity Foundation "Initiative for the Future" with the support of the Embassy of Ukraine in Germany.At the evening the festive crowd flowed to the legendary art-house cinema - Kino BABYLON, located in the center of the East Berlin, near the Alexander Platz. Despite the fact that at the same time in another part of Berlin, at Potsdamer Platz, began on award ceremony Berlin International Film Festival, more than 300 visitors came to see "The Eleventh", a silent film in 1928 about Donbass, by brilliant filmmaker Dziga Vertov, and socialize in a relaxed atmosphere with young Ukrainian filmmakers to whom Iankovskyi Foundation provided the travel grants for trip to Germany and participation at BERLINALE 2016.Opening the reception, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to Germany, Andrew Melnyk said the outstanding contribution to the development of world cinema, which had at one time filmmaker Dziga Vertov and his brother, operator Mikhail Kaufman. Rise of creativity there is in Ukraine, when the 20 years of the last century at the newly opened Kiev art studio they have their best three avant-garde films. It is no accident for the results of numerous surveys of experts Dziga Vertov found the greatest filmmakers of all time, laid the foundations of a new cinema language.Also, the guests observed a minute of silent cinema the victims of the tragic events on the Maidan, who died two years ago. Do not forget about the new time of political prisoners, demanding the release of the torture chambers of the Russian and Ukrainians Sentsov, Kolchenko.The Head of the Ukrainian State Film, Philip Illienko stressed the importance of Ukraine in the world as the country's cinema, which has left its mark in the world of cinema. He stressed the importance of such screenings, which connect past and present national cinema.Igor Iankovskyi, the founder of the Ukrainian Charity Foundation "Initiative for the Future" told that his family, father, grandfather many years are build the factories in the Donbass, developing industry. "I was particularly hurt that it's all destroyed in the fighting on East Ukraine. To understand the scale of the tragedy, it is necessary to watch a movie in 1928, dedicated to the industrialization of Donbass. Its very important that knew about it abroad. In addition, Ukraine has always been an incredibly rich talent. We are proud of the past, and I'm sure will be proud of in the future. That's why we brought to Berlin a group of young filmmakers, winners of the competition that they recharge of energy from the International Film Festival and came to Ukraine enthusiastic to put their ideas on the screen!", - said Igor Iankovskyi.Director of the Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Center Ivan Kozlenko is stopped on the artistic features avant-garde film. "Eleventh"  is the Vertov the first experiment in implementing its programs invention separate from the language of theater and literature, a specific movie language in which the camera immediately records the raw matter of life; program, which was fully implemented in its next Vertov Ukrainian films.The film "The Eleventh" has been restored at the Alexander Dovzhenko National Center at the end of 2012. Film demonstration in Berlin was preceded by an animated TV commercial film, which was created in 1928, probably animator Eugene Makarov with the participation of Dziga Vertov. This unique trailer 1920 was accidentally found only in the Netherlands in the early 1990s and mid-2000s transferred to Ukraine.After watching tape of animation, the audience watched with bated breath unusually dynamic and vibrant cinema performance. Added elegance evening live music performed by the author - a famous composer Anton Baybakov. He and pianist Sofia Turtha specially flew to Berlin for a day to play live at the cinema performance. Musical accompaniment for the film by Anton Baybakov created commissioned by the International Documentary Film Festival on Human Rights Docudays UA within serial music cinema performances project "The Circle of Dziga". The end of the show was marked by prolonged applause."Initiative for the Future"  is Ukrainian Charitable Foundation, founded by Igor Iankovskyi - a successful Ukrainian businessman, financier and philanthropist.Charities unite like-minded people in a common goal - to develop and implement educational and cultural programs in Ukraine. Activities of the organization based on voluntary initiatives.Igor Iankovskyi Foundation "Initiative for the Future" was founded June 5, 2012, and since its foundation supports talented young people from all over Ukraine, contributing to a highly cultured society in the future. Projects that have already been implemented charitable foundation, got success not only in Ukraine, but also in some European countries - Belgium, France, Germany and Poland and North America (USA).12, Amosova Street, build. 1, 5th floorHorizont Park Business Center,Kiev, 03680, Ukraine
First Barometer of Employee Share Ownership Policies in European Countries

www.efesonline.org

www.efesonline.org

June 8, 2016For immediate release:First Barometer of Employee Share Ownership Policiesin European CountriesThe European Federation of Employee Share Ownership (EFES), the voice of employee share ownership in Europe, will release the first "Barometer of Employee Share Ownership Policies in European Countries" on June 9.The mass development of employee share ownership brings better motivation, productivity, profitability, higher growth, more and better jobs. This is good for all. But it depends on policy will to initiate the virtuous circle through appropriate fiscal incentives.After 2008, some European countries took negative decisions, removing or decreasing fiscal incentives, which led to a decline of the number of employee shareholders. Some other European countries took the opposite way, applying new or higher incentives, which led to a higher number of employee shareholders.All these policy decisions in various European countries, in a positive or a negative way, can be summarized through a single dedicated tool. This is the reason of the setting up of the EFES "Barometer of employee share ownership policies in European countries".Before 2009, the barometer showed a continuous increase, practically all policy decisions being positive. A negative phase occurred from 2009 to 2013. Since then, most policy decisions are positive again.Marc Mathieu, Secretary General of the EFES said: "After a period of uncertainty following the financial crisis, most policy choices in European countries are returning to the promotion and development of employee share ownership. European countries had never been so numerous in this direction. It is the right way for social cohesion in Europe."The new Barometer will be available onENDSThe European Federation of Employee Share Ownership (EFES) is an international not for profit organization.EFES is the voice of employee share ownership in Europe. It was established in 1998 as the umbrella organisation of employee owners, companies and all persons, trade unions, experts, researchers, institutions looking to promote the development of employee share ownership and participation in Europe.EFES - European Federation of Employee Share OwnershipFEAS - Federation Europeenne de l'Actionnariat SalarieAvenue Voltaire 135, B-1030 BrusselsTel: +32 (0)2 242 64 30 - Fax: +32 (0)2 808 30 33E-mail: efes@efesonline.orgWeb site:
Bio Based Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) Market size over $13 Billion by 2023: Global Market Insights, Inc.

https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/bio-based-PET-market

https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/446

www.gminsights.com

Bio Based Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) Market size was 496.0 kilo tons in 2015, as per the latest research report by Global Market Insights, Inc. Growing concerns towards GHG emissions coupled with bioplastics emergence as an alternative in packaging and automotive industry may stimulate global bio based PET market size.Browse Full Report with Chart and Figures:Global biobased PET market size may generate USD 13.1 billion by 2023. Increasing importance of sustainable packaging, especially in China and India, may positively influence bio based polyethylene market size growth. Key Industry participants, The Coca-Cola Company and Toray, have formed strategic partnerships with bio based product manufacturers such as Gevo and Virent, for the development 100% bio PET.Get sample pages from our latest Research Report @Coca-Cola, H.J. Heinz, Nike, Procter & Gamble and Ford Motor have collaborated Plant PET Technology Collaborative (PTC) for 100% bio polyethylene terephthalate production acceleration intended for apparels, technical seat trims, plastic bottles, floor carpets and footwear.APAC bio PET market size, led by China & India, was dominant and accounted for over 32.5% of the overall demand in 2015. Growing CSD (carbonated soft drinks) & alcohol beverage demand in China and India have resulted in increased scope for packaging.Australian government formed (APC) The Australian Packaging Covenant for sustainable packaging promotion which may favor on bio-based PET market growth. The Japanese government has set a target of 20% bioplastics production in the plastics market by 2020, which may favor bio based polyethylene terephthalate market growth over the next several years.Bio polyethylene terephthalate weighs lower in comparison to their fossil fuel counterparts, which helps its use in exterior and interior automotive parts. AT&T, Nissan and Toyota Motors have announced plans to use bioplastics in their products, which may positively influence bio PET market growth in technical applications.Key raw material, sugarcane, is used for MEG manufacturing. Sugarcane is majorly used for sugar and bio ethanol production and may fall short as feedstock for MEG production. This may hamper product supply and affect bio based PET market price trend.Petrochemical derived polyethylene terephthalate are showcasing stiff competition to bio based counter parts with decrease in crude oil prices, However, bio based polyethylene terephthalate prices are expected to compete with petrochemical derived counterparts with correction in crude oil prices and capacity expansion on bio based polyethylene terephthalate.Key insights from the report include: Global bio PET market size may attain 44.2% CAGR up to 2023 and reach 6.74 million tons by 2023. Europe, with food & beverage industry growth in Germany, France & UK, is set to gain significant growth rates and register over USD 2.8 billion by 2023. Europe bottling applications are forecast to grow at over 37% CAGR in revenue terms and register over USD 2.3 billion by 2023. North America technical application occupied a small chunk of the share may register over USD 235 million by 2023 with expected gains at above 36% CAGR. Latin America, with Brazil contributing to regional demand, may witness significant growth rates at over 46.5% CAGR up to 2023. Latin America bottling applications may register over USD 1.5 billion by 2023. Global biobased PET market share is competitive with limited industry participants dominating production. Key industry participants include Teijin Limited, Toray Industries, Coca Cola, Toyota Tsusho, Plastipak holdings and M&G chemicals. Gevo, Anellotech, and Virent are some key raw material suppliers and have invested for bio PTA production for 100% bio polyethylene terephthalate manufacturing.Global Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology.Global Market Insights Inc.29L Atlantic Avenue, Suite L 105,Ocean View, Delaware, United StatesWeb:
This year's session of the legislature -- formally known as the Second Regular Session of the 98th Missouri General Assembly, adjourned pursuant to the Constitution at midnight May 30.

Granted, the speeches, amendments, debates, votes, introduction of guests and affiliated standing and grandstanding concluded a couple of weeks earlier -- replete with the sophomoric littering of the House chamber with bills and amendments tossed into the air by departing lawmakers.

But the law leaves a couple of weeks afterward for bills to be printed, signed and delivered before the session wraps up, as they say, sine die.

As adjournment ended the four and one-half month fete of this year's legislative ballet, it opened another, shorter period in which the lion's share of the legislature's handiwork hangs in the balance of both power and politics between the state's lawmakers and governor.

Back in the days before voter registration -- when machines ran Missouri politics -- the governor was the boss and the lawmakers showed up in the Capitol every two years for a session, to pass a budget and to make the boss happy. The lieutenant governor was president of the Senate, assigned bills to committee and generally made sure that the boss -- the governor -- got what he wanted.

In the 1960s that changed -- somewhat -- with voter registration and U.S. Supreme Court decisions restricting gerrymandering -- a fight that continues still. Shortly afterward, the Missouri Senate demoted the lieutenant governor to the ex-officio president of the Senate and transferred his power to one of their own -- the president pro tem.

With the exception of a few election turnover love-fests, such as Gov. Carnahan in 1993 and Gov. Blunt in 2005, this began an era in which the relationships between the governors and lawmakers -- particularly the Senate -- have not always been overly harmonious -- even with lawmakers and governors of the same party.

Yet, the two must agree for law to be made. Once lawmakers pass a bill, it is sent to the governor to be signed into law, vetoed and returned, or allowed to become law should the governor take no action. Unlike the president, Missouri governors do not have the power of a pocket veto.

The timing of when a bill is sent to the governor can be part of the political strategy of lawmakers. This is because the constitution allows the governor only 15 days to act on a bill if it is sent during the legislative session, but 45 days if it is sent after the session adjourns.

Generally, governors do not like to be rushed, particularly when it comes to the tedious parsing of thousands of pages of bills written in legislative wording that can be maddeningly obtuse. Thus, when lawmakers load up the chief executive with bills on the 15-day plan, pleasing the governor is not their objective.

This year, lawmakers passed 57 Senate bills and 81 House bills, including 18 appropriations and capital improvement bills, plus several resolutions having the force and effect of law. By June 1, the governor had acted on 23 of these, including 14 bills that make up the state operating budget.

One bill changing the financial level for "fully" funding public education was vetoed by the governor and that veto was overridden. Also overridden was the veto of a resolution repealing a raise for personal care attendants.

Lawmakers attempted but failed to override the veto of a bill that would have required workers to approve annually the deduction of union dues from their checks. Parts of two budget bill were vetoed, as was a measure changing laws on worker compensation.

The rest of the measures were signed, leaving the governor 44 days to review and decide the fate of the remaining 115 measures ... and a great deal of maddeningly obtuse language to parse before the July 14 deadline for executive action on bills passed this year.
National Air Traffic Control uses Sabercom digital signage for internal communication

http://www.sabercom.co.uk

NATS, a global leader in air traffic control, operates from two centres at Swanwick in Hampshire, England and Prestwick in Ayrshire, Scotland. They control air traffic movements over England, Wales and Scotland, safely managing over 5000 flights a day traveling through UK airspace.NATS operates365 days a year with over 4000 staff. Due to a 24/7 shift pattern spread across a number of remote sites and airports, employee communication can pose a real challenge. The control centres are a labyrinth of buildings, connecting bridges and corridors.Sabercom installed internal communication screens at 9 Airport Control Towers, and at each of the three Control Centres to ensure that employees across the country are kept up to date with the latest corporate and operational updates. This includes centrally managed communications messages, along with NATS Values & Purpose, links to surveys and podcasts, daily events for each location, local traffic and weather feeds.Locating Sabercom internal communication screens in major thoroughfares ensured that the communication messages could not be missed. The multimedia content on each screen can be tailored for each location with instant business updates pushed out using the scrolling ticker text via Sabercom's easy to use content management system. Different levels of user access were set up to allow overall control by the Internal Communications team and individual screen control by each Control Tower and Control Centre business group leader.Kirsty Paginton, HR Communications Advisor at NATS says:"The Sabercom digital signage is a great communications channel, it allows us to keep our diverse range of employees, who work across of number of different sites in our 24/7 business, up to date with the latest company news. The flexibility in the system allows us to easily schedule company wide messages, alongside more site specific stories. We can also use a great variety of media to keep the screens engaging. The Sabercom team have also been great with help and support in getting the system up and running in our complex IS environment."Sabercom provide on-screen communication systems including desktop screen savers and large enterprise digital signage networks for multimedia messaging across multiple sites.A great way to communicate important corporate information to non-desk based staff while reinforcing brand and corporate identity. Ideal for communicating health and safety information and nurturing a team environment with the added benefit of saving on print costs.For further information, resources and case studies, visitor call +44 (0)1732 440 035Sabercom can provide a stand-alone software solution or a complete digital signage system from hardware procurement, software and screen installation to content creation, training and support. Sabercom offer visual and engaging multimedia communication tools. Specialising in digital signage, we can display internal communications on large display screens or on employee desktops in the form of our corporate screensaver. Using Sabercom, you can compile an on screen media presentation to include video, images, information from your intranet, news, weather, corporate messages, statistics, video, PowerPoint, Excel and RSS feeds. Information can be easily changed using Sabercom's browser based content management and scheduling system. Great for Communicating with non-desk based staff, reduce email clutter, save on printing costs, Increasing productivity, reduce staff turnover, a faster way to reach employees, Inspire and engage your workforce, High visibility so produces great results.Sabercom Ltd.Riverside House,River Lawn Road,Tonbridge,Kent. TN9 1EPUNITED KINGDOM
For switchers: PowerFolder is offering a special deal for ownCloud users

www.powerfolder.com

http://www.powerfolder.com

The company dal33t GmbH, the firm behind PowerFolder, is offering a deal that makes the switch for ownCloud users that want to move to its German Sync & Share service even more attractive: just half price for the first year. To take advantage of this superb offer, anyone wishing to make the move simply has to produce evidence of an existing ownCloud user agreement.Meerbusch/Dusseldorf, 08.06.2016. - Owing to the events of recent days, concerned ownCloud users can now take advantage of a special offer when they switch to the German Sync & Share provider PowerFolder: For the first year, they will only have to pay half the usual price. Customers from the EDU sector can even convert an existing ownCloud license for the first year entirely for free. In both cases, a currently valid ownCloud user agreement simply has to be informally shown to PowerFolder by the end of June 2016. Anyone who registers by emailing contact@powerfolder.com now can secure the conditions if they take up the offer by the end of the year.As one of the very first Sync & Share solutions and with nine years of proven performance in the market, PowerFolder has shown itself to be a leader in its field. Profitable from the outset - thanks to a sustainable and stable business model - it has grown steadily. Today, it serves over two million users, more than 900 - partially spectacular - corporate clients and more than 100 universities at home and abroad, all of whom know they can rely on PowerFolder. Christian Sprajc, CEO of the family-run dal33t GmbH, the company behind PowerFolder said, "We are very proud of having built up PowerFolder into a leading brand in the IT industry. With PowerFolder, you get a tried and tested European Sync & Share solution that is 'Made in Germany', and that you can firmly rely on in the future". A fully functional, 30-day trial version is available atThe German company dal33t GmbH, based in Meerbusch, near Dusseldorf, has been successfully developing and offering file Sync & Share solutions under the brand name PowerFolder since 2007. Its range of products includes both public, as well as integrated private cloud solutions (EFSS) as individualised on-site services. Over two million users worldwide, most of Germany's universities and thousands of companies use PowerFolder. PowerFolder users can access their files from anywhere and edit and share them together - also on mobile devices, via the PowerFolder app. Security is the absolute top priority: data is always encrypted and stored according to German data protection regulations on servers located in Germany. PowerFolder is supported by the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and has gained the official "IT Security Made in Germany" seal of approval.Matthias Steinwachs+49 2132 97922 98press(at)powerfolder.comPowerFolderdal33t GmbHNiederloricker Str. 6240667 MeerbuschGermany
Market Share 2016 Global Industry Analysis, Trend, Size, growth, Forecast

Chinese Collagenase

http://www.qymarketresearch.com/market-analysis/global-and-chinese-collagenase-market-2015-industry-research.html#request-sample

Market Research Report on Chinese Collagenase Market 2016 is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the Chinese Collagenase worldwide. First of all,"Global Chinese Collagenase Market 2016" report provides a basic overview of the Chinese Collagenase industry including definitions, classifications, applications and Chinese Collagenase industry chain structure.Request For Free Report Sample :The analysis is provided for the Chinese Collagenase international market including development history, Chinese Collagenase industry competitive landscape analysis.After that, Chinese Collagenase industry development policies as well as plans are discussed and manufacturing processes as well as cost structures for Chinese Collagenase market. This report "Worldwide Chinese Collagenase Market 2016" also states import/export, supply and consumption figures and Chinese Collagenase market cost, price, revenue and Chinese Collagenase market's gross margin by regions (United States, EU, China and Japan), as well as other regions can be added in Chinese Collagenase Market area.Then, the report focuses on worldwide Chinese Collagenase market key players with information such as company profiles with product picture as well as specification.Related information to Chinese Collagenase market- capacity, production, price, cost, revenue and contact information. Aslo includes Chinese Collagenase industry's - Upstream raw materials, equipment and downstream consumers analysis is also carried out. Whats more, the Chinese Collagenase market development trends and Chinese Collagenase industry marketing channels are analyzed.Finally, "worldwide Chinese Collagenase market" Analysis- feasibility of new investment projects is assessed, and overall research conclusions are offered.QY Market Research is a single destination for all the industry, company and country reports. We feature large repository of latest industry reports, leading and niche company profiles, and market statistics released by reputed private publishers and public organizations.Joel JohnSuite #8138, 3422 SW 15 Street,Deerfield Beach, Florida 33442United StatesToll Free: +1-855-465-4651 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-386-310-3803
Oligonucleotide Synthesis Market Analysis and Industry Key Players

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=11804

Oligonucleotide Synthesis Market: Overview and SegmentationOligonucleotide synthesis is a procedure by which nucleic acid biomolecules with definite sequences are synthetically made. Oligonucleotide synthesis is required for various life sciences research projects, from simple molecular biology research to even broader areas such as plant and animal studies, drug development, medical diagnosis, agriculture and food industry.Get a Free Sample Report:The global oligonucleotide synthesis market is segmented on the basis of:ProductsEnd-users andApplicationsOn the basis of product, the global oligonucleotide synthesis market is broadly classified into reagent, probe, equipment, primer and synthesized oligonucleotide. Among these segments, the synthesized oligonucleotide market segment is likely to register the highest growth rate during the forecast period, due to the increasing number of its applications in research, therapeutics and diagnostics; and increasing demand for custom oligos in these applications.On the basis of end-users, the global oligonucleotide synthesis market is further segmented into pharmaceutical and biotech firms, academic research institutes, and diagnostic laboratory. Demand from diagnostic laboratories is likely to grow rapidly among the end user segments during the forecast period owing to the adoption of new techniques such as polymerase chain reaction, real time polymerase chain reaction, DNA microarrays and others.On the basis of applications, the global oligonucleotide synthesis market is segmented into research, therapeutics, and diagnostics. Research applications are further segmented into sequencing, gene synthesis, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and others. Therapeutics market is further segmented into antisense oligos, RNAi, and others.Oligonucleotide Synthesis Market: DriversThe global oligonucleotide synthesis market is driven by various factors which include:Budding applications in molecular diagnostics and synthetic biologyIncreasing research & development spending in biotech and pharmaceutical companiesDeveloping significance of RNA-interference oligos in diagnostics and therapeuticsVenture capital funding and government spending are additional key factors that will enhance the growth of this market. For example, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) spends approximately USD1.5 billion annually to support their oligonucleotide-based applications including manual manipulation of DNA.On the other hand, factors such as authoritarian barriers, downward pricing pressure of therapeutic oligos, may inhibit the growth of oligonucleotide synthesis market.Oligonucleotide Synthesis Market: Region-wise OutlookGeographically, the global oligonucleotide synthesis market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC) and Rest of the World. Asia-Pacific is hovering to grow rapidly due to increase in research and development activities, increasing R&D funding and rising accessibility of synthesized oligos in the region. Several major players are establishing their oligonucleotide manufacturing services in APAC to seize market opportunity in the region. For example, in July 2013, Integrated DNA Technologies, Inc. opened an oligonucleotide manufacturing unit in Singapore to provide oligonucleotide-based products to research companies in APAC, thereby establish its trail in the APAC market. Such expansion is further expected to drive growth in the APAC oligonucleotide synthesis market in the upcoming years.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.90 State Street, Suite 700 Albany, NY 12207
E-Clinical Solution Software Market Change Healthcare Landscape

http://tinyurl.com/z3e5p2w

Transparency Market Research (TMR) has recently published a market study on the global E-clinical solution software market, estimating the market to expand at a CAGR of 13.80% during the period from 2014 to 2020 and reach a market value of US$6.8 bn by the end of the forecast period.Download and get Competitive outlook Analysis and Customized Research Report PDF on E-Clinical Solution Software Market:The research report, titled E-Clinical Solution Software Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2014 - 2020, states that the worldwide E-clinical solution software market stood at US$3 bn in 2014. The rising number of clinical trials has been considered as the key driving force behind the growth of this market.The research report analyzes the worldwide E-clinical solution software market on the basis of product, mode of delivery, and end-use industry. By product type, the global market for E-clinical solution software is classified into the solutions markets for clinical trial management, clinical data management, electronic clinical outcome assessment, trial supply management, and safety solutions.Based on the mode of delivery, it is categorized into the markets for web-based solution software, cloud-based solution software, and licensed enterprise solution software. The web-based e-clinical software solution market has been reporting the highest growth, whereas the cloud-based e-clinical solution software market is likely to report the fastest development among all the segments based on mode of delivery. The web-based e-clinical solution software market stood at US$2.1 bn in 2014. Analysts project it to reach a value of US$4.8 bn by the end of 2020, expanding at an estimated CAGR of 14.20% between 2014 and 2020.The pharmaceutical industry, the healthcare sector, and chemical research organizations (CROs) are the key end users of E-clinical solution software across the globe. The pharmaceutical industry is reporting the highest demand for E-clinical solution software, owing to which this segment is likely to be the leading end user over the forecast period. On the other hand, the CROs segment is projected to post the fastest growth among all the end users in the coming years, says the report.As per the report, the global market for E-clinical solution software is divided into North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and the Rest of the World. Among these, North America has emerged as the leading market for E-clinical solution software in the global arena. The North America E-clinical solution software market stood at US$1.7 bn in 2014. Analysts expect it to expand at a CAGR of 12.60% between 2014 and 2020 and reach a value of US$3.6 bn by the end of the forecast period. The Asia Pacific market for E-clinical solution software, however, is reported to witness the fastest growth over the forthcoming years, notes the study.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.90 State Street, Suite 700 Albany, NY 12207
An Expert suggetions on Active Optical Cables Market Forecast till 2019

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An active optical cable is a wiring technology which accepts the same electrical inputs as a conventional copper cable, but makes use of optical fiber between the connectors. In order to improve the cables distance and speed performance without sacrificing its compatibility with standard electrical interfaces, the active optical cable uses electrical to optical conversion on the cable ends. The active optical cables market is largely driven by the rise in the processor speeds, growing demand for higher bandwidth speeds. Additionally, the advancements in fiber optics technology are also contributing to the growth of active optical cables market. Moreover, copper connectivity faces some limitations such as low bandwidth, optical fibers are being preferred. As new consumer bandwidth demands up to 20 GB per second, consumers are now demanding smaller cables and innovative footprints. Optical fibers are thinner, longer, lighter and stronger in comparison with copper cables.The applications of active optical cables have expanded from high performance computers to traditional data centers with the support of many protocols. Active optical cables are reliant on protocol named InfiniBand. The interface of this protocol in commercial applications such as server and supercomputers has been critical to the market growth. This segment has grown and moved from its traditional 10G QSFP+ format to 14G FDR QSFP+ fiber optic cables thus making it as the strongest active optical cable application. Rising attention of vendors towards USB, Thunderbolt and HDMI protocol in video and consumer protocols have also benefited the market. Moreover, other protocols such as USB3.0, HDMI and DisplayPort are also predictable to gain grip in the forecast period.Get more Information :Data centers accounts for the largest end-use application in global active optical cable market. The main reason for its growth is the increasing bandwidth speeds which are expected to reach higher by 2019. However, data centers which are inside the active optical cables market are at present limited to facilities which look to optimize the existing infrastructure to offer high data rates. Furthermore, the market in data centers is expected to augment in the upcoming years with the introduction of big data applications. This market is also gaining prominence in non data center applications such as consumer electronic devices.This report briefly explains the market drivers, restraints, opportunities and trends with respect to the active optical cables market and forecasts it up to 2019. The detailed assessment of future and existing opportunities which are provided in the report would help the stakeholders to plan and prepare for the next step. The report provides a detailed forecast for each segment from 2013 to 2019. It further provides a detailed segmentation analysis of the market based on the geographies  North America, Asia-Pacific, Europe and Rest of the World (RoW). By geography, the U.S. represents the largest active optical cable market globally. However, emerging markets are expected to spearhead growth driven by growing adoption of new technologies and faster economic growth. Asia-Pacific on the other hand is expected to emerge as the fastest growing market over the forecast period.The company profiles of key market players have been included in the active optical cables market report, which consist of company overview, financial overview, business strategy and recent developments. Some of the key players profiled in this report include Finisar Corporation, Molex, Inc., 3M Company, Samtec, Inc., Avago Technologies, Reflex Photonics, Inc., Hitachi Metals, Ltd., Fujikura Ltd., Fiberon Technologies, Inc., Amphenol Corporation and Gigalight Shenzhen Technology Co. Ltd.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.TMRs data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With extensive research and analysis capabilities, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques to develop distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.Transparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesUSA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
ecoDMS Now Also Available for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and Raspberry Pi 3

www.ecodms.de

Aachen, May 2016. The platform-independent archiving software ecoDMS version 14.08 (krusty) now also supports Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. Moreover, the ecoDMS server can be installed on a Raspberry Pi 3 "Model B". ecoDMS GmbH has published the necessary apt sources for these installations in the official installation manual at. The exact system requirements can also be found on the website.Ubuntu is a free Linux distribution based on "Debian". The philosophy of this operating system harmonises with that of ecoDMS. It is easy to install and operate. ecoDMS supports the latest LTS versions of Ubuntu. These are released approximately every two years by Ubuntu. LTS stands for "long-term support", which implies that these versions are supported longer than others. With Ubuntu version 16.04 LTS, ecoDMS GmbH now also supports the latest Ubuntu version.Raspberry Pi is a mini PC, the base of which is about the size of a credit card. The full functionality of the ecoDMS server can be installed on the RASPBIAN operating system of this tiny computer. The current ecoDMS release supports the Raspberry PI 2 and 3 devices. The low purchase price of this small hardware perfectly matches the licensing model of the archiving solution. In combination with ecoDMS, Raspberry Pi is the ideal playground to implement an archiving solution.In addition to the two above-mentioned systems, ecoDMS can be installed on a server under Windows, Ubuntu, Debian, Raspbian and as Docker image with NAS support for Synology and QNAP. The programme interface is available for Windows, Ubuntu, Debian, MacOS, web browsers, Android and IOS.The ecoDMS software stands for powerful and practice-oriented functions, state-of-the-art technologies, platform-independent components, user-friendly handling and fair pricing. These unique features are already inspiring thousands of users from Germany, Austria and Switzerland.The archive offers all relevant functions. A programme for incoming e-mail processing of scanned paper documents, an archiving interface with clear document administration, plugins and add-ons for Microsoft Office, LibreOffice, OpenOffice, Thunderbird and Outlook, a PDF/A printer for archiving from any application that can print, numerous search functions, integrated and fully automatic OCR full-text indexing, version management, comprehensive settings, user and group management, connections to Active Directory and LDAP, a browser-based web interface, mobile apps for smartphone and tablet, and much more.Anyone interested in the software can test it in the demo version for 30 days. The full version is available at 49 Euro gross per licence. Any number of users can be selected and the number of users can be extended at any time. A licence is valid for an unlimited period of time and independent of the number of archived documents. For private users, the Free4Three edition offers a lean but free version of the archiving system. The demo, free and full version components are identical. Documentation, product information and training videos are available on the website.ecoDMS GmbH is an applord Holding Europe GmbH company. Since its foundation in 2014, the Aachen-based company has been selling the ecoDMS software. ecoDMS is a document management system used for archiving and managing electronic documents in a database. The software is a client-server system. ecoDMS is used for scanning, archiving and managing digital data and information. ecoDMS GmbH is renowned for its high degree of quality and service. Young, modern, and full of fervour, the software company opens new ways in document archiving. A strong, motivated team is offering perfect all-round service. ecoDMS GmbH is the first DMS provider to address private users, small to medium-sized companies and corporate customers.ecoDMS GmbHMarketing and PRAndrea WarmuthSalierallee 18aD-52066 AachenGermanyeMail: news@ecodms.dePhone: 0049 241 4 75 72 01Url: https://www.ecodms.de/index.php/en/press
ecoDMS Announces New Version and Products

scan, archive, manage documents, records and files with files

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Aachen, June 2016. Anyone following the lifecycle of the ecoDMS archiving solution will already suspect that a new ecoDMS version is in the making for 2016. As of today it is official. ecoDMS GmbH sets the pace. Users of the successful data management system can look forward to the brand new ecoDMS release 16.XX (eleanor). This, together with two completely new software products, will see the light of day in autumn 2016.The developers at ecoDMS GmbH are adding some excitement to the release. As of today, new product secrets and schedules will be revealed at irregular intervals on the ecoDMS website at. This much can already be said: At ecoDMS GmbH everything revolves around the topic "Archiving 2.0". There will be some new functions, optimisations and surprises for ecoDMS users. The development of the archive is in full swing and also includes the requests and requirements of ecoDMS users. The legally certain e-mail management solution ecoMAILZ and the smart archive manager ecoSAM will also enhance the product portfolio with two very interesting and independent systems.One of the main innovations at ecoDMS is the first "life-long licence price guarantee". This will benefit all existing and new customers of the archiving solution. The excellent and new pricing model offers a life-long and absolute price stability.Eleanor will be available at a gross price of 69 Euro. "Only the early bird catches the worm". The licence price will always remain at 49 Euro for all customers who are using the current full version 14.08 (krusty). Thanks to the ecoDMS lifetime license price guarantee, customers can always purchase the archiving system at same licence price. The official licence price at the time of purchase will apply to each future purchase of a major release.The principle is simple. If a customer has purchased the current krusty release, the upgrade to the next version 16.XX (eleanor) will continue to cost 49 Euro per licence instead of 69 Euro. Customers who purchase all ecoDMS major releases can thus purchase the full version at the same original licence price of 49 Euro. For those who do not yet have a licence, there is still the chance to purchase the lifetime license price guarantee at 49 Euro per licence until autumn.With ecoMAILZ and ecoSAM, ecoDMS GmbH will take another big step forward this year. Business customers can look forward to ecoMAILZ, a legally certain e-mail management software for companies. Businesses can implement customised, legally compliant and audit-proof e-mail archiving with ecoMAILZ. The user can interact with the archive and manage e-mails professionally without losing sight of project-related conversations.Comprehensive backup and restore options can also be implemented in future with a new container storage system, the new smart archive manager ecoSAM. The automated import functions offer space for innovative ideas for archiving and classifying data. Documents can be imported and classified automatically from the file system. For e-mails these processes can be implemented directly from the specified e-mailbox.In line with our well-known company philosophy, the new products will continue to convince customers with powerful, practice-oriented functions, state-of-the-art technologies, platform-independent components, user-friendly interface at a fair price.For more information, visit the ecoDMS website atecoDMS GmbH is an applord Holding Europe GmbH company. Since its foundation in 2014, the Aachen-based company has been selling the ecoDMS software. ecoDMS is a document management system used for archiving and managing electronic documents in a database. The software is a client-server system. ecoDMS is used for scanning, archiving and managing digital data and information. ecoDMS GmbH is renowned for its high degree of quality and service. Young, modern, and full of fervour, the software company opens new ways in document archiving. A strong, motivated team is offering perfect all-round service. ecoDMS GmbH is the first DMS provider to address private users, small to medium-sized companies and corporate customers.ecoDMS GmbHMarketing and PRAndrea WarmuthSalierallee 18aD-52066 AachenGermanyeMail: news@ecodms.dePhone: 0049 241 4 75 72 01Url: https://www.ecodms.de/index.php/en/press
Demand for Clinical Industry Propels World Laboratory Information Systems Market

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Transparency Market Research has published a new report on the global laboratory information system market. As per the report, the global laboratory information system market is predicted to progress from US$1,381.4 bn in 2013 to US$2,158.0 bn by 2019.Download and get Competitive outlook Analysis and Customized Research Report PDF on Laboratory Information Systems Market:The report, titled Laboratory Information System Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast, 2013 - 2019, states that the global laboratory information system market is expected to expand at a 7.70% CAGR between 2013 and 2019.Laboratory information systems are complex information systems developed and designed for the management of data related to medical laboratories and industries. Data from analytical and clinical laboratories is also managed by using enhanced laboratory information systems. With laboratory information system, users can obtain, store, retrace, manage, record, and alter laboratory information. This information is used for diagnosis, management, prevention, and treatment of various diseases. Laboratory information systems are custom developed as per the needs of a laboratory.The growing need to custom-design and develop laboratory systems as per the changing needs of laboratories is expected to propel the global laboratory information system market during the forecast period. The global laboratory information system market is expected to develop rapidly due to factors such as increasing investment by healthcare IT players, increasing initiatives taken by the governments of various countries, and improvements in healthcare services. However, factors such as the lack of knowledgeable professionals, the high cost of laboratory information systems, and high maintenance requirements are expected to restrict the growth of the global laboratory information system market in the years to come.The global laboratory information system market is segmented on the basis of region, component, delivery mode, and application. Based on region, the global laboratory information system market is divided into North America, Asia, Europe, and Rest of the World. In terms of units, the North America laboratory information system market is predicted to dominate the global laboratory information system market in the years to come. McKesson Corporation, Sunquest Information Systems, CompuGroup Medical (Germany), Merge Healthcare, Orchard Software, TechniData America, Siemens Medical Solutions, HEX Laboratory Systems, Cerner Corporation Medical Information Technology (Meditech), SCC Soft Computer, EPIC Systems Corporation, and Computer Programs and Systems Inc. are some of the leading companies in the global laboratory information system market.By component, the global laboratory information system market is classified into software, services, and hardware. Factors such as growing use of smartphones and the increasing number of companies focusing on launching new products are expected to create new opportunities for the global laboratory information system market in the years to come. Based on the delivery mode, the global laboratory information system market is classified into web-based, cloud-based, and on-premise.Drug delivery laboratory information systems and clinical diagnostics laboratory information systems are two of the major application segments of the global laboratory information system market. The clinical diagnostics laboratory information systems segment is expected to expand at an 8.90% CAGR during the period from 2013 to 2019.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.90 State Street, Suite 700 Albany, NY 12207
Healthcare Cyber Security Market size and Key Trends in terms of volume and value 2016-2023

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A new report from Transparency Market Research, titled Healthcare Cyber Security Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2016 - 2023, states that the global market is expected to expand at a rapid pace during the period between 2016 and 2023 due to increasing cyber-attack threats, improvements in healthcare infrastructure, and increasing spending.Cybersecurity technologies are fast evolving across the globe owing to the changing digital landscape, where security threats are becoming more damaging and smarter. Today, amid the connected health environment, cyber security is not an option, rather it is a compulsion. For every organization, cyber security has become a strategic asset. The healthcare industry is increasingly implementing healthcare IT infrastructure to easily access, send, receive, and manage health care data. The rise in the patent violation cases, medical identity frauds, loss of patient information, and business record breaches are predicted to propel the global healthcare cyber security market in the years to come.The global healthcare cyber security market is segmented on the basis of end user, region, and solution type. By region, the global healthcare cyber security market is divided into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World. Currently, North America dominates the global healthcare cyber security market owing to the increasing presence of a developed medical and healthcare infrastructure. Going forward, factors such as the increasing spending on healthcare information technology, the availability of medical and pharmaceutical devices, and the rising government support are expected to propel the North America healthcare cyber security market.Asia Pacific is expected to be the attractive market in the years to come owing to economic developments in nations such as India, Japan, and China. Further, the Asia Pacific healthcare cyber security market is expected to grow swiftly due to the rapid enhancements in the healthcare sector. Developing a technically advanced cyber-system platform is a necessity today. Leading players such as Cisco Systems, Inc., MacAfee, Inc., Symantec Corporation, IBM Corporation, Palo Alto Networks, Inc., Lockheed Martin Corporation, Northrop Grumma Corporation, FireEye, Inc., and Kaspersky Lab are taking efforts to introduce new healthcare cyber security platforms in the global market.Request for Sample:By solution type, the global healthcare cyber security market is classified into identity and access management, intrusion detection system, risk and compliance management, antivirus, data encryption software, antimalware, firewall, and others. Currently, the global healthcare cyber security market is dominated by the identity and access management segment. Based on end user, the global healthcare cyber security market is classified into medical devices companies, pharmaceutical and chemical manufacturers, hospitals, and health insurance companies.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a U.S.-based provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.Contact us:Mr. Sudip STransparency Market Research90 State Street,Suite 700,AlbanyNY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
The American Red Cross is partnering with Nexcare Bandages and supermodel Niki Taylor to urge eligible blood and platelet donors to give this June in honor of World Blood Donor Day on June 14.

I am proud to team up with the Nexcare Give Program each year, with the mission of sparking a critical dialogue around the vital need for blood donation, said supermodel and Nexcare Give spokesperson, Niki Taylor. For me, the cause is also a personal one. Following a car accident 15 years ago that left me in critical condition, the efforts of the American Red Cross and their brave donors saved my life. In honor of World Blood Donor Day, I am sharing my story and encouraging people around the world to support blood donation, inspiring their friends and families to join the cause.

This is the eighth year that the Red Cross and Nexcare Bandages have partnered for the Nexcare Give program. To honor those who give around the world, Nexcare Bandages has developed a limited-edition collection of bandages with the theme Feel the Beat, Give Blood, featuring five vibrant dance-inspired designs reflecting different styles and cultures from around the globe. The limited-edition bandages will be available to those who come out to donate blood or platelets with the Red Cross now through World Blood Donor Day on June 14.

In Madison County there are two upcoming blood drives. They are: 2-7 p.m., June 16, at the Fredericktown Knights of Columbus, 137 S. Main; and 2-6 p.m., June 29, at Marquand United Methodist Church, 201 N. Martha St.

Every two seconds, someone in the U.S. needs a lifesaving blood transfusion. The Red Cross must collect approximately 14,000 blood donations every day to meet the needs of patients at 2,600 hospitals and transfusion centers nationwide.

Donors of all blood types are currently needed. For more information or to make an appointment to donate blood or platelets, download the Red Cross Blood Donor App, visit redcrossblood.org or call 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767).
Buyer Brain welcomes Anil V.Pillai as Board Member

Buyer Brain Press Release

www.buyerbrain.com

Buyer Brain is pleased to announce that Anil V.Pillai has joined its Board of Directors. He will advise the management team on strategy and global expansion.Spanning a professional career of over two decades, Anil Pillai, co-founder of Terragni Consulting, is an experienced engagement strategy expert. His area of expertise is in building and executing customer engagement, customer experience and customer centricity solutions for organizations. Currently, he works with Fortune 500 companies, who are some of the largest brands in Asia. He leads the Customer Consulting practice at Terragni Consulting, a People & Customer engagement strategy organization.In addition to Anil joining Buyer Brains board, the company has started a partnership with Terragni Consulting that was co-founded by Anil Pillai. This collaboration has led to the development of two new competitive, unique solutions on Customer Loyalty and Customer Experience that use cutting edge neuroscience. Both solutions have been created with the purpose of delivering deep, unbiased insights about consumers behavior and decisions, so as to develop optimal customer loyalty and engagement for brands, given todays market context.According to Ana Iorga, Founder Director and Chief Neuroscientist, Buyer Brain is now fully equipped to deliver on both strategic thinking through Loyalty and Customer Engagement and deep expertise in Customer insights.Buyer Brain is an innovative, exciting consumer and customer insights company that uses cutting edge neuroscience to delve into customers emotions and deliver deep, accurate and unbiased consumer insights. The companys delivers end-to-end solutions that solve specific business pain points related to brand positioning, brand and product strategy, advertising and media, customer loyalty and engagement, retail and shopper experience.Contact Information:Buyer BrainAddress: Calea Floreasca, no. 144, Bucharest, Romania, zip code 014471Website:E-mail: ana@buyerbrain.com
BNP Paribas AMC wins Asset Management Company of the Year Award

BNP Paribas Mutual Fund which is one of the profitable fund houses in India has been awarded as The Asset Management Company of the Year, India by Hong Kongs The Asset Magazine, under its The Asset Triple A Investment Awards 2016 on June 7, 2016.The Asset Management is a renowned magazine which tracks and covers the Financial Industry of Asia. The awards were announced to recognize the contribution of the AMCs to the progress of Indian Financial Markets. This award acknowledges BNP Paribass wide-ranged offerings for its investors and recognizes its comprehensive performance for the year ended December, 2015.During the period the AUM grew by Rs. 1,200 crores, which is equivalent to 30.9%, jump from previous year. BNP Paribas Government Securities Fund (G) which is managed by Fund Manager, Mr. Puneet Pal fared better than other funds in the category, recording a substantial growth of 385.05% in one year. The companys flagship, BNP Paribas Equity Fund (G) grew by a record 632 crores, achieving growth of 112.92% year ending.Such high growth is a result of consistent increase in the number of accounts under BNP Paribas and the thoughtful leadership of Mr. Anand Shah, CIO and Mr. Shreyash Devalkar, Fund Manager of BNP Paribas AMC.About BNP Paribas Mutual FundBNP Paribas Mutual Fund is the Indian arm of BNP Paribas Investment Partners, the autonomous asset management business of the BNP Paribas Group. With a team of highly-experienced investment professionals located across seven Indian cities, it offers a full range of equity and fixed income mutual funds to investors in India. The company has over EUR ~1.8 billion in assets under management (as of March 31, 2015) and recently received the Equity Fund House  Best Group over Three Years award as part of the Lipper Fund Awards (India) 2014 for the second consecutive year.About BNP Paribas Investment PartnersBNP Paribas Investment Partners is the dedicated, autonomous asset management business of BNP Paribas Group and offers the full range of asset management services to both institutional and retail clients around the world. As a client-centric organisation, BNP Paribas Investment Partners is structured around three business lines: Institutional, Distribution and Asia Pacific & Emerging Markets. We have globally some 700 investment professionals (1) each specialising in a particular asset class or product type. Our total assets under management are EUR 514 billion (1). BNP Paribas Investment Partners is the 7th largest asset manager in EuropeSource: BNP Paribas Investment Partners, as of 31 December 2015, assets under management and advisorySource: BNP Paribas Investment Partners, as of 31 December 201515, Raj Mahal, 2nd Floor, 84, Veer Nariman Road, Churchgate, Mumbai - 400 020
Recent report published on Global and Chinese Articulating Boom Lift Industry, 2016

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The 'Global and Chinese Articulating Boom Lift Industry, 2016 Market Research Report' is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the global Articulating Boom Lift industry with a focus on the Chinese market. The report provides key statistics on the market status of the Articulating Boom Lift manufacturers and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the industry. Firstly, the report provides a basic overview of the industry including its definition, applications and manufacturing technology. Then, the report explores the international and Chinese major industry players in detail. In this part, the report presents the company profile, product specifications, capacity, production value, and 2011-2016 market shares for each company. Through the statistical analysis, the report depicts the global and Chinese total market of Articulating Boom Lift industry including capacity, production, production value, cost/profit, supply/demand and Chinese import/export.COMPLETE REPORT DETAILS @The total market is further divided by company, by country, and by application/type for the competitive landscape analysis. The report then estimates 2016-2021 market development trends of Articulating Boom Lift industry. Analysis of upstream raw materials, downstream demand, and current market dynamics is also carried out. In the end, the report makes some important proposals for a new project of Articulating Boom Lift Industry before evaluating its feasibility. Overall, the report provides an in-depth insight of 2011-2021 global and Chinese Articulating Boom Lift industry covering all important parameters.ENQUIRE FOR DISCOUNT @Table of ContentChapter One Introduction of Articulating Boom Lift Industry1.1 Brief Introduction of Articulating Boom Lift1.2 Development of Articulating Boom Lift Industry1.3 Status of Articulating Boom Lift IndustryChapter Two Manufacturing Technology of Articulating Boom Lift2.1 Development of Articulating Boom Lift Manufacturing Technology2.2 Analysis of Articulating Boom Lift Manufacturing Technology2.3 Trends of Articulating Boom Lift Manufacturing TechnologyChapter Three Analysis of Global Key Manufacturers3.1 Company A3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Product Information3.1.3 2011-2016 Production Information3.1.4 Contact Information3.2 Company B3.2.1 Company Profile3.2.2 Product Information3.2.3 2011-2016 Production Information3.2.4 Contact Information3.3 Company C3.2.1 Company Profile3.3.2 Product Information3.3.3 2011-2016 Production Information3.3.4 Contact Information3.4 Company D3.4.1 Company Profile3.4.2 Product Information3.4.3 2011-2016 Production Information3.4.4 Contact Information3.5 Company E3.5.1 Company Profile3.5.2 Product Information3.5.3 2011-2016 Production Information3.5.4 Contact Information3.6 Company F3.6.1 Company Profile3.6.2 Product Information3.5.3 2011-2016 Production Information3.6.4 Contact Information3.7 Company G3.7.1 Company Profile3.7.2 Product Information3.7.3 2011-2016 Production Information3.7.4 Contact Information3.8 Company H3.8.1 Company Profile3.8.2 Product Information3.8.3 2011-2016 Production Information3.8.4 Contact Information............AVAIL SAMPLE REPORT @About Us:Market Reports Center is an e-commerce platform obliging the needs of knowledge workers, experts, professionals who are subject to market research information for their work, or to make strategic business decisions. Market Reports Centers team consistently works to update and extend our existing repository of market research reports by partnering with new publishers and adding their studies to our website.Contact Us:Call: +1-646-883-3044 (US)Mail: info@marketreportscenter.comFollow us:Twitter:Facebook:LinkedIn:
Optimizing the Food Industry with Software

Optimizing the Food Industry with Software

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Bizerba has embarked on releasing a series of unique and informative White Papers for the food and drinks production industry.We will throughout the year be addressing the key issues challenging these sectors and the industry today.Our recent white paper on, "Product Recalls and How to Avoid Them" was received and welcomed across the globe, addressing the key issues every manufacture faces today and highlighting some of the things we can do to avoid recalls.Showcasing the latest in inspection systems that can be placed inline on any production facility. Looking at recent recalls and how they could have been avoided, costing the manufactures millions.The new paper will be discussing software and how this can improve production and enhance your offering to the end user or customer. Not only looking at optimisation, but addressing the costs of over fill and under filled packages reaching the customers.Some of the subject matter is as followsExploiting Hidden Potential of Productivity with Software ProductsThe Key to Increased Efficiency Batch TrackingEffectively Reduce Overfilling With SoftwareReducing Planned and Unplanned Down timesMaintaining Fast Machine CyclesReducing WastageIf you would like a copy of the white papers feel free to visit the main Bizerba website. Or you may email directly and we will send you the papers by return.Bizerba offers customers within the industry, retail, and logistics sectors a globally unique solutions portfolio of hardware and software based around the central value "weight".This portfolio includes products and solutions relating to slicing, processing, weighing, cashing, checking, commissioning and labelling.Our comprehensive services range from consulting and service to labels and consumables, with leasing to complete our portfolio.Since 1866, Bizerba has significantly defined technical developments in the handling of food and is today represented in 120 countries.Bizerba (UK) Ltd2-4 Erica RoadStacey BushesMilton KeynesMK12 6HSEmail: info@bizerba.co.ukWeb :White Paper Download :
Dan Giordano has been promoted to Project Manager at Laboratory Testing Inc. to oversee the implementation of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) System. Dan will be responsible for the day-to-day management of this project and the various project teams. According to Mike McVaugh, CEO and President of LTI, Not only will he oversee the activities of the core and extended project teams at LTI, but he will also act as 
The St. Francois County Commission discussed a scrap tire collection program during their meeting Tuesday.

They held a collection in September 2013 and a total of 12,296 tires were collected and recycled out of St. Francois County that year.

Associate Commissioner Patrick Mullins said on May 12 the solid waste management district out of the SEMO Regional Planning Committee drafted a letter to Sara Parker Pauley, the director of the Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

Patrick Heaps, the chairman of the solid waste management district and one of the commissioners at Perry County wrote a letter saying at the Southeast Missouri Solid Waste Management District meeting on April 26 our staff notified us that the Missouri Scrap Tire Collection Program would be terminating when the projects already scheduled are completed, said Mullins.

Mullins said Heaps wrote to urge them to reconsider the decision, and as local elected officials who have to deal with this problem on the ground, they believe that without this disposal option available, they will once again see tires in ditches and unauthorized informal dumps or simply being burned in fields.

We understand, at least in part, that the problem is related to the shredding equipment being worn out to the point beyond economic repair, said Mullins. Through copy of this letter to our legislators, we are asking for their help through the appropriations process to address this problem.

Mullins added at the same time, they urge them work with the prison system to investigate any feasible way of keeping this program functioning.

This has been an important program, more over it has been one of the easiest state programs to use, said Mullins. We urge them to do whatever it takes to keep it operating. I would like to draft a similar letter asking for their continued support.

Mullins said on September 28, 2013 the St. Francois County Commission notified all of the municipalities that there was a scrap tire program that was going to happen. It started on September 28, 2013 and it ended in October 2013. The last trailer loaded was on Dec. 16 that year.

Perry County collected 20,000 tires in one day, Ste. Genevieve collected 50,000 in one week, and Bollinger County collected 10,000 tires in one week, said Mullins. When you go and purchase a set of tires at a store, they will charge you $3 per tire to dispose of them. They are in contract with a company that recycles and that company charges $3. So we feel that the money sitting up there in Jefferson City, rather than they appropriate that money to go somewhere else, just keep this program going.

Mullins said he is pushing and all of the county commissioners in the southeast quadrant and actually throughout the state, are pushing their legislators to ask DNR to keep this program going and have another tire cleanup program.

Mullins added that St. Francois County Road and Bridge Supervisor Clay Copeland could speak for the tires on the county roads.

We do have to pick them up occasionally throughout the county, but there are also a lot of individuals who have large piles on their property, said Copeland. When this was done last time, it kind of felt like our responsibility to go retrieve those tires. I know this may be in the early stages of doing this again, but I think you need to think about having some public responsibility for them to bring those tires to a centralized location rather than burden road and bridge with having to go to that location.

Copeland said the department has so much going on and they are stretched really thin right now. He added that they would have to shut other functions down to address that.

When it comes to haul them off and load the trailers we are responsible for that and that would be one of our duties, said Copeland. I think there needs to be some public responsibility of gathering these tires and bringing them somewhere.

Copeland said last time it seemed like it never ended and there needs to be a set time frame. He added the landfill was gracious enough to allow them the room to dump them.

A lot of citizens did bring them there themselves, but a lot of them just called road and bridge to come get them, said Copeland.

Presiding Commissioner Harold Gallaher said in the United States one used tire per person per year is generated and that is 330 million used tires per year.

Hopefully most of them are properly disposed of, but we have been told lately that there are 1,000 of them in the water of Big River, said Gallaher. We know there are other big numbers in there.

Copeland said he has seen piles on peoples property that may be 100 feet off the road, but they are not going to go get them.

We will get them if they are in the ditches and clean the roadways up, said Copeland. If they are that far off the road, they are just there. Last time it was kind of put upon us to go retrieve them and we would have to take a backhoe, a dump truck and four or five laborers.

Associate Commissioner Gay Wilkinson said he thinks they should encourage this, but they should have some sort of guidelines lined out.

Copeland said this is a wonderful program and a wonderful service to the environment.

An environment free of scrap tires is important to the public health of everyone. Scrap tires are an eyesore and collect water which can create a breeding ground for mosquitoes. West Nile Virus is transmitted by mosquitoes and is a serious health issue. The removal of scrap tires in Missouri has been a priority for the Solid Waste Management Programs Scrap Tire Unit.

The commission made a motion to support the program and approved the motion unanimously.
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DEAR ABBY: I am in a happy relationship with a wonderful man. Our life is great together and I wouldn't want it any other way. I have one issue, however. I like to look at lesbian porn maybe a few times a week. I don't actually want to be with another woman -- it's just a fantasy of mine.

Is this wrong? Should I tell my boyfriend? I don't know if I'm making too much out of this, or if there are other women out there who are in the same situation. -- CURIOUS IN TEXAS

DEAR CURIOUS: Books have been written about the many varied sexual fantasies women have. Yours is not unusual, and you shouldn't feel guilty about it. Nothing compels you to share your fantasy with your boyfriend unless you feel a need to. (But if you do, don't be shocked if he finds it a turn-on, because many men also fantasize about women having sex together.)

DEAR ABBY: I'm four months' pregnant by my ex-boyfriend. We ended our relationship six months ago but continued to see each other for sex. He's in the Army and has been diagnosed with depression and PTSD. At first he was my knight in shining armor, but after I moved into his house, he become mentally and physically abusive.

He is now in a new relationship. He changed his phone number and hasn't checked on me or our baby in weeks. I want him to have a relationship with his child, but every time I look at him I see a liar, a manipulator and an abuser who doesn't care about either of us.

How do I get over my feelings and convince him to be in our child's life? Or are my feelings justified and I'm just being a protective mother? -- PROTECTIVE MOTHER

DEAR PROTECTIVE MOTHER: What a sad letter. It would be interesting to know how much of his abusive behavior was a result of his depression and PTSD. But if you think that a mentally and physically abusive man, who has changed his phone number and done his best to get out of touch with you, is a suitable father figure for a child, you are kidding yourself.

You will, however, have a chance to make him live up to his financial responsibilities to the baby if you discuss this with an individual who is in a position to help you -- an attorney. Don't wait; start the conversations now.

DEAR ABBY: When I visited my sister 15 years ago, my brother-in-law tried to rape me. He was drunk and my sister was out with her friends. I have not revealed this to my family or my sister, who is emotionally and financially dependent on him.

My niece is now 20 years old and in college. I feel I should tell her what her dad did to me and warn her to be careful. What do you think? -- NEVER FORGETTING IN PENNSYLVANIA

DEAR NEVER FORGETTING: Frankly, I think that if your brother-in-law was going to assault his daughter, it would have happened already, and you should have told your family what he tried to do to you at the time it occurred.

DEAR ABBY: I had a color and haircut and gave the stylist a generous tip. When I got home I noticed that one side was uneven, so I called the owner of the shop, who told me to return the next day and they would fix the problem. No charge.

I returned, and another stylist corrected the problem. I asked again about the charge and the owner repeated, "No charge." I didn't tip the second person as I had tipped the first one after paying for the color/cut.

As I was leaving the salon, I overheard another salon worker ask the employee who had fixed my hair, "Did she not give you a tip?" Given the original expense, I didn't feel another tip was warranted. Did I do the right thing? -- NO TIP IN PENNSYLVANIA

DEAR NO TIP: You should have given the second stylist a tip. The salon owner told you the SERVICE was free, but the second stylist should not have been punished for the sloppy work of the first one.

DEAR ABBY: My brother is getting married the same day and time that my wife graduates from college. The wedding date has been set for a year and a half. My wife found out a few months ago that there would be a conflict. I'm expected to be at my brother's wedding to escort my mom down the aisle. Which do I attend? -- CAN'T BE IN TWO PLACES

DEAR CAN'T BE: With apologies to your wife, you should honor the commitment you made first.

DEAR ABBY: Can you help me understand something that's bothering me? Since when is it OK for kids to stand in front of stores and ask for money for things (sports teams, group trips, etc.)?

When I was growing up (not that long ago), we held car washes and bake sales and sold candy bars. This standing and asking for money without doing something to earn it drives me nuts! I have often been tempted to say something, but always bite my tongue so as not to cause a scene, but I'm fed up! -- VENTING IN FLORIDA

DEAR VENTING: I confess, when I first started reading your letter, I thought you were a curmudgeon. By the time I reached the end, I realized you have a valid point. This may happen because the adults involved in the fundraising are unimaginative and don't realize the message this sends to the kids is a poor one.

Because it bothers you, talk to the manager of the store where this is allowed because not all businesses encourage it. You could also write a letter to your local newspaper and call attention to the fact that when organizations do this, it teaches young people they can get something for nothing.

DEAR ABBY: During a recent family dinner, my uncle presented an odd gift to everyone there. He's in his mid-50s and involved in the community and government of a small town. He and other "public figures" -- most of them older -- decided to publish a calendar. On each page there is a nude photo of an aging community luminary posing with strategically placed objects covering his/her "goods." To say the least, the photos are not flattering, funny or particularly modest.

Not only did my uncle give one to every family member -- including my 80-year-old grandparents -- but he took pains to point out HIS photo. The awkward silence that followed ruined an otherwise nice family dinner.

Did this gift cross the line? Is there a rule of etiquette regarding risque pictures of oneself? And how do I make sure I never have to see any other family members in their birthday suits without my consent? -- FLABBERGASTED IN THE HEARTLAND

DEAR "FLAB": Personally, I think the premise of the calendar is a hoot. While your uncle may have wanted to "shock" the family, I'm sure he didn't intend to offend anyone. A movie was made a few years ago about a group of older women in an English village who did something similar to raise money for charity.

I'm sorry your family was offended, but I'm sure they'll recover and so will you. In the future, don't accept any gifts from this relative unless they have a warning label.

DEAR ABBY: My friend "Sara" invites herself and her two children over to play with mine from time to time. When it's time to have a snack or eat, she and her kids make themselves at home -- especially with the milk.

Abby, I work 70 hours a week. My children eat cereal often and love milk, but because of my schedule, I don't get a chance to go grocery shopping as often as I should. (I am a single parent.) How do I politely tell my friend that it's fine to make herself at home, but getting both of her children refills of milk without asking me is taking it too far? She knows I can afford it, but I'm uncomfortable asking because I don't know how to draw the line. -- WORKING MOM OUT WEST

DEAR WORKING MOM: I assume you communicate with Sara outside of her drop-in visits to your home? The next time you talk, text or email her, explain that you love her company and she's always welcome, but because of your 70-hour work schedule you don't get to the market as often as she does -- so when she brings her kids, please also bring a quart of milk with her. To do that is stating the facts, it isn't rude and it isn't asking too much. If she's your friend, and not a user, she will comply.

Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Contact Dear Abby at www.DearAbby.com or P.O. Box 6
To the editor:

Bernie Sanders is many things, not the least of which the only politician in recent history to compel younger voters into taking an interest in their future by supporting a champion of their rights, beliefs and wants. He is to be commended in the most laudable terms for this achievement. But, its time to capitulate to the greater good of the Democratic Party by withdrawing from the race.

I know this is not what his supporters want to hear but the harsh truth is the longer he drags out his run for the nomination the more potential harm hes creating for democracy.

By remaining in the fray, he is hurting the very principals for which he stands. He is creating divisiveness in the Democratic Party that can only help Donald Trump. If Donald Trump becomes president, none of his ideas will be realized! By capitulating to the greater good of his party, he stands the chance of invoking some of them.

At this juncture in the campaign, cohesiveness is essential.

DOUGLAS D. SOLOSKY

Midland
Part of a plea agreement for a Gladwin doctor sentenced for false information in medical files is a $100,000 check that has been placed in the citys drug forfeiture account.

City of Gladwin Mayor Tom Winarski announced Tuesday that a lengthy investigation by Gladwin Police has resulted in the sentencing of Dr. Kandarp Vora. Vora entered a guilty plea on April 18 to one count of attempted false information in medical records. Vora has been sentenced to pay fines and costs.
Looking down a missile

U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Miles Smith, an armament systems specialist with the 35th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, inspects a fin on an AIM-120 advanced medium-range air-to-air missile at Misawa Air Base, Japan, June 6, 2016. Smith and his weapons loading team were honing their skills during a three-day surge exercise to practice wartime capabilities and procedures. Surges focus on 24-hour operations and performing under the stress and time crunch of a simulated combat zone. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Deana Heitzman)
Just a week after Americans took time to remember their fallen war dead for Memorial Day, South Koreans did the same June 6, commemorating the nation's 61st Korean Memorial Day.

Traveling from Los Angeles, California, to Seoul, South Korea, Kim Ae Soon and her daughter's family made a trip to Seoul National Cemetery for the Memorial Day weekend to visit Kim's brother who died during the Korean War, and her husband, who is also buried at the cemetery.

"My brother was commissioned as a lieutenant in the spring of 1950 and died in battle in October, 1950," said Kim. "When he moved to Busan for the basic combat training, my family didn't get to say good-bye to him. Later, we received a letter saying that he was killed in action."

The day was designated to honor fallen Soldiers and civilians of South Korea and allied nations, who sacrificed their lives for the Republic of Korea. Since 1956, South Koreans have observed every 6th of June as Memorial Day.

The month of June is historically significant in South Korea as the Korean War began on Sunday, June 25, 1950, and lasted for three years until the Armistice Agreement was signed July 27, 1953.

During the Korean War, more than 370,000 South Korean and 36,000 U.S. Soldiers were killed, and more than 550,000 were wounded, along with more than two million civilians killed or wounded, according to the Ministry of National Defense of the Republic of Korea.

To honor and commemorate the service and sacrifices of those that gave all, the South Korean government established two national cemeteries, one in Seoul and another in Daejeon.

Retired ROK Lt. Gen. Lee Ki Hyun, and former ambassador to Lebanon, visited a sector for the fallen Air Force Soldiers at the Seoul National Cemetery with his colleagues June 3. While serving as a pilot, the Commandant of the ROK Air Force Academy, and as the Chief of Air Force Operations, Lee had to encounter a number of deaths of his fellow Airmen.

"Five of my pilot friends died from flight crashes within a few years after they were commissioned in 1964, and they are buried right here," said Lee. "It's been almost 50 years, but every time I come here, I can still remember my friends."

South Koreans will always remember and appreciate the sacrifices of those who fought against enemies and protected the nation.
PEARL HARBOR  The Pacific Submarine Force and the Pearl Harbor waterfront bid farewell to the Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarine USS Houston (SSN 713) in an Aloha celebration at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, June 6.

Sailors, submarine veterans and friends and families of the crew celebrated her 33 years of honorable service to the U.S. submarine force.

Home-ported out of Pearl Harbor since January 2012, Houston departed Pearl Harbor for Bremerton, Washington, where she will be decommissioned on August 26. Houston will spend the following year going through deactivation and disassembling of components for historical archiving.

Cmdr. Scott McGinnis, Houstons commanding officer, from Richmond, Virginia, thanked everyone for their support of warship Houston and her crew.

It is a celebration of our time in Pearl Harbor, McGinnis said. You can see the energy and amount of people here who are just happy to be a part of the Houston family and celebrate the success.

During Houstons 33 years of successful service, the boat has seen more than 15 deployments while performing missions vital to national security and developing maritime partnerships with foreign western pacific nations. Recently, she has served as a training platform for not only her crew, but 46 submariners, across five other boats, and provided command courses for prospective commanding officers.

The Houston is going to be sending off some outstanding Sailors, said Senior Chief Sonar Technician (Submarine) Paul R. McCrory, from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Houstons chief of the boat. Everybody has put their best foot forward. Weve come through so much with the age of this ship, its really hard to maintain after 33 years of active service. Its been special to watch the guys take advantage of being a part of whats going to be history.

McGinnis thanked current and former shipmates for flawlessly maintaining the ship and upholding the responsibility of representing the city of Houston.

To the people of Houston, our relationship has never been stronger with the city, McGinnis said. We look forward to seeing you again. Just because we are decommissioning, we have another year of crew life. Its really never about the ship, but the hard work and effort of the crew. I cant wait to bring Sailors back out to see Houston to see the outpouring of Navy support.

Houston was constructed at Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company in Newport News, Virginia, and was commissioned on September 25, 1982.

Houston is the fourth U.S. Navy vessel named in honor of the city of Houston, Texas. She is a 362-foot long, Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarine displacing 6,900 tons. She can be fitted with Mk-48 torpedoes and Tomahawk cruise missiles.
NORMAL  The Illinois Small Business Development Center at Illinois State University will close June 30, the latest casualty of Springfield's budget war.

Elizabeth Binning, the center's director, said she was told in May the center would be receiving no more money until the state has a budget. The center is funded by the U.S. Small Business Administration, but the federal money flows through the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.

Binning said she kind of saw the writing on the wall as money barely trickled in from the state this year.

The center serves an average of 150 clients a year, helping entrepreneurs start new businesses or expand existing ones.

During the 11 years the center has been open, it has served more than 750 small businesses and almost 2,000 people attended various workshops and seminars, according to Binning.

The center helped to create 187 new businesses and 889 new jobs while retaining 1,623 existing jobs and increasing sales for clients by more than $35 million, said Binning.

In addition to the federal money, the center received support from the ISU College of Business, which provided space, graduate assistantships and other in-kind support.

Two ISU employees will take other positions at the university, but Binning will leave the university when the center closes.

In addition to the graduate assistants who worked at the center, eight or nine groups of undergraduates had the opportunity to work with real businesses on projects, Binning said.

Gerry McKean, interim dean of the College of Business, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Eric Jome, ISU director of media relations, called the center's closing one of the unfortunate side effects of the budget impasse and said, It's quite sad to see that whole operation go.

The center at ISU isn't the only one affected.

Binning said she knows of seven other centers that have closed or are about to close.

Kyle Ann Sebastian, a DCEO spokeswoman, said there were 30 small-business development centers in Illinois at last count, but she did not know how many others might be closing.

Binning has been the director of the center at ISU since it opened in March 2005. Before that, she worked in a similar capacity at Bradley University in Peoria for eight years.

I came here to start the center and now I'm here to shut this down, Binning said. It's an odd feeling.

Binning said she is looking for another position and will be doing management consulting with a locally owned small business, DeGarmo, after the center closes.

A previously scheduled seminar, Starting Your Own Business, will go on as planned from 6 to 8 p.m. June 21 at State Farm Hall of Business, she said. Anyone interested in this final free seminar can register by calling 309-438-3610.

There are about a dozen projects the center is trying to wrap up before the center closes, she said.

Anyone needing further assistance is being directed to Bradley University, Illinois Valley Community College or the Champaign Economic Development Council, but Binning suggested people call their closest center to verify their status.
BLOOMINGTON  Drugs now kill more people in Illinois than automobile accidents, according to statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Through the first five months of the year, the McLean County coroners office has attributed nine of 18 accidental deaths to overdoses of opioids, or a toxic combinations of drugs. Two of those deaths were directly related to heroin.

But those numbers might be higher if it werent for an opioid antidote that first responders in the state of Illinois are now required to carry.

Naloxone, commonly known by the brand name Narcan, is a prescription medicine that blocks the effects of opioids and reverses an overdose. When a person is overdosing, breathing can slow down or stop and it can be difficult to wake them up.

With the recent rise in opioid-related deaths in Illinois, Narcan has become an important tool for members of law enforcement to use on the front lines, said Walt Howe, director of the McLean County Health Department. It has been proven to be successful in saving lives, thus providing overdose victims a second chance to seek treatment for their addiction.

Narcan has been legal for nonmedical personnel to use in Illinois since 2009 when the Overdose Prevention Act was signed into law. It is safe, as nontoxic as water and has no potential for addiction.

It costs between $20 and $40 for a kit that includes everything a person would need to reverse an overdose. Narcan cannot be used to get a person high and if given to someone who has not taken an opioid, it will not have any effect.

Although the law for first responders to carry Narcan was passed in 2015, there remain some funding issues for several local police and fire departments to obtain an adequate supply.

The McLean County Health Department is providing funding for a one-year supply  about 24 doses  of Narcan to the McLean County Sheriffs Department at a cost of $1,000.

Still, its important that each squad car carry a dose, say officials.

Time is of the essence in overdose situations and the sooner we can attempt to counteract the effects of an opioid overdose, the better chance we have of saving a life, said McLean County Sheriff Jon Sandage.

In order for Narcan to be effective, first responders need to arrive within the first five to six minutes of the patient going down, said LeRoy Police Chief Jason Williamson.

Because we are in a small town, we can usually get to a call within three or four minutes, he said. But its necessary because nationwide, there is an epidemic of heroin and opioid overdose deaths. Surrounding counties have seen a sharp increase in overdose deaths. We have to be ready.

Like many rural police departments, all LeRoy police officers have received training on how to administer Narcan.

The process is simple, said Bloomington Police dispatcher Tiffany Koehne. When finding a person has overdosed, a trained officer will assemble an applicator, and place the Narcan into a needleless syringe.

You will tilt the head back and spray half of it up one nostril and then the other half up the other nostril, she said. Its kind of a mist. One dose isnt always enough, but it should be enough to get the process started until more help can arrive.

Kathy Davis, who worked as a nurse practitioner before becoming McLean County coroner, said she reminds emergency responders that Narcan is only effective for overdoses involving opioids.

You cant assume Narcan will save someone if theyve taken a mixture of drugs or drugs and alcohol, said Davis.

Bloomington Police detective Kevin Raisbeck said it's often the case that people have no idea what they are actually injecting.

People are shooting a drug into their arm and they really have no idea what is in it and what it is being cut with, he said. If its a pure batch, thats when we start seeing more overdoses because heroin users are used to using an amount they are comfortable with. But if they get a different batch, and they use more, they could be in danger.

Another law that went into effect to help save the lives of overdose victims was the 2012 Good Samaritan Overdose law. If someone thinks they are witnessing a drug overdose and seek medical help for that person, they will receive immunity from criminal charges for drug possession. The overdose victim being helped is protected as well.

We need to make people aware of this law, said Clinton resident Stephanie Pollock, who lost her boyfriend to an overdose in 2008. People are more scared about getting into trouble than saving someones life and we have to change that.
It is becoming easier for friends and family of heroin users or patients taking strong painkillers to buy an antidote that can reverse the effect of an overdose, as policymakers look for ways to fight a growing epidemic.

Naloxone, known by the brand-name Narcan, can quickly revive someone who has stopped breathing after overdosing on opioids, highly addictive drugs that include prescription painkillers like Vicodin as well as illegal narcotics like heroin.

In the past, naloxone has been available mostly through clinics, hospitals or first responders like paramedics.

Now, nearly every state, including Illinlois, has passed laws that allow people to buy naloxone without requiring a prescription from their doctor, and drugstores and other retailers around the country are making it easier to buy the drug.

"This saves lives, doesn't seem to have any negative impact that we can identify, therefore it should be available," said Dr. Corey Waller of the American Society of Addiction Medicine.

Walgreens, CVS, Rite Aid, Target and Wal-Mart have joined independent drugstores in either relaxing access to naloxone through their pharmacies, or are making plans to do so. The grocer Kroger also is selling it without requiring a prescription in a few states.

Deaths linked to opioids soared to more than 28,000 in 2014, the highest number on record. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 78 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose.

Last week, autopsy results showed that musician Prince died in April from an accidental overdose of fentanyl, an opioid painkiller that is up to 50 times more potent than heroin. Prince, 57, died less than a week after his plane made an emergency stop for medical treatment as he was returning from an Atlanta concert, where first responders gave him a shot of naloxone.

Naloxone can restore a person's breathing after it is injected or sprayed in the nostrils, bringing overdose victims back from near-death inside a few minutes.

Waller said research shows greater access to naloxone doesn't draw people to illegal drug use or foster an addiction, adding naloxone is a drug that simply keeps someone from dying from their disease. He compared it to an EpiPen that is used for the emergency treatment of allergic reactions.

"If you have an EpiPen, it's not going to make you go out and seek out your allergy more often," he said.

Increased access to it through drugstores and other retailers comes with some limitations. The drug can cost around $80 per dose or more, which might make it unaffordable for someone with little disposable income and no insurance coverage. Customers also have to ask a pharmacist for it.

"You can't treat it like an over-the-counter decongestant," said John Beckner, a pharmacist with the National Community Pharmacists Association, a trade group for independent pharmacies. "It's a powerful drug product that's going to require some instruction on how to use it."

Beckner said pharmacists can teach the average customer how to recognize signs of an overdose and administer the drug and about what side effects to expect.

Only five states  Hawaii, Kansas, Missouri, Montana and Wyoming  have yet to pass a law improving naloxone access, according to The Network for Public Health Law, a nonprofit that helps government agencies.
CHAMPAIGN  Work in a Champaign research lab on a chemical compound that mirrors the potential of a West African plant to alleviate the cravings of addiction could bring a promising treatment alternative to the U.S. in the next several years, if clinical trials are successful.

Obiter Research, a maker of specialty chemicals, is working with Savant HWP to gain Food and Drug Administration approval for 18-MC, a substance that addresses the appetite for heroin, alcohol and other substances. The second phase of clinical trials is expected to begin this year at Savant's headquarters in California.

Stephen Hurst, president and CEO of Savant, said initial test results "are encouraging and supportive of going to the next level."

The goal of 18-MC is to provide the beneficial traits of the ibogaine plant that is banned for treatment in the U.S., but available in other countries and eliminates the side affects of cardiac arrhythmia and hallucinations.

The material used for 18-MC is owned by Albany Medical College in New York and Orbiter holds the licensed technology for the compound.

Coming up with a new alternative to fight addiction is a worldwide necessity, said Hurst. "Addiction is the single largest unmet medical need in the world," he said.

Richard Dilley, a native of Madison, Wis., who now attends school in Denver, is among the addicts who traveled outside the U.S. for ibogaine in his search for a release from heroin and the drugs he was taking to keep his appetite for opioids under control.

Dilley's road to addiction started with a childhood injury.

"My beginning was like most people's beginning. I broke my wrist skateboarding when I was 12 and had to have surgery. The doctor sent me home with 30 Vicodin. After two days, the pain was gone," said Dilley, now 28, but the prescription painkillers gave him a feeling he had never felt before.

"I won't forget the first time I took it. It was magical," he said in a recent interview with The Pantagraph.

As a teenager addicted to opiates, Dilley went through people's medicine cabinets in search of anything to satisfy his need for drugs. At 17, he was thrown out of his parents home and went to live with a friend who was a drug dealer, he said.

Another student who was hemophiliac instructed Dilley and others how to use a syringe, a skill Dilley used after he turned to heroin.

"At least four or five times, I should be dead already. I drifted through life for seven years wandering aimlessly, consuming more than enough for three lifetimes, with no goals, no motivation. I pawned everything I had. I literally had nothing," said Dilley.

In his early 20s, Dilley sought drug treatment after his older brother leveled an ultimatum: "Get better or leave because I'm not going to watch you die."

He started traditional drug therapy that included the drug Suboxone but after about two years he sought an alternative to the long term commitment to the drug. A visit with a friend who was a former drug user introduced Dilley to a treatment center in Mexico.

With financial help from an insurance payment related to his father's death, Dilley went to Holistic Sanctuary for a one-week stay that cost $10,000. Researchers of the plant-based treatment claim that it recalibrates the brain to its pre-addicted state. In the three years since his return, Dilley said he's had no desire to take drugs.
Morning performances kicked off just after 7 a.m., with Eureka High Schools band being the third to march onto Hancock Field to compete among 41 other bands.
BLOOMINGTON  Volunteers with Boys & Girls Club of Bloomington-Normal's annual Great Futures Campaign are asking McLean County residents to help the club reach its campaign goal of $125,000 by June 30.

With support of hundreds of people in the Bloomington-Normal area, the campaign  chaired by Mary Bennett-Henrichs of Integrity Technology Solutions and Kevin Birlingmair of Heartland Bank and Trust Company  has raised $100,802.

To help to raise the balance, Toni and Duane Farrington and Willie Brown have donated $10,000 as a challenge gift. If another $10,000 is raised by the Bloomington-Normal community by June 30, the Farringtons and Brown will match that dollar amount.

"The efforts of the Boys & Girls Club make a positive impact on the lives of our youth and our community," Duane Farrington said in a prepared statement. "We are proud to support their mission and this challenge."

"The club received tremendous support from the community as a result of last year's challenge gift," Brown said. "I have agreed to put forth another challenge so we can continue to support the youth who attend the Boys & Girls Club."

Boys & Girls Club, 1615 W. Illinois St., serves more than 800 at-risk youth annually with after-school and summer programs in two locations in partnership with Lawrence Irvin Neighborhood Center/Western Avenue Community Center.

With an annual membership fee of $25 per child, the club relies on community donations to help to support the programs for children and teens ages 6 through 18.

People may contribute to the campaign by sending a check made out to Boys & Girls Club to 1615 W. Illinois St., Bloomington, Ill., 61701, or donating at www.bgcbn.org.
CHICAGO  The former Clinton woman whose three children drowned in Clinton Lake 12 years ago deserves a chance to continue to work toward regaining custody of the three children born since their siblings died, according to the children's legal representative.

Carol Casey, a lawyer appointed as guardian for the children of Amanda Ware of Chicago, argued Wednesday during a hearing in Cook County Court that Ware "should be given another chance."

Casey admitted that her recommendation was a close call to make, noting that the mother has completed many mental health and substance abuse counseling services required by the state. Prosecutors disagreed with her assessment.

The guardian told Judge Demetrios Kottaras that her opinion is based on the interests of her clients  the three children of Amanda and Leo Ware  who love their mother and expect to go home.

Casey also had positive remarks for Leo Ware, who is receiving drug treatment after a relapse almost a year ago. The drug habit "is a challenge I think he should be given the opportunity to meet," said Casey.

Recommendations were made by Casey, Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Gina Perdue, and lawyers for the Wares.

The state argued the Wares have not made substantial progress with treatment services and remain unfit, unwilling and unable to care for their children.

Kottaras said he will rule Friday on whether the custody case should remain on a track to return the children home within 12 months.

Perdue said the Wares have not dealt with the history of domestic violence and drug abuse that has impacted their family.

Lawyers for the Wares said both have worked to complete services and visit the children almost daily in foster care.

Amanda Ware's lawyer Stephen Dore pointed out that she has been clean and sober for more than two years.

The state's criticism that she minimizes events in her life ignores the fact that her response is a coping skill to help her deal with the tragic loss of her children and the extensive abuse she suffered in her life, said Dore.

Leo Ware's lawyer Lisa Dedmond said, "The children adore him and wait for him to visit."

Reports from social service agencies found him able to parent the children, she said.

Leo Ware wiped away tears as he spoke after the hearing.

"It's just very emotional, it's hit me all at once," said Leo Ware, adding that he was pleased with the positive recommendations given to the judge.

Amanda Ware was at work and did not attend the hearing.

Amanda Ware, known as Amanda Hamm in 2003 when her three children drowned in the back seat of her car as it sank in Clinton Lake, was acquitted of murder charges and served a 10-year sentence for child endangerment. Her former boyfriend, Maurice LaGrone, is serving a life sentence for murder in the childrens deaths.

She married Leo Ware after her release, and the couple had two daughters and a son.

The Cook County custody battle began in March 2014 after the birth of the Wares' son when a doctor recognized Amanda Ware as being the mother involved in the Clinton Lake incident.

The Department of Children and Family Services removed the Wares two young daughters from their home and took the baby from the hospital pending the outcome of the custody case that has lasted more than two years.

The Wares, who have been separated for several months, reportedly visit the children daily at the home of Leo Wares sister where they have lived since their removal from their parents' custody.

Cook County prosecutors denied throughout the proceedings that it was their intent to conduct a second trial for Amanda Ware on the deaths of her first three children. Much of the focus of the evidence and testimony related to the 2003 case, however.

Lawyers for the Wares presented testimony in March from child welfare workers who have been involved with the couple and their children since 2014. The social workers told Kottaras they believed the parents were capable of raising their children.
Prescription drug abuse has reached epidemic proportions in the United States and, according to a recent study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, there is a 1 in 5 chance you know someone struggling with an addiction to pain killers.

That statistic alone is troubling, but the impact this is having on real people who are being hurt, hurting their loved ones, and losing their lives is staggering. Earlier this year, the CDC reported deaths from drug overdoses increased 137 percent between 2000 and 2014. This means we are losing 100 people every day due to this crisis.

As family members, communities, and a country, we must work to reverse this alarming increase. Last month, the U.S. House of Representatives passed several bills to combat this epidemic that has so rapidly plagued communities across the country.

Following passage, House Speaker Paul Ryan appointed me to a bipartisan conference committee to negotiate a final legislative package to put in place the resources necessary to combat this issue. I am humbled to have been chosen for this committee, and proud to have introduced one of the bills that passed as a part of this effort.

On the front lines of responding to the 28,000 opioid overdose deaths each year are emergency medical technicians (EMTs). According to the Department of Labor, the demand for this vital portion of the medical workforce is expected to increase by more than 30 percent in the next few years alone, when communities already are telling us they do not have the workforce necessary to meet today's needs.

This is an issue that we must fix, and I believe much of this void can be filled by the veterans who received military EMT training during their service to our nation as they return to the civilian workforce.

Although our service branches train military medics to EMT national certification standards, many states that have similar, if not the same, standards still require veterans to go through additional training and requirements in order to gain state licensure in order to become civilian EMTs.

This creates a barrier for service members who have received some of the best EMT training in the world, and also have the benefit of receiving real world experience by practicing their profession on the battlefield.

My legislation, the Veteran EMT Support Act, addresses this problem by helping states streamline their requirements and procedures to quickly certify veterans who have completed military EMT certifications as being qualified for civilian state licensure.

The Veteran EMT Support Act is a way to help veterans as they transition into civilian careers, improve public health, and ensure communities have first responders to answer emergency calls.

During a time a of rampant opioid abuse, now more than ever is the time to ensure we have the workforce necessary to respond in order to save lives. I am grateful to see Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., take this needed legislation through the Senate.

I look forward to working with my colleagues in the House and Senate to find additional bipartisan solutions to combat the opioid epidemic.
Mondi Group Signs Agreement to Acquire Turkish Packaging Company Kalenobel

June 7, 2016 - Mondi Group on June 2 announced that it has signed an agreement for the acquisition of 90% of the outstanding share capital in Kalenobel* from ARGUS Capital, a CEE focused private equity group, and M. Olcay Hephiz, one of the company's founders, for a consideration of around EUR90 million on a debt-and-cash-free basis (consideration for 90% of the business).

Established in 1955, Kalenobel is a Turkish consumer packaging company focused on the manufacture of flexible consumer packaging for ice cream and other applications as well as aseptic cartons. The company is headquartered in Istanbul and operates two manufacturing sites northwest of the city.

Kalenobel serves both international FMCG companies as well as regional food and beverage producers. The company exports approximately half of its production, mainly to Western Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.

Commenting on the acquisition, David Hathorn, Chief executive of Mondi Group, said: The acquisition of Kalenobel supports the growth of our Consumer Packaging business, broadening our product portfolio and geographic reach to better serve our customers in high-growth markets.

The transaction remains subject to competition clearance and other customary closing conditions and is expected to complete during the second half of 2016.

* Kale Nobel Ambalaj Sanayi ve Ticaret Anonim Sirketi.

Mondi is an international packaging and paper group. The group operates as two divisions: Europe & International, and South Africa. To learn more please visit: www.mondigroup.com.

SOURCE: Mondi
Valmet to Supply New Tissue Machine to Papel San Francisco in Mexico

June 8, 2016 - Valmet will supply an Advantage DCT 100TS tissue production machine to Papel San Francisco in Mexico. The new machine will be installed at the company's mill in Mexicali.

The value of the order was not disclosed.

The new tissue machine will have a width of 2.8 meters and a design speed of 2,200 m/min and will add 30,000 tons tissue paper per year to Papel San Francisco's current production of toilet tissue, kitchen towels and napkins.

Valmet's scope of delivery includes an Advantage DCT 100TS tissue machine equipped with OptiFlo headbox and cast alloy Yankee cylinder. The machine will also feature Valmet's Advantage tissue technology including ViscoNip press, AirCap hood and WetDust dust system.

Start-up and commissioning are also included in the order.

Start-up is planned for the second half of 2017.

Valmet is a leading global developer and supplier of services and technologies for the pulp, paper and energy industries. To learn more, please visit: www.valmet.com

SOURCE: Valmet
As medical and recreational marijuana legalization continually loom, several conservative groups are trying to protest stating that it can greatly affect the teenage population. Contrary to their claims however, it was revealed that marijuana legalization does not "dumb down" American teens.

Several conservative parenting groups and campaigns fought the odds of having recreational marijuana legalized. One of the most active campaign that stood against the legalization is the But What about the Children? Campaign, wherein they pledged to "protect the children" from marijuana legalization.

Their stand is being pointed out on the recreational use of marijuana, which can potentially lead to abuse. They then cited that recreational marijuana legalization can lead children into alcohol and tobacco consumption.

Their claims are backed by a study published on PunMed where it was stated that marijuana legalization is a gateway to curiosity. The studies pointed out that the attention given to the legalization of medical marijuana increased the curiosity of teenagers prompting them to experiment with marijuana consumption.

Their claims however were slammed by a study reported by EurekAlert where it was mentioned that after marijuana legalization, marijuana related problems among adolescents continually declined.

The study was done by Washington University School of Medicine came up with the data wherein it was highlighted that there was a huge decline of marijuana users among teenagers ages 12 to 17. The data gathered was from 2013 to 2014, wherein the decrease was 24 percent.

According to the study's author, Richard A. Grucza, PhD, the huge decline among teenagers and their marijuana consumption took place after marijuana legalization. The researchers could not pinpoint as to why the decline took place, but they considered the childhood conflicts in terms of the reason as to why teenagers ventured marijuana consumption.

"We were surprised to see substantial declines in marijuana use and abuse," Grucza said. "We don't know how legalization is affecting young marijuana users, but it could be that many kids with behavioral problems are more likely to get treatment earlier in childhood, making them less likely to turn to pot during adolescence. But whatever is happening with these behavioral issues, it seems to be outweighing any effects of marijuana decriminalization."

Do you think marijuana legalization will encourage more young marijuana users? Share your thoughts on the comment section below.
Two teenage girls were charged with assault late Friday, after a 78-year-old woman was beaten by the two girls at a subway station in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn days earlier. Jazmine Watson, 16, of Brooklyn, was charged with second-degree assault, police said. Another girl, 15, was also charged with assault, as reported on Daily News New York.

The two girls were arrested after authorities said both of the girls' mothers turned in their daughters to the police. One mother saw her 16-year-old daughter's picture on TV as surveillance video captured the girls attacking the woman on the southbound platform of the Franklin Avenue C Train station on Fulton Street around 3:15 p.m. Thursday. .

Police said while on a train at the station the victim asked a woman to take her foot off the seat so she could sit down. Police said the suspect cursed at her. Later, when they were out on the platform, police said both suspects attacked the elderly victim, punching and kicking her in the face, head and body.

A girl who appears in surveillance video wearing white attacked first, witnesses said. Hamilton, A CBS2 reporter, carried the woman up the station steps after the attack and called police. Meanwhile, police said the suspects ages 15 and 16 hopped on an outbound C Train and bolted.

The victim was taken to New York Methodist Hospital with injuries to her face and knee. Commuters at the station said they were disgusted over the incident. Police spoke with the woman's daughter, who said her mother is home and doing well, but understandably traumatized. She said their family is grateful to Hamilton and the first respondents who helped her.
CBC News has reported yesterday that the food and beverage industry spends $2 billion US a year on ads targeted on teens featuring their favorite performers. A study published in Monday's issue of the journal Pediatrics, researchers looked into the nutritional value of products endorsed by a lot of entertainers from 2000 to 2014 in TV and radio commercials, magazine ads and YouTube videos.

Will.i.am, Baauer, Maroon 5, Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears had the most food and beverage endorsements, including fast food such as McDonald's, Chili's and A&W, as well as crackers from Nabisco, which sponsored a tour by boy band One Direction.

Marie Bragg, A doctor working for department of population health at New York University School of Medicine and her colleagues found out that 81 percent of 26 endorsed foods were unhealthy, according to the Nutrient Profile Index of energy density and nutrient levels.

Bragg suggested teens should not only be aware of the issue, but they should speak up about it, because if they complain about feeling manipulated the companies might change their tactics. Dr. Yoni Freedhoff, who treats people with obesity-related illnesses, thinks media literacy alone won't suffice, given the scale of the health problems associated with obesity.

Would shilling hurt their brand? Right now nobody bats an eye at Beyonce signing a $50-million deal to sell liquid candy to kids," said Freedhoff, an assistant professor of family medicine at the University of Ottawa who was not involved with the study.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's mandate letter for health calls for restrictions on commercial marketing of unhealthy food and beverages to children, similar to rules in place in Quebec that ban ads directed at children under the age of 13. A spokeswoman for Health Canada said the age limit hasn't been determined yet.

CBC News played some of the ads to a Grade 8 class in Toronto. The star power made the ads more memorable, some students said, but their enjoyment was tempered with a keen awareness of the "tricks they're trying to pull on us."
Precision or personalized medicine, a concept where diagnostics and treatment are tailor-made to individual patients, are believed to have major impacts in the field of cancer treatment. With the advancement and sophistication of modern technology, experts believed precision medicine can outsmart challenging medical issues.

Based on the concept of precision medicine in cancer treatment, scientists will assess every patient's tumor and find the mutations that have become vital for its survival. Then, they will choose a targeted drug to thwart the mutation, killing only the tumor and not the healthy cells, BBC News learns.

The Potential Impact Of Precision Medicine In Cancer Care

During the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) over the weekend, scientists highlighted the potential impact of precision medicine in cancer treatment. In fact, Yale Cancer Center Medical Oncology chief and professor Roy Herbst said cancer experts aim to use precision or personalized medicine aims in developing a potent targeting treatment but at the same time reducing toxicity for lesser side effects, The Guardian notes.

Through precision medicine and the advancement in genetic tumor profiling, experts are hopeful for extended survival rates and reduction in toxic side-effects when it comes to cancer treatment. With that said, the latest cancer approach may pave the way for 7,000 women spared from the noxious effects of chemotherapy.

"It will be a significant step forward," UCL breast cancer consultant Dr. Robert Stein said. "In every area of cancer treatment, we have largely functioned on a one-size-fits-all basis because we didn't have tools to do any better."

Precision Medicine: The Latest Trend In Cancer Care

Due to its potential in cancer treatment, precision medicine has become the latest trend in treating cancer patients, outmaneuvering chemotherapy and radiation. According to Hindustan Times, precision medicine will enable oncology experts to preserve healthy cells.

By using a patient's individual biomarkers, experts can determine the best treatment that can improve success rates. Precision medicine is also believed to revolutionize oncology, especially when used in immunotherapy.

Precision Medicine: A Major Breakthrough Since Chemotherapy

Almost 30,000 doctors and scientists, who attended the world's largest cancer conference in Chicago over the weekend, recognized precision medicine's potential impacts on the future of cancer care. However, precision medicine is still not widely used in cancer treatment, except for some treatments centered on specific biological pathways to stop cancer growth like in breast cancer.

That's why scientists are developing the precision medicine method at a rapid pace. In addition, highly-targeted drugs can also bring the cancer under control, eliminating the dependence on "guesswork" or a "one size fits all" approach, Daily Mail reports.

Do you think precision medicine is the future of cancer care? Sound off below and follow Parent Herald for more news and updates.
Kate Middleton and Prince William want to raise their kids as normal as possible despite their royal blood. In fact, the royal family opted to stay in Anmer Hall to enjoy their privacy. According to reports, the Duchess of Cambridge has only very few household help in their residence. In fact, the staff has to do thrice the work for the same pay.

The Royals At Anmer Hall

According to the Week, art historian Sir Roy strong believes that Anmer Hall is a "comfortable, unpretentious Georgian" building. It has large windows with gentleness to it. The place is well located with ready access to the Duchy, Windsor, London and several racecourses.

"There is very little going on at all at Anmer," the Telegraph notes. "It is certainly not a social hotbed and there aren't any fabulous shops to visit."

This suggests that residing at Anmer Hall is a great option for Kate Middleton and Prince William, who want to raise their kids normally. The royal parents do not want Prince George and Princess Charlotte to grow up with how the royal kids are usually raised. In fact, according to the report, the royals keep their household help to a minimum.

Kate Middleton And Prince William's Household Staff

CelebDirtyLaundry suggests that due to the limited household help at the Anmer Hall, the employees have to do thrice the work for the same pay. For instance, the bodyguards are occasionally doing grocery shopping for the family or Kate sends them to pick up groceries at local shops.

The Anmer Hall has 10 bedrooms so limiting the staff will mean more work for those who are employed. Thus, the report is questioning the reason behind the limited household help. Is it because Kate Middleton and Prince William want their children to have a normal life as possible or is it because Queen Elizabeth refuses to increase their allowance for payroll? We can't tell.

For those who are wondering what type of household help Kate Middleton and Prince William posted a discreet advert in The Lady magazine, which reads, "Housekeeper sought for a large family home in Norfolk. We are looking for someone with previous housekeeping experience, ideally within a large private house, and preferably within a family environment with dogs" per the Week. The royal parent also emphasized, "discretion and loyalty is paramount."

Do you believe that the staff at the Anmer Hall have to do thrice the work for the same price because there is too much work to do and they are only very few? Did Kate and Prince William do this to raise their kids normally or because the queen did not increase their allowance for payroll? What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.
Song Joong Ki and Song Hye Kyo's reunion may have come to an end at the 52nd Baeksang Arts Awards but the "SongSong" couple is expected to share the same stage once again. A recent post claims that the 34-year-old actress will be attending Joong Ki's fan meeting in Chengdu.

Song Joong Ki, Song Hye Kyo Reunion At Chengdu Fan Meeting

Song Hye Kyo and Song Joong Ki recently made a lot of "SongSong" and "KiKyo" couple fans happy after attending the 2016 Baeksang Arts Awards together. The rumored couple exchanged a lot of romantic gestures throughout the event, which sparked speculations that the "Descendants of the Sun" actors are dating in real life.

Now, Song Joong Ki and Song Hye Kyo are expected to reunite once again. A recent post from Naver claims that Hye Kyo will be attending Joong Ki's upcoming fan meeting in Sichuan, Chengdu on June 17.

The Sichuan Agency for Cultural Affairs has reportedly announced Hye Kyo's attendance in Joong Ki's fan meeting in Chengdu. "SongSong" and "KiKyo" couple fans in Chengdu are definitely in it for a huge treat.

The post also states that Song Joong Ki and Song Hye Kyo may perform a duet of the "DOTS" track, "You Are My Everything." Fans are expecting to hear the couple confirm their relationship during the said event.

[ANNOUNCEMENT] 160607 Song Joong Ki - Regarding Song Hye Kyo's special appearance for his Fanmerting in Chengdu. pic.twitter.com/RE89CADoH0    SJK_SG (@SongJoongKi_SG) June 7, 2016



Song Joong Ki: Last 3 Fan Meetings Before 'Battleship Island' Filming Begins

Song Joong Ki is expected to begin filming for his upcoming movie, "Battleship Island" after he is done with his fan meetings in Hong Kong, Chengdu and Taipei. Yonhap News Agency reports that the 30-year-old actor thanked his fans during his Asian tour for their overwhelming love and support.

"I am really grateful for all the love my fans send me whenever I visit on my Asian tour," he said. "I feel touched every day."

Do you think Song Joong Ki and Song Hye Kyo will confirm their relationship during his fan meeting in Chengdu? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!


Women and would-be-moms in the U.S. are growing wary over Zika virus and their reaction might be reasonable and justified. The disease, which is mainly caused by mosquito bites, is projected to escalate this summer season. But there are still several uncertainties about its spread and infection.

Dr. Ashley Roman of the NYU Langone Medical Center said that, despite projections, the medical community in the U.S. do not know what summer will be like as far as the spread of the virus is concerned, per New York Post. One other concern is that the experts are still unsure of how long Zika virus can affect the body after it has recovered from the symptoms. The experts are also still discovering new ways on how the disease can be transmitted.

Zika Virus Transmission Not Just Through Mosquito Bites

Scientists have long determined the main cause of the transmission in mosquitoes, hence there have been continuous calls to increase protection from its bites. After months of research, scientists have also learned that the virus can spread through vaginal sex, hence there have also been calls to use protection or abstain from doing the deed for two weeks after travels to Zika-known places.

However, recent studies claim that the Zika virus might also be transmitted through oral sex, kissing and saliva, per People. So, if this can happen, some mothers are worried that the Zika virus might also be transmitted via breastfeeding, per Romper. However, there are no current studies to imply this as fact.

Zika Virus Could Stay In The System Longer

Zika virus infection develops flu-like symptoms that can be managed with proper medication and therapy. It's not a deadly disease for the adults that are infected, but it has lifelong effects for babies inside an infected pregnant mom's womb.

A healthy person can easily recover from the symptoms of Zika, but its other effects might only be discovered after having babies or giving birth. Doctors are unsure of how long the virus stays in the system, but a study has shown that Zika virus could stay longer in the semen than in the blood, per The Lancet. Thus, the standard advice is that women should hold off getting pregnant for two years, after theyor their partnerhave recovered from the disease.

Currently, New York has the highest number of Zika cases on record at 130, per the Center for Disease Control. What doctors are confident about is that these are not local infections, meaning there is no outbreak in the U.S. as all cases were inflicted while the patients had been traveling abroad.

Still, the CDC and local health departments are raising the alarm on Zika this summer. There is still no known cure or vaccine for the virus, apart from taking care of the flu-like symptoms with rest and medication.
Wouldn't it be great for restaurants to hold a special hour of dining for special needs kids? A mom from South Florida is hoping that more restaurants would do this after her experience with her special needs child.

Leah Cohen's son, Ari, was born with Trisomy 9 Mosaic. Rare Disease Org cites that this is a "rare chromosomal disorder" that results in heart malformation and other organ abnormalities. A person with this condition don't have a long lease on life and Leah Cohen was told by doctors her son would not live long.

But Ari is now 13 and continues to hurdle through the challenges of his disorder. One of these challenges is that he has to talk using a device because he can't actually speak. He also has uncontrollable grunts or flails about when communicating. This has resulted in a lot of stares when the family is out in public, including at restaurants.

However, Leah Cohen stressed that despite his condition, Ari loves life and loves food. But eating out hasn't been an easy option knowing that they could disturb other diners. On a recent trip to Brooklyn, New York for a family wedding, a restaurant welcomed their family with open arms.

They went to Kasai, a Hibachi eatery, an hour before the Tuesday dinner rush, upon making arrangements with the restaurant owner, Victor Ebadi. The staff made sure that the Cohens dined in comfort, just like other VIPs, per New York Daily News.

Kasai restaurant in Bkln does #KiddushHashem #ParshatEmor restaurant gives special needs teen great experience https://t.co/fNoi2pEFnv  Rabbi Roy Feldman (@Rabbi_Roy) May 19, 2016

This experience has inspired Leah Cohen to push for special hours for special needs kids at other restaurants, which received support from other parents with special needs, per WSVN. One mom, Michelle Saka, said she believes in Leah's cause because, like her son with special needs, the kids should know how to function and have the most normal life possible. "[They] need to know how to go out to a restaurant," she told the news outlet.

Leah is starting her push for special hours in restaurants in a Facebook group. While her attempts might be small, she is already making an impact. She has successfully scouted and made arrangements at other restaurants in her area where her family has happily dined with Ari. "All you need to do is ask - or let them know you are coming and you too will see," she wrote on Facebook.

What do you think about Leah Cohen's drive? Would you support this too? Let us know in the comments!
"American Horror Story" season 6 will bring back "Coven" actor Leslie Jordan alongside Lady Gaga. While the relationship between the "Coven" actor and Lady Gaga are being sussed out, Ryan Murphy hints that Angela Bassett will be a bit of a shocker in "American Horror Story" season 6.

'Coven' Actor Returns For 'American Horror Story' Season 6

Washington Blade cites Leslie Jordan on the "Coven" actor's return to the series with "American Horror Story" season 6. His description of the "Coven" actor's inclusion in "American Horror Story" season 6 with Lady Gaga predictably caused a bit of a stir.

"I'm booked all summer, then on July 7, I go back to "American Horror Story" with Lady Gaga, isn't that fun?" Leslie Jordan said. If indeed Leslie Jordan and Lady Gaga are to do scenes together in "American Horror Story" season 6, their roles should prove very interesting.

Leslie Jordan is well-remembered for "Coven" despite his limited appearances on the "American Horror Story" season. His return to the fold would have been earlier than "American Horror Story" season 6, but Leslie Jordan was involved in a UK reality show while "Freak Show" was being filmed.

Returning Cast For 'American Horror Story' Season 6

According to Dread Central Leslie Jordan and Lady Gaga will be joined by Kathy Bates, Denis O'Hare, Wes Bentley, Cheyenne Jackson and Matt Bomer in "American Horror Story" season 6. Evan Peters, Sarah Paulson and Angela Bassett also have key roles in "American Horror Story" season 6.

Angela Bassett's Shock Over 'American Horror Story' Season 6 Shocker

E! News reports that Angela Bassett, for one, was quite shocked when Ryan Murphy let the "Hotel" actress about her roles in "American Horror Story" season 6. In an interview with Ryan Murphy at the 2016 Golden Globes, the show creator admitted to having given cast members the framework of their roles in "American Horror Story" season 6.

Angela Bassett reportedly gave Ryan Murphy a shocked response after she learned of what she will be doing in "American Horror Story" season 6. Angela Bassett had been good, though and only let slip that she will be fond of alcohol and Sarah Paulson will manage her in "American Horror Story" season 6.

Dread Central points out that "American Horror Story" season 6 will be set in two time periods, but will be predominantly current. "American Horror Story" season 6 is set to return to FX this fall.
Men have weaker immune systems than women, according to several studies. As a result, men are more susceptible to the symptoms of a cold than their women counterparts.

It has long been suggested that men are also more susceptible to viral, bacterial, fungal and parasitic infection compared to women, according to Telegraph. Women are known to have higher blood levels of proteins that immune cells pass around when the body is threatened by viruses, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Female hormone estrogen allows women to have strengthened immune systems, according to Dr. Sergio Diez Alvarez, the director of medicine at The Maitland and Kurri Kurri Hospital from the University of Newcastle. Testosterone, on the other hand, can impair the body's natural ability to fight off viruses. Men with lower testosterone levels also had a better immune response nearly equivalent to that of women.

In addition, the section of the brain that signals fever in case of inflammatory conditions is bigger in men. This can suggest that men have a stronger response to a cold compared to women, according to Daily Mail.

A 2015 study called the Personality and Health Satisfaction Project suggested that men cope less compared to women when it comes to physical illnesses. Men have a different threshold for perceiving symptoms, most especially when it comes to the common cold.

Another research supported this claim by saying that men reported symptoms more severely compared to women. Research from the University of Glasgow explained that men are more likely to overrate their symptoms.

A similar study by Stanford University School of Medicine studies the reactions of men and women to vaccinations against flu. The research concluded that women generally had a stronger antibody response to the vaccination compared to men. Consequently, this gave women more protection against the virus.

Despite being more susceptible to illnesses, females are still more likely to admit they are sick compared to men. About 16 percent of women are more likely to say they are ill compared men, according to a research by London School of Hygiene and Topical Medicine. Despite accusing men of exaggerating when they have the flu, men still try to make it a point to hide their weaknesses.
The Cincinnati zoo reopened its gorilla exhibit to the public on Tuesday with a higher, fortified barrier installed. It has been 10 days after zookeepers shot and killed one of its inhabitants after a 3-year-old boy wriggled into the enclosure and dragged by the 400lb gorilla named Harambe.

The gorilla exhibit has a new barrier meant to make it more difficult to get into the habitat, especially kids. The Association of Zoos and Aquariums had repeatedly inspected and approved the now 42inch high fence with solid wood beams at the top and bottom. It's now 6inches taller with knotted rope netting at the bottom, also added surveillance cameras. - Reports The Guardian.

Director of the Cincinnati Zoo, Thane Maynard said the exhibit had been safe for 38 years, but confirming the new barrier would help to reassure guests and redoubling their effort to protect both animals and visitors are safe. Adding that their exhibit goes above and beyond standard safety requirements but following the tragic episode, they have modified the outer public barrier to making it even more difficult to enter. - He said in a statement at Fox8 News.

While some visitors believe more could have been done like putting a much higher fence, they trust that the changes are enough understanding that it's the typical enclosure they do in the Zoo. Families still couldn't wait to return to Cincinnati Zoo and visit the gorillas.

Cincinnati zoo has firmly defended its decision to shoot Harambe as necessary to secure the child's safety but has faced criticism from some who argued they could have tranquilized Harambe. Others blamed the boy's mother for neglecting to supervise him adequately. There's now more than 500,000 signatures in an online petition seeking charges to the mother.

The exhibit's reopening came a day after the Hamilton County prosecutor Joe Deters announced that they would not file any charges against the boy's mother in the May 28 incident. She was tending to another child when the boy "just scampered off", as children sometimes do.
A man that was arrested last week in Ohio will be extradited from the state in order to face the charges against him regarding the killing of a 13-year-old Detroit boy.

According to The Washington Post, the man was identified as Gregory Walker and he was arrested last Thursday in Toledo, Ohio. He was since held on a probation violation. Detroit Police Officer Dan Donakowski said in a statement that Walker will be sent back to Detroit by Tuesday this week.

The body of the 13-year-old boy, identified as Deontae Mitchell, was found last week also on Thursday. He was missing for days before his body was found in an empty lot on the city's east side. An autopsy was carried out last Friday by the Wayne County medical examiner's office.

Detroit Police Chief James Craig released a statement regarding the crime saying that the victim was a "defenseless child" and that the suspect is "an adult male with a gun." He added, "Once again, another coward preying on children, and that needs to stop."

Mitchell went missing earlier last week while he was out with his cousin. They were then riding a bike. The cousin of Mitchell pointed out that the boy picked up the money that was dropped by a man who was urinating outside a market in the area. The man is said to be intoxicated.

A surveillance video was released by police officials and it was seen that Mitchell was pursued by the suspect, who was inside a black Chevrolet Imapala. Another surveillance video showed that the suspect grabbed by the boy by the arm and forced him to go inside the aforementioned vehicle. The suspect was also seen holding a nickel-plated revolver.

No charges against Walker have been filed yet. Other persons of interest were arrested last week by officials who are said to be a 30-year-old man from Detroit and a 51-year-old man. It remains unclear if the two other men are still in custody or have been released.

The investigation is ongoing. No motive for the killing has been released.
A bill being heard this week by a Missouri legislative committee promotes shared parenting. According to Saint Louis Today, this bill is a flexible arrangement in which children spend as close to equal time as possible with each parent after separation or divorce. The legislation proposes adding language to the state's child custody law to emphasize that the best interest of the child is equal access to both parents. A change that would encourage judges to pay more attention to research on the best interest of children.

A handful of states have benefited from laws supportive of the arrangement for several years. In the past couple of years, a few more states including Utah, South Dakota and Minnesota, have added laws that encourage shared parenting. As the Wall Street Journal revealed, nearly 20 more states have considered similar proposals over the past eight months.

Missouri's HB 1550 works to move shared parenting from the exception to the norm in multiple ways, including that the bill

1. It creates guidelines for parenting plans that "maximize to the highest degree the amount of time the ----child may spend with each parent;"

2. It requires courts to disclose why shared parenting wasn't awarded if another arrangement is ordered;

It requires courts to provide written findings and conclusions in a custody case, which makes the case appealable if a party disagrees with judgement.

3.Specifies that courts can't "presume that a parent, solely because of his or her sex, is more qualified than the other parent;"

4.Prohibits local courts from establishing their own rules, such as having a default parenting plan.

Additionally, the legislation stands to significantly reduce the animosity that can occur between divorcing parents, and all too often, the tension reaches the children and many others close to the family, creating a great deal of unnecessary pain. Under the state's current law, parents enter child custody discussions on unequal footing. The sole custody model, pigeonholing one parent in the sole custody role and the other in the "visitor" position, persists.

Fortunately, if enacted into law, this legislation would promote parental equality by starting, rather than ending, the conversation at shared parenting. And, of course, when parents are unfit, judges could and should move the outcome away from shared parenting.
Ten long years. This is how much time a child with mental health problems in the United Kingdom has to wait between being unsound and actually getting much-needed help, according to a new report.

The Centre for Mental Health has just released Missed Opportunities, which reviewed recent evidence into the mental health of children and young people. The report found that in the ten-year delay between exhibiting mental health symptoms and getting help, the mental problems "multiply and get progressively worse, eventually escalating into crisis."

Children with mental health problems face 10 year delay to get any help, report finds https://t.co/Qg1BBUiTL9 pic.twitter.com/29FSK7sRra  TES (@tes) June 7, 2016

Early Intervention Key To Children's Mental Health

"Most common childhood mental health problems can be treated effectively. Early help is vital to have the best chance of success," Lorraine Khan was quoted by the Huffington Post as saying. Khan is the associate director for children and young people at the Centre for Mental Health.

Khan was also quoted by ITV as saying that waiting for the mental health of a child to decline until it reaches a crisis does not only harm the children. Khan said that the decline in mental health of a child also has "a heavy social and economic cost."

Causes of Delay And Government Response

According to the report's executive summary, stigma about mental health can produce a "conspiracy of silence" which becomes a barrier for older children from seeking help or letting others know that there is something wrong with them. There is also poor mental health literacy and lack of information on and less than ideal experiences with mental health services.

The Belfast Telegraph quoted a government spokesman as saying that besides access and waiting time standards, there will be 1.4 billion funding for mental health for young people. "This funding will improve care in the community and schools to reduce waiting times and make sure young people get support before they reach a crisis point," the spokesman said.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California is finally ready to embrace Hillary Clinton as her party's nominee ahead of her state's primary on Tuesday. She even called for the former secretary of state to choose Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren as her running mate for vice president.

Nancy Pelosi proudly declared her support of Hillary Clinton for president on ABC's Good Morning America before the presumptive democratic nominee's home state's primary. She said that as a voter in California, she has voted for Hillary Clinton for president. She was also quoted saying she's "proud to endorse her for that position, but I hasten to say it's not over until it's over."

ABC News' George Stephanopoulos interview in with Nancy Pelosi, she also responded to a question about the potentials of Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren as vice president because it would be "fabulous" for two women joining the ticket. Once again, she hastened to note the decision is for the former secretary state to make. - Politico stated.

"I'm proud to endorse her," Nancy Pelosi says of Hillary Clinton https://t.co/WiZVSI6RUp pic.twitter.com/iIHXOgFDkD  The Boston Globe (@BostonGlobe) June 7, 2016

Pelosi made the statement hours after The Associated Press and television networks said Hillary Clinton secured enough number of delegates to clinch the nomination for president of the United States on Monday night. This is also to mark her as the first woman to confirm a major party's presidential nomination.

The superdelegate did not formally declare her support in the 2008 Democratic primary. She has praised Sen. Bernie Sanders' primary campaign and the great eagerness the Vermont senator has triggered among younger voters. Pelosi believes Sanders will be a constructive force before the Democratic convention in Philadelphia.

The Democrats Leader of the house Nancy Pelosi said Clinton's historic moment is because she is the best as she becomes the presumptive democratic nominee and not because she's a woman. She added that it's also exciting to see the first female nominee for a major party. Clinton finished her first primary campaign for president and supported then-Senator Barack Obama eight years ago.
Checking a patient's blood can help doctors treat depressed people. Scientists from the U.K. have developed a new blood test procedure that can determine the best antidepressant drug for patients suffering from depression.

Researchers from King's College London conducted the blood test on 140 people with depression. The blood test seeks for two specific indicators of inflammation: a compound named macrophage migration inhibitory factor, or MIF, and one called interleukin-1beta. The study was published in the International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology.

Inflammatory Markers

Patients with high levels of MIF and interleukin-1beta have a harder time responding to commonly prescribed SSRI and tricyclic antidepressant drugs, according to BBC. People who possess these inflammatory markers require more aggressive forms of therapy to manage their depression.

Carmine Pariante, the study's lead researcher, said the inflammatory markers are likely exacerbated by stress. High levels of inflammation impede a person's biological processes, therefore preventing the body from responding to antidepressants.

Pariante and his team are trying to determine whether anti-inflammatory drugs respond positively when paired with antidepressants. The latter is considered as a safe form of treatment, but they also have side effects like nausea, insomnia, constipation and sexual problems.

Depression And ADHD Connected With Depression

A new study from Norway found that workaholics have higher chances of developing depression and ADHD, Livescience reported. Thirty-three percent of workaholics involved in the study exhibited symptoms of ADHD, while only 13 percent of non-workaholics displayed similar symptoms.

Almost 9 percent of workaholics examined by the study showed symptoms of depression, as opposed to the 2.6 percent of non-workaholics with depression. Workaholics have higher levels of anxiety as well. Researchers from Malaysia also found a link between depression and urban Malaysian women with vitamin D deficiency, Medical Xpress wrote.

Depression affects a person's ability to feel, think and perform daily activities such as eating, working and sleeping, the National Institute for Mental Health wrote. Some of the symptoms of depression include feelings of hopelessness, irritability, anxiousness, empty moods, fatigue, restlessness, appetite and weight changes, and sleeping problems.

People have high risks of developing depression if their family has a history of the disorder. Other risk factors are trauma or stress, as well as physical problems and medications.

Aside from antidepressants, people can also manage depression through undergoing talking therapies or self-help groups, BBC noted. Doctors also recommend patients to be active physically and socially, and seek therapies like mindfulness training and cognitive-behavioral therapy, or CBT. With CBT, depressed patients are capable of stopping their negative thoughts and behaviors, while mindfulness helps them be grounded with the present.
Brittney Darras, 25, an English teacher in Colorado School wrote a total of 130 notes in a span of two months. These notes were for her students in the school. All for the reason that one of her students attempted suicide.

According to the report in Washington Post, Darras never thought one of her students is struggling. The way she found out about it is when her student's mother came to a school meeting with a list of her daughter's teachers. Each name had a yes and no next to it. This would indicate to which teacher she wanted her mother to talk to in order to find out why she hadn't been in class for weeks now.

The revelation was a shock to Darras. To her the student's mother told the story: it was an attempted suicide after she deleted her social media account. The police came to her rescue and now she is in the hospital trying to recover.

Both ladies didn't expect something like this would happen. Her student is always happy, she had friends, she's on top of her class and she does her assignments very well. They didn't know she was struggling. This is when Darras realized that something has to be done.

So, she sent out a letter to her student in the hospital, telling her how much she is loved and missed. That she cared about her.

Later on Darras went to write notes to all of her students. All of those notes were hand written. She wrote all those letters during the times where she would not be teaching. In the airport, on a weekend trip, sitting o her porch she would write.

During the final exams, she gave each student a letter that is personalized just for them. It made all her students feel that they are loved and appreciated. As they walk their way out of the classroom door, each of them would stop and give her a hug. It was powerful.

Darras expressed how each of us needs to realize that every human being is unique. Let us all be aware about depression and suicide, and help save other's lives.
Issues involving Amber Heard in domestic violence are making headlines, not just over ex-husband Johnny Depp but also over a relationship in 2009. However, domestic violence such as the one associated with Amber Heard is far from unique so much so that the Australian Capital Territory took the step to be the first country to tax for assault and disturbance in the home.

New York Daily News reports that Amber Heard was implicated in a domestic violence much as she is being involved in one with Johnny Depp now. Amber Heard and Johnny Depp sought to divorce following complaint by the actress of domestic abuse in her marriage.

Although controversy surrounds the domestic abuse claims by Amber Heard against Johnny Depp, such goings on in the home are more common that they should be. 9News reports that the Australian Capital Territory are taking the issue seriously and turning it into a national concern.

The annual $30 per household domestic violence tax comes under the Safer Families program of the Australian Capital Territory. "Family violence does not discriminate; it is a national issue that touches the lives of Australians everywhere," Chief Minister Andrew Barr said.

According to Andrew Barr, the Safer Families domestic violence tax is their way of taking a stand to begin easing domestic violence out of families and homes. 9News reports that Safer Families will redefine domestic violence so that emotional, economic and psychological abuse are also covered.

In the US, many have been, are and continue to be in the same position as Amber Heard either as abuser or as victim in cases of domestic violence. According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, domestic violence occurs on men and women every minute.

An average of 10 million men and women experience physical abuse in the hands of their partners each year. The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence further says that one in every three women and one in every four men are dealt some form of physical violence by a partner within their lifetime.
China is steadily making milestones against HIV/AIDS. During the last couple of years, the East Asian country has achieved a less than 0.1 percent of HIV/AIDS prevalence among adults. Experts, however, believed that these achievements will come to naught if the LGBT community remains ignored by the Chinese government.

According to Beijing Today, China's continued ignorance and stigma against the LGBT community makes them exposed to HIV/AIDS threats. In November, China Daily reported about the increasing rates of HIV/AIDS cases among gay men. Eighty percent of new HIV/AIDS cases in the nation are men who have sexual relations with the same sex.

Why Gay Men Are More Exposed To HIV/AIDS Risks

A study published in the National Center for Biotechnology Information found that condom use is one of the main reasons behind gay men's exposure to HIV/AIDS. Gay men in China do not practice consistent condom use, with only 56.4 percent of them using condoms unfailingly this year.

To fight this problem, the Chinese government has installed more condom vending machines in Beijing universities, but those are usually ill-maintained. Officials rolled out sexual health outreach programs that specifically target gay men as well.

A top hospital in Beijing is also known for its discrimination-free treatment and care services for HIV/AIDS patients, Women of China reported. Despite these efforts, homosexual people are still facing discrimination in China.

Access To Civil Rights Denied

The country's LGBT community does not experience equal civil rights on inheritance, joint property rights, adoption by same-sex couples, cohabitation, and monetary compensation after divorce, according to a study published in the United Nations Development Programme, or UNDP. In addition, China's censorship laws explicitly ban homosexual content in movies and television, which hampers LGBT people's acceptance in a society inherently against homosexuals.

Same-sex marriage is also not allowed in China. The national law allows transgender people to change their gender on their ID cards and household registrations, but the process to do so are difficult and are only offered to people who have had full sex-reassignment surgery. Official documents like education certificates do not allow gender change.

China's stigma and discrimination against the LGBT community aren't necessarily violent and hateful. Rather, stigma and discrimination were expressed in mild but persistent ways, which includes families, friends and colleagues disapproving of non-conforming sexual or gender practice, UNDP further reported. People are only tolerant of homosexuals if they are not publicly open about their sexual orientation and if they still abide with the society's gendered roles.
A chemical found in green tea has been found to improve memory, speaking abilities and quality of life in patients with Down syndrome. The compound epigallocatechin gallate found in green tea could alter the way brain cells and neurons connect to one another.

The trial gathered 84 young adults with Down's syndrome and split them into two groups. The first group was given decaffeinated green tea supplements that contained 45 percent epigallocatechin gallate.

The second group was given placebo supplements while both groups underwent weekly online cognitive training. Cognitive tests were given every three, six and 12 months.

Although little to no changes were observed in most categories, the 'green tea' group scored significantly better in their ability to remember patterns, recall words and adapting behavior to several situations. The 'green tea' group was also found to improve over the course of the trial.

In the clinical trial published in The Lancet Neurology, the green tea treatment led to improved tests scores and quality of life. The positive impact on the patients extended to six months after the trial ended, according to Daily Mail.

Green tea can be a tool to improve the quality of life of patients with Down syndrome, according to Professor Mara Dierssen, a researcher from the Center for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona and senior author of the study. Dierssen explains that this is the first time that a treatment has been shown to be effective in the cognitive improvement of people with Down syndrome.

Despite the treatment being effective, Dierssen reiterates that green tea should not be labeled as a cure. The findings must still be validated by more trials in the future, as its safety and efficacy need to be confirmed, according to Marie-Claude Potier, a Down syndrome specialist from the Brain and Spine Institute in Paris.

One of the most common genetic forms of intellectual disability, patients with Down syndrome afflicts one in every 1,000 people, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). While humans normally have 23 pairs of chromosomes, people with the condition have an extra, or third copy of their 21st chromosome. The duplicate chromosome can cause genes to be over-expressed eventually leading to reduced cognitive abilities and health conditions, according to Telegraph.
Another news is besmirching what is left of Trump University's merit. Recently, Florida Attorney General and Trump supporter, Pam Bondi, was found to have received a donation from Donald Trump when her office was deciding whether or not, it will join a fraud probe involving the said university.

Records show that Pam Bondi's office had been receiving complaints from Trump University's alumni. These were dissatisfied consumers who did not get their money's worth from the university and were demanding for a refund (via Orlando Sentinel).

Bondi denied receipt of these documents and claimed that during that time, she only took hold of one complaint. Most of the cases that reached her office concerned Trump Institute which is different and separate from Trump University (via Orlando Sentinel).

Apparently, last September 17, 2013, the GOP-presumptive Presidential candidate Donald Trump handed Pam Bondi a $25,000 donation. Soon after, Bondi's office announced that it won't be partaking in the New York investigation regarding Trump University (via The Associated Press).

Marc Reichelderfer, Pam Bondi's political consultant on her re-election bid, spoke in behalf of his client and answered questions from the press. He told The Associated Press that Bondi received Trump's donation without knowing about the existence of the said complaints.

She has already exchanged meetings with Donald Trump before her office dismissed the prospect of joining any legal investigation of Trump University. According to Reichelderfer, Bondi and Trump were done with a series of negotiations when the donation was finalized and received (via The Associated Press).

This is not old news as Donald Trump admits giving money to politicians in order to receive favors from them. He has also helped Florida monetarily since 1999, donating $253,500 that Republicans mostly benefitted from (via The Associated Press).

As per Florida Politics, Pam Bondi publicly announced her support of Trump by joining the candidate's campain rally in Tampa last March. She believes in the kind of leadership Donald Trump proposes.

"We have been friends for years, and I know his family personally. Ive seen first-hand how he leads, and how he cares deeply about the people of this country. If elected president I know he will bring Americas best minds together to preserve what we have, and secure what we need, for the future," she said as was reported by Florida Politics.

In your opinion, do you think Trump University is a fraud and Pam Bondi's office refused to investigate on it because of vested interests? Sound off your thoughts in the Comments section below and follow Parent Herald for more news and updates.


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When the news broke that Samsung had signed a deal with Apple for OLED displays for the 2017 iPhone, it somehow cemented the reality that Apple was actually making the leap to a display technology it once downplayed as inferior. Of course behind the scenes Apple had their engineers working on various next-gen flexible OLED display patents, so it was a little difficult to take Cook's comments all that seriously. Looking forward, the news today out of Korea is that Samsung demonstrated a 5.5 inch smartphone 4K OLED display at a recent display trade show in California that may be coming to market in 2017.

A UBI Research official told the Korean press that "Samsung Display showcased a 5.5 ultra-high definition 4K display with a pixel density of 806 ppi for virtual reality devices at the Society for Information Display, a display trade show in California."

The official added that "Considering various factors including the production yield rate for the next-generation display expected to improve in the coming months, the 5.5-inch AMOLED will be deployed in the next Galaxy smartphone, presumably, named the S8."

The 4K display is considered important especially in the VR sector as major smartphone firms and VR gadget makers need to provide better VR experience for users than now. Many VR headsets, including the Samsung Gear VR, need to be paired with smartphones.

Considering that Samsung will be Apple's primary OLED supplier, it could very well mean that ultra-high definition 4K displays will eventually make their way into future iPhones. Until Samsung could ramp up sufficient manufacturing capacity for such a display, it's a long shot for the 2017 iPhone but could be ready sometime thereafter.

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Back in March Patently Apple reported that the UK's revised Investigatory Powers Bill that would go to UK's House of Commons for a vote that would in some ways ease up on tech companies like Apple and Google. A UK report stated that "A Home Office source said that 'The Bill clarifies the Government's position on encryption, putting beyond doubt that companies can only be asked to remove encryption that they themselves have applied, and only where it is practicable for them to do so. This will make clear that the Government is not asking companies to weaken their security by undermining encryption." The report further noted that the government was persuaded about the important role encoding communications played in the protection of legitimate online activity such as banking, shopping and personal data and that the Government is to clarify its position in the Investigatory Powers Bill." Today the House of Commons voted on the bill and it passed by a vote of 444 to 69.

That would suggest that the encryption was properly dismissed or weakened as promised. However, when reading Ars Technica UK's report on the passage of the bill, the word or topic of encryption was completely unrecorded.

Starmer, who is the UK's former director of public prosecutions, told the House of Commons on Monday that "Safety and security and human rights are not mutually exclusive, they are not either/ors, and we can have both. And that is why Labour has supported the principle of this new bill, but it's also why we have focused intensely on the necessity for the powers in the bill and the safeguards."

MPs will return to debate the Investigatory Powers Bill tomorrow, after which time it will wing its way to the House of Lords for final approval. See the full Ars Technica UK report for more details.

Bloomberg importantly added that "The bill also makes clear that the government will likely reimburse communications companies, including mobile operators, for the cost of complying with the new legal obligations, such as the requirement to retain records of all the websites its customers visit for at least a year.

The report last noted that "The legislation, which some critics have branded a snooper's charter, will also be analyzed by a panel of legal experts chaired by David Anderson QC, the U.K.'s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation. Anderson will issue a report on the bill -- including an opinion on whether the bulk surveillance powers the government is asking for are justified -- in time for the Lords final vote on the bill sometime in the fall. If it passes, the law will go into effect in January 2017."

Yet the most controversial part of the bill originally covered tech companies having to create back doors to their software to work around encryption. It's what caused the uproar in the first place. So why were both political parties going out of their way today to purposely not whisper anything regarding encryption on the passing of this bill? Remember that "the Government was to clarify its position in the Investigatory Powers Bill" in respect to the issue of encryption. Obviously the devil is in the details and that has yet to emerge. So I'd hold off on ordering the champagne until that very point has been spelled out crystal clear.



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Editors Note: This article is part of the Patheos Public Square on Faith and the Election. Read other perspectives here.

Politicians, more than anyone else, have the power to appeal either to our fears or our better natures.

This year there are still three major politicians in the race for the US Presidency: Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Donald Trump. I was an early (early) supporter of Clinton, who, from the very start was anointed by Democratic party insiders. She served faithfully under Obama, who beat her in 2008. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Clintons former campaign co-chair, had ascended to the top of the Democratic National Committee. Over 400 super-delegates  about 1/5 of the total delegates needed for the nomination  pledged to support her before a single citizen voted.

But Clinton has not been well-received by the left part of the Democratic party. As early as 2014, groups began organizing and petitions began circulating to Draft Bernie Sanders (and Elizabeth Warren, separately). Both grassroots movements hoped to put forth a liberal alternative to Hillary Clinton.

Then, in May of 2015, Bernie Sanders entered the race. His message was simple: economic populism. We should and can spread the enormous wealth of our nation in a way that benefits the poorest and those in the middle.

Crazy. Socialist. Will not be taken seriously. Those were the pundit reviews, and, by them and many others, he was mostly ignored. As I wrote in September:

Bernie Sanders appeals to white Progressives. That much is obvious. But not all Progressives are lining up behind him. Notably, those fighting for racial justice under the #BlackLivesMatter banner have targeted him and he finds himself far behind Clinton and even trailing yet-to-be-running Biden in South Carolina, where 55 percent of the voters are black. In a recent column in the New York Times, Charles M. Blow explores Sanders lack of appeal with black voters. There he writes that An August Gallup Poll found that Hillary Clintons favorability among African-Americans was 80 percent, while Sanderss was 23 percent. And even more disturbing, Two-thirds of blacks were unfamiliar with Sanders. As I drove two weeks ago from my home in Helena, MT to Missoula where I teach, I listened to an NPR story about the potential candidacy of Joe Biden. There, Rachel Martin and Mara Liasson discuss the antiestablishment fever thats been sweeping the Democratic Party base while failing to mention the person at the vanguard of that fever. Liasson even, quite gallingly, says of a potential Biden candidacy that, There are many Democrats who think it would be good for Hillary Clinton because shed have a serious opponent, and it would help her become a better candidate. Really, no serious opponent? But my jaw didnt really drop until I heard her next line: Right now, shes basically running against herself and her problems. If NPR, a supposed bastion of left-leaning thought, can have a nearly 5-minute discussion of the Democratic presidential race without so much as mentioning Sanders, we have a problem.

And, in the media at least, that problem never really went away.

However, for many people (myself included) he did become the liberal alternative that we were searching for. One of the Draft Elizabeth Warren groups formally endorsed Sanders last June. In January, MoveOn, another large liberal group, also endorsed Sanders, writing, In our endorsement vote exit poll, one of the words MoveOn members most frequently used to describe him was integrity.'

Integrity is a fair word to use for Sanders, who according to Politifact, is the most honest candidate still running (over Clinton and big liar Trump).

Hope is another good word for Sanders campaign, so much so that he began to sound an awful lot like Obama in 2008 (minus all of the charisma).

And hope  and with it aspiration, ambition, and forward-thinking, is what I would like to see moving forward in the next few months. With California going to Clinton (at the time of this writing only 36% of votes are reported, but Clinton has a wide lead) and Clinton already clinching the presumptive nomination on the 6th, I think Sanders will rightly drop out and extend his support to her. He pushed on this far, making sure every voter  even us in Montana  feel valued and counted, which I deeply appreciate, but pushing on to the convention would do little good.

There are those who suggest that Sanders has harmed Clinton. But I dont buy it, nor does Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, who endorsed Clinton but said on NPR tonight that the Sanders campaign strengthened Clintons. The vigorous exchanges of ideas has been great for Clinton, who will hopefully adopt at least a few further-left policies in an effort to align herself more closely to Sanders supporters and win the election in November.

Hope didnt get Sanders the nomination, its true. His message didnt even get him noticed much until it was all but too late for voters to get to know him in many states. Trumps messages of fear (Mexicans, Muslims, Chinese, the media, etc) did get attention, and, unfortunately, votes. Clinton weaved and bobbed, one day a progressive the next a centrist, molding herself to the needs of the crowd before her. She has good credentials though, minus, my friends tell me, some serious issues with Libya and Syria. And shes well-known and, by US standards, left of center.

But she hasnt said much about hope.

Even in her much-hailed foreign policy speech last week, she pitted herself against Trump as a choice between a fearful America, thats less secure and less engaged with the world, and a strong, confident America, that leads to keep our country safe and our economy growing. She then went on to attack Trump, quite successfully, as the potential Commander in Chief who we really should fear.

Clintons speech tonight, however, did dwell in hope, noting particularly how Sanders arguments had been very good for the Democratic party and for America. She even borrowed several of his talking points before moving on to again attack Trump. But it is the hopeful message that I dearly hope will stick with Clinton and with voters in the months to come, one that sees that not all is right with America, but that we have at our fingertips the resources to fix it  if only we have the will. And let us not forget that Clinton, like any politician, will have the will of the wealthy and corrupt pulling her strongly in one direction. It is up to us to push, pull, and prod her in the direction of the people, of peace, of social welfare and global sustainability.
I wasnt going to write about convicted Stanford rapist Brock Turner. I really wasnt. Everyone else was writing about it it, I figured. Did I really need to write something too? There were enough voices out there, and the case was unfamiliar to me. But then I read about the letters. What letters, you ask? The letters Turners friends and family members wrote to the judge urging him to be lenient in his sentencing, of course. These letters. One childhood friend wrote that Turner was a mild-mannered kid with a good heart in a terrible, terrible situation and that he had spent many good years with him, and have never known him to have a malevolent bone in his body. Another friend wrote that he was always the sweetest to everyone.

And there were others. His father wrote a letter, his sister wrote a letter, a family friend who was a retired federal prosecutor wrote a letter. Brock has an easygoing personality that endears him to almost everyone he meets. Incarcerating Brock for the decisions he made on one night in 2015 would strip him of his ability to navigate through reality and erase that potential that he has to be a contributing member of society. I know Brock did not go to that party intending to hurt, or entice, or overpower anyone. That is not his nature. It has never been. And on and on and on.

Ill tell you why the letters hit me so hard. They hit me so hard because they felt so familiar. Ive seen this happen before. Ive seen it happen in a scandal surrounding an evangelical religious leader my parents followed when I was a childmore on that in a momentand Ive seen it happen in my own home community. Some years ago a young man in the homeschool community I grew up in landed in jail for a crime that will put him on the sex offender database for the rest of his life. In the years since, Ive watched as friends and family members have been asked to write letters attesting to this young mans upstanding character and moral fortitude. And many have written just these letters.

Do you know who Ive yet to see any of these individuals express remorse for? The young girl he victimized. As far as I can see, I am almost the only one in my entire community of origin that has given a thought for the poor girl, for what she has suffered, for what she is going through. No. Instead they write letters praising her abuser. Watching this has torn me up from the inside out, especially because I know that the content of these lettersand the people who are being asked to write themis selective, and also that no one in that community appears to have learned any lessons from what this young man did. Beware the wayward woman, I hear them say. That girl? Shes out there somewhere, hurting, and no one cares.

And so, the letters sent to Turners sentencing judge, the letters urging leniency and praising Turners character, these letters have hit mehard. These letters, they always ignore so many things. They ignore that Turners heinous act of rape should stop the letter writers short and force them to reevaluate their opinion of his character. They ignore that anyone can act one way around their friends, and another way around defenseless, helpless strangers. They ignore that a man willing to take advantage of and violate one woman is at risk of taking advantage of and violating another. And most of all, they ignore his victim, and her suffering.

I mentioned another case where similar letters were written attesting to another abusers character. I mentioned an evangelical leader. That man is named Doug Wilson. He leads a church in Moscow, Idaho, and a college and seminary as well. He has his own Christian school denomination and is widely published. He has the ear of such evangelical theologians as John Piper. And Ive written about this case several times. Steven Sitler was a student at Wilsons college. While there, he boarded with a family from Wilsons church. Also while there, Sitler was caught molesting the children in the home, and it came out that he had molested numerous other children in more than one state.

Law enforcement was contacted and the case went to trial. Wilson and others wrote letters asking the judge sentencing Sitler to show leniency. I would urge that the civil penalties applied would be measured and limited, Wilson wrote. I have a good hope that Steven has genuinely repented, and that he will continue to deal with this to become a productive and contributing member of society. The judge complied, giving Sitler a mere slap on the wrist. This was a man who had molested numerous children over numerous years in multiple states. And this is not the only pedophile Doug Wilson has written letters for.

My intent here is not to distract from the case at hand. My intent is to point out the pervasive and problematic nature of such letter writing, because I see patterns at play here. When letter writers assure a judge that an offender has an upstanding character, there is problem, because that assessment of necessity ignores the crime for which the offender is being tried. When letter writers urge a judge not to ruin an offenders life, there is a problem, because the offender has already ruined the life of another. When letter writers insist to a judge that an offender has seen the folly of their ways and repented there is a problem, no letter writer can truly know that.

Besides, the lesson learned seems too often to be the wrong one. He has learned the lesson of the wayward woman, I heard in my own community of origin. And yet, it was he who was the abuser, and not his victim who was the ensnarer. He is totally committed to educating other college age students about the dangers of alcohol consumption and sexual promiscuity, I hear now, from Turners father. And yet Turners crime was not alcohol or sex, it was rape.

These letters? They hurt, they sting, they burn.
Patna: A Special Investigative Team led by Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Manu Maharaj on Tuesday raided the office of Bihar School Examination Board and seized several computers and documents in the fallout of what is being dubbed as the 'Toppersgate'.

Simultaneous raids were also carried out at Balak High School in Patna and Bishun Rai College in Vaishali district whose Class XII students were erroneously, and by some accounts knowingly, declared toppers in the state despite their lack of even fundamental knowledge in their subjects.

The raids followed after the Education Department lodged FIRs against the three students on late Monday night with the Kotwali police station.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, under pressure from the opposition, had ordered full probe into the scandal by a Special Investigative Team 'to bring the culprits to justice'.

Police also questioned the BSEB Chairperson Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh, Balak High School Principal B P Yadav, and Bishun Roy College owner Bachcha Rai in connection with the scandal.

Since the scandal broke out about ten days ago, the BSEB had revoked the honors of the three toppers including Saurabh Shreshtha, Rahul Kumar, and Ruby Rai.

Meanwhile, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) President Lalu Prasad Yadav, at a press conference in Patna on Tuesday, refused to take questions on this issue only saying the 'culprits would be caught and put behind bars'.

A close associate of the RJD chief, Vishun Rai College owner Bachcha Rai is said to have campaigned heavily for both Tej Pratap Yadav and Tejaswi Yadav  the two sons of Lalu and Rabri Devi  in the last Assembly elections.
Patna: Less than a month after he was honored by the Intermediate Education Council (IEC) for his service as the chairman of the Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB), Lalkeshwar Singh was on the run from the law after police filed an FIR against him for the bungling in the Class XII result now being referred to as the 'Toppersgate'.

Singh, seeing impending arrest in the wake of the FIR filed by the Bihar Education Department on late Monday night, resigned from his post and allegedly went into hiding after police failed to make a contact with him at his office or his known addresses, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Manu Maharaj said.

As reported, three students including Saurabh Shreshtha, Rahul Kumar, and Ruby Rai were declared toppers in their Intermediate Board exams only to be exposed as 'fake toppers' who achieved the dubious honors with the help of Lalkeshwar Singh, Balak High School (Patna) Principal B P Yadav, and Vaishali-based Bishun Rai College owner/director Bachcha Rai.

The Nitish government wasted no time in filling the vacant post by transferring Development Commissioner Anand Kishore as the new Chairperson of the BSEB.

The three 'toppers' against whom FIRs were lodged on Monday night have also chose to skip the town to evade arrest, officials said.

Meanwhile, police have arrested five persons in the case including four employees of the two schools.

"Raids are being conducted to apprehend Singh and others and more arrests are likely to be made in the coming days, the SSP, who led the raid of the Intermediate Education Council office in Patna on Wednesday, said adding notices have been slapped at their known addresses to give up and surrender before the police to allow the law to take its course.
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About 75% of military recruits arrive at a training base with no bank account and have to be bussed to a local bank to open one, says Jill Castilla, CEO of Citizens Bank of Edmond. The bank's team is building a platform that will help service members save and build credit.
Khamenei on Negotiations with US

06/08/16

By Ellie Geranmayeh (source: LobeLog)





On Friday, Irans Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made a significant speech that categorically ruled out negotiations with the United States beyond nuclear issues. The anti-US rhetoric itself was unsurprising given that the speech marked the 27th anniversary of the death of Irans first supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. But the content of the speech, an important reflection of how Khamenei is taking stock in the aftermath of the nuclear deal, explicitly underscored three aspects of Irans foreign policy trajectory.

First, Khamenei harshly reiterated that, although Iran had fulfilled its obligations under the nuclear deal, the US was disloyal in keeping its end of the bargain. This reflects a growing sentiment within the Iranian leadership that, although sanctions have been eased in accordance with the nuclear deal, the psychological fear of US Treasury enforcement continues to linger over international financial institutions and the US has not made its best effort to remove barriers to doing legitimate business with Iran.

More relevant to this part of the speech is what the Supreme Leader did not say. Although Khamenei scorned the United States, at no point did he suggest that Iran should take counter-measures with respect to its implementation of the nuclear deal. Despite its grievances with the United States, Iran will continue fulfill its obligations vis-a-vis the P5+1, as consistently confirmed by the International Atomic Energy Agency since January.

Second, in perhaps the most important part of the speech, Khamenei suggested that the nuclear talks served as precedent that Iran should not make deals with the United States because the outcome would inherently be anti-Iran. He accused the US of continuing its destructive position vis-a-vis Iran despite the latter making concessions during the nuclear negotiations. The negotiations had been an experience for Iran, but one that seemed to indicate that the United States would not change its destructive role in any future talks on missiles, human right, or terrorism.

This segment of Khameneis speech directly links to a comment he made in April 2015 after Iran and the P5+1 agreed on the framework of a nuclear deal in Lausanne. He stated that if the other side (i.e. the United States) stops its usual obstinacy, this will be an experience for [Iran] and we will find out that we can negotiate with it over other matters as well. At that time, some senior Iranian officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, placed great emphasis on this statement. They viewed it as a signal from the Supreme Leader that if the nuclear negotiations, and eventually the deal itself, established a positive precedent and provided dividends, then Tehran would be open to a bargaining process with the United States on matters beyond the nuclear file.

Third, given the experience and the outcome of the nuclear talks, the Supreme Leader ruled out cooperation with the United States on regional conflicts. After referencing the Syrian crisis, Khamenei noted that Americas aims in the region are 180 degrees opposed to Irans. To reach a compromise on regional issues with the United States, Khamenei noted that Iran would need to make concessions and play by the rules set by the United States-a move that Khamenei stated that he opposed. This echoes the fears of many within the Iranian security establishment that the US-Russian-led political track on Syria is a bid to force unfavorable terms onto Iran concerning its regional strategic interests.

The nuclear deal created a political opening for the West and Iran to engage on regional diplomacy, most urgently and clearly seen through Irans inclusion in international talks over the Syrian crisis. Yet almost a year after signing the nuclear deal, there has been little meaningful movement either from Iran or the West to maximize the potential of this opening. Although the nuclear negotiations have taken Iran-US bilateral relations to unprecedented levels, the animosity persists. In his latest speech, the Supreme Leader made a clear connection between the conditions that exist following the nuclear deal and his strong unwillingness for Iran to participate more actively in US-led regional diplomacy. As long as he perceives that the United States is dedicated to the economic and political isolation of the Islamic Republic, Khamenei is likely to hold to this position and therefore limit President Hassan Rouhanis diplomatic outreach on regional security.





About the author:

Ellie Geranmayeh is a policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations based in London since October 2013. She focuses on European foreign policy in relation to Iran on the nuclear talks and wider regional issues.

Follow Ellie Geranmayeh on twitter
West invents fake documents to normalize Iran-U.S. ties: Larijani

06/08/16

Source: Tehran Times

TEHRAN - Iranian Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani said on Tuesday that the West is seeking to normalize Iran's relations with the U.S. by publishing "fake documents" pertaining to Imam Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Revolution.





Larijani was referring to a BBC report published on Friday in which it claimed that Imam Khomeini sent a secret letter to President Jimmy Carter just prior to the victory of the Islamic revolution promising to protect the U.S. interests if the Shah regime is toppled.

Speaking in an open session of the parliament, Larijani said publication of the fake document was a "mischievous" act aimed at questioning Imam Khomeini's "unwavering struggle" against hegemonic system.

In the report BBC claimed Imam Khomeini told the White House not to panic at the prospect of losing a strategic ally of 37 years and assured them that he, too, would be a friend.







Gary Sick, a U.S. academic and analyst of Middle East affairs who served on the U.S. National Security Council, said, "Apart from selective quotations, there are some factual errors in the BBC report."

'Washington's allegation against Iran is unwise'

Larijani also pointed to the annual U.S. report on terrorism which put Iran on the list of countries supporting terrorism, describing the report as "unwise".

Contrary to such a claim it is clear for the world that Iran is fighting terrorism in the Middle East, Larijani said in an indirect reference to Iran's advisory support to Iraq and Syria in their fight against ISIL.

Iranian Foreign Ministry issued a strongly worded statement calling the report "illusory". The statement also said, "Had it not been for the U.S. military interventions and its destructive supports for terrorist groups in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, and Yemen, the global community would have not incurred heavy costs of worldwide confrontation with the terrorist groups."

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari also said on Monday that the report is "invalid" and "politicized".
Iran to three U.S. Congressmen: Your visa request is publicity stunt

06/08/16

Source: Tehran Times

TEHRAN - The office of Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad issued a letter on Tuesday rejecting a request by three U.S. Republican Congressmen to receive visas to visit Iran to monitor the July 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and great powers. The letter said, We consider your visa request to have been a publicity stunt.



Republican Representatives Mike Pompeo, Lee Zeldin and Frank LoBiondo filed their visa applications at the Iranian Interests Section in Washingtonto, DC on February 4.

Republican Representatives Mike Pompeo, Lee Zeldin and Frank LoBiondo filed their visa applications at the Iranian Interests Section in Washingtonto, DC on February 4.



The three Republican lawmakers Frank LoBiondo of New Jersey, Mike Pompeo of Kansas and Lee Zeldin of New York, opposed the nuclear deal between Iran and the 5+1 group (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany).

Following is the full text of the letter published on the Iranian Foreign Ministrys website:

Congressmen,

The Foreign Minister has been informed of your letter of April 12, 2016, concerning your purported visa request. In this regard, we draw your attention to the following:

- Despite what you seem to presume, members of the U.S Congress do not get to dictate the policies of other countries. This clearly applies to Iranian visa policies. Bear in mind that as members of the U.S. Congress you are not a global authority.

- The nuclear agreement known as JCPOA has clearly specified that the sole body competent for monitoring the implementation of its nuclear provisions is the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). No JCPOA participant, including the United States, and certainly no citizen or official of these countries, can arrogate any such right to monitor the implementation of JCPOA to itself, nor are they authorized by the JCPOA or other provisions of international law to encroach upon Iranian sovereignty by claiming such monitoring authority.

- In the modern era, visits to sites or parliamentary or other delegations to monitor elections are made upon invitations and through bilateral agreements between sovereign states or based on reciprocal arrangements, and not upon unilateral demands by self-arrogating individuals or parliamentarians. It bears reminding that Iran and the United States do not have diplomatic relations, and as such, there are no reciprocal monitoring arrangements between the two countries.

The nuclear agreement known as JCPOA has clearly specified that the sole body competent for monitoring the implementation of its nuclear provisions is the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

- The U.S. Congress has recently enacted legislation that bars people-ordinarily subject to visa waiver rules- who travel to Iran to enter the United States without obtaining a visa. And, when Secretary Kerry, in fulfilling U.S. obligations emanating from the JCPOA, promised to waive restrictions on the visa waiver program for individuals who have traveled to Iran, some of you are on record as saying that waiving restrictions for persons who have traveled to Iran or who hold Iranian citizenship would put U.S. citizens at risk. Surely it is ironic that you believe that going to Iran would radicalize and turn citizens of all other countries into potential security risks for the United States; but you still seek to visit Iran and believe that such a visit will have no such radicalizing effect on you.

- In spite of your claim, since 1980 when the U.S. broke off diplomatic relations with Iran-Iranian government officials are generally barred from entering the U.S. We are only permitted on a case-by-case basis and after a very lengthy and unusually difficult and highly selective process to enter the U.S. to attend meetings of international organizations located on U.S. soil; this is while the U.S. is legally required to grant free and unrestricted access as per its international obligations under relevant multilateral agreements. This obligation has never been consistently and faithfully observed. And despite what you seem to believe, Iranian diplomats and nationals who work at the United Nations or come to New York to attend UN meetings, are all restricted to a 25 mile radius of Columbus Circle in Manhattan. That is the extent of the hospitality that you boast about in your letter.

Surely it is ironic that you believe that going to Iran would radicalize and turn citizens of all other countries into potential security risks for the United States; but you still seek to visit Iran and believe that such a visit will have no such radicalizing effect on you.

- From the time when the manufactured nuclear crisis has been settled through the JCPOA, tens of thousands of tourists, academics, investors, students and businesspeople from around the world - including many Americans - have obtained visas and travelled to Iran without any delay or complication. But they have been able to do so by making requests consistent with the relevant regulations of the host country and in the appropriate respectful manner and not in the completely inappropriate way you have demanded to visit Iran and interfere in what is of no relevance to your official functions. We doubt that any self-respecting country would grant a visa under such circumstances.

- In sum, we consider your visa request to have been a publicity stunt and not an appropriate request to visit a sovereign country; and it has, and will continue to be, treated in that spirit.

Office of the Minister for Foreign Affairs of

The Islamic Republic of Iran
Iran, Russia, Syria defense chiefs to meet in Tehran

06/08/16

Source: Press TV

Defense ministers from Iran, Russia and Syria are scheduled to meet in Tehran on Thurday to discuss the campaign against terrorism as well the recent developments in the Middle East. Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu and his Syrian counterpart Fahd Jassem al-Freij will participate in the meeting on the official invitation of their Iranian counterpart Hossein Dehqan.



Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu (L), and Iran's Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehghan in Tehran, Iran, January 20, 2015.

(Photo by

Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu (L), and Iran's Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehghan in Tehran, Iran, January 20, 2015.(Photo by Islamic Republic News Agency

The defense ministers are to exchange viewpoints on the latest regional developments and ways to strengthen and extend the fight against terrorism during the trilateral meeting, the IRNA news agency reported.

In a speech to the newly-elected parliament in Syria on Tuesday, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad expressed gratitude for Russia, China, and Iran for the support they have provided to the Damascus government.

He also thanked the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah.

The Syrian president further emphasized that the ties among Damascus, Tehran and Moscow are stronger than ever.

The remarks came just one day after Russia pledged to offer "the most active" support to the Syrian government, around the strategic northern city of Aleppo, located 350 kilometers (217 miles) north of Damascus.

Since September 30, 2015, Russia has been conducting airstrikes against Daesh and other terrorist groups in Syria at the Syrian government's request.

Iran has also been offering advisory military assistance to the Syrian government.

Syria has been gripped by a foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. UN special envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura estimates that over 400,000 people have been killed in the conflict.
Chromebooks are fantastic PCs for people who just need the basics and a computer that doesnt require a lot of maintenace. Because of that philosophy, a Chromebook is already an ultra-secure computer straight out of the box.

But you can always do more, particularly if you want to minimize traces of your internet wanderings, or prevent your every online action from contributing to an advertising profile.

You may share a Chromebook with others or desire a setup thats protected against the latest security threats. Perhaps its time for a little de-Googling in your life, as the giant from Mountain View can collect a lot of information about you.

Whatever your reasons, here are some ways to fortify your Chromebooks security and privacy.

Own your Google security

Google Prompts are an easy way to add two-factor authentication to your Google Account. IDG

Chrome OS benefits from Googles ongoing security efforts to identify malicious websites and sandbox each browser tab so one site cant take down your whole computer.

Good security, however, includes you and how you manage your own data. In this case, it means ensuring that youve properly secured your own Google account. Your Google Account is the major gate to your Chromebook so you should have a solid password and use two-factor authentication.

Google now makes two-factor authentication extremely easy via Google prompts. Instead of getting a code from an authentication app, Googles prompts throw up an alert on your mobile devices running Android or iOS (iPhone 5S and up). You can then authorize signing in to your Google account by simply tapping Yes on your phone.

Another alternative is to use a security key such as YubiKey to sign in. This can also be assigned as a two-factor backup if your phone isnt nearby. You can set up security keys in the two-factor authentication section of your Google Account.

One thing you definitely dont want to do is use text or voice messages as two-factor authentication. Text messages arent encrypted, you can easily get phished, and the phone company can be fooled into transferring your phone number to an attacker. If you are using SMS authentication, turn it off in the two-factor authentication section linked above.

If you want a little more convenience for sign-in, however, your Chromebook can also use your phone as authentication instead of a password. Anytime your phone is near your Chromebook, it will just automagically unlock. Thats a nice convenience feature, but it may not be desirable for some. If you want to set this up go to Settings > Connected Devices > Android phone > Set up and follow the instructions.

In your Chromebook settings, you can also tweak a number of different features. For maximum security, restrict sign-in to just your account.

This means no one else can sign in and use your Chromebooknosy relatives or miscreant youth will be denied at every turn.

Chromebooks built-in security options allow you to manage who uses your device. IDG

If others are determined to use your Chromebook, you can at least assert a little more control by allowing only specific Google accounts to use your device. To start, go to Settings > Security and Privacy > Manage other people and then activate the option that says Restrict sign-in to the following users. Next, click Add user, and then enter their Google Account email address. Its also a good idea to deactivate the Enable Guest browsing option on this page for maximum user restriction.

If any of the people on your device are also children, you can enable Googles parental controls by going to Settings > Accounts > Parental Controls. Click Set up and follow the instructions.

If youre going to loan your Chromebook to someone else or plan to resell it, theres a very easy method to wipe your data from the device. Use the Powerwash feature in Settings > Advanced > Reset settings > Powerwash > Reset.

Resetting a Chromebook is different from doing this to a Windows PC since Chromebooks largely leave all important files in the cloud. Youll still want to check if you have any unique files saved to your laptop, but with 32GB to 64GB of storage its not like you can have that many in the first place.

Leave no trace

UBlock Origin at work on a Chromebook. IDG

Youve probably had the experience of checking out, say, a new tent on Amazon, and then suddenly ads for that shelter appear on every site you visiteven after youve bought it.

You can stop the madness with privacy-focused extensions like Privacy Badger, an extension from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and uBlock Origin. The latter is an explicit ad blocker, while the EFF extension is focused on blocking trackers. Both allow you to whitelist specific sites if you need to.

Another helpful extension from the EFF privacy advocates is HTTPS Everywhere, an extension that forces a secure HTTPS (the lock symbol) connection when available on sites you visit. HTTPS Everywhere isnt as necessary as it once was thanks to Google. The search giant basically forced any HTTPS holdouts to enable the security feature through warnings in Chrome, as well as considering it as a factor for search rankings.

Nevertheless, you will run across non-secure sites that dont default to HTTPS and this extension can help. Although if the site doesnt have an HTTPS option at all then this extension wont helpsite owners need to enable it and acquire an SSL/TSL certificate.

Also, keep a careful eye on your extensions. Google is better at vetting the extensions you can install in Chrome. Nevertheless, its still best to stick to well-known extensions. Check the reviews in the Chrome Web Store as well to see what others have to say.

Finally, you can also use a VPN.

A VPN wont protect you from advertisers (or Google or Facebook), but it can shield your activity from your internet service provider (if thats a concern for you), as well as add an extra layer of security when using public Wi-Fi networks.

Our favorite VPN provider for privacy and security is Mullvad, but we have tons of other recommendations as well in our best VPNs roundup.

Back off on the Google

Maybe you want to give Google a little less information to have on you (all those details can lead to some interesting results). One solution is to switch your default search provider to DuckDuckGo. Its a privacy-focused search engine that doesnt track your search history.

Chrome OS lets you change your default search engine. IDG

To do this, go to DuckDuckGo, right-click in the address bar, and select Edit Search Engines. Then, from the list of Other search engines, click the three vertical lines next to DuckDuckGo and select Make default. Now when you type a search query in Chrome, it will be powered by the quacky search engine that keeps your secrets safe.

Another alternative is to use Chromes Guest Mode, which enables you to browse with Chrome without attaching any of the history to your Google account. All you need to do is sign out of your current session and log in as a guest (unless you disabled it in the previous step). Its perfect for when you dont want your browsing history to follow you around for all time, though this feature does allow others to log in to your device and use it.

Finally, just like with Chrome on Windows or macOS, Chrome OS has an incognito mode where Chrome promises not to track or record your online activity in any way when using it.

Going darker

You can further minimize Googles hold on your personal information by turning off autofill and adjusting automatic sync in Chrome. While the autofill feature is definitely convenient, you may not want to have this feature at the ready to put in your name, address, email, and more in online forms. As for sync, well make it more secure since killing it off means your search browsing history, bookmarks, and other preferences will remain local to that machine, which is not particularly convenient.

To deal with Autofill you need to adjust the settings in Chrome itself by entering chrome://settings/autofill into the browsers address bar. Here, you can turn off the settings for Chrome that offer to remember or fill in passwords, payment methods, and addresses. If you want this feature but dont want Google to handle them, a password manager with a Chrome extension can take care of this for you. Check out our roundup of the best paid and free password managers to find one thats right for you.

To continue our journey, open the Chrome OS settings app and go to Settings > Accounts > Sync and Google services. Under Other Google services turn off the following: Autocomplete searches and URLs, Help improve Chromes features and performance, Make searches and browsing better, and Enhanced spell check. You can also turn off Google Drive search suggestions, but if youve already got your documents in Google Drive, well \_()_/.

Next, lets bump up your Google Sync settings in order to keep syncing but make your data more private. To do this go to Settings > Accounts > Sync and Google services again and under Encryption options select the radio button for encrypting with your own passphrase. The catch here is that youll have to remember your passphrase, but thats easily solved if you have a password manager.

Google Assistant can be turned off and adjusted in Settings. IDG

Lets also turn off one final key featurenamely, Google Assistant. Go to Security > Search and Assistant > Google Assistant. If you just want to forget the whole thing, turn the slider at the top of the screen to Off. If you want to keep Google Assistant activated, then at the very least turn off Screen context, which allows Google Assistant to take a screenshot of your display when you ask questions. I mean, what?

If you dont want the voice activation, then turn off Hey Google using the drop-down menu on this screen.

To go even deeper into the privacy woods, you can switch up your DNS server to a provider that wont log or retain these lookups. By default, your administrator or internet service provider may retain this information.

To change the DNS settings on your Chromebook, first head to the the Chrome menu, choose Settings > Network and select your active Wi-Fi connection.

Next scroll down to the Network tab and choose the radio button labeled Custom name servers. Four text entry boxes will appear below the button. Now its just a matter of choosing your DNS provider. There are a number of free services such as OpenDNS or DNS Watch. If you use OpenDNS then enter 208.67.222.222 or 208.67.220.220 in the first two boxes. Or if you want to use Family Shield DNS that blocks adult content use 208.67.222.123 and 208.67.220.123. Now you can close this up, and youre all set. If you want to be extra sure youre using the new DNS you could disconnect and reconnect to Wi-Fi, but its not necessary.

DNS settings are configured on a per-connection basis. If you use multiple networks regularly then youll have to edit the DNS settings for each to use your new DNS servers on them.

While your Chromebook is already about as secure a computer as you can get, it cant hurt to go the extra mile. With a few strategic moves, your Chromebook and your Google Account will be better protected against many of the dangers lurking on the web.
Google started testing a Material Design makeover on YouTube earlier this year, and now its doing the same for the companys search engine on the desktop. A small set of Google users noticed their Google.com searches displaying material design touches and shared the news on Reddit and Twitter, as first reported by Engadget.

Google introduced Material Design in June 2014, saying in a blog post that the new aesthetic would be one consistent design that spans devices across mobile, desktop, and beyond.

YouTubes Material Design makeover is currently in testing.

The change will be noticeable to longtime Google users, but at the same time the new design is more about subtle tweaks than drastic changes. You can find an image of Googles Material Design test on Imgur.

In the new Material Design look the background for the search results page is gray instead of white. Each search result is also cordoned off in a card-style layout instead of the unified list of results we have now. The cards do look nicer, but it suggests there will be fewer results on the first page. That may not matter too much, however, as Google has noted numerous times that most people will either find what theyre looking for in the first few results or move on.

Engadget also says that the information boxes that appear on the right side of the search results page are dropping in-line with the rest of the results. As weve seen in other iterations of Material Design, the settings cog is replaced by three vertical dots.

The impact on you: Dont count on seeing the new Material Design changes in your search results anytime soon. This appears to be a small-scale test and will likely change many times before it goes liveassuming it does roll out to everyone. There also doesnt appear to be a trick to get Google.com to switch to Material Design the way there was with the YouTube Material Design tests that popped up in late April.
Intel is providing fewer excuses to miss meetings by bringing support for its Unite technology to iPads, and later, to Chromebooks.

Unite is designed to make it easier for on-site and remote attendees to log in, securely collaborate and share whiteboards and monitors during meetings. After logging into a central hub PC  a Windows desktop typically located in a meeting room  attendees can share documents and video, or switch on hardware like projectors.

The Unite client software logs attendees, who may use either Mac or Windows machines, into the hub PC. Through the hub, attendees in a conference room and outside can share presentations on a large monitor or other computing devices.

The client software will now work with the iPad, and support will be added for Chromebooks in the future, said Tom Garrison, vice president in the Client Computing Group and general manager of the Business Client Platforms division at Intel.

Garrison didnt provide a timeline for when Chromebook support would be added. Intel adds new features to Unite every six months, and Chromebook support could be in one of those upgrade cycles. Chromebooks have been popular in the education market, which is where Intel is also targeting Unite.

Unite has competition in the form of Webex, Skype, GoToMeeting and other client software designed for meetings and collaboration. But the chip-maker hopes to reach a wider audience by getting its software pre-installed in PCs. It remains to be seen whether most PC buyers welcome the move, or consider the technology to be unwanted bloatware.

Internally, Intel has been using the software for more than a year. Unite helps start meetings quickly, which helps save time and money. Intel has said this year it hopes to improve productivity by 112,000 hours with Unite deployed in 2,300 meeting rooms.

Intel has also made incremental improvements to Unite. Videos can be shared between participants in meetings, which is an improvement over the ability to share only static images and Powerpoint slides. Improvements have also been made to security, scheduling and log-in features.

For Intel, Unite is an unconventional product as it doesnt necessarily highlight the chip-makers hardware technology. One prerequisite is that the hub PC needs a Core processor with vPro technology. But the client PCs using the Unite client software have no such requirement of using Intel technology.

Over time, Intel has larger plans to tie Unite with WiGig, which the chip-maker says will be useful in meeting rooms. Intel currently sells a wireless dock with WiGig, which is faster than Wi-Fi, and it could be used to project presentations on large conference room monitors. Unite currently relies mostly on Wi-Fi technology.

Garrison said Unite will also make its way into areas like Internet of Things, which is a major area of focus for Intel as it moves beyond being just a PC company.
In the hard-fought 47th Assembly District, incumbent Cheryl Brown appears headed for the general election in November.

Votes counted by midnight show shes likely to face off against fellow Democrat Eloise Reyes, who was leading Republican Aissa Chanel Sanchez by a solid margin.

The top two vote-getters, regardless of party, advance to the November general election.

The race had attracted a large amount of outside interest as Reyes challenged Brown, contending that Brown put special interests ahead of her constituents.

Brown countered that Reyes campaign was backed by those who objected to Browns independent style.

Both Democrats have raised six figures for their campaigns, and Sacramento Democrats are having to choose sides in whats been billed as a showdown between establishment Democrats and progressives who see moderates like Brown as beholden to business interests.

The donations have included $1 million from Chevron for a group supporting Brown  founder of the Black Voice News  leading to criticism from Reyes, a Colton attorney competing on Browns left.

The 47th Assembly District includes part of the city of San Bernardino as well as Colton, Fontana, Grand Terrace and Rialto.
In a telephone interview, California Republican Party Chairman Jim Brulte declined to comment on Trump.

He said he expected Democratic turnout in the state to be above historic norms and GOP turnout to be below historic norms. The prospect of two Democrats advancing out of the U.S. Senate primary doesnt concern me at all, Brulte said.

Having two Democrats spend all of their money attacking other Democrats, attacking each other is probably better than having (Democratic candidate and state Attorney General) Kamala Harris be able to give away half of her money to (Senate Minority Leader) Harry Reid and other entities that are trying to eliminate the Republican majority in the U.S. Senate, he said.

RELATED

RESULTS: How the Inland area voted

Clinton embraces history and Trump unveils plan

Hillary Clinton trumps Sanders in California primary

How did you local race turn out: Check our race by race summaries

Clinton embraces historic moment  and supporters bask in the glow

Turnout called solid; some voters say parties switched

Photos of election day around the Inland Empire
Murrieta police officers on Saturday, June 4, arrested four people and uncovered a stolen car after responding to a call that the people were acting suspiciously, authorities said.

Melissa Nicole Soto, 20, of Nuevo, Erik Johnston Nelson, 29, of Murrieta, Andrew Anthony Yanez, 21, of Perris and Ryan Patrick Brown, 29, of Menifee were all arrested and booked into Southwest Detention Center in French Valley, according to a Murrieta police news release.

Police say they went to the 25000 block of Madison Avenue in Murrieta after receiving a report that a group of people in two cars was acting suspiciously and possibly using drugs.

When they got to the area, they found two cars that matched the description of the cars the caller gave them, according to the release.

The did a records check on the two cars and the cars occupants. They say they discovered one of the cars was stolen with stolen items inside.

Police say they also learned that there were felony narcotics warrants for Nelson, Soto and Yanez, and Brown was on probation for having stolen a vehicle.

Police say Soto, Nelson and Yanez were arrested on suspicion of driving a vehicle without the owners consent and possessing a known stolen vehicle, among other counts.

Brown was arrested on suspicion of violating his probation, possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Contact the writer: 951-368-9693, agroves@pressenterprise.com or @AlexDGroves on Twitter.
Hemet Police Chief Dave Brown posted this message on the departments Facebook page in the wake of the apparent defeat of Measure E, a proposal that would have increased sales tax in the city by 1 percent to pay for more police and fire services.

The measure received 62.55 percent approval, but needed a two-third majority because it is a special tax dedicated toward a specific cause.

A MESSAGE FROM THE CHIEF:

Today is the most important day in the future of our city. How we react to the sting and disappointment of the narrow rejection of Measure E will define what we will become. The easiest, and perhaps most fulfilling reaction would be to lash out at the few individuals who attacked us in the final weeks. But that would only feel good for a while and get nothing accomplished. We could wallow in defeat and fret about our future. And while there is good reason to fret, Id encourage avoiding that path at all cost as its counterproductive.

This morning I want to encourage all those who love and care about this city to focus on 3 things: The unity and momentum that have been built around this cause is simply amazing. Never in my life have I seen our community so united and we need to seize that momentum moving forward.

Second, you need to know that the character, professionalism and commitment of the Hemet Police Department staff is unwavering. The men and women of this department will not miss a step in their brave and superior service to you. They have earned your continued support.

And lastly, we must apply our collective efforts, moving forward, to find a way get the resources necessary to protect the good people of Hemet from the increasing violence and deteriorating quality of life. As your chief, I am fully committed to all three. Be safe today.

David M. Brown, Chief of Police
Riverside gave birth to Californias citrus industry. Now its hoping to save it.

A new partnership between UC Riverside and the Citrus Research Foundation is generating a unique research facility that scientists hope will lead to a cure for huanglongbing, a so-far incurable bacterial disease that has decimated citrus groves in China, Brazil and Florida. The $8 million new lab will greatly speed that process, scientists say. The plan is to break ground in October and to open the lab next year.

On Monday, officials from both UCR and the foundation, as well as local politicians and industry representatives, met to kick off the new venture with speeches about the history of the local citrus industry and the importance of eradicating the effects of huanglongbing.

RELATEd: Citrus psyllid war comes to S.B. County (April 26, 2016)

Also called citrus greening, the disease is spread by the tiny Asian citrus psyllid. The invasive insect has been found throughout Southern California, and in some northern counties. Two trees in residential areas have been found to be infected with huanglongbing  one in Hacienda Heights in 2012, and another in San Gabriel a year ago  and intense quarantine restrictions were put in place to prevent its spread.

Experts say if it gets into commercial groves, it could ruin Californias citrus industry, which is valued at between $1 billion and $3 billion. The disease has already cost Florida more than $4 billion in lost citrus. More than 26 million citrus trees have been lost in Brazil.

That threat creates understandable anxiety not only on the part of growers, but researchers as well.

RELATED: UC Riverside hopes to become go-to research facility (Sept. 20, 2015)

We need a solution for this today, said UCR plant scientist Chandrika Ramadugu. We needed it three years ago.

The disease attacks the trees in several ways. The psyllids themselves feed on new shoots and leaves, causing the leaves to curl and become misshapen. The bacteria impedes the growth of new shoots and roots. Infected trees produce misshapen, bitter-tasting fruit with a thick green peel. The trees usually die within three to five years.

It may take 10 years for the goals of the new citrus lab to be realized, but Michael Pazzani, UCRs vice chancellor for research, said he thinks the universitys scientists, along with others working at the lab, can solve the problem by creating new hybrids that are immune to the disease.

You will see resistant varieties coming out in the next decade, Pazzani said. That probably is the ultimate solution.

RELATED: What is huanglingbing  aka citrus greening disease? (Aug. 30, 2015)

That solution would take much longer without scientists ability to do controlled experiments on actual plants. The 6,000-square-foot lab, with an 11,000-square-foot attached greenhouse, will provide a contained space where researchers can study the effects of huanglongbing without releasing it into the environment.

Its very frustrating to have these big problems but it being so difficult to work on solutions, said UCR geneticist Mikeal Roose.

Roose thinks the answer to the problem is breeding plants that are resistant to huanglongbing with existing commercial species.

Most of the plants found to be resistant to the disease are distant relatives of commercial citrus and dont produce anything close to a marketable fruit. Researchers say it will take several generations to create a resistant tree that is commercially viable.

RELATED: New test detectcs citrus greening disease (Aug. 26, 2015)

We have made crosses already and we have plants we want to use in the test for resistance, Roose said.

That wont be possible until the new lab opens. When it does, he said, It potentially could facilitate a real breakthrough.

Pazzani and other UCR officials have been trying to secure funding for such a lab for several years. The mechanisms in place for supporting such research, Pazzani said, typically funnel money into experimentation and not into construction. Partnering with the newly formed industry group, the Citrus Research Foundation, was a way to solve that problem. The foundation, which is supported by the states citrus growers, will provide all the funding for the new building, which will be built about a half-mile from the university at Rustin and Marlborough avenues.

The people in industry said, This is important to us,  Pazzani said.

RELATED: Pups job is to sniff out pests (Feb. 20, 2015)

Joel Nelsen, director of the foundation, is also president of California Citrus Mutual, a nonprofit industry advocate. He said growers have an urgent interest in solving the citrus greening problem.

If we want to get ahead of this ballgame, Nelsen said, we need to invest in this program. Were willing to put the money into it.

Outside of two small research stations, the only other such lab in the state is at UC Davis. And only a small portion of that lab is available for citrus. The UCR lab will be devoted to studying nothing but huanglongbing.

Researcher Ramadugu has been traveling back and forth to Davis to test the resistance of new breeds of citrus. The new lab, she said, cant open too soon.

If we have it here, I can do 10 times more 10 times faster and I would have complete control, she said. I would love that.

So would growers, said Nelsen.

I believe well find a cure in our facility, he said.

Contact the writer: mmuckenfuss@pressenterprise.com or 951-368-9595
It was a sober reckoning.

Beaumont city officials on Tuesday night heard a long-awaited accounting of how more than $300 million in city bond funds were spent in the last 20 years  which includes money that prosecutors allege was embezzled by former city administrators.

The city-commissioned report by the Orange-based Urban Futures consulting firm has been more than six months in the making. It involved tracking down thousands of bond expenditures ostensibly made to pay for sewers, streets, sidewalks and other public works needed as the citys population more than quadrupled to more 40,000 people.

In total we looked at 68,500 pages of documents  and there is still some missing information, said Michael Busch, Urban Futures CEO.

The report found that General Government Management Services, a company owned by former City Manager Alan Kapanicas, received $1.2 million in bond funds, including $451,222 for charges related to issuing the bonds and $512,042 for administrative costs.

It also found that $45.4 million went to Urban Logic Consultants, an engineering and planning firm whose owners  David Dillon, Ernest Egger and Deepak Moorjani  served, respectively, as the citys economic development, planning and public works directors. They and Kapanicas are among those facing criminal corruption charges.

Most of this money was billed for engineering and project management services. But many of the invoices are vague and list only job titles and the number of hours worked.

What we cant tell is what they did, Busch said.

It also showed that former Finance Director William Aylward received $165,300 in bond funds.

Aylward also faces criminal corruption charges.

The report came just four weeks after Kapanicas and six other former city officials were arrested for 94 felony corruption charges, which included several charges that allege embezzlement of these city bond funds.

Their arraignments are set for Aug. 19.

Beyond payments to their own companies, another $53.1 million went to city accounts.

The criminal charges followed a state audit last fall that found a total lack of accounting for city bond funds.

Public records show that Kapanicas and Moorjani, acting as city officials, repeatedly approved payments to their own companies from bond accounts held by Union Bank in Los Angeles, bypassing city coffers.

The real lesson here is in knowing how are you going to protect yourself from staff, resident Nancy Hall said to the City Council. How are you going to make sure youre not being scammed again?

Contact the writer: 951-368-9471 or ddanelski@pressenterprise.com
Hillary Clinton has won the Democratic presidential primary in New Jersey, further extending her lead against rival Bernie Sanders on one of the last days of voting.

The Associated Press declared Clinton the presumptive nominee on the eve of Tuesdays election in half a dozen states, but Sanders has vowed to fight on until all the superdelegates are allocated. Clinton leads Sanders both in pledged delegates and superdelegates.

However, according to an AP count, it is no longer possible for Sanders to reach the 2,383 needed to win the nomination based on the remaining available pledged delegates and uncommitted superdelegates.

The Associated Press projected Clinton as the winner with about 23 percent of results in. She had been projected to defeat Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vermont) in New Jersey, based on pre-election polls, and was leading by a margin of about 18 percent.

Clinton was also ahead in early results from New Mexico and South Dakota.

The nights other contests are in North Dakota  which is holding Democratic caucuses  as well as Montana and California, the evenings biggest prize.

The winner of tumultuous, drawn-out Democratic presidential primary race already seems clear: Clinton holds enough Democratic delegates to wrap up the nomination.

But Tuesday night still holds drama, as the party waits to see how Sen. Bernie Sanders will choose to lose.

Sanders, a self-described Democratic socialist from Vermont, rocketed out of obscurity with an urgent call to fight income inequality and big money in politics. He gave Clinton an unexpectedly close race, but now trails her in votes, pledged delegates and un-pledged superdelegates. And, after Tuesday night, there will be no more states to fight over. Only the District of Columbia primary remains.

Sanderss showing in Tuesdays races  especially in California, where the race could be close  may determine whether he tries to fight on to the party convention, seeking to flip super-delegates committed to Clinton.

On Tuesday night, Clinton is likely to give a speech that will officially acknowledge her historic nomination.

RELATED

RESULTS: How the Inland area voted

Clinton embraces history and Trump unveils plan

Hillary Clinton trumps Sanders in California primary

How did you local race turn out: Check our race by race summaries

Clinton embraces historic moment  and supporters bask in the glow

Brulte declines comment on Donald Trump, talks U.S. Senate race

Turnout called solid; some voters say parties switched

Photos of election day around the Inland Empire
In a potentially precedent-setting move, San Jacinto city leaders will look to an agency other than Riverside County for fire protection and emergency medical services.

The City Council this week agreed to join forces with the Idyllwild Fire Protection District in forming a joint powers authority, a government coalition that oversees the financing and operation of a public service.

The councils action means the city would be forming its own force with the support of the district, rather than continuing to contract with the county fire department, as it has done for years.

Other cities struggling with soaring costs under the county system could follow the example, observers say.

With this ground-breaking formation of a JPA for fire services with Idyllwild, we can set the tone (for the region), resident Russ Utz said at the councils hearing Tuesday, June 7.

The goal is to reopen a station on the citys west side at least with medical response personnel since more than 80 percent of emergency calls in the city are health-related.

Because of budget limitations, the city was forced to reduce staffing in 2014, leading to the closure of the station. As a result, that part of town is prone to longer response times from crews working out of the citys lone remaining fire station located downtown.

With the citys contract with the county ending June 30, both Idyllwild and the county offered proposals that would enable the reopening of the western station with a squad geared toward medical responses.

Its not the optimum model, Mayor Andrew Kotyuk said. We cant afford the optimum model.

Idyllwild representatives say they can provide services for $2.66 million, while the countys offer was $3.34 million.

The reason were here is cities all over the county can no longer afford escalating costs, Idyllwild Fire Batalion Chief Mark LaMont said of the districts offer.

County Fire Deputy Chief Glenn Patterson warned that, by going with Idyllwild, the city would not receive the full range of services offered by the county.

County firefighters union representative Gad Amith urged the council to stick with his agency for the safety of residents.

Dont put their lives at risk with a proposal that has enough holes in it to sink a battleship, he said.

Idyllwild firefighter Steve Hunkle argued that the district has an excellent force and record, calling on the council to support its proposal.

While agreeing to form the authority, council members did not make a decision on a staffing model. Meanwhile, the city will negotiate with the county for a temporary contract extension as it transitions to the authority.

Contact the writer: 951-368-9690 or michaelwilliams@pressenterprise.com
Deputies investigating a report of domestic violence in Hesperia Monday shot and killed the property owners dog after it charged at them, officials said.

But they were at the wrong address.

When deputies arrived they believed they were at a home where a domestic violence situation was reported, sheriffs spokeswoman Cindy Bachman said in a phone interview Tuesday. The dog sounded aggressive on the deputys belt recording.

Shortly after 12:30 p.m. deputies assigned to the Hesperia station were called to a home in the 7300 block of Redwood Avenue.

The reporting party told the deputies a domestic disturbance could be heard coming from the home to the left of his, Bachman said.

Deputies went into the yard of the home.

Shortly after entering, two small dogs ran out into the yard and then a large German Shepherd/Labrador mix dog ran out and was immediately aggressive toward the deputies, according to a sheriffs news release.

One of the deputies fired a single round from his service weapon, striking the dog leaving it incapacitated.

Deputies thinking they were investigating a domestic violence situation made contact with a male at the home and began to ask him questions, Bachman said.

They went back to the home of the original reporting party and after a conversation with him they learned he was mistaken. The home where the domestic violence incident wasnt to the left of his home, it was to the right, Bachman said.

The deputies involved feel terrible about what happened, Bachman said. They felt they had no other option since the dog was charging them.

According to sheriffs officials, deputies asked the person at the home if he wanted to take the dog to receive medical aid and he declined. Deputies contacted Animal Control for assistance, however the responsible party declined to have them transport the dog as well, according to officials.

The dog owner, Debra Blackmore tells a different version of events.

According to Blackmores Facebook page, her son and brother-in-law were at the home with five dogs.

They (the deputies) came into the breezeway and Buddy (the dog) went out to see who was coming in, according to the Facebook post. They shot him with their 45.

Blackmore went on to say San Bernardino County Animal Control advised them Buddy needed a veterinarian, but it would cost too much if they took him for the homeowners.

When asked if the county would have paid the medical expenses to save Buddy, Bachman said Its very likely that is what would have happened. Animal control made an offer to transport the dog but the adult at the home declined, Bachman added.

Deputies went to the home where the actual domestic disturbance incident happened. They eventually arrested a woman, Stephanie Roper, 42 of Hesperia, for active warrants issued for suspicion of narcotics violations and grand theft auto.
A beaming Hillary Clinton claimed the Democractic partys nomination for president on Tuesday night, June 7, embracing her role as a glass ceiling-breaking woman and continuing her attack on presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.

Thanks to you, we reached a milestone, the former secretary of state, senator and first lady told a wildly cheering audience in Brooklyn. First time in our nations history that a woman will be a major partys nominee. Tonights victory is not about one person, it belongs to generations of women and men who sacrificed and made this moment possible.

Clinton referenced the decades-long struggle for equal rights for women.

We all owe so much to those who came before, and tonight belongs to all of you, she said.

Clinton won the Democratic presidential primary in New Jersey on Tuesday and further extended her lead against rival Bernie Sanders.

According to an AP count, Clinton is the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee and it is no longer possible for Bernie Sanders to reach the 2,383 needed to win the nomination based on the remaining available pledged delegates and uncommitted superdelegates.

She praised Sanders vigorous campaign that the Vermont senator continues to wage.

I want to congratulate Sen. Sanders for the extraordinary campaign, Clinton said. She said the debates on issues have been good for the Democratic party and the U.S.

As for her likely Republican foe in the general election, Clinton said: Donald Trumpis temperamentally unfit to be president.

Ben Bishin, a professor of political science at UC Riverside, described Clintons victory as a major moment in American history.

She is in and of herself an incredible story, Bishin said. She is one of the most resilient figures in American history. Whether its leading a health care fight as first lady, Bill Clintons scandals as president, running as the odds-on favorite in 2008 and frankly being badly advised (before losing to Barack Obama).

Bishin said Americans are more willing to accept a woman as a nominee for a major political party. And she stood far above the rest of the Democratic candidates for president with her qualifications, Bishin said.

I think these things came together, Bishin said.

This time, Clinton gets the celebration shed hoped for in 2008, when she lost the primary to then-Illinois Sen. Barack Obama  and by many accounts, long before that.

Clinton secured the 2,383 delegates she needed for the nomination on the eve of Tuesdays voting, according to an Associated Press tally. Her total is comprised of pledged delegates won in primaries and caucuses, as well as superdelegates  the party officials and officeholders who can back a candidate of their choosing.

She wasted no time moving toward the general election. Her campaign announced that she would make stops next week in Ohio and Pennsylvania, states that will be pivotal in November.

Her victory speech tonight in Brooklyn carried meaning and history to Clinton and her supporters.

It comes after the one-two punch of clinching the nomination in historic fashion and wrapping up the last big round of primaries. It also marks the eight-year anniversary of Clintons concession speech to Obama, in which she noted her campaign hadnt breached that highest, hardest glass ceiling but that barrier now had about 18 million cracks in it.

Shes now assured of crossing that boundary as the first woman to win the presidential nomination of any major party. How she proceeds toward Election Day begins with mending the stubborn split between her supporters and those of rival Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders  and depends significantly on how well she learns a bracing lesson he taught her: Young people, especially young women, flocked to him in the primaries.

The occasion also opens the gates to flashy endorsements. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco didnt wait for the votes Tuesday to announce her support. Theres a bigger one on the horizon from President Obama, followed by joint appearances.

Clintons supporters basked in the moment.

Riverside resident Peggy Haro, 60, voted for Clinton in 2008 and again Tuesday.

I think its wonderful for her, and its wonderful for women, she said. I think its time for a change. Everyone has to have a chance to be up there, to be president of the United States.

Haro said she was pleased that voters elected a black president, Barack Obama, in 2008 and again in 2012.

San Bernardino City Councilwoman Virginia Marquez, a Democrat, called Clintons apparent victory a historic moment.

I never thought Id be looking at an election that would have a female candidate (for president), Marquez said, recalling her first time voting in the 1976 election for Jimmy Carter. Its an incredible journey.

Marquez said shes confident that Clinton will go on to win in the fall, giving the United States its first female president.

Its very significant as a woman myself, Marquez said. This will speak volumtes to the world that we can elect women.

San Bernardino County Supervisor Josie Gonzales, a Democrat, called Clintons nomination a great political breakthrough.

It definitely identifies the fact that different perspectives, in this case a female perspective and presence, has a strong approval rating and high acceptance level and that bodes well for all women that are attempting to enter and succeed in politics or in the corporate arena, she said.

Women still face challenges of having to work harder than male colleagues or not being taken as seriously, Gonzales said.

The fact is there are many well-camouflaged obstacles, whether its in politics or the corporate world, that continue to present challenges for women, she said.

Riverside League of Women Voters President Joan Donahue said Hillary Clintons expected nomination is an important political moment.

Donahue didnt back Clinton in the primary, but she said she would happily vote for her in November.

Women are well known for getting things done with results that produce a win-win situation, she said.

But Donahue is worried about the reaction from voters who oppose having a woman in a position of such power.

Misogyny is the last holdout of bias, she said.

Ofelia Valdez-Yeager, a Riverside resident, was ecstatic.

Im thrilled, said Valdez-Yeager, past president of the Latino Network, a nonprofit that addresses Latino issues.

When you think of history and what women have had to go through to get the right to vote and strive for equal pay, you say, Oh my gosh, its been a long time coming,' she said. Shes the most qualified woman in my lifetime to be president.

Valdez-Yeager said she attended Clintons recent rally at UC Riverside and, along with her daughter, Marisa Yeager, has been making phone calls for her campaign.

Clinton is articulate, knows the issues and has foreign policy experience as former secretary of state, she said.

Now we have to work hard to make sure the Democratic Party comes together so we can elect the first woman president, Valdez-Yeager said.

Christine Cahraman, 52, of Riverside, said she voted for Sanders on Tuesday but would not hesitate to vote for Clinton in the general election.

As a woman in my early 50s, I should be totally on board for Hillary, but Sanders campaign against corporate money influencing elections earned her vote, Cahraman said.

But she appreciates the historic nature of the day, even if it hasnt fully sunk in yet.

Thats wonderful, and even Hillary said shes not the first woman president for just women. Its a monumental thing.

In San Diego, 82-year-old Harry Backer strolled past cyclists, skateboarders and kayakers on the way to vote for Clinton. The retired teacher, who also worked in construction, said America needs a level-headed, grounded woman with world experience.

Im left of Bernie Sanders, but I know that shes the candidate that can possibly get something done, Backer said.

He also wanted to be part of history in making Clinton the first woman to top the ticket of a major U.S. political party.

Bob Burhenn, 82, a retired Sioux Falls, South Dakota, businessman, said he voted for Clinton because its time to put a woman in the nations highest office.

Men have been in charge long enough, Burhenn said. And theyre smarter than us, anyway.

RELATED

RESULTS: How the Inland area voted

Clinton embraces history and Trump unveils plan

Hillary Clinton trumps Sanders in California primary

How did you local race turn out: Check our race by race summaries

Clinton embraces historic moment  and supporters bask in the glow

Brulte declines comment on Donald Trump, talks U.S. Senate race

Turnout called solid; some voters say parties switched

Photos of election day around the Inland Empire

Staff writers Brian Rokos, Steve Wall, Alicia Robinson, Imran Ghori and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Offering more than just a concert by talented bluegrass groups like the David Grisman Bluegrass Experience or Punch Brothers, Huck Finn Jubilee organizers pride themselves on using the festival to help provide musical education.

And this years festival is set to feature free bluegrass sessions for kids ages 8-16 with instructors from the Folk Music Center in Claremont.

Were looking for kids that maybe have a little bit of musical abilities. If they can play some guitar or even Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. If youve got your kids (at the concert), well take onsite registrations, too, said Sue Oxarart, director of communications for the Greater Ontario Convention & Visitors Bureau, which puts on the event.

The Huck Finn Jubilee will celebrate its 40th anniversary through Sunday at Cucamonga-Guasti Regional Park in Ontario. Children 12 and under get in free; for those older, single-day tickets begin at $50.

Kids taking part in the bluegrass instruction (10 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Saturday-Sunday), which will cover fiddle, banjo, bass, guitar and mandolin, will have the opportunity to perform in a jam session Sunday afternoon, said Oxarart.

Tennessee Mafia Jug Bands Mike Armistead will offer separate music classes for all ages at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Saturday. Hell instruct using jugs and washboards.

I jumped at the opportunity to see if I could do it, Armistead said. Which I know I can. Ive always loved doing education for kids. Someone might end up in a band following their passion. So thats really it in a nutshell.

Armistead said he has ordered enough instruments to accommodate 60 youths: miniature jugs, spoons, washboards with thimbles and all kinds of stuff to irritate parents. I might bring a tambourine; Im not sure.

He said he would include information on how the music has evolved and where it comes from.

Then Ill break it down into a group and start a song, Armistead said.

Outside of the music education, theres a multitude of vendors, a swim lagoon and water slide, a water play area, pedal boats, fishing (a state fishing license is required) and, of course, music.

Among the bands set to perform is experimental/folk/Americana sextet Elephant Revival, which includes fiddle player and vocalist Bridget Law.

I would say were a live performance band, Law said, adding Elephant Revival has made six albums (its latest, Petals, was released in April). One of those is a live recording, titled Sands of Time, that was released last year.

Where we shine and what we do best is put on a show together, Law said.

The group has been together for 10 years, Law said, and thats no accident.

When we started, the intention was  longevity, Law said, and to support each others growth. We come from a part of the country, Colorado and Nederland, Colo., where Leftover Salmon, String Cheese Incident and the Yonder Mountain String Band have been going for 15-20 years. Thirty or so for Leftover Salmon  while our music doesnt particularly sound like them, the business model was something we took note of, for sure.

Don Tucker ran the festival for 37 years, primarily at Mojave Narrows Regional Park in Victorville. It moved to Ontario in 2013. Tucker died in 2012; his family handed over the event to the convention bureau in 2014.

Oxarart said more than 38,000 people attended last year from 20 states, and this year she anticipates more than 40,000 people.

And in honor of the 40th anniversary, we really embraced the name Huck Finn Jubilee. We have Tom Sawyers Village where there will be a lot of kids activities as well as other sections, she said.

Contact the writer: wes.woods@langnews.com; @JournoWes or @IEMusicNow on Twitter
A 44-year-old man is behind bars after officials say he attacked two elderly women and then refused to come out of his home late Tuesday morning.

Benjamin Hudson Phay of San Bernardino was arrested on suspicion of elder abuse and making terrorist threats, according to a San Bernardino County Sheriffs Department statement. While that statement identified the man as Benjamin Thay, booking and arrest logs have his name as Phay.

Deputies were called to a home in the 6100 block of Merito Avenue before 11 a.m. in response to a report of a man, later identified as Phay, who attacked two women and threatened to hurt them. The caller told dispatchers there were rifles in the home and that Phay would not cooperate with law enforcement.

The relationship between Phay and the women was not released.

Deputies and San Bernardino police officers set up a perimeter. Deputies made several announcements over a loudspeaker ordering Phay to come outside, but he refused, according to the statement.

During the short standoff, Phay contacted dispatchers himself but still refused to leave the home, according to sheriffs authorities.

Phay eventually left the home and was taken into custody and booked into the West Valley Detention Center.

Anyone with information regarding this case can call the Central Station at 909-387-3545. Callers wishing to remain anonymous are urged to call the We-Tip Hotline at 1-800-78-CRIME (27463) or you may leave information on the website at www.wetip.com.
Ghana will sell $1 billion Eurobonds this year despite concerns about rising borrowing costs. The West African nation will offer the debt in either July or September, Minister of Finance Seth Terkper said in an interview in the capital, Accra.



The country hired three transaction advisers and remains open to other funding options, Terkper said. A failure to issue a Eurobond would leave a $750 million hole in the 2016 budget with an additional $250 million needed to repay debt, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Mark Bohlund said in a May 23 note.



Just a week ago, the government had begun considering turning to banks for a private loan instead of its usual Eurobond because of the rising cost of issuing debt abroad, according to a Ministry of Finance presentation. The worlds second-biggest cocoa producer agreed to an almost $1 billion International Monetary Fund program in April 2015 as cocoa output declined and prices of commodities including gold fell.



Ghanas prospects are very bright, Terkper said. We had a non-deal roadshow and were waiting for a more favorable window.



Yields on Ghanas $1 billion of Eurobonds due August 2023 rose as much as 4 basis points to 11.14 percent from as low as 11.05 percent before the announcement. They traded at 11.09 percent at 2:55 p.m.



Ghanas borrowing strategy appears to be driven by an expectation that the IMFs endorsement of its fiscal consolidation measures to date will be a significant factor in rallying market sentiment, Manji Cheto, an analyst at Teneo Intelligence in London, said by e-mail. Investors will be watching with some concern the ballooning debt levels in the West African country.



Standard Chartered PLC, Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. will advise Ghana on the sale, Terkper said.



Utility Debt



The country will sell $2 billion in bonds by the end of the year to consolidate the debt of four state utilities, Thomas Akabzaa, chief director of the Petroleum Ministry, said during an interview at a conference in Cape Town.



We are in negotiations with a number of banks, Akabzaa said. The debt will be financed through a 10 percent tax on electricity tariffs and a surcharge on petroleum products, he said.



The bonds proceeds will clear $1.5 billion of debt run up over 20 years by utilities including the Volta River Authority, Ghana Grid Co. and some power distribution units, Akabzaa said.

Source: bloomberg.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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This is to congratulate President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of the Republic of Liberia, on her election as Chairperson of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) for the next 12 months.



As she is the first woman to occupy this position, the challenge of her election is obvious. I have no doubt that, just as she has acquitted herself creditably in her leadership of Liberia, she will discharge this responsibility effectively.



With her set objective being the realization of Vision 2020, which envisions a secure and socially cohesive West Africa, I urge her to use the opportunity to hasten the process of democratic consolidation and West African integration. This will impact positively on the lives of the 350 million people who live in West Africa, as it will, amongst others, allow for the free movement of people, goods and services across borders, thereby assisting in the transformation of West Africas economies, creating jobs for its peoples, and providing decent lives for its populations in conditions of freedom and respect for human rights and the rule of law.



Congratulations to her once again, and best wishes and Gods blessings for her success in this new role.





signed



Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo



2016 NPP Presidential Candidate, Ghana

Source: Peacefmonline.com









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The staff of the PSC Tema Shipyard Limited has called on President John Dramani Mahama, to as a matter of urgency transfer the management of the dry dock into the hands of the Ghana Ports and Harbour Authority (GPHA) for good leadership and management.



Addressing a press briefing held by the Senior and Junior Staff Association Union-MDU of the Tema Shipyard Limited yesterday at Tema, the Acting Chairman of the Senior Staff Association, Christian Dogbe, said the Maritime Dockworkers Union (MDU) District Executive held a press conference requesting that the Tullow Ghana Limited did not have good intensions for the Shipyard and that it was needful the Shipyard be handed over to GPHA.



He noted that a report by the Chris Akumey Committee mentioned the proposal by the workers of the Shipyard demanding GPHA take over the running and management of the shipyard was considered worthy by the committee such that the MDU and its General Secretary fully supported the recommendation of GPHA.



Today what has changed? Why the sudden U-turn by the MDU now recommending a Consortium of GPHA, SSNIT and GNPC? What is SSNIT and GNPC bringing on board? Is it money or expertise? Why did the Government not ask GNPC and SSNIT to also contribute in raising the USD 6.36M but GPHA hand to single handedly cough out the amount? he asked.



The MDU General Secretary and the District Executive have soon forgotten that the Tullow Oil Ghana Limited (TOGL) project of investing USD 25M to USD 25M to USD 30M in 2013 to partly upgrade the Shipyard was a GNPC/Government of Ghana (GoG) Sponsored Project, which was totally and vehemently rejected by MDU. The objective of GNPC at the time is to use the Shipyard as a fabrication enclave for some of the components for the recently inaugurated FPSO ` Atta Mills` for the Tweneboa-Enyenra-Ntomme (TEN) Complex Project and other upcoming projects beyond the `TEN` Project, such as the ENI Project that had already taken off. The total cost of rehabilitation and staff training for the project was to be recovered from GoG/TOGL Petroleum Account, as part of the total development cost of the TEN Project. One may ask; it is now that the MDU Executives` faces are clearer for them to know that the GNPC can equally contribute to the developing of the Shipyard? he quizzed further.



According to Christian Dogbe, this clearly showed that the MDU lacked knowledge about the Shipyard they claimed they superintended over, alleging that the MDU did not have the interest of the Shipyard at heart.



He said that the working environment at the Shipyard was no more conducive and encouraging as bitterness and displeasure had filled the staff with regards to the mismanagement and bad running of the yard by the CEO, Mr. HRT Ali and his management.



He noted that there had been countless dissonance between management and staff of the Shipyard due to the poor management and the bad system of running the Shipyard.



The Acting Chair of the Senior Staff Association however, called on the President not to look elsewhere for strategic foreign investors with requisite capital and expertise to turn the fortunes of the Shipyard round whilst the competent and trustworthy GPHA was around.



Pointing out why the GPHA would be more useful in managing the Shipyard, the Acting Chairman noted that the handling of incoming and outgoing vessels at the Tema Shipyard was under the ambit of the GPHA, and that power distribution system at Dock II and its operational areas were still under the control of GPHA.



He further said that GPHA has made and continued to make some commitments and sacrifices towards the progress of the Shipyard.



One of such sacrifices is the payback of the Malaysian 60% stake in the Shipyard. GPHA paid about USD 6.36 million for this, underscored.



He observed that in order to prevent capital flight from the Shipyard, the running of affairs of the facility should be handed over to GPHA.



He said that the working environment at the Shipyard was no more conducive and encouraging as bitterness and displeasure had filled the staff with regards to the mismanagement and bad running of the yard by the CEO, Mr. HRT Ali and his management.



He, therefore, called on the Minister of Transport, Fiifi Fiavi Kwetey, to intervene for the reinstatement of two executives of the Senior Staff Association, Messrs. Michael Ofori-Frimpong and Samuel Ayensu, and Bless K. Kpovie, a Manager, all of who were sacked after petitioning the President, His Excellency John Dramani Mahama, on the merger of GPHA and the Shipyard and other petitions about the mismanagement by the current CEO, Mr. HRT Ali.

Source: New Crusading Guide









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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Ahead of the August 11th General Election, Zambian ruling party Patriotic Front (PF) is being accused of using women as sex objects in their campaigns after photos of well endowed women in the party's t-shirts emerged online.

The girls who are reportedly unemployed are paid K300 to have their bums branded with PF logos.

"Does gogo Inonge Wina, a former women rights activists agree with this brazen abuse of women? What about Ester Lungu, can she allow one of her daughters to have her bums branded like this and be unleashed to the public? Maybe Edgar Lungu should brand Tasila also and let her walk in public like this! These are not campaigners. These are victims of PF abuse. One can just imagine how the PF officials sexually abuse these girls in exchange for a few coins or beer."

Source: Zambian Watchdog









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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Following the recognition as the Most Socially Devoted Brand in Ghana by Socialbakers  the leading online, independent, global social media analytics and publishing company and a special recognition by the Ghana Social Media Rankings (GSMR) as the Most Influential Telecom Company on Social Media, Airtel  Ghanas Best Data and Internet Service provider was adjudged the telecom company with the Best use of Social Media at the recently held Ghana ICT and Telecoms Awards 2016 (GITTA).



The award is in recognition of the Smartphone Networks ability to effectively use social media to engage and connect with its customers and followers.



The Award is also a recognition of the companys use of social media to provide relevant content that inspires and connects with customers and followers, a proactive strategy to engage, respond to queries and customer complaints in a timely manner.



Airtel Ghana has the industry largest number of followers on Facebook with more than 624,000 followers  making it the most influential telecom brand on social media.



The company has continuously led in social media engagements with inspiring and relevant content that resonates with customers leading to substantial growth in followers over the years.



The Smartphone Network has also clearly set the industry standard in the innovative utilization of social media to respond to and resolve customer queries in real time.



GITTA  the highly competitive industry awards, now in its 6th year, recognizes ICT and telecom industry players for their outstanding performance across different categories.



In addition to the Best Use of Social Media Award, Airtel Ghana won three of the biggest awards on the night. It won the Best Data and Internet Service Provider and Airtels Too Much through the line campaign was adjudged the Marketing Campaign of the year.



Airtel Ghanas multiple award winning CEO, Lucy Quist, who is also the reigning CIMG Marketing Woman of the year was crowned the telecom CEO of the year for her exceptional leadership, contribution to the telecom industry, her ability to inspire and lead her team to deliver extraordinary results that has transformed Airtel Ghana into the fastest growing telecom company in Ghana and leapfrogging to the number 3 position for data customer market share.



Airtel is Ghanas fastest growing telecommunication network providing superior communication, connectivity and collaborative solutions to all its customers.

Source: Peacefmonline.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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PROTESTERS are to hit the streets of Takoradi on Saturday, June 18, to make a two-fold demand: that the Electoral Commission deletes names of all Ghanaians who registered to vote in the 2012 presidential election using the National Health Insurance ID cards as directed by the Supreme Court, as well as the high tariffs being charged by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).



Those taking part in the protest march include a group that calls itself the National Volunteers for NPP, as well as various identifiable groups in the country.



A press statement issued yesterday and signed by David Ohene Gyansah, National Secretary of Volunteers for NPP, as well as executives of the various interest groups, said: We expect nothing but a commitment to freedom, fair play on the part of the Electoral Commission if this years crucial presidential and parliamentary election should be free and fair.



The posture of the EC and the Attorney-General to the ruling of the Supreme Court is tantamount to chaos and will make complete mockery of the peace which all Ghanaians have been craving for before, during and after the elections.



The group said it was shocking that the ruling NDC government had aligned itself to the thinking of the EC and the Attorney-General, and wondered what the NDC would lose if the Supreme Courts ruling was implemented to the letter.



All political parties have been crying for a clean register all these years. They all agree that the register is bloated so why are some of the parties up in arms against the ruling of the Supreme Court?



What is even more shocking is that when a Justice of the Supreme Court recently made it abundantly clear that there was nothing ambiguous about the ruling, some functionaries of the NDC descended heavily on him as if he had committed a crime.



The EC and NDC should not forget that the same Supreme Court which threw away the NPP Election Petition is the same body that is asking for a deletion of the names of those who used NHIA cards to vote because it is illegal.



What really is the difficulty of the EC in implementing such a clear-cut ruling? Ghanaians want a free and fair election and the EC must be the last body to stand in the way of the people in the quest for fair play, the statement added.



On the ECG, the group said it was surprised that despite instructions by the Public Utilities and Regulations Commission (PURC) for the suspension of its billing software until further notice, nothing appears to have been done.



Ghanaians are really suffering. The economic hardships are simply unbearable and the ECG cannot continue to turn a deaf ear to the orders of the PURC.

Source: The Finder









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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The almost four-year energy crisis that hit Ghana has culminated into the current payment of unusually humongous electricity tariffs by the already suffering Ghanaian, in the midst of increasing economic hardships occasioned by the sheer ineptitude, gross incompetence and naked corruption of the Mahama government.



Even though majority of Ghanaians consider this to be the true state of affairs in the country, Chief Dele Momodu, Chief Executive Officer and Publisher of Ovation International, sees the contrary.



And he believes this is the best time to lavish tons of praises on President Mahama for what he sees as extraordinary development the nation is witnessing under his administration in the energy sector.



In his recent article captioned The Good Examples From Ghana, Chief Momodu claims President Mahama has invested wisely in enduring infrastructure in the country.



While many businesses are collapsing because of the unbearable current electricity tariffs, the Nigerian born says his biggest fascination is the way President Mahama has tackled issues in the energy sector.



My biggest fascination for President Mahama is the way he has tackled the problem of power outages in a blistering fashion. About two years ago, Ghana suffered unprecedented power failure and his government was heavily criticised by a very politically-conscious nation. President Mahama promised to restore electricity at the speed of light.



Many cynics and doubting Thomases told him to perish the fantasy. But, before our very eyes, Mahama has achieved the near-impossible and electricity has improved drastically.



He has assured his country that he would not relent until Ghana is able to generate more power than it requires.



Ghana has taught us that fixing power challenges is not rocket-science after-all and not even funding should stall the projects, he says in the article.



And at a time industry has seen unprecedented decline, Chief Dele claims Mahama is pursuing industrialisation of Ghana most aggressively.



Interestingly he cites the Komenda Sugar Factory, which was shut down just a week after commissioning by President Mahama, to buttress his claim.



He has just launched the Komenda Sugar Factory which will produce 1,250 tonnes of sugar per day. It will produce ethanol and generate 3 megawatts of electricity as well as produce fertilizers for Ghanaian farmers, he stressed.



According to Chief Dele, Education and healthcare have been given top priority under the Mahama government, a development he sees as the reason many Nigerians now flock to Ghana.



Again, one may wonder why Chief Dele would attempt to describe President Mahama as someone who makes no noise and just performs quietly.



The beauty of Mahamas accomplishments is his humility. He makes no noise and just performs quietly. His critics continue to call him a non-performer despite the obvious work he is doing but he remains focused and determined to excel despite lack of access to mega resources like Nigeria, he claims.



Chief Dele may be working as a paid consultant to the Mahama government, but his assessment of the current situation in the country  a right no one can take away from him, anyway  may be seen by the suffering Ghanaians as an insult to their intelligence.

Source: New Statesman









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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Member of Parliament for Ablekuma North Constituency on the ticket of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Hon. Justice Joe Appiah has joined the crusade against the privatisation of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).



The Public Utility Workers Union (PUWU) and the Public Services Workers Union (PSWU) have called on Government to halt the privatisation of Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).



We reiterate our strong opposition to the planned privatisation programme under which ECG will be leased to a foreign entity for 25 years as a pre-condition for accessing $498.2 million from the United States Millennium Challenge Corporation under the Compact 11.



The two Unions, particularly urged Government and the Millennium Development Authority (MIDA), implementers of the ECG concession, to rather explore other viable alternatives to transform ECG.



Commenting on ECG saga, Hon. Joe Appiah on Okay FM's 'Ade Akye Abia' Morning Show hinted that the issue of ECG has to do with managerial ineptitude and that if ECG is privatised, Ghanaians will not be able to pay another tariff.



Highlighting on the solutions needed to move ECG back on track, Hon Justice Joe Appiah directed government to pay the over Ghc800 million Cedis debt to the coffers of Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).



The issue of ECG is managerial ineptitude because the way ECG is doing its work is not the best. If ECG is privatised, Ghanaians will not be able to pay another tariff to the private company. At the end of the day, government owes ECG over Ghc800 million and it is not paying; this huge amount can restore ECG back on track...selling part of ECG to foreign entity will not help us and we won't allow it to happen, he charged.

Source: Daniel Adu Darko/Peacefmonline.com.gh









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The Hohoe municipality in the Volta Region came to a standstill when hundreds of young people undertook a health walk to express their dissatisfaction with the administration of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

They walked through the principal streets of the municipality. The exercise was organised by a group called, Volta 4 Change, otherwise referred to in Ewe as Mi Dez Na Ttr.

The walk, which started at the Atabu Park, was given a back-up by the Agenda for Change and the Disappointed NDC Youth in the Volta Region. A free health screaming was conducted for residents of Hohoe and the surrounding areas.



All activities in the busy commercial town of Hohoe halted as residents cheered them on while others just looked on in amazement.

Coincidentally, the NDC in the municipality was undertaking a similar health walk to commemorate the June 4th uprising. However, the patronage of the NDCs exercise was so low that many people wondered whether it was not happening in the Volta Region  touted as the partys Work Bank in terms of electoral victory.

Speaking to the crowd after the walk at the Gbi Bla RC Park, the National Youth Organiser of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Sammy Awuku, encouraged the youth in the region in particular and the country in general not to be disappointed, but rest assured that Change is coming.



He said the insensitive policies of the governing NDC had rendered a lot of the youth jobless, collapsed businesses and deprived teachers and nurses of their allowances.



These, he assured, were going to be things of the past when the NPP flagbearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo, is elected to rule the country in the upcoming general election.



He urged them to go out and preach the good news of the NPP and entreat their friends and families to vote massively for the party in the November polls.

The President of Volta 4 Change, Eyram Doe, noted that the days when the youth in the region were used for disreputable activities by the NDC were over. He said the group was ready to go into the various homes and communities to educate the people on the deceits and incompetence of the NDC government.



He said comparing the track record of the NDC with the NPPs in the region, it was evident that the latter had performed better, despite the fact that it (region) has been the stronghold of the former.



He said although the NPP has little support from the region, it had shown more commitment in terms of developmental projects, some of which Mr Doe mentioned as roads, expansion of the Ho Polytechnic, schools, health facilities and social interventions, among others.



The presidents of Disappointed NDC Youth, Robert Tetteyfio Adjase and Agenda 4 Change, Christo Wisdom, posited that they were ready to collaborate with Volta 4 Change to ensure victory for the NPP and Nana Akufo-Addo.





Source: Daily Guide









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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Brazilian authorities have suggested that a body found on a remote beach near Rio de Janeiro may be missing Australian backpacker Rye Hunt, who disappeared on May 21.

Hunts family, who said in a statement that Australian authorities told them that an unidentified body had been found, criticised the Brazilian media for sending them photos of the body while investigating the story. They are also upset that photos of the body have been published in local media.

On Wednesday, Rio residents noticed vultures congregating around a spot on the beach, which upon investigation revealed a decomposed body wearing a white shirt and blue shorts. The body was sent to the Legal Medical Institute in nearby city Niteroi for identification.

Hunt, who is from Tasmania, had been travelling with friend Mitchell Sheppard, and disappeared after the two had an argument. The pair had been taking party drugs at the time, including potent hallucinogen NBOMe. The drugs effects have not been well studied, but anecdotal evidence suggests it can be nauseating, disorienting and has a serious impact on memory.

Marica, the area in which the body was found, is an outer suburb of Rio known for problems with gang violence.

Source: News.com.au

Photo: Facebook.
WARNING: This post contains graphic images.

Four people are confirmed dead after police in Papua New Guinea opened fire on student protesters at the University of Papua New Guinea in Port Moresby.

The students had been protesting Prime Minister Peter ONeills handling of corruption allegations and his often criticised management of the countrys economy when police attempted to prevent them from marching from the university to Parliament.

Apparently, around 1,000 students spread into the university grounds after the shooting. A spokesperson for Papua New Guinea Police told The Guardian that they were unable to confirm or deny reports of the shootings or the surrounding events at this time.

Student Gerald Peni told ABC News that the police had fired directly into the crowd.

They fired shots, they fired shots directly at the crowd, he said.

They fired tear gases, I was right in front. And many of the students they fell, they got injured, we dont know how many casualties we may have at the moment.

Right now all the students are dispersed all around the university grounds.

It is alleged that the police opened fire when students refused to allow them to arrest the president of the student council. Port Moresby General Hospital said 10 students had been admitted after the event.

Students have been boycotting classes at the university and demanding ONeill resign, which culminated in classes being suspended last month. ONeill has refused to step down.

Mothers in Pom crying and walking in @ UPNG???? pic.twitter.com/oulAb4DLj3  Hayley (@buai_ninja) June 8, 2016

Heavy stuff.

Source: The Guardian / ABC.

Photo: Twitter.
A 21-year-old Queensland woman has tragically died after being struck by a car while hitchhiking in Scotland.

Maddy Rice, 21, was heading home to Kinloch Lodge, where she worked as a receptionist, at around 1:15am local time when the accident occurred. The driver of the car was uninjured.

Rice was originally from Noosa and was working and living on the Isle of Skye with her boyfriend, Joe Perry. The director of Kinloch Lodge described her as a wonderful and beautiful person:

It is absolutely heartbreaking. We are all utterly devastated at the tragic and sudden loss of Maddy. She was devoted to her wonderful partner, Joe, and our hearts, thoughts and prayers go out to him and her family.

A friend of Rices started a crowdfunding campaign to cover the costs of bringing her body home for a funeral, as Rice did not have travel insurance that would cover it, which was up to $26,000 by Wednesday afternoon.

If youd like to help out, you can contribute here.

Source: Yahoo news.

Photo: Facebook.
Now, before we begin here we need to point out that theres absolutely no way to distill this policy decision down into a clickable headline that *doesnt* make the hairs on the backs of non-Green voters necks stand on end. But before those of you so inclined get out the ole welfare bludger bludgeon, it should be stated that this policy promise is, at the very least, an interesting one.

Greens arts spokesman and Member for Melbourne Adam Bandt has revealed a pretty radical policy promise that would see young, emerging, or underemployed artists paid a living wage whilst they pursue their craft.

Bandt and the Greens revealed the policy today, whilst speaking at a National Arts Debate at Melbournes Wheeler Centre. The policy, the Greens state, is borne of a desire to see a career in the arts [being] as valuable and viable as a career in any other sector.

What theyre proposing, at least going by their own numbers, is a loosening of the Centrelink system to allow for artistic work done on an unpaid or freelance basis to count towards the mutual obligation requirements for Austudy or Newstart.

Given the insecure nature of employment in the arts, many artists will at one point or another in their career find themselves unemployed and in need of income support. During these times, work done to perfect their craft will increase employability in the future, but it currently goes unrecognised by the social security system. Furthermore, the requirement to spend time complying with extensive Centrelink mutual obligation requirements leaves less time to develop skills. The Greens will allow artistic activities that provide

community benefit to be eligible for Centrelink mutual

obligation requirements. The Parliamentary Budget Office

estimates the cost to be $51 million over four years.

That, if used effectively and policed with a degree of rigidity on a case-by-case basis, could well be invaluable for people committed to a career in the arts. The process of job hunting set out by Centrelink is, as it stands, rather soul-sucking and time-consuming, and can often steal hours that might otherwise have been used to produce unpaid work or further skills not recognised by the job-seeking system.

The extended arts policy also includes a number of new provisions, including subsidies for the hefty expenses incurred by materials and exhibitions for artists operating as more-or-less a sole trading small business, boosting superannuation payments for career artists, reinstating the funding to the arts cut by the Coalition as well as providing an extra $270.2million in funding, and establishing an artist-in-residence program at Parliament House at a cost of $1million annually.

The policy document, which can be read in full here, has (much like most other political promises) its strengths and weaknesses. The screening process for who or what constitutes an artist in the eyes of Centrelink, for example, is one that would require severe scrutiny should the policy actually come to fruition. And the subjectivity of art would foreseeably stand at odds with the need to bureaucratically define what work qualifies as a mutual obligation requirement, or what actually constitutes providing community benefit.

However, like most other pre-election policy announcements, thats clearly a matter for if (or when) it gets the go-ahead.

Instead weve all just gotta take the dang thing on face value and see if it has any merit. And after suffering through the ignobility of a Coalition Government who time and again made it perfectly clear that the arts were never a priority for them, no isnt a word that springs to mind.

ELECTION TIME. HOW BLOODY ABOUT IT.

Source: The Greens.

Photo: Anadolu Agency/Getty.
Well thats it: Hillary Clinton has claimed the Democratic Nomination, and unless the Republican Party has an as-yet unseen trick up their sleeve, shell be going up against Donald Trump in the 2016 Presidential race.

Her campaign chairman John Podesta appeared on CNN to say that she had effectively sealed the nomination: Tonight we go over the top against any measure, with pledged delegates with superdelegates, with the popular vote. She will be the nominee of the Democratic party.

The Guardian reports that Clinton waited until victory was declared in New Jersey before appearing on stage in the Brooklyn Navy Yard to address v. v. fanatic supporters. (And by the way, they have this excellent delegate count tracker if you wanna get amongst it.)

During her speech, she thanked Bernie Sanders, sledged Trump, and marked this day as a win for equality.





I want to congratulate Senator Sanders for the extraordinary campaign he has run, she said. He has spent his long career in public service fighting for progressive causes and let there be no mistake. Senator Sanders, his campaign and the vigorous debate that we had have been very good for the Democratic party and for America.



Whether you supported me in this primary, or Senator Sanders, we all need to keep working toward that better, fairer, stronger America.  Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 8, 2016

There are reports that Sanders will be laying off staffers imminently.

Clinton also called for unity, which in this election is pretty much the definiton of whatever is the opposite of what Donald Trump says.

When Donald Trump says a distinguished judge born in Indiana cant do his job because of his Mexican heritage, or he mocks a reporter with disabilities, or calls women pigs, it goes against everything we stand for, she said, calling him temperamentally unfit to be president.



When he says, lets make America great again, thats a code for lets take America backwards, to a time of unequal opportunity and prosperity only for some.



Fair enough.

Being, yknow, the first female nominee is a big fkn deal, whether or not you wanted her to get there.

Democratic presidential nominees, pictured: ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????  Scott Bixby (@scottbix) June 8, 2016

She spoke about her late mother, who was born the same day Congress was passing the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, allowing women the right to vote.

Although its hard to see it right now, we are standing on a glass ceiling, she said.





There are still ceilings to break for women and for all of us, but dont let anyone tell you that barriers cant break in America.



To every little girl who dreams big: Yes, you can be anything you wanteven president. Tonight is for you. -H pic.twitter.com/jq7fKlfwGV  Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 8, 2016

The votes are still being counted, but Clinton is reported to win New Jersey, while Sanders is reported to win North Dakota. California, the biggest prize, is not yet declared.

Just got a note from @BernieSanders camp he is planning a rally in DC Thurs Dont expect a concession speech tonight @abcnews  Stephanie March (@steph_march) June 8, 2016

This thing is still unfolding.



Photo: Twitter / @HillaryClinton.
New information from the Bureau of Crime Statistics shows that violence in Kings Cross in Sydney hasnt really stopped or even lessened between the 1:30am lockout and the 3am last drinks rules.

Don Weatherburn from the BCS said that the same lockouts have had a noticeable effect in Sydneys CBD, but not in Kings Cross.

Both of them (lockouts and early closing) worked for the CBD, only one worked for Kings Cross. Kings Cross had a 94 per cent drop (in assaults) after 3am. The short story is Kings Cross got its principal benefit out of hours after 3am.

This info follows the impressive 180 performed by Police Association president Scott Weber, who said last week that the group would now consider changes to the lockout laws depending on evidence. He also said theyd consider the calls to have NSWs blanket 10pm bottle shop law changed.

So, this new information has sparked the possibility of changes to the Kings Cross lockout time, and changes to bottlo closing times; both of which could happen after the government review ends in August.

A spokesperson for NSW Premier Mike Baird said this:

The Premier will await the outcome of Ian Callinans review of the laws. The review is considering the relevant statistical data relating to alcohol-related violence and anti-social behaviour to inform its findings.

Source: Daily Telegraph.

Photo: PEDESTRIAN.TV / Chloe Sargeant.
A lot of our news tends to be very legend-centric, because legends are, well, legendary  but a lot of those legends tend to be the kind that made like big supercuts of shit that happened in Seinfeld or did pranks on live TV.

So its a bit refreshing when the titular legend does something incredibly badass, like pulling an old lady out of her burning house, which is exactly what everyday hero Robert Gorcan did this afternoon.

Gorcan was driving through Auburn in Sydneys Western suburbs when he saw smoke rising from a house on Alice St and pulled over. Hearing the occupant yelling out that she was trapped inside, he ripped the screen door off, went in and pulled her out, having to close his eyes due to the thickness of the smoke:

I ripped the screen door off, started walking into the house  the house was full of black smoke, couldnt see where I was going, so I was just feeling my way through the house.

The 92-year-old woman was safely removed from the home, although in a state of shock (because, duh) and will remain in hospital overnight to be treated for smoke inhalation.

Firefighters managed to stop the fire from spreading to nearby properties but, tragically, the house has been deemed unsafe to live in, and without insurance, the woman will be forced to move into a nursing home.

Gorcan is being recommended for a bravery award, which seems well bloody deserved. Nice one, mate.

Source and photo: 7 News.
CONTENT WARNING: This article discusses sexual assault. If you would like to talk to a counsellor about rape, sexual assault or domestic violence, give the people over at 1800 RESPECT a call on 1800 737 732.



The two Swedish students who stopped the sexual assault of a woman at Stanford University last year have broken their silence, describing the incident to Swedish newspaper Expressen.

Carl-Fredrik Arndt and Peter Jonsson, two PhD students at Stanford, were riding their bikes to a party when when they saw a man and a woman lying on the ground behind a dumpster. As they got closer, the scene began to look stranger and stranger. The woman wasnt moving, said Arndt, while the man was moving a lot.

The pair decided to confront him. Peter goes back and asks what hes doing, and I follow, said Arndt. When he gets up, we see that she still is not moving in the slightest, so we go back and ask something like: What the hell are you doing?'



After a brief exchange, Turner bolted. Jonsson ran after him, while Arndt checked on the woman to make sure she was still alive. He says he was lying perfectly still. They managed to restrain the assailant until the police arrived and arrested him; he, of course, is Brock Allen Turner, the 20-year-old former Stanford student who last week was sentenced to six months prison and three years probation for three felony sex abuse charges.

In the widely-shared victims impact letter, the woman, now 23, describes the Swedish students as heroes, and writes that when the police interviewed Jonsson, he was crying so hard he couldnt speak because of what hed seen.

Towards the end of her letter, she thanks them.

Most importantly, thank you to the two men who saved me, who I have yet to meet. I sleep with two bicycles that I drew taped above my bed to remind myself there are heroes in this story. That we are looking out for one another. To have known all of these people, to have felt their protection and love, is something I will never forget.



Jonsson  who has indicated he wont be speaking to media at this point  shared the letter on Facebook urging everyone to read it, saying it comes as close as you can possibly get to putting words on an experience that words cannot describe.

The Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney, Alaleh Kianerci, said that without Arndt and Jonsson  both of whom were key witnesses in the trial  Brock would never have been held accountable for his actions.





I cant understate how important those two heroes were in this case, he told the Huffington Post.

If they hadnt intervened, we wouldnt know who the perpetrator was. Those two heroes made this case a prosecutable one.



Photo: Facebook / Carl-Fredrik Arndt; LinkedIn / Peter Jonsson.
A doco that follows the journey of two Finnish backpackers subject to v. v. v. disgusting abuse / sexism at a notorious pub in the West Australian outback has everyone talking days before its premiere at the Sydney Film Festival on Friday.

Filmmaker Pete Gleesons controversial Hotel Coolgardie shines a light of the disturbing culture of Coolgardie drinking hole Denver City Hotel, where the arrival of a new pair of foreign female backpackers to work the only bar in town every three months is a keenly anticipated event by local patrons  mostly male  who openly refer to them as fresh meat.

Finnish pals and former pub employees Lina and Steph were attracted by the idea of earning some coin while enjoying an authentic outback experience, but quickly found themselves prey to the madness and malaise of an environment as claustrophobic as it is isolated, according to the films synopsis.

The visitors must navigate relationships beset with drunkenness and impunity, misguided sexual advances as they discover that meeting expectations as barmaids in this part of the world requires more than just serving drinks.

Thats no exaggeration: the films trailer shows a high-vis wearing bloke calling the girls fresh meat as a blackboard outside the pub proclaims New girls tonite!!!.

One particularly heinous patron propositions Lina for sex on camera while his mate laughs loudly, impervious to the film crew:

If we have sex it will be bad, but it will be very quick so that wont be a problem.

*gags forever*

Check out the trailer:

Gleeson first came across the hotel 15 years ago, when he was passing through town and happened to witness a changeover  the period when a new pair of female bartenders arrives to replace the departing ones.

He got to know the former owner, a dude called Coffey, and the idea for the doco was born  but current manager Debbie Ovens has said the practice of hiring fresh bartenders was halted under her management. Thank fuck.



You can check out Hotel Coolgardie at the Sydney Film Festival, this Friday night. Get yo tix HERE.

Photo: Supplied.
Ellen DeGeneres AKA Dory the forgetful Blue Tang has put out a short, 30-second video encouraging all of us to help save the Great Barrier Reef.

In 2016, news came out that our precious reef has now suffered a devastating 93% rate of coral bleaching, and Fight for the Reef released their campaign to remind Aussies to think of the GBR when we head to the polling booths in July.

And Ellen is begging us to do the same, and help the reef.

Hi Australia, its me, Ellen DeGeneres. As you know Im a big fan of your beautiful, great, wonderful Great Barrier Reef, which is home to my favourite fish, Dory. And as you may remember  but Dory probably doesnt  shes a blue tang and has many other amazing species that live in the Great Barrier Reef with her. Its critical that we protect this amazing place, and wed like your help.

Its a part of a giant Disney campaign called Remember the Reef which includes Finding Dory-related materials raising awareness about the environmental damage to the reef, and advice on how to help.

Watch below:





See all of Disneys excellent reef-savin content here: movies.disney.com.au/finding-dory/remember-the-reef

Remember, ~fish are friends~. Their home needs our help.

Source: Disney.
Huntingdon County murder victims.jpg

Christine McWhorter, left, and Beatrice Daniels were murdered Jan. 2, 2009 in Huntingdon County.

(submitted)

New DNA analysis is narrowing the range of suspects in the 2009 shooting death of two women in Huntingdon County.

Beatrice Daniels, 31, and her niece Christine McWhorter, 22, were found shot to death overnight Jan. 2, 2009, in the Chestnut Terrace apartment complex in Mount Union.

They were shot in the head while lying in bed, with McWhorter's two children ages 4 months and 4 years lying between them, and there was no sign of struggle, according to a report in the Altoona Mirror. McWhorter's 4-year-old son alerted a neighbor to the murders, said the report.

State police say the bodies of McWhorter and Daniels were found at McWhorter's apartment on Jan. 3.

Using new DNA technology, state police Wednesday released a description of a person of interest: a medium-to-light-skinned African-American man with green or hazel eyes and zero to a few freckles.

Anyone with information is asked to call state police at Huntingdon at 814-627-3161 or PA Crime Stoppers at 1-800-472-8477.

In a 2013 report on the unsolved murders on Central PA.com, Christine's mother, Chandra McWhorter, said her daughter had moved to Huntingdon County to get away from the violence in Philadelphia. She was studying business in college.

A state police investigator said in 2013 that there could be connection between the murders and the Philadelphia drug trade.

In November 2009, 11 people were arrested on drug charges at the same Chestnut Terrace apartment complex in Mount Union, a result that police said grew out of the investigation into the double murder in January.
jeffrey lord appears on cnn

Jeffrey Lord of Camp Hill is now a regular face on CNN.

For 20 minutes - without a commercial break - it was Jeffrey Lord versus eight CNN panelists.

He's one of the network's numerous political contributors, but the Camp Hill resident is perhaps best known as a Trump supporter.

His loyalty to the presumptive Republican nominee often grows stronger in the face of controversy. This week he has repeatedly defended Trump's comments about a federal judge.

Trump accused U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel of having a conflict of interest in presiding over a Trump University lawsuit. The GOP nominee's reasoning is that there's a bias because Curiel's parents were born in Mexico and Trump wants to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Many scholars, political analysts, voters and Republican leaders have condemned Trump's comments on the judge, saying they're racist.

Lord, on the other hand, said Curiel is actually the racist because he belongs to a group of Latino attorneys that is "discriminating against non-Latino lawyers."

Trump is pointing out that the judiciary has been politicized and "racialized," Lord said Tuesday on CNN.

"What he is doing here - albeit by backing into this - is saying that here is a judge who belongs to these organizations," Lord said.

The other eight panelists and host Anderson Cooper wrangled with Lord during the long segment, as they waited for primary results in New Jersey, California and other states.

CNN contributor and Democrat Van Jones, who argued with Lord about racism before, told Lord to "be quiet."

"What happens is you begin to develop a cult of personality where an authoritarian is right because he is right," Jones said.

The 20-minute volley made national headlines Wednesday night.

This is what Lord had to say when PennLive caught up with him early Thursday morning:

Q: Have you had any conversations with Donald Trump regarding his comments on Judge Curiel? If so, what did he say?

A: I was on the conference call, and had another call with him. I had no direct conversation with him on the subject.

Q: Was Trump being racist in his comments about the judge? Why or why not?

A: No.

Why? First, I know both Donald Trump personally and his career. I have never in private conversation heard anything that would have led me to that conclusion, much less have I ever heard of anything in his business career that would indicate this.

He employs thousands of people of all races. To the contrary, I know that when he took over Mar-a-Largo and made it a private club he opened it to both blacks and Jews, which was not the case with private clubs in the Palm Beach area.

There was resistance to what he wanted to do and resistance from a local governing body that had some a particular role in letting permits or some such.

How did Trump deal with them? He sent all the members of the government body a copy of the film "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" that starred Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn as a liberal couple confronted with the fact that their daughter has brought home a fiance - who is black (Sidney Poitier). The film was about liberal hypocrisies and confronting their own well-hidden prejudices.

He got the permits or whatever he needed, and eventually other clubs opened up, I believe. That is the Donald Trump I know.

I believe this country has been seized by a massive wave of political correctness, which has had the result of dividing Americans by race. It has turned the goals of the civil rights movement on their head. To believe, as I frequently quote President Kennedy, that "race has no place in American life or law" and that, as Robert Kennedy said, "the Constitution is colorblind" is now seen as racist.

Justice Sotomayor is a perfect example of this, saying that as a "wise Latina" she would have a better ability to judge than a white male. In the day, liberals loved it - no outrage from Democrats about racism.

While the Trump University issue essentially brought out the issue of a judge biased for the same reason as Sotomayor - a judge's obsession with his own ethnicity as opposed to the Constitution - the fact that Trump put a spotlight on this is a good thing.

In terms of the case, the judge in question is, for example, a lifetime member (per his questionnaire answers to the Senate Judiciary Committee) of the National Hispanic Bar Association. The NHBA last July put out a formal statement calling for a boycott of all Trump business properties. A clear conflict of interest caused by the Judge's decided emphasis - just like Sotomayor - of his ethnic heritage.

Trump called out this conflict of a judge who was making much over his heritage. A judge who has so much invested in his ethnicity when it comes to judging should recuse.

If Chief Justice John Roberts had been a member of the "white attorneys association" he would - understandably - never have been confirmed.

Q: Several Republican leaders have condemned his words about the judge. For example, Newt Gingrich said it's one of the biggest mistakes Trump has ever made? How do you feel?

A: I feel the GOP Leadership has made a serious mistake themselves, as written up here.

Q: How much of a problem is this for Trump moving forward? Senator McConnell said he's worried about a Goldwater effect in November, when Trump could lose the election by losing the Latino vote. What are your thoughts?

A: Trump has told me he will focus on jobs, among other things. He intends to go directly to Latinos on the issue. The Goldwater boogeyman was also used against Reagan, by the way, in 1980, by ex-President Ford, among others. It was all wrong, and I think it is wrong now. Trump has a lot of appeal in Democratic ranks and this will help, not hurt.

Q: What will be a bigger problem in November - Hillary Clinton's email scandal or Trump's judge comments?

A: Hillary's e-mail scandal because it is the latest in a very long trail of scandals. From Whitewater to Travelgate, and on through her treatment of her husband's various problems with women, all the way through Benghazi, her Russian "reset", Libya, the e-mails - all of this is what has contributed to polls that repeatedly show voters questioning her truth telling ability etc. I think the Trump judge story will vanish quickly, not much in the legs department.
U.S. Courthouse

The U.S. Courthouse in Harrisburg

(Matt Miller, PennLive)

A 22-year-old Harrisburg man is facing federal charges that he was selling drugs in the city while illegally possessing a pistol, U.S. Attorney Peter Smith said Wednesday.

Khalid Carter's indictment on drug dealing and possession of a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking stems from a crack cocaine deal that occurred in January, Smith said. He was investigated by the FBI and city police.

The charges carry a potential penalty of up to life in prison, Smith said.
Harrisburg council May 24.jpg

Harrisburg Council members will consider a plan by Mayor Eric Papenfuse to zero out CDBG funding for nonprofits. Council members (at a May 24 meeting, from left) are Jeff Baltimore, Westburn Majors, Shamaine Daniels, Wanda Williams, Cornelius Johnson, Ben Allatt and Destini Hodges.

HARRISBURG- Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse has a new proposal for how to distribute $1.8 million in federal Community Development Block Grant money: Instead of doling out some of it to nonprofits, the city would keep it all.

The city traditionally keeps some of the grant money to tear down dangerous buildings and provide home repair loans, but last year experimented with the idea of expanding that to the police department. The police department received $250,000 for overtime and additional patrols in the city's most violent neighborhoods. But the city still granted more than $400,000 in federal money to seven nonprofits.

This year, Papenfuse is proposing shutting out all nonprofits and allocating all the money to city programs, which is allowed under the federal guidelines.

Many other municipalities already keep most of their CDBG money, said Jackie Parker, the city's community and economic development director. Harrisburg historically has given grants to nonprofits but the money was always intended for the city's use, she said.

The mayor is expected to explain his proposal in detail at two public CDBG meetings set for 5:30 p.m. Wednesday June 8 and Thursday June 9 in council chambers at city hall.

Papenfuse declined to comment to PennLive Tuesday when asked about his proposal. But at a neighborhood meeting last week, Papenfuse told residents his plan stemmed from the city's limited financial resources.

"We're at a moment where we want to grow the police department but we're not at a place with our budget to do that," he told residents gathered at the Derry Street United Methodist Church. The residents had complained about dirt bike bandits, police response times and other crime concerns.

Under the mayor's proposal, the largest chunk of the CDBG money would go to the city's Housing Rehabilitation Program, which provides home repair grants to residents. That program received the biggest chunk last year as well.

The mayor also earmarked $100,000 for emergency demolition of buildings.

In addition, his plan gives:

the police department and "public safety," $280,000

the bureau of engineering, $50,000 for curb cuts

the parks and recreation department $25,000

the fire department, $20,000

Twenty percent of the city's CDBG money typically goes to administration costs, which this year represents $372,766.

The city's overall CDBG allocation from the federal government shrank this year to $1.8 million from $2.5 million last year. Meanwhile, the city's debt obligations under the federal housing program have increased because of required repayments from "disastrous projects" from previous administrations, Papenfuse said at the neighborhood meeting.

The amount earmarked for debt payments doubled last year because Harrisburg must pay back a loan by bankrupt developer David Dodd for the failed Capital View project. The city originally guaranteed nearly $3.8 million of Dodd's loan in 2006, but the city has already repaid $630,000, leaving a $3.2 million balance that must be repaid over several years.

The repayment for that project plus repayments for Section 108 loans dating back to 2000 pull away $641,113, or one third of the city's CDBG money, right out of the gate.

The Section 108 loans, however, will be repaid in three years, freeing up money that the city could consider granting to nonprofits again, Papenfuse said.

If council agrees to the mayor's proposal, some nonprofits will be devastated, said Les Ford, executive director of the Heinz-Menaker Senior Center. The center received two grants in previous years for $100,000 and $50,000.

Ford said he didn't apply for a statewide grant to renovate the center's kitchen because he thought smaller towns across the state might need the money more. Instead, he thought he could compete for a city CDBG grant. Now he's facing the possibility of getting zeroed out by the city.

"The ball is in the city council's court," Ford said. "It is up to city council to mitigate this unprecedented catastrophe."

Most of the groups that win CDBG grants provide essential services for residents, acting as a partner to the city, Ford said.

"If the city cuts us out of the formula," he said, "then they're responsible for the services."

Ford also criticized the lack of communication about the new proposal to the nonprofits that would be affected. As of Tuesday, no official communication had been relayed to nonprofits that spent time filling out detailed appilcations for this year's money, Ford said.

"It's a bit disingenuous to keep this under wraps until the last minute," Ford said.

Juanita Grant said her organization, Christian Recovery Aftercare Ministry, relies on CDBG money to help ex-offenders through a work base training program. She had hoped to win a grant to pay ex-offenders a stipend to renovate a building while learning a trade.

"I count on that money for 25 to 30 percent of my budget," she said. "It would really affect the ex-offender population and crime could go up. What else are they going to do?"

In addition to the $1.8 million in Community Development Block Grants, the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development also gives Harrisburg money for the HOME Investment Partnership Program ($374,782) and Emergency Solutions Grant Program ($171,823.) The ESG program provides money to agencies that serve the homeless.
In Camp Hill, there's a little boy who's nauseous from cancer. Alexander Fox Person hopes he's the first customer at his proposed medical marijuana dispensary.

Person hopes to place a medical marijuana dispensary in Middletown. He presented his idea to the council Tuesday.

His dispensary, Right to Health Medical Center, would be based on a dispensary in New York that looks like a sophisticated medical facility. Person chose Middletown as the location for his dispensary because of its proximity to multiple hospitals and nursing facilities.

"I want to be the standard of Pennsylvania care," he said.

Patients with 17 approved medical conditions, including cancer and epilepsy, will be able to get medical marijuana at approved dispensaries after having their condition certified by a doctor and going through a state permit process.

There will be 50 dispensaries statewide.

Person is a veteran who is finishing a degree in human rights at Columbia University.

"A human right is a privilege to all people," Person said. "There is something called a right to health."

If Person's dispensary is approved by both the borough and the state Department of Health, it would be one of the few in the state and would drive traffic to the area.

He would also contribute to the community by doing bimonthly community cleanups and assist local non-profits that help veterans.

Right now, there is no zoning ordinance in place to govern dispensaries, though the Tri-County Regional Planning Commission has drafted a model ordinance. Middletown Borough Council members recommend the new planning commission take a look at it.

Rachelle Reid encouraged the council to move forward with the dispensary.

"We've been hit hard with cancer," she said. "I've had several friends of mine, long term friends of mine that have passed away from cancer."

Her mother died of cancer and never had the opportunity to use medical marijuana. But people who have access to medical marijuana have reportedly seen decreases in cancer and are living longer lives.

"We are the first community in Dauphin County, we need to be the first community in the state that jumps on this we need to show that we are not only trying to become a better community, but that we are compassionate," Reid said.
jimmy kalathas.png

Jimmy A. Kalathas

(Upper Allen Twp. police)

A 44-year-old Upper Allen Township man is facing multiple chares after police found more than 1,800 doses of suspected anabolic steroids in his home.



Jimmy A. Kalathas turned himself in to District Judge Charles Clement's office on Wednesday after being charged with selling steroids, police said. The Cumberland County Drug Task Force had been investigating Kalathas for selling anabolic steroids, which included two drug transactions with task force personnel, police said.

The suspected doses of steroids and several thousands of dollars were at Kalathas' home found when police executed a search warrant June 3.

Kalathas is charged with delivery of a controlled substance, possession with the intent to deliver and criminal use of a communication facility. A preliminary hearing will be held at a later date, police said.
UPDATE: Route 15 reopened around 11:40 a.m.

One lane each direction on Route 15 is closed between Exit 94 and Route 234, PennDOT says.

The serious multi-vehicle accident happened just after 10 a.m. in the southbound lanes between Exit 94 Hanover/York Springs and the Route 234 exit for Heidlersburg/East Berlin. The Adams County coroner has been called to the scene, according to the Adams County emergency dispatch site.

For more traffic information, follow live traffic updates, accident reports and road closures below from PennDOT, Total Traffic Network and other Twitter sources.

Get a look at conditions on local roads -- via PennDOT traffic cameras -- anytime here on PennLive. For Pennsylvania Turnpike updates and possible travel delays visit the Turnpike website here.

Tweet us at @pennlive with any incidents you see on your commute or send a submission to submissions@pennlive.com.
Ivan Henry smiles as he speaks to the media outside the B.C. Court of Appeal in Vancouver, B.C. Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2010. Henry, a British Columbia man wrongfully imprisoned for sexual assault, has been awarded $8 million by a court after spending 27 years behind bars THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward
FILE - In this May 19, 2016 file photo, an EgyptAir Airbus A330-300 takes off for Cairo from Charles de Gaulle Airport outside of Paris. Egyptians officials say a bomb threat has forced an EgyptAir airliner en route to Beijing from Cairo to make an emergency landing in Uzbekistan, where the aircraft is being searched. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena, 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,.
Out and About Audio Article Atascosa County Anti-Bullying Rally Oct. 19 Poteet Strawberry Festival grounds, main pavilion, 6-8 p.m. Guest speaker Batman & Co. and...

JISD Supt. McAllister announces retirement Audio Article The retirement of Jourdanton ISD Superintendent Theresa McAllister was announced at the meeting of the school board held on Oct....
You may have heard of civil asset forfeiture.



That's where police can seize your property and cash without first proving you committed a crime; without a warrant and without arresting you, as long as they suspect that your property is somehow tied to a crime. Now, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol has a device that also allows them to seize money in your bank account or on prepaid cards. It's called an ERAD, or Electronic Recovery and Access to Data machine, and state police began using 16 of them last month.



Here's how it works. If a trooper suspects you may have money tied to some type of crime, the highway patrol can scan any cards you have and seize the money. "We're gonna look for different factors in the way that you're acting, Oklahoma Highway Patrol Lt. John Vincent said. We're gonna look for if there's a difference in your story. If there's someway that we can prove that you're falsifying information to us about your business."



Troopers insist this isn't just about seizing cash.



"I know that a lot of people are just going to focus on the seizing money. That's a very small thing that' s happening now. The largest part that we have found ... the biggest benefit has been the identity theft," Vincent said.



"If you can prove can prove that you have a legitimate reason to have that money it will be given back to you. And we've done that in the past," Vincent said about any money seized.
Mike Comisso Leads TV Final Table of PNIA $1,675 Main Event at Golden Nugget

June 07, 2016 Mo Nuwwarah Editor

Mike Comisso began Day 2 as chip leader of the Poker Night in America $1,675 Main Event at Golden Nugget, and though he lost that distinction after a quiet early portion of the day, he regained the top spot when it was time to bag up for the televised final table.

Comisso put 1.263 million in the bag, and he'll be joined for the five-handed TV table by Vinicius Lima (1.198 million), Chan Pelton (1,050,000), David Morton (292,000), and Dimitry Agrachov (282,000). The players bagged just a bit after the beginning of Level 22 (8,000/16,000/2,000).

Final Table Seat Draw

Seat Player Chips 1 Chan Pelton 1,050,000 2 Mike Comisso 1,263,000 3 Dimitry Agrachov 282,000 4 Vinicius Lima 1,198,000 5 David Morton 292,000

The day began with 25 runners who advanced out of three starting days. Fifteen were set to cash, but it ended up being 16 players in the money when voice actor Nika Futterman and Maxim Sorokin both busted on the bubble and chopped the 15th-place payout since they were at different tables.

Zo Karim, Brandon Cantu, and Kyle Frey were some of the notables who busted shy of the money.

Once the bubble burst, Matt Glantz and 2016 Million Dollar Heater winner Jake Daniels were two of the players making the money but falling short of the final table.

Once that final table started, it was Lima in command with 1.15 million while Comisso hadn't much headway from his start-of-day stack and had slipped to third. Lima continued to climb by sending Nacho Barbero out the door after his fellow European Poker Tour High Roller champ Sam Panzica.

Comisso won a race against Frank Bonacci with the against the to send him out eighth, and he continued to drag enough medium-sized pots to chip up. Chad Eveslage went out seventh to Pelton in the same flip, with Pelton's sixes prevailing.

Then, Pelton picked off a big two-barrel bluff from Lima with the on an runout, with Lima giving up on the river and Pelton taking the pot to bring him back to the pack.

Six-handed play lasted awhile, but gold bracelet winner Joey Weissman was the one who finally fell on the final table bubble, though it took an unlucky beat to do so. Morton, who made his second PNIA final table after getting third at Choctaw in April for $131,590, crippled Weissman when he shoved in second to act for 143,000 during Level 22 (8,000/16,000/2,000) with and Weissman woke up with the and reshoved from the button. After a flop, Morton ran a Broadway straight to leave Weissman with less than two big blinds, and he couldn't recover.

Players will arrive early on Tuesday for a short media session in preparation for the televised final table, and cards should be in the air between 12:45 p.m. and 1 p.m. local time.

Want to stay atop all the latest in the poker world? If so, make sure to get PokerNews updates on your social media outlets. Follow us on Twitter and find us on both Facebook and Google+!
Officer Natasha Hunter (Photo: New Orleans PD)

New Orleans Police officer Natasha Hunter, 32, died Tuesday afternoon of injuries she suffered early Sunday morning when a suspected drunk driver hit her while she investigated a multi-vehicle crash on Interstate 10 shoulder near the Esplanade Avenue exit, New Orleans police said.

Hunter, who was described as a "well-liked and well-respected" officer, leaves behind a 5-year-old daughter.

NOPD expects to charge 33-year-old Chau Thai Nguyen with vehicular negligent injuring and reckless operation of a vehicle once he is released from a hospital, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports.
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Donald Trump gave an embarrassing speech that full of empty attacks on Hillary Clinton that was nothing more than a pathetic attempt to save his sinking campaign.

There were so many things wrong with Trumps teleprompter speech. Trump claimed that he was beating Hillary Clinton when the polls show that he is losing to Clinton by 11 points. Trump tried to appeal to Bernie Sanders voters, but he is everything that Sanders voters despise. Trump tried to be the anti-special interest candidate when he is the special interests.

Video:

Trump said, The Clintons have turned the politics of personal enrichment into an art form for themselves. Theyve made hundreds of millions of dollars selling access, sell favors, selling government contracts, and I mean hundreds of millions of dollars. Sec. Clinton even did all of the work on a totally illegal private server, something that how shes getting away with folks nobody understands. Designed to keep all of her corrupt dealing out of the public record, putting the security of the entire country at risk, and a president in a corrupt system is totally protecting her. Not rightHillary Clinton turned the State Department into her private hedge fund. The Russians, the Chinese, the Saudis all gave money to Bill and Hillary, and got favorable treatment in return.

As his campaign sinks under the weight of his racism, Donald Trump tried to change the subject. Trump read a bunch of talking points about putting America first, but his speech contained no policy.

It was clear that the Republican Party hooked Trump up to a teleprompter and gave him boilerplate Republican speech that was a combination of decades-old attacks on Hillary Clinton and the same empty talking points that have caused Republicans to lose 4 of the last six presidential elections.

Trumps speech was pathetic because it revealed how completely outmatched the presumptive Republican nominee is on the biggest political stage. Trump is flailing and his speech tonight was the most concrete omen that his campaign is on the ropes and fading fast.
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Hillary Clinton delivered a speech that was magnificent in both acknowledging the historic moment while wrecking Donald Trump.

Video:

https://youtu.be/NI50qgYYqMM?t=1h42m33s

Clinton began her speech by talking about the womens suffrage movement and said that her victory belongs to all of the women who have fought for womens rights. Clinton thanked her campaign, supporters, and voters.

Later, Clinton said, As your president, I will always have your back. She congratulated Sen. Bernie Sanders on his extraordinary campaign and said that the Sanders campaign and the debate inspired have been very good for the Democratic Party and America. Clinton sympathized with Sanders supporters and reminded everyone that she was in their shoes in 2008. She emphasized the beliefs that she shares with Sen. Sanders and his supporters. Clinton said, We believe that we are stronger together, and the stakes in this election are clear.

Clinton moved on to ripping Trump to shreds. She said, Hes not just trying to build a wall between America and Mexico. Hes trying to wall of Americans from each other. When he says, lets make America great again that is code for lets take America backwards. Back to a time when opportunity and dignity were reserved for some, not all. Promising his supporters an economy that he cannot recreate. We, however, want to write the next chapter in American greatness with a 21st Century prosperity that lifts everyone who has been left out and left behind. Including those who may not vote for us, but who deserve their chance to make a new beginning.

Hillary Clinton laid out a vision for America that should unify every American, who rejects the language and tactics of Trump. Clintons message was one of togetherness that was the opposite of what Trump is campaigning on. Clinton made it clear throughout her speech that the history that was made was not about her, but about the future. She said, The end of the primaries is only the beginning of the work that we were called to do.

Clinton delivered a historic speech that flirted with perfection, and that made the teleprompter fumbling Donald Trump look like the racist amateur that he is.
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After completely blowing out Bernie Sanders in New Jersey on Tuesday night, presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton coasted to two surprising victories in New Mexico and South Dakota  two states Sanders was expected to do well in.

The two states have been mostly overlooked due to the heavy focus on delegate-rich states like New Jersey and California, but Clintons ability to win somewhat unexpected victories in New Mexico and South Dakota show that Democratic voters are rallying around their presumptive nominee.

Instead of continuing to drag on the Democratic primary fight, its obvious that left-leaning voters are ready to turn the page and fight to prevent a dangerous Donald Trump from winning the White House. Clintons increased focus on Trump, including her widely-praised smackdown of Trump last week, is evidence that the former Secretary of State has also started to move into the general election phase of the campaign.

Her handful of wins tonight were only icing on the cake of a nomination that has mathematically been in her possession for months.

Sanders did win the North Dakota Democratic caucus by a wide margin, although its a moot point given the fact that it is the smallest delegate prize of the night and Clinton has already secured enough delegates to be declared the presumptive nominee.
The Lebanon Police Department arrested a man Monday for vandalism that took place over the weekend.

According to a press release, Daniel Nofziger, 33, of Lebanon, allegedly vandalized display signs at Strawberry Plaza, 847 Main St. in Lebanon. With the assistance of a Lebanon Downtown Business Watch member, police obtained video showing a person uprooting display signs and throwing them to the ground.

Nofziger was subsequently charged with second-degree criminal mischief and excluded from the downtown area.

Anyone with additional information is asked to contact Detective Ryan Padua at 541-258-4325 or rpadua@ci.lebanon.or.us.
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It continues to get worse for Donald Trump. Not because of bad luck or accidental missteps, but simply the result of actions taken by the man himself. Most recently, its Trumps widely condemned racist attacks on one Indian-born federal judge.

As I wrote yesterday, its not necessarily the fact that Trump made the comment that Judge Gonzalo Curiel cant do his job because of his race  its that the presumptive GOP nominee has repeatedly doubled down on those remarks.

As a result, many in the GOP are beginning to line up in opposition to Trump. Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk even unendorsed him, something pretty unprecedented in modern American politics.

Kirk tweeted this earlier today:

Given my military experience, Donald Trump does not have the temperament to command our military or our nuclear arsenal.  Mark Kirk (@MarkKirk) June 7, 2016

I cannot and will not support my partys nominee for President, Kirk added.

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who rather unsuccessfully ran for president before dropping out this year, called Trumps comments about Curiel the most un-American thing from a politician since Joe McCarthy.

Graham added, Therell come a time when the love of country will trump hatred of Hillary.

Republican senator Jeff Flake of Arizona said today that he just cant support Trump. Flake added that there are a lot of people who want to be loyal to the Republican Party, including me, but therell come a point in time where were gonna have to understand that its not just about the 2016 race, its about the future of the party.

Senator Susan Collins of Maine, another Republican, said Trumps comments make it very difficult for her to support the billionaire buffoons candidacy.

Bob Corker, the GOP senator from Tennessee, called the presumptive GOP nominees comments inappropriate and warned that Trump has two or three weeks to get his act together. He didnt say what would happen if he doesnt, but it sure sounded like a threat.

Even Speaker of the House Paul Ryan  who chose one heck of a week to endorse Trump, by the way  slammed the spray-tanned billionaires bigotry.

Claiming a person cant do their job because of their race is sort of like the textbook definition of a racist comment, Ryan said. I think that should be absolutely disavowed. Its absolutely unacceptable.

Ryan, of course, still says he will still support the man making racists attacks  for now, at least.

So, too, will Sen. Mitch McConnell, who also condemned Trumps comments and said he couldnt disagree more with him.

One by one, leaders in the Republican Party are beginning to see the writing on the wall. If Trump continues to implode, dont be surprised if there is a renewed effort by the GOP to prevent Trump from becoming the nominee at the convention in Cleveland.

In either case, there is one beneficiary of this entire fiasco: Hillary Clinton.

Keep your popcorn handy, folks. This freak show is just getting started.
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Sen. Bernie Sanders didnt attack Hillary Clinton, but he also vowed to fight on and keep his political movement alive.

Sen. Sanders delivered many of his same now standard talking points and said that he is optimistic about the future of the country because so many young people have come on board and are supporting his campaign. Sanders said, Our vision will be the future of America.

Sanders said that right-wing Republicans wont be allowed to control our government and singled out Donald Trump. Sanders said that the American people will never support a candidate who insults Mexicans, Muslims, Women, and African-Americans. He continued that the mission is more than defeating Trump. It is about transforming the country.

Sen. Sanders promised to continue the fight in next Tuesdays Washington, DC primary. Sanders said that he is going to fight on, and fight hard to win the DC primary, and then he vowed to take the fight for racial, social, environmental, and economic justice to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Sanders called the fight ahead of him steep but vowed to fight for every vote and every delegate.

Sanders acknowledged phone calls from President Obama and Hillary Clinton, and said, Our fight is to transform this country and to understand that we are in this together. To understand that all of what we believe is the majority of what the American people believe, and to understand that the struggle continues. Sanders thanked his supporters for victories in North Dakota and Montana and expressed the expectation that the gap will narrow in California. Sanders thanked the crowd and promised that the struggle continues.

Sen. Sanders didnt criticize Clinton in the speech, but he did emphasize his political movement. Sanders is going to keep going even if the political world moves on to the general election. Bernie Sanders is out to transform America via a populist movement. There is something bigger at stake than the Democratic nomination. Sanders spent more time criticizing Trump than mentioning the Democratic race.

Bernie Sanders is going to the convention. His end goal is to shape the future of the Democratic Party, and the tone of his speech suggests that he is still trying to fight for the nomination.
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President Obama congratulated Hillary Clinton on winning the Democratic nomination, and is also scheduled to meet with Sen. Bernie Sanders on Thursday.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said in a statement:



Tonight, President Obama called both Secretary Clinton and Senator Sanders. The President congratulated both candidates for running inspiring campaigns that have energized Democrats, brought a new generation of Americans into the political process, and shined a spotlight on important policy ideas aimed at making sure our economy and our politics work for everybody, not just those with wealth and power.

The President congratulated Secretary Clinton for securing the delegates necessary to clinch the Democratic Nomination for President. Her historic campaign inspired millions and is an extension of her lifelong fight for middle-class families and children.

The President thanked Senator Sanders for energizing millions of Americans with his commitment to issues like fighting economic inequality and special interests influence on our politics.

In addition, at Senator Sanders request, the President and Senator Sanders will meet at the White House on Thursday to continue their conversation about the significant issues at stake in this election that matter most to Americas working families. The President looks forward to continuing the conversation with Senator Sanders about how to build on the extraordinary work he has done to engage millions of Democratic voters, and to build on that enthusiasm in the weeks and months ahead.

The meeting with Sanders is interesting because Sanders and the President have also had two phone conversations.

It is logical that President Obama might be acting as the negotiator to get an agreement between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders so that the party is unified in opposition to Donald Trump. With Clinton clinching the nomination, the only intrigue left in the Democratic Party is the mapping out of Sen. Sanders exit from the race. Ignore the public rhetoric about fighting on; it appears that Bernie Sanders is exploring his exit from the Democratic race.
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Once upon a time there was a Republican who left the party because, he said, it was too crazy right, and who accused Pat Buchanan, who was running for president, of being an anti-Semite and lambasted him as a Hitler lover. Now that Republican, Donald J. Trump, is the Republican over whom people are leaving the party.

And the irony of it is that they are leaving it for the same reason Trump left it.

The worm has turned, ladies and gentlemen. Back in 1999, Trump said Buchanan represented the really staunch right wacko vote. Whose got the right wacko vote now? Donald Trump, and guess who is defending him? Pat Buchanan, who recently called Trump the Great White Hope now asks, what did Trump do to be smeared by a bipartisan media mob as a racist?

Yes. He really asked that.

Dont for a minute think this new bromance is completely one-sided. As early as January Trump was watching Buchanan on TV and crowing on twitter:

Pat Buchanan gave a fantastic interview this morning on @CNN  way to go Pat, way ahead of your time!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 9, 2016

Yep. Now that Trump is sick and disgusting too, Pat Buchanan turns out just to have been ahead of his time.

In THE DONALD & THE LA RAZA JUDGE, Buchanan flays Republicans rushing to stomp on Trump over heredity remark. Buchanan says that Trump claims the judges bias is likely rooted in the fact that he is of Mexican descent, and asks, Can there be any defense of a statement so horrific?

You all know answer already, dont you? Of course Buchanan, never far from his racist roots and Hitler-loving ways, avows that there are grounds for believing Trump is right.

At a time when the rest of the Republican Party is fleeing for the hills, Pat Buchanan, like Donald Trump, is doubling down on his racism and criticism of the reality star and mogul amounts to nothing less than the lynching of The Donald.

Because, somehow, in Buchanans twisted mind, the metaphorical lynching of Donald Trump can compare to the actual, literal lynching of blacks for simply being black.

Grasping at straws and making totally irrelevant comparisons, Buchanan claimed, Obama himself attacked the Citizens United decision in a State of the Union address, with the justices sitting right in front of him.

Yes, but Obama didnt attack their ruling on the basis of their ethnicity. Obama didnt say they ruled against him because theyre a bunch of white guys, and hes black.

Buchanan insists Judge Gonzalo Curiel must be guilty of all the horrible things Trump says about him because And who is Curiel? You can hear the unspoken gotcha! as Buchanan triumphantly announced, An appointee of President Obama.

Yes, he was also appointed to Californias superior court by Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and approved after Obama nominated him by the Senate  and no one objected to his appointment.

Pat Buchanan says,

Apparently, it is now not only politically incorrect but, in Newt Gingrichs term, inexcusable to bring up the religious, racial or ethnic background of a judge, or suggest this might influence his actions on the bench.



No, what is inexcusable is judging Judge Curiel solely on the basis of his ethnicity, and claiming at the same time that only white Europeans like Trump could possibly be free of ethnic-taint in their decision-making processes.

Doubling down on his hypocrisy, Buchanan, in the same breath, is saying though it is only fair to question Curiels motives, it is inexcusable of us to question Trumps.

The irony above all ironies in this ridiculous charade is that the only person supposedly not a racist, according to Trump and all his supporters, is Donald Trump!

Poor Donald Trump is a victim, we are told, and Buchanan makes himself a victim as well as he tells us,



To many liberals, all white Southern males are citizens under eternal suspicion of being racists. The most depressing thing about this episode is to see Republicans rushing to stomp on Trump, to show the left how well they have mastered their liberal catechism.

No Pat. Were pretty certain that the racist white southern males (like you) are the ones who says things that Trump himself once called disgusting and sick.

In a verse apparently left out of the Bibles owned by Pat Buchanan and Donald Trump and any who still support them, the Gospel of Matthew 7:16 tells us, You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles?

No, indeed you shall not. But thorns and thistles are soBronze Age. As John Fugelsang once famously said, the douche doesnt fall far from the bag.

Photo: Alan.com
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* The following is an opinion column by R Muse *

One often forgets that not all Americans spend several hours, seven days a week, 365 days a year following the course of politics, mainly Washington D.C. politics. This year there are likely more Americans than usual perusing the daily news to learn what new and outrageous statement is coming from the candidates seeking their partys nomination. What is fascinating, frankly, is that novice observers and some pundits are shocked and awed by the typically jaw-dropping antics over on the right; specifically Republicans and Donald J. Trump.

For the past several months many observers and commentators, including this column, have opined that everything Donald Trump is saying, and nearly everything he proposes, is part and parcel of the Republican movement. The past week its been faux outrage after tacit approval for what many regard as racially insensitive remarks from Trump, and the back and forth about who is really the racist.

Last week there was indignation all around over Trump telling his campaign to turn the tables on journalists posing questions about his comments about an Hispanic judge, and call them racists. Then recently there are questions about Trumps disregard for the rule of law in questioning the integrity of judges based on their national heritage or religious affiliation. Now, one U.S. Senator has unendorsed Trump for president and a state legislator has severed and disavowed his affiliation with the GOP over Trumps racism. So the prescient question is this: why all the outrage from Republicans, or surprise from the left?

Republicans have been using racial dog whistles, and outright racially insensitive remarks, about Americans of color for at least a decade and theyve only ramped it up since President Obamas election. Its just how they operate to rile up the white folk to garner electoral support. Not unlike what Donald Trump did to decimate the rest of the Republican presidential field. It is noteworthy that without the GOP laying the groundwork and making blatant racism popular and a campaign asset, Donald Trump would be back negotiating with the networks to host another reality show; he would not be the Republican Partys presumptive nominee.

Of particular note this week is House Speaker Paul Ryan saying that he doesnt like Trumps racist remarks about a federal judge, not one bit, but he will support him all the same because he will aid Republicans in ravaging the poor and enriching the already wealthy. Now the big news is Trumps people calling Speaker Ryan a racist because he said Trumps comments are racist.

This is nothing new among Republicans and to punctuate the point a Republican congressman, Lee Zeldin (R-NY) was on CNN defending Trumps character and said President Obama and the Democratic Party are the real racists. Maybe Americans have short memories, but its not been that long ago that anyone complaining about white police officers gunning down unarmed African Americans were called racists for insinuating the trigger-happy cops were driven by racial animus.

In yesterdays New York Times (NYT), the editorial board wrote that Trump has contempt for the rule of law, and that his kind of logic would be the beginning of the ethnic cleansing of the court system could [be made to] apply to any unpopular group at any time.  The day before, the NYT ran a story about Trump having doubts that a Muslim judge could remain neutral in the case. Perhaps it is because Trump is running for the highest office in the land, but this kind of mindset is not unusual for Republicans. It may be outrageous from a presumptive presidential nominee, but it is not unusual from a Republican.

Republicans typically question the integrity of judges, particularly liberal judges, ability to be impartial over a particular case they may have presided over or who they defended when they worked in the public or private legal defense sector.

Congressional Republicans have also rejected highly-qualified individuals nominations for federal agencies over their position on an issue that corporations or lobbyists find unacceptable, even if they are unrelated to the position. Remember, Republicans opposed Dr. Vivek Murthys nomination as Surgeon General simply because he talked about the pressing need to address the epidemic of gun violence.

Republicans also oppose, out of hand, any jurists nomination or appointment if they are advocates for womens freedom to choose and that opposition is always founded on religious belief. The Republicans opposing the nominee may not cite religion, but it is there all the same.

Of course, the above examples are not the same as blatantly questioning a respected jurists integrity based on his or her heritage or religious affiliation, but it is, all the same, casting aspersion on an American based on anything but their qualifications. It is precisely what Donald Trump is doing while Republicans act appalled and some Americans are in a state of disbelief because the presumptive Republican nominee is acting exactly like a Republican.

It is hard to believe that any Americans are unaware that Republicans are typically hypocrites, but their two-faced double standard for Donald Trumps words is just beyond the pale. Subtle racist Paul Ryan spent over a year pushing the idea that inner city urban males (read Black men) need to learn the value and culture of work. Several Republicans have spent the past six years demonizing Hispanic immigrants as murderers, rapists, and drug smugglers. Nearly all Republicans have spent the past decade decrying Muslims living in America and regard them as terrorists. Throughout it all Republicans were not attacking other Republicans because their racism, religious bigotry, and anti-immigrant rhetoric was not being broadcast on the nightly news or the national stage.

Republicans and their various conservative iterations did not create Donald Trump, but they did systematically cultivate their racist, religious base and prepare them for the Donald. Trump also likely learned, from Republicans, that he can be as racially offensive as possible and when hes called on it that person is a racist. One suspects that if Donald Trump reins in his racist and offensive rhetoric ever so slightly, Republicans will be hailing him as the second coming because Trump epitomizes a true conservative including being a true bigot.

Image: paulrevererides
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Republicans are in a state of panic after Trump launched a new round of racist attacks on the Trump University case judge.

Donald Trumps teleprompter speech and statement were supposed to calm Republicans down, but then Trump went and did this during an interview with Cal Thomas:



CT: So there will be less talk about Mexicans and other things and more about issues?

DT: Yes, the reason I bring up the (Trump University) lawsuit, because it is a lawsuit I am going to win.  I have thousands of students who loved the school and Ive been treated very unfairly in that lawsuit. I dont care if a judge is Mexican or what. What I care about is to be treated fairly. And the only reason I spent time on it is when they ask me a question, instead of saying I have no comment and then winning the case two years from now, Id rather bring up parts of the case. For instance, you possibly didnt know I have many thousands of letters saying the course was great. And people have actually been successful after they took the course. Its worth my while to explain this because people then say, Wow, I never knew that.

Trump promised in a statement not to talk about the Trump University judge anymore, so he now talks about the judge in every interview. Instead of reassuring Republicans, Donald Trump has caused a full blown panic.

In case Republicans still havent gotten it yet, Donald Trump isnt going to stop making racist statements. Judge Curiel is not from Mexico. He is from Indiana. What should be most disturbing to Republicans is that Trump continues to place winning the Trump U case ahead of winning the White House. Donald Trump is using his platform as the Republican nominee to attack a sitting judge.

Top Republicans are unendorsing and refusing to endorse Trump, and yet, the racist attacks are continuing on a daily basis. The only choice that Republicans may have left comes down to getting rid of Trump or letting him destroy their party.
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According to a bombshell story, the staff of the Sanders campaign has known for weeks and months that Bernie Sanders was not going to win the Democratic nomination.

According to a story in Politico:



Top Sanders aides admit that its been weeks, if not months, since they themselves realized he wasnt going to be win, and theyve been operating with a Trumps-got-no-real-shot safety net. They debate whether Sanders role in the fall should be a full vote-for-Clinton campaign, or whether he should just campaign hard against Trump without signing up to do much for her directly.

They havent been able to get Sanders focused on any of that, or on the real questions about what kind of long term organization to build out of his email list. They know theyll have their own rally in Philadelphia  outside the the convention hallbut thats about as far as theyve gotten.

He wants to be in the race until the end, until the roll call vote, Weaver said.

According to the story, the person who has been clinging to the notion that he can still win the nomination is Bernie Sanders. According to Politico, part of the reason that Sanders is staying in the race is that he is holding on to the remote thought that Hillary Clinton will be indicted for her use of email while Sec. of State.

The story paints a damning portrait of a presidential candidate who might have blown his shot at winning the Democratic nomination by making a series of bad decisions. The end of the campaign inside stories are always shaped by people within the campaign who may have an ax to grind, but what is clear is that the public image of the Sanders campaign may have been very different from what was going on behind closed doors.

It seems that the one person who needs to come to grips with the reality of his defeat is Sen. Bernie Sanders.
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LEBANON  About 70 Lebanon High School seniors were treated to an extra graduation ceremony Tuesday morning: sendoffs from their former elementary schools.

One busload of capped and gowned seniors paraded past cheering students at Cascades, Green Acres and Riverview elementary schools, while a second visited Lacomb, Hamilton Creek and Pioneer. Both buses then met up for walks at Seven Oak Middle School.

"We're happy to see that our graduates from this school are going to graduate from high school and go off to college and get a good job and a good life," explained Green Acres fifth-grader Carlie Morrison, 11.

Lebanon High School senior Abbie Chambers, herself a Green Acres alumna, was excited to be back and to see at least one of her favorite teachers.

"Hopefully it inspires (the students) to stay in school," she said.

So-called "grad" or "senior" walks are a hot trend nationwide, with pictures popping up on social media sites from Texas to Tennessee.

The idea is to remind the graduates how far they've come while inspiring the younger students to achieve the same goal.

In the mid-valley, Lebanon, South Albany and West Albany all joined in the spirit this year. For South Albany, it was the second such walk.

"We started last year at Lafayette as pilot of this program," Principal Brent Belveal said. "It is a tremendous way to help our younger students set the goal for high school graduation. I watched last year as my seniors came through the high-five lines with tears in their eyes as it made graduation real and reminded them of the journey that had been on to get to graduation day."

In Lebanon, Wendy Eilers, coordinator of the GEAR-UP program, which promotes college and career readiness, organized the walk.

"Right now in our schools we promote college readiness, which is great, but the first step to your future, and probably the most important, is graduating high school," she said. "Showing our youth what that looks like, that there is a finish line, is what our goal is."

Lebanon High School students marveled at how small everything seemed: the chairs, the drinking fountains and especially their younger counterparts.

They had advice, too: "Have fun while you're still young," Josh Buckner encouraged.

But work hard, added Hannah Sabrowski. "The robes are worth it."

Green Acres fifth-grader Damian Welch said he's looking forward to coming back for his own senior grad walk.

"I'm going to cry," he predicted. "I'm going to be so happy."
I once felt I pretty much knew my way around all of Rochester. But over the past decade or so I've given up on keeping track of all of the new businesses and housing popping up.

So, a recent trip to Old Navy and Dicks Sporting Goods was a new adventure for me, and one I thoroughly enjoyed. I'd been told to go there by friend, "Backwater Bob," who usually is alerting me to interesting things in the backwaters, not busy shopping complexes. But, Bob's wife talked him into a trip to Old Navy, where he made his discovery.

While there, he probably sat in the car, something I also would likely have done, and was soon alerted to excitement above both store entrances. He later described it to me as cliff swallows building hundreds of nests. I was only a tad bit suspicious, as Bob is not prone to exaggeration.

Nonetheless, I had to check it out myself, as not only did the large number intrigue me, but the fact that he thought they were cliff swallows really threw me. So, the next day Siri got me to the two stores, where I quickly confirmed Bob was right on.

I previously wrote how these birds adapted to nesting under bridges instead of cliffs they were named for. Seeing hundreds of them building nests on the building front overhangs really surprised me. And it was fun to follow some to mud puddles a quarter-mile away, where they grabbed bits of mud to take back to their building projects.

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Customer complaints

I knew these birds would probably not sit well with many customers, so I stopped in to talk with managers in each store. Both pointed out the birds were a problem, leaving many customers very upset. I was assured the "complex management would take care of them soon."

I pointed out the birds were protected, so they might have them around for at least another month or two. I offered to write up some information on the birds which they could post for customers.

I also called the developer and learned the birds, which he insisted "had no value," had been dealt with before by hanging all the rubber snakes he could buy to scare them off. I am not sure how well it worked, but I do know the new management company did not hang snakes this year, and the number of birds was off the charts.

I contacted a rep at with the management company in the Twin Cities and was told she had been down to see the birds, and was amazed at their numbers. She implied a local exterminator was going to get rid of the nests and birds, to which I suggested that might be a problem with the federal protection the birds had.

I suggested perhaps leaving them alone this year and working with a deterrent for next year. I also recommended putting awnings in front of the building entrances to keep people from being pooped on like I was. I also mentioned the information sheet idea, but was told they weren't interested in either.

Last, I contacted enforcement reps from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, who concurred the nests and birds could not be disturbed if egg laying had begun. To do so would be a federal offense, although maybe in another year, under the Trump administration, it wouldn't.

On Friday afternoon my granddaughter and I went to count nests and see how many looked completed, which probably meant there were eggs being laid in them. It appeared there were at least a few dozen of about 300 nests finished. However, I guessed the exterminator probably wouldn't be working over the weekend, but the swallows would be, and may have more completed nests and eggs by Monday.

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But, going back Monday morning, we could tell from a distance there were no birds or nests present, which meant the exterminator probably sprayed or knocked down all the nests and, I am guessing, some eggs. Once again, nature loses out to humans, although I suspect they might re-nest on another nearby building.

Chemical spraying follow-up

Since no one from the city has answered the question posed in my May 7 column  "do we really need to spray poisonous chemicals on concrete medians?" -- I am planning a presentation to the city council at their June 20 meeting, to hopefully get that question and others answered.

If you want to join a group that supports these efforts, please send me an email, or consider attending the 7 p.m. meeting.
On June 22, nine members of the Sisters of Saint Francis of Rochester will celebrate their Golden Jubilee with the congregation, together with a sister who will be celebrating her Silver Jubilee.

Those Golden Jubilarians, celebrating 50 years with the Congregation, include:

 Sister Elaine Frankwas born in Caledonia, and entered religious community from St. Mary's in Caledonia. She professed first vows as a Daughter of Mary in Miami, Fla., in 1966 and transferred to the Rochester Franciscan Congregation in 1975. Sister Elaine's primary ministry was spent serving at retreat centers and offering spiritual direction in Winona and Janesville. Additionally, she served as a social worker in Miami, and as a hospice/hospital chaplain in Mason City, Iowa. Sister Elaine has been a member of the national board of directors for Retreats International and National Association of Catholic Chaplains. Currently, Sister Elaine is the congregational secretary for the Sisters of Saint Francis at Assisi Heights.

 Sister Jan Reisdorfwas raised in St. Charles and entered the Rochester Franciscan Congregation from St. Charles Borromeo Parish, where she also professed her first vows in 1966. The majority of her career was spent in education and pastoral ministry, serving in Fairmont, Winona and Owatonna, as well as spending 28 years at the Diocese of Pueblo, Colo. Sister Jan was the director of residential life at Assisi Heights from 2006-2011. Recently retired, Sister Jan volunteers and serves in various ministries.

 Sister Jennifer Corbettwas born in South Bend, Ind., and entered the Rochester Franciscan Congregation during her junior year at the College of Saint Teresa in Winona. She began her nursing career at Saint Marys Hospital in Rochester, followed by 40 years in Chicago, where she served as a public health nurse in the Chicago Department of Health, as director of parish nursing, and in positions in long term care and adult day programs for persons with dementia. Since 2013, Sister Jennifer has served on the staff of the Holy Spirit Retreat Center in Janesville.

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 Sister Joan Lewisonwas born in Adams, and entered the Rochester Franciscan Congregation from Sacred Heart Parish. She professed her first vows in 1966 at Assisi Heights. The majority of her career was spent as a teacher and principal for Catholic schools in Colorado, Maryland, California and Texas. Additionally, she held many congregational positions at Assisi Heights, including co-director of Assisi Heights from 1999-2007 and as an associate minister on the leadership team from 2012-2015. Sister Joan is retired from active ministry and volunteers at Assisi Heights.

 Sister Kay Frances Wagnerwas born in Watertown, S.D., and entered the Rochester Franciscan Congregation from Immaculate Conception Parish in Watertown, where she also professed first vows in 1966. She started her ministry teaching primary grade students in Sleepy Eye, but the majority of her career was spent in pastoral counseling in Winona and St. Paul, among other sites in other states. She spent 20 summers  13 years on staff and seven years as director  of the Einsiedeln Conference on Jungian Psychology and Spirituality in Switzerland. In addition, she founded the Family Life Center at St. Juliana's Parish in Chicago, and the Pastoral Counseling Center in Santa Fe, N.M. Currently, Sister Kay's ministry is offering spiritual direction.

 Sister Martha Mathewwas born in Barnesville, and entered the Rochester Franciscan Congregation from Assumption Parish. She professed first vows at Assisi Heights in 1966. The majority of her career was spent in nursing and nursing education in Winona, Duluth and Rochester, in Charleston, S.C., and in Bogota, Colombia. Sister Martha is currently retired from active ministry, but continues to volunteer in health care at Assisi Heights and serves as a presenter in raising awareness about human trafficking.

 Sister Mary Eliot Crowleywas born in Milwaukee and entered the Rochester Franciscan Congregation from Church of the Visitation in Minneapolis. She professed her first vows at Assisi Heights in 1966. Early in her career, Sister Mary Eliot taught at St. Adrian Catholic School in Adrian. Her years of ministry were also spent at CENCOAD (Center for Community Organization and Development) in Sioux Falls, S.D.; the Archdiocesan Consultation Service in Cincinnati, Ohio; and as the Coordinator of Franciscan Sponsorship at Mayo Clinic HospitalSaint Marys. Sister Mary Eliot is retired and serves as a volunteer making presentations and raising awareness on the issue of human trafficking.

 Sister Patricia Himmer, formerly known as Sister Donna, was born in Stewartville and entered the Rochester Franciscan Congregation from St. Bernard's parish, where she also professed her first vows in 1966. The majority of Sister Pat's ministry was spent living and working among the marginalized poor in various parts of Latin America and the U.S. From 1992-1999, Sister Pat served in pastoral ministry work at the Rochester Franciscan mission in Bogota, Colombia. She then returned to the U.S. to serve at the Holy Spirit Retreat Center in Janesville, followed by the Homeless Shelter for Women and Children in Albuquerque, N.M. Currently, Sister Patricia works in the Administrative Support office at Assisi Heights and serves as a volunteer.

 Sister Valerie Usherwas born in Watertown, Wis., and entered the Rochester Franciscan Congregation from St. Victor's Parish in Monroe, Wis. She professed first vows in 1966 at Assisi Heights. Her primary career was spent in education, pastoral ministry and congregational ministry. She served as a teacher in Austin and Rochester and Bogota, Colombia. Currently, Sister Valerie is coordinator of the Franciscan mission in Bogota, serves as the legal representative of both the Colegio Santa Francisco Romana and the Colegio Anexo San Francisco de Asis, and is the congregational representative before the Archdiocese of Bogota.

One Sister will join the Golden Jubilarians to celebrate her Silver Jubilee, in recognition of 25 years with the Sisters of Saint Francis.

 Sister Wanda Metteswas born in Shelbyville, Mo., and entered the Rochester Franciscan Congregation from St. Peter Parish in North St. Paul. Sister Wanda professed first vows at Assisi Heights in 1991. The majority of her career was spent in pastoral ministry, serving in St. Peter Church in North St. Paul from 1987-1989 and at Immaculate Conception Church in Columbia Heights from 1991-1997, while also participating in the Twin Cities Pastoral Ministry Association and the Nicaragua Sister Parish Support Task Force. Most recently, she served as receptionist and office specialist in the business office at Rochester Community and Technical College until her retirement in 2015. Currently, Sister Wanda serves on the Congregational Finance Committee and Communication Advisory Council for the Sisters of Saint Francis.
Two men are in custody after authorities say they assaulted a cab driver early this morning.

The incident began about 2:20 a.m., when the cabbie picked up four people from downtown; two of the passengers asked to be taken to a hotel on 17th Avenue Northwest.

The driver asked the remaining two passengers, Tadros Deng and Akolda Manyang, both 22 and from Rochester, where they wanted to go. The men were "drunk and belligerent and didn't know the address," said Capt. John Sherwin, so the cabbie told them to get out.

One of the men grabbed the driver's clipboard, got out of the cab and smashed it on the ground; when the driver also got out of the vehicle, the men assaulted him and chased him around the parking lot, Sherwin said.

The victim eventually made it into the hotel lobby, which is when Deng and Manyang allegedly grabbed the keys to the driver's personal vehicle and ran off.

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Deng was found nearby soon after by a Minnesota State Patrol trooper; a Rochester Police officer found Manyang in the area of Second Street and U.S. Highway 52 North.

Both men could face charges of felony simple robbery and fifth-degree assault, Sherwin said.

The cabbie sustained minor injuries, but didn't seek medical treatment, the report says.
TDY Industries LLC, a Millersburg industrial plant also known as ATI Wah Chang, has been fined by the state more than $43,000 for hazardous waste violations that occurred in 2011.

According to an Oregon Department of Environmental Quality news release, the company failed to determine waste was hazardous, stored hazardous waste without a proper permit and shipped it without a hazardous waste manifest.

Thats a fairly big deal.  The danger would be that it could be reactive and ignitable. It could cause fires and burst into flames, and in fact, with this case, it did cause a fire and explosion at the receiving facility in Ohio, said Brian Fuller, western regional hazardous waste program manager for the Department of Environmental Quality.

One worker at that Ohio facility was killed and another was badly burned, Fuller said.

TDY Industries is owned by Allegheny Technologies, Inc. of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

James Denham, ATI's legal counsel in Albany, was not able to be contacted for comment late Monday afternoon or on Tuesday.

The company has until June 12 to appeal the penalty and request a hearing. TDY Industries officials were informed of the fine via a May 19 letter from the Department of Environmental Quality.

Fuller said he anticipated the company would appeal.

In July 2011, the company received 40 55-gallon drums of zirconium swarf  fine particles that are a byproduct of sawing or grinding operations  at its Millersburg facility. The company didnt identify the waste as hazardous and illegally stored it on site without the proper permit, the DEQ news release states.

In December 2011, TDY Industries shipped the drums to an industrial and hazardous waste treatment facility in East Liverpool, Ohio, according to the news release.

Federal and state laws require hazardous waste shipments to have uniform hazardous waste manifests identifying the type and quantity of waste being transported, and signature lines for all parties involved in the generation, transportation and disposal of hazardous waste.

Fuller said that the investigation into the alleged violations was drawn out as the DEQ had to coordinate with agencies in other states, and ATI Wah Chang also raised legal defenses during the process. We had to take some time and make sure we got it right, Fuller said.

This isnt the first penalty ATI Wah Chang has faced over hazardous waste issues.

In December 2013, ATI Wah Chang and ATI Albany Operations (Oremet) agreed to a combined $825,000 in civil penalties to resolve alleged violations related to the improper storage, transportation and disposal of reactive hazardous waste.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimated that the companies shipped about 160 million pounds of anhydrous magnesium chloride to Oregon landfills that were not equipped or permitted to dispose of untreated reactive wastes.
Lebanon High School celebrated the graduation of nearly 300 students in the class of 2016 on Tuesday at Heath Stadium. At top, Jennifer Gallegos, right, and Mellissa Johnson celebrate with a hug at the end of commencement exercises. At right, Katie Rowe receives a traditional Hawaiian graduation from her family. The valedictorians for the class are Mckenzie Foster, who plans to study engineering at Oregon State University, and Bryn Gerson, who aims to study forestry at the University of British Columbia. Salutatorian Marilee Hoyle plans to attend Oregon State University and to major in environmental sciences. For more photos from the ceremony, see the online version of this story at www.democratherald.com.
In a political season filled with promises of revolution, something revolutionary happened: A woman has won a major party's presidential nomination.

That historic occurrence, overshadowed somewhat by everything else that has happened in an election year that has wildly defied expectations, will shape the general election clash to come. It sets up a November battle between presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump that will tread heavily on issues of gender.

Clinton seized on history Tuesday night as she claimed the Democratic nomination during a campaign celebration in New York. She opened with an allusion to what she had memorably called the nation's "highest, hardest glass ceiling"  the one separating women from the Oval Office.

Exactly eight years ago Tuesday, as she departed the 2008 presidential contest, she claimed to have knocked millions of cracks in that ceiling, each one for a vote received in her losing effort.

"It may be hard to see tonight, but we are all standing under a glass ceiling right now," she said Tuesday, grinning. "But don't worry, we're not smashing this one."

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Issues of gender will dominate the general election for at least two reasons. It will be the first time a woman has led a ticket in a presidential general election, and the two candidates already have been jousting over women and their roles.

In recent days, Trump questioned Clinton's very presence in the race.

"She doesn't even look presidential," he complained via Twitter as Clinton delivered a foreign policy address scathing in its criticism of the Republican.

The primary campaign has been loaded with such allusions to gender, and there's no reason to think that will change in the months before the general election.

The GOP primary contest "in many ways was all about who was man enough to be president of the United States," said Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.

She cited Trump's complaints that former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush needed his mother's help to get elected, his criticism of Carly Fiorina's face as one that Americans wouldn't want on a president, and the dispute between Trump and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio over the size of Trump's hands and other body parts.

"It's all this masculinity," she said. "This is what presidential politics has always been about: Who is man enough, who is tough enough to be leader of the free world? The default image is always male."

Trump's "Make America Great Again" slogan harks back not only to a time before the civil rights of minorities had been secured, but also serves as a gender dog whistle, she said:

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It implies "let's go back to a time when white men ran everything," Walsh said.

The official awarding of the Democratic nomination will occur during the summer convention, but media tabulations of delegate preferences showed Monday that Clinton had gained the prize. On Tuesday, she increased her lead over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in the popular vote, pledged delegates and superdelegates.

Her nomination would vault the country into the company of other nations which long ago elected women as leaders.

Only two women have served on major party tickets  Democrat Geraldine Ferraro in 1984 and Republican Sarah Palin in 2008. But both were picked for the vice presidential position, as opposed to winning the top spot outright, a distinct difference.

Now, in her reach for history, Clinton finds herself in a race with a surprising twist: In addition to being a referendum on a woman presidential nominee, it will also be a referendum on Donald Trump.

Trump's treatment of women has been at the forefront of the presidential contest since the first Republican debate last summer. Fox anchor Megyn Kelly incurred Trump's wrath after she asked the candidate why he had described various women as "fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals" and wondered how he would counter Clinton's general election assertion that he was part of a "war on women."

In April, Trump accused Clinton of being an affirmative action hire for the Democratic Party.

"The only card she has is the woman's card; she's got nothing else going," Trump said the night Clinton won Pennsylvania and three other states. "And frankly, if Hillary Clinton were a man, I don't think she'd get 5 percent of the vote."

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His criticism prompted a line in Clinton's speeches that routinely draws her supporters into a shout-along.

"He accuses me of playing the woman's card," Clinton said Sunday night in Sacramento, before a community college gymnasium full of fans who burst into cheers at the line they knew was coming.

If standing up for equal pay, raising the minimum wage and family leave policies is playing the woman's card, she said, "then you know what? Deal me in!"

The fact that it was Trump who lit the fuse on the gender wars this year may influence the tenor of the fall campaign, according to those who have studied women candidates.

"He's the one making gender relevant and engaging in sexist talk, which opens the door to her response," said Jennifer Lawless, an American University professor who specializes in women in politics. "She doesn't have to defend herself from accusations that she's putting gender out there."

Overall, Lawless said, Clinton's achievement is "incredibly important."

"This is the first step to getting there," she said of the possibility of a woman in the Oval Office. "But she still has to win."

Women remain underrepresented in politics. According to the Center for American Women and Politics, they make up 20 percent of the Senate, 19 percent of the House, less than a quarter of state legislators and only 12 percent of governorships, despite being half of the population.
Tons of love and support was prominent for 5-year-old Lukas Wharton this past weekend.

Lukas was hit by a car while playing with his wagon outside his Byron home on May 24. He died of his injuries on Wednesday night and since then, the community has come together to support his family.

On Sunday, Christ the King Catholic Church in Byron, where Lukas' family attends, held a fundraiser that included tacos and root beer floats, bringing in more than 500 people for the event.

"People stopped in just to donate," said Jennifer Kulack, office assistant at the church. "The food was not the main attraction, the family was."

Friends, family and the community raised about $8,100 in just one day for the Wharton family.

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Another fundraiser that has been set up by Lukas' aunt, Andie Bumgarner, has exceeded their goal of $25,000, with $27,925 in 12 days. The GoFundMe account is filled with uplifting messages of hope and prayers for the family.

The money will be going towards the Wharton family for care expenses and to help the family through this difficult time.

The GoFundMe and Christ the King are still accepting donations.
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.  Mayo Clinic's dream of turning Rochester into the Silicon Valley of Medicine just took a major step toward becoming a reality.

In front of a high-level crowd of international bioscience companies Tuesday night at the 2016 BIO International Convention in San Francisco, Mayo Clinic CEO Dr. John Noseworthy and other leaders from Mayo, Rochester and Destination Medical Center announced plans to build a 2 million-square-foot bioresearch campus in downtown Rochester.

It's being touted as a first-of-its-kind economic development that marks an important milestone in the 20-year timeline of the $6.5 billion DMC public-private partnership, which is projected to add 30,000 jobs and double Rochester's population by 2034.

The bioresearch campus will be the centerpiece of Discovery Square, one of six sub-districts in the DMC development district. Lt. Governor Tina Smith called Discovery Square the "cornerstone of DMC."

"Mayo Clinic is making a firm commitment to really expand dramatically into the area of bioscience," said Smith, who is also DMC Corp. board chair in an interview Tuesday with the Post-Bulletin. "The step that Mayo has taken is  the cornerstone of DMC.

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"We're well on our way toward making Rochester, Minnesota, America's capital of health."

The new development will more than double Mayo's research capability in Rochester, where the clinic currently has 1.3 million square feet of dedicated research space. It will feature a combination of research, commercial and product development space within a six-block area located near the Guggenheim Building, between South Broadway and Sixth Avenue Southwest.

Discovery Square has routinely been called the catalyst for DMC's job growth, though specific dollars and job projections were not included with Tuesday's announcement.

"It's a very important milestone for DMC because Discovery Square has unparalleled opportunity to really create this dense, mixed-use neighborhood all anchored by this signature space," Lisa Clarke, executive director of DMC's Economic Development Authority, told the Post-Bulletin Monday.

'Perking a lot of ears'

Rochester City Council member Nick Campion didn't learn about Mayo's big announcement until after his flight arrived in San Francisco on Monday.

He attended Tuesday's festivities as the city's representative in the unique public-private partnership, feeling empowered by Mayo's massive financial commitment after years of discussion and planning.

"It really looks like a good commitment to the city, and broadening and diversifying the way Mayo operates in Rochester," Campion said. "They're working to diversify our workforce and enrich the presence of bioscience in the city by leveraging some of their expertise to harness and build up our credentials."

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If the prestigious conference is any indication, Campion says the message is already out.

Mayo's announcement came halfway through the four-day bioscience event. About 50 international companies are represented at the event, which was also streamed in real time on Facebook Live.

Campion's task was touting Rochester as a bioscience destination thanks to its well-educated workforce, its partnership with Mayo and its ambitious goals moving forward with DMC. He said it's a message that "plays well" and "is perking a lot of ears" among the industries heavy hitters.

Mayo's big announcement only adds fuels to the future possibilities.

"I'm here to show that Rochester has a commitment to this process," Campion said. "We're not just going to talk the talk. We're here to walk the walk.

"A lot of communities here are jealous about that commitment (from Mayo). They think we're well positioned to be successful."

Mayo spent more than $662 million on research in 2015 while completing 2,723 new human studies and having 7,305 peer-reviewed papers published in medical journals. Those figures may all double once Discovery Square become fully operational.

The development in the Discovery Square area will "bring together renowned physicians, researchers, scientists and entrepreneurs to address unmet patient needs in an ultramodern setting for science innovation," according to Mayo.

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Rob Miller, president of the Rochester Area Chamber of Commerce, says he's "somewhat in awe" of the ambitious plans.

"I hear so often 'When are we going to start seeing something?'" said Miller, who was also in attendance in San Francisco. "Well, now we have a date here in 2017. I think everyone has something to look forward to. What a feather in our cap."

Tina Smith, a Stanford grad, says Rochester has the potential to become a world-class health care hub in a similar way that the Bay Area, which is home to Facebook, Pinterest, Google and many other industry leaders, has become synonymous with technology.

"World-leading research drives everything we do for patients at Mayo Clinic," said Dr. Gregory Gores, Mayo's executive dean for research. "From providing the best individualized care to addressing the world's most challenging health problems, Mayo researchers relentlessly pursue discoveries that benefit people today and for generations to come. The addition of Discovery Square will extend that commitment by creating a new discovery science platform for innovators to collaborate with Mayo Clinic."

What's next?

Mayo Clinic hired Hammes Co. for $1.5 million to analyze the Discovery Square piece of the DMC vision and offer a market plan of how the medical and technology research area might be developed. That process wrapped up in late 2015, and the recommendations are now being phased into the plans.

A major change following Hammes' work, according to Mayo spokesman Karl Oestreich, is that plans now call for "a six-block campus of integrated buildings that will be a combination of Mayo Clinic programs and non-Mayo bioscience space  designed for communication, collaboration and collisions between tenants, ultimately bringing solutions to patients sooner."

Mayo already owns about 35 percent of Discovery Square, according to Oestreich.

Noseworthy said the announcement was made at the international convention, rather than in Minnesota, because it sets the stage "at the international level." About 150 countries and all 50 states were represented at the convention.

Mayo Clinic, Mayo Clinic Ventures and DMC have all "met with multiple organizations that could be potentially a good fit as future tenants," but it remains a fluid process with no firm commitments to date, according to Oestreich.

"There will be a lot of interest," Noseworthy said in an interview with the Post-Bulletin last week, prior to the announcement being made public. "A lot of people know about this economic development project that is DMC, which is huge. The fact that Mayo Clinic is developing this research ecosystem with the private sector on the Rochester campus is a big deal.

"It sends a really strong message that Rochester is a great place to live and work."

Mayo is currently soliciting bids from strategic development firms to plan Discovery Square, with a decision expected sometime this fall. Construction is slated to begin sometime in 2017 and be completed within two years.

That's music to the ears of Rochester Mayor Ardell Brede, who counts himself among those eager to see something visible emerge from the extensive DMC planning process.

"To have more of that (bioresearch) here and have it connected with the World Famous, bringing talent and businesses here is great," Brede said. "To use the word of one of those guys running for president, it will be 'yuuuuuuge.' This is something we've all been waiting for."
Turns out Kasson's Caleb Kern isn't alone in his plight to afford medical cannabis and receive comfort for a life-altering ailment.

The 25-year-old man has struggled with seizures throughout his life before finding some comfort with medical cannabis. However, the family was forced to halt those progressive treatments due to costs they describe as "beyond-belief expensive in Minnesota."

An informal survey released Monday by the Minnesota Department of Health has determined that most patients are reporting benefits from using medical cannabis, while also struggling to afford the medication that's not covered by insurance.

Those were the conclusions made by MDH Monday after reviewing surveys from 241 medicinal marijuana patients and 94 health care practitioners during the first three months it became legally offered in Minnesota last summer. Ninety percent of patients reported "mild to significant benefits" from using medical marijuana, though health care providers reported a lower number at 77 percent.

Ten percent of patients and 24 percent of providers reported "no to little" benefit from cannabis use to treat a variety of ailments.

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"These survey data are based on a small sample of patients and should not be confused with a clinical trial," Minnesota Health Commissioner Dr. Ed Ehlinger said. "However, these results do highlight Minnesota's data-focused approach to medical cannabis and the fact that patients are benefitting from the program."

According to MDH, the top three conditions where medical cannabis proved effective are severe muscle spasms, seizures and cancer; cancer had the highest patient-reported benefit scores. However, patients and health care practitioners reported benefits for all of the state-approved conditions.

The complete survey results were first published in Minnesota Medicine magazine. They are now available online at the Office of Medical Cannabis and MDH medical cannabis websites.

Kyle Kingsley, CEO of Minnesota Medical Solutions, was pleasantly surprised by the report's findings. The Rochester-based medical marijuana dispensary recently surpassed 1 million doses served, though statewide enrollment has fallen short of initial projections. Kingsley said about 2,000 have enrolled when MDH had projected around 5,000.

The program will expand to cover patients with intractable pain on Aug. 1, which could significantly boost enrollment.

"The numbers that we're seeing are on par with some of our lower projections," Kingsley said. "We're satisfied with the consistent growth. We're seeing 20 to 30 people sign up each week and as long as that continues, we're confident the price will continue to go down."

The effectiveness of the alternative medicine has proved eye-opening, but the prohibitive cost has made it a treatment option that's simply not a viable long-term solution. Seventy-three percent of patients reported that medical cannabis was "unaffordable," according to the MDH study.

The Kerns have raised more than $1,300 on a GoFundMe page and were the subject of a fundraiser last weekend at Community Celebration Church in Kasson that was expected to raise thousands more. They hope to resume cannabis treatment, in some form, once the funds become available.

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While the Kasson family is appreciative of the support, they're among those frustrated with the state's process.

"Caleb has been approved by the State for this, but the amount he needs costs over $1000 per month and must be paid in cash," Bob Kern, Caleb's father, wrote on the GoFundMe page. "We started this but couldn't afford to continue. Any gifts from caring generous people will be used to seek a better life for my son.

"We so long to see our Caleb removed from the 'disabled' list. My wife, Sue, and I will be so grateful to all compassionate people that will help us in our quest to make a better life for Caleb."
An emergency management drill Thursday in downtown Rochester will necessitate the closure of three blocks of roadways surrounding Charter House, Mayo Clinic Retirement Living.

Mayo Clinic and the city of Rochester will stage an evacuation drill from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. Thursday. During this time, three blocks of roadway will be closed: Second Street Northwest between Second and Third avenues; Second Avenue Northwest between Second and Third streets; and Third Avenue Northwest between Second and Third streets.

Though Third Avenue Northwest is included in the drill area, only the most easterly lane of the 200 block should be affected by the drill, a city news release said.

Access to Mayo Clinic's Proton building will be maintained from Second Street Northwest and Second Avenue Northwest.

Rochester Police Department Sgt. Jon Turk is coordinating the city of Rochester's role in the drill; he can be contacted by phone at 507-328-6940 for more details.
NEW YORK  Claiming her place in history, Hillary Clinton declared victory Tuesday night in her bruising battle for the Democratic presidential nomination, becoming the first woman to lead a major American political party and casting herself as the beneficiary of generations who fought for equality.

"This campaign is about making sure there are no ceilings, no limits on any of us," Clinton said during an emotional rally in Brooklyn, eight years to the day after she ended her first failed White House run. As she took the stage to raucous cheers, she paused to relish the moment, stretching her arms out wide and beaming broadly.

Clinton had already secured the delegates needed for the nomination, according to an Associated Press tally. She added to her totals with victories in New Jersey and New Mexico, two of the six states voting Tuesday.

Clinton faces a two-front challenge in the coming days. She must appeal to the enthusiastic supporters of her rival Bernie Sanders - who insists he still has a narrow path to the nomination - and sharpen her contrasts with presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.

She sought to make progress on both, using her own loss in 2008 to connect with Sanders' backers.

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"It never feels good to put our heart into a cause or a candidate you believe in and come up short," she said. "I know that feeling well. But as we look ahead to the battle that awaits, let's remember all that unites us."

She was biting and sarcastic as she took on Trump, accusing him of wanting to win "by stoking fear and rubbing salt in wounds - and reminding us daily just how great he is."

The Democratic race was ending amid new turmoil among the Republicans. GOP leaders recoiled at Trump's comments about a Hispanic judge, with one senator even pulling his endorsement.

Trump capped his difficult day with victories in New Jersey, New Mexico, South Dakota and Montana. He was muted his victory rally, saying he understands "the responsibility" of leading the Republican Party. He also made a direct appeal to dejected Sanders supporters and other Democrats.

"This election isn't about Republican or Democrat, it's about who runs this country: the special interests or the people," he said. Trump promised a major speech next week on Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton.

Clinton's win in New Jersey came a day after she secured the 2,383 delegates she needed to become first female presumptive nominee of a major political party, according to an Associated Press tally. Her total includes pledged delegates won in primaries and caucuses, as well as superdelegates - the party officials and officeholders who can back a candidate of their choosing.

Clinton and Sanders were both pressing for victory in California, each eager to effectively end their primary battle on a high note. However, the California results might not be known Tuesday night; more than half of Californians vote by mail, and the deadline for returned ballots isn't until Friday, as long as they are postmarked by Election Day.

Sanders picked up a win in North Dakota, where a handful of delegates were up for grabs. Montana was also holding a primary Tuesday.

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Sanders hoped a victory would help in his so-far-unsuccessful bid to get Clinton superdelegates to switch their support. Asked on NBC whether he was continuing that effort, he said, "We are. We're on the phone right now."

The superdelegates who were counted in Clinton's total told the AP they were unequivocally supporting her.

Trump, after vanquishing his last opponents about a month ago, has continued to make controversial statements, frustrating party leaders.

The latest cause for GOP concern was his insistence that a judge handling a legal case involving the businessman was being unfair in his rulings. Trump has said U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel can't be impartial because the jurist's parents were born in Mexico and Trump wants to build a wall along the border.

Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk, who is locked in a close re-election fight, became the first lawmaker to pull his endorsement of Trump. House Speaker Paul Ryan said the businessman's assertion was the "textbook definition of a racist comment" but he would continue to support Trump.

Trump released a statement saying he does "not feel one's heritage makes them incapable of being impartial." But he still questioned whether he was receiving fair treatment in the case involving the now-defunct Trump University.

Clinton will soon have help on the campaign trail from President Obama. Her 2008 foe is to endorse her as early as this week, a move meant to signal to Sanders and his supporters that it's time to unify behind her.

Obama and Sanders spoke by phone Sunday. While the content of the call is unknown, Sanders' campaign has appeared to slightly soften its rhetoric since the call.

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Dianne Feinstein of California said Sanders and Clinton should "march on to a general election together," and any Sanders plan to keep fighting until the Democratic National Convention "is going to make that much more difficult."

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said that for Sanders "I think the math is unforgiving."

Sanders' achievements have been remarkable for a candidate who was unknown to most Americans before the campaign. He has drawn massive crowds to rallies around the country and built a fundraising juggernaut based largely on small donations online. The Vermont senator has been particularly popular with young voters, an important piece of the Democratic coalition.

Still, Clinton's victory has been broadly decisive. She leads Sanders by more than 3 million cast votes.

After her win in New Jersey, Clinton had 2,441 delegates to Sanders' 1,616. That count includes both pledged delegates and superdelegates.
Great Eastern Holdings Ltd has sold its insurance arm in Vietnam to FWD Life Insurance Company (Bermuda) Ltd, a unit of Hong Kong's Pacific Century Group, for $48.2 million ($35 million).

FWD Group announced that it had secured regulatory approval to carry out the acquisition of Great Eastern Life Insurance Vietnam, the arm of Great Eastern Life Assurance Company Limited. Procedures are expected to complete by June 21, according to a statement released by FWD on June 7.

The net book value of Great Eastern Life Insurance Vietnam Co Ltd as of May 31 was S$47.5 million (nearly $35 million), the company told the Singapore Exchange on June 7.

This will mark FWDs second new market entry this year, following the majority acquisition of Singaporean medical provider Shenton Insurance in April.

Great Eastern Vietnam will be rebranded following the acquisition, and FWD plans to invest in developing the companys technology infrastructure and improve customer experience with a vision of becoming a leading insurer in Vietnam.

FWD Group CEO Huynh Phong Thanh said: The move into Vietnams market will be an important strategic milestone for FWDs Southeast Asian penetration ambitions. Vietnams economy has been transforming positively and is full of potential. We see great opportunies in this dynamic market for a new, Asian-born insurer to meet the protection needs of the millions of Vietnamese people.

Commenting on the sale Great Eastern Holdings CEO Khor Hock Seng said: "Our decision was made after a comprehensive strategic review. We will be increasing our focus to grow our core markets of Singapore and Malaysia, as well as our business in Indonesia and Brunei."

"The divestment is not expected to have a material impact on the group's financials. As part of the transaction, FWD will honor all in-force policies. We will work with them to ensure a smooth transition for our customers and our employees," Seng added.

The headquarters will remain in Ho Chi Minh City, with a branch in Hanoi.
Vietnams lychees have broken into overseas markets such as Australia, the U.S. and Japan, but its still difficult for local firms to export their fruit due to complicated inspection procedures.

Dang Thi Thanh Hai from Hoang Ha International Logistics said the company has asked for support from the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam after being tossed back and forth between authorities to handle irradiation procedures (to keep lychees fresh for a longer duration) and security checks for half a month.

Frankly, we dont know which state agency is responsible for these procedures because everyone we have contacted has said that theres no mechanism for them to follow. In the end, we went to the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam, said Hai.

Hai said that last year, they had to transport lychees to Ho Chi Minh City for irradiation. This year, another irradiation center has been built in Hanoi, but inspection procedures remain complex.

Australia requires each batch of Vietnamese lychees to have irradiation stamps. If these stamps are lost or torn, then the batch will be rejected. Hai added.

The representative also said that Noi Bai International Airport requires security checks for lychees, but this means the irradiation stamps are torn.

We want authorities conduct security inspections at the irradiation center or arrange a place for both services to facilitate lychee exports.

In response, Pham Tuan Anh, deputy director of Noi Bai Airport, said they will try their best to support Vietnamese firms but security checks must be carried out at the airport. Another official from the General Department of Vietnam Customs said they are working with the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam to send staff to the irradiation center for security inspections.

To boost Vietnams lychee exports, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has decided not to charge quarantine fees for lychees. Vietnam Airlines has also announced it will cut freight fees by 30 percent for lychees the airline transports to Australia.
Vietnamese bicycle manufacturer Thong Nhat said on Tuesday that its initial public offering valued the business at VND246 billion ($11 million) based on market capitalization.

Shares of Thong Nhat Bicycle were priced at VND10,386, and the bicycle maker made VND31.5 billion from the offering, said the Hanoi Securities Trading Center.

More than three million shares were sold in the offering, representing about 13 percent of the business. Thong Nhat also plans to sell 41.7 percent of its business in an upcoming offering to strategic investors.

Investors have recently become more interested in buying into Thong Nhat because the company has long-term leases on 30,000 square meters of golden land plots in some of the most sought-after locations in Hanoi.

Thong Nhat first announced plans in 2014 to go public in order to expand into the furniture and real estate sectors.

The privatization will cut the state's stake in Thong Nhat to 45 percent.

Thong Nhat has yet to announce when it plans a domestic listing. Initial public offerings and stock market debuts are separate affairs in Vietnam.

The company has set a target for 2016 of VND275 billion in revenue with a net profit of VND4.7 billion.

Vietnam is trying to accelerate share sales in state-owned enterprises (SOEs) that began in the 1990s as the government seeks to spur economic growth to 6.7 percent this year.

To speed up the process, Vietnam plans to double the stock market's capitalization and also aims to simplify privatization procedures as current complexities have dampened the overhaul of inefficient state companies. So far, 90 percent of state-owned companies have sold off part of their stakes.
It seems like an old song with a new verse: Republicans and others are condemning presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump  again  for something foul that Trump said.

This time Trump has challenged the competence, fairness and impartiality of U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel, a Democrat and a 2011 nominee of President Barack Obama to the federal bench. None of that bothers Trump.

His trigger is that Curiel is Latino whose parents were Mexican immigrants. Curiel is presiding over two lawsuits against Trump University from plaintiffs, contending that they were tricked into believing that they would gain Trump's real estate know-how from the billionaire real estate developer's handpicked instructors. The lawsuits contend that nothing could be further from the truth.

Trump denies the claims and is fighting the suits in court.

However, Trump charges that Curiel has a conflict of interest in hearing the case because Curiel is Hispanic. In his campaign for president, Trump has repeatedly advocated building a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border and having Mexico pay for it. He also has said he plans to deport the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants from the United States.

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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" that he disagreed with Trump over the Indiana-born judge. House Speaker Paul Ryan also thought Trump was wrong to jump on the judge.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich on "Fox News Sunday" counts the attack on the judge as among the worst mistakes Trump has made.

What Republicans and Democrats need to do is to flip what Trump said and ask whether a white judge could be impartial toward Trump because both Trump and the judge are white. People like Curiel sit in the judge's chair because of their education and their personal and professional experience and performance.

Curiel is exceptional on all fronts. He is as a former federal prosecutor, San Diego County Superior Court judge appointed by then-Republican California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and federal judge.

Only a bigot like Trump would think otherwise.

Curiel has declined to comment on Trump's offensive comments.

Trump's comments about Curiel, however, are likely to get discounted by his supporters just like his previous verbal assaults against Hispanics, women, people with disabilities, Muslims, immigrants, refugees and even Pope Francis.

Keep in mind that Trump did attract support from white nationalist and former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke and took way too long to try to distance himself from it.

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Mainstream Republicans are right to be concerned about the image Trump is creating for the party. Backing him means being OK with racism, sexism, elitism and bigotry of the worst kind.

That's not what any American with a conscience should want in the White House.

Lewis W. Diuguid is a member of The Kansas City Star's Editorial Board.
Let me begin by saying I detest all forms of abuse against another human being, especially a child.

Throughout the past several years we have heard plenty about the abuse scandals within the Catholic church, and I am terribly upset by what has happened. These priests will be held accountable by a higher judge than us, for Christ said in Matthew 26:24, "Woe to the man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would be better for that man if he had never been born."

Did not these men betray their calling?

Why does the Catholic church get so much attention from lawyers and the media, when child abuse is just as prevalent in many other institutions? Because the Catholic Church is an easy target. What other institution is willing to settle cases from decades ago and is willing to work with investigators? The church wants to right its wrongs.

People say that the Catholic church didn't handle things properly. The fact is that, like society in general during the 1960s and '70s, the church followed the prevailing view at the time that sex offenders could be treated and rehabilitated.

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Why don't we see lawyers suing cities and states that released sex offenders back into the community only to have them abuse people again? There are other people that have suffered abuse at the hands of religious leaders from other denominations. Why don't we see ads in the paper asking, "Have you been abused by a Baptist, Lutheran, Hindu, or Jewish leader?"

It wasn't until 1996 that Megan's Law was enacted, requiring public notification and information about sexual offenders being released and where they would be living. Before then offenders were treated and released into the public without notification.

More than half of the abuse accusations against the Catholic church concern priests who are now dead. Rather than focus attention on a group of dead guys, why doesn't the media focus on the thousands of children throughout the world who are abused each day?

Why does the United States trade with countries that deal in human trafficking and all forms of child abuse? According to EDsource.org, sexual abuse in U.S. public schools is widespread and is happening now. Terri Miller, president of the advocacy group Stop Educator Sexual Abuse Misconduct and Exploitation, says school systems let child predators quietly resign and move to other districts. Where's the media coverage?

Due to its zero-tolerance policy and many reforms and training programs, the Catholic church today provides a safe environment for children and adults. The church is also one of the few institutions that is fighting human trafficking and child abuse in Southeast Asia, Latin America and Africa.

Miguel Paz, of Rochester, is a member of the Post-Bulletin's Community Editorial Advisory Board.
The Juno spacecraft launched from Earth on Aug. 5, 2011 on the back of an Atlas V rocket and has since embarked on a five-year journey across the solar system. On July 4, the four-ton machine will reach its destination: the gas giant Jupiter.

"Its mission is to understand the origin of Jupiter ... the interior of Jupiter ... we want to understand the atmospheric dynamics of Jupiter," said Steve Levin, the project scientist for Juno. Levin was on Guam last week along with his colleague Leo Cheng to train teachers in the use of the Golden Apple Valley Radio Telescope (GAVRT) system.

About 20 Guam Department of Education teachers took part in the four-day training that began Tuesday, May 31 at the GDOE central office in Tiyan.

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Cheng, who graduated from John F. Kennedy High School, is now a physicist and engineer at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He has been working with Levin and the Guam Department of Education to get students involved in the Golden Apple project, which will allow them to support the Juno mission.

The project is a collaborative effort between NASA, its Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Lewis Center for Educational Research. Through GAVRT, students are able to remotely access radio telescopes located in the Mojave Desert through the internet, survey the skies and collect real data that will be analyzed by scientist.

Enhance

"We're learning things from the spacecraft when it gets there but we can enhance those observations by using Earth-based observations of Jupiter taken both at the same time and over the years before and after (Juno) is in Jupiter," Levin said. "We're here to train some of the teachers ... so that the students benefit educationally and the world in general benefits from the science that they produce."

There are three main science campaigns that students can take part in while using the telescopes. One campaign is Jupiter observation. Part of the Juno mission is to understand the gas giant's weather patterns, which are somehow driven by its rotation and interior heat, and what this can teach us about weather on Earth. Scientists also want to know more about Jupiter's magnetosphere, which is the area controlled by its magnetic field, the largest in the solar system.

Students will be able to use the telescopes to observe radio waves emitted by Jupiter's massive radiation belts.

"It's valuable for the Juno spacecraft because we have to fly through the radiation belts or around them," Levin said. Since the spacecraft will look at Jupiter through radio observations, data from Earth can help scientists model the radiation belts and remove noise from Juno's own observations. The Jupiter campaign is also the Golden Apple project's oldest campaign.

Another campaign is what Levin called "black hole patrol." This involves observing quasars, which are distant super-massive black holes at the center of galaxies expelling light and energy in various forms as objects are absorbed into it. These forms include radio waves which students monitor. They also look at variations in the waves in order to learn about the universe.

The third Golden Apple campaign is SETI, the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence.

"Students can use the radio telescope to look for radio signals from distant stars and try to find intelligent life in outer space," Levin said.
We have reached many milestones and witnessed plenty of success stories at the Guam Department of Labor during my current tenure, but I will b Read moreGDOL wants to be a part of your employment solutions
Gun sales have boomed during the Obama administration, and the conventional wisdom is that Barack is responsible. Witnessing repeated attacks on the Second Amendment, Americans have lined up by the million to buy firearms before it is too late.

That narrative underlies this Free Beacon report:

The month of May saw yet another gun-related background check record making it the 13th month to see an all time high. The FBI completed a record 1,870,000 checks through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS, this May, according to an agency report. Thats almost 300,000 more checks than May of 2015, which set a record at the time. It is also nearly a million more checks than May 2008.

Those numbers are staggering. I dont doubt that the Democrats anti-firearms initiatives have something to do with the run on gun sales, but I think the firearms phenomenon is broader than that.

Historically, just about all rural and small town Americans owned long gunsrifles and/or shotguns. Handguns were generally the province of the city. As Americans migrated from rural areas to cities, the rate of gun ownership declined as fewer Americans owned rifles and shotguns.

But that trend has been reversed. The current boom relates to handguns and AR-15 style semi-automatic rifles, which never were a staple of rural life. Why are so many Americans now buying handguns and semi-automatic rifles? I think a number of trends have come together to produce the spike in gun sales.

First, the federal courts have resurrected the Second Amendment, holding repeatedly that Americans have a right to keep and bear arms. That has both legitimized firearms ownership and reduced legal obstacles to owning guns.

Second, millions of Americans who bought their first handguns or AR-15s in recent years have taken up shooting as a hobby. And they have found that it is fun. That lesson learned, they have continued to buy more firearms. As a Gander Mountain salesman once said to me, No one ever buys just one gun. My own experience is consistent with this observation: after shooting a .22 pistol with one of my brothers a few years ago, I got interested in guns and now own three pistols and two rifles. I will buy more before long, assuming my wife consents.

Third, firearms ownership has spread through the broader population. Most notably, more women than ever are buying guns, emulating media figures like Dana Loesch. Women and others who were first-time gun buyers during the last seven years are going back to dealers for more firearms in different styles and calibers.

So, yeah, Barack Obama may be historys greatest gun salesman, but interest in firearms goes far beyond political trends of the moment. Even if the next president is a pro-gun Republican, I suspect that NICS records will continue to be set, as Americans indulge their longstanding interest in firearms.
Former U.S. Senator Bob Kerrey has said that the backlash from his appointment as chair of Vietnam's first American-style, non-profit university will not stop him from moving forward to help advance the university.

Kerreys appointment at Fulbright University (FUV) has opened up old wartime wounds, fueling debate among the pubic who have recalled his role in a traumatic massacre in the peasant village of Thanh Phong in the southern province of Ben Tre during the American-Vietnam War.

When asked by Here & Now's Robin Young if he would step down from his position if it became an issue, he said no.

"If it was an American university maybe I would step down, but it's not; it's a Vietnamese university and the secretary of the party of Ho Chi Minh City fully supports the efforts and my measurement is that if I were to step down it would hurt the project," said Kerrey.

On February 25, 1969, Kerrey led a Swift Boat raid on the village targeting a communist leader whom intelligence suggested would be there. The village was considered part of a free-fire zone by the U.S. military.

However, the brutal operation went horribly wrong and at least 14 villagers, including women and children, were killed.

Fulbright University Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City, will be open in September this year with a Masters in Public Policy. The U.S. government has committed to contribute more than $20 million to the new university.

Vietnams government had approved in principle the universitys legal status, its own seal and bank account, while putting the schools education and training program under the management of the Ministry of Education and Training.
Martin Akpan, an Akwa Ibom-based medical doctor and author of a novel and two poetry collections, has an interesting thing to tell you about why he embraced creative writing, alongside his medical profession.

Mr. Akpan credits this fundamental aspect of his life to a 1956 play, This Is Our Chance, by James Ene Henshaw.

As a primary school pupil, I was made to act the part of Bambulu, a flamboyant, grandiloquent teacher in the play to mark our parents day, Mr. Akpan told PREMIUM TIMES.

I was conscripted into this enterprise by my teacher, Mr Edet Nyah (now late). It remains an unforgettable experience more than 40 years after.

I was particularly fascinated by the authors predilection for medical jargons in that book. It aroused my curiosity.

However, years later, as a medical student at the University of Nigeria, I found that the author was a surgeon and a creative writer. Pronto, I made up my mind to be a doctor and a writer.

Akpan says he feels happy and fulfilled that, despite his busy schedules in the hospital, he has been able to birth a number of creative works, including the novel, The Crumb Eaters, which is a political satire. His two poetry collections are Brainwaves At Dawn, and Mixed Strokes.

Akpan said another book that had profound effect on his life was Niyi Osundares Moonsongs.

I never really knew what poetry was until I read Osundares Moonsongs in 1992 (Literature was not a part of my offerings in WAEC).

That encounter with the pantheon of literature was to mark a turning point in my life. As a result, just a year later (1993), my first poetry volume was published. I shall remain eternally indebted to this profoundly cerebral teacher, said Akpan who is a former chairman, Association of Nigerian Authors, and the President, International Society of Doctors in Literature, Nigerian Chancery.

Eghosa Imasuen, like Mr. Akpan, is a Nigerian writer and a medical doctor.

For Mr. Imasuen, Chimamanda Adichies Purple Hibiscus is the book that altered his life.

It was 2005. I had just begun writing a few months before, and had travelled to Lagos for a book-buying spree. I remember reading this book (Purple Hibiscus) on the bus trip back to Warri. I remember reading it on the okada ride from the park to my house. I remember not sleeping that night until I was done (reading it), said Mr. Imasuen who has written two novels  To Saint Patrick and Fine Boys.

Imasuen said what the book did for him was that it told me that my generation had been given permission to write our truths.

Imasuen copied the address of the publisher of Purple Hibiscus, and submitted his own manuscript to them which they published a few years later.

For technique, for sheer unbridled skill, and joy, I would say that Neil Gaimans American Gods is the second book.

I still find myself reaching for it when I want to remind myself of the talent that exists in this world.

Chika Unigwe, a Nigerian author who lives in Belgium, gives it to Chinua Achebes Things Fall Apart, and Buchi Emechetas Second Class Citizen, as two books that have really shaped her life.

The former gave me permission to write, and it validated the African experience as one worthy of being written about (at a time I was inundated with Enid Blyton books) and the latter opened the way to immigrant literature for me, said Ms. Unigwe, the award-winning author who has written two novels  De Feniks, and On Black Sisters Street, among other literary works.

Unyime Ivy-King, author of Burning Hurt, picked Mabel Seguns My Fathers Daughter as one book that had profound impact on her life.

I cannot remember now if it was a recommended text or my parents bought it for me, among the many books they bought for us, but it made enough impact on my young mind for me to yearn to be a writer like Mabel Segun.

I just know that I wanted to see my name in print, just like Mabel Seguns and that was one of the early motivations which started me off writing numerous stories in countless note pads as a child, Mrs. Ivy-King told PREMIUM TIMES.

Woman Of Substance by Barbara Taylor, was another book for Mrs. Ivy-King.

Funny enough I read that book whilst in primary school and the story of the young Emma, a mere maid who grew up to run a huge business empire impressed me a lot and that was what gripped me about that story.

Young as I was then, it intrigued me that one could rise from such humble beginnings to such great heights in life. It made me feel that you could achieve anything you wanted to in life, no matter the circumstances.

I may not have understood the finer intricacies of the story but that fact alone stood out for me and I remember desiring to become a woman of substance in life.

Bisi Daniels, the leading adventure novelist in Nigeria, said his style of writing is greatly influenced by the works of Sidney Sheldon whom he said is his favourite writer, and that of James Hadley Chase.

I think the novels (of James Hardly Chase) reinforced what I was taught by my parents about crime  it will eventually be exposed, no matter how well it is hidden, said Mr. Daniels who early this year launched some of his bestselling novels on Amazon.

From Chases novels I launched into novels of my most favourite writer, starting with If Tomorrow Comes. Im talking about Sidney Sheldon, my master of mystery.

If Tomorrow Comes is a 1985 novel, a story of idealistic Tracy Whitney who is framed by the Mafia, her subsequent quest for vengeance towards them and her later life.

For Chinelo Okparanta, a U.S-based Nigerian author, it is Le Petit Prince, a 1943 book written by Antoine de St. Exupery.

Ms. Okparanta said she came across the book during French literature class in her high school, and that it was the first book she read completely in French.

I was immediately mesmerized by this precious, little, deceptively simple book. It was filled with some of the most important life lessons Id yet to come across at that age, said Ms. Okparanta whose creative works include a novel title Under The Udala Tree, and who was also a finalist for the 2013 Caine Prize for African Writing.

Okparanta said some of her favourite quotes about life come from the novel. She mentioned quotes like Youre beautiful, but youre empty. No one could die for you and Well, I must endure the presence of a few caterpillars if I wish to become acquainted with the butterflies.

She also mentioned The Bluest Eye, a 1970 novel by an American author Toni Morrison, as another book that shaped her life.

From Pecola Breedlove (the protagonist in the novel), I learned that strength comes in different forms, that not everyone fights back in the same way  sometimes fighting back looks like weakness, like passivity, like insanity.

But destroying white dolls is just not Pecolas way, nor is it her goal. Because Pecola does not seek to destroy. Pecola is full of heart, and full of vulnerabilities, and full of humanity.

Hauntingly unforgettable, she forces us to remember her, and to remember our past, and to keep our future in mind; this is Pecolas strength. Just existing in the nightmarish circumstances that she does requires great strengthand great tenacity. I admire Pecola for her strength and tenacity.
The Lagos at 50 planning committee on Wednesday debunked reports in the media that the celebration will run for an entire year.

The Lagos at 50 celebration is a series of socio-cultural and political events lined up by the Lagos State government to celebrate 50th anniversary of the creation of the countrys commercial capital. Lagos State was created on May 27, 1967.

Co-Chairman of the planning committee, and Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka, told journalists at a press conference in Lagos that some group of people had put out a paid advertorial in newspapers with misleading information about the scope of the Lagos at 50 celebration.

Describing the claim as dishonest and a dangerous trend, Mr. Soyinka said there was no time the planning committee put out information that events would run for everyday for a year.

If Governor Ambode wanted to celebrate the whole year round, Ill carry a placard and ask for him to be impeached, he said.

He said rather than spread falsehood about scope of the celebration people should wait until events are proposed and advertised.

We have our projections and we have asked the government to tell us what they think, he said.

Some prominent Lagos indigenes under the aegis of the Eko Foundation had kicked against the composition of the planning committee and the appointment of Mr. Soyinka as co-chairman.

The group, led by a former Lagos commissioner, Oluwole Smith, said the appointment of Mr. Soyinka, who is originally from neighbouring Ogun State, was wrong and unacceptable.

Mr. Smith, a professor, argued that the state government marginalized true indigenes of Lagos State by appointing Mr. Soyinka as co-chairman of the planning committee.

However, on Wednesday, Mr. Soyinka suggested that the opposition to the composition of the committee maybe as a result of the wrong insinuation that the committee has a pot of gold from which to celebrate the whole year round.

He said apart from funds provided for the inauguration of the committee, no fund had been disbursed to the committee.

Mr. Soyinka added that part of the job of the committee was to help raise funds for the celebration. He promised that operations of the committee would be done with utmost transparency.
Summary

Nigeria has 22 million cows that consume about 1 billion gallons of water per day and 500 million kilograms of grass and forage crops. The stock value of Nigerias cattle population is about N3.4 trillion or $16.2 billion at N150, 000 per head.

The intensification of the Boko Haram crisis in the last five years has caused nomadic Fulani herdsmen to abandon their foraging grounds in the North East

Climate change has caused desertification in the far north, and has led to extended drought and an estimated 20% drop in crop yields across the rest of Nigeria.

The combination of a growing cattle population, the effects of climate change on the availability of water and forage crops, as well as the lack of access to North Eastern foraging grounds due to the Boko Haram crisis are the proximate causes of the increasing tensions between farming communities and Fulani herdsmen

Solutions that have been proposed in a grazing bill that focuses only on appropriating grazing lands and stock reserves will lead to an intensification of conflicts. Others have suggested that Fulani herdsmen should be provided with ranches by willing governments at the state and local government level. The debates so far have been waged on an emotive and geopolitical basis, with little consideration for the basic math of what resource requirements will be needed to support 20 million cows  that will continue to grow at about 2% per year.

We demonstrate in this policy brief, that the scale of the water and foraging requirements for tens of millions of cattle are beyond the capacity of the resources available from appropriating grazing reserves or providing ranches to Fulani herdsmen with little knowledge of ranch-style farming.

An alternative framework that aims at an economically, ecologically and politically sustainable solution is proposed in this policy brief.

For a sustainable, market driven solution, we recommend the creation of 2.5 million acres of ranches across five hydrological zones in the country for all of Nigerias cattle stock. Funding for the sites will come from an initial land deed by the government worth an estimated $1.3 billion at N100, 000 per acre. The ranches will be broken up into allotments that aggregate multiple acres. A market will then be established for the purchase of the allotments by private sector participants. Targeted governmental investments will be required to get the ranches online as quickly as possible.

About 60 billion gallons of water will be required per day for the cattle and the growing of grass and forage crops. About 500 MW of power will be required across the 5 ranch sites for supporting irrigation requirements. About 700 MW of power can be generated from the cattle waste using anaerobic digesters. An additional 40 million metric tons of organic fertilizer can be generated from the stabilized solid waste from the digesters.

Up to 250,000 direct jobs can be created across the ranch sites. The herdsmen will be required to pay a herd tax of about N1, 000 per head of cattle per annum (~N3 per day) to access the ranch sites. This corresponds to about 10% of the $ 1 billion value gained from the 1.3 million cows slaughtered annually in Nigeria.

Direct annual revenues of about $3 Billion are estimated from across the ranches, comprising of incomes from beef, organic fertilizer and about 200 MW net power exports. This does not include enhanced value from milk & dairy, leather tannery activities and other auxiliary activities.

Background

The Agriculture Minister recently announced the results of the 2011 Agricultural Sample Survey which indicated that Nigeria had 19.5 million cows as of 2011. Based on prior data showing that Nigeriascattle stock in 1975 was about 9.3 million head, a growth rate of about 2.1% per annum can be inferred. This puts the 2016 population of Nigerian cows at about 22 million cows.

The average cow drinks about 30-40 gallons of water per day, and consumes as much as 20-30 kg of hay or forage crops. This implies that Nigerias cows require about 1 billion gallons of water, and 500,000 metric tons (i.e., 500 million kilograms) of hay and forage products on a daily basis. Since there are no commercial ranching operations in Nigeria, these significant nutritional needs are met through nomadic foraging activities by Fulani herdsmen who roam the country with their cattle, following natural water ways and foraging reserves.

About 1.3 million cows are slaughtered annually to provide a portion of the meat for Nigerias population of about 170 million people. Nigerias cattle provide about 30% of our meat consumption and are therefore a critical and important part of assuring Nigerias food security.

Although Nigerias cattle are a key part of its food security, events that have occurred over the last 5 years have strained the relationships between nomadic herdsmen and the communities situated on the grazing routes followed by the herdsmen. Nigerias cattle population have been the cause of intensifying insecurity and gruesome conflicts.

Why is it that a practice that has existed for hundreds of years, with few conflicts, has now become a live wire issue that is pitting many southern communities against the Fulani? One obvious cause is the growing population of Nigerias cattle population. From about 9 million heads of cattle in 1975, Nigerias cows are now about 25 million, and are on pace to reach about 60 million by 2050. It is unconscionable that the provision of food and water to such massive numbers of animals should continue to be left to the unpredictable lottery of nomadic foraging.

While there have been many heated debates on the issue, we have observed very limited discussions on the root cause of the crisis. In our view, without understanding the root cause of the problems, a lasting solution will be impossible to find. This policy brief is our contribution to the debate. It is evidence based  meaning that it is stripped of all opinion. Whatever recommendations we make, are informed by a detailed techno-economic analysis of the causal factors that have led to the crisis, and a comprehensive evaluation of the most practical solutions available.

The Effects of Climate Change & the Boko Haram Crisis on the Fulani  Herdsmen Crisis

Our studies indicate that the root causes of the conflicts stem from two events that have combined to exacerbate the resource challenges imposed by Nigerias bourgeoning cattle population. These events are climate change and the Boko Haram crisis.

For decades, climate change has slowly changed the landscape of Northern Nigeria. Much of the far north has been inundated by desertification. The northern tip of the foraging grounds of Nigerias cattle have disappeared. Watering grounds are disappearing. Lake Chad, once a massive oasis in the North Eastern tip of Nigeria has lost 95% of its volume over the last 50 years.

The impact of climate change is not limited to northern Nigeria. Across the country, communities are dealing with extended droughts, reduction in water reserves and reduced crop yields. The most recent data available suggests there has been as much as a 20% reduction in crop yields in Nigeria; and this can be attributed to climate change largely due to the slow adaptation of mostly subsistence based farming practices to profound changes in climate. Nigerias dams and rivers are at the lowest levels they have been in years  with significant implications for hydropower generation.

For the last 5 years, the Boko Haram crisis has had a profound impact on northern Nigeria, specifically the North Eastern states of Bauchi, Borno, Yobe, Gombe, Adamawa and Taraba. As the sect rampaged through the North East, it decimated communities and spread insecurity across the region. Cattle rustling increased, millions of people were displaced from their communities, farm lands were abandoned, and a land mass that is almost 15% of Nigeria, has essentially become a no  go area for nomadic herdsmen. The North Eastern region of Nigeria has some of the richest foraging stock in the country  and much of that is no longer available for use  because of the Boko Haram crisis.

The impact has been a downward, southwards movement by nomadic Fulani herdsmen as they move in search of water and foraging resources for their cows. This has led to intensification of resource pressures on north central and southern communities, culminating in violent struggles that have led to an estimated 8,000 deaths since 2005 . I ndiscriminate cattle grazing has also contributed to the destruction of vegetation and wildlife habitats, and led to the pollution of farms, rivers and waterways with cattle manure across many communities. Communities have experienced ecological and economic devastation as a result of this crisis.

Why a Grazing Bill will not resolve farmer  herdsmen conflicts

The enactment of a grazing act has been proposed as a means for reducing tensions between herdsmen and host communities by creating established zones in different communities that will be exclusive to, and/or readily accessible by, nomadic herdsmen and their cattle.

Much of the discussion on a grazing bill has focused on the elements of a 2008 bill sponsored by Senator Zainab Kure and further expatiated in recent public discourse. The proposal has the following provisions: 1). The establishment of a national grazing reserve commission, 2). Appropriation of lands across different zones of the country to be designated as grazing reserve and stock routes, and 3). Conserving and preserving of the national grazing reserve and stock route for the benefit of nomadic cattle herds.

The proponents of a national grazing bill, should be commended for offering what has so far turned out to be the most detailed proposal put forward for resolving the crisis. However, it is our view that the ideas that underpin the grazing reserve and stock route bill are unlikely to lead to the anticipated outcome of resolving conflict between herdsmen and the communities through which they travel for five reasons;

Firstly, it does not address the root cause of the problem  which is the pressure on water and foliage resources due to a trifecta of problems, namely  the bourgeoning cattle population, the debilitating effects of climate change and the increased levels of insecurity caused by the Boko Haram insurgency. Secondly, since the appropriated lands will have to be proximate to water resources to ensure that the 1 billion gallon per day water needs of the cows are met, communities that the lands are taken from will be cut off from critical water reserves, thereby exacerbating pressures on already strained water reserves. Thirdly, it will necessarily take some of the most fertile and arable lands away from farming communities, since such lands also happen to be those that are most readily stocked by plants and grass that cattle forage upon. Fourthly, such grazing reserves will limit cattle to a footprint that is much smaller than they currently forage, intensifying pressures on the reserves, without a concerted commercially viable means for effecting the restocking of the grass and water resources along the routes. Fifthly, by drawing a line between the grazing reserves and host communities, an adversarial mentality is perpetuated, worsening tensions and reducing opportunities for cooperative and constructive engagement.

Recommended Policy Alternatives  Turning Crisis into Opportunity

We propose a number of policy initiatives that we believe will be effective in providing a lasting solution to the crisis. The proposed policy actions are informed by the following aims:

Develop a sustainable strategy for providing the water and plant-based food requirements to support current and future populations of cattle using a 30-year planning horizon Support the creation of about 250,000 to 500,000 direct jobs Support a circular economy by utilizing the fecal and urinal waste (manure) to generate about 700 MW of power and 50 million tons of marketable organic fertilizer per year Effectively manage conflicts by turning hitherto sworn enemies into stakeholders who can mutually provide value to one other

Policy action 1: Establish 5 large ranch sites in 5 hydrological zones on 2.5 million acres of land

We propose the establishment of 5 ranches to support all of Nigerias cattle population. These ranches will be proximate to water and land resources, and will be sited in 5 major hydrological areas of the country, namely: Niger Central (Area 2), Upper Benue (Area 3), Lower Benue (Area 4), Niger South (Area 5) and Western Littoral (Area 6). The 5 ranches will cover 2.5 million acres of land, allowing for about 10 cows to be supported per acre at inception.

A centralized inventory of balers, tractors, water treatment, irrigation, pumping, human and veterinary health facilities, as well as milk processing and leather tanning facilities will be made available across the ranch sites.

In order to ensure that the right crop types are farmed on each allotment, extensive agronomic expertise will be required through onsite research and extension support. The research and extension support required at each ranch site should be provided by existing, proximate state and federal agricultural institutions and research centers in each of the zones.

Policy action 2: Include Private Sector Participation & job creation plan for 250,000 to 500,000 direct workers

The ranches will be broken up into allotments. For instance at 10 acre allotments, there will be 250,000 such allotments across the 2.5 million acres. A minimum of 1  2 workers will be required per 10 acre lot, leading to employment opportunities for about 250,000 to 500,000 workers. The workers will be responsible for the collection of manure and urinal waste, tending of hay and forage crops, baling of hay products, management of water on the lot as well as the irrigation of crops.

Private sector participants can bid for the allotments, and should be allowed to aggregate individual allotments into larger holdings. The governments program for supporting unemployed youth with stipends of N 5,000 per month can be rolled into this initiative by using the funds as seed money for allotment purchases, or as support for a portion of the salaries of the workers.

As the facilities become more mechanized over time, the number of workers required will be reduced. However, at the outset, we recommend a deliberate plan to utilize the ranches to support the governments jobs development plan. In addition to the direct management of the ranches, auxiliary jobs will emerge for the provision of social, educational, health care, nutritional and home construction & maintenance services for the workers and their families. The eventual population to be supported by the ranches is expected to come to about 1-2 million, including the direct and indirect workers, and their families.

Policy action 3: Develop sustainable plan for the consumption of 60  100 billion gallons of water per day

Ranch style activities require water for 2 main uses  meeting the water needs of the animals and tending to grass and crops. A proportionately smaller but higher quality water demand of about 20-100 million gallons per day of water will be required by the approximately 1 to 2 million persons that will live in the ranch areas, to support domestic and industrial use.

As earlier indicated, the water needs of the cattle themselves should come to about 1 billion gallons of water per day. A further 70 billion gallons of water will be required daily for supporting grass and cash food cropping on the ranches. Proximity to massive water sources should make access to the water easy. The sustainability challenge is in ensuring that the wastewater that is generated, which will be mixed in with urinal waste and cow dung, can be sustainability restored to the water cycle, ensuring that communities proximate to the farming operations are not adversely affected and assuring the long term viability of the water resources.

We expect that about 15% of the water needs can potentially be met from about 50 inches of rainfall per year normally expected in this region of Nigeria. This reduces the net water need to about 60 billion gallons per day. On-site water treatment facilities will also be needed, to treat source water for a population of about 1 million persons (workers and their families) that are expected on these ranch sites.

Policy action 4: Develop plan for sustainable on-site power generation of about 800 MW to support ranches and auxiliary industries

Moving 60 billion gallons of water per day and supporting a population of about 1-2 million people requires massive amounts of power for the pumps and conveyance structures that will move the water. Similarly, the abattoirs and cold storage systems that will store and process meat will also need reliable and stable power.

Using digester technology that uses manure as raw material, about 40 million m3 of biogas can be generated, which can yield about 700 MW of power. If the onsite power need estimated at about 500 MW are addressed, there is a net power export capacity of 200 MW. At an estimated N22/kWh tariff, the potential value to be obtained from exporting power comes to about $190 million per year.

The policy initiative should incentivize renewable energy generation using manure. The supervisory commission should be required to engage biogas firms and negotiate Build-Own-Operate-Transfer (BOOT) contracts, in which the biogas firms invest their own capital in return for long term operating contracts. After the contractual period, the Biogas digester and generating assets become the property of the Nigerian government and/or the private entities that operate the ranches. Government will be required to commit to making the operational payments for the BOOT contracts, and replenish this with the collection of rents and returns from power exports.

Policy action 5: Develop plan for an organic fertilizer industry based on the use of cattle manure

The digestion of manure yields a safe, stabilized product rich in Nitrogen and Phosphorus  two key elements that are included in fertilizer products. We estimate that about 40 million tons of organic fertilizer per annum can be generated across all the ranch sites.

Current fertilizer costs in Nigeria are about $400-500 per ton. If the stabilized organic fertilizer from the ranches are sold at a paltry $50/ton as a low grade fertilizer, this would come to about $ 2.1 billion per year in value  reducing forex pressures for fertilizer imports.

The policy initiative should include enabling incentives that will facilitate the development of a robust organic fertilizer industry based on the use of manure.

Policy action 6: Sustainable financing for the ranches using Public & Private Venture Partnerships

At an estimated N 150,000 per cow, the capital stock value of Nigerias 22 million cows is about $ 16.2 billion. The Biogas & Energy generation opportunity of about 700 MW, will require about $2 Billion in capital investment for the construction of digesters and the accompanying power generation infrastructure, at an estimated cost of about $3 Million per MW capacity. The land value of the 2.5 million acres of land for the ranches is valued at about $1.3 billion at an estimated price of N100,000 per acre.

For sustainability, a significant portion of the financing of the operations should require contributions from the herdsmen. As earlier indicated, about 1.3 million cows are consumed annually in Nigeria, yielding about N200 billion ($1 billion) of value. The herdsmen should be taxed to pay a portion of the services being provided to them. At a direct taxation of 10% of the value of the animals that are slaughtered each year, the direct taxation amount should come to about $100 million per annum.

Rather than imposing a slaughter tax, which might be difficult to collect, we recommend that the government simply establish a herd tax that will be set to ensure that a minimum value of $100 million is collected. This herd fee corresponds to about $5 per cow per year i.e., N1,000 per head per annum.

Conclusion

This paper represents a brief overview of the elements required in any policy that is aimed at developing a sustainable plan for resolving the herdsmen  farmer conflicts. Much more work needs to be done to establish the details of the financing requirements for the ranches, quantify the ecological impact across the 5 ranch sites, locate the ideal sites for the ranches, identify accessible surface and groundwater sources in the ranch zones, determine the mix of manual and mechanized labor required for a 21st century ranch enterprise while balancing the need for generating employment.

Getting this right is critical. Nigerias cattle are an essential part of securing Nigerias food security. The 19th century farming practices that the Fulani herdsmen rely on can no longer be sustained. It is the duty of the Nigerian government to midwife this transition from pastoralism to mechanized and commercial ranching. By addressing this crisis head on, Nigeria will be unlocking immense opportunity as well. There is a lot of untapped value that can be unlocked.

Malcolm Fabiyi & Adeleke Otunuga are coordinators of Governance Advancement Initiative for Nigeria (GAIN).
It happened in quick successions. The day was December 17, 2015. News had just come over the radio of a court ruling in favour of the release of Nnamdi Kanu, the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

Jubilant crowds poured out into the streets of Onitsha, the commercial capital of Anambra State. A group of soldiers stationed at the Head Bridge Market opened fire on one of the crowds.

By the time the smoke cleared, three people laid dead with over a dozen sprawled on the ground with gunshot wounds. The soldiers fled the scene but not without taking with them the three corpses.

Later in the afternoon, five more bodies were discovered meters away from the scene bringing to eight the number of people killed on the spot. Of wounded victims taken to hospitals, four later died, bringing to 12 the total number of victims who perished in the fatal shooting.

Three of the dead men were identified as Michael Nweke, 37; Peter Chukwuma Nwankwo, 26; and Mathew Ndukwe Kanu, 25. PREMIUM TIMES gathered that until his death in the hands of soldiers, Michael Nweke was a private security guard employed by the Catholic Reverend Sisters Convent at Nkpor in Idemili North local government area of Anambra State. He was a native of Aguekka Village in Ekka Community of Ezza North LGA of Ebonyi State.

Peter Chukwuma Nwankwo, an Onitsha-based trader, was a resident of Ezenwankwo Street in Ugwuagba Layout, Obosi. He hailed from Amaokpo in Nssakra Omege Community of Ezza South LGA of Ebonyi State. The third victim Mathew Ndukwe Kanu was an artisan in Onitsha and a resident of Obosi. He was a native of Ndiodo Community in Akanu-Ohafia LGA of Abia State.

Anxious family members went from police stations to mortuaries in search of missing or dead relatives. The search continued into the New Year. Leaving no stone unturned, the search party that included members of IPOB and a human rights organization, Intersociety for Civil Liberties & Rule of Law, hired divers to search the River Niger fearing the corpses might have been dumped in there.

On February 15, 2016, two months after the killings, 31-year old Sunday Nweke, younger brother to Michael Nweke, received a phone call directing him to hurry to the Onitsha General Hospital with a photograph of his late brother. There he met some IPOB members who led him to a mortuary attendant. Sunday identified the body of his late brother. The attendant, whose identity was not revealed, disclosed that some soldiers of the Onitsha Army Barracks, accompanied by some police personnel from the Onitsha Central Police Station, deposited the bodies on December 21, 2015. The attendant claimed he and his colleagues were warned not to say anything or release the corpses to anyone.

Similarly, Frank Chijioke Nwankwo and Grace Onyinyechi Kanu, relations of Peter Chukwuma Nwankwo and Mathew Ndukwe Kanu respectively, received phone calls to come over to the Onitsha General Hospital. They too were able to identify the bodies of their brothers killed two months before.

Traders at the Onitsha HeadBridge Market told PREMIUM TIMES that the ill-fated crowd shot by the soldiers were neither armed nor protesting. Azu Okwuashi, a trader at the market, said there was nothing provocative about the activities of the crowd.

They were mostly young men who ran out into the street to jubilate when they heard a court had ruled in favour of the release of Nnamdi Kanu. They were not protesting. Why would they protest what for them was a good news? Mr. Okwuashi said.

Nnamdi Kanu, director of London-based Radio Biafra and leader of separatist Biafran organization, IPOB, was arrested in October 2015 by the State Security Service. The news of his arrest generated mass protests across parts of Enugu State, Delta, Imo, Abia, Cross River, Anambra, Akwa Ibom and Rivers State.

Despite meeting bail conditions, Mr. Kanu is still held, a situation that has continued to agitate his supporters within and outside the IPOB.

Prior to the Onitsha killings, PREMIUM TIMES had on December 2, 2015 reported the Inspector General of Police ordering his anti-riot force to maximally restrain pro-Biafran protesters.

Earlier, on November 16, 2015 the General Officer Commanding 3 Division of the Nigerian Army, Major General Hassan Umaru, at a press conference in Maxwell Kobe Cantonment, Rukuba, Plateau State, warned all those threatening and agitating for the dismemberment of the country that we shall apply the ROE (Rule of Engagement) to the fullest.

From Onitsha to Aba, Enugu to Umuahia, activists say, maximum force has been the operational code for the unprecedented police and military brutality that has led to the extrajudicial killings of an unknown number defenceless civilians across the zone.

Human Rights organisations like the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), the Intersociety for Civil Liberties & Rule of Law, Amnesty International, Center for Human Rights & Peace Advocacy (CHRPA), and Forum for Justice have for years been documenting cases of extra-judicial killings in the South East, including what has been termed the murderous excesses of the special police unit called the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), stationed in Awkuzu, Anambra State.

Between August 2015 and February 2016, about 170 unarmed citizens were shot dead or critically injured while about 400 others were arrested, charged or detained without trial. The right groups allege torture, inhuman and degrading treatments in the hands of personnel of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF).

There are scores of reported cases of disappearances, abductions and pretrial killings of suspected members of IPOB or MASSOB (Movement for the Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra).

Statistics made available to PREMIUM TIMES by the rights groups show for example that four people were killed in Awka and Onitsha on August 30, 2015; 13 killed in Onitsha on December 2, 2015; 12 killed in Onitsha on 17th December 17, 2015; eight killed in Aba on January 18, 2016; six killed in Aba on January 29, 2016 and 22 killed in Aba on February 9, 2016.

Among the four citizens killed in Onitsha and Awka on August 30, 2015 were Ebuka Nnolum, a native of Enuguabo-Ufuma in Anambra State; and Obasi Maduka of Oshiri in Ebonyi State. Of the 13 citizens killed in Onitsha on December 2, 2015 were Anthonia Nkiruka Ikeanyionwu (Anambra State), Kenneth Ogadinma (Abia State), Chima Onoh (Enugu State), Angus Chikwado (Anambra State) and Felicia Egwuatu (Anambra State).

And of the four citizens who later died in hospital after being shot by soldiers on December 17, 2015 for jubilating Nnamdi Kanus court victory, only one had his identity revealed as Okwu Friday. The identities of the three others were not made public as requested by their respective families.

Emeka Umeagbalasi, Head of Intersociety for Civil Liberties & Rule of Law told PREMIUM TIMES that human rights groups were not always able to detect and capture every case of extra-judicial killings or torture by policemen or soldiers in the South East.

Some of the victims families are too afraid to come forward to report to us even when they know the identities of the policemen or soldiers that took their sons away, Mr. Umeagbalasi said.

Massacre in school compound

What nobody was afraid to talk about was the mass killings by soldiers and policemen on February 9, 2016 of 22 IPOB members during a prayer session in a school compound in Aba, Abia State.

Human rights activists have called it an execution.

Emma Nmezu, IPOB spokesman, said to avoid unprovoked attacks of the type witnessed on December 2015 at the Onitsha Head Bridge, members of IPOB were advised to keep their activities off the road. Following this advice, over 100 IPOB supporters had on the fateful day assembled for a prayer meeting at the National High School, along Port Harcourt Road, Aba.

Survivors said that about 30 minutes later, at noon, the group was singing when a detachment of soldiers, policemen and naval personnel from a joint task force stormed the school compound and without much altercation began to shoot into the crowd.

Twenty-two people were shot dead on the spot. Over 30 others were left with various degrees of gunshot wounds. Among the 22 victims of the massacre were Uche Friday (30), from Asa in Abia State); Emeka Ekpemandu (35), from Owerre Nkwoji in Imo State; Chiavoghi Chibuikem, from Obingwa in Abia State; Nzubechi Onwumere (from Orlu in Imo State); Peter Chinemerem Ukasoanya (27), from Isialangwa North in Abia State; Chigozie Cyril Nwoye (23), from Umuna in Ezeagu, Enugu State; Chukwudi Onyekwere (26), from Aboh Mbaise in Imo State; and Chibuzor Maduagwu (28), from Amauzari in Mbano, Imo State.

Survivors accounts also had it that 12 of the 22 dead bodies were taken away by the soldiers who came in Hilux vans. The killer soldiers were said to have come from the 144 Battalion of the Nigerian Army, located at Asa in Ukwa West Local Government Area of Abia. At the time of the massacre, the 144 Battalion was commanded by Lt Col Kasim Umar Sidi.

The soldiers were joined by men of the Abia State Police Command as well as naval ratings from the Finance & Logistics Command of the Nigerian Navy, stationed in Owerre-Nta, Abia State. The Abia State Police Command was headed by Commissioner of Police Habila Hosea of service. The Area Commander was an Assistant Commissioner of Police, Peter Nwagbara.

The two officials declined to comment for this story. While Mr. Hosea did not answer or return calls, Mr. Nwagbara insisted all questions on the matter should be directed to the public relations officer of the command.

The Abia State Police Command publicly admitted to shooting and killing two IPOB members for disturbing students of the National High School in Aba.

Among the survivors of that shooting incident were Ikechukwu Ugwuoha, Amos Ezekiel, Okechukwu Nnebedum Nkume, Abia State Zonal Coordinator, Donatus Okeke and Joseph Okolie who had come for the IPOB meeting from Port Harcourt. They were arrested by the police, arraigned for treasonable felony along 15 other IPOB members and are currently remanded in Aba Prisons.

Bodies found in borrow pits

Four days after the killings at National High School, scavengers on February 13, 2016 raised the alarm upon finding 13 dead bodies in a borrow pit located along Aba Port Harcourt Road.

The borrow pit was months earlier converted to a refuse dump by the government of Abia State. IPOB claimed the bodies in the pit included those of its members arrested and taken away by soldiers who stormed the prayer meeting in the school premises. The dead men were obvious victims of extra-judicial killings.

Photographs seen by PREMIUM TIMES revealed that the men were lying face down with pieces of clothes tied over their eyes. The bodies were dumped in a group of eight, three and two respectively.

Eight of the dead men had their hands tied behind their backs with Biafra flags said to have been among personal items taken away by the soldiers after the school compound shooting days earlier. An amateur photograph earlier taken with a mobile phone captures some soldiers and other unidentified persons dumping fresh corpses from a van into a mass grave. The 144 Battalion military barracks is about 10 kilometers away from the Borrow Pit.

Concerned members of IPOB and the human rights organization, Intersociety for Civil Liberties & Rule of Law, were among the first people to visit the borrow pit on Sunday, February 14, 2016. As words spread, representatives of Amnesty International came to the site on Thursday, February 18, 2016.

Three more corpses were discovered in another borrow pit behind a mosque located between the Timber Market and the Arewa Onions Market, near Uratta Junction, along Aba-Port Harcourt Road. The three corpses were covered with leaves after being doused with chemical substances suspected to be acid and embalmment fluid. The choice of chemicals was probably to shrink the corpses to the bones, make victims identification difficult while keeping the bodies odourless.

Amnesty research group, led by Justine Ijeomah, was reported to have said they were investigating the strong allegations of excessive application of force by the Nigerian security forces against peaceful and nonviolent IPOB protesters during their protests in Anambra, Enugu and Abia States.

The Amnesty team had on that Thursday, February 18, when they first visited the burrow pit, taken photograph and video evidences. However when the team returned on Wednesday, March 2, they were shocked to find that the 13 corpses had been set on fire and were smouldering. Obviously, someone was determined to destroy the evidence. Amnesty International has video recordings of the burning skulls and skeletons.

Petitions to UN Rights Commission

Following the discovery of burning corpses, human rights groups working in South East Nigeria have petitioned the National Security Adviser, Chief Justice of Nigeria, the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights, United Nations Chief Repertoire on Extra Judicial Killings, the European Union, among others.

Following expressions of concern by international bodies of extra-judicial activities against indigenous groups in the South East, the Nigerian Army announced on February 21 that it had dispatched an investigative team to Aba to ascertain claims of massacre of 22 IPOB members. The announcement was made by the Provost Marshal, Nigerian Army, Brig-Gen. Ayuba Tedman Hamman, during the commissioning of the newly established Human Rights Desk, Department of Civil-Military Affairs, Army Headquarters, Abuja.

I want to say that since COAS (Chief of Army Staff) was appointed I have been inundated with complaints of human rights reports, Mr. Hamman said. I think there is a lot of gap, and thats why this desk was established

We have sent an investigative team to ascertain the issue in Abia State about the complaint that our men shot some people involved in peaceful protests. I have confidence in our team and I know this was a joint operation but since we are part of it, we still need to verify. We investigate and at the end of the day prosecute the culprits.

Over three months after, the outcome of the military investigation is yet to be made public. Human rights observers say the military investigation was dead on arrival given that three days before Mr. Hammans public assurances, the Nigerian Army had announced it had temporarily relocated the tactical headquarters of its 14 Brigade headquarters from Ohafia to Aba in an effort to curb the activities of IPOB and MASSOB.

The Commanding Officer, 14 Brigade Ohafia, Brigadier General Lawrence Fejoku, told newsmen he was in Aba to put in check the menace of pro-Biafra agitators and other violent crimes.

Mr. Fejoku also used that opportunity to deny that the military shot and killed 22 unarmed pro-Biafran supporters during a prayer session in Aba.

The killing continues

The Nigerian Army and the police on May 30 admitted killing no fewer than five persons when members of IPOB and MASSOB trooped out across the South-East states in marches to commemorate the 49th anniversary of the declaration of the defunct Biafra Republic by late warlord, Odumegwu Ojukwu.

Activists said the crowds were unarmed and that many more people were killed than the security agencies are ready to admit.

But the army claimed that in killing the pro-Biafra activists and wounding several others, its troops acted in self-defence as well as in defence of lives and property of peace-loving Nigerians.

The Nigerian government is yet to investigate the killings.
The new militant group known as Niger Delta Avengers, that has claimed responsibility for a series of attacks on oil and gas installations, has rejected an offer of talks with the Nigerian government.

The group said on Twitter on Wednesday that it would have nothing to do with a committee authorized by the government to hold talks with its members.

This is to the gen(eral) public were not negotiating with any committee. If Fed(eral) Gov(ernmen)t is discussing with any group theyre doing that on their own, it said on Twitter.

The minister of state for petroleum, Ibeh Kachikwu, had said on Monday that President Muhammadu Bubari had ordered a two-week cessation of military operations in the area to allow for negotiations.

On Tuesday, the government ordered the immediate withdrawal of troops from Niger Delta communities amid allegations of harassment and indiscriminate arrest of locals.

The Avengers, which previously attacked Chevron, Eni and Shell facilities, says it wants a sovereign state of Niger Delta, and has vowed to reduce Nigerias oil production to zero.

On Wednesday, the group announced that it had blown up a Chevron well called RMP 20 located next to Dibbi flow station in the Warri local government area of Delta State at 1 a.m.
In what is the first roll-out of its N500billion social investment programmes, the Nigerian government is set to begin taking applications online for positions in the 500,000 direct teacher jobs scheme, through an internet portal named npower.gov.ng.

While the portal would be live on Saturday June 11, applications are expected to start coming in on June 12.

Young unemployed Nigerians are advised to visit the website and apply, a statement by the vice president office said on Wednesday.

President Muhammadu Buhari had in his May 29 Democracy Day broadcast to the nation formally launched the unprecedented social investment programmes already provided for under the 2016 Appropriation by the administration.

The 500,000 Teacher Corps, nicknamed N-Power Teach on the portal, is one of the three direct job creation and training schemes Nigerians can start applying for from Sunday, June 12.

Others are N-Power Knowledge, which will train 25,000 Nigerians in the area of technology, and N-Power Build, which train another 75,000 in the areas of building services, construction, utilities, hospitality and catering, automotive vocations, aluminium and gas services.

All trainees would be paid for the duration of their training, the statement said.

The statement, signed by the Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, added, The N-Power Teacher Corps initiative, which will engage and train 500,000 young unemployed graduates, is a paid volunteer programme of a two-year duration.

Unemployed Nigerians selected and trained will serve in teaching, instructional, and advisory roles in primary, and secondary schools, agricultural extension systems across the country, public health and community education  covering civic and adult education.

Besides their monthly take home pay estimated at about N23,000, the selected 500,000 graduates will also get computer devices that will contain information necessary for their specific engagement, as well as information for their continuous training and development. They get to keep the devices even after exiting the programme.

According to the plan of the Buhari administration, the N-Power Teacher Corps programme is an invaluable opportunity for young Nigerians to make immense economic and social contributions to the nation while developing their skills. It will also help to address the problems of inadequate teachers in public schools.

Also, persons enlisted under the scheme will gain work experience and acquire key competencies through academic and non-academic capacity building programmes intended to improve their competitiveness in the workplace. Their devices will come loaded with knowledge-oriented applications and software that will enable them acquire the skills and capacity.

Under the N-Power Knowledge scheme, there are three aspects: Creative, Technology Software and Hardware. These three sub-divisions would will train 25,000 young Nigerians in all.

Five thousand of them would be trained in animation, graphic design, post-production, script-writing. All of those under the sub-division of N-Power Knowledge-creative category.

The N-Power Knowledge scheme also has a technology category in two aspects: hardware and software. Ten thousand Nigerians will be trained, and equipped in the area of software development, including web designers, and another 10,000 in hardware expertise, including to repair, maintain and assemble mobile phones, tablets, computers and other devices.

Also the N-Power Build category was designed realizing that the presence of a well-trained and highly skilled youth population in any economy has direct impact on entrepreneurship/wealth creation, which in turn leads to a decline in unemployment.

N-Power Build is therefore an accelerated training and certification (Skills to Job/Enterprise) programme that will engage and train 75,000 young unemployed Nigerians in order to build a new crop of skilled and highly competent workforce of technicians, artisans and service professionals.

There are other schemes in the Buhari presidency Social Investment Programmes which would soon be rolled out in the coming weeks. These include the Conditional Cash Transfer that pays N5000 monthly to one million Nigerians, the Micro-Credit Scheme for more than 1.5 million Nigerians, the Home Grown School Feeding programme that will serve 5.5 million Nigerian pupils in primary school a free hot meal per day this year and the Education Support Grant Programme for 100,000 tertiary students in Science Technology Engineering & Mathematics, STEM and education.
Huge numbers of Chinese tourists are flocking to the coastal province of Khanh Hoa, causing overcrowding at Cam Ranh International Airport.

The airport can only accommodate about 1.5 million tourists per year; however, over the past five months, it has welcomed roughly 1.8 million tourists.

The airport is expected to receive about four million tourists this year.

The crowded airport. Photo by VnExpress/Xuan Ngoc

The number of Chinese tourists has suddenly spiked, crowding the airport's international terminal, a senior officer at the airport said.

At present, there are between seven and 10 flights between China and Khanh Hoa Province per day. Each flight can carry between 150 and 180 passengers.

Phan Thi Thanh Truc, deputy director of the provinces Department of Tourism, said that the unexpected surge in foreign tourists is a good sign for the provinces tourism sector, but has also caused many problems.

For example, there is a shortage of Chinese interpreters. This has led to many interpreters working without an official license, she said.

Tourism companies are expanding, but some are helping foreigners enter the province for illegal activities," she added.
The National Biosafety Management Agency has issued two permits for the Commercial Release and Placing on Market of genetically modified cotton, and the confined field trial of maize, to Monsanto Agriculture Nigeria Limited.

This move came despite concerted efforts of many Nigerians (comprising 100 groups of farmers, faith-based organizations, civil society groups, students and local farmers) to prevent the introduction of genetically modified (GM) cotton and maize into Nigerias foods and farming system.

Ibrahim Jibril, the Minister of State for Environment, had also promised that Nigeria would not mortgage the safety of its citizens by introducing unproven products into the country.

The two permits are: Permit for Commercial release/ Placing on Market of Cotton (MON15985) genetically modified for lepidopteran insect pest resistance with Permit No: NBMA/CM/IM/001 and Permit for Confined Field Trial (CFT) of maize (NK603 and MON 89034 x NK603) genetically modified for insect resistance and herbicide tolerance with Permit No: NBMA/C FT/001.

They were signed by NBMAs Director-General, Rufus Ebegba, on May 1.

Nnimmo Bassey, Director of Health of Mother Earth Foundation, described the development as extremely shocking.

This is little wonder officials of NBMA, National Biotech Development Agency (NABDA) and their pro GMO train have been fighting tooth and nail to fool Nigerians by claiming that GMOs are safe, said Mr. Bassey, whose group is among those at the front line of the resistance.

They approved the poorly concocted applications and issued these permits on a Sunday when government offices do not open. In fact, 2nd May was also a public holiday.

According to Mariann Orovwuje, Food Sovereignty Campaigner, several main areas of concern had been identified regarding objections to the release (and placement in the market) of GM Cotton and confined field trial of Maize in Nigeria.

There are serious concerns and they include amongst many: health concerns, environmental concerns, socio-economic concerns, technical and administrative concerns, molecular concerns, safety assessments, environment risk assessment, secondary pests and insect resistance and many more concerns have been extensively laid out in our submissions to NBMA objecting to Monsantos applications.

In the objection to Monsantos applications, the concerned Nigerians stated in its application MON 15985, that Monsanto was using genes referred to as cry2Ab2 and cry1Ac, which produce Bt toxins that have been synthetically manufactured with no history of safe use in nature.

The insertion of the antibiotic resistant marker gene (ARMG) causes concerns regarding the potential transfer of antibiotic resistance to other living organisms, according to the groups.

This concern, which was dismissed by the applicant, had been raised by a scientific panel of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) stating that this particular ARMG should be restricted to field trial purposes and should not be present in GM plants to be placed on the market  unfortunately this is what NBMA has released into the Nigerian market.

The groups also complained that there is no baseline data regarding the quantity, spread and use of cottonseed meal/cakes/oil used for human or animal consumption in Nigeria, and therefore no foundation for the assessment of food and feed safety.

Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, a consumer, said NBMAs decisions were grossly faulty.

The claim of the agency is shocking when it claims that in arriving at this decision the National Biosafety Management Agency took into consideration the advice of National Biosafety Committee National Biosafety Technical Sub-committee and public views The Agency was convinced that there are no known adverse impacts to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity taking into account risk to human health.

The agencies they consulted are in the business of promoting these toxic and risky GMOs in Nigeria. We do not also know which public NBMA consulted.

The NBMA Act of 2015 is defective, according to Mr. Bassey, because its governing board is filled with GMO promoters such as NABDA and the Biotechnology Society of Nigeria.

Those GMO promoters are concerned with ensuring the profit of biotech entrepreneurs rather than the health and environmental concerns of Nigerians, he said.

A case in point is that NABDA, a member of the Board of NBMA, is a co-sponsor with Monsanto of the application for the field trials of the GMO maize.

We are also appalled that an agency saddled with defending Nigerias biodiversity is actively promoting these risky technologies.

NBMA approved Monsantos proposal for Bt cotton when the cabinet of nearby Burkina Faso was announcing, on April 14, their goal to reduce the acreage for genetically modified cotton this season until its completely phased out in 2018 and replaced by conventional cotton.

The decision was reached amidst concerns that GMO cotton yielded shorter fibres, resulting in economic loses.

NBMA approved the glysophate herbicide resistant maize despite the International Agency for Research on Cancer report that linked the active ingredient glyphosate to cancer.

It is no surprise that nations like Sri Lanka, amongst others, heeded and took action by banning Monsantos round up herbicide because of its link to Kidney disease, Mr. Bassey said.

That NBMA is considering giving us this trojan horse gift is indeed unfortunate knowing the low level of use of protective gears by our rural farmers and communities living close to farms.

References used in support of claims made by Monsanto are too old and none referred to the two GM maize events specifically but are general references for normal maize research.

This may be due to the lack of thorough scientific peer-reviewed research carried out in support of the claims made in the application, or is a deliberate effort at hiding information. We note that no details of feeding studies whatsoever were provided by the applicant.

The case against Monsanto

On May 26, 2016, a St. Louis jury ordered Monsanto to pay $46.5million in damages for negligence in the production of polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs.

This case, which went on trial April 28 2016, involved three of nearly 100 plaintiffs claiming that exposure to PCBs caused cancer and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

While a number of plaintiffs had died as a result of the cancers they developed from the toxic PCBs, their claims were made by surviving relatives.

The suit claims that Monsanto knew about the dangers of PCBs decades ago, but gave false testimony and scientific information to the public saying it was safe.

Further damaging evidences pile up against indicted Monsanto: A trial in Redlands, California in May 2016 on the dangers of Monsantos Roundup reveals that it is not only glyphosate that is dangerous, but also chemicals listed as inert ingredients.

A high court in Paris had punished a high ranking official representing Monsantos interests for deceitfully covering up research data proving that Monsanto was hiding toxicity of its own corn.

The information showed that it could promote neuro-developmental disabilities including autism, attention-deficit, disorder, dyslexia and other cognitive impairments affecting millions of children worldwide and seem to be increasing in frequency.

It is a mark of utter recklessness that NBMA would rush to issue approvals for GMOs to be released in Nigeria less than a year of the NBMA Act coming into force, said Mr. Bassey.

We demand that the permits surreptitiously issued to Monsanto on a platter of gold without regard to the concerns of millions of Nigerians should be revoked immediately.

We also urge that the recently enacted National Biosafety Agency Management Act should be quickly repealed to prevent NBMA from running amok with GMOs and flooding our country with these risky organisms.
Hillary Rodham Clinton, daughter of a naval officer turned textile salesman and a maid turned clerk typist, is on track to becoming the first female president of the United States of America.

With 2,497 delegates as of 11:00pm Eastern Standard Time (EST) on Tuesday, Mrs. Clinton had convincingly clinched enough votes to become the nominee of the Democratic Party. Her opponent, Bernie Sanders, trails behind with 1,663 delegates. Democratic Party rules require the winning candidate to secure a minimum of 2,383 delegates.

The delegate count for both candidates will change as results filter in from primary elections held Tuesday in the states of Montana, New Mexico, New Jersey, North Dakota, South Dakota and California. With the majority of the votes in from five states, Mrs. Clinton was the projected winner in New Mexico, New Jersey and South Dakota. Senator Sanders was projected to win Montana and North Dakota.

Mrs. Clinton is also on track to a win in California, the largest electorate in the country. With a cache of 475 delegates, a win in California will take her way above the required number of delegates and secure her place in history.

Hillary Clintons victory came exactly eight years after she conceded the 2008 primary election victory to then Senator Barack Obama. She gave her concession speech and endorsed Mr. Obama on Saturday June 7, 2008 during a final campaign rally at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C.

Born into a conservative household, Mrs. Clintons journey to her nomination as the Democratic Partys flagbearer began in 1964 when she worked as a volunteer for Republican Presidential candidate, Barry Goldwater, in Chicago.

Her father, Hugh Rodham, contested unsuccessfully in the Republican Party. Her transition to the Democratic Party found initial expression in her involvement with the Civil Rights movement and opposition to the Vietnam War which put her against the dominant strain in the Republican Party.

She co-organized a two-day student strike following the assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968 and served as an inquiry staff advising the Congressional House Committee on the Judiciary during the Watergate Scandal that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon of the Republican Party.

Hillary Rodham met Bill Clinton at Yale Law School in 1971, they got married in 1975 and had Chelsea, their only child in 1980. Mrs. Clinton is as well-known for her legal acumen as she is for her political astuteness.

In private and public life, she is also known for her calm disposition in troubled times, a disposition she displayed to the hilt during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, to the dismay and annoyance of many declared feminists. She was lauded for her diligence as a senator representing New York and as Secretary of State.

The Clintons enjoy the support of many African immigrant communities, especially Nigerians. Bill and Hillary have both visited Nigeria in their different official capacities. Bill Clinton visited Nigeria at least twice, once during the last year of his presidency in 1999 and in 2013 for the groundbreaking of Eko Atlantic City.

The Clintons relationship with Nigerians has not been without controversy. President Bill Clinton has been condemned several times over the past two decades for the Clinton Foundations relationship with Gilbert Chagoury whose family business is indicted in many financial crimes in Nigeria, including the Abacha loot.

Similar questions were raised about donations to Hillarys 2008 campaign by Kase Lawal, a Nigerian-American Oil merchant based in Texas who was then under scrutiny for illegally pumping and exporting 10 million barrels of oil.
Five ministers will participate in the inaugural town hall meeting holding Thursday in Abuja, the organizers, the Centre for Democracy and Development, have said.

Nigerias Information and Culture Minister, Lai Mohammed, will lead the government delegation to the meeting, according to the organizers.

The town hall, termed Buharimeter, is aimed at assessing the one year in office of President Muhammadu Buhari and his All Progressives Congress (APC) government, according to Idayat Hassan, CDDs Director.

It will afford the government an opportunity to report back to her constituents and give the citizenry an opportunity to engage directly with government on burning national issues, said Ms. Hassan.

We at the CDD believe that this interaction is critical to strengthening democratic accountability in Nigeria.

Four other ministers  Babatunde Fashola (Power, Works, and Housing), Audu Ogbeh (Agriculture and Rural Development), Amina Mohammed (Environment), and Udo Udoma (Budget and National Planning)  are also expected to be part of the event.

Buharimeter is a project of CDD, supported by the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) and the Department for International Development (DfID).

It is conceptualized to provide methodical and systematic assessment and evidence-based report on the performance of Mr. Buharis administration against its electoral promises.
The Nigerian Police Force says it has arrested a notorious gang of armed robbers connected to the kidnapping and murder of an army officer, Samaila Yinusa, on March 27.

Mr. Yinusa was kidnapped by armed men at Kamazo in Kaduna Central on March 26, after he was trailed from an army barrack in Kakuri, where he was residing with his family.

A statement from the Force Public Relations Officer, Olabisi Kolawole, said investigations into the matter began shortly after Mr. Yinusa was found dead about five kilometers away from where he was kidnapped.

The investigations, which was done by the Force Intelligence Response Team (IRT) and the Kaduna State Police Command, led to the arrest of a man identified as a prison warden named Abdullahi Adamu, a close associate of one of the prime suspects, the statement said.

The statement said Mr. Adamu was traced through the use of a techno phone in his possession, which belonged to Mr. Yunusa.

Further investigation led to the arrest of two (2) of the prime suspects, namely: Ibrahim Kabiru 23, (also known as uztaz) and Ebele Precious 41 (pupularly called pastor).

The gang leader Emeka Okeke Cyprain 44, and one other member of the syndicate, Chijioke Ugwuanyi, 42 (who goes by the nick-name: CJ) were later arrested, the statement said.

According to the statement, a list of items were recovered from the gang, including an AK 47 rifle and two magnum pistols.

Items recovered by the Police from this notorious gang, which specialised in car snatching and truck hijacking in the State and selling same to unsuspecting members of the public, include one AK 47 rifle, two magnum pistols, one Nissan Pathfinder Jeep and documents of six houses, the statement said.

The statement said the suspects were in the custody of the police and wouldl soon be charged to court.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Tuesday in Abuja said it had received 32 applications from various associations for registration as political parties.

The commission, in its daily bulletin, quoted INEC Chairman Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, as disclosing this during the the second quarterly consultative meeting with the Chairmen and Secretaries of registered political parties.

Mr. Yakubu, who said the applications were being processed, assured political parties that the commission remained committed to the opening up of the democratic space in line with the electoral law and guidelines.

He also disclosed that the commission would take further administrative action against its staff found culpable in the alleged involvement of subversion of the 2015 general elections through cash inducement.

We will not hesitate to interdict staff where prima facie cases have been established against them by EFCC and immediately terminate the appointments of those indicted.

He said INEC legal team and the police had successfully secured the conviction of 42 election offenders in the Minjibir Constituency, Kano state, by-election in spite of its severe constraints.

This is the highest number of convictions in a single case ever achieved by the Commission.

Prof. Yakubu said that the commission would welcome suggestions from political parties in areas of amendment considered important for inclusion in the comprehensive proposal for the amendment of the Electoral Act.

Prof. Yakubu, however, decried the low turnout of voters in elections conducted by the Commission in the aftermath of the 2015 general elections.

He urged political parties to intensify voter mobilization ahead of the Edo and Ondo governorship elections.

We urge political parties to intensify your voter mobilization effort in order to galvanize the electorate to the polling units. The Commission will continue to intensify efforts towards voter education.

He expressed INECs desire to see greater participation of the marginalized and under-represented groups in the electoral process, adding that political parties had the biggest role to play in that regard.

As we all know, political parties offer the only platform for contest to public office under our Constitution.

Women, Youths and People With Disabilities are noticeable more by their under-representation in elective offices.

On the deployment of ICT in the electoral process, Prof. Yakubu assured that all avenues necessary were being explored to address the challenges arising from the functionality of the Smart Card Reader.

He further said the Commission had designed a portal from which all registered voters could confirm and verify their registration online ahead of elections.

He added that with the portal voters would also be able to transfer their registration from one point to another online.(NAN)
A former Controller-General of the Nigeria Immigration Service, David Paradang, has told a Federal High Court in Abuja that he was not aware of the 2014 recruitment into the service, which resulted in the death of over a dozen applicants.

Mr. Paradang, who was Controller-General between June 2013 and August 2015, was testifying as the first prosecution witness in the trial of former Minister of Interior, Abba Moro.

Mr. Moro is accused of defrauding over 700,000 applicants and collecting nearly N1 million for the recruitment test.

Despite the huge amount collected, the exercise was poorly organized across Nigeria resulting in deadly stampedes.

Testifying for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC on Wednesday, Mr. Paradang told the court that although he was aware that he had come to testify about the 2014 recruitment, he had no prior knowledge of the exercise.

The former Immigration boss said he was shocked by a publication informing Nigerians about the entrance exams.

I was surprised about the recruitment exercise because I was not aware of it, he said.

He accused the former minister, Mr. Moro, who supervised the Nigeria Immigration, of hijacking the exercise.

Then I asked him, it would have been fair enough for you to inform the head of the service that you were recruiting. At least in the service we have a delegated authority to recruit from a certain cadre, Mr. Paradang stated.

Mr. Moros trial began Wednesday, after a long break following the stepping down of the former judge who handled the matter.

The judge, Anwuli Chikere, stood down in April and the matter was reassigned to Justice Nnamdi Dimgba of the same court.

The case has been adjourned to Friday.
The federal government has again applied to the federal high court in Abuja for the protection of witnesses billed to testify against the former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, in the criminal charges of unlawful possession of firearm arms and money laundering.

In a motion on notice brought to the court on Wednesday, the government prayed the court for an order to shield the identities of the witnesses and that the record of proceedings not to be made accessible to the public.

In the motion filed by federal government lawyer, Oladipo Opeseyi, the government also applied for an order to permit the witnesses to be addressed with pseudo names in the cause of the trial of the ex-NSA.

The trial Judge, Adeniyi Ademola, had in February dismissed a similar motion on protection of witnesses brought to the court by the Federal Government on the ground that the motion was baseless and unwarranted.

The judge said that the same government cannot ask for protection of witnesses having filed the charges and proof of evidence along with the names of the witnesses and put the same at the public domain for public consumption.

Justice Ademola said in the ruling that the purpose of seeking protection in the earlier motion had already been defeated by government, having published the names of the witnesses and circulated same to different parties.

The new motion premised the request on 10 grounds among which are that Dasuki as a former NSA, a retired senior military officer and a crown prince of Sokoto Caliphate commands large followership throughout the length and breadth of Nigeria who maybe aggrieved by his trial.

The government also claimed that most of the witnesses were security personnel and had expressed fears of being identified by members of the public who are sympathetic to Mr. Dasuki.

The government also claimed in the motion that Mr. Dasuki, while in office as NSA, imported into the country a large cache of highly sophisticated arms and ammunition for national security purposes that have not been accounted for.

Besides, the government also alleged that a large amount ammunitions is believed to be in the possession of persons sympathetic to the former NSA.

The government also said that the security of its witnesses would be violated if they are made to testify publicly without any protection.

In a five paragraph affidavit deposed to by Emmanuel Ikpebe in support of the motion, the government said Mr. Dasuki served in the intelligence unit of the army and that a large quantity of ammunitions was found in his house when searched, in addition to various foreign currencies that the defendant could not explain the source.

However, counsel to Mr. Dasuki, Joseph Daudu, told Justice Adeniyi Ademola that he had just been served with the motion and that he needed time to respond.

The judge adjourned the matter till June 23.
A Federal High Court, Abuja, on Wednesday admitted former President Goodlucks cousin, Azibaola Roberts, and his wife, Stella, to bail in the sum of N500 million each.

The Roberts were arraigned on Tuesday on a seven-count charge bordering on money laundering of 40 million dollars.

The money was alleged to have been paid into their company, One Plus Holdings Nigeria Limited, by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA).

Justice Nnamdi Dimgba had listened to arguments from both parties on Tuesday as to why bail should or should not be granted.

The prosecuting counsel, Aliyu Yusuf, had argued that the defendants should not be granted bail and that the court should rather order an accelerated hearing of the case.

Defence counsel Chris Uche, however, urged the court to grant them bail since the offences for which they were standing trial were bailable offences.

Mr. Dimgba, in his ruling, held that there was no material evidence before the court to show that Roberts or his wife would jump bail or frustrate their trial.

He said that the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), 2015, enjoins that the bail conditions shall not be excessive.

All things considered, I grant the defendants bail on the following terms: the defendants are admitted to bail in the sum of N500 million each and two sureties in like sum.

The sureties shall, in turn, enter a bail bond of the sum of N500 million; the sureties must be owners of property in Asokoro or Maitama District of Abuja, Justice Dimgba said.

The judge also said that the defendants would remain in prison custody until their bail conditions were met.

The commencement of hearing in the case was adjourned till June 28, July 4 and July 5.

(NAN)
An embattled judge in Cross River State, Bassey Ebuta, has urged the National Judicial Council, NJC, to review the compulsory retirement order slammed on him.

He also appealed to the council to take a second look at the petition which it relied upon to hand him the retirement.

The embattled judge made the appeal in an interview with PREMIUM TIMES in Calabar on Wednesday.

Mr. Ebuta explained that he had responded to the allegations leveled against him with proofs and insisted that the NJCs decision was harsh on him.

Mr. Ebuta also stressed that he needed no further proof to show that he sat in the open court with the petitioner in the Suit No HC/MSC.286/2014, as attested to by the petitioner, Mrs. Cobham, in her prayers 18 and 19.

He argued that the move to unseal Mrs. Cobhams property was sequel to the setting aside of an earlier order issued by the Magistrate Court on a matter that was beyond the lower courts jurisdiction.

According to the Magistrate Court of Cross River State (Civil Procedure) Rules, 2012, the court cannot exercise jurisdiction over a matter above N1million, whereas, the order obtained was for N2million rent, he said.

He further drew attention to Order 4, Rule 1 of the High Court of Cross State (Civil Procedure) Rules, 2008, which provides that delivering a ruling on ex-parte motion in the chamber was not illegal.

Having worked on the bench for over 10 years without a single query, Mr. Ebuta argued that the decision to retire him based on a single petition was harsh.

He, therefore, called on President Muhammadu Buhari, to intervene for the sake of justice.

I am appealing to the NJC to tamper justice with mercy by reviewing the decision to retire me from service compulsorily, Justice Ebuta pleaded.

I am saying this considering the fact that I have not appeared before them before. This is the first time the NJC has invited me after more than 10 years in judicial service.

Delivering a ruling in chamber is not illegal as stated in Order 4, Rule 1 of the High Court of Cross State (Civil Procedure) Rules, 2008.

However, the ruling in this case was delivered in the open court. I have documents which I even presented before the NJC.

The NJC had last week, through its Acting Director of Information,  Soji Oye, announced the compulsory retirement of Justice Ebuta, following a petition by Ekanem Cobham.

In the petition, Mrs. Cobham alleged that the judge had among other infractions, issued an ex-parte order against her without sitting in court.

The NJC said the sanction against Justice Ebuta was as a result of his abuse of judicial power, suppression as well as illegal and forceful takeover of a property in Calabar metropolis.
The acting Registrar, Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria (MLSCN), Olufunke Omotuyi, has been murdered by suspected gunmen on Wednesday morning in Abuja.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) gathered that the incident took place at about 4 a.m. at her Apo residence in Abuja.

The late Mrs. Omotuyi was reported to be in her office till 8 p.m. on Tuesday.

She was due for retirement from public service in July.

Details of how the attack were sketchy.

When contacted, the Police spokesman of the FCT Command, Anjuguri Manzah, told NAN that he was yet be briefed on the incident.

(NAN)
The management of THISDAY Newspapers on Wednesday took a decision to dismiss 13 employees who issued a strike notice to the publication on Tuesday, PREMIUM TIMES can report.

A top management staff within the company told PREMIUM TIMES that Nduka Obaigbena, Chairman of Leaders & Company Limited, which runs THISDAY Newspaper titles and Arise TV Network, wrote in an internal memo that the 13 journalists attached to its bureau in Abuja should be paid due salaries, but should be compelled to pay all outstanding debts they owed the company before their contracts are terminated.

Please work out what each of them is owed including pensions, net off all debt to the company and terminate all the appointments with immediate effect, the source quoted Mr. Obaigbena as saying in an internal memo addressed to the companys acting head of human resources, Emmanuel Efeni. This company has policies and will not be run in the village square.

The sacked workers had in the Tuesday correspondence appealed to the papers management to clear backlog of salaries, a situation they said had left them unable to meet our obligations both to our families and other responsibilities.

Citing, amongst other concerns, an abysmal disregard of their contribution by the companys management, the distressed workers warned the company of their resolve to embark on a week strike if their demands fell through.

Should the management fail to pay us by Friday, June 10, 2016, we will have no option than to embark on a one-week warning strike from Sunday June 12, 2016 until June 19, 2016, they wrote. Please, note that an indefinite strike will ensue at the expiration of the warning strike.

In the notice, which was collectively-signed by Tobi Soniyi, Olawale Ajimotokan, Patrick Ugeh, Senator Iroegbu, James Emejo, Omololu Ogunmade, Paul Obi, Ndubusi Francis, Dele Ogbodo, Damilola Oyedele, Chineme Okafor, Godwin Omoigui and Onyebuchi Ezigbo, the workers said, For several years, we have sacrificed everything  emotionally, physically and materially  to ensure the continued survival of THISDAY.

But in his memo, our sources said, Mr. Obaigbena said the reporters canvassed for adverts for the newspaper which were not paid for, saying the nonpayment had contributed to the more than N1 billion the paper is being owed in revenues.

For ethical and governance reasons, this should not have been the case, our sources quoted Mr. Obaigbena as saying in his memo.

Another senior official of the company also echoed that position in an interview with PREMIUM TIMES Wednesday.

The official, who also elected not to be named, said the matter was more about advertising revenues the reporters owed to the company than it was about their salaries.

These people were going about bringing adverts to the company from individuals and companies who ended up being unable to pay, the official said. Up to N400 million is being owed the company now as a direct result of this.

The official said the reporters acted against THISDAYs long-standing policy that prohibited reporters and other members of the editorial staff from facilitating adverts for the company, saying the reporters flouted the rule because they had hitherto been able to circumvent any formal reprimand.

For more than a decade, we had a rule in place that made it an offence for journalists to solicit adverts from people, the source said. They continued the practice because theyve managed to escape being sanctioned until now.

The source added that most of the journalists fired were owing the newspaper more than the salaries and allowances they complained of being owed.

For instance, a reporter is said to be owed N300,000 in unpaid salaries against about N890,000 the said individual owed the company. Another reporter is said to be indebted to the company up to the tune of N1.5 million while the company owed him far less than that.

The source also said the company uncovered how some of the reporters were allegedly running advert agencies, a situation he said had had an adverse effect on the output of the companys marketing department.

Weve learnt how many of our journalists registered as advertisers in order to take adverts from businesses and earn huge commission, the source said. They then fail to remit advert revenues, leaving the company in difficult financial situation.

In a follow up notice sent to the papers management early Wednesday, the journalists admitted to taken out adverts that were not paid for, but said that they did it to help bolster the companys coffers.

To accept that position will amount to punishment for helping the company to bring adverts and improve the companys financial base, one of the journalists said.

The reporter rejected the companys decision to force them to make up for unpaid advert revenues, saying Payment of adverts is not a precondition for salaries.

The latest crisis came a few months after Mr. Obaigbena abruptly terminated the contracts of about half of the companys employees in Lagos, following disputes about workers punctuality. It is unclear if Mr. Obaigbena reinstated any or all the dismissed staff.

On July 7, 2015, members of the Nigerian Union of Journalists demonstrated outside the papers head office in Lagos, demanding immediate payment of their salaries and better working conditions

A few days later, the paper commenced payment of the salaries owed.

Early last year, Nigerias National Industrial Court ruled that a former editor of the newspaper, Paul Ibe, was wrongly dismissed and awarded him up to N1 million in damages.
The Nigerian Army says it will continue to observe a two-week ceasefire declared by Federal Government, even as militants continue their attacks on oil installations in the Niger Delta region.

Ibrahim Attahiru, a major genera and General Officer Commanding (GOC), 82 Division of the Nigerian Army, said this on Wednesday, while briefing journalists on the outcome of a meeting held at the Army Headquarters in Abuja.

He said the decision was part of the resolutions reached at the meeting of field commanders and principal staff officers, convened by the Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, in Abuja.

He, however, warned that the military would resume its operations in the region if the militants continued to disregard the ceasefire.

Mr. Attahiru said the meeting of the Armys field commanders was also held to appraise the current security situation in the country.

He said the army would apply its rules of engagement in its operations in the Niger Delta, especially where it is deemed necessary.

The Chief of Army Staff called a meeting of all Principal Staff Officers and General Officers Commanding, as well as Directors in the Army Headquarters.

The meeting is essentially to brief us on the aftermath of the meeting in the presidency and give further operational directives on the happenings in the Niger Delta.

The two-week ceasefire was such that all military operations in the region were supposed to stop to enable government to apply the non-kinetic means of reaching out to the militants.

Now, the militants have resorted to continue with the attacks on pipelines, we will tarry for a while and if this does not stop, we will decisively act wherever it is necessary, he said.

Mr. Attahiru said applying the rules of engagement in the militarys internal security operations was not an aberration but a means of preserving the unity and dignity of the nation.

The issue of applying the rules of engagement is to emphasise our adherence to the necessary procedures in internal security operations, he said.

Mr. Attahiru warned that the military would no longer tolerate further attacks on its units and formations in the Niger Delta or elsewhere in the country.

Recently there was an attack on Nigerian Army troops in the Niger Delta; that will no longer be tolerated.

Anywhere troops are attacked, formation commanders will apply the rules of engagement to the fullest, they will follow the attackers to wherever they came from, he warned.

Mr. Attahiru said the meeting also deliberated on other operational issues, particularly those relating to training in the Nigerian Army.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the meeting had in attendance all the GOCs, unit commanders from all parts of the country as well as senior officers at the Army Headquarters.

(NAN)
The Kano State Police command has confirmed the killing of a 10-year-old boy, who was abducted by suspected kidnappers in Kano on Monday.

The commands Public Relations Officer, DSP Magaji Majiya, confirmed the incident while speaking with journalists in Kano on Tuesday.

He said the abducted boy, identified as Musa Salisu, was a primary six pupil.

According to him, the boy was abducted by unknown assailants around 2pm on Monday at Naibawa quarters in the metropolis.

The boy was sent on an errand within the neighbourhood around 2.pm when the hoodlums abducted him, he said.

He said two suspects had already been arrested in connection with the incident.

The two suspects are now in police custody and as soon as investigation Is completed, they will be charged to court, Mr. Majiya said. (NAN).
The Governorship Election Petition Tribunal for Kogi sitting in Abuja on Wednesday dismissed the petition filed by the Labour Party for failing to substantiate its claims.

Justice Halima Muhammad, the tribunal chairperson, in a two-hour judgment, dismissed the petition, saying it lacked merit.

According to her, there were no sufficient evidences to prove the allegations made by the party in the petition.

Mrs. Muhammad said the evidence given by a witness of the petitioner that he did not write a report after monitoring the election, closed the case of the petitioner.

She also said that the allegation of corrupt practices by the petitioner during the conduct of the election could not be substantiated.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the party had alleged that there were issues of irregularities during the conduct of 2015 Kogi governorship election.

Labour Party also alleged in its petition that Gov. Yahaya Bello, the first respondent, was not validly elected and that his election was not conducted in compliance with the Electoral Act.

It said that Bello did not participate in all the stages of the election and did not have a running mate before the conduct of the election.

The party also alleged that Bello had no valid nomination from his party.

Reacting to the judgment, Counsel to Labour Party, Mr Reuben Egwuaba, told newsmen that the party would study the judgment and file a notice of appeal.

Constitutional qualification of Gov. Bello is not grounded in law; we will study the judgment and file a notice of appeal, Egwuaba said.

(NAN)
The speaker of the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, Onofiok Luke, has defended the assemblys record of passing only two bills out of 11 it received, into law in the last one year.

The two bills are the 2016 appropriation bill and the amendment of the 2007 local government administration law, which paved the way for the constitution of caretaker committees to run the 31 local government areas in the state.

Mr. Luke, who was addressing the House of Assembly, Wednesday, during the end of its first legislative year, regretted that the assembly was not able to pass some very important bills in the last one year because, according to him, many of the legislators were distracted by time-sapping cases in the election tribunal and at the Court of Appeal, Abuja.

Mr. Luke said some the committee heads in the House made frequent trips to Abuja for court cases about their elections.

He listed the bills pending before the house to include, A Bill for a law to protect the physically challenged persons against discriminations and provide for equal opportunities for all; Akwa Ibom State Revenue Administration Bill; Bill For A Law For The Classification, Registration, And Licensing Of Hotels And Other Tourism Establishments In Akwa Ibom State; Bill For A Law To Provide For Control Of Rent For Premises, Recovery Of Possession Of Premises, And For Other Matters Connected Therewith.

We had court judgements which led to unfortunate rerun elections and a brief disruption of the House leadership, said Mr. Luke who became speaker on December, 2015, after his predecessor, Aniekan Uko (member, representing Ibesikpo-Asutan State Constituency) was sacked by the Court of Appeal.

Mr. Uko later returned to the assembly after winning a rerun.

The speaker admitted that the assembly had not measured up to expectations in the last one year because the legislators failed to hold constituency briefing for their constituents.

The problem here has to do with lack of finance, Mr. Luke said.

We also do know that constituency briefings in our clime usually come with empowerment programmes. We often embark on those financial empowerment initiatives from savings made from our entitlements and emoluments as lawmakers.

There is no provision made in the assemblys budget for economic empowerment programmes such as those which come with constituency briefings, he said.

Mr. Luke said despite the setbacks, the last one year was a productive one in which we prevailed against the odds.

He mentioned the approvals given to loan requests by Governor Udom Emmanuel as an evidence that the House was committed to the development of the state, and promised that the house will do better in the next legislative year.
How do you distinguish a foreign policy "idealist" from a "realist," an optimist from a pessimist? Ask one question: Do you believe in the arrow of history? Or to put it another way, do you think history is cyclical or directional? Are we condemned to do the same damn thing over and over, generation after generation - or is there hope for some enduring progress in the world order?

For realists, generally conservative, history is an endless cycle of clashing power politics. The same patterns repeat.

The idealists believe otherwise. They believe that the international system can eventually evolve out of its Hobbesian state of nature into something more humane and hopeful. What is usually overlooked is that this hopefulness for achieving a higher plane of global comity comes in two flavors - one liberal, one conservative.

The liberal variety (as practiced, for example, by the Bill Clinton administration) believes that the creation of a dense web of treaties, agreements, transnational institutions and international organizations (like the U.N., NGOs, the World Trade Organization) can give substance to a cohesive community of nations that would, in time, ensure order and stability.

The conservative view (often called neoconservative and dominant in the George W. Bush years) is that the better way to ensure order and stability is not through international institutions, which are flimsy and generally powerless, but through the spread of democracy. Because, in the end, democracies are inherently more inclined to live in peace.

Liberal internationalists count on globalization, neoconservatives on democratization to get us to the sunny uplands of international harmony. But what unites them is the belief that such uplands exist and are achievable. Both believe in the perfectibility, if not of man, then of the international system. Both believe in the arrow of history.

For realists, this is a comforting delusion that gives high purpose to international exertions where none exists. Sovereign nations remain in incessant pursuit of power and self-interest. The pursuit can be carried out more or less wisely. But nothing fundamentally changes.

Barack Obama is a classic case study in foreign policy idealism. Indeed, one of his favorite quotations is about the arrow of history: "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." He has spent nearly eight years trying to advance that arc of justice. Hence his initial "apology tour," that burst of confessional soul-searching abroad about America and its sins, from slavery to the loss of our moral compass after 9/11. His recent trip to Hiroshima completes the arc.

Unfortunately, with "justice" did not come peace. The policies that followed - appeasing Vladimir Putin, the Iranian mullahs, the butchers of Tiananmen Square and lately the Castros - have advanced neither justice nor peace.

But now an interesting twist. Two terms as president may not have disabused Obama of his arc-of-justice idealism, but they have forced upon him at least one policy of hardheaded, indeed hardhearted, realism. On his recent Vietnam trip, Obama accepted the reality of an abusive dictatorship while announcing a warming of relations and the lifting of the U.S. arms embargo, thereby enlisting Vietnam as a full partner in the containment of China.

He thus leaves a double legacy. His arc-of-justice aspirations, whatever their intention, leave behind tragic geopolitical and human wreckage. Yet this belated acquiescence to realpolitik, laying the foundations for a new containment, will be an essential asset in addressing this century's central challenge, the rise of China.

Charles Krauthammer's email address is letters@charleskrauthammer.com.
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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.




LONDON, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

A new luxury lifestyle concept is set to offer exclusive, high quality accommodation to the elderly, on the Kings Road in Chelsea.

The developer Auriens has secured its first site in London, with a view to developing a new 'later life lux' addition to the care home category. The company is currently working with Tenhurst on its planning application and expects the doors to open at Auriens Chelsea by 2019.

Co-founder Johnny Sandelson highlighted the need for such a development, compared with the focus on first-time buyers. "The world is obsessed with millennials but we see a huge opportunity at the other end of the market."

Dubbing this group "perennials", Auriens held out for the right site to develop what they describe as a world-class environment for the ageing population.

And this considered approach has been applied across the board. Karen Mulville, heading the operational side of the business, is developing the concept for the best possible residential experience, feeling that without the highest-quality care, people might not feel comfortable moving from their homes. As part of their proposition, Auriens have partnered with a care provider with a twenty-year pedigree to cater to their future clientele.

The team have also enlisted Richmond Interiors, following their work with Mayfair's Beaumont Hotel, to create a space where style meets substance. John Hunter, responsible for some of the Royal Borough's most high-profile developments, said "Auriens is really going the extra mile to create something very special. The attention-to-detail is phenomenal."

Auriens hopes the Chelsea site will open up the opportunity for further launches, both in key cities across the UK and abroad.

SOURCE Auriens
VANCOUVER, Canada, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Professor Lord David Blunkett, a high-profile British politician who recently made news headlines by drawing parallels between Donald Trump's pursuit of the American presidency and Britain's impending vote on Brexit, is coming to Vancouver.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160608/808993 )



Recently appointed Chair of The University of Law in London, England, The Right Honorable Blunkett was a cabinet minister in former British Prime Minister Tony Blair's labour government, which came to power in 1997. He is also a professor of Politics in Practice and chair of the Board of the Crick Centre at the University of Sheffield.

Blind since birth, Professor Lord Blunkett will deliver a free public speech at the University Canada West (UCW) at 9:30 a.m. (PST) on Wednesday, June 15 on the potential impact of Brexit on Britain. Registration for attendees will be at 9 a.m. Brexit is a merger of the words Britain and exit. Blunkett's speech will take place at UCW just eight days before the Brexit vote.

In the national referendum, British Prime Minister David Cameron's government will ask Britons: "Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union (EU) or leave the European Union?"

In The Brexit: Will Britain leave the EU and why should anybody in North America care? Blunkett will argue that remaining in the Union amounts to a marriage of economic, social and international survival. The EU is an economic and political partnership involving 28 European countries.

Despite being opposed to Britain's involvement in the EU in 1975 when it was first created, today Blunkett warns Britain's exodus from the Union would be catastrophic. It would erode Britain's substantial role in helping Europe deal with Islamic State terrorism, organized crime and mass migration.

"Yes there is an enormous need for continuing reform of the grinding bureaucracy that permeates the EU," says the former Member of Parliament of 28 years for Sheffield Brightside. "But in a world of global markets, people movements and global blocks, we need each other more than ever before. In terms of finance and business, in terms of the nation state and democratic politics the challenge in front of us is blindingly obvious. To have power, we need to be able to work together."

Blunkett was Britain's Home Secretary during the 9/11, 2001 attack on the United States' World Trade Centre. He notes that since that world changing event Britain and North America have come to appreciate that collaboration is key to resolving issues of power and terror.

"We are in a fortunate position that we are trusted by and able to work extremely closely with the United States on intelligence gathering, analysis and action," notes Blunkett. "But it is extremely silly and beneath those who should know better to suggest that this somehow 'trumps' if I dare use such expression these days, wider co-operation against terrorism on our doorstep."

On BBC's Daily Politics, Blunkett recently likened U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's increasing popularity to rising public support for Britain's exit from the EU.

He warned that the world should be mindful of how a breakdown of voters' trust in traditional politics can lead them to consider wacky proposals and destabilizing opt-out mechanisms. He cited Trump's "crazy wall between Mexico and the U.S. to keep out illegal immigrants" and the British Out-Campaign's comparison of the EU to a Hitler-like "European State" as examples of this.

The University of Law and UCW are part of the Global University Systems (GUS) international network of higher-education institutions headquartered in the Netherlands. With institutions and affiliates across the UK, Canada, Germany and Singapore the group educates more than 50,000 students from 160 different nationalities.

About University Canada West

UCW delivers programs that provide students with the applied and theoretical basis for success in the workplace and future academic endeavours. Established in 2004, UCW offers quality education with courses that transfer broadly into the public education system. Courses are offered at UCW's downtown Vancouver campus and online. For more information visit http://www.ucanwest.ca

SOURCE University Canada West (UCW)
"Based on its ability to deliver immediate benefits and meet future client requirements throughout the U.S. and globally, Cielo was identified as a Leader in the Overall and Global Focus RPO market segments," said Gary Bragar, HRO Research Director at NelsonHall. "Given Cielo's recent expansion in Latin America, Asia Pacific and Europe, and its strong focus on candidates, including its Impression Center and Bridge Team, and its ability to build and manage talent pools, Cielo is well-positioned to meet client needs."

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160607/376697

The industry has further verified Cielo's reputation for executing innovative solutions that provide business impact through numerous awards and recognitions, including its annual top three leadership position on the HRO Today RPO Baker's Dozen listing and Peak Matrix Leader placement by Everest Group.

In May, Cielo was honored with its fifth consecutive North America Partnership in Recruiting Excellence award based on its partnership with Health First. The firm won in previous years with client partners: Bristol-Myers Squibb (2015), Boehringer Ingelheim (2014), The University of Virginia Health System (2013) and ValueOptions (2012). The firm has also won the award's European equivalent for three consecutive years with clients: Dialog (2015), AB InBev (2014) and Smiths Group (2013).

About NelsonHall and NEAT vendor evaluation

NelsonHall, the leading global BPO and IT outsourcing research & analysis firm, takes a global approach to analysis of vendors and outsourcing markets and is widely respected for the quality and depth of its research. NelsonHall offers a suite of "Speed-to-Source" tools, (NEAT), to help buy-side executives save time and money with decisions, in business process outsourcing and IT outsourcing evaluations.

NEAT is NelsonHall's vendor evaluation and assessment tool, a method by which sourcing managers can strategically evaluate vendors at the onset of the screening process. Positioning as a "Leader" is based on a combination of analyst assessments, primarily around measurements of the ability to deliver immediate benefit; and feedback from interviewing of vendor clients, primarily through measurements of levels of partnership and ability to meet future customer requirements.

About Cielo

Cielo is the world's leading strategic Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) partner. Under its WE BECOME YOU philosophy, Cielo's dedicated recruitment teams primarily serve clients in the financial and business services, consumer brands, technology and media, engineering, life sciences and healthcare industries. Cielo's global presence includes 1,400 employees, serving 130 clients across 69 countries in 32 languages. Cielo knows talent is rising  and with it, an organization's opportunity to rise above. For more information, visit cielotalent.com.

Cielo Contact:

Bethany Perkins

bethany.perkins@cielotalent.com

+1 262-439-1443

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160223/336468LOGO

Related Links

http://www.cielotalent.com



SOURCE Cielo
SHANGHAI, China, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Quality assurance for system, material and process serves central customer requirements

As the global technology and quality leader for high-end Additive Manufacturing (AM) solutions, one of the central concerns at EOS is to establish a holistic approach to quality assurance in series production. The process, which was mainly used for Rapid Prototyping in the early years, is increasingly making fully-fledged series production possible in many areas.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160506/364518 )



Dr. Tobias Abeln, Chief Technical Officer (CTO) adds: "Consistent and repeatable part quality is essential for series production applications. With its quality assurance concept, which is unique to the industry, EOS covers the three technological elements of Additive Manufacturing which have a direct influence on the quality of an additively manufactured component - namely system: reliably meeting manufacturing standards, material: guaranteed consistent quality of every material batch and process: checked and validated parameters. Thanks to the joint development and mutual adjustment of systems, materials and processes, EOS ultimately establishes the conditions for best possible part properties."

Focus on technology development and quality assurance

EOS puts a high emphasis on technology development and quality assurance. At the headquarters in Krailling alone, there is an area of around 2,300 m reserved for the seventy Additive Manufacturing systems used for research and development, quality assurance, application and training for both polymer and metal products. An additional twenty systems are available in the international EOS technology centres in China, Singapore and the US. At the EOS Oy plant in Finland, an additional fifteen systems are being used for the development, qualification and quality assurance of metal materials.

Please find the complete English press release here . For further information: Stephanie Cheong, Marketing Manager EOS Singapore Pte. Ltd. (phone +65-6430-0541, e-Mail: Stephanie.cheong@eos.info)

SOURCE EOS Electro Optical Systems (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.
LONDON, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- European Capital Fund Management Limited announced today that its European mid-market direct lending fund, European Capital Private Debt, LP, has provided unitranche financing to support the buyout of Xendo (the "Company") backed by Sovereign Capital, the UK private equity Buy & Build specialist.

Xendo, headquartered in the Netherlands, is a leading independent consultancy and project management organisation in the pharmaceutical products, medical devices and healthcare fields. The Company's ambition is to enhance the quality and safety of medicine and help shorten the time to market for drugs and medical devices that improve the quality of life. Xendo operates from three countries in Europe (UK, Netherlands and Germany) and in Japan.

"We are pleased to partner with Sovereign Capital and to support the buyout of Xendo," said Matthew Gordon Clark, Managing Director of European Capital in London. "Xendo represents our first unitranche financing in the Netherlands having looked at a number of opportunities. We look forward to building on this transaction and providing further tailor-made solutions to leading mid-market private equity sponsors looking to invest in the Netherlands."

Colin Wright, Director of European Capital in London, added, "Xendo has an exciting opportunity to develop its business and extend its geographic reach during our investment timeframe and we look forward to supporting the management team and Sovereign Capital to help achieve this."

"Sovereign Capital is pleased to work with European Capital and we appreciated their flexibility, speed and professionalism as well as their appetite to provide further funding during the investment," commented Jonathan Kay, Investment Director of Sovereign Capital.

ABOUT EUROPEAN CAPITAL FUND MANAGEMENT

European Capital Fund Management Limited manages 600 million in two funds. With offices in London and Paris, it seeks to provide direct funding in the form of unirate, mezzanine and senior financing to sponsor-led lower and mid-market European companies. European Capital Fund Management Limited is an English limited company regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, and is an indirect, wholly owned affiliate of American Capital, Ltd.

ABOUT EUROPEAN CAPITAL PRIVATE DEBT, LP

The European Capital Private Debt, L.P. (the "Fund"), seeks to provide direct funding in the form of unirate, mezzanine and senior financing to sponsor-led mid-market Western and Northern European companies. The Fund is established in the UK and is managed by European Capital Fund Management Limited, an English limited company regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, and an indirect, wholly owned affiliate of American Capital, Ltd.

Contact: + 44 207 539 7000

Matthew Gordon Clark, Managing Director

Colin Wright, Director

SOURCE European Capital Fund Management Limited
STRASBOURG, France, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Baluchistan House, in partnership with Members of the European Parliament, hosted an event in the European Parliament in Strasbourg on the topic of "Pakistan's Baluchistan: Its Human Rights Abuses".

The conference was attended by MEPs, European Commission officials, Representatives from Think Tanks, European Parliament Staff and Baluch diaspora.

Mr. Tarek Fatah, Executive Director, Baluchistan House, mentioned that Pakistan, through its military and its intelligence agency the ISI, has been historically engaged in systematic human rights abuses in the region of Baluchistan. The ISI practices oppression in a multitude of forms to curb the legitimate demand of the Baluch community. The Baluch people live in a constant atmosphere of fear and insecurity, as the Pakistani army and ISI unleash a brutal human rights regime in the region. One of the most covert means allegedly employed by the army to subdue the legitimate aspirations of the Baluch people is enforced disappearance.

Custodial killings have become the order of the day in Baluchistan. As recently as March 2016, two Baluch victims of enforced disappearance, whose names and details were part of record, were killed and dumped in Awaran in a staged encounter. BRP member, Sarwar s/o Haso Baluch was killed and dumped in the Chorchori area of Mashkay, having been abducted on 27 February this year, apparently by state force.

The Baluch people claim that soldiers are carrying out arbitrary arrests, humiliating families, maiming civilians, carrying out enforced disappearance and conducting summary executions. Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence does not even want an open discussion on what is going on in Baluchistan.

Ms. Barbara Kappel, Member of the European Parliament, mentioned that mass killings, disappearances of thousands of people and extrajudicial executions are the grim reality of Baluchistan. The Pakistani army and various intelligence agencies do not share complete information with each other about their independent operations. She further mentioned that a decision made by even an army subaltern carries more weight than that of a high court judge. Disappeared Baluch persons from Pakistani Baluchistan have been denied the right to a proper arrest and to a fair trial. There has been evidence of inhuman torture on many of the disappeared persons. Some have eventually been killed, while others have been dumped, more dead than alive.

Mr. Alberto Cirio, Member of the European Parliament, said that although Pakistan is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which guarantees fundamental freedoms and rights to all the citizens of a country, the plight of the Baluch minority is pretty sordid, and mired in a systematic abuse of human rights, showing contempt of all international humanitarian laws. The international community and human rights organizations must take urgent steps to prevent the everyday genocide of Baluch people.

Media Contact

Javed Jafferi

Media Advisor

Baluchistan House

baloch.secretariat@gmail.com

SOURCE Baluchistan House
NEW YORK, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

According to market research "Global Cold Chain RFID Market Size, Share, Development, Growth and Demand Forecast to 2022 - Industry Insights by Product (Tags, Readers, Other Hardware Devices, Software and Services) by Technology (Active RFID, Passive RFID) by Industry Verticals (Food and Beverages, Pharmaceutical and Biomedical)" by P&S Market Research, the global cold chain RFID market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 29.1% during 2016-2022. Among the various products, the tags segment accounted for largest share in the global cold chain RFID market in 2015.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150727/756778 )



The software and services product segment is expected to witness a considerable growth during the forecast period. The growing demand for real time temperature monitoring in cold chain logistic is expected to boost the growth of the global cold chain RFID market during the forecast period.

Explore Report Description, TOC, Scope of the Report at: https://www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/rfid-in-cold-chain-market

The RFID technology in cold chain is used for tracing and tracking contents, location expiration, and manufacture dates. The data gathered by RFID can be transmitted to the authorities. The food and beverages segment accounted for the largest market share in the global cold chain RFID market in 2015. The pharmaceutical and biomedical segment is expected to witness growth at the fastest rate during the forecast period, owing to the increasing demand of RFID in pharmaceuticals cold chain supply from developing countries, such as India and China. The growing global fisheries import and export is laying ample opportunities for the growth of the cold chain RFID market. The stringent government mandates for food safety has led to the requirement of specific humidity, temperature, and light requirements while handling food, beverages, and pharmaceuticals products. The producers, transporters, distributors, and warehouse operators are now forced to keep the entire supply chain details for these products. The stringent regulations in developed countries has also forced the major pharmaceuticals, food and beverages exporter countries in Asia-Pacific to follow the mandates, as it is applicable for the entire supply chain. This is driving the growth of the cold chain RFID market in Asia-Pacific

Browse Related Research: https://www.psmarketresearch.com/industry-report/chemicals-materials-and-energy

Some of the major companies operating in the global cold chain RFID market include Alien Technology, Checkpoint Systems Inc., Impinj Inc., Nedap N.V., RFID4U (eSmart Source, Inc.), Invengo Technology BV, GAO RFID Inc., Avery Dennison Corporation, and Sato Holdings Corporation.

Global Cold Chain RFID Market Segmentation

By Product

Tags

Readers

Other Hardware Devices

Software and Services

By Technology

Passive RFID

Active RFID

By Industry Vertical

Food and Beverages

Pharmaceutical and Biomedical

GEOGRAPHICAL SEGMENTATION

By Region

North America U.S. Canada

Europe Germany France U.K. Spain Rest of Europe

Asia-Pacific China India Japan Rest of Asia-Pacific

Rest of the World (RoW) Brazil Rest of RoW



Other Reports by P&S Market Research

Cold Chain Market - https://www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/cold-chain-market

Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits (RFIC) Market - https://www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/frequency-integrated-circuits-market

Parking Sensors Market - https://www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/parking-sensors-market

About P&S Market Research

P&S Market Research is a market research company, which offers market research and consulting services for various geographies around the globe. We provide market research reports, industry forecasting reports, business intelligence, and research based consulting services across different industry/business verticals.

As one of the top growing market research agency, we're keen upon providing market landscape and accurate forecasting. Our analysts and consultants are proficient with business intelligence and market analysis, through their interaction with leading companies of the concerned domain. We help our clients with B2B market research and assist them in identifying various windows of opportunity, and framing informed and customized business expansion strategies in different regions.

Contact:

Deep

Assistant - Client Partner

347, 5th Ave. #1402

New York City, NY - 10016

Toll-free: +1-888-778-7886 (USA/Canada)

Email: enquiry@psmarketresearch.com

Web: https://www.psmarketresearch.com



SOURCE P&S Market Research
LONDON, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

The world became less peaceful in 2016 , reinforc ing an underlying decade-long deterioration in world peacefulness driven primarily by increased terrorism and higher levels of political instability.

The economic impact of violence on the global economy totalled $13.6 trillion or 13.3% of gross world product, equivalent to 11 times the size of global foreign direct investment.

T he economic impact of violence was $137 trillion over the last decade - greater than global GDP in 2015.

Refugees and displaced persons have risen dramatically over the last decade, doubling to approximately 60 million people between 2007 and 2016, nearly 1% of the world ' s population .

Iceland is the world ' s most peaceful country , followed by Denmark and Austria .

Syria is least peaceful , followed by South Sudan , Iraq , Afghanistan and Somalia .

Panama , Thailand and Sri Lanka showed greatest improvement s in peace ; Yemen , Ukraine and Turkey suffered the greatest deteriorations.

In Brazil , a 15% increase in political instability coupled with deteriorations in both the incarceration and police rates, presents a worrying trend just months before the start of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Jane iro.

The tenth edition of the Global Peace Index published today highlights a stark and growing inequality in global levels of peacefulness as the gap between the most and least peaceful countries continues to widen. The study, by international think-tank the Institute for Economics and Peace, finds that, while 81 countries improved, the deterioration in another 79 outweighed these gains, meaning that peace declined at a faster rate than in the previous year. Despite this some of the most peaceful countries are now recording historically high levels of peace.

The score for the Middle East and Africa (MENA), the least peaceful region in the world in last year's report, dropped further as regional conflicts intensified, dragging down global peacefulness. So intense is the current concentration of violence and conflict in MENA that, when considered separately, the rest of the world's average peace levels improved. Three of the five biggest declines in peace occurred in the region including Yemen, Libya and Bahrain.

Steve Killelea, Founder and Executive Chairman of the IEP observed, "As internal conflicts in MENA become more entrenched, external parties are increasingly becoming more involved and the potential for indirect or 'war by proxy' between nation states is rising. This was already evident in Syria with the conflict between the Assad regime and multiple non-state actors, and is now spilling into countries such as Yemen. There is a broader proxy conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and more recently both US and Russia have increased their level of involvement."

The global deterioration in peace in 2015 was driven by increased terrorism and higher levels of political instability. While the majority of terrorist activity is highly concentrated in five countries - Syria, Iraq, Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan - the breadth of terrorism is spreading, with only 23% of countries in the Index not experiencing a terrorist incident. Europe, which was once again the most peaceful region in the world, saw its average score deteriorate in this year's report in the wake of terrorism incidents in Paris and Brussels, with deaths from terrorism in Europe having more than doubled over the last five years.

The number of refugees and displaced persons has risen dramatically over the last decade, doubling to approximately 60 million people between 2007 and 2016, nearly 1% of the world's population. There are now nine countries with more than 10% of their population displaced in some form; 20% of Somalia and South Sudan's population respectively, and over 60% of Syria's.

While the global economic impact of violence dropped by 2% when compared to last year's report, it was still a staggering $13.6 trillion in 2015, equivalent to 11 times the size of global foreign direct investment. This represents 13.3% of world GDP, or $1,876 per person. In the last ten years the economic impact of violence was $137 trillion; greater than global GDP in 2015.

Steve Killelea remarked, "The increasing internationalisation of internal conflicts has coincided with UN peacekeeping funding reaching record highs in 2016: it was the largest improved indicator in this year's report with more deployed peacekeepers and more countries being up-to-date with their UN peacekeeping dues. However, peacebuilding and peacekeeping spending remains proportionately small compared to the economic impact of violence, representing just 2% of global losses from armed conflict.

"Addressing the global disparity in peace and achieving an overall 10% decrease in the economic impact of violence would produce a peace dividend of $1.36 trillion. This is approximately equivalent to the size of world food exports."

The report also provides an audit of the available data to measure Goal 16 of the Sustainable Development Goals - the UN member states formal recognition of the critical nature of peacefulness in advancing global development. It finds that, while there is some existing data to track progress and therefore hold member states accountable to meeting their targets, serious investment will need to be made to measure the goals.

The report concludes with new research into resilience and what the IEP identifies as 'Positive Peace'; the attitudes, institutions and structures which sustain peace. It finds that, over the course of the decade, 13 times more lives were lost in natural disasters in low Positive Peace countries than in countries which are high in Positive Peace.

REGIONAL RANKING + HIGHLIGHTS

Europe was once again ranked the most peaceful region in the world. The largest improvement since last year occurred in Central America and the Caribbean, while South America also made progress in its levels of peacefulness. MENA had the largest decline, followed by Sub-Saharan Africa, Europe and Asia Pacific respectively.

Europe accounts for six of the top seven places in the rankings with Iceland , Denmark and Austria remaining the highest-ranking countries. Portugal built on last year's gains to rise nine places to fifth globally. However, the average score in Europe deteriorated, reflecting increases in the impact of terrorism as well as the escalation of violence and instability in Turkey and the country's deteriorating relations with its neighbours. North America 's score remains in line with GPI 2015. A small deterioration in Canada , due to an increase in weapons imports and exports, was offset by a comparable improvement in the US. Asia-Pacific 's level of peace has remained largely unchanged since 2015, however a number of countries including Indonesia , Timor-Leste, Myanmar and Thailand improved their scores. Heightened tensions in the South China Sea impacted external relations between the three main nations concerned; China , Vietnam and the Philippines . Despite continuing security issues in Central America and the Caribbean , the region's score improved sufficiently for it to move above South America in the rankings, and into fourth place overall. Improvements were recorded particularly in the levels of political instability and political terror. The best performer was Costa Rica , characterised by its low levels of militarisation. South America dropped in rank in light of the substantial improvements in Central America and the Caribbean but still recorded an improvement in its overall score since 2015. This was due to lower levels of international conflict and militarisation underpinned by largely peaceful relations between neighbouring countries. However, there was significant social unrest in Venezuela and Brazil . Political instability increased in Brazil just months before the start of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro . Sub-Saharan Africa's average deterioration masks sharp variations in country performance: Chad , Mauritania and Niger all improved their relations with neighbouring countries, while the threat posed by Islamist terrorist groups continues to weigh on many countries in the Sahel and West African region. Russia and Eurasia remains the third least peaceful region. The biggest improvements were in Belarus , Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan ; the largest deteriorations were in Ukraine , due to the persistent conflict with pro-Russian separatist forces in the Donbass region. South Asia remains the second least peaceful region. Afghanistan , Nepal , Bangladesh and India deteriorated; while Bhutan , Sri Lanka and Pakistan improved modestly. Internal security concerns were heightened in Bangladesh and Nepal owing to anti-government protests. Afghanistan has seen a resurgence of violence in the last year, with a number of clashes between government and Taliban forces, and the possible re-emergence of Al-Qaeda after the withdrawal of coalition forces in 2014. MENA, which was already ranked the lowest in the 2015 GPI, had the biggest deterioration in peace this year, as the civil wars in Syria and Yemen deepened and led to increased external intervention. Yemen , whose long-standing political crisis exploded into outright civil war in early 2015, witnessed a large slump, driven by the rising casuality rate, a large increase in the number of refugees and internally displaced people, and higher levels of terrorist attacks by both al-Qaeda and ISIL.

For more information, go to http://www.visionofhumanity.org.

NOTES TO EDITORS

GPI report, video, and interactive maps are available at: http://www.visionofhumanity.org

Twitter: https://twitter.com/GlobPeaceIndex (#GPI2016)

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/globalpeaceindex

About the Global Peace Index (GPI)

This is the tenth edition of the GPI: the world's leading measure of global peacefulness produced by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP). It gauges on-going domestic and international conflict, safety and security in society, and the degree of militarisation in 163 countries and territories by taking into account 23 indicators. The tenth anniversary report presents the most comprehensive analysis to date on the trends in peace and violence over the past decade. The 2016 edition expands its coverage by including Palestine for the first time.

About the Institute for Economics and Peace

IEP is an international and independent think tank dedicated to shifting the world's focus to peace as a positive, achievable and tangible measure of human well-being and progress.

Global Contacts

Hill + Knowlton Strategies:

Metin Parlak

Metin.Parlak@hkstrategies.com

+44-20-7413-3771

Danielle Mathews

Danielle.Mathews@hkstrategies.com

+44-20-7413-3432



SOURCE Institute for Economics and Peace
DUBLIN, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "India Household Cleaning Market Outlook, 2021" report to their offering.

According to India Household Cleaning Market Outlook, 2021, the overall market for household cleaning is anticipated to grow with a CAGR of 22.74% in the next five years.

In utensil cleaning category, dishwashing bars dominate market revenues, followed by liquid cleaners whereas dishwashing paste has negligible contribution. Consumers in urban areas are now upgrading to dishwashing liquids which are expected to register robust growth in the forecast period. Powder based utensil cleaners are now set to diminish from the market. The surface cleaning market is growing mainly because of rising awareness about brands due to heavy promotion by leading companies. Floor cleaners dominate category revenues, followed by specialized and multi-purpose cleaners. Surface cleaners are targeted mainly at urban households and thus are more popular in urban markets.



This report gives an in-depth analysis of household cleaning industry. The household cleaning industry in India is highly unorganized and the size of unorganized sector is three times than that of organized one. However, this report includes only the organized sector i.e. the branded household cleaning market. The organized household cleaning market in India is mainly split into three broad categories viz. utensil cleaner, toilet cleaner and surface cleaner. Utensil cleaners are further split into dishwashing bar, liquid, powder and pastes. Toilet cleaners consist of liquid cleaners, in-cisterns & rim blocks whereas surface cleaners are split into floor cleaner, specialized and multipurpose cleaners. The specialized cleaners are further split, based on their application areas.



Major companies in the household cleaning market include Hindustan Unilever, Reckitt Benckiser, Jyothy Laboratories, Rohit Surfactants, Dabur India, SC Johnson etc. Major brands operating in the industry are Vim, Harpic, Pril, Exo, Xpert, Lizol, Domex, Colin, Sani Fresh, Cif, Mr Muscle, Easy Off Bang, Dazzl, Dettol etc.



Key Topics Covered:



1. Executive Summary



2. Global Household Cleaning Market Outlook



3. India Household Cleaning Market Outlook



4. India Utensil Cleaner Market Outlook



5. India Surface Cleaner Market Outlook



6. India Toilet Cleaner Market Outlook



7. India Economic Snapshot



8. Raw Material



9. Market Penetration



10. Future Development



11. Policy & Regulatory Landscape



12. Trade Dynamics



13. Channel Partner Analysis



14. India Household Cleaning Market Dynamics



15. Market Trends & Developments

16. Competitive Landscape



17. Strategic Recommendations



Companies Mentioned



- Reckitt Benckiser (India) Ltd.

- Hindustan Unilever Limited

- Dabur India Limited

- SC Johnson Products Pvt. Ltd.

- Jyothy Laboratories Limited

- Venky's (India) Limited

- Future Consumer Enterprise Ltd.

- Fena Private Limited

- Pitambari Products Pvt. Ltd.

- The Clorox Company



For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/hgsr5h/india_household

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

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SOURCE Research and Markets
FRANKFURT, Germany, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Dr. Thomas Rinne (Partner) presents his newest Guide on the choice of the most appropriate legal entity for foreign investors in Germany. The Guide is supposed to give a first orientation to companies that consider to enter the German market.

"Any new market entry should start with a profound research into the target market. With this Guide we want to give insight that is easily and quickly accessible and, above all, does not discourage the reader. The Guide is available free of charge and can be downloaded in PDF-format in English and Spanish. We hope this will give foreign businesses and investors some comfort in their decision making process," said the German attorney-at-law (also admitted as "abogado" in Spain).

Buse Heberer Fromm provides solutions for all national and international commercial and tax issues. As a "full service" law firm with more than 100 specialized attorneys, auditors and tax consultants, Buse Heberer Fromm is present in six German offices and at eight international locations.

Read more: http://buse.de/en/kompetenzen/corporate-law-and-ma/market-entry/

Contact:

Dr. Thomas Rinne

Rechtsanwalt / Abogado



Buse Heberer Fromm Law Firm

Bockenheimer Landstrasse 101

60325 Frankfurt am Main



Telefon: +49-69-9897235-0

Telefax: +49-69-9897235-99



rinne@buse.de

http://www.buse.de



SOURCE Buse Heberer Fromm Law Firm
OXFORD, England, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Oxitec welcomes the report "Gene Drives on the Horizon", released today by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. This report outlines the need for phased testing of gene-drive modified organisms before they can be released into the environment and calls for clearer regulatory oversight of this technology.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150630/227348 )



Oxitec recognises the valuable work being conducted on gene-drive technologies for the use of mosquito control. However, we share the view of The Academies that these technologies require considerable testing in the laboratory, followed by rigorous and carefully-controlled field trials, before they can be deployed. Gene-drive systems are designed to establish themselves permanently in the environment and cannot be recalled once they are released. This raises concerns regarding potential irreversible changes to vector and disease dynamics.

As detailed in the white paper "Oxitec's Vector Control Solution - A Paradigm Shift in Mosquito Control", these concerns are not restricted to gene-drive approaches, but are also apparent for other methods of vector control that persist in the environment. One such method involves the insertion of the bacteria, Wolbachia, into the mosquito, which causes reproductive alterations in its hosts. Once Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes are released, they pass on this bacterium so that it becomes established in the wild population and is unable to be recalled.

In contrast to vector control approaches that spread in the environment, Oxitec's method is designed to be highly controllable. Our Aedes aegypti OX513A mosquitoes are engineered to contain a self-limiting gene. We release male mosquitoes to mate with wild females, passing on this gene to their offspring so that they die before reaching adulthood. Oxitec's self-limiting solution does not persist in the environment, unlike gene-drive methods which are designed to spread and persist in subsequent generations of mosquitoes. In addition, Oxitec's mosquitoes contain a fluorescent colour marker, providing a means of tracking the mosquitoes in the field and enable demonstration that once releases stop no detectable insects remain.

Oxitec's solution has already undergone multiple successful field trials in three different countries, all of which demonstrated that the self-limiting mosquitoes reduced the wild population by more than 90%. Projects utilising Oxitec's solution are currently underway in both Brazil and the Cayman Islands, and pilot deployment under operational conditions has been recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Furthermore, Oxitec's genetically engineered mosquitoes have a defined regulatory pathway. In the United States, for example, a trial proposed in the Florida Keys is under review from the Food and Drug Administration Center for Veterinary Medicine (FDA-CVM). In contrast, the regulatory context for gene-drive technologies requires further definition.

About Oxitec

Oxitec is the only GM insect company in the world and a pioneer in using genetic engineering to control insect pests that spread disease and damage crops. Oxitec was founded in 2002 as a spinout from Oxford University (UK), and is now a subsidiary of Intrexon Corporation (NYSE: XON), which engineers biology to help solve some of the world's biggest problems. Oxitec's self-limiting insect control targets only the one species of pest in a way that is non-toxic and pesticide-free, providing vector control that is both effective and environmentally friendly. Follow us on Twitter at @Oxitec.

Oxitec Contact:

Matthew Warren

Press Officer

Tel: +44(0)1235-832-393

info@oxitec.com



SOURCE Oxitec Ltd
MESA, Arizona, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- PCT International, a leading manufacturer of broadband communications products supporting video, voice and high-speed data services, including coaxial cable and fiber optics, announced today that it is growing its presence in Europe with expanded sales and operations functions in the United Kingdom (U.K.) and with the hiring of industry expert Ricky Nye as Managing Director of PCT EMEA.

In a time when the market is undergoing consolidation, PCT remains committed to constant innovation and providing the best service to customers. PCT determined that establishing a base of operations, along with the new executive leadership of Ricky Nye, was the next critical step for PCT to continue its exceptional service to customers throughout Europe. The new U.K. office will be available for PCT customers to visit and meet with the growing European team of experienced technical sales engineers and customer service staff to develop the products they need.

"Adding a base of operations in the United Kingdom, with Ricky Nye leading both our new and existing European sales and customer service staff, is a great opportunity for our customers. We will have greater resources, more talent and increased availability for our customers as we continue to provide the exceptional level of products and services they have come to expect," said Steve Youtsey, founder and chief executive officer of PCT International. "Having employees who live in these geographic locations and truly understand the needs of this marketplace will be an incredible asset for our customers," added Youtsey.

PCT's European offices are located in Sussex:

Ricky Nye

Managing Director, EMEA

rnye@pctintl.com

Cel+90.532.590.2212

tel +1.480.240.2186

cel +44.7753.755885

PCT is exhibiting at ANGA COM, Europe's premiere exhibition and congress for broadband, cable and satellite, June 7-9, 2016, in Cologne, Germany. PCT is available in Booth 10.2 / L30. For more information please visit the ANGA website at angacom.de.

About PCT International

Founded in 1997, PCT International, Inc. is a leading worldwide developer and manufacturer of last mile and access network solutions for broadband communication networks. PCT focuses on innovative and cost-effective solutions that allow service providers to improve system integrity and expand service offerings. PCT's portfolio includes transmission, connectivity, metro Ethernet and fiber-to-the-home products for cable, telco and satellite service providers. PCT's collaborative approach to product development results in advances that simplify installation and maintenance; improve the integrity of HFC and fiber infrastructures; reduce truck rolls and other associated costs; and most importantly increase customer satisfaction and reduce churn. By working closely with customers' field engineering personnel, PCT produces equipment and components that straightforwardly address real needs and enable operators to Harden the Drop. PCT International is headquartered in Mesa, Arizona. Visit www.pctinternational.com.

Contacts

Stacy L. Bettison

BETTISON

+1.612.807.6337, stacy@bettison.com

Michael Lynch, General Manager

PCT International, Inc.

+1.480.813.0925, mlynch@pctintl.com

Related Links

http://www.pctinternational.com



SOURCE PCT International
CALGARY, June 7, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Pembina Pipeline Corporation ("Pembina" or the "Company") (TSX: PPL; NYSE: PBA) announced today that its Board of Directors declared a common share cash dividend for June 2016 of $0.16 per share to be paid, subject to applicable law, on July 15, 2016 to shareholders of record on June 24, 2016. This dividend is designated an "eligible dividend" for Canadian income tax purposes. For non-resident shareholders, Pembina's common share dividends should be considered "qualified dividends" and may be subject to Canadian withholding tax.

For shareholders receiving their common share dividends in U.S. funds, the June 2016 cash dividend is expected to be approximately U.S. $0.1249 per share (before deduction of any applicable Canadian withholding tax) based on a currency exchange rate of 0.7808. The actual U.S. dollar dividend will depend on the Canadian/U.S. dollar exchange rate on the payment date and will be subject to applicable withholding taxes.

Confirmation of Record and Payment Date Policy

Pembina pays cash dividends on its common shares in Canadian dollars on a monthly basis to shareholders of record on the 25th calendar day of each month (except for the December record date, which is December 31st), if, as and when determined by the Board of Directors. Should the record date fall on a weekend or a statutory holiday, the effective record date will be the previous business day. The dividend payment date is the 15th of the month following the record date. Should the payment date fall on a weekend or on a holiday the business day prior to the weekend or holiday becomes the payment date.

About Pembina

Calgary-based Pembina Pipeline Corporation is a leading transportation and midstream service provider that has been serving North America's energy industry for over 60 years. Pembina owns and operates an integrated system of pipelines that transport various products derived from natural gas and hydrocarbon liquids produced in western Canada and North Dakota. The Company also owns and operates gas gathering and processing facilities and an oil and natural gas liquids infrastructure and logistics business. Pembina's integrated assets and commercial operations along the entire hydrocarbon value chain allow it to offer a full spectrum of midstream and marketing services to the energy sector. Pembina is committed to working with its community and aboriginal neighbours, while providing value for investors in a safe, environmentally responsible manner. This balanced approach to operating ensures the trust Pembina builds among all of its stakeholders is sustainable over the long-term. Pembina's common shares trade on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges under PPL and PBA, respectively. For more information, visit www.pembina.com.

Forward-Looking Information and Statements

This news release contains certain forward-looking information and statements that are based on Pembina's current expectations, estimates, projections and assumptions in light of its experience and its perception of historical trends. In this news release, such forward-looking information and statements can be identified by terminology such as "to be", "expects", and similar expressions.

In particular, this news release contains forward-looking statements and information relating to: future dividends which may be declared on Pembina's common shares, the dividend payment and the tax treatment thereof. These forward-looking statements are being made by Pembina based on certain assumptions that Pembina has made in respect thereof as at the date of this news release, regarding, among other things: oil and gas industry exploration and development activity levels; the success of Pembina's operations and growth projects; prevailing commodity prices, margins, volumes and exchange rates; that Pembina's future results of operations will be consistent with past performance and management expectations in relation thereto; the continued availability of capital at attractive prices to fund future capital requirements relating to existing assets and projects, including but not limited to future capital expenditures relating to expansion, upgrades and maintenance shutdowns; the success of growth projects; future operating costs; that any third party projects relating to Pembina's growth projects will be sanctioned and completed as expected; that any required commercial agreements can be reached; that all required regulatory and environmental approvals can be obtained on the necessary terms in a timely manner; that counterparties to material agreements will continue to perform in a timely manner; that there are no unforeseen events preventing the performance of contracts; and that there are no unforeseen material construction, integrity or other costs related to current growth projects or current operations. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to: the regulatory environment and decisions; non-performance of agreements in accordance with their terms; the impact of competitive entities and pricing; reliance on key industry partners, alliances and agreements; the strength and operations of the oil and natural gas production industry and related commodity prices; the continuation or completion of third-party projects; actions by governmental or regulatory authorities including changes in tax laws and treatment, changes in royalty rates or increased environmental regulation; adverse general economic and market conditions in Canada, North America and elsewhere; fluctuations in operating results; construction delays; labour and material shortages; and certain other risks detailed from time to time in Pembina's public disclosure documents including, among other things, those detailed under the heading "Risk Factors" in Pembina's management's discussion and analysis and annual information form for the year ended December 31, 2015, which can be found at www.sedar.com.

Accordingly, readers are cautioned that events or circumstances could cause results to differ materially from those predicted, forecasted or projected. Such forward-looking statements are expressly qualified by the above statements. Pembina does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward looking statements or information contained herein, except as required by applicable laws.

_______________________________

For further information: Investor Relations, Ian McAvity, (403) 231-3156, 1-855-880-7404, e-mail: investor-relations@pembina.com, www.pembina.com

Related Links

http://www.pembina.com



SOURCE Pembina Pipeline Corporation
DUBLIN, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Global Stepper Motor Market Size, Share, Development, Growth and Demand Forecast to 2022" report to their offering.

The global stepper motor market is driven by increasing demand of energy efficient and precise motion control. The growing level of automation, along with high expenditure on medical electronic product in economically emerging countries are among key growth catalysts for the market. The stepper motor market is facing stiff competition from servo motor, especially in high power, closed loop application. The demand for automation solutions in the packaging and labeling industry has grown significantly. The modern stepper motor integrated packaging machineries are more efficient, reliable and productive at a reduced cost, which is a trend witnessed in the global stepper motor market. Waterproof stepper motors have facilitated corrosion free operation of motors used in the food and beverage packaging industry.



The distribution channel plays a key role in the growth of the global stepper motor market. Although, most of the sales in overall motion control market are direct to the original equipment manufacturers, while distributors are very important for the vendors who have a broad product portfolio for variety of motion control applications. Ever since the economic slowdown period, the access of distribution channel in developed market remained a prominent hindrance for the increased penetration of stepper motors in the motion control market. The Japanese stepper motor manufacturers account for high market share in the global market. Japan earth quake and tsunami in 2011 badly affected the global downstream supply chain of the stepper motor market.



The stepper motor market in medical equipment industry is expected to witness the fastest growth during the forecast period. Applications such as raising and lowering a hospital bed needs stepper motors. Moreover, stepper motor offers constant rotational speed in ventilator system. During the recent years, stepper motors witnessed high demand from the manufacturing unit of X-ray machines, IV pumps, and blood analyzers. An application, such as oxygen concentrator uses stepper motor in fans for cooling. The compact size and low noise makes stepper motor preferred choice for medical applications.



Companies Mentioned:



Abb Ltd.

Applied Motion Products, Inc.

Delta Electronics Inc.

Faulhaber Group.

Lin Engineering, Llc.

National Instruments Corporation

Nidec Corporation

Nippon Pulse Motor Co. Ltd.

Oriental Motor Co., Ltd.

Sanyo Denki Co., Ltd.

Schneider Electric Se

Report Structure:



1. Research Scope & Methodology



2. Executive Summary



3. Market Outlook



4. Global Stepper Motor Market Size and Forecast (2012 - 2022)



5. Global Stepper Motor Market, by Geography



6. Competitive Positioning and Market Share Analysis



7. Company Profiles and Strategic Developments



8. Appendix



For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/gz97p5/global_stepper

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

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Related Links

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SOURCE Research and Markets
BRATISLAVA, Slovakia, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

RKN Global, the security printing company founded by INTERPOL's former Secretary General, Ronald Noble, announced today that its pivotal Slovakian investment project is well underway for successful completion. The company and its Ukrainian partners, the Industrial Innovation Group, are already a leading figure in the global security printing industry as a manufacturer of security documents such as passports, e-ID cards and migrant cards. Furthermore, the company as well manufactures payment cards, such as Visa and MasterCard and has developed a proprietary state of the art system to screen passports to verify whether they are fake or counterfeit.

On 2 March 2016, the Slovak government approved RKN Global Europe's 89 million investment project for the building of a state-of-the-art security printing facility in Banska Bystrica.

The Banska Bystrica project is currently in its first-phase of development which involves creating the architectural design for the plant and conducting a geological survey of the land both of which have been successfully completed. In addition, RKN Global Europe is finalizing its environmental impact assessment and providing the documentation for a variety of land use permits which require governmental approval. When completed, RKN Global Europe's security printing plant will create at least 1,200 new jobs making security documents, payment cards and screening technologies.

Banska Bystrica is notable for having an unemployment rate of almost 15 percent; where the national average stands at 10.6 percent. RKN Global Europe has pledged to add value to the nation and boost Slovakia's economy while also assisting in slashing the region's high unemployment rate.

This investment project is significant for Slovakia and Banska Bystrica. The financial breakdown of investments clearly demonstrates that the entity taking a risk is RKN Global Europe, not the government of Slovakia or its citizens. Slovakia will provide a total of 18 million in grants and tax relief in exchange for RKN Global's investing 71 million for land purchase, facility construction, purchase of equipment and raw material, etc. in order to create at least 1,200 jobs in a region in need of employment.

Ronald Noble, Founder of RKN Global, released the following statement to the press:

"We are extremely pleased to be a part of this initiative and are delighted to report that our project is making real progress. The leaders of RKN Global and its Industrial Innovation Group have a proven track record of success. The Banska Bystrica plant represents a new dawn for the region's economic prospects, as well as for Slovakia's prosperity as a whole. RKN Global Europe is committed to creating at least 1,200 new jobs for Slovakians; particularly for university graduates, who are in need of jobs and who are underrepresented in employment within the region."

Construction of the Banska Bystrica plant is due for completion in 2017 after private bank financing and the many government licenses and approvals have been obtained.

To learn more about RKN Global, visit: http://www.rknglobal.com.

SOURCE RKN Global Europe
LONDON, England, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

New research highlights the extent to which shadow IT is endemic

NTT Communications Corporation (NTT Com), the ICT solutions and international communications business within the NTT Group (NYSE: NTT) today announced new research into the rapid rise of shadow IT. The research reveals that employees are deliberately bypassing IT in adopting applications because IT approval processes are too slow, too draconian or do not offer the solutions they want. IT often comes across to employees as the 'Ministry of No' which is totally at odds with IT's self-image as an enabler. If this situation is not addressed it risks having a detrimental effect on business.

The report showed that 78 per cent of business decision makers (BDMs) admit that employees in their department are using cloud services without knowledge of the IT department, while 77 per cent of IT decision makers (ITDMs) are aware that is happening.

57 per cent of respondents went as far as saying that shadow IT is happening in at least half of the departments in their enterprise. The research, conducted by Vanson Bourne on behalf of NTT Com, also revealed that of the 500 IT and business decision makers surveyed across the EU, shadow IT has been used on average for 18 months, while 87 per cent of respondents believe it will increase in frequency over the next 2 years.

Furthermore, 56 per cent reported having no idea where their shadow IT data is being stored. 79 per cent of respondents said that they store data in the cloud that is critical to their organization. Going forward this leaves companies at risk of breaching forthcoming General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), due to become law in 2018, under which they could face huge fines.

The main reasons why employees are ignoring IT department policy and going 'off piste' are primarily down to ease-of-use, with 62 per cent citing 'ease of set up' as their primary motivation, with a further 52 per cent saying 'ease of use' is a defining factor. 29 per cent say shadow IT provides a cheaper alternative to their prescribed 'official' option

However, simply shutting down the command and control of shadow IT is not the answer, according to Len Padilla, Vice President Product Strategy, NTT Europe. "Our recommendation is that IT departments jettison the 'Ministry of No' approach and instead work with their business colleagues to understand why the shadow IT solutions they are currently using are better than those that the IT department can offer. This consultative approach will enable organizations to get a full view of their IT estate. This will effectively create an amnesty with which to achieve compliance - while retaining the edge employees are looking for to carry out their jobs and ensure the success of the business."

The report suggests that shadow IT is here to stay. While there is widespread use of unauthorized services and at the same time an acceptance that doing so breaches company policy, 87 per cent of BDMs surveyed believe the trend is set to increase over the next two years.

At the same time, shadow IT has become a key cog in the business mechanism. 80 per cent of respondents said data stored in shadow IT is critical to their organization, and 77 per cent stated that stopping the usage of these services would limit department functionality. At the same time, 48 per cent of ITDMs believe that employees provisioning their own cloud services frees up time in their own department for other technical and development issues.

"Shadow IT has undoubtedly carved for itself a place in business and is only going to expand its influence", said Len Padilla, Vice President Product Strategy, NTT Europe. "Employees are flouting the IT department in favour of 'off-piste' alternatives as they search for options that are easier to use and install. The dilemma for the IT department is how to embrace this trend while keeping company data secure. What is very apparent is that there is an overall reluctance to tackle the issue for fear of stifling the speed and agility that employees require today to do their jobs efficiently."

"With today's vast technological landscape, it is impossible for one department to understand the technological needs of every department in the enterprise. By forging a relationship with business managers, IT can view shadow IT as an opportunity to work together instead of playing a tug-of-war game over applications" added Padilla.

To see practical, real world recommendations of how to approach this situation, download the report from http://www.ministryofno.com



About the research

The survey took place during March 2016, and was carried out by independent consultancy Vanson Bourne who polled 500 decision makers, of companies with more than 1000 employees from the UK, France, Germany and Spain. The research was split 50/50 between IT and business lines to monitor the differing view on shadow IT. All businesses were in the private sector and had over 1,000 employees with respondents from sectors including financial services, retail, manufacturing, professional services, IT, and energy.

About NTT Communications Corporation

NTT Communications provides consultancy, architecture, security and cloud services to optimize the information and communications technology (ICT) environments of enterprises. These offerings are backed by the company's worldwide infrastructure, including the including leading global tier-1 IP network, Arcstar Universal One VPN network reaching 196 countries/regions and 140 secure data centers worldwide.

NTT Communications solutions leverage the global resources of NTT Group companies including Dimension Data, NTT DOCOMO and NTT DATA.

http://www.eu.ntt.com | @NTT_Europe | http://www.nttcom.tv

Media Contacts:

press@ntt.eu

+44-(0)-207-977-1170



SOURCE NTT Communications
LONDON, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

The ability to disrupt sets apart the fastest growing brands

Continual innovation, increased revenue from advertising, and growth in its cloud business has helped Google reclaim from Apple the no.1 position in the 2016 BrandZTM Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands ranking, released today by WPP and Millward Brown. The brand increased its value 32% to $229bn, while last year's leader Apple dropped to no.2 after declining -8% in value to $228bn. Microsoft remains at no.3, growing 5% to $122bn, while Facebook (+44%, no.5) and Amazon (+59%, no.7) entered the Top 10 for the first time. The total brand value held by the Top 100 rose 3% year on year to hit $3.4 trillion.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20151014/276726LOGO )

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160607/376638LOGO )





The BrandZ data and analysis indicates that this was a stable year for the world's most powerful brands in the face of global financial pressures, including the economic slowdown in China. However the brands that innovated, and then showcased their innovations to consumers through the brand experience, have achieved standout growth with Google, Amazon and Facebook acting as prime examples.

Disruption was the dominant trend, with brands changing the status quo with their offerings in a number of ways, often beyond the use of digital technologies. Brands of all kinds moved to build a multi-faceted ecosystem around the consumer's needs and desires, often by diversifying into new categories. Amazon built its own logistics network using independent contractors, which enabled it to offer flexible and one-hour delivery options, and started producing its own content. Facebook began hosting publishers' original content to keep members active. Starbucks (+49%, no.21) moved into the ecommerce space with a 'tap and go' app, and enhanced its cold drinks and savoury ranges and offered beer and wine to extend its relevance.

"The brands that thrive, regardless of sector, are those that behave like challengers and adopt disruptor models and mindsets," said David Roth, CEO EMEA and Asia, The Store WPP. "They're shaking up other categories with innovation that goes beyond new products or technologies - transforming the way a service is delivered, enhancing the consumer experience or changing a format. The power these brands already hold, combined with the strength of their platforms, is enabling them to quickly and successfully move across sectors."

The BrandZ Top 10 Most Valuable Global Brands 2016

Rank Brand value Brand value 2016 Brand Category 2016 ($M) change Rank 2015 1 Google Technology 229,198 +32% 2 2 Apple Technology 228,460 -8% 1 3 Microsoft Technology 121,824 +5% 3 4 AT&T Telecoms 107,387 +20% 6 5 Facebook Technology 102,551 +44% 12 6 Visa Payments 100,800 +10% 5 7 Amazon Retail 98,988 +59% 14 8 Verizon Telecoms 93,220 +8% 7 9 McDonald's Fast food 88,654 +9% 9 10 IBM Technology 86,206 -8% 4

Key trends highlighted in this year's BrandZ Top 100 study include:

Strong brands outperform the market . Brands that appear in the BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands ranking consistently deliver a better financial performance than brands that are not included, thereby generating a superior return for shareholders.

. Brands that appear in the BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands ranking consistently deliver a better financial performance than brands that are not included, thereby generating a superior return for shareholders. Disruption is a catalyst for value growth. The categories that increased in value were all either shaken up by challenger brands founded on a unique and meaningful proposition, such as Under Armour and Victoria's Secret in the apparel category (+14%), or innovated to a high degree in response to a new trend, such as the brands in the fast food category (+11%) which successfully responded to global demand for healthier products.

The categories that increased in value were all either shaken up by challenger brands founded on a unique and meaningful proposition, such as Under Armour and Victoria's Secret in the apparel category (+14%), or innovated to a high degree in response to a new trend, such as the brands in the fast food category (+11%) which successfully responded to global demand for healthier products. Innovation is the main growth driver - but it must be seen and felt by consumers. The brands that are the strongest innovators have increased their value the most over the 11 years of BrandZ Top 100 rankings. However, to have an impact on brand value, innovation must be clearly communicated and delivered through the brand experience: the brands that are perceived as innovative by consumers - which include Disney (no.19) and Pampers (no.37) - grew nine times faster than those seen as less innovative.

The brands that are the strongest innovators have increased their value the most over the 11 years of BrandZ Top 100 rankings. However, to have an impact on brand value, innovation must be clearly communicated and delivered through the brand experience: the brands that are as innovative by consumers - which include Disney (no.19) and Pampers (no.37) - grew nine times faster than those seen as less innovative. Apparel is the fastest growing category , rising 14% to $114bn . There is an emphasis on high performance, with brands including Nike (+26%) and Under Armour (a new entry) launching specialist premium lines, incorporating technology such as heart monitors into their clothing, and integrating sportswear with free apps to provide a total consumer experience.

rising 14% to . There is an emphasis on high performance, with brands including Nike (+26%) and Under Armour (a new entry) launching specialist premium lines, incorporating technology such as heart monitors into their clothing, and integrating sportswear with free apps to provide a total consumer experience. B2B is a category of efficient businesses but inefficient brands. They are perceived as more responsible than B2C brands, better to work for, good value and stable, but not as exciting or dynamic. B2B brands are in fact highly innovative; ensuring they are credited as such requires strong and meaningful brand communication. SAP (no.22) and Adobe (a new entry at no.100) are among the B2B brands being perceived as innovative by customers.

They are perceived as more responsible than B2C brands, better to work for, good value and stable, but not as exciting or dynamic. B2B brands are in fact highly innovative; ensuring they are credited as such requires strong and meaningful brand communication. SAP (no.22) and Adobe (a new entry at no.100) are among the B2B brands being perceived as innovative by customers. Disruption extends to the ranking itself. Close to half (46) of the brands in the 2016 Top 100 entered the ranking after it was first launched in 2006; 54 have been there since the inaugural ranking. This shows how a strong brand can sustain its value over time, but also illustrates the potential that exists for new brands to successfully shake up the status quo.

Close to half (46) of the brands in the 2016 Top 100 entered the ranking after it was first launched in 2006; 54 have been there since the inaugural ranking. This shows how a strong brand can sustain its value over time, but also illustrates the potential that exists for new brands to successfully shake up the status quo. Strong emotional connections are boosting local brands. With a clear understanding of their consumers' needs, local brands are gaining market share at home and, with improved functionality and marketing, are also winning share in new regions. China's Huawei (no.50, +22%), for example, has rapidly globalised and taken market share from both Apple and Samsung.

Doreen Wang, Millward Brown's Global Head of BrandZ, comments: "By stretching their brands in innovative ways and expanding into new categories, the strongest brands in the Top 100 are increasing their penetration and their relevance in people's day-to-day lives. There is a risk in doing this, however: it blurs the lines between categories and can leave brands struggling for identity. Defining and articulating a very clear positioning and purpose will play a more crucial part than ever in building a strong, distinct brand."

The BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands report and rankings, and a great deal more brand insight for key regions of the world and 14 market sectors, are available online here. A new suite of interactive smartphone and tablet applications is available for free download for Apple IOS and all Android devices from www.brandz.com/mobile or search for BrandZ in the respective iTunes or Google Play app stores.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

About the BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands Ranking

Carried out by WPP's marketing and brand consultancy Millward Brown, the BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands ranking is now in its eleventh year. It is the only study to combine measures of brand equity based on interviews with over three million consumers globally about thousands of global 'consumer facing' and business-to-business brands with a rigorous analysis of the financial and business performance of each company (using data from Bloomberg and Kantar Worldpanel) to separate the value that brand plays in driving business and shareholder value. Consumer perception of a brand is a key input in determining brand value because brands are a combination of business performance, product delivery, clarity of positioning, and leadership. The ranking takes into account regional variations since, even for truly global brands, measures of brand contribution might differ substantially across countries.

About Millward Brown

Millward Brown is a leading global research agency specializing in advertising effectiveness, strategic communication, media and brand equity research. Millward Brown helps clients grow great brands through comprehensive research-based qualitative and quantitative solutions. Specialist global practices include a leading Digital practice (focused on digital effectiveness), Firefly Millward Brown (a global qualitative network), a Neuroscience Practice (using neuroscience to optimize the value of traditional research techniques), and Millward Brown Vermeer (a strategy consultancy helping companies maximize financial returns on brand and marketing investments). Millward Brown operates in more than 55 countries and is part of Kantar, WPP's data investment management division. Learn more at www.millwardbrown.com.

About WPP

WPP is the world's largest communications services group with billings of US$73 billion and revenues of US$19 billion. Through its operating companies, the Group provides a comprehensive range of advertising and marketing services including advertising & media investment management; data investment management; public relations & public affairs; branding & identity; healthcare communications; direct, digital, promotion & relationship marketing and specialist communications. The company employs 194,000 people (including associates and investments) in over 3,000 offices across 112 countries. For more information, visit www.wpp.com. WPP was named Holding Company of the Year at the 2015 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity for the fifth year running. WPP was also named, for the fifth consecutive year, the World's Most Effective Holding Company in the 2016 Effie Effectiveness Index, which recognizes the effectiveness of marketing communications. In 2016 WPP was recognised by Warc 100 as the World's Top Holding Company (second year running).



For further information please contact:



Lucy Edgar

Manager, Global Marketing, Millward Brown

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7450 2614

Email: Lucy.Edgar@millwardbrown.com



Or



Kate Alexander / Hannah Robertson

Eureka Communications

Tel: +44 (0)1420 564346

Mobile: +44 (0)7788 584413

Email: kate@eurekacomms.co.uk / hannah@eurekacomms.co.uk



SOURCE Millward Brown
BRUSSELS, June 7, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

For medical and trade media only.

New data highlight breadth of UCB's pioneering portfolio with four molecules across five indications:

An oral presentation of data from the two year C-EARLY Phase 3 study of Cimzia  , exploring different dosing strategies

, exploring different dosing strategies Oral presentations from UCB's early pipeline include Phase 1b study results for bimekizumab for psoriatic arthritis and Phase 1 results for dapirolizumab pegol for systemic lupus erythematosus

An oral presentation of Phase 3 data from the STRUCTURE study of romosozumab for osteoporosis in post-menopausal women

Long-term data from Phase 3 trials provide analyses of four-year efficacy and safety of Cimzia for the treatment of psoriatic arthritis and axial spondyloarthritis

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160607/376307LOGO )



UCB, a global biopharmaceutical company focusing on immunology, neurology and bone treatment and research, is proud to present pivotal, long-term data on Cimzia (certolizumab pegol), romosozumab, early phase molecules bimekizumab and dapirolizumab pegol, and patient-friendly injection devices in development at the Annual European Congress of Rheumatology (EULAR 2016) in London, England (8th - 11th June 2016). These data presentations offer new insights on the potential to improve patient experience and treatment outcomes across several diseases including rheumatoid arthritis (RA), psoriatic arthritis (PsA), axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA), systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), and osteoporosis in post-menopausal women.

"The mission of UCB Immunology is to deliver value beyond expectations to our patients. We know that many people living with immunological diseases experience suboptimal response on existing therapies. This unmet need drives UCB's patient-centric approach towards scientific research and improving the patient experience," said Emmanuel Caeymaex, Head of Immunology and Executive Vice President at UCB, Immunology Patient Value Unit, UCB. "Cimzia data at the Annual European Congress of Rheumatology (EULAR 2016) help to build increased understanding around the product's long-term safety and efficacy profile, while our pipeline data demonstrate momentum in bringing innovative new products to patients."

Data highlights will include four-year efficacy and safety data from both the RAPID-axSpA trial for the treatment of patients with axSpA, including ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis (nr-axSpA), and the RAPID-PsA trial for the treatment of patients with PsA. Period 2 data from the C-EARLY Phase 3 study will be presented, comparing different treatment strategies by continuing Cimzia at the standard dose or reducing the dose frequency versus withdrawal, in disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD)-naive early RA patients who achieved sustained low disease activity after one year of treatment with certolizumab pegol combined with optimized methotrexate.

Data being presented from UCB's pipeline include Phase 3 results from the STRUCTURE study of romosozumab for osteoporosis in post-menopausal women, Phase 1b results in PsA for bimekizumab (UCB4940), an investigational monoclonal antibody specifically designed to potently and selectively inhibit the biological function of both IL-17A and IL-17F cytokines, and Phase 1 results for dapirolizumab pegol (CDP7657), an anti-CD40L pegylated Fab' fragment being evaluated for SLE.

Following is a guide to the UCB-sponsored data presentations:

Presentations on Cimzia in Rheumatoid Arthritis

1.[OP0227]: A Randomized Double-Blind Treatment Strategy Study Evaluating Continuation or Reduced-Frequency Dosing of Certolizumab Pegol versus Withdrawal to Maintain Low Disease Activity in Early RA Patients (C-EARLY Period 2)

Emery, P. et al.

Date/Time: Friday 10 June, 11:00

Session Info: Developments in the treatment of RA; Hall D (oral presentation)

2. [THU0163]: Early Response as a Predictor of Long-Term Clinical Response in DMARD-Naive Patients with Severe, Active and Progressive RA Treated with Certolizumab Pegol plus Optimized MTX versus Optimized MTX Alone

Mariette, X. et al.

Date/Time: Thursday 9 June, 11:45 - 13:30

Session Info: Rheumatoid arthritis - anti-TNF therapy; Poster area (poster presentation)

3. [THU0128]: Maintenance of Improvements in Workplace and Household Productivity and Physical Function at 2 Years in Early RA Patients with Severe Progressive Disease Who Achieved Sustained Low Disease Activity following 1 Year of Initial Therapy, with Two Dosing Frequencies of Certolizumab Pegol

Bingham, C. et al.

Date/Time: Thursday 9 June, 11:45 - 13:30

Session Info: Rheumatoid arthritis - anti-TNF therapy; Poster area (poster presentation)

4. [THU0157]: Clinical Outcomes at Week 104 and Analysis of Associated Baseline Factors after an Initial 1 Year of Certolizumab Pegol and MTX Treatment in MTX-Naive Patients with Early RA: Results from the Second Year of the C-OPERA Study

Atsumi, T. et al.

Date/Time: Thursday 9 June, 11:45 - 13:30

Session Info: Rheumatoid arthritis - anti-TNF therapy; Poster area (poster presentation)

5. [THU0151]: Multicenter, Open-Label Study to Evaluate the Predictability of Disease Control at Week 52 Based on Early Response to Certolizumab Pegol (in Combination with Methotrexate) in Italian Patients with Moderate to Severe Rheumatoid Arthritis: The CZP-SPEED Study

Sarzi-Puttini, P. et al.

Date/Time: Thursday 9 June, 11:45 - 13:30

Session Info: Rheumatoid arthritis - anti-TNF therapy; Poster area (poster presentation)

Presentations on Cimzia Devices

6. [SAT0631-HPR]: Chronic Disease and Self-Injection: An Ethnographic Investigation into the Patient Experience during Treatment

Schiff, M.H. et al.

Date/Time: Saturday 11 June, 10:15 - 12:00

Session Info: Health Professionals in Rheumatology; Poster area (poster presentation)

7. [THU0639-HPR]: A New Electromechanical Platform for Subcutaneous Drug Delivery: Results from an EU Usability Study

Domanska, B. et al.

Date/Time: Thursday 9 June, 11:45 - 13:30

Session Info: Health Professionals in Rheumatology; Poster area (poster presentation)

8. [AB0300]: Comparative Usability Study for a Certolizumab Pegol Auto-Injection Device in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis Domanska, B. et al.

Session Info: Rheumatoid arthritis - anti-TNF therapy; Publication only

9. [AB0301]: Comparison of the Bioavailability of a Single Dose of Certolizumab Pegol Injected Either by a Pre-Filled Syringe or by an Auto-Injection Device

Astruc, B. et al.

Session Info: Rheumatoid arthritis - anti-TNF therapy; Publication only

Presentations on Cimzia in Axial Spondyloarthritis, including Ankylosing Spondylitis and Non-Radiographic Axial Spondyloarthritis

10. [SAT0375]: Certolizumab Pegol for the Treatment of Axial Spondyloarthritis: 4-Year Outcomes from the RAPID-axSpA Trial

van der Heijde, D. et al.

Date/Time: Saturday 11 June, 10:20

Session Info: Optimising treatment of axial SpA; Poster area (poster presentation and poster tour)

11. [SAT0389]: Long-Term Improvements in Workplace and Household Productivity and Social Participation over 4 Years of Certolizumab Pegol Treatment in Patients with Axial Spondyloarthritis, including Ankylosing Spondylitis and Non-Radiographic Axial Spondyloarthritis

van der Heijde, D. et al.

Date/Time: Saturday 11 June, 10:15 - 12:00

Session Info: Spondyloarthritis - treatment; Poster area (poster presentation)

12. [THU0380]: A Single Determination of C-Reactive Protein Does Not Suffice to Declare a Patient with a Diagnosis of Axial SpA 'CRP-Negative'

Landewe, R. et al.

Date/Time: Thursday 9 June, 11:50

Session Info: Axial SpA: Clinical aspects; Poster area (poster presentation and poster tour)

Presentations on Cimzia in Psoriatic Arthritis

13. [FRI0471]: Certolizumab Pegol for the Treatment of Psoriatic Arthritis: 4-Year Outcomes from the RAPID-PsA Trial

Mease, P.J. et al.

Date/Time: Friday 10 June, 11:45 - 13:30

Session Info: Psoriatic arthritis; Poster area (poster presentation)

14. [FRI0472]: Improvements in Joint Outcomes of Psoriatic Arthritis over 4 Years of Treatment with Certolizumab Pegol in Patients with and without Prior Anti-TNF Exposure

Mease, P.J. et al.

Date/Time: Friday 10 June, 11:45 - 13:30

Session Info: Psoriatic arthritis; Poster area (poster presentation)

Presentations on Cimzia Across Indications

15. [THU0620]: Gender, Disease Activity, Anxiety and Depression Levels Are Related to the Levels of Fears of Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis or Axial Spondyloarthritis: A Cross-Sectional Study of 672 Patients

Gossec, L. et al.

Date/Time: Thursday June 9 , 11:45 - 13:30

, 11:45 - 13:30 Session Info: Epidemiology, health services and outcome research; Poster area (poster presentation)

16. [THU0619]: Lifestyle Beliefs of 672 Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis or Axial Spondyloarthritis

Gossec, L. et al.

Date/Time: Thursday June 9 , 11:45 - 13:30

, 11:45 - 13:30 Session Info: Epidemiology, health services and outcome research; Poster area (poster presentation)

Presentations on Cimzia Safety

17. [THU0136]: Use of a Global Risk Score to Identify Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis at Risk of Serious Infectious Events During Certolizumab Pegol Treatment

Curtis, J.R. et al.

Date/Time: Thursday 9 June, 11:45 - 13:30

Session Info: Rheumatoid arthritis - anti-TNF therapy; Poster area (poster presentation)

Presentation on Bimekizumab in Psoriatic Arthritis

18. [OP0108]: Bimekizumab, a Monoclonal Antibody that Inhibits Both IL-17A and IL-17F, Produces a Profound Response in Both Skin and Joints: Results of an Early-Phase, Proof-of-Concept Study in Psoriatic Arthritis

Glatt, S. et al.

Date/Time: Friday 10 June, 10:20

Session Info: Expanding therapeutic options in spondyloarthritis; Hall B (oral presentation)

Presentation on Dapirolizumab Pegol

19. [OP0040]: Peripheral Blood Transcriptional Changes Elicited by Treatment of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) Patients with Dapirolizumab Pegol (a Pegylated Anti-CD40L Fab')

Ranger, A. et al.

Date/Time: Thursday 9 June, 10:30

Session Info: Advances in SLE Therapeutics; Hall D (oral presentation)

Presentation on Romosozumab

20. [OP0100]: Superior Gains in Bone Mineral Density and Estimated Strength at the Hip for Romosozumab Compared With Teriparatide in Women With Postmenopausal Osteoporosis Transitioning From Bisphosphonate Therapy: Results of the Phase 3 Open-label STRUCTURE Study

Langdahl, B. et al.

Date/Time: Thursday 9 June, 10:20

Session Info: Clinical Osteoporosis: new insights; Capital Suite 02 (oral presentation)

About Romosozumab

Romosozumab is an investigational bone-forming monoclonal antibody and is not approved by any regulatory authority for the treatment of osteoporosis. It is designed to work by inhibiting the protein sclerostin, and has a dual effect on bone, both increasing bone formation and decreasing bone resorption. Romosozumab is being studied for its potential to reduce the risk of fractures in an extensive global Phase 3 program. This program includes two large fracture trials comparing romosozumab to either placebo or active comparator in more than 10,000 postmenopausal women with osteoporosis. Amgen and UCB are co-developing romosozumab.

About Bimekizumab

Bimekizumab is an investigational monoclonal antibody specifically designed to potently and selectively inhibit the biological function of both IL-17A and IL-17F, two key pro-inflammatory cytokines. IL-17A and IL-17F are involved in chronic inflammatory processes that drive many severe skin and joint diseases. It is planned that dose-ranging studies for bimekizumab will start this year. Bimekizumab is not approved by any regulatory authority worldwide.

About Dapirolizumab Pegol

Dapirolizumab pegol (CDP7657) is an anti-CD40L pegylated Fab' being developed in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) jointly with Biogen, and has completed a clinical Phase 1b study at the end of 2014. The compound is scheduled to progress to Phase 2 in 2016 and is not approved by any regulatory authority worldwide.

About Cimzia in the EU/EEA

In the EU, Cimzia in combination with methotrexate (MTX) is indicated for the treatment of moderate to severe active RA in adult patients inadequately responsive to disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) including MTX.

Cimzia can be given as monotherapy in case of intolerance to MTX or when continued treatment with MTX is inappropriate. Cimzia in combination with MTX is also indicated for the treatment of severe, active and progressive RA in adults not previously treated with MTX or other DMARDs.

Cimzia has been shown to reduce the rate of progression of joint damage as measured by X-ray and to improve physical function, when given in combination with MTX.

Cimzia, in combination with MTX, is also indicated for the treatment of active psoriatic arthritis in adults when the response to previous DMARD therapy has been inadequate. Cimzia can be given as monotherapy in case of intolerance to methotrexate or when continued treatment with methotrexate is inappropriate.

Cimzia is also indicated in the EU for the treatment of adult patients with severe active axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA), comprising:

Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) - adults with severe active AS who have had an inadequate response to, or are intolerant to non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).

Axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) without radiographic evidence of AS - adults with severe active axSpA without radiographic evidence of AS but with objective signs of inflammation by elevated C-reactive protein (CRP) and/or Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) who have had an inadequate response to, or are intolerant to NSAIDs.

Important Safety Information about Cimzia in the EU/EEA[1]

Cimzia was studied in 4,049 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in controlled and open label trials for up to 92 months. The commonly reported adverse reactions (1-10%) in clinical trials with Cimzia and post-marketing were viral infections (includes herpes, papillomavirus, influenza), bacterial infections (including abscess), rash, headache (including migraine), asthaenia, leukopaenia (including lymphopaenia, neutropaenia), eosinophilic disorder, pain (any sites), pyrexia, sensory abnormalities, hypertension, pruritus (any sites), hepatitis (including hepatic enzyme increase), injection site reactions, and nausea. Serious adverse reactions include sepsis, opportunistic infections, tuberculosis, herpes zoster, lymphoma, leukaemia, solid organ tumours, angioneurotic oedema, cardiomyopathies (includes heart failure), ischemic coronary artery disorders, pancytopaenia, hypercoagulation (including thrombophlebitis, pulmonary embolism), cerebrovascular accident, vasculitis, hepatitis/hepatopathy (includes cirrhosis), and renal impairment/nephropathy (includes nephritis). In RA controlled clinical trials, 4.4% of patients discontinued taking Cimzia due to adverse events vs. 2.7% for placebo.

Cimzia is contraindicated in patients with hypersensitivity to the active substance or any of the excipients, active tuberculosis or other severe infections such as sepsis or opportunistic infections or moderate-to-severe heart failure.

Serious infections including sepsis, tuberculosis and opportunistic infections have been reported in patients receiving Cimzia. Some of these events have been fatal. Monitor patients closely for signs and symptoms of infections including tuberculosis before, during and after treatment with Cimzia. Treatment with Cimzia must not be initiated in patients with a clinically important active infection. If an infection develops, monitor carefully and stop Cimzia if infection becomes serious. Before initiation of therapy with Cimzia, all patients must be evaluated for both active and inactive (latent) tuberculosis infection. If active tuberculosis is diagnosed prior to or during treatment, Cimzia therapy must not be initiated and must be discontinued. If latent tuberculosis is diagnosed, appropriate anti-tuberculosis therapy must be started before initiating treatment with Cimzia. Patients should be instructed to seek medical advice if signs/symptoms (e.g. persistent cough, wasting/weight loss, low grade fever, listlessness) suggestive of tuberculosis occur during or after therapy with Cimzia.

Reactivation of hepatitis B has occurred in patients receiving a TNF-antagonist including Cimzia who are chronic carriers of the virus (i.e. surface antigen positive). Some cases have had a fatal outcome. Patients should be tested for HBV infection before initiating treatment with Cimzia. Carriers of HBV who require treatment with Cimzia should be closely monitored and in the case of HBV reactivation Cimzia should be stopped and effective anti-viral therapy with appropriate supportive treatment should be initiated.

TNF antagonists including Cimzia may increase the risk of new onset or exacerbation of clinical symptoms and/or radiographic evidence of demyelinating disease; of formation of autoantibodies and uncommonly of the development of a lupus-like syndrome; of severe hypersensitivity reactions. If a patient develops any of these adverse reactions, Cimzia should be discontinued and appropriate therapy instituted.

With the current knowledge, a possible risk for the development of lymphomas, leukaemia or other malignancies in patients treated with a TNF antagonist cannot be excluded. Rare cases of neurological disorders, including seizure disorder, neuritis and peripheral neuropathy, have been reported in patients treated with Cimzia.

Adverse reactions of the hematologic system, including medically significant cytopaenia, have been infrequently reported with Cimzia. Advise all patients to seek immediate medical attention if they develop signs and symptoms suggestive of blood dyscrasias or infection (e.g., persistent fever, bruising, bleeding, pallor) while on Cimzia. Consider discontinuation of Cimzia therapy in patients with confirmed significant haematological abnormalities.

The use of Cimzia in combination with anakinra or abatacept is not recommended due to a potential increased risk of serious infections. As no data are available, Cimzia should not be administered concurrently with live vaccines. The 14-day half-life of Cimzia should be taken into consideration if a surgical procedure is planned. A patient who requires surgery while on Cimzia should be closely monitored for infections.

Cimzia was studied in 325 patients with active axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) in a placebo-controlled clinical trial for up to 30 months and in 409 patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) in a placebo-controlled clinical trial for up to 30 months. The safety profile for axSpA and PsA patients treated with Cimzia was consistent with the safety profile in RA and previous experience with Cimzia.

Please consult the full prescribing information in relation to other side effects, full safety and prescribing information. European SmPC date of revision 17th December 2015.

http://www.ema.europa.eu/docs/en_GB/document_library/EPAR_-_Product_Information/human/001037/WC500069763.pdf

References

Cimzia EU Summary of Product Characteristics. Accessed 1st May 2016 from http://www.ema.europa.eu/docs/en_GB/document_library/EPAR_-_Product_Information/human/001037/WC500069763.pdf

About UCB

UCB, Brussels, Belgium (http://www.ucb.com) is a global biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of innovative medicines and solutions to transform the lives of people living with severe diseases of the immune system or of the central nervous system. With more than 7 700 people in approximately 40 countries, the company generated revenue of  3.9 billion in 2015. UCB is listed on Euronext Brussels (symbol: UCB). Follow us on Twitter: @UCB_news

Forward looking statements - UCB

This press release contains forward-looking statements based on current plans, estimates and beliefs of management. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including estimates of revenues, operating margins, capital expenditures, cash, other financial information, expected legal, political, regulatory or clinical results and other such estimates and results. By their nature, such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions which could cause actual results to differ materially from those that may be implied by such forward-looking statements contained in this press release. Important factors that could result in such differences include: changes in general economic, business and competitive conditions, the inability to obtain necessary regulatory approvals or to obtain them on acceptable terms, costs associated with research and development, changes in the prospects for products in the pipeline or under development by UCB, effects of future judicial decisions or governmental investigations, product liability claims, challenges to patent protection for products or product candidates, changes in laws or regulations, exchange rate fluctuations, changes or uncertainties in tax laws or the administration of such laws and hiring and retention of its employees. UCB is providing this information as of the date of this press release and expressly disclaims any duty to update any information contained in this press release, either to confirm the actual results or to report a change in its expectations.

There is no guarantee that new product candidates in the pipeline will progress to product approval or that new indications for existing products will be developed and approved. Products or potential products which are the subject of partnerships, joint ventures or licensing collaborations may be subject to differences between the partners. Also, UCB or others could discover safety, side effects or manufacturing problems with its products after they are marketed. Moreover, sales may be impacted by international and domestic trends toward managed care and health care cost containment and the reimbursement policies imposed by third-party payers as well as legislation affecting biopharmaceutical pricing and reimbursement.

For further information, UCB:

Corporate Communications

France Nivelle

Global Communications, UCB

T +32-2-559-9178

france.nivelle@ucb.com

Laurent Schots

Media Relations, UCB

T+32-2-559-92-64

Laurent.schots@ucb.com

Investor Relations

Antje Witte

Investor Relations, UCB

T +32-2-559-94-14

antje.witte@ucb.com

Brand Communications

Andrea Levin Christopher

Immunology Communications, UCB

T +1-404-483-7329

andrea.levin@ucb.com



HQ/0516/MPR/00013

SOURCE UCB
BAAR, Switzerland, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Weatherford International plc (NYSE: WFT) (the "Company" or "Weatherford") announced today the launch of an underwritten public offering (the "Offering") of $1.0 billion aggregate principal amount of senior notes, consisting of a series of senior notes due 2021 (the "2021 Notes") and a series of senior notes due 2023 (the "2023 Notes" and, together with the 2021 Notes, the "Notes"). The Notes will be senior, unsecured obligations of Weatherford International Ltd., a Bermuda exempted company and indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of the Company ("Weatherford Bermuda"). The Notes will be fully and unconditionally guaranteed, on a senior, unsecured basis, by the Company and by Weatherford International, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company and indirect subsidiary of Weatherford Bermuda.

The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the Offering to increase the maximum aggregate purchase price for its recently announced tender offers from $1.1 billion to $2.1 billion. The tender offers were made to purchase for cash certain of its 6.35% senior notes due 2017, 6.00% senior notes due 2018, 9.625% senior notes due 2019 and 5.125% senior notes due 2020 (the "Tender Offers"). In the event the Tender Offers, which are subject to market conditions and other factors, are not consummated, or the aggregate amount of securities tendered in the Tender Offers and accepted for payment is less than the net proceeds of the Offering, we may use such proceeds to repay or retire other outstanding indebtedness, which may include amounts under Weatherford Bermuda's revolving credit facility.

Deutsche Bank Securities and Wells Fargo Securities will act as joint global coordinators and bookrunners for the Offering. Citigroup, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley and MUFG will act as joint book-running managers for the Offering. Barclays, BBVA, RBC Capital Markets, SEB, Standard Chartered Bank, TD Securities and UniCredit Capital Markets will act as co-managers for the Offering.

The Offering is being made pursuant to an effective registration statement previously filed with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (the "SEC"). A preliminary prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus describing the terms of the Offering have been filed with the SEC, and may be obtained free of charge at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov or from the joint global coordinators and bookrunners of the Offering as follows:

Deutsche Bank Securities 60 Wall Street New York, NY 10005-2836 Attention: Prospectus Group Telephone: (800) 503-4611 Email: prospectus.cpdg@db.com

Wells Fargo Securities Attention: WFS Customer Service 608 2nd Ave S, Suite 1000 Minneapolis, MN 55402 Telephone: (800) 645-3751 Opt 5 Email: wfscustomerservice@wellsfargo.com

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy the securities described above, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of such state or jurisdiction.

ABOUT WEATHERFORD INTERNATIONAL PLC

Weatherford is one of the largest multinational oilfield service companies providing innovative solutions, technology and services to the oil and gas industry. The Company operates in over 100 countries and has a network of approximately 1,100 locations, including manufacturing, service, research and development, and training facilities and employs approximately 33,100 people.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This press release includes forward-looking statements as defined under federal law, including those related to the Company's potential securities offering, use of proceeds and tender offers. These forward-looking statements are generally identified by the words "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "intend," "plan," "may," "should," "could," "will," "would," and "will be," and similar expressions, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Such statements are subject to significant risks, assumptions and uncertainties. Known material factors that could cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from the results contemplated by such forward-looking statements are described in the prospectus as supplemented, which is a part of the registration statement, and the risk factors described in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2015 and those risk factors set forth from time-to-time in other filings with the SEC. Weatherford undertakes no obligation to correct or update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except to the extent required under federal securities laws.

Investor Contact:





Krishna Shivram +1.713.836.4610 Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer



Karen David-Green +1.713.836.7430 Vice President Investor Relations, Corporate Marketing & Communications

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/19990308/WEATHERFORDLOGO

Related Links

http://www.weatherford.com



SOURCE Weatherford International plc
Daring to Lead is among only a handful of campaigns for independent secondary schools that have raised $300 million or more. Other campaigns to reach or exceed the $300 million mark include those by Culver Academy ($376 million in 2010), Phillips Exeter Academy ($352 million in 2010), and Phillips Academy Andover ($314 million in 2012). Similar campaigns include Deerfield Academy ($252.9 million in 2015), Choate Rosemary Hall ($215 million in 2011), and Lawrenceville School ($218.5 million in 2010).

Donors contributed more than $79 million to financial aid, the highest priority in the campaign. When all pledges are fulfilled, the financial aid budget will have grown by almost 100 percent from pre-campaign levels. (A full list of campaign outcomes is below.)

Deborah Simon '74 and John Prentiss '65, the Daring to Lead co-chairs, announced the attainment of the $300 million mark, which was achieved two months ahead of schedule. "Without a doubt, this is one of the greatest days in Mercersburg's 123-year history," commented Simon. "Surpassing our goal of $300 million is a magnificent achievement that will allow more students to be able to benefit from the rich resources of our extraordinary faculty, campus, and curriculum. The transformational effects of Daring to Lead are already evident at Mercersburg, and they will continue to affect every studentcurrent and future."

Simon is a vice president of the Board of Regents. In October 2013, she and her foundation made a gift of $100 million to the campaignthe single largest gift in Mercersburg's history and one of the largest ever to an American independent secondary school. Her generosity inspired many peers33 Daring to Lead donors gave gifts of $1 million or more, and 144 gave $100,000 or more. All in all, 6,986 contributors, which includes nearly half of all living Mercersburg graduates, supported the transformational initiative.

The short time33 monthsin which Mercersburg raised such a significant sum is another sign of donors' belief in the school. Many donors have publicly credited Head of School Douglas Hale for the vision and energy that inspired their gifts. Mr. Hale will retire on June 30 after 19 years at Mercersburg's helm.

As Daring to Lead Co-Vice Chair and Mercersburg Regent Stacie Rice Lissette '85 remarked, "This is Doug's campaign. While so many have worked tirelessly to make this day a reality, no one has worked harder and done more than Doug Hale. Neither the premise for this campaign nor the campaign itself would have emerged and flourished without Doug's remarkable vision, strategic planning, and astute management."

"Nothing pleases me more than to see this monumental campaign surpass its goal before the end of my tenure as head of school," said Hale. "That we have raised $300 million together is gratifying beyond words, and I truly want all of us who have contributed to this campaignin any wayto celebrate this achievement with great pride, but also immense gratitude that we at Mercersburg continue our grand tradition as a dynamic, hard-working, egalitarian community that can achieve truly amazing thingstogether."

The major outcomes of the Daring to Lead Campaign focus on these five areas:

Scholarships and Financial Aid

53 percent increase in financial aid budget since FY 08.

36 new endowed financial aid funds.

Faculty Support

11 new endowed faculty support funds.

4 new endowed faculty chair positions.

Academic and Residential Programs

37 new endowed program support funds.

Facilities

Prentiss-Zimmerman Quadrangle (renovated 2009).

Regents' Field (opened 2009).

Nolde Gymnasium (renovated 2010).

Lambert J. Gross '33 Athletic Park (dedicated 2010).

'33 Athletic Park (dedicated 2010). Simon Student Center (opened 2013).

1893 House (opened 2013).

Menard Family Faculty Homes (opened 2015).

Prentiss Alumni and Parent Center at North Cottage (completion anticipated summer 2016).

Hale Field House (completion anticipated late 2016).

(completion anticipated late 2016). New aquatic center (currently in design).

Annual Giving

Grew from $2.4 million in FY 12 to $3.0 million in FY 15 (25 percent growth).

in FY 12 to in FY 15 (25 percent growth). Alumni participation increased 41 percent.



Infographics available: What Does $300 Million Look Like? (Impact of campaign)

Where Does $300 Million Come From? (Donor statistics)



About Mercersburg Academy

Founded in 1893 in the heart of south central Pennsylvania, Mercersburg Academy is an independent, coed college-preparatory school offering a rigorous academic program to 430 boarding and day students who represent 30 American states and 40 nations. The school prepares young men and women in grades 912 and post-graduate from diverse backgrounds for college and life in a global community. Mercersburg alumni include Rhodes scholars, Olympians, Oscar winners, and a Nobel laureate. For more information, please visit www.mercersburg.edu.

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SOURCE Mercersburg Academy

Related Links

http://www.mercersburg.edu


SANTA CLARA, Calif., June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- 6WIND, a high-performance networking software company, today announced 6WIND Turbo IPsec, a scalable software appliance for security and VPN solutions, won Virtual Network Function (VNF) of the Year at Network Virtualization & SDN World in Madrid, Spain last week. 6WIND Turbo IPsec is the industry's first and only high performance, hardware-agnostic IPsec software that is ready-to-use for secure connectivity solutions. It combines security, routing and firewall features to be deployed in bare metal and virtual machine configurations on Commercial-off-the-Shelf (COTS) servers.

IPsec is a necessary security technology for Telco, Cloud and Enterprise Network Operators as it is used to create secure tunnels between trusted endpoints for services. Tier-1 US and European Telco Operators deployed 6WIND Turbo IPsec to secure LTE networks and high speed communication between data centers, in addition to wireline security and IPsec aggregation. Performance scales linearly with the number of cores applied to the software starting at 5 Gbps per core on x86 servers, with recent benchmarks demonstrating 150 Gbps in bare metal and virtual machine deployments.

6WIND's Turbo IPsec software displaced incumbent purpose-built IPsec Gateway solutions as it is less than 1/2 the price versus specialized hardware, scales linearly per core on demand and can virtualize VPN solutions in Network Function Virtualization (NFV) configurations. With a virtual machine configuration, customers gain increased flexibility versus hardware appliances and reduce CAPEX by combining 6WIND Turbo IPsec with additional services, such as load balancers, next-gen firewalls, and more on the same COTS server, increasing productivity and generating new revenue streams.

"Our Turbo IPsec software on COTS servers is gaining traction as an alternative to expensive hardware and we are proud for this recognition as VNF of the Year," said Eric Carmes, CEO and Founder of 6WIND. "6WIND Turbo IPsec right sizes performance at an attractive price versus specialized hardware, making network security affordable and scalable for all size networks."

For more information on the 2016 Network Virtualization and SDN World awards visit: https://nvsdneurope.com/awards/

About 6WIND

6WIND's commercial software solves performance challenges for network vendors in telecom, enterprise and cloud infrastructure markets. The company's 6WINDGate packet processing software is optimized for cost-effective hardware running Linux with a choice of multicore processors to deliver a wide variety of networking and security protocols and features. Based on 6WINDGate, 6WIND Virtual Accelerator provides accelerated virtual networking infrastructure and 6WIND Turbo Router and 6WIND Turbo IPsec are software appliances for bare metal or virtual machine environments. By solving critical data plane performance challenges on multicore architectures, 6WIND delivers a cost-effective value proposition, enabling the transition to the future with Network Function Virtualization (NFV) and Software-Defined Networking (SDN). 6WIND is based near Paris, France with regional offices in China, Japan, South Korea and the United States. For more information, visit http://www.6wind.com.

Company Contact:

Kelly LeBlanc

VP of Marketing for 6WIND

Phone: +1 (408) 508-6732

[email protected]

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SOURCE 6WIND

Related Links

http://6wind.com


DALLAS, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Foundation of the American Board of Trial Advocates received a grant of $10,000 from the Texas Bar Foundation to support the National Teachers Law School, a professional development program for social studies educators from across the country.

Forty-five leaders in civics and law-related education will attend the National Teachers Law School (NTLS), presented in partnership between the ABOTA Foundation and the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. The Texas Bar Foundation's generous support will facilitate the attendance of four Texas educators to this program, which will take place Sept. 30  Oct. 1.

Gretchen Gaskins  Houston

K-12 District Social Studies Coordinator, Alief ISD

 K-12 District Social Studies Coordinator, Alief ISD Mellessa Denny  Amarillo

Director of Forensics and Communications Teacher, Amarillo ISD

 Director of Forensics and Communications Teacher, Amarillo ISD Jose J. Saenz  Edinburg

Social Studies Specialist, Region One Education Service Center

 Edinburg Social Studies Specialist, Region One Education Service Center Debbie Keen  Frisco

Legal Studies Teacher, Frisco ISD

In 2009, Austin became the founding location of the Teachers Law School, which provides teachers with a crash course in the legal system. The law school is designed for middle school and high school government, social studies, history, law and civics educators. It exposes teachers to presentations on topics aimed at giving teachers the tools to help their students better understand and appreciate the value of the American civil and criminal legal systems and the role those systems play in students' lives and society.

"An appreciation of civics and our constitutional form of government is fundamental to meaningful citizenship and self-governance  concepts that we cherish and must protect," said Carlyle H. Chapman, Jr., 2016 ABOTA Foundation President. "The NTLS will offer another basis upon which our teachers may rely in presenting civics to the youth of our nation."

The NTLS will take this program further by fostering a meeting of the current and future voices in social studies curriculum and instruction and members of the legal community. During this two-day event, educators will hear from esteemed members of the judiciary, historians and other legal experts. At the conclusion of the program, the ABOTA Foundation will coordinate with participants to expand the reach of the Teachers Law School at the local level.

Since its inception in 1965, the Texas Bar Foundation has awarded more than $16 million in grants to law-related programs. Supported by members of the State Bar of Texas, the Texas Bar Foundation is the nation's largest charitably funded bar foundation.

The American Board of Trial Advocates, founded in 1958, is an organization dedicated to defending the American civil justice system. With a membership of more than 7,500 experienced attorneys representing both the plaintiff and defense bars in civil cases, ABOTA is uniquely qualified to speak for the value of the constitutionally-mandated jury system as the protector of the rights of persons and property. ABOTA is headquartered in Dallas and has more than 1,400 Texas members from 16 chapters.

The ABOTA Foundation was established in 1992 to provide education to the American public about the right to trial by jury and to promote the professional education of trial attorneys.

For more information contact:

Brian Tyson at (800) 932-2682

[email protected]

SOURCE American Board of Trial Advocates

Related Links

http://www.abota.org


ROSELAND, N.J., June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Acquire Media, a leader in digital news delivery and subscription news services, is pleased to announce a three-year extension of its long-standing agreement with The Associated Press. AP, the world's oldest news-gathering organization, is the preeminent leader in national and international news, breaking key stories in a continuous cycle. The extension ensures that Acquire Media's clients will continue to receive the comprehensive coverage they've come to expect from AP and its team of highly respected journalists throughout the world.

"All Acquire Media services, including our flagship NewsEdge platform, are designed to provide business professionals with the actionable information they need to succeed," notes Brad Scher, CEO of Acquire Media. "Continuing to include AP as part of our content underscores our commitment to excellence by providing our clients with the highest quality, most relevant news and business intelligence. This is what they need to do their jobs."

Not only will clients continue to receive world-class news from AP, but they will in addition have access to AP's online video feed. This will be available via NewsEdge.com and its mobile companion offering as well as subscription services. Acquire Media is well known for its commitment to providing advanced technology that delivers both text and multimedia news with guaranteed reliability, authentication, and low-latency.

"The AP reports news as it breaks around the world; information that informs critical business and investing decisions every day," said Bruce Glover, AP's director of business development, finance and data. "Acquire Media is a proven channel for connecting decision makers with the news that is critical to their operations. Now, the addition of video will enable Acquire Media to unlock further market intelligence from AP and provide their customers with added value."

About Acquire Media

Acquire Media is an advanced technology company devoted to delivering breaking news and multimedia in formats that make the content usable and searchable for business professionals in need of reliable information. Acquire Media has clients in the digital publishing and financial services communities who depend on speedy delivery, cutting-edge technology, reliable 24x7 support, and an ability to handle multiple formats. A variety of delivery options are available for content from thousands of news sources. More than half-a-million news articles daily are aggregated and optimized in near-real time to provide valuable insights and intelligence to business leaders throughout the world. On the Web: http://acquiremedia.com/.

Acquire Media - Corporate Headquarters

3 Becker Farm Road

Suite 401

Roseland, NJ 07068

(973) 422-0800 - main number

(973) 422-0028 - fax number

Jennifer Tule

Acquire Media

(973) 422-0800

[email protected]

SOURCE Acquire Media

Related Links

http://acquiremedia.com


NEW YORK, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Rising urbanization, increasing consumer spending on lifestyle products and deteriorating air quality to drive sales of air purifiers in China

New Age TechSci Research Logo (PRNewsFoto/New Age TechSci Research)

According to TechSci Research report, "China Air Purifiers Market By Filter Type, By End User Sector, Competition Forecast and Opportunities, 2011-2021", air purifiers market in China is projected to grow at a CAGR of around 18% during 2016 - 2021, due to growing consumer awareness about air purifiers, increasing industrialization, rising consumption of coal for power generation and growing vehicular emissions. In 2015, PM 2.5 and PM 10 levels in Beijing were even recorded at 93 and 25, respectively, which was much more than the global standard. Moreover, in 2015, total vehicle sales in China stood at over 24 million vehicles and these figures are forecast to grow further in the coming years. Increasing vehicular emissions and particulate matter, coupled with growing awareness about harmful effects of air pollution is projected to boost demand for air purifiers in China over the next five years.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140117/663730 )



Browse 41 market data Tables and 27 Figures spread through 131 Pages and an in-depth TOC on

"China Air Purifiers Market"

http://www.techsciresearch.com/report/china-air-purifiers-market-by-filter-type-hepa-and-activated-carbon-hepa-activated-carbon-and-ion-ozone-generator-etc-by-end-user-sector-competition-forecast-and-opportunities-2011-2021/686.html

Due to abundant availability of cheap labor and raw materials, prices of Chinese branded air purifiers are lower when compared with air purifiers manufactured outside of China. Though China has abundant local manufacturing of air purifier but the country is still importing air purifiers, on account of growing demand for high quality branded air purifiers from residential as well as industrial consumers. Philips, Panasonic, BlueAir, Daikin, Beijing Yadu, etc., are few of the leading players operating in China air purifiers market. In 2015, HEPA and activated carbon based air purifiers dominated the country's air purifiers market, on account of their high efficiency in removing particulate matter and odor, coupled with surging demand for these purifiers due to increasing government expenditure on public infrastructure such as construction of hospitals, railway stations, airports, public amenities, government guest houses, metros, etc.

Download Sample Report @ http://www.techsciresearch.com/sample-report.aspx?cid=686

Customers can also request for 10% free customization on this report.

"Most of the air purifiers sold in China are based on multi filtration technologies such as HEPA & Activated Carbon; and HEPA, Activated Carbon and Ion & Ozone Generator. An increasing number of air purifier manufacturers are focusing on integrating combination filter technologies in their air purifier products. Demand for air purifiers with other advanced combination technologies such as Plasma Cluster and HEPA, Nanoe-G with HEPA, and Electrostatic with HEPA filter is also growing significantly in China, and this trend is expected to gain market traction in the coming years.", said Mr. Karan Chechi, Research Director with TechSci Research, a research based global management consulting firm.

"China Air Purifiers Market By Filter Type, By End User Sector, Competition Forecast and Opportunities, 2011-2021" has evaluated the future growth potential of air purifiers market in China and provides statistics and information on market structure, size, share and future growth in China air purifiers market. The report is intended to provide cutting-edge market intelligence and help decision makers take sound investment evaluation. Besides, the report also identifies and analyzes emerging trends along with essential drivers, challenges and opportunities in China air purifiers market.

Browse Related Reports

Global HEPA Filters Market By Application (Air Purifiers, HVAC Systems, Cleanroom Filters, Automotive Filters, etc.), By Region (Asia-Pacific, North & South America, Europe, Middle East & Africa), Competition Forecast and Opportunities, 2011-2021

http://www.techsciresearch.com/report/global-hepa-filters-market-by-application-air-purifiers-hvac-systems-cleanroom-filters-automotive-filters-etc-by-region-asia-pacific-north-south-america-europe-middle-east-africa-competition-forecast-and-opportunities-2011-2021/640.html

India Air Purifiers Market By Filter Type (HEPA and Activated Carbon; HEPA, Activated Carbon and Ion Ozone Generator; etc.), By End User Sector (Residential, Commercial & Industrial), Competition Forecast and Opportunities, 2011-2021

http://www.techsciresearch.com/report/india-air-purifiers-market-by-filter-type-hepa-and-activated-carbon-hepa-activated-carbon-and-ion-ozone-generator-etc-by-end-user-sector-residential-commercial-industrial-competition-forecast-and-opportunities-2011-2021/689.html

Global Air Purifiers Market Forecast and Opportunities, 2020

http://www.techsciresearch.com/report/global-air-purifiers-market-forecast-and-opportunities-2020/422.html

United States Air Purifier Market Forecast and Opportunities, 2020

http://www.techsciresearch.com/report/united-states-air-purifier-market-forecast-and-opportunities-2020/412.html

About TechSci Research

TechSci Research is a leading global market research firm publishing premium market research reports. Serving 700 global clients with more than 600 premium market research studies, TechSci Research is serving clients across 11 different industrial verticals. TechSci Research specializes in research based consulting assignments in high growth and emerging markets, leading technologies and niche applications. Our workforce of more than 100 fulltime Analysts and Consultants employing innovative research solutions and tracking global and country specific high growth markets helps TechSci clients to lead rather than follow market trends.

Contact

Mr. Ken Mathews

708 Third Avenue,

Manhattan, NY,

New York - 10017

Tel: +1-646-360-1656

Email: [email protected]



Connect with us on Twitter - https://twitter.com/TechSciResearch

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SOURCE TechSci Research
SAN FRANCISCO, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Aktana, the pioneer in decision support for global life science companies, today announced a $17.5 million financing led by Safeguard Scientifics, Inc. (NYSE: SFE), which will initially deploy up to $8.25 million. Existing investor Starfish Ventures and others are also participating in the financing. Closing is expected on or before June 16, 2016. Aktana will use proceeds from the financing primarily for continued product development and international expansion. The company plans to open offices in China and Europe, adding to its current offices in San Francisco, New York City, and Tokyo.

Founded in 2011, Aktana focuses exclusively on the life sciences market, which has contributed to multi-year growth rates of more than 100%, and relationships with seven of the world's top 15 pharmaceutical companies. Aktana helps these customers improve their commercial effectiveness by delivering data-driven insights and suggestions directly to sales reps, coordinating multi-channel actions, and providing insight regarding which strategies work best for which customers under which conditions.

"Safeguard is keenly focused on deploying capital and building value in companies that make data actionable," said Al Wiegman, Managing Director at Safeguard, who will join Aktana's Board of Directors. "Aktana is at the center of this data exchange for life sciences companies. We believe that Aktana will be the de facto standard for the life science industry as it strives to turn data into knowledge, streamlining and improving efforts around product commercialization. Aktana has already proven to be an invaluable partner to many of the world's top pharmaceutical and medical device companies, with more in the pipeline."

Once a game plan has been developed around a customer's existing strategy, Aktana's Decision Support Engine examines market data and cross-channel activity, identifies best actions and supporting insights, and learns what works best. Empowered with suggestions and insights right in their CRM workflow, reps can focus on building stronger physician relationships and generating improved results. Marketing teams are similarly supported with actionable intelligence to improve commercial strategies continuously and over time.

"Our strict emphasis on supporting the sales and marketing teams of life sciences companies has been a key driver to our early success," said David Ehrlich, CEO, Aktana. "But we also see the potential of what we can do to personalize and customize the experience for everyone in the information loop, especially physicians. The one-size-fits-all approach to supporting physicians is over."

"The Aktana team was ahead of their time five years ago as they sought to understand the benefit of analytics for non-technical personnel," said Tony Glenning, Director, Starfish Ventures. "By learning as much about their target audience as the technology, they've developed an empathy for the user and their market that ultimately drives success as much as the solution does."

About Aktana

Aktana is the pioneer in decision support for global life science sales teams. The company's data-fueled suggestions and insights are delivered within a sales professional's existing CRM workflow, serving as a critical ally in data leverage and better decision-making. Aktana serves the entire organization by helping to coordinate multichannel marketing initiatives and facilitating learning via reporting on which program elements are most successful for which customers. Aktana is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in New York, Tokyo and San Diego. For more information, visit www.aktana.com.

About Safeguard Scientifics

Safeguard Scientifics, Inc. (NYSE:SFE) has a distinguished track record of fostering innovation and building market leaders. For more than 60 years, Safeguard has been providing growth capital and operational support to entrepreneurs across an evolving spectrum of industries. Today, Safeguard targets early- and growth-stage companies in advertising technology, digital media, financial technology, enterprise software, digital health and healthcare IT. For more information, please visit www.safeguard.com or follow us on Twitter @safeguard.

About Starfish Ventures

Established in 2001, Starfish Ventures is an Australian venture capital fund manager partnering with high growth technology and life sciences companies with global potential. Starfish has over $400M in funds under management and has made investments in over 60 companies. For more information, visit www.starfishvc.com.

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SOURCE Aktana

Related Links

http://www.aktana.com


NEW YORK, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (NYSE: ARE), a real estate investment trust uniquely focused on world-class collaborative science and technology campuses in urban innovation clusters, today unveiled plans for Alexandria LaunchLabs at the Alexandria Center for Life Science  New York City and the Alexandria Seed Fund to address the critical needs of New York City's life science ecosystem. Alexandria LaunchLabs and the Alexandria Seed Fund will provide affordable, full-service commercial laboratory/office space and capital resources specifically designed to dramatically accelerate translational research out of New York City's world-class academic laboratories.

Alexandria LaunchLabs  A Unique Startup Platform

Alexandria LaunchLabs will be a first-of-its-kind, affordable, plug-and-play, fully integrated and scalable real estate platform providing more than 15,000 square feet of flexible, full-service life science laboratory/office space, shared equipment and services, specialized amenities, seed funding, mentorship programs and administrative support. This unique platform will provide the next generation of life science startups in New York City with the necessary resources and collaborative environment to start transforming novel ideas into innovative, early-stage companies that develop products to improve human health.

To maintain a unique and collaborative environment, there will be a selective vetting process of prospective tenants for Alexandria LaunchLabs. Alexandria will evaluate the quality of each company's management team, intellectual property, business strategy and financial plan. Alexandria is currently accepting tenant applications from leading-edge life science startups at www.launchlabsnyc.com/apply.

"New York City is rapidly emerging as a dynamic ecosystem for life science," said Joel S. Marcus, chairman, chief executive officer and founder of Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. and Alexandria Venture Investments. "We recognize the urgent need for affordable, scalable and turnkey startup laboratory/office space in New York City, and we innately understand the complex and diverse support services required to build a life science startup. Just as our collaborative Alexandria Center campus has driven innovation and value for early, growth-stage and mature biopharmaceutical companies  accelerating the development of treatments and cures for patients  Alexandria LaunchLabs represents another initiative to foster and support life science innovation among seed-stage companies in New York City."

Alexandria Seed Fund

In conjunction with the opening of Alexandria LaunchLabs, the new Alexandria Seed Fund will provide seed-stage capital to support entrepreneurship and emerging companies across the New York City life science ecosystem at the critical transition point between scientific discovery and early translational development. Alexandria LaunchLabs' tenants will have priority access to the Alexandria Seed Fund, targeted at $10 million to $25 million and led by Alexandria Venture Investments  Alexandria's strategic venture capital arm  with capital contributions from other strategic and financial life science investors. Seed funding will be allocated to select companies based on the quality of each applicant's management team, intellectual property, business strategy and financial plan. Alexandria is currently accepting applications for seed funding at www.launchlabsnyc.com/apply.

"The most palpable source of momentum across New York City's life science cluster is from new entities spinning out of the city's leading academic medical institutions," said Jenna Foger, senior principal of science and technology of Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. and Alexandria Venture Investments. "As the quality of science and entrepreneurship is reaching new heights, it is our collective responsibility to solve the funding bottleneck that local seed-stage companies currently face in order to catalyze innovation and strengthen this important segment of the New York City community."

Access to a World-Class Urban Innovation Campus

Alexandria LaunchLabs will open in the summer of 2017 at the world-class Alexandria Center for Life Science, New York City's first and only life science campus. Located in the heart of Manhattan's East Side Medical Corridor with critical adjacency to New York City's renowned academic and medical institutions, the Alexandria Center will provide a unique ecosystem for Alexandria LaunchLabs' tenants to innovate and continue to grow. The campus will also offer Alexandria LaunchLabs' tenants a scalable path to transition into step-up space at the Alexandria Science Hotel or other customized Alexandria spaces that accommodate the growth and development of successful early-stage companies.

The vibrant campus is home to a high-quality and diverse range of life science entities, including multinational pharmaceutical companies, such as Eli Lilly and Company, Pfizer Inc. and Roche, and a number of growth- and early-stage companies, including Cellectis S.A., Intra-Cellular Therapies, Inc., Kallyope Inc., Kyras Therapeutics, Inc., Lycera Corp., and TARA Biosystems, Inc., as well as Lodo Therapeutics Corporation and Petra Pharma Corporation, both launched by Accelerator Corporation, which will also offer unique collaboration opportunities for Alexandria LaunchLabs' tenants.

Additionally, Alexandria LaunchLabs' tenants will have access to the numerous campus amenities at the Alexandria Center, including FitLab, a state-of-the-art fitness center; Riverpark, a Tom Colicchio Restaurant; Apella, the campus's world-class conference and event space; and Alexandria's exclusive thought leadership programming and community-wide events, among many other amenities designed to foster collaboration, inspire productivity and enhance the ability for Alexandria's tenants to recruit and retain top talent.

"Our thriving campus includes opportunities for early- and growth-stage companies in the Alexandria Science Hotel, as well as custom-designed, state-of-the-art laboratory/office suites for more established biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, which, together with the myriad of campus amenities, help drive collaboration and innovation in New York City," said John Cunningham, senior vice president, regional market director of New York City and strategic operations of Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. "With the opening of Alexandria LaunchLabs, New York City's seed-stage life science companies will now have a unique opportunity to join and collaborate with the best-in-class roster of tenants on our world-class urban campus."

About Alexandria LaunchLabs at the Alexandria Center for Life Science  New York City

Alexandria LaunchLabs is New York City's unique startup platform designed to satisfy a key unmet need for affordable space for seed-stage life science companies in New York City. Located at the Alexandria Center for Life Science  New York City, Alexandria LaunchLabs provides move-in-ready laboratory/office space, first-class support resources, shared equipment and services, creative amenities and startup capital  all of which are critical for dramatically accelerating the growth of seed-stage companies in New York City. For more information, please visit www.launchlabsnyc.com.

Key Highlights and Differentiators

As New York City's first affordable, flexible, plug-and-play space with specialized programming, cutting-edge amenities, access to seed capital and a prominent location at the Alexandria Center for Life Science  New York City, Alexandria LaunchLabs is the premier destination for New York City's next generation of life science companies.

Affordable For as low as $1,995 per month (which includes membership, an office workstation and a laboratory bench in a shared suite), entrepreneurs can gain access to Alexandria LaunchLabs' unparalleled offerings



Flexible A unit-based rent model affords Alexandria LaunchLabs' tenants maximum flexibility to rent a single office desk, a laboratory bench in a shared suite, a private office and/or a private laboratory suite to accommodate the varying needs of seed-stage life science companies



Plug-and-Play Custom designed space to meet the needs of seed-stage life science companies Full-service platform with on-site laboratory management and operations team Fully permitted space outfitted with office and laboratory furniture Extensive specialized laboratory equipment and services Comprehensive, move-in-ready IT/AV package



Programs and Amenities Strategic programs to foster entrepreneurship and networking with key stakeholders, including Breakfast speaker series Happy hour round robins Access to an elite network of expert legal, regulatory, business development, recruiting, accounting, communications and other professionals Mentorship and entrepreneur-in-residence programs Shared conference, huddle and break rooms Open lounge and event spaces Fully stocked pantry Coffee and drink bars



Alexandria Seed Fund Seed capital from a leading network of strategic and financial investors A key resource needed to transition from scientific concept to translational development Fund advisory board comprising leaders in the venture capital community to support investment selection and portfolio company mentorship



Best-in-Class Location at the Alexandria Center for Life Science Prominent location in the heart of the East Side Medical Corridor with unparalleled views of New York City and the East River waterfront Visibility among the life science community (key for talent recruitment and capital raising) Unique networking and collaboration opportunities Campus thought leadership programs and tenant events World-class campus amenities, including: Apella, a collaborative digital conference center and event space FitLab, a state-of-the-art, fully equipped fitness center with on-site wellness coaches Riverpark, a Tom Colicchio Restaurant, and The Cube, a casual cafe Riverpark Farm, New York City's largest urban farm 24/7 on-site security Alexandria shuttle service to and from Penn Station On-site parking LEED  Gold and Wired Certified Platinum facilities Scalable growth path on campus with step-up space in the Alexandria Science Hotel and other Alexandria spaces



About Alexandria Venture Investments

Alexandria Venture Investments is the strategic venture capital arm of Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (NYSE: ARE). Since 1996, Alexandria Venture Investments has provided strategic investment capital to the science and technology industries. Alexandria Venture Investments focuses on novel, breakthrough discoveries in biopharmaceuticals, diagnostics, research tools, agtech, digital health and technology. Based on its experience and in-depth understanding of the science and technology industries, its long-term relationships with leading investors and its world-class international scientific advisory network, Alexandria Venture Investments is uniquely positioned to fund seed-, early- and growth-stage companies.

About Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc.

Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (NYSE: ARE) is an urban office real estate investment trust uniquely focused on world-class collaborative science and technology campuses in AAA innovation cluster locations, with a total market capitalization of $11.1 billion and an asset base in North America of 24.5 million square feet as of March 31, 2016. The asset base in North America includes 18.9 million RSF of operating properties and development and redevelopment projects (under construction or pre-construction) and 5.6 million square feet of future ground-up development projects. Alexandria pioneered this niche in 1994 and has since established a dominant market presence in key locations, including Greater Boston, San Francisco, New York City, San Diego, Seattle, Maryland and Research Triangle Park. Alexandria has a longstanding and proven track record of developing Class A assets clustered in urban science and technology campuses that provide its innovative tenants with highly dynamic and collaborative environments that enhance their ability to successfully recruit and retain world-class talent and inspire productivity, efficiency, creativity and success. For more information, please visit www.are.com.

SOURCE Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.are.com


RAMALLAH, Palestine, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

In line with its corporate social responsibility strategy to invest in education, culture, entrepreneurship, youth development, children, as well as charitable institutions, the Arab Palestinian Investment Company (APIC) recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Al-Quds University within the dual studies program, which is supported by the German government and is administered in cooperation with the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ).

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160519/370006LOGO )



The MoU, which was signed at APIC's headquarters in Ramallah, Palestine by Vice President for Business Development Nader Hawari and Founding Dean of Dual Studies Dr. Tarek Abu Lail, stipulates that APIC will host sixteen students in the three fields the program offers: electrical engineering, information technology and business administration. Students will be assigned to work throughout their undergraduate studies at APIC's subsidiaries including Siniora Food Industries Company, Unipal General Trading Company, National Aluminum and Profiles Company (NAPCO), Arab Palestinian Shopping Centers (BRAVO), Palestine Automobile Company, Medical Supplies and Services Company (MSS) and Sky Advertising, Public Relations and Event Management Company.

The Dual Studies program, launched in 2015 by Al-Quds University with the support of the German government, is the first of its kind in Palestine and the Middle East, aiming to create jobs for Palestinian university graduates by providing them with the skill required by the private sector by emulating the successful German model in this regard. The program combines theory with practice to develop the professional level of the Palestinian youth and bridge the gap between the academic educational outcomes and the needs and requirements of the Palestinian labor market. The program offers students a unique opportunity to simultaneously study and acquire practical experience at specialized Palestinian companies throughout their undergraduate studies.

About APIC

APIC was founded in 1994 in the British Virgin Islands and was registered in Palestine in 1996. APIC is an investment holding public shareholding company listed on the Palestine Exchange (PEX: APIC). APIC owns a group of nine subsidiaries operating across manufacturing trade, distribution and services sectors with a presence in Palestine, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and UAE. APIC is also one of the main founders of the Palestine Electricity Holding Company, the Palestine Power Generating Company and has a strategic stake in Bank of Palestine.

For More Information, please contact:

Fida Musleh/Azar

Investor Relations and Corporate Communications Manager

Arab Palestinian Investment Company- APIC http://www.apic.ps

Phone: +970 (or 972) 2 297 7040

Email: [email protected]



SOURCE Arab Palestinian Investment Company (APIC)
SAO PAULO, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Atento S.A. (NYSE: ATTO), the leading provider of customer relationship management and business process outsourcing services (CRM BPO) in Latin America, and one of the three top providers worldwide, has been recognized for the third consecutive year as Agency of the Year in the Call Center/Contact Center Category by the Brazilian Association of Direct Marketing (ABEMD). The prize was granted at the awards ceremony of the 22nd edition of the ABEMD awards, held last night in Sao Paulo.

The company also won six ABEMD awards for the customer experience solutions developed in collaboration with clients from different sectors. A special recognition went to the project "100% Online - Digital Channels for Sales", developed in partnership with Santander, which achieved the Best of the Best award in the Call Center/Contact Center category. Atento solutions recognized included:

AWARD CASE CLIENT Bronze Customer Benefit: Improvement to the replacement car granting procedure creates savings of 8 million/year Ford Bronze Returns, "Via Varejo Complain Here" GPA Silver Providing a Quality Service over Multiple Channels Mapfre Gold #VemComigo  from consumer to follower; I like this relationship! Sony Gold 100% Online  Digital Channels for Sales Santander Best of the Best Call Center/Contact Center Category 100% Online  Digital Channels for Sales Santander

"It is a great honor to be recognized once again, along with our clients, by an organization of such prestige as ABEMD", says Atentos Brazil General Director Mario Camara. In his words, "These awards reflect the commitment of Atento to be each day a more agile and dynamic company, as well as enhance the quality of the services we offer to companies operating in an increasingly digital environment".

Alejandro Reynal, Atentos Chief Executive Officer, added, "Our company strengthens its leadership position in the CRM BPO sector in Brazil and Latin America thanks to the development of customer experience solutions that create a competitive edge and are widely recognized by the industry". Alejandro Reynal continued by saying that "This new recognition in Brazil is a reflection of the quality and effectiveness of the solutions we offer our clients through our advanced multichannel platform".

About Atento

Atento is the largest provider of customer relationship management and business process outsourcing (CRM BPO) services in Latin America, and among the top three providers globally, based on revenues. Atento is also a leading provider of nearshoring CRM/BPO services to companies that carry out their activities in the United States. Since 1999, the company has developed its business model in 14 countries where it employs more than 160,000 people. Atento has over 400 clients to whom it offers a wide range of CRM/BPO services through multiple channels. Atento's clients are mostly leading multinational corporations in sectors such as telecommunications, banking and financial services, health, retail and public administrations, among others. Atentos shares trade under the symbol ATTO on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). In 2015, Atento was named one of the Worlds 25 Best Multinational Workplaces by Great Place to Work for a third consecutive year. For more information visit www.atento.com

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SAN FRANCISCO, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

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The global autonomous cars market is expected to reach 138,089 units by 2024, according to a new study by Grand View Research, Inc. The growing acceptance of semi-autonomous technologies, such as Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC), automatic parking, and forward collision avoidance, is anticipated to pave the way for the adoption of driverless automobiles over the next seven years. An upsurge in the demand for increased comfort and convenience, particularly in countries with an aging population, is expected to propel the driverless vehicles demand over the forecast period.

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Features offered by the driverless cars primarily include a considerable decline in the frequency of road accidents caused due to human errors and easy commute. The self-driving technology exhibits a huge potential, owing to its capability to improve on-road safety, lower the energy consumption, and reduce congestion. Autonomous cars offer enhanced safety and efficiency over the conventional automobiles. Furthermore, driverless cars are anticipated to substantially impact the energy usage and reduce pollution. Autonomous vehicles can improve the fuel economy by accelerating & decelerating more effortlessly as compared to human drivers.

On the other hand, the high price of driverless vehicles may act as a hindrance for the market growth. The emotional implication of giving over personal safety and accountability to a machine may result in volatile public responses toward errors. The liability in case of accidents poses a key challenge for the government to address in advance to the adoption of autonomous cars. In addition to this, the penetration of driverless vehicles in taxis and other private point-to-point traveling industries is expected to increase the unemployment rate of drivers. Thus, the driverless vehicles are anticipated to witness mixed views. However, the increasing government support across the developed countries is expected to encourage the adoption of autonomous cars during the forecast period.

Browse full research report with TOC on "Autonomous Cars/Driverless Cars Market Analysis And Segment Forecasts To 2024" at: http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/driverless-cars-market

Further key findings from the study suggest:

North America is anticipated to dominate the market with over 40% of the volume share in 2017.The region is further anticipated to witness a considerable growth over the next seven years. This growth is primarily attributed to the growing acceptance of the self-driving cars on the public roads of the U.S. Alphabet Inc. is the first company to demonstrate the prototype in the U.S. and has been testing its automobiles in different weather conditions since 2009. Furthermore, the growing government support in amending the current policy to accommodate the driverless feature in automobiles is expected to clear gateway for its adoption.

is anticipated to dominate the market with over 40% of the volume share in 2017.The region is further anticipated to witness a considerable growth over the next seven years. This growth is primarily attributed to the growing acceptance of the self-driving cars on the public roads of the U.S. Alphabet Inc. is the first company to demonstrate the prototype in the U.S. and has been testing its automobiles in different weather conditions since 2009. Furthermore, the growing government support in amending the current policy to accommodate the driverless feature in automobiles is expected to clear gateway for its adoption. Asia Pacific is expected to witness a sluggish growth as compared to North America and Europe . However, it is anticipated to grow substantially in the later phase of the forecast period due to the growing adoption of technologically advanced cars in China . In addition, the Japanese government has specifically laid down a plan for the successful self-driving vehicle deployment and is expected to catapult the product demand over the forecast period.

is expected to witness a sluggish growth as compared to and . However, it is anticipated to grow substantially in the later phase of the forecast period due to the growing adoption of technologically advanced cars in . In addition, the Japanese government has specifically laid down a plan for the successful self-driving vehicle deployment and is expected to catapult the product demand over the forecast period. For the initial adoption, the manufacturers are anticipated to target countries which have a lower population, including Singapore , the Netherlands , and Sweden , to better analyze the response toward the acceptance of the technology before deploying it in countries with a larger potential. This is ascribed to be a key factor for the considerable growth in the aforementioned countries. Furthermore, the Singaporean government has also proposed to build separate roads for driverless automobiles to accelerate the adoption.

, , and , to better analyze the response toward the acceptance of the technology before deploying it in countries with a larger potential. This is ascribed to be a key factor for the considerable growth in the aforementioned countries. Furthermore, the Singaporean government has also proposed to build separate roads for driverless automobiles to accelerate the adoption. Europe is a key region for the deployment of self-driving vehicles, owing to the high consumer preference for technologically advanced products. This region is estimated to hold more than 35% of the volume share in 2017. This is attributed to the presence of players such as Volvo, Volkswagen, PSA Peugeot Citroen, and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in Germany and the UK. The European countries also focus on reducing pollution.

is a key region for the deployment of self-driving vehicles, owing to the high consumer preference for technologically advanced products. This region is estimated to hold more than 35% of the volume share in 2017. This is attributed to the presence of players such as Volvo, Volkswagen, PSA Peugeot Citroen, and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in and the UK. The European countries also focus on reducing pollution. The prominent industry participants include Apple Inc., Baidu Inc., Alphabet Inc., Tesla Motors, Inc., The Volvo Group, and Nissan Motor Company Ltd. The system developers focus on collaborating with the Body in White (BIW) providers to reduce the additional cost.

Grand View Research has segmented the global autonomous cars/driverless cars market on the basis of region:

Autonomous Cars Regional Outlook (Units; 2017 - 2024) North America U.S. Canada Europe Germany UK France Netherlands Sweden Asia Pacific China Japan Australia Singapore Latin America Middle East & Africa



Browse related reports by Grand View Research:

Crankshaft Sensor Market - http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/crankshaft-sensor-market

Gaming Console Market - http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/gaming-console-market

Automotive Thermal System Market - http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/automotive-thermal-system-market

CNG Vehicles Market - http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/cng-vehicles-market

About Grand View Research

Grand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. The company provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare.

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Corporate Sales Specialist, USA

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Phone: 1-415-349-0058

Toll Free: 1-888-202-9519

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Web: http://www.grandviewresearch.com



SOURCE Grand View Research, Inc.
PUNE, India, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

The report "Aviation Analytics Market by End-User, Business Function (Finance, Operations, Maintenance & Repair, Sales & Marketing, Supply Chain) Application (Fuel, Flight Risk, Inventory & Revenue Management, Customer Analytics, Navigation) - Global Forecast to 2021", published by MarketsandMarkets, the market is estimated at USD 2.16 Billion in 2016, and is projected to reach USD 4.23 Billion by 2021, at a CAGR of 14.38% from 2016 to 2021.

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Browse 87 market data Tables with 124 Figures spread through 179 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Aviation Analytics Market"

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/aviation-analytics-market-26274177.html

Early buyers will receive 10% customization On this report.

Increasing amount of data generated across aviation industry, along with growing demand for market and competitive intelligence are the factors driving the growth of the aviation analytics market.

The finance segment is anticipated to account the largest share

The finance segment dominates the Aviation Analytics Market, by business function. With the help of the historically generated dataset attained from various sources like promotions data, sales data, booking transactions among others, the analytics team help the companies to segregate their financial aspects taking into consideration the maximizing revenue strategies. The operations segment is considered to be the second-largest market in the aviation analytics market, by business function.

The customer analytics segment is projected to grow at the fastest CAGR

The customer analytics segment of the aviation analytics market, by application is anticipated to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. Innovative use of the data combined with analytics can uncover crucial insights needed to satisfy the needs of the customer thereby gaining valuable understanding from the massive volumes of historical data.

Asia-Pacific region to witness highest CAGR in Aviation analytics market

The Asia-Pacific region is expected to experience extensive growth opportunities in the next few years. Rising demand for advanced analytics which are cloud driven and cloud supported, has resulted in the increase in demand for analytics solutions in the region, thereby resulting in increasing investments and technological advancements across various industries verticals. Fast-growing countries such as China and India are rapidly moving towards the adoption of analytics solutions. Customer analytics along with sales & marketing plays a crucial role in the aviation analytics market in this region.

Inquiry Before Buying: http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Enquiry_Before_Buying.asp?id=26274177

The key players operating in the aviation analytics market are IBM Corporation (U.S.), Oracle Corporation (U.S.), General Electric (U.S.), SAP SE (Germany), and SAS Institute (U.S.).

Browse Related Reports

Commercial Avionics Systems Market by Sub-System (FMS, FCS, CNS, HMS, and Electrical & Emergency Systems), Platform (Fixed Wing and Rotary Wing), Fit (Forward and Retro) and Geography - Global Forecast to 2020

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/commercial-avionic-system-market-138098845.html

Air Traffic Control Equipment Market by Sector (Commercial, & Defense), by Type (Communication, Navigation, & Surveillance), and by Geography (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Rest of the World) - Global Analysis and Forecast 2020

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/air-traffic-control-equipment-market-159216929.html

About MarketsandMarkets

MarketsandMarkets is the world's No. 2 firms in terms of annual published premium market research reports. Serving 1700 global fortune enterprises with more than 1200 premium studies in a year, M&M is catering to a multitude of clients across 8 different industrial verticals. We specialize in consulting assignments and business research across high growth markets, cutting edge technologies and newer applications. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model - GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors.

M&M's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "RT" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets. The new included chapters on Methodology and Benchmarking presented with high quality analytical info graphics in our reports gives complete visibility of how the numbers have been arrived and defend the accuracy of the numbers.

We at MarketsandMarkets are inspired to help our clients grow by providing apt business insight with our huge market intelligence repository.

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SOURCE MarketsandMarkets
DALLAS, June 7, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Azure Midstream Partners, LP (OTCQB: AZUR) will hold a conference call at 12:00 Noon Eastern Time (11:00 a.m. Central Time) on Monday June 13th, 2016 to update investors on the company's recent move to the OTCQB, what it means for investors and Azure's plans for positioning the company for the current environment and future growth.

By Phone: To expedite entry into the conference call, please preregister by following the following link: https://level3.cwebcast.com/ses/y-vZeE8NjHqzS8Mg9nmuGQ~~. After registering for the event, you will receive an email with your personal access information.



By Webcast: Connect to the webcast via the "Events & Presentations" page of Azure's Investor Relations website at http://investor.azuremidstreampartners.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=253822&p=irol-calendar. Please log in at least 10 minutes in advance to register and download any necessary software. A replay will be available shortly after the call for 90 days.

About Azure Midstream Partners, LP

Azure Midstream Partners, LP, headquartered in Dallas, Texas, is a fee-based, growth oriented limited partnership formed to develop, operate, and acquire midstream energy assets. The Partnership provides natural gas gathering, transportation, and processing services; as well as NGL transportation and crude oil logistics services. The Partnership's assets include 1,002 miles of gathering lines in the Shelby Trough sub-play of the Haynesville Shale and the horizontal Cotton Valley play located in east Texasand north Louisiana that are capable of gathering 1.9 Bcf/d. The Partnership also has four natural gas processing facilities with 305 MMcf/d of cumulative processing capacity located in the Panola, San Augustine and Tyler Counties of Texas, two NGL transportation pipelines that connect its Panola County and Tyler County processing facilities to third party NGL pipelines capable of transporting 20,000 barrels per day, and three crude oil transloading facilities containing six crude oil transloaders with a combined capacity of 31,200 Bbls/d.

Additional information about Azure Midstream Partners, LP can be found at www.azuremidstreampartners.com

SOURCE Azure Midstream Partners, LP

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LONDON, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- This study focuses on China's Baby Wipes market trends. In the two past decades, the market has been growing at a fast pace. The dramatic expansions of the manufacturing capabilities and rising consumer consumptions in China have transformed China's society and economy. China is one of the world's major producers for industrial and consumer products. Far outpacing other economies in the world, China is the world's fastest growing market for the consumptions of goods and services. The Chinese economy maintains a high speed growth which has been stimulated by the consecutive increases of industrial output, imports & exports, consumer consumption and capital investment for over two decades. Rapid consolidation between medium and large players is anticipated since the Chinese government has been encouraging industry consolidation with an effort to regulate the industry and to improve competitiveness in the world market.



Although China has enjoyed the benefits of an expanding market for production and distribution, the industry is suffering from minimal innovation and investment in R&D and new product development. The sector's economies of scale have yet to be achieved. Most domestic manufacturers lack the autonomic intellectual property and financial resources to develop their own brand name products.



This new study focuses on market trends and forecasts with historical data (2005, 2010 and 2015) and long-term forecasts through 2020 and 2025 are presented.

The primary and secondary research is done in China in order to access up-to-date government regulations, market information and industry data. Data were collected from the Chinese government publications, Chinese language newspapers and magazines, industry associations, local governments' industry bureaus, industry publications, and our in-house databases.



Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/3874338/



About Reportbuyer

Reportbuyer is a leading industry intelligence solution that provides all market research reports from top publishers

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For more information:

Sarah Smith

Research Advisor at Reportbuyer.com

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +44 208 816 85 48

Website: www.reportbuyer.com

SOURCE ReportBuyer

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CALGARY, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ - Bankers Petroleum Ltd. ("Bankers" or the "Company") (TSX: BNK, AIM: BNK) is pleased to announce that the Company has resumed its usual operations following commencement of export activities at the Petrolifera Italo Albanese ("PIA") Terminal port facility near Vlore, Albania on Tuesday, June 7. Over the past six days, Bankers curtailed production by approximately 4,000 barrels of oil per day within the Patos-Marinza oilfield due to lack of storage. Production is being brought back online immediately and is expected to resume pre-closure production levels over the next week.

Corporate Transaction Update

Bankers is also pleased to announce that it has received the final approval of the Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta (the "Court") for the proposed plan of arrangement (the "Arrangement") with affiliates of Geo-Jade Petroleum Corporation ("Geo-Jade"). Pursuant to the Arrangement, Geo-Jade will acquire all the issued and outstanding common shares of Bankers ("Bankers Shares") through its affiliates at a cash price of C$2.20 per Bankers Share. The Court granted an order approving the Arrangement on June 3, 2016.

Completion of the Arrangement is subject to the outstanding regulatory approvals pursuant to the Investment Canada Act (Canada) and the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE). As a result of the outstanding approvals, the arrangement agreement has been amended to extend the deadline to receive the People's Republic of China approvals from June 1 to June 30, 2016. Closing of the Arrangement is expected to occur in late June or early July. Following a successful completion of the Arrangement, the Bankers Shares will be delisted from the Toronto Stock Exchange ("TSX") and the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange.

------------

About Bankers Petroleum Ltd.

Bankers Petroleum Ltd. is a Canadian-based oil and gas exploration and production company focused on developing large oil and gas reserves in Albania and Eastern Europe. In Albania, Bankers operates and has the full rights to develop the Patos-Marinza heavy oilfield, has a 100% interest in the Kucova oilfield, and a 100% interest in Exploration Block "F". In 2015 Bankers acquired an 85% interest in the rights to explore the Puspokladany Block concession within the Pannonian Basin located in north eastern Hungary. The Bankers Shares are traded on the TSX and the AIM Market in London, England under the stock symbol BNK.

Caution Regarding Forward-looking Information

Certain information set forth in this press release, including information and statements which may contain words such as "could", "plans", "intends" "should", "anticipate", "expects", "will", "propose", "opportunity", "future", "continue", and similar expressions and statements relating to matters that are not historical facts, contain forward-looking statements, including but not limited to statements regarding: the resumption of Bankers' production and operations at the PIA Terminal, the proposed Arrangement and the anticipated timing of closing, the timing of receipt of required regulatory approvals and the delisting of the Bankers Shares following completion of the Arrangement . By their nature, forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, some of which are beyond Bankers' control.. Completion of the Arrangement is subject to a number of conditions, including receipt of the approval's required by the Investment Canada Act (Canada) and approvals required by the People's Republic of China and the competition authority of Albania, and other conditions which are typical for transactions of this nature. Failure to satisfy any of these conditions, the emergence of a superior proposal or the failure to obtain approval of Bankers' shareholders may result in the termination of the arrangement agreement dated March 19, 2016 providing for the Arrangement. The foregoing list is not exhaustive. Additional information on these and other risks that could affect completion of the Arrangement is set forth in the Management Information Circular of the Company dated April 19, 2016, which is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Readers are cautioned that the assumptions used in the preparation of such information, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements. The actual results, performance or achievement of Bankers could differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, these forward-looking statements and, accordingly, no assurance can be given that any of the events anticipated by the forward-looking statements will transpire or occur, or if any of them do so, what benefits that Bankers will derive therefrom. Bankers disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws.

SOURCE Bankers Petroleum Ltd.
BREA, Calif., and RARITAN, N.J., June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Beckman Coulter, Inc., a global developer and manufacturer of clinical diagnostic products, and Ortho Clinical Diagnostics (Ortho), a global in vitro diagnostics leader, today announced a strategic relationship regarding sales of Ortho's VITROS 3600 Immunodiagnostic System and infectious disease menu in the U.S.

Ortho's VITROS 3600 System offers a broad menu of infectious disease tests that are used by several of the leading reference laboratories in the United States. It combines three high-quality proprietary technologies into a single system that is self-monitoring, highly efficient and easy to use, enabling health care professionals to make better treatment decisions.

Under this strategic relationship, Beckman Coulter will place Ortho's VITROS 3600 System running HIV and hepatitis assays in labs that currently run Beckman's Power Processor Sample Handling Systems, and in certain other very high-volume laboratories.

"We look forward to working with the impressive team at Ortho to bring Ortho's high-quality infectious disease testing to our customers," said John Nosenzo, senior vice president, Customer Operations, Developed Markets at Beckman Coulter. "This relationship provides both immediate opportunity and long-term value as we continue to enhance efficiency, advance patient care and broaden our customer offerings. Through this relationship, we will be able to apply innovative technologies to deliver enhanced solutions to the highest-volume labs in the U.S."

A pioneer in laboratory automation, Beckman Coulter serves more customers in the U.S. with their track-based automation systems than any other company. The Power Processor can improve a lab's operations, enhancing productivity, operator safety and accuracy, as well as significantly reducing labor costs and eliminating opportunities for errors, for improved patient safety.

The arrangement will help very high-volume laboratories access state-of-the-art infectious disease testing on the innovative VITROS 3600 System, with market-leading automation systems. Together, the systems will help laboratories improve operational efficiency and enhance patient care.

"Ortho has long been a pioneer in infectious disease testing. Our relationship with Beckman will help us deliver that expertise to their large installed base of automated labs," said Alex Socarras, executive vice president, Global Commercial Operations at Ortho. "We are committed to forming key strategic collaborations such as this one, which enable us to stay focused on our core business while being nimble enough to meet the varied and changing needs of our valued customers."

Beckman Coulter and Ortho will also collaborate to obtain clearance/approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to connect the VITROS 3600 System to the Power Processor to run infectious disease tests.

About Beckman Coulter

Beckman Coulter Diagnostics develops clinical diagnostic products that help advance and optimize the clinical laboratory. Beckman Coulter's instruments, systems and tests help streamline processes to enhance efficiency, reduce costs and speed the delivery of results. For more than 80 years, Beckman Coulter has been a global leader devoted to providing solutions to laboratories of all sizes, offering a broad portfolio of chemistry, immunoassay, hematology, urinalysis, microbiology, automation and information systems. Beckman Coulter is dedicated to advancing healthcare for every person. For more information, visit www.beckmancoulter.com.

About Ortho Clinical Diagnostics

Ortho Clinical Diagnostics is a global leader of in vitro diagnostics serving the global clinical laboratory and immunohematology communities. Across hospitals, hospital networks, blood banks and labs in more than 120 countries, Ortho's high-quality products and services enable healthcare professionals to make better-informed treatment decisions. For the immunohematology community, Ortho's blood typing products help ensure every patient receives blood that is safe, the right type and the right unit. Ortho brings sophisticated testing technologies, automation, information management and interpretation tools to clinical laboratories around the world to help them run more efficiently and effectively and improve patient care. Ortho's purpose is to improve and save lives with diagnostics, and it does that by reimagining what's possible. This is what has defined Ortho for more than 75 years, and it's what drives Ortho forward. For more information, visit www.orthoclinicaldiagnostics.com.

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SOURCE Ortho Clinical Diagnostics

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Of the $1 billion in federal funds earmarked for educator professional development each year, only a small fraction goes to improving school leaders. Half of new principals leave the profession after five years, contributing to attrition rates similarly high to teacher attrition rates--a cost that is ultimately shouldered most heavily by students. With these new collections of resources, BloomBoard and CCSSO are meeting a demand expressed by school leaders everywhere for quality resources, recommended and vetted by peers, and in-line with the needs of today's students and teachers.

"Unfortunately, high-quality, personalized professional development for our school leaders is all too often absent in schools today, despite research that indicates the quality of a school leader is one of the most important drivers of student learning in a school," says BloomBoard CEO, Jason Lange. "From leading with mission and vision, to striving for equity and creating change management processes, a school leader is tasked with ensuring the safety, growth and support of every member of the school community. Their own progress shouldn't be last in line."

The goal of the Professional Standards for Educational Leaders is to make sure district and school leaders are able to improve student achievement and meet new, higher expectations. These standards influence definitions of principal and administrator effectiveness in almost every state, and the Principal Action Group will create a comprehensive set of learning collections, including articles, videos, eBooks, and other media aligned to each standard that will be available to school leaders nationwide.

Chris Minnich, executive director of CCSSO, said, "CCSSO and the members of our principal working group are pleased to partner with BloomBoard to create tools and resources that every school leader can use to put the new Professional Standards for Educational Leaders into practice. With these standards, states can help ensure district and school leaders have what they need to improve academic achievement for all kids."

The following are sample collections created by CCSSO members. School leaders can view more at next.bloomboard.com.

About BloomBoard

Founded in 2010, BloomBoard is the leading professional development platform for empowering continuous, personalized, competency-based learning for K-12 educators. With BloomBoard, district administrators can provide meaningful professional learning experiences, improving how they support, scale, and grow effective teachers. For educators, BloomBoard provides a place to build their teaching skills and earn recognition through micro-credentials. For more information, visit schools.bloomboard.com

About CCSSO

The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) is a nonpartisan, nationwide, nonprofit organization of public officials who head departments of elementary and secondary education in the states, the District of Columbia, the Department of Defense Education Activity, and five U.S. extra-state jurisdictions. CCSSO provides leadership, advocacy, and technical assistance on major educational issues. The Council seeks member consensus on major educational issues and expresses their views to civic and professional organizations, federal agencies, Congress, and the public.

CCSSO media contact:

Olympia Meola

[email protected]

202-336-7071

BloomBoard media contact:

Lucia Giacomantonio

[email protected]

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SOURCE BloomBoard

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ORLANDO, Fla., June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Pershing LLC, a BNY Mellon company, announced today at its INSITE 2016 conference that it has added the hedge fund intelligence platform, AltX, to its Alternative Investment Center. Accessible through NetX360, Pershing's Alternative Investment Center provides advisors access to educational resources, research and tools to help inform their alternative investment strategies. The addition of AltX will help advisors evaluate hedge fund investment opportunities by providing them access to hedge fund market data, insights and analytics.

As part of the Pershing and AltX relationship, AltX analyzes over 300 private funds across 26 metrics such as strategy, assets under management (AUM), historical returns, and additional subscription, redemption and regulatory information and provides the integrated data directly into NetX360. The platform also delivers daily hedge fund-related news and printable fund reports to clients.

"We've seen continued demand from advisors serving high-net-worth investors to access hedge funds, with hedge fund and fund of fund assets making up over a quarter of the alternative investment assets on Pershing's platform," said Justin Fay, Pershing's director of Financial Solutions, Alternative Investments and ETFs. "We added AltX to address this demand and help serve our clients more effectively by providing them with the tools and education they need to make well informed decisions as they explore hedge fund opportunities for their suitable clients."

AltX's addition to the Alternative Investment Center complements research already available on the platform from Morningstar and Blue Vault Partners and other educational resources such as comparison and screening tools, whitepapers and commentary from leading alternative investment managers.

The Alternative Investment Center currently has over 38,000 entitled users in NetX360 across more than 230 broker-dealers and over 500 registered investment advisors, providing custody support for over 2000 Alternative Investments.

Pershing's presence in the alternative space also extends to its prime brokerage business. Over the past several years, Pershing Prime Services has been active in providing traditional hedge funds and alternative '40 Act funds with solutions to manage their businesses and implement their portfolio strategies.

About AltX

AltX is the go-to intelligence platform for the alternatives market. AltX combines innovative science, technology, relational and behavioral data, with traditional financial analytics and regulatory data, to deliver superior manager and market insights, and to help users make smarter investment decisions. Access to more than one million data points, including over 70,000 hedge fund personnel profiles and 20,000 funds, superior analytics, real time news and relationship mapping helps both investors and hedge funds achieve greater transparency and oversight of their investments, in addition to identifying more compatible investment relationships and opportunities. The AltX user base is made up of investment professionals from hedge funds, investment banks, pension funds, endowments, asset managers, family offices and more. AltX was founded in 2012, and is headquartered in San Francisco. For more information about AltX, go to www.GetAltX.com

About Pershing

Pershing and its affiliates provide global financial business solutions to advisors, asset managers, broker-dealers, family offices, registered investment advisor firms and wealth managers. A financial services firm located in 23 offices worldwide, Pershing provides business-to-business solutions to clients representing 6 million active investor accounts on the U.S. platform. Pershing affiliates are members of every major U.S. securities exchange, and its international affiliates are members of the Deutsche Borse, Australian Stock Exchange, Irish Stock Exchange, London Stock Exchange and Toronto Stock Exchange. Pershing LLC (member FINRA/NYSE/SIPC) is a BNY Mellon company. Additional information is available on pershing.com, or follow us on Twitter @Pershing.

About BNY Mellon

BNY Mellon is a global investments company dedicated to helping its clients manage and service their financial assets throughout the investment lifecycle. Whether providing financial services for institutions, corporations or individual investors, BNY Mellon delivers informed investment management and investment services in 35 countries and more than 100 markets. As of March 31, 2016, BNY Mellon had $29.1 trillion in assets under custody and/or administration, and $1.6 trillion in assets under management. BNY Mellon can act as a single point of contact for clients looking to create, trade, hold, manage, service, distribute or restructure investments. BNY Mellon is the corporate brand of The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (NYSE: BK). Additional information is available on www.bnymellon.com. Follow us on Twitter @BNYMellon or visit our newsroom at www.bnymellon.com/newsroom for the latest company news.

Cassandra Osei

+1 201 413 3394

[email protected]





SOURCE BNY Mellon

Related Links

http://www.bnymellon.com


PITTSBURGH, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Branding Brand, the world's leading mobile commerce and engagement platform for retailer apps, today announced its acquisition of Waysay, a market disruptor in conversational commerce.

This deal marks Branding Brand's first acquisition. The addition extends Branding Brand's omnichannel offerings to include in-app messaging, customer engagement tools, and marketing automation technology, all of which allow retailers to better connect and support their customers.

Waysay was founded by ExactTarget and Salesforce veterans, Matt Compton and Bob Ullery, in May 2015. Its investors include TPC Investments, LLC., ExactTarget co-founder, Peter McCormick, and former Salesforce executive vice president, Todd Richardson.

The Waysay Team will join Branding Brand's Product Team, led by Jeff Middlesworth. Middlesworth is another Salesforce alumnus who, early in his career, was an original pioneer behind the Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

As part of the acquisition, Branding Brand will open a third office in Indianapolis. Further expansion plans include opening a fourth office in London later this year to better serve its growing European client base.

"We are proud and excited to have Waysay join the fold," said Chris Mason, CEO of Branding Brand. "As shoppers look for more personalized experiences with their favorite brands, Waysay's technology brings new capabilities to our platform for enabling meaningful one-to-one engagement and increasing customer loyalty."

"We have a deep partnership with Branding Brand and are looking forward to this next step in evolving our relationship," said Matt Compton, Co-founder of Waysay. "We anticipate many opportunities for new innovations to emerge from joining teams."

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Note: Chris Mason will be at the Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition this week (June 8-9) meeting with select retailers and business partners, as part of the acquisition announcement.

About Waysay

Waysay provides mobile app solutions for in-app messaging, customer engagement, and location capabilities. For more information, visit waysay.com.

About Branding Brand

Branding Brand is the retail industry's largest mobile commerce platform, powering shopping experiences for over 200 enterprise brands. In addition to being named a Gartner "Cool Vendor" of apps, the Company was also named a 2016 Forrester Wave Leader in "Mobile Commerce and Engagement Platforms."

In 2016, the Company launched the Branding Brand Index (BBI) as a quantitative, customer-centered way of measuring a retailer's omnichannel presence. Visit bbi.brandingbrand.com to see the strengths and weaknesses of 400 brands, including major big-box retailers like Amazon, Walmart, and Target.



Branding Brand's investors include Insight Venture Partners, Lead Edge Capital, and CrunchFund.

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SOURCE Branding Brand

Related Links

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Headquartered in Colorado, CH2M brings to the RoadX Program a long-history of collaborating with CDOT on major transportation initiatives as well as local and global expertise in innovative program delivery, policy development, public outreach, technology application, public-private partnerships and small business engagement.

"RoadX is the future of transportation and will redefine mobility and enhance the quality of life for the citizens of Colorado," said Mary Jo Vobejda, CH2M's RoadX Champion. "CDOT's vision inspires our transportation team, excites our technology-focused experts and motivates the collaborator in all of us to be part of this exceptional transformation."

RoadX will employ a multi-pronged DO-IT (deployment, operations, innovation, technology) approach with the objective of being the most efficient, agile and flexible system for bringing transportation technology to market. With plans to implement several efforts along the DO-IT spectrum in the 201618 timeframe, CDOT will be partnering with private industry and others to deploy advanced technology to reduce the cost of transporting goods by 25 percent; turn a rural state highway into a zero-death road; and improve congestion on Colorado's critical corridors.

Supporting the continued economic vitality of Colorado, RoadX will create an environment where industry partners have a direct connection with a state committed to transforming an aging transportation system through the advancement of comprehensive technology solutions.

About CH2M

CH2M leads the professional services industry delivering sustainable solutions to clients working on the world's most complex challenges. CH2Mers make a positive difference providing consulting, design, engineering and management solutions for vital infrastructure and resources serving diverse public- and private-sector clients. With $5.4 billion in revenue and ~22,000 people, the firm has offices in 50 countries and four business groups: water; environment and nuclear; transportation; and energy and industrial. Known for managing global events such as the Olympic Games, CH2M ranks among Ethisphere's World's Most Ethical Companies; number-one in environmental consulting and program management by Engineering News-Record; and among sustainability leaders by independent analyst Verdantix. CH2M in 2016 was selected to receive the World Environment Center's Gold Medal Award for International Corporate Achievement in Sustainable Development, and in 2015, received the Stockholm International Water Institute's highest Industry Water Award for advancing innovative potable reuse technologies. To learn more about the CH2M difference, connect with the firm at www.ch2m.com; linkedin.com/company/ch2m; twitter.com/ch2m; facebook.com/ch2mhill; and search for jobs at www.ch2m.com/careers.

Contact: Tom Doerr

CH2M, Transportation Business Group

720-286-3004

[email protected]

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SOURCE CH2M

Related Links

http://www.ch2m.com


NEW YORK, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Arlo Devlin-Brown, most recently the Chief of the Public Corruption Unit in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York and one of its top securities fraud prosecutors, will join Covington as a partner in its white collar defense and investigations practice. He will be resident in the firm's New York office.

Arlo Devlin-Brown

Mr. Devlin-Brown has served in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District since 2005 and as Chief of the Public Corruption Unit since 2014. Prior to his current position, he served for four years in the Southern District's Securities and Commodities Fraud Unit, where he prosecuted landmark cases in the areas of insider trading and money laundering. He has also overseen some of the most significant corruption cases prosecuted in the Southern District in decades, including the prosecutions and convictions of Sheldon Silver, the New York State Assembly Speaker, and Dean Skelos, the New York State Senate Majority Leader, as well as the prosecution of John Ashe, the former President of the U.N. General Assembly. Mr. Devlin-Brown has been awarded various honors for his service, including the Attorney General's John Marshall Award, the Director's Award for Superior Performance, and the New York County Lawyers Association's Public Service Award.

"Arlo's deep experience in white collar matters, particularly in the financial services sector, will be of great benefit to a wide range of the firm's clients," said Timothy Hester, the firm's chairman. "He brings valuable insights into some of the most complex areas of white collar enforcement, including securities fraud, anti-money laundering and insider trading."

"Over his illustrious career, Arlo has demonstrated time and again that he is a lawyer of great talent and commitment," said Lanny Breuer, vice-chair of the firm and former Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division at the U.S. Department of Justice. "It will be an honor to work with him, and he will prove to be a tremendous advocate for our clients."

Mr. Devlin-Brown received a B.A. summa cum laude from Columbia University and a J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School. Upon graduation, he clerked for Judge Kermit Lipez of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and then was in private practice for more than five years before joining the U.S. Attorney's office.

"I'm very pleased to join Covington's exceptional white collar practice, which combines extraordinary depth in Washington with a group of immensely talented lawyers in New York, on the West Coast, and in China and Europe," added Mr. Devlin-Brown. "The firm's white collar practice is distinguished by the quality of its attorneys and its sophistication in handling complex investigations and enforcement matters across a range of subject matters and industries."

Covington's white collar and investigations team includes the former Attorney General of the United States, three former heads of the Justice Department's Criminal Division, former senior SEC officials, and many former prosecutors with extensive criminal trial experience.

In an increasingly regulated world, Covington & Burling LLP provides corporate, litigation, and regulatory expertise to help clients navigate their most complex business problems, deals, and disputes. Founded in 1919, the firm has more than 800 lawyers in offices in Beijing, Brussels, London, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Seoul, Shanghai, Silicon Valley, and Washington.

 2016 Covington & Burling LLP. All rights reserved.

Contact: David Schaefer

+1 202 662 6687

[email protected]

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SOURCE Covington & Burling LLP

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AUSTIN, Texas, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Citizens, Inc. (NYSE: CIA) today announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Board member Dr. Robert Sloan as Chairman. Dr. Sloan succeeds Rick Riley as Chairman of the Board. Riley has been Chairman of the Board since June 2015 and will continue to serve as a Citizens Board member.

"I am honored to be named Chairman of Citizens' Board," said Dr. Robert Sloan. "It is a critical time to be part of Citizens as we execute on our transformative strategy. I am proud to serve alongside such accomplished Board leadership in this effort. On behalf of our Board of Directors, I would like to recognize Rick Riley for his service to Citizens."

Dr. Sloan joined Citizens' Board in 2006 and has served on the Executive Committee since his arrival. In his accomplished career, Dr. Sloan has served as CEO of two major academic institutions and has valuable insight into organizational structure, executive decision-making, financial operations and leadership. His executive management skills and extensive experience with organization strategy and governance provide invaluable insight and guidance to our Board's oversight function. Dr. Sloan is President of Houston Baptist University.

Board member and Chairman of the Compensation Committee, Grant Teaff, said, "Dr. Sloan is a man of exceptional character and an accomplished leader. Citizens is fortunate to have a man of his caliber serve as its Chairman."

Citizens also announced that Kay Osbourn, Citizens' President and former CFO, has been unanimously appointed interim CEO, effective immediately. As part of its corporate strategy, the Board intends to begin a search process for the CEO as well as other critical C-level positions, with the assistance of an executive search firm.

Dr. E. Dean Gage, Vice Chairman of the Board and a member of the Board's Executive Committee said, "We are thankful that Kay has agreed to step into the role of interim CEO during this important time for Citizens. With more than 25 years of executive experience in the insurance sector and a proven record as Citizens CFO and most recently President, Kay has a deep understanding not only of the industry, but of our business as well. We thank Kay for assuming these additional responsibilities while the Board commences its CEO search process, and believe that she is the right choice to lead Citizens as we continue to focus on the Company's transformative initiatives."

Mrs. Osbourn said, "I look forward to working alongside the Board and Citizens' executive leadership team, as we execute on our corporate strategy. In addition to our C-level searches, I will be focused on continuing the momentum we have in our operational and strategic review of the business. Citizens remains well positioned to build on its positive momentum."

Citizens, Inc. is a financial services company listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol CIA. The Company utilizes a three-pronged strategy for growth based upon worldwide sales of U.S. Dollar-denominated whole life cash value insurance policies, life insurance product sales in the U.S. and the acquisition of other U.S.-based life insurance companies. Citizens Class A common stock closed at $7.85 on June 7, 2016.



Information herein contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which can be identified by words such as "may," "will," "expect," "anticipate" or "continue" or comparable words. In addition, all statements other than statements of historical facts that address activities that the Company expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future are forward-looking statements. Readers are encouraged to read the SEC reports of the Company, particularly its Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2015, its quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and its current reports on Form 8-K, for the meaningful cautionary language disclosing why actual results may vary materially from those anticipated by management. The Company undertakes no duty or obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this release as a result of new information, future events or changes in the Company's expectations. The Company also disclaims any duty to comment upon or correct information that may be contained in reports published by the investment community.

For further information contact:

Investor Relations

(512) 837-7100

[email protected]

SOURCE Citizens, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.citizensinc.com


NEW YORK, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -

Foresters Financial announced that Clark Wagner

has been appointed President of Foresters Investment Management Company,

Inc. (FIMCO), effective May 23, 2016

In his new, all-encompassing role, Mr. Wagner will manage the firm's U.S. asset management business, which includes the First Investors family of funds, as well as the general account assets of Foresters Financial. This new position follows Mr. Wagner's appointment as Vice President and Chief Investment Officer of Foresters Financial in February 2016.

"We are delighted that Clark has accepted this new position to both lead and expand the firm's global investment platform," says Bill Lipkus, President and CEO of Foresters Financial Holding Company, Inc. "With his deep industry knowledge, impressive track record and proven leadership experience, I am confident that Clark will effectively position FIMCO for a successful and dynamic future."

"I am both excited and honored to have this opportunity to lead FIMCO," Mr. Wagner says. "I look forward to leveraging the firm's superb talent base and exceptional resources to position us as the investment company of choice for investors seeking to secure their financial futures. I am particularly grateful to work for an organization that prides itself on doing more than the average financial services provider  for individuals, their families and their communities."

Under Mr. Wagner's leadership, FIMCO will continue to respond to client needs by introducing new and innovative investment products.

"Investors today are still very cautious about the markets," Mr. Wagner points out. "They recognize that strong active management can help mitigate downside risk, while providing meaningful returns. That is why we launched our Covered Call Strategy Fund in April and have plans to roll out additional products with similar downside protection features in the near future."

During the past two years, FIMCO successfully launched four new mutual funds to further diversify its product lineup (Balanced Income Fund, Floating Rate Fund, Real Estate Fund and Covered Call Strategy Fund).

Mr. Wagner has a long history of dedication to the financial services industry and FIMCO, with 30 years of experience in the fixed income markets. Hired by Foresters Financial as Portfolio Manager for the municipal bond funds in 1991, he was appointed Director of Fixed Income in 2001. He leads the Foresters Financial U.S. investment, research and strategy, and fund accounting teams, and is responsible for overseeing management of over $15 billion in mutual fund and insurance general account assets. Over the years, he and his team have been recognized by industry publications and peer groups for the performance of many of their managed funds.

In April of this year, Barron's placed First Investors Funds 9th out of 58 fund families for the 5-year period ended 2015. While 2015 proved to be a very difficult year for the markets, First Investors Funds ranked a respectable 27th out of 67 fund families, a testament to the leadership of Mr. Wagner's fixed income team, as well as the equities team, led by Edwin Miska, FIMCO's Director of Equities.

In addition to his multifaceted roles at FIMCO, Mr. Wagner is also a member of the Investment Company Institute's Municipal Securities Advisory Committee, the Municipal Analysts Group of New York, the Municipal Forum of New York and the Municipal Bond Buyers Conference where he previously served as Chairman. He has been a guest on CNBC and Bloomberg TV, a speaker and panelist at various conferences, and a contributing author for "The Handbook of Municipal Bonds."

Mr. Wagner received a Master's degree in International Affairs from Columbia University in New York and a Bachelor's degree in History from Williams College in Massachusetts. He is an active member of the Great Swamp Watershed Association and the Nantucket Conservation Foundation.

About Foresters Financial Holding Company, Inc. (formerly First Investors)

Foresters Financial Holding Company, Inc. consists of a group of diversified financial services companies that include a registered broker-dealer, an investment adviser, a life insurance company and a transfer agent. Foresters Financial Services, Inc., a registered broker-dealer, helps everyday families reach their financial goals by offering solutions and guidance through its network of financial representatives working in 42 branch offices across the United States. Foresters Investment Management Company, Inc. is the investment adviser to the First Investors family of funds, which had nearly $11 billion in total assets under management as of March 31, 2016, and which are distributed by Foresters Financial Services, Inc. Foresters Life Insurance and Annuity Company, Inc., a New York domiciled insurance company, offers a range of insurance and annuity products and maintains an "A" (Excellent) rating by A.M. Best1. For more information, visit foresters.com.

About Foresters Financial

Foresters Financial is an international financial services provider with more than 3 million clients and members in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, and total funds under management of $34 billion2. With a history of more than 140 years, we provide life insurance, savings, retirement and investment solutions that help families achieve their financial goals, protect their families and improve their communities. For more information, visit foresters.com.

Foresters Financial and Foresters are the trade names and trademarks of The Independent Order of Foresters, a fraternal benefit society, 789 Don Mills Road, Toronto, Canada M3C 1T9 and its subsidiaries, including Foresters Financial Holding Company, Inc. (FFHC) and Foresters Investment Management Company, Inc. (FIMCO). Foresters Financial Services, Inc. is a registered broker-dealer and subsidiary of FFHC. Securities, life insurance and annuity products are offered through Foresters Financial Services, Inc. Insurance products are issued by Foresters Life Insurance and Annuity Company, New York, or The Independent Order of Foresters.

 An "A" (Excellent) rating is assigned to companies that have a strong ability to meet their ongoing obligations to policyholders and have, on balance, excellent balance sheet strength, operating performance and business profile when compared to the standards established by A.M. Best Company. A.M. Best assigns ratings from A++ to F, A++ and A+ being superior ratings and A and A- being excellent ratings. In assigning Foresters rating on July 1, 2015, A.M. Best stated that the rating outlook is "stable," which means it is unlikely to change in the near future. See ambest.com for our latest rating.

2 In Canadian dollars as of December 31, 2015.

SOURCE Foresters

Related Links

www.foresters.com


EAST LANSING, Mich. and COLUMBUS, Ohio, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The Consortium of Independent Physician Associations (CIPA), a regional physician network of 1,200 physicians, announces the formation of CIPA ACO, a new Medicare Shared Savings Program Accountable Care Organization for Michigan and Ohio physicians. CIPA ACO will apply to participate in the Medicare Shared Savings Program effective January 1, 2017.

Doctors, hospitals and health care providers establish ACOs in order to work together to provide higher-quality coordinated care to their population of Medicare fee for service patients. In addition, ACO participation also gives doctors the opportunity to participate in federal shared savings incentive programs.

CIPA is managed by the Medical Advantage Group, a leading health care consulting company and one of the key partners responsible for the development of the largest Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) network in the U.S. Medical Advantage Group will provide administrative, clinical and technical support services to CIPA ACO members, including:

Management and coordination of all interactions required by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)

Monthly analysis of CMS data to identify cost and quality improvement opportunities

Annual quality data submissions to CMS

Medicare patient analysis to identify patients requiring wellness visits, preventive services, and possible coding updates

Risk management to identify high spend / high variability items and other opportunities for cost improvement

Robust data warehouse and analytic reports that help doctors to monitor performance and perform population health management

Training, staff resources, web-based tool to facilitate population health management and practice transformation

Education on health care market changes including alternative payment models

Billing and coding training

"To be successful in the current health care market, physicians need to be open to change," said Robert Jackson, MD, MMM, CIPA Medical Director. "That is, to embrace and implement clinical integration, population health management, and aligned reimbursement models as available within an ACO."

"CIPA ACO will help doctors collaborate with other health care providers to deliver high quality care to their Medicare patients. Beyond participation in shared savings incentive programs, ACO members will benefit from Medical Advantage Group's expertise with population health management systems, practice transformation, clinical quality measures, and regulatory knowledge," says Paul MacLellan, CEO of Medical Advantage Group.

Ultimately, today's announcement is about CIPA's commitment to helping physicians deliver better care, spend dollars more wisely, and have healthier patients and communities. ACOs drive progress in the way care is provided by improving the coordination and integration of health care, and improving the health of patients with a priority placed on prevention and wellness. More information about CIPA ACO is available at: www.medicaladvantagegroup.com.

CIPA will be hosting an informational webinar on Wednesday, June 22nd at 12:00pm. If you have any questions concerning CIPA ACO, please join this event. Details are below:

Wed, Jun 22, 2016 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM Eastern Time

Please join my meeting from your computer: https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/146324277

You can also dial in using your phone: 1 (646) 749-3131. Access Code: 146-324-277

About the Consortium of Independent Physician Associations

Established in 2005, the Consortium of Independent Physician Associations (CIPA) is a regional network of 40 physician organizations across Michigan and Ohio representing 1,200 physicians (primary care and specialists) in 550 practices dedicated to the practice of independent medicine. CIPA creates the opportunity for smaller groups of physicians to participate in pay-for-performance programs and value-based contracts that are normally only available to larger groups. Members include individual practices, group practices, rural health clinics, Federally Qualified Health Centers, and physician hospital organizations. CIPA is endorsed by the Ohio State Medical Association. To learn more, visit www.JoinCIPAOhio.com.

About Medical Advantage Group

Medical Advantage Group simplifies the delivery of efficient, high-quality health care for medical practices, health centers, physician organizations, hospitals and health systems. Medical Advantage Group helps doctors navigate the shifting health care landscape by providing the resources needed to deliver better patient care in the new value-based health care economy. Medical Advantage Group has two decades of expertise managing physician organizations and ACOs. Its ACO clients have demonstrated success in improving quality measures and reducing costs of care in Medicare's Shared Savings Plan.

Medical Advantage Group manages the Consortium of Independent Physician Associations and is owned by The Doctors Company, the nation's largest physician-owned medical malpractice insurer with over 78,000 members. To learn more, visit www.medicaladvantagegroup.com.

SOURCE Consortium of Independent Physician Associations

Related Links

http://www.medicaladvantagegroup.com


SOUTHBOROUGH, Mass., June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Corrona, a leader in real world evidence and consulting in the auto-immune field, will be represented by 13 clinical researchers who will be showcasing their research at the Annual European Congress of Rheumatology (EULAR 2016) to be held June 8-11 in London, UK. The presentations represent the efforts of 654 practicing rheumatologists in the US who, over the last 15 years, have collected longitudinal randomized controlled trial quality clinical data on patients with rheumatic diseases. In particular, 2 abstracts were accepted for podium presentations and 13 as posters, 3 of which will be highlighted on poster tours. These efforts add to Corrona's growing number of scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals, with over 300 abstracts and 80 manuscripts.

"The Corrona team appreciates that the continued data collection efforts of our rheumatology investigators have provided the foundation for our research programs in areas such as comparative effectiveness and safety of novel therapies." -- Jeff Greenberg, MD, MPH, Chief Scientific Officer, Corrona, LLC.

Work presented at the meeting will be derived from Corrona's rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis/spondyloarthritis registries. The podium presentations will focus on the impact of rheumatoid arthritis disease activity on infection risk and explore biomarkers' ability to predict response to biologic medications. Other topics being explored in the rheumatoid arthritis patient population include: trends in disease activity and treatment patterns, delays in treatment acceleration, outcomes related to a treat to target strategy, the influence of comorbidities, and a comparative effectiveness evaluation of disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs. In psoriatic arthritis/spondyloarthritis, presentations focus on: characterization of unique patient subgroups, treatment patterns, evaluating biologic medication persistency, and rebounding of symptoms following achievement of low disease activity and biologic disontinuation.

About Corrona

Corrona was founded in 2001 by leading physicians dedicated to advancing and improving the care of patients with chronic autoimmune diseases. Its mission is to advance research and improve the quality of patient care through world-class observational cohorts. Corrona provides longitudinal clinical data, patient reported measures, and research results to all biopharmaceutical companies with an interest in autoimmune diseases. Corrona data analysis has provided a rich framework in which to explore topics such as comparative effectiveness, post market safety reporting, and commercial applications. Corrona is advised by experienced academic and clinical physicians throughout the country with a wide range of expertise. Read more at www.corrona.org.

Contact:

Leslie R. Harrold, MD, MPH, Senior Medical Director, 508-266-8252

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SOURCE Corrona

Related Links

http://www.corrona.org


ATLANTA, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Independent dealers will learn industry insights from Cox Automotive experts representing Autotrader, Kelley Blue Book, Manheim, NextGear Capital and vAuto during the 2016 National Independent Automobile Dealers Association (NIADA) Convention and Expo at the Mirage in Las Vegas on June 13-16.

"Since independent dealers play such a critical role in the automotive ecosystem, Cox Automotive is continually evolving its solutions with the specific needs of independents in mind," said Marcus Dame, senior director, Product Management - Media, Cox Automotive. "Gathering genuine feedback and engaging in productive dialogue with dealers at the NIADA Convention helps us focus our efforts on solutions that will help drive dealer profitability."

Further demonstrating its commitment to independent used vehicle dealers, Cox Automotive will recognize a dealer for being a positive force in its community. The dealership will receive $10,000 for a charity of its choice during the NIADA Convention on June 15.

General and educational sessions at the NIADA event will feature Cox Automotive speakers:

Market Update and Leadership Panel: Simplifying How Cars are Acquired and Sold

June 15, 8:30 - 9:30 a.m. PDT

Tom Webb, chief economist, Cox Automotive

Jonathan Schwartz, senior director, Inside Sales - Media, Cox Automotive

Randy Dohse, senior vice president, Field Operations, NextGear Capital

Randy Kobat, vice president and general manager, vAuto

Fredrick Stanfield, vice president, Wholesale Solutions, Manheim

Cox Automotive Chief Economist Tom Webb will discuss the big changes in makes and models, sellers and price points of vehicles being offered. Following the market update, leaders across Cox Automotive will discuss these trends, how to capitalize on them and provide answers to how connected solutions can simplify the exchanges of vehicles to maximize value for independent dealers.

Advertising Compliance

June 15, 9:45 - 10:45 a.m. PDT

Heidi Eddy-Dorn, associate general counsel - Media, Cox Automotive

This session will help dealers navigate federal and state advertising requirements related to automotive products and services. Eddy-Dorn will explore Internet advertising and compliance in relation to emerging technologies and digital marketing initiatives.

CPO Best Practices  The New Weapon to Compete with Franchise Stores

June 15, 3:15 - 4 p.m. PDT

Marcus Dame, senior director, Product Management - Media, Cox Automotive

In this session, Dame will explain why CPO vehicle sales will hit another all-time record high in 2016, how dealerships can take advantage of this fast-growing and profitable market, along with best practices in the implementation and merchandising of a CPO program to compete more effectively with new-car franchise stores.

A Better Way To Source Auction Vehicles

June 15, 4:15 - 5 p.m. PDT

Majd Saboura, director, Wholesale Business Development, vAuto

Saboura will explain how Stockwave, an innovative wholesale sourcing tool, can help sell more vehicles, and make more money, through more efficient, market-smart and simplified wholesale sourcing.

Partner Through Positive Disruption

June 15, 3:15 - 4 p.m. PDT

Susan Moritz, vice president, Business Development, NextGear Capital

In this session, Moritz will highlight an innovative automotive experience for both consumers and dealers that will enhance the customer buying experience while creating operational efficiencies that empower dealers and improve profitability.

How to Use the Internet to Level the Playing Field Between You and Your Competition

June 16, 8:30 - 9:30 a.m. PDT

Jonathan Schwartz, senior director, Inside Sales  Media, Cox Automotive

During this session, Schwartz will address the misconception that smaller dealers cannot compete against large dealer operations on the Internet, especially on third-party sites. In this workshop, dealers will learn the steps to get the same results online as the "big guys" to level the playing field.

To learn more about how Cox Automotive can help independent dealers succeed, visit the Dealer Learning Center: www.dealerlearningcenter.com

About Cox Automotive

Cox Automotive Inc. is transforming the way the world buys, sells and owns cars with industry-leading digital marketing, software, financial, wholesale and e-commerce solutions for consumers, dealers, manufacturers and the overall automotive ecosystem worldwide. Committed to open choice and dedicated to strong partnerships, the Cox Automotive family includes Autotrader, Dealer.com, Dealertrack, Kelley Blue Book, Manheim, NextGear Capital, vAuto, Xtime and a host of other brands. The global company has nearly 30,000 team members in more than 200 locations and is partner to more than 40,000 auto dealers, as well as most major automobile manufacturers, while engaging U.S. consumer car buyers with the most recognized media brands in the industry. Cox Automotive is a subsidiary of Cox Enterprises, Inc., an Atlanta-based company with revenues of $18 billion and approximately 55,000 employees. Cox Enterprises' other major operating subsidiaries include Cox Communications and Cox Media Group. For more information about Cox Automotive, visit www.coxautoinc.com.

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SOURCE Cox Automotive

Related Links

http://www.coxautoinc.com


CONWAY, Ark., June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Eyenalyze, the leader in CPA-friendly restaurant back-office solutions, today announced that David's Burgers is using the company's CPA-friendly back office restaurant solution  comprised of POS-connected PC applications and mobile apps. Created through a collaboration between restaurant managers and CPA's, the Eyenalyze platform is built to provide the powerful business tools usually reserved for national chains to regional and independent restaurant operators.

Founded on the knowledge and principles of "Butcher Boy" David Bubbus Sr. along with the traditions and craftsmanship found in master butcher shops, David's Burger's offers award-winning burgers and cuisines with seven locations throughout Arkansas. The only hamburger restaurant with beef that is handcut from US Choice Chuck and ground for each day's use, David's Burgers customers can can view US Choice Chuck displayed proudly at the entrance of each location.

"Eyenalyze has revolutionized our accounting system! It's simpler, easier and much more efficient and our systems are integrated allowing us to avoid manual data entry," said D Alan Bubbus, president of David's Burgers. "In addition to increasing accuracy in our systems, Eyenalyze has also improved morale in our company by eliminating redundant work that our staff abhorred. With Eyenalyze we have been able to improve efficiency by almost 40 percent!"

Eyenalyze provides real-time analytics and key indicators such as Daily Net Sales, Weekly Cash Flow, Ingredient Cost Controls, Labor, and Daily Gross Profit to restaurant owners and managers via the web and mobile phone. Eyenalyze's patent pending API retrieves daily POS sales numbers as well as controllable profit data directly from suppliers including food service, payroll, alcohol and credit card companies. Eyenalyze "crunches" the data nightly, creating an accurate and up-to-date picture of daily restaurant profitability which can be exported into accounting software with ease, saving time and providing useful data that can help lower operating costs. The easy-to-read reports are accessible online at any time through any web or mobile device.

Eyenalyze's companion iOS app, compatible with both iPhone and iPad, incorporates all aspects of back-office management software into a clean, user-friendly experience. With Eyenalyze for iOS, restaurant managers and owners can easily take a glance at daily sales, food cost, labor, bottom-line and more all from their mobile device.

"We're honored to have David's Burgers using Eyenalyze to optimize their business while providing clear operational visibility, reducing redundancy and even boosting morale  all while increasing profitability," said Michael Rasmussen CPA, CEO of Eyenalyze. "Whether you are a single location operation or a multi-state franchise, we provide a powerful set of CPA-friendly business management tools to restaurant owners and managers enabling them to more easily compete with national chains."

Eyenalyze features:

Provides clear, daily profit analysis with your morning coffee

Provides easy-to-read reports compiled from POS data

Provides at-a-glance monitoring of deliveries, invoices, and food cost

Inventory utilities assist with store organization, supply count and menu plate costing

Manage employee shift, rate and salary

Fully compatible with major vendors including Ben E. Keith , Performance Food Group, US Foods and Sysco Corp

Pricing and availability

To learn more or to schedule a free demo of Eyenalyze, please visit Eyenalyze.com. Eyenalyze for iOS is available for all subscription customers as a free download at the iTunes App Store. To participate in the Eyenalyze ecosystem as a reseller, data provider, or customer, please visit Eyenalyze on the web at www.Eyenalyze.com.

About Eyenalyze, Inc

Founded in 2013, Conway, Arkansas-based Eyenalyze is the first company to provide complete near real-time analytics developed by restaurant operators, for operators and advisors. Eyenalyze's proprietary, patent-pending API retrieves daily updates from POS, Vendor/Supplier, Ingredient/Menu, Payroll, Credit Card, and Banking systems. Eyenalyze tools, accessible via web or mobile device, enable restaurants to optimize nearly all back office operations, increasing gross and profit margins and creating a platform for success that is not often available to the small independent operator.

SOURCE Eyenalyze

Related Links

http://www.Eyenalyze.com


BEIJING, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Father's Day, one of the most celebrated holidays in America, draws great attention, and many are looking for good presents to give to their fathers. DHgate.com announces a new online campaign to celebrate the holiday by offering interesting gifts with very competitive prices. Bulk purchasers can enjoy even more competitive prices.

A NEW WATCH - FOR THE PRAGMATIC DAD

A gift to accompany your father at all times, a reliable watch! Made from quality materials and attention to design. These designer watches are tough, durable and will last for years; they will not disappoint!

HAMMOCK/TENT COMBO - FOR THE OUTDOORSY DAD

If your dad loves the great outdoors, show him how much you appreciate him by giving him the unique combination. The 2-in-1 Hammock tent combination is easily assembled and reassembled. It is also very durable, made with tear- and water-resistant material, making it a great camping companion. What's also very important is that this tent is lightweight and easy to transport.

SHAVER - FOR THE DAPPER DAD

The most popular electric shavers from DHgate.com are the travel electric shavers and wet dry electric shavers of the highest quality. The performance and safety features of the best Braun Electric Shaver makes it a breakthrough product for the price.

JUICER - FOR THE FIT DAD

Although drinking coffee is most people's everyday routine, fresh juice can promote a healthy lifestyle. Simply feed vegetables or fruits through the top of the machine and seconds later, delicious and healthy juice will flow out into the 500ml container. This stainless steel model has a powerful motor and is dishwasher safe.

HEADPHONES - FOR THE TRENDY DAD

Great for the dad on the go, these Bluetooth headphones will guarantee that your dad enjoys his tunes in peace. The clear and superior sound will offer your dad an awesome music listening experience. In addition to the high performance of the headphones, the charming and unique design is another reason to buy.

ABOUT DHgate.com

DHgate.com is the first to market and the biggest transactional cross border B2B e-commerce marketplace in China. We aim to provide global buyers with quality products at competitive prices. Founded in 2004, DHgate.com has approximately 10 million global buyers from 230 countries and regions, with 1.2 million global sellers offering 33 million products. DHgate.com's business enables buyers to directly access global manufacturers of the world's top brands with rich product selections. DHgate.com is an all-in-one platform with integrated services for international logistics, cross border payments, internet financing, etc. DHgate.com's US product distribution warehouses allow for 24 hour delivery and convenient product returns & refunds, bringing great convenience to buyers at http://www.dhgate.com.

SOURCE DHgate.com

Related Links

http://www.dhgate.com


Following the screening, NHPCO President and CEO Don Schumacher will moderate a roundtable discussion featuring Dr. Gawande, Patrick Conway, MD, CMS Deputy Administrator for Innovation and Quality and CMS Chief Medical Officer, and Rory Feek. He was the primary caregiver for his wife Joey, who died from cervical cancer in March at the age of 40.

Feek shared his wife's experiences and challenges very publicly on the couple's blog ThisLifeILive.com. His words captured the attention and hearts of millions across the country. In one post, he explained the difficult decision to forego curative treatment. "Sometimes there just aren't enough surgeries  or doctors  or chemotherapies  or prayers," he writes. "And you have to wipe the tears from your cheeks and say the words that you were hoping to never have to say enough."

"We are honored to have Dr. Gawande, Dr. Conway and Rory Feek join us for this event," says Schumacher. "They all bring a unique perspective to our discussion that will focus on the importance of advance care planning for everyone, at all ages."

The Congressional film screening and panel discussion aims to encourage dialogue about advance care planning. In the film Being Mortal  based on Dr. Gawande's book of the same name  the relationship between doctors and patients with advanced illness is examined and the film illustrates how many doctors are not comfortable with talking about serious illness and death with their patients.

Joey Feek chose to spend her final months at home with the support of hospice and surrounded by her loved ones. "We came home," Rory Feek writes in his blog. "Not to die. But to live. To put our hands in each other's and sit out on the back porch and watch the sun set as our sweet little baby girl plays on a blanket in front of us."

This screening, hosted by NHPCO, is made possible by a grant from The John and Wauna Harman Foundation in partnership with the Hospice Foundation of America.

To learn more about this event, go to www.nhpco.org/beingmortal.

NHPCO offers free information on advance care planning and state-specific advance directives. Visit www.caringinfo.org to learn more.

Media Contact:

Amanda M. Bow

Director, Communications

NHPCO

Ph: 703.647.8525

Cell: 518.817.3753

[email protected]

NHPCO is the oldest and largest nonprofit membership organization representing hospice and palliative care programs and professionals in the United States. NHPCO's mission is to lead and mobilize social change for improved care at the end of life, www.nhpco.org.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160608/377093

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SOURCE National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization

Related Links

http://www.nhpco.org


SANTIAGO, Chile, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- College students on track for a medical career are strongly encouraged to consider the opportunity to travel and study in Chile this summer, made possible by the immersive Spanish language-learning program Ecela. The six-week program, which is limited to 25 participants, offers a combination of small, focused classes on grammar fundamentals and conversational practice, followed by in-the-field learning at local clinics and hospitals. At the end of the program, students will have significantly improved their Spanish language proficiency and learned more about another nation's health care system  both tremendously marketable skills.

Ecela students have the option of residing with a host family Ecela pre-med students volunteer alongside working health care professionals

Program organizers caution that summer in Chile is not for everyone. Making the most of the experience requires a willingness to leave one's ego and creature comforts behind for a while. However, anyone who can quickly adapt to new surroundings, and who has a sincere commitment to understand a different culture, is likely to excel in the program. No prior experience is Spanish is necessary; classes are tailored to all skill levels. Students have the option of residing with a host family, which can offer an even more immersive experience.

Today, more people speak Spanish in the U.S. than in Spain. Only Mexico and Colombia have larger Spanish-speaking populations, and the U.S. is on track to move into second place soon. This ongoing demographic shift is putting increasing pressure on clinics and hospitals to seek out and hire Spanish-speaking providers. In candidates with equal skills and credentials, Spanish fluency could well be a tiebreaker.

"I am currently pursuing a career in physical therapy, and Spanish is an extremely valuable asset to bring to the table," says one program applicant. "A language barrier can cause many issue in a physical therapy setting, as patient feedback is an integral component of any rehabilitation model. Feedback informs the therapist on when to increase rehab program intensity, so having a strong foundation in Spanish is essential to becoming a skilled physical therapist."

Ecela is founded on three core principles: exceptional teachers, small classes and cultural integration. The program looks for instructors who demonstrate passion and empathy rather than simply boasting the most impressive resume. Class sizes are kept to eight or fewer students for fundamentals and four or fewer for conversation. The emphasis in every class session is on conversation rather than rote memorization.

Ecela currently hosts six schools in three countries. Other than the dedicated health care program, the schools are open to adults of all ages and skill levels who wish to improve their linguistic and cultural fluency, not to mention make memories that will last a lifetime. The organization's broader mission is to bring 2,000 people to the level of fluency in Spanish by 2020, as well as introduce these students to new cultures and perspectives.

To apply for the Spanish and medicine in Chile 2016 program, follow the directions here. The first step is payment of a $25 application deposit. Questions can be directed to [email protected].

About Ecela

Ecela is a Spanish language-learning program with six sites in Peru, Chile and Argentina. Thousands of students from across the globe have taken advantage of the small classes and affordable tuition to learn Spanish while enjoying everything the local culture has to offer.

Contact:

Ken Ingraham

(+1) 347-329-5506

Email

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160607/376790

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160607/376791

SOURCE Ecela

Related Links

http://www.ecela.com


LONDON, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Data from two Phase III trials (with 171 and 225 patients, respectively) of Epidiolex in Lennox-Gastaut (LGS) patients are coming soon with the first trial to report out in June with the second coming in Q316. In the latest expanded access program data, Epidiolex reduced atonic/drop seizure frequency by a median of 71.1%. Previous data suggest a placebo response rate in LGS of around 10% which, combined with the size of the trials, indicates sufficient power to demonstrate a difference.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130417/608168 )



Our valuation is now $2.16bn ($98.84/ADS) vs $2.04bn ($93.64/ADS) after increasing the probability of success for Epidiolex in Dravet to 90% from 70% following the successful Phase III trial. Also, the probability of success of TSC has been increased from 30% to 60% following the Dravet results and the initiation of the Phase III trial. These changes on valuation were mitigated somewhat by an increase in R&D and SG&A estimates. We now estimate profitability in 2019 (previously 2018) with a total cash burn of around $230m until then. We estimate that GW has enough cash to achieve its goals without additional capital.

Click here to view the full report.

All reports published by Edison are available to download free of charge from its website http://www.edisoninvestmentresearch.com.

About Edison: Edison is an international equity research firm with a team of over 110 analysts, investment and roadshow professionals and works with both large and smaller capitalised companies, blue chip institutional investors, wealth managers, private equity and corporate finance houses to support their capital markets activity. Edison provides services to more than 420 retained corporate and investor clients from offices in London, New York, Frankfurt, Sydney and Wellington. Edison is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

Edison is not an adviser or broker-dealer and does not provide investment advice. Edison's reports are not solicitations to buy or sell any securities.

Contact details: Learn more at http://www.edisongroup.com and connect with Edison on:



LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/company/edison-investment-research

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YouTube http://www.youtube.com/edisonitv

Google+ https://plus.google.com/105425025202328783163/posts





For more information please contact:

Maxim Jacobs Edison Investment Research +1-646-653-7027

Nathanial Calloway Edison Investment Research +1-646-653-7036

[email protected]



SOURCE Edison Investment Research
"The Greater Chickadee project is a perfect example of EnLink's commitment to execute in our core growth areas and will be a valuable complement to our crude oil business," said Barry E. Davis, President and Chief Executive Officer of EnLink Midstream. "We are doing exactly what we said we would do when we made the acquisition of LPC Crude Oil Marketing  using the LPC platform to expand and grow our crude service offerings in the Permian. Greater Chickadee is the next step in creating a regional gathering system to capture additional value through an expanded platform and improved asset integration."

Greater Chickadee is supported by long-term, fee-based agreements with top Permian Basin producers. The project includes approximately 35,000 dedicated acres in Upton County. Current production from this dedicated acreage is over 10,000 barrels per day.

A presentation related to this announcement can be found on the Investors page of www.EnLink.com.

About the EnLink Midstream Companies

EnLink Midstream is a leading, integrated midstream company with a diverse geographic footprint and a strong financial foundation, delivering tailored customer solutions for sustainable growth. EnLink Midstream is publicly traded through two entities: EnLink Midstream, LLC (NYSE: ENLC), the publicly traded general partner entity, and EnLink Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE: ENLK), the master limited partnership.

EnLink Midstream's assets are located in many of North America's premier oil and gas regions, including the Barnett Shale, Permian Basin, Cana-Woodford Shale, Arkoma-Woodford Shale, STACK, SCOOP, C-NOW, Eagle Ford Shale, Haynesville Shale, Gulf Coast region, Utica Shale, and Marcellus Shale. Based in Dallas, Texas, EnLink Midstream's assets include approximately 9,900 miles of gathering and transportation pipelines, 19 processing plants with approximately 3.9 billion cubic feet per day of processing capacity, seven fractionators with approximately 284,000 barrels per day of fractionation capacity, as well as barge and rail terminals, product storage facilities, purchase and marketing capabilities, brine disposal wells, an extensive crude oil trucking fleet and equity investments in certain private midstream companies.

Additional information about the EnLink companies can be found at www.EnLink.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These statements are based on certain assumptions made by the Partnership and the General Partner based upon management's experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions, expected future developments and other factors the Partnership and the General Partner believe are appropriate in the circumstances. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the project's expected financial results, the project's characteristics, the project's connections, the project's customers as well as forecasts regarding capacity, investment and timing for becoming operational for the project discussed above, as well as the Partnership's future growth and results of operations. Such statements are subject to a number of assumptions, risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the control of the Partnership and the General Partner, which may cause the Partnership's and the General Partner's actual results to differ materially from those implied or expressed by the forward-looking statements. These risks include, but are not limited to, risks discussed in the Partnership's and the General Partner's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Partnership and the General Partner have no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Media Contact: Jill McMillan, Vice President of Public Relations, 214-721-9271, [email protected]

Investors Contact: Kate Walsh, Vice President of Investor Relations, 214-721-9696, [email protected]

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SOURCE EnLink Midstream

Related Links

http://www.enlink.com


SAN FRANCISCO, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Espetus Churrascaria Brazilian Steak House today announced that it has received a TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence. Now in its sixth year, the achievement celebrates hospitality businesses that have earned great traveler reviews on TripAdvisor over the past year. Certificate of Excellence recipients include accommodations, eateries and attractions located all over the world that have continually delivered a quality customer experience.

"We are very proud of bringing the authentic churrasco experience to the Bay Area and creating lasting memories for our local loyal guests," says Ilana Teles, marketing strategist of Espetus Churrascaria.

"With the Certificate of Excellence, TripAdvisor honors hospitality businesses that have consistently received strong praise and ratings from travelers," said Heather Leisman, Vice President of Industry Marketing, TripAdvisor. "This recognition helps travelers identify and book properties that regularly deliver great service. TripAdvisor is proud to play this integral role in helping travelers feel more confident in their booking decisions."

The Certificate of Excellence accounts for the quality, quantity and recency of reviews submitted by travelers on TripAdvisor over a 12-month period. To qualify, a business must maintain an overall TripAdvisor bubble rating of at least four out of five, have a minimum number of reviews and must have been listed on TripAdvisor for at least 12 months.

About Espetus Churrascaria

Espetus, San Francisco's veritable Brazilian churrascaria, a popular Brazilian style of dining where grilled meats are served tableside off a sword by waiters also known as "gauchos," a nod to churrasco's 1700s Brazilian cowboy beginnings. Evoking the fireside meals on the open plains, 14 signature cuts of beef, pork, chicken, lamb and shrimp grilled over a mesquite charcoal open flame, giving Espetus' grilled sensations the authentic taste other San Francisco churrascarias are missing.

About TripAdvisor

TripAdvisor is the world's largest travel site, enabling travelers to plan and book the perfect trip. TripAdvisor offers advice from millions of travelers and a wide variety of travel choices and planning features with seamless links to booking tools that check hundreds of websites to find the best hotel prices. TripAdvisor branded sites make up the largest travel community in the world, reaching 340 million unique monthly visitors, and 350 million reviews and opinions covering 6.5 million accommodations, restaurants and attractions. The sites operate in 48 markets worldwide.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160608/377097LOGO

SOURCE Espetus Churrascaria
COSTA MESA, Calif., June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Experian RentBureau and Yardi, a leading provider of real estate software solutions, are improving the rental industry by launching an interface that helps renters build credit history by having their rental payments reported to Experian RentBureau. The new interface enables Yardi's property manager clients to report rental payment data to Experian RentBureau easily and seamlessly.

"We are on a mission to broaden opportunities for consumers to gain access to the credit marketplace," said Emily Christiansen, director of Experian RentBureau. "By working with Yardi, we are significantly expanding the number of consumers who can benefit from having their rental payments reported, which can make a real impact in the daily lives of renters nationwide."

Yardi clients simply sign up with Experian RentBureau to have their rental payment history reported from Yardi Voyager automatically. In addition to the benefits to consumers, property managers that furnish rental payment history data to Experian RentBureau gain enhanced protection from lease skips, a faster debt-recovery process and more residents paying rent in a timely manner.

"We are dedicated to continually improving our platforms and services to further meet the evolving needs of our clients," said Patrick Hennessey, vice president/general manager, Resident Screening, at Yardi. "Adding the capability to report valuable rental payment data to Experian RentBureau through a seamless process will help our clients manage their portfolios more efficiently and enhance their service to their clients, which positions them for real growth."

Rental payment history data also is available to Yardi clients through Yardi Resident Screening. This service enables clients to make more informed applicant-screening decisions, reduce skips and accept higher-quality residents.

To learn more about reporting rental payment history data to Experian RentBureau, please visit http://www.experian.com/rentbureau.

About Yardi

Yardi develops and supports industry-leading investment and property management software for all types and sizes of real estate companies. Established in 1984, Yardi is based in Santa Barbara, Calif., and serves clients worldwide. For more information, visit http://www.yardi.com/.

About Experian RentBureau

Experian RentBureau is the largest and most widely used database of rental payment information and currently includes information on more than 15 million residents nationwide. Property management companies and electronic rent payment processors report rental payment data directly and automatically to Experian RentBureau every 24 hours. This detailed rental payment information enables organizations to make better-informed decisions. Property management companies utilize this data to screen new rental applicants' payment history as part of their existing resident-screening services. Experian is the first major credit reporting agency to incorporate the positive rental payment data reported to Experian RentBureau in consumer credit reports, enabling residents to build credit history by paying rent responsibly.

To learn more about Experian RentBureau, visit http://www.experian.com/rentbureau.

For renters interested in building credit history through rental payments, please visit http://www.experian.com/buildcredithistory.

About Experian

We are the leading global information services company, providing data and analytical tools to our clients around the world. We help businesses to manage credit risk, prevent fraud, target marketing offers and automate decision making. We also help people to check their credit report and credit score and protect against identity theft. In 2015, we were named one of the "World's Most Innovative Companies" by Forbes magazine.

We employ approximately 17,000 people in 37 countries and our corporate headquarters are in Dublin, Ireland, with operational headquarters in Nottingham, UK; California, US; and Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Experian plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (EXPN) and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 index. Total revenue for the year ended March 31, 2016, was US$4.6 billion.

To find out more about our company, please visit http://www.experianplc.com or watch our documentary, "Inside Experian."

Experian and the Experian marks used herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of Experian Information Solutions, Inc. Other product and company names mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.

Contact:

Kelsey Audagnotti

Experian Public Relations

1 714 830 7907

[email protected]

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SOURCE Experian

Related Links

http://www.experian.com


Through the program, a collaboration among the Mayor's Office of Public Safety, John Hancock and Boys & Girls Club of Boston's YouthConnect, participants began last June attending a summer program at BGCB's Mattapan Teen Center as well as Camp Harbor View, then participated in small group workshops during the academic year on topics including leadership, financial awareness, career exploration, community and workplace safety, decision making skills, communication skills, and health & wellness.

Participants also had ongoing case management, which was extended to their immediate family, as well as afterschool programming at a local BGCB Club. In addition, participants are able to earn a stipend (up to $800) over the course of the program for positive participation and attendance.

Aaliyah Colon, a 14 year-old from Mattapan, spoke at the graduation, explaining what the program had meant to her. "It was a commitment I had to make to better myself and my futurean opportunity to tap into my full success and get prepared for the real world. One day, I would love to be a leader for my community and everyone around me because I know that as many times as I will fail, I will always pick myself back up and still have the motivation to be on top," said Colon.

"Mayor Walsh congratulates John Hancock's commitment for continuing its innovative thinking, partnerships and willingness to help young people at this most pivotal age," said Dan Mulhern, director, Mayor's Office, Public Safety Initiatives. "Boston will see the impact of EPIC in dividends for years to come, and we, the City, could not think of a better partner for this than YouthConnect and its incredibly qualified staff."

"The EPIC program shows how innovative thinking and collaboration with great partners like these can really make a difference in the lives of the children we serve," said Josh Kraft, Nicholas President and CEO, Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston. "Over the course of the last year, these young people have increased their self-awareness, gained confidence and become true leaders in their schools and communities."

"We are proud of our partnership with the Mayor's Office of Public Safety and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston's YouthConnect and congratulate the first cohort to complete the 12-month intensive program," said Tom Crohan, assistant vice president and counsel, John Hancock. "Through the best-in-class community-based services delivered by YouthConnect, we strive to empower students to realize their potential through a curriculum focused on cultivating leadership and forming connections during a time of change and transition."

About EPIC

In partnership with the Mayor's Office of Public Safety and John Hancock, BGCB's Youth Connect has launched a 12 month, intensive program which aims to increase self-awareness and confidence in youth 11-14 years old. EPIC: Enhancing Potential, Inspiring Change, empowers youth to realize their potential through a curriculum focused on cultivating leadership and forming connections during a time of change and transition. EPIC instills confidence and hope for the future in young teens, directly addressing a growing need in our city, as identified by Mayor Walsh.

About John Hancock Financial and Manulife

John Hancock Financial is a division of Manulife, a leading Canada-based financial services group with principal operations in Asia, Canada and the United States. Operating as Manulife in Canada and Asia, and primarily as John Hancock in the United States, our group of companies offers clients a diverse range of financial protection products and wealth management services through its extensive network of employees, agents and distribution partners. Assets under management and administration by Manulife and its subsidiaries were $904 billion (US $697 billion) as at March 31, 2016. Manulife Financial Corporation trades as 'MFC' on the TSX, NYSE and PSE, and under '945' on the SEHK. Manulife ca be found on the Internet at Manulife.com.

The John Hancock unit, though its insurance companies, comprises one of the largest life insurers in the United States. John Hancock offers and administers a broad range of financial products, including life insurance, annuities, investments, 401(k) plans, long-term care insurance, college savings and other forms of business insurance. Additional information about John Hancock may be found at johnhancock.com.

About Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston

Since its founding in 1893, Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston (BGBC) has been helping young people, especially those who need us most, build strong character and realize their full potential as responsible citizens and leaders. BGBC does this by providing: a safe have filled with hope and opportunity, ongoing relationships with caring adults, and life-enhancing programs in six core program areas. The organization serves nearly 16,000 young people ages 6-18 in 11 Clubs, and through Camp Harbor View and YouthConnect. BGCB is an affiliate of Boys & Girls Clubs of American and The United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley. For more information, visit BGCB on the web at bgcb.org.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160608/377044

SOURCE John Hancock Financial

Related Links

http://www.jhancock.com


CHARLOTTE, N.C., June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Dr. Herb Riemenschneider performed the first HIFU treatment for prostate cancer in Ohio today at Knightsbridge Surgery Center, in partnership with HIFU Prostate Services.

HIFU, which stands for high intensity focused ultrasound, is a one-time, outpatient procedure that allows men to return to their normal lifestyle within a few days after treatment. There is no surgery and no radiation; therefore, there is less risk of damage to urinary or sexual function after HIFU.

"I have been working with this technology for several years now and have seen first hand how beneficial it can be for the right type of prostate cancer patient," said Riemenschneider. "I am proud to be the first physician in Ohio to treat a patient with HIFU and I look forward to offering it to many more men."

Riemenschneider offers patients HIFU with the most technologically advanced device on available in the country today, the Sonablate. The Sonablate is the only HIFU device with the ability to offer patients a truly customized treatment. Doctors can decide exactly what tissue in the prostate to target and how much HIFU energy should be applied to that area.

HIFU Prostate Services, the first and most experienced company to provide HIFU treatment for prostate cancer, has partnered with Riverside Urology in Columbus, Ohio and First Urology in Louisville, Kentucky, to bring minimally invasive HIFU to men with prostate disease, including prostate cancer.

About HIFU Prostate Services, LLC

HIFU Prostate Services (HPS) was founded to provide men access to a less invasive treatment option for prostate cancer that has the ability to eliminate cancer and preserve patient quality of life. Our mission is to deliver the highest quality of care, support, and technology to the patient and to the urology community for the treatment of localized prostate cancer using Sonablate HIFU. The company is headquartered in Charlotte, NC and has established partnerships with physicians and urology practices throughout the country. More info: http://www.hifuprostateservices.com.

About Riverside Urology

Riverside Urology Inc. is a state-of-the-art facility dedicated to the well being of our patients. They specialize in the treatment of diseases and functional problems of the bladder, kidneys, and urogenital system. They have particular professional skill and experience in urologic oncology, primarily the treatment of prostate cancer. More info: www.HIFUOH.com and www.riversideurology.com

About First Urology

First Urology, PSC, which was formed when Metropolitan Urology and Allied Urology joined together as equal partners, is the largest urologic provider in the greater Louisville and southern Indiana area. They offer comprehensive urologic care for men, women and children of all ages. Their physicians are dedicated to finding solutions to a wide range of issues to help patients regain to the quality of life they deserve. For additional information, visit www.1sturology.com.

About Knightsbridge Surgery Center

Knightsbridge Surgery Center is a state-of-the-art outpatient facility featuring some of the finest board certified surgeons and anesthesia providers in Columbus, including a highly skilled surgical team trained in all areas of pre-operative and post-operative care. They are dedicated to providing the highest quality of individualized care to each patient. This patient focused approach is intended to promote long-term health and well being that results in a high degree of patient satisfaction. The Knightsbridge Surgery Center is operated in partnership with OhioHealth. More info: http://www.knightsbridge-surgery.com.

Media Contact

John Linn, HIFU Prostate Services

704-737-5925

SOURCE HIFU Prostate Services, LLC

Related Links

http://www.hifuprostateservices.com


LONDON, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Summary

The Future of the Chinese Defense Industry - Market Attractiveness, Competitive Landscape and Forecasts to 2021published by Strategic Defence Intelligence, provides readers with a detailed analysis of both historic and forecast Chinese defense industry values, factors influencing demand, the challenges faced by industry participants, analysis of industry leading companies, and key news.



Key Findings

- Chinese defense expenditure recorded a CAGR of 9.23% between 2012 and 2016, and valued US$146.3 billion in 2016



- The country's total defense expenditure during the forecast period is expected to be US$1007.1 billion



- The average share of capital expenditure is expected to be 32.8% over the forecast period



- Over the forecast period, the country's budget for homeland security is expected to be US$161.8 billion cumulatively



- The key areas of investment are expected to be fighter and multi-role aircraft,submarines,helicopter, naval vessels, and missile defense systems



Synopsis

This report offers detailed analysis of the Chinese defense industry with market size forecasts covering the next five years. This report will also analyze factors that influence demand for the industry, key market trends and challenges faced by industry participants. In particular, it provides an in-depth analysis of the following:



- Chinese defense industry market size and drivers: detailed analysis of the Chinese defense industryduring 2017-2021, including highlights of the demand drivers and growth stimulators for the industry. It also provides a snapshot of the spending patterns and modernization patterns of the country



- Budget allocation and key challenges: insights into procurement schedules formulated within the country and a breakdown of the defense budget with respect to the army, navy, and air force. It also details the key challenges faced by the defense market participants within the country



- Porter's Five Force analysis of the Chinese defense industry: analysis of the market characteristics by determining the bargaining power of suppliers, bargainingpower of thebuyer, threat of substitutions, intensity of rivalry,and barrier to entry



- Import and Export Dynamics: analysis of prevalent trends in the country's imports and exports over the last five years



- Market opportunities: details of the top five defense investment opportunities over the coming 10 years



- Competitive landscape and strategic insights: analysis of the competitive landscape of the Chinese defense industry. It provides an overview of key players, together with insights such as key alliances, strategic initiatives, and a brief financial analysis



Reasons To Buy

- This report will give the user confidence to make the correct business decisions based on a detailed analysis of the Chinese defense industry market trends for the coming five years



- The market opportunity section will inform the user about the various military requirements thatare expected to generate revenues during the forecast period. The description includes technical specifications, recent orders, and the expected investment pattern by the country during the forecast period



- Detailed profiles of the top domestic and foreign defense manufacturers with information about their products, alliances, recent contract wins and financial analysis wherever available. This will provide the user with a total competitive landscape of the sector



- A deep qualitative analysis of the Chinese defense industry covering sections including demand drivers, Porter's Five Force Analysis, Key Trends and Growth Stimulators, and latest industry contracts

Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/1120938/



About Reportbuyer

Reportbuyer is a leading industry intelligence solution that provides all market research reports from top publishers

http://www.reportbuyer.com

For more information:

Sarah Smith

Research Advisor at Reportbuyer.com

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +44 208 816 85 48

Website: www.reportbuyer.com

SOURCE ReportBuyer

Related Links

http://www.reportbuyer.com


MINNEAPOLIS, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- General Mills today announced a strategic sourcing partnership with the largest organic cooperative in the U.S. that will help about 20 dairy farms add around 3,000 acres to organic dairy production over the next three years.

The program with Wisconsin-based Organic Valley will drive more acres in the U.S. into the organic certification process and builds upon General Mills' commitment to double the organic acreage from which it sources ingredients by 2019.

Infographic. General Mills has announced a strategic sourcing partnership with the largest organic cooperative in the U.S. that will help about 20 dairy farms add around 3,000 acres to organic dairy production over the next three years.

General Mills has transformed its portfolio in recent years and is now the No. 3 maker of natural and organic foods with nine brands including Cascadian Farm, Muir Glen, LARABAR, Liberte, Mountain High, Food Should Taste Good, Immaculate Baking, Annie's and EPIC Provisions.

The strategic alignment with Organic Valley will build General Mills' relationships with the organic farmers who will be supporting its yogurt operating unit in the U.S., which includes brands like Yoplait, Annie's, Liberte and Mountain High.

Earlier this year General Mills introduced the Annie's brand to the U.S. yogurt category with a new line of certified organic whole milk yogurt. In addition, the company is transitioning its Liberte yogurt brand in the U.S. to USDA certified organic, which will roll out nationwide this summer.

"To ensure we are able to deliver great tasting organic yogurt offerings to our consumers we are committed to supporting a framework in partnership with Organic Valley that will not only ensure a consistent supply chain, but also make it easier for dairy farmers to successfully manage through the transition to organic," said David Clark, president of the General Mills Yogurt Operating Unit.

While demand for organic food is increasing in the U.S., supply has not been able to keep up. In the U.S., acreage devoted to organic agriculture is about one percent of total cropland, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. General Mills has made sizeable investments to meet growing consumer interest in natural and organic foods, which is expected to drive double-digit industry sales growth over the next five years.

"We recognize that one of the biggest challenges to accelerating organic supply is enabling farmers to bridge the three-year period required to attain certified organic status under USDA rules. There is tremendous opportunity for Annie's  with the scale of General Mills  to increase the organic ingredient supply needed to support the rising consumer interest in organic foods," said John Foraker, president of Annie's.

Since 2009, General Mills has increased the organic acreage it supports by 120 percent and is now among the top five organic ingredient purchasers  and the second largest buyer of organic fruits and vegetables  in the North American packaged food sector.

In addition, General Mills will launch the Organic & Regenerative Agriculture Transition Council, which will bring together sustainable agricultural leaders, farmers and industry stakeholders with the mission of advancing organic and regenerative agriculture practices. The first project will focus on dairy.

General Mills has long been committed to dairy sustainability initiatives and has been focused on advancing the sustainability of its supply chain to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve water quality and promote better animal welfare.

In 2013, as part of the company's sustainable sourcing commitment, General Mills said that by the year 2020, 100 percent of its U.S. directly sourced fluid milk would be sourced from producing regions that demonstrate continuous improvement as measured by the Dairy Sustainability Framework in the U.S. and other comparative environmental metrics globally.

About General Mills

General Mills is a leading global food company that serves the world by making food people love. Its brands include Cheerios, Annie's, Yoplait, Nature Valley, Fiber One, Haagen-Dazs, Betty Crocker, Pillsbury, Old El Paso, Wanchai Ferry, Yoki and more. Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, General Mills had fiscal 2015 worldwide net sales of US $18.7 billion, including the company's US $1.1 billion proportionate share of joint-venture net sales.

About Organic Valley

Organic Valley is America's largest cooperative of organic farmers and one of the nation's leading organic brands. Organized in 1988, it represents more than 1,800 farmers in 36 states. Focused on its founding mission of saving family farms through organic farming, Organic Valley produces a variety of organic foods, including organic milk, soy, cheese, butter, spreads, creams, eggs and produce, which are sold in supermarkets, natural foods stores and food cooperatives nationwide. With its regional model, milk is produced, bottled and distributed right in the region where it is farmed to ensure fewer miles from farm to table and to support local economies.

Infographic - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160607/376713-INFO

SOURCE General Mills

Related Links

http://www.generalmills.com


It's time to journey back into the juice aisle and "Drink Fruitfully!" Ocean Spray is flooding the juice aisle with a wave of better-for-you, better-for-your-family refreshment options via PACt Fruit Infusions. PACt Fruit Infusions Juice Drinks have everything your family loves about juice. From the delightful, fruity taste kids love, to the goodness of real fruit, PACt Fruit Infusions contains the Power of 50 Cranberries via PACs, the powerful elements found inside cranberries that help cleanse and purify your body.*

We've taken a traditional juice drink and made it EVEN BETTER, with a fraction of the sugar and calories** and nothing artificial. PACt Fruit Infusions is a healthy hydration option that's good for the whole family and most importantly "Mom Approved" as it is naturally sweetened and non-GMO.***

PACt Fruit Infusions Juice Drinks are available nationwide in three fresh and fruity varieties  Strawberry Kiwi, Cranberry Concord Grape and Cranberry Blueberry Cherry. Visit PACt.OceanSpray.com to learn more about PACt Fruit Infusions Juice Drinks and where to find them at a location near you.

About Ocean Spray

Ocean Spray is a vibrant agricultural cooperative owned by more than 700 cranberry and grapefruit growers in the United States, Canada and Chile who have helped preserve the family farming way of life for generations. Formed in 1930, Ocean Spray is now the world's leading producer of cranberry juices, juice drinks and dried cranberries and is the best-selling brand in the North American bottled juice category. The cooperative's cranberries are currently featured in more than a thousand great-tasting, good-for-you products in over 100 countries worldwide. With more than 2,000 employees and nearly 20 cranberry receiving and processing facilities, Ocean Spray is committed to managing our business in a way that respects our communities, employees and the environment. For more information visit: www.oceanspray.com or www.oceanspray.coop.

* with two 8 ounce servings

** compared to traditional Ocean Spray Cranberry Blend Juice Drinks

*** does not contain genetically engineered ingredients

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160606/376234

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160606/376319LOGO

SOURCE Ocean Spray

Related Links

http://www.oceanspray.com


WASHINGTON, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Global Alliance Institute, in partnership with the Girl Scouts Nation's Capital, today announced a special project to help young Syrian refugee girls. With support from AMIDEAST and HP, The Girls Truth Seekers Education Project will connect Girl Scouts in the greater Washington area with young Syrian refugee girls currently living in the countries bordering Syria. Through this initiative, the Syrian girls will attend virtual, online classes to learn English, and the Girl Scouts will earn the Truth Seeker badge.

In launching this new project, Global Alliance President Ambassador Paul Russo stated: "We are delighted to have AMIDEAST as a strategic partner in this effort. We are also grateful for the partnership and support from HP and the company's generous donation of laptop computers with Arabic keyboards, which are essential to the implementation of our program."

AMIDEAST, a leading U.S. non-profit that specializes in providing education and training services across the Middle East and North Africa, will act as Global Alliance's local implementing partner in Jordan, and their support will include providing on-the-ground work space; logistical support; training; and follow up assistance. Global Alliance also will be coordinating its efforts on the ground with UNHCR, the United Nations Refugee Agency.

As part of the training offered at its learning centers in the refugee camps, Global Alliance will also provide access to HP LIFE, a program of the HP Foundation. This innovative training program offers free online courses available in seven languages, including Arabic and French, that provide basic IT and business skills training to empower users, many from underserved communities, to raise themselves up and create a better life.

Ambassador Russo continued: "We believe that any long term solutions to the current refugee crisis must include education and training and, with projects like this one, Global Alliance hopes to offer one small, positive step  a step that not only provides education but also lets these young refugee girls know that someone cares about them."

"Everyone everywhere has the right to a quality education," says Nate Hurst, Chief Sustainability and Social Impact Officer, HP. "This important project is not only providing practical tools, including HP Probook and Notebook laptops, to enable continued learning. It is also connecting girls with very different life experiences, and helping them develop their understanding of each other and the wider world. HP is honored for the opportunity to support this work."

Jordan has been selected as the country location for the pilot phase of the Syrian Refugee Girls Education Project  in and around the capital city of Amman  where the refugees are located in both designated camps as well as dispersed in urban areas. This will provide an opportunity to implement the project under differing conditions, and further allow for the most effective replication of the program throughout Jordan and the other countries in the region that are hosting Syrian refugees.

Over the past year, Global Alliance, a 501(c)(3) Washington-based organization dedicated to building better relations between the Middle East and the United States, has focused special attention on the Syrian Refugee Crisis, a crisis that, according to Ambassador Russo "may well be the defining humanitarian challenge of our time."

Back in June of 2015, Global Alliance organized a conference in Beirut, Lebanon, gathering experts from both the United States and the Middle East to examine the immediate and long term effects of the Syrian Refugee Crisis. They were able to enlist the World Bank, the United Nations, the U.S. Institute of Peace, Georgetown University, and the Government of Lebanon as event co-sponsors and, building on the momentum generated at the conference, Global Alliance has moved forward on several projects to assist the Syrian refugees during this difficult period, among them this "Truth Seekers" initiative.

For further information,

Please contact:

Ambassador Paul Russo

[email protected]

Sandy Edwards

[email protected]

SOURCE Global Alliance Institute
RIVERHEAD, N.Y., June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Good Vibrations Shoes, Inc. (OTCPink: GVSI) announced today that its subsidiary company, Long Beard Breweries, Inc. has received approval for the build-out of its brewery and tasting room in Riverhead Long Island.

Long Beard has been waiting for the permit so they can get started on what they consider to be one of the most important aspects of their business. More than just a place to brew their craft beer, the company's Riverhead tasting room will be a space within the brewery where guests may come to purchase and sample Long Beard's wonderful craft beer, meet the people at Long Beard, and experience the brewery's culture, and environment, a very important part of building a loyal customer base.

Current plans have the tasting room slated to be the largest in Riverhead at close to 1000 square feet. Company CEO, Paul Carlin describes it by saying, "The feel of the Long Beard tasting room is going to be something along the lines of old Norse hall meets rustic mountain lodge. There will be lots of rough sawed wood, earth tones and a Viking Ship!! That's right, the impressive "U" shaped serving bar will literally be the bow of a Viking ship complete with a drop down antler chandelier." He goes on to say, "We will also have a huge 12 x 4 foot hall table made from thick wood, just like the ones you'd see in the old Viking banquet halls. We will have outside seating; a gourmet food truck and a little rec area for cornhole or something similar, and of course live music will also be incorporated. It is going to be the type of place that once you are there, you're never going to want to leave."

One of the huge benefits of Long Beard having carpenters and mechanics as majority shareholders is that most, if not all of the work will be done by officers of the company themselves, saving lots of money on labor cost, and reducing expenses to mostly just supplies and materials. With the federal licensing, as well as the county and other various approvals and permits now in place, the build-out of this ambitious project can finally begin, and is not expected to take very long. The company hopes to release estimated completion dates very soon, and Long Beard Brewing Company can finally be on its way to becoming the next big thing in craft beer.

ABOUT GOOD VIBRATIONS SHOES

Good Vibrations Shoes operates a wholly owned subsidiary business called Long Beard Brewing Company, which is a "craft brewery" or "micro brewery" based in Long Island, New York. To find out more about the company, please visit its website at http://www.longbeardbrewing.com.

DISCLAIMER

This Press Release may contain certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The Company has tried, whenever possible, to identify these forward-looking statements using words such as "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "expects," "plans," "intends," "potential" and similar expressions. These statements reflect the Company's current beliefs and are based upon information currently available to it. Accordingly, such forward-looking statements involve risk, which could cause the actual results to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by such statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or advise in the event of any change, addition or alteration to the information catered in this Press Release including such forward-looking statements.

Investor Relations

[email protected]

(631) 727-1222

SOURCE Good Vibrations Shoes, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.longbeardbrewing.com


LOS ANGELES, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Today Greenlots, a global provider of open standards-based distributed energy resource solutions, announced it has partnered with the City of Los Angeles, Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), and BMW of North America on a new electric vehicle (EV) program to help the City achieve its clean transportation goals as part of Mayor Garcetti's Sustainability pLAn. Greenlots will supply 100 Level 2 chargers and four DC fast chargers to LAPD, and integrate its software with LAPD's Fleet management program. This will represent the largest electric vehicle fleet and charging installation to ever serve a police department and underscores the City's dedication to improving Los Angeles' air quality by adopting innovative transportation solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

"We should be thinking green in everything we do  and these new EVs show how local government can lead," said Mayor Garcetti. "Our sustainability plan pushes L.A. to speed adoption of greener practices and technologies, which also save money and resources."

Los Angeles currently has a 50% EV procurement guideline for all new light duty fleet vehicles, which will go to 80% by 2025 as called for in the Los Angeles Sustainable City pLAn. Together, the City and Greenlots will show how state of the art EV infrastructure and next-generation load management technology can reduce the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of LAPD's electric fleet, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. When the LAPD building is nearing peak capacity, SKY will reduce the charging load based on priority, allowing LAPD to optimally charge electric vehicles while avoiding overloading the building.

This spring, BMW will supply 100 BMW i3 electric vehicles to Los Angeles Police Department headquarters downtown. The goal of the LAPD is to add 500 more vehicles over the next five years. Greenlots will provide LAPD and the City of Los Angeles with a custom fleet charging and reporting system.

"As more electric vehicles penetrate the grid, this program will serve as a blueprint for scaling electric vehicle fleets sustainably," said Brett Hauser, CEO of Greenlots. "We look forward to helping the City of Los Angeles and the LAPD realize its clean fleet goals, by enabling high-density charging infrastructure with advanced energy management systems."

About pLAn

On April 8, 2015, Mayor Eric Garcetti released L.A.'s first-ever Sustainable City pLAn. The pLAn is both a roadmap to achieve back to basics short-term results while setting the path to strengthen and transform our City in the decades to come. By addressing the environment, economy, and equity together, we can move toward a truly sustainable future. The pLAn is made up of short term (by 2017) and longer term (by 2025 and 2035) targets in 14 categories that will advance our environment, economy and equity. To reach these targets, the Mayor is calling upon organizations, universities, neighborhood councils, community groups, businesses, and individual Angelenos to commit to "Adopt the pLAn" into action. You can find out more here: http://lamayor.org/plan.

About Greenlots

Greenlots is a global provider of open standards-based distributed energy resource solutions. Its award-winning SKY Smart Charging charge management platform bridges electric mobility, demand side management, and behind-the-meter energy storage markets for the built environment. Greenlots operates the largest open fast charging network in North America, and provides utilities the ability to remotely control grid loads through smart charging, demand response, and energy storage initiatives. Visit www.greenlots.com for more information or follow us on Twitter @greenlots.

SOURCE Greenlots

Related Links

http://www.greenlots.com


LONDON, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ - Horizonte Minerals Plc, (AIM: HZM, TSX: HZM) ('Horizonte' or 'the Company') is pleased to announce that is has been granted a Preliminary Environmental Licence ('LP'), for the mining and beneficiation plant to produce ferronickel, for its Araguaia Nickel Project ('Araguaia') by the Brazilian Para State Environmental Agency ('SEMAS'). The LP, granted to Horizonte's wholly owned subsidiary, Araguaia Niquel Mineracao Ltda., is a significant milestone which demonstrates the viability of Araguaia and represents the State Government approval for the planned Project.

Overview

The granting of Preliminary Licence demonstrates Para State government's confidence in the credibility and viability of the Araguaia Nickel Project

Araguaia viewed as a key economic driver for the southern part of Para by the State government

As a result of the award of the LP, Horizonte can now progress work towards the Installation Licence, permitting construction of Araguaia

CEO Jeremy Martin commented, "This major milestone brings Horizonte another step closer to developing Brazil's next major nickel mine. Following 24 months of work the award of the Preliminary Licence demonstrates the Para State Government's support for the development of the Araguaia Nickel Project.

"The project has the potential to provide approximately 1,100 jobs in the construction phase, and around 500 jobs during the operational phase of the mine; as a result the Para State Government considers Araguaia to be a key economic driver for the southern part of the State. We have also received strong community support for the project as evidenced in the 2015 Public Hearing in Conceicao do Araguaia.

"The award of the LP is timely as we are in the final stages of preparing a new Pre-Feasibility Study. This new PFS will include a revised Mineral Resource covering the recently acquired Glencore project combined with infill resource drilling results, data from the full scale metallurgical pilot plant campaign completed in Q3 2015, and updated capital and operating costs. We aim to release the new PFS in H2 2016 and when viewed in tandem with the nickel market fundamentals for the next 12 to 24 months, provides a compelling investment case as we work towards developing Araguaia to Feasibility."

Detailed Information

The Preliminary Licence ('LP') was approved with consideration of the terms set out in the Company's Social & Environmental Impact Assessment, and conditions outlined by the Para State Environmental Agency. This follows the unanimous approval of the licence in a meeting held in the Para capital of Belem on 23 May 2016, by the Para State Committee of Environment ('COEMA'), which consisted of State Government ministers, NGOs and representatives from civil society groups.

The Brazilian mine permitting process with environmental agencies has three key stages:

The recently obtained preliminary licence ('LP'); The installation licence ('LI'), which permits the start of construction; Finally the licence to operate once construction is complete ('LO').

The granting of the LP is often regarded as the most important licence as it outlines the parameters of the project as agreed upon by all stakeholders and is the only environmental licensing process that requires COEMA approval.

The Company will now focus on obtaining the LI which once awarded, in parallel with the mining concession, allows construction to start. The LI will require further detailed environmental studies, a Definitive Feasibility Study, and further community engagement. The Company will also work in partnership with the State Government of Para to undertake studies identifying possibilities for use of the slag product from Araguaia and potential local industries which could benefit from the final ferronickel product.

About Horizonte Minerals:

Horizonte Minerals plc is an AIM and TSX-listed nickel development company focused in Brazil, which wholly owns the advanced Araguaia nickel laterite project located to the south of the Carajas mineral district of northern Brazil.

The Company is developing Araguaia as the next major nickel mine in Brazil.

The Project, which has excellent infrastructure in place including rail, road, water and power, has a current NI 43-101 compliant Mineral Resource of 71.98Mt grading 1.33% Ni (Indicated) and 25.4Mt at 1.21% Ni (Inferred) at a 0.95% nickel cut-off; included in Resources is a Probable Reserve base of 21.2Mt at 1.66%Ni. An updated NI 43-101 compliant Mineral Resource statement is currently being developed and will be released together with the new PFS.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD LOOKING INFORMATION

Except for statements of historical fact relating to the Company, certain information contained in this press release constitutes "forward-looking information" under Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the potential of the Company's current or future property mineral projects; the success of exploration and mining activities; cost and timing of future exploration, production and development; the estimation of mineral resources and reserves and the ability of the Company to achieve its goals in respect of growing its mineral resources; and the realization of mineral resource and reserve estimates. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". Forward-looking information is based on the reasonable assumptions, estimates, analysis and opinions of management made in light of its experience and its perception of trends, current conditions and expected developments, as well as other factors that management believes to be relevant and reasonable in the circumstances at the date that such statements are made, and are inherently subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to risks related to: exploration and mining risks, competition from competitors with greater capital; the Company's lack of experience with respect to development-stage mining operations; fluctuations in metal prices; uninsured risks; environmental and other regulatory requirements; exploration, mining and other licences; the Company's future payment obligations; potential disputes with respect to the Company's title to, and the area of, its mining concessions; the Company's dependence on its ability to obtain sufficient financing in the future; the Company's dependence on its relationships with third parties; the Company's joint ventures; the potential of currency fluctuations and political or economic instability in countries in which the Company operates; currency exchange fluctuations; the Company's ability to manage its growth effectively; the trading market for the ordinary shares of the Company; uncertainty with respect to the Company's plans to continue to develop its operations and new projects; the Company's dependence on key personnel; possible conflicts of interest of directors and officers of the Company, and various risks associated with the legal and regulatory framework within which the Company operates.

Although management of the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements.

SOURCE Horizonte Minerals plc
SHANGHAI, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The first comprehensive global listing of EdTech thought leaders, titled "Makers and Shakers of Education Technology Index", has been released by EdTechxGlobal in association with WISE, the World Innovation Summit for Education.

The lineup recognizes the top 50 EdTech innovators from Europe, the Americas, MENA and Asia. Salman Khan, founder of Khan Academy; Reshma Saujani, founder and CEO of Girls Who Code; and Anant Agarwal, CEO of edX are just a few of the celebrated "Makers and Shakers".

The founder and CEO Cairui (Arnold) Fu of Hujiang, China's online education unicorn company, is also on the list, named as one of the top 50 global innovators, together with four other Chinese EdTech leaders including TAL Education Group CEO Bangxin Zhang, Guokr founder and CEO Xiaohua Ji, iTutor co-founder and CEO Zhengda Yang and Netease Online Open Courses founder Ms. Zhennan Huan.

The 2016 international Index honors these luminaries who have introduced innovative ways of learning to the market through interactive designs by means of digital and physical technologies.

According to EdTechxGlobal, the "Makers" are defined as the rising stars of education technology, innovating and pushing boundaries for future success, and "Shakers", as established leaders in their regions, inspiring worldwide Edtech changes. Each "Maker" and "Shaker" is assessed by their individual visions, overwhelming innovations, impacts and contributions.

"This Index seeks to recognize thinkers and doers who have pioneered innovative approaches to addressing challenges in education," said Stavros N. Yiannouka, the CEO of WISE.

"The Makers & Shakers of Education Technology is a global index that elevates Education innovators and thought leaders as 21st Century social rock stars. The index rewards talent, creativity, impact and influence in education," added Benjamin Vedrenne-Cloquet, Co-Founder of EdTechXGlobal.

As for Carui (Arnold) Fu, a young Chinese man who comes from a small town, he has never dreamed of becoming a millionaire. Instead, he hopes to help as many people as he can.

In 2001, as a junior in college, Fu founded Hujiang as a non-profit online platform that helps people learn from each other. Through this platform, everyone is able to learn English freely.

Five years later, he started commercial operations with a founding team of 8 members and start-up capital of 80,000 yuan. The initial team members were mostly Fu's college schoolmates, friends and some of his users. Unexpectedly, the start-up capital was raised from almost all the team members and, what's more, the rest of the 20,000 yuan was even borrowed from the father of one of his schoolmates.

All along, Fu has clung to the idea that online education is crucial to promoting fair education across the board by creating more equal access to educational resources, and he has adhered to this idea for several years.

Today, Hujiang has become a unicorn company in the online education industry, a corporation with company valuation over 1 billion US dollars and which serves more than 100 million users.

About Hujiang (HUJIANG.COM)

As the world's leading online education company, Hujiang is dedicated to providing convenient, high quality and comprehensive online education products and services. Since its establishment, Hujiang has built 4 business units, including the website to provide online learning information, online studying community, mobile applications for study, and online course platforms, covering contents such as multi-language studies, K12 curriculum, study-abroad examinations, vocational skills and various arts.

SOURCE Hujiang
LONDON, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- In May 2016, China's insecticide TC market is still in bad shape. According to CCM's price monitoring, individual varieties realizes MoM rises in ex-works prices. For example, affected by the centralized purchase from the government and the tight supply, the ex-works price of pymetrozine TC increased MoM. However, ex-works prices of most products are stable, and some even records large MoM falls.

The whole pesticide industry is busy this month. On 11 May, 2016, the CCPIA announced the 2016 top 100 enterprises by pesticide sales value, the 2016 top 50 enterprises by formulation sales value, and the 2015 best-selling products in the crop protection market.

On 15 May, the QR Code Coding Rules for Pesticides was officially issued, which is the first standard focusing on pesticide QR code coding in China.



On 26 May, the CCPIA officially issued the 13th Five-year Plan for the Pesticide Industry, and CCM will interpret it in the coming issue.



On 11 May, 2016, the CCPIA released a list of the 2016 top 100 enterprises by pesticide sales value in China. When compared to the ranking of 2015, the top 10 enterprises have changed significantly, and in terms of overall performance, the total combined sales value of the top 100 has fallen slightly YoY. The minimum requirement for inclusion on the list is also lower than that in 2015.

China's acephate TC market is in bad shape in May 2016 with price falling. CCM predicts that the market will maintain the present status in the coming future.



According to CCM's research, the imidacloprid market continues to remain tight in China in May 2016. However, the imidacloprid price records a MoM fall this month.

On 19-20 May, 2016, the 7th Exchange Conference of Biopesticide Development and Application was held by the CAPDA in Yichun City, Jiangxi Province. In this conference, industry insiders fully explained the present situation of China's biopesticide industry based on related data.



In 2015, the NATESC organised monitoring sites of pests' resistance to drugs in some provinces and cities in China to monitor the resistance to drugs of 13 major pests. Besides, corresponding monitoring results, countermeasures and suggestions were released. Here CCM summarizes the rice and wheat pests and their resistance to drugs.

Shenzhen Noposion's financial reports from recent years and its estimate of daily connected transactions for 2016 reveal that the company frequently conducts connected transactions with its subsidiaries. Shenzhen Noposion asserts that these connected transactions are regular business activities which are carried out to meet the company's demand for raw materials and ensure the smooth operation of the company. Additionally, the company stated that it does not rely on these transactions with subsidiaries since they only account for a small proportion of the company's total transactions.



According to data from China Customs, China's exports of thiamethoxam (both technical and formulations) recorded YoY falls in price and YoY increases in volume in 2015.

According to data from China Customs, China's export volume of lambda-cyhalothrin technical increased slightly in Q1 2016. However, export price fell at this period.

In 2015, there were 6 insecticide active ingredients were registered in China for the first time and 5 were gained by domestic enterprises, according to the ICAMA.

In 28 April, 2016-11 May, 2016, the Department of Energy Saving and Comprehensive Utilization of the MIIT publicized the Clean Production Technology Promotional Plan for Water Pollution Prevention and Control in Major Industries, in which 5 advanced clean production technologies concerning the domestic pesticide industry were proposed.



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NEW YORK, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- J.P. Morgan Asset Management  Global Real Assets recently hosted its 2016 Global Real Assets Conference in New York. Now in its 16th year, the annual forum brought together CIOs, heads of real assets, heads of real estate, heads of infrastructure, other investment professionals from leading defined benefit and defined contribution plans, insurance providers, endowments and foundations, and consultants to discuss trends and strategies in real estate, infrastructure and maritime investing around the globe.

Current industry sentiments were captured through a series of polling questions to the group of 155 attendees, including representatives from 130 U.S. and international institutional investors, who travelled from as far as Australia, Korea and Japan to attend. Responses revealed:

51% of attending investors currently allocate 7% to 15% of their total portfolio to real assets with 18% of attending investors allocating more than 15%.

of attending investors currently allocate of their total portfolio to real assets with of attending investors allocating more than 75% of attending investors plan to increase their allocation to real assets in the next five years.

of attending investors plan to increase their allocation to real assets in the next five years. 41% of attending investors view infrastructure as the most interesting real asset investment opportunity to add to a domestic core real estate allocation.

"In the face of volatile equity markets and inadequate bond yields, we're seeing investor interest in real assets spike," said Bernie McNamara, Head of Global Real Assets Client Strategy and Omni Solutions, J.P. Morgan Asset Management. "As they have long done with fixed income and equities, investors are now building larger and more diversified real assets allocations by adding global and sector exposure, including infrastructure, maritime and international real estate to the real asset mainstay, domestic core real estate."

J.P. Morgan Asset Management Global Real Assets has more than $90 billion in assets under management and more than 400 professionals in the U.S., Europe and Asia Pacific, as of March 31, 2016. With a 45-year history of successful investing, the team's broad capabilities provide many of the world's most sophisticated investors with a global platform of real estate, infrastructure and transportation strategies driven by local investment talent with disciplined investment processes consistently implemented across asset types and regions. For more information: jpmorgan.com/institutional/global_real_assets.

About J.P. Morgan Asset Management

J.P. Morgan Asset Management, with assets under management of $1.7 trillion, is a global leader in investment management. J.P. Morgan Asset Management's clients include institutions, retail investors and high net worth individuals in every major market throughout the world. J.P. Morgan Asset Management offers global investment management in equities, fixed income, real estate, hedge funds, private equity and liquidity. JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM), the parent company of J.P. Morgan Asset Management, is a leading global asset management firm with assets of approximately $2.4 trillion and operations in more than 60 countries. Information about JPMorgan Chase & Co. is available at www.jpmorganchase.com.

J.P. Morgan Asset Management is the marketing name for the asset management businesses of JPMorgan Chase & Co. and its affiliates worldwide.

SOURCE J.P. Morgan Asset Management

Related Links

http://www.jpmorganchase.com


SINGAPORE, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Goods tracking technologies are on the rise, as companies find them to be increasingly essential in effectively tracking and monitoring transported goods to cut down on cargo theft. ABI Research estimates that the market, which was worth $3.6 billion in 2016, will swell to $5.6 billion by 2021.

Sophisticated goods tracking technologies mitigate cargo theft and play a key role in the recovery of stolen assets by detecting the location of stolen premium goods (e.g., pharmaceuticals, electronics, jewelry, tobacco and alcohol, cash, and retail products). The solutions also provide additional security by enabling companies to track and recover stolen shipments, even when those shipments are reloaded into a new container or trailer, which is not being tracked.

"These solutions are covertly placed into product packaging so that they can continue to ping its location in real-time, enabling companies to track and recover stolen shipment and apprehend criminals," says Raquel Artes, Industry Analyst at ABI Research. "This is particularly suitable given the market's complex ecosystem wherein products are handled and transferred among a handful of different players and the risk of theft is high."

The compact, portable, and rechargeable goods tracking devices utilize satellite and/or cellular networks to obtain a shipment's location. As the devices are relatively small, they can be covertly hidden inside the product, packaging, box, or pallet and then monitored via Internet, making them difficult for cargo thieves to detect. Companies mentioned in this space include goods tracking service providers (FreightWatch International, 3SI Security Systems, Ctrack, Telenav, Starcom Systems, Sendum Wireless, Rockwell GPS Tracking Tracker), chipset vendors (Qualcomm, MediaTek), module vendors (Telit, u-blox), third-party logistics providers (FedEx, DB Schenker), and telecom operators (AT&T).

But thieves are adapting as new technologies emerge. Many are revolutionizing their stealing techniques by committing cybercrime, GPS and cellular jamming, GNSS spoofing, and deceptive pickups. The new threats are reshaping tracking requirements. For instance, if a thief attempts GPS jamming, the goods tracking device will send real-time alert of possible theft via cellular technology, enabling companies to act immediately. GNSS and cellular technologies are standard features of goods tracking devices.

New cellular network technologies will also reduce connectivity costs to drive further adoption. Goods tracking solutions will migrate either to EC-GSM, an extended coverage version of 2G, or leverage the more network efficient LPWA LTE technologies in LTE Category 1, LTE Category M1, and LTE Category M2.

These findings are from ABI Research's Goods Asset Tracking Technologies (https://www.abiresearch.com/market-research/product/1023699-goods-asset-tracking-technologies/). This report is part of the company's Autonomous Vehicles, Automotive and Transportation sector (https://www.abiresearch.com/market-research/practice/autonomous-driving-location-tech/), which includes research reports, market data, insights, and competitive assessments.

About ABI Research

For more than 25 years, ABI Research has stood at the forefront of technology market intelligence, partnering with innovative business leaders to implement informed, transformative technology decisions. The company employs a global team of senior analysts to provide comprehensive research and consulting services through deep quantitative forecasts, qualitative analyses and teardown services. An industry pioneer, ABI Research is proactive in its approach, frequently uncovering ground-breaking business cycles ahead of the curve and publishing research 18 to 36 months in advance of other organizations. In all, the company covers more than 60 services, spanning 11 technology sectors. For more information, visit www.abiresearch.com.

Contact Info: Mackenzie Gavel Tel: +44.203.326.0142



[email protected]

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20151014/276887LOGO

SOURCE ABI Research

Related Links

http://www.abiresearch.com


"The Asia-Pacific region is the most strategically important region for the global automotive industry, and Shanghai is a major center for automotive activity. We are very pleased to be opening a regional administrative and technical complex in Shanghai, as China is Lear's fastest growing market, and our business in the Asia-Pacific region is expected to grow rapidly," said Matt Simoncini, Lear's president and chief executive officer. "Over the past three years, Lear's sales in China have grown at an average annual rate of 10%. Our new regional headquarters complex in Shanghai will support industry-leading product development, testing and customer service in one convenient location that includes administrative, engineering, product development, program management, sales and marketing and other technical personnel."

The new Asia headquarters will support approximately 31,000 Lear employees in eleven countries in Asia, including almost 22,000 in China. Lear manufactures products in Asia at 64 locations and has engineering teams at 16 locations throughout the region. In 2015, Lear's Asia consolidated sales grew to $3.2 billion. Lear also supports Asia through 17 unconsolidated joint ventures in the region. 2015 sales in these unconsolidated joint ventures were about $2 billion, bringing Lear's total sales in Asia last year to $5.2 billion.

This modern new facility for Lear's 800 Shanghai employees will showcase the Company's leading products in automotive seating and electrical systems, including Lear's intelligent seat, industry-leading craftsmanship as well as high power products for electrical and hybrid vehicles, industry-leading electrical distribution systems, including complex gateway modules and the latest in vehicle communication and connectivity capabilities.

"We continue to build upon our portfolio of industry-leading seating and electrical systems and related components," added Jay Kunkel, Lear's president of Asia-Pacific Operations. "We are pleased to announce plans for our new regional headquarters and are confident our expanded overall capabilities will continue to serve our existing and future customers at the highest level as we continue to develop new products for Asia as well as globally."

Lear Corporation (NYSE: LEA) is one of the world's leading suppliers of automotive seating and electrical distribution systems. Lear serves every major automaker in the world, and Lear content can be found on more than 350 vehicle nameplates. Lear's world-class products are designed, engineered and manufactured by a diverse team of approximately 136,000 employees located in 36 countries. Lear currently ranks #154 on the Fortune 500. Lear's headquarters are in Southfield, Michigan. Further information about Lear is available at http://www.lear.com or follow us on Twitter @LearCorporation.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160607/376704

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160607/376705

SOURCE Lear Corporation

Related Links

http://www.lear.com


California residents, if you have been injured in an accident by "no fault" of your own and you have suffered injuries as a result, you are automatically pre-approved for funding. Our free case evaluation costs you absolutely nothing to apply, and almost all of our accident cash advances fund within 48 hours or less, which means you could have your money in two days to start getting your life back on track. All you need is a lawyer, and even if your lawsuit has not yet been officially filed, we can still get you the cash assistance you need to pay your bills as soon as possible. Please visit http://lawsuitssettlementfunding.com/california-lawsuit-funding.php for more information on California Lawsuit Funding, or to apply for pre-settlement funding today.

Legal-Bay is offering California Lawsuit Funding for CA residents in the following counties (as well as others not listed):

Los Angeles

San Diego

Orange

Riverside

San Bernardino

Santa Clara

Alameda

Sacramento

Contra Costa

Fresno .

Legal-Bay is offering California Lawsuit Funding for CA residents in the following cities (as well as others not listed):

Los Angeles

San Diego

San Jose

San Francisco

Fresno

Long Beach

Sacramento

Oakland

Santa Ana

Anaheim

Chris Janish, CEO of Legal-Bay, commented on the company's focus on their latest funding division, "We are in the process of creating a much larger presence in Los Angeles, Orange County, and San Diego, with plans to begin targeting the San Francisco Bay area soon as well. We will be working not only with plaintiffs in these areas, but with law firms as well that want to use a responsible lender  or those that need surgical funding assistance for clients who do not have insurance."

Plaintiffs or lawyers who wish to speak to a live agent who can answer any of your lawsuit cash advance questions, please call Legal-Bay's toll-free hotline, at: 877.571.0405.

For a full list of cases that Legal-Bay is actively funding or to apply online, please visit the company's website at: http://lawsuitssettlementfunding.com/

Contact: Patty Kirby, COO/Head of Client Relations

Ph. 877.571.0405 Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Legal-Bay LLC

Related Links

http://lawsuitssettlementfunding.com


"Once folks understand the real facts about Zika and take the recommended precautions, they are able to enjoy a worry-free experience in Puerto Rico," said Ingrid I. Rivera Rocafort, Executive Director of the PRTC. "Our strong bookings for Pride activities underscore that our concerted effort to educate the public regarding the misperceptions about Zika in Puerto Rico is working."

As a popular LGBT travel destination in the Caribbean, Puerto Rico will host several local parades and events in Boqueron and surrounding areas, as well as the 26th Annual Puerto Rican LGBTTIQ Pride activates in San Juan, where hundreds of members of the LGBT community are slated to walk. This is an especially important year as it marks the first anniversary of Marriage Equality in the U.S. and Puerto Rico.

"Puerto Rico is the most LGBT-friendly destination in the Caribbean," said Pedro Julio Serrano, human rights activist, longtime LGBT leader and founder of Puerto Rico Para [email protected] "Our Pride parades are the best attended, with more than 40,000 filling up the streets of Boqueron for a prideful weekend from June 10-12 and with more than 10,000 marching in San Juan on June 26. With all the advancements toward LGBT equality, this is the time to visit Puerto Rico."

"Demand for Puerto Rico is high," added Clarisa Jimenez, President and CEO of the Puerto Rico Hotel & Tourism Association (PRHTA). "Once travelers are presented with the facts, they are better able to decipher the myths from the realities about Zika on the island and as a result are making sound decisions about traveling to the Jewel of the Caribbean. We open our arms to the LGBT community."

PRTC continues to work closely with local hotel partners to provide education about mosquito population control and preventive tips for visitors. Through the Puerto Rico Hotel & Tourism Association, hotel partners are actively training their staff, arming them with tools and tips to properly educate guests on ways to protect themselves against the Zika virus and urging them to follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines before, during, and after their trip.

"The staff of the Parador Combate Beach Resort welcomes the LGBT community every year during Pride month," added president of the Association of Paradores' Owners and co-owner of Combate Beach, Tomas Ramirez, "and this year is no different. We ensure our guests are provided with all the tools necessary to have a truly worry-free LGBT Pride experience."

For more information about the Zika virus in Puerto Rico, visit PuertoRicoNow.SeePuertoRico.com

About Puerto Rico Tourism Company

The Puerto Rico Tourism Company (PRTC), founded in 1970, is a public corporation responsible for stimulating, promoting and regulating the development of the tourism industry. It markets Puerto Rico as a tourism destination through advertising, public relations and promotional activities; promotes tourism among visitors and local residents; provides visitor orientation and technical assistance to investors; evaluates tourism facilities and establishes standards of quality; and regulates and oversees gaming operations. PRTC has offices and representatives in the U.S. mainland, Canada, Europe and Latin America.

About Puerto Rico Hotel & Tourism Association

The Puerto Rico Hotel and Tourism Association is the organization that represents the private tourism sector in Puerto Rico. Founded in 1950, the Association has over 500 corporate members, among them large, medium, and small hotels; restaurants; Airlines; and other businesses that serve the Puerto Rico tourism industry.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160607/376777

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160426/360380LOGO

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160518/369650LOGO

SOURCE Puerto Rico Tourism Company

Related Links

http://www.PuertoRicoNow.SeePuertoRico.com


"The TU-Automotive Awards are the most prestigious and anticipated awards in the connected car and automotive technology industry, and we couldn't be more proud to receive this year's Best Aftermarket Telematics Product Award," said Stig Pedersen, associate vice president of product management for Magellan. "The TRX7 has been a work in progress for several years, and it is very gratifying to have the judges at TU-Automotive validate our efforts."

Designed for off-road enthusiasts, the Magellan eXplorist TRX7 is the most complete off-road navigation device. It offers the most comprehensive trail database, improved driver safety, a superior user experience with detailed 3D maps, and community-generated tracks at an exceptional out-of-the-box value.

The device features a 7" high-resolution touchscreen protected by a ruggedized IP67 shock-resistant casing, includes a genuine RAM mount (depending on model), hi-res (to 10 meters) 3D and 2D topo base map views, and an easy to use interface for following trails, recording tracks, and marking waypoints. Crowd-sourced tracks provide a constantly updating library, allowing users to plan adventures, add pictures and comments, and share with other off-roaders. The TRX7 includes many safety features such as Backtrack, Off-trail Notifications and Waypoint alerts to ensure a fun and safe off-road experience. The device also comes preloaded with over 44,000 designated OHV trails, making it the most all-inclusive and purpose-built GPS navigator available for off-road enthusiasts.

TU-Automotive is the reference point and communications hub for the evolving automotive technology segment as it converges with consumer electronics, mobile and IoT to re-define connectivity, mobility and autonomous use-cases. With 10 categories designed to highlight established and emerging companies, the TU-Automotive Awards attract over 400 nominations from all over the world.

About Magellan

Headquartered in Santa Clara, CA, MiTAC Digital Corporation, manufacturer of the Magellan (www.magellangps.com) brand of portable GPS navigation devices, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of MiTAC International Corporation. Magellan, the industry leader for innovative GPS navigation devices since 1986, globally markets award-winning products in multiple categories including auto, RV, commercial, outdoor, fitness and mobile. Continuing its spirit of innovation, Magellan is developing new cloud-based technologies, OEM and B-to-B solutions to meet the changing needs of today's consumers. Follow Magellan on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Magellan Media Contact:

Andrew Wille & Rita Lee

Copernio

[email protected]

714.891.3660

All products/services and trademarks mentioned in this release are the properties of their respective companies.

 2016 MiTAC Digital Corp. All rights reserved.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160607/376822

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150409/197633LOGO

SOURCE Magellan

Related Links

http://www.magellangps.com


Available in a comprehensive range of models with a flexible choice of input interfaces, Magewell's Pro Capture PCIe cards cost-effectively deliver outstanding video capture quality, performance and reliability. Magewell's quad-channel HDMI and SDI cards are ideal for supporting Wirecast's ability to let users switch between multiple live cameras while dynamically mixing in other media and production elements such as transitions and titles. Magewell also offers USB Capture devices that enable all types of computers including laptops to easily connect and capture live camera feeds at user-selectable resolutions.

"Magewell's capture devices hit the sweet spot in performance and pricing for Wirecast customers and in particular, our new version 7," said Ken Bell, Desktop Channel Manager at Telestream. "Magewell is one of the few vendors producing a high-density, multi-port HDMI solution, which attracts customers previously priced out of multiple-camera live production work. Just as importantly, Magewell products deliver the high standards of quality and reliability that users expect of Wirecast solutions. We are pleased to partner with them."

Designed for broadcast and professional A/V applications, Magewell's Pro Capture cards can capture 1080p Full HD video at 60 frames per second with minimal latency. The Pro Capture family's hardware-based video processing delivers high-quality deinterlacing, up/down conversion, video enhancements, color space conversion and more without requiring CPU usage, thereby maximizing CPU availability for third-party software such as Wirecast. The comprehensive Magewell Pro Capture SDK enables developers to easily create custom software applications and turnkey solutions leveraging the full feature set and unique capabilities of the Magewell cards.

"Leading software and system developers worldwide trust Magewell cards to empower their solutions with superior capture performance and rock-solid reliability at an affordable price point," said James Liu, VP of Engineering at Magewell. "Wirecast has a well-earned reputation as one of the industry's leading streaming tools, and we are very pleased to be partnering with Telestream to bring the advantages of our hardware to their users."

Telestream's Wirecast all-in-one, live streaming software enables capture, dynamic production and encoding of live streams for broadcast to multiple servers and platforms simultaneously. Wirecast is ideal for broadcasting professional live web shows, news, online gaming, sporting events, concerts, church services, corporate meetings, lectures, and much more.

For more information about Magewell, please visit www.magewell.com. For more information about Telestream, please visit www.telestream.net.

About Magewell  Founded in 2011, Magewell focuses on the core technology of audio and video processing. With guiding principles of continuous innovation and providing customers with outstanding technical support, Magewell has earned a strong reputation for the exceptional quality, performance and reliability of its capture devices. Distributed globally, Magewell products are used in a wide array of professional video and audio applications including broadcast, live event streaming, medical imaging, lecture capture, surveillance, machine vision, gaming and more. For more information, please visit www.magewell.com.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160607/376717

SOURCE Magewell

Related Links

http://www.magewell.com


BURKE, Va., June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- America's SBDC and the Louisiana Small Business Development Center (LSBDC) partnered to host the first Maximizing Millennial Minds Conference (M3) on June 8-9 in New Orleans.

America's SBDC and LSBDC created this first-of-a-kind conference for its national network of Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs) to attend. It is aimed to offer professional development training to millennial employees and also focus on recruitment and retention of the workforce's now-largest generation. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the total of millennials will reach 75.3 million, overtaking baby boomers as the United States' largest living generation.

M3 was originally designed to be a regional event in the Southeast but after so much interest across the country attendees are now flying in from Michigan, Virginia, Washington and other states.

"Keeping in touch with the small business community and adapting to its needs is a key focus at SBDCs. The M3 conference is a great example of how SBDCs are reaching out to our newest entrepreneurs to make sure we're providing the services and tools they need to innovate and succeed. We are delighted in the interest its garnered in the network," said America's SBDC, President & CEO Charles "Tee" Rowe.

M3 Creator, LSBDC Communications Specialist DeRon Talley said; "we wanted to use this platform to explore, engage and elevate our network in a way that suits millennials' style of doing things. Millennials are coming into the workforce and are breaking all the rules, and you'll see a lot of that at this conference with the use of technology, and mobile devices."

Using three targeted objectives and four courses, the M3 conference will give attendees a chance to be vocal in the management session, learn two perspectives for when consulting, and enhance their use of marketing through social media.

About America's SBDC and Small Business Development Centers: America's SBDC represents the Nation's 63 Small Business Development Centers, a national network of partnerships uniting higher education, state and local nonprofit economic development organizations, private enterprise and government. It is the Small Business Administration's largest partnership program, providing management and technical assistance to help Americans start, run and grow their own businesses. Learn more at www.AmericasSBDC.org.

April Youngblut | (703) 408-5403

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150317/182557LOGO

SOURCE America's SBDC

Related Links

http://www.AmericasSBDC.org


ELKO  Elko County graduates have gone on to earn recognition at colleges and universities.

Tesa Gonzales

Tesa Gonzales of Spring Creek earned placement on the Gonzaga University Presidents List for spring semester 2016. Students must earn a 3.7 to 4.0 grade-point average to be listed.

Gonzaga University is a humanistic, private Catholic university providing a Jesuit education to more than 7,500 students. Situated along the Spokane River near downtown Spokane, Washington, Gonzaga is routinely recognized among the Wests best comprehensive regional universities. Gonzaga offers 75 fields of study, 25 masters degrees, a doctorate in leadership studies, and a Juris Doctor degree through its School of Law.

Jeremy Michael Macias

Jeremy Michael Macias of Elko earned a bachelors in mechanical engineering from Baylor University during the spring commencement.

Baylor University is a private Christian university and a nationally ranked liberal arts and research institution.

Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes over 16,000 students from all 50 states and more than 80 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions.

Brittany M. Thompson

Brittany M. Thompson of Spring Creek made the deans list at the University of South Dakota during the spring 2016 semester.

The deans list includes 1,902 who achieved a GPA of at least 3.5 while maintaining a course load of 12 or more credit hours with no incomplete or failing grades.

Founded in 1862 and the first university in the Dakotas, the University of South Dakota is the only public liberal arts university in the state, with 206 undergraduate and 66 graduate programs in the College of Arts & Sciences, School of Education, School of Law, Sanford School of Medicine, School of Health Sciences, Beacom School of Business and College of Fine Arts. With an enrollment of nearly 10,000 students and more than 400 faculty, USD has a 17:1 student/faculty ratio, and it ranks among the best in academics and affordability.
WASHINGTON, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Each Presidential election year, the WBA presents this Signature Program, featuring a bi-partisan panel of prominent Presidential appointees who share their experience with the appointment process and executive service. The event features women from Democratic and Republican administrations spanning several decades. Representatives of the Presidential Campaigns also attend.

The discussion will elicit advice, opinions and anecdotes about the appointment process. A reception follows the panel discussion.

Who: Ann Compton, Former White House Correspondent, ABC News (moderator)

Sharon Bowen, Commissioner, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (Obama Administration)



Katja Bullock, Special Assistant to the President for Presidential Personnel (Reagan, Bush I, and Bush II Administrations; Romney Transition Team)

Linda Chavez, White House Director of Public Liaison; Staff Director, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (Reagan Administration); Chairman, National Commission on Migrant Education (Bush I Administration)



Dorothy Robyn, Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy (Clinton Administration); Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Installations and Environment and Commissioner, Public Building Services, General Services Administration (Obama Administration)

Kathryn Thomson, General Counsel, U.S. Department of Transportation (Obama Administration)

Faith Whittlesey, U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland; Director, Office of Public Liaison (Reagan Administration)

What: Women's Bar Association of the District of Columbia Presidential Appointments Process: A Panel Discussion

When: Thursday, June 9, 2016, 6:00  9:00 pm

Where: City Club of Washington, D.C.; Columbia Square; 555 13th Street NW, Washington, D.C.

For more information, contact Carol Montoya, 202-639-8880, [email protected].

SOURCE Womens Bar Association of the District of Columbia (WBA)
ST. LOUIS, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- St. Louis-based MediBeacon Inc., maker of proprietary, non-invasive, real-time monitoring systems for kidney function, gastrointestinal permeability and other light-activated diagnostics, has completed the acquisition of Mannheim Pharma & Diagnostics, a life science company based in Mannheim, Germany.

MediBeacon will continue to expand the use of Mannheim Pharma & Diagnostics' technology in leading medical schools, academic centers, research institutes and pharmaceutical companies. Use of the technology enhances preclinical assessment of kidney therapeutics, evaluation of nephrotoxicity and fundamental understanding of kidney function in animals.

Their unique device, which is the size of a small coin, is placed on the animal's body. It allows researchers to calculate and track the animal's kidney function over time  without requiring the animal to be restrained during monitoring. A fluorescent agent, which is eliminated entirely by the kidney, is administered. The device is not approved for human use. In addition, Mannheim Pharma & Diagnostics holds several patents pertaining to their transdermal kidney function measurement methodology.

The acquired technology adds to MediBeacon's robust intellectual property estate, which includes a portfolio of fluorescent tracer agents. MediBeacon's system that is designed for human use is currently in clinical trials. This system consists of an optical skin sensor combined with a proprietary agent that glows in the presence of light. MediBeacon is focused on the development of a renal function monitoring system, which can provide clinicians continuous real-time monitoring of a patient's kidney function or measured Glomerular Filtration Rate (mGFR). Results of the initial clinical studies were presented at the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) Kidney Week in 2015.

Operationally, MediBeacon will make ongoing investments in the sales and engineering organization, led by Dr. Daniel Schock-Kusch in Europe. Dr. Schock-Kusch is one of three Ph.D. scientists who have joined MediBeacon's European affiliate. In addition, Dr. Johannes Pill, a physician, cofounder and past CEO of Mannheim Pharma & Diagnostics joins MediBeacon as a consultant.

Professor Pill said, "MediBeacon's sales and marketing experience and strong intellectual property portfolio will help us achieve our goal of positively impacting kidney health and improving other diagnostic applications."

"This acquisition brings tremendous engineering talent to the company and will allow MediBeacon to quickly enter the important research and animal health marketplace," said Dr. Richard Dorshow, MediBeacon's cofounder and chief scientific officer.

MediBeacon's investors include Pansend Life Sciences, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of HC2 Holdings, Inc.

About MediBeacon Inc.

MediBeacon was formed in 2012 specifically to acquire the optical diagnostic program from Mallinckrodt, the pharmaceuticals business of Covidien. MediBeacon's mission is to commercialize biocompatible optical diagnostic agents for physiological monitoring, surgical guidance, and imaging of pathological disease in the human population. Several product concepts in these arenas are contained in the MediBeacon Intellectual Property estate.

Learn more about MediBeacon at www.medibeacon.com.

About HC2 Holdings, Inc.

HC2 Holdings, Inc. is a publicly traded diversified holding company, which seeks opportunities to acquire and grow businesses that can generate long-term sustainable free cash flow and attractive returns in order to maximize value for all stakeholders. HC2 has a diverse array of operating subsidiaries across seven reportable segments, including Manufacturing, Marine Services, Utilities, Telecommunications, Insurance, Life Sciences and Other. HC2's largest operating subsidiaries include Schuff International, Inc., a leading structural steel fabricator and erector in the United States, and Global Marine Systems Limited, a leading provider of engineering and underwater services on submarine cables. Founded in 1994, HC2 is headquartered in Herndon, Virginia.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Safe Harbor Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: This release contains, and certain oral statements made by our representatives from time to time may contain, forward-looking statements. Generally, forward-looking statements include information describing actions, events, results, strategies and expectations and are generally identifiable by use of the words "believes," "expects," "intends," "anticipates," "plans," "seeks," "estimates," "projects," "may," "will," "could," "might," "continues" or similar expressions. These statements are based on the beliefs and assumptions of HC2s management and the management of HC2s subsidiaries. The company believes these judgments are reasonable, but you should understand that these statements are not guarantees of performance or results, and the company's actual results could differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements due to a variety of important factors, both positive and negative, that may be revised or supplemented in subsequent reports on Forms 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K. Factors that could cause actual results, events and developments to differ include, without limitation, capital market conditions, the ability of HC2s subsidiaries to generate sufficient net income and cash flows to make upstream cash distributions, trading characteristics of the HC2 common stock, the ability of HC2 and its subsidiaries to identify any suitable future acquisition opportunities, our ability to realize efficiencies, cost savings, income and margin improvements, growth, economies of scale and other anticipated benefits of strategic transactions, integrating financial reporting of acquired or target businesses, completing pending and future acquisitions and dispositions, litigation and other contingent liabilities, changes in regulations, taxes and risks that may affect the performance of the operating subsidiaries of HC2. Additional information concerning these and other factors can be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K.

You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements attributable to the company or persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the foregoing cautionary statements. All such statements speak only as of the date made, and the company undertakes no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

CONTACT:

Steven J. Hanley

MediBeacon Inc.

Office  314-269-5808

Email - [email protected]

www.medibeacon.com

For information on HC2 Holdings, Inc., please contact:

Andrew G. Backman

Managing Director - Investor Relations & Public Relations

[email protected]

212-339-5836

SOURCE MediBeacon Inc.

Related Links

http://www.medibeacon.com


Nevsun Urges Reservoir Minerals Shareholders to Vote for Strategic Combination

VANCOUVER, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ - Nevsun Resources Ltd. (TSX:NSU) (NYSE MKT:NSU) (the "Company" or "Nevsun") today dismissed baseless criticisms from two dissident shareholders for Reservoir Minerals Inc. ("Reservoir") (TSXV Venture: RMC). Nevsun also cautioned that Reservoir could lose the Timok copper and gold project in Serbia under the terms of an alternative financing proposal from one of the losing bidders.

Nevsun reminded Reservoir shareholders of the premium value of the Arrangement Agreement (the "Arrangement") it has entered into with Reservoir and urged Reservoir shareholders to vote for the Arrangement. Nevsun also cautioned that Reservoir's shares are currently trading at a premium linked to the Arrangement and the price might decline sharply if the Arrangement is rejected.

"Nevsun believes there is significant risk to Reservoir under the proposed alternative financing, including the risk of a loan default that could cost Reservoir its entire interest in Timok," said Cliff Davis, President and CEO of Nevsun. "Moreover, the dissident shareholders may have questionable motivations in criticizing the transaction due to their potential interest in offtake contracts."

Continued Mr. Davis, "Reservoir shareholders should be guided by the unanimous support of Reservoir's board for the Arrangement, and a supporting fairness opinion from Reservoir's financial adviser on the consideration to be received by Reservoir shareholders. The compelling value and rationale for this transaction is underscored by the recommendations from both ISS Proxy Advisory Services and Glass, Lewis & Co., two leading independent proxy advisory firms, that Reservoir shareholders vote FOR the arrangement. Clearly the transaction with Nevsun is an excellent outcome for Reservoir and its shareholders."

The dissident shareholders, risk of a loan default, and proposed equity dilution

The criticism of the Arrangement involves Jing Bao (Asia) Ltd. ("Jing Bao") and Shandong Xiangguang Group Co., Ltd ("XGC"). In April they were involved as part of a syndicate with an alternative financing proposal with Reservoir, which Reservoir's board rejected in favour of the Arrangement with Nevsun.

Now, with the support of Jing Bao, XGC has proposed a new, non-binding financing to Reservoir. Proposed terms include a US$50 million loan, secured by Reservoir's interest in Timok as well as other Reservoir assets. XGC could obtain full ownership of Reservoir's interest in Timok if Reservoir were to default on the loan, which is a significant risk since Reservoir has no current operations that would allow it to service the loan or repay it when it comes due.

Proposed terms also include a dilutive US$80 million issue of Reservoir equity at just C$8 per share. That's a significant discount to Reservoir's closing share price of C$8.76 yesterday (June 7, 2016) and an even greater discount to the price of C$9.40 at which Nevsun recently financed Reservoir.

Moreover, in the event that the Nevsun Arrangement is rejected, there is a risk that XGC might withdraw its offer or substitute terms that are even more onerous to Reservoir. In contrast, the binding terms of the Nevsun Arrangement provide Reservoir shareholders with premium value and increased long-term exposure to the Timok project.

Questionable and self-interested offtake motivations

Nevsun believes the criticism of the Arrangement may be self-serving since the dissident shareholders might be interested in signing offtake contracts to purchase Timok's output. For example, on its own website Jing Bao states that it is "especially interested in off takes" and that it is "most interested in the right to purchase a percentage of the commodity at a low fixed price over the life of the mine in exchange for upfront payments."1

Nevsun has the demonstrated expertise to move the Timok project into production  it is not clear how Reservoir shareholders would benefit from such a deal as Jing Bao prefers. Reservoir shareholders have reason to question Jing Bao's motivations in attempting to hinder the premium transaction with Nevsun.

Reference: 1 http://www.jingbao.asia/aboutE.html.

XGC smelter provides no advantage

Similarly, it is incorrect to ascribe value to synergies involving the Chinese smelter operator XGC. Once Timok is in production, Nevsun will arrange for smelting on the best available terms from the world's many smelter operators. Nevsun and Reservoir due diligence showed there are competitive markets for Timok products. It would not be in Reservoir's interest for Timok to become captive to XGC, for either Direct Ship Ore "DSO" or copper concentrates.

Jing Bao admits its estimates and calculations are unsubstantiated "beliefs" and "should not be relied upon"

Jing Bao's statements of value to Reservoir shareholders are unsubstantiated and include outright errors that should not be relied upon. Jing Bao itself acknowledges this in its disclaimer, which reads in part: "Jing Bao's expectations as to the value of Reservoir or Nevsun are not based on work conducted by valuation, financial or mining experts. Each only constitute a statement of our beliefs and should not be relied upon".

Nevsun Arrangement is the result of a rigorous process

In November 2015 the Reservoir Board of Directors contacted approximately 25 parties during a rigorous strategic process to consider potential strategic partners for the Timok project, and in March 2016 the Reservoir Board engaged independent financial advisors to assist in evaluating strategic alternatives.

The Reservoir Board and its advisors considered a number of options, including the April financing proposal from a syndicate involving Jing Bao and XGC, and the Reservoir Board unanimously agreed that the Arrangement with Nevsun was the preferred alternative. The Reservoir Board also received a fairness opinion from its independent financial advisor that the consideration to be received by the Reservoir Shareholders pursuant to the Arrangement is fair, from a financial point of view, to the Reservoir Shareholders.

Nevsun's strong balance sheet and cash generation to fund Timok's potential

Following the completion of the Arrangement the pro-forma company will have US$300 million in cash to fund the development of Timok, as well as ongoing cash flow generated by Nevsun's 60%-owned Bisha mine, a high grade mine which generated US$120 million of operating cash flow in 2015.

As part of its evaluation of alternatives, Reservoir and its advisors conducted extensive due diligence on Nevsun and its operations, including legal, financial, political risk, and technical analyses. Both the Non-Executive Chairman of the Reservoir Board and the CEO of Reservoir visited the Bisha mine site and met with Eritrean government officials. The Reservoir Board concluded that Nevsun has the proven mine development expertise and balance sheet to move the Timok project forward.

TIME IS SHORT  VOTE YOUR PROXY NOW TO RECEIVE PREMIUM VALUE AND UPSIDE

If you have any questions or need assistance with voting, please contact D.F. King, the proxy solicitation agent, by telephone at 1-866-822-1237 (North American Toll Free) or 1-201-806-7301 (Collect Outside North America); or by email at: [email protected].

About Nevsun Resources Ltd.

Nevsun Resources Ltd. is the 60% owner of the high grade Bisha Mine in Eritrea. Bisha has 9 years of reserve life, generating revenue from both copper and zinc concentrates containing gold and silver by-products. Nevsun has a strong balance sheet with no debt and pays a peer leading quarterly dividend. Nevsun is well positioned to grow shareholder value through exploration at Bisha and acquisition of additional mining assets.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation, and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (collectively referred to as "forward-looking information"). The use of any of the words "expect", "potential", "target", "anticipate", "continue", "estimate", "objective", "may", "will", "project", "should", "believe", "plans", "intends" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking information or statements. More particularly and without limitation, this news release contains forward-looking statements and information concerning: the previously announced combination of Nevsun and Reservoir, the alternative transactions that Reservoir may or may not have at its disposal, the proposed terms of such alternatives and the potential outcomes that may arise from such alternatives. Since forward-looking information addresses future events and conditions, by its very nature it involves inherent risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond Nevsun's and Reservoir's control. These include, but are not limited to, the risk that the Arrangement may not close when planned or at all or on the terms and conditions set forth in the Arrangement Agreement; and the failure to obtain the necessary shareholder and court approvals, if applicable, required in order to proceed with the Arrangement, as well as all the possible outcomes involving both Jing Bao and XGC proposals to Reservoir referred to in this release. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. Further information concerning risks and uncertainties associated with these forward-looking statements and Nevsun's business can be found in Nevsun's Annual Information Form for the year ended December 31, 2015, which is available on Nevsun's website (www.nevsun.com), filed under Nevsun's profile on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) and on EDGAR (www.sec.gov) under cover of Form 40-F. Actual results, performance or achievement could differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, these forward-looking statements and, accordingly, no assurance can be given that any of the events anticipated by the forward-looking statements will transpire or occur, or if any of them do so, what benefits may be derived there from. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on this information.

Neither TSX nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

NEVSUN RESOURCES LTD.

"Cliff T. Davis"

Cliff T. Davis

President & Chief Executive Officer

SOURCE Nevsun Resources Ltd.
The new position will oversee all aspects of Research & Development for New Avon

NEW YORK, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- New Avon LLC (New Avon) today announced that Helene F. Rutledge has been hired as the company's Chief Innovation Officer, effective June 8, 2016. In this newly-created position, Ms. Rutledge will report directly to Scott White, Chief Executive Officer for New Avon.

"Helene brings nearly three decades of operational and innovation experience to New Avon. She has strong experience running product innovation for world-class consumer and pharmaceutical companies - expertise which will be invaluable to our product innovation efforts at New Avon," said Mr. White. "Helene will be an outstanding addition to the Leadership Team, and she will build upon our legacy of offering women first-to-market breakthrough beauty technologies, including our highly successful Anew anti-aging skincare line and Avon Color cosmetics. This appointment reflects our commitment to being the best social selling beauty company in North America."

As Chief Innovation Officer for New Avon, Ms. Rutledge will be responsible for designing the innovation strategy and our new product development processes, involving both internal and external capabilities. Ms. Rutledge will work closely and collaborate with the Marketing, Product Development, Manufacturing and Sourcing teams, as well as Avon Products, Inc. Research and Development and external partners to enhance our new product portfolio.

"I am thrilled to be joining New Avon at this pivotal time in the company's growth journey. I have always respected Avon as an iconic, purpose-driven brand, empowering women to run their own business selling innovative beauty products," said Ms. Rutledge. "I look forward to shaping the vision for Research and Development for New Avon to ensure we continue to deliver leading edge, award-winning innovations to our Avon Representatives and their customers."

Prior to joining New Avon, Ms. Rutledge was the Vice President of Research and Development for Nature's Bounty, Inc. (NBTY), where she led Product and Partner Development across NBTY's diverse brands and geographies, including solid dose, liquid, powder, food and cosmetic form products. As an expert on innovation, Ms. Rutledge is currently an invited member of Henry Chesbrough's OI Forum, and previously served as the Head of Global Open Innovation for GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare and Senior Vice President of Technology at AeroDesigns. During her time at AeroDesigns, Ms. Rutledge collaborated with David Edwards, inventor of inhaled insulin, at his incubator Le Laboratoire in Paris. She also held operations and product development roles with Pfizer, GoSMILE and Warner-Lambert where she led development of innovation award-winning Listerine(R) PocketPaks. Additionally, she is the founder of the full-service NYC-based consultancy firm Caliper Innovation, which designs, develops and delivers products and innovation solutions. Earlier in her career, Ms. Rutledge worked at Avon Products, Inc., leading process development for Fragrance, Children's and Bath products.

About New Avon LLC

New Avon LLC is the leading social selling beauty company in North America. The company generated over $1 billion in revenues during 2015, and has nearly 400,000 independent sales Representatives in the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada. New Avon's product portfolio includes award-winning skincare, color cosmetics, fragrance and personal care products, featuring iconic brands such as Anew, Avon Color, Mark, and Skin So Soft, as well as fashion and accessories. Avon has a 130-year history of empowering women through economic opportunity, and the company also proudly supports the Avon Foundation for Women in its efforts to end breast cancer and domestic violence. Learn more about New Avon and its products at www.avon.com.

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SOURCE New Avon LLC

Related Links

http://avon.com


MIAMI, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ - Next Group Holdings, Inc. (OTCQB: NXGH) announced today that its subsidiary, NEXTCALA, Inc. ("NEXTCALA") signed an agreement with Glocal Payment Solutions, Inc. ("GLOCAL"), to form a Joint Venture to be named NextGlocal that will provide financial solutions to the underbanked population.

The NextGlocal financial products will provide attractive pricing and extra benefits to unbanked and underbanked consumers.

NEXTCALA will make available to the Joint Venture every feature of NEXTCALA's prepaid card financial services program platform, including without limitation, its standard GPR (General Purpose Reload) features, functions, and support, co-branded and customized for GLOCAL's business and consumer customers through a distinct NextGlocal co-branding program to meet demand created by NextGlocal.

GLOCAL is a multi-media commerce payment solutions company engaged in creating and sustaining a state-of-the-art payment processing solution and network that encompasses a wide range of participating suppliers, incentives, and affinity across multiple business and consumer network groups. GLOCAL will expand its ongoing successes in the travel and tourism, health and travel insurance, restaurant and retail, corporate solutions and non-profit business segments in the United States and in soon-to-be-announced international markets. GLOCAL, together with its existing engagements, will enable NextGlocal to target a universal sample space of 30,000,000 users from the launch of the Pilot Program in June 2016, transitioning into the potential universal sample space of 100,000,000 users globally through year three.

"The synergy and common objectives between NEXTCALA and GLOCAL will enable the Joint Venture to develop new market segments that have a distinct need and hunger for NEXTCALA's financial solutions," said Arik Maimon, NXGH's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "We believe that creating this Joint Venture will produce significant market penetration, revenue growth, and profitability for NXGH."

"This is an exciting and a natural evolution in our efforts to sustain a comprehensive, multi-media payments and settlement, rewards platform for our suppliers and customers. NEXTCALA will impart the critical components needed for GLOCAL to harness and sustain a constantly evolving payment and settlement platform," said Sudhan Thomas, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of GLOCAL. Mr. Thomas has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of the NextGlocal Joint Venture and will run its day-to-day operations.

"I believe this is a very good strategy for NXGH as this Joint Venture should provide great value and substantial benefits to NXGH and its shareholders," said Michael De Prado, President and Chief Operating Officer of NXGH. "This is a significant step forward that will enhance NXGH's position in the markets for its financial products and shareholders," added Mr. DePrado.

"We are excited about the launch of the NextGlocal Joint Venture and look forward to deploying all of the Glocal assets to the success of the Joint Venture," said Paul Appel, ESQ, President and Chief Operating Officer of GLOCAL.

NXGH owns 94% of the issued and outstanding shares of NEXTCALA, which is one of its four operating subsidiaries. NXGH will own 60% of the Joint Venture entity and GLOCAL will own 40%.

About Us: NXGH is a corporation headquartered in Miami, Florida, which, through its operating subsidiaries, engages in the business of using proprietary technology and certain licensed technology to provide innovative mobile banking, mobility, and telecommunications solutions to underserved, unbanked, and emerging markets. NXGH's principal executive offices are located at 1111 Brickell Avenue, Suite 2200, Miami, Florida 33131, and its telephone number at that location is (800) 611-3622. NXGH's web address is www.nextgroupholdings.com.

THIS NEWS RELEASE CONTAINS "FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS", AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN SECTION 27A OF THE UNITED STATES SECURITIES ACT OF 1933, AS AMENDED, AND SECTION 21E OF THE UNITED STATES SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934, AS AMENDED. STATEMENTS IN THIS NEWS RELEASE, WHICH ARE NOT PURELY HISTORICAL, ARE FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS AND INCLUDE ANY STATEMENTS REGARDING BELIEFS, PLANS, EXPECTATIONS OR INTENTIONS REGARDING THE FUTURE. EXCEPT FOR THE HISTORICAL INFORMATION PRESENTED HEREIN, MATTERS DISCUSSED IN THIS NEWS RELEASE CONTAIN FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS THAT ARE SUBJECT TO CERTAIN RISKS AND UNCERTAINTIES THAT COULD CAUSE ACTUAL RESULTS TO DIFFER MATERIALLY FROM ANY FUTURE RESULTS, PERFORMANCE OR ACHIEVEMENTS EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED BY SUCH STATEMENTS. STATEMENTS THAT ARE NOT HISTORICAL FACTS, INCLUDING STATEMENTS THAT ARE PRECEDED BY, FOLLOWED BY, OR THAT INCLUDE SUCH WORDS AS"ESTIMATE", "ANTICIPATE", "BELIEVE", "PLAN" OR "EXPECT" OR SIMILAR STATEMENTS ARE FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS CONTAINED IN THIS NEWS RELEASE INCLUDE STATEMENTS RELATING TO OTHER PUBLICLY AVAILABLE INFORMATION REGARDING THE COMPANY.

SOURCE Next Group Holdings, Inc.
BROOKLYN, N.Y., June 7, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Under Europe's "Right to be Forgotten" law, citizens there can petition Internet search providers such as Google to remove search results linked to personal information that is negative or defamatory. In many cases, these links lead to information about accusations of criminal activity or financial difficulties, which may be "delisted" if the information is erroneous or no longer relevant.

But "gone" doesn't always mean "forgotten," according to a new study by researchers at the New York University Tandon School of Engineering, NYU Shanghai, and the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Brazil.

"The Right to Be Forgotten has been largely working and is responding to legitimate privacy concerns of many Europeans," said New York University Professor Keith Ross. "Our research shows, however, that a third-party, such as a transparency activist or a private investigator, can discover many delisted links and determine the names of the people who requested the delistings." Ross, the Leonard J. Shustek Professor of Computer Science at NYU Tandon and dean of engineering and computer science at NYU Shanghai, led the research team, which included Professor of Computer Science Virgilio Almeida and doctoral students Evandro Cunha and Gabriel Magno, all of the Federal University of Minas Gerais, and Minhui Xue, a doctoral student at NYU Shanghai.

They focused only on requests to delist content from mass media sites such as online newspapers and broadcast outlets. Although the law requires search engines to delist search links, it does not require newspaper articles and other source material to be removed from the Internet.

A hacker faces a fairly low bar if he or she knows a particular URL has been delisted. Of 283 delisted URLs used in the study, the authors successfully determined the names of the requesters in 103 cases.

But the authors also demonstrated that a hacker can prevail even when the URL is unknown, by downloading media articles about topics most commonly associated with delisting, including sexual assault and financial misconduct; extracting the names from the articles; then sending multiple queries to a European Google search site to see if the articles were delisted.

The researchers estimate that a third party could potentially determine 30 to 40 percent of the delisted mass-media URLs, along with the names of the people who made the delisting requests. Such hackers do exist and have published the names of people who requested delisting, thereby opening them to even more public scrutiny  the so-called "Streisand effect," a phenomenon, named for the reclusive star, whereby an attempt to hide a piece of information has the unintended consequence of publicizing the information more widely.

Their results show that the law has fundamental technical flaws that could compromise its effectiveness in the future.

Demographic analysis revealed that the majority of requesters were men, ages 20-40, and most were ordinary citizens, not celebrities. In accordance with the law, Google delisted links for persons who were wrongfully charged, acquitted, or who finished serving their sentences, among other privacy issues.

The researchers believe that defenses to these privacy attacks are limited. One possible defense would be for Google to never display the delisted URL in its search results. (Currently, Jane Doe's delisted robbery article would not show up when her name is used in a search, but would do so if the name of the bank were searched, for example.) This defense is not only a strong form of censorship, but can also be partially circumvented, they said.

A French data protection authority recently ordered Google to delist links from all of its properties including Google.com, in addition to its search engines with European suffixes. Google has so far refused, and the dispute is likely to end up in European courts. "Even if this law is extended throughout all of the Google search properties, the potential for such attacks will be unchanged and they will continue to be effective," said Almeida of the Federal University of Minas Gerais.

The researchers noted that they will never publicly share the names discovered in association with their analysis. They informed Google of the research results.

The paper, entitled The Right to be Forgotten in the Media: A Data-Driven Study is available at https://docs.google.com/a/nyu.edu/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=bnl1LmVkdXxrZWl0aHJvc3N8Z3g6MzA5NmYxOWZlMjcwMzM1NQ. It will be presented the 16th Annual Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium in Darmstadt, Germany, in July, and will be published in the proceedings.

The NYU Tandon School of Engineering dates to 1854, when the NYU School of Civil Engineering and Architecture as well as the Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute (widely known as Brooklyn Poly) were founded. Their successor institutions merged in January 2014 to create a comprehensive school of education and research in engineering and applied sciences, rooted in a tradition of invention, innovation and entrepreneurship. In addition to programs at its main campus in downtown Brooklyn, it is closely connected to engineering programs in NYU Abu Dhabi and NYU Shanghai, and it operates business incubators in downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn. For more information, visit http://engineering.nyu.edu.

facebook.com/nyupoly

@nyupoly

Note: Images available at http://dam.poly.edu/?c=1739&k=6892ff72f9

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SOURCE NYU Tandon School of Engineering

Related Links

http://engineering.nyu.edu


WALNUT CREEK, Calif., June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Owens Realty Mortgage, Inc. (NYSE MKT: ORM) (the "Company") today announced that, on June 7, 2016, the Company entered into an amendment (the "Amendment") to its agreement to sell the property (the "TOTB Property") commonly known as the "Treasures on the Bay" to Interwest Capital Corporation (the "Buyer"). The TOTB Property includes the 169 condominium units and 160 apartment units and related land and assets held by TOTB Miami, LLC ("TOTB Miami") and TOTB North, LLC ("TOTB North" and together with TOTB Miami "TOTB"). The Company owns an 80.74% interest in TOTB, and the Company's manager, Owens Financial Group, Inc., is the owner of the other 19.26% interest in TOTB.

Pursuant to the Amendment, the purchase price for the TOTB Property has been reduced from $82 million to $75.5 million. The Amendment also extends the Buyer's due diligence period (the "Feasibility Period") to June 14, 2016, requires Buyer to make an additional escrow deposit of $4.5 million following satisfactory due diligence at the end of the Feasibility Period (bringing the total escrow amount to $5.0 million), adds additional closing conditions to Buyer's obligations to close, and revises certain other provisions of the agreement. The closing of the sale of the TOTB Property is subject to a number of conditions described in the amended Purchase Agreement and Deposit Receipt (the "Amended Purchase Agreement") between Buyer and the TOTB entities, including among others completion of satisfactory due diligence by the Buyer. Accordingly, there is no guarantee when or if the closing will occur. The foregoing description of the Amended Purchase Agreement does not purport to be complete and is qualified in its entirety by reference to the full text of the agreement and the amendment, copies of which have been filed by the Company with the SEC as exhibits to Current Reports on Form 8-K.

About Owens Realty Mortgage, Inc.

Owens Realty Mortgage, Inc., a Maryland corporation, is a specialty finance mortgage company organized to qualify as a real estate investment trust ("REIT") that focuses on the origination, investment, and management of small balance and middle-market commercial real estate loans. We provide customized, short-term acquisition and transition capital to commercial real estate investors that require speed and flexibility. Our primary objective is to provide investors with attractive current income and long-term shareholder value. Owens Realty Mortgage, Inc., is headquartered in Walnut Creek, California, and is externally managed and advised by Owens Financial Group, Inc.

Additional information can be found on the Company's website at www.owensmortgage.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release includes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements about Owens Realty Mortgage Inc.'s plans, strategies, and prospects, including the transactions discussed in this press release, are based on current information, estimates, and projections; they are subject to risks and uncertainties, as well as known and unknown risks, which could cause actual results to differ from expectations, estimates and projections and, consequently, readers should not rely on these forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. Words such as "expect," "target," "assume," "estimate," "project," "budget," "forecast," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "may," "will," "could," "should," "believe," "predicts," "potential," "continue," and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements.

Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance upon any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. The Company does not undertake or accept any obligation to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statement to reflect any change in its expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based. Additional information concerning these and other risk factors is contained in the Company's most recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements concerning the company or matters attributable to the company or any person acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements above.

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SOURCE Owens Realty Mortgage, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.owensmortgage.com


HARRISBURG, Pa., June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following Governor Wolf's signing of House Bill 1690, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB) pledged its cooperative commitment to successful implementation of historic reform to Pennsylvania liquor laws that will allow for greater consumer convenience for Pennsylvanians.

"Enactment of this law  which includes initiatives the PLCB has long supported, including flexibility in pricing, extended store hours, expanded Sunday sales, enhanced direct shipping options, loyalty programs, additional couponing opportunities and Pennsylvania Lottery sales at Fine Wine & Good Spirits stores  heralds an exciting new beginning for the PLCB and Pennsylvania consumers of wine, spirits and beer," said Board Chairman Tim Holden.

Board Member Mike Negra added, "This law transformatively changes the PLCB's responsibilities such that we can now move away from decades-old prohibitionist restrictions on alcohol sales and pursue meaningful improvements to access and convenience for Pennsylvania consumers."

The PLCB has begun a comprehensive review of the many significant changes this law makes to regulatory, licensing, product procurement and marketing activities, among others.

"We are excited to tackle the monumental challenge ahead of us, and we pledge to do so diligently and cooperatively, communicating openly all along the way with those impacted by and interested in these changes," said Board Member Michael Newsome. "Understandably, however, a 100-plus-page bill overhauling decades-old practices includes inherent complexities that must be approached deliberatively."

The PLCB will move as quickly as possible in establishing new licensing applications and processes for direct wine shipping, casino licenses and wine permits for hotel and restaurant licensees. The agency will also immediately begin considering which stores will feature Lottery sales and/or have expanded Sunday sales hours as soon as the law becomes effective in August.

Other new authorizations the law provides the PLCB, including additional pricing and marketing flexibility, will likely be longer-term considerations.

"We commit to cooperation and open communication with the administration, the legislature, licensees, wine and spirits vendors, beer distributors, our retail customers and other stakeholders as we begin transforming Pennsylvania's beverage alcohol landscape in coming weeks and months," said Chairman Holden.

The PLCB regulates the distribution of beverage alcohol in Pennsylvania, operates more than 600 wine and spirits stores statewide and licenses more than 20,000 beverage alcohol producers and retailers. The PLCB also works to reduce and prevent dangerous and underage drinking through partnerships with schools, community groups and licensees. Taxes and store profits  totaling more than $14.5 billion since the agency's inception  are returned to Pennsylvania's General Fund, which finances Pennsylvania's schools, health and human services programs and law enforcement and public safety initiatives across the state, among other things. The PLCB also provides financial support for the Pennsylvania State Police Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement, the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs, other state agencies and local municipalities across the state. For more information about the PLCB, visit www.lcb.state.pa.us.

MEDIA CONTACT: Elizabeth Brassell, 717.919.1905

SOURCE Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board

Related Links

http://www.lcb.state.pa.us


"For over 30 years PrimeLending has been privileged to play a role in the home buying experience of our valued customers. In the last 5 years alone we have had the honor of assisting over 225,000 deserving families and individuals realize the American Dream of homeownership," said Todd Salmans, Chairman and CEO of PrimeLending. "Each homeowner we serve is making an important financial and emotional decision and we take enormous pride in the fact that they trust us enough to include us in that process."

How Do Homeowners #CelebrateHome?

PrimeLending offered customers the opportunity to share a photo and answer the question, "How do you Celebrate Home?" Here are just a few of the inspiring responses we received:

"My favorite thing about owning a home is that it's mine and I can decorate it as I see fit and it's my retreat from the outside world. I celebrate the space I have now compared to my former one bedroom apartment."

Maurice H., Hyattsville, MD

Maurice H., "After a house fire destroyed our last home, we were without hope of purchasing another home. We lost everything we owned to include all of our financial documents. PrimeLending helped us with a new home that we love and cherish so much."

Charles A., Columbia, SC

Charles A., "Every second, of every minute, of every day, we are so thankful to OWN our home again after losing our last one and renting the last four years!"

Michael D., Gilbert, AZ

Michael D., "This is my first home to buy and I couldn't be happier...Being a single mom hasn't always been easy but being able to come home to my own place every day has sure been the best thing for my little family. We love our home!"

Julie J., Eagle Mountain, UT

Julie J., "We are a blended family. It is great when we can all be together at the same time, sharing lots of laughter and love. It's a good feeling when you wake up to the sound of your kids talking and laughing with each other."

Shawn P., Ashland, KY

How You Can Celebrate with PrimeLending

Follow #CelebrateHome all month long to see a new homeowner in the spotlight each day in June, or visit our #CelebrateHome Gallery. Their stories remind us how important a home is for every American and in every community. Whether a first-time homebuyer or a homeowner looking to relocate to a different house, owning a home continues to be a rewarding and significant personal milestone.

What is National Homeownership Month?

President George W. Bush proclaimed June as the National Homeownership Month in 2002 stating,

"Homeownership is an important part of the American DreamA home provides shelter and a safe place where families can prosper and children can thrive. For many Americans, their home is an important financial investment, and it can be a source of great personal pride and an important part of community stability."

National Homeownership Month has been recognized each June since then.

About PrimeLending - PrimeLending, a PlainsCapital Company, is a national residential mortgage originator. In 2012 - 2015, PrimeLending was listed as a top 10 mortgage lender in the nation in purchase units.* Offering fixed-rate, adjustable-rate, FHA, VA, USDA and jumbo home loans, refinancing and relocation programs, PrimeLending is authorized to make loans in 50 states and the District of Columbia. Founded in 1986, PrimeLending is a member of the PlainsCapital Corporation family of companies. PlainsCapital Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hilltop Holdings Inc. (NYSE: HTH). More information at PrimeLending.com.

* Ranked by Marketrac for purchase units nationally for Jan.-Dec. 2012-2015.

 2016 PrimeLending, a PlainsCapital Company (NMLS No.: 13649). Equal Housing Lender.

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SOURCE PrimeLending

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OTTAWA, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The City of Ottawa recently awarded the STV/AECOM/Morrison Hershfield/McMillen Jacobs Associates joint venture a contract for the preliminary engineering and program management of the second stage of the city's transformative O-Train light rail transit extension program.

This $3 billion initiative includes the extension of three existing light rail routes  east and west along the Confederation Line, and south along the Trillium Line  totaling 30 kilometers (18.64 miles) of new rail and 19 new stations. The program will seamlessly connect riders to employment nodes such as Tunney's Pasture, Orleans Town Centre and Confederation Heights; academic institutions including University of Ottawa, Carleton University and Algonquin College; shopping centers such as Lincoln Fields, Rideau Centre, and Place d'Orleans; and cultural and recreational destinations like the National Arts Centre, the Rideau Canal, Parliament Hill, and Westboro Beach.

The goal of Stage 2, which was approved unanimously by the Ottawa City Council in 2013, is to bring 70 percent of all city residents within five kilometers (3.1 miles) of rail transportation, leading to shorter commutes, cleaner air and a stronger economy.

"We are thankful for the opportunity to continue our support of the City of Ottawa as it demonstrates its ongoing commitment to meet the needs of its growing population through the addition of new transportation options," said Keith Mackenzie, P.E., S.E., STV vice president and program manager for the extensions. "The city's O-Train extension program stands to have a profound effect on the region by creating new jobs and reducing vehicular congestion on the city's roadway network."

The joint venture team was previously awarded the preliminary engineering and program management services for the initial light rail transit project known as the Confederation Line, or Stage 1. This stage included new underground tunnels as well as conversion of a fully built-out bus rapid transit service into a light rail transit line, running from Tunney's Pasture through downtown Ottawa to Blair Station.

The Trillium extension program will double the existing line's ridership capacity with the addition of new passing sidings and functional enhancements at stations and maintenance facilities. Since it was introduced in 2001, ridership on the O-Train has nearly doubled to 12,000 trips per-day.

As Canada's capital, Ottawa is home to the Parliament, the Senate and the Supreme Court and is also one of the world's top five regions for research and development. As a result, employment is expected to increase in the city, placing considerable demands on the existing transportation system.

About STV: Founded more than 100 years ago, STV is a leader in providing engineering, planning, architectural, and environmental and construction management services for transportation systems, infrastructure, buildings, energy and other facilities. The firm is ranked 40th in Engineering News-Record's Top 500 Design Firms survey and 9th in its Transportation category. STV is 100 percent employee-owned. For more information, visit our website at www.stvinc.com or follow @STVGroup on Twitter.

For more information, contact:

Jill Bonamusa, (212) 614-3354

[email protected]

Mark Ginocchio, (212) 505-4916

[email protected]

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SOURCE STV

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ELKO  Summer is here and with it comes hotter weather, mining shows and new ventures in the industry.

The arrival of June means the Elko Mining Expo will be underway.

The show will be bigger than ever since the Elko Convention and Visitors Authority has its new conference center to expand the number of booths. I know the public and the vendors will be glad the dirt lot is gone.

The Elko show wont be the only mining expo in Nevada this year. The International MINExpo is back and will be in Las Vegas Sept. 26-28. The last time this show happened was in 2012, the first year I was the mining editor for the Elko Daily Free Press. I am surprised its been four years since I took this position. Time definitely flies by while youre having fun.

In the last four years I have learned a lot about the industry and I will continue to learn more as the mines change and evolve with how they operate.

During one of my tours this quarter, a mine manager said mining is simple. Its about digging dirt up and taking gold out of it. I do think it is a simple concept but the process to actually extract the yellow metal from the rocks containing it is a complex and fascinating endeavor.

In this issue of the Mining Quarterly I visited several sites and even got to drive a haul truck  a simulated one. Ive always been impressed by the large machines carrying several hundred tons of material around a site, but I now have a renewed amount of respect for those who drive them every day.

I was also quite excited to visit one of the many ranches owned by a mining company. I have been trying to get a ranch tour for more than a year, but Newmont Mining Corp.s Jeff White wanted to wait until the ranch was "pretty." The IL was not just pretty but gorgeous, probably in part because of all the snow and rain northeastern Nevada received this year.

Barrick Gold Corp. has a new approach for all of its mines. I talked with staff at Goldstrike to see how they are moving forward with the companys best in class program. They have found new ways to be more efficient and continue to improve how precious metals are taken from the ground.

This issue of the Quarterly also has several features on people in the industry.

One lucky miner this year won $12.5 million in an Elko casino, but that wont stop him from going back to the job he loves at Leeville.

Megan Tibbals shared her story of being a fourth-generation miner, and Lisa Becker spoke with more than 100 teen girls on how she became involved with the mining industry.

Both of these women talked about the importance of a STEM education or education in general, and Quarterly columnist John Dobra, Ph.D. continued this theme.

We also spotlight two mine rescue teams. Newmonts Carlin team is well known and will be in a national competition in July. Jerritt Canyons surface team is new and hoping to increase safety at the site.

You can find the details on all these stories and more in this edition of the Mining Quarterly.
SAO PAULO, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Reed Exhibitions, Brazil and the world's leading events organizer, today announces that Fernando Fischer takes on the role as President of the Brazil operation, at the same time that Juan Pablo De Vera, the outgoing President, takes over the new strategic position in the Region as Senior Vice-President of Business Development for Latin America, both reporting to Herve Sedky, President at Reed Exhibitions Americas (RX Americas).

The new leadership set up in the Region is a result of the company's investments in a growth strategy based on diversification of business assets and implementation of hybrid business models successfully executed in larger and mature markets such as the United States. Brazil is one of our most important markets for long-term growth and development among the 40 of Reed Exhibitions worldwide markets. "The evolution of the worldwide tradeshow business to an evolving landscape full of new possibilities, combined with Brazil's current challenging environment demand a flexible and multi-faceted way of doing business. Our proven business model includes diversifying income sources and, most importantly, enhancing high-level value to clients in terms of business generation, return on investments and brand equity." said Herve Sedky, President at RX Americas.

Prior to joining Reed Exhibitions, Fernando Fischer held several CEO positions in private and public Brazilian companies in many different sectors, in addition to building two successful startups. Fernando Fischer will drive Reed Exhibitions Alcantara Machado's strategy in Brazil focusing on support to industries and customers, portfolio diversification, development of strong tradeshow brands and innovative approaches, such as enhancing the expertise in match-making through digital tools.

With 19 years at the company, Juan Pablo De Vera as the Senior Vice-President of Business Development for Latin America will be responsible for proactively driving new revenue and growth opportunities for RX Americas' Latin American Region, including M&A. Brazil will be a pilot for the Americas business with this unprecedented position to find new creative ways to implement brand activations, as well as innovating strategic partnership models to add continued value to clients and industries.

"I am more than pleased to have such talented leaders for such vital positions in Latin America," said Herve Sedky. "Juan Pablo's decades of experience and recognition throughout the tradeshow industry and his terrific results leading the business in Brazil perfectly matches Fernando's approach as a talent leader and client-driven and innovative solutions and brands builder." adds Herve.

Despite the current economic conditions, Reed continues to invest in growth in Brazil and Latin America. Since the acquisition of Alcantara Machado in 2007, the company has invested more than R$ 377 million in the country and its fairs generated over R$ 3 billion in business results for exhibitors last year.

About Reed Exhibitions Alcantara Machado

Reed Exhibitions Alcantara Machado operates in Brazil through its offices in Sao Paulo, Recife and Ribeirao Preto. With a portfolio of over 30 brands throughout the country, the group brings the best practices in exhibition events to Brazil, with the experience of a global leader in this market.

To participate in an event organized and promoted by Reed Exhibitions Alcantara Machado means to be in a networking showcase that receives about 1 million buyers a year in Brazil alone.

Besides Brazil, Reed Exhibitions operates in 42 countries. It organizes over 500 events throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Contact:

+55 11 3066 7787

http://www.reedalcantara.com.br

http://www.reedexpo.com

SOURCE Reed Exhibitions Alcantara Machado

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http://www.reedexpo.com


SHENZHEN, China, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Sammy Dress is proud to announce a large hiring of hundreds of new designers, designer assistants, and photographers who are working around the clock to bring the hottest new fashion to the Sammy Dress inventory.

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Sammy Dress

"Our customers have been our biggest strength since our inception. We have seen huge outcry of support in both sales and reviews of our products. The constant customer satisfaction has led to our ever increasing success and we want to say thanks by providing even better service. We have recently hired many new staff and partnered with distributors to not only increase quantity of products available, but to also keep the quality at the highest standards. An increase amount of staff equates to an increase in the amount of products that can be checked and photographed, allowing us to add more products at a more rapid pace. We are a customer centric business and believe that this push for rapid growth will be well liked by them. As a business this is also an exciting time for investors because we are projecting increased revenue over the next quarter of sales." ---Sammydress

Sammy Dress is an industry leader in finding the next big products in women's' fashion. To ensure that buyers are receiving the best products and feeling happy Sammy Dress has created a very simple but powerful process of vetting clothes. Sammy Dress first works with its designers, designer assistants, purchasers to find possible fashion trend. Once a product has been selected a sample is sent from the manufacturer to the Sammy Dress team so technicians can get a firsthand look at the quality of the product. If the quality of the product meets Sammy Dress's standards it will be negotiated by the purchasers to be added to inventory. Once an agreement is made Sammy Dress will use their own in house photographers to get the best images of the product. Images and product information will then be added to the website so consumers can begin buying.

SOURCE Sammy Dress
RACINE, Wis., June 7, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- SC Johnson applauded final passage by the Senate this week of legislation that provides critical reforms to the nearly 40-year old Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). The company has long championed reform of TSCA, which has not been substantively amended since its enactment in 1976, despite significant advances in science and chemical assessments. The legislative changes were approved by the House on May 24, 2016, by an overwhelming 403-12 vote.

"This legislation is a win for families and I am thrilled to see it finally approved. This modernization of TSCA raises the standard for all companies and can help provide the public with confidence that the products they use in their homes are safe for their intended uses," said Fisk Johnson, Chairman and CEO of SC Johnson. "The strong bipartisan support of this legislation also sends a very positive message. I especially want to thank the Senators and House members who led this effort, and the Wisconsin members of Congress who supported the legislation."

As part of the TSCA reform, for the first time, the EPA will be required to systematically prioritize all chemicals currently in commerce for safety evaluations. Other key reforms to this legislation include:

Requiring the EPA to make an affirmative safety determination before a new chemical can be brought to market;

Promoting greater transparency in the TSCA program by reforming the way in which confidential business information is protected and shared;

Promoting application of a uniform federal chemical management program through limited and reasonable preemption of state regulatory authority;

Providing EPA with adequate resources, through fees on industry, to help defray the costs of administering a revamped TSCA program.

SC Johnson has supported TSCA reform for many years, including testimony before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in 2011 by Kelly Semrau, Senior Vice President for Global Corporate Affairs, Communication and Sustainability.

In addition, for many decades SC Johnson has been committed to doing what's right for families and earning their trust, particularly as it relates to chemical safety. In the last 16 years, the company has used its Greenlist chemical management system to ensure the use of the best and safest ingredients in its products. In 2009, the company launched an ingredient transparency program and has published more and more detail about what's inside our products  including the recent launch of a new European ingredient disclosure site. Last year, SC Johnson was the first mainstream company to share more than 99.9% of product-specific fragrance details. This year, the company launched the industry's first 100% disclosed fragrance.

About SC Johnson

SC Johnson is a family company dedicated to innovative, high-quality products, excellence in the workplace and a long-term commitment to the environment and the communities in which it operates. Based in the USA, the company is one of the world's leading manufacturers of household cleaning products and products for home storage, air care, pest control and shoe care, as well as professional products. It markets such well-known brands as GLADE, KIWI, OFF!, PLEDGE, RAID, SCRUBBING BUBBLES, SHOUT, WINDEX and ZIPLOC in the U.S. and beyond, with brands marketed outside the U.S. including AUTAN, TANA, BAMA, BAYGON, BRISE, KABIKILLER, KLEAR, MR MUSCLE and RIDSECT. The 130-year-old company, which generates $10 billion in sales, employs approximately 13,000 people globally and sells products in virtually every country around the world. www.scjohnson.com

SOURCE SC Johnson

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OAKLAND, Calif., June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Socially responsible investment firm Newground Social Investment, in partnership with shareholder advocacy group As You Sow (AYS), filed a shareholder proposal with Freeport-McMoRan asking the Company to report on steps it is taking to reduce the risks of its urban oil extraction operations, which primarily occur in Los Angeles County. The proposal comes amidst mounting public opposition and rising health concerns associated with fracking, acidizing, and other unconventional oil extraction operations in urban Southern California communities. Today's preliminary results indicate that over 18% of shares were voted in support of the resolution, representing approximately $2.6 billion in investor assets.

The resolution urged Freeport to report how it will avoid or reduce urban drilling risks. Freeport's urban oil extraction operations occur in densely populated areas of the Los Angeles Basin, and are located as little as hundreds of feet from elementary schools, playgrounds, and daycare centers  all of which amplifies the risk of significant public health and environmental damage.

The risk of conducting oil field operations in proximity to communities was highlighted recently by the Aliso Canyon disaster, where a natural gas holding tank near residential neighborhoods ruptured and leaked over 97,000 metric tons of methane into the local atmosphere. This leak, the largest in U.S. history, resulted in serious health effects for nearby residents, and cost SoCal Gas over $667 billion. The growing risk of air and water contamination from unconventional oil extraction operations have fueled public opposition, increased regulatory restrictions, and led to moratoriums.

Stockholders note that by pursuing hazardous extraction in urban areas, Freeport risks reputational damage, heightened regulation of its operations, and legal costs if spills or harms to communities occur. Today's vote sends a strong message to Freeport's management that protecting neighboring communities from the risks of the company's operations is essential.



CONTACT:

Danielle Fugere: President, As You Sow (510) 735-8141 or [email protected]

Amelia Timbers: Energy Program Manager, As You Sow (510) 735-8153 or [email protected]

Bruce Herbert: Chief Executive, Newground Social Investment (206) 522-1944 or [email protected]

Newground Social Investment manages money for institutions and individuals who seek positive change without sacrifice to financial performance. www.newground.net

As You Sow (AYS) promotes environmental and social corporate responsibility through shareholder advocacy. www.asyousow.org

SOURCE As You Sow

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DELHI, India, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Ruder Finn has promoted Shruti Das to the role of Technology Lead for Asia. Ruder Finn's Technology practice has been growing rapidly, both globally and in Asia, with an increasingly impressive roster of clients, including global tech companies and start-ups. To support this momentum, Ruder Finn saw the need for senior client stewardship to accelerate the regionalization of the practice in ways that benefit both current and future clients.

A Ruder Finn Delhi employee for more than five years, Shruti will be an integral part of the global technology team and will assist in streamlining information sharing with Ruder Finn in US, Europe, South East Asia and China. Working closely with Robin Kim, Executive Vice President, Managing Director of Global Technology, and with the Technology team in the US and Europe, Shruti will centralize information and leverage expertise from across the network, as well as impart her diverse experience in the tech sector to colleagues to strengthen the practice in Asia.

Shruti brings with her more than 13 years' experience in promoting and protecting technology brands and corporate reputation for industry leaders. She joined Ruder Finn India in 2010 and has been instrumental in developing expertise within the Ruder Finn technology team to leverage trending topics such as Cloud adoption, digitization of countries and Smart Cities. With this knowledge pool and smart storytelling techniques, the Ruder Finn team has helped clients across sectors to transform, using technology at its core. Shruti has been able to grow client mandates across the region and has kept attrition to zero in this sector, with some relationships spanning the five years since the inception of Ruder Finn India. In recent months, the team has worked with diverse clients including Cisco, USGBC (US Green Building Council), edX (a MooC provider, founded by Harvard and MIT), Barracuda (a storage and Security solutions company) and IEEE, to ride the wave of Digitization and Smart Cities in India. Shruti has also managed communication mandates for major organisations including Microsoft, Oracle, NetApp, Google, Cisco and Airtel.

"Ruder Finn Asia has been making major inroads in the tech sector across Asia. We specialize in communications across key verticals in the technology sector  a key competency in an era where every company is a technology company, and vertical depth is a differentiator," the Chairman of Ruder Finn Asia, Jean-Michel Dumont, said. "Shruti's expertise and drive are formidable and she will be a great bridge for our global cross-office collaborations in this exciting climate."

Shruti Das said: "Technology brands have always been fascinating to me and now, with all the global brands or even cities looking to transform themselves by leveraging the power of technology, this space promises to be even more interesting."

Over recent years, Ruder Finn's work in technology has grown rapidly and has received industry-wide recognition and awards. In 2014, Ruder Finn Global hired tech expert, Robin Kim, as Executive Vice President, Managing Director of Global Technology to assist in the development and expansion of the global technology practice. In the same year US magazine O'Dwyer's ranked Ruder Finn as one of the top 10 technology PR firms. Ruder Finn was named global tech agency of the year by the Bulldog Reporter in 2015. With a focus on business transformation and a deep understanding of the digitization of everything, Ruder Finn partners with both soon- to-be-discovered startups and global technology powerhouses. Tech is ingrained across all Ruder Finn's practices, from Healthcare to Digital.

Recent notable achievements includes the launch of the first Virtual Reality professional camera, the first live stream concert in VR, and the latest brand activation for McDonald's imlovinit24 (24 global events in 24 markets in 24 hours), to authentically engage with customers in new ways.

The agency also launched a new specialized offering dedicated to helping companies engage both current and prospective technology-focused employees. RF TechTalent, a newly formalized suite of services, provides clients with the platforms and tools to identify, recruit, develop, and retain technology talent needed to launch business transformations, from developers and engineers to project managers.

Beyond client work, Ruder Finn expanded its tech expertise with the launch of a proprietary IP tool in Asia that adopts new technologies to support client needs. SONAR is a social media crisis simulation platform, that allows clients to experience fast-moving social media issues in real-time  providing a multi-language, multi-channel platform, specifically for the Asia market.

For further information, please contact:

Jean-Michel Dumont, Chairman, Ruder Finn Asia

Email: [email protected]

Shruti Das, Technology Lead, Ruder Finn Asia

Tel: + 91-9818028766

Email: [email protected]

About Ruder Finn Asia

Founded in 1989, Ruder Finn Asia (www.ruderfinnasia.com) is the Asia-Pacific subsidiary of New York-based Ruder Finn (www.ruderfinn.com), the leading independent global public relations consulting firm. Growing at an average of 25 percent every year since 2000, Ruder Finn Asia today employs close to 300 consultants in Asia-Pacific and has offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Singapore, Mumbai, New Delhi and Bangalore. The firm is represented across all other regional markets through a network of high quality affiliates. Ruder Finn Asia's business centers on four strategic pillars: Corporate & Public Trust, Global Connectivity, Health & Wellness and Life+Style. The firm offers expertise in reputation management, digital and social marketing strategy, crisis communication, employee engagement, design and executive skills training. Ruder Finn has dedicated teams for digital strategy, CSR, arts, culture and activation, providing insights and counsel into market trends, annual research reports including the China Luxury Forecast, Physicians Digital Outlook Survey and other publications. Delivering award-winning innovative, strategic public relations campaigns, Ruder Finn Asia's key clients include Emirates, Jumeirah, Volkswagen Group, Sanofi, Daiichi Sankyo, L'Oreal, Omron, Hermes, GSK, Cotton Inc, Bang & Olufsen, Michelin and leading brands from the Kering, LVMH and Richemont Groups.

SOURCE Ruder Finn

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"Larry Lawson has been a tremendous leader for Spirit. Under Larry's leadership the company's financial health has greatly improved, as has its operational performance," said Bob Johnson, Spirit Board Chairman. "Larry has been the catalyst that enabled Spirit to stabilize critical maturing programs, divest non-profitable business jet programs, transform operations across the enterprise, build a great team and win new business which has solidified the foundation for future growth."

Spirit's Board of Directors also announced that Chief Operating Officer Tom Gentile will take over as Spirit President and CEO following Lawson's retirement, and will transition into the new role over the next several weeks.

"The Board carefully considered the leadership skills and attributes needed as Spirit continues to evolve and grow," Johnson said. "We are delighted to have someone of Tom's caliber, with a strong history at GE, proven operational success in deeply technical domains, great relationship building skills and the ability to adapt across industries. Tom will be instrumental in architecting our future."

"Tom and I have worked in tandem since his arrival at Spirit as he has been absorbing the details of our business, and I am confident he is the right leader for the future of this enterprise," Lawson said.

Gentile joined Spirit earlier this year, assuming responsibility and oversight of all Spirit programs as well as all aspects of engineering, operations and business development. Prior to joining Spirit, Gentile spent two decades in leadership roles at GE, including President and CEO of GE Aviation Services and President and CEO of GE Healthcare Systems. Gentile will continue to work closely with Lawson over the next several weeks to ensure a smooth transition.

"I am thrilled to have the opportunity to lead this company and its incredible employees," Gentile said. "I've spent the last couple of months deeply embedded in the business--visiting the sites, meeting the teams, and assessing Spirit's expertise, capabilities and opportunities for growth. The more I learn, the more excited I am about our future."

On the web: www.spiritaero.com

On Twitter: @SpiritAero

About Spirit AeroSystems Inc.

Spirit AeroSystems designs and builds aerostructures for both commercial and defense customers. With headquarters in Wichita, Kansas, Spirit operates sites in the U.S., U.K., France and Malaysia. The company's core products include fuselages, pylons, nacelles and wing components for the world's premier aircraft. Spirit AeroSystems focuses on affordable, innovative composite and aluminum manufacturing solutions to support customers around the globe. More information is available at www.spiritaero.com.

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SOURCE Spirit AeroSystems Holdings, Inc.

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SAN FRANCISCO, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The Spine Center at Dignity Health St. Mary's Medical Center has completed its 100th surgery using the Mazor Renaissance Guidance System. St. Mary's is the only hospital in the Bay Area to exclusively offer this state-of-the-art technology for spine surgery.

"Our skillful surgeons confidently treat the most complex spinal surgery cases thanks to the unparalleled accuracy of the Mazor robotics system," said Michael Carter, interim president of St. Mary's Medical Center. "For patients needing spine surgery, this cutting-edge technology allows for fewer complications and revisions, as well as a faster recovery time."

The Mazor surgical robot, which is the size of a 12-ounce beverage can, enables fast and precise placement of spinal implants. During surgery, the system guides the surgeon's hand and tools to the precise pre-planned location, avoiding nerves, blood vessels, and other vital structures such as nearby joints.

"Millimeters make a difference," said James Zucherman, MD, a surgeon at St. Mary's Spine Center. "The Mazor system enables us to virtually map the size and trajectory of each screw before the surgery. Our patients tend to experience less discomfort and achieve higher surgical success rate."

This robot-assisted surgery supports more accurate implant placement during lumbar and thoracic spine fusions, and treats patients suffering from debilitating back pain or limited range of motion caused by spinal deformities and degenerative conditions such as slipped vertebrae, scoliosis, kyphosis, and spinal nerve impingement.

St. Mary's has the longest continuously operating multidisciplinary spine center in the western United States. Since 1982, the Spine Center has provided patients with access to the most advanced surgical techniques available, which include Mazor, X-Stop, I-Fuse, artificial disc replacement, and motion preservation devices.

About Dignity Health St. Mary's Medical Center

Dignity Health St. Mary's Medical Center is an accredited, not-for-profit community hospital that has been caring for the people of San Francisco since 1857. Located across from Golden Gate Park, it is the longest continually running hospital in San Francisco. St. Mary's has been named a 2014 Top Performer in Key Quality Measures by The Joint Commission for excellence in patient outcomes. For three consecutive years, from 2014 to 2016, St. Mary's received the Distinguished Hospital Award for Clinical Excellence from Healthgrades. St. Mary's also was recognized as one of the Top 100 Orthopedic Programs nationally by Becker's Hospital Review and is a Certified Stroke Center by the Joint Commission. St. Mary's state-of-the-art Cancer Center offers the full-range of oncology, radiation, and imaging services. Offering the most comprehensive breast imaging services in San Francisco, St. Mary's has been designated as a Center of Excellence by the American College of Radiology, a recognition that represents the national gold standard. Beyond clinical care, St. Mary's is committed to furthering the healing ministry, and to providing high-quality, affordable healthcare to the community we serve. For more information, call 415.668.1000 or visit DignityHealth.org/StMarys.

SOURCE Dignity Health St. Marys Medical Center

Related Links

http://www.dignityhealth.org/stmarys


BRIDGEPORT, Conn., June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- St. Vincent's Medical Center, a member of Ascension, the largest non-profit health system in the U.S. and the world's largest Catholic health system, is making it easier for patients to receive care for common health conditions with the launch of MYvirtualcare.com  an online diagnosis and treatment service powered by Zipnosis that connects patients with St. Vincent's clinicians. With MYvirtualcare.com patients can now receive prompt care for conditions such as sinus infections, female bladder infections, pink eye, or colds, coughs, and the flu  for a set fee of $35, less than the cost of many insurance co-pays.

"With MYvirtualcare.com, patients can skip the trip to the doctor's office and still get the care they need, when and how they need it," said Dianne Auger, Senior Vice president, Chief Strategy Officer, St. Vincent's Medical Center. "We are excited to be at the leading edge of this new technology, which is taking healthcare beyond bricks and mortar and into the virtual realm."

Patients begin a virtual visit at MYvirtualcare.com by completing an online adaptive interview that adheres to the latest evidence-based medical guidelines and is similar to what they would experience in a face-to-face visit. The patient's medical history and symptoms are then forwarded to a St. Vincent's provider for review and diagnosis. When the diagnosis and treatment plan are complete, typically within one hour, the patient receives a text or email alert. If a prescription is appropriate, MYvirtualcare.com allows the provider to send the prescription electronically to the pharmacy of the patient's choice. If the clinician determines that the patient's symptoms require a face-to-face visit, St. Vincent's staff will help the patient to book that appointment, as well.

St. Vincent's clinicians are available for virtual diagnosis seven days a week from 8:30 am to 10:00 pm. Patients may access MYvirtualcare.com 24/7 via computer, smartphone or other Web-enabled device, and off-hour visits will be reviewed and followed up on within one hour of opening the next day.

"At St. Vincent's, we are keenly aware of the fact that healthcare delivery must address multi-generational needs. MYvirtualcare.com has proven to be a welcome alternative for patients," explained Frank Scifo, MD, medical director, St. Vincent's MultiSpecialty Group. "Not only have patients found it convenient and easy to navigate, they appreciate the relatively low cost for this care. It has enhanced both the patient and provider experience because care is available when physician offices or convenient care sites are closed or may not be easily accessible."

The virtual care platform was developed by Zipnosis  a Minnesota-based company that partners with health care systems to provide the technology and methodology to launch a service, meeting the needs of patients while also enhancing their internal processes.

"By launching MYvirtualcare.com, St. Vincent's is improving clinical care one click at a time by making it easy for patients and healthcare providers to connect online without sacrificing quality," said Jon Pearce, co-founder and CEO of Zipnosis. "We look forward to working with St. Vincent's to meet the ever-changing needs of their patients and clinicians."

ABOUT ST. VINCENT'S MEDICAL CENTER

Founded by the Daughters of Charity in 1903, St. Vincent's Medical Center is a mission-driven organization committed to exceptional health care for all with special attention to persons living in poverty and those who are most vulnerable. St. Vincent's Medical Center is a member of Ascension, the nation's largest Catholic and non-profit healthcare system, and is at the forefront in patient safety and quality, with a focus on creating holistic, compassionate environments. St. Vincent's has been ranked as a Best Hospital in Fairfield County and in all of Western Connecticut for 2013-2016 by U.S. News & World Report in its annual "Best Hospitals" survey and was awarded the Nursing Magnet Recognition, the highest national award for nursing excellence. In 2013 St. Vincent's Medical Center was named Top Performer on Key Quality Measures by the Joint Commission, the leading accreditor of health care organizations in America, and has been recognized by both the Joint Commission and OSHA as a model of a highly reliable organization dedicated to patient safety. The American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer awarded St. Vincent's an Outstanding Achievement Award with Accreditation in 2012, and it also has earned its designation from the National Accreditation Program for Breast Cancer. For more information on programs and services, visit http://www.stvincents.org/.

ABOUT ASCENSION

Ascension (www.ascension.org) is a faith-based healthcare organization dedicated to transformation through innovation across the continuum of care. As the largest non-profit health system in the U.S. and the world's largest Catholic health system, Ascension is committed to delivering compassionate, personalized care to all, with special attention to persons living in poverty and those most vulnerable. In FY2015, Ascension provided nearly $2 billion in care of persons living in poverty and other community benefit programs. Approximately 160,000 associates and 36,000 aligned providers serve in 2,500 sites of care  including 142 hospitals and more than 30 senior living facilities  in 24 states and the District of Columbia. In addition to healthcare delivery, Ascension subsidiaries provide a variety of services and solutions including physician practice management, venture capital investing, investment management, biomedical engineering, clinical care management, information services, risk management, and contracting through Ascension's own group purchasing organization.

ABOUT ZIPNOSIS

Zipnosis provides health systems with a whitelabeled, fully integrated virtual care platform. Using our powerful, techenabled treatment and triage tools, our clients can offer ultraconvenient access to care while dramatically improving clinician efficiency. Patients may be treated for more than 90 conditions using our pioneering adaptive interview, triaged directly into a phone or video encounter, or visit a clinic for faster service using our ZipTicket boarding pass. Based in Minnesota, Zipnosis has more than seven years of expertise and data to help partners rapidly launch and scale a marketleading virtual care solution. For more information, visit www.zipnosis.com.

Media Contacts:

Caryn S. Kaufman

(203) 576-6393

cell: (646) 765-6006

[email protected]

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160607/376812LOGO

SOURCE Zipnosis

Related Links

http://www.zipnosis.com


PHILADELPHIA, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Teamsters from the tri-state area, members of SEIU, Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division, community allies, and store owners rallied today outside Philadelphia's City Hall to protest the proposed soda tax. While Coca Cola, Pepsi, Canada Dry trucks and Teamster 18-wheelers circled city hall, rank-and-file Teamsters held signs saying, "No More Taxes".

"This soda tax is a regressive tax that will hurt our industry," said Bill Hamilton, Teamsters International Vice President. "The issue has never been about health and we will all end up paying for this tax with the job losses that will occur if the mayor's soda tax is passed."

One of the Teamsters at the rally was Dennis McGinley, a member of Local 830 and a warehouse worker and head steward for the Pepsi warehouse in Philadelphia. "If this tax goes through, people could end up losing their jobs. I am thinking about the future of the industry  and my kids. This is one of the biggest industries that are here and through hard work you can earn a good living."

Danny Grace, Secretary-Treasurer of Local 830 wrapped up the event by rallying the crowds of hundreds when he explained that, "With a stroke of a pen in that building they could put us all out of a job. This is an egregious tax against people and the soda industry. We need family-sustaining jobs with good wages and health care. We have to send a clear message today  no more taxes!"

Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents 1.4 million hardworking men and women throughout the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. Visit www.teamster.org for more information. Follow us on Twitter @Teamsters and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/teamsters.

Contact:

Dan Grace, (215) 671-9850

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100127/IBTLOGO

SOURCE Teamsters Local 830

Related Links

http://www.teamster.org


Avison Young releases Technological Disruption and Real Estate Industry Topical Report

TORONTO, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ - New technologies are changing the way we live, work and play. At the same time, innovations in material science, construction technology, building operating systems and finance are set to upend the staid commercial real estate market, delivering higher performance, lower cost and reconfigured solutions to the marketplace. Those industry professionals who ignore such advances will risk becoming irrelevant in the "smart" cities of the future.

The process-technology revolution  the application of data analytics, hardware and software innovation and disruptive business models  may have the greatest effect of all on the real estate services industry. Investors and occupiers need to understand how to identify properties that will contribute the most value to the workplace as well as to the bottom line. That means having managers and advisors in place who not only understand the trends at work, but recognize their strategic significance in creating real estate portfolios that are relevant, forward-thinking and built to last.

These are some of the key trends noted in Avison Young's Topical Report "Technological Disruption and the Real Estate Industry: How Technology is Changing Our Business and Opening a World of Opportunity", released today.

"This topical report is intended to help institutional investors and their service providers gain a better grasp of the range and impact of these -- and many more -- forthcoming technology innovations," comments Amy Erixon, Avison Young Principal and Managing Director, Investments, who authored the report. "We examine four critical areas: software and hardware innovation, construction and materials engineering, process technology, and smart cities infrastructure and policies. The report provides examples to illustrate how change and disruption will manifest, and discusses how the convergence of various technological applications can result in profound progress and significant investment opportunities."

The report notes the computational abilities currently being embedded in buildings and how infrastructure can be augmented with wireless sensors to provide automated monitoring, analysis and control of virtually any metric with or without human intervention. The report concludes that technological disruption and transformation will, or certainly should, alter investment portfolio criteria -- and those criteria must be clearly, deeply and strategically understood by decision-makers.

"Buildings and cities of the future will be smarter, greener and more dynamic," adds Erixon, who is based in Toronto. "Implications for the existing building stock are vast. Companies and industries looking to lead will leverage technological change to come out on top."

Avison Young is the world's fastest-growing commercial real estate services firm. Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, Avison Young is a collaborative, global firm owned and operated by its principals. Founded in 1978, the company comprises 2,200 real estate professionals in 77 offices, providing value-added, client-centric investment sales, leasing, advisory, management, financing and mortgage placement services to owners and occupiers of office, retail, industrial and multi-family properties.

Editors/Reporters

 Please click on link to view and download Avison Young's Topical Report "Technological Disruption and the Real Estate Industry: How Technology is Changing Our Business and Opening a World of Opportunity"

https://avisonyoung.uberflip.com/i/684513-aytopicalreport-techdisruption-june8-16final

For further information/comment/photos:

Sherry Quan , Principal and Global Director of Communications & Media Relations, Avison Young : 604.647-5098; cell: 604.726-0959





, Principal and Global Director of Communications & Media Relations, : cell: Amy Erixon , Principal and Managing Director - Investments, Avison Young : 416.673.4034





, Principal and Managing Director - Investments, : Mark Rose , Chair and CEO, Avison Young : 416.673.4028

www.avisonyoung.com

Avison Young was a winner of Canada's Best Managed Companies program in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 and requalified in 2015 to maintain its status as a Best Managed Gold company

Follow Avison Young on Twitter:

For industry news, press releases and market reports: www.twitter.com/avisonyoung

For Avison Young listings and deals: www.twitter.com/AYListingsDeals

Follow Avison Young Bloggers: http://blog.avisonyoung.com

Follow Avison Young on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/avison-young-commercial-real-estate

Follow Avison Young on YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/AvisonYoungRE

SOURCE Avison Young Commercial Real Estate (BC)

Related Links

www.avisonyoung.com


LONDON, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Synopsis

This report provides a detailed analysis of investment intentions across different areas of technology in the Australian mining sector. The analysis is based upon Timetric's survey of 100 mine, general, maintenance, and procurement managers, including other mine-site and corporate decision-makers. The focus is on what technologies mines currently have, and in which technologies they are planning to invest over the next two years.



Areas of analysis include:



- Mining companies' intentions for investments in the coming two years, across a range of mine-site technologies including UAVs/drones, remote control/machine automation, real-time video training, collision avoidance/proximity detection, energy management and predictive maintenance.



- Comparisons of investment intentions across segments, including four commodity groups, three mine types, five mine-size categories and company revenues.



- Comparisons highlighting differences between current and prospective investments across three major states: Western Australia, Queensland and New South Wales.



- Specific insight into the software platforms each mine site is using across five different mine site departments, with details of market leaders and their software products.



- Comparison of the penetration of technologies in 2014 contrasted to current investment levels in 2016.



Summary

Overall trends in the data revealed:



- The primary technologies expected to see the greatest increases in penetration over the next two years are UAVs/drones, followed by remote control/machine automation, and real-time video training.



- 80% of mines have already invested in collision avoidance, scheduling and shift optimization, tire monitoring, predictive maintenance, fleet management and environmental monitoring technologies.



- UAVs/drones have the least penetration of the technologies with only 40% currently invested. This was followed by real time video training with 42% of mines invested.



- The greatest increase in penetration over the last two years has been in collision avoidance technologies, with expectations in Timetric's 2014 survey far exceeded. Fleet management, tire monitoring and fatigue management technologies were other fields that also exceeded investment expectations from Timetric's previous survey in 2014.



- Markets expected to have the greatest increases in technology penetration over the next 2 years are expected in Queensland and within the coal and precious metals sectors.



- Companies with revenues below US$1 billion are planning more investments over the next two years than all other companies.



- Vulcan is the most used software, nominated by 33% of the mines This was followed by Surpac with 16% and Xpac with 10%.



Scope

The report is based on responses from a survey of 100 senior decision makers at operating Australian mines, responsible for the purchase of equipment for plant and mine operations, along with consumables and services. The mines are located across eight different states and territories, with Western Australia, Queensland and New South Wales accounting for 88% of the mines. This included four main commodity groups and a range of surface and underground mining operations.



Reasons To Buy

- Understand which technologies have and are attracting the most investment, and how this varies by commodity group, mine type, global company revenue and Australian state.



- Target the segments with the greatest opportunity for technology products and services.



- Segment the market according to those fully invested, and those planning to make new investments into each technology.



Key Highlights

- The primary technologies expected to see the greatest increases in penetration over the next two years are UAVs/drones, followed by remote control/machine automation, and real-time video training.



- 80% of mines have already invested in collision-avoidance, scheduling and shift optimization, tire monitoring, predictive maintenance, fleet management and environmental monitoring technologies.



- UAVs/drones have the least penetration of the technologies with only 40% currently invested. This was followed by real-time video training with 42% of mines invested.



- The greatest increase in penetration over the last two years has been in collision avoidance technologies, with expectations in Timetric's 2014 survey far exceeded. Fleet management, tire monitoring and fatigue management technologies were other fields that also exceeded investment expectations from Timetric's previous survey in 2014.



- Markets expected to have the greatest increases in technology penetration over the next 2 years are expected in Queensland and within the coal and precious metals sectors.



- Companies with revenues below US$1 billion are planning more investments over the next two years than all other companies.



- Vulcan is the most used software, nominated by 33% of the mines This was followed by Surpac with 16% and Xpac with 10%.

Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/2216527/



About Reportbuyer

Reportbuyer is a leading industry intelligence solution that provides all market research reports from top publishers

http://www.reportbuyer.com



For more information:

Sarah Smith

Research Advisor at Reportbuyer.com

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +44 208 816 85 48

Website: www.reportbuyer.com

SOURCE ReportBuyer

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Acclaimed Israeli storyteller recognized for inspiring Jewish and universal values throughout the world

NEW YORK, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The Charles Bronfman Prize today announced Etgar Keret, the internationally acclaimed Israeli author, storyteller and filmmaker, as the 2016 Prize recipient in recognition of his work conveying Jewish values across cultures and imparting a humanitarian vision throughout the world.

The Prize was established in 2004 by Ellen Bronfman Hauptman and Stephen Bronfman, together with their spouses, Andrew Hauptman and Claudine Blondin Bronfman, to honor their father, Charles Bronfman, his values, and his commitment to young people and their potential as change makers. Past recipients have been recognized for their significant contributions to a diverse range of causes, including: refugee rights, poverty, education, disability rights, the environment, healthcare, and workforce development for veterans. The Prize is accompanied by a $100,000 award.

Keret, 48, best known for his short stories, graphic novels, film and television projects, has been one of Israel's most popular writers since his first collection of short stories was published in 1992. Hailed as the voice of young Israel, Keret is one of the most successful Israeli writers worldwide. His work has been published in 46 countries and translated into 41 languages, including Farsi, and has been featured around the world in outlets including The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Le Monde, The Paris Review, Zoetrope and National Public Radio (NPR).

"We recognize that humanitarian work is increasingly taking new forms and this marks the first time The Charles Bronfman Prize has been awarded to an individual who uses storytelling as a medium through which he challenges and inspires the way people think about themselves and the world," said Stephen Bronfman on behalf of the Prize founders and international panel of judges. "Etgar Keret is an important international voice who speaks of the Jewish condition in contemporary terms and demonstrates that writers can play an influential and critical role within society."

Charles Bronfman, the namesake of the Prize, said, "In a dangerous world, Etgar Keret portrays people who have the capacity to empathize with the other, to hear the other, and to find compassion for the other. He counters dehumanization and inspires his readers with warmth and humor and original thinking. He encourages others to make the world a better place and translates the lessons of the Holocaust to a new generation. Etgar's ability to innovate and collaborate with others involved in creative endeavors fully embodies the values and spirit of the Prize and I am delighted by his selection."

"It is a great honor for me to be the 2016 recipient of The Charles Bronfman Prize. If I had the choice to either become a better writer or a better person, I would choose, with no hesitation, the latter option. I feel that The Charles Bronfman Prize sets the same priorities, being given not only for talent and excellence but more than anything, for the genuine attempt to make a change and shape the world we live in." said Keret. "The best way to learn a text is through arguing about its meaning with another person. The value of critical thought is of great moral importance. It doesn't excuse us at any moment from contemplating our decisions and assuming full responsibility for them. When I write I try not to preach to my readers but to put them in front of a text presenting an incomplete world, thus turning the reading process itself into a Hevruta (fellowship) study."

"In periods of great change, writers may capture the feelings, thoughts, and experiences of many and give them a voice," said Keret's nominator, Nissim Calderon, Professor Emeritus of Hebrew Literature at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel. "Etgar is one such writer, and his literary creativity is paralleled by social involvement. His stories offer his readers  many of them young people  something in their multiple cultures, which responds to some need greater than the particular in their lives."

Keret's nominating team for The Charles Bronfman Prize also includes best-selling author Jonathan Safran Foer, Polish journalist Pawel Smolenski and Palestinian-Israeli author and journalist Sayed Kashua, who said in support of Keret's nomination: "Somehow, when I read Keret, I know deep inside that there is still room for understanding, for cooperation, that there is another way which refuses to accept the segregation between religions, people, nationalities and species. That there is another way, Keret's way, which refuses to accept dichotomies, and in which opposites mix and turn into one creation, harmonious in its discordance and complete with its shortcomingsproving that literature can change the world."

More About Etgar Keret

Born in Ramat Gan in 1967 and raised by parents who survived the Holocaust, Etgar Keret is one of the leading voices in Israeli literature and is internationally acclaimed for his work across a wide range of cultural endeavors. One of Israel's most innovative and extraordinary storytellers, Keret, is best known for his short stories. Rarely extending beyond three or four pages, his stories offer a window into a surreal world that is at once funny and sad. Keret started writing in 1992 during his service in the Israel Defense Forces and has since published five collections of short stories, one memoir, four Associated Pressgraphic novels, and four children's books.

Keret has been awarded the Prime Minister's Prize (1996), the Ministry of Culture's Prime Minister Award for Literature in Israel (1998), the Ministry of Culture's Award for Film Making in Israel (2000), the Jewish Quarterly  UK Wingate Award (2008), the St. Petersburg Public Library's Foreign Favorite Award (2010), the Newman Prize (2012), and each of his books has received the Book Publishers Association's Platinum Prize (1995, 1996, 1999, 2003, 2011). In 2010, Keret was honored in France with the decoration of Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. His latest book, The Seven Good Years, his first non-fiction book, was chosen by The Guardian as one of the best biographies and memoirs of 2015.

Keret has written several screenplays, including Malka Lev Adom (Skin Deep) (1996), which won first prize at several international film festivals and was awarded an Israeli Film Academy award. Keret and his wife, Israeli filmmaker and children's book writer Shira Geffen, won the 2007 Cannes Film Festival's Camera d'Or award and Best Director Award of the French Artists and Writers' Guild for their film Jellyfish.

In an effort to bring literature closer to a younger generation, Keret initiated and edited Silhouettes, and founded the nonprofit StoryVid. Silhouettes is an anthology of work by young Israelis that aims to describe, through fiction, the difficulties confronted by people with psychiatric disabilities. Proceeds from the book were donated to help related causes. Keret's StoryVid is a new media project that combines books and cinema to create, as The Paris Review said, "the literary equivalent of a music video."

He is a regular contributor to NPR's "This American Life," and a lecturer in the Department of Hebrew Literature at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel. Keret resides in Tel Aviv with his wife, Shira Geffen, and their son, Lev.

About The Charles Bronfman Prize

The Charles Bronfman Prize celebrates the vision and endeavor of an individual or team under the age of 50 whose humanitarian work is inspired by Jewish values and whose accomplishments are of universal benefit. The Prize brings public recognition to their work and impact, providing inspiration to the next generations. An internationally recognized panel of Judges selects the Prize recipient(s) and bestows an award of $100,000.

Previous recipients include Jay Feinberg, Founder and Executive Director of the Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation; Dr. Alon Tal, Founder of Israel's Arava Institute for Environmental Studies; Dr. Amitai Ziv, Founder and Director of the Israel Center for Medical Simulation; Rachel Andres, Founder and Director of Jewish World Watch's Solar Cooker Project;Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin, Co-Founders of the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP); Sasha Chanoff, Founder and Executive Director, RefugePoint; Jared Genser, Founder and President of Freedom Now; Karen Tal, Former Principal of The Bialik-Rogozin School and Co-Founder of Education Insights; Eric Greitens, Founder and CEO of The Mission Continues; Eric Rosenthal, Founder and Executive Director of Disability Rights International; Sam Goldman, Founder of d.light; and Rebecca Heller, Co-Founder and Director of the International Refugee Assistance Project.

SOURCE The Charles Bronfman Prize

Related Links

http://www.thecharlesbronfmanprize.com


HAMBURG, Germany, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

- Overwhelmingly positive industry response / ATG releases definitive answer to the Adblock problem with secure lock-and-key technology / International publishers about to implement ATG solution

Many of ATG's clients and partners have reported the increasing prevalence of Adblocking and a resulting loss of revenue, which threatens whole business models. Several answers have flooded the market promising immediate remedy only to be quickly rendered useless as soon as Adblocking technologies have caught up ensuing in an ever on-going arms race.

The continued debate on this issue shows that none of the suggested answers have proven to be a long-term solution. Participating in the arms race, paying for white-listing or focusing on certain ad types (Native Ads) is oftentimes costly, time-consuming and/or unprofitable. On top of that, all of these answers come with the drawback of obscuring ad performance metrics that are especially important for advertisers.

The ATG Adblock Prevention on the other hand offers a different way to tackle the Adblock problem. A new patent-pending technology enables publisher-side encryption of specific content which requires display of advertisements for decryption. Or simply put: Without deactivating the ad-blocker, the content cannot be viewed. Since this decryption requires active user approval, Adblock software has no way to interfere.

The positive industry response to the release of the ATG Ad Block Prevention is due to the fact that it renders the arms race moot while at the same time ensuring the validity of established advertising standards. Daniel Siegmund, CEO of ATG Ad Tech Group and responsible for advertising matters, attributes the positive feedback from the industry to two things: "On the one hand our solution guarantees outstanding advertising metrics on premium ad placements. On the other hand it minimizes expenses and efforts to fight Adblocking as it is a set-and-forget solution. Thus, we address the needs of advertisers and publishers alike."

Daniel Siegmund is attending the NOAH-Conference in Berlin. Please call for meeting requests: +49-40-6758-675-0.

Further information about ATG Adblock Prevention: http://ad-tech-group.com/atg-adblock-prevention/

Contact: Rene Rasmussen, [email protected], Telefon: +49(0)40-675-8675-22

ATG Ad Tech Group GmbH, Stresemannstrae 342, 22761 Hamburg, Germany

SOURCE ATG Ad Tech Group GmbH
"Our palates love the big, bold flavors of today! Fruit and meat combinations and fruit-flavored salsas add another dimension to cooking," said Chef Jamie Gwen, winner of Food Network's Cutthroat Kitchen and graduate of the Culinary Institute of America. "My recipes incorporate lean meats such as fish and chicken with the tropical and savory highlights of LA VICTORIA  Brand Mango Habanero Salsa, Pineapple Salsa and Roasted Pepper Salsa; and they all make ideal summer pairings!"

Chef Jamie Gwen's recipes can be found exclusively on www.lavictoria.com/mango-habanero-salsa/. In addition to her recipes, Chef Jamie offers five tips for savvy summer grilling, including:

Keepin' it Lean! Create new traditions with your family while watching the waistline. Incorporate chicken, fish and other lean meats in your grilling in place of traditional red meats. Utilize fruit and fruit-based salsas for a tangy twist. Marinades. Simple salsas can be a great way to tenderize your meats, soak up the savory and enable moisture retention. Salads. Just because you're grilling doesn't mean you can't have the veggies. Grill your favorite meats and top a tasty salad for added char. Dressings. Skip out on the fat and oily stuff and dress your greens with a fruit-flavored salsa instead. Sweet tart included. Pour-Overs. Smells great but too hungry to wait?! Create an easy appetizer with a pop of a top. Pour-over your favorite LA VICTORIA  Brand salsa like the Mango Habanero Salsa on Cream Cheese for a full flavor the whole family will enjoy!

"Since 1917 the makers of the LA VICTORIA Brand have been committed to infusing vibrant flavor into everyday meals," said Stephanie C. Bloch, brand manager for LA VICTORIA Brand. "Chef Jamie Gwen's culinary knowledge shows us how adding simple, fresh ingredients can create an exciting taste  but we're also interested in what our fans have to show us, that's why we've created two unique social contests."

This year the makers of LA VICTORIA Brand are hosting two consecutive video and photo social media contests for double the chance to win. During the month of June, fans can enter the "View from My Plate" contest by sharing shots or videos of their fresh, favorite summer meals on Facebook or Instagram, adding hashtag #ViewFromMyPlate and #MangoHabaneroSalsa and tagging @LaVictoriaBrand for a chance to win fun prizes. During the month of July, fans can continue the excitement with the LA VICTORIA Brand "Flavor Seekers" contest by simply sharing an image or video on Facebook or Instagram and showing us where they seek out fresh summer flavor (whether a trendy fish joint, a local dive, your grandma's kitchen-you name it!), adding hashtag #ViewFromMyPlate and #MangoHabaneroSalsa to the entry and tagging @LaVictoriaBrand for a chance to win. Two Grand Prize winners will be awarded. The Grand Prize Winner for the "View From My Plate" contest will receive a Classic Four-burner Gas Grill while the Grand Prize Winner for the "Flavor Seekers" contest will receive a Weekend Getaway for two in sunny San Diego. Additionally, select entries will be chosen to receive honorable mention prizes.

For more information on the LA VICTORIA Brand "View from My Plate" and "Flavor Seekers" Contest or to download fresh-flavored summer recipes visit www.lavictoria.com/mango-habanero-salsa/. Follow the LA VICTORIA Brand via social media on Facebook, Instagram, and on Twitter @LaVictoriaBrand. Join the conversation via #ViewFromMyPlate and #MangoHabaneroSalsa or #FlavorSeekers and #MangoHabaneroSalsa.

ABOUT LA VICTORIA BRAND

LA VICTORIA Brand, established in 1917 off the West Coast of California, was among the first to make jarred Salsa and other Mexican Sauces. LA VICTORIA Brand products include salsa, taco sauce, enchilada sauce, chilis, peppers and fruit-flavored salsas. The line is known for its bold, robust flavors and is easily identifiable in the grocery aisle by its iconic jars. The LA VICTORIA Brand operates under MegaMex Foods LLC, a maker of a comprehensive portfolio of products that resonate with Mexican-American and mainstream consumers of Mexican foods. For more information on the LA VICTORIA Brand visit: www.lavictoria.com or follow LA VICTORIA Brand via social media on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter @LaVictoriaBrand.

ABOUT CHEF JAMIE GWEN

Jamie Gwen is a CIA Grad, Celebrity Chef, Certified Sommelier, Lifestyle Expert and four-time Cookbook Author who can be seen stirring up something delicious on television, on the radio and in print from coast-to-coast. She brings the best to radio with her weekly Syndicated Radio Show, filled with delicious conversation on all things culinary, heard every Sunday on Radio Stations across the country. Jamie can be seen on KTLA Channel 5, on HSN and on national television news shows sharing her seasonal lifestyle approach and her passion for food and her recipes are featured on Microsoft's worldwide Food & Drink App. Jamie's most recent cookbook, Co-Authored by Lana Sills, entitled "Good Food For Good Times 2" is now available as an eBook and has been featured on The Talk, Emeril Live and Martha Stewart.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160607/376500



SOURCE LA VICTORIA Brand

Related Links

http://www.lavictoria.com


FREMONT, Calif., June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- TOYOTech today announced that the company has been honored with the coveted Frost and Sullivan 2016 North American Packet Capture in High Speed Ethernet Networks Customer Value Leadership Award. TOYOTech was recognized for its packet capture and analysis system technologies designed for high speed Ethernet networks, and for providing quality and value to its customers, helping to future proof their investments.

TOYOTech's Synesis packet capture and analysis system is a proprietary platform for data collection on high speed networks. Fueled by a myriad of new applications and services, network infrastructures are fast evolving to 100GbE networks. In addition to being one of the few solutions in its class that supports the 100GbE data rates, Synesis is the only platform guaranteed to successfully capture and report every communication event in a 100GbE network. Equally important, Synesis accomplishes this with no adverse impact to the network or network services. Synesis can integrate with customers' existing analysis engines to create visualizations and generate insights on network performance, ensure real-time network performance optimization, and investigate any event related to network security breach.

"Synesis is the only solution that can capture and stream packets to disk at 100GbE wire speed without any packet loss," said Olga Yashkova, Program Manager, Frost & Sullivan. "Backed by its network stream-to-disk feature, Synesis eliminates the risk of trace file loss. In addition, the Open Design Box architecture of Synesis adds to the system's unique flexibility in terms of allowing it to function as both a standalone packet capture and an analyzer platform."

Customers can easily customize Synesis and deploy it to address a growing number of use cases, such as network analysis, deep packet inspection, performance monitoring and threat verification without having to undergo any disruptive transformation to the existing platform. This empowers users to manage and monitor their entire network infrastructure from an "always-on" single set of tools.

"We're delighted that Synesis won the prestigious 2016 Frost and Sullivan Customer Value Leadership Award. TOYOTech believes the award is reflective of our commitment to provide next generation solutions to the challenges facing IT organizations today," said Bo Han, CEO of TOYOTech. "We are dedicated to the development of networking measurement innovations that offer unparalleled insight into the world's faster networks. Synesis is an indispensable tool that helps network administrators and engineers better understand the data traversing their high speed networks. It identifies potential issues and problems before they can impact and disrupt an organization thereby helping to optimize IT operations and delivering IT agility while greatly reducing risks."

Frost & Sullivan analysts examined two macro-level benchmarks when evaluating candidate companies for the Customer Value Leadership award. In the customer impact benchmark, the five criteria were price/performance value, customer purchase experience, customer ownership experience, customer service experience and brand equity. Similarly, in the second benchmark, business impact, there were also five criteria. They were financial performance, customer acquisition, operational efficiency, growth potential and human capital. A Decision Support Scorecard was used to track results. Among the companies Frost and Sullivan evaluated, TOYOTech proved to be best-in-class in both the customer impact and business impact benchmarks.

About ToyoTech

TOYOTech LLC, founded in August 2015 and based in Fremont, CA, is a wholly owned subsidiary of TOYO Corporation (Tokyo Stock Exchange, No. 8151). TOYOTech's mission is to promote the sales and service of TOYO's developed products in the US and International markets, and to further expand TOYO Corp's expertise through equity investments and acquisitions of high-tech companies in the U.S. market. www.toyotechus.com

SOURCE TOYOTech LLC

Related Links

http://www.toyotechus.com


Whether you're headed from London to Provence, Paris to Barcelona, or have plans to travel by rail freely through 28 countries with a Eurail Global pass, Rail Europe helps travellers get to anywhere they want to go this summer  now at a discount. With over 75 years of experience, Rail Europe is the only one-stop-shop for European travel products, and by providing support before, during and after your journey, they make discovering Europe easier.

EURAIL PROMOTION

Eurail Passes offer extensive travel on national rail networks across Europe, whether it is unlimited travel for all 28 participating countries with the Eurail Global Pass, or on a few favourites with the Eurail Select Pass. Between now and June 23, 2016, travellers will receive $50 off their booking of a 1st Class Eurail Global or Eurail Select Pass with coupon code 50EURAIL.

Travel date restrictions and class validities apply, see terms and conditions. *

LYRIA PROMOTION

Indulge in the essence of France and Switzerland aboard the TGV Lyria, which runs between Paris, Lausanne, Bern, Geneva, Zurich, and Basel.

All international trains connecting France and Switzerland feature crisp, redesigned interiors and seating in your choice of spacious Economy Class (2nd class) and Premier Class (1st class).

Between now and June 13, 2016, travellers can receive up to 55% off 1st class tickets.

Travel date restrictions, route and class validities may apply, see terms and conditions. *

FRANCE-SPAIN HIGH SPEED PROMOTION

Serving major cities and cultural centres, France-Spain High Speed international trains are the easiest way to travel. The direct high speed connection between France and Spain allows travellers to seamlessly connect to 17 cities in France and Spain including Marseille in the French Riviera, Paris, and Lyon, to Barcelona, and Marseille to Madrid. Travel between Paris and Barcelona and enjoy city-centre to city-centre travel in just over 6 hours; ride from Barcelona to Toulouse in just over 3 hours; or venture from Spain's capital, Madrid, to Marseille in just over 7 hours.

Between now and June 22, 2016, travellers will receive a 25% discount on first class France-Spain High Speed trains with coupon code FRANCESPAIN25. The minimum booking value for a ticket is $90 USD.

Travel date restrictions, route and class validities may apply, see terms and conditions. *

EUROSTAR PROMOTION

The Eurostar high speed train is the best way to travel between London and Paris, Brussels, Lyon, Avignon or Marseille and connect with rail services to over 100 destinations across Europe. Providing city-centre to city-centre convenience, a choice of frequent departures, and the comfort of Standard Premier service, including a light at-seat meal service, Eurostar caters to the unique needs of the modern traveller.

Between now and June 22, 2016, travellers can receive up to 30% off Eurostar Standard Premier tickets when purchased from Rail Europe for travel between July 18 and September 18, 2016.

While in London, celebrate Her Majesty's 90th birthday with the locals and revel in Great Britain's excitement as Queen Elizabeth upholds the longest-reign as a monarch in British History.

Restrictions apply, see terms and conditions.*

Take advantage of these 1st class train savings and book today by visiting Rail Europe's website at raileurope.com, or connect with travel experts at Rail Europe's award-winning customer care centre by phone or live chat on the website.

*Please see raileurope.com for all details and terms &conditions.

About Rail Europe

Rail Europe represents more than 50 European train companies and is a one-stop shop for European rail travel planning and booking. Rail Europe is the largest distributor of European rail products worldwide, offering a wide range of passes and train tickets to travellers in the Americas, Asia, Oceania, Middle East and Africa. An essential part of the vacation planning process, the company's Web site offers a user-friendly booking engine, knowledgeable experts, online rail pass finder, virtual tours, interactive maps and much more. Rail Europe provides a worry-free, cost and time-effective and seamless travel experience by enabling customers to purchase tickets and plan travel details in advance.

For more information or to book a trip with Rail Europe, visit raileurope.com. Trips can also be reserved by speaking to a Rail Europe Travel Consultant at 1-800-438-7245 (U.S.), 1-800-361-7245 (Canada) or 1-888-337-8687 (Mexico). To book rail for groups of 10 or more, please contact the Group Department at raileurope.com/group-travel.

For the latest Rail Europe news, downloadable videos and high-resolution photos of European trains, media can visit the newsroom at raileurope.com/about-us/about-us.html.

Connect with Rail Europe on:

Facebook

Twitter (@RailEurope)

Instagram

YouTube

Google+

Pinterest

Blog

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160608/376957

SOURCE Rail Europe

Related Links

http://www.raileurope.com


ARLINGTON, Va., June 7, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, American Trucking Associations officials expressed appreciation to the millions of professional truck drivers, dispatchers, technicians and other members of the trucking industry for their commitment to improving highway safety.

American Trucking Associations is the largest national trade association for the trucking industry. Through a federation of 50 affiliated state trucking associations and industry-related conferences and councils, ATA is the voice of the industry America depends on most to move our nation's freight.Trucking Moves America Forward.

"June is National Safety Month, and as a safety-first industry, the many hard-working dedicated members of the trucking industry deserve to be commended for their efforts to make our roads safer," said ATA President and CEO Bill Graves. "Our industry spends more than $7 billion annually on safety-related training, technology and equipment  and that investment is paying off in a big way."

Since 2004, truck-involved fatal crashes are down 21% and since the industry was economically deregulated in 1980, those crashes are down 32% and the crash rate per 100 million miles has been cut an astonishing 74%.

"Our industry is benefitting from improvements in technology, but also from the hard work and dedication of our professional drivers," said ATA Chairman Pat Thomas, senior vice president of state government relations, UPS Inc. "Advances in active safety technology and other devices have benefits, which is why our industry has been voluntarily investing in such systems. However, the most important safety investment our industry makes is in the men and women behind the wheel."

"ATA has been at the forefront of pushing for common-sense rules to improve safety," said ATA First Vice Chairman Kevin Burch, president of Jet Express Inc. "From pushing for the drug and alcohol clearinghouse rule and a mandate for electronic logging devices to calling on states to reduce speed limits and for a requirement for commercial vehicles to be electronically speed limited, ATA believes strong, data-supported rules will help us improve highway safety even more in the future."

"Between ATA's advocacy efforts and the efforts of our drivers, dispatchers, technicians and others every day, trucking is working hard to make our highways safer for all motorists," Graves said.

American Trucking Associations is the largest national trade association for the trucking industry. Through a federation of 50 affiliated state trucking associations and industry-related conferences and councils, ATA is the voice of the industry America depends on most to move our nation's freight. Follow ATA on Twitter or on Facebook. Trucking Moves America Forward

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140523/90962

SOURCE American Trucking Associations

Related Links

http://www.trucking.org


CAMBRIDGE, Mass., June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- TriNetX, a leader in international clinical research networks, announced today that the University of Kentucky (UK) signed a membership agreement to join the TriNetX network to optimize clinical trial design and advance clinical research for UK programs.

Pharmaceutical researchers will gain access to UK's clinical data in real time through TriNetX's proprietary network of healthcare institutions representing over 37 million patients in the US and Europe to support clinical study and protocol design, site selection, and patient recruitment across a range of therapeutic areas and development stages.

UK will leverage the TriNetX network to drive more industry-sponsored clinical trials into its organization, enable UK researchers to discover patients for investigator-initiated studies, and collaborate with other provider research organizations.

Users of the TriNetX system can analyze patient populations with search criteria across multiple longitudinal data points, and TriNetX's advanced analytics modules provide intelligence on which criteria have the most impact as well as the rate at which new patients present. Each data point in the TriNetX system can be traced to healthcare providers who have the ability to identify individual patients, allowing clinical researchers to develop virtual patient cohorts that can be recapitulated in real world clinical trial settings. Data in the TriNetX system is fully de-identified to the user.

"The University of Kentucky is one of only 23 institutions in the nation with the 'trifecta' of a cancer center designated by the National Cancer Institute, an Alzheimer's Disease Center funded by the National Institute on Aging, and a Clinical and Translational Science Award funded by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences," said Philip A. Kern, MD, director of the UK Center for Clinical and Translational Science. "Our institution, which encompasses the full range of liberal arts, medical and professional programs, including a top five College of Pharmacy, is committed to advancing health discoveries through innovative partnerships like our work with TriNetX."

"The University of Kentucky brings cutting-edge research and treatment options to a complex patient population in a state with some of the highest incidence rates of cancer, heart disease, and smoking," said Gadi Lachman, CEO, TriNetX. "The University of Kentucky is poised to be a strategic research partner for leading pharmaceutical companies, contract research organizations, and peer provider organizations who are collaborating through the TriNetX network to improve clinical research and patient care."

About TriNetX

TriNetX is a worldwide clinical data network of healthcare providers, pharmaceutical companies and contract research organizations used to enhance clinical trial design and accelerate patient recruitment. TriNetX enables researchers to find the right patients at the right sites for clinical trials. For more information, visit http://www.trinetx.com.

Contact

Bill Stetson

Marketing, TriNetX

+1 (857) 285-6038

[email protected]

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160303/340354LOGO

SOURCE TriNetX, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.trinetx.com


DENVER, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A statewide partnership led by LiveWell Colorado, Colorado Department of Human Services, the Colorado Farmers Market Association, Cooking Matters-Colorado, and Boulder County Public Health has just been awarded a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive (FINI) grant that will bring more fresh produce to low-income families in 19 counties while supporting Colorado farmers.

"This grant will boost efforts to ensure Colorado families have access to locally grown foods," Senator Michael Bennet said. "LiveWell Colorado will help put fresh, nutritious food in the hands of those who need it while also supporting Colorado's farmers and the local economy."

The USDA grant will help to fund a program called Double Up Food Bucks Colorado, which increases the amount of fruits and vegetables available to low-income Coloradans. With Double Up Food Bucks Colorado, recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps) will receive up to $20 in Colorado-grown fruits and vegetables when they use their SNAP benefits at participating farmers markets or select retailers.

"At least 50 partners have come together to make Double Up Food Bucks Colorado a reality," said Wendy Peters Moschetti, LiveWell Colorado Director of Food Systems. "Increasing access to healthy food for families who are low-income is an integral part of LiveWell Colorado's strategic approach to combatting obesity. We believe providing SNAP recipients with the ability to purchase more fruits and vegetables is an important step toward that objective."

Double Up Food Bucks Colorado will kick off in early July at 30 farmers markets and at five select retailers across Colorado. Over the next three years, the program will expand to more areas of the state to include at least 35 farmers markets and a dozen additional retailers, including Community Supported Agriculture, food co-operatives, corner stores and urban agriculture marketplaces located in low-income neighborhoods. A map of participating sites can be found at www.DoubleUpColorado.org.

The USDA FINI Grant brings half a million dollars of federal funding into Colorado, including more than $100,000 in cash incentives alone in 2016, with an increase in incentives in years two and three of the program. The grant was matched by more than $899,000 from 26 partners committing financial and in-kind support to make this program possible in Colorado.

"Double Up Food Bucks Colorado fills low-income families' hunger gap by increasing their food-buying power, and designates additional dollars for healthy fruits and vegetables grown by Colorado farmers. In this way, it addresses hunger, improves nutrition, and supports local growers and our local economy," added Moschetti.

Additional information and a list of partners participating in Double Up Food Bucks Colorado can be found here https://livewellcolorado.org/about/whats-new/livewell-blog/double-up-food-bucks-Colorado.

SOURCE LiveWell Colorado
ELKO  The criminal history of the suspect in the death of a Spring Creek woman  in which domestic violence has been named as a contributing factor  includes a prior domestic battery charge that was amended to disturbing the peace.

Kristin Fleming, 35, was shot in the face with a small-caliber handgun Friday morning, said acting Undersheriff Kevin McKinney.

Her husband Donald Fleming, 38, was arrested on a charge of open murder and is being held in the Elko County Jail without bail.

Fleming was found administering CPR to his wife when deputies arrived at the residence on Bluecrest Drive.

Kristin Fleming died at approximately 1 a.m. Friday.

The detectives initial reports are almost completed and the evidence, including ballistics, is being sent to the Washoe County Crime Lab, said McKinney.

Donald Flemings criminal history shows three instances of battery. One was a municipal code violation in Reno in 2009. In 2011, Fleming was charged with battery on an officer in Lyon County, but records did not show the disposition, said McKinney.

The suspect was charged with domestic battery in 2014. However, the charge was amended by the Elko District Attorneys office to disturbing the peace.

According to an Elko County Sheriffs probable cause report, a deputy was called to the Flemings home July 9, 2014, for a domestic violence situation after three 911 calls reported the incident. The deputy stated Kristina Fleming was afraid and was unwilling to cooperate. The deputy stated she had a black eye forming on her right eye and appeared to be afraid of retaliation. The deputy also noticed a scuff mark on her right elbow and she had a swollen right ankle and was limping, but refused medical attention.

Another deputy found Donald Fleming walking on Spring Creek Parkway. When the deputy approached him, he said just take me to jail, according to the report. Based on a deputys observations, Donald Fleming was arrested for domestic battery.

The initial criminal complaint, filed July 30, 2014, by Deputy District Attorney Tyler Ingram, charged Fleming with battery, a misdemeanor. The district attorneys office stated the Defendant did willfully and unlawfully use force and/or violence on Kristina Fleming, in the following manner: by hitting her and/or otherwise striking her.

On Nov. 12, 2014, the district attorneys office amended the complaint to charge Fleming with disturbing the peace, a misdemeanor. The complaint states, the Defendant did maliciously and willfully disturb the peace and quiet of a neighborhood and/or a person described as follows: one Kristina Fleming, by verbally arguing with the said Kristina Fleming. The amended complaint was filed by Deputy District Attorney David Buchler for Ingram.

The initial and amended criminal complaints were filed under Elko County Code, not Nevada Revised Statutes. The battery charge is defined by ECC 7-1-9, and the amended charge of disturbing the peace is defined by ECC 7-1-7, according to court documents.
CHICAGO, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- IRCE 2016 -- Retailers see customer experience (CX) across every channel as the most important opportunity this year, especially as a point of differentiation. According to the Forrester Research US Customer Experience Index, improving the customer experience is a strategic priority for 73% of businesses, yet only 1% of companies deliver excellent CX. UserTesting, the world's largest user research platform, is helping retailers and eCommerce sites worldwide improve the shopping experience by arming them with fast user research, resulting in improved conversion rates, increased revenue, and loyal customers.

"UserTesting singlehandedly allows us to engage and learn from real shoppers, which will enable us to increase OMNI Retail revenues by 300% over 2015 with a technology solution preferred by 75% of online users and 95% of mobile consumers," said Jennifer Hurshell, CEO of OMNI Retail Group. OMNI Retail Group is a technology startup that helps big retailers like Staples, Toys R US, Babies R US, HP, and Costco increase online and in-store sales with a contextual selling and explicit personalization SaaS solution.

"We are making loads of improvements to the Jet.com site based on the feedback we have gathered from UserTesting sessions," said Ben Babcock, Director of Research at Jet.com. "We use the service at least every other day, running tests to identify areas of improvement across all our shopping experiences. In fact, we've been able to double the conversion rate on desktop from the insights received from the UserTesting panel, and now want to start focusing more on mobile to move the needle on the mobile website."

Jet.com is among an extensive number of eCommerce sites and retailers that already leverage UserTesting to improve CX, including:

The Home Depot

Amazon

Warby Parker

Dressbarn

Revolve Clothing

Crocs

"Retailers know their online customer experience is critical, but they struggle to measure its effectiveness and benchmark it against the competition," said Darrell Benatar, CEO of UserTesting. "UserTesting makes customer experience tangible. It's so fast and easy that companies can apply customer insight to every decision they make, even in the fastest and most agile development processes."

According to research by the Harvard Business Review, customers who had the best past experiences spend 140% more compared to those who had the poorest past experience. For retailers, poor CX can result in millions of dollars of lost revenue. To combat deficient experiences, a steady stream of user feedback allows them to quickly identify and remove friction. UserTesting gives retailers on-demand access to its panel of one million participants, who deliver feedback on websites, apps, prototypes, and more  in hours.

Benatar adds, "59 of the top 100 retailers in Internet Retailer's Top 500  America's 500 largest eCommerce sites  are UserTesting customers, as are 15 of the 20 largest North American retailers. What's more, in the last 4 years, we have grown our retail customer base over 50% every year, and are on track to run more than 40,000 tests for retailers this year."

UserTesting makes this announcement from booth #1640 at the Internet Retailer Conference (IRCE), where Home Depot's Jonathan Serebrin and UserTesting's Michael Mace will present "Good Isn't Good Enough: How to Meet the Highest Standards for a Website's Simplicity and Usability" on Thursday, June 9 at 11:00 am.

About UserTesting

UserTesting is the fastest and most advanced user research platform on the market. The company gives marketers, product managers, and UX designers on-demand access to people in their target audience who deliver audio, video, and written feedback on websites, mobile apps, prototypes, and even physical products and locations.

Headquartered in Mountain View, CA, UserTesting helps over 35,000 customers (including the top 10 web properties in the U.S.) get the user feedback they need to create an excellent customer experience. User panels are currently available in the U.S., Canada, the UK, and India. For more information, visit www.usertesting.com.

Media Contact:

Jennifer Moebius

+1-617-922-8004

[email protected]

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150127/171783LOGO

SOURCE UserTesting

Related Links

http://www.usertesting.com


ROCKVILLE, Md., June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Vanguard Realty Group announced today that Robert Kravitz, a 30 year veteran of the commercial real estate industry in the Washington DC Metro Region, has joined Vanguard Realty Group as Senior Vice President, Leasing. At Vanguard, Bob will be responsible for a single-client portfolio of properties leased and managed by the company.

Bob comes to Vanguard from Transwestern, where he served as a Senior Vice President in the firm's Bethesda office. Bob has successfully represented a multitude of notable landlords and tenants during his career, including AEW Capital Management, L.P., American Postal Workers Union, AFL-CIO, Boston Properties, Citicorp Real Estate, Inc., Computer Sciences Corporation, CW Capital Asset Management, Equitable Life Assurance, Fiserv, Georgetown University, John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company, Kay Management, Multi-Employer Property Trust, Navy Mutual Aid Association, The Brick Companies, The Lionstone Group, The Meridian Group, The RREEF Funds, The State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio, The Tower Companies, and Westfield Corporation.

Greg Klein, Vanguard's Managing Director of Commercial Leasing and Brokerage, says "In addition to being a very tenured and well respected member of the local real estate community, Bob is uniquely suited to spearhead Vanguard's efforts with this important portfolio of properties. We are thrilled to have him on board."

About Vanguard Realty Group

For nearly four decades the Principals of Vanguard Realty Group have been delivering full-complement commercial real estate services to the mid-Atlantic region, with a heavy concentration in the National Capital area. Vanguard's diverse portfolio of leased and managed commercial properties includes office, medical office, multifamily, industrial, retail and mixed-use projects.

SOURCE Vanguard Realty Group

Related Links

www.vanguardrealty.com


ROYAL OAK, Mich., June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Vectorform, inventor of digital products and experiences, has been selected as an Endeavor Entrepreneur at the Endeavor 64th International Selection Panel in Madrid, Spain. Endeavor is leading the high-impact entrepreneurship movement around the world, supporting organizations to have prime opportunities for growth.

"The Endeavor selection process has been completely transformational for Vectorform," said Jason Vazzano, CEO and Co-founder of Vectorform. "This will allow us to take our organization to the next level, reaching the ranks of the most successful Endeavor entrepreneurs."

At this International Selection Panel, 41 entrepreneurs representing 25 companies and 14 countries were selected by a panel of top global business leaders and investors who were drawn from Endeavor's extensive network of mentors and supporters.

"We're proud to welcome two more innovative entrepreneurs to the Endeavor Detroit network," said Cynthia Pasky, chair of Endeavor Detroit and founder, president and CEO of Detroit-based Strategic Staffing Solutions. "Entrepreneurs like Kurt and Jason, whose vision is to use technology to transform the world, will continue to positively impact the economy of Michigan."

Through a rigorous, multi-step selection process, Endeavor annually screens thousands of entrepreneurs from around the world to identify those with the best talent and potential for impact. Post-selection, Endeavor will work with Vectorform and other selected entrepreneurs to catalyze long-term economic growth through customized services such as introductions to local and international business mentors.

"Endeavor has set out to create support systems for entrepreneurs with an unparalleled global network of business leaders," said Antonio Luck, Managing Director, Endeavor Detroit. "Sustainable economies are dependent on high-impact entrepreneurship, and Vectorform has clearly demonstrated their ability to truly transform their industry and community around the world."

Other Endeavor Detroit Entrepreneurs include McClure's Pickles, Algal Scientific Corp. and Banza.

About Vectorform

Vectorform invents digital products and experiences for the world's leading brands with a focus on Mobile, Internet of Things, Smart Home, Connected Vehicle and Wearable Technology. Founded in 1999, Vectorform has five global offices: Detroit, New York, Seattle, Munich and Hyderabad. Visit Vectorform.com and connect on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+.

About Endeavor

Endeavor is a New York-based global nonprofit that helps support companies on the brink of rapid growth. It opened an office in Detroit last year and also has offices in Miami and Louisville. It made its way to Detroit through the New Economy Initiative, which receives some of its funding from the Miami-based John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. NEI invested $1 million to bring the program to Detroit, and the Grand Rapids-based Dick and Betsy DeVos Family Foundation invested another $500,000.

Learn more about Endeavor at Endeavor.org.

SOURCE Vectorform

Related Links

http://www.vectorform.com


BOSTON, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Veloxity is announcing the launch of a summer long free trial program that will give businesses and organizations a chance to test and evaluate Veloxity's flagship portable phone charging system called the Power Pax. This program is available for restaurants, universities, event centers, and hotels in the Greater Boston Area. At the end of the trial period, businesses may opt to purchase the Power Pax at a 30% discount. The Power Pax enables customers to keep their phone with them at all times, eliminating the anxiety associated with phone separation while charging.

The Veloxity Power Pax is a portable alternative to the current commercial charging solutions on the market. The system comprises of eight battery packs and a docking station that serves as the charging interface for the packs. All it takes is a tabletop and outlet to keep customers charged up and happy. The Power Pax offers static branding and advertisement capabilities on the backlit docking station and battery pack surfaces.

Veloxity's Power Pax has met glowing reviews since its launch at CES 2016 in Las Vegas. Bars, restaurants and events alike have noted that its portability puts it a cut above other stationary charging solutions. Attendees at a charity event for the Multiple Sclerosis Association of America credited the Power Pax with providing a reliable and portable solution as they submitted auction bids via their mobile devices. "It was great!" says Kim Goodrich of the MSAA, "I myself had to use it so that I could keep bidding on our online auction items!"

Visit www.veloxity.us to learn more about the Power Pax and other Veloxity products. To trial, rent, or buy a Power Pax, contact 855.844.5060 or email at [email protected]. For further media or press information, please contact Ray Fu by email at [email protected] or by phone at 978.394.4936.

About Veloxity:

Veloxity is a B2B provider of phone charging solutions. Veloxity's flagship locker kiosk and portable charging system is used at trade shows, conferences, conventions, universities, and hospitals nationwide. Veloxity empowers brands such as Coca-Cola, Harley Davidson, Verizon, Red Bull and others through activation and sponsorship opportunities. Headquartered in Boston, MA, the privately held company was founded in 2013 and is focused on increasing brand awareness, brand loyalty, customer satisfaction, foot traffic, and revenues for stakeholders.

SOURCE Veloxity

Related Links

http://www.veloxity.us


http://v.qq.com/boke/page/e/0/y/e0303385jby.html

The video, using a grand narrative technique, provides insight into the Chinese consumer's life at home and explains how Hara and the rest of the designers understand design. At the end of the video, the designers present products that are "Designed for China." The video's unique viewpoint, grand theme, storytelling approach, captivating scenery, and affecting music, together with actress Gao Yuanyuan's heart-warming narration, immediately made it a hot topic not only in the world of design, but even among the general public.

Three days prior to the release of the video, on June 2, Verawom joined forces with Red Star Macalline in launching a marketing campaign that featured an HTML5 online video. As a pre-promotion to the commercial, the video was available online in a "burn after reading" format. Two days later, Red Star Macalline launched an event marketing campaign with the longest in-cinema commercial in history, which was shown at 3:45pm on June 5 before the screening of X-Men at the Palace Cinema in the IAPM Mall (Shanghai, China). The main commercial, endorsed by several celebrities, was officially released on June 6 through WeChat, a Chinese social media platform. Within 12 hours of release, the commercial had garnered 6 million views on Weibo, China's largest social media platform, and was widely reposted on WeChat.

The marketing campaign, which was planned and executed during the company's 30th anniversary, highlights the rich history of the company while also looking forward to a promising future for the firm. The campaign took a close look at Red Star Macalline's history as well as hinted at what's in store for Chinese consumers, while encouraging initiatives that are groundbreaking and creative. As China's leading retailer in home furnishing, Red Star Macalline has always been compared by industry peers and the media to Europe's largest home furnishing retailer, IKEA, though they are positioned quite differently in the market. While the general public enjoyed the splash the campaign had created, industry peers were greatly surprised and are now wondering what will be Red Star Macalline's next move.

Verawom co-founder Zheng Lianda said, "It is only the beginning of the campaign, and it has already received tremendous attention. There is more in store for the campaign. We believe we will connect better with consumers with each step. Please keep a lookout for what is coming next. A leading brand in China's home furnishing industry, Red Star Macalline is already a household name among consumers and quite influential in the Chinese market. Verawom has worked with Red Star Macalline many times before and successfully created several campaigns that are now classics, among them, Love Wood, Bring On The Competition, and Love Is Near. The 'Designed For China' project further examines and illustrates Red Star Macalline's brand values. The strategy integrates online and offline communication, and we hope to give our customers a 30th anniversary that is like no other."

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160607/376288

SOURCE Verawom
VoiceBox to provide its superior Voice AI for automotive companies seeking to control their in-car experience through the Open Car platform

DETROIT, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- VoiceBox Technologies, the award-winning innovator of Contextual Natural Language Understanding (CNLU) and Voice Artificial Intelligence (Voice AI) platform for the connected car, mobile and the Internet of Things announced integration of its Voice AI technology into the INRIX Open Car platform.

Open Car offers the automotive industry's only standards-based application platform to leverage a rapidly expanding portfolio of brand-name automotive apps to create next-generation infotainment experiences. As automakers compete to establish unique, digital brand identities within their connected vehicles, Open Car's framework and development environment empowers automakers to design, certify, distribute and manage apps and features for the life of the vehicle.

By uniquely managing multiple layers of context, VoiceBox provides natural voice access to the broad set of Open Car infotainment applications. While optimizing access and ease of use, the AI-enhanced VoiceBox solution has also been shown to minimize driver distraction.

"VoiceBox and INRIX share the goal of providing automotive OEMs the ability to support their brand with a customized system that they control, without ceding control of their customer relationship and data to technology providers the likes of Google and Apple," said Mike Kennewick, CEO of VoiceBox. "And now Open Car users can also benefit from our Voice AI technology."

"We're excited to see VoiceBox support the Open Car platform," said Jeff Payne, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Open Car at INRIX. "Natural language voice technology is a great addition to the platform, and we believe OEMs will find this combination of capabilities very powerful and compelling."

About VoiceBox Technologies Corporation

VoiceBox provides award-winning Contextual Voice Interface technology and AI Platform for the connected car, mobile, home and IoT markets, worldwide. The Company shares several CES Best in Show honors with its partners. Shipping in 23 languages across 3 continents, VoiceBox's flagship customers include Toyota and Samsung. Headquartered in Bellevue, WA, the Company has offices in Los Angeles, Munich, the Netherlands, France and Tokyo.

Contact:



Jennifer Cortel | Marketing Director



Office: 425-968-7979

[email protected]

www.voicebox.com

SOURCE VoiceBox Technologies Corporation

Related Links

http://www.voicebox.com


Fully Integrated Software Development Kit v5.0 Provides Platform for Superior In-Car Voice Systems

DETROIT, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- VoiceBox Technologies, the award-winning innovator of Contextual Natural Language Understanding (CNLU) and next gen Voice Artificial Intelligence (AI) announced the new VoiceBox Automotive Software Development Kit (v5.0), now available for Windows, Linux and Android platforms. With full integration of the VoiceBox Embedded Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) engine and the company's patented context management, VoiceBox continues to offer auto makers a single solution for powering the next generation of in-car voice systems.

The company's Automotive SDK is the first of its kind to offer Deep Neural Networks (DNN) which enables the processing of complex, contextual conversations. It is also the only Voice AI technology to include parallel hybrid processing with machine learning. This allows user queries to be simultaneously processed in both embedded and cloud systems to optimize the delivery of results.

"The new VoiceBox Platform is a reflection of our technology's continuous evolution, and features the natural and personal VoiceBox AI experience by leveraging DNN processing, machine learning, and patented hybrid architecture," said Rich Kennewick, President and Cofounder of VoiceBox.

The next generation VoiceBox Platform addresses the industry's need for a complete solution that provides the same capabilities of popular mobile solutions, but can be molded to differentiate each car company's infotainment and connected car offering without ceding control of their customer relationship to technology providers like Apple or Google.

The VoiceBox AI experience is ready to enhance automotive infotainment units as well as Mobile and IoT solutions.

About VoiceBox Technologies Corporation

VoiceBox provides award-winning Contextual Voice Interface technology and next gen Voice AI for the Connected Car, Home and IoT markets, worldwide. The Company shares several CES Best in Show honors with its partners. Shipping in 23 languages across 3 continents, VoiceBox's flagship customers include Toyota and Samsung. Headquartered in Bellevue, WA, the Company has offices in Los Angeles, Munich, France, the Netherlands and Tokyo.

SOURCE VoiceBox Technologies Corporation

Related Links

http://www.voicebox.com


BAAR, Switzerland, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Weatherford International plc (NYSE: WFT) (the "Company" or "Weatherford") announced amendments with respect to the previously announced offers (the "Tender Offers") by Weatherford International Ltd., a Bermuda exempted company and indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of the Company ("Weatherford Bermuda"), and Weatherford International, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company and indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of the Company and indirect subsidiary of Weatherford Bermuda ("Weatherford Delaware" and, together with Weatherford Bermuda, the "Offerors") to purchase for cash Weatherford Delaware's 6.35% senior notes due 2017 (the "2017 Notes") and Weatherford Bermuda's 6.00% senior notes due 2018 (the "2018 Notes"), 9.625% senior notes due 2019 (the "2019 Notes") and 5.125% senior notes due 2020 (the "2020 Notes" and, together with the 2017 Notes, 2018 Notes and 2019 Notes, the "Notes") (as amended, the "Amended Tender Offers").

The amendments provide for:

(i) an increase in the aggregate maximum purchase price (excluding accrued interest) of Notes the Offerors are offering to purchase from $1.1 billion (the "Initial Aggregate Maximum Purchase Price") to $2.1 billion (the "Amended Aggregate Maximum Purchase Price");

(ii) an increase in the consideration offered per $1,000 principal amount of the 2018 Notes, the 2019 Notes and 2020 Notes as shown in the table below (as increased, with respect to each series of Notes, the "Amended Tender Offer Consideration" or the "Amended Total Consideration");

(iii) an elimination of the $250.0 million cap on the aggregate principal amount of 2019 Notes Weatherford Bermuda is offering to purchase;

(iv) an increase in the aggregate principal amount of 2020 Notes Weatherford Bermuda is offering to purchase from $100.0 million to $275.0 million (as increased, the "Amended 2020 Tender Cap");

(v) an extension of the period during which validly tendered (and not validly withdrawn) Notes are eligible to receive the Early Tender Premium described below from 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on June 14, 2016 to 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on June 16, 2016 (such date and time, as it may be extended, the "Early Tender Date");

(vi) an extension of the period during which tendered Notes may be withdrawn from the Amended Tender Offers from 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on June 14, 2016 to 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on June 16, 2016 (such date and time, as it may be extended, the "Withdrawal Deadline"); and

(vii) an extension of the expiration date of the Amended Tender Offers from 12:00 midnight, New York City time, at the end of the day on June 28, 2016 to 12:00 midnight, New York City time, at the end of the day on June 30, 2016 (the "Expiration Date").

Additionally, since the financing condition to which the Tender Offers were previously subject has been satisfied, the Offerors announced that the increase in the Amended Aggregate Maximum Purchase Price, the removal of the cap on the 2019 Notes and the Amended 2020 Tender Cap are now conditioned upon Weatherford Bermuda having closed by the Early Settlement Date an offering of senior notes, in one or more tranches and with terms and conditions satisfactory to Weatherford Bermuda (the "Senior Notes Offering"), that provide gross proceeds of at least U.S.$1.0 billion (the "Amended Financing Condition").

Finally, the Offerors announced that even if the Amended Financing Condition is not satisfied or waived by the Early Settlement Date (as defined below), the Offerors will accept for purchase Notes with an aggregate maximum purchase price equal to the Initial Aggregate Maximum Purchase Price ($1.1 billion) for the Amended Tender Offer Consideration or Amended Total Consideration, subject, however, to the previously announced Acceptance Priority Levels (as set forth in the table below), the Initial Tender Caps (as set forth in the table below) and proration.

This announcement amends Weatherford Delaware's and Weatherford Bermuda' Offer to Purchase, dated June 1, 2016 (as amended, the "Offer to Purchase"). Other than the amendments described above, all terms and conditions in the Offer to Purchase remain unchanged.











Dollars per $1,000

Principal Amount of Notes Title of

Security CUSIP

Number Aggregate

Principal

Amount

Outstanding Amended

Tender Cap /

Initial Tender

Cap Acceptance

Priority

Level Amended

Tender Offer

Consideration/

Initial Tender

Offer

Consideration Early

Tender

Premium Amended

Total

Consideration

/ Initial Total

Consideration Weatherford

Delaware's

2017 Notes 947074AJ9 /

947074AF7 /

U94320AC9 $600,000,000 N/A 1 $1,020.00 $30 $1,050.00 Weatherford

Bermuda's

2018 Notes 947075AD9 $500,000,000 N/A 2 $1,025.00 /

$1,012.50 $30 $1,055.00 /

$1,042.50 Weatherford

Bermuda's

2019 Notes 947075AF4 $1,000,000,000 N/A /

$250,000,000 3 $1,065.00 /

$990.00 $30 $1,095.00 /

$1,020.00 Weatherford

Bermuda's

2020 Notes 94707VAA8 $773,088,000 $275,000,000 /

$100,000,000 4 $910.00 /

$805.00 $30 $940.00 /

$835.00

Holders of Notes that are validly tendered (and not validly withdrawn) prior to the Early Tender Date and accepted for purchase pursuant to the Amended Tender Offers will receive the applicable Amended Total Consideration for such series, which includes the early tender premium for such series of Notes set forth in the table above (with respect to each series of Notes, the "Early Tender Premium"). Holders of Notes tendering their Notes after the Early Tender Date will only be eligible to receive the Amended Tender Offer Consideration, which is the Amended Total Consideration less the Early Tender Premium.

All Notes validly tendered and accepted for purchase pursuant to the Amended Tender Offers will receive the applicable consideration set forth in the table above, plus accrued and unpaid interest on such Notes from the last interest payment date with respect to those Notes to, but not including, the applicable Settlement Date (as defined below). Tendered Notes may be withdrawn from the Amended Tender Offers prior to the Withdrawal Deadline, unless extended by Weatherford Bermuda or Weatherford Delaware. Holders of Notes who tender their Notes after the Withdrawal Deadline, but prior to the Expiration Date, may not withdraw their tendered Notes.

The Offerors reserve the right, but are under no obligation, subject to the satisfaction or waiver of the conditions (including the Amended Financing Condition) to the Tender Offers, to accept for purchase any Notes validly tendered and not validly withdrawn prior to the Early Tender Date, at any point following the Early Tender Date and before the Expiration Date (the "Early Settlement Date"), subject to the Acceptance Priority Levels, the Amended Aggregate Maximum Purchase Price, the Amended 2020 Tender Cap, and proration. The Early Settlement Date will be determined at each Offeror's option and is currently expected to occur on June 17, 2016, subject to all conditions to the Amended Tender Offers (including the Amended Financing Condition) having been either satisfied or waived by the applicable Offeror. If the Amended Financing Condition is not satisfied or waived by the Early Settlement Date, the Offerors reserve the right, but are under no obligation to accept for purchase any Notes validly tendered and not validly withdrawn prior to the Early Tender Date, at the Early Settlement Date, subject to the Acceptance Priority Levels, the Initial Aggregate Maximum Purchase Price, the Initial Tender Caps (as set forth in the table above), and proration. Irrespective of whether an Offeror chooses to exercise its option to have an Early Settlement Date, such Offeror will purchase any remaining Notes that have been validly tendered and not validly withdrawn prior to the Expiration Date and that such Offeror chooses to accept for purchase promptly following the Expiration Date, subject to the Initial Aggregate Maximum Purchase Price or the Amended Aggregate Maximum Purchase Price, as applicable, the Initial Tender Caps or the Amended 2020 Tender Cap, as applicable, and proration (the "Final Settlement Date," the Final Settlement Date and the Early Settlement Date each being a "Settlement Date"). The Final Settlement Date is expected to occur on the first business day following the Expiration Date.

Subject to the Initial Aggregate Maximum Purchase Price or the Amended Aggregate Maximum Purchase Price, as applicable, the Initial Tender Caps or the Amended 2020 Tender Cap, as applicable, and proration, the Notes accepted on any Settlement Date will be accepted in accordance with their Acceptance Priority Levels set forth in the table above, with one being the highest Acceptance Priority Level and four being the lowest Acceptance Priority Level. All Notes tendered before the Early Tender Date will be accepted for purchase in priority to other Notes tendered after the Early Tender Date, even if such Notes tendered after the Early Tender Date have a higher Acceptance Priority Level than Notes tendered prior to the Early Tender Date.

Acceptance for tenders of any Notes may be subject to proration if the aggregate principal amount for any series of Notes validly tendered and not validly withdrawn would cause the Initial Aggregate Maximum Purchase Price or the Amended Aggregate Maximum Purchase Price, as applicable, to be exceeded. Acceptance for tenders of 2019 Notes and 2020 Notes may be subject to proration if the aggregate principal amount of the 2019 Notes or 2020 Notes validly tendered and not validly withdrawn is greater than the applicable Tender Cap, if any.

The consummation of the Amended Tender Offers is not conditioned upon any minimum amount of Notes being tendered. However, the Amended Tender Offers are subject to the satisfaction or waiver of certain conditions in the Offer to Purchase, including the Amended Financing Condition.

Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., Citigroup Global Markets Inc., RBC Capital Markets, LLC and Wells Fargo Securities, LLC are the dealer managers in the Tender Offers. Global Bondholder Services Corporation has been retained to serve as both the depositary and the information agent for the Tender Offers. Persons with questions regarding the Tender Offers should contact Deutsche Bank Securities at (toll-free): (855) 287-1922 or (collect): (212) 250-7527, Citigroup Global Markets Inc. at (toll-free): (800) 558-3745 or (New York): (212) 723-6106, RBC Capital Markets, LLC at (toll-free): (877) 381-2099 or (collect): (212) 618-7822 or Wells Fargo Securities, LLC at (toll-free): (866) 309-6316 or (collect): (704) 410-4760. Requests for copies of the Offer to Purchase and other related materials should be directed to Global Bondholder Services Corporation at (toll-free): (866) 807-2200 or (collect): (212) 430-3774.

None of the Company, its board of directors, the dealer managers, the depositary or the information agent or any of the Company, the Offerors or their respective affiliates, makes any recommendation as to whether holders of the Notes should tender any Notes in response to the Tender Offers. The Tender Offers are made only by the Offer to Purchase. The Tender Offers are not being made to holders of Notes in any jurisdiction in which the making or acceptance thereof would not be in compliance with the securities, blue sky or other laws of such jurisdiction. In any jurisdiction in which the Tender Offers are required to be made by a licensed broker or dealer, the Tender Offers will be deemed to be made on behalf of the Offerors by the dealer managers, or one or more registered brokers or dealers that are licensed under the laws of such jurisdiction.

ABOUT WEATHERFORD INTERNATIONAL PLC

Weatherford is one of the largest multinational oilfield service companies providing innovative solutions, technology and services to the oil and gas industry. The Company operates in over 100 countries and has a network of approximately 1,100 locations, including manufacturing, service, research and development, and training facilities and employs approximately 33,100 people.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This press release includes forward-looking statements as defined under federal law, including those related to the Company's potential securities offering and tender offers. These forward-looking statements are generally identified by the words "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "intend," "plan," "may," "should," "could," "will," "would," and "will be," and similar expressions, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Such statements are subject to significant risks, assumptions and uncertainties. Known material factors that could cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from the results contemplated by such forward-looking statements are described in the prospectus as supplemented, which is a part of the registration statement, and the risk factors described in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2015 and those risk factors set forth from time-to-time in other filings with the SEC. Weatherford undertakes no obligation to correct or update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except to the extent required under federal securities laws.

Investor Contact:





Krishna Shivram +1.713.836.4610 Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer





Karen David-Green +1.713.836.7430 Vice President  Investor Relations, Corporate Marketing & Communications

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SOURCE Weatherford International plc
Marvin J. Malecha, President of NewSchool of Architecture & Design. Throughout his illustrious career, Marvin has maintained an active involvement with architectural practice and has received numerous accolades and awards in the fields of architecture and design. Marvin was also elected as the first president/president elect (2008-2009) of the American Institute of Architects and served as the professional association's National President in 2009.

Steven Holl , Founder of internationally recognized and innovative architecture and urban design firm in New York . Steven is best known for his designs for MIT's Simmons Hall and was named Time Magazine's America's Best Architect in 2001.

, Founder of internationally recognized and innovative architecture and urban design firm in . Steven is best known for his designs for and was named America's Best Architect in 2001. Billie Tsien , Co-Founder of Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects based in New York . Bilie is currently President of the Architectural League of New York and Director of the Public Art Fund.

, Co-Founder of Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects based in . Bilie is currently President of the Architectural League of and Director of the Public Art Fund. Wolf Prix , Co-Founder, Design Principal and CEO of COOP HIMMELB(L)AU located in Vienna, Austria . Wolf has received numerous awards including the Great Austrian State Award and the Austrian Decoration of Honor for Science and Art.

, Co-Founder, Design Principal and CEO of COOP HIMMELB(L)AU located in . Wolf has received numerous awards including the Great Austrian State Award and the Austrian Decoration of Honor for Science and Art. Peter Bohlin , Founding Principal of Bohlin Cywinski Jackson in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania . Peter has been a guest design critic and visiting professor at architectures schools and was awarded with the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal in 2010.

, Founding Principal of Bohlin Cywinski Jackson in . Peter has been a guest design critic and visiting professor at architectures schools and was awarded with the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal in 2010. Robert Venturi , Founding Principal of Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates. Robert, who recently celebrated his 90th birthday, is one of the chief architectural figures of the twentieth century who used architectural history to redirect American architecture to a more exploratory design approach.

Architects and designers are creative beings who can easily find inspiration at any moment. To fully generate early realizations of awe-inspiring creations, architects frequently turn to sketching main components on a napkin. These little pieces of paper displaying ideas can eventually be turned into greater works of art. What began as a "sketch for a sketch" project, NewSchool students have turned into crafting their own napkin sketches to capture the attention of well-known architects. These creations are then mailed to architects with a request for an original sketch that can be auctioned off during the event. Proceeds for the live auction portion will benefit AIAS scholarships and programs for deserving architecture students. In years past, napkin sketches have been auctioned off for up to $5,000.

"Napkin sketches have been a go-to companion for those who find spur of the moment inspiration," said NewSchool of Architecture & Design President Marvin J. Malecha. "Architects and designers turn to napkins to map out their initial visions with the goal of ultimately designing a lasting work of art. I'm delighted to share some of my napkin sketches for this year's auction and to see the excitement students have in drafting their own designs and sharing with architects from around the world."

Tickets for students and professionals can be purchased online at https://napkinsketch2016.eventbrite.com or at the NewSchool Student Life Office.

WHO: NewSchool students exchange 'napkin drawings' with renowned architects as part of the Fifth Annual Napkin Sketch Auction, organized by the American Institute of Architecture Students

WHAT: Public auction of original work sketched on napkins by renowned architects

WHEN: Friday, June, 10 at 6 p.m.

WHERE: NewSchool of Architecture & Design, Auditorium, 1249 F St., San Diego, CA 92101

COST: $10 for NewSchool students, $15 for professionals. Individual napkins have previously been auctioned for as much as $ 5,000, however there is also a raffle for more affordable napkin sketch options. To purchase tickets please visit: https://napkinsketch2016.eventbrite.com

CONTACT: Contact AIAS at [email protected]

About NewSchool of Architecture & Design:

Located in downtown San Diego, NewSchool prepares students for career success in design fields through an emphasis on interdisciplinary and global design skills, industry collaborations and real-world projects. Programs of study include architecture, construction management, product design, media design, game development, design studies, and interior architecture & design. The school's design environment provides inspiration for the school's students and faculty, recognized for their work regionally and internationally. NewSchool is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges Senior College and University Commission.

NewSchool's Bachelor and Master of Architecture programs are accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB). NewSchool is a member of the Laureate International Universities network  a global network of more than 80 campus-based and online universities in 28 countries. Through this network, students at NewSchool are prepared to work in a global and diverse work environment through the school's collaborations with sister institutions in the Laureate network, including award-winning schools such as Domus Academy in Milan, Italy. For more information about Laureate International Universities, visit www.laureate.net.

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SOURCE NewSchool of Architecture & Design

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SAN DIEGO, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Zebit, Inc., a company committed to offering no-cost, transparent credit to hardworking Americans, today was named one of the Best Places to Work in San Diego in 2016 in the "Small-Sized Companies" category. Bestowed by the San Diego Business Journal, the annual survey and awards program is designed to identify and honor the best employers in the San Diego region. The list is made up of 100 companies across four categoriessmall-sized companies, medium-sized companies, large-sized companies and mega-sized companiesand recognizes positive employer contributions through workplace policies, practices, philosophy, systems, demographics and employee experience. Best Companies Group managed the overall registration and survey process, analyzed the data, and determined the final rankings.

"At Zebit, our mission is simpleto help working Americans build a better financial life. But none of that would be possible without the tireless effort and passion of our people," said Michael Thiemann, CEO and co-founder of Zebit. "We value and respect our fellow team members, which is why we offer competitive compensation, benefits stipends, and an incredible, collaborative working environment. We appreciate the recognition that comes with being one of the Best Places to Work in San Diego. The Zebit team is incredibly proud of our collective accomplishments; we welcome the opportunity to continue to impact and serve our local San Diego community as well as members of the US armed forces and all working Americans."

Zebit offers a no-cost, no-interest, no-penalties financing option for working Americans and military personnel. With this first-of-its-kind financing option, members gain access to the Zebit Market, an e-commerce site featuring more than 20,000 name brand items they can buy at competitive pricesfrom electronics and furniture, to appliances, luxury items and more. Zebit's financing solution allows members to pay off their purchases over time, without any interest or hidden fees. Zebit also provides financial education, planning tools, and a patent-pending Instant Budget mobile app to help further demystify responsible financial planning and preparedness.

This year's Best Places to Work in San Diego honorees will be recognized at a dedicated award ceremony on Thursday, Aug. 11. They will also be included in a special issue of the San Diego Business Journal to be published Monday, Aug. 22. For more information on the Best Places to Work in San Diego program, visit www.BestPlacestoWorkSD.com.

To learn more about Zebit's offerings, please visit www.zebit.com.

About Zebit

Zebit is committed to offering no-cost, transparent credit to hardworking Americans. Zebit counters deceptive financing alternatives with interest-free credit, financial education, and planning tools to help working Americans and military personnel take control of their everyday financial lives. Its direct-to-consumer offering is also exclusively available to active and retired military members associated with the U.S. Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard, with plans for expansion among National Guard, reserves, veterans and military spouses in 2017. Employers can offer Zebit as a free employee benefit to lower employee stress and improve the corporate bottom line. Zebit is located in San Diego and is backed by VCs that include Crosslink Capital, Wildcat Venture Partners, Leapfrog Ventures and Correlation Ventures. Learn more at www.zebit.com.

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SOURCE Zebit

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ELKO  After almost two days of searching through continuously rising and sometimes hazardous waters, authorities recovered the body of Gilbert Carrasco at South Fork Reservoir Tuesday morning.

Carrasco was positively identified by his son-in-law Zach Penrod Tuesday afternoon.

Theres nothing more that he loved than his grandchildren. He would do anything for them and he did. He saved Halleys life, said Penrod.

Carrasco, 52, was rafting with his 9-year-old granddaughter when the raft overturned. Penrod said Carrasco was able to get his granddaughter through a rougher portion of the waterway, making sure she got to shore.

He was a hero, he said, describing his father-in-law as the most loving, giving man that I know.

Penrod told the media rafting is a sport the family occasionally takes part in. This is the first time the family has been rafting in the last couple of years.

Carrasco was basically his familys full-time nanny, said Penrod, explaining he was all about his grandchildren.

My wife said it looked completely fine  always take into account whats underneath, branches  that you cant necessarily see from up top, just take that into account before you raft, he said, highlighting the dangers of the river.

The cause of death appears to be drowning, said acting Undersheriff Kevin McKinney.

McKinney said conditions on the South Fork Humboldt River made the search difficult, including the efforts of divers from the Washoe County Search and Rescue team.

The dive team didnt believe that Mr. Carrasco could have moved that far from where he was last seen. He managed to get down almost 5 miles from where he was last seen, said McKinney.

Carrascos body was located approximately 250 yards in from the causeway in the reservoir, on the inlet side, by a fisherman around 7 a.m.

Authorities recovered the body at approximately 9 a.m. Tuesday. Carrasco went missing at approximately 3 p.m. Sunday.

His granddaughter described the accident to investigators.

By her account it happened so fast, she just told us that there was a big bump, then her grandpa was holding onto her and she went under briefly, was able to come up, but then she never saw him again, said McKinney.

None of the adults in the party were wearing life vests  the children were all wearing life vests, he said, explaining there were three groups of two inside inflatable two-person rafts  an adult and a child in each raft.

It was family members and friends just out for a Sunday rafting trip, said McKinney.

Ranchers in the area said rafting traffic is fairly common. However, they havent seen the water this high in approximately 10 to 12 years.

According to the water master, its running over 1,000 cubic feet per second, McKinney said.

Officials recommend staying away from the water unless previous training has been obtained, and to monitor the water levels. It is recommended to stay off the water if it is over 800 cubic feet per second, said McKinney.

Based upon elements such as the snowpack, he said, water levels are expected to remain this way over the next couple of weeks.

The Elko County Sheriffs Office was aided by the Washoe County Dive Rescue Team, Nevada Department of Wildlife, the South Fork Rangers, the Elko County Fire Protection District, and the Elko County Search and Rescue team.

There were so many groups, organizations and people that helped us. We couldnt have conducted the search we did or begin the rescue efforts that we took without their help, concluded McKinney.
No bureaucratic bungling shall go unrewarded.

Be it at the State Department, Veterans Affairs, Internal Revenue Service, the Justice Department, Immigration or the Bureau of Land Management.

The man who was in charge of security for the BLM during the botched Bundy ranch cattle roundup two years ago  which resulted in the agency spending $1 million to round up a couple hundred head of cattle, only to release them when confronted by armed supporters of the rancher  has been promoted to a newly created position.

Dan Love, who was in charge of BLM security forces in Nevada and Utah, will now serve as the BLMs agent in charge of security, protection and intelligence nationwide.

The intelligence part of the job reportedly includes gathering information on emerging threats, such as from websites and online social media.

Why a land management agency should have what amounts to its own law enforcement division is a question to begin with. Even the Nevada Test Site uses private security firms. Arent actual law enforcement agencies such as the FBI and U.S. marshals, as well as local police and sheriff agencies, sufficient to protect these public servants?

As for intelligence? Why does a federal land agency need a spy?

Gov. Brian Sandoval chastised the BLM at the time of the Bundy ranch invasion for creating an atmosphere of intimidation.

Due to the roundup by the BLM, my office has received numerous complaints of BLM misconduct, road closures and other disturbances, Sandoval said in a statement at the time. I have recently met with state legislators, county officials and concerned citizens to listen to their concerns. I have expressed those concerns directly to the BLM.

He said most disturbing to him was the BLMs establishment of a First Amendment Area, where any protests were supposed to be contained, calling that a trampling of Nevadans fundamental rights under the U.S. Constitution.

No cow justifies the atmosphere of intimidation which currently exists nor the limitation of constitutional rights that are sacred to all Nevadans, he said. The BLM needs to reconsider its approach to this matter and act accordingly.

Though he said rancher Cliven Bundy must be held accountable for defying federal court orders and grazing cattle on federal land without proper permits, then-Sheriff Doug Gillespie was critical of the tactics and behavior of the BLM security forces for creating a situation that threatened to turn into a bloodbath.

Speaking at an editorial board of the Las Vegas morning newspaper a couple of months after the roundup, Gillespie said he had a tense meeting with some of Bundys sons a few weeks before the agents moved in with armed vehicles, heavy weapons, snipers and attack dogs. He feared emotions would boil over.

I came back from that saying, This is not the time to do this, he told the editors. They (the BLM) said, We do this all the time. We know what were doing. We hear what youre saying, but were moving forward.

He noted that a video of one of Bundys sons being Tasered went viral on the Internet, prompting self-styled patriots and militia to pour into the ranch, an outcome for which the BLM was unprepared.

Gillespie added, Youll have a hard time convincing me that one persons drop of blood is worth any one of those cows, adding that the BLM had no place to take the cattle it had gathered anyway.

Two years later, Bundy, four of his sons and 14 others are being held without bail on federal charges growing out of the standoff.

Loves handling of the Bundy situation is hardly the first criticism leveled at his methods.

In an article in the Salt Lake City Tribune in October 2014, rural Utah sheriffs described Love as Public Enemy No. 1.

Elected law enforcement officers from Nephi to Blanding call him an arrogant and dishonest bully who has little regard for local authority and dodges accountability, derailing a collaborative approach to police work on the states federal lands, the article declares.

According to the Reno newspaper, Love also has a penchant for demanding pampering for himself and his agents. Before the 2015 Burning Man festival in Black Rock, Love told festival organizers his staff would require a separate compound with amenities such as flushing toilets, washers and dryers, and 24-hour access to ice cream.

The cost was estimated to be $1 million. The BLM backed off after being widely ridiculed.

Thats how to mount the ladder of success in a bureaucracy.
Raigad (Maharashtra), June 5 : At least 14 persons were killed in a ghastly road accident involving a bus and two private vehicles on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway near Panvel on Sunday, officials said.

According to State Highway Control, the accident occurred near Shendug curve on the Pune-Mumbai arm of the E-Way around 4.00 a.m.

Due to the impact of the collision, one of the private cars was thrown into a 40-feet deep ditch.

Among the victims are seven women and one child.

Four of the injured victims were rushed to hospitals in Panvel.
Los Angeles, June 5 : Jack Black is the latest victim of a celebrity death hoax after a Twitter prank. Social media was sent into a frenzy on Sunday after a hacked Twitter account claimed that the actor had died overnight.

Messages posted by official Twitter account of Tenacious D, the comedy rock band co-founded by the comedian, said he had "died at the age of 46", reports dailymail.co.uk.

But just hours later, the same profile wrote: "Calm down guys! It's just a prank bro, look there's the camera."

Black, 46, who was last seen in public two days ago, has been the victim of a number of death hoaxes, including one last week that went viral.

Black, known for his roles in "King Kong", "School of Rock", and "Kung Fu Panda" franchise, performed at Rock am Ring Music Festival, near Nurburgring, Germany on Friday night.

He was also seen posing with American DJ Diplo for an image posted on photo-sharing app Snapchat in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Hours later, social media was sent into a frenzy by a series of tweets posted by the verified Tenacious D Twitter account.

The profile posted: "I'm sad to officially announce the death of Jack Black at the age of 46, rest in peace brother."

A third message read: "It is with a heavy heart I am to announce that Jack Black passed away last night at 3:37am. The cause of death is yet unknown."

Guitarist John Konesky, who plays with Tenacious D, soon dismissed the rumours, writing: "Twitter feed was hacked. Than s**t ain't true! They're working on fixing it!" But dozens of social media users were swept up in the speculation. One Twitter user wrote "OMG terrible news. What happened?", another said "My heart just stopped. Tell me this is a joke."

Just hours later, the hacker posted four further messages -- revealing the death announcement had been fake.

The post read: "Calm down guys! It's just a prank bro, look there's the camera...The Legend is still alive, it is ok guys."

The hacker later exploited the publicity by encouraging users to follow their account on Twitter.

It is the latest in a series of death hoaxes targeting Black in recent weeks.

On Friday a Facebook page called 'R.I.P Jack Black' posted: "At about 11 a.m. ET on Friday (June 03, 2016), our beloved actor Jack Black passed away. Jack Black was born on August 28, 1969 in Santa Monica. He will be missed but not forgotten. Please show your sympathy and condolences by commenting on and liking this page."

Hundreds of fans posted condolence messages on the page, sending social media into a frenzy. The page was 'liked' by nearly one million users.
Geneva, June 6 : Inviting a galaxy of Swiss business leaders to invest in India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday that India needs to create an economy of the order of "two or three Switzerlands," which provides a massive opportunity for partnerships.

"Within my country I need to create 2 or 3 Switzerlands. So scope for partnership is immense," Modi told a gathering of heads of companies like ABB, Lafarge, Novartis and Nestle, according to a tweet by Vikas Swarup, the spokesman of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs.

Modi said that India wanted to "have manufacturing of global standards" and hence the Swiss model of skill development is "very relevant for us".

"I invite Swiss companies to partner India's economic growth," he said in a joint press statement with Swiss President Johann Schneider-Amman after their talks.

"India is not just a market of 1.25 billion. We have skills and a government open to business," Modi said, according to another tweet by Swarup.

"ABB, Lafarge, Novartis, Nestle, Rieter, Roche... A who's who of Swiss business at Round Table with Prime Minister Narendra Modi," the spokesman said in a separate tweet.

Modi arrived in Switzerland from Qatar on Sunday night on the third leg of his five-nation tour.

Prior to his departure from India, Modi had described Switzerland as India's key partner in Europe.

"In Geneva, I will meet prominent business persons. 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 had said.

CERN is the French acronym for the European Organisation for Nuclear Research that operates the world's largest particle physics laboratory.

Switzerland is India's fifth largest trade partner and 11th largest investor. Most Swiss multinationals like Nestle, ABB, Novartis, Roche UBS and Credit Suisse have operations in India.

About 100 Indian companies invested $1.2 billion between 2012 and 2014 in Switzerland, placing it among the top five European investment destinations and top-10 places globally for Indian investors.

Bilateral trade nearly tripled from $1.6 billion in 2004 to $4.5 billion in 2011. India's merchandise exports to Switzerland have more than doubled from 2009 to 2014.

Following his delegation-level talks with President Schneider-Amman, Modi also received Switzerland's support for India's bid for membership of the 48-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), of which Switzerland is an important member.

The issue of black money also figured in the talks.
Washington, June 8 : Call it President Barack Obama's desire to seal his legacy or the Trump effect, as some pundits would have it, he and Prime Minister Narendra Modi celebrated his fourth visit to the US in two years with a flurry of agreements, including one in which the US commits itself to sharing defence technology with India "to a level commensurate with that of its closest allies and partners".

These ranged from climate change to the vexed civil nuclear deal to US

recognition of India as a major defence partner to a call on Pakistan to bring the perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai and 2016 Pathankot terrorist attacks to justice.

Marking a big upswing in India-US relations in the last two years, the upshot of Modi's tAte-A -tAte with "my friend Barack" at the White House Tuesday was that the "good story continues" in the words of Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar.

Some icing on the cake came ahead of the third major Modi-Obama summit with reports that none of the 34 current members of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) had objected to India's entry to the exclusive club by Monday's deadline.

Jaishankar would not go beyond saying that India had indeed applied for entry into MTCR, but the joint statement noted "the leaders looked forward to India's imminent entry" into the club.

Beijing is not a member of MTCR, but it is standing in the way of India's entry into another exclusive club, the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), at the behest of Pakistan.

And though the membership of the two clubs is not directly linked, if India was found good for entry into one non-proliferation regime, it should be good for the other too, Jaishankar suggested.

Fresh from garnering support for India's membership of NSG from Switzerland ahead of a meeting of the Group later this month, Modi thanked Obama for backing New Delhi's bid for both the MTCR and NSG clubs.

On climate change, the joint statement said "both countries are committed to working together and with others" for the ratification and full implementation of the Paris Agreement "as early as possible."

US officials suggested that like the US, India had agreed to join the Paris agreement "this year." But the Indian side stuck to the formulation in the joint statement saying, "India similarly has begun its processes to work toward this shared objective."

The New York Times suggested that would-be Republican nominee "Donald J. Trump can claim at least some of the credit" for the Modi-Obama understanding on the Paris climate agreement.

Since Trump has vowed to "cancel" the Paris agreement if elected, Obama is working hard to ensure that it becomes binding before he leaves office next January.

Once the accord enters into legal force with at least 55 countries representing 55 percent of global emissions formally joining, no nation can legally withdraw for four years, it said.

On his part, "Modi wants to get as much as he can out of Obama's last months in office," the Times cited Ashley J. Tellis, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, as saying.

The announcement that India will buy six nuclear reactors from Westinghouse by June 2017 under the stalled India-US civil nuclear deal signed in 2005 also removes another irritant in India-US relations.

And US recognition of India as a Major Defence Partner to facilitate "technology sharing with India to a level commensurate with that of its closest allies and partners" marked another milestone in the growing US-India defence relationship.

The understanding would give India "license-free access to a wide range of dual-use technologies in conjunction with steps that India has committed to take to advance its export control objectives.

But another important dimension of Modi's June 6-8 visit would unfold Wednesday with an address to a joint meeting of the US Congress eleven years after Washington revoked his visa under a law passed by that very body.

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)
New Delhi, June 8 : The stress in the Indian banking system is short-lived and this key industry will only emerge stronger, says veteran banker Naina Lal Kidwai.

With more than 35 years of banking experience behind her, Kidwai spoke to IANS here on a host of issues -- from the stressed banking scenario in India, consolidation, fears over bad loans, the bad exposures to Kingfisher and HSBC India's own strategy shift.

She said the decision by HSBC Bank's India unit, which she chaired till last December, to close 24 branches was not linked to the overall stress factor.

Excerpts from the interview:

Q. Was HSBC's recent announcement to shut 24 retail branches in India an outcome of its stressed state?

A. It is a strategic move on the part of HSBC India. In fact globally, the trend in banking is to move away from multiple branches and to reach more people online, and invest in internet banking propositions. Cutting costs is only one of the factors. In the full scheme of things, it is not material. The strategy varies from bank to bank. We should not relate it to cutting costs or foreign banks feeling apprehensive, due to the stressed assets in the banking sector.

Foreign banks have always done well in India even with limited branches, as RBI (Reserve Bank of India) licenses for retail branches were hardly given. So foreign banks will in future too have limited retail branches in India, focusing on wholesale banking as they have traditionally done.

Q. But are foreign banks untouched by non-performing assets (NPAs) and bad loans in India?

A. Standard Chartered Bank has reported high NPAs. It is not that foreign banks are untouched by stressed assets -- but the problem is far more manageable for them as most have not funded large projects in power and steel sectors, where a large part of the problem lies.

Q. Given the state of bad loans, should the bank chiefs be brought under a code of conduct for their lending decisions?

A. They should not be held responsible -- loans can go bad any time because of various reasons. One person can't be held responsible. If they are, then once a person becomes chief executive, loans will be held back fearing that five years down too he/she will be held reaponsible for a bad loan.

But, before giving out any loan, banks should evaluate the sector and the risks involved. The decision is taken by an entire team in a bank. The system needs to be robust with checks and evaluations. But if there is malfeasance or corruption, it must be duly dealt with. In certain cases like Kingfisher Airlines, the banks should have evaluated the sector. When did a company last make money in the airline business?

Q. How will consolidation of banks help?

A. It will not help in reducing bad loans. But yes, that's the way forward. Then, only the strong banks will remain. Weaker ones will be merged into strong banks and it can, therefore, help with capitalisation of banks and bring down overhead costs.

Q. Do you think the bankruptcy law will be enough to check NPAs?

A: We need mechanisms on bad loans to be put into place. The new bankruptcy law is a huge step in the right direction. Implementation of the tribunals envisaged by this law will take time. It is critical that we implement this bill with urgency.

Banks also need to be more cautious as over exposure to sectors that depend on commodities or regulatory interface, was responsible for NPAs in this last downturn. It was bad luck as well that the global downturn and China slowing coincided with our domestic problems in power and commodities. But now the situation is improving.

When the Bankruptcy Bill comes into effect, it will be very helpful for the banks. We are also seeing many specialist organisations, ARCs (asset reconstruction companies) etc. who will help to work out the bad loans.

Q. By March 2017, banks have to fully disclose their NPAs. What scenario do you see emerging?

A. It's difficult to say as to by when banks will be able to fully erase their NPAs. But yes, NPAs will be at their highest in March 2017, and post that, the NPAs will start tapering in every quarter.

Q. While still at HSBC, could you sense the NPA scenario getting worse?

A. The issue was emerging 3-5 years ago and it is only now that banks are fully providing for bad loans. But the banks will come out it. It is good that the transparency of our banks has improved and this is reflected in share prices of our public sector banks. It is beginning to move up as investors believe there are no hidden surprises. Also the finance ministry and RBI are looking to improve the governance standards of these banks.

Q. What's keeping you busy post-HSBC?

A. I retired from HSBC India on December 31, 2015 after a 13-year stint with the bank. But I do not miss banking and divide my time between various things. I am non-executive chairman of Max Financial Services and also an independent director on the boards of Cipla, Larsen and Toubro, Altico Capital and Nestle global.

I also spend half my time in areas to do with water and the environment and women empowerment. I founded and chair 'The India Sanitation Coalition' -- a platform where all players in sanitation convene to learn, share and collaborate with a view to enhance the overall impact and support the government's Swaach Bharat Mission. The objective is to ensure the entire cycle in sanitation is covered -- build, use, maintain and treat.

(Meghna Mittal can be reached at meghna.m@ians.in)
London, June 8 : An Eritrean man believed to be responsible for smuggling migrants from Africa to Europe has been extradited to Italy.

Mered Medhanie, 35, known as 'The General', was held in Sudan in May and was flown to Rome on Tuesday, BBC reported.

Britain's National Crime Agency (NCA) said he is thought to have arranged the transit of a boat from Libya that capsized near the Italian island of Lampedusa in October 2013 which killed 359 migrants.

Italian news agency Ansa said Medhanie was accused of being "the leader and organiser of one of the largest criminal groups operating between central Africa and Libya".

Prosecutors accused Medhanie of running the network alongside an Ethiopian accomplice, who is still at large.

The two men are accused of buying up kidnapped migrants from other gangs and sending those migrants on barely seaworthy ships across the Mediterranean towards Europe.

Medhanie styled himself on the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and is said to have driven around in a tank.

La Repubblica said telephone intercepts acquired by Italian investigators depict a man who, while kind and considerate when dealing with matters relating to his wife and children in Sweden, was cynical and ruthless in his work.

In the recordings, he estimates he has smuggled 7,000 or 8,000 people. In one, he is reportedly heard laughing at the overloading of migrant boats.

In 2014, the year after the Lampedusa tragedy, the number of migrant arrivals to Italy jumped to 170,000, before dropping to 153,800 last year. Close to 40,000 people have arrived in Italy so far this year.
New Delhi, June 8 : Killing innocent women and children in bombings and suicide attacks is against the essence of jihad and the tenets of Islam, says Al Qaeda's Indian-subcontinent chief.

However, the chief, Asim Umar praised the 9/11 attacks on America that left some 3,000 persons, including hundreds of women and eight kids, killed in one of the worst terror strikes in history.

According to Indian intelligence agencies, Umar, who gave his "message to mujahideen in India and Pakistan" in Urdu, is originally from Uttar Pradesh but is now based in Pakistan.

"Prophet Mohammed has clearly and strongly forbidden the killings of non-combatant women and children," Umar said in the message posted online and authenticated by jihadology.net.

The website is a jihadi material clearing house of a Richard Borow fellow, Aaron Y. Zelin, associated with the Washington Institute, who researches on jihadist groups and Salafi politics.

Al Qaeda is in a struggle with Islamic State (IS) to wrest back its leadership role among jihadis. IS has shown no qualms in killing women and children, often publicly. The message may also have been directed at Al Qaeda allies, the Taliban, which has often attacked women and children in Pakistan.

The Al Qaeda leader said a "superficial jihadi, who doesn't know much about human psychology, thinks that killing innocent women and children may weaken" the enemy.

"Such acts also create hatred and increases the number of our enemies," said Umar, a graduate from the famed Deoband Islamic seminary in India who changed his name from Sanaullah Haq. He hails from the Sambhal district of Uttar Pradesh.

Umar is said to have joined Islamist extremist outfits after he disappeared from the state in 1995. He has also attended Islamic studies in the Jamia Uloom, Karachi -- the jihadi alma mater of Masood Azhar and other jihadi leaders in Pakistan -- and has always been a fundamentalist in his outlook.

"Let's not blemish the jihad with the blood of innocents...with the bloodshed in markets, schools, universities and public places. You won't succeed by that. This is what your enemy wants you to do to defeat you," he said.

Umar may have been referring to attacks in Pakistan by the Taliban. A gun and bombing attack by the Afghanitan-based Taliban at Peshawar Army Public School left 152 school children dead on December 16, 2014.

Some 30 students were also killed in a similar attack this year on the Bacha Khan University in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

The militant leader also advised his fighters to "make certain that they use their resources judiciously to cause maximum damage to the enemy".

But contradicting his own advice on women and children, Umar cited the September 9, 2001, attack on America masterminded by then Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden as the best example of a guerrilla strike on the American landmarks.

(Sarwar Kashani can be contacted at sarwar.k@ians.in)
Washington, June 8 : Ahead of his speech to a joint sitting of the US Congress, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday met with the Congressional leadership.

"Advancing the dialogue of democracies. PM Narendra Modi meets the Congressional leadership at Capitol Hill," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted.

As he arrived at Capitol Hill, the Prime Minister was received by House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan.

Modi will be the fifth Indian Prime Minister after Rajiv Gandhi, P.V. Narasimha Rao, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh to address the US Congress.
Islamabad, June 8 : A day after India received the US's backing for Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) membership, Pakistan stepped up its diplomatic outreach among members of the cartel and warned that country-specific exemptions could negatively impact strategic stability in South Asia.

Pakistan foreign miistry's UN Desk on Wednesday held a briefing in Islamabad for diplomatic missions of NSG member-countries to put forward its arguments.

Adding to its diplomatic leverage, the Prime Minister's Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz telephoned a few foreign ministers, including from Russia, New Zealand and South Korea to seek backing for Pakistan's membership of the group.

"Pakistan has the expertise, manpower, infrastructure and the ability to supply NSG controlled items, goods and services for a full range of nuclear applications for peaceful uses," said Tasnim Aslam, head of the UN Desk in the foreign ministry, conveyed to the gathered members.

She urged the diplomats to adopt an "objective and non-discriminatory criteria" for membership of non-NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty) states to the 48-member NSG.

India's membership of the NSG was "not merited until the country meets the group's standards" -- of which inking the NPT is a major criteria, a New York Times (NYT) editorial has said.

The group's members have to sign the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty but India has refused to do so, Aslam said, adding that it is tantamount to New Delhi not accepting "legally binding commitments to pursue disarmament negotiations, halt the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons and not test nuclear weapons".

Aziz on Wednesday telephoned Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully, and South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se, to highlight Pakistan's credentials for NSG membership with a view to seek their support.

On Tuesday, US President Barack Obama announced that his country is backing India's bid to join the club.

Both India and Pakistan have applied to become members of the exclusive club.

China, which is backing Pakistan's bid, could also insist, as a condition for supporting India's membership, that Islamabad be allowed to join the cartel.

The NSG is a 48-nation club dedicated to curbing nuclear arms proliferation by controlling the export and re-transfer of materials that could foster nuclear weapons development.

On Tuesday, Aziz told Pakistan's Senate that the country was lobbying "effectively and pro-actively" in all member countries of the NSG to curb India's efforts to join the club.

He told the Senate that Pakistan's "efforts towards non-discriminatory approach will pay off".

Aziz was responding to concerns expressed by Pakistani lawmakers over the "growing collusion between India and the US" and apprehension that the NSG member states would positively consider India's request to join it.

Pakistan Muslim League-Q Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed, chairman of the Senate Defence Committee, said that Pakistan's diplomacy had "failed" and that if India became a member of the NSG, it would be able to block Pakistan's entry into the group.

"We have alienated Iran and Afghanistan and the two countries are now improving their economic ties with India," he said.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently visited Afghanistan and Iran, which are immediate neighbours to Pakistan.

"This is our diplomatic failure. The Indians are encircling us from all sides. Even our immediate neighbours, like Afghanistan and Iran, have gone to India. It's a result of our failed diplomacy and traditionally passive foreign policy," Sayed added.

Besides efforts to counter Indian designs through military means, Sayed called for "cohesion" within the country, saying that India should not be in a position to take advantage of the situation inside Pakistan.
Washington, June 8 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday described the US as an "indispensable partner" of India and stated that a strong India is in the strategic interest of the US.

"In every sector of India's forward march, I see the US as an indispensable partner," Modi said in his much anticipated speech at a joint sitting of the US Congress.

"Many of you also believe that a stronger and prosperous India is in America's strategic interest," he said.

Modi is the fifth Indian Prime Minister to address the US Congress after Rajiv Gandhi, P.V. Narasimha Rao, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh.

He said India could be an ideal partner for US businesses searching "for new areas of economic growth, markets for their goods, a pool of skilled resources, and global locations to produce and manufacture".

"India's strong economy, and growth rate of 7.6 per cent per annum, is creating new opportunities for our mutual prosperity," the Prime Minister said.

Turning to the Indian economy, he said that his to-do list by 2022, the 75th anniversary of India's independence was ambitious. "My to-do list is long and ambitious. But you will understand.

"It includes a vibrant rural economy with robust farm sector; a roof over each head and electricity to all households; to skill millions of our youth; build 100 smart cities; have a broad band for a billion, and connect our villages to the digital world; and create a 21st century rail, road and port infrastructure," Modi said.

He also sought cooperation in the fight against terrorism and without naming Pakistan, said the scourge was "incubated in India's neighbourhood".

"In the territory stretching from West of India's border to Africa, it may go by different names, from Laskhar-e-Taiba, to Taliban to ISIS," Modi said.

"But, its philosophy is common: of hate, murder and violence," he stated.

"Although its shadow is spreading across the world, it is incubated in India's neighbourhood."

He urged the members of the US Congress to send a clear message to those who preach and practice terrorism for political gains.

"Refusing to reward them is the first step towards holding them accountable for their actions," he said.

Modi also hailed the achievements of the Indian diaspora in the US.

"Connecting our two nations is also a unique and dynamic bridge of three million Indian Americans," he said.

"Today, they are among your best CEOs, academics, astronauts, scientists, economists, doctors, even spelling bee champions."

He also brought in yoga, and much to everybody's amusement, said that though there were 30 million practitioners of this ancient Indian physical exercise, India has still not claimed intellectual property right over it.

That Modi was not lacking in humour became evident when he compared the functioning of the US Congress with the chaos in the Indian Parliament.

"I am informed that the working of the US Congress is harmonious," he said much to everybody's laughter.

"I am also told that you are well-known for your bipartisanship," he said.

"Well, you are not alone. Time and again, I have also witnessed a similar spirit in the Indian Parliament, especially in our Upper House."

Keeping to the India-US relationship theme, the Prime Minister concluded by quoting Walt Whitman: "The Orchestra have sufficiently tuned their instruments, the baton has given the signal."

Earlier, House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan welcomed Modi as he arrived at Capitol Hill following which the Prime Minister met with the Congressional leadership.

Later, at a joint reception organised for him by the House of Representatives, Senate and the India Caucus, Modi said that the India-US relations have gone way beyond diplomacy and now it is at a stage where the two countries can be forces of good for the world.

"The US was first curious about India but now our shared values have led us to think together about what we can do for the world," he said at a reception organised after his address to a joint sitting of the US Congress.

Modi arrived in the US on Monday from Switzerland on his second bilateral visit after his visit in September 2014.

He and President Barack Obama held bilateral talks following which a number of agreements signed, including one on US firm Westinghouse building six nuclear power plants in India.

He also met with Indian and US business leaders.

Later on Wednesday, he will depart for Mexico on the fifth and final leg of his five-nation tour.

Prior to Switzerland, he visited Afghanistan and Qatar.
The number of homes available to rent in the UK fell in February to a 21 month low which agent say could be due to the new minimum energy standards that come into effect on 01 April.

Indeed, landlords are so behind in getting their properties ready for the deadline that hundreds of thousands more could be taken off the market if they dont meet the requirement, according to the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA).

Overall rental properties letting agents managed fell by 5% in February with 175 on average per branch compared to 184 in January, the lowest level since May 2016 when it stood at 171.

The monthly data from ARLA also shows that a year ago letting agents managed 183 properties on average per branch, 176 on average in February 2016 and 184 on average per branch in February 2015.

Demand for rental accommodation also dipped in February. On average, letting agents registered 61 prospective tenants per branch in February, compared to 70 in January, a 13% fall.

Some 20% of tenants, one in five, experienced rent hikes February compared to 19% in January and down from the 25% recorded in February 2017, 29% in the same month in 2016 and 31% in 2015.

According to David Cox, ARLA chief executive, the drop in the supply of rental properties should not be a surprise as the minimum energy efficiency standards come into effect in April meaning all rental properties must be EPC rated E or above.

The dip in supply indicates that landlords are cutting it fine and taking their properties off the market to make the necessary changes before the deadline but we could also see up to 300,000 properties taken off the after the deadline passes on Sunday because they dont reach the minimum requirements, he warned.

This is also likely to push rent costs up as competition heats up among prospective tenants. We could have a supply crisis on our hands and for landlords who havent yet started to upgrade their properties, now is the time to act and fast, he added.
Faultline Bar Co-Owner Ruby Nuno Getting Down and Dirty "The Faultline is here, it's not going away, now come on over and have a great time."

Faultline Bar for the 22nd year will host Tom's Bar, an annual parking lot event benefiting the Tom of Finland Foundation. "This is a great event for a great organization," says Ruby Nuno, co-owner of the Faultline. "We are pleased to continue the tradition of serving the community."

Nuno and her business partner purchased Faultline in late April of this year from Jorge Usatorres. "This is an amazing establishment with a long history," Nuno remarked. "We want to make sure it continues. We didn't want to see the Faultline go the way of so many other iconic gay bars in Los Angeles."

An established fixture in the West Hollywood business community, Nuno purchased the Faultline intent on respecting and building upon its tradition. "My business partner and I had dinner with Shawn Farnsworth, founder of the Faultline, and we really appreciate what he created. That's important to us."

Located at 4216 Melrose Avenue, Faultline includes two bars and a large outdoor patio area. Featuring a mix of themed nights, DJs, live performances, parking lot events, and its long-standing Sunday beer bust, the Bar is a destination venue with a neighborhood feel.

The legendary Sunday beer bust starts at 2:00 pm and draws up to 600 participants. "We just had one of our best busts last Sunday," notes Nuno. "The place was packed, the go-go boys were dancing, and everyone was having a great time."

Faultline is also partnering with Lyft during June to provide vouchers for rides to the Bar.

A large part of what makes the Faultline successful, observed Nuno, is the roster of DJs, promoters and talent that make the Bar home, and, of course, the staff that make it all come together. "I love working with these guys," she noted. "We're releasing a new mobile friendly web site so that everyone can know what's happening at the Bar no matter where they're at. The message is, the Faultline is here, it's not going away, now come on over and have a great time."

Tom's Bar will be held Sunday, June 19, from 2 to 7 pm in the parking lot adjacent to the Bar. The Tom of Finland Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the art work of Touko Laaksonen or Tom of Finland and erotic art generally.

--

Faultine Bar is located at 4216 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90029. It's open Wednesday through Friday 5:00 pm to Close, Saturday and Sunday, 2:00 pm to Close. Rated best Bear Bar in Los Angeles. For more, visit http://www.faultlinebar.com/

For media inquiries, please contact Ruby Nuno, Co-Owner of Faultline Bar.

Email: ruby(at)thefaultlinebar(dot)com

Phone: 424.333.0173
Primark, the low-cost fashion retailer, is celebrating a decade in Spain and claiming that it now has more customers than either one of its main competitors, Zara and H&M.

The Irish chain employs 6,000 workers in Spain, where it has more than 40 stores. The first one opened in Madrid 10 years ago at a shopping mall called Plenilunio.

Primark is now eyeing the Basque city of Bilbao, where it plans to open a store in the downtown area

Spain is also where the fashion giant decided to establish its second-largest store, located on Madrids Gran Via and second in size only to the one in Manchester, in the United Kingdom. People lined up for up to an hour to get into the store on opening day last October, and for three days after that.

According to figures offered by the consulting firm Kantar Worldpanel, Primark is now Spains leading fashion retailer by number of customers: 8.9 million people made purchases at their establishments in 2015, followed by Zara with 8.2 million, H&M with 6.5 million and C&A with 4.8 million.

Primark is now eyeing the Basque city of Bilbao, where it plans to open a store in the downtown area after reaching a rental deal with BBVA bank.

Sign up for our newsletter EL PAIS English Edition has launched a weekly newsletter. Sign up today to receive a selection of our best stories in your inbox every Saturday morning. For full details about how to subscribe, click here.

Although Inditex (the parent company of Zara), H&M and Primark compete in the same market, the latter sells at lower prices and does not have any expensive items on its catalogue.

In recent years, Primark was also in the headlines for being one of 28 companies that worked with a Bangladeshi factory that collapsed in 2013, killing more than 1,100 people. The tragedy showcased the terrible working conditions of the people making the companys clothes. Primark donated nearly 8 million to the victims families and announced improved working conditions.

English version by Susana Urra.
GrooveCar, the nations leading auto buying resource and CU Xpress Lease, a turnkey auto-leasing program for credit unions, will be exhibiting at the National Association of Federal Credit Unions (NAFCU) 49th Annual Conference & Expo in Nashville, Tenn. The annual event draws credit union professionals from across the U.S.

GrooveCar will focus on the emerging opportunities present in targeting the Millennial market at NAFCU, and is offering new methods to reach a greater audience. The credit union is in the perfect position to truly serve this demographic, according to Robert OHara, Vice President of Strategic Alliances, GrooveCar. On hand will be GrooveCar representatives who will be meeting with credit unions during the expo to discuss specific trends, generational marketing and programs the auto buying resource can provide. Discussions will help credit unions gain greater insight and exposure to this populous.

The auto-buying platform has combined robust marketing campaigns; digital media and social media programs that help credit unions connect with Millennials and drive more web activity. Digital media and analytics have been expanded so credit unions can easily access new media channels and reports.

GrooveCar invites credit unions to stop by their booth number 116 to discuss, in detail, their specific programs with OHara, who is known for his auto loan strategies. One-on-one consultations will be available throughout the duration of the show. The GrooveCar Direct program works for credit unions that do not have an indirect program, works with those that have one but want to enhance it while building stronger relationships with local dealers, and the program functions well with credit unions that have a preferred dealer network.

All the factors are working in the credit unions favor to take advantage of the opportunities present in auto lending and leasing. Credit unions have increased their auto lending by nearly 30 percent since 2012, as reported by Forbes Magazine. The GrooveCar program has also mirrored the double-digit growth credit unions nationwide are reporting. Attending NAFCU provides us the opportunity to broadcast the message of engaging members at all levels with our services. Credit unions are excited and looking for new auto growth options. GrooveCars priority is to help make sure the tools are in place to benefit from this favorable market,  stated OHara.

During this same time period, auto leasing has surged in popularity, up 40 percent since 2010, accounting for more than a third of new car purchases that are financed nationwide. In select regions of the U.S., that number is especially on the rise within the car-buying Millennial demographic as they are more likely to lease a vehicle, than generations that came before them.

GrooveCars CU Xpress Lease program enables credit unions to be extremely competitive in the lease market while driving incremental loan growth, without taking on the residual value risk. Our lease program is a very attractive and sustainable product for reaching members of all ages, especially Millennials. In addition, credit unions will become far more relevant with their dealer network than ever before, explained OHara.

About GrooveCar:

Founded in 1999, GrooveCar provides automotive loan growth solutions to credit unions nationwide while providing their members, as well as the general public, with the most informative and user-friendly auto search engine. With its expansive dealership network surpassing five million vehicles, GrooveCar facilitates the entire car buying process, including shopping, researching, buying, leasing, and financing. Through the national auto-leasing program CU Xpress Lease, credit unions can take advantage of leasing opportunities in the new vehicle market. CU Xpress is the leading credit union lease program in the nation. Additional information on GrooveCar or CU Xpress Lease may be found at http://www.groovecarinc.com.

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It is thrilling to recognize that international collaborations were at the core of these discoveries and that these new names also make the discoveries somewhat tangible" -Jan Reedijk, IUPAC Inorganic Division President

Following on the earlier reports that the claims for discovery of these elements have been fulfilled [1, 2], the discoverers have been invited to propose names and the following are now disclosed for public review:



Nihonium and symbol Nh, for the element 113,

Moscovium and symbol Mc, for the element 115,

Tennessine and symbol Ts, for the element 117, and

Oganesson and symbol Og, for the element 118.

The IUPAC Inorganic Chemistry Division has reviewed and considered these proposals and recommends these for acceptance. A five-month public review is now set, prior to the formal approval by IUPAC Council.

The guidelines for the naming the elements were recently revised [3] and shared with the discoverers to assist in their proposals. Keeping with tradition, newly discovered elements can be named after: (a) a mythological concept or character (including an astronomical object), (b) a mineral or similar substance, (c) a place, or geographical region, (d) a property of the element, or (e) a scientist. The names of all new elements in general would have an ending that reflects and maintains historical and chemical consistency. This would be in general -ium for elements belonging to groups 1-16, -ine for elements of group 17 and -on for elements of group 18. Finally, the names for new chemical elements in English, should allow proper translation into other major languages.

For the element with atomic number 113 the discoverers at RIKEN Nishina Center for Accelerator-Based Science (Japan) proposed the name nihonium and the symbol Nh. Nihon is one of the two ways to say Japan in Japanese, and literally mean the Land of Rising Sun. The name is proposed to make a direct connection to the nation where the element was discovered. Element 113 is the first element to have been discovered in Asian country. While presenting this proposal, the team headed by Professor Kosuke Morita pays homage to the trailblazing work by Masataka Ogawa done in 1908 surrounding the discovery of element 43. The team also hopes that pride and faith in science will displace the lost trust of those who suffered from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.

For the element with atomic number 115 the name proposed is moscovium with the symbol Mc and for element with atomic number 117, the name proposed is tennessine with the symbol Ts. These are in line with tradition and honor a place or geographical region and are proposed jointly by the discoverers at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna (Russia), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (USA), Vanderbilt University (USA) and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (USA).

Moscovium is in recognition of the Moscow region and honoring the ancient Russian land that is home the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, where the discovery experiments were conducted using the Dubna Gas-Filled Recoil Separator in combination with the heavy ion accelerator capabilities of the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions.

Tennessine is in recognition of the contribution of the Tennessee region, including Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, to superheavy element research, including the production and chemical separation of unique actinide target materials for superheavy element synthesis at ORNLs High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) and Radiochemical Engineering Development Center (REDC)

For the element with atomic number 118 the collaborating teams of discoverers at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna (Russia) and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (USA) proposed the name oganesson and symbol Og. The proposal is in line with the tradition of honoring a scientist and recognizes Professor Yuri Oganessian (born 1933) for his pioneering contributions to transactinoid elements research. His many achievements include the discovery of superheavy elements and significant advances in the nuclear physics of superheavy nuclei including experimental evidence for the island of stability.

It is a pleasure to see that specific places and names (country, state, city, and scientist) related to the new elements is recognized in these four names. Although these choices may perhaps be viewed by some as slightly self-indulgent, the names are completely in accordance with IUPAC rules, commented Jan Reedijk, who corresponded with the various laboratories and invited the discoverers to make proposals.

Ultimately, and after the lapse of the public review, the final Recommendations will be published in the IUPAC journal Pure and Applied Chemistry.

The Provisional Recommendation regarding the naming of the four new elements can be found on the IUPAC website at http://www.iupac.org/recommendations/under-review-by-the-public/.

Finally, laboratories are already working on searches for the elements in the 8th row for the periodic table, and they are also working to consolidate the identification of copernicium and heavier elements. To be able to evaluate this work, IUPAC and IUPAP are currently reviewing the selection principle and operations of a future Joint Working Party (JWP) and as soon as these principles have been decided a new group will be formed. This new JWP will review new claims and the consistency of new results with those already evaluated by earlier JWPs.

References:

(1) P.J. Karol, R.C. Barber, B.M. Sherrill, E. Vardaci, T. Yamazaki, Pure Appl. Chem. 88 (2016) 139; http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/pac-2015-0502.

(2) P.J. Karol, R. C. Barber, B. M. Sherrill, E. Vardaci, T. Yamazaki, Pure Appl. Chem. 88 (2016) 155; http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/pac-2015-0501.

(3) W.H. Koppenol, J. Corish, J. Garcia-Martinez, J. Meija, J. Reedijk, Pure Appl. Chem. 88 (2016) online 21 Apr 2016; http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/pac-2015-0802.

About IUPAC: IUPAC was formed in 1919 by chemists from industry and academia. Since, the Union has succeeded in fostering worldwide communications in the chemical sciences and in uniting academic, industrial and public sector chemistry in a common language. IUPAC is recognized as the world authority on chemical nomenclature, terminology, standardized methods for measurement, atomic weights and many other critically evaluated data. In more recent years, IUPAC has been pro-active in establishing a wide range of conferences and projects designed to promote and stimulate modern developments in chemistry, and also to assist in aspects of chemical education and the public understanding of chemistry. More information about IUPAC and its activities is available on the IUPAC website. For further information, contact Dr. Lynn M. Soby, Executive Director, at secretariat(at)iupac(dot)org or lsoby(at)iupac(dot)org.
The award has arrived at a key moment for Monkimun, they just recently announced the hiring of two top international kids EdTech stars: former Creative Director and founding team member of Swedish Toca Boca, Jens Peter de Pedro, has joined as Director of Experience and former Editor-in-Chief & VP of Leapfrog as well as PBS kids board member, Suzanne Barchers, whom has joined as VP of Curriculum.

De Pedro and Barchers are teaming up with Monkimun as the company is enjoying a phase of substantial growth, and at a moment when the future of the industry is being shaped by substantial rounds of venture capital investment. The global market is booming, with companies closing billion-dollar rounds, multi-million dollar valuations and an unprecedented number of acquisitions. Last year, the sector had a 58% growth in funding, while the volume of operations grew 13%.

De Pedro, new Experience Director at Monkimun, notes, What attracted me to Monkimun was the play-based learning approach. I have not seen any other company with an equally deep commitment to learning through self-direction. Monkimuns approach of Edufying Games is unique. At Toca Boca, play was at the heart of everything and I believe I will be able to contribute greatly to Monkimuns vision with my expertise in digital play.

Designed as a platform based on interactive lessons, Lingokids offers an immersive and fun experience for preschoolers, while measuring and reporting their progress in the assimilation of the material for parents and adapting the difficulty level of each lesson in a dynamic way. It currently has users from all over the world, with a strong presence in Latin America and South East Asia (20% and 45% of users respectively). The platform is already serving over 2,000,000 language lessons each month, the equivalent to 1,000 preschools.

Right now, language learning apps and online courses are limited to adults and children in primary and secondary school, says Marieta Viedma, Monkimuns co-founder and CPO. Tablets and smartphones have opened a world of knowledge in early childhood, making possible methods like ours, in which kids learn by playing, the most natural and efficient learning method for us as human beings.

Lingokids curriculum is backed by Oxford University Press, the prestigious british publishing house. Rather than creating one-off apps that only teach a few words and phrases, the LingoKids platform knits together dozens of lessons in a variety of fun games and activities for kids to work through, said Cristobal Viedma, CEO of Monkimun.

Monkimun is a leading company in preschool language learning, and has more than 5 million installations from users all over the world. Among their investors is Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceXs President and COO, as well as Carina Szpilka, VP of UNICEF and 500Startups. In 2016 they will launch new versions of Lingokids to learn Spanish and Chinese. Their apps are available in both the App Store and Google Play.

###

For more info:

Cristobal Viedma, CEO

+1 415 528 99 71

+34 617 606 187

cristobal(at)monkimun(dot)com

http://www.monkimun.com
Breathing is essential to life, and its vital for those suffering from lung disease to have access to the best treatment options available, and we get there through research. - Harold P. Wimmer, American Lung Association

The American Lung Association Airways Clinical Research Centers (ACRC) network conducts nationwide clinical trials to provide vital information about caring for people who have asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). To better inform patient care, the Lung Association today announced that the ACRC network is adding new research centers to expand the networks expertise and reach across the nation.

Breathing is essential to life, and its vital for those suffering from lung disease to have access to the best treatment options available, and we get there through research, said Harold P. Wimmer, National President and CEO of the American Lung Association. The Airways Clinical Research Centers network attracts some of the best investigators nationwide, and by adding significantly to the expertise of the ACRC network, we will advance research to improve the quality of life for those living with both COPD and asthma.

The ACRC network is a key component of the American Lung Association Research Team and is the nation's largest not-for-profit network of clinical research centers dedicated to asthma and COPD treatment research. Consisting of 17 clinical research centers across the country, and a data-coordinating center managed by a team at Johns Hopkins University, the ACRC network conducts large clinical trials that directly impact patient care for those living with COPD and asthma. The new research centers added to the network include:



University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, Calif.

University of Washington, Seattle, Wash.

Temple University Health System, Lung Center, Philadelphia, Pa.

University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Ala.

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich.

Through the ACRC network, clinical trials around the country are currently in progress and at various stages of completion. The outcomes of these studies will help shape the nature of care for people with asthma and COPD.

According to Wimmer, new areas that did not previously have a research center will now be represented, such as the University of Michigan and the University of Washington. In addition, many of the current centers in the network have extended their relationships with other hospitals academic and research institutions, further expanding the reach and impact of the network. Continuing and expanded research centers in the ACRC network include:

Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas

University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz.

University of California, San Diego, San Diego, Calif.

National Jewish Health (Denver, Colo.) and Mt. Sinai Icahn School of Medicine (New York, N.Y.)

Nemours Childrens Health System, Jacksonville and Orlando Fla.

The Illinois Consortium: Northwestern University, Rush University, University of Chicago, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Ill.

New York Consortium: Columbia University, New York University Medical Center, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, N.Y.

Washington University at St. Louis, St. Louis, Mo.

Duke University Medical Center, Durham, N.C.

St. Vincent Hospital and Health Care Center, Inc., Indianapolis, Ind.

University of South Florida, Tampa, Fla.

University of Vermont and State Agricultural College, Vermont Lung Center, Colchester, Vt.

The ACRC network, formerly known as the Asthma Clinical Research Centers, was originally focused on asthma. In 2015, the network expanded its research scope to include COPD, the third leading cause of death in the United States. It is part of the larger American Lung Association Research Team, conducting research on lung disease nationwide.

Since its inception in 1999, the ACRC has made many important contributions to the lives with people with asthma, making a positive impact on their lives each and every day, Wimmer said. Through adding COPD as a focus as well as expanding the network to include additional research centers and respected Principal Investigators, we will have a greater impact on the lives of patients nationwide.

For media interested in speaking with an expert about lung health, research efforts and outcomes of the Airways Clinical Research Centers network, visit Lung.org/acrc or contact the American Lung Association at Media(at)Lung(dot)org or 312-801-7628.
The events that led to the nation of Ireland coming together last year is a testament to the human spirit

Over a hundred years have passed since the great Potato Famine that struck Ireland and left the country devastated by hunger and starvation. Potatoes served as the primary source of nutrition for the impoverished class of Ireland back when the crop was wiped out, causing millions to suffer. The result was the economic and cultural shift of the Irish people flooding into neighboring countries for the hope of work and food.

During this time, its a little known fact that the Choctaw tribe contributed nearly 200 dollars (equivalent to a few thousand dollars back then) from their own pockets. This event occurred soon after president Andrew Jackson signed The Indian Removal Act, forcing 17,000 Choctaw tribe members to march out of their homeland into modern-day Oklahoma in what is now known as the Trail of Tears. 1/3 of the Choctaw tribe members that took part in this ordeal died of disease and starvation.

The harrowing story of the Irish Famine hit close to home with the Choctaw after they settled into their new homes. They came together as a community to scrap together some money to help the Irish through this devastating time. Over a hundred years later, the leaders of Ireland have erected a monument that depicts 9 giant eagle feathers standing together to form a bowl. The empty bowl is a symbol of the famine Ireland endured and the feathers are meant to honor the proud community of Choctaw that stood together to help Ireland in its time of need. As a way to honor this act of kindness, NativeAmericanJewelry.com set to work nearly a year ago to create a new release of feather jewelry to reflect the amazing acts of both societies.

NativeAmericanJewelry.com spokesman, Steven Onida, commented on the inspiring act of generosity.

The events that led to the nation of Ireland coming together last year is a testament to the human spirit. To take great pain and sacrifice and turn that into understanding is nothing short of miraculous. Its been nearly a year since Ireland created their monument and during that year our company was also paying tribute to the sacrifices of the past with our new release of eagle feather jewelry. This collection is meant to honor both the brave men and women of Ireland and the Choctaw tribe that believe so deeply in peace and understanding among different people from around the world.

Onida and the team at NativeAmericanJewelry.com offer a new collection of feather necklaces, bracelets, rings, earrings, and pendants made by Native American artists that help support the community and honor the tributes paid by the Irish government this past year.

NativeAmericanJewelry.com has always made efforts to honor the history of Native Americans, as well as their culture. This demonstration of human will and connectivity is the basis for NativeAmericanJewelrys release and stands as Call-to-Action for people to embrace and help other cultures, as the Choctaw did so long ago.
CFO Readers' Choice Awards The winners are all outstanding companies, but the vote was close in several categories, which speaks to the overall quality of the nominees.

Celebrating excellence in financial services and software, CFO magazine announced today the winners of its first annual CFO Readers' Choice Awards.

Starting in March, chief financial officers and other finance executives were invited to cast their votes via email and CFO.com for their favorite financial service providers and software products. The ballots they returned listed more than 250 nominees in 20 categoriesaccounting firms, commercial banks, ERP software, property/casualty insurers, 401(k) recordkeepers, and more.

This is the first year of our awards program, and we are pleased by the response from our readers, said CFO editor-in-chief Edward Teach. The winners are all outstanding companies, but the vote was close in several categories, which speaks to the overall quality of the nominees.

The runners-up in each category will be listed along with the winners in the June issue of CFO magazine.

The winners of the 2016 CFO Readers Choice Awards are:

Accounting Firm  Big Four: Deloitte LLP

Accounting Firm  Second-Tier National: Grant Thornton

Accounting Software  Large Companies: SAP

Accounting Software  Small Companies: QuickBooks

Benefits Consulting Firm: Mercer

Budgeting and Planning Software: SAP

Business Intelligence Software: Microsoft

Cloud Service Provider: Amazon Web Services

Commercial Bank: Wells Fargo

Customer Relationship Management Software: Salesforce

Enterprise Performance Management Software: Oracle

ERP System  Tier 1: Microsoft

ERP System  Tier 2: NetSuite

Expense Management Software: Concur

401(k) Recordkeeper: Fidelity Investments

Governance, Risk, and Compliance Software: Thomson Reuters

Health Care Insurer: UnitedHealthcare

Management Consulting Firm: Deloitte Consulting

Property/Casualty Insurer: Chubb

Workers Compensation Insurer: The Hartford
In the words of Sanjay Puri, Chairman of USINPAC, Indian Americans have worked diligently for a decade to build strong and strategic relations between the two countries. We have made tremendous progress. Now it is time to celebrate.

On the occasion of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modis working visit to the US, USINPAC is organizing some events to celebrate the over decade long advocacy of prominent Indian Americans and Members of Congress in bringing vibrancy and strength to US-India bilateral ties.

The two-day celebrations will commence with a dinner reception on June 7th for all the chapter heads of the USINPAC across the nation. Invitees also include other important Indian Americans.

A community reception is scheduled for June 8th from 11am -2pm at the Rayburn House Office building, which will recognize the efforts of all those who played significant roles in boosting economic and strategic relations between the two nations in the past decade. Attendees to the reception include Members of the US Congress and Indian Americans.

Community Reception Invitation: http://www.usinpac.com/index.php/eventsupcoming/icalrepeat.detail/2016/06/08/203/-/usinpac-community-reception-in-honor-of-pm-modi-s-us-visit

To highlight the progress in US-India relations, USINPAC has partnered with NewsX (Indias leading 24-hour English News Channel) to host an informative dialogue. The talk will focus on what the future holds with a new President in the White House for collaborations between the two nations. The dialogue will be on the 7th of June, on Capitol Hill.

Prime Minister Modi, visiting at the invitation of President Barack Obama, will be spending some 50 power packed hours in the nations capital. The White House schedule for June 7th features one on one meetings between the two leaders and at the delegation level, followed by a joint media conference. June 8th will feature an address to the joint session of the Congress, followed by four back to back meetings at the Hill, lunch with House Speaker Paul Ryan and a rare reception by the Senate and House foreign relations Committees and the India caucuses.

In the words of Sanjay Puri, Chairman of USINPAC, Indian Americans have worked diligently for a decade to build strong and strategic relations between the two countries. We have made tremendous progress. Now it is time to celebrate. I invite you to join us in celebrating and recognizing these efforts and the people behind these efforts.

Profile of Mr. Sanjay Puri: http://www.sanjaypuri.com/about-sanjay-puri/

About USINPAC:

The US India Political Action Committee (USINPAC) is the voice of over 3.2 million Indian- Americans and works on issues that concern the community. It supports candidates for local, state and federal office and encourages political participation by the Indian- American community. Visit http://www.usinpac.com for more details.
The United States Patent Office has granted solar lighting company LuminAID a patent for inflatable solar-powered lights, awarding comprehensive patent protection in the United States - U.S. Patent No. 9,347,629. In the midst of rapid growth in the diverse sustainable technology sector, LuminAID has developed an innovative and life-saving lighting technology for disaster relief, humanitarian aid and outdoor recreation. The awarded patent application, which was filed in 2012, covers a wide range of shapes and sizes of solar inflatable lanterns, including several different iterations already commercially available as part of the LuminAID solar product line.

LuminAID lights are used by humanitarian aid organizations ShelterBox, Medecins Sans Frontiers and the United Nations Population Fund as well as major companies such as Toyota, Exelon, Commonwealth Edison and Lenovo. The solar lights have been distributed to more than 70 countries.

LuminAID founders and inventors Anna Stork and Andrea Sreshta developed the LuminAID technology while still in graduate school and have since helped thousands of victims of disasters and poverty, including individuals in Haiti and Nepal. The two female entrepreneurs were featured on ABCs Shark Tank in 2015. As a result of the Shark Tank presentation, Mark Cuban invested in the company. According to Cuban, Investing in companies like LuminAID that also help people allows me to focus on not only how we can make money but also how we can make an impact.

LuminAID was represented by John Dragseth and Jennifer Huang at the intellectual property law firm Fish & Richardson in the patent application process. Cuban has also been represented by Fish in various matters.

Being granted the patent is a tremendous milestone for LuminAID as it provides a solid foundation for future innovation, states Kathi Vidal, a Principal with Fish. Natalie Arbaugh, a Principal who heads Fishs Womens Initiative adds, We are delighted to work with women inventors like Anna and Andrea as it underscores our firms commitment to expanding the role of women in technology, business and the law.

LuminAID light technology integrates a solar-rechargeable LED circuit in an expandable and collapsible core. The solar lanterns are the first of their kind to be designed with an inflatable transparent bladder which diffuses the solar-charged LED light and collapses to be easily portable. The LuminAID lanterns are entirely waterproof and dustproof and collapse into a compact shape.

Inventors Stork and Sreshta represent a rarity in U.S. Patent holders: only 15 percent of all issued patents are granted to women. While they have been growing their business and continuing to invent new solar products, Stork and Sreshta have worked to empower the next generation of women engineers and entrepreneurs. Representing LuminAID, Stork spoke at the United Nation for Womens Entrepreneurship Day and is featured in a childrens book about women engineers.

More than just a solar start-up, the women at LuminAID have incorporated social responsibility through their Give Light Get Light program. This program helps customers sponsor lights for families in need around the world. The LuminAID business model continues to shine within a group of successful start-ups centered around social entrepreneurship. Having created one of the most successful of these social responsibility brands, TOMS Shoes founder Blake Mycoskie recognized a shared social mission and offered to invest in LuminAID last month.

About LuminAID

LuminAID develops innovative, solar-powered products for humanitarian relief aid and outdoor recreation. The companys first product, the LuminAID light, is a solar-powered, inflatable lamp that packs flat and inflates to create a lightweight, waterproof lantern suitable for outdoor recreation and emergency situations. Anna Stork and Andrea Sreshta, co-founders of the company, invented the inflatable solar lights in response to the 2010 earthquake in Haiti while they were graduate students at Columbia University. LuminAID lights have been sold to individuals in more than 70 different countries, and charitable projects with NGO partners have put more than 25,000 donated lights on the ground in more than 50 countries including Haiti, Nepal and the Philippines. LuminAID was featured on ABC's Shark Tank, received offers from all five "sharks" and made a deal with the billionaire investor Mark Cuban in 2015. Visit: http://www.luminaid.com.

About Fish & Richardson

Fish & Richardson is a global patent, intellectual property (IP) litigation and commercial litigation law firm with more than 400 attorneys and technology specialists across the U.S. and Europe. Fish has been named the #1 patent litigation firm in the U.S. for 13 consecutive years and is one of the busiest post-grant firms, representing more petitioners at the PTAB than any other firm. Fish has been winning cases worth billions in controversy  often by making new law  for the most innovative clients and influential industry leaders since 1878. For more information, visit http://www.fr.com.

LuminAID PR Contact:

For further media information, please contact:

Daphna Gall at daphna(at)luminaid(dot)com

(312) 600-8997

Follow LuminAID on Twitter and YouTube @LuminAIDLab, Facebook http://www.fb.com/luminaid, and Instagram @luminaid.
I wanted to help teach young boys to become moral, upright young men and to learn to become responsible individuals for themselves and to society in general.

According to WebMD, children between the ages of 11 to 14 experience changes in their cognitive, emotional and social development that can affect the decisions they make.

Victor Joseph Cino knows firsthand the importance of making the correct choices during this crucial time. In his novel, Little Gangster, Cino illustrates the way decisions made in adolescence have outcomes that can last a lifetime.

Cino grew up in Manhattan at a time when various gangsters influenced the city. As a 12-year-old, he worked for gangsters before accepting a scholarship to prep school in New England from The Boys Club of New York. His involvement with the club had a profound influence on him. He later attended Colgate University and earned his Master of Arts in English and American literature from New York University. Cino also taught English for five years at the Collegiate School in New York City. In Little Gangster, he examines his decisions through the eyes of the main character Joey DAngelo.

I sought to portray my early years as a young boy subject to life on the lower east side of Manhattan in the early 1950s, Cino said. My choices, challenges and decisions are depicted in this novel.

By sharing his personal story, Cino aims to assist young men from disadvantaged neighborhoods and help them in their transition into adulthood.

I wanted to help teach young boys to become moral, upright young men and to learn to become responsible individuals for themselves and to society in general, Cino said.

For more information,visit littlegangsternovel.com.

"Little Gangster"

By Victor Joseph Cino

ISBN: 978-1-4917-7139-6

Available in softcover, hardcover, e-book

Available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble

About the author

Victor Joseph Cino is a former English teacher and real estate consultant with Shell Oil Company. He received his bachelors degree from Colgate University and a masters degree from New York University. He resides in Manhattan.

# # #

**FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE**

For review copies or interview requests, contact:

Brandon Kors

317.602.7137

bkors(at)bohlsengroup(dot)com
Vistatec is pleased to announce that Lara Daly has been appointed as Director of Strategic Accounts. Lara will be focused on helping Vistatec align its strategic priorities with client objectives while supporting delivery teams to grow global strategic accounts. Lara joins the organization with two decades of experience in localization, strategic account management and sales. Lara has a passion for helping top brands achieve global sales goals. With industry expertise including a recent position as Director of Sales for North America at Moravia and as Director of Strategic Accounts at Lionbridge, Lara has direct experience in overseeing strategic accounts across multiple geographies and service lines.

We are delighted to have Lara join the global team, her passion for customers and their goals together with her in-depth experience in the industry make her a great addition to the Vistatec family, said Alain Impellizzeri, Director of Strategic Accounts, Vistatec.

Lara earned her Bachelors degree in Spanish and Portuguese from the University of California, Berkeley and completed the Executive Program in Strategic Sales Management at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

I have long admired Vistatecs reputation for quality and their capacity for customer focus. I am thrilled to join the company at this exciting time in its history. Vistatec has a lot to offer top brands that require leading industry solutions that can help them optimize their international programs. I am looking forward to supporting my clients who work with Vistatec as their globalization partner," said Lara Daly.

About Vistatec

Vistatec works with many of the world's most iconic brands to create seamless and compelling content journeys and product experiences for their customers. By providing powerful, accurate, contextual and culturally relevant language versions of our customers products and commercial content, our clients can engage and scale their global customer base in a consistent, timely and cost efficient manner. Vistatec is one of the worlds leading localization solutions providers. HQ in Dublin, Ireland, with offices in Mountain View, California, USA.

Media Contact

Simon Hodgkins, Chief Marketing Officer, Vistatec

info(at)vistatec.com
On Tuesday, Hillary Clinton delivered a blow that sent a crack running through the glass ceiling keeping women from top positions.

After earning enough delegates to win the Democratic nomination, Clinton became the first woman with the support to head a major party ticket in the run to the White House.

As the former state secretary said, from now on any parent will be able to tell his or her daughter that she can be anything she likes in life, including president of the worlds biggest power.

We are stronger when we act together for the future

Hillary Clinton

Seven-year-old Liley Kate did not want to miss an event that she will always remember. Her mother wanted her to be there, at the old Brooklyn shipyards where Clinton celebrated her new status as presumptive nominee.

I wont have to tell her anything because she is already living it, said Liley Kates mother. The message is enormous.

The delegate recount had already given Clinton the magic number required for her nomination as early as Monday. But the former first lady decided to wait until the results of primaries in New Jersey, California and four other states came in, so she could better underscore the meaning of the moment.

With around 90% of votes counted, Clinton won in South Dakota, New Mexico, New Jersey and in California, according to CNN projections. The presumptive nominee cemented a lead of hundreds of delegates and around three million votes over her Democratic rival, Bernie Sanders, who managed to take 22 states with no more funding than his own supporters donations.

Sign up for our newsletter EL PAIS English Edition has launched a weekly newsletter. Sign up today to receive a selection of our best stories in your inbox every Saturday morning. For full details about how to subscribe, click here.

Clinton supporters know that having a woman in the White House would send out a strong message of defense of the values currently being threatened by the inflammatory rhetoric of Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican candidate in the November 8 elections.

Just the fact that she will be the first woman to make a run for the countrys top office is revolutionary in itself, and Clinton showcased that fact at her celebration, aware of the remaining internal division within the progressive camp.

The Democratic Party is breaking down another barrier, announced a video produced for the occasion that looked back at other women who blazed a trail towards equal opportunities.

Clinton began her speech by acknowledging everyone who came before her.

Tonight's victory is not about one person. It belongs to generations of women and men who struggled and sacrificed and made this moment possible, she said.

Gone are the days when politics were a hostile place for ambitious women. Until the early 1990s, the US Congress had a rule forcing women to wear skirts. But that was until Senators Nancy Kassebaum and Barbara Mikulski began the so-called Pantsuit Rebellion.

Tonight's victory is not about one person. It belongs to generations of women and men who struggled and sacrificed and made this moment possible Hillary Clinton

Three decades after the elimination of that archaic rule and the rise of the Clintons to the White House, Hillary has made it abundantly clear that she was Bills associate during his term in office, and not just his wife.

A supporter at the rally said that Clintons nomination could redefine the concept of citizenship.

Women will no longer have limits to their life aspirations, said Ammy Grimm, 39. Hillary Clinton is going to be an example for millions across the world, not just in the US.

Thats what Barack Obama did when he became the first black candidate to the White House, recalls Frances Lippette, 73, an African American who votes Democrat. And now we are doing the same with Hillary Clinton. It gives me goosebumps to see that in such a short space of time weve managed something so great for society.

Exactly eight years ago, Hillary Clinton dropped out of the race and paved the way for her fellow Democrat Obama to make his run. Back then, she said that the glass ceiling was not broken yet, but cracked in 18 million spots. The road will be easier next time, she said at the time.

The first time a woman ran for president was in 1872. She did not receive a single vote

The first time a woman ran for president was in 1872. She did not receive a single vote. That was the beginning of the battle for representation in politics, including the right to vote, which was granted in 1920.

Hillary Clinton concluded by saying that this election will affect what Americans want to be as a nation, regardless of whether they vote Democrat or Republican. Her message was aimed at conservative voters considering whether to support Trump.

We are stronger when we act together for the future, she said, recalling her own mothers influence on her life. I wish she could be here to see her daughter as the Democratic candidate.

English version by Susana Urra.
Its frightening to see this many people who could work say they have given up. The country cant afford to let this many people fall behind.

Express Employment Professionals today released results from a new Harris Poll of unemployed Americans, which, for the third year in a row, shows that a significant number of Americans have completely given up looking for work. Many, 83 percent, also believe the U.S. economic system benefits the rich.

This years survey indicates that unemployment is becoming a chronic condition. More than half, 51 percent, reported they havent been on a job interview since 2014, and 40 percent of the unemployed reported being out of work for more than 24 months. In addition, 40 percent said that they expected their search to be difficult, but its been more difficult than I thought.

The survey of 1,513 jobless Americans age 18 and older between May 5 and May 16, 2016 was conducted online by Harris Poll on behalf of Express and offers a detailed, in-depth look at the background and attitudes of the unemployed.

In an encouraging sign for the economy, 22 percent said the reason they are unemployed is because they quit their jobs, up from 15 percent in 2014. In contrast, 32 percent reported they were laid off or downsized, down from 36 percent in 2014.

Almost half, 48 percent, blame themselves for being unemployed, up from 36 percent who blamed themselves in 2014. The percentage who blame the economy has dropped to 34 percent from 45 percent in 2014.

This is a tale of two economies, said Bob Funk, CEO of Express, and a former chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. Those with skills and jobs are seeing a slow but steady recovery from the days of the Great Recession. But far too many are still being left behind, a fact often masked by a declining unemployment rate and a low labor force participation rate.

Its frightening to see this many people who could work say they have given up. The country cant afford to let this many people fall behind. We clearly also need to equip people with the skills required for the jobs that are available.

WHO ARE THE UNEMPLOYED?

According to the survey, 55 percent of the unemployed are men; 45 percent are women.

The largest group of the unemployed is the youngest age group:



33 percent are ages 18-29

20 percent are ages 30-39

17 percent are ages 40-49

18 percent are ages 50-59

12 percent are 60 or older

The majority lack a college degree:



6 percent did not complete high school

38 percent received only a high school diploma

8 percent completed job-specific training after high school

22 percent attended college but did not receive a degree

8 percent hold an associate degree

13 percent hold a bachelors degree

4 percent have a graduate degree

Of those with at least a college degree, 52 percent agreed with the statement, I wish I focused on a vocational career (e.g., automotive technology, electrician, plumber, HVAC specialist, dental assisting, medical assisting, etc.) rather than getting my college degree. Twenty-four percent agreed completely or a lot with the statement.

GIVING UP

Forty-three percent agree with the statement, Ive completely given up on looking for a job, compared to 40 percent in 2015 and 47 percent in 2014.



8 percent agree completely

5 percent agree a lot

13 percent agree somewhat

16 percent agree a little

57 percent do not agree at all

Of those who have been unemployed for more than two years, 59 percent agree that they have given up.

A $15 MINIMUM WAGE AND THE UNEMPLOYED

Even though minimum wage jobs may be available, the majority of the unemployed do not apply for them. Sixty-six percent agree with the statement I dont apply for jobs that offer minimum wage because its just not enough to pay the bills.



20 percent say they agree completely

12 percent agree a lot

17 percent agree somewhat

17 percent agree a little

34 percent do not agree at all

Respondents were also asked to weigh in on the idea of raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour and its impact on the number of available jobs.



20 percent said it would create more jobs

27 percent said it would have no impact

52 percent said it would decrease the number of jobs

WHAT THE UNEMPLOYED AREAND ARE NOTDOING TO FIND WORK

The unemployed reported they are putting in an average of just over a full day (11.7 hours) looking for work each week. That is down from a high of 13.8 hours in 2014 and 12.9 hours in 2015.

Sixty-three percent have applied for positions that are below their job levels at their previous employers, but 37 percent have not.

The majority have had no job interviews since 2014. The survey asked, When was the last time you went on an interview?



51 percent said 2014 or before

6 percent said Jan, Feb, March 2015

5 percent said April, May, June 2015

9 percent said July, August, Sep 2015

8 percent said Oct, Nov, Dec 2015

18 percent said Jan, Feb, March 2016

3 percent said April, May 2016

Among the job search activities respondents could choose from, the most common job search activities are online:



49 percent reported visiting and researching online job boards

41 percent visit prospective companies websites

40 percent enter search terms directly into an internet search engine

38 percent post resumes on major online job boards

30 percent visit or research websites that provide resume tips

The unemployed spend most of their time filling out applications online. Respondents were asked to report what percentage of their job search time they spent on various activities:



25.3 percent researched job opportunities

23.7 percent filled out applications online

11.6 percent sent resumes

10.5 percent networked online

8.5 percent filled out applications in person

7.2 percent followed up on their resumes and applications

5.6 percent networked by phone

4.9 percent were interviewing

2.7 percent attended professional networking events

More than half are unwilling to move to another state to find work. Respondents were asked, How willing are you to consider relocating to another state to find a job?



4 percent already did

35 percent say they are willing

61 percent say not at all willing

In 2015, 61 percent said they were unwilling and in 2014, 60 percent were unwilling.

DOES THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE MATTER?

The unemployed are split on which presidential candidate will have the most impact in creating jobs.



25 percent say Hillary Clinton

24 percent say Bernie Sanders

24 percent say Donald Trump

21 percent say none of the above

Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders are Donald Trump are virtually tied as the preferred presidential candidate among unemployed Americans. Respondents were asked, Regardless of the outcome of the primaries, if the presidential election was held today, who would you vote for?



27 percent chose Hillary Clinton

26 percent chose Bernie Sanders

23 percent chose Donald Trump

19 percent chose none of the above

This study was conducted online by Harris Poll on behalf of Express Employment Professionals and included 1,513 U.S. adults aged 18 or older who are unemployed but capable of working (whether or not they receive unemployment compensation benefits). Excluded are those who are currently retired, choose to stay at home or are unable to work due to long-term disability. The survey was conducted between May 5 and May 17, 2016.

Results were weighted as needed for age by gender, education, race/ethnicity, region and household income. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents' propensity to be online. Totals may not equal the sum of their individual components due to rounding. No estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated; a full methodology is available.

Survey Methodology



Memo from Harris Poll  PDF

Study by Harris Poll  PDF

If you would like to arrange for an interview with Bob Funk to discuss this topic, please contact Sherry Kast at (405) 717-5966.

About Robert A. Funk

Robert A. Bob Funk is chairman and chief executive officer of Express Employment Professionals. Headquartered in Oklahoma City, the international staffing company has more than 760 franchises in the U.S., Canada and South Africa. Under his leadership, Express has put more than 6 million people to work worldwide. Funk served as the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City and was also the Chairman of the Conference of Chairmen of the Federal Reserve.

About Express Employment Professionals

Express Employment Professionals puts people to work. It generated $3.02 billion in sales and employed a record 500,002 people in 2015. Its long-term goal is to put a million people to work annually.
Communications Made Easy We view near miss and risk situations as leading indicators of where the gaps are within our safety processes. WorkplaceAware helps us identify those gaps, take corrective action, and make our company a safer workplace. Chris Gab - Rehrig Pacific

Smartphones and tablets with apps are like a third appendage in todays world. Paper and pencil reporting methods use forms to prepare and submit reports. For that reason, often times, issues go unreported. Requests for information via email, voicemail or text messages don't get submitted with regularity. Reports that get submitted take a lot of time and effort to organize into a useful format. The WorkplaceAware Report Management System replaces paper and pencil and then produces complete reports you can use.

With the WorkplaceAware mobile app, employees can submit photos and report details to decision makers, instantly. This saves valuable time between reporting and response. Employees can report on safety and security, equipment, plant needs and even supply requests. Reports are geo-tagged based on the location of the picture taken. Management instantly receives organized, detailed information that is not possible using paper reporting methods. Issues get addressed and resolved fast, saving time and money, while making workplaces safer.

There are many reasons safety, near misses and operational issues go unreported. The ease of WorkplaceAware helps companies eliminate barriers to reporting. The crowdsourcing of information results in valuable metrics, immediate awareness, intervention and timely resolution.

Safety officers and business managers access the WorkplaceAware dashboard from any internet browser. They are able to generate PDF or CSV reports that can be filtered by multiple criteria. Reports can be forwarded, escalated or shared with anyone inside or outside the company. The outbound alerts feature lets administrators instantly notify all mobile app users when news and changing conditions warrant.

In 2014, private industry reported nearly three million nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. While this number is lower than previous years, the question that remains is how many near misses occurred in the workplace that were not reported. Heinrichs widely accepted accident triangle theory states that for every major injury, there were 29 minor injuries and 300 near misses. Additionally, OSHA estimates that employers pay over $50 billion a year for direct workers' compensation costs. The price tag for not knowing can be significant!

WorkplaceAware eliminates many of the reporting barriers companies must overcome to make workplaces safer and more efficient," said WorkplaceAware CEO Rob Sweeney. There are reasons employees choose not to report a safety, near miss or operations concern. These include fear of retribution, a desire to avoid red-tape or interrupting work. WorkplaceAware makes it possible for employees to report without having to fill out paper or disturb the work routine. Reports can also be sent anonymously. Our customers see an increase in safety and operations reporting days after implementing WorkplaceAware. The workplace is safer and operates more efficiently. Management has report data that they can now use.

About WorkplaceAware

The WorkplaceAware Report Management System was introduced in 2014. WorkplaceAware has become a valuable solution for major corporations and mid-size businesses. An enhanced WorkplaceAware mobile app and web-based dashboard was released in first quarter 2016.

For more information about WorkplaceAware visit: http://www.workplaceaware.com.
With courses based on cutting-edge research and best practice in the field, were excited about our new online program in Speech-Language Pathology Essentials, which will help students get started on their career path

San Diego State Universitys Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences (SLHS) graduate program  ranked No. 1 in California and No. 24 in the nation by U.S. News and World Report  will debut its online Speech-Language Pathology Essentials program during the fall 2016 semester.

The fall courses are SLHS 305/Hearing Science (3 units) and SLHS 321/Anatomy and Physiology of Speech (4 units).

-- SLHS 305/Hearing Science is an introduction to hearing and speech science that includes the study of basic functions of auditory anatomy and physiology.

-- SLHS 321/Anatomy and Physiology of Speech covers the basic anatomy and physiology of the speech mechanism for human communication.

Additional courses will be offered in the coming terms.

With courses based on cutting-edge research and best practice in the field, were excited about our new online program in Speech-Language Pathology Essentials, which will help students get started on their career path, said Jessica Barlow, professor in the School of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences at SDSU.

The credit program prepares students to apply to graduate programs in Speech-Language Pathology. Students may take individual courses as needed to meet prerequisite requirements for their desired graduate program.

The curriculum is non-cohort and is led by lecturers from SDSUs SLHS department. Each online course takes 15 weeks to complete and costs $317 per unit.

The courses are offered through SDSUs College of Health and Services, in conjunction with SDSUs College of Extended Studies. The program is open to individuals not currently enrolled in an SDSU degree program.

For more information, visit neverstoplearning.net/SLP, email jbarlow(at)mail(dot)sdsu(dot)edu, or call (619) 594-0243.

SDSU's College of Extended Studies reaches out to San Diego, the nation, and the world with a wide variety of lifelong learning opportunities, and more than 50 certificate programs for career advancement. Topics range from contract management, construction, and craft beer, to grant writing, marketing, and human resources. And many programs are available online. The CES also offers one of the largest ESL programs in the U.S. through the American Language Institute; and university-quality courses to students age 50 and better through the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. Other opportunities include seminars, study abroad, corporate education and access to regular SDSU classes through Open University. For more information or to register, visit neverstoplearning.net or call (619) 265-7378 (SDSU).
Cecily Mitchell This has been the most helpful intervention in the 10 years Santiago has been in our family. Susan S., Calo Parent

The first of its kind, Embark by Calo offers highly specialized and transformational Therapeutic Family Intensives and Therapeutic Family Workshops with the adoptive family in mind. These interventions address the root cause of what keeps many adoptive families stuck in dysfunctional patterns that impact their functioning.

Embark by Calo also announced the hiring of Cecily Mitchell, M.A., LPC as the Embark Director. Ms. Mitchell is a former Calo Teens Therapist and has a particular interest in attachment and trauma. She will oversee Embark which includes designing and implementing customized therapeutic experiences for families that align to their unique needs. Calo's Chief Executive Officer, Alex Stavros said in a statement, "We are pleased to welcome Cecily back to our family. She will help us create treatment that is not only specialized, but also extraordinary. With that in mind, EMBARKs week-long Family Intensive is our newest one-of-a-kind intervention. The Intensive provides therapy, assessment, intervention and planning that accelerates healing."

Embark Family Intensives are for;

1. Families not yet ready or perhaps don't need or maybe can't or don't want to pay for residential or wilderness treatment, but still want best in class specialized help.

2. Families currently in a residential program, but are stuck and need help refocusing on the root issues.

3. Families after completing a stint in residential or wilderness that need a family therapy capstone.

A review of the website, http://embarkbycalo.com/ suggests Embark is meant to provide 6 months of therapy in 3 to 5 days.

Rob Gent, Calo's Chief Clinical Officer explains, "our specialty is healing the effects of adverse childhood experiences, particularly as it relates to families with adopted children. During Embark Family Intensives we equip families with the experience and understanding they need to heal their family." Mitchell added, "The Clinicians and Neuro-technicians guide the family to implement techniques for increased regulation, boundary setting, connection, and consistency. Canines and adventure therapy also play a role in helping a family explore how their life history and neurobiology play out in the present. Upon completion a report that includes summary findings, test results, and proposed plan of treatment with interventions and next steps is provided."

About Calo

Calo (kay-low) Programs (http://www.caloprograms.com) is a premier behavioral and mental health provider specialized in healing the effects of complex developmental trauma. Calo is comprised of Calo Teens, Calo Preteens  both residential programs located in Lake Ozark, MO predominately serving adoptive families, and New Vision Wilderness, Calo Young Adults  transitional living program for young adults and Embark by Calo, a family intensive program for those reeling from issues of trauma, attachment and adoption.

For more information contact Cecily Mitchell at cmitchell(at)ca-lo(dot)com or Thomas Ahern at tahern(at)caloprograms(dot)com.
Command Group, a leader in Management Consulting services focused on Professional and Executive Search and Interim Talent solutions, announces the expansion of the organization with the addition of its newest offerings within Business Operations. Today, the company has the ability to assist organizations in Business Operations areas of discipline to include: HR, Recruiting, Finance/Accounting, Facilities, Training, IT and Client Success.

We have seen a market need for senior level Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) service offerings and are positioning ourselves to be the single source for organizations at all lifecycle stages, said Stacy Komendera, Founding Partner at Command Group. Weve sought out and brought in the talent and expertise needed to tap into the startup scene in central Texas as a first step, but we plan to expand our current client base within growth and turnaround organizations next as a natural evolution of the well-rounded services we have to offer, according to Gisele LeBaron, Founding Partner.

In working with dozens of Founders and Entrepreneurs over the years, we have found that the lack of a knowledge base and resource pool when it comes to putting in operational infrastructures to support rapid and high volume growth for their organizations is more than an inconvenience and a distraction. It is an impediment to their ability to remain nimble and a risk for their investors, as critical components are being missed or skipped over inadvertently, causing everything from headaches to legal issues to compliance risk, said Julie Rachui, Managing Director. Command Group now has the ability to offer Investors and Entrepreneurs alike the assurance that their operational components are being built and maintained in a judicious manner. The obvious upside for our client base is that we are able to do this in an efficient and cost-effective manner, allowing them to have expert level insight at a fraction of the cost of a full-time hire. Investors are keen on recommending us to their portfolio of companies because we take on the tactical and strategic aspects of the business operation components, leaving the entrepreneurs to focus solely on product and revenue generation activities, which is what should clearly be their priority.

About CGR [Command Group]

Command Group delivers advisory and search services to provide management teams with the talent and business operations best practices and systems in order to have the ability to devote their time and attention solely to the development of their product and revenue generating activities. CGR has the ability to provide teams of resources to our clients at blended rates on an as-needed basis, which in turn affords CGR clients with expert-level skill sets and senior-level experience in these areas at a fraction of what a single resource at that level would cost. CGR specializes in both the strategic and tactical aspects of all of the back-office Business Operations areas of discipline to include: HR, Recruiting, Finance/Accounting, Facilities, Training, IT and Client Success. The company also has a full-service Professional and Executive search division as well as Interim Talent solutions. For more information, please visit our website at http://www.command-group.com/. You can follow us on Twitter (@Command_Group) and LinkedIn (CGR [Command Group]).
By putting DEUTZ products and training in the school, we hope to provide service managers with DEUTZ-powered equipment with more experienced, savvy technicians, should the need arise

DEUTZ Corporation and Gwinnett Technical College of Lawrenceville, GA are helping students in the Colleges Heavy Diesel Service Technician program prepare for their future careers. As part of the new DEUTZ Technical Education Partnership, DEUTZ Corporation has donated seven diesel engines to the program, giving students hands-on experience with modern technology.

Our industry is suffering from a lack of well-trained technicians, said Robert Mann, DEUTZ Corporation president and CEO. Off-highway diesel engine emission regulations have become increasingly stringent, necessitating the use of electrical controls and exhaust after treatment systems. As a result, diesel engine technicians need additional in-depth training.

Gwinnett Techs Heavy Diesel Service Technician Program educates students on both theory and diagnosis of the basic diesel engine systems found in heavy equipment, safety and fuel systems.

The Heavy Diesel Service Technician Program is at the core of our Automotive Service Technology and Automotive Technology programs, said Dr. D. Glen Cannon, president of Gwinnett Technical College. This particular program attracts students who want to pursue careers in the diesel repair industry to Gwinnett Tech, and with our in-depth instruction and new equipment, we expect its popularity to grow. It is such a crucial program to our school, and it is an honor to partner with DEUTZ Corporation, a training and equipment leader in the diesel engine industry.

By donating engines and training, DEUTZ Corporation hopes to help increase the number of trained diesel technicians available within the heavy equipment industry. Students beginning the Heavy Diesel Service Technician program in August 2016 will have a full academic year to complete and obtain their certificates from Gwinnett Technical College. The programs length allows students to submerge themselves in their training and develop extensive knowledge.

Approximately 40 students will be under the tutelage of Johnny Stalling, a Gwinnett Tech instructor with an extensive diesel engine background. To further assist program students, Stalling will periodically return to DEUTZ Corporation for additional training. DEUTZ Corporation wants this partnership to be a lasting one, and keeping the programs instructor supplied with the latest information will certainly help.

The program itself is tied together with an internship at a local diesel equipment repair facility, said Gail Edwards, dean of automotive and trades at Gwinnett Tech. Because were able to offer this type of practical education, weve been able place 100% of our programs graduates.

Tier 4 diesel engine technology can be quite complex, said John Stahl, warranty and training manager for DEUTZ Corporation. Thats why DEUTZ is also providing the school with our original factory electronic part catalog and scan tools, so students will be familiar with OEM resources available in the field.

DEUTZ Corporation plans to monitor the progress of a few students in the program to see how the new equipment and training have prepared them for their careers. Should the DEUTZ Technical Education Program with Gwinnett Tech prove successful, DEUTZ will roll the program out to other technical schools across the country.

By putting DEUTZ products and training in the school, we hope to provide service managers with DEUTZ-powered equipment with more experienced, savvy technicians, should the need arise, said Stahl.

It is a pleasure to partner with a progressive school, especially one that has such a top-quality diesel program, said Mann. By working with Gwinnett Tech, we hope to ensure that diesel technicians receive the correct balance of mechanical and electronic training to establish long, productive and fulfilling careers.

About Gwinnett Tech:

Gwinnett Technical College, one of Georgia's largest technical colleges, is committed to delivering relevant knowledge to meet the workforce training needs of its community. The College offers more than 150 associate degree, diploma and certificate programs and hundreds of seminars, workshops and courses providing specialized training. Gwinnett Tech is Gwinnett County's largest provider of corporate training and also serves residents and businesses in north Fulton County. Gwinnett Technical College is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges to award the associate degree. Contact the Commission on Colleges at 1866 Southern Lane, Decatur, Georgia 30033-4097 or call 404-679-4500 for questions about the accreditation of Gwinnett Technical College. In addition, some college programs hold separate licensure or accreditation status with appropriate agencies. For more information, visit http://www.GwinnettTech.edu. A unit of the Technical College System of Georgia.

About DEUTZ Corporation:

For more than 150 years, DEUTZ engines have supplied customized, cost-effective power to a broad array of machine types and market segments. The 9 millionth DEUTZ engine was produced in 2015. From its headquarters in Norcross, GA, DEUTZ Corporation, a subsidiary of DEUTZ AG, supports its product range of 30- to 700-hp diesel and natural gas engines. The company is committed to providing optimized power solutions from the drawing board to prototype to production release. The organization serves as a sales, service, parts, and application engineering center for the Americas, employing nearly 200 people. DEUTZ Corporation also operates a value-added production facility for some of its key OEM partners, as well as an engine remanufacturing facility in Pendergrass, Georgia. Strategically located DEUTZ Power Centers and Service Centers are designed uniquely support both OEM partners and end users. For more information, visit http://www.deutzamericas.com.

Photo identification from Left to Right:

Mr. Mike Price, general manager, Nidec Elesys Americas Corporation and Gwinnett Tech Foundation chair.

Mr. Robert Mann, president and CEO, DEUTZ Corporation

Dr. D. Glenn Cannon, president of Gwinnett Technical College

Mr. Matthew Holtkamp, owner of Holtkamp Heating and Air and member of the Gwinnett Tech Foundation Board of Trustees.

Ms. Gail Edwards, dean of automotive and trades at Gwinnett Technical College
Top Countries for Claims Based on Data from Clements Worldwide Commercial Clients Distressingly, some of these fatalities involve children who may be more likely to run around unsupervised in urban areas, refugee camps, or other overcrowded areas, said Chris Beck, President of Clements Worldwide

Clements Worldwide, a leading insurance broker for expatriates and companies working abroad since 1947, has released a report based on 2 years of claims data from customers with fleet insurance to highlight the challenges for organizations, particularly non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and United National organizations, operating globally in high-risk markets. Countries with the most political violence claims include South Sudan, Yemen, Afghanistan, Sudan, and the Central African Republic (CAR). The reported dollar value of a single claim ranged from 2.68 USD to 65,747.59 USD in 2014-15 and from 20.80 USD to 119,555.22 USD in 2015-16. Top countries across all claim types vary from year to year but Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Uganda, Haiti, Afghanistan, and Liberia top the lists.

The report covers over 11,000 vehicles representing over 120 million USD of secured assets. Seventeen percent of the vehicles are armored vehicles and the portfolio includes 43 million USD of assets protected with political violence coverage for war and terrorism, but also strikes, riots, civil disobedience, vandalism from refugees and protesters, etc. Political violence claims typically have a higher dollar value that an average claim. They represented 8% of total number of claims, but 16% of total dollar value of claims in 2015-16. Some of these claims might not have been covered because the organization did not purchase a political violence extension for their policy.

We conduct this type of analysis periodically because we recognize the critical importance of fleets to humanitarian operations, said Chris Beck, President of Clements Worldwide. Fleet costs are typically their second highest expense behind payroll. This type of analysis can help them find areas for further training or cost reduction.

Collisions, i.e. simple road accidents, were the majority of claims, with 5% to 11% of those claims including third parties, who may be obligated to pay the claim. Many countries require local third party liability coverage, but these local policies often have limited coverage with low limits. Additionally, many local drivers are uninsured. Organizations should ensure their local field offices purchase international physical damage and excess liability policies to ensure better coverage.

A significant percentage of claims also include a fatality or injury  16% in 2014-15 and 14% in 2015-16, with some anecdotal evidence that injuries may be significantly under-reported. Injuries, and particularly fatalities, represent the potential for sizeable liability claims with huge reputational risks as well.

Distressingly, some of these fatalities involve children who may be more likely to run around unsupervised in urban areas, refugee camps, or other overcrowded areas, said Beck. Increased training and sensitivity is necessary to address this issue. Top countries for injuries and fatalities include DRC, Uganda, Chad, Iraq, and South Sudan.

Finally, while Clements is not yet seeing a significant number of claims due to confiscation and forced abandonment, there are anecdotal reports this is an increasing concern. Any insurance policy design should consider this possibility, particularly for countries on the severe or extreme risk registry.

To access the full report go to http://www.clements.com/fleetdata

Clements Worldwide is a leading insurance provider for expatriates and international organizations. Founded in 1947, Clements offers international car, property, term life, health, disability, specialty and high-risk insurance in over 170 countries. With offices in Washington, D.C., London, and Dubai, Clements delivers comprehensive and customized coverage, superior customer service, and unparalleled claims response. To learn more or receive a quote online, visit http://www.clements.com.
Napa Smith Brewery Beer Portfolio

Napa Smith Brewery announced today that it is expanding with two new production facilities slated to open in 2016. The growth is part of a long-term plan to maintain quality and freshness standards, with current roots at 1 Executive Way, Napa, CA, at the intersection of Highways 29 and 12, commonly referred to as the gateway to Napa Valley.

According to Mike Forte, Director of Operations for Napa Smith, the new California brewery is expected to open by the end of 2016 at 101 Yolano Dr. in Vallejo, CA. Napa Smith has also entered into a cooperative partnership with Turtle Anarchy Brewing Company targeting production for July 2016 at 5901 California Avenue, Nashville, TN. The two new facilities are Napa Smiths first breweries outside of Napa. R.S. Lipman Company, the parent company of Napa Smith, says current production is maxed out, substantiating the need for growth.

Through its collaboration with Turtle Anarchy Brewing Company and Hap & Harrys Tennessee Beers, Napa Smith Brewery will become the smallest independent bicoastal operation in North America producing kegs, cans and bottles for national and international distribution.

Napa Smith is among a handful of U.S. craft brewers, including Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., Stone Brewing Co., and New Belgium Brewing Co., expanding in a major play for national and international business. The Vallejo and Nashville facilities will more than double capacity, giving Napa Smith the ability to reach all 50 U.S. states and multiple countries. The new breweries will offer the full line of Napa Smiths core beers, developed by iconic master brewer Don Barkley. Both new breweries will also offer taproom-only specialties based on seasonality and brewers innovations.

Barkley, Americas most veteran craft brewer, started making craft beer in 1978 at New Albion Brewery, Americas first new craft brewery since Prohibition. As one of the founders of Mendocino Brewing Company, Barkley achieved icon status during his 25-year tenure there, where he helped spearhead the craft beer movement. Barkley continued his craft brewing legacy throughout Northern California including Sonoma, Napa and now Solano. His impact on the world of craft beer is expanding east in 2016, when he will help lead Napa Smiths collaboration with Turtle Anarchy to create benchmark styles of Napa Smith beers in the new Nashville-based co-operative. Barkley is sharing his experience with brewing teams, led by Stein Servick (Napa Smith) and Andrew Kamp (Turtle Anarchy), to ensure production of his recipes well into the future.

Its exciting to see the explosion of craft beer across the United States, says Barkley. Working with other brewers to expand and promote good beer is a joy. There arent too many careers that span 40 years and culminate in this fashion. I feel very fortunate to be a part of Napa Smiths plans for expansion.

Founded in 2008, Napa Smith Brewerys rank in the state of California was 61 out of 460 California craft breweries that report to Brewers Association in 2015. According to 2015 production, Napa Smith is in the top 15% of all reporting American craft breweries (3813 total) with an overall rank of 566. By the end of 2017, Napa Smiths new capacity is expected to rank in the top 5% in production at 150,000 cases. Amongst the craft beer entities affiliated with R.S. Lipman Company  Napa Smith and Hap & Harrys  the company is expected to be ranked in the top 225 American Craft Brewery operations based on 2016 volumes.

Napa Smith has a long history of working with its account base and forming deep-rooted community partnerships. Company officials say they will continue this mission in areas they are expanding.

According to the Brewers Association, craft beer is one of the nations fastest growing industries. Robert Lipman, CEO of R.S. Lipman Company (supplier) and Lipman Brothers (distributor) has been experiencing the growth first hand. Established in 1939, Lipman Brothers holds Tennessee State Permit No. 1 to distribute wine and spirits. When Lipman entered the business in 1973, he was responsible for the addition of multiple California boutique wineries to Lipman Brothers portfolio. Lipman took over the family business as the sole owner in 1988 and saw an opportunity to expand by adding craft beer, including pioneer brands like Sierra Nevada and Abita. Today, the company distributes hundreds of craft beers, including Hap & Harrys, a brand Lipman established to honor the friendship of his grandfather, Harry Lipman, and Hap Motlow of the legendary Jack Daniel family.

Lipman sees a parallel between craft beer and the wine culture in Northern California  both using the same attention to detail and quality. When I first got into the wine business, Robert Mondavi shared with me his vision for their family business to be a part of the areas evolution into a wine destination. I see the same type of thing happening in the craft beer industry with reputable breweries, like Stone, coming to Northern California. We have an opportunity to expand the original vision of Napa Smith as a private reserve type of brewery  offering the freshest, quality beer in cans, bottles and on draft. Northern California is becoming what we like to call Beer Country.

The heritage of Northern California is apparent not only in the quality of Napa Smiths beer offerings, but also in the stories told by the illustrations on all of their labels. From the Golden Gate IPA to the Crush Amber Lager, Napa Smiths roots on the West Coast are obvious.

About Napa Smith Brewery

Founded in 2008, Napa Smith is Napa Valleys original production brewery, highly regarded for using quality ingredients to produce fresh, balanced, award winning beers. Under the direction of Brew Master Don Barkley, Americas most veteran craft brewer, Napa Smiths collection of beers includes Amber Ale, Golden Gate IPA, Hopageddon Imperial IPA, and its classic Pilsner. Napa Smith Brewery also produces a host of seasonal, specialty and limited release beers. NapaSmithBrewery.com

About R.S. Lipman Company

R.S. Lipman Company is a Nashville-based international supplier of wines, spirits, beers, and mixers. In 2011, R.S. Lipman began creating and acquiring brands to build a diverse beverage alcohol portfolio. The companys portfolio now includes: Country Club Vodka (established in 1957), Lonely Cow Wines from New Zealand, Hap & Harrys Tennessee Beers, U.S. Veteran owned Heroes Vodka, Red Eye Bloody Mary Mixes, El Diamante del Cielo Tequilas, Old Hickory Great American Whiskeys, Hidden Jewel California Wines, Saturday Night Red Wine, Napa & Sonoma Smith Wines, and the Napa Smith Brewery collection of craft beers. RSLipman.com.
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Strategic Risk Associates, LLC (SRA), a national advisory and consulting firm specializing in banks and financial services, is proud to announce the establishment of the Bank Investor Services Division. SRA also welcomes Virginia Bankers Andy Ferguson and Ray Santelli as the Co-Directors of the Bank Investor Services Division. Both Ferguson and Santelli are strong bankers with excellent experiences supporting bank investors.

Andy and Ray bring strong credit and work out skills to SRA. Their experience supporting a large investor in banks is especially appealing and aligns well with SRAs extensive work in M&A due diligence, integration and risk management. They provide a strong foundation for SRAs new Bank Investor Services Division which supports bank investors across the country. In addition, banks needing help with credit risk management will be interested in Andys experience as the Chief Credit Officer of two banks and Rays success running a special asset division says Michael Glotz, Founding Partner and President at SRA.

With over 30 years of banking experience, Ferguson has extensive knowledge in Commercial Credit & Lending, Risk Management, Policy Development, Special Assets, Loan Review, and working with Bank Examiners and Auditors. As the Chief Credit Officer for First Capital, he led efforts to clean up a troubled commercial loan portfolio and re-engineer the credit process. He also assisted in the raising of $18 million in capital, and enabled the bank to grow its loan portfolio by nearly 40% over the next 3+ years. Ferguson was a member of the management team, and participated in all aspects of running the bank which also included numerous due diligence efforts as well as multiple Federal Reserve Bank Exams. He also worked closely with the banks largest investor helping him oversee his investment in First Capital as well as consider investments in non-competing banks. Prior to First Capital, Ferguson was the Chief Credit Officer of First Market Bank. Prior to First Market, he held leadership roles at Crestar Bank/Suntrust and Meridian Bank.

With over 20 years in commercial lending and special asset management, Santelli brings a strong experience in originating and underwriting commercial loans, and managing and liquidating problem loans. As the Senior Vice President - Special Assets for First Capital, he led the banks asset resolution plan which reduced classified assets and OREO by 80% and enabled the bank to book a large recovery. As a member of an independent investment team, he was able to conduct due diligence for prospective bank equity injections. Prior to joining First Capital, he was a business banker for BB&T and a credit analyst for Fidelity Federal Savings Bank.

About Strategic Risk Associates

Strategic Risk Associates is a national consulting and advisory firm specializing in the banking and financial services industry in the areas of Information Technology Strategy, Risk, and Security; Enterprise Risk Management; Merger and Acquisition Due Diligence; Internal Audit; Bank Integration; Credit Risk Management including Loan Reviews, Stress Tests, Credit Training, and Process Improvements; Regulatory Support for Bank Exams, MOUs, and Enforcement Actions; Management and Board Assessments; Strategic Plans; Capital Plans; and Board of Director Training, Succession Plans, and Staff Augmentation. SRA leaders have direct banking, specialty finance, and regulatory experience.
Californias premier deposition services company, Aptus Court Reporting, has announced that Ronald Harrison has joined the team as Managing Director for the Northern California division, based out of the companys San Francisco office.

Harrison has unparalleled experience in the court reporting industry, having served in a variety of capacities starting in 1978 with Combs & Greenley, a family owned and operated court reporting business in San Francisco. More recently, Harrison served as the Vice President of Operations for Merrill Corporation (now DTI) in San Francisco between 1998 and 2007, and in 2007 joined Esquire Deposition Services as General Manager for the San Francisco market where he spent nearly nine years cultivating new business, providing existing clients with exceptional support, and growing the companys market share in the Bay Area.

"The Aptus team recognizes the importance of superior client service. Their enthusiasm and professionalism are infectious, and I am thrilled at the opportunity to join this great team, says Harrison.

Sandy Waite, Aptus COO, states, Harrisons responsibilities will include expanding the Aptus presence in both the Bay area and Sacramento. He will be key to securing our continued growth while also enhancing client and reporter relationships in these critically important markets.

I am absolutely thrilled to be reunited with Ron to head up our Northern California business operations. His outlook on business and relationships along with his business acumen are unsurpassed in our industry. In addition, Ron completely embodies the Aptus spirit and will fit our culture and philosophies perfectly, says Aptus President Derek Berg.

About Aptus Court Reporting:

Aptus Court Reporting is a full service court reporting firm headquartered in San Diego, CA. The company provides decades of combined experience in the court reporting industry and offers videography, transcription, and trial support among its list of services. Its company focus is connecting testimony and technology for clients internationally. With over 50 years of combined experience in the litigation support business, Aptus provides a one-stop solution for deposition and trial needs. For more information about Aptus Court Reporting, please visit [http://www.aptuscr.com.
Continuing a trend in recent years in Spain of rising temperatures, the summer of 2016 will be hotter than normal and with lower rainfall than usual, according to long-term forecasts by the countrys State Meteorological Agency (Aemet).

It will be a long, hot summer, said Aemet spokeswoman Ana Casals, adding that it was too soon to predict whether this year will match the sustained heatwave that hit Spain in 2015.

Following a dry winter, this years spring brought abundant rain: average precipitation throughout Spain was 34% higher than the usual between 1981 and 2010

Several Spanish cities have already seen temperatures close to 40 degrees centigrade this month.

The predicted summer high comes after what Aemet calls a largely cold spring, with average temperatures of 13.1 degrees centigrade, 0.5 degrees lower than usual. Casals said this spring was the 23rdcoldest spring since 1965, and the third-coldest this century, after 2004 and 2013.

Following a dry winter, this years spring brought abundant rain: average precipitation throughout Spain was 232 mm, 34% higher than the usual between 1981 and 2010. April saw 43% higher than usual rainfall for the month.

Roser Botey, Aemets head of climatology, said that the heavy rains had helped mitigate a dry start to the year, with rainfall for December 2015 some 40% lower than usual.

English version by Nick Lyne.
CHJGD 10000 mAh Credit Size Portable Charger Our Research and Development Team have worked hard to deliver a product range that will surely satisfy todays power-hungry and style conscious mobile users.

ChargedPower.com CHJGD, the 26-time European Bestseller has today announced the official launch of what is believed to be the worlds smallest 10,000 mAh (Ampere-hour) credit card sized power bank .

In order to highlight the qualities of their new portable charger range, a senior CHJGD official stated, Our Research and Development team has worked hard to deliver a product range that will surely satisfy todays style conscious mobile users. These new portable chargers not only offer excellent charging efficiency, but also have the distinction of being the smallest in the world.

Some of the UKs top technology blogs including Tech Addicts UK and TracyandMatt.co.uk have showered the products in praise, with particular emphasis on their ultracompact structure and charging performance. http://www.techaddicts.uk/video/1099/

The CHJGD collection has already stormed the Amazon Bestseller charts across Europe boasting a total of 26 rankings in 5 countries. The company is a 15-time UK Bestseller having been ranked within the top 10; a 5-time German Bestseller; a 3-time Italian Bestseller; a 2-time bestseller in France and a bestseller in Spain. Its success has prompted the company to stretch their horizons expanding their offices to include headquarters in Canada as well as their current global head quarter in the United Kingdom. This stems from the ever-increasing demand across North America amongst mobile phone users for high-quality design and durability.

Earlier this year, the brand was honoured to be named third in the, 18 Best Credit Card Size External Battery Charger, by Colour My Learning. Inspect: http:// http://www.colourmylearning.com/2016/02/credit-card-size-portable-battery-chargers-power-banks-that-fit-in-your-wallet-or-purse/.

The environmentally friendly firm relished in the opportunity to contribute to a reduction in carbon footprint amongst mobile phone users with their solar powered power bank. Here, CHJGD sought to harness smart, portable power using high tech photovoltaic, PV, panels providing pocket sized renewable energy! All devices are incredibly efficient due to their enhanced internal features.

Within just 3 years there are expected to be over 5 billion mobile phone users in the world, a fact that lays emphasis on the rising need for products like those offered by CHJGD. Inspect: http://www.statista.com/statistics/274774/forecast-of-mobile- phone-users-worldwide/ Meeting the ever-increasing demands of today's mobile-centric world, we are proud to have consistently met high expectations of our customers with a wide choice of fashionable innovative products with a huge amount of character, asserted, Melissa, Public Relations Manager of ChargedPower.com CHJGD. Our team is rapidly expanding due to the popularity of our variety of stylish product offerings and the loyalty of our customers. We are very excited about our new offices in Canada and being ahead of the curve with future research and development.

The state of the art CHJGD collection comprises portable chargers in Ultra Slim Range, Ultra Compact, FastCharge Range and Midas Range, cables in the form of Tangle Free Multi Charger Cables and Certified Lightning Cables and accessories such as 3D Screen Enlarged Magnifier and Tempered Glass Screen Protectors. ChargedPower.com truly gives people power on tap, wherever they go.

About:

ChargedPower.com CHJGD (CHJGD is pronounced Charged) was established in 2015 to disrupt the global mobile power bank market. Our award winning products are 26-time European Bestsellers. What colours and styles will you choose? Visit our website: https://chargedpower.com/ and enjoy our robust 1-year guarantee and commitment to awesome customer service. Claim your iron clad warranty here after purchase: https://chargedpower.com/pages/product-registration. Join our vibrant online Social Media communities: https://twitter.com/chargedpower and https://www.facebook.com/Charged-POWER-CHJGD-1619811021617670/

Media Contact:

Melissa N, Public Relations Officer, ChargedPower.com CHJGD.

Melissa(at)chargedpower(dot)com

Telephone: 0203 6333 995
Terra Verde, a leading provider of cybersecurity and risk management solutions, today announced a strategic partnership with cStor, a leading data center and cloud solutions provider headquartered in Scottsdale Arizona.

The strategic partnership with Terra Verde enables cStor to provide a comprehensive portfolio of cybersecurity, compliance consulting and managed security solutions to the market including:



Assessment & Penetration Testing Services

Assessment & Audit Services

Security Strategy Services

Business Risk Services

Security Technology Integration & Training Services

Managed Security Operations Center Services (TruSOC)

Managed Phishing Services

Managed 3rd Party Vendor Risk Assessment Services

Managed Security Education Training & Awareness Services

cStor is committed to developing and providing forward-thinking, best-in-class solutions that solve our clients greatest IT and business challenges such as cybersecurity and leveraging the cloud, said Larry Gentry, cStor president and CEO. We are excited to partner with Terra Verde who has a stellar reputation as a security and compliance consulting company that, like cStor, invests heavily in building innovative services that address the unique needs of business today.

Since 2008, Terra Verde has provided security, risk and compliance services to small, mid-size and Fortune 500 businesses across the U.S. Founded in 2002, cStor provides IT, data center and cloud consulting solutions to clients across the country and across industries including small, mid-size, Fortune 500 and the public sector.

cStor is a highly respected solution provider that invests heavily in its people and is committed to customer success, said Edward Vasko, Terra Verde CEO. We are proud to have them as a strategic partner and are excited to see the positive impact we can collectively make on the U.S. market going forward.

About Terra Verde

With offices in Phoenix and Scottsdale, Arizona, Terra Verde provides security and risk management solutions to clients in various industries, worldwide. The company has been trusted by government agencies, medium-sized businesses and publicly traded companies to deploy sustainable security and compliance programs and services. Terra Verde partners with the public, private and higher education organizations to recruit, develop and employ IT and security professionals that have an average of years of hands-on security and compliance experience, are recognized experts in their field, and hold multiple security and professional certifications. Terra Verde has invested heavily in testing and developing methods, best practices and a portfolio of managed security services that are modified to support each customers unique business, financial, regulatory compliance, goals and objectives. For more information, please visit http://www.TVRMS.com.

About cStor

cStor helps companies strategize, create, and implement data center and cloud solutions that help clients use IT to enable business transformation, reduce costs and gain competitive advantage. cStors proven capabilities with key data center and cloud technologies gives clients the ability to collaborate with certified experts, and the confidence to move business forward faster and more efficiently than ever before. cStor serves clients across the southwest region with a focused, collaborative approach and superior results. For more information, visit http://www.cstor.com.

Contact Information:

Public Relations

Terra Verde

Phone: 1.877.707.7997

Email: info(at)tvrms(dot)com

Public Relations

cStor

Phone: 1.877.278.6781

Email: Juli.Yarnall(at)cstor(dot)com
Prominent attorney West Seegmiller has accepted an invitation to speak before a gathering of nationally known entrepreneurs at the United Nations in New York City. I have always been dedicated to the underdog through my law practice, but my commitment extends far beyond our borders. We all have to fight for the safety, well-being and dignity of all people whether they reside in the U.S. or not.

Prominent Newport Beach attorney West Seegmiller has accepted an invitation to speak before a gathering of nationally known entrepreneurs at the United Nations in New York City on June 15 about the exploitation of impoverished workers around the world by profit-seeking companies in America. The personal injury attorney is one of several speakers who will attend the Global Entrepreneurship Initiative during which experts will address pressing issues of importance affecting entrepreneurs who are responsible for employing the vast majority of employees in the U.S.

I have made it my mission to shine a light on the issue of American companies, mostly those involved in the manufacturing arena, exploiting the poor in developing nations simply to save costs, said Seegmiller, who operates 8 offices in California and Las Vegas. I have always been dedicated to the underdog through my law practice, but my commitment extends far beyond our borders. We all have to fight for the safety, well-being and dignity of all people whether they reside in the U.S. or not.

Seegmiller, a former California State Pro-Tem Judge, is known for taking on large, well-known entities like Coca Cola (Louis Groharing v. The Coca Cola Company, OC Superior Court Case No. 30-2009-00121655-CU-PA-CJC), Southern California Edison (SCE) (case 30-2012-00552738-CU-PO-CJC Orange County Superior Court), Rockwell International (Kevin Murphy v. Rockwell International, Sacramento County Superior Court Case No. 321526) and, most recently, TGI Fridays (case RIC1100955, Operative Facts pg 5) and emerging victorious, earning his clients multi-million dollar verdicts. He has generated interest in his practice by building reproductions of actual courtrooms complete with judges bench, jury box and tables for the plaintiff and defendant at his offices. This isnt an aesthetic consideration, but rather a functional space for him to conduct pre-trials of his cases. He hires mock juries to hear his cases first so that he can gain their feedback. He then shapes and reshapes his arguments so when he tries the case in front of an actual jury, nothing is left to chance.

Seegmiller became an advocate for the underdog due to personal circumstances. While in his 20s, he was involved in a devastating motorcycle accident that required months of painful treatments to recover from his injuries. He sought justice for himself and it inspired him to help others. He earned a Bachelors degree in political science at the University of California Davis, Masters degree from the University of Southern California and his Juris Doctorate from the McGeorge School of Law University of the Pacific in Sacramento. There, he was selected to participate in the highly competitive Traynor National Moot Court Team and was a member of the prestigious Pacific Law Review.

He continues to educate himself and expand his knowledge in the legal field by honing his skills in the practice by attending both the Harvard Law School Program of Instruction for Lawyers, as well as, The Jerry Spence Trial Lawyers College. He is a member of the Professional Association of the Consumer Attorneys of Los Angeles, American Bar Association, Consumer Attorneys of California and the American Association for Justice.

Visit http://www.WestAllianceInjuryLawyers.com.

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The Esplanade Association, the 100% privately funded friends group for the Charles River Esplanade, today announced its Dog Days of Summer on the Esplanade social media photo contest. Starting June 10 and ending August 19, the Esplanade Association will be celebrating the canine companions in local Bostonians lives. For this contest, the Esplanade Association is looking for photos of dogs of all shapes and sizes enjoying their time on the Esplanade, whether running on the pathways, taking a nap on the docks, playing catch on the Hatch Shell great lawn or just taking in the views of the river.

The Dog Days of Summer in the Park photo contest is a fun way to bring attention to the Esplanade Associations campaign to restore the parks historic Lotta Fountain to a place of cultural significance and resource for pets and their owners. The six-foot stone dog fountain was constructed in 1939 in the name of entertainer and philanthropist Lotta Crabtree and for generations it provided a destination for dog owners visiting the Charles River Esplanade. However after years of neglect, the fountain no longer works and needs significant conservational and engineering repairs. With the publics support, the restorations of this treasured and useful landmark is expected to be complete in the fall of 2016.

To enter the social media photo contest, share photos with the Esplanade Association using Instagram or Facebook. There will be twelve winning entrants selected who will then be featured in the first annual Dogs of the Esplanade calendar. The calendar will be sold through the organizations website starting in November with the proceeds going to the maintenance of the Lotta Fountain. The winners will also be featured on the organizations website throughout the year and have the opportunity to participate in the official ribbon cutting ceremony of the newly restored Lotta Fountain.

Contest Dates: Photo entries can be submitted between June 10 and August 19. Winners will be announced on September 12 on the EsplanadeAssociation.org website.

Entry Process: Photos can be submitted through Instagram or Facebook. To enter on Facebook send a message with photo to http://www.facebook.com/EsplanadeAssociation. To enter on Instagram share your photos with @EsplanadeAssn using hashtags #LottaBostonDogs #MyEsplanade. Captions should include what the Charles River Esplanade means to you and your furry friend.

Judging Criteria: Photos can be posed, in-action, funny, sentimental, whatever best captures the dogs personality and must be taken on the Charles River Esplanade. Note: The dog in the photo doesnt need to be owned by the entrant, but the entrant should have the rights to entered photos.

Winner Notification: Winners will be contacted via the social media channel which the photo was submitted to.

On behalf of the greater Boston community, the Esplanade Association works in partnership with the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation to restore, manage and enhance the Charles River Esplanade for the enjoyment of all. Because the Esplanade Association receives no public funding, public support is crucial to guarantee that this vital destination and urban oasis continues to flourish and grow. The restoration of the Lotta Fountain is a part of the organizations much larger vision to make life better on the Esplanade for everyone. (http://www.esplanadeassociation.org)

The Esplanade is approximately 64 acres and extends for 3 miles along the Boston shore of the Charles River from the Boston Museum of Science to the Boston University Bridge.
Providing Quality Training for a Safer Tomorrow

The Delaware Valley Safety Council seeks to provide world-class safety training to contractors and employees working in industrial facilities in Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. DVSC continually adds best-in-class training programs to meet the safety-training needs of diverse industrial environments. DVSCs ultimate goal is to have every worker return home safely from work every day.

The Certified Occupational Safety Specialist course consists of Five 8-Hour Days, a total of 40 Hours. The Certified Occupational Safety Specialist (COSS) Program is designed for those in the safety and health field that coordinate the successful implementation of corporate safety and health plans; coordinate and maybe even conduct safety and health training; and/or provide support to safety and training managers. By learning how to promote safety on a job site, COSS graduates have the knowledge to help lower fatalities, near misses and OSHA citations.

The Delaware Valley Safety Council will be holding a COSS training class from July 25th to July 29th, 2016 from 8 am to 5 pm at 850 Library Avenue, Newark, DE 19711.

To register and found out more information about the COSS program go to: http://dvsconline.org/public/course-descriptions/coss-orientation/

The Delaware Valley Safety Council

510 Heron Drive, Suite 210

Swedesboro, NJ 08085
David Zura - Allsup President & COO The addition of these experienced leaders will help Allsup further grow and expand our business with innovative consumer and operational technology and new services designed to support those with disabilities.  CEO Jim Allsup

Allsup, a nationwide provider of specialized services and technologies that help meet the financial and healthcare needs of people with disabilities, today announced David Zura has been named president and chief operating officer. In addition, Richard Plass was named senior vice president of strategy & implementation and president of subsidiary Allsup Employment Services, Inc., and Michael Luhning has joined as vice president of marketing.

Over more than 30 years, Allsup has established itself as an entrepreneurial leader in helping those with disabilities coordinate their private employer and public benefits, and guiding them through complex disability programs, such as long-term disability and Social Security Disability Insurance, Ticket to Work and Medicare, said Jim Allsup, founder and CEO of Allsup. The addition of these experienced leaders will help Allsup further grow and expand our business with innovative consumer and operational technology and new services designed to support those with disabilities.

New Senior Management Appointees Add Depth & Breadth of Experience

As president and COO, Zura is responsible for Allsups overall business operations, including claims and customer service, information technology, income replacement and healthcare insurance services, marketing, strategy & implementation, finance and administration. He reports to Jim Allsup.

Zura joined Allsup following the sale of his business, Centria Design Services, with extensive business leadership and operational experience. He has held positions as president, COO and vice president with financial services companies, including Capital One and Professional Warranty Service Corporation. He has an MBA from Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration and a bachelors degree in commerce from the University of Virginia.

Rich Plass has joined Allsup in the newly created role of senior vice president, strategy & implementation, and as president, Allsup Employment Services, Inc. (AESI). AESI, a Social Security Administration-approved Employment Network, provides re-employment assistance for Social Security Disability Insurance beneficiaries who are able to return to work. Plass reports to Zura and focuses on developing and driving innovative business concepts that ensure successful implementation of long-term growth strategies.

Most recently, Plass was a vice president at Express Scripts and earlier held leadership and technology positions with AT&T Services. A resident of St. Louis, he holds a bachelors degree in computer science from Southeast Missouri State University.

As vice president of marketing, Luhning has overall responsibility for developing and implementing Allsups brand and marketing strategies, as well as directing and managing all internet and traditional marketing initiatives. He reports to Zura.

Luhning brings more than 15 years of experience as a marketing strategist, creative director, digital director and manager in advertising, marketing, promotions and incentive services companies. Most recently, he was vice president of marketing strategy at The Kerry Group, a brand activation agency. Prior to that, he was vice president, digital director for Momentum Worldwide, a total brand experience agency. He lives in Belleville, Illinois, and holds a bachelor of science in mass communications from Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville.

ABOUT ALLSUP

Allsup and its subsidiaries provide nationwide Social Security disability, veterans disability appeal, re-employment, exchange plan and Medicare services for individuals, their employers and insurance carriers. Allsup professionals deliver specialized services supporting people with disabilities and seniors so they may lead lives that are as financially secure and as healthy as possible. Founded in 1984, the company is based in Belleville, Illinois, near St. Louis. Visit http://www.Allsup.com or connect with Allsup at http://www.facebook.com/allsupinc.

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We feel that it is extremely important for us to be able to provide easily accessible information regarding a variety of security solutions and digital fingerprinting. said Jeanne Travis, President of Isi

Industrial Security Integrators, LLC is pleased to announce the launch of their new, user-friendly website. The new website offers quick and easy access to essential information as well as features that provide a much more comprehensive understanding of the unique services offered by IsI.

IsIs new website is equipped with streamlined navigation, designed to provide a superior level of user-friendly functionality. This allows clients to quickly reference information about the company and the services provided. The website features a clean design, online scheduling for fingerprint services and Invoice Payment for current clients. IsIs new website can be found at dodsecurity.com.

We feel that it is extremely important for us to be able to provide easily accessible information regarding a variety of security solutions and digital fingerprinting. said Jeanne Travis, President of IsI. We hope that our new website will provide our online visitors with an opportunity to better get to know our company and our services.

Industrial Security Integrators, LLC offers a wide range of security solutions, specially designed to save their clients time and money. Their competent team has the necessary skills and experience to handle a variety of physical, operational and information technology challenges. IsI strives to provide reliable systems and services that are always on-time and on-budget. The companys new website is a direct reflection of their continuing commitment to client satisfaction.

In 2010, the Under Secretary of Defense mandated that all DoD components and companies participating in the National Industrial Security Program (NISP) transition to electronic fingerprinting by the end of 2013. This mandate supports the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 as well as the Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12. All contractors cleared under NISP are required to comply.

In 2012, IsI opened the first Digital Fingerprinting Station in Herndon, Virginia. This location serves companies that are required to electronically submit fingerprints to the Office of Personnel Management under the Secure Web Fingerprint Transmission Program (SWFT).

About Industrial Security Integrators, LLC

IsI provides customized security solutions for Infrastructure Protection, Information Security, Construction Services and Professional Support Services. Their team of experienced security professionals provides the support necessary to manage all types of security programs, no matter how big or small. Comprehensive services include managed security, SWFT fingerprinting, EFCL package submissions and security services for SCIF and closed areas. For more information, please visit their new and improved website at dodsecurity.com.
ISPE is recognizing companies who, by virtue of the accomplishments for which they have won a category or honorable mention, have strengthened their ability to prevent drug shortages or minimize their impact on patients.

The International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering (ISPE) recognized 2016 category winners Baxter BioPharma Solutions and Jannsen Vaccines AG for their exceptional leadership in Drug Shortage Prevention at the 12th Annual ISPE Facility of the Year Awards (FOYA) banquet. The FOYA banquet was held 7 June 2016 in conjunction with the ISPE/FDA/PQRI Quality Manufacturing Conference in North Bethesda, Maryland, USA.

ISPE is recognizing companies who, by virtue of the accomplishments for which they have won a category or honorable mention, have strengthened their ability to prevent drug shortages or minimize their impact on patients, said John Bournas, ISPE President and CEO. He continued, ISPE wants to stress its commitment to drug shortage prevention by recognizing this critical issue in our premier award program.

Baxter BioPharma and Janssen Vaccines AG have been selected based upon excellence in the drug shortage prevention dimensions which form the framework of the ISPE Drug Shortages Prevention Plan and the ISPE Drug Shortage Assessment and Prevention Tool. Those dimensions include: Corporate Culture, Business Continuity Planning, Robust Quality Systems, Metrics, Communication with Regulatory Authorities, and Building Capability.

Baxter BioPharma Solutions, located in Halle, Germany, is the 2016 FOYA Category Winner for Operational Excellence. Baxter Internationals parenteral manufacturing plant undertook a challenging project to add additional capacity to service the CMO market of parenteral oncology and other complex liquid and lyophilized products. Expansion was designed to accommodate the need for lifesaving unit dose products, with flexibility and efficiency to offer both large-scale, small-scale liquid and lyo vial filling, aseptic formulation, terminal sterilization, and flexible formulation capacity for a variety of challenging oncologic and other sophisticated parenteral products, small molecules, biologics, antibody-drug conjugates, emulations, liposomes, and suspensions. Intent was to provide full services under one roof that facilitate short startup time and minimize transfer costs.

Janssen Vaccines AG, based in Bern, Switzerland, is the 2016 FOYA Awards Category winner for Project Execution Category for the Fast Track Refurbishment for Ebola Vaccine Production. In 2014 Janssen, the pharmaceutical division of Johnson & Johnson, responded to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa and committed to accelerate the development of its candidate Ebola vaccine. While the first volumes were produced in pilot scale, an idle facility was being refurbished for the scaled-up process providing a launch capacity of up to 5 million doses annually.

In addition to the special recognition for their leadership in Drug Shortage prevention, the following companies were recognized as the ISPE Facility of the Year Awards (FOYA) program 2016 Category Award winners:



Baxter BioPharma Solutions (Operational Excellence)

Ethicon, LLC (Sustainability)

Genentech (Process Innovation)

Janssen Vaccines AG (Project Execution)

Pfizer, Inc. (Equipment Innovation)

Takara Bio, Inc. (Facility Integration)

FOYAs judging panel has also awarded Honorable Mentions to: Greater Pharma Co., Ltd., University of Strathclyde, and West Pharmaceuticals Services, Inc.

About the FOYA Awards

The Facility of the Year Awards are an annual program that recognizes state-of-the-art projects utilizing new, innovative technologies to improve the quality of products, reduce the cost of producing high-quality medicines, and demonstrate advances in project delivery.

The FOYA program is unique because it provides a platform for the pharmaceutical science and manufacturing industry to showcase its accomplishments in facility design, construction, and operation, while sharing the development of new applications of technology and cutting-edge approaches that it is adopting.

More importantly, it's about recognizing the shared commitment and dedication of individuals working for different companies worldwide to innovate and advance pharmaceutical manufacturing technology for the benefit of all global consumers.

ISPE has developed the Facility of the Year Awards program to recognize the best newer renovated pharmaceutical and biotechnology manufacturing facilities that combine all aspects of the building into a superior working environment. The Judges Team, consisting of prominent industry leaders with extensive global experience, choose the category winners and the overall Facility of the Year Award winner.

About ISPE

The International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering, is the worlds largest not-for-profit association serving its members through leading scientific, technical, and regulatory advancement across the entire pharmaceutical lifecycle. The 20,000 members of ISPE are building solutions in the development and manufacture of safe and effective pharmaceutical and biologic medicines and medical delivery devices in more than 90 countries around the world. Founded in 1980, ISPE has its worldwide headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland, USA, and an operations and training center in Tampa, Florida, USA. Visit http://www.ISPE.org for more information.
We are truly honored that a member of the XumaK team has been selected to be part of the second SLELP cohort alongside many other respected members of the Latino community." Said Marcos Andres, CEO of XumaK

XumaK, LLC, a premier digital marketing technology company is proud to announce that General Manager, Leonardo Antiles, has been selected by the Latino Business Action Network (LBAN) as one of 80 Latino entrepreneurs from across the United States to be a part of the second cohort of the Stanford Latino Entrepreneur Leaders Program (SLELP2) SLELP2 is a six-week program jointly developed by Stanford faculty and LBAN with a focus on helping Latino business owners and entrepreneurs grow their businesses.

To be considered for this prestigious program, applicants must have either generated $1 million in revenue or have raised $1 million in funding for their business. As part of the six-week program, the entrepreneurs will take a customized online course "Scaling for Excellence", developed by Stanford professors Huggy Rao and Bob Sutton. The customized curriculum includes videos of successful Latino entrepreneurs as well as weekly live webinars on finance and other critical topics. In addition, we provide support to entrepreneurs with mentors and connections to capital resources.

We are truly honored that a member of the XumaK team has been selected to be part of the second SLELP cohort alongside many other respected members of the Latino community. I look forward to an experience for Leonardo of learning, growing, and networking with this elite community of business leaders. Said Marcos Andres, CEO of XumaK.

About SLELP2

Stanford Latino Entrepreneur Leaders Program business owners proudly represent over 40 industries, 50 U.S. cities, and 18 states (and Puerto Rico). They are part of an elite and talented group of innovators and business leaders whose drive, work ethic, and ambition will help to grow our economy and community across the United States.

About Stanford University and LBAN Collaboration

LBAN and Stanford University collaborate on programs for Latino Entrepreneurs including the research focused Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative (SLEI) and the Stanford Latino Entrepreneur Leaders Program. LBAN endeavors to make America stronger by empowering Latino entrepreneurs to grow large businesses through entrepreneurship research, education, and networks. LBAN's ultimate goal is to double the number of $100 million and $1 billion Latino owned businesses by 2020. To find out more visit http://www.LatinoEI.org.

About XumaK

XumaK is a leading digital marketing and technology consultancy helping the worlds largest brands generate revenue growth. Founded in 2004, XumaK's innovative end-to-end delivery platform, BedrocK, makes it possible for your company to successfully implement digital experience platforms through an agnostic and scalable integration platform. XumaK is globally headquartered in Miami and has offices throughout North America, Central America, and South America, and has worked with clients in the Americas, China, India, and Europe. To learn more visit http://www.xumak.com
Ecolane logo Having a world-class transit and paratransit scheduling and dispatch platform is a market differentiator and Ecolane's software fits perfectly with our vision.

National Express, the parent company of National Express Transit, has announced its acquisition of Philadelphia and Finland-based Ecolane and its business assets. Ecolane is a market leader in the demand responsive transportation (DRT) and the paratransit solutions market. Headquartered outside of Philadelphia, Ecolane provides technological solutions and services to increase the productivity, efficiency and customer satisfaction levels for their clients.

By bringing Ecolane into the National Express family, we will be able to expand our service offerings and introduce new capabilities to all our transit customers, said Judith Crawford, CEO of National Express Transit. Having a world-class transit and paratransit scheduling and dispatch platform is a market differentiator and Ecolane's software fits perfectly with our vision. We are thrilled to have them join National Express.

National Express Transits attention is focused on providing the safest, highest quality transportation services for customers and the communities served and adheres to five core values: safety, customers, people, community and excellence.

This acquisition by National Express, a company with a reputation for providing high quality services, is very welcome, said Steve Ross, CEO of Ecolane. The culture and values of both companies are closely aligned and we already have a successful history working on projects together. The additional resources that National Express brings to the table will help Ecolane expand our already successful product offerings and related services. The entire team at Ecolane is excited by the prospect of formalizing what has already been an excellent relationship."

# # #

About Ecolane

Ecolane is the most flexible, affordable and reliable choice for transit agency managers, directors and decision-makers with responsibility for implementing easy-to-deploy scheduling and dispatch solutions. Ecolanes software platform restores community engagement to people who might not otherwise have access and mobility. With offices in Espoo, Finland and US headquarters outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Ecolane is a technology leader in the demand responsive transportation (DRT) and the paratransit solutions market. For more information, please visit http://www.ecolane.com. Ecolane is part of the National Express family of companies.

About National Express

Durham School Services, Stock Transportation, Petermann Bus and National Express Transit Corporation, make up National Express, headquartered in Warrenville, Ill. As a leader in transit and student transportation, National Express is committed to exceptional safety, outstanding customer service and positive employee relations. Our North American companies operate 23,000 buses and serve over 500 clients in 36 states and four provinces.
Controversial cruise liner Harmony of the Seas anchored in Barcelona. Joan Sanchez

The vessel that arrived recently in Barcelona isnt a ship in the normal sense of the word. It is a high-rise maritime city of more than 9,000 inhabitants  7,000 passengers and 2,000 staff  that will sail around the Mediterranean until October.

Gone are the days of the sleek and elegant liner. This beast is 72 meters high, 366 meters long and 66 meters wide, and boasts 23 swimming pools, 20 restaurants, a variety of giant water slides, a casino and a 1,400-capacity theater for Broadway shows. To shift this 227,000-ton brute, its engines consume a daily average of 110,000 liters of the most contaminating diesel in the world.

To shift this 227,000-ton brute, its engines consume a daily average of 110,000 liters of the most contaminating diesel in the world

Christened Harmony of the Seas, this is the jewel in the crown of the Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd, a cruise line founded in Norway and based in Miami, Florida. This summer, it will make weekly forays into the Med from its base port of Barcelona. Sounds glamorous, but for Barcelona residents, the ship has come to symbolize all that is wrong with outsize cruises, triggering a debate already raging in other European ports such as Venice.

One of the major environmental problems is that ships of this size still run on fuel oil, an extremely polluting hydrocarbon that has the potential to contaminate 3,500 times more than diesel, while being infinitely cheaper. When anchored, the ship usually switches to a more refined fuel, but it is one that still pollutes 100 times more than normal diesel.

This kind of heavy oil is now illegal on land because of its high sulfur content, says Maria Garcia, spokesperson for Ecologists in Action and the Platform for Quality Atmosphere. At sea, the rules are more relaxed because it doesnt come under the jurisdiction of any one country. The pollution produced by this ship is on a par with 73,000 high-maintenance homes.

Aware of the complaints from Barcelonas local population, City Hall will be carrying out emissions tests.

Protesters come out against massive cruise liners in Barcelona. Joan Sanchez

The citys main concern is the ships engines running when it is anchored  there are almost no ships with the capacity to connect to the grid. According to City Hall, 7.6% of the citys prominent air pollutant, nitrogen dioxide, comes from the port.

But with the datas accuracy in dispute, Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau will measure the emissions again when the Harmony of the Seas is docked. A staunch critic of mass tourism for Barcelona, Colau has taken the complaints of the local populous on board and now says she will try to engineer a tax hike for cruise liners by improving the citys fiscal system.

A key study of these floating cities was carried out in 2012 by German ecologists Nabu, with Axel Friedrich  whose research helped to expose the Volkswagen scandal  at the helm. According to Friedrich, a ship of this size can pump as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as 8,638 cars, with the same levels of NO x (the generic term for the mono nitrogen oxides NO and NO 2 ) as 421,000 vehicles, and as much sulfur as 376 million cars. Daniel Rieger, Nabus transport specialist, emphasizes that the data is official and is based on average consumption.

Sulfur filters

The Vice President of the Royal Caribbean Corporation, Richard Pruitt, begs to differ, however. He suggests it is based on the worst case scenario possible. All the figures included in this study assume that the ship is always running at full capacity, he says. They also suppose a sulfur content that is almost impossible nowadays. The calculations are based on a 3.5% sulfur content whereas it is actually 2%.

Royal Caribbean points out that it complies with all current regulations and that its new sulfur filters, which allow it to continue using fuel oil in the port, have been certified by the Bahamas  its country of origin. We are abiding by international law, he concludes.

The environmental impact isnt the only sticky issue for Barcelona. For some time, the Association of Neighbors for Sustainable Tourism (ABTS) have been pointing out the downside of spewing 2.6 million tourists into the city during the summer season. You dont get a more concentrated form of tourism than a cruise and the impact is intense, says their spokesperson, Daniel Pardo. We are talking about the invasion of public spaces at particular times of day in areas such as La Sagrada Familia, Boqueria and Park Guell. Commerce in these parts of the city increasingly caters for tourists, leaving little room for normal shops serving local needs.

Neighborhoods such as the Gothic quarter are being turned into theme parks, say locals

Meanwhile, Reme Gomez, President of the Gothic Association, points to the destructive effect of 6,000 people coming ashore at one go in the Gothic Quarter, which has lost more local residents than any other neighborhood and is gradually being turned into a theme park.

The million-dollar question is, of course, what does the city gain? Royal Caribbean claims that the Harmony of the Seas brings 30 million to the local economy. Keen that Barcelona should remain a key industrial city, the port authorities have produced a study indicating that cruise liners generate a turnover of 796 million and contribute some 413.2 million to Catalonias gross national product as well as keeping 7,000 people in work.

The report also reveals that direct expenditure in the city from cruises amounts to 442.5 million annually  121.2 million spent by the company itself, 315.8 million by passengers and 5.5 million by crew. Curiously, however, the study also reveals almost 60% of these people spend as little as 4.3 hours in the city  not much time to spend what works out as 53 each on Sundays, when the citys stores are shut.

English version by Heather Galloway.
Container Solutions Software Circus started last year in Amsterdam as a Meetup group with a mission to move away from vendor-dominated Meetups and tackle the social aspects of technology, the bleeding edges and people's experience.

Container Solutions, a pan-European company delivering software engineering services and building tools for microservices developers, is taking its message of empowering software developers to a wide audience this summer, exhibiting and speaking at events across Europe and the United States.

The company is a co-organizer of the Software Circus event in Amsterdam, which has secured the support of several major new sponsors, including the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), a Linux Foundation project.

Eight events are on the schedule:



MesosCon North America, June 1, Denver, Colorado

HashiConf EU, June 13-15, Amsterdam

Goto; Amsterdam, June 13-16, Amsterdam

Scala Days, June 13-17, Berlin

DockerCon, June 19-21, Seattle

MesosCon EU, August 31 - September 1, Amsterdam

Software Circus, September 1-2, Amsterdam

HashiConf US, September 6-8, Napa, California, U.S.

Frank Scholten, senior software engineer at Container Solutions, presented a session at MesosCon North America titled, minimesos - The Experimentation and Testing Tool for Apache Mesos. The open source minimesos project solves a problem common among developers of container-based applications by allowing them to quickly bring up a containerized Apache Mesos cluster on their laptop, complete with Apache Zookeeper and Weave Scope, for visualization.

Software Circus Event Gains Major Sponsorship Support

Software Circus, the conference organized by Container Solutions and Implicit-Explicit, welcomes the Cloud Native Computing Foundation as a major, new sponsor of the annual event in Amsterdam.

Software Circus started last year in Amsterdam as a Meetup group with a mission to move away from vendor-dominated Meetups and tackle the social aspects of technology, the bleeding edges and people's experience. The group grew quickly as Software Circus gained a reputation as a fun and valuable exchange of knowledge.

The 2015 Software Circusorganized in just 10 weeksbrought together prominent influencers like Kelsey Hightower, Ken Owens, Luke Marsden and Adrian Cockcroft, and companies like Cisco, CloudSoft, Mesosphere and Weave. The conference quickly grew to one full day of workshops and two days of sessionsand dancing, robots and drones.

The conference earned a reputation as an antidote to the brush steel and chrome of so many conferences, devoid of product pitches. Software Circus Meetups have spread to Switzerland, Germany, the United Kingdom and San Francisco.

Media Resources:

Attendance at Software Circus is free to any under-represented group.

The call for papers is now open.

About Container Solutions

Container Solutions is a pan-European company, with offices in Amsterdam, London, Zurich, Edinburgh and Copenhagen. They deliver software engineering services and tools for container-based development. Well established in the container and microservice open source ecosystems, Container Solutions counts among its partners Docker and Mesosphere. More at: http://container-solutions.com/

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Rigaku Oxford Diffraction Supernova X-ray source diffractometer

Rigaku Corporation is pleased to announce its attendance at the 44th Middle Atlantic Regional Meeting (MARM 2016) of the American Chemical Society (ACS). The event, hosted by the New York Section of the ACS, will be held at the College of Mount Saint Vincent in Riverdale, New York from Thursday, June 9 through Sunday, June 12, 2016. The events theme is Chemistry: Past, Present, and Future and a number informative symposia and events are planned.

Rigaku Oxford Diffraction will be presenting information about its line of small molecule crystallography products at booth number 16.

Rigaku Oxford Diffractions innovative new diffractometer, the XtaLAB Synergy, combines speed and intelligent software to provide 3D structure determination in less time than it takes to make a cup of coffee. X-ray crystallography can now out-perform NMR as a method for rapid structure determination for samples that can be crystallized.

About Rigaku Oxford Diffraction (ROD)

ROD was formed as the global single crystal business unit of Rigaku Corporation after the acquisition of the former Oxford Diffraction organization from Agilent Technologies in 2015. ROD is a leader in single crystal analysis, both in the field of chemical crystallography and in macromolecular crystallography. Formed in 1951, Rigaku Corporation is a leading analytical instrumentation company based out of Tokyo, Japan.

For further information, contact:

Paul Swepston

Senior Vice President and General Manager

Rigaku Oxford Diffraction

Tokyo, Wroclaw, Oxford, The Woodlands

tel: +1 281-362-2300

Paul.Swepston(at)rigaku(dot)com
The multi-generational family-founded Boldt Company is celebrating 125 years of operation. The company transitioned from housing to commercial construction and is heavily community-focused, with an emphasis on sourcing local talent whenever possible. Chairman Oscar C. Boldt explains: Its a demonstration of a commitment you have made to yourself that youre going to try to be as good as you can be.

While it is a national company, Boldt considers Northern California one of its core geographies. Finding local company stories is easily done in The Whos Who in Building & Construction magazine. Other content includes local project coverage, helpful organizations, and expert advice on bidding, marketing, and estimating. Boldt has worked on projects like the Anderson Lucchetti Womens and Childrens Center, the Sutter Capitol Pavilion Medical Office, Sutter General Hospital, the Olson Hall for University of California, Davis, and a behavioral health center for the Universal Health Services Sierra Vista Hospital.

As the company celebrates its 125th anniversary, they continue to live out the founding mission. As Tom Boldt, the companys CEO explains: The concept of loving what you doloving constructionis a strong motivator. That is very powerful for us as a family, but it is also a way weve been able to attract the right kind of employees. For those who share the Boldts love of construction, the Whos Who Showcase in Visalia is a great place to get together. The event offers networking and education opportunities, as well as complimentary hors doeuvres and drinks.

Central Valleys Who's Who In Building & Construction Showcase takes place on June 8th at Visalia Convention Center. For more information about the Showcases, please visit http://www.ShowcaseLaunch.com.

For more information on the Whos Who magazine, please contact Mike Tartaglia, Managing Editor, at 800.431.2584 ext. 3391 or mtartaglia(at)mail(dot)thebluebook(dot)com.

About The Blue Book Building & Construction Network:

The Blue Book Network, an Employee-Owned enterprise, is the largest and most active construction network in the United States. For over one hundred years, the commercial construction industry has turned to The Blue Book Network for accurate, complete and up-to-date information on the people and products required for their projects. The company maintains a nationwide industry search engine at http://www.thebluebook.com powered by BlueSearch technology. In addition, The Blue Book Network provides a complete suite of Internet-based information, workflow and marketing resources for all segments of the building and construction industry.
Kim and Josh Targoff with their son, Zachary

Kim and Josh Targoff were honored at the Benefit for their contribution to DOROT and the Intergenerational Chess Program. The evening was a success, with close to $600,000 being raised to support DOROTs programs.

DOROT is an organization whose mission is to alleviate social isolation among the elderly and provide services to help older adults live independently as valued members of the community. As part of that mission, DOROT hosts a chess program that matches teens with seniors for weekly games of Chess.

The program was started by Zachary Targoff, son of the Benefit honorees, when he began playing weekly games of chess with Herman Bomze, a retired engineer and holocaust survivor. The Targoffs have generously funded the program as well as its expansion to Westchester County, New York.

In addition to honoring the Targoffs, the Benefit also celebrated DOROTs 40th anniversary. DOROT has been a leader in volunteer services for the past 40 years. It was wonderful to celebrate that milestone and to look forward to DOROTs next 40 years of continued success, said Mark Meridy, Executive Director at DOROT.

Further details about the Benefit, including photos from the event, can be viewed at dorotusa.org
With Bird-Xs line of almost 70 pest control products and options, customers are certainly finding that having recommendations for specific problems readily available makes the shopping experience easier.

The leading brand in humane bird and pest control, Bird-X, officially launched their Interactive Problem Solver online tool. The Chicago-based company hopes that this tool will help spread the word that they are not just in the bird business.

The Interactive Problem Solver allows customers to select between birds or other pests. Once the customer makes the choice, a sub-menu appears where the user can further select the specific species of pest bird or animal with which they are having issues. The tool includes bird species such as pigeons, crows, gulls, peacocks, sparrows, and more. The other pest animals option recommends ways to deter critters like feral cats, deer, opossums, rodents, and even sea lions!

Pest control is a multifaceted industry, as pests are equal opportunity invaders that impact the life of almost everyone at one time or another. Bird-X offers a wide variety of humane solutions that address pest bird and animal problems without killing and poisoning the environment, Dennis Tilles, Bird-X President, said.

Tilles affirmed that the goal of the Interactive Problem Solver is to upgrade customer experience on the companys website by improving the decision-making process. With Bird-Xs line of almost 70 pest control products and options, customers are certainly finding that having recommendations for specific problems readily available makes the shopping experience easier.

The Interactive Problem Solver provides a condensed informational guide to help our customers find the humane solutions for everyday pest problems without the use of dangerous chemicals, Tilles said.

Bird-X is dedicated to working with customers across the globe to find the best and most cost-effective solutions to combat their specific pest problems. For information on any of Bird-Xs humane bird and pest control solutions, please call the Bird-X customer service line at (800) 662-5021.
Don Faller & Jamie Hayes

FiduciaryFirst will be attending this years Annual Conference for the Florida Government Finance Officers Association (FGFOA), on June 14 at 10:30 am. FGFOA will be held on June 11-15 at the Marriott World Center in Orlando. The annual FGFOA conference is the associations premier event for education and training.

FiduciaryFirst will also sponsor a Margarita/Cocktail Reception on Monday, June 13 from 6:30-8:30 pm in Grand Ballroom 4. During the day on June 13, FiduciaryFirst advisors will be available at Booth 59 in the Exhibit Hall, and conference attendees can stop by for one-on-one consultation on pension and retirement plan sponsorship. In addition, FiduciaryFirst will award Fitbits to select conference attendees who visit their booth. Public sector practitioners can get answers to their questions about government-sponsored retirement programs, obtain information about FiduciaryFirsts retirement plan consulting process, and learn how FiduciaryFirst can help improve retirement plan participation rates and help your employees fund a secure retirement.

FiduciaryFirsts exclusive Plan Success MethodSM helps government agencies administer their retirement plans, using a comprehensive approach to best practices, the Prudent Fiduciary ProcessSM. This process incorporates all major pension laws, trust statutes, and industry best practices to provide a formal due diligence and risk management methodology. The Prudent Fiduciary Process is combined with a dynamic approach to participant success, The Participant EffectSM. Working together, these techniques allow government agencies to establish consistent and well-documented best practices, managing risk for both plan sponsors and participants, while seeking to maximize the plans benefits.

FiduciaryFirst helps government plan sponsors establish goals for success and measure plan performance against those goals, as part of a well-designed and consistent process. Plan documentation and processes are structured to help mitigate liability, and follow all Department of Labor and Internal Revenue Service regulations.

About FiduciaryFirst:

FiduciaryFirst, an independent, fee-only advisor dedicated to helping clients build and manage highly effective retirement plans, all while sharing the investment fiduciary responsibility associated with each plan to mitigate corporate and personal risk. To learn more, visit http://fiduciaryfirst.com.
Nautical Gin

Vertical Spirits announces the release of its first product, Nautical Gin. Established June 2015, Nashua, NH-based Vertical Spirits LLC is dedicated to developing premium spirits that embody the companys Spirit of Adventure mission.

The young company is headed by a trio of highly-respected professionals: Ken Siegel, Jon Stilianos and Donnie White. President and CEO Ken Siegel and VP of Operations Jon Stilianos, were founding members of Synergy Dining Group, a restaurant holding company. Both enjoy significant entrepreneurial and operational experience. Spirits industry insider Donnie White is the third founding shareholder. A former Regional Manager at Proximo Spirits, White is VP Sales. Rounding out Verticals senior management team are Holly Marden, VP Sales for Control States, and Kristin Shirtz, VP Marketing.

This core group of veterans from inside and outside the spirits industry has a track record of setting high expectations for new products and exceeding them, explains Donnie White. In addition, Vertical Spirits is backed by a significant amount of capital. This enables the company to support the creation of brands and bring them to market successfully. Those resources also mean Vertical Spirits can recruit the best talent -- individuals with the expertise to develop and market those new products.

Nautical Gin is Vertical Spirits first product launch. After a trial introduction in New Hampshire this spring, Nautical Gin debuts this summer in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, followed by New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Georgia and Florida later in the year. Packed six to a case, it is expected to retail for approximately $33 a bottle.

Nautical Gin is an American premium gin infused with 15 unique ingredients, including a rare coastal botanical -- the inspiration for the Nautical name. It delivers a subtle and appealing hint of sea salt.

The citrus-forward Nautical Gin also contains coriander, lemongrass, elderberry, spearmint and allspice, among others. Quadruple distilled for extra smoothness, the gin is made in the Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts.

Nautical Gin is presented in a simple, elegantly modern, aquamarine bottle with a rose-gold capsule. In keeping with the marine theme and reinforcing Vertical Spirits mission of creating products that embody a "Spirit of Adventure," the front of the bottle prominently features the tagline "Inspired by Exploration." The custom bottle also has a flat back so the gin will stay stationary inside your boat or sea faring vessel while youre off traveling to exotic destinations!

Vertical Spirits already has a second introduction in the works -- a completely new brand in a different spirits category.

Nautical Gin retails for $33 per 750 ml bottle, packed six to a case.
Shannons transportation program expertise and dedication to the committee will serve the organization and its members well as we work together to advance efficiency of state transportation systems.

CSG Government Solutions, a national leader in government program modernization, today announced that Shannon Barnes is serving as the National Academies of Sciences Transportation Research Board Information Systems and Technology Committee Chair.

Ms. Barnes is a Principal in CSGs Program Modernization practice. She is a certified Project Management Professional with over 30 years of experience leading transportation information technology projects in the public and private sectors. Ms. Barnes is a former Chief Information Officer for the Idaho Transportation Department.

The Information Systems and Technology Committee identifies emerging technologies, promotes research that encourages innovative approaches for productivity improvements, and supports the use of data analytics to improve safety, system operations, and security of our transportation systems.

CSG appreciates the important initiatives upheld by the Transportation Research Board and the Information Systems and Technology Committee, says Patti Garofalo, Director of CSGs Program Modernization practice. Shannons transportation program expertise and dedication to the committee will serve the organization and its members well as we work together to advance efficiency of state transportation systems.

CSG Government Solutions continues to increase its presence across the United States. The company deploys highly experienced teams and innovative methods, knowledge, and tools to help governments modernize complex program enterprises. CSG clients include 43 state governments, the U.S. Department of Labor, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and large municipal governments.

CONTACT:

Patti Garofalo

Director, Program Modernization Practice

CSG Government Solutions

180 N. Stetson Ave

Suite 3200

Chicago, IL 60601

312.444.2760 Fax: 312.938.2191

pgarofalo(at)csgdelivers(dot)com

About CSG Government Solutions:

CSG Government Solutions is a leading government operations consulting firm focused on helping states modernize critical program enterprises. Our highly experienced teams and industry-leading Centers of Excellence help governments leverage innovative technology and processes to meet the challenges of administering complex programs. Founded in 1997, CSG has established itself as a trusted adviser to government agencies across the U.S.
Pendleton Woolen Mills Glacier Stripe National Park Blanket In 1916, Pendleton created the first National Park Blanket in Glacier Stripe, the same year the National Park Service was born. The parks have remained an important part of our heritage ever since, said Pendleton VP of Global Sales, Bob Christnacht.

June 8, 2016. (PRWEB) June 08, 2016 -- Pendleton Woolen Mills, a globally acclaimed-lifestyle brand headquartered in Portland, Oregon, announces an expansion of their National Parks Collection in celebration of the concurrent centennial anniversaries of the iconic Glacier Stripe National Park Blanket and the National Park Service in 2016. Two percent of the proceeds from the sale of all National Parks Collection products will be donated to the National Park Foundation, the official charity of Americas national parks, in support of two special landmark-restoration projects. Pendleton has committed up to $500,000 for the restoration of the historic lobby of the Many Glacier Hotel in Glacier National Park and the preservation and accessibility of the Historic Grand Canyon Train Depot in Grand Canyon National Park.

Pendleton is introducing 50 new National Parks Collection items this year; home products, accessories, and mens and womens apparel. Ten national parks are honored in the assortment including  Acadia, Badlands, Crater Lake, Glacier, Grand Canyon, Great Smoky Mountains, Mount Rainier, Rocky Mountain, Yellowstone and Yosemite. Each park has its own blanket with a vintage-inspired label representing the character of the park. Every piece in the collection features a National Parks Collection logo signifying that the proceeds will support the National Park Foundation.

In 1916, Pendleton created the first National Park Blanket in Glacier Stripe, in that same year the National Park Service was born. The parks have remained an important part of our heritage ever since, said Pendleton VP of Global Sales, Bob Christnacht. We now have ten featured parks highlighted in our National Parks Collection that honor these great American treasures.

"As we kick off the next century of the National Park Services critical work, we couldnt be more pleased to have two of Americas most iconic outdoor brands join together to not only help us celebrate, but also help us preserve this countrys magnificent landscapes, rich history, and cultural treasures for generations to come, said Susan Newton, vice president of grants and programs for the National Park Foundation.

In addition to an enlarged assortment of Glacier Stripe products and new National Park motor robes, backpacks and totes, womenswear and menswear, Pendleton collaborated with Airstream to develop and debut The Limited Edition Pendleton National Park Foundation Airstream Travel Trailer. Only one hundred trailers will be available with park-inspired Pendleton interior and exterior details. Airstream will donate $1,000 to the National Park Foundation for each Pendleton trailer sold.

The Pendleton National Parks Collection is available in national retail stores and catalogs, specialty retailers, select national park concessionaires, Pendleton Retail stores and Outlets nationwide, Pendleton Catalog, and website located at pendleton-usa.com.

NATIONAL PARKS COLLECTION DONATION:

Pendletons contribution will support the rebuilding of the Many Glacier Helical Stairway in Many Glacier Hotel at Glacier National Park, as well as restoration of the historic lighting fixtures that featured the Orient Express theme. Funds will also support preservation and accessibility of the Historic Grand Canyon Train Depot at Grand Canyon National Park. Constructed in 1910, the Grand Canyon Depot is a National Historic Landmark. The Depot is a major arrival point for thousands of visitors each year; its one of the parks front doors and has served as a gathering place for over 100 years. Reviving these special locations will allow visitors today and tomorrow to enjoy the original, spectacular features of two of the countrys iconic national park structures.

ABOUT THE NATIONAL PARK FOUNDATION

The National Park Foundation is the official charity of Americas national parks and nonprofit partner to the National Park Service. Chartered by Congress in 1967, the National Park Foundation raises private funds to help PROTECT more than 84 million acres of national parks through critical conservation and preservation efforts, CONNECT all Americans with their incomparable natural landscapes, vibrant culture and rich history, and INSPIRE the next generation of park stewards. Find out more and become a part of the national park community at http://www.nationalparks.org.

ABOUT PENDLETON

Setting the standard for classic American style, Pendleton is a lifestyle brand recognized as a symbol of American heritage, authenticity and craftsmanship. With six generations of family ownership since 1863, the company recently celebrated 153 years of weaving fabrics in the Pacific Northwest. Known for fabric innovation, Pendleton owns and operates two of Americas remaining woolen mills, constantly updating them with state-of-the-art looms and eco-friendly technology.Inspired by its heritage, the company designs and produces apparel for men and women, blankets, home decor, and gifts. Pendleton is available through select retailers in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Japan, Korea and Australia; Pendleton stores; company catalogs; and direct-to-consumer channels including the Pendleton website, http://www.pendleton-usa.com.

Media Contacts: Jen Rapp, 805.415.8810 (jen.l.rapp(at)gmail(dot)com)

Chris Bailey-Speed, 503.438.8031 (cbaileyspeed(at)icloud(dot)com)
Direct Selling Association (DSA) today released new data indicating that retail sales volume among U.S. direct selling companies grew 4.8% between 2014 and 2015 to $36.12 billion. Individuals involved in direct selling increased 11% during the same period, surpassing 20 million (20.2 million) people in the United States for the first time.

When it comes to retail in 2016, consumers have dozens of options, said Joseph N. Mariano, DSAs President. Even in the face of fierce competition from brick-and-mortar stores and online marketplaces, direct selling has continued on a path of solid growth since the end of the last decade. Thats the best evidence I know that the marketplace values meaningful engagement with customers. In an era when good customer service is increasingly rare, direct selling is bucking the trend.

Wellness products represent the biggest single-year gain between 2014 and 2015, rising more than 16% to $12.1 billion in retail sales. They also represent the largest product group within the direct selling channel, according to the data, rising from 21.4% (2007) of total retail sales to 33.5% (2015). The survey also indicates growth in the personal care products category, which rose from $5.7 billion to $6.2 billion in retail sales, a nearly 9% increase.

Direct selling has always been attractive to people who love our companies products, and are looking for flexibility in their work, continued Mariano. Now, thanks to technology and the changing nature of how people work, we are excited to see that even more Americans are becoming involved in direct selling.

New research on independent contractors from Bloomberg Government underwritten by DSA validates direct selling as part of a growing economy for independent work. More than three-quarters of survey respondents (77%) experienced a high level of satisfaction with their work. Top motivations for becoming an independent contractor included being their own boss, flexibility in schedule and better work-life balance. When comparing the motivations of direct sellers to all respondents, the survey concluded that more than 60% of direct sellers are motivated by the ability to be my own boss, compared to 45% of all independent contractor respondents.

Additionally, 51% said that technology made a very positive impact in their pursuit of independent work, while another 36% said it made a positive impact. The Internet and cell phone technologies were the top technologies used by independent contractors.

DSAs 2016 Growth & Outlook Report: U.S. Direct Selling in 2015 is based on responses from 102 direct selling companies and other sources, tabulated by economic consulting firm Nathan Associates.

Nearly any product and service can be marketed through the direct selling channel, including clothing, housewares, insurance, energy, wellness goods and jewelry.

RESOURCES

DSA Growth & Outlook Survey Infographic:

http://www.dsa.org/benefits/research/factsheets

DSA Video on Growth & Outlook Survey Results:

http://www.dsa.org/benefits/research

Bloomberg Government Workforce of the Future Survey Infographic:

http://www.bbhub.io/bgov/sites/12/2016/05/TheWorkforceoftheFuture-Survey.pdf

Bloomberg Government Survey Results:

http://www.bbhub.io/bgov/sites/12/2016/05/Workforce-of-the-Future-Survey-Report.pdf

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The Direct Selling Association (DSA) is the national trade association for companies that offer entrepreneurial opportunities to independent sellers to market and sell products and services, typically outside of a fixed retail establishment. More than 20 million Americans are involved in direct selling in every state, congressional district and community in the United States. In 2015, direct selling generated more than $36 billion in retail sales. For more information, visit http://www.dsa.org.
Letter to Atesyan from Agos: May God bestow sense, intelligence and comprehension on you

The Turkey-based Armenian newspaper Agos responded to Archbishop Aram Atesyan, General Vicar of Armenian Patriarch in Turkey, who is severely criticized by the Armenian society because of his letter addressed to President Erdogan: "You define the systematic and almost complete annihilation of a people by the decision of the state itself as 'the events happened during the tragic times of World War I'; this is an affront to the ancestors, victims and the survivors in the eyes of the society to which you also belong. Dear Mr. Archbishop, We have read your letter about the Armenian Genocide resolution of Bundestag, which is addressed to the President and signed on behalf of "Turkish Armenians Society", with sorrow, anger and shame. Please regard this letter as the voice of those members of that society who disagree with the content and style of your letter. You define the systematic and almost complete annihilation of a people by the decision of the state itself as the events happened during the tragic times of World War I; this is an affront to the ancestors, victims and the survivors in the eyes of the society to which you also belong. The society that you defined as Christian-Armenian Turkish citizens who perform their obligations to the state perfectly, got over the delusion of seeing themselves different from the other citizens and know how to protect their rights when necessary doesn't have a homogeneous structure; rather, it consists of individuals who have their own independent feelings, opinions and firm acknowledgment of truth. The thing is, Armenians are not the ones who see themselves different from other citizens. After 1915, whenever the political atmosphere gets intense, Armenians become subjected to discriminatory, fascist and obviously threatening discourses and threats, especially in times of 1942 Wealth Tax and September 6-7 plunders. And on January 19, 2007, they witnessed the assassination of Hrant Dink, one of the most precious figures who devoted himself to the peace between and in two peoples. You said, We, as the Patriarchate, will continue to pray for the fellowship of Turkey and Armenia; how could you justify this statement of yours, given the fact that your addressee President Erdogan threatened the citizens of Armenia to send them back to Armenia two days ago? Doesn't it trouble your conscience? Let us remind you those statements of the president, in case you have forgotten: Currently, there are almost 100.000 Armenians in my country. Almost half of them are Turkish citizens. However, the other half are citizens of Armenia and we can send them back to Armenia, like Europe did." You said that you are aware of the fact that "some people are not happy with your stable attitude that you maintain by abiding the traditional way. Honestly, we are having difficulty in understanding how forelock-tugging can be considered as an attitude. The Armenian Genocide, as a crime against humanity, is a concern of the whole humanity. You said that you pray for the good of two peoples. The common future of those peoples would be possible only when an honorable reconciliation is achieved, because then, there won't be this kind of oppression that caused you to deny even your own history. Dear Mr. Archbishop, Since you said that the role of German Reich is slid over by a few sentences, we see that you have failed to comprehend the content of the resolution. Almost 80% of this resolution, which declares German Reich as the accomplice to the genocide, consists of Germany's confrontation with its own history. Let us continue: you said, using this tragedy that traumatized the Armenian nation in international politics causes sorrow and pain. Indeed, the oppression that led you to write this letter causes sorrow and pain. Also, the sub- and supra-identities of the Armenian society in Turkey is not harmed by this resolution, but by your words. Above all, your words on abuse of Armenian nation by imperialist powers are recorded as an example to the denialist discourse; not by the ones who will take advantage of your usage of the official state discourse, but by your own people. In the near future, we will see who will appreciate your discourse with enthusiastic applause. On this occasion, borrowing your style in your letter, we once again express our sorrow, uprising and anger and pray to God for you; may God bestow sense, intelligence and comprehension on you. We also pray to God for giving you a dignified attitude, which you obviously lack, since you said that you pray to God for making the state dignitaries, who work for the good of people, succeed in their services in a time when tens of people are being killed every day in a civil war. Cordially, AGOS
Peopletrail background check and screening service solutions SHRM annual conference is the largest HR event in the world. Peopletrail is thrilled to connect with customers and share the importance of selecting an employment screening firm who provides accuracy, timeliness, compliance and customer satisfaction.

Peopletrail announced today it will attend the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) convention, June 19-22, 2016 in Washington DC. The Company will share at the conference its educational campaign to industry on the significant differences found between screening services and will feature its fully accredited Actionable Insight Screening services for employment screening, criminal background checks, and corporate security solutions.

SHRM is a great organization that brings together the human resource (HR) community and many of the key decision makers within HR. Were excited for the networking that SHRM provides and the opportunity we have to connect with current and future customers to discuss the added value that Peopletrail provides with our background check and screening services, stated Wallace T. Davis, President and CEO of Peopletrail.

Peopletrail will be building upon its national awareness campaign to educate industry on the significant differences between background screening services. There tends to be a myth communicated in the industry that a background check, is a background check, is a background check. But contrary to popular belief, not all background checks are the same. Its important to find a provider that is focused and consistently delivers upon accuracy, compliance, timeliness and customer satisfaction to each of its clients.

Attendees can visit Peopletrail at booth #722 to learn more and receive one of four instant prizes given to attendees throughout the event. There will also be daily prize drawings at the booth and entry into a grand prize drawing at the closing of the event.

Customers can learn more about Peopletrail and schedule a complimentary consultation by visiting the companys web site at Peopletrail.com or by calling the company directly at 866.223.8823

About Peopletrail

Peopletrail is a leading provider of custom employment, tenant and drug screening solutions, criminal background checks, ATS integrations, and corporate security services.

As part of the accredited elite, only Peopletrail combines superior customer service through dedicated Account Managers with efficient, state-of-the-art technology integration to deliver on-demand, accurate and timely consumer reporting results. Trusted and respected by government agencies and Fortune 500 to small up-and-coming businesses, Peopletrail provides actionable insight you trust.
Summary of the results of the study. [although] it was difficult to differentiate the effects of the aromatherapy from the effects of the massage therapy... [the combination] may be an effective way to increase mental health and improve blood pressure.

Researchers at Okayama University conduct the first community-based study on the effects of self-administered aromatherapy foot massage on stress and anxiety symptoms. The results suggest aromatherapy massages might provide an inexpensive, simple way of managing anxiety.

The continuing popularity of complementary therapies, such as aromatherapy and massage, has prompted scientists to investigate the effects of such therapies on the body in more detail. Complementary therapies are said to reduce the symptoms associated with stress and anxiety, and therefore may reduce the chances of severe illness, such as hypertension and heart disease. The precise effects on the body following such therapies is unclear, however.

Previous studies have focused on the effects of massage and aromatherapy treatments on blood pressure and mental state in hospitalized patients in Japan, but none have been conducted on individuals living in the community. Now, Eri Eguchi and co-workers at Okayama University, together with researchers across Japan, have conducted the first study into the effect of aromatherapy-based foot massage on blood pressure, anxiety and health-related quality of life in people living in the community.

57 participants took part in the study; 52 women and 5 men. Baseline blood pressure and heart rate values were taken at the start and end of the four-week trial period, as well as at a follow-up session 8 weeks later. Participants also completed questionnaires on anxiety status and health-related quality of life at each stage of the trial. The participants were divided into two groups, and one group were taught to perform a 45-minute aromatherapy-based foot massage on themselves three times a week for four weeks.

The results suggest that aroma foot massage decreased the participants average blood pressure readings, and state of anxiety, and tended to increased mental health-related quality of life score. However the effect of massages was not significant with changes in other factors such as physical health-related quality of life scores and heart rate.

In their paper published in March 2016 in PLOS One, Eguchis team are cautiously optimistic about the potential for self-administered massage to reduce anxiety in the population: [although] it was difficult to differentiate the effects of the aromatherapy from the effects of the massage therapy... [the combination] may be an effective way to increase mental health and improve blood pressure.

Background

Aromatherapy and massage

Aromatherapy has long been used to relieve stress and anxiety in populations across the globe. Different aroma essential oils are said to have different properties, and are used to induce relaxation and promote well-being. Trials have indicated that certain essential oils, when inhaled, can reduce blood pressure levels and alleviate depression by stimulating the olfactory system.

Massage (in its many forms) also has a long history in therapeutic medicine, and the practice of manipulating key pressure points in the body to induce relaxation has been shown to improve mental and physical health. However, detailed scientific studies of the effects of aromatherapy foot massage  an increasingly popular treatment in Japan  on blood pressure and perceived quality of life are limited.

Significance and further work

While the trial carried out by Eguchi and her team is limited in some respects, their results provide an initial starting point from which to extend studies into the benefits of aroma foot massage for the general population. Their findings that massage, or the aromatherapy, or a combination of both, reduce blood pressure readings (at least in the short term) warrants further investigation.

Eguchi and her team acknowledge that their decision to advertise for participants may have encouraged more health-conscious and pro-active people to apply. They also received far more applications from women than men, although their age-range (from 27 to 72) was diverse. Further work is needed to determine the effect of aroma foot massage on specific age and sex categories, for example, before such interventions are encouraged in the wider population.

Reference

Eri Eguchi, Narumi Funakubo, Kiyohide Tomooka, Tetsuya Ohira, Keiki Ogino, Takeshi Tanigawa. The effects of aroma foot massage on blood pressure and anxiety in Japanese community-dwelling men and women: A crossover randomized controlled trial. PLOS One, March 2016

DOI10.1371/journal.pone.0151712

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0151712

Further information

Okayama University

Website: http://www.okayama-u.ac.jp/index_e.html

Okayama Univ. e-Bulletin: http://www.okayama-u.ac.jp/user/kouhou/ebulletin/

About Okayama University (You Tube):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDL1coqPRYI

Okayama University Medical Research Updates OU-MRU

http://www.okayama-u.ac.jp/eng/research_highlights/index.html

About Okayama University

Okayama University is one of the largest comprehensive universities in Japan with roots going back to the Medical Training Place sponsored by the Lord of Okayama and established in 1870. Now with 1,300 faculty and 14,000 students, the University offers courses in specialties ranging from medicine and pharmacy to humanities and physical sciences.
We see an opportunity for success among the passion and enthusiasm Brazilians have for eSports and performance PC components.

Patriot, a leading manufacturer of computer memory, SSDs, gaming peripherals, consumer flash storage solutions and mobile accessories, today announced its further investment into the Brazilian market. With the help of Patriots new Global Director of Business Development and General Manager of Brazil, Brent McCray, Patriot looks to empower Brazilians with innovative tech solutions within the gaming, mainstream and enterprise markets at affordable prices.

With over 30 years of excellence in customer service, product manufacturing and the successful expansion into new product categories such as: gaming peripherals, computer storage, mobile accessories and flash storage; Patriot looks to offer Brazilians the best option for top quality and performance products at an accessible price point for end users. With products such as the Fuel iON, a robust wireless charging system designed to magnetically charge mobile devices, high capacity USB drives, a large library of consumer SSDs, the New Viper Gaming line and computer memory ranging from DDR1 to DDR4, Patriot aspires to be the brand of choice for DIY computer enthusiasts, everyday consumers and PC gamers in Brazil.

In partnership with other tech giants and eSports organizations, Patriot is committed to the expansion and increased awareness of the latest technology and eSports trends within the country. Patriot recently announced its sponsorship of ESL Premier League Brazil, one of the worlds largest eSports producers, in which Patriot will participate in over 200 live tournament broadcasts, six finals events, social media giveaways and interviews. In addition, Patriots products are the official memory, SSDs, keyboards, mice and headsets for the ESL Studios in Brazil.

Im excited to play a key role in Patriots global expansion into the gaming and eSports segments, said Brent McCray, Patriots Global Director of Business Development and General Manager of Brazil. With the recent launch of Patriots Viper Gaming line and our continued dedication to developing performance SSDs and enthusiast memory, we see an opportunity for success among the passion and enthusiasm Brazilians have for eSports and performance PC components.

McCray comes to Patriot with over 25 years of experience in the gaming, PC hardware and software industries. As the Worldwide Enthusiast Segment Marketing Director for Intel, McCray was one of the primary people responsible for bringing the largest worldwide gaming event, Intel Extreme Masters, to Brazil three years in a row. As the General Manager of Patriots operations in Brazil, McCray will help to further sales efforts, cultivate customer relations as well as expand Patriots global reach and brand recognition.

We are very pleased to have Brent on board at Patriot, said Paul Jones, CEO of Patriot. His comprehensive knowledge of the PC component, gaming and mobile device market as well as the culture of Brazil will be a tremendous asset to achieve the growth and presence Patriot is looking to develop within Brazil.

Availability

Patriot products are available for purchase, today, in stores and online at select retailers and e-tailers such as http://patriotstore.com.br/.

About Patriot

Patriot designs, manufactures and markets high performance, enthusiast memory modules, flash memory, and mobile accessory products. Patriot products have become world renown for their extreme performance, reliability and innovation. Patriot sells its products through original equipment manufacturers, retailers, e-tailers and distributors throughout the world with operations in North America, Asia and Europe. Patriot Memory LLC was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in Fremont, California, USA.

All company and/or product names may be trade names, trademarks and/or registered trademarks of the respective owners with which they are associated. Features, pricing, availability, and specifications are subject to change without notice.

Media Contacts:

Stacey Pinheiro

Marketing and Communications Specialist

Patriot Memory

spinheiro(at)patriotmem(dot)com

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TeamConnect Wireless can also be supplied with a rugged charging case. With TeamConnect Wireless, Sennheiser has boldly staked out its leadership in professional conferencing.

Ease of use, better sound quality and reliability: A new study by Sennheiser and Millward Brown reveals these to be the top three unmet demands of managers running remote conferences. Sennheisers TeamConnect Wireless brings to an end the age of conference call frustrations, delivering unmatched ease of use and excellent sound quality in a portable system for up to 24 participants. At InfoComm 2016, the audio specialist will be expanding its new wireless conferencing system, with an alternative charging base for permanent meeting rooms. Alongside the current carry case option for ad hoc meetings, the TeamConnect Wireless family now offers the ideal wireless conferencing solution to meet the needs of todays businesses.

As companies work increasingly flexibly across multiple locations and geographies, the conference call has become an essential stage for business achievement. Todays meetings can happen anywhere. With teams often spread across many locations, its mission-critical to successfully bring people together, because only a connected team can perform to its full potential. Yet despite this, too often conferences dont run smoothly, hampered by technical challenges or offering poor sound quality that makes it difficult for participants to be understood. This has a direct impact on business performance: A study by Sennheiser and Millward Brown released in January 2016 has revealed that successful companies have strong internal connections and run a higher frequency of meetings, while lower performers meet less often. The study also discovered that barriers in sound quality and usability of meeting technology leads to lower frequency of meetings, with managers demanding that future solutions should be reliable, offering better sound quality and intuitive ease of use.

TeamConnect Wireless from Sennheiser is the cure for these business pain points, offering a high performing portable conference solution for up to 24 people that can be used by anyone, anywhere. It provides unmatched ease of use, speed of set up and cutting edge connectivity that fits seamlessly into the independent, bring your own device ethos of the most fast-moving and flexible of modern workplaces - all with the audio specialists trademark high quality audio.

The stylish portable solution is made up of four units  one master and three satellites. The units are wirelessly linked by a DECT connection and provide a flexible system that can be set up in virtually any room or table arrangement.

TeamConnect Wireless Tray Set

At InfoComm 2016, a new version of TeamConnect Wireless will be launched that includes a new charging tray option  an alternative to the rugged travel/charging case that can be supplied with the TeamConnect Wireless. Describing the new version, Andy Niemann, Director Business Communication at Sennheiser, explained: In modern workspaces, meeting rooms can be of two types  unequipped/ad-hoc and fixed meeting rooms. The case version of TeamConnect Wireless brilliantly addressed the need for a mobile/portable meeting solution for unequipped meeting rooms and we are now introducing the tray version of the same system to meet the needs of permanent meeting rooms. The new version offers a hassle free storage and charging option for that set of users, ensuring that TeamConnect Wireless fits into virtually any meeting room. It is therefore the perfect choice for organizations seeking a high quality audio conferencing system in any meeting environment.

Connect smart devices, computers or landlines

TeamConnect Wireless offers peerless connectivity options, making any device immediately capable of establishing a professional quality conference call in seconds. Users can quickly connect their own Bluetooth smart device or computer wirelessly, with NFC making pairing with compatible devices simple. Wired connections are also possible via USB  ideal for web or video conferencing via a computer  or 3.5mm jack cable, so it can readily fit in to a broad range of hardware set-ups.

Control everything at a touch

The system brings a new level of usability to conferencing that makes it easy for anyone to operate with minimal instruction, freeing users from the need for technical support. Simply slide the four units from the case and they automatically power up and link together. The intuitive, touch-sensitive control panel on the master unit allows you to connect devices and control calls, while the satellite units have touch controls for muting or adjusting volume. Uniquely, TeamConnect Wireless supports multiple simultaneous audio channels, so additional callers can be joined to an existing conference by just connecting another device. TeamConnect Wireless is optimized for IP solutions, which includes Skype for Business, Cisco Jabber, Webex, and Go-To-Meeting.

Sounds great, looks beautiful

With set up taking no time at all, TeamConnect Wireless sets the stage for a brilliant meeting. As a Sennheiser product, it delivers excellent acoustic clarity and speech intelligibility, which allows for natural conversation and improved meeting productivity.

Alongside leading edge functionality, TeamConnect Wireless is designed to be at home in even the most prestigious office environments. Use of premium materials such as glass and aluminum makes the system tough enough to take anywhere, while conveying an unmistakable business class elegance  a fact recognized when it was named a Best of the Best product at the prestigious Red Dot Design Award 2016.

With its innovative design and sound features, TeamConnect Wireless embodies Sennheisers ambition to make the future of audio technology tangible to their customers. Andy Niemann explains how the new product aligns to Sennheisers overall company vision Shape the future of Audio: With TeamConnect Wireless, Sennheiser has boldly staked out its leadership in professional conferencing. It is the simplest and fastest way to set up professional quality conferences, no matter the user, device, room or table set-up, providing brilliant sound for easier communication and more successful meetings. This is truly the Future of Audio in todays workplace.

For further information on TeamConnect Wireless, please visit:

http://www.sennheiser.com/teamconnect-wireless

To experience Sennheisers solutions at InfoComm visit us at C10908. InfoComm 2016 will be held at the Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas. Nevada, from June 4-10.

About Sennheiser

Audio specialist Sennheiser is one of the world's leading manufacturers of headphones, microphones and wireless transmission systems. Based in Wedemark near Hanover, Germany, Sennheiser operates its own production facilities in Germany, Ireland and the USA and is active in more than 50 countries. With 19 sales subsidiaries and long-established trading partners, the company supplies innovative products and cutting-edge audio solutions that are optimally tailored to its customers' needs. Sennheiser is a family-owned company that was founded in 1945 and which today has 2,700 employees around the world that share a passion for audio technology. Since 2013, Sennheiser has been managed by Daniel Sennheiser and Dr. Andreas Sennheiser, the third generation of the family to run the company. In 2014, the Sennheiser Group had sales totalling 635 million. http://www.sennheiser.com

About Sennheiser Business Communication

As part of the Sennheiser Professional Systems segment, the Sennheiser Business Communication division is focused on providing innovative audio solutions for the corporate market. Sennheiser Business Communication provides speaker systems, audio distribution networks, conference systems, installed microphones and tour guide and information systems, reaching the corporate market via specialist channel partners and AV resellers/integrators, continually innovating to accelerate and simplify the convergence of the AV and IT. The division draws on Sennheisers rich, 70-year history of setting new milestones in audio excellence to bring new standards to business communications. The latest addition in the portfolio is TeamConnect Wireless  a portable and wireless audio conferencing solution - designed to empower businesses to thrive in sophisticated work environments and meet business professionals growing expectations for better and more flexible workplace communications and collaborations.
... many HotDocs clients use the software to standardise document style and format...

Orovan is the Senior Director of Enterprise Success at Net Promoter company Satmetrix and has worked within the customer experience and loyalty field for 15 years. His talk will focus on managing the customer experience in the professional services sector and will cover how documentation can drive good or bad experience, using NPS to manage client accounts and the future of customer experience management.

Orovan said: I am passionate about helping organisations to use customer experience measurement tools to identify and execute transformative initiatives, deliver promoter-creating experiences and build positive word of mouth. Business documentation is one driver of brand impression and I look forward to generating discussion amongst the HotDocs User Group audience around how they can maximise customer experience through client documents.

HUG is an annual event organised and hosted by HotDocs to allow HotDocs users, partners and other interested parties to hear the latest news and developments from HotDocs, share best practice case studies and network with peers. In addition to the keynote address from Paul Orovan, attendees will also see presentations from the HotDocs team, Norfolk County Council, Royal Bank of Scotland and HotDocs partner Ascertus.

Lois McLuckie, Senior Marketing Manager at HotDocs, commented: I am delighted that Paul has agreed to deliver our keynote address at this years HUG. While our document automation technology is best known for delivering operational efficiency and mitigating risk, many HotDocs clients also use the software to standardise document style and format across their businesses to ensure compliance with brand guidelines. However, documentation is part of a much broader customer journey and Pauls presentation will provide our attendees with thought provoking content on how best to manage the whole customer experience in their own organisations.

HUG takes place in London on Tuesday 14th June. The event has a few spaces remaining and anyone interested in attending should register as soon as possible.

About HotDocs

HotDocs is the market leading provider of automated document generation software, with customers in 42 different countries and a user-base, globally, that exceeds one million. Automated document generation, or document assembly, allows a vast reduction in time spent in the production of high volume, repeat documentation such as contracts, agreements and other legal paperwork.

Widely used within the legal, banking, insurance, public and corporate sectors, HotDocs software also increases accuracy, reduces cost/risk and improves efficiency in the generation of complex, or simple, repeat documentation. The software is available on premise, on desktop or via the cloud and can operate in a standalone capacity or as part of a wider business process management system, such as workflow, document management or case management systems.
Kim brings a wealth of proven experience as a retail, brand, and ecommerce executive leading marketing, sales and strategy for some of the worlds most recognizable brands.

PowerReviews, the leading provider of ratings, reviews and question-and-answer technology to more than 1,000 brands and retailers, announced today the appointment of Kim Feil to its board of directors. Feil brings more than 25 years of experience with the largest brands and retailers including OfficeMax, Walgreens, Sara Lee, Kimberly-Clark, Information Resources Inc, Dr Pepper/7UP and Frito-Lay.

Kim brings a wealth of proven experience as a retail, brand, and ecommerce executive leading marketing, sales and strategy for some of the worlds most recognizable brands, said Matt Moog, CEO of PowerReviews. Were excited that she is joining the PowerReviews board and look forward to the contributions shell make as we continue our mission to unify and amplify the voice of the consumer for brands and retailers.

Feil led marketing and innovation growth strategies as the EVP and Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer for OfficeMax during its merger with Office Depot in 2013. She also served as the first Chief Marketing Officer for Walgreens, where she positioned the company as a leading community health and daily living destination for its six million daily customers.

Feil also supported the growth of some of the largest brands through her work at Sara Lee, Kimberly-Clark, Dr Pepper/7UP and Frito-Lay. And as President of Marketing for Information Resources, Inc., Feil worked with U.S. retailers and brands on their strategies, led the IRI global innovation practice, and launched the companys ecommerce platform.

In June 2014 she added tech startup to her experiences when she was named CEO of bizHive, a dynamic online marketplace that connects small business owners with best-in-class marketing and operations services suppliers.

Im honored to serve on the board of this dynamic, growing company said Feil. I look forward to working together with the PowerReviews board and management team as they continue to deliver innovative solutions that increase sales and drive actionable insights for brands and retailers of all sizes.

Feil is the president of The CMO Club-Chicago, serves on the Global Retail Marketing Association Advisory Board, and has been named a Woman to Watch by Ad Age, Crains Chicago Business, and Consumer Goods & Technology magazines.

To learn more about PowerReviews, visit http://www.powerreviews.com.

About PowerReviews

PowerReviews works with more than 1,000 global brands and retailers to increase conversion and improve products and the customer experience with ratings and reviews and Q&A software. PowerReviews unifies and amplifies the voice of the consumer throughout their journey, across all channels to help consumers make better purchase decisions and to help businesses drive conversion and improve products and services. Ratings and reviews solutions from PowerReviews are essential for consumers as they search and shop online and in-store, driving traffic on more than 5,000 websites, creating actionable insights to improve products and services, increasing conversion, and growing online site-wide sales up to 17%. The PowerReviews Syndication Network reaches 2,500 retailers and more than 700 million in-market shoppers every month, giving retailers and brands the power to reach shoppers wherever they are. For more information, visit http://www.powerreviews.com.
For too long, there have been barriers between U.S. health systems and the world around us, said Prabhjot Singh, MD, PhD.

The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai announced today the creation of the Department of Health System Design and Global Health, the first in the nation to leverage the strengths of a major U.S. health care system to learn from, and contribute to, global health systems.

Prabhjot Singh, MD, PhD, who will serve as the Departments inaugural Chair, will also continue his role as Director of The Arnhold Institute for Global Health at Mount Sinai. The Department and The Arnhold Institute will work closely together.

The Department will be shaped by and directly influence the design of the Mount Sinai Health System through collaboration with executive and hospital leadership. Together, they will evaluate current health system designs, anticipate future needs, and deploy a new generation of health-improving systems. The Departments output will also create opportunities for health systems around the globe to learn from and potentially adopt these innovations.

The launch of the new Department showcasing the work of Dr. Singh and his team demonstrate Mount Sinais unwavering commitment to designing innovative and value-based care models, and to training the next generation of health system strategists and leaders who can think globally to ensure innovative, proactive solutions well into the future, said Dennis S. Charney, MD, the Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and President for Academic Affairs, Mount Sinai Health System.

For too long, there have been barriers between U.S. health systems and the world around us, Dr. Singh said. We face common challenges of delivering low-cost, high-quality health care at scale, addressing structural inequities, and finding sustainable ways to participate in the work of building healthy places. Our new Department, in conjunction with The Arnhold Institute for Global Health, will focus on training practitioners, designing new methods and developing solutions that collapse this barrier. The groundswell of interest from across the Mount Sinai Health System and Icahn School of Medicine signals a promising future.

Specific goals of the new Department include pursuing health system design and transformation strategies for the Mount Sinai Health System and health systems worldwide, designing next generation care models, prototyping cost-effective business models to accelerate them, and pioneering data-driven methods and user-centric technologies to scale them. Emphasis will also be placed on recruiting faculty with diverse interests and expertise in economic and policy analysis, operations research, data science, interaction design, and other relevant fields, as well as unifying faculty across the Health System who are involved in, or wish to be involved in, health system design and development.

Dr. Singh was recruited to the Icahn School of Medicine in 2015 from Columbia University, where he was Director of Systems Design at the Earth Institute and a faculty member in International and Public Affairs. He has a PhD in neural and genetic systems from The Rockefeller University and a medical degree from Weill Cornell Medical College, and completed fellowship training in sustainable development at Columbia University, and an internal medicine residency at Mount Sinai.

The Department of Health System Design and Global Health will collaborate with Icahn School of Medicine institutes, departments, and hospitals as well as Health System entities including the Departments of Medicine and Population Health Science and Policy, the Icahn Institute for Genomics and Multiscale Biology, Institute for Health Care Delivery Science, Institute for Next Generation Healthcare, and Mount Sinai Health Partners.

About the Mount Sinai Health System

The Mount Sinai Health System is an integrated health system committed to providing distinguished care, conducting transformative research, and advancing biomedical education. Structured around seven hospital campuses and a single medical school, the Health System has an extensive ambulatory network and a range of inpatient and outpatient servicesfrom community-based facilities to tertiary and quaternary care.

The System includes approximately 7,000 primary and specialty care physicians; 12 joint-venture ambulatory surgery centers; more than 140 ambulatory practices throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Florida; and 31 affiliated community health centers. Physicians are affiliated with the renowned Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, which is ranked among the highest in the nation in National Institutes of Health funding per investigator. The Mount Sinai Hospital is ranked as one of the nations top 10 hospitals in Geriatrics, Cardiology/Heart Surgery, and Gastroenterology, and is in the top 25 in five other specialties in the 2015-2016 Best Hospitals issue of U.S. News & World Report. Mount Sinais Kravis Childrens Hospital also is ranked in seven out of ten pediatric specialties by U.S. News & World Report. The New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai is ranked 11th nationally for Ophthalmology, while Mount Sinai Beth Israel is ranked regionally.

For more information, visit http://www.mountsinai.org or find Mount Sinai on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

About the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai is an international leader in medical and scientific training, biomedical research, and patient care. It is the medical school for the Mount Sinai Health System, an integrated health care system which includes seven hospitals and an expanding ambulatory network serving approximately 4 million patients per year.

The School has more than 1,800 students in MD, PhD, and Masters programs and post-doctoral fellowships; more than 5,600 faculty members; over 2,000 residents and fellows; and 23 clinical and research institutes and 34 academic departments. It is ranked among the highest in the nation in National Institutes of Health funding per principal investigator. The School was the first medical school in the country to create a progressive admissions approach for students who seek early assurance of admission through the FlexMed program.

The Graduate School of Biomedical Science trains PhD and MD/PhD students, and offers masters-level programs in areas such as genetic counseling, clinical research, biomedical sciences, and public health, and an online masters degree in health care delivery leadership. The seamless connections between our medical school, graduate school, and hospital campuses provide an extraordinary environment for translating scientific discoveries into clinical treatments.

For more information, visit http://icahn.mssm.edu or find the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

About the Arnhold Institute for Global Health

The Arnhold Institute for Global Health at the Icahn School of Medicine, Mount Sinai Health System, seeks to improve the health of people and the communities they live in, both in the U.S. and abroad. The Arnhold Institute serves as a global arm of the Mount Sinai Health System, leading research on the design of more equitable and effective care models that are disseminated through digital products, training systems and input on policy design.

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EPS Literacy and Intervention, a division of School Specialty, Inc. (OTCQB: SCOO), today announced the winners of its 2016 S.P.I.R.E. (Specialized Program Individualizing Reading Excellence) Awards, which honor students who have overcome significant challenges to improve their reading proficiency, as well as the teachers who go above and beyond every day to ensure every student has the opportunity to improve their reading and comprehension skills.

The 2016 S.P.I.R.E. Super Star of the Year is Knyasia, a fifth-grader at Northwood Elementary School in Baltimore. When Knyasia entered Carolyn Razon-Fernandezs self-contained class as a fourth-grader, she had been diagnosed with a learning disability and was reading at a 1st grade level. Initially, Knyasia had trouble reading more than a few sentences at a time and her assessments showed reading fluency of 16 words per minute (WPM) of grade-level text with 76 percent accuracy. She currently reads 5th grade level texts at 77 WPM with 97 percent accuracy. Razon-Fernandez credits S.P.I.R.E. for Knyasias turnaround, saying the program gave her the tools to read and comprehend stories without intensive teacher support. Knyasia can interact with text in numerous ways and is also able to apply the strategies shes learned with S.P.I.R.E. to other academic subjects. Knyasias confidence has grown so much, she now enjoys participating in class, often asking if she can read aloud or if she can choose a book to read during free time. Knyasia says S.P.I.R.E. is, fun and made me like reading . . . its not like Im learning to read . . . Im just reading and enjoying every minute of it!

Knyasia will receive a $100 gift card to Amazon.com, where she can find books to read during the upcoming school year.

The 2016 S.P.I.R.E. Teacher of the Year is Meera Shinn, an exceptional childrens teacher at Southern Pines Elementary School in Southern Pines, North Carolina. In nominating her, Laura Dendy, the schools exceptional childrens program specialist, called Shinn, exemplary, noting that as a result of S.P.I.R.E., her students have gained more than 200 points on the Scholastic Reading Inventory Lexile. Shinn is known for celebrating her students growth with constant encouragement and motivation, resulting in a highly focused and engaged classroom. Shinn will receive a $100 gift card to Amazon.com and a $350 gift certificate to be used toward the purchase of materials from EPS.

The students honored as 2016 S.P.I.R.E. Super Star finalists are:

Sarah Grace, fifth grade, Landmark Christian School, Fairburn, Georgia

Sarah Grace began working with S.P.I.R.E as a first grader. As she struggled with reading and comprehension, her teacher Nicole Daniel, a learner support specialist at the school, worked with her through multiple levels of S.P.I.R.E. This past spring, Sarah Graces assessments showed she scored a grade equivalent score of 7.7 in reading. Daniel says it was Sarah Graces positive attitude and strong work ethic that propelled her to complete challenging class assignments and gain mastery over reading. Sarah Grace never gives up and often welcomes a challenge, says Daniel. Her positive attitude, even in the face of difficulty, is an immensely admirable asset. I'm confident that she will continue to demonstrate the same diligence, perseverance, and optimism in the coming years.

Grace, fifth grade, Evart Elementary School, Evart, Michigan

After some early struggles with basic reading skills, with the encouragement of Deb Tomich, resource room teacher at Evart Elementary, Gracie started the new school year with a newfound confidence and determination to work harder than ever. She participates in two S.P.I.R.E. groups and can now decode and blend unknown words. Gracie has progressed to reading level one stories independently and correctly answering comprehension questions. Gracie says the S.P.I.R.E. reading lessons, helped me learn to read!

The educators honored as 2016 S.P.I.R.E. Teacher of Excellence finalists are:

Ramona Briones-Mosely, special education teacher, McKinley Elementary School, Farmington, New Mexico

For the past four years, Briones-Mosely has found engaging and creative ways to incorporate S.P.I.R.E. into her classroom. During S.P.I.R.E. lessons, students sit in a semi-circle around the whiteboard Briones-Mosely uses in class to model the lesson plans. Briones-Mosely calls students to the work at the whiteboard and the group setting encourages engagement and teamwork, while furthering their multi-sensory skills. Briones-Mosely uses S.P.I.R.E.s progress monitoring and record-keeping tools to ensure her students are moving at a pace that will lead to content mastery. Her students have made great gains in reading each year and her enthusiasm and innovative teaching strategies continue to promote excellence in the classroom. In fact, Briones-Moselys comfort with classroom technology has resulted in her piloting EPS iSPIRE, an interactive reading intervention program designed to accelerate literacy skill development for the lowest performing students in grades PreK-8.

Mally Edmiston, special education teacher, Mesa Verde Elementary School, Farmington, New Mexico

An enthusiastic supporter of S.P.I.R.E. for the past five years, Edmiston uses the programs ten-step lessons to teach special needs students in grades 3-5. His colleague, Cynthia Bader, says, It is not unusual to see students working in Levels 6 and 7 of S.P.I.R.E. It is clear that his students understand the background knowledge, phonetic rules and strategies for decoding that enable them to be successful at these advanced levels. Edmiston also trains his peers around the district in S.P.I.R.E. best practices. Bader says Edmistons mission is to empower his students with the tools and knowledge they need to be successful readers. In addition to mastering decoding and syllabication, Edmistons students have also gained proficiency in the close comprehension and vocabulary strategies that will guide them to future academic success.

To read the nominations of these outstanding students and teachers, visit: http://eps.schoolspecialty.com/resources/awards/announcing-spire-super-star-awards-2016

S.P.I.R.E. is a comprehensive and multisensory reading intervention program that integrates phonological awareness, phonics, spelling, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension in a 10-step lesson plan especially designed for struggling readers. S.P.I.R.E. has been used throughout the country with great success by thousands of students who need a direct, systematic and sequential approach to reading. Based on the Orton-Gillingham approach, S.P.I.R.E. is now in its third edition, which incorporates the most recent research regarding best practices in reading and language arts instruction. The program incorporates many opportunities for practice, ensuring students experience continuous and visible success. Learn more at http://epsbooks.com/SPIRE.

About EPS Literacy and Intervention

EPS Literacy and Intervention provides K12 blended-media solutions that build core skills and close the achievement gap in reading and math. With powerful instructional tools and high-quality materials, the companys reading and math intervention solutions are proven to help struggling students. From universal screening to interventions, progress-monitoring to data-driven decision-making, and professional development, EPS offers an integrated approach to effective teaching and learning.

For more information on EPS and its proven programs Wordly Wise 3000, Academy of READING, Academy of MATH, MCI, S.P.I.R.E., Path Driver for Reading, Path Driver for Math, Explode The Code and EPS E.P.I.C., visit http://epsbooks.com.

About School Specialty, Inc.

School Specialty is a leading distributor of innovative and proprietary products, programs and services to the education marketplace. The Company designs, develops, and provides educators with the latest and very best school supplies, furniture and both curriculum and supplemental learning resources. Working in collaboration with educators, School Specialty reaches beyond the scope of textbooks to help teachers, guidance counselors and school administrators ensure that every student reaches his or her full potential. For more information about School Specialty, visit http://www.schoolspecialty.com.
PRSMAssociation-Master.jpg Patricia Dameron - Executive Director PRSM The information from the snapshot will allow facilities managers to see what different technologies are being used in the industry and will help them plan for the future or justify their current plans.

The Professional Retail Store Maintenance Association, (PRSM), the authority on retail, multi-site facilities management, has released its latest Benchmarking Snapshot, Exterior Facilities Maintenance: Costs & Sustainability, which provides information on retailers exterior maintenance service costs, exterior sustainability technologies and common area maintenance (CAM) charges.

One major finding from the snapshot is the large discrepancy between retailers implementation of exterior lighting technologies versus water conversation technologies. The snapshot found retailers use the water conservation techniques such as rain sensors for sprinklers (29%), plants with low water needs (33%), and timing irrigation for minimal evaporation (43%) whereas the retailers have implemented a larger number of exterior lighting technologies such as lighting timers (69%), LED lights (33%) and daylight sensors (73%).

In addition, the report identified that 80% of respondents are planning exterior energy efficient tech upgrades, and that the average common area maintenance charge is almost $32,000 with the maximum being $120,000.

Benchmarking is one of the highest requested member benefits from retailers, as being able to compare themselves to an industry standard is crucial for facility management professionals, says Patricia Dameron, Executive Director. The information from the snapshot will allow facilities managers to see what different technologies are being used in the industry and will help them plan for the future or justify their current plans.

Download the snapshot report and Infographic on http://www.prsm.com to find out more information about different technologies implemented, energy efficiency plans and annual costs.

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About the Professional Retail Store Maintenance Association (PRSM)

PRSM Association, the authority on Retail and Multi-site Facilities Management, is the leading membership organization for retail facilities and vendor professionals. PRSM empowers the Retail Industry facilities management with best practices, benchmarking, education, discussion forums and trusted partnerships. Chartered in 1995, and with approximately 950 member companies, PRSM community values are founded on a spirit of innovation, resourcefulness, the quest for knowledge and ethical business relationships. Members depend on PRSM to help them achieve greater success and a competitive advantage through quality programs and resources.

Visit prsm.com for more information.
Donald Jackson, second from right, is pictured with other members of the Saint John's community as they present the final volume of The Saint John's Bible to His Holiness Pope Francis April 17, 2015. Jackson will be inducted into the Order of St. Gregory the Great, a papal knighthood granted for outstanding service to the Catholic Church. Jackson will receive the honor in a special ceremony June 15 at Westminster Cathedral in London.

Donald Jackson, MVO, the artistic director and scribe for The Saint Johns Bible, will receive one of the highest honors bestowed upon laypeople by the Vatican.

Jackson will be inducted into the Order of St. Gregory the Great, a papal knighthood granted for outstanding service to the Catholic Church. Jackson will receive the honor in a special ceremony June 15 at Westminster Cathedral in London from Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the archbishop of Westminster.

Jackson was nominated for the award by Bishop Donald Kettler of the Diocese of St. Cloud.

In the course of its creation and since, The Saint Johns Bible has touched the lives of Catholics within our diocese as well as millions around the world, Kettler said. Mr. Jackson and the Benedictine monks of Saint Johns Abbey have once again pointed to the central role of the Bible to the vitality of the Catholic Church.

Jackson, one of the worlds leading calligraphers, has been the artistic director and principal illuminator of The Saint Johns Bible since 1998. For more than 50 years, he has also been responsible for the creation of official state documents in Great Britain as senior illuminator to the crown office of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Jackson resides in Wales and is a member of the Anglican Communion. It is rare for non-Catholics to receive papal knighthood.

Mr. Jackson has made a singular contribution to contemporary Christian art, said Rt. Rev. Nicholas Holtam, the Anglican Bishop of the Diocese of Salisbury, a longtime friend of Jacksons. There is no doubt in my mind that he has provided spiritual insight and inspiration to countless numbers of Anglicans and Roman Catholics alike.

The honor further fulfills Saint Johns goal to share the Word of God with the world. Through his talent, Mr. Jackson has demonstrated once again the power of the artist to be in service to the sacred, said Abbot John Klassen, OSB, of Saint Johns Abbey.

Jackson was at his Scriptorium in Wales when he learned about the honor.

I give my sincere thanks to His Holiness Pope Francis for this award and to those who proposed it, said Jackson. I am delighted to accept it as both a symbol of his recognition of what has been achieved and of his encouragement for Saint John's mission to ignite the spiritual imagination of all peoples. Long may The Saint John's Bible journey continue to do that.

The Pontifical Order of St. Gregory the Great was established in 1831 by Pope Gregory XVI. This special honor is bestowed upon men and women in recognition of their personal service to the Holy See and to the Roman Catholic Church, through their unusual labors, their support of the Holy See and their excellent examples set forth in their communities and their countries.
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"These entries were so touching that we decided to host an event to celebrate romantic love, love of family, all kinds of love."

HomeAway, the world leader in vacation rentals, is creating a celebration of love in the city of love at the worlds most iconic symbol of love. Proposals, vow renewals, and love stories will take over HomeAway's Eiffel Tower Apartment on July 2, and HomeAway is giving away a trip for two to Paris where U.S. winners will be guests of honor at the LoveAway Celebration.

To enter to win, visit the HomeAway LoveAway sweepstakes page and complete the entry form before June 13. The winners will receive an all-expense paid trip to Paris, including four nights, June 30 through July 4, in a romantic HomeAway apartment in the heart of the city.

The winning couple will join other romantics at a party in HomeAways Eiffel Tower Apartment, which was built inside the tower as a temporary space for only one month. Kaitlyn Bristowe and fiance Shawn Booth from ABC's The Bachelorette are co-hosts with HomeAway and will celebrate their engagement at the LoveAway event.

The sweepstakes follows the conclusion of HomeAway's #EiffelTowerAllYours contest that invited people to enter for a chance to win one night in the Tower. HomeAway received more than 150,000 entries from contestants who, in 140 characters or less, expressed what they would do if the Tower were all theirs for a night.

As we narrowed down the contestants vying for a chance to make history by sleeping in the Eiffel Tower, it was validating to hear from so many that they consider this iconic landmark universal monument to love, said Mariano Dima, chief marketing officer for HomeAway. From making to renewing, declaring to wooing, answers about love accounted for a significant percentage of total entries.

For example, #EiffelTowerAllYours contestants said:



I would spend a romantic evening with my gorgeous wife enjoying the magical views as we fall in love all over again.

Fall deeper in love with my fiance before he joins the Air Force, in total bliss from a night in indescribable luxury among Paris' sparkle.

We would enjoy each other's company one last time before starting a family together. Drink champagne, eat macarons and love each other.

I would show my wonderful fiancee that Paris is all about love and romance. I would re-propose to her as well. It's all about love.

"These entries were so touching that we decided to host an event to celebrate romantic love, love of family, all kinds of love," explained Dima.

On July 2 at 2:00 p.m. CEST/8:00 GMT+1, love enthusiasts are invited join Bristowe, Booth, and the U.S. contest winners for a heartfelt celebration. Guests will enjoy activities to capture memories including a video booth for love stories and professionally-drawn portraits. French champagne will be available for those wishing to make a toast to love. Those interested in attending can go to the companys Facebook pages including Abritel, HomeAway U.S. and HomeAway Asia for information on how to get free access to the event.

About HomeAway

HomeAway, based in Austin, Texas, is the world leader in vacation rentals with sites representing more than one 1.2 million paid listings of vacation rental homes in 190 countries, and is a part of the Expedia, Inc. family of brands. Through HomeAway, owners and property managers offer an extensive selection of vacation homes that provide travelers with memorable experiences and benefits, including more room to relax and added privacy, for less than the cost of traditional hotel accommodations. The company also makes it easy for vacation rental owners and property managers to advertise their properties and manage bookings online. The HomeAway portfolio includes the leading vacation rental websites HomeAway.com, VRBO.com and VacationRentals.com in the United States; HomeAway.co.uk and OwnersDirect.co.uk in the United Kingdom; HomeAway.de in Germany; Abritel.fr and Homelidays.com in France; HomeAway.es and Toprural.es in Spain; AlugueTemporada.com.br in Brazil; HomeAway.com.au and Stayz.com.au in Australia; Bookabach.co.nz in New Zealand; and Asia Pacific short-term rental site, travelmob.com.

The company also operates BedandBreakfast.com, the most comprehensive global site for finding bed-and-breakfast properties, providing travelers with another source for unique lodging alternatives to chain hotels. For more information about HomeAway, please visit http://www.homeaway.com.

 2016 HomeAway.com, Inc. All rights reserved. HomeAway and the HomeAway logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of HomeAway.com, Inc.
Biocon Academy We are keen to collaborate with Biocon again on developing another bioscience management program suitable for young professionals in the biopharmaceutical industry.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, the CMD, of Asias leading fully integrated biopharmaceutical company, Biocon, visited Keck Graduate Institute (KGI) in Claremont, California recently to commemorate the KGI Biocon Partnership. She met with KGI faculty, staff, and students, discussed the progress of Biocon Academys flagship program, the KGI Biocon Certificate Program in Applied Biosciences, and marked the completion of KGI and Biocon Academys program in Bioscience Management for working professionals in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.

The KGI Biocon formal partnership began in January 2014 with the launch of Biocon Academy, a Center of Excellence for Advanced Learning in Applied Biosciences. Biocon Academy is driven by a mission to develop high-end talent to create a globally competitive biotech ecosystem in India. In this partnership, Biocon Academy leverages the strong academic and technical expertise of its international education partner, KGI in California, USA, along with the industrial heritage of Biocon Limited. The KGI Biocon partnership has successfully trained students to meet the needs of the rapidly growing bioscience industry in India and also globally.

Biocon Academys flagship program, the KGI Biocon Certificate Program in Applied Biosciences, has grown to become an online, international program that has proven to be a valuable tool for recent graduates in the field of biotechnology. In the ongoing academic cycle, Biocon Academy will have employees from Biocons production facility in Johor, Malaysia participating. These participating employees will log in remotely from Malaysia, making this a true cross-cultural, multi-national program.

KGI and Biocon Academy developed another program, the KGI Biocon Certificate Program in Bioscience Management for entry-level managers from functions such as R&D, regulatory affairs, quality control, and production. The primary objective of this program is to provide a pool of talented, high potential professionals with best-in-class knowledge and skills to prepare them for future leadership roles.

Meghana Joshi, PhD, KGI Biocon program director, and Steve Casper, PhD, KGIs dean of the School of Applied Life Sciences, are co-developing and restructuring this program with support from Amitava Saha, Biocons senior vice president and head of human resources.

Speaking about the new program Joshi said: We are keen to collaborate with Biocon again on developing another bioscience management program suitable for young professionals in the biopharmaceutical industry. This program will include courses that will teach strategy, industry dynamics and market segments, operations management and sales and marketing specific to the bioscience industry.

The newly designed program will consist of multiple certificate courses in bioscience management, which will serve as building blocks towards a masters degree in bioscience management. Industry professionals will have various course options and the flexibility to complete the masters degree requirements at their own pace. This management program is primarily aimed at building business acumen to attain leadership excellence.

Read more about KGI

Read more about Biocon Academy

Read more about Biocon

KGIs mission is to enrich society with breakthrough approaches to education and translational research in the life sciences. By offering customized curricula and real-world experiences, KGIs School of Applied Life Sciences and School of Pharmacy prepare students to excel in a wide range of professional endeavors, blending innovative science with sound business practice, and provide training in the safe, efficient, and ethical use of technology and biotechnology for the benefit of society.
Lion Street announced it will host its second annual Trusted Advisor Conference June 8  10, in Las Vegas. Founded in 2010, Lion Street consists of 125 Owner-Firms nationwide in 40 states who encompass a national network of financial advisors fiercely valuing independence, ownership, and influence.

The conference is exclusively for Lion Street Owner-Firms and their invited guest advisors to interact with industry experts on advanced planning solutions and market intelligence needed to navigate the complex world of financial advice for high-net-worth individuals and businesses.

Collaboration between financial professionals is the key to successful client outcomes. The Trusted Advisor Conference is focused on increasing knowledge of the best ideas for all attendees, Bob Carter, Lion Streets Founder and CEO stated.

The conference will feature 18 expert speakers including Jeff Ricchetti (Ricchetti, Inc.), Chris Erblich (Husch Blackwell), Rebecca Lockwood (Sothebys), Chris Williams (Ernst & Young), Marvin Blum (The Blum Firm), Richard Oshins (Oshins & Associates), Norm Trainor (The Covenant Group), Jay Judas (Crown Global Insurance Group), and others.

Presentations will enhance technical knowledge and develop new opportunities for relationship building and firm building. Attendees will receive expertise and knowledge on topics ranging from income tax planning, global clients, the elections impact on the industry, challenges of high-net-worth individuals and family offices, premium finance, policy valuations, valuing personal property, leveraging technology, and more.

The purpose is to bring together the Owner-Firms of Lion Street with their invited guest advisors including CPAs, Attorneys, Trust Officers, and Wealth Managers for a time of business-changing ideas, collaboration, and impactful industry information, Carter added.

Sponsors include Pacific Life, Lincoln Financial Group, Voya, Mass Mutual, Penn Mutual, Ernst & Young, Sothebys, M3 Financial, Sterling Foundation Management, and Ashar Group. Some of the speaker sessions feature opportunities to earn CPE credits for attendees. The event has sold out, and registration is now closed. To learn more about Lion Streets Trusted Advisor Conference, please find more information here.

About Lion Street

Lion Street is a privately held financial services distribution company based in Austin, Texas. Lion Street provides elite independent life insurance producers and financial advisors access to the financial products, intellectual capital, and specialized resources they need to meet the sophisticated needs of their high-net-worth and corporate clients. To learn more about Lion Street, please visit http://lionstreet.com or contact Cami Gueguen, Director of Marketing and Communications at cgueguen(at)lionstreet.com or 512-776-8466.

Lion Street Media Contact: Cami Gueguen, Director of Marketing and Communications; cgueguen(at)lionstreet.com or 512-776-8466.
Premier Music Festival in WV Music, Artisan Gallery, and Kids Camp - Best Band Festival in WV

Shepherdstown Street Fest is a free summer music festival in the small German town of Shepherdstown, West Virginia. Just one hour outside of metropolitan DC, the festival celebrates new and upcoming bands with a ten-hour music extravaganza on June 25th. Understanding the wide array of music talent that will be descending on this town is the best way to comprehend why for music lovers this is a must-attend musical festival. But the surprise that awaits the visitors is the artisan gallery with over fifty plus juried vendors showcasing their wares down German Street.

There are many wine and music festivals that have craft and artisan vendors. The Shepherdstown Street Fest stands out because of its devotion to the town and the high quality of both musicians and artisan vendors. Since the town is a great place to raise a family, the festival also ranks number one for its Kids' Camp organized by the festival title sponsor, Morgan Academy. Go Blue Ridge Travels (GoBRT) mission is to select the best multi-generational road trips here in the valley and the Shepherdstown Street Fest is a winner for all generations, said Nancy Craun, founder and owner of GoBRT. This festival is great because its organizers want to showcase the town of Shepherdstown and give back financially. Up and coming local bands have the opportunity to play next to top musicians. The artisan gallery is the best in the Shenandoah Valley"

The festival highlights Shepherdstown history as the oldest town in West Virginia. First and foremost, the festival is a fundraiser, says, Bob Keel, President. For 2016, we are proud and excited to announce that our regional non-profit is CASA-EP, Court Appointed Special Advocates of the Eastern Panhandle and that our local donation will go to the Shepherdstown Day Care, a non-profit that provides care and educational experiences for children from 12 weeks to 10 years.

The bands featured in the street fest are selected based their popularity. We pick bands that can draw crowds from different areas with a major emphasis on the popularity of this band in Shepherdstown, says Bob Keel, Main Stage Coordinator. This years headliner band is Christian Lopez Band.

Raised in the small town of Martinsburg in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia, Christian Lopez has been playing music all his life and playing in several local bands before finally emerging to center stage to perform his own songs as the Christian Lopez Band. Alternate Root named Lopez one of its Top 25 artists in 2015, noted There are guys twice Lopezs age making records that are only half as good. Preternaturally wise and notably talented, this is a kid to watch.

The festival opens at 10 am with the first band, Chamomile & Whiskey playing at 12 noon on the Main Stage. At 1:15, The Speakeasy Boys, open the Library stage. We do two stages to eliminate any down time between band set ups says Keel. Traditionally there is a thirty minute lull at most music festivals between bands. Check out the band schedule here.

The festival has a food gallery as well as the air-conditioned restaurants where one can take a break and enjoy local fare. Enjoy Almost Heaven Taters to Asian Fusion to Pork BBQ Stone and Shipley. This year a new food vendor is Bayou Billy Old Fashioned Soda.

Then plan to attend the After Party at the old Opera House. Live music from 9 - 12 midnight and again free admission. Musicians from the bands are invited to pop in and sit in on a session. It doesnt get any better if one is looking for a music experience

A free event with free Parking and Shuttle, the Shepherdstown Street Fest is a Yes on ones bucket list for visiting the Blue Ridge Mountains of the Shenandoah Valley. Make a weekend trip out of it. Ask for the Shepherdstown Street Fest rate from participating lodging partners.

Go BRT recommends the Bavarian Inn and Hillbrook Inn & Spa for more exquisite getaways. The Bavarian Inn is the definition of a romantic country stay that offers European elegance and world class service from its scenic location, overlooking the Potomac River. The Hillbrook Inn & Spa evokes a warm, relaxing and inviting atmosphere for the guests to enjoy. The new Redbook Restaurant at the Hillbrook gives guest delicious luxury food at an affordable price! Both bed and breakfasts offer modern amenities and unique fun for the whole family.

Plan a weekend with the festival on Saturday and a day of hiking and adventures on the river on Sunday.

About GoBlueRidgeTravel.com

Launched in December 2011, Go Blue Ridge Travel (GoBRT) is an e-commerce marketing company using digital internet channels to both create a travel ecosystem community for the northern Piedmont and Shenandoah Valley of VA, WV, and MD. In 2014, the Kids Trail was launched to promote multi-generational family travel and has received three grants from Virginia Tourism. In 2016, Taste of Blue Ridge, a foodie escape experience supporting local resourcing in the valley.

Founded and owned by Nancy Craun who grew up in the area and has 30 years of experience in the event planning, restaurant, hotel, and marketing arenas. GoBRT covers 160 plus mile radius of the Interstate 81 Corridor spanning the states of Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland.

Contact: Nancy Craun Founder and Owner GoBlueRidgeTravel.com and ShenandoahValleyKidsTrail.com Phone: 540.533.1853 Email: info(at)GoBlueRidgeTravel(dot)com
California Drivers Ed Online We were truly humbled by the essay submissions, and not just from big California cities like Los Angeles, Santa Clara, San Diego or Bakersfield, but from all over the United States.

DmvEdu.org, a top-rated provider of California drivers education online at http://www.dmvedu.org/, is proud to announce that it has selected the winners in its Youth Forward scholarship and essay contest. The Youth Forward scholarship seeks to reward a commitment to volunteerism among young people close to driving age (whether older or younger). To apply, applicants needed to submit an essay of less than 500 words in Microsoft Word format. Questions to be answered in the essay included the area chosen for volunteer service, the hours per week, the biggest challenge, the most satisfying experience, and what has been learned by the volunteer engagement.

We were truly humbled by the essay submissions, and not just from big California cities like Los Angeles, Santa Clara, San Diego or Bakersfield, but from all over the United States, explained Azhar Mirza, Managing Director of DmvEdu.org. He continued, It was very difficult to select the winning essay and runner-up, and we encouraged interested persons to read the essays online, as many are incredibly inspirational.

To browse essays submitted for the scholarship, please visit http://www.dmvedu.org/scholarship/?bm=1271. There, in addition to the winning essays, California teens can also click over to the online drivers education course to learn more about fulfilling the written requirements to obtain a drivers license in California. (DmvEdu.org is a provider of online drivers education in California).

Winning Essays of Youth Forward Scholarship

The winning award went to Alissa Edgington of Schertz Texas, for her volunteer work at The Academy at Morgans Wonderland. Runner-up went to Marcus Josey of York, PA, for his inspirational work as a role model vis-a-vis high risk Acut Lyphoblastic Leukemia. To read these essays, one can visit http://www.dmvedu.org/2016/05/youth-forward-2016-winners-supporting-teen-volunteerism/.

DmvEdu.org instituted the Youth Forward scholarship opportunity as part of a broad philanthropic thrust for the company. In addition to providing some of the best online drivers education available in California, the company differentiates itself through its Charity program. Persons signing up for online drivers education classes can opt to give 10% of their purchase to a non-profit. Eligible non-profits include both California and non-California organizations. More information can be found at the website by clicking on the charity tab.

About DmvEdu.org

DMVEdu.org is a top-rated website providing California drivers ed online as well as online traffic school programs certified by the California DMV. Many people come to the site looking for an easy way to find California drivers training online or to learn about the requirements and even take a California driver practice test. Certified by the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), the beauty of the website programs is that one can satisfy DMV requirements at the convenience of a computer.

Web. http://www.dmvedu.org/
MHG's Fairfield Inn and Suites by Marriott, Seymour, IN Execuvue makes it easy to add new hotels to our BI process as we open properties. We will continue to operate as a family business because we have the systems to manage better by the numbers. Past News Releases RSS Three Hotel Companies Select Aptech...

Top Hotel Management Company...

Glacier House Hotels Installs...

MHG Hotels is a family business success story. The owner-operator started with one motel, and now operates 11 properties that include Wyndham, Marriott Courtyard and Springhill Suites, Holiday Inn and Choice brands. We were doing well small, but the time was right for the Patel family to grow with brands, said Gary Maass, director of operations for MHG Hotels LLC. We wanted a bigger view of the hotel industry and to expand our place in it. Hospitality is growing and we are growing with it.

Sanjay and Ranjan Patel founded MHG 20 years ago and continue to operate the company today with the help of their two sons. It is fantastic to be adding two hotels this year, Maass said. As MHG grew, the family brought me on to oversee operations. My focus is gathering accounting and performance data from our properties, analyzing the hotel data and getting the information to our team so we can manage by the numbers. I use a BI system to do this.

Two years ago MHG installed the Execuvue Business Intelligence (BI) system from Aptech Computer Systems to support its expansion. Our growth reached a point where Excel spreadsheets were no longer effective to track the performance metrics we use to measure the health of our hotels. It took a long time just to get the hotel data, let alone analyze it. For example, before we transitioned to BI, I had to open 55 files to get my property payroll reports. Today our BI system automatically gathers data from our properties via interfaces to our Hilton, Marriott, IHG and Choice property management systems (PMS) as well as our time and attendance systems. Now I open one Execuvue file to see everything in minutes.

Part of being a successful small operation is controlling expenses. We tapped Aptech to host our BI system from their secure data center. This reduces our hardware and labor costs since MHG does not need an IT department, Maass said. Aptech processes our information, creates and supports our reporting and manages our data. We do not need a big budget to benefit from Execuvue.

MHG uses specialized reports for individual property analysis and portfolio rollups. Our E report is a custom company accounting sheet with hotel data for revenue, profit center performance, expenses, occupancy, ADR and other measures. In the past, managers had to manually key in the numbers from our Marriott, Hilton and other brand reports, Maass said. Today, our BI automatically populates the same familiar E report with accurate property numbers, including payroll, every day. Our reports are pure information that helps us be a stronger company and make better decisions faster. We are a small company that uses big tools.

Controlling labor costs is important to MHG. We hold our GMs accountable for labor expenses, Maass said. Execuvue pulls data from property time and attendance systems and formats it for instant use. We receive updates each night and the labor report goes back 28 days. If someone makes a change to the previous period, the report updates automatically. Aptech helped us make these reports exactly what we wanted. Having our own familiar reports makes the BI information easy for our staff to use as we add properties.

MHG is developing an expanded daily flash report with year-over-year comparison of revenue, labor dollars, RevPAR and other measures to identify trends. We will grab the information from PMSes, put it into an easily understood format, and send to properties, Maass said. This will show who is performing and how well. Execuvue also rolls up our numbers for all properties for a high-level ownership view. We want to focus on labor. This is a top priority since it is a propertys largest expense.

Company growth is a new way of life for MHG Hotels. We have a healthy development pipeline, Maass said. Execuvue makes it easy to add new hotels to our BI process as we open properties. We will continue to operate as a family business because we have the systems to manage better by the numbers.

Aptech is the leading provider of hospitality software for business intelligence, budgeting, and enterprise financial accounting. Click here for more on Aptechs products and services.

About MHG Hotels

MHG Hotels is one of the largest privately owned progressive companies specializing in providing investor and career opportunities, development, construction, and management services. Founded in humble beginnings with one hotel over two decades ago by Sanjay and Ranjan Patel, the company has matured into developing and operating over 30 hotels. For more information please click here.

About Aptech Computer Systems, Inc.

Aptech Computer Systems, Inc., based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is the only provider of a fully integrated enterprise accounting, business intelligence and planning ecosystem to the hospitality industry. All of its clients are companies like yours, which own or manage hotels. Its solutions help customers at both the corporate and property levels understand their financial and operational data for faster goal achievement.

The company is renowned for introducing business intelligence into the hotel industry, and offers a solid resource of hospitality professionals. Aptech is an IBM Software Value Plus partner and Premier Solution Provider.

Incorporated in 1970, Aptechs state-of-the-art back office, true business intelligence and enterprise planning solutions are 100% hotel specific. Solutions include Profitvue, Execuvue, Webvue and Targetvue. Clients comprise over 3,500 properties - including large chains, multiple-property management companies and single-site hotels. Execuvue and Profitvue are registered to Aptech Computer Systems, Inc. All other trademarks are owned by their respective holders. For more information please visit http://www.aptech-inc.com.
DMS 800 "Technology is moving at a faster pace than ever before, and data needs to be migrated just as fast, said Wayne Lam, Founder and CEO of Cirrus Data Solutions.

Cirrus Data Solutions, a leader in data migration, data acceleration and data protection, today announced that enterprises everywhere are free to move their data where they want to, when they want to, with the Data Migration Server (DMS) Version 4. The newest version of Cirrus Datas flagship product features a host of exciting new enhancements, including integration with popular new storage for automated destination disk allocation and provisioning, live data migrations and workload cut-over without application downtime, and high availability DMS hardware configurations that use half the rack space of previous DMS products.

DMS Version 4 accelerates, automates, and simplifies the block level migration of data from fibre channel storage area networks (SANs) to any new storage destinations such as legacy SAN, all flash storage, iSCSI, virtualized (hypervisor) environments, and cloud. With its patented Transparent Datapath Intercept technology, Cirrus Datas DMS Version 4 is the easiest, fastest way to move data without disruption: simply plug it into the network and begin moving source data to new destination storage in minutes. There is no downtime necessary throughout the migration process and in certified environments, DMS Version 4s new pMotion feature enables the immediate removal of older storage equipment, even before the final cutover.

Technology is moving at a faster pace than ever before, and data needs to be migrated just as fast, said Wayne Lam, Founder and CEO of Cirrus Data Solutions. Our latest version of the Data Migration Server makes it simple for enterprises to move their data out of slower, costly legacy storage systems and into the future. With the new Auto-Provisioning and pMotion capabilities of DMS Version 4, enterprises dont need to wait for application downtime to update their storage systemsthey can simply plug it in and start migrating data to new storage even while their business applications are running, without any impact.

New features available in DMS Version 4 include:



One-touch Auto-Allocation and Auto-Provisioning that creates new destinations for source data and maps them to the appropriate hosts automatically in minutes, eliminating countless hours of manual labor.

A unique pMotion feature using advanced Storage Identity Emulation technology that enables enterprises to not only migrate the data, but also the storage workload to the new storage with no application downtime required, thereby allowing the old storage to be retired without fear of lease or maintenance extension costs. Applications enjoy increased reliability and higher performance of the new storage immediately, allowing the final cutover to occur as application maintenance windows become available in the future.

New redundant cluster configurations that are now offered in a single 2U enclosure, resulting in reduced hardware footprint and lower shipping costs.

One Cirrus Data Solutions partner, Datalink, has been using the DMS solution for over four years to manage complex data migration projects. "Datalink has been well trained in using Cirrus DMS for data center transformation and migrations since DMS version 1," said Irwin Teodoro, National Practice Director for Data Center Transformation, Datalink. "The new features such as pMotion, Auto-Allocation and Auto-Provisioning in the DMS Version 4 make it even easier for us to deliver our services to our clients with confidence."

Opportunities for Channel Partners

The fourth generation of the flagship DMS solution provides unparalleled opportunities for channel partners. Setting a new standard for storage migration, Cirrus Data Solutions partners can now offer businesses the ability to quickly evolve with the changing needs of their data center and workloads with zero downtime, reduced risk, and incredible efficiency.

IT managers are challenged to balance the demands of an always-on workforce and growing storage needs, said Bryan Champagne, Chief Technology Officer of Congruity. The DMS Version 4 enables us to support customers with a cost-efficient migration solution that is quick, simple, secure, and seamless.

DMS Version 4 supports all known fibre channel legacy storage products from all vendors as a migration source. It is also the only block storage migration product certified and integrated with Pure Storage, Infinidat, Nimble, and the EMC product families including Unity and XtremIO, and enables all channel partners to deliver a highly affordable, flexible, and easy-to-use migration solution that businesses can take advantage of without delays or downtime.

Availability

The Cirrus Data Solutions DMS Version 4 is available today.

About Cirrus Data

Cirrus Data Solutions, Inc. (CDS) is leading provider of next-generation solutions for data migration, data acceleration and data protection. The company distributes its solutions through systems integrators, managed services providers, channel resellers and partners including IBM, Datalink, Fujitsu, ePlus and others. CDS is headquartered in Long Island, New York, with sales and support offices worldwide.

# # #
Failure Investigations:

Treating the Root Cause, Not the Symptoms

June 29, 2016  11:00 a.m.  12:00 p.m. ET

http://www.fdanews.com/failureinvestigations

Failure investigations are more than must-do quality tasks. They can lead to scrap reduction, rework reduction, cost cuts and process improvements.

Its good to treat the root cause, not the symptoms.

Join Karl Vahey, Associate Director of Manufacturing Quality at Medtronic, on June 29 as he walks attendees through a step-by-step guide to effective root cause analysis.

Attendees will learn:



The importance of a failure investigation

The steps in a failure investigation

How to use Fault Tree Analysis and Failure and Effect Analysis

How to write a good executive summary

Practical dos and donts of lessons learned from more than 10 case studies

Register today and learn how to conduct an effective root cause analysis.

Meet the Presenter:

Karl Vahey

Senior Director Manufacturing Quality of Europe and Asia, Medtronic

Karl Vahey is currently the Senior Director Manufacturing Quality with Medtronic. Karl has 25 years of experience in the medical device industry and has worked in Manufacturing, Quality Assurance, Regulatory Affairs and Quality Systems Compliance. His current responsibilities include overseeing Quality Operations for manufacturing facilities in Asia and Europe.

Who Will Benefit:

Creating the procedures, developing the records, and ensuring compliance is a team effort involving many functions and disciplines. This includes people in the following roles:



Quality Managers

Quality Engineers

Quality Auditors

Regulatory Managers

Complaint Handling Specialists

Data Analysts

Adverse Event Specialists

Webinar Details:

Failure Investigations:

Treating the Root Cause, Not the Symptoms

June 29, 2016  11:00 a.m.  12:00 p.m. ET

http://www.fdanews.com/failureinvestigations

Tuition:

$287 per site

Easy Ways to Register:

Online: http://www.fdanews.com/failureinvestigations

By phone: 888-838-5578 or 703-538-7600

About FDAnews:

FDAnews is the premier provider of domestic and international regulatory, legislative, and business news and information for executives in industries regulated by the US FDA and the European Medicines Agency. Pharmaceutical and medical device professionals rely on FDAnews' print and electronic newsletters, books and conferences to stay in compliance with international standards and the FDA's complex and ever-changing regulations.
Roof Worx Roofing Company While our certifications and accreditations are wonderful, we are most proud of our customer satisfaction reviews.  Bart Thomas, President, Roof Worx, LLC

Roof Worx, LLC (bestrooferco.com) earns the nations highest roofing industry honors - GAF Master Elite Roofing Contractor Status. As GAF Master Elite Roofing Contractors, Roof Worx ranks among the top three percent of roofing professionals nationwide adhering to the GAF stringent standards including proper licensing and insurance, a respectable reputation, and a commitment to state-of-the-art technical training. In addition, this status also allows Roof Worx to offer extensive labor and material warranties to customers.

In addition to GAF Master Elite Roofing Contractor Status, Roof Worx, LLC, is Better Business Bureau A+ Accredited, is featured on Tom Martinos Referral List and Team Dave Logan, as well as a member of the National Roofing Association.

Roof Worx began serving the Denver and Boulder areas in 1999 offering a full range of services including residential and commercial roofing, gutters, windows, siding and solar panels with the belief that each project deserves attention to detail, expert craftsmanship, and exceptional service. That commitment to quality permeates every project we take on  no matter the size.  Bart Thomas, President, Roof Worx, LLC

Roof Worx, LLC delivers premium roofing services to Thornton, Denver, Boulder, Aurora, Sterling, and the surrounding area. Across the region, Roof Worx promises unparalleled roofing services at the hands of well-qualified professionals with gold standard service at competitive prices. In addition to Thornton roofing services, Roof Worx also performs outstanding services including gutter, window, solar panel, and siding installation and repair.

Our professional roofers hard work and attention to detail has earned the company many commendations as well as the trust of their clients. And while our certifications and accreditations are wonderful, we are most proud of our customer satisfaction reviews.  Bart Thomas, President, Roof Worx, LLC

Roof Worx, LLC was founded in 1999 intent on providing homeowners with the best workmanship available. Now, 17 years later, dedication to that original goal has made Roof Worx one of the most respected Denver roofing contractors. Every project is completed with honesty, integrity, and superior quality, and accompanied by the Roof Worx ironclad guarantee.

About Roof Worx, LLC:

Roof Worx, LLC has proudly served the Thornton area including Denver, Boulder, Aurora and Sterling area for more than 17 years delivering the highest quality in roofing services as well as gutter, window, siding, and solar panels. With an understanding that a customers home is often their greatest investment and a source of tremendous pride, the Roof Worx team strives to ensure each customer is completely satisfied from the initial estimate to the finished product.

Roof Worx LLC, 155 E Boardwalk Drive, Fort Collins, CO, 80525, Phone: (970) 568-5450, http://www.bestrooferco.com/
We have consistently lived by the mantra to always do whats best for our patientsthis has served our patients and staff very well through the years.

Shady Grove Fertility is celebrating its 25th Anniversary as a practice and more than 40,000 babies born with a Believe Its Possible campaign that aims to give current and new patients newfound reasons to believe in the power of whats possible.

When the center first opened its doors in 1991, one Shady Grove Fertility baby was born approximately every 20 days. Today, 10 Shady Grove Fertility babies are born each day, every daymore than any other fertility center in the nation.

The Shady Grove Fertility practice began in Rockville, MD, with two physicians, Arthur W. Sagoskin, M.D. and Michael J. Levy, M.D. Today, 34 reproductive endocrinologists, supported by a highly specialized team of 600 urologists, Ph.D. scientists, geneticists, and staff care for patients in 18 full-service offices and five satellite sites throughout Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., and the center continues to grow with three new locations in Virginia launching in the next 6 months.

For 25 years, Shady Grove Fertility has been devoted to superior patient care, continually evolving and improving treatment outcomes to benefit the men and women looking to build their families through fertility treatment, adds Mark Segal, Shady Grove Fertilitys CEO for nearly 2 decades. Recently, Shady Grove Fertilitys flagship embryology lab in Rockville, MD, was ranked as the highest volume lab for total assisted reproductive technology (ART) cycles, including in vitro fertilization (IVF) and donor egg treatment cycles. This data, pulled from the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions (CDC) preliminary 2014 Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) Report, speaks to the expertise of the Shady Grove Fertility physicians and hundreds of clinical professionals devoted to the care of patients every day.

In 2014, SGFs three state of the art embryology labs in Rockville, MD, Towson, MD, and Chesterbrook, PA, performed nearly 10,000 ART cycleswhich equates to almost 5 percent of all ART cycles in the United States.

SGF also tops the list for the most fresh non-donor in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycles for women 40 and under, the most fresh donor cycles, the most frozen donor cycles, andof key importancethe most live births from fresh non-donor IVF cycles, the most live births from fresh donor cycles, and the most live births from frozen donor cycles.

"When it comes to battling infertility, it takes the tireless dedication of our staff, the skillful expertise of our physicians, the compassion of our community, the trust of our referring OB/GYN physicians, and the courage and strength of our patients, all believing in the power of whats possible to bring 40,000 babies and counting into this world, says Dr. Levy, Shady Grove Fertility Co-founder, President, and Director of IVF. It also takes endurance and a persistent healthy obsession with never settling for the status quo. We have consistently lived by the mantra to always do whats best for our patientsthis has served our patients and staff very well through the years, adds Levy.

At the heart of the Believe Its Possible campaign will be an opportunity for Shady Grove Fertility staff, physicians, members of the community, former patients, and current patients to share, based on their observations and experience, their reasons to believe and why belief is possible with Shady Grove Fertility.

Whether its because we designed exclusive financial programs that bring care within reach for more people, our success rates that are among the highest in the nation, or that we offer each patient truly individualized care, each persons reason to believe is as unique and personal as their fertility journey, says Patty Stull, Vice President of Strategic Development, former SGF patient, and mother of three.

Treatment for infertility has come a long way over the past 25 years and become very effective and efficient in helping almost everyone conceive. Due to advancements, with proper and timely treatment, we can now overcome most diagnoses, including ovulation disorders, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), blocked Fallopian tubes, unexplained infertility, recurrent miscarriages, and male factor infertility, to name only a few, adds Dr. Sagoskin, Shady Grove Fertility co-founder.

Throughout the remainder of its silver anniversary year, Shady Grove Fertility is encouraging its community to share their reasons to believe with otherswhether thats a picture of their Shady Grove Fertility baby or something along their journey that has served as a source of inspirationby posting to their favorite social community using the hashtag #BelieveItsPossible.

About Shady Grove Fertility

Shady Grove Fertility is a leading fertility and IVF center of excellence offering patients individualized care, innovative financial options, and pregnancy rates among the highest of all national centers. 2016 commemorates 25 years of Shady Grove Fertility providing medical and service excellence to patients from all 50 states and 35 countries around the world, and celebrates over 40,000 babies bornmore than any other center in the nation. Today, 34 reproductive endocrinologists, supported by a highly specialized team of 600 urologists, Ph.D. scientists, geneticists, and staff care for patients in 18 full-service offices and five satellite sites throughout Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. Shady Grove Fertility physicians actively train residents and reproductive endocrinology fellows and invest in continuous clinical research and education to advance the field of reproductive medicine through numerous academic appointments and partnerships such as Georgetown Medical School, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, the University of Maryland, and the National Institutes of Health. More than 1,700 physicians refer their patients to Shady Grove Fertility each year. For more information, call 1-888-761-1967 or visit ShadyGroveFertility.com.
Sergey Smbatyan toconduct the CIS Youth Symphony Orchestra

Gala Concert of the CIS Youth Symphony Orchestra, dedicated to the Russia Day and the 25th anniversary of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) will take place on June 12 with the support of the CIS Interstate Fund for Humanitarian Cooperation Fund (IFESCCO) and the Russian Government. The orchestra will perform under the direction of the Honored artist of RA Sergey Smbatyan who is also the special guest of the event. The concert will be held in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory. The gala evening will be decorated with the musical pieces of composers of Russia and CIS. Among the honored guests of the concert will be the leaders of musical educational institutions of CIS, deputies of the State Duma of the Russian Federation as well as the ambassadors of different countries. First performance of the CIS Youth Symphony Orchestra was held in November 12, 2007 under the leadership of famous conductor, Peoples Artist of Russia, Kazakhstan and Tatarstan Fuat Mansurov. Over the years well known conductors such as Yuri Simonov, Vladimir Spivakov and Mark Gorenstein were heading the orchestra. Eventually, the CIS Youth Symphony Orchestra became a platform for the youngsters of the Commonwealth to demonstrate their achievements in the area of performing art. The orchestra united the musicians from different performing schools, following various styles, genres and trends. The entire generation of young musicians from the Commonwealth got a huge support in the very beginning of their professional career through the CIS Youth Symphony Orchestra.
Tom Wheelwright, CPA, CEO and Author of Tax-Free Wealth The general rule is that a travel expense is a deductible business expense if it meets three tests. Your travel must have a business purpose, expenses must be ordinary and expenses must be necessary. ~ Tom Wheelwright, Tax-Free Wealth Author

As millions plan summer vacations, Tax-Free Wealth Author, CPA and CEO Tom Wheelwright, uncovers five ways anyone can deduct these travel expenses legally as a business owner. Any expense, including travel, can be deductible as long as it qualifies as a business expense.

As a business owner, the primary traveler can legally deduct an entire family vacation by following these rules. A business owner includes a wide range of definitions from CEO of a Fortune 5000 company to a small business owner to an individual employee who runs a side business (example internet business) that is legally registered.

Wheelwright expands on his five tips for making a family vacation deductible.

1. Expenses must pass three tests. - Wheelwright expands, The general rule is that a travel expense is a deductible business expense if it meets three tests. Your travel must have a business purpose, expenses must be ordinary and expenses must be necessary.

2. Work hours are required for over 50% of weekdays. - In addition to these three tests, the business owner must spend more than 50% of each workday (4+ hours each weekday) on business matters. This business time can include meeting with clients or prospective clients, having a shareholder meeting or looking for properties to acquire. Wheelwright adds, If you meet the work hours test, the entire trip is deductible for you, assuming the trip is inside the U.S. For international travel, the deduction is proportionate to the amount of time you spend on business. If you spend 60% of each day on business, then 60% of your travel will be deductible.

3. Weekends can be free and deductible. - Another travel tax deduction rule that many dont realize is how to make a weekend trip entirely deductible. If the traveler arrives on Friday, it is best to have a business meeting that day, and then schedule another business meeting on Monday before leaving. As long as the primary purpose is business during the weekdays, the entire trip is deductible and the individual can take the weekend off.

4. Hotels can be deducted as an ordinary expense. - The ordinary expense rule means that the expenses are typical in amount and frequency for the industry. For example, the hotel room size is only relevant with respect to the ordinary expense test. If it is typical for the business owner to have a large room, its okay for the entire family to share the same size room. Having two queen size beds in a room instead of a single king (probably no more expensive) isnt going to change the hotel deductibility.

5. Family members can be deductible as employees. - For travel to be deductible for spouses and children, Wheelwright expands, They must also be actively involved in the business and there must be a business purpose for them coming along. If you hire members of your family to do things for the business, there are many tax benefits. Wheelwright emphasizes that there must be a business purpose for family members travel expenses to be deductible. For example, if a spouse or children are in Sales versus bookkeeping, then there is a business reason to deduct their expenses if prospective client meetings are scheduled on the trip.

In addition to these five travel deduction tips, packing an envelope to store all receipts is recommended. Wheelwright expands, You must keep copies of your travel receipts so pack an envelop in your carry-on bag to make it easier to store them in one place. When you return, you can hand the envelope over to your accountant to record them in your records.

For a timely interview, please contact:

Liz Kelly, Goody PR, 310-987-7207

Bio

Tom Wheelwright is a leading tax and wealth expert, Best-Selling Author (Tax-Free Wealth), CPA, CEO of ProVision Wealth (Tempe, Arizona). Tom is best known for making taxes fun, easy and understandable, and specializes in helping entrepreneurs and investors build wealth through practical and strategic ways that permanently reduce taxes. As a Rich Dad Advisor to Robert Kiyosaki (Rich Dad Poor Dad), Tom frequently speaks at Rich Dad conferences worldwide. His work has been featured in Forbes, Accounting Today, Consumer Reports, Investors Business Daily, ABC News Radio, the Real Estate Guys Radio Show, GoBankingRates, AZTV and many more. http://taxfreewealthadvisor.com
The city is so beautiful. There are plenty of opportunities for small businesses and Melbournes colleges and universities are encouraging entrepreneurship through an initiative to provide start-up advice and support

In June 2016, UKAUS Pty announced that they will be relocating to Melbourne. After regularly travelling to the city for business meetings and seminars, the firm was inspired by the city of Melbourne, and as a result confirm that a relocation would be ideal for the firm. The city is so beautiful. There are plenty of opportunities for small businesses and Melbournes colleges and universities are encouraging entrepreneurship through an initiative to provide start-up advice and support for the new generation of entrepreneurs, explained a spokesperson for UKAUS Pty.

About UKAUS Pty: http://www.ukaus.com/about/

Established in 2015, UKAUS Pty always had plans to expand throughout Australia and beyond. The firm states: Relocating to Melbourne is a fantastic opportunity for us to achieve our annual goal for this year. UKAUS Pty is an outsourced sales and marketing company, conducting direct sales and marketing campaigns and consulting services for their clients. The firm focuses on a unique and personalised face-to-face approach in order to build long-lasting relationships with customers. As a result, UKAUS Pty reaches out to more than 1,200 consumers on a daily basis and has increased sales for their clients by more than 200 percent in 2016 alone.

One of the reasons the firm is relocating to Melbourne is the high quality of life. In fact, Melbourne was previously voted best place to live in the world for three years running. UKAUS Pty highlights how Melbourne scored 100 out of 100 for its healthcare, education and infrastructure, and was awarded 95 and 95.1 in the stability and culture and environment categories respectively.

Melbourne offers everything entrepreneurs may need to open up a business. Home to the number one university in Australia, the city is a talent pool of ambitious and aspiring individuals. With an increasing number of small and medium sized business start-ups opening in the area, support for entrepreneurs is growing.

A significant factor for UKAUS Pty to move to Melbourne is that its estimated population of 5.20 million is a new and large audience to pitch their clients ideas to. Looking at our expansion plans for this year, by relocating from Sydney to Melbourne we are expecting to achieve some of our major goals by early 2017, says UKAUS. The sales and marketing specialists highlight, We are currently adapting our goals to the new location and evaluating our expansion opportunities. Exciting times are to come.
Journalism is among the most deadly professions in the world (video)

The death of an NPR journalist and his translator in southern Afghanistan Sunday confirmed once again that journalism is among the world's most deadly professions. Some journalists are killed accidentally in war zones or while covering violent conflicts; others are targeted by criminals, political factions or terrorists. Last year, more than 70 journalists were killed worldwide. Zlatica Hoke reports they were honored at an event in Washington Monday. Washington Newseum, an institution dedicated to journalism, paid tribute to 20 men and women from 11 who were killed in 2015 while covering the news. 2015 was an especially tragic year for journalists and that is why we have selected twenty, much higher number than usual, to represent all those who were killed, said Newseum President and CEO Jeffrey Herbst. Most of the journalists on the wall were killed overseas  Iraq, Syira, and, 8 in the the 2015 Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris. Alison and Adam are the first to die on U.S. soil since 2007. The names of the 20 victims were added to the Journalists Memorial at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. More details can be found here
Alison Bechdel. Mariner Books, 2007

Bechdels seminal graphic novel looks back on her adolescence, particularly her relationship with her father and his obsession with restoring their old Victorian house. She attempts to understand her lesbianism through her father, a closeted gay man who eventually took his own life at the age of 44. The book is widely acclaimed for its handling of homosexuality, and it has helped pioneer comics into serious academic and cultural study. Finalist for the 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award, as well as the winner of the Best Reality-Based Work at the 2007 Eisner Awards. In 2013, the book was adapted into a musical, reaching Broadway in 2015 and winning the Tony Award for Best Musical that same year.
SUBSCRIBERS OF UCOMS ALL TIME BEST OFFER TO ENJOY ADDITIONAL BENEFITS

Armenia-Azerbaijan: EU sets up monitoring capacity along the international borders

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

There is still 35% gender pay gap: Sona Ghazaryan

Global Finance Names Ameriabank the Safest Bank in Armenia

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

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

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

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

UCOMS SPECIAL OFFER OF THE UNLIMITED INTERNET IS NOW TERMLESS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

LEVEL UP ONLY FOR STUDENTS: UCOM OFFERS X2 AND X3 MORE INTERNET

STATEMENT BY SECRETARY ANTONY J. BLINKEN

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

USA Embassy Message for U.S. Citizens

ANCA Issues National Call to Action to Stop Taxpayer Funding of Aliyevs Aggression
In a move that highlights the growing consumer popularity and marketing clout of BookCon, the literary fanfest, ReedPop announced plans to add the author event to New York Comic Con in the fall. BookCon@NYCC will take place October 6-9 during New York Comic Con and be held at Hudson Mercantile, a separate event space near the Javits Center.

Access to BookCon@NYCC will be included as part of a consumer NYCC badge. The event will include a series of panels, autograph sessions, and meet-the-author events. ReedPop emphasized that BookCon will also continue to run after BookExpo America and will be a dedicated two-day event, June 3-4, 2017, following the BEA trade show set for the Javits Center. To date, ReedPop has conducted three BookCons, one in Chicago and two in New York.

Lance Fensterman, global senior v-p of ReedPOP and BookCon organizer, said adding BookCon to NYCC gave ReedPop an opportunity to leverage two ReedPop brands for the betterment of our fans and publishing customers.

Fensterman explained that moving NYCC events out of the Javits Center and into nearby city spaces is part of ReedPops ongoing strategy for New York Comic Con. Growing NYCC throughout all of New York City continues to be a major goal and in order to do that we need killer content that will hook our fans. BookCon@NYCC allows us to bring our fan base more of the high profile book related content they love Fensterman said. "There will be no exhibits at the Hudson Mercantile, Fensterman said. This is all about content, he said.

To attend BookCon@NYCC, fans must secure tickets to New York Comic Con, which are becoming more difficult to buy and selling out faster every year. NYCC attracts as many as 150,000 fans each year. Indeed, fans hoping to attend BookCon@NYCC must now complete the NYCCs new Fan Verification Profile (a new procedure to fight ticket scalping) to even get the opportunity to purchase tickets.

The programming for BookCon@NYCC--panels, autograph sessions, and meet & greets--will be held at Hudson Mercantile, an event space at 500 W. 36th Street that is close to the Javits Center. Publishers booths, Fensterman emphasized, will continue to be located on the show floor at Javits. There will also be a bookstore at the Hudson Mercantile operated by WORD bookstore. Fensterman added that traditional comics publishers arent part of the Hudson Mercantile. The Hudson Mercantile space will focus on books (genre, novels, memoir, humor, etc.) and authors. Its an opportunity to spotlight book content.

The initial author list for BookCon@NYCC features childrens book author Ann M. Martin (Baby-Sitters Club series), R.L. Stine (Goosebumps), Chuck Wendig (Star Wars), and YA sensation Danielle Paige (Dorothy Must Die) among other authors. Publishers confirmed to appear at BookCon@NYCC include Macmillan Childrens Publishing, Bloomsbury, and Del Rey with more to be announced.

The move to Hudson Mercantile for book related content marks an expansion of the show and allows NYCC to feature more of the programming fans are looking for without limiting other areas of content, Fensterman said.
Japanese e-tailer Rakuten has announced the end of its marketplace operation in the U.K., marking the next step in the winding down of the Play.com business it bought five years ago. The axe will fall in August.

In a statement on its corporate website, Rakuten revealed the changes were part of a wider European restructuring. The company said: "Rakuten will focus its e-commerce marketplace investment in France and Germany as the businesses there have the scale and potential for sustainable growth. However, in the U.K. and Spain, the cost of growth relative to the size of the businesses has led to plans to close these operations."

Rakuten put out a statement on its consumer-facing U.K. website yesterday explaining the mechanics of the closure. It said that the result will be that Rakuten.co.uk will not be available after August. The statement went on: "Please rest assured that all customer and merchant transactions will continue as normal until the end of August. If you have outstanding Rakuten Super Points earned for shopping on our marketplace, you will be able to use them here until the end of August 2016."

Play.com was bought by Rakuten in September 2011 for 25 million. In January 2013 the website ceased selling direct to consumers, and opted for a marketplace strategy, which allowed third-party vendors to use the site as a platform to sell to customers.

The change was prompted by the government closing a VAT loophole in April 2012 that had allowed the original Play.com site to sell VAT-free. Low Value Consignment Relief (which permits some inexpensive items to be imported into the U.K,. without applying VAT) allowed goods priced at below 15 to be sold in the U.K. VAT-free, which Play.com exploited via its operation based, at that stage, in the Channel Islands.

Play.com was a highly successful retailer, which started off selling CDs and DVDs in 1998 before expanding into books. At one time the retail site had up to 14 million British users and was poised to become a potential e-commerce partner for HMV. By 2008 Play.com was reportedly the second-largest online retailer of books in the U.K. Rakuten also owns Kobo, and the acquisition of Play .com meant it matched Amazon in terms of books offered, if not scale. Play.com ceased to be used as the site name early last year.

A version of this story originally appeared on the U.K. website BookBrunch.co.uk.
New Deals for Finland's Simukka

Sisterland and the Snow White trilogy, both by Finnish YA author Salla Simukka, have sold to Crown Books for Young Readers. The deals were brokered by Elina Ahlback, who has an eponymous shingle and control all rights. The trilogy has sold in 52 countries to date, and Crown's edition of the first book in the series, As Red As Blood, will be released in January 2017. (The trilogy was originally published in U.S. by Amazon; it released its edition of As Red As Blood in 2014.) Sisterland will be released in Finland, by Tammi, in October, and will be released in the U.S. by Crown in 2018. An English language film adaptation of the Snow White trilogy is also in the works; film company Zero Gravity Management is working with Elina Ahlback Literary on the project. In Sisterland an 11-year-old named Alice finds herself in a world full of faeries and dream weavers, and must find the queen who rules the land in order to end the snowfall in her own world.

Dutch Novel Sells in U.S.

Dan Lazar at Writers House has just sold Ernest Van der Kwast's The Ice-Cream Makers, which was originally published by Dutch house De Bezige Bij in January 2015. Dawn Davis bought North American rights the novel, for her 37 Ink imprint at Atria, and is planning to release the title in summer 2017. Lazar handled the sale on behalf of Amanda Tokar at Scribe, who acquired world English rights from De Bezige Bij; rights to the book have already sold in Germany, China, and Korea. The novel focuses on a man who is heir to an Italian ice cream dynasty, but decides to break with the family business in order to travel and be a poet. That is, until a request from his brother lures him back into familial fold.

New Swedish Thriller Installment Sells in Denmark; Climbs Charts

The Beggar by Sofie Sarenbrant is the new book in the Emma Skold Swedish detective series. The first two books in the series, Killer Deal and Ward 73, sold in seven territories, and The Beggar just sold to People's Press in Denmark. The Beggar had a 50,000 copy first printing, and is currently #9 on the hardcover bestseller list in Sweden. Philip Sane of Lennart Sane Agency controls all rights. In the novel, beggars are being murdered and the media begins to wonder if a serial killer is to blame.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.  Two leaded bronze artifacts found in northwestern Alaska are the first evidence that metal from Asia reached prehistoric North America prior to contact with Europeans, according to new Purdue University research.

This is not a surprise based on oral history and other archaeological finds, and it was just a matter of time before we had a good example of Eurasian metal that had been traded, said H. Kory Cooper, an associate professor of anthropology, who led the artifacts metallurgical analysis. We believe these smelted alloys were made somewhere in Eurasia and traded to Siberia and then traded across the Bering Strait to ancestral Inuits people, also known as Thule culture, in Alaska. Locally available metal in parts of the Arctic, such as native metal, copper and meteoritic and telluric iron were used by ancient Inuit people for tools and to sometimes indicate status. Two of the Cape Espenberg items that were found  a bead and a buckle  are heavily leaded bronze artifacts. Both are from a house at the site dating to the Late Prehistoric Period, around 1100-1300 AD, which is before sustained European contact in the late 18th century.

The findings are published in Elseviers Journal of Archaeological Science, and the research was funded by the National Science Foundations Division of Polar Programs Arctic Social Sciences.

This article focuses on a small finding with really interesting implications, said Cooper, who also has a courtesy appointment in materials engineering and is an expert in metallurgy and archaeology in the western Arctic and Subarctic. This will cause other people to think about the Arctic differently. Some have presented the Arctic and Subarctic regions as backwater areas with no technological innovation because there was a very small population at the time. That doesnt mean interesting things werent happening, and this shows that locals were not only using locally available metals but were also obtaining metals from elsewhere.

The items were found on Alaskas northwest coast at Cape Espenberg on the Seward Peninsula where the Thule people lived in houses. The field work was led by Owen K. Mason and John F. Hoffecker, both of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado, Boulder. From 2009-2011, their team excavated a variety of artifacts including six items with metal. Cooper coordinated the metallurgical analysis.

Metal artifacts are rarely found because they were usually used until they were worn down and, therefore, not well preserved at field sites.

These items are remarkable due to curation and preservation issues, Cooper said.

The cylindrical bead and a fragment of a small buckle strap-guide are composed of leaded bronze, which is an alloy of copper, tin and lead. The fragmented leather strap on the buckle provided radiocarbon dating, and the item was dated to 500-800 years old, although the metal could be older.

The belt buckle also is considered an industrial product and is an unprecedented find for this time, Cooper said. It resembles a buckle used as part of a horse harness that would have been used in north-central China during the first six centuries before the Common Era.

Three of the other four items from another house were determined to be copper  a piece of bone fishing tackle with a copper hook, an eyed copper needle and a small fragment of sheet copper. The final item was a bone fishing lure with iron inset eyes. All items were analyzed with X-ray fluorescence technology.

This house is considerably younger, dating to the 17th to 18th centuries, and is part of a trading network in Alaskan native copper.

Also part of the research team was Robert J. Speakman, of the Center for Applied Isotope Studies at the University of Georgia, and Victor Mair, of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Pennsylvania.

The two research projects funded by the NSFs Division of Polar Programs Arctic Social Sciences were the Cape Espenberg project, which was awarded to Mason and Hoffecker, and the Arctic and Subarctic grant, which was awarded to Cooper.

Writer: Amy Patterson Neubert, 765-494-9723, apatterson@purdue.edu

Source: H. Kory Cooper, hkcooper@purdue.edu

Note to Journalists: Copies of this paper are available to credentialed journalists upon request; please contact Elsevier's Newsroom at newsroom@elsevier.com or +31 20 485 2492.

ABSTRACT

Evidence of Eurasian Metal Alloys on the Alaskan Coast in Prehistory

doi: 10.1016/j.jas.2016.04.021

H. Kory Cooper, Owen K. Mason, Victor Mair, John F. Hoffecker and Robert J. Speakman

Abstract: Six metal and composite metal artifacts were excavated from a late prehistoric archaeological context at Cape Espenberg on the northern coast of the Seward Peninsula in Alaska. X-ray fluorescence identified two of these artifacts as smelted industrial alloys with large proportions of tin and lead. The presence of smelted alloys in a prehistoric Inuit context in northwest Alaska is demonstrated here for the first time and indicates the movement of Eurasian metal across the Bering Strait into North America before sustained contact with Europeans.

Highlights: A variety of metals were used by the ancient inhabitants of Arctic and Subarctic North America. We analyzed six metal and composite metal artifacts from a prehistoric context on the western coast of Alaska non-destructively using X-ray fluorescence. Two of these artifacts are copper alloys with large amounts of tin and lead, i.e., leaded bronzes. This study demonstrates Old World smelted alloys were traded across the Bering Strait into the New World Arctic several hundred years before sustained contact with Europeans.

About the Journal of Archeological Science

The Journal of Archaeological Science is aimed at archaeologists and scientists with particular interests in advancing the development and application of scientific techniques and methodologies to all areas of archaeology. This established monthly journal publishes original research papers and major review articles, of wide archaeological significance. The journal provides an international forum for archaeologists and scientists from widely different scientific backgrounds who share a common interest in developing and applying scientific methods to inform major debates through improving the quality and reliability of scientific information derived from archaeological research.
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Created in response to the Arab oil embargo of 1973-74, the U.S. government created the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). Deep inside underground caverns at four storage facilities along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coasts, the SPR has a max capacity of 727 million barrels of crude oil. Its purpose  to serve as an emergency stockpile of crude oil to help blunt the impact of disruptions to the flow of crude oil to the American marketplace. In theory, the SPR would prevent the use of crude oil as a potential weapon, as with the 1973-74 Arab embargo, and to mitigate the impact of global crises on the U.S. economy.
About $1,300  that's how much the average household has saved since mid-2014 thanks to the fall in gasoline prices, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said Monday.

Speaking at the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia, Yellen cited dropping oil and gas prices as positives for the economy because they boost household purchasing power.

For every dollar saved at the gas pump, individuals spent about 80 cents on other things, according to a report last October from JPMorgan Chase Institute.

In her speech, Yellen outlined several other positives  and some negatives  for the U.S. economy.

"The increase in employment over the past several years has contributed to higher household incomes and strengthening consumer confidence," she said. And "rising equity and house prices have helped restore households' wealth."

Yellen expects consumer spending to grow at a "solid" rate and the housing sector to "make further progress," partly due to low mortgage rates. "Both home sales and construction have been gradually improving," she said.

But Yellen, while overall remaining "cautiously optimistic," also sees numerous potential drags on the economy.

Although lower oil prices have "likely been a positive influence on the U.S. economy overall, they also have had a negative side" because energy-sector employment has been hurt, and the effects have spilled over to businesses serving the energy sector.

Also, overall business investment has been weak, and "the latest labor market data raise the less favorable possibility that firms may instead have decided to expand their operations more slowly." Last week's jobs report was widely considered disappointing.

Yellen based her fuel savings statistic on a 2013 calculation by an energy agency. "Applying the drop in gasoline prices since the first half of 2014, savings per household averaged about $110 in the second half of 2014, $780 in 2015, and another $420 through May of this year," a footnote to her speech said.

Gregg Laskoski, senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy.com, said Yellen's overall estimate sounds accurate.
Having Admitted Complicity in Genocide, Germany Should Now Compensate Armenians - Harut Sassounian

By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com Despite Sultan Erdogans insults and threats, the German Parliament went boldly forward last week and recognized the Armenian Genocide. In retaliation, Turkey immediately withdrew its ambassador from Berlin. The historic Bundestag resolution, adopted with a near unanimous decision (1 vote against and 1 abstention), is titled: In remembrance and commemoration of the genocide of Armenians and other Christian minorities in the Ottoman Empire 101 years ago. According to ARD television, 74% of the German population agrees that genocide was committed against Armenians. Another revealing survey cited by Der Spiegel magazine found that 91% of the German public does not trust Erdogan! German Chancellor Angela Merkel, fed up with Erdogans repeated blackmails, decided to put Turkeys megalomaniac dictator in his place, while Pres. Obama has to muster the courage to do so! The German leadership had to fend off not only the Turkish regimes attacks but also sharp criticism from many of the three million Turks living in Germany. After the Parliaments decision, Erdogan arrogantly declared: 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. Turkeys minister of justice Bekir Bozdag was just as brazen, as he told Germans: First you burn the Jews in ovens, and then you come and accuse the Turkish people of genocide. Erdogan and Bozdag must be reminded that Germany, unlike Turkey, long ago admitted the Nazi-era crimes, apologized for the Holocaust, and paid billions of dollars in compensation. It remains to be seen if big mouth Turkish leaders would dare to take punitive actions against Germany, besides the routine withdrawal of their ambassador, as they do each time another government acknowledges the Armenian Genocide. Should Erdogan decide to go beyond making empty threats, such steps would backfire on Turkey as Germany is its largest trading partner. Turkeys economy is already in serious trouble after Russia banned the import of Turkish goods and discouraged its citizens from going to Turkey as tourists because of the downing of a Russian jet by the Turkish military near the Syrian border last year. Turkish leaders have already damaged their countrys interests by making provocative and scandalous announcements which have helped to publicize worldwide the German Bundestags action on the Armenian Genocide. Thousands of newspapers, websites, TV and radio stations covered the German decision and the Turkish outbursts. It is noteworthy that the international media paid particular attention to the German Parliamentarians admission that their country, a military ally of Turkey during World War I, was complicit in the Armenian Genocide. The New York Times and The Times of London, two of the most prestigious newspapers in the world, published powerful editorials on June 3 reaffirming the facts of the Armenian Genocide, supporting the Germans Parliaments decision, and urging Turkey to confront its dark past. In an editorial titled, Yes, Its Genocide, The New York Times wrote:  It was a genocide, the first of the 20th century. The Armenians are fully justified in their quest for a historical reckoning. President Obama, who as a candidate in 2008 pledged to recognize the events of 1915 as a genocide, has failed to do so. The Germans, who have admirably confronted the terrible genocide in their own history, did the right thing in defying Mr. Erdogans threats. The London Times editorial, Genocide Denial: The mass slaughter of Armenians needs to be acknowledged by Turkey, was just as impactful: The German resolution is right not only in its message but also in diplomacy. Turkish pique is regularly directed at allies who recognize the Armenian genocide. That response is worse than undignified and ahistorical: it is a denial of suffering on an unspeakable scale that poisons the politics of Europe to this day, and it needs to be challenged. The slaughter of Armenians was not, as Turkish apologists maintain, one of the unplanned but inescapable tragedies that happen in wartime. It was a specific campaign of deportation and mass killing by the Ottoman regime. Modern Germany and its statesmen have expressed repeatedly their nation's remorse for genocidal barbarism in the last century. It is long past time for Turkey to do the same. Having recognized the Armenian Genocide and acknowledged its own share of responsibility and complicity, Germany now has to make appropriate amends to Armenians, thus setting a venerable example for Turkey, not only in recognition, but also in restitution!
Willard Carroll co-owns the world's largest collection of materials relating to "The Wizard of Oz" stories and characters. Of those 100,000-plus items, 110 will be displayed at the Figge Art Museum (opening Sunday), just the second museum to show them.

"The Wonderful World of Oz: Selections from the Willard Carroll / Tom Wilhite Collection" -- in the Katz Gallery -- includes the finest known copy of the first edition of L. Frank Baum's 1900 book; original sketches, costumes and props from MGMs beloved 1939 movie starring Judy Garland, as well as Oz spinoffs such as puppets, toys and posters from other productions like Wicked and The Wiz.

Since first seeing the '39 classic at age 5 (on a black-and-white TV), Mr. Carroll has admired how the books and movie have gripped pop culture. "I really wanted to show people, there's more to it than the movie," he said Tuesday of the Figge exhibit. "It was the first successful American fairy tale. Most fairy tales have been imported from Europe."

A 60-year-old film and TV writer/producer, Mr. Carroll first saw the original Technicolor (on his parents' first color TV) at 11.

"I thought it was pretty spectacular," he said. "It got me started on a lifetime of collecting." His first items were plastic heads of the characters sold with Procter & Gamble (which sponsored the TV airings) cleaning products.

Through his folks and as an adult, he accumulated toys, puppets and books. There are 40 books in the Oz series (ending in 1964), and Mr. Baum wrote 14 of them. He wrote other children's books, and operated his own Oz movie studio in California, making three silent films based on the characters.

Mr. Baum also wrote a 1902 Oz-related stage musical, which was a big hit, Mr. Carroll said. The 1939 film -- which won Oscars for "Over the Rainbow" and best score -- was one of the first integrated musicals, in which songs closely connected to the story, he said.

The numbers have become standards "because they're really clever, funny, and lend themselves to different interpretations," he said. "They can have a life of their own."

Mr. Carroll grew his collection by answering ads in magazines, going to conventions and auction houses, and once eBay came online, that was huge -- "sort of a buyers' paradise," he said. Nearly all his and Mr. Wilhite's collection was complete by around 2001.

Mr. Wilhite is his life partner, whose mother is from Davenport, and they live in Maine. The Oz collection was subject for the 1999 book "100 Years of Oz," by John Fricke, with an intro by Mr. Carroll.

Among highlights in the new exhibit are: the most complete surviving costume (worn by the green Lollipop Guild Munchkin); Dorothys screen-test pinafore and blouse, and the hourglass that the Wicked Witch of the West uses to show Dorothy how much longer you have to be alive.

Mr. Carroll got the munchkin costume 20 years ago for $20,000, worn by the last surviving munchkin -- Jerry Maren, who's now 96, and was 19 when the film was released. He was at Mr. Carroll's L.A. home when he won the auction.

"Jerry looked at the costume, and said 'I can't believe I was ever that small.' He's 3 feet tall," Mr. Carroll said.

He bought the hourglass in L.A. 25 years ago for $80,000. "It was the main object in the movie I wanted." Dorothy's ruby slippers, and the Scarecrow costume are permanently at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.

Among video in the Figge exhibit is an interview Mr. Carroll did with Margaret Pellegriini, another munchkin, shortly before her death in 2013; as well as a talk with the son of Margaret Hamilton, who was the Wicked Witch.

"What I've always loved about the movie and story, it's a group of people searching for something they already have," Mr. Carroll said. "It's about the greatest teamwork movie ever. One of the geniuses of the movie is how virtually the whole Oz experience is filled with all these eccentric characters, and she plays it straight, a very real girl," he said of Dorothy. "That makes it relatable."

The exhibit was organized by Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine (where it debuted in fall 2014), and the collectors plan to establish a National Oz Museum in Maine to house their holdings.

"Oz" is a Midwestern creation: Mr. Baum and illustrator W.W. Denslow partnered on the first book while living in Chicago. The Wizard came from Omaha, and Dorothy and Toto were memorably transported by twister from their Kansas farm.

When the famous film premiered at Davenports Capitol Theater, the Davenport Daily News raved: Here is something too fantastic to be described, good witches and bad, talking trees, live scarecrows, tin woodmen, cowardly lions, magic slippers. Truly a fairy tale suddenly brought out of the imagination and given substance, it is, in the parlance of the streets, a 'whopper.'

Of later Oz-themed productions, Mr. Carroll loves "The Wiz," the 1975 Broadway musical, made into a 1978 film starring Diana Ross and Michael Jackson, providing an African-American take on the story.

"I thought it was really fun and clever," he said. Of "Wicked," the hugely popular 2003 musical, sort of an "Oz" prequel centering on the witches, Mr. Carroll is not so fond.

"I'm happy it's successful; it introduced Oz to several generations," he said of the show still on Broadway. "It helps if you're a 14-year-old girl. I prefer the book to the musical."
Fourth Wall Films of Moline has been chosen to produce a visitor center film for South Dakota's newest state park -- Good Earth State Park at Blood Run, near Sioux Falls.

Mid-America Emmy-nominated filmmakers Kelly and Tammy Rundle successfully competed with 42 proposals from 36 other companies nationwide to win the $276,000 contract from the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks (GFP) Department.

"We first visited Good Earth/Blood Run over 10 years ago to film for our 'Lost Nation: The Ioway' film. It's a special and spiritual place, and we're pleased to have been selected to tell this important story," Mrs. Rundle said Tuesday.

The 15- to 20-minute film at a new visitor in the state park will present the story of this historic and cultural site as told by a Native American grandfather to his grandchildren. The Rundles will coordinate the production with South Dakota GFP department officials and representatives from five American Indian nations.

Produced in 4K high-definition, the documentary will combine "vivid present-day views of the park's vegetation, wildlife, and scenic vistas with dramatic historical reenactments portraying daily life in one of America's largest indigenous cities," a Fourth Wall Films release said. The film also will feature commentary from tribal elders and representatives of the Omaha, Ponca, Ioway and Otoe-Missouria tribes, scholars and archaeologists.

In "Lost Nation: The Ioway" (2007), the Rundles filmed Ioway elders with historians and archaeologists to tell the dramatic, true story of the small tribe that once claimed territory between the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers from Pipestone, Minn. to St. Louis. Later history of the tribe was represented in two "Ioway" sequels (2013).

Jeff VanMeeteren, the South Dakota regional park supervisor, who oversees the Good Earth park, said Fourth Wall was chosen unanimously for the new film because "they've had extensive experience working with tribal groups in the past, specifically the Ioway," he said Wednesday. "They're a small company, and we just really felt that the intimacy of a smaller company would be better received by tribal people."

"It's all about relationships when you're working with tribal people," he added, praising the Rundles' prior documentaries, and references they supplied from Native-American groups. "We're excited to be working with Fourth Wall," Mr. VanMeeteren said.

The planned film, to be shown continuously at the visitor center (opening spring 2017), will tell the story of this unique area and how it developed into a large trading hub, Mr. VanMeeteren said. It will include use of a drone to simulate the flight of an eagle over the area.

Most production will take place on the Good Earth site with added filming at Living History Farms in Urbandale, Iowa, and the Quad-Cities area.

"Good Earth/Blood Run was second only to Cahokia (Ill.) in terms of population, and the archaeological record tells us that the city was a significant cultural crossroads in the region," director Kelly Rundle said by e-mail.

The Good Earth village site was occupied between 1300 and 1700 by ancestors of the present-day Omaha, Ponca, Ioway and Otoe tribes, making it one of the oldest long-term habitation sites in the U.S., he said. At its peak around 1650, it may have been home to as many as 10,000 residents -- larger at the time than Boston or New York, Mr. Rundle said.

"Good Earth was a thriving and important Native trading center for pipestone, bison hides, pottery, agricultural goods and culture," his release said. "The once-vibrant city featured lodges of many different sizes, earthen mounds, and a one-eighth mile-long serpent effigy."

The current 400-acre state park is part of Blood Run National Historic Landmark,which encompasses 844 acres along both sides of the Big Sioux River on the Iowa/South Dakota border. Named for Blood Run Creek, the site was home to numerous prehistoric and protohistoric groups, according to bloodrunnhl.com.

It gained National Historic Landmark status because of its extraordinary archaeological record and the immense history it tracks, the site says.

Award-winning documentary filmmaker Kevin Railsback, from Cedar Rapids, will serve as director of photography for the state park doc. His nature footage has been featured on National Geographic, Animal Planet, Discovery Channel, and in commercials for companies like AT&T. He's shot another of Fourth Wall's upcoming films, "Sons & Daughters of Thunder."

Kimberly Furness, of Davenport, will be casting director on the project, seeking three Native American lead roles (professional actors: male late 50s-early 70s; male child age 8-12; female child age 8-12), and 12 to 16 re-enactment roles (Native professional actors of all ages, as well as Native people with no formal training; long hair a plus; fit; filming takes place in outdoor natural settings).

Also needed is one Euro-American male role (age 40s-50s, fit, with beard). All roles are paid. Auditions will take place in Sioux Falls, S.D.; Des Moines, and the Quad-Cities area in July, with production scheduled for August and September.

Special consideration will be given to members of the Omaha, Ponca, Ioway, and Otoe-Missouria tribes. You can email Ms. Furness at Kimberlyann2771@yahoo.com for more information and to send headshots, resumes, and/or video samples by June 19. This is a non-union production.

Previous contract work by the Rundles includes "Letters Home to Hero Street" for WQPT-PBS and "Any Kid Anywhere: Sex Trafficking Survivor Stories" for Braking Traffik.

Fourth Wall's independently produced award-winning films include "Villisca: Living with a Mystery," the "Lost Nation: The Ioway" three-part series, "Country School: One Room -- One Nation" and "River to River: Iowa's Forgotten Highway 6." Their latest film, "The Barn Raisers," is set for release later this year.
"Let him make that decision. Give him time," Vice President Joe Biden said Wednesday when asked if it was time for Sanders to halt his effort.

Sanders vowed to continue to his campaign to the last contest in the District of Columbia next Tuesday. But about half his campaign staff is being laid off, two people familiar with the plans said Wednesday. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak publicly about the layoffs.

Clinton cruised to easy victories in four of the six state contests Tuesday. With each win she further solidified Sen. Sanders' defeat and dashed his already slim chances of using the last night of state contests to save his flagging bid.

The victories allowed Clinton to celebrate her long-sought "milestone"  the first woman poised to lead a major political party's presidential ticket. Standing before a flag-waving crowd in Brooklyn, the former secretary of state soaked up the cheers and beamed.

"Barriers can come down. Justice and equality can win," she said. "This campaign is about making sure there are no ceilings, no limits on any of us. This is our moment to come together."

Clinton had already secured the delegates needed for the nomination before Tuesday's contests, according to an Associated Press tally. Still, Sanders had hoped to use a victory in California to persuade party insiders to switch their allegiances. Sanders picked up wins in Montana and North Dakota, but Clinton won substantially in California.

Clinton's victory in California assured her a majority of pledged delegates  those chosen in primaries and caucuses. That's notable because Sanders has argued that his White House bid remained viable as long as he stood a chance of winning a majority of those delegates. He would have needed a landslide Tuesday to reach that goal.

Sanders is under intense pressure from top Democrats hoping to coax him gently out of the race, win over his voters and turn to the task of challenging Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee. Sanders planned to meet separately Thursday with President Barack Obama and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid.

While Reid has stopped short of publicly calling for Sanders to drop out, other senators were less restrained Wednesday. Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida said Sanders should "stand down" and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire said would like to see him wind down his candidacy sooner rather than later.

The president is expected to endorse Clinton in the coming days. He called both Clinton and Sanders after voting wrapped up late Tuesday.

There were signs Sanders was listening to Democrats. In his typically passionate remarks, the socialist firebrand repeatedly noted late Tuesday night that "we are in this together" and argued that a tenet of his campaign was that "we will not allow right-wing Republicans to control our government."

As the Democratic race was wrapping up, Republicans were unraveling anew. Despite handily winning GOP contests in California, New Jersey, New Mexico, South Dakota and Montana, Trump was in damage control mode over his ethnicity-based attacks on a Hispanic judge that had party leaders in fits. After one senator rescinded his endorsement and House Speaker Paul Ryan called the comments "racist," Trump sought to calm worries with a rare, scripted victory speech for his new batch of primary wins..

"I understand the responsibility of carrying the mantle and I will never, ever let you down - too much work, too many people, blood, sweat and tears," Trump said, reading from a teleprompter at a rally at one of his golf courses in suburban New York City. "I will make you proud of your party and our movement, and that's what it is, is a movement."

Despite Ryan's concerns about Trump's remarks, the speaker reaffirmed his support in a closed-door meeting with fellow GOP lawmakers Wednesday. It was Ryan's first meeting with House Republicans since endorsing Trump last week after initially withholding his support.

A Ryan aide said the speaker told his colleagues he would continue criticizing the billionaire when needed. Ryan's remarks were greeted by applause, according to the aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the private remarks.

Clinton now has 2,184 pledged delegates  or more than half of the 4,051 total. Sanders has 1,804.

When including superdelegates, or party officials who can back any candidate, Clinton's lead is much bigger  2,755 to Sanders' 1,852.

It takes 2,383 to win. Clinton crossed that threshold Monday, according to the AP tally

Sanders and some in his army of die-hard supporters expressed frustration about the survey. As he addressed supporters in Los Angeles, the crowd chanted "Media is corrupt."

Both Clinton and Trump made overtures toward an energized and passionate pool of voters. Trump noted he and Sanders both oppose the president's Pacific Rim trade deal, and he sympathized with frustration for having "been left out in the cold by a rigged system of super delegates."

Clinton thanked the senator for driving the debate over economic mobility and income inequality and tried to show she absorbed some of his message. Mostly, she expressed empathy of a candidate who knows the bitter taste of defeat.

Still, it was her night to celebrate.

Her campaign produced a video to introduce her speech, chronicling women's rise in politics from the suffragettes through Clinton's own concession to speech to then-Sen. Obama, eight years ago. Then, she had thanked supporters for helping her put "18 million cracks" in the "highest, hardest glass ceiling."
Documents obtained by The Associated Press through the Freedom of Information Act show that the deadbeat state owes $3 million to the FBI for processing fingerprints and conducting background checks. The debt is now so long overdue that it could be turned over to the federal government's collection agency  the Treasury Department.

The delinquent payment is just latest unexpected consequence to emerge from a stalemate between the Republican governor and Democrats controlling the Legislature. The impasse has left Illinois without a budget since July 1 and exacerbated a long-running problem of bills piling up. As of Tuesday, the state had more than $7 billion in unpaid bills.

Gov. Bruce Rauner, a millionaire businessman in his first term, is holding out for changes in law to cut business costs and restrict the power of labor unions. Democrats say consideration of Rauner's plans to limit worker's compensation payments, crimp collective bargaining, adopt term limits and create a balanced method for drawing political districts should wait until after lawmakers have tamed a multibillion-dollar deficit through spending cuts and tax increases.

The fingerprinting money has already been set aside. There's nearly $19 million in an account called the State Police Services Fund, which is used to pay for FBI fingerprint expertise. But without a legislative appropriation, no one has any authority to spend the money.

The FBI says states rarely fall more than four months behind in payments, but it has never cut services, and it has not stopped examining Illinois fingerprints.

A spokesman for the agency's Criminal Justice Information Service, Stephen Fischer, said the agency is exploring "alternative collection and processing options" to continue providing services to Illinois without going deeper into debt.

He did not elaborate, but Ken Zercie, a vice president of the International Association of Identification, said options could include federal grants or assistance from other agencies to fill the gap.

Zercie, who retired as laboratory director for the Connecticut Department of Public Safety, said the importance of gathering fingerprints and verifying identity and criminal histories means it's a safe bet that the Justice Department won't shut the door on Illinois.

"That would be kind of illogical given the state of everything," Zercie said. "It's a public-safety issue."

This isn't the first time the budget crisis has caused headaches for law enforcement. The AP reported in April that the secretary of state's police force had to carry cash from driver's license facilities for four months after an armored-truck company stopped work until it got paid.

The FBI processes 260,000 sets of Illinois fingerprints annually in criminal background checks for those seeking jobs such as school bus driver or private detective or applying for permits to carry concealed firearms or cultivate medicinal marijuana.

Illinois' last fingerprint payment to the FBI was for $313,000 on July 23 to cover costs for June  the final month of the previous fiscal year, according to state records.

The oldest form of identification, fingerprinting remains the most reliable, and the FBI has 90 million sets of prints on file, said Charles Walsh, a New Hampshire private forensic consultant who began a 30-year FBI career as a fingerprint technician in 1968. Today, the agency processes 3 million fingerprints a day, Walsh said.

But even with ever-improving technology, examination is still a costly, labor-intensive process.

While it takes just 3.4 seconds to electronically scan fingerprints and match them to those on file with a 98 percent degree of accuracy, the results could still produce as many as 20 possible matches, Walsh said.

"It's still a human technician who has to make the identification," he said. "That's where your money is going."
Legislation designed to battle addiction and stem deaths from overdoses was passed in the state House unanimously and had four votes in opposition when it was passed by the Senate. The Springfield bureau of Lee Enterprises newspapers reports part of the bill was vetoed by Gov. Bruce Rauner, but legislators from both parties voted to override his alterations.

The bill was championed by state Rep. Lou Lang, D-Skokie.

"I had read one too many reports about heroin taking over Illinois," Lang said.

In preparing the legislation, Lang worked with Rep. John Anthony, R-Joliet.

"We've moved from crisis to epidemic," said Anthony, who is a former Kendall County sheriff's deputy.

The law's provisions include allowing trained pharmacists to provide the anti-overdose drug naloxone without a prescription; and requiring fire departments, law enforcement agencies and emergency medical service providers to possess anti-overdose drugs.

The law also requires that private insurers provide coverage for anti-overdose medications, and that hospitals, coroners and medical examiners gather and report data on opioid and heroin overdose deaths and treatments.

Also include in the law is the expansion of drug courts that give an option aside from prison for low-level drug offenders, as well as of Illinois' Medicaid program to cover every type of medication-assisted treatment that has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for opioid and alcohol dependence.

Many of the bill's provisions are still being put into effect, with the legislation affecting several state agencies.
The Chicago Democrat told House members Tuesday not to convene in Springfield. Wednesday's session would have been the House's first meeting since they adjourn the spring session May 31 without a budget for the second year in a row.

Madigan says bipartisan groups of legislators meeting with Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner's staff have made progress in recent weeks. He says canceling the session will allow discussions to continue uninterrupted.

Madigan had said he would convene the House each Wednesday during summer.

The Senate rejected the House's $40 billion budget that Republicans say had a $7 billion deficit. The House voted down a $16 billion education proposal from the Senate.

Rauner called the session a "stunning failure."
MOLINE -- Black Hawk College will host forums this week to discuss the budget for the coming fiscal year, which starts in July.

The forums are planned:

-- 5-7 p.m. Wednesday in Room 113 of the Sustainable Technologies Building at the Quad-Cities Campus, 6600 34th Ave., Moline.

-- 5-7 p.m. Thursday in Room 102, of the BHC Community Education Center, 404 E. 3rd St., Kewanee.

Black Hawk is expecting about a $35,000 surplus in its operational budget, which comprises the education, and operations and maintenance funds, Steven Frommelt, vice president for finance and administration said. The operational budget handles most of the day-to-day expenditures of the college.

The education fund is anticipated to have about $29.4 million in revenue and $29.1 million in expenditures, leaving it with almost a $300,000 surplus, Mr. Frommelt said. The bulk of that surplus will cover a deficit in the other primary fund: operations and maintenance.

Overall, the college is expecting $81.7 million in total revenue compared to $66.7 million in total expenditures across all of its funds. But the revenue number is misleading, Mr. Frommelt said.

Black Hawk is planning a $15 million bond issuance in fiscal year 2017 dedicated to capital projects over the next few years. Without the bond issuance factored into the equation, the overall revenue is expected at about $64.7 million, leaving the college with about a $2 million total deficit, Mr. Frommelt said.

This, too, is a bit misleading, he said. Most of that deficit is related to older bond issuances that are covering existing projects such as the Vet Tech Center project on the Kewanee campus. The money is there, but not reflected as revenue because it was issued during a previous budget.

Mr. Frommelt said the deficit actually is about $150,000, spread across three of the college's smaller funds. The shortfalls will be covered by reserves.

The college's budget anticipates the state having its own budget in place and Black Hawk receiving about $5.4 million -- 75 percent of what it received in fiscal year 2015, the last fiscal year Illinois had a budget -- from the state.

Because the General Assembly and Gov. Bruce Rauner have been deadlocked over the fiscal year 2016 budget, Illinois has gone without one for almost the entire fiscal year.

Action on the Black Hawk budget is expected this month.
CAMBRIDGE  The Henry County Board may vote on the potential sale of the Atkinson Landfill Company at its June 16 meeting.

Although the landfill will be on the county board agenda, whether it is discussed will depend on whether the county's plan/development committee votes earlier that day on a letter to the board regarding the sale, according to county administrator Colleen Gillaspie.

She said the prospective buyer currently is listed as a newly created company.

A lot that is required for us to see and review, they say doesn't exist, Ms. Gillaspie said.

The information available now would lead to a letter denying the sale, she said. If they give us more information between now and the 16th, obviously the action by the board could be different.

The county board agenda will include the item, even if it isn't addressed, because it's easier to remove an item than add one, she said.

Atkinson village officials voted in May to deny the sale because of the absence of information about the buyers and proof that state officials have cleared the company of environmental violations.

Atkinson Mayor Ken Taber said officials with the landfill haven't gotten back to the village. He said Atkinson's agreement with the landfill requires village officials to approve any sale.

Ms. Gillaspie said she's been led to believe the county has similar language in its agreement with the landfill.

The landfill closed in August 2013. About 10 percent of the village's total revenue came from the landfill's host fees and per-load or tipping fees. Henry County also received per-load fees.
MOLINE -- The city aldermen tentatively approved an agreement with Heart of America Group that will give the company 12 months to find a use for the John Deere Collectors Center site.

The site, 320 16th St., was the former home to a museum detailing the history of Deere & Co. and its products. The center closed in 2008, and the museum program was folded into the John Deere Pavilion. The Center was demolished in 2014, and the site now is owned by the city.

The agreement gives Heart of America an opportunity to conduct research to find a use for the site as well as do design work, get cost estimates and pursue necessary agreements and permits with Moline.

The company is considering market-rate apartments on the site, according to discussion during the committee meeting.

The agreement opens the door for a possible development agreement and purchase of the site.

There have been other attempts at developing the property, but none have finished.

The aldermen, acting as committee of the whole, approved the contract unanimously, with Sean Liddell, 7th Ward, not present.

Also during committee of the whole, aldermen unanimously approved the refinancing of old bonds, which should save the city $1.6 million over 14 years.

During the public comment period, several residents expressed a desire to be allowed to raise a small number of hens within the city.

During the city council meeting, which followed committee of the whole, the aldermen unanimously approved an increase to Moline's contribution to the police and fire pensions beginning in 2017.

The police pension fund will receive $289,437 and the firefighter's fund $316,499.
ROCK ISLAND -- The Rock Island County Board has agreed to pay just shy of $2 million to a man struck by a vehicle driven by county emergency management director Jerry Shirk in 2014.

According to police reports, Brent Henning was riding a motorcycle to work the morning of Aug. 25, 2014, when a county-owned SUV driven by Mr. Shirk pulled in front of him at the intersection of 38th Street and 28th Avenue in Rock Island.

The resulting impact threw Mr. Henning from the motorcycle and left him with severe injuries to his hip, knee and ankle. Police issued Mr. Shirk a traffic citation for failure to yield the right of way.

After the accident, Mr. Henning spent three weeks in OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria where he underwent multiple surgeries, including repairs to a shattered pelvis. He then spent a further week at a rehabilitation center in the Quad-Cities.

In 2014, Mr. Henning sued the county and Mr. Shirk for compensation, alleging that Mr. Shirk failed to yield the right of way and did not apply his brakes to avoid colliding with Mr. Henning's motorcycle.

After a lengthy legal battle, the Rock Island County Board last month agreed to settle the case with Mr. Henning for $1 shy of $2 million. Board members approved the settlement after a closed-door meeting.

A former Rock Island resident, Mr. Henning was a laborer at the time of the accident. He was unable to continue that work because of his injuries, according to his attorney Michael Lenert, and has moved to California. Mr. Shirk, a former Rock Island fire chief, continues to work as the county's emergency management agency director.

In court, attorneys for Rock Island County argued the county had no liability in the case because Mr. Shirk was not on county business at the time of the crash. However, Mr. Lenert said, 14th Judicial Circuit Judge Jeffrey O'Connor rejected that argument in a partial summary judgment in Mr. Henning's favor earlier this year.

Negotiations to reach a settlement began after that partial judgment, Mr. Lenert said. He also said that, although the county board has approved the settlement, the documents have yet to be signed by all parties and Mr. Henning will not comment on the case until that happens.

Rock Island County Board member Drue Mielke, R-Coal Valley, said he thought the settlement was fair, considering the "horrible injuries" Mr. Henning suffered. Mr. Mielke also said it likely would have cost the county more if it had not agreed to settle the case.

The county also is on the hook for some legal fees associated with the case. County board member Don Johnston, D-Moline, said that will bring the total cost to the county to a little more than $2 million.

Money to cover the settlement will come out of the county's tort liability fund, which is funded by the county's liability insurance property tax levy. The county has increased the tax levy significantly in recent years to cover the cost of several lawsuits, including the one involving Mr. Henning.
Pacific Coast Church said spectators Xander Hendriks and his mother, Melissa Hendriks, were hit while standing next to the course during the SCORE Baja 500 race in Ensenada on Saturday. Xander was fatally injured. Melissa Hendriks was hospitalized in stable condition. A third person was also hurt.

Xander was the son of student ministries pastor Brandon Hendriks, the church in San Clemente said in a statement.

"Please commit to praying for Brandon and Melissa during this unspeakably difficult time," officials said.

The truck was driven by Todd Pederson, CEO of the Utah-based home security company Vivint. Pederson says he crashed near the start line when he failed to negotiate a turn.

A report from Ensenada police provided to The Associated Press said a man identified as "Todd N" lost control of his truck while trying to make a turn and crashed into a group of people who were outside the permitted area for spectators. Pederson was released Sunday after questioning by authorities.

The boy was pronounced dead at a hospital, the report said. His mother suffered head and leg injuries. Details on the third victim were not immediately available.

Pedersen said in a statement that he's devastated and his heart goes out to the family.
Federal prosecutors said in a news release that U.S. District Judge J. Ronnie Greer sentenced the 63-year-old father Monday. They said Greer called it one of the most horrible crimes he'd ever seen. The news release said the mother also was involved and already had been sentenced to 18 years.

In court documents, prosecutors say the arrangement went on from about February 2011 to August 2012. The release said the girls were 12, 14 and 16 when police discovered what happened to them. It was not immediately clear when that was.

The Associated Press is not naming the parents to protect the daughters' identity.
CHARLOTTE, N.C.  FBI agents found hundreds of classified documents on Paula Broadwell's home computers in Charlotte during their investigation into her relationship with then-CIA Director David Petraeus, according to newly unsealed FBI documents obtained by the Charlotte Observer.

More than 300 of those documents were classified as secret, according to a 2013 FBI affidavit accompanying the agency's request to search Petraeus' Arlington, Va., home.

The documents, which were unsealed Tuesday by the U.S. District Court in Eastern Virginia, offer new details of the sweeping federal investigation into the relationship between Broadwell, a Charlotte author, and Petraeus, a highly decorated military commander, the subject of Broadwell's book as well as her former lover.

The probe uncovered their affair, revealed their mishandling of classified documents and lead to Petraeus' resignation as head of the CIA. Last year, Petraeus pleaded guilty in Charlotte to a misdemeanor charge of mishandling government documents and was fined $100,000.

Broadwell, the author of Petraeus' biography, was never charged. Legal experts say her role as a journalist made any prosecution problematic.

The documents, partially redacted, have been sealed for more than three years. At the time of the search warrant request, the FBI asked that the affidavit remain sealed to protect an ongoing investigation. It's unclear why they are being made public now.

The affidavit is signed by a Charlotte-based FBI agent. Its allegations include:

The documents show that when confronted by the FBI, both Broadwell and Petraeus appeared to mislead investigators about their extensive exchange of classified material, most of it involving military and diplomatic operations during Petraeus' years as commander of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Petraeus admitted his affair with Broadwell during an October 2012 interview with the FBI in his CIA office. But he said he never gave classified information to her. That answer led some prosecutors to recommend that Petraeus be hit with a felony charge of obstructing a federal investigation. As part of his plea deal with Charlotte-based prosecutors, Petraeus admitted he lied to the FBI.

Interviewed in Charlotte, Broadwell claimed to have gotten some of the documents doing research for her book but "was unable to provide specifics as to how she obtained them ... Broadwell advised that she never received classified information from Petraeus," the affidavit says.

On the contrary, the new documents include details of multiple emails between the two over classified records, including the "black book" diaries and logs Petraeus kept as commander.

In one exchange included in the affidavit, Broadwell told Petraeus that certain records he'd shared were "naturally very helpful ... (I want more of them! I know you're holding back.)"

In June 2011, the affidavit says she expressed excitement at Petraeus' willingness to share certain files. "(I)'ll protect them. And I'll protect you," she wrote.

During the same conversation, Petraeus referred to some files from his time as Iraqi War commander. "Class'd, but I guess I might share!" he told Broadwell.

From 2003-2012, Broadwell had security clearance to handle classified information, the affidavit says. But that came with the understanding that she not unlawfully remove the information "from authorized storage facilities" and not store the classified information "in unauthorized locations."

The FBI found that Petraeus shared eight of his black books with Broadwell in 2011. Those contained secret codes, highly sensitive diplomatic information and wartime strategies, among other highly classified information. At the time, she was writing "All In," Petraeus' biography.

None of the classified information appeared in the book, documents say. But the affidavit says the FBI seized numerous photographs of the contents of the black books during a search of Broadwell's home.

 The FBI gathered recordings Petraeus made as military commander in the Middle East in which he discussed information classified as "Top Secret" with reporters.

In an audio file taken from Broadwell's home in November 2012, Petraeus can be heard discussing "sensitive military campaigns and operations" with reporters from the Washington Post. His only demand was to be referred to in the subsequent stories "as a senior military officer," the affidavit says.

Petraeus tried to stop the FBI investigation as soon as he heard about it. According to the affidavit, the FBI began its probe in Tampa, Fla., after a person identified as "Witness 1," who is clearly Tampa socialite and Petraeus confidante Jill Kelly, complained of receiving threatening emails from someone who had access to the CIA director's schedule  a potential breach of security.

According to Kelly's recent book, an email went to her husband Scott on June 1, 2012, and referred to a Washington, D.C., dinner when Kelly and Petraeus, after a night of drinking, had compared each other's muscles.

"As her husband, you might want to examine your wife's behavior and see if you can rein her in before we publicly share the pictures of her with her hands sliding between the legs of a senior service official," the email said.

The FBI later traced those messages to Broadwell.

On June 22, 2012, the FBI notified Petraeus' security detail of its investigation. A month later, Kelly notified the FBI that she no longer wanted to press charges against the cyber stalker. That August, Kelly told the FBI that Petraeus "personally requested" that Kelly "call off the G-men," and that the cyber stalker "possessed information which could embarrass Petraeus and other public officials," the affidavit says.

Broadwell, a married mother of two, and Petraeus, also married, took steps to hide their correspondences. The affidavit says the two used pre-paid cellphones and email accounts "using non-attributable names."

In September 2012, Broadwell told agents that she and Petraeus would use the same email account, saving messages in the "draft" folder instead of sending them.

In the years since, Broadwell has apologized for the affair and says she has attempted to rebuild her marriage and has focused on charitable issues such as returning veterans and "Wounded Warriors." She has also started a foundation to examine gender bias in the media.

"I'm the first to admit I screwed up," Broadwell recently told the New York Times. "... But how long does a person pay for their mistake?"
Judge Brian Sullivan acted at the request of the Wayne County prosecutor's office and lawyers for Davontae Sanford, who's now 23.

Sanford is in a prison in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, but he'll now be released on bond and all charges will eventually be dropped, according to Sullivan's order.

Sanford is in prison for the 2007 fatal shootings of four people at a Detroit house. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder at age 15, but he's been trying to undo that plea for years, especially after hit man Vincent Smothers confessed.

Smothers insists Sanford had no role. Sanford's family says he confessed to please police.

The agreement signed by prosecutors makes no mention of Smothers. Instead, it says the state police found major problems in the work of a Detroit police official who investigated Sanford after the four homicides.

Smothers is in prison after pleading guilty to eight other killings.
Meng Brings NASA Astronaut To Queens On October 17, U.S. Rep. Grace Meng (D-Queens) brought NASA astronaut Dr. Jonny Kim to Queens where he met and spoke with students at Francis...

Celebrating Columbus The Federation of Italian-American Organizations of Queens (FIAO) held their annual Columbus Day parade in Astoria, on Saturday, October 8, during Italian Heritage Month. The...

Russo-Elling Mourned More than 300 first responders lined up on Thursday night to honor FDNY EMT Lt. Alison Russo-Elling, as her body was placed into a waiting...
Local businessman denied access to his own restaurant (video)

Armenian businessman Gnel Hayrapetyan is denied access to his own restaurant in Tsakhkadzor. After operating Arka (King) restaurant for 7 years, Gnel rented it to his neighbour Onik Baghdasaryan. We agreed that he [Baghdasaryan] would leave the restaurant some time later after paying the rent. But when I went to see him and reminded him of the agreement, he said he would give me neither the money nor the restaurant. Moreover, he threatened to burn the building if I got any closer, Gnel Hayrapetyan says. The owner was unable to get beck his property even after the intervention of the police although Onik Baghdasaryan had assured them that he would not prevent the owner from entering the territory. The area belongs to me and I got permission to supply the building with water and electricity. The municipality had put up the area for sale and I bought it, Gnel says. Anyway, the Administrative Court annulled the sale of the land by the Tsakhkadzor Municipality, substantiating its decision by the fact that Onik Baghdasaryan was unaware of it. The announcement was published in the daily - Republic of Armenia. I do not think that the City Hall was to knock on all doors to inform everyone about the auction, says the businessman. Gnel Hayrapetyan has appealed to the Administrative Court of Appeal to challenge the decision of the Administrative Court. The court sitting is slated for June 15. We tried to contact to Onik Baghdasaryan to know his position on the matter but without success.
Rated 3.9 out of 5 by 21 reviewers.

Rated 1 out of 5 by You ask Sizing not accurate I want this bracelet so bad but the sizing is not as advertised it comes way shorter than stated on the tv.......the bracelet is just what i wanted and very pretty I am disappointed that is will not fit around my wrist. i should have read the reviews before i ordered it as it seems a lot of them are toooooo short. Come on Judith step it up, a couple links to match the discription is not going to kill you!! Going back 01-12-17

Rated 5 out of 5 by NanaMo Lovely I love this bracelet! I have thin wrists so this delicate bracelet is perfect for me. There is just a hint of color in the stones so it can be worn with everything I own. I wear it almost every day - even when I am not going anywhere. I just love to look at it. The 3 drop pieces take it from pretty to amazing. 12-20-16

Rated 5 out of 5 by retired nurse Darling bracelet I have been wanting this sweet bracelet for some time but could not justify the original price. So when i saw is on waitlist for over $100.00 less, I grabbed it. I am very pleased with this bracelet. The stones are lovely and it is comfortable to wear. 12-11-16

Rated 3 out of 5 by mamkmom Disappointed Bracelet is pretty and well made, although a couple of the stones could be a little more saturated with color. Two issues made this item a no-go for me. Firstly, those ribbed links that are Judith Ripka's trademark are always scratchy on my skin. Secondly, the bracelet makes a subtle noise when worn, which I find annoying. Also annoying is that this last point wasn't mentioned by the show host during presentation. Such an expensive piece for me not to love it so it's going back. Qvc, can you help us out here, and make returns less costly? 11-24-16

Rated 5 out of 5 by CharmingFancyJaguar Lovely I was not too wowed by this bracelet, specifically the stones, but it is delicate & pretty. The diamonique is pretty on it & I like the design. 11-20-16

Rated 3 out of 5 by terrila So-so I really like jewelry with multicolored stones, so I was very excited to have this bracelet. I was pretty disappointed when I put it on. It's an "engineering" problem. The weight of the small dangle pulls the bracelet into one position. The pale stones are on the top of the bracelet and the brighter stones are nearer to the dangle on the bottom side of the bracelet. So, unless u look more closely, all u see is a pretty JR chain bracelet. I think it we'd be a real "show stopper" if the brighter stones were on the top side. It's not at all unattractive--it's pretty, but I don't no if it's worth the price. 08-09-16

Rated 2 out of 5 by fata Sizing is Off Since when is an eight inch bracelet actually 7 1/2 inches in length. This bracelet is offered in three lengths and yet the 8 inch is not a true 8 inch bracelet. It is lovely and normally an 8 inch soft bracelet will drape on my wrist. With this bracelet I could barely clasp it as it was tight. The smaller sizes can always size up but where does a person like me go? I love the design of this piece and am working on adding links so that I can keep it and actually wear it. 08-03-16

Rated 4 out of 5 by shopper woman WONDERFUL BUT NOT LONG ENOUGH! Beautiful, especially with a watch!! It is well-made and timeless. However I had to give it a 4 star because it could use a little extra length for a nicer drape. For Judith, I would ask that you create a little extra length on your bracelets. For anyone who wears an 8 inch, this isn't quite long enough. I may or may not return it for that reason alone. 07-29-16
Judith Ripka Sterling Silver Gemstone & Diamonique Zodiac Ring is rated 4.4 out of 5 by 58 .

Rated 5 out of 5 by Sheri z from Please bring these back I ordered the libra and loved it, but I sent it back by mistake. Would love to have it back.

Rated 2 out of 5 by adpar from Ring Can not tell what the ring is. It is shiny and fits well but just not what I thought. It is supposed to be a fish but friends say they cant tell what it is.

Rated 5 out of 5 by A Hepburn from Perfect ring for a Capricorn Its even more beautiful and dainty in person. It looks perfect on my middle finger. Judith somehow makes a goat with a tail very girly. Im very happy and recommend this ring.

Rated 4 out of 5 by margaret rose from Good These small rings are very nice. I ordered the Taurus to go with the matching bracelet, Virgo, Libra, Sagittarius, and Gemini for myself and I ordered the Libra for my very elderly Mom to go with her matching bracelet. I don't think the Gemini stone was as strong as the others because the stone isn't pearl (more of a doublet?); however, I kept it..

Rated 5 out of 5 by selectiveinTXN from Scorpio loves Love this ringgggggggggggggg! Could not be prettier. Fits great and classy.

Rated 5 out of 5 by Beanbutt from I love it! I got the leo ring to represent my son Vincent. I absolutely love this ring! The presentation was real nice. The ring is just beautiful, the detail and workmanship, the bold size, I'm so happy I ordered it.

Rated 5 out of 5 by lekelbelle from Love my Leo! One of my prettiest rings, Judith doesn't skimp on design with these pieces. The lion's head certainly has presence but not in a tacky way. Only wish these were made with more gemstones instead of DMQ but they do glitter in the light. Hoping to get a cancer the crab next to match my bracelet.
G'day! It's Murray here. I've put together a little quiz to test your musical knowledge. Think you can score top marks in Murray's Magic Music Quiz? Give it a go now!
The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) have partnered with the Mohawk, Adirondack & Northern Railroad (MHWA) of Utica and the New York, Susquehanna & Western Railway (NYSW) of Cooperstown on obtaining locomotive idle-reduction technology.

The projects advance the States goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 40% by 2030 under Governor Andrew M. Cuomos Reforming the Energy Vision (REV) strategy, NYSERDA said. Funding was provided through NYSERDA from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) and from DECs Diesel Reduction Program.

MHWA and NYSW are obtaining APUs (auxiliary power units) that heat and circulate diesel engine coolant water to keep the engine block warm and enable the engine to be shut down when the locomotive is not in service. Hotstart, Inc., is supplying the APUs for this application. MHWA is acquiring two units; NYSW, four.

NYSERDA told Railway Age that APU equipment from Power Drives, Inc., IMPCO Technologies Canada, Inc. and StarClass, Inc. are also approved for the program.

Transportation makes up a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions in New York State, and reducing unnecessary fuel use is imperative to address climate change, said NYSERDA President and CEO John B. Rhodes. As we advance Governor Cuomos REV strategy across industry segments, this approach to reduce locomotive idling will protect the environment and lower business expenses for the railroads.

Idling diesel engines produce unnecessary particulate matter, greenhouse gases and toxic air contaminants, and DEC is proud to help advance projects like this to reduce public exposure to diesel emissions, said Acting DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos. This technology for short line diesel locomotives improves air quality for the communities surrounding these locations and saves fuel cost for the companies, and is yet another example of the importance of Governor Cuomos REV program, and the benefits that occur when government and business work together to achieve environmental goals.

Use of APUs supported by state and federal funds have been on the rise in many areas. NYSERDA, though, noted that idle-reduction technology is more commonly employed by Class I railroads. Due to limited funds, smaller companies such as short lines have been reluctant to install [APUs], which cost between $25,000 and $30,000 each, the agency said. These projects will demonstrate the financial benefits of this technology to encourage similar investments by other small railroad companies. [Idle-reduction technology] is estimated in the meantime. Todays announcement supports short line railroads ass they begin to transition to more modern and efficient locomotives in an effort to both lower carbon emissions and their costs.

The Mohawk Adirondack & Northern Railroad is pleased to have been the recipient of the NYSERDA/DEC award to help install APUs on two of our locomotives, said Vice President Operations Greg Cheshier. The APUs will allow MHWA more flexibility in locomotive assignments along with saving fuel and lessening pollutants.

The New York, Susquehanna & Western Railway is happy to have this opportunity to partner with NYSERDAand DEC to install this important technology that allows the railroad to operate cleaner and with greater fuel efficiency, said Manager, Government and Public Relations Melanie Boyer.

This project complements work in development under NYSERDAs Clean Energy Fund to accelerate the movement toward an energy-efficient transportation system that enhances the quality of life in communities, the agency said. The transportation sector accounts for 40% of fossil-fuel carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in New York State, where 33 Class II and Class III railroads operate on approximately half of the states 1,600-mile rail network. For large areas of rural and small-town America, short line railroads are the only way shippers can stay connected to the national railroad network, helping businesses and employment remain local, according to the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association.

Class III MHWA operates 124 track-miles in New Yorks Mohawk Valley and Western Adirondacks. The company transports steel products, stones and ore, chemicals, edible oils, fertilizers, plastic, forest products and other goods. The railroad has installed two anti-idling engines on its locomotives. Class II NYSW operates 450 track-miles in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, serving 100 customers and transporting commodities such as feed ingredients, building materials, plastics, automobiles, steel and aggregates. T

The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) is described as the nations first program to use an innovative market-based mechanism to cap and cost-effectively reduce the carbon dioxide emissions that cause the climate to change. New York State took a leadership role in adopting regulations that lowered the emissions cap. Emissions from power plants in New York State are down approximately 45% since 2005, and auction proceeds from sale of the RGGI allowances have reduced electricity expenditures and created thousands of green energy sector jobs.

Reforming the Energy Vision is described as New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomos strategy to build a cleaner, more resilient and affordable energy system for all New Yorkers. REV places clean, locally produced power at the core of New Yorks energy system, which protects the environment and supports the States goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40% while generating 50% of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2030. Successful initiatives already launched as part of REV include NY-Sun, NY Green Bank, NY Prize, K-Solar, and includes a commitment to improve energy affordability for low-income communities.

NYSERDA, the agency says, is a public benefit corporation that offers objective information and analysis, innovative programs, technical expertise, and support to help New Yorkers increase energy efficiency, save money, use renewable energy, and reduce reliance on fossil fuels. NYSERDA professionals work to protect the environment and create clean energy jobs. NYSERDA has been developing partnerships to advance innovative energy solutions in New York State since 1975.
VTB24 seeks for bankruptcy of Vneshprombank ex-president

MOSCOW, June 8 (RAPSI)  VTB24 bank has filed with the Moscow Commercial Court a claim for bankruptcy of former Vneshprombank president Larisa Markus who stands charged with embezzlement, RAPSI learnt in the court on Wednesday.

The claim will be considered on July 5.

According to investigators, in 2013 Markus along with her accomplices created an organized criminal group to embezzle the banks funds. They allegedly granted loans to sub-companies and did not refund money to the bank. Investigators claim that the group embezzled 932.1 million rubles ($14.3 million). Markus, who is currently in detention, faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

Vneshprombank is number 40 in RIA Ratings ranking of Russian banks by assets, as of January 1, 2016.

On December 18, the Central Bank appointed a temporary administration in Vneshprombank for six months to appraise its financial performance. It was revealed that massive transactions had been conducted to transfer assets out of the bank.

In March, the Moscow Commercial Court declared Vneshprombank bankrupt.
MOSCOW, June 8 (RAPSI)  A victim in the criminal case over terror attack at Domodeovo airport in 2011, Elena Krivolutskaya, is going to take back her appeal filed with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) against the airport management, RAPSI learnt from her lawyer Igor Trunov on Wednesday.

Fourteen victims, including Krivolutskaya, have received compensations on their bank accounts, thats why a motion is going to be sent to the ECHR, asking to withdraw an appeal, the lawyer told RAPSI.

He added that 14 victims are going to take back their civil lawsuits in Russia which were filed during preliminary investigation of the case.

The Domodedovo airport owner Dmitriy Kamenshchik and several other ex-managers have been charged in the case over 2011 terrorist attack that left 37 dead. According to investigators, they have not provided sufficient security level that let the suicide bomber freely enter the arrival lounge and set off an explosive.

A suicide bomber detonated a bomb in the Domodedovo Airports international arrivals hall, killing 37 people and injuring 172, on January 24, 2011.

Doku Umarov, Russias most wanted terrorist at the time, claimed responsibility for the attack. Altogether, 28 men connected with the terrorist organization called the Caucasus Emirate were linked to the attack, according to the investigators. Seventeen of them were killed in special operations in 2011, and four were detained.

In November 2013, a Moscow Region court sentenced three men to life in prison and a fourth man to 10 years for their role in the suicide bombing.
Russian Supreme Court revokes rulings on Bolotnaya case defendants detention

MOSCOW, June 8 (RAPSI, Diana Gutsul)  Presidium of Russias Supreme Court has overturned several court rulings over detention of Leonid Kovyazin, one of the defendants in the Bolotnaya riots case, upon a decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), lawyer Dmitry Agranovsky told RAPSI on Wednesday.

According to Agranovsky, the Supreme Court revoked rulings on extension of Kovyazins detention and corresponding appellate decisions for the period of November 6, 2011 through December 19, 2013.

In September 2015, the ECHR ordered Russia to pay a total of 7,000 euros to Artem Savelov, Leonid Kovyazin, and Ilya Gushchin, three opposition activists who complained of their detention over mass protests in 2012 in central Moscow. That was the first ECHR ruling in the Bolotnaya Square riots case.

Russian court has sentenced Savylov and Gushchin to 2.5 years in penal colony; both men have already served their terms while Kovyazin has been amnestied.

Over 400 people were arrested and scores injured in the Bolotnaya Square protest that turned violent in May 2012. Dozens were later charged with inciting mass riots and using violence against law enforcement officers.

The riot organizers, Sergei Udaltsov and Leonid Razvozzhayev, were sentenced to 4.5 years in prison. Other participants received prison terms from suspended sentences to four years. Several defendants were pardoned; one is undergoing compulsory mental treatment.
Two men get long prison terms for murder of Coca-Cola factory director

ST. PETERSBURG, June 8 (RAPSI, Mikhail Telekhov)  The St. Petersburg City Court on Wednesday sentenced Vyacheslav Finogenov,46, to 22 years in prison for killing Dmitry Soshnev, the director of Coca-Cola plant near St. Petersburg, RAPSI reports from the courtroom.

Another defendant in the case Denis Chkhitauri received a 16-year prison sentence.

Earlier, a prosecutor asked the court to sentence Finogenov to life in prison. A 21-year prison term was demanded for Chkhitauri.

In April, jurors found Finogenov guilty of murder with intent to rob, document theft and arms traffic. Chkhitauri was found guilty of organizing the murder, robbery, document theft, trafficking in weapons but acquitted of drug trafficking.

In April, jurors found Finogenov and Chkhitauri guilty of killing the director of Coca-Cola plant.

Soshnev went missing in November 2014. Investigators have established that Soshnev met with Chkhitauri and Finogenov, who had a murder record, on December 28, 2014. The suspects lured him to a garage area in the Frunzensky District, where Finogenov allegedly shot Soshnev with a shotgun.

The defendants took the victims money (about 160,000 rubles or $2,400) and his BMW registration documents, which they planned to sell for 1 million rubles ($15,300), according to the Investigative Committee.
Russia moves to dismiss claim over $50 bln award in YUKOS case

MOSCOW, June 8 (RAPSI)  Russia filed with the US District Court for the District of Columbia an amended motion seeking to dismiss a claim by former YUKOS shareholders to enforce arbitration awards totaling $50 billion.

The lawyers representing Russia have explained its motion by new evidence supporting their arguments since the date (October 20, 2015) it filed a motion to dismiss and motion to deny recognition of the award. In particular, in this new motion (RAPSI has a copy of the document) the lawyers refer to litigations on similar issues in other jurisdictions, namely, the Netherlands and Germany. Besides, the document maintains that a stay of the proceedings in the US requested by the former YUKOS shareholders would only aggravate the significant economic harm to the Russian people caused by illegitimate, multibillion-dollar demands and a devastating dispute lasting already for 11 years.

The litigation in the Hague Permanent Court of Arbitration was initiated by Hulley Enterprises Ltd., Yukos Universal Ltd., and Veteran Petroleum Ltd., affiliated with GML, the main YUKOS shareholder (known as Group MENATEP prior to 2004).

The international arbitration tribunal has recognized that the rights of foreign investors were violated due to expropriation of YUKOS assets in July of 2004 and awarded an unprecedented compensation to the companys shareholders.

This April, the District Court of the Hague has overturned the award ruling that the Hague Permanent Court of Arbitration had lacked competence to review this dispute. The same day the former YUKOS shareholders announced their resolve to appeal against this decision with a higher court. Thus, Tim Osborne from GML informed RAPSI at that time that some issues related to the Energy Charter Treaty, from which Russia withdrew in 2009 and which became the stumbling block in the dispute, remained open.

In the light of this fact, this May representatives of the former YUKOS shareholders lodged a petition with a US court to stay their motion to recognize and enforce the awards.

In its supplemental motion in the US court, Russia has expressed its surprise with this step noting that by the former YUKOS shareholders own calculation the proceedings could last between six and nine years. According to the White & Case lawyers representing the Russian Federation, it would be intolerable with regard to fundamental principles of sovereign immunity.

The lawyers have again brought the April ruling of the Hague District Court to notice of the US court. They also referred to a judgement the District Court of Amsterdam issued on November 5, 2015, which, allegedly, revealed the plaintiffs ineligibility for arbitration on the grounds that they were not actually foreign investors for the ECT purposes, but merely shell companies, owned and controlled by Russian oligarchs. This April, these arguments were presented in a Berlin court, where representatives of the Russian Federation pointed out that Hulley Enterprises Ltd., Yukos Universal Ltd., and Veteran Petroleum Ltd. were used to perpetuate and conceal a series of massive frauds.
Property details:

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Provo, UT based Action Target has announced that registration for the 2016 LETC (Law Enforcement Training Camp) is open.

Heres the details.

Action Target: Registration Open for 2016 LETC

Action Target Inc., the leading manufacturer of shooting ranges, today announces the opening of registration for their highly anticipated annual Law Enforcement Training Camp (LETC), which will be held September 1216, 2016. Now in its 24th year, LETC brings world-class instructors and a superior training curriculum to over 140 firearms trainers at a week-long, fast paced, high volume shooting camp. LETC is designed to aid firearms instructors from across the country in their training effectiveness allowing them to pass those skills along to officers in their respective agencies.

LETC is a way for Action Target to give back to the LE community. It is extremely rewarding to hear the high praise and positive feedback from LETC attendees each year. LETC intensifies our commitment to continuously improve our training programs and products, said Kevin Tomaszewski Action Target V.P. of Engineering and Marketing. LETC instructors are some of the best in the industry. Instructors are hand picked from some of the most respected training institutions in the world and courses are chosen and developed to address the current needs of modern law enforcement agencies. This years curriculum includes the following courses: Shoot Fast and Move with Kyle Schmidt

Reactive Shooting with Todd Haller

Rapid Deployment Patrol Rifle with Steve Horsman

Master Pistol Instructor with Tony Caspers

LE Bullets & Vehicles with Tony Caspers

Low Light Tactics & Force on Force with Wes Doss

Shoot House Instructor with Neil Honkala

Ultimate Shotgun with Brian Hoffner

LE Precision Rifle, instructor TBA What separates LETC from other schools and courses is the depth of skill, knowledge, and passion for learning and teaching that comes together each year at LETC said Seth Ercanbrack, Marketing Communications Manager at Action Target. With new and improved course curriculums and the introduction of vendor demonstrations, this year promises to be better than ever. The range at LETC is equipped with the latest advanced target systems by Action Target allowing participants to train on world class facilities including a shoot house, reactive steel bobber range, turning targets, runners, and the worlds best portable steel targets. LETC has built a long-standing reputation for great training, great people, great food, and the best value anywhere. Participants will also have the opportunity to put their skills to the test in the annual Cory Wride Memorial Match for a chance to win prizes and bragging rights.

Agencies and trainers who would like to attend LETC are encouraged to register quickly to ensure space is available in desired courses. Attendance is capped at 140 participants and sells out quickly each year. Full course descriptions and registration information can be found at: http://www.actiontarget.com/training/letc/ About Action Target Action Target Inc. is a privately owned business headquartered in Provo, Utah. The US market leader for shooting range technology, Action Targets key markets include commercial, law enforcement and military. With over 4,000 products and 47 patents for the systems it designs and manufactures, Action Target differentiates itself from its competitors with its unique start-to-finish approach from engineering and manufacturing to range design and installation. Action Target also designs systems and conducts firearms training for law enforcement and various military divisions.

Here is a short video highlighting the camp last year.

You can visit them on the web, here.
Serzh Sargsyan: Aliyev's behavior is a temporary problem; sort of machismo and it will disappear very soon (video)

At the invitation of Serzh Sargsyan, in the evening of June 7 the President of the Czech Republic Milos Zeman arrived to the Republic of Armenia on a state visit. Today, at the Presidential Palace there took place high-level Armenian-Czech negotiations. After a tete-a-tete meeting of the Presidents of Armenia and the Czech Republic, the meeting continued in the extended format with the participation of the official delegations of the two countries. At the conclusion of the negotiations, Presidents Serzh Sargsyan and Milos Zeman signed a Joint Declaration on the Friendly Relations, Partnership, and Enhanced Cooperation. The Presidents of Armenia and the Czech Republic recapped the results of the meeting in the Declaration which they made at the joint press conference for the representatives of the mass media. In the framework of his state visit, President Milos Zeman in the morning visited also the Genocide Memorial where he laid a wreath and paid tribute to the memory of innocent victims of the Armenian Genocide. President Zeman also planted a fir tree at the Memory Park of the Tsitsernakaberd Complex, and made an inscription at the Book of Honorary Guests of the Genocide Museum-Institute. *** Statement by President Serzh Sargsyan for press following the meeting with the President of the Czech Republic Milos Zeman Your Excellency Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, Today we are honored to welcome the President of friendly Czech Republic and my good counterpart Mr. Milos Zeman for a state visit. This is the first visit of the president of the Czech Republic. Indeed, it will leave its footprint on the history of bilateral relations. Today we had a fruitful discussion on a large range of bilateral, regional and international issues, like we had in Prague, during my state visit to the Czech Republic. We noted with satisfaction that we had matching viewpoints over those issues, creating an environment of mutual understanding and trust on the ways of deepening of our relations. Only since 2014 over two dozens of high level visits have taken place. Following our last meeting the Embassy of the Czech Republic to the Republic of Armenia was established and the first resident ambassador was appointed. Inter-parliamentary relations, decentralized cooperation and collaboration in international fora have intensified. Within this context, undeniably, the continuous assistance of the Czech Republic to advance the Armenian-EU cooperation has a distinct place and we highly value it. As a result, the Czech Republic is one of our stable and reliable partners in Europe and our bilateral cooperation is at the highest level ever. With President Zeman we thoroughly discussed bilateral economic cooperation which is one of our priorities. It is not in vein, that almost all high-level bilateral meetings are followed by business forums. Later today president Zeman and I will give a start to another business forum. Surely, we have positive developments in this field, yet there is a lot to achieve. In this respect, we discussed new opportunities derive both from Armenias membership to the EEU and reopening of the market in Iran, our traditional partner country. At the same time, attaching importance to the bilateral economic ties, we were unanimous with President Zeman that the pillar of our relations was not merely economic interest, rather it is the common values, having led our people through history up to the 21st century. We highly value the position of the Czech Republic concerning the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which is in line with the general stance of the EU and is in full support of the efforts of the OSCE Minsk group co-chairs. I extended my special gratitude to Mr. President and the government of the Czech Republic for this attitude. We both attached importance to the implementation of the arrangements agreed upon in Vienna in May, including the agreements on the ceasefire from 1994 and 1995, establishing monitoring and incident investigation mechanisms and adding the capacities of the team of Personal Representative of the OSCE chairperson- in- office as an anchor for the long-lasting peace in the conflict zone. Unswerving implementation of these steps is the least to be done to pave way for the constructive and, which is more important, result-oriented negotiations. Certainly, I also informed Mr. Zeman about the possibility of new meetings with the President of Azerbaijan mediated by the Minsk Group co-chairs. And I thanked him for his offer to use the capacities of Prague, Czech Republic for the meetings. In the meantime, I surely expressed my concerns over Ilham Aliyevs recent unbalanced behavior, signs of which were apparently not visible in Vienna. Particularly with his speech at the Fourth Conference of World Azerbaijanis, where he was cynical about the Armenian state, made personal offenses against the President of the country, with whom by the way he is going to talk on certain issues, articulating thoughts that mock history, he shaped a clear perception about his inappropriateness. I hope that this is a temporary problem; sort of machismo and it will disappear very soon as we have the commitment to get to serious work in the nearest future. Hopefully, this is not a conscious behavior intended to abort Vienna arrangements. I expressed the satisfaction of the Armenian side about the unanimously adopted resolution on the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide by the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Czech Chamber of Deputies as well as unambiguous attitude of the Czech President on the matter. The historic resolution on recognizing the Armenian Genocide by the German Bundestag on these days comes to prove that the process of recognition is irreversible - falsifying history, denying facts and spouting intimidation cannot stop it. We are thankful to the Czech Republic for favorable disposition to the Armenian community. The fact of transferring the Catholic Church of Holy Spirit in Prague to the parish of the Armenian Apostolic Church is a vivid example of that. It was a major event in the life of the Armenian community of the Czech Republic in terms of preserving national identity. I would also like to deeply thank cardinal Duka in this respect. I believe that our interstate relations will continue to successfully develop, since it is based on the unselfish friendship between Czech and Armenian people, mutual understanding and the strive to build a common future. Thank you. It is my pleasure to give the floor to my friend President Milos Zeman.
For students taking summer classes or even those who just chose to stay in the Classic City, now is the perfect time to explore some of the places that are new to the area. Even within the past month, new restaurants and bars  and even a food truck  have found a home in Athens.
Walking around campus, its easy to tell its summertime when the Tate Student Center Plaza is missing the waves of students passing out flyers and when there are tables open by the Miller Learning Centers Jittery Joes.
SHARE FILE - In this May 17, 2016, file photo, a plane lands at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas. Union officials says new, state-of-the-art airport towers due to go into operation this fall in San Francisco and Las Vegas need extensive remodeling so they can accommodate technology dating back more than half a century but still relied on by air traffic controllers. The looming problem was news to the federal official who's in charge of air traffic operations. A meeting Monday will look into the matter. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

By JOAN LOWY, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP)  Two state-of-the-art airport towers due to go into operation this fall in San Francisco and Las Vegas are designed for electronic tracking of planes as they taxi and takeoff. But union officials say the towers will have to be extensively remodeled before they can open to accommodate older technology that uses paper strips to track planes.

The new rooms on top of the towers where controllers watch aircraft operations are designed exclusively for electronic tracking, said Paul Rinaldi, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. But the prototype electronic strip system the Federal Aviation Administration plans to use is too unstable and "crashes" too often to be relied upon, he said. This means that controllers need to quickly turn to the historical system of passing paper strips from one controller to another to hand off responsibility for a plane and carefully line up multiple strips to keep tabs on the status of flights.

Here's the problem: the tower "cabs" have been designed without the tables, printers and places to hang strips that are necessary for controllers to use the old system while still keeping an eye on planes, he said.

This is an example of the larger problem  that the FAA's remodel of these towers relied on the assumption that the new technology would work. The FAA's continued use of paper strips to track planes when air traffic control systems in many countries have long since moved to electronic methods is frequently cited by lawmakers and industry officials as an example of the agency's often painfully slow adoption of new technology. The paper strips are more time-consuming, which slows the handling of planes.

Remodeling the cab at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas may not be too difficult because it's fairly roomy, but remodeling the one at San Francisco International Airport will be tough because there is no extra space, Rinaldi said.

The FAA's head of air traffic operations said she was unaware of this problem until Rinaldi raised it during a recent aviation symposium. If the electronic strips can't be relied upon, "we'll figure out what we need to do," said Terri Bristol.

Rinaldi raised the issue during a discussion of legislation sponsored by Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., chairman of the House Transportation Committee, to remove air traffic control operations from the FAA and spin them off into a private, nonprofit corporation controlled primarily by major airlines and other segments of the aviation industry.

The union supports the bill as a means to break FAA's cycle of failed or delayed technology acquisition programs, and to eliminate chronic understaffing at air traffic facilities, Rinaldi said. The roughly 14,000 controllers employed by the agency is the lowest number in nearly three decades, and many controllers in New York, Atlanta and other busy facilities routinely work six-day weeks and 10-hour days, union officials said.

The prototype electronic system developed by the FAA has been in use in the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport tower for several years, but has been plagued with problems that frequently require controllers to revert to using paper strips, Rinaldi said. The most recent crash of the system's server was on May 16, said Doug Church, a union spokesman.

"The most frustrating thing is that there are systems out there that would work off the shelf," said Rinaldi, citing electronic flight strip systems made by Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Thales and Canada's air traffic control agency. "Why are we recreating the wheel?"

The FAA recently solicited bids from manufacturers to create an electronic strip system for the agency to replace the internally developed prototype system. However, even after a contractor is selected, there are likely to be many years of development, testing and installation, Rinaldi said.

Construction of the San Francisco tower cost the FAA $77 million, while the airport is spending an additional $50 million to remove the old tower and construct several unrelated facilities, said airport spokesman Doug Yakel. The FAA estimated the cost of the Las Vegas tower at about $100 million at the time ground was broken in 2011.

The agency announced last week that it has broken ground on construction of a third new airport tower at Charlotte, North Carolina, that is also designed to use the prototype electronic tracking system. The design of the Charlotte cab appears to allow enough room to add equipment for the use of paper strips as a fallback, said Church.

Bristol and Rinaldi are expected to discuss the problem at a meeting Monday, he said.
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By Jenny Espino of the Redding Record Searchlight

Redding will look to crack down on illicit massage parlors and sex trafficking rings.

The City Council on Tuesday night passed the first reading on an ordinance requiring massage therapists to be fully clothed, go through background checks and operate regular business hours. Parlors would be open 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. and would not be allowed to serve alcohol or controlled substances on site.

The ordinance will return for a second reading in two weeks. If it passes, the law will go into effect 30 days later.

"I'm looking forward to seeing our community in six months or a year from now," said Matt Moseley, who in January approached the council with an ordinance he was hopeful the city could use as a model.

Moseley, with his wife, Anna, are founders of the Northern California Anti-Trafficking Coalition. He served on a working group with City Attorney Barry DeWalt, Police Chief Robert Paoletti and three massage therapists to come up with rules that will help lift legitimate businesses and shut down illicit ones.

What's unknown is what becomes of the victims, said Moseley, hopeful many of them can be rescued before traffickers move them.

Fingerprinting will only be for massage therapists who are not certified through the California Massage Therapy Council.

In sending their message they are serious. Council members agreed on a three-year ban for any property owner caught renting to an illicit massage business.

DeWalt was recommending a six-month ban. But Mayor Missy McArthur wanted an all-out ban and was not comfortable leaving it as a six-month trial period, noting how she would be finishing her term at the end of the year. "I want to make sure these places are shut down," she said.

Vice Mayor Brent Weaver and Councilman Gary Cadd agreed the six-month ban was too soft, so Weaver suggested three years. Councilwoman Kristen Schreder voted with the majority. Councilwoman Francie Sullivan was not in attendance.

Two speakers had concerns with the ordinance. One of them said it was "overreaching."

"I think it's a big step forward for really acknowledging a problem that we all know exists," Weaver said before the meeting.

Meanwhile, there will be a separate account and annual reports if Redding voters in November pass Measure D, the half-cent sales tax that will be on the ballot to pay for more firefighters and police officers, add jail space and help run a mental health center.

The council approved a resolution that establishes the separate account, annual reports and performance measurements for Shasta County, which would be responsible for building jail capacity and establishing a mental health center.

Because the sales tax measure is proposed for 10 years, the plan is for the council to get reminders about its expiration during priority-setting and budget workshops.

City Manager Kurt Starman, Weaver and Paoletti would oversee how the revenues get used on the city side.

Per Weaver's request, a citizens committee would also be formed to provide an additional layer of oversight and transparency for the use of the funds. But the details for the functions of that group have yet to be worked out after Schreder questioned how its duties would differ from the team made up city officials.

Cadd cast the dissenting vote. He said the council was getting too far ahead and he preferred to wait until after the election. At issue for him is that city officials would be doing the auditing of any revenues generated by the tax as well as picking the citizens who serve on the committee.

To pass on Nov. 8, Measure D must receive, at the minimum, 50 percent of the vote plus one. The accompanying advisory Measure E will say money generated by the sales tax increased can only be used to increase fire and police protection, jail space, mental health services and related public safety services.

Campaigning for the measures is well underway and under the direction of Rocky Slaughter, whose Revive Redding political action committee in 2014 campaigned in support of Measure B. That measure, passed by voters, allowed the city to sell for $600,000, 14.17 acres at Turtle Bay Exploration Park to the McConnell Foundation and paved the way for construction of the Sheraton hotel.

In other business, the council:

Authorized staff to apply for a $20 million state grant for the K2 Development project in the downtown. The $37 million plan is to replace the Dickers department store building with a modern, four-story building of apartments and shops. The move would pave the way to open Market, Yuba and Butte streets to traffic through the Market Street Promenade.

Approved an agreement with 19 police supervisors represented by the Redding Police Managers Association. They will receive a pair of 3 percent pay raises, the first in September and the second next April. The group also will begin to pay more into their retirement plans: 3 percent of the city's California Public Employees Retirement System contribution rate. This is in addition to the 9 percent employee contribution they make. The unit also agreed to a body-worn camera policy.
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By Joe Szydlowski of the Redding Record Searchlight

Almost all of the infraction tickets written in Anderson over the previous five years  amounting to $40,000  haven't been paid, the city attorney and police chief told the council at its meeting Tuesday evening.

"You as a council has passed a whole host of ordinances (that) mean nothing without accountability," said Police Chief Michael Johnson.

The news about the tickets arose after Johnson approached City Attorney Jody Burgess with concerns about tickets being paid around a month ago, Burgess told the council.

"His concerns aren't only valid, they're Herculean," he said.

Only a few tickets have been paid, Johnson said.

The problem arose in part because felony and misdemeanor cases are keeping the understaffed Shasta County District Attorney's office busy, Burgess said.

"It's not a problem unique to the city. But it is a problem," Burgess said, noting the Bay Area is coping with similar problems.

He and Johnson proposed several ideas for the city to collect some of the tickets owed.

Burgess said he'd prefer to start with sending letters to remind offenders they were cited.

Stronger-arm twisting would be reserved for worst offenders. He suggested an ordinance to allow the city to obtain arrest warrants if the unpaid fines reached a certain amount that the council would later determine. He could also file lawsuits, he said.

Johnson suggested the city could target the habitual offenders, noting law enforcement needs accountability to be effective.

Mayor Susie Baugh agreed with Johnson.

"It's good for the city to have teeth in our ordinance," she said.

Councilwoman Melissa Hunt asked about whether the city had the manpower for some of the ideas Burgess and Johnson proposed.

"This project, in the long run, will reduce our workload," Johnson said.

That's because the worst offenders talk to each other so they know when they can or can't get away without paying and some also participate in more serious crimes, he said.

"There's a couple of people, just at a glance, who are problems in our community," he said. "They don't care. They know nothing's going to happen."

Those infractions could also allow officers to build up cases against more serious criminals, such as drug dealers, he said.

It also could reduce the number of tickets and problems as those worst infraction offenders wouldn't want their property impounded if they get arrested, Johnson said.
SHARE Amber Sandhu/Record Searchlight file photo Voters in Siskiyou County face a decision next month: embrace en masse a half-cent hike to sales tax or likely lose funding for what the county says is a badly needed new jail. The question comes as Sheriff Jon Lopey (above) released crime data showing Siskiyou County saw violent crime shoot up 4 percent and property crime increase by 10 percent.

A day after he was accused of intimidating people to keep them from voting, Siskiyou County Sheriff Jon Lopey said he feels like others are trying to coerce him to keep him from enforcing the law.

Members of the Hmong community in Siskiyou County said sheriffs deputies, as well as other local and state officials, visited residents while carrying guns and told them they would be prosecuted if they tried to vote.

But on Wednesday Lopey said he was angry and offended by the false accusations.

The implication that we were involved in any discriminatory-focused enforcement is blatantly false, he said.

He said officials with state agencies and others who alleged there was an attempt to prevent residents from voting were trying to intimidate him from enforcing the law in Siskiyou County.

Theyre attempting to coerce us from trying to do our job, Lopey said.

In response to reports of law enforcement officers carrying weapons during an investigations of voter fraud, the American Civil Liberties Union sent out a news release denouncing the actions of local and state officials. The California Attorney Generals Office and Secretary of States Office also sent people to Siskiyou County to ensure people had access to voting.

Janelle Vang, a spokeswoman for the Hmong community in Siskiyou County, said Tuesday many residents did not turn out at the polls because they feared they would be arrested and prosecuted.

But Lopey said he was contacted by a state agency  one he declined to name  that requested his offices assistance in investigating voter fraud.

He said he did not initiate the investigation, and he did not know the names or ethnicity of those being investigated.

One of his deputies carried a rifle slung under his arm out of safety because the area they visited was rural with numerous marijuana growing operations.

The investigators visited 39 properties in the Klamath River Country Estates in the Hornbrook area, Mt. Shasta Vista and the Mt. Shasta Forest area outside McCloud, Lopey said.

Andy Fusso, founder of Siskiyou Forward, said the sheriffs actions might have been related to some measures on Tuesdays ballot, including two that have to do with banning outdoor marijuana growing.

But Lopey dismissed that, pointing out that both measures passed overwhelmingly Tuesday. He said the voter fraud investigation involved so few people that it wouldnt have affected the outcome of the election.

Lori Shellenberger, the ACLUs director of the California Voting Rights Project, said she was told the local officials at one point set up a roadway checkpoint where they stopped motorists only of Hmong descent and asked them about their voter registration.

Lopey said that claim was basically false.

Siskiyou County Elections Clerk Colleen Setzer said Tuesday she didnt want to comment on the sheriffs investigation or the accusations of intimidation because there was an ongoing investigation.

She did say she found problems with voter registrations and she forwarded those to the Secretary of States office because she has no investigative authority.

A message left with the California Secretary of States office was not returned Wednesday.

Brian Ford, an attorney who represents the Hmong community, said the county has an issue with residency requirements.

Some of the Hmongs dont have a physical address for the property they own so they were providing an assessors parcel number or a description of the property location instead, Ford said. County officials wont accept that, he said.

But Ford said both descriptions of residency  parcel number and location description  are valid to use to prove legal residency.

Typically these issues are handled after an election, and if there is a residency problem the ballot is disqualified, Ford said. Residents are never jailed for paperwork errors, he said.

In this case the registrants were reported as suspicious and an investigation was started.

Ford said Wednesday he and the residents he represents were still evaluating what course of action to take, but said they plan to pursue every remedy at law in response to his clients being denied the right to vote Tuesday.

He said they also are monitoring the vote count in Siskiyou County to ensure his clients ballots are validated.
Two-year-old Corra Ramsour patiently waits for her mother and grandmother to vote at the First Christian Church in Redding.

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California June Primary Results - State & local races

Shasta County voters went lightly to the polls today in Californias primary election, but it should be a lot heavier during the November election.

As of early Wednesday morning, the Shasta County Clerk's Office reported a voter turnout of 36.01 percent. Out of 96,539 registered voters, 34,764 ballots were cast.

November will be totally different, said Gerri Jones, the inspector at the polling locale inside the Hillside Church in Redding.

Eight voters had cast their ballots at the precinct during its first half-hour of buisiness, but voter turnout at a number of polling places throughout Shasta County remained relatively quiet throughout the morning and early afternoon hours.

Business, however, was starting to pick up at Jason Johnsons traveling Trump Shop tent on Shasta Dam Boulevard as he hawked Donald Trump hats, buttons, T-shirts and other items without a competing Hillary Clinton tent shop in sight.

Its (business) has been good, Johnson said as an early morning customer purchased a Trump cap from him.

Johnson, who has been taking his mobile business around the area since Trumps visit to Redding last week, said hes been following Trump throughout the country during the election campaign.

And, he said, the Redding area has been a lucrative spot.

This has been a great town, he said.

He has gotten lots of thumbs-up from passersby, and only a few middle fingers, he said.

Elsewhere, voter turnout at the First United Methodist Church in downtown Redding was sporadic and lighter than expected, precinct workers said.

But it was still early.

Nevertheless, workers said, quite a number of voters had been dropping off their already completed mail-in ballots.

Steve Hunter, the precinct head at Shasta Elementary School in Shasta, said around 65 voters had cast their ballots there as of mid-morning.

Among them was 39-year-old Rachel Copek, who said this was the first time shes ever cast a ballot. And it was all because of Bernie Sanders, she said.

The things he says just connects with me, she said, as she held and petted her terrier-Chihuahua mix, Sugar.

Her 65-year-old mother, who lives in Arkansas, will also be voting for the first time, Copek said.

Like her, she said, her mother is voting for Sanders.

"Were not the kind of people who can pick the lesser of two evils, she said, explaining why she and her mother had never voted before until now.

Although it was tranquil  even desolate  at some polling places, business was brisk at the First Christian Church on Placer Street in Redding.

Its been busy, much busier than usual, said precinct inspector Tom Vlahos.

The story was nearly the same at Little Country Church on Canby Road, where nearly 100 voters had cast their ballots before noon with more streaming in to vote.

Precinct inspector Dan Matthews, 87, has seen his share of elections, said there were a few bumps in the road before the doors opened at 7 a.m., but everything was quickly ironed out.

Its been real smooth, he said.

Matthews, who sported a chain adorned with a number of election pins, also said hes a big fan of mail-in ballots, but that not everyone feels the same way.

Some people say they dont feel they have voted if they havent gone to the polls, he said.
State Senate 1st District race 2016 primary

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North State voters decide Tuesday the two candidates who will compete for 1st Senate District in November. So far, incumbent Ted Gaines carries a solid lead in Shasta County for the race to keep his seat, but isn't beating challenger Rob Rowen as strongly at the state level.

Gaines has 56 percent of the vote in Shasta County and 49 percent of the vote district-wide, according to elections websites. Rowen, on the other hand, has 37 percent of the district vote and 31 percent of the county vote.

Gaines is being challenged by Rowen and fellow Republican and state of Jefferson supporter Steven Baird. As of the last batch of unofficial county results were released early Wednesday morning, Baird had 13 percent support in Shasta County and 14 percent support statewide.

Gaines responded with a prepared statement reading:

"While it is early, I am pleased by tonight's election results. It proves that my positive message of stopping tax increases and limiting government spending resonated with voters across the North State. I look forward to continuing this work on behalf of the people of the North State."

Rowen said the results were encouraging, but not too surprising.

"So far, things are good for me to move forward," Rowen said. "Do I have my work cut out for me? Sure."

He said his limited campaign spending meant he knew he wouldn't clinch the election.

"Right now, given that I didn't really spend any money and, you know, haven't really done any advertising or anything, it's pretty much what I expected it in Shasta," Rowen said.

Rowen noted he was a bit surprised he didn't do as well in his native Shasta County than he did in Placer County, but "I spent more time in Placer County than at home."

Baird didn't return a message seeking comment Tuesday night.

At the heart of the race is who can provide the kind of representation the rural district needs to get Sacramento lawmakers attention.

Gaines said the key to getting anything done for the area is building relationships and educating lawmakers from Southern California.

Rowen and Baird, polar opposites in their politics, argued the districts representation so far has been ineffective and must change.

Baird built his campaign around changing law to increase representation and have more clout in rural areas. Without that, the alternative is to break away from California and create the 51st state.

But Gaines has said there is something to be said for being a Californian and fighting for Jefferson is the wrong battle to pick. He has noted the steep climb the effort would face in trying to pick up two-thirds majority support from the two legislative chambers.

Rather, the crucial issues in this election are holding the line on taxes and finding ways to spur the districts economy.

A representative must be in regular contact with small business leaders and economic development agencies, Gaines said.

Rowen said Gaines cant always be the voice of opposition when Republicans have no choice of taking the Legislature back from Democrats.

As a rural Democrat, Rowen said he would have an easier time getting the attention of other Democrats to pursue a jobs bill for the area and push for incentives to attract doctors.
Shasta County Supervisors District 4 2016 Primary

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Incumbent Bill Schappell secured 41 percent of the votes on Tuesday and will face a challenger in a November.

Steve Morgan and Wally St. Clair were nearly tied in second, meaning the race will continue as a runoff in November.

Schappell led the evening with 41 percent of the votes. St. Clair was a distant second most of the evening, but when the final, unofficial results were tallied by 12:40 a.m. Wednesday, Steve Morgan had pulled ahead of St. Clair, getting 23.16 percent of the vote. St. Clair had 22.51 percent.

With provisional ballots and mail-in ballots dropped off on Election Day still to be counted, it's too close to call to say whether Schappell will face St. Clair or Morgan in November. The tally early Wednesday morning had Morgan with 1,377 votes, and St. Clair with 1,338.

Altogether, 5,945 votes were counted Election Night in the district's 26 precincts.

Schappell was elated as he spoke from his home surrounded by family and friends Tuesday night.

"It makes me feel great. It gives me the satisfaction that the people I have been working for are happy," said Schappell.

The apprehension of running for an elected position never goes away, said Schappell, who was voted onto the board of supervisors in 2012.

"I want to thank the people of Shasta County for voting me back in and I'm going to do the best job I can," said Schappell, who points to incarceration reform and rehabilitation in the county as being important issues he hopes to revisit as supervisor.

St. Clair said he was surprised Schappell led the night by such a large margin.

"I'm ready for any type of runoff race if I can secure that second place. Yes, I'd be ready to challenge supervisor Schappell," said St. Clair.

Earlier in the evening St. Clair was hedging on the absentee ballot votes.

"The people at the Election's Office have indicated that the absentee ballots would be counted. During my time campaigning on the streets, many people said they had not voted, which was also a surprise to me," said St. Clair.

Incumbent Schappell, Albert, Morgan and St. Clair have positioned themselves as the countys answer for job growth through tourism, stabilizing the local economy and providing more water storage.

The district includes a portion of Redding, the city of Shasta Lake, Lakehead, Castella and Mountain Gate.

Small-business owner Albert has maintained the true mark of success will be when Shasta County secures a UC campus. Morgan favors supporting the Shasta County Economic Development Corp. to bring new jobs and industries to the area, while St. Clair thinks spending money wisely will bring jobs to the county.

Schappell feels there are too many impact fees and regulations that keep businesses from setting up in Shasta County. The permitting process should also be streamlined to better accommodate new businesses, but he believes this has to be done with industries already established in the region, like timber and tourism.

Schappell was the lone vote among the board of supervisors in 2014 who voted in favor of the State of Jefferson movement.

Morgan, who sits on the Shasta County Local Agency Formation Commission, is in favor of giving the North State more representation, but he does not know if the State of Jefferson movement equals a total fix for the regions problems.

Albert would need to see strong financial figures if he were to support the separation movement.

St. Clair said he understands the dissatisfaction between people in Northern California and the rest of the state, but does not see severing ties as a solution. He predicts too many variables would be involved the process to separate and does not know if that would be feasible.

St. Clair, a former Redding JC Penny store manager, favors the countys ban of outdoor medical marijuana cultivation. Although he does not know all the issues that led to the ordinance, he believes it is the correct stance to take.

Albert sees the legitimate uses for medical marijuana. Morgan supports revisiting the outdoor cultivation ban and supports keeping dispensaries in urban areas where they can be watched and regulated.

Schappell stands behind the countys ordinance, but agrees that it leaves some patients with a costly option to consider. Any type of large-scale grow that negatively impacts the environment is proof that the ordinance is required, Schappell said.

Meanwhile, Morgan and Schappell could not support the raising of Shasta Dam, while St. Clair would need to see total support from all local community members if he were to give the move his blessing. Albert thinks raising dam would provide more jobs in the area through construction and tourism.
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Proposition 47 is Exhibit A for why the initiative process should almost never be used to monkey with the complex criminal justice system.

Consider the case of Matthew Christopher Jackson. He pleaded guilty in Orange Superior Court to a variety of offenses including stealing a gun, a felony at the time.

In 2014, after he had been sentenced to prison, voters approved Proposition 47, a far-reaching and insufficiently considered initiative that reduced penalties for drug possession and many property crimes to misdemeanors.

Championed by San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon and the ACLU, and underwritten by liberals including the George Soros-funded Open Society Policy Center, Proposition 47 says stolen property must be worth more than $950 before prosecutors can charge thieves with a felony.

That can be good. Too many people have been sentenced to prison for relatively minor crimes. But because most handguns are worth less than $950, Jackson petitioned the appellate court seeking to have his sentence reduced.

And last month the California Court of Appeal for the 4th District agreed, ordering the trial court to determine whether the gun Jackson stole is worth less than $950. If it is, the judge should consider cutting Jackson's sentence.

As so often happens, courts must clean up messes left by initiative promoters. Several appellate courts have decided Proposition 47-related gun theft cases in the thieves' favor, and the California Supreme Court is weighing no fewer than 10 cases on other issues stemming from the measure's passage.

There is a certain irony in the gun theft loophole created by Proposition 47. California lawmakers have approved some of the nation's most far-reaching gun control measures. We support most of that legislation. But because of sloppiness on the part of Proposition 47's promoters, criminals who steal handguns  the exact people who should not have guns  face only a misdemeanor. And handguns are by far the most common firearms used in crimes.

Attorney General Kamala Harris, who touts her strong gun control position and whose office summarizes initiatives for the official ballot handbook, failed to mention the gun theft loophole in her summation of Proposition 47. During the campaign, Gascon discounted the gun theft loophole's significance. Shoplifting a shirt or some food probably should not warrant hard time. But theft of a gun is fundamentally different.

This month, legislators will vote on  and we hope apsprove  bills by Assembly members Jim Cooper, D-Elk Grove, Melissa Melendez, R-Lake Elsinore, and Adam Gray, D-Merced, to plug the gun theft loophole created by Proposition 47.

Since an initiative created the loophole, voters would need to close it. The bills seek to place a new measure on the November ballot that would do that. The deadline for approving the measures is this month.

Unfortunately, it comes at a price. An analysis by legislative staffers estimates that it costs $55,000 to print each page in the voters' handbook. A do-over will run four pages, maybe more.

Though it's not likely, perhaps Gascon and the people who funded the $9.1 million Proposition 47 campaign could help defray the state's costs.

The Sacramento Bee
Nicholas Saldana met Sarah Levine-Miles on the "L." He might not have met her at all if it wasn't so cold that morning last year. And without the chance meeting, Saldana might still be homeless.

Saldana survived the cold by sleeping on the CTA Blue Line, riding it all the way from Forest Park to O'Hare and trying to catch as much rest as he could before a conductor or station agent kicked him off.

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Saldana had rotting teeth when he met Levine-Miles at the O'Hare station, but outreach workers avoid jumping right into difficult topics like health care. First, they talked about music. Building rapport is always the first step.

"The majority of folks we work with haven't trusted people in a very long time and have usually been burned by or forgotten by society," Levine-Miles said. "Without building trust and relationships, there is really no way we can move forward with any of the other stuff."

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That trust is the key to developing the determination Saldana needed to figure out complicated things like getting dentures, glasses and, eventually, his own apartment in Ashburn by Midway Airport.

Levine-Miles is a street outreach worker for the Chicago nonprofit Thresholds. This winter, the city saw thousands of Chicagoans like Saldana boarding the Red and Blue lines and laying across three or four seats just to stay warm or avoid harassment on the streets or in shelters.

Every January, volunteers and city workers canvass the whole of Chicago to count the entire homeless population, both in shelters and out on the streets. The 2015 count found 2,055 people, more unsheltered homeless people than at any time since the count began tracking that information in 2005. They were sleeping in CTA trains, under viaducts, on park benches and elsewhere outside at the time of the January count.

The previous high count was 1,727 in 2005. Jennifer Rottner at the Department of Family and Support Services attributes 2015's high number to warmer weather, which makes shelters less enticing, and noted that they counted more people than usual on the CTA.

Thresholds' street team is one of a few groups trying to reach homeless people outside of traditional shelters and connect them, when they're ready, to lifelines of support. The Chicago Department of Family and Support Services and Catholic Charities of Chicago also do street outreach.

For their part, the CTA teaches staff to "actively encourage" homeless riders to find shelters and homeless services, spokesman Jeff Tolman said. To this end, the CTA puts extra security guards on the Red and Blue lines to check out trains from midnight to 8 a.m.

Saldana became homeless after an intense family argument about money escalated to a point where his sister and mother kicked him out of their house. He is gay and HIV positive; he's struggled multiple times with AIDS-like symptoms but considers himself a "miracle patient." He talks fervently about anything with anyone, jumping from topic to topic at his whim, and he stands strong in his convictions.

Shelters provide access to the social safety net that can help people find housing, through social workers and case management. But the people you see sleeping on trains and buses or laying across a warm subway grate either chose to avoid shelters or were kicked out and can't return.

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Saldana felt threatened in shelters. He said he loves "kids, dogs, hipsters, old, young," but the only people he doesn't trust are other homeless people.

"I know what they can do to you," Saldana said. "They can rip you off. I admit, I was homeless, but I never ripped anybody off."

Mada Leanga heads the Thresholds street outreach team. Thresholds mainly provides services for people with mental illnesses. She sees that the people they serve don't want to be institutionalized or abide by the shelters' strict rules about alcohol and drugs that many who are mentally ill use to self-medicate.

"Just being homeless is traumatizing, so people don't like to have another person next to them, and when you're experiencing paranoia, it's even worse," Leanga said. "There's not a lot of housing for homeless people with mental illnesses. They think it's safer on the streets."

But the trains can be just as dangerous. Saldana described being harassed by other passengers. He said two men once smacked him on the Red Line and tried to mug him after hearing him talking with some friends about Chicago's gay pride parade.

To reach people on trains and in the street, Thresholds created a team focused on finding and engaging those who are often hardest to track down. Their team of six young social workers and outreach specialists traverses Chicago's network of CTA trains and the Pedway downtown. Their backpacks hold paperwork for people they'll meet during the day and supplies such as socks.

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They look for a few longtime members and any newcomers they can assist, people who exhibit common signs of mental illnesses such as talking to themselves, wild gesturing and noticeable neglect of hygiene.

When they find somebody, the outreach team starts trying to build a relationship. They offer to buy them coffee or some food at a nearby restaurant. When you spend all day being ignored by passers-by, just having someone talk to you is huge.

"People I see on the train pretty often look surprised when I call them by name," Levine-Miles said. "That warm interaction I have with people  I acknowledge their humanity, and it makes their day to be someone worthy of greeting."

In the course of a conversation, the team asks them about income, assessing their most immediate needs for clothing or medical attention.

If the homeless person seems ready to move toward more long-term assistance, Thresholds workers will work as fast as possible to connect them with medical benefits, food stamps, social securitywhatever they can get. And unlike most shelters, the mobile assessment units don't care if a person is staying clean.

"We don't judge anybody," Leanga said. "We offer, as much as possible, validation and empathy. We realize there's a reason they're using. We accept people for who they are and try to encourage the idea of trying to make sure that they're safe."

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But people as accepting as trained social workers are rare on the trains. Saldana and multiple other homeless CTA riders speak of conductors and station agents waking them at the end of the line and kicking them off the train. Tolman said this policy is in line with the nature of CTA fares: One swipe entitles a passenger only to a one-way ride and an indoor transfer.

Even when they can sleep, homeless CTA passengers are often the subject of ire from their fellow riders.

Homeless people notice and feel the effects they have on other CTA riders. Melvin Enoch used to ride the Blue Line but lives with his sister now. He would feel ashamed when people went out of their way to avoid a car he was in.

"It embarrassed me!" Enoch said. "Gave me a funny feeling. But it gave me the incentive to try to do better and get off of the trains."

Shayna Wiley, also in Wicker Park, admitted that she is put off by the smell of some homeless people on the trains, but she doesn't blame them for their condition.

"It's not like there's that many places for them to go," Wiley said. "I know shelters aren't always the best places, so maybe they feel safe on the train, and who are you to say that they can't?"

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Wiley goes one step further than the many commuters who try their best to ignore homeless people.

"I'm sure people don't want to be bothered, but ignoring them isn't necessarily the correct thing to do either, because they are people at the end of the day," Wiley said.

John Czapkowicz has worked with Thresholds' outreach team for more than six years. He sees how people like Saldana and Enoch can fall through Chicago's social safety nets. Homeless services exist, but they're mainly geared toward people without mental disabilities.

"People with mental illness get lost, ostracized, exiled because they can't follow the rules of the mainstream community shelters," Czapkowicz said. "I see homeless mental health services as the frontlines of the whole industry."

Although Czapkowicz believes that a train is an "ideal pseudo-shelter," he said the only way to get people permanently off the streets is with more investment in affordable housing.

Even after a Thresholds member gets out of the trains and into a home, it takes a lot of effort to stay there. If someone can't continue to pay rent, buy food or deal with landlords and neighbors, they'll likely end up back in the trains. So the Thresholds team continues meeting and working with people long after they've found an apartment.

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"Someone like [Saldana] who attributes so much of his success to us  it's really him!" Levine-Miles said. "He has so much joy and determination. Just knowing that my help is important to him and seeing what he can do and the changes he's making in his life, I feel lucky to experience those transformations."
Thyrocare founder Arokiaswamy Velumani shares his success story with Anjuli Bhargava as he remembers the one person who stood by him through it all.

IMAGE: Arokiaswamy Velumani with his wife Sumathi. Photographs: Kind courtesy Arokiaswamy Velumani/Facebook

Roughly a hundred days before his initial public offering hit the market in April, Arokiaswamy Velumani lost his 55-year-old wife to pancreatic cancer.



The loss was more than a blow; it felt like a tight slap.

Velumani says his wife -- a woman he was initially reluctant to marry -- was the backbone of Thyrocare, the company he had built from scratch with a capital of Rs 2 lakh (Rs 200,000).



"No man can be successful unless his wife trusts, energises, supports and appreciates him," he says.



"If a wife questions or doesn't trust you, it can dissipate all your energy."

In his case, not only did she support him, she was his pillar.

IMAGE: Velumani's wife was the backbone of Thyrocare, the company he had built from scratch with a capital of Rs 2 lakh.

But even as his investment of Rs 2 lakh grew to Rs 3,300 crore (Rs 33 billion), Velumani did not have the pleasure of sharing his joy with the one person who had contributed to it the most.

I feel tears pricking my eyes as I listen to Velumani's poignant description of his wife's illness, the mishandling, or so he suspects, by her caregivers in her short period of illness (she was diagnosed on October 1, 2015 and died on February 13, 2016), how he tried his best not to marry her but eventually did and how it turned out to be his best decision ever.

What kind of mishandling, I butt in. "She walked in alive and all I got back was a corpse. In between, I know nothing about what happened."



His grief, he says, was so devastating that he failed to question the 'how, why or why not' of the matter.

IMAGE: Velumani had to leave the village to attend college.

Velumani was born in 1959 to a landless farmer in a tiny village 26 km from Coimbatore.





Unable to cope with adverse circumstances for what appeared to be an endless period of time, Velumani's father had given up taking care of his family, which included four children, early in life.



Faced with her husband's helplessness, Velumani's mother took on the responsibility of keeping their head above water by investing in two buffaloes.



The money from the milk -- Rs 50 a week -- was what sustained the family for almost 10 years.

To attend college, Velumani had to leave the village. His motivation to enroll in college was unusual: To get a 'fair-skinned wife'. "In those days in our village, only boys who were graduates could hope to marry a fair girl," he says.

IMAGE: Velumani employs only freshers in his company that has 700-odd people.

In 1978, aged 19, Velumani got his BSc degree and started looking for a job, but could not find one in Coimbatore.



For one, prospective employers seemed keener on one's facility with the English language than one's knowledge, and Velumani's grasp of English was not -- and still isn't -- something to write home about.





Two, almost everyone who interviewed him wanted to know what experience he had. As a fresher straight out of college, he had none.

The matter irked him to such an extent that today he employs only freshers in his company that has 700-odd people.

After months of looking, he finally landed a job at a capsule-making factory as a chemist on a salary of Rs 150 a month. "Graduates in Tamil Nadu then were paid less than watchmen," he says.

He used to keep Rs 50 for himself and send Rs 100 home to his parents, who needed the money to educate his siblings.



"In some ways, I had become a father at the age of 10 when I realised that my father could not bear the burden (of the family)," he says.





"And it is to my mind the hallmark of a good son even today -- to live frugally and send 60 per cent of his earnings to his parents." I interrupt to add that I will let my son know.

IMAGE: 'Men with whom I ploughed for an entire day in the early 70s. The men with black hair are their children.'

After working at the company for four years, Velumani could see that his life wasn't going anywhere.



Neither was his company. A month before its imminent closure, Velumani resigned and applied for a job at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in Mumbai.



He borrowed the money to go for the interview and landed the job at a princely sum of Rs 880 a month.

A government job was to his mind like eight hours of rest every day.



Air conditioned offices, comfortable chairs, a clean working environment -- he couldn't quite call it work at any stage, even though he put in long hours.



So, to supplement his income, he started giving four tuitions a day, earning another Rs 800.

IMAGE: Sumathi, left, with Velumani, thirsd from left.

Of the Rs 1,680 he made, he sent Rs 1,200 a month home, which was crucial too as he had told a lie -- a white lie -- to his mother that he was drawing a salary of Rs 2,000 a month.



"If I didn't send at least Rs 1,200, she'd say her son was ruined for life. I knew she wouldn't let me leave the village for a salary of Rs 800," he says.

When he was 27, a man came to Velumani with the marriage proposal of his daughter.



The girl worked with the State Bank of India. Velumani took one look at her and decided that he was not keen on marrying her: She wasn't fair-skinned.



But he didn't want to reject her outright either, so he agreed to meet her.

IMAGE: Velumani took one look at Sumathi, second from left, and decided that he was not keen on marrying her as she wasn't fair-skinned.

At the first meeting at her office at the SBI, he falsely portrayed all his 'assets' as liabilities to dissuade her from agreeing to the match.



"I cooked up stuff hoping she would reject me and tell her father that this boy wasn't worth marrying."



He says he spoke continuously for 55 minutes and she listened quietly without saying a word.

That night, her father called to say that his daughter had agreed to the match.



Later, when Velumani asked her why she had agreed to marry him -- despite him de-selling himself -- she said she 'knew he was exaggerating' and that she realised that 'bade ghar me main chhoti ban jaungi lekin chhote ghar me main badi reh sakti hoon (I would lose myself in a big house but would have a say in a small one).'

On his part, she won since she had managed to keep silent for almost one hour (something he thinks women can't usually manage).





IMAGE: 'The entire credit for making the family what it became goes to my wife.'

He presented his mother with this fait accompli, aware that she would never accept such a dark skinned girl.

After marriage, Velumani started doing his PhD in thyroid biochemistry (by then his daughter, the second child, was born).



Meanwhile, his two brothers were in Mumbai for higher studies -- at the insistence of his wife.



"The entire credit for making the family what it became goes to my wife," he says. Today, one of his brothers is the chief financial officer of his company.

"In some ways, my HR was managed by my wife from 1986, my human resource," he says. While she took care of his family, she left him free to take care of his education and business.

Velumani had by now been working for 15 years tirelessly at the government job but a kind of restlessness had begun to set in.



He watched those who had learnt thyroid testing from him mint money, while he continued to struggle on a government salary.

In 1995 -- without consulting anyone, not even his wife -- he resigned.



He broke the news to her at 2 am one day. "She didn't react at first and then said, 'What if I also resign from my job?'" he recalls.

"It came literally like a dhamki (threat). So I said, 'Jiyenge saath, marenge saath (we'll live together, we'll die together).'



From the very next day, she stopped going to office. She had quit SBI after 16 years.

Once, some years ago, Velumani told his son who was not focusing on his studies that he was worried about him.



He told him that his own grandfather was a very rich man and because of that his father became a very poor man.



Now he, Velumani, was very rich, so he was worried for his son.

The quick-witted boy promptly replied that he was very happy to hear this because this meant that his son (Velumani's grandson) would be very rich.

IMAGE: Frugality is the cornerstone of both Velumani's life and Thyrocare's.

Now 27, Velumani's son (an MTech in biotechnology) and his daughter (25) -- both unmarried and missing their mother "like anything" -- live in the laboratory with their father.

His children are frugal in their spending and approach to life. Does he then think they will amplify what he has built?

His daughter says he had an advantage, "the luxury of poverty," but he thinks the values instilled by him and his wife will hold them in good stead no matter what.

Frugality is the cornerstone of both his life and Thyrocare's.

Thyrocare offers thyroid tests to patients through its distributors at a fraction of the cost of competitors.

He calls the company "McDonald's plus Walmart" -- McDonald's for its focused menu and Walmart for its volumes.

"And she was also frugal. I don't think she consumed even 0.1 per cent of what she was entitled to," Velumani says, returning to the subject of his wife as our conversation winds down.

He says if the surgeon had come out of the operating theatre and said, 'Mr Velumani, I need Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion) immediately,' he would have signed the cheque without a thought.

"But he only came out and declared that she was no more."
IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing a joint meeting of the Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington on Wednesday. US Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker Paul D Ryan are also seen. Photograph: @MEAIndia/Twitter

Asserting that Indias strong economy is creating new opportunities, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday pitched for advancing the Indo-US economic relationship, saying India could be the ideal partner for American businesses.

"In every sector of India's forward march, I see the US as an indispensable partner. Many of you also believe that a stronger and prosperous India is in Americas strategic interest. Let us work together to convert shared ideals into practical cooperation, Modi said in his address to a joint sitting of the US Congress.

Highlighting that India's strong economy with a growth rate of 7.6 per cent per annum is creating new opportunities for mutual prosperity, Modi said transformative American technologies in India and growing investment by Indian companies in the US both have a positive impact on the lives of citizens of both countries.

"There can be no doubt that in advancing this relationship, both nations stand to gain in great measure. As the US businesses search for new areas of economic growth, markets for their goods, a pool of skilled resources, and global locations to produce and manufacture, India could be their ideal partner, the prime minister said.

"Today, for their global research and development centres, India is the destination of choice for the US companies. Looking eastward from India, across the Pacific, the innovation strength of our two countries comes together in California, Modi said.

He stated that the innovative genius of America and Indias intellectual creativity are working to shape new industries of the future.

Observing that the 21st century has brought with it great opportunities, Modi said it also comes with its own set of challenges.

"Inter-dependence is increasing. But, while some parts of the world are islands of growing economic prosperity; others are mired in conflicts. In Asia, the absence of an agreed security architecture creates uncertainty," Modi said.

"Threats of terror are expanding, and new challenges are emerging in cyber and outer space. And, global institutions conceived in 20th century, seem unable to cope with new challenges or take on new responsibilities, he said.

Modi asserted that in a world full of multiple transitions and economic opportunities, growing uncertainties and political complexities, existing threats and new challenges, Indo-US engagement can make a difference by promoting -- cooperation not dominance, connectivity not isolation, respect for global commons, inclusive not exclusive mechanisms and above all adherence to international rules and norms.
Total committed investment in India now is over $5

Amazon Inc chief executive Jeff Bezos said on Tuesday the company would invest an additional $3 billion in India, boosting its committed investment in the country to over $5 billion.

Bezos told an event in Washington attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi - who met earlier on Tuesday with President Barack Obama - that India was Amazon's fastest growing region.

"I can assure you its only the beginning and as we say in Amazon, its only day one," Bezos said, adding that the investments would help start-ups in India and accelerate the country's role as a hub for innovation and digital entrepreneurship.

He said Amazon would open a Web Services Cloud Region in India this year and the country would soon become home to the firm's largest software engineering and development centre outside of the United States, located in Hyderabad.



Bezos said Amazon had so far built 21 fulfillment centres with more than 5 mn cubic feet of storage space. He said its link-up with India Post enabled it to reach all serviceable postal codes in the country.

He said the Hyderabad centre would create jobs and career development opportunities for thousands of people and a "significant" number of jobs would be created over time because of the deployment of Amazon Cloud Services.



Bezos, the world's fourth-richest man, made the comments the same day Warren Buffett, the world's third richest man, praised him for embodying the potential of small business owners who build their companies.

Photograph: Yuri Gripas/Reuters
Google was using Tata Trust's rural network for the same

Internet search giant Google has tied up with Tata Trust to reduce the digital gender gap in rural areas of India by giving them data access.

"The digital gender gap in rural areas of India is vast. One out every ten women are familiar with internet and other data usages," head of marketing of Google India Sapna Chadha said.

She said that the programme 'Internet Saathi' aims at training women and empowering them on how to take advantage of internet and get information on education, various government schemes, weather, crop and on other matters.

Google was using Tata Trust's rural network for the same.

This is the first such initiative by Google worldwide and India was selected owing to its huge population base, Chadha told reporters in Kolkata on Wednesday.

To a query, she said that the target was to decrease the divide by 50 per cent, for which more villages would be brought under the programme's fold.

At present, there are nine states where the programme had been rolled out and two lakh 'Internet Saathis' had been trained.

Google is providing android tablets and smartphones to women as well as data access.

Chadha said the programme was adding 500 women per week.

Photograph: Mark Blinch/Reuters
New twist in the Bihar toppers controversy.

M I Khan reports from Patna.

Bihar School Examination Board Chairman Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh resigned from his post on Wednesday, June 8, after his name cropped up in the ongoing investigation into alleged irregularities in the results of the toppers in the Class 12 arts and science examinations.

The development comes a day after a first information report was registered against four students -- Ruby Rai, Sourabh Shrestha, Rahul Kumar and Shalini whose unfamiliarity with their chosen subjects of study was exposed on local television and revealed what was going on -- and Vishun Roy College director-cum principal Amit Kumar 'Bachcha' Rai.

The Special Investigation Team, probing the Bihar exam controversy, on Wednesday detained eight people from Patna and Vaishali districts for interrogation.



Three of the detained individuals are said to be close to Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh.



"SIT teams raided several places on Tuesday night," a police officer told this correspondent, "The raids re still going on to arrest others involved in the racket."

An FIR was lodged on Monday night after Chief Minister Nitish Kumar ordered an investigation.

The SIT raided sites in Vaishali, Muzaffarpur and Patna to arrest 'Bachcha' Rai, principal of the Vishun Roy College, where the four toppers of the Class 12 science and arts streams studied.

"Bachcha Rai is absconding," one police officer said, "the police raided his college in Vaishali and seized documents."

The FIR lodged at Patna's Kotwali police station alleges fraud and machination by the V R college to influence the results of the Class 12 exam.

"The answer books of the toppers appeared to have been changed, which makes it a case of fraud," a police officer said.

According to the FIR, the exam centre for V R College students was located at the G A High School in Hajipur, the Vaishali district headquarters.

All the answer books from Vaishali went for evaluation to Arrah and Bhabhua, except for the V R College which were evaluated at the Rajendra Nagar High School in Patna.

"That naturally raised questions," the police officer said.
A first information report has been lodged in connection with the theft of about 500 files of Bihar's animal husbandry directorate which are supposedly related to the multi-crore fodder scam.

"An unnamed FIR has been lodged for theft of 500 files of the animal husbandry directorate from its office," a police official said.

The FIR has been lodged by Section Officer Satyendra Kumar at a directive of the animal husbandry director on May 16 last, he said.

It would be known during the course of investigation as to which files were stolen, he said.

Unearthed in 1996, the scam pertains to syphoning of funds by non-existent companies in the name of supplying fodder. Rashtriya Janata Dal President Lalu Prasad Yadav, at present out on bail granted by the Supreme Court, was convicted in the case in 2014.

Prasad, also an accused in another related case, is an ally of the ruling government in the state.

The scam pertains to fraudulent withdrawal of public money worth about Rs 950 crore from the treasuries of undivided Bihar under the head of the animal husbandry department in 1990s.

Meanwhile, Animal Husbandry Department Minister Awdesh Kumar Singh has denied that the missing files were connected to the fodder scam.

"The missing files are not related to the fodder scam as all the files related to that case have already been handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation which is investigating the scam," Singh told PTI.

The minister said the missing files, over 500 in number, pertained to issues like retirement, pension and other departmental matters of employees from 1997 to 2011.

He said the FIR has been registered with the Secretariat police station in Patna and added that a three-member departmental committee has been set up to look into the issue of the missing files.

"Based on the report of the committee, stern action would be taken against those found guilty in the missing files case," the minister said.

Singh, who hails from the Congress, alleged that rivals were "spreading canards that the missing files are related to fodder scam to draw political mileage."
Heres the full text of Prime Minister Narendra Modis address to the United States Congress.

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses a joint meeting of Congress in the House Chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington on Wednesday. Photograph: Carlos Barria/Reuters



Mr Speaker,

Mr Vice President,

Distinguished Members of the US Congress

Ladies and Gentlemen.

I am deeply honoured by the invitation to address this Joint Meeting of the US Congress.

Thank you, Mr Speaker for opening the doors of this magnificent Capitol.

This temple of democracy has encouraged and empowered other democracies the world over.

It manifests the spirit of this great nation, which in Abraham Lincoln's words, "was conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."

In granting me this opportunity, you have honoured the world's largest democracy and its 1.25 billion people.

As a representative of world's largest democracy, it is indeed a privilege to speak to the leaders of its oldest.

Mr Speaker, two days ago, I began my visit by going to the ArlingtonNationalCemetery -the final resting place of many brave soldiers of this great land.

I honoured their courage and sacrifice for the ideals of freedom and democracy.

It was also the seventy-second Anniversary of the D-Day.

On that day, thousands from this great country fought to protect the torch of liberty on the remote shores of a land that they did not know.

They sacrificed their lives so that the world lives in freedom.

I applaud India applauds, the great sacrifices of the men and women from 'The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave' in service of mankind.

India knows what this means because our soldiers too have fallen in distant battlefields for the same ideals.

That is why the threads of freedom and liberty form a strong bond between our two democracies.

Mr Speaker, Our nations may have been shaped by differing histories, cultures, and faiths.

Yet, our belief in democracy for our nations and liberty for our countrymen is common.

The idea that all citizens are created equal is a central pillar of the American constitution.

Our founding fathers too shared the same belief and sought individual liberty for every citizen of India.

There were many who doubted India when, as a newly independent nation, we reposed our faith in democracy.

Indeed, wagers were made on our failure. But, the people of India did not waver.

Our founders created a modern nation with freedom, democracy, and equality as the essence of its soul.

And, in doing so, they ensured that we continued to celebrate our age old diversity.

Today, across its streets and institutions, in its villages and cities, anchored in equal respect for all faiths; and in the melody of hundreds of its languages and dialects.

India lives as one; India grows as one; India celebrates as one.

A word cloud analysis of PM Modi's speech. The words that appeared more often in the speech included India, world, freedom and partnership.



Mr Speaker, Modern India is in its 70th year.

For my government, the Constitution is its real holy book.

And, in that holy book, freedom of faith, speech and franchise, and equality of all citizens, regardless of background, are enshrined as fundamental rights.

800 million of my countrymen may exercise the freedom of franchise once every five years.

But, all the 1.25 billion of our citizens have freedom from fear, a freedom they exercise every moment of their lives.

Distinguished Members, engagement between our democracies has been visible in the manner in which our thinkers impacted one another, and shaped the course of our societies.

Thoreaus idea of civil disobedience influenced our political thoughts.

And, similarly the call by the great sage of India Swami Vivekananda to embrace humanity was most famously delivered in Chicago.

Gandhis non-violence inspired the heroism of Martin Luther King.

Today, a mere distance of 3 miles separates the Martin Luther King memorial at TidalBasin from the statue of Gandhi at Massachusetts Avenue.

This proximity of their memorials in Washington mirrors the closeness of ideals and values they believed in.

The genius of Dr B R Ambedkar was nurtured in the years he spent at the ColumbiaUniversity a century ago.

The impact of the US constitution on him was reflected in his drafting of the Indian constitution some three decades later.

Our independence was ignited by the same idealism that fuelled your struggle for freedom.

No wonder then that former Prime Minister of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee called India and the US natural allies.

No wonder that the shared ideals and common philosophy of freedom shaped the bedrock of our ties.

No wonder then, that President Obama has called our ties the defining partnership of the 21st century.

Mr Speaker, more than fifteen years ago, Prime Minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee stood here and gave a call to step out of the 'shadow of hesitation' of the past.

The pages of our friendship since then tell a remarkable story.

Today, our relationship has overcome the hesitations of history.

Comfort, candour and convergence define our conversations.

Through the cycle of elections and transitions of Administrations the intensity of our engagements has only grown.

And, in this exciting journey, the US Congress has acted as its compass.

You helped us turn barriers into bridges of partnership.

In the fall of 2008, when the Congress passed the India-US Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement, it changed the very colours of leaves of our relationship.

We thank you for being there when the partnership needed you the most.

You have also stood by us in times of sorrow.

India will never forget the solidarity shown by the US Congress when terrorists from across our border attacked Mumbai in November of 2008.

And for this, we are grateful.

Mr Speaker, I am informed that the working of the US Congress is harmonious.

I am also told that you are well-known for your bipartisanship. Well, you are not alone.

Time and again, I have also witnessed a similar spirit in the Indian Parliament, especially in our Upper House. So, as you can see, we have many shared practices.

Mr Speaker, as this country knows well, every journey has its pioneers. Very early on, they shaped a development partnership even when the meeting ground was more limited.

The genius of Norman Borlaug brought the Green Revolution and food security to India.

The excellence of the American Universities nurtured Institutes of Technology and Management in India. And, I could go on.

Fast forward to today. The embrace of our partnership extends to the entirety of human endeavour-from the depths of the oceans to the vastness of the space.

Our S&T collaboration continues to helps us in cracking the age-old problems in the fields of public health, education, food, and agriculture.

Ties of commerce and investment are flourishing. We trade more with the US than with any other nation.

And, the flow of goods, services and capital between us generates jobs in both our societies.

As in trade, so in defence. India exercises with the United States more than we do with any other partner. Defence purchases have moved from almost zero to ten billion dollars in less than a decade.

Our cooperation also secures our cities and citizens from terrorists, and protects our critical infrastructure from cyber threats.

Civil Nuclear Cooperation, as I told President Obama yesterday, is a reality.

Mr Speaker, Our people to people links are strong; and there is close cultural connect between our societies.

SIRI tells us that India's ancient heritage of Yoga has over 30 million practitioners in the US.

It is estimated that more Americans bend for yoga than to throw a curve ball.

And, no Mr Speaker, we have not yet claimed intellectual property right on Yoga.

Connecting our two nations is also a unique and dynamic bridge of three million Indian Americans.

Today, they are among your best CEOs; academics; astronauts; scientists; economists; doctors; even spelling bee champions.

They are your strength. They are also the pride of India. They symbolise the best of both our societies.

Mr Speaker, my understanding of your great country began long before I entered public office. Long before assuming office, I travelled coast to coast, covering more than 25 States of America.

I realised then that the real strength of the U.S. was in the dreams of its people and the boldness of their ambitions.

Today, Mr Speaker, a similar spirit animates India.

Our 800 million youth, especially, are particularly impatient. India is undergoing a profound social and economic change.

A billion of its citizens are already politically empowered.

My dream is to economically empower them through many social and economic transformations.

And, do so by 2022, the seventy-fifth anniversary of India's independence.

My to-do list is long and ambitious. But you will understand.

It includes: a vibrant rural economy with robust farm sector; a roof over each head and electricity to all households; to skill millions of our youth; build 100 smart cities; have a broad band for a billion, and connect our villages to the digital world; and create a twenty-first century rail, road and port infrastructure.

These are not just aspirations; they are goals to be reached in a finite time-frame.

And, to be achieved with a light carbon foot print, with greater emphasis on renewables.

Mr Speaker, in every sector of India's forward march, I see the US as an indispensable partner.

Many of you also believe that a stronger and prosperous India is in Americas strategic interest.

Let us work together to convert shared ideals into practical cooperation.

There can be no doubt that in advancing this relationship, both nations stand to gain in great measure.

As the US businesses search for new areas of economic growth, markets for their goods, a pool of skilled resources, and global locations to produce and manufacture, India could be their ideal partner.

India's strong economy, and growth rate of 7.6 per cent per annum, is creating new opportunities for our mutual prosperity.

Transformative American technologies in India and growing investment by Indian companies in the United States both have a positive impact on the lives of our citizens.

Today, for their global research and development centres, India is the destination of choice for the US companies.

Looking eastward from India, across the Pacific, the innovation strength of our two countries comes together in California.

Here, the innovative genius of America and India's intellectual creativity are working to shape new industries of the future.

Mr Speaker, the 21st century has brought with it great opportunities. But, it also comes with its own set of challenges.

Inter-dependence is increasing. But, while some parts of the world are islands of growing economic prosperity; other are mired in conflicts.

In Asia, the absence of an agreed security architecture creates uncertainty.

Threats of terror are expanding, and new challenges are emerging in cyber and outer-space.

And, global institutions conceived in 20th century, seem unable to cope with new challenges or take on new responsibilities.

In this world full of multiple transitions and economic opportunities; growing uncertainties and political complexities; existing threats and new challenges; our engagement can make a difference by promoting: cooperation not dominance; connectivity not isolation; respect for GlobalCommons; inclusive not exclusive mechanisms; and, above all, adherence to international rules and norms.

India is already assuming her responsibilities in securing the Indian Ocean region.

A strong India-US partnership can anchor peace, prosperity and stability from Asia to Africa and from Indian Ocean to the Pacific.

It can also help ensure security of the sea lanes of commerce and freedom of navigation on seas.

But, the effectiveness of our cooperation would increase if international institutions framed with the mindset of the 20th century were to reflect the realities of today.

Mr Speaker, before arriving in WashingtonDC, I had visited Herat in Western Afghanistan to inaugurate Afghan-India Friendship Dam, a 42 MW hydro-electric project built with Indian assistance.

I was also there on the Christmas day last year to dedicate to that proud nation its Parliament, a testimony to our democratic ties.

Afghans naturally recognize that the sacrifices of American have helped create a better life.

But, your contribution in keeping the region safe and secure is deeply appreciated even beyond. India too has made an enormous contribution and sacrifices to support our friendship with Afghan people.

A commitment to rebuild a peaceful, and stable and prosperous Afghanistan our shared objective.

Yet, Distinguished Members, not just in Afghanistan, but elsewhere in South Asia, and globally, terrorism remains the biggest threat.

In the territory stretching from West of India's border to Africa, it may go by different names, from Laskhar-e-Tayyaba, to Taliban to ISIS.

But, its philosophy is common: of hate, murder and violence.

Although its shadow is spreading across the world, it is incubated in Indias neighbourhood.

I commend the members of the US Congress for sending a clear message to those who preach and practice terrorism for political gains.

Refusing to reward them is the first step towards holding them accountable for their actions.

The fight against terrorism has to be fought at many levels.

And, the traditional tools of military, intelligence or diplomacy alone would not be able to win this fight.

Mr Speaker, we have both lost civilians and soldiers in combating it.

The need of the hour is for us to deepen our security cooperation.

And, base it on a policy: that isolates those who harbour, support and sponsor terrorists; that does not distinguish between good and bad terrorists; and that de-links religion from terrorism. Also, for us to succeed, those who believe in humanity must come together to fight for it as one, and speak against this menace in one voice.

Terrorism must be delegitimised.

Mr Speaker, the benefits of our partnership extend not just to the nations and regions that need it most.

On our own, and by combining our capacities, we are also responding to other global challenges including when disaster strikes and where humanitarian relief is needed.

Far from our shores, we evacuated thousands from Yemen, Indians, Americans and others.

Nearer home, we were the first responders during Nepals earthquake, in the Maldives water crisis and most recently during landslide in Sri Lanka.

We are also one of the largest contributors of troops to UN Peace Keeping Operations.

Often, India and the US have combined their strengths in science, technology and innovation to help fight hunger, poverty, diseases and illiteracy in different parts of the world.

The success of our partnership is also opening up new opportunities for learning, security and development from Asia to Africa.

And, the protection of environment and caring for the planet is central to our shared vision of a just world.

For us in India, to live in harmony with mother earth is part of our ancient belief. And, to take from nature only what is most essential is part of our civilisational ethos.

Our partnership, therefore, aims to balance responsibilities with capabilities. And, it also focuses on new ways to increase the availability and use of renewable energy.

A strong US support for our initiative to form an International Solar Alliance is one such effort.

We are working together not just for a better future for ourselves, but for the whole world.

This has also been the goal of our efforts in G-20, East Asia Summit and Climate Change summits.

Mr Speaker and Distinguished Members, as we deepen our partnership, there would be times when we would have differing perspectives.

But, since our interests and concerns converge, the autonomy in decision making and diversity in our perspectives can only add value to our partnership.

So, as we embark on a new journey, and seek new goals, let us focus not just on matters routine but transformational ideas. Ideas which can focus not just on creating wealth but also creating value for our societies; not just on immediate gains but also long term benefits Not just on sharing best practices but also shaping partnerships; and, not just on building a bright future for our peoples, but in being a bridge to a more united, humane and prosperous world.

And, important for the success of this journey would be a need to view it with new eyes and new sensitivities.

When we do this, we will realise the full promise of this extraordinary relationship.

Mr Speaker, my final thoughts and words would reiterate that our relationship is primed for a momentous future.

The constraints of the past are behind us and foundations of the future are firmly in place.

In the lines of Walt Whitman, The Orchestra have sufficiently tuned their instruments, the baton has given the signal.'

And to that, if I might add, there is a new symphony in play.

Thank you Mr Speaker and Distinguished members for this honour.

Thank you very much.
IMAGE: US President Barack Obama shakes hands with Prime Minister Narendra Modi following a meeting in the Oval Office at the White House on Tuesday. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters



In Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President Barack Obama has found a partner to extend and strengthen the relationship between India and the United States, the White House said on Tuesday after the two leaders met for the seventh time in less than two years.

"The President is pleased that he has found a partner in Prime Minister Modi to extend and strengthen the relationship, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said.

"I think what makes the relationship between Prime Minister Modi and President Obama so strong is the shared commitment that they have to warm relations between our two countries, he said.

Both leaders recognise that a strong relationship between the US and India benefits the economy, the national security and the people of the US and India, Earnest said, adding that he thinks this is what animates their relationship.

"The President obviously has had an opportunity to spend time socially with Prime Minister Modi. Modi, as I recall, hosted a very nice state dinner for President Obama in India on Republic Day when the president was there last year, he said.

"Unfortunately, the president was not able to visit the Taj Mahal on that trip, but the president is certainly looking forward to having an opportunity to visit the Taj Mahal at some point after leaving the White House, Earnest said.

The White House Press Secretary said Obama is committed to strengthening the relationship between the US and India.

"We want to look for every opportunity we can to remove impediments in that important relationship because the world and surely the citizens of our two countries benefit from a stronger relationship, he said.

"So were seeking to deepen our cooperation on economic issues, on national security issues, on fighting terrorism, on fighting climate change. There are a whole host of ways in which the United States and India can work together to improve the world for the citizens in our two countries. And President Obama has made this relationship a priority, Earnest said.

"In fact, President Obama was interested in strengthening US ties with India even before Prime Minister Modi took office, he said, adding that the very first state dinner that Obama and the First Lady hosted at the White House was to host Modis predecessor at the White House.

"That was an important event and I think it was an important symbol about the priority that the president places on the US relationship with India, he said.

Earnest also said that Obama and Modi could not address a joint press conference after their meeting because of scheduling issues and the two leaders wanted more time to discuss several pressing matters.

"I think the issue was just a matter of scheduling," he said.

"Between the private engagements that the President and the prime minister had both in the Oval Office and over lunch, that there was time for the two leaders to speak to professional independent journalists that cover the White House and that cover the Indian prime minister, but there was no time on the schedule for the two leaders to take questions, Earnest said.
An Indian-origin university student has been jailed in the United Kingdom for 15 months for faking evidence to claim her ex-boyfriend raped and strangled her. Natasha Uttamsingh wanted to keep Aakash Andrews in her life when he decided to break up with her, Guildford Crown Court in Surrey was told this week.

Judge Christopher Critchlow sentenced the 22-year-old to 15 months in prison on Monday after she admitted four counts of intending to pervert the course of justice and was ordered not to approach Andrews, his mother or his friends for at least five years, the Daily Mirror reported.

Judge Critchlow said: "There was a false message put on his phone by you suggesting it was sent by him which indicated that he had raped you, all of which was false."

"You altered medical records from a doctor which was put before the family court in support of an application by you for a non-molestation order that you obtained."

"He was able to go before the court and show it should not have been made and it was rescinded. "Then you produced false phone records on your mobile implying harassment by him. This was all an apparent charade."

"You have tried to influence a court by dishonestly altering medical records and tried to bring problems into Aakash Andrews' life and you have succeeded in doing that."

Uttamsingh was described as a good student who was part way through a midwifery course at university. "This is a girl who did extremely well. She got very good grades at school and was a top of the class student who started a degree in midwifery," her defence lawyer said.

She is believed to be suffering from a personality disorder that made her alter a medical exam form to say police needed to investigate a made up attack by her ex-boyfriend.

Prosecutor Tony Prosser told the court: "The relationship was experiencing problems and Aakash had said that he wanted to end it. When he suggested finishing it she told him she was pregnant. He said he wanted to go away for a few days.

"She stood in front of him and said she would report him for domestic assault if he were to try to leave her. A call was made to the police, it was reported to come from a Nicola

Smith which was the defendant using a false name.

"She then made an allegation he had strangled her to the point of unconsciousness and that she was assaulted on a daily basis. The next day she said she had been the subject to rape."

Uttamsingh's mother cried as her daughter was taken away from the dock to begin her sentence.
Amid fears of cross-voting in June 11 Rajya Sabha polls, the main opposition Indian National Lok Dal in Haryana has apparently packed off most of its members of Legislative Assembly to the hill resort of Mussoorie while other parties have gone into a huddle to chalk out their strategies.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has nominated Union Minister Birender Singh for one of the two seats and he is assured of a comfortable win but a keen contest is expected for the second seat between media baron Subhash Chandra and INLD-supported lawyer R K Anand, who are fighting it out as Independent candidates.

Apprehending that some of its MLAs may not toe the party line, especially as BJP-backed Chandra had claimed support of at least two INLD MLAs, a dozen-odd legislators of the party were on Monday sent off to the hill station in Uttarakhand.

The INLD has 19 MLAs in the 90-member house.

While its MLAs Parminder Singh Dhull and Jaswinder Singh Sandhu have denied reports that they have gone to Mussorie, the party's Haryana unit president Ashok Arora said some other legislators have gone there "for a vacation" on their own.

When asked if the move was due to fear of cross-voting by some of their MLAs, Arora said, "A few of our legislators have gone to Mussorie and will be back in Chandigarh well in time before the voting for Rajya Sabha polls on June 11. There is no fear of cross-voting. Some of our MLAs have gone there for a short vacation."

Arora said the party will be supporting R K Anand.

However, the lone Bahujan Samaj Party candidate from Haryana Tek Chand Sharma has announced his party's support to Chandra.

"My support will be for the BJP and the candidate backed by the party," said Sharma, the MLA from Prithla.

The Congress, meanwhile, is yet to reveal its cards and said the future course of action for the Rajya Sabha polls will be decided at an All India Congress Committee meeting on June 10.

"As of today, we have not taken any decision (whether to vote or abstain). On June 10, we will decide at the AICC meeting in Delhi," former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said.

On Monday, Hooda and another senior leader Kuldip Bishnoi, who recently merged his HJC with Congress, had separately met Congress Vice-president Rahul Gandhi in Delhi to discuss the partys strategy for the upcoming polls.

On Monday, more leaders from Haryana Congress including former Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Sharma are meeting the party high command to discuss the party's strategy for the RS polls.

The entry of Subhash Chandra and R K Anand has put the Congress in a tricky situation. The party has often accused the INLD of playing second fiddle to ruling BJP and if it backs R K Anand, it will mean backing an INLD-supported candidate. If the Congress decides to abstain from the vote, it will mean letting Subhash Chandra win.

Allegations that legislators were being lured for votes have cropped up ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections in several states including a purported sting in Karnataka.

State Congress chief Ashok Tanwar had earlier said, "We will do whatever is best in the interest of the state and our party. We have shared the state unit's feedback with our party high command. The final decision will be taken collectively".

On Monday, state BJP legislature party held a meeting under the leadership of party general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya to draw up the strategy for the biennial elections.

BJP, with the support of five Independents and one BSP legislator, has the support of 52 MLAs in the 90-member House. It needs 31 votes to wrest the first seat but it does not have adequate numbers to get the second candidate elected.

The BJP has 47 MLAs in the Assembly, INLD 19, Congress 17 (after 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.
With United States President Barack Obama firmly backing New Delhi's candidature for membership of the elite Nuclear Suppliers Group, US Ambassador to India Richard Verma on Wednesday said the former is very supportive of India's accession in all the four export control regimes, including the NSG, and is going to work hard to achieve the target.

The statement came after the members of the Missile Technology Control Regime on Tuesday agreed to include India in to the group.

"We think the MTCR membership is eminent and we spent a lot of time talking about NSG membership and the President is very strongly supportive of India's accession in to all the four export control regimes including the NSG, we are going to work really hard on that," Verma told ANI.

Verma further said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the US was of great significance as it churned out lot of important outcomes.

"I think it was a great visit. Lot of really important outcomes from civil nuclear cooperation to defence, identifying India as a major defence partner to commitments on clean energy, in the economic area opening up new consulates, I think it has something for everyone. And the two leaders spent a lot of time together talking about not only in context of what is happening today but also discussed the future where they want the relationship to go. So it has been a terrific visit so far," said Verma.

Elucidating the blooming defence camaraderie between the two nations, Verma said, "India is now major defence partner and it's a special designation for India. We want to recognise how important this relationship is. It involves higher level of technology transfer and higher level of cooperation. So I think that's a big part of the progress we made. And I am really glad that we are able to make that announcement today."

In a joint statement issued after the third major bilateral summit between Prime Minister Modi and President Obama, the US called on 'NSG Participating Governments' to support India's application when it comes up at the NSG Plenary later this month.

Nisha Biswal, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs in the US State Department said New Delhi has 'by-and-large' met the criteria to join the NSG and the MTCR, and countries do not have any reservation for India's entry.

'India is ready for NSG, MTCR membership'

She said President Obama's 'robust support' shows the India is ready for membership in the NSG.

"On MTCR we are pretty much at the point where the countries who are members of the MTCR have said that the India has met that criteria. There are some technical processes that have to unfold but by and large India has met the criteria and countries have removed any reservation for that, so that is a move forward," Biswal said.

"(On NSG) The President has voiced his very robust support that he believes India is ready for and should be considered for membership in the NSG and that process will unfold and we're committed to doing our part," she added.
IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a Congressional reception jointly hosted by Foreign Relations Committee (House and Senate) and India Caucus (House and Senate) at Cannon Caucus Room at the Cannon House Office Building in Washington, DC on Wednesday. Photograph: @MEAIndia/Twitter

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said India and the United States should come closer and become stronger, and through their shared values do something for the benefit of the world.

"I understand, we can join together, where the United States and India, two big democracies, can do a lot together for the world. This is the commitment that I have been feeling, and I would always want India and the United States come together, come closer, become stronger and through their shared values do something for the benefit of the world, said the PM, while addressing a Congressional reception jointly hosted by Foreign Relations Committee (House and Senate) and India Caucus (House and Senate) at Cannon Caucus Room at the Cannon House Office Building in Washington, DC.

Expressing his gratitude for hosting him together, the prime minister said, I am deeply grateful that you have given me the honour of having or hosting me together, having this reception of both houses together.

I see a lot of familiar faces here and if I had more time, I would take out time to talk to you, but I am on a tour of five nations so you can understand the time is somewhat limited, he said.

Speaking about his address to the Congress, Modi said: Let me just say that, when I addressed the Congress today, I touched upon all issues that are important to us.

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the banquet lunch host by House Speaker Paul D. Ryan at Capitol Hill in Washington on Wednesday. Photograph: PTI Photo



I had the opportunity to address the Congress, which I think was a big honour. But its not just a personal honour for me, it's not an honour for the prime minister of a country, its an honour extended to 1.25 billion people representing a country with an age old culture, with a profound respect for humanity and that believes in the philosophy of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, which means the world is one family. And I think it is an honour that has been extended to all of us to this ancient country, to this ancient culture that I am deeply grateful for, he added.

Talking about his reception in the US, the prime minister said, Whenever I have come here, I have had opportunities to meet senators, Congressmen, and they always received me with a lot of affection and spoken to me very openly.

I met your Congressmen and governors, and this I feel an opportunity to take our relationship beyond diplomacy. Its going far beyond, its going far above that. It is, as I understand, we can join together where the United States and India, two big democracies, can do a lot together for the world, he added.

I have always felt that there has been a lot of curiosity in the United States. People want to know what do they do, how do they think, and this has been there for a long time, he said, adding, Then we proceeded to a phase, where America started understanding India, where they understood that we have a lot of shared values and these values can bring us closer and promote our relationship.

Then we proceeded to a phase, where we started thinking about what we can do for each other, how we can help each other, and we started thinking of what can I do that benefit the other country. And in this way we started coming closer, said the prime minister.

But now, he said, we have transitioned into a new era, where we dont think that what we can get from America, what can America get from us, we have gone way beyond that now.

Right now, what we are thinking about is how the United States and India work together to benefit the world can. You have global problems like climate change, global warming, poverty, health concerns; together we can find solutions for the world. We must use our skills, our intelligence, our resources, and with commitment we need to go forward, added Modi.

The prime minister concluded: I think my journey this time, my two day visit to the United States has only reinforced the commitment and with that I would like you thank you very much once again. Thank You.
California State Attorney General Kamala Harris and Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez battle each other to become California's next senator, after winning the top two spots in an open primary on Tuesday, reports Ritu Jha from California.

IMAGE: California Attorney General Kamala Harris speaks at the Center for American Progress' 2014 Making Progress Policy Conference in Washington, District of Columbia, US. Photograph: Gary Cameron/Reuters

California State Attorney General Kamala Harris on Tuesday won the California primary election to advance in United States Senate race.

"Our unity is our strength and our diversity is our power. You know, I am a proud daughter of California," said the Indian American, who received 40 percent votes, highest among 33 candidates vying for the US Senate seat to be vacated by Democrat Senator Barbara Boxer.

Haris, the Democrat will face her party contender Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez, who received 16.5 percent votes, in November 8 elections. Interestingly, no Republican made it to the final, making straight fight between two Democrats.

According to California's relatively new top-two voting system, only top two candidates of any party could go to the final election.

Born in Oakland, California, Harris's mother is an immigrant from Chennai and father is a Jamaican American.

Harris recently received an endorsement from California Governor Jerry Brown, who seldom wades into contested intra-party primaries.

"She (Harris) is strong. She is intelligent. She knows what shes doing," Brown said.

Harris during her campaign said, "We need a Democratic majority in the United States Senate to reform our criminal justice system to holding polluters and Wall Street accountable."

According to the Asian American and Pacific Islander 2012 data, there are over 1.7 million Asian Americans registered to vote in California.

Another much talked race in this election was California Congressional District 17. The campaign was much smoother this time compared to the last 2014 election, where both Democratic contenders Ro Khanna and Congressman Mike Honda, an incumbent, involved in mud-slinging.

Khanna threw the election night party at David restaurant in Santa Clara. Khanna received 37. 8 percent votes and Congressman Honda received 38.1 percent votes. Both candidates would be facing each other in the November 8 election.

Khanna looked pretty happy and confident with his wife Ritu and parents present along with the Indian American community and even San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo at the party.

IMAGE: Democratic contenders Ro Khanna with his wife Ritu at David restaurant in Santa Clara. Photograph: Ritu Jha/Rediff.com

"I am looking for victory tonight. People are ready for a change," Khanna told Rediff.com on the sidelines of the election party.

He said he gives credit to his wife for reaching this far, and the Indian American community.

"There is a mood in the country that it's time to have a new representative," said Khanna.

Khanna in his speech said his parents taught him one thing and that is to stay connected to your roots.

"This is not a celebration, this is the beginning. It's a beginning of a long effort and would ultimately win in November and it is a long effort to change the country," Khanna said further during his speech.

Kamil Hasan, a general partner of Granite Hill Capital Partners, LLC, whom Khanna called his mentor during speech, told Rediff.com that he has been supporting Khanna for the last 10 years and was very impressed with him when he first ran against Tom Lantos, a Democratic from California's 12th congressional district.

"I was impressed by his passion, his idealism and by his hard work," said Hasan, who did the first fundraising for Khanna.

"I know he will win this time," Hasan added.

IMAGE: Ro Khanna's parents at David restaurant in Santa Clara. Photograph: Ritu Jha/Rediff.com

"We need a candidate like him. With the deadlock in the Congress in WashingtonDC, we need someone like Ro, who is young and dynamic and very hardworking. He understands the issues very well. He can do a great job for the Silicon Valley as well as for the Indian American community. I am so happy he has done so well," Hasan said.

When asked his views about Congressman Honda, Hasan said that he had supported him in the past but he has been a Congressman for too long.

"I think he (Honda) has lost his effectiveness," said Hasan and added that he does not understand the Silicon Valley issues.

"We need a young dynamic leader who has a vision for the country going forward," said Hasan.

Yogi Chugh, former Chair of the Tri-City Democratic Party, California told Rediff.com that the Indian American community came in large numbers to support Khanna.

"Ro's message has resonated well with the district and he is positioned for a decisive win in November," said Chugh, a long time supporter of Khanna.

San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo said it is great to see Khanna in a position to win the race.

"We know he is going to give a great race in November and from this June result it is obvious that he is due for a very big win," said Liccardo.

"We critically need Ro's intelligence, his ethics, and his understanding of the Silicon Valley that ensures that we continue to grow the economy and care for those who are left behind," Liccardo added.

Liccardo though did not endorse Ash Kalra, Councilman City of San Jose who ran for California Assembly District 27.

Kalra, who faced over half a dozen contenders stood second, receiving 17. 6 percent votes and would be facing Madison Nguyen, who received 37 percent vote in November.
Several police officers who followed the Election Commission's orders during the West Bengal assembly polls get punishment transfers.

Payal Mohanka reports from Kolkata.

Hell hath no fury like a chief minister scorned.

Less than a month after being re-elected West Bengal chief minister, Mamata Banerjee appears to be settling scores.

Those perceived to have enthusiastically followed the Election Commission's orders are now being taken to task. Seventeen police officers in the state have been transferred from their posts.

It is the season for punishment and rewards.

The list includes Jawed Shamim, widely respected as an efficient officer. Shamim, the police commissioner of Bidhannangar who was in the news for arresting three of the four accused in the Salt Lake Sector V rape case, has been appointed Director, Economic Offences.

Tanmay Ray Chaudhuri, who was transferred by the EC, has been appointed police commissioner of Barrackpore.

The message is clear: All those who thought the Election Commission was supreme now know who the real boss is.

"Shamim's conduct was impeccable during the elections," says a senior police officer. "He was under the Election Commission's glare as they knew the Bidhannagar municipal elections in September were badly rigged. Shamim played by the rule book, something which our chief minister cannot accept."

Siliguri Commissioner of Police Manoj Verma lost his job apparently after Communist Party of India-Marxist veteran Ashok Bhattacharya won the assembly seat. Verma has been posted as deputy inspector general at the traffic headquarters.

Similarly, Asansol-Durgapur Police Commissioner Siddh Nath Gupta seems to have paid the price after the CPI-M won four seats in the area. He has been transferred as inspector general, organisation.

Officers transferred by the Election Commission like Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajiv Kumar were reinstated while others like Bharati Ghosh, said to be close to the chief minister, have been granted more powers. In addition to her posting as superintendent of police, Paschim Medinipur, Ghosh is now also SP, Jhargram.

Six senior Indian Police Service officers in the state are 'on compulsory waiting.' Their offence: Conducting free and fair elections.

"This was coming. We are not surprised. We were expecting punishment and rewards," a police officer points out.

Howrah's commissioner of police was spared as the ruling Trinamool Congress won all the seats in the district. The TMC won all the seats in Bidhannagar and in Kolkata, yet both commissioners of police were transferred.

The transfers are said to be based entirely on the chief minister's perception and the perception of those close to her.

"It is a lesson for the police force," says a senior police officer. "Emboldened by the EC, 'if you ride roughshod over my people, I will not spare you.' Next time there are elections in the state, anyone toeing the EC line is doing it at their own risk."
IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi departs from the United States for Mexico for the last leg of his five-nation tour on Wednesday. Photograph: @MEAIndia/Twitter

After successfully concluding his two-day visit to the United States, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday left for the final leg of his five-nation tour to Mexico.

After two days of a fruitful US visit, PM emplanes for Mexico (sic), tweeted the Prime Ministers Office.

Ministry of External Affairs official Spokesperson Vikas Swarup also tweeted, Thank you again America! A successful visit ends as PM takes the long way home, via Mexico City.

Prior to his departure, the prime minister attended a Congressional reception hosted jointly by Foreign Relation Committees (House and Senate) and India Caucus (House and Senate).

Just before the Congressional reception, he met the Indian community members.

But, the highlight of the day was his address at the joint session of the US Congress at Capitol Hill, where he lauded the bonds between the two nations, saying that freedom and liberty were the key elements that strengthened ties between them, adding that both countries had overcome the hesitations of history.
IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing a joint meeting of the Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington on Wednesday. US Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker Paul D Ryan are also seen. Photograph: PTI

With Pakistan obviously in mind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said terrorism is being incubated in Indias neighbourhood and pressed for action without making any distinction against groups like Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, Taliban and the Islamic State who share the same philosophy of hate, murder and killings.

In his address to the joint sitting of US Congress, he said terrorism has to be fought with one voice as he commended the American Parliament for sending out a clear message by refusing to reward those who preach and practice terrorism for political gains, an apparent reference to the blocking of sale of 8 F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan.

In the course of his 45-minute speech, he covered all major aspects of the growing relationship between India and the US, particularly strategic ties and civil nuclear cooperation, and emphasised that the two countries should leave constraints of the past behind as the foundations of the future are firmly in place. He, however, said that today, our relationship has overcome the hesitations of history.

Dressed in trademark white kurta-pyjama and grey-coloured half-jacket, Modi was warmly received by the American lawmakers who interrupted his address more than 40 times to cheer him, a few times by standing. When his predecessor Manmohan Singh addressed the US Congress in 2005, his speech was applauded 33 times, according to Sanjay Baru, who was the Media Adviser to the then Prime Minister.

Underscoring that both India and the US share the vision of peace and prosperity of the world, the Prime Minister said globally, terrorism remains the biggest threat and it must be fought at many levels" as the traditional tools of military, intelligence or diplomacy alone would not be able to win defeat it.

In the territory stretching from West of India's border to Africa, it may go by different names, from Laskhar-e-Tayyaba, to Taliban to ISIS. But, its philosophy is common: of hate, murder and violence, Modi said.

Although its shadow is spreading across the world, it is incubated in Indias neighbourhood, he said an apparent reference to Pakistan.

He said those who believe in humanity must come together to fight against terrorism as one and speak against this menace in one voice.

I commend the members of the US Congress for sending a clear message to those who preach and practice terrorism for political gains, Modi said, adding, Refusing to reward them is the first step towards holding them accountable for their actions.

He was clearly referring to the blocking of sale of 8 F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan by the US Congress recently.

Emphasising that terrorism must be delegitimised, he said, The need of the hour is for us to deepen our security cooperation.

He said the cooperation should be based on a policy that isolates those who harbour, support and sponsor terrorists; that does not distinguish between good and bad terrorists; and that de-links religion from terrorism.

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi signs autographs after addressing a joint meeting of Congress in the House Chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington on Wednesday. Photograph: Carlos Barria/Reuters



The prime minister noted that both the countries have lost civilians and soldiers in combating terrorism and highlighted how the US stood by India in the aftermath of terror attack in Mumbai in November 2008, which originated from Pakistan.

Observing that India-US relationship is primed for a momentous future, the prime minister said a strong partnership between the two countries can anchor peace, prosperity and stability from Asia to Africa and from Indian Ocean to the Pacific.

It can also help ensure security of the sea lanes of commerce and freedom of navigation on seas, he said, adding India is already assuming its responsibilities in securing the Indian Ocean region.

He used the occasion to pitch apparently for the United Nations reform as he said, But the effectiveness of our cooperation would increase if international institutions, framed with the mindset of the 20th century, were to reflect the realities of today.

Modi, who invoked Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, Swami Vivekananda and Atal Bihari Vajpayee in his speech, said India and the US, the worlds largest and oldest democracies, had learnt a lot from each other's philosophies and practices, making them natural allies.

As we deepen our partnership, there would be times when we would have differing perspectives. But, since our interests and concerns converge, the autonomy in decision making and diversity in our perspectives can only add value to our partnership, he said, adding, So, as we embark on a new journey, and seek new goals, let us focus not just on matters routine but transformational ideas.

He said these ideas should focus not just on creating wealth but also creating value for our societies; not just on immediate gains but also long term benefits; not just on sharing best practices but also shaping partnerships; and not just on building a bright future for our peoples, but in being a bridge to a more united, humane and prosperous world.

And, important for the success of this journey would be a need to view it with new eyes and new sensitivities. When we do this, we will realise the full promise of this extraordinary relationship, he said.

Highlighting India's growth of 7.6 per cent and the immense opportunities it offers, the prime minister said, In every sector of Indias forward march, I see the US as an indispensable partner.

He noted that many Americans believe that a stronger and prosperous India is in the strategic interest of the US and said, Let us work together to convert shared ideals into practical cooperation. There can be no doubt that in advancing this relationship, both nations stand to gain in great measure.

As the US businesses search for new areas of economic growth, markets for their goods, a pool of skilled resources, and global locations to produce and manufacture, India could be their ideal partner, Modi said.

He said transformative American technologies in India and growing investment by Indian companies in the United States both have a positive impact on the lives of the citizens of the two countries.

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets US House Speaker Paul Ryan before addressing the joint meeting of Congress. Photograph: Carlos Barria/Reuters



Talking about the commonalities, the PM told the American lawmakers that like in the US Congress, Indian Parliament also reflects a spirit of bipartisanship.

I am informed that the working of the US Congress is harmonious. I am also told that you are well-known for your bipartisanship. Well, you are not alone. Time and again, I have also witnessed a similar spirit in the Indian Parliament, especially in our Upper House. So, as you can see, we have many shared practices, he said.

While mentioning about the ties between India and the US, Modi said the pioneers had shaped a development partnership very early on, even when the meeting ground was more limited, with the genius of Norman Borlaug bringing the Green Revolution and food security to India.

Fast forward to today. The embrace of our partnership extends to the entirety of human endeavour-from the depths of the oceans to the vastness of the space....Ties of commerce and investment are flourishing. We trade more with the US than with any other nation. And, the flow of goods, services and capital between us generates jobs in both our societies.

As in trade, so in defence. India exercises with the United States more than we do with any other partner. Defence purchases have moved from almost zero to 10 billion dollars (Rs 6,70,000 crore) in less than a decade.

Our cooperation also secures our cities and citizens from terrorists, and protects our critical infrastructure from cyber threats. Civil Nuclear Cooperation, as I told President Obama yesterday, is a reality, Modi said.

Noting that the 21st century has brought with it great opportunities, he said it also comes with its own set of challenges.

Inter-dependence is increasing. But, while some parts of the world are islands of growing economic prosperity; other are mired in conflicts, he added.

Talking in the context of Asia, Modi said the absence of an agreed security architecture creates uncertainty. Threats of terror are expanding, and new challenges are emerging in cyber and outer-space. And, global institutions conceived in 20th century, seem unable to cope with new challenges or take on new responsibilities, the prime minister said.

In this world full of multiple transitions and economic opportunities, growing uncertainties and political complexities, existing threats and new challenges, our engagement can make a difference by promoting cooperation not dominance; connectivity not isolation; respect for global commons; inclusive not exclusive mechanisms; and above all adherence to international rules and norms, he said.

He said India and the US may have been shaped by differing histories, cultures, and faiths yet our belief in democracy for our nations and liberty for our countrymen is common. The idea that all citizens are created equal is a central pillar of the American constitution.

Modi said the founding fathers of the two countries too shared the same belief and sought individual liberty for every citizen of India.

There were many who doubted India when, as a newly independent nation, we reposed our faith in democracy. Indeed, wagers were made on our failure. But, the people of India did not waver, he said.

Our founders created a modern nation with freedom, democracy, and equality as the essence of its soul. And, in doing so, they ensured that we continued to celebrate our age old diversity. Today, across its streets and institutions, in its villages and cities, anchored in equal respect for all faiths; and in the melody of hundreds of its languages and dialects. India lives as one; India grows as one; India celebrates as one, Modi said.

The prime minister hailed the US Congress, describing it as a temple of democracy from which democracies world over had learnt.

It manifests the spirit of this great nation, which in Abraham Lincolns words, was conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal, he said, adding that the opportunity to address it was honouring the worlds largest democracy and its 1.25 billion people.

Modi became the sixth Indian Prime Minister to address the joint sitting of the US Congress. Earlier, Jawaharlal Nehru had addressed it on October 13, 1949; Rajiv Gandhi on July 13, 1985; P V Narasimha Rao on May 18, 1994; Atal Bihari Vajpayee on September 14, 2000 and Manmohan Singh on July 19, 2005.

After addressing the US Congress, a reception was hosted for Modi jointly by the Foreign Relations Committees of the House of Representatives and the Senate as well as the India Caucus.

Speaking at the reception, he said that whenever he met any Senator or Congressman, he felt the warmth that goes beyond diplomacy and saw a desire to see what the two countries can do to preserve the values for the benefit of the world.

He said there was a time when there was curiosity in America about what India is.

Then came the time when US started recognising India, to realise there are a lot of shared values which can build on relationship, he said.

Subsequently, the time came when the two countries started thinking about how the ties can be advanced for each other.

Now the two countries are stepping into an era in which they think beyond what each can get from the other to see what we can do together for the world. Be it climate change, terrorism, poverty, healthcare, there numerous, together we can find solutions, he said.
Pakistan has failed to take concrete action to keep a lid on banned militant outfits like Hafiz Saeed-led Lashkar-e-Tayiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad which continuously resurface under new names challenging the government's authority, a media report said on Wednesday.

Under the anti-terrorism act of 1997, it is the job of the interior ministry to determine whether any group is to be banned, but it should also keep tabs on such organisations and prevent them from re-emerging, The Express Tribune reported.

However, the ministry has failed to take concrete action to restrain such groups beyond adding their name to a central list, the daily said.

"The ministry presented a list of banned organisations to the Senate in December 2015 with 61 names on it. That list has not been updated since nor has it been made available to the public," it said.

The daily said that one of the organisations which have circumvented the government's restrictions by rebranding themselves is LeT, led by 2008 Mumbai attack mastermind Hafeez Saeed, which was banned in 2002.

"The group and Saeed were able to reinvent themselves under the banner of Jamaat-ud-Dawa and expand their operations into a vast charity network as well," the daily said.

It said despite being sanctioned by the United Nations, the government has only kept the outfit on "observation" while its chief "Saeed continues to headline events across the country delivering public speeches."

Another such entity is JeM, accused of carrying out deadly attacks in India, which was first banned on January 22, 2002, the report said.

"It did not take long for the group to resurface under the new name of Khuddam-ul-Islam. The government banned that group on November 15, 2003. However, the group has continued to operate in the shadows."

Another group surviving the ban is anti-Shiite Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, which was first banned on January 22, 2002, the report said, pointing that the outfit resurfaced as Millat-e-Islami before the government banned that iteration in November 2003.

But it did not deter the group who managed to reinvent itself as the Ahl-e-Sunnat Wal Jamaat, the daily said.

"Though the ASWJ was banned on February 15, 2012, it has continued to flout that ban by staging sporadic activities across the country without much fear of retribution from the state," it said.

"Poor enforcement of law is the lead cause of such issues," the daily said quoting Imtaiz Gul, the executive director of Centre for Research Security Studies.

He added that the seventh point of the government's National Action Plan also specifically deals with re-emergence of proscribed organisations under different names.

"These outfits don't require registration to operate and they rename themselves to avoid surveillance from security agencies," Gul said.

"We have an existing framework of law and the only thing we need is enforcement of law through consolidated efforts," he said.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to entertain the bail plea of sacked Uttarakhand minorities panel chief Sukhdev Singh Namdhari, accused in a 2012 shootout in New Delhi that killed liquor baron Ponty Chadha and his brother Hardeep, saying charges against him were "grave".

"We are not interested in entertaining the petition. The charges against you are grave," a vacation bench comprising Justices P C Ghose and Amitava Roy said.

The apex court took strong note of the fact that Namdhari earlier secured interim bail on health grounds from the trial court during the pendency of his regular bail plea in the Delhi high court.

"It is strange. The trial court grants you interim bail when the bail petition is pending in the high court," it said.

Namdhari, in his plea before the apex court, said he was not keeping well and hence be enlarged on bail during the pendency of trial.

In April this year, the trial court, which is currently recording prosecution evidence in the case, has cancelled the interim bail of Namdhari and sent him to jail.

The trial court, while cancelling the interim bail, had said the main complainant, Nandlal Mahto, had turned hostile in the matter and it could not be ruled out that Namdhari had threatened him or given him gratification to turn hostile.

The plea seeking cancellation of Namdhari's interim bail was filed by wife of Hardeep in the trial court.

Namdhari, the alleged main conspirator in the case, was granted interim bail on November 27 last year on medical grounds which was extended time to time.

The accused had said that he was suffering from various ailments like hepatitis C, blood pressure and heart problems apart from depression and having suicidal tendencies.

Ponty and Hardeep, who were allegedly involved in a property dispute, were killed in a shootout at a Chhattarpur farmhouse in New Delhi on November 17, 2012. Subsequently, Namdhari was arrested on November 23, 2012. Later, the remaining accused were apprehended.

The trial court in July last year had framed charges under section 302 (murder) read with section 149 (offence committed by member of unlawful assembly) of the IPC against all the 21 accused, including Namdhari and his personal security officer Sachin Tyagi.

On January 28, 2014, the trial court had dropped murder charges against all the accused and added the charge of culpable homicide not amounting murder under section 304 of IPC against Namdhari and Tyagi.

On May 15 last year, on the plea of police, the Delhi high court had overturned the trial court's decision and directed framing of murder charges against all the 21 accused. The apex court had also upheld the high court's decision.

Ponty and Hardeep were also charge sheeted in the case. However, the trial against them had abated as they were killed in the shootout.

The court had ordered framing of criminal conspiracy, common intention and those under the arms act against all the 21 accused for trying to take over the disputed farmhouse from the possession of Hardeep.

The Delhi Police had filed two charge sheets in the case and levelled murder charges against all the accused. The first charge sheet had named Ponty as an accused as he had reached the place of the incident with Namdhari and others as part of his "well-hatched conspiracy" to take possession of the south Delhi farm house.

In the supplementary charge sheet, the police had accused Hardeep in the case, saying the probe had shown Ponty was killed by the shot fired at him by his brother.
IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi greets American lawmakers while addressing a joint meeting of the US Congress in the House Chamber of the Capitol in Washington on Wednesday. Photograph: Carlos Barria/Reuters



Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered a 50-minute-long at the United States Congress on Wednesday which was peppered with standing ovations and applauses from the American lawmakers. It was reported that the speech was interrupted more than 40 times by cheers.

In his address, Modi invoked American icons like Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Walt Whitman and Norman Borlaug as well as Mahatma Gandhi, Swami Vivekananda and Atal Bihari Vajpayee and said that India and the US, the worlds largest and oldest democracies, had learnt a lot from each other's philosophies and practices, making them natural allies.

Dressed in trademark white kurta-pyjama and grey-coloured half-jacket, Modi was warmly received by the American lawmakers.

The prime minister hailed the US Congress, describing it as a temple of democracy from which democracies world over had learnt.
Strategic consideration were the reasons behind frequent meetings between United States President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chinese state-run media said on Wednesday and cautioned India that it cannot rise by "containing" China or picking one side against the other.

"For Obama, improving US-India ties will help consolidate his diplomatic legacy as seven months are left before he leaves office; for Modi, his visit is aimed at seeking new momentum for developing ties with Washington," Xinhua news agency said in a commentary on Indo-US ties.

"Strategic consideration is behind the frequent meetings between Obama and Modi as the latter is paying his fourth trip to the US since he took office in 2014," the commentary said, a day after the two leaders met at the White House.

It said the change in treatment Modi has received from America was viewed by many as the result of a warming India-US relationship, which has seen ups and downs in recent years.

"Just a few years ago, Modi was banned from entering the US soil...Now, Modi was greeted by a flag-bearing military honour guard when he arrived at the entrance to the West Wing for talks with Obama," the commentary said.

"What is behind the veil is strategic consideration from both Washington and New Delhi," it said.

"The US attaches importance to India's strategic value, economic development potential and ideological advantage," Xinhua quoted Jin Canrong, vice president of the School of International Studies at Renmin University, as saying.

"Embracing India will help consolidate the US rebalance to the Asia-Pacific," he said.

According to Jin, India is willing to deepen the India-US relations out of the consideration in both strategic security and economic development.

The US and India values do not fit each other completely, the news agency quoted Zhao Gancheng, an India expert with Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, as saying.

"India adopts an independent foreign policy and has tried to keep neutral when dealing with major countries," Zhao said.

"Modi is also a nationalist leader and he will not blindly follow the United States," he said.

Referring to various outcomes of the Obama-Modi meeting, it is said the text of a logistics agreement, which will allow the countries' militaries to use each other's land, air and naval bases, would be signed soon. It also highlighted the announcement to start preparatory work on site in India for six nuclear reactors to be built by an American company.

The two countries also pledged to develop their defence relations into "an anchor of stability".

Earlier an article in the state-run Global Times said that India cannot rise by "containing" China or picking one side against the other, while taking note of the Indo-US ties which are being ramped up to an "unprecedented level".

"Picking one side or camp against the other is not the way India will rise. New Delhi is looking into a multi-faceted diplomacy," it said.

Image: Prime Minister Narendra Modi with US President Barack Obama in Oval Office, at White House, in Washington DC. Photograph: PIB
'You can see that at a personal level, they really connected.'

Aziz Haniffa/Rediff.com reports from Washington, DC.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and United States President Barack Obama covered a wide array of discussions during their nearly three-hour interaction -- including their one-on-one in the Oval Office, the delegation-level meeting which they led, the press pool spray where they made brief remarks followed by the working luncheon -- and which saw the finalisation of several substantive agreements at their third working summit.

Foreign Secretary Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, who was always by Modi's side, said the two leaders held a discussion on international and regional issues centring on "the situation east of India and west" of India.

Through it all, point out senior White House and State Department officials and Dr Jaishankar, who were in on the meetings, the effervescent bonhomie, personal rapport and undeniable respect for one another between Obama and Modi was once again evident in their interactions.

It was this congruency, buoyed by their leadership and unrelenting capacity to make things happen, led to the summit culminating in so many substantive agreements.

In separate briefings, these officials and Dr Jaishankar said that in two years, from the time Modi took over as prime minister, the camaraderie between the two leaders had taken the relationship to unprecedented and transformative levels and put it on such a solid footing, moving it to almost auto pilot on what hitherto seemed to be intractable issues.

"You can see that at a personal level, they really connected," a senior White House official said. "They respect one another and they respect each other as doers and not talkers. And each one has that characteristic and respects that in the other."



"Of course," the official added, "The relationship is more than a personal one -- it's about our countries, our global interests, and each shares a commitment to democracy, human rights, and pluralism and they talked about how we can work together to tackle problems on a global scale."



Dr Jaishankar recalled that at a briefing in New Delhi on the eve of Modi's visit to the US, he had predicted that it would be "to consolidate the relationship, which has really seen a big upswing in the last two years."



"And I can say with some confidence that we have achieved that objective, and today, a lot of the understandings and agreements reached really set a higher baseline to take the relationship forward."



"The good story of the relationship of the last two years really continues."



Even before the nearly three-hour interaction between Obama and Modi had ended, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest, at his noon briefing, said, "I think what makes the relationship between Prime Minister Modi and President Obama so strong is the shared commitment that they have to warm relations between our two countries."



"Both leaders recognise that a strong relationship between the US and India benefits the economy, the national security and the people of the US and India," and added that he believed "this is what animates their relationship."



"One of the most important things that they talked about is the leadership and the partnership to get the Paris agreement (on climate change) signed last year," the senior administration official briefing journalists later said, "and the steps that are required to get it into a pact."



Dr Jaishankar agreed that climate change with related issues had permeated the gamut of issues that were discussed and in this regard, vis-a-vis clean energy, "One important development was progress made on the nuclear issue."



"We have addressed the nuclear liability issue and we are in a position to start the preparation work on a site in India for six Westinghouse reactors."



"It's still a work in progress," Dr Jaishankar acknowledged, "and we are having discussions as we speak with the US Ex-Im Bank for the financing package. But, overall, a very decisive step forward has been taken in this regard and this was welcomed by both leaders. The engineering and site design for these reactors will begin soon."



Westinghouse, the White House official said , was now in discussions with NPCIL (Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited) for "culminations of contracts," and the liability issues with India had been resolved earlier this year when New Delhi signed the Convention of Supplementary Compensation.



India, Dr Jaishankar said, was "looking forward to the acceptance of our application to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group," and noted that "the US has been supportive of this process for some time and that was discussed at some length. We count on US support in that regard and the US was very positive in its approach on this issue."

Both sides also finalised an unprecedented cyber-security agreement, which the White House official said was "a first with any country."

"Significant time was also spent" Dr Jaishankar said, "with regard to the defence and security basket," and disclosed that "a notable development of the defence side was the willingness of the US to recognise India as a major defence partner."



India hoped, the foreign secretary said, to move to licence-free access to a wider range of these controlled items and consequently a framework for Make in India not just with regard to sales and collaboration, "but a framework that would allow for Make in India to happen on the defence side," with unconditional access.



"This," he said, "in a sense is the transition we are seeking and we believe the talks were a big step in that process."

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Barack Obama greet each other warmly in the Oval Office, the White House, June 7, 2016. Photograph: MEA on Flickr
A bipartisan group of 18 American lawmakers has written to House Speaker Paul Ryan, asking him to raise the issue of religious freedom in India during his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

'Religious minority communities -- including Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, and Sikhs -- have endured ongoing violence and harassment for decades in India, and continue to live in a climate where known perpetrators commit violence with impunity,' the members of the Congress, led by Trent Franks and Betty McCollum, wrote.

'We respectfully request that during your meetings with the prime minister, the 'shared value' of the fundamental right of religious freedom will be a priority in your conversation,' they said ahead of the Ryan-Modi meeting.

'It is in the best interest of the US and India to reaffirm religious freedom as a shared value in this growing partnership and ensure that conversation concerning justice and accountability for such horrific acts of violence continues,' the letter said.

In the letter, the lawmakers cite several specific examples of violent attacks that have killed or displaced religious minorities.

Human rights groups in India have investigated and traced these attacks to specific groups, but a current climate of impunity exists in India around such attacks and many victims never receive justice, they said.

"As we consider the shared values of the US and India, due attention to the fundamental human right of religious freedom is of the utmost importance," Franks said.

"Religious minority communities in India have endured incidents of harassment, discrimination, intimidation and violent attacks for decades, often with little hope for justice. It is my sincere hope that every person in India will experience true freedom of faith, regardless of religion," he said.

"The important relationship between India and the US is based on our shared democratic values. Religious minorities in India -- Muslims, Christians, Buddhists and Sikhs -- deserve the freedom to live out their faith without fear," McCollum said.

The Congressmen who signed the letter were Chris Smith, Juan Vargas, Andre Carson, Keith Ellison, Patrick Meehan, Keith Rothfus, Randy Weber, Dan Kildee, Mike Honda, John Conyers Jr, John Garamendi, Robert Aderholt, Anna Eshoo, Joe Pitts, Barbara Lee and David Valadao.

Modi is scheduled to address a joint session of the US Congress on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Ryan has made first of its kind arrangement for the coverage of Modi's address to the joint session of the US Congress on social media.

"Get real-time updates and video highlights from Prime Minister Modi's address by following @SpeakerRyan on Twitter," the Speakers office said, describing it as a historic address.

Congressional sources said there is a buzz on the Capitol Hill and they were expecting a large turnout from lawmakers to listen to his address.

"Throughout the day, we have been mailing offices of other Congressmen to check if they have a ticket for theaddress. Every Congressmen have been allocated one ticket. But it seems there is more demand for tickets," a Congressional aide said.

In a statement, the White House said US Vice President Joe Biden would attend Prime Minister Modi's address to a joint meeting of Congress at the United States Capitol.

Several Cabinet members of the Obama Administration and Supreme Court judges are also expected to be present among the audience.

Soon after his address Ryan will host a lunch for him.

Thereafter the Prime Minister would attend a reception hosted in his honor by jointly by the Senate and House Foreign Affairs Committees.

Congressman Ami Bera, the only Indian American lawmaker in the House of Representatives, would address the press afternoon after Modi's speech.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his over four-hour visit to the US Capitol established a personal rapport with top lawmakers and seems to have won over his critics.

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is greeted by legislators prior to addressing a joint meeting of Congress in the House Chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington, US. Photograph: Carlos Barria/Reuters

With your sense of humour and the way you delivered that speech, I think really identifies why we have such close ties, Senator Bob Corker, Chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations committee said as he welcomed Modi during a congressional reception hosted in his honour.

The fact is that our political, strategic and economic ties is better than they have ever been. We know that these are going to be even greater. While our ties are with the people of India, we know that with you as their leader the possibilities are at an all-time high, Corker said.

Less than a month ago, Corker during a Congressional hearing was highly critical over the pace of economic reforms, human rights situation and religious freedom, and slamming the Obama administration of not being brutally honest in its conversation with his government.

Senator Ben Cardin, Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who for the past two weeks have been raising the issue of human rights and slavery in India, said that Modi on Wednesday gained a lot of friends in the Congress.

Referring to Modis call for India and the US working together for the benefit of the world, Cardin said this was a very powerful message.

His presence, the amount of time he spent and his own personality is very helpful in getting friends here in America, he said.

Modi on Wednesday spent more than four hours at the Hill. The Speaker of the US House of Representative Paul Ryan and several top Congressional leaders received him. He received standing ovations as many as nine times -- according to unofficial count -- and was applauded by scores of times by the members of the Congress.

He (Modi) spoke eloquently about the importance of a strong US-India relationship to promoting peace and freedom around the globe, Ryan said in a statement.

We understand that India is in a tough neighbourhood, but we also understand that with your words here today, that you have, with that symphony that you spoke of, set a new note, said Congressman Ed Royce, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

The Indian-American community has brought such incredible energy to this relationship. Its the secret weapon for both countries, driving stronger engagement and helping keep things on track during challenging times.

So Mr Prime Minister, your visit will energise this work even further. And Im confident that Congress will remain focused on India as an anchor of stability in the region and a key American partner in Asia, said Congressman Elliot Engel, Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses a joint meeting of Congress in the House Chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington on Wednesday. Photograph: Carlos Barria/Reuters

For Indian-American Congressman Ami Bera, it was a dream come true.

India is a key partner of the United States, so I was pleased to have Speaker Ryan grant my request to bring Prime Minister Modi to Congress to address his vision on the US-India partnership, he said.

The prime ministers fourth visit to the United States in just two years signifies just how important the burgeoning relationship between our countries is as we continue to address the many challenges that face our nations today -- strengthening our economies, promoting renewable clean energy, protecting our planet, improving cyber security, and combating terrorism, said Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard.

Madison Square Garden was electric when I first met Prime Minister Modi in 2014, and the House chamber was full of just as much energy today, said Congresswoman Grace Meng.

Congressman Joe Crowley said he was pleased to hear from Prime Minister Modi on his vision for the next chapter in US-India relations.

Congressman Brad Sherman said Modi delivered a very insightful speech, which laid out the mutual benefits of Americas growing relationship with India.

The Indian-American community leaders also said that the prime ministers 45-minute address to the joint sitting of the Congress would help boost Indo-US relationship.

No doubt it was a brilliant speech. Most people from the Indian American community realised what a great performer and leader he was. President Obama had realised. But many members of the Congress had not seen firsthand, said Chicago-based Bharat Barai.

It is revealing that some of the loudest cheers and applause in response to the address came from the galleries where so many members of the Indian American community were sitting, said Ronak D Desai, a fellow at New America and an affiliate at the BelferCenters India and South Programme at HarvardUniversity.

The reaction is a potent reminder of the popularity Prime Minister Modi enjoys within certain segments of the diaspora. His recognition of the diaspora during his speech is consistent with his robust efforts so far to engage the millions of Indians living abroad, particularly within the United States, Desai said.

Prominent Indian-American Ashok Mago from Dallas said Modi got numerous standing ovations for his comments about the role of US and India in todays complicated world to make peace loving countries strong economically and fight terrorism.

As an American of proud Indian heritage, to see an Indian PM -- be it Rajiv Gandhi in 1985 or Narendra Modi in 2016 -- in the Congress is a joy only enhanced by the music to every ear: that United States and India are not only natural allies, but inseparable partners -- the very definition of destiny, said New York-based attorney Ravi Batra.
On his fourth visit to the United States, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is addressing a joint meeting of the US Congress -- the sixth Indian premier to do so. The last Indian prime minister to be accorded this honour was Dr Manmohan Singh in 2006.

Prime Minister Modi's speech, which began at 8.30 pm IST, is expected to celebrate India-US ties as the two countries seek to deepen their engagement.

Watch his historic address LIVE on rediff.com
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on his fourth visit to America since being elected two years ago, the frequency of his visits a testimony to the importance India attaches to its relationship with the world's sole superpower.

It is an understatement that the ties between the worlds oldest and most populous democracies, powered by the personal chemistry between their two leaders, are on an unprecedented high.

To mark Prime Minister Modi's seventh meeting with President Obama and his historic joint address to the US Congress, India Abroad, the newspaper published from New York and owned by Rediff.com, reached out to diplomats and strategic thinkers in New Delhi and Washington, DC, to assess the current state of the US-India relationship and suggest a road map for the future.

Contributions include:
Exclusive: Top UN whistleblower resigns, citing impunity and lack of accountability

Publisher IRIN Author Obi Anyadike Publication Date 7 June 2016 Cite as IRIN, Exclusive: Top UN whistleblower resigns, citing impunity and lack of accountability, 7 June 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5757baf64.html [accessed 26 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

UN whistleblower Anders Kompass, who exposed the sexual abuse of children by French and African peacekeepers in Central African Republic, is to resign in protest over what he sees as the organisation's failure to hold its senior officials to account.

"The complete impunity for those who have been found to have, in various degrees, abused their authority, together with the unwillingness of the hierarchy to express any regrets for the way they acted towards me sadly confirms that lack of accountability is entrenched in the United Nations," Kompass told IRIN. "This makes it impossible for me to continue working there."

Kompass, field operations director at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, passed a confidential internal report on the abuse of children by French troops in CAR to the French authorities in 2014 after the UN failed to raise the alarm and stop the exploitation. The alleged abuse involved hungry children  as young as eight  in the M'Poko camp for displaced people, coerced into sex in return for food or a little money.

Instead of investigating those allegedly responsible for what proved to be an even wider crime  including the involvement of its peacekeepers  the UN's Office for Internal Oversight Services launched an internal investigation into Kompass' conduct. Accusing the former Swedish diplomat of leaking, it condemned his "misconduct", suspended him from his job, humiliatingly marched him out of his office, and demanded his resignation.

An independent panel later found senior UN managers to have "abused their authority" in the handling of the scandal.

Paula Donovan of Code Blue, a campaign to end sexual exploitation by UN peacekeepers, says the UN's attitude left Kompass no alternative but to quit.

"I'm not sure how you can work with a system that's gone out of its way to prove it can defeat anyone who tries to expose it," she told IRIN. "Despite the platitudes, the assertions of intolerance for wrongdoing, it's all just empty phrases."

Exonerated

Under pressure from several governments, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon eventually appointed a three-person independent panel to review the UN's response to the reports of child sex abuse and its treatment of Kompass.

A. Greco/UNHCR Bangui's M'poko camp for the displaced

Nine months later, both the internal investigation and the external panel had exonerated him. The panel also excoriated the UN's "gross institutional failure"  which enabled the documented forced oral sex and rape of 13 boys by 16 peacekeepers.

Buck-passing meant nobody took action for more than a year, the panel report said. When French investigators tried to delve, just days after Kompass had passed on the evidence, their efforts were frustrated by UN officials.

Staff in both the UN mission in CAR, known as MINUSCA, and UNICEF, whose initial joint investigation formed the basis of the internal UN report Kompass shared with the French, failed to ensure that the identified children received proper care, or took steps to protect other potential victims, the independent panel found.

Zero tolerance

The UN has trumpeted a "zero tolerance" policy towards sexual abuse by peacekeepers since 2005. Ban has now pushed tough new measures. These include the addition of response teams in peacekeeping missions to handle abuse allegations, and the recall of units if perpetrators are not held to account.

But the reports keep coming. More than 100 new cases of sexual abuse by UN and non-UN peacekeepers were reported in CAR in March  most involving children. The alleged attacks occurred between 2013 and 2015.

Currently, 123 countries have troops or police units deployed in 16 missions around the world. According to the UN, of the 60 largest troop contributing countries, only 14 have not reported cases of sexual abuse committed by their forces in the past five years.

The UN has historically argued that it has no jurisdiction over the troops provided by contributing countries for peacekeeping missions  they can only be prosecuted at home. The need for peacekeepers may have also acted as a disincentive to demand stricter standards. Some countries have resisted the new reforms.

Human Rights Watch reported today that African Union peacekeepers from Congo-Brazzaville serving in CAR allegedly killed at least 18 people, including women and children, between December 2013 and June 2015 and dumped their bodies in a mass grave outside their base. The government has so far ignored UN requests for a judicial investigation, the rights group said.

The UN is urging member states to work with it to prevent and react expeditiously to abuse. In February, the UN appointed Jane Holl Lute, previously a senior official in UN peacekeeping, as special coordinator on "improving the UN's response to sexual exploitation and abuse".

In a briefing to the UN General Assembly last month, Lute stressed that "much has been done", and outlined a package of toolkits and guidelines that is in the works.

But nearly two years after the CAR scandal broke, Donovan is scathing. "Although he says he has zero tolerance, Ban Ki-moon has appointed someone to coordinate what has been identified as just a failed, broken system.

UN Photo/Catianne Tijerina Who's protecting whom in CAR?

"If you set the bar so low  that you are going to coordinate these dysfunctional entities, and try and improve the response  that just says it all," she said.

While the UN has focused on reforming the system at the ground level, critics point to the relative impunity enjoyed by those in the highest echelons of the UN civil service  an accountability vacuum they say the Kompass case has laid bare.

Abusing authority

The independent panel's report found that three officials had specifically "abused their authority": Babacar Gaye, the special representative of the secretary-general for MINUSCA; Carman Lapointe, under-secretary-general for the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), and Renner Onana, the chief of the Human Rights and Justice Section in MINUSCA.

Ban fired Gaye in August 2015 after UN peacekeepers were accused of raping a 12-year-old girl and killing a 16-year-old boy and his father. Lapointe, who initiated the internal investigation into Kompass, resigned in September 2015. But Onana remains a senior official in the UN mission in CAR.

Susana Malcorra, Ban's chief of staff, came in for criticism by the independent report over a "conflict of interest". She facilitated a meeting with OIOS and the UN Ethics Office  two bodies that should operate at arm's length from the UN system  to discuss what to do about Kompass. The report, however, absolved her of abusing her authority.

She resigned in November 2015 to become Argentina's foreign minister. Her hat is in the ring as a candidate to succeed Ban as secretary-general.

The meeting to discuss the Kompass case was held at the urging of Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and Kompass' boss. He had "a single-minded determination to pursue an investigation" into Kompass and "undoubtedly" risked compromising the independence of OIOS and the UN Ethics Office, the panel report found.

Al Hussain "is still vocally, publicly refusing to acknowledge what Anders did was appropriate, and what he [Zeid] did was wrong and retaliatory," said Bea Edwards of the US-based Government Accountability Project, which tries to protect whistleblowers.

Al Hussain told the New York Times last year that he felt Kompass had done "the right thing wrongly". Al Hussain's office did not respond to IRIN's requests for comment. Neither did OIOS, the Ethics Office or UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

Hard decision

Kompass says he shared the internal report with the French authorities with the sole purpose of ending the abuse as quickly as possible. Doing so was not in and of itself wrong, according to UN procedures  in fact, sharing information with governments to advocate for changes in behaviour was part of Kompass' job description.

But while the UN has suggested that Kompass did not follow normal procedures, the independent panel said it was "disingenuous" for the UN to label his actions as "misconduct".

Citing a separate case in which Kompass was accused of providing information to the Moroccan government about Western Sahara for "personal gain", one past media report suggested that he was seen in the UN as "an untrustworthy shill for a foreign government".

Such rhetoric and Kompass' treatment may well give other potential whistleblowers pause.

"The point of whistleblowing is that somebody will be held responsible for criminal misconduct," said Edwards. "Those that have taken the risk to report should be protected, commended and rewarded."

Kompass, 60, is to resign on 31 August, one year before the end of his current contract. He has reportedly accepted a job at the Swedish foreign ministry.

"It was a very hard decision for me to take, after a total of 21 years of service with the United Nations," he told IRIN, "but one that I feel was unavoidable."

Coming up: In an exclusive commentary, Anders Kompass details the reasons for his resignation.
For Eritreans, Egypt is the new route to Europe

Publisher IRIN Author Hazel Haddon Publication Date 6 June 2016 Cite as IRIN, For Eritreans, Egypt is the new route to Europe, 6 June 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5757bb6d4.html [accessed 26 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Like much of Cairo, the sprawling low-income neighbourhood of Ard el-Lewa comes alive in the evening, once the sun has gone down.

On warm summer nights, children chase cats along streets too narrow for cars. Tuk-tuks weave between the shisha smokers and newspaper readers spilling onto the road as the cafes fill up.

But it's not just Egyptians out enjoying themselves. Large numbers of young Eritrean men also cluster on street corners, or gather outside the newly opened Eritrean restaurant in one of the concrete tenements, exchanging news in their Tigrinya language.

"There are so many new Eritreans now in Ard el-Lewa," Filmon*, an Eritrean community activist, told IRIN. "It all changed at the end of last summer. So many started arriving that now there is a shortage of flats to rent and the landlords have increased the prices."

Cairo has long been home to a small community of Eritrean refugees fleeing war, oppression and traffickers, but local activists say the number of new arrivals has soared over the last year.

In the past, most Eritreans who came to Egypt registered asylum claims with the UN's refugee agency, UNHCR, and waited years for a shot at resettlement to Europe or the United States.

But these recent arrivals don't intend on staying that long. Filmon said most have come to Egypt with the intention of finding a boat to Europe as soon as possible from ports near Alexandria. "They are all just waiting for the smugglers to tell them their boat is ready," he said. "Ard el-Lewa has become a big waiting room."

'Good smugglers and bad smugglers'

The newcomers are part of a surge of refugees fleeing Eritrea that began in 2014. UNHCR recorded a sharp increase in Eritreans seeking asylum in the EU that year. In 2015, the numbers increased again, with more Eritreans arriving in Italy via the Mediterranean than any other national group.

The refugees are fleeing a notoriously repressive state where political opposition is banned; freedom of movement, expression and religion are curtailed; and young people are forced to perform open-ended military service, which can last for decades.

Tekle, a 27-year-old Pentecostal Christian from Asmara, said he fled because he faced religious persecution.

"We have to pray in secret," he said. "The risk of jail, especially for the prayer leaders, is very great. Hundreds of Pentecostals are in prison due to their beliefs."

Tekle arrived in Egypt last autumn, guided by a series of smugglers across the Eritrean border into eastern Sudan, then by jeep to Khartoum, across the desert to Aswan, and by train to Cairo. He is now awaiting a call from a local simsar, or broker, who connects migrants in Ard el-Lewa with smugglers on the coast.

"I am waiting for my turn," he told IRIN. "I don't know where I will leave from. They will call me when they know the way is safe, and then we will go to the north coast to wait for the boat."

Tekle is aware of the risks, but trusts his agent. "I know the good simsars. I only paid $2,000 for my trip  although some others pay much more  and I know he will find me a good boat."

As Tekle hinted, the journey for many others is much harder.

Rahwa, a skinny 16-year-old, travelled alone from her small village in the Eritrean highlands and is still suffering from the effects of a lingering parasitic infection picked up from drinking the dirty water given to her by her smugglers. Sarah, an older Eritrean woman who is caring for her, says Rahwa was sexually abused by her smugglers during the journey.

"Ninety percent of the ladies who have come this route suffer wounds in their hearts," said Sarah. "The way is so dangerous you don't know if you can even trust the people beside you."

Filmon agrees that the journey is hardest for women. "There are good smugglers and there are bad smugglers. If you know who to choose and you are with a man, you can be safe. But travelling alone is very dangerous."

Egypt route picks up

While most Eritreans who cross the Mediterranean from North Africa to Italy still do so via Libya, there are signs that more and more are opting for the Egyptian route. A migrant boat that capsized off the coast of Crete last week had left from Egypt, according to survivors.

Meron Estefanos, a human rights activist and director of the Stockholm-based Eritrean Initiative on Refugee Rights, told IRIN that increasing dangers in Libya are pushing more Eritreans to try Egypt instead. In 2015, there were several incidents in which so-called Islamic State (ISIS) militants kidnapped groups of Eritrean refugees from their smugglers and then shot or beheaded those they determined were Christians.

"Libya is really bad," Estafanos said. "Either they get kidnapped by Chadian [gangs] or they get kidnapped by ISIS. With the Chadians, at least you pay ransom and get out, but with ISIS there is no getting out So a lot of people are trying to avoid that."

Recent round-ups and deportations in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, are also likely to drive more Eritreans towards Egypt, according to Filmon. "For sure, more people will come to Egypt now if Sudan is not safe," he said. "If refugees can't live in Sudan, they will have to move."

It isn't just Eritreans choosing to take the Egypt route, explained Mohammad Al-Kashef, a researcher with the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights who works with refugees in Alexandria.

"The most common nationality I see in detention [after being arrested for irregular migration] is Somali," said Al-Kashef. "Sudanese, Ethiopian and Eritrean are also very common. There are lots of Egyptians also who are trying to reach Italy to work."

Figures provided by the International Organization for Migration's Egypt office also suggest the popularity of the Egypt route is increasing.

According to IOM, more than "1,900 irregular migrants" arrived in Italy from Egypt between January and mid-April, more than double the 655 arrivals recorded in the same period last year.

Risks ahead

Egyptian police regularly detain migrants caught trying to use smuggling routes both in and out of the country. Most are detained under provisions of the criminal code that ban leaving the country without official documents and authorisation.

But there are signs that the authorities may be changing the way they deal with irregular migrants. Some refugee advocates say those arrested are being released from detention quicker than previously, particularly if they hold a UN asylum seeker's card. Parliament is also set to debate a draft migration law that levies stiff penalties against smugglers but would no longer criminalise the migrants themselves.

Despite this, the journey from Ard el-Lewa is full of hazards, particularly for new arrivals like Tekle, who has not yet been registered as an asylum seeker by the UN and is therefore particularly vulnerable to detention.

Estefanos said there have been cases in the last year of Eritreans being transferred to Cairo's Qanatir prison and eventually deported back to Eritrea. In the past, detained Eritreans would often be returned to Ethiopia, but since last summer Ethiopia has stopped accepting them, she said.

UNHCR in Cairo told IRIN it was aware of a number of Eritreans detained in Qanatir and said it had requested access to them in order to assess their asylum claims. The UN agency couldn't say whether or not they were being returned in "a voluntary manner".

Back in Ard el-Lewa, Rahwa is resigned to the risks of the journey north to join her older sister in Sweden. She is hoping for a legal route, but if that fails she is still determined to leave Egypt by sea.

"Life in Egypt is hard. I don't like leaving the house," she said. "I want to go to Europe and be with my sister."

*Names of refugees have been changed to protect their safety
Briefing  who's who in Burundi's armed opposition

Publisher IRIN Author Jean-Baptiste Nkurunziza & Obi Anyadike Publication Date 7 June 2016 Cite as IRIN, Briefing  who's who in Burundi's armed opposition, 7 June 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5757bbe44.html [accessed 26 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

A year after President Pierre Nkurunziza controversially decided to stand for a third term in office in Burundi, more than 1,150 people have died in political violence, according to conflict tracking NGO ACLED.

Burundi is becoming increasingly polarised  with a growing armed opposition, the disappearances of government opponents, torture, summary detentions, and controls on the media. Hardliners in the government appear determined to abandon the Arusha accord  a power-sharing agreement between Hutu and Tutsi elites that ended a 13-year civil war.

"By using ethnically-charged rhetoric and demonstrating an obvious desire to bring the democratic consensus of the Arusha accord to an end, the regime has ruptured its relations with part of the population," the International Crisis Group said in its latest report. Already 250,000 people have fled the country.

Burundian society has shown fortitude, resisting the pressure to fracture along ethnic lines. Opposition to Nkurunziza is broad-based. But longstanding ethnic cleavages exist in the opposition, and "the regime's current strategy of repression (alleging a Tutsi conspiracy, breaking up the security services and creating units loyal to the regime) has revived fears of genocidal violence," said ICG.

Nkurinziza refuses to talk to the opposition alliance known as CNARED, although it is recognised by the African Union and regional governments as the government's dialogue partner. CNARED includes armed groups under its umbrella.

The worst violence so far was in December 2015 in the capital, when gunmen carried out coordinated attacks on military bases in Ngagara, Musaga, and Mujejuru. At least 87 people were reportedly killed. Police retaliated with raids throughout Bujumbura. Dozens of civilian bodies were discovered in mass graves in the days and weeks afterwards. But the violence is not one-sided: at least one mass grave has been discovered in opposition areas.

In the absence of constructive talks, armed violence and the threat of full-blown civil war increases. As different opposition outfits proliferate, here's a snapshot of the main insurgent groups:

The National Liberation Front: FNL

FNL, the military wing of the pro-Hutu PALIPEHUTU, has been operating in the lawless southern Uvira area in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo for well over two decades. In 2013, leader Agathon Rwasa lost out in a power struggle, quit the bush, and returned to the political scene in Burundi. The FNL is under the command of Aloys Nzabampema; its political leader is Isidore Nibizi.

World Economic Forum/Eric Miller President Pierre Nkurunziza

The FNL escalated its infiltration into Burundi in 2014 through the Rukoko Reserve, bordering both countries. It accuses Nzurunziza of treating it like "second-class citizens", and is committed to his removal. Rwasa, on the other hand, has chosen to work with the government  much to the disgust of many FNL supporters inside Burundi.

The FNL came under attack from the Congolese army and the UN peacekeeping mission in 2014 and again in 2015. The group is, however, recruiting fighters. Refugee International reported refugees in Rwanda's Mahama camp as saying they had been approached by FNL representatives (and the Burundi opposition Movement for Solidarity and Democracy  MSD). A leaked UN report in January 2016 gave details of an interview with 18 Burundian refugees captured in the Uvira region. They said they'd been given military training by the Rwandan authorities and fake papers.

The FNL is active in Bujumbura-Rurale Province, which surrounds the capital. In March, the Burundian and Congolese armies launched a joint operation on the border aimed at the FNL. In April, the group released a Burundian officer it had captured in the area.

Resistance for the Rule of Law in Burundi: RED-Tabara

This group emerged last year, and is believed to be composed of former soldiers, police and demobilised ex-rebels. Its "chief-of-staff", Melchiade Biremba, says its goal is "to hunt Nkurunziza and his clique". With his departure, a transitional government will be formed, leading to free and credible elections. RED-Tabara shares the "same goals" as the CNARED opposition alliance  but says, "the ways and means we take are different".

RED-Tabara has been referred to as the military wing of the Movement for Solidarity and Democracy (see above) led by Alex Sinduhije  an allegation denied by Biremba. The group is especially active in Bujumbura. It claims to only target the security forces, but civilians have also been victims of grenade attacks. Biremba says RED-Tabara is united with other anti-Nkurunziza insurgent groups, but "each has its own military strategy".

Republican Forces of Burundi: FOREBU

Led by General Godefroid Niyombare, who headed a failed coup against Nkurunziza in May last year, it supports the Arusha framework and the reform of a post-Nkurunziza military. It boasts senior security establishment figures in its ranks, including: Philbert Habarugura, a former general in charge of its armed forces; Colonel Gilles Ndihokubwayo as "chief of staff"; and a former police commissioner, Edward Nibigira, who is the group's spokesman.

Phil Moore/IRIN Mourning relatives of a student killed in the Jabe neighbourhood of Bujumbura

Niyombare became the first Hutu chief of general staff in 2009 after having fought as a commander in Nkurunziza's CNDD-FDD rebel group. Significantly, perhaps, he was also involved in peace talks with the FNL before the current round of fighting. Niyombare was a former intelligence chief before being dismissed in 2015 for opposing Nkurunziza's plans to run for a third term.

FOREBU was reportedly involved in an attack on a police station in Musaga, Bujumbura, in February 2016 that killed four members of the pro-government Imbonerakure militia; and it jointly carried out grenade attacks with RED-Tabara in the city's Cibitoke and Kinanira neighbourhoods, which allegedly targeted civilians. Its most dramatic strike was the assassination of senior army officer Darius Ikurakura inside a Bujumbura military base in March. Regarded as a regime enforcer, Ikurakura was responsible for security operations in the opposition strongholds of Bujumbura.

FOREBU says dialogue can be the only way out of the crisis, but until the government agrees to inclusive talks, it will continue its armed struggle.

Union of Patriots for the Revolution: UPR

Emerged in the eastern town of Karuzi in February. In its initial statement, the group said it was made up of "civil and military officers" determined to "establish a democratic regime".

According to Burundi News: "The UPR is led by Antoine Sinzumunsi, former general counsel of the Bujumbura appeal court. Between January 2010 and May 2012, he was a justice inspector. It claims to number several dozen fighters".

Movement for Popular Resistance: MPR

Emerged with a press release in December 2015, signed by self-styled military leader Didier Nyambariza, a former police officer who fled the country after the controversial 2010 elections  boycotted by the opposition. It's believed the group has trained in Congo's southern Kivu mountains. It has not claimed any attacks.

Burundi Democracy Liberation Force: BDLF

This group announced itself on social media in May 2016. Its military chief is Celestin Manirakiza, a former rebel in Nkurunziza's FDD. He worked in senior positions in the police, including the Rapid Mobile Intervention Group  a special unit accused of illegal detentions and torture.

Christian Patriot Movement: MPC

Little is known about this movement, which only announced itself in May 2016. It is led by the mysteriously anonymous figure of Jean-Paul Ndendakumana, unknown in either political or military circles.
Disclaimer

This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.
The EU-Turkey migration deal is dying. What's Plan B?

Publisher IRIN Author Kristy Siegfried Publication Date 3 June 2016 Cite as IRIN, The EU-Turkey migration deal is dying. What's Plan B?, 3 June 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5757bce44.html [accessed 26 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

It's been less than 11 weeks since the EU struck its controversial deal with Turkey to stem the flow of asylum seekers into Europe. The agreement was immediately under pressure on several fronts and now looks set to unravel completely, even before any mass returns come to pass.

Two weeks ago, a committee on the Greek island of Lesvos upheld the appeal of a Syrian asylum seeker whose initial claim had been rejected and who was facing deportation to Turkey. This week, nine more appeals by Syrians were upheld. Many more such decisions are soon to be delivered, according to Pro Asyl, the German NGO whose lawyers represented the Syrians. So far, just one appeal case by a Syrian has been rejected.

The appeal decisions are significant because they shatter the illusion that had given the accord its legal veneer  the principle that Turkey is "a safe third country", one that even genuine asylum seekers can be returned to without running foul of international refugee law.

Claims backlog

On the basis of this bogus principle, around 200 migrants and refugees, mostly Syrians, have been told they can't have their asylum claim considered in Greece  the claims are officially inadmissible  and they'll be returned to Turkey. They have five days to lodge appeals with the Greek Asylum Service.

To date, just over 400 people have been returned to Turkey under the agreement (while during April and May another 5,000 migrants and refugees arrived in Greece from Turkey). Tellingly, none of those returned were Syrians or other nationalities rejected on the basis of inadmissibility. Most were individuals who had not applied for asylum, or who withdrew their applications after deciding that even returning to Turkey was preferable to being detained in Greece.

According to the Greek Asylum Service, 7,000 of around 8,500 migrants on the Greek islands are still waiting for initial interviews. Greece can only detain people in closed detention centres for 28 days, but even after they're released they can't leave the islands. The atmosphere is increasingly tense.

"At these camps [on the islands], there's not enough security; there are riots, hopelessness; there's not enough to eat," said Karl Kopp of Pro Asl. "People still have no clue what is happening and there aren't enough lawyers available."

Legally unsound

Dozens of "experts" from the European Asylum Support Office have been deployed to the islands to support overwhelmed Greek officials. According to a spokesperson with the office, EASO officials conduct interviews to assess the admissibility of applicants and then forward their opinions to the Greek Asylum Service, which is responsible for taking final decisions.

Kopp said that while EASO officials couldn't take final decisions, they do still influence their outcome by repeating the mantra that Turkey is a safe third country.

But even before the ink was dry on the EU-Turkey agreement (it was finalised on 20 March), there was plenty of evidence that it wasn't. In the past two months there have been numerous documented cases of Turkish guards shooting and killing Syrians attempting to cross the border. In addition, despite guarantees that those returned to Turkey would have access to asylum procedures there, returnees have instead been detained in remote camps with no access to lawyers.

Maria Stavropoulou, head of the Greek Asylum Service, told IRIN that more returns are scheduled in the coming days and weeks, but civil society groups like Pro Asyl and the Greek Council for Refugees have vowed to go through the courts to try to suspend removals. In the case of the one Syrian man whose appeal was rejected on Thursday, Kopp said his organisation has applied to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg to prevent his deportation. If successful, the case could set another deal-breaking precedent.

Political fallout

While it may take months for European courts to expose legal flaws in the EU-Turkey agreement, the deal could die a much quicker death if Turkey decides to pull out.

In early May, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sacked his prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, who had helped negotiate the deal with the EU. In recent weeks, Erdogan has repeatedly expressed his displeasure at the slow pace of a process to grant Turkish citizens visa-free access to Europe  a key incentive for Turkey's cooperation on migration. The target date for the visa waiver was 1 June, but "technical talks" have just begun and Ankara must still comply with a list of 72 requirements, including reforms of its anti-terror legislation, which allows it to prosecute academics and journalists. Erdogan has already made it clear that he is not willing to make the necessary reforms. He has also complained that the EU is yet to hand over three billion euros to help support Syrians refugees: another component of the agreement.

In yet another potential blow to the deal, the German parliament on Thursday voted to recognise the 1915 massacre of 1.5 million Armenians by Turkish-Ottoman forces as genocide. Turkey responded by quickly recalling its ambassador. German Chancellor Angela Merkel was a key architect of the deal with Turkey and is likely to be the biggest political loser if it fails and large-scale refugee movements to Europe resume this summer. In 2015, Germany received by far the largest share of asylum seekers who crossed the Aegean from Turkey.

For now, the prospect of detention in Greece, combined with the border closures in the Balkans that preceded the EU-Turkey deal, have been enough to deter all but the most desperate from attempting the Aegean route. But more than 10,000 migrants arrived by boat to Italy in the last week of May and Europe's so-called refugee crisis is far from over. Policymakers are in urgent need of a Plan B.
Bahrain shatters facade of reform with ruthless persecution of key opposition leader

Publisher Amnesty International Author Ariel Plotkin Publication Date 8 June 2016 Cite as Amnesty International, Bahrain shatters facade of reform with ruthless persecution of key opposition leader, 8 June 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5757bd654.html [accessed 26 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Nobody saw it coming. In a shocking new blow to freedom of expression last week a Bahraini appeals court more than doubled the prison sentence against the leader of the country's largest opposition group, al-Wefaq, increasing his term from four to nine years for peacefully criticizing the government in his speeches.

With this move, Bahrain's authorities have shattered the illusion that human rights and reform feature anywhere on their current agenda.

The verdict against Sheikh 'Ali Salman - a prominent opposition leader with a large Shi'a following - is a clear indicator of Bahrain's zero tolerance policy for peaceful dissent. It also provides strong evidence of what international human rights organizations already suspected: that the authorities in Bahrain no longer feel the need to show they care about what the international community thinks of their deteriorating human rights record.

The verdict drew condemnation from a host of UN experts and the US government who both called for the release of Sheikh 'Ali Salman. This stands in stark contrast with the muted response from the UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, who simply noted that there is "a further stage in the legal process", exposing the British government's continuing hypocrisy when it comes to Bahrain. The UK, which is building a major naval base in Bahrain, has repeatedly made excuses for Bahrain's leaders, repeating false claims that the tiny Gulf Kingdom is "making progress" on reforms.

It has been almost five years since the King accepted the recommendations of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI), which was established to investigate the heavy-handed crackdown on anti-government protests in 2011. Bahrain has had nearly five years to show the world that it has genuinely made progress towards respecting and promoting human rights; that it has learnt from its grave mistakes of the past and can serve as an example to other states in the Middle East.

Professor Cherif Bassiouni, the Chair of BICI, was inaccurately quoted in an article by the Bahrain News Agency in May as saying that all BICI recommendations had been fully implemented. Following this, the Bahraini authorities patted themselves on the back thanking the commissioners for their "dedicated" and "diligent" work to achieve their objectives. The statement was even publicly welcomed by the British Ambassador to Bahrain. However, last Saturday, Bassiouni refuted the claims made in the article emphasizing that only 10 of the recommendations had been "substantially implemented" and 16 "partially".

Just how much more time is the world expected to give Bahrain to reform? Many suffering repression in the country tell us that time has run out and that there is no more hope to hold onto.

Since the national dialogue, set up to promote discussion across Bahrain's political spectrum, stalled in 2014, with al-Wefaq boycotting the parliamentary and municipal elections in November that year, the opposition has become the main target for the authorities. Sheikh 'Ali Salman's arrest, which came just a month later, was clearly politically motivated.

He joined fellow opposition leaders Fadhel Abbas Mahdi Mohamed of al-Wahdawi party, Ebrahim Sharif of al-Waad party and other peaceful opponents behind bars, including the "Bahrain 13", a group of activists convicted in 2011, some of whom are serving life sentences.

Bahrain has been talking about national dialogue since 2011, and it is clear that its allies the UK and USA have been pushing for this. But who are the authorities going to have a dialogue with if all of the country's key political leaders are behind bars?

The nine-year jail sentence against Sheikh 'Ali Salman, a peaceful critic who should not have spent a single day in prison, makes one thing painfully clear. That no matter how strongly Bahrain - and its ally the UK - push the image that Bahrain is on track towards human rights reform, the reality shows a different story.

It is not just political figures that have been targeted by the authorities. Punishment for peaceful dissent has ranged from imprisonment to travel bans, nationality revocation and more recently, expulsion from the country. Those who want to air their discontent peacefully face unrelenting obstacles and persecution.

Public demonstrations have been banned in the capital Manama since 2013. Protests outside the city are routinely met with tear gas and shotgun pellets.

Bahraini activists have turned to social media to express their views, but increasingly, tweeting or even re-tweeting can be a ticket to prison. Virtually no platform is left for the Bahraini people to peacefully express their opinions.

Sadly, Bahrain's repression has driven several activists to leave the country to seek asylum in Europe and some still in the country are now self-censoring, as almost anything they say can be used by the authorities to prosecute them, just like Sheikh 'Ali Salman.

The repercussions of Sheikh 'Ali Salman's increased prison sentence remain to be seen but unless Bahrain's authorities urgently end this escalating crackdown there are likely to be more dark days ahead. And scores of jailed peaceful activists and opposition leaders like Sheikh 'Ali Salman will continue to pay the price.

Copyright notice:  Copyright Amnesty International
UN: Shameful pandering to Saudi Arabia over children killed in Yemen conflict

Publisher Amnesty International Publication Date 7 June 2016 Cite as Amnesty International, UN: Shameful pandering to Saudi Arabia over children killed in Yemen conflict, 7 June 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5757bdee4.html [accessed 26 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

The credibility of the United Nations is on the line after it shamefully caved in to pressure to remove the Saudi Arabia-led military coalition from the UN's list of states and armed groups that violate children's rights in conflict, Amnesty International said today.

Last night a spokesperson for UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced the change to the list published on 2 June as part of an annual report by his Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict. The move was a direct result of diplomatic pressure from Saudi Arabia, angry at the UN's conclusion that coalition operations had led to the death and suffering of children in the armed conflict in Yemen.

"It is unprecedented for the UN to bow to pressure to alter its own published report on children in armed conflict. It is unconscionable that this pressure was brought to bear by one of the very states listed in the report," said Richard Bennett, Representative and Head of Amnesty International's UN Office.

"Blatant pandering such as this undermines all of the UN's work to protect children caught up in war. Secretary-General Ban must not succumb to pressure and undermine the important role of his own Special Representative. By doing so he also damages the credibility of the UN as a whole.

"This is a stark example of why the UN needs to stand up for human rights and its own principles - otherwise it will rapidly become part of the problem rather than the solution."

According to the UN, the removal is temporary while it reviews the report's findings jointly with Saudi Arabian authorities. But Saudi Arabia's diplomats to the UN were quick to hail what they saw as an "irreversible" moral victory.

The UN has never before removed a state it had already listed, but it was widely criticized for backing off from including Israel in last year's report, following many credible allegations of hundreds of children killed and thousands injured in the 2014 armed conflict in Gaza.

"By taking a step further, the Secretary-General has set a dangerous precedent that will put the lives of children in countries in conflict at even greater risk," said Richard Bennett.

According to the UN report as published on 2 June, the Saudi Arabia-led coalition was responsible for 60% of child deaths and injuries in the Yemen conflict last year, killing 510 and wounding 667.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was quoted as saying: "Grave violations against children increased dramatically as a result of the escalating conflict".

Amnesty International has repeatedly documented violations of international human rights and humanitarian law by coalition members during the conflict, including against children. This includes airstrikes on schools and the use of internationally banned cluster munitions which have killed three children and maimed nine.

Children account for a third - at least 127 - of the 361 civilian deaths that resulted from the 32 apparently unlawful airstrikes documented by Amnesty International since the start of the coalition campaign.

Copyright notice:  Copyright Amnesty International
Nowhere safe: Refugee women on the Greek islands live in constant fear

Publisher Amnesty International Author Giorgos Kosmopoulos Publication Date 7 June 2016 Cite as Amnesty International, Nowhere safe: Refugee women on the Greek islands live in constant fear, 7 June 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5757be504.html [accessed 26 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Afghan journalist "Shirin" (not her real name) says she was once shot at by the Taliban. But despite fleeing her country to seek safety, she now lives in constant fear in a squalid Greek refugee camp.

"We are treated like animals. I'd rather be shot again than endure these conditions," she told Amnesty International in the Kara Tepe camp on the island of Lesvos.

Shirin is one of many women who have fled harm and persecution, only to face new fears of sexual harassment and violence in the camps on the Greek islands.

It was 18 months ago that the Taliban shot at Shirin's car. Initially, she fled to Kabul, where she found another journalism job, this time behind the camera.

"It's very dangerous for a woman journalist in Afghanistan," she said.

She continued to receive threats over the phone and eventually it got to be too much for her, and she left Afghanistan for Europe.

"But I don't feel safe here either. I'm so scared, I never leave my room at night," she said, adding that many of her friends had spoken of cases of verbal and sexual harassment in Lesvos.

Her "room" is a container in which often dozens of women have to sleep on hard floors.

Kara Tepe is considered the "good" camp on Lesvos. Refugees are allowed to come and go as they choose, and it has gender-segregated toilets and showers with doors - simple measures that increase refugee women's feelings of security and may help prevent sexual violence.

'Easy targets'

Conditions are markedly worse in Moria, the until-recently closed camp on the island, which is run by the military and now houses in excess of 3,000 people.

Jumana, a psychologist working for Humanity Crew, an NGO supporting refugees in Lesvos, told Amnesty International about the particular dangers facing women refugees in Moria.

"Women staying in refugee camps are under a lot of pressure and continue to raise their fear of not feeling safe due to the mixed populations in the camps and the mixing in some cases of men and women in the tents and lack of proper lighting at night," Jumana said.

A 23-year-old woman who was travelling alone told Jumana how she awoke one night in Moria, terrified to discover that an unknown man had entered her tent.

This year, more than a fifth of refugees and asylum-seeker arrivals in Greece have been women and well over a third have been children, according to the UN. They can't leave until they get appointments with asylum-seeker services in Athens, a process that can be painfully long.

Camps on the Greek islands were initially set up as refugee processing facilities, but following the EU-Turkey deal they were turned into prison-like detention centres. While the authorities have relaxed restrictions on the movement of people in and out of the camps, thousands are still crammed together in tents and containers, food, including baby milk, is often scarce, and shower and toilet facilities unhygienic.

In an attempt to stem the flow of refugees to Greece, the EU has struck a "refugee-swap" deal with Turkey. Refugees arriving in Greece by boat are now at risk of being sent back to Turkey without a proper determination of their asylum claim. Amnesty International strongly opposes the deal as Turkey does not offer refugees full rights and protections.

'Men fight and we run'

But the Greek island facilities are still struggling, overwhelmed and under-resourced.

The lack of food, facilities and tensions due to the conditions and lack of information have led to outbreaks of violence.

In one of the worst such examples, overnight on 1-2 June, a serious fight broke out between some of those detained in Moria and a large area of the camp was set alight. Women and men, including families with young children, had to flee and spend the night in nearby fields or the town of Mytilene, several kilometres away. Many returned only to find that the fire had destroyed their tents and the few belongings they had.

Unprotected and afraid

Women and men alike told Amnesty International that they often don't feel safe in the camps. Fights break out in the food queues and the police do little to protect anyone. The Greek authorities must do much more for everyone's safety in the camps.

"Men get drunk and there is no safety. Police will never protect us or intervene. We are also scared that something may happen to our children," a 23-year-old Syrian woman with three young children said.

A 29-year-old Iraqi woman stuck in the Kara Tepe camp with her three children is trying to reach her husband, who has made it to Germany.

"The other night a man simply opened the door and tried to come into our room," she said.

Another woman with a six-month-old baby said they were too scared to even use the toilet at night. "We stay in groups and only go to sleep when we are really tired. In the night, we don't leave our tents and our children are forced to go to the toilet inside," she said.

One of the most notorious camps in Greece is known as VIAL, on the island of Chios.

There, too, fights often break out. "Men fight and we run and hide. The police just laugh and refuse to help," a woman there told Amnesty International.

Life in the camps has become an additional misery for those who have suffered torture or who carry fragments of bullets or shelling in their body. Nearly everyone here has lost someone they loved in a conflict.

And it is often the women and girls who feel responsible for caring for others.

A teenage Afghan girl approached Amnesty in the VIAL camp, and said: "I am 16 and I'm here with my younger brother and my mother, who is blind. How I am supposed to look after them in here?"

Fear, desperation, lack of information and awful conditions are among the underlying causes of the tension and the real risks faced by Shirin, and thousands of other women, men and children now trapped on the Greek islands after the EU-Turkey agreement.

Greece and its EU partners are responsible for this suffering. Instead of dehumanizing these people desperately seeking safety and a better life, it's time Europe offered them protection.

Copyright notice:  Copyright Amnesty International
Tajikistan: Verdicts of Opposition Activists Travesty of Justice

Publisher Human Rights Watch Publication Date 7 June 2016 Cite as Human Rights Watch, Tajikistan: Verdicts of Opposition Activists Travesty of Justice, 7 June 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5757c3164.html [accessed 26 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Tajikistan's Supreme Court sentenced leaders of the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) on June 2, 2016 to lengthy prison terms on charges of attempting to overthrow the government, Human Rights Watch, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, and the Association for Human Rights in Central Asia said today. The sentences, including two life terms, followed an unfair trial initiated in retaliation for their peaceful political opposition and reflect the government's pervasive manipulation of the justice system and egregious violations of the right to freedom of expression.

The US, EU member states, and Tajikistan's other international partners should respond to the sentences with targeted punitive measures against Tajik officials unless concrete human rights improvements are made, including setting aside the opposition leaders' convictions.

"If allowed to stand, these draconian sentences will not only strike a blow to Tajikistan's peaceful opposition but to every Tajik citizen," said Steve Swerdlow, Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. "These sentences show that anyone in Tajikistan any time can be labeled a criminal and punished simply for disagreeing with the government."

Following a politically motivated trial, the Supreme Court sentenced the IRPT's first deputy and deputy chairmen, Saidumar Husaini and Mahmadali Hayit, to life in prison. Rahmatulloi Rajab, Sattor Karimov, Kiyomiddini Azav, and Abdukahhori Davlat, other party leaders, all were sentenced to 28 years in prison. The senior IRPT legal adviser, Zarafo Rahmoni, the only woman among the defendants, was sentenced to two years.

Other sentences were: Zubaidullohi Rozik 25 years; Muhammadalii Fayzmyhammad, 23 years; while Vokhidhoni Kosiddin and Sadiddini Rustam, 20 years; Hikmatulloh Sayfullozoda, editor of the now banned IRPT newspaper "Najot," 16-years; Muhammadsharif Nabiev and Abdusamad Gayratov, 14 years.

Several of the defendants, including Hayit and Rahmoni, are well-known in Tajikistan and internationally for their many years of peaceful advocacy on human rights, freedoms of expression, assembly, and religion.

While the Social Democratic party is also part of the opposition, IRPT was by far the largest and most viable opposition party in Tajikistan. Group 24, a peaceful opposition movement made of activists mainly outside the country, has also been persecuted and declared a terrorist organization by the government.

The trial, which began on February 24, was closed to observers and marked by serious violations of due process. Sources close to several of the defendants told Human Rights Watch that several defendants were subjected to torture or ill-treatment in pre-trial detention. Several lawyers who attempted to represent the IRPT leaders on trial, such as Buzurgmehr Yorov, were detained on trumped up charges. A lawyer who represented one of the defendants and was present in court throughout the trial told the Association for Human Rights in Central Asia (AHRCA) that the government presented no evidence of the defendants' guilt, citing the allegations made in the indictments as established facts.

"The only purpose of this trial was to dress up political repression in the trappings of legal proceedings," said Nadejda Atayeva, president of the Association for Human Rights in Central Asia. "The defendants' crimes appear to be fabricated, yet their fate was pre-determined. This is a travesty of justice."

On June 2, the day the verdict was handed down, the wives of several defendants announced they would hold a peaceful protest and walk to the local United Nations office to seek a consultation on the sentences. As the women proceeded toward the UN building, police detained them. They were fined for an administrative violation of "failure to obey police."

Authorities began to arrest IRPT leaders and party members on September 16, 2015, accusing them of involvement in an alleged attempted coup earlier that month, purportedly by deputy defense minister Abduhalim Nazarzoda. Party officials, including IRPT's chairman, Muhiddin Kabiri, and Hayit, the deputy chairman, repeatedly rejected accusations that the party was involved with or supported the alleged mutiny by Nazarzoda.

Days before the arrests, Tajik authorities formally banned the party, forcing its closure and later declared it a terrorist organization amid a long-running campaign to stamp out opposition political activity in the country and among activists abroad.

Tajikistan is in the midst of the worst political and religious crackdown since the end of the country's 1992-1997 civil war. Over the past two years, authorities have arrested, imprisoned, and tortured members of the country's peaceful political opposition. They have also targeted perceived critics abroad, seeking their detention and extradition back to Tajikistan, and have forcibly disappeared critics abroad only to have them reappear in Tajik custody.

Authorities have also targeted lawyers, journalists, and ordinary citizens who have posted statements critical of the government of President Emomali Rahmon on social media. Hundreds of perceived critics and their family members have fled the country, according to observers' estimates. Constitutional changes accepted in a May 21 referendum tightened President Rahmon's grip on power, effectively giving him unlimited presidential terms and extending a ban on the IRPT.

The United States, the European Union, and other key international actors should make unequivocal calls for the defendants' release, Human Rights Watch, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, and the Association for Human Rights in Central Asia said. The international actors should press the Tajik government to uphold its international obligations to respect freedom of association, assembly, expression, and religion and impose targeted punitive measures, such as asset freezes and visa bans, on Tajik government officials responsible for imprisoning peaceful activists, torture, and other grave human rights violations.

On April 15, the State Department designated Tajikistan a "country of particular concern" with respect to religious freedom, allowing the US government to sanction the country, and although the administration declined to do so, it can alter its decision and impose sanctions now, and press allies to do the same.

"Tajikistan's international partners should publicly and unanimously condemn this mockery of justice," said Marius Fossum, Central Asia representative of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee. "Tajikistan's human rights situation has been spiraling downward at a rapid pace and the time has come for Washington, Brussels, and all actors to examine the possibility of enacting targeted punitive measures unless immediate human rights improvements are made."

Copyright notice:  Copyright, Human Rights Watch
Egypt: Stop Retaliation for Anti-Torture Proposal

Publisher Human Rights Watch Publication Date 8 June 2016 Cite as Human Rights Watch, Egypt: Stop Retaliation for Anti-Torture Proposal, 8 June 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5757c3734.html [accessed 26 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Egyptian authorities should drop the charges brought against a human rights lawyer and the investigations against at least two judges over their role in proposing an anti-torture law in March 2015.

On March 3, 2016, an investigative judge charged Negad al-Borai, head of a law firm that held workshops preparing the proposed law, with offenses that can carry up to 25 years in prison in relation to those activities. Egypt's Supreme Judicial Council, meanwhile, appears to have ordered an investigation into Hesham Raouf and Assem Abd al-Gabbar, judges who worked with al-Borai to draft the proposed law, for their role in the project, the law firm said.

"In today's Egypt, not even members of the judiciary are safe and independent from the security-minded arms of the state," said Nadim Houry, deputy Middle East and North Africa director. "The authorities should be investigating those who torture, not those who are trying to improve Egypt's laws and bring them in compliance with international norms."

Authorities have interrogated al-Borai, the head of the 74-year-old United Group law firm, five times since April 2015, most recently on June 5. The interrogations focused on his role in the anti-torture draft law as well as other activities and funding of his law firm.

Judge Abd al-Shafy Othman, appointed by the justice minister to investigate al-Borai's case, declined to provide al-Borai with an official copy of the charges against him. But al-Borai has said they include: establishing an unlicensed entity with the intent of inciting resistance to the authorities, implementing human rights activities without a license, receiving foreign funds without permission, and spreading false information for the purpose of harming public order.

During the June 5 session, Judge Othman presented al-Borai with a report from the Interior Ministry's National Security Agency that alleged he has been conducting human rights activities, receiving foreign funds, and promoting nonviolence culture with the purpose of bringing down the state, the United Group said in a June 6 statement. It said the National Security report's evidence merely consisted of al-Borai's articles in al-Shorouk, an independent newspaper, and Facebook posts about the crackdown on human rights groups in Egypt.

Having charged al-Borai, the authorities could arrest him at any time and hold him in pretrial detention, Human Rights Watch said. So far, the investigative judge has simply demanded that al-Borai guarantee his appearance for questioning by providing a certified address. The charge of illegally receiving foreign funding carries a potential 25-year sentence, under an amendment to the penal code decreed by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in September 2014.

Judge Othman called Judge Raouf, the president of the Cairo Appeals Court and a former assistant justice minister, and Judge al-Gabbar, the vice president of the Cassation Court, the highest appellate court in the country, for interrogation on June 4. But the two judges have not yet been charged with any offense. Judge Raouf presented a memo to Judge Othman appealing the justice minister's decision to open an investigation against him.

The draft anti-torture law was the culmination of work by al-Borai and his firm over several months, in collaboration with a group of judges and legal experts to bring Egyptian law in line with the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which Egypt ratified in 1986. In March 2015, al-Borai held a workshop to present the draft law and afterward sent it to the presidency, the Justice Ministry, and more recently the newly elected parliament.

In April 2015, according to reports in various government-owned and independent newspapers, the Supreme Judicial Council requested the appointment of an investigating judge to look into contributions to the draft law by judges Raouf and Abd al-Gabbar. The council asked for the investigation after receiving a report about the workshop and draft law from the National Security Agency, the newspapers said. The judges were not officially notified of the investigation and learned about it from the media, according to a joint statement by 19 Egyptian nongovernmental groups. Human Rights Watch was not able to contact the judges.

In the past two years, according to media reports, President al-Sisi has approved judicial authorities' decisions to forcibly retire or fire dozens of judges, at least 47 in three different cases, for acts including expressing opinions against the government or the military's July 2013 removal of former President Mohamed Morsy. On May 15, the Justice Ministry's Judicial Inspection Administration opened an investigation into 12 judges and prosecutors for expressing political opinions about the decision by President al-Sisi to transfer two islands in the Red Sea to Saudi Arabia, al-Watan, a privately owned newspaper, reported.

Research by Human Rights Watch, journalists, and local human rights groups has repeatedly shown that torture is widespread in Egypt and that security services often enjoy impunity for their acts. Since Morsy's removal, agents of the National Security Agency have used torture widely and routinely to force suspects to confess, Human Rights Watch has found. Egypt has failed to grant permission to the United Nations special rapporteur on torture to visit the country since the rapporteur at the time first made the request in 1996.

In the months leading up to the workshop, al-Borai and his firm interviewed 465 alleged victims of police torture and ill-treatment and filed 163 complaints to prosecutors, of which only seven reached the courts, according to a January 2015 report by the firm.

In recent months, investigating judges have increased their pressure on independent human rights groups, indicating that they could be close to filing charges in Case 173, a five-year-old investigation into the foreign funding of nongovernmental organizations. The judges have summoned human rights workers for questioning, banned them from travel, and attempted to freeze their personal funds and family assets.

On April 19, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he was "closely following" the investigation and stressed "the need for human rights defenders and civil society in general, as well as the media, to work without undue restrictions."

The investigations against al-Borai and the two judges violate several articles of the African Charter on Human and the Peoples' Rights and International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights on freedom of association, freedom of expression, and right to receive and disseminate information. The African Union's Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Fair Trial and Legal Assistance in Africa state that judges and lawyers "shall not suffer, or be threatened with, prosecution or administrative, economic or other sanctions for any action taken in accordance with recognized professional duties, standards and ethics."

The United Group law firm, a prominent firm in Egypt, represents a number of human rights groups and activists, including Human Rights Watch.

Egypt should abide by its March 2015 pledge at the conclusion of its Universal Periodic Review before the United Nations Human Rights Council to "respect the free exercise of the associations defending human rights" and to carry out legislative amendments to help combat the crime of torture, Human Rights Watch said.

"Egypt committed itself to amend its legislation to comply with UN treaties, but when lawyers and judges proposed such amendments, the authorities have sought to punish them," Houry said. "This shows al-Sisi's government has little regard for the suffering or rights of torture victims."

Copyright notice:  Copyright, Human Rights Watch
50,000 flee Boko Haram attack on Niger town

Publisher UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Publication Date 7 June 2016 Cite as UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 50,000 flee Boko Haram attack on Niger town, 7 June 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5757c5224.html [accessed 26 October 2022]

Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes in south-east Niger following a series of attacks since last Friday by Boko Haram insurgents on the town of Bosso in the troubled Diffa region.

The attacks occurred on Friday, Sunday and Monday. As of this morning the situation in Bosso is unclear. UNHCR warned last month that the security and humanitarian situation was worsening in the Diffa Region. We have not been working directly in Bosso since February 2015, when the insurgency spread from Nigeria to Niger, but we operate through local implementing partners to deliver help.

UNHCR is working with the authorities and partners on a coordinated response to the displacement. A UNHCR emergency team will be deployed to the Diffa region this week.

Violence escalated throughout May in and around Bosso, including an assault on May 31 in the nearby town of Yebi that left nine people dead and forced an estimated 15,000 residents and displaced people to seek shelter in Bosso. Many had been evacuated a year ago from islands in Lake Chad for security reasons.

An estimated 50,000 people fled Friday's attack, mainly walking westwards to Toumour, some 30 kilometres west of Bosso. Many people are traumatized and worried about their safety. People are sleeping in the open and urgently need shelter and other assistance.

Some of the displaced have moved on from Toumour and are heading to the town of Diffa, which is located 140 kilometres west of Bosso, and northwards towards Kabelawa where a camp for the internally displaced is near capacity with some 10,000 people.

The welfare of these people and others forced to flee the violence in Bosso is of great concern. Insecurity and lack of access have long hampered humanitarian operations in parts of the Diffa region, though Bosso is the only area where we do not implement projects directly.

Since February last year, UNHCR has been providing protection and assistance to the displaced in Bosso through local and international NGO partners. There are at least 240,000 displaced people in Diffa Region, including Nigerian refugees, returnees and the internally displaced. Before the latest attack on Bosso, one in every three inhabitants of the Diffa region was forcibly displaced.

Additional support from the donor community is urgently required. This is a desperately poor area where the general insecurity has destroyed the socio-economic fabric. The self-reliance capacity of the displaced and their hosts is extremely limited.

The attacks on Bosso came just ahead of the start of a high-level meeting from Monday to Wednesday in Abuja to discuss the major protection challenges in the Lake Chad basin, including Niger. Organized by the Nigerian government, with technical support from UNHCR, the dialogue participants include senior officials from Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger.
Title Submission to the Committee Against Torture in relation to its examination of the Third Periodic Report of the Philippines : Ill-treatment and Torture of Children Deprived of Liberty in the Philippines

Publisher World Organisation Against Torture

Publication Date 8 June 2016

Country Philippines

Cite as World Organisation Against Torture, Submission to the Committee Against Torture in relation to its examination of the Third Periodic Report of the Philippines : Ill-treatment and Torture of Children Deprived of Liberty in the Philippines, 8 June 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5757c92c4.html [accessed 26 October 2022]
Ban condemns terrorist attack in Istanbul that leaves at least 11 dead

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 7 June 2016 Cite as UN News Service, Ban condemns terrorist attack in Istanbul that leaves at least 11 dead, 7 June 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5757da5f411.html [accessed 26 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

7 June 2016 - United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned today's terrorist attack in the centre of Istanbul, which claimed the lives of at least 11 people and injured dozens more.

"The Secretary-General hopes that the perpetrators of this despicable terrorist attack will be swiftly identified and brought to justice," said a statement attributable to Mr. Ban's spokesperson.

The explosion was reportedly caused by a car bomb targeting a police bus, according to the statement.

Extending his sincere condolences to the families of the victims and wishing those injured a speedy recovery, the Secretary-General stressed that the UN stands in solidarity with the people and Government of Turkey at this difficult time.
Burundi: UNICEF concerned over arrests, school expulsion of students

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 7 June 2016 Cite as UN News Service, Burundi: UNICEF concerned over arrests, school expulsion of students, 7 June 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5757da7440b.html [accessed 26 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

7 June 2016 - The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said today it is concerned about the arrests, expulsions from school and injuries of students in Burundi schools, and has called for all parties involved in the political conflict in the country to fully respect the rights of children to education and to protect them from violence.

Speaking at the regular bi-weekly news briefing in Geneva earlier today, UNICEF spokesperson Christophe Boulierac noted that on 26 and 27 May, 334 students had been expelled from two schools in Ruziba close to Bujumbura, under the pretext of having defaced textbooks. Since then, the children had been invited to go back to school, but many had not gone back.

Following this, on 3 June, several high school students between 14 and 17 years old were arrested and interrogated for similar reasons, in three different schools in the Muramvya commune, about an hour east from Bujumbura, the spokesperson said. After the incident, other students from those schools had protested in the streets against the arrests, and two of them had been injured by gunfire.

UNICEF was present on the ground and with its partners and was following developments in those cases directly, Mr. Boulierac said. The agency was deeply concerned by those incidents, which had happened in the run-up to school exams, he noted.

The spokesperson emphasized that all children in Burundi have the right to pursue their studies and to take their exams in a secure environment, adding that schools should be respected as zones where children can find peace and refuge.

Mr. Boulierac said that UNICEF is calling on all parties to immediately ensure the full respect of children's rights to education in Burundi and their protection from violence.

More than 300 children have been in arbitrary detention in Burundi since the beginning of the crisis in April 2015, with most of them being detained in prisons for adults, in deplorable conditions, he said.

UNICEF and its partners had been continuously appealing for the release of those children, and more than 134 children have already been released to their families. Others have been moved to centres specifically dedicated to children, the spokesperson said.

About one quarter of the children going to Child-Friendly Spaces set up by UNICEF have shown signs of trauma following exposure to scenes of violence, Mr. Boulierac said.

There are more than 25,000 internally displaced people in Burundi, 58 per cent of them children. In addition, there are more than 260,000 refugees in neighbouring countries, 54 per cent of them children. Since the beginning of the crisis, 30 children have been killed, according to the spokesperson.

He also noted that another worrying element was that the national education budget in Burundi has decreased by one third and the health-care budget by more than half.

More than 1,800,000 children under 5 years old in Burundi and 500,000 pregnant women have been affected by the shortage of essential drugs.

UNICEF has stepped in to provide essential drugs to cover immediate needs, but a significant funding gap remains, Mr. Boulierac said, adding that if funding is not secured, health services for children risk being jeopardized across Burundi's 900 health centres and 46 district hospitals.
Thousands continue to flee Boko Haram attacks on Niger town  UN refugee agency

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 7 June 2016 Cite as UN News Service, Thousands continue to flee Boko Haram attacks on Niger town  UN refugee agency, 7 June 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5757da9440d.html [accessed 26 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

7 June 2016 - Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes in south-east Niger following near back-to-back attacks since this past Friday by Boko Haram insurgents on the town of Bosso in the troubled Diffa region, the United Nations refugee agency said today.

"As of this morning, the situation in Bosso is unclear," spokesperson Adrian Edwards of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) told the regular bi-weekly news briefing in Geneva, recalling that UNHCR had warned this past month that the security and humanitarian situation was worsening in the Diffa region.

"We have not been working directly in Bosso since February 2015, when the insurgency spread from Nigeria to Niger, but we operate through local implementing partners to deliver help," he added.

The attacks occurred on Friday, 3 June; Sunday, 5 June; and Monday, 6 June.

Mr. Edwards said that UNHCR is working with authorities and partners on a coordinated response to the displacement, and that an emergency team will be deployed to the Diffa region this week.

The most recent attacks follow rising violence in and around Bosso in recent weeks. An assault on 31 May in the nearby town of Yebi that killed nine people forced an estimated 15,000 residents and displaced people to seek shelter in Bosso. Many had been evacuated a year ago from islands in Lake Chad for security reasons, the spokesperson noted.

An estimated 50,000 people fled Friday's attack, mainly walking westward to Toumour, some 30 kilometres west of Bosso. Many people are traumatized and worried about their safety, and some are sleeping in the open and urgently need shelter and other assistance, Mr. Edwards said.

Some of the displaced have moved on from Toumour and are heading to the town of Diffa, which is located 140 kilometres west of Bosso, and northward towards Kabelawa, where a camp for the internally displaced is near capacity with some 10,000 people.

"The welfare of these people and others forced to flee the violence in Bosso is of great concern," Mr. Edwards said.

"Insecurity and lack of access have long hampered humanitarian operations in parts of the Diffa region, though Bosso is the only area where we do not implement projects directly," he added.

There are at least 240,000 displaced people in Diffa region, including Nigerian refugees, returnees and the internally displaced. Before the latest attack on Bosso, one in every three inhabitants of the Diffa region was forcibly displaced.

Since February 2015, UNHCR has been providing protection and assistance to the displaced in Bosso through local and international non-governmental partners.

Mr. Edwards stressed that additional support from the donor community is urgently required.

"This is a desperately poor area where the general insecurity has destroyed the socio-economic fabric. The self-reliance capacity of the displaced and their hosts is extremely limited," he said.

The attacks on Bosso came just ahead of the start of a high-level meeting from Monday to Wednesday in Abuja to discuss the major protection challenges in the Lake Chad basin, including Niger.

Organized by the Government of Nigeria, with technical support from UNHCR, the dialogue participants include senior officials from Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger.
UN human rights expert deplores sentencing of Tajikistan opposition leaders

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 7 June 2016 Cite as UN News Service, UN human rights expert deplores sentencing of Tajikistan opposition leaders, 7 June 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5757dac740d.html [accessed 26 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

7 June 2016 - A United Nations human rights expert today expressed dismay at the lengthy sentences imposed last week on the leadership of the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT).

The deputy party heads, Saidumar Husaini and Muhammad Hayit, were sentenced to life imprisonment on 2 June. According to reports, 11 other high-ranking officials were sentenced to jail terms ranging from 2 to 28 years.

"The harsh sentencing of multiple opposition leaders reflects the steady increase of restrictions on freedom of expression in Tajikistan," said David Kaye, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression. "The crackdown on IRPT over the last year silenced one of the few opposition voices in the country, seriously compromising the prospects for public participation in Tajikistan's political life."

"Authorities in Tajikistan refer to their concerns regarding the threats of extremism and terrorism while justifying their actions," noted Mr. Kaye. "Yet, imposing such drastic and arbitrary measures against opposition and religious leaders is not only unacceptable but dangerous as it only helps to radicalize those pushed out of public debate."

The Special Rapporteur stressed that "stability can never be achieved through the repression of all forms of dissent."

Mr. Kaye said that during his visit to Tajikistan in March, he shared with the Government his "profound concern" that the ban of IRPT, the arrest and closed trials of its leadership - which were not subject to any form of public or even UN scrutiny - were clearly incompatible with international human rights standards.

The Special Rapporteur noted that the prospects for freedom of expression and democracy in the country seem distant after the constitutional referendum in May, which banned any religious parties and allowed the president to run for an unlimited number of terms.

He also repeated his call for the release of all persons detained on political grounds and expressed alarm at reports on the continued intimidation of the IRPT leaders' lawyers and relatives.

"I received disturbing reports that relatives of IRPT members were prevented by the police from trying to reach the UN office after the verdict was announced, and were taken to a district court where they were threatened to be arrested and fined for not obeying to the Police," Mr. Kaye said. "This is totally unacceptable and furthers the climate of fear in the country."

IRPT members were sentenced on accusations of participation in a criminal group, incitement of national, racial or religious hatred, murder, terrorism, appeals to violent change of the constitutional order, illegal possession or transfer of weapons, and armed rebellion. Yet evidence detailing the accusations has been completely hidden from view, the Special Rapporteur said.

Mr. Kaye's appeal has also been endorsed by the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, Maina Kiai, and the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, Heiner Bielefeldt.
Civilians fleeing Fallujah 'facing double jeopardy'  UN rights chief

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 7 June 2016 Cite as UN News Service, Civilians fleeing Fallujah 'facing double jeopardy'  UN rights chief, 7 June 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5757dae0411.html [accessed 26 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

7 June 2016 - The United Nations human rights chief today urged the Iraqi Government to take immediate measures to ensure that all people fleeing the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)-occupied city of Fallujah are treated in strict accordance with international human rights and international humanitarian laws.

There are extremely distressing, credible reports that some people who survive the terrifying experience of escaping from ISIL, then face severe physical abuse once they reach the other side, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, said in a news release.

Eyewitnesses have described how armed groups operating in support of the Iraqi security forces are intercepting people fleeing the conflict, separating the men and teenage boys from the women and children, and detaining the males for 'security screening', which in some cases degenerates into physical violations and other forms of abuse, apparently in order to elicit forced confessions. There are even allegations that some individuals have been summarily executed by these armed groups, he added.

Mr. Zeid said that while the Iraqi security forces have a legitimate interest in vetting individuals fleeing ISIL-controlled areas to ensure they do not pose a risk to security or to identify individuals who may have committed crimes, such vetting must only be carried out by entities authorised to do so by Iraqi law.

Where individuals are being held by other armed groups not legally authorised to detain individuals, the Government must ensure they are either handed over or released safely, he stressed. It is paramount that all individuals fleeing the violence around Fallujah must be assumed to be civilians without links to armed groups, unless there is clear and cogent evidence to the contrary.

Humanitarian workers interact with newly-displaced people displaced from Fallujah in Amiriyat Al Fallujah camp. Photo: UNICEF/Mark Beresford

The High Commissioner added that the security vetting must be carried out in a transparent manner, in full compliance with international law. If there is substantive information that a particular individual may have committed crimes or may constitute a security risk, the person can be detained in compliance with the law, and the detention must be subject to appropriate judicial review.

The Prime Minister, and other political, community and religious leaders have made very welcome statements, calling on all those involved in the military operations to do their utmost to protect civilians in all circumstances and to ensure accountability for any individuals perpetrating violations. I urge the Government to take immediate, concrete steps to ensure that these calls are translated into action, Mr. Zeid said.

The Government must show its commitment to protecting civilians by fully investigating reports that people who have suffered two and a half years of living hell under ISIL, and have faced enormous difficulties and dangers getting out of Fallujah alive, are now facing double jeopardy in the form of serious human rights violations after they have escaped. Those allegedly responsible for these violations must be brought to justice, he insisted.

According to the Mr. Zeid's Office (OHCHR), since January 2014, when Fallujah was captured by ISIL, at least 22,169 civilians have been killed and 43,435 wounded in Iraq. These casualty figures are said to be considered as an absolute minimum as they do not include Anbar Province, where Fallujah is located, and also do not include people who died from secondary effects of violence, such as lack of water, food, medicines or health care.
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.
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.

THURSDAY

Women's luncheon

A Christian Women's Connection luncheon will begin at 11:30 a.m. at the Abilene Country Club, 4039 S. Treadaway Blvd. Sue Oman will be the guest speaker. Tickets are $16. For reservations, or for more information, contact 325-370-6567 or AbileneCWC@aol.com.

Children's Art & Literacy Festival

The Children's Art & Literacy Festival, featuring author and illustrator Mark Teague, will begin with a costume contest at 4 p.m. at the Elks Arts Center, 1174 N. First St., and will continue with ArtWalk events. The festival will continue at 8:30 a.m. Friday and Saturday in downtown Abilene, with shows, activities, music and exhibitions open throughout both days. Registration is $15 for adults and $10 for children ages 3-12. To register, or for more information, go to www.abilenecalf.com.

ArtWalk

ArtWalk, a program of the Center for Contemporary Arts, will take place from 5-8 p.m. in downtown Abilene. The theme will be 'Some Enchanted Evening,' and will celebrate the Children's Art & Literacy Festival. An exhibit of Mark Teague's work will be open at the National Center for Children's Illustrated Literature, 102 Cedar St., and a storybook parade will begin at 5:30 p.m. Teague will give a talk and sign books at 6:20 p.m. at the Paramount Theatre, 352 Cypress St. Admission is free.

Barbarian Festival Parade

CROSS PLAINS  The annual Barbarian Festival Parade will begin at 6 p.m. in downtown Cross Plains. The parade will begin lining up at 5 p.m. at First United Methodist Church. A fish fry will be served from 5-7 p.m. at the Cross Plains Senior Center. The Barbarian Festival scheduled for Saturday has been cancelled due to flooding.

'Noises Off!'

A production of the comedy 'Noises Off!' will be presented at 7:30 p.m. at Abilene Community Theatre, 809 Barrow St. Tickets are $15 for adults and $12 for students, seniors and military. For reservations, call 325-673-6271.

Other ...

Abilene Garden Club, 10 a.m., 300 Westwood St.

Chronic Pain and Depression Group, 11 a.m. to noon, Mental Health Association of Abilene, 333 Orange St., 325-673-2300.

Abilene Founder Lions Club, 11:30 a.m., Al's Mesquite Grill, 4801 Buffalo Gap Road.

Kiwanis Club of Greater Abilene, noon, Beehive Restaurant, 442 Cedar St. 325-695-0092.

Mental Illness Open Support Group, 1-2 p.m., Mental Health Association of Abilene, 333 Orange St. 325-673-2300.

Blood drive, 1-6 p.m., First Baptist Church, Albany.

Abilene 42 Club, 6 p.m., Rose Park Senior Center.

PEP (People Enjoying People) Club, 6 p.m., Wylie Baptist Church, 6097 Buffalo Gap Road 325-692-4909.

Teen Recovery Group, 6-7 p.m., Mission Abilene, 3001 N. Third St.

Free certified nurturing parent class (all ages), 6-8 p.m., Mission Church, North Third and Mockingbird streets. 325-672-9398.

Take Off Pounds Sensibly, 6:30 p.m. Brook Hollow Christian Church. Weigh-in begins at 5:30 p.m. 325-665-5052.

Free swim class for people with multiple sclerosis, 6:30 p.m., YMCA, 3250 State St.

Gambler's Anonymous, 6:30 p.m., Unity Spiritual Living Center, 2842 Barrow St. 325-338-2575.

West Texas Genealogical Society, 6:30 p.m., Rose Park Senior Citizen Center.

Round Dancing, 7 p.m., Wagon Wheel. 325-829-1517.

Tea Party Patriots of Eastland County, 7 p.m., Myrtle Wilks Community Center, Cisco.

South Pioneer Al-Anon Group, 8 p.m., 3157 Russell Ave.

Unity Group of Alcoholics Anonymous, 8 p.m., Episcopal Church of the Heavenly Rest, 602 Meander St.

Hendrick Hospice Care sponsors a 'Gone But Not Lost' support group the second Thursday of each month for any bereaved parent who has lost a child of any age. Information: 325-677-8516 or 1-800-622-8516.

FRIDAY

Children's Art & Literacy Festival

The Children's Art & Literacy Festival, featuring author and illustrator Mark Teague, will continue at 8:30 a.m. in downtown Abilene, with shows, activities, music and exhibitions. Registration is $15 for adults and $10 for children ages 3-12. To register, or for more information, go to www.abilenecalf.com.

Robert E. Howard Days

CROSS PLAINS  The annual Robert E. Howard Days will begin at 9 a.m. at locations around Cross Plains, with the Robert E. Howard House Museum open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and the Cross Plains Public Library open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. A swap meet will be conducted from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Pavilion. For more information, go to www.howarddays.com.

Quilt show

The 2016 Stars Over Abilene Quilt Show will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Abilene Civic Center, 1100 N. Sixth St. Vendors, workshops, lectures and more will be available, and more than 200 quilts will be on display. Admission is $6. For more information, go to www.abilenequiltersguild.org.

'Noises Off!'

A production of the comedy 'Noises Off!' will be presented at 7:30 p.m. at Abilene Community Theatre, 809 Barrow St. Tickets are $15 for adults and $12 for students, seniors and military. For reservations, call 325-673-6271.

Dance

OPLIN  A dance featuring Midnight Blue will be 7:30-10:30 p.m. at the Oplin Community Center. Admission is $5. Information: www.grandoleoplin.com.

Other ...

Abilene Chinese Corner, 5:30-6:30 p.m., Abilene Christian University library. lld09a@acu.edu.

Disabled American Veterans and Auxiliary, 6 p.m., 2555 Grape St. 325-793-9699 or 325-480-6175.

Mid-City Al-Anon, 7 p.m., First Christian Church. 325-670-4304.

SATURDAY

Area-wide garage sale

MERKEL  The Merkel Chamber of Commerce will conduct an area-wide garage sale at 8 a.m. in Merkel. Maps will be available at 111 Edwards St.

Animal showcase

An animal information showcase will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at Tractor Supply Company, 2249 Highway 351. Information on animal health, products and adoption will be presented. Vaccinations will be available from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, call 325-672-2179.

Children's Art & Literacy Festival

The Children's Art & Literacy Festival, featuring author and illustrator Mark Teague, will continue at 8:30 a.m. in downtown Abilene, with shows, activities, music and exhibitions. Registration is $15 for adults and $10 for children ages 3-12. To register, or for more information, go to www.abilenecalf.com.

Truby reunion

ANSON  The biennial Truby reunion will begin with registration at 9 a.m. at the Jones County Activity Building, 1008 West Court Plaza. Participants are encouraged to bring a dish for a potluck lunch, as well as photos and memorabilia. For more information, call 325-725-7393, 817-805-1964 or 325-928-3869.

Robert E. Howard Days

CROSS PLAINS  The annual Robert E. Howard Days will continue at 9 a.m. at locations around Cross Plains, with the Robert E. Howard House Museum open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and the Cross Plains Public Library open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. A swap meet will be conducted from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Pavilion. For more information, go to www.howarddays.com. The annual Barbarian Festival, to be held at Treadway Park, has been cancelled due to flooding.

Book signings

In conjunction with the Children's Art & Literacy Festival, Glenn Dromgoole will sign copies of 'Good Night Cowboy,' 'Abilene A to Z' and other books from 10 a.m. to noon at Texas Star Trading Company, 174 Cypress St. A book signing featuring Penny Klostermann and her book, 'There Was an Old Dragon Who Swallowed a Knight,' will follow from 1-3 p.m.

Quilt show

The 2016 Stars Over Abilene Quilt Show will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Abilene Civic Center, 1100 N. Sixth St. Vendors, workshops, lectures and more will be available, and more than 200 quilts will be on display. Admission is $6. For more information, go to www.abilenequiltersguild.org.

Movie at the library

A showing of a G-rated 1993 animated movie will begin at 10:45 a.m. at the South Branch of the Abilene Public Library, 1401 S. Danville. Popcorn and drinks will be served. Participants are encouraged to bring a sack lunch and a pillow. Admission is free.

Chautauqua

BUFFALO GAP  The Chautauqua Learning Series will continue with a presentation by Catherine Lansdowne on 'Fashion and Music' from 11 a.m. to noon at Buffalo Gap Historic Village, 133 N. William St. Admission is free.

Beatles Fest

The sixth annual Beatles Fest will begin at 6 p.m. at Play Faire Park, 2300 N. Second St. Fraid Knot, Happy Fat, Jonathan Hester and others will perform and a Beetle car show will be presented. Participants are encouraged to bring lawn chairs. Admission is $10, with a $5 cooler fee.

Cooper reunion

The Cooper High School Class of 1976 40-year reunion will begin at 6:30 p.m. at the Fairway Oaks Country Club, 34 Fairway Oaks Blvd. Registration is $60. For reservations, contact ggalbraith@sbcglobal.net, mgem@suddenlink.net and 325-864-3902.

'Noises Off!'

A production of the comedy 'Noises Off!' will be presented at 7:30 p.m. at Abilene Community Theatre, 809 Barrow St. Tickets are $15 for adults and $12 for students, seniors and military. For reservations, call 325-673-6271.

Other ...

Overeaters Anonymous, 10 a.m., Shades of Hope, 402A Mulberry St., Buffalo Gap. 800-588-4673.

Abilene Society of Model Railroaders, 10 a.m. to noon, 2043 N. Second St.

Abilene Creative Arts Club, 1:30-3:30 p.m., Buffalo Gap Historic Village, Rode Gallery. 325-514-0665.

Aglow International, 6 p.m., The Crossover, S. First and Poplar streets. 325-829-8826.
Halloween events, fall festivals pack October in Abilene, Big Country

From family-friendly to frightful, there are plenty of opportunities to don the costumes and scare up some treats.
Several people have asked what's happened to the Larry the Answer Guy lately. Honestly, some folks have missed this column.

There are several reasons  Greg Jaklewicz would call them excuses  why the Answer Guy has taken a break, all of which I consider good and valid.

Listing the newest first, they are:

Coordinating coverage and editing stories about flooding in the area, which has kept us busier than usual.

Filling in while Editor Doug Williamson has been out of town meeting with the new owners of the newspaper.

Filling in while Greg has been on a mission trip to Guatemala.

Coordinating coverage of the runoff election.

Taking a Memorial Day holiday.

But the main reason was a 11-day trip to Houston to attend my son's graduation from the University of Houston with a doctorate in mechanical engineering and his wife's graduation from the South Texas College of Law, also in Houston.

Let me brag on both of them for a second. Matt is a 2006 graduate of Abilene High. He earned his bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering from Texas A&M before enrolling in the University of Houston. His dissertation on something I don't even pretend to understand was named the best dissertation among U of H engineering doctoral students. Hey Greg, get a load of his scholarly beard, not like that white ball of hair growing on your chin.

His wife, Amanda, hails from El Paso, and is a graduate of Sam Houston State University. While attending law school and studying in the evenings, she worked full-time for the Harris County District Attorney's office and kept Matt in line.

Now that things are returning back to normal in the newsroom, I don't see any reason to miss any more columns this summer  unless holidays interfere, or if the editor goes out of town, or if it rains, or ...
Incident reports released Tuesday by the Abilene Police Department:

Assault family violence, 1400 block of North 11th Street, Tuesday

A 51-year-old man was arrested after allegedly grabbing a woman and throwing her to the ground.

Assault family violence, 5100 Lamesa Avenue, Tuesday

A 24-year-old woman was arrested after allegedly assaulting her roommate by slapping and punching him. The suspect also reportedly bit the roommate on the hand and choked him until he could not breathe. Police said the roommate had scratch marks on his neck and back.

Public intoxication, 120 block of South Pioneer Drive, Monday

A 45-year-old man, apparently a transient, was arrested after he reportedly asked employees at a business to use the bathroom and then was found unconscious on the toilet. Police said the man was intoxicated and a danger to himself.

Theft, 3700 block of Hill Country Drive, Sunday

A 36-year-old woman reported that her firearm, valued at $500, was stolen from her home. She said she suspects a roommate who recently moved out. There was no forced entry, according to the report.
Recovery from recent flooding continued Tuesday, with areas most deeply affected waiting to hear from the governor's office on decisions about disaster declarations and some residents still dealing with the aftermath of the deluge.

'We're just waiting for the state to get back to us,' said Mechail Cox, emergency management coordinator with Brown County. 'Everything is where it's supposed to be, we're just waiting on that confirmation.'

Cox said Brown County had suffered damage largely in the form of washed-out roads.

'It's nothing major, but those county roads are going to have to be fixed,' she said. 'Drying things out a bit will certainly help.'

Gov. Greg Abbott released a list June 1 outlining Texas counties approved for disaster assistance.

'I think several of us just missed that list,' Cox said.

In Breckenridge, City Manager Andy McCuistion said the city and Stephens County had sent in different declarations.

'We sent ours in yesterday, so it's a little early for us to hear back from that,' McCuistion said Tuesday afternoon.

He said that things largely had returned to normal as far as water levels were concerned.

'But, of course, for the folks who were flooded, we're trying to get them some support,' McCuistion said.

In addition to the Red Cross and the Salvation Army, McCuistion said two volunteer church groups in town, one through First United Methodist Church, another made up of volunteers from Baptist churches, are helping residents clean up and recover from storm damage.

Cisco Mayor James King said the community extended its declaration of disaster for 30 days in a called meeting Monday night.

'Our initial declaration only lasts for seven days, and so it has to be renewed by the (city) council,' he said.

Like others, King said the community's next step in getting aid will come from the governor's office.

'We're currently waiting on word from the governor's office, including Eastland County and the disaster declaration that he had previously signed,' he said. 'We have not gotten word of that yet, and that is necessary for FEMA to be involved  it has to go to the president and all of that.'

The community is getting assistance through other state agencies, King said.

'We just can't get federal aid until that's done,' he said.

King said water usage on Monday exceeded the community's supply capability, meaning 'a lot of people' were out of water Tuesday morning.

'We're steadily working to increase that,' he said. 'Over the next couple of days, if not this evening then sometime tomorrow, we should have additional pump capacity. So we will be pumping closer to the million gallons a day that we need.'

King said he had not seen complete damage figures yet, but the community's water plant was a total loss  at a cost of $4 million.
As part of its 60th anniversary celebration, the United Way of Abilene is giving out $60,000 to local nonprofits  and Cathy Ashby, the agency's president and CEO, is enjoying handing out every penny.

'It's great fun,' Ashby said Tuesday afternoon while handing out a $1,500 check to the Salvation Army. 'It's like being Santa Claus in June.'

The Salvation Army is one of 19 organizations slated to receive money. The United Way gave out a total of $10,000 Tuesday, including $4,000 to the Cancer Services Network, $2,500 to the Noah Project and $2,000 to Big Brothers/Big Sisters.

Additionally, the United Way handed out $16,215 on Monday, including $4,000 each to ResourceCare and the Boys & Girls Club at Lee Elementary; $3,990 to Big Country CASA; $3,725 to Communities in Schools; and $500 to APS Partners at the Betty Hardwick Center.

On tap for visits Wednesday are the city of Abilene's Adaptive Recreation Services; FaithWorks; Presbyterian Medical Care Mission; Day Nursery of Abilene; Abilene Hope Haven; and the Alliance for Women & Children.

The final gifts will be presented Thursday to the Boy Scouts of America Texas Trails Council, the Regional Victim Crisis Center, the YMCA and Connecting Caring Communities.

Ashby said the grants were made to cover specific needs of the organizations. In the case of the Salvation Army, the money will go toward mattresses for its shelter.

'They're probably 10 years old,' said Shelley Futrelle, public relations director for the Salvation Army, about the mattresses. 'They're starting to sag in the middle.'

The gift won't cover the cost of all of the mattresses the Salvation Army needs, but Maj. Linda Keeney said the gift is a good start.

'It's wonderful,' Keeney said. 'It will give us something to go on.'

The Salvation Army is not alone in having more needs than resources. Ashby said the organizations presented requests totaling $76,000 and the committee had to whittle it down to reach $60,000.

The $60,000 being given away during the celebration is in addition to the $1.3 million that United Way plans to distribute to nonprofits in 2016.

'Our donors are so generous,' Ashby said. 'They gave us more money than we allocated.'

Keeney said the money the Salvation Army received Tuesday will benefit people who many times have more needs than just needing a place to sleep.

'Our people have a lot facing them,' she said. 'We don't need to add to it by not letting them get a good night's sleep.'
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Liu Xiaodong, wife of detained activist Zhao Changqing, and an unidentified man with the couple's son in Bangkok in an undated photo.

The wife of a Chinese activist is seeking political asylum in Thailand after her husband, Zhao Changqing, was picked up by police for marking the 27th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre, activists said on Wednesday.

Liu Xiaodong and the couple's three-year-old son applied for asylum with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Bangkok on Tuesday, Thailand-based dissident Lin Dajun told RFA.

"Zhao Changqing is in police custody in China, and [Liu] has applied for political asylum here," Lin said. "I went with her when she made the application."

On June 1, police in the Chinese capital detained Zhao and a group of fellow activists after they met in private to mark the 27th anniversary of the 1989 military crackdown on the Tiananmen Square democracy movement.

Zhao, who is a veteran of the 1989 student-led pro-democracy movement, was detained alongside nine other activists who also held memorial events to mark the anniversary, according to the Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) network, which compiles reports from rights groups and activists in China.

Activists detained

It listed the detained activists, who weren't all detained in the same raid, as Li Meiqing, Li Wei, Liang Taiping, Lu Fuhai, Luo Yaling, Ma Qing, Ma Xinli and Xu Caihong, Zhang Baocheng, Li Meiqing, Xu Caihong, Zhang Baocheng, and Zhao Changqing.

Nine activists, including Zhao, are being held on suspicion of "picking quarrels and stirring up trouble," while Lu Fuhai faces charges of "incitement to subvert state power," CHRD said in a statement on its website.

Zhao was among a group of seven detained in Beijing after they posted a group photo online, sitting in front of a slogan calling for the release of political prisoners Guo Feixiong and Yu Shiwen, and calling for a memorial for the victims of the June 4 military crackdown, which ended weeks of pro-democracy protests in Beijing.

The activists had gathered at Zhang Baochengs home on May 28, when the photo was likely taken, CHRD said, adding that at least five of those detained are being held at the Fengtai District Detention Center in a southern suburb of Beijing.

It said three of the activists were detained in Sichuan, including two in Chengdu, after they shared photos online of a special edition liquor commemorating June 4, 1989, bearing the slogan "Never give up, never forget."

The detentions came amid tight security ahead of the June 4 anniversary, public commemoration of which is banned by the government, which styles the 1989 democracy protests a "counterrevolutionary rebellion."

U.S.-based rights activist Yang Jianli, who advised Liu Xiaodong on her application, said Zhao, 47, had been concerned for the safety of his pregnant wife and child before his detention, and had wanted them to leave China.

"It's pretty tough for her as a single woman in Thailand, both pregnant and with a small child to take care of," Yang said. "I hope that she will be able to leave Thailand soon, for her own peace of mind."

China has succeeded in repatriating asylum-seekers from Thailand in the past, with the help of Thai police, sparking widespread criticism from rights groups.

Two Chinese asylum seekers who were sent back by the Thai authorities at China's request in spite of being granted political refugee status by the United Nations are now at risk of torture, rights groups have warned.

Sichuan-based rights activist Jiang Yefei and Henan activist Dong Guangping were handed over by Thai police to Chinese authorities on Nov. 13.

Both men had been previously been persecuted for their rights activism, and were awaiting resettlement in Canada, but were sent back to China just days ahead of their planned resettlement as refugees, after last-minute talks broke down, rights groups said.

An invitation to 'dinner'

Thailand-based activists like Li Xiaolong have told RFA they live in constant fear of being detained or abducted by Chinese police, or by the Thai authorities acting on Beijing's request.

Li said on Wednesday that two Chinese-speaking men had come to his home on Saturday while he was out, asking to "take him to dinner."

"They were definitely sent by the Chinese government," Li said. "That same day, I was hosting an event to mark June 4, and there were some suspicious people there as well."

"They sat there watching us for a long time during dinner."

Zhao Changqing has already served two-and-a-half years in prison for "gathering a crowd to disrupt order of a public place" after being detained in April 2013 and released in October 2015.

A native of northern Shaanxi province, Zhao has served three jail terms in total, including one after taking part as a student leader in the 1989 pro-democracy movement.

Since his release in 2007, he has devoted himself to promoting civic activism and organizing advocacy campaigns on issues ranging from equal education rights to anti-corruption measures, CHRD said.

Reported by Qiao Long for RFA's Mandarin Service, and by Hai Nan for the Cantonese Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.
Vietnamese police questioned a group of Montagnards living in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh in what appears to be a failed attempt to get them to return to their native country, RFAs Khmer Service has learned.

The move by the Vietnamese authorities on Tuesday was condemned by civil society as intimidation of the Montagnards, who rights groups say have been victims of persecution and repression in Vietnam. Rights groups also questioned how foreign police were allowed to enter and operate in Cambodia.

Those Montagnards fled their country due to racial, political and religious oppression, and threats, Suon Bunsak general secretary of the Cambodian Human Rights Action Coalition (CHRAC) told RFAs Khmer Service.

If officials from their country of origin came to visit them, this is a threat to their personal safety, he added.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) also questioned the meeting.

No one who seeks asylum should be forced to meet the representative of the government they accused of tormenting them, UNHCR official Vivian Tan told RFA.

Among the Vietnamese authorities who interrogated the group of about 150 Montagnards was the chief of Gai Lai provincial police, the Montagnards told RFA.

Afraid to go back

While the Vietnamese police attempted to persuade the Montagnards to return to Vietnam, the asylum seekers refused for fear of what might happen if they returned, they told RFA. The Montagnards also expressed fear that Vietnamese would kidnap them or that the Cambodian government would send them back.

Tan Sokvichea, head of the Immigration Departments Refugee Division, told RFA he was unaware of the Vietnamese police visit.

I did not receive any information because this is at the political level, he said. The leaders discussed it, but we as the implementing officials did not know about that. The U.N. was not involved. They just said that Cambodia needs to implement legal principles in accordance with international law.

While immigration officials may have been unaware of the visit, the Montagnards told RFA that Cambodian police accompanied the Vietnamese.

Attempts to reach the ministrys spokesperson Khiev Sopheak were unsuccessful, but Suon Bunsak told RFA that the visit was a black eye for the Cambodian government.

First, if we talk about foreigners, whether they are civilian or state officials, if they enter the territory of the Kingdom of Cambodia without our knowledge, that points out the weakness of our administrative system, he said. Secondly, those who entered the country are illegal. Those who enter Cambodia without our knowledge are the subject of legal action.

Vietnams Central Highlands are home to some 30 tribes of indigenous peoples, known collectively as Montagnards or the Degar. This group of Montagnards comes from the mountainous region of Gia Lai, Dak Lak, and Kon Tum provinces in central Vietnam bordering Rattanakiri and Mondulkiri provinces of Cambodia.

They are among the more than 200 Montagnards who have fled their country and crossed the border into Cambodia seeking help from UNHCR, citing oppression by the Vietnams government.

Among the 200, some were sent back to Vietnam by the Cambodian authorities, while 13 were recognized by the Cambodian government as legitimate refugees in early 2016. They were relocated to the Philippines by the U.N. in May.

Status unknown

The rest are undergoing the process of determining their status by the Cambodian authorities. The UNHCRs Tan said that some of them were already interviewed, but she does not know the result yet.

In 2015, at least four of three dozen Montagnards deported to Vietnam by Cambodian authorities after they were discovered hiding in the forest had disappeared from their home villages in Vietnam, other members of the group told RFA at the time of their disappearance.

The Montagnards have clashed with Vietnamese authorities before, and they were allies to the U.S. during the Vietnam War.

Early in the last decade, thousands of Montagnards staged violent protests against the confiscation of their ancestral lands and religious controls, prompting a brutal crackdown by Vietnamese security forces that saw hundreds of them charged with national security crimes.

Reported by Yeang Sothearin for RFA's Khmer Service. Translated by Yanny Hin. Written in English by Brooks Boliek.
General Gwan Maw (C) speaks during a meeting between representatives of the previous Myanmar government and a delegation of the Kachin Independence Organization in Myitkyina, northern Myanmar's Kachin state, Oct. 8, 2013.

Ethnic leaders in Shan and Kachin states announced their support on Wednesday for the Myanmar governments upcoming Panglong Conference, State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyis ambitious plan to end multiple armed conflicts and bring peace to the Southeast Asian nation.

The Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS) and Shan State Progress Party (SSPP) of eastern Myanmars Shan state, and the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) of northern Myanmar said they would support Aung San Suu Kyis plans to hold the major peace conference slated for late July.

Leaders from the armed groups signed an agreement welcoming the peace conference, following a two-day consultation meeting on the Panglong Conference in Chaing Mai, Thailand, said KIO leader General Gwan Maw.

Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmars de facto national leader, intends to include all rebel groups in what she says will be a 21st-century Panglong Conference before the next steps in political dialogue are taken.

Her father, General Aung San, held talks known as the Panglong Conference in February 1947 to grant autonomy to the Shan, Kachin, and Chin ethnic minorities. But his assassination five months later prevented the agreements from reaching fruition, and many ethnic groups then took up arms against the central government in wars that went on for decades.

KIO vice chairman General NBan La, Shan State Army-South commander Lieutenant General Yawd Serk, and SSPP spokesperson Sai Htoo led the discussion among ethnic group participants at the meeting, Gwan Maw said.

We welcome the second Panglong Conference as the [original] ethnic groups that signed the first Panglong Agreement, he said.

We reviewed and discussed how we can participate in upcoming meetings and how to approach people, he said. We all welcome the second Panglong Conference and will hold it while trying not to lose the essence of the [original] Panglong Conference.

The Chin National Front (CNF), which was invited to the meeting but was unable to attend, indicated that it will accept the agreement as well, he said.

DPN must decide

The leaders of the armed ethnic groups must still hold talks with the other members of the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC)an alliance of armed ethnic groups that did not sign a nationwide cease-fire agreement (NCA) with the previous government last October.

The UNFC includes the KIO and SSPP, but not the RCSS and CNF.

The rebel groups comprising the UNFC did not sign the peace pact, because they objected to the exclusion of certain armed ethnic groups and disagreed with the political dialogue framework drafted by the signatories.

Government peace negotiators will hold a review meeting on the framework for political dialogue on Thursday, although the UNFCs Delegation for Political Negotiation (DPN) has yet to decide whether to attend.

The Union Peace Conference Preparation Committee, led by government peace envoy Tin Myo Win, held a meeting with the DPN last week to invite its members to the political dialogue framework meeting scheduled for Thursday.

The ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) government sees the participation of the non-signatories to the NCA in the Panglong Conference as vital. It wants to get them on board by first getting them to collaborate on a political dialogue framework, and then having them sign the NCA.

Reported by Aung Moe Myint for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
Thousands of Tibetan devotees converged this week in an open plain in northwestern Chinas Gansu province for the start of a four-day period of advanced Buddhist rituals and teachings, sources in the region said.



The ancient Kalachakra ceremony, conducted by the senior Tibetan religious leader Jigme Palden Gyatso, is being held in the Chukar Gyaltsen Thang area of Machu (in Chinese, Maqu) county in the Gannan (Kanlho) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, one local source told RFAs Tibetan Service.



The preliminary teaching and instruction began on June 7, and the ceremony will go on for three days, RFAs source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.



Kalalchakra, which means Wheel of Time, is a ritual that prepares devotees to be reborn in Shambhala, a celestial kingdom which, it is said, will vanquish the forces of evil in a future cosmic battle.



The ceremony is frequently conducted outside Tibet by exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, and government employees in Gansu were barred two years ago from taking part in a similarly large Kalachakra ritual, with warnings given of administrative punishment if they ignored the ban.



The organizers of this weeks event have made excellent arrangements, with large screens set up for participants to view and hear the proceedings from a distance, RFAs source said.



The main teaching is going on inside two huge white tents with thousands of monks and nuns in each tent, seated separately, he said.



Chinese devotees coming from other places have been given separate seating arrangements.



Medical clinics and bathroom facilities have also been set up to accommodate the crowd, he said.



Though Chinese security forces, fearful of sudden protests by Tibetans opposed to Beijings rule, frequently monitor and sometimes close down events involving large crowds, the ritual and teachings are apparently proceeding with official approval, RFAs source said.



Several hundred security officers have been deployed and are stationed at the edges of the crowd, the source said.



They are watching closely, but are not interfering in the religious activities, he said.



Sporadic demonstrations challenging Chinese rule and calling for the Dalai Lamas return have continued in Tibetan-populated areas of China since widespread protests swept the region in 2008.



Reported by Kunsang Tenzin for RFAs Tibetan Service. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Written in English by Richard Finney.
Afghan officials say Taliban militants have killed 12 members of the country's security forces whom they had captured in recent ambushes in the eastern province of Ghazni.

Meanwhile, police in the northern province of Kunduz said on June 8 that Taliban fighters stopped a bus on a highway near the provincial capital and abducted 40 passengers -- the second such abduction in the province in less than two weeks.

Police spokesman Mahfuzullah Akbari said seven other passengers managed to escape the Taliban gunmen who stopped the bus.

Army intelligence officer Gulam Mohammad Tahiri said on June 8 that the 12 slain security officials in Ghazni Province included seven policemen, three soldiers, and two officials from the National Directorate of Security.

He said the killings took place in the Andar district on June 7 and that Taliban militants forced local residents to watch the execution-style killings.

Jawid Salangi, a spokesman for Ghazni's police, said the security officials were abducted by the Taliban on separate highways in the province on June 3 and 5.

Travelers have faced a string of murders and kidnappings on roads in recent weeks, with the Taliban claiming responsibility.

Based on reporting by AP and dpa


WASHINGTON -- A top U.S. official says economic sanctions continue to be the most powerful leverage Washington has over Russia, and that those measures have thwarted potential Russian efforts to seize larger swaths of Ukrainian territory, including the capital.



Victoria Nuland, assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian Affairs, also told lawmakers on June 7 that Moscow remained in violation or "out of compliance with" some major arms-control treaties, including the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, known as the INF.



Coming just weeks before an important NATO summit in Warsaw, Nuland's comments before a Senate committee gave some indication of what that summit's agenda will include, with Russian military maneuvers in Eastern Europe and the Middle East likely to take center stage.



That summit will be preceded by a meeting of European Union leaders in Brussels, where officials are expected to renew sanctions against Russia that were imposed alongside analogous U.S. measures following Moscow's forcible annexation of Ukraine's Crimea Peninsula in 2014.



U.S. and European officials have linked the lifting of those sanctions -- which, together with the drop in world oil prices, have pummeled the Russian economy -- to the implementation of the Minsk cease-fire accords aimed at resolving the conflict between Russia-backed separatists and Kyiv's forces in eastern Ukraine.



"I think the largest piece of leverage that we have on Russia is the sustainment over two years of deep and comprehensive sanctions across the U.S. and the EU countries," Nuland told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

"So again this is why we are advocating -- because Minsk is not being implemented -- that the sanctions have to be rolled over again," she added.



Pressed by Senator Marco Rubio (Republican-Florida) about the effectiveness of the sanctions, Nuland insisted that they have impacted Russian policy.



"We have deterred further land grabs in Ukraine, and that was a real risk when we first started with sanctions -- that they would try to run all the way to Kyiv and Kharkiv," she said. "I will tell you now that the Russians are now openly talking about the pain of sanctions, including when we work with them on the Minsk thing. So they know what it's going to take to get these sanctions rolled back."



Michael Carpenter, a top Russia official from the Defense Department who also testified before the committee, warned that Russia was adding more weaponry and military capability to the Black Sea peninsula in an effort to prevent the United States or its allies from operating in the region.



Both Nuland and Carpenter were also pressed by senators on Russian compliance with the INF treaty, as well as with the 2002 Open Skies agreements.



The State Department has charged that Russia is building a ground-launched cruise missile that violates the INF. Moscow has consistently denied those allegations and asserted that a U.S. missile defense system for Eastern Europe violates the treaty.



On the Open Skies treaty, which allows treaty members to conduct aerial inspections of one another's territory to review military facilities and troop positioning, Russia is seeking to conduct a U.S. flight using new high-tech cameras and surveillance equipment.



But some senators and Defense Department officials worry the overflight will reveal too much to the Russians. Moreover, the State Department has alleged Russia is improperly restricting U.S. flights over strategic regions in the Caucasus and over the Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad.



Both Nuland and Carpenter defended the treaty and its procedures for permitting overflights, and noted that a U.S. refusal to allow the requested Russian flight would potentially hurt future U.S. flights.



Nuland also touched on the Kremlin's longstanding accusation that NATO's eastward expansion in the 1990s is to blame for the current tensions in Europe, saying Moscow failed to take advantage of Western offers for greater collaboration.



An article published recently in a Harvard University academic journal, and an accompanying op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, argued that NATO and the United States violated assurances given in the waning days of the Soviet Union that the alliance would not seek to absorb former Warsaw Pact members.



"I completely reject this narrative of grievance that it's somehow our fault," she said.



"I frankly think that Russia did not take advantage of the opportunity that NATO put before it for cooperation," Nuland added. "We really could have gotten to a place with a different attitude in the Kremlin."


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Hillary Clinton has claimed victory in her battle for the Democratic presidential nomination, with President Barack Obama congratulating her.

The former first lady, U.S. senator, and secretary of state celebrated her victory over rival Bernie Sanders in a grueling primary election race amid cheering supporters in Brooklyn, New York, late on June 7. She said her feat crowns a long history of women's achievements at gaining rights.

"Thanks to you, we have reached a milestone," Clinton said. "First time in our nation's history that a woman will be a major party's nominee... We all owe so much to who came before."

"Tonight, we can say with pride that, in America, there is no barrier too great and no ceiling too high to break."

The White House said Obama called Clinton to congratulate her on securing "the delegates necessary to clinch" the Democratic nomination. Obama also called Sanders, who has not conceded the race, and will meet with him on June 9.

Clinton, 68, won the June 7 Democratic primary contests in California, New Jersey, New Mexico, and South Dakota, expanding her lead in the number of delegates needed to clinch the nomination and setting up a five-month campaign against presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump that will end with the presidential election on November 8.

Sanders, who won the Democratic caucuses in North Dakota and Montana, vowed to continue his quest for the White House, telling supporters in California that he will fight on to compete in next week's primary in Washington, D.C.

The Vermont senator said that, after that election, "we take our fight for social, economic, racial, and environmental justice to Philadelphia," where the Democratic National Convention will take place next month.

Trump -- who had already secured enough delegates to ensure his nomination at the Republican convention next month -- won in the largest state, California, as well as in Montana, New Mexico, South Dakota, and New Jersey.

With reporting by Reuters, dpa, and AP


An EgyptAir passenger plane heading from Cairo to Beijing has made an emergency landing in Uzbekistan due to a bomb threat.

Egyptians officials said on June 8 that the plane, an Airbus A-330-220 with 135 people on board, was evacuated and searched after landing in the Uzbek city of Urgench, some 840 kilometers west of the Uzbek capital, Tashkent.

The officials were quoted as saying EgyptAir received an anonymous call claiming that there was a bomb on board the flight.

No explosives were found, they also said, and the plane later resumed its flight to Beijing.

The Egyptian airline has received a number of bomb threats since one of its aircraft crashed into the Mediterranean Sea on May 19, killing all 66 people onboard. All have turned out to be hoaxes.

Based on reporting by Reuters and AP
Addressing the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London last month, Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili defined as one of his primary objectives lowering the temperature of political debate and promoting dialogue among all political stakeholders. That approach has characterized Kvirikashvili's interaction with Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili.

Following a contretemps in April over the date for the start of campaigning for the parliamentary elections due in October, Kvirikashvili has now negotiated a compromise between the president and the parliamentary-majority Georgian Dream faction over controversial amendments to the Law on the Constitutional Court passed with great speed by the parliament in mid-May, and which Margvelashvili vetoed on May 31. The Georgian Dream faction initially voiced its intention of overriding that veto.

Margvelashvili had made clear his negative opinion of the bill shortly after it was passed in the second and third readings on May 13-14 by a narrow majority of 83 and 81 votes respectively (out of a total of 150 lawmakers). While admitting he had not seen the text, he expressed concern that it could undermine the functioning of the Constitutional Court, which he termed a pillar of Georgian statehood. He then sent the bill to the Council of Europe's Venice Commission of legal experts for review.

Deputy speaker of parliament Eka Beselia, one of the co-sponsors of the amendments, had assured rapporteurs from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in early May that the proposed amendments would be submitted for assessment to the Venice Commission before the bill was debated in the second and third readings; it remains unclear why this was not done.

'Excessive' Quorums

Following a two-hour meeting at which Margvelashvili's aide Kakha Kozhoridze and Georgian Security Council Deputy Secretary Levan Bodzashvili were present, the Venice Commission made public on May 27 its preliminary assessment of the bill, which focuses primarily on four specific proposed changes.

The first increases the quorum required for the court to pass a ruling from six to seven of the nine members. Decisions must be approved by at least six judges, regardless of whether seven, eight, or all nine are present. (Under the current legislation, decisions are adopted by a simple majority, meaning four if six or seven judges are present or five if eight or nine are present.)

The Venice Commission criticized those proposed higher quorums as "excessive" and as creating the risk that a minority of judges could "easily" block decisions.

The second was a proposed restriction under which a judge would be barred during the final three months of his or her 10-year term from participation in adjudicating any new cases, with the exception of those relating to electoral disputes and the impeachment of senior officials. The commission opined that "from a European perspective," the restriction on judges participating in new cases during the final three months of their tenure appears "arbitrary" and may even be unconstitutional.

'Not Logical'

Similarly, the commission described as "not logical" a proposal that urgent decisions on suspending a disputed legislative clause as an interim measure pending a final verdict should be taken by the full bench, rather than by just four judges, as at present. And it termed "incoherent" a provision that would empower a single member of a panel of four judges to request referring a case to a full plenary session.

The commission recommended dropping those proposed changes. But it praised other aspects of the bill, including the new procedure for electing the Constitutional Court chairperson and the introduction of an automatic case-distribution system.

On the basis of those recommendations, Margvelashvili vetoed the bill. At the same time, he proposed to parliament amending it to take into account two of the Venice Commission's four points: the inadvisability of raising quorums, and the ban on judges taking on new cases during the last three months of their tenure.

According to Margvelashvili, his objections to the proposed changes were formulated during "constructive" consultations with Kvirikashvili, who was recently elected head of the Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia party that is the largest member of the Georgian Dream parliamentary faction, and parliamentary speaker Davit Usupashvili of the Republican Party, one of the four smaller groups within it. Usupashvili had earlier expressed reservations about the bill.

Kvirikashvili had argued immediately after the bill was passed in the final reading that it would facilitate the smooth functioning of the court. He said that increasing the quorum for passing judgment would serve to strengthen the court insofar as it precludes the possibility of an important decision being influenced by "political pressure" exerted by opposition parties on one or two judges.

Pragmatic Compromise?

All but one of the court's current members were appointed prior to October 2012 when then-President Mikheil Saakashvili's United National Movement (ENM) was still in power.

Despite his initial approval of the proposed amendments, Kvirikashvili nonetheless pledged on May 31 to do everything in his power to persuade the Georgian Dream parliamentary majority to accept Margvelashvili's proposed changes rather than proceed with the threatened veto. But the final version of the law unanimously approved on June 3 by all 84 lawmakers present stops short of completely endorsing them or taking into account the Venice Commission's other recommendations.

True, the restriction on judges taking on new cases during the final three months of their tenure has been dropped. And the requirement that decisions on suspending a disputed legislative clause be taken by the whole bench, rather than a panel of four judges, to which the Venice Commission objected, has been amended to require only a simple majority. But the ruling raising the quorum for handing down court rulings remains in force with regard to cases involving organic laws, disputes related to elections or referendums or the impeachment of senior officials, and revoking the immunity of a Constitutional Court judge.

The NGOs aligned in the grouping For An Independent And Transparent Judiciary, which had opposed the proposed amendments from the outset, are not satisfied with the compromise version and plan to appeal the raised quorums to the Constitutional Court.

It is conceivable that the compromise reached between Margvelashvili, Kvirikashvili, Usupashvili and senior Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia lawmakers on the final wording of the draft amendments was dictated at least in part by pragmatism, insofar as it is by no means certain that the Georgian Dream faction could have secured the minimum 76 votes required to override the presidential veto. The Georgian Dream parliamentary faction currently numbers 82 deputies, but the Republican Party warned on May 22 that its 10 parliamentarians would not participate in a vote on overriding the veto.

The Republicans have endorsed the compromise version as an improvement on the original amendments, while expressing reservations about keeping the high quorum for rulings on organic laws.


German Chancellor Angela Merkel admonished Turkish leaders on June 7 for slamming lawmakers who approved a resolution recognizing the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman forces as genocide.

Germany also invited the Turkish charge d'affaires to the foreign ministry to discuss the matter.

The vote in the Bundestag's lower house last week enraged Turkey, which denies the killing of at least 1 million Christian Armenians during World War I was genocide.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan accused Germans of hypocrisy, given their own 20th century history, and said the blood of German lawmakers of Turkish origin who voted for the resolution should be tested to see "what kinds of Turks they are."

"The lawmakers in Germany's lower house of parliament are freely elected without exception, and the accusations and statements which have been made by the Turkish side are incomprehensible," Merkel said.

"It was clear with the passing of the resolution that there is a difference of views between the majority of the Bundestag and the Turkish side," said Merkel, adding she would push for direct talks between Turkey and Armenia.

Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev has claimed that the attackers who carried out the recent attacks that rocked the northwestern city of Aqtobe "received instructions from abroad," and suggested that suspects will face the death penalty.

The June 8 comments were the first made by the Kazakh leader since dozens of gunmen carried out the attacks on June 5, prompting a "counterterrorism operation" and leaving a growing death toll of more than 20 dead, including attackers.

There have been no credible claims of responsibility for the attacks, which targeted two gun shops and a National Guard base and have left the country in a state of high alert, with several attackers still at large.

In separate statements posted to the president's official website, Nazarbaev said that "pseudo-religious radical movements who received instructions abroad" were behind the attacks, and that "a person who has taken up arms and killed people should be punished with the death penalty."

The long-serving president introduced a moratorium on capital punishment in 2003 and the death penalty was officially abolished in 2007, but the country's constitution makes an exception in cases of terrorist acts.

Also on June 8, Nazarbaev was quoted by his official website as telling security chief Vladimir Zhumakanov that in the course of the continuing manhunt, suspects "should be eliminated in the case of armed resistance."

"We are aware that they are in the region, we have identified them, and local people have been warned about it," Nazarbaev said.

The claim that the attackers had received instructions from abroad offered no indication of who may have given the instructions.

The Interior Ministry told RFE/RL's Kazakh Service on June 8 that 13 suspected attackers were killed and four of them injured, while six remain on the run. Nine have been arrested, according to the ministry.

Kazakhstan plans to hold a national day of mourning on June 9 to commemorate the victims, the president's website announced.

Security chief Zhumakanov said during his meeting with Nazarbaev that the authorities had identified and questioned 20 people who allegedly "refused to take part in the preparation stage" of the Aqtobe attacks. Zhumakanov provided no further details.

Kazakh police spokesman Almas Sadubaev has said the attackers are suspected to be followers of "nontraditional religious movements," a term often used in Central Asia to describe Islamic extremist groups.

Kazakhstan's Senate, however, in condemning what it described as a "foul criminal attack" against the country's peace and stability, has said the perpetrators' actions had "nothing to do with religion."

The country is in a state of high alert, but there are signs that life is returning to normal in Aqtobe. RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reported that businesses and schools have reopened and public transportation has resumed normal operations in the city of nearly 400,000.

Funerals took place on June 8 for three of the civilians killed, the service reported.

The Aqtobe incidents are a rare burst of violence in the tightly controlled country of around 18 million people.

Kazakhstan witnessed major protests against planned agricultural-land reforms in April and May. More than 1,000 activists were detained around those demonstrations, and many received 10-15-day jail sentences after being convicted of planning or attending the unsanctioned rallies.

Written by Farangis Najibullah, with reporting by RFE/RL's Kazakh Service, Tengrinews.kz, and Akorda.kz
WASHINGTON --  controversial film that examines the case of Sergei Magnitsky, the whistle-blowing Russian lawyer who died in prison after allegedly being tortured, is set to be screened at a Washington museum weeks after criticism forced European TV channels to postpone the films showing.

The planned private screening at the Newseum on June 13 is shaping up to be the latest skirmish in a pitched battle over the legacy of Magnitsky, whose death led to a U.S. law sanctioning a host of Russian officials that has infuriated the Kremlin.

The screening, which will feature a discussion moderated by renowned American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, comes amid an aggressive push by the Russian government and its allies to discredit the well-documented narrative of Magnitskys death, a narrative broadly accepted by Western officials and international rights groups.

Magnitsky was working for British-American financier William Browder in 2008 when he accused law enforcement and tax officials of involvement in a tax scam that used Browders investment company, Hermitage Capital, to defraud the Russian treasury out of an estimated $230 million.

Magnitsky was later arrested on fraud charges himself and was jailed in a notorious Moscow prison where his supporters allege he was beaten, denied medical care, and ultimately died in November 2009. His family and friends say he was targeted as retribution for blowing the whistle on the tax scam.

That led to Browder and allies to lobby the U.S. Congress to pass a 2012 law -- known as the Magnitsky Act -- that slapped visa bans and financial sanctions on Russia citizens allegedly involved in the fraud and Magnitsky's death, as well as other alleged rights violations.

A Russian presidential commission in 2011 concluded that Magnitskys detention and the decision by prison officials denying him access to health care amounted to torture. A report by the Council of Europe two years later further corroborated those conclusions.

The film to be shown at the Newseum, called The Magnitsky Act -- Behind the Scenes, was shot by Russian-born filmmaker Andrei Nekrasov and co-authored by a Norwegian company, Piraya Film.

It had been scheduled to premiere at the European Parliament on April 27, but that showing was canceled following complaints from Magnitsky's relatives and former colleagues, as well as objections from European lawmakers.

Another showing scheduled for early May on the ARTE European TV channel was also canceled after Browder sent ARTE a list of "factual errors" and warned them they would be legally accountable for knowingly broadcasting false statements.

The screening at the Newseum is itself a private event, according to a spokeswoman for the privately funded museum, who directed inquiries to the Potomac Square Group, a Washington-based lobbying and public relations company.

The company in turn deferred to Rinat Akhmetshin, who runs a Washington organization called the International Eurasian Institute.

Akhmetshin told RFE/RL the showing was private due to copyright issues and that invitees included congressional staffers, as well as representatives from the U.S. State Department, the White Houses National Security Council, and members of the media.

He also told RFE/RL the screening was being paid for by Nekrasov himself and that Hersh had agreed to host the discussion free of charge.

Hersh, whose storied career is peppered with journalistic blockbusters, confirmed he was moderating the event free of charge. He said he had seen the film a couple months ago when he agreed to host the discussion, but declined to talk more in depth about it, saying it was not his place.

But the film is very interesting, Hersh said. Its hard to walk out of that film without thinking that Browder should be getting more heat than hes gotten so far.

Nekrasov, who has produced several films highly critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin, did not immediately respond to an e-mail seeking further comments.

In an interview with RFE/RL in April, Nekrasov said he initially intended to do a film that told the story of how Magnitsky uncovered the tax fraud and was killed in order to silence him.

But he said his research later made him change his mind and that the film now asserts that Magnitsky was not beaten while in police custody and that he did not make any specific allegations against individuals in his testimony to Russian authorities.

Russias state-run media in recent months has broadcast and published reports attempting to discredit Browder and Magnitsky. Senior Russian officials and Kremlin allies, meanwhile, have reached out to U.S. lawmakers in efforts to persuade them that the foundations of the Magnitsky Act are faulty.

Nekrasovs film has also caused controversy in Norway, where the production company Piraya Films is located.

Torstein Grude, a co-producer of the film, said it had been scheduled to be shown at a small regional festival on June 10, but was pulled from the schedule after organizers received legal threats from Browders lawyers in Norway.

Grude also said his company had filed a lawsuit against a rights groups known as the Norwegian Helsinki Group, which he said illegally obtained a copy of the film.

The Norwegian Helsinki Group, which has advocated for bringing those responsible for Magnitskys death to justice, said it received a link to the film from Browder. But Gunnar Ekelove-Slydal, the groups deputy secretary-general, denied any laws had been broken.

There is overwhelming documentation that Magnitsky was mistreated, tortured and that he died in pretrial detention, Ekelove-Slydal told RFE/RL on June 8. We never doubted that he was imprisoned by the same people he was reporting on, the people that were responsible for the enormous tax fraud.

Browder, who confirmed he had shared the link to the film with the Norwegian group, said in a June 8 statement that the lies presented in Nekrasovs film are not new, and are based on the past narrative from the Russian authorities who covered up the murder of Sergei Magnitsky and the criminals who stole $230 million from the Russian people  the crime Magnitsky exposed.

The struggle over the films showing comes as U.S. lawmakers debate legislation modeled after the Magnitsky Act that would target human rights abusers worldwide. A House committee recently passed legislation, though its unclear whether it will be taken up by the full House this year.

It also comes as the first legal proceedings in the United States regarding alleged proceeds of the original tax fraud inch their way through U.S. courts.

U.S. prosecutors are seeking to seize millions from a Russian man named Denis Katsyv, who they allege used a Cypriot-registered company and some of those funds to buy pricey real estate in Manhattan.

A trial in that case was scheduled to begin in January in Manhattan federal court, but lawyers for Browder have sought to have the defense counsel removed, since some of the defense lawyers did legal work for Browder around the time that the fraud in Russia was uncovered.

An appeals court was set to hear arguments on that conflict-of-interest issue on June 9.
Pakistani officials say a woman has been arrested after burning her daughter alive because the young woman had defied her family to marry a man of her choice.

Police said the killing took place in the eastern city of Lahore on June 8, and that the mother was arrested the same day.

The suspect, Parveen Rafiq, confessed to pouring petrol on her 18-year-old daughter Zeenat Rafiq and setting her ablaze, with the help of her son, police official Sheikh Hammad Akhtar said.

Police are looking for the son.

Violence against women is not uncommon in Pakistan, where nearly 1,000 women are killed each year in so-called "honor killings."

A 19-year-old schoolteacher, Maria Bibi, was tortured, doused with gasoline and set on fire last month for refusing to marry a man twice her age.

Based on reporting by AP and Dawn
Threatening to slash police officers during a traffic stop might be expected to invite criminal charges. But during an incident last month in the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania in Russia's restive North Caucasus region, the apparently drunk young woman wielding the knife pulled out a trump card.

"Let me call my dad so he can f*** all of you up," Kamilla Kumekhova, who was a passenger in the car, screamed at the officers as they tried to pull her from the car in the republic's capital, Vladikavkaz.

There was some logic to Kumekhova's gambit: Her father, according to media reports, is Ruslan Kumekhov, a former senior prosecutor in the region. And the children of Russia's ruling elite have a long record of extricating themselves from sticky legal situations -- often stirring grassroots outrage.

This week, it appeared Kumekhova may get off scot-free for the May 1 incident, which prompted regional authorities to launch a probe after a video of the standoff was posted on the Internet.

The state-run RIA Novosti news agency quoted a spokesperson for the local Investigative Committee as saying on June 7 that no criminal case would be opened because Kumekhova "did not present a real threat to the police officers."

But the political winds may not be blowing right now in favor of the children of Russia's rich and well-connected, commonly known as the "golden youth."

Moscow police chief Anatoly Yakunin in May vowed to "put an end forever to the outrageous behavior of our golden youth who spit on people."

"They think they can buy everything and everyone with money but they are wrong," he said.

Yakunin's announcement was aimed at Ruslan Shamsuarov, the son of a senior Russian oil executive. Shamsuarov and his friends earlier that month had led police on a hazardous car chase in his Mercedes-Benz G-Class through the streets (and a playground) of Moscow.

Video footage of the chase filmed by Shamsuarov and his friends in the car was later posted on the Internet, sparking widespread anger over the impunity with which they violated the law.

After initially being handed a fine, Shamsuarov was jailed for 15 days in what a prominent expert on the Russian elite told Reuters was "the first case of its kind during Putin's tenure that I can recall which the authorities are not trying to sweep under the carpet."

Of course, anticorruption drives during Russian President Vladimir Putin's 16 years in power have been announced numerous times and seemingly petered out quietly.

Hours after RIA Novosti reported that police had declined to launch a criminal case against Kumekhova, the news agency published a follow-up item stating that the regional Investigative Committee branch had "canceled" that earlier decision by a lower branch of the agency.

The case materials have been sent back for further review, RIA Novosti quoted a regional Investigative Committee spokesperson as saying.
Russia's NTV state television channel is facing an unexpected backlash over a bit of its trademark anti-Western rhetoric.

After NTV accused a regional newspaper of doing Washington's bidding, independent media have rallied to defend their peers and launched a nationwide campaign to denounce propaganda on state television.

On June 8, independent Russian newspapers began publishing warnings in their television listings cautioning readers against watching NTV.

"Beware!" the warnings read. "Under the guise of journalistic materials on the NTV channel you may receive distorted information or propaganda."

The man behind the campaign is Valery Bezpyatykh, the editor in chief of Gorodskie Vesti, a weekly newspaper in the small Urals town of Revda.

"We are seeing a disquieting number of materials that are potentially disputable in terms of journalism," he told RFE/RL. "I don't think there can be any change without such campaigns."

Like many journalists in Russia, Bezpyatykh was outraged by the accusations leveled in NTV's March 4 program The State Department's Debtors.

NTV alleged that Russia's opposition media was "secretly funded" by the U.S. State Department and billionaire philanthropist Georges Soros.

It singled out several independent regional media including Yakutsk Vecherny, a popular newspaper in Siberia's Yakutia region, and accused them of serving the interests of the United States because they received loans from a U.S.-based NGO.

On May 27, Yakutsk Vecherny protested by publishing a warning against NTV and Rossiya, another pro-Kremlin state channel, in its television listings.

The initiative has been widely shared on social media and has drawn applause from many Russians who see it as a bold act of defiance amid a deepening clampdown on critical reporting.

The Alliance of Independent Regional Publishers has thrown its weight behind the media outlets targeted by NTV, slamming the March 4 program as a "spurious denunciation."

But Bezpyatykh said Yakutsk Vecherny still faces retaliation for its public protest and needs all the support it can get.

"It's not OK to let one company fight the good fight alone," he said. "They are our colleagues."

Bezpyatykh has sent a letter to 100 media outlets, mostly members of the Alliance of Independent Regional Publishers, urging them to publish similar warnings in their television listings.

He said most editors reacted positively and pledged to participate.

"Not all of them have had time yet, many will publish it next week," he said.

Bezpyatykh was unable to provide a figure for the number of newspapers who published the warning on June 8, the first day of the campaign. But several publications have already shared their unusual listings on social media.

While hoping the campaign will help shield Yakutsk Vecherny from unpleasant repercussions, Bezpyatykh said the campaign is about more than just defending embattled colleagues.

"In the end, we are protecting ourselves and our corporate interests with regard to the respect of journalism ethics, of the rules and concepts of journalism," he said. "So yes, it's a big deal."


A Russian opposition figure urged U.S. authorities to impose sanctions on more top Russian officials over human rights abuses in his country.

Open Russia national coordinator Vladimir Kara-Murza told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on June 7 that more government officials and journalists involved in anti-opposition propaganda should be put on the U.S. sanctions list for human rights abuses. Already, 39 Russians are on that list.

"The most effective way and frankly the most principled way...to deal with those human rights abusers is to place them on that sanctions list," Kara-Murza said.

In contrast to Soviet officials, Russian leaders and Kremlin-connected oligarchs today have bank accounts in the West, send their children to study, and buy property and yachts in the West, he said.

"This double-standard, this hypocrisy has to stop," he said. "When high-ranking human rights abusers are placed on this sanctions list, it has a very strong effect."

Last year, Kara-Murza, 34, barely survived poisoning in what he says was a murder attempt for his opposition activity. He now works at Open Russia, run by Russian tycoon and Kremlin opponent Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

With reporting by AP
Ukrainian airwoman Nadia Savchenko says she is willing to talk with Russia-backed separatist leaders in eastern Ukraine to try to end the nation's two-year-old conflict.

Savchenko told Ukrainian media on June 7 she believes direct peace talks with separatist leaders would be more effective than the current, unproductive talks that have included Russia, Ukraine, France, and Germany.

"The first step is extending the anti-Russian sanctions, because Russia does not yet understand that it needs to step back. The second step is to establish direct communication with the [separatists] without the Minsk Agreements. To establish direct internal communication without the third and fourth sides," Savchenko said on Radio Era.

She said she is ready to personally meet with leaders in separatist-held parts of Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Aleksandr Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnitsky.

Zakharchenko was quoted as saying on June 8 that the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic is prepared to hold talks with Savchenko, but only as part of the Minsk peace process.

"We do not choose negotiators from the Ukrainian side," he reportedly said. "We will talk to the ones they send."

The separatist envoy to the four-party peace talks that began last year in the Belarusian capital, Denis Pushilin, earlier said both Zakharchenko and Plotnitsky would be willing to meet with her if Ukraine gave her formal envoy status.

"It's truly strange, but Ms. Savchenko has so far been the only person to come up with the idea of starting a direct dialogue with Donbas representatives, while this is exactly what the Minsk Agreements stipulate," he told Interfax.

"Therefore, if Nadia Savchenko is invested with all the necessary powers, we will be ready to maintain dialogue with her," he said.



Savchenko was freed in a prisoner exchange with Russia last month after nearly two years in custody and was sworn in as a lawmaker in Ukraine's parliament last week.

She was captured in eastern Ukraine by separatists in June 2014 and transported to Russia, where she was convicted of providing coordinates for a mortar attack that killed two Russian journalists.

Based on reporting by AP, Interfax, and TASS
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.
More than 1,000 children in Petersburg will get free breakfast and lunch this summer as part of a program funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The program is geared toward students who may not have access to healthy meals during the summer.

For lots of children, summer means more time to spend with friends, maybe summer camp and travel with family, more time to play outside and just enjoy being a kid, Virginia first lady Dorothy McAuliffe said Tuesday at Robert E. Lee Elementary School, where the initiative was announced.

But for many students, losing access to school breakfast and lunch can make summer full of worry and apprehension.

Petersburg schools summer meals program will kick off June 22 and will offer breakfast and lunch to anyone younger than 18 regardless of whether they are attending a summer program.

The school district has offered meals before, but they were limited to students attending specific school programs.

Petersburg schools will be able to provide about 1,300 children meals at 13 locations by partnering with the federal government as well as the state and local agencies, including McAuliffes No Kid Hungry Virginia initiative.

About 22.1 million students nationwide get free and reduced-price meals through the National School Lunch Program, according to the USDA. Only 1 in 6 of those students  about 3.8 million  participate in the summer meals programs.

McAuliffe said Tuesday that about 87 percent of students who receive free and reduced-price meals during the school year dont have access to food programs during the summer.

The summer meals programs work to make fill those gaps. According to the USDA, more than 66,000 meal sites served over 190 million meals in 2015. In Virginia, 1,500 approved summer meal sites provided more than 4 million meals to children and teenagers statewide. More than 75 school districts in Virginia are participating this summer.

Petersburgs summer meals program announcement at Robert E. Lee Elementary included officials who came from Washington to speak about the program and to spend time with students.

U.S. Education Secretary John B. King Jr., U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Rep. Robert C. Bobby Scott, D-3rd, made the trip, joining McAuliffe and Virginia Secretary of Education Anne Holton.
Levar Stoney promised he wouldnt end up on the front page of a newspaper for something scandalous.

Jack Berry said it wouldnt matter who someone knew or what church they go to when it came to hiring at City Hall.

And Chad Ingold, a Richmond Public Schools teacher, noted hes licensed by the state to teach ethics, and said he would apply what he knows to his new job.

Richmonds second mayoral forum was ostensibly about issues facing the citys North Side, but it ended with the candidates piling thinly veiled criticism on Mayor Dwight C. Jones in response to the final question: What would they do to restore community trust to the office?

Nate Peterson, a former Virginia Commonwealth University student, repeatedly promised he would cut the mayors salary in half and put the savings into services for the citys poorest residents, such as shuttles to grocery stores.

He said the city paid double for bad service under Jones, who drew a salary from the city as well as his church.

Chuck Richardson, who served on the City Council for years, said he would have news conferences quarterly, reopen City Halls press room and be available to answer questions from members of the public whenever they wanted.

Those are actions, not words  because the mouth will say anything, he said.

The forum gave Stoney, Peterson and Richardson their first chance since they announced their campaigns to appear publicly with their opponents.

Stoney, a former aide to Gov. Terry McAuliffe, positioned himself as needed fresh blood. I dont know about yall, but Im tired of a City Hall that just works for some, he said in his opening lines. We have a choice to make: Do we choose more of the same or choose a new direction for the city? I say its time for something new.

Later, in a slip of the tongue, he pledged to be a transparent governor, prompting laughter from the crowd. He quickly corrected himself.

Richardson, who served on the City Council from 1977 to 1995, stressed his institutional knowledge, offering a throwback to a prime issue in his early years in city government: annexation. He said that as mayor, he would push to end the legislative ban on the city incorporating parts of the surrounding counties.

We should be taking the state to court to sue for that, he said. Its the way we used to survive.

Peterson said he would stress planning for issues facing the citys poorest residents, be it advocating for an increase of the minimum wage, more programs to address homelessness or improved transportation.

This isnt a popularity contest or a resume contest, he said. This is about planning for the city of Richmond.

The forum, organized by the Brookland Park Area Association, was held at Richmond Community High School. Eleven of Richmonds 17 declared candidates attended. Organizers said they attempted to invite all the candidates but were not able to track all of them down.

For the most part, those on stage for the second time reiterated the positions they laid out at the first mayoral forum in early April.

Berry, former Councilman Bruce Tyler and former Del. Joseph D. Morrissey all said they would run the city more like a business, each making a reference to the citys inability to pick up leaves.

City Council President Michelle R. Mosby described her experience as a small-business owner of 15 years. She also noted that her colleagues on the council unanimously voted for her to serve a two-year term as the bodys president  including, she said, fellow mayoral candidate Jonathan T. Baliles.

Baliles stressed improvements to public transportation as key to the citys continued growth, rattling off the array of bus lines and transfers a rider would need to take to get from North Side to Scotts Addition.

Ingold focused on schools. Asked about cooperation among the city and surrounding counties, he said a regional approach might be the only way to fix Richmond Public Schools.

Lawrence Williams, an architect, said he would plan more greenways for the city, and Alan Schintzius, a carpenter, described his plans to make decisions based on feedback from residents.

Five of the candidates will appear together again today at a private forum hosted by the Richmond First Club: Baliles, Berry, Morrissey, Stoney and Tyler.

According to organizers, the club invited candidates who had substantially completed requirements to qualify for the ballot by June 3 to participate. Mosby was invited but had a scheduling conflict, they said.
A fire that engulfed a playground behind G.H. Reid Elementary School on Tuesday caused about $150,000 in damage.

Matting from the playground is believed to have been used to start the fire that then spread to the surrounding equipment, said Thomas E. Kranz, assistant superintendent of support service at Richmond Public Schools.

The fire, which began about 5 p.m., was extinguished about 30 minutes later, Kranz said.

The blaze appeared to have melted parts of the jungle gym, causing them to collapse.

No one was injured in the fire, which remains under investigation.

Asked if the blaze was believed to have been started intentionally, Kranz said: Im not aware of a natural event that could have caused that to start.
The surrogate descendants of the people whose bodies were discarded in a 19th-century well at the Medical College of Virginia have issued preliminary recommendations for memorializing the skeletal remains, including interment in keeping with African tradition, DNA analysis to reconstruct ancestry, and an annual remembrance by Virginia Commonwealth University medical students.

The draft report from the Family Representative Council of the East Marshall Street Well Project is intended to help people throughout the city to face the shames of our shared past without blinking, said Joseph Jones, assistant professor of anthropology at the College of William & Mary who serves on the council.

The report acknowledges dehumanizing practices surrounding the well during the 19th century and the 1990s, a reference to how the university handled the discovery of the bones 22 years ago.

The remains of more than 50 individuals, mainly of African descent, were uncovered during construction of the Kontos Building on the universitys MCV Campus. More skeletal remains of cadavers used for medical training in dissection and amputation likely are buried there.

For the sake of economic expediency, construction work was not adequately halted for systematic archaeological investigation, the councils report says.

More than 400 artifacts and animal remains were retrieved, but the well, which dates to before the Civil War, was covered hastily without being fully excavated.

The bones are believed to be from corpses brought to the medical school in the 1800s and early 1900s by grave robbers who targeted black and pauper cemeteries, but oral history among African-Americans suggests that some of these individuals even may have been killed for the specific purpose of supplying cadavers for medical training, the report notes.

For VCU, the report is a reckoning with an unpleasant past of the sort confronting universities nationally.

I think weve all learned quite a bit in terms of the history of what occurred and we can continue to learn, said Kevin Allison, senior assistant to VCU President Michael Rao and the senior university administrator working with the well project.

We, as other institutions, want to both acknowledge that history and learn from it, and understand how we can move forward in relationship with the community in a more collaborative and positive manner, Rao said.

The council recommends that remains be interred at the African Burial Ground site near Interstate 95. The bones would be placed in coffin boxes designed by West African artisans and interred during a burial ceremony developed by experts in West African funeral traditions.

The preferred site, at the intersection of North 16th and East Broad streets, had been used as a VCU parking lot until the university transferred the property to the city five years ago.

The African Burial Ground, believed to be the earliest site in Richmond designated for the burial of enslaved and free Africans, also is in an area being considered for a broader slave memorial.

If that site is unavailable, the council recommends Evergreen Cemetery, where distinguished African-Americans such as Maggie L. Walker, John Mitchell Jr. and A.D. Price are buried. If neither site is feasible, then VCU should take responsibility for procuring another site, according to the recommendations.

The recommendations include development of four memorial sites in or near the Kontos Building; a memorial and an interactive learning center at the burial site; and an annual memorialization practice conducted by VCU medical students before anatomy class to pay respect to those who have contributed their remains for the benefit of science.

Jones said the latter recommendation came from a new medical student who suggested holding the remembrance as a reminder that cadavers used for training were once living individuals now making a contribution to medical science.

Of the bones found in the well, Jones noted, it really mostly likely was an involuntary sacrifice.

The council members also recommend DNA and microbial analysis of the remains to reconstruct regional genetic ancestry, molecular sex of juveniles, health environments and also possible biological relationships of the ancestral remains and a targeted sample of living individuals.

Additional study is recommended to understand the wells history in relation to the broader experiences of African-Americans and the relevance for contemporary African-American medical experiences.

The report suggests studying the feasibility of further excavation beneath the Kontos Building and a renaming of the project.

Rather than East Marshall Street Well Project, the council said a new name should more accurately and clearly reflect the EMSW Ancestors cultural identities and histories and capture their collective symbolic significance for the descendant and broader communities and for VCU.

The current name just wasnt informative enough, Jones said. It just didnt capture the historical nature (of the well) or allude to who these people were.

That concern was expressed during community meetings about the project that were held last spring, Jones said. Some people said the name sounded like the project had to do with health and wellness.

The project held four community consultations last spring; nominations for those selected to serve as the 10 voting members of the Family Representative Council were obtained through those sessions.

The council reviewed input during the session to use as our guiding star to capture community wishes, then researched the feasibility of options, Jones said. The research included a visit to the Smithsonian Institution, where the bones now are housed.

The draft report was presented Saturday during a community meeting at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School in Richmond. After additional community input, a final report will be given by years end to the leadership of the university and health system.
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Plans are in the works for presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump to hold a rally Friday at the Richmond Coliseum, officials familiar with the billionaires campaign schedule told the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

The officials said the rally will be open to the public, but attendees will need to obtain tickets. The event is supposed to take place at about 7:30 p.m.

As of Wednesday morning, the Trump campaign had not released details about how to obtain tickets for the rally.

More details on the rally are expected to be released within the next day or so. It is expected to feature several speakers, including Corey Stewart, Trumps Virginia campaign chairman and chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors.

Officials said Trumps Richmond stop will be preceded by a private fundraising event at an undisclosed location.

The Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee recently reached an agreement to do joint fundraising in the run-up to the November general election.

Emails sent to prominent Republicans and potential donors last week and on Tuesday describe a VIP Roundtable and Photo Opportunity with the candidate.

The latest pitch puts a $25,000-per-couple price on roundtable attendance, with a $10,000 contribution for a photo and $2,700 donation for an individual ticket.

The long primary season generally wrapped up Tuesday with contests in California, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota and South Dakota. Republicans will convene in Cleveland for their national convention in July.

Trump, the last man standing in a GOP field that once numbered 17, last month mathematically locked up the partys bid.

Between now and then, the candidate  and presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton  are expected to crisscross the country and focus on the more than half-dozen swing states considered crucial to capturing the White House in November.

Virginia is one of more than a half-dozen battleground states that Republicans need to win to enhance their White House chances.

Democrat Barack Obama carried Virginia in 2008 and in 2012.

Most polls in Virginia show Clinton, the former secretary of state, beating Trump in a head-to-head match-up.

Trump has made a number of campaign stops in Virginia, including appearances at Regent University, Radford University and Liberty University. Jerry Falwell Jr., president of Liberty, has endorsed Trump.

Trump also held October rallies in Henrico County and in Norfolk and a December rally in Prince William.
RICHMOND  Gloucester Countys school board will appeal a federal court ruling on bathroom access for a transgender student to the U.S. Supreme Court.

After a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Gavin Grimm, a transgender student suing the district for the right to use the boys bathroom, the school board asked the entire court to hear the case. The court denied that request last week.

On Tuesday, the board said it was asking the Supreme Court to hear the case, calling it one of national significance.

The Richmond-based appeals court agreed Tuesday to hold off on finalizing its ruling while the Supreme Court decides whether to take the case.

The board said in a statement Tuesday that its solution of providing three single-stall unisex restrooms that anyone could use was a practical, nondiscriminatory answer that met everyones interests and properly balanced the needs of transgender students with other students right to bodily privacy.

The three-judge panels ruling in April overturned a district courts denial of a preliminary injunction. And the panel ruled that Grimms lawyers could reinstate a claim that the school boards bathroom policy violates federal sex discrimination law.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which represents Grimm, argues that forcing him to use the girls bathroom is a violation of Title IX and the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Title IX is the 1972 law that prohibits sex discrimination in education.

Josh Block, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU, said Tuesday that it is a shame that the Gloucester County School Board continues to spend so much time and money to prevent Gavin from using the restroom.

Instead of waiting until a final judgment is issued, the board will be asking the Supreme Court to address this question midway through the lawsuit, Block said.
The jubilee milestone of Gagik Gevorkyan

08 june 2016 News

Today, Gagik Gevorkyan, Chairman of the Board of the Russian Jewelers Guild Association and CEO of the Estet Jewelry House has turned 60 years old. The business he started in a small ten-square-meter room has grown since into a major jewelry manufacturing operation in the Russian Federation, which is one of the five top pacemakers in the domestic market annually producing one and a half million jewelry pieces, many of which are marked with prestigious awards. The Estet Jewelry House is involved in the global economy through cooperation with major foreign jewelry companies, including Escada, Nina Ricci, KGK Jewellery Private Ltd., Rbhava & PT Collections Ltd. and others, continuously developing and popularizing the traditions of the Russian jewelry art.

The Russian Jewelers Guild Association led by Gagik Gevorkyan is focusing its activities on consolidating the efforts of the state and jewelry business stakeholders to enhance the international prestige of the Russian jewelry industry and win back the status of a world jewelry player to Russia. The Association has held three International Jewelry Economic Forums contributing to the consolidation of the jewelry community and providing a direct dialogue between business and the authorities in charge of the jewelry industry. The Russian Jewelers Guild also initiated a fruitful collaboration between the jewelry community and the top management of Gokhran, the Assay Chamber, ALROSA, the Ministry Finance, the Ministry of Education and other government agencies. The ensued discussions and debates produced a number of decisions and initiatives, including those in legislation, which are most important for the industry, being aimed at both protecting the interests of business people and strengthening buyers confidence in domestic jewelry.

"Not for a second did I forget about my long lasting dream - to revive Russia's erstwhile jewelry glory and once again to make our country a leader in jewelry business having great traditions laid down by the Old Masters" - this dream cherished by the man of the day is fully shared by his industry associates.




Union Pacific has named Rhonda Ferguson executive vice president and chief legal officer, effective July 11.

Ferguson joins Union Pacific from FirstEnergy Corp., where she was vice president, corporate secretary and chief ethics officer since 2007. A Fortune 200, $15-billion diversified energy company based in Akron, Ohio, FirstEnergy operates 10 electric distribution companies.

Rhonda brings a wealth of experience and expertise covering a variety of complex business and legal matters for a large company with a multi-state geographic footprint, said Lance Fritz, Union Pacific chairman, president and chief executive officer. Her values related to teamwork, high ethical standards and passion for performance are consistent with Union Pacifics. Rhondas more than 20 years of success as a strategic legal and business partner will add value to our entire organization and, specifically, Union Pacifics world-class law department.

In addition to leading FirstEnergys corporate, real estate and records and information departments, Ferguson led the companys corporate compliance and ethics program. She was responsible for a broad range of matters relating to corporate governance, New York Stock Exchange and Securities and Exchange Commission-compliance, information governance, data protection and privacy, as well as construction, real estate and transmission rights.

Prior to joining FirstEnergy, Ferguson worked as assistant general counsel and assistant corporate secretary at Ferro Corporation in suburban Cleveland. Prior to that, she served as partner at Baker Hostetler LLP and as a litigation associate at Thompson Hine LLP, both in Cleveland.
The Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant program has received 585 applications from across the country totaling $9.3 billion in requested funding  over 18 times more than the $500 million that will be awarded.

Now in its eighth year, the TIGER program has continued to attract overwhelming demand from communities of all sizes, with 337 applications coming from urban areas and 248 from rural communities. The high level of interest underscores the continued need for transportation investment nationwide.

Communities across the country know that if we want a strong, multimodal transportation system that will meet our needs in the future, we need to make meaningful investments today, said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. As we have seen year after year, there are far more worthy projects than we can fund through TIGER, demonstrating the need for a serious, long-term investment in transportation funding.

Like the first seven rounds, 2016 TIGER discretionary grants will fund capital investments in surface transportation infrastructure and will be awarded on a competitive basis for projects that will have a significant impact on the nation, a metropolitan area or a region. The 2016 TIGER grant program focuses on capital projects that generate economic development and improve access to reliable, safe and affordable transportation for communities, both urban and rural. As in previous rounds, the TIGER program supports projects that promote safety, economic competitiveness, quality of life, environmental sustainability and state of good repair. The program also prioritizes innovation, partnership and ladders of opportunity.

Since 2009, TIGER has provided nearly $4.6 billion to 381 projects in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, including 134 projects to support rural and tribal communities. Overall, the U.S. Department of Transportation has received more than 6,700 applications requesting more than $134 billion for transportation projects across the country.

TIGER funding was provided in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016, signed by President Obama on December 18, 2015.
LTK Engineering Services has promoted Dominic DiBrito to president, replacing George Dorshimer, who will be retiring, effective January 1, 2017.

Dorshimer has served as LTKs president for 22 years, during which time the firm tripled in size. DiBrito will be only the fifth president in LTKs 95 years.

DiBrito joined LTK in 2005 after compiling a diverse background that encompasses all aspects of the rail transportation industry. He consulted to both government and the supply industry and, later, served as the chief engineer for a rail car manufacturer, leading the design and manufacture of a modern self-propelled diesel railcar.

Since joining LTK, DiBrito has proven his value in a number of significant ways, said George Dorshimer. He nurtured important client relationships in the San Francisco Bay Area, then headed to Australia, where he was the first employee of our new affiliate, NDYLTK Rail.

Over the succeeding four years, Dominic grew LTKs Australian affiliate, despite unfavorable economic conditions and set the stage for long-term success, the company notes. Upon his return to the U.S., he managed LTKs New York office, supporting New York City Transit with new subway car procurements, while continuing to oversee activities in Australia as a member of the NDYLTK Board of Directors.

It is an honor to be selected by the LTK Board to lead this company, said DiBrito. LTK is an incredible organization, with a culture that emphasizes ethics, quality and client focus. I look forward to working closely with George over the next seven months to ensure a smooth transition, and will do my best to build on the foundation that was established under his stewardship.
Japan will on Wednesday release final Q1 figures for gross domestic product, highlighting a busy day in Asia-Pacific economic activity.

GDP is called higher by 05 percent on quarter - an upward revision from last month's preliminary reading of 0.4 percent. GDP was down 0.4 percent in the three months prior.

On a yearly basis, GDP is expected to see an upward revision to 2.0 percent from 1.7 percent. It contracted 1.1 percent in the previous three months.

Japan also will see April numbers for current account and May data for bank lending and the eco watchers survey.

The current account is tipped to show a surplus of 2,308.8 billion yen, down from 2,980.4 in March. Bank lending is expected to hold steady at 2.2 percent. The eco watchers index is tipped to come in at 43.4, down marginally from 43.5.

New Zealand will release Q1 figures for manufacturing activity. In the previous three months, activity was down 1.9 percent on quarter, while volume climbed 1.3 percent.

Australia will provide April numbers for home loans, with forecasts calling for an increase of 2.8 percent. That follows the 0.9 percent decline in March - when the value of loans fell 1.2 percent and investment lending gained 1.5 percent.

China will release May figures for imports, exports and trade balance. Imports are expected to fall 6.0 percent on year after sliding 10.9 percent in April. Exports are called lower by 4.6 percent after dipping 1.8 percent in the previous month. The trade surplus is pegged at $54.70 billion, up from $45.56 billion a month earlier.

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Taiwan's exports continued to decrease in May, though at a slower-than-expected pace, data from the Ministry of Finance showed Tuesday.

Exports fell 9.6 percent year-over-year in May, below economists' expectations for a 10.0 percent decline. However, it was faster than the 6.5 percent drop in April.

Imports slid 3.4 percent in May from a year ago, much slower than previous month's 9.6 percent plunge. Economists had expected a big fall of 10.9 percent.

The trade surplus of the country shrank to $3.5 billion in May from $5.2 billion in the same month of the preceding year. The expected surplus for the month was $5.0 billion.

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The Swiss stock market ended Tuesday's session in the green, adding to the gains of the previous session. The market quickly rose above the 8,200 point level and remained above it for the remainder of the session. Rising crude oil prices and dovish comments from Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen provided a boost to investor sentiment.

Janet Yellen expressed renewed concerns about the of the U.S. jobs market. After the generated just 38,000 jobs in May, "recent signs of a slowdown in job creation bear close watching," Yellen said. Still, Yellen expects the economy will continue to improve, allowing for "gradual" rate hikes at an unspecified time.

The Swiss Market Index increased 0.61 percent Tuesday and finished at 8,215.78. The Swiss Leader Index climbed 0.61 percent and the Swiss Performance Index rose 0.60 percent.

The luxury goods companies were in demand Tuesday. Swatch climbed 2.5 percent and peer Richemont gained 1.3 percent. The rest of the cyclical stocks also turned in a solid performance. Dufry increased 1.7 percent, LafargeHolcim advanced 1.6 percent and ABB rose 1.0 percent.

The financial stocks were also among the gainers. Julius Baer lead the way, with a gain of 1.3 percent. Credit Suisse advanced 1.0 percent and UBS added 1.1 percent.

The index heavyweights all finished in positive territory. Nestle climbed 0.6 percent and Roche added 0.9 percent. Novartis also finished higher by 0.2 percent.

Schindler declined 0.7 percent. The lift and escalator manufacturer announced a joint venture with elevator company Folk Lift Elevator. Swiss Life decreased 0.5 percent and Baloise lost 0.3 percent. Swisscom weakened by 0.5 percent and Sonova dipped 0.2 percent.

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Market Analysis
Microsoft has chosen India to be one of its cyber security hubs, among seven such places worldwide.

The company launched its Cyber Security Engagement Center or CSEC in India's Gurgaon on Tuesday, aiming to help reduce malware and digital risk in the country.

Working with the National Cybersecurity Coordinator as well as the CERT-India, the center would fight cybercrime through public-private partnerships. It will also strengthen cooperation with Indian businesses, government and academic organizations on cybersecurity.

The CSEC would also increase its contribution towards securing Indian computer and internet users from cybercrime threats.

The CSEC will combine Microsoft's Digital Crime Unit experts, which comprise attorneys, investigators and security response experts from the company as well as cutting-edge tools and to effectively reduce digital risks.

The center will offer cyber monitoring, use machine learning based detection technology and ensure rapid response and resolution to cyber threats to enterprise customers in the country.

Announcing CSEC, Bhaskar Pramanik, Chairman, Microsoft India, said, "Cybersecurity is crucial for Digital India. A data driven can flourish only when governments, businesses and individuals have access to hyper scale and hyper flexible cloud computing with the confidence that their data is secure."

Microsoft's DCU Cyber Threat Intelligence Program monitors and analyze malware infections, while Microsoft Advanced Threat Analytics helps customers adapt to the changing nature of cybersecurity attacks. Additionally, Microsoft's Advanced Threat Protection in Exchange Online Protection helps prevent malware attacks in an email environment.

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Business News
Domino's Pizza Group PLC (DOM.L) Wednesday said its current trading remains in line with market expectations.

The company also announced the investment of 24 million pounds to acquire significant minority interests in the master franchisees for Domino's Pizza in Iceland, Norway and Sweden.

The stock is buying from Birgir Bieltvedt, the Chairman and founder of Domino's Iceland, and certain other investors. Following the investment, Domino's will hold 49 percent in Iceland and an effective interest of 45 percent in both the Norwegian and Swedish businesses.

Birgir Bieltvedt and the current management team will remain with the and retain a significant stake in each country.

The company said the transaction is expected to be earnings enhancing on an underlying basis for the Group in 2017 and subsequent years.

The company expects to report the cost of investment in the transaction as part of the Group's gross assets.

Domino's Pizza added that it has the right to appoint a director to the boards of Domino's in Iceland, Norway and Sweden. The company has entered into put and call option arrangements, linked to business performance and subject to independent valuation, to acquire the remaining shares exercisable over the outstanding shareholdings between 2020 and 2023.

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Business News
Questioning whether Donald Trump has the right temperament to be president, Senator Mark Kirk, R-Ill., announced Tuesday that he will no longer support the presumptive Republican nominee.

In a statement, Kirk attributed his decision to withdraw his support for Trump to the real estate tycoon's recent comments about Hispanic Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel.

"I have spent my life building bridges and tearing down barriers-not building walls," Kirk said. "That's why I find Donald Trump's belief that an American-born judge of Mexican descent is incapable of fairly presiding over his case is not only dead wrong, it is un-American."

"While I oppose the Democratic nominee, Donald Trump's latest statements, in context with past attacks on Hispanics, women and the disabled like me, make it certain that I cannot and will not support my party's nominee for President regardless of the political impact on my candidacy or the Republican Party," he added.

Kirk said he has concluded that Trump has not demonstrated the temperament necessary to assume the office of the presidency, noting that the president commands a military with an arsenal of thousands of nuclear weapons.

The retraction of support for Trump comes as Kirk is facing a tough re-election fight against Rep. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., who questioned why it took so long for the Senator to renounce the billionaire.

Kirk previously said he would back Trump but told CNN he will now write in former CIA director David Petraeus this fall.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
Facing a backlash from other members of the Republican Party, presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump claimed his comments about Hispanic Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel have been misconstrued.

In a lengthy statement, Trump said he does not feel a judge's heritage makes them incapable of being impartial but continued to question whether he was receiving a fair trial in a case involving Trump University.

"It is unfortunate that my comments have been misconstrued as a categorical attack against people of Mexican heritage," Trump said. "I am friends with and employ thousands of people of Mexican and Hispanic descent."

"The American justice system relies on fair and impartial judges," he added. "All judges should be held to that standard."

The statement from Trump comes after House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., described the real estate tycoon's comments about Curiel as textbook racism.

Senator Mark Kirk, R-Ill., also cited Trump's comments about Curiel in a statement withdrawing his support for the likely Republican presidential nominee.

CNN noted that Trump repeatedly took aim at Curiel last week, calling him a "hater" and "a Mexican" as he slammed the judge's rulings in the case.

(Photo: Gage Skidmore)

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Political News
With Hillary Clinton seeming to have secured the delegates needed to clinch the Democratic presidential nomination, Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson urged supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., to consider voting for his party's ticket.

In an appearance on CNN's "New Day" on Wednesday, Johnson argued that he offers a "real alternative" to Clinton and presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

"For all those Bernie supporters out there, how about taking a look at the Libertarian ticket?" Johnson said.

Johnson stressed his belief that smaller government is better but acknowledged that government can play a role in leveling the playing field.

The former New Mexico Governor has previously said he agrees with Sanders 73 percent of the time, noting their agreements on issues such as abortion, same-sex marriage, and military intervention.

In his appearance on CNN, Johnson called Clinton the "architect of what is happening worldwide" and suggested the world is not safer as a result.

A Quinnipiac University National poll released last week showed Johnson with the support of 5 percent of voters, which would far exceed the 1 percent he received in 2012.

(Photo: Gage Skidmore)

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Political News
Editors Pick

German sports sneaker and apparel maker Adidas AG announced Tuesday that it terminated its partnership with American rapper Kanye West, who now goes by the name Ye, with immediate effect, citing his recent offensive behaviour. Adidas expects the decision to result in a short-term negative impact of up to 250 million euros on its fiscal 2022 net income due to the high seasonality.

Automaker General Motors Co. on Tuesday reaffirmed its fiscal 2022 earnings guidance amid ongoing strong demand after reporting higher third-quarter earnings above market estimates. Revenues for the quarter climbed from last year, but missed analysts' view. In pre-market activity on the NYSE, GM shares were gaining around 5.2 percent to trade at $37.59.

German sports sneaker and apparel maker Adidas AG plans to end its partnership with Kanye West citing recent offensive behaviour from the American rapper, Bloomberg News reported citing people familiar with the matter. Following the news, Adidas shares were losing around 4 percent in the morning trading in Germany.
Millennial Moms Review: 2022 Acura MDX is pretty close to the perfect family car

I dont know if perfect is attainable, especially considering weve got the world of options when it comes to modern vehicles. Were spoiled and, as such, we have very specific needs and wants. Driving-wise, the 2022 Acura MDX is one of my favourite ...
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The scriptures say that a wise son makes a father proud.

In the case of Saisamoa Grey, her achievement in Hawaii, becoming one of the first Samoans to graduate with a Juris Doctor Degree from the William S. Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawaii at Manoa has made her mother, Tuilaepa Mary Grey, very proud.

The 59-year-old mother could not attend the graduation because of other family commitments.

But she could not contain her excitement, visiting the Samoa Observer to express her delight about her daughter.

Looking back  I humble myself and thank God for His faithfulness upon our childs life, she said.

Theres nothing to be proud of but to give Glory and I am hoping that shell return back to Samoa and serve here in the future.

Tuilaepa said Saisamoa is her only child and she was raised in Samoa all her life.

Our dream with her grandmother, the late Sailau was to see her happy and successful, she said.

Now that she has achieved, Tuilaepa said: Daughter, you have made our dream with your grandmother come true!

You have sacrificed a lot to be there today. Congratulations.

Tuilaepa said her daughters learning started from humble beginnings with a broken typewriter.

When she was young we tried to put her in pre-school but that didnt happen  she cried all the time because some children touched her curly hair, she said.

Then we decided with my mother, the late Sailau to let her stay home, from there we felt sorry for her and my mum told me to find something so that she could occupy her time.

Then there was an old typewriter at the back of our house, I cleaned and washed it again, placed it on the table.

There, she spent her whole time  I wrote down words and numbers from 1 to 10 and then she typed it down.

Luckily, she could still see the letters and numbers on the broken typewriter and thats how she started to develop herself in education until she went on to St. Marys Primary up to the National University of Samoa.

Saisamoa was educated at St. Marys Primary, St. Marys College and at the National University of Samoa.

She gained some impressive qualifications along the way beginning with her Foundation Certificate in Art from the National University of Samoa, followed by an Associate of Arts Degree in Pre Law from American Samoa Community College (A.S.C.C.); an Associate of Arts Degree in Liberal Arts from ASCC; and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Administration of Law from University of Hawaii at Hilo.

She started from broken typewriter and I am very happy for her.I always encouraged her to be strong in the Lord and never stop praying. Thats the key of every blessing in anyones life.

Saisamoa was also the managing editor of the Asian-Pacific Law and Policy Journal, the most highly cited legal academic journal focusing on Asia and Pacific issues, President of the Phi Delta Phi International Legal Honor Society, the Secretary of the Law Student Government, and President of the BLSA Moot Court Team.

She was the first dual recipient of the Sam L. Cohen Fellowship for International Human Rights and the Advocates for Public Interest Law and a presenter at the recent International Law and Policy Conference on Marine Diversity, Climate Change and Maritime boundaries.

Saisamoa hails from the villages of Falefa and Apia.
There is always a first time for anything.

In the case of Faleata College yesterday, it was their first English Day  an occasion celebrated with pride and plenty of action at the school.

Parents, families and friends of the students gathered to witness the students perform for the first time using the English language.

The Judges for the event were Faatamalii Jenny Lauano, A.C.E.O. of the Teachers Development and Advisory, Lafaitele Aiga Esera and Lafaitele Fualuga Taupi.

Principal Tanuvasa Michael Grey said English Day is all about building up the students confidence to use another language that is not Samoan.

Faleata has never had an English Day before, he said.

[But] with the improvement of the learning process of the students in the English language, that created an idea that we would like to have them exhibit what they have learnt in the English language in all different areas.

For example in the programme, there is Poetry Recitation, solos, impromptu speeches, acapella, impersonation and many more categories.

The Principal said they would look to host the event on an annual basis.
New locally-owned airline, Talofa Airways, is making progress in its efforts to secure the route to fly to the Kingdom of Tonga.

This was confirmed by the Airline Advisor, Toleafoa Jeffrey Hunter, yesterday. The route is one of several destinations in the Pacific that the airline is looking at serving.

Toleafoa said they were in Tonga during the Independence holidays to negotiate with the Tongan Department of Transport. They (Tonga) have endorsed it and they want the service, said Toleafoa.

We are waiting for the permit and for them to go through their system before we set the starting date to fly. He added that American Samoa is keen about their service but are also waiting for a permit.

We cannot start advertising unless they have given the approval to operate, explained Toleafoa.

Its a waiting game. There is a lot of paperwork and things that need to be processed.

Asked about the route to Niue, the airline advisor said they will not rush into things. We dont want to jump into it and make commitments that we cannot fulfill, he said.

We are focusing on the main route which is American Samoa and Tonga. In April this year the airline announced that it had acquired two twin Commander aircrafts from the United States of America as it gears up for its official launch.

The planes are stationed at the Faleolo International Airport.

At the time, Toleafoa said it was one of the final stages in the painful process of setting up the airline.

We already have the local certificate to allow operation, he said. The last part is we are waiting for foreign permit from America and Tonga to allow us to operate scheduled services into those places to American Samoa and Tonga.

Those things can take up to months its just a matter of waiting. Once the paperwork is sorted, the airline will take off.
CANBERRA, Australia  Police have shot students protesting against Papua New Guinea's prime minister in the South Pacific nation's capital of Port Moresby on Wednesday. Australia's foreign minister said.

Public Mourning has begun for #UPNG students, melanesian way with Mothers leading as Business and Schools shut down. pic.twitter.com/ODU7FylDY9  Hubert Namani (@hhnamani) June 8, 2016

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said she had been advised by Australia's embassy in Port Moresby of the violence as hundreds of students prepared to march from the University of PNG to Parliament.

"I know that students have been shot, but we're still trying to determine whether there have been deaths and how many have been injured," Bishop told reporters.

The current scene at Port Moresby General Hospital where large crowds have gathered.#PNG #PortMoresby pic.twitter.com/z5zrKOHN4p  EMTV Online PNG (@EMTVOnline) June 8, 2016

"We call on all sides to be calm and to de-escalate the tension and certainly call on all sides to respect the peaceful and lawful right to protest," she said.

The students have been demanding for weeks that Prime Minister Peter O'Neill resign because of alleged corruption and mismanagement.

Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported a lawmaker told Parliament that four students had been killed and seven wounded.

Lawmaker Gary Juffa spoke to students after the shooting and was told "one of the students got killed instantly and others are in serious and critical conditions," his personal assistant Joe Duhube told AP.

There were also complaints of other forms of police brutality against the students at a police roadblock erected outside the university.

Police spokesman Domonic Kakas said he could not immediately comment and would issue a statement later Wednesday.

-AP
Dear Editor,

Re: Cockroach horror

I think we all have read the above title in the Samoa Observer 07/06/16.

The word total revulsion came to my mind the moment I read that horrifying news. Nine years have passed since my article: Food Expert Says: Unhygienic Conditions Widespread in Samoa that appeared in the Samoa Observer on 16/03/07.

What has the M.O.H. done, in all this time, to improve the horrible unsanitary conditions in which our food is prepared and sold to the Samoan consumers?

On 05/12/15 what was supposed to be a Food Act 2015 was passed and launched a year later (12/05/16). It tells us nothing of substance, other than to have in place strong and effective response mechanisms.

As an expert in the Food Safety field, I thoroughly refuted this weak and ineffective approach. I suggested the M.O.H., once and for all take full responsibility, entrusted to them, to closely monitor all phases of our food preparation.

A scientifically based approach is the way to go, everything else is just a waste of time. That I strongly recommended.

What happened on 07/06/16 (Cockroach horror) is not, by any means, an isolated case. Hundreds of keke puaa are being manufactured and distributed not only to the schools but also to whoever wants to buy them on the streets of Apia.

The cost of production is definitely cheap. What Ms. Italian Tavita, Year 7, of the Vaimoso Primary School did is highly commendable, and followed by her concerned mother, who reported the incident to the newspaper right away.

But this scenario of the cockroach in the food can happen so easily in Samoa when we look at most places where such food is prepared. I am sure if you can find one cockroach, common sense tells you that there are a multitude of them waiting to make their appearance in a keke puaa.

My question is: What the Division of Health Protection and Enforcement (H.P.E.D.) of the Ministry of Health is going to do? Respond and recall?

As far as cockroaches are concerned, there were two more cases that I reported. One on 20/08/08 Cockroaches in our food? and Food court does it again! on 08/04/09.

Are we expecting more Mr. Minister of Health?

Orlando Huaman

Malololelei
The Bank of the South Pacific has announced their support of the Leadership Samoa Programme, coming on board as a sponsor and donating $10,000 to assist with the programme.

B.S.P. Regional Finance Manager, Nicholas Rous, presented the cheque to the Chief Executive Officer of Leadership Samoa, Seumanu Douglas Ngau Chun yesterday and declared BSPs commitment to supporting local projects like Taimua Samoa.

As a leader in the financial and banking sector, we place a strong focus on leadership and encourage the development of future emerging leaders across all sectors in Samoa in the hope that it will lead to a self sustaining economy, said Mr. Rous.

Leadership Samoa is a unique project that offers more than the basic management skills training, and we have seen the benefits of this initiative through our own staff, having had two members of our leadership team graduate from the programme.

Since its inception in 2011, the programme has gone from strength to strength having completed 5 cohorts and 92 emerging leaders that have graduated from the programme.

This year, there are 23 participants to go through the 10 month journey, including one of BSPs team leaders Folototo Leaumoana.
The only helicopter in Samoa might not be flying anywhere in a hurry.

In fact, the helicopter that belongs to the recently set up Samoa Helicopters Company has not taken off for the past couple of weeks.

This has raised eyebrows among members of the local community who wonder what has happened.

Attempts to contact Principal and Founder, Rodger McCutcheon, during the past few days were not successful.

The Samoa Observer was told that he was not in the country.

The companys small office at Mulinuu is closed while the helicopter is still there on the ground.

The emergency hotline for the Samoa Helicopters was not answered.

But a local businesswoman close to the people who run the operation said the Company is looking for a new pilot.

As far as I know, [Samoa Helicopters] has got a new pilot coming in from New Zealand, she said.

The other pilot that has been working for them has departed, so thats basically what we know about it.

The businesswoman did not want to speculate on reports that there was an issue with the helicopter.

It is still working at the moment, but if I remember correctly, Rodger [McCutcheon] left only last Wednesday, she said.

But he did not mention when exactly he would return, so this might probably take another few weeks.

Earlier this year, Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, endorsed the operation.

When it comes to private investments where lives will be saved then government must take decisive action, said Tuilaepa. It is utter nonsense and ridiculous for any government to discard a service of this nature.

You have the governments blessing and support. And I urge you to proceed with full speed.

Since it was launched, the company has been using its Eurocopter to conduct sightseeing tours and a medical mission from Savaii.

I am passionate about saving Samoan lives. The first of two helicopters for Samoa was carefully chosen for its safety, reliability, passenger comfort and its versatility, Mr. McCutcheon said.

Our safety record and quality of presentation and maintenance meets the very highest standards, and we bring this standard to Samoa in the hope of making a successful valuable contribution to Samoas transport and tourism infrastructure.
The youth gang threatening members of the public, accused of assaulting innocent people and stealing their food has struck again.

This time, they picked on a group of workers at a local restaurant in the Apia Township who had just gotten off work.

The business owner who did not want to be named in fear of future threats to his business and his workers raised concerns about whats becoming a regular routine and disruption from the young group.

Last Saturday, some of the workers from the small business were confronted by the gang.

Our workers had just finished work and were sitting in front of the building drinking some bottles when they saw them, he said.

It was late at night and they were waiting to go home until some of them confronted our workers and asked for their bottles and food. Our workers told them to leave but they retaliated and started throwing stones.

It caused a big fuss and our employees came out to chase them away but they continued to throw stones and ran towards Mulivai.

He added the incident had caused fear among them with the possibility of the youth gang striking again and burning down their business.

The matter was reported to Police.

According to the businessman, even the taxi drivers from the stand around the area fled the scene, wanting to avoid the damage to their vehicles.

He warned that if the government does not deal with the problem, it poses a serious threat to the future of Samoa.

It really reflects badly on our tourists and that can affect our economy, he warned.

They are not going to stop. It has become the norm for these kids to threaten individuals and take whatever they want. We were lucky our business was not damaged but we fear they could return.

On Monday this week the village mayor of Apia, Tuiletufuga Siaosi Tuiletufuga made it clear that the youths were not from their village.

However, with the growing concern from members of the public about the youth gangs the village has acted with men from the village monitoring the streets.

"They are causing trouble in Apia giving our village a bad name and we do not accept that, said the mayor.

Our village has met over the issue and the matai and men of our village are keeping an eye on these trouble makersThe difficult thing is catching them because I know they plan their attacks at odd hours  when our men are not seen.

Two weeks ago several cases of individuals and groups of people that regularly hang around town had reported threats and being assaulted by the gang of youths.
A former executive director of a Hong Kong-listed dairy company fell from grace yesterday, as he was jailed for seven years and nine months for conspiring in an evil bid to defraud his company and the stock exchange.

Chen Keen, also known as Tupai Jack Chen, concealed his connection with co-defendant May Wang, when he tried to talk the predecessor of his Natural Dairy (N.Z.) Holdings into buying 22 farms in New Zealand in 2009.

The mainlander  said to be a leading figure in the Chinese community in New Zealand after he moved there  was found guilty earlier by a High Court jury of two counts of conspiracy to defraud and one of laundering more than HK$85 million.

Wang, also known as May Hao, was jailed for eight years and three months, while a third defendant, Eric Yee, who managed the companys accounts, was sentenced to five years.

They were found guilty of the same conspiracy charge.

Sentencing Chen and Wang on Monday, Madam Justice Anthea Pang Po-kam slammed the pair for taking advantage of the companys listed status and the citys regulated stock market to raise funds for their criminal plot.

Such a criminal act is one to be deterred, she said, adding that what the pair did had destroyed the publics confidence in the local stock market.

The court previously heard that Chen concealed his business ties with Wang from the citys stock exchange and shareholders of Natural Dairy (NZ) Holdings, formerly China Jin Hui Mining Corporation, when he attempted to acquire the farms from New Zealand company Crafarms Group between May 7, 2009 and July 19, 2010.

The farms were purchased by Wang, a mainlander who migrated to New Zealand, for NZ$259 million (HK$1.4 billion) before being resold to China Jin Hui Mining Corporation at Chens suggestion for NZ$500 million.

The pair also failed to inform the stock market watchdog and shareholders about the actual value of Crafarms, which was described as a rubbish company by one of the witnesses.

Despite the stock exchanges attempt to seek clarification from the pair over their relationship, the judge noted, they maintained that they were not connected.

Pang called their failure to inform shareholders of the farms actual value a particularly evil act, adding that it deprived shareholders the chance to make an informed decision.

The judge said she refused to accept the pairs mitigation that no actual loss had been incurred, as they put shareholders interest at risk.

But she reduced Chens sentence by six months from the original eight years and three months, after learning that Chen had been a leading figure in the Chinese community since he moved to New Zealand.

The court also took into account the contributions and donations Chen had made over the years to the mainland, New Zealand and Samoa.
An explosion at one of the fuel tanks at the Matautu Wharf, which killed an employee of Petroleum Product Supplies Ltd earlier this year, caused minimal impact on the environment.

Thats the conclusion by a group tasked to investigate the environmental impact of the explosion, which caused nationwide panic and shut down the Apia Township in April this year.

The Environmental Audit Team included representatives from the Ministry of Natural, Resources and Environment (M.N.R.E.), Samoa Scientific Research Organisation (S.R.O.S.), Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (S.P.R.E.P.), Ministry of Finance (M.O.F.) and two private Civil Engineers.

According to a copy of their report addressed to the Disaster Advisory Committee (D.A.C.) obtained by the Samoa Observer, the group did not sight nor note by smell, the presence of any diesel spillage from the affected tank.

Although significant structural surface damage was visible around the tank, the group found that there was no visible evidence of leakage to adjacent properties specifically the container yard to the east, west and southern boundaries and into the sea. The isolation valves were advised to be locked fully for the tank farm.

The investigation then concluded that the damage to the environment was minimal.

Having inspected the subject site as well as discussions made with the MoF representatives, the team is satisfied that the incident caused minimal environmental impacts to the environment and its adjacent surroundings, the report found.

It is recommended therefore that: No further environmental assessment is required of the subject site.

On 4 April at 10am, there was an explosion at one of the diesel fuel storage tanks on the wharf at Matautu-tai.

The explosion triggered a fire, which was responded to within minutes by the Fire and Emergency Services Authority (F.E.S.A) personnel. Emergency workers immediately evacuated everyone within close proximity to the wharf.

One of two employees working on the storage tank at the time of the explosion died. The second employee was treated and discharged.

As a safety precaution, the main fuel terminal at Sogi was shut down immediately.

The main focus of the Emergency response team was to contain the fire and prevent it from spreading to the other two adjacent tanks.

Upon learning of the incident, Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, led the coordination of the Disaster Advisory Committee at F.E.S.A headquarters and personally requested assistance from the Australian, New Zealand and United States Governments.

The memorandum from the inspection group to the D.A.C is published in full below:

TO: Disaster Advisory Committee (DAC)

FROM: Environmental Audit team

DATE: 7 April 2016

SUBJECT: Post Environmental Assessment of the Fuel Tank Fire on 04th April 2016.

1. Introduction

This report provides an assessment of possible environmental impacts caused by the Fuel Tank fire which resulted in a fatality and destroyed one of the fuel tanks at the Tank Farm facility located at the Apia Port. Recommendations are also provided in this report.

2. Background

A request was put forward by the DAC chaired by the CEO of MNRE on 5 April 2016 to investigate and confirm any environmental impacts resulting from the fuel tank storage fire that occurred on Monday 4th April 2016. The Environment Audit Team (the team) included 5 representatives of the MNRE, 1 from SPREP, 1 from SROS, and 2 civil engineer advisors.

As per the development consent approved by PUMA for the farm tank facility in 2012, the estimated cost of the facility was SAT$17,000,000.00. The construction works commenced in early 2013.

2.1 Legislative Framework

The following relevant legislations have been used in this assessment:

. a) Marine Pollution Prevention Act 2008;

. b) Lands, Survey and Environment Act 1989;

. c) Waste Management Act 2010; and

. d) Planning and Urban Management Act 2004.

2.2 Description of the Site and Surrounding Environment

The tank farm facility is located at Matautu-tai on government land within the Samoa Ports Authority (SPA) compound at the north eastern part of the port. However, the facility site is currently under the Ministry of Finance and is being operated by the Petroleum Products Supplies Ltd, a privately owned business. The facility is appropriately demarcated by a chain link fence and further fenced off with a cemented containment bund. The area of the subject site cannot be determined as it is yet to be surveyed. The eastern, western and southern boundaries are adjoined by the container yard under SPA while the northern boundary is adjacent to the sea. There are currently 2 fuel storage tanks to the east of the facility while the half burnt tank is located to the west.

3 Methodology

The team conducted a visual site inspection on Wednesday 6th April 2016. Two representatives (Peseta Konelio Tone and Chris Flannery)from the Ministry of Finance (MoF) who were involved in the construction and design of the facility were present on- site to assist the team with information on the operation andmanagement of the tank farm. Mr. Peseta Konelio also provided information on the procedures and actions that were completed during and immediately following the fire. The information provided by the site representatives have not been validated and is assumed to be correct.

4 Findings

The following captures the observations identified by the team during the visual site inspection:

4.1 Resources at risk:

4.1.1 Apia town area:

The Samoa bureau of statistics reported that the 2016 estimated population of Apia urban area is 35,762. The tank farm is located on the port and any effluent drain outlets are located adjacent to Palolo deep which is a marine protected area.

4.1.2 Mangroves and sea grass:

Mangrove and sea grass species are vulnerable to oil and oiling can cause widespread die back in mangrove and sea grass habitats and associated species. These habitats may take decades to recover. Mangroves and sea grass beds provide critical habitat for a range of fish and other species including recreational and commercially harvested fish species along with reptiles. Intertidal sea grass meadows are highly vulnerable to oil.

4.1.3 Corals: Corals are an essential and dominant part of coral reef communities, and play a key role in determining the composition and nature of reef systems. Shallow corals less than 10m in depth may be vulnerable to oil.

4.2 Sources of pollutants:

4.2.1 Diesel spillage and emissions:

1)We did not sight nor note by smell, the presence of any diesel spillage from the affected tank. Significant structural surface damage was visible around

There did not appear to be any visible evidence of leakage to adjacent properties specifically the container yard to the east, west and southern boundaries and into the sea. The

isolation valves were advised to be locked fully for the tank farm. 2

the top half of the affected tank outer shell.

. 2) The concrete bund and flooring surrounding the tanks appeared in satisfactory condition and is believed to have captured run-off fire water (potentially contaminated with paint) and directed it to the separation tank.

. 3) There was no visual evidence in the American Petroleum Industry (API) oil separator that firefighting water that accumulated within the bunded facility and subsequently discharged to the marine environment contained hydrocarbons.

. 4) There was no visual evidence of chemical and hazardous waste materials present on site. However, there were remnants of burnt paint contained within the concrete bund.

. 5) The volume of diesel combusted was 182 tonnes as per discussions with the on-site reps. There was no visual evidence of nearby Apia town residents affected by the fire emissions either from the volatile organic compounds.

. 6) It was noted that there was no Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) signs on site during the investigations.

4.2.2 Tank paint emissions:

We made inquiry regarding the specification of the tank paint whether it would contain any lead particulates. The MoF representative was asked to provide specification confirmation for the primer and finishing paints used to coat the exposed external tank walls. The size of the tank paint that combusted could not be confirmed during the inspection. Burnt paint ash has accumulated on the base of the containment bund.

4.2.3 Fire fighting foam (AFFF):

The volume of firefighting Aqueous Film Foaming Foam (AFFF) (Film Foam Fluro Protein (FFFP) used during the accident could not be confirmed on site. This foam is a protein based foam and is biodegradable and hence has no impact when released to the marine environment.

The team however raised concerns about the proposed decommissioning of the damaged fuel storage tank.

5 Recommendation(s)

Having inspected the subject site as well as discussions made with the MoF representatives, the team is satisfied that the incident caused minimal environmental impacts to the environment and its adjacent surroundings. It is recommended therefore that:

a) No further environmental assessment is required of the subject site.

. b) The burnt paint should be collected and disposed of at an appropriate disposal site. It should not be allowed to be discharged via the facilities stormwater management system that discharges to the sea.

. c) The Ministry of Finance to liaise with the MNRE and all relevant government entities prior to the decommissioning of the half burnt storage tank. A development consent shall be obtained prior to commencement of decommissioning activities.

. d) The specifications of the tanks paint should be obtained to identify any hazardous waste implications.

. e) The availability of the PPS (or equivalent) Emergency Plan should be verified, both as a hard copy on site and availability to emergency services. This was not observed during the site visit.

. f) The volume of firefighting foam used on site needs to be confirmed.

6 Inspection Team

MNRE - Tauti Fuatino Leota, Faumuina Ferila Brown, Toai Bartley, Anna Blake, Jeffrey Faitua

SROS  Pousui Fiame Leo

SPREP - Anthony Talouli

MoF - Peseta Konelio Tone and Chris Flannery

Private Engineers (Apia Waterfront Project - MNRE/NZ High Com) - Vui Sebastian and Connon Andrews
PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc receives the special advisor to the Japan-Vietnam Friendship Parliamentary Alliance, Tsutomu Takebe (Photo:VNA)



He hailed the continuous efforts made by Takebe towards the two nations relationship in various fields, especially trade cooperation and human resources training.

He also spoke highly of the Japan-Vietnam Cultural Festival, which is being prepared in Vietnam, adding that the event will further promote the understanding of the two peoples.

Praising the establishment of the Vietnam-Japan University in Vietnam and Takebes contributions to the initiative, he affirmed that Vietnam will create favorable conditions for the university to start operating this September.

Takebe said he is doing his utmost to further develop the strong partnership between the two countries.

He informed the PM about upcoming visits of some Japanese co-operatives to Vietnam next month to interview their potential trainees for farming techniques, management and business.

The Japanese guest said he wants to do more for Vietnams agriculture./.
The contest is held to mark the 100th anniversary of the October Revolution (1917-2017).

Russian and Vietnamese students from high schools in Russia and Vietnam can participate in the contest. Contestants are divided into three age groups, including under 8, from 9 to 12, and from 12 to 16.

Paintings can be sent to Russia - Vietnam Friendship Association No 23, 320 Office, Varsava Boulevard, Moscow; the Vietnam - Russian Friendship Association at No.105A Quan Thanh street, Ba Dinh, Hanoi, or Pushkin Institute at No,4 Nguyen Cong Hoan street, Ba Dinh district, Hanoi.

In formation related to the contest are updated at www.puskinhn.edu.vn.

Paintings on Vietnam and Russian at the exhibition in March and April 2016 (Source: VTC)

The results will be announced on November 30th, 2016 on the websites of the Vietnam - Russia Friendship Association, Pushkin Institute in Hanoi, and the Russia - Vietnam Friendship Association.





It aims to help children show their knowledge through paintings, thus fostering a creative environment for them to gain information about the history, culture, nature and traditions of the two countries./.
Now 85 years old, Lam graduated from the Vietnam University of Fine Arts in 1953, and was sent to study in Russia, then the Soviet Union, for five years.

During that time, he painted hundreds of paintings capturing the beauty of the country and its people through his observations, mostly in watercolour and India ink.

Artist Le Lam and his paintings





















Le Lam's paintings at the exhibition (Source: tuoitre.vn)

Most of paintings reflect love between people, especially love for children.

The exhibition is co-organized by the Pushkin Institute and the Russian Teachers and Students Fund in celebration of the ASEAN-Russia Culture Year 2016, the great poet Pushkins birth anniversary and the International Russian Language Day.

It will run at the Pushkin Institute at No.4 Nguyen Cong Hoan street, Ba Dinh district, until June 8th./.
Albany, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 06/08/2016 -- About the Electric Vehicle Charging Station Market in China



China has been aggressive in its efforts to promote EV adoption, primarily to cope with the growing pollution scenario. China was placed at the top of the nations with the most carbon dioxide emissions in 2011. Chinas tremendous economic growth has been riding on the countrys manufacturing sector, which has been a key contributor to the emissions. Apart from the manufacturing sector, industrial segments such as thermal power plants have also contributed largely to the countrys carbon emissions. The share of the transportation sector in carbon emissions has increased significantly in the past two decades.



View Full Report at: http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/analysis/729274



Technavios analysts forecast the Electric Vehicle Charging Station Market in China to grow at a CAGR of 115.84% during the period 2016-2020.



Covered in this report



The report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the electric vehicle charging station market in China for 2016-2020.



In order to arrive at the market size, we have considered the total installed EV charging units. The report considers the different modes of charging. For market size calculation, the report considers the total stock of electric cars and buses in China. There is another category of EVs, which are the low-speed EVs. This category of cars was not considered since they are not recognized by Chinas central government and are not counted in the official automotive statistics.



The market is divided into the following segments based on cities:



Shanghai

Jiangsu

Hong Kong

Shenzhen

Beijing



Download Detail Report With Complete TOC at: http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/sample/729274



Technavio's report, Electric Vehicle Charging Station Market in China 2016-2020, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.



Key vendors

BYD

Hong Kong EV Power

ShangaHai Xundao New Energy Technology

SORO Electronics

ABB



Other prominent vendors

SGCC

CSPG

Zhejiang Wanma Group

UTEK New Energy Technology



Market driver

Need for energy independence

For a full, detailed list, view our report



Market challenge

Growing market for low-speed EVs

For a full, detailed list, view our report



Market trend

Increased adoption of V2G systems

For a full, detailed list, view our report



Key questions answered in this report

-What will the market size be in 2020 and what will the growth rate be?

-What are the key market trends?

-What is driving this market?

-What are the challenges to market growth?

-Who are the key vendors in this market space?

-What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors?

-What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?



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Palmetto Bay, FL -- (SBWIRE) -- 06/08/2016 -- Feeding Children Everywhere is a not-for-profit organization that empowers and mobilizes people to assemble healthy meals for hungry children.



During the 2015-2016 school year the students raised $3,600 for this project. The class of 2017 packed 12,000 meals in one hour; each meal package costs 25 cents.



The event was held in the PTS Gym from 2:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m. The students packed a well-balanced meal that consisted of dry vegetables, dry rice, lentils, and Himalayan salt.



The Junior Class President Tiago Rachelson, organized this project, because he was inspired from a food-packing event at the HOBY Leadership Conference, which he had participated in the prior year.



"One of my greater goals last year was to help my class and think outside of myself. I thought the hunger project would be a great project to give back to the community, I wanted to see if I can give back in some sort of way to the people of Haiti," Rachelson said.



About Palmer Trinity School

Palmer Trinity Schoola coeducational, Episcopal day schoolis dedicated to promoting academic excellence that integrates knowledge, compassion, global citizenship, and social responsibility. Providing a supportive environment, Palmer Trinity School serves students from a broad range of socio-economic, ethnic, and religious backgrounds in grades 6-12.



For more information about the school, visit www.palmertrinity.org.



To follow Palmer Trinity School on Facebook, click here.



About Feeding Children Everywhere

Feeding Children Everywhere Is A Social Charity. We believe one person can make a difference but only with action action that brings people together. Together, we are mobilized. Together, we are empowered. Together, we are providing healthy meals to hungry children and families around the world and right here at home. Together, we are Feeding Children Everywhere.
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam -- (SBWIRE) -- 06/07/2016 -- Those who want to visit Vietnam by obtaining Visa on Arrival may be happy about the news that evisa.com.vn will be able to help them. Some more good news for these visitors. The fee for getting Vietnam visa on arrival is now very cheap and it starts from just $8.



Evisa.com.vn assures customers that they can get them Visa On Arrival or VOA online through a secure system. Not only that, they will ensure that the process is completed quickly and without any hassles.



According to them, the process to get Vietnam visa consists only of 4 easy steps. The visa online service they render is recommended and approved by Lonely Planet, Legalnomads.com, etc. also.



The company takes pride in pointing out that they offer multiple processing options to their customers. They also assure customers that the whole process will be over within about 50 minutes to 1 and half hours. Another benefit for customers who seek their services is that they offer 100% money back guarantee. If customers want, they can opt for obtaining a confidential visa approval letter also. Customers can be certain that the company will make sure that their visas are 100% approved by the Immigration Department.



The company assertively says that visa on arrival is very simple and much cheaper than getting visa at an embassy or a consulate. It is quicker also because if people opt for getting visas at embassies or consulates, they have to spend a lot of time running around. Further, visa on arrival, once issued,is exactly the same as a visa issued by any Vietnamese embassy or consulate because it has the same limitations and conditions attached to its use as in the case of a visa.



But before these visitors board their plane to Vietnam, they must obtain what is known as a Visa Approval Letter. After they land at any of the international airports of Vietnam, they must get the VOA through an agent by showing their visa approval letter. The service fees will vary depending on the type of visa they are obtaining.



The company says that they will send the visa approval letter to the email of their customers within 1 or 2 working days. They provide rush service also that is available round the clock but customers have to pay an extra fee for availing their rush service.



About Evisa.com.vn

Evisa.com.vn helps visitors to Vietnam by getting them Visa on Arrival. The fee they charge for this starts from just $8. The company arranges Visa On Arrival or VOA online through a secure system. Not only that, they will ensure that the process is completed quickly and without any hassles so customers can have an enjoyable trip to the country.



For Media Contact:

eVisa.com.vn  Nam Thang Travel Co., LTD

Company Registration # : 0309115020

Address: Room A2, 64 Nguyen Dinh Chieu street, Dakao ward, district 1, Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam.

Phone: +848 54043118

Fax: + 848 54042936

Email: info@evisa.com.vn

http://www.evisa.com.vn
Facebook will finally abandon the messaging operation available on its mobile web version as it will move forward with the distinct Messenger web app as it's official web-based chat feature.

Presently, the Messenger function can be wrote off as you attend to your usual social media dealings on Facebook. However, after this spring time season, the Messenger application will now be the only recognized means of communication for the social media network, Tech Crunch reported.

For the time being a user will be notified by the following alerts namely: "your conversations are moving to Messenger," and "soon you'll only be able to view your messages from Messenger."

Other users after receiving the aforementioned phrases are at once passed on to the Google Play Android marketplace in order to download the software application. For the iOS however, one can still right away access the old messaging thread without no annoyance.

This setting in motion for the Messenger to be the primary application for chatting has been explained by the website in a twofold process: One, it gives the user the "best experience" in communication and two, this gives the Facebook social media a huge stamp in promotion in the communications area especially that it also owns the messaging giant WhatsApp.

The new communication directive will also positively influence the banking industry as well, Venture Beat reported.

Banking will become an easy progress with the Facebook Messenger in the long run, as of the moment, one can merely type "send" plus the amount of money to an individual in the payee list. If identification of the recipient becomes muddled in the process the bank will ask for more information of the latter.

Last April, the Bank of America had an agreement with Facebook Messenger as it will be another means of communication for costumers with the bank, Fine Extra reported.

Previously, a banking task online will designate you to open up your banking app and logging in as you wait for authentication. After which you move forward with the standard navigation of sending money, entry of information for payee, submitting request, confirming orders, and receiving confirmation.
The administration of President Obama together with the U.S. Fisheries and Wildlife Service enforce regulations to ban all commercial trade of African elephant ivory across the nation. It is announced on Thursday and will take effect on July 6, 2016.

Sarah Uhlemann, an international program director at the Center for Biological University said that they are excited that the Obama administration has taken this significant step to reduce the domestic trade in ivory. She further said that the United States has one of the leading markets for ivory in the world and decreasing demand here will go a long way toward saving elephants in Africa.

US Adopts Near Total Ban on African Elephant Ivory Sales

The federal government will enact...https://t.co/xIywq9ApHd pic.twitter.com/kc4JCRbdcC  NoAnimalPoaching! (@NoAnimalPoachin) June 2, 2016

The new rules states restrict exports and sales across the state line and limiting ivory trophy imports to two per year, per hunter. With the past regulations, the ivory trophy imports are unlimited, according to National Geographic.

In a 2010 report, China is the largest consumer for ivory. Meanwhile, in a 2008 study, it showed that the United States is the second largest consumer. The poachers exterminate about 30,000 elephants a year in order to meet the demand for ivory globally. The experts said that about 96 elephants are killed daily, according to Ecowatch.

The US just adopted a near total ban on the commercial ivory trade https://t.co/olUOlxt4E0 pic.twitter.com/qbTtJVz0FC  Greenpeace (@Greenpeace) June 2, 2016

Sec. Of the Interior Sally Jewell, a co-chair of the President's task Force on Wildlife Trafficking, said that today's bold action underscores the United States' leadership and commitment to ending the curse of elephant poaching and the tragic impact it's having on wild populations. She added that they hope other nations will act quickly and decisively to stop the flow of blood ivory by instigating similar regulations, which are crucial to ensuring the grandchildren and their grandchildren know these species.
Vietnamese Minister of Public Security To Lam and Malaysian Minister of Home Affairs Ahmad Zahid Hamidi (Photo: VNA)



The talks were part of the Vietnamese ministers official visit to Malaysia.

Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who is also a Deputy Prime Minister, expressed his delight at the strides seen in the Southeast Asian nations strategic partnership, and in the two ministries relations.

Echoing the view, Minister To Lam highlighted the development of bilateral cooperation in all spheres, especially since the two Governments issued a joint statement on the strategic partnership framework - a new momentum for all-round cooperation with politics and security among the pillars.

At the talks, the two sides noted the expanded collaboration between the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security and Malaysias relevant agencies, particularly since the October 1st, 2015 signing of the Governments agreement on cooperation in transnational crime prevention and combat.

They agreed to continue effectively implementing the commitments and agreements reached, while enhancing information exchanges and fighting crime, especially terrorism, human trafficking and hi-tech crime.

The ministries will foster ties in protecting the legitimate rights of each others organisations and citizens who live, study, work and travel in the other nation. They will also push for negotiations on a criminal extradition treaty and another on prisoner transfer.

Prior to the talks, Minister To Lam visited the Vietnamese Embassy to Malaysia./.
The scientists have been debating for many years how farming spread across Europe. Most people believed that farming came from the idea of the European hunter-gatherers, who inhabited Europe for the past 45,000 years. On the other hand, an emergence of the recent study shows that early farmers from across Europe have lineages to the Aegean.

The Aegean civilization is also referred to as the European Bronze Age civilizations of Greece around the Aegean Sea, which lies between the coast of Greece and Asia Minor or also known as the modern-day Turkey. There are three regions covered by this civilization namely the Crete, the Cyclades and the Greek mainland. It comprises of more than 2,000 islands, which were settled by the ancient Greeks.

The study was led by paleogeneticists of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU). It was printed in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

The researchers examined the DNA of the early farmers from Greece and Turkey. The study shows that the Neolithic settlers from northern Greece and the Marmara Sea region of western Turkey moved to central Europe through a Balkan route and the Iberian Peninsula by a Mediterranean route. They have encountered hunter-gatherers who lived in Europe since the Ice Age. On the other hand, the two groups mingled in a limited extent. Joachim Burger an anthropologist and the lead author of the study said that they exchanged cultural heritage and knowledge, yet hardly spouses. He further said that only after centuries did the number of partnerships increased.

Likewise, Christina Papageorgopoulou from the Democritus University of Thrace in Greece and initiated the study as a Humboldt fellow in Mainz with Joachim Burger explained that the migrating farmers did not only bring a completely foreign culture, yet looked different and spoke a different language.

The sedentary life, farming and animal husbandry existed 10,000 years ago in the place, called Fertile Crescent, which is a region that covers modern-day Turkey, Iran, Syria and Iraq. Susanne Kreutzer and Zuzana Hofmanova, the lead authors of the study concluded that whether the first farmers came ultimately from this area is not yet established. On the other hand, certainly they have seen in their study that these people, together with their revolutionary Neolithic culture, colonized Europe through northern Aegean over a short period of time.
Samsung is nearing the finish line as far as finally unveiling its Samsung Galaxy Note 5 successor. Though rumors are still governing the features it carries, there is interest as well on what its official name will be.

Following the usual sequence, the next phablet should be known as the Samsung Galaxy Note 6. But in what many believe to be a move to level that release order and place the next phablet aligned with its other flagships (i.e. Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge), Samsung is reportedly planning to jump over a number to set records straight.

With that in mind, the belief is that the next flagship will be known as the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 and a new leak photo from China strengthens the belief of that happening. Like most image leaks, this remains up in arms and carries a lot of questions that needs confirmation.

The jump, if true, is understandable. With the Samsung Galaxy S7 already out in the open, releasing a Samsung Galaxy Note 6 does offer a notion of the device being a bit outdated. Aside from that, the number 7 of course carry that lucky notion, depending on how serious people are about superstitions.

While the name of the next Samsung Galaxy Note is still up for debate, the focus of consumers is really more on what the actual phone will bring. That means the features are still what is important and like the alleged Samsung Galaxy Note 7 name, rumors are the only basis for now.

Among the potential features the Samsung Galaxy Note 6 or 7 will bring include a dual-curved edge design that many may picture from the previously released Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge.

Aside from that, the specs that the Samsung Galaxy Note 6/7 may carry include a phablet that will run on a Quaclomm Snapdragon 820 chipset, backed by 6 GB of RAM and something armed with a larger 4,000 mAh battery.

Another distinct feature is the S Pen stylus which will allegedly offer something new with the aid of the S Note app. The app will aid the Stylus in taking quick notes and the possible feature of having a recycle bin where trashed notes will be stored temporarily and retrieved when needed.
The attention right now is for Samsungs unveiling of the Galaxy Note 6 or 7. Moving forward, however, there is another rumor going around and it fast-tracks to 2017 with alleged bendable phones on the horizon.

The month started with speculations that Samsung was seriously contemplating on a foldable phone release, one of five flagships that mobile phone consumers can expect for 2017. All that was ramped up by the idea of seeing foldable displays and now analysts are backing that claim.

The Samsung bendable phones will be codenamed Project Valley and one (or both) of the devices could be unveiled as early as the Mobile World Congress 2017, which happens in February in Barcelona. If so, this would give Samsung a big jump over rival Apple, which is expected to unveil a new device using OLED screens in late 2017.

Two bendable phones are expected with one described as a version where one variant could fold in half similar to a makeup compact. The other could be a 5-inch version that can unfold and turn out to be a tablet-style gadget.

This product could be a game-changer if Samsung successfully comes up with a user interface suitable for bendable screens, said Lee Seung Woo, an analyst at IBK Securities Co. in Seoul. Next year is a probable scenario. Their biggest obstacle was related to making transparent plastics and making them durable, which seems resolved by now.

The displays of the alleged Samsung foldable phones will likely be thinner if one is to consider the technology the Korean giant has at its hands. If Samsung is indeed able to come up with that, it can easily address the worries tied up to battery life which becomes a concern for power-guzzling and specialized displays.

To reiterate the statement of Woo, Samsung stands to start a new trend in mobile phone displays which has now become a practice of rival brands. Apple is following (though a bit late) next year but the obvious thing here is the phone display revolution which Samsung has started.

Critics still consider this rumor as requiring more backing but skimming through the credential of Samsung, the tech giant is someone that can certainly (or easily) pull it off.
You remember how your goldfish had been unblinking and caring as a pet? Well, if you think all the horror you put it through when you tapped on his glass won't be remembered, you're wrong.

In a study published in Science Reports, scientists from the United Kingdom and Australia trained a species of fish to recognize human faces. It took a bit of practice, but the archerfish that scientists were studying were able to pick out specific faces from a lineup with accuracy, indicating that these species can recognize faces, even though people thought otherwise.

This discovery is important because this is the first time that fish demonstrated such ability. CNN noted that to be able to do this, species will have to be able to pick up subtle differences in features, which is why primates and other animals with larger and more complex brains are able to do this.

Fish, on the other hand, have tiny brains, and as far as their evolution goes, there is no need for them to even recognize human faces, which is why the study's results were found to be astounding.

This raises several questions - for instance, could your pet fish recognize you? Or in a more fun sense, could Dory find her family if it were real-life and not a Pixar film?

Dr. Cait Newport, a research fellow in Oxford University's zoology department and co-author of the study said that there is a possibility that it could happen. She shared, "There's something like 30,000 species of fish. A blind fish is not going to be able to do this, sharks are fish and they can see color -- so maybe."

But how were they able to train these fish? Simple. Apparently, as Newport said, it's very similar to training your pet dog, except that to know whether or not these species recognize you, they spit in your eye - not lick you to say "hi."
Dialysis patients may soon be free of clunky machines, as promised by a new clinical trial that suggested wearable artificial kidneys can finally be within reach.

Kidney specialist Dr. Maria DeVita said that this technology is a game changer, as it gives humans all hope that there will be significant improvement in taking care of people who require dialysis.

According to US News, people with advanced kidney disease must resort to spending hours a day at dialysis centers, getting attached to special machines that clean their bloods as their kidneys were supposed to do.

Having a small portable device that could perform hemodialysis on patients so that they can go about their day has been the dream for a long time - and it seems that it's getting nearer.

Fox News reported that the artificial kidneys, created by Dr. Jonathan Himmelfarb and his colleagues, continuously operates and had been effective in pilot studies for as long as 8 hours. Currently, they used the kidneys on 11 patients to record a 24-hour test. Out of the 11, five were able to finish the test of the wearable artificial kidney. Results showed that they are able to function fully, and that the devices performed as expected.

However, despite the positive results, there were challenges along the way. One of the patients had to stop treatment because of the blood circuit clot, while two others needed new batteries before the end of 24 hours. Three other had to interrupt treatment to have gas bubbles removed from their blood circuit.

The technical problems were enough to stop the trial, but there had been no serious complications. Dr. Karin Gerritsen and Dr. Jaap Joles from the University Medical Center Utrecht in The Netherlands said in an email to Reuters, "Wearable and portable artificial kidneys are certainly on the horizon, but it will still take a few years before they become widely available."
Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) is given to a person in case of cardiac arrest and now, a new form of CPR known as CompressionOnly Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (COCPR) is reportedly effective in saving lives.

Traditional CPR comprises both cardiac compression and mouth to mouth respiration whereas in COCPR only cardiac compression is given without mouth to mouth breathing. It is reported that 400,000 people in the U.S. die of cardiac arrest every year and about 9,000 of them are children below the age of 18. It is believed that if appropriate CPR training is given to people a number of such deaths could be prevented.

If a person suffers sudden heart attack the first thing to be done by the rescuer is to call 911. Immediately after making sure the help is arriving, the rescuer should try to resuscitate the victim's heart by repeated compression, reported KSFY.

"Many citizens may not choose to do CPR on a person having cardiac arrest because they're afraid to make a mistake or hurt someone or are uncomfortable performing mouthtomouth breathing," said Project Director Dr. Barry Ramo, a New Mexico Heart Institute cardiologist, according to Daily Post. "The compression-only CPR is going to change that and change the lives of New Mexicans."

Compression should be given by placing one hand on the center of the chest while placing the other hand above it. Chest should be pressed rapidly in such a way that the person receives 100 compressions a minute. Every compression should be two inches deep and one can give as much pressure as possible. The experts note that there is no need to panic while giving pressure as injuring organs doesn't matter much than death.

New Mexico Heart Institute's 6th annual Project Heart Start event which is to be held on Saturday, 25 June 2016 is aimed at giving COCPR training to people in Los Alamos.

"At the event, attendees will learn simple life-saving techniques by watching a video. Then, volunteer facilitators will work with small groups and use manikins to teach proper chest compression, how to recognize the signs of a heart attack, how to use an automated external defibrillator and how to save someone who is choking," noted Daily Post.

The Mobile CPR Project is accepting community requests for training: http://phillycpr.wpengine.com.

cgilman@phillynews.com215-854-5502
Scientists from Griffith University's Research Centre for Human Evolution (RCHE) have recently discovered evidence proving that Aboriginal people were indeed the first to live the continent which argues an earlier landmark study claiming to have recovered DNA sequences from the oldest known Australian, Mungo Man.

According to an article in news.com.au, Mungo Man was a hunter-gatherer that lived in western New South Wales approximately 43,000 years ago and his skeleton is the oldest remains on the continent. Past research by Australian academic Alan Thorne said that he has found the DNA of Mungo Man and that it came from a specific line of humans who headed the aborigines.

The research disputed the commonly held "out of Africa" theory and suggested that Australia was inhabited by people from southern Asia. Professor Lambert, from RCHE, said the 2001 paper was "important worldwide and in Australia" but "there was always a certain amount of concern" about the accuracy of its findings.

"The sample from Mungo Man which we retested contained sequences from five different European people suggesting that these all represent contamination," he said. "At the same time we re-analysed more than 20 of the other ancient people from Willandra. We were successful in recovering the genomic sequence of one of the early inhabitants of Lake Mungo, a man buried very close to the location where Mungo Man was originally interred.

He also said that by going back and carefully examining the samples again using more advanced technology, they have found a huge amount of compelling support for their argument that Aboriginal Australians were indeed the first to inhabit Australia, Science Daily reported.

Professor Lambert also explained that the results proved that using the more advanced genomic technology made unlocking further secrets from Australia's human past more accurate. "We now know that meaningful genetic information can be recovered from ancient Aboriginal Australian remains," he said. He also added saying that the findings show the first time researchers have recovered an ancient mitochondrial genome sequence from an Aboriginal person who lived before the arrival of the Europeans.

Since the publication of Thomas Henry Huxley's Man's Place in Nature in 1863, there has been debate in Australia and around the world about the origins of the first Australians.
The Nigerian space program has no billion dollars worth of budget nor modern laboratory and equipments, and new challenges lie in wait. But director general S. O. Mohammed of the Nigerian National Space Research and Development Agency is bent on getting scientific accomplishments despite the small funding.

Nigerian space program will never be an ego trip, according to Mohammed. He said that instead of being part of the race to Mars and the moon, their agency is looking at ways on how to come out with common Nigerian solutions to most of their problems. Among his visions include the capability to locally design and construct a satellite by 2018, and by 2030, he plans to launch a satellite from the Nigerian territory. Following this is to send a man to the moon.

However, Mohammed is currently facing probes as critics continue to question the money given to the space program while 70 percent of the people are living below the poverty line and the economy faces an impending recession. He is also being questioned about the use of a moon mission that will be launched more than 60 years following Apollo 11, WWLP reported.

According to Mohammed, Nigeria's three current satellites are an indication of the benefits of a national space program, and that the agency has already documented the country's regional climate change patterns as well as update their outdated maps. In addition, the agency has been helpful in tracing the activities of the terrorist group Boko Haram in some remote areas of Nigeria.

Reports indicate that the next priority of Mohammed would be the launch of Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite that will be able to penetrate cloud coverage. The photos that it will produce are expected to help monitor the activity in the Gulf of Guinea that has recently reported an increase in pirate activity. As explained by Mohammed, these projects are reflections of "capacity building", or advancements that can ultimately turn Nigeria into a space innovation hub in the region.

While NASRDA has been awarded this year with $20 million worth of funding to continue its operations, it still needs $65 million more in order to get its next satellite project started, according to WGal News.
FLORENCE, S.C.  United Methodists from across the state have gathered in Florence this week for the South Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Churchs annual conference. The four-day meeting is being featured at the Florence Civic Center and will end Wednesday afternoon.

The annual conference has been held in Florence for about 10 years.

Several sessions filled this years schedule including reports from the United Methodist Churchs general conference that was held a couple of weeks ago in Oregon, a commissioning and ordination service, recognition of retiring ministers, reports from the states United Methodist schools, a service of remembrance and thanksgiving, committee reports and elections.

This year, there werent a lot of big ones (topics) because so much was focused on general conference, so of lot of it (the conference) was kind of recapping what happened, said Matt Brodie, communications director for the South Carolina United Methodist Church. The big things that happened to us this year that we sort of focused on that have taken our attention, were the shootings in Charleston and a lot of racial reconciliation type things, but also the flood.

Brodie said the South Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church played a major role in flood recovery across the state. A big part of the conference Monday was a big celebration talking about flood recovery, what the South Carolina conference did and where it plans to go with the recovery efforts.

Another big aspect of this years conference was raising awareness and funds for the Imagine No More Malaria campaign.

Imagine No More Malaria is a global United Methodist Church campaign to eliminate malaria in Africa. The campaign focuses on four key areas: prevention, education, communication and treatment.

Currently as a denomination, were trying to raise $75 million, Brodie said. The S.C. Conference, our part is were trying to raise a million dollars to go toward that.

Brodie said difference churches are completing activities to help raise funds for the campaign.

A free concert featuring The Digital Age band was scheduled for Thursday evening to raise funds for the Imagine No Malaria campaign. Youth groups were scheduled to attend the concert from all over the state.

The annual conference was also an opportunity for United Methodist organizations, colleges and other vendors to promote their services. Among vendors and United Methodists was Paula Entwistle from Quinby United Methodist Church in Quinby, S.C.

Entwistle was at the conference to attend the sessions, promote her churchs cookbook and also invite people to church.

Our preacher allowed me to go out and sell these cookbooks in an attempt to bring lost souls into our church. As you know, church membership is dwindling, Entwistle said. People are dying out and theyre not having children come to church like they used to.

Entwistle considers herself a frontline soldier for Christ, and she said the conference has blessed her greatly.

I have been so blessed, she said. I thought I was going to be the teacher, but I have been the student, the pupil, because it has blessed me more than anything.

On Wednesday, the last day of the conference, Brodie said, final business will be conducted including the approval of budgets and a sending forth service. United Methodist pastors are itinerant, and Brodie said the fixing of their appointments for the upcoming year will be done Wednesday.

We finalize whos going where and then we have a closing service to sort of send everybody forth, back out into the work to be in mission in the world, Brodie said.
Vietnamese delegates work with representatives from the All - Russia People's Front (Source: VNA)



During meetings with Russian officials on his working visit to Russia from June 6th-8th, President of the Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF) Central Committee Nguyen Thien Nhan highlighted comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries, saying that this and significant assistance from Russia for Vietnam, helped increase the position of Vietnam in the region and the world.

The VFF leader introduced Russian officials to the role played by the VFF in national liberation struggles in the past and national construction and defence at present.

He also praised the support provided by the Russian State and people in Vietnams past struggles for independence.

Russian officials affirmed their countrys policy to maintain a comprehensive strategic partnership with Vietnam, noting that this is part of Russias strategy to enhance relations with countries in Asia-Pacific.

General secretary of the All - Russia People's Front (ARPF) Alexander Bretralov noted the contributions made by the VFF to Vietnams ongoing reform and construction.

With similar functions and responsibilities, the VFF and the ARPF should foster links and share experience, he said.

During his stay, the Vietnamese official and his entourage attended the opening ceremony of the Vietnam Cultural Days in Russia, and laid a wreath at the President Ho Chi Minh statue in Moscow .

He also met with representatives of the Russian veterans association and the Russia-Vietnam Friendship Association.

Talking to Vietnamese expatriates living and working in Russia, the VFF leader affirmed that the Party and State consider the overseas Vietnamese communities as an indispensable part of the nation.

He called for the Vietnamese overseas community to contribute more to the homelands development and to bilateral relations.

The Vietnamese delegation will tour Norway after concluding their Russian working visit./.
DARLINGTON, S.C.  Kevin N. Brown donated goods to The Lord Cares on behalf of the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows last month. The Lord Cares is a Darlington ministry that provides food and assistance to people in need.

We have a lodge in Darlington which will be Pee Dee Odd Fellows Lodge because we want to include all of the Pee Dee area and all of South Carolina, Brown said. This order is one of the older fraternities that we seek to establish again. It is based on friendship, love and truth.

Riley Hill Lodge 7224 is the mother lodge that will assist lodges in establishing other lodges in Darlington and surrounding areas.

The founder of the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows was Peter Ogden, who went through obstacles and trials to establish the organization for African-Americans, according to Brown.

Contact Brown at kevinbrown713@aol.com or 843-861-5689 for more information about the organization.
VeloCloud Achieves VMware Ready Status

By Casey Houser , Contributing Writer

VeloCloud is always trying to optimize the various aspect of its software-defined wide area network, Cloud-Delivered SD-WAN. It has now secured the functioning of its flagship so much that it has gained VMware Ready status, which means that its cloud-based network has passed the requisite interoperability tests with VMwares virtualization software.







VeloCloud will gain the right to place the VMware Ready insignia next to its SD-WAN and will also find its product mentioned in the VMware Solution Exchange, an online marketplace where businesses can shop for new additions to their virtualized infrastructures. This pairing of services will have the effect of speeding up VeloCloud network connections and increasing the flexibility of the applications its clients use every day.

Michael Wood, the vice president of marketing at VeloCloud, called this event a milestone in his companys development. He mentioned that the final years of this decade will be critical to VeloClouds future because it expects to grow a significant amount during that time. In order to sustain its expected growth, however, it must remain flexible enough to meet all its clients needs. That is why the joining with VMware makes sense.

The least amount the VeloCloud could gain from this partnership is that its clients will now have access to VMware vSphere, a server virtualization platform that allows businesses to create their own virtualized network functions that work well with one another. Inside a single business, this can increase the interoperability of its systems and reduce the complexity system admins face when dealing with a network. For service providers, such a drop in complexity can be even more dramatic because it can extend those virtualized services to a range of customers across the globe. The use of virtualized infrastructure can also provide benefits for companies that dig into the Internet of Things.

Beyond use of vSphere, VeloCloud will also benefit from the exposure it gains in the VMware online marketplace. Wood said his company expected to grow in the coming three to five years; well, this may be the first big step that solidifies that ambition. One mention in the pages of VMwares catalog and all businesses will know that the SD-WAN has been vetted to work with the virtualized infrastructure they have come to know. Potential customers can find VeloCloud now in the marketplace and begin using the SD-WAN at any point they choose.

Edited by Maurice Nagle
Draught restrictions had been imposed on panamax vessels transiting the existing canal in recent months due to a lack of rainfall reducing water levels.

Were back to normal level of waters, yesterday we got enough rains and for the draught levels, Panama Canal Administrator Jorge Quijano told Seatrade Maritime News at Posidonia 2016.

The draught levels for panamaxes on the existing locks are 39.5 feet, while for the new, larger locks due to open on 26 June it will be 43 feet.
Panama Canal Administrator Jorge Quijano attending Posidonia 2016 told Seatrade Maritime News following completion of testing of the control systems the chartered in 114,248 dwt bulker Baroque, owned by Golden Union, would be arriving in Panama to test the locks the on the Atlantic side of the canal.

Once the vessel has been inspected it will undertake trials of the Atlantic side locks going up, turning around and coming back down, it will not, however, make a full transit of the expanded canal.

It will do that a couple of times a day and this for not only testing the system but also ensuring that our pilots and tugboat pilots have the ability to practice with a new panamax, Quijano explained.

Golden Union they are very happy that their vessel is going to be the one that makes the trials, he added.

At the same time testing of the Pacific locks will undertaken by with a buoy tender from the Panama Canal Authority (ACP). There are other possibilities we undertake between now and 26 June on the Pacific side to make sure everything is working, he said.

The first full transit of the expanded canal will be reserved for the neo-panamax containership Cosco Shipping Panama. The vessel is set to depart for Panama from Cosco Pacifics terminal in the Port of Piraeus on Saturday 11 June, and Quijano is staying on after Posidonia to see the for himself vessel and meet with its Captain before it sets sail.

In terms of business for the expanded canal Quijano said they had seen customers switching to use larger vessels and at least one new service being launched. Between now and September 119 reservations have been made for neo-panamax vessel transits. Of these 112 are from containerships, with the remainder from large LPG carriers.

Quijano said most of the interest had come from Asian companies NYK, China Cosco Shipping, Evergreen and K Line all making reservations, with its first from Europe, by MSC, last Friday.

On top of the reservations there will be more transits by vessels coming a first-come-first served basis.

As yet there are no reservations from LNG carriers a new business area the canal is targeting. Weve been talking with LNG exporters and we see before the end of the year some of them coming through once a week, Quijano said.
Prime among this is the agreement between SRH Marine and Spain-based Aage Hempel Group to set up a new joint venture service company in Cyprus with the intention of providing an extensive worldwide service network as well as offer SRH Marine's Bridge Technical Management (BRI.TE.M) solutions.



"We had been looking for a high quality global service partner when Aage Hempel approached us to ask about offering their service to the market and clients," said SRH Marine md Kostas Sismanidis.



"From the beginning both parties clearly identified the tremendous synergies and the high value we could offer together to the market, so we decided to join forces and the outcome has been the creation of this new company," concluded Sismanidis.



Yet another joint venture contract with Zhoushan Jason Trade will see the development of the SRH newbuilding wheelhouse console and marine power supply units for the Chinese newbuilding market.



And finally, SRH Marine also announced the first BRI.TE.M agreements signed with five major shipping companies.



The agreements with Starbulk, Petrochem General Management, Seaworld Management and Trading, Contships Management and Golden Union will see them getting an integrated solution to bridge technical management.
Remains of at least three tiny humans dating to 700,000 years ago have been found on the Indonesian island of Flores, which was the homeland of Homo floresiensis, aka "Hobbit Humans," according to two new papers in the journal Nature. The newly found early humans, represented by a partial right jaw and some isolated teeth, predate the Hobbits by more than half a million years, the papers report. Their presence on the island suggests that the small individuals were part of a population that later gave rise to the Hobbits, whose fossils were previously discovered at Flores' Liang Bua cave. RELATED: Suspicious: Hobbits Vanish When Modern Humans Appear "We cannot be sure about their actual body size because we only have the mandible and teeth," Yousuke Kaifu, co-author of the first paper, told Discovery News, "but their sizes suggest that these 700,000-year-old hominins (early members of the genus Homo) were as small as Homo floresiensis from Liang Bua." The Hobbits were about 3.3 feet tall.

Kaifu, an anthropologist at the National Museum of Nature and Science in Japan, along with lead author of the first paper Gerrit van den Bergh and their colleagues, analyzed the new remains. They were excavated from layers of sedimentary rock at a site called Mata Menge, located approximately 43.5 miles away from Liang Bua. The researchers believe that the fossils came from early Homo floresiensis and belonged to at least one adult and two children. WATCH: Evolution Is Happening Right Before Your Eyes

When the Hobbit remains were first found in 2003, many scientists were completely baffled by the population's diminutive size. Some even thought that the individuals were members of our species who were pathologically dwarfed or diseased. Van den Bergh, however, said that the latest discovery "quashes once and for all any doubters that believe Homo floresiensis was merely a sick modern human." RELATED: Making a Modern Mummified Man: Gotta See Video The second paper, with research led by Adam Brumm of Griffith University and the University of Wollongong, describes the geology of Mata Menge and confirms that the Hobbit predecessors lived at least 700,000 years ago. It said that stone tools were also found at Flores and date to approximately 700,000 to 1 million years ago. Taken together, all of the finds suggest that a population of small individuals lived perhaps continuously as a lineage on the island from about a million years ago to at least around 38,00060,000 years ago. As for where they came from before settling on Flores, Kaifu suspects that "a large-bodied Homo erectus population got there and dwarfed on the island."

He added, "Rather than claiming that such extreme body and brain size dwarfism cannot occur (on a widespread scale), we now have accepted that that happened and can shift to the next question as to why that happened and on what mechanism." Aida Gomez-Robles, a scientist at George Washington University specializing in human evolution, explained that one theory about the Hobbits says they shrunk in size by a process called island dwarfing. This refers to an extreme reduction in size due to the absence of predators and to resource scarcity that is typical of island ecosystems. RELATED: Could a Human Not in Our Species Still Exist? When the Hobbit remains were first found, the researchers also discovered evidence for a pygmy elephant, suggesting that a pachyderm also underwent island dwarfing at Flores. Gomez-Robles told Discovery News that the two new papers are important because "they demonstrate that the origin of Homo floresiensis is very old, which confirms that this is a totally valid species with old evolutionary roots." This has two important implications. "The first one is that the very small size that is characteristic of Homo floresiensis may have evolved over a very short period of time," she said. "The second one is that this small size has remained stable over a long period of time because more recent Homo floresiensis remains from the site of Liang Bua are very similar in size to the fossils from Mata Menge, which are the ones described in these new papers." To this day, people from Indonesia tend to be smaller than other humans. It is possible that the Hobbits interbred with modern humans in the way that Neanderthals did, but more finds would be needed to figure out what happened to this still mysterious island population. SEE PHOTOS: Faces of Our Ancestors

Recreation of a hobbit human next to a stork and elephant relative also known from the island of Flores.

Back in the Beginning To put a human face on our ancestors, scientists from the Senckenberg Research Institute used sophisticated methods to form 27 model heads based on tiny bone fragments, teeth and skulls collected from across the globe. The heads are on display for the first time together at the Senckenberg Natural History Museum in Frankfurt, Germany. This model is Sahelanthropus tchadensis, also nicknamed "Toumai," who lived 6.8 million years ago. Parts of its jaw bone and teeth were found nine years ago in the Djurab desert in Chad. It's one of the oldest hominid specimens ever found.

Australopithecus afarensis With each new discovery, paleoanthropologists have to rewrite the origins of man's ancestors, adding on new branches and tracking when species split. This model was fashioned from pieces of a skull and jaw found among the remains of 17 pre-humans (nine adults, three adolescents and five children) which were discovered in the Afar Region of Ethiopia in 1975. The ape-man species, Australopithecus afarensis, is believed to have lived 3.2 million years ago. Several more bones from this species have been found in Ethiopia, including the famed "Lucy," a nearly complete A. afarensis skeleton found in Hadar.

Australopithecus africanus Meet "Mrs. Ples," the popular nickname for the most complete skull of an Australopithecus africanus, unearthed in Sterkfontein, South Africa in 1947. It is believed she lived 2.5 million years ago (although the sex of the fossil is not entirely certain). Crystals found on her skull suggest that she died after falling into a chalk pit, which was later filled with sediment. A. africanus has long puzzled scientists because of its massive jaws and teeth, but they now believe the species' skull design was optimal for cracking nuts and seeds.

Paranthropus aethiopicus The skull of this male adult was found on the western shore of Lake Turkana in Kenya in 1985. The shape of the mouth indicates that he had a strong bite and could chew plants. He is believed to have lived in 2.5 million years ago and is classified as Paranthropus aethiopicus. Much is still unknown about this species because so few reamins of P. aethiopicus have been found.

Paranthropus boisei Researchers shaped this skull of "Zinj," found in 1959. The adult male lived 1.8 million years ago in the Olduvai Gorge of Tanzania. His scientific name is Paranthropus boisei, though he was originally called Zinjanthropus boisei -- hence the nickname. First discovered by anthropologist Mary Leakey, the well-preserved cranium has a small brain cavity. He would have eaten seeds, plants and roots which he probably dug with sticks or bones.

Homo rudolfensis This model of a sub-human species -- Homo rudolfensis -- was made from bone fragments found in Koobi Fora, Kenya, in 1972. The adult male is believed to have lived about 1.8 million years ago. He used stone tools and ate meat and plants. H. Rudolfensis' distinctive features include a flatter, broader face and broader postcanine teeth, with more complex crowns and roots. He is also recognized as having a larger cranium than his contemporaries.

Homo ergaster The almost perfectly preserved skeleton of the "Turkana Boy" is one of the most spectacular discoveries in paleoanthropology. Judging from his anatomy, scientists believe this Homo ergaster was a tall youth about 13 to 15 years old. According to research, the boy died beside a shallow river delta, where he was covered by alluvial sediments. Comparing the shape of the skull and teeth, H. ergaster had a similiar head structure to the Asian Homo erectus.

Homo heidelbergensis This adult male, Homo heidelbergensis, was discovered in in Sima de los Huesos, Spain in 1993. Judging by the skull and cranium, scientists believe he probably died from a massive infection that caused a facial deformation. The model, shown here, does not include the deformity. This species is believed to be an ancestor of Neanderthals, as seen in the shape of his face. "Miquelon," the nickname of "Atapuerca 5", lived about 500,000 to 350,000 years ago and fossils of this species have been found in Italy, France and Greece.

Homo neanderthalensis The "Old Man of La Chapelle" was recreated from the skull and jaw of a Homo neanderthalensis male found near La Chapelle-aux-Saints, in France in 1908. He lived 56,000 years ago. His relatively old age, thought to be between 40 to 50 years old, indicates he was well looked after by a clan. The old man's skeleton indicates he suffered from a number of afflictions, including arthritis, and had numerous broken bones. Scientists at first did not realize the age and afflicted state of this specimen when he was first discovered. This led them to incorrectly theorize that male Neanderthals were hunched over when they walked.

Homo floresiensis The skull and jaw of this female "hobbit" was found in Liang Bua, Flores, Indonesia, in 2003. She was about 1 meter tall (about 3'3") and lived about 18,000 years ago. The discovery of her species, Homo floresiensis, brought into question the belief that Homo sapiens was the only form of mankind for the past 30,000 years. Scientists are still debating whether Homo floresiensis was its own species, or merely a group of diseased modern humans. Evidence is mounting that these small beings were, in fact, a distinct human species.
Photo: The May 21 view of Arctic sea ice in the Beaufort Sea, showing early ice thinning and melting. Credit: NASA Arctic sea ice shrank to its fourth-lowest level in 50 years last month, setting a record low for the month of May and setting up conditions for what could become the smallest Arctic ice extent in history, according to National Snow and Ice Data Center data released Tuesday.

"We didn't just break the old May record, we're way below the previous one," NSIDC Director Mark Serreze said.

Compared to normal conditions, the Arctic ice cap was missing a Texas-sized slab of ice in May. It spread across 4.63 million square miles of the Arctic Ocean, Hudson Bay and adjacent areas of the North Atlantic - an area 224,000 square miles smaller than the previous low record for the month set in 2004. May's record low follows four previous monthly record lows set in January, February and April.

RELATED: Arctic Warms, Antarctic Ice Shelves Weaken

Temperatures averaged about 3C (5F) above normal across the Arctic Ocean this spring. The warmth made daily sea ice extents average about 232,000 square miles smaller than during any May in the 38 years scientists have been gathering data using satellites. Overall, it was the fourth-lowest sea ice extent in the 50-year record.

The Arctic, which saw unusually warm temperatures near-freezing during a severe storm in December, is warming twice as fast as the rest of the globe as the climate changes. This year's extreme El Nino may also have helped crank up the heat.

Sea ice this year is melting at a pace two to four weeks faster than normal as pulses of warm air have been streaming into the Arctic from eastern Siberia and northern Europe and sea ice has retreated early from the Beaufort Sea.

RELATED: What's Ahead For Climate Change In 2016?

Barrow, Alaska, on the Beaufort Sea, recorded its earliest snowmelt in 78 years last month. Normally, snow begins to retreat in late June or July, but the snow began to melt May 13 - 10 days sooner than the previous record set in 2002.

"The El Nino certainly had something to do with this," Serreze said. "It can have impacts on weather conditions very far away from the tropical Pacific."

These warm conditions at the beginning of the summer melting season have set up the Arctic sea ice to shrink below its all-time record lowest extent set in 2012, he said.

The extent to which the ice cap will melt this summer is entirely dependent on summer weather patterns that scientists have no way to predict more than 10 days in advance, he said.

RELATED: Global Warming Right Before Your Eyes: Photos

"If we had a summer that is kind of cool and stormy, that will lead to less melt through the summer," Serreze said. "That could keep you from reaching a new record."

"Will we end up with very low sea ice extent this September? I think pretty much absolutely," he said.

More From Climate Central:

Sea Ice Still Declining, Despite Antarctica's Gains

Arctic Sea Ice Hits Record Low Winter Peak

Antarctica's Record High Temp Bodes Ill for Ice

This article originally appeared on Climate Central, all rights reserved.

WATCH VIDEO: Who Owns The North Pole?
A University of Sydney study found that taking a gap year helps students acquire real-world skills and "did not slow down their academic momentum," as Forbes reported. Another study conducted by Middlebury College found that students who take a gap year are more likely to be happy in their careers after college.

In reality, a gap year actually isn't about taking time off at all. There are many opportunities this year can provide a student before they continue their education.

For many American students, taking a gap year is not something they consider when making post-high school plans. For students that want to go to college -- and can actually afford the astronomical tuition costs at most U.S. universities -- the most common arrangement is to go directly to college the same year they graduate from high school. Taking time off is seen as a waste of time or irresponsible.

One way that many students choose to spend their gap year is traveling the world. While this can be promote cultural knowledge, there are are actually many more opportunities a student can explore during that year. There are programs that allow students to explore a field of interest and get real world experience, potentially saving them thousands of dollars on studying something at university that turns out to be of no interest to them.

Things like internships, apprenticeships or personal projects force students to take an active role in their learning, which is a significant resume booster. Employers also want to hire people that have hands-on experience in their field.

The gap year shouldn't be thought of as a gap in education, but rather an effective way to prepare for the rigors of college work that a student can expect once they return to academia -- and most gap year students do return. Ninety percent of students who take a gap year return to college within a year.

As Rainesford Stauffer wrote in Forbes, "In spite of its name, the gap year is one of the most authentic outlets we have to creating a well-rounded, prepared student, a substantial education and closing the gap that is currently threatening to swallow our collegiate system."

Plus, if Malia Obama is doing it, then it must be a good idea.
Image: This is the first image of the moon ever taken by a U.S. spacecraft. Ranger 7 sent this back on July 31, 1964 about 17 minutes before slamming into the lunar surface. Credit: NASA Five decades after helping to land America's first probes on the moon, Justin Rennilson still keeps up with the latest space news. Rennilson, now 89, eagerly watched the Chinese rover Yutu toddling around the moon after it landed in 2013. And he's especially eager to see Americans go back, perhaps through the private company Moon Express. Rennilson assisted with the first camera to take pictures of the moon -- Ranger 7 -- as well as the camera that flew on Surveyor 1 (which landed 50 years ago last week). There's still science to follow up on from those missions, he says. Among them is a yet-to-be substantianted claim that there could be lunar dust blowing around on the surface every sunrise and sunset. His team spotted a bright line on the horizon on several occasions during Surveyor's program; they suspect the line is showing levitating dust. RELATED: NASA's First Lunar Landing Happened 50 Years Ago "If particles go up with (the moon's) electrostatic field, they may not go down at the same place they started from," Rennilson told Discovery News. He is currently helping the University of Arizona digitize 93,000 images from the program -- a project that should be ready for public viewing around late 2016 or early 2017.

Rennilson's journey to the moon began 55 years ago in 1961, when he had a fresh degree focusing on optical physics, and was working at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego. A friend told him NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. needed people who knew optics. While Rennilson's wife was reluctant to leave San Diego, the couple moved and Rennilson found himself at the front line of the space race. RELATED: Moon's Amino Acids Likely Earth Contamination That year was important in human spaceflight; Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first human in space on April 12, with the United States' Al Shepard following just weeks later, on May 5. Then NASA's mandate got a push from President John F. Kennedy on May 25. He addressed Congress with a speech on "urgent national needs" that in part, ordered his country to "commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth." It was a tall order for the United States, which had 15 minutes of human spaceflight experience. This is where the Surveyor program and its predecessor, Ranger, became supremely important; they took pictures of the moon and also taught scientists what the surface was like, ahead of the Apollo program that did land humans on the moon on time, in 1969. RELATED: Moon Landing: Rarely Seen Photos Inside Apollo 11 Rennilson joined JPL's photoscience group that was responsible for all of the imaging characteristics of missions with cameras. Ranger carried "slow-scan" television cameras (meaning the images were read out at a slower rate than standard television at the time). The program endured six failures before successfully impacting Rangers 7, 8 and 9 on the moon as planned between 1964 and 1965. Those missions showed the first American close-up images of the moon.

By this time, Rennilson was working closely with Eugene Shoemaker, one of the founders of planetary science at NASA, and Gerard Kuiper, one of the principal investigators on Ranger and the person who first proposed the existence of the Kuiper Belt at the edge of the solar system. Of the entire Ranger team, only three people are still alive today including Rennilson, he added. RELATED: Carbon Monoxide 'Fire Fountains' Erupted on the Moon For Surveyor -- whose goal was to soft-land a probe on the moon -- Rennilson worked on a Bell and Howell camera (Howell is unrelated to the author of this piece) with a zoom system. The team decided, based on the camera's design, to take pictures at the end position for narrow angle shots, and at the opposite position for wide angle shots. The Surveyor landings helped with Apollo in several ways, Rennilson said: they showed that a heavy spacecraft could sit on the lunar surface and they practiced the controlled landings (using retrorockets) needed for lunar exploration. Surveyor's pictures from orbit also targeted potential Apollo lunar landing sites, giving the mission planners crucial information to help the astronauts land safely.
A region of the Pacific nicknamed the "Species Factory" due to its marine life riches was on a downward slide just over a decade ago, but an ambitious conservation effort has turned things around for the better. Populations of sharks, corals and many other species in the region -- the Bird's Head Seascape of West Papua, Indonesia -- are all on the upswing now after 12 years of dedicated work, Conservation International (CI) announced today, World Oceans Day. RELATED: Shark Files: Largest Shark Ever Filmed Caught on Video CI also announced that a new virtual reality film, "Valen's Reef," chronicling what has happened at Bird's Head Seascape, will be released on June 20. "A little over a decade ago, the Bird's Head was decimated by commercial fishing, illegal poaching and damaging practices like blast fishing -- the detonation of explosives on the reefs to stun fish and increase catches," Laure Katz, director of CI's Seascapes Program, told Discovery News. WATCH: 4 Freshwater Animals More Terrifying Than Sharks

The Bird's Head Seascape is also home to more than 1,765 types of fish, and provides crucial habitat for many iconic endangered animals including whale sharks, manta rays and sea turtles. Over 70 species of reef fishes, crustaceans and corals are found nowhere else on the planet. "As fish populations plummeted, catch for the same level of effort decreased in some fisheries by as much as 90 percent," she said. "Indonesians living along the coasts saw their livelihoods, and traditional fishing rights, slip away as outside interests profited from plundering the Pacific." The loss was especially hard because the region previously was described by reef scientists as, not only a species factory, but also a "cauldron of evolution." That is due to the fact that, in an area about the size of Great Britain, it boasts 75 percent of all the world's coral species. There are about 600 unique corals in total, or ten times the number of coral species in the Caribbean. The turnaround from decimation began in 2004, when the Bird's Head Seascape Initiative was launched. This community-based conservation program involved not only CI, but also local community members, the regional government, and partner NGOs. Together, they helped to create a network of 12 Marine Protected Areas that provide monitoring and management of the coasts, reefs and fish. Mark Erdmann, CI's vice president for Asia-Pacific Marine Programs, has witnessed the changes, particularly at coral reefs, first hand. RELATED: Top 9 Areas for Preserving Marine Mammals "Over the past few months, numerous reports in the media have exposed the alarming levels of climate change-induced coral bleaching on Australia's Great Barrier Reef and many other locales across the Pacific Ocean," Erdmann told Discovery News. "I've just come back from a two-week expedition in Raja Ampat (an archipelago located off the northwest tip of the Bird's Head Peninsula), and our team saw scant evidence of bleaching here in the global epicenter of marine biodiversity." The reasons for Raja's resilient reefs are complex and numerous, but he believes that one of the most important factors is that the reefs there are normally exposed to a wide variation in temperatures, basically pre-adapting them to climate change.

"This makes our conservation efforts in the Bird's Head Seascape all the more important, as these reefs may hold the key to the long-term survival of coral reefs throughout the region," he said. The film "Valen's Reef" tells of those efforts. Production of the virtual reality movie involved use of an underwater rig designed by VRSE. The crew followed local fisherman-turned-coral-reef-scientist and CI staffer Ronald Mambrasar as he monitored the reefs with his young son, Valen. RELATED: First Contact in Decades with Rare Rhino in Indonesia's Borneo In the film, Ronald tells Valen, in Indonesian, the story of how the area was almost destroyed and how the community-led conservation initiative restored it. As a native Papuan and father of four, Ronald describes what it means to protect his home for the next generation. "Over the course of its twelve years, it has been an unprecedented success -- fish populations have rebounded, sharks, whales and rays have returned, illegal poaching by outside fishers is down 90 percent, coral is recovering and ecotourism has flourished," Katz said. "All of this has been achieved while ensuring access to education and food and providing livelihoods for local people."

A large school of fish was spotted in waters around the Bird's Head Seascape, Indonesia. Fish populations have recovered due to the protected status of the area. Credit: Conservation International/Photo by Sterling Zumbrunn

The peninsula's islands are home to three-quarters of a million people, many of whom have ancestral ties to the sea going back thousands of years. Credit: Conservation International/Sterling Zumbrunn

Locals gaze at a whale shark in Cendrawasih Bay, part of the Bird's Head Seascape. With the region's new shark sanctuary, Bird's Head marine life are the most protected in all of Indonesia. Credit: Burt Jones and Maurine Shimlock

The calm, clear water in Bird's Head allows corals to grow very near the surface in this unique environment. Credit: Burt Jones and Maurine Shimlock

Conservationists tag whale sharks to learn more about them at Bird's Head Seascape, Indonesia.

Although large, whale sharks are not very aggressive.

Both sea and sky show their colors during sunsets at the Bird's Head Seascape, Indonesia. Credit: Conservation International/Sterling Zumbrunn

Due to their popularity with divers, manta rays in the Bird's Head Seascape bring in about one million dollars to the local community over their lifespan. Credit: Shawn Heinrichs

A school of diagonal banded and yellow ribbon sweetlips is shown. Populations of commercially important fish species like these have been increasing in Bird's Head. Credit: Conservation International/Photo by Mark Erdmann

A new species of walking shark was discovered in the region.

The beaches along the northern coast of the Bird's Head Peninsula in the Abun region are home to some of the last nesting sites of leatherbacks, the largest species of sea turtle. Credit: Shawn Heinrich

Bird's Head is home to Indonesia's first shark and manta ray sanctuary. This led to Indonesia designating all its territorial waters as a manta sanctuary --the largest in the world. Credit: Shawn Heinrichs

Manta rays were filmed at Raja Ampat, Indonesia, within the conserved region.

Many sharks are endangered, so news of the increased numbers of sharks at Bird's Head Seascape is promising to conservationists.
Ukraine's largest vertically integrated energy holding DTEK posted UAH 7.614 billion in net loss in January-March 2016, the company said on its website.

Financial indicators for the same period of 2015 are not available for comparison, as DTEK did not publish quarterly reports earlier.

The energy holding's revenue in the first quarter of 2016 amounted to UAH 31.669 billion, EBITDA was UAH 2.176 billion.

DTEK's total debt by the end of the reporting period was UAH 71.386 billion.

DTEK was established in 2005 to manage the energy assets of the System Capital Management group, owned by businessman Rinat Akhmetov. DTEK is a vertically integrated company involved in the production and enrichment of coal, and the generation and sale of electricity.

DTEK Energy's net consolidated loss in 2015 was UAH 37.399 billion, which was 90.3% up on loss posted in 2014. The group's revenue grew by 1.8%, to UAH 93.622 billion, EBITDA declined by 66%, to UAH 4.087 billion.
Donald Trump is only part of the challenge facing Democrats this fall  just as important is the generational split between supporters of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, and what that rift could mean for the future of the party.

I have not seen anything like it since Ive been polling, said Mark DiCamillo, director of the Field Poll, which has been tracking California politics for decades.

Fields final pre-election poll, taken at the end of May, showed voters ages 18 to 29 favoring Sanders over Clinton, 75 to 15 percent. The split was almost as lopsided among respondents in their 30s, who backed the Vermont senator by 56 to 33 percent.

Clintons base was above 40 and was most solid among the oldest voters: Those older than 65 favored the former secretary of state by a 2-to-1 ratio.

Race, gender, geography, it didnt matter: The younger the voters, the stronger the tilt to Sanders.

Its something that we have seen in just about every primary race across the country, said Mark Baldassare, who runs the Public Policy Institute of California.

Sanders candidacy has put a whole new set of issues on the table for the Democratic Party, largely centered around one theme  fear of the future.

These are young people who are facing a world of economic uncertainty, and his call for things like free college has got them on the bandwagon, said Henry Brady of UC Berkeleys Goldman School of Public Policy.

The question is, can Hillary Clinton come up with a message to bring them into the fold? Brady said. So far she hasnt been able to do that.

She tried again Tuesday. At her victory speech in Brooklyn, N.Y., Clinton said, Sen. Sanders, his campaign and the vigorous debate that weve had about how to raise income, reduce inequality, increase upward mobility have been very good for the Democratic Party and for America.

The reason the generation gap matters over the long term is that the young people flocking to Sanders will gradually become the Democrats mainstream voters. Like the Tea Party forces who burst on the scene in 2010, paving the way for Trump six years later, or the young Democrats who idolized Eugene McCarthy in 1968, Sanders voters are likely to be a power to reckon with for years to come.

You are already seeing it with people like (Lt. Gov.) Gavin Newsom who are pivoting with issues like same-sex marriage and marijuana, said Republican Bill Whalen, a research fellow with the Hoover Institution.

I dont see it so much as a clash as an awakening, said Democratic operative Christine Pelosi, a Clinton supporter who also runs boot camps for potential officeholders.

Its the progressive future of the party, she said. We are going to have to make room for them.

Money track: Hope you enjoyed seeing Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump on the California campaign trail. Chances are they wont be staging repeat performances between now and November.

Were going back to our traditional role as the biggest ATM in America, said Democratic fundraiser Wade Randlett. If Donald Trump spends one minute in California not raising money, I will fall over dead.

At the same time, look for regular cash runs by Clinton  about one every three to five weeks.

According to political fundraising site OpenSecrets.org, almost a quarter of the big-check money raised by Clintons campaign and super PAC during the primary season  $56.2 million  came from California.

Although Trump largely self-funded his primary run, Californians contributed 15 percent  or $651,798  of the money he did raise, the website reported.

Incidentally, Bernie Sanders raised more than a fifth of his money from California  about $17 million in checks over $200. People in San Franciscos Mission District kicked in more than $255,000  the single biggest total of any ZIP code in the U.S.

Final flings: As barnstorms go, Bill Clintons final sprint through five Bay Area cities Monday was about as cheap a swing as you will find in national politics.

In both Oakland and Antioch, Clinton addressed crowds from the back of a rented pickup truck. In Hayward, he stopped at City Hall, and in Richmond, an art center.

The final stop  and probably the most expensive  was the Joseph Lee Recreation Center in San Franciscos Bayview, which cost the campaign $1,351 for use of the gym and staff.

Meanwhile, across town at Crissy Field, Bernie Sanders wrapped up his campaign with a rally and concert featuring Dave Matthews.

The Sanders event drew thousands, and park police were needed to direct traffic and the like. But Sanders got the site for free.

It was considered free speech and was given a First Amendment permit, said Howard Levitt, spokesman for the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

Levitt said he could not remember the last time the Presidio had been used for a political rally, but he did recall the last First Amendment permit that the GGNRA issued.

It was for the Mighty Mutt March  an April protest over proposed restrictions on where people can walk their dogs.

San Francisco Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross appear Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KPIX-TV morning and evening news. He can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call (415) 777-8815, or email matierandross@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: matierandross
Ukraine, Kazakhstan speed transportation of parcels from online stores between the two countries

State-run Ukrainian postal service company Ukrposhta in June 2016 launched transportation of international clustered parcels (the service dubbed Consignment) from Ukraine to Kazakhstan.

This service will let clients faster get goods from online stores via the two countries' postal services, Ukrposhta's press service said.

"The Republic of Kazakhstan is the first country Ukrposhta has signed an agreement on the bilateral exchange of "Consignment" international clustered parcels. This new delivery service from Ukrposhta opens an opportunity for Ukrainian online stores to comfortably work at the international level, increase the number of new clients," the press service quoted Ukrposhta head Ihor Tkachuk as saying.

Ukrposhta also works with Germany, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, and Slovakia, offering the "Consignment" service.

Ukrposhta is subject to the Ukrainian Infrastructure Ministry. It is the national postal operator in Ukraine. As of today, it offers over 50 types of services via almost 12,000 outlets across Ukraine. Its personnel are 76,000 people, including 33,000 postmen and 12,000 postal operators.
More signs that the Bay Areas overheated rental market is cooling off: At an industry conference Tuesday, two executives of major apartment owners said that increased supply is causing them to lose pricing power, although they think it will be temporary.

Early this year, Equity Residential was able to sign new leases in the Bay Area at 5 percent more than expiring leases, its chief operating officer David Santee said. But literally in probably three to four weeks, as we began to enter the peak leasing season, we saw that pricing power erode from 5 percent down to 1 percent where we are today. That was kind of the impetus behind the change in the guidance the company gave Wall Street analysts last week.

On June 1, Equity Residential said it expects revenues from properties open at least one year to grow 4 to 4.5 percent in 2016, down from its previous estimate of 4.5 to 5 percent. These revenues increased 5.1 percent last year and 4.6 percent in the first quarter versus the same quarter last year. In the press release, it blamed the revision on continued weakness in its New York portfolio and recent underperformance in the companys San Francisco portfolio.

Santee attributed the Bay Area slowdown to new supply in the urban core and South Bay. Santees comments were made at the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trust Investor Forum in New York City.

On the same panel, the firms chief executive David Neithercut said he is still seeing strength in New York and San Francisco, just not as much as we had expected. He said the headwinds his firm is facing in San Francisco are temporary.

Based in Chicago, Equity Residential is one of the nations largest apartment owners. About 20 percent of its assets are in the Bay Area. According to its website, it owns 52 communities in the Bay Area. In San Francisco it has several large new luxury complexes including Potrero 1010, with 453 units, and Azure Apartments, with 273 units in Mission Bay. Both have been advertising offers such as four to six weeks free rent.

Shares in Equity Residential have tumbled 7.2 percent since last weeks announcement. Stock in other apartment real estate investment trusts also have fallen. AvalonBay is down 5.6 percent. Essex Property Trust is down almost 8 percent.

On Monday, AvalonBay reiterated its previous forecast: It expects revenues for communities open at least a year to increase 4.9 to 5.1 percent for the current quarter.

Essex, based in San Mateo, owns and operates about 60,000 units in coastal urban markets of Washington and California, CEO Michael Schall said at the same industry conference.

Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes

He said that Southern California and Seattle are running ahead of guidance this year but Northern California has disappointed a little bit. Year to date, revenues from Northern California properties open at least one year are growing 8.5 percent versus guidance of 9 percent.

The problem in Northern California is a supply delivery issue, he said. About 70 percent of the new units slated to open this year will become available in the second and third quarters. That is putting downward pressure on rents, especially in San Franciscos South of Market neighborhood, the Peninsula and North San Jose. Once that supply abates ... we get back into a more supply-demand equilibrium type of market and have better pricing power from that point on, he said.

Kathleen Pender is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: kpender@sfchronicle.com Twitter: kathpender
Voters voiced strong support for school districts across the Bay Area whose leaders were asking voters to pony up higher property taxes to support $2.7 billion in facilities bonds.

The majority of nearly two dozen K-12 bond and parcel tax measures on the ballot in Alameda, Marin, Contra Costa, Santa Clara and San Mateo counties claimed victory.

The measures on Tuesdays ballot were just the first wave of school bonds and parcel taxes, with another round expected on the November ballot  which will also include a $9 billion state facilities bond.

Local district officials are hoping to leverage the state funds with local bonds to modernize aging classrooms, computer labs, cafeterias and playgrounds.

Among the more contentious appeals for cash were two bonds in Albany, measures B and E, which combined will raise $95 million to rebuild schools by increasing property taxes by an estimated $180 per $100,000 in assessed value. For an $800,000 home, that means an extra $1,440 annually.

Measure B, a $70 million bond requiring two-thirds voter support, gained 69 percent of votes with all precincts reporting results. The $25 million Measure E, requiring 55 percent support, won with 72 percent of the vote.

The biggest bond on the ballot was out of the Chabot-Las Positas Community College District, where a $950 million measure won with 64 percent of votes. Measure A, requiring 55 percent voter support, will increase property taxes in the district by $24.50 for every $100,000 in assessed value.

Other winning bond measures, each requiring 55 percent voter support, included:

Measure G, a $123 million bond for Castro Valley Unified, which gained 68 percent support.

Measure J, a $245 million bond for Livermore Valley Joint Unified, which earned 66 percent of the vote.

COVID Resources Coronavirus Map Tracking COVID-19 cases across the Bay Area and California.

Measure C, a $70 million bond for the Lafayette School District, which was supported by 72 percent of voters.

Measure D, a $60 million bond for the Walnut Creek School District, which garnered 73 percent of votes.

Measure B, a $265 million bond for the Marin County Community College District, which gained 63 percent support.

Jill Tucker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jtucker@sfchronicle.com

Twitter: jilltucker
In a City Arts & Lectures-produced benefit for 826 Valencia on Monday night, June 6, Dave Eggers was in conversation with Paul Simon (as Eli Wolfes story describes). It should be said first that Eggers is an elegant interviewer. Simon speaks thoughtfully but haltingly, and Eggers waited patiently  sitting almost stock-still  for his answers. Those answers were so full that it was unnecessary for the interviewer to bombard the interviewee with questions. The focus, properly, was entirely on Simon.

Simon started out talking about the physics of sound (the tone of the universe is a slightly flat B-flat), moved to making a living as a performer (performing with Art Garfunkel in front of the Colosseum in Rome, he saw nearby residents listening from apartment balconies and thought, I wonder what an apartment like that would cost), and then moved to the heart of the conversation, a description of how he writes.

Every time he said the word guitar, as when describing coming upon a few bars of melody that could turn into a song, he lifted his hands as if he were playing, waggling the fingers of the left on an air fretboard and faux-strumming/picking with the right.

An album (his newest is Stranger to Stranger) takes three years, a song may take a year or two, he said, including the wall  Am I at the end of my limitations? he thinks  then, talks to himself: Youre always having a great time ... and now Im not. Finally, You cant make a religion of these things. Theyre just songs. He turned to the audience. Ill show you how it goes. He reached behind his chair for a guitar, and played a chord progression while crooning notes.

After 50 years of writing music, it gets harder. But harder is fine. Its not like harder is the opposite of fun. This wasnt a gossipy interview; no amusing encounters with other stars. But in The Dangling Conversation, Simon once wrote about superficial sighs in the borders of our lives. In this conversation, there was nothing superficial.

P.S.: When Simon went backstage after the show, he was astonished to find Linda Ronstadt, whod been listening from there. They are old friends, and he sends her a copy of every recording he makes. He was so moved to see her, said City Arts Sydney Goldstein, and she was enthralled to see him. ... It was so sweet.

Ziggurat was the theme of the Oakland Museum of California fundraising gala on Saturday, June 4, at which invitees advised to get fancy with attire went scurrying to Wikipedia. Ziggurats were massive structures built in the ancient Mesopotamian valley and western Iranian plateau, having the form of a terraced step pyramid of successively receding stories or levels. In practical terms, this meant anything went, especially the accessory of a guest who showed up wearing a Warriors lanyard. There didnt seem to be a pass or ticket attached to it  perhaps he remedied that later, when two pairs of tickets for Sundays game were auctioned  but even underutilized, it was the height of ziggurat cool.

The intention of party planners was to break the mold. There were no dining tables; guests sat on round banquettes, while circulating waiters served a succession of small bites by Grace Catering.

After the meal and the auction, the room darkened for the premiere of Liquid Flow, a seven-minute Yakfilm production about turfing, a form of balletic street dance that comes from street corners in Oakland. When the film was over, four young men danced on the mid-room runway to the Oakland rapper Kamaiyah singing, Ive been broke all my life/ Now wonder/ How does it feel to be rich?

Party guests  generous, community-minded, generous and yes, probably rich to most turfers  crowded in to watch.

In conversation with Maya Angelou shortly before the poet died, Belva Davis asked if she still had things she wanted to accomplish. Angelou said it would be nice to have something named for her at home. In hopes that this will be a first step in a campaign for some kind of official San Francisco recognition for the poet, Davis has put together an event Saturday, June 11, at the Museum of the African Diaspora (from 4 to 6 p.m., $10; members free) honoring Angelou. Davis will interview Angelous son, Guy Johnson, Oakland rapper Bicasso will perform, and Delroy Lindo will read some favorite Angelou works.

Open for business in San Francisco (415) 777-8426. Email: lgarchik@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @leahgarchik

Public Eavesdropping

What are they doing here anyway? Why cant people stay in their homes and FaceTime somebody?

Woman on phone, overheard at U.N. Plaza by S.R.
Former Stanford athlete Brock Allen Turner got a mere six-month sentence in county jail after his conviction for raping an unconscious woman behind a campus Dumpster.

Criticism from across the country and around the world came down on Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky. Petitions went out to recall the jurist, who said that a longer sentence would possibly ruin Turners life. A Change.org recall petition said, Judge Persky failed to see that the fact that Brock Turner is a white male star athlete at a prestigious university does not entitle him to leniency.

But was the sentence really lenient, or did the judge inadvertently usher Turner into the lions den?

County jail in California, even for a three- to six-month term, is no bargain, and Santa Clara County Jail in particular is one of the most dysfunctional in the state. Three guards there were charged with murder last year in the death of a mentally ill inmate. And in February a blue-ribbon commission, after more than a thousand confidential interviews with inmates and staff, found widespread complaints of brutality and physical and verbal abuse by deputies.

Turner faces a much bigger threat from his 3,194 fellow male inmates in the county jail. Behind prison walls, sex offenders are held in especially low regard. Often they must be held in protective custody  not especially surprising. Nearly all the inmates are parents themselves, and by and large they are vehemently protective of their daughters. And you can bet that most of the county jail prisoners share the outrage over Turners wrist-slap sentence. What makes the anger of inmates significant is that many of them have demonstrably poor impulse control.

Felons make up 83 percent of the male prisoners in the Santa Clara County Jail.

The jail reports 2,098 male felons awaiting sentences. Add to that 567 male felons already sentenced. They are all lumped together. County jails are omnibus human warehouses, where one finds everything from DUIs to accused murderers awaiting trial.

State prison, on the other hand, has in place policies to separate inmates according to the level of custody they require. The policies are not fail-safe, but they are a reasonable approach.

Given Turners youth, his education level and his clean record, he would have been an obvious candidate for Level 2 (minimum security) confinement in state prison. (Yes, San Quentin has inmates as young as 18.)

But wait. Isnt the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation a harsh sentence?

Perhaps, but Turner would probably be safer in state prison. In the next several months he will need to add martial arts to his physical skills if he expects to survive. Its not Stanford. Its Gladiator School.

During the past five years, Californias prison realignment policy has caused the state prison system to shed 20,000 inmates. The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation says most of the reductions occurred because of diversion, that is, people convicted of nonserious, nonviolent felonies in the past, who would have been sent to prison, now stay in the county where they were convicted, and this often means they are sent to county jail.

Santa Clara and other counties, which already had their hands full and resources strained, wound up with a new inmate population.

In addition, changes to the law reclassified certain offenses from felonies to misdemeanors, adding to the burden on counties.

One would assume that Judge Persky, who sentenced Turner, would know about the environment in the county jail. After all, Persky is a former prosecutor.

Turner will awaken each morning in the coming months asking himself if the judge really did him a favor.

William Drummond is a professor at UC Berkeleys Graduate School of Journalism. He oversees a partnership between UC Berkeley and the San Quentin News, the newspaper of San Quentin State Prison.
Ukraine's Prime Minister: Revenue of local budgets grows by 46% in five months

Ukraine's local budgets in January-May 2016 posted UAH 54 billion in revenue, which was 46%, or UAH 17 billion, up on the same period last year, Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman said.

"There are funds at the level of regions, districts, communities which [should be] channeled into measures to improve people's life and infrastructure," he said at a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

Groysman called on the local government to contribute to creating new jobs, raising salaries and wages "so that people could feel those improvements."
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Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won Californias Democratic presidential primary by an unexpectedly large margin Tuesday, shortly after the former secretary of state declared herself to be the first woman to be the presidential nominee of a major political party.

With 100 percent of the precincts reporting, Clinton had a lead of 55.8 percent to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders 43.2 percent.

Wealthy New York businessman Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee, won the Republican primary with 75.3 percent of the vote. The last of his major rivals on the ballot quit the race a month ago.

Now, with only the Washington, D.C., primary left on the calendar, analysts say the pressure will increase on Sanders to step aside. Clinton secured the 2,383 delegates needed to be nominated after winning Sundays Puerto Rico primary and picking up the support of additional superdelegates, party leaders and elected officials who are free to choose which candidate to support.

There also were primaries in New Jersey, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and New Mexico Tuesday. In early returns, Clinton won New Jersey, South Dakota and New Mexico while Sanders took North Dakota and Montana. Trump swept all the GOP contests.

Even before polls opened Tuesday, the Sanders campaign had rejected assertions that Clinton was the presumptive nominee, calling it wrong to count the votes of superdelegates before they actually vote at the convention this summer. Sanders aides bristled when major media outlets called the nomination for Clinton on Monday night before many Californians had voted.

However, combined with President Obamas expected endorsement of Clinton, analysts predict other party leaders will lean on Sanders to suspend his campaign and encourage his supporters to back Clinton. Obama will meet with Sanders Thursday at the White House about how to build on the extraordinary work he has done to engage millions of Democratic voters, and to build on that enthusiasm in the weeks and months ahead, according to a White House statement Tuesday.

It was exactly eight years ago Tuesday that Clinton formally suspended her presidential campaign, though she trailed then-Sen. Obama by a smaller margin than Sanders trails her. On Tuesday, Clinton left no doubt that she would be the partys nominee.

Were closing in on a milestone, Clinton told supporters Tuesday evening Brooklyn, N.Y. First time in our nations history that a woman will be a major partys nominee. Tonights victory is not about one person, it belongs to generations of women and men who sacrificed and made this moment possible.

At a San Francisco Clinton gathering, Peggy Moore, the political director of Clintons California campaign acknowledged Tuesday that any time youre campaigning and competing against each other it takes a moment to breathe deep before you come together. Im excited to see that happen.

Sanders campaigned relentlessly in California over the past several weeks, appearing at 38 events in 34 cities before Mondays concert and rally at Crissy Field in San Francisco, speaking to more than 215,000 people along the way, according to his campaigns figures. In recent weeks, three major state polls  Field, the Public Policy Institute of California and USC Dornsife / Los Angeles Times  showed the race as a statistical dead heat.

And hes not conceding yet. In Los Angeles Tuesday night, Sanders told supporters his campaign is about more than defeating Trump, vowed to continue the fight through the final primary in Washington, D.C., and then we take our fight ... to (the national convention in) Philadelphia.

Excitement about the contested Democratic race  and about fear of Trumps candidacy  drove record-breaking voter registration, analysts said.

Since the start of the year, 2.3 million new voters have registered  roughly two-thirds are under 35, and 26 percent are Latino, according to Paul Mitchell, vice president of Political Data Inc., which does a running tally of voter registration.

The challenge was getting those new voters to the polls. For weeks, the Sanders campaign worried that of the states 2.2 million no-party-preference voters, many of the ones who vote by mail wouldnt be able to cast ballots in the Democratic primary because they hadnt requested a Democratic ballot by the May 31 deadline.

The question now is what can Clinton do to try to persuade Sanders supporters to back her in November. Despite the difficulty, a Public Policy Institute of California survey last month found that while 85 percent of Clintons supporters said theyd back Sanders if he were the nominee, 75 percent of Sanders people say they would pick Clinton in a November vote.

She reached out to Sanders supporters Tuesday, saying the vigorous debate between the candidates had been very good for the Democratic Party and America. But analysts said building bridges to them will take time.

A lot of Sanders supporters are simply not reachable by her, said Robert Smith, a professor of political science at San Francisco State University.

At a Sanders election night party in Oakland, Berkeley resident Varun Paul said he wouldnt vote for Clinton in any scenario.

Bernie or bust. Im not going to vote for her, the 33-year-old Paul said. I think Bernie is an incredibly courageous person. Hes fighting an establishment that has an infrastructure that is designed basically to not allow him to succeed.

Meanwhile, on the Republican side, Trumps biggest opponent in California turned out to be himself.

Last weekend, he alienated not only Latinos but also many fellow Republicans when he said federal Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is presiding over two class-action lawsuits against the businessmans Trump University, has an inherent conflict of interest because of his Mexican heritage. Even though Curiel was born in Indiana, Trump insists the judge would be in conflict because Trump has proposed building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

During a rare speech during which he read off a TelePrompTer Tuesday in New York, Trump previewed a new line of attack on Clinton that she turned the State Department into her private hedge fund. The Russians, the Saudis, the Chinese all gave money to Bill and Hillary and got favorable treatment in return.

Nevertheless, during several campaign stops in California, Trump boasted that he would put the state in play in the general election, even though California voters havent supported a Republican for president since 1988. Analysts said Trump is California dreaming.

He has absolutely zero chance of winning, said Ken Goldstein, a professor of political science at the University of San Francisco, said of Trumps chances to take California in November.

Last weeks Field Poll concluded that Trump would lose California in a head-to-head matchup with either Clinton (by 19 points) or Sanders (by 29 points).

Chronicle reporters Erin Allday and Jenna Lyons contributed to this report.

Joe Garofoli is The San Francisco Chronicles senior political writer. Email: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: joegarofoli
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State Attorney General Kamala Harris and Orange County Rep. Loretta Sanchez will meet this fall in a landmark Democrats-only clash to replace retiring Sen. Barbara Boxer.

Harris, a former San Francisco district attorney, led the unwieldy 34-candidate field with 40.3 percent of the vote Tuesday, followed by Sanchez with 18.5 percent, with 100 percent of precincts reporting.

Trailing the two Democrats were three Republicans, led by Palo Alto attorney Duf Sundheim with 8 percent. Former state legislator Phil Wyman of Tehachapi (Kern County) had 4.9 percent and Lafayette attorney Tom Del Beccaro had 4.2 percent.

Tonight California spoke  it said unity is our strength and diversity is our power, Harris told her supporters at a victory party in Delancey Streets Club Room in San Francisco. Weve got five months ahead. ... The eyes of the country are upon us.

Assemblyman David Chiu wore a bright red T-shirt saying Asians for Kamala, a group created for her first run for district attorney.

We all believed in 2003 that she had a bright future, but we had no idea just how bright, Chiu said.

Sanchez full of confidence

In Anaheim, Sanchez was full of confidence when she spoke to her supporters.

Its been an exciting campaign, and were getting ready for round two! she said.

It was a lot quieter at the GOP election night event in San Francisco, where a few dozen Republicans showed up to watch the results come in. By 8:30 p.m., the room was clearing as the disappointing numbers came in for the Republican Senate candidates.

By the time Sundheim spoke at 9:30 p.m., he was addressing about 30 people and plenty of empty chairs.

He thanked his supporters and put the best possible spin on the results, arguing that it was too early to say whether he would finish second or third.

The results werent much of a surprise. The 51-year-old Harris, who was re-elected as attorney general with nearly 58 percent of the vote in 2014, jumped into the Senate race just days after Boxer announced she would retire in January 2015. Harris has been the front-runner to replace the Democratic senator ever since.

Getting into the race was a tougher decision for Sanchez, 56, who had to give up the Santa Ana congressional seat shes held since 1996. Since she entered the race in May 2015, she has been running a consistent second place in the polls behind Harris.

It was a difficult road for the GOP hopefuls, none of whom had the statewide name identification  or the campaign cash  of the two leading Democrats.

Del Beccaro and Sundheim are both former heads of the state Republican Party and Wyman has served as both an assemblyman and state senator.

The solution, the leading Republicans agreed during the campaign, was to unite behind a single GOP candidate and push past Sanchez into a spot on the November ballot. But the Senate hopefuls each had a very different idea of who the last Republican standing should be.

My opponents refuse to drop out to help unify the party, Del Beccaro said in a fundraising email last week, endangering our chance of having any Republican make it into the general election.

Boxers retirement created Californias first open Senate seat since she and fellow Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein were elected in 1992.

Under Californias top-two primary system, which was approved by voters in 2010, the two leading finishers match up in the general election, regardless of party. The Harris-Sanchez race will mark the first time two members of the same party meet in a November rematch.

The two Democrats have very different backgrounds.

Harris was born in Oakland. Her mother was a doctor who immigrated from India and her father was a Jamaican American who taught economics at Stanford University.

She was elected San Francisco district attorney in 2003 and re-elected four years later. She won a tight race for state attorney general in 2010.

Sanchez was born in Lynwood (Los Angeles County) and grew up in Orange County. Her parents, immigrants from Mexico, had seven children and she was raised speaking Spanish.

A financial analyst, Sanchez lost a race for Anaheim City Council in 1994 before knocking off a six-term Republican to win her congressional seat in 1996.

Raucous fall campaign

There already are signs of a raucous fall campaign.

Harris, for example, is a favorite of Democratic Party leaders, holding endorsements from the state party, Gov. Jerry Brown and most statewide elected officials.

But when the party voted to back Harris, Rep. Filemon Vela, a Texas Democrat and member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, said in a statement that the partys endorsement of Harris is insulting to Latinos all across the country.

Harris, though, is a graduate of Howard University, a historically black college, and has plenty of backing from groups like the Congressional Black Caucus, setting the stage for a Senate battle between two major Democratic Party constituencies.

Chronicle staff writer Nanette Asimov contributed to this report.

John Wildermuth is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jwildermuth@sfchronicle.com Twitter: jfwildermuth
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Democratic Rep. Mike Honda of San Jose was narrowly behind attorney Ro Khanna Tuesday in the primary race for the South Bay congressional seat he has held for eight terms, setting up a rematch of their general election battle two years ago.

Honda and his Democratic challenger will square off in November as the top two finishers in the 17th Congressional District, which includes much of Silicon Valley, including Fremont, Milpitas, Newark, Santa Clara, Cupertino, Sunnyvale and part of San Jose.

With 100 percent of the precincts reporting, Khanna had 38.3 percent of the vote to Hondas 38.1 percent.

Khanna, a Fremont attorney, holds a much stronger hand than he did in 2014. While Honda, who is seeking a ninth term in Congress, trampled Khanna, 48 percent to 28 percent, in the primary two years ago, Khanna slashed that margin dramatically Tuesday.

With individuals ready to trample on the middle class bankrolling my opponents campaign, we know that this is going to be one of the closest congressional races in the country, Honda said in a statement issued late Tuesday.

Despite Khannas strong showing, the contest is far from over. In 2014, Khanna rallied from a terrible primary bruising to lose by just four percentage points in the November election. Both men have said throughout the campaign that they expect the typically large Democratic turnout during a presidential election year to carry them to the top in the fall.

In a district where Democrats have a 44 percent to 19 percent registration edge over Republicans, the GOP contenders in the primary ran far down the track.

Khanna, 39, never really stopped running after his 2014 loss, announcing his new campaign just months after his defeat. But rather than presenting himself principally as the congressman from tech-heavy Silicon Valley, as he did during his unsuccessful challenge to Honda, Khanna this time concentrated more on local issues, showing up at city events to talk about regional problems.

Honda, 74, who had not faced a serious re-election threat before 2014, also upped his campaign game, spending more time in the district and telling voters nonstop about what he has done for the region in his years in public office.

It was a tough primary campaign that is likely to get nastier in the months leading to the November election. Khanna has slammed Honda continually on a House ethics investigation into allegations that the congressmans staff broke rules by working too closely with his campaign team.

For his part, Honda has characterized Khanna as someone more interested in getting elected to Congress than in actually serving the community.

Elsewhere in the state, the vote counts were more certain, and the House races were little more than warm-ups for fall rematches. With the top two candidates in each contest, regardless of party, meeting again in November, the primary often becomes little more than a chance for the leading candidates to see where they stand and decide what needs to be done in the fall.

In the Seventh Congressional District, a GOP target that includes several Sacramento suburbs, two-term Democratic Rep. Ami Bera beat Republican Scott Jones, the Sacramento County sheriff, in a district Bera won by only a single percentage point two years ago.

In District 12, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi handily led the field, on track to face Republican Bob Miller in the fall.

The Democrats will be focusing their November efforts on a couple of Central Valley seats now held by Republicans.

In the 21st Congressional District, Republican Rep. David Valadao of Hanford (Kings County) led second-place Daniel Parra of Fowler (Fresno County).

In the 10th Congressional District, Rep. Jeff Denham of Turlock (Stanislaus County) led the field, and will face Democrat Michael Eggman of Modestoin the fall.

John Wildermuth and Rachel Swan are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: jwildermuth@sfchronicle.com, rswan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: jfwildermuth, @rachelswan
Short-term rental companies like Airbnb could face big fines and criminal charges if they advertise hosts who havent registered with the city, under legislation unanimously passed by the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.

The 10-0 vote renders moot a threat by Mayor Ed Lee to veto the measure, as the board has the eight votes needed to override a veto.

After the vote, Airbnb said the ordinance, proposed by Supervisors David Campos and Aaron Peskin, is legally questionable and that it will consider all options moving forward.

Broadly speaking, the legislations passage is another loss for Airbnb and other short-term rental companies, such as VRBO and HomeAway, which have seen a growing backlash to the business model of helping residents turn their homes into short-term hotels.

On May 1, Berlin enacted a ban on residents renting out entire apartments through Airbnb and its competitors in an effort to preserve affordable housing. Last year, Santa Monica banned short-term rentals altogether.

San Francisco caps short-term rentals on entire homes at 90 days a year. It also requires all short-term rental hosts to register with the city under a law that took effect in February 2015. But only roughly 1,400 of the estimated 7,000 or more residents who rent their homes and rooms have done so, the city estimates.

Under Campos and Peskins bill, short-term rental companies would have to verify that all listings have a valid San Francisco registration number before posting them online. When the city flags rentals that appear not to be registered, the listing services would be required to respond with details about those properties within one business day or face fines. Funds generated from the new plan would go to an affordable housing fund.

Companies that disregard the law would face fines of up to $1,000 a day per listing and misdemeanor charges.

Campos called the ordinance a modest piece of legislation and compared it to the obligations rental car companies face.

If you are a rental car agency, you have to make sure the person that you rent that vehicle to has a license before you rent them a car. That is exactly what we are asking the short-term platforms to do here, Campos said.

Supervisor Scott Wiener, who has supported Airbnb in recent legislative and electoral fights, voted for the ordinance but said the real problem was that the city makes it too hard for people to register. Hosts complain that registering can take multiple trips to different city departments. Once thats done, they are required to submit an itemized list of all the furniture, appliances, supplies, equipment and fixtures in their rentals, which the city then taxes.

Wiener amended Campos and Peskins ordinance to require the citys Office of Short Term Rentals to report back to the board on streamlining the registration process.

Supervisor Mark Farrell, who has backed Airbnb in the past, recused himself from the vote because he has business interests in a short-term rental company.

Meanwhile, technology law groups have warned that the legislation appears to conflict with federal law shielding online platforms from liability for content generated by their users.

Airbnb said in a statement after Tuesdays vote that an estimated 1,200 San Franciscans avoided foreclosure or eviction by hosting on Airbnb, and this legally questionable proposal puts their housing at risk without offering any real solutions to fix the complex (registration) process.

Lees spokeswoman, Christine Falvey, said the mayor remains concerned that this law will not withstand a near-certain legal challenge and will in practice do nothing to aid the citys registration and enforcement of our short-term rental laws.

Academics who study short-term rentals said a key question is whether the city can enforce the ordinance.

The question of whether it can actually be done is important, said Paavo Monkkonen, an assistant professor in the department of urban planning at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. Monkkonen, who has consulted for Airbnb in the past, pointed to the experience of Portland, Ore., which has a similar law to the one passed Tuesday.

Last fall, Portland sued HomeAway for failing to display the registration numbers, collect hotel taxes and meet other requirements.

What we have seen in city after city is that without data from Airbnb  which the company refuses to provide  these sorts of interventions have not been effective, said Steven Hill, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, D.C. If San Francisco wants to regulate Airbnb, it must be willing to go to the mat  legally speaking  to get the data from Airbnb.

Emily Green is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: egreen@sfchronicle.com Twitter: emilytgreen
In the years since her suicide in 1971 at age 48, photographer Diane Arbus reputation as one of the 20th centurys great artists has soared (her 1962 photograph Child With a Toy Hand Grenade in Central Park, N.Y.C sold for $785,000 in 2015).

Yet Arbus legacy also has been dogged by the question of her dubious stance toward her photographic subjects. Was she sympathetic to the lives and plights of the eccentrics, the anomalies, as she called the sideshow exhibitionists, transvestites, nudists and others living on societys margins whose portraits she indelibly captured with her Rolleiflex? Or was there a strain of mocking derision in her gaze?

Wanting to know, to explore that question, was one of the main things that drew me to her work, says journalist Arthur Lubow, who will be at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco on Monday, June 13, to discuss his engrossing new biography, Diane Arbus: Portrait of a Photographer (Ecco).

There are people who think she was completely empathetic and had this communion of souls with her subjects, Lubow (The Reporter Who Would be King, 1992) explained by phone from Connecticut, and then there are people who think she was ridiculing and exploiting them. The truth as I see it is somewhere in between, which can be hard for people to deal with. Diane had a darkly comic view of life, like Kafka or Beckett. Many of her photos are both funny and very sad. She laughed at the horrors of life.

Lubows inspiration for his deep dive into Arbus unorthodox, often tortured life grew out of a New York Times Magazine cover story he wrote when the Diane Arbus Revelations retrospective opened at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 2003. It was hard not to want to find out more about such an amazingly compelling figure, Lubow says.

He spent the next 12 years on research, interviewing Arbus friends, lovers and associates, discovering previously unpublished letters and scrutinizing more than 150 photographs. Despite the Arbus estates unwillingness to grant access or reproduction rights to her archive, Lubow has been able to convey the complicated arc of the life behind so many arresting photos: from Arbus privileged New York childhood (her parents owned Russeks Fifth Avenue department store) to a successful fashion photography career with her husband, Allan, through her independence as an artist obsessed with photographing what gnawed at her, as she told her mentor Lisette Model.

She was someone who would immediately spot the hairline crack in a golden bowl, Lubow writes.

Among Lubows central insight is just how important the reciprocal gaze was in Arbus photographic method. There was, as Arbus put it, a mutual seduction at work.

People, men and women both, responded to her in what I call a libidinally charged way, says Lubow. There is a kind of erotic undercurrent in many of these pictures.

Its interesting to think of why her photographs make people feel uncomfortable. As the viewer, one occupies the same position she had with her camera, and were not used to being looked at that way  by a dwarf or a transvestite or even a man in black tie.

Jessica Zack is a freelance writer who frequently covers art and film for The San Francisco Chronicle.

Diane Arbus: The Woman Behind the Work: A talk and slideshow of Arbus work, with biographer Arthur Lubow. 7 p.m. Monday, June 13. Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, 3200 California St., S.F. (415) 292-1200. www.jccsf.org
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A few weeks ago, chain-link fences went up around Alamo Square, one of San Franciscos most popular and iconic parks, for a seven-month renovation. But that didnt stop tourists from trying to snap that perfect photo.

Last month, people began sneaking into the construction area through a hole cut in the fence  the goal, as always at Alamo Square, was to snap that perfect picture of the Painted Ladies row of Victorians along Steiner Street.

The San Francisco Recreation and Park Department patched up the fence, but that just drove the crowds of tourists onto the sidewalk and into the street bordering the park.

So, after complaints from neighbors and visitors about people on the streets, park officials decided to open a 4,900-square-foot viewing area at Hayes and Steiner streets overlooking the Painted Ladies to give the crowds a place to congregate and pose for those pictures. The platform will open Thursday.

The renovation is important, but I did not want it to completely close off the park to neighbors and visitors, or force tourists into the street while taking pictures, said Supervisor London Breed, who asked that allowances be made.

The rest of the park remains closed while it undergoes its first major upgrade since a playground was added in 2004. The $4.3 million worth of renovations include new restrooms, landscaping and updated irrigation and will be completed in the winter. The viewing area will close in November for final construction in the park.

On Wednesday, park visitors said the construction was a nuisance. Bright orange cones and signs marred their photos, and the mechanical roar of dump trucks pierced the quiet.

Isabel Rico struggled to fit the Painted Ladies into a single frame.

I wasnt sure I would be able to get an actual photo at first, said Rico, of Miami. We didnt quite expect it to look this disheveled. Luckily we were here in March, too, and got some perfect photos without all the orange signs.

Other tourists werent so lucky. Joel Olivencia, 35, traveled with his wife, Sharon Gonzalez, 30, from Puerto Rico to see the Painted Ladies for the first time. He adjusted angles, trying to frame a photo of Gonzalez without construction cones.

This is a once-in-a-lifetime thing for us, he said. There is no Oh, Ill be back another time. We came all this way and had no idea it would look like this, like an eyesore. Its very disappointing. We know renovations are probably needed, but I dont see why they didnt do construction in phases so people could experience the park.

Despite hundreds of visits to San Francisco, Kasey Hanna of Sacramento, 32, said it was her first time seeing the park, too. She called the construction a dump, saying she would definitely come back when the renovation was complete.

The viewing platform will be much nicer for people, she said, snapping a picture on her camera. Its a little bit of a disappointment right now. But Ive been to the city so many times. Ill just come back. They cant keep the fences up forever.

Lizzie Johnson is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: ljohnson@sfchronicle.com Twitter: LizzieJohnsonnn
WASHINGTON  Vice President Joe Biden unveiled a public database for clinical data on cancer on Monday that aims to help researchers and doctors better tailor new treatments to individuals.

Overseen by the National Cancer Institute, the Genomic Data Commons starts with genomic and clinical data for 12,000 patients. The system is designed to increase sharing of information about the gene sequences of tumors and how patients with those tumors responded to specific treatments

Biden, speaking at the American Society of Clinical Oncologys annual meeting in Chicago, said recent advances in DNA sequencing technology had allowed researchers to generate vast amounts of new data in a short period of time. But he said the cancer world can do much better than were doing.

The information is scattered among different government and academic repositories. Most of it is out of the reach of scientists, Biden said. Were bringing it into one space.

The database has emerged as the most tangible component of Bidens cancer moonshot, a push in his final year in office to double the pace of cancer research toward a cure. Although the Obama administration has sought an influx of federal funds to accelerate research, Congress has approved only a fraction of whats been requested.

Since taking on the cancer issue last year, Biden has repeatedly argued that confining data within institutions has hampered cancer research, with scientists and medical companies reluctant to share proprietary information. In fact, cancer research institutions have significant data-sharing arrangements in place, although Biden and other critics say its too limited and not happening early enough in the process.

Though easily searchable, the database includes protections for privacy and security, Biden said. He urged cancer experts gathered in Chicago to upload your raw genomic data to the system for use by fellow researchers.

All of you know its the right thing to do, Biden said. Its the quickest way for us to move forward. And its not technically hard for us to do it.
After coming under fire from Republican leaders for its handling of protests outside a Donald Trump campaign rally and vowing the violence will not go unchecked, the San Jose Police Department on Tuesday released the identities of four teenagers arrested last week.

Ahmed Abdirahman and Antonio Fernandez, both 19, and Robert Trillo, 18, face charges of assault with a deadly weapon. A fourth man, Michael Kitaigorodsky, 19, was arrested for allegedly refusing to follow dispersal orders. Abdirahman is from Santa Clara. The others are from San Jose.
Ukraine's Agricultural Policy and Food Ministry jointly with the Finance Ministry are mulling the provision of additional funds to support small and medium farms in 2016, Agricultural Policy and Food Minister Taras Kutovy said at the Agro 2016 international exhibition in Kyiv on Wednesday.

"We are discussing the proposal to increase [financial assistance to farmers] with the Finance Ministry. I think that soon it will be clear if these funds are provided," he said.

Kutovy said that the additional funds will be sent to small and medium agricultural market players.

"The financial assistance will be provided to producers [with a land bank of] up to 500 ha who cannot take commercial credits now," the minister said, adding that support of small farmers will be implemented in the form of cooperation.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman who also visited the exhibition said that farmers would receive additional funds from the state.

Earlier Kutovy said that by autumn Ukrainian farmers will be able to receive promised UAH 450 million of assistance from the state if the Verkhovna Rada passes amendments to the national budget.
A San Joaquin County man who was arrested while trying to travel to Syria to aid Islamic State terrorists was sentenced Tuesday to 12 years in federal prison.

Nicholas Teausant, 22, of Acampo had pleaded guilty to attempting to provide material support to a terrorist organization. He had been arrested by federal agents in Washington state in March 2014 as he prepared to enter Canada on his way to Syria. The trip had been arranged by an undercover FBI informant.

The sentence imposed by U.S. District Judge John Mendez of Sacramento was three years longer than the term recommended by federal prosecutors.

Im very sorry, Teausant said at the hearing, according to the Sacramento Bee. I wanted to be part of something. I didnt think my life was worth anything.

Teausant, a student at San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton at the time of his arrest, had joined the Army National Guard in 2012, but was removed for failing to meet educational requirements.

A convert to Islam, he posted messages online that caught the governments attention. I despise America and want its down fall, said one of his postings in May 2013. I been part of the army for two years now and I would love to join Allahs army but I dont even know how to start.

Teausant had a demonstrated and extreme interest in violent expressions of jihad, federal prosecutors said in a court filing. They said he sold himself to (an undercover agent) as a military-trained fighter with significant skills that would be helpful in fighting with al Qaeda overseas.

But his lawyers, from the federal public defenders officer, said the terrorist plot was largely a creation of federal agents.

Teausant could never have accomplished anything without the ample support he was given by the sting operation, his lawyers said in a court filing in which they sought a prison sentence of less than three years. They said the undercover informant stoked his interest in the Islamic State and that Teausant needed help from federal agents to buy his fare to Canada and renew his passport.

Teausant, the child of teenaged methamphetamine addicts, is mentally ill, extremely immature, and suffered immense childhood trauma, the defense lawyers said.

But prosecutors said he was dangerous.

Mr. Teausant was fixated on violence as documented by his social media posts, his pre-arrest statements, and the nature of the group he attempted to join, acting U.S. Attorney Phillip Talbert said in a statement Tuesday.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: egelko
In 2005, a federal appeals court overturned the murder conviction of a Contra Costa County man, finding that the prosecutor had improperly dismissed a black juror for racial reasons. A retrial produced another conviction, and, on Wednesday, another reversal from the appellate court.

The same prosecutor had done it again, the court said.

Each of (Deputy District Attorney David) Browns reasons for striking Juror Jones was a pretext. ... Race was a substantial motivating factor, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in a 2-1 ruling granting Aldridge Currie a third trial for the 1995 killing.

Brown, who is African American, had a history of race-based unconstitutional (juror) strikes, the court said. It happened in Curries case and in another case that resulted in the conviction being overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2005.

Currie fatally shot drug dealer Santos Saldonado after an argument in Pittsburg in July 1995. Currie said he fired in self-defense after Saldonado pointed a gun at him. The prosecution initially sought the death penalty, saying Currie, who had two previous felony convictions, took money and drugs from Saldonado after shooting him. Jurors acquitted him of the capital charge but convicted him of deliberately killing Saldonado without justification.

Lawyers for Currie, who is black, argued in their appeal that the prosecutor had violated California and U.S. Supreme Court rulings prohibiting the removal of prospective jurors because of certain inherent characteristics, including race, ethnicity and sex.

Brown responded that he had removed the juror, a black woman, from the jury panel because she was undecided about the death penalty. But the appeals court said the woman had made it clear she supported capital punishment, and pointed out that Brown had accepted two white male jurors who expressed strong reservations about the death penalty.

Proceedings for a second trial began in 2008, but Superior Court Judge John Kennedy dismissed the jury after finding that Brown had improperly removed another African American juror. Another panel was convened, and after Kennedy rejected defense objections to Browns removal of a black woman named Jones, the jury again convicted Currie of second-degree murder, and he was sentenced to 29 years to life in prison.

State courts and a federal judge upheld the verdict, but the Ninth Circuit majority said Wednesday that the jurors removal was discriminatory for the same reason cited in 2005  that Brown had dismissed a black juror for reasons that applied equally to white jurors whom he didnt challenge.

The prosecutor said he was concerned that Jones would sympathize with the defendant because of her disclosures that she had family members who had used crack cocaine and had a brother and a cousin who had been arrested for drugs. But Jones said she felt her relatives had been treated fairly and she could be objective as a juror, the court said. The court also pointed out that half of the jurors the prosecutor accepted also described having relatives with drug problems, some of them expressed sympathy with illegal drug users, and one juror described struggling with addictions to various narcotics.

Brown also said he was concerned that Jones, when asked about a jurors legal duty to presume that a defendant is innocent, replied: I cant conclude that hes guilty or not because I dont know the first thing of the case. The prosecutor said her answer was questionable because the jurors were aware of the charges, but the court said Jones answer was similar to other jurors responses and was entirely innocuous because jurors hadnt yet been told about the details of the case.

Judge Marsha Berzon wrote the majority opinion, joined by Judge William Fletcher. Judge Carlos Bea dissented, saying the prosecutor had a legitimate nonracial reason for removing the juror because two of her relatives had been arrested for drugs.

Brown, a prosecutor for 25 years, left the district attorneys office for medical reasons in 2011 and later sued the county for discrimination and harassment, saying his supervisors had expressed racial hostility. Federal courts rejected his claims. He could not be reached for comment on Wednesdays ruling.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: egelko
A man was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of kidnapping a 14-year-old girl off a street in North Oakland, a daylight crime that shocked neighbors and prompted police to launch a human trafficking investigation and a search for other young victims, officials said.

A witness alerted police at 9:14 a.m. that a man had grabbed the girl from the 1000 block of 65th Street, said Officer Marco Marquez, an Oakland police spokesman. A short time later, police detained the suspect  identified only as a man in his 20s  and found one victim safe.

Authorities said they are looking into whether the incident is related to human trafficking. A traffic stop at San Pablo and Ashby avenues was connected with the kidnapping, Marquez said, while declining to elaborate.

The investigation led officers back to a home near where the teen was taken, and authorities closed off the neighborhood as dozens of officers descended on the area.

Around noon, a small team of officers with guns drawn stormed the home while serving a search warrant. Police suspected that more victims may have been held there, but they searched the house and found it empty.

Concerned neighbors watched the drama unfold outside their homes in the usually quiet neighborhood tucked between Emeryville and Berkeley.

A woman at the scene, surrounded by family members, said it was her 14-year-old daughter who was forcibly abducted by a stranger but that the teen had managed to escape. The woman declined to give her name, while she and other tearful family members gave statements to police.

Its very shocking to hear this happened right on my block, said Anna Moore, who lives with her two children a few doors down from where the kidnapping happened.

Im mortified. I drive by that house every day, she said of the home where police served the warrant. Im just glad they got the girl.

Marquez said Oakland police are serious about cracking down on human trafficking and that detectives will be working alongside the Alameda County district attorneys office to investigate Wednesdays kidnapping.

In October, a human trafficking sting conducted by federal, state and local law enforcement from around the Bay Area led to the rescue of six children who had been forced into prostitution and the arrest of eight suspects accused of pimping them out.

Evan Sernoffsky and Kimberly Veklerov are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: esernoffsky@

sfchronicle.com and @kveklerov@

sfchronicle.com

Twitter: evansernoffsky @KVeklerov
A 49-year-old motorcyclist who allegedly hit and critically injured an 8-year-old girl crossing a street in San Franciscos Mission District was identified Tuesday by police.

Officers arrested city resident Nelson Burgos on suspicion of drunken driving, hit and run, and reckless driving  all felonies  along with four traffic infractions.
Associated Press

IONIA, Mich.  A man who entered prison as a teenager in 2008 stepped out into sunshine and freedom Wednesday, a day after his guilty pleas to four fatal shootings were erased by a judge at the request of prosecutors who conceded the case was compromised by flawed police work.

Davontae Sanford, 23, declined to speak to reporters as he left prison in Ionia in western Michigan with a brother and a lawyer. They drove off in a sedan for the 130-mile trip back to Detroit.
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People in hot water over social media posts is nothing new, but an increasing trend of affluent users flaunting their wealth online has resulted in the photos being used more and more as evidence in court, experts say.

From photos on a private jet to stacks of cash in a brand new luxury car, images showcasing the decadent lifestyle of the world's richest are becoming more common (see the gallery above for examples).

RELATED: Unapologetic rich kids share their extravagant lives on Snapchat for the rest of the world to envy

But, according to the Telegraph, cybersecurity firms are now using social media posts in nearly 75 percent of all litigation cases now. Additionally, sites like Facebook and Instagram are being used to expose families who are lying about assets when under criminal investigation, the Telegraph reported.

One high-profile example involves rapper 50 Cent, who posted a photo of himself on Instagram in October with what looked like thousands of dollars in cash spelling out the word Broke." The rapper, Curtis James Jackson III, filed for bankruptcy in July in a Connecticut court, but after the social media post, a U.S. Court began questioning whether 50 Cent was disclosing all of his assets in his case, according to CNN.

TMZ reports 50 Cent has more than $15 million in personal property, has $2.7 million in his checking account as of August 2015 and is losing lots of money on his G-Unit brand.

RELATED: Instagram photos claim ties to 'El Chapo,' show off Mexican drug cartel exploits

James Quiggle of the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud said that mining social media for clues is one of the fastest-growing areas of insurance-fraud investigation," adding that investigating peoples actions on social media is no different from video surveillance.

One lawyer told the Telegraph that metadata in social media posts can also be used to locate people or find out where proxy companies are located in fraud cases.

"You can start building up a profile of that individual: where they are; what their interests are; who are they regularly in touch with?" attorney Daniel Hall said in an interview with the British publication.

A Forbes magazine writer pointed to people's love of bragging about their interests, whether it be in person or on the internet, as a catalyst for the growing trend of flaunting online.

RELATED: Rich kids prove their life is better than yours one Instagram filter at a time

There are rules in place for attorneys and fraud investigators. Some states do not allow investigators to use deception in the course of their investigation, according to the ACFE.

twhite@mysa.com

Twitter: @tylerlwhite
SPRINGFIELD, Ill.  Illinois, on the cusp of a second year without a state budget, counts among its many unpaid bills one that threatens to provoke a dispute with the nation's top crime-fighting force.

Documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act show that the deadbeat state owes $3 million to the FBI for processing fingerprints and conducting background checks for professional licenses and permits. The debt is old enough that it could be turned over to the federal government's collection agency  the Treasury Department.

The delinquent payment is just the latest unexpected consequence of a stalemate between the Republican governor and Democrats controlling the Legislature. The gridlock has left Illinois without a budget since July 1 and exacerbated a long-standing backlog of debt. As of Tuesday, the state had more than $7 billion in unpaid bills.

"The breadth of the issues covered by the budget impasse never ceases to amaze me," said Rep. Elaine Nekritz, a Democrat from the Chicago suburb of Northbrook and chairwoman of the House Judiciary Committee on civil matters.

Gov. Bruce Rauner, a millionaire businessman in his first term, is holding out for changes in law to cut business costs and restrict the power of labor unions. Democrats say consideration of Rauner's business and political agenda should take a back seat to taming a multibillion-dollar deficit through spending cuts and tax increases.

The fingerprinting money has already been set aside. There's nearly $19 million in an account used to pay for FBI fingerprint expertise. But without a legislative appropriation, no one has any authority to spend the money.

The FBI says states rarely fall more than four months behind in payments, but it has never cut services, and it has not stopped examining Illinois fingerprints.

A spokesman for the agency's Criminal Justice Information Service, Stephen Fischer, said the agency is exploring "alternative collection and processing options" to continue serving Illinois without additional expense. He did not elaborate.

Ken Zercie, who retired as laboratory director for the Connecticut Department of Public Safety, said the importance of verifying identity and criminal backgrounds means it's a safe bet that the Justice Department won't shut the door on Illinois.

"That would be kind of illogical given the state of everything," said Zercie, a vice president of the International Association of Identification. "It's a public-safety issue."

This isn't the first time the budget crisis has caused headaches for law enforcement. In April, the secretary of state's police force had to carry cash from driver's license facilities for four months after an armored-truck company stopped work until it got paid.

The FBI processes 260,000 sets of Illinois fingerprints annually in criminal background checks for those seeking jobs such as school bus driver or private detective or applying for permits to carry concealed arms.
1 Ozone pollution: The Republican-controlled House on Wednesday approved a bill delaying an Obama administration rule setting stricter limits on air pollution linked to asthma and respiratory illness. The bill would delay implementation of a new federal ozone standard by at least eight years. The White House says the measure would block efforts to reduce smog, leading to more asthma attacks and premature deaths. The Environmental Protection Agency plans to implement the ozone rule over a 20-year period that gives the most-polluted states until 2037 to fully comply.

2 Midair collision: Two South Carolina Air National Guard F-16 fighter pilots ejected safely after an apparent midair collision in eastern Georgia, the Guard said. The collision happened Tuesday during night training operations over a remote military operating area in Jefferson County, Ga. The jets were assigned to the South Carolina Air National Guards 169th Fighter Wing out of McEntire Joint National Guard Base in Eastover, S.C. Fighter jet pilots routinely train there for their electronic warfare and bombing missions.
National joint-stock company Naftogaz Ukrainy expects that the price of imported gas in the third quarter of 2016 will be less than $200 per 1,000 cubic meters, Naftogaz Head Andriy Kobolev has said.

"We hope that after the tender the price of imported gas will be less than $200," he said on Shuster Live show late on Tuesday.

He said that in the second quarter of 2016 the company bought as less gas as possible as lower prices on international markets could be seen in the third quarter 2016.

"This was the commercial decision and it was discussed by the board. We have a clear schedule how we will buy gas until the end of the year," he said.

Kobolev said that the letter to Gazprom on the possible purchase of gas in the next two quarters is linked to the necessity of comparing the price of the Russian company with prices of European traders.

"We as we usually did proposed, including to Gazprom, to present their price offer and sign a supplementary agreement to the 2009 contract. This was done to make sure that we buy gas at the smallest price," he said.

"We have fully removed dependability on Russian gas. If Gazprom does not supply gas to Ukraine or if the price does not satisfy us or the terms of the contract would be onerous, we will be able to buy gas from Europe as we did this winter. In the interests of Ukrainian consumers it is better to minimize expenses on purchased gas," Kobolev said.
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Early in the morning on Jan. 18, 2015, two Swedish graduate students were biking to a party on the Stanford campus when they saw a man and a woman lying behind a dumpster.

Carl-Fredrik Arndt and Peter Jonsson knew something was wrong when they noticed that the man was moving and the woman wasn't.

"So we stop and think, this seems very strange," Arndt said in an interview with the Swedish news site Expressen. (Note: Google Translate was used to translate the story from Swedish to English.)

The man was Stanford student and All-American swimmer Brock Turner, 20, who was found guilty Thursday of raping the woman and sentenced to six months in a county jail with probation.

Arndt and Jonsson were key witnesses in the trial against Turner that has caused a stir because many feel the sentence from Judge Aaron Persky was too lenient.

When Turner was convicted in Santa Clara County Superior Court of three counts of sexual assault in late March, he faced up to 14 years of prison, as reported in a previous SFGATE story.

Persky opted for a lighter penalty, saying a stiffer sentence would have a "severe impact" on the 20-year-old.

When the Ph.D. students saw Turner thrusting his hips against the partially clothed unconscious woman, they decided to stop and confront him.

"The guy stood up, and then we saw she wasn't moving still. So we called him out on it. And the guy ran away, my friend Peter chased after him," Arndt told CBS News.

Jonsson tackled Turner, and the two Swedes held the assailant down until police arrived.

The victim, who remains unidentified, called Arndt and Jonsson heroes during a statement she made in the courtroom and that was also published in-full on Buzz Feed and has since gone viral.

"I sleep with two bicycles that I drew taped above my bed to remind myself there are heroes in this story," the woman said. "That we are looking out for one another."

SGATE reached out to Arndt and didn't hear back at the time of publishing this story.
SAN DIEGO  The number of unauthorized Chinese immigrants coming to San Diego has skyrocketed in recent years, the result of a lucrative smuggling industry, mass emigration from China and a diversifying pool of unauthorized immigrants settling in the United States.

Border Patrol agents in the San Diego sector apprehended an estimated 663 Chinese nationals between October and May, compared with 48 Chinese nationals last fiscal year, five in fiscal 2014 and eight in fiscal 2013, according to data provided by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Before that, we just werent getting (Chinese nationals), said Wendi Lee, a spokeswoman for the Border Patrol.

Valuable workers

Lee said criminal organizations involved in smuggling maximize their profits by transporting Chinese immigrants, often charging each several thousand dollars to get them across the border.

Were talking anywhere from $50,000 to $70,000 per person, said Lee. The further you travel from, the more arrangements these criminal organizations have to make, the more expensive it will get.

China has become one of the worlds leading sources of immigrants, according to a February report by the Migration Policy Institute.

High-skilled and high-value emigration from China is rising fast, while low-skilled and unskilled emigration is stagnant  a divergence that has been widening since the late 2000s. The emigration rate of Chinas highly educated population is now five times as high as the countrys overall rate. Chinas wealthy elites and growing middle class are increasingly pursuing educational and work opportunities overseas for themselves and their families, facilitated by their rising incomes, the report said.

Many of the foreign students enrolled in American universities hail from China, for example, a result of their countrys emerging economy and growing middle class.

Chinese account for the fifth-largest population of unauthorized immigrants in the U.S., according to an October report by MPI. An estimated 285,000 unauthorized Chinese immigrants resided in the country in 2013.

Big immigrant source

Generally, non-Mexican immigrants apprehended by the Border Patrol are turned over to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements Office of Enforcement and Removal Operations, which is responsible for determining whether they will remain in detention or be released while their case is reviewed by an immigration court, according to ICE.

ICE makes custody determinations on a case-by-case basis, taking into account all aspects of the persons circumstances, including whether the individual represents a threat to public safety or is a possible flight risk, the agency said.

Some request political asylum, others request to return to their home country.

Xiao Wang, a lecturer of Chinese Studies at UC San Diego, said a common factor of immigration from China is economic. Small-business owners travel to sell products  perfumes, electronics and cosmetics  in the United States.

Its people who are trying to make money, Wang said. I think this is happening more and more. Its closely related to Chinese culture.

Once one person emigrates, more will follow, she said.

In past years, it may have been that they take a boat, and there was a lot of hardship (associated with emigrating). Perhaps nowadays there are more advanced ways of entering the States, Wang said.

But its important for people to keep in mind the bigger picture, according to Muzaffar Chishti, director of MPOs office at the New York University School of Law.

Its tempting to say that this is a dramatic rise. In the scheme of things, its not a dramatic rise, he said. China is the worlds largest country. You would say its still a drop in the bucket. So it really depends what side youre looking at this from.

And while fewer people are emigrating to the U.S. from Mexico, theres a growing number of people emigrating from countries such as China and India.

If you just look at the general trend of Chinese migration, its one of the highest from all over the world, he said.

Whenever you have an increase of immigration, there is always an increase in illegal immigration because people want to join their families.

Trafficking victims

Lee said some become victims of human trafficking.

Authorities discovered 12 unauthorized immigrants in the attic of a home in San Diegos City Heights neighborhood on May 6. They were being held without food, very little water and no access to a restroom, according to Lee. Five of the immigrants were Chinese.

All of the immigrants were arrested, along with two smugglers.
Ukrzaliznytsia asking help from TCG in auditing assets in Donbas areas not under Kyiv control

Public joint-stock company Ukrzaliznytsia has approved a road map for organizing operations of regional branch Donetsk Railways and has asked Ukrainian Foreign Ministry to help in settling some issues during meetings of a working subgroup for social and economic issues of the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG).

The Ukrzaliznytsia's press service reported that among the issues is audit of industrial processes of regional branch Donetsk Railways, including availability and readiness of property assets of its Donetsk and Luhansk directorates for railways, assessment of the technical readiness of assets located on territory that is not under control of the Ukrainian government and the provision of organization of transportation and expenses required for repair and restoration of assets, unhampered access of Ukrzaliznytsia's workers to infrastructure located on the contact line to repair it.

Ukrzaliznytsia said that the road map will be implemented in cooperation with the Security Service of Ukraine, its Anti-Terrorist Center and the State Border Service.

The company said that Donetsk and Luhansk directorates for railway transportation have been created as part of regional branch Donetsk Railways. Ukrzaliznytsia proposes employees of Donetsk Railways to work the regional branch.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman during his visit to the United States will meet with representatives of the International Monetary Fund and the U.S. business, Ukrainian Finance Minister Oleksandr Danyliuk has said.

"With regard to the program of the prime minister's visit to the United States, I understand that they are currently working now finalized it and there are meetings with the IMF and with the Finance Minister. But the main event is a meeting with the American business," Danyliuk said at a briefing in Kyiv on Wednesday.

As reported, Groysman accepted an invitation from U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden to visit the U.S. in June. Ambassador of Ukraine to the U.S., Valeriy Chaly said that this visit is planned for mid-June.
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Judge Aaron Persky, at the center of a firestorm over sentencing in a former Stanford swimmer's sexual assault case, has just earned a new six-year term as a Santa Clara County judge. Voters didn't get a chance to oust Persky in Tuesday's election because he ran unopposed.

Persky has drawn international scrutiny this week for sentencing ex-Stanford student Brock Turner to six months in county jail with probation for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman.

When Turner, an all-American swimmer, was convicted in Santa Clara County Superior Court of three counts of sexual assault in late March, he faced up to 14 years of prison, as reported in a previous SFGATE story.

The judge opted for a lighter penalty, saying a stiffer sentence would have a "severe impact" on the 20-year-old.

The judge's decision sparked outrage on social media. And a number of editorials calling the sentence a "slap on the wrist" and an example of the "toxicity of white male privileged."

A campaign to oust the judge, launched on June 4th, has since become the hottest Change.org petition, with 644,000 signatures as of Wednesday morning.

"On Monday morning the petition had 30,000 signatures and it has grown virally since then, attracting 290,000 signatures in the last 24 hours," Change.org spokesperson Eva Arevuo wrote in an email statement. "This campaign has also attracted a lot of our total site traffic, to become one of only a handful of petitions on the site that get this big, this quickly."

Those signatures are not legally binding however, and carry no direct threat to Persky's seat on the bench. As it turns out, a real challenge to Persky's judgeship could have come Tuesday, had anyone chosen to run against the 54-year-old. No challenger ever materialized though, and Persky will now begin a new six-year term.

While Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen has said he's not advocating for removing the judge, he has expressed disapproval of the decision.

"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."

SFGATE spoke with Persky's office and a statement hasn't been released regarding the petition.

A true recall effort against Persky would require petitioners in the district to gather enough signatures to reach the equivalent of at least 20 percent of the previous election's vote, according to the secretary of state's office.

But a Stanford law professor told USA Today that won't be a problem.

"His victory will be short-lived," Stanford law professor Michele Dauber told USA Today. "I am 100% confident we will recall him. His decision hit every woman in the state of California in the gut."
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Bernie Sanders isnt quitting yet.

While pressure within the Democrat Party is mounting on the Vermont senator to suspend his White House run, Sanders vowed Tuesday that the struggle will continue all the way to the Democratic National Convention in July in Philadelphia.

At a speech in Santa Monica Tuesday, Sanders said his campaign was more than about defeating likely Republican nominee Donald Trump. Sanders said his political revolution is about transforming the country away from one that is controlled by its wealthiest interests.

We are going to fight hard to win the primary in Washington, D.C., and then we take our fight for social, economic, racial and environmental justice to Philadelphia, he told supporters.

Clinton tight-roped her approach to Sanders Tuesday, not wanting to alienate his supporters, whom she needs in taking on Trump. In her speech Tuesday night in which she declared herself the Democratic presidential nominee, Clinton praised her rivals efforts.

Sen. Sanders, his campaign, and the vigorous debate that weve had about how to raise incomes, reduce inequality, increase upward mobility, have been very good for the Democratic Party and for America, Clinton said.

At a Clinton election night party Tuesday in San Francisco, Peggy Moore, the political director of Clintons campaign in California, acknowledged that anytime youre campaigning and competing against each other it takes a moment to breathe deep before you come together. Im excited to see that happen.

Though he stopped short of an endorsement, President Obama also virtually crowned Clinton the nominee Tuesday for securing the delegates necessary to clinch the Democratic nomination for president, according to a White House statement. Her historic campaign inspired millions and is an extension of her lifelong fight for middle-class families and children.

But in a major clue that Obama is focused on helping Sanders gracefully exit the race so Democrats can turn their attention on presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump, the statement also said that Obama also praised the Vermont senator Tuesday for energizing millions of Americans with his commitment to issues like fighting economic inequality and special interests influence on our politics.

On Thursday, Obama will meet with Sanders at the White House  at Sanders request  according to the White House statement. They will continue their conversation about how to build on the extraordinary work he has done to engage millions of Democratic voters, and to build on that enthusiasm in the weeks and months ahead.

In San Francisco, Clinton supporters like Jamienne Studley  a former deputy undersecretary of the U.S. Dept of Education during the Bill Clinton administration  was looking forward to working with Sanders supporters.

They will understand that the stakes in this election are too high not to come together, Studley said at the Clinton party. There are far more shared goals than differences. The unpredictable nature of this year means no one can sit back now. Its too volatile.

A crowd of 50 people at Clintons party in San Francisco at first seemed politely interested in Sanders speech but as soon as he mentioned next Tuesday they turned. Some booed. A few walked away in disgust.

Ellen Sweets, 75, of Richmond had been a Sanders supporter at first but switched to Clinton a few weeks ago. She was disappointed that Sanders is staying in the race.

Hes coming across as the Ralph Nader of 2016, Sweets said. I just find it disconcerting. I feel like his ego is driving him now. If you want to talk about unifying the country, then start unifying now. This is frustrating me. It makes him look like a spoiled brat.

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, a Clinton supporter, was really hopeful we can harness their energy and their great progressive values. We have underestimated Donald Trump for far too long. I really hope that a united purpose brings us together.

But some Sanders supporters like Berkeley resident Varun Paul werent quite there yet. At a Sanders election night party in Oakland, Paul said he wouldnt vote for Clinton in any scenario.

Bernie or bust. Im not going to vote for her, the 33-year-old Paul said. I think Bernie is an incredibly courageous person. Hes fighting an establishment that has an infrastructure that is designed basically to not allow him to succeed.

Oakland resident and Sanders volunteer John Jung said hes more interested in supporting the political revolution than voting for Clinton.

Im 61 years old and this is the first time Ive ever campaigned, he said. Ive done everything I can and its because hes a man who is honest.

Hillary Clinton, as Bernie Sanders would say, is part of the establishment, Jung said. Bernie has brought something to this county that has given people the idea a progressive political point of view is viable.

Chronicle staff writers Jenna Lyons and Erin Allday contributed to this report.

Joe Garofoli is the San Francisco Chronicles senior political writer. Email: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: joegarofoli
The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) has said that they have information that their missing Ukrainian driver is held in Donetsk and they insist on his unconditional release.

"The OSCE SMM can confirm that one of our local staff in Luhansk region did not return from leave as planned, on 7 June. The police was informed. We understand that he is reportedly held in Donetsk. We are in contact with the relevant actors to resolve this matter. We have demanded his immediate and unconditional release," the mission said in a statement posted on its Facebook page on Wednesday.

The National Police branch in Luhansk region reported earlier that on June 6, the Severodonetsk police department received a report from a woman, born in 1984, that at about 09:00 on June 4 she lost contact with her husband, born in 1979, who works as a driver for the OSCE. The driver left the town of Stakhanov, which is controlled by the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic, in the bus which was heading to Donetsk region, where he was to take his Suzuki car, to bring it home.
Donbas residents encounter travel limitations and danger whenever they cross the contact line, OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM) Principal Deputy Chief Monitor Alexander Hug said.

OSCE SMM observers have seen hundreds of people stranded at checkpoints, Hug said at a press briefing in Kyiv on Wednesday.

He said the situation was complicated and travelers were experiencing hindrances and danger.

People in the western part of Luhansk region told SMM monitors that the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) militants had not allowed them to visit Novooleksandrivka, he said.

Such actions restrict the basic right of moving around one's own country or even one's home region and create problems with access to food and medicines, Hug said.

In his words, this situation is typical of Donbas.

Besides, shootouts happen in direct proximity to checkpoints on the contact line, Hug said.
OSCE mission concerned about attacks on its drones in Donbas

The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) sees the destruction of its unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) in Donbas as an attack on the OSCE mandate.

The latest shooting of two long-range drones of the OSCE SMM inflicted financial losses; it was also a direct attack on the OSCE mandate, OSCE SMM Principal Deputy Chief Monitor Alexander Hug said at a press briefing in Kyiv on Wednesday.

The destruction of the drones shows that the sides are as yet unable and unwilling to accept the assistance they need, he said.
The Ukrainian side has filed complaints against procedural rulings of the General Court of the EU in lawsuits filed by the family of former president of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych.

"On June 2, the legal adviser of Ukraine filed complaints against rulings of the General Court of the EU dated March 11, 2015, in cases Nos. T-346/14, T-347/14 and T-348/14. On June 7, the EU Court of Justice confirmed the receipt of such complaints," the official website of the Justice Ministry of Ukraine reported on Wednesday.

The Justice Ministry said that the rulings, against which they are appealing, do not demand Ukraine should pay any compensation.

"The Justice Ministry again emphasizes that there are no rulings of the European Court about the recovery of any money in favor of Yanukovych and his entourage from Ukraine. At the same time, in order to prevent any risks and manipulations, these procedural rulings were appealed in compliance with a proper procedure. The submitted appeals are aimed at ensuring the position and interests of Ukraine," the report says.

The ministry also said that the investigation of criminal cases against former President Viktor Yanukovych and his entourage in Ukraine continues.

"Ukrainian law enforcement agencies will be very pleased to personally hear the position of Viktor Yanukovych on the issues raised in each such case," the Justice Ministry said in a statement.

As reported, on March 28, 2016, former minister of justice of Ukraine Olena Lukash said that an EU court has obliged Ukraine to compensate claim costs in the amount of UAH 6.378 million to former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and two his sons  Oleksandr Yanukovych and Viktor Yanukovych (deceased) in the case on property sanctions imposed against them by the European Union.

Ukraine's Justice Ministry, for its part, refuted Lukash's statement on recovering court costs from Ukraine in favor of Yanukovych and his entourage. "There are no decisions of the European Court about the recovery of at least a penny, all the more UAH 6.3 million, in favor of Yanukovych and his entourage from Ukraine, as well as non-property decisions against Ukraine for the benefit of the specified persons," the ministry's press service said.

On April 8, 2016, the European Truth Internet publication reported referring to the written comments of a representative the EU Court of Justice, Balazs Lehoczki, said that Ukraine and representatives of ex-president Viktor Yanukovych and his sons did not reach an agreement on the amount of the compensation, Kyiv allegedly has to pay under the court ruling.
No Ukrainian servicemen have been killed in the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) in Donbas in the past 24 hours, the Ukrainian presidential administration's spokesman Andriy Lysenko said.

"No Ukrainian troops have been killed in the past 24 hours; however, seven Ukrainian servicemen have been injured," Lysenko said at a briefing in Kyiv on Wednesday.

In the Luhansk sector, the Popasna district, militants breached the regime of quiet once, he said.

In the Donetsk sector, fire was opened 17 times, including ten times from mortars and one from artillery weapons, he said. In particular, shelling of the position at the Putylivska mine occurred; 18 projectiles were fired.

Lysenko said that a series of mortar attacks were conducted along the entire frontline. The tension spots were as usual, including Zaitseve, Avdiyivka, Svitlodarska Duha and other districts of the Horlivska agglomeration.

One local resident suffered multiple shell fragment wounds following the mortar fire on the residential districts of Avdiyivka, he said.

Mortar fire was opened on the positions of the Ukrainian troops in five areas of the frontline at once in the Mariupol sector - in Novotroitske, Vodiane, Lebedynske and Shyrokyne - in the past 24 hours, he said. A total of 18 attacks, including with mortars, conducted by militants occurred in the Mariupol sector in the past 24 hours, he said.
Head of international anti-corruption network Transparency International Jose Carlos Ugas Sanchez Moreno has emphasized that first of all Ukraine needs the political will of the state itself to implement anti-corruption legislation.

"We (Transparency International) had a talk with the Justice Minister [Minister of Justice of Ukraine Yuriy Petrenko] and we are pleased with the measures that have been taken in the anti-corruption reform. That's good, but that's only the beginning. If there is no political will and resources, then it won't work," Ugaz said during a joint briefing with the Minister of Justice Pavlo Petrenko in Kyiv on Wednesday.

According to him, international experience has shown that in many countries the newly established anti-corruption agencies didn't cope with the tasks assigned to them, mainly, due to the fact that independence of these agencies wasn't guaranteed, and there weren't enough resources for their productive work.

"This is a guarantee of independence, the key to a good, effective work of anti-corruption bodies in Ukraine," Ugaz said.

Jose Carlos Ugas Sanchez Moreno recalled that Transparency International is the largest anti-corruption network and it has offices in 114 countries. He assured that Transparency International is ready to cooperate with the Ukrainian authorities in supporting the implementation of anti-corruption legislation in Ukraine.

"The experience has shown that the disclosure of officials' property declarations is a good practice, but this is not enough if unlawful enrichment of top-ranking officials is not investigated ," Ugaz noted.

"We have already told the president of Ukraine and reiterated once again the Minister of Justice of Ukraine that we, as an international organization, are willing to be partners in the work, but we will monitor and watch on how the legislation is adopted. Transparency International can't bring the funds back that were stolen by President Yanukovych [former President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych], as it was written on the website of the president of Ukraine, but we can provide an assistance in these issues, help in dealing with other countries to ensure that it is investigated to find Yanukovich's assets," the head of Transparency International said.
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Adult film star and former MTV reality show actress Tila Tequila posted a photo to Facebook on Monday in her "cowboy boots" with a caption that read: "Ain't nuthin better than riding around Texas in my cowboy boots to hunt down these damn illegals! #SendThemBack," stunning fans and critics alike.

RELATED:Tila Tequila wishes Hitler a happy birthday on Twitter

Texans quickly stormed the comments of the post noting that the porn star's shoes weren't exactly cowboy boots, and reminded her of her own ethnic background  born to Singapore emigrants to the United States.

"As a Texas native I must inform you that those are no way in hell cowboy boots ma'am," one Facebook user, Josh Rodriguez, wrote.

RELATED: Tila Tequila Booted From 'Celebrity Big Brother' Over Hitler Views (Report)

Others renounced their appreciation for the adult film star as a result of her racially insensitive post, and criticized her "uneducated" commentary on the issue of immigration.

The porn star was in headlines earlier this year after she made a GoFundMe asking for funds to move into a new home and buy furniture.

MMedina@mySA.com

Twitter:@MariahMedinaaa
Ukrainian parliamentarian Nadia Savchenko, of the Batkivschyna faction, calls for dialogue with Donbas without Russia's involvement.

"There can be no elections in a territory seized by an enemy, which is dictating its rules. I want Ukrainians to start talking amongst themselves. I am ready to do this and apply all possible efforts, but without the neighbor's and the enemy's interference," Savchenko said at a press conference in Kyiv on Wednesday.

At the same time, Savchenko said, "I am ready to talk with anyone, including enemies and friends, so that the state returns mothers their children home safe and sound."
The age of autarky is again upon us.

Britain, in two weeks, will vote on whether to leave the European Union, that great postwar project to promote both peace and prosperity.

No matter that economists have almost uniformly warned that a possible Brexit would devastate the British economy, with an estimated cost of approximately $6,000 per British household. Disregard news that markets are already freaking out about the consequences for the pound and the overall financial sector; that high-skilled talent has become skittish about moving to the British isles, whose relationship to the EU in a potential post-Brexit world is unknown; and that foreign clients have begun suspending or delaying contracts with British companies.

Who cares that these small islands, so dependent on the continent for both what they consume and where they send their exports, are putting so much economic activity at risk?

Many Britons want to withdraw, to show theyre separate and politically self-determined and not really into all this expensive pan-ethnic, pan-European unity rubbish. So withdraw they might. Recent polls show the leave and stay contingents about evenly split.

Financially self-defeating as it may seem, the British are hardly alone in their flirtation with economic, political and cultural separatism.

Other EU exit portmanteaus  Grexit, Itexit, Spexit  speckle the headlines. Within Spain, Catalonians have once again been agitating for independence. Secessionists in the Flanders region of Belgium have reawakened. Even within Britain itself, Scotland not so long ago held a referendum to disunite from the United Kingdom.

Likewise, China, once seen as moving toward greater economic and cultural openness, has lately taken a more nationalist, xenophobic and protectionist approach. This spring, the government even launched a propaganda campaign warning citizens not to get too cozy with handsome foreigners.

And, of course, here at home in the United States all three of our remaining major-party presidential candidates  Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton  have embraced anti-trade talk.

Of the three, Trump has offered the most isolationist, nationalistic vision, themed America First. He not only laughs off the dire consequences of a trade war, he also actively stokes xenophobia at home and advocates large-scale disengagement from our allies abroad.

In a way, these international developments  or at least their near-simultaneity  are a bit surprising.

We live in an age of unprecedented globalization. First mass media and then social media exposed us to the ideas, products and languages of our most far-flung counterparts around the world. Advances in finance, technology and logistics have facilitated more trade  and trade in a richer variety of goods and services  than at any time in human history.

And yet  either despite these advances in globalization or perhaps because of them  countries, regions and peoples worldwide are suddenly, synchronously retreating from one another and turning inward.

For the first time in history, no island is truly an island. Yet, increasingly, countries and peoples are hoping to moat themselves off from the economic, political and cultural influences of others.

Weve seen similar embraces of economic and intellectual autarky in the past. Theyve generally ended badly.

Economic self-sufficiency is just so easy to buy in to  until you realize how much it costs.

 2016 Washington Post

Writers Group

Email: crampell@washpost.com Twitter: crampell
After getting flack for calling the Democratic nomination for Hillary Clinton hours before polls opened in the nations most populous state, the Associated Press fired back Tuesday, with a top official saying, That is news, and reporting the news is what we do.

In a statement on the news services corporate blog, senior vice president and executive editor Kathleen Carroll said that AP concluded that Hillary Clinton had enough delegates to clinch the nomination after a painstaking but very straightforward exercise: We counted.
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Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won Californias Democratic presidential primary by an unexpectedly large margin Tuesday, shortly after she declared herself to be the first woman presidential nominee of a major political party.

Several polls had shown Clintons race with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders to be a dead heat. But with 99.7 percent of the precincts reporting in Tuesdays California primary, Clinton had 55.8 percent of the vote to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders 43.2 percent.

Clinton secured the 2,383 delegates needed to be nominated after winning Sundays Puerto Rico primary and picking up the support of additional superdelegates, party leaders and elected officials who are free to choose which candidate to support.

Even before polls opened Tuesday, the Sanders campaign had rejected assertions that Clinton was the presumptive nominee, calling it wrong to count the votes of superdelegates before they actually vote at the convention this summer. Sanders aides bristled when major media outlets called the nomination for Clinton on Monday night before many Californians had voted.

However, combined with President Obamas expected endorsement of Clinton, analysts predict other party leaders will lean on Sanders to suspend his campaign and encourage his supporters to back Clinton.

Obama will meet with Sanders Thursday at the White House about how to build on the extraordinary work he has done to engage millions of Democratic voters, and to build on that enthusiasm in the weeks and months ahead, the White House said Tuesday.

Were closing in on a milestone, Clinton told supporters Tuesday evening in Brooklyn, N.Y. First time in our nations history that a woman will be a major partys nominee. Tonights victory is not about one person, it belongs to generations of women and men who sacrificed and made this moment possible.

Sanders gave no sign of conceding the nomination race Tuesday. Speaking to supporters in Los Angeles, the senator vowed to continue the fight through the final primary in Washington, D.C., next week, and then we take our fight ... to (the national convention in) Philadelphia.

Joe Garofoli is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: joegarofoli
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State Attorney General Kamala Harris and Orange County Rep. Loretta Sanchez will meet this fall in a landmark Democrats-only clash to replace retiring Sen. Barbara Boxer.

Harris, a former San Francisco district attorney, led the unwieldy 34-candidate field with 40.3 percent of the vote Tuesday, followed by Sanchez with 18.5 percent, with 100 percent of precincts reporting.

Trailing the two Democrats were three Republicans, led by Palo Alto attorney Duf Sundheim with 8 percent. Former state legislator Phil Wyman of Tehachapi (Kern County) had 4.9 percent and Lafayette attorney Tom Del Beccaro had 4.2 percent.

REAL-TIME VOTE TOTALS

Tonight California spoke  it said unity is our strength and diversity is our power, Harris told her supporters at a victory party in Delancey Streets Club Room in San Francisco. Weve got five months ahead. ... The eyes of the country are upon us.

Assemblyman David Chiu wore a bright red T-shirt saying Asians for Kamala, a group created for her first run for district attorney.

We all believed in 2003 that she had a bright future, but we had no idea just how bright, Chiu said.

Sanchez full of confidence

In Anaheim, Sanchez was full of confidence when she spoke to her supporters.

Its been an exciting campaign, and were getting ready for round two! she said.

It was a lot quieter at the GOP election night event in San Francisco, where a few dozen Republicans showed up to watch the results come in. By 8:30 p.m., the room was clearing as the disappointing numbers came in for the Republican Senate candidates.

By the time Sundheim spoke at 9:30 p.m., he was addressing about 30 people and plenty of empty chairs.

He thanked his supporters and put the best possible spin on the results, arguing that it was too early to say whether he would finish second or third.

The results werent much of a surprise. The 51-year-old Harris, who was re-elected as attorney general with nearly 58 percent of the vote in 2014, jumped into the Senate race just days after Boxer announced she would retire in January 2015. Harris has been the front-runner to replace the Democratic senator ever since.

Getting into the race was a tougher decision for Sanchez, 56, who had to give up the Santa Ana congressional seat shes held since 1996. Since she entered the race in May 2015, she has been running a consistent second place in the polls behind Harris.

It was a difficult road for the GOP hopefuls, none of whom had the statewide name identification  or the campaign cash  of the two leading Democrats.

Del Beccaro and Sundheim are both former heads of the state Republican Party and Wyman has served as both an assemblyman and state senator.

The solution, the leading Republicans agreed during the campaign, was to unite behind a single GOP candidate and push past Sanchez into a spot on the November ballot. But the Senate hopefuls each had a very different idea of who the last Republican standing should be.

My opponents refuse to drop out to help unify the party, Del Beccaro said in a fundraising email last week, endangering our chance of having any Republican make it into the general election.

Boxers retirement created Californias first open Senate seat since she and fellow Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein were elected in 1992.

Under Californias top-two primary system, which was approved by voters in 2010, the two leading finishers match up in the general election, regardless of party. The Harris-Sanchez race will mark the first time two members of the same party meet in a November rematch.

The two Democrats have very different backgrounds.

Harris was born in Oakland. Her mother was a doctor who immigrated from India and her father was a Jamaican American who taught economics at Stanford University.

She was elected San Francisco district attorney in 2003 and re-elected four years later. She won a tight race for state attorney general in 2010.

Sanchez was born in Lynwood (Los Angeles County) and grew up in Orange County. Her parents, immigrants from Mexico, had seven children and she was raised speaking Spanish.

A financial analyst, Sanchez lost a race for Anaheim City Council in 1994 before knocking off a six-term Republican to win her congressional seat in 1996.

Raucous fall campaign

There already are signs of a raucous fall campaign.

Harris, for example, is a favorite of Democratic Party leaders, holding endorsements from the state party, Gov. Jerry Brown and most statewide elected officials.

But when the party voted to back Harris, Rep. Filemon Vela, a Texas Democrat and member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, said in a statement that the partys endorsement of Harris is insulting to Latinos all across the country.

Harris, though, is a graduate of Howard University, a historically black college, and has plenty of backing from groups like the Congressional Black Caucus, setting the stage for a Senate battle between two major Democratic Party constituencies.

Chronicle staff writer Nanette Asimov contributed to this report.

John Wildermuth is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jwildermuth@sfchronicle.com Twitter: jfwildermuth
DAMASCUS, Syria  The Syrian president vowed on Tuesday to liberate every inch of the country in the same way his troops earlier this year recaptured the historic town of Palmyra from the Islamic State.

Bashar Assads speech in front of the newly elected parliament came as government forces pushed ahead in their offensive in the northern province of Raqqa, which is home to the de facto capital of the Islamic State and the seat of its self-proclaimed caliphate. Government forces have also almost encircled rebel-held neighborhoods in Aleppo, Syrias largest city.
Hillary Clinton is set to make history as the first woman to be a presidential nominee for a major U.S. political party and potentially becoming the countrys first female commander in chief.

But the glass ceiling to a nations top office was long ago shattered in several countries around the world, including some with nascent democracies.

The fact that these countries have democracies that are less established may make it easier for someone outside of the conventional political norms to get elected, said Dan Schnur, director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California. The United States has had two centuries to develop old boy networks, the results of which are walls that are less easy to scale. New democracies have had less time to build such walls.

India has had the longest stretches with a woman in power, according to the Pew Research Center. Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and later President Pratibha Patil served a combined 21 of the past 51 years. In Europe, the Nordic countries stand out in terms of electing women to their nations top political office, according to Pew data, barring Sweden, where a woman has never headed the government.

There are currently 18 female world leaders, including 12 heads of government and 11 elected heads of state, according to the United Nations (some leaders are both, and figurehead monarchs are not included).

Heres a look at some of the past and present female leaders:

Indira Gandhi was Indias third prime minister and so far the first and only woman elected to the post. The daughter of Indias first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, she served for three consecutive terms between 1966 and 1977, and another term from 1980 until she was assassinated by her bodyguards in 1984. She is credited with implementing progressive agricultural programs that helped improve the lives of the countrys poor.

Golda Meir was prime minister of Israel bfrom 1969 to 1974. She was one of the founders of the state of Israel, who tried to push for peace in the Middle East through words over weapons. Her efforts were curtailed by the outbreak of the Arab-Israeli war on Oct. 6, 1973, also known as the Yom Kippur War.

Margaret Thatcher was the first and only female prime minister of Britain (1979-90) and regarded by many as the countrys most important peacetime leader of the 20th century. Nicknamed the Iron Lady, she reshaped the political and economic landscape of Britain through conservative free-market policies that came to be known as Thatcherism.

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has been president of Liberia since 2006. She is Africas first elected female head of state. An ambitious economist, her tenure in office has focused on tackling corruption, rebuilding the countrys infrastructure following years of civil strife and reducing the staggering unemployment rate.

Angela Merkel has been chancellor of Germany since 2005. A trained physicist, Merkel is Germanys first female chancellor, and she has emerged as one of the key leaders of the European Union. Her popularity propelled her to a second term in 2009. Merkel was awarded the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011 and was named Time Magazines Person of the Year in 2015, citing her leadership on issues such as the Syrian refugee crisis.

Dilma Rousseff has been president of Brazil since 2011. She is the nations first female president. In May, the Brazilian Congress suspended her on charges that she shifted funds to cover holes in the national budget. She faces a trial in the Senate.

Park Geun-hye is South Koreas first female leader. She defeated a liberal human rights lawyer to win the countrys top job in 2013.
Justice minister looking to international organizations for anti-corruption tools in Ukraine

Ukraine's Justice Ministry counts on support and expert consultations from international organizations, including Transparency International, in creating the anti-corruption court in the country.

Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko at a joint briefing with Transparency International Head Jose Sanchez-Moreno on Wednesday said that several issues were discussed at a meeting with the head of Transparency International, including the introduction of anti-corruption legislation in Ukraine and getting results from the operation of new anti-corruption agencies.

Ukraine's cooperation with Transparency International, exchange of experience in disclosure of information about beneficiary owners was also discussed.

Petrenko said that Ukraine introduced the disclosure of ultimate owners a year ago.

"This is important as the entire world starts introducing 'deoffshorization' legislation and fighting against companies that hide their assets in offshore zones," Petrenko said.

Ukraine has positive experience and the country is ready to share it with other countries and international organizations.

The minister said that the other issue discussed at the meeting was cooperation with governments of other countries and international organizations in bringing back the funds that were stolen by former disgraced Ukrainian President Yanukovych and his 'family.'

Petrenko said that Ukraine will ask Transparency International to share its experience in investigating global corruption cases.

He also said that the operation of new anti-corruption agencies and Ukraine's plans to create special anti-corruption courts that will be responsible for hearing cases investigated by anti-corruption agencies was discussed with the head of Transparency International.

"We count on support and consultations of experts from international organizations regarding the procedure for creating the anti-corruption court, guarantees of judges and their security, their open and transparent work," the minister said.
KORIYAMA, Japan  She's 21, has thyroid cancer, and wants people in her prefecture in northeastern Japan to get screened for it. That statement might not seem provocative, but her prefecture is Fukushima, and of the 173 young people with confirmed or suspected cases since the 2011 nuclear meltdowns there, she is the first to speak out.

That near-silence highlights the fear Fukushima thyroid-cancer patients have about being the nail that sticks out, and thus getting hammered.

The thyroid-cancer rate in the northern Japanese prefecture is many times higher than what is generally found, particularly among children, but the Japanese government says more cases are popping up because of rigorous screening, not the radiation that spewed from Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant.

To be seen as challenging that view carries consequences in this rigidly harmony-oriented society. Even just having cancer that might be related to radiation carries a stigma in the only country to be hit with atomic bombs.

There aren't many people like me who will openly speak out, said the young woman, who requested anonymity because of fears about harassment. That's why I'm speaking out so others can feel the same. I can speak out because I'm the kind of person who believes things will be OK.

She has a quick disarming smile and silky black hair. She wears flip-flops. She speaks passionately about her new job as a nursery school teacher. But she also has deep fears: Will she be able to get married? Will her children be healthy?

She suffers from the only disease that the medical community, including the U.N. Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation, has acknowledged is clearly related to the radioactive iodine that spewed into the surrounding areas after the only nuclear disaster worse than Fukushimas, the 1986 explosion and fire at Chernobyl, Ukraine.

Though international reviews of Fukushima have predicted that cancer rates will not rise as a result of the meltdowns there, some researchers believe the prefecture's high thyroid-cancer rate is related to the accident.

Thyroid cancer is among the most curable cancers, though some patients need medication for the rest of their lives, and all need regular checkups.
LILONGWE, Malawi  She is haunted daily by the image of the decapitated head of her 9-year-old son. Police asked Edna Cedrick to identify it after the boy, who had albinism, was snatched from her arms in a violent struggle.

The death in February was one in a recent surge in killings and abductions of people with albinism in this southern African country. They are targeted for their body parts, which are sold to be used in potions made by witch doctors who claim they bring wealth and good luck.

At least 18 albino people have been killed in Malawi in a steep upsurge in killings since November 2014, and five others have been abducted and remain missing, according to a new Amnesty International report released Tuesday. The toll is likely much higher because many killings in rural areas are never reported, according to the report. Malawi police also have recorded cases where the bodies of people with albinism have been illegally exhumed.

Malawian police say the growing violence comes after neighboring Tanzania imposed tough measures against such trade in January 2015.

Cedrick, the mother of the murdered boy, recounted his abduction last month while holding the murdered boys surviving twin brother, who also has albinism. In the middle of the night, she said, she woke to the sound of people kicking down the door of the house. Her husband was away.

Before I could understand what was happening, they sliced the mosquito net and grabbed one of the twins, the 26-year-old said, tears in her eyes. I held on to him by holding his waist, at the same time shielding the other with my back.

When they could not overpower her, one assailant hacked her in the forehead with a machete, she said. This dazed me, and I lost hold of my son and he was gone. I shouted for help, but when my relatives rushed to our house, they were gone.

The boys twin keeps asking where his brother is, she said. She lies, saying he will return.

On the same day of the interview, a deadly attack was carried out in another part of Malawi on 38-year-old Fletcher Masina, an albino father of four. When his body was found, the limbs were missing.

The macabre trade is also fueled by a belief that bones of people with albinism contain gold, the rights group says, noting another mistaken belief is that sex with a person with albinism can cure HIV. The report also points out widespread discrimination against people with albinism, including by family members.
1 Refugee crisis: The European Union introduced plans Tuesday to seal agreements with African and Middle East countries in an effort to persuade refugees to stay close to home and to discourage people looking for jobs from heading to Europe. In Brussels, the European Commission said the agreements would single out countries that refugees leave, travel through or stay in, often on their way to Europe. The move is part of the EU strategy to tackle the causes of migration as the 28-nation bloc struggles to manage its biggest refugee emergency since World War II, with member states divided over what action to take. The commission said the new partnership would combine funds to build border, asylum and counter-smuggling capacities, as well as develop infrastructure and promote investment.

2 Boko Haram attacks: The United Nations refugee agency says at least 50,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in southeastern Niger after a series of attacks by Islamic extremist group Boko Haram. The agency said Tuesday that attacks by the Nigeria-based fighters Friday, Sunday and Monday on the town of Bosso and its military post forced people to flee. Boko Harams nearly seven-year insurgency has killed thousands and displaced 2.7 million.
WASHINGTON  India will try to join a climate change deal within this year, the Obama administration said Tuesday, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi met President Obama at the White House and the two leaders played up their efforts to cooperate on issues of global concern.

Stressing their strong bonds, Obama said the worlds two largest democracies had joined forces to bring about the landmark climate agreement that was reached in Paris in December.

We discussed how we can as quickly as possible bring the Paris agreement into place, how we can make sure that climate financing thats necessary for India to be able to embark on its bold vision for solar energy and clean energy that Prime Minister Modi has laid out can be accomplished, Obama said, alongside Modi after their meeting in the Oval Office.

Modi said that the U.S. and India have been cooperating on issues of global concern, including nuclear security, climate change and terrorism. He referred to Obama as my close friend and said the two nations would continue working shoulder to shoulder.

India is the worlds third-largest carbon emitter among nations, after China and the U.S. The Paris agreement aims to keep the global temperature rise below 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit compared with preindustrial times. The agreement enters into force once 55 countries representing at least 55 percent of global emissions have joined it.

In a joint statement with the U.S., India said it would seek to join the climate deal as soon as possible this year and had started its domestic process to ratify it. The U.S., India and dozens of other countries have already signed the deal, the first hurdle in a two-step process, but Modi has been coy about whether India would formally join this year. The U.S. is eager for countries to join quickly because the deals carbon-cutting requirements only kick in once a critical mass of polluting nations join. The U.S., China, Canada, Mexico and Australia have all said they intend to join the agreement within this year.

This is Modis fourth visit to the U.S. since he took office two years ago, and his seventh meeting with Obama. On Wednesday, the Indian leader addresses a joint meeting of Congress.

Modi and Obama seem to have forged a bond. When Obama visited India last year, Modi pulled the president into a bear hug as he stepped off Air Force One, and the two leaders have publicly praised each other.
Its Sunday evening of Form & Concepts opening weekend, and founder Sandy Zane sits at the front desk in the shade of several massive bouquets. Shes counting out the cash drawer in preparation for closing time. In its first three days, the space in the Railyard District storefront that previously housed Zane Bennett Gallery has mostly sold jewelry from its gift shop, and Zane and cofounder Frank Rose couldnt be happier.

"Jewelry can be more of an impulse buy than art; if it's selling, that allows us to show other cool stuff like this," says Rose, surveying walls filled with colorful quilts by Santa Fe painter and textile artist Vanessa Michel.

Form & Concept's inaugural exhibition, Made in the Desert, features New Mexico and Arizona artists who manipulate a wide array of media, from ceramic to neon. "We really want to do some things that are different," Zane says, flashing a determined smile. "We want to knock your socks off."

Rose ascends to the second floor of the space and follows a balcony bordering the atrium into another series of galleries. There's still a sliver of Zane Bennett Gallery's formidable historic collection on view up here, though that business has mostly moved to an online sales model. An immersive, multimedia piece called La Cocina by Priscilla Dobler is partly installed in one of the rooms, and Virtual Object, a show of sculptures made by 3-D printer, will soon occupy the rest of the second floor. It's not every day in the art world that works by Francis Bacon, Sol Lewitt and Bruce Nauman make way for objects that could be considered craft or design.

"The work of craft has been maligned as something that is just about material and in some ways has been associated with 'women's work' in a derogatory way," says Rose. "In the Renaissance, this split started to happen where craft was associated with labor, and art was associated with ideas. To me, it's a false dichotomy. The lines are super-blurry." Along with the diverse work downstairs, La Cocina and Virtual Object attack these longstanding divisions from every angle.

Dobler's installation is a model of her mother's kitchen made from colorful, woven panels. The Seattle artist comes from a long line of Yucatanian hammock weavers on her mother's side, and her father's mother handwove textiles in Scotland. Multimedia elements throughout the installation trigger kitchen sound effects and audio recordings of people from various socioeconomic backgrounds being interviewed about food and identity. A projection on the stove shows the artist's mother making tortillas.

Dobler originally pitched La Cocina to the Currents New Media Festival but had trouble describing how all of the elements would come together. Rose, who helped produce last year's Currents and sits on the board, caught wind of the project and connected with Dobler. "It's difficult because of the way you label work  is it fine art, or is it craft? Yes it's craft, but there's a concept herefor some reason, Frank understood," Dobler says. "It's the same with identity. I look very Mayan, but I'm also Scottish and German-American. I get pushed into this box, 'Oh, you're Mexican,' when I'm other things as well."

Virtual Object, which Rose curated with Frank Ragano and Mariannah Amster of Currents, features 11 artists from across the world who synthesize art and cutting-edge design. Rose heads back across the atrium to look over some early arrivals for the show in his office. Intricate white sculptures of skulls, animals and insects by Joshua Harker line the shelves next to Rose's desk. Harker, who lives in Chicago, was an early pioneer of 3-D printed art. He spent decades in the industrial design industry, dreaming up ways to turn the surreal images in his head into three-dimensional objects.

"3-D printing really democratizes the sculpture process, which falls in line with issues of reproduction that were pushed with photography, lithography and even writing," Harker says. "We have this notion that when things are reproduced, they have no value. 3-D printing upsets the status quo and makes people rethink what is art, and what's the validity in it."

For Rose and his growing crew of collaborators, disruptions like this open the door to colorful, high-flying explorations. La Cocina and Virtual Object debut at Form & Concept this Friday in conjunction with the Currents New Media Festival.







La Cocina/Virtual Object Opening Reception

5-7 pm Friday, June 10. Free.

Form & Concept,

435 S Guadalupe St.,

982-8111

Santa Fe Reporter
Sam Taub wants to bring New York-style Jewish baked goods to Santa Fe with his company, Flour & Water. Eliza Lutz already has four artists signed to her recording label, Matron Records. Jessica Brommers startup company, Stalworth Shoes & Boots, aims to reintroduce the forgotten art of handmaking shoes.

Whether they'll get funding help from Santa Fe's latest entrepreneurial accelerator depends on how skilled they are at selling their ideas to others. MIX Santa Fe's 2016 bizMix contest took off on June 2 at Skylight, during the Santa Fe Chamber of Commerce Business Awards. While daylight still penetrated the nightclub's canopy windows, chamber members, public servants and elected officials mingled with 12 teams of entrepreneurs who made the cut to pitch their ideas.

"I'm not terribly good at this self-promoting, marketing bit," says Brommer, who like other finalists navigated the crowd with a balloon tied around her arm, wearing a blue sticker inviting attendees to "Ask me about my business idea."

"The biggest challenge for me is to get out of the studio and go talk to people," she says. "It's pushing me to approach things in a different way."

Representatives of new companies as diverse as John Warmath's Bolt (a clean-energy-based version of Uber) and Jakub Svec's Perk (which has patented an affordable version of high-end coffee brewing machines) will also develop written business plans and receive mentorship from community leaders, all the while competing for $50,000 in cash and prizes.

Kate Noble, the city's special projects administrator for economic development and communications, helped start the annual bizMix program (now in its fifth year) as a joint initiative between the city and the chamber of commerce, spinning off from its monthly MIX networking meetings. Past winners include Planit Mapper, Santa Sidra, Paper Dosa and Canyon Vista Cooking. Noble calls bizMix a "distilled accelerator" because of its compressed schedule.

"If you can distill how you're going to make money, you win," Noble says.

As finalists are inundated with inquiries, they refine their presentations and tweak their pitches in response to feedback. Noble listened in as Jackie Camborde described her company, SuccessStyle. "She was really wordsmithing," Noble observes later, "whether she would 'edit' or 'curate'" women's wardrobes."

This year's winners will be announced at New Mexico Hard Cider, which won $500 as a bizMix finalist in 2013, after which it opened a taproom in the Luna Center. But don't look for effusive praise from company owner Craig Moya. Rather than crediting the accelerator program, he says the business' success is due to "mine and my wife's motivation to do something." If bizMix is an effort by the city to encourage new business growth, Moya doesn't see this borne out in their dealings with local companies. The taproom lies within Santa Fe's historic district, and he claims the regulatory oversight was burdensome.

"The city really is not business friendly," he says. "They held me up for two months opening [New Mexico Hard Cider], just because of the patio fencing."

Cheesemongers of Santa Fe owner John Gutierrez, who won $5,000 in the 2014 bizMix competition, has a more charitable view. "The mayor's office has been both responsive to issues we've had with the regulatory environment, as well as just supportive in general," Gutierrez says, "of entrepreneurs and new businesses and growth in Santa Fe."

Gutierrez, who opened a storefront downtown, says he appreciates government efforts to develop a progressive and sustainable business community while preserving Santa Fe's unique essence.

Out of the nine companies that have won the bizMix competition between 2012 and 2015, seven appear to still be in business. Haj Khalsa's Planit Mapper app no longer exists, but he says that's not the point. "It's not how much revenue is created, but how many times people were willing to go out there and start something new. That's what bizMix is doing. It's giving people a chance to throw something against the wall and see if it sticks." Khalsa also places great emphasis on the networking opportunities provided by the competition. "The most significant part of the process for me was the mentorship.  Some of the mentors I met at that time continue to be mentors for me."

Noble says that mentorship is "profoundly influential on the mentors, too.  I had one mentor say to me, 'This made me remember why I was passionate about my business in the first place.'" Many past finalists give back to the competition in one way or another. Khalsa himself serves as a mentor, from time to time. Melanie Boudar, one of the current finalists, calls the process a "valuable experience. We get paired with mentors who help us with our business plans. It's always good to have help to go over the financials and things that you're going to face and test the viability of your revenue streams.  It's a real thorough but concentrated business course."

Boudar's Cacao, the Art & Culture of Chocolate plans to serve gourmet chocolate (drawing on the regional flavors of New Mexico and Hawaii), offer workshops in making chocolate and provide a cozy atmosphere to indulge one's love of the delectable dessert. As chamber members entertained business proposals at the pitch contest, Boudar served up samples of her products.

Before the evening was through, attendees placed wooden nickels in popcorn buckets bearing the name of their favorite bizMix company. Maybe it was her professional presentation, or maybe it was the flavor of sea salt and vanilla bean still lingering on the voters' tongues, but whatever it was, it was enough to hand Boudar her first win. Pitch contests and mentor nights continue through the summer, with winners announced on Aug. 18. The next pitch contest is at 6 pm on July 21 at Yares Art Projects, with a final presentation planned for 5:30 pm on Aug. 11 at Thornburg Investment Management.



Santa Fe Reporter
For 151 years, Santa Fe has only had one full-service hospital. With a June 2 development plan approval from the city, Presbyterian Healthcare Services is on track to build a second.

Presbyterian Medical Center in Las Soleras expects to break ground later this summer, though an exact date has not been set yet. Helen Brooks, Santa Fe administrator for Presbyterian, tells SFR the not-for-profit hospital plans to serve patients there as early as 2018. The 285,000-square-foot facility will occupy a 40-acre plot of land in the developing Southside triangle between Cerrillos Road and Interstate 25.

Presbyterian opened a clinic on St. Michael's Drive last year, where a variety of primary and specialty care services are offered. The new facility will focus on outpatient services, including general surgery, orthopedics and podiatry, with a service list that includes imaging (MRIs and CT scans), behavioral health and a 24/7 emergency department with 20 exam rooms.

Approximately 30 inpatient beds will be reserved for short stays, Brooks says. Take, for example, someone who needs hospitalization for pneumonia, or an overnight surgery patient. For most longer-term, acute care procedures, such as brain surgery, Christus St. Vincent will remain Santa Fe's primary destination.

"The goals are to keep care in the community, provide choice, expand access, and also effectively use Presbyterian's experience to lower the cost of care," says Brooks.

Presbyterian's entrance into the hospital market has garnered support from community leaders, including Mayor Javier Gonzales, who say Santa Feans will benefit from more competition and health care choices. But some in the medical services community worry that the new hospital won't cover the region's most pressing health care needs.

One service that won't be initially available at the Las Soleras facility: substance abuse prevention and treatment. Santa Fe County's drug overdose death rate more than doubles that of the nation, while neighboring Rio Arriba has the highest rate. The subject arose during a county Health Policy and Planning Commission meeting in April. Presbyterian presented their hospital proposal and answered questions from health professionals and advocates on the other side of the table.

"They made a lot of effort to say they would look at the community needs, and I felt that was a pretty glaring example of a dire community need that they decided they wouldn't respond to," says Wendy Johnson, medical director of La Familia, who attended the meeting.

Not now doesn't mean not ever, Brooks suggests. Presbyterian Kaseman Hospital in Albuquerque provides a number of programs for people battling drug and alcohol addiction.

"We recognize that substance abuse prevention and treatment are important in this community," she says. "We're looking at what resources might exist, and we're looking to see how we might partner with those resources or supplement them."

In an aging county with stagnant population growth, the prospect of increasing saturation of the health care market isn't making everyone happy.

Christus St. Vincent Chief Administrative Officer Lillian Montoya chastised Presbyterian in an April column that appeared in the Albuquerque Journal, suggesting that its competitor's "entrance into this market signals its attempt to serve only the most profitable patients, which consists of their health plan members."

In other words, Presbyterian would be plucking away some of Christus' more lucratively insured patients, leaving the older hospital responsible for most of the city's poorer patients.

But Christus St. Vincent, which came under the control of a Catholic health conglomerate in 2008, is not exactly an underdog. The county is dotted with clinics and urgent care centers bearing its name, and in 2011, Christus acquired Physicians Medical Center, a smaller hospital originally aimed at providing an alternative for surgeries. Last month, Christus started work on a $40 million expansion of its medical center on Hospital Drive. The system also provides funds for some local nonprofits that provide behavioral health and substance abuse services.

Montoya suggests some of those amenities could be in danger. She posits that Presbyterian could one day direct its plan members to use in-house services, forcing Christus St. Vincent to make "difficult decisions about the types and complexity of services we provide and subsidize."

Brooks demurred when asked whether Presbyterian could one day insist its health plan members solely rely on its own system for health care needs. "We intend to complement existing services in the community," she writes in response to SFR's inquiry.

Presbyterian's health plan covers about 37,000 Santa Fe-area residents, including 15 percent of insurance payers and 23 percent of commercial payers at Christus St. Vincent's facilities. Presbyterian announced its new medical center in March, which it says is driven by demand for more choice from Presbyterian health plan members.

Along with its own coverage, Presbyterian contracts with most other insurance providers serving New Mexico.

The new medical center will not, however, accept plans offered by Humana or Molina Healthcare, the latter of which mostly serves Medicaid patients. Christus St. Vincent accepts both, suggesting some patients could still end up at the older hospital.

Presbyterian, for its part, estimates that in 2014, it provided more than $16 million in free medical care and more than $89 million in uncompensated care in New Mexico. Under federal law, hospitals with the resources to do so must treat anyone with a medical emergency.

As New Mexico's second-largest private employer, Presbyterian employs more than 10,000 people throughout the state. The organization estimates it will create 295 jobs at the Santa Fe medical facility, along with 214 temporary construction jobs.

Meanwhile, Entrada Contenta Clinic, an urgent and primary care center run by Christus St. Vincent, opened last year, just across the street from the future Presbyterian site. According to Christus spokesman Arturo Delgado, the clinic has been "very busy."



Santa Fe Reporter
A political newcomer riding on an energetic grassroots campaign eked past two opponents, including an incumbent appointee, in the tight Democratic primary for the local district attorney's office.

"I feel so good right now. I feel so good," Serna tells SFR, as family and friends chanted the 33-year-old's last name at a model home in central Santa Fe just before midnight. "I put my heart and soul in this campaign."



In the days leading up to the primary, the sight of Serna and his supporters waving signs was often seen at some of the city's busiest intersections. Alongside his door-to-door approach to campaigning, Serna attributes his win to his "vision" focusing on treatment for drug users over incarceration.

Serna won 35.5 percent of votes. Incumbent Jennifer Padgett, a governor appointee, received 31.9 percent, while former assistant attorney general Maria Sanchez-Gagne picked up 32.5 percent. Serna will go on to face Republican nominee Yvonne Chicoine in the general election.

By midnight, according to early election returns posted on the website of New Mexico Secretary of State Brad Winter, more than 36,700 Santa Fe County and 322,665 statewide votes were counted. That's about 33 percent of the eligible voters in the state and 49 percent turnout in the county. Only registered Republicans and Democrats can vote in the closed primary.

The top-of-the-ticket presidential nominations drew many of them.

Throughout the day, county residents voted at polling stations in 91 different precincts. Jacqui Bear, a 21-year-old shipper at a major clothing line, cast her first-ever vote this morning at Gonzales Community School. She came out for the top of the ticket, filling in the bubble for Bernie Sanders.



"It felt like I should get into voting more," Bear says, adding that she was less familiar with local races. "I wasn't prepared for the lower levels as much as I should have been."

A more experienced voter, Norman Millet, says he's participated in every presidential election since he turned 21. The 91-year-old voted for Hillary Clinton, "the best one for the job." He relied on the New Mexican's endorsements to guide him through the rest of the ballot.

Another first-timer, Gabriel Kessler, tucked a skateboard under his arm as he filled out his ballot at Montezuma Lodge Tuesday afternoon. It was a family affair. Gabriel, 18, encouraged both of his parents, Susan and Philip, to join him at polls.

"He convinced us today's election still matters," Susan says, before heading home with her family to "eat some watermelon and stay cool."

About half an hour after polls closed at 7 pm, the first precinct delivered its results to the county clerk's office. Michael Browne, presiding judge for Precinct 42, pulled his blue pickup truck into a parking lot, knocking over a traffic cone, and walked into the building to applause.

Ballot ticker sheets came in steadily after that, but it would take more than an hour for results to start showing up, as poll workers waited for absentee ballots to be processed. Asked about the long delays, County Clerk Geraldine Salazar said she gives her staff "some leeway" on how they run the results. (Salazar beat her opponent, perennial candidate Letitia Montoya, in a landslide, according to early results.)

Liz Stefanics, a former Santa Fe County commissioner, took 38 percent of the vote to best Mike Anaya, who also served on the county commission and got about 23 percent of votes. Former San Miguel County Commissioner Hugh Ley raised and spent nearly $70,000 but only picked up about 18 percent of votes. Ambrose Castellano, who works for a home restoration company, got 20 percent.

Stefanics next faces Republican incumbent Ted Barela, who was appointed by Gov. Susana Martinez last year to serve in Senate District 39, extending from Santa Fe down to the northern tip of Bernalillo County, touching six counties in total. The senate seat's former holder, Phil Griego, resigned in disgrace amid corruption allegations.

Her victory marks a potential return to the Roundhouse, after serving years on the county commission. The first openly gay member of the New Mexico Legislature, Stefanics represented District 39 from 1992 to 1996, before Griego ousted her.



In another legislative primary in the Santa Fe area, the former president of the Santa Fe Public School board beat out a former county commissioner, as well as the retiring incumbent's son. With just over 6,000 votes counted, Linda Trujillo earned 39 percent of votes to secure her seat in the state Legislature, representing District 48, a race for which she will not have a Republican opponent. Luciano Varela, the incumbent, retired after 30 years. Her opponents, former Santa Fe County Commissioner Paul Campos and Luciano's son, Jeff Varela, garnered 32 and 29 percent, respectively.

Of two contested county commission races, the race for Santa Fe County Commission, District 2, saw graphic designer Anna Hansen winning ahead of incumbent Miguel Chavez by 4 percentage points.

Former Associated Press reporter Ed Moreno claimed victory in the race for Santa Fe County Commission, District 5, which was held by Stefanics before she resigned to run for the Legislature. Moreno garnered 59 percent of votes, while his opponent, retired police officer Charles Dalton, picked up 41 percent.



"I'm sure we hit more than 2,000 doors. We left fliers on doors," Moreno says. "We talked to a lot of people, learning about what their issues are. I think that's the only way to get a feel for what the people in the district are interested in."

Oh and the top of the ticket? Hillary Clinton got 51.5 percent of New Mexico Democratic votes. Donald Trump took the Republican victory. And we're off to November.

Santa Fe Reporter
Election Winners and Losers

Almost a third of the states eligible voters cast ballots in yesterdays primary election. Thats about 5 percent more than the average in presidential years since 1996. Democrat

and became the first woman to claim the presidential nomination for a major party. Donald Trump won 71 percent of the vote in New Mexico but spent most of the day defending his recent racist comments, which House Speaker Paul Ryan said were



SFRs Steven Hsieh reports on

, including a close finish in the Santa Fe district attorneys race.

While

, Public Regulation Commissioner Karen Montoya did not. She lost in a landslide to

You can see all the

from races around the state posted on the New Mexico Secretary of States website here.

Johnson Pledges Not to Smoke Pot in White House

It could be an early indicator that people are serious about considering a third-party presidential candidate this year, as former Gov. Gary Johnson says

. On Monday, Samantha Bee, in an absolutely hilarious interview on TBS, got him to admit that his high school nickname was Jaguar Johnson. He also

in the White House.

Jurors Deadlock

A mistrial has been declared in Tai Chans murder trial in Las Cruces after

after 14 hours of deliberations.

Udall's Toxic Chemical Reform Bill Passed

US Sen. Tom Udalls

is finally headed to the president.

The new bill would require the Environmental Protection Agency to begin conducting tests on those 64,000 chemicals, but at a fairly slow pace: the agency would examine about 20 chemicals at a time, with a deadline of seven years per chemical. It would also allow the agencys regulations to pre-empt stronger state-level rules.

Report: 1 in 10 Students Absent

The US Education Department report found 6.5 million students 

 were chronically absent in the 2013-14 school year. It also found stubborn disparities in discipline but encouraging strides in cutting the overall number of suspensions. Two students with perfect attendance in New Mexico

.

More Bad Crime Stats

While Albuquerque struggles to stay classy, a new report shows the Duke City has the

, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau.

The area had 6,657 thefts last year for a rate of 733.71 per 100,000 people, the NICB said. That was second only to Modesto, Calif., which had 4,072 thefts, for a rate of 756.33 per 100,000 people.

Legal Battle

The Associated Press reports, Environmental groups want to intervene in a legal fight between the state of New Mexico and the federal government over releases of endangered Mexican gray wolves into the wild. The groups claim

of the animals here.

Arsenic Problems in Sunland Park Water

Two of the Camino Real Regional Utility Authoritys arsenic treatment plants are broken, and some residents of Sunland Park say they never saw a notice alerting them to the problem. Experts say theres

Others arent so sure and have stopped drinking tap water. A third new treatment plant is scheduled to be built this summer.

Knockoff Drugs Challenge Cops

The Daily Beast has an interesting story about the

and the copycat drugs that are designed to make it nearly impossible for authorities to keep up with a tangled web of international drug syndicates.

Santa Fe Reporter
Z Energy's seven-strong board wants to bump up the pool for directors' fees 11 percent to $1 million for what's a much larger company since taking over the assets of Chevron New Zealand.

On July 1, the Wellington-based company's shareholders will vote on whether to raise the fee pool $100,000 to $1 million for non-executive directors, the first such increase since the service station chain listed in 2013. Z said the increase would also cover succession periods where the board expanded to eight directors.

"Following the successful acquisition of Chevron New Zealand, the board is now responsible for the governance of a significantly expanded company," Z said in its notice of annual meeting. " On the basis of Zs performance and the increase in scale and complexity of the company, the board believes it is timely and appropriate to seek shareholder approval for a $100,000 increase to the total remuneration pool available for Zs non-executive directors."

Earlier this month the New Zealand Superannuation Fund sold the bulk of its stake in Z, leaving it with 1.5 percent of the fuels retailer. The Super Fund teamed up with Infratil in 2010 to buy the local downstream assets of Royal Dutch Shell for just under $700 million before rebranding and floating it as Z three years later, raising $840 million when they sold a 60 percent stake.

The shares were sold at $3.50 apiece in the IPO and have more than doubled to $8.32, in part due to the $785 million Chevron acquisition. The shares were down 1 percent today and have gained 24 percent so far this year.

At next month's meeting in Wellington, shareholders will also vote on re-electing directors Abby Foote and Justine Munro, and ratify the recent board appointments of Mark Cross and Julia Raue.

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Rangatira, the diversified investor whose shares trade on the Unlisted platform, posted a 23 percent gain in full-year operating earnings and raised its final dividend.

Earnings rose to $11.5 million in the year ended March31, from $9.2 million a year earlier, the Wellington-based company said in a statement. Net profit jumped to $50.2 million from $13.7 million and included a $36.3 million gain from the revaluation of its stake in smallgoods maker Hellers, which has been consolidated as a subsidiary.

"Our return was driven by improved performance in a number of our portfolio companies, the additional purchase of a further 12.5 percent shareholding in Hellers, taking our share to 62.5 percent, and a rebalancing of our New Zealand public portfolio, said chairman David Pilkington.

The company didn't provide details of returns on investments, which include Tuatara Brewery, the Rainbow's End theme park, a 70 percent holding in Bio-Strategy, a scientific instrument distributor, and 8 percent of Partners Life, a life, health, and trauma insurer. Rangatira said US private equity manager Blackstone is to co-invest in Partners Life.

Rangatira declared a final, fully imputed dividend of 31 cents, making a total of 51 cents for the year, up from 47 cents a year earlier.

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Jon Mayson, the chairman of Scales Corp, New Zealand's biggest apple exporter, will step down at next year's annual general meeting.

Mayson made the announcement at the company's annual meeting in Christchurch this afternoon and has been in post since May 2012, overseeing its listing on the New Zealand stock exchange in July 2014. Tim Goodacre has been appointed to the role of deputy chairman, the Christchurch-based company said in a copy of Mayson's address published to the NZX. Goodacre was appointed to the board in 2014 and was previously chief executive of Zespri International between 2003 and 2007.

In Scales' update to investors at the AGM, managing director Andy Borland said 4.1 million cartons of apples had been picked in this season's harvest, up 1.5 percent on 2015. The percentage of the crop deemed suitable for export is expected to be slightly above last year's figure of 78 percent. A third of the crop has been sold, with Borland telling investors that "prices are generally in line with expectations".

Scales doubled its annual profit in 2015 off the back of selling higher value apples to Asia and the Middle East, where sweeter, redder varieties attract a premium price, and paid a special dividend of 4 cents on top of an ordinary annual dividend of 13 cents.

In his presentation, Borland said the company has fielded a number of questions about its dividend policy, noting that the board is focused on "maintaining sustainable and improving dividends".

Scales has been one of the standout performers in recent initial public offerings or share floatations in New Zealand. Shares were valued at $1.60 when it listed and have risen as high as $3.47 on May 4 this year. A short while ago they were down 2.6 percent, or 9 cents, at $3.33. Shares have risen by 42 percent since the start of the year.

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Godfrey Hirst's High Court appeal against a merger of New Zealand's largest wool scouring operations was dismissed, allowing the creation of a dominant scourer involving rival carpet maker Cavalier Corp.

The Commerce Commission in November approved a plan for Cavalier Wool Holdings to acquire New Zealand Wool Services International's wool scouring business and assets, saying the public benefits would outweigh the loss of competition. Australian company Godfrey Hirst, which competes with Cavalier Wool Holdings group member Cavalier Corp, had its appeal against that ruling dismissed, Auckland-based Cavalier Corp said in a statement today.

The merged scouring business will be 55 percent owned by Cavalier, private equity firm Direct Capital and the government's Accident Compensation Corp, with WSI parent Lempriere taking a 45 percent stake.

"The shareholders of CWH are pleased with the decision and look forward to proceeding with the merger as planned," Cavalier Corp chief executive Paul Alston said in the statement.

Cavalier shares last traded at 66 cents and have gained 8.2 percent this year.

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An aerial photo taken on Sept. 25, 2015 from a seaplane of Hainan Maritime Safety Administration shows cruise vessel Haixun 1103 heading to the Yacheng 13-1 drilling rig during a patrol in South China Sea. (Xinhua/Zhao Yingquan)

BEIJING, June 6 (Xinhua) -- Experts of Asian nations Sunday refuted China's "self-isolation" claims by U.S. Pentagon chief Ashton Carter.

In his speech during the ongoing 15th Shangri-La Dialogue, which focuses on the security of the Asia-Pacific, Carter said Saturday that China could end up "erecting a Great Wall of self-isolation."

"Carter's remarks will not help build bridges between countries. What's important to do at present is to have a collaborative approach, rather than harsh comments," said Asanga Abeyagoonasekera, a visiting lecturer in International Political Economy for University of London in Sri Lanka Royal Institute of Colombo, on the sidelines of the dialogue.

"The remarks came with the U.S. pivot to Asia ... the U.S. wants more presence here," Asanga said, adding that "if you look at the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance facilities that the United Statesbuilt in this area, you can see a serious increase of U.S. presence."

Speaking of China, Asanga said other regional partners and China "share similar culture, it's one community," adding that China has never been isolated in history, nor will be in the future.

Wu Xinbo, executive dean of China's Institute of International Studies at prestigious Fudan University, said that Carter's remarks aimed to sell to Asian nations the U.S. idea to establish a NATO-like security network in the region that is underpinned by the U.S.-favored principles and its regional allies.

Wu also said that Carter's comment seems more like "a self amusement" due to U.S. frustration over China's increasing security exchanges with Asian countries.

China cannot be farther than "being isolated" in the region, Wu said. "Years of U.S. pressure have proved futile, and China is doing what it thinks necessary, so the U.S. has nothing else to do but saying 'look, you are isolated.'"

Tea Banh, Cambodia's Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister, also said Saturday that he doesn't think Carter's claims are correct, since "the best way to solve disputes is through peaceful means and let related parties achieve mutual understanding via dialogue."

Huang Jing, professor at the National University of Singapore, said that as China develops, Asia-Pacific countries had built close relations with not only the United States but also China, which proves Carter's claims are "exaggerated."

These claims are "misinterpreting China's policies, and are not in line with the two countries' consensus on forging a new pattern of relationship," said Colonel Lu Yin, associate researcher from the Institute of Strategic Studies of China's National Defense University.

The colonel noted that Carter's remarks revealed logical paradoxes in the U.S. rebalance strategy in the Asia-Pacific.

"I don't see it possible that without efforts from China, the United States can realize its rebalance strategy in the Asia-Pacific region as well as achieve common prosperity as envisioned," said Lu.
An aerial photo taken on Sept. 25, 2015 from a seaplane of Hainan Maritime Safety Administration shows cruise vessel Haixun 1103 heading to the Yacheng 13-1 drilling rig during a patrol in South China Sea. (Xinhua/Zhao Yingquan)

BEIJING, June 7 -- The All China Lawyers Association issued on Tuesday a statement on the South China Sea arbitration case unilaterally initiated by the Philippines. Following is the full text of the statement's English version:

All China Lawyers Association

Statement on the South China Sea Arbitration Case Unilaterally Initiated by the Republic of the Philippines

The All China Lawyers Association (ACLA) hereby makes the following solemn statement on the South China Sea arbitration case unilaterally initiated by the Republic of the Philippines:

1. ACLA firmly supports the stance of the Chinese Government on the South China Sea issue, and the positions clearly stated in the Position Paper of the Government of the People's Republic of China on the Matter of Jurisdiction in the South China Sea Arbitration Initiated by the Republic of the Philippines dated December 7, 2014. No country, organization or individual is in a position to deny China's territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea.

2. The Philippines unilaterally initiated the South China Sea arbitration, disregarding the fact that the disputes between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea are in essence about territory and form an integral part of maritime delimitation, denying the consensus of the two countries that they have chosen to settle relevant disputes through bilateral negotiations, and denying the optional exceptions declaration China made in 2006 pursuant to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The Philippines' conduct violates relevant provisions of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC), abuses the UNCLOS arbitration procedures, and infringes upon China's right to choose means of dispute settlement on its own will, and is thus illegal.

3. The Arbitral Tribunal established at the unilateral request of the Philippines, while having no jurisdiction over the arbitration case, has wantonly expanded and exceeded its power, and made serious mistakes in areas such as verification of facts and application of law. Its conduct goes completely against the principles and purposes of UNCLOS, erodes the integrity and authority of UNCLOS, runs counter to international judicial justice, violates the spirit and goals of international rule of law on peaceful settlement of international disputes, and is by no means impartial.

4. China's non-acceptance and non-recognition of and non-participation in the arbitration unilaterally initiated by the Philippines is a justifiable act aimed at defending state sovereignty and maritime rights and interests, upholding international rule of law, and protecting the authority and integrity of UNCLOS.
Nanning District Court in south Chinas Guangxi province on Tuesday released an investigation report in response to a recent case in which a Guangxi lawyer was allegedly beaten by court officers in a courthouse.

The report confirms that the court officers did exploit powers to cause the incident last Friday, when the lawyer Wu Liangshu was to file a case at the courthouse.

However, the report says that court officers conduct in this incident did not constitute an assault. Based on the evidence from the CCTV camera at the scene, the report says that court officers did take possession of Wus cellphone and caused Ws trousers torn apart. The officers did shut the door of the room in which Wu was in, and Wu was being held from the back and pushed onto the ground, according to the investigation.

The report further revealed that officers had stepped onto Wus chest, and all these conducts happened within one minute. The report also explains that court officers forceful search was to ensure Wus cellphone did not contain any unpermitted recordings. Since they did not have any intention of causing bodily harm, and Wu was released immediately right after they got hold of his cellphone, their conducts did not constitute as an assault.

Wu Liangshu walks out of the court half naked.

The report adds that court officers forcefully search of Wus cellphone for unpermitted recordings on the basis of no evidence was wrongful, as such conduct has gone over the legal boundary and should be seen as an exploitation of powers. For these reasons, the district court apologizes to Wu and is to compensate Wus losses in this incident.

The incident took place last Friday, when Wu said that he was beaten by court officers after his request to file a case in a district court in Nanning was rejected.

According to Wu, the clash broke out when he refused to hand over his mobile phone for inspection by the Qingxiu District Court officers. Wu had used the phone to record a conversation with court officials in the courts petition office.

Wu was seen leaving the courthouse with his clothes torn apart by the officers.

The incident caused a stir online. Many web-users say that the report is mere juggling with terms. "It is simple and clear: the court police beat the lawyer," One web-user commented.

>>>Related: Lawyer association urges investigation into attack on Guangxi lawyer
China and the United States concluded their annual high-level dialogue on Tuesday, demonstrating their mutual will for broadening cooperation and managing differences between the two nations.

The major economic achievements from the eighth China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogues on Monday and Tuesday in Beijing include, among the other things, four main items, according to the official Weibo of the CCTV financial channel, quoting Vice-Minister of Finance Zhu Guangyao.

First is the exchange of the negative list of the Sino-U.S. bilateral investment treaty (BIT).

Second, China will grant the United States 250 billion yuan ($38 billion) under the country's Renminbi Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (RQFII).

Third is boosting the economy and avoiding competitive devaluations.

Fourth, China will eliminate 100 to 150 million metric tons of steel capacity and strictly prohibit the expansion of crude steelmaking capacity over the next five years.

When asked about why China gave the U.S. such a high quota to invest in China's capital market through offshore yuan, Yi Gang, Deputy Governor of the People's Bank of China, said it is mainly out of consideration for the size of the U.S. market.

China has granted more than 10 countries and regions over 1 trillion yuan in RQFII quota; the quota is an important tool to promote the internationalization of the RMB. The U.S. received the second-largest quota of 250 billion yuan, coming only after Hong Kong (270 billion yuan), and before Singapore (100 billion yuan), London and Paris (both 80 billion yuan)

It is generally believed that the central bank's move is a prelude to supporting the establishment of an RMB trading center in the U.S. The U.S. Department of Treasury revealed before the dialogue that setting up an RMB trading center in the U.S. would be one of the key topics.

One big reason why the U.S. has frequently launched anti-dumping and anti-subsidiary investigations against China is that the countrys economic recovery [did not go as] smoothly as expected, and its trade deficit is currently expanding rapidly, especially from last year to the first quarter of this year, which led to Obama's plan to double exports," explained Liu Yuanchun, Executive Dean of the National Academy of Development and Strategy under Renmin University.
Combo photos show U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan(L) speaking at a news conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C., the United States on Nov. 5, 2015, and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaking to motorcyclists participating in Rolling Thunder parade in Washington D.C., the United States on May 29, 2016. U.S. Republican House SpeakerPaul Ryan announced on Thursday that he would vote for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in November. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu)

WASHINGTON, June 7 -- U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan on Tuesday doubled down on his criticism of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, calling his comments on a judge because of his ethnic background "textbook racism."

"I regret those comments that he made," said Ryan here at a press conference. "Claiming a person can't do their job because of their race is sort of like the textbook definition of racist comments. ... I think that should be absolutely disavowed."

Over the past week, Trump repeatedly accused U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, the Indiana-born jurist overseeing a civil fraud suit in California involving Trump University, of being unfit for the case because he was of "Mexican heritage."

Trump implied that Curiel, the Hispanic-American judge, was biased against him because of Trump's proclamation that he would build a wall along the border between America and Mexico to halt illegal immigration.

Trump expanded his argument on Sunday, suggesting to several U.S. cable news hosts that a Muslim judge might also not be fit to rule without bias in the case because of his previous call for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States.

Other Republican leaders, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, had already denounced Trump's attacks of Curiel.

Ryan's denunciation came at a time as he and Trump were still in the middle of rapprochement after a chaotic and divisive primary season, during which Ryan repeatedly scolded Trump for his incendiary remarks.

After almost month-long reservation about Trump's nomination status, Ryan announced on Thursday in a newspaper column, not a joint press conference with Trump as other GOP supporters had done before, that he now was ready to vote for Trump in the fall.

However, Ryan's struggle to distance himself away from Trump was all but highlighted less than 24 hours after his embrace of the New York billionaire developer.

"The comment about the judge the other day just was out of left field for my mind," said Ryan in an interview with local media on Friday. "It's reasoning I don't relate to. I completely disagree with the thinking behind that."
Also, total mobile traffic will grow 15-fold from the year 2015 to 2021, said a statement issued by Swedish communication technology major Ericsson, citing the report.

Data traffic per active smartphone is expected to increase five-fold from 1.4 GigaByte (GB) per month in 2015 to 7GB per month by 2021. In 2021, 99 percent of the region's mobile traffic will be from data, the statement said.

"The GSM/EDGE (2G) subscriber base is expected to grow until 2016 and expected to decline thereafter due to operator initiatives to migrate 2G subscribers to 3G, decreasing handset prices and bundling of data with devices," it said.

The WCDMA/HSPA and LTE (3G and 4G) networks are expected to gain momentum, and the subscriptions will together account for 65 percent of Indian subscriptions by 2021, it said.

"While WCDMA /HSPA population coverage is projected to increase to 90 per cent by the end of 2021, the population coverage of LTE networks in India is expected to reach 45 per cent by the end of 2021 in India," the statement said, citing Paolo Colella, Region Head for Ericsson in India.

As per the report, Indian smartphone users rate data as more important than voice, indicating the strong uptake of data services in the country.

"Young smartphone users aged 15-24 years old drive the need for better data speed and data coverage and have a higher inclination to pay a premium for the same," the report said.

Over 70 percent of smartphone users are satisfied with the network performance at home while doing instant messaging, web browsing or social networking using mobile internet.

"Over 60 percent of smartphone users are satisfied with the network performance at home while streaming videos using mobile internet. However, only 50 percent are satisfied with network performance for streaming videos on a smartphone while commuting," the report highlighted.

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NEW DELHI: Social media giant Facebook has appointed Umang Bedi as its managing director for India to build and maintain strategic relationships with top clients and regional agencies in the country.

Bedi will take over from Kirthiga Reddy, who will be returning to the US to take on a new role at the company's headquarters at Menlo Park, California.

"I am thrilled to join Facebook and am looking forward to working with the talented teams in India, to help brands and agencies grow their business on our platform. For me it's a promising opportunity to participate in India's digital growth," Bedi said in a statement.

Bedi comes to Facebook with close to two decades of leadership experience covering sales and marketing. Prior to joining Facebook, Umang was the managing director of the South Asia region at Adobe.

"India is known for its great talent pool and we are really pleased to have Umang Bedi, a proven business executive to lead our business in India. I also want to wish Kirthiga the very best in her new global role," Dan Neary, vice president, Asia Pacific, Facebook, said in a statement.

An engineering graduate from University of Pune and an alumni of Harvard Business School, Bedi will officially start at Facebook in July 2016.

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BENGALURU: Once banned from entering the United States, Indian Prime Minister is all set for historically addressing the US Congress on June 8. He will be the fifth Indian Prime Minister to attain this honor of taking part in the event. He will address Congress during the three-day visit after two years of brisk diplomacy between the two countries and deepening relations between the two leaders (Prime Minister Modi and President Obama). On his fourth official tour to United States, he is making strong efforts to forge closer strategic ties with the U.S. as Chinas rise changes the balance of power in Asia.

Seeking to cement progress the two countries have made on economic and security front, President Obamas foreign-policy raises New Delhi as part of the U.S.s Asian pivot. It would be worth to note that Dr. Manmohan Singh was the first foreign leader Mr. Obama feted with a state dinner, in 2009  reports Wall Street Journal.

One the second day of his state visit, PM Modi achieved a big milestone in terms of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India and US firm Westinghouse announced the agreement to build six nuclear reactors in India. It is the first such contract since the countries signed a landmark Civil Nuclear deal in 2008.

Addressing the media with PM Modi after their long meeting at the White House Obama backed Indias entry into the NSG. The Prime Minister also thanked his Friend Obama for extending his support to Indias bid for Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) and Nuclear Security Group (NSG).

Here's the Schedule of the Prime Minister in the US as reported by First Post:

June 6 evening: Meeting with heads of Washington think-tanks

June 7: Wreath Laying at Tomb of Unknown Soldier and Space Shuttle Columbia Memorial, Working lunch with President Barack Obama

June 7 at 5 pm: Keynote address to US India Business Council's 41st Annual Leadership Summit

June 7 evening: Meeting with US business delegation

June 8: Address to the Joint Meeting of the US Congress

June 8: Lunch and reception with members of Congress

June 8: Reception with Indian Americans

June 8: Leaves to Mexico on a brief working visit on the invitation of President Enrique Pena Nieto.

June 9: Return to India.

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WASHINGTON: The US has recognised India as a "major defence partner", a significant development which paves the way for the country to be treated at par with America's closest allies for defence related trade and technology transfer.



"Noting that the US-India defence relationship can be an anchor of stability and given the increasingly strengthened cooperation in defence, the United States hereby recognises India as a Major Defence Partner," said a joint statement issued after Prime MinisterNarendra Modi held talks with US President Barack Obama yesterday.



According to the statement, under the 'Major Defence Partner' recognition, the US will continue to work toward facilitating technology sharing with India to a level commensurate with that of its closest allies and partners.



Meanwhile, the White House also said that the meeting between President Obama and Prime Minister Modi resulted in progress on finalising some key defence agreements between India and the US.



"I can tell you that there was important progress on finalising agreements relating to defence logistics, sharing of maritime information, and even the movement of US aircraft carriers in the region," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters at his daily news conference.



The joint statement said, "the leaders reached an understanding under which India would receive license-free access to a wide range of dual-use technologies in conjunction with steps that India has committed to take to advance its export control objectives."



In support of India's 'Make In India' initiative and to support the development of robust defence industries and their integration into the global supply chain, the statement said the US will continue to facilitate the export of goods and technologies, consistent with US law, for projects, programmes and joint ventures in support of official US-India defence cooperation.



Applauding the enhanced military to military cooperation between the two countries especially in joint exercises, training and Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief, Obama and Modi expressed their desire to explore agreements which would facilitate further expansion of bilateral defence cooperation in practical ways.



Officials from two sides said India and the US have finalised of the text of the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA).



It is likely to be signed soon, a senior administration official told reporters during a conference call.



The decision was welcomed by Obama and Modi.



India and the US also finalised text of an Information Exchange Annex under the Joint Working Group on Aircraft Carrier Technology Cooperation.



Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar said India and the US have reached an understanding to finalise the Framework for the US-India Cyber Relationship.

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Source: PTI
Crimescenetape.JPG

(Staten Island Advance Photo)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- An 18-year-old man was busted allegedly riding a dirt bike the wrong way on a street in Midland Beach and then nearly hitting a vehicle driven by an NYPD officer.

"Oh, s---, I didn't realize you were the boys," Ronnie Mershon, 18, allegedly told police when he was arrested at the corner of Freeborn Street and Hunter Avenue at about 6:32 p.m. last Friday.

Mershon of Oldfield Street in Midland Beach was riding a 1982 red Honda 125R dirt bike against the flow of rush-hour traffic on Freeborn Street, according to the criminal complaint.



A police officer traveling on Hunter Avenue had to hit the brakes when Mershon attempted to turn onto Hunter, according to court documents and police.

The dirt bike didn't have a license plate on it and wasn't registered or insured, police said.

Information about whether the police officer was on duty and in a marked vehicle was not immediately available.

Mershon was ticketed for misdemeanor reckless driving, according to court documents.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Alice Austen, the pioneering American photographer with a house overlooking the water in Rosebank, will mark her 150th birthday -- or at least revelers will -- on the home's front lawn at the foot of Hylan Boulevard on June 18. It's the signature event marking a year-long celebration.

Honorees are Council member Debi Rose, Daile Kaplan and Arlene Gottfried. The event begins at 6 p.m. with cocktails and music. Dinner will be served at 7:30 p.m., with dancing following on the lawn.

Tickets are $185 per person. Formal attire is requested. For reservations and/or more information, visit aliceausten.org/gala, or call 718-816-4506, ext. 17.

Rose is honored for her leadership on the North Shore in a time of transition and for her support of cultural organizations. Kaplan is Vice President and Director of the Photographs and Photobooks department at Swann Auction Galleries.

The museum will present the third annual Alice Austen Award for the Advancement of Photography to photographer Arlene Gottfried for her personal photography of New York City and support of the museum.
ATV.jpg

Officers in the 120 Precinct seized this ATV, according to a post on Twitter.

(Courtesy of NYPD)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The 120th Precinct posted a photo on social media of an ATV seized on the North Shore of Staten Island.

"Nice job by #120pct Po Gamez & Pastran getting this reckless quad off the streets of #Stapleton," according to a message posted on Tuesday on the 120 Precinct Twitter feed.

The Yahama YFZ450 retails for several thousand dollars. A spokesman for the NYPD's Deputy Commissioner of Information said that there were "no arrests" and provided no further information about the seizure.

It is illegal to ride ATVs, dirt bikes and other such recreational vehicles on the streets of Staten Island and the rest of New York City.

NYPD Commissioner William Bratton ordered a crackdown on illegal ATVs and dirt bikes and presided over a ceremonial crushing of confiscated vehicles.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A courtroom conversation with his weeping mom sparked a dramatic 11th-hour turnaround Wednesday as a Mariners Harbor teen admitted to his role in shooting death of a deliveryman during a botched robbery two years ago in his home community.

With jury selection set to start, Otoniel Carty, 19, pleaded guilty in state Supreme Court, St. George, to a lesser count of attempted second-degree murder, stemming from the fatal shooting of Richard Salvia, 50, on April 1, 2014.

Carty entered his plea after Justice Wayne Ozzi allowed the manacled defendant to speak to his mother for a few minutes at the railing between the gallery and the defense table.

Carty's mother could be seen crying as she spoke to her son and wiped away tears as she returned to her seat.

In exchange for his admission, Ozzi told the defendant he would be sentenced July 18 to 22 years in prison and five years' post-release supervision.

During plea negotiations, Ozzi informed Carty he potentially faced up to 25 years to life behind bars if convicted at trial of second-degree murder.

In entering his plea, Carty admitted he was acting in concert with a co-defendant, James Sanders, in the robbery attempt, and Sanders had killed Salvia as they fled.

Sanders, 18, the admitted triggerman, previously pleaded guilty in March to a 10-count indictment, including two charges of second-degree murder.

Sanders also reached his plea agreement after speaking to his mother in the courtroom during two days of intense negotiations.

He is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday to no less than 15 years to life in prison and no more than 17 years to life.

The case of a third defendant, Devin Hill, 22, was previously severed and is scheduled to go to trial June 22.

Salvia, a trainee at Crown Palace restaurant in Port Richmond, was gunned down at about 8:45 p.m., outside 244 Grandview Ave., said authorities.

All three defendants live within blocks of where the killing occurred.

According to police and a criminal complaint, Salvia was delivering a large order of Chinese food to a fenced-off house where Grandview Avenue dead-ends when the three defendants surrounded him and Sanders pointed a gun at his chest.

Hill dug through Salvia's pockets in search of money, and Sanders shot him in the head, a criminal complaint alleges.

Police recovered both the murder weapon - a .38-caliber "Burgo" pistol - and the cell phone used to call in the bogus delivery order, said a source with knowledge of the investigation.

The gun was found at Carty's home, alleges the complaint.

One of the suspects told investigators they had planned the robbery for a week, sources with knowledge of the probe said.

Sanders was 16 then, Carty was 17 and Hill was 19.

A thin man garbed in a gray T-shirt and gray pants, Carty replied "Yes" and "No" to Ozzi's questions. He did not otherwise make a statement to the court.

Later, as court officers escorted him to a side door toward a holding cell, the defendant turned to the audience and said, "I love you," to his mother.

Outside court, his lawyer, Manuel Ortega, declined comment.

Assistant District Attorneys Mark Palladino and Antonia Assenso are prosecuting the case on behalf of District Attorney Michael E. McMahon.
TASHKENT, June 8 -- A bomb threat on an EgyptAir flight from Cairo to Beijing was proved to be a hoax and the flight will continue after an emergency landing in Uzbekistan on Wednesday.

No explosives were found after all the 118 passengers and 17 crew members were evacuated for a search, announced the Uzbekistan Airways.

EgyptAir has been troubled with security concerns and hoaxes since one of its flights crashed into the Mediterranean on May 19.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A viral video has surfaced on Twitter, showing the results of one person's search for the phrases "three black teenagers" and "three white teenagers" on Google.

In the video, shared by Twitter user @iBeKabir, a man can be seen typing "three black teenagers" into Google's search bar on his mobile phone.

The results appear to include several mugshots of African-Americans.

The man then searches for "three white teenagers." The results include what appear to be stock photos of white males and females, laughing, smiling and celebrating. The search does not appear to turn up any mugshots.

Thousands of people took to social media after the video went viral, saying that Google's algorithms are unfairly skewed to promote positive images of whites and negative representations of African-Americans.

But some pointed out that Google simply matches keywords from a search with the same words attached to a story's image.
Page Content

Honourable President Raoul Castro Ruz, Honourable Chairman, Heads of State and Government, Ministers, Distinguished delegations, Ladies and Gentlemen, on behalf of the Government and the people of Sint Maarten I would like to acknowledge what an honor it is to be able to address you today.





This Summit comes at an undeniably pivotal point in the geopolitical and economic landscape of our region. Following the 2008 financial crisis, Caribbean countries have to some extent been able to reprioritize and rebuild their economies, a true testament to our resilience. Despite its negative associations, the financial crisis gave impetus for our realization of strength in numbers. This collective strength and resiliency is arguably more necessary today given the increasingly transnational nature of the challenges being faced by the countries in our region. As many of you know, Sint Maarten shares a 37-square mile island with Saint-Martin, a French Overseas Collectivity, and who yesterday I was so happy to help welcome into our ACS family.

On our island, we have an age old adage: The gale does not stop at the frontier. Simply said, that which divides us politically is no match, for what can harm us collectively. This is true throughout our region and in a number of areas ranging from climate change to narco-crime.

As small-island developing states, effectively addressing these areas is often times challenging given our limited financial resources and human capacity. The combination of these innate denominators makes cooperation the most effective way to bring about sustained economic and social development for the people of our region as a whole and Sint Maarten especially. Therefore, we welcome wholeheartedly the continued role of the Association of Caribbean States in this regard.

Tourism, one of the focus areas of this association, remains beyond measure the single most important, and in some cases, only economic pillar for many in our unique region. As a successful veteran, Sint Maarten has watched as the industry has transformed and redefined itself over time. We praise the Associations role in catalyzing innovative approaches to not only keep relevant our destinations, but give more ownership to local stakeholders through its promotion of Multi-Destination Tourism. Sint Maarten welcomes opportunities to work with the countries in our region building on our common history.

This commonality is rooted in our regions history as a cultural crossroads. Many people throughout our history have come at their own will, seeking better opportunities, adventure, and riches. What we must acknowledge are those whose will it was not. Slavery is an undeniable part of the historical and economic origins of the modern and proud countries that make up our region today.

In light of the International Decade for People of African Descent I am happy that we have acknowledged this history, paying homage to those whose sacrifices have built this: our Caribbean. Rooted in this common history and looking forward and embracing what makes each country special, Sint Maarten believes that together we can create a unique tourism product in our region.

Our ability to make such an initiative successful, lies in our ability to sustainably manage our natural resources, taking into consideration our rich biodiversity and the associated effects of climate change. To that end, efforts to ensure cleaner, more sustainable sources of energy are not only prudent environmentally but financially as well.

Again to effectively address this thematic area, the countries in our region cannot do this alone. In this regard, Sint Maarten praises the important work done by the Association in the field of natural disaster mitigation, taking into account the principles of the Sendai declaration. Having said this, I would like to express my great appreciation to this Association and the Government of Mexico for the highly valued work done with respect to the UN Geospatial Information Management programme.

It would be amiss of me to not salute Ambassador Alfonso Munera Cavadia, and of course the Secretariat, who during his tenure as Secretary General revitalized and made relevant this organization. During your tenure Ambassador you encouraged the participation of associate members in the organization and welcomed Sint Maarten into the ACS family in 2014 at the last Summit in Merida.

Your role in increasing the substantial value of this organization and your consolidation of this region is one that will be well noted in the history and minds of our people.





I would like to underscore the relationship between our two countries. In the late 19th century so many of our regional countrymen were welcomed by Cuba to work in the sugar industry. Today President Castro, you, the Government, and the people of Cuba have again welcomed us with such genuine warmth and hospitality.

I would like to express my elation at being here during these historical socio-political changes in your country. The lifting of the embargo on Cuba, is one that I call upon my Caribbean brothers and sisters to see not as a threat to our tourism products, but as a chance at new opportunities and increased regional cooperation and integration.





I would like to express again my sincerest gratitude to you President Castro and the Government and people of Cuba for hosting such a meaningful and constructive summit in an effort to advance the principles of the Association of Caribbean States. May what we agree here bear the fruits necessary for enhanced regional cooperation and a more prosperous Caribbean for all our people.

I thank you.




An aerial photo taken on Sept. 25, 2015 from a seaplane of Hainan Maritime Safety Administration shows cruise vessel Haixun 1103 heading to the Yacheng 13-1 drilling rig during a patrol insouth China Sea. (Xinhua/Zhao Yingquan)

JAKARTA, June 8 -- The arbitration unilaterally initiated by the Philippines regarding the South China Sea issue is unlawful, wrote Xie Feng, the Chinese ambassador to Indonesia, in an article published on the Indonesia's largest English newspaper the Jakarta Post Wednesday.

Despite the Philippines packaged its appeal and asked the arbitral tribunal to rule the legal status of some of China's islands and reefs, the compulsory arbitration in essence deals with the sovereignty dispute which does not fall within the interpretation and application of UN convention on the sea of law(UNCLOS), Xie stated in the article titled "The dangerous arbitration of Beijing-Manila dispute".

The Philippines' abuse of compulsory procedures will undermine the international rule of law and regional peace, as it may set a precedent that any disputes, whether concerning territorial sovereignty or maritime delimitation, could be submitted for arbitration in the future, warned the Chinese ambassador, adding that the declarations excluding compulsory arbitration made by over30 countries will also be rendered meaningless.

The case will also lead countries outside the region to take advantage of the Philippines to further heat up the tension by increasing military presence and pushing forward the "rebalancing" strategy, according to Xie.

"What is at state is the solidarity, cooperation, stability and prosperity that Asian countries have enjoyed for over 20 years, " he pointed out.

China will neither accept nor recognize the arbitration imposed by the Philippines unilaterally and illegally and the ruling will in no way change the history and fact that China has sovereignty over the South China Sea islands and their adjacent waters, concluded Xie Feng.
The Party chief of North China's Shanxi Province said on Tuesday that 20,000 officials have voluntarily surrendered ill-gotten wealth worth over 170 million yuan ($25.9 million) to the provincial disciplinary watchdog as of April, but said some officials have refused to confess.

During an interview with the website of the Communist Party of China's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) on Tuesday, Wang Rulin said as of April, 5,646 officials have confessed to violating Party rules, and officials handed in "red packets", which are normally used for monetary gifts, to authorities.

Wang said five Party chiefs of cities in Shanxi have been investigated in the past year. Before that no Party chiefs had been probed in the last 14 years.

He said the anti-corruption campaign has been focused on department heads involved in coal, land resources, environmental protection and transportation, as well as from Luliang and Gaoping, according to the transcript posted on CCDI's website.

Disciplinary watchdogs at all levels in the province saw a 17.6 percent drop in tips in the first quarter compared to the same period the previous year, Wang said.

"Certain officials attempted to cover their tracks, refuse to confess or even cooperate with disciplinary watchdogs, although a majority of Party officials have a clear picture of the situation and seized on the opportunity under the anti-graft campaign," Wang was quoted by CCDI's website as saying.

He pointed out in March that such corruption has not only severely dampened the province's economic development but also damaged relations between officials and the public, and jeopardized the Party's ruling foundation.

Shanxi is one of China's major coal producers and contributes greatly to the country's energy supply.

In 2014, seven of the province's top leaders were put under investigation.

Party committees should be held accountable for rampant corrupt cases in Shanxi, Huang Shuxian, CCDI vice secretary, was quoted by the Xinhua News Agency as saying in January 2015.
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President urges the US to boost policy coordination at G20

President Xi Jinping meets with US Secretary of State John Kerry. FENG YONGBIN / CHINA DAILY

President Xi Jinping said on Tuesday that he expects to exchange views on key issues with his United States counterpart Barack Obama during the G20 summit in China in September.

Xi also called on the US to strengthen macroeconomic policy coordination with China to inject confidence and new impetus into the world economy during the summit in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province.

He made the appeal at a meeting with the US delegation to the annual China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Beijing, which ended on Tuesday.

At the two-day event  the highest-level formal dialogue between the world's top two economies  more than 100 agreements and deals were signed in strategic areas and more than 60 in economic sectors.

Xi urged the two governments to ensure these achievements produce quick results to benefit the two peoples.

He said there are many things that China and the US can work together on, and both nations should do more for the good of Sino-US cooperation.

The president added that the two countries could enhance cooperation in areas including trade, clean energy and environmental protection.

"In terms of the disagreements that exist between China and the US, the key is to respect each other's core interests and important concerns," Xi said, adding that the two nations should control their disputes constructively.

Premier Li Keqiang, who also meet with US representatives, said China is willing to promote a continuous, healthy and stable bilateral relationship with the US by strengthening strategic mutual trust, expanding channels for cooperation, promoting people-to-people exchanges and managing differences constructively.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said this round of the dialogue is the last one for the Obama administration, and it has special significance.

"The US-China relationship is absolutely vital  it may well be the most consequential bilateral relationship for nations in the world," Kerry said. He added that the strategic and economic dialogue is an essential mechanism for both countries to manage differences and expand cooperation.

Zhiqun Zhu, associate professor of political science and international relations and John D. MacArthur, chair of East Asia politics at Bucknell University in the US, said the dialogue contributes to the growing maturity of the relationship and sets the basic tone for cooperation between the two countries.

No matter who the next US president is, such crucial dialogue mechanisms must be maintained to ensure stability and continuity of the relationship, he said.
BEIJING, June 8 -- The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Wednesday issued a statement on settling disputes between China and the Philippinesin the South China Seathrough bilateral negotiation. Following is the full text of the statement:

Statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China on Settling Disputes Between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea Through Bilateral Negotiation

(8 June 2016)

China and the Philippines are neighbors facing each other across the sea, and the two peoples have enjoyed friendship over generations. Before the Philippines' unilateral initiation of the South China Sea arbitration on 22 January 2013, the overall situation in the South China Sea had remained stable despite certain disputes between China and the Philippines therein. Thanks to China's efforts, China and the Philippines carried out friendly consultations on, among others, establishing dialogue mechanisms and engaging in practical cooperation and joint development, and have achieved positive outcomes in this regard. However, ever since its initiation of the arbitration, the Philippines has unilaterally closed the door of settling the South China Sea issue with China through negotiation, and has, while turning its back on the bilateral consensus regarding managing differences, taken a series of provocative moves that infringed upon China's legitimate rights and interests. This has led to dramatic deterioration of China-Philippines relations as well as of peace and stability in the South China Sea. China is firmly opposed to the Philippines' unilateral actions. China adheres to the solemn position of non-acceptance of and non-participation in the arbitration, and will stay committed to settling the relevant disputes with the Philippines in the South China Sea through bilateral negotiation.

I. It is the common agreement and commitment of China and the Philippines to settle their relevant disputes in the South China Sea through negotiation

China has all along stood for peacefully settling territorial and maritime delimitation disputes through negotiation with States directly concerned on the basis of respecting historical facts and in accordance with international law. On issues concerning territorial sovereignty and maritime delimitation, China never accepts any recourse to third party settlement, or any means of dispute settlement that is imposed on it. Territorial sovereignty issues are not subject to the United NationsConvention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). With regard to maritime delimitation disputes, China made, pursuant to Article 298 of UNCLOS, an optional exceptions declaration in 2006, excluding disputes concerning, among others, maritime delimitation from the UNCLOS third party dispute settlement procedures.

It is not only the Chinese government's consistent policy, but also a clear agreement reached between China and the Philippines, to settle their relevant disputes in the South China Sea through negotiation.

The 10 August 1995 Joint Statement between the People's Republic of China and the Republic of the Philippines concerning Consultations on the South China Sea and on Other Areas of Cooperation states that "[d]isputes shall be settled in a peaceful and friendly manner through consultations on the basis of equity and mutual respect", and that "a gradual and progressive process of cooperation shall be adopted with a view to eventually negotiating a settlement of the bilateral disputes." Afterwards, China and the Philippines reaffirmed the consensus on settling the South China Sea issue through bilateral negotiation and consultation in a number of bilateral documents, such as the 23 March 1999 Joint Statement of the China-Philippines Experts' Group Meeting on Confidence-Building Measures and the 16 May 2000 Joint Statement between the Government of the People's Republic of China and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines on the Framework of Bilateral Cooperation in the Twenty-First Century.

On 4 November 2002, China and the ten ASEANMember States signed the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC), in which the Parties concerned solemnly "undertake to resolve their territorial and jurisdictional disputes by peaceful means, without resorting to the threat or use of force, through friendly consultations and negotiations by sovereign States directly concerned, in accordance with universally recognized principles of international law, including the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea".

Afterwards, China and the Philippines reaffirmed this solemn commitment they had made in the DOC in a number of bilateral documents, such as the 3 September 2004 Joint Press Statement between the Government of the People' s Republic of China and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the 1 September 2011 Joint Statement between the People's Republic of China and the Republic of the Philippines.

II. China and the Philippines have never conducted any negotiation on the subject-matters of the arbitration initiated by the Philippines

According to the Philippines, China and the Philippines have engaged in a number of exchanges of views since 1995 on the subject-matters of the arbitration initiated by the Philippines but the disputes have remained unsettled, and the Philippines has good reasons to believe that it is meaningless to continue the negotiations and it therefore has the right to initiate the arbitration. The fact, rather to the contrary, is that the two States have by far never engaged in any negotiation on the subject-matters of the arbitration.

China and the Philippines have held multiple rounds of consultations on the proper management of disputes at sea, but have by far had no negotiation designed to settle the relevant disputes in the South China Sea. China has on a number of occasions proposed with the Philippines the establishment of a China-Philippines regular consultation mechanism on maritime issues; however, to date, there has never been any response from the Philippine side. On 1 September 2011, the two countries issued the Joint Statement between the People's Republic of China and the Republic of Philippines, reiterating the commitment to settling the disputes in the South China Sea through negotiation. Thereafter, China, for many times, proposed restart of the China-Philippines consultation mechanism for confidence-building measures, but this proposal has once again fallen on deaf ears. It is completely groundless for the Philippines to claim that it is meaningless to continue the negotiations, and that the Philippine side has had to initiate the arbitration.

III. The Philippines' unilateral initiation of arbitration goes against the bilateral agreement on settling the disputes through negotiation and violates the provisions of UNCLOS

The South China Seaarbitration was unilaterally initiated by the Philippines. In doing so, the Philippines has turned its back on the agreement reached and repeatedly reaffirmed by China and the Philippines on settling the relevant disputes in the South China Sea through negotiation and violated its own solemn commitment in the DOC. This is a violation of the principle of Pacta sunt servanda and an abuse of the UNCLOS dispute settlement procedures. It goes against international law, including UNCLOS.

First, by unilaterally initiating the arbitration, the Philippines has violated its agreement with China to settle the relevant disputes through bilateral negotiation. In relevant bilateral documents and the DOC, China and the Philippines have agreed to settle through negotiation their disputes in the South China Sea and reaffirmed this agreement many times. The above bilateral documents between China and the Philippines and relevant provisions in the DOC are mutually reinforcing and constitute a binding agreement, by which both sides have chosen to settle the relevant disputes through negotiation. The Philippines' breach of its own solemn commitment is a deliberate act of bad faith.

Second, by unilaterally initiating the arbitration, the Philippines has violated the right, as provided for in UNCLOS, of a State Party to UNCLOS to choose the means of dispute settlement of its own will. Article 280 of Part XV of UNCLOS stipulates that: "Nothing in this Part impairs the right of any States Parties to agree at any time to settle a dispute between them concerning the interpretation or application of this Convention by any peaceful means of their own choice." Article 281 of UNCLOS provides that: "If the States Parties which are parties to a dispute concerning the interpretation or application of this Convention have agreed to seek settlement of the dispute by a peaceful means of their own choice, the procedures provided for in this Part apply only where no settlement has been reached by recourse to such means and the agreement between the parties does not exclude any further procedure". Given that China and the Philippines have made an unequivocal choice to settle the relevant disputes through negotiation, and have excluded third party settlement procedures, including arbitration, the third party dispute settlement procedures stipulated by Part XV of UNCLOS is thus non-applicable in this regard.

Third, by unilaterally initiating the arbitration, the Philippines has breached Article 283 of UNCLOS regarding the duty of exchange of views. The Philippines deliberately misrepresents certain consultations with China on maritime affairs and cooperation, all of a general nature, as negotiations over the subject-matters of the arbitration, and uses this as an excuse to claim that bilateral negotiations have been exhausted. This is despite the fact that the two States have never engaged in any negotiation on those subject-matters. Such claim made by the Philippines is fundamentally contrary to facts, and must have been made with ulterior motives.

IV. China will adhere to the position of settling the relevant disputes with the Philippines in the South China Sea through negotiation

China is a major force for upholding peace and stability in the South China Sea. China is a staunch supporter of the purposes and principles of the UN Charter. It is committed to upholding and promoting international rule of law and shall always respect and act in accordance with international law. While firmly safeguarding its territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea, China adheres to the position of settling disputes through negotiation and consultation and managing differences through relevant rules and mechanisms. China endeavors to achieve win-win outcomes through mutually beneficial cooperation, and is committed to making the South China Sea a sea of peace, cooperation and friendship.

On issues concerning territory and maritime delimitation, China does not accept any means of dispute settlement imposed on it; nor does China accept any recourse to third party settlement. The door of China-Philippines bilateral negotiation is always open. China will remain committed to settling through negotiation the relevant disputes with the Philippines in the South China Sea on the basis of respecting historical facts and in accordance with international law. China urges the Philippines to immediately cease its wrongful conduct of pushing forward the arbitral proceedings, and return to the right path of settling the relevant disputes in the South China Sea through bilateral negotiation with China.
With more than 100 achievements, the eighth China-US Strategic & Economic Dialogue (S&ED) concluded on Tuesday. There were plenty of discrepancies between the two the media could hype up, but US Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters on Tuesday evening that this was a "productive" dialogue. Regarding China's law on foreign NGO management, he said that the two sides held "in-depth" and "thorough" discussions over it.

It is often the case that China is more willing to stress the positive results of the dialogue while the US reveals more discrepancies than the Chinese side. The disagreement between Beijing and Washington over the South China Sea issue is unlikely to be solved through one dialogue. Kerry also said yesterday that "Hopefully, as we go forward, President Obama's policy, as he has expressed many times, will in fact dovetail with the State policy of China."

In the economic dialogue session, the media focused on the overcapacity in China's steel sector, the topic of which was hyped up by the US. US delegates blamed China's overcapacity problem for "dragging down" the world economy, while China's Finance Minister Lou Jiwei criticized the US for over exaggeration.

China favors talking about the new type of major power relations between China and the US and emphasizing cooperation, while the attitude of the US fluctuates. This shows China cares more about maintaining good Sino-US relations. The reason is that China's overall strength is weaker than that of the US and China attaches particular attention to the impact of bilateral relations on its diplomacy and domestic development.

The S&ED has provided a chance to sort out the bilateral relationship. Over the years, the two have been competing with each other without ties being broken. But how stable will such relations be? The South China Sea issue adds uncertainty to bilateral relations. Whether the stability of the relations will overcome the sea disputes or whether the latter will impair bilateral relations is teetering on the brink.

Both societies hope their governments could cope with the challenges with a hard-line approach. But the public in both countries do not wish for a military clash between the two, and both governments should be clear about this. If the competition between China and the US in the Western Pacific can be managed firmly and peace in the entire Asia-Pacific region can be cast-iron, the two governments will be lauded by history.

The US military has exposed the negative side of Washington's strategic circle toward China in recent years. Through the S&ED, the US seems to swing back a little. But it still remains uncertain whether Washington will restrain its provocation on the South China Sea issue.
"These (attacks) are being carried out against people whose duty it is to ensure the security of our people. These cannot be pardoned or forgiven. We shall continue our fight against terrorists fearlessly and tirelessly until the end," he told reporters outside the hospital.
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Brian Maffly | The Salt Lake Tribune This monument at Mountain Meadows commemorates Arkansas migrants killed in an 1857 battle Steve Griffin | Tribune file photo Wooden crosses adorn the black wrought iron fence that surrounds the Mountain Meadows Massacr
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Catholic Education is seeking an urgent meeting with ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr to express outrage at having been sidelined in the ACT budget.

Director of Catholic Education in the archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn, Moira Najdecki said she had been "extremely disappointed" that Catholic schools had missed out on a single dollar to implement reforms arising from the autism cage scandal and wanted to express this personally to Mr Barr, who is also Treasurer.

Education Minister Shane Rattenbury. Credit:Elesa Kurtz

"The budget delivered $21.5 million in funding for public schools to respond to recommendations of the 'Schools for All' report whilst not providing a single dollar to enable Catholic schools to meet the same outcomes for their students," Mrs Najdecki said.

"Catholic schools and the parents of students in our schools are committed to achieving the recommendations of the Shaddock Review [but] the budget expresses disdain for the needs of students in Catholic schools and their parents," she said.
The government has defended the fairness of using a flat $30 levy on all households, regardless of wealth, to fund its $21 million family violence package.

The ACT government's major response to family violence was announced in Tuesday's budget, winning praise from the sector, and overwhelming support from others, including the opposition and business groups.

Chief Minister Andrew Barr, left, announced the family violence package on Tuesday to overwhelming support. Credit:Elesa Kurtz

But questions have been raised about the way the government has funded the family violence response, introducing a new levy rather than using existing government revenue.

Tuesday's budget was used to announce a $30 per year safer families levy on all residential and rural properties from July. It would raise $19.1 million over four years.
The Music Man. Book, music and lyrics by Meredith Willson. Story by Willson and Franklin Lacey. Directed by Joseph McGrail-Bateup. Queanbeyan Players. The Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre. June 10-25. theq.net.au.

Mason City, Iowa's most famous citizen is Meredith Willson (1902-84). He celebrated his home town humorously and nostalgically in lightly fictionalised form as River City in his 1957 debut Broadway musical, The Music Man, which was a long-running, award-winning hit. It was later made into a 1962 movie with the show's original star, Robert Preston, and has been produced many times since. The show, featuring songs such as Seventy-Six Trombones and Till There Was You, is coming to the Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre in a production by Queanbeyan Players on Friday.

From left: Dan D'Abrera, Bill Lord, Emily O'Brien, Deanna Gibbs, Callum Doherty, Kerry Warner and Katy Larkin in The Music Man. Credit:Donna Larkin

The Music Man is the story of Harold Hill (played by Gordon Nicholson), a con man who arrives in a close-knit Iowa community with a scheme to form a boys' band, pocket the cash for uniforms and instruments, then skip town. But not everyone is taken in by his smooth talk, especially the town librarian, Marian Paroo (Deanna Gibbs)  though Harold finds himself increasingly attracted to her, and he seems to be having a positive effect on the town despite himself.

David Vikturek, the chief executive of the Mason City Foundation, which runs The Music Man Square, says The Music Man reflects Willson's childhood memories of growing up in Mason City. He says Willson called the show a valentine to his home town and River City has returned the compliment with The Music Man Square, built in 2001-2, which includes the Meredith Willson Museum and is a tribute to the composer's life and legacy. It draws 60,000 visitors from around the world every year and contains 4000 pieces of memorabilia from the Willson estate (themusicmansquare.org).
This columnist is not a real estate writer but the Wayfarer is, like the same developer, Geocon's, Infinity Towers project at Gungahlin, of interest to anyone who is a student of Canberra. Our city is changing before our very eyes.

When you are a sensitive soul, something really rather exciting about watching and listening to a very big building being busily built. Looking at it, admiringly on Wednesday from across the road, it seemed a living, noisy thing. The site was a cacophony of drilling and hammerings. A great concrete panel was being hefted aloft by a tall but slender crane.

But in fact the building of Wayfarer, destined to be a towering-by-Canberra-standards 88 metres tall with 27 floors and with 331 of what the developers promise in their pamphlets will be "sun-drenched" apartments, turns out to be well under way. It is already looming and impossible to miss.

Your columnist, seldom venturing out these days to penetrate the mystique of 21st-century Belconnen, was a little worried that it might be hard to find the site of the Wayfarer apartments for Wednesday's media event there.

Then as well, well-travelled, cosmopolitan Canberrans hanker for some true skyscrapers to break up the monotony of our city's low, shy skylines. Infinity Towers and now Wayfarer give us at least a kind of skyscraper lite. A city without any buildings that tower and swagger and call out "Look at me!" feels like a meek, milksop city, a city with an inferiority complex.

Geocon minions issued us with hard hats and with fluorescent green fluor vests. My protests that the vulgar vest clashed with my boyish complexion and with my powder-blue shirt fell on deaf ears. We were taken into the shell of the building, the whole place delicately perfumed with the heady scent of raw cement. We ascended to the sixth floor in a builders' lift that rattled excitingly.

Geocon was anxious to show us some typical sixth-floor apartments, already furnished for display purposes. Geocon's dynamic supremo Nick Georgalis was there to enthuse to us. He assured me that he had forgiven me for calling him, after a previous interview about Infinity Towers, a kind of "Satan". We had meant that he is Satan to those conservative Canberrans who hate the satanic ways in which his Geocon aspires to alter the city. Geocon has designs on the Manuka district. He loves to use, approvingly, the d words (like "density"), which of course leaves ashen-faced those conservative quarter-acre Canberrans who don't want to live in a city that teems with people, life, etc.

He and Geocon are very keen to stress how some apartments at Infinity Towers and every apartment at Wayfarer have "water views". And sure enough, when he pointed it out to us from a sixth-floor apartment's balcony, there not far away was a corner of not-very-majestic Lake Ginninderra. It was 50 shades of grey. On Wednesday a bitter Belconnen breeze was coming off it, reminiscent of how cold it can be in Finland when the breeze is off the Baltic.

Should the carp-infested waters of Lake Ginninderra fail to entice, Wayfarer is going to have, on its 27th level, a sparkling infinity swimming pool. See our alluring picture in which three residents (including fair Ingeborg, the blonde Nordic goddess who stars in Geocon publicity materials) wallowing in what is of course the city's highest pool.
The ACT government will tighten building industry regulations to ensure dodgy builders and so-called phoenix companies cannot avoid personal liability and leave workers and subcontractors in debt.

Legislation will be introduced on Thursday to stop construction companies deliberately liquidating to avoid paying creditors, taxes and employee entitlements, only to relaunch with the same assets months later.

The government hope to eliminate phoenix companies - those that deliberately liquidate to avoid debts only to relaunch with the same assets later. Credit:Louie Douvis

The package of 43 reforms includes changes to on-site supervision, building and surveyor licenses, dispute resolutions, government procurement, building approvals and insolvency.

Planning minister Mick Gentleman said "phoenixing" was practised by few in the industry but was devastating for employees and clients.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei (Source: fmprc.gov.cn)

BEIJING, June 8 -- China and the European Union (EU) will hold their sixth round of high-level strategic dialogue in Brussels on June 10, said a Foreign Ministry spokesperson on Wednesday.

State Councilor Yang Jiechi will co-chair the dialogue with EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Vice President of the European Commission Federica Mogherini at the EU headquarters in Brussels. Yang will also meet European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, spokesperson Hong Lei told a regular press briefing.

Yang and Mogherini will discuss the 18th China-EU leaders' meeting in Beijing scheduled for later this year, discuss global governance and international and regional hot issues, to boost communication and coordination between China and the European Union in international affairs, Hong noted.

China is a comprehensive strategic partner of the European Union, Hong said. "China has always supported efforts by the EU to deal with inside and outside challenges, and extended hope that it would remain united, strong and prosperous."
Qantas Airways, which could complete a $500 million on-market buyback by the end of this week, looks increasingly likely to return more cash to shareholders with its full-year results in August despite its recent warning of tougher market conditions.

By the close of trading on Tuesday, Qantas had purchased $485.26 million worth of shares as part of a buyback program launched alongside its half-year results in February. On Tuesday, it purchased $6.88 million of shares, and if that pace continues, the buyback would be finished by Friday.

Qantas has returned $1 billion to shareholders since August 2015. Credit:Louise Kennerley

Qantas has paid an average of $3.49 a share, which is higher than Tuesday's closing price of $2.93. Qantas shares had reached $4.16 on April 4 but later plunged after a warning on April 18 that domestic and international market conditions were proving tougher than expected.

Brokers slashed their consensus forecasts for the airline's full-year earnings by 9 per cent in the wake of the update, with many warning it would probably take a more conservative approach to capital management. Brokers expect Qantas will report an underlying pretax profit of a record $1.6 billion.
The Oswal legal team says this effectively reduces the ATO's claim to around $32 million. So that trims the ATO's claim by a trifling $154 million by CBD's count. The Tax Office was not in denial mode when contacted by CBD: "Due to confidentiality provisions in the tax act the ATO is unable to comment on any individual's or entity's tax affairs. We are also unable to comment on matters before the court." If the ATO has backed down to such a colossal degree, we can't wait for the mauling from the Oswals. It was Radhika, at Burrup's company party in 2009, who launched a tirade against meat eaters literally "covering the world in shit" from the excretions of livestock produced for their consumption.

Just imagine what she's saving up for the ATO. Meanwhile, back in Melbourne, the Supreme Court of Victoria heard on Wednesday that the ANZ Bank "knew" of Pankaj's alleged fraud but instead of reporting the suspected misdeed to the police the bank used its suspicions to heavy Radhika into signing a guarantee over hundreds of million of dollar of assets. "She had to do that or else her husband would go to jail," Mrs Oswal's lawyer Garry Rich told the court. Simultaneously, Pankaj denies the fraud. Road kill No less an authority than The New York Times labelled the 2007 float of Rams Home Loans by John Kinghorn as possibly "the worst initial public offering of the decade".

The venerable publication might have a new nominee for the current decade: Mark Rowsthorn's logistics disaster, McAleese. Tuesday's announcement by the company confirmed that the shares held by its investors are basically worthless. Investors are being asked to collectively cough up another $26 million cash as part of a capital raising that will see the group privatised. Their current stake in the company will shrink from 100 per cent to "slightly greater than zero per cent", said McAleese. So who wins from this big bust?

The SC Lowy consortium which has been negotiating the company's survival, will end up with 35 per cent of the group. Rowsthorn will get 5 per cent of the recapitalised group in return for underwriting the capital raising on offer to his fellow shareholders. And if his fellow investors refuse to take part in the raising, Rowsthorn will get another 60 per cent of the company. If the shareholders do not approve the recapitalisation, they will still be at the mercy of SC Lowy as it will own the majority of McAleese's secured debt. In November 2013 investors handed over $166 million cash to buy shares in the public offering. It did not take long for the wheels to fall off.

The Cootes tragedy  which occurred before the IPO  led to a grounding of the company's trucking fleet over roadworthiness concerns just months after the float. McAleese then doubled its bet on logistics services to the mining industry just as the sector cratered. "While acknowledging the unforseen events that have challenged our first year as an ASX-listed company, it is important to recognise that this has also been a year which has served to highlight the underlying strength of the McAleese Group," said Don Telford in the 2014 annual report. "I'm not going to pretend FY14 hasn't been a challenging year for our organisation, but I am pleased to report that the financial strength of the business has been restored and that we are looking toward real growth rather than just 'recovery'," said Rowsthorn in the same annual report. He had been forced to stand down as chairman to take the CEO role at McAleese.
Rio Tinto's has shored up its balance sheet for what it expects will be a prolonged period of pain in the mining industry by launching its second debt buyback in the space of two months.

Rio has offered to buy back $US2.9 billion ($A3.9 billion) worth of notes that are due in 2018 and will then consider offers from holders of about $US5.2 billion of bonds maturing in 2020 to 2022.

Rio reported a $US866m loss in 2016 and has outlined sharp cuts in investments and operating costs. Credit:Bloomberg

Rio repurchased $US1.5 billion of notes in an April tender. It had gross debt of around $US27 billion at December 31, so the two buybacks will reduce this to around $US23 billion. Net debt sat at $13.7 billion at the end of the 2015 year.

Like most miners, Rio has been furiously cutting costs over the last few years in the face of tumbling commodity prices, and has also sold assets to help cut its debt load.
Veterinary and pet shop chain Greencross is aiming to grab a bigger share of the $7.2 billion petcare market from mass market retailers such as Woolworths and Coles after sending its private equity suitors packing.

Chief executive Martin Nicholas has outlined plans to open more small-format stores while boosting online sales and improving customer experience to further differentiate Greencross stores from competitors.

It's back to business for Greencross CEO Martin Nicholas, who is doubling down on retail after seeing off private equity suitors. Credit:Jessica Hromas

Greencross is Australia's largest stand-alone pet care chain after snapping up dozens of independent retailers and vet clinics over the last few years, but its 8 per cent market share is dwarfed by that of the supermarket chains, which account for as much as 75 per cent of key categories such as pet food.

"Supermarkets are by far our biggest competitor," Mr Nicholas told Fairfax Media.
Imagine if you could take your long service leave with you from one job to the next. Thousands of Victoria's security guards and cleaners could soon be able to do just that, after a landmark inquiry found the proposal has merit.

The question of whether long service leave should be "portable" across Victorian industries other than construction has been hotly contested. Unions say people are being "short-changed" due to the increasingly transient and casual world of work. Businesses warn the impost will add a major deterrent for employers looking to hire.

Richard Riley, a security guard at the National Gallery of Victoria, has never had long service leave. Credit:Arsineh Houspian

But after a year-long investigation, a parliamentary committee has made a string of recommendations. Among them are calls for feasibility studies to consider giving portable long service leave to people who work in the same industry for 10 years, but are prevented "through no fault of their own" from accessing the entitlement because of frequent contract changes.

"The committee heard from workers who have worked in the same job for over 10, sometimes 20, years and have never been able to take long service leave," committee chairman Nazih Elasmar said.
The big environmental issue of the last NSW election was coal seam gas. And while the gas industry and its lobbyists keep waiting for the controversy to go away, gas looks set to play a major role in the federal election too.

To recap, the NSW government's support of CSG hit the Nationals hard at the state election. They lost one formerly safe seat and lost another. The Libs took notice  CSG info sessions were then held in Northern Sydney Liberal branches.

The government killed off some gas projects, hoping to put gas on the  ahem  back burner, but recent events continue to turn up the heat in NSW and beyond.

In Queensland, a spectacular video of gas in the Condamine River being set on fire by a Greens MP has been watched half a million times online and featured on prime time TV.
She may not be the orator President Barack Obama is, or the retail politician her husband was. But Hillary Clinton's steely fortitude in this campaign has plainly inspired older women, black voters and many others who see in her perseverance a kind of mirror to their own struggles. And Clinton's very durability - her tenacity, grit and capacity for enduring and overcoming adversity - could be exactly what is required to defeat Donald Trump.

As a politician's wife, first lady, senator and secretary of state - and as a two-time candidate for president - Clinton, 68, has redefined the role of women in U.S. politics each time she has reinvented herself. She has transfixed the nation again and again, as often in searing episodes of scandal or setback as in triumph.

Clinton's confidants say it is only fitting that, having overcome so many obstacles before, including some of her own making, she now faces an opponent so eager to go negative with her - and to refight the bare-knuckled brawls that have defined her career.

It was with that same grit that Clinton picked herself up after a bruising defeat by Obama in 2008, when she assured a crowd of tearful female supporters, eight years ago to the day, that they had made 18 million cracks in "the highest, hardest glass ceiling".
Editor's note: On 19 May 2016, Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin met with a US media delegation that consisted of Jonathan Broder, senior writer for Newsweek, Cristi Kempf, Associate Managing Editor of Chicago Tribune, and Jon Healey, Deputy Editorial Page Editor of Los Angeles Times.

Vice Minister Liu Zhenmin spoke about the history of the South China Sea issue and the background of the Philippines' unilateral initiation of the South China Sea arbitration. He also answered questions about the US "Freedom of Navigation Program" in the South China Sea, how China would respond to the arbitration "award", and how the South China Sea issue would affect the China-US relations.

The edited record of the conversation is as follows:

Liu Zhenmin: First of all, on behalf of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I welcome you, friends from the US media, and I wish to thank the China-United States Exchange Foundation for arranging this meeting. This afternoon we will talk about the South China Sea issue.

In the Foreign Ministry, I'm responsible for Asian, boundary and ocean affairs, and treaty and law. Much of my time has been spent on the South China Sea issue this year, a frequent topic at meetings between me and friends from ASEAN and other countries outside the South China Sea region, like the United States.

Many media reports about the South China Sea issue do not actually reflect the mainstream views of the international community. Some foreign media, especially Western media, blame China for the current situation in the South China Sea. This is a misunderstanding that shows insufficient knowledge of the Western media about the realities in the South China Sea and Southeast Asia.

Over the past few months, through my discussions with friends from ASEAN countries and outside this region, and my own reflection on the matter, I observed that Southeast Asian countries never really enjoyed peace from the Age of Discovery to colonial times, to WWII and then to the end of the Cold War. This time span can be further divided into two phases. The entire Southeast Asia, except Thailand, was colonized by Western powers before WWII and then occupied by Japan during WWII, and countries in this region obtained independence only by the end of WWII. In the following 20-plus years, they were heavily affected by the Cold War. The US fought a long war in Vietnam, Cambodia suffered foreign invasion and domestic conflict, the US built military bases in the Philippines, and the former Soviet Union also kept strong military presence in the unified Vietnam.

Enormous changes took place in Southeast Asia after the end of the Cold War. The US and the former Soviet Union withdrew troops, and the conflict in Cambodia came to an end. Since then, Southeast Asia has enjoyed 26 years of peace, making possible stability and prosperity and enabling the China-ASEAN relations to grow. China resumed diplomatic relationship with Indonesia and established that with Singapore in 1990, and with Brunei in 1991, thus having diplomatic relations with all Southeast Asian countries. China and ASEAN also developed a dialogue partnership, of which we are to celebrate the 25th anniversary this year. Over this past 25 years, China has become the largest trading partner of ASEAN and many of its members, and ASEAN is now China's third largest trading partner, next only to the EU and the US. Two-way trade has exceeded US$400 billion. In the meantime, China became Asia's biggest and the world's second biggest economy in 2010.

These development achievements may have invited jealousy. The US launched its "Asia-Pacific rebalancing" in 2010, and the six years afterwards have seen profound impacts in Southeast Asia. As far as the South China Sea issue is concerned, the "Asia-Pacific rebalancing" emboldened certain ASEAN countries, a typical example being the Philippines' provocation of the Huangyan Dao Incident in 2012 and its unilateral initiation of the South China Sea arbitration in January 2013.

There is much attention these days in the western media coverage about China's construction on the islands and reefs. But China only started such construction at the end of 2013, the timing of which indicates that China was forced to react, given the changes in regional situation. Some media reports have been blaming China's construction on the islands and reefs for the rising tension in the South China Sea. We do not agree because China was actually the last one to carry out such construction, after the Philippines and other claimants. And a major difference here is that the other claimants' construction has been on Chinese islands and reefs that they illegally occupied, whereas China's construction is on its own islands and reefs. It is wrong of the US and Western media to name China the source of rising tension in the South China Sea.

As the largest coastal country of the South China Sea and the world's biggest trading nation in goods, China has a high stake in the South China Sea which is a crucial trading route. The peace, stability and freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea is critical to China. As a matter of fact, China cares about the peace and stability in the South China Sea more than all other countries, the US included. No one should doubt this. Even for its own sake, China is firmly committed to upholding regional peace and will take action against possible threats if necessary.

This is my opening remarks, and I'm ready to answer your questions.

1. Newsweek: China has dispatched military vessels and aircraft in response to the "Freedom of Navigation Program" implemented by the US in the South China Sea. How does China view the potential conflicts that may ensue?

Liu Zhenmin: We respect the freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea of all countries including the United States under international law. But the recent actions by our American friends seem to have gone beyond the scope of "freedom of navigation and overflight" entitled by international law.

According to international law including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), countries enjoy two types of freedom of navigation and overflight: first, in territorial sea and airspace, a country must meet the standard of "innocent passage" or obtain the approval of the coastal states and pay due regard to their sovereignty, security and dignity; second, in areas beyond territorial sea, a country enjoys the freedom of navigation and overflight but it also needs to pay due respect to the sovereignty, security and dignity of other countries concerned.

It has been 37 years since the US launched its "Freedom of Navigation Program". The US knows China's positions and policies concerned. The US should be aware that its freedom of navigation and overflight is only in certain areas of the South China Sea, and it should be careful not to intrude into the territorial sea and airspace of China and surrounding countries.

As I said, China needs a peaceful and stable South China Sea and has no intention for frictions with US military vessels and aircraft. But the US should refrain from making provocations. We certainly don't want another air collision like the one on 1 April, 2001. The world is changing and the China-US relations are deepening, the US should be more friendly toward China. You may still remember the meeting between President Xi Jinping and President Obama at the Annenberg Estate in 2013. The theme of that meeting was to build a new model of major-country relationship between China and the United States. A consideration behind this concept proposed by President Xi is to avoid the "Thucydides trap". China won't become another Soviet Union. There are three elements in this new model of major-country relationship between China and the US - non-conflict and non-confrontation, mutual respect, and win-win cooperation. The Amercian friends quite recognize the first and third elements, but are somehow reluctant on the second. We respect the US, and naturally we hope the US respect China as well.

Development is the common aspiration of the 1.3 billion Chinese people. Three years into the buidling of major-country relationship, bilateral ties between China and the US are getting closer, trade and investment growing steadily, and cooperation yielding win-win results.. The interests of the two countries are closely interconnected, and the two countries have win-win cooperation on global issues such as climate change and the Iranian nuclear issue. The Asia-Pacific is actually the only area where China and the United States have different views, but even here the difference is not large. China respects the US presence in the Asia-Pacific and hopes the US will also respect China's increasing role in this region. In sum, China is confident in the future of China-US relations.

2. Newsweek: Does China have a red line on the South China Sea issue? If yes, what is it?

Liu Zhenmin: My answer is both yes and no. We have made it known to the US about our red lines on a number of issues. For instance, we have asked the US not to support "Taiwan independence" and to support the cross-Strait reunification. On the South China Sea issue, we have asked the US not to take sides or support its so-called ally against China. A major problem now in Southeast Asia or the entire East Asia is America's military alliance. If there is a red line, it is that we don't want the United States to infringe upon China's sovereignty and security. On these two matters, there is no room for China to compromise or make any concession. We, the Chinese, fought for decades to change China from a semi-colonial and semi-feudal country into an independent country with national sovereignty and security. President Xi Jinping said to President Obama that the Pacific Ocean is vast enough for two big countries as China and the US. Our two countries can have sound cooperation in the Asia-Pacific, the Pacific and beyond. There is no need for the US to make provocations near the shore of China.

3. The Guardian: What's China's attitude toward the award of the South China Sea arbitration unilaterally initiated by the Philippines? What do you think of the jurisdiction of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS)?

Liu Zhenmin: The first thing people should know is that the arbitral tribunal established at the request of the Philippines is not an international court or a permanent court of arbitration, but a temporary arbitral tribunal comprising five arbitrators designated by Mr. Shunji Yanai, former president of the ITLOS. The Philippines claimed that the arbitration it initiated on January 22, 2013 was not to settle any specific disputes, but to ask the arbitral tribunal to judge on questions about the interpretation and application of the Convention. China does not accept or participate in the arbitration, and the arbitral tribunal has lent a ready ear only to the Philippines. I think the award will probably be in the Philippines' favor.

China doesn't see the arbitration as a move of good will. It is intended to legalize the Philippines' illegal claims and negate China's rights in the South China Sea. The Chinese government released the Position Paper of the Government of the People's Republic of China on the Matter of Jurisdiction in the South China Sea Arbitration Initiated by the Republic of the Philippines on 7 December 2014, which gives a full explanation about China's position. Our position is clear: the arbitral tribunal has no jurisdiction over the subject matter. In fact, in a number of bilateral agreements, China and the Philippines agreed to settle the South China Sea disputes through negotiation and consultation, and both countries have signed the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea ("DOC") along with other ASEAN countries in 2002. The Article 4 of the DOC stipulates that disputes in the South China Sea should be settled by directly concerned states peacefully through negotiation and consultation. As to maritime delimitation, the Chinese government issued in 2006 a declaration under Article 298 of UNCLOS to exclude maritime delimitation from UNCLOS compulsory dispute settlement procedures.

China recognizes the dispute settlement procedures provided by UNCLOS, but the Philippines' initiation of arbitration and the arbitral tribunal's establishment of jurisdiction are obviously against the Convention. The South China Sea arbitration unilaterally initiated by the Philippines is nothing but a political scheme for one party to insult the other and will be recorded as an infamous case in the history of international law. The Philippines has acknowledged the existence of disputes with China. But the arbitration it initiated is, as the Philippines claimed, not intended to settle the disputes. Then why should China participate in it and comply with the so-called "award"? We can expect propaganda by countries like the Philippines and the US about the award having binding power for China. China will make clear its position of not recognizing or accepting the award and will justify why the award has no binding power.

China will stay committed to settling the South China Sea disputes with the Philippines through negotiation and consultation, and we hope the next Philippine administration will adopt new thinking on the issue. Arbitration is not the way out and will give no benefits to the Philippines, but only doing harm to China-Philippines relations. Meanwhile, we don't see any gains for the US from the arbitration case. We don't understand why the US has been so active in backing the arbitration behind the scene. As time goes by, I believe the plot will eventually come to light. In sum, the arbitration initiated by the Philippines is dishonest and not based on good will. China will not accept or participate in it, let alone to recognize the so-called "award".

4. NBC: If the difference between China and the US over the South China Sea issue cannot be resolved, will that affect their interactions in other fields?

Liu Zhenmin: As a matter of fact, China and the US don't have major clash of interests in the South China Sea, and neither wants frictions. The US has made an issue of the "freedom of navigation and overflight" recently to echo with the arbitration unilaterally initiated by the Philippines, and it has been helping the Philippines build up military capacity. Nonetheless, we believe the US government is well aware of its interests in the South China Sea. It hopes to use the South China Sea issue as an excuse to restore military presence in the Asia-Pacific. The US has actually achieved this goal already, and has no need to enter into military conflict with any country in the Southeast Asia. What matters now is that the US government should recognize that time is changing, and there are far more benefits for China and US and China and Southeast Asian countries to cooperate rather than going to war. China doesn't want a war, and we will oppose the US if it initiates any conflict in East Asia. And certainly, if events such as the Vietnam War or the war on the Korean Peninsula happen again, China will have to defend itself.

But we think such things will not happen. Some reports on the situation in Southeast Asia by media from countries in this region, the US and the West are not balanced. The joint military exercises and patrols by the US and relevant countries cannot besiege China, not possible 30 years ago and much less today. No one can stand in the way of China's development. I would like to share with you some basic facts. In its fastest growth, the Chinese economy contributed as much as 50% to the world economic growth, and 30% even today. The US economy also contributes a big share in the growth of the world economy. Thus no one wants to see frictions between China and the US, because slowing down of the Chinese and US economies is bound to affect the global economy. I don't know whether in the United States there are people who want war in East Asia. But no country in this region, from Northeast to Southeast Asia, including the Philippines, wants to have a war. We hope the US government and military can join East Asian countries in cherishing peace and stability in the region.

Frankly speaking, there are different voices within the US about the Asia-Pacific, and its domestic politics is less predictable recent days. This worries us and we hope consensus could be reached inside the US to work with China on the new type of major-country relationship that features "non-conflict and non-confrontation, mutual respect, and win-win cooperation". This will lead to sound interactions in the Asia-Pacific and serve the interests of China, the US and the region at large.

5. Chicago Tribune: When the Arbitral Tribunal makes the final award, will China accept and recognize it? What does China think of the future trend of the South China Sea situation?

Liu Zhenmin: China will not implement the award, nor will the "award" change anything. There is no agency entitled to act as the international "police" and "award" depends on countries for recognition and implementation. This is the essence of international law, which needs the respect from sovereign nations.

From procedure to substance, the arbitration initiated by the Philippines doesn't comply with international law including the UNCLOS. Even after the tribunal makes its award, the South China Sea issue will still exist and the US will not be able to settle it. It has neither the capability nor the authority to do so. At the end of the day, the South China Sea issue has to be settled by China and ASEAN countries through negotiation and consultation.

The US is being nosy to intervene in the arbitration. China and ASEAN have their own channel to solve the South China Sea issue, i.e. the DOC signed by China and ASEAN countries in 2002, and a consultation mechanism set up for its implementation. In addition, after many years of negotiation, China and Vietnam finalized the maritime delimitation in Beibu Gulf in 2001, followed by another 10 years of negotiation that led to an agreement signed in 2011 on the basic principles of solving maritime issues. The negotiation between China and Vietnam is still ongoing, covering maritime delimitation and cooperation in areas of low sensitivity. China has similar communication mechanisms with Malaysia and Brunei.

In fact, before the Philippines' unilateral initiation of the arbitration, China and the Philippines had many dialogue mechanisms and confidence-building measures. At the time of the previous Philippine administration, China, the Philippines and Vietnam even signed an agreement on maritime seismic research cooperation in some areas of the South China Sea. Such cooperation discontinued due to the change of administration in the Philippines. This shows that China and the Philippines have the basis for settling the South China Sea disputes through negotiation and consultation, and this basis is in keeping with international law including the UNCLOS. Arbitration is not the basis for seeking settlement. The attitude of the new Philippine administration is important for whether China and the Philippines can cooperate on the South China Sea. If a right position is adopted, I believe cooperation can continue.

There are still many maritime disputes unsettled in this world, and the South China Sea issue is not the only one. China and ASEAN countries should be fully aware of the complexity and long-term nature of the South China Sea issue, and have confidence and patience for negotiation and consultation. Pending the final settlement, China and ASEAN countries should actively carry out practical cooperation on the sea, uphold peace and stability in the South China Sea through cooperation, and make sure that freedom of navigation and overflight is not affected. We also hope that countries outside this region, including the US, will move toward the same goal with China and ASEAN countries and support closer regional cooperation, not the other way round.
After 2 years as a miner, he fell ill with a bleeding ulcer, and it was while he was convalescing that he picked up W H Prescott's History of the Conquest of Peru and found the subject that would inspire The Royal Hunt of the Sun.

The family eventually moved south where, after education at St Paul's School, the brothers were both conscripted as Bevin Boys to work in the Kent coal mines. Peter recalled passing the long hours down the pit mentally rehearsing the tragic Shakespearian roles. On his rare days off, he would go to see Old Vic "golden seasons" productions at the New Theatre.

Peter Levin Shaffer was born in Liverpool on May 16, 1926, into a prosperous family of Orthodox Jews, five minutes after his twin brother. His father was in the property business and the boys became drawn to theatre during family trips to the Liverpool Playhouse.

Interviewers often wondered whether the odd twinships in Shaffer's plays (Mozart versus Salieri, the psychiatrist and the boy in Equus) reflected a rivalry between Shaffer and his own identical twin brother, the scriptwriter and playwright Anthony Shaffer, best known for the perennially popular thriller Sleuth.

What hooked the audience about Amadeus, however, especially in Milos Forman's film version (which won eight Oscars including an award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Shaffer), was Shaffer's love for the composer's music, which he brilliantly communicated through the voice and ears of Salieri. Before the play a Mozart wind serenade might have sold 10,000 copies; after Amadeus sales of more than a million became common.

After the war ended the brothers went up to Trinity College, Cambridge, Peter to study history and Anthony to study law. They co-edited Granta magazine and, after graduating, co-wrote books about a fictional detective called Mr Verity, sharing the nom de plume "Peter Anthony". Subsequently, while Anthony began a career as a barrister, then an advertising copywriter, Peter moved to New York, working in a bookshop, at a railway station, in a department store and at the New York Public Library.

Returning to London in 1954 he joined the music publishers Boosey and Hawkes, but left after a year to "try to write". Eventually he returned to New York, where he lived on and off for the rest of his life, though he retained his British citizenship and always premiered his plays in London.

Despite Peter's claim that he had never been jealous of his brother, a series of letters written in the late 1960s (when Anthony had ditched his advertising career to work on Sleuth), laid bare Peter's frustration. The letters, discovered at Anthony's London home after his death in 2001, include such passages as: "I do feel threatened. As if my little Kingdom has been invaded, and I am no longer to be The Playwright, but again part of that faintly cute and annihilating 'Which one of them did it?'" In another letter, he implored: "Before it's too late? I beg you to take another name for writing." Anthony declined, and instead maintained the family name for Sleuth, before going on to write screenplays for the Alfred Hitchcock film Frenzy, and The Wicker Man.

Yet Peter was hardly short of success. Through West End hits such as Five Finger Exercise and The Private Ear and the Public Eye, by the early 1960s he had become the favoured dramatist of the theatre impresario Binkie Beaumont. Even so he had to look further afield to find someone prepared to take on The Royal Hunt of the Sun: "I was staying at Binkie's country cottage for a weekend," he said, "having heard nothing from him about the play. I went to get myself a drink and was just about to go into the main room when I overheard Binkie and his partner, John Perry, discussing it. I heard John say to Binkie: 'And then the Spanish soldiers go up the Andes.' And Binkie said: 'They do what?' John replied: 'They climb the Andes, dear.'' And what do they do then?' asked Binkie. 'They climb down the other side,' said John. To which Binkie simply said: 'Fancy!' At that moment I thought perhaps I hadn't sent the play to the right management." But the play excited the imagination of John Dexter, who ultimately directed it for the National at Chichester.

Shaffer never allowed himself to be be type-cast as a magic realist or anything else. Lettice and Lovage (1987) was a success on the West End and Broadway mainly due to the brilliant performance of Dame Maggie Smith (for whom the play was written), as Lettice Douffet, the most eccentric tour guide ever to lead bored American and Japanese visitors through a dull English stately home. Nor did Shaffer always get it right. Yonadab flopped at the National in 1985 and White Lies and The Battle of Shrivings were also commercial failures. The Gift of the Gorgon (1992), though nominated for an Olivier award, was dismissed by The Daily Telegraph's critic Charles Spencer as "a load of tosh".
Here in the ACT, The Canberra Times recently reported public servants were being warned to watch their Facebook likes and shares during the election campaign . A core foundation of democracy is not that public servants must hold or express views consistent with those of their employers. It is that public sector advice and internal decision making processes should ensure the public interest trumps the political interests of the government of the day.

Talk back radio and tabloid newspapers vilified Duncan Storrar after asking a question last month on the ABC's Q&A program about the Federal Budget, tax cuts and income inequality. Credit:Justin McManus

Workplaces are increasingly demanding no separation between our personal, online and civic lives. Workers are told taking part in public conversations and activist spaces could expose them to perceived conflicts of interest and they need to avoid controversial issues that could bring their employers into disrepute, even when venturing into topics that have scant connection with their paid jobs.

It's common to say that we are living in an era of speed defined by the rapid demise of long held assumptions. Everything is shifting, from assumptions about the longevity of first term national leaders to boundaries between private and public behaviour. Some changes are healthy but others erode the foundations of civil society.

Another foundation that is being challenged, right in the middle of a federal election campaign, is the right of ordinary people and public intellectuals to question, provoke and galvanise us.

Safe Schools founder Roz Ward was briefly stood down from her staff position at Latrobe University for expressing opinions about the Australian flag on her personal social media page. While people might not agree with her views, she is hardly the first person to criticise the flag and there is a long tradition of public intellectuals from left and right making comments outside their fields of work.

This overreach by an employer was overturned following community outrage, presumably by some people who had jobs and who had not checked in with their employer if their expressions of outrage were approved by their boss.

What is odd is the misalignment of expectations in the new media spaces for Twitter and Facebook as compared to radio and television. On those old media platforms there has never been a requirement on ordinary citizens to avoid thorny matters when asking questions on talk back radio or current affairs debate programs.

Men and women who had reached the old media pinnacle of hosting their own show had the privilege of broadcasting their opinions, arguing or agreeing with callers, putting high profile guests either on the spot with uncomfortable questions or giving them free reign to argue their position on an issue of public importance. They gained ratings success with controversial and provocative expressions of views and welcomed robust input from their listeners.
How you define the experience necessary to hold the office of prime minister will influence your judgment on whether Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten have the necessary qualifications.

One measure of experience is the years each has spent in Parliament; 12 in the case of Turnbull and nine in the case of Shorten. They entered Parliament in 2004 and 2007 respectively. That experience sounds reasonable. But author and political commentator George Megalogenis disagrees. In the current issue of The Monthly magazine he declares that for the third election running, both candidates "are bound by limited leadership experience and modest prior ministerial achievement". He concludes that: "By any objective standard each man is a decade short of the necessary grounding to run the country."

That is a big call. He invokes the so-called 20-year rule advocated by John Howard, who assumed the position of prime minister in 1996, 22 years after entering Parliament in 1974. According to Megalogenis this rule contained the essential truth that aspiring prime ministers "need at least two decades to get to know the people and the system before they are ready to serve".
The less cynical thought he might shed some light on the party's as-yet unarticulated arts policy.

Given the Coalition government's treatment of the sector  ripping an estimated $300 million in funding for artists, arts organisations and cultural institutions in less than three years  he can't have expected an easy ride.

Many in the arts community were surprised that federal Arts Minister Mitch Fifield agreed to take part in the National Arts Election Debate, held by ArtsPeak, a coalition of peak bodies across various art forms, in Melbourne on Wednesday afternoon.

Some had predicted that he might even announce some funding for the arts or a new initiative.

Yet after 90 minutes of talking, interspersed with the odd jeer, gasp of disbelief and some applause for his opponents, the hundreds of people who filled the the Wheeler Centre were left none the wiser about the Turnbull government's arts policy.

Labor's Mark Dreyfus, the opposition spokesman for the arts, and Greens arts spokesman Adam Bandt, spoke in detail about their own respective policies, both released in the past week.

Reversing cuts of more than $105 million to the Australia Council, abolishing the Catalyst "slush fund" administered by the minister's office with money diverted from the Australia Council and returning any unspent money from the fund to the arts funding body were first among them.

Instead, he seemed to antagonise those in the crowd  filled with hundreds of people who work in the industry, including many whose organisations had lost recurrent funding from the Australia Council in recent weeks  by refusing to directly acknowledge the damage done to the arts by his government.
"They assured us that while Tarantino is not directing the project, he is producing, and that the use of the word "whores" came directly from the script (which we've been told was written and will be directed by a woman)."

The Hateful 8. Credit:Roadshow/The Weinstein Company

Women and Hollywood said the word should never have been used, was loaded with meaning and was a typical example of sexism in Hollywood.

"Putting a casting call out for, or including women in your script with the description of "whores", is not OK. Nor is asking actresses to submit their photos and information for consideration with the subject line "Whore".

"It would've been just as easy to have said that the project was looking for actresses to play prostitutes, saloon girls, or brothel workers but the use of the word "whore" to describe these roles is degrading and the fact that casting announcements frequently use the word is indicative of an ongoing problem in the film industry.
Underwater photographer Tim Samuel was searching for sea turtles when he encountered the most bizarre pairing he'd ever seen - a fish stuck inside the bell of a long-tentacled jellyfish.

He was free diving off the coast of Byron Bay in northern NSW when he spotted the two creatures.

"I'm not sure what the fish was doing in there; he certainly looks scared," the 26-year-old told Fairfax Media.

"He was propelling the jellyfish, but wobbling around and being thrown off course and sometimes being forced to swim in circles."
Left-wing activist group GetUp! complained to the Australian Electoral Commission, arguing the promise could be tantamount to bribery. The AEC referred the complaint to the AFP on Tuesday evening.

Mr Christensen earlier this week pledged to personally donate $12,000 to a turtle sanctuary in the Whitsundays - if he is re-elected on July 2.

Controversial Nationals MP George Christensen has been referred to the Australian Federal Police over allegations he may have breached anti-bribery provisions.

An AEC spokesman told Fairfax Media it was not simply a procedural matter and that the commission only referred complaints when it believed they warranted investigation.

"The AEC reviews any matters referred to them. If there is a cause to refer it then we do. That's what has occurred," the spokesman said.

An AFP spokeswoman confirmed the organisation is assessing the referral but has not yet committed to investigating the claims.

Mr Christensen, who holds his north Queensland seat of Dawson on a margin of 7.6 per cent, has since withdrawn his pledge to Eco Barge Clean Seas, a non-profit group, which rescues turtles and removes marine debris.

But he ridiculed the implication it amounted to bribery and called on GetUp! to stump up $12,000 from its own coffers.
Public servants at the Defence Department launched their election attack on Coalition-held seats in Melbourne on Wednesday, protesting against the government's hardline bargaining stance and cuts to military science and technology.

A small but determined crowd of about 50 workers braved the cold outside the Defence's science and technology complex at Fisherman's Bend in central Melbourne to hear speeches by union leaders and Labor defence spokesman Stephen Conroy.

More actions are planned around the country in the run-up to the election, with unions believing that Coalition marginals, Hindmarsh in South Australia, Herbert in Queensland and Eden-Monaro in NSW, are all vulnerable because of their high numbers of Defence and military workers.

The public servants' grievances are two-fold; along with tens of thousands of their colleagues in the Australian Public Service, they are angry at the bargaining process conducted under tough Abbott-era industrial policy that has resulted in two years of bitter workplace stalemate across the bureaucracy.

Defence technical workers have also been campaigning against what they say is the running-down of military scientific know-how in recent years, characterised by deep cuts to funding and jobs.
"Would you say it's difficult for you to be in court giving evidence in a case against your father?" the barrister acting for former NSW Labor MP Eddie Obeid asked his eldest son.

"Unquestionably," Damian Obeid replied from the witness box in the Darlinghurst Supreme Court.

Eddie Obeid outside the Darlinghurst Supreme Court on Wednesday. Credit:Daniel Munoz

On the third day of Mr Obeid senior's criminal trial, Damian Obeid agreed the family patriarch was a "devoted family man" but denied he took an active role in family businesses at the centre of the case.
A motorbike, thousands of dollars in private travel for family members, and a Foxtel subscription to his home are among a raft of personal purchases the former head of a Sydney council claimed he was entitled to make using council funds, a corruption inquiry has heard.

Botany Bay Council's former general manager Peter Fitzgerald fronted the Independent Commission against Corruption on Wednesday, where he was grilled over the alleged theft of more than $4.2 million of council funds by employees between 2009 and 2015.

Former council boss Peter Fitzgerald. Credit:Daniel Munoz

During three hours of intense interrogation, Mr Fitzgerald was asked to explain thousands of dollars of personal expenses he allegedly charged to his three corporate credit cards, including his purchase of a motorbike and airfares for his children.

He repeatedly denied abusing his credit cards, telling the commission that any personal items he purchased were permitted within the terms of his contract, which he said entitled him to annual "discretionary expenditure" of $20,000.
Supreme People's Court orders retrial of Nie Shubin who was convicted of rape and murder and executed 21 years ago

The Supreme People's Court has ordered a retrial of a man executed 21 years ago, according to Xinhua News Agency.

Nie Shubin, a worker in Shijiazhuang, northern China's Hebei Province, was put to death in April 1995 when he was 20 years old for allegedly raping and killing a woman in a cornfield.

Nie was convicted of intentional rape and murder on March 15, 1995 by the intermediate peoples court in Shijiazhuang. In addition to having all of his political rights taken away for both crimes he was given a death sentence.

In December 2014, the Supreme Peoples Court, in accordance with a request from the Higher People's Court of Hebei Province and in the spirit of related laws, appointed the Higher People's Court of Shandong Province to conduct a review of the case.

Nie Shubin (file photo)

Accordingly a panel of five judges conducted in depth document review with other parties along with proper verification of the autopsy of the victim to see whether or not there were bone fractures. Several trips were made to Hebei etc. to conduct investigations and talk with the appellee and their lawyer.

The new panel decided that there was not enough evidence to prove Nie Shubin was guilty, with many doubts in the aspects of time and tools used in the crime as well as causes of death. It is not possible to rule out that perhaps another person did the crime. Accordingly, they suggested a re-trial with affiliated parties.

The Supreme People's Court agreed with their opinion and in compliance with article 242 and 243 of the Peoples Republic of China criminal procedural law the case is to be brought into reconsideration.

The Supreme People's Court will organize a collegiate bench and maintain a just attitude and conduct a hearing based on the facts and criterion of law, and a verification letter of the re-hearing was presented to Nie Shubins mother. Results will be presented to the public in a timely manner.
Margaret Sammut turns 62 next month and will celebrate her birthday with her family for the first time in decades.

Ms Sammut, who was left with a disability after being hit by a car as a child, has spent the past 39 years in a large institution, one of handful still remaining in NSW that will close as the National Disability Insurance Scheme rolls out over the next two years.

Margaret Sammut in her self-contained accommodation in Auburn. Credit:Steven Siewert

After leaving the Rydalmere Centre last year, Ms Sammut moved into a group home in Auburn that she shares with two other people, aided by disability support workers.

"Oh, it's good," she said, surrounded by her collection of books, DVDs and stuffed toys.
It was a case of two worlds coming together as Sydney showcased the old and the new.

In Sydney's Hills District, rail track began to be laid at Rouse Hill for the $8.3 billion north-west metro rail link, the first stage of Australia's largest public transport project.

And in a nod to the city's rail history, a "Red Rattler" rolled over the Harbour Bridge, marking the 90th anniversary of Sydney's first electric trains. Known as the F1, the restored vintage train included one of the original carriages that crossed the bridge in 1932.

As in bygone years, the building of a rail system is still a point of contention.
Four people have been taken to hospital after a single-vehicle crash on the Pacific Motorway.

A vehicle travelling along the M1 crashed into a barrier just before 1pm, blocking the middle two southbound lanes.

Paramedics were treating up to 18 passengers after the collision.

A man and woman both in their 60s were transported in a stable condition to Gold Coast University Hospital.

A man in his 60s was transported to PA hospital in serious condition along with a man in his 50s.
The Gold Coast is now looking to Mexico and the Carribean Sea for cruise ship inspiration.

A Mexican cruise ship terminal built in 2007 featuring pools with dolphins  similar to Tweed Heads' old Jack Evans' porpoise pool  is being scoped as one idea for the Gold Coast's new cruise ship terminal.

Gold Coast eyes Mexico's Costa Maya cruise ship terminal

Gold Coast mayor Tom Tate has his eye on Mexico's Costa Maya cruise ship terminal as one example of his "pet project" as the council begins to investigate three locations for a cruise ship terminal.

Costa Maya is about 100 kilometres south of the scuba diving and tourist town Playa de Carmen on the Carribean Sea.
Brisbane's Labor opposition has accused Lord Mayor Graham Quirk of hiding behind the state budget with the timing of his own.

But in an embarrassing mistake, the opposition got the dates of both the state and local budgets wrong in its media release blasting the timing of the Brisbane City Council's 2016-17 budget.

Labor leader Peter Cumming criticised the timing of Lord Mayor Graham Quirk's budget. Credit:Glenn Hunt

"The Brisbane City Council will bring down its budget on June 8, the day after the Queensland Government budget is announced on June 7," Labor said in the release.

Both dates were a week out. Queensland Treasurer Curtis Pitt was due to hand down the state budget next Tuesday, June 14, with Cr Quirk's council budget due the following day.
More charges have been laid against the three brothers accused of abducting and raping a teenage girl in Geelong on November 1 last year.

Melbourne Magistrates Court heard on Monday prosecutors had laid two extra charges each against Allan Wild, 30, Kevin Wild, 29, and Brodie Wild, 21.

The Geelong park where the men allegedly abducted the girl.

The three are accused of abducting the 14-year-old girl from a reserve in the Geelong suburb of St Albans Park and then raping her at a nearby address. A fourth brother was also charged, but his charges were later withdrawn.

The new charges against Kevin Wild are both sex offences, the court heard, but it was unclear what the new charges against his brothers are. The court did not release charge sheets.
Planning Minister Richard Wynne has intervened to grant special conditions for a Spring Street tower proposed by a property fund chaired by the son of former Labor premier John Cain.

Industry fund ISPT has senior officials from unions, including the CFMEU on its board.

The now defunct Elms Family Hotel on Spring Street that is to have a 22-level tower built above it. Credit:Vince Caligiuri

The fund - chaired by James Cain - last week lodged plans for a striking 16-level office tower on the corner of Spring and Little Lonsdale streets.

But the $75 million tower does not comply with strict new CBD planning rules brought in by Mr Wynne last year.
Bothering your neighbours with loud music is one thing. It's another if they happen to be police trying to get some shut-eye.

A music venue in Melbourne's CBD is closing after suddenly discovering that its basement band room backed on to  of all things  the sleeping quarters of the Melbourne East Police Station.

Music venue Shebeen is closing later this month. Credit:Justin McManus

The Shebeen band room, a "non-profit" bar, was opened on Manchester Lane in 2013.

Co-founder Simon Griffiths said when a policewoman first complained the incident was brushed off as ludicrous, due to the distance to the entry of the station, located on nearby Flinders Lane.
Those who watched ABC's TV series Revolution School on Tuesday night would have learned that Kambrya College students were not studying books in English class.

This may seem obvious to many, but Victorian schools appear to be doing away with books in class.

Instead, they were learning from textbooks which published short passages extracted from books, and were asked to analyse the texts and answer questions.

Staff from Kambrya College during the filming of Revolution School. Credit:Martin Philbey

It seemed students were not borrowing books from the school library. There was no apparent encouragement that students read at home.

It's unlikely that Kambrya is alone in this.

In Victoria, each school decides how it teaches students to read, write and spell.
Tamara Turner was found dead outside the Mildura hospital on Monday. Credit:Facebook "I cried, I tried to call my family, but I could barely talk ... she gave birth to me, she's my mum." Ms Turner grew up in the tiny town of Theodosia in Missouri in the US midwest. Steven Samaras (left) was arrested after the body of his partner, Tamara Turner (right), was dumped at the Mildura hospital on Monday. Credit:Facebook She had separated from her husband when her two children were small after he returned from serving in the Gulf War.

He got full custody of Chuck and his sister Natasha - now Natasha King - mainly because their father, a military man, had a steady job. Tamara Turner's body was dumped outside the Mildura Base Hospital, allegedly by her partner, on Monday morning. Credit:Sunraysia Daily "Don't get me wrong, it's not because she was a bad mother, she just wasn't able to support us," Mr Smith said. She cared for her children regularly, he said, and then her six grandchildren, working two to three jobs for most of her life. Tamara Turner (middle) with her two children; Natasha King (left) and Chuck Smith (right).

Most recently though, Mr Smith said, she was looking for love and a connection. She found it with Steven Samaras, a 47-year-old from Preston in Melbourne. Victoria Police released this image of Steven Samaras on Monday Credit:Victoria Police "They were obsessed with each other; that's the way I read it," Mr Smith said. Facebook was their public platform for their daily messages professing their love for each other, as well as the tyranny of distance.

"I LOVE YOU TAMARA, WITH ALL MY HEART, CAN'T WAIT, GETTING HARDER TO BE AWAY FROM YOU," Mr Samaras, who typically wrote in capital letters, posted to her in November. "I know baby," Ms Turner responded. "It's really hard for me too. But in the end it will be so worth it. I love you." Hours after her death and despite police publicly asking him to come forward, Mr Samaras was still posting messages to his sweetheart. 'FLY HIGH WITH THE ANGELS, YOUR [SIC] TAKEN FROM ME IN THIS LIFE GORGEOUS, BUT I WILL BE WITH YOU IN THE NEXT LIFE," he wrote on Monday night.

"U DIDN'T WANT TO LOSE ME AND AND I LOST YOU...PASSING AWAY IN MY ARMS HURT ME." As far as Mr Smith knew, his mother was only taking prescription medication to ward-off the painful effects of fibromyalgia, a condition she had had for eight years. Mr Smith made it clear to his mother that it was going to take some time for him to build a relationship with her new boyfriend. He told them he was going to give them a year, and if it worked out, he would try.

He's now waiting for his mother to come home in a casket. Mr Smith said he is still hoping her death was an accident. "I could live with it a lot better if it was an accident and my mum wasn't murdered," he said. "I can't sit here and judge that man yet." The father-of-three said he wanted people to know two things about his and his sister's mother.
Warning: this story contains graphic material some readers may find disturbing.

A young comedian has been brutally bashed while heading to the movies with his girlfriend, in what he says was an unprovoked attack.

Blake Everett was on his way to the cinema with his girlfriend when he was attacked. Credit:Facebook

Blake Everett, 19, needed seven stitches after his head was cut open during the assault, which occurred near the Frankston railway station on Monday evening.

Mr Everett has taken to social media to share graphic photos of his lacerated head in a post that has been shared almost 500 times in less than 24 hours.
The accused ringleader of an alleged rape of a 14-year-old girl in Geelong has pleaded for protection while he's held in custody.

Brothers Kevin Andrew Wild, 28, and Allan Mark Wild, 29, along with two other men from the same family, are facing rape and abduction charges following the alleged attack.

The Geelong park where the men allegedly abducted the girl.

The two brothers appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Friday for a brief filing hearing, where a lawyer for Kevin Wild asked for his client to be held in protective custody.
WA's daily newspaper has denied it is scaremongering after publishing a provocative mocked-up front page image depicting a shark lurking behind young children.

The controversial decision by The West Australian to publish the photoshopped image - seemingly inspired by the Jaws films - comes in the wake of two fatal shark attacks off WA in the past week.

Doreen Collyer, 60, died on Sunday after she was attacked while diving for crayfish off Mindarie, while surfer Ben Gerring, 29, succumbed to his injuries on Friday after a shark had severed his leg while surfing at Falcon, near Mandurah, on May 31.

The front page - complete with headline asking 'WILL IT TAKE THIS?' - points to a story inside questioning whether drum lines should be deployed to catch sharks or if the metropolitan shark fishery that was closed by Labor in 2007 should be reopened.
The two Victorian men appeared before an out-of-sessions hearing in Melbourne in the early hours of Saturday morning, both charged with one count of abduction and one count of rape.

Two of the men handed themselves into police in Melbourne and a third was arrested on the Gold Coast.

He was one of four men arrested on Friday night.

Police have arrested a Harrisdale man over the alleged rape of a teenage girl in Victoria.

Detectives from the Victorian sexual crimes squad are expected to fly to Perth and Queensland on Saturday to interview the other two men.

Detective Senior Sergeant Jason Walsh of the sexual crimes squad told the Melbourne hearing that Alan Mark Wild, 29, of Mount Evelyn, and Kevin Andrew Wild, 28, of Olinda, were among four men who approached the girl and her 16-year-old male friend when they left a party in the Geelong suburb of St Albans Park to take a walk in the park about 3.30am last Sunday.

The hearing was told Kevin Wild picked up the girl and started spinning her around.

Police allege the men then took the girl to the front yard of a house where she was sexually assaulted by two or three men.

The boy appealed to the men to stop, telling them how young she was, but the men continued the attack and Kevin Wild pushed the boy to the ground and kicked him, Detective Senior Sergeant Walsh said.
Beijing: Chinese authorities have denied physically assaulting a lawyer at a court in Guangxi province after photos of him being left half-naked went viral online and prompted more than 1000 lawyers signing a petition condemning the incident.

Lawyer Wu Liangshu said he was assaulted by three court guards in the presence of two judges and another court official, after his request to file a case was rejected at a district court in the city of Nanning on Friday.

Lawyer Wu Liangshu said he was assaulted outside court in Nanning. Credit:Weibo

Photos posted online after the altercation showed Mr Wu outside the court with his shirt unbuttoned, his right trouser leg completely torn away, and injuries to his hands. The court said it had repeatedly offered Mr Wu a new pair of pants, but he declined.

The photos went viral with the images sparking discussion over whether China's judicial system, which is controlled by the ruling Communist Party, served the people and rule of law, or the government.
An Egyptian passenger plane has made an emergency landing in Uzbekistan after the pilots were told there was a bomb on board.

The EgyptAir plane, which was en route from Cairo to Beijing, landed in the town of Urgench after receiving the bomb threat in a phone call on Wednesday.

In a statement, Uzbek state carrier Uzbekistan Airways said there were 118 passengers and 17 crew members on board. All were evacuated safely.

Security services examined the plane but found no explosives.

An Egyptian aviation official said the aircraft was preparing to resume its journey.
Beirut: President Bashar al-Assad has vowed to fight on in what he called Syria's war against terrorism, showing no sign of compromise in his first major address since peace talks broke down in April. The UN has estimated that more than 400,000 Syrians have been killed in the conflict, and by some estimates, more than five million people have been driven from their homes.

Yet Assad said he would win back "every inch" of Syria and said Aleppo would be a graveyard for the hopes and dreams of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, a major sponsor of the insurgents battling to topple him.

"Our war against terrorism is continuing", Assad said in a speech to parliament broadcast by state television. "As we liberated Tadmur (Palmyra) and before it many areas, we will liberate every inch of Syria from their hands. Our only option is victory, otherwise Syria will not continue."
But the country's Parliament was earlier told four people had been killed. PNG Prime Minister Peter ONeill, Credit:Joosep Martinson One of the students, Jeremiah Yakap, told Fairfax Media the students had wanted to take their protest to the Parliament in support of a no confidence motion in the prime minister. But he said police stopped several buses filled with students, and then opened fire after the students attempted to march by foot. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull with PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill at Parliament House in Canberra in March. Credit:Andrew Meares

"This is our country. We put aside the fear that is in us and said will will die for our country," Mr Yakap said. "Police were chasing us everywhere, into our dormitories." The University of Papua New Guinea grounds. Mr Yakap said a man next to him had been shot after police snatched the camera he had been holding. Another witness, who gave his name only as Stephen, told Fairfax police have since set up a blockade close to the local hospital to prevent relatives from reaching the wounded.

He said there were fears of retaliations. "It doesn't look good right now. All the shops are shut, all the schools are shut." Ms Bishop earlier said she had spoken with Australia's High Commissioner in Port Moresby, Bruce Davis, but it was still unclear whether there had been deaths and how many people had been injured. "If people have been shot in this incident, it is a tragedy and we urge for calm, to de-escalate tensions between the students and the police. We ask that the right to protest peacefully and lawfully be respected," Ms Bishop said.

Thousands of students at the University of Papua New Guinea in the capital of Port Moresby have been protesting and boycotting classes for weeks amid growing political unrest in the Pacific island nation. Jonathan Pryke from the Lowy Institute for International Policy said a collapse in the PNG economy had also led to frustration. But Mr O'Neill has refused demands to step aside and fought a warrant for his arrest. "They have now got themselves to a point where both sides have pushed themselves into a corner," Mr Pryke said. "I don't see a scenario in which the students are going to back down unless Peter O'Neill meets them at the table and discusses their demands."

Adding to tensions, opposition MPs have mounted a fourth attempt this week to unseat the O'Neill government via a no-confidence bid, gaining some support from members of the leader's own party. Hubert Namani, a lawyer and member of several PNG business councils, posted a graphic photo showing an injured person being carried away. The governor of the Oro province, Gary Juffa, said on his Twitter account he had spoken to students and that police shot at them with one unconfirmed death. He said the clash started after an argument between police and a student.
Bangkok: Police investigating Thailand's now closed Tiger Temple have found what they believe is a slaughterhouse and holding facility used by a suspected animal trafficking network.

The discovery of four live tigers and a dozen empty cages in a house 50 kilometres from the temple in western Kanchanaburi province comes as police widen investigations into wildlife trafficking to inspect 30 zoos nationwide.

The zoos will be required to verify they are operating legally.
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Baku, Azerbaijan, June 8

By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend:

Sangachal Terminal Area Operation Manager at BP Azerbaijan Zaur Pashayev has been appointed to the role of the company's vice president on midstream operations in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey (AGT) region, Tamam Bayatly, communications manager of the Communication and External Affairs department at BP Azerbaijan, told Trend June 8.

She added that Pashayev will assume his office starting from September 1, 2016.

In this role Pashayev becomes a member of BP's Global Operations Organization, Upstream and AGT regional leadership teams and will be accountable for safe, reliable and efficient operation of the AGT Midstream Organization.

In this position he will replace Craig Wiggs, who has been appointed to the role of vice president for safety and operational risk in another region of BP's business, starting from September 1, 2016.

Over the past 18 years with BP, Pashayev has built deep operations experience in the offshore and onshore business. Prior to his current position as the area operations manager (Sangachal Terminal), he worked in AGT offshore as the Shah Deniz area operations manager and Chirag 1 platform offshore installation manager.

Early in his career he also worked in various leadership roles in midstream export pipelines.

Pashayev graduated from the Azerbaijan Oil Academy with an honours diploma and holds a bachelors degree in mechanical engineering. In 2011, he graduated from the BP Operations Academy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston, US.

In 2001 Pashayev was awarded the Progress Medal by the President of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev for his significant contribution to the development of the oil and gas industry in Azerbaijan.

He is married and is a father of three children.

BP in Azerbaijan is operating the development of the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli block of oil and gas fields and the Shah Deniz gas and condensate field.

The company is also a member of such pipeline projects as the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline and the South Caucasus Pipeline, meant for gas transportation.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @MaksimTsurkov
PHILIPSBURG:--- When I was asked by my club's President, DTM Amanda Bedminster to chair this event, a little voice in me said, "Why me?" Another little voice immediately said, Why not you?"

The voice that asked why me, knew of the hurt I have felt as it relates to prostate cancer. The other little voice that asked why not you, knew I was perfectly placed to talk about prostate cancer because I had firsthand experience on this killer disease.

You see ladies and gentlemen, my father died of this disease and you cannot imagine what watching him suffer, watching him die, did to me.

My father was everything to me. I looked up to him. He was my hero. He was, as I called him, the smallest, the biggest, the smartest little man that I knew. He was five feet, two inches tall, but in my village, everyone looked up to my dad.

Incidentally, years earlier, long before he died, whilst working at Mullet Bay, I met a man who reminded me so much of my father, in stature, in mannerism, and in intellect. He spoke with wisdom just like my dad and I definitely looked up to him. He, like my father, was diagnosed with prostate cancer, but who unlike my father, did not die, but survived this disease.

Ladies and gentlemen, I am talking about no other than Mr. Michael Ferrier.

We have a packed program for you, but before I end, I will give you this little bit of information to ponder.

In the Caribbean, we are known for our sun, sea, and sand. People come from all over the world to enjoy what they call paradise, but did you know that in the Caribbean we are also known as the place with the highest rate of prostate cancer in the world? The number one killer of black men in the world! Yes, that information surprised me too, and do you know which of the Caribbean island holds that distinction?

Can anyone tell me?

The Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique! These two islands are very closely followed by Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United States of America. These statistics were compiled by the Department of Urology, University Hospital of Pointre Pitre, Guadeloupe by Researchers Stephane Malick, Pascal Blanchet, and Luc Matinger. Also by the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, Jamaica; and the University of the West Indies, Port of Spain Trinidad.

Between the years 1995 and 2003, Guadeloupe, with a population of 420 thousand people had 2531 cases of prostate cancer. In 2003 only, there were 427 new cases.

In Martinique, one in every four men dies of prostate cancer.

Between 1991 and 1995, there was an average of 800 new cases of cancer per year of which 42% of these new cases were prostate cancer.

Compared to the world statistics on prostate cancer, which is 168 cases per year per one hundred thousand people.

In Trinidad and Tobago 350 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer yearly.

According to a study conducted by the Pan American Health organization (PAHO) in 2002, there were approximately 18,880 public hospital discharge diagnose of male patients with cancer in Jamaica. Prostate cancer was the second most commonly diagnosed.

Another Earlier PAHO report stated that in 1991 there were 2407 cases of cancer deaths in Jamaica and that amongst males 30% of these deaths were prostate cancer deaths.

Researchers, also noted that the reasons for this high rate of prostate cancer stemmed from the foods eaten and the insecticide in the soils in which these foods were grown and insecticides in the water.

Most of these studies gave clear and irrefutable evidence that Black men over the age of 50 in the Caribbean and the US have a higher rate of prostate cancer than their white counterparts over 50 in Europe, the US, and Canada.

As a consequence, the Caribbean has the highest age standardized PCa specific mortality rates in the world.

The question now is, Why is this so and what can be done to reduce this morbidity and mortality associated with PCa in the Caribbean?"

For more specifics and expertise on this subject, I now turn you over to our moderator"

DTM Rolands Tobias.
PHILIPSBURG:--- The Permanent Committee of Finance, will meet on June 8.

The Finance Committee meeting is scheduled for Wednesday at 11.00 am in the General Assembly Chamber of the House at Wilhelminastraat #1 in Philipsburg.

The agenda point to be discussed is:

Presentation on tax reform (IS/751/2015-2016 dated May 17, 2016)

Representatives of Berman Consultancy Legal & Trust will be giving the presentation to the Committee.

Members of the public are invited to the House of Parliament to attend parliamentary deliberations.

The House of Parliament is located across from the Court House in Philipsburg.

The parliamentary session will be carried live on St. Maarten Cable TV Channel 120, via Pearl Radio FM 98.1, the audio via the Internet www.pearlfmradio.com and via www.sxmparliament.org.
SIMPSON BAY:----Following nearly 18 months of negotiations, PJIAE and WICSU-PSU recently signed a four-year agreement, which covers the employees of SXM Airports Air Traffic Services division.

Mr. Larry Donker, Deputy Managing Director of PJIAE, said it was both a pleasure and honor to be part of this great accomplishment.

There were some intense moments, some sleepless nights, but throughout it all you remained professional. Theres no doubt that we have some of the best in this industry working in that tower and it goes without saying that PJIAE is proud of the men and women of the Air Traffic Services division and their hard work, said Mr. Donker.

Elton Jones, who spoke on behalf of the PJIAE negotiating team, praised the shop stewards, for the good negotiation skills displayed during the negotiations.

Mr. Jones also said that both negotiation teams did what was necessary for our own future and for the longevity of the company, which is referred to as the goose that lays the golden egg. And it was done with keen knowledge of its economic impact on our society and this country of ours.

Mr. Jones said that the Air Traffic Services negotiation team proved to the PJIAE negotiating team that they were a great opposing partner, knowledgeable of the material and willing to compromise when presented with clear evidence of the companys inability to comply with their request or demand. He stated that they were tough in their demands, but fair. In the end youve given substance to the saying country above self, said Mr. Jones.
PHILIPSBURG:--- Fundraising efforts from students at the National Institute of Arts, Charlotte Brookson Academy of the Performing Arts, St.Maarten Academy and St. Dominic High School continue with unabated fervor.

The students are dedicated and committed in their pursuits to raise money for their culturally rich and academic intensive summer camp to the prestigious Edna Manley College for the Visual and the Performing Arts.

Norman Wathey of Taloula Mango has come forward as generous benefactor making the space in front of Taloula Mango available for the students to do a talent show case. On Friday June 10 from 6pm to 8pm students of the above-mentioned school are presenting a fundraising Performance featuring dancers, poets, Vocalist from their various high schools.

Also participating and lending support to the students efforts is the team of Art Save Lives who too is working avidly to raise money to assist the students in getting to Jamaica.

In addition to the Taloula Mango performance, students will hold a second Flea Market on Saturday June 1st from 10 am to 2pm at NIA located at the John Larmonie Center. Vendors who wish to sell their wares need only pay a $10 rental fee to be able to participate.

You too can assist the students in their effort by attending the performance at Taloula Mango in great numbers. There is no fee but you can make donations on site. For more information please contact NIA at 543-0600 or email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. us to pledge your donation to their cause.
NOAA predicts busy season with at 1-4 major hurricanes.

PHILIPSBURG:--- Prime Minister William Marlin issued yet another call on the community of St. Maarten to begin preparations for the 2016 hurricane season. The Prime Minister mentioned the release given by NOAA which stated that there is a 70% likelihood that the 2016 hurricane season which began on June 1st will be very busy season with at least 10- 16 named storms, of which 4 -8 will become hurricanes, and 1-4 of these could become major hurricanes of categories 3,4, or 5 which would have wind speed of 111 miles per hour.

Marlin called on residents to check their roofs, and to properly clean their surroundings and even cut trees that may fall on their roofs or that of their neighbors. He again made clear that in 1995 several warnings when a hurricane was approaching and each time the island was speared, but hurricane Luis was approaching the residents did not take the warnings seriously however, that is the hurricane that devastated the island.

Marlin said it is always better to be safe than being sorry therefore the residents of St Maarten must take the necessary precautions and properly prepare in the event of a hurricane.

Click here for NOAA report on 2016 hurricane season
St. Maarten will hold discussions prior to giving support.

PHILIPSBURG:--- Prime Minister William Marlin announced on Wednesday that the Netherlands has started its campaign to get on the UN Security Council. Marlin said that the Dutch has called on the leaders of St. Maarten, Curacao and Aruba to support them in campaigning for them to become a member of that council.

Giving an outline on the role of the UN Security Council Marlin said that the UN Security Council is a powerful body that is well known internationally. As the UN charter designates world peace, and international security as the primary responsibility of the council as such gave the council far reaching powers since they are responsible for security.

Marlin said the council comprises of 15 member states of the United Nations, of the 15, USA, France, Russia, United Kingdom, and China are permanent members while the other 10 non-permanent members are elected by the General Assembly for a two year term and they may not serve for two consecutive terms.

He said currently there are five non-permanent seats are up for elections every year, the composition of the council changes annually. The geographic distribution of seats are allotted as follows: 3 seats for African states, 2 seats for Asian states, 2 for the Latin America and Caribbean, 1 Eastern European, 2 Western European.

Marlin said any country that wants to get on the council must obtain two thirds of the members present while voting takes place at the General Assembly in order to secure a seat. He said 129 votes are required for any country to win a seat.

He said the Kingdom of the Netherlands submitted their candidature for a non- permanent seat in the UN Security Council for the term 2017- 2018. Meaning The Netherlands will be competing against Sweden, Italy for the Western European countries. He said the election will take place on June 16th at the UN headquarters in the USA.

Marlin said since 2014 the Kingdom launched its campaign with its theme Your Partner for peace, justice, and development. He said a strong emphasis is placed on the composition of the Kingdom, highlighting that its one Kingdom consisting of four countries, of which one is European and the other 3 being Caribbean.

Marlin went on to read excerpts from the campaign brochure. When asked if St. Maarten will support the Kingdom in its campaign Marlin said that they have not taken that decision as yet, but before they do some serious discussions/negotiations will have to take place with the Kingdom and St. Maarten, one being the loan payback system that students that studied in the Netherlands have to pay back after completing their education. He said many students that are paying this loan back cannot finish as they have to cope with the exchange rate from dollars to Euros each month while they also have to pay transfer fees. Marlin said that through these discussions his government would try to get the Kingdom to convert the loans St. Maarten students owe into dollars while he will suggest they open an account on St. Maarten so that students would not have to endure the cost of the transfer. Asked by SMN News if St. Maarten will discuss the dispute committee, Marlin said there are several issues that will be discussed but he does not think its proper to release that information at this time.
Bernie Sanders Delivers Fiery Speech in Santa Monica's Barker Hanger.

Update, 10:45 p.m. PST: Sen. Sanders took the podium in Barker Hanger in front of a crowd of cheering supporters. He refused to concede, and said he would take the fight to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. This surprised analysts, who noted that Clinton now has the majority of delegates, both pledged and "super-delegates."

He smiled as he stood with his wife and family. He thanked supporters for their hard work "for being part of the political revolution," and said:

"I want to thank the people of California for their incredible hospitality. Seeing thousands and thousands of people coming out, people who are prepared to stand up and fight for real change in this country. All of you know that when I began this campaign a little more than a year ago, we were considered to be a fringe campaign. But over the last year that has changed just a little bit. By the end of tonight we will have won 22 state primaries and caucuses, won over 10 million votes, and what is most extraordinary is that in virtually every state, we have won by big numbers, the votes of young people.

Young people understand that they are the future of America, and they intend to help shape that future. They understand that our vision of social justice, racial justice, economic justice, environmental justice, must be the future of America.

Our campaign has understood from the beginning that we will not allow right wing Republicans, to control our government. And that is especially true of Donald Trump, the Republican candidate.

The American people in my view will never support a candidate whose major theme is bigotry. Who insults Mexicans, who insults Muslims and women. And African Americans.

We will not allow Donald Trump to be President of the United States

But we understand that our mission is more than just defeating Donald Trump, it is transforming our country.

The American People know that it is not acceptable that the top 1 % own 90% of the country's wealth. When Americans are working so hard, this is just not acceptable.

And we will end a corrupt campaign finance system. Democracy is not about billionaires buying elections.

And we will end a broken criminal justice system. And we will break up the major banks on Wall Street. And we will follow the rest of the industrialized world and guarantee health care to all people. And will bring about real immigration reform, and a path towards citizenship

Real change never occurs from the top on down, always from the bottom up. That is the history of America, through the creation of the free slavery movement, the civil rights movement, the women's movement, the civil rights movement. And that is what our movement is about.

But you all know it is more than Bernie. It is about all of us together. It is millions of people from coast to coast looking around and knowing that we can do much better as a nation.

That whether Wall Street likes it, whether corporate America likes it, whether the mainstream media likes it, we together know what our job is. And that is to bring the American people together to create a government that works for us, not just for the rich.

Next Tuesday we continue the fight to the last primary in Washington DC. And we will take our fight for social, economic, racial and environmental justice to the convention. I had a very good call with Secretary Clinton, and I congratulated her on her victory tonight.

Our fight is to transform this nation, and to show that what we believe is what a majority of the American people believe.

Thank you all, the struggle continues."

Update 12:27: Both Pres. Obama and Hillary Clinton called Sanders tonight. Not the other way around. Is this significant? Perhaps both Obama and Clinton politely asked Sanders what he wants, for him to drop out of the race. The vice presidency? A cabinet position? Perhaps he merely wants to be there if the party needs an alternative to an indicted nominee.

Update, 11:24 PM: Analysts say that Pres. Obama must have obtained Bernie's word that he would drop out, but then Sanders changed his mind. Otherwise, why would the two men (Obama and Sanders) agree to meet on Thursday? Also, obviously, Sanders is conscious of the FBI investigation, which he has consistently refused to comment on or discuss. He must now believe that Hillary will be indicted, and that the super delegates will flock to his campaign before the democratic national convention.

Mar Eliason said: Bernie Sanders is as unpopular in the Democratic party, as Donald Trump is in the Republican. This is why! It appeared as if he walked out on stage in Santa Monica, and changed his mind about conceding.

Update 6/7, 10:00 PM In California, with 44% of the vote counted, Clinton 60.2%, Sanders 38.7%. Hillary Clinton declaring victory the night before the election, clearly hurt Sanders at the polls. New Jersey and New Mexico, the night's other big prizes, are also going to the former Secretary of State, with Sen. Sanders winning a squeaker in Montana, and North Dakota

In an ending right out of Hollywood, Hillary Clinton appears to have won California's popular vote after all. It had been said that California could not even be called tonight. Hillary has done something no woman has done before, something she has spent ten years at: She has wrapped up a major party's nomination.

President Obama has called both campaigns, anxious to endorse the victor and campaign actively for Hillary. He and Donald Trump have no love lost between them. And besides, the President is genuinely popular with voters and wants to extend his legacy. Not since Ronald Reagan in 1988, has a president been popular enough to campaign for a candidate.

At his Santa Monica headquarters, Sanders supporters gathered and watched the results with some disbelief and chagrin. The campaign will provide a live stream of the Bernie Sanders election night rally at the Santa Monica Airport in Santa Monica. Sanders will take the podium at 11 PM. It appears that Hillary Clinton will win a majority of the pledged delegates going into the DNC.

Sanders supporters chanted "Bullshit!" at the board displaying the election results, reluctant to accept that their candidate has gone down in defeat. The big question is whether Hillary can motivate Sanders' young supporters, to come to the polls for him.

The New York Times is reporting that Sander's campaign workers nationwide, have received an e mail saying they will be laid off tomorrow. The Sanders Campaign says half their paid workers, will be laid off.

Though publicly Bernie Sanders remains defiant until today, behind the scenes the campaign has become gloomy, leading to speculation that Sanders will use the Santa Monica election night rally to at last quit contest for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination. Presumably, he will throw his support behind Hillary Clinton in her campaign to defeat Republican Donald Trump and become the first woman in the 240-year history of the United States to become president.

On Saturday at a rally in Los Angeles, Sanders said that he planned to take what he called his "enormous momentum" all the way to the convention in Philadelphia on July 25.

"If we can win, and win big here in California and in the other states, and in Washington D.C., we are going to go into the Democratic convention."

See also:

Republican Ballots apparently not counted in Santa Monica, http://www.smobserved.com/story/2016/06/08/news/become-a-republican-in-santa-monica-and-have-your-vote-demoted/1377.html
Hewlett Packard Enterprise Announces OneView 3.0

LAS VEGAS, NV  (Marketwired)  06/07/16  Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE: HPE) today announced OneView 3.0 to provide software-defined intelligence across HPEs family of infrastructure solutions, including HPE ProLiant, HPE BladeSystem, HPE 3PAR StoreServ, HPE Hyper Converged solutions, and HPE Synergy, the industrys first composable infrastructure.

Today, customers need to simplify day-to-day operations, deploy applications faster and enable IT to quickly take advantage of the latest tools, like Docker, SaltStack and Chef. HPE OneView delivers software-defined intelligence, workload template automation and open integration through a unified API so organizations can provision their infrastructure to improve efficiencies.

The latest enhancements to HPE OneView include:

A new global dashboard, which simplifies IT operations for large scale and globally distributed environments deployments including remote sites. This dashboard gives users an at-a-glance view of their infrastructure no matter where it is located, as well as supports physical, virtual, hyper-converged and composable infrastructures.

Simplified end-to-end management of heterogeneous network switches is realized by marrying the HPE Intelligent Management Center (IMC) with OneView. This transforms manual processes into a rapid, reliable and automated process.

Integration with HPE Helion CloudSystem 10 which provisions individual physical servers or entire virtualization clusters directly from the CloudSystem console. This eliminates the multiple organizational hand-offs required to provision physical infrastructure before cloud services can be defined and deployed.

Organizations need tools that enable them to simplify IT operations, respond to business demands at cloud speed and increase productivity, ultimately freeing up IT resources required to deliver new and innovative services to their customers, said Ric Lewis, senior vice president and general manager, Converged Datacenter Infrastructure at Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Our mission is to make IT simple for customers. Whether they are managing and maintaining infrastructure, running traditional applications or developing new revenue generating services on cloud native applications, HPE OneView is the infrastructure automation engine built to make that all possible.

Asante, a healthcare provider serving more than 580,000 people throughout Southern Oregon and Northern California, is using HPE OneView to help manage their growing infrastructure needs.

HPE OneView is a really slick tool for managing configuration consistency and enforcing compliance across the enterprise, said Michael York, systems engineer Asante. We needed a solution that would scale forward and run Epic across multiple data centers. As a small IT organization, we also wanted to move away from designing and developing the infrastructure ourselves to more of a converged infrastructure thats fully engineered and certified for Epic. HPE delivered on all counts, and more.

Additional HPE OneView 3.0 feature upgrades/news include:

New provisioning for HPE ProLiant DL platforms. Customers can now deploy server infrastructure optimized to specific workloads. New monitoring support for the HPE Apollo series, expanding management coverage across a wider array of infrastructure.

Migration from virtual connect environments to HPE OneView 4X faster and with zero downtime or service disruption.

Growing partner HPE OneView ecosystem with SaltStack, SUSE, Eaton and nLyte, making partner, dev op, cloud and facility management tools more agile and efficient.

HPE OneView 3.0 will be available in Q3.

is an industry leading technology company that enables customers to go further, faster. With the industrys most comprehensive portfolio, spanning the cloud to the data center to workplace applications, our technology and services help customers around the world make IT more efficient, more productive and more secure.

This document contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. If such risks or uncertainties materialize or such assumptions prove incorrect, the results of Hewlett Packard Enterprise could differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including any statements of the plans, strategies and objectives of Hewlett Packard Enterprise for future operations; other statements of expectation or belief; and any statements of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include the possibility that expected benefits may not materialize as expected and other risks that are described in Hewlett Packard Enterprises filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to the risks described in Hewlett Packard Enterprises Registration Statement on Form 10 dated July 1, 2015, as amended. Hewlett Packard Enterprise assumes no obligation and does not intend to update any forward-looking statements.

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Hewlett Packard Enterprise Extends All-Flash Datacenter Capabilities With Leading Density and Data Services

LAS VEGAS, NV  (Marketwired)  06/07/16  Today, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE: HPE) announced new solutions to help customers unlock the value of the all-flash datacenter. Updates to the flash portfolio include the worlds most capacity-dense all-flash system,(1) persistent storage for containers, unified storage enhancements, and flash-integrated .

Data is at the heart of digital disruption; the ability to accelerate how data is stored, analyzed and protected can be an advantage. This is why customers are moving to flash at record speeds and exploring options.

HPEs consistent strategy has been to simplify storage with systems optimized for all-flash, and software-defined storage deployed as a across form factors. Response has been positive, with HPE being the only major vendor to gain share in each of the last two years.(2) In fact, in the most recent quarter HPE was the market share leader in total storage while both Dell and EMC continued to decline.(3) The solutions announced today expand HPEs lead in the all-flash datacenter and assure customers a clear path to whats next.

The era of the storage-only vendor is over and has been replaced by the era of the best-integrated IT stack, said Manish Goel, SVP and GM, Storage, Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Underpinned by flash and software-defined storage, HPE has the unique infrastructure and software innovation required to power hybrid IT across any form factor and consumption model.

All-flash storage has enabled business transformation for a large number of customers and HPEs focus on speed, affordability and enterprise-class data services have led to rapid growth for the 3PAR family of .

To extend this trajectory, HPE announced support for new 7.68 TB and 15.36 TB 3D NAND solid state drives (SSDs) across the 3PAR StoreServ family. With these drives, HPE 3PAR StoreServ is the most dense and scalable all-flash array in the industry, now supporting up to 24 petabytes of usable SSD capacity in a single system(4) and 12x better density than EMC all-flash systems.(5) Over the last 24 months, HPE 3PAR has delivered 16x flash density improvements and 40 percent lower dollar per usable gigabyte.(6) New and existing customers can choose from different SSD drive types and sizes to optimize deployment flexibility.

Support for these large capacity SSDs is enabled by two key technologies: 3PAR Adaptive Sparing, a patented 3PAR technology which assures that any SSDs, regardless of size, can be used without compromise and with 5x the media endurance.(7) 3PAR Express Layout is another enabler that provides concurrent access from the 3PAR storage controllers to the SSDs for higher throughput.

Container technology is a new approach to increase application development and deployment flexibility but as enterprise customers embrace DevOps methodologies it has become clear that highly available, persistent storage is a key requirement in production operations.

To meet these requirements, HPE already provides Docker-OpenStack drivers through collaboration with ClusterHQ as part of the and now has released an official Docker-Integrated Volume Plugin for HPE 3PAR StoreServ Storage. Integrated with Docker Engine, this driver adds the ability to provide persistent storage for containers and enables the use of flash-optimized HPE 3PAR StoreServ arrays as the underlying storage for virtualized or bare-metal container deployments using Docker. With this integration, containerized applications can take advantage of advanced data services data encryption, quality of service, snapshots, replication, and deduplication.

As flash expands across the datacenter, protecting and securing data at speeds not possible with traditional methods has become a critical requirement. (RMC) solves this by directly moving application snapshots from 3PAR flash to secondary protection storage up to 23x faster than traditional .(8) This not only reduces risk, but applying deduplication to the process reduces capacity requirements by 95 percent or more.(9) Today, HPE expanded the HPE RMC application ecosystem to include Oracle Databases, SAP HANA, and 3PAR File Persona. These new applications join existing application-integrated protection for VMware, Microsoft SQL, and any Microsoft VSS-enabled application running as a virtual machine.

One of the industrys most established flash platforms, 3PAR has supported unified file, block, and object access for over 18 months and is now enriching these capabilities with security and archiving capabilities including:

File Lock for 3PAR File Persona which protects data consistency and supports governance by making files immutable, enabling policy-based retention, preventing file deletion and supporting data validation.

NTFS security mode and cross-protocol locking for 3PAR File Persona enhance security for Windows environments and deliver more seamless group file sharing between protocols including SMB and NFS.

HPE StoreEver Archive Manager software which lowers the cost of retaining 3PAR file data to be archived on tape yet enables data to be accessed transparently as if still online.

HPE offers a comprehensive set of technology support and consulting services to help customers navigate their data management and protection journeys. HPE announced from Technology Consulting a new TCO Analysis for all-flash storage quantifying hardware, software, and energy savings and benefits by adopting all-flash. Additional offerings also include HPE Flexible Capacity for instant on-demand resources at a cost per GB allocation and engaging with HPEs technology consulting team for transformation services that include current state advisory, design and integration, data migration and end-to-end protection services.

7.68 TB SSDs available worldwide starting June 6, 2016, with a US street price starting from US$20,748.

15.36 TB SSDs will be orderable and shipping 2H 2016, with a US street price starting from US$40,000.

The Docker-Integrated Volume Plugin for HPE 3PAR StoreServ Storage will be available in June from the HPE Storage GitHub page at .

HPE Recovery Manager Central (RMC) with support for SAP HANA and 3PAR File Persona is currently available worldwide at no additional charge to customers who have an existing RMC license and a valid support contract. Licensing for new customers starts at $1000.

HPE Recovery Manager Central for Oracle (RMC-O) will be available in July for a list price starting at $2500. Customers with an existing 3PAR Recovery Manager for Oracle license and a valid support contract can upgrade at no additional charge.

HPE 3PAR File Persona enhancements will be available in 2H of 2016.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise is an industry leading technology company that enables customers to go further, faster. With the industrys most comprehensive portfolio, spanning the cloud to the data center to workplace applications, our technology and services help customers around the world make IT more efficient, more productive and more secure.

This document contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. If such risks or uncertainties materialize or such assumptions prove incorrect, the results of Hewlett Packard Enterprise could differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including any statements of the plans, strategies and objectives of Hewlett Packard Enterprise for future operations; other statements of expectation or belief; and any statements of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include the possibility that expected benefits may not materialize as expected and other risks that are described in Hewlett Packard Enterprises filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to the risks described in Hewlett Packard Enterprises Registration Statement on Form 10 dated July 1, 2015, as amended. Hewlett Packard Enterprise assumes no obligation and does not intend to update any forward-looking statements.

(1) Based on publicly available information for currently available single-system storage arrays based on currently available usable capacity.

(2) Based on the Q1 2016 IDC WW Quarterly Disk Storage Systems Tracker for External Storage (entry, midrange, and high-end flash; hybrid, and HDD storage systems). Major storage vendor refers to the top 6 vendors as ranked by market share.

(3) Based on the Q1 2016 IDC WW Quarterly Disk Storage Systems Tracker for Total Storage Revenue growth (External, Internal and ODM storage systems). Note HPE is ahead of EMC in revenue, but statistically tied for #1 position.

(4) Maximum capacity supported using 8 TB drives as of 2H2016.

(5) Based on the comparison of a single EMC VMAX 850 system with 24 PB of SSD capacity as compared to the HPE 3PAR 20850 with 24 PB usable SSD capacity (using a 4:1 compaction ration), which is supported as of 2H 2016.

(6) Based on the period between June 2016 and June 2014, density per rack unit improved from 35 TB/U to 563 TB/U and cost per GB decreased from US $2 per GB usable (using 1.92 TB drives and 4:1 compaction) to US $1.20 usable (using 15 TB drives and 4:1 compaction).

(7) Based on internal telemetry data that shows an average burn-out rate for 3PAR SSDs of 0.6% prior to June 2016. The latest Adaptive Sparing enhancements are anticipated to reduce this burn-out rate to 0.2% or lower.

(8) Based on internal HPE testing performed in May 2016 comparing backup performance of HPE Recovery Manager Central with traditional, non-HPE backup software.

(9) As compared to a fully hydrated backup. Subject to customer qualification and compliance with the Get Protected Guarantee Terms and Conditions, which will be provided to you by your HPE Sales or Channel Partner representative.

Editorial contact
Container Solutions to present and exhibit at microservice-focused events this summer

Cloud Native Computing Foundation and other major new sponsors sign on to support Software Circus event with Container Solutions.

LONDON  8th June 2016  Container Solutions, a pan-European company delivering software engineering services and building tools for microservices developers, is taking its message of empowering software developers to a wide audience this summer, exhibiting and speaking at events across Europe and the United States.

The company is a co-organiser of the Software Circus event in Amsterdam, which has secured the support of several major new sponsors, including the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), a Linux Foundation project.

Eight events are on the schedule:

 MesosCon North America, 1st June, Denver, Colorado, U.S.

 HashiConf EU, 13-15th June, Amsterdam

 Goto; Amsterdam, 13-16th June, Amsterdam

 Scala Days, 13-17th June, Berlin

 DockerCon, 19-21st June, Seattle

 MesosCon EU, 3st August  1st September, Amsterdam

 Software Circus, 1-2nd September, Amsterdam

 HashiConf US, September 6-8, Napa, California, U.S.

Frank Scholten, senior software engineer at Container Solutions, presented a session at MesosCon North America titled, minimesos  The Experimentation and Testing Tool for Apache Mesos. The open source minimesos project solves a problem common among developers of container-based applications by allowing them to quickly bring up a containerized Apache Mesos cluster on their laptop, complete with Apache Zookeeper and Weave Scope, for visualisation.

Software Circus Event Gains Major Sponsorship Support

Software Circus, the conference organised by Container Solutions and Implicit-Explicit, welcomes the Cloud Native Computing Foundation as a major, new sponsor of the annual event in Amsterdam.

Software Circus started last year in Amsterdam as a Meetup group with a mission to move away from vendor-dominated Meetups and tackle the social aspects of technology, the bleeding edges and peoples experience. The group grew quickly as Software Circus gained a reputation as a fun and valuable exchange of knowledge.

The 2015 Software Circusorganised in just 10 weeksbrought together prominent influencers like Kelsey Hightower, Ken Owens, Luke Marsden and Adrian Cockcroft, and companies like Cisco, CloudSoft, Mesosphere and Weave. The conference quickly grew to one full day of workshops and two days of sessionsand dancing, robots and drones. Videos of the 2015 event can be found at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmetgWfuYAIX8_byQU2XA6WL6t8mIHxwV

The conference earned a reputation as an antidote to the brush steel and chrome of so many conferences, devoid of product pitches. Software Circus Meetups have spread to Switzerland, Germany, the UK and San Francisco.
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 8

By Anvar Mammadov - Trend:

Armenian armed forces have 15 times violated the ceasefire with Azerbaijan on the line of contact over the past 24 hours, said the message of Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry June 8.

Armenian armed forces stationed in Barekamavan village of Armenia's Noyemberyan district opened fire at the Azerbaijani positions located in Qaymaqli village of the Qazakh district.

Armenian armed forces stationed in the nameless heights of Armenia's Krasnoselsk district opened fire at the Azerbaijani positions located in the nameless heights of the Gadabay district.

Further on, Azerbaijani positions were shelled from the nameless heights in Goranboy and Khojavand districts.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
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Baku, Azerbaijan, June 8

By Elmira Tariverdiyeva - Trend:

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev's visit to Germany was aimed at not just active promoting the economic cooperation issues, in which Azerbaijan has never had any problems.



One of the important results of the visit to Berlin was that President Aliyev at one of the most important political venues in Europe once again highlighted the most important sore points of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, reminded of Yerevan's crimes and made it clear that Baku's position on the conflict settlement remains unchanged.



By the way, there was a striking difference between Azerbaijani and Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan's visit to Germany. Sargsyan went to Germany in early April to complain that Azerbaijan has successfully repelled the attack and liberated part of its own territory from Armenia's occupation forces. He didn't get any support, however. Angela Merkel said that she plans to discuss the issue during President Aliyev's visit in June.



That is, the German chancellor made it clear she isn't going to believe Armenia and is waiting to hear the point of view of the victim country and not the instigator.



President Ilham Aliyev said at the joint press conference with Merkel in Berlin that the resolution of the conflict must be based on implementation of international law norms and UN Security Council resolutions, which demand immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Armenian Armed Forces from the territories of Azerbaijan.



Unfortunately, said the president, the sanctions have not been imposed on Armenia for brutal violation of international law, policy of ethnic cleansing and occupation of almost 20 percent of a sovereign state's territory.



Recent development in the region shows that in the land of conflict the ceasefire is not stable, it is fragile, and the status quo is not acceptable, said Ilham Aliyev.



This became the key and the most important message for Europe - following the April counter-offensive by Azerbaijani troops in response to the Armenian aggression, no one can vouch for the stability in this region crucial for the world in general and the EU in particular.



In this context, the countries interested in the region (of course, Germany is one of them) must do everything to force Armenia to peace. And the sanctions against Armenia's occupational regime - is not the last of arguments for the compulsion.



In general, recently, there is a clear feeling that Germany will take some steps in parallel with other mediators' steps to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. At the joint press conference with Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev, Merkel said that Russia, of course, plays decisive role in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.



"We will use our contacts to support the Russian government, as the American, the French, as the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group to resolve the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh," she added.



Since the beginning of the military escalation in the region in April 2016, Berlin was offering its options for settlement, and now the country says that as the chairman of the OSCE, it is ready to use a variety of mechanisms for the establishment of confidence-building measures between the parties of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. From this point of view, Azerbaijan is in the most advantageous position, considering the current prospects of the development of relations with Germany.

---

Elmira Tariverdiyeva is the head of Trend Agency's Russian news service
JUNE 8, 2016

Synthetic dog for veterinary students to save thousands of animal

TAMPA, Fla.  A Tampa biotechnology company has unveiled their latest creation, a new skinless breed of dog, which will result in thousands of animals being saved as it is distributed.SynDaver Labs, the worlds leading manufacturer of synthetic humans, unveiled the SynDaver Synthetic Canine and launched a $24 million crowdfunding campaign. The campaign will begin to end a process known as terminal surgery labs. The product will immediately end the need for terminal surgery labs in veterinary medical schools and represents the beginning of the end of animal testing in general.The SynDaver Synthetic Canine is not only a skinless dog, but rather an extremely detailed and realistic surgical trainer. It will provide veterinary students with an anatomically accurate and realistic platform to practice surgical procedures. Similar to the SynDaver Synthetic Human, the canine utilizes SynDavers patented SynTissue, which mimics living tissue, includes a full list of functioning bodily systems, and has the capability to simulate customized diseases, illnesses and medical complications. The synthetic dog even has a heart with a heartbeat, a circulatory system, and bleeds when surgical cuts are made.In addition to launching the SynDaver Synthetic Canine, the company also announced the launch of one of the most ambitious crowdfunding campaigns in history. SynDaver hopes to raise $24 million through their campaign page on Indiegogo.com. If the company is successful with the campaign, SynDaver will provide up to 20 synthetic canines to each accredited veterinary college around the world, completely free of charge.By providing each veterinary college with a full complement of their new synthetic canines at no cost, SynDaver will effectively eliminate the practice of terminal surgery labs. In veterinary medicine, terminal surgery labs involve teaching students how to perform certain surgeries on live, anesthetized shelter animals, and then euthanizing the animal immediately following the procedure. The SynDaver Synthetic Canine will also eliminate the need for canine cadavers, which are also typically euthanized animals from shelters.While these kinds of labs are not as widely used as they once were, many veterinary colleges across the U.S. and around the globe still rely on terminal procedures to educate students.If we launched this product organically, it might take us a decade to put canine cadavers into every veterinary college and many more animals would die needlessly as a result, said Dr. Christopher Sakezles, chief technology officer and founder of SynDaver Labs. With the help of the crowdfunding campaign, we can do this practically overnight, and start to put an end to terminal labs for good.According to experts, this technology will save thousands of lives and revolutionize veterinary medicine education.The SynDaver Synthetic Canine is similar to their human products. The canine models are anatomically accurate, with fat, fascia planes, all bones, muscles, ligaments, fully articulating joints, and each of the bodily systems. The product has been acclaimed by experts in the veterinary industry and has even garnered the support of Dr. Michael Blackwell, a member of the board of directors of the Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association.A significant number of students do not care to be involved in terminal surgery procedures or the use of live animals when there is an alternative, said Blackwell. I am so happy to have this change because that is where we need to be today.SynDaver has been working closely with the University of Florida, College of Veterinary Medicine throughout the development of the SynDaver Synthetic Canine to create the most lifelike and realistic synthetic canine possible.If SynDaver exceeds their $24 million crowdfunding goal, the company plans to begin working on the SynDaver Synthetic Feline next. There are also plans to develop synthetic horses and cows.To learn more about ending terminal surgery labs, visit www.endterminallabs.com Pet Talk is a service of the College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M University. Stories can be viewed on the Web at vetmed.tamu.edu/pet-talk . Suggestions for future topics may be directed to editor@cvm.tamu.edu
June 8, 2016

Barry M. Goldwater Range to be recognized as 2016 Military Conservation Partner Award winner





The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) recognizes the Barry M. Goldwater Range as this years recipient of the prestigious Military Conservation Partner Award during a ceremony planned on June 9 at Luke Air Force Base, AZ.



The Military Conservation Partner Award is a national award presented annually to a military installation whose efforts represent significant conservation accomplishments achieved in partnership with the Service and other conservation agencies.



The award was created by the Service to recognize military installations that have made significant natural resource conservation achievements through cooperative work with the Service, state and local government, and other organizations. Such achievements may include the conservation, protection, and restoration of important habitat for a variety of species  including endangered and native species  on military lands.



The 1.7 million-acre Barry M. Goldwater Range is nationally significant as a major component of the largest remaining tract of relatively unfragmented Sonoran Desert in the United States. The land is managed cooperatively by the 56th Fighter Wing Range Management Office at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, and the Yuma Range Management Department at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Arizona.



We value our many partnerships with the military and appreciate the role military lands play in conserving fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats across the United States, said Service Director Dan Ashe. By supporting threatened and endangered species recovery and building the scientific foundation for future conservation efforts, the 56th Fighter Wing and the Marine Corps Air Station Yuma are leading the way for proactive conservation efforts on military lands.



The Barry M. Goldwater Range (BMGR) and the Service have a long-standing cooperative conservation relationship that supports one of the largest single landowner segments (about 1.5 million acres) of Sonoran Desert in the United States. This unique eco-region has the highest diversity of native plants of any desert in the world, includes over 2,500 pollinator species, as well as over 600 native fish and wildlife species, including over two thirds of all migratory birds species that occur in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada. There are roughly 300-400 native plants and 320 wildlife species on the BMGR, including three federally-listed species (Sonoran pronghorn, lesser long-nosed bat, and the acuna cactus) and approximately 90 at-risk (state protected) wildlife species.



The Services Southwest Regional Director, Dr. Benjamin Tuggle, is honored to present the award to the recipient, Im always humbled when I visit our partner military organizations and see the dedication they bring not only to the protection of our country but also to the protection of natural resources, Tuggle asserts. Its a privilege to partner with the Armed Forces to balance stewardship and natural resource conservation on military lands with the military mission. Military forces  our Airman and the Marines - in Arizona have made such a huge difference in ensuring that our precious wildlife resources will endure not just for us to enjoy, but for future generations of Americans to appreciate.



For over 45 years, since the passing of the Sikes Act, the Service has worked in cooperation with the military to conserve fish and wildlife resources found on the 30 million acres of land owned and managed by the Department of Defense. These lands are valuable for maintaining survival and diversity of many important species. In recent years, natural resource management on installations has attained even greater significance with the Department of Defense, Congress, and the public leading to the creation of integrated natural resource management projects under the Sikes Act. In response, many military installations have accomplished exceptional conservation work using partnerships with agencies.
June 8, 2016

Successful operation leads to arrest of two scouts, one who assaulted agent





A recent operation conducted outside of Casa Grande, Arizona, resulted in the arrest of two scouts, one of whom assaulted a Tucson Sector agent.



The Casa Grande Station Mountain Team is well versed in the interdiction of criminal scouts. The accomplished team, whose agents emphasize rapid response capabilities in remote and rugged terrain, are very successful in their operations. This Memorial Day Weekend was no different.



Sunday morning just before 5:30 AM, the team launched a scout operation which targeted an observation post in the Sawtooth Mountain Range outside of Casa Grande, Arizona. As agents carried out their detailed plan, they were well aware of the dangers these scouts pose to law enforcement agents. Scouts, who are hired by criminal organizations to provide guidance to human and narcotic smugglers have already assaulted two agents in the past two months.



Sunday morning was the third. As agents approached the observation post, one subject assaulted a member of the team in an attempt to flee the rocky mountainside. However, after a brief struggle and the deployment of pepper spray, agents were able to gain control of the subject and take him into custody. Identified as a national of Mexico, the subject was charged with assault on a federal agent as well as attempt and conspiracy, a common charge for identified scouts.



A second subject, also a national of Mexico, was arrested and is facing charges for attempt and conspiracy. Additionally, he has an active felony warrant for homicide in Mexico. Also recovered at the observation post was four solar panels, two binoculars, eight cell phones, two radios, and two radio chargers.

In Fiscal Year 2015, Tucson Sector agents had 87 assaults which accounted for over 20 percent of the assaults on Border Patrol agents nationwide.



Customs and Border Protection welcomes assistance from the community. Citizens can report suspicious activity to the Border Patrol and remain anonymous by calling 1-877-872-7435 toll free.



Nogales CBP Officers seize $2.2M in marijuana





U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at the Mariposa Commercial Facility in Nogales, Arizona, seized $2.2 million in marijuana weighing approximately 4,400 pounds from a tractor-trailer.



Officers discovered the drugs co-mingled within a shipment identified as palletized wooden furniture after an alert by a CBP narcotics detection canine. The tractor-trailer was driven by 25-year-old Mexican national male who was arrested.



Officers seized the tractor-trailer and shipment, and referred the driver to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements Homeland Security Investigations.



Federal law allows officers to charge individuals by complaint, a method that allows the filing of charges for criminal activity without inferring guilt. An individual is presumed innocent unless and until competent evidence is presented to a jury that establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.



CBP's Office of Field Operations is the primary organization within Homeland Security tasked with an anti-terrorism mission at our nations ports. CBP officers screen all people, vehicles and goods entering the United States while facilitating the flow of legitimate trade and travel. Their mission also includes carrying out border-related duties, including narcotics interdiction, enforcing immigration and trade laws, and protecting the nation's food supply and agriculture industry from pests and diseases.



CBP Officers Seize Meth at Port of San Luis





U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at the Port of San Luis arrested a U.S. Citizen attempting to smuggle $156,000 in methamphetamine on June 2. Officers removed and seized more than 52 pounds of the drug from the rocker panels of a Ford sedan driven by the 47-year-old male after a CBP narcotics detection canine alerted to the vehicle. In addition officers seized the drugs and vehicle, while the subject was arrested and turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements Homeland Security Investigations.



Federal law allows officers to charge individuals by complaint, a method that allows the filing of charges for criminal activity without inferring guilt. An individual is presumed innocent unless and until competent evidence is presented to a jury that establishes guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.



CBP's Office of Field Operations is the primary organization within Homeland Security tasked with an anti-terrorism mission at our nations ports. CBP officers screen all people, vehicles and goods entering the United States while facilitating the flow of legitimate trade and travel. Their mission also includes carrying out border-related duties, including narcotics interdiction, enforcing immigration and trade laws, and protecting the nation's food supply and agriculture industry from pests and diseases.



Border Patrol agents seize drugs, guns and counterfeit money







Entering the Memorial Day weekend, Border Patrol agents made significant seizures in three separate events. Thursday, May 26, Blythe Station agents encountered two U.S. citizens, both males, at a gas station in Ehrenberg. During the encounter, agents smelled a strong odor of marijuana coming from the vehicle. The two were arrested after a search of the vehicle yielded three pounds of marijuana, valued at an estimated $1,520, two hand guns, and 23 counterfeit $100- bills. Friday, May 27, agents arrested Ramiro Bello-Juanito, a Mexican national illegally present in the U.S. Records checks revealed an active warrant for Bello by the Arizona Department of Corrections. Bello will now be incarcerated for the remaining year of his sentence. Also on Friday, a vehicle attempting to pass through the Highway 95 immigration checkpoint was referred to a secondary inspection because a K9 alerted to the vehicle. Further inspection revealed both occupants of the vehicle were hiding nearly 13 pounds of cocaine in their waistbands. The drugs were valued at an estimated $143,487. One of the subjects also had a glass pipe with methamphetamine residue hidden in his sock. Both were lawful permanent residents. All persons, drugs, contraband and vehicles will be processed per Yuma Sector guidelines. Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents effectively combat smuggling organizations attempting to illegally transport people and contraband through southwestern Arizona and California. Citizens can help the Border Patrol and U.S. Customs and Border Protection by calling 1-866-999-8727 toll-free to report suspicious activity. Callers can remain anonymous.
By Linda Bentley | June 8, 2016

Villafanes sand sculpture receives global recognition

Carefree raises nonresidential building heights to 30 feet

CAREFREE  Following the Carefree Water Board meeting, council held its fifth and final budget hearing where it unanimously adopted the 2016/2017 Fiscal Year Budget.



Councilwoman Melissa Price questioned why the budget for Code Enforcement was less than the actual for the current year.



Town Administrator Gary Neiss said there was a reduction in salary due to no trade-in for vacation pay.



Jim Van Allen



During Call to the Public, Jim Van Allen stated he was never a fan of the splash pad. However, after going there with his grandchildren and talking to people there with their children and grandchildren, he confessed that it was good investment.



Councilman Gene Orrico said he appreciated Van Allens comments.



Councilman Mike Farrar said he felt the same way when the splash pad started out as $300,000.



He said it then became $100,000 and thanked Kiwanis for funding the project.



During Current Events, council asked if the town had received feedback about Ray Villafanes latest art project, a sand sculpture at the Sanderson Lincoln Pavilion of an elephant playing chess with a mouse.



Known for his whimsical pumpkin carvings, artist Ray Villafanes newest, must-see sand sculpture at the Sanderson Lincoln Pavilion in Carefree is a global hit.



Gina Kaegi



Marketing Director Gina Kaegi said it took Villafane 13 days and it was done.



Kaegi said Villafane is so good at what he does and draws people to his creations.



She said the piece itself has received global recognition, the feedback has been very, very positive and it identifies Carefree with something very unique and beautiful.



Kaegi stated, Unfortunately, a lot of businesses are not open.



Because the sculpture is so popular, Kaegi said people dont want to get rid of it so theyre thinking of possible ways to immortalize it, maybe bronzing parts of it or miniaturizing it for a display.



Katie Smetana



Desert Foothills YMCA Executive Director Katie Smetana made a presentation to council about activities at the Y.



Smetana said there are over 2,600 membership units with over 9,200 members, 520 of which have Carefree P.O. Box addresses.



She said the Y receives 1,000 visits per day and stated, Were so much more than just a swim and gym.



Although she said she wasnt there to ask the town for a donation, Smetana played a short video that was a reach out to the community for donations.



The videos narrative stated people assume their membership dues covers the cost of operations but said they need donations to keep going.



Smetana said, as of 2016, the Y has a new CEO and leadership team.



The programs offered included free and reduced swim lessons for children and adults, reducing chronic obesity, initiating volunteerism, yoga and field trips, along with youth and family activities.



In welcoming a continued partnership with Carefree, Smetana said they now have a nutritionist on board that can work with local restaurants to help with creating more healthy food choices.



Neiss told council now that the bike lane project was nearing completion they contacted Desert Foothills Landscape, which currently maintains the towns medians, about landscaping the medians.



He said Desert Foothills Landscape specializes in medians.



Neiss said there are two factors they need to consider when landscaping the medians, the first being no irrigation, which he said limits the plant palette.



The second is sight line limitations.



Neiss said the plan would incorporate boulders, mounding and succulents and would be coordinated with the gateways landscaping.



He asked council to approve a contract with Desert Foothills Landscape in the amount of $99,707 with a 25 percent down payment from this years budget with the balance due upon completion under next years budget.



Neiss said Aaron Clark, the new owner of Desert Foothills Landscape, wants to give back to the community and the value of the landscaping work he will provide is far higher.



Neiss stated residents have indicated they want to see desert plants in the medians rather than Disney in the desert.



During public comment, Van Allen stated theyve been talking about Carefree as a village for the past three years and said, To me, a village feel is trees and green.



Van Allen said what Clark has done is what he was asked to do and noted there was not a single tree in the entire program.



He asked council to delay the vote until July.



Councilman Glenn Miller suggested Van Allen sit down with Neiss, whom Miller said studied landscape architecture, to provide his input.



Van Allen asked council if it would agree to delay its vote.



Mayor Les Peterson responded, Im not of the mind to.



Council voted unanimously to approve the contract with the 25 percent down payment to be expended from the current budget.



Council voted unanimously to approve text amendments to the zoning ordinance to increase building heights for nonresidential construction from 24 feet to 30 feet and how heights are measured from design grade.



Planner Stacey Bridge-Dunzak said the height would be measured from design grade, defined as the lowest finished floor elevation, to the highest point of the roof or parapet.



Bridge-Dunzak said commercial building heights used to be 30 feet and commercial developers have said 24 feet is very restrictive.



Because the text amendments have gone through the public process and the planning and zoning commission, Bridge-Dunzak said there would be no second reading.



Council heard the first reading of an ordinance to amend the town code to prohibit bicycle riding or human-propelled vehicles from walls and other areas within the town center.



Neiss said they amended the town code a few years back to prohibit skateboards but now theyve had problems with BMX bikes.



During public comment, Van Allen asked who was going to police it and said he couldnt find anything in the town code addressing penalties for violations.



Neiss said the towns code enforcement officer and MCSO would enforce the ordinance and stated the penalty can be found under section 7-5.



The town voted unanimously to enter into a contract for professional services in an amount not to exceed $25,000 to assist the town with Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) compliance under the federal Clean Water Act.



Price updated the town on the gateways and said the stonework should begin next week and the lighting and signs should be started in mid-July.



Councilman Bob Gearhart said hes had the opportunity to ride his bicycle on the new bike lanes on Tom Darlington, exclaiming, What a difference!



Council asked if there was an update on Ed Lewis Easy Street project.



Neiss said plans were currently under review and Lewis was working on the public report for the Arizona Department of Real Estate.



Price said Lewis plans to break ground in July.


Baku, Azerbaijan, June 8

Trend:

The OSCE monitoring held June 8 along the contact line between the Azerbaijani and Armenian troops has passed without incidents, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry told Trend June 8.

The monitoring was held under the mandate of the OSCE chairperson-in-office personal representative on the contact line to the east of the Kuropatkino village of Azerbaijan's Khojavand district, the ministry said.

On the Azerbaijani side, the monitoring was carried out by the field assistant of the OSCE chairperson-in-office personal representative Hristo Hristov and Peter Svedberg.

On the territories occupied and controlled by Armenian armed forces, the monitoring was carried out by the field assistants of the OSCE chairperson-in-office personal representative Simon Tiller and Jiri Aberle.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently holding peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented the UN Security Council's four resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.
Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the B.C. man accused of running a terror camp near Mission city, is urging Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to dispel Indian government's allegations against him.

He says the allegations read like a bad plot for a Bollywood movie and claims that he is being targeted for his campaign for rights of the Sikhs and human rights violations, also in India.

Local mainstream media picked up a Times of India story, which cited a report by Punjab intelligence identifying Hardeep Nijjar as the operational head of (the) Khalistan Terror Force (KTF).

According to the report, Nijjar, is wanted in India in connection with a blast at a cinema in Ludhiana in the Punjab province, where six people died in 2007. The report alleges Nijjar has been training at least four Sikh youths on how to use AK-47s for the purpose of carrying out attacks in India.

The Times said India intelligence agencies have alerted Canadian authorities to the alleged camp, and have already submitted an application seeking Nijjars extradition.

This isnt the first time India authorities have requested Canada track Nijjar. In 2015, India police requested RCMP track his whereabouts after he was suspected of a plot to transport ammunition by paraglider over the Pakistan-India border.

Nijjar said while he does not hide his political ideology but that "my Sikh nationalist activities are peaceful, democratic and protected under the Canadian charter of Rights and Freedom."

He goes on to say, "In an earlier attempt to label me as a 'terrorist', the Indian government accused me of transporting ammunition through 'paragliding' which is absolutely preposterous on the face and is more like a bad Bollywood movie plot."

We reproduce below his letter to the Prime Minister Justin Trudeau below;

Honorable Prime Minister:

My name is Hardeep Singh Nijjar. I am a Citizen of Canada, who has lived in this great country since 1997, I operate a small plumbing business to support my two children, wife and parents.

I am a Sikh nationalist who believes in and supports Sikhs' right to self-determination and independence of Indian occupied Punjab through a future referendum.

I have never believed in, supported or been involved in any violent activity.

For the past several years I have been actively highlighting the human rights violations committed against Sikhs in India, Some of my activities include the campaign to recognize 1984 anti-Sikh violence as genocide; raising awareness about torture and extra judicial killing of Sikhs by Indian security forces; and, as noted above, advocacy for Sikhs' right to self-determination of Indian occupied Punjab.

Because of my campaign for Sikh rights, its my belief that I have become a target of an Indian government media campaign to label my human rights campaign as "terrorist activities."

The Indian government, in its most recent attempt, has accused me of running a "terrorist camp" from Mission, B.C. The media reports originating in India have now been picked up media outlets in Canada also alleging that I was involved in giving arms training to Sikh youths. The photo running in most media reports has been doctored to include a weapon.

In an earlier attempt to label me as a "terrorist," the Indian government accused me of transporting ammunition through "paragliding" which is absolutely preposterous on the face and is more like a bad Bollywood movie plot.

India has blatantly abused its governmental authority to place my name on Interpol's wanted list, even though I have never been investigated, charged or convicted of any crime.

The Indian government's allegations against me of promoting terrorism are factually baseless and fabricated.

Mr. Prime Minister, I want to bring it to your attention that the Indian government's campaign to label me as a "terrorist" started when I actively participated in a campaign to collect signatures on a complaint to the UNs Human Rights Council for investigation and recognition of 1984 anti-Sikh violence as Genocide.

Between 2012 and 2013, I collected more than 20,000 signatures in B.C. by setting up weekly camps at Sikh Gurdwaras across the province.

On November 1, 2013, I was in Geneva to submit the complaint to the UNHRC against the Government of India for organizing the November 1984 anti-Sikh violence in which thousands of Sikhs were killed after the assassination of Indira Gandhi.

In June 2014, I participated in an event organized at UN Headquarters in New York in which a memorandum was submitted to Secretary General requesting to hold Punjab Independence Referendum.

In September 2014, during the Obama-Modi Summit, I campaigned in my community to attend a major rally at the White House in Washington D.C. where a "Citizens Court" held a mock trial and indicted the Indian PM for his role in 2002 Gujarat massacre.

In retaliation to my campaign for Sikh rights, my family members living and visiting Punjab have been a target of police harassment. In April 2015, Indian police illegally detained my father who is a resident of Canada and my brother who is a Citizen of the U.K. During their detention the police warned them: If Nijjar does not stop his anti-India campaign, we will implicate him in criminal cases and confiscate all the landed property of your family in India.

India's attempt to malign the nationalist movement is not limited to labeling Sikh activists as terrorists, but also includes putting pressure on foreign governments to curb the lawful and democratic activities of Sikhs in their home countries. In November 2012, the then Prime Minister Harper took a bold and principled stand that our country cannot interfere with the right of political freedom of expression in response to India's demand to curb pro-Khalistan activities in Canada.

Prime Minister Trudeau, my Sikh nationalist activities are peaceful, democratic and protected under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

I urge your administration to dispel the Indian government's fabricated, baseless, fictitious and politically motivated allegations against me, which are being used to label me as a "terrorist" and smear the Sikh nationalist campaign in Canada.

Truly yours

Hardeep Singh Nijjar
Photo caption: Do they know what they are reading? (Rueters/Anindito Mukherjee)

By Madhura Karnik,

Special to The Post

Humanities student Ruby Rai scored a commendable 444 marks out of 500a 90% scoretopping this years Class 12 exams conducted by the education board of the northern Indian state of Bihar.

As it usually happens with such academic toppers, the media promptly arrived at her residence in Bihars Hajipur district last week.

When a suspicious television journalist asked Rai about her subjects, she listed them out: English, geography, music, and prodigal science (political science). The reporter probed further, asking her what was taught under this prodigal science. After a brief, embarrassed silence, Rai answered: Cooking!

She really had no clue.

Another Bihar prodigy, Saurabh Shresth incorrectly told reporters that aluminium is the most reactive element in Mendeleevs able. Shresth, with an astounding 97% score, topped the science stream in this years Class 12 exams.

The incident highlights a situation in Asias third-largest economy that is far more grim than what the comical interviews depict.

According to data for 2013, over 230 million children are enrolled in schools across India, and the country churns out 600,000 engineers,50,000 doctors, and over 300,000 MBAs every year.

India has been trying hard to make access to education easy for all. It has partially achieved thisenrollment rates at primary schools are at over 98%. However, it is yet to address a bigger concern: quality of education, and its corollary, employability of its youth.

The priority for the Indian government has only been enrollment. The quality of education isnt a priority at all. When learning outcomes are extremely poor and students cant be employed, dropping out from the education system is the only option for many, said Medha Uniyal, head, program development at the vocational training arm of Pratham, a Mumbai-based education-focused NGO.

Fuelling the economy

Under prime minister Narendra Modis highly-publicised Make in India initiative, the government has sought to showcase what India has to offer to global manufacturers. Modi himself has often met up with top business executives, inviting them to set shop in the country. But what about the massive amount of skilled manpower that such manufacturing setups would require?

For a country that supposedly is the worlds fastest-growing major economy, manpower can be the make or break factor. If it doesnt have the requisite skilled human resource, growth cannot be sustained.

By 2050, India will have more than a billion people of working agethe highest in Asia-Pacific. And if these young Indians looking for jobs arent even fit for one, then there may be a lot to be worried about.

What matters for both growth as well as employability are not years of education as much as the quality of education represented by learning outcomes and skills, said Karthik Muralidharan, an associate professor of economics at the University of California, San Diego, in one of his research papers.

Why skill is important

And skill is, indeed, Indias Achilles heel.

Research has shown that cognitive skillsthose that the brain uses to think, learn, read, and reasonplay an important role in the economic advancement of a country, especially for developing economies.

In India, the lacuna in this area becomes manifest right from primary education. Sample this: 13.5% of Indian students (5-16 years) enrolled in school cant ready anything. Some 46% cant read text meant for Class 2 students. Besides, some 43% of Class 8 students could not solvea simple division problem.

The problems dont end at school-level education either.

An April 2016 study by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India, found that only 7% of B-school grads were worth a job.

Engineering grads arent any different. About 600,000 engineers graduate in India every year. Of that, only 18.5% are employable, a study said in 2014 .

Heres what the study by Aspiring Minds said:

On an average, 60% candidates lose out because of not having requisite domain skills, something they should learn in college. There is a general argument that this is because of outdated courses. This is a misnomer since the basic concepts in most of these fields have remained same over years and industry can quickly train candidates to emerging technologies if their basic concepts are clear. Industry has no further expectation from the candidate than a clear understanding of the fundamentals of the topic. Unfortunately, most students do not know the same, which is very much a part of their curriculum. Indian education traditionally has focused on theory and grades. It is often criticised for its undue emphasis on rote learning, devoid of healthy classroom discussions and debates, let alone applied knowledge. Most often, the teachers themselves lack such practical understanding of their subjects.

This brings us to an important factor: quality of teachers and teaching.

Quality of teaching

Teachers and professors in India are often under pressure to merely complete the syllabi, leaving time for little else. If anything, teachers often dont even show up for work.

In 2004, a group of economists from Harvard University and the World Bank studied 3,700 schools across 20 Indian states and found that 25% teachers were absent on the day of the inspection at government-run primary schools. About 86% of schools in India are government-funded.

The student-to-teacher ratio in India in 2013-14 was at 28:1 for primary schools and 34:1 for upper-secondary schools. In the US this ratio is 14.42:1.

A World Bank report released in 2014 says: Hiring more teachers per student or, equivalently, reducing class size is believed to improve learning outcomes in two ways: smaller classes may allow teachers to give each student more individual attention and smaller classes can reduce the probability of disruptive students inhibiting learning.

With crucial elementsgood teachers, updated curriculum, skill developmentmissing, education in India has ended up more as a rite of passage than an enabling process. Passing successive levels is merely a matter of certificates and grades acquired by any meansfair or otherwise.

In fact, cheating is so rampant in states such as Bihar that parents, friends, and other relatives often go out of their way to help candidatesin the process, sometimes even with the teachers consent.

Skill and employability are nowhere in the picture.

Everybodys concern

It is perhaps to address these issues that the Modi government unveiled a massive Skill India program in July 2015, which plans to spend Rs5,000 crore ($746 million) every year up to 2022 to provide vocational training to some 400 million young people.

The approach, though, isnt very efficient, as Quartz has reported earlier, because many students who are placed after vocational training do not join the job, or soon return to their villages after a couple of months of working.

if (the situation is) not reversed quickly, we will land ourselves in a scenario of having a large number of people with degrees but not enough manpower with proficiency to meet the emerging requirement of our industrial and other sectors, Indian president Pranab Mukherjee said in January.

For India to then continue scaling new heights of economic development, a surgical intervention in its primary and higher education systems is an imperative. And it should begin soon. Very soon.

This piece was originally appeared in Quartz (qz.com)

See http://qz.com/698557/indian-students-are-not-as-poorly-educated-as-you-think-theyre-even-worse/
Insider: How Colts will try to help Sam Ehlinger in first NFL start
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 8

Trend:

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has met with Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany Angela Merkel in Berlin.



Chancellor Angela Merkel stressed the importance of visits of President Ilham Aliyev to Germany and her meetings with the head of state at various events in terms of strengthening the bilateral ties. The Chancellor said Azerbaijan had a significant geographical position. Touching upon the global economic crisis and sharp fall in oil prices, Chancellor Angela Merkel said the German government applauded the economic reforms carried out by the government of Azerbaijan in order to overcome this crisis and its measures to improve the living standard of people.



President Ilham Aliyev spoke about the economic measures implemented in Azerbaijan and said serious steps were taken to reduce the dependence of economy on oil, develop the non-oil sector, diversify economy, and increase economic opportunities.



The head of state touched upon the work done to reduce poverty and improve people`s well-being. President Ilham Aliyev underscored the significance of the Azerbaijani-German Economic Forum held as part of his visit to Berlin, saying this event contributed to expanding economic cooperation between the two countries.



Azerbaijan's role in ensuring the energy security of Europe was emphasized during the meeting. The contribution of the Southern Gas Corridor to the regional cooperation as well as to the expansion of the Azerbaijani-EU economic cooperation was stressed. The positive steps taken by the Azerbaijani government to ensure human rights and develop democratization process in the country were highlighted.



They broadly discussed the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. President Ilham Aliyev highlighted the recent events and current situation on the line of contact, and also spoke of the current state and prospects of the negotiations to settle the dispute. They exchanged views over Germany`s role as the OSCE chair in the settlement of the conflict within the Minsk Group.
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 8

Trend:

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has received heads of diplomatic missions and international organizations of Muslim countries in Azerbaijan on the occasion of the holy month of Ramadan.

President Aliyev made a speech at the meeting.

Expressing their gratitude to the Azerbaijani president, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Morocco Hassan Hami, on behalf of the heads of diplomatic missions and international organizations of Muslim countries, extended his best wishes to the people of Azerbaijan on the occasion of the advent of the holy month of Ramadan and forthcoming Eid al-Fitr, and congratulations on the 25th anniversary of the restoration of Azerbaijan`s independence.

Highlighting Azerbaijan's achievements, the ambassador underlined that these accomplishments were highly praised in the Muslim world.

He reaffirmed the Organization of Islamic Cooperation member countries' support for Azerbaijan's territorial integrity and sovereignty, saying he wanted the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to be solved through negotiations within the framework of Azerbaijan's territorial integrity and sovereignty in full compliance with the UN Security Council resolutions.
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Baku, Azerbaijan, June 8

Trend:

Only Armenia and Azerbaijan are the parties to the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Hikmat Hajiyev, spokesman for Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry, told Trend June 8.

He was commenting on statements by officials of some countries to attract illegal regime established in Azerbaijan's occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region to the negotiating process.

"As noted in the OSCE documents, Azerbaijani and Armenian communities of the Nagorno-Karabakh region are the interested parties in the conflict," said Hajiyev, adding that they have equal rights.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
Blue Origin's New Shepard suborbital vehicle lifting off on a Jan. 22 test flight. The vehicle is now able to fly research payloads through NASA's Flight Opportunities program.

BROOMFIELD, Colo.  NASA announced June 2 that it has awarded a contract to Blue Origin to perform suborbital research flights as part of the agency's Flight Opportunities program.

Under the indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract, Blue Origin will be eligible to fly research payloads on its New Shepard suborbital vehicle. The contract has a maximum value of $45 million, although the actual value depends on the number of task orders for research flights awarded by NASA.

Blue Origin, which has identified research payloads as one of the key markets for New Shepard, has already been working to attract customers on its own, signing up several "pathfinder" customers who will fly payloads on early test flights. Joining Flight Opportunities, company officials said, opens up another way for those customers to fly on the vehicle. [Photos: Glimpses of Secretive Blue Origin's Private Spaceships]

Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos leads Blue Origin, a commercial aerospace firm that hopes to send people on suborbital and orbital space trips. See how Blue Origin's New Shepard spacecraft works here (Image credit: by Karl Tate, Infographics Artist)

Under Flight Opportunities, individual researchers interested in flying on New Shepard can work directly with the company to submit a proposal for NASA to have that flight funded. Steve Jurczyk, NASA associate administrator for space technology, said at the conference that the program would separately broker flights for payloads developed or sponsored by NASA.

"We're really excited to have them on board and have this capability along with the other flight service providers," Jurczyk said in a speech at the conference announcing the Blue Origin contract.

In the near-term, Alexander said Flight Opportunities payloads would likely be included on the company's ongoing series of test flights of the vehicle. Those flights go to altitudes of 100 kilometers and provide three to four minutes of microgravity. Once in commercial service, Blue Origin expects to do dedicated research flights of New Shepard separate from flights carrying space tourists.

Blue Origin's most recent New Shepard test flight took place April 2. Alexander, speaking at the conference earlier in the day, said the next test flight of the vehicle would come "in the next short while," but declined to provide a more specific date. That upcoming test, he said, would differ from previous ones with a "more aggressive" tilt of the vehicle towards its landing pad, as well as disabling one of the three parachutes used to land the vehicle's crew capsule.

Blue Origin is the sixth company to join the Flight Opportunities program, which has its origins in an initiative called the Commercial Reusable Suborbital Research Program, or CRuSR, announced at the NSRC in 2010. Three other companies  Masten Space Systems, UP Aerospace and Virgin Galactic  provide or plan to provide suborbital flights using rocket-powered vehicles. Near Space Corporation and World View Enterprises fly payloads on high-altitude balloons.

Despite a suborbital vehicle industry that has developed far more slowly than anticipated when the program began, NASA believes Flight Opportunities has been useful in supporting both researchers and vehicle providers. Jurczyk said the program has supported 46 flights of 172 different payloads to date. "Flight Opportunities, I think, has been a real success," he said.

While Blue Origin has plans to allow researchers to accompany their payloads on New Shepard flights, the Flight Opportunities program, for now, does not support the flights of human-tended payloads on suborbital vehicles. Then-NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver, speaking at the NSRC in 2013, said the program would allow funding of human-tended payloads in the future.

However, NASA has not followed through on that announcement. "To be honest with you, I do not have a strategy for how to move human-tended suborbital spaceflight forward," Jurczyk said. "However, I would welcome engagement with industry on both what's needed to move that forward, and what applications for NASA and commercial can be accomplished with that capability."

This story was provided by SpaceNews, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry.
The European Space Agency has teamed up with design schools across Europe for Couture in Orbit, a project that envisions new fashion concepts inspired by space exploration.

Fashion and spaceflight meet in a new generation of clothing created as part of a collaboration between the European Space Agency (ESA) and five European fashion schools.

Five European astronauts will travel or have traveled to the International Space Station between 2014 and 2016. The challenge for the schools taking part in the collaboration is to come up with practical fashions to reflect each astronaut's journey. The clothing designs will incorporate elements useful to space travel, such as embedded sensors and absorbent textiles.

The project is called "Couture in Orbit" ("couture" is French for "sewing"), and every design must follow one of five assigned themes: technology, environment, innovation, health or sport. You can see more of the wild space-inspired fashion ideas here in our full gallery.

Ravensbourne Department of Fashion, in the United Kingdom, prepared these designs for the "Couture in Orbit" project. (Image credit: ESA/G. Porter)

"The schools are taking inspiration for their designs from the mission experiences of ESA astronauts from their own country," ESA officials said in a statement.

"Whenever possible, they have talked directly with their national ESA astronaut to learn more about topics such as Earth observation, climate monitoring, health and nutrition  as well as details of everyday life in the void beyond our home world," the statement continued.

The project, which is not a competition, will conclude with a fashion show at London's Science Museum. Each of the final five designs will be showcased on catwalks.

This design for the "Couture in Orbit" project shows a design by Sam Martin-Harper from Ravensbourne Department of Fashion. (Image credit: Barry MacDonald)

Fashion Design Akademiet in Denmark, the Politecnico di Milano in Italy, and the International University of Art for Fashion in Germany and France are among participating schools. Each of the schools has its own sponsor and will integrate the technologies of that sponsor into the design, ESA officials added. Examples of that integration could include "tracking the wearer's movement and generating usable electricity, [as well as] regulating their temperature and transpiration," the officials said.

Design sketches for European Space Agency collaboration "Couture in Orbit" from ESMOD Berlin. (Image credit: ESMOD Berlin)

The next European to fly in space will be French astronaut Thomas Pesquet, who will be part of Expedition 50/51 starting in November. Earlier this month, German astronaut Alexander Gerst was named commander of Expedition 57 in November 2018. Gerst last traveled to the space station in 2014.

Follow Elizabeth Howell @howellspace, or Space.com @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
Former NASA astronaut James Halsell Jr., seen here in a NASA photo taken before the STS-101 flight of the space shuttle Columbia, which lifted off in May 2000. Halsell commanded the mission.

A former NASA astronaut has been charged with murder following a car crash Monday (June 6) that killed two girls, according to media reports.

According to Alabama State Police troopers, a Chrysler 300 driven by James Halsell Jr.  who commanded three space shuttle missions and piloted two others from 1994 through 2000  crashed into a Ford Fiesta early Monday morning on a highway east of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, the Associated Press reported.

Eleven-year-old Niomi Deona James and 13-year-old Jayla Latrick Parler were thrown from the Fiesta and killed, and two adults in the same car were injured and taken to the hospital, the AP reported.

Alabama state police said that "alcohol and speed may have been factors in the crash," the AP reported.

Halsell, 59, joined NASA's astronaut corps in 1991 and first flew in 1994, piloting the space shuttle Columbia on its STS-65 mission. He piloted the shuttle Atlantis on its STS-74 flight in 1995, then commanded three shuttle missions: the STS-83 and STS-94 flights of Columbia in 1997 and the STS-101 mission of Atlantis in 2000. Halsell racked up more than 1,250 hours in space during these flights, according to his online NASA biography.

He also led NASA's Space Shuttle Return-to-Flight Planning Team after the tragic loss of the shuttle Columbia, which broke apart during its return to Earth on Feb. 1, 2003, killing all seven astronauts aboard.

Halsell is a former test pilot and a retired U.S. Air Force colonel. He left NASA in 2006 to take a job with ATK Launch Systems in Utah.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.
King Tut's dagger, found buried with him and now on display in Cairo, Egypt, was made from iron meteorite.

The discovery that King Tut was buried with a dagger made out of a meteorite has drawn news headlines worldwide and captured the imagination of the public. As unusual as it may seem, though, the pharaoh's blade is not the only ancient or odd artifact that was forged from space-based metal.

Although certainly still rare, a number of other antiquities found over the years were comprised of iron derived from meteorites. And even today, master artists are fabricating new examples of meteorite-made tools and decorative ornaments.

The blade interred with Tutankhamun, now on display in Cairo, Egypt, is only the latest Egyptian relic to be traced back to a meteoritic origin. [King Tut Wielded A Blade 'Not of This Earth' (Video)]

Ancient iron beads (center) excavated from an Egyptian tomb in 1911 were made from iron meteorites. (Image credit: UCL Petrie Museum/Rob Eagle)

As far back as 1911, researchers found that beads excavated from another Egyptian tomb were found made from iron meteorites. The nine small beads, unearthed from a cemetery along the west bank of the Nile tomb in Gerzeh, were dated to 3200 B.C. They were fabricated by hammering the "heaven-sent" material into thin sheets.

According to researchers, ancient Egyptians considered the meteoritic iron to be of great value, possibly considering the falling rocks as a message from the gods. They called the meteorites "iron from the sky."

The Egyptians, however, were not the only ones to place importance on the fallen rocks.

A Tibetan Buddha statue, possibly dating back to the 8th to 10th centuries A.D., was carved from an ataxite, a rare class of meteorite that contains high levels of nickel.

The sculpture, which depicts a figure perched with his legs tucked in and a Buddhist swastika on his chest, was reportedly found and brought to Germany in 1938-1939. This was done as part of a Nazi-funded expedition to discover the roots of what Nazis called the Aryan race. Ownership of the statue was later passed to a private individual.

A Buddha statue possibly dating back to the 8th to 10th centuries A.D. is carved from a rare iron meteorite. (Image credit: Elmar Buchner)

Known as the "Iron Man," the statue is about 9.5 inches (24 centimeters) tall and weighs about 23 lbs. (10.6 kilograms). Since the statue made headlines in 2012, though, some researchers have called its provenance into doubt, suggesting the Buddha could be a European counterfeit made during the 20th century. The statue's meteoritic origin is not in question, however.

The ancient origins of two Chinese bronze weapons with meteoritic iron blades are not in doubt. The artifacts were the focus of a Smithsonian Institution study published by the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. [Space-y Tales: The 5 Strangest Meteorites]

"Though they have rarely been exhibited ... one is a broad axe (ch'i) with a bronze tang (nei) and the rusted remains of an iron blade; the other is a dagger axe (ko) with a bronze blade and the remains of an iron point," wrote Rutherford Gettens, Roy Clarke and W.T. Chase in the 1971 paper. "These two weapons are of high interest to the historian of technology for three reasons, [including] evidence that the iron in both weapons is of meteoritic origin."

Dated to about 1000 B.C., both weapons may have been functional but most likely were not used in battle, experts say.

"It might be presumed that the [meteoritic] iron blades were attached to the weapons to make them more functional, but because of the scarcity of iron in the early Chou period, and the decor on the weapons, especially the inlay on the ch'i, it seems they were probably made for ceremonial purposes," the researchers wrote.

The Freer Gallery also has another meteoritic blade that was created 400 years ago for the leader of the Mughal Empire in India.

"At dawn, a tremendous noise arose in the east. It was so terrifying that it nearly frightened the inhabitants out of their skins," wrote Indian Emperor Jahangir about a meteor that lit up the skies within his kingdom in April 1621. "Then, in the midst of tumultuous noise, something bright fell to the earth from above."

Emperor Jahangir, of the Mughal Empire in India, had this dagger made from a meteorite he saw fall over his kingdom in April 1621. (Image credit: Smithsonian Institution)

"His fascination with unusual natural events  and his power to harness their aura  is revealed by this dagger's blade, forged from the glittering meteorite," Freer curators wrote in their description of the 10.25-inch-long (26.1 cm) dagger. "Jahangir further noted that the blade 'cut beautifully, as well as the very best swords.'" (This description also includes the above quote by the emperor.)

The use of meteoritic iron in weapons and ceremonial tools did not end in ancient times.

For example, master Japanese swordsmith Yoshindo Yoshiwara recently forged a katana, named "Tentetsutou," from fragments of the prehistoric Gibeon meteorite. Similarly, California-based blacksmith Tony Swatton produced a replica of Sokka's sword from the animated series "Avatar: the Last Airbender" using fragments of the Campo del Cielo meteorite found in Argentina.

Of a more utilitarian  but no less impressive  use, master bladesmith Bob Kramer, based in Olympia, Washington, has crafted steel chef's knives forged from meteoritic iron.

"I am incorporating meteorites into my material," Kramer said in a 2015 interview with chef Anthony Bourdain for "Raw Craft," a short-film series produced by The Balvenie whisky distillery. "This is probably man's first encounter with a solid chunk of iron  that's a meteorite, that's a star stone."

Robert Pearlman is a Space.com contributing writer and the editor of collectSPACE.com, a partner site and the leading space history news publication. Follow collectSPACE on Facebook and on Twitter at @collectSPACE. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
Mark Kelly is an astronaut who has flown four times in space, although he is best remembered for commanding the second-to-last shuttle mission. He is also one-half of the only set of astronaut twins who have flown into space; both Kelly and his brother, Scott, were selected by NASA in 1996.

Late in Kelly's NASA career, he rose to international prominence for reasons outside of space exploration. His wife, then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, was shot in the head on Jan. 8, 2011, during a meeting with constituents. Giffords survived the shooting and was in rehabilitation when she attended Kelly's last launch on May 16, 2011  just five months later.

Early life

Kelly grew up in West Orange, New Jersey, and was 5 years old when Apollo 11 took people to the moon's surface for the first time. Kelly said in a NASA 2011 pre-flight interview that he remembered the later missions more, but it seemed "completely out of the question" for "some kid from New Jersey," even though his town was adjacent to another town where Apollo 11's lunar module pilot, Buzz Aldrin, grew up.

At 18, he graduated from high school and went to the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, then progressed to flight school. He was a part of the Persian Gulf War during Operation Desert Storm in 1991, flying the A-6 Intruder for 39 combat missions. Afterward, he attended graduate school and the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School, where he later became an instructor.

"Once I was flying airplanes off the aircraft carrier and later decided to become a test pilot and went to graduate school, I thought, maybe somebody like me could have that opportunity [to become an astronaut], so, I started thinking more seriously about it," Kelly said.

Astronaut Mark Kelly takes a moment for a photo near the commander's station on the forward flight deck of Space Shuttle Discovery during the STS-124 mission. (Image credit: NASA)

Early flight experience

Kelly's twin brother, Scott, also had designs to join the astronaut program, so both applied to join the class of 1996. Both were selected on their first try. While the men never flew together, between them they were on eight spaceflights. Both spent time on the International Space Station as well; in 2016, Scott Kelly concluded 346 consecutive days (almost a year) in space, setting a record for U.S. human spaceflight.

Kelly first flew into space on STS-108 in December 2001 as Endeavour's pilot. The crew's major task was to transfer three tons of equipment and supplies to the space station, but they ended up spending some extra time in space. That was to help fix up a treadmill on station and also to replace a failed compressor on an air conditioner in the Zvezda service module.

He returned in July 2006 as pilot for STS-121 Discovery, which was the second flight after the Columbia space shuttle was lost in 2003. These "return to flight" missions were shakedowns to determine whether the shuttle was functioning correctly with new hardware modifications, such as a camera to scan for broken tiles on the shuttle's belly. The crew also transferred supplies to the ISS.

Kelly's first command was STS-124 Discovery in 2008. Its main goal was to bring up the Kibo pressurized module and its robotic arm, but another urgent task came up at the last minute  bringing a new toilet part to the ISS to fix what was then the only toilet on station. (Today there are two toilets.)

Identical twins Scott (left) and Mark Kelly pose for a photo at the Cosmonaut Hotel in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, on March 26, 2015, one day before Scott launched on a yearlong mission to the International Space Station. (Image credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Last spaceflight

In the same 2011 NASA pre-interview, Kelly said that he still felt like he was a test pilot at NASA even though the shuttle program was decades old, and on the eve of retirement. That's because STS-134, his last mission, took place after only 134 flights. Also, 14 astronauts died aboard space shuttles: seven on Challenger (1986) and seven aboard Columbia (2003).Last spaceflight

"It's still more or less in a test program even though we've been flying it for nearly 30 years now," Kelly said. "So it's like the ultimate test job."

His last six months of training had a major distraction, however, when his wife was shot in Tucson. Kelly left Houston immediately to be at her side; according to his book, "Gabby: A Story of Courage and Hope (opens in new tab)" (Scribner, 2011), while en route he heard media reports that his wife had died. Giffords was disabled by the shooting, but after a few weeks of rehabilitation, Kelly determined he could still proceed with the launch. He added that some at NASA weren't sure he could do it, but he pulled through.

STS-134's major objective was to install the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer  a particle physics experiment to hunt for cosmic rays and evidence of dark matter  on the outside of the space station. The shuttle also brought up a load of spare parts (a necessity as the program was concluding shortly), and crewmembers performed four spacewalks.

Kelly told NASA he is proud of the shuttle's legacy, and especially Endeavour (which both he and Scott) flew. "Without the space shuttle, International Space Station would not be what it is today. I mean, we would not have been able to build the space station. So I think it's somewhat fitting that the end of the shuttle era is being finished with the assembly of the space station, and the utilization part for the next 10 or 15 years."

After returning to Earth from his last, 15-day mission, Kelly retired. His affiliation with NASA continued, however, when he agreed to act as the "control" in a study to see how Scott Kelly's body reacted to a year in space. The "twin study" was a unique opportunity for researchers to see how the genetics of the body could change when flying into space. Results are being analyzed as of 2016.

Additional resources
This artist's concept shows condensing clouds of cold molecular gas being accreted by the Abell 2597 Brightest Cluster Galaxy. The clouds condense out of the hot, ionized gas that suffuses the space between among the galaxies in this cluster, according to a statement from the European Southern Observatory.

A giant, hungry black hole appears to be chowing down on cold, clumpy clouds at the center of a nearby galaxy, a new study finds. The black hole's dining habits are shedding light on how black holes throughout the universe may grow.

This artist's concept shows condensing clouds of cold molecular gas being accreted by the Abell 2597 Brightest Cluster Galaxy. The clouds condense out of the hot, ionized gas that suffuses the space between among the galaxies in this cluster, according to a statement from the European Southern Observatory. (Image credit: NRAO/AUI/NSF; Dana Berry/SkyWorks; ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO))

At the heart of nearly every galaxy is a supermassive black hole millions to billions of times the mass of Earth's sun, most astrophysicists agree. These black holes grow by gobbling up gas, dust and anything else that falls on them (scientists call this process "accreting"). The energy released by this accreting gas can in turn influence the formation of stars across the black hole's galaxy. (You can check out a video on the new black hole discovery here.)

Much remains unknown about the gaseous fuel that powers black hole growth. Scientific models of black hole eating habits are usually simplified to show a smooth, spherical inflow of very hot gas. However, recent theory and computer simulations have predicted that black hole accretion of gas is instead dominated by the random accumulation of very cold, clumpy clouds of molecules, the same material that gives rise to stars. However, researchers have lacked unambiguous evidence for this prediction, but the new study offers a concrete example. [The Strangest Black Holes in the Universe]

To learn more about black hole gas accretion, astronomers looked toward a cluster of about 50 galaxies collectively known as Abell 2597. The scientists then zeroed in on a single galaxy near the core of Abell 2597, known as the Abell 2597 Brightest Cluster Galaxy, using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile. This galaxy is located about 1.23 billion light-years from Earth, the scientists said. The researchers generated a 3D map of both the locations and movements of cold gas near the center of this giant elliptical galaxy with unprecedentedly high sensitivity and detail.

This composite image of Abell 2957 includes a background image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and a red foreground image from the ALMA radio telescope showing the distribution of carbon monoxide gas in and around the Abell 2597 Brightest Cluster Galaxy. The pull-out box shows the "shadow" of the galaxy's supermassive black hole, which appears to be eating cold clouds of molecular gas. (Image credit: B. Saxton (NRAO/AUI/NSF)/G. Tremblay et al./NASA/ESA Hubble/ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO))

The Abell 2597 Brightest Cluster Galaxy's innermost 97,000 light-years contained not only warm, ionized gas but also far colder molecular gas equal to about 1.8 billion times the mass of the sun, the researchers reported in the new paper. The warm gas apparently surrounds the cold gas clouds like a skin; the outer regions of these clouds are likely heated by intense radiation from their surroundings, the researchers noted.

The scientists directly observed a clumpy rain of cold molecular gas clouds moving toward the core of the Abell 2597 Brightest Cluster Galaxy at about 671,000 mph (1 million km/h). These clouds are likely up to dozens of light-years across, with masses of about 100,000 to 1 million times the mass of the sun, and are likely located within several hundred light-years of that galaxy's central black hole, the new research paper said.

"It's simply a beautiful, clean demonstration of cold gas moving inward toward the heart of a galaxy," Grant Tremblay, an astrophysicist at Yale University in Connecticut and lead author on the study, told Space.com.

Another artist's concept of gas clouds raining onto the heart of the Abell 2597 Brightest Cluster Galaxy. The clouds were observed using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). (Image credit: NRAO/AUI/NSF; Dana Berry/SkyWorks; ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO))

Under the right conditions, these clouds cast shadows when backlit by intensely hot, bright gas near the black hole, the new work showed. (Previous research found that the Abell 2597 Brightest Cluster Galaxy's central black hole is about 300 million times the mass of the sun.)

Over time, "if the clouds really are that close to the black hole, we should see them physically move on human timescales  that is, six months to a few years," Tremblay said. "We might actually see a movie of cold black hole accretion! That would be really, really cool."

These findings suggest that supermassive black holes may not grow by steadily devouring gas. "If these 'cold rainstorms' are both long-lived and common in massive galaxies, it might mean that our understanding of black hole growth needs to be reconsidered," Tremblay said.

If clouds are falling straight into the Abell 2597 Brightest Cluster Galaxy's supermassive black hole, then the black hole may accumulate about up to several solar masses per year, the researchers estimated. However, if clouds are spiraling into this black hole instead, then it may grow more slowly, Tremblay said.

The scientists detailed their findings in the June 9 issue of the journal Nature.

Follow Charles Q. Choi on Twitter @cqchoi. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original story posted on Space.com.
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 8

Trend:

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has received member of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, Personal Envoy of the Head of the Chechen Republic Adam Delimkhanov.

Delimkhanov conveyed greetings of Head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov to President Aliyev. He said Ramzan Kadyrov and the whole Chechen people have deep respect for President Ilham Aliyev due to Azerbaijan's successes, adding they were happy with the country's achievements.

He congratulated President Aliyev on the occasion of Azerbaijan's Republic Day and on the advent of the holy month of Ramadan. Delimkhanov said he was deeply impressed by the ongoing steady development in Baku.

President Ilham Aliyev pointed to historic relations between the Azerbaijani and Chechen nations.

He touched upon the great development processes in the Chechen Republic, and stressed the importance of this successful development, stability and prosperity.

The president said development in the Chechen Republic was followed with interest in Azerbaijan, and extended his congratulations to the Chechen people and Ramzan Kadyrov on these accomplishments.

President Aliyev also congratulated the Chechen people on the advent of the holy month of Ramadan. He noted that bilateral relations between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Russian Federation successfully develop in all the fields.

President Aliyev said Azerbaijan's cooperation with different regions of Russia, including the Chechen Republic, contributed to the expansion of these relations.

President Aliyev thanked for the greetings of Ramzan Kadyrov, and asked Adam Delimkhanov to extend his greetings to the head of the Chechen Republic.
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Baku, Azerbaijan, June 8

Trend:

Mikhail Kashubsky, Head of Secretariat of the International Network of Customs Universities (INCU), presented his book 'Offshore Oil and Gas Installations Security, an International Perspective' at Baku Higher Oil School (BHOS).

BHOS management and staff members attended the presentation. Opening the meeting BHOS Rector Elmar Gasimov talked about many problems witnessed in the world through today's geo-politic realities, as well as strong security measures taken by the government of Azerbaijan Republic in relation to its offshore petroleum installations.

Touching upon the issue of attacking petroleum installations, which in turn tremendously damages economic strength of any country, he emphasized the importance of increase of security measures and mobilization of international organizations to combat acts of terror.

Underlining that the substantial facts shown in his book 'Offshore Oil and Gas Installations Security, an International Perspective' were based on analysis, Kashubsky was confident that the book would contribute in prevention of acts of terror.

He also emphasized that he was glad to present his book at BHOS and extended his gratitude to BHOS management for granted opportunity. He gave detailed information about his book.

Kashubsky stressed that the book in question was based on historical facts, geo-political analysis, scientific research carried out by the author himself in the course of 10 years.

The author also said that the book also aimed at urging the international organizations to take more significant measures for prevention acts of terror, targeting petroleum installations, ensuring the security of petroleum industry of the world and thus remain vigilant.

He also said that the book was written for readers involved in petroleum industry and studying this specialization.

Kashubsky pointed out that with the assistance of the State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan Republic the book would be translated into Azerbaijani and Russian languages.

Kashubsky answered questions of BHOS management and professors.
SPEGEL: How do you intend to establish one?

Stoltenberg: By continuing to seek a dialogue with Russia, and to strive for more transparency and predictability. The danger of an incident taking place has grown with the increased Russian military presence on our borders. Just take, for example, the Russian fighter jet that was shot down at the Turkish border or the risky flight maneuvers by Russian warplanes over the Baltic Sea. We should try to prevent these kinds of incidents if possible and when they do take place, make sure that they don't spin out of control.

SPIEGEL: The alliance faces the challenge of having 28 member states that need to agree. In Russia, only one person makes the decisions: Vladimir Putin.

Stoltenberg: When it's necessary, we can also make decisions very quickly. Think about our mission in the Aegean, which the Germans pushed for. We made the decision in a few days and our ships were on site within 48 hours. It is a strength, not a weakness, that NATO is an alliance of 28 open, transparent and democratic societies. History shows that democracies have forged the strongest military alliance that has ever existed.

SPIEGEL: Polls show that 60 percent of Germans don't want to risk a war with Russia in order to defend other NATO partners like the Baltic States. Is public opinion in Germany a problem for NATO?

Stoltenberg: People have different views in democracies. For me, as NATO secretary general, it is important that the alliance has shown that it makes decisions that can then be implemented.

SPIEGEL: Independently of what the people think?

Stoltenberg: In democracies, of course, you are dependent on the support of the citizens, because parliaments and governments need to be elected. But if you look at the past seven decades, we were always able to adapt to new challenges, and that is a product of democratic decision-making.

SPIEGEL: We agree that Putin's autocracy shouldn't be a role model. But militarily, he has repeatedly been able to take the West by surprise in the past few years.

Stoltenberg: In the end, democratic societies are stronger and more resilient than any autocracy. And more adaptable too. We have reacted to the changed security situation very quickly, after all, and our collective defense efforts have become more robust. That is a fundamental change.

SPIEGEL: For years, NATO member states have repeatedly pledged to invest 2 percent of their gross domestic products into their defense budgets. But they aren't following through.

Stoltenberg: There too we are seeing a shift. Last year, the trend of shrinking defense spending came to a halt after many long years. The forecasts for 2016 indicate that we will once again see increased defense spending among European NATO allies for the first time. The situation is still mixed, but things are improving.

SPIEGEL: It isn't just Russian troops that are seen as a threat, primarily by Eastern European allies. Western intelligence services also believe that Moscow is behind some cyber-attacks. Has NATO underestimated this threat?

Stoltenberg: No, we have strengthened our capabilities in order to protect our own NATO networks. We have also strengthened collaboration among allies, because they must first protect their own networks. We have established teams of experts that can help member states when they are attacked. And we have made a very important decision: A cyber-attack can be considered an armed attack according to Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty and thus trigger the collective defense clause.

SPIEGEL: What response does the alliance have to the information war that Moscow is leading against the West?

Stoltenberg: We are, indeed, registering a lot of propaganda, but our reaction to propaganda cannot also be propaganda.

SPIEGEL: What then?

Stoltenberg: The truth. In the end it will prevail. I am 100 percent convinced that an open society like that of Germany will ultimately be able to push facts through against the propaganda. It may be that opinion polls show a mixed picture, but at the same time, approval for NATO is growing. It means we must be doing something right.

SPIEGEL: You have pointed out several times that NATO is an alliance of 28 democracies. One important member state is Turkey. Does it fit into the picture?

Stoltenberg: NATO is based on shared values. Democracy, individual civil liberties and the rule of law. In public and also in meetings with the allies, I have repeatedly pointed out how crucial these common values are. They are the basis for our unity, and unity is the most important basis for our strength.

SPIEGEL: Does the Erdogan regime in Turkey fulfill these requirements?

Stoltenberg: These values are fundamental to NATO, and they are also very important for me. And in various meetings with the allies, I repeatedly point to them.

SPIEGEL: That is an extremely diplomatic answer.

Stoltenberg: (laughs) In my position, I also see myself as a diplomat.

SPIEGEL: You have promised predictability and transparency. Those are two things don't seem to be very important to your NATO ally, Turkey.

Stoltenberg: They apply to all allies, and Turkey is part of our effort to improve our diplomatic dialogue with Russia.

SPIEGEL: Russia's intervention in Syria clearly took the West by surprise. Did NATO underestimate Moscow's military capabilities?

Stoltenberg: We are living in a world in which developments are harder to predict and one that has become more uncertain. In such a world, you must be prepared for the unpredictable. Nobody predicted the fall of the Berlin Wall or the Arab Spring.

SPIEGEL: What does that mean for NATO?

Stoltenberg: That we need new capabilities. Enhancing our armed forces, more reconnaissance, more surveillance. We will soon be stationing new, state-of-the-art surveillance drones in Sicily.

SPIEGEL: In order to monitor the streams of refugees from Libya?

Stoltenberg: That depends on where the drones will be needed. When it comes to Libya: We have offered the new government help if it wants it. I've spoken with the Libyan prime minister. He wants to send a team of experts to Brussels and then we will see how Libya can be helped.

SPIEGEL: Is that NATO's new line? No more deployments of its own, only helping other countries?

Stoltenberg: We must also be in a position to make troops available in the future, as we did in the Balkans and Afghanistan. But at the same time, the focus will increasingly be on putting local troops in a position to ensure stability in their countries. We are working together with Iraq to train Iraqi troops in the fight against terror. In Afghanistan we have ended our combat deployment after 12 years, but we still have 12,000 NATO soldiers stationed there. Now we are tasked with helping the Afghans ensure their own security. In the long term, that makes more sense.

SPIEGEL: Mr. Secretary General, thank you for this interview.
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
Kampala (Uganda) June 8, 2016 (SPS) - Ugandan Minister of State for Regional Cooperation, Mr. Philemon Mateki signed Wednesday on the condolence book in the Sahrawi embassy in Kampala  Uganda.

"On behalf of the Government of Uganda, on behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I would like to express my deep sorrow following the death of the late President Mohamed Abdelaziz, who was a strong fighter for freedom. His family misses him, and we also miss him, his work will never die," said Minister of State for Regional Cooperation of Uganda.

Sahrawi embassy in Kampala has also recevied many condolences messages following the death of the martyr Mohamed Abdelaziz from political figures and civil society actors, in addition to the diplomatic corps accredited to Uganda. (SPS)

125/090/TRA
The second generation prototype is based on a New Holland T6.180 standard tractor and features a 175hp (129kW) Nef 6 engine developed by FPT Industrial that delivers 740Nm torque.

The nine gas cylinders have a total capacity of 300 litres (52kg) compressed methane, sufficient for approximately half a day of normal tractor operations.

The second generation Methane Power T6.180 delivers significant fuel saving of 20% to 40% compared to conventional fuels.

This tractor is an important step in achieving New Hollands goal of energy independent farming as the methane is generated through renewable biomass production. When using bio-methane, the machines carbon impact is virtually zero.
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Before Bernie Sanders agrees to suspend his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, he wants to settle the score with Connecticuts governor, Dannel P. Malloy.

The Vermont senator, who has yet to accept Hillary Clinton as the presumptive Democratic nominee, has renewed his demand that Malloy be stripped of his leadership role at the partys upcoming national convention, a Sanders campaign aide told Hearst Connecticut Media Wednesday. Sanders could use Malloy as a bargaining chip in outlining the conditions of his surrender.

Sanders holds a grudge against Malloy for suggesting the senator had blood on his hands on the issue of gun control.

Malloy has even ventured that Senator Sanders should be held accountable for the death and destruction caused by his mistakes,  Brad Deutsch, the legal counsel for the Sanders campaign wrote last month.

Sanders previous calls for Malloys removal as the platform committee co-chairman were rejected by convention officials. That was before Sanders suffered a crushing defeat in Tuesdays California primary to Clinton, who became the first woman to lock up a major partys presidential nomination.

U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said the spotlight should be on Clinton for her accomplishment.

Shame on all of us if we let that historical landmark be obscured by a question over when and how the losing candidate withdraws from the race, Murphy said. My hope is that this week is going to be about Hillary Clinton and not about Bernie Sanders.

From Iowa and New Hampshire to Massachusetts and Connecticut, Malloy, who is the head of the Democratic Governors Association, has campaigned for Clinton.

He has frequently assailed Sanders for his support of a 2005 law that shields the firearms industry from wrongful death lawsuits. Some of the families of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings are challenging that law in court.

Malloy has also criticized Sanders opposition to the Brady Bill when he was a member of the House.

Named for the late James Brady, the White House aide who was nearly killed during a 1981 assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan, the legislation established a federal background-check program and mandatory five-day waiting period for gun purchases.

Governor Malloy has unfairly ascribed blame for the national gun control laws single-handedly to Senator Sanders, referring to the three-day wait provision of the Brady Bill as the Charleston-Sanders loophole,  Sanders lawyer Deustch wrote.

A spokesman for Malloy referred questions on the matter to the state Democratic Party, which said that Malloy can be an honest broker at the convention.

They have already tried this and it was ruled out of order, said Leigh Appleby, a spokesman for the Connecticut Democrats. Governor Malloy looks forward to chairing the committee in a fair manner and putting forward a platform that stands in stark contrast to Donald Trump and his hateful, divisive policies.

With the backing of establishment Democrats such as Murphy and Malloy, Clinton won Connecticuts April 26 primary over Sanders. But because Democrats use a proportional system for awarding delegates, Sanders came away with 27 to 28 for Clinton.

Sanders supporters pinned their hopes on victory in California by the Democratic socialist, who some polls showed running even with Clinton. It wasnt close, with Clinton garnering 56 percent of the vote in the Golden State.

As much as I would like to continue the fight, its over. Its over, said Audrey Blondin, a Democratic State Central Committee member from Litchfield and Sanders delegate. There comes a time when its politics, not horseshoes. Close doesnt count. The longer this drags, all this is doing is giving fodder to Trump to make hay.

Not with her

Not all of Sanders diehards were ready to coalesce around Clinton, however.

I cannot support Hillary, said Ana Hitri, a Sanders organizer from Westport. Bernie is a movement. Hillary is a candidate of the establishment.

Hitri said she wont support Trump, even though she considers the presumptive Republican nominee as stronger on foreign policy.

I think shes going to be the war monger, Hitri said. Trumps foreign policy is more sound than Hillarys foreign policy because hes willing to talk to our enemies. Hes willing to talk to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin instead of vilifying him.

The emotions of the Sanders supporters ranged from disappointment to disgust at the party and the process Wednesday, with some casting doubts whether Sanders positions on raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, Medicare for all and free college tuition will be incorporated into Clintons platform.

Im not happy with the Democratic Party, Hitri said.
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NORWALK  Police have charged a 20-year-old Norwalk man in the Wednesday morning stabbing at 356 Main Ave.

Plinio Chavez, of 356 Main Ave., was charged with first-degree assault and carrying a dangerous weapon.

Police were dispatched to Main Avenue Apartments  a Norwalk Housing Authority public housing complex  at 10:10 a.m. on the report of a fight, which was upgraded to a reported stabbing.

Arriving officers found a man suffering from stab wounds. The attacker had run off.

The man was rushed to Norwalk Hospital with non life-threatening injuries, police said.

A short time later patrol units spotted the suspect in a wooded area on Linden Terrace and caught him. The Crime Scene Unit responded and processed the crime scene.

"There was a strong response from patrol units who were able to identify the direction of flight and locate the suspect, where he was taken into custody," Lt. Terrence Blake said.

Norwalk Detectives assumed the investigation, which revealed that the incident might have escalated due to prior issues between both men.

Witnesses told police that the victim was having an argument with the suspect, which apparently turned violent.

"There was a confrontation between two males who were known to each other," said Blake. "One suspect produced a knife and slashed the victim."

The housing complex is behind Pathways Academy on Main Avenue. Police put the school on lockout  meaning entry to the building was not permitted  until the scene had been secured.

One resident of the complex, who declined to give her name, said that the area is usually quiet, but has been the scene of drug activity in recent years.

Chavez was held on $20,000 bond and is to appear June 17 in Norwalk Superior Court.

Anyone with any additional information is asked to contact Detectives at (203)854-3111 or at any of the anonymous contacts listed below:

Norwalk Police Tip Line at (203)854-3111

Anonymous Internet tips can be sent to Norwalk Police website at: www.norwalkpd.com

Anonymous text tips can be submitted by typing "NPD" into the text field, followed by the message, and sending it to CRIMES (274637).
STAMFORD  A New York woman who was seriously injured in a West Side bar fight was arraigned this week while dressed in a hospital gown with bandages up her arms.

Judicial marshals said Tania Pichardo, 34, of Manhattan, had so many bandages covering the deep wounds on her arms they were unable to put restraints on her when they brought her before Judge Auden Grogins early Tuesday afternoon.

With her right arm in a sling, she was allowed to sit on a bench with a Spanish interpreter while a public defender was assigned to her case. She did not enter a plea to the assault and reckless endangerment charges.

She and the two other women who are accused of stabbing Pichardo with broken beer bottles at Stillwater Avenues Discovery Cafe are scheduled to return to court on June 27.

Lt. Diedrich Hohn said Jenely Holguin-Munoz, of New York City, was celebrating her 18th birthday with friends when she said Pichardo disrespected her just after midnight.

The verbal dispute became physical when Holguin-Munoz threw a punch at Pichardo and the two began beating each other, Hohn said. The two then grabbed beer bottles, smashed them on the floor and began stabbing each other with them, Hohn said.

Holguin-Munozs sister, Yakaryra Mercedes, 20, of the Bronx, stepped into the fray and began stabbing Pichardo in the stomach with a broken beer bottle, Hohn said.

Pichardo sustained a deep cut to her right hand and left forearm, which severed an artery.

The bar bouncer told police Pichardo could have walked away from the initial confrontation, but decided to jab and throw bottles back at Holguin-Munoz and her sister, Hohn said.

Pichardo was taken to Stamford Hospital and underwent emergency surgery for life-threatening wounds.

Holguin-Munoz suffered three stab wounds to her abdomen, which were closed with staples, before being released from Stamford Hospital.

Pichardo told officers the fight began because one of her friends and one of Holguin-Munozs friends were dating the same man, Hohn said.

The sisters were charged with first-degree assault, conspiracy to commit first-degree assault, reckless endangerment and disorderly conduct. They are being held at York Correctional Institution for women in Niantic in lieu of $50,000 court appearance bonds.

Pichardo was released after family members posted her $3,500 bond.

jnickerson@scni.com;
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 8

By Elchin Mehdiyev - Trend:

The rules of issuing e-visas through the ASAN Visa system for the foreigners and stateless persons arriving in Azerbaijan have been announced, Trend learned from the Azerbaijani parliament.

The relevant amendments to the country's Migration Code have been worked out and were included in the agenda of the parliament's extraordinary meeting to be held June 14.

Foreigners and stateless persons arriving in Azerbaijan will be able to obtain e-visas through the ASAN Visa system, according to the new rules. The period of stay with a single-entry visa is up to 30 days.

The e-visas are issued to citizens of the countries approved by the relevant executive authority and to the citizens and stateless persons permanently residing in those countries.
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 8

Trend:

Local qualification round for Seedstars World competition among Azerbaijani start-ups starts again. The event supported by Azercell and organized by Barama Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center will go on till June 12.

Winners of the qualification round will get an opportunity to represent our country in world-known competition and compete for USD 500 thousand in investment.

Imran Baghirov, Strategic Adjacencies and Customer Channels Department Director at Azercell and general manager of Barama Business Incubator, competition organizer and Seedstars ambassador, has a great hope for the next qualification round. "Seedstars is the global and large community which opens great opportunities for entrepreneurs, investors, industry specialists and other interested parties.

Tomi Piriyev and Maxim Piriyev became the winners of Seedstars Baku last year with Dronee project. Dronee, being a drone, is a customizable aircraft vehicle carrying a hardware platform.

Developers can easily use the drone for own purposes by choosing relevant hardware and applications and entering the codes". He added that Seedstars World received online applications from over 65 countries in the first stage. Local representatives of Seedstars World (Barama Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center) act as distributors in this stage. Applicants are required to fill in the online application within 20 minutes.

10-12 start-ups qualified to the second round present their start-up projects before the jury and field specialists. The event brings together investors, company representatives, as well as university and ecosystem members. The winner of local competition travels to Switzerland to represent his/her country in global Seedstars World competition. More importantly, the winning project competes with global start-ups for investment.

Those wishing to join the competition may register at the link: http://www.seedstarsworld.com/event/seedstars-baku-2016/

The winner of local competition shall compete to become the best start-up in Switzerland. The winner of the 2nd place shall be awarded with Huawei device, while the 3rd place winner shall get presents from Barama. Seedstars World is the global competition to identify talented youth in emerging and fast-growing start-up market. The competition aims to provide support for entrepreneurs in emerging countries.

While Seedstars World covered 36 countries last year, in 2016 there are 60 countries participating in this competition. It drew the attention of entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley (center for hi-tech companies in California, US) and Western Europe. Previous participants of the competition were able to create over 360 jobs and attract some USD 20 million as investment.

Having MEST, Google for entrepreneurs and Microsoft as its partners, Seedstars World provides platform for innovative start-ups and supports regional business. Azercell Teecom LLC, leading mobile operator in Azerbaijan, collaborates with Swiss company of Seedstars in the World Start-up Competition. Imran Baghirov, head of Strategic Partnership and Customer Channel Management Department, recently appointed a Seedstars World ambassador.

In addition, newly established direction called STARS provides an opportunity for start-ups in travel and financial technology to show their ideas.

Azercell Telecom LLC was founded in 1996 and since the first years sustains a leading position in the market. Azercell introduced number of technological innovations in Azerbaijan: GSM technology, advance payment mobile services, M2M,MobilBank, GPRS/EDGE (mobile internet), 24/7 Customer Care, full-time operating Azercell Express offices, mobile e-service "ASAN imza" (ASAN signature) and others. With 48,2% share of Azerbaijan's mobile market Azercell's network covers 99,8% of the country's population. In 2015, the number of Azercell's subscribers reached 4,5 million people.

In 2011 Azercell deployed 3G and in 2012 the fourth generation network - LTE in Azerbaijan. The Company is the leader of Azerbaijan's mobile communication industry and the biggest investor in the non-oil sector. Azercell is a part of Telia Company Group of Companies serving 186 million subscribers in 17 countries worldwide with 27,000 employees.
T he UK should leave the EU. Why, you might ask. Well, as a former adviser to President Clinton once said: Its the economy, stupid. Yes, sovereignty and border security are important. But the key will be the economy. How will you save, make more money and pay less tax when the UK leaves the EU? You will, but it may take time.

The primary reason is that the UK will save billions of pounds by not having to support significant volumes of EU-related regulation and its associated economic costs.

Most regulation is primarily directed at imposing EU harmonisation in order to remove excessive bureaucracy in other parts of the EU, notably Italy, Poland and Greece. But this has little relevance to the UK  95% of UK firms do not even export to the EU as their markets are elsewhere.

A short period of pain and turbulence following Brexit will be rewarded with myriad benefits and huge savings to the UK. Cutting EU regulation, fraud and waste will save the UK billions of pounds. Britain would not run the same risk of being dragged into paying costs associated with the failings of EU schemes such as the euro or the Schengen area.

Here is a fact to remember: in 2006 the EU Commissioner Gunter Verheugen (pictured) said the cost of EU regulation was 600 billion, while the benefits of the Single Market amounted to only 160 billion. Therefore, the costs exceeded the benefits by 440 billion.

A significant portion is borne by the UK taxpayer. In 2012, for example, the Italian government was ordered to repay a whopping 307 million after it was discovered that an EU-funded motorway scheme was in reality a front for Mafia kickbacks and siphoning off of EU funds.

The ability of the UK to set its own financial regulatory framework will assure London of its much-coveted place as the international financial powerhouse for decades to come. If politicians recognise the need to streamline overly burdensome financial regulation and compliance at home  which they are only able to do once released from the shackles of the EU  then this will undoubtedly translate into significant growth for the UK economy.

The EU takes a shrinking share of UK exports, down from about 55% in 2002 to merely 45%. As the rest of the worlds economy continues to grow faster than the EU over the coming 10-15 years, this share will continue to fall, reaching perhaps 35%-40% .

The Remain camp has confused investors by instilling fear of the great unknown, threats of trade wars and the risk of the UK falling into international oblivion. But no union among unequals is sustainable. Forcing 28 culturally diverse countries under one umbrella, out of which the majority is technically bankrupt, is economic suicide. If the UK stays in the EU, all will seem stable for now, but not in the long term. A strong pound will make exports to the EU expensive with a declining euro.

There are currently 19 EU member states in the eurozone. A further seven members, out of which five are economically weak, are obliged to adopt the euro once they fulfil the debt criteria outlined by the Stability and Growth Pact. And more pressure on the few strong eurozone members to provide further astronomical sums of generous financial aid to weak eurozone members will inevitably contribute to the euros decline.

And so I foresee a positive outlook for the pound in the long run if the UK votes for Brexit. It will result in a turbulent period of renegotiating liberal trade agreements with the EU to avoid costly tariffs on UK exports. But the UK will be one of the EUs largest trading partners, and it would therefore have a strong incentive to enter into a deal that was more advantageous to us. The UK runs a massive trade deficit with the EU (but a surplus with the rest of the world) and so the UK would likely become the EUs single biggest market.

Axel von Schubert is a director of ECMS Euro-Caribbean Management Services and chief executive of JP Capital Investments
A key backer of the Vote Leave campaign, spread-betting multi-millionaire Peter Cruddas, today admitted his company could need a new European headquarters after a Brexit.

Cruddas, the founder of CMC Markets who has donated more than 1 million to the Leave campaign, insisted that the businesss headquarters would remain in the UK.

But CMC is likely to need a new base in the European Union following a Brexit, to benefit from the financial passporting regime which allows firms to offer financial services in other EU countries.

Europe accounts for a third of CMCs business.

The chief executive (pictured) said: The UK would stay where it is. We would wait and see what the renegotiations bring and how we are going to exit, and then we would address the issue and one of the options open to us is to create a central headquarters, a headquarters in mainland Europe which could hub our European offices.

Finance director Grant Foley added that we clearly have contingency plans in place whatever way the vote goes and that there were a couple of options being considered for the European base.

Germany and Ireland are possible locations.

Cruddas added there would be no jobs in London lost if CMC was forced into the move. Were looking for staff. Were not getting rid of staff so we wouldnt be laying people off, he said.

CMCs annual pre-tax profits jumped 20% to 62.4 million in the year to March 31, the first results since Cruddas, worth an estimated 780 million, landed a 200 million windfall by floating the business in February.

CMC, targeting wealthier clients, benefited from volatile markets, including a record month last August.

The company grew its active clients by 14% to 57,329, each earning the business an average 2828.

But Cruddas added that traders had become more cautious ahead of the crucial vote. Of more recent trading, he said: Trade numbers are up and our client metrics are strong but it is just that they are not trading in such large amounts at the moment.

They are being a little bit cautious ahead of Brexit, but we think that once Brexits cleared out of the way it will improve. The last four or five weeks, once the campaign got going, people have been generally cautious.

Despite the float, Cruddas still owns 57% of the company and CMCs 8.9p dividend for 2016 lands him a payout of nearly 15 million.

The former Conservative party co-treasurer, who set up CMC in 1989, was caught in a cash-for-access sting by the Sunday Times in 2012.

He successfully sued the newspaper for libel, although his winnings were reduced on appeal.
D ominic Chappell, the serial bankrupt who ran BHS until its collapse, threatened to kill the retailers boss Darren Topp, MPs were told today in an explosive hearing.

Topp alleged that Chappell threatened him when he questioned about 1.5 million that was moved from BHS UK to a separate firm in Sweden.

Chappell led little-known Retail Acquisitions, which bought BHS from Topshop tycoon Sir Philip Green.

Speaking to two Parliamentary committees probing BHSs failure, concerning the 1.5 million figure, Topp said Chappell told him: If you kick off about it, Ill come down there and kill you.

He added that Chappell had claimed to be ex-SAS and owned a gun.

Topp said that Chappell had told him he was a turnaround expert who had just completed a significant turnaround of an oil company. But it became clear that rather than put money in [into BHS], he got his fingers in the till.

Topp informed Green  who he was still in contact with  about his concerns when BHS embarked on its company voluntary arrangement (CVA) earlier this year in an attempt to turn its finances around.

He added that BHS did not get the full benefits of the 32 million sale of its Marylebone HQ because Chappells vehicle profited from it.

Chappells retail credentials have been a key question hanging over the collapse of BHS. Chappell today told MPs: We knew nothing about retailing. We werent claiming to be retailers.

For the first time, Chappell admitted that he had made a profit from the BHS saga and said he had earned it.

The comments will enrage the 11,000 staff who face losing their jobs after BHS administrator Duff & Phelps last week admitted no rescue bid for the business had been agreed. It is now winding down the 163 shops.

Chappell attacked Topp, claiming he had tried to wriggle into part-ownership of his Retail Acquisitions business.

Chappell also shed light on the revelations at the weekend that Green had given Retail Acquisitions a 10 million payment. He said 6.5 million came from Green, with the remaining 3.5 million coming in the form of a soft loan from the billionaires wife Tina. He said Retail Acquisitions put the money directly into the BHS group.

He went on to say BHS failed because of continuous battering by the pension regulator and Sir Philip. He claimed Green had already lined up Hilco and others to liquidate the company before offloading it to Chappell for 1.

He said: I think Philip genuinely thought we would fail but he sold it to us nevertheless.

Chappell said he was shocked when he discovered that Green had sold BHSs Ealing store to his own stepson, Brett Palos. When he raised the controversial deal with Green, he responded: thats showbusiness.

A week later, Green announced he had sold BHS to Retail Acquisitions for 1.
C ome on, fellas... sorry, fellas and girls... youve got to admit to having a sneaking admiration for Mike Ashley. Our most notorious entrepreneur came across in front of MPs as a passionate, if buffoonish, force of nature.

But despite all those thousands of words and tub-thumping outbursts, he avoided making any promises or serious admissions of guilt. Quite an achievement, given the wall of evidence. But it was telling to hear him blame staff mistreatment on the explosive, unexpected growth of the internet.

It puts one in mind of that other major company repeatedly accused of mistreating its warehouse workers, Amazon. Also faced by an unprecedented explosion in online demand, it too has been accused over the years of mistreating employees by timing toilet breaks, tracking their movements by GPS and threatening staff who chat to their colleagues with dismissal (claims the company has disputed).

Staff in a Pennsylvania warehouse allegedly worked in 30-degree heat as ambulances waited outside to take them away when they collapsed. Sound familiar?

Bosses surely dont want to put staff through such conditions: Ashley said he was shocked by the horror stories described to him by the MPs. But employers too often prove incapable of keeping an eye on the demands their disruptive businesses bring on their thousands of staff. Humanely organising such explosive, internet-driven workloads, while also fulfilling the demands of customers, is the biggest challenge facing managers today.

While were not talking about starvation and child labour, the internet revolution is bearing increasing similarities with the industrial revolution of the 1800s.

Then, it took acts of parliament to protect employees from the demands triggered by new technology. If big employers dont do more to look out for the impact of internet growth on staff, parliamentarians will step in again with ever tougher laws. Companies will complain, but theyll only have the likes of Mike Ashley to blame.

Fair exchange

The more I hear the Germans complaining about the Deutsche Borse/London Stock Exchange merger, the more my nagging doubts begin to ease.

While its regrettable that German management will take over the combined operation, the stink going up in Germany suggests that the terms for the UK cant be too bad. Todays complaints in Frankfurt come from the Deutsche Borse works council, complaining that key decisions will be made solely from London and Frankfurts loss of significance is pre-programmed.

Cant be all bad, then, can it?
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 8

Trend:

Armenia unblocked Iran's frozen assets, Fars news agency quoted an Iranian banking official as saying June 8.

The head of the branch of Iran's Mellat bank in the Armenian capital of Yerevan, Gholamreza Mousavi said Yerevan unblocked 10 million euros in frozen assets since the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was implemented Jan. 16.

International sanctions against Iran, including the banking restrictions, were removed last January as the historic nuclear deal, aka JCPOA, between Tehran and the six world powers came into force.

The Mellat bank launched its branch in Yerevan in 1996. Small and medium sized companies who do business with Iran are its main customers.

The branch's assets in Armenia amounted to 29.6 billion drams (1 USD makes about 479.17 drams) in the first months of the current year, which indicates a 0.9-percent increase compared to the figure recorded in the beginning of the year.
T his papers lively debate last night on whether London is better off in or out of the European Union produced a result from the audience that is broadly in line with polls of London sentiment: a narrow but decisive vote for Remain. London is different from the rest of the country on this; arguments about sovereignty are less decisive here than pragmatic considerations; there are fewer fears about EU nationals taking jobs because London has jobs to spare. The panellists listened to the arguments, acknowledged the strengths of the opposite side and made their case in a way that was impassioned without being abusive.

This was a grown-up, London debate. Entrepreneur Rohan Silva, a columnist on this paper, acknowledged the flaws of the EU but argued that small start-up firms such as his own could perish in a Brexit upheaval. Labours Chuka Umunna admitted that the problems of immigration were real but outweighed by the benefits of a single market. Jenny Jones for the Greens praised EU environmental directives but pointed out that some problems were caused by the EU in the first place. Tory MEP Dan Hannan accepted that if Leave won narrowly, his fellow Brexiteers may have to qualify the settlement they would look for afterwards. There was little EU-enthusiasm.

This, then, was a very different affair from the televised appearance of the Prime Minister and Ukips Nigel Farage on ITV last night. The two did not appear together but were questioned separately. The tone was hostile, some questions aggressive. There was little give and take.

It is not mere partisanship to suggest that our debate offered a better way of conducting this campaign. No sensible person would suggest one side has all the cogent arguments. There is a sane case to be made on both sides. And anyone seeking to win the support of Londoners cannot simply traduce their opponents and pretend that there are no weaknesses on their side. This referendum has been a brilliant exercise in raising awareness of the costs and benefits of EU membership; one result is that we want intelligent arguments based on fact. Londoners expect to be treated like grown-ups in this campaign; last night, thats what we got. Other campaigners, take note.

Hail, Hillary

It's now a certainty: Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic nominee in the US presidential election after a hard-fought battle with the spirited septuagenarian Bernie Sanders. She deserves it. From Britain, and Europes, point of view there is much to be said for a Clinton presidency. Mrs Clinton has not just political experience, and indeed knows the White House from the inside: her time as Secretary of State means she is familiar with all the formidable foreign policy challenges a US president must face. We know her and she knows us. Of course this is a matter for the US electorate but we are entitled to hope for a safe pair of hands in world affairs.

Funding fares freeze

Sadiq Khans pledge to freeze public transport fares for four years was one of the most popular elements of his election manifesto. Today TfL says it can meet the 630 million cost, although economies will be necessary. One eyecatching saving is that TfLs most senior staff wont be in line for pay rises, and any employees earning more than 100k will lose the perk of free travel for family members. But there are more substantive savings too. Some commuters will be disappointed to discover that the fare freeze wont apply to weekly or monthly travel cards. And notwithstanding TfLs assurances, we need confirmation that the freeze will not damage investment.
H illary Clintons hard-won victory in the Democratic primaries is an inspiring milestone: as the former Secretary of State herself put it, the first time in our nations history that a woman will be a major partys nominee. This alone lends global significance to last nights primary results.

Bernie Sanders, her socialist opponent, has fought an impressive underdog campaign against the remorseless Clinton machine. But his moral responsibility now  not least to those who voted for him  is to recognise that he has been beaten, and to help unite the party behind its candidate.

Though it is true that Americas global supremacy has been partially eroded, it remains the worlds most powerful nation by far. Even those who dislike the US have a conspicuous interest in its trajectory and the identity of the next President. Though Donald Trump and President Obama could scarcely be less alike, they do share an instinct to reduce military commitments overseas and to dissuade other nations from treating the US as the worlds policeman.

This may have cosmetic appeal to those still seething over the Iraq War. But if the US is not to intervene in failed states and humanitarian catastrophes, who will? As Robert Kagan, the foreign policy expert, has put it: Superpowers dont get to retire.

Clinton still believes in the Pax Americana, and the role of the US as the indispensable nation. Better that than Trumps gangster proposal that his nations allies should pay for its military protection  a grotesque transformation of the Commander-in-Chief into a CEO.

It is, of course, for Americans to decide what sort of President they want next. But those of us with a deep affection for their nation can only watch in alarm as the Republican nominee proposes to vandalise the very core of the American political system.

In his proposal to ban Muslims from the US, to build a wall along its border with Mexico, and to reinstate waterboarding and a hell of a lot worse, the Republican nominee rides roughshod over the US Constitution and disgraces the party of Abraham Lincoln.

The shifting demographics of the US are on Clintons side.

Only 10 per cent of the US electorate were non-white in 1992 when Bill Clinton won the presidency. That figure is now closer to 30 per cent: this is a key statistic because his wife leads Trump among ethnic minorities by a margin of 7-1.

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The challenge is to get these citizens to vote on November 8. If enough of them can be tempted to the polling booths, Clinton might even prevail in Texas  the first Democratic nominee to do so since Carter 40 years ago.

But if the composition of the electorate favours Clinton, the spirit of the age most certainly does not. Trump has identified and exploited a strong recoil from elites, from the governing establishment, from the harsher effects of globalisation, and from unprecedented population mobility. He is not remotely squeamish about vilifying Muslims and Mexicans, awakening the ugly beast of American nativism.

Hillary Clinton declares victory in fight to become Democratic presidential nominee

When Clinton arrived at the White House in January 1993 as First Lady, she and her husband embodied youthful America and generational change. Almost a quarter of a century later she offers the experience of a former Senator and Secretary of State, and an unparalleled knowledge of US government and geopolitical reality.

Yes, she has the baggage of a long career, including the never-ending saga of her emails  and, more to the point, the baggage of a long political marriage. Between now and polling day she must answer precisely what role she envisages for her husband. She has already suggested that she intended to put him in charge of revitalising economy  but later rowed back, indicating that she had in mind an informal advisory role rather than an official position. Whoever she asks to be her Vice-President will want to know what Bill will be doing while his wife is running the country, and from whom the White House Chief of Staff will take orders when she is out of the country or cannot be disturbed.

'Watch Clintons speech on national security in San Diego last week to observe a politician in command of her brief'

But baggage is the flipside of substance. Watch Clintons speech on national security, delivered in San Diego last week, to observe a politician in command of her brief, demolishing Trumps claim to the top job with ease. Her image of the irascible, thin-skinned tycoon in the White House situation room should be enough to make any American think twice before voting for him.

Clintons strategic model in this election should draw inspiration from Jacques Chiracs destruction of the Front Nationals Jean-Marie Le Pen in the second round of the 2002 French presidential election by 82 to 18 per cent. The slogan Vote for the Crook, Not the Fascist is not one the Democrat nominee would want to borrow. But her task, like Chiracs, is to persuade voters who may not necessarily warm to her that she is preferable to the alternative.

This means building an electoral coalition that stretches from Sanders socialists to Republicans who balk at Trumps abrasive authoritarianism.

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In 2004, John Kerry, the Democrat nominee, invited the moderate GOP Senator (and future Republican presidential nominee), John McCain, to be his vice-presidential running mate. Though McCain declined, his presence on Kerrys ticket might have made all the difference.

In her own choice, Clinton must decide whom she most wants to woo. Sanders or Elizabeth Warren would please the disaffected Left. But a Republican (John Kasich, the Governor of Ohio, has been mentioned in this context but there are other, younger possibilities) would signal Clintons priority is to heal the nation rather than her party, and to lead an administration of all the talents, united by its determination not to follow Trumps angry lead. Clinton deserves congratulations for prevailing in the primary battle. The challenge she faces is by far the most daunting of her illustrious career.
1 . An evenings roseate view of Regents Canal from The Lighterman  named after barge workers  in Kings Cross sits well with the cured meats and pickles.

2. Tuesday  cold and rainy. I am in Park Chinois with its red velvet swags and open fires eating dim sum lunch that includes crispy beancurd prawn cheung fun. Best place to be.

3. On June 15, winners of the Evening Standard London Restaurant Awards will be announced at Taste of London in Regents Park. Checking out The Woodford, a tissue box turns out to hold smoked candyfloss.

4. Cooked a Botterills Ginger Pig 100-day chicken low and slow. The genes of Cornish Game cockerel contribute alluring gaminess.

5. Boat and port are listed for the catch served at The Chipping Forecast W11. Haddock caught on the Bonnie Grace in Newlyn is accompanied by likeable minted pea puree.

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W hats the most romantic food you can think of? Spaghetti Bolognese, slurped a la Lady and the Tramp? Oysters? The last Rolo? A bowl of rice isnt what springs to mind. Thats unless youre Zijun Meng and Ana Goncalves, the chef power couple who met through Nuno Mendes. Their concept, TA TA Eatery, started out as a street food stall and has just found a permanent home at the Curio Cabal cafe in Haggerston.

We want to create a family feel, with lots of things shared round the table, says Meng. But obviously the techniques weve learned in restaurant kitchens means its a little more advanced than normal home-cooking. In practise, that means sweet rice cream sundaes and prawn tartare with caviar and egg yolk.

Meng and Goncalves have been championed by Mendes, who heads both the kitchen at Marylebone celeb hangout Chiltern Firehouse (where a starstruck Goncalves once begged Meng to cook something special for vegan Woody Harrelson) and Portuguese joint Taberna de Mercado in Spitalfields.

Mendes is known as a hot chef but he also has a sideline in matchmaking. Both Chinese-born Meng, and Goncalves, who is Portuguese, started their culinary careers at The Loft Project, Mendess pop-up restaurant in his own flat, in 2009. It might well have been called the Bedroom Project, given the number of romances that begun there. Theres even a Loft Project baby.

Rice and shine: fish dishes at TA TA

The couple stayed with Mendes when he opened his Michelin-starred, no-menu molecular gastronomy joint Viajante, and followed him to the Firehouse when Viajante closed in 2012. They didnt get together until Meng left the Firehouse for another job. When that fell through, it seemed like fate that they should unite professionally and romantically: TA TA was conceived shortly after they started going out.

Mendes also played Cupid when it came to finding them their gig at Curio Cabal, which happens to be the chefs local. TA TAs first permanent home is in a Haggerston cafe-cum-workspace, heaving with maca avocado smoothies, single-origin aeropress coffee on rotation and round-spectacled MacBook-tapping customers. When Mendes heard the owners wanted to expand into evening dining, he proposed Meng and Goncalves.

TA TA means he and she but Goncalves insists they arent soppy. The photographers suggestion that they feed each other with chopsticks is met with protests: Such a Chinese cliche!

No longer street food: TA TA offer a kind of high-end Chinese tapas, with the odd Portuguese influence

Meng and Goncalves started TA TA as a street food stall at Druid St Market and Dalston Yard, where their ricewichs and Korean chicken wings gained a cult following. A sold-out pop-up at the Newman Arms followed, now theyre moving back into an indoor kitchen.

At a time when Londons street food scene is booming and summer teases us with the promise of eating al fresco, such a retreat indoors bucks trends. Goncalves shrugs. At the time we were into street food and thought we could bring something cool to it  we did. But the food we do now isnt suitable for street food. This is more our style.

30 must-try dishes in London restaurants 1 /41 30 must-try dishes in London restaurants Bone marrow on toast with parsley salad at St John Not only has this dish kicked off countless wonderful meals over the course of St Johns 25 years, but it also gets credit for putting British cooking back on the global culinary map. Roasted bone marrow, coaxed out onto toast, cut perfectly with salad of parsley, shallots and capers. A nose-to-tail revolution, and utterly divine. Whole turbot at Brat Tomos Parrys talents with a turbot first came to feverish acclaim at Mayfair restaurant Kitty Fishers, but they are now the star attraction at his Michelin-starred solo spot. This whole fish  grilled Basque-style, over hot coals and in a specially designed cage  softens as if it has melted, and is basted at the table in an emulsion made with its own juices. Benjamin McMahon Marinara at 50 Kalo di Ciro Salvo Superlatives should be used in moderation  but heck it, this might just be Londons best pizza. This under-the-radar London iteration of a Naples pizzeria serves an unrivalled marinara: just tomato sauce, oil, garlic and oregano. No need for any more  with a sauce this good and a base so fine and perfectly charred, you can stop mourning your cancelled Italian holiday at first bite. Luciano Furia Clay pot baked pork and crab glass noodles at Kiln When we say Kiln is one of the hottest spots in town, we mean it  hang over the counter at the Thai barbecue and youre not far out of range for the odd flame. Baking in the heart of the swirling heat is this must order: shimmering glass noodles, coated with a silky sauce enriched with fatty slicks of Tamworth pork belly and improbably unctuous crab meat. Lamb chops, Melabes Perhaps because its quietly tucked in among its unassuming neighbours down on the wrong end of High Street Kensington, Melabes is often overlooked by Londons food lovers. An unwarranted shame, as this partly Middle Eastern, partly Mediterranean set-up is really very good; it is somewhere to pick and choose from bits and pieces, and put a meal together yourself. The lamb chops, which come all smokey and burnished from the grill, are perfect; pink as a Vegas sign inside, but the fat all soft and dripping and delicious. A must, whatever the order. Steak tartare imperial at Bob Bob Ricard Theres Press For Champagne buttons, lobster in your mac and cheese and anything that stays still long enough gets gilded  there is no point in going small at Bob Bob Ricard. Steak tartare is a luxurious pick at the best of times, but the Imperial upgrade here comes with a dollop of caviar  even without the finishing touch, the tartare itself is one of the best in the capital. Bacon naan at Dishoom Londoners spent decades believing bacon in a bap with some ketchup (or brown sauce, but lets not have that argument now) couldnt be beaten  and then Dishoom came along. This breakfast sandwich fills a fresh naan with bacon, a slathering of cream cheese, a luxurious tomato and chilli chutney, coriander and an oozing fried egg if you feel so inclined. Hangover be gone. Cacio e pepe at Padella Five years ago, you would have thought anyone queuing for pasta in London to have lost their minds  this dish changed that. The starlet of Padellas much coveted is this plate of pici  hand-rolled fat worms of eggless pasta  with a mirror-shine sauce of parmesan cheese and pasta. Simple but unrivalled  and itll set you back just 6. Jamon croquetas at Barrafina A dish like this should be elusive  it is far too easy to eat seven portions of croquetas in a single sitting, which is why we presume Barrafina makes you queue. Very sensible. As the crunchy coating gives way to the oozing centre, enriched with the flavour of Spanish jamon (the best ham in the business), were already planning our next visit. Biang biang noodles at Xi'an Biang Biang Noodles There are oodles of noodles in the capital, but Guirong Weis triumphant take is one of the finest. First finding followers at her north London restaurant Xian Impression (soon to reopen for dine-in, but not yet), the dish of has inspired a whole spin-off restaurant in Spitalfields. Thick, hand-pulled, chewy noodles soak up all the spice and zing of the special sauce they swim in  very special indeed. Souffle Suissesse, Le Gavroche Le Gavroche  the street urchin  is perhaps not for everyone. It is a Mayfair time machine, a reminder of how things were done once upon a time. Fortunately, it happens that how things were once done was very well indeed, and lunch or supper here is a masterclass in traditional French luxury (and often, happily, includes very large glasses of wine). Staff make the place, anyone who has been gently teased by the twins pretending to be each other will know. A tendency towards the old ways does mean the cooking offers little in the way of evolution or revolution, but new, after all, isnt always better. Michel Roux Jrs cheese souffle, baked on double cream, stuns, so overwhelmingly tasty, utter decadence that clings to the taste buds. Buttermilk Jamaican Jerk Chicken, Around the Cluck / 12:51 James Cochran found his signature dish early on, but its good it should stay with him for the rest of his career. While he has chops, and can do more beyond, theres something special in the way he works with his chicken; hotly spiced, gorgeously crispy, beautifully soft on the inside. A long-standing favourite and, though 12:51 cant operate as it did before, there are tables at his new project Around the Cluck, which is operating out of the same site. Breakfast at Hawksmoor Guildhall Your Full English is not full in comparison to the Hawksmoor breakfast at the steak connoisseurs Guildhall restaurant. The mind-boggling two-person spread swaps bacon rashers for an entire smoked chop, serves its bubble and squeak with short rib, puts trotter meat into its baked beans, and adds grilled bone marrow to all the usual trimmings. Cauliflower shawarma at Berber & Q Its not often that the main event at a barbecue restaurant is the veg, but Berber & Q have achieved just that. The cauliflower shawarma here is cooked on their flaming grill until softened and charred, before being doused liberally in tahini, pomegranate molasses, coriander, pomegranate seeds and a scattering of dried rose petals. BBQ Butter Chicken Wings at Brigadiers Brigadiers is a bold, boisterous sort of place: a labyrinthine City dining room, packed to the rafters with beer and Indian food that is indisputably gutsy. But arguably its finest moment comes in one of its smallest packages  these chicken wings may be diminutive, but are mightily spiced, deftly charred and dripping with ghee-fuelled succulence. Beef brisket bun at Smokestak David Carters Shoreditch restaurant occupies itself by giving the entirety of Kansas City a run for its money on a daily basis. The star turn at this lauded barbecue restaurant is its beef brisket bun  the meat is soft and juicy, riddled with its fats in the centre, while charred and treacle-like on the outside, paired perfectly with pickled chillies. To remember it is to salivate, we assure you. Snails, LEscargot LEscargot is one of Sohos old aristocrats and in its grand, beret red dining room there is always a mischievous sense of fun  perhaps because it is still such a smart, suited, chandeliered place, and people are often drinking themselves rather silly. The clue to good eating is in the name; the snails come still clinging to their shells and submerged in their butter and parsley sauce. Dive in; you will emerge stinking gloriously of garlic. It wont matter a jot; roll on the red wine and settle in for a long, comforting night. Confit potatoes at Quality Chop House Yes, there are some high quality chops on offer at this 150-year-old Clerkenwell restaurant but blimey, leave room for the chips. Fine slices of potato are stacked into architecturally sound wedges, and confited until shatteringly crispy on the outside and devastatingly soft in the centre. They have been much imitated in recent years, but never bettered. Smoked eel sandwich at Quo Vadis Jeremy Lee cooks many things to a legendary level at Quo Vadis  his pies could so easily have also made this list  but he gets the nod here for his unrivalled take on the fancy sandwich. Smoked eel, horseradish cream and Dijon mustard, served with red onion pickle  a combination so popular Lee says he nearly ran out of eel on post-lockdown reopening. Classic bao at Bao London has buns in abundance, but we still bow down to the fluffy superiority of Bao. The Taiwanese restaurant has become a cross-town favourite, thanks to its pleasingly pert rice buns (they are genuinely very pert, no crassness intended) and carefully considered fillings. The classic order comes filled with braised pork, fermented veg, coriander and a dusting of peanut powder. Carol Sachs Potato and roe, Core by Clare Smyth Clare Smyth has a knack that must infuriate other chefs; she is able to take the simplest of ingredients  say, a single carrot and a smattering of lamb mince  do something devilish with it and charge rather a lot for it; so good are the results, though, that few mind. Smyths sorcery is perhaps best witnessed with her signature, the potato and roe. It is simply a potato on a plate in a little sauce, but then it is also perhaps the best potato dish in the world; it has this wonderful salty richness, a certain seaside intenseness. It is glorious; so too is the smoked chicken that tends to come as an amuse bouche. Youll be treated here. Omelette Arnold Bennett Dont worry, no Arnolds were harmed in the making of this dish. Alongside impeccable service and an arguably perfect dining room, you could add another highlight to your breakfast at The Wolseley by ordering this creamy, haddock-filled dish, named for the writer who inspired its creation while staying at the Savoy. Fish pie, J Sheekey Long an actors favourite, J Sheekeys glamour has never lost its lustre. Its kept its regulars and charmed newcomers with a menu that plays the greatest hits of fine dining favourites. Seafood is Sheekeys thing; simply done sole is beautiful here, crab comes three ways, brill brushed in butter has a meatiness thats beyond satisfying. The fish pie is famous though, and rightly so; beneath the flaking pastry is a sea of cream, mustard and white wine, in it bobbing cod, haddock and salmon. It is simple but never fails; it does on its own for lunch, but is a failsafe at supper, too. John Carey The Ari Gold at Patty & Bun Theres a cheeseburger on every high street in the capital  but not all of them are created equal. Patty & Bun has got the classic combination down to a tee with its curiously named Ari Gold burger: a fat, 35-day aged patty is served medium rare, and topped with gooey American cheese, smokey house mayo and tangy pickled red onions. Xiao long bao at Din Tai Fung Few dishes in the capital have been known to cause queues of four hours. Thats exactly what the world-famous xiao long bao dumplings did when top Taiwanese restaurant group Din Tai Fung first opened in Covent Garden. An intricately folded out layer (made by chefs trained for at least 18 months) gives way to succulent meat and a broth you could take on by the bowlful. Pig's trotter, the French House Upstairs in the Soho local, Neil Borthwick is quietly running one of the areas best kitchens. He orders in particularly good oysters, does brilliant things with brill and with his pigs trotter, has a dish that is rich and fatty, but with a beautiful salty cut that makes it madly moreish. The menu tends to change often upstairs in the French, but have this if its on. That little dining room is somewhere to go in early for lunch and stay until late, eventually spilling down into the pub below, to drink pints  they do pints now, not just halfs  all while merrily reliving the joys upstairs. Peter Clark Dover sole with crab butter at Bentley's Oyster Bar and Grill There are so many delights at Bentleys, its tricky to pick a single one. This could so easily have been a plate of rigorously sourced oysters, the fish pie, the decadent Royal seafood platter (pictured). It is however, the Dover sole that wins. A sublime piece of fish always, expertly cooked without fail  choose it either filleted with beautiful crab butter, or grilled and whole for a simple pleasure. Over in the City, Corrigan does similarly brilliant things with lobster at Daffodil Mulligan. Ragu, Lina Stores Sohos Lina Stores  the pasta bar, not the longstanding Italian deli it comes from  is the sort of restaurant one longs for; small, fun, friendly, not too pricey. They do small plates of near perfect pasta; their ragu, whether lamb or veal, is a gem. A good ragu is hard to find  too often theres too little meat, or meat not cooked for long enough  but here, they spend the time over it, cooking slowly, carefully. No restaurant can compare with a Nonna, but Lina gets gratifyingly close. Porterhouse steak, the Guinea Grill London is not short of steakhouses, but the Guinea does not number among them. A pub  a proper one  it is tucked down a Mayfair sidestreet, away from everything and yet still perpetually busy. Besides the small bar is a dining room that looks much as it must have done when the likes of Sinatra was in (or Bette Midler, or Kylie, or Regan, or, or, or), where theyve served prime Aberdeen Angus cooked on a smoking hot grill. The Guinea is all about having a good time  pints, red wine, brandies, the lot  but they cook beautifully, and their handling of a good piece of beef is second to none. Puree de pommes de terre, Le Comptoir Robuchon The late Joel Robuchon may have been the most decorated chef of his and perhaps any other era, but his signature stayed humble  mashed potato. Until youve had it, it is hard to believe it could be quite so good; mash, after all, is mash. No matter the scepticism, it will always surprise; it is almost silly that so little could taste of so much. A side, it will match almost everything on the menu; of which, the lamb with aubergine on the menu of classics is extraordinarily good.

For now, TA TAs food at Curio is a sort of high-end Chinese tapas, with the odd Portuguese influence: braised peanuts with celery that would convince even the most stringent stalk-hater; tofu that not only actually tastes of something but is intensely umami, thanks to a generous sprinkling of katsuobushi (dried fish flakes); meaty wild mushrooms with smoked egg. The braised aubergine is impossible to eat with chopsticks. Even Meng cant do it.

What really matters is the rice. Meng eulogises over the emotional grain, a staple part of his upbringing in Tsingtao. At TA TA, it pops up in their take on a spring roll, a parcel filled with shiitake mushrooms, and herbed chicken skin congee, while dessert is a ricecream sundae: starchy, creamy balls, like frozen, blended Ambrosia.

Piles of steaming, short-grain rice accompany everything. It acts as a side plate which soaks up the flavours of all the other fishy, saucy, sticky dishes on the table. Nuno Mendes should book a table now.

CURIO + TA TA opens on June 16, curioandtata.co.uk

@franklymccoy

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W hen a twentysomething author is signed up by Random House for at least $2 million, and shares platforms with Salman Rushdie before her book is even on the shelves, it cant help but excite expectations. When her lyrical writing casts a spell on literary heavyweights and breathless teenage vloggers alike you wonder if she can possibly live up to them.

At the very least, its your beachside reading sorted. The Girls, by 26-year-old Californian Emma Cline, is already set to be the hit of the summer  expect to see it on deckchairs and Tube trains for months to come.

It tells the sun-bleached coming-of-age tale of 14-year-old Evie, who falls in with the young women surrounding a Charles Manson-esque cult leader in late-Sixties California. You might call it The Secret History for the Snapchat generation. With its precocious narrator and its dark explorations of friendship politics, its the novel that comes closest to matching the intoxicating prose, suspenseful storytelling and abrupt violence that have made Donna Tartts 1992 novel such an enduring cult. Lena Dunham promises that it will break your heart and blow your mind. Richard Ford found it imposing not just for a writer so young, but for any writer, any time. And I must confess, I was hooked.

It seems an impossible weight for Cline to bear  but in her prose at least, the author has a level of psychological insight that other authors would take a lifetime accumulating. I can imagine the debut novelist would be terrifying to meet because she would see straight through you, the hum of desperation in your voice or the way your small talk sounds like an inane weather report from your own life. She might notice the medieval droop to your face or the gray blush of a dead molar. Like Tartt, Cline is elegant and petite  she looks like a character from her own fiction with her long, girlish hair and blazing blue eyes.

The writer is one of seven children who grew up on a vineyard in Sonoma, North California. Her parents now own several hotels in both the US and Tuscany, while her great-grandfather was one of the Jacuzzi brothers from the eponymous hot tub empire. Her biography gleams with quirky details: she was briefly a child actress; she spent a gap year pursuing a pilots licence; and at the age of 21, she had a relationship with a 34-year-old with a seven-year-old daughter. She gained a masters from Columbia University, afterwards securing a role as a reader in the fiction department of The New Yorker magazine as she developed her writing. In 2014, her short story, Marion, won the Paris Review Plimpton Prize.

Before she had finished The Girls, her meticulous prose had pulled 12 different publishing houses into the sort auction you usually only see for thrillers or romance novels rather than literary fiction. Cline herself has admitted that once the deal was signed, she had a legitimate nervous breakdown, and moved back in with her parents for a month, where she calmed herself by watching seven or eight seasons of The Real Housewives. Its no wonder she was terrified. Before the US bidding war was even under way, legendary producer Scott Rudin  behind such hits as No Country for Old Men and The Social Network  had snapped up the film rights. The Girls has now sold in more than 35 territories.

The story has plenty of cinematic potential. Cline uses as her template the horrific murders carried out by the Manson Family cult  the most notorious being that of pregnant actress Sharon Tate, the beautiful wife of film director Roman Polanski. However, she has fictionalised the events and relocated the story from Los Angeles to the farm-belt of Sonoma. Its narrated in the present day by middle-aged Evie, who recalls the summer of 1969, when as a bored teenager with average looks and mediocre grades she became drawn to a gang of older girls living in a mysterious commune. With their bare feet, long straggly hair and second-hand dresses, the girls set themselves apart. To a sheltered 14-year-old, whose life feels like a waiting room until someone notices you, the girls seem free-spirited, insolent and thrillingly feral, pinching food from dumpsters and burning cars.

Followers of Charles Manson arrive at court in 1969 / ASSOCIATED PRESS

When she is invited to a party at the commune, she discovers that the girls are the acolytes of Russell Hadrick, a buckskin-wearing Flower Power magus who lives in a dilapidated old ranch, where he claims to free people from the system. The girls cook and clean for him and are in his sexual service, all the time sharing in the delusion that their master will become a rock star.

The Girls by Emma Cline

While Evie doesnt share the girls blind devotion to Russell, she feels a dizzy solidarity with dark-haired Suzanne, who offers a vision of life beyond an upper-middle-class, suburban home. As everyone drops acid and shares beds/clothes/sexual partners, Evie comes to believe that [the] ranch proved that you could live at a rarer pitch. That you could push past these petty human frailties and into a greater love. I believed, in the way of adolescents, in the absolute correctness and superiority of my love.

Cline, who grew up hearing the sordid, exciting Manson stories (her parents were the same age as her narrator at the time of the killings), says she wanted to write about someone who didnt participate in the brutal killings but someone who so easily could have. Evie believes life at the commune has transformed the dumb litter of the normal world into the lush stage sets of a different life  all the while not realising her proximity to danger.

The sensationalist case of the Manson Family may feel like a gruesome hook but in reality, its a springboard for Cline to tell the story shes really interested in. This isnt a Manson novel, she has insisted  believing male cult-leaders to be all pretty one-note and cookie cutter. I wanted to engage with [the murders] in a new way that wasnt like the stories I had heard, which focus on the men. I was always more curious about the women involved  they were homecoming queens and straight-A students who ended up following someone like that. That was where the story was.

She sees parallels with Mansons followers and the young women who are currently running away from their families to join Islamic State, the combination between innocence and then this extreme realm.

Evie prickles with longing and her female friendships bloom and dissolve with a phantom-like quality. Cline is exquisitely attuned to the appetites of adolescent females wishing desperately that we mattered enough. She sees their imagined alignment with the tragic nature of the world and their desire for all of life to feelfrantic and pressurised with portent.

The best books for summer 2016 1 /8 The best books for summer 2016 Click through our gallery to discover the best books to read this summer Rex The Muse by Jessie Burton Burtons The Miniaturist sold more than a million copies and won Waterstones Book of the Year in 2014, with TV rights recently optioned. Its US publisher paid six figures for follow-up The Muse. The story of Caribbean immigrant Odelle Bastien, which evolves into a mysterious tale of long-lost art work and 1930s Spain. Before the Fall by Noah Hawley Get ready to sacrifice your social life again: Hawley created and wrote Netflix hit Fargo and this, his fifth novel, promises to make you cancel even more dinner plans. Artist Scott Buroughs is involved in a suspicious plane crash, survivied only by himself and its super-rich owners young son. An increasingly nerve-wracking investigation follows. Hawley is, of course, already adapting it for screen. The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry Perrys debut novel, After Me Comes the Flood, was longlisted for the Guardian First Book of the Year, and the rights to her second were snapped up. A religious, secluded upbringing clearly impacts Perrys work: set in 1889, The Essex Serpent concerns widow Cora Seaborne, who finds Essex locals terrified of a mythical man-killing serpent on the marshes. A fellow sceptic, local vicar William, provides romance. Barkskins by Annie Proulx Another Pulitzer Prize-winning author, this time with a real heavy hitter. At more than 700 pages, Barkskins is being heralded as Proulxs masterwork  no small accolade, after Brokeback Mountain and The Shipping News. The epic, which shes been working on for a decade, is an environmentally-focused narrative set in the 17th century: expect intensely vivid depiction of landscape and character. The Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler I thought maybe I could make it more believable, says Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tyler of Shakespeares Taming of the Shrew. Her hilarious contemporary take on the play  part of the Shakespeare Project, in which acclaimed authors update the Bard  sees bored pre-school teacher Kate Battista caught up in her fathers plan to save a friend from deportation.

And while her visceral evocation of female fantasies is set nearly 50 years ago, it feels completely in tune with the present moment  when the old white male complaints dont seem so urgent any more. The Girls is one of the best novels Ive read about female adolescence  just Google the reviews from the teenage vloggers to see its effect first hand. And it follows on from Elena Ferrantes feted Neopolitan quartet in its exploration of female relationships: Girls are the only ones who can really give each other close attention, the kind we equate to being loved. Like the (still anonymous) Italian author, Cline tells an all-consuming tale where the womens stories are the stories that matter.

And as with so many novels about cults, The Girls is set to inspire a cultish devotion all of its own.

Follow Johanna Thomas-Corr on Twitter: @JohannaTC

Published by Chatto & Windus on June 16, 12.99
Its rare that penguins help kick-start an international career but since 1934, when webbed feet began padding down the impossibly slender concrete ramps of London Zoos penguin pool, Ove Arup was recognised as a creative mind to reckoned with.

Until his death in 1988 he was the worlds most celebrated engineer since Brunel and Eiffel. Next week the V&A opens a show dedicated to the charismatic Dane and the work of the company that he founded in 1938 and which still flourishes today with more than 12,000 staff worldwide and a Fitzrovia HQ.

Arup trained in philosophy then in engineering at the Royal Technical College in Copenhagen. He was a poet, accordion player, compulsive doodler and office joker. He also designed a crucial bit of kit for the D-Day landings.

Arup wrenched engineering out of the Victorian age of the slide-rule, log table and dividers to the wind tunnel and the computer. We know Jrn Utzon was the architect behind the Sydney Opera House and that the Pompidou Centre in Paris is by Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano. Whats less known is that these and many others of the worlds most celebrated buildings wouldnt have happened without Arup and his team.

Although Danish, Arup was actually born in Newcastle in 1895. He returned to Britain in 1923, bored of jobs that made little use of his imagination. For him, engineering was part of his philosophy of total design, where different professionals collaborated from the outset on a project: engineering should be as much a creative act as architecture, he believed, and demanded intuitive flair as much as mathematical precision. And London, with its exemplary tradition of building engineering, was the place to do this.

Master builders: the penguin pool for London Zoo / Alamy

It is appropriate that the V&A, an institution that has its origins in the 1851 Great Exhibition and Joseph Paxtons revolutionary Crystal Palace, is staging the first Arup retrospective, its first show dedicated to an engineer and part of the museums Engineering Season that runs until November.

Its also the first time that the Porter Gallery next to the main entrance has had a mezzanine inserted into it, a temporary affair built from a giant Italian Meccano-like storage system, sturdy enough to climb up to see the story of Arups early life and to look down over suspended exhibits. Its crimson-painted intenseness is distracting but the framing lends an air of an agreeably nerdy, retro workshop to the exhibition.

We learn of the penguin pool, the product of a collaboration with emigre architect Berthold Lubetkin who, fleeing the Nazis, imported Modernism to London, and Arups work during the Second World War, when he publically rubbished the governments small above-ground bomb shelters.

He devised an underground concrete version with more spiralling ramps that could solve the London shelter problem, funnelling 7,600 people to safety in three minutes. It was never built. Secretly, he was also one of hundreds of engineers working on the floating Mulberry harbour, which was shipped over to the French coast for the Normandy landings. Arups contribution was a harbour wall fender that would allow Allied ships to berth at speed in the Channel swell.

Peacetime brought him illustrious projects. When in 1957 fellow Dane Utzon won the international competition to build the Sydney Opera House, Arup suggested they work together. Utzons original roof design could never have been built but Arup found the solution, a circular geometry that could be broken down into pre-fabricated concrete triangles. Practical and beautiful.

On display is the Pegasus computer from the Sixties. The size of a wardrobe, it was the first time a computer had been used to make structural calculations. Without it, working out how the opera house roof could stay up would have taken 10 more years.

In the Seventies it was Arups team that devised the external structure and service pipes of the Pompidou Centre to leave its interiors uninterrupted. It was the start of the High-Tech style that British architects have since exported around the world, including to Norman Fosters extraordinary HSBC bank building in Hong Kong that is included in the show. A model of an eight-metre-long Pompidou beam hangs above the gallery entrance.

Along the way, the collegiate firm nurtured fresh talent, such as Ted Happold and Peter Rice, who later founded their own still-operating London engineering practices, ensuring through this diaspora that London remained the world centre for construction engineering. Arup himself was given knighthoods in both Britain and Denmark and, in London, received the Royal Gold Medal for architecture.

The final third of the exhibition is devoted to the work of the Arup practice itself following Oves death. Its a section that brings us into the digital age with the MassMotion crowd flow simulation program, and the Arup SoundLab used to investigate acoustics  whether in a concert hall or standing by the proposed HS2 rail link. The lab is recreated as a drum-shaped installation containing an audiovisual show that allows you to hear the space you are seeing on screen.

Projects from Crossrail to airports make an appearance but most extraordinary is the SolarLeaf walling system that Arup is now researching. The worlds first bio-reactive facade, microalgae is grown in water between two sheets of glass. When sunlight shines, photosynthesis occurs and the building is heated with the energy generated. Waste algae could be used in food. Monitoring the V&As SolarLeaf installation is part of the research.

Design and interiors shops in London 1 /41 Design and interiors shops in London CENTRAL Mint, Knightsbridge Mint has made a name for itself in the design world by offering exclusive works by both new, as well as internationally recognised, designers. Mint also places a strong focus on interpreting the latest interior design trends. With many one off and limited edition pieces made exclusively for Mint, having them in your home will make friends and family very jealous. Find it: 2 North Terrace, SW3 2BA ; mintshop.co.uk Mint Press CENTRAL Designers Guild, Kensington Designers Guild was established in 1970 by brother and sister, Trisha Guild and Simon Jeffreys. Their range of luxury designs, fabrics, wallcoverings and bed and bath collections are available worldwide but their UK flagship store is is situated in Kensington. Find it: 265-277 KING'S ROAD, SW3 5EN; designersguild.com CENTRAL Aram Store, Covent Garden When Zeev Aram opened his first showroom in 1964, the Londoners that walked past the shop front didnt know what had hit them. Today the shop features a huge range of stunning design pieces, from chairs and tables, to lamps and storage. There is even a whole floor of the shop dedicated to new work by designers that are still relatively unknown, as helping talented designers is something Aram has always deemed vital. Find it: 110 Drury Lane, WC2B 5SG; aram.co.uk CENTRAL Pentreath & Hall, Bloomsbury Pentreath & Hall was founded by accident five years ago when Ben Pentreath, an architect, decided to open a small shopfront on his office annex, and his friend Birdie Hall, an artist, decided to help him. The shop was born and has now grown to become a treasure chest of beautiful things. Only stocking items the pair both love, it is clear that these two are a very stylish duo. Ideal for contemporary twists on classic design pieces. Find it: 17 Rugby St, WC1N 3QT; pentreath-hall.com Pentreath & Hall Shop CENTRAL Andrew Martin, South Kensington The Andrew Martin shop is an explosion of different cultures, decades and nostaligia. Their design items are inspired by all three, and pieces on display have an unusual emotive power to them. Stepping inside you will see a range of unusual objects and things you wouldn't expect to see in an interior design shop, such as giant leather animals, some taller than six foot. Nothing on show is subtle - if you are after a few statement pieces this is the place for you. Find it: 198-200 Walton St, SW3 2JL; andrewmartin.co.uk CENTRAL Darkroom, Bloomsbury Favouring colour and texture over what the object is when it comes to the designs they have in store, Darkroom showcases items in a unique way. Against the signature black walls of the shop, their colourful pieces, ranging from vases to jewellery, really do pop. Find it: 52 Lamb's Conduit St, WC1N 3LL; darkroomlondon.com CENTRAL Jimmie Martin, Kensington Wacky is the word that best describes the Jimmie Martin shop. Featuring one-off pieces of furniture in bold colours, frequently neon, the designs are always quirky and unusual. Founders Jimmie Karlsson and Martin Nihlmar wanted to sell sophisticated design items that would be glamourous, yet retain an urban feel. Their animal print cushions are a must-see. Find it:77 Kensington Church St, W8 4BG; jimmiemartin.com Jimmie Martin CENTRAL Skandium, Knightsbridge Specialising in Scandinavian Modernism, Skandium has a range of unique designs on sale. All understated and chic, Skandium stocks furniture, ceramics, lighting and glass. Items are made to be durable and versatile, and all are laid out neatly in the shop. Skandium shows how cutting edge design can work in your home. Find it: 86 Marylebone High St, W1U 4QS; skandium.com NORTH mollymeg, Islington A child's dream come true. Molly Meg is an independent children's design store offering an adorable selection of furniture, home decoration, vintage style toys, gifts and party supplies. Although established since 2009, their first permanent store opened in October 2016. Find it: 111 Essex Rd, N1 2SL; mollymeg.com NORTH Indish, Crouch End Flying the design flag in Crouch End since 1996, Indish sell Scandinavian and British home orientated items with two things in common: an aesthetic and a function and useful and beautiful things. There are super hipsterish ornaments and decor to instantly liven up your living or bedroom, from vases and abstract cushions, to clocks and geometric wall art. These are also unique pieces that would make fabulous gifts. Indish is definitely for the cool and quirky. Find it: 16 Broadway Parade, N8 9DE; indish.co.uk NORTH Twenty Twenty-One, Islington You really cant miss Twenty Twenty-One when you are walking down Upper Street. The shop front is just as striking as what is for sale inside. As the name suggests the designs on offer combine classic styles from the twentieth century with contemporary designs. The clean aesthetic makes for elegant designs that won't tire over time. Find it: 275 Upper St, N1 2UA; twentytwentyone.com NORTH Pitfield, Hoxton Shop, cafe and exhibition centre in one, Pitfield is a lovely place to spend an afternoon. Homely meets modern, the space is packed with unusual pieces in many different styles. From vintage to designer, and from furniture to wallpaper, it would be difficult not to find what you are looking for. Find it: 31-35 Pitfield St, N1 6HB; pitfieldlondon.com NORTH Aria, Islington Aria is found in an impressive building which as well as being home to the design shop, is also the venue for many creative events. The shop stocks an eclectic range of contemporary furnishings as well as hand-selected vintage pieces. Aria also collaborates with local independent designers and artists so be sure to check them out if you are after something a little different. Find it: Barnsbury Hall, Barnsbury St, N1 1PN; ariashop.co.uk Louis Little NORTH Labour & Wait, Shoreditch Labour & Wait showcases quality, everyday design products for the home. You wont find any wacky designs here; everything is traditional and timeless. Many of the designers behind the creations on sale still use traditional manufacturing techniques. If you are after honest, wholesome homeware - look no further. Find it: 85 Redchurch St, E2 7DJ; labourandwait.co.uk NORTH Monologue, Shoreditch Just a few months old, Monologue is a contemporary concept store founded by interior designer Pavel Klimczack with a Scandi leaning. You'll find HAY stationary, soft throws in eclectic prints and unique accessories for the home. Find it: 93 Redchurch St, E2 7DP; monologuelondon.com NORTH Jasper Morrison, Hoxton Jasper Morrison provides an entirely different shopping experience. Featuring products from around the world, many made by anonymous designers, the designs on sale are unique, despite being everyday objects. Their website is definitely worth checking out; it, much like the shop, is the epitome of understated chic. Find it: 24 Kingsland Rd, E2 8DA; jaspermorrisonshop.com Jasper Morrison in Hoxton - press image NORTH Smug, Islington Full of personal touches, Smug reflects owner Lizzie Evans eclectic tastes. Items are displayed on unusual items of 1950s furniture that Lizzie has collected over the years, including Formica tables and even retro school desks. The shop space features its old waxed boards and rusty manhole covers combined with glass flooring. The result is a bright, open space that keeps its unique and old-fashioned charm. When you have finished browsing the homeware designs you can go to recently launched Cafe Smug for a quirky coffee. Find it: 13 Camden Passage, N1 8EA; ifeelsmug.com Lizzie Evans, founder of Smug - press image NORTH Atelier Abigail Ahern, Islington Designer and author of 'A Girl's Guide to Decorating', Abigail Ahern, is known across the design industry for her glamorous taste and ability to design pieces that are bold but also tasteful. The shop is enchanting. The design pieces on display feel luxurious and glamorous and the huge array of brightly-coloured flowers create a unique shopping experience. Find it: 137 Upper St, N1 1QP; abigailahern.com NORTH Future and Found, Tufnell Park Named after what they stock, future being new designs from around the world, and found representing the array of vintage market finds on display, the shop provides what it promises. All their designs are simple and the colour palette is uncluttered  you wont find an array of brash coloured objects here but rather muted shades. Find it: 225a Brecknock Rd, N19 5AA; futureandfound.com NORTH Triangle, Clapton Chatworth Road is a new London hotspot with its Sunday market, cafes and delis and Triangle is its latest addition as a design-led lifestyle store. Started by three close friends, Triangle sells everything from stylish teak tables to mid-century glassware via Scandinavian homeware from designers such as Normann Copenhagen. Find it: 92A Chatsworth Rd, E5 0LS; trianglestore.co.uk Triangle in Clapton - press image EAST HAUS, Victoria Park Haus offers a carefully considered selection of the best in contemporary furniture, lighting and homeware from their delightful East London shop. Products are sourced from leading European design brands and internationally renowned designers, as well as lesser known pieces from smaller producers and independent designers. Find it: 39 Morpeth Rd, E9 7LD; hauslondon.com EAST Earl of East London, Hackney This lifestyle brand prides itself in a love for mid-century and vintage products and offers stunning collectables, home decor items and personal accessories. Co-owners Niko and Paul have also developed their own range of interior fragrances inspired by their travels and memories. Find it: 13- 23 Westgate St, E8 3RL; earlofeastlondon.com Earl of East London lifestyle store - press image EAST SCP, Shoreditch Located in what used to be an old mattress factory in the middle of the Shoreditch Triangle, SCP Shoreditch has since been transformed into a chic location for interior design. Featuring over 200 brands over two floors, the shop showcases contemporary furniture and homeware accessories. On sale are also some of SCPs own designs which combine beauty with practicality. SCP are known to have launched famous names into the industry, such as James Irvine, Jasper Morrison and Terence Woodgate. Find it: 135-139 Curtain Rd, EC2A 3BX; scp.co.uk EAST Do Shop, Shoreditch Do Shop shows off the fun side of design. The shop features furniture, lighting, kitchenware which is functional but also inspiring. Do Shop also has the Do Masters programme where they select young design school graduates and market and sell their products in store. Most of the profit made then goes to the designers. Find it:16-28 Tabernacle Street, EC2A 4DD; do-shop.com EAST House of Hackney, Shoreditch If you're got a things for bold prints, then House of Hackney will be a treasure trove of design inspiration for you. Founded in 2010 by husband and wife team Javvy Royle and Frieda Gormley, the homeware products range from lampshades to shower curtains to wallpaper. You'll probably recognise their palm fronds design... Find it: 131-132 Shoreditch High St, E1 6JE; houseofhackney.com WEST The Old Cinema, Chiswick Dating back to the 1890s, The Old Cinema was just that. Now refurbished into Londons only department store dedicated to antiques, vintage and retro designs, it is well worth a visit. Items are sourced from around the world and many items are one off pieces that you wont find anywhere else. Find it: 160 Chiswick High Rd, W4 1PR; theoldcinema.co.uk WEST The Cloth Shop, Notting Hill The Cloth Shop is exactly what it calls itself. You will find a huge array of fabrics from around the world that are all made of natural fibres. Quilts from India, linens from Russia and woollen blankets from Ireland are all under one roof. If that wasnt enough the owners, Sam Harley and Alex Adams, who have been running the shop for over 20 years, can advise you on fabric measurements and recommendations. They really know their cloths! Find it: 290 Portobello Rd, W10 5TE; theclothshop.net WEST Tom Dixon, Portobello Dock The Tom Dixon shop is breath-taking. Nearly all of the items on sale are show-stopping pieces that would be the talking-point of a room. Established in 2002, this British product design brand turns everyday objects into extraordinary works of art. Even if you only want to have a browse, definitely stop by, you will be impressed. Find it: Wharf Building, Portobello Dock, 344 Ladbroke Grove, W10 5BU; tomdixon.net/uk Tom Dixon WEST Retrouvius, Kensal Green Founded by Adam Hills and Maria Speake, who met on their first day at the Mackintosh School of Architecture, their vision for the shop was unique. Salvaging items from skips, old offices and abandoned houses to name a few places, the shop is full of quirky pieces. Most pieces are sold as they were found, only a few are restored. Paul Smith once bought a device for measuring the length of men's trousers when horse riding from the shop. Current stock includes rare Derbyshire fossil limestone from the facade of a Farringdon demolition and Edwardian furniture from a London reference library. You really will find all sorts of odd things in Retrouvius. Find it: 1016 Harrow Rd, NW10 5NS; retrouvius.com/home WEST OKA, Chelsea What began as a mail orders interiors company in 1999, turned into an official shop in Parsons Green, by 2000. OKA offer hand-crafted rattan accessories and storage inspired by the Far East yet adapted and modernised for the West. OKA is now available in the prettiest spots across the UK. Find it: 155-167 Fulham Road, SW3 6SN; okadirect.com OKA Press SOUTH Do South Shop, Crystal Palace The perfect mix of rustic and modern. The Do South Shop was established in 2010 and has since become a warm and cozy home from home offering furniture, quirky lighting, luxury sofas and unique accessories to add that 'wow' factor. They also specialise in vintage furniture classics. Find it: 2 Westow Street, SE19 3AH; dosouthshop.com

But while the V&A is an institution with integrity and every museum exhibition devoted to a current practice demands the co-operation of its subject, it is discomforting that Arup has financially supported the show rather than just supplying exhibits and information. The shows opening panel states: Today the Arup firm is the worlds leading global engineering consultancy. This is probably true but it still rings of commercial promotion. It would have been more politic if the third section had been devoted to the legacy of Oves diaspora rather than the firm itself.

Thats not to undermine Ove Arups worthy candidature for a show dedicated to his genius. There were other engineers who made 20th-century architecture happen, such as his near contemporaries Pier Luigi Nervi and Joaquim Cardoso, but Arups legacy is unrivalled.

As if to underline the point, the shows opener is a tiny display case containing Isambard Kingdom Brunels drawing instruments in electrum, steel and ivory from 1836. Right behind it are the green panels of the SolarLeaf wall. A new world has been engineered. Ove Arup was there to usher it in.

Engineering the World: Ove Arup and the Philosophy of Total Design is at the V&A, SW7 (vam.ac.uk), from June 18 to November 6

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A City banker who frittered away his fortune on spreadbetting to avoid being called a wimp by colleagues has been ordered to hand his remaining assets to his ex-wife.

Amit Goyal, 39, earned up to 300,000 a year as a trader for Deutsche Bank and UBS in London, but blew much of his salary on holidays and high living with his beauty therapist wife Ankita Ghuman.

When the couple split in 2011, Mr Goyal admitted he had been sucked into spreadbetting due to pressure from other bankers, leading him to lose hundreds of thousands of pounds.

A judge ordered Mr Goyal, now living on benefits and more than 650,000 in debt, to hand over his remaining assets to Ms Ghuman, 35, to stop him gambling it away.

Mr Justice Cobb upheld the decision yesterday in the Court of Appeal, ruling that Mr Goyals financial recklessness to the detriment of his family meant he should be stripped of his remaining depressingly limited assets.

Mr Goyal worked for City banks throughout his marriage, which began in 2003, supplementing the family income with spreadbetting.

Initially he was earning up to 30,000 a year through gambling, but from 2007 began to suffer disastrous losses of up to 300,000 a year.

Since their split, the couple have been locked in an acrimonious legal battle over their finances.

At a hearing last year Judge Glenn Brasse had found Mr Goyal had been lured in by a constant circulation amongst the traders of information and tips about spreadbets, with a strong peer pressure to participate. He told the court that those who declined the invitation were laughed at as wimps.

So in order not to lose face, a trader would feel he had to take part. The husband did not want to be seen as a wimp. He wanted credibility in the eyes of his peers.

As part of the divorce settlement, Mr Goyal must surrender 19,000 in UBS shares to his ex-wife, pay her 500 a month in maintenance and share his pension with her. Dismissing his appeal against the settlement, Mr Justice Cobb said Ms Ghuman was entitled to such financial payments as the depressingly limited family assets would permit, to provide if possible for her housing.

The husband had frittered away the matrimonial assets. Having dissipated all the wealth of the family, this husband should not have a penny more.

Mr Goyal has vowed to challenge the court ruling over sharing his pension, and claims that he does not have one.
P olice have carried out a controlled explosion on a suspicious vehicle near the Israeli Embassy in Kensington.

Witnesses reported hearing a blast after Metropolitan Police officers cordoned off the road in High Street Kensington.

The Israeli Embassy is on the adjacent Palace Green, less than 100 metres from Kensington Palace.

A Met spokesman confirmed they had been called to a "suspicious vehicle" before undertaking a controlled explosion.

HIGH ST KEN.mp4

Officers set up a police line and directed members of the public away from the scene while it was on-going.

T.S. O Ceallaigh wrote on Twitter: "Looks like something serious is happening in #Kensington. Lots of police officers clearing area near High Street Ken."

Shut down: Police cordoned off the road and were directing people away from the scene

Another user, Judy Johnson, wrote: "High Street Kensington evacuated by police (street not tube) - what's going on?"

And Freddy Clode said: "Just in High St Kensington, big explosion, then immediate police everywhere closing off road, stuck in the repercussive traffic - hope it's ok"

The area was reopened shortly after 6.30pm.
A top police officer today praised heroic Londoners who stepped in when a knife-wielding fanatic went on the rampage at a Tube station.

Isis-inspired Muhaydin Mire slashed an innocent man's throat while shouting "this is for my Syrian brothers" during the terrifying episode at Leytonstone station.

But after taking a knife to the neck of musician Lyle Zimmerman in the middle of the ticket hall he was cornered by brave members of the public.

Former Uber driver Mire, 30, was today convicted of attempted murder after he launched the attack in December last year as revenge for British bombing raids on Syria.

Commander Dean Haydon, of Scotland Yard's Counter Terrorism Command, praised the bravery of Londoners who responded calmly and sensibly to the attack.

They included bystanders who stepped in to try to stop Mires rampage, a junior doctor who gave medical attention to his victim, the officers who Tasered the knifeman, and those who filmed the incident - providing key evidence for his conviction.

Tube horror: the attack at Leytonstone station

Cmdr Haydon said: "I would like to focus not on the terrible actions of Mire last December but the bravery of all of those involved.

The junior doctor who gave medical aid to the victim as he lay bleeding on the floor, people who attempted to intervene, people who took video footage which has aided the prosecution and people who engaged Mire and kept his attention, restricting his movement around the station; effectively confining him until the police arrived and detained him.

"This was Londoners responding calmly and sensibly to a very dangerous individual and all should be praised.

"The officers who detained Mire were faced with a man armed with a knife and with blood on his hands, using their Taser, they were able to disarm him quickly and effectively, but I have no doubt it took immense bravery to go forward at that moment.

Guilty: Muhaydin Mire

"Whilst Mire has not been accused of any terrorist offences it would appear from comments he made at the time of the attack and the content he had downloaded on his phone that he may have been inspired by extremist ideology."

Former taxi driver Mire had pictures of Islamic State executions, bombings in Syria, and an image of murdered Fusilier Lee Rigby on his mobile phone when he carried out the attack on December 5 last year.

He told bystanders: Im going to attack your civilians as he mimicked ISIS executions by sawing at Mr Zimmermans neck for around 15 seconds.

When Mire was Tasered by police and pinned to the ground, a bystander was captured on film shouting you aint no Muslim bruv, providing an anti-terror rallying cry on social media and across the world.

Mire admitted wounding Mr Zimmerman but denied he had tried to kill him, and he also pleaded guilty to trying to stab four other people during the mayhem.

However an Old Bailey jury today found him guilty of attempted murder.

Mr Zimmerman passed out when the knife was taken to his neck, but miraculously survived thanks to the assistance of a passing doctor who treated him at the scene before paramedics arrived.

Mire, armed with a bread knife, then tapped his Oyster out as he left the station, trying to stab Polish man Daniel Bielinski who dodged out of the way and then lunging at other commuters including Serena Valori, security guard Andrius Sabaliauskas and lift engineer David Pethers.

After his arrest, police found searches on his mobile phone for Sharia Law and Islamic State, and images of hostages about to be beheaded by ISIS militants.

Mire, of Sansom Road, Leytonstone, admitted wounding with intent and four counts of attempted wounding. He denied but was found guilty of attempted murder.

Judge Nicholas Hilliard QC, the Recorder of London, remanded Mire in custody to Broadmoor Hospital until his sentencing hearing on July 27.
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 8

By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend:

Azerbaijan is studying the possibility to build a plant for production of synthetic motor oils using the natural gas liquefaction technology at the Sumgait Chemical Industrial Park (SCIP), according to the 2016 catalogue of Azerbaijan's investment projects published by the Azerbaijan Export and Investment Promotion Foundation (AZPROMO).

"Major car manufacturers recommend the use of synthetic motor oils," says the catalogue. "Considering that there is no such production in Azerbaijan, import volumes are high and continue to rise."

Synthetic motor oils can be produced using the gas-to-liquids (GTL) technology [natural gas liquefaction], according to the catalogue.

"Considering the large reserves of the Shah Deniz gas field, Azerbaijan has good opportunities to develop this technology," says the catalogue. "Construction of the plant will be a driver of the chemical production's development, and liquefied gas can be used as a raw material for production of other chemical products."

The project's cost is estimated at $350 million. Its implementation period is two years and investments are planned to be repaid in eight years.

Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree to create the Sumgait Chemical Industrial Park in December 2011.

The Sumgait Chemical Industrial Park includes the following residents: Azertexnolayn, SOCAR Polymer, Azerfloat, Azerbaijan Fibro Cement, SIKA company, Baku Non-Ferrous Metals & Ferroalloys Company and MST Engineering.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @MaksimTsurkov
A former Uber driver who slashed the throat of an innocent commuter at Leytonstone tube station in revenge for the UKs bombing raids in Syria has been found guilty of attempted murder.

Muhaydin Mire, 30, shouted this is for my Syrian brothers as he took a knife to the neck of musician Lyle Zimmermann in the middle of the ticket hall, just three weeks after the ISIS inspired terror attacks in Paris.

The former taxi driver had pictures of Islamic State executions, bombings in Syria, and an image of murdered Fusilier Lee Rigby on his mobile phone when he carried out the attack on December 5 last year.

He told bystanders: Im going to attack your civilians as he mimicked ISIS executions by sawing at Mr Zimmermans neck for around 15 seconds.

Tube horror: the attack at Leytonstone station

The shocking incident, which happened with Britain on high alert for an ISIS inspired attack on our soil, was captured on mobile phone footage shot by other commuters.

When Mire was Tasered by police and pinned to the ground, a bystander was captured on film shouting you aint no Muslim bruv, providing an anti-terror rallying cry on social media and across the world.

Mire admitted wounding Mr Zimmerman but denied he had tried to kill him, and he also pleaded guilty to trying to stab four other people during the mayhem.

However an Old Bailey jury today found him guilty of attempted murder.

Mr Zimmerman, a 56-year-old musician was carrying a guitar, a mandolin, and an amplifier when he was kicked repeatedly by Mire and knocked to the ground.

"I remember something very shocking happening. I don't recall what it was," he told the trial. "I don't remember if I was cut or knifed at that point but I do remember been shocked or something violent happening. I remember I started to yell for help. I remember been forced down and kicked in the head.

"I can recall been kicked around six times. I may have been kicked more after I lost consciousness. They were very violent kicks."

Fanatic: Muhaydin Mire

Mr Zimmerman passed out when the knife was taken to his neck, but miraculously survived thanks to the assistance of a passing doctor who treated him at the scene before paramedics arrived.

Mire, armed with a bread knife, then tapped his Oyster out as he left the station, trying to stab Polish man Daniel Bielinski who dodged out of the way and then lunging at other commuters including Serena Valori, security guard Andrius Sabaliauskas and lift engineer David Pethers.

After his arrest, police found searches on his mobile phone for Sharia Law and Islamic State, and images of hostages about to be beheaded by ISIS militants.

He also had a picture of Labour shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn advocating airstrikes in Syria in the House of Commons three days earlier.

"It can be no coincidence that he carried out the attack three days after Parliament had voted to extend the bombing campaign against ISIS to territory in Syria, said prosecutor Jonathan Rees QC.

"The evidence clearly establishes that the motive underpinning this attack was that bombing campaign in Syria. That was at the very forefront at his mind."

The court heard Somali-born Mire came to the UK as a young boy, and was first detained in hospital after a psychotic episode in 2006.

He moved to Leytonstone in 2011, taking jobs as an Uber taxi driver and a council estate caretaker but he was forced to give up work because of anxiety, panic attacks, and depression.

Mire was referred to hospital a month before the attacks because he was suffering from paranoid delusions that he was being followed by MI5 and MI6 agents.

Mire, of Sansom Road, Leytonstone, admitted wounding with intent and four counts of attempted wounding. He denied but was found guilty of attempted murder.

Judge Nicholas Hilliard QC, the Recorder of London, remanded Mire in custody to Broadmoor Hospital until his sentencing hearing on July 27.
A woman was sexually assaulted by a waiter after going to collect an Indian takeaway meal in south-west London, police say.

Police today released images of a man who is wanted in connection with the attack as they continue to investigate the incident in Surbiton.

The victim, who was 22, visited the Prithi Bangladeshi and Indian restaurant on Saturday November 9 in 2013 to pick up a takeaway order.

She was sexually assaulted by a waiter as she left the restaurant in Ewell Road, the Met Police said.

Police said the man they want to speak to may now be working in Cambridge / Met Police

Detectives today released two images of a man they want to speak to and said he may be working somewhere in Cambridge.

He is described as a Bangladeshi man in his 30s and about 5ft 3in tall with short dark hair.

Officers said he may be known either as Mohammed Sala Huddin Ahmed or Moyen Qureshi.

Detective Constable Iain Millar of Kingston CID at the Metropolitan Police said: "We continue to appeal to trace this man and believe he may now be working in the Cambridge area.

He has worked in numerous restaurants and also has links to the Thames Valley area and the West Midlands.

I would appeal to anyone who recognises this man, or knows where he is, to contact police.

If anyone has seen the suspect or has any information on his whereabouts, please contact DC Millar of Kingston CID on 101 quoting reference CRIS 0410433/13 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111
A man has been detained in a mental institution after raping a commuter in a prolonged and violent sexual assault at a Kent railway station.

The woman had taken pity on Edward Clifford, who seemed to be ill, and offered him help before he attacked her at Swanley station.

A spokesman for British Transport Police said: He subjected her to a prolonged and violent sexual assault.

The victim managed to get away and ran to a member of the public, who called the police.

Following the September 16 attack, Clifford, of no fixed address, was arrested close to the scene and charged with two counts of rape and a serious sexual assault.

On Monday at Maidstone Crown Court he was convicted of the offences and detained under the Mental Health Act.

The woman, who gave evidence during the case, was praised by the judge for her bravery in speaking out.

Investigating officer Detective Constable Ed Slater from the Major Incident Team said: Incidents like this are thankfully very rare on our railways but we will always fully investigate any report of sexual assault and fully support victims throughout the process.
T wo teenagers have told how they were punched to the ground and mugged by a group of men as they made their way home from a night out in south London.

Georgia McDonnell, 18, chased after the two to three men who allegedly assaulted her and best friend Jade Potter, 19, in Sutton High Street in the early hours of Sunday morning.

The pair had sat down on a bench to arrange a lift home after leaving the towns Wonderland nightclub at about 3.30am when they were set upon.

They were approached from behind by the suspects who punched them both to the floor before snatching their iPhones and Ms McDonnells purse.

Ms Potter, a restaurant supervisor, was knocked unconscious and left with a black eye, while her friend fought back and then gave chase.

Best friends: Georgia McDonnell (left) and Jade Potter

Passers-by called the emergency services and the girls, who live in Ashtead, Surrey, were taken to hospital with cuts and bruises to the face and body.

Ms Potter told the Standard: I remember coming out of the club and sitting on a bench and then literally out of nowhere I felt the force of a mans fist against my face and it knocked me out.

The whole thing was a blur. That is the most frustrating thing about it, I cant remember what they looked like.

Ms McDonnell, a personal assistant, said: I was knocked to the ground. It felt like trying to fight back with my eyes closed.

Ms McDonnell suffered cuts to her face

All I can really remember after that is getting up and running up the high street after a man.

Me and Jade havent left each others side since. We are still very tearful. I am scared to go out by myself.

The girls said their belongings were later found discarded on the pavement, including their iPhones, which had been smashed up.

Ms Potters mum Debbie, 37, hopes that sharing photos of the girls bruised faces will encourage anyone who saw the attack to come forward.

She said: They are good girls. They were just on a night out to enjoy themselves. I am angry and upset, just a whole mixture of emotions.

Jade has two young brothers aged 14 and six and for them to see her like that is just absolutely awful. The girls confidence has been completely knocked.

Police have issued an appeal for witnesses to the assault and arrested a 39-year-old man in connection with the incident.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: Police are investigating a report of an assault on two women near the junction of Carshalton Road and Sutton High Street on Sunday, June 5 at 3.30am.

A 39-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of aggravated bodily harm and has been bailed until mid-July pending further enquiries.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Sutton Police station on 101 quoting ref no: 4006202/16 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
A young father was stabbed to death in a red carpet brawl outside upmarket City restaurant Caravaggio because of a row over cloakroom queue-jumping, the Old Bailey heard.

Kabba Kamara, 23, had attended the 20-a-head Red Carpet @ Caravaggio R&B club night for a friends birthday when he was stabbed in the abdomen.

Junior Afolayan, 24, is accused of delivering the fatal blow to Mr Kamara during the 3am bust-up outside the Italian restaurant, egged on by brothers Ayodeji and Olatunde Odunyemi.

"There wasn't any trouble during the course of the event in the restaurant until the end," said prosecutor Alan Kent QC.

"It was December and a lot of people all at the same time went to get their coats.

"There was no form of orderly queue around that cloakroom area, and there began to be a little bit of pushing and shoving.

"It's not entirely clear who started it or why it started."

Several eyewitnesses recorded the cloakroom row and the ensuing violence outside on their phones, and it was also caught on the restaurants CCTV cameras in Leadenhall Street.

On the footage, played to the court this afternoon, someone shouted "let's go outside" before Afolayan allegedly said "let's go and get the ting".

A bout of "pushing and shoving" broke out on the red carpet outside Caravaggio as the partygoers spilled out of the front door.

During the jostling, a glass Mr Kamara was holding goes flying, said Mr Kent, and as the violence escalated, Ayodeji Odunyemi, 24, is seen on camera fighting with Mr Kamara.

Stabbing: The row took place outside Caravaggio restaurant / Jeremy Selwyn

His older brother Olatunde 25, then turned to Afolayan and said: "Where's the knife?", the court heard.

Afolayan allegedly ran at Mr Kamara, stabbing him once in the abdomen and causing him to fall back against a street sign.

Mr Kamara, who was born in Sierra Leone, collapsed in the street and died from his injuries just over 24 hours later in hospital.

Many witnesses didn't see a stabbing, they saw what they described to police as a punch, said Mr Kent.

The two groups didn't know each other, it's not as if there was any history between these three defendants and Mr Kamara and any of his friends.

They just happened to be at the same event that particular night.

Afolayan, of Wandsworth Road, Clapham, and the Olatunde brothers, both of Loughborough Street, Lambeth, all deny murder and an alternative charge of manslaughter.

The trial continues.
T he hospital with the worst A&E delays in London has received an unprecedented order to improve after a swoop by inspectors found that care was not effective.

North Middlesex hospital in Edmonton was issued with a warning notice by the Care Quality Commission after concerns were raised about patient care.

MPs were told that one patient died last December after an unacceptable wait in A&E. At 11pm on one Friday in February, a Tannoy message advised the 100 people in the waiting room that there was an eight-hour wait to be seen and that they should go home unless they were dying.

The hospital, in one of the most deprived areas of north London, has been under intense pressure since the closure of Chase Farm A&E in 2013 and a lack of GPs.

Up to 500 people a day attend its A&E department. In 2014, David Burrowes, the Tory MP for Enfield Southgate, said he nearly died after being left for 12 hours on a trolley with a burst appendix amid chaotic scenes.

Todays CQC warning notice follows an unannounced inspection in April and requires the trust to significantly improve the treatment of A&E patients. It has until August 26 to make the changes or could face further action.

Inspectors found delays in the initial assessment of patients, assessment by a doctor and in moving patients to specialist wards. There were also insufficient middle-grade doctors and consultants.

Professor Edward Baker, CQCs deputy chief inspector of hospitals, said: When we inspected, we found that patients were not receiving the quality of care that they should have been.

We have strongly encouraged the trust to engage with other organisations across the local health and social care system to resolve this challenging issue. We will continue to monitor the trust closely.

The hospital saw 68 per cent of A&E patients within four hours in March, the worst performance in London. It rose to 72 per cent last month, but the NHS target is 95 per cent.

Julie Lowe, the hospitals chief executive, said: We appreciate the CQCs acknowledgement of our difficulties and the impact of the shortage of middle-grade and consultant emergency department doctors, which has led them to issue the warning notice.

We have one of Londons busiest A&E departments and we performed well against the waiting-time targets until last summer.

"However, we currently have only seven out of 15 emergency department consultants in post and seven out of 13 middle-grade emergency doctors. Its a strain on our A&E team and its making waiting times for some patients unacceptably long.

We have undertaken extensive recruitment exercises and despite our best efforts have, so far, been unable to fill all the posts, although we have made good progress in recent weeks.
T he first men have started receiving a vaccination as part of a pilot to stamp out cancers and genital disease.

The scheme went live in two clinics this week and will eventually see 40,000 men vaccinated to protect them against penile, anal and other cancers.

The project is specifically targeted at men who have sex with men, but ministers are exploring the possibility of rolling out the HPV vaccine to all boys.

The shot targets the human papillomavirus which is also the cause of cervical cancer in girls, already subject to a successful UK vaccination programme.

Health minister Jane Ellison told MPs: I am pleased to announce that the pilot in England has already started.

Two clinics went live yesterday and others will come on board as soon as they are ready, hopefully over the next few months.

She explained that the initial scheme would run during 2016 to 2017 with decisions on the next steps dependent on the pilots progress and outcome.

Ms Ellison said more research needed to be carried out before the vaccine was pushed out to all adolescent boys.

Finchley and Golders Green MP Mike Freer, who called a debate on the issue, said it had taken us three years to get to this point. But he added: I welcome the pilot and the ministers explanation of the complexities and why we have to ensure the pilot is robustly monitored before we can take the extension of the vaccinations any further.

HPV is associated with 80 to 85 per cent of all anal cancer in men. Some 47 per cent of penile cancers and 16 per cent of head and neck cancers are thought to be HPV-related.
A 10-year-old cancer patient's wheelchair was stolen as he enjoyed his first day out with his family since leaving hospital.

Cameron Austin had spent nine months in the Royal Marsden Hospital in Sutton after being diagnosed with Leukemia in September last year.

He was finally allowed to return to his home in Cheam in south west London three weeks ago and his family decided to enjoy a rare day out to a nearby park on Sunday.

But after they returned home, his mother Elaine was horrified to discover Camerons wheelchair had been stolen from outside their home.

Treatment: Cameron Austin spent his 10th birthday in the Royal Marsden Hospital, Sutton / Elaine Austin

Mrs Austin told the Standard: It was the first time Cameron went out in the wheelchair with us.

We have a dog so Cameron decided he wanted to come out in the wheelchair and go to the park. We had a lovely walk.

We got him out the chair and took him inside and when we came back out, it was gone.

Mrs Austin said she initially thought her husband Joe was playing a trick on her but soon realised the wheelchair had been stolen by a heartless thief.

She said: I blamed myself. It is disheartening to think there is someone out there who would do something so low.

I thought how can anybody do something like that. It makes you feel sick to the stomach. Cameron has been through so much.

I was hoping it might have been some kids having a laugh but my gut instinct is it was just someone in a van taking it and hoping they can sell it on for a bit of money.

Since the theft on Sunday, the community has rallied together to help get a replacement wheelchair for Cameron.

Devastated: Cameron's mother Elaine Austin said the theft was "disheartening" / Elaine Austin

Mrs Austin added: It is amazing to have this support. This is the second time Cameron has been ill but everyone is so supportive.

I cannot thank everyone enough. It makes a horrible situation better.

Mrs Austin said she did not want her son, who also had a two-and-a-half year battle with Non-Hodgkin lymphoma at the age of two, to become dependent on the wheelchair.

She added: He is recovering and I want to encourage him to get up and walk. He will only get stronger.

A Metropolitan Police Service spokesman said police were aware of the theft and are investigating.

Anyone with information on the theft should call police on 101, quoting reference number 4006260/16, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0900 555 111.
T he cyclist who died in a collision with a bus while on a bike club outing was a kind and unique man, his heartbroken partner said today.

Father of three Dan Cash Stephenson, 45, suffered fatal head injuries after an impact with the No 15 Routemaster bus in Aldwych on Saturday.

He died on Sunday night and leaves two daughters, a son and his partner, Nicola Jane Stringer.

Mr Stephenson, an engineer whose passion was building bikes and riding BMXs, is the third cyclist to die on Londons roads in a month.



Strand crash: Dan Stephenson, pictured on a BMX

Ms Stringer, 54, a beautician from Bexleyheath, south east London, said: Dan was a kind and unique man. He was everybodys friend and loved a laugh.

"His passion was building BMX bikes. He was never more happy than riding one of his bikes along with friends.

Privately he was a kind, creative and deep-thinking person. It is ironic that he should meet his end doing the thing he loved most. Im missing him more than words can say.

On Friday evening, cycle campaigners will remember him at a die in vigil outside City Hall to demand that Mayor Sadiq Khan continues to implement his predecessor Boris Johnsons long-term plan for safer cycle routes.

Accident: Wreckage of the bike at the scene after its rider was taken away by ambulance / @mehbo

Friends described him as the best bloke you could meet and how his eccentric dress sense - nearly always wearing tartan - raised a smile. They also said he revelled in his physical likeness to British rocker Billy Idol.

They also questioned how such an experienced cyclist lost his life and demanded answers.

Stephane Wright, a close friend from the BMX community, said: He was just the best, he was so funny and good company and always willing to help. He always wore tartan and was a one of a kind.

If someone had a problem whether it was illness or anything he would be there. You could not meet a better person. We want a full investigation into how this happened. He was a good rider and this should not have happened.

On the day of his death Mr Stephenson, who lived in Rochester, Kent, had joined BMX riders from the north of England for an organised ride around some of the capitals landmarks.

He was part of a network of BMXers who had taken up the sport when it gained popularity in Britain in the 1980s.

Friend Gary Brennan said: Dan was a best friend  the world is a darker place today for missing him. I just cant put into words how heartbroken I am.

Its high time something was done about the sheer number of deaths and injuries to cyclists on Londons roads. Ive cycled in London a few times and its literally the only place in the world I felt uncomfortable.

Emergency services were called shortly after 5pm to the Strand, at the junction with Arundel Street, and took Mr Stephenson to hospital.

Leon Daniels, managing director of surface transport at Transport for London, said: I am saddened to hear about the incident on Saturday in which a male cyclist collided with a Route 15 bus on the Strand.

Our thoughts are with both the family and friends of the cyclist and we are working closely with the police to investigate this incident.

Mr Stephensons death follows that of Christopher Hope, 58, who died on May 15, four days after colliding with a car in Hornchurch, and Magda Tadaj, 25, who was killed in collision with a lorry in Croydon on May 23.

Police appealed for witnesses to Saturdays crash to contact the Merton traffic garage on 020 8543 5157.
A n elderly couple who stunned clubbers at one of Londons biggest techno nights by downing Tequila shots and raving until 5am today told how their trip to Fabric nightclub was a dream come true.

The capitals oldest ravers - who made headlines around the world when pictures of their partying appeared online last month -were named as retired engineer Wadysaw Nykiel, 82, and his wife Stanisawa Zapasnik, 79, a former bank worker.

The pensioners from Warsaw in Poland were on holiday visiting their niece in Manor House, Hackney, when they spent a night at the club after reading a review in a Polish newspaper.

The pair bought 6 tickets to the underground house and techno party WetYourSelf, which runs every Sunday.

The couple arrived at 11pm and ballroom danced with clubbers, drank tea for free and partied in the VIP area. Pictures of the couple dancing at the club which appeared on social media went viral.

They husband and wife now written to club promoter Jakub Hansen to say thank you for the wonderful night.

Mr Nykiel said: My partner, Stanisawa, had some trouble with going downstairs due to the fact that she is using a crutch. At the beginning we used a coupon for a free wine. We kept the other one as a souvenir.

After a while Mr Hansen brought us some hot tea. Then we had a lot of fun with the London youth. They greeted us and made some photos of us while we were dancing. One of the fans gave me a Handsome Hustler cap.

I have been dreaming about this for eight years; to see and hear music at Fabric. I think that Fabric is the best club in London.

I cant find words to describe those wonderful memories that will last till the end of our lives. It is a huge club, which has surprising inside and great audio. The sound surrounds people all around and the security is doing really well.

I found information and news about Fabric and other clubs such as The Cross, The End, Heaven on the internet. My dream came true on Sunday, 15 of May 2016. Now I can recall my memories among my friends.

Mr Nykiel dismissed accusations online that their visit was a PR stunt adding: We were in London for the first time, nobody had spoken with us until then.

The couple ended their night at 5.30am and went back to Hackney in a cab paid for by the club.

They stayed in London for two weeks where they saw many attractive places and flew home on May 23.

Despite having a great night Mr Nykiel suggested the club consider playing more electro music, adding: I am not really into techno music party. I really love electronic dancing music, which Fabric used to play. Personally I would advise Mr Hansen to play this kind of music from time-to-time. Maybe once week or three times a month  it is worth trying.

The couples grandaughter paid tribute to the couple online saying Ive got the coolest grandma in the world.

She wrote on Facebook to a friend: Next time, if youre coming to Poland, lets go clubbing with my grandma.
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 8

By Aygun Badalova - Trend:

Total OPEC oil production will rise to 32.25 million barrels per day in 2016 and 33.04 million barrels per day in 2017, according to the forecasts of the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), published in its Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO).

According to EIA, OPEC's oil production amounted to 31.55 million barrels per day in 2015.

OPEC oil production capacity will stand at 33.89 million barrels per day in 2016 and 34.37 million barrels pre day in 2017. OPEC surplus oil production capacity is forecast at 1.54 million barrels per day in 2016 and 1.33 million barrels per day in 2017.

On June 2 OPEC failed to agree on output policy and set a new ceiling. The next OPEC meeting will be held Nov. 30 in Vienna.

Total OPEC oil production in April averaged 32.44 million barrels per day, an increase of 188,000 barrels per day over the previous month, according to OPEC latest Oil Market Report.
A terraced house has collapsed while undergoing building work in south-east London.

The 690,000 house dramatically caved in on itself a day after police had closed off part of a road in Lewisham after it began to sag.

Neighbours said there was a sound "like a bomb had gone off" as it came crashing down on Wednesday.

It is understood those living next door to the Victorian terrace in Lampmead Road had already been evacuated due to structural concerns.

The area was cordoned off due to the roof leaning over the pavement / Ted Aston

Lewisham police had tweeted a picture of the leaning house moments before the roof caved in, saying it was "structurally unstable".

Ken Taylor, who lives opposite, said heard a "big crunch" at around 11am.

The 74 year-old company director told the Standard: It was strange, first of all a couple of bricks fell out then gradually the whole roof sagged outwards and some of it fell off.

Today they were just about to start inspecting it with a cherry picker when the whole roof fell in, maybe it was the vibrations from the cherry picker.

It was really exciting, there was a big crunch and a big cloud of dust, it was like a bomb had gone off.

Lots of people have been coming round taking pictures since it happened.

The house was sold at the beginning of the year for 665,000 and was valued at about 690,000 before the incident according to Zoopla.

A planning application asking for permission to build rear and side extensions was lodged with Lewisham council in April.

Mr Taylor added that the house had undergone a lot of work since it had been sold in January and had not been lived in for a while.

Local architect Ted Aston, 55, told the Standard: "The roof of the building was leaning over the street, the corner of the road was cordoned off and they werent letting anyone near it.

I spoke to a police officer outside and she told me next door had been evacuated, as she understands it all of the internal walls have been removed.

These buildings are nearly 100 years old and even though some partitions appear to be non-load bearing, some of the partitions become part of the whole building.

A Met Police spokesman confirmed no-one was injured in the incident
A foolhardy driver was caught on camera plunging his vehicle into two-metre deep water as flash floods hit south London.

Torrential rain fell on parts of the capital on Tuesday afternoon, with Wallington among the worst areas affected.

Three people were rescued from their cars in Manor Road after the vehicles became submerged in flood water.

But one driver has been caught on camera driving straight into the rising flood water.

In a video uploaded to Facebook, heavy rain is seen falling at Wallington station and the drains beneath the railway bridge struggle to cope.

Warning: Contains some strong language towards the end of the clip

As the flood water begins to rise, a blue Vauxhall Zafira  which appears to have a minicab sticker in its window  is seen approaching the bridge.

Flooding in London 1 /14 Flooding in London Flooding in at The Bridge, Wallington Surrey Submerged: a car after flash floods in south London Paul Jolly Flooding under the railway bridge in Wallington Surrey Paul Murrihy Flooding in Wallington Surrey Louise Garwood Flooding in Wallington Surrey Daniel Robert Cotter Flooding in Wallington Surrey Louise Garwood The river Wandle flooding into into a back garden https://www.facebook.com/groups/wallingtonsurrey/ Debbie Ritchie Flooding in Wallington Surrey https://www.facebook.com/groups/wallingtonsurrey/ Rama S Jeyan Flooding in Wallington Surrey @a_secker/PA Flooding in Wallington Surrey @a_secker/PA A car submerged in floodwater in Wallington, Surrey @a_secker/PA

The person behind the camera can be heard saying: I think this guy might go for it, as the car in front decides to pull onto the opposite side of the road to avoid getting caught up in the floodwater.

As the Zafira continues to drive towards the bridge, people who have gathered on the pavement say: Oh no and within seconds, floodwater covers the vehicles bonnet.

Wallington flooding: Cars submerged underwater as flash floods hit south London

Just moment later, the water almost reaches the passenger side window.

As the driver slams on the brakes, the car is swept away in the flood water and it can be seen being carried along the road for a short distance.

The person behind the camera says: Why would you go for it? What are you doing? Ahh no, hes actually floating.

The video has been viewed more than one million times and shared 13,000 times since it was uploaded at 2.45pm on Tuesday.

London Fire Brigade (LFB) said it received up to 200 flood-related 999 calls, with the most significant incident in Wallington.

An LFB spokesman said two people were assisted from their cars before the arrival of firefighters and a third person was rescued.

London Ambulance Service said one man was checked over at the scene but was not taken to hospital.
L ondoners have been warned to brace themselves for more storms after heavy downpours soaked the city on Tuesday, bringing flash floods and wreaking havoc across the capital.

Forecasters said that although today will start off dry and sunny, there is a risk that heavy, thundery showers will develop throughout the afternoon.

However, there is unlikely to be a repeat of yesterday's flooding, as downpours are not expected to be quite so intense this afternoon.

The warm temperatures that have been around since the weekend are set to continue today, with the temperatures potentially reaching as high as 27C.

Aftermath of South London flooding

The Met Office said there is likely to be some "very warm" sunshine this morning, before cloud builds throughout the day.

However, today could spell the end of the warm weather, with temperatures due to drop off from tomorrow onwards.

A band of high pressure means tomorrow is likely to see temperatures of up to 23C in the capital, but towards the weekend a front is due to move in from the west, bringing cloud and light showers.

A Met Office spokesperson said: "It will be a warm and bright day for many today, with some bright or sunny spells.

Flooding in London 1 /14 Flooding in London Flooding in at The Bridge, Wallington Surrey Submerged: a car after flash floods in south London Paul Jolly Flooding under the railway bridge in Wallington Surrey Paul Murrihy Flooding in Wallington Surrey Louise Garwood Flooding in Wallington Surrey Daniel Robert Cotter Flooding in Wallington Surrey Louise Garwood The river Wandle flooding into into a back garden https://www.facebook.com/groups/wallingtonsurrey/ Debbie Ritchie Flooding in Wallington Surrey https://www.facebook.com/groups/wallingtonsurrey/ Rama S Jeyan Flooding in Wallington Surrey @a_secker/PA Flooding in Wallington Surrey @a_secker/PA A car submerged in floodwater in Wallington, Surrey @a_secker/PA

"There will also be some showers around, which could be heavy and thundery at times, but they won't be as intense or as widespread compared to Tuesday."
F rantic talks to extend the voter registration deadline were launched today after the system crashed as half a million people rushed to sign up to take part in the EU referendum.

A furious David Cameron ordered lawyers to seek an extension of the deadline to prevent tens of thousands being robbed of their vote.

MPs demanded a 24-hour extension  and angrily accused officials of blundering by failing to prepare for the last-minute rush of people trying to sign up ahead of the vote on June 23.

An estimated seven million Britons have not yet registered.

The online system crashed last night two hours before the midnight deadline, after an extraordinary flood of 500,000 successful applications yesterday.

A live usage site indicated more than 26,000 people were trying to use the service with just five minutes to go before the midnight cut-off point, and more than 20,000 were still on the site at 12.01am on Wednesday morning.

Traffic peaked at about 10.15pm when there were more than 50,000 people on the registration page.

The service struggled as voters flooded the site, with pages taking longer to load before the site appeared to go down. According to the usage site the service began to recover before the deadline passed.

Whitehall sources indicated to the Standard that a modest extension might be the only possible compensation for would-be voters.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who had issued an appeal to people to sign up just before the crash, backed calls for people to be given extra time. The deadline has to be extended, he said.

Lib-Dem leader Tim Farron called it a shambles and said it could have major consequences for the Remain campaign because young voters, who are overwhelmingly more pro-EU, were among the last to try to register.

It is a major blow to the In campaign and our prospects of staying in Europe, he said. Evidence shows younger people are overwhelmingly pro-European, and if they are disenfranchised it could cost us our place in Europe.

It could also turn them off democracy for life. Voters must be given an extra day while this mess is sorted out urgently.

Around 132,000 of the people who registered on Tuesday were under 25, compared to 13,000 from the 65-to-74 age group, which largely favours Brexit.

Some of those attempting to register found the message: Sorry we are having technical problems. Please try again in a few moments.

Student Jordan Parker, 20, said he began trying to register from 10pm but the website timed out after he entered all his details. After 50 minutes he still had not been able to register.

He said: This is a massive vote for my generation... they have got to extend the deadline.

The Cabinet Office, which ran the computer system, was unable to say how many people were unable to get through.

A government source said: The Governments view is that we can extend the deadline until 5pm today.
L ondon is voting decisively to stay in the European Union, an exclusive poll reveals today.

The capital divides by a clear 57 per cent to 43 per cent against a British exit, the YouGov survey of 1,179 Londoners found. But a low turnout by younger voters could narrow the gap on June 23.

The research came as frantic efforts were being made today to extend the voter registration deadline after the system crashed under the weight of people wanting to take part in the EU referendum.

Half of younger Londoners, aged 18-24, admit they might not bother voting, though they want to stay by an overwhelming three-to-one majority. By contrast, a majority of Londoners aged over 65 want to get out  and almost eight in 10 of them say they will definitely vote.

Women Londoners are particularly strongly pro-EU, dividing 50 to 32 in favour of Remain.

London Live's EU referendum debate: Immigration

It came despite immigration being placed at the heart of the debate, with UKIP leader Nigel Farage appearing to suggest that staying in the EU made the risk of sexual assaults like those in Cologne on New Years Eve more likely in the future.

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The research confirms that cosmopolitan London is far more pro-Europe than the UK as a whole, where YouGov polls currently put the referendum battle on a knife-edge.

Among other key findings with just 15 days to go:

Sadiq Khan has overtaken the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson and even Bank of England governor Mark Carney as the figure most trusted to tell the truth about the EU.

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The new Mayor is trusted by 39 per cent to make accurate claims. Just 18 per cent trust David Cameron or Nigel Farage, 26 per cent trust Mr Johnson, 32 per cent Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and 35 per cent Mr Carney.

Only 29 per cent of Londoners think of themselves strongly as being Europeans. A clear majority, 62 per cent, do not.

Just six per cent see themselves primarily as Europeans, while 38 per cent think of themselves mainly as British and 21 per cent as Londoners most of all.

By a two-to-one margin, Londoners think that EU membership has been good for the capital.

Even among Leave supporters, four in 10 admit that Londons economy would be worse off outside the EU. Almost half of people who want to Remain think they would personally be made worse off by a Brexit.

Six in 10 Londoners say immigration from EU countries is too high, including three-quarters of over-fifties. Only 24 per cent think migration from the EU is at the right level.

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Londoners are not spooked by Government warnings that security against terrorism would be harmed by a Brexit. Exactly half thought it would make no difference, and just 18 per cent thought there would be greater risks. Some 17 per cent thought London would be safer outside.

Only 17 per cent of Londoners said immigration was their biggest concern. Half think immigration would fall if Britain leaves the EU.

One in five think house prices will be lower if Britain stays in the EU, compared with if we leave.

The poll found that Leave supporters are significantly more likely to vote on the night. Some 79 per cent said they are absolutely certain to vote, compared with 72 per cent of remainers.

It revealed deeply low levels of trust in political leaders to make accurate claims and statements about the EU. Just 18 per cent trust the Prime Ministers words, while 69 per cent do not.

TODO: define component type apester

Jobs and investment in the economy were the biggest issue for Londoners, cited by the third as their most important concern.Anthony Wells, of YouGov, said: London is the consistently the most pro-European part of England, and will be a key part of the Remain campaigns hopes.

If the national race remains close on June 23 the Stronger In campaign will need to make sure Londons generally pro-European voters turnout on the day.
T ony Blair has launched an astonishing attack on Jeremy Corbyn for condemning the Iraq war but standing by while Syrian people are barrel-bombed.

The former Labour prime minister made the remarks when he was asked about war crimes during a TV interview.

Mr Blairs behaviour in the build-up to the Iraq war is set to be closely scrutinised when the long-awaited Chilcot report is published next month.

He told Bloomberg television: Im accused of being a war criminal for removing Saddam Hussein - who by the way was a war criminal - and yet Jeremy is seen as a progressive icon as we stand by and watch the people of Syria barrel-bombed, beaten and starved into submission and do nothing."

Mr Blair then went on to accuse the Labour leader of being more interested in protesting than winning elections.

He said: Theres a guy whose face is on the placard. Thats me: hate that guy. Youre the person in power taking difficult decisions.

Jeremy is the guy with the placard, hes the guy holding it. Ones the politics of power and the others the politics of protest.

Mr Blair also argued that the rise of Mr Corbyn in the UK and Republican presidential election nominee Donald Trump in the US could be down to the revolutionary phenomenon of social media.

He said social media could create waves of sentiment and emotion and promoted the idea that complex problems have simple solutions.
A police force has been slammed after an 11-year-old disabled girl was placed in handcuffs and detained in custody for more than 60 hours.

The girl, known as Child H, was detained several times by Sussex Police for minor offences despite suffering from a rare autism-like condition that can cause her to be violent and self-harm.

As well as being handcuffed, police officers also used a hood to cover her head and leg restraints.

Despite being held for more than 60 hours in total - including twice overnight - in 2012, the girl was never offered the support of an appropriate adult and was not allowed to see her mother.

After the girls mother launched a complaint, the IPCC found 11 officers and one police staff member had cases to answer for misconduct.

Ms H, who wants to remain anonymous, said: My daughters contact with the police in 2012 was nothing short of a nightmare for both of us.

At the time her disability meant that she could behave in very challenging ways, but what she needed was patience, respect and the support of her mother.

Instead she was locked up in a police station without me or anyone else who knew her for support.

I know that some of the officers were doing their best, but I cannot understand why others thought it was appropriate to put an 11-year-old girl in handcuffs and leg restraints.

In a report published today, the IPCC strongly criticised a widespread failure by Sussex police officers to document their use of force in relation to Child H.

The report added: Using force on a person so young and vulnerable is a grave occurrence that should be treated with the significance it merits.

No charges or further action were taken against the officers following the misconduct hearings, with two of them retiring and nine given advice on future conduct.

The most serious offence Child H was assault, but she was also arrested and detained in a police station for nearly a whole day after pushing over an advertising board in Horsham Town Centre.

All charges against Child H were dropped by CPS.

The familys lawyer, Gus Silverman from Irwin Mitchell has called for an independent investigation into the treatment of the child.

He said: The systematic failings uncovered by the IPCCs investigation are truly shocking.

During this time every Sussex Police custody sergeant and inspector involved in her care failed to call an appropriate adult, most obviously her mother, to support her.

My client calls on the Chief Constable of Sussex Police to commission an independent expert in managing challenging behaviour to review the extremely intrusive form of restraints used against Child H by officers in this case.

Sussex Police temporary deputy chief constable Robin Smith said the force had made major improvements in understanding and responding to those with mental illness.

He added: We take our responsibility for any use of force very seriously particularly when it involves young people or those who are vulnerable.

"As a direct result of the investigation into this case, personal safety and first aid training, which all officers have to undertake, has been updated.

This means officers have learned communication skills to help them be more effective when helping people with mental illness. In addition all officers have refreshed their knowledge in the use of spit guards.
A massacred gaggle of geese were sadistically shot with marbles in a country park, according to an animal charity.

South Essex Wildlife Hospital (SEWH) were called by a park ranger at Belhus Park who told them a family of geese had been shot with a catapult.

An adult goose and a gosling were already dead. Another goose and gosling were treated by vets but could not be saved.

SEWH founder Sue Schwar described the attack as "sickening".

She told the Standard: Were an animal hospital that deals with thousands of cases where animals have been cruelly treated but you never get used to it.

Obviously this case was particularly shocking but unfortunately you do have to learn to deal with it."

She said the charity believes the geese were shot with marbles from a catapult by a young attacker or attackers.

The other gosling later died in hospital / South Essex Wildlife Hospital

Ms Schwar added she didnt expect the culprits to be caught after they fled the scene on May 24.

She said: Its just one of those really sad events but it is really sickening, particularly the ones that were alive when we got there because we tried everything to save them. It was heartbreaking.

Essex Police confirmed they have launched an investigation into the incident at the South Ockendon park.
T he businessman who bought BHS for 1 was a premier league liar who had his fingers in the till, MPs were told today. The attack on Dominic Chappell was made at a parliamentary hearing by executives running BHS when he bought the chain and as it went on to hit the rocks.

Former financial adviser Michael Hitchcock and chief executive Darren Topp were giving evidence to MPs investigating the retailers collapse.

Mr Hitchcock, brought in to the firm in July last year but who resigned in March, was asked his impression of former bankrupt Mr Chappell.

He said: Like, I think, many others throughout this process I think I was duped. I think the technical term is a mythomaniac. The lay persons term is he was a premier league liar and a Sunday pub league retailer at best.

Thats great in hindsight, but at the time... [Mr Chappell appeared to have a] highly credible turnaround plan that certainly had legs.

It needed a lot of things going right, but with cash behind the business there was no reason why this business could not turn itself around.

Mr Hitchcock later said he came to believe Mr Chappell and his team were not fit for purpose. He added: I fundamentally dont think he understood what was going on. I question his intelligence. He wasnt a retailer.

The motive as I see it, and I have the benefit of hindsight, was purely for his own benefit.

Mr Topp, who has been at BHS for seven years, said that at the time of acquisition Mr Chappell claimed to be a turnaround expert who had just completed a significant and successful rescue of a Spanish oil facility. The CEO said he later learned in the press the Spanish story wasnt all it seems.

He explained that Mr Chappell promised to put 10 million of his own money into BHS and bring a crack team of property and financial experts.

He said: Unfortunately as time progressed that unravelled in terms of that promise and it became clear towards the end that, rather than putting money in, hed got his fingers in the till.

Mr Topp said he brought in Mr Hitchcock as an adviser when he said he discovered that Mr Chappell, personally or through his company Retail Acquisitions, had been paid 1.8 million through the sale of BHS.

He also discovered Retail Acquisitions had taken proceeds of a property sale and that equity put into BHS came from a loan, not Mr Chappells own pocket.

Mr Topp also said that on one occasion when he protested at an attempt to move 1.5 million out of BHS, Mr Chappell threatened to kill him. The CEO said he had told Mr Chappell thats theft. And between expletives Mr Chappell told him: If you kick off about it, Ill come down there and kill you.

Mr Chappell and Retail Acquisitions executives were also due to give evidence today. Mr Chappell has previously denied any wrongdoing.@JoeWatts_
W hen asked what he thought was the secret of a successful marriage, Prince Philip paused for a moment.

Then with a sparkle in his unflinching blue eyes, he joked: Spend plenty of time apart and have different interests. It is typical of the one-liners he has become famous for.

But he must know a secret or two, for this November he and Her Majesty celebrate 69 years of marriage  the most enduring union of any consort to a British monarch in history.

In a letter to her parents shortly after her wedding in November 1947, Princess Elizabeth wrote that she and Philip behave as though we had belonged to each other for years, adding: Philip is an angel  he is so kind and thoughtful.

Prince Philip turns 95

Their ambition for their marriage, she added, was to weld themselves into a combined existence able to withstand the shocks directed at them but also have a positive existence for the good. He may not be the angel but Philip has certainly proved a worthy match.

Prince Philip at Epsom this month with the Queen and Andrew (Rex) / Rex Features

One of the secrets of their marital success is Her Majestys decision to defer to him on family matters. He is the undisputed patriarch. It is a strong marriage but there have been moments of disharmony  one of their most serious came over the naming of their children.

Philip deeply resented that his children would not bear his last name. I am the only man in the country not allowed to give his name to his own children, he reportedly once griped. It was a longstanding bone of contention.

In 1960, Her Majesty resolved it by agreeing to change the royal familys surname to Mountbatten-Windsor.

The decree came just in time for the birth of their third child, Prince Andrew. It was a fair compromise  as it would remain the House of Windsor in perpetuity as stipulated by George V.

The private Philip is warmer than his public persona. The Princess Royal described him as a loving father who read her bedtime stories and played chasing games with her.

The Queen and Philip with Charles, Anne, Andrew and Edward at Buckingham Palace in 1970 / Corbis

Bedtime stories are things children probably dont get so much nowadays but were very important in my day, she said.

The poem Hiawatha was a favourite of his. Philip is also close to his sons Andrew and Edward, particularly Edward, who took over the running of the Duke of Edinburghs Award.

Over the years there have been numerous reports of friction between Philip and his children, particularly Charles. A sensitive boy, Charles had a more difficult relationship with his father which has been somewhat overplayed in some quarters.

One senior former member of the royal household explained: Yes, the Duke and Prince of Wales do have forthright discussions on areas where they disagree but that doesnt impact upon their love and respect for one another.

The Duke with Princess Diana, to whom he offered advice as her marriage to Charles broke down / Rex

The breakdown of Charless marriage to Princess Diana did not help relations between father and son. Philip, an outsider like the princess, tried to support his daughter-in-law, writing loving letters offering advice.

Diana replied: Dearest Pa, I was particularly touched by your most recent letter which proved to me, if I didnt already know it, that you really do care ... this latest letter of yours showed great understanding and tact and I hope to be able to draw on your advice in the months ahead.

The differences between Philip and Charles first emerged in Jonathan Dimblebys semi-official biography in 1994. The author portrayed Philip as a bully who pressured Charles into marriage to Diana. It hurt the Duke and in 2001 those close to him got revenge.

Buckingham Palace publicly denounced a report that Philip had described his son as precious, extravagant and lacking in the dedication and discipline he will need if he is to make a good king  but in truth this story, by respected writer Graham Turner, rang true, especially as Turner had been given unique access to the Dukes inner circle.

Prince Philip with his eldest son at Epsom in 1993 / Rex

There is no doubt that with time the relationship between Philip and Charles has become closer. The Prince of Wales has repeatedly praised his father in public.

During the Diamond Jubilee celebrations in 2012 Philips admission to King Edward VII Hospital in London meant he was forced to miss key weekend festivities.

Charles roused the crowd with a speech in praise of Her Majesty  but also his father. The only sad thing is my father couldnt be here, he said.

But if we shout loud enough, he might just hear us. The audience started chanting Philip! Philip! Philip! The Queen bit her lip, letting her guard slip for just a moment.

In November 1997, marking his golden wedding anniversary at Londons Guildhall, the Duke spoke of his family with pride. Like all families we went through the full range of the pleasures and tribulations of bringing up children.

I am naturally somewhat biased but I think our children have done rather well under very difficult and demanding circumstances, and I hope we can be forgiven for feeling proud of them.

I am also encouraged to see what a good start the next generation is making.

Royal dadness: Princess Elizabeth with her husband and their children Charles and Anne in August 1951. / Keystone/Getty Images

That next generation adores him. Prince Harry, in an interview to mark the Queens Diamond Jubilee in 2012, paid tribute to his grandmothers stoicism and sense of duty, but said none of her achievements would have been possible without the unswerving support of his grandfather: I dont think that she could do it without him, especially when theyre both at this age.

As Philip approaches his 95th birthday he shows no signs of slowing down as he promised on his birthday five years ago. Back then he said he reckoned he had done my bit. Of that there can be no doubt.
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 8

By Aygun Badalova - Trend:

The Southern Gas Corridor is a key project, which is meant to bring gas all the way from the Caspian Sea into the European market, and remarkable progress has been seen on its implementation, Energy Union Vice-President Maros Sefcovic said at the BDEW Congress 2016 in Berlin.

Sevcovic's speech was published on the Euroean Commission's website.

"Last month I attended the inauguration ceremony of the works on the Trans Adriatic segment (TAP) in Thessaloniki, meaning it is now being built on European soil. By 2020 we expect to see gas flowing into Europe," Sefcovic said.

"This will be the conclusion but not the end. Once the route and the overall framework are tested, it will be easier to expand the Southern Gas Corridor beyond the initial volumes of 10 billion cubic meters a year," he said.

The Southern Gas Corridor is one of the priority energy projects for the EU. It envisages the transportation of 10 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas from the Caspian Sea region to the European countries through Georgia and Turkey.

At the initial stage, the gas to be produced as part of the Stage 2 of development of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field is considered as the main source for the Southern Gas Corridor project. Other sources can also connect to this project at a later stage.

As part of the Stage 2 of the Shah Deniz development, the gas will be exported to Turkey and European markets by expanding the South Caucasus Pipeline and the construction of Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline and Trans-Adriatic Pipeline.
A ble-bodied straight white men have been barred from attending a lecturers union equality conference.

The University and College Union (UCU) will only allow members who identify themselves as gay, disabled, female, or an ethnic minority to attend their equality summit in November.

Disability campaigner Emma-Jane Phillips, who is on the unions equality committee has strongly disagreed with the unions stance and tried to have the motion overturned.

The Northumbria University lecturer told Times Higher Education: Equality reps are passionate about equality regardless of their own situation.

To infer that someone does not understand someones situation just because you dont tick a box is insulting.

It is ridiculous that people who regard equality as their life cant attend our equality conference.

This means that even equality reps elected by their union branch who did not meet the criteria cannot participate in discussions.

This issues was raised at the UCU congress in Liverpool last week where a motion to give equality reps the right to attend conferences without having to identify themselves as one of the minority groups was defeated.

A Union source told the Times: There were strong views on both sides but in the end members felt that it was important that those from minority groups should be able to discuss their issues together.

At last years event held in Eastbourne, Sussex, the union held separate conferences for women, black people, disabled members as well as an LGBT members conference.

A UCU spokesman said: "Members felt that it was important that those from different minority groups should be able to meet to discuss the unique hurdles they face together.

"This is nothing new and quite common practice."

Last year, Goldsmiths diversity officer Bahar Mustafa caused outrage when she allegedly banned all white men from attending a university diversity event.
A n Egyptian passenger plane has been forced to make an emergency landing in Uzbekistan after receiving a bomb threat.

The passenger plane was en route from Cairo to Beijing when it was forced to divert, landing in the city of Urgench, close to the Turkmenistan border.

There were 118 passengers and 17 crew members on board at the time, all of whom disembarked the plane safely, the Uzbek company said.

The carrier did not specify the name of the Egyptian airline, although Russian news agencies have reported that it was an EgyptAir plane.

The plane has been identified on social media as EgyptAir flight MS955, an Airbus A330.

Security services in Uzbekistan are currently examining the aircraft.

The threat came less than a month after Egyptair flight MS804 from Paris to Cairo vanished from radar.

An investigation into the crash is still ongoing, with investigators looking into the possibility that a terrorist act brought the plane down.
H illary Clinton has declared victory in her bruising battle for the Democratic presidential nomination to become the first woman to lead a major American political party.

She immediately took aim at presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, telling supporters in Brooklyn, New York, that he was "temperamentally unfit" to be president.

"Tonight's victory is not about one person," Mrs Clinton said. "It belongs to generations of women and men who struggled and sacrificed and made this moment possible."

She added to her totals with victories in New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota, three of the six states voting on Tuesday.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton greets supporters as she arrives to speak during a presidential primary election night rally in New York / Julie Jacobson/AP

Mr Sanders picked up wins in North Dakota and Montana.

Despite Mrs Clinton's declaration, Mr Sanders insisted he still had a narrow path to the nomination.

He and Mrs Clinton were both pressing for victory in California - where counting is continuing - each eager to effectively end their primary battle on a high note.

Mr Sanders hoped a victory would help in his so-far-unsuccessful bid to get Clinton superdelegates to switch their support.

Asked whether he was continuing that effort, he said: "We are. We're on the phone right now."

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And he said he will "continue the fight" in the last primary of the Democratic campaign next week in Washington, DC.

Mr Trump notched up victories in primaries in New Jersey, New Mexico, South Dakota and Montana, on an otherwise difficult day as Republican leaders recoiled at his comments about a Hispanic judge, with one senator even pulling his endorsement.

Mr Trump also claimed victory in California.

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President Barack Obama called Mrs Clinton with congratulations on securing the delegates needed to clinch the Democratic nomination.

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Mrs Clinton's declaration of victory came a day after she secured the 2,383 delegates she needed to become first female presumptive nominee of a major political party, according to the AP tally.

Her total includes pledged delegates won in primaries and caucuses, as well as superdelegates - the party officials and officeholders who can back a candidate of their choosing.

Mrs Clinton spoke at an emotional rally in Brooklyn, New York City, eight years to the day after she ended her first failed White House run.

As she took the stage to raucous cheers, she paused to relish the moment, flinging her arms wide and beaming broadly.

"This campaign is about making sure there are no ceilings, no limits on any of us," she said.

Mrs Clinton was biting and sarcastic as she took on Mr Trump, accusing him of wanting to win "by stoking fear and rubbing salt in wounds - and reminding us daily just how great he is".

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Mrs Clinton and Mr Sanders are also expected to connect in the coming days, Mrs Clinton's spokesman said. The candidates' campaign managers spoke earlier in the day, signalling that conversations were under way about the road ahead.

Mr Sanders' achievements have been remarkable for a candidate who was unknown to most Americans before the campaign.

He has drawn massive crowds to rallies around the country and built a fundraising juggernaut based largely on small donations online.

He has been particularly popular with young voters, an important piece of the Democratic coalition.

Still, Mrs Clinton's victory has been broadly decisive. She leads Mr Sanders by more than 3 million cast votes.

Additional reporting by the Press Association
O ne of the worlds most wanted people-smugglers has been arrested following a joint intelligence operation involving the National Crime Agency and GCHQ.

Eritrean national Mered Medhanie, known as The General, is said to be at the heart of network to smuggle thousands migrants from Africa and the Middle East to Europe on regular journeys across the Mediterranean.

The 35-year-old was extradited to Italy on Tuesday following his arrest in the Sudanese capital Khartoum last month.

Officials from the National Crime Agency and GCHQ helped authorities track down Medhanie, accused of being responsible for the deaths of 359 people who drowned when their boat sank off the Italian island of Lampedusa in 2013.

Prosecutors said Medhanie can be heard laughing about the fatal overloading of migrant ships during an intercepted conversation.

In other recordings he was heard organising journeys across the Mediterranean and co-ordinating smuggling gangs.

Tom Dowdall, NCA deputy director, said: "Medhanie is a prolific people-smuggler and has absolute disregard for human life.

"Although he was operating thousands of miles away, his criminal activity was impacting the UK.

Medhanie no doubt thought he was beyond the reach of European justice but we were able to support the Italians by tracking him down to Sudan."

Medhanie was arrested by the Sudanese National Police on May 24.

He is charged with being the organiser of a transnational criminal conspiracy aimed at smuggling human beings from Africa to Italy, and on to northern Europe and the UK.

Other charges include the smuggling of migrants relating to numerous arrivals of boats in Sicily, with aggravating circumstances of the number of smuggled people, inhuman treatment and risk to the life of migrants.

Additional reporting by Press Association
T unisia's foreign minister has issued a new appeal to Britain to protect his countrys unique attempt to forge a democratic Arab state and help it defeat the threat of Islamic State terrorism.

Khemais Jhinaoui told the Evening Standard during an interview in Tunis that the north African nation was seeking to create a modern Muslim country that combined Islam with international values of human rights and democracy.

He said that tighter security, and a new barrier under construction along the troubled Libyan border, were already helping to bolster his countrys fledgling democracy and counter the damage caused by last years IS killings in Sousse and other terrorist attacks.

But he warned that his country still needed more assistance from Britain, including security co-operation and an end to the Foreign Office warning against travel to Tunisia, to revive its economy and avoid falling into an IS trap which would destroy tolerance and freedom.

Mr Jhinaouis comments come ahead of the June 26 anniversary of the Sousse attack in which 30 Britons and eight others died, and only 18 months after Tunisias President Mohamed Beji Caid Essebsi became the countrys first freely elected leader in December 2014.

Mr Jhinaoui said the two events were linked and that IS had carried out the Sousse killings and other attacks in Tunisia in an attempt to undermine his countrys economy and wreck its pioneering democracy.

These people are attacking Tunisia because Tunisia is the anti-model of their system, Mr Jhinaoui told the Standard.

You have a modern Muslim country espousing international values of democracy, liberty and human rights. They [Islamic State] want to impose something going back to the Middle Ages, which is contrary to the values that Tunisian people are practising and aspiring to achieve in the future.

Mr Jhinaoui admitted that his government had failed by allowing the Sousse attack and that the mess in neighbouring Libya was adding to the IS threat to his country. Security advice from Britain was, he said, already helping Tunisia to counter this problem.

But he warned that his country needed more British help and complained that the Foreign Offices failure to alter its advice against travel to Tunisia was making it harder to overcome the damage caused by IS.

We would like them to assess what is going on here from a security point of view and if they feel that things are improving it should be reflected in the travel advice.

"Until now we didnt see that and its quite frustrating to us. Since Sousse there is tremendous progress.

"This is a tolerant country which is doing its best to protect its citizens and its guests and to secure its sensitive sites, including tourist sites.
E lizabeth Banks confessed she had missed her sons pre-school graduation to collect her Glamour Award  and was ribbed fellow winner Susan Sarandon on a raucous night where many of the stars turned the air blue.

Oscar winning star Sarandon, who picked up the inspiration award, said in one of many hilarious speeches: Ive never been to an awards show where people have said c*** and f*** and s*** so often.

A host of influential females from the worlds of film, theatre, music, fashion and television gathered for the magazines annual celebration  and all were in defiant mood.

Setting the tone for the night, Hollywood actress and director Banks told the audience in Mayfair that she felt like a f*****g a**hole.

Collecting the filmmaker award, she said: I have two little boys at home and I wanted to thank Felix  hes five  hes adorable. Hes graduating from pre-school tomorrow. I feel terrible.

"As delighted as I am for accepting this award, I didnt actually realise I would be missing his graduation and yep, Im a f*****g a**hole.

Because being a working mum is super complicated. I want to say to Felix that Im really, really sorry. This award is going to remind me of the great two years Ive just had and its not going to remind me that Im a terrible mother.

Sarandon could not resist ribbing Banks later, quipping: Felix will not forgive you. He will not forget either. He will talk to his shrink about this incident and Im sure its just the first in a number of things you will miss because you are following your heart, your passion.

On a more serious note, she urged women to "stop worrying about being perfect and have as much fun as you can".

Glamour Awards - the fashion 1 /29 Glamour Awards - the fashion Glamour Awards 2016 Little Mix Dave Benett Glamour Awards 2016 Laura Whitmore Dave Benett Glamour Awards 2016 Neelam Gill Dave Benett Glamour Awards 2016 Fearne Cotton Dave Benett Glamour Awards 2016 Lilah Parsons Dave Benett Glamour Awards 2016 Holly Willoughby Dave Benett Glamour Awards 2016 Naomie Harris Dave Benett Glamour Awards 2016 Kourtney Kardashian Dave Benett Glamour Awards 2016 Tanya Burr Dave Benett Glamour Awards 2016 Caroline Flack Dave Benett Glamour Awards 2016 Nicola Roberts Dave Benett Glamour Awards 2016 Amanda Holden Dave Benett Glamour Awards 2016 Edith Bowman Dave Benett Glamour Awards 2016 Sigourney Weaver Dave Benett Glamour Awards 2016 Angela Scanlon Dave Benett Glamour Awards 2016 Jo Elvin Dave Benett Glamour Awards 2016 Louise Redknapp Dave Benett Glamour Awards 2016 Myleene Klass Dave Benett Glamour Awards 2016 Gemma Arterton Dave Benett Glamour Awards 2016 Krysten Ritter Dave Benett Glamour Awards 2016 Rochelle Humes Dave Benett Glamour Awards 2016 Davina McCall Dave Benett

Fellow Hollywood star Sigourney Weaver was given the icon award and described her younger self as looking like a six-foot-tall, curly-haired troll doll.

She added: "This is a message in a bottle to all 12-year-old girls reading this online - if I can make it to be icon of the year, you can."

Gemma Arterton won the theatre category and told the Standard she will be returning to the West End stage later this year.

She said: Theatre is wonderful because in comparison to the film industry, there are always great roles for women in theatre. Its always easier to get a play on with a female lead than it is a film made with a female lead.

TODO: define component type brightcove

War And Peace hunk James Norton made a revelation that will shock his female fans  he used to be a crusty scruff with the nickname Norm.

Collecting the man of the year prize, he said: No-one knows this but my nickname for ten years was Norm.

"I was painfully unfashionable, I had a Sweater Shop tie-dye T-shirt which I wore for about five years, I didnt wash my hair for about five years, I was convinced that the crusty look was cool.

"Over the last few years a wonderful team of mostly women have seen me through a transition from those Norm years.

Jennifer Saunders had the audience in stitches as she collected her outstanding contribution award from her comedy partner Dawn French, whom she called a f***ing c*** on stage during an otherwise touching speech. She dedicated it to the late Victoria Wood.

The winners at the ceremony, which was hosted by Claudia Winkleman, were voted for by Glamour readers.

Donatella Versace received the award for fashion designer, while Little Mix were presented with the prize for music act of the year by radio DJ Greg James.

Tinie Tempah handed Jess Glynne the breakthrough award, Naomie Harris took home the gong for film actress of the year, Holly Willoughby claimed TV personality of the year.
I ts a fallow year for Doctor Who, with fans having to wait until the Christmas special for their next space-and-time-travelling adventure.

But with production on Series 10 nearly underway, current Doctor Peter Capaldi has hinted that a familiar face could be back.

While last year saw Jenna Colemans companion Clara Oswald leave the show, she might not be gone for good.

Speaking at Awesome Con in Washington, Capaldi hinted: Im not sure how successfully Clara was able to wipe [The Doctors] mind.

He added: I just I was about to tell you something I cant tell you.

While Clara was killed during Series 9, the Doctor helped her cheat death  and then lost all of his memories of her. Clara, stuck in the moment before her death, set off on her own adventures with immortal character Ashildr in their own TARDIS.

LEGO Doctor Who 1 /9 LEGO Doctor Who LEGO Doctor Who The first set to be available LEGO The TARDIS The Doctor's ship is the centre of the kit LEGO The Twelfth Doctor The current Doctor, played by Peter Capaldi LEGO Clara Oswald The current companion, played by Jenna Coleman LEGO Daleks The legendary villains LEGO Weeping Angel Monsters who can only move when you're not looking at them LEGO The TARDIS The classic blue Police Box exterior LEGO

Even though she still exists in the Doctor Who universe, Oswalds departure from the series came as Jenna Coleman bagged the lead role in ITV period drama Victoria.

Doctor Who Series 10 is due to arrive in 2017, and will see the arrival of new companion Bill, played by Pearl Mackie. It will mark Steven Moffats final series as showrunner, with Chris Chibnall due to take over for Series 11.
T heres still a few weeks of the current series of Made In Chelsea left  but, like the rest of us, the gang have their eyes set on a summer holiday.

After last years sun-drenched trip to LA, this year the MIC cast are heading to the South of France for a summer mini-series.

The show will be shooting in Cannes, famous for its golden sandy beaches and glamorous reputation.

Thats not all  despite leaving the show in 2013, Francis Boulle will be returning for the six-episode series.

The former star of the series has, according to E4, been exploring for gold deep in the west African jungle since leaving the show  but that isnt enough to stop him coming back to his old mates for a summer of fun.

A press release for the series says: Francis and the rest of the Chelsea gang will make their mark on the South of France.

Made in Chelsea season 10 launch party 1 /13 Made in Chelsea season 10 launch party Boys night Spencer Matthews and James Dunmore pose for a photo at the Made in Chelsea series 10 premiere at the Ham Yard Hotel Anthony Devlin/PA Newbies Millie Williamson and Emily Welter join the cast for a season premiere party Anthony Devlin/PA Happy couple Nicola Hughes and Alex Mytton cosy up for a photo at the event Anthony Devlin/PA Ladies man Spencer Matthews flashes his chest hair as he strikes a pose with Jess Woodley and Rosie Fortescue Anthony Devlin/PA He's back! Binky Felstead welcomes co-star and best friend Ollie Locke back to the reality show Anthony Devlin/PA BFFs Chelsea's fabulous twosome, Mark Francis Vandelli and Victoria Haber-Baker, know how to work the camera Anthony Devlin/PA Looking fierce Mark Francis Vandelli works his chiseled cheek bones for the camera Anthony Devlin/PA Sister act Lucy Watson and Tiff Watson turn heads in their mini skirts Anthony Devlin/PA Leather look Louise Thompson parties at the premiere launch ahead of her move to New York Anthony Devlin/PA Baby brother Louise's younger brother Sam Thompson is in for a shock this series when he discovers Tiff Watson has kissed another guy Anthony Devlin/PA

"Visiting some of the resorts most luxurious locations, there will be plenty of sun, parties and romance, as they escape London for France.

If previous MIC holiday series are anything to go by, the cast will be bringing their emotional baggage with them, even as they head to a glamorous new location.
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 8

Trend:

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev has said the signs of 'color revolutions' are being observed in Kazakhstan.

"We all know that the so-called color revolutions have various methods and start with the far-fetched rallies, murders, aspirations for seizing power," TASS news agency quoted Nazarbayev as saying in his message published by press June 8. "Those signs have appeared in our country as well."

"Someone, taking advantage of liberality of state policy and our laws, wanted to check the state's durability," he said.

President Nazarbayev added that the Kazakh authorities will take the most stringent measures to suppress extremists and terrorists.

"The criminals, who carried out a series of attacks in the city of Aktobe in western Kazakhstan, received instructions from abroad," he said.

"According to the available information, the terrorist act was organized by followers of radical pseudo-religious currents, who received instructions from abroad," added Nazarbayev.

A group of suspected Islamist militants attacked two gun shops and a national guard base in Kazakhstan's western city of Aktobe June 5. Six people were killed and at least nine injured as a result of the attacks in the city.
Nigeria: Fractured and Forgotten

Mother of Girl Kidnapped by Boko Haram to Speak in Washington



Contact: Lou Ann Sabatier, Communications Director, 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative, 703-216-2941, Lsabatier@21wilberforce.org



WASHINGTON, June 8, 2016 /Standard Newswire/ -- Mary*, whose daughter was kidnapped along with 275 other girls two years ago when Boko Haram terrorists raided the Chibok Government Secondary School, will speak out for the first time on June 9 at an event, "Nigeria: Fractured and Forgotten."



Other speakers on the panel, co-hosted by the 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative and the Heritage Foundation, include U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Religious Freedom David Saperstein, former Congressman Frank Wolf, Becky Gadzama, Co-Founder of Education Must Continue Initiative in Nigeria, Elijah Brown, Executive VP, 21stCentury Wilberforce Initiative, and Joshua Meservey, Africa and Middle East Policy Analyst at the Heritage Foundation.



In addition to Mary's riveting story, this timely discussion will focus on the 21stCentury Wilberforce Initiative's new, in-depth report detailing the urgent challenges to religious freedom in Nigeria. It also offers strategic policy guidance to help the United States stand with Nigeria at this critical hour.



Communities of faith in northern and central Nigeria face discrimination, deadly security threats from Boko Haram violence, and accelerating aggression by Fulani militants in the Middle Belt. With five million people indefinitely displaced, Nigeria faces one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

Nigeria: Fractured and Forgotten



June 9, 2016



10:00-11:30 am Panel; 11:30-12:00 noon Press Conference



The Heritage Foundation, 214 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC



The event will be live-streamed and this link will be active on June 9:



www.heritage.org/events/2016/06/nigeria#rsvpInPerson

The full report with recommendations can be accessed at www.standwithnigeria.org



*Name changed for security reasons
Coptic Solidarity Announces 7th Annual Conference Highlighting Inequality Faced by Coptic Christians

Contact: Lindsay Vessey, Coptic Solidarity , 801-512-1713, coptadvocacy@copticsolidarity.org WASHINGTON, June 8, 2016 / Standard Newswire / -- Coptic Solidarity will host its 7th Annual Conference in Washington, DC June 9-10, 2016. The conference theme is The Future of Egypt's Religious Minorities: Status of Copts after Two Revolutions Despite two revolutions, life for Copts as second class citizens has changed little. Discrimination against Copts permeates the everyday life of millions of people, and at times evidences itself in horrific acts of violence, such as the recent lynching of an elderly Christian woman that shamed Egypt as a whole. The plight of Copts reflects the plight of Egypt.The Annual Conference will bring together leading experts to address the status of Copts from a wide variety of perspectives. A Policy Day will be hosted at the Reserve Officer Association in the Minuteman Ballroom on June 9th from 11:00AM  5:30PM followed by a banquet dinner at the same location. The conference will continue on June 10th at the Omni Shoreham Hotel with a program scheduled 9:00 AM  4:00PM.Heading the speaker list will be leading Egyptian public figures Mr. Naguib Sawiris, Chief Executive Officer of Orascom Telecom Media & Technology and founder of the Free Egyptians Party and Ms. Fatima Naoot, prominent writer and poet and former independent candidate to the Egyptian parliament recently was sentenced to three years' imprisonment for comments deemed blasphemous to Islam.Others confirmed experts in attendance include: USCIRF Commissioner Dr. Daniel I. Mark, U.S. State Department Special Advisor for Religious Minorities in the Near East and South/Central Asia Mr. Knox Thames, Co-Secretary General of the Transatlantic Parliamentary Group on Counter Terrorism Dr. Walid Phares, and President of the St. Cyril of Alexandria Orthodox Christian Society Holy Transfiguration College, Fr. Michael Sorial. Members of Congresses confirmed to speak include: Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE), Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), Rep. Joe Pitts (R-PA), Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) and Rep. Dave Trott (R-MI).The conference is open to the public and media. Interested individuals can register for the conference at www.copticsolidarity.org/events/conferences and purchase banquet dinner tickets at www.copticsolidarity.org/2016/04/19/7th-conference-banquet Coptic Solidarity calls on all concerned individuals to reject the forces of regression seeking to block positive change in Egypt, and to join us supporting the vision of a free, modern and prosperous Egypt.Coptic Solidarity is an organization seeking to help minorities, particularly the Copts, of Egypt and we support those in Egypt working for democracy, freedom, and the protection of the fundamental rights of all Egyptian citizens. For more information, contact Lindsay Vessey at 801-512-1713 or coptadvocacy@copticsolidarity.org
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has arrived on an official visit in Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan, Gen Igor Konashenkov, the ministry's official spokesman told reporters.

"The itinerary of the visit envisions a meeting with President Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedow and a working meeting with Colonel-General Yaylym Berdiyev," he said.

"In the course of the talks, Sergei Shoigu will discuss the problems of international and regional security, the pressing problems of bilateral cooperation in the military sphere and in defense technologies and their mutually beneficial intensification," Gen Konashenkov said.

Earlier on Wednesday, Shoigu took part in a conference of Defense Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan. He also had talks there with Kazakhstani Defense Minister Imangali Tasmagambetov.
Tashkent, Uzbekistan, June 8

By Demir Azizov- Trend:

Germany's ALWA GmbH & Co. KG will become a shareholder of Uzbekistan's private Orient Finans Bank, said the bank's message.

The message said that the Orient Finans Bank's shareholders during their annual meeting in late May decided to increase the bank's authorized capital by 15 percent, thanks to the placement of additional share issue for 9.25 billion soums in favor of a foreign investor.

As a result of additional emissions' buy-out, ALWA company's share in the bank's authorized capital will be 15 percent.

Currently, the bank's authorized capital is 52.358 billion soums.

Uzbekistan approved the procedure, according to which from July 1, 2016, joint-stock companies should have at least 15-percent share owned by a foreign investor in their authorized capital.

At the joint stock companies, in which the share of a foreign investor will be from 15 to 33 percent, benefits on payment of taxes and compulsory payments, given to the enterprises with foreign investments, will be distributed.

Orient Finans Bank was established in June 2010 in Tashkent. The bank gives financial support for the projects of small and private businesses. The share of individuals in the bank's authorized capital is 80 percent.
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 8

By Umid Niayesh - Trend:

Boeing is studying the passenger plane needs of Iranian airlines.

"We're following the licensing process outlined by the US government," the company told Trend June 8.

"Accordingly, we have applied for and received a license to assess the current commercial passenger airplane needs of US Government-approved Iranian airlines," Boeing's representative told Trend.

The license permits the company to engage approved Iranian airlines to determine their actual fleet requirements.

"Our European competitor, Airbus, is advancing its interests in the market, and Canada recently indicated that it will permit Bombardier access to the Iranian market as well. We understand that the situation in the region is complicated and ever changing and we will continue to follow the US government's guidance as it relates to conducting business with Iran," said the company.

Iran signed a major deal worth $27 billion with Airbus in January to purchase 118 planes from the company. The deal with Airbus was sealed during a state visit to Paris by Iran's President Hassan Rouhani.

Iran has announced its need for about 400 passenger planes in the next decade to modernize its ageing fleet.

Iranian airlines are not interested in buying any more Russian planes. Their performance was unsatisfactory when flown in the country's aviation market during the sanctions period. Iran hopes to improve the relations with the world in the wake of the nuclear deal to renovate their fleet with western aircraft.

Iran's flag carrier, Iran Air recently announced that is discussing what is seen as a "historic aircraft purchase deal" with Boeing.

Confirming the negotiations, Boeing did not provide any details of the ongoing talks.

Follow the author on Twitter: @UmidNiayesh
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 7

By Farhad Daneshvar - Trend:

Iran has signed an investment agreement with a group of foreign companies for developing its energy sector, an Iranian government official said.

Government spokesman Mohammad Bagher Nobakht said Iran signed a new contract with a group of foreign companies to attract $4.2 billion worth direct investments for building power plants in the country, ISNA news agency reported.

Nobakht said the contract envisages building several power plants with a total capacity of 5,000 megawatts (MW).

The power plants are projected to be built in the cities of Ahvaz, Dehloran, Zahedan, Saveh, Sufian and Bonab.

The report did not provide further information about foreign investors, but said a Turkey-based European company is also involved in the project.

Nobakht, saying that with the new contract the volume of direct investments made by foreigners in Iran increases, added that the value of investment contracts signed earlier between Iran and foreigners amount to $3.418 billion.

Iran's power generation capacity currently stands at around 74,000 MW, of that some 12,000 MW account for hydroelectric power plants, 1,000 MW for a nuclear power plant and the remaining for thermal power plants.
This page is archived. Data published after 5 April 2022 can be found on the renewed website. Go to the new statistics page

Published: 8 June 2016

Finnish residents' trips to Continental Spain increased in January to April 2016

According to Statistics Finland's preliminary data, Finnish residents travelled in Finland slightly less in the first four months of 2016 than in last year's spring. Three per cent fewer domestic trips with paid accommodation were made than one year earlier. Of Finnish destinations, Lapland fell and Uusimaa grew in popularity. Leisure trips abroad also declined when compared to the corresponding period last year. Increasingly more of the Finns who travelled abroad in the first four months of the year made trips to conventional travel destinations, Spain or Thailand.

Finns' leisure trips in January to April 2003 to 2016*

In the first four months of 2016, Finnish residents aged 15 to 84 made 11.1 million trips when all domestic and foreign leisure trips, as well as business and professional trips are included. In addition to trips with overnight stay, the number also includes same-day trips abroad.

Altogether, 6.8 million domestic leisure trips with overnight stay were made in the January to April period. Of these, 5.1 million were trips with free accommodation. Trips with overnight stay at paid accommodation numbered 1.8 million and their most popular destinations were located in Uusimaa, North Ostrobothnia, Lapland and Pirkanmaa. The number of trips with paid accommodation recorded in the statistics was three per cent lower than in January to April of the previous year. However, the number of trips to Uusimaa increased by eight per cent. Trips to North Ostrobothnia remained on level with the year before and the number of trips to Pirkanmaa went down by 20 per cent and those to Lapland by 15 per cent.

Easter was in March this year, which was the most popular month for travelling in Finland in the early part of the year, as then 547,000 tips with paid overnight were made. Of the trips in March, 20 per cent were made to North Ostrobothnia and 12 per cent to Lapland.

At paid accommodation, a tourist stays at a rented cottage, hotel or campsite. In these leisure trips, overnight stays were mainly in hotels. The number of hotel stays was 2.5 million, which is 52 per cent of paid accommodation. Rented cottages are also very popular in late winter. The number of stays at rented cottages was 1.9 million, which is 40 per cent of all paid accommodation.

Inclusive of trips with overnight stay in the destination country, cruises and same-day trips, leisure trips abroad numbered 2.3 million in the January to April period. A total of 1,685,000 leisure trips abroad included overnight stay in the destination country. In January to April, 394,000 cruises with overnight stay on board only were made. Same-day trips abroad numbered 257,000 in January to April. Of these, good one-half were day cruises to Estonia.

During the first four months of the year, leisure trips to our neighbouring countries numbered 588,000 to Estonia and 484,000 to Sweden. The number of trips to Sweden with overnight stay in the destination country stayed at the same level as one year ago. Cruises went down slightly, but day trips to Sweden increased. Estonia is the number one favourite for Finns all the year round. Overnight cruises to Estonia increased from the corresponding period of the previous year. However, trips with overnight stay in the destination country and same-day cruises diminished.

The downhill in tourism to Russia eased off in the early part of 2016, as the number of trips to Russia with overnight stay in the destination country increased by six per cent.

In the early part of the year, 323,000 trips were headed to Spain, of which 54 per cent to the Canary Islands. The number of trips to the Canary Islands went up by 12 per cent. In the first four months of the year, 148,000 trips were made to Continental Spain and the Balearic Islands and the number of trips grew by 72 per cent from the year before. March was the most popular of the four months to travel to the Canary Islands and April to Continental Spain.

A total of 99,000 trips were made to the warmth of Thailand and the number of trips went up by 30 per cent year-on-year.

When examining only trips with overnight stay in the destination country, eight per cent fewer of such trips were made than in last year's January to April period. April was the most popular month for these trips in the early part of the year, as then the number of trips abroad with overnight stay in the destination country was 549,000. Almost one-fifth of the trips with overnight stay in the destination country were headed to Estonia, 15 per cent to the northern coast of the Mediterranean, and 10 per cent to the Canary Islands.

In addition to leisure trips, 1.2 million domestic business or professional trips were made. Business or professional trips abroad (inclusive of trips with overnight stay in the destination country, cruises and same-day trips) numbered 0.7 million. Domestic business trips went up by 17 per cent and business trips abroad by nine per cent from the corresponding period last year.

These data derive from Statistics Finland's Finnish Travel survey for which altogether 4,994 persons aged 15 to 84 were interviewed in February, March, April and May. Until 2011, data were collected from those aged 15 to 74.

Source: Finnish Travel, Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Taru Tamminen 029 551 2243, Teemu Okkonen 029 551 2634, liikenne.matkailu@stat.fi

Director in charge: Mari Yla-Jarkko

Publication in pdf-format (287.8 kB)

Updated 8.6.2016

Referencing instructions: Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Finnish Travel [e-publication].

ISSN=1798-9027. Spring (1.1.-30.4) 2016. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 26.10.2022].

Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/smat/2016/13/smat_2016_13_2016-06-08_tie_001_en.html
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Baku, Azerbaijan, June 8

By Khalid Kazimov - Trend:

In the first month of Iranian calendar year (started March 20), Iran's banks allocated 146.4 trillion rials (about $4.8 billion) to Iranian companies involved in economic sector in the form of working capital.

The figure makes 68.9 percent of the whole facilities offered by the country's banks in the mentioned period, the official website of the Central Bank of Iran reported.

The volume of the facilities has also increased by 62.3 percent year-on-year.

According to the report, 31.45 percent of the whole figure has been allocated to the country's industrial and mining sector.
Wednesday, 08 June 2016 23:46:33 (GMT+3) | Sao Paulo

A Brazilian court has revoked the decision of a first instance court that had suspended earlier this year activities at the Tubarao port, in the city of Vitoria for pollution, and has approved the facility to operate normally, benefiting iron ore producer Vale and local steelmaker ArcelorMittal, which both use the port.





The port was operating under an injunction, as previously reported by SteelOrbis.





However, despite the decision that lifted the need of an injunction to allow the port to operate regularly, the court said a forensic accounting should be made within a 60-day notice to investigate Brazil s federal police claims, which said the port was polluting the air and the sea.




Wednesday, 08 June 2016 23:45:02 (GMT+3) | Sao Paulo

A court in the state of Minas de Gerais has denied an appeal from Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation (NSSMC), a steelmaker and major co-shareholder at Brazilian flats producer Usiminas , to remove Sergio Leite as CEO of the company.





NSSMC said late on May it would appeal the decision, as the executives nomination didnt comply with the shareholders agreement. NSSMC said the indication was made without prior consent of NSSMC.





The resolution for the appointment of the members of the board of officers [BoO] including the CEO was made without prior consent of NSSMC, the Japanese steelmaker said.





NSSMC believes that this is clearly in violation of the Shareholders Agreement of Usiminas , which requires the prior consensus between NSSMC and Ternium group for the appointment of the CEO and other members of the BoO, Nippon Steel said at the time, adding the decision was invalid and as such it will take all necessary legal measures to seek among others to annul the resolution.





Nippon Steel and Ternium Techint have been fighting in the past few years for the control of Usiminas and a company split is said to be discussed at this point, however, none of the companies have confirmed the claims.








Wednesday, 08 June 2016 23:45:44 (GMT+3) | Sao Paulo

Chile s price distortion commission, CNDP, has ended an AD investigation over the imports of wire, mesh and steel nails and decided to not recommend definite AD duties over these products, according to a CNDPs resolution made available last weekend at the nations official gazette, Diario Oficial.





CNDPs recommendation or non-recommendation is an important step for an AD probe or duty to be implemented or rejected by the government of Chile , and as such it is likely to not be applied, upsetting local producers CAP Acero and Inchalam from the Bekaert group.





According to CNDPs resolution, available information does not allow it to determine that wire, mesh and steel nail imports cause or seem to cause serious harm to the respective producing sectors of the local industry.





CNDPs recommendation follows a recent decision of the Chilean government to apply a 38.9 percent ad valorem tariff over the imports of wire rod.





Inchalam asked CNDP to extend the duties to other steel products. The request of local producers was to apply a 15.6 percent tariff over the imports of meshes, a 23.8 percent levy on wire imports and a 24.7 percent duty over the external purchases of steel nails.





In May this year, Chile s metal-mechanic association, Asimet, argued duties over other steel goods, including those Inchalam claimed for, were needed.





We dont agree with the comissions [decision], said Freddy Zambrano, a spokesperson for a Inchalams affiliated union. Unfortunately, we can do nothing. We used all tools we had at hand and besides that, we can do nothing, he said.








Tehran, Iran, June 8

By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:

The Islamic Republic of Iran has asked the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to be more protective of the country's secret information.

Iran's Ambassador to the IAEA Reza Najafi said the request was made in a notice presented to the agency after a meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors, IRNA reported June 8.

"The notice was given since we are approaching the time for implementation of an important part of the Additional Protocol, based on which after six months a preliminary announcement should be presented by Iran," said Iran's representative at the IAEA.

Under the Additional Protocol to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, the IAEA is granted expanded rights of access to information and sites. By enabling the IAEA to obtain a much fuller picture of states' nuclear programs, plans, nuclear material holdings and trade, the Additional Protocol helps to provide much greater assurance on the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in those states.

IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano in May confirmed that Iran had remained loyal to all of its undertakings under the agreement it signed with the UN nuclear watchdog agency in Vienna in July 2015.

He added that Iran had not pursued the construction of the existing Arak heavy water research reactor and had not enriched uranium above low levels in line with its declarations to the UN nuclear watchdog body.

The IAEA is inspecting Iran's commitment to the nuclear deal (aka JCPOA) of the last year.

In addition to the deal, Iran has decided to voluntarily observe the Additional Protocol as a trust-building move.
In May this year, iron ore shipments from Australia 's Port Hedland increased by 4.5 percent compared to April and were up 3.6 percent year on year, totaling 39.37 million metric tons.

According to the information released by Port Hedland Port Authority, in May of the current year iron ore shipments made from Port Hedland to China amounted to 31.6 million metric tons, falling by 2.9 percent compared to the previous month and remaining stable year on year. South Korea and Japan followed China in May, receiving 3.82 million mt and 2.58 million mt respectively.
Wednesday, 08 June 2016 10:55:26 (GMT+3) | Shanghai

Shandong Province-based Chinese steelmaker Rizhao Steel Holding Group Co. (Rizhao Steel) has announced that construction work has officially begun on its new steel production bases continuous caster projects Nos.1 and 2. Construction work is being carried out by Shanghai Baoye Group Corp., Ltd (Shanghai Baoye), a subsidiary of state-owned China Metallurgical Group Corporation (MCC).

The construction work carried out by Shanghai Baoye will also include the construction of auxiliary infrastructure, the installation of electromechanical devices and debugging work.
In May this year, the value of Taiwan 's iron and steel exports decreased by 10.3 percent year on year to $1.26 billion, according to the preliminary statistics issued by Taiwan 's Ministry of Finance. In the given month, the country's iron and steel import value totaled $731 million, down 6.3 percent year on year.
Wednesday, 08 June 2016 17:32:31 (GMT+3) | Istanbul

The Turkish Steel Exporters' Association (CIB) has stated that it has focused on increasing steel exports to Central Europe , especially to Austria, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, which were recorded at very low levels in 2015 and also in the January-April period of the current year. The CIB stated that, in its analysis, it found that the main problem concerning steel exports to Central Europe is the high logistic costs involved.

The CIB stated that to find the alternative solutions to reduce logistic costs, with the cooperation of Europe s biggest railway company Austria-based the Rail Cargo, owned by Austrian Federal Railways, it has held a conference on the advantages of railway transportation - the cheapest transportation mode - for Turkey s steel exports to Europe
Wednesday, 08 June 2016 16:27:30 (GMT+3) | Istanbul

In April this year, Turkey's billet and bloom import volume increased by 36.5 percent year on year to 309,283 mt, down 46.3 percent compared to the previous month, according to the data provided by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK). The value of these imports totaled $91.3 million, remaining almost unchanged year on year and falling by 43.8 percent compared to the previous month.





In the January-April period this year, Turkey's billet and bloom import volume increased by 23.6 percent year on year to 1.72 million mt, while the value of these imports totaled $494.7 million, down 17.3 percent year on year.



In the first four months of this year, Turkey imported 563,893 mt of billet and bloom from Russia, up 3.92percent year on year, with Russia ranking as Turkey's leading billet and bloom import source, ahead of China which supplied 563,761 mt in the given period.



Turkey's top billet and bloom import sources in the first four months of the current year are as follows:

Country Amount (mt) January- April 2016 January- April 2015 Y-o-y change (%) April 2016 April 2015 Y-o-y change (%) Russia 563,893 542,623 3.92 79,070 109,068 -27.50 China 563,761 50,201 - 152,388 - - Ukraine 486,186 609,824 -20.27 70,980 80,961 -12.33 Brazil 30,143 354 - 251 202 24.26 Kazakhstan 21,025 - - - - - Iran 20,753 - - 62 - -

Turkey's main billet and bloom sources on country basis in the January-April period this year are presented below:
According to market sources, Chinese offers to the United Arab Emirates ( UAE ) for 4"-20" seamless pipes of B grade have decreased by $25/mt month on month to $440-450/mt CFR, while ex-South Korea offers to the UAE for 2"-6" water and gas ERW pipes are at $605-610/mt CFR. Meanwhile, ex-Saudi Arabia seamless pipe offers to the UAE are at $725-750/mt CFR.
President Hassan Rouhani underlined the importance of the removal of the sanctions which were imposed against Iran on the economic conditions of Iranians, IRNA reported.

'People faced a new sanction everyday before the Joint Comprehensive Plans of Action (JCPOA), but now we are witnessing an opening everyday which is praiseworthy,' President Rouhani said on Wednesday, addressing the members of country's supreme councils.

He underlined that by making use of the openings of the post-sanctions era, the government should prepare the grounds for people and the country's development and progress in all areas, especially that this situation has been created under the good security conditions.

'The political, economic, cultural and defense powers together form the national power and everyday new subdivisions are added to this,' President Rouhani added.
President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday that hope for a better future and development of the country in the present year (Iranian calendar) tends to be more promisng than the previous year, Irna reported.



He made the remarks in a fast-breaking (Iftar) ceremony with orphans on the occasion of the first day of Ramadan month.



During the meeting with orphans, President said that government will do its best to support the underprivileged and orphans.



Islam believes that all the mankind and particularly the Islamic countries constitute a big family and it urges them to help the needy in the family, Rouhani said.



President hailed the falling number of the underprivileged and enhancement of support for the orphans in Iran.



The figures show that 'we are moving forward in the right path.'



He urged emotional, financial and scientific support to be extended to all the orphans across Iran.
MediBeacon, a Creve Coeur company focusing on monitoring kidney function, has acquired a German medical device company with similar technology.

MediBeacon announced Wednesday that it had bought Mannheim Pharma & Diagnostics, maker of a coin-sized device that can monitor an animal's kidney function from outside the body. Mannheim's device is not approved for human use.

MediBeacon said the acquisition adds important intellectual property and brings in three Ph.D. scientists.

MediBeacon is conducting clinical trials of its own renal function monitor, which combines an optical skin sensor with an agent that glows in the presence of light.

MediBeacon was formed in 2012 to acquire optical diagnostic technology from Mallinckrodt. The company won a local business plan competition in 2012 and raised $22 million of venture capital last year.

MediBeacon is based at the Helix Center, a life-sciences incubator run by St. Louis County.
Missouri and Illinois got a grade of C for the health of their manufacturing industries, in the latest survey by Ball State University of Indiana.

Illinois' logistics industry did better  scoring an A in the survey, while Missouri's rated a C.

The survey was sponsored by Conexus Indiana, an agency that promotes advanced manufacturing in that state. Ball State's Center for Business and Economic Research rated states on factors considered by corporations looking for places to build factories or logistics centers.

Missouri scored A's for its tax climate and the diversity of its manufacturing. It received a B for worker benefit costs. But it rated only only C's on human capital, global reach, productivity and innovation. It also got a C for expected fiscal liability gap, a measure of government resources dedicated to paying government debt and pension obligations.

Illinois, with its deeply underfunded public pensions, scored a D-minus on its liability gap, up from an F last year. Its tax climate was rated D.

Illinois scored a B for productivity and innovation, and C's for diversification, global reach, human capital and benefits costs.
CHICAGO  Monsanto Co. is developing plans to prevent a new variety of biotech U.S. soybeans from entering European markets where they are not approved, leaders of two agricultural trade groups said, in a sign of the growing impact of regulatory delays on the world's largest seed maker.

The Creve Coeur-based company is working with representatives of the U.S. farm sector on a strategy to keep Xtend soybeans separate from varieties approved in all major export markets, said Jim Sutter, chief executive officer for the U.S. Soybean Export Council. The plan could be used if Europe does not clear imports before harvesting starts in August.

Monsanto had no immediate comment on Tuesday.

The company launched Xtend soybean seeds, engineered to resist the herbicides glyphosate and dicamba, before obtaining clearance for crop shipments to Europe because executives were expecting approval early this year.

The product is designed to replace hugely popular Roundup Ready soybeans planted nationwide and its release could represent Monsanto's biggest technology launch ever, according to the company.

But European import approval still has not come, prompting the world's top grain handlers to declare they will reject Xtend soybean deliveries to avoid trade disruptions.

"They'll obviously have to channel it so it doesn't go to the European market," Sutter said of Monsanto. He declined to offer more details.

Richard Wilkins, president of the American Soybean Association, also said Monsanto was working on a plan for Xtend soybeans if Europe's approval comes too late. The association, which represents farmers, has asked Monsanto to present the plan next month, he said.

"We are particularly interested in preventing anything from disrupting international trade," Wilkins said.

Last month, Monsanto told agricultural organizations in a letter that it hoped for European approval before summer and was not "yet in a place where harvest contingency plans are needed."

Rivals, including Syngenta AG and Dow AgroSciences , in recent years have launched programs that specify where farmers must deliver biotech crops lacking approval in key markets or how they can use the harvests domestically.

The United States is the biggest producer of GMO crops and has long been at the forefront of technology aiming to protect crops against insects or allow them to resist herbicides.

That innovation is now seen as a risk to trade because it is hard to segregate crops containing traits lacking import approvals from the billions of identical-looking bushels exported every year.

China roiled global grain trading two years ago after it rejected boatloads of U.S. corn containing a biotech Syngenta trait that had not been approved for import.

Since then, the Swiss-based seed company has partnered with grain handler Gavilon, owned by Marubeni Corp, to oversee U.S. harvests of Duracade corn, another biotech variety that lacks China's approval.

Gavilon declined to comment on Xtend soybeans.

Associations representing grain handlers and processors, in a letter to Monsanto on May 7, asked the company's plans for Xtend soybeans if Europe does not approve imports before harvests.

Delays in the review come as soybean and soymeal prices have surged amid crop woes in Argentina, which are expected to increase demand for U.S. soy shipped to Europe.

One grain group, the National Grain and Feed Association, has told members of reports linking the timing of Europe's decision on Xtend soybean imports to the relicensing of glyphosate, sold by Monsanto and other companies.

On Monday, European nations refused to back a limited extension for the use of glyphosate.
The ink is barely dry on Charter's massive acquisition of Time Warner Cable  a deal that just formed the nation's second-largest cable company  but New York's attorney general is wasting no time pressing the firm on customer complaints about their Internet service.

Thousands of Time Warner Cable's customers have written in to the attorney general's office saying they aren't getting the download speeds they paid for as part of an ongoing investigation by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman into internet providers' advertised speeds, according to a spokesman. And on Wednesday, Schneiderman sent letters to Charter calling for the cable company to "clean up Time Warner Cable's act" in the wake of the acquisition.

Calling TWC's performance "abysmal" compared with other internet providers, the letter sent by Schneiderman's office to Charter says TWC's customers have been subjected to slow-loading movies and websites while online video games stutter and lag.

"In advertisement after advertisement, Time Warner Cable promised a 'blazing fast,' 'super-reliable' Internet connection," the letter reads. "Yet it appears that the company has been failing to take adequate or necessary steps to keep pace with the demand of Time Warner Cable customers. "

"What we have seen in our investigation so far suggests that Time Warner Cable has earned the miserable reputation it enjoys among consumers," the letter reads. "Overcoming this history will require more than a name change; it will require a fundamental revolution in how Time Warner Cable does business and treats its customers." (As a result of this year's acquisition, Time Warner Cable, Charter and Bright House Networks will be collectively called "Spectrum.")

The letter also claims that Time Warner Cable has effectively misled some of its customers by giving them network equipment that can't reach customers' promised speeds and by "advertising its WiFi in ways that defy the technology's technical capabilities."

Leading Schneiderman's probe into advertised internet speeds is Tim Wu, the former Columbia University law professor who coined the term "net neutrality" and in 2014 ran for lieutenant governor of New York. Wu's platform took aim at large, incumbent businesses such as those in the telecom and cable industries.

Time Warner Cable has previously said that the tests designed to evaluate its network are flawed and don't represent reality. Other research by the Federal Communications Commission has found that roughly 3 out of 4 TWC customers consistently get within 95 percent of the maximum speed they pay for. About 1 in 10 customers receive below 80 percent of the speeds they're promised.

An earlier letter from Schneiderman's office also called out TWC over other concerns related to its internet service. Last fall, the state attorney general asked the company for details relating to decisions it had made at the point of interconnection, or the parts of TWC's network that connect to the parts of the internet it doesn't control. Schneiderman's office said it was concerned about slowdowns at this portion of TWC's network, which consumers rarely interact with, that risked degrading their internet experience, and demanded the company answer questions on the issue.

To address similar concerns and to ensure interconnection complaints wouldn't derail the TWC acquisition, Charter promised regulators that it would not try to block, slow or otherwise make life difficult for websites trying to send their content through its network. Now that TWC is a part of Charter, it too will be covered by that commitment.

Asked Wednesday whether this commitment, known as "settlement-free peering," was enough to mollify Schneiderman's previous concerns, a spokesman for Schneiderman declined to comment, saying the letter to Charter would speak for itself.
Two new exhibitions at the Luminary explore the effect of the internet and violence on art.

OPW? POW! by Seattle-based artist duo Aeron Bergman and Alejandra Salinas comments on the shift in what constitutes work, a shift brought about by social media and the rise of companies such as Amazon, Google and Facebook.

The Shadow on the Ground by Chicago-based artist Alexandria Eregbu was in part inspired by police-related deaths of African-Americans, including the 2014 fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson.

The exhibitions are complementary, says James McAnally, co-director of the Luminary.

For one thing, theyre both dealing with our immersion in digital culture and the way that it filters our experience of the world, he says. Eregbu addresses the way that social media forces a certain kind of attention. If youre on those platforms, the way that you receive information is not within your control.

The Bergman/Salinas exhibition, McAnally says, looks at how social-media users are, in effect, laborers in that economic framework. OPW means other peoples work.

And work is exactly whats involved when people contribute to commercial social-media sites, Bergman says  whether they realize it or not.

Weve been convinced that these activities are fun somehow  or artistic even, he says. Its not considered labor, even though it is labor. But its something that a lot of us  maybe too many of us  are doing on a daily basis.

OPW? POW! is comprised of pieces that riff on corporate online culture. Perhaps the highlight of the exhibition is a mural depicting Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn painting the logo of a prominent internet company onto a picket fence.

Eregbus Shadow on the Ground combines photographs and objects  including handkerchiefs, shells, bottles and old-school album covers  in acknowledging the perseverance of the African-American spirit. The album titles are suggestive of that rich heritage: Miles Davis Birth of the Cool, Billie Holiday & Al Hibblers Shades of Blue, Roberta Flacks Chapter Two.

These last three years, Ive been reflecting on the violence thats been inflicted on black people, Eregbu says. And how its been witnessed on the media  particularly social media. These experiences literally go viral, and I think that does something to the psyche.
The United Nations is still waiting for Syrian government agreement for an aid convoy to enter the besieged town of Daraya and has requested approval to airlift food into four locations if land routes are unavailable, UN officials said on Tuesday, according to Reuters.



The UN has said malnourished children in Daraya will die without outside help, a claim a top adviser to President Bashar al-Assad denied last week.



"The blockage of aid is a political issue," UN spokesman Ahmad Fawzi told a regular UN briefing in Geneva. "Daraya is 12 km (7.5 miles) from Damascus, so it can be done but we need the political go-ahead from the government."



Daraya is one of four locations for which the UN presented the Syrian foreign ministry on Sunday a backup plan to airlift food if land access is not approved, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York. It is awaiting approval.



"The written request included a plan for airlifts - not airdrops - as a last resort, to Daraya, Douma and Mouadamiya in rural Damascus Governorate, and Al Waer in Homs Governorate," Dujarric said.



So far Damascus has only authorized the delivery of medical assistance, school supplies and children's milk to Douma, Daraya and Mouadamiya during June, not food.



Al Waer was not among the approved areas for June. The Syrian government noted in a statement that the Syrian Arab Red Crescent had delivered seven trucks of medical supplies, food and children's milk to the area on June 1.



Last week Syria's government, under pressure from its ally Russia and other countries belonging to the International Syria Support Group overseeing the peace process, allowed the first UN aid convoy into Daraya since late 2012.



It brought baby milk and medical supplies to support an estimated 4,000 civilians, just in time for Syria to meet a Thursday deadline to improve aid access or face having aid deliveries imposed by air drops.



But the convoy took no food to Daraya. UN officials had hoped food would arrive in a second convoy on Friday, but that was delayed with no government approval.



Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said the government had later given partial approval for the food convoy.



"That is not good enough," he said. "We are reverting to the government."



Syria's opposition says the government approved the first convoy in a cynical ploy to alleviate international pressure.



Bouthaina Shaaban, an adviser to Assad, said last week that "nobody is starving in Daraya", which was "producing peas and beans and food and wild berries that is enough for the entire Syria".
ST. CHARLES COUNTY  A judge gave a former Wentzville day-care provider on Wednesday a five-year prison term in the death in 2009 of an 18-month-old boy under her care.

A jury in April had found Lisa West, now 42, guilty of involuntary manslaughter in causing Mason Beachs head injury.

Prosecutors said West had struck the boy just minutes after his mother left him at Wests home day care. West said the boy accidentally fell down carpeted stairs.

St. Charles County Circuit Judge Rick Zerr issued the sentence after rejecting a request for a new trial filed by defense attorneys.

Zerr agreed with the jurys recommendation of a five-year term. He couldnt have exceeded the recommendation but could have sentenced West to less.

The sentence was issued after an emotion-filled hearing. Masons mother, Rebecca Beach, said she and her family were living this nightmare for the rest of our lives.

We dont get to celebrate Masons birthdays or holidays with him, she said. Instead we go to decorate his grave.

She urged the judge to give West a harsh sentence.

The sentence she gave us was life  life without our child, Beach said.

A sobbing West told the judge that Masons death truly was an accident.

I want to say how sorry I am for all the pain everyone suffered because ... of Masons untimely death, West said.

West said she had wanted many times to reach out to the Beach family since the death but I was told I couldnt.

Wests attorney, Richard Sindel, said a five-year prison term would compound the tragedy by taking West away from raising her own five children and stepchildren. The family now lives in the Chicago area.

He proposed that the judge instead sentence her to probation or 120 days of shock time in jail.

The cause of death was listed as blunt force trauma, but West wasnt charged with a crime at the time.

Masons family pushed for charges, and the boy was one of the subjects of a 2011-12 Post-Dispatch investigation of unlicensed home day cares in Missouri. Dozens of child deaths from 2007 to 2011 were in unlicensed home day cares where caregivers werent required to have training or insurance or adhere to safety standards.

In 2013, county prosecutors reopened the investigation into Masons death, and a grand jury in 2014 indicted West on a felony child abuse charge. That was changed this year to involuntary manslaughter.
ST. LOUIS  A Franklin County truck driver linked to six others accused of trading child pornography pleaded guilty to two child porn possession charges Wednesday.

Investigators were tipped in April 2013 to Kenneth Hutchings Jr., 30, of the unincorporated community of Luebberling. After an Oregon man was arrested on his own child porn charges, he allowed the FBI to take over his email account, according to a court affidavit filed by Franklin County Sheriff's Deputy Jacob Walk. A search found emails linked to Hutchings, who was claiming to be abusing a prepubescent child, Walk wrote.

Investigators searched the home where Hutchings lived and his computers, storage devices and email, and found evidence that Hutchings had traded pictures and videos with six others, court files claim.

Hutchings was indicted in August of 2015 on two counts of possession of child porn.

In his guilty plea Wednesday, he admitted possessing over 18,000 images containing child porn, including videos that each contained multiple images. Hutchings obtained the images via email, a peer-to-peer file sharing service and Yahoo chat sessions, his plea says.

He admitted that in 2002, he'd been adjudicated in juvenile court for sexual abuse of a teen, and investigated for another alleged sexual offense in 2008. He'd also been caught looking at child porn in 2009, but sheriff's investigators were unable to find any images on his computer, the plea says.

He could face up to 20 years in prison when sentenced.

Hutchings pleaded guilty to the same offenses in January, but at that time, he was told that he faced at least 10 years in prison due to the juvenile case.

The Justice Department changed their policy on juvenile cases in May, no longer considering them prior convictions that could lengthen a potential prison sentence, Assistant U.S. Attorney Colleen Lang wrote in a court filing.

On Wednesday, Hutchings withdrew his previous plea and pleaded guilty under the new terms.
ST. LOUIS  A rural Kentucky man pleaded guilty in federal court here Wednesday to a drug charge and admitted involvement in a conspiracy that obtained painkillers in Missouri and sold them in Kentucky.

Jamie Cole, 39, of Lost Creek, Ky., pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute oxycodone.

As part of that plea, Cole admitted that between 2011 and 2015, he and others traveled to pain clinics and doctors' offices in Georgia and other states to obtain prescriptions, which they then filled at pharmacies in eastern Missouri and elsewhere and sold in their home state.

Cole admitted responsibility for about 1,500 pills, his lawyer, Teneil Kellerman, said in court.

Under federal sentencing guidelines, he could face roughly two and one-half years or more when sentenced later this year.

Cole told court staff that he has never worked. He is separated and has four children, as well as a felony criminal charge in Kentucky for failure to pay child support, court records show.

Cole's mother, Carlie Cole, and his uncle/common law stepfather, Paul Cole, were indicted along with Cole last year.

Carlie Cole and Paul Cole, both 55 and from Jackson, Ky., have pleaded not guilty but have scheduled a hearing June 30 to change those pleas, court records show.

The Coles were arrested in 2013 in Troy, Mo., after a pharmacist became concerned about a potentially fraudulent oxycodone prescription from Florida. Investigators then learned that they'd obtained oxycodone from a pharmacy in O'Fallon, Mo., and one in West Virginia, police said.

Troy Police Chief Jeff Taylor said at the time of the Cole's arrest that Missouri had become a destination for those seeking to obtain prescription drugs illegally because of the lack of a prescription monitoring program.

Missouri still doesn't have one, although officials have sought to create them at the local level.
EAST ST. LOUIS  Two men were sentenced to federal prison for their roles in a stolen property fraud ring, the U.S. Attorney's Office said Wednesday.

James D. Litchfield, 59, owner of Big Jims Autorama in Madison, was sentenced Tuesday to three years in prison and his brother, Ryan P. Litchfield, 37, of OFallon, Mo., received a 366-day sentence.

The Litchfields were among 15 people indicted last fall as part of a scheme that used stolen credit account numbers to buy appliances, expensive tools, computers and construction equipment from St. Louis-area retailers. The items were then sold and the profits sent to Jason J. Parmeley, 42, formerly of O'Fallon, Mo., who was the alleged ringleader in Mexico, prosecutors said.

James Litchfield admitted getting numerous truckloads of items, prosecutors said, providing two trucks for use in the conspiracy and wiring money to Mexico.

Ryan Litchfield admitted receiving about $80,000 worth of stolen items in 20 to 25 truckloads, which he then sold to friends, business associates, or on Craigslist.

Four others have pleaded guilty and await sentencing; the rest have pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial.
ST. LOUIS  Travis S. McGowan, 33, was charged Monday with armed criminal action and two counts of assault in a shooting at a service station on May 30.

McGowan, of the 4000 block of Labadie Avenue, is accused of critically wounding a man, 28, who was pumping gasoline into his car when a gunman approached and fired several times. Police said the gunman also fired at a female passenger, 25, who got out of the car moments after the victim was shot.

Police said the victim has had several surgeries and remained in critical condition in a hospital Monday. Police said surveillance video from the station, in the 4100 block of West Florissant Avenue, shows the gunman approach the victim from behind, holding a handgun with extended magazine, and firing multiple times.

McGowan was arrested Friday and is held on $350,000. Police said he has a felony record.
WASHINGTON  Many congressional Republicans, including those from the St. Louis region, are following House Speaker Paul Ryans decision to criticize Donald Trump but not withdrawing their support as their partys presidential nominee.

One example: Illinois 12th District, where incumbent Rep. Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro, supports Ryans criticism of Trumps comments about a federal judge of Mexican descent, his spokesman said Wednesday.

Bost tried to deflect criticism by tying his November election opponent to Hillary Clintons position on coal. That drew a rebuke from the opponent, C.J. Baricevic, whose spokesman said Wednesday that Bost is equating comments that could be construed as racist with policy positions.

Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee criticized federal Judge Gonzalo P. Curiels decisions in a fraud case against Trump University, and suggested the Indiana-born judge was influenced by his Mexican ethnicity.

Ryan denounced it as a textbook definition of a racist comment. Jim Forbes, a spokesman for Bost, said Wednesday that Bost agrees with Ryan, but that Bost also intends to support his partys presidential nominee.

Baricevic, a lawyer from Belleville, called upon Bost to denounce Trumps despicable racist attack and rescind his support of Donald Trump for president.

One Illinois Republican, Sen. Mark Kirk, who is in a tough re-election fight against Rep. Tammy Duckworth, D-Schaumburg, withdrew his support for Trump on Tuesday.

Responding to Baricevics call, Bost told the Belleville News-Democrat that maybe I should ask my opponent if he wants to support a socialist or a person who wants to close every coal mine in Illinois. The references were to Democratic presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Clinton.

Baricevics spokesman Barzim Emami said that we have been consistent in our opposition to Hillary Clinton's coal policy- we look forward to advocating for southern Illinois coal.

He said Bost equating coal policy to Trumps comments about ethnicity is absolutely ridiculous.

Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville, said he still supports Trump, but called his comments "racist and unacceptable.

"The office he's running for is much larger than any lawsuit concerning his personal company and it comes with greater responsibilities," Davis said in a statement supplied by his office. "I have said in the past that I will support my party's nominee because I respect the choice of the voters but I encourage Trump to focus on the issues and promote policies that will lead to better paying jobs and more opportunities for all Americans  something this administration has failed to do over the last seven and a half years."

Another St. Louis-area Republican, Rep. John Shimkus, R-Collinsville, still supports the nominee and looks forward to him speaking more presidentially, said Shimkuss spokesman Jordan Haverly.

Kristina Weger, communications director for Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-St. Elizabeth, said her boss continues to support the GOP's presumptive nominee.
CAHOKIA  Two people suffered minor injuries Tuesday when a helicopter on a training flight crashed at St. Louis Downtown Airport, authorities confirmed.

Patti Beck, spokeswoman for the airport, said the flight instructor was taken to St. Louis University Hospital, but his injuries were not considered life-threatening. The student declined to go to a hospital.

Cahokia police said it received a call at 1:28 pm. from the airport office about the crash. Beck said the helicopter is a Robinson R22, a two-seat aircraft, occupied by an instructor and a trainee.

Midwest Helicopter, based at the airport, confirmed one of its helicopters was involved, but a spokeswoman said: The accident is under investigation and we have no comment.

A reporter on the scene said the helicopter was resting on its side in a grassy area near the terminal, with numerous emergency vehicles nearby.

Beck works for Bi-State Development, which owns and operates the airport in Cahokia.

Stan Dawid, a videographer for KTVI (Channel 2), witnessed the crash from the Helicopters Inc. office nearby.

Dawid said the helicopter was maneuvering a few feet off the ground when it leaned to the right and its skid hit the ground.

He said the aircraft landed hard, and the blade went spinning away.

Dawid said one of the pilots got out and helped the other out of the helicopter.

Beck said the student was the one who helped the instructor out of the helicopter.

You know, it was just a small, low-level maneuver thats pretty common, Dawid said.
India has agreed to work toward joining the Paris Agreement on climate change this year, India and the United States said on Tuesday, giving momentum to the international fight to curb global warming, Reuters reported.



President Barack Obama met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the White House on Tuesday.



"We discussed how we can, as quickly as possible, bring the Paris Agreement into force," Obama told reporters during talks in the Oval Office.



Both countries participated in the talks that led to the historic climate pact in France. The United States intends to ratify the agreement this year, and the two countries said in a joint statement that India would aim to do the same.



India is the world's third largest greenhouse gas emitter after China and the United States.



"India and the United States recognize the urgency of climate change and share the goal of enabling entry into force of the Paris Agreement as early as possible," the statement from the two countries said.



"The United States reaffirms its commitment to join the agreement as soon as possible this year. India similarly has begun its processes to work toward this shared objective."



The agreement, forged last year, will take effect when at least 55 countries representing 55 percent of global emissions ratify it. As of late last month 17 small countries had ratified the pact, according to the United Nations, and many others including the United States and China have pledged to ratify it in 2016.



Environmental groups had hoped Modi would say that India was ready to ratify the agreement during his Washington trip to cross that 55 percent threshold.



Brian Deese, senior adviser to Obama, said the joint statement should inspire other countries to follow suit.



"This statement should provide significant additional momentum," he told reporters. "We are better positioned than we ever have been to reach the goal."



The two countries welcomed the start of work to build six Westinghouse AP 1000 reactors in India, the culmination of 10 years of working to resolve civil nuclear issues.



India and the U.S. Export-Import Bank are working to complete a financing package for the project.



The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd, and Westinghouse confirmed engineering and site design work will begin immediately and contractual arrangements will be completed by June 2017.
The four candidates seeking Missouris Republican gubernatorial nomination have now held 12 public forums and/or debates, and if there are any significant policy differences among them, they have yet to emerge. Besides tax cuts and right-to-work laws, no one has any ideas for creating jobs.

Republicans used to be strong on main-street economic issues. But in the past two decades, the partys base has been fed what one GOP strategist has called rube bait instead of policy ideas, and has come to crave it. So at the 12th candidate forum Monday night, at the KTVI studios in Maryland Heights, the focus was on rube bait and resumes. When it came to details, the candidates were fuzzy, and sometimes wrong.

Missouri Republicans deserve better, particularly when the man at the top of the national ticket is blithely oblivious to serious ideas.

In alphabetical order, the candidates are John Brunner of St. Louis, the Germ-X millionaire and (he frequently reminds audiences) a former Marine; Eric Greitens, a self-described outsider who repeatedly stresses his experience as a Navy SEAL and nonprofit executive; Catherine Hanaway, a former Missouri House speaker and U.S. attorney, who wants you to know shes tough on crime and income taxes; and Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, who likes to note that in 2008 and 2012, he was the only Republican to win statewide office.

Kinder felt obliged to correct Greitens enthusiasm for zero-based budgeting, a buzzword for 40 years. Budgeting from scratch every year sounds good, but it has been found to be unworkable. Kinder called it a fraud. Kinder also had to remind Greitens that the Missouri Highway Patrol is not a part of the Department of Transportation. Being an outsider has its disadvantages.

No one bothered to point out to either Hanaway or Greitens that the fight against Common Core school standards  a fight they promised to lead  is already over. The Legislature ditched Common Core last year after it became a rube-bait bogeyman.

No one asked Hanaway why she was so focused on further cuts to the state income tax when Kansas tanking economy has proved that cutting income taxes without identifying other revenue replacements is a terrible idea, even though the GOP base and Hanaways political patron, retired investor Rex Sinquefield of St. Louis, think otherwise.

Hanaway said her successor as U.S. attorney in St. Louis no longer files felon in possession gun crime cases. Actually, he does. She said Attorney General Chris Koster (the likely Democratic gubernatorial nominee) did not indict anyone for arson or assault during the Ferguson disturbances. Under Missouri law, the attorney general gets into criminal cases only at the appellate level.

There are still 55 days until the Aug. 2 primary, still time for one of these candidates to stop pandering and get serious. Dont hold your breath.
The Chicago Police Department on Friday released hundreds of videos showing police using excessive force against civilians, and three days later the Post-Dispatch reported that the St. Louis Police Department negotiated $4.7 million in secret settlements the past seven years.

The difference between the two actions highlights the way two troubled police departments are dealing with their respective problems. One is beginning to operate with openness and transparency, while the other thinks obfuscation and secrecy is the best way to promote policing best practices.

It isnt. Taxpayers in St. Louis have no idea how or why their money was used to pay off 44 cases where victims of police force or their families allege injuries, wrongful imprisonment or death. They have a right to know how their moneys being spent, and the citys year-old Civilian Oversight Board is in place to help citizens challenge the police version of events and impose greater transparency.

Chicago police were forced by political circumstances and the citys Independent Police Review Authority to release the data. They did it over protests by the police union, the Fraternal Order of Police.

The St. Louis board is similar to the review authority and also got push-back from the St. Louis Police Officers Association. Jeff Roorda, the associations business manager, vowed to fight board requests and threatened that officers would do the bare minimum on patrol if the board was formed because they wouldnt have their employers support.

Thats the wrong battle to fight. Roordas job, of course, is to defend and support police officers. But police actions also must be open to public scrutiny. The two dont have to be mutually exclusive, and in the post-Michael Brown policing environment, must not be.

Police use of force often is necessary and justified. It saves lives, but it also takes lives. And now that a passer-by with a cellphone can document what happens during an encounter, police departments and union officials cant hide. So open up the books, show the videos, reveal the settlements. Restore public trust.

Increasing mistrust is the fallout when the public learns that, since 2010, St. Louis police have quietly paid out $4.7 million in settlements, as the Post-Dispatchs Jeremy Kohler reported Monday. Failure to examine or disclose outcomes of police action only bolsters the impression that police did something wrong and are paying to hush it up.

That is seldom the case. Frequently, investigations exonerate police who are performing difficult jobs and must have latitude to make split-second decisions.

Police unions must relinquish their bunker mentality. They enjoyed privileged status the past 40 years and are loath to give it up, but they must. The world has changed, and the transparency required to repair relationships and restore confidence means the St. Louis Police Officers Association must embrace policies of openness.
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?
Details added (first version posted on 11:14)

An EgyptAir plane heading from Egypt's capital Cairo to China's capital Beijing has landed in Uzbekistan due to a bomb threat, Al-Wasat newspaper reported June 8 citing EgyptAir sources.

The plane made an emergency landing after Cairo airport authorities received an anonymous tip about a bomb on board the airliner, according to the newspaper.

Uzbekistan's flag carrier Uzbekistan Airways confirmed that an Egyptian plane had landed in the city of Urgench due to a bomb threat.

"On the morning of June 8, information was received about a possible explosive device on board an -330-220 airliner belonging to an Egyptian air carrier and heading from Cairo to Beijing," the Uzbek carrier's press service said. "Seventeen crew members and 118 passengers were on board the plane."

The plane made a safe landing in Uzbekistan's Urgench and all passengers and crew were evacuated, according to the press service. The airliner is now located in a safe zone where it is being investigated by experts.

Later, Egyptian aviation sources told Reuters the bomb threat turned out to be a hoax.

"The plane is preparing to resume its journey. It was a hoax, thank God," said one of the sources.
Make-A-Wish seeks volunteers

Make-A-Wish Illinois is hosting a free training session for wish-granting volunteers in Maryville from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. June 14, in Maryville. Location details are provided upon registration.

Wish-granting volunteers work in teams of two to plan and carry out wishes from start to finish with support from the Make-A-Wish staff. Wish granters are asked to give 6-10 hours per month to grant at least three wishes per year. All volunteers must be over 21 and submit an application, reference and background check; complete an online and brief in-person training to begin granting wishes.

To attend the training, potential volunteers must complete the volunteer application and online training in advance; therefore advance registration is required. To reserve a spot, contact Cicely Tatum at tatum@illinois.wish.org or 312-602-9413.

Grief Support Group at Anderson

Anderson Hospital offers a Grief Support Group at 7 p.m. the second Tuesday of every month in the Hospital Chapel. The next meeting is June 14.

All are welcome to come and share their grief in this comfortable, group setting. Visit with others who share the same feelings you do and understand the hurt and loss you are experiencing.

Healthcare scholarships

Scholarship applications for students in/seeking healthcare professions are available from the Anderson Hospital Auxiliary, the medical staff and the state of Illinois. Applications are available at the Hospital Main Lobby Information desk or online at www.andersonhospital.org/auxiliaryscholarships.

For more information, contact Judy Eft at jgeft@yahoo.com

Camp Crusader

St. John Neumann Catholic School, 142 Wilma Drive, in Maryville, will have Camp Crusader this summer with weekly themes and weekly field trips and they offer a very affordable option for childcare throughout the summer months.

The camp is open to the public for children entering grades PreK through eighth grade. A traditional camp day will be from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and before and after care is also available. All camp fees include a weekly field trip, so all of the registration fees are known up front.

For more information or to register, visit sjncrusaders.org.

FBCM's Living Free Groups

One of the key purposes of First Baptist Church Maryville, 7110 State Route 162, in Maryville, is to Encourage the Hurting. Life is difficult, and many are faced with challenges and issues that are uncontrollable or hard to manage.

When going through these difficult circumstances, many people feel alone and like no one cares or can help. FBCM wants people to know they are not alone  the people of FBCM care and can help.

FBCMs Living Free Groups help by bringing together group members navigating through similar circumstances with experienced group leaders for mutual support and encouragement.

Groups include:

 Alzheimers Support: at 6:30 p.m. on the third Thursday of the month

 Cancer Companions: at 7 p.m. on the second Thursday of the month

 Divorce Recovery: at 7 p.m. every Thursday

 Grief Support: at 7 p.m. every Thursday

 Managing Motherhood: at 6:45 p.m. every Wednesday

 Parents of Special Needs Children: at 6:30 p.m. on the second Tuesday of the month

There is no cost or need to sign up to participate in a group. New group members may begin attending meetings at any time. Childcare is provided, free of charge (age 11 and under), for all groups. If childcare is needed for a child with special needs, contact the church office (618-667-8221). For more info, visit fbmaryville.org/pastoral-care.
LONDON MARKET CLOSE: FTSE 250 steals show; pound keeps lid on FTSE 100

Tuesday, October 25, 2022 - 17:20

London's FTSE 100 edged lower on Tuesday, as a stronger pound put paid to the blue-chip index's hopes of replicating the climbs delivered by its European peers.

The pound jumped to $1.1464 at the London equities close Tuesday, from $1.1295 on Monday, as new UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak restored some investor confidence in UK finances.

The FTSE 100 index closed down 0.51 of a point at 7,013.48 on Tuesday. A stronger pound acts as a drag to the international earner-heavy index.

In European equities on Tuesday, the CAC 40 in Paris ended up 1.9%, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt ended 0.9% higher.

There was an eye-popping climb for the more domestic-focused FTSE 250 in London, however.

The FTSE 250 ended up 494.08 points, or 2.9%, at 17,831.63. The AIM All-Share closed up 11.89 points, or 1.5%, at 799.44.

The Cboe UK 100 ended down 0.1% at 700.90, the Cboe UK 250 closed up 2.8% at 15,222.68, and the Cboe Small Companies ended up 0.2% at 12,269.51.

Sunak pledged to fix the "mistakes" of Liz Truss's leadership as he made his first speech as PM.

Sunak said Truss was "not wrong" to want to drive up growth but added that "some mistakes were made."

He vowed to place "economic stability and confidence at the heart of this government's agenda", after the financial chaos triggered by Truss.

In the FTSE 100, Segro finished 2.1% higher on Tuesday as UBS raised the British property investor and developer to 'buy' from 'neutral'.

At the bottom of the blue-chip index was HSBC, falling 4.2%, as it reported a decline in profit and revenue in the third quarter of 2022.

In the three months to September 30, HSBC reported pretax profit of $3.15 billion, down 42% from $5.40 billion a year before. Revenue decreased by 3.2% to $11.62 billion from $12.01 billion.

HSBC explained that its third quarter results included a $2.4 billion impairment, following the reclassification of its retail banking operations in France to held-for-sale, as well as a net charge for expected credit losses and other credit impairment charges.

Whitbread fell 0.8% despite swinging to an interim profit and return to dividends as the hotel sector recovered from Covid-19.

In the first half ended September 1, the Bedfordshire-based owner of the Premier Inn chain said revenue more than doubled year-on-year to 1.35 billion from 661.6 million.

Whitbread swung to a pretax profit of 307.4 million, compared to a loss of 19.3 million a year before. Compared to the same period of financial 2020, pretax profit was 40% higher than 219.9 million.

"The strong recovery in UK accommodation sales continued during the first half, and while Food & Beverage sales remained challenging and 5% behind pre-pandemic levels," Whitbread said.

In the FTSE 250, Urban Logistics added 1.5%, but was up over 10% earlier in the day.

The UK logistics real estate investor said trading in its first half was strong, as demand strengthened and vacancies fell.

"Lettings have been strong across the portfolio, as we see a robust occupational market with high demand and low vacancies. In particular, we're very pleased that our new development at Blenheim Park has let so quickly, with the final unit expected to be let shortly, and providing an expected 6.6% yield on cost across the project," said Chief Executive Richard Moffitt.

Elsewhere in London, Made.com plunged 93% as it said talks with possible suitors fell through, with the sofa seller now edging precariously closer to collapse.

"Following further discussion, those parties have all now confirmed to the company that they are unable to meet the necessary timetable. As a result, those discussions have been terminated and the company is no longer in receipt of funding proposals or possible offers for the issued and to be issued share capital of the company," Made said.

Made.com is also mulling whether a suspension of trading of its shares is "appropriate".

The euro stood at $0.9963 at the European equities close Tuesday, higher against $0.9877 at the same time on Monday.

Against the yen, the dollar was trading at JP147.77 late Tuesday, lower compared to JP148.82 late Monday.

Stocks in New York were firmly in the green at the London equities close, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.9%, the S&P 500 index up 1.3%, and the Nasdaq Composite up 2.0%.

US equities received a boost from well-received updates from the likes of soft drinks maker Coca-Cola and courier UPS, with both firms posting rises in third quarter revenue and net income.

Coca-Cola shares were 1.3% higher, UPS was up 1.9%.

Brent oil was quoted at $91.91 a barrel at the London equities close Tuesday, up from $90.88 late Monday.

Gold was quoted at $1,655.96 an ounce at the London equities close Tuesday, sharply higher against $1,648.76 at the close on Monday.

In Wednesday's UK corporate calendar, Barclays will publish its third-quarter results and Bloomsbury Publishing posts its half-year results.

In the economic calendar, there's a services PPI reading from Japan overnight before the Bank of Canada make an interest rate decision at 1500 BST.

Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Details added (first version posted on 11:14)

An EgyptAir plane heading from Egypt's capital Cairo to China's capital Beijing has landed in Uzbekistan due to a bomb threat, Al-Wasat newspaper reported June 8 citing EgyptAir sources.

The plane made an emergency landing after Cairo airport authorities received an anonymous tip about a bomb on board the airliner, according to the newspaper.

Uzbekistan's flag carrier Uzbekistan Airways confirmed that an Egyptian plane had landed in the city of Urgench due to a bomb threat.

"On the morning of June 8, information was received about a possible explosive device on board an -330-220 airliner belonging to an Egyptian air carrier and heading from Cairo to Beijing," the Uzbek carrier's press service said. "Seventeen crew members and 118 passengers were on board the plane."

The plane made a safe landing in Uzbekistan's Urgench and all passengers and crew were evacuated, according to the press service. The airliner is now located in a safe zone where it is being investigated by experts.
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 8

Trend:

Head of the lower house of the Czech parliament Jan Hamacek has indirectly rejected President Milos Zeman's proposal on the Czech MPs' recognizing the "Armenian genocide", RIA Novosti reported June 8.

Historians, but not politicians should speak about historical events, Hamacek tweeted June 8.

Earlier, during a joint briefing with his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sargsyan, President of the Czech Republic Milos Zeman said he intends to propose the Czech parliament to consider the recognition of the 1915 events as "Armenian genocide".

Czech Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaoralek has also commented on the issue.

"I believe that first of all, independent historians should make assessment about who is responsible for this [1915 events]."

Armenia and the Armenian lobby claim that Turkey's predecessor, the Ottoman Empire allegedly carried out "genocide" against the Armenians living in Anatolia in 1915. Turkey in turn has always denied "the genocide" took place. While strengthening the efforts to promote the "genocide" in the world, Armenians have achieved its recognition by the parliaments of some countries.
Ball Corporation (NYSE: BLL) confirms that Conselho Administrativo de Defesa Economica (CADE) has formally approved the buyer of the divested assets of its proposed acquisition of Rexam PLC, indicating that Ball may now proceed to close on the acquisition.

Ball is working to obtain the remaining regulatory clearances in Europe and the United States soon, enabling the proposed acquisition of Rexam PLC to close. Following closing of the transaction, Ball will remain a New York Stock Exchange listed company domiciled in the U.S.
Hemispherx Biopharma (NYSE: HEB) has entered into multiple agreements and stipulations to settle all material litigation. All four derivative cases, described in detail in prior public filings, have now been settled, subject to final Court approval. Two pending disputes in mediation with Company insurers have also been settled with a commitment to pay $3,500,000 to the Company, declared Thomas K. Equels, CEO of Hemispherx.

Governance changes, such as the creation of the independent Scientific Advisory Committee to review all submissions made by Hemispherx to the United States Food and Drug Administration and other regulatory bodies; the retention of an independent executive compensation consultant to advise the Company on its compensation practices for executive officers and directors; and the nomination of at least one new independent director for election as a member of the Companys Board at the 2016 annual meeting, have been agreed to as a part of the settlement stipulations.

The end result of this highly complex and coordinated comprehensive settlement of all disputes is that valuable governance changes consistent with the new management team's expressed philosophy will be immediately implemented, Equels added. He said, Even though there can be no assurance that the courts will approve the settlements, preliminary court approval of three of the four lawsuits has already been obtained and the Company expects final court approval of all matters. The insurer settlements, the subject of two policy dispute mediations, are the source of the $3.5 million from which it is expected attorney fee and cost awards in the settled lawsuits will be paid, do not require court approval. Optimally, this will conserve Company funds that otherwise would have been expended in litigation, and it is anticipated that substantial funds will be left over for the advancement of our commercial goals, Equels said. The settlement of these disputes, in a comprehensive fashion, allows our upper management and our medical/scientific team to devote our undivided attention to the Company's priority commercial and research related goals.

Equels added that concluding the litigation creates a clean slate for the Companys future partnering efforts, especially in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and Cancer, because Hemispherx will be freed from the unknown liabilities, costs and unforeseen consequences of these litigations.

We are grateful for the fine work done by our legal team from both Pepper Hamilton LLC and Black & Gerngross LLC, said Equels. Working together, we have crafted settlements which we believe will well serve Hemispherx's short and long term interests."
Provectus Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. (NYSE: PVCT) announced that an article on the use of PV-10 for in-transit melanoma has been published by the Journal of Surgical Oncology. It expands on a presentation on the same topic given at the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons 85th Annual Scientific Congress, which was held 2-6 May 2016, in Brisbane, Australia.

Titled "Intralesional PV-10 for In-Transit Melanoma - A Single Centre Experience," the article reports on use of PV-10 in the management of in-transit melanoma at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, in East Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The article was authored by Jocelyn Lippey et al. using retrospective analysis of data from nineteen patients receiving PV-10 at the center between 2010 and 2014.

Dr. Lippey reported, After a median follow up of 11.7 months, disease control was achieved in 63% of patients. Five patients (26%) achieved a complete response, another five (26%) patients achieved a partial response, and two patients had stable disease (11%) at the time of last follow-up. Seventy-four percent (14/19) of patients had a clinical response at time of first follow-up (median time 21 days); range 891 days. Younger patients and those with smaller lesions were more likely to respond to treatment. The median age of patients in this series was 80 years.

Dr. Lippey also noted, Ten patients did not have all lesions injected, primarily due to the number of lesions present. A bystander response was noted in un-injected lesions in 50% of patients who did not have all their lesions directly injected.

Eric Wachter, CTO of Provectus commented, The results reported here are consistent with other evaluations of PV-10 in melanoma, and highlight both the rapid ablative properties and the immunologic features of PV-10 as an investigational ablative immunotherapy.

The article can be found at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jso.24311/pdf

About the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre

Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre is Australia's only public hospital solely dedicated to cancer treatment, research and education. The hospital treats more cancer patients each year than any other hospital and the highly skilled medical, nursing and allied health team is backed by the largest cancer research group in Australia. Peter Mac has five locations across the state and provides services to patients from across Victoria and Australia and overseas. Multi-disciplinary teams, consisting of medical, surgical and radiation oncologists, nurses, radiation therapists and allied health professionals, develop comprehensive and coordinated treatment plans, ensuring patients get treatment and a team tailored to their individual needs. For more information, visit http://www.petermac.org.

About Provectus Biopharmaceuticals, Inc.

Provectus Biopharmaceuticals, Inc., specializes in developing oncology and dermatology therapies. PV-10 is a novel investigational drug for cancer: melanoma, breast cancer and cancers of the liver. The Company has received orphan drug designations from the FDA for its melanoma and hepatocellular carcinoma indications. PH-10, its topical investigational drug for dermatology, is undergoing clinical testing for psoriasis and atopic dermatitis. Provectus has completed Phase 2 trials of PV-10 as a therapy for metastatic melanoma, and of PH-10 as a topical treatment for atopic dermatitis and psoriasis. Information about these and the Company's other clinical trials can be found at the NIH registry, www.clinicaltrials.gov. For additional information about Provectus, please visit the Company's website at www.provectusbio.com or contact Porter, LeVay & Rose, Inc.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS: This release contains "forward-looking statements" as defined under U.S. federal securities laws. These statements reflect management's current knowledge, assumptions, beliefs, estimates, and expectations and express management's current views of future performance, results, and trends and may be identified by their use of terms such as "anticipate," "believe," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "plan," "predict," "project," "will," and other similar terms. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to materially differ from those described in the forward-looking statements. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Such statements are made as of the date hereof, and we undertake no obligation to update such statements after this date.

Risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to materially differ from those described in forward-looking statements include those discussed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (including those described in Item 1A of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015) and the following:

our determination, based on guidance from the FDA, whether to proceed with or without a partner with the fully enrolled phase 3 trial of PV-10 to treat locally advanced cutaneous melanoma and the costs associated with such a trial if it is necessary to complete (versus interim data alone);

our determination whether to license PV-10, our investigational drug product for melanoma and other solid tumors such as cancers of the liver, if such licensure is appropriate considering the timing and structure of such a license, or to commercialize PV-10 on our own to treat melanoma and other solid tumors such as cancers of the liver;

our ability to license PH-10, our investigational drug product for dermatology, on the basis of our phase 2 atopic dermatitis and psoriasis results, which are in the process of being further developed in conjunction with mechanism of action studies; and

our ability to raise additional capital if we determine to commercialize PV-10 and/or PH-10 on our own, although our expectation is to be acquired by a prospective pharmaceutical or biotech concern prior to commercialization.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160607006656/en/

Provectus Biopharmaceuticals, Inc.



Peter R. Culpepper, 866-594-5999 #30



Interim CEO, COO



or



Porter, LeVay & Rose, Inc.



Marlon Nurse, 212-564-4700



DM, SVP  Investor Relations



or



Allison + Partners



Todd Aydelotte, 646-428-0644



Managing Director  Media Relations

Source: Provectus Biopharmaceuticals, Inc.
PRINCETON, N.J., June 08, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- APCER Life Sciences, the truly global provider of safety, medical, regulatory, and technology services, will be a major participant in the 52nd Annual Meeting of the Drug Information Association (DIA), taking place June 27-30, 2016, in Philadelphia, PA. The company will share its knowledge and experience in various educational sessions and will make a donation to the National Organization for Rare Disorders on behalf of every visitor to its exhibit booth in the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

Were excited to bring our executives and team leaders from the Americas, Europe, and Asia together around the DIA Annual Meeting, said Suneet Walia, President and CEO of APCER Life Sciences, Inc. With Philadelphias proximity to our US home base in Princeton, NJ, many of our safety and medical information operations staff will also have the opportunity to attend sessions and meet industry peers.

Dr. Vineet Kacker, co-founder and Technical Director of APCER Life Sciences, will chair a session titled Impact of the European Medicines Agencys Medical Literature Monitoring Service on Pharmacovigilance Processes. Dr. Sanjeev Miglani, who heads a global team of pharmacovigilance professionals at APCER, will present a poster titled Safety Reporting Requirements for Clinical Development in Regulated and Unregulated Markets. Both are on the agenda for Wednesday, June 29.

The APCER Life Sciences team will be stationed in Booth 1725 to meet with current and prospective clients from Monday, June 27, through Wednesday, June 29. To help support the Patient Advocacy organizations that are accelerating new treatments for the children and adults they represent, the company will donate $1 to the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD) for every visitor recorded at the APCER booth.

Our company recognized NORDs Rare Disease Day on February 29th by sharing experiences of our family members and friends who suffer from a rare disorder, said Jill Notte, Director of Global Marketing at APCER Life Sciences. We were all inspired to do more to support these very special patients and their caregivers.

APCER Life Sciences is active in the DIA around the world. The company recently exhibited and presented at DIAs Innovations in Pharmacovigilance in Mumbai, India, May 13-14, as well as the 28th Annual EuroMeeting in Hamburg, Germany, April 6-8.

About APCER Life Sciences

APCER Life Sciences is committed to improving health in partnership with its clients. It brings together safety, medical, regulatory, and technology resources from around the world to ensure that patients receive the safest, most effective therapies possible.

To learn how APCER Life Sciences works together for better health, please follow the company on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook; visit www.apcerls.com; then contact APCER at one of their global offices.

Contact: Jill Notte Director, Global Marketing +1 609 436 4714

Source: APCER Life Sciences
Offering will finance in part the acquisition of EMC Corporation

ROUND ROCK, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Denali Holding Inc. (the Company) today announced the pricing of the previously announced offering by two of its wholly-owned subsidiaries as co-issuers (the co-issuers) of $1,625,000,000 5.875 percent Senior Notes due 2021 (the 2021 Notes) and $1,625,000,000 7.125 percent Senior Notes due 2024 (the 2024 Notes and, together with the 2021 Notes, the Notes). The 2021 Notes will bear interest at 5.875 percent per annum and will mature on June 15, 2021. The 2024 Notes will bear interest at 7.125 percent per annum and will mature on June 15, 2024.

Interest on the Notes will be payable semi-annually on June 15 and December 15 of each year, beginning on December 15, 2016.

The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the offering of the Notes as part of its financing for its previously-announced acquisition of EMC Corporation (the Dell-EMC Merger). The offering is expected to close on or around June 22, 2016, subject to customary closing conditions.

It is expected that the proceeds of the offering will be deposited in escrow, with such proceeds to be released to finance the consummation of the Dell-EMC Merger subject to the satisfaction of customary conditions. Upon consummation of the Dell-EMC Merger, Dell International L.L.C., a wholly-owned indirect subsidiary of the Company, and EMC Corporation will assume all of the co-issuers obligations under the Notes. The Notes will be guaranteed on a joint and several basis by the Company, Denali Intermediate Inc., Dell Inc. and each of Denali Intermediate Inc.s wholly-owned domestic subsidiaries (including EMC Corporations wholly-owned domestic subsidiaries following the consummation of the Dell-EMC Merger) that guarantees obligations under the new senior secured credit facilities that will be entered into in connection with the Dell-EMC Merger.

The offering of the Notes was made in a private transaction in reliance upon an exemption from the registration requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the Securities Act), in the United States only to investors who are qualified institutional buyers, as that term is defined in Rule 144A under the Securities Act, or outside the United States pursuant to Regulation S under the Securities Act. The Notes have not been registered under the Securities Act or the securities laws of any other jurisdiction and may not be offered or sold in the United States without registration or an applicable exemption from registration requirements.

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of any of the Notes in any jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction.

Dell is a trademark of Dell Inc.

Dell disclaims any proprietary interest in the marks and names of others.

Disclosure Regarding Forward Looking Statements

This communication contains forward-looking statements, which reflect Denali Holding Inc.s current expectations. In some cases, you can identify these statements by such forward-looking words as anticipate, believe, could, estimate, expect, intend, confidence, may, plan, potential, should, will and would, or similar expressions. Factors or risks that could cause our actual results to differ materially from the results we anticipate include, but are not limited to: (i) the failure to consummate or delay in consummating the proposed transaction; (ii) the risk that a condition to closing of the proposed transaction may not be satisfied or that required financing for the proposed transaction may not be available or may be delayed; (iii) the risk that a regulatory approval that may be required for the proposed transaction is delayed, is not obtained, or is obtained subject to conditions that are not anticipated; (iv) risk as to the trading price of Class V Common Stock to be issued by Denali Holding Inc. in the proposed transaction relative to the trading price of shares of VMware, Inc. common stock; (v) the effect of the announcement of the proposed transaction on Denali Holding Inc.s relationships with its customers, operating results and business generally; and (vi) adverse changes in general economic or market conditions. Denali Holding Inc. undertakes no obligation to publicly update or review any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise, except as required by law.

Additional Information and Where to Find It

This communication does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities or a solicitation of any vote or approval, nor shall there be any sale of securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. No offering of securities shall be made except by means of a prospectus meeting the requirements of Section 10 of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and otherwise in accordance with applicable law. This communication is being made in respect of the proposed business combination transaction between EMC Corporation and Denali Holding Inc. The proposed transaction will be submitted to the shareholders of EMC Corporation for their consideration. In connection with the issuance of Class V Common Stock of Denali Holding Inc. in the proposed transaction, Denali Holding Inc. has filed with the SEC a Registration Statement on Form S-4 (File No. 333-208524). The Registration Statement was declared effective by the SEC on June 6, 2016, and a definitive proxy statement/prospectus is expected to be or has been sent to each EMC Corporation shareholder entitled to vote at the special meeting in connection with the proposed transaction on or about June 10, 2016. In addition, each of Denali Holding Inc. and EMC Corporation plans to file with the SEC other documents regarding the proposed transaction. INVESTORS ARE URGED TO READ THE PROXY STATEMENT/PROSPECTUS AND ANY OTHER DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE TRANSACTION FILED WITH THE SEC CAREFULLY AND IN THEIR ENTIRETY IF AND WHEN THEY BECOME AVAILABLE BECAUSE THEY WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROPOSED TRANSACTION. Investors may obtain copies of the proxy statement/prospectus and all other documents filed with the SEC regarding the proposed transaction, free of charge, at the SECs website (http://www.sec.gov) or from Denali Holding Inc.s website (http://www.dell.com/futurereadydell).

Participants in the Solicitation

Denali Holding Inc. and certain of its directors, officers and employees may participate in the solicitation of proxies from EMC Corporation shareholders in connection with the proposed transaction without additional compensation. Additional information regarding the persons who may, under the rules of the SEC, participate in the solicitation of EMC Corporation shareholders in connection with the proposed transaction and a description of their direct and indirect interest, by security holdings or otherwise, is set forth in the proxy statement/prospectus filed with the SEC in connection with the proposed transaction.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160608006408/en/

Dell

David Frink, 512-728-2678

[email protected]

Source: Denali Holding Inc.
NEW YORK, NY -- (Marketwired) -- 06/07/16 -- Jacob Frydman, a native New Yorker and real estate expert, is proud to have recently joined the National Committee for Furtherance of Jewish Education (NCFJE) in support of its Released Time program of Greater New York. Devoted to his Jewish heritage and continuing his philanthropic efforts, Frydman dedicates much of his time and capital to various organizations and programs aimed at helping people in struggling communities.

The Released Time program helps Jewish youth in public schools by educating them about the history, customs, and prayers of Judaism. Since its creation in 1941, NCFJE's initiative has inspired more than a quarter of a million Jewish boys and girls in New York City, Rockland County, Long Island, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New England, Ohio, Pennsylvania and California to discover the history of their heritage. The program has expanded and now services more than 125 sites in the New York City area. Throughout the year, each Wednesday afternoon during the last hour of school, dedicated instructors instill the joy of Judaism and create a warm atmosphere of religion and acceptance for over 900 students currently enrolled in the program. The classes are available at every public school in New York, free of charge. Rabbi Hanoch Hecht of The Rhinebeck Jewish Center was the one who introduced Frydman to this initiative and continues to praise Frydman for his sustained commitment and the work he is doing for the community.

Jacob Frydman understands the importance of reaching out to young people and believes it is imperative that children within the Released Time program, who come from households that experience a range of economic and social hardships, are nurtured just as attentively as any other. Not a stranger to making a difference in the lives of the new generation, in 2013 Jacob founded a scholarship fund, helping countless American students gain access to higher education and inspiring them to reach their full potential. The program awarded $100,000, over three years, to students who best answered the question, "How Do I Invest in My Future?"

Over his 30-year career, Jacob Frydman made a positive and lasting impression with the real estate investment industry. Through his vast experience in structuring, financing, and executing highly complex real estate transactions, he has acquired over five million square feet of American property and has participated in investments valued at over $2 billion. He often speaks at Columbia University and in the Master's Lecturer series at New York Law School, discussing business, law, and ethical elements of real estate management to aspiring students. Frydman is an avid philanthropist, who cares greatly for his Jewish community, and supports many other charitable committees, including The Chabad of Dutchess County and The Brem Foundation, which focuses on the eradication of breast cancer among women and men in the Washington DC metropolitan area.

Jacob Frydman -- Property Expert and Consultant: http://jacobfrydmannews.com

Jacob Frydman -- To Attend the NCFJE 76th Annual Awards Dinner: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/jacob-frydman-attend-ncfje-76th-182213209.html

Jacob Frydman -- Devoted Member and Supporter of The Rhinebeck Jewish Center: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/jacob-frydman-devoted-member-supporter-050741846.html

Embedded Video Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lpgwu_U5liM

Source: JacobFrydmanNews.com
SOUTHFIELD, Mich., June 7, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Lear Corporation (NYSE: LEA), a leading global supplier of automotive seating and electrical systems, signed an agreement on June 6th to construct a modern new and expanded Asia-Pacific regional headquarters and technology complex located in the Yangpu District of Shanghai, China. Plans for the new building include expansion of the company's administrative infrastructure, a new product and technology center, industry-leading product development capabilities with state-of the-art engineering and testing equipment and a new Lear innovation studio for Asia. This new multi-story center will include approximately 28,000 square meters and support Lear's continued rapid sales growth and development of new business in China and throughout Asia.

"The Asia-Pacific region is the most strategically important region for the global automotive industry, and Shanghai is a major center for automotive activity. We are very pleased to be opening a regional administrative and technical complex in Shanghai, as China is Lear's fastest growing market, and our business in the Asia-Pacific region is expected to grow rapidly," said Matt Simoncini, Lear's president and chief executive officer. "Over the past three years, Lear's sales in China have grown at an average annual rate of 10%. Our new regional headquarters complex in Shanghai will support industry-leading product development, testing and customer service in one convenient location that includes administrative, engineering, product development, program management, sales and marketing and other technical personnel."

The new Asia headquarters will support approximately 31,000 Lear employees in eleven countries in Asia, including almost 22,000 in China. Lear manufactures products in Asia at 64 locations and has engineering teams at 16 locations throughout the region. In 2015, Lear's Asia consolidated sales grew to $3.2 billion. Lear also supports Asia through 17 unconsolidated joint ventures in the region. 2015 sales in these unconsolidated joint ventures were about $2 billion, bringing Lear's total sales in Asia last year to $5.2 billion.

This modern new facility for Lear's 800 Shanghai employees will showcase the Company's leading products in automotive seating and electrical systems, including Lear's intelligent seat, industry-leading craftsmanship as well as high power products for electrical and hybrid vehicles, industry-leading electrical distribution systems, including complex gateway modules and the latest in vehicle communication and connectivity capabilities.

"We continue to build upon our portfolio of industry-leading seating and electrical systems and related components," added Jay Kunkel, Lear's president of Asia-Pacific Operations. "We are pleased to announce plans for our new regional headquarters and are confident our expanded overall capabilities will continue to serve our existing and future customers at the highest level as we continue to develop new products for Asia as well as globally."

Lear Corporation (NYSE: LEA) is one of the world's leading suppliers of automotive seating and electrical distribution systems. Lear serves every major automaker in the world, and Lear content can be found on more than 350 vehicle nameplates. Lear's world-class products are designed, engineered and manufactured by a diverse team of approximately 136,000 employees located in 36 countries. Lear currently ranks #154 on the Fortune 500. Lear's headquarters are in Southfield, Michigan. Further information about Lear is available at http://www.lear.com or follow us on Twitter @LearCorporation.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160607/376704Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160607/376705

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/lear-signs-agreement-for-a-new-and-expanded-asia-pacific-regional-headquarters-and-technology-complex-in-shanghai-300281222.html

SOURCE Lear Corporation
The conditions for Russian natural gas supplies to Ukraine under existing contract between Russia's Gazprom and Ukraine's Naftogaz cannot be altered, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said Wednesday.

Novak added that the price of $177 per 1,000 cu m for gas deliveries to Ukraine in the second quarter "is absolutely comfortable" and reflects the current market situation.

"Our key argument is that the existing contract until 2019 fully stipulates all contractual commitments between the two companies," Novak told reporters in Minsk.

"It has been our strong standpoint from the very beginning that no changes in the contract can be made until the end of 2019," Novak stressed.
LAS VEGAS, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Panasonic, a world leader in professional display and projection solutions for enterprise, retail, education, rental and staging, restaurants, government organizations, is demonstrating a strong selection of its new 2016 professional display portfolio at InfoComm16.

The booth features the new stylish and robust EF1 Series 84" and 75" professional displays, perfect for corporate meeting rooms or retail signage. Show attendees can also see the new flagship VF1H Series professional display with a bezel-to-bezel distance of just 0.07'' (1.8 mm), perfect for virtually seamless video walls, as well as the refined BF1 Series Multi-Touch Screen Display, now with Color Universal Design and Intel Pro WiDi. Also being demonstrated, is a new professional display that enables applications such as information distribution, facility guidance, and advertising messaging through an original, built-in Light ID transmission function derived from visible-light communications technology.

"Panasonic is committed to continual improvement in performance, versatility, and efficiency, no matter what the intended application of the display is," says John Baisley, Senior Vice President, Visual & Imaging, Panasonic System Communications Company of North America. "As market needs evolve rapidly, Panasonic is well positioned with the know-how and resources to meet needs both specific and general, delivering solutions of remarkable integrity and sophistication. We are driven by a desire to deliver a superior user experience beyond expectations while maintaining our industry-wide reputation for value, reliability, and quality."

With Panasonic focusing on streamlining installation and operability of individual or multiple displays, the new professional display portfolio includes:

EF1 Series Professional DisplaysThe EF1 Series expands the lineup of entry-level displays to include 84- and 75-inch sizes offering a cost-effective solution for digital signage, or for general use in the office or classroom. The stylish EF1 Series blends high imaging performance with adaptability and outstanding efficiency, and is built for self-contained or networked digital signage or as an office/education/retail communication system. The displays have a built-in USB Media Player, eliminating the need for set-top boxes or other external devices and reducing cable connections in offline environments, with updates to USB memory devices via LAN when connected to an intranet (ideal for difficult-to-access installations). An IPS panel assures excellent all-round visibility and outstanding picture quality, while the narrow bezel and quality finish enhances any interior space. Expected to be available in late Summer/early Fall 2016.

VF1H Series Professional DisplaysThe new 700 cd/m2 flagship features an Ultra-Narrow-Bezel of 0.07'' (1.8 mm) bezel-to-bezel width for seamless and visually arresting video wall presentations in any vertical or horizontal configuration. The VF1H Series consumes less energy thanks to efficient backlighting and contrast control. It features a single-cable DIGITAL LINK daisy-chain connection that along with our optional modular frame mount and auto-calibration software reduce installation cost and time while adding flexibility. The IPS direct-lit LED panel is easily viewed off-axis and in bright conditions. Anti-Glare (AG) screen-surface treatment effectively reduces reflections from artificial lighting. Built tough for 24/7 operation, the 55-inch display also offers a wide range of optimized viewing modes as well as USB media updates over LAN for self-contained and even more convenient signage solutions. The VF1H Series is expected to be available in late 2016.

BF1 Series Multi-Touch Professional DisplaysSuccessor to the groundbreaking LFB70 multi-touch panel display, the BF1 Series (available in 50-, 65-, and 80-inch sizes) has fully featured whiteboard software built in, allowing users to start work instantly with no need for a connected PC. Pages can be created, saved, and shared from the screen, or any media displayed and annotated on via a new easy-access sub-menu bar. Precision 12-point touch control and a new minimized menu bar make it easy to switch inputs and access tools at any time. The BF1 Series offers a wealth of wired connections, including single-cable DIGITAL LINK, delivering media from almost any source device, while content can be displayed together with whiteboard pages in Picture-in-Picture Modeideal for web conferencing. The BF1 Series also has a USB Memory Viewer supporting a variety of formats and eliminates the need for a connected PCjust insert a USB memory stick and start presenting.

A self-contained powerhouse geared towards efficiency in the classroom, boardroom, or factory, the BF1 offers Color Universal Design for more clearly distinguishable color reproduction for those with color vision deficiencies and Intel Pro WiDi for wireless media display via mobiles and PCs. A toughened screen with Anti-Glare (AG) treatment makes for clear visibility in bright conditions. Ideal for connecting people in remote locations needing to perform tasks in real time, the BF1 Series can also be adapted for interactive information display in museums, exhibitions, or for digital signage. The BF1 Series is available now

New Professional Displays with a Built-in "Light ID" Transmission FunctionPanasonic's original Light ID is a technology that links smartphones with digital signage and provides detailed information by blinking the backlight LEDs at a speed that is unrecognizable by the human eye. By simply installing dedicated application software in the smartphone, Light ID content can be sent and received between Light ID transmitters (example: displays for digital signage use) and smartphone receivers.

This development enables the transmission of Light ID content from a display by using originally developed, high-speed backlight control technology. Allowing a Light ID that is output from a compatible device to link with the content of a display, a single display can provide a variety of additional information through a smartphone. Also, a media player function integrated within the display enables the transmission of various types of content and Light ID information from a USB memory device in which still or video images are stored, without the need for a separate externally connected device. Release of this new display and the provision of a Light ID platform service are scheduled to be available in 2016.

InfoComm16 takes place June 810, 2016, at the Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas. For more information on Panasonic solutions for business, please visit the Panasonic booth #C6308 or our website at http://us.panasonic.com/business-solutions

Sales inquiries for Panasonic's Visual Systems technology solutions should be directed to [email protected] or 877-726-2767.

Follow Panasonic Pro AV SolutionsPanasonic for Business' Pro AV Solutions can be followed on social media channels, including Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Panasonic for Business blog.

Panasonic Solutions for BusinessPanasonic delivers game-changing technology solutions that deliver a customized experience to drive better outcomesfor our customers and our customers' customers. Panasonic engineers reliable products and solutions that help to create, capture and deliver data of all types, where, when and how it is needed. The complete suite of Panasonic professional solutions for government and commercial enterprises of all sizes addresses unified business communications, mobile computing, security and surveillance, retail point-of-sale, office productivity, visual communications (projectors, displays, digital signage) and HD video production. Panasonic solutions for business are delivered by Panasonic System Communications Company of North America, Division of Panasonic Corporation of North America, the principal North American subsidiary of Panasonic Corporation.

All brand and company/product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of the respective companies. All specifications are subject to change without notice. Information on Panasonic solutions for business can be obtained by calling 877-803-8492 or at us.panasonic.com/business-solutions/.

About Panasonic Corporation of North America Panasonic Corporation of North America provides a broad line of digital and other electronics products and solutions for consumer, business and industrial use. The company is the principal North American subsidiary of Osaka, Japan-based Panasonic Corporation and the hub of Panasonic's U.S. branding, marketing, sales, service and R&D operations. In Interbrand's 2014 annual "Best Global Green Brands" report, Panasonic ranked number five overall and the top electronics brand in the report. As part of continuing sustainability efforts, Panasonic Corporation of North America relocated its headquarters to a new facility, built to meet LEED certification standards, adjacent to Newark Penn Station in Newark, NJ. Learn more about Panasonic at www.panasonic.com.

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/panasonic-focuses-on-innovative-professional-display-technology-at-infocomm-2016-300281651.html

SOURCE Panasonic
Burundi's President Pierre Nkurunziza walks during a ceremony in tribute to the former late President Colonel Jean-Baptiste Bagaza at the national congress palace in Bujumbura, Burundi May 16, 2016. REUTERS/Evrard Ngendakumana

BUJUMBURA (Reuters) - Burundi said on Tuesday it had released six juveniles who were part of a group of 11 students jailed last week for allegedly defacing a photograph of President Pierre Nkurunziza in a school text book.

Authorities in the central African country have been cracking down on critics and the opposition against a backdrop of tension and violence sparked by Nkurunziza's decision to run for a third term last year.

Last Friday, police shot and wounded a student and a taxi driver during a protest by schoolchildren against the arrest of their colleagues a day earlier.

Agnes Bangiricenge, spokeswoman for the ministry of justice said in a statement six of the students had been dealt with under proceedings for juvenile offenders. "After a hearing...the juvenile judge provisionally released them, she said.

Prosecution of the other five students, aged between 18 and 21, would proceed "normally".

In another incident last month, more than 300 students of a school in the capital's Ruziba neighborhood were sent home after being accused of defacing Nkurunziza's image.

Violence broke out in Burundi last year after Nkurunziza announced he would seek re-election for a third term.

Opponents accused him of violating the constitution, which they said limited him to two five-year terms. The government cited a court ruling which they said cleared him to stand again, and Nkurunziza subsequently won re-election last July.

More than 450 people have been killed in violence between government security forces and various rebel factions opposed to his continued rule. The United Nations estimates the year-long violence has displaced over 250,000 Burundians, who have fled mostly to Tanzania and other neighboring countries.

(Reporting by Clement Manirabarusha; editing by Elias Biryabarema and Mark Trevelyan)
MANILA/KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Four Malaysian sailors kidnapped by Filipino gunmen in April were freed on the southern Philippine island of Jolo on Wednesday, a Philippine army spokesman said.

The sailors, part of the crew of a tugboat traveling between Malaysia and the Philippines, were abducted by members of the Abu Sayyaf militant group off the eastern Malaysian state of Sabah on April 1.

It was not immediately clear if a ransom had been paid. The Philippines rarely publicizes such payments, but it is widely believed no captives are released without them.

Canadian John Ridsdel, 68, a former mining executive, was executed in April by Abu Sayyaf who captured him and three others in 2015 while they were on vacation on a Philippine island.

Philippine Major Filemon Tan told reporters the Malaysians were released on Jolo, Abu Sayyaf's stronghold in the southern Philippines.

The sailors were then sent by speedboat to Sabah.

"We have yet to confirm whether ransom money was paid in exchange for the safe release of the victims," Tan said, adding that the kidnapping was led by Abu Sayyaf leader Madjan Sahidjuan, also known as Apuh Mike.

Malaysian authorities have yet to confirm the sailors' release.

Abu Sayyaf, a group linked to the Islamic State, have become notorious for kidnapping, earning millions of dollars in ransom.

Last month, 14 Indonesians kidnapped by the group were released but several people, including Norwegian, Canadian and Japanese citizens are still being held.

Security is precarious in the southern Philippines, despite a 2014 peace pact between the government and the largest Muslim rebel group that ended 45 years of conflict.

(Reporting by Manuel Mogato and Rozanna Latiff; Editing by Nick Macfie)
An injured man assisted by others at the University of Papua New Guinea in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, June 8, 2016. Noel Anjok/Social Media Handout via REUTERS

By Colin Packham and Matt Siegel

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Dozens of people were wounded in Papua New Guinea on Wednesday after police opened fire on a student demonstration in the capital and riots erupted across the country, but officials said earlier reports of up to four dead were incorrect.

A groundswell of political unrest in recent weeks has surged in the country, just to Australia's north, amid calls for Prime Minister Peter O'Neill to resign over corruption allegations.

Students and officials said police fired on the public and used tear gas to disperse crowds during a protest at the University of PNG's Waigani campus in Port Moresby. Protests were later reported in the PNG highland cities of Goroka and Mt. Hagen, and in Lae on the north coast.

"Now there is a very big clash with the public and with the police just outside the Port Moresby General Hospital," a hospital official told Reuters by telephone soon after a group of wounded students were taken there for treatment.

"There is also shooting going on, open gunfire."

The government said initial reports that up to four people had been killed were incorrect. An official at the Port Moresby General Hospital said 38 casualties had been treated there, including four with bullet wounds, but no deaths.

O'Neill later issued a statement in which he refused to stand down.

"The facts relayed to me are that a small group of students were violent, threw rocks at police and provoked a response that came in the form of tear gas and warning shots," he said.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday expressed concern about the clashes.

"He calls for calm and stresses the importance of respect for peaceful protest and freedom of assembly, and a commitment to rule of law, dialogue and non-violence," Ban's spokesman Stephan Dujarric said in a statement.

Papua New Guinea, formerly administered by Australia, struggles with endemic violence and poverty despite a wealth of mineral resources. It is ranked 139 out of 168 in Transparency International's corruption index.

Wednesday's events echoed a similar confrontation in 2001 when police opened fire on anti-government student protesters. A full account of that incident has never been given.

The PNG Police Ministry did not directly address the shooting, but said in a statement that students or others who had engaged in subsequent vandalism or assaults would face the "full force of the law."

"Police are now investigating the string of offenses that have been committed and arrests will be made," it said.

The Australian government said there had been an "unconfirmed number of deaths and serious injuries," while the United States and Britain told its citizens to avoid areas hit by violence. "The situation is still volatile and could escalate at any time," the U.S. Embassy said in a statement.

Qantas Airways and Virgin Australia said they had canceled one flight each from Australia to Port Moresby and were assessing whether to fly on Thursday.

PEOPLE FLEEING

Hubert Namani, a lawyer and business leader, said public transport had been halted in Port Moresby and businesses shut.

"People are looting and rioting and sort of revolting, so the police are now caught trying to manage all of that," Namani told Reuters by phone from the capital.

Student protest leader Noel Anjo said the violence began when students started a march from the campus toward the parliament building in Port Moresby, where police had set up a roadblock.

"Police did not like that idea and started assaulting the students, punching them, hitting them with the gun butts, before firing shots at them," Anjo said. "The students were running for cover in all directions, but I saw some people badly wounded."

TEAR GAS, GUNFIRE

Video showed students fleeing amid clouds of tear gas and the sound of gunfire. Pictures showed several men with what appeared to be serious stomach, chest and leg wounds.

Thousands of students across PNG have been protesting and boycotting classes for weeks amid growing political unrest.

O'Neill, who came to power in 2011 promising to reign in corruption, has faced allegations he authorized millions of dollars in fraudulent payments to a leading law firm.

In 2014, an anti-corruption watchdog issued an order for his arrest over the incident, which O'Neill denies. He refused to submit to the warrant and ordered the watchdog stripped of its funding.

Most of Papua New Guinea's seven million people live subsistence existences in isolated mountain villages and scattered tropical islands.

Despite that, an energy production boom, which includes Exxon Mobil's (NYSE: XOM) $20 billion LNG plant, has fueled annual economic growth of almost 10 percent a year for the past three years.

Exxon and partner Oil Search (NASDAQ: OSH) said there had been no damage or impact to their operations, as did Newcrest Mining , which operates two remote gold mines in PNG.

"This is going to get worse before it gets better," said Greg Anderson, executive director of the Papua New Guinea Chamber of Mines and Petroleum in Port Moresby.

"Incidents like this trigger paybacks, which could easily spiral out of control," he said.

(Additional reporting by Jane Wardell, Jonathan Barrett, Byron Kaye, James Regan and Michelle Nichols, writing by Jane Wardell; editing by Lincoln Feast, Paul Tait and G Crosse)
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa has protested to the U.S. and British embassies after they issued alerts about possible militant attacks which Pretoria said were based on "very sketchy" information.

Security officials say no known militant groups operate in South Africa, which has seldom been associated with Islamist militancy.

The government has sent a letter to the embassies "to register our displeasure" with the manner in which the matter was handled.

"The information provided as a basis for the latest terror alerts on South Africa has been found to be very sketchy," said foreign ministry spokesman Clayson Monyela and State Security Agency (SSA) spokesman Brian Dube in a joint statement.

"We reject attempts to generate perceptions of government ineptitude, alarmist impressions and public hysteria on the basis of a questionable single source."

Officials at the U.S. Embassy were not available to comment, but the embassy said on Twitter there is no change in the status.

"The Security Message was based on specific, credible, and non-counterable threat information," it said.

On Saturday, the United States warned its citizens of possible attacks by Islamist militants on U.S. facilities or shopping malls in South Africa during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

(Reporting by James Macharia; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
Vote leave signs are seen in the window of a shop in Hale northern England, June 7, 2016. REUTERS/Phil Noble

By Kylie MacLellan

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will extend the voter registration period for its June 23 referendum on EU membership by 48 hours after a late surge in applications crashed a key website shortly before the Tuesday night deadline.

More than a million potential voters applied to register online over the last week, half of them on the final day, the government said, with a peak of more than 200,000 per hour ahead of the previous deadline of midnight (7 p.m. ET) on Tuesday.

Turnout is expected to be important in determining the outcome of the close-fought referendum, with young people considered to be more pro-EU but also less likely to vote. More than half of those who registered on Tuesday were under 34.

Some pollsters and analysts expect a high turnout to favor an "In" vote.

Matt Hancock, a minister in the government department responsible for registration, said on Wednesday the government would legislate to extend the deadline.

"We think it is right to extend to midnight tomorrow (Thursday) to allow people who have not yet registered time to get the message that registration is still open and get themselves registered," he said in a statement.

Hancock said on Twitter that the legislation, which opposition parties earlier had said they would support, would be brought to parliament on Thursday.

Several senior politicians and the Electoral Commission watchdog had earlier called for the deadline to be extended.

The Commission is planning for turnout of around 80 percent, well above the 66 percent seen in last year's national election, Chair Jenny Watson told Sky News.

"ABSOLUTE SHAMBLES"

Earlier, Hancock told parliament there had been problems with the website in the final two hours before the deadline due to record levels of users. It is not known how many people had tried and failed to register before midnight, he said.

The problems come after the Electoral Commission said last week a small number of EU citizens had mistakenly received notification they were registered to vote in the referendum but would not be allowed to do so.

The Guardian newspaper also reported thousands of postal votes from Britons in Germany may have got lost in the post after confusion about the type of pre-paid envelope supplied.

With polls showing Britons are evenly split, a narrow win for "In" could result in pro-Brexit campaigners questioning the way the referendum was conducted.

Bernard Jenkin, a pro-Brexit lawmaker in Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative Party, said the deadline was set because the register had to be formalized and published before the vote.

"Any idea of rewriting the rules in a substantial way would be complete madness and make this country look like an absolute shambles," he told Hancock during an exchange in parliament.

"Will he bear these things in mind or risk judicial review of the result?"

(Additional reporting by Estelle Shirbon and William James, Editing by Stephen Addison)
UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

Form 6-K

REPORT OF FOREIGN PRIVATE ISSUER PURSUANT TO RULE 13a-16 or 15d-16 UNDER THE

SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the month of June, 2016.

Commission File Number 001-35124

LONCOR RESOURCES INC.

(Translation of registrants name into English)

1 First Canadian Place

100 King Street West, Suite 7070

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

M5X 1E3

(Address of principal executive offices)

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant files or will file annual reports under cover Form 20-F or Form 40-F

Form 20-F [X] Form 40-F [ ]

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is submitting the Form 6-K in paper as permitted by Regulation S-T Rule 101(b)(1):[ ]

Note: Regulation S-T Rule 101(b)(1) only permits the submission in paper of a Form 6-K if submitted solely to provide an attached annual report to security holders.

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is submitting the Form 6-K in paper as permitted by Regulation S-T Rule 101(b)(7):[ ]

Note: Regulation S-T Rule 101(b)(7) only permits the submission in paper of a Form 6-K if submitted to furnish a report or other document that the registrant foreign private issuer must furnish and make public under the laws of the jurisdiction in which the registrant is incorporated, domiciled or legally organized (the registrants home country), or under the rules of the home country exchange on which the registrants securities are traded, as long as the report or other document is not a press release, is not required to be and has not been distributed to the registrants security holders, and, if discussing a material event, has already been the subject of a Form 6-K submission or other Commission filing on EDGAR.

SIGNATURE

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.

LONCOR RESOURCES INC. /s/ Geoffrey Farr Date: June 8, 2016 Geoffrey Farr Corporate Secretary

-2-

INDEX TO EXHIBITS

-3-

LONCOR RESOURCES INC.

Suite 7070, 1 First Canadian Place, 100 King Street West

Toronto, Ontario, M5X 1E3, Canada

NOTICE OF ANNUAL AND SPECIAL MEETING OF SHAREHOLDERS

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN THAT an annual and special meeting (the "Meeting") of shareholders of Loncor Resources Inc. (the "Corporation") will be held at the offices of Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP, Royal Bank Plaza, South Tower, Suite 3800, 200 Bay Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada on Wednesday, the 29th day of June, 2016 at the hour of 10:00 a.m. (Toronto time), for the following purposes:

(1) To receive and consider the audited consolidated financial statements of the Corporation as at and for the financial year ended December 31, 2015, together with the auditors' report thereon; (2) To elect directors of the Corporation; (3) To reappoint BDO Canada LLP, Chartered Professional Accountants and Licensed Public Accountants, as the auditors of the Corporation to hold office until the close of the next annual meeting of shareholders of the Corporation, and to authorize the directors of the Corporation to fix the auditors' remuneration; (4) To consider and, if thought advisable, to authorize by means of a special resolution, an amendment to the articles of the Corporation to consolidate the issued and outstanding common shares of the Corporation at a ratio of either two to one or three to one, with one of the two said ratios to be selected and implemented by the board of directors of the Corporation in its sole discretion; and (5) To transact such other business as properly may be brought before the Meeting or any adjournment or adjournments thereof.

The specific details of the matters to be put before the Meeting as identified above are set forth in the management information circular of the Corporation (the "Circular") accompanying and forming part of this Notice. This Notice and the accompanying Circular have been sent to each director of the Corporation, each shareholder of the Corporation entitled to notice of the Meeting and the auditors of the Corporation.

Shareholders who are unable to attend the Meeting in person are requested to sign and return the enclosed form of proxy to the Corporation c/o TMX Equity Transfer Services, Suite 300, 200 University Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, M5H 4H1, Canada.

DATED the 31st day of May, 2016.

BY ORDER OF THE BOARD (signed) "Geoffrey G. Farr" Geoffrey G. Farr Corporate Secretary

NOTE: The directors have fixed the hour of 4:00 p.m. (Toronto time) on the 27th day of June, 2016 before which time the instrument of proxy to be used at the Meeting must be deposited with the Corporation c/o TMX Equity Transfer Services, Suite 300, 200 University Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, M5H 4H1, Canada, provided that a proxy may be delivered to the Chairman of the Meeting on the day of the Meeting or any adjournment thereof prior to the time for voting.

LONCOR RESOURCES INC.

MANAGEMENT INFORMATION CIRCULAR

SOLICITATION OF PROXIES

This management information circular (the "Circular"), which is dated May 31, 2016, is furnished in connection with the solicitation of proxies by the management of LONCOR RESOURCES INC. (the "Corporation" or "Loncor") for use at the annual and special meeting of shareholders of the Corporation (the "Meeting") to be held at the time and place and for the purposes set forth in the attached notice of annual and special meeting of shareholders (the "Notice"). It is expected that the solicitation will be by mail primarily, but proxies may also be solicited personally by the management of the Corporation. The cost of such solicitation will be borne by the Corporation.

APPOINTMENT, REVOCATION AND DEPOSIT OF PROXIES

Each of the persons named in the enclosed form of proxy is an officer of the Corporation.

A SHAREHOLDER HAS THE RIGHT TO APPOINT A PERSON (WHO NEED NOT BE A SHAREHOLDER) TO ATTEND AND ACT FOR HIM OR HER AND ON HIS OR HER BEHALF AT THE MEETING OTHER THAN THE PERSONS DESIGNATED IN THE ENCLOSED FORM OF PROXY. SUCH RIGHT MAY BE EXERCISED BY STRIKING OUT THE NAMES OF THE PERSONS DESIGNATED IN THE FORM OF PROXY AND BY INSERTING IN THE BLANK SPACE PROVIDED FOR THAT PURPOSE THE NAME OF THE DESIRED PERSON OR BY COMPLETING ANOTHER PROPER FORM OF PROXY AND, IN EITHER CASE, DELIVERING THE COMPLETED AND EXECUTED PROXY TO THE CORPORATION C/O TMX EQUITY TRANSFER SERVICES, SUITE 300, 200 UNIVERSITY AVENUE, TORONTO, ONTARIO, M5H 4H1, CANADA, AT ANY TIME PRIOR TO 4:00 P.M. (TORONTO TIME) ON THE 27TH DAY OF JUNE, 2016, OR TO THE CHAIRMAN OF THE MEETING ON THE DAY OF THE MEETING OR ANY ADJOURNMENT THEREOF PRIOR TO THE TIME FOR VOTING.

A shareholder forwarding the enclosed form of proxy may indicate the manner in which the appointee is to vote with respect to any specific item by checking the appropriate space. If the shareholder giving the proxy wishes to confer a discretionary authority with respect to any item of business, then the space opposite the item is to be left blank. The shares represented by the proxy submitted by a shareholder will be voted in accordance with the directions, if any, given in the proxy.

A shareholder who has given a proxy may revoke it at any time in so far as it has not been exercised. A proxy may be revoked, as to any matter on which a vote shall not already have been cast pursuant to the authority conferred by such proxy, by instrument in writing executed by the shareholder or by his or her attorney authorized in writing or, if the shareholder is a body corporate, by an officer or attorney thereof duly authorized, and deposited at the registered office of the Corporation at any time prior to 4:00 p.m. (Toronto time) on the last business day preceding the day of the Meeting, or any adjournment thereof, or with the Chairman of the Meeting on the day of the Meeting or any adjournment thereof, and upon either of such deposits the proxy is revoked. A proxy may also be revoked in any other manner permitted by law. The Corporation's registered office is located at Suite 7070, 1 First Canadian Place, 100 King Street West, Toronto, Ontario, M5X 1E3, Canada.

2

MANNER OF VOTING AND EXERCISE OF DISCRETION BY PROXIES

The persons named in the enclosed form of proxy will vote or withhold from voting the common shares in respect of which they are appointed in accordance with the direction of the shareholders appointing them. In the absence of such direction, such common shares will be voted FOR each of the matters identified in the Notice and described in this Circular.

The enclosed form of proxy confers discretionary authority upon the persons named therein with respect to amendments or variations to matters identified in the Notice, and with respect to other matters which may properly come before the Meeting. At the time of the printing of this Circular, management of the Corporation knows of no such amendments, variations or other matters to come before the Meeting other than the matters referred to in the Notice.

VOTING BY NON-REGISTERED SHAREHOLDERS

Only shareholders whose names appear on the records of the Corporation as the registered holders of shares or their duly appointed proxyholders are permitted to vote at the Meeting. Most shareholders of the Corporation are "non-registered" shareholders because the shares they own are not registered in their names but instead are registered in the name of a nominee such as a brokerage firm through which they purchased the shares; bank, trust company, trustee or administrator of self-administered RRSPs, RRIFs, RESPs and similar plans; or clearing agency such as The Canadian Depository for Securities Limited. If you purchased your shares through a broker, you are likely an unregistered shareholder.

In accordance with Canadian securities legislation, the Meeting materials are being sent to both registered and non-registered shareholders. In the case of non-registered shareholders, Meeting materials have either (a) been sent by the Corporation (or its agent) directly to non-registered shareholders (such non-registered shareholders are referred to under applicable securities legislation as "non-objecting beneficial owners"), or (b) been sent by the Corporation (or its agent) to intermediaries holding on behalf of non-registered shareholders for distribution to such non-registered shareholders. If you are a non-registered shareholder and the Corporation (or its agent) has sent the Meeting materials directly to you (which materials should include the Corporation's voting instruction form (the "Corporation's VIF")), your name and address and information about your holdings of securities have been obtained in accordance with applicable securities regulatory requirements from the intermediary holding on your behalf. By choosing to send these materials to you directly, the Corporation (and not the intermediary holding on your behalf) has assumed responsibility for (i) delivering these materials to you, and (ii) executing your proper voting instructions. Please return your voting instructions as specified in the next paragraph.

If you received the Meeting materials directly from the Corporation (or its agent) and you wish to vote by proxy at the Meeting, please complete the Corporation's VIF and return it to TMX Equity Transfer Services (the Corporation's transfer agent) by regular mail in the return envelope provided or by fax at (416) 595-9593. If you received the Meeting materials directly from the Corporation (or its agent) and you wish to vote at the Meeting in person, you should appoint yourself as proxyholder by writing your name in the blank space provided on the Corporation's VIF (and striking out the names of the persons designated in such form) and return the Corporation's VIF to TMX Equity Transfer Services by regular mail in the return envelope provided or by fax at (416) 595-9593 (do not complete the voting section of the form as your vote will be taken at the Meeting).

3

Intermediaries receiving Meeting materials from the Corporation are required to forward the materials to non-registered shareholders to seek their voting instructions in advance of the Meeting. The intermediaries often have their own form of proxy and mailing procedures and provide their own return instructions. If you received the Meeting materials from an intermediary and you wish to vote by proxy at the Meeting, you should carefully follow the instructions from the intermediary in order that your shares are voted at the Meeting. Your shares can only be voted in accordance with your instructions. If you wish to vote at the Meeting in person, you should appoint yourself as proxyholder by writing your name in the blank space provided on the proxy form provided by the intermediary (and striking out the names of the persons designated in such form) and return the form to the intermediary in the envelope provided (do not complete the voting section of the form as your vote will be taken at the Meeting).

The Corporation is not relying on the notice-and-access provisions of securities laws for delivery to either registered or non-registered shareholders. The Corporation has elected to pay for the delivery of the Meeting materials to objecting non-registered shareholders by intermediaries.

VOTING SECURITIES AND PRINCIPAL HOLDERS THEREOF

The authorized share capital of the Corporation consists of an unlimited number of common shares and an unlimited number of preference shares, issuable in series. As of the date of this Circular, an aggregate of 151,439,732 common shares of the Corporation and no preference shares of the Corporation were issued and outstanding. Each common share entitles the holder thereof to one vote at all meetings of shareholders of the Corporation, except for meetings at which only holders of another specified class or series of shares of the Corporation are entitled to vote separately as a class or series.

All shareholders of record at the close of business on May 30, 2016 will be entitled either to attend and vote at the Meeting in person the shares held by them or, provided a completed and executed proxy shall have been delivered to the Corporation as described above, to attend and vote thereat by proxy the shares held by them.

As of the date of this Circular, the only person or company who, to the knowledge of the directors and executive officers of the Corporation, beneficially owns, or controls or directs, directly or indirectly, 10% or more of the issued and outstanding common shares of the Corporation is as follows:

Number of Total of Name Common Shares Common Shares Arnold T. Kondrat (1) 74,300,818 49.1%

_______________________________

(1) Mr. Kondrat is Chief Executive Officer, President and a director of the Corporation. See "Election of Directors".

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CURRENCY

As the Corporation's financial statements are prepared in United States dollars, all dollar amounts referred to in this Circular are expressed in United States dollars unless otherwise indicated. References in this Circular to "$" or "US$" are to United States dollars and references in this Circular to "Cdn$" are to Canadian dollars.

ELECTION OF DIRECTORS

The number of directors on the board of directors of the Corporation must consist of not more than ten (10) directors and not less than three (3) directors to be elected annually. The number of directors to be elected at the Meeting is four (4). The term of office of each of the present directors expires at the Meeting. The persons named below will be presented for election at the Meeting as management's nominees. Shareholders can vote for all of the proposed nominees, vote for some of the proposed nominees and withhold for others, or withhold for all of the proposed nominees. Unless otherwise specified, the persons named in the enclosed form of proxy will vote FOR the election of each of these nominees. Management of the Corporation does not contemplate that any of the nominees will be unable to serve as a director, but if that should occur for any reason prior to the Meeting, the persons named in the enclosed form of proxy reserve the right to vote for another nominee in their discretion. Each director elected will hold office until the close of the first annual meeting of shareholders of the Corporation following his election unless his office is earlier vacated in accordance with the by-laws of the Corporation.

The following table and the notes thereto set out the name and municipality of residence of each person proposed to be nominated for election as a director, his current position and office with the Corporation, his present principal occupation(s) or employment, the date on which he was first elected or appointed a director of the Corporation, and the approximate number of common shares of the Corporation beneficially owned, or controlled or directed, directly or indirectly, as at the date of this Circular:

Shares Name, Current Beneficially Position(s) with the Owned, Corporation and Director Controlled or Municipality of Residence Present Principal Occupation(s) Since Directed (1) Maurice J. Colson (2) (3)

Director

Toronto, Ontario, Canada Self-employed business consultant (actively involved in providing strategic counsel and assistance with financing to emerging private and public companies in Canada and to Canadian companies operating in China, Africa, and South America). March 31,

2011 Nil

5

Shares Name, Current Beneficially Position(s) with the Owned, Corporation and Director Controlled or Municipality of Residence Present Principal Occupation(s) Since Directed (1) Arnold T. Kondrat

Chief Executive Officer,

President and a director

Toronto, Ontario, Canada Executive Vice President of Banro Corporation (a gold mining company); Chief Executive Officer and President of the Corporation; Chief Executive Officer of Delrand Resources Limited (a mineral exploration company); Chief Executive Officer and President of Gentor Resources Inc. (a mineral exploration company); President of Sterling Portfolio Securities Inc. (a private venture capital firm). August 24,

1993 74,300,818 Richard J. Lachcik (2) (3)

Director

Oakville, Ontario, Canada Partner of Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP (a law firm). June 29, 1998 11,666 William R. Wilson (2) (3)

Director

Arvada, Colorado, U.S.A Self-employed mineral industry consultant (provides consulting services in the areas of corporate management, engineering and marketing). July 15, 1997 3,333

_______________________________

(1) The information as to shares beneficially owned, or controlled or directed, directly or indirectly, not being within the knowledge of the Corporation, has been furnished by the respective proposed directors individually. (2) Member of the audit committee of the board of directors of the Corporation (the "Audit Committee"). (3) Member of the compensation committee of the board of directors of the Corporation (the "Compensation Committee").

Majority Voting Policy for Elections of Directors

Under the Ontario Business Corporations Act (the Corporation's governing corporate legislation), director elections are based on the plurality system, where shareholders vote for or withhold their votes for a director. Votes withheld are not counted, with the result that, technically, a director could be elected to the board with just one vote in favour. The board of directors of the Corporation (the "Board") believes that each of its members should have the confidence and support of the shareholders of the Corporation. On May 30, 2013, the directors unanimously adopted a majority voting policy (the "Majority Voting Policy"), a copy of the current version of which is attached as Appendix "A" to this Circular. Each of managements nominees for election to the Board at the Meeting has agreed, and all future nominees will be required to agree, to abide by it. The Majority Voting Policy states that if in an uncontested election a director nominee has more votes withheld than are voted in favour of him or her, the nominee will be considered by the Board not to have received the support of the shareholders, even though duly elected as a matter of corporate law. Such a nominee will be required forthwith to submit his or her resignation to the Board, effective upon acceptance by the Board. The Board will refer the resignation to the Compensation Committee for consideration and a recommendation. Except in special circumstances that would warrant the continued service of the director on the Board, the Compensation Committee will be expected to recommend that the Board accept the resignation. Within 90 days after the meeting, the Board will make its decision and announce it by press release. Absent exceptional circumstances, the Board must accept the resignation of the director.

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Audit Committee Information

Reference is made to the following sections of the Corporations annual report on Form 20-F dated March 30, 2016 (the "Annual Report") for additional disclosure relating to the Audit Committee required to be included in the Annual Report by National Instrument 52-110 - Audit Committees: the information relating to Messrs. Colson, Lachcik and Wilson on page 50 of the Annual Report; the paragraph under Audit Committee on page 55 of the Annual Report; and item 16.C. of the Annual Report. A copy of the Annual Report can be obtained from SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Cease Trade Orders

Except as described below, none of the proposed directors of the Corporation as set forth in the above table is, as at the date of this Circular, or has been, within 10 years before the date of this Circular, a director, chief executive officer or chief financial officer of any company (including the Corporation) that:

(a) was subject to a cease trade order, an order similar to a cease trade order or an order that denied the relevant company access to any exemption under securities legislation, that was in effect for a period of more than 30 consecutive days that was issued while such proposed director was acting in the capacity as director, chief executive officer or chief financial officer; or (b) was subject to a cease trade order, an order similar to a cease trade order or an order that denied the relevant company access to any exemption under securities legislation, that was in effect for a period of more than 30 consecutive days, that was issued after such proposed director ceased to be a director, chief executive officer or chief financial officer and which resulted from an event that occurred while such proposed director was acting in the capacity as director, chief executive officer or chief financial officer.

As a result of not filing its audited financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2008 and related management's discussions and analysis by the filing deadline, New Horizon Uranium Corporation ("New Horizon") was made subject to an issuer cease trade order issued by the British Columbia Securities Commission which was revoked on November 5, 2009 (following the filing of the required records). As a result of not filing by the filing deadline its audited financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2008 and related management's discussions and analysis, and its unaudited interim financial statements for the period ended March 31, 2009 and related management's discussions and analysis, New Horizon was made subject to an issuer cease trade order issued by the Alberta Securities Commission which was revoked on November 6, 2009 (following the filing of the required records). Mr. William R. Wilson, a director of the Corporation, was a director and officer of New Horizon during the times the said cease trade orders were in effect.

Corporate Bankruptcies

No proposed director of the Corporation as set forth in the above table (or any personal holding company of such proposed director), is, as of the date of this Circular, or has been within 10 years before the date of this Circular, a director or executive officer of any company (including the Corporation) that, while such proposed director was acting in that capacity, or within a year of that person ceasing to act in that capacity, became bankrupt, made a proposal under any legislation relating to bankruptcy or insolvency or was subject to or instituted any proceedings, arrangement or compromise with creditors or had a receiver, receiver manager or trustee appointed to hold its assets.

7

Personal Bankruptcies

No proposed director of the Corporation as set forth in the above table (or any personal holding company of such proposed director), has, within the 10 years before the date of this Circular, become bankrupt, made a proposal under any legislation relating to bankruptcy or insolvency, or become subject to or instituted any proceedings, arrangement or compromise with creditors, or had a receiver, receiver manager or trustee appointed to hold the assets of such proposed director.

Penalties or Sanctions

No proposed director of the Corporation, as set forth in the above table (or any personal holding company of such proposed director), has been subject to:

(a) any penalties or sanctions imposed by a court relating to securities legislation or by a securities regulatory authority or has entered into a settlement agreement with a securities regulatory authority; or (b) any other penalties or sanctions imposed by a court or regulatory body that would likely be considered important to a reasonable securityholder in deciding whether to vote for a proposed director.

APPOINTMENT OF AUDITORS

BDO Canada LLP, Chartered Professional Accountants and Licensed Public Accountants, are the current auditors of the Corporation and were first appointed auditors of the Corporation effective April 27, 2009. Shareholders of the Corporation will be asked at the Meeting to reappoint BDO Canada LLP as the Corporation's auditors to hold office until the close of the next annual meeting of shareholders of the Corporation, and to authorize the directors of the Corporation to fix the auditors' remuneration. The resolutions shareholders will be asked to approve must be passed by a majority of the votes cast by shareholders at the Meeting in respect of each resolution. Unless otherwise specified, the persons named in the enclosed form of proxy will vote FOR the said reappointment of BDO Canada LLP as the auditors of the Corporation and FOR authorizing the directors to fix the remuneration of the auditors.

SHARE CONSOLIDATION

The Board has determined that, to assist in attracting additional capital for the Corporation, it would be in the best interests of the Corporation to consolidate the issued and outstanding common shares of the Corporation at a ratio of either two to one or three to one, with one of the two said ratios to be selected and implemented by the Board in its sole discretion. To consolidate the common shares of the Corporation, the articles of the Corporation must be amended. Such an amendment must be authorized by a special resolution of shareholders. Shareholders of the Corporation will therefore be asked at the Meeting to consider and, if thought advisable, to authorize by means of a special resolution, an amendment to the articles of the Corporation to consolidate the issued and outstanding common shares of the Corporation by changing each one of the issued and outstanding common shares of the Corporation into either one-half of a common share of the Corporation or one-third of a common share of the Corporation, with one of the two said fractions (that is, either one-half or one-third) to be selected and implemented by the Board in its sole discretion. No fractional common shares of the Corporation will be issued in connection with such consolidation (the "Share Consolidation") and, in the event that a shareholder would otherwise be entitled to receive a fractional share upon the Share Consolidation, the number of common shares of the Corporation to be received by such shareholder will be rounded up to the next highest whole number of common shares. The special resolution shareholders will be asked to approve is as follows:

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BE IT RESOLVED AS A SPECIAL RESOLUTION THAT:

1. the articles of the Corporation be amended to consolidate the issued and outstanding common shares of the Corporation by changing each one of the issued and outstanding common shares of the Corporation into either one-half of a common share of the Corporation or one-third of a common share of the Corporation, with one of the two said fractions (that is, either one-half or one-third) to be selected and implemented by the board of directors of the Corporation in its sole discretion; 2. no fractional common shares of the Corporation shall be issued in connection with the consolidation and, in the event that a shareholder would otherwise be entitled to receive a fractional share upon such consolidation, the number of common shares of the Corporation to be received by such shareholder shall be rounded up to the next highest whole number of common shares; 3. any one director or officer of the Corporation be and is hereby authorized, for and on behalf of the Corporation, to execute and deliver, or cause to be delivered, articles of amendment of the Corporation, as required pursuant to the Ontario Business Corporations Act, if and when deemed advisable by the board of directors of the Corporation in its sole discretion (but in no case later than June 29, 2017), and to do all such other acts or things necessary or desirable to implement, carry out and give effect to the said consolidation; and 4. the directors of the Corporation are hereby authorized, in their discretion, to revoke this special resolution or any portion thereof before it is acted upon without further approval or authorization of, or notice to, the shareholders of the Corporation.

To be approved, the above special resolution must be passed by at least two-thirds of the votes cast by shareholders at the Meeting in respect of this special resolution. Unless otherwise specified, the persons named in the enclosed form of proxy will vote FOR the special resolution.

The Share Consolidation will not materially affect the percentage ownership in the Corporation of shareholders even though such ownership will be represented by a smaller number of common shares. The Share Consolidation will merely proportionally reduce the number of common shares of the Corporation held by shareholders.

The Share Consolidation may result in some shareholders owning odd lots of fewer than 500 common shares on a post-Share Consolidation basis. Odd lots may be more difficult to sell, or require greater transaction costs per share to sell, than common shares in board lots of even multiples of 500 shares.

9

After giving effect to the Share Consolidation and based on the number of common shares of the Corporation currently issued and outstanding as at the date of this Circular, the Corporation will have either approximately 75,719,866 (if the two to one ratio for the Share Consolidation is selected by the Board) or 50,479,911 (if the three to one ratio for the Share Consolidation is selected by the Board) common shares issued and outstanding, subject to the rounding of fractional shares pursuant to the Share Consolidation.

Notwithstanding that the above special resolution is passed at the Meeting, the directors of the Corporation may revoke it at any time prior to the filing of articles of amendment implementing the Share Consolidation and determine not to proceed with the Share Consolidation without further approval or authorization of, or notice to, the shareholders of the Corporation.

Following the filing by the Corporation of articles of amendment implementing the Share Consolidation (assuming that the above special resolution is passed at the Meeting and the Board determines to implement the Share Consolidation), a letter of transmittal will be sent by mail to registered shareholders of the Corporation advising them that such articles of amendment have been filed, and instructing them how to surrender their currently held share certificates ("Old Share Certificates") for replacement share certificates representing the number of common shares of the Corporation to which they are entitled as a result of the Share Consolidation. No delivery of a new share certificate to a shareholder will be made until the shareholder has surrendered his or her Old Share Certificate. Until surrendered, each Old Share Certificate will be deemed for all purposes to represent the number of common shares of the Corporation to which the holder thereof is entitled as a result of the Share Consolidation. Beneficial holders of common shares of the Corporation ("Beneficial Shareholders") holding their common shares of the Corporation through an intermediary (if you purchased your shares through a broker, your shares are likely held through an intermediary) should note that such intermediary may have different procedures for processing the Share Consolidation than those that will be put in place by the Corporation for registered shareholders. Beneficial Shareholders that hold common shares of the Corporation with an intermediary are encouraged to contact such intermediary with respect to any questions in this regard.

EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION

Compensation Discussion and Analysis

The purpose of this Compensation Discussion and Analysis ("CD&A") is to provide information about the compensation of certain officers of the Corporation. The identified named officers of the Corporation (the "NEOs") who are the focus of this CD&A and who appear in the compensation tables of this Circular are: Arnold T. Kondrat, who is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Corporation (the "CEO") and has held these positions since February 2015, Peter N. Cowley, who was President and CEO until February 2015 and Donat K. Madilo, Chief Financial Officer of the Corporation (the "CFO").

As the Corporation's business is the exploration of mineral properties, the Corporation often has to operate with limited financial resources and control costs to ensure that funds are available to complete scheduled programs and otherwise fund its operations. As a result, the Board has attempted to keep the cash compensation paid to the Corporation's senior officers relatively modest, while providing long-term incentives through the granting of stock options. This is consistent with the Corporation's objective of preserving cash and also reflects the Corporation's belief that incentive stock options offer an effective mechanism for incentivizing management and aligning the interests of the Corporation's executive officers with those of the Corporation's shareholders.

10

Compensation Governance

In order to assist the Board in fulfilling its oversight responsibilities with respect to human resources policies and executive compensation, the Board has established the Compensation Committee. The Compensation Committee is comprised of three directors, namely Maurice J. Colson (who acts as Chairman of the Compensation Committee), Richard J. Lachcik and William R. Wilson, each of whom has been determined to be independent within the meaning of section 1.4 of National Instrument 52-110. The following is a brief summary of the experience of each member of the Compensation Committee relevant to his responsibilities in executive compensation.

Maurice J. Colson - Mr. Colson holds a Masters of Business Administration from McGill University in Montreal, and has worked in the investment industry for more than 36 years. He was for many years managing director for a major Canadian investment dealer in the United Kingdom. He is actively involved in providing strategic counsel and assistance with financing to emerging private and public companies in Canada and to Canadian companies operating in China, Africa, and South America. Mr. Colson is a member of the audit committee of several Canadian publicly traded companies, and is the former President and Chief Executive Officer of the TSX Venture Exchange-listed company, Lithium One Resources.

Richard J. Lachcik - Mr. Lachcik is a partner of the law firm Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP, which previously acted as counsel to the Corporation. He has been practising corporate and securities law in Toronto, Canada for over 33 years. Mr. Lachcik has extensive experience in representing public companies and has also acted for a number of investment dealers. He has been an officer and director of a number of Canadian public resource companies.

William R. Wilson - Mr. Wilson holds a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Southern California. He has been a director and senior officer of a number of public mineral resource companies in both Canada and the United States, and has been a member of the audit committee of several of these companies. His experience also includes responsibility for professional contracts and compensation in several publicly traded mining and technology companies.

The significant industry experience of each of the Compensation Committee members provides them with a suitable perspective to make decisions on the appropriateness of the Corporations compensation policies and practices. All members of the Compensation Committee have been determined to be "financially literate" within the meaning of National Instrument 52-110, and are knowledgeable about the Corporation's compensation program.

Under its written charter, the Compensation Committee's responsibilities are set as follows: (a) review and recommend for approval to the Board the Corporation's key human resources policies; (b) review and recommend for approval to the Board the compensation and benefits policy and plans (including incentive compensation plans) for the Corporation; (c) review and recommend to the Board the employment agreements of the executive officers of the Corporation; (d) together with the Chairman of the Board (if any), evaluate annually the performance of the CEO and recommend to the Board his annual compensation package and performance objectives; (e) together with the Chairman of the Board (if any), review annually and recommend to the Board the annual compensation package and performance objectives of the other executive officers of the Corporation; (f) review annually and recommend to the Board the annual salaries (or percentage change in salaries) for non-executive staff of the Corporation; (g) review annually and recommend to the Board the adequacy and form of the compensation of the directors of the Corporation and be satisfied the compensation realistically reflects the responsibilities and risk involved in being such a director; (h) review annually and recommend for approval to the Board the executive compensation disclosure of the Corporation in its information circular, and be satisfied that the overall compensation philosophy and policy for senior officers is adequately disclosed and describes in sufficient detail the rationale for salary levels, incentive payments, stock options and all other components of executive compensation as prescribed by applicable securities laws; (i) determine grants of options to purchase shares of the Corporation under the Corporation's Stock Option Plan and recommend same to the Board for approval; (j) engage, at the expense of the Corporation, any external professional or other advisors which it determines necessary in order to carry out its duties hereunder; and (k) perform any other activities consistent with this mandate as the Compensation Committee or the Board deems necessary or appropriate.

11

No formal policies or practices have been adopted by the Board or the Compensation Committee to determine the compensation for the Corporations directors or executive officers. A compensation consultant or advisor has not, at any time since the Corporations most recently completed financial year, been retained to assist the Board or the Compensation Committee in determining compensation for any of the Corporations directors or executive officers.

Compensation Process

Determinations with respect to the compensation of the Corporation's senior officers (including decisions regarding any annual bonuses) are made by the Board based on the recommendation of the Compensation Committee. The Compensation Committee relies on the knowledge and experience of the members of the Compensation Committee, as well as on recommendations of the CEO, in making recommendations to the Board regarding senior officer compensation. Neither the Corporation nor the Compensation Committee currently has any contractual arrangement with any executive compensation consultant who has a role in determining or recommending the amount or form of senior officer or director compensation.

When making recommendations to the Board regarding senior officer compensation, the Compensation Committee evaluates the officer's performance, including reviewing the Corporation's performance as against its business plans and the officer's achievements during the fiscal year. The criteria upon which these recommendations are based has, to date, tended to be subjective and has reflected the Compensation Committee's views as to the nature and value of the contributions made by the executive officers to the achievement of the Corporation's corporate plans and objectives. The Compensation Committee uses all data available to it to ensure that the Corporation is maintaining a level of compensation that is both commensurate with the size of the Corporation and sufficient to retain personnel it considers essential to the success of the Corporation. In reviewing comparative data, the Compensation Committee does not engage in benchmarking for the purpose of establishing compensation levels relative to any predetermined level and does not compare its compensation to a specific peer group of companies. In the Compensation Committee's view, external data provides insight into external competitiveness, but it is not an appropriate single basis for establishing compensation levels. External data is considered, along with an assessment of individual performance and experience, the Corporation's business strategy, best practices/trends in human resources, and general economic considerations.

In recommending the NEOs' compensation packages, the Compensation Committee reviews the various elements of the NEOs' compensation in the context of the total compensation package (including salary, bonuses and prior awards under the Stock Option Plan).

Stock options are granted by the Board under the Corporation's Stock Option Plan to senior officers upon their commencement of service. Additional grants are also made periodically under the Stock Option Plan to senior officers (a) to recognize exemplary performance (including in connection with a promotion within the Corporation) or a special contribution, or (b) to provide additional long term incentives. The Board determines the particulars with respect to stock option grants. The exercise price of each stock option granted under the Stock Option Plan is set at or above the closing price of the common shares of the Corporation (the "Common Shares") on the Toronto Stock Exchange on the day preceding the grant. See "Compensation Program - Compensation Program Design - Compensation Mix - Stock Options" below for additional information regarding the process in respect of stock option grants to NEOs.

12

Compensation Program

Principles/Objectives of the Compensation Program

The primary goal of the Corporation's executive compensation program is to ensure that the compensation provided to the Corporation's senior officers is determined with regard to the Corporation's business strategy and objectives, such that the financial interests of the senior officers are matched with the financial interests of the shareholders. The executive compensation program is designed to attract, motivate and retain top quality individuals at the executive level. Having regard to these objectives of attracting, motivating and retaining, the program takes into account the location of the Corporation's operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the lack of infrastructure and political, military and social instability relating to this location. The Corporation strives to ensure that the Corporation's senior officers are compensated fairly and commensurately with their contributions to furthering the Corporation's strategic direction and objectives.

Compensation Program Design

Compensation Risk Management

The Compensation Committee evaluates the risks, if any, associated with the Corporations compensation policies and practices. Implicit in the Boards mandate is that the Corporations policies and practices respecting compensation, including those applicable to the Corporations NEOs, be designed in a manner which is in the best interests of the Corporation and its shareholders. Risk evaluation is one of the considerations for this review.

A portion of the Corporations executive compensation consists of stock options granted under the Corporation's Stock Option Plan. Such compensation is both "long term" and "at risk" and, accordingly, is directly linked to the achievement of long term value creation. Since the benefits of such compensation, if any, are generally not realized by the NEO until a significant period of time has passed, the possibility of NEOs taking inappropriate or excessive risks with regard to their compensation that are financially beneficial to them at the expense of the Corporation and its shareholders is extremely limited.

The other two main elements of compensation, salary and bonus, are capped to ensure preservation of capital and to provide upper payout boundaries, thereby reducing risks associated with unexpectedly high levels of pay. In addition, the Compensation Committee believes it is unlikely that NEOs would take inappropriate or excessive risks at the expense of the Corporation and its shareholders that would be beneficial to them with regard to their short term compensation when their longer term compensation might be put at risk from their actions.

The Corporations compensation programs also allow for discretionary assessment of performance by the Compensation Committee to ensure that pay aligns with both perceived and actual performance. In addition, all major transactions require approval by the Board.

Due to the size of the Corporation, and the current level of the Corporations activity, the Compensation Committee is able to closely monitor and consider any risks which may be associated with the Corporations compensation policies and practices. Risks, if any, may be identified and mitigated through regular Board meetings during which financial and other information of the Corporation are reviewed, and which includes executive compensation. No risks have been identified arising from the Corporations compensation policies and practices that are reasonably likely to have a material adverse effect on the Corporation.

13

The Corporation has a policy prohibiting directors and officers of the Corporation from purchasing financial instruments, including, for greater certainty, prepaid variable forward contracts, equity swaps, collars, or units of exchange funds, that are designed to hedge or offset a decrease in market value of equity securities granted as compensation or held, directly or indirectly, by the director or officer.

Compensation Mix

The total compensation mix was designed on the basis of the Corporation's compensation objectives. Standard compensation arrangements for the Corporation's senior officers are composed of the following elements, which are linked to the Corporation's compensation and corporate objectives as follows:

Compensation

Element Link to

Compensation Objectives Link to Corporate Objectives Base salary  Attract and retain  Reward  Competitive pay ensures access to skilled personnel necessary to achieve corporate objectives. Bonuses  Motivate and reward  Bonuses focus senior officers on the achievement of corporate objectives and reward exceptional performance.

 Competitive pay ensures access to skilled employees necessary to achieve corporate objectives. Stock options  Motivate and reward  Align interests with shareholders  Stock option grants motivate and reward senior officers to increase shareholder value by the achievement of long-term corporate strategies and objectives.

 Encourages long-term tenure and performance. Retention allowance (1)  Attract and retain  Encourages long-term tenure.

 Competitive pay ensures access to skilled employees necessary to achieve corporate objectives.

_______________________________

(1) A senior officer is entitled to receive a retention allowance (the "Retention Allowance") on termination of his employment with the Corporation, provided the officer has been with the Corporation for a minimum of two years and provided that termination is not due to misconduct (in the case of misconduct, the Retention Allowance is forfeited). The amount of the Retention Allowance is equal to the officer's monthly base salary multiplied by the number of years the officer was with the Corporation (up to a maximum of 10 years), with any partial year being recognized on a pro rata basis.

The Corporation does not maintain pension plans or benefit plans or provide additional perks to its senior officers.

14

Base Salary

The Corporation provides senior officers with base salaries which represent their minimum compensation for services rendered during the fiscal year. Base salaries depend on the officer's experience, responsibilities, skills and performance, general industry trends and practices, the Corporation's circumstances, including its existing financial resources, and the potential long term compensation provided by stock options as discussed below. In addition to the above factors, decisions regarding any salary increases are impacted by each NEO's current salary.

Bonuses

While the Corporation has not yet established a formal annual bonus program, senior officers are generally eligible to receive an annual cash bonus in an amount up to a specified percentage of such officer's base salary, subject to the Corporations financial situation. Senior officers may also receive from time to time during the year cash bonuses to recognize exemplary performance or a special contribution. No bonuses were paid to the NEOs in respect of fiscal 2015, in order to conserve cash having regard to the Corporations financial situation and the current state of the markets.

Stock Options

The grant of stock options to purchase Common Shares pursuant to the Corporation's Stock Option Plan is an integral component of the compensation packages of the senior officers of the Corporation. The Compensation Committee believes that the grant of stock options to senior officers serves to motivate achievement of the Corporation's long-term strategic objectives and the result will benefit all shareholders. The CEO makes recommendations to the Compensation Committee for potential grants of stock options. His decisions are based in part upon the level of responsibility and contribution of the individuals toward the Corporation's goals and objectives. Stock options are granted by the Board, pursuant to the Corporation's Stock Option Plan, and based upon the recommendation of the Compensation Committee. The overall number of stock options that are outstanding relative to the number of outstanding Common Shares are also considered in determining whether to make any new grants of stock options and the size of such grants. Since the Corporation does not grant stock options at a discount to the prevailing market price of the Common Shares, the stock options granted to senior officers have value only if, and to the extent that, the market price of the Common Shares increases, thereby linking equity-based executive compensation to shareholder returns.

Retention Allowance

The Corporation believes that the Retention Allowance helps to attract and retain individuals in a competitive environment and encourages long-term tenure with the Corporation.

Analysis of 2015 Compensation

Base Salary

See "Executive Compensation: Tables and Narrative - Summary Compensation Table" below which sets out the base salary paid to each of the NEOs in 2015.

15

Bonuses

No bonuses were paid to the NEOs in respect of fiscal 2015 in order to conserve cash, having regard to the Corporations financial situation and the current state of the markets.

Stock Options

No stock options were granted by the Corporation during 2015.

Share Performance Graph

The following graph illustrates the Corporation's cumulative shareholder return (assuming the reinvestment of dividends of which there have been none) from December 31, 2010 to December 31, 2015, based upon a Cdn$100 investment made on December 31, 2010 in the Corporations Common Shares, and compares the Corporation's cumulative shareholder return to the cumulative total shareholder return from a similar investment in the Total Return Index Value of the S&P/TSX Composite Index (referred to in the table below as the "TSX Index") over the same period. The price performance of the Common Shares as shown on the graph does not necessarily indicate future price performance.

December 31, 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Loncor $ 100 71 33 6 2 2 TSX Index $ 100 91 98 111 122 112

As described above, various factors are considered in determining the compensation of senior officers. The Common Share performance is one performance measure but there is no direct correlation between Common Share performance and executive compensation.

The Corporation operates in a commodity business and the Common Share price is impacted by the market price of gold, which has fluctuated widely and is affected by numerous factors that are difficult to predict and beyond the Corporation's control. The Common Share price is also affected by other factors beyond the Corporation's control, including general and industry-specific economic and market conditions. The Compensation Committee and the Board evaluate performance by reference to the Corporation's business plan rather than by short-term changes in Common Share price based on their view that the Corporation's long-term operating performance will be reflected by stock price performance over the long-term, which is especially important when the stock price may be depressed by short-term factors.

16

The trend shown by the performance graph above represents significant decreases in the Corporation's cumulative total shareholder return each year, other than in 2015 when there was no change from the previous year. Over the same five year period the compensation (salary and bonus) received by the Corporation's executive officers, in aggregate (as disclosed in the Corporations management information circular each year in the Executive Compensation section of the circular in the table under "Summary Compensation Table"), has decreased significantly. The Compensation Committee considers total executive compensation to be modest and reasonable in the Corporation's circumstances.

Compensation Committee Approval of CD&A

The Compensation Committee has reviewed and approved the CD&A and other compensation disclosure contained in this Circular, including the information contained below under the headings "Executive Compensation: Tables and Narrative" and "Director Compensation".

Executive Compensation: Tables and Narrative

Summary Compensation Table

The following table provides a summary of the compensation earned by the NEOs for services rendered in all capacities during the financial years ended December 31, 2015, December 31, 2014 and December 31, 2013, as applicable.

Name and Principal

Position Year

Salary (2)

(US$)

Share-based

awards

(US$) Option-based

awards

(US$) Non-equity

incentive plan

compensation -

Annual Incentive

Plan

(US$) All other

Compensation

(US$)

Total

Compensation

(US$)

Arnold T. Kondrat



Chief Executive

Officer (1)



2015



2014



2013

$93,840



$108,648



$128,185

N/A



N/A



N/A

N/A



N/A



N/A

Nil



Nil



Nil

$19,128 (3)



$35,238 (3)



$10,682 (3)

$112,968



$143,886



$138,867

Peter N. Cowley



Chief Executive

Officer (1)



2015



2014



2013

Nil



Nil



$346,797

N/A



N/A



N/A

N/A



N/A



N/A

Nil



Nil



Nil

Nil



$6,000 (4)



$36,390 (4) Nil



$6,000



$383,187

Donat K. Madilo



Chief Financial

Officer

2015



2014



2013 Nil



Nil



$97,110 N/A



N/A



N/A N/A



N/A



N/A Nil



Nil



Nil Nil



Nil



$8,093 (5) Nil



Nil



$105,203

_______________________________

(1) Mr. Cowley stepped down as Chief Executive Officer and President of the Corporation in February 2015. Mr. Kondrat was appointed interim Chief Executive Officer and President of the Corporation in February 2015. (2) The salary for Mr. Cowley for 2013 was paid in United Kingdom pounds. The U.S. dollar amount set out in the above table for such salary was calculated using an average exchange rate for 2013 of US$1.00 = 0.6344. The salaries for Messrs. Kondrat and Madilo set out in the above table were paid in Canadian dollars. The U.S. dollar amount set out in the above table for the salary of Mr. Kondrat in 2015 was calculated using an average exchange rate for 2015 of Cdn$1.00 = US$0.7820. The U.S. dollar amount set out in the above table for the salary of Mr. Kondrat in 2014 was calculated using an average exchange rate for 2014 of Cdn$1.00 = US$0.9054. The U.S. dollar amounts set out in the above table for the salaries of Messrs. Kondrat and Madilo in 2013 were calculated using an average exchange rate for 2013 of Cdn$1.00 = US$0.9711.

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(3) For 2015, this amount represents accrued Retention Allowance of US$7,820 and life insurance premiums paid by the Corporation of US$11,308. For 2014, this amount represents accrued Retention Allowance of US$9,054 and life insurance premiums paid by the Corporation of US$26,184. For 2013, this amount represents the accrued Retention Allowance. (4) For 2014, this amount represents life and medical insurance premiums paid by the Corporation. For 2013, this amount represents life and medical insurance premiums paid by the Corporation of $7,161 and accrued Retention Allowance of $29,229. (5) This amount represents the accrued Retention Allowance.

The Corporation does not have any long-term incentive program other than its Stock Option Plan and does not have any defined or actuarial plans.

Incentive Plan Awards

The following table provides details regarding outstanding NEO option and share-based awards as at December 31, 2015:

Outstanding share-based awards and option-based awards

Option-based Awards Share-based Awards Name (1) Option grant

date Number of

securities

underlying

unexercised

options (2)

(#) Option exercise

price (3)

(US$) Option

expiration

date Aggregate

value of

unexercised

in-the-money

options (4)

(US$) Number of

shares or

units that

have not

vested

(#) Market or

payout value

of share-

based awards

that have not

vested

(US$) Arnold T. Kondrat Dec. 12, 2012 250,000 Cdn$1.05 (US$0.76) Dec. 12, 2017 Nil N/A N/A Jan. 28, 2011 150,000 Cdn$2.69 (US$1.94) Jan. 28, 2016 Nil N/A N/A Donat K. Madilo Dec. 12, 2012 100,000 Cdn$1.05 (US$0.76) Dec. 12, 2017 Nil N/A N/A Jan. 28, 2011 50,000 Cdn$2.69 (US$1.94) Jan. 28, 2016 Nil N/A N/A

_______________________________

(1) Mr. Cowley is not shown in the above table as he stepped down as Chief Executive Officer and President of the Corporation in February 2015. (2) 1/4 of the stock options granted to each optionee vested on each of the 6 month, 12 month, 18 month and 24 month anniversaries of the grant date. (3) The exercise price of each of the stock options held by the officers is in Canadian dollars. The U.S. dollar figures set out in this column of the table were calculated using the noon exchange rate on December 31, 2015 as reported by the Bank of Canada for the conversion of Canadian dollars into U.S. dollars of Cdn$1.00 = US$0.7225. (4) This is based on (a) the last closing sale price per share of the Corporations Common Shares as at December 31, 2015 of Cdn$0.04 as reported by the Toronto Stock Exchange, and (b) converting that price into a price of US$0.03 using the noon exchange rate on December 31, 2015 as reported by the Bank of Canada for the conversion of Canadian dollars into U.S. dollars of Cdn$1.00 = US$0.7225.

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The following table provides details regarding outstanding NEO option-based awards, share-based awards and non-equity incentive plan compensation, which vested and/or were earned during the year ended December 31, 2015:

Incentive plan awards - value vested or earned during the year Name Option-based awards -

Value vested during the

year (1)

(US$) Share-based awards -

Value vested during the

year

(US$) Non-equity incentive plan

compensation - Value

earned during the year

(US$) Arnold T. Kondrat Nil N/A N/A Peter N. Cowley Nil N/A N/A Donat K. Madilo Nil N/A N/A _____________________________ _____________________________

(1) Identifies the aggregate dollar value that would have been realized by the NEO if the NEO had exercised all options exercisable under the option-based award on the vesting date(s) thereof.

Pension Plan Benefits and Deferred Compensation Plans

The Corporation does not have a pension plan or a deferred compensation plan.

Termination and Change of Control Benefits

There is no contract, agreement, plan or arrangement that provides for payments to an NEO at, following or in connection with any termination (whether voluntary, involuntary or constructive), resignation, retirement, a change in control of the Corporation or a change in an NEO's responsibilities.

Director Compensation

The directors of the Corporation were not paid any fees by the Corporation during the financial year ended December 31, 2015 for their services in their capacity as directors. The Corporation's directors are entitled to receive stock option grants under the Corporation's Stock Option Plan, as recommended by the Compensation Committee and determined by the Board. The exercise price of such stock options is determined by the Board, but shall in no event be less than the last closing price of the Corporations Common Shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange prior to the date the stock options are granted. No stock options were granted by the Corporation in 2015.

During the financial year ended December 31, 2015, the Corporation incurred legal expenses (and related costs) of Cdn$33,126 (or US$25,904 based on an average exchange rate for 2015 of Cdn$1.00 = US$0.7820) to Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP. Richard J. Lachcik, a director of the Corporation, is a partner of Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP.

All directors receive reimbursement for reasonable out-of-pocket expenses related to their attendance at meetings or other expenses incurred for Corporation purposes.

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Incentive Plan Awards

The following table provides details regarding the outstanding option and share based awards held as at December 31, 2015 by the directors of the Corporation other than Mr. Kondrat. See "Executive Compensation: Tables and Narrative - Incentive Plan Awards" above for details regarding the outstanding stock options held by Mr. Kondrat as at December 31, 2015.
Check the appropriate box below if the Form 8-K filing is intended to simultaneously satisfy the filing obligation of the registrant under any of the following provisions:

Item 5.02. Departure of Directors or Certain Officers; Election of Directors; Appointment of Certain Officers;

Compensatory Arrangements of Certain Officers.

(b)(c)(e) Larry A. Lawson, the President and Chief Executive Officer of Spirit AeroSystems Holdings, Inc. (the Company) and its wholly-owned subsidiary Spirit AeroSystems, Inc. (Spirit), informed the Companys Board of Directors of his decision to retire on July 31, 2016 (the Retirement Date). Thomas C. Gentile has been appointed to serve as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company and Spirit following Mr. Lawsons retirement. A copy of the press release dated June 8, 2016, announcing Mr. Lawsons retirement and the appointment of Mr. Gentile, is attached as Exhibit 99.1 to this report.

Mr. Gentile, 51, has served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the Company and Spirit since April 1, 2016. From 2014 until Mr. Gentiles appointment with the Company and Spirit, Mr. Gentile served as President and Chief Operating Officer of GE Capital, where he oversaw GE Capitals global operations, IT and capital planning and served on its board of directors. Mr. Gentile had been employed by GE since 1998, and held the position of President and CEO of GE Healthcares Healthcare Systems division from 2011 until 2014 and the position of President and CEO of GE Aviation Services from 2008 until 2011. Mr. Gentile received his bachelors degree in economics and Master of Business Administration degree from Harvard University, and also studied International Relations at the London School of Economics.

On June 7, 2016, the Company and Spirit entered into a Retirement and Consulting Agreement and General Release (the Retirement and Consulting Agreement) with Mr. Lawson. The Retirement and Consulting Agreement provides that, for a period of two years starting on the Retirement Date (the Consulting Term), Mr. Lawson will provide consulting and transition services to Spirit, its Board of Directors and its Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Lawson will receive annual compensation of $150,000 for the provision of such services.

The Retirement and Consulting Agreement provides that Mr. Lawson will receive separation payments totaling $1,274,000, which is equal to one year of Mr. Lawsons current base salary. Mr. Lawson will also receive a cash award for 2016 of $1,115,000 under the short-term incentive program maintained under the Companys 2014 Omnibus Incentive Plan (the Omnibus Plan), which is equal to 7/12 of his target 2016 award thereunder. Such cash award will be made when similar awards are paid to Company employees under the Omnibus Plan for 2016. In addition, Mr. Lawsons account under the Companys Amended and Restated Deferred Compensation Plan will be credited with $2,000,000 on the Retirement Date.

Grants previously received by Mr. Lawson under the Companys Amended and Restated Long-Term Incentive Plan and the long-term incentive program under the Omnibus Plan will continue to vest, subject, in the case of performance-based grants, to the satisfaction by the Company of performance criteria. In addition, in accordance with the terms of the Companys Retirement and Savings Plan, Mr. Lawson will be entitled to his account balance and accrued benefit, as applicable, following the Retirement Date.

Under the Retirement and Consulting Agreement, Mr. Lawson is entitled to continue his health insurance coverage, as mandated by COBRA, to the extent required by applicable law, and Spirit will be required to pay for such coverage for up to a year following the Retirement Date.

The Retirement and Consulting Agreement preserves and extends covenants contained in Mr. Lawsons employment agreement for the benefit of the Company and Spirit relating to non-competition for the entire Consulting Term, non-solicitation of Company and Spirit employees for the entire Consulting Term and protection of the Companys and Spirits confidential information.

Item 9.01 Financial Statements and Exhibits.

(d) Exhibits.

Exhibit No. Exhibit Description 99.1 Press Release dated June 8, 2016*

* Filed herewith.

2
The vast majority of migrants in New Zealand are in Auckland.

Watch out for unsubstantiated slurs and hysterical hyperbole in the migration debate, the race relations commissioner says.

So, we asked who's really coming to New Zealand?

It's mostly under-35s with work visas, including working holidays, international students and returning Kiwis and Australians.

Migration is at an all-time high but the real story behind the rhetoric and "concerns" about migrants is a spike across the three main categories of work visa, mostly Europeans, and more students from India and China.

READ MORE:

* NZ industries rely on migrants as Kiwis can't or won't work

* Winston Peters wants a drastic reduction in immigration

* Interview every migrant into NZ, says Winston Peters

* Little: Could staff at 'ethnic cuisine' restaurants be sourced locally?

* Labour wants to put a cap on immigration and look locally for ethnic skill set

* There's no need to fear migrants

MAARTEN HOLL/FAIRFAX NZ Dame Susan Devoy has warned against ''hysterical hyperbole'' in the migration debate.

NZ First leader Winston Peters has suggested annual immigration should be capped between 7000 and 15,000 "seriously qualified" migrants and Labour has called for a cut in work visas.

Race Relations Commissioner Dame Susan Devoy said immigration was a policy issue all New Zealanders had a right to discuss, but facts, not hysterical hyperbole, were needed.

"Winston's platform is about giving people a fair go but he needs to walk his own talk: he implies that migrants coming to live here do not obey New Zealand laws but where is his evidence to support these claims?

"We are 18 months out from a general election and we are hopeful that Kiwis will demand accuracy from our politicians, and not be satisfied with unsubstantiated, sweeping slurs."

WORK, STUDY, SETTLE

The widely quoted figure of 124,000 migrants is not the number of people newly arriving in New Zealand to work.

HAGEN HOPKINS/GETTY IMAGES Immigration Minister Michael Woodhouse said it was "nonsense" to suggest there's a wave of migrants taking jobs and buying houses.

Net gain, the figure roughly representing the number of people here to study and work, is the sum of arrivals and departures minus the number of departing residents and overseas visitors leaving after staying for 12 months or longer.

That figure is 68,100 for 2015/16.

To put this in perspective, the number of short-term visitors, including tourists, in the year to April was 3.2 million.

Of the 68,100 migrants, 42,220 arrived in the North Island in 2015/16, 10,336 went to the South Island while another 15,524 were not identified by region.

In 2015/16, there were 38,825 people issued work visas, 36,475 Kiwis and Australians arrived and 27,645 people arrived to study.

The majority of migrant students, who can work part-time, are Indian and Chinese while most working holiday visitors hail from the United Kingdom, France and Germany.

VIRGINIA WOOLF Winston Peters called for a drastic cut in migrant numbers.

Work visas were mainly issued to people from the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Australia, while student visas were issued to citizens of India, China and the Philippines. Most new residents hailed from China, the United Kingdom and Samoa.

The most common jobs for those issued work visas, which include working holiday visas, are in hospitality, the food trade and engineering and the regions with the highest gains in populations were Auckland, with 26,800, and Canterbury, with an increase of 6400.

NO 'WAVE OF MIGRANTS'

Immigration Minister Michael Woodhouse said it was a popular myth that migrants went to Auckland to work when the jobs were in places like Nelson, Marlborough and Canterbury.

Skill shortages and labour shortages were regionally specific. A decline in skill level cited by the Treasury related to increasing numbers of people in the essential skills category with diploma-level qualifications rather than, for example, degrees or postgraduate qualification.

Interviewing people at the border or capping numbers in certain classes was nonsense, he said.

"The jobs are in Southland, in horticulture, the fishing industry. It's true the numbers have grown. The economy has grown.

"The skill movements are quite understandable in the context of the way in which our visa policies work to meet demand, to meet shortages.

"If I wanted to turn the tap off we could kick 20,000 working holiday people out but do you really think our burgeoning tourism industry would be better off?

"This stuff is complex.

"Kiwis need to be at the front of the queue. To suggest there's a wave of migrants taking our jobs and buying our houses, it's just nonsense."

POPULATION FLUCTUATES

University of Waikato professor of population economics Jacques Poot said net inward migration was at a record level but this needed to be considered relative to the country's population.

Migration was a "cyclical rollercoaster" in terms of pinpointing figures, although the level was likely to fall in the next few years.

The number of people who are in New Zealand constantly fluctuates with births, deaths, arrivals and departures.

"Although it varies strongly seasonally, we have an upward trend in the number of visitors...so the "de facto" population goes up even without more long-term migration.

"In terms of migration, we have seen a sharp drop in New Zealanders leaving for Australia, an increase in New Zealanders returning from Australia, an increase in people on work visas of 12 months or more and an increase in the number of foreign students.

"All these things combined have led to the currently high population growth rate."

The rate of population growth - 2.5 per cent - was high for a developed country and similar to growth around 2003 and in the 1950s and 1960s, another period when there was an increase in migration

In the year to March, 5.88 million people arrived in New Zealand and 5.78m left. This left an extra 95,129 people on the ground, Poot said.

"The volatility is not surprising when you think that the total number of arrivals in and departures from New Zealand run at roughly 5.8 million per year each, so that the difference between these two large numbers easily jumps up and down."

Migration was better measured over a long time and previous data show net migration contributed to a quarter of population growth between 1951 and 1976 and half of population growth since 2001.

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The Railway building in Hamilton Central is being pulled down to make way for new development.

One of the Waikato's biggest commercial players is pushing ahead with an investment into a prominent CBD site to create what it calls a "vibrant inner-city Hamilton".

Tainui Group Holdings bought the 1920s Railway Building on the corner of Ward and Victoria Streets.

The site has a venerable history as a retail hub and Tainui has begun the process of tearing down its latest acquisition, citing a lack of earthquake strengthening, even as another developer restores the Beggs Wiseman building on the opposite corner.

GEORGE HEARD/FAIRFAX NZ The building is a memory of the train line that used to run straight through Victoria Street.

Although plans are not concrete yet, Tainui is looking at office, retail and residential options for the Railway Building site.

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Dean Shields, GM of Property for Tainui Group Holdings, said the building was being demolished for health and safety reasons.

"Earlier this year an engineer's report found that the existing building had a seismic rating of just 10 per cent of the New Building Standard and was unsafe for continuing occupation.

"We are now looking at redevelopment options in line with our view that further office accommodation, boutique retail and inner-city living are keys to a vibrant inner-city Hamilton and we will provide an update when any new plans for the site are confirmed."

The plans are another shot in the arm for a beleaguered eastern Ward St, once the heart of CBD shopping but now struggling to retain tenants.

Developer Matt Stark bought the Beggs Wiseman building across the road earlier this year and is developing it in what Hamilton mayor Julie Hardaker called an "important step" in the revitalisation of Ward St and the inner-city.

Stark declined to comment on Tainui Group Holding's move.

But for heritage consultant and avid CBD user Ann McEwan, the demolition of the building would be more than just a loss of history for Hamilton.

"The fact that it's not on the district plan, that's not proof that it doesn't have heritage value," she said.

"Sometimes, the issue is not that the building is such an architectural gem that its loss will be earth shattering, but what do we get in its place?

"It's about how it fits into the street scene."

Hamilton City Council confirmed the Railway Building was not listed as a heritage building and gave consent to demolish it late last year.

McEwan pointed to the Beggs Wiseman building as a heritage listed site that was being restored.

"I think those buildings talk to one-another quite nicely," McEwan said. "They look different but they also look very compatible. They have the same commercial and classical style you get with early 20th Century architecture. That's part of the loss.

"It seems [to be] a roll of the dice if something is on the district plan [heritage listed], it gets more attention."

Developers have to let go of the "build it new and they will come" mentality, McEwan said. It's not a quick fix for the CBD.

"Very often, people blame older buildings for stuff that's beyond their control. It doesn't matter what the building is like, if you don't make it attractive to tenants and if you don't have a vision of the kind of tenants who might want to be in that part of the city, you're not going to get very far.

"You need something designed to respond to that particular corner, site and environment. Not just a generic two storey commercial frame, not just 100 square feet of concrete and glass, because that's not going to do anything for the CBD."

She compares it to Queen Street in Auckland where she has seen the likes of Louis Vuitton stores moving into late 19th century buildings. She questions why Tainui Group Holdings doesn't see the potential in the building as it is.

"Very often if you look above the verandah, you get that historic quality. Below the verandah you can have as much bling as you like," she said.

"In CBDs you get very high-end tenants who want to be in places that are cool and have a vibe to them. And if it's good enough for Louis Vuitton...?"

HISTORY OF HAMILTON CENTRAL STATION

Patient drivers and shop-browsers used to stop on Victoria Street to let the Rotorua Express train chug past.

The crossing keeper used to stand with his sign, halting traffic to make way for the train which went directly through the main street.

When the railway was built in 1884, the crossing didn't cause too much of a problem. But as the population grew and cars became more common, the trains coming across what is now Claudelands road bridge were becoming a nuisance.

As early as 1912 the Hamilton Borough Council suggested to the Railway Department that the line could be lowered.

The suggestion was turned down, as it was again in 1919. In 1929 Council took a new proposal to the Railways but walked away disappointed, again.

By 1931, Council had cut through the hill at Anglesea Street to create a second access to Ward Street - the entrance to the Railway Station. It had helped with congestion, but not with crossing the railway lines when trains travelled through.

Seven years later, the Railway Department looked into lowering the line and started planning for it, but the costs - approximately $50 million in today's money - were prohibitive for Council alone and the Railway Department were reluctant to take it on.

When war was declared in 1939, all but the most essential work was put on hold but, eventually, the National Roads Board thought lowering the railway was a better option than any other at the time.

In September of 1959, the Ministry of Works started the project. The days of level crossings were over. Only traffic lights were going to hold up the motorist now.



The new underground line opened on September 19, 1964 and included an underground station called Hamilton Central, where the Warehouse now stands.

The trains run under Centreplace in between, and parallel to, Ward and Bryce Streets. The Hamilton City Council buildings were built were the Station had stood and to the unknowing eye, there is no sign there was ever a railway crossing Victoria Street.

As told by Kete Hamilton and Hamilton City Libraries.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned today's terrorist attack in the centre of Istanbul, which claimed the lives of at least 11 people and injured dozens more, UN website reported.



"The Secretary-General hopes that the perpetrators of this despicable terrorist attack will be swiftly identified and brought to justice," said a statement attributable to Mr. Ban's spokesperson.



The explosion was reportedly caused by a car bomb targeting a police bus, according to the statement.



Extending his sincere condolences to the families of the victims and wishing those injured a speedy recovery, the Secretary-General stressed that the UN stands in solidarity with the people and Government of Turkey at this difficult time.
Sky Television is considering merging with Vodafone New Zealand to create a single pay-television and phone business.

Sky cautioned in a statement to the NZX that the talks were still continuing and might not result in a deal proceeding.

An update is expected within days. Sky said it would maintain a trading halt that it placed on its shares on Wednesday morning, pending a "further announcement".

Sky is allowed to halt trading in its shares for 48 hours, which suggests it expects more information may be available on the status of the merger talks by Friday.

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Sky Television chief executive John Fellet had previously said the company was weighing up possible acquisitions or a return of capital to shareholders.

Vodafone New Zealand spokeswoman Andrea Brady said Vodafone could not add to the NZX statement that was issued by Sky.

Sky and Vodafone currently partner with one another, reselling each other's services.

Vodafone sells fixed-line and mobile broadband, while Sky sells satellite television subscriptions and some internet TV services. Sky also owns free-to-air television channel Prime.

Sky TV employs about 1500 staff and contractors while Vodafone New Zealand employed 2800 staff as of 2014.

Consultancy PWC forecast in a report also released on Wednesday that satellite television subscriptions had peaked in the face of competition from internet television services such as Netflix and Lightbox.

Vodafone New Zealand faces its own issues having posted a $121m loss in the year to April 2015 on the back of tougher regulation, stronger competition and issues integrating its 2012 purchase of TelstraClear.

Australian telecommunications firm TPG is understood to have considering buying Vodafone New Zealand from its British parent company earlier this year but it is understood a deal was not reached.

First NZ Capital research director Arie Dekker said it was hard to know whether Sky's shares would rise or fall if a merger with Vodafone New Zealand did come to fruition. "To me the thing that would completely dominate that would be transaction terms."

Sky and Vodafone had a close working relationship, he said. "Vodafone has resold Sky's products for a very long time and it is an important differentiator for them."

Spark investors appeared to react nervously to the possible merger, sending its shares down 4 per cent to $3.49 in late afternoon trading.

That probably reflected a view that Vodafone and Sky together would be better able to compete with Spark, Dekker said.

"They would still be smaller than Spark combined, in terms of earnings," he said.

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Sio Matalasi with his father Iafeta at Waiouru in 2009, where Sio was an army trainee.



Two Mongrel Mob members claiming self-defence for a fatal shooting had in fact been the aggressors, the Crown says.

Dillin Pakai and Shane Pierre Harrison wanted drugs but had only $10 and a cut-off rifle hidden in Pakai's trousers, Crown prosecutor Grant Burston told the Court of Appeal on Wednesday.

FAIRFAX NZ Shane Pierre Harrison during his trial in September 2014 for the murder of Alonsio (Sio) Matalasi.

In August 2013 the two Mongrel Mob Rogue members had gone to the home of a member of the Mongrel Mob Petone looking for drugs and, in his absence, had taken belongings including a phone.

When they were told to return the property they drove back to Petone, with Pakai firing shots at a bread delivery van on the trip.

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FAIRFAX NZ Dillin Pakai was found guilty as the shooter of Sio Matalasi.

Alonsio Matalasi, 25, was not in the Mongrel Mob but he had friends who were. Matalasi, known as Sio, was shot at point-blank range in the exchange that followed.

Pakai, then a few weeks short of his 19th birthday, was the gunman. His lawyers told the Court of Appeal that Pakai acted in self-defence, trapped in a car with Matalasi trying to attack him with what was described as a samurai sword.

Shane Pierre Harrison, 46, was in the driver's seat with a gash to his head and a serious hand wound, trying to start the car to make their getaway.

Pakai was in a precarious situation, seeing Harrison's serious injuries and the jury should not have excluded Pakai's right to self-defence, lawyer Kevin Smith said.

But Burston said Pakai and Harrison were the aggressors. Shooting Matalasi, whose weapon was a badly bent sword, had been excessive.

Pakai, now 21, and Harrison were found guilty of murdering Matalasi.

Both were sentenced to life imprisonment. Pakai has to serve at least 12 years and three months' jail before he can be considered for parole.

Harrison has to serve 13 years' jail before he can be considered for parole.

Pakai and Harrison have appealed against their convictions. Pakai has also appealed against his sentence.

The Court of Appeal reserved its decision.

On Thursday the court is due to hear the Crown's appeal against Harrison and another convicted murderer avoiding having to serve their life terms without parole, for which they were at risk due to earlier "third strike" warnings.
Family, friends and community members gathered outside for the blessing. Local kaumatua donned gas masks and went inside to bless each room.

A policeman has told how he feared for his life as he leaped through the glass of a top-storey bathroom window during the Porirua siege.

"I was thinking, 'Oh no, my family, I've got to make it home. I've got to get out'," Sergeant Jonathan Westrupp said in his first interview since the siege, in Kokiri Cres on April 22.

The 26-hour standoff with police began after gunman Pita Tekira, 29, shot and killed police dog Gazza.

SUPPLIED/ RICHARD NAFATALI Armed police arrive in Kokiri Cres, Porirua, after Jonathan Westrupp had to leap for his life, and police dog Gazza was shot.

Westrupp, 35, told the Police Association's Police News that he and Gazza's handler, Josh Robertson, were part of a team that went to the house looking for Tekira, who had breached electronic bail a few weeks earlier.

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NZ POLICE Wellington dog handler Contable Josh Robertson with Gazza, whose shooting sparked the siege.

"Josh and Gazza went upstairs. I was in the No 2 position with the rest of the team behind us and covering the outside of the house.

"We heard more screaming from behind a closed bedroom door."

When an officer tried to open the upstairs bedroom door, the first shot was fired. "It was immediately slammed shut from the other side, followed by a gunshot.

FAIRFAX NZ Police leaving the scene of the siege in Porirua in April.

"A hole appeared in the door and there was a deep boom, the sound of a shotgun," he said.

Gazza's handler grabbed the dog and began yelling, "Get out! Get out!"

"They disappeared down the corridor. I was taking it all in. My mind was racing," Westrupp, who heads the Waitangirua commmunity crime prevention team, said.

ROSS GIBLIN/ FAIRFAX NZ A grey police car, right, sits outside the house from which Westrupp jumped. Bottom left is the house where Pita Tekira holed up before taking his own life.

He remembered his police training about avoiding "the fatal funnel". "If I stepped into that corridor, I would be in the danger zone.

"I felt vulnerable and the Glock [pistol] was useless against a shotgun at close range.

"I was thinking, 'Oh no, my family, I've got to make it home. I've got to get out."

ROBERT KITCHIN/ FAIRFAX NZ The house where Tekira died was badly damaged by fire after the siege.

He threw himself out of the window, landing in a heap on the lawn outside, breaking his wrist and shoulder and suffering concussion.

"Then Cam [Sergeant Campbell Taylor] dragged me to cover, despite the armed offender still being in the house above us. The team was now having to deal with the offender and keep me safe while doing first aid."

A helicopter arrived and took Westrupp ,who was slipping in and out of consciousness, to hospital.

"The next day I got out of my hospital bed and realised the extent of my injuries. It was surreal. It's not part of your training to jump out of second-storey windows.

"Josh came to visit me the next day. I really wanted to see him and get a chance to thank him, one on one.

"Gazza had saved lives. It could have been me or someone else, either killed or injured."

He said he was extremely grateful for what his team did for him. "Everything surged into action  AOS, CIB, neighbourhood teams.

"There was also so much support at the hospital for me and my family from police, the Police Association, plus the bosses and colleagues from my station."

It is believed Tekira took his own life some time between Friday night and Saturday morning, bringing the siege to an end.

"The death of that man was not what I wanted to happen. He really needed help and we had wanted to get him that help," Westrupp said.

A Housing New Zealand spokeswoman said testing of the Kokiri Cres house where Tekira died showed no risk from gas contamination.

"We are currently considering options for the property. This will take demand for housing and the views of the community into consideration," she said.

GAZZA'S HANDLER HAS NEW DOG



Constable Josh Robertson has been given a new work dog after the killing of Gazza.

Senior Sergeant Mark Davidson, who heads the Wellington police dog squad, said Robertson had been given another dog shortly after Gazza was killed.

"He has got a new dog and he is back working him," he said.

"We already had a dog sitting there that had come available. We were fortunate we had a dog we could give to Josh."

His new mate had already gone through training and was ready for action, Davidson said.



There are currently 13 dogs in the Wellington dog squad, 11 of which are working and two of which are in training.

Most dogs are retired from service before their eighth birthdays.
Kenji Sekine was the keynote speaker at the Poukorero conference at Puke Ariki on Wednesday night.

The story of a language almost lost by the indigenous people of Japan is eerily similar to the one experienced by New Zealand's tangata whenua.

But Kenji Sekine, of the Ainu people of Japan, said the way Maori had reclaimed their reo provided him with inspiration in his efforts to achieve the same result in his homeland.

Sekine was the keynote speaker at this year's Poukorero conference in New Plymouth on Wednesday night, where he outlined how a campaign of forced assimilation by the Japanese government in the 19th century almost wiped out the Ainu culture and language.

Laws prohibiting traditional fishing practices enacted in the 1860s and a general denigration of Ainu people, who were labelled "savages" meant generations of Japan's indigenous population saw little value in their own culture. The Ainu population is about 25,000, which is only 0.02 per cent of the entire Japanese population.

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"Because of that discrimination, there are still Ainu families who don't want to hear a word of Ainu," he said through translator Takayuki Okazaki.

In 2010, the Ainu language was classified by the United Nations as a critically endangered language. Maori was deemed vulnerable in the same study.

The use of te reo Maori was severely disrupted following the arrival of the European settlers and the impact colonisation had on tangata whenua. But in the 1980s a series of revitalisation projects were launched in Aotearoa, which coincided with Maori becoming an official language of the country in 1987. Census data shows that in 2013, about 21 per cent of Maori could hold an everyday conversation in te reo.

Sekine said he and a group of Ainu people visited Parihaka in 2013 and a partnership has since developed with language scholars Dr Ruakere Hond and Erana Brewerton.

Since then, Sekine said he had started to use the Te Ataarangi method of language acquisition, where coloured Cuisenaire rods or rakau are used as a learning tool.

He said while most of his weekly classes were one hour long, he had introduced a total immersion style of learning to his students, where the Ainu language is spoken over the course of an entire weekend, similar to wananga sessions Maori language students have on marae.

Sekine said he wanted to develop a picture dictionary for the Ainu language and also expand the vocabulary in order to enhance its relevance to daily life.

He said he was grateful for the support and guidance provided to him by people like Hond and Brewerton, along with Te Ururoa Flavell, who was behind the initial invitation for the group to visit Parihaka.

"I guess if we can develop more speakers (of Ainu) then that's the way we can pay back the generosity of the Maori people," he said.

The Poukorero conference, which is focused on developing better ways to keep indigenous language alive, runs until Friday with a series of workshops and speeches to be delivered at Parihaka.
The Qantas 737 which was crashed into by a ground truck in Wellington on Tuesday.

Melbourne-bound passengers leaving Wellington had to be put on another Qantas plane after their one was hit by a truck.

On Wednesday the airline confirmed the incident, which happened on the tarmac in Wellington on Tuesday night.

Do you know more about this incident? Email newstips@stuff.co.nz

MAARTEN HOLL/STUFF The Qantas plane remained on the tarmac on Wednesday morning.

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The 130 passengers on board were taken off the plane, and put on another one which had to be brought down from Auckland.

A worker was hospitalised with minor injuries but released shortly afterwards.

Qantas crew are great. Wellington ground crew not so much. One just drove into the plane and broke it.  Rob England (@theitskeptic) June 7, 2016

The stationary 737 plane was hit by a ground handling truck, the statement said.

The aircraft was due to operate flight QF172 from Wellington to Melbourne with a scheduled departure of 5pm.

A new plane, brought down from Auckland where it was meant to be parked up for the night, left Wellington at 9.50pm - almost five hours after the scheduled leaving time.

The damaged plane remained on the tarmac at Wellington on Wednesday morning.

Passenger Michael O'Connell, of Carteron, was heading off after a holiday with his partner and said a thump shuddered through the plane.

O'Connell said he was disappointed at the lack of communication over the incident and said the couple spent more than an hour waiting at the baggage claim before being told what had happened.

A Qantas spokeswoman said there was minor damage to the underside of the 737, which would be flown to Christchurch on Wednesday night and checked by engineers before it was returned to service.

A Wellington Airport spokesman said Civil Aviation Authority and WorkSafe had been notified.

The vehicle that hit the truck was contracted to Qantas.

A CAA spokesman said the situation was being dealt with by WorkSafe, where a spokeswoman confirmed it had been notified and "follow-up inquiries" were underway.

She refused to comment further,
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 8

By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:

Turkish air forces are shelling positions of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) terrorist group in northern Iraq, the General Staff of Turkish Armed Forces said in a message June 8.

The Turkish air forces have destroyed 13 strongholds of the terrorists.

Last time the Turkish air forces shelled the PKK positions in northern Iraq on June 5.

The conflict between Turkey and the PKK, which demands the creation of an independent Kurdish state, has continued for over 25 years and has claimed more than 40,000 lives. The UN and the European Union listed the PKK as a terrorist organization.

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Baku, Azerbaijan, June 8

By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:

Armenia must respond to Turkey's appeal of establishing a joint commission to investigate the 1915 events, the Turkish presidential administration told Trend June 8.

"Instead of adopting the resolution on the so-called Armenian genocide, Germany should've exerted pressure on Armenia concerning the establishment of a joint commission with Turkey," the administration added.

"Turkey opened all its archives to investigate the 1915 events," said the administration said. "If Armenia has its archives, it must open them too."

According to the Turkish presidential administration, the fact that Armenia does not agree to establish a joint commission to investigate the 1915 events testifies that there was no "Armenian genocide".

Armenia and the Armenian lobby claim that Turkey's predecessor, the Ottoman Empire allegedly carried out "genocide" against the Armenians living in Anatolia in 1915. Turkey in turn has always denied "the genocide" took place. While strengthening the efforts to promote the "genocide" in the world, Armenians have achieved its recognition by the parliaments of some countries.

The German parliament adopted a resolution recognizing the 1915 events as "genocide of Armenians" June 2.
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 8

By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:

Latest on the bomb attack on police station in Turkey's Mardin province:

14:33 (UTC+04:00) Turkey's Prime Minister Binali Yildirim has said the explosion in the country's Mardin province is a terrorist attack and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) terrorist group stands behind it, reports the TRT Haber news channel.

The prime minister noted that the death toll as a result of the terrorist attack has reached three.

Turkey will continue to fight terrorism despite anything, added Yildirim.

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13:48 (UTC+04:00) Two people were killed and 20 wounded in the explosion, according to the preliminary information, reports the TRT Haber news channel.

A nearby building was also damaged.

The wounded have been taken to the nearest hospitals.

Turkish authorities have not yet commented on the incident.

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13:34 (UTC+04:00) A police station in the Turkish south-eastern province of Mardin has been hit in a car bomb attack, reports the Sabah newspaper.

Reportedly, there are casualties, but their number has not been specified. Fire fighters and ambulance cars have arrived at the scene.

According to the preliminary reports, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) terrorist group carried out the attack.

A large-scale operation against the PKK began in the province following the incident.

The incident in Mardin comes in the wake of a major blast in Istanbul. A police car was blown up in Istanbul June 7, as a result of which 12 people were killed and 35 were injured.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 8

By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:

By continuing the anti-Turkey campaign, Russia is trying to deceive the international community through the media, the TRT Haber news channel quoted Ibrahim Kalin, spokesperson for Turkey's presidential administration, as saying June 8.

"This is increasingly being observed following the crisis in relations between the two countries," he added.

Russia hasn't been able and won't be able to prove its accusations against Turkey, added Kalin.

Relations between Russia and Turkey deteriorated after Turkish Air Force shot down a Russian Su-24 bomber on Nov. 24, 2015. Turkey said the bomber entered its airspace, while Russia denied its warplane flying into the Turkish skies.

Earlier, Numan Kurtulmus, Turkish deputy prime minister, said Turkey and Russia need each other.

Kurtulmus said the Turkey-Russia relations were developing in many fields [before the incident with the downed Russian Su-24 bomber].

"As earlier, Turkey claims that when the Russian Su-24 bomber was shot down, Ankara had no idea whose bomber that was," he added.

He also expressed hope that Ankara and Moscow will be able to resolve their differences in relations through a dialogue.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
$1 million will be invested under Budget 2016 to expand capacity at Motueka High School, say Education Minister Hekia Parata and Associate Education Minister Nikki Kaye.

Minister Kaye made the announcement this morning during a visit to Motueka High School.

This investment will enable three new classrooms to be built at the school, says Ms Parata.

Motueka High School is a crucial school for the local education network, but population growth in the area has had a flow-on effect on the schools roll.

The extra capacity provided by this investment will help the school manage this growth, and will be welcomed by the local community.

Ms Kaye says todays announcement is one of a number of school infrastructure investments that have been announced as part of this years Budget.

A core focus of the Budget is addressing the roll growth that many schools around New Zealand, such as Motueka High School, are experiencing, says Ms Kaye.

Motueka High School has a roll of nearly 700 students after a significant intake last year, and these new classrooms will enable more students in the area to have access to a school that boasts a proud record of achievements in academic, cultural, sporting, outdoor education and leadership areas.

The school is at the heart of the local community, and this investment signals a strong commitment to families in the Motueka area.

Since the Budget was delivered, around half a billion dollars of investments have already been announced in new schools and classrooms in Wellington, Canterbury, Auckland, Northland, Tauranga, Hamilton, Hawkes Bay and now Motueka.

Were committed to building new schools and classrooms to meet demand, and ensuring that students can learn in facilities which enable them to achieve to the best of their potential, says Ms Kaye.

As with all new classrooms, the focus at Motueka High will be on providing flexible learning spaces which support an innovative learning environment.

The new classrooms will support different ways of teaching and learning, and will have high standards of acoustics, lighting and ventilation. They will also feature the latest IT infrastructure to support digital learning, says Ms Kaye.

Source: Office of Nikki Kaye and Hekia Parata.


The ministers saying it was an important programme as one in three New Zealand school children are either obese or overweight, and more than a third are inactive.

Thats why the Government launched the Childhood Obesity Plan. New Zealand is now one of the few countries in the OECD to have a target and a comprehensive plan to tackle childhood obesity, says Jonathan.

We know children in the most deprived areas are three times as likely to be obese. The Plan includes a target of signing up 150 new decile 1  4 primary schools to the Health Promoting Schools programme over two years.

Since the Plan was launched in October last year 94 new schools have signed up to the Health Promoting Schools programme. We now have 90 per cent of decile 1  4 primary schools taking part (914 of 1015).

Health Promoting Schools involves the Ministry of Health working with the school community to address their health and wellbeing priorities.

As young people spend approximately a third of their waking hours during the school term at school, schools have an important role to play in influencing their physical activity and food choices, says Hekia.

By encouraging the wider school community to get involved weve seen schools embrace some exciting and innovative changes which are having a positive impact on the students.

For example, Lakeview School in the Wairarapa identified getting active while having fun as a priority. This led to the parents helping to build a 540 metre bike track which includes a skills section.

Mahora School in Hastings identified that healthier food options were needed. Theyve made a number of changes including offering stickers instead of chocolate bars and introducing brain food time during which kids are encouraged to eat fruit.

Further information on the Childhood Obesity Plan is available on the Ministry of Health website, here.
The government prefers to bring in cheap migrant labour rather than to train and suitably pay young New Zealanders, says New Zealand First Leader Rt Hon Winston Peters.

The government has said New Zealand needs workers because there is a skills shortage but now Immigration Minister Michael Woodhouse is saying foreigners are needed to do jobs Kiwis wont.

Theyre trying to justify their policies which are creating Third World working conditions in New Zealand.

Most of these migrants come from Third World countries where work conditions can be abysmal.

At the same time the government are putting the boot into young Kiwis desperate to get a decent start in life. Where are the training schemes for them?

A few months ago Finance Minister Bill English slammed young Kiwis as being pretty hopeless.

Now, Mr Woodhouse is doing the same thing.

Treasury warned the government of the negative consequences of mass immigration six months ago, which they have chosen to ignore.

And Treasury also advised migrants were increasingly working in low-wage industries where there is no evidence of a skills shortage.

The government and Mr Woodhouse are just continuing to kick young New Zealanders, Mr Peters says.

SOURCE: Office of Winston Peters
US Vice President Joe Biden spoke over the telephone with Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim on the issues of terrorism and reunification of Cyprus, the White House said in a press release on Wednesday.

Earlier on Wednesday, a car bomb hit a police station in the city of Midyat in the southeastern Turkish province of Mardin. The attack took place after an explosion in Istanbul on Tuesday killed 11 people.

"The Vice President spoke to Prime Minister of Turkey Binali Yildirim today to express condolences for the terrorist attacks in Istanbul and Midyat," the release stated.

During the call, the officials also agreed to continue counterterrorism cooperation and reaffirmed support for an agreement to reunify Cyprus, according to the release.
Last August, Branko Kukolj moved into Sunrise of Windsor, Ontario. After losing his wife, he needed a place to call home, and was looking for companionship and kind people with whom he could spend his days.

One evening shortly after moving in, Branko, along with Sunrise team member Paul Louviere, boarded the elevator heading for dinner. Josip Kucas, a new resident who had moved in only the day before, was already on board. Like Branko, Josip had also moved to Sunrise after the death of his wife, hoping to find a surrogate family and form new friendships.

The two men looked at one another and locked eyes. Without hesitation, Branko and Josip embraced, wiping tears from their eyes as they repeated one anothers names.You dont understand, Branko told Paul. When we were young boys, we grew up in the same village in Croatia. Josip and I were best friends. We havent seen each other since we were 18 years old, and now here we are  living together, 66 years later!

The old friends sat together, talking intently for the next four hours. Within moments of the reunion, they were transported back to their younger selves  as children in a small village more than 4,000 miles away from the couch they shared that day in Windsor, Ontario.





Amazingly enough, both Branko and Josip had emigrated from Croatia to Windsor as young men. They both married and raised their families in the same city, but never crossed paths. Then, after 66 years, the beauty of synchronicity had led them to reunite and once again share a life together.Like any best friendship, Branko and Josip picked up right where they left off  coming back together as if no time had passed at all. With a lifetime of stories to catch up on, they are the best of friends again, spending their days with one another, relying on the other for companionship and sharing the bond of friendship that, after six and a half decades, is stronger than ever.
A Volvo pilot assist is shown during the Geneva Motor Show 2016. (Photo : Harold Cunningham/Getty Images)

Tesla and BMW are the most known names when it comes to high-tech vehicles. But here's one silently climbing to the top-Volvo. There's just so much going on with the company's autonomous initiatives, from driverless cars to artificial intelligence to futuristic design elements.



Next year, Volvo plans to introduce its Pilot Assist II in its new vehicle S90, Tech Insider reported. It will also be available as an option for its 2017 XC90. This semi-autonomous system leaves the steering and breaking to the car on the open road with the speed of up to 80 miles per hour.



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The company is also working on a pilot program called "DriveMe," which it plans to launch in 2017 so that real customers can test out the technology. The Swedish carmaker is looking into a 2020 release of its Intellisafe Autopilot to the public, where the car can drive on its own and will no longer need the supervision of the driver. The downside, however, is that the vehicle would only work in well-mapped areas.



"What is unique with DriveMe, is that we are not only building a concept car or doing demos, we are really doing research to help us understand how we can bring self-driving cars to the real world, to public roads with ordinary customers behind the wheel," said Erik Coelingh, senior technical leader for driver support technologies, via Tech Insider.



Volvo's Intellisafe Autopilot will be powered by NVIDIA's platform for self-driving cars, dubbed as "Drive PX 2." The two firms entered a partnership wherein Volvo will be able to utilize NVIDIA's deep learning computers. With NVIDIA's chips, Volvo's cars will learn different situations that will help improve its self-driving capabilities and safety.



Aside from the autonomous cars, Volvo is also investing in software technologies such as apps that will make its cars more connected. It has an On Call app, which enables the owner to easily know the details about his car such as its location, maintenance warnings, and fuel level, among others. In 2017, Volvo is slated to unveil its first commercial vehicle that will have the owner's smartphone app as its key, Tech Insider further reported.






Celebrity deaths in 2016

Actress Theresa Saldana is seen in Los Angeles, July 1992.

(The Associated Press)

"The Commish" star Theresa Saldana is dead, according to multiple reports. She was 61.

A family member told the Los Angeles Times that Saldana dies Monday in L.A. after an undisclosed illness. She had been hospitalized at Cedars-Sinai but no cause of death has been announced.

Saldana may be best remembered for her role as Lenora, the wife of Joe Pesci's character, Joey LaMotta, in "Raging Bull." Two years later, she made national headlines when she survived a knifing attack by a stalker in 1982, getting stabbed 10 times.

Variety reports the near-death experience inspired her to become an advocate for victims of stalkers, founding the Victims for Victims organization that fought for anti-stalking laws. She also played herself in the Emmy-nominated 1984 TV movie, "Victims for Victims: The Theresa Saldana Story."

The actress later went on to be nominated for a Golden Globe award for playing Rachel Scali opposite Michael Chiklis in the '90s series "The Commish."

"Painful to hear the news of Theresa's passing. My family and I extend our love, condolences & support to her family in their time of grieving," Chiklis wrote on Twitter Tuesday.

Saldana also had roles in Robert Zemeckis' 1978 Beatles film "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" and appeared on television shows like "The Twilight Zone," "All My Children," "Law & Order," "Matlock," "T.J. Hooker" and "New Kids on the Block."

She retired from acting in 2004. She is survived by her husband, Phil Peters, and a daughter.
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Steve Lombardozzi hit .310 with the Syracuse Chiefs in 2011.

(Gary Walts | GWalts@Syracuse.com)

The Syracuse Chiefs have added infielder/outfielder Steve Lombardozzi to the team's roster and moved infielder Kevin Keyes back to to Double-A Harrisburg.

Lombardozzi was signed to a minor-league contract by the Nationals on Monday out of the independent Atlantic League, where he played for the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs. Lombardozzi's .367 batting average and 61 hits currently lead the Atlantic League. He played in 40 games with the Blue Crabs, scoring 27 runs, collecting 10 walks and stealing eight bases.

The signing returns Lombardozzi to the Nationals, his first and most successful professional organization. Lombardozzi was drafted by Washington in 2008 and spent six seasons (2008-13) with the organization.

In his only season with the Chiefs in 2011, Lombardozzi posted a .310/.354/.408 slash line in 69 games, with 19 extra-base hits, 21 walks and 14 stolen bases. He collected 27 multi-hit games for Syracuse. From 2011 to 2013, Lombardozzi played in 257 games as a utility player with the Nationals.

In 2014, Lombardozzi split time between the Baltimore Orioles and their I.L. affiliate, the Norfolk Tides. Last season, he played for both the Pittsburgh Pirates and their I.L. affiliate, the Indianapolis Indians. This marks Lombardozzi's ninth professional year and fourth in the International League.
French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian called onto Europeans to have more visible presence in South China Sea contested waters. (Photo : Getty Images)

France is rallying its European navies to participate in the spiteful South China Sea bout by increasing patrols in the disputed waters to uphold peace and freedom of navigation in the region.



According to a report from the Foreign Policy, France's Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian called onto his European comrades to have a "regular and visible" presence to uphold peace in the South China Sea.



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During the last day of the annual Shangri-La Dialogue, Le Drian said Europeans should be more active in maintaining peace if they wish to end the conflict.



On the same day, defense ministers from participating countries had also vouched on a side in the debate between China and the United States' Asian allies.



The French's Call



"If we want to contain the risk of conflict, we must defend this right and defend it ourselves," the French defense minister said during his speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue regional security conference held in Singapore hosted by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).



While he did not explicitly pointed a blaming finger at China, his thinly sugar-coated statement emits criticism for the Asian giant's aggressive pursuit of territories in the region.



"If the law of the sea is not respected today in the China seas, it will be threatened tomorrow in the Arctic, in the Mediterranean, or elsewhere," he said.



According to Mira Rapp-Hooper, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, the U.S. has long awaited the involvement of the European Union in the matter.



"The timing of the French call may also mean that we see European Union governments come out in vocal support of the Hague decision in a few weeks," she explained.



Criticisms



The French's comment is the latest of many criticisms to the Chinese government, following the previously reported remarks from U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter, who warned Beijing of isolation if it pursues its current path.



"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," Reuters quoted Carter as saying.



China had responded by reiterating its refusal to acknowledge any international ruling on the matter of sovereignty over the waterways.



"We don't make trouble, but we have no fear of trouble," Chinese Admiral Sun Jianguo said on Sunday. "China will not bear with the arbitration award, nor will it allow any infringement on its sovereignty and security interests or stay indifferent to the irresponsible behavior of some countries in and around the South China Sea."






Three people have reportedly been charged in a blast that severely injured Marcy corrections officer Alan Dobransky, 52, of Floyd, NY, according to a family member.

The relative said the three were arrested Tuesday, and that there was no connection to his job as a corrections officer.

Oneida County sheriff's deputies, who have been investigating, could not be reached to confirm the arrests, but have said they are holding a press conference at 4 p.m. today to update the case. New York State Police, Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the FBI also are involved in the investigation.

On May 29, Dobransky picked up a packaged cardboard box left at his home near his mailbox that exploded, leaving him in critical condition with burns to his arms and chest, officials have said.



Gov. Andrew Cuomo visited Dobransky at the hospital following the incident, and had pledged a full investigation.
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Oneida County Sheriff Robert Maciol speaks at a news conference on Wednesday, June 8, 2016, announcing the arrest of three people in connection to the bombing of a New York state corrections officer.

(Elizabeth Doran | edoran@syracuse)

From left are Cindy L. Shields, Keith Seppi, and Donna Seppi, all of Conneaut, Ohio.

ORISKANY, NY - Three people have been arrested in connection with a May 29 explosion that critically injured a Marcy corrections officer,

law enforcement officials announced

today.

The three were arrested Tuesday, police announced today. Charged were:

Cindy L. Shields, 58, of Conneaut, Ohio

Keith Seppi, 58, of Conneaut, Ohio

Donna J. Seppi, 63, of Conneaut, Ohio

They were each charged with first-degree assault, according to Oneida County Sheriff Robert Maciol. Searches of the three's residences revealed items linking them to the bombing, authorities said.

The attack was not related to the victim Alan Dobransky's job as a corrections officer, authorities said.

The attack was related to an elder care scam that Dobransky had uncovered against his mother in Ohio, authorities said.

Dobransky had discovered that Cindy Shields, who was taking care of Dobransky's mother, had taken money from his mother for more than four years, Maciol said. He declined to say how much money was taken, but a relative of Dobransky told syracuse.com it was about $8,000.

Dobransky threatened to tell the police so the three decided to stop him with a bomb, he said.

Keith Seppi - brother-in-law of Cindy Shields - placed the explosive at Dobransky's home, Maciol said. He declined to identify the type of explosive used.

Dobransky, 52, suffered burns to his arms and chest after a packaged cardboard box left at his home near his mailbox in Floyd exploded.

Dobransky, who is burned over 50 percent of his body, remains in critical condition at Upstate University Hospital, authorities said today.

The three suspects will be arraigned tonight in the town of Floyd court.

Oneida County sheriff's deputies, New York State Police, the FBI and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms announced the arrests at a news conference today.
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Inside Five Points Correctional Facility in Seneca County.

(David Lassman | dlassman@syracuse.com)

ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- A federal jury today ruled in favor of an Owasco man who blew the whistle on fraud within the state prison system.

But the jury in Rochester awarded the prison employee, William Murray, only $6,500. When he sued the state, he was seeking $1.6 million.

The jury found that two superintendents at Five Points Correctional Facility in Seneca County -- Thomas Poole and Joseph Lempke -- retaliated against Murray after he complained about the misuse of a federal grant intended to educate inmates on overcoming alcohol and drug abuse, said Murray's lawyer, Terrance Hoffmann of Syracuse.

"It really wasn't about the money," Hoffmann said. "He wanted to make the point that they were retaliating against him. Nobody else would listen but a jury did. It might discourage harassment against other people."

Because the jury ruled in Murray's favor, the state will likely have to pay Hoffmann's legal bill, which will be between $40,000 and $50,000, he said.

Murray has been an alcohol and substance abuse treatment counselor at Five Points since 2004. He complained to state officials that prison officials were abusing federal grant money for inmates' substance abuse education, Hoffmann said.

The prison wasn't giving the inmates anywhere near the 330 hours that were required to complete the program, Hoffmann said. The prisoners were getting less than half that time, he said. Murray claimed the prison falsified documents by overstating inmates' attendance at the treatment programs.

The prison was supposed to do individual treatment programs for each inmate, but instead prison officials used one plan and copied it for all the inmates, Hoffmann said.

The federal substance abuse grant started in 2000, and Murray discovered the abuse in 2004, Hoffmann said. When Murray tried to correct the problems, his supervisors ignored him, Hoffmann said.

The commissioner of the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision investigated Murray's complaints after he went to legislators. The commissioner, Brian Fischer, found that many of Murray's complaints were valid, but didn't find any evidence of fraud or mismanagement, Hoffmann said.

"Which is kind of an oxymoron, because his only complaints were about fraud and mismanagement," Hoffmann said.

Contact John O'Brien anytime | email | Twitter | 315-470-2187
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi lectures Canadian reporter on human rights question. (Photo : Getty Images)

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yis sudden outburst against a Canadian reporters human rights question during a rare visit to Canada appears to be staged, says a Hong Kong-based journalist.



On Tuesday, Vice News reported about Wang's rant during his landmark visit to the Western country where a Canadian reporter asked Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion about China's human rights record.



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The Chinese government had repeatedly called for other countries to back off and refrain from interfering with the country's internal affairs, but it seemed like Wang had purposely interfered with the question.



However, this incident appears to be staged, according to Hong Kong-based writer Frank Ching via EJ Insight.



Wang's Rant



During a joint press conference with Dion, Wang snapped after Amanda Connolly, a reporter from iPolitics, stated her question for the Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister.



According to Vice News, Wang appeared to be irritated as he went on with his rant saying that the reporter should not "ask questions in such an irresponsible manner."



Looking offended, he also said that he is open to "goodwill suggestions" but "reject groundless or unwarranted accusations."



"Your question is full of prejudice against China and arrogance. I don't know where that comes from. This is totally unacceptable," he fired back at the reporter.



What It Implies



According to a CBC News analysis, China's "microphone diplomacy" has a tendency to misfire as Wang's lecture on proper interview questions was defended by China's ambassador to Canada Luo Zhaohui.



"It is only natural that the two countries may have different views on human rights," he wrote in an article published on Globe and Mail, adding that "China faces such differences squarely and never sidesteps them."



The CBC analysis also noted Luo's mistake in saying that the Canadian reporter pointed fingers at China, considering that the question was directed at the Canadian minister and that it was the Chinese foreign minister who actually pointed his finger.



Furthermore, Ching noted that the question should not have come as a surprise to Wang considering that they get asked about it wherever they go.



"Rather than being a spontaneous display of anger, the performance was clearly staged," he wrote, adding that the display of arrogance from the Chinese official is frightening. "Chinese officials are asked about human rights everywhere they go, and so the question itself should not have been surprising."



Ching added: "If that is the way China behaves when it is the world's second-biggest economy, what is one to expect when it becomes no. 1? Clearly, Wang--and the Communist Party--is sensitive to questions about human rights."






The high-spec, low-priced Huawei P9 is now available for Bangladeshi users. (Photo : Waqar Khan/YouTube)

Huawei is bringing its newly launched flagship phone to Bangladesh as the competition intensifies back at home and new opportunities arise in other developing markets.



The company is making the Huawei P9 available to Bangladeshi buyers, with a price point of about 47,990 taka or $610.



Huawei has collaborated with high-profile Bangladeshi photographers Bassbaba Sumon, Iresh Zaker and GMB Akash to shoot photos using the device, state-owned news agency Xinhua reported.



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"We believe the P9 is a game-changer for smartphone photography," said Ingmar Wang, director of Device Business at Huawei (Bangladesh) Ltd., as quoted by Xinhua. "Huawei and Leica share the same passion to look beyond what is possible, and the partnership between the two equally famed companies [has] forever changed the way we take photos and see the world."



Wang added: "The P9 is a piece of art which has seen a relentless drive to push the boundaries of innovation. Our latest flagship product launch signifies our commitment toward the Bangladeshi market, which is very important for us."



In April, Huawei showed off the P9 phone for the first time in London. The handset's biggest pull is the dual-lens camera co-engineered with German optics maker Leica.



The P9 model adopts fingerprint recognition technology, comes with a 5.2in screen and is housed in aluminum.



With its specs, the handset was said to be a solid indication of Huawei's serious efforts to bring its brand abroad and within the ranks of high-end smartphone players, namely Apple and Samsung.



For analysts, P9 will likely appeal to consumers looking for quality and good-looking phone at a cheap price. Bangladesh seems to be a market in best position to reflect this.



Last year, the number of mobile phone users in Bangladesh crossed the 130-million mark, according to bdnews24.com. Meanwhile, local Internet users also increased by about 27 percent within one year from 2014-15.


Traveller men chat and enjoy the sunshine during the Appleby Horse Fair on June 2, 2016 in Appleby, England. (Photo : Getty Images/Christopher Furlong)

The European agriculture was gifted by a group of Stone Age migrants from the Aegean Sea region who moved to the continent nearly 8,000 years ago. At that time, Europe was still dominated by hunter-gatherers.



These are the findings of a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. The researchers based their findings on genetic samples taken from ancient farming communities in Spain, Hungary and Germany, according to The Washington Post.



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The researchers compared the genetic samples from the aforementioned communities with that of the ancient genomes found at sites where agriculture was being practiced centuries earlier, including northwest Turkey and Greece. The comparison between the two forms of genetic samples enables researchers to establish a genetic link between the Aegean and the European population.



The recent study findings challenge the popular belief that the practice of farming and agriculture spread from one community to another through cultural exchange and not any other method. According to study author Joachim Burger, the genetic analyses of the sample show that the ancient farmers in Spain and central Europe were more closely related to that of the Aegean sea migrants than to each other.



This indicates that farmers may have arrived both the regions in two installments - one through the Balkan route and the other one through the Mediterranean route. That is, the migration took place westward along the coastline to Spain and northward into the central Europe.



In addition to establishing a link between the two populations, the researchers were also able to figure out some of the characteristics of the Aegean sea migrants based on the analysis of their DNA. The fair-skinned population with dark eyes did not have the genes required to digest milk after childhood.



Aegean population bore resemblance to Oetzi the Iceman, the researchers found. The well-preserved remains of Oetzi the Iceman was recovered from the glaciers that lie between Austria and Italy.



According to Michael Hofreiter of the University of Potsdam in Germany, the study offers a great insight into the Europe's stone age migration. However, he warned that some of the conditions are based on limited data, according to Fox News.



"Small statistical effects might be a fluke," Hofreiter said. "It adds to our knowledge about human history. And I think it is always valuable to replace speculation by factual evidence."



The following video talks about the latest discovery:






Barbara Baker of Port St. Lucie checks out a Bersa 22-caliber handgun from Rob Rampy at the American Defense gun store in Port Salerno in this 2013 photo. (FILE PHOTO)

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By Arek Sarkissian, USA TODAY Network

TALLAHASSEE  A lawyer for a Fort Pierce man who was convicted of openly carrying a handgun in public insists Florida should have no regulations that restrict people from carrying weapons throughout the state.

Jacksonville attorney Eric Friday told the Florida Supreme Court Wednesday Dale Norman was exercising his Second Amendment right to protect himself as he walked along a Fort Pierce street in 2012. He was arrested for a violation of a state ban against openly carrying weapons in public and subsequently convicted in St. Lucie County Circuit Court.

Friday, who also is the attorney for gun rights group Florida Carry, told the high court the Second Amendment and U.S. Supreme Court case law allows law-abiding people to carry a weapon without any regulation.

"If you're legally allowed to own firearms, then you're legally allowed to carry them," Friday told the court.

Florida Assistant Attorney General Heidi Bettendorf told the court the state's concealed weapons permit program was within the Second Amendment and supported by case law from the U.S. Supreme Court. There also are provisions in state law that permit people to carry a weapon without a license if they face an immediate threat.

"The state agrees to the right to carry outside the home but there's nothing wrong with the concealed carry program," Bettendorf said.

Friday said the state's application process to receive a concealed weapon permit was the same constitutional violation as requiring journalists to apply for licenses. The rights of journalists are protected by the First Amendment and the profession requires no license.

"This court would never stand for a training class and a fee and a 180-day wait for someone to get a license to carry a camera and be a photojournalist," Friday said.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Jorge Labarga dismissed Friday's comparison.

"Yes, but I don't think journalists with cameras kill people, do you?" Labarga said.

Florida is one of four states in the country that ban people from openly carrying guns in public. There was a bid by state lawmakers during this year's legislative session that would have abolished the ban, but that plan died in the Senate. A House version of the bill passed with a full chamber vote, but the Senate version was denied a committee hearing by Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, R-Miami.

At the time, Diaz de la Portilla said the law did not promote safety for the state, and Senate bill sponsor Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, was unwilling to agree to any amendments that would have weakened it.

The state Supreme Court agreed to hear Norman's case in October, breathing new life into the push by gun rights groups such Florida Carry and the NRA to expand the rights of Florida gun owners. Friday expected the high court to come back with a decision in the next three to six months.
Cali Stalheber, 19, Plant City; out-of-county warrant, Brevard County, uttering a forged bill.

Ronalda Williams, 34, 8400 block of 63rd Avenue, Vero Beach; warrant for violation of probation, theft.

Robert Rogers, 25, 100 block of Conover Avenue, Sebastian; warrants for battery on an emergency medical care provider, possession of a controlled substance (clonazepam), assault.

Ricky Thompson, 45, 2200 block of 6th Street, Vero Beach; battery (domestic violence) by strangulation.

Christopher Bauer, 39, 900 block of Waterway Drive, Barefoot Bay; warrant for possession of cocaine.

Corey Morman, 44, Florida City; warrant for failure to appear, driving with license suspended, habitual offender. )

Erick Santiago Espada, 32, 400 block of Perch Lane, Sebastian; warrants for tampering with witness, victim, informant, fleeing and eluding, burglary with assault and battery.

Earlene Hicks, 30, 4600 block of 38th Avenue, Vero Beach; child neglect without great bodily harm. Arrested in St. Lucie County.
Tyler Scott Topolski

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By Nicholas Samuel of TCPalm

VERO BEACH  A South Carolina man was sentenced to 33 months in prison for robbing a Vero Beach bank in November, a U.S. Department of Justice news release stated.

U.S. District Court Judge Kenneth A. Marra, in Fort Pierce, on Tuesday sentenced Tyler Scott Topolski, 20, to prison for 33 months, followed by three years of supervised release.

Court records show Topolski, of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, walked into the Florida Community Bank in the 4000 block of 20th Street on Nov. 6 with a note demanding cash.

Topolski left the bank with $973. The note was later found in the bank parking lot, the news release states.

Topolski was arrested by the Indian River County Sheriff's Office for felony robbery on Nov. 23.

His case was turned over to U.S. Marshals on Feb. 2, according to Lt. Eric Flowers, Sheriff's Office spokesman. Topolski pleaded guilty.
By Nicole Wiesenthal of TCPalm

Tricia Todd's family and friends celebrated her life and brought closure to her death during a memorial service 7 p.m. Tuesday night.

Todd's family members told anecdotes about what they said was her enigmatic personality to people in attendance and those watching online, who had been touched by her story.

Tuesday's ceremony, at Christ Fellowship, 10205 Pratt Whitney Road, Stuart, was open to the public. The service, which was live-streamed on the "Search for Tricia Todd" Facebook page, had more than 500 viewers.

The Hobe Sound mother disappeared April 26, and her family and friends set up a Facebook page to coordinate volunteers helping in the search effort. On May 24, her former husband, Steven Williams, confessed to killing her.

Williams struck a deal May 26 with the State Attorney's Office to plead no contest to second-murder charges and spend 35 years in prison for killing his former wife, in exchange for bringing them to her remains.

"I love you, Tricia! Goodbye, my Friend," said Monica Todd, one of Tricia Todd's sisters-in-law, reading a poem on Tuesday that she had written. "I will hold your memories close until the end."

Family members shed tears on the stage as they recounted what they said were Todd's love for God, her family, her work and pursuit of happiness.

"Oh my goodness, Tricia's laugh was a beautiful sound," said Christie Todd, Tricia Todd's sister-in-law, through tears. "And anyone who heard it knew she was full of joy and possibly up to mischief."

One of Todd's brothers, Wesley Todd, talked about the time he had a motorcycle accident, and how Tricia Todd nursed him back to health, partially through hiding his coffee, which she believed was bad for healing.

"I literally made my wife meet Tricia on my second date," Wesley Todd said, "and approve of her before I married her."

But he also talked about how Tricia Todd would want everyone to forgive and overcome their anger.

"Tricia would not want us to be bitter or angry," he said. "She taught us forgiveness and love. If she can't be angry, I know she wouldn't want us to."

Tricia Todd's friend, Courtney Chantelle, spoke about her discussions with Todd about God and how she didn't have a cookie-cutter personality.

"When I think of Tricia, words like 'kind,' 'sweet,' 'nice' don't do her justice," Chantelle said. "She was fierce."

Chantelle read a Facebook conversation between Todd and herself about trusting God. She told Todd she couldn't wait to trust God and see what he has in store, and Todd told her, "Then we're on this ride together."

Todd's father, David Todd, talked about Tricia Todd's life as a young girl. He used to make up songs for her, and he shared some of them on Tuesday.

He said Tricia Todd had been planning to adopt two children from Haiti before she had gotten pregnant with Faith, her 2-year-old daughter.

Much of the family spoke about Faith, how the child had been introduced into their life before Todd's death passing, and how she resembled Todd's essence and spirit.

"God knew he was going to take her to heaven in a couple of years," David Todd said. "We're all grateful for Faith. God left her for us."

Martin County Sheriff William Snyder also spoke during the memorial.

"You have given me a gift and helped me to know who Tricia Todd was," he said.

The family asked for everyone to forgive Williams and to lead him on the path to God. They said if Todd taught anything, it would be forgiveness and faith in God.

Family friend Harvey Fiskeaux sung two songs, including one called "Tricia's Faith," and a video was shown of photos and videos of Todd throughout her life.

Pastor Phillip Smith talked about Todd's life and passing.

"I don't need to prove that Satan exists," he said. "The fact that we are here is proof enough."

But still the family remained forgiving and reflective.

"Tricia would be so grateful that the testimony of her death has had the ability to impact so many people," said Christie Todd.

"I know Tricia Todd is looking down gratefully," Wesley Todd said. "She made a huge difference."
A former car dealership employee has been convicted of charges related to her role in a stolen identity tax fraud scheme, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release.

Micheline Eppolito, 29, of Jensen Beach, was convicted Wednesday after a two-day trial of possessing 15 or more unauthorized access devices, affecting interstate commerce, and five counts of aggravated identity theft, according to the release.

Eppolito worked at the Treasure Coast Lexus car dealership at 5121 S. U.S. 1 in Fort Pierce, according to the release. She accessed and printed 44 automobile printouts from a database shared by automobile dealerships, which contained 68 customers' personal identifying information from a work computer in her office. She then sold the printouts and was paid with about $80 worth of oxycodone pills.

Eppolito is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 18, according to the release. She faces up to 10 years in prison for the access devices charge, as well as two years in prison, consecutive to any other prison term, for each of the aggravated identity theft charges.
China's First Lady Peng Liyuan is a staunch supporter of the country's anti-AIDS advocacy. (Photo : Getty Images)

Nine Chinese women have made it to this years Forbes Power Women list, marking the countrys strongest showing by having the second highest number of representatives next to the United States.



On Monday, Forbes announced the 13th Annual World's Most Powerful Women List from seven different categories including business, billionaires, finance, media, politics, philanthropists and NGOs, and technology.



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On the same day as the announcement, BBC News took note of China's improving performance in giving Chinese women equal opportunities by becoming the second most dominating country in the list, second only to the U.S. with 51 entries.



China's Most Powerful Women



According to BBC, there are a total of nine Chinese women who made the cut.



Holding the highest spot among their fellow Chinese citizens is Lucy Peng of the e-commerce giant Alibaba, and Margaret Chan who is currently the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO).



Pollyanna Chu, the chief executive of Hong Kong-based financial services company Kingston Securities, and China's first lady Peng Liyuan also made it to the Top 100.



Among all of those named in the list, 32 are chief executives, 12 are international leaders, and 11 are billionaires, including nine who established their billion-dollar companies from nothing.



According to Forbes, the world's most powerful women represented an improving equality around the world.



"Their accomplishments are formidable on their own, and even more so given how hard it can be to establish inroads into industries and job titles traditionally dominated by men," the Forbes magazine article stated.



More Powerful Women in the West



While China performed very well this year, it goes without saying that the Forbes Top 100 World's Most Powerful Women was still dominated by the West.



On the very top is German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who retains her spot form last year's list, followed by American presidential candidate Hilary Clinton and U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen at the second and third place.



Bill Gates's wife and co-chairperson of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Melinda Gates holds the fourth spot, while General Motors CEO Mary Barra stays in fifth place same as last year.



Some significant additions to the list include Lens Technology CEO Zhou Qunfei and Taiwan's first female president Tsai Ing-Wen, who are tied at no. 17.



There were also some who were kicked out of the list including embattled Brazilian leader Dilma Rousseff and Theranos Founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes.






By Lamaur Stancil of TCPalm

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY  At least two people were transported to the hospital after a traffic accident on State Road A1A in southern Indian River County Wednesday morning, according to dispatchers.

The crash happened about 10:15 a.m. near South Porpoise Point Lane.

The Florida Highway Patrol said S.R. A1A was clear as of 11:45 a.m.

One person was flown by helicopter to a hospital for traumatic injuries. No information was available about the cause of the crash.

This story will be updated.
Tropical Storm Colin at 6 a.m. June 7, 2016.

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By Tyler Treadway of TCPalm

What happens to Lake Okeechobee Wednesday will determine what happens to the St. Lucie River this summer.

The rainwater Tropical Storm Colin dumped on the upper Kissimmee River is expected to reach the lake Wednesday, and if the lake rises 6 inches or more, it could mean an increase in discharges to the St. Lucie.

"Right now we're waiting to see what impact Colin has," said John Campbell, spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers, which determines when and how much water to send from the lake to the river. "We're on schedule to announce on Thursday the plan we'll execute beginning Friday."

The Corps has been discharging lake water to the river at a rate of more than 1 billion gallons a day since May 27.

If the lake jumps 6 inches Wednesday, Campbell said, the Corps could consider increasing discharges as high as 1.8 billion gallons a day. That's enough to cover the entire city of Stuart with slightly more than a foot of water.

More than 120 billion gallons has been dumped into the river since discharges began Jan. 30.

The discharge total is getting close to the 136.1 billion gallons of lake water sent to the river during the "Lost Summer of 2013".

According to the National Weather Service, heavy rainfall from Colin tracked as far south as northern Orlando, which put it just outside the watershed that drains into Lake Okeechobee.

"It looks like the area south of Orlando kinda got spared," said Jerry Combs, a meteorologist at the weather service office in Melbourne.

For instance: The Orlando Sanford International Airport north of Orlando got 2.69 inches of rain from Colin; a gauge on the Kissimmee River south of Orlando recorded 0.3 inches of rain.

"I can't predict at this point what that amount of rain is going to do to the lake," Campbell said when told the rainfall totals, "but it's a lot better than if the numbers were reversed, and more than 2 inches fell south of Orlando."

The corps had hoped to get the lake level to 12 feet 6 inches by June 1 so it could take on water from the South Florida rainy season without risking a breach of the Herbert Hoover Dike around the lake.

That goal seemed within reach when the lake level dropped to 13 feet 7 inches in mid-May. But heavy rains in late May have driven the lake back to more than 14 feet 4 inches Tuesday morning  without runoff from Colin.

The weather service forecast more rain along the Treasure Coast and north of the lake over the next few days, Combs said.

"It's got nothing to do with Colin, and it's different than the afternoon storms that usually come in the summer," he said. "There's just a lot of tropical moisture in place right now that could lead to some significant rain."
By Michael Kaiser, Special to Treasure Coast Newspapers

Nurse Carrie Swink Bryant has dropped out of the race for Seat 1 on the Indian River County Hospital District.

Bryant's withdrawal leaves the race open to orthopedic surgeon Omar Hussamy.

This was Bryant's second failed attempt to join the board. Bryant, who works for Medical Specialty Procedures, last year applied to be appointed by Gov. Rick Scott to fill the seat created by the sudden resignation of trustee Jim Seaton. That appointment instead went to Ann Marie McCrystal, a member of the Visiting Nurse Association and Hospice Foundation boards.

The Indian River County Hospital District is a special taxing district that supports health care in the county, funding indigent care and coordinating services. It owns Indian River Memorial Hospital in Vero Beach, leasing it to Indian River Medical Center Inc. for operation.

Trustees are volunteers who serve four-year terms.

The election is Nov. 8.
Port St. Lucie City Hall. (FILE PHOTO)

By Nicole Rodriguez of TCPalm

PORT ST. LUCIE  The field of candidates for city attorney now is down to five. The City Council on Wednesday made the final cut to a list of applicants that had begun at 56.

Each of the five finalists will be publicly interviewed and will attend a social mixer to mingle with city residents. No dates are set, but officials have said interviews could take place within the next 30 days and the city's next top attorney would be hired in late July.

The city attorney job has been vacant since February, when City Council fired Pam Booker for poor performance.

The council whittled down a list of six semifinalists to five finalists Wednesday morning. A seventh withdrew his candidacy Tuesday for a job in Daytona Beach, city documents show.

Experience in government and each individual's education weighed heavily on Councilwoman Michelle Berger's decision.

"Some have great degrees from Ivy League locations and some just have great experience dealing with appointed officials, the private sector and elected officials," Berger said Tuesday. "All of that is important because they're serving not only the elected officials, but the public, and it's quite a balancing act."

All five finalists live in Florida and have government experience, according to their applications and background checks, gathered by search firm Colin Baenziger & Associates.

In addition, they all have held jobs as city or county attorneys for Sarasota and Polk counties and the city of Sweetwater. One previously worked as a town attorney in West Virginia, documents show.

Finalist Gary Oldehoff is the former Martin County attorney, who served from 1997-2000 before becoming Sarasota County assistant county attorney from 2002-2007. Oldehoff first was employed by Martin County in 1989, according to his application.

The finalists

Ramon Irizarri, former Sweetwater city attorney; now in private practice

Gary K. Oldehoff, former Martin County attorney; now in private practice

Reginald O. Osenton, former town attorney, Man, West Virginia

Philip N. Sherwin, former attorney for Polk County

James D. Stokes, current Greenacres city attorney

Source: city of Port St. Lucie

THE FINALISTS

Read candidates' resumes

Ramon Irizarri, former Sweetwater city attorney; now in private practice

Gary K. Oldehoff, former Martin County attorney; now in private practice

Reginald O. Osenton, former town attorney, Man, West Virginia

Philip N. Sherwin, former attorney for Polk County

James D. Stokes, current Greenacres city attorney

Source: city of Port St. Lucie
Indian River County School Board meetings are conducted in the multipurpose Teacher Education Center at the new J.A. Thompson Administrative Center. (XAVIER MASCARENAS/TREASURE COAST NEWSPAPERS)

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By Colleen Wixon and Andrew Atterbury of TCPalm

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY  Voters will be asked in August to continue paying extra taxes for education. Some property owners likely would see a small tax increase next year.

The ballot issue will seek approval of an operating tax of 50 cents per $1,000 assessed property value that would run for four years. It would replace a slightly larger tax  60 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value  that was approved in 2012 and expires at the end of the 2017 budget year.

The new tax could bring in about $1 million more annually for the county School District than it gets from the existing add-on tax, schools Superintendent Mark Rendell told the County Commission on Tuesday. The current .6-mill tax rate brings in about $8 million a year, school officials said. The new .5-mill tax add-on would yield about $9 million.

With county property values on the rise, the district could reduce the millage and still yield about the same amount of funding, Rendell said.

"We thought it would be fair to the taxpayer to say, 'Hey, we don't need to ask you for .6 just because we were getting .6. We need to ask to maintain the funding for projects,' " Rendell said.

Money from the new tax would be used to retain teachers, purchase and upgrade technology and infrastructure, and fund career and technical programs, according to the School District.

The tax is meant to offset funding shortfalls, notably $1.4 million lost during the 2016-17 legislative session because of policy changes in the Florida Education Finance Program, according to the district.

The district is seeking the lower rate based on preliminary estimates of a 4.9 percent increase in the county's taxable property value, Rendell said. For properties that increase in value, the tax  even though a smaller millage  still could cost more. It would begin in 2017.

As the commission on Tuesday approved putting the referendum on the ballot, Chairman Bob Solari questioned whether the School District has enough time to educate voters, particularly over the summer.

"This is really problematic of having an Aug. 30 primary for something so serious," Solari said.

By comparison, he said, the county started more than six months ago publicizing its own tax referendum, which doesn't go to the voters until Nov. 8. It vote would keep the existing 1 percent sales tax. That 15-year sales tax was first approved in 1989 and renewed for 15 years. It expires Dec. 31, 2019.

For their part, commissioners chose the November ballot rather than August, anticipating a greater turnout for the presidential election than in 2018.

Rendell said the district would notify voters through the media, direct mail and other communication methods for the education tax.

"We wanted to get the news  the good news and the bad news  as quickly as possible," Rendell said. "If the news was not favorable in August, that would give us the most amount of time to start planning for any budgetary impact for that 2017-18 school year."

SCHOOL TAX REFERENDUM

Aug. 30: Voters decide whether to replace the expiring add-on property tax with a new, smaller four-year tax.

Proposed operating tax rate: Fifty cents per $1,000 of assessed taxable property. The existing rate is 60 cents per $1,000 of assessed taxable property.

$9 million: Amount the tax could generate annually for the Indian River County School District. The current tax generates $8 million annually.

Source: Indian River County School District
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, of Ky., (center) joined by (from left) Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas, responds to reporters' questions on controversial statements by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Tuesday during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington following a closed-door policy meeting. (AP Photo/Paul Holston)

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By Paul Janensch

I got to know Mitch McConnell, the majority leader of the U.S. Senate, when we were young professionals in Louisville, Kentucky  he in politics and I in journalism.

For 16 years or so, we talked from time to time.

McConnell was a moderate Republican and a strong supporter of the civil-rights movement. (Surprised?)

He also learned how the news media operate and proved himself to be a savvy campaign strategist.

McConnell's memoir, "The Long Game," recently came out. His negative assessments of President Obama, Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid and former Sen. Jim DeMint, a conservative Republican from South Carolina, are making news.

Also getting attention is his bout with polio as a young boy. It taught him patience and fortitude, he writes.

Addison Mitchell McConnell Jr., 74, was born in Alabama. His family arrived in Louisville when he was a teenager.

In 1964, McConnell began interning for Kentucky Sen. John Sherman Cooper, a moderate Republican and a backer of civil-rights legislation.

McConnell and I started crossing paths in 1968 when he was Kentucky youth chairman for Marlow Cook, another moderate Republican running for the Senate, and I was with The Courier-Journal, the major newspaper in Louisville and Kentucky.

McConnell was cordial, not chummy. Always in a suit and tie. Deep voice. Made it clear he agreed with Cooper and Cook on civil rights.

After Cook was elected, McConnell moved to Washington to work for the new senator. I bumped into him on his trips back to Louisville.

Sometimes he had something about Cook he thought would interest me. Sometimes I had questions for him.

In 1977, McConnell made his first run for office and was elected Jefferson County judge-executive, the chief administrator of Louisville's home county.

Evidently, when McConnell was in Washington, he learned about "the Friday dump."

When you had to release unfavorable news, you did it late on a Friday because the public paid little attention to the news on Saturday and by Monday it would not be worth much space in newspapers or time on television.

(Today, with the uninterrupted flood of information from cable news channels, the internet and social media, I don't know if the Friday dump still works.)

Late one Friday afternoon in 1980, when I was managing editor of The Courier-Journal, McConnell called the newsroom and invited our political reporter to come to the county courthouse for an "exclusive."

McConnell told him he and his wife Sherrill were getting an amicable divorce. They had been married 12 years and had three daughters.

Our "exclusive" was published Saturday morning. It barely caused a ripple. The following year McConnell was re-elected county judge-executive.

(In 1993, McConnell married Elaine Chao, who later served as Secretary of Labor under George W. Bush.)

In 1984, when I was executive editor, McConnell ran against Kentucky Sen. Walter Dee Huddleston, the two-term Democratic incumbent.

Few, including me, gave McConnell a chance. But with the assistance of Republican campaign consultant Roger Ailes (later boss of the Fox News Channel), he came up with a powerful series of TV spots called "Where's Dee?"

Bloodhounds are shown trying to find Huddleston, a reference to his poor attendance record in the Senate.

McConnell won by only 5,200 votes out of 1.8 million cast. He has been re-elected five times.

The Mitch McConnell I knew was not gregarious like your typical politician. But he was smart. And less conservative than he seems today.

Paul Janensch, a seasonal resident of Vero Beach, was a newspaper editor and taught journalism at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut. His weekly Treasure Coast Essay can be heard on WQCS, 88.9 FM, and wqcs.org. Email: paul.janensch@quinnipiac.edu.
Gov. Rick Scott (right) shakes hands with first responders at the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office on Tuesday in Tampa. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

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By Paula Dockery

Under our system of government, we value the concept of three separate but equal branches of government  legislative, judicial and executive  and the principle that all political power is inherent in the people.

The executive and legislative branches should not hold great sway over the judicial branch, but sometimes try. The courts can rule on the constitutionality of a legislative or executive action, but only if legally challenged.

That's what just happened at the Florida Supreme Court over whether Gov. Rick Scott has the authority to appoint replacements for judges who submitted resignation letters or whether voters get to decide in the August election.

While I prefer voters to elect their judges, our constitution and laws lend themselves to some political gamesmanship. While it's possible the appointment process offers a more thorough review of judicial candidates, it could also lead to partisanship, ideological selection and influence over the courts.

Article V, Section 11 of the Florida Constitution speaks to the process used to fill a judicial vacancy. The intent was to fill vacant seats by appointment only if it couldn't be done timely by election. That has morphed into Scott's aggressive efforts to appoint rather than elect replacements for retiring judges.

Additionally, Florida has a "resign to run" law found in Florida Statute 99.012. To qualify to run for another office, an elected or appointed official must resign from the current office first. The written resignation must be submitted at least 10 days prior to the first day of qualifying and is irrevocable. The resignation must coincide with the date the officer would take office, or the date the officer's successor is required to take office.

Palm Beach County Judge Laura Johnson decided to run for a seat on the Circuit Court and sent her irrevocable, written resignation letter on April 18  prior to the qualifying period for candidates. It was to take effect Jan. 3, the day her successor would take office.

Defense attorney Gregg Lerman was one of several candidates running for Johnson's seat. He filed the required paperwork. Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner instructed Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher not to accept candidate paperwork because Scott was going to fill the seat by appointment. Bucher believed the seat should be filled by election and accepted the paperwork.

Scott and Detzner did not back off. Lerman petitioned the court, challenging Scott's legal authority to stop an election and appoint Johnson's replacement. In a unanimous decision, the court sided with Lerman by ruling that voters would elect Johnson's replacement.

In this case, there was no vacancy  Johnson's resignation was in compliance with the state's "resign to run" law and her departure date was the same day her successor would have started.

Three retiring circuit court judges in the 7th, 10th and 12th judicial circuits submitted resignation letters with effective dates prior to when elected successors would have taken office. By strategically leaving the bench before the Jan. 3 swearing-in date  even by a matter of days  the judges deliberately created vacancies and thwarted elections for their seats. Scott was determined to appoint their replacements.

Potential candidates for the seats filed petitions to the Florida Supreme Court to stop Scott. Because a vacancy would occur, the court had no choice but to rule in Scott's favor.

Even though it was a unanimous decision, four of the justices acknowledged the outgoing judges manipulated the system. By resigning days before their terms ended, they denied candidates the opportunity to run and the voters the right to choose.

Was it a coordinated effort? Did the judges come up with this or were they asked to do so?

Perhaps we should change what constitutes a true judicial vacancy through a constitutional amendment to stop this chicanery and restore political power to the people.

Paula Dockery is a syndicated columnist who served in the Florida Legislature for 16 years as a Republican from Lakeland. She can be reached at PBDockery@gmail.com.
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By Scott Maxwell

You wouldn't want to drink too much benzene or swim in too much tetrachloroethylene.

Benzene, after all, can lead to leukemia.

And tetrachloroethylene has been linked to bladder cancer.

For those reasons, the state of Florida has long limited the amount of carcinogenic chemicals allowed in state waters.

Those limits, however, may soon change.

Gov. Rick Scott's environmental division has proposed increasing the levels of some carcinogens allowed in state waters as part of an "update."

The amount of benzene allowed in the state's pre-treated supply of drinking waters would more than double.

The amount of tetrachloroethylene (PCE) allowed in recreational waters would go up by about 650 percent.

Now, I generally prefer my shellfish without a side order of chronic myeloid leukemia.

State officials, however, say we have nothing to fear. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection says the updated levels will "ensure Floridians can continue to safely eat Florida's seafood and recreate in our waters."

Linda Young, however, doesn't buy that. The director of the Florida Clean Water Network says the new standards are about one thing  allowing polluters, including frackers, to put more carcinogens in our water.

"There is no valid reason to increase the amount of cancer-causing chemicals that can be dumped into our drinking water supplies or our fishing and swimming waters," Young said. "Come on, does any citizen actually want more carcinogens?"

Now, not all of the new levels would allow more chemicals. Some would allow less. The state would also start regulating some chemicals, including some oil and gas byproducts, that it currently doesn't.

So we may allow less colon-cancer causing toxins associated with coal but more pesticides that can lead to liver failure.

And we have the state, which has had a shoddy environmental record, saying things are A-OK, and environmentalists saying this is dangerous.

I went searching for expert advice and concluded things may not be quite as dire as they sound  but that there's still reason for concern.

I tracked down a water-quality expert with the American Cancer Society, who said he wasn't inherently troubled by Florida's update plans. "The science is constantly updating as well," said Kenneth Portier, who directs the Society's Statistics & Evaluation Center. And Florida hasn't updated its levels since the 1990s.

Portier, however, said the devil is in the parts-per-billion details. In studying Florida's proposed levels, Portier observed that most fell into the EPA's range of acceptable levels. Not all though. A few were slightly higher than what the EPA says is safe.

Portier said the higher levels gave him pause, but stressed what's really key is the standards that are ultimately adopted.

And that's where you have reason to be more concerned.

The standards will be voted upon by the state's Environmental Regulation Commission, which sounds OK  until you realize this commission hasn't actually done much to regulate the environment.

It hasn't even met in about two years.

And if it was to meet right now, it wouldn't have the designated representative of the "environmental community" on its board.

While the board is supposed to have one of its seven spots reserved for an environmentalist, it is unfilled. The representatives from "development" and "agriculture" are there. But no environmentalist.

You can decide how comfortable you feel with that.

I was also a bit troubled by some of the state's descriptions of its proposals. "Disingenuous" is the word that came to mind when I read a Q-and-A about the proposed standards.

"Are these new proposed standards less protective than previous standards?" the FAQ sheet asked. "Absolutely not."

That's just not true  at least in some cases. Allowing more carcinogens into water supplies is inherently less protective. You can argue it's still safe. But if you're proposing allowing more carcinogens, it is, by definition, less protective.

smaxwell@orlandosentinel.com
SHARE Photos by Mary Ann Koenig Lilly Nguyen at her shop just behind Too Jays in the Treasure Coast Plaza shopping center. Lilly's Nails at Treasure Coast Plaza on Miracle Mile.

By Mary Ann Koenig, The Newsweekly

On a moonless night, Lilly Nguyen and her brother Steve were huddled low inside a six-foot skiff.

Both children had gone out fishing regularly with their father and they knew the drill. If the authorities stopped them on their way past the inlet, they were simply to smile, lift the fishing net and show their catch.

But this night was different. It was the night that their father, Phan Tuong, would smuggle his family out of communist North Vietnam.

Lilly Nguyen has had her nail salon business, Lilly's Nails, in Vero Beach since 2003. She has a large, loyal clientele, but most of them don't know the story of her perilous journey to get here.

The odyssey that brought the family to America in 1987 took more than a year, spanned nearly 10,000 miles, and ranged through Thailand and the Phillipines to Virginia, Louisiana, Southern California and ultimately to Indian River County.

Planning

Lilly's father had been planning the escape for years. During the Vietnam War, he built a strong anti-communist network while serving in the South Vietnamese Army.

When the war ended, and Saigon fell, he was on the wrong side of the victors. Imprisoned for four years in a re-education camp, his escape plan began even before his release.

That dark night when the three family members made their regular fishing expedition, they knew the authorities were always stationed at the exit to the harbor, asking for identification papers.

"My father and brother and I were really good actors," Nguyen says.

Her father handed over the papers as he routinely did, and the officials let them pass.

Lilly's father had several gallons of motor oil and boxes of dried noodles stashed aboard.

"Everything was routine," Nguyen says.

Preparation

The authorities didn't know that the family's regular fishing trips outside the channel had always taken them to a larger boat anchored off shore. They put supplies aboard for weeks to feed themselves and the other families planning to join their escape on that vessel.

The same night, her mother Phan Thi Lanh and three other children went to a nearby cemetery, ostensibly to visit a relative's grave. But they just kept walking, across the grounds and through the swampy borders, into the water where others plotting this escape picked them up.

It had already been arranged that another family would bring the youngest children, Elizabeth and Michael, to the boat.

The family of 10 was joined by another 12 people, and the 22 passengers set sail on an 18-foot salvation boat. The treacherous voyage  down the Vietnam coast in the South China Sea  would lead them to Thailand and, hopefully, to America.

Danger on the way

Storms battered the vessel and leaks began to appear  slowly at first but eventually the craft began taking on serious water.

Nguyen, suffering from an eye infection, was bailing continuously, even though she could barely see what she was doing.

"My mother was crying," she remembers.

Pirates on those seas commonly kidnapped young girls, and several passengers positioned themselves on top of Nguyen's oldest sister in the bottom of the boat to keep her hidden.

On the third day, with food and water running low, their boat began to come apart. Then they saw an oil rig, and steered toward it. When they got close, the rig workers threw the families a lifeline.

Just as the last person was off-loaded, their escape craft crumbled  disintegrating and sinking beneath the water.

Unsettled

Two days later, they were picked up by a refugee boat and taken to Thailand. The family was shuffled from one camp to another, over the next several months.

Then on to the Philippines, the last stop in those days for Vietnamese citizens seeking asylum in the U.S. Nguyen and her family spent seven months in a camp outside Manila.

Nguyen remembers the camp officials helping her family learn English. They also tried to prepare them for what life in America would be like, using re-runs of "The Cosby Show." Every afternoon they gathered around a TV set and studied life with the Huxtable Family.

Nguyen was just 14 when her father took his family on that life-changing journey. She turned 15 in Alexandria, Va., where a Catholic church sponsored the family.

New home

Later, when visiting her sister Elizabeth who had her own nail salon in Indian River County, Nguyen decided to bring the entire family to the Vero area.

Lee Moore has been a loyal customer at Lilly's Nails for more than a decade.

"It's a family business  Lilly knows everyone by first name. It's one of the reasons she's so successful," Moore says.

And Rose Marie Fink, who has been going to Lilly's Nails for several years, says the reason she returns is, "It's so neat and clean there, and they make you feel special."

Nguyen's three daughters all went to area schools, including Vero Beach High and St. Edwards. Her husband Dan and daughter Lisa also work at the shop.

It's a business and a family that have flourished after a riskier journey than most can imagine  in search of the American dream.
Photos by Stephanie LaBaff US Army veteran Jason Cranman (right) with Sheila Orio, Doug Forrest, Spencer Cady, Aaron Holmbraker and Spencer Cady.

SHARE Participants listen for instructions before beginning their next workout. Shaun Dibble warms up on the rings. The first WOD was a rousing game of dodgeball. The twist on this playground favorite required anyone pegged with the ball to perform calisthenics, which were determined by the color of the ball they were hit with. Participants ended the event at the Memorial Island Sanctuary as the sun rose. Tired, but proud to be a part of honoring those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country.

By Stephanie Labaff, The Newsweekly

There's usually not much going on in sleepy Vero Beach at "zero dark thirty."

In the military's 24-hour clock, zero is midnight and 30 is the number of minutes after the zero hour. But the saying has become slang for any time between midnight and dawn  thus, "dark"  when soldiers are called upon to perform their duties.

Orchid Island CrossFit and Brisance Content Capture hosted Zero Dark Thirty  Tribute WOD (Workout of the Day) to benefit the Veterans Council of Indian River County.

The focus of this all-night fitness fest that extended into morning was to honor fallen heroes while raising funds for their comrades who did make it home.

Jimmy Moran, co-owner of Orchid Island CrossFit, and Bruce Cady, owner of Brisance Content Capture, were riding high after the success of the Hump for Our Vet's event they hosted in February.

The pair came up with the idea for Zero Dark Thirty over dinner while recapping the Hump.

"We wanted to create an event where people could actively demonstrate their patriotism and learn more about the veterans and their families in our community," said Cady.

100 percent

The event was structured to ensure that every dollar raised would go directly to the Veteran's Council of Indian River County. All expenses were funded by Moran, his partner Brian Secrest and Cady. More than $7,200 has been presented to the Veterans Council, so far.

"It's amazing to see an entirely new, younger demographic come together to remember our Indian River County service members who paid the ultimate sacrifice," said Veterans Council of Indian River County Program Manager Doy Demsick. "Not only did the participants and Orchid Island CrossFit coordinators honor veterans throughout the event, but also showed great dedication in staying all night, working hard and raising as many funds as possible."

Teams got started well ahead of the actual event. They were able to earn points in advance by posting pictures of family members who have served in the military; interviewing members of the Veterans Council; visiting Veterans Memorial Island Sanctuary; sending care packages to deployed troops; and getting veterans jobs.

The pre-event activities had a two-fold purpose: teams got amped up for the competition and submissions to the Facebook page allowed people to learn more about those who died in the line of duty.

And three veterans now have jobs as a result of the teams' efforts.

Day of honor

The timing wasn't an accident either: the event added deeper meaning to Memorial Day for participants, their families and friends. Family members were recognized from as far back as the Revolutionary War

Teams completed 12 workouts between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m.  each held in honor of a specific veteran who lost their life in service to the U.S. At the start of every WOD, a veteran was introduced and information regarding their service was announced.

 Lt. Mark Jackson, US Army, Vietnam War, Oct. 28, 1969

 Spc. Dale Kridlo, US Army, OEF  Afghanistan, Nov 7, 2010

 Seaman Felix Poppell, USCG, WWI  Atlantic, Sep 26, 1918

 Cpt. Troy Moody, Jr., US Army, Korean War, Aug 11, 1950

 John Mixon, US Navy, WWII  Caribbean Sea, May 27, 1942

 Pvt. John Morris, US Army, WWI, Dec 12, 1918

 Cpt. Albert Helseth, US Army, WWII, Aug 19, 1945

 Pvt. Robert Hurst, US Army, WWII  Philippines (POW), Jul 27, 1942

 Gordon Henry, USAF, WWII  Europe, Jan 6, 1945

 Ronald Owens, USN, GWOT  Yemen, Oct 12, 2000

 David Brooks, USMC, Vietnam War, Jul 28, 1968

 Charles Futch, USAF, WWII  Europe, May 29, 1943

American Gold Star Mother Michelle Dale shared her son's story. U.S. Army Cpl. Dale Kridlo was killed when his platoon was ambushed on Nov. 7, 2010, in Kunar, Afghanistan.

"Dale would love this and he would be so proud that you are doing this to help veterans," she told the crowd.

After each soldier was recognized, a team would complete a WOD, which ranged from dodgeball to pull-ups, pushups, air squats, planking and even charades.

Competition

Teams earned points based on where they placed in the workout scoring and for every $50 in donations they raised. They were also judged on team costumes and the food they brought to share. They received extra points for having an American flag on a pole, bringing an active-duty service member to the event and even for wearing a weighted vest during all WODs.

"As a participant, this was easily the most fun and creative fundraising event I have ever participated in," said Demsick. "They had challenging workouts and engaging activities. It reminded me of training in the Marine Corps  just the right mix of exhaustion, camaraderie, hilarity and some very sobering moments. Jimmy Moran and Brian Secrest with Orchid Island CrossFit, and Bruce and Leah Cady have outdone themselves again."

Teams were organized by businesses, veterans, crossfit enthusiasts and anyone else who wanted to get some exercise while honoring our veterans. Thirteen teams participated and 12 made it to the end.

They had fun with their names, too. Team DONUT Mess with U.S. won the event: Kiran and Zafar Sharar, Reed Willmott, Mahjabeen Alikhan and Eileen Kolodziejczyk.

Appreciation

After the WODs, teams made their way to the Veterans Memorial Island Sanctuary. As the American flag waved against the backdrop of the rising sun, participants reflected on the sacrifices made by others in order for them to enjoy the freedoms of today  and, in some cases, went home a little more aware than when they started out the night before.

"Both Jimmy and I are humbled by the genuine passion that the participants showed during Zero Dark Thirty. Each person worked together with their team to demonstrate their appreciation for the United States and the service members who protect our freedom," said Cady.

"I hope Vero Beach and Indian River County understand that our younger residents can stand up and be counted. The participants of Zero Dark Thirty rolled up their sleeves and got to work. This was not a boring fundraiser  it was a bruising workout that lasted 12 hours."

In what seems to be SOP (standard operating procedure) for Cady and Moran, Zero Dark Thirty participants barely had time for their heads to hit the pillow before the pair started planning the next event.

They want to put together a hybrid of Hump for our Vets and Zero Dark Thirty, with more activities in the community. The visual impact of 85 people marching behind the American flag combined with the all-night workout will bring the event to a whole new level.

More information will be available soon at OrchidIslandCrossFit.com. To learn more about the Veterans Council of Indian River County, visit VeteransCouncilIRC.org.
Chinese Admiral Sun Jianguo speaks before delegates at the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on June 5. (Photo : Reuters)

China has restated its sovereignty over the disputed islands in the South China Sea said it "has no fear of trouble" as it repulsed pressure from the U.S. to halt activities in the area, Reuters reported.



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Chinese Admiral Sun Jianguo made the pronouncement on Sunday, June 5, during the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, where he said that China will not be intimidated even with the pending ruling of the international court over its claims in the vital sea trade route.



"We do not make trouble, but we have no fear of trouble," Sun said during the three-day dialogue attended by more than 600 security, military and government delegates from different countries.



"China will not bear the consequences, nor will it allow any infringement on its sovereignty and security interest, or stay indifferent to some countries creating chaos in the South China Sea," the admiral added.



The United States, through President Barack Obama's "pivot" strategy, has increased its presence in the Asia Pacific region, while China flexed greater economic, political and military force in the region.



The two countries have blamed each other of militarizing the region as China reclaimed land and put up structures on disputed areas, while the U.S. frequently patrolled the area.



Defense Secretary Ash Carter and top U.S. officials have warned China on Saturday, June 4, that it may be at risk of being isolated internationally as they vowed to ensure the security in the region.



Sun, however, dismissed the U.S. view, including concerns from countries such as India, Japan, Vietnam and South Korea, as he said that many of the Asian countries at the dialogue were "warmer" and "friendlier" to China now that they were about a year ago. Compared with 13 in 2015, China has entered into 17 bilateral meetings this year.



"We were not isolated in the past, we are not isolated now and we will not be isolated in the future," Sun said. "Actually I am worried that some people and countries are still looking at China with the Cold War mentality and prejudice. They may build a wall in their minds and end up isolating themselves."



U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has called on China on Sunday not to implement an air defense identification zone (ADIZ) over the South China Sea, like what it did in East China Sea in 2013.



The establishment of a ADIZ would be "a provocative and destabilizing act," which would cast doubt on China's ability to resolve the dispute diplomatically, Kerry said.



The South China Sea issue was the major point of discussion in the talks, as well as Chinese trade policy and the difficulty that foreign businesses face in conducting business in China.



Sun added that China does not recognize the authority of the international tribunal in The Hague as well its upcoming decision.



As China has opened its door to incoming Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, Sun said Beijing wants to resolve the conflict with the Philippines through bilateral talks.



According to Duterte, the Philippines will pursue its rights over the disputed Scarborough Shoal, which China claimed in 2012.



Other countries such as Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam have claims over the disputed waters, but China asserts its rights over the entire sea.



"China has the patience and wisdom to settle any disputes through dialogue. We also believe the related countries have the wisdom and patience to make peace," Sun said. "I've always believed that shaking hands is better than clenching fists."



If not resolved, the tensions could result in an arms race with "disastrous and unpredictable consequences," Vietnam's Deputy Defense Minister Nguyen Chi Vinh said. The United States arms embargo over Vietnam was lifted last month.



During the summit, several countries stressed that the freedom of navigation and overflight in the waters is important as trade worth trillions of dollars passed through the disputed waters every year.



Sun, however, dismissed these concerns.



"If there is any restriction . . . it will definitely not be China's fault. If you don't believe it, just wait and see," he said.


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Asus recently unveiled a family robot that can serve as a home healthcare assistant, control connected devices in the smart home, monitor security, perform various online tasks, and function as a playmate, among other things.

Asus Zenbo made its debut at last months Computex computer show.

At the same time, Asus launched a program that provides devs with access to the Zenbo SDK.

Zenbo will be priced at US$600, but Asus did not announce when it will be available to consumers.

This is following the trend of personal robots building on the technology and services trends that the smartphone space made popular, said Philip Solis, a research director at ABI Research.

One can think of this as a smartphone or an Amazon Echo with mobility and articulation  to aim the screen, camera sensor, infrared LED, etc., he told TechNewsWorld.

Zenbos Features

Zenbo, which bears a resemblance to popular movie robot WALL-E, is capable of moving freely and independently around a family home.

It has a camera with facial recognition that can take photos and videos, make video calls, and function as a remote-controlled camera monitor.

Zenbo can hear and respond to natural language voice commands, Asus said. It can provide voice reminders and tell stories. It can play music over its high-quality stereo system.

Zenbo can connect to and control smart home devices, assist users in shopping online, and interact with social media and other online services.

Proactive artificial intelligence lets Zenbo learn and adapt to user preferences, Asus said.

Reactions to Zenbo

Wouldnt it be easier to have an Internet-connected device with access to sophisticated cloud-based artificial intelligence with you at all times? asked Jonathan Gaw, a research manager at IDC.

Oh, hey, I already have one, he told TechNewsWorld.

Zenbo falls into the category of expensive party conversation piece, commented Bill Ablondi, a research director at Strategy Analytics.

Can it go downstairs? If not, thats a real limitation for many households. I think a stationary device with far-field voice recognition makes more sense, he told TechNewsWorld. It doesnt seem to offer anything more than Google Home or the Amazon Echo. Its hard to see what Zenbo can do that Google Home or Amazon Echo cant, other than move around the home.

The artificial intelligence in Zenbo likely is very simple and based on cloud services  just like smartphones and products like the Amazon Echo use to process voice, look up information, and to connect to and control smart home products, ABIs Solis said.

Asus partners most likely will handle voice processing. Other companies likely will partner with Asus to support, for example, Googles Nest, Amazons services, Wikipedia, connections to wearable devices, audio books with some animations, or anything really, Solis suggested.

The Family Robot Concept

Asus Zenbo appears to offer many of the same features as Jibo, which enjoyed a hugely successful Indiegogo campaign in 2014.

Tentatively priced at $600 with the SDK and $500 without, Jibo rolled out to early adopter developers this spring.

This is where the personal robot market starts. A humanoid robot is complex  a potential hazard if it fails and falls  and is prohibitively expensive, Solis remarked.

Still, personal robots like these will be a growing market, he said. Shipments globally will start out in the low hundreds of thousands per year until around 2019 or 2020.
Opera on Thursday announced a dedicated power-saving mode in the developer version of its Web browser.

Tests showed it extended laptop battery life by up to 50 percent against Google Chrome, the company said.

The browser will suggest that users enable the power-saving mode when their laptop battery has 20 percent of capacity left. Clicking on the battery icon in the browser after a laptop is disconnected from its power cable activates it.

To some degree, this is about allowing savvy browser power users to kick the tires around the new features, said Al Hilwa, a research director at IDC Seattle. Developer audiences are both demanding of their browsers and also tolerant of buggy code to a degree if positioned properly to them.

Opera released the feature through itsdeveloper channel so it could test out websites and Web apps to ensure content renders correctly in the new browser release, he told TechNewsWorld.

Testing the Limits

Opera tested the power-saving mode on two laptops  a Lenovo X250 powered by an Intel Core i7-5600U processor and a Dell XPS 13, both with 16 GB of RAM running on Windows 10 with 64-bit high-performance power mode.

It used Selenium WebDriver to load 11 popular websites, including YouTube, onto the devices.

Each page was opened in a separate tab, without previous ones being closed, and was scrolled five times, then left alone for a minute.

The test was conducted repeatedly until the laptop batteries were drained.

Apples-to-Apples Comparison?

Opera made the following tweaks to its browser before the test:

Reduced activity in background tabs;

Minimized the number of times the CPU woke up by optimizing JavaScript timers;

Automatically paused unused plug-ins;

Reduced frame rate to 30 frames per second;

Tuned video-playback parameters and forced usage of hardware-accelerated video codecs; and

Paused animations of browser themes.

It also turned on the ad blocker.

Opera didnt say whether Chrome was similarly tweaked, whether an ad blocker was turned on in Chrome, or which version of Chrome was used.

Opera tested Chrome on a laptop running 64-bit Windows 10, it said, but did not indicate whether it different from the ones its own browser was tested on.

That raises questions as to whether the comparison was fair, according to Hilwa.

This is a long-standing caveat in all such vendor comparisons, he noted. Rarely is there a level playing field unless you look at independently conducted comparisons.

Why Pick on Chrome?

Microsofts Edge browser might seem to be the appropriate target since its integrated into Windows 10, but Chrome, as a non-OS-supplied browser, like Opera, is the natural target, said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group.

Chrome is far easier to displace, likely because users are less wedded to their browser, he told TechNewsWorld. Given Chrome hasnt been successful displacing IE users with more resources, Opera likely felt they shouldnt either.

Market Impact

The power-saving feature might prove attractive to users, but, given Operas minuscule market share less than 2 percent of the global desktop browser market in April, according to Netmarketshare  its doubtful whether it will make much of an impact on the competition.

This actually got me to think about using it on my laptop, Enderle said. But I doubt if many folks know its out there, and if that doesnt change, their [market] share wont improve.

Whats in it for Opera, which in recent months built an ad blocker and a VPN into its browser?

A Chinese consortium bid US$1.2 billion for the company in February. Being seen as innovative firm might improve its valuation, but I think Operas core motivation is to have more browser customers, Enderle suggested. The rest is just gravy.
Google last week announced the Tensor Processing Unit, a custom application-specific integrated circuit, at Google I/O.

Built for machine learning applications, TPU has been running in Googles data centers for more than a year.

Googles AlphaGo software, whichthrashed an 18-time international Go champion in a match earlier this year, ran on servers using TPUs.

These server racks house the TPUs used in the AlphaGo matches with Lee Sedol.

TPU is tailored forTensorFlow, Googles software library for machine intelligence, which it turned over to theopen source community last year.

Moore Still Rules

For machine learning, TPUs provide an order-of-magnitude better-optimized performance per watt, Google said. Its comparable to fast-forwarding technology about seven years  three generations of Moores Law.

That claim is misleading, according to Kevin Krewell, a principal analyst at Tirias Research.

It only works on 8-bit math, he told TechNewsWorld. Its basically like a Z80 microprocessor in that regard. All that talk about it being three generations ahead refers to processors a year ago, so theyre comparing it to 28-nm processors.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing reportedly has been working on a 10-nanometer FinFET processor for Apple.

By stripping out most functions and using only necessary math, Google has a chip that acts as though it was a more complex processor from a couple generations ahead, Krewell said.

Moores law focuses on transistor density and tends to be tied to parts that are targeted at calculation speed, pointed out Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group. The TPU is more focused on calculation efficiency, so it likely wont push transistor density. I dont expect it to have any real impact on Moores law.

Still, the board design has a really big heat sink, so its a relatively large processor. If Im Google and Im building this custom chip, Im going to build the biggest one I can put into the power envelope, Krewell noted.

Potential Impact

Clearly, hyperscale cloud operators are gradually becoming more vertically integrated, so they move more into designing their own equipment, said John Dinsdale, chief analyst atSynergy Research Group.

That could help them strengthen their game, he told TechNewsWorld.

The processor could make Google a much stronger player with AI-based products, but could and will are very different words, and Google has been more the company of could but didnt of late, Enderle told TechNewsWorld.

The TPU will let Google scale up its query engine significantly, providing for higher-density servers that can simultaneously handle a higher volume of questions, he said. However, Googles efforts tend to be underresourced, so its unlikely to meet its potential unless that practice changes.

There Isnt Only One

The TPU isnt the first processor designed for machine learning.

Intels Xeon Phi processor product line is part of that companys Scalable System Framework, which aims at bringing machine learning and high-performance computing into the exascale era.

Intels aim is to create systems that converge HPC, big data, machine learning and visualization workloads within a common framework that can run in either the cloud or data centers, the latter ranging from smaller workgroup clusters to large supercomputers.

A Case of Overkill?

While the TPU will have a big effect and impact in data-intensive research, most business problems and tasks can be solved with simpler machine learning approaches, Francisco Martin, CEO ofBigML, pointed out. Only a few companies have the volume of data that Google manages.

Traditionally, custom chips for machine learning algorithms never turned out to be very successful, he told TechNewsWorld.

First, custom architectures require custom development, which makes adoption difficult, Martin noted. Second, by Moores law, standard chips are going to be more powerful every two years.

TPU is tailored to very specific machine learning applications based on Googles TensorFlow, he said. Like other deep learning frameworks, it requires tons of fine-tuning to be useful. That said, Amazon and Microsoft will probably need to offer something similar to compete for customers with advanced research projects.
It looks like owners of the Samsung Galaxy S6, Galaxy S7, Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy Note 5 running on Marshmallow should steer clear of passwords and fingerprint security for now, as the Android update is locking some users out of their smartphones.

Reddit user McNooberson brought the news to light in a thread on the /r/android sub, explaining the issue.

"[Other owners] all used fingerprints to unlock their screen and it stopped recognizing their fingerprints and even trying. Backup password doesn't work and Google sign in doesn't either," he says.

Based on the reports, the lock issue doesn't affect every unit, but enough users have come across it to bring attention to the problem on the interweb.

In the case of Galaxy S6, Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy Note 5 owners, all they need to do to avoid it is to hold off from updating Android. On the other hand, Galaxy S7 users aren't so lucky, as the handset runs on Marshmallow out of the box.

Fortunately, there are some workarounds and possible fixes to address the lock issue.

First off, for those who want to update their Galaxy S6, Galaxy Note 4 or Galaxy Note 5 and prevent the problem from occurring, just turn off the password and fingerprint authentication before upgrading to Marshmallow.

Next, for those who already updated or those who are on the Galaxy S7 and got locked out, just head on over to the Samsung Find My Mobile website. There, simply lock and unlock the handset. However, a Samsung account connected to the device is a requirement for this method to work.

Needless to say, anyone who can't access their Galaxy device and doesn't have a Samsung account linked to it will have to talk things through with the smartphone maker's customer support.

As for the cause itself, it's reportedly on account of a problem with encryption that messes up the passwords and fingerprints stored in the device.

It's worth mentioning that there are also reports of other Android smartphones facing similar issues. In other words, Marshmallow plus any form of login is a terrible combination for now.

Hit us up in the comments section below if you're one of the unlucky Galaxy owners who got locked out of their device.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Could the bison provide clues to the mystery of ancient American settlement?

Bones of giant steppe bison and traces of their ice-age hunters have led researchers to conclude that early humans likely colonized North America south from Alaska along the Pacific coast  not through the Rocky Mountains as previously thought. But when and how this happened remains a mystery.

Not Through The Rocky Mountains Corridor?

The first ancient people in America are thought to have reached their destination from Siberia using an ice-free corridor up along the Rocky Mountains during the late Pleistocene era. It remains uncertain when the crossing was created and how the people spread across the rest of America.

The traditional assumption is that people swept into the continent in a single wave 13,500 years ago, but there has been contradicting evidence that human societies have settled far east 14,500 years earlier and far south over 15,000 years earlier.

More recent proof shows, too, that the Rocky Mountain corridor was open until about 21,000 years ago, at the height of the last ice age when east and west ice sheets coalesced and completely separated populations.

Now, using radiocarbon dating and DNA analysis, researchers from University of California Santa Cruz followed ancient hunters and tracked bison movements. Studying 78 bison fossils, they found two distinct populations to the north and south, as well as traced when the animals migrated and interbred.

They discovered southern bison started moving in first with the opening of the southern part of the corridor, followed by the northern bison. The two started to mingle in the open pass approximately 13,000 years ago.

What this means: the mountains likely cleared of ice over a thousand years post-human colonization in the south  a suggestion that early humans first inhabited the Americas along the Pacific coast.

"When the corridor opened, people were already living south of there, said study author and ecology and evolutionary biology professor Beth Shapiro. And because those people were bison hunters, we can assume they would have followed the bison as they moved north into the corridor.

First author and postdoc researcher Peter Heintzman said that given these results, one would be pressed to think otherwise.

Fourteen to 15,000 years ago, theres still a hell of a lot of ice around everywhere, he told the Guardian. And if that wasnt opened up youd have to go around the ice, and going the coastal route is the simplest explanation.

The Rocky Mountains corridor, however, remains important for its role in later migrations and idea exchange between people north and south, Heintzman added.

The Late Great Steppe Bison

Heintzman pointed to tidal erosion for little archeological evidence along the Pacific coast to vouch for its use among ancient people in migrating south. In the north, on the other hand, site dating is improving, but there are only a handful found in the land bridge along the Bering Strait.

Here enters fossils of bison, which are deemed the most numerous mammals of their kind in western North America. These animals, unlike most other large mammals like sloths and dire wolves, also survived mass extinction events.

The over-6-foot tall steppe bison of this period were much more massive than their living counterparts, according to author Duane Froese from the University of Alberta in Canada. Modern bison descended from these giants, Heintzman said, although they reside south of the range of their ancestors.

Many of the fossil samples came from the Royal Alberta Museum and other institutions collections. They were revealed through mining operations and later made available for scientific research.

The findings were published on June 6 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
In its latest Un-carrier move, T-Mobile announced that it will be giving its customers different gifts as a sign of appreciation.

Arguably the best one in the list of gifts is the free T-Mobile stock that customers can acquire through the new Stock Up rewards plan. However, for others, the more exciting part is the T-Mobile Tuesdays promotion, which will allow subscribers to receive free pizza, ice cream and movie rentals.

Every Tuesday, T-Mobile subscribers are entitled to a free carry-out medium-sized two-topping Domino's pizza, a free Wendy's Frosty and a free VUDU standard-definition movie rental.

"That's right. We just did that. Until further notice, we're treating our customers to dinner and a movie - all to say 'Thank you'!" T-Mobile CEO John Legere said.

To avail of the free food and movie, T-Mobile subscribers should first download the T-Mobile Tuesdays app, which is now available on the App Store for iOS devices and on the Google Play Store for Android devices. The app will reveal the redemption codes for the free items, along with a separate free gift that changes every week. For the first week of the app, T-Mobile is giving away a free ticket to watch Warcraft in theaters.

In addition to the gifts, T-Mobile subscribers are also eligible to win a prize every week, with the first prize to be given out being a trip in a party bus for the winner and 40 friends to a private showing of Warcraft, with as much popcorn, candy and soda as they want.

Examples of future prizes through the T-Mobile Tuesdays app include a trip to Vegas for two and a stay in Mandalay Bay, a trip to MLB's All-Star week for two, an expedition to Peru's Machu Picchu for two and a trip to New York City with a shopping spree worth $10,000.

All T-Mobile customers, regardless of having a prepaid, postpaid or business account, are eligible for the gifts and prizes.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
A newly developed blood test in the United Kingdom offers a better way to screen patients of depression so that doctors can prescribe the appropriate treatment plan for them.

People suffering from depression often have to go through a process of trial and error in order for their care providers to determine the suitable medication. However, this means that more than half of the antidepressant treatments given to patients don't even work.

Prof. Carmine Pariante and his colleagues at King's College London (KCL) believe that testing the blood of patients can help doctors figure out the right type of treatment that can properly address their condition.

For example, people who test positive for inflammation might need to undergo a more aggressive form of treatment from the outset.

Pariante and his team have already tried their new blood test on 140 patients diagnosed with depression, but they still need to carry out a larger trial so that they can gauge if they'll be able to use the diagnostic in real world settings.

Inflammation Markers

The new blood test focuses on two inflammation markers, which could be used to determine the degree of depression in patients. These two markers are the compounds interleukin-1beta and macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF).

According to the researchers' findings, patients who have high levels of these two compounds won't be able to respond well to commonly prescribed antidepressant treatments such as tricyclic and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs).

Pariante said identifying the levels of interleukin-1beta and MIF in the blood would allow doctors to tailor a more effective treatment depending on the needs of the patient.

He added that about one-third of depression patients are likely to show these inflammatory markers in their blood, making them primary candidates for more aggressive antidepressant treatment.

However, while antidepressants have been proven safe to use, they still produce adverse effects in certain individuals.

"We would not want to go in prescribing too much medicine if it's not necessary, but we would want to escalate people sooner rather than later if they need it," Pariante said.

He added that having inflammations could be the body's way of responding to various stress. However, these conditions tend to prevent drug treatments, such as antidepressants, from doing their job.

The researchers are now planning to conduct tests to find out if giving patients anti-inflammatory medications along with their antidepressant treatments would work better.

The findings of the KCL study were published in the International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology on May 11.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Jaguar Land Rover is owned by India's Tata Motors. (Photo : Getty Images)

Jaguar Land Rover (JRL), owned by India-based Tata Motors, is suing Chinese automaker Jiangling Motor Co. for allegedly copying its design, the Global Times reported.



According to experts, the move by JLR prompts all local firms to respect intellectual property rights.



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JLR claims that the Chinese company's Landwind X7 sport utility vehicle pirated the design of its Range Rover Evoque, said Reuters, whose report came from a person with direct knowledge of the issue.



"The local court in China is serving Jiangling with actions surrounding copyright and unfair competition," JLR confirmed.



Nonetheless, the automaker opted to not give details about the legal proceedings.



The Range Rover Evoque went on sale in March last year, while Jiangling's Landwind X7 SUV was unveiled five months later.



Meanwhile, lawyer Chang Yachun, an IPR issue specialist, stressed that "without detailed information, it's hard to judge whether Jiangling copied the design of the Evoque."



"JLR has to prove the design of the Evoque is unique if it wants to sue Jiangling for piracy," the lawyer associated with Beijing Kangda Law Firm added.



Chang also noted that it is highly unusual for global automakers to file cases regarding IPR in the Chinese market because of its complex investigation process.



Back in 2004, China's Chery Automobile Co. and GM Daewoo Auto & Technology Co., owned by U.S. auto giant General Motors (GM), reached for an out-of-court settlement, after the latter earlier filed a lawsuit against the former over piracy.



Chang agreed with the other experts when he said that "JLR's case is a warning to domestic automakers to be aware of the importance of protecting IPR."



As for the possible consequences, Chang shared that if an automaker was proven guilty in copying a competitor's design, it would have to stop the manufacturing and sales of the involved products.



China, currently the world's largest auto market, grew by 6.3 percent year-on-year. Amid this development, experts see the need for domestic vehicle makers to hire professionals who will help them counter piracy issues.



"Domestic automakers need to hire professional legal and design teams to avoid being charged with piracy," Qiao Shengpu, general manager of Adfaith Management Consulting's auto department, told the Global Times.



"Also, domestic players need to keep an eye on the development of their international peers," Qiao added. "Domestic automakers have to focus on innovation to enhance their competitiveness, particularly while they're facing fiercer competition from international automakers."



Asked about the government's role on this matter, Qiao noted: "Chinese regulators need to create fair, transparent markets for all players."


Agriculture gave humanity a reliable source of food. Its introduction is also attributed for changes in the society such as the emergence of new diseases, poorer health and greater population. The impact of settled agriculture is so significant earlier studies have associated it with changes in the human body.

Farming began to spread in Europe about 8,500 years ago. How farming spread across Europe, however, has long been a subject of debate among researchers. One theory proposed that farming was an idea that spread to European hunter-gatherers, who once dominated the continent.

Findings of a new study though have revealed that agriculture was introduced by stone-age people from the Aegean Sea region as they moved to Europe.

For the new study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on June 6, researchers looked at the genetic samples from skeletons of early farmers in Turkey and Greece.

They found evidence that Neolithic settlers from northern Greece and western Turkey arrived in central Europe via a Balkan route and then reached the Iberian Peninsula via a Mediterranean route bringing with them agriculture and sedentary life.

Along with agricultural practices, the migrant farmers also brought with them plants and domestic animals and into their new home. This group of people eventually met European hunter-gatherers.

The findings undermine the theory that farming spread among European hunter-gatherers and was not brought by migrating farmers.

"We recover genome-wide DNA sequences from early farmers on both the European and Asian sides of the Aegean to reveal an unbroken chain of ancestry leading from central and southwestern Europe back to Greece and northwestern Anatolia," study researcher Mark Thomas, from University College London (UCL), and colleagues wrote in their study.

"Our study provides the coup de grace to the notion that farming spread into and across Europe via the dissemination of ideas but without, or with only a limited, migration of people."

The migrants also exchanged cultural traditions with their new neighbors but evidence hints the two groups only mixed to a very limited extent and that interbreeding was initially rare. Researchers said that the partnerships increased only after centuries.

"When it comes to the big picture on how farming spread into Europe, this debate is over," Thomas said.

"Thanks to ancient DNA, our understanding of the Neolithic revolution has fundamentally changed over the last seven years."

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The newly renovated Mayflower II has returned to its home in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

At 2 p.m. on June 6, the ship arrived at the Plymouth Harbor and docked at the end of Frazier State Pier as shipmaster Christopher Jones blew his whistle and commanded his crew to move quickly.

"It's a thrill to see her looking so well," says Jones.

People Delighted

Hundreds of spectators waited at the shore to witness the return of the ship and its momentous sailing. The area was also filled with honking sounds as the nearby boats paid respect.

There was also a pair of Native American interpreters who chanted to the ship while rowing a small canoe in the harbor.

The Mayflower II

In 1620, the original Mayflower sailed the Pilgrims to Massachusetts. The Mayflower II is actually a recreation of the first ship and measures 106 feet. It was built in 1957 and must be restored and renovated from time to time. This is to ensure that it remains safe as it serves its purpose as a floating museum.

In December 2015, the Mayflower II was brought to Mystic, Connecticut to be restored through the efforts of Plimoth Plantation, a history museum in Plymouth.

Plimoth manager Kate Sheehan said that while the ship was in Mystic, restoration of the topmast rigging and tween deck plus replacement of its half-deck were performed.

On June 5, Mayflower II left Connecticut at around 8 a.m. The ship rested at New Bedford come night time and then traveled to Cape Cod on Monday morning before finally arriving at Plymouth.

Sheehan says the upcoming summer will bring excitement to many visitors as they see the restoration. Aside from that, admission is free throughout the summer for residents of Plymouth.

The plantation hopes to raise $8 million to fully finish the restoration by the year 2020 when Plymouth celebrates its 400th anniversary.

Replicas of historic ships are something that interest most people. In 2014, the replica of French ship Hermione, which transported General Lafayette in America set sail, bringing delight to the public.

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In the hopes of luring fish and keeping Turkey's tourism industry afloat, authorities sank a massive Airbus on the Aegean Sea on Saturday, June 4.

Originally constructed to carry hundreds of travelers on air, the Airbus A300 jumbo jet now deliberately lies about 75 feet off the coast of the Aegean.

The 36-year-old jet, which has not been twisted into wreckage, is about 177 feet long with a 144-foot wingspan. It has been divided into parts, which were carried on trucks to the town of Kusadas. Its final journey commenced in Istanbul in April.

Biggest Wrecks

The Airbus A300 is considered the largest plane ever used as an artificial reef for marine life. Officials say it took about 2.5 hours for the jet to submerge.

Hundreds of witnesses cheered and blasted their foghorns as the plane sank deeper. Divers lowered the plane to the seabed until its nose finally sank to the bottom.

The reason for the sinking is twofold: turn Kusadas into a tourist destination for divers, and protect marine life.

"With these goals in mind, we have witnessed one of the biggest wrecks in the world," says Mayor Ozlem Cercioglu of the Aydin province.

Saving The Tourism Industry

Turkey's tourism industry has slumped in the wake of recent suicide bombings. But gambits such as the Airbus artificial reef can divert people's attention.

And because it is an artificial reef, it does not suffer from the "disease" that currently plagues its natural counterparts. Indeed, across the globe, coral bleaching has been damaging coral species and pushing them to the brink of extinction.

This is not the first time that Turkey used planes to promote diving tourism. According to the Guardian, the country had previously sunk three small planes off Turkish resorts in recent years. Still, the $92,000-Airbus is by far the largest.

Is It Beneficial?

Artificial reefs should not be combined with trash dumps, and not any junk can be considered artificial reef material. For instance, coral will not grow well on washing machines because the secretions are prevented by the appliance's enamel.

It is still an open question as to whether artificial reefs are actually beneficial to marine life. James Bohnsack, a marine expert from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, worries that the artificial reef merely relocates fish and does not replenish their population.

Meanwhile, Cercioglu is hopeful that the Airbus reef will become a success. The government expects 250,000 foreign and domestic tourists per year to visit the artificial reef.

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Rumors that Samsung is working on a foldable 5-inch smartphone that can shapeshift into a 7-inch tablet when opened have been circling for a while now. Now a new report claims that Samsung is looking to launch a duo of smartphones that sport bendable screens in 2017.

The news comes courtesy of publication Bloomberg which cites reliable sources who wished not to be identified.

"Samsung Electronics Co. is considering introducing two new smartphone models that will feature bendable screens, including a version that folds in half like a cosmetic compact, people familiar with the matter said," notes the publication.

One of the two smartphones  the second model  will reportedly have a 5-inch display when being used as a handset. This will morph into an 8-inch screen, akin to a tablet, when unfurled.

This is not the first time that murmurs of Samsung having bendable screen smartphones have surfaced. A previous report claimed that the company would debut a foldable smartphone as part of its Project Valley in 2017. This handset is believed to be the Galaxy X which will tout a 4K display and have a 5-inch foldable screen, which expands to 7 inches.

According to the current report, the bendable Samsung smartphones will be deploying OLED screens and hit the shelves in early 2017. OLED screens are easier to configure for folding when compared with LCDs as they do not need a backlight.

This release window would give Samsung an edge over rival Apple which traditionally unveils its flagship iPhones in the second half of the year.

Earlier in April, Samsung Display's Director Lee Chang-hoon disclosed at an investor's call that the development of the foldable OLED was on track as per the company's plans. Samsung Display was in discussion with its partners to work out the mass production, as well as the product's release time window.

The publication also confirmed that the venture has been codenamed "Project Valley." It disclosed that one of its sources let on that Samsung may debut both or one of the handsets at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona in February next year.

Bloomberg's sources also let it slip that Samsung could likely change the naming convention for the next-gen Galaxy Note phablet. While if it were to follow the current format, it would be called Note 6, Samsung, per the sources, may name it "Note 7" so that the series is at par with the flagship Galaxy S lineup.

Moreover, those hoping that the 2017 flagship Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 edge would have a bendable screen may have their hopes dashed. Why? As the source has let on, Samsung does not intend to market its foldable screen smartphone under the Galaxy S moniker.

This reaffirms that the rumored Galaxy X smartphone could potentially be the first in the bendable smartphone series.

Photo: Karlis Dambrans | Flickr

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Xiaomi is attempting to make strong inroads into the lucrative wearable space. Barely days after it debuted its fitness tracker  the Mi Band 2  the grapevine is abuzz with rumors of the arrival of a Xiaomi smartwatch.

According to a report from GizmoChina, the China-based OEM, which has some incredible smartphones to its credit, is quietly working on its first-ever smartwatch, which, per Pan Jiutang, an analyst, will be rolled out this year.

"The noted analyst, Pan Jiutang from China[,] reveals that the new smartwatch should be released by the company soon. He also says that the power consumption of the new Xiaomi smartwatch should be similar to Garmin's wearables," notes the publication.

This is not the first time that rumors pertaining to a smartwatch from Xiaomi have surfaced online. In March 2015, we reported that Xiaomi had a smartwatch in development. In November 2015, rumors of the company unveiling its first-ever smartwatch, dubbed the Mi Watch, started gaining traction. However, the wearable never saw the light of the day at the event and remained as nothing more than mere speculation.

The fact that Xiaomi has a smartwatch in development has previously been confirmed by its co-founder and VP Liu De, who also spilled the beans that the wearable is ready to make its debut in the second half of 2016.

While Xiaomi has a smartwatch for children  the Xiaomi Rabbit  which it released in 2015, it does not have an offering for adults.

According to Jiutang, the Xiaomi smartwatch's ideal price tags should be $152 (999 Yuan) and $243 (1,599 Yuan), which suggests that the company would be releasing two variants of the device.

Little is known about the specs and features of the Xiaomi smartwatch, but it is anticipated that the wearable will boast more functionalities when compared with the $22 Mi Band 2 fitness tracker.

With a drone already made to its credit, Xiaomi will soon have another product in its lineup when the Mi Watch smartwatch finally makes its long-awaited debut.

Photo: Jon Russell | Flickr

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Siri can be snarky at times and may not know the answers to everything, but at least she is reliable in case of an emergency. In fact, the digital assistant has just become a heroine after saving a baby girl's life.

When the baby monitor showed that her baby daughter turned blue, Australian mother Stacey Gleeson rushed over to discover that the one-year-old had stopped breathing. Gleeson brought baby Giana to the floor to check her airways, and that's when she noticed she didn't have her phone.

During her moment of panic, the mom accidentally dropped her iPhone. Instead of wasting time to reach over and pick it up and fumble with it while taking her attention and hands off her daughter, she decided to yell out for Siri to call for help as she began CPR on her daughter.

Without a hitch, Siri called for an ambulance and put the phone on speaker so that Gleeson could inform the operator about the situation and send medical professionals to her residence. Her daughter was then able to breathe again by the time the ambulance arrived and made a full recovery once taken to the hospital. Baby Giana had been fighting a chest infection and bronchiolitis at the time when she stopped breathing.

The mother believes that the few seconds it took for Siri to get emergency services on the line while she performed CPR helped saved her daughter.

The incident occurred back in March, but Gleeson had recently contacted Apple to say thank you, which prompted the company to reach out to the 7 news in Australia to share the story.

This scenario highlights just how beneficial it could be to use Siri when in time of need. To turn on the "Hey Siri" feature, go to Settings > General > Siri > Allow Hey Siri. Users never know when she will come in handy  or even save a life.

Source: Yahoo Australia

Photo: Karlis Dambrans | Flickr

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Space  contrary to how it may be commonly portrayed  is not a soundless expanse. Astrophysicists, for instance, have recently captured sounds from some of the oldest stars found in the Milky Way galaxy, giving space enthusiasts a rare audio treat.

University of Birmingham researchers detected acoustic oscillation of stars in the M4 star cluster, which host some of the furthest known distant and oldest stars in our own galaxy at 13 billion years old.

Through data from NASAs Kepler /K2 mission, they studied the oscillations  which result from sound trapped inside the stars and lead to small pulses or changes in the stars brightness  through a method called asteroseismology. Measuring these tones in the music will help scientists create a formula to determine stars ages and masses.

The hope is to use these sounds to get insights on what the universe was like in its very early days.

The stars we have studied really are living fossils from the time of the formation of our Galaxy, and we now hope be able to unlock the secrets of how spiral galaxies, like our own, formed and evolved, said lead researcher Dr. Andrea Miglio.

According to study co-author Dr. Guy Davies, the stars age scale is currently limited to relatively juvenile stars, which then limits scientists ability to get information on the galaxys very early history.

Sure, the recreated sounds are hardly concert material, but they are also surprisingly musical and quite entertaining. Take a look at this amazing visualization that allows you to play the individual tunes from the stars. You can also listen to the four tracks below.

The findings were detailed in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Just last week, researchers at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) and the Johns Hopkins University in Maryland discovered that the universe  as if it is not vast enough already  is expanding about 5 to 9 percent faster than initial estimates from astronomers.

Their findings are deemed crucial in helping scientists figure out the universes mystery, where it is believed to be made up mostly of dark matter and dark energy.

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The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) warned on Tuesday that the growing use of synthetic designer drugs especially among young Americans could lead to more cases of overdoses and deaths.

Despite its continued crackdown on the sale and use of synthetic drugs in the country, DEA officials said their efforts are hampered because of the "clunky and cumbersome" process needed to effectively ban each and every new drug that comes out.

During an appearance before a U.S. Senate committee, Chuck Rosenberg, head of the DEA, pointed out that for every drug that the agency is able to administratively or legislatively control, there are about 11 more substances out there that are yet to be controlled.

"We're playing catch-up, and we need your help," Rosenberg told the committee.

Examples of designer drugs commonly sold and use in the U.S. are synthetic cannabinoids, which recreate the effects of marijuana, and "bath salts," which mimic the effects of cocaine. There are also methamphetamines and synthetic opioids, which include counterfeit versions of painkillers.

U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein from California pushed for the creation of a Senate committee in order to determine an appropriate classification for new synthetic drugs that become available on the market.

Feinstein explained that much like what is being done with Zika research, which requires speedy research, creating a new classification for synthetic drugs has to be determined immediately so that they can be enforced as quickly as possible.

According to Rosenberg, the DEA has monitored a significant increase in the use of a synthetic opioid known as fentanyl. This drug is the same one medical examiners say likely killed the pop superstar Prince.

He said that as many as 11 million Americans illegally use prescription painkillers every year, and that cases of drug overdose in the country are likely to increase with the introduction of fentanyl into the market.

Rooting Out Heroin And Prescription Painkiller Abuse

Earlier this year, President Barack Obama asked Congress to allot $1.1 billion in the budget to fund the expansion of treatments given to heroin and prescription painkiller users over the next two years.

People who become addicted to fentanyl usually start out developing an addiction to prescription medications. However, they tend to switch to fentanyl because it is cheaper compared to prescription drugs. This leads to a higher chance for abusive use of the drug and overdose.

Michael Botticelli, chief drug policy adviser to the Obama administration, said that some distributors of fentanyl even disguise the drug as prescription medication.

He added that the Obama administration supports the creation of new bills that would allow prosecutors to use sales strategies as evidence in court against manufacturers of synthetic drugs.

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The Federal Aviation Administration has released an advisory for expected GPS interference in several days this month, with the outages to be caused by testing to be done by the United States military.

The expected GPS outages will be on June 7, 9, 21, 23, 28 and 30, all from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Pacific time.

The testing would result to "unreliable or unavailable" GPS signals, with the duration of the tests possibly lasting the entire six-hour periods, according to the FAA.

The mysterious part of the news, however, is that there is no indication on what kind of device will the military be testing that would lead to such GPS outages in the southwestern United States.

The tests, which were announced by the FAA and not by the military, are centered near the largest installation of the United States Navy in the Mojave Desert, specifically on the 1.1-million-acre Naval Air Weapons Center in China Lake, California.

The testing will disrupt GPS signals hundreds of miles in all directions, with different types of GPS to be affected. GPS systems of aircraft flying higher than 50 feet will be affected, which is what probably prompted the FAA to send out the advisory.

The GPS disruption will reach the furthest at the higher altitudes, such as in the border of California and Oregon, which is 505 nautical miles from the center of testing and is at 40,000 feet above sea level.

The disruptions will affect the flight controls of the Embraer Phenom 300 aircraft, which is a business jet, but commercial airliners will likely not be affected, according to experts. Pilots who would encounter GPS disruptions could simply navigate around the area as if they would be escaping bad weather.

A phone call initiated by Gizmodo to Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division public affairs specialist Deidre Patin confirmed that the military was aware of the advisory that the FAA sent out. Patin, however, could not provide any more details regarding the testing, only stating that it will be "general testing" for the military's ranges.

With the FAA and the Navy both keeping their mouths shut on the experiments that will be carried out, it is difficult to ascertain what kind of testing will happen. There are GPS jammers out in the market right now that can be purchased for below $200, but it seems that the military will be testing more potent systems that are able to disrupt the GPS of unmanned and manned aircraft.

The military recently awarded SpaceX with an $82.7 million contract to launch into orbit a GPS satellite, which will meet the needs of both military and civilian users.

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Snapchat has redesigned its Live Stories and Discover sections through a recently released update, a move that changes the way users view content that are provided by publishers.

The two sections have been made more user friendly with a more seamless experience through the new design. Publishers, however, are likely just as happy with the new look, as their content is given more time to be on the spotlight.

The Discover section of Snapchat, seen as one of the most lucrative digital newsstands, now looks more like a magazine, with media partners such as CNN, People and Cosmo getting large pictures and headlines compared to the small circles in the past.

Less than 30 publishers have been invited to send in content to Snapchat's Discover, with some companies already pulling out of the feature such as Buzzfeed, Fusion and Yahoo. There are several publishers such as The Onion that will soon be getting in to Discover, though, and they will do so at just the right time.

"With the product change, it takes things to the next level in really allowing us to showcase a little bit of a teaser of the look and feel of what's to come in that edition," said Tastemade head of programming Oren Katzeff. With the redesign, the content is showcased more, compared to the past when it was much more difficult for users to access the stories.

With the redesign, users will be given the option to subscribe to publishers by pressing and holding on a story and tapping on the subscribe option. The subscribe button is also shown at the end of stories. Once a user subscribes to a publisher, the company's stories will appear in the Recent Stories section of the Snapchat app.

The goal of the redesign and the incorporation of a subscribe button is to get Snapchat users to view more content from media partners, alongside the content generated by other users. Publishers will now be locked in a race to grow their subscriber numbers on the app, as the metric would become an important one if Snapchat decides to push through with plans of an algorithmic feed for users similar to Facebook.

Snapchat has been steadily improving its user base, with a recent report claiming that 150 million people are using the app daily. This means that Snapchat has beaten Twitter in that department, as the social media platform only has 140 million daily active users.

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Shenzhen to Build Three New Airports as Flights Are Seen to Double by 2020

Planes of Air China dock on the tarmac at Beijing Capital International Airport, one of the busiest in the world. (Photo : Reuters)

Shenzhen is set to build three new airports with the aim to transform the city into a transport hub of southern China, according to a report by the South China Morning Post.



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The three new airports will include one for commercial airliners, another for seaplanes and one for helicopters. The plan, however, may increase the number of airports in the Pearl River Delta that are underutilized.



According to the Shenzhen government's Eastward Shift Strategic Action Plan for 2016 to 2020 released last month, the airports are part of a 1.4-trillion-yuan (HK$1.66 trillion) plan to turn development eastward.



"Shenzhen will build the 'One Belt, One Road' transportation hub in southern China and study the plausibility of building an airport on water in the east as well as starting to plan a second airport in the east as soon as possible," the plan stated.



The second airport was in its very early stages, people familiar with the plan said. It was based on the estimated future demand when Baoan international airport reaches full capacity. The airport handled 39.7 million passengers last year, while Hong Kong had 68.4 million, and Guangzhou, 50 million. An 11.2-billion-yuan expansion plan has been started to add a third runway and fourth terminal to the airport, to meet the demand up to 2045.



The second airport will be constructed near Huizhou, a city to the east of Shenzhen. It now has a small facility that is being used by the military.



In addition to airports in Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Macau and Zhuhai that are already operating, a new airport for commercial airlines is also being planned.



Flights in the three larger airports are often delayed due to the complicated airspace management in the region, while the airports in Macau and Zhuhai are underutilized.



"Pearl River Delta airport coordination is just a myth. If it could be done, it would have been done long ago," said CK Law, an associate director of the Chinese University of Hong Kong's Aviation Policy and Research Centre.



Local governments in the region wanted their airports as secondary to others and flights are difficult to manage since airlines fly only to profitable destinations, the director said.



The plan by the central government would give Shenzhen airport a clear international role, in which it will be granted five more international routes this year, to enhance its role as an international hub based on the 13th Five-Year Plan.



International flights in the airport are expected to double by 2020, according to an airport spokeswoman, although she did not know yet about the proposal for the second airport.



An "airport-on-water" for seaplanes was also planned to be built on Shenzhen's Da Peng Peninsula to the northeast of Sai Kung, which is part of a plan to develop the peninsula as a high-end corporate travel destination.



Nantou Airport, which can handle 16 helicopters at a time, will be relocated to the Longhua District. Nantou airport is mainly used by CITIC Offshore Helicopters.



"Building new airports is a typical way for local governments to engineer urban growth after development based on land sales runs out of steam," Qi Qi, a lecturer at Guangzhou Civil Aviation Academy, said.


Google's recent stats show the Android Marshmallow crossed an important milestone.

The latest OS from Google is present on more than 10 percent of Android gadgets, a significant spike from the 2.3 percent adoption rate back in March.

Thanks to the developer stats that Google gathers, an accurate image of the Android landscape exists. Meet the Android Distribution report, a monthly insight into the distribution of Android versions across mobile devices.

Over the last few months, headlines raved about the slow adoption rate of Marshmallow. However, one thing that can be observed in the latest figures is that the latest Android OS is picking up its pace.

Specifically, the latest data set shows that Marshmallow jumped the 10 percent mark, and it is most likely not going to slow down.

The month-over-month increase follows an upward pattern set up by previous evolutions. Marshmallow jumped from 4.6 percent in April to 7.5 percent in May. However, the latest 10.1 percent milestone is important, as this is the first time when the latest Android OS scores double digits.

Android Marshmallow rolled out in October 2015.

In comparison, let's take a look at how the other Android versions fared. Android 5.0 (Lollipop) saw a downward spiral during the past few months, with the deceleration continuing in June.

While in May Lollipop registered a 35.6 percent presence, the new figures show it at 35.4 percent.

Numbers for the Android 5.0 build show 15.4 percent presence, while Android 5.1 sits at 20 percent. Pitted against the numbers from last month, Android 5.0 shows a decline from the previous 16.2 percent, but Android 5.1 boosted its numbers from the anterior 19.4 percent.

Android 4.4 (KitKat) also slowed down to 31.6 percent, after it registered a presence rate of 32.5 percent during last month.

Android 4.1/4.2/4.3, a.k.a. Jelly Bean, dropped 1.2 points from the 20.1 percent in May, reaching 18.9 percent in June. The three variants of Android are among the OSs with the biggest decelerations in the line. Taking a closer look, it seems that Jelly Bean lost 6.8 percent for Android 4.1.x, 9.4 percent with Android 4.2.x and 2.7 percent on Android 4.3.

The oldest versions of Android also scored lower rates during the past month.

Android 4.0.3-4.0.4 (dubbed Ice Cream Sandwich), went down from 2.0 percent to 1.9 percent, while Android 2.3.3-2.3.7 (Gingerbread) sunk 2.2 percent and reached 2.0 percent.

Android 2.2 (codenamed Froyo) stayed put at a rather symbolic adoption rate of 0.1 percent.

As Google samples the figures, the Platform Versions tool takes data from the Google Play Store app. Keep in mind that the Play Store is available only to devices sporting Android 2.2 and newer. This implies that gadgets that work on older versions of Android or that do not have Google Play installed fall outside the statistics.

Observant readers might have gathered that the surge in Marshmallow's popularity is far from coincidental. During the past three months, quite a number of smartphones came with the OS out of the box.

Aside from Samsung's Galaxy S7, important OEMs rolled out commended devices carrying Android 6.0, such as the HTC 10, the LG G5 and new Sony Xperias. Correlating the figures simply indicates that an important number of Android fans upgraded their antiquated KitKat-carrying handsets and chose future-proof Marshmallow-laden smartphones.

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The Venezuelan government expects the immediate release of the plane held in Argentina after the release of its 19 crew members; the foreign minister of this Caribbean nation, Carlos Faria,... | Read More
Household robot that folds, presses, and sanitizes laundry in under minute to launch in 2018

FoldiMate's Laundry-Folding Robot (Photo : Facebook )

A laundry-folding robot that can finish the household chore is set to launch in 2018. FoldiMate is a California startup that has plans to sell a home robot that folds, presses, perfumes, and sanitizes laundry in under one minute. The new machine can fold clothes such as shirts and pants twice as fast as a human could, and will have a price tag between $700 and $850.



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A commercial claims the new robot will be able to "de-wrinkle" dress shirts and pants using steam. It will also add a good smell to the clothes as it does its repetitious work.



The first ad for the robotic laundry folder was posted on YouTube less than one month ago. Since then it has racked up almost 2 million views and nearly 2,000 Likes, according to New York Daily News.



FoldiMate's website also stated that almost 60,000 people have signed up to be informed when pre-orders for the futuristic robot will start. That was as of June 7, Tuesday.



The device was developed by many scientists and robotic engineers. They shared they plan to start taking pre-orders sometime next year, and to ship the first units in 2018.



A commercial version of the robotic helper has been on the market since 2014.



The United Kingdom newspaper The Telegraph took a poll that asked readers if they would pay 600 ($870) so they would never have to fold clean laundry again. Up to now 84 percent of the respondents picked the answer "...take my money," according to Quartz.



FoldiMate CEO Gal Rozov told US Weekly the response to the new robot has been amazing. He shared that some comments on social networks show that that people are very excited about the laundry-folding robot.



However, not all reactions to FoldiMate's robot have been positive. It has been criticized as being over-priced, and doing tasks that lazy people are not willing to do.



TheNextWeb also argued the robot has several problems. For example, each item has to be clipped one-by-one, and the machine cannot fold large pieces such as bed sheets.



Laundroid is a similar laundry-folding machine. After people dump their clothes into the unit it folds them within several hours, but has problems with socks.






A Cairo misdemeanor appeal court reduced on Tuesday the sentence of political activist Yasser El-Qot for calling for anti-government protests from a year in prison and an EGP 200 fine to one month in jail.

Prosecutors had accused El-Qot of illegally calling for protests against a recent Egyptian-Saudi border redrawing deal and distributing flyers against the state to mobilise for demonstrations on 25 April.

In May, El-Qot was given the original sentence but he appealed the verdict.

On Saturday, in a separate case, a Cairo misdemeanor court acquitted 33 defendants arrested on 25 April for protesting the deal but upheld an EGP 100,000 fine.

The Egyptian government's decision in April to redraw maritime borders with Saudi Arabia putting two Red Sea islands under Saudi control, have fueled sizeable protests during that month.

The agreement, which allows Egypt to use shared Red Sea waters for the excavation of natural resources, should be ratified by Egypt's House of Representatives before coming into force.



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Making A Murderer film-makers Moira Demos and Laura Ricciardi recently gave a masterclass at BAFTA on the run-away international documentary hit that Netflix launched in December of 2015.

Ricciardi, a former lawyer and Demos, a documentary editor, were graduate students on Columbia Universitys film programme in 2005; they had also been dating for two years.

They read a story in the New York Times and decided to follow the story of Stephen Avery, who spent 18 years in prison for a crime he didnt commit. In October 2005 two years after his exoneration and as he was filing a lawsuit against county officials for $36 million, a woman disappeared and Steven Avery was once again accused of murder.

The story gradually gathered momentum and the show morphed into a 10-parter across 10 years of on-off filming and editing. It was picked up by Netflix in its later stages and Netflix scheduled the series launch during the holiday period, so that audiences had time to watch in one go. Part one was put up on YouTube as a teaser campaign to drive Netflix subscriptions.

Heres a list of the 10 critical elements of Demos and Ricciardis epic series.

1. Give the story structure.

Demos and Ricciardi agree that screen-writing is ingrained in them. Whilst the series is strictly documentary, they thought of the structure in terms of having written it and they understood how each of the main characters went on a journey. The over-arching journey was to give the viewers an experience akin to the one that they had experienced as they followed the story. The decision not to have a narrator was taken early on.

2. Pick a story and stay with it

The documentary was inspired by a newspaper cutting in 2005, which prompted Demos and Ricciardi to travel to Wisconsin with a camera. But the film was put together across 10 years. There were many dramatic, even surreal moments caught on camera, but there were also long periods of waiting. There were plenty of challenges, including the central fact that Avery was in prison throughout the shoot and there was minimal outside financing for the project for many years.

3. Make sure the stakes are big

As well as the personal jeopardy for Steven Avery and his co-accused, the series takes some massive themes, including how history gets written, the power of accusation and where accountability comes from.

4. Find a subject with plenty of conflict

The documentary is based on the history of two murders and centres on the inherently dramatic trial process. It also takes on the stories of family tensions, class tensions and the combative nature of the justice system.

5. Collaborate

Demos and Ricciardi knew that they were outsiders: two New Yorkers arriving in rural Wisconsin. They relied on collaboration with local media, family, lawyers and many others.

6. Use every source available

The series uses a wide variety of sources, including plenty of archive. It helped that there was an expansive law in Wisconsin allowing use of public footage, including interrogations by police.

7. Ask about perspectives not facts

The documentary relied on family and lawyers to speak for the accused. The many interviews that the pair recorded were focused on finding points of view, drawing out different perspectives. This also made sense when speaking with Avery as the facts of the case were a legal no-go area.

8. Have the patience of a saint

The editorial process was one of the biggest challenges. There was over 1000 hours of footage and over 1000 hours of phone calls, as well as thousands of scanned documents.

9. Keep up the inspiration

The list of film makers who inspired Making a Murderer includes James Marsh, Joe Berlinger, Errol Morris, Barbara Gordon and Frederick Wiseman.

10. Find a broadcaster who will take it to the people

Initial talks with distributors framed the story in terms of a two-hour one-off or a four-parter. But Demos and Ricciardi wanted to avoid too much slick cutting and to take a deeper dive. The first meeting with Netflix was in the spring of 2013 when they already had an outline for an eight parter and rough cuts of the first three episodes. Netflix loved it, but the ink dried on a contract only in August 2014. Although Netflix allowed for a few weeks extension to the 52-week agreed final schedule, they wanted it to air in the Christmas holidays.

Here is the first episode of Making a Murderer

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The World Bank is downgrading its 2016 global growth forecast to 2.4 percent from the 2.9 percent pace projected in January.

The move is due to sluggish growth in advanced economies, stubbornly low commodity prices, weak global trade, and diminishing capital flows.

According to the latest update of its Global Economic Prospects report, commodity-exporting emerging market and developing economies have struggled to adapt to lower prices for oil and other key commodities, and this accounts for half of the downward revision.

Growth in the East Asia and Pacific region is projected to slow to an unrevised 6.3 percent rate in 2016, with Chinas expansion expected to ease to 6.7 percent, as projected in January.

The region excluding China is projected to growth at 4.8 percent in 2016, unchanged from 2015.

This outlook assumes an orderly growth slowdown in China underpinned by smooth progress on structural reforms and appropriate policy stimulus as needed. Growth in the rest of the region is expected to be supported by rising investment in several large economies (Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand), and strong consumption supported by low commodity prices (Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam).

Among commodity exporters, growth in Indonesia is projected to pick up to 5.1 percent in 2016 from 4.8 percent, provided reforms are implemented to encourage investment and boost productivity. Output in Malaysia could slow to 4.4 percent in 2016 from 5 percent on slowing domestic demand.

Growth in Thailand is expected to accelerate gradually, but remain below 3 percent on average in 2016-18 as high household debt holds back consumption and export growth remains lukewarm.

This sluggish growth underscores why its critically important for countries to pursue policies that will boost economic growth and improve the lives of those living in extreme poverty, saidWorld Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim. Economic growth remains the most important driver of poverty reduction, and thats why were very concerned that growth is slowing sharply in commodity-exporting developing countries due to depressed commodity prices.

State-owned enterprise reforms, including measures to strengthen transparency and governance, would reduce contingent fiscal risks in China, Thailand and Vietnam.

Deepening regional trade and investment would boost economic activity and create jobs. New partnerships, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade accord, if implemented, and other regional trade agreements, including ASEAN economic community and the proposed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, should all help anchor structural reforms, lift trade, and raise potential growth in the region.

Commodity-importing emerging markets and developing economies have been more resilient than exporters, although the benefits of lower prices for energy and other commodities have been slow to materialize.

These economies are forecast to expand at a 5.8 percent rate in 2016, down modestly from the 5.9 percent pace estimated for 2015, as low energy prices and the modest recovery in advanced economies support economic activity.

Among major emerging market economies, China is forecast to grow at 6.7 percent in 2016 after 6.9 percent last year. Indias robust economic expansion is expected to hold steady at 7.6 percent, while Brazil and Russia are projected to remain in deeper recessions than forecast in January. South Africa is forecast to grow at a 0.6 percent rate in 2016, 0.8 of a percentage point more slowly than the January forecast.
EgyptAir officials had earlier said Cairo airport received an anonymous call three hours after flight MS 955 took off heading from the Egyptian capital to China claiming bomb onboard

EgyptAir flight MS955 resumed on Wednesday its flight to Beijing after a hoax anonymous bomb call caused it to make an emergency landing in Uzbekistan, the company said in a statement.

An anonymous call to security officials at Cairo International Airport claimed that there is a bomb onboard Airbus flight MS 955 three hours after its takeoff, EgyptAir officials told state news agency MENA.

The call prompted aviation officials to instruct the pilot to land in the nearest airport, the officials told MENA.

They said the plane, which was carrying 118 passengers and 17 crew members, had been evacuated and searched. No explosives were found, they said.

EgyptAir has received a number of bomb threats since one of its aircraft crashed into the Mediterranean on 19 May. All have turned out to be hoaxes.

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The US Department of Commerce will impose anti-dumping duty on steel pipe imports from Vietnam, the Vietnam Competition Authority announced Wednesday.

On June 1, DOC announced its affirmative preliminary determinations in the anti-dumping duty (AD) investigations of imports of circular welded carbon quality steel pipe (CWP) from Oman, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates, and Vietnam.

It announced preliminary anti-dumping duty of between 0.38 percent and 113.18 percent on imports from Vietnam.

According to DOC, SeAH Steel VINA Corporation and Vietnam Haiphong Hongyuan Machinery Manufactory Co., Ltd. have sold CWP in the United States at between 0.00 percent and 1.19 percent less than fair value, respectively.

It determined that Hoa Phat Steel Pipe Co. qualified for a separate rate, at 0.38 percent.

All other producers/exporters in Vietnam received the Vietnam-wide rate of 113.18 percent, which are the highest among the countries affected by the decision.

The final determinations will be issued in October. As a result of this preliminary determination, DOC will instruct US Customs and Border Protection to collect a cash deposit or bond based on these preliminary rates.

Vietnams CWP exports to the US in 2014 valued at around US$60.6 million, the highest among four countries probed, according to VCA.
Vietnam is accelerating the cleanup of its financial system to help boost lending in an economy threatened by a crippling drought and lower oil revenue.

The Vietnam Asset Management Company, set up to buy the bad debt of banks, will make its first cash purchase of non-performing loans this year, Nguyen Quoc Hung, chairman of the agency also known as VAMC, said in an interview Tuesday in Hanoi. The purchase will help lay out steps to quicken the bad debt resolution process.

VAMC currently issues special bonds in return for the bad debt, which banks may use as collateral to secure funding from the central bank. Paying cash to clear the debt will give banks funds to speed up lending.

This is a major step, said Alan Pham, chief economist at VinaCapital Group Ltd. in Ho Chi Minh City. The net effect is to resolve the bad debt instead of moving it around. Once you pay the market price and you pay in cash, the debt is extinguished.

Banking cleanup

Vietnam has done much to clean up its banking industry since 2012 when a lending spree and weak controls led to a surge in bad debts, the arrest of bank executives and a plunge in stocks. Non-performing loans stood at 17 percent at the time. The government created VAMC in 2013 to remove the bad debt from lenders.

The state agency also plans to resolve about 30 trillion dong ($1.3 billion) of bad loans this year by selling debt and collateral, Hung said. VAMC has recouped about 8 trillion dong so far this year, he said.

This is going to help banks that need liquidity and to offload their bad debt, said Trinh Nguyen, a senior economist at Natixis Asia Ltd. in Hong Kong. We really have to wait and see what is the size of this.

VAMC, which is lacking in resources, will probably need financial support from the government or organizations such as the International Monetary Fund to address all of the bad debt in the countrys banking system, Pham said.

VAMC has received offers from about 10 banks to sell as much as 17 trillion dong of bad loans so far this year, according to Hung. The company is working with lenders to re-evaluate the debt for pricing, he said.

The benchmark VN Index is poised for a second day of gains today, rising 0.5 percent as of 10:54 a.m. in Ho Chi Minh City trading.

Spurring growth

Banks have crimped lending to businesses because of bad debt, a situation the government wants to reverse as it seeks to spur economic growth to 6.7 percent this year. The economy expanded 5.5 percent in the first quarter, the slowest pace since June 2014.

The central bank is aiming to curb non-performing loans to below 3 percent of total lending. Governor Le Minh Hung in April allowed VAMC to buy and sell bad debt at market prices, according to its website.

The World Bank said in a report in April that progress has been slow in consolidating the banking industry. The governments target of reducing the number of commercial banks to as little as 15 by 2017 from 34 currently remains challenging, it said.

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde said in a March interview that the banking system needs to be made stronger, better and more capitalized with less stressed assets so that lenders can help spur the economy.
Rescuers searching for 3 missing people in an illegal gold mine in Thanh Hoa Province. Photo credit: Le Hoang/VnExpress

Thanh Hoa authorities are seeking assistance from the Ministry of Defence in their search for three people missing in an illegal gold mine in the northern province for a third day.

On June 4 Kha Van Ngon and Kha Van Huyen were searching for gold ore in an underground mine in the mountainous Ba Thuoc District when they were affected by poisonous gases.

Ngon managed to reach the mines entrance to shout for help.

Hearing his cries, another miner, Pham Van Dung, went into the mine to look for Huyen, but he is also missing.

A second man, Bui Van Man, also went into the mine for a rescue attempt and is missing too.

On June 7 dozens of rescuers were mobilized to search but they only managed to get seven meters into the cave due to heavy rainfall.

According to local residents, the mine is some 300 meters deep and the three might have asphyxiated due to lack of oxygen.

Vo Minh Khoa, a local official, said rescuers are considering widening a narrow section of the mine or digging another way into it.

Rescuers faced great difficulty because they have to walk eight kilometers to the mine and the area is too remote for mobile phone signals.
Twenty five people, including 17 foreigners, were brought to safety after a tour boat caught fire in Ha Long Bay at noon today.

The tour boat QN-4239 of Hoa Phuong Do Company, which departed from Cat Ba Island, Hai Phong, earlier in the morning, was near Reu Islet in Ha Long Bay when its crew discovered a fire in the upper deck. The flames quickly engulfed the boat.

Local authorities were called, who mobilized boats and ships operating nearby to rush to the scene.

All people on board the tour boat, including 19 tourists, a tourist guide and five crew members, were rescued.

Nguyen Duc Long, Chairman of the People's Committee of Quang Ninh Province, instructed that responsible agencies assist the tourists and investigate the incident.

He has also suspended Hoa Phuong Do's fleet of tour boats pending the investigation.
The bus is engulfed in flames. Photos: Thanh Dai

At least 35 passengers were safely evacuated after the bus they were riding in suddenly caught fire in Quang Nam this evening.

The sleeper bus was heading south on National Route 1A when it caught fire around 6.10 p.m. No one was injured in the incident, according to Major Nguyen Duy Phuong, an officer of Quang Nam Traffic Police.

Witnesses said the fire started at the back of the bus, which was soon engulfed in flames.

Two fire engines were dispatched to the scene but the vehicle was reduced to a charred metal frame.

The driver, Nguyen Quy, 34, told the police that the bus carried "about" 35 passengers.

The police are investigating the cause of the fire.
A surveillance camera captures a man who broke into a Japanese restaurant in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, on June 5, 2016. Photo released by HCMC police

Ho Chi Minh City police are searching for two people who broke into a Japanese restaurant in the downtown three days ago, local media reported.

Inoue Kenichi, the 58-year-old owner of Sakura Restaurant located in District 1, told to the police that the burglars had taken VND105.5 million and US$4,000 in cash, and a diamond ring worth $6,270.

Footage from a surveillance camera showed two men broke into the restaurant just three minutes after Kenichi left for dinner at around 10.30 p.m. The burglars found a surveillance camera and used a shovel to turn it towards the ceiling. They also removed another camera in the kitchen, according to police.

However, the burglary was still captured by yet another camera in the restaurant, the police said.
Yasushi Arai (R) gets back his wallet from the police. Photo: Cong Quang

A Japanese expat has got back his wallet more than a month after he dropped it in a bus in Hue in April.

Hue town police on Tuesday returned the wallet with identity papers and 5,000 yen (US$46) to Yasushi Arai, who said he lost it on Apr. 29, during Hue Festival.

According to the police, Nguyen Kim Tung, 47, a local tourist guide, found the wallet in the bus when he was with another group of tourists during the Festival.

Tung handed over the wallet to the police after no one in his group claimed to own it. It was unclear how Arai dropped his wallet on the bus.

I think it is the best I could do whenI couldnt find the owner, he said.

It took Hue police a month to locate Arai, who is working for a fresh water project in Thua Thien Hue Province.
Vietnamese authorities are extending the search for a British tourist who went missing during a mountain trek four days ago.

On Tuesday morning Nguyen Ngoc Hinh, deputy chairman of Sa Pa District Peoples Committee, met Trever Webb, the father of Aiden Webb, the 22-year-old backpacker. Trever flied from the UK to Vietnam to follow the search for his missing son in the northwestern province of Lao Cai.

Aiden Webb reportedly were attempting to climb the Fansipan, Vietnam's highest mountain in Lao Cai, on June 3 and his girlfriend Bluebell Eloise Baughan lost contact with him in the morning of June 4.

Before they lost contact, he called her and said that he had fallen into a waterfall and got lost.

Aiden was supposed to meet a friend at the bottom of the 3,100m-high Fansipan Mountain, Hoang Lien National Park, following his climb - but did not show up.

Aiden Webb, who is believed to have gone missing in Vietnam. Photo shared via Facebook

After Baughan informed the management board of Hoang Lien National Park of the case, a team of forest rangers identified the area in which Webb had trekked. They came to the site and searched for him but could not find him.

Local authorities sent around 100 people to join the search.

On Tuesday, rescuers extended the search to a hill, some waterfalls and forests in Hoang Lien Son area which are 2,500 meters above the sea level.

Authorities said the search is getting more difficult as the area with deep abysses is hard to access.

Sa Pa district authorities said money spent on the search will be funded by its budget.

Trever Webb told authorities his son is a professional trekker and he may have moved to other areas from the place where he fell.

He said the family will offer a reward worth VND100 million (US$4,478) for the first person who finds Aiden.
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Since the start of the Syrian crisis, Egypt has maintained that a political solution is the only way to put an end to bloodshed and conflict in Syria

Egypt will attempt to communicate with a wider base of the Syrian opposition in the coming days in an attempt to forge a unified voice among opponents of the Assad regime, the foreign affairs ministry spokesman said on Wednesday.

New Syrian opposition factions have reached out to Egypt to be included in talks to reach a solution for the crisis in the country, state news agency MENA quoted Spokesman Ahmed Abu-Zeid as saying.

The spokesman did not name the Syrian opposition factions willing to talk.

Abu-Zeid explained that the question of warring parties adhering to a recently brokered US-Russian ceasefire on the ground in Syrian is very challenging.

He said the Syrian opposition has reservations on joining peace talks at a time when the ceasefire is being regularly breached.

Egypt has launched an initiative for different parties to observe the ceasefire during the Muslim month of Ramadan in order to allow aid to reach those in need.

As a non-permanent member of the UN's Security Council, Cairo is mediating efforts on ways to deliver aid to Syria by land and air.

Since the start of the Syrian crisis, Egypt has maintained that a political solution is the only way to put an end to bloodshed and conflict in the war-torn country.

Egypt has hosted on more than one occasion meetings in Cairo between various Syrian opposition factions it deems moderate to forge a more united opposition.

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Hillary Clinton declared herself the Democratic Party nominee for U.S. president on Tuesday, saying she had made history as the first woman to lead a major party in a race for the White House.

The former first lady, senator and U.S. secretary of state beat rival Bernie Sanders in New Jersey's nominating contest, expanding her lead a day after she captured the number of delegates needed to clinch the nomination.

Together, we secured the Democratic nomination. For the first time ever, a woman will be a major partys nominee to become President of the United States, Clinton, 68, wrote in a fundraising email to supporters.

New Jersey was one of six states holding contests on Tuesday, including California, the big prize where Clinton was still at risk of an embarrassing loss to Sanders as she heads into a campaign against presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump in the Nov. 8 election.

Sanders, 74, was projected to win in North Dakota, and there were no immediate projections in Montana, New Mexico or South Dakota in the final series of big presidential nominating battles that began on Feb. 1 in Iowa. The District of Columbia, the last to vote, holds a Democratic primary next Tuesday.

In the fundraising email to supporters, Clinton declared her campaign had broken one of the highest, hardest glass ceilings.

"Tonight, we can say with pride that, in America, there is no barrier too great and no ceiling too high to break," Clinton wrote on Twitter. "To every little girl who dreams big: Yes, you can be anything you want - even president. Tonight is for you," she tweeted.

Clinton's race against Trump, 69, will unfold as she faces an ongoing investigation of her use of a personal email server while secretary of state. Opinion polls show the controversy has hurt Clinton's ratings on honesty and trustworthiness.

Unity an issue

Clinton, who now must try to unify the party and win over Sanders supporters, was expected to highlight the historic nature of her nomination at an event in Brooklyn on Tuesday night. Her campaign has compiled a video tying her to women's rights movements in American history.

She wants to move beyond the primary battle and turn her attention to Trump. But Sanders, a democratic socialist U.S. senator from Vermont, has vowed to stay in until July's party convention that formally picks the nominee, defying growing pressure from party leaders to exit the race.

Although Sanders will be unable to catch Clinton even if he wins the primary in California, America's most populous state, a triumph there could fuel his continued presence in the race and underscore Clinton's weaknesses as she heads into the fight with Trump.

Polls in California were due to close at 11 p.m. EDT.

Sanders has commanded huge crowds, galvanizing younger voters with promises to address economic inequality. Clinton has edged him out, particularly among older voters, with a more pragmatic campaign focused on building on President Barack Obama's policies.

Steven Acosta, a 47-year-old teacher living in Los Angeles, voted for Clinton on Tuesday, saying that was partly because he believed she stood a better chance of winning in November.

"I like what Bernie Sanders says and I agree with almost everything that he says," Acosta said. "The problem is that I think Republicans would really unify ... even more against him."

'Rush to judgment'

Sanders was determined to stay in the race, even after the Associated Press and NBC reported on Monday night that Clinton had clinched the number of delegates needed to win the nomination. A Sanders campaign spokesman castigated what he said was the media's "rush to judgment."

Philadelphia are awarded by popular votes in state-by-state elections, and Clinton has a clear lead in those pledged delegates.

But the delegate count also includes superdelegates, party leaders who can change their minds at any time. Clinton's superdelegate support outnumbers Sanders' by more than 10 to 1.

The Sanders' campaign has said it can still persuade superdelegates to switch to him, although in practice superdelegates who have announced their intentions are unlikely to change their minds.

Sanders would have to get more than 60 percent of the superdelegates backing Clinton to switch their votes. So far, his campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, acknowledged they had yet to convert a single delegate.

Trump, who became his party's presumptive nominee last month, outlasting 16 Republican challengers, is struggling to get the party's leaders solidly behind him after a bitter primary campaign during which he made a series of controversial statements directed at Muslims, Latinos, women and the disabled.

On Tuesday night he addressed a crowd of supporters in New York, welcoming Sanders supporters "with open arms" should they decide to support him and declaring a new phase of the campaign had begun.

"Tonight we close one chapter in history and we begin another," Trump said.

He said he planned to deliver a speech next week about Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton.

Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks during her California primary night rally held in the Brooklyn borough of New York, U.S., June 7, 2016. Photo: Reuters/Lucas Jackson
Up to 10,000 Malawians live with albinism, a hereditary condition that causes an absence of pigmentation in the skin

Albinos in Malawi are being targeted in an "unprecedented wave of brutal attacks", Amnesty International said Tuesday, blaming police for failing to tackle a scourge fuelled by ritual practices.

At least 18 albinos -- who have white skin because of a hereditary condition that causes an absence of pigmentation -- have been killed across Malawi since November 2014.

Five others are still missing after being abducted, the London-based rights group said in a report.

The report titled "We are not animals to be hunted or sold" painted a chilling picture, with the body parts of victims, including children, routinely hacked off for use in witchcraft.

"The unprecedented wave of brutal attacks against people with albinism has created a climate of terror," said Deprose Muchena, Amnesty's director for Southern Africa.

The actual number of people killed may be much higher, Amnesty noted, as many cases go unreported due to the secretive nature of ritual practices in rural areas.

"Malawian authorities have dismally failed them, leaving this population group at the mercy of criminal gangs who hunt them down for their body parts," said Muchena.

'A macabre trade'

"Talking will not end these attacks. Concrete action is urgently required."

The Amnesty report said the body parts were used as "charms and magical potions in the belief that they bring wealth and good luck."

"The macabre trade is also fuelled by a belief that bones of people with albinism contain gold."

Amnesty International says albino victims' body parts are often used for "charms" and "potions" in traditional local practices.

Malawi police said they had recorded at least 69 crimes against people with albinism since November 2014, and some 39 cases of illegal exhumation of the bodies of people with the condition.

Police spokesman Nicholas Gondwa was unable to give earlier statistics for albino killings but confirmed that 18 albinos had been killed since November 2014.

He told AFP that the police "were doing all they can to educate people about the need for communities to provide security to albinos."

The Machinga district in the south of the impoverished country has been identified by police as the area where most attacks take place.

'Systematic extinction'

Amnesty documented several cases, including that of a 17-year-old boy, who was abducted and trafficked to Mozambique in April where he was killed.

Both his arms and legs were chopped off and his bones removed.

The attacks and discrimination have sown terror among the 7,000-10,000 Malawians living with albinism.

Amnesty called on the government to improve protection, including better policing in rural areas.

In April, Malawi's police chief Lexen Kachama issued an order for the police to shoot those who attack albinos, calling them "dangerous criminals."

The killing of albinos is also prevalent in Tanzania and Mozambique.

The UN in April warned that Malawi faces "systematic extinction" of people living with albinism if they continue to be murdered for their body parts.

"People tell me in my face that they will sell me," a 37-year-old man told Amnesty.
The life prison sentence imposed on British child rapist Richard Huckle was criticised on Tuesday as too light in Malaysia, where he sexually abused scores of children and even babies.

Huckle, 30, was sentenced in a London court on Monday to 22 life prison terms to be served concurrently, meaning he faces more than 23 years behind bars before a parole board can consider his release.

But concerns were expressed in Malaysia that Huckle could one day be freed and pose a threat to more children, as some called angrily on social media for him to be caned, castrated or executed. Britain has no death penalty.

"191 child victims, 22 Malaysians, 20,000 indecent images, 22 life sentences but... this monster could be out in 24 years," read a lengthy headline in leading daily The Star.

The New Straits Times said "A thousand years is not enough", echoing the cry from a woman in the public gallery as Huckle was led out of court.

Huckle had admitted a total of 71 offences against impoverished children in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur while posing variously as a Christian volunteer, a student and a photographer.

When he was arrested at London's Gatwick Airport upon returning for a Christmas holiday visit in 2014, police found that his laptop and camera contained more than 20,000 images of child sex abuse including rape.

The laptop contained a ledger in which he detailed the abuse of 191 victims, and he also wrote a manual called "Paedophiles And Poverty: Child Lover Guide".

"The sentencing should be stronger. He is young and what happens if he gets out when he is around 50? Can a paedophile change?" asked Sharmila Sekaran, chairman of Malaysia's Voice of the Children.

"Is this justice? No. As far as I know he hasn't made any apologies to the victims."

Sharmila added that if Huckle were freed in his 50s many of his victims would be adults and "a lot of old wounds could come out".

The case has also stirred criticism of the lack of strong Malaysian child-protection laws.

"If Huckle was in a Malaysian court, it would have been tougher to prosecute him. It was a good thing that he was charged in the UK," said James Nayagam, chairman of Suriana Welfare Society, a child-focused NGO.

"Huckle was just one. How many more are there out there?"

Prime Minister Najib Razak's younger brother, Nazir Razak, a powerful banker, posted a photo of Huckle on his Instagram account Tuesday.

Is this enough punishment...I urge his inmates to mete out more than just retribution," he wrote.
Immigrants are escorted by German police to a registration centre, after crossing the Austrian-German border in Wegscheid near Passau, Germany, October 20, 2015. Photo: Reuters/Michael Dalder

Migrants in Germany committed or tried to commit some 69,000 crimes in the first quarter of 2016, according to a police report that could raise unease, especially among anti-immigrant groups, about Chancellor Angela Merkel's liberal migrant policy.

There was a record influx of more than a million migrants into Germany last year and concerns are now widespread about how Europe's largest economy will manage to integrate them and ensure security.

The report from the BKA federal police showed that migrants from northern Africa, Georgia and Serbia were disproportionately represented among the suspects.

Absolute numbers of crimes committed by Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis - the three biggest groups of asylum seekers in Germany - were high but given the proportion of migrants that they account for, their involvement in crimes was "clearly disproportionately low", the report said.

It gave no breakdown of the number of actual crimes and of would-be crimes, nor did it state what percentage the 69,000 figure represented with respect to the total number of crimes and would-be crimes committed in the first three months of 2016.

The report stated that the vast majority of migrants did not commit any crimes.

It is the first time the BKA has published a report on crimes committed by migrants containing data from all of Germany's 16 states, so there is no comparable data.

The report showed that 29.2 percent of the crimes migrants committed or tried to commit in the first quarter were thefts, 28.3 percent were property or forgery offences and 23 percent offences such as bodily harm, robbery and unlawful detention.

Drug-related offences accounted for 6.6 percent and sex crimes accounted for 1.1 percent.

In Cologne at New Year, hundreds of women said they were groped, assaulted and robbed, with police saying the suspects were mainly of North African and Arab appearance. Prosecutors said last week three Pakistani men seeking asylum in Germany were under investigation after dozens of women said they were sexually harassed at a music festival.

The number of crimes committed by migrants declined by more than 18 percent between January and March, however, according to the report.
The fire destroyed around 50 makeshift shacks used to store furniture and electric appliances in Al-Sayeda Aisha

A massive fire destroyed dozens of makeshift shacks used to store merchandise at a popular Cairo market on Wednesday.

The fire erupted in the early morning hours of Wednesday at Al-Sayeda Aisha Market in southern Cairo, destroying around 50 of the makeshift shacks, which mostly held furniture and electric appliances.

There were no injuries reported.

Prosecutors have launched an investigation to determine the cause of the fire, which required nearly 16 fire engines to extinguish.

Al-Sayeda Aisha Market, also known as Souq El-Gomaa (the Friday Market), is considered a hotspot for the sale of cattle and second-hand merchandise.

In early May, fires destroyed large parts of another popular market the El-Rawiei and Ghouriya areas in central Cairo.

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Egypt's Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Magdi El-Agati disclosed Wednesday that the protest law will be amended under instructions from Prime Minister Sherif Ismail

A government committee will soon meet to amend Egypt's controversial protest law to go in line with the constitution, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Magdi El-Agati announced on Wednesday.

El-Agati disclosed that under instructions from Prime Minister Sherif Ismail, he was entrusted with forming a committee that will take charge of amending the protest law.

"There have been many complaints about this law, especially in the area of penalties, and we will see if these should be amended to go in line with the constitution," said El-Agati.

Critics have long charged that the law  which mandates stiff prison terms for those who protest without a government permit  infringes on the constitutional right of citizens to hold peaceful protests, including street demonstrations.

Article 73 of the constitution states that "citizens shall have the right to organize public meetings, marches, demonstrations and all forms of peaceful protests, without carrying arms of any kind, by serving a notification as regulated by Law."

El-Agati told reporters that the objective of the expected amendments is to strike a balance between "national security and public order" on one side and the right to exercise peaceful protests on the other.

"We want to reinforce rights and freedoms as stipulated by the new constitution, but we also want to make sure that these freedoms do not disrupt the state's internal order," he added.

El-Agati also explained that "there is a thin line between peaceful and violent protests and the constitution is clear about this."



Controversial law

The 25-article protest law was issued in November 2013, four months after Islamist president Mohamed Morsi was ousted from office.

Dozens of demonstrations, which often saw deadly clashes with police, were held by Morsi's supporters after his ouster, leading then-interim president Adly Mansour to pass the protest law.



The controversial law was described by critics as "restrictive", with scores of Islamist and liberal political activists going behind bards after falling victim of the law.

The law was not among the 340 legislations revised by the new parliament after it first convened last January, as the parliament was tasked with revising laws passed in its absence between January 2014  when the new constitution was ratified  and January 2016.

El-Agati said the committee in charge of amending the law will include government legal advisors.

"They will study the articles imposing penalties on violators of the law in order to make it more possible to organise peaceful protests," said El-Agati.

"The committee can also seek the advice of independent legal experts and human rights organisations, and it will review protest laws issued in different countries to [determine if Egypt's law] is significantly tougher."

El-Agati's announcement came as a surprise to many, as it was a mere three weeks ago when he told reporters that "Egypt's protest law is one of the best laws in the world and the government has no intention of modifying its articles, because they regulate protests in a good way that prevents chaos and disorder on the streets."

His statement comes a few days after President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said in a TV interview that he intends to issue a pardon for the "few" young political activists jailed under the protest law.

Two courts in Cairo and Giza recently reduced prison terms for several political activists who participated in protests last April against the recent Egyptian-Saudi deal redrawing maritime borders.

The deal, which puts two Red Sea islands under Saudi control, provoked a number of large protests in Cairo shortly after it was announced.

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Domestic violence prevention workers have welcomed a new scheme that will see all households in Canberra chip in to help tackle family abuse.

Tuesday's ACT budget included a centrepiece $21.4 million spend over four years on major reforms and boosted services to benefit domestic violence victims and perpetrators.

DVCS executive director Mirjana Wilson said the $30 safer families levy represented a whole-of-community response to domestic and family violence. Credit:Jamila Toderas

The package will fund key measures including a full-time family safety coordinator-general and dedicated safe families team and an integrated case management system and coordination of services for family violence victims.

Extra funds were also announced for the Domestic Violence Crisis Service ACT and Canberra Rape Crisis Centre, as well as a residential behaviour change program for men at risk of using violence.
A Braddon man has pleaded guilty to a one-punch assault that shattered his victim's jaw in Civic in the early hours of New Year's Day.

Jordan Sharma, 20, handed himself in after ACT Policing released CCTV footage of the attack a week after it took place outside the East Row Supa 24 convenience store shortly before 3am on January 1.

Jordan Sharma pleaded guilty to a one-punch assault that shattered his victim's jaw in Civic in the early hours of New Year's Day. Credit:Graham Tidy

He previously pleaded not guilty to recklessly inflicting grievous bodily harm in the ACT Supreme Court and was committed for trial.

But Sharma switched his plea to guilty during a brief appearance in the ACT Supreme Court on Wednesday.
Centuries old and full of bees, this hollowed-out gum tree faces the axe for a new road for more housing at Watson.

West of Mount Majura, the twisted old giant is part of Canberra's natural values, which the new head of the Conservation Council ACT Region, Larry O'Loughlin, has pledged to protect.

Larry O'Loughlin is taking over from Clare Henderson as executive director of ACT Conservation Council. Credit:Jay Cronan

Canberra has about 10,000 hectares of bushland in various patches. Mr O'Loughlin says before the city was developed, about 32,000 hectares covered the land.

What stands today is much broader thanks to the person Mr O'Loughlin is succeeding. Clare Henderson, who became the council's executive director 4 years ago, has resigned. A hallmark of her time is the landscape approach to developing new suburbs that helped secure an additional 700 hectares for Canberra's nature reserves.
Much of 20th century art has been presented as a series of manifestos that have challenged the status quo and have sought to install a new and alternative manner of thought, living and art.

Cate Blanchett spent 12 days in Berlin filming the various manifestos for Julian Rosefeldt. Credit:Julian Rosefeldt

Many of these manifestos have been visual  Picasso's Les demoiselle d'Avignon, Matisse's Dance and Music, Malevich's Black square and Bacon's Screaming popes, readily spring to mind. Others adopted a literary form, for example, the manifestos of the Symbolists, Futurists, Dadaists, Suprematists, Surrealists and Fluxus.

Julian Rosefeldt is a Berlin-based film and video artist who has selected more than 50 manifestos, mainly from the visual arts, and has envisaged 12 situations, plus an introduction, in which these manifestos are delivered by a motley crew. These include a factory worker, a vagrant with his dog, a school teacher and a puppet master. The integrity of each manifesto is not respected and they are collaged together, so a couple of lines from Karl Marx are brought together with a rant by Tristan Tzara, while Bruno Taut competes with Robert Venturi. These are presented as a multi-channel film installation spread throughout four rooms, with multiple screens in each, which compete for our attention. In total there is around 130 minutes of footage across the 13 film installations and they are united by a number of conceptual, symbolic and visual features, plus one physical one, the central actor who delivers all of the manifestos.

Each manifesto is characterised by passion and conviction, many speak of powerful personalities, including Tommaso Marinetti, Kazimir Malevich, Aleksandr Rodchenko, Wassily Kandinsky, Olga Rozanova, Andre Breton, Tristan Tzara, Claes Oldenburg, Jim Jarmusch, and Yvonne Rainer, and most express the conviction that art has the power to challenge reality and to change the world. The other thing all of these films have in common, is all of the characters are played by a single actor, the great chameleon, Cate Blanchett.

It is a virtuoso performance by Blanchett as she presents the almost exclusively male cast of authors in a peculiarly quirky and female adaption, each delivered in a different accent. Rosefeldt comments that most manifestos "were written by men and they were just bursting with testosterone. So I thought it was thrilling to let them be spoken today by a woman". The whole of Manifesto was filmed over 12 days in Berlin adding another dimension to the whole performance, one of intense compression. The schedule left little room for improvisation and retakes.
They're the capitals from across the ditch that share a lot in common.

Small but proud and highly educated cities, ranked among the most liveable in the world. Both with a love of rugby, the arts and culture, and each perched on the edge of wonderful natural beauty.

Chief Minister Andrew Barr during a visit to the Singapore Airlines training centre last year; he visited again during his week-long trip in April this year. Credit:Andrew Webster

Now, Wellington and Canberra have been brought even closer together, with the Legislative Assembly soon to approve that the two become sister cities.

Chief Minister Andrew Barr will seek the agreement of the Legislative Assembly to establish the sister city arrangement on Thursday, after the Wellington City Council gave its in-principle agreement last month.
A Canberra court has given permission for subpoenas to be served on journalists and Opposition Leader Jeremy Hanson, seeking evidence former Brumbies chief executive Michael Jones shared a sealed report.

Mr Jones settled his drawn-out dispute with the rugby club over his dismissal last month but he continued his case against the University of Canberra and several others in the ACT Supreme Court.

Former Brumbies chief executive Michael Jones has settled his dispute with the rugby club over his dismissal, but is continuing his case against the University of Canberra and others in the supreme court. Credit:Rohan Thomson

He's alleging they pressured the board to stand him down for blowing the whistle on financial irregularities with the sale of land at Griffith.

The KPMG report at the centre of the dispute remains under a suppression order and part of an ongoing AFP investigation.
San Francisco has leapt past New York as the most popular US destination for Australian business travellers as a result of the tech boom and Qantas' resumption of non-stop flights from Sydney.

Data from American Express Global Business Travel (GBT) bookings from March 2015 to April 2016 also shows a decline in Australian business travel to China amid tough times in the resources sector.

Qantas resumed flights from Sydney to San Francisco in December. Credit:iStock

GBT vice president and general manager Australia Jo Sully said travel to New York had not fallen, but there had been an increase in bookings for San Francisco.

"A lot of the tech-based companies are headquartered over there," she said. "That is obviously contributing to the increase in that sector. But also the direct flight Qantas has now really helps with the connectivity and it has helped our customers go there."
No less an authority than the New York Times labelled the 2007 float of Rams Home Loans by John Kinghorn as possibly "the worst initial public offering of the decade."

The venerable publication might have a new nominee for the current decade: Mark Rowsthorn's logistics disaster, McAleese.

Tuesday's announcement by the company confirmed that the shares held by its investors are basically worthless.

Investors are being asked to collectively cough up another $26 million cash as part of a capital raising which will see the group privatised.
The foreign ministry said on Wednesday that the incident involving allegations that an Egyptian diplomat called Sub-Saharan Africans "dogs" and "slaves" was over.

In a meeting with diplomatic correspondents in Cairo, the foreign ministry spokesman, Ahmed Abu Zeid, said that the Kenyan government assured Egypt of "its appreciation for its leading role in Africa".

The head of the Egyptian delegation was accused of making the comments last month at a United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) meeting in Kenya.

Abu Zeid added that the head of the African Diplomatic Corps Technical Committee Yvonne Khamati, who initially raised the accusation in late May, does not represent Kenya's official position towards Egypt.

Khamati had demanded that Egypt be banned from representing Africa in any official capacity.

The Egyptian foreign ministry demanded that Khamati resign from her position after conducting an investigation into the allegations, which the ministry said were proved to be false.

The Egyptian delegation at the UNEA meeting was headed by ambassador Hisham Shaeer, the assistant foreign minister for environment affairs and sustainable development.

Khamati is holding firm on her accusation and is refusing to resign.

"I am not resigning and we shall be in touch on that issue," Khamati said on her official Twitter account on Monday.

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Fortescue Metals Group chairman Andrew Forrest says the mining industry will learn from the "hard lessons" endured during the resources boom and allocate capital more responsibly in the future.

Referring to the findings of a PwC report released on Tuesday, Mr Forrest admitted the industry had recently endured tough conditions, including billions of dollars in write-downs, due to the decisions it made during the boom.

Andrew Forrest has been named WA Australian of the Year. Credit:Peter Braig

"Our efficiency of allocated capital has been called in to question by those who invest in our industries  and we have been marked down as we have been seen to really charge for supply quantity over supply value maximisation," he told the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies convention in Perth on Wednesday.

"We are now facing, I believe, a future that puts to rest what I believe is the negative transition path of the dominant current political and media narrative that the industry somehow is dying.
It took international student James Karki more than a year to find his first job in Australia after his arrival in 2009.

"It was impossible for me to get a job," he said. "Being an international student I could only work 20 hours a week."

But when he finally did find a job working for a restaurant in the Sydney suburb of Glebe for just $5 per hour, he felt like he was treated like a slave.

"It took a toll on me," he said.
One of Australia's top Islamic schools has been hit with heavy penalties of more than $150,000 after hiring teachers on illegal contracts and later tampering with evidence to cover up the wrongdoing.

The Australian International Academy of Education  formerly King Khalid College  was found to have violated workplace law by employing more than a dozen teachers on fixed-term contracts in 2012.

Salah Salman (brown jacket) was heavily criticised in the judgment. Credit:Michael Clayton-Jones

Salah Salman, the school's director-general and a member of the Order of Australia, was also condemned and personally penalised $2,200 for obstructing union officials seeking to inspect the teachers' contracts.

Imposed in the Federal Court on Wednesday, the fines are believed to be among the largest penalties ever ordered against a school in Australia.
Ready access to a doctor is a key measure of wellbeing. It used to be a rare occurrence for a doctor to pay a house call, but no longer. The advent of businesses offering an out-of-hours and bulk-billed doctor service allows anyone with an urgent but not life-threatening ailment the chance to make a simple telephone call and quickly receive medical attention. The community benefits.

The mobile doctor who travels to a patient's home poses a challenge for the traditional general practitioner, based in a clinic and open only during business hours. The after-hours option has been called the "Uberisation" of medicine in terms of the disruptive challenge to existing business models, but the opportunity offered for widespread access to medical services should be embraced.

The mobile doctor who travels to a patient's home poses a challenge for the traditional general practitioner.

The benefit is obvious; after-hours services fill a gap for people who feel so unwell they cannot wait until the next morning, or after the weekend, to seek treatment for themselves or a member of the family. Such patients had previously added to pressure on emergency departments in hospitals. Out-of-hours services offer viable alternative treatment. Having a doctor attend at home is also plainly more convenient.

But in the rush to respond to consumer demand, it is important to ensure the system is sustainable. Generous government rebates are offered for after-hours visits classified as "urgent"  up to $150, compared with $55 for a non-urgent visit, or $36 for a standard visit to a doctor's surgery. There is concern from some in the medical profession that this difference creates an incentive in favour of convenience rather than genuine need, and in turn, puts unreasonable pressure on scarce public health funding.
The NSW government has launched a $20 million fund to attract film and television with ambitious plans to poach a Star Wars movie or Game of Thrones as well as more Australian productions.

Flanked by a posse of Australian actors - Bryan Brown, Miranda Tapsell, Adrienne Pickering, Hunter Page-Lochard and Mandy McElhinney - Deputy Premier and Arts Minister Troy Grant said the fund was "a warning to the other states in Australia that we're taking you on and we're going to beat you."

Deputy Premier Troy Grant with actors, from left, Hunter Page-Lochard, Adrien Pickering, Bryan Brown, Mandy McElhinney and Miranda Tapsell. Credit:Peter Rae

While Ridley Scott's sci-fi thriller Alien: Covenant is shooting in Sydney, Queensland has attracted such recent mega-budget Hollywood productions as Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales and Thor: Ragnorak.
1. Sharapova to appeal "unfairly harsh ban"

The Russian star has been slapped with a two-year ban backdated to the Australian Open, where she tested positive for the drug meldonium. Sharapova insists she made a mistake and did not intentionally set out to cheat.

On her Facebook, the former world number one said: "I cannot accept an unfairly harsh two-year suspension," and said she would appeal the deicison. The ITP report does accept Sharapova took the drugs unintentionally but says she concealed her (legitimate) use of the drug before the 2016 ban from those around her, including her doctor and support team. "She is the sole author of her misfortune," the tribunal concluded.
You don't know it, but you might be one of the Liberal Party's largest donors.

A company Liberal MPs direct taxpayer funds towards to monitor voter behaviour has become a major source of income for the party, raising questions about whether taxpayers are indirectly donating to the Liberals.

Fairfax Media can reveal nearly all Liberal MPs pay a company, Parakeelia Pty Ltd, $2500 a year to use "Feedback" software, money understood to come from their taxpayer-funded office allowances.
Located on the northern bayside edge of Brisbane, Petrie lies mostly to the east of the Bruce Highway past Brisbane Airport and takes in mainly newer suburbs stretching up towards the Sunshine Coast and old Brisbane beach resorts like Scarborough, Redcliffe, Clontarf and all the suburbs on the Redcliffe Peninsula. Petrie has a relatively young population - the median age is 34 - and most of the working population is involved in service industry jobs. Youth unemployment has dropped slightly but generally, unemployment rates are above the national average and large pockets of low-income voters call in Labor when the going gets tough. In the 76 years since it was first created, Petrie has a reputation for sending good local members to Parliament who, by and large, spend much of their parliamentary lives shoring up support rather than ascending to the ministry. In 2016, it is the Coalition's most vulnerable seat. Team Turnbull holds Petrie with a margin of 0.5 per cent. The Liberal National Party's Luke Howarth, a former pest-control business owner, purloined the seat from Labor by just 435 votes in 2013. The Gillard/Rudd turmoil was Howarth's greatest vote-winner back then. Not this time.

Howarth is trying to put out of his mind that Petrie is on a knife edge and the fact that it has been a bellwether seat since 1987 when a Labor candidate ended the Liberal stranglehold on the back of Joh Bjelke-Petersen's foolish tilt at federal politics. "I'm just treating this as an election for a local seat and getting on with the campaign,' ' Mr Howarth says. "I just want to help the government win a second term." That said, the seat is being carpet-bombed by heavy hitters - Malcolm Turnbull, Barnaby Joyce, Julie Bishop and Michaelia Cash all hit town in successive days - but Mr Howarth still has to walk the line between national and local issues: the day Fairfax Media met him, he was listening to pilots and tourist operators moan about CASA and their fears that the sale of a large block abutting Redcliffe Aerodrome to the developer, Shortland, would eventually result in residents objecting to the airport in future. "Yes, of course local issues always matter and I'm hear to hear their stories and help out wherever I can," Mr Howarth says. "But the national issues we're pushing are cutting through - negative gearing, balancing the budget and illegal immigrants and boat arrivals, issues that Labor has been all over the shop about."
He has a lot on his mind as he awaits sentence for insider trading, but Oliver Curtis made sure not to forget wife Roxy Jacenko's 36th birthday on Wednesday.

The 30-year-old, who was found guilty last Thursday by a Supreme Court jury and could face the prospect of up to five years in prison when he is sentenced next Friday, made sure no expense was spared when he splashed out $5300 on a Cartier, 18k pink gold band with 22 diamonds totalling 0.13 carats.

Taking to her Instagram, the Sydney PR queen, who runs publicity company Sweaty Betty and blogger management agency The Ministry of Talent, tagged her husband of four years in the post marking her love and appreciation with a heart emoji.
The foreign ministry's spokesman talked to reporters about Ethiopia's controversial dam project, regional issues and ties with Europe

Egypt said studies currently being conducted on the hydrological and environmental impacts of Ethiopia's controversial Renaissance dam on downstream countries will be decisive in determining the dam's effect on the country, as Addis Ababa continues with its construction.

Foreign ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid told reporters Wednesday that the manner in which mega hydropower project is operated will show whether it poses any risk to downstream countries, including Egypt

He said that a French consultancy firm will evaluate the "dam's system of operation, water storage and period of storage".

"It is difficult to predict how the ongoing negotiations [with Ethiopia] will end," Abu Zeid said, adding that the talks aim to serve the interest of Ethiopia in its ambitions for hydropower generation as well as ensure Egypt's national security.

Abu Zeid also tackled Cairo's ties with Europe during Wednesday's meeting with local diplomatic reporters.

According to state news agency MENA, he said that Egypt's relations with Italy have seen "relative calm recently" after the torture and murder of Italian graduate student Giulio Regeni in Cairo strained ties between the two otherwise close nations.

Rome, he says, has decided to name a new envoy to Cairo as the investigation into Regeni's case continues.

Italy recalled its ambassador to Egypt in April after saying that Egyptian investigators had failed to provide satisfactory answers regarding Regeni's murder.



Egypt denied that its security apparatuses had a hand in the murder.

Abu Zeid also said that Egypt and France are pressing on with joint efforts to identify the location of the twin black box recorders of the EgyptAir flight that crashed into the Mediterranean last month.

On Russia, he described relations with Moscow as "strong and strategic," saying that technical teams from Russia were inspecting Egyptian Airports in preparation for resuming flights to Egypt. Russian flights were suspended late last year following the October 2015 crash of a Russian passenger plane that killed all 224 people on board.

Palestine and Libya

The spokesman also said that although the peace conference held in Paris earlier this month had not lived up to the hopes of Palestinians, it has succeeded in putting international spotlight" on the Palestinian issue.

The global gathering emphasised the "importance of a two-state solution and the need for direct negotiations" between the Palestinians and the Israelis, Abu Zeid said.

He added that Egypt was pressing on with its efforts to promote a "just, comprehensive" solution for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict with the help of Arab allies or through its stint at the UN Security Council.



On the civil conflict in Libya, Abu Zeid said the situation in Egypt's western neighbour was posing a threat to Cairo, adding that backing Libyas unity government is necessary to combat terrorism in Libya and stop the resulting flow of migrants to Europe.

He said that Cairo was throwing its weight behind demands by Libya's new unity government that a UN arms embargo be lifted to help take control of the chaos-stricken country.

On the proposed creation of a pan-Arab military force, first proposed in early 2015, Abu Zeid said that Arab countries were still considering the formation of the force to counter growing security threats in the region.

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Australian consumers are used to the offshore call centre when dealing with telcos. But would you expect your accountant to outsource your tax return to a cheap outfit overseas?

Many accountants in Australia are shifting large proportions of their operations offshore to countries like India and the Philippines where workers can be paid as little as $5 an hour to complete time-consuming compliance work.

Many Australians are paying a premium for their tax returns but are unaware the work is being outsourced offshore.

While legal, many consumers are unaware of this practice as they are not told who is personally processing their tax returns or handling the back end of their financial affairs. The only disclosure comes in the fine print buried within an engagement letter. This means many consumers are paying a premium for accounting services, without knowing that the person providing the service is based somewhere such as Bangalore, earning way below the Australian minimum wage.

Amanda Newton, of Melbourne's Negotiis Business Advisors and Accountants, has witnessed many accountants boast about boosting their profit margins by engaging offshore labour. She believes the practice is widespread in Australia, yet most clients remain unaware that it is occurring. Employing eight local staff including a graduate, Negotiis Advisors doesn't use offshore staff despite the considerable cost savings on offer.
She was assigned to teach 80 students at Sydney's Unique International College, but hairdressing teacher Penny Martin never heard from any of them, a court has heard.

They were some of the more than 2000 students that Unique International College recruited to its campus in Granville, while the college accrued more than $57 million in taxpayer funding.

Amarjit Singh, centre, outside the Federal Court on Wednesday.

On Wednesday, the college and its owner, Amarjit Singh, faced the Federal Court on a charge of unconscionable conduct in the first of a series of trials as the government attempts to reclaim more than $420 million in taxpayer funding from the vocational education sector.

The college is accused of recruiting disabled, illiterate students from Aboriginal missions and putting them into student debt worth tens of thousands of dollars through promises of free laptops.
A Queensland hospital board has refused to release the results of a report into the maternity ward at Rockhampton hospital prompted by four serious incidents in a year.

Management admitted the unit's systems and processes were not up to standard and had "contributed to poor patient outcomes".

One baby died and three were injured in 12 months at Rockhampton Hospital. Credit:Louie Douvis

The investigation was launched in March after a baby died and three others were injured during childbirth in the previous 12 months, including one with brain damage.

New mother Amanda Sheppard died at Rockhampton Hospital in May on what was supposed to be the happiest day of her life, with the incident since referred to the coroner.
"People would recall, what I think was quite a contrived survey done by the former government when they were trying to essentially push people into the assets sales approach, that was the Strong Choices program, but there was a clear response there from people that their preference ahead of asset sales was to consider looking at some taxes, the ones that would, not the focusing on, hurting the disadvantaged and vulnerable Queenslanders, but ones which would be focused on higher incomes or certainly looking at things like gambling tax. "We need to have a conversation with Queenslanders about where we see us going in the future. "I think people recognise that right now, the global economy and of course, everything that filters down from that, we are going to be seeing that we are going to be in for a few years of lower than expected growth internationally. "We have had both the OECD and [on Wednesday] the World Bank revising down their anticipated growth forecasts, so I think that says that you'll see subdued growth in most places. "Where Queensland is set apart from that of course, is that we have liquefied natural gas industry, where we have long term off-take contracts, so volumes are guaranteed over the life of those contracts, and we expect there will be some resurgence in some of the other resources."

Looking ahead, Mr Pitt said, there was some good news. But having juggled as much money as he can with existing budget funds  government debt was transferred onto the books of government-owned corporations last year, with plans flagged in last year's budget to raid the $10 billion defined benefit scheme is going ahead - Labor is also running out of options. "...The revenue question is an important one," he said. "We, of course, could have responded in this budget and said that we are going to massively raise taxes, fees and charges, because of the current climate. "We are trying to do everything we can to ensure we don't do that, to keep our commitments to Queenslanders and because we know, that the economy right now is fragile. "And we have to make sure that we make the right decision, both in terms of having the finances in a strong position while at the same time that we drive the economy.

"People should expect to see a budget that we will have a strong focus in innovation, investment in innovation and investment in infrastructure and those are the things that we will be delivering." Which means Queensland can expect changes in Labor's dialogue, although Mr Pitt said base tax rate increases are not the only thing on the agenda. "It would be remiss of our government not to have a conversation with people about what our future economic policy is and what our broader policies suite are," Mr Pitt said. "That is what sets us apart from the previous government, it is what sets Annastacia Palaszczuk apart from Campbell Newman and Tim Nicholls, who had a view of the world which is about telling people what they needed, as opposed to having a conversation with them and being consultative. "I have already indicated to you that we are going to have to have those conversations with people, we are not going to throw something at them and yell 'surprise', we are going to talk in a mature way, just as we have tried to do with the Commonwealth Government around tax reform.

"You have to have a mature conversation with people about where we are going to be heading in the future and what our priorities are. "But I will say this, we are going to be doing a range of things, including trying to aggressively target businesses to relocate to Queensland, we are also going to be trying to ensure that we lift our population growth in Queensland up to better levels than we are currently at. "By lifting our population and making Queensland a very attractive place to live and work, including espousing the benefits of our competitive tax regime, as well as of course, the significantly better housing affordability that we have compared to other states, we are going to provide people with that reason to come to Queensland. "That will improve our entire base and that is something we will be focusing our efforts on as well." As for next week, expect major spending in the regions, as the government tries to even up the discrepancy in economies between the city and the country  which will also help shore up votes outside of the south-east as the hung parliament enters the second half of its lifespan.

"The post mining economy in Queensland  it is an economy in transition, and obviously when you start looking at which parts of Queensland are performing better than others, one of the key drags on our unemployment numbers in Queensland, is regional Queensland," Mr Pitt said. "South-East Queensland broadly, particularly the Brisbane CBD and of course the Gold Coast in preparation for the Commonwealth Games, as well as Toowoomba, they are all travelling pretty well at the moment, but we do recognise that if we are going to make in-roads to our unemployment rate in Queensland, we have to focus on regional parts of the state." Mr Pitt said given the state's limited options, he would watch would interest to the Opposition's reply speech. "It will be very interesting to see what Mr Nicholls does in his reply," he said. "He was very strident in office to say this is your chance to put your ultimate plan out there  well, we know that Mr Nicholls doesn't like our defined benefit fund repatriation, in fact he has been very clear that he hates the policy.

"He certainly has not indicated that he wants to increase taxes, fees and charges, he has certainly would, I think, be very wary of sacking people and cutting services  the real question is, is he going to go back down the old asset sales line, be lazy and go down that approach, or are we going to see some sort of Frankenstein- privatisation model. "Either way, Mr Nicholls has very limited options, these are the options he himself talked about for three years being the only options. "Clearly, Queenslanders have rejected privatisation. We are sticking to our commitments, it will be fascinating to see what his response is after his [speech] is handed down." As for the flavour of this budget, which last year Mr Pitt described as "vanilla", he is leaving that up to voters. "I am not sure that the flavour of a budget is one of our economic indicators, but I think what people should expect to see is that this will have more variety than the previous budget, it is a more complex budget, so I will leave that to you to determine what the flavour may be," he said.
A university investigation into an academic, demoted after publishing research into racism on Brisbane buses, was so "infected by error" as to be useless, a workplace tribunal found.

A two-year long investigation by the University of Queensland found economist Professor Paul Frijters guilty of misconduct in sanctioning the research, which found strong evidence of discrimination against black people on Brisbane buses.

Professor Frijters and then-PhD-student Dr Redzo Mujcic found strong evidence of discrimination against black-skinned people on Brisbane buses. Credit:Michelle Smith

But on Wednesday, the Fair Work Commissioner declared the whole university investigation process was unreliable, saying the fairest course of action was to throw it out and start again.

Researcher Redzo Mujcic and PhD supervisor Professor Paul Frijters had volunteers attempt to board buses with a Go Card without credit.
A 24-year-old man accused of the alleged brazen sexual assault of a teenage girl at a shopping centre in Melbourne's north east "may be vulnerable" in custody due to the nature of the allegations against him, a court has heard.

Shane Christie, of South Morang, opted not to face court on Wednesday and did not apply for bail, after being arrested late on Tuesday night over the alleged attack.

Shane Christie, of South Morang, opted not to face court on Wednesday.

He was remanded in custody until July 6.

Police have alleged that Christie groped a 16-year-old girl at the South Morang shopping complex, about 4.30pm on Sunday.
They were found filthy, hungry and cramped together in small cages. Some of them were seriously sick.

Almost 120 small dogs and puppies were taken from an alleged puppy farm in Longwood in northern Victoria on Tuesday. Four dead dogs were also removed when two neighbouring properties were raided.

One of the raided breeders Heather Healey, an active show dog enthusiast with prize-winning dogs who runs the Euroa Kennel Club, is a former secretary of the Chihuahua Club of Victoria.

RSPCA Victoria took the Chihuahuas, Chinese Crested Dogs and Spaniels after its Special Investigations Unit raided the homes, helped by Victoria Police. They declined to say how many dogs were taken from each property.
Sexual crime squad detectives have arrested a fifth man in relation to the alleged rape of a 14-year-old girl in the Geelong suburb of St Albans Park on 1 November.



The 27-year-old Corio man handed himself into detectives on Tuesday afternoon, Victoria Police media officer Creina O'Grady said.



The man was charged with rape and abduction and has been remanded to appear at the Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Wednesday.

On Monday, Brodie Wild, 20, of Pimpama on the Gold Coast, appeared in Melbourne Magistrates Court on Monday, after he was extradited from Queensland on Sunday.

The Geelong park where the men allegedly abducted the girl.

His half-brothers, Allan Mark Wild, 29, of Mount Evelyn, and Kevin Andrew Wild, 28, of Olinda, both appeared in court on Saturday.

All four men are charged with one count of rape and one charge of abduction.
Detectives have announced a $100,000 reward for information about an attempted murder in Burnside, in Melbourne's west, last year.

Gym owner Nikolaos Solomos had just parked in the driveway of his Mockridge Avenue home about 5.40pm on May 21 when a masked gunman approached the driver's side of the car.

The gunman fled the scene in this dark-coloured Subaru.

The gunman fired two shots through the window, narrowly missing Mr Solomos, who escaped with only cuts and bruising from the shattered glass.

The offender then ran back to a waiting car and fled the scene.
Mr Virgona died in February, four days after turning down the kidney dialysis that had kept him alive for the past three years. In the weeks before his death the 55-year-old spoke to The Sunday Age about his decision to refuse medical treatment in the knowledge it would lead to his death.

Anthony Virgona, an advocate for voluntary euthanasia and end-of-life choices for the terminally ill and severely disabled, was posthumously awarded the Sir Louis Pyke Award by Multiple Sclerosis Victoria for his work as an ambassador for the MS cause.

A Melbourne man who died after refusing life-prolonging medical treatment for multiple sclerosis has been recognised for his services to the MS community.

Mr Virgona, who had suffered from the crippling degenerative condition for two decades, had lost almost all autonomy  including the ability to walk, bathe and feed himself  and feared deteriorating to the point where he could not advocate for himself.

"I've been fighting this disease for 20 years and I've just had enough," he said at the time. "People who are in a position like me, people with cancer, people who are dying or deteriorating, we should have the right to make a choice whether we go on and we should be able to go peacefully."

Mr Virgona was recognised for his commitment to the MS community as the recipient of the Sir Louis Pyke Award. Sir Louis Pyke was a philanthropist and Multiple Sclerosis board member whose wife had MS. The award is given to one person each year who has made a significant contribution to people living with multiple sclerosis, their families or carers.

Multiple Sclerosis chief executive Robyn Hunter said Mr Virgona worked tirelessly to raise awareness about MS and support the everyday practical concerns of people living with the disease.

"Anthony was inspiring, caring and made a significant contribution to helping others through his willingness to share his own experiences and challenges with multiple sclerosis and by providing information to others," Ms Hunter said. "It is an absolute honour to award him the Sir Louis Pyke award posthumously."
Three people were killed and dozens injured in a car bombing Wednesday at a police station in southeast Turkey, a day after 11 people were killed in an attack on police in Istanbul.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim blamed the attack on the "killer PKK", referring to the outlawed rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party.

"We will fight them both in urban centres and rural areas with determination," he vowed.

Turkey remains on high alert after multiple attacks on its soil that have killed well over 200 people in the past year and have been blamed on, or claimed by, Kurdish militants and Islamic State (IS) jihadists.

Images carried by Turkish media showed a massive plume of black smoke rising from the rubble of the severely damaged police station in the town of Midyat near the Syrian border.

The windows of houses in the neighbourhood were shattered by the force of the blast.

Yildirim said one police officer and two civilians have been confirmed dead so far while 30 people were injured.

The police station blast comes a day after a bombing in the heart of Istanbul killed 11 people, including several police, the latest in a spate of attacks in Turkey's largest city.

The government on Wednesday put the toll at six officers and five civilians.

There was no claim of responsibility for the Istanbul bombing but President Recep Tayyip Erdogan too suggested that Kurdish militants were behind it.

Yildirim on Wednesday attended the funeral at an Istanbul mosque of police officers killed Tuesday. He was alongside former president Abdullah Gul and opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu.

Coffins of fallen officers were draped with red and white Turkish flags as mourners shouted: "Damn terror" and "Martyrs never die and the homeland will never be divided."

A group of mourners protested Kilicdaroglu, who heads the secular Republican People's Party (CHP), tearing a wreath he had laid for the victims.

"You are a killer!" mourners shouted at Kilicdaroglu, according to Turkish television.

Kilicdaroglu has been accused in some quarters of failing to give enough support to the government's Kurdish policy.

The Turkish premier later visited the blast scene in Istanbul's Beyazit district and spoke with shopkeepers.

Some damaged buildings in the area were covered with white tarps and Turkish flags were hanging over some apartments, an AFP video journalist reported.

Turkey has been on edge for months after a string of deadly attacks.

A radical splinter group of the PKK, the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), claimed responsibility for two bombings in Ankara earlier this year that killed dozens of people.

Violence flared last year between Kurdish rebels and government forces, shattering a 2013 ceasefire reached after secret talks between PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan and the Turkish state.

Turkey has been waging an intense offensive against the PKK, deploying tanks in several towns in the southeast in recent months to "cleanse" them of rebel elements.

Activists have accused the security forces of causing huge destruction and killing civilians.

But the government says the operations are essential for public safety, blaming the PKK -- listed as a terror group by Ankara and its Western allies -- for the damage.

Erdogan late Tuesday signed into law a reform lifting immunity for lawmakers, in a move critics believe is aimed at evicting pro-Kurdish MPs from parliament.

Erdogan's government sees the Peoples' Democracy Party (HDP) as a political front for the PKK.

Over 40,000 people have been killed since the PKK took up arms in 1984 demanding an independent state for Kurds. Since then the group has narrowed its demands to greater autonomy and cultural rights.

NATO-member Turkey is also a member of the US-led coalition fighting the IS group, which controls large swathes of territory in neighbouring Syria and Iraq.

Ankara blames the jihadists for two suicide blasts in Istanbul this year, in which a total of 15 tourists were killed.

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A new documentary has exposed the dark side of a pub notorious across the West Australian outback, where new waitresses are regarded by predatory locals as "fresh meat".

Hotel Coolgardie, screening on Friday at the Sydney Film Festival, tells the story of the breathtaking abuse two Finnish backpackers copped while working as barmaids at Coolgardie's Denver City Hotel.

The film depicts a Coolgardie a bit behind the times, to put it mildly.

"On a dusty highway between Australia's most isolated city and its largest gold pit lies Coolgardie  where the arrival every three months of a new pair of foreign backpackers to work the only bar in town is a keenly anticipated event," the film's synopsis reads.

"Lina and Steph find themselves en route to a dot on the map  to pour beers, replenish depleted travel funds, and live amongst the locals. But their working holiday quickly deteriorates.
London: David Cameron will intervene on behalf of the millennials he is relying on to save his Prime Ministership and to stop Britain from exiting the European Union, by rushing through legislation to allow voters to continue registering to vote after a last minute surge caused the official website to crash.

Fifty thousand voters who left it until the last minute to register to vote in the June 23 referendum crashed the official website on Tuesday night GMT, just hours before the midnight cut-off, sparking a flood of complaints to the gov.uk websites and local MPs.

An unprecedented 525,000 voters applied to vote on Tuesday, beating the previous highest record for applications on deadline day of 485,000 before the 2015 general election.
Local media reported migrants, mainly men, have been housed in the spare building since late last year. While Building 18 was officially hosting 160 migrants, more than 250 were reportedly evacuated by fire crews.

German police have arrested a number of refugees after a building sheltering some 160 asylum seekers on the grounds of the Dusseldorf Exhibition Centre was destroyed by fire on Tuesday.

It took more than 70 firefighters to bring the blaze under control, The Wall Street Journal reported. The cause of the blaze has not been identified.

Joerg Schmitter, spokesman of the local fire department, told The Associated Press the fire started shortly after noon on Tuesday. He said that all people who had been in the hall appeared to have made it out.

A plane flies past as firefighters work to extinguish a blaze that destroyed a migrant shelter in Dusseldorf on Tuesday. Credit:DPA/AP

The exhibition complex is currently hosting Drupa, a major international trade fair visited by an estimated 300,000 people, including dozens of Australian printers, graphics industry professionals and business executives.

Local media reported two migrants had been arrested and up to six were being questioned by police.
Berlin: Migrants in Germany have committed or tried to commit some 69,000 crimes in the first quarter of 2016, according to a police report that could raise further unease about immigration in Europe.

There was a record influx of more than 1 million migrants into Germany last year and concerns are now widespread about how Europe's largest economy will manage to integrate them and ensure security.

Migrants sit on the dock in Augusta on the island of Sicily, Italy, after disembarking from the Norwegian ship that rescued them. Credit:AP

The report from the BKA federal police showed that migrants from northern Africa, Georgia and Serbia were disproportionately represented among the suspects.
/CNW Telbec/ - The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) is proud to announce that one of its former executives, Dr. David Kendall, has been appointed to chair the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UN COPUOS) for the next two years. This is the first time that a Canadian will chair the Committee.

LONGUEUIL, QC, June 8, 2016 Dr. Kendall has nearly 40 years of experience in the space sector. He joined the CSA upon its creation in 1989 and held various positions, beginning as a research scientist before becoming Director General of the Space Science directorate in 2004. Until 2014, Dr. Kendall was Senior Executive Advisor to the President. His knowledge and experience will be incredibly valuable as he takes on the role of Chair. He will continue to build upon the reputation that Canada has earned within the Committee through its leadership in key initiatives such as Global Health and Space Weather, as well as the mitigation of Space Debris.

Dr. Kendall's educational experiences include a Bachelor of Science in Physics (Honours) from Swansea University (United Kingdom), as well as a Master of Science in Atmospheric Physics, and a PhD in Atmospheric Physics, both from University of Calgary. Dr. Kendall, who joined the Canadian delegation to COPUOS in 2008, has also been a longstanding faculty member of the International Space University.

Canada is a founding member of the UN COPUOS, and our continued participation is ensured through the coordinated efforts of Global Affairs Canada and the Canadian Space Agency. Through consultation with other government departments, the Canadian delegation represents our national interests and policy positions at the COPUOS and its subcommittee sessions.

Quotes

"I am very pleased and proud to assume the Chairmanship of the Committee. My chief objective will be to help the Committee advance measures that will assure the long-term sustainability of outer space activities for the benefit of all nations and especially for future generations. For more than half a century, space has played a major role in the development of Canada and it is essential that we preserve our capacity to access and use space to continue supporting our society."

David Kendall, Chair, UN COPUOS (2016-17)

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United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space

Twitter: @csa_asc

Follow us on Social Media

Website: http://asc-csa.gc.ca





SOURCE Canadian Space Agency

CONTACT: Canadian Space Agency, Media Relations Office, Telephone: 450-926-4370

RELATED LINKShttp://www.asc-csa.gc.ca
A former senior official in the Reagan administration and prominent Republican foreign policy insider told Reuters he provided input for the late-April foreign policy speech by Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

"I was asked to contribute material" for Trump's April 27 speech at the Center for the National Interest, a Washington, D.C., think tank, said Richard Burt.

Burt said he is not part of Trump's campaign.

"But I am happy to talk to people looking for advice on foreign policy issues," said Burt, a managing director of McLarty Associates, a Washington-based consulting firm co-founded by former President Bill Clinton's White House chief of staff and counselor Thomas "Mack" McLarty.

Burt said he also would be willing to offer foreign policy advice to Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, if she asked for such advice, though he added, "She's not going to."

Burt is also chairman of Global Zero, an independent group devoted to ridding the world of nuclear weapons. Trump told The New York Times in April that he was not sure it would be "a bad thing" for the United States if Japan had nuclear weapons, and has said the same about South Korea and Saudi Arabia.

Burt said the main theme he talked about to Trump was the need for the United States to pursue a "more realist foreign policy," in which the United States would avoid seeking "regime change" abroad, and instead make protecting the United States and its interests the main policy goal.

Trump, who became the Republican's presumptive nominee last month after the last of his challengers dropped from the party's race, articulated this theme again in a campaign speech late on Tuesday, as he claimed victory in the last Republican nominating contests.

Under Reagan, Burt headed the State Department's Bureau of Political-Military Affairs and then its European and Canadian Affairs bureau and served as U.S. ambassador to Germany from 1985 to 1989.

Some of Burt's contemporaries from the administrations of Presidents Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, have publicly denounced Trump's foreign policy views or remained mute.

Earlier this year, Trump met with a group of 11 foreign policy advisers, headed by Republican Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, one of Trump's most outspoken supporters.

Reuters sought comment on the recent activities of Trump's foreign policy team from several of its members and from a campaign spokeswoman. Most declined to comment, and the campaign did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

One campaign team member, who asked for anonymity because he is not authorized to comment publicly, said that while the team had held several discussions since Trump's speech, the candidate remains his own most important foreign policy adviser.

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The award winning film screened across the world and opened the Luxor Arab and European Film Festival earlier this year. 3000 Nights is currently screening in Beirut

In a recent interview with Reuters Arabic, Palestinian director Mai Masri spoke about the particularities of her recent award-winning film 3000 Nights.

The film is co-produced by Palestine, France, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Lebanon, and is currently screening at the Metropolis Cinema in Beirut.

It centres on Layal, a young newly wed Palestinian schoolteacher who is jailed in a top-security Israeli prison where she eventually gives birth.

Speaking to Reuters Arabic, Masri explained that the film was based on the real story of a Palestinian woman she had met as she was filming one of her films in her hometown of Nablus during the first Intifada.



She affirmed that she gave birth to her son inside an Israeli jail, explained Masri.

I was very moved by her story, especially as she recounted that she gave birth as she was tied up, and how she raised her son behind bars."

Inspired to mold the womans story into a film project, Masri began meeting with other Palestinian female prisoners, and I found out that some of them had lived the same experience of giving birth in jail.

The film was shot in a real prison, without any set decor, as a way of preserving the film's authenticity.

I have to confess that filming [3000 Nights] inside a real prison gave the story, and the actresses performance, much credibility. We placed the women in a framework which reflects [real] prison to reinforce this state of incarceration, Masri explained.

The prison where we filmed [3000 Nights] is an allegory to the circumstances in which each Palestinian lives, [especially given how] around one million Palestinians were held in Israeli jails, she added.

Masri also discussed the filmic style, explaining how the [films] background sounds are a real reflection of the voices you really hear in jail. For example, cell doors being shut, the jingle of iron chains, and so on. I believe that these sounds gave the film multiple dimensions, Masri added.

Of her message behind 3000 Nights, Masri asserted that I want the audience to be touched by the strong human touch which dominates [the film], and be inspired to contribute to change in their own way, just as I was inspired when I listened to [Palestinian] women recount their stories in Israeli jails.

3000 Nights made its world premiere in September 2015 at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). It then made its Arab world premiere in December 2015 as part of the Dubai International Film Festivals 12th edition where it participated in the Muhr Arab Feature Films Competition.

The film also toured across Palestine right after its US premiere as part of the Palm Springs International Film Festival in early January.

In February, 3,000 Nights was shown at the European Film Market at the Berlin International Film Festival.

The film was screened in Egypt earlier this year, when it was chosen to open the Luxor Arab and European Film Festival, an event that took place between 30 January and 5 February.

It was also released at Cairo's Zawya art-house cinema in May.

For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter at @AhramOnlineArts and on Facebook at Ahram Online: Arts & Culture

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Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 08/06/2016 (2331 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

One Hanover School Division trustee struggled to find her composure Tuesday when she recalled the time a father told her he would do to his child if he ever came out as gay.

I had a parent approach me in a public venue, surrounded by around 20 people, and boldly tell me that if he had a gay kid, he would take him in the basement and fix that, said Cyndy Friesen of a conversation three years ago during the heated debate over the provinces anti-bullying legislation, Bill 18. Her story drew an audible gasp from one person in the crowd and helped illustrate the ongoing conflict over LGBTQ acceptance in Steinbach and surrounding area and why Friesen feels the division should do more. Not all parents, she said, are accepting, and for some kids a school is their own safe space.

We would like to believe that all our kids have unconditional love and support from their parents, but the reality is that this isnt always the case, she told the boardroom.

IAN FROESE | THE CARILLON Trustee Rick Peters, bottom right, speaks as a packed house take in the Hanover School Board meeting Tuesday night that delved into the hotly-contested topic of LGBT acceptance within division schools.

Each of Hanovers nine trustees said their piece Tuesday night in response to a student request last month that the division revise its guidelines treating homosexuality as a sensitive concern not be broached as a classroom subject until high school. 160 people lined the walls of the board room for the public meeting while others huddled in the lobby. The discussion lasted 75 minutes.

Friesen and her colleague Ruby Wiens supported Steinbach Regional Secondary School Grade 12 student Mika Schellenbergs appeal, but a majority of trustees appeared not in favour of changes including board chair Ron Falk, vice-chair Rick Peters and fellow trustees Sarah Dyck, Lynn Barkman, Sue Doerksen and Shannon Friesen. Trustee Brad Unger did not explicitly indicate his stance but said the two conflicting sides need to have a more respectful dialogue.

Falk said a formal response to Schellenberg would be deferred to a later date. In an interview afterwards Falk explained the board would send a letter to Schellenberg, summarizing much of what was said Tuesday. He expressed a formal vote is not necessary in this case. I dont feel an overarching desire to have a vote, he said.

Of the trustees who suggested no changes were necessary, most commended Schellenberg for her courage and said though they respect her wishes, but didnt think the division should change because of one person.

Rick Peters said even though he disagrees with Schellenberg he should not be labelled homophobic. He said a phobia signals a fear and he is not scared of LGBT people. I simply dont agree with that lifestyle, he said.

Peters said 85-90 percent of the emails receivedas well as all phone calls and in-person conversations hes hadhave endorsed the divisions current practice.

He disagreed with Schellenberg who argued it is not acceptable for schools to inform a parent or guardian when a child asks questions about sexual orientation, which may potentially out them to family that doesnt approve.

Removing the parents, and asking our teachers to not discuss things related to their children is going down the path of residential schools, a mess the government is now starting to work its way out of, he said.

Peters added that students, especially those in middle school, are not mentally prepared to comprehend the complexities of sexual preferences.

Lynn Barkman said she totally agreed with Peters.

HSD teachers, students and their parents know that our culture is changing, that does not suggest that we should abandon truth, said Barkman.

Speaking in her capacity as a health care professional, Barkman linked the rise of sexual education in Toronto schools, which she said broke her heart, to a heightened risk for cancer.

I just feel that there is enough cancer around and the increase in cancer is phenomenal, she said.

Sarah Dyck argued teachers shouldnt be muzzled if a student talks about their same-sex parents. Those are our families and we can talk about our families in our classes, she said.

But, she wouldnt go so far as to say teachers should facilitate those discussions. Dyck said they should adhere to the mandate set by the province, adding teachers already have lots to teach in a tight schedule.

Dyck disagreed with Peters that parents should be informed of conversations a student may have with a teacher about sexual orientation. She said parents should be kept in the loop but it doesnt need to be an outing.

Sue Doerksen said bringing up matters of sexual orientation in every grade level is at odds with the values of the majority in the communities they were elected to represent.

She said they cannot educate students about religion at every class or grade level, so matters of sexual orientation and gender identity should not be singled out and afforded beneficial treatment.

Doerksen is grateful the Winnipeg School Divisions (WSD) policy demonstrates an appreciation of LGBT individuals but did not like that classroom activities and material are asked to reflect this.

Thats almost bordering on indoctrination if we are enforcing that in all of our children and putting that in their lives constantly, thats not fair, she said.

Shannon Friesen also felt adopting WSD policy, which ensures curriculum and instruction demonstrate an acceptance of students from all backgrounds including sexual orientation, was not the right way to go. She suggested however changes to their in-house policy should perhaps be considered.

Board chair Ron Falk challenged some of the criticism that has characterized HSD as behind the times for not unanimously endorsing this. Parent Michelle McHale initially made a similar request of the board in April. The board rejected it two weeks later.

He said, like the WSD policies some people are so enamoured by, HSD also places an importance on diversity and equality education.

This is exactly what weve been saying for the last two months; however, when HSD says this somehow it becomes narrow-minded thinking and we are accused by some of only following the basics of what were required to do, he said.

Provincial curriculum allows flexibility on when LGBT people can be discussed in class. Teaching the subject at all grade levels like in Winnipeg is allowed, same as HSD where the matter is only part of high school curriculum. The provinces health curriculum has been in place since the early 2000s.

Falk said sexual orientation and gender identity is only one of several topics deemed as sensitive.

We cannot change the curriculum simply because somebody would like us to advance a personal agenda, he said.

Rational and fair to talk homosexuality

Two trustees endorsed what Schellenberg and McHale campaigned for.

Ruby Wiens said it is rational and fair that both heterosexuality and homosexuality be addressed whenever human sexuality is brought up in class.

She deemed it irresponsible to say students are not already learning about this subject outside the home.

The question is not whether to educate or not, the question is really whether we want education to come from people who have prepared for that role and actually care about the children or do we want to leave it to mass media and other children.

Wiens felt informing parents when their child asks about this subject omits the reality that not all students come home to supportive environments.

Wed be naive to believe there arent seriously negative attitudes and stereotypes within our communities that discriminate against our LGBTQ students, she said, explaining HSD can lead by example by changing its policy to show all their students are welcome.

Friesen suggested, as McHale initially did, that withholding information about LGBTQ individuals and telling students any questions they have can be answered after class violates the Human Rights Code. Friesen indicated not permitting discussion in class is considered differential treatment of an individual and is thus discriminatory.

She also said forcing teachers to talk to parents when a child discusses sexual orientation the division may also be violating the Manitoba Teachers Societys code of professional conduct, which reads that student disclosures are kept private except only to tell authorized personnel or agencies directly concerned with the individuals students welfare.

Though current HSD guidelines follow provincial curriculum it doesnt mean the division cannot do a better job, Friesen argued.

Our mission statement states that we strive for excellence but when it comes to health education we are teaching the minimum required, said Friesen. Are we doing our kids any favours by this?
LONDON  The most eagerly awaited play in modern theatrical history has begun with a bang, a whizz, and plenty of shocking plot twists.

Just a few hundred people now know what happened to Harry, Hermione, and Ron in the decades after leaving Hogwarts.

All three characters and their children star in the eighth installment of the Harry Potter series, which J.K. Rowling has chosen to present as a live theatrical production in London.

Harrys denouement, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, is so epic that it will be performed in two parts. Part I played to a paying audience for the first time on Tuesday and induced squeals, gasps, and laughter, according to the Harry Potter super fans who secured tickets. They will have to wait until Thursday to see the second 2 1/2-hour show.

The play starts with the same scene that ends the books and filmsHarry Potter is on Platform 9 3/4 at Kings Cross station in London, waving his son Albus off to Hogwarts for the first time.

Rowling herself, who has asked the audience to keep the plot secret, hinted that Scorpius, the son of Draco Malfoy, would also play a prominent role.

I was totally surprised by the story, said Anna Sampson, 28, one of the lucky people who saw the first night. The special effects really do make it magical.

The actors are hurled about on wires, sometimes vanishing into a puff of smoke and transforming into one another. A real owl even swoops over the audience.

The only real first-night hiccup saw the owl escape from its handler and spend the end of the first half flapping around the auditorium.

Samantha Kent, who was dressed in a Hogwarts school uniform, had come down from Birmingham to see the show. The choreography and stagecraft was stunning, she said.

The 26-year-old Harry Potter fan-fiction writer said she had spent years imagining what might have happened to Harry and his friends. I kind of had an idea how it would go, she said. I was completely wrong!

One plot shock gives rise to an entirely new Harry Potter symbol. Im going to have to get a new tattoo, said Kent, motioning toward the deathly hallows, snitch, and dark mark already inked into her left forearm.

The play was written by Jack Thorne and its described as being based on a story by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne, and John Tiffany. Rowling may not have written the script herself, but she was closely involved throughout.

I would say its assisted and approved fan fiction, said Kent, an expert in the genre.

The story will be published as a book at the end of July, to coincide with the shows official first night after eight weeks of previews. Harry Potter fans unable to get their hands on the most sought-after tickets in West End history will have to wait.

Before the show opened, there was a furor about the casting of an award-winning black actress to play Hermione Granger, but Rowling has vigorously defended that decision, and the audience agreed unanimously that Noma Dumezweni was spectacular.

Chris Bewsher, 18, and his mother, Amanda, from North Wales, said the new play was better than the Hollywood interpretation. It now goes books, play, movies, in that order, said the student.

Stuart Williams, 27, said he was surprised by how often he had laughed. The films got progressively darker, but there was always humor in the books. It was a lot funnier than I expected, he said.

It was also more shockingwith a genuinely gasp-inducing surprise at the end of Part I. That was a good cliffhanger, Williams said.

One theatergoer, who asked to remain anonymous, warned Harry Potter fans that the twist may force them to imagine the impossible.
Lay down with dogs, wake up with fleas. And the more time you spends next to bigots, the harder it is to get the stench out of your clothes.

Nationally, Republicans are dealing with this as they mostly hold their noses and get behind the partys nominee, Donald J. Trump, even as they start condemning the racist stuff their candidate keeps saying.

Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-New Hampshire) is one of a handful who have said they will support the partys nominee, but dont want that construed as an endorsement. In other words, despite calling him out for racist comments about a federal judge in California, shes treating Trump with a long-handled spoon.

Down ballot, though, rank-and-file Republicans are starting to walk quietly away. Consider Georgia, once thought to be a strong red state, one whose last three Democratic governors were among the bluest blue dogs the south has ever known. Several ranking Republican state officials took a pass at a convention delegate slot, meaning they wont have to sign their name under Trumps. Some are instead attending the GOP convention as guests, while others, like two-term Gov. Nathan Deal, say they may skip the trip altogether.

Deal, a former congressman who was initially elected to the House as a Democrat until he flipped in 1995, appears to have whipped out his own spoon. He wont say whether hell go the to convention and his name is curiously missing from the slate of 31 delegates and alternates elected at the state conventions.

Governors, for the uninitiated, are typically shoe-ins as delegates and rarely do they demur.

There are a total of 76 people in the Georgia contingent, but the bulk of the partys leadership were either bypassed or took a pass at a delegate slot, says Atlanta Journal Constitution writer Greg Bluestein. Among those choosing to opt-out are Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and House Speaker David Ralston. Both are party loyalists but, unlike Deal, their political ambitions wont likely end with their current terms. Due to term limits, Deal wont face voters again. Thus, there was likely little political danger in being seated as a delegate.

Secretary of State Brian Kemp, U.S. Sens. David Perdue and Johnny Isakson will all go as guests, but none of them are listed among the official delegates.

Reports Bluestein: The only statewide elected officials Georgia is sending to Cleveland as part of its contingent of 76 delegates are Public Service Commissioner Bubba McDonald, an early Donald Trump supporter, and Attorney General Sam Olens, who endorsed Jeb Bush at the outset of the race. Only a few politiciansincluding Sens. Josh McKoon, Michael Williams and David Shafer, and state Rep. Ed Rynders of Albanyare on the list.

Its important to note that Trump won the Georgias open primary, handily, with almost 40 percent of the vote and many who opposed him in the primary have now either endorsed him outright or are still walking around with that spoon in their back pocket.

So whats holding them back?

Political prognosticators point to the fact that Georgia was blue (at least a pale shade of it) 20 years ago. Yes, Republicans now hold the governors mansion, both chambers of the statehouse and every statewide elected post. But the demographics are swiftly changing. Georgia was once the third largest state for migrating Hispanics and Latinos and the lions share are of Mexican descent.

Despite draconian laws aimed at driving undocumented immigrants out of the state, the number of legal citizen of Hispanic or Latino heritage and who are of voting age continues to swell. In 2011, before the governor HB 87, the Pew Hispanic Center estimated that 425,000 undocumented immigrants lived in Georgia.

The move triggered an estimated $140 million in agricultural losses. Crops literally rotted in the fields, due to a lack of farm labor. But many believe that was an unintended consequence, and that the real goal was to keep the growing number of Hispanics and their native born children, who were coming of age, out of the voting booth. Nearly 40 percent of all immigrants living in Georgia were naturalized citizens in 2013meaning the adults are eligible to vote. While only, 7.4 percent were registered voters, at the time of the survey, that is expected to change. Every possible voter ID law has been passed and the DMV has tough new requirements to get a drivers license, but none of it is working out the way state Republican lawmakers planned.

The levee will break. The question is when. Republicans see the demographic threat coming. And Trumps ugly rhetorical flourishes about immigrants could be what breaks the dam.

When Mexico sends its people, theyre not sending their best he said in his June 2016 announcement speech. Theyre sending people that have lots of problems, and theyre bringing those problems with us. Theyre bringing drugs. Theyre bringing crime. Theyre rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.

And last week, months after chowing down on a taco salad in honor of Cinco de Mayo, Trump attacked a sitting federal judge on the basis of his ethnic background. He has repeatedly said that Gonzalo Curiel, an Indiana native who is overseeing two class-action lawsuits against the now defunct Trump University, cannot be impartial and has made a number of bad rulings because he is Mexican and, according to Trump, Im building a wall.

For their part, no one in the state GOP leadership has anything to say about Trumps increasingly racist rhetoric, including publicly calling a black man my African American during a campaign rally.

Whether we had a different choice, it doesnt matter, Lt. Gov. Cagle told state convention attendees over the weekend. Because some things are more important than our personal feelings. And when it comes to the next Supreme Court justice, its not going to be a one-year issue, a two-year issue. Its going to be decades.

Maybe hes afraid of being captured on a videotape that might make it into a future campaign ad, but Caglelike a lot of other Georgia leadersrefuses to say Trumps name out loud. To the contrary, Sen. Perduewho apparently isnt afraid of fleas and doesnt own a long-handled spoon, proudly put on Trumps signature red cap like he was donning Supermans cape.

He can help us lead again. But he can also help make America great again, Perdue told the crowd.

Even so, Perdue is not an official delegate to the convention.

Like Ayotte, Deal has not formally endorsed Trump but issued a familiar refrain: Hell support the GOP nominee. Deal, who once bucked his party by vetoing a so-called religious liberty bill and campus carry legislation, must be wondering what this may all mean come November.

Thats plenty of time for state Democrats to close the party registration gap among naturalized citizens. And, if they do, it could be enough to turn Georgia blue.

Maybe the Georgia GOP should get into the spoon making business before its too late.
The eighth session of the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) in Beijing on June 6 and 7 received more than the usual attention amid signs of increased tension between the two countries.

In addition to tensions over disputed islands and reefs in the South China Sea, friction has been generated in recent months by China's attempt to be recognized as a "market economy" and America's plan to deploy an anti-missile system in South Korea. Anti-China rhetoric spilling over from the U.S. presidential campaign has also fueled tension.

But relations between the world's two largest economies must not be held hostage by these problems. This point was recently made clear by the Chinese ambassador to the United States, Cui Tiankai. We fully believe in the merits of his argument.

The China-U.S. bilateral relationship has matured to a point where neither country can hurt the other without inflicting damage on itself. The line between cooperation and conflict, however, is constantly adjusting to reflect the dynamics of a fast-changing external environment and domestic politics.

Regardless of how the line changes, though, each government has agreed  and should maintain this key position  that strengthening cooperation yields more benefits for all than does dwelling on diversions and friction points.

Trade, above all, has always played a key role in China-U.S. relations. Many issues raised for discussion by U.S. delegates at the S&ED are also at the top of the Chinese government's list of concerns. Dealt with properly, these issues could serve as a starting point for further improvements in the bilateral relationship.

The U.S. government, for example, has viewed the dialogue as a "critical venue" for its officials to emphasize the important point that China should "make an orderly transition to a market-determined exchange rate," especially in light of the recent decline of the yuan's value against the U.S. dollar. Monetary policies in each country carry global consequences and should be carefully thought out and implemented based on considerations of not only domestic conditions but also their likely impact on other nations.

While both countries agree more reform is needed for the yuan's exchange rate system, the pace and details of reform-related activities must be communicated in a timely manner to prevent misunderstandings.

At this year's S&ED, Chinese and U.S. officials clashed over a Chinese government-backed push to trim excess capacity in some manufacturing industries.

After American steelmakers lost out to less expensive imports from China, the U.S. government responded in May by slapping a more than five-fold increase in tariffs on Chinese-made cold-rolled steel products. Washington argued Chinese steel was being sold at below-market prices. The government also launched an investigation targeting 40 Chinese steelmakers to determine whether any violated a 1930 trade law.

Protectionist sentiments are obviously on the rise in the United States, which means it's entirely possible that whoever becomes the next U.S. president will take a harder line against China on trade policies.

The Chinese government must navigate delicately, pushing ahead with its supply-side reform campaign and continuing to reduce excess capacity as needed while taking all possible diplomatic and legal means to protect the interests of Chinese enterprises.

Regarding bilateral investments, the Chinese government released in March a policy for implementing a negative list approach in four areas on a trial basis. That was a big step toward allaying foreign investor complaints about not being fairly treated in China. These complaints have been a major obstacle to negotiations between the Chinese and U.S. governments on a proposed Bilateral Investment Treaty. More progress is needed along this line, and the U.S. government in turn needs to make concessions to meet China halfway.

Another area for working together could revolve around setting up a yuan trading center in the United States. Such a center would apparently fit China's plan to increase the use of the yuan overseas and would let U.S. investors share the benefits of the yuan's globalization.

It's important for officials in each country to cultivate an attitude that's both cooperative and pragmatic. Bilateral relations between China and the United States hinge on the ability of decision makers in each country to look beyond short-term interests and focus on the big picture. Doing so requires good communication skills  the kind of that can improve through the S&ED and other bilateral negotiations.

Hu Shuli is the editor-in-chief of Caixin Media
Twenty-four hours after Ben Sasse told Nebraskas Lincoln Journal Star, on Sunday, the Libertarian Party is something I would certainly consider in the long term, he apparently googled its nominee, Gary Johnson.

Notes for October: Johnson is pro-abortion, pro-exec overreach, bad on religious liberty & naive on national security. Otherwise solid, Sasse t weeted Monday afternoon. He added, SMH, internet parlance for shaking my head.

As others in his Party have sucked it up and endorsed Donald Trump, who was once a Democrat and friend of Bill and Hillary Clinton, Sasse, the Republican Senator from Nebraska, has remained a vocal and unrelenting critic, which has upped his profile and led some to chatter about an independent Sasse candidacy.

But Sasse, like so many conservatives who disapprove of Trump, will not find solace in the most prominent third-party alternativebecause the most prominent third-party cant even satisfy the people who consider themselves libertarians. Sasses apparent surprise and disgust upon finding out what Johnson believes is in some way a microcosm of the challenge ahead for the Libertarian ticket.

The old saying in politics is that Democrats fall in love while Republicans fall in line.

But theres an old saying in libertarianism, too: organizing them is like herding cats.

Its not just a matter of Sasse being a Republican who is ideologically opposed to many Libertarian ideasplenty of Libertarians feel the same way about Johnsons candidacy.

Its the same infighting and obsession with purity that paralyzed the liberty movement, thwarting Rand Pauls chances of finding success as a candidate and now from being a even halfway decent option for disaffected Republicans.

Not that its getting Johnson down.

This is Gary! a jovial Johnson answered the phone on Monday. He was in DC for media appearances, andhaving just read a survey in which he polled at eleven percenthis spirits were high.

For months, the former governor of New Mexicos campaign chugged along with little interest from voters or the press, but following his formal nomination at the libertarian convention in Florida in late May, hes suddenly enjoying a full dance card.

That ought to keep us fueled here for a little bit longer, anyway, he said.

Johnson dismisses libertarian purity tests as not unique, but he concedes that they are definitely there.

And they are. Like any other ideology, there is no one-size-fits-all brand of libertarianism, of course, but generally libertarians favor small government, minimal foreign intervention, and personal freedom. Read: fewer taxes, fewer social programs, more privatization, no Iraq-style war nor humanitarian intervention, drug legalization, and so on.

The libertarian partys official platform says they seek, a world in which all individuals are sovereign over their own lives and no one is forced to sacrifice his or her values for the benefit of others.

The Libertarian Purity Quiz by Bryan Caplan consists of 64 questions like, are worker safety regulations too strict? The highest score achievable is 160 points which is, Perfect! The world needs more like you. I scored a 30, which Caplan says means, you are a soft-core libertarian. With effort, you may harden and become pure.

No such literal test seems to exist for the conservative or liberal ideological movements.

Still, Johnson isnt concerned much with libertarian purity, because he isnt concerned much with ideology in general. Hes guided not by idols or a standard set of principles that the refers to, but his own innate sense of right and wrong.

Asked what he would do about ISIS, Johnson said he would involve Congress, but he also said that, despite wanting to be the skeptic at the table, he believes in military intervention when necessary.

If we are attacked, were going to attack back, he said.

As an example, Johnson said that if Americans are being beheadedYou certainly have to look at putting boots on the ground in a situation like that.

Of course, ISIS did behead an Americanthe journalist James Foley, in 2014. Johnson wouldnt answer when asked how many Americans would need to be beheaded in order for him to support boots on the ground. He said providing a number was what normal politicians do, while he is, as he put it, the different cat here.

Different is one way to put it.

Although Johnson falls in line on most social issues (hes a proponent of marijuana legalization as well as a user. During our interview, he admitted he last did edibles about a month ago, but claimed hes not going to be getting high while he continues to campaign for the presidency) he is very much out of step when it comes to the role of government in American life in general.

I do believe in the safety net, yes, he said. Social Security, he said, is imminently fixable and similarly, he would reform Medicaid and Medicarenot do away with them. He would like to, however, abolish the department of education.

Unlike Ron and Rand Paul, Johnson didnt arrive at libertarianism after reading the work of Austrian economists or The Fountainhead, but after being handed a pamphlet-like book sometime in the early 1970s, after he graduated high school, that he described as, basically, what it is to be a libertariana book which, despite its immense impact on the trajectory of his life, he cant recall the name of.

He didnt even register as a libertarian until 2012, when he first ran for president on the Partys mantle (ultimately winning one percent of the vote, the best showing in libertarian history). And it doesnt help much that he shares a ticket with Bill Weld, the former Massachusetts governor who, while in office, enacted strict gun control measures. As a Republican, in 2008, he endorsed Barack Obama.

Johnson did win in spite of his deviations from libertarian philosophy, Justin Raimondo, a libertarian and the editorial director of Antiwar.com, told The Daily Beast. But, he wondered, how is he not a moderate Republican? I mean, if youre gonna have a libertarian candidate, why cant he be a libertarian?

Raimondo, who believes Trump is a better alternative than Clinton but refuses to vote for either, admitted that this type of attitude had harmed the cause in the past.

Libertarians are good at creating castles in the air, he said. Theyre good at theory, but practice? Not so much. Theres never been a libertarian theory of strategy.

But at the end of the day, he said, we need another Ron Paul. This is not a year for compromising.

After all, if libertarians wanted to compromise, they could just become Republicans.

But Jack Hunter, a former aide to Rand Paul and now the politics editor of Rare.us, a libertarian website, told The Daily Beast its important not to get so bogged down in debates about whos pure and whos not that you miss the forest for the trees. The Libertarian Party has forever been a vote of conscienceI dont like the Democrat, I dont like the Republican, Ill vote for this guy, he said.

Hunter stands in opposition to the purity tests which have prevented libertarians from assuming mainstream perches. Ive consistently been frustrated, Hunter said. I always say theres a difference between being the biggest libertarian in the room and trying to make the country more libertarian.

Clinton and Trump are historically disliked major party nominees, and thatin theoryprovides a huge opportunity to anyone competing on another party's ticket.

If only they could unify.

I get frustrated, Hunter added. But at the same time, thats the nature of ideological movements. I think the hyper-individualism of libertarianism probably makes it a little more raucous.
Those planning to visit New Yorks Park Avenue Armory this summer may be overwhelmed by the urge to plug their ears, shield their eyes, or breathe deeply into a paper bag--not what we typically associate from the grand and elegant historic space.

But these physical and emotional responses wont surprise anyone familiar with the British artist Martin Creed, who has invaded the Armorys entire first floor with the largest-ever retrospective of his work in the U.S.

TitledThe Back Door, the exhibition opens Wednesday and features films of people vomiting and defecating; a room where lights flicker on and off; a piano that opens and slams shut, as if by the ghost of an angry composer; the incessant ticking of metronomes; and another room filled with white balloons.

For two months, the Armory will be transformed into a kind of fun house filled with the Turner Prize-winning artists installations, including a series of short films from his new, site-specific Open and Closing Mouth series, on view in the Armorys 55,000-square-foot Drill Hall.

The series begins with a video of a poised, silver-haired woman sitting on a couch, her mouth opening in slow motion to reveal a creamy white substance on her tongue.

The irreverence of that image is compounded when we learn that the woman depicted is Creeds mother. The elfin-faced model Lily Cole is also featured eating something bright orange, not unlike the color of her hair.

The back door at the far end of the Armorys dark, utilitarian Drill Hall rises and shutters briefly before the series begins again--a cheeky reference to the bodys own back door and, of course, the exhibitions namesake.

In adjacent bunker-like rooms are eighteen more films on six screens (three per screen), including Creeds infamous Shit and Sick films. A small Parental Advisory sign warns of what we can expect from the last film: a womans areola shrinking and pruning as her nipple becomes more erect, and a mans flaccid penis stiffening as it rises, softening as it falls: up, down, up, down--echoing the repetition we see throughout the exhibition.

Its hardly titillating: both the nipple and the erection are disembodied, and one can still hear retching from the Sick video down the hall.

Some visitors might feel nauseated at the sight of a cute Asian woman hiking up her pale blue dress and squatting down to defecate, though for me the ear-plugging, eye-averting urge was strongest when catching a glimpse of the Sick film. In fact, I rushed through doing just that on the way out.

I was similarly uncomfortable making my way from one end of the balloon-filled room to another, not because Im claustrophobic, like another woman who was trying not to freak out behind me--but because startling loud noises trigger a hot, prickly feeling on the back of my neck, not unlike the way I feel before vomiting.

His Turner Prize-winning work (like all his works, possessing a numbered title) was Work No. 227: The lights going on and off, which earned Creed instant notoriety from the usual mob of 'is this really art?' critics and journalists.

I feel bad to say Im an artist, because I dont really know what art is, Creed recently told The New York Times. I would say Im a person who tries to do things and work in a field that is commonly known as art. I try and do things because I find life is difficult and I want to make it better. More bearable.

Is Creed trying to provoke these reactions with his work?

I dont like to subject people to stuff against their will, he tells me. In fact I feel very strongly with these works that people should feel free. I hate exhibitions where you feel like youre being manipulated to go one way or another, like when you round a corner in a gallery and theres a film at the end of a long corridor.

"We tried to separate sound between films to a minimal extent, so its not like youre suddenly around a corner and then youre in a room that you dont quite know how to get out of.

Creed is wearing a well-tailored and well-worn grey suit (one of the jacket buttons dangles on a black thread) over a feminine, silk beige top with black piping, tied in a loose bow at the neck. His wiry grey hair is pulled back in bun.

The work is a way of confronting his own anxieties, he says in a soft Scottish lilt, the same way that psychoanalysis helps him confront anxieties.

He confesses that hes afraid of cheese, meat, and fish.

It has to do with the horrible insides coming out, like vomiting, he says of his work, adding that he found it very challenging to edit the Sick film at first but got used to it after a while.

Im definitely scared of the insides, but in a way, the most difficult thing in life is bad feelings. All of these physical bad things--sick, shit, smelly cheese--theyre just analogies or metaphors for the bad feelings that come up inside you. To me thats what those works are about: feelings you cant actually see.

Along with the Armory retrospective, Creed worked with the Public Art Fund on a large-scale installation at Brooklyn Bridge Parks Pier 6: a 25-foot-tall, rotating neon sculpture titled Understanding, which--like much of his work--is at once serious and humorous.

When I was invited to do these shows it coincided with the refugee crisis in Europe, and so I had a strong feeling of guilt about my pissing around art world stuff, he says. Growing up youre taught to love your neighbor and all this shit, but when theres an actual example of loving your neighbor in the world everyones like, Oh we fucking cant let them in, whatever their stupid reasons are.

"It seems obvious to me that weve been pissing around in the Middle East and these people from Afghanistan think theyve got a right to come to Europe, and I think they fucking do too.

Creed wanted to make something that reflected what was going on in the world but was also about communication and, well, understanding. Originally it was going to be a three-part work, but due to economic constraints, peace and love had to go.

I decided that is in a way not realizable, because conflict is part of life, internal conflict as well as conflict with others. And we cant be expected to love people we dont even like necessarily. But it is possible to try to understand other people, he tells me, adding that the installation is a joke too. Its funny that people can stand under Understanding.

Understanding is also the title of a song on Creeds new album (hes in a band, too, and has been making music for years).

I work because I want to feel better," Creed says. "That might come in the form of excitement or beauty or nice colors, or it might come in the form of fear. I think what youre afraid of is very meaningful.

What does he fear most?

I think Im afraid of losing myself. Im afraid that Im just nothing, that Im at the mercy of the world, like a plant or a flower growing towards the light or whatever. Its probably just a fear of being out of control or something like that.

"Basically I am just an animal, an amoeba-like collection of weird feelings and stuff like that. Im conscious, or relatively consciously living in here with this monster inside me. I fear that Ill reveal myself, or that Ill be revealed as this monster or whatever it is, he says, motioning with his hands when he says revealed as if his insides are coming up and out of him.
BAGHDAD  The stalled battle to retake the Iraqi city of Fallujah from ISIS has given way to another grim development: accusations of human rights abuses against fleeing refugees by pro-Iraqi government forces.

The largely Shia militia group officially known as Hashd al-Shaabi or Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), headed by Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, a U.S.-designated terrorist has, according to the United Nations, committed atrocities against Sunnis in two newly liberated areas of Saqlawiyah and Al-Karmah, are just kilometers from Fallujah city.

Two sources in Saqlawiyah, who asked to remain anonymous due to fear of their lives, have told The Daily Beast that hundreds of civilian residents of Saqlawiyah and Karma have been heavily tortured by the PMF. Five dead bodies have been uncovered, but there are an additional 200 to 300 civilians that have been taken by the PMF; their fates are unknown.

Sheikh Raad Salman, of the Anbar-based Sunni Dulaim tribe, one of Iraqs largest, told The Daily Beast that the 300 civilians have been buried alive by the PMF and 700 more people have been severely tortured.

Some say number of the victims is much higher. Hamid Mutlag, a Sunni MP and deputy head of defense committee in the parliament, told The Daily Beast more than 800 residents of a village in Saqlawiyah have been taken by the Hashd al-Shaabi and there are others that have been killed and tortured.

Atrocities in Fallujah have been expected as PMF leaders have been threatening to cut the head of the snake and accusing residents of having been cooperative with the Islamic State.

Saadoon al-Shalan, the mayor of Fallujah, said that Shia militias have sustained huge losses in the battle against ISIS and have lashed out at fleeing civilians. But the PMF leadership has nevertheless given reassurances that they will not enter Fallujah and remain in the periphery.

Reassurances are not enough in Iraq. Sectarian hatred is now so entrenched in light of the fact that the militias leading the operations in Saqlawiyah and Karma are the Badr Organization, Kata'ib Hezbollah (or the Brigades of the Party of God) and Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq the (League of the Righteous). All are directly backed by Irans Revolutionary Guards Corps and are notorious among the Sunni minority population for carrying out extrajudicial killings, torture and ethnic cleansing.

One source, who also asked to remain anonymous, has told The Daily Beast that the PMF are, in fact, planning to infiltrate into Fallujah city in the uniforms belonging to Iraqi Federal Police, a state security arm under the purview of the Interior Ministry, which is controlled by the Badr Organization.

Walid Muhammedi, member of the Islamic Party in Fallujah, echoed these warnings. Hashd al-Shaabi militias wear uniforms of governmental forces and kill civilians from Fallujah and Saqlawiyah, Muhammedi said. The head of the Federal Police in Fallujah, he noted, is Brigadier General Raid Shakir who was formerly the head of Federal Police in the southern Iraqi city of Wasit before being appointed in his current position in March. Shakir is understood to to have a close relationship with two senior commanders of PMF, the aforementioned al-Muhandis and his superior, Badr Organization leader (and former Iraqi Transportation Minister) Hadi al-Amiri.

Despite mounting documentary depicting torture and killing in Saqlawiyah and Al-Karmah, Karim Nouri, a spokesperson of the PMF, denied that the militias have committed any human rights abuses. Hashd al-Shasbi has not committed any atrocities, its the medias enemy of Hashd that spurred such untrue rumors to manipulate the public opinion, Nouri told The Daily Beast.

We are five kilometers away from the city. We have liberated 32 villages including Saqlawiyah, al Sagir and Al-Karmah, he added.

The silence of American officials in the anti-ISIS coalition as U.S. warplanes provide air cover for the Iraqi military assault on Fallujah has only furthered the sense of Sunni alienation.The Americans know very well what is going on in Fallujah and how the militias are committing atrocities in governmental uniforms, Hamid Mutlag, a member of the Islamic Party said. The US ambassador [Stuart Jones] knows the atrocities of Hashd al-Shaabi but has done nothing. Instead, he congratulates them for their efforts.

Fallujahs story is one of the most volatile and violent in post-Saddam Iraq. It is one of the few cities that have showed an absolute refusal to submit to the U.S. occupation in 2003. In late 2013 and early 2014, in reaction to then-Prime Minister Nouri al-Malikis increasingly sectarian policies, Fallujah became the site of big anti-government demonstrations on Friday. As Maliki declined to accept Sunnis demands, the Anbar Military Council was formed in Fallujah, declaring itself opposed to both the central government and the Islamic State. But by mid-2014 the city fell to the jihadists, forcing the Council to either accept their rule or surrender to Baghdad. It opted for the former because the Islamic State was seen as the lesser of two evils.

As the ongoing operation to once again retake this locus of insurgency away from jihadists grows more bloody, Sunnis and Shia grow further apart from each other. Iraqi is arguably at the nadir of sectarian relations since Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi took over from Maliki. Many are now asking if Fallujah, the symbolic capital of resistance and bastion of Sunni nationalism, could become this sects equivalent to the blowing up of the al-Askari Mosque in Samarra, an event perpetrated by ISISs predecessor, al-Qaeda, in 2006 which drove drove the country into a gruesome civil war.

 With additional reporting by Salam Zaidan
The bromance between Donald Trump and MSNBC host Joe Scarborough is finally, finally overand quite possibly dead.

For months, Scarborough and his Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski have been criticized for their warm relationshipfriendship, evenwith Trump, now the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. This week, however, it appears as though the real-estate moguls repeated racist attacks on Mexican Judge Gonzalo Curiel have at long last turned Scarborough into a fiercely vocal critic.

On Wednesday morning, Scarborough took some time on Morning Joe to call out Republican figures who have endorsed and supported The Donald, but will not use any potential leverage to get Trump to curb his bigoted outbursts.

Theyre I cant say the word that they are theyre being weak, Scarborough said on the show. Brzezinski subsequently clarified that Trump has used the word, meaning that Scarborough was calling out some of Trumps Republican endorsers as pussies.

Donald, guess what, Im not going to support you until you get your act together, Scarborough ranted. Youre acting like bush-league loser, youre acting like a racist, youre acting like a bigot  Until youprove to me youre not a bigot and you dont take my party down in the ditch, you dont have my endorsement.

It is in your hands on whether you are going to prove to the Republican Party and me personally that youre not a bigot, he continued, raising his voice at the camera. Dont use Hillary Clinton as an excuse, as your blank check to say racist things about [a judge] born in Indiana. No, Donald, you dont get to play it that way.

Multiple sources at MSNBC told The Daily Beast on Wednesday that Trumps assault on Curiels heritage was the last strawand is making the MSNBC host reconsider his entire relationship with the GOP nominee.

Oh, hes pissed, this isnt just for show, one network insider told The Daily Beast. He could very well be done [with Trump]. I havent seen him like this in a while.

Scarboroughs monologue on Wednesdays Morning Joe provokedrather predictablya near-immediate rebuttal from Trump himself.

Nobody is watching @Morning_Joe anymore, he tweeted. Gone off the deep endbad ratings. You wont believe what I am watching now!

Scarborough returned the fire, telling Trump, by your own standards, youre not a real American. Your mother was a foreigner.

A messy breakup between Morning Joe and Donald Trump had been brewing for a while. On Monday morning, Scarborough, Brzezinski, and their crew went after Trump for making completely racist remarks, and also slammed House Speaker Paul Ryan for endorsing him. A few days prior, Trump had already claimed that he does not watch Morning Joe anymore, and tweeted: I hear Mika has gone wild with hate. Joe is Joe. They lost their way!

But this weeks developments show the steepest escalation yet in on-air and social-media hostilities between Team Trump and Team Scarborough. Early last month, the two Republican men engaged in a brief Twitter tiff, stemming from a Morning Joe segment in which Scarborough lauded Ryans (initial) reluctance to endorse Trump for president. (The segment wasnt, however, antagonistic toward Trump, with Scarborough also asserting that Trump doesnt need Paul Ryan.)

It wasnt too long ago that Scarborough and Brzezinski were regularly critiqued for treating Trump with kids gloves. In February, CNN reported that Trump and Scarboroughs friendship had become an increasing source of discomfort at NBC. Later that month, the pair hosted a televised town hall with Trump that was widely panned for its torrent of softball questions.

[I] get a sense from people that if you dont stand on top of [Trump] with your knees on his chest and stab him in the side of the neck until he bleeds out its never going to be enough, Scarborough later complained, reacting to critics of his coziness with The Donald.

Since the start of the Trump campaign last summer, Morning Joes cast members have been insisting that Trump had a better than decent chance of securing the Republican nomination. Joe and Mika, and their co-panelists, turned out to be correct.

Its just that now it looks as if they are wishing theyd been proven wrong.
So the last Sanders argument, like umpteen others, has come around to bite him.

Hes spent the last two weeks talking about the momentum he was going to have after winning California, but as the primaries draw to a close, the momentum is on Hillary Clintons side.

She exceeded expectations in California, with her victory called early Wednesday (what was up with those polls that had Bernie Sanders beating her among Latinos? They always smelled fishy to me). She demolished him in New Jersey, won New Mexico, and even pulled off a stunning (if small-potatoes) win in South Dakota, which came out of nowhere.

Speaking of nowhere, theres nowhere for Bernie to go now. He ran an impressive race in many ways, and annoying in others, but he lasted a lot longer than almost anyone thought he would. But today the story isnt him. Its the nominee.

Its a huge historical marker, as Clinton noted in her speech. Thanks to you, weve reached a milestone, the first time in our nations history that a woman will be a major partys nominee, Clinton said. Tonights victory is not about one personit belongs to generations of women and men who struggled and sacrificed and made this moment possible.

Its also a huge personal moment for Clinton. For all the arrows, justified and not, shes absorbed for the last quarter-century, shes made it. Shes made history in a huge way. If you read biographies of her, youve read about the people who thought back when she was at Wellesley that maybe she had it in her to be Americas first woman president. Its an expectation that has hovered over her for many years, and shes now in a position to achieve it.

The Democratic Party has now nominated in succession the countrys first African American and its first woman. This is a great sign of progress, but more tellingly its a sign of what the two major parties have become over the course of the past 20 years. The Democrats are the party of multicultural America, while the Republicans have become in essence a white ethno-nationalist party. Yes, it has some nonwhites, but its a party whose raison detre is increasingly to save white America from the new hordes, a point made clearly by its collective decision to reject two Latino nominees and instead elevate the first openly racist major-party candidate since maybe Woodrow Wilson.

So now its (almost) officially Clinton vs. Trump, the question is, what will it look like? Big-time ugly. Trump, in his speech, said hes giving a speech next Monday about the Clintons and corruption, signaling what his campaign is basically going to be about. And Clinton already showed us last week in that San Diego speech on Trump and foreign policy, and reminded us again in splashes Tuesday night, that her main argument is going to be that temperamentally and otherwise, Trump just doesnt belong in the Oval Office. Every election, people like me say, This is going to be the nastiest presidential election ever, and, every time, it turns out to be trueeach one has been a little nastier than the last. But this one is going to be hyper-space nasty.

The key challenge for Clinton is going to be one of tone and balanceshell need to find a way to trade punches with Trump without letting him get in her head and without reducing herself to his drooling level. This is what the other Republicans could never get right. Jeb Bush and Ted Cruz let Trump get inside their heads, toy with them the way Ali used to toy with the bums of the month he was fighting in 1963. Marco Rubio made the mistake of lowering himself to Trumps level, trading insults. As I tweeted at the time, the two of them came off like Don Rickles and Joan Rivers. Rubio was good at it, but it wasnt what people wanted out of him, and it certainly isnt what voters want out of Clinton.

She found the sweet spot in that San Diego speech. She shredded his dignity but managed to maintain, and even augment, her own. Trump is going to be continually trying to take her down into the gutter from which he operates. She needs to stay out of it while staying on the attack. That wont be an easy thing to do.

And in the near-term, she has an intra-party issue to attend to: How will she woo the Sanders voters? Its mostly on Bernie, especially the way the air went out of the balloon Tuesday, to do the right thing. Maybe the fact that he requested a meeting with President Obama is a sign that hes ready to. But its incumbent upon Clinton to handle this right, too, not for Sanderss personal sake, but for the sake of his voters. She needs those voters in November, and they probably represent the future direction of the Democratic Party.

Clintons had a great couple of weeksthe terrific San Diego speech, the better-than-expected performance Tuesday night, and most importantly Trumps self-immolation around Judge Curiel, which led to members of his own party calling him a racist. Theres no way she could have hoped for a better start to the general-election campaign. But shes still barely ahead, and every week isnt going to be like these last two.

Back when this was just getting started, I thought that yes, Clinton is going to win, which places a special burden on her to run a better race than she did in 2008 and not blow this. Given who shes running against, thats a lot truer now than it was when I first thought it.
Trumps veep list got shorter this week.

Really short.

Maybe Jeff-Sessions-short.

Thats because the Alabama senator is one of just a few on Trumps rumored VP short-list to not have shivved him over racist comments about an Indiana judge. Among the hailstorm of Republican criticism, Sessions backed Trump Tuesday by refusing to say anything at all.

Sen. Bob Corker, who stirred up VP speculation by meeting with Trump in New York City, said Tuesday that the last five or six days have been very negative, urging his partys presidential nominee to move into a very different place.

Even former Speaker Newt Gingrich, who had been an early Trump backer and potential VP pick, called the statement  inexcusable . It was inappropriate for Gingrich to weigh in, Trump shot back. I was surprised at Newtan episode which may wipe Gingrich off the veep list.

But from Sessions, who himself was accused of racism 30 years ago when nominated to the federal bench, there was no protest, no condemnationjust silence.

I dont have any statement on it, Sessions said, as he swiftly walked past a Daily Beast reporter. He didnt answer a follow-up on whether he thought the criticism was racist.

Among the slings and arrows sent Trumps way by members of his own party, Sessionss silence was practically a slap on the back.

But Sessions, who serves Trump as a national security adviser, has previously been dogged by accusations of racism himself. As the U.S. attorney for the southern District of Alabama, he was nominated for a U.S. District Court seat in that state in 1985. His nomination was voted down in the Senate.

In a case that led to charges of racism, he had prosecuted three civil rights workers of voter fraud who had been working to encourage African Americans to register to vote. Sessionss focus on so-called Black Belt counties in Alabama to the exclusion of others caused an uproar among civil rights leaders, especially after hours of interrogating black absentee voters produced only 14 allegedly tampered ballots out of more than 1.7 million cast in the state in the 1984 election, The New Republic reported .

Even more scandalous allegations were levelled at Sessions during his nomination process. An assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Figures, who is black, said that Sessions had called him boy, and had once lectured him to be careful what you say to white folks.

Sessions was even alleged to have said that the Klan was OK until I learned they smoked pot. He claimed it to be a joke when the comment was presented to him during his confirmation process.

As Sessions continued to stand by his man, Republican lawmakers of all stripes were forced to wade through a gauntlet of reporters Tuesday afternoonall of whom were asking about Donald Trumps criticism of Judge Gonzalo Curiel.

During an interview at the American Enterprise Institute on Tuesday night, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell declared Its time for him to get serious.

McConnell continued, think before you speak, apologize when you make a mistakeand get a script.

This could be a winnable race. Its time for him to start acting like a serious presidential candidate, he added.

On cable news and in the halls of Congress the criticism was no less withering. Republican politicians of all stripes were virtually unanimous: they either referred to previous criticism of Trumps comment or criticized the businessman anew. It was, for almost all of them, utterly unacceptable.

Trump had spent days doubling-down on his belief that the American-born Curiel could not be fair to him because of the judges ethnic heritage, combined with the fact that the businessman was planning to build a wall with Mexico.

After days of defending these comments, he said Tuesday that the public had misinterpreted him.

Sen. Jim Inhofe condemned the terrible remarks, while Sen. Richard Shelby said he didnt think comments like that help anything.

President pro tempore of the Senate Orrin Hatch called the statements very inappropriate; Sen. Roger Wicker called them ill-considered.

Sessionss silence on a matter of national importance comes as Trump consigliere Roger Stone appeared on the conspiracy-driven Alex Jones show this week, boosting Sessions as a possible veep choice.

Its essential that [Trump] choose someone who tracks his views... who is a nationalist, who agrees with him particularly on the issue of immigration. Therefore I think, by the process of elimination, one of the strongest contenders... would be Sen. Jeff Sessions, Stone said.

Trumps relationship with Sessions has been strongand strangefrom the beginning. He asked Sessions to chair his national security committeewhile Sessions has served on the Senate Armed Services Committee, he was not a particularly compelling force there, and has developed far more of a reputation on immigration and budget issues.

Sessions has especially been known for his hardline positions on immigrationas the Senate considered and passed the 2013 Gang of Eight immigration reform package, Sessions stood as a primary antagonist to the effort.

Hed make an excellent VP, Shelby, his fellow Alabama senator, told The Daily Beast. He'd bring a lot of knowledge of the issues, on the Judiciary Committee, on the Budget Committee where hes developed a lot of expertise.

So if Trump puts stock in fealty, the senators early endorsement, and alignment on immigration views Sessions stands a strong chance at the vice presidential nod.

But of course, almost everyone else has crossed themselves off the list.

with additional reporting by Andrew Desiderio and Eleanor Clift.
The remains of a missing Pennsylvania teenager were discovered on a llama farm last month. Now cops are eyeing her 24-year-old boyfrienda runaway Rastafarian who allegedly claimed the underage girl was his bride and that hed kill her if she ever left him.

Friends say Leanna Walker, 17, of Milford, always put others before herself. But her concern over the well-being of her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Sky Michael McDonough, may have led to her death.

Walkers mother, Diane, said she warned her daughter about the much-older beau, who is in jail on unrelated burglary charges. Authorities have yet to charge McDonough in Walkers slaying but said he is a person of interest.

We heard him say hed burn us all down if she left him, Diane Walker told the Pocono Record in April, before her daughters body was found.

He told her, If I kill you, Ill set you on fire, the worried mother added. He told someone else that if she left him, he wouldnt bury her body. Hed burn it.

Halley Deskin, a close friend of Leannas, also claims to have heard threats from McDonough. If she ever left him, hed kill her. He said that to me, Deskin told The Daily Beast.

Sky would leave a lot, Deskin added of the apparent drifter. Then hed come back and act like they were still together. In Skys head, they never broke up, but in Leannas head, they broke up a long time ago.

The high-schooler was reported missing on April 18, shortly after Diane Walker demanded McDonough leave the familys home. Leanna Walker and her boyfriend left by foot shortly after, and the teen wasnt seen again, her family said.

But last month, the familys search turned to tragedy. Police discovered Walkers remains at the now-shuttered Foster Hill Farm, a llama-breeding estate where McDonough worked before the owner, Dick Snyder, died in 2014 .

Pike County district attorney Raymond Tonkin said the case is being investigated as a homicide and that an autopsy report is pending. He declined to comment further on the case.

Still, it wasnt long after Walker went missing that the former farm hand-turned-fugitive was on the police radar.

On April 26, residents of Milford spotted McDonough near a Key Foods store and alerted police. After he was arrested, McDonough agreed to take cops to the secluded location where he claimed he stayed with Walker, according to a criminal complaint.

After several minutes of wandering through a wooded area, however, officers noticed the defendant was taking them in circles and not cooperating with their requests to find Walker, a state troopers affidavit states.

Then he escaped from police somehow during the trek. The affidavit does not disclose how McDonough broke loose.

Cops nabbed McDonough, who was shirtless and still in handcuffs , the next morning at a makeshift campsite inside a barn on the llama farm. Investigators also found items belonging to Walker at the site, the affidavit says.

McDonough told troopers he dated Walker starting in January 2016 and that they had planned to run away together to Jamaica by way of New York to Miami, the complaint says. McDonough said he took off because of his arrest warrants for burglary and fleeing apprehension in New Jersey, according to the document.

He is charged with felony escape and criminal trespass, as well as misdemeanor resisting arrest, District Attorney Tonkins said. The former llama helper is at Pike County jail, with bail set at $250,000.

McDonoughs family declined to comment.

Michael Weinstein, an attorney for McDonough, told The Daily Beast his client is a courteous young man but wouldnt provide further details.

Meanwhile, friends and family of Leanna Walker painted a different picture.

Diane Walker said McDonough persuaded her daughter to leave Delaware Valley High School and attend an online school instead, the Record reported .

The mother said her daughter loved dressing up and doing makeup, not living in the woods with her boyfriend. I told her not to bother with him. He does weird things. He has issues, Diane Walker told the Record.

Diane Walker also told the Record that McDonough spent most of March at Bon Secours Community Hospital in Port Jervis, New Yorkwhere he was allegedly a psychiatric patientbut that she refused to let Leanna visit him. When McDonough later went to Boston, Leanna wired him money for a bus back to Milford, according to the Record.

Lydia Rodriguez, Walkers sister, told the Scranton Times-Tribune that McDonough had bizarre religious views and could allegedly turn violent.

McDonough referred to the high-school student as his wife, Rodriguez said. He felt because they had been intimate that they were married, the sister added. We told him, You arent married and you dont own her.

According to the Times-Tribune, Walker told her family McDonough had been kicked out of his familys home and in March, convinced them to let the boyfriend stay over.

Rodriguez said McDonoughs behavior quickly turned strange. He allegedly slapped Rodriguez after accusing her of making Walker smoke and trying to kill her, the sister told the Scranton paper.

After the family booted him, McDonough allegedly began to inexplicably dig a hole in their backyard. Walker kept in touch with her boyfriend, even though her relatives assumed he was long gone, the Times-Tribune reported.

But the day Leanna went missing, her family caught her with McDonough. Her brother, who missed the school bus, returned home to find a male figure in the house and called their mother. Not long after, Walker confessed that McDonough was showering and getting something to eat when everyone else was at work.

The girl pleaded with her mother to let McDonough stay and said he was being treated for behavioral issues, the Times-Tribune reported. But Diana Walker was adamant that her daughters suitor leave.

My mother regrets that, Rodriguez told the Times-Tribune . Because he left and she went with him.

Halley Deskin, a friend of Walkers since fifth grade, said she witnessed McDonoughs strange behavior on several occasions.

One night, McDonough tried bullying Walker into staying home instead of sleeping over at Deskins. Deskin recalls trying to get out of the car during the couples argument but McDonough kept stepping on the gas. He said, Close the door, and gave me a look. Thats when I knew he wasnt right.

McDonough later told Walker, in front of her mother, Can you get me a piece of paper? We need to get a divorce, Deskin said.

On another occasion, McDonough was outside Walkers house with Deskin and Walker when he allegedly started eating dirt. He was complaining about his breath. He bent down and picked up dirt and ate it. Leanna got so freaked out, Deskin recalled. McDonough told his girlfriend the dirt helped breath and released toxins.

He was talking complete nonsense, Deskin said, adding that McDonough believed in the Rastafarian stuff and was always listening to Bob Marley and Jah Live.

McDonoughs social media appears to confirm his religious bent. His Facebook profile is littered with reggae music, Bible verses, and a Rastafarian Last Supper painting. He last posted an image of himself and Walker on April 18the day she disappeared.

McDonoughs Facebook posts became more nonsensical in the weeks before Walker vanished. The cure for cancer/candida. Just 50$. Who wants to help save the world with me from evil Babylon. Enlist here and be strengthened and blessed and healed in the might name of Jesus Christ, he wrote in a March 9 post.

In late February, McDonoughs family reported him missing, according to Sussex County first assistant prosecutor Greg Mueller.

Mueller said McDonough was able to elude cops for days. When officers reached McDonough by phone, he allegedly fed them bogus locations of his whereabouts. Eventually, Mueller said, state police pinged his cellphone to the vicinity of High Point State Park in New Jersey.

McDonough was captured after allegedly breaking into two Wantage Township homes. According to the criminal complaints, he snatched the blanket off one womans horse, and stole beer and groceries from another home.

Surveillance footage from one of the homes captured McDonough walking around a living room with a bag of potato chips before wandering to a stable to snatch the horses blanket, then putting it on himself, the complaint states. (The burglary and fleeing arrest charges in New Jersey are still pending, authorities said.)

Deskin said Walkerwho dreamed of opening her own salonworried about her boyfriend after he went AWOL in February.

She didnt really think she could change him but wanted to know he was OK, Deskin told The Daily Beast. She cared no matter what. She would always put you before her. If you were having a problem, shed find a way to make it better.
The Democratic primary contest that no one saw coming between the woman who would be president and a gnarly socialist senator from Vermont is finally, finallybut, ahem, not entirelyover.

Even before Tuesdays primaries, the Associated Press had counted enough solid delegates, committed and super, to declare Hillary Clinton the putative nominee. And after her more-than-convincing primary victories in New Jersey and California last night (63 percent and 56 percent), she decided it was time for a victory lap. From above the old glass ceiling, she reached down to Bernie Sanders, congratulating him on his campaign and, looking back at her own emotions in 2008, saying she knew well how hard it is to concede.

So much for noblesse oblige. Clintons schedule in the coming days, with stops in Ohio and Pennsylvania, is focused on the general election and the looming menace of Donald Trump. The real message to Bernie: Bye, Felicia.

Yet Sanders, rather infelicitously, is still campaigning.

In California, as results came in with tantalizing slowness and pollsters hesitated to make a call despite what ultimately became a decisive victory for Clinton, Sanders appeared before supporters in Santa Monica late Tuesday night to declare the struggle continues.

Fresh off the phone with President Barack Obama, whod called both candidates to congratulate them on inspiring campaigns that have energized Democrats, Sanders sought to reassure his folks and the rest of the country that, We will not allow right-wing Republicans to control our government and that is especially true with Donald Trump as a candidate. And in case anyone missed the point: We will not allow Donald Trump to become president of the United States.

But Sanders, as ever, presented himself as a man with a mission, a man leading a movement: We understand that our mission is not just beating Trump, it is transforming our country. Which led him to his boilerplate attack on billionaires and inequality, and, well, nary a kind word for his rival. When he allowed that hed received a gracious call from Clinton, her name triggered nasty boos.

Next Tuesday we continue the fight, in the last primary, in Washington, D.C., Sanders concluded to hearty applause from the enraptured young supporters holding up signs reading, A Future to Believe In.

For almost anyone not part of the rapture, Sanders still risks looking like one of those holdout Japanese soldiers on some godforsaken island, unaware that their war ended ages ago. But he did run an amazing race.

Way back when, in the early days of the campaign, the Clinton team and their supporterssomewhat condescendinglysaid that, really, she should have a Democratic challenger. But no one really meant it.

And while there was a concession call or two in the early contests, soon both campaigns dispensed with the pleasantries as they slogged through successive debates and primaries.

On the day that he launched his campaign in April 2015, Sanders, in a rumpled suit, hurried through a cluster of reporters who gathered in front of the Capitol on a sunny, slow news day to watch the senator announce his long-shot bid.

We dont have an endless amount of time, Ive got to get back, he cautioned the reporters assembled in a small arc around him.

There he recited what would eventually become his rallying cry against billionaires and income inequality. He vowed to keep the race about the issues and not about political rivalries.

It was a different time.

Asked then about whether the Clinton Foundation was fair gamean issue Sanders brought up in an interview SundaySanders waved the question aside.

I think what is more fair game for my campaign is the role of money in politics, all right? he said. Where are the conflicts of interest when the Koch brothers are going to be spending $900 million on this campaign, making a lot of their money from fossil fuels The issue here is not the Clinton Foundation. Thats a fair issue. The issue is the huge amount of money that it takes to run a campaign today.

He then said, for the first time of many, how he would raise money through small donations.

I wonder now in this day and age whether its possible for any candidate, who is not a billionaire or who is not beholden to the billionaire class, to be able to run successful campaigns, he said. If that is the case I want you all to recognize what a sad state of affairs that is for American democracy.

Were in this race to win, he declared, before turning and quickly marching awayas if the whole affair had been a necessary but irritating exercise.

The event was barely 10 minutes long.

Now more than a year later, the massive donor list and movement Sanders has accrued is plotting its pathway forward.

When the AP suddenly called the contest for Hillary Clintonessentially putting a period on a sentence that had already been writtenSanders supporters had to wrestle with their options.

The Daily Beast spoke to nearly a dozen Sanders supporters and staffers on Tuesday afternoon, and found the camp divided between continuing to pursue an exceedingly unlikely scenario in which Sanders convinced superdelegates to switch their allegiances, and voting for Clinton so as to avoid the looming specter of a Trump presidency.

I am planning to vote for Clinton in the general election, former Sanders data director Josh Uretsky told The Daily Beast. She is by far a stronger, more progressive candidate than she was last summer and clearly a better choice than Trump to lead our country. Sanderss campaign always faced a difficult path; that he was able to do as well as he did speaks to the urgency of his message and the mood of the American people.

Uretsky was fired from the Sanders campaign in December after being implicated in a data breach that involved voter files from the Democratic National Committee.

While he was surprised at the decision by the AP to announce Clintons presumptive win prior to Tuesdays contests, Uretsky doesnt see much point in trying to cajole superdelegates to Sanderss side.

I cant imagine what it would take to win over a majority of the superdelegates, much less enough to overcome losing the pledged delegate race, he said. The Sanders campaign has accomplished several incredibly difficult things this last past year. Even so, it would be difficult to unify the party after the convention if the superdelegates were to overturn the results of the primaries and caucuses.

Others werent so immediately moved by the reality of Sanderss defeat.

I will vote with my conscience and for the best candidate, former Sanders national organizer Corbin Trent told The Daily Beast. Ill have to wait and see what those options are in November. Yet he said he would not vote for Trump when asked.

Trent is one of the founders of Brand New Congress, an initiative that was created in order to promote future leaders who bear the same agendas as Sanders.

He wasnt willing to call the race quits just yet.

There will be time until they vote, Trent said of the superdelegates who formally vote at the Democratic National Convention in July. It aint over till its over.

Eric Varney, who runs a popular Facebook page for supporters called By Sanders Supporters, For Sanders Supporters, said that he does not plan to vote for either Trump or Clinton.

Im keeping this page alive and were going to try to convince as many Sanders supporters not to vote for either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, but instead either writing in Bernie Sanders or voting green. We must simply not be afraid of either side.

So, Sanders moves on to Washington to campaign and for a just-announced meeting Thursday with President Obama, who may try to employ his old community-organizing skills to bring together, at long last, the Party and the Movement.
Thursday, we will see the most widely covered Muslim funeral in our nations history. No one wouldve been happier about this than Muhammad Ali.

Ali wanted to be an ambassador for Islam in America, as he told us in his 2005 book The Soul of a Butterfly: Reflections on Lifes Journey, co-authored with his daughter Hana. In it, he shared an unfulfilled dream he had harbored, I sometimes thought I would like to be a Muslim Billy Graham. He continued: But God had a different plan for me.

That plan, of course, was Parkinsons disease. It was only through his Muslim faith, Ali continued, that he could deal with this challenge it was my faith that restored my sense of purpose and self-confidence. My faith gave me back my joy and enthusiasm for life.

Its hard for me not to cry reading that. To cry that a man who called himself The Greatest and had achieved so much knew that Parkinsons made the beautiful dream he had for next phase of his life impossible.

And to cry tears of regret that if Ali could have fulfilled his dream of being a bridge between Muslims and our fellow Americans, perhaps our community wouldnt be in the place we find ourselves in today.

Thats a dark, challenging and often lonely place. One where politicians like Donald Trump demonize us to score political points. A place where hate crimes against us have spiked over the past year. Where Muslim American students being bullied for their faith is no longer the exception, but the disturbing new norm.

On a personal note, I cant help but think of the traditional white cloth my late father was wrapped in after the ceremonial washing of his bodyjust as Ali will be before his funeral Thursday, when many Americans will have a new experience and even learn a new word: Janaza. Thats the Arabic word for funeral, and one Christian Arabs also use.

For Muslims, however, Janaza signifies the Islamic funeral ritual. As New York City based Imam Shamsi Ali explained, at Thursdays Janaza for Ali, Zaid Shakir will offer a traditional prayer that asks God for mercy, forgiveness of Alis sins and acceptance of Ali into heaven.

Imam Ali, a national leader in the area of interfaith work, explained that the Islamic funeral prayer is very much like the ones offered at Christian and Jewish funerals of seeking mercy, forgiveness and acceptance into heaven. We may use different words or even languages but all three of these Abrahamic faiths share the same common humanity and God, he remarked.

Some have asked me about the delay in burying Ali, and if thats a violation of Islamic law. Well, as Imam Ali explained, typically in Islam, like Judaism, the deceased should be buried as soon as possible. But he noted that its not an absolute mandate, rather its more about appropriateness. He added that in Alis case, it was appropriate to wait so that the family could organize the funeral and memorial service so that the nation could pay their respects to one of its iconsa man who was proudly Muslim, proudly Black and proudly American.

Alis prayer service, at the Freedom Hall in Louisville Kentucky, is open to people of all faiths. It will be followed Friday by an interfaith memorial service for the greatest. As the spokesperson for the Ali family, Bob Gunnell explained earlier this week, Ali spoke of inclusiveness his entire life and we want this to be inclusive of everyone.

This significance of Alis public funeral has certainly not been lost on Muslim Americans. As Dalia Mogahed, the Director of Research at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding commented, Alis detailed wishes for his funeral prayer and memorial were that they be open to all people and all faiths, a powerful testimony to the inclusive principles he lived by as a Muslim and an American.

And Dawud Walid, the Executive Director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, remarked, In a political climate in which Islamophobia is front and center, his funeral will be counterpunch the ridiculous notion that being a good Muslim and a good American are at odds.

When a person dies, Muslims traditionally say, To God we belong and to God we shall return. Ali may have returned to God, but on Thursday and Friday Ali will bring together Muslims from across the nation to stand shoulder to shoulder with their fellow Americans of different religions and races. Even after his death, Ali is still fighting for the things he so dearly believed in.
LONDON  The only big-name pols on earth who think Britain should leave the European Union are Donald Trump, Marine Le Pen, and Vladimir Putin.

Or so the campaign for Britain to remain in the EU keeps telling us.

Trump is open about his support for the British exit, or Brexit, and will be in Britain on the day of the referendum results. French hardliner Le Pen is keen to campaign in Britaineven though the leave camp has publicly demanded she stay away.

The Kremlin, on the other hand, totally denies that Putin wants Britain to quit the 28-member economic and political union. Officials insist that the Russian president remains entirely neutral. He has offered no public statement on the June 23 referendum and his colleagues have been uncharacteristically quiet.

That doesnt mean Putin isnt doing everything he can to help force Britain outhes just a lot smarter than Trump and Le Pen.

Putin knows British voters dont want to be told what to do by a Russian autocrat (any more than they are likely to take instruction from a gaudy New York property tycoon or a truculent French xenophobe).

Putin also has something Trump and Le Pen only dream about: real power and a state apparatus to command. Western diplomats and security officials are increasingly aware that Putin is willing and able to use one of the worlds most expansive intelligence and propaganda operations to try and destabilize the European Union.

Its asymmetrical warfarethis is KGB stuffwhere youre carefully funneling money into propaganda to nudge people, said Charles Crawford, a former British diplomat who worked in Moscow before he was appointed British ambassador to Sarajevo, Belgrade, and then Warsaw.

Britain voting to leave would be the biggest jolt to the union that has been taking shape, and growingin various guisesever since Europe began to emerge from the rubble of World War II. Britain, after some reluctance, joined back in 1973.

When this years referendum was announced, pollsters predicted that there would be a majority in favor of staying in the union, but recent polls suggest the race is too close to call.

The Kremlin is actively trying to influence things; the question is how best to do that because you dont want to do that in a way thats obvious because it backfires, Crawford explained to The Daily Beast.

Relations between London and Moscow are already at their lowest ebb since the Cold War, exacerbated by the findings of an official inquiry earlier this year that emigre Alexander Litvinenko had likely been assassinated with radioactive poison on the orders of the Kremlin.

Prime Minister David Cameron and Philip Hammond, the Conservative foreign secretary, have both accused Putin of advocating for Britain to leave the EU, which seemed to infuriate Russias embassy in London.

Russia is being dragged into the domestic debate on Brexit, a spokesman said. As a matter of fact, our Government doesnt have an opinion on Britains place in the EU.

As part of the British Foreign Affairs Committees inquiry into the appalling relations with Russia, five Members of Parliament travelled to Moscow last month for meetings with politicians in the Duma and officials at the foreign ministry.

Three of those MPs told The Daily Beast that Russian officials had expressed their frustration at being publicly linked to the Brexit campaign.

The regime and Putin in particularwhilst theyve not put forward an official line, because obviously that might be counter-productivewould be very pleased if Britain exited the European Union, said Mark Hendrick, a Labour member of the parliamentary committee, who wants Britain to remain in the EU.

Hendrick said it was clear from their meetings in Moscow with Russian officials, business leaders, academics, experts, and U.S. Ambassador John F. Tefft that Putin prefers the one-on-one brinksmanship of bilateral relations rather than dealing with a united entity like the EU.

They prefer a U.K. separate from the European Union and to see the European Union break up. The fact that the Poles, the Czechs, and the Slovaks, and all these others that were in the Warsaw Pact, are in the EU as well as NATO is not a trend they want to see continue, he said.

The leave campaign has ridiculed suggestions that Putin is secretly helping them to win, and Crispin Blunt, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, who is campaigning for Britain to quit, said the Russian officials had done nothing to endorse Brexit during their trip.

While it is true that Russian state officials have carefully avoided any public comment, there is a clear pattern of agitation for withdrawal from the EU on Russias state-owned, English-language news outlets Russia Today, a television network, and Sputnik, a news site.

Analysis of recent news stories shows a clear bias towards quoting anti-EU campaigners in articles that claim to show balance. One news story quotes extreme right-wing Polish politician Janusz Korwin-Mikke, who says Britain would be right to leave the EU. (He also offers his support for Trump because Clinton is supported by the Jews.)

The propaganda is even more blatant among the recent op-eds on RT and Sputnik. Among them are articles claiming that the EU was the creation of the CIA and two RT pieces decrying EU brainwashing. The leader of Britains U.K. Independence Party (UKIP), who was instrumental in forcing Cameron into calling the EU referendum, is also a regular guest on RT.

One of the main lines in Russian propaganda is that Europe is in decay, in chaos, that it is divided, becoming increasingly irrelevant, and obviously a decision by the British to exit the Union would feed that line of argument enormously, said Joerg Forbrig, from the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

Along with Russias official news outlets, secretive troll factories are pumping out huge quantities of propaganda. Low-paid workers create thousands of pro-Kremlin blogs, social media posts, and comments on local and Western news outlets. Diplomats believe Brexit is one of the latest topics of the trolls propaganda machine.

Sometimes Russian officials get involved directly. As Germany was seething with racial tension earlier this year amid the struggle to cope with an influx of immigrants, the Russian embassy in London tweeted: German government threw their country under feet of migrants like a rug, now try wipe their crimes under carpet.

Beyond propaganda, Russia is also known to intervene more directly in Western politics. I do think that the Kremlin has been trying to reach out to the leave campaign. There may well be support but it will be very hard to find out about this because they will be extremely discrete, Forbrig told The Daily Beast. We do know that the Kremlin is also materially supporting other actors that have potential to undermine European unity, and the European Union.

For example, cash and support was given to far right media outlets in the Western Europe. Voice of Russia, a state radio station that was folded into Sputnik in 2014, gave $470,000 to a French web TV channel founded by a former Front National advisor. The state-owned outlet also partnered with the Italian Lombardy-Russia Cultural Association, which was founded by the far-right Lega Nord.

Radical right-wingers campaigning for Britain to leave the EU were also invited to events hosted by Russia. Nick Griffin, the former leader of the racist British National Party, and Jim Dowson, the founder of Britain Firsta far-right street party, attended a conference of neo-Nazis in Saint Petersburg last year.

One of the most blatant Russian interventions in the Eurosceptic fringe of Western politics has been seen in France. The Front National received a $10 million loan from the Kremlin-linked First Czech Russian Bank in late 2014, and the partys leader Marine Le Pen reportedly has made several trips to Moscow, meeting with Putin in secret. Members of the European Parliament from her faction and a key adviser, Emmanuel Leroy, have made several visits to the occupied city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, and pledged their support for the Russian-backed separatist cause.

Of course, she is also an outspoken supporter of Britains campaign to leave the EU. She said a vote for Brexit would prove its possible to live outside the EU. Youre either free or you arent.

Britains referendum at the end of this month is a key moment in European history, she said.

Vladimir Putin is counting on it.
(Beijing)  China has broken the state-backed monopoly in bank card payments clearance, opening the sector to both domestic and foreign competitors.

The central bank announced June 7 a list of requirements for companies looking to provide clearing services for yuan-denominated bank card transactions, which have been only offered by state-controlled China UnionPay.

The rules fleshed out the principles that had been laid out by the State Council, the country's cabinet, in April last year regarding opening the market, after the World Trade Organization said the status quo violated its trade rules.

The chief executives of both Visa and MasterCard had told Caixin previously that they would apply to join the market as soon as it is opened to foreign firms.

As of the end of 2015, a total of 5.44 billion bank cards have been issued in China, and 55 trillion yuan worth of payments were made using these cards, the central bank said in a separate announcement it posted on its website the same day.

Qualified firms must have at least 1 billion yuan worth of registered capital and conform to China's legal and regulatory standards in protecting data security and fighting terrorism and money laundering activities, the regulation shows.

It also stipulates a two-stage approval process. After receiving the initial nod from regulators, a firm has up to a year to lay the groundwork for providing yuan bank card clearing services. Then it needs to apply for a permit from the central bank to open for business and should start operations within six months of receiving the permit.

The central bank said it wants to encourage competition in the market with the same rules for both Chinese and foreign companies. Previously, foreign bank card associations were restricted to clearing transactions conducted in foreign currencies and they must pay UnionPay access fees to use its network.

Alipay, China's largest third-party payment service provider, owned by Ant Financial Services Group, which is affiliated to e-commerce giant Alibaba, has challenged UnionPay's monopoly by signing separate clearing agreements with banks to handle payments made online. It has tried to replicate the model offline but had failed due to regulatory ambiguity.

UnionPay was established in 2002 and has been China's sole bank card association. Its dominance in the market has been criticized in recent years, partly because it owns a payment subsidiary that competes directly with firms such as Alipay.

The WTO has urged the Chinese government to break UnionPay's monopoly by August 2015 after its trade dispute panel ruled in 2012 that China violated WTO rules in requiring all yuan bank card transactions to be handled by the UnionPay network.

(Rewritten by Wang Yuqian)
(Beijing)  Police in the coal-rich northern region of Inner Mongolia have unraveled a string of crimes, where 17 miners were allegedly killed by their colleagues who then pretended to be their close kin to claim compensation for the deaths that were made to appear as mine accidents.

Bayannur Intermediate People's Procuratorate in Inner Mongolia, a regional court, said it has charged 74 suspects with murder, fraud and blackmail linked to the deaths. The local prosecutor's office made the announcement on May 31, on its official account on Weibo, a popular micro blog site. The office, however, did not say when these crimes were committed or how much money the accused had taken from mine owners.

A person who was briefed about the case told Caixin that the alleged killings came to light in January 2015 when police from a district under the city of Bayannur was investigating a mining accident. Officers found that some of the victims, who coworkers claimed had perished in the disaster, were actually alive.

Police uncovered the 17 alleged murders in a follow-up investigation that lasted for over a year, the source said.

Each of the 74 suspects was either involved in plotting the murders, recruiting victims or acting as their close kin to swindle compensation money, said the source. Mine owners were blackmailed into settling quickly, because they often ran unlicensed operations, the source with knowledge of the matter said.

Most of the suspects were farmers in their 40s from Zhaotong, a city in the southwestern province of Yunnan, the source said.

The organized gang had murdered far more people, but prosecutors could only charge them with the killings of 17 because the group had cremated the bodies of victims and discarded their ashes making DNA tests impossible, the source said.

The suspects will face trial October, the source said.

The short statement about the case released by the court did not garner much attention at first, but then it became a trending topic on Chinese social media on June 6. Many Internet commentators said the real-life case echoed the plot of a 2006 feature film, Blind Shaft, by independent director Li Yang. The film, which was not allowed to be screened in cinemas on the mainland, probed the dark underbelly of corruption in unlicensed mines scattered across the country's coal belt.

The gritty movie based on a real-life incident in the late 1990s tells the story of a group of miners who plot to kill 52 coworkers in fake mining accidents at several small, unlicensed mines to extort money from owners.

(Rewritten by Li Rongde)
(Beijing)  A voluminous "action plan" for cleaning up 90 percent of China's contaminated farms and old factory sites by 2020 is lacking an important detail: Actionable funding.

The 231-clause, 13,000-Chinese character Action Plan for Soil Pollution Prevention and Control was released May 31 by the State Council, China's cabinet, after undergoing some 50 draft revisions over the previous three years.

The final version was released following input from 35 central government agencies including the National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Environmental Protection, Ministry of Land and Resources, and Ministry of Agriculture. It lays the groundwork for a national survey of contaminated soil sites, bans certain pesticides, and pledges to fasten the legislation work for soil pollution prevention.

Soil contamination is the latest woeful environmental consequence of rapid economic development to receive Beijing's attention. A plan for tackling air pollution was rolled out in 2013, while water pollution was addressed in 2015.

Soil pollution has been blamed for sickening school children, contaminating rice paddies and ruining villages. Some 19.4 percent of China's farmland  an estimated 26 million hectares  is said to be dangerously tainted, according to a 2014 report by the Ministry of Environmental Protection. Some 10 percent of woodlands nationwide and 10.4 percent of all grassland were reportedly to have high levels of contaminants.

Some environmental experts have hailed the action plan as a milestone framework for soil pollution-control legislation. Indeed, a soil pollution prevention law has been drafted and is likely to be submitted next year to the standing committee of National People's Congress, the nation's top legislative body, said Gu Qingbao, director of the soil pollution and control department at the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences.

But the new plan lacks a budget schedule. Without explaining how, it simply declares that "remediation costs should be paid by polluters," said Zhang Yi, director of the Shanghai Environmental Sanitation Engineering Design Institute.

No one doubts the price tag will be huge. An April report by Nanjing-based Huaitai Securities said soil remediation projects on the agenda for the next five years around the country will cost up to 590 billion yuan. And that's just a fraction of the estimated 7.4 trillion yuan that will be needed to fully restore all of China's polluted land, the report said.

Lan Hong, an environmental studies professor at Renmin University in Beijing, estimates China will have to spend at least 6 trillion yuan to replenish tainted farmland to the point where crops can be grown and livestock raised safely once again.

But the central government appears unprepared to foot the bill. Beijing allocated only 9 billion yuan for soil remediation projects in 2016 which, although it was a hefty 146 percent more than the previous year, fell far short of the amount experts say is needed.

Toxic Legacy

The action plan's goal is to decontaminate 90 percent of the nation's polluted farmland and industrial sites by 2020. Furthermore, the government wants 95 percent of all polluted land made safe by 2030.

According to a 2006-2011 soil pollution survey whose findings were released in 2014, unacceptable contamination of one kind or another was detected in about 16 percent of all soil samples gathered from around the country. The same survey indicated up to 19.4 percent of all cultivated land had been polluted.

Reports about soil pollution threatening public health have become more frequent in recent years. In February, for example, nearly 500 students were reportedly sickened in eastern China's Jiangsu Province after they moved into a new secondary school campus that was built near a polluted lot where chemical factories once stood.

A 2013 Caixin investigation found industrial wastes laced with toxins were illegally dumped on the ground in western China's Gansu Province, Inner Mongolia and southern China's Guizhou Province. The dumped poisons contaminated crops and entered local food chains, making people sick.

And in 2011, excessive levels of the dangerous heavy metal cadmium were detected in rice and rice products sold in many Chinese provinces. Rice from the central province of Hunan was singled out as especially dangerous.

In 2014, cadmium was found to be the most pervasive of the toxic heavy metals detected by environmental protection investigators who participated in a government review of mine-waste problems in southwest and south-central China. Other toxic metals tied to mining in the region included mercury, arsenic, copper, lead, chromium, zinc and nickel.

At the top of the action plan agenda is a call for a comprehensive check of soil contamination nationwide  something environmental experts have long urged as a step toward a clear understanding of the nationwide problem.

Lin Yusuo, who directs the soil pollution research center at the environment ministry's Nanjing Environmental Science Research Institute, said previous survey-takers did not follow the same standards. Moreover, he said, they were undertaken by investigators working for different agencies who employed different methodologies.

Lin said government agencies including the environment ministry are now preparing for the action plan-directed nationwide survey, which would focus on land pollution nationwide, especially tainted farmland and its impact on public health.

The survey would be a first step toward a systemic mechanism for investigating, monitoring and supervising soil contamination in China, said Dong Zhanfeng, deputy director of the environmental policy department at the environment ministry's Academy for Environmental Planning.

The survey would lead to building a polluted land database and introducing a mechanism for controlling land developers, said Wang Xiahui, director of the academy's Soil Environment Protection Center. Moreover, he said, the plan sets the stage for protecting untainted land and setting pollution control standards for different types of land, based on each plot's usage.

Funding Gap

The United States spends about US$ 15 billion a year on soil remediation through its nearly 36-year-old Superfund cleanup project overseen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The U.S. experience underscores the importance of follow-up, year-after-year capital commitments for a major, nationwide soil cleanup program, said Ma Jun, chief engineer for cleanup specialist Beijing Construction Environmental Remediation Co.

"The follow-up demand for capital is huge," said Ma.

But who will pay China's bill?

Yi noted that the "polluter pay" rule makes sense for China but may be impractical, since it's often hard to track down a guilty party and even more difficult to squeeze a polluter for cleanup funds.

According to Dong, local governments have traditionally accepted cleanup costs rather than force polluting companies to accept responsibility. Governments justify this spending as a way to maintain social stability and support local employers.

Dong said a local government should indeed play a leading role in financing soil remediation, at least in a project's early stages. But other, sustainable funding sources should also be tapped.

Zhang said China should mimic other countries by demanding that developers who benefit from land use pay for remediation. But this financing option would only work in urban areas, according to a soil cleanup company source who asked not to be identified. In rural areas, government funding would continue to provide most of the financial support.

While the action plan directs governments to take the lead in soil remediation projects, Zhang said, it also encourages cleanup companies to participate by working alongside government agencies. Nevertheless, the plan's wording does not clearly explain how government funds would be injected into a project, nor spell out parameters for commercial participation.

It's hoped that pilot projects based on the action plan will point the way to practical implementation, said Chen Tongbin, an environmental expert at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The first pilot projects will be launched this year in the city of Taizhou, eastern Zhejiang Province, and the city of Huangshi, in central Hubei Province. Sites in these cities will be used to test soil pollution controls, preventative measures and remediation.

Ma said further details including funding arrangements are expected to be spelled out within the context of the legislation that will be introduced to the National People's Congress. The law is expected to be enforced in late 2017.

(Rewritten by Han Wei)
Pause for a moment and think about something you take for granted: cotton. It's one of the most commonly used and versatile textiles, cropping up in everyday products from T-shirts to bank notes. But conventional production can have serious environmental and social impacts, from excessive water and pesticide use to poor labour conditions.

So news that the companies using the most cotton globally, from apparel brands and supermarkets to furniture manufacturers and household stores, are failing to deliver on cotton sustainability should be of major concern.

In an independent cotton sustainability ranking released earlier this week by Pesticide Action Network (PAN) UK, Solidaridad and WWF, just eight out of 37 companies make it out of the red zone. Only home furnishing giant IKEA, which tops the list, are in the green zone. A handful of others - Adidas, C&A, H&M, Kering, M&S, Nike and VF Corporation (owner of Timberland, The North Face, Lee and Wrangler among others) - are making positive progress. The remaining 29 companies appear to do little or nothing to mitigate the impact of this essential raw material - Hermes International, Nordstrom, Ralph Lauren and Richemont are examples of those not yet in the starting blocks.

To any individual, business or government motivated by sustainability and the agenda set out in the UN's new Sustainable Development Goals, this is worrying news. Cotton production is associated with depletion and pollution of water sources, long-term damage to soils and loss of biodiversity. Cases of pesticide poisoning are prolific, and the health dangers for cotton farmers and their families and communities are significant. Despite these issues, cotton farming has received very little attention in comparison to the well-documented problems in garment manufacturing.

With cotton farming a vital mainstay of many developing country economies and a livelihood for millions of farmers worldwide - an estimated 40 million small cotton farmers produce around 75 per cent of the world's cotton - it is imperative to improve the way cotton is grown.

For a decade or more, various sustainable cotton initiatives from Organic and Fairtrade to Better Cotton Initiative and Cotton Made in Africa have been trying to do just this by instigating more sustainable practices that cut farmers' costs and improve productivity. Today, encouragingly, around 13 per cent of global supply is more sustainably grown. However, less than a fifth of this amount is actually sourced, bought and used by manufacturers and retailers as sustainable, with the rest being sold as conventional due to lack of demand from top brands and companies.

This is close to being scandalous. Lack of supply, so often cited by companies as the barrier, is no longer the problem. Excuses for low uptake of available supply given by companies include low consumer demand, complexity of supply chains and additional costs. In reality, sourcing more sustainable cotton has never been easier and these excuses crumble under close examination. There is no reason for companies not to improve cotton sustainability and offer more responsible products to customers. Moreover, this would give recognition and reward to farmers for the efforts they have made to improve.

IKEA, C&A and H&M are showing how cotton sustainability is good for business but many other top companies are failing to deliver. Manufacturers and retailers are simply not buying enough sustainable cotton, even though it is available and the price differential negligible. This inertia signals potential disaster for efforts to transform the cotton sector for the better. Consumers expect top brands to produce their goods in ways that at the very least don't harm people, communities or the wider environment in the name of profit. All major companies need to get on board and any caught napping will risk their brand reputation.

PAN UK, Solidaridad and WWF are calling on all companies using large volumes of cotton to set, report and deliver on targets to use 100 per cent cotton from more sustainable sources by 2020 at the latest.

This is a jointly-authored article by the following authors on behalf of their campaigning organisations.

Keith Tyrell, Director, Pesticide Action Network (PAN) UK

Isabelle Roger, Global Cotton Programme Manager, Solidaridad

Richard Holland, Director, Market Transformation, WWF
A Boones Mill man admitted this week that he used a pistol to hold up a drug store to take Oxycontin and other narcotics. The offense carries up to life in prison, and a judge will now determine how much of that time he'll have to serve.

Joshua Wayne Cundiff pleaded guilty Monday in Franklin County Circuit Court to one count of armed robbery of the Family Pharmacy in Schewels Plaza.

At the plea hearing, Commonwealth's Attorney A.J. Dudley said a man entered the store after 5 p.m. on Feb. 9 and showed a handgun. One of the three employees in the store hid in a locked restroom and another tried to escape out the front door, but the gunman stopped him, Dudley said, adding that security cameras captured the incident.

The man demanded Oxycontin and other drugs from the pharmacist, then fled in a vehicle, he said.

"A bit of a manhunt ensued," Dudley told Judge Stacey Moreau. The Franklin County Sheriff's Office, Rocky Mount Police Department and Virginia State Police took part, and a helicopter was used in the search, but the suspect wasn't located that day.

Dudley said a relative of Cundiff's called to report that he might have been the one who committed the robbery, and Cundiff's vehicle was later found abandoned in the 3800 block of Old Forge Road, about six miles from Family Pharmacy.

Cundiff, 27, turned himself in to police three days after the robbery. Dudley said he has cooperated with investigators who tried to find out what happened to the narcotics. Several drug and firearm charges initially placed against him, plus one count of grand larceny, were dropped at his preliminary hearing in April.

Moreau will sentence Cundiff in August. He'll also be responsible for $11,098 in restitution.
A Franklin County man whose 3-year-old son was killed last year in a shooting incident has been indicted on charges of involuntary manslaughter and child abuse with serious injury.

Grand jurors made the decision early Monday after hearing evidence against Jeremiah Keith Neiderhiser, 32, of Hardy.

Neiderhisers son, Isaiah, died early Aug. 23, a Sunday morning, after being shot with a small-caliber bullet while at his home on Heatherton Lane, officials have said. A juvenile female also lives at that residence but was not injured.

According to a criminal complaint filed in Franklin County Circuit Court, Neiderhiser told investigators he woke up that day to find Isaiah playing with a gun.

The accused grabbed the gun from his son ... and the gun discharged, Investigator S.C. Ingram wrote in the complaint.

Neiderhiser was granted bond Sept. 9 in Franklin County Circuit Court and has been free on bail since then. His next court date was not immediately available.

The case echoes other recent events involving children, firearms and accidental violence.

In June 2014, also in Franklin County, a 12-year-old Wirtz boy shot and killed his 7-year-old half brother as the two played with a .45-caliber handgun.

Investigators ruled the childs death an accident but also charged their baby sitter, Jeffrey Carl Ireson, with two counts of child abuse and two counts of child cruelty. The boys had been playing in Iresons house at the time and the gun belonged to him.

After a daylong trial, jurors found Ireson not guilty of the charges.

More recently, on May 26 in Roanoke, an 11-year-old boy was shot and killed in his home by a 10-year-old relative whod gotten hold of a .380 Ruger.

Last week, Roanoke Commonwealths Attorney Donald Caldwell said that while the investigation of that incident continues, he did not expect charges would be placed against the 10-year-old.

Caldwell said it appeared that the handgun had been left in the house by an adult family member.

Its illegal in Virginia to allow a child access to a loaded gun, or to let a juvenile use a firearm, but those offenses are misdemeanors.

Depending on the circumstances, prosecutors can  as they have in the recent Franklin County cases  seek more serious charges.
BOOTH Nell Hauldren Nell Hauldren Booth, 91, passed away Sunday, June 5, 2016, at her home in Penhook, Va. She is preceded in death by her husband, Edward Grey Booth and two brothers, Tom Hauldren and Chad Hauldren. She is survived by two daughters, Dr. Donna Grey Booth and Tippie Elizabeth Walston; two sisters, Lena Jo Blain and Nada Rose Gabardi; a sister-in-law, Helen Hauldren; a niece and six nephews. She is also survived by a special family friend, Richard Robertson. Mrs. Booth spent her youth in an area of West Virginia called Big Ugly Creek and in Hamlin, W.Va. She eventually accepted a job with Piedmont Airlines in Winston-Salem, N.C., where she met her future husband. They were married in 1953, and made their home in Penhook where Mr. Booth owned a farm. Mrs. Booth earned a degree from Radford College and then became a very popular teacher at Franklin County High School in Rocky Mount, Va., where she taught for many years. She also helped her husband operate their farm in Penhook which consisted of, among other things, operating a dairy farm for several years, and raising Black Angus cattle. Mrs. Booth and her family liked to travel and had visited many parts of the United States as well as several foreign countries. She was a member of the Forrest Hill Christian Church. In her later years Mrs. Booth was blessed to have as caretakers Clara Coles and then Tamara Bowling. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to ASPCA, P.O. Box 96929, Washington, DC 20090-6929 or Forrest Hill Christian Church, 13181 Snow Creek Road, Penhook, Virginia 24137. A memorial service will be held at a later date. Arrangements by Conner-Bowman Funeral Home & Crematory, 62 VA Market Place Drive (Route 220 @ Wirtz Road), Rocky Mount.
ALEX SLITZ / THE GLEANER April Grondahl, (from left) Blake Grondahl, 3, and Brooklynn Grondahl, 6, all of Henderson, sing and clap during Fun in the Park, a summer reading program offered by the Henderson County Public Library, at Freedom Park on Tuesday, June 7, 2016.

SHARE ALEX SLITZ / THE GLEANER Books are spread across a table during Fun in the Park, a summer reading program offered by the Henderson County Public Library, at Freedom Park in Henderson on Tuesday, June 7, 2016. ALEX SLITZ / THE GLEANER Hartley Wolfe, 3, of Henderson, takes a bite from an apple during Fun in the Park, a summer reading program offered by the Henderson County Public Library, at Freedom Park on Tuesday, June 7, 2016. In addition to story time, children are given lunch and have the opportunity to play and make crafts. ALEX SLITZ / THE GLEANER Javen Chambers, 3, of Henderson, reaches to touch Maisy's nose during Fun in the Park, a summer reading program offered by the Henderson County Public Library, at Freedom Park on Tuesday, June 7, 2016. Characters from popular children's books will make appearances at Fun in the Park events throughout the summer. ALEX SLITZ / THE GLEANER B.E. Martin, and her granddaughter, Alea Martin, 5, both of Henderson make paper crafts during Fun in the Park, a summer reading program offered by the Henderson County Public Library, at Freedom Park on Tuesday, June 7, 2016.

By Erin Schmitt of The Gleaner

Several local entities have combined forces to provide free meals and activities for Henderson County children this summer.

The Summer Reading in the Park kicked off Tuesday in Freedom Park, with children gathering to hear "Maisy at the Farm" read aloud, sing nursery rhymes and make colorful animals out of construction paper.

This is the third year for the Summer Reading in the Park program. On average, about 150 kids participated in the program last year.

"It's just one of the greatest things that I've been a part of," said Danielle Anguish, children's service manager at the Henderson County Public Library.

Summer Reading in the Park is a collaboration with multiple entities including the Thelma B. Johnson Early Learning Center, which helped spread the word to families via the parent OneCall system, social media and word-of-mouth.

"This is a fantastic partnership and it is a true culmination of what our Early Childhood Council is all about," said Ginger Ashby, early childhood consultant at the ELC. "It is such an outreach to the community and we are so grateful to touch those kids from birth to all the way to age 9."

Cairo Elementary donated more than 500 books to the Summer Reading in the Park program, said Ashby. Kids attending the program were allowed to take home one of the books to keep.

Anytimers box lunches, apple slices and juice or milk were doled out to 123 kids as part of the Summer Feeding Program administered by Henderson County Schools.

"So far it's been crazy and fun," said Charlotte Baumgartner, the school district's child nutrition director, about the program.

Through the federally sponsored Summer Feeding Program, free meals are offered to children at sites around the county.

"The federal program is amazing," said Baumgartner. "We are very fortunate in Henderson County. No matter where we want to serve, we qualify as a countywide district to provide free meals all summer."

The school system has added extra feeding sites this year and added a mobile route. Baumgartner listed Carriage Trailer Park and Countryview Apartments among the planned stops.

The mobile route is designed to reach areas where there are high quantities of "backpack students." Throughout the school years on Fridays, Family Resource Youth Service Centers at the schools send home backpacks with students who might not otherwise have food on the weekends.

"Once school is out the backpacks stop," she said. "So, we're trying to make sure we're branching out more to reach those backpack kids who aren't getting those in the summertime."

The school system also serves older students meals by delivering to kids enrolled at camps and programs at the YMCA, North Middle and Henderson County High. Meals are also being served at day care centers located at East Heights, Bend Gate and South Heights, where "any kid can walk in and get a meal," Baumgartner said.

For the first time, the Summer Reading in the Park program will expand to Central Park on Thursdays. Free meals will also be served at the location.

"We are excited to be expanding this year to Central Park," said Baumgartner. "Being part of the school system, it's important to us that the kids are getting their meals and their lunches on a regular basis, so being able to partner up with the preschool center to teach the kids early on the importance of getting a healthy meal is really important for us to be able to do."

Making the programs accessible is a shared goal between the partners.

"Now that we've expanded to the city parks as well, I think it's going to be able to touch some kids that before maybe didn't come out here," said Anguish. "It will be closer to their neighborhoods."
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.
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Despite the constant headlines that business is in trouble in Connecticut, a case can be made for success, according to one magazine.

Fortune magazine released their annual "Fortune 500" list Thursday, with 19 Connecticut companies making the cut. Thirteen of this year's companies from Connecticut are based in Fairfield County.

Related: One southwest Connecticut town is among the richest in the country

Fairfield-based (at least for now) General Electric was the highest ranking at 11 on the list, with $140.3 billion in revenue and and also ranked eight the previous year. The next closest-ranking company from Fairfield County was Xerox, based in Norwalk, at 150.

Xerox fell from 143 the previous year. In all, seven of the 19 companies from southwestern Connecticut rose in ranking.

Perhaps the biggest jump on the list, definitely in Connecticut, was Greenwich's XPO Logistics, which rose from 909 to 353 and posted $7.6 billion in revenue in 2016a 223.5% growth in revenue.

"The Connecticut shipping provider's spectacular growth follows an ambitious slate of acquisitions completed over the course of 2015: UX Specialized Logistics for $59 million; Bridge Terminal Transport for $100 million; Con-Way Inc. for $3 billion; and Norbert Dentressangle for $3.53 billion," Fortune said.

Connecticut insurance companies once again landed comfortably within the top 100, with Hartford's Aetna and Cigna listed as 46 and 79, respectively. Both rose in ranking from the previous year, as well.

Related: Newly BBB accredited businesses in Fairfield County

The Fortune 500 list compiles companies based on their reported revenue for the 2016 fiscal year. The survey does not include companies that don't file with a government agency, are incorporated outside the United States, U.S. companies consolidated by other foreign or domestic companies that file with a government agency, and companies that failed to report full financial statements for at least three quarters of the 2016 fiscal year.

To see Fortune magazine's full "Fortune 500" list, click here.

Be sure to see all of Connecticut's Fortune 500 companies for 2016 in the slideshow above.
SOUTHINGTON, Conn. (AP)  A 77-year-old Connecticut woman is facing charges after she left a loaded handgun in a restaurant bathroom.

Carmillia Kimmel was arrested Saturday and charged with second-degree reckless endangerment following the discovery of the weapon at Geno's Grille in Southington.

Officers responded to the restaurant after an employee notified police that a loaded .38-caliber handgun was found in the women's bathroom. Police traced the gun back to Kimmel.

Kimmel told police she got sick while at Geno's and placed her gun on the restroom's paper towel dispenser. She went outside for fresh air and left without realizing she had forgotten her gun.

Police say Kimmel holds a valid pistol permit.

She will be arraigned June 14.

A message left at a number listed for Kimmel wasn't immediately returned.
NEW CANAAN  A Norwalk man who was driving through New Canaan with illegally tinted windows that caught the attention of a New Canaan Police officer, was charged with a host of drug violations.

New Canaan Police said that on May 22, at approximately 6:42 PM, a New Canaan police officer observed a vehicle traveling on New Norwalk Road that had tinted windows, which appeared to be in violation of Connecticut Law.

After stopping the vehicle, which emanated a strong odor of marijuana, the operator and sole occupant Kwong Y. Liu admitted that there was marijuana in his vehicle, police said.

A search of the vehicle found marijuana packaged for sale, Oxycodone pills, liquid tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), a scale and other drug paraphernalia.

New Canaan chief of police Leon Krolikowski said, "Our Department is committed to arresting those that sell drugs in our town."

Liu, 31, of 14 Felix Ln., was taken into custody and charged with possession of narcotics, possession of marijuana with intent to sell, possession of less than four ounces of marijuana, and possession of drug paraphernalia. He was issued a $500 bond.
WILTON  Wilton police were forced to intervene when a belligerent Starbucks customer refused to leave the 21 River Road premises despite repeated requests from employees, police said.

Jennifer Burke, 30, entered the establishment around 8 p.m. and asked to speak to the Starbucks manager. Burke had been transported to the hospital from the Starbucks the previous night, so she reportedly wanted to speak with the manager about what had happened.
Madison County is changing the way it deals with domestic violence cases in the Third Circuit Court.

The county is the second in Illinois to establish a domestic violence accountability court, hearing all levels of cases between intimate partners.

Madison County States Attorney Tom Gibbons said coordination is the biggest difference between how things are being done now and in the past.

In the past, criminal and civil cases were not coordinated, he said. Now, there will be communication and coordination between the civil and criminal courts as well as police and prosecutors.

Gibbons explained that previously a divorce proceeding through the civil courts may have elements of domestic violence involved but details were not shared between the two cases. For example, a judge on the criminal side hearing a domestic abuse case might not be aware of an order of protection that has been filed on the civil side of the court.

These two cases would proceed separately, Gibbons said. Decisions made by one court might contradict a decision being made in another court. It was counterproductive.

In addition to open lines of communication, how the courts deal with domestic abusers has also changed.

Previously, Gibbons said, judges could only put a 72-hour no contact order to protect the victim. It was then up to the victim to get an order of protection for periods beyond that. The new court will also get offenders into intervention programs before they are out on bond. Such treatment usually wasnt required until a case had been tried.

There was no immediate accountability for offenders, he said.

Under the new court system, abusers are ordered to be assessed within 14 days. Based on the assessment, which can include drug and alcohol assessments, diversion programs and counseling are ordered to get to the cause of the problem.

The abusers are being held accountable as soon as it happens. Issues are addressed," Gibbons said.

The Madison County Domestic Violence Accountability Court is based on a national model court in Winnebago County in northern Illinois.

The Winnebago program is one of just six domestic violence courts in the U.S., and as part of a $91,000 grant, hosts visiting county officials and trains court personnel in ways to better spot and understand the needs for domestic violence victims.

Gibbons visited with judges and administrators in Winnebago County and came away convinced the idea was a good one.

We picked up some of the elements of their program and developed a system that works for us, he said. I hope that it has positive results, changes offenders and helps reduce ongoing domestic violence issues.

According to the United States Department of Justice, domestic violence courts were first created in the 1990s. By specializing in domestic violence offenses, these courts aim to process cases more efficiently and deliver more consistent rulings about domestic violence statutes. The courts also incorporate a strong focus of rehabilitation of offenders and deterrence of repeat offenders.

We want to protect families and a lot of these families can be put back together and well do everything we can do to make that happen, Gibbons said. But where it cant happen, we have the process in place and will use all our resources to protect the victims of domestic abuse.

In the Madison County Court, two civil and two criminal judges will handle the docket of domestic violence cases.

Gibbons said the court is up and running and officials are in the process of identifying cases that need to be addressed in the new court program.
Edwardsville High School 2016 graduate Gwyneth Cross is the latest EHS student to be awarded a National Merit Scholarship. Cross, of Glen Carbon, joins fellow EHS students Margaret Anderson and Matthew Morse who were both awarded National Merit Scholarships in May.

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) announced this week that Cross was among the latest National Merit Scholarship recipients. Cross was awarded a college-sponsored award from the University of Chicago.

Cross is one of approximately 3,000 winners of National Merit Scholarships financed by U.S. colleges and universities.

Officials of each sponsor college selected their scholarship winners from among the Finalists in the 2016 National Merit Scholarship Program who plan to attend their institution, the NMSC release states. These awards provide between $500 and $2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate study at the institution financing the scholarship.

This week's announcement is the NMSC's third this school year. NMSC named recipients of corporate-sponsored awards in April and winners of National Merit $2500 Scholarships last month.

Although there were no local corporate-sponsored recipients this year, EHS Students Matthew Morse and Margaret Anderson received the National Merit $2,500 scholarship in addition to Edwardsville resident Ian Hurford who attends St. Louis University High School in St. Louis.

Additional recipients of college-sponsored awards will be announced in July. By the conclusion of this years competition, about 7,500 academic champions will have won National Merit Scholarships worth approximately $33 million.

Over 1.5 million juniors in some 22,000 high schools entered the 2016 National Merit Scholarship competition when they took the 2014 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), which served as an initial screen of program entrants, the release further states.

Approximately 16,000 semifinalists were named in September who then submitted a detailed scholarship application, which included writing an essay and providing information about extracurricular activities, awards and leadership positions held. Semifinalists also had to have an outstanding academic record, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, and earn SAT scores that confirmed the qualifying test performance.

About 15,000 students met the requirements for the Finalist standing and about half of the Finalists will be awarded Merit Scholarships in 2016.

NMSC, a not-for-profit corporation that operates without government assistance, was established in 1955 to conduct the National Merit Scholarship Program. The majority of National Merit Scholarships provided each year are made possible by the support of approximately 440 independent corporate and college sponsors. These sponsors join NMSC in its efforts to enhance educational opportunities for Americas scholastically talented youth and to encourage the pursuit of academic excellence.
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Linkedin Julia Suryakusuma (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, June 8, 2016

Ramadhan is upon us! Alhamdullilah!



Yes, praise Allah indeed, as Ramadhan is considered the holiest and most awaited month in Islam: 30 days of daylight abstention from food, drink and sex, and a focus on religious devotion and spiritual reflection.



Often people send text messages or cards before the beginning of Ramadhan to greet each other and remind people what its all about. One card I came across read: Ramadhan is a month of Allah/Whose beginning is Mercy/Whose middle is Forgiveness/Whose end is freedom from Fire.



Does this also mean the firing squad? I ask, because I have been reading in the media that precisely at the end of Ramadhan, a third round of executions are to be carried out.



Attorney General Muhammad Prasetyo stated that Conducting executions during the holy month will not sound right. Oh I see, its about sounding and appearing right, is it?



Appearances  just like so many things during Ramadhan! Like Christmas, Idul Fitri has become so commercialized and on display. During this holy month, people put on a big show of piousness  by wearing fancy Islamic ( read: Arabic ) style clothes, performing tarawih ( evening prayers ) and attending Quranic recitals and lectures and iftar ( breaking of the fast ) events.



Then at the end, on Idul Fitri, we put on a big show of celebrations and bermaaf-maafan ( grant each other forgiveness )  often superficial and perfunctory.



After that, its business as usual, including murdering people. Because thats what the death penalty is actually: premeditated, unconstitutional, but legalized murder. Otherwise, its totally acceptable. Certainly the Indonesian government and the majority of Indonesians think so.



According to the Death Penalty Information Center, as of Dec. 31 ( based on data from Amnesty International ), 102 countries have abolished the death penalty for all crimes, six for ordinary crimes only ( i.e. outside of crimes under military law or crimes committed in exceptional circumstances ), 32 are abolitionists in practice, while retentionist countries number 58. So the total number of abolitionists in law or practice is 140, which is 70 percent of countries in the world  and counting.



Not long after President Joko Jokowi Widodo assumed the presidency in October 2014, there have been two rounds of executions: six in January 2015 and eight more in April, the majority related to drug-trafficking and the rest for premeditated murder ( sic! ).



Observers of human rights and democracy in Indonesia saw these executions as a setback. Strong comments came from the international community ( especially since many of the executed were foreigners ), including from Ban Ki-moon, the secretary-general of the UN. Social media was on fire, also domestically, from prominent local human rights NGOs.



This only made Jokowi stand his ground even more, citing that the death penalty is an effective crime deterrent ( it isnt  see Death penalty has no deterrent effect: Activists, The Jakarta Post, May 12 ), and that Indonesia is in a darurat narkoba ( drug-abuse state of emergency ) situation, citing figures that many question as doubtful.



Of course, it has to do with the politics of the death penalty, which a recent book, Politik Hukuman Mati di Indonesia ( The Politics of the Death Penalty in Indonesia  Marjin Kiri 2016 ), launched on June 1 at the Constitutional Court in Jakarta, addresses comprehensively. In Jokowis case, it had to do with his desire to show that he was a firm and strong president, also by pulling out the oh-so-cliched national sovereignty card.



But what Im interested to know is why Indonesia as a Muslim-majority country is so gung-ho about the death penalty. As the Ramadhan card says, Islam is supposed to be a religion of peace, mercy and forgiveness, isnt it?



So why are practices like caning, stoning, beheading, cutting off the hands of thieves so much a part of Islam?



Aha, we have to distinguish between Islamic values, which indeed are grounded on mercy and forgiveness, and Islamic culture that often stems from Arabic culture. Arabic law, for example, is based on revenge. But then revenge is a universal phenomenon, so Im not picking on the Arabs.



Revenge  often defined as a harmful action  can nevertheless be considered a form of justice, carried out in the absence of formal law. Sometimes we call it retaliation, retribution, or vengeance, and it is used to right a wrong outside the law.



We all know that forgiveness is so much more a higher, spiritual, Godly quality  but boy, its so satisfying to get revenge! Im sure many of us have had that feeling, right?



Despite the fact that we call ourselves negara hukum ( a state based on law ), in fact most of us know that legal certainly is far from being a reality  especially for those far from the center of power. The legal system in Indonesia is one of the most corrupt institutions in the nation, but at least they implement the death penalty! Its sort of extrajudicial, but what the heck, were still a nation ofpremans ( thugs ).



Since the majority of Indonesians agree with this form of justice, it gives us a feeling of satisfaction that at least on this issue, the legal system is doing something right.



This is making me reflect, what are we as Indonesian citizens and as Muslims? I have to conclude, it seems that as citizens we are schizoid ( laws versus Constitution ), and as Muslims were more than a little hypocritical ( Islamic values of forgiveness versus Arabic culture of revenge ). Oh dearie me!



Before we do anything  eat, embark on a journey, etc.  we Muslims are taught to say the blessing bismillahi r-rahmani r-rahim ( in the name of God the merciful and compassionate ).



I wonder if Jokowi has a different blessing. Maybe his is in the name of God, the angry, intolerant, unforgiving one  at least in relation to the executions.



Its the month of Ramadhan  may Gods peace be upon us and Jokowis forgiveness be upon those of you on death row. Dont bother to hold your breaths though  itll simply be taken away from you by the firing squad.

***

The writer is the author of Julias Jihad.

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Linkedin Sanaz Fotouhi (The Jakarta Post) Melbourne  Wed, June 8, 2016

In May I came to Indonesia to investigate the countrys literary landscape in an effort to bring the Asia Pacific Writers and Translators annual event to Jakarta in 2017.



Yet, I returned to Melbourne with far more than connections to run next years event. As someone who knew very little about Indonesian literature, I came to understand the various literary events and peoples passion for literature in a country where, apparently, literature and reading do not take high priority.



My journey took me to Jakarta and also to Makassar, South Sulawesi, where two rather new literary festivals embrace and reflect the peoples changing relationship with literature. This relationship is perhaps often not seen in and beyond Indonesia.



I landed in Jakarta  the big durian according to Harry Aveling, the Australian lecturer and translator of Indonesian literature  to attend the third ASEAN Literary Festival ( ALF ). The festivals atmosphere and theme reflected Harrys metaphor: controversial, stinky for some, flavorsome for others, a city in which matters of the heart and the mind seem to coexist harmoniously, but at a seemingly cool distance.



ALF is Jakartas only international literary festival aiming to bring together writers, translators and cultural practitioners from Southeast Asia. This year, it began with a juicy controversy: the heavy presence of the police, threatening to shut down the event because of panels on 1965 and on the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer ( LGBTQ ) issue.



Yet, defiant festival directors refused, and the event opened with former Timor Leste president Jose Ramos-Hortas talk on human rights. Even the seemingly unpalatable LGBTQ panel was devoured fully by the audience.



The complications of telling The Story of Now  the theme of the festival  were reflected throughout the four days, as young police officers crowded the main hall at Taman Ismail Marzuki, while national and international writers and cultural practitioners shared ideas and discussed sometimes-controversial issues. Among the panels, Finnish Ambassador Paivi Hilunen-Toivio, The Jakarta Posts Endy M. Bayuni and translator John McGlynn discussed why data present Indonesia as almost the last country that reads.



That Indonesians should be so disinterested in books was surprising. On the surface, it did not seem like that. Throughout the ALF, well-read local audiences packed the sessions and actively participated. Events were sold out, queues were long, and there was excitement in the air that I have not felt at any other literary festival.



Attending the Makassar International Writers Festival ( MIWF ) made it even harder for me to believe the statistics I had heard earlier.



The Makassar festival was founded and directed by Melbourne-based Indonesian writer Lily Yulianti Farid and flies on the wings of volunteers. Spread out over multiple venues, including the famed Fort Rotterdam, and several universities, the sixth Makassar fest gathered some 15 international and nearly 50 local writers. It aims to put regional and lesser-heard Indonesian narratives center stage.



And in doing this, with the theme Baca! ( Read! ), the festival apparently encouraged a new engagement with books and reading. Here, reading was not limited to formal panels and discussions in cool rooms. Rather, it was a hot, passionate family affair.



The Forts entire grounds were transformed into a huge library, with cleverly designed reading stations laid out across the lawn. Young families, students and passers-by got to flip through books and mingle informally with international and Indonesian writers.



Visitors did not hesitate to sit outdoors or in the Forts hot historic rooms to listen to readings, poetry and discussions, while beads of sweat covered them.



They watched, fanning themselves, as the award-winning Eka Kurniawan launched his book O, Deborah Emmanual and Aliya Gabers read passionate poetry bringing people to tears, and the defiant travel writer Agustinus Wibowo did a workshop on photography and writing, among other programs.



In the evening, the grounds were transformed into an outdoor family fair. Hundreds circled to listen to a Cup of Poetry every sunset as famous Toraja coffee was served to readings by local poets. People sat on the lawn to be entertained under the stars. Even a little rain was not enough to cool people off. Here, cool distance was not encouraged.



After all, that had been Lilys vision for this festival. In her opening remarks, she stated that this festival was for the community, ran by the community entirely free, and it was her way to encourage engagement with literature and reading.



The festival visitors were indeed only a small, selected fraction of Indonesias population. And 20 days is surely not enough for me to claim any full understanding of Indonesias literary landscape. Yet I witnessed the importance of these festivals in engaging Indonesia and its people, and those beyond, with its literature.



While the famous Ubud Writers and Readers Festival in Bali has already brought some interest to Indonesia through engagement with literature, relatively new international festivals like the ALF and the MIWF show the beginning of a changing trend in literary interest both in Indonesia and beyond.



Aimed at attracting local audiences, the packed events are telling of a budding interest in literature and reading locally, specifically created through these festivals; the presence of international speakers is also a reflection of the value they see in participating and the beginning of a dialogue.



On an international level, these festivals also bring a kind of presence not visible before. With Indonesia as the Guest of Honor at the 2015 Frankfurt Book Fair, for example, people like myself who had never heard of Indonesian literature before, suddenly begin to see its potential on the world stage.



The fact that international organizations, such as Asia Pacific Writers and Translators, are interested in collaborating with the local festivals signals a promising future for Indonesian literature and peoples interest in it.



If the success of these two events  in the enthusiasm they generated and the kinds of audiences they attracted  is anything to go by, Indonesias general lack of interest in books and reading can, partially, be solved by supporting such events to flourish, to reach remote unlikely audiences who never thought reading and literature could be such a joyous activity for everyone.

***

The author is an Iranian-Australian writer, filmmaker and scholar living in Melbourne, Australia, and writer of The Literature of the Iranian Diaspora: Meaning and Identity since the Revolution ( 2015 ).

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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, June 8, 2016

A creative business founded by young Indonesians, AR&Co, has won a world-class Auggie Award at the Augmented World Expo (AWE) 2016 in Santa Clara, Silicon Valley, the US.

AR&Co won the Best Campaign category for the creation of augmented reality (AR) technology to support sales of a powdered milk brand in Vietnam.

The AWE is like the Oscars of the creative industry in the field of augmented reality. We dont think one can win the best campaign two times, AR&Co cofounder Peter Shearer said as quoted by tempo.co on Monday.

The AWE includes conferences and exhibitions regarding augmented reality. It is routinely organized in Silicon Valley, the hub of technology and the creative industry, to introduce the latest technological advancements such as virtual reality (VR), AR and other ready-made technology.

AR represents a breakthrough in technology in Indonesia. It presents a display that looks exactly like the real world by adding elements such as computer-generated sensory inputs like audio, video, photos or global positioning system (GPS) data.

AR is different from virtual reality, though. AR aims to add information and meaning to an object or a place through the application, said Shearer.

(Read also: Indonesian conservationist shortlisted for Whitley Awards)

Last year, Shearer and his friends won an award in the same category thanks to their creative work on the Nigerian presidential campaign. With a touch of AR technology, presidential candidate Muhammadu Bihari from Nigerias Progressive Congress (APC) opposition party won the presidential election in 2015.

We introduced the campaign to the youth of Nigeria via augmented reality as the presidential candidate is already 72 years old, said Shearer.

Simply by pointing a smartphone or other device at the partys logo, the figure of Muhammadu Bihari would appear to explain the APCs vision and mission. Consequently, the technology has been booming, creating lively discussion among Nigerian teens on social media.

This year, AR&Co won an award for innovation with cow and pilot characters flying and distributing powdered milk throughout Vietnam.

Their sales have increased by 19 percent thanks to our new interactive technology, said AR&Co project manager Juliwina.

Established in 2009, the company has an office in Jakarta as well as branches in Manila, Barcelona, Singapore and Silicon Valley.

Our company already has a formal license from Disney, the Cartoon Network and the producer of the film Transformers to share their projects with us, said Shearer. (jan/kes)
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Linkedin Intan Tanjung (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, June 8, 2016

Experienced sailor Andrew Scott, author of Cruising Guide to Indonesia: A pilot guide to Indonesian Waters, talks to The Jakarta Post about how he started his career and his views on the archipelago's sailing industry.

The Jakarta Post: Can you tell us about your sailing experience?

Andrew Scott: I first came to Bali in 1997 on an around-the-world trip and just fell in love with the place. I went looking for other amazing places out there, sailed across the South Pacific, stopping at all these wonderful little islands with an intent, albeit a bit naive, to find another Bali. Nowhere felt right, and when I next set foot on Bali in 2004, I already knew I was home.

Sailing in Indonesia has just been an extension of that feeling. I feel pretty much at home anywhere across the archipelago, from Aceh all the way over to Papua; the people are wonderful, and I couldnt ask for a better home.

How did you develop a love for sailing?

I have always loved the ocean. Growing up surfing and diving lead into getting jobs working on boats, so I could do more surfing and diving. At one point, I bought a Westsail 32, read every book from Thor Heyerdahl to Joshua Slocum, practiced sailing in the San Diego Bay for a grand total of nine hours and set sail for Tahiti.

There was no step in there where I think I developed a love for sailing. I think it would be more correct to say it was already there and I just followed my dreams.

What is the potential Indonesia has in the sailing/marine industry?

There is truly no greater cruising ground than Indonesia. With 17,000 islets covering some two million square miles of pristine tropical water and a rich and vibrant local culture, there truly can be no comparison. To grasp the enormity of untapped potential, one only has to look at neighboring countries with well developed marine sectors and far fewer islands. We have 17,000 tropical islands.

Andrew Scott, the author of "Cruising Guide to Indonesia: A pilot guide to Indonesian waters" poses with local children.(Scott's personal photo collection/-)

How do you think this country can improve its sailing industry?

I would, of course, like to have marinas and boat supply chandleries and workshops across the archipelago. We need these types of businesses as places of rest and repair.

Indonesia is a maritime nation and there are generations of skilled craftsmen and boat builders in all the old ports around the country just waiting to fill these positions. It is not as easy as just building marinas and sailors will come. I think it is more of a welcome them and they will come'. When this begins and more and more yachts arrive each year, growth in the service industry will come organically.

(Read also: Full-size replica of Titanic to sail in 2018)

What would you suggest to the government?

Let us do this, but do it slowly. There is a real push from the government to drive up foreign yacht arrivals, and success is gauged by simply counting numbers. I think, at the same time, there needs to be an equal push to develop marine infrastructures to support increased traffic. For example, in the Komodo National Park there is already a shortage of mooring balls, which often leads to illegal anchoring on coral reefs, basically destroying the very reason we came to visit.

What does Indonesia need to do to increase the number of yacht arrivals?

A simplification of regulations for visiting yachts and a consistency in enforcing these regulations throughout the country. Once word gets out that Indonesia is welcoming, the people will come.

The success of this campaign depends largely on the implementation of regulations at ground level. It is one thing to hand down new government regulations from Jakarta, but quite a different thing to enforce these regulations throughout the country.

Indonesia calls this sosialisasi (socialization), but the people want regional autonomy. If individual harbormasters make their own local bylaws, then really nothing has changed. (kes)
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Linkedin Arya Dipa (The Jakarta Post) Bandung  Tue, June 7 2016

A recent study has revealed that the number of victims of poisoning from bootleg liquor is higher in regions that have implemented a blanket ban on alcohol, a finding that may well serve as a warning to a government currently considering taking a more draconian stance on alcohol regulation.

The study suggests that in areas where alcohol is entirely outlawed, people are forced to risk consuming unregulated home-brewed liquor.

The Center for Indonesian Policy Studies (CIPS) recorded a strong correlation between prohibitions on alcohol and cases of poisoning from unlicensed alcohol.

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Linkedin P.J. Leo (The Jakarta Post) Toraja, south sulawesi  Tue, June 7 2016

God Bless: Besides its culture, traditions and natural beauty, Toraja is also a religious destination with its Jesus Gives His Blessing statue at the peak of Buntu Burake Hill, Tana Toraja regency.

There is a reason Toraja is frequently called a piece of heaven.

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Linkedin Warief Djajanto Basorie (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Tue, June 7 2016

My first get-to-know meeting with Sabam Siagian was in the press room of the UN Conference Hall, New York, in 1978. He filed a story on the 33rd UN General Assembly (UNGA) that September for his paper, the Jakarta afternoon daily Sinar Harapan.

The annual UNGA that runs for three months was not an event that Sabam would cover daily, as he was primarily in the US for the prestigious oneyear Nieman journalism fellowship at Harvard.

I was a reporter for the KNI News Service on a four-month work attachment at the Associated Press (AP), the major US news agency with its head office at the Rockefeller Center. My stint got Ford Foundation funding. KNI, a private cooperative-modeled news agency, distributed AP news in Indonesia.

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Linkedin Hans Nicholas Jong (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, June 8 2016

The government, through the newly established Peatland Restoration Agency (BRG), is working on the restoration of over 2 million hectares of damaged peatland, aiming to reduce the risks of forest fires.

Despite the majority of big companies showing support for the program, one big company allegedly refuses to cooperate.

BRG head Nazir Foead said that APP, part of local conglomerate Sinar Mas Group, had repeatedly rejected the agencys request for the company to submit its concession map.

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Linkedin Callistasia Anggun Wijaya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, June 8, 2016

The Jakarta administration has vowed to provide affordable beef for Jakartans, especially residents of low-income subsidized apartments and Jakarta Smart Card (KJP) holders amid the skyrocketing commodity prices during Ramadhan.

The current average beef price in the capital ranges from Rp 116,000 (US$8.8) to Rp 125,000 per kilogram according to infopangan.jakarta.go.id, an official website run by the city administration that provides information on staple foods.

Beef prices jumped following rising demand during the fasting month and supply shortages.

The city administration will hold bazaars from June 27 to July 1, a week before Idul Fitri, in 44 locations across the capital to provide cheap staple foods, including beef, Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama said on Tuesday.

The beef would be sold at a starting price of Rp 39,000 per kilogram.

We will start selling it at the rusunawa. This is a subsidy, so we are paying the price gap," Ahok said on Tuesday.

Ahoks administration has also started conducting market operations everyday from June 4 to July 17 to help stabilize commodity prices.

Meanwhile, from June 4 to July 17, the administration conducted a market operation in 27 markets from Monday to Friday and in 120 spots from Friday to Sunday where the city administration would increase the supplies of several commodities to help stabilize the price.

The Trade Ministry will increase beef imports to ease the rising price, Trade Minister Thomas Lembong said on Tuesday, promising the beef price will decline within two weeks. The ministry has issued permits for 23,300 tons of beef in addition to extending beef import permit quotas to 27,400 tons for state-owned companies. (rin).
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Linkedin Ni Komang Erviani (The Jakarta Post) Denpasar, Bali  Wed, June 8, 2016

Australia will give support for the development of the new Bali Mandara hospital being constructed by the Bali administration in the Sanur area.

The Royal Darwin Hospital will be one of the Australian supporting team members dispatched to help develop the hospital so that it can reach international standards.

Royal Darwin Hospital representatives visited the hospital construction site in Sanur on Tuesday. Accompanied by Bali Governor Made Mangku Pastika, they gave suggestions regarding the construction of the project. The visit was a follow up of Pastika's visit to Darwin last month.

"For a long time, we, Bali and Darwin, have had a good relationship in developing healthcare. The governor [Pastika] came to Darwin recently and asked if we could work together to help develop the new provincial hospital here," Royal Darwin Hospital project director Di Brown said on Tuesday.

She added that the governor had invited her to give suggestions to help improve patient flow and the general operation of the hospital.

She said she was optimistic that Bali Mandara Hospital could equal the quality of the Royal Darwin Hospital. "Yes, thats the plan: To make it as good as Darwin. And I think there are so many smart people in Bali. So I think its possible," said Brown, who is also a nursing education consultant for Australia's National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre (NCCTRC).

She said the role of the Royal Darwin Hospital in the collaboration might extend beyond that of a consultant. "I am just here to take a first look. And in the future, hopefully, we will have a more long-term relationship," Brown said.

Royal Darwin Hospital reportedly plans to give human resources training to the Bali hospital. "We will have to work out what the plan will be. But yes, at the moment, people from here would be going to Darwin and maybe in the future people from Darwin will come here. But we will work out what the plan will be for the ongoing support," Brown said.

Pastika said the provincial administrations initial staff members would be sent to Royal Darwin Hospital to learn about the international standard of healthcare services and receive suggestions for the new hospital.

"Thus, we can receive concrete advice and suggestions. We want the Royal Darwin Hospital to become our benchmark, our partner for quality control and everything else. Since the beginning, we have aimed to reach the international standard, and the closest international hospital is Royal Darwin Hospital and they are willing to help us," Pastika said.

The Bali Mandara Hospital is built on a 2.95-hectare plot of land in Sanur and will be able to accommodate 176 inpatients. The hospital construction costs around Rp 200 billion (US$15.09 million) and will be funded from the 2015 and 2016 provincial annual budget. In the budget revision that will take place in the middle of the year, the province will allocate another Rp 100 billion for basic equipment and Rp 8 billion for interior design. The hospital is expected to open next year.

Pastika said the Royal Darwin Hospital was the best choice as a reference of international standards as Bali had a long relationship with the institution. After the Bali Bombing tragedy, many victims were evacuated to the hospital.

The Royal Darwin Hospital has approximately 363 beds, more than 1700 staff members and provides a broad range of services in all specialty areas to the Darwin urban population as well as serving as a referral centre to the Top End of the Northern Territory, Western Australia and South-East Asia. The Top End population serviced by the hospital is approximately 150,000.

The Royal Darwin Hospital is the largest teaching hospital in the Northern Territory and is also recognized as Australia's National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre. The hospital won international recognition for its role in the retrieval, treatment and transfer of victims of the 2002 Bali bombings. Within 62 hours of the blasts, medical staff had resuscitated 61 patients including 20 intensive care patients, and evacuated 48 patients to burns centers around Australia. Royal Darwin Hospital again treated more than 20 victims following the second Bali bombings in October 2005 and in 2006 treated victims evacuated from East Timor.

Pastika said that the Royal Darwin Hospitals strong emergency system, which is integrated with the police and fire brigade emergency response systems, was one thing that the Bali hospital could learn from.

The governor said the provincial administration planned to send young doctors to learn about emergency care services at the Royal Darwin Hospital and Charles Darwin Hospital.

However, Pastika said he did not yet know where all the money to complete the hospital would come from, but that it might be taken from the annual budget.

The Bali Mandara Hospital will also include an integrated cancer treatment center with facilities for radiodiagnostics, radiotherapy and nuclear medicine. The new hospital is expected to be on par with other cancer treatment center such as Dharmais Hospital in Jakarta and Hasan Sadikin Hospital in Bandung.

A therapy center for the elderly is also part of the plan. As many pensioners from across the world opt to spend their time in Bali, the hospital is expected to provide a quality service for them. To meet the demand for alternative medicine, the hospital will also contain health spa facilities, a traditional herbal treatment center and an acupuncture therapy service. (ebf)
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Linkedin Anton Hermansyah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, June 8, 2016

The government has initiated an availability payment scheme for toll road projects to further boost less profitable projects. The Salatiga-Surakarta toll road will be the pilot project.

Indonesia Toll Road Authority (BPJT) head Herry Trisaputra Zuna said the new scheme would provide incentives for private partners. The scheme is expected to start as soon as possible as the government issued a presidential regulation (Perpres) last year as the legal basis.

"We will start with Salatiga-Solo [Surakarta] as the pilot project and will apply it to other projects, especially in less commercial areas," he said on Wednesday in Jakarta.

Under the scheme, the government will issue a concession for a toll road project and then sell it to a third party as the concessionaire. The concessionaire will put up capital as equity, or take out a loan, to pay the contractor to finish the project as well as an operator to commercialize the toll road.

The concessionaire will collect money from tolls for a specific period of time. As for the investment, the government as the original owner will pay the concessionaire back in accordance to the availability of the project.

"The government will make installments during the concession period, for example 20 years. Then the concessionaire will have to meet specific requirements, such as road quality and availability of several supporting facilities," Herry said. (ags)
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Linkedin Fedina S. Sundaryani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, June 8 2016

A decision by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) to provide a multi-billion-dollar loan for an Indonesian consortium paves the way for the financial closure of the development of a mega power plant project in Batang, Central Java, which has long been hampered by various legal problems across the years.



In a press statement obtained by The Jakarta Post, the publicly funded Japanese bank said it had agreed to provide a US$2.05 billion loan to PT Bhimasena Power Indonesia (BPI), a consortium consisting of Jakarta-listed PT Adaro Energy, J-Power Electric Power Development Co. Ltd. and Itochu Corp., which will develop the 2,000-megawatt coal-fired power plant.



JBIC said the project was also cofinanced by other Japanese financial institutions, including Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. and the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, as well as two Singaporean entities  DBS Bank Ltd. and Overseas Chinese Banking Corp. with a total financing of about $3.42 billion.



The loan is intended to support the overseas infrastructure project in which Japanese companies participate as investors and are engaged in the projects operation and management over a long period of time, utilizing the advanced technologies of Japan, JBIC said in the press statement.



Japan is one of the few industrialized economies in the world that still promotes coal heavily, including technology to reduce carbon emissions from the worlds least environmentally-friendly fossil fuel.



The Batang power plant, touted as the largest in Southeast Asia, is part of the Indonesian governments ambitious plan to procure an additional 35,000 MW for the electricity grid.



Although the projects tender was originally won in 2011, land-acquisition problems plagued the project up until March this year when the Supreme Court voted to reject a challenge to a Central Java gubernatorial decree that allowed a 125,146 square-meter site to be used for the Batang power plant.



The project is estimated to cost $4 billion and the electricity will be sold to state-owned electricity firm PLN under a 25-year contract.



The first stage of commercial operations was initially scheduled for 2016. However, the target became unfeasible partly because BPI, in mid-2014, declared force majeure on the project as it was unable to acquire the remaining plots of land it needed.



BPI eventually asked for an extension to the deadline for the financial closure until March this year from the original October 2015 deadline. That deadline was eventually extended again to June 6.



Following JBICs official agreement, the Indonesian government, alongside the projects stakeholders, plans to officiate the financial closure on Wednesday.



PLN claims that construction was well underway as land clearance, fencing and the development of access roads had already started several months ago.



We predict that [the power plant] will start operating in 2020, PLN senior public relations manager Agung Murdifi told the Post.



Meanwhile, chairman of the Private Electricity Producers Association (APLS), Ali Herman, said the financial closure was an indication that the countrys electricity sector was still regarded as attractive by foreign investors.



We are glad about the news of financial closure as this can serve as an example for future investors who will see that any problems can be overcome, he said.



Batang Regent Yoyok Riyo Sudibyo also welcomed the financial closure for the power plant project.



My job is to make sure that locals reap the most benefits from this power plant. Furthermore, I must ensure that the construction is done within the perimeters of the law, especially in terms of the environment. If there is any environmental impact local people will be the first to feel its effects, he told the Post via short message service.



Yoyo acknowledged that there were still some locals who disagreed with the construction. However, he asked that BPI make efforts to educate locals so that they understood the benefits of the power plants.

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, June 8, 2016

Whats on the menu today? In many homes across Indonesia, rice is high on the top of the list, but nowadays noodles and bread have as equal a chance to be served as staples on the table.

Indonesians, known for a long time as among the worlds top rice eaters, are undergoing a shift in what they eat as staple foods.

Consumption of wheat-based products such as noodles and bread has been rising significantly in the past 10 years  making the country the worlds second-largest wheat importer  while per capita rice consumption has stagnated, according to recent research by Dutch lender Rabobank.

Baked goods grew 11.7 percent on average in value and 5.5 percent in volume as more companies expanded their capacity and opened new stores in smaller cities, the research found.

The growing middle class and changing lifestyles provide a big opportunity for bakery companies, as these consumers have strong buying power, while they embrace modern, Western lifestyles, Rabobank consumer foods analyst Haris Rahmanto wrote in the research report.

Eight to 9 million people are expected to enter the middle class every year until the total reaches 141 million in 2020, according to the Boston Consulting Group.

This has supported the mushrooming of cafes and restaurants that sell baked products for dishes such as sandwiches and many dessert cakes, as well as to accompany the rising culture around drinking coffee.

Artisanal bakeries contribute to almost half of Indonesias total bakery market value, followed by industrial bakeries (33 percent) and private labels (18 percent). Artisanal bakeries bake their products at the points of sale, including those with central kitchens.

The name BreadTalk may ring a bell to many. Established in 2003, the Singapore franchise boutique bakery currently has 162 stores nationwide from Jayapura, Ambon, Gorontalo and Singkawang to Madiun, Pekanbaru and Jambi  not to mention in Jakarta, Bali, Surabaya and Medan, among other places.

The rising demand for bread in the country can be seen by the increasing number of our stores, BreadTalk brand manager Tessa Adriani told The Jakarta Post. It is planning to open 20 to 30 stores this year.

In capital city Jakarta, bakery boutiques are widespread in shopping centers and as standalone shops. Customers such as Richard Gumulya, 24, are helping boost sales as his family can spend Rp 500,000 to

Rp 700,000 per month on bread at Union brasserie, bakery and bar.

On a normal day, Unions Pondok Indah outlet in South Jakarta can sell more than 100 cakes. The figure could double during weekends, said an unidentified staff member.

Artisanal bakeries in bakery shops and cafes are the favorites of the upper middle class, while for the lower income earners and the middle class, the burgeoning modern markets are helping boost industrial bread consumption.

In five years, the minimarket contribution to the industrial bakery category has grown significantly at the expense of supermarkets and independent grocers, Rabobanks Haris said.

Minimarket giants such as Alfamart and Indomaret have more than 20,000 stores across the country, making them the most important channel for the growth of the industrial bakery business.

The sales of bread in Indomaret have shown an increasing trend, said Haliman Kustedjo, president director of Indoritel Makmur International, the parent company of Indomaret operator Indomarco Prismatama. Indomaret has seen bread sales increased 25 to 30 percent per year in the past five years both in value and volume.

In 11,000 Alfamart stores throughout the archipelago, sales of its own private label bread has surged by 81.3 percent in the January to March period of this year from the same period a year ago. Sales of other brands that include industrial bread like Sari Roti and Mr. Bread soared even higher by 84.2 percent.

Publicly listed bread maker Nippon Indosari Corpindo, the company behind the Sari Roti brand, is a market leader in mass produced bread, with 10 factories spread across Indonesia.

Sales of Sari Roti products almost doubled in three years to Rp 2.17 trillion in 2015 from Rp 1.19 trillion in 2012. The increase in sales happened because of the development of the companys distribution system, Nippon Indosari spokesperson Stephen Orlando told the Post.

But for other producers to reach Sari Rotis point in terms of distribution and nationwide presence will be the top challenge. The Rabobank report noted: Short shelf life is a classic problem for the bakery business and an even bigger problem for a country with a geographical profile as unique as Indonesia.

Industrial baked goods are only good for about five days, while transporting goods from Java to other islands could take three days or more. Poor infrastructure and expensive logistics exacerbate this problem, with logistics costs at 24.64 percent of GDP being far above Malaysia (13 percent) and Singapore (8 percent).

But opportunities are arising from these challenges, Haris said, citing technologies such as frozen dough, long shelf life products and modified atmosphere packaging as potential problem-solvers for bakery businesses that are ripe for growth in Southeast Asias largest economy. (adt/vny/win)
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Linkedin Adek Media Roza (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, June 8 2016

It was not until last December that local governments (provinces, regencies and cities) in Indonesia were heavily impacted by the fall of world oil prices.

The impact came when the Finance Ministry outlined the 2015 calculation on oil and gas revenue sharing (DBH) for producer regions. Overall, the amount of the DBH transferred from Jakarta dropped sharply, from Rp 36 trillion in 2014 to Rp 14 trillion (US$1.05 billion).

Some regions suffered a drop of up to 90 percent in their DBH revenue. They include Bulungan Regency in North Kalimantan and Tarakan in East Kalimantan. Both regions received only Rp 10 billion, far lower than the Rp 500 billion they had received the previous year. Meanwhile, Kutai Kartanegara lost Rp 2.5 trillion after its transfer plunged to Rp 700 billion.

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, June 8 2016

High operating costs and stiff competition continue to put pressure on the bottom line of Fast Food Indonesia (FFI), the franchise holder for Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) in Indonesia, despite an increase in total revenues.



The rise in operating costs was not only caused by an increase in salaries and the cost of raw materials, but also as a result of higher rents, FFI director Justinus D. Juwono said on Tuesday. Many tenants saw continually increasing rents because of high demand for both local and international chain restaurants, with resulting heavy competition for the limited space available, he added.



A lot of local-food restaurants have upgraded their stores. For example, nasi padang and soto kudus restaurants are now equipped with air conditioning and attractive store designs, he said.



Unlike buying clothes where customers can go to multiple stores to buy a variety of things, usually people only eat one big meal in a specific location during the day. This has made the competition more intense for KFC, he said.



For example, nasi padang and soto kudus restaurants are now equipped with air conditioning and attractive store designs.



In 2015, the company saw its net profits decline by 32.7 percent year-on-year (yoy) to Rp 105 billion (US$7.85 million) and its sales only grew by 6.32 percent yoy to Rp 4.48 trillion.



Meanwhile, in the first quarter of this year, the company booked an improvement in revenue, which increased by 10 percent yoy to Rp 1.1 trillion. Its net profits, however, dropped by 6.43 percent on an annual basis to Rp 8.2 million.



Besides the escalating rents, the companys profit slump was also caused by a hike in staff wages. This year, the wage costs have risen by about 18 percent, Justinus added.



Furthermore, the unstable rupiah exchange rate had an impact on the cost of imported raw materials. FFI imports its spices and potatoes directly from KFC in the US.



The decrease in profits [at FFI] was also caused by the increasing cost of raw materials used for production, Harjono Wreksoremboko, president director of Indoritel Makmur International said during Indoritels press conference on Monday. Indoritel held a 35.8 percent stake in FFI as of March.



To cope with the weak performance, FFI reduced its workforce by 3.3 percent to 16,345 nationwide at the end of 2015 from 16,902 in 2014, according to the companys 2015 annual report.



This year, the company has allocated capital expenditure (capex) of Rp 300 billion to open 30 new restaurants across the country, renovate 50 existing store units and add more equipment. In the first quarter of 2016, it had used about 30 percent of its capex, Justinus said.



Of the 30 planned new restaurants, the firm plans to open five KFC box units, a scaled-down store model to penetrate smaller locations like residential areas and train stations, each with an investment cost of Rp 1.5 billion, which is one third of the cost needed for a regular-sized outlet of Rp 4.5 billion. The company had a total of 540 retail stores in December 2015, up from 493 units in 2014.



With the strategies that it plans to follow this year, the company is optimistic about booking sales growth of 7 to 9 percent in 2016 to stand at Rp 4.9 trillion, up from Rp 4.5 trillion in 2015. (win)

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Linkedin Matthew Daly (Associated Press) Washington  Wed, June 8, 2016

Congress on Tuesday sent President Barack Obama a sweeping bill that would for the first time regulate tens of thousands of toxic chemicals in everyday products, from household cleaners to clothing and furniture.

In a rare display of bipartisanship in an election year, the Senate backed the measure on a voice vote after Republicans and Democrats spoke enthusiastically about the legislation. Backers of the bill said it would clear up a hodgepodge of state rules and update and improve a toxic-chemicals law that has remained unchanged for 40 years.

The Senate vote follows approval in the House last month. Obama is expected to sign the measure.

The wide-ranging bill was more than three years in the making and had support from a broad coalition, ranging from environmental and public health groups to the chemical industry and the National Association of Manufacturers.

The bill would set new safety standards for asbestos and other dangerous chemicals, including formaldehyde, styrene and Bisphenol A, better known as BPA, that have gone unregulated for decades. The rules will impact an $800-billion-a-year industry.

The measure would update the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act to require the Environmental Protection Agency to evaluate new and existing chemicals against a new, risk-based safety standard that includes considerations for particularly vulnerable people such as children and pregnant women. It also establishes written deadlines for the EPA to act and makes it harder for the industry to claim chemical information is proprietary and therefore secret.

Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., one of the bill's chief sponsors, said the bill's passage ensures that "for the first time in 40 years, the United States of America will have a chemical safety program that works ... and protects families from dangerous chemicals in their daily lives."

The bill is named after the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg, a New Jersey Democrat who worked for years to fix the toxic-substance law before his death in 2013.

Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, called the bill "historic" and "a great example of the Republican-led Congress working for the American people by enacting meaningful and common-sense legislation."

Some environmental groups opposed the bill, saying it did too little to protect consumers from dangerous chemicals that have been linked to serious illnesses, including cancer, infertility, diabetes and Parkinson's disease. Under current law only a small fraction of chemicals used in consumer goods have been reviewed for safety.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., also opposed the bill, calling it a "sweeping federal takeover of chemical regulation." Paul said the bill would pre-empt state regulations in favor of "overzealous" federal regulations.

Business groups have been asking Congress to bring clarity to what they say in a dizzying array of state regulations, with tough rules required by liberal-leaning states such as California, Massachusetts and Vermont, and looser standards in conservative states such as Texas and Louisiana.

The American Chemistry Council, which represents the chemical industry, said the bill would provide greater certainty to industry while holding the EPA accountable to impose reasonable requirements.

Final passage of the legislation will "bring chemical regulation into the 21st century ... and have far-reaching benefits for America's economy and public health," the group said a statement.

The chemical bill is "not perfect," but "meets the high goals set by the administration for meaningful reform," the White House said in a statement. The legislation is likely to restore public confidence in the safety of chemicals while improving public health and environmental protections, the White House said.

The 181-page bill declares that any state law or rule in place before April 22 would not be pre-empted by federal law. The legislation also would allow states to work on some regulations while federal rules are being developed, a process that can take up to seven years.

States that do not regulate chemicals closely would follow the federal standard.

___

Reach Matthew Daly: http://twitter.com/MatthewDalyWDC
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, June 8, 2016

The National Police's Densus 88 counterterrorism squad arrested two suspected terrorists in a raid in Surabaya, East Java, on Wednesday.

Densus agents raided a rented room on Jl. Lebak Timur 3D in Mulyorejo subdistrict, Surabaya, on Wednesday afternoon. Agents confiscated homemade bombs, two riffles, a homemade gun with bullets, daggers and a mobile phone set up to be used as a detonator as well as bomb materials in the raid, Mulyorejo Police chief Sr. Dwi Bagus Rusiawan said.

One of arrested men has been identified as Pur, 35. The other man has yet to be identified.

Pur is a former drug convict and was released from Medaeng Penitentiary in Surabaya a year ago, Dwi said. After his release he lived in his wife's house in Makassar, South Sulawesi. Besides being incarcerated for a drug offense, Pur had also been detained for embezzlement.

"He returned to Surabaya a week ago and stayed in a rented room," Dwi said as quoted by Antara news agency.

No further details have been released on alleged terrorism-related offenses.

"Densus 88 will release the information. Police personnel will guard the location to prevent undesirable incidents," he added. (rin)
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Linkedin Dewanti A. Wardhani and Djemi Amnifu (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta/kupang  Wed, June 8, 2016

When shallots that are bought for Rp 16,000 (US$1.2) per kilogram (kg) from Nganjuk farmers in East Java are sold to end consumers in the capital city for Rp 40,000 per kg, something must be wrong.

The margin is too high and the prices are unfair for buyers, said Business Competition Supervisory Commission (KPPU) head Syarkawi Rauf, pointing to food distributors that are suspected of conducting cartel business practices.

There is a big chance that distributors are cooperating and establishing a cartel to set a big margin on top of the farmers prices, Syarkawi told reporters in Jakarta on Tuesday.

President Joko Jokowi Widodos administration is struggling to keep food prices in check, having rolled out incentives for farmers and imported several key commodities such as beef, shallots and sugar to ensure adequate supply and, hence, maintain stable prices.

However, the measures have thus far failed to stabilize prices, which have soared beyond the governments targets. Shallots, for instance, are supposed to be priced at

Rp 25,000 per kg, but they are currently trading at almost Rp 40,000 per kg in Jakartas markets.

Similarly, beef is sold at an average of Rp 127,000 per kg, above the governments target of Rp 80,000 per kg. Meanwhile, chicken is now sold for up to Rp 40,000 per kg at local markets, compared with the price of Rp 15,000 per kg bought from farmers.

To investigate suspicions of foul play done by food distributors, the KPPU has agreed to cooperate with the National Police and the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) for a joint investigation to crack down on possible cartels taking advantage of the Ramadhan month by deliberately setting sky high prices of staple foods.

If found guilty of practicing unhealthy business competition, large distributors can be fined up to

Rp 100 billion, while small distributors will be given reeducation.

An operation conducted by Jakarta-owned market operator PD Pasar Jaya simultaneously across the 20 markets in the city was a breath of fresh air amid such high prices.

In the operation, staple foods are sold at cheaper prices. For example, beef is sold for Rp 89,000 per kg, shallots for Rp 23,000 per kg and chicken meat for Rp 29,000 per kg.

By noon, Pasar Jayas stock at the Jatinegara Market in East Jakarta was sold out. One customer, Siti Maemunah, said the she was among the dozens of shoppers who scrambled to buy the goods.

Similar to in Jakarta, food in South Sumatra has also experienced a steep price hike. For example, current beef prices in the province reached Rp 140,000 per kg from the previous Rp 100,000 per kg.

We will call a number of businesspeople to find a solution to the rising prices of beef and chicken meat in the market, South Sumatras Livestock Agency head Amruzi Minha said as reported by Antara News.

In East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) prices seem tame. Beef is sold for up to Rp 85,000 per kg by one of the nations biggest beef suppliers that distributes to Greater Jakarta.

NTT livestock agency head Dany Sumadi said businessmen in the area had enough stock, thus prices were still stable. Dany said Kupangs Oeba slaughterhouse would butcher up to 80 head of cattle a day to provide beef for Kupang and its neighboring cities.
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Linkedin Corry Elyda (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, June 8 2016

In the spirit of sharing and caring, followers of Islam in the capital are competing to do good deeds during the holy month of Ramadhan, including by providing snacks, locally known as takjil, to people breaking their fasts in mosques and to motorists on the streets.

Muslims believe that Ramadhan is a special month when every good deed earns multiple rewards from God, especially when they provide food to those who observe Ramadhan fasting.

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, June 8, 2016

Publicly listed tire maker Gajah Tunggal Tbk has promoted its former chief operating officer Budhi Santoso Tanasaleh to the position of president director, replacing Christopher Chan who has moved to the vice president commissioner post.

Gajah Tunggal corporate secretary Catharina Widjaja said the decision had been approved at the firms annual general shareholders meeting. She said the company did not pay dividends to shareholders as it had suffered Rp 313 billion losses in 2015 due to the weakening rupiah.

Catharina said that she was optimistic tire exports would grow this year, especially those to the US. Apart from the US market, the company also supplies tires to Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

This is because the US is imposing anti-dumping tariffs on tires imported from China. It is an opportunity for countries outside China to expand their tire exports, she said in Jakarta on Tuesday.

The company booked US$420 million from tire exports to the US in 2015. In the first quarter of the year, exports to the US market represented 72 percent of the firms total export revenue.

Known by its brand GT radial, Gajah Tunggal plans to export 47 percent of its production this year, a 4 percent increase from 43 percent in 2015. The firm is allocating $80 million for capital expenditure this year. (sha/ags)

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Editor's note: the first and the sixth paragraphs have been rectified, regarding to Mr. Christopher Chan's new position in Gajah Tunggal and the value of tire exports to the US in 2015.
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Linkedin Anton Hermansyah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, June 8, 2016

President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo will sign off on the financial closure for six infrastructure projects, comprising the Batang coal-fired power plant in Central Java and five toll road projects around the archipelago on Thursday at the Presidential Palace after a one-day delay.

The signing ceremony was initially scheduled to be held at the Office of the Economic Coordinating Minister on Wednesday, but Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sudirman Said said Jokowi had changed the day and the venue to the Presidential Palace.

"The President called and instructed us to delay the ceremony until tomorrow and to hold it at the Presidential Palace," he said on Wednesday.

The US$7.69 billion worth of infrastructure projects was guaranteed by the government through the Indonesia Infrastructure Guarantee Fund (IIGF).

The five highway projects are the Manado-Bitung toll road in North Sulawesi, the Balikpapan-Samarinda toll road in East Kalimantan, the Terbanggi Besar-Pematang Panggang-Kayu Agung toll road in Lampung and South Sumatra, the Pandaan-Malang toll road in East Java and the Serpong-Balaraja toll road in Banten.

The Batang power plant, touted as the largest in Southeast Asia, is part of Jokowi's ambitious plan to add 35,000 MW to the electricity grid by building multiple power plants.

Construction of the $4 billion coal-powered plant was initially earmarked to begin in 2012 and be commercialized in 2019. However, the community near the site protested the plan on environmental grounds.

Many have refused to sell their property to make way for it. Farmers who refused to give up their land have reported cases of intimidation and blocked access to their homes.

The project was awarded to Bhimasena Power Indonesia, a joint venture between Adaro Energy, Japan's Itochu Corporation and the Electric Power Development Co., Ltd (J-Power).

Bhimasena secured a $3.4 billion loan for the project from a consortium of nine Japanese banks, of which $2 billion came from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC).

"With this we can reassured the consortium that the chance in Indonesia is still available. Despite slow but there is progress," Adaro president director Garibaldi "Boy" Thohir told thejakartapost.com.
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Linkedin Ayomi Amindoni (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, June 8, 2016

The Trade Ministry has revealed that it mishandled beef prices before Ramadhan, allowing them to skyrocket in Indonesia during the fasting month.

Trade Minister Thomas Lembong said on Wednesday that President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo had instructed the ministry to import beef, but the ministry failed to implement the order.

"I regretfully admit that the implementation was not successful," Thomas said after a Cabinet meeting at the State Palace.

Thomas said a lack of coordination between ministries and agencies was one of the causes of the price of beef reaching Rp120,000 (US$9) per kilogram in Indonesia, compared to US$4 in Australia and New Zealand.

"Of course, we take this as a lesson. I see that our traditional way of trading is unhealthy, so many things need to be improved," he added.

The Trade Ministry will increase beef imports to ease the rising prices, Minister Thomas said, promising that the price of beef will decline within two weeks.

He added that the ministry had issued permits for 23,300 tons of beef to be brought into the country, in addition to extending the beef import quota of state-owned companies to 27,400 tons. (dan)
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Linkedin Prima Wirayani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, June 8, 2016

The government has revised down this year's economic growth target to 5.1 percent from 5.3 percent year-on-year (yoy).

The government acknowledged that private consumption, which contributes to more than 50 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), would remain lower than usual due to weakening purchasing power.

Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro said the government projected that consumption would expand by only 5 percent by this year-end, from the initial target of 5.1 percent. He was speaking during a hearing at the House of Representatives Commission XI overseeing finance and banking on Tuesday evening.

The government and the House are currently deliberating macroeconomic assumptions for the revised 2016 draft state budget.

Although it has improved from last years rate, private investment growth has remained slower than expected, as it will take some time until the effects of the government's 12 policy packages, which have been issued since September last year, are fully felt in the private sector.

Meanwhile, Bambang said, it would be difficult to reach positive net exports this year due to low commodity prices and demand, especially from China, the country's main trading partner, whose economy has slowed.

In light of that, the 5.3 figure has been revised, the minister said. "The 5.1 percent growth target makes sense for the government but still requires [our] hard work," he went on.

Indonesia's economy expanded by only 4.92 percent yoy in the first quarter of this year, lower than the 5.04 percent in the previous quarter.

Private consumption, weighing in at more than 58 percent of GDP in the period, expanded 4.94 percent, another below-5-percent growth. Investment expanded 4.24 percent while government spending grew by only 2.93 percent yoy versus the 7.31 percent recorded in the previous quarter.

Commission XI chairman Ahmadi Noor Supit said the new figure was realistic and reflected the real economic situation without being pessimistic.

"We want our economic situation to be accurately reflected in the state budget," he said, adding that the 5.1 percent growth target would be more achievable.

Several economists have previously projected that Indonesia's economy would expand by between 5 percent and 5.2 percent only this year, saying that the government's 5.3 percent would be hard, if not impossible, to reach. (ebf)
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Linkedin Ayomi Amindoni (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, June 8, 2016

The government will boost coordination with the House of Representatives and the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) to pass a sexual violence bill into law, a minister has said.

Womens Empowerment and Child Protection Minister Yohana Susana Yembise said the bill, which has been included in the 2016 National Legislation Program (Prolegnas), was desperately needed to tackle the growing number of cases of sexual violence against women and children.

The number of sexual violence cases has continued to increase and it should be the Houses main concern, Yohana said after a meeting with President Joko Jokowi Widodo and Komnas Perempuan representatives at the State Palace complex in Jakarta on Wednesday.

The minister said the sexual violence bill would not only stipulate punishment for perpetrators but also restitution for victims of violence.

Regarding the restitution, we will discuss it further with related ministries, she continued. Rehabilitation for victims and preventive measures against violence are also set to be stipulated in the bill.

Yohana said the government had established a community-based integrated center as a rehabilitation facility for victims of sexual violence.

Social Affairs Minister Khofifah Indar Parawansa said that during the meeting, President Jokowi expressed his serious concern regarding the increasing number of cases of sexual violence against women and children.

Therefore, she said, the President instructed the Social Affairs Ministry and the Womens Empowerment and Child Protection Ministry to maximize coordination with Komnas Perempuan to prevent similar violence in the future.

We have several laws, including the Criminal Code, the 2004 Domestic Violence Eradication Law and the 2002 Child Protection Law but apparently, there are several other things that are not covered by those laws, Khofifah said.

Komnas Perempuan chairperson Azriana said the commission was finalizing a draft of the sexual violence law, which was expected to be submitted to the House by the end of July.

"This draft law offers a number of breakthroughs. It not only regulates punishment for perpetrators of violence but also the recovery of victims and violence prevention, which involves community participation," Azriana said.

In the bill, Komnas Perempuan has listed several forms of sexual violence. They comprise rape, sexual harassment, sexual exploitation, sexual control, sexual torture, forced marriage, sexual slavery, sexual torture and forced prostitution.

The commission recorded 321,752 cases of violence against women in 2015, up from 293,220 cases in the previous year. (ebf)
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Linkedin Liza Yosephine (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, June 8, 2016

A UN body has urged Indonesia to strengthen law enforcement and intensify monitoring to reach its goal to be free of child labor by 2022.

International Labor Organization (ILO) country director Francesco d'Ovidio said the government should implement a monitoring system in a "scientific and professional way" in its efforts to eradicate child labor.

"For that they need to have labor inspectors trained to detect children," d'Ovidio told reporters on Wednesday following a seminar to commemorate World Day Against Child Labor 2016 in Jakarta.

The ILO-initiated international day this year focuses on ending child labor in supply chains at a global scale.

The organization estimates around 168 million children around the world are still trapped today. The number saw a decrease from the 245.5 million in 2000.

d'Ovidio said not only has there been a significant drop globally but this would also include reductions in Indonesia in the worldwide statistics.

However, he said, there was no official data in 2016 indicating how many children were stuck doing forced labor in the country.

Citing data from several years ago, d'Ovidio said there were approximately 1.5 million children in Indonesia who were victims of child labor, 1.3 million of whom were categorized as being under the "worst labor conditions."

He further expressed regret for the lack of new statistics and called on the government to address the issue to have a clear picture of the present situation and henceforth see the evolution of future improvements.

Manpower Ministry official Laurend Sinaga reiterated that the Labor Law prohibited all corporations from employing children, as evidence of the government's clear objection toward the exploitative business practices.

Laurend, who is the acting director of work norm inspection for women and children, said the government had also been implementing efforts in eradicating child labor through a program called Family Hope since 2008 and had subsequently rescued and retrained 80,163 children thus far.

He said, however, several industry sectors continued to dominate as most likely to exploit children, namely agriculture, services sector and garment manufacturing.

Assessment and remediation manager from international clothing company giant GAP, Toni Wahid, said the problem sometimes stemmed from the children who would provide false documents to apply for jobs.

In its preventative efforts, Toni said the company had set strict criteria to verify documents in the application process, which he said would come in the thousands.

Throughout the 93 factories GAP operates around Indonesia, he pointed out the highest number of underage applicants came from Sukabumi in West Java and Jakarta, as well as areas in Central Java.

"In Sukabumi there are an especially high number of falsified documents. Although there are no exact numbers, I estimate around 20 to 30 percent of the total lack authenticity," Toni said. (dan)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, June 8, 2016

Three leaders of a banned Indonesian sect have been arrested for blasphemy and treason, police said Tuesday, drawing condemnation from activists who accuse authorities of persecuting the men for their beliefs.

The leaders of the controversial Light of Nusantara Movement -- or Gafatar -- are facing lengthy jail terms after being detained last month, police detective Agus Andrianto told AFP.

Critics say the crackdown on Gafatar, which has been accused of luring followers to practise a deviant brand of Islam, is the latest example of a minority group coming under attack due to their beliefs in the world's most populous Muslim-majority country.

The group's former leader Mahful Muis Tumanurung, ex-spiritual leader Ahmad Mushaddeq and his son Andri Cahya --- who also used to be a senior figure in the group -- have been detained, Andrianto said.

Blasphemy carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison while treason is punishable by a life sentence.

While the blasphemy accusation relates to their beliefs, the treason claim stems from allegations they were trying to establish an independent state, according to their lawyer Fati Lazira.

He said the accusations against his clients were baseless.

The use of the blasphemy law is particularly controversial, as rights groups have repeatedly pressured the government to repeal what they say is outdated legislation used to punish people for peacefully expressing their beliefs.

Andreas Harsono, Indonesia researcher at Human Rights Watch, said it was the first time the blasphemy laws had been used since President Joko Widodo, known as "Jokowi", took power in 2014.

"Human Rights Watch calls on the Jokowi administration to stop the case against the three Gafatar leaders and stop using the blasphemy law against religious minorities in Indonesia," he said.

(Read also: Controversial Gafatar group on govt's radar)

Gafatar captured national attention earlier this year as critics attacked their allegedly deviant belief system.

As anger mounted, a mob attacked Gafatar followers on a communal farm on Indonesia's part of Kalimantan island, prompting the evacuation of hundreds of them. Soon afterwards, the government banned the sect and the country's top Islamic clerical body declared their beliefs heretical. (dmr)
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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Pontianak  Wed, June 8 2016

Villagers in West Kalimantan have attended training on how to make use of palm oil plantation waste to produce an environmentally friendly fuel.

Thirty resident palm oil farmers on Sunday attended training in Kenyabur Baru village, Sintang regency. The program, organized for International Environment Day, involved education on how to use the waste and turn it into biomass.

Sections of a palm oil tree such as its trunk, rachis and inflorescence can be made into briquette.

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Linkedin Callistasia Anggun Wijaya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, June 8, 2016

The Jakarta Prosecutor's Office has submitted the case file of murder suspect Jessica Kumala Wongso to the Central Jakarta District Court.

"Now, we're waiting for the trial schedule from the Central Jakarta District Court. We have submitted the case file and indictment to the court," prosecutor's office spokesman Waluyo told thejakartapost.com on Wednesday.

The murder of Wayan Mirna Salihin grabbed people's attention, especially after the police investigation dragged on. Prosecutors initially rejected the case dossier four times because the police had failed to include strong evidence.

The Jakarta Prosecutors Office accepted the case dossier only two days after the 120-day detention period of Jessica expired on May 26.

Jessica is being detained at the Pondok Bambu women's detention center in East Jakarta while awaiting trial.

Jessica has been accused of murdering Mirna on Jan. 6. The case started when Jessica, Mirna and another friend shared a table at Olivier restaurant in Central Jakarta. Mirna died on her way to the hospital after drinking an iced coffee.

Waluyo said his office had included 45 pieces of evidence in documents submitted to the court. "We will present CCTV footage, trousers, cyanide, coffee, a paper bag and other evidence to the judges," Waluyo said, adding that the evidence was being kept at the Central Jakarta Prosecutor's Office.

Previously, Hidayat Bostam, one of Jessicas lawyers, said police investigators had weak evidence because CCTV footage did not prove that Jessica had laced the victim's coffee with cyanide.

There was no movement of Jessicas hand [indicating] that she poured poison into Mirnas coffee cup. There is also no eyewitness testimony, said Hidayat.

Jessica has been accused of premeditated murder, the maximal punishment for which is the death penalty. (bbn)
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Linkedin Ayomi Amindoni (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, June 8, 2016

President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo hosted a sixth limited meeting to solve the problems slowing Light Rail Transit (LRT) development on Wednesday.

The government expects that LRT construction in Jakarta, Bandung and Palembang will be complete in time for the 2018 Asian Games. Yet, five limited meetings failed to alleviate disagreements and thus, the projects have yet to show significant progress.

"We want to change the transportation. But once again, a decision regarding route must be made. It must be able to integrate various transportation modes," Jokowi said during a limited meeting held at the Presidential Office in Jakarta.

It is important, he continued, that the LRT developed in Jakarta connects to the airport, mass-rapid transit/ MRT, bus stations, and the port. "I am sure this is already part of the plan," he went on.

Connectivity between areas and regions is important to drive an increasingly efficient economy. Lower logistics and transportation costs would increase Indonesias competitiveness, Jokowi said.

The government is pushing for modernization in transportation infrastructure; constructing a larger seaport, longer airport runways, and modernizing bus, ship and train facilities. "All for the comfort and safety of the passengers," Jokowi said. (ags)
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Linkedin Erika Anindita Dewi (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, June 8, 2016

The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) is aiming to expand its cooperation with the National Police to promote a human-rights approach among police personnel nationwide.

Komnas HAM began cooperating with the North Jakarta Police precinct last year as part of a pilot project to help police personnel avoid human rights violations while handling criminal cases or maintaining public order, Komnas HAM commissioner Imdadun Rahmat said at the House of Representatives complex on Tuesday.

The program is expected to be rolled out nationwide after Komnas HAM signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the implementation of a human rights-based approach with the National Police.

"We're currently discussing the breakdown of the MoU. Hopefully it will be complete before the tenure of [National Police chief] Gen. Badrodin Haiti ends," he said.

The National Police will implement the program, while Komnas HAM will monitor their progress, Imdadun said.

The commission said that based on interviews conducted by Komnas HAM with local residents in North Jakarta, the pilot program had made a significant impact on police methods.

North Jakarta Police personnel had become more humane and responsive to the public since the program was launched in November last year, Imadadun said.

President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has ordered Badrodin to step up efforts to ensure police apply human-rights principles in carrying out their duties.

Human rights activists have long lambasted the National Police for alleged human rights violations in their handling of criminal cases or in managing public order. The most recent case was the death of suspected terrorist Siyono while in the custody of the National Police's counterterrorism squad Densus 88 in March. Siyono died due to bone fractures, leading to suspicions that he was tortured during his detention. (rin)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, June 8, 2016

Governor Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnama says many parties have tried to stop him from seeking reelection in the 2017 gubernatorial election.

The approval of a revision of the Regional Elections Law has been the hardest hit to Ahoks attempt to run in the election so far. It even made him think twice about taking part.

I will work hard until the end of my tenure in October 2017. But if you dispute my governorship, just take it, Ahok said on Wednesday.

The law, approved by the House of Representatives last week, makes it more difficult for independent candidates like Ahok because of a complicated factual verification process surrounding voter support.

Under the law, supporters of independent candidates who have handed over photocopies of their identity cards in order to indicate their endorsement  as required for independent hopefuls  have to be factually verified.

The law now stipulates that if a supporter is not at home during the verification process, the candidates campaign team has three days to accompany the supporter to the nearest polling station for verification.

Ahok will not challenge the law through a judicial review motion at the Supreme Court because it is the role of the General Elections Commission (KPU), as the election organizing institution, to do so.

Volunteers from the Teman Ahok (Friends of Ahok) group have collected 945,894 copies of IDs so far, from a target of 1 million.

Ahok said the complicated factual verification process could force him out of the gubernatorial race because his followers would only have three days to verify their support with the election committee (PSS), though committee members were not available every day.

This thing is troublesome for my supporters, Ahok said, adding that he had not prepared a strategy regarding the factual verification process.

What strategy that I should prepare? You cant fight the law. Do you think it is a pencak silat [martial arts] movie where I should prepare a lot of strategies? Ahok said.

He said the approval of the law was not only the effort to stop him seeking reelection. Cases surrounding land acquisition in West Jakarta and reclamation in Jakarta Bay, in which he has been questioned as a witness, are seen as tarnishing his popularity. (bbn)
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Linkedin Anton Hermansyah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, June 8, 2016

State electricity firm PLN is hoping to build gas-based mobile power plants (MPP) to cover an electricity gap of up to 2,000 megawatts (MW) by the end of 2018, mainly in Sumatra and Kalimantan.

After an initial MPP project in Mempawah, West Kalimantan, was inaugurated by President Joko Jokowi Widodo on June 2, six MPPs are set to follow in Bangka (2x25 MW), Belitung (1x25 MW), Medan (3x25 MW), Nias (1x25 MW), Riau (3x25 MW) and Lampung (4x25 MW).

The projects are worth Rp 7 trillion [US$528 million] in total and we are targeting 2,000 MW from the MPP in 2017-2018," PLN president director Sofyan Basir said on Wednesday in Jakarta.

For Java, PLN will optimize micro hydropower plants despite criticism from Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Rizal Ramli that the feed-in tariff was too high, at over Rp 2,000 per kilowatt hour.

Echoing Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sudirman Saids response, Sofyan argued that the need for micro hydropower was beyond profit and loss as it would only contribute 78 MW  0.125 percent  to the total electricity projects.

It is not only about financial matters, because the need for renewable energy in Java is very high, Sofyan said. (ags)
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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, June 8 2016

The Law and Human Rights Ministry will soon launch an online remission system, aiming to provide transparent information for convicts and their families regarding remission.

The ministrys director general of correctional institutions, I Wayan Dusak, said the system had been put on trial at all penitentiaries in Jakarta and Medan, North Sumatra, and had been scheduled for official launch in August. Convicts can use the online platform to view whether or not they have been granted remission, Dusak said.

With the new technology, convicts will be granted fingerprint access on a utility provided in the prison to access the internet and check their names and remission status, documented in behavior records on the official website.

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Linkedin Pandaya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, June 8 2016

In March, furious Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) politicians vowed to teach the Jakarta governor a lesson over his abrasive assertion to rerun as an independent in next years election, after the party failed to quickly respond to his request for backing.

Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnama was accused of waging an antipolitical party campaign, a dangerous move they feared could exacerbate public distrust in political parties as the main cradle of national leadership.

The ruling partys threat resounded when the House of Representatives endorsed the amendment to Law No. 1/2015 on regional elections last week. Of course the provisions were not specifically aimed at Ahok, but all aspirants toying with the idea of running independently.

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Linkedin (Associated Press) Canberra  Wed, June 8, 2016

Police have shot students protesting against Papua New Guinea's prime minister in the South Pacific nation's capital of Port Moresby on Wednesday. Australias foreign minister said.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said she had been advised by Australias embassy in Port Moresby of the violence as hundreds of students prepared to march from the University of PNG to Parliament.

"I know that students have been shot, but we're still trying to determine whether there have been deaths and how many have been injured," Bishop told reporters.

"We call on all sides to be calm and to de-escalate the tension and certainly call on all sides to respect the peaceful and lawful right to protest," she said.

The students have been demanding for weeks that Prime Minister Peter O'Neill resign because of alleged corruption and mismanagement.

Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported a lawmaker told Parliament that four students had been killed and seven wounded.

Lawmaker Gary Juffa spoke to students after the shooting and was told "one of the students got killed instantly and others are in serious and critical conditions," his personal assistant Joe Duhube told AP.

There were also complaints of other forms of police brutality against the students at a police roadblock erected outside the university.

Police spokesman Domonic Kakas said he could not immediately comment and would issue a statement later Wednesday.
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Linkedin Anton Hermansyah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, June 8, 2016

Most Indonesians prefer to enjoy free music from file-sharing sites or YouTube while surfing the internet, rather than buying songs, according to Yonder Music CEO Adam Kidron.

Unlike in the US where 5 percent of the population are music buyers, Indonesia has far fewer people willing to pay for music online by buying digital albums or subscribing to a streaming service, he said.

"Only 1 percent of Indonesians will pay for music," Kidron told thejakartapost.com on Tuesday, adding that a lot of music businesses focused on the 1 percent instead of catering to the 99 percent.

Therefore, to win a greater market share, music streaming services must be affordable, he continued. Yonder includes its subscription cost in data packages that prospective customers buy from mobile network operators.

It appears to be a successful strategy for the music streaming service, which secured US$10 million in investment from Malaysian Axiata Group Bhd in July 2015, positioning Axiata as the owner of 25 percent of shares in the company.

The investment enabled Yonder to use Axiata's international subsidiaries in nine countries in Asia to market its service, including XL Axiata in Indonesia. The service was launched in the country on May 23.

Users who subscribe to an XL AXIATA data package starting from Rp 100,000 (US$7.5) will also receive the Yonder premium service, with free unlimited music streaming. If they subscribe to a data package of lesser value, the user must pay Rp 35,000 per month for the service.

The low fees give Yonder a competitive advantage compared to Sweden-based Spotify, which is working with Indosat Ooreedoo to provide a similar service. Spotify charges Rp 149,000 for unlimited music streaming, plus Rp 49,000 per month for Spotify premium.

Adding to its comparative advantage, Yonder features 600,000 dangdut songs to attract Indonesian users, especially in the lower end of the market. "Dangdut is the new hip hop, the music of the lower classes," he said.

Meanwhile, to attract middle-income users, Yonder endorses popular artists such as Noah, Iwan Fals, Raisa and Afghan. Kidron is eyeing subscriptions from 1.5 million of XL Axiatas 33 million customers within a year.

"If we can get at least 10 percent of XL's customers, we can be one of the biggest streaming services," Kidron said. (ags)
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Linkedin Ina Parlina (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, June 8 2016

National Police chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti has played down criticism suggesting that the police are sluggish when handling rape cases, saying on Tuesday that each case is unique.

Rape cases continue to occur despite the recent introduction of tough punishments for sexual crime, including chemical castration and the death penalty in certain cases.

Badrodin said the Polices Women and Childrens Protection Unit (UPPA), that handles sexual abuse cases, should follow up each case according to an existing set of procedures.

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Linkedin Andi Hajramurni (The Jakarta Post) Makassar, South Sulawesi  Wed, June 8, 2016

The Parepare Police aborted an attempt to smuggle four kilograms of crystal methamphetamine, shabu-shabu, from Tarakan, North Kalimantan, to Tolitoli regency in Central Sulawesi. The crystal meth was smuggled via Nusantara port in Parepare, South Sulawesi.

The drug smuggling was discovered when Parepare Police officers spotted the strange attitude of Ardian, 28, a passenger of the motor vessel KM Lambelu, when he arrived at the Nusantara Parepare port from Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, which aroused their suspicion.

When we checked passengers of the KM Lambelu, which just tied up on the port, Ardian seemed to be very panicky. He kept moving back and forth. Our personnel were suspicious and took him into custody. They searched a backpack he brought and found four kilograms of crystal meth, said Parepare Police chief Sr. Adj. Comr. Alan Gerrit Abast on Tuesday.

During an examination conducted by police investigators, police said Ardian admitted he brought the crystal meth from Tarakan to Parepare via Balikpapan together with his friend, Taufik, 26. Taufik managed to escape the police at the port and returned to his home in Parepare. The police pursued him and he was eventually arrested.

Police said that the crystal meth, which was packed into four plastic packages, was to have been brought to Tolitoli via land routes. According to police, Ardian said he and his friend, Taufik, were promised Rp 10 million (US$757) each for delivering the drugs.

Police said the two suspects claimed they were not the owners of the crystal meth but were only assigned to bring it Tolitoli.

The suspects said the shabu-shabu belonged to Andri Sabiring, who was from Balikpapan. It was said Andri, and his friend Andi Fahri, would depart for Palu. Those four people had made an appointment to meet in Palu, said Alan.

The Parepare Police, in cooperation with the Sepinggan Airport Police, managed to arrest Andri and Andi at the airport. They were later taken into custody at the East Kalimantan Police headquarters for interrogation.

Police said Andri claimed he worked with a drug trafficker who supplied him with money to buy the crystal meth and funded its smuggling to Tolitoli from Palu. Andri and Andi were later flown to Palu to help the police pursue the syndicate members. They will be later taken to Makassar and then to Parepare, for further investigation.

Alan said the police were still investigating the case to discover the owner of the drugs and to find out the origins of the illegal substance.

Ardian and Taufik, who have been named suspects, are currently being detained by the Parepare Police. They will be charged with violating Article 114 of Law 35/2009 on narcotics, which upon a conviction carries a maximum sentence of death.

From January to the beginning of June, the Parepare Police four times foiled attempts to smuggle crystal meth via the Nusantara Parepare port. (ebf)
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Linkedin Callistasia Anggun Wijaya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, June 8, 2016

Jakarta governor Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnama plans to involve the public in funding the construction of Light Rail Transit (LRT) system through a municipal obligation scheme, so the project will not be a burden on the regional budget.

Ahok said the LRT construction was a mega project that needed a lot of money.

He said although the administration had provided a Rp 4.4 billion (US$332,075.48) capital injection to city-owned developer PT Jakarta Propertindo (Jakpro), the first phase of the LRT construction would cost between Rp 4.5 billion and Rp 5 billion.

Therefore, Ahok said, Jakpro should also take out bank loans. The administration would also issue bonds to fund the project so LRT would be operational for the 2018 Asian Games, the governor said.

I want to be something like the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in Jakarta, so people will have shares in the LRT project by buying municipal obligations from us, Ahok said on Tuesday.

Although the governor still has not set the value of obligations that will be issued, he is sure that the bonds will be lucrative, especially when the administration buys them back with interest.

The Financial Services Authority (OJK) is currently conducting the review of the issuance of Jakarta municipal bonds. A private auditor is also involved in reviewing the municipal bond issuance plan.

Ahok hopes Jakarta will become a role model, with a successful issuance of municipal bonds to fund infrastructure development.

Jakpro plans to officially break ground on the project on June 22: the citys 489th anniversary. The first phase of the LRT construction spans 6 kilometers from Kelapa Gading in North Jakarta to the Velodrome in East Jakarta. (ebf)
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Linkedin Lita Aruperes (The Jakarta Post) Manado  Wed, June 8 2016

The public and local authorities in North Sulawesi have been urged to be vigilant over the spread of rabies after the recent reported deaths from the disease of nine people.

The North Sulawesi Health Agency said about 994 people were reported to have been bitten by cats, dogs or monkeys infected by rabies as of the end of May.

Nine cases have resulted in death, agency health control head Hendrik Tairas said recently.

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Linkedin Indra Budiari (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, June 8 2016

Hundreds of residents of Bukit Duri in South Jakarta are taking a stand against the city administrations eviction policy, which is likely to affect their neighborhood.

The residents have filed a class action lawsuit against the city administrations proposed normalization of the Ciliwung River.

The plaintiffs, whose houses are on the verge of being cleared, are represented by four local residents in the class action lawsuit filed against city figures including the governor, the mayor of South Jakarta and the Jakarta Water Management Agency. None of the defendants, however, attended the hearing on Monday.

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Linkedin Cemara Dinda (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, June 8 2016





A thousand faces: A collection of wayang and masks is seen in the Basoeki Abdullah Museum in South Jakarta. (Courtesy of Basoeki Abdullah Museum)

Despite offering low entrance fees, many museums in the country struggle with low visitor numbers. A recent seminar shed light on how to make museums more appealing to the public.

The Museum, Art, and Education seminar held at Basoeki Abdullah Museum in West Cilandak, South Jakarta, induced a creative dialogue on a museums true potential in becoming a collective cultural space.



It posed the simple question of whether a museum was merely a place to exhibit historical items or if it had the power to serve a greater purpose.



Ali Akbar, a lecturer with the School of Cultural Sciences at the University Of Indonesia (UI) believes that a museum should follow a progressing world of art and education without eliminating the basic idea of displaying important items of learning.



However, the fact is that a museum is prone to losing visitors for being too simplistic and old-fashioned. As a result, a trip to the museum is only a one-time occurrence for many.



If asked, why dont you want to go anymore? One would say, well, I already know whats in there. This is because there is hardly anything new, he said.

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Linkedin Markus Makur (The Jakarta Post) West Manggarai  Wed, June 8 2016

Indonesia produces 260 million tons of plastic waste a year, making it the second-biggest contributor of plastic waste in the world after China, a minister says.

Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti said Indonesian waters would be full of plastic waste in the future if fishermen continued to dump garbage into the sea and urbanites did the same in rivers.

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Linkedin Callistasia Anggun Wijaya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, June 8, 2016

Schools should not force girls to wear the hijab, Jakarta Governor Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnama reiterated on Wednesday, because the decision to wear the Islamic veil must come from the students themselves.

He conveyed his call to thousands of principals from across Jakarta and officials from the citys education agency earlier on Saturday, sparking controversy among members of the public, especially during the fasting month of Ramadhan.

"Don't get me wrong, Im not banning people from wearing the hijab. I told the teachers, if you want to make children wear the hijab, you can't force them. It's better for you to tausiyah [preach] so they can understand," Ahok, a Christian, said on Wednesday.

Wearing the hijab became a major phenomenon in Indonesia after the 1980s. The movement has grown significantly in schools since then.

According to Ahok, it could be seen as an insult to religion if someone wore the hijab simply because of school regulations.

Therefore, the final decision to wear the hijab lies in the hand of students, said Ahok.
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Linkedin (Associated Press) Ankara  Wed, June 8, 2016

Turkey's prime minister says a suicide car bombing targeting a police headquarters near the border with Syria has killed a police officer and two other people. Some 30 other people were wounded.

Binali Yildirim told reporters in Istanbul on Wednesday that the attack was carried out by the outlawed Kurdish rebel group, Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK.

Yildirim said concrete barriers and other security measures in place at the police headquarters in the town of Midyat, in Mardin province had prevented a greater loss of life.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, June 8, 2016

Indonesians on Monday celebrated 115 years since the birth of the countrys first president, Sukarno, best remembered as a national hero who proclaimed independence more than 70 years ago, but often forgotten as a prominent leftist thinker and revolutionary.

Sukarnos presidency ran from 1945 to 1966. He reinstated the 1945 Constitution by presidential decree in July 1959 to start the era of guided democracy. He established a new legislature and the Provisional People's Consultative Assembly (MPRS) as the highest legislative authority, which appointed him president for life.

The kidnapping and murder of six Army generals on Sept. 30, 1965, led to a purge of Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) members, sympathizers and their families, and the downfall of Sukarno's regime in 1966.

On Tuesday, leftist publication Indoprogress released an online book entitled Sukarno, Marxism and the Dangers of Fossilization, containing articles related to Sukarnos thoughts and ideas on developing the nation.

Bonnie Triyana, chief editor of Historia magazine, said in a foreword to the book that young people often idolized Sukarno without really understanding the significance of the former presidents ideas.

Sukarno is not only a poster in a rented room, sticker on the rear window of an angkot [public minivan], graffiti on a city wall, or a biological father to his children. He was a great thinker who produced the idea of independence and a political activist who devoted his life to national liberation, Triyana said.

Sukarno was born on June 6, 1901. To commemorate the 115th anniversary of his birth on Monday, many people posted his image and quotes on social media, such as: Dont forget history and Give me 10 young men, I'll shake the world.

However, few netizens mentioned Sukarnos thoughts on leftist movements.

Meanwhile, retired military generals held a national symposium on June 1 to 2 to oppose the feared revival of communism in the country. The event was set up to challenge a previous symposium in April, which was conducted to discuss a resolution to the 1965 tragedy.

In the counter-symposium, almost all speakers claimed that communism, Marxism and Leninism were threats to Pancasila, saying the ideologies could lead people to become atheists.

They also said people should not forget the struggle of Sukarno in the past to establish Pancasila as the state's five philosophical foundations, although some historians have stated that Pancasila cannot be separated from Sukarno's idea of establishing a socialist society.

In an article in the book Sukarno is a Leftist Marxist, writer Bonnie Setiawan said Sukarno was not only a nationalist, but also a socialist revolutionary. He said Sukarno was trying to create a society without capitalism and imperialism through the Five Talismans of the Revolution (Panca Azimat Revolusi).

The first talisman was a political concept dubbed Nasakom, or the revolutionary unity of nationalism, religion and communism. The second was Pancasila as the countrys national ideology. Other talismans included a manifesto of political reorganization, the 1945 Constitution and the ideals of Indonesian socialism and sovereignty.

So the story or episode of Bung Karno was about the struggle to uphold socialism, not only limited to the independence of Indonesia or nationalism, Setiawan said.

Conversely, in an article titled Bung Karno and the Dangers of Fossilization, Indonesianist Benedict Anderson said Sukarnos ideas had been fossilized, especially after the presidents death on June 21, 1970, as many people had blindly idolized him and misused his name for political interests.

This conclusion does not mean that Bung Karnos views and values have become obsolete, but those thoughts need to be contemplated with a critical attitude and historical awareness, considering the long period between the current era and Bung Karnos era, stated Anderson, who died last year aged 79. (vps/bbn)
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Linkedin Callistasia Anggun Wijaya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, June 8, 2016

Copies of thousands of identity cards collected from Jakartans living abroad to support Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnamas bid to run as an independent candidate in next years gubernatorial election may be pointless following the revision of the Regional Elections Law.

The revised law stipulates that the owners of all identity cards submitted to support an independent candidate in regional elections must be checked and verified.

So far, Ahok has acquired 945,000 copies of IDs belonging to Jakartans, from a target of 1 million, which were collected by a group of volunteers called Teman Ahok (Friends of Ahok) for his independent bid in the election. From that figure, around 5 percent were contributed by Jakartans living abroad, Teman Ahok spokesman Singgih Widyastono said on Wednesday.

Ahok's supporters include some living in Australia, mainland China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Singapore, Sweden, Taiwan and the United States. The supporters submit the copies of their IDs by post to Teman Ahok after downloading support forms online.

Ahok has expressed concern over the new requirement as limited time will hamper his supporters from presenting themselves to officials for validity checks. Officials are required to meet supporter face-to-face to check the validity of their submitted IDs.

If supporters fail to present themselves to the officials, their support will not be counted.

Jakarta General Elections Commission (KPUD) head Sumarno said the commission did not have a special budget for conducting overseas verifications. Therefore, it is impossible for the KPUD to check the validity of the IDs of the supporters living abroad.

"We suggest people who vote for independent candidate from overseas return to Jakarta during factual verification," Sumarno told thejakartapost.com on Wednesday.

Singgih from Teman Ahok said the group would spread the information through text message to all Ahok supporters.

Registration for independent candidates will be from Aug. 3 to 7. No information has been released on verification dates.

Verification will be conducted for 14 days, during which KPUD officials will check supporters one by one, just like a census.

In the case of a supporter not being home when officers visit them, they will have three days to verify their support by visiting the elections committees offices. (rin)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, June 8, 2016

Resolving past human rights abuses that happened in 1965 is like peeling an onion as there are too many layers, which also require people to recall past ordeals. One of the layers is the 1948 Madiun affair, an alleged failed armed insurrection by the now-defunct Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).

Siti Asyiah, 85, is among the survivors of the 1948 Madiun affair who dared to speak out about the incident. Asyiahs adoptive father, Haji Dimjati, was killed during the upheaval in Ngawi, East Java, in September 1948.

At that time, Haji Dimjati chose to flee to a relatives house in Katerban village [Purworejo, Central Java]. After only a few days, someone came and told him that the situation in the village was safe. So he came back home to Ngrambe village [Ngawi, East Java], only to be beheaded by PKI members there, Asyiah said.

She further said the informant had trapped her adoptive father to kill him along with another victim called Soewandi.

Both victims were religious figures from the Masjumi Party. PKI members indeed targeted them, said Sobri Irsjadi, 65, the first child of Asyiah.

Meanwhile in Magetan [East Java], the victims were not only religious leaders but also members of the military and the police. I have seen a mass grave containing of the remains of at least 40 victims there, he further said.

Aisyah is among the 1948 Madiun affair survivors who attended an anti-communist symposium held by retired military generals on June 1 and 2. Hard-line Islamic groups and retired officers also participated in the event.

The symposium gave the public quite a different perspective on the 1965 communist purge than the one given at a April 18- 19 national symposium. Held in the wake of public demands to resolve past human rights abuses, the April symposium aimed to form recommendations for the government on the 1965 massacre, which targeted PKI members and sympathizers.

The symposium brought together victims and survivors of the 1965 tragedy, human rights activists, academics and state officials. During the event, survivors called on the government to bring about reconciliation and repeal all discriminative laws against them.

The 1948 Madiun affair was initially triggered by the dissatisfaction of left-wing parties under the People's Democratic Front (FDR). They were apparently dissatisfied with government programs under the Mohammad Hatta Cabinet, which was dominated by factions of the Indonesian Nationalist Party (PNI) and Masjumi, which aimed to reorganize the Army. the FDR also criticized Hattas pro-US policy, which was taken to anticipate Dutch military aggression.

The FDR comprised the PKI, the Indonesian Socialist Party (PSI) and the Labor Party of Indonesia (PBI). However, the PSI and the PBI agreed to merge with the PKI at a conference led by Musso in August 1948.

On Sept. 18, 1948, the FDR took over Madiun city in East Java and established a new government called the National Front. As the leader, Musso declared war against the Indonesian government.

Eventually, the armed forces retook Madiun, arrested tens of thousands of leftists and executed most FDR leaders.

However, many innocent civilians were reportedly killed during the affair. Jumaidi, 87, said during the June symposium that he himself witnessed PKI members killing people in Ngawi in September 1948.

The PKIs red army soldiers were shooting people at that time. Many Masjumi members were also detained by them, he said. Masjumi, an abbreviation of Majelis Syuro Muslimin Indonesia, was a major Islamic political party in Indonesia at the time.

Concerning the claims about the 1948 Madiun affair, the June symposium recommended the government maintain the ban on the PKI and all of its activities in the country, as well as the ideologies of communism, Marxism and Leninism. The government was also urged not to reopen old wounds in order to prevent public unrest.

Despite testimonies on the 1948 Madiun affair, human rights activists keep calling on the government to resolve the 1965 purge of PKI members and sympathizers nationwide as the perpetrators have never been revealed.

It is estimated that at least 500,000 people were killed during the massacre, while others were tortured and arrested. Survivors and victims have also been stigmatized and face discrimination to this day.

Haris Azhar, the coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) said in April that the 1965 case was the mother of all violence in Indonesia that led to other serious human rights abuses.

Haris asserted that the best way to move forward would be to tell the whole truth to the public and then follow that up with an acknowledgement from the government. (vps/ebf)
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Linkedin Dylan Amirio (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, June 8 2016

Major tower firms are looking to continue expansions this year, overturning findings of a recent analysis by ratings company Fitch Ratings.



The analysis, released on Monday, assessed that the tower industry would spend considerably less in 2016 owing to an assumed slowdown in demand for tower leasing.



Three major tower companies  Tower Bersama Infrastructure (TBIG), Solusi Tunas Pratama (SUPR) and Professional Telecommunication Indonesia (Protelindo)  are estimated to have lower capital expenditures to improve their pre-end dividend cash flows to around US$60 to $70 million aggregate.



Fitch forecasts sluggish growth for the industry as a whole, following the slowdown in 2015, assuming the construction of around 2,000 towers from the big three companies, after reaching a peak of 4,000 towers in 2014.



The analysis also said that the industry would likely grow by 8 to 9 percent in 2016, driven mainly by Protelindos pending purchase of 2,500 towers from XL Axiata.



However, it turns out that some firms plan to spend more than usual this year.



The aggressive push by tower companies to jack up their tenancy rates comes amid efforts by telecommunications operators to further implement their 4G/LTE networks on the Indonesian airwaves. In doing so, some have been posting impressive tenancy rates in the first quarter.



For instance, tower operator Tower Bersama Infrastructure plans to allocate up to Rp 1.5 trillion ($112.15 million) in capital expenditure (capex) to add about 1,000 to 1,500 new tenancies into its towers by the end of the year. The firm emerged victorious in the tender of the sale of broadcast towers by telecommunications operator XL Axiata in March.



In the first quarter of 2016, Tower Bersama welcomed 620 new tenants to its towers, with the companys chief financial officer, Helmy Yusman Santoso, saying that the growth for this period was slightly larger than last year.



I guess you can say that our growth and expectations are slightly higher than last year due to the fact that demands for expansion are increasing this year, while last year we witnessed a slowdown, he said on Tuesday.



Tower Bersama aims to house up to 1,500 new tenants in its towers, higher than what it achieved in 2015 with 1,488 new tenants.



Most of the companys broadcast towers are being used to strengthen the 4G/LTE networks of various operators. While the adoption of 4G/LTE can be seen as slow, Helmy said that he was confident that at any pace, technological advances would not only benefit the company but also help expand the countrys broadband network.



It currently houses 19,000 to 20,000 tenants in its 12,292 towers nationwide, with some operators sharing the infrastructure.



It houses the network of Indonesias four major telecommunications operators, namely Indosat Ooredoo, XL Axiata, Telkom Indonesia and its subsidiary Telkomsel. These four companies generated 83 percent of Tower Bersamas revenue last year of Rp 3.42 trillion.



Meanwhile, fellow tower company Solusi Tunas Pratama said that its capex would be slightly larger this year last year to accommodate plans to build 400 to 500 new towers in 2016.



But as of now, we havent had any takers for our towers. If there were to be any more tower deals, we would be interested in participating in them, Solusi Tunas president director Nobel Tanihaha said.



The publicly listed Solusi Tunas had also purchased up to 3,500 towers from XL Axiata in 2014.



Protelindo, on the other hand, declined to comment on the analysis or the state of its operations for the year. The company is wholly owned by publicly listed tower firm Sarana Menara Nusantara (TOWR).

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Linkedin Edith M. Lederer (Associated Press) United Nations  Wed, June 8, 2016

The UN General Assembly president hinted Tuesday that he would like to see groups and individual countries in the world body come up with shortlists of candidates to become the next UN chief now that the 11 current contenders have made their case to the 193 member nations.

According to the UN Charter, the secretary-general is chosen by the General Assembly on the recommendation of the 15-member Security Council. In practice, this has meant that the council's five permanent members  the US, Russia, China, Britain and France  have veto power over the candidates.

But assembly president Mogens Lykketoft told reporters the more that members express their preferences, "the more they raise the probability that out of the Security Council will come a name which is generally accepted also in the membership."

Asked whether he will recommend that assembly members come up with shortlists, Lykketoft replied, "I will not recommend. I will certainly look at it with great sympathy if it happens."

He added, to some laughter, that he was being very diplomatic.

Lykketoft spoke after the last two candidates  Argentina's Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra and Slovakia's Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak  answered questions from assembly members for two hours in separate sessions.

Lykketoft urged other candidates to come forward quickly, but said the assembly will offer the same question-and-answer opportunity "however late they arrive."

He told reporters he plans to send a letter to the Security Council with his impressions of the first-ever opportunity for member states to question candidates to lead the UN.

Lykketoft said his first point will be "this is a procedure that has come to stay for future selections of secretary-generals."

Another impression, he said, is that "there is a strong wish from the membership of a strong personality at the helm of the United Nations, an independent one, a courageous secretary-general who will use all powers provided by the (UN) Charter in order to advance peace and security, development and human rights."

Lykketoft said he believes ambassadors and diplomats from all countries have "gotten a clearer picture of the personalities and priorities of the candidates"  and the questions have also pinpointed priorities that members see for the future of the United Nations in peace and security, human rights, and "in the way the whole United Nations works."

Malcorra, a former chief of staff to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, said in her session that if she is selected "my job will be being faithful to the Charter which means being faithful to member states." She said the secretary-general must also be "an early warner to the organization" and a forceful advocate for human rights.

"My vision calls for a United Nations that is centered on people, the planet and prosperity; driven by issues and focused on delivering a positive impact," she said.

Lajcak, a former high representative in Bosnia, said "for me, the United Nations is about peace  and that should be a priority" because there can be no development or human rights without peace. He called for greater emphasis on preventing conflict and mediation, saying he has spent many years as a mediator.

"The secretary-general is the communicator," Lajcak said, stressing the importance of the UN chief talking to nations, peoples, and improving interaction between agencies in this globalized, interconnected world.
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Linkedin Rachel D'Oro (Associated Press) Anchorage, Alaska  Wed, June 8, 2016

A woman who died in a fire at a remote Alaska fishing lodge was a 59-year-old Indonesian national, Alaska State Troopers said Tuesday.

Three other foreign nationals were injured in the blaze Thursday at the lodge at Uyak Bay on Alaska's Kodiak Island.

Troopers identified the woman who died as Silvana Sutanto. The injured are identified as Indonesian nationals, 30-year-old Shaun Gozali and 22-year-old Danielle Gozali, and 33-year-old Taeri Kim, a South Korean national.

Shaun Gozali was listed in satisfactory condition Tuesday at Seattle's Harborview Medical Center, where Danielle Gozali was in serious condition, hospital spokeswoman Susan Gregg said. Kim was treated at Providence Kodiak Island Medical Center, and released Friday, according to hospital spokeswoman Carlie Franz. The Coast Guard said all the survivors sustained burns.

The Straits Times says Sutanto was a businesswoman living in Singapore who had been visiting the lodge. The Singapore newspaper says those injured in the fire are Sutanto's children.

Gregg said the two people being treated at Harborview are brother and sister.

Sutanto and the other three were sleeping when the fire broke out in a main guest cabin during the early morning hours, according to troopers. According to troopers, Shaun Gozali and Kim managed to escape through a window, and Danielle Gozali was pulled out of the building by the lodge owner.

The weather initially hampered the troopers' initial response, but they were able to reach the site late that night in a patrol boat used by wildlife troopers.

The injured were initially taken by a fishing boat to the nearby village of Larsen Bay, where a Coast Guard helicopter flew them to the Kodiak hospital.

The lodge, a former fish cannery, is operated as the Spirit of Alaska Wilderness Adventures Lodge. Lodge representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday.

The investigation of the fire continues.

Authorities have notified the Indonesian and Korean consulates, troopers said.

___

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Linkedin Kor Kian Beng (The Straits Times/ANN) Beijing  Wed, June 8, 2016

China is building two new lighthouses on artificial islands in the disputed Spratly chain, state media reported, continuing with facility installation to bolster its territorial claims in the South China Sea.

China was "rushing" to complete, by the year end, the construction of two lighthouses on Mischief Reef and Fiery Cross Reef, known in Chinese as Meiji Reef and Yongshu Reef respectively, state news agency Xinhua reported on Monday.

The report said the lighthouse located on the east end of Meiji Reef will be 60m in height, making it the tallest of all the structures in the Spratlys.

The more lighthouses and facilities China builds in the Spratlys, "the more equipped we are in fulfilling our international obligations in search and rescue, disaster relief and maritime protection", the report quoted Hainan Maritime Safety Administration deputy director Zhang Jie as saying.

China now operates three lighthouses on artificial islands reclaimed from reefs in the Spratlys. The one on Subi Reef was completed in April, while those on Johnson South and Cuarteron reefs were completed last October.

Lighthouses are part of Beijing's controversial expansion and building of civilian and military facilities in the South China Sea, where it has overlapping territorial claims with Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.

Chinese media also revealed on Monday the construction of a hospital on Fiery Cross, due to be completed this month and to open soon. China says its construction in the South China Sea, a busy waterway rich in resources, is to fulfil its international obligations.

Analysts say China may have special consideration behind its lighthouse strategy. The facilities, which are likely to be used by foreign states, could augment China's image as a provider of public goods.

"China's construction of lighthouses is meant to add credence to the government's position that the primary purpose of its artificial islands is to provide public goods, such as safety of navigation, and that the military purpose is secondary," said South China Sea expert Ian Storey of the Iseas-Yusof Ishak Institute.

It could also be China's belief that use of the lighthouses by foreign ships and references to them in international shipping charts could build a long-term portrayal of Chinese occupation and sovereignty over those islands, others say.

Separately, Taiwanese Vice-Foreign Minister Lee Chen-jan told Parliament on Monday that a ruling by a United Nations arbitration court on a case brought by the Philippines challenging the legality of China's claims was now expected to be out in the middle to end of next month. The ruling had been expected by early this month but new submissions by a Taiwanese law society have delayed it.
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Linkedin (Associated Press) Bangkok  Wed, June 8, 2016

Two speedboats packed with 62 tourists collided Wednesday off the coast of southern Thailand, leaving at least two dead and more than 20 injured, police said. The fatalities were identified as Chinese.

The crash was the latest incident to mar the country's image as a tourist paradise, and the third crash in two weeks involving boats that shuttle vacationers to Thailands resort islands.

The collision involved a boat carrying 36 passengers and another with 26 traveling near the popular island of Phuket, said Lt Col. Prasert Srikhunrat, deputy superintendent of Phuket's marine police.

He said most of the passengers were Chinese tourists, including the two who died. He did not immediately have more details about other nationalities or the cause of the crash.

Tourism is a key source of revenue for Thailand, which received nearly 30 million foreign visitors in 2015.

Boat and tour bus crashes and other accidents involving tourists have become common, as more and more foreigners visit the country known for lax enforcement of laws and safety regulations.

On Sunday, a speedboat near the resort island of Koh Samet rammed into an anchored boat, injuring 30 people on board, according to Thai news reports.

In late May, another speedboat carrying 32 tourists capsized in rough waters off Koh Samui, leaving three tourists dead. The victims were from Britain, Germany and Hong Kong.

In February, two Russian tourists were badly injured while scuba diving off Phi Phi island in Krabi province, when a speedboat's propeller severed one of the men's legs and cut deep gashes into the other man's leg.

A 52-year-old French woman died after being struck by a boat while swimming in waters reserved for snorkelers near an island off Krabi province.
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Linkedin (The Star/ANN) Petaling Jaya  Wed, June 8, 2016

Reports indicated that Malaysian and Filipino negotiators managed to secure the release of the four sailors kidnapped on April 1 after several rounds of negotiation.

The four Sarawakian sailors kidnapped off Pulau Ligitan in Sabah on April 1 have been freed by their Abu Sayyaf captors.

The four returned to Sandakan, Sabah, early Wednesday.

Reports from Jolo indicated that Malaysian and Filipino negotiators managed to secure the fours release from the militant group after several rounds of negotiation.

Sabah Police Commissioner Abdul Rashid Harun when contacted declined to comment on the matter.

The four - brothers Wong Teck Kang, 31, and Wong Teck Chii, 29, their cousin, Johnny Lau Jung Hien, 21, and Wong Hung Sing, 34, who isnt a relative  were crew of a tugboat returning to Sarawak from the Philippines, when they were seized.

Their captors reportedly demanded a 18 million ringgit (US$4.40 million) ransom for their release.
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Linkedin Lin Yangchen (Strait Times) Singapore  Wed, June 8, 2016

A 23-year-old Indonesian maid was arrested on Tuesday evening after she allegedly stabbed the couple who employed her, killing a woman and leaving her husband requiring surgery for his wounds.

Neighbors said they heard little until the peace of the private estate in Telok Kurau was shattered by ambulances and police cars arriving at the three-storey semi-detached house at 50C, Lorong H, where the alleged stabbings took place after 8 p.m.

The man who was stabbed - believed to be Ong Kian Soon, 57 - was eventually taken to Changi General Hospital (CGH).

Police received a call about the incident at 8.48pm. When officers arrived, they discovered the motionless body of a 59-year-old woman in a toilet on the second floor.

Paramedics pronounced her dead at 9:03 p.m.

Police have classified the case as murder and are investigating.

The Straits Times understands that the maid had used a knife to attack her employers.

It is believed that Ong went upstairs after he heard a commotion in the toilet. When he opened the door, the maid allegedly charged at him with a knife and a tussle ensued. He managed to subdue the maid, who is believed to have been injured in the tussle as well.

Neighbours The Straits Times spoke to appeared shocked as it dawned on them that a killing had taken place in their estate.

One bystander said he saw an ambulance and four police cars leave the scene at about 9.15pm.

Three Malaysians who were passing by said they heard a man cry for help and saw him running towards the front gate holding the maid. He had two wounds on his neck. The trio, who declined to be named, added that they helped restrain her.

Officers continued to gather evidence and, by 11 p.m., the house and a stretch of road in front had been cordoned off.

When The Straits Times arrived at the scene, a man was seen crying outside the house, which had a red banner and lanterns above the front door.

Another man asked to be left alone as he had just lost his mother.

At CGH, a nurse told family members that Ong had to go for surgery, and said in Mandarin that he had "lost a lot of blood". She later told them to go home and return in the morning.

"Don't agitate him when you talk to him, if not he will bleed," she added.

Police officers had not removed the victim's body from the crime scene at press time.
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Linkedin Khine Kyaw (Myanmar Eleven/ANN)  Wed, June 8, 2016

Starting December 1, citizens of Myanmar and Singapore need not to apply for visa for travel between the two countries, according to Myanmars Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA). In the statement, the ministry said on a reciprocal basis, Myanmar and Singapore will impose the visa-free travel for up to 30 days.

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong met with State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi at the Presidential House Tuesday afternoon. Shortly after their discussion, the visa exemption agreement was signed and exchanged by Myanmars deputy foreign minister Kyaw Tin and the ambassador of Singapore to Myanmar Robert Chua.

Aside from the visa waiver, the main topics of the discussion included efforts to boost bilateral investment, establishment of the Singapore-Myanmar vocational training institute, tourism promotion which includes more direct flights between Singapore and Myanmars cities, and the review and modernization of the double taxation agreement signed by both countries in 1999.

Information minister Pe Myint, transportation and communications minister Thant Sin Maung, education minister Myo Thein Gyi and tourism minister Ohn Maung were also present at the discussion.

Lees visit from June 7 to June 9, coincides with the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Singapore and Myanmar. Aside from the meetings with President Htin Kyaw and Suu Kyi, Lee will meet Lower House Speaker Win Myint, patron of the Union Parliament and speaker of the Upper House Mahn Win Khaing Than, commander-in-chief of defense services Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, and chairman of the Union Solidarity and Development Party and former president Thein Sein in Naypyitaw.

While in Yangon, he will launch the Singapore-Myanmar vocational training institute and attend a reception with Singaporeans.

He last visited Myanmar in November 2014 for the 25th ASEAN Summit in Naypyitaw.

Last month, Singapores foreign minister Vivian Balakrishnan visited Myanmar and met with President Htin Kyaw and Suu Kyi. Balakrishnan then said Singapore had a very strong sense of optimism for the future of Myanmar and would stand as a partner with the nations new transformation. He said that Singapore was very optimistic for transformation in the fields of agriculture, industrialization, as well as opportunity to work closely together in education and health care.
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Linkedin Niko Dizon (Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN) Manila  Wed, June 8, 2016

The United States is watching very carefully the moves of President-elect Rodrigo Duterte, particularly during his first 100 days in Malacanang, and his reaction to the much-awaited ruling of a United Nations tribunal court on the Philippines maritime row with China, according to an expert of a US-based think tank.

It is ironic that we are watching because if you ask leaders in Washington right now, they would say the US-Philippine relationship is at a high point, said Ernest Bower, a nonresident senior adviser for the Southeast Asia Program at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

In an interview with the Inquirer on Monday, Bower said the long-standing relations between the Philippines and the United States were even made stronger during the Aquino administration.

And the defense relationship is at least at a two-decade high, he said.

No less than President Benigno Aquino III and US President Barack Obama visited each others countries twice, he noted.

There is no reason to believe that a new leader of the Philippines would sacrifice all those good things to move into a direction that would put the Philippines in a less secure and less economically prosperous position, he said.

Until Duterte officially assumes the presidency on June 30, it is a wait-and-see period for everyone else, Bower said.

Hes been a mayor and he has said things in the campaign that gave people cause to watch. But again I really think all we can do is wait and see who he puts on his team and wait what he does, he said.

Bower was among the speakers at a symposium on Asia-Pacific Perspectives on Implementing the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement [Edca], which was held at National Defense College of the Philippines at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City on Tuesday.

The Edca is widely seen as important for the United States and the Philippines, a staunch ally, as both nations are worried by Chinas increasingly assertive pursuit of territorial claims in the disputed South China Sea.

Signed days before Obama visited Manila in 2014, the security deal will allow US troops to build facilities to store equipment for maritime security and humanitarian and disaster response operations, in addition to giving broad access to Philippine military bases. The Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Edca in January this year.

Describing US-Philippine ties, Bower said it is an old relationship, it is a treaty relationship, it is a special relationship.

I think Washington values the relationship with the Philippines. I dont think anyone in Washington thinks a President of the Philippines would turn away from that alliance, he said.

Bower said the United States was not looking at Dutertes unorthodox statements, such as taking a Jet Ski to one of the contested islands in the Spratlys or his threat to cut ties with Washington, which, he added, were part of campaign rhetoric during the recent elections.

On Monday, the American expert gave a lecture on US policy and perspectives on the developments in the South China Sea at the University of the Philippines.

The Philippines is awaiting a ruling of the UN arbitral court this month on a case it filed last year, questioning the legality of Chinas nine-dash line claim over the South China Sea under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

That Duterte is seemingly warming up to China does not bother Bower.

I think the proof is really in the pudding. In other words, what we are watching is who he selects to be in his Cabinet. What his first 100 days would look like, what actions he takes particularly around things like the response to the arbitral case in The Hague, Bower said.

Those are things that will tell the story. I dont put too much stock in the things that he said recently, he added.

Duterte has appointed Perfecto Yasay, a lawyer and former chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission with no background in foreign policy and diplomacy, as acting foreign secretary for one year until Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano takes over.

The law prohibits the incoming President from immediately appointing Cayetano, his running mate, who lost heavily to Leni Robredo in the May 9 elections.

Retired Maj. Gen. Delfin Lorenzanas designation as the next defense chief is considered to be a silver lining in what is apparently a shallow bench in the security cluster of the Duterte Cabinet. Lorenzana served as a defense attache to Washington.
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Linkedin Colleen Barry (Associated Press) Iseo, Italy  Wed, June 8, 2016

It's taken nearly 2,000 years, but regular folks will soon get to feel what it is like to walk on water thanks to a project by the artist Christo, who may or may not have had his namesake in mind when envisioning his latest project: "The Floating Piers."

"Any interpretation is legitimate," Christo, 80, allowed graciously in an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press at the picturesque Lake Iseo in northern Italy where his 23rd large-scale installation is just a week and a half from opening.

Since November, Christo and his team have been overseeing the assembly and anchoring of 220,000 floating poly-ethylene cubes to create a 3-kilometer (nearly 2-mile) undulating runway connecting the mainland with a pair of islands, one inhabited and towering above the lake.

"For the first time, for 16 days, from the 18th of June to July 3, they will walk on the water," Christo said of the 2,000 residents of Monte Isolo, which is normally only accessible by boat.

"The Floating Piers" is expected to draw half a million visitors during the longest days of the year to northern Italy's least-known big lake. That is considerably fewer than the 5 million who visited Christo's and his late wife Jeanne-Claude's famous "Wrapped Reichstag" in Berlin in 1995 and the 2 million who walked through their work "The Gates" in New York City's Central Park in 2005, due largely to the relatively rural location.

Some 200,000 floating cubes create a 3-kilometers runway to be clad in bright yellow fabric and connecting the town of Sulzano to the small island of Monte Isola on the Iseo Lake for a 16-day outdoor installation opening on June 18 through July 3.(AP/Luca Bruno)

The project still awaits a final touch: The application of deep yellow fabric that the artist promises will dramatically shift from nearly red to brilliant gold under the effects of light and humidity.

"You will need sunscreen," from the reflection, he says with conviction.

The project awakens many metaphors: Yellow brick road, for the fantastical journey it beckons. Runway, for the attention it commands. Beach for the lapping waves along the sloping edges of the 16-meter (more than 50-foot) wide boulevard. The fabric, which will be sewn into place by German seamstresses with specially made sewing machines, to create natural ruching. This effect prompts Christo to warn that visitors will have to step carefully along the oscillating platform.

The artist describes the sensation as "walking on the back of a whale."

Once the installation opens on June 18, 150 volunteers, among them lifeguards, will be posted on the piers and on boats around the clock to ensure safety. Swimming is forbidden -- but expected, despite the cold water temperatures. Entrance is free, with the entire cost of the 15 million euro ($17 million) project financed by the artist himself.

Christo's projects are as much feats of engineering as they are works of art. He has brought in a team of athletes from his native Bulgaria to assemble the specially made, recently invented cubes and divers to anchor them to concrete slabs on the lake-floor, employing oil-rig-inspired two-week rotations. The 190 anchors were moved into place by air balloons.

Like many of his previous installations, "The Floating Piers," had its own destiny. Christo and Jeanne-Claude, who died in 2009, originally envisioned it for the delta of Rio de la Plata, Argentina, in 1970 but they failed to get permissions. They then considered Tokyo Bay, but again failed to get the permits.

Bulgarian-born artist Christo Vladimirov Yavachev known as Christo gestures during an interview with the Associated Press on his installation 'The Floating Piers' on the Lake Iseo, northern Italy, Tuesday, June 7, 2016. (AP/Luca Bruno)

"The project is done for ourselves. And if other people like it, it's almost a bonus, very much like a painter who (has) huge big canvases they like to fill it with color. You don't fill the canvas with color to please Mr. Smith, Mr. Jones, you fill it with color because you like to have the joy to see this color," Christo said.

When his 80th birthday was bearing down on him and his "Over the River" proposal to drape fabric over the Arkansas River in southern Colorado was still embroiled in court battles, Christo decided to make another run at "The Floating Piers."

(Read also: Turkey sinks Airbus jet to attract tourists)

He chose Lake Iseo for its calm waters and simple shoreline against the majestic Alpine foothills that some believe may have inspired the background of Leonardo's "Mona Lisa." Christo suggests the hypothesis is made believable by the misty effect created by the lake climate, softening the mountain contours. In a painterly gesture, he said he made sure that the project offered vistas not only of the mountains, but also of the lake's medieval towns and verdant flora.

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The installation physically draws in visitors, demanding their participation to get the full experience. That's by the artist's design.

"I don't like to talk on the telephone, I like to see the real people. And of course I don't understand anything of computers. I like to have the real things, the real water, the real sun, the real kilometer, the real wind, the real fear, the real joy," he said.

Christo delighted in the gentle movement of the nearly finished project. He instructed a boat driver to circle past the runway to create waves and smiled gleefully at the gentile oscillation of the platform. Had the original project gone through, it would have been built with stodgier pontoons, lacking the kinetic grace allowed by the recently invented cubes.

"Each project finds his right place," he said.
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Linkedin Intan Tanjung (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, June 8, 2016

Most of travelers choose hostels for two obvious reasons: a cheap stay and making new traveling companions. Unlike hotels and other types of accommodation, hostels lure travelers with inexpensive needs, offering stay options of varying price ranges, from a bed in a dorm, or a single room to one with multiple beds.

Although it seems that options virtually dont exist for those who opt for cheap accommodation, there are tips that can make your stay in a hostel memorable, and of course, comfortable. Here are the tips:

Get a room with private lockers and bring your own lock

Put security on top of everything, because theres no point of saving a few dollars for getting your camera stolen or any other valuable item. When you look for a hostel on an online booking website, put in effort to call the hostel and ask if they have a locker that can be locked with your own lock.

Its wise to not trust anyone when youre traveling, including the hostel staff, so its important to keep your valuables within your own supervision. Always bring your own lock, and perhaps a spare, everywhere you go and always use your own lock for your locker. You dont want to sleep while worrying about your belongings at a hostel.

(Read also: 11 essential tips for women traveling solo)

Dont book online

Although nowadays you can book almost anything on the Internet, we still suggest you to not book a bed online. First, because most of hostels offer attractive prices for walk-in travelers, and second, sometimes the reality of the hostel is far from how it was pictured on its website.

To avoid being trapped staying at a place that you dont like and end up wasting money, try to write down the address of your preferred hostels and call them first to make sure they have an available bed. If you do have to book online, try to only book one or two night, unless if youre traveling in peak season.

Aim for comfort

Theres no point in spending less if you cant sleep well and feel terrible the next day because your bed is not comfortable. If possible, try to find out if the hostel has beds made from solid materials that doesnt squeak if move your body, where youre not always having to wake up every time someone whos sleeping near is moving around in their bed. Also, always bring a blindfold and set of ear plugs for better shut-eye.

(Read also: Travel easy with these tech-friendly suitcases)

Facilities

Find a hostel that offers you a bed with a private electricity socket and reading light, but dont forget to bring your adaptor as well as multiple electricity socket extensions so you can charge all your gadgets at the same time. If possible, find one that has a kitchen and coffee/tea facilities so you can minimize your meal and coffee budget. Some hostels also offer free breakfast, a good way to cut your meal expenses.

Make sure to find one with laundry facilities or a room where you can line your hand-washed clothes. Some hostels in certain countries have outstanding amenities such as sauna or Jacuzzi, so make sure you do your research well.

Choose your preferred dorm type

There are a lot of dorm options that can suit your need, from all-gender dorms consisting of four to 10 people in a single room to specific gender dorms with less people. Mixed dorms are usually cheaper than gendered dorms, and the price for dorms with less people are relatively more expensive.

Location, location, location

Choose a hostel with a good locations and easy access to public transportation. Its wise to not choose one in a crowded area, especially if theyre downtown and surrounded with bars, unless you aim to be a night owl. Do extensive research first about the location and find out if your desired hostel is not located in an area with high levels of crime.

Find the unique one

Want to stay in a building with baroque design when youre traveling to Prague? Or pretending to be a 17th century prisoner and stay in an ex-jail hostel when youre in Slovenia? Seek out unique and authentic experiences, and with hostels, you can get it all even by paying less. (asw)
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Gen. Vincent Brooks, the new commander of U.S. Forces Korea, lustily joined in a rendition of the Korean national anthem at an event in Seoul last Thursday.

A military source said Brooks attended the event hosted by the Swedish Chamber of Commerce on Thursday and joined other participants in singing the anthem in Korean.

This is a first for a USFK commander.

Brooks already served a tour in Korea after graduating summa cum laude from the West Point military academy in 1980. At his inauguration on April 30, Brooks said he was glad to take up his new post since he has many memories of the country.
The European Union unveiled plans Tuesday for sealing agreements with African and Middle East countries in another effort to curb migration to Europe.



The so-called "compacts" would consist of making EU development aid and trade ties with certain countries conditional on their cooperation to persuade refugees to stay close to home and to discourage people looking for jobs in Europe.



Speaking at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans told lawmakers that the new partnership agreements would combine funds to strengthen border control, accelerate asylum procedures and to enhance counter-smuggling capacities, in addition to promoting development, investment and trade.



"We propose to use a mix of positive and negative incentives to reward those third countries willing to cooperate effectively with us, and to ensure that there are consequences for those who do not. This includes using our development of trade policies to create leverage."



The plan envisages spending $9 billion in development aid and other assistance over the next five years.

The first counties targeted are Jordan and Lebanon, which together with Turkey host the largest number of Syrian refugees. The commission also said it wants to work towards similar agreements in Africa with Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Mali and Ethiopia.



The EU's latest move is part of the group's longer-term strategy to deal with the root causes of migration as the 28-nation bloc is struggling to manage its biggest refugee crisis since World War II.
When Mark Duggan was shot and killed by police in 2011, riots erupted. They began in Tottenham, Marks home, after peaceful calls for answers went ignored  the riots then spread across the country making national and international news.

This summer marks the fifth anniversary of the riots and sees the release of George Amponsahs documentary, The Hard Stop, which follows two of Marks friends as they process his murder and subsequent inquest into his death, exploring all the anger that came with both.

in Stratford The film made its debut at the 2015 London Film Festival and will be released on July 15 this year. An exclusive screening is taking place on June 17 by the New Black Film Collective
China, which is the North's main ally and benefactor, supported the tougher sanctions against the North.

"Neither one of our nations will accept North Korea as a nuclear weapons state," Kerry told reporters at the end of the eighth annual U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Beijing. Kerry said the U.S. and China have agreed to "fully enforce" a new round of tougher sanctions passed by the United Nations earlier this year in response to Pyongyang's fourth nuclear test.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says Washington and Beijing will enforce sanctions against North Korean for its recent nuclear weapons and ballistic missile program. But China and the U.S. apparently remain at an impasse over China's territorial claims in the South China Sea.

 Restraint Urged

Meanwhile, Kerry called on all nations with competing territorial claims in the South China Sea to "exercise restraint" and resolve their differences through diplomacy. Tensions are growing in the region over China's aggressive buildup of military installations on unoccupied islands and reefs in the South China Sea, many of which are also claimed by Taiwan, Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei and Indonesia.

About $5 trillion of annual trade passes through the South China Sea, which is also believed to hold significant oil and gas reserves. Beijing is reportedly considering establishing an Air Defense Identification Zone over portions of the South China Sea, after being angered by U.S. surveillance flights in the airspace. Kerry has called such action "a provocative and destabilizing act."

 Freedom of Navigation, Overflight

Kerry said he and his Chinese counterpart, State Councilor Yang Jiechi, reaffirmed their governments' commitment to uphold freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea.

On the economic front, U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said China has concluded that there should be no further weakening of its currency, the yuan, and agreed to continue pursuing market-based economic reforms.

But Lew said the two sides failed to reach an accord on the excess capacity in China's aluminum sector, which Washington complains allows China to sell the metal cheaply overseas.
In many ways, the streets of London and those of any given city in the United States arent dramatically different. Yes, cars drive in a different direction (terrifyingly  I always have to catch myself while crossing the street), and buildings are often quite a bit older. But overall, I havent had to deal with any crazy cultural adjustments. I like it here.

One thing that does always interest me is the uniforms on children going to school each morning. As I make my morning commute to my internship, Im passed by children in the most elaborate outfits: boxy blazers, miniature neckties, fancy little hats that make the children look like characters out of Madeline. Off they go, on scooters, looking like tiny professionals.

I compare it to school dress codes in the US, often a source of drama but rarely as formal or as commonplace as the outfits here. According to the US National Center for Education Statistics, between 2011 and 2012, 19% of public (state) schools required students to wear uniforms. In the UK, 82% of state schools require pupils to wear one, according to a study in the UK National Archives.

How does this play out in school culture? Does the uniform really make a difference?

When considering global education rankings, maybe it does. According to a US News and World Report, the UK is ranked the third best country in education, while the US is fourth. This ranking is based on data from BAV Consulting and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Other rankings do vary, but the UK continues to rank above the US. In another report, this one by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the UK ranks as the 20th best country for education, while the US ties with Italy for the 28th best. This survey is based on student scores in maths and sciences.

Jennifer Craik, author of the article Uniforms Exposed: The Proliferation of Uniforms in Popular Culture as Markers of Change and Identity says that uniforms are a shorthand code for the ideal attributes imparted by schooling  discipline, order, authority, respectability, belonging, effective performance  and these are also the attribute of adult masculinity. Students in uniform look like students who are under control, whether or not they are.

Stephanie Northen, in an article for The Guardian, uses the example of the Anthony Gell school in Wirksworth to make the point that uniforms do not affect school culture to the extent of raising the standard of education; GCSE results there have been steadily increasing over the past few years  all while students walk to classes in sweatshirts and jeans.

In my hometown in the US, several local schools have made changes to create a more formal environment: tightening up rules on uniforms and even editing their names with titles like international preparatory academy. All the while, their annual ratings have stagnated.

A true study of the impact uniforms (or lack thereof) have on school culture in the US and UK would require long-term, widespread research and analysis of individual schools. This research was done, over ten years, but not focused just on uniforms  rather, it compared US public (state) schools and private schools as a whole. In determining that private schools were academically more successful, state schools adapted aspects of the private school environment, namely uniforms. But no one knows whether or not uniforms actually make private schools generally stronger academically.

For the time being, yes, one can note that UK schools are far more widespread in their use of uniforms, and that they as a whole are ranked higher than their US counterparts. A correlation may exist, but so do counterexamples. On the whole, it seems that uniforms may help maintain a sense of order, but they do not stand on their own as a necessary piece of the educational puzzle.
Cannabis users often know more about the effects of the drug than the experts treating them, according to research.

Users seeking treatment often have an expertise that is leaving those trying to help them lagging behind, a conference has been told.

A group of national experts was told about the inverted expertise seen in users at a meeting at the University of York to exchange ideas on effective treatment.

The conference was told that there has been a dramatic increase in the number of people seeking treatment, with research showing there has been a 64% rise between 2005 and 2015 in England.

(John Carl DAnnibale/AP)

Researchers at the University of York and the University of Leeds are investigating how services are responding to the increase in cannabis users seeking treatment.

The conference was told that initial findings suggest individuals seek help with problems which are not usually associated with cannabis, such as irritability and poor impulse control.

They were also told that treatment services are not sufficiently prepared to offer effective interventions, as cannabis is still seen as a benign drug.

(Timothy J Gonzalez/AP)

Dr Mark Monaghan, a lecturer in criminology and social policy at Loughborough University, told the delegates: There is this inverted expertise around cannabis in which the users have all the up-to-date knowledge of the local markets and the service providers are lagging behind.

This can have a significant knock-on effect for the kind of services they are providing. Cannabis users are quite knowledgeable in what is going on in terms of the market.

The providers are slightly lagging behind in terms of their knowledge base. Because they are lagging behind they dont have intelligence on what the consumers are using; it creates this situation where they dont really know what to do.

He added: We need to know what people are using and we need to offer them evidence-based treatments.

Treatment across the sector is really variable. We do need more research on the changing nature of the cannabis market. We need to explore the reason why more people are presenting to treatment centres.
Police Scotland is introducing the hijab to its uniform in an attempt to encourage more Muslim women to join the force.

Peter Blair, Head of Resource Management at the organisation, has spoken about the "unecessary barriers" that are faced by minority ethnic women who might consider a career within the police, and has reiterated its commitment increased inclusivity. Peter Blair, Head of Resource Management at the organisation, has spoken about the "unecessary barriers" that are faced by minority ethnic women who might consider a career within the police, and has reiterated its commitment increased inclusivity.

Blair says that the organisation "is committed to working with communities to encourage underrepresented groups to consider policing as a career" and that "part of this involves removing unnecessary barriers which includes considerations about the officers' uniform."

He adds: "As a result, work has been undertaken to source a uniform Hijab. Such a Hijab is worn by many officers in Police Forces in England and across the world and Police Scotland is keen to replicate this good practice."

The move comes after the organisation revealed that just 2.6% of those who applied to join last year were from an ethnic minority background.

That adds up to just 127 ethnic minority applicants to the police service in the whole of Scotland in 2015-16.

According to the BBC, an additional 650 candidates from ethnic minorities would need to be hired to make the force truly representative of Scottish society.

statistics In England and Wales minority ethnic police officers made up 5.5% of all officers on 31st March 2015, according to Home Office, compared to 11.9% of the population nationally*.

Women made up just over a quarter (28.2%) of the total police workforce.

Both the number of ethnic minority and the number of female officers were higher than the previous year, and continued an upward trend that had been seen for a number of years.

The optional new uniform for Muslim officers in Scotland consists of a covering for the hair and neck, and features the recognisable black and white check pattern that also appears on other parts of police officers uniforms.

Currently, female Muslim officers in Scotland have to receive permission from their line manager before being allowed to wear a hijab at work.

The Metropolitan Police introduced the hijab into their officers uniforms more than a decade ago.

London, which the force serves, is the most ethnically diverse area in the country according to the 2011 census.

In October 2015, Home Secretary Theresa May voiced her concerns over the ethnic diversity of the police force in the UK overall, saying that the public would lose confidence in the police if the situation was not addressed.

Speaking at the National Black Police Association conference, she said that the number of black and Asian police officers was "simply not good enough."

The decision to add to the Police Scotland uniform, however, highlights commitment to increasing the diversity within their ranks.

Chief Inspector Ann Bell, of Police Scotland, told the BBC that the new uniform design is just another tool in our tool kit to encourage women from communities that perhaps haven't seen policing as a career option previously to now start to think about that."

She adds that 2016 marks 101 years since women were first accepted into the police force in Scotland, and that "Police Scotland are really keen to encourage more women to come and be police officers.

*2011 Census
Over a third of all food produced globally goes uneaten, and if food waste was a country it would be the 3rd largest greenhouse gas emitter after the USA and China. With that in mind, Tessa Cook and Saasha Celestial-One came together to create OLIO

Piloted in North London in July 2015 and officially launched in December, this free app is designed to allow students to share their extra food, rather than throwing it away. The inspiration came from actual first-hand experience for these two ladies; Cook, a farmers daughter, witnessed a third of her familys hard work literally go to waste and Celestial-One is a free-cycler, and just as passionate about the cause.

To use the app you simply have to take a picture of your unwanted surplus food items and add them to the app, along with a description and a price (if applicable  as stated its usually free).

OLIO connects students not only with each other, but with their neighbours as well, so everyone on your network will receive an alert when food is made available. Items can then be requested and collected from various locations, such as an OLIO Drop Box (found in local stores or cafes), a home or any other location agreed upon via private message.

Ruby Spencer from the University of the Arts London enthusiastically supports the cause, stating: As a poor student, I loved the interesting finds on the app which would probably normally cost loads. Its also a great way for students to meet other students, make new friends and help fight food waste.

Spencer isnt alone in her willingness to take part in utilising the app to address the issue of food waste; in some initial research done for the app, an OLIO/YouGov poll of 1,610 adults found that 85% of people were bothered by throwing away their edible food.

UK households apparently waste around 12.5 billion worth of edible food and drink each year, which comes to the cost of 700 pounds worth of good food every year for the average family. OLIO has already made an impact in solving this problem, having been used over 200,000 times and 30,000 items of food being successfully shared,

Sandy OBrien of Queen Mary University says: Having a drop box on campus has made it really simple as more first years live in halls on campus, so they can share their food easily instead of it getting left for waste, especially as we reach the end of term!

As we approach the summer holidays and students start cleaning out their kitchen spaces, a spike in the amount of food that will go to waste among the university population is expected. Instead of contributing to these numbers, its about time students were re-taught the importance of the reduce, reuse, recycle mantra.
Things that come to mind when one thinks of France: baguettes, the Eiffel Tower, wine. Things that dont come to mind: Celtic culture. But in Brittany, France, that's is exactly what you should think of.

Brittany, in the northwest portion of the country, is identified as one of the Celtic Leagues six Celtic nations. The other five nations fall in Great Britain and Ireland, making Brittany unique not only by French standards, but also by Celtic standards. Although French is the primary language of most people in the region, up until the 19th century regional languages Breton and Gallo were the only two main languages known there.

As you can imagine, this makes for a distinct regional culture. A 2008 poll of Brittany residents identified 50% of inhabitants as feeling just as Breton as they felt French, and 22.5% as more Breton than French.

That same year, the Office de la Langue Bretonne identified 206,000 active speakers of the Breton language.

This pride and difference of culture is palpable throughout town. Road signs each have at least two lines of text  one in French and one in Breton. Many cars have bumper stickers of a cartoon woman in traditional Breton clothes, particularly a tall coiffe de Bretagne hat. Many towns have Diwan schools, where lessons are taught in the Breton language, as a way of preserving the unique culture.

For tourist purposes a trip spent embracing this different way of life, exploring the history and the culture, is a trip well spent. Be sure to watch traditional Bretagne dancers perform and taste a Kouign-amman, a buttery and crusty Breton cake. Cuisine in Brittany includes lots of seafood, crepes and gallettes and a dense cake called far Breton. All are worth trying, and youll feel in touch with the area culture when you do.

Bretagne does, however, have less culture-based attractions that are worth seeing as well. Saint-Malo, a port city on the northern coast, was founded in the 1st century. It is surrounded by huge stone walls and is made up of beautiful ancient buildings. Its a perfect place to explore for any history buff (or just anyone who loves the ocean).

Dinard is home to gorgeous beaches and restaurants. Its a popular tourist attraction for international travellers including Picasso, Winston Churchill and Lawrence of Arabia. A walk around the town includes views of the house that locals claim inspired Alfred Hitchcock in his filming of Psycho, and a statue of Hitchcock stands near the beach.

The 13th-century Fort-la-Latte near Cap Frehel has served not only as a functioning castle but also the site of a number of films and music videos. It juts out into the ocean, and visitors are able to climb up the forts various towers for incredible views.

My own personal favourite activity when Ive visited Brittany, however, is just driving through the countryside and taking in all it has to offer naturally: sudden views of the ocean with houses lining the mountain down to the beach, rides along bridges that cross large valleys, rolling hills with sheep and cows grazing peacefully. As exciting as culture- and history-rich destinations like Paris are, there is something about being out in the country, surrounded by the French (or Breton!) language and feeling part of an unusual and rare culture, even just for a visit.
A huge jelly replica of Buckingham Palace  complete with jelly corgis  has been unveiled in the run-up to a London street party marking the Queens official 90th birthday.

About 10,000 guests will gather on The Mall in Central London on Sunday in celebration of the monarchs milestone anniversary.

Pimms created the wobbly tribute  which took more than 200 man-hours to make  as the drinks brand prepares for its role as the official tipple of the street party.

Tim Simpson adds the finishing wobbly touches (Daniel Lewis/Pimms/PA)

The edible palace, which is a metre long, 15cm wide and 20cm high and weighs 35kg, was crafted using 35 litres of liquid  including Pimms No 1 Cup and champagne.

A team of three, led by sculptor Tim Simpson, spent more than 50 hours model-making and laser-cutting to create the royal mould, before concocting a jelly with the right rigidity and wobble.

Simpson said: Buckingham Palace is one of the most recognisable buildings in the world, so there was considerable pressure to produce a replica that honoured it appropriately. Were delighted with how it turned out.

The artists also made several jelly corgis in honour of the Queens much-loved pets.

How cute! (Daniel Lewis/PA)

Pimms expects to serve around 30,000 glasses or 5,000 jugs of drinks at the celebration when revellers  most of whom are from the 600 charities of which the Queen is patron  will sit down to a hamper-style lunch.

Footmen wearing liveried red and gold jackets, Union flag waistcoats and black hats will be stationed on The Mall to serve the picnickers, who have paid 150 per head to attend. The footmen will also cycle around the site in St Jamess Park and Green Park on bar bike trikes, delivering drinks.

It took 200 hours to make (Daniel Lewis/Pimms/PA)

Hundreds of cucumbers have been produced on a Yorkshire farm to meet the demand for jugs of the summer cocktail, which also features orange, strawberries and mint.

Cucumber grower David Schellingerhout, of Glen Avon Growers in Cottingham, East Yorkshire, said: Weve grown hundreds of extra cucumbers for The Patrons Lunch, and have set aside rows and rows of them specifically for this event.

I think the Queen will be extremely chuffed to know that it is great British cucumbers that are being served at The Patrons Lunch right outside Buckingham Palace  and actually I think shed expect nothing less.

Voila! (Daniel Lewis/Pimms/PA)

The Queen will attend the street party, which has been organised by her grandson Peter Phillips and features a carnival-style parade.

Heres what all the prep looks like, in numbers:

* 30,000 glasses or 5,000 jugs of Pimms are expected to be served

* 130 bartenders will spend around 500 hours pouring drinks

* 180 kegs, each weighing 11kg, of draught Pimms will be used

* 540 bags of ice, each weighing 10kg

* 4,000 strawberries, 360 cucumbers, 400 oranges and 137 sprigs of mint

Itll be quite a party.
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About 2,000 NATO troops are conducting a large-scale military training exercise with an airborne operation in the Polish central city of Torun.

As part of the biggest Poland-led exercise in the country since the 1989 end of communism there, troops parachuted Tuesday into a training area of the city with the objective to secure a bridge on the Vistula River.



U.S. troops of the 82nd Airborne Division flew in from Fort Bragg, North Carolina. British troops came in from a NATO base in Ramstein, Germany, while Polish troops arrived from a base in Krakow, in southern Poland.



More than 20 NATO member states began the 10-day, Anakonda-16 exercises as part of efforts to reassure central and eastern European countries concerned by Russia's actions in eastern Ukraine.

In total, the exercises will involve 31,000 troops, 3,000 vehicles, 105 aircraft and 12 Navy ships

The Kremlin denounced the exercises, saying they do not contribute to an atmosphere of trust and security on the continent.
Poland has suspended labor imports from North Korea, the Voice of America reported Tuesday.

The measure came amid international sanctions against the North after its latest nuclear test in January and allegations that overseas workers toil in near-slavery.

The Polish Foreign Ministry has not issued any visas for North Korean workers since the nuclear test in January, a ministry spokesman was quoted as saying on Sunday.

Last year Poland issued a total of 156 visas for North Korean workers.

Vice News recently reported on the miserable human rights conditions of North Korean workers in Polish shipyards and the suspected outflow of EU subsidies through their salaries, most of which are confiscated by the regime.

The shipbuilders receive a 70 million euro subsidy for their contribution to economic development.

It remains to be seen whether other EU countries will follow suit. Bulgaria, Romania and the Czech Republic have already sent North Korean workers home.

More than 50,000 North Korean workers are earning hard currency for their regime in about 40 countries, according to the UN. The money they earn for the regime amounts to US$1.2-2.3 billion a year.


Volkswagen is dragging its heels recalling cars and compensating customers in Korea for selling millions of diesel cars with emission cheating devices.

The German automaker admitted cheating on emissions tests in the U.S. and has vowed to compensate customers there, while pledging to pay environmental taxes for customers in Europe.

But in Korea, Volkswagen is still busy denying fresh allegations from the government rather than appeasing angry customers.

The Environment Ministry on Tuesday said it rejected a recall plan submitted by the automaker for 120,000 vehicles sold here. It was the third time the recall plan was rejected because the automaker again failed to describe how to solve the problems in detail.

An Environment Ministry official said, "We are skeptical whether Volkswagen is even willing to live up to its recall plan. Prosecutors are expected to launch a full-blown investigation of Volkswagen's failure to follow the government's recall order."

Failure to follow a recall order can lead to up to five years in jail or a W30 million fine (US$1=W1,160).

Customers are increasingly frustrated. People who bought cars linked to the emissions-rigging scandal on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against 12 executives at the German automaker, including CEO Martin Winterkorn.

Ha Jong-sun, a lawyer for the customers, said, Volkswagen defrauded customers by selling them cars that did not meet emissions standards. If the customers had known that, they would not have bought the cars.

Ha said 500 car owners have joined the lawsuit, while 1,500 more planning to follow.
30 tiger zoos nationwide face checks

KANCHANABURI: Police are set to inspect 30 more tiger zoos nationwide as authorities expand their investigation into illicit wildlife trafficking following the raid on the Tiger Temple in the province.

animalscrime

By Bangkok Post

Wednesday 8 June 2016, 09:46AM

One of the most popular tiger zoos is the Sriracha Tiger Zoo in Chonburi province. Photo: Sriracha Tiger Zoo

Police yesterday (June 7) also found four more live tigers, as well as a slaughterhouse, during a raid on a house in Kanchanaburis Muang district, which has suspected links to wildlife trafficking and the Tiger Temple.

Deputy national police chief Chalermkiat Sriworakhan said yesterday he has told officers to inspect more than 30 locations where tigers and wild animals are kept and to verify if they had sought permission to operate legally.

Gen Chalermkiat said police are waiting for the results of DNA tests on live tigers and dead cubs found at Wat Pa Luang Ta Maha Bua, or the Tiger Temple.

If evidence emerges linking the temple to wildlife trafficking in Laos, he will set up a Royal Thai Police panel to handle the case. The case is being handled by Kanchanaburis Sai Yok police.

The Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP) has found a copy of a document that might link the Tiger Temple to wildlife trafficking. Authorities seized the photocopy of a contract involving an exchange of breeding tigers during last weeks relocation of the big cats from the temple.

The agreement was signed by the abbot of the Tiger Temple, Phra Wisutthi Sarathera, known as Luang Ta Chan, and people in Laos, department deputy chief Adisorn Nuchdamrong said. He said the contract indicates the temple may have been involved in the illegal wildlife trade.

Lawyers for the Foundation of Wat Pa Luang Ta Maha Bua said yesterday that the temple abbot will hold a media briefing tomorrow (June 9) to clarify all accusations.

Also yesterday, armed with a search warrant, police from the Natural Resources and Environmental Crime Division raided a house in tambon Wang Dong in Kanchanaburis Muang district.

The search found four tigers  two males aged 10 and one, and two females, aged 10, and two  kept in cages in the premises covering more than nine rai. A warehouse for storing tigers food, a large refrigerator, knives and other equipment believed to be used for relocating tigers were also found in the compound.

Two tiger keepers told police the tigers belong to house owner Thawat Khachornchaikul, 68, also known as Sia Tong.

Col Montree Pancharoen, deputy chief of the police division, said officers had found evidence the house is linked to trafficking and has served as a transit point for tiger trafficking as well as a tiger slaughterhouse.

He said authorities believed the house was also linked to the Tiger Temple, adding that DNA samples of the four tigers will be compared to those of the tigers relocated from the temple. A probe will also be launched to find out if the four tigers were linked to the three tigers which went missing from the temple in 2014, Col Montree said.

Meanwhile, the Kanchanaburi land reform office erected a sign yesterday at the temples entrance, warning against trespass as the office is looking into claims of land misuse, provincial officer Watcharin Wakamanont said. The temple is also accused of encroaching on forest areas of almost 1,000 rai.

Read original story here.
Chakra Mandala therapy helps balance body and mind

In this modern society, our consciousness as a whole is becoming increasingly engaged in disjointed activities  the body is walking, running, sitting, eating, while the mind is off writing a report, listing the gaps in the cupboard which need filling or compiling an awesome post to describe our current activity. The spirit, well, its probably languishing behind at the bottom of a must-do list waiting for the day when time can be slotted in for its nourishment.

Wednesday 8 June 2016, 07:00PM

Kerrily Jennings

editor1@classactmedia.co.th

This lack of balance influences our lives in every way, every day. Feelings of anxiety, fear, sadness, isolation or confusion can become overwhelming, and seemingly inexplicable. Eating well? Check. Family life good? Check. Work life good? Check. Chakra wheels spinning well? Hmm

Within our bodies are housed seven main Chakras, aligned from the base of the spine to the crown of the head. These wheels of energy are our vital life force, keeping us vibrant, healthy, and alive. When our Chakras become incorrectly aligned, perhaps through a traumatic experience or emotion, then an imbalance is created. This, in turn, can result in ill-health, depression or other manifestations, individual to each person.

Kim White, a Phuket resident of many years and a highly sought-after yoga practitioner, has been addressing Chakra alignment and holistic therapies through her work. Through developing this knowledge and continually expanding her experience with them, Kim has devised her own unique method for gaining a visual interpretation of current personal Chakra balance. Understanding the great value of art as a form of expression and therapy, Kim leads her students in Chakra Mandala Creation.

By bringing together the concepts of Chakra with Mandalas (Sanskrit word meaning circle), Kim acknowledges our innate need to express freely, unencumbered by words, embracing art as an empowering form of expression. With this combination of yoga, meditation and art, Kim has created a system that breaks down boundaries, reducing the emphasis on any particular area, yet all three enhancing each other.

This, in turn, opens up these fields for everyone to experience, allowing all to move, create and express in an intuitive sense.

Firstly, a Chakra is chosen from the main seven, as the focal point for each session, such as Anaharta, the heart Chakra. Kim then applies certain yoga movements designed to stimulate the areas of the body in which the Chakra is housed. With the body tuned to this Chakra, the participants each lay on their body-sized piece of paper. They are given pieces of charcoal and follow the yoga movements, creating unique patterns. The movements are repeated, creating a flowing pattern as the charcoal moves over the paper with the person. The result is an amazing mandala design, a personal Chakra portrait.

The Chakra Mandala sessions are not designed to balance Chakras, but rather to provide the individual creator with a visual interpretation of the state of a certain Chakra within. In this, patterns can become more apparent, awareness is heightened and areas of need may be highlighted. As each Chakra is connected to certain personality traits and emotions, an individuals Chakra Mandala may show wild erratic movements or short jerky lines that dont flow. Or a design that is perfectly in balance, showing ease of movement and a confident flow; a Chakra that is well aligned and open.

Kim will be conducting a Chakra Mandala session on June 18 at Oasis ed. Phuket in Rawai. This will be the first in a series of sessions, initially focusing on Muladhara, the base Chakra. For further information or to book a place, contact Kez at info@oasisedphuket.com or visit oasisedphuket.com
Cops probe car shooting link to annual reshuffle

BANGKOK: Police are looking into whether a gun attack on a reporters vehicle yesterday (June 7) in the Thonburi district of Bangkok might be linked to his recent reports on the police annual reshuffle.

crimeviolencepolice

By Bangkok Post

Wednesday 8 June 2016, 09:05AM

Forensic officials collect evidence from a vehicle belonging to Chatchai Suksomnueak, a reporter for "Pimthai" newspaper, which was hit by gunfire yesterday morning in front of his house in Thon Buri district. Photo: Jiraporn Kuhakan

Col Jinawat Konthongdee, superintendent of Bukkhalo station, said police are investigating the attack on a car belonging to Chatchai Suksomnueak, 56, a reporter for the Pimthai newspaper who covers the police beat and is a former Police TV station director.

Mr Chatchai has also supplied local news to a Japanese broadcaster, and was a television director for a programme related to police news until his resignation on May 16.

Mr Chatchais vehicle was left in front of his house in Soi Tak Sin 34-36 of Thonburi district when it was attacked. Checks found six bullet holes in the bonnet of the car and scratches on the mirror, police said. Four bullets were also discovered at the scene, police added.

The police annual reshuffle has drawn widespread criticism, with Mr Chatchai joining reporters who cited a lack of transparency in the process, sources said.

Mr Chatchai said his neighbour told him gunshots were heard near his house around 1am. He said he did not have personal issues with others and did not have any problems at work.

Mr Chatchai said he believes his car was the intended target, adding his younger sisters vehicle which was parked next to his was not damaged in the shooting.

Read original story here.
Phuket hospital releases names of tourists injured in deadly speedboat collision

PHUKET: The Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM) Phuket Provincial Office this afternoon issued a statement confirming that 18 people were still in hospital following the deadly speedboat collision east of Phuket earlier today (June 8).

Chinesetourismmarineaccidentsdeathpolicetransport

By The Phuket News

Wednesday 8 June 2016, 08:00PM

Vachira Phuket Hospital issued a list of 21 names of patients received at that facility. Yan Yang, 26, the woman who died after the crash, is listed in red. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

Rescue teams transport the body of one of the victims of the deadly speedboat crash off Phuket earlier today (June 8). Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

One man and a woman died in the accident that saw more than 50 people, mostly Chinese and Korean tourists, rushed to hospital in Phuket after the speedboats Chonlakij and Hongfa 33 collided between Koh Dokmai and Phi Phi Island at about midday. (See story here.)

Vachira Phuket Hospital, the main government hospital on the island, located in Phuket Town, late today issued a list of 21 names of patients received at that facility after the crash.

Among them was Yan Yang, 26, the woman who died from injuries sustained in the collision. Listed as serious was Liu Jie, 29, who suffered a serious head injury. Jin Haixian, 4 years old, also suffered a head injury, but the childs condition was not reported.

Nine have been discharged from hospital care, while 11 were still receiving treatment, said the hospital.

DDPM did not report the whereabouts or condition of any other tourists or crewmen involved in the collision, though the Phuket Provincial Hospital in Rassada this afternoon reported one man dead on arrival at that facility.

The Bangkok Post reported the deceased man as Liang Grianfu, but did not clarify which hospital he was at. (See story here.)

Gov Chamroen earlier today, when reporting that 26 people from the two boats were taken to Mission Hospital with minor injuries only, said that both bodies had been taken to the main morgue at Vachira Hospital. (See story here.)

Phuket Marine Police Deputy Superintendent Lt Col Prasert Srikunarat told The Phuket News, We are still investigating the cause of the collision. It was fortunate that all tourists on both boats were wearing life jackets. If they werent, the number of casualties could have been much worse.

Meanwhile, we waiting for doctors to confirm cause of death of both people who died. At this stage we are not sure if the force of the impact caused their death or if they were thrown from the boat, or died from another combination of circumstances, he added.
Production will begin late this month and a total of 600 such vehicles will be produced by 2023.

Research and development began in December 2012, and the vehicle passed the final test on May 9, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration said Tuesday.

Korea has developed its first armored combat vehicle with ordinary wheels instead of caterpillar treads. It will be deployed warfare-ready next year.

The K200 and K21 armored vehicles in current service all have caterpillar treads and can make a maximum speed of about 70 km/h on ordinary roads.

The new armored vehicle has eight tires and can make 100 km/h. With tactical tires and an air pressure regulator, it can move around in mountains and in water.

The military expects it to improve infantry performance significantly. There will be two models -- a combat vehicle for search and reconnaissance missions in mountainous frontline areas and an infantry transport vehicle in rear areas.

DAPA is also planning to develop models for anti-aircraft warfare and command posts.

The vehicle is similar in terms of performance to the U.S. military's Stryker armored vehicle, deployed warfare-ready in 2002, or the Boxer jointly developed by Germany and the Netherlands, deployed warfare-ready in 2008. But it is only half the price.

DAPA is also eyeing opportunities of selling it overseas.


Two Phuket murder suspects arrested, four still at large

PHUKET: Two suspects wanted in connection with a fatal stabbing at karaoke bar in Patong yesterday morning (June 7) have been arrested, four other suspects involved in the incident are still at large.

deathhomicidepoliceviolence

By Eakkapop Thongtub

Wednesday 8 June 2016, 02:48PM

Nattasak Simog and Aitsara Bunthod were wanted in connection with the murder of Wijitthep Jomjabok and assault of Rachan Banlangsuong at the Lanla Karaoke bar in Patong. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

Phuket Provincial Police Chief Col Teeraphol Thipjaroen held a press conference this morning (June 8) at Patong Police Station to announce the arrest suspects Nattasak Simog and Aitsara Bunthod wanted in connection with the murder of 27-year-old Wijitthep Jomjabok and assault of 32-year-old Rachan Banlangsuong at the Lanla Karaoke bar on Phang Muang Sai Kor Rd at 5am yesterday morning. (See story here.)

Col Teeraphol explained that six suspects managed to escape arrest after the incident, however, police were able to identify two of the suspects who they apprehended yesterday.

We were able to arrest Nattasak and Aitsara after we learned that they had left Phuket and were heading to Trang.

However, Aitsara decided to come back to Phuket and handed himself in to Patong police at 3pm. Nattasak went to his hometown in Trang on a motorbike and with the help of local police we were able to capture him there, he said.

Both men have been charged with murder, attempted murder and carrying a weapon into a public place without a permit.

Nattasak, who worked as a cashier at Moncan Karaoke, admitted that the incident happened after he and Rachan  a waiter a Moncan  got into argument when Rachan refused to exchange some change with him, Col Teeraphol added.

Police are now questioning Nattasak and Aitsara to help them identify and locate the remaining four suspects.
The U.S. and China held two days of talks in Beijing earlier this week and did not try to conceal that they disagreed on almost everything. The talks were designed for the two sides to throw everything on the table, but never have they resulted in both sides criticizing each other so blatantly.

Tensions between the U.S. and China will not explode any time soon. But it is clear that the security and economic order in Northeast Asia is in for a rollercoaster ride. And the North Korean nuclear standoff is being directly impacted by the calculating moves of the U.S. and China.

Representatives from the two countries in a joint press conference on Tuesday merely reiterated the formula that they will comprehensively implement UN Security Council sanctions against the North Korea. China stressed the need to use both carrot and stick in dealing with North Korea at the Asia Security Summit in Singapore, prior to the bilateral talks in Beijing. China has also called for a resumption of the stalled six-party talks and a peace treaty between the U.S. and North Korea. Beijing appears more intent on preventing the North Korean nuclear impasse from going the way the U.S. wants than checking the efficacy of sanctions. But if the North Korean nuclear standoff becomes caught up in a power struggle between Washington and Beijing, Pyongyang will never abandon its nuclear weapons.

The latest talks were aimed at narrowing differences over issues including territorial disputes in the South China Sea, and oversupply of Chinese steel, yuan devaluation and human rights. But the two countries did not see eye to eye on territorial disputes in the South China Sea. Chinese media said Beijing wants to build two more lighthouses on artificial islands on the South China Sea, and Chinese experts warned that the chances of a physical confrontation are increasing. That would surely affect the Korean Peninsula.

The biggest concern is that countries in Northeast Asia may eventually have to choose sides. That would be a treacherous decision for South Korea. Already controversy over the deployment of Terminal High Altitude Area Defense batteries in South Korea has pointed in that direction. The latest U.S.-China talks were a clear reminder that choppy waves lie ahead. Is the government here ready to breast them?

Read this article in Korean
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.
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For most students, exams go smoothly

From:Shanghai Daily | 2016-06-08 01:04

OVER 51,000 students are sitting this years college entrance examination, which started yesterday and finishes today, and various government departments have done their level best to make things run smoothly.

Traffic police were dispatched to the citys 83 exam venues before 7am, two hours before the start, to direct traffic and help students.

Two anxious students who mistakenly went to the wrong venue in the Pudong New Area were rescued by police, officials said.

The students, a male and a female, were scheduled to sit their tests yesterday morning at 8.15am at Shanghai Jianping Century Middle School but went to Jianping High School instead.

When police became aware of their predicament, two officers drove them to the right exam site, and even adjusted the timing of the traffic lights so they would not have to lose time by stopping on the way.

Temporary parking spaces have been allocated near the exam venues and the police have deployed motorcycle teams to patrol around the sites. At Xuhui High School in Xujiahui, one of the exam sites, Shanghai Daily found a line of five police cars, including a SWAT vehicle, and several police motorcycles standing by. About a dozen officers milled about in front.

Parents waiting outside the school told Shanghai Daily that everything had gone smoothly.

A Putuo police official said atemporary parking lot was created on neighboring Fushui Road with space for nearly 100 vehicles. The force also dispatched 12 officers to the school to direct traffic and deal with emergencies.

This year we also ordered officers to control the traffic lights, said the official. When there is congestion, they can adjust the timing.

In Jingan District, temporary parking lots were set up near all exam venues and police launched a crackdown on honking during the two-day exam.

In Songjiang District, a student who left his ID card at home couldnt enter the exam site  Shanghai Songjiang No.2 High School  and had to get his parents to fetch it for him. However, when his parents failed to get it to him in time, officers used their police PDA to verify his identity and let him enter.
Base commander Col. Nicholas Gentile speaks with reporters outside McEntire Joint National Guard Base in Eastover, SC., Wednesday June 8, 2016. Two F-16C South Carolina Air National Guard jets collided over eastern Georgia, Tuesday evening. Gentile says the planes were totally destroyed, but the pilots ejected and survived, and have returned to South Carolina. (AP Photo/Susanne M. Schafer)
In this May 19, 2016 file photo, an EgyptAir Airbus A330-300 takes off for Cairo from Charles de Gaulle Airport outside of Paris. Egyptians officials say a bomb threat has forced an EgyptAir airliner en route to Beijing from Cairo to make an emergency landing in Uzbekistan, where the aircraft is being searched. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena, File)
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Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), the Bengaluru headquartered Public Sector Undertaking under the Defence Ministry, will continue to strongly focus on its indigenisation efforts. Interestingly the company has achieved 86 per cent of its sales revenues from indigenous technology during the financial year 2015-16.

BEL also registered a turnover growth of 12 per cent over the previous year. The company has executed significant defence orders for the year such as the Akash Weapon System for the army and the air force, Passive Night Vision Devices for the army, Integrated Sonar Suite to the navy etc. The has introduced many new products during the year such as a 3-D surveillance radar, coastal surveillance band, gunner sight for T90 tank etc.

It was for the first time BEL exported the indigenously developed naval surveillance radar.

We have released a three year Research and Development (R&D) plan from 2016 to 2019 and our R&D efforts will be centred around indigenous products and systems. Last financial year, we filed 12 patent applications and around 98 technical papers were published by our R&D engineers in national and international journals. We have also formed a control electronics R&D group to address the requirements of our Missile Electronics Business, said S.K. Sharma, CMD, BEL while talking to the media in Bengaluru.

The company will also be pursuing business opportunities in areas such as solar energy, homeland security, smart cards and telecom. In addition to this the company will be looking at capacity enhancement and creation of new test facilities for its defence business.

Radars, missile systems, communication and network centric systems, tank electronics, gun upgrades, electro-optic systems and electronic warfare and avionics systems will drive our companys growth in the near future. In order to expand our missile systems business, we have set up a new defence complex at Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh, added Sharma.
Get rid of the clutter

From:chinadaily.com.cn | 2016-06-08 08:13

British writer Greg McKeown was in Beijing to promote his book Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Almost 80 years ago, Chinese writer Lin Yutang wrote in his book The Importance of Living, that: "The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials," a line which resonates with British writer Greg McKeown, as both of them advocate a life of focus.

McKeown is a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, a columnist for Harvard Business Review, a public speaker and the CEO of his company, which provides leadership training for companies such as Apple, Google and Facebook.

Asked to describe himself in one word, McKeown says he's an "essentialist", and all that he does is to share "essentialism", a term he coined, which he says refers to a systematic discipline for discerning what is essential in people's work and lives, and then eliminating everything that is not, so that people can focus on things that really matter.

In late May, McKeown was in Beijing to promote his book Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, which was published in 2014 in the United States, and then translated and published in China in April.

The book was the result of a question"Why is it that otherwise successful people and companies don't break through to the next level?" McKeown tells China Daily.

McKeown says the question was on his mind since he left England to study communications in the US, and also as he co-authored an earlier book Multiplier, in which he analyzed more than 150 leaders to find out how the best leaders make everyone around them smarter.

"The right focus leads to success, which leads to options and opportunities, which undermine the very thing that led to success in the first place," says McKeown.

"Success has become a catalyst for failure, because it makes people fall into 'the indisciplined pursuit of more'."

Instead of the commonly accepted wisdom that if one works hard enough, you can have it all, his philosophy of essentialism proposes that the pursuit of "less but better".

In his book, McKeown juxtaposes the mindsets of non-essentialists and essentialists through charts, encouraging people to shift their thinking from "I have to" to "I choose to", from "It's all important" to "only a few things really matter", and from "how can I fit it all in" to "what are the trade-offs?"

Using examples of successful companies and personal anecdotes, the book shows three stagesexplore, eliminate and executeto live out the essentialist way of life.

McKeown says he can't forget how seven years ago when his daughter was about to be born, he was asked to attend a meeting with a client.

"To my shame, while my wife lay in hospital with our hours-old baby, I went to the meeting," says McKeown in the book.

The Chinese version ofEssentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less. [Photo provided to China Daily]

However, simply being at the meeting in an anxious mood didn't help, and although his colleague said that the clients would respect him for being there, McKeown said the looks on the clients' faces didn't portray respect.

"I had said 'yes', simply to please them, and in doing so I had hurt my family, my integrity and even the client relationship," and that's how McKeown learned his lesson: If one doesn't prioritize his life, someone else will.

McKeown uses a metaphor of a closet to describe similar situations in life.

He says: "In the same way that our closets get cluttered with clothes we never wear, but accumulate, so do our lives get cluttered as well-intentioned commitments and activities we've said yes to pile up. Unless we have a system for purging them, once adopted, they live on in perpetuity."

So, how do we discern whether to take the opportunities or not?

McKeown suggests that one should ask oneself the question and, "If the answer isn't a clear yes, then it's a clear no".

McKeown, who has visited China twice before, says that the country, on the development fast-track for the past two decades, is seeing a lot of opportunities but also a lot of restlessness in society.

Recalling his experience in Tianjin two years ago at the Summer Davos when he was taking a ride from the hotel to the airport and his driver got into a fight with a truck driver, he says: "They were yelling and screaming at each other."

And although he didn't understand what they were saying, there was something in that moment that he recognized that comes out of non-essentialists.

"When people move fast, they get frantic and frayed at the edges.

"But I think there is something amazing in the Chinesedespite all the revolutions and changesthat has stayed unchanged, something from Confucianism, in respect of the family and older generations ... that's something in Chinese culture that we've got to be careful we do not lose."

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Vishwa Hindu Parishad's firebrand leader Sadhvi Prachi, known for her hate speeches and controversial comments, seems to have crossed all the limits when she said it was time to make India free of Muslims.

While claiming that the mission of a Congress-free India has already been accomplished, Sadhvi said on Tuesday that the focus now should be on a Muslim-mukt Bharat. Now that we have achieved the mission of making a Congress-free India, it is time to make India Muslim-free. We are working on that, she said.

The latest comments were made at Roorkee in Uttarakhand where at least 32 people were injured last week in a clash between two communities over forcible evacuation of a scrap dealers shop.

Accusing Bollywood superstars Aamir Khan and Shah Rukh Khan of being pro-Pakistanis, Sadhvi also urged 'Hindustanis' to make Aamir's upcoming film Dangal a flop.

She has been firing hateful salvos at Khans ever since the actors pitched in the high-voltage intolerance controversy which triggered a nation-wide debate and cornered the Narendra Modi-led BJP government at the Centre. She even called Shah Rukh a Pakistan agent.

Earlier, Sadhvi had lashed out at Salman Khan and Aamir Khan over the 'love jihad' issue and had said that "the Khans have conspired and lured Hindu girls."

Lamentably, even Mahatma Gandhi was not spared from Sadhvi's odious attack. She had called him a British agent and said his contribution towards independence was negligible.

In another occasion, targeting the lawmakers who opposed the execution of 1993 blasts convict Yakub Memon, Sadhvi had said there were terrorists hiding in the parliament.
With Pakistan obviously in mind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said terrorism is being "incubated in India's neighbourhood" and pressed for action without making any distinction against groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba, Taliban and ISIS who share the "same philosophy of hate, murder and killings".

In his address to the joint sitting of US Congress here, he said terrorism has to be fought with "one voice" as he commended the American Parliament for sending out a clear message by refusing to "reward" those who preach and practice terrorism for political gains, an apparent reference to the blocking of sale of 8 F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan.

In the course of his 45-minute speech, he covered all major aspects of the growing relationship between India and the US, particularly strategic ties and civil nuclear cooperation, and emphasised that the two countries should leave "constraints of the past" behind as the "foundations of the future are firmly in place".

Dressed in trademark white kurta pyjama and grey-coloured half-jacket, Modi was warmly received by the American lawmakers who interrupted his address more than 40 times to cheer him, a few times by standing. When his predecessor Manmohan Singh addressed the US Congress in 2005, his speech was applauded 33 times, according to Sanjay Baru, who was the Media Adviser to the then Prime Minister.
A San Francisco lawmaker has revived a proposal following the crash of a Blue Angels jet last week: Its time, he said, to ban the renowned Navy squadron from flying over his city.

John Avalos, a member of the board of supervisors, told the San Francisco Chronicle that the jets are a threat to safety and should not be allowed to fly over occupied areas. Rather, he said, they should be kept over San Francisco Bay, where sea vessels typically congregate for Blue Angels performances.

Its about them crashing and hitting a building  a place where people live, Avalos told the Chronicle. Its about the terror that they cause in people when they strafe neighborhoods. Thats something I hear about all the time when Blue Angels fly overhead.

Avalos misused the term strafing, a term typically used to describe when pilots are flying their aircraft low to the ground, firing at targets while using machine guns or rotary cannons. Avalos did not return requests for an interview Monday morning, but took to Twitter over the weekend to double down on his comments, saying there are many San Francisco citizens who dont want the planes.

Avalos has raised the issue before. Last fall, he said a Blue Angels performance over San Francisco reminded him of U.S. imperialism. The planes, he said, buzz San Francisco with feel good jingoism. He also appeared to allude to the Pentagon budget, which was estimated at $560 billion in fiscal 2015 and $585 billion this year.

Avalos, a former progressive candidate for mayor, is not the first to raise questions about the elite demonstration squadrons like the Blue Angels and the Air Forces Thunderbirds. Both squadrons have historically had budgets of about $35 million per year, prompting some critics to raise questions about whether they are worth the cost.

The squadrons also occasionally have deadly mishaps. The crash Thursday killed Marine Capt. Jeff Kuss, 32, shortly after he took off from an airport in Smyrna, Tenn. His aircraft went down about two miles from the runway during preparations for the Great Tennessee Air Show over the weekend.

Another crash occurred the same day in Colorado in the Thunderbirds, which were performing as part of the commencement ceremony at the Air Force Academy. In that case, the pilot, Maj. Alex Turner was not hurt and put his plane down in an open field after avoiding homes, military officials said.

Avalos did not explain his opposition to the highly trained Blue Angels as compared to other military aircraft squadrons. There are several military installations in the San Francisco area, including Moffett Federal Airfield, a former Navy base that is now used by NASA, the California Air National Guard and other tenants.

The Blue Angels fly over San Francisco as part of Fleet Week, an annual outreach event that attracts about 1 million people per year to the city. Similar events are held in other cities, including New York.

(c) 2016, The Washington Post  Dan Lamothe
[PHOTOS IN EXTENDED ARTICLE]

Over a thousand people gathered at the Hilton New York in Midtown Manhattan on Sunday June 5th for Agudath Israel of Americas 94th annual dinner, paying tribute to Camp Agudah in honor of the camps 75th anniversary.

The evening overflowed with emotion as former campers and staff members reminisced freely about their camp experiences as well as the profound influence that Camp Agudah has had, and continues to have, on their lives. A major focus of the program was the historic role Camp Agudah has played in the development of the Torah community in the United States.

Camp Agudah itself was the recipient of Agudath Israels Rabbi Moshe Sherer Memorial Award, with long time camp director Meir Frischman, who will be retiring after 40 years in his post, accepting the award on behalf of the camp.

Agudah executive vice president Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, who presented the awards for the evening, noted that Rabbi Moshe Sherer had a special place in his heart for Meir Frischman, knowing that he could trust him implicitly to run all of the Agudah camps with precision and perfection. Clearly moved, Reb Meir noted that Rabbi Sherer had taught him to give his all in every endeavor. In the course of his remarks, Reb Meir also gave special recognition to the camps long time head counselor Rabbi Simcha Kaufman.

The Reb Elimelech Tress Memorial Award was presented to the Tress family. Rabbi Zwiebel noted that while Mr. Tress was instrumental in saving European Jews from the horrors of the Nazi era, he was also simultaneously laying the groundwork for a Torah community in the United States, which included the creation of the Agudah camps.

The Rav Aharon Kotler Memorial Award was presented to the family of Rabbi Syshe Heschel zl, who spent many years as camps head counselor and program director. Rabbi Heschel was remembered by Rabbi Zwiebel as a Chasidishe Rebbe without portfolio, recalling his radiant smile and bren that inspired generations of Camp Agudah campers.

The Moreinu Yaakov Rosenheim Memorial Award was presented to the family of Rabbi Boruch B. Borchardt zl, another much loved figure who was part of Camp Agudah from its infancy. Rabbi Zwiebel shared the words of one Agudath Israel staff member who described Rabbi Borchardt after his passing as the glue that held everything together.

Thirteen outstanding individuals were honored as representatives of the many decades of Camp Agudah, going as far back as its debut year, 1942, including the Young family in memory of Charlie Young zl, Charlie Grandovsky, Joseph Helmreich, Yanky Adler in memory of Emil Adler zl, Chaim Wielgus, Benny Wielgus, Yaakov Bojman, Eli Neiman, Yitzy Bald, Yoily Edelstein, Shimie Lax, Shloime Leshkowitz, Alty Pearl and Zevy Seidenfeld. Each of the decade representatives was honored with a unique glass trophy, presented by current Camp Agudah campers, Meir and Yitzy Richman.

Additionally, Rabbi Yonah Feinstein, retiring as director of special projects, was honored with a silver becher for over 20 years of dedicated service to the Agudah.

Among those in attendance for the evening were respected rabbonim, Agudah members, askanim, elected officials, former campers and other Agudah supporters. The magnificent harmonies of the Mezamrim choir drew guests into the ballroom where they eagerly sat down to peruse the dinner journal as well as a short excerpt from the book They Called Him Mike, detailing Mike Tresss involvement with Camp Agudah.

The evenings program was opened by Agudath Israels executive director Rabbi Labish Becker, who called upon Rabbi Shlomo Mandel, Rosh Hayeshiva, Yeshiva of Brooklyn, to lead the assemblage in Tehillim. Dinner chairman Shrage Goldschmidt kicked off the evening by thanking the many elected officials in attendance and detailing the Agudahs multi-faceted efforts that impact members of the Jewish community nationwide.

The Novominsker Rebbe, Reb Yaakov Perlow shlita, Rosh Agudas Yisroel, shared his own memories of Camp Agudah, noting that the camp experience is life changing and that he still sings the zemiros that he learned in camp decades ago. Rabbi Perlow lauded Rabbi Sherer as a visionary and praised Rabbi Yisroel Belsky zl for his role in strengthening Camp Agudah as a true makom Torah. Describing geshmak as the foundation of Yiddishkeit, the Rebbe warned of the dangers that lurk, both from technology and those who seek to undermine the very essence of a Torah lifestyle, saying that only by incorporating simcha into our everyday lives and our limud Torah will we be able to counter the many negative influences that threaten our homes and our families.

Rabbi A.D. Motzen, national director of state relations for Agudath Israel, spoke briefly, praising the many Agudah representatives throughout the United States who advocate for the Jewish community on a daily basis while earning lawmakers highest respect for their devotion and tireless efforts on behalf of others. A short video, titled Agudath Israel Across America, showed many Agudah representatives hard at work, lobbying government officials at all levels, hoping to effect changes to benefit the Torah community.

Rabbi Abba Cohen, Agudath Israels vice president for federal governmental affairs in Washington D.C., introduced Senator Charles Schumer who spoke briefly but passionately about the anti-Israel BDS movement, stressing the importance of recognizing the movement as an expression of anti-Semitism. On a similar note, Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel praised New York Governor Andrew Cuomo for having issued an executive order earlier in the day stating that New York will not do any business with any company that boycotts Israel.

Dinner chairman Shrage Goldschmidt gave a heartwarming overview of the 75 years of Camp Agudah, singling out Rabbi Belsky for the many roles he played in camp and expressing profound gratitude to both Meir Frischman and Rabbi Simcha Kaufman for their endless contributions to camp. A poignant video showing clips of Camp Agudah from its earliest days and its continued evolution over the decades depicted the faces of dozens of campers, the many gedolim who came to visit and recollections of Camp Agudah from notable alumni including Rabbi Paysach Krohn, Rabbi Nosson Scherman, Rabbi Yehuda Oelbaum and Rabbi Naftali Basch, among others.

Participants mingled throughout the night, reflecting on the many accomplishments of Agudath Israel of America and the position of prominence it has achieved by advocating endlessly on behalf of the Torah community.

The Agudah has always been on the front lines of the community, earning the respect of its neighbors and the community it serves, said New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer. I have enjoyed a great relationship working very closely with the organization.

While many came to show their support for the Agudahs efforts and to experience the ultimate camp reunion, the high turnout sent a significant message of its own.

It is very important that all the elected officials, city and statewide, get to see that we really have a constituency, observed Leon Goldenberg, a member of the Agudahs board of trustees. When we call on them and we meet with them, they think we are just a small group, but coming to the dinner they realize that we represent thousands and thousands of people.

The challenges and the obstacles that we have today living in America as Jews are deeply disturbing, added Chaskel Bennett, a member of the Agudahs board of trustees. Many things that we take for granted have come under attack and Klal Yisroel needs a strong Agudas Yisroel more than ever to counteract those attacks and to present an articulate vision and voice of who we are and what the Orthodox Jewish community stands for.

While the Agudahs many accomplishments were an important part of the dinner, there was no doubt that the star of the show was the guest of honor, Camp Agudah, and everyone in attendance shared the very real impression that Ruach Country had made its way to the Hilton for the night.

Shlomo Werdiger, chairman of the Agudahs board of trustees, described Camp Agudah as one of the most beautiful services provided by the Agudah, noting since its opening in Ferndale in 1942, thousands and thousands of campers have called Camp Agudah home.

A lot has changed over the course of 75 years, observed Rabbi Zwiebel. But the essential nature of giving young people an opportunity to grow in an atmosphere where the geshmak of Yiddishkeit is brought out is a tremendous thing which has historically had a major impact on the development of the Torah community here in the United States. We hope to continue to do so for many years to come.

Photo Credits: Menachem Adelman and Moshe Gershbaum:

(YWN World Headquarters  NYC)
A burglar that targeted shuls in moshavim in the Rehovot area was apprehended by police.

Police received numerous complaints citing a shul in a moshav was targeted in a burglary. This refers to the communities of Yad Binyamin, Ganei Tal, and Bnei Reem.

A suspect was taken into custody during the night after being identified on surveillance cameras. The suspect is described by police as a 43-year-old make from Kiryat Malachi. He was arraigned on Tuesday, Rosh Chodesh Sivan.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
[PHOTOS IN EXTENDED ARTICLE]

A hoard of silver coins dating to the Hasmonean period (126 BCE) was exposed in April in an archaeological excavation the Israel Antiquities Authority is currently conducting near Modiin, with the participation of local youth. The excavation is being carried out prior to the construction of a new neighborhood, at the initiative of the Modiin-Maccabim-Reut municipality. The treasure was hidden in a rock crevice, up against a wall of an impressive agricultural estate that was discovered during the excavation there.

According to Avraham Tendler, director of the excavation on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, This is a rare cache of silver coins from the Hasmonean period comprised of shekels and half-shekels (tetradrachms and didrachms) that were minted in the city of Tyre and bear the images of the king, Antiochus VII and his brother Demetrius II. The cache that we found is compelling evidence that one of the members of the estate who had saved his income for months needed to leave the house for some unknown reason. He buried his money in the hope of coming back and collecting it, but was apparently unfortunate and never returned. It is exciting to think that the coin hoard was waiting here 2,140 years until we exposed it.

According to Dr. Donald Tzvi Ariel, the head of the Coin Department at the Israel Antiquities Authority, The cache, which consists of 16 coins, contains one or two coins from every year between 135126 BCE, and a total of nine consecutive years are represented. It seems that some thought went into collecting the coins, and it is possible that the person who buried the cache was a coin collector. He acted in just the same way as stamp and coin collectors manage collections today.

Tendler added, The findings from our excavation show that a Jewish family established an agricultural estate on this hill during the Hasmonean period. The family members planted olive trees and vineyards on the neighboring hills and grew grain in valleys. An industrial area that includes an olive press and storehouses where the olive oil was kept is currently being uncovered next to the estate. Dozens of rock-hewn winepresses that reflect the importance of viticulture and the wine industry in the area were exposed in the cultivation plots next to the estate. The estate house was built of massive walls in order to provide security from the attacks of marauding bandits.

Numerous bronze coins minted by the Hasmonean kings were also discovered in the excavation. They bear the names of the kings such as Yochanan, Judah, Jonathan or Mattathias and his title: Kohen Gadol and Head of the Council of the Jews. The finds indicate that the estate continued to operate throughout the Early Roman period. The Jewish inhabitants of the estate meticulously adhered to the laws of taharas hamishpacha and impurity: they installed mikvaos in their settlement and used vessels made of chalk, which according to halacha cannot become ritually unclean.

Evidence was discovered at the site suggesting that the residents of the estate also participated in the first revolt against the Romans that broke out in 66 CE: the coins that were exposed from this period are stamped with the date Year Two of the revolt and the slogan Freedom of Zion. The estate continued to operate even after the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. It seems that local residents did not give up hope of gaining their independence from Rome, and they were well-prepared to fight the enemy during the Bar Kochba uprising, said Tendler. During the excavation we saw how prior to the uprising the inhabitants of the estate filled the living rooms next to the outer wall of the building with large stones, thus creating a fortified barrier. In addition, we discovered hiding refuges that were hewn in the bedrock beneath the floors of the estate house. These refuge complexes were connected by means of tunnels between water cisterns, storage pits and hidden rooms. In one of the adjacent excavation areas a mikve of impressive beauty was exposed; when we excavated deeper in the bath we discovered an opening inside it that led to an extensive hiding refuge in which numerous artifacts were found that date to the time of the Bar Kochba uprising.

The unique finds revealed in the excavation will be preserved in an archaeological park in the heart of the new neighborhood slated for construction in Modiin-Maccabim-Reut.

1. Aerial photograph of the Hasmonean estate house. Photographic credit: Griffin Aerial Photography, courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

2-3. The cache of silver coins found at the estate house. Photographic credit: Assaf Peretz, courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

4-5. IAA archaeologist Shahar Krispin during the discovery of the silver coin hoard that was found in the estate house. Photographic credit: Assaf Peretz, Israel Antiquities Authority.

6. A coin of Antiochus VII against the background of the rest of the coins that were exposed  studio photograph: Clara Amit.

7. IAA archaeologist Jenny Marcus holding a chalk cup from the time of the Second Temple period which was discovered in the estate house. Photographic credit: Avraham Tendler.

8. Abraham Tendler, the excavation director, inside a hiding refuge that was connected to a ritual bath (miqwe) during the Bar Kochba uprising. Photographic credit: Assaf Peretz, courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

9. A short film clip in Hebrew. Photographic credit: EYECON, courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

10. A short film clip in English. Photographic credit: EYECON, courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
[PHOTOS IN EXTENDED ARTICLE]

Assemblyman Phil Goldfeder (D  Far Rockaway) announced that he will not seek a fourth term as assembly member for the 23rd District, bringing a close to a remarkable five-year tenure as one of the states brightest and most promising frum public officials.

Serving the families of Far Rockaway these last five years has been the greatest and most rewarding job of my entire life. My work as an elected official has always been guided by the desire to ensure a better future for my three children and for all our families, said Assemblyman Phil Goldfeder. I am grateful for the communitys strong partnership during this time as we worked together to make a great Kiddush Hashem.

In an announcement, Assemblyman Goldfeder declared that he intends to conclude his 3rd term in the Assembly and will not seek re-election. Goldfeder attributed his decision to the desire to spend more time with his growing family and less at the state capitol in Albany. Regarding any plans for the future, Goldfeder only reaffirmed his commitment to serving out the remainder of his term with the same energy and ambition that secured his place as a rising star in New York politics.

There are still six months of service that I owe the community. I intend to continue my work on behalf of our families and fight for the issues that matter most, said Goldfeder.

Since assuming office in a 2011 special election, Assemblyman Goldfeder has been the driving force behind countless issues both large and small in the Far Rockaway community. A graduate of Yeshiva Darchei Torah, Yeshiva of Far Rockaway and Brooklyn College, Goldfeder credited his public service to his parents example and to his early experiences as the one-time director of Mayor Michael Bloombergs Community Affairs Unit and his work as U.S. Senator Charles Schumers Director of Intergovernmental Affairs.

As a state legislator, Goldfeder scored an early victory when he fulfilled a campaign promise to institute a residency rebate program for the Cross Bay Bridge, securing funds in the state budget to refund tolls for residents of Broad Channel and Rockaway. This began a tenure marked by an unwavering dedication to the fight for better transportation for neighborhoods with some of the longest commute times in the entire city.

Goldfeders advocacy also extended to the issues that mattered most to Far Rockaways frum community. During each of his five years in the Assembly, Goldfeder fought for and succeeded in increasing funding to yeshivas with Comprehensive Attendance Policy (CAP) and Mandated Services Reimbursement (MSR). It was this dedication to funding for education in Far Rockaway that led Goldfeder to stand as one of the few democrats in the assembly to vote against the states 2015 budget bill when legislators failed to include the Education Investment Tax Credit (EITC). EITC, which receives overwhelming support among Jewish groups and the community, would provide parents with a tax credit for their childrens tuition costs at non-public schools. Additionally, Goldfeder secured the first ever state funding for non-public school security as part of the SAFE Act which passed in January of 2013.

Even as local concerns were the primary focus of his work, Goldfeder often found himself well outside the bounds of his assembly district and the halls of the state capitol as he fought on behalf of the Jewish community. In December, Goldfeder traveled to France with radio host Nachum Segal for a unity concert at the Grand Synagogue of Paris. The concert marked the 1st anniversary of attacks on a kosher supermarket in suburban Paris and came just weeks after the horrendous coordinated attacks in the French capital that killed 140 people. At the time, Goldfeder described the trip as a solidarity mission on behalf of Frances Jewish population and an effort to show support from New Yorkers all too familiar with the threat of Islamic terrorism.

But it was Goldfeders role in leading the communitys recovery from Superstorm Sandy in 2012 that best defined his work as an elected official. From his days spent living out of the 101st Precinct as he helped coordinate recovery efforts in the storms immediate aftermath; to his presence at every public meeting, ferry rally and vigil since, Goldfeder has always stood out.

When constituents called or visited relief sites to report storm debris on their block, Goldfeder was out on the street within the hour, shovel in hand. If a street cracked and needed repaving, Goldfeder brought out the Commissioner to see the problem for themselves. If the tide of rising flood insurance premiums threatened to price families out of the community, Goldfeder was at the U.S. Capitol drawing on his connections to Senator Schumer to urge action by federal officials and pitch his plan for a New York Flood Insurance Association as an alternative to the federal programs that failed so many after Sandy.

With his hands-on approach and boundless energy, Goldfeder brought a new level of accountability and approachability to the office. A reliable presence at community meetings, and even more responsive on social media, Goldfeder prided himself on answering every question and working to address every issue. For Goldfeder, this was always a matter of giving back to the community that meant so much to him.

Ive always said that I was born and raised in Far Rockaway, and my wife Esther and I are now raising our three young children here. This community has given so much to me and my family and I hope that in my public service, I was able to give something back, concluded Goldfeder.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said that NASA aims to reach Mars in the 2030s and that the space agency looks forward to working with Israel, whose incredibly innovative people on the cutting edge of technology can help NASA achieve this goal.

Addressing a packed auditorium at Bar-Ilan University, Bolden lectured on NASAs Journey to Mars. The University will award an honorary doctorate to the NASA Administrator.

Mr. Bolden said that nearly 250 experiments take place during each six-month expedition on the International Space Station, and during his visit he will be talking to representatives of the Israel Space Agency about participating in those experiments. We are excited about ongoing relations with the Israel Space Agency and what we can do together on the International Space Station, he said.

Bolden praised the increasing number of nations who have joined the global exploration endeavor. At one time, he said, nobody spoke of the possibility of reaching Mars because it was too expensive and too risky. But in relation to the results that will be achieved, the cost of such an endeavor is actually cheap, and that it is always risky when we leave our planet, the Administrator said.

Bolden added that NASA is excited at the prospect of reaching Mars because it puts us one step closer to finding out if were not alone, and Mars has shown signs of life at one time. We believe that life existed on Mars and was very similar to earth. At one time it had a magnetosphere, or a protective shell, like earth, but it has disappeared and were trying to discover why, he said.

Further looking toward the future, Bolden said that the Jupiter Near-polar Orbiter (JUNO), a NASA New Frontiers mission launched in 2011 and currently enroute to the planet Jupiter will finally enter Jupiters orbit this July 4th. Later this year, the OSIRIS-Rex mission will travel to a near-Earth asteroid and bring a small sample back to Earth to study. In 2018 the James Webb Space Telescope will be launched. This telescope will dwarf what we learned from the Hubble Space Telescope. Anything with heat will be detected by it, said Bolden.

Remembering the late Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon, in the presence of his wife, Rona, who attended the lecture, Administrator Bolden recalled how Ramon searched for and found his village in Israel during his trip to space then gained a global perspective in which we are all citizens of Earth. He told the audience that they should be very proud of Ramon.

In introducing Mr. Bolden to the packed audience, University President Rabbi Prof. Daniel Hershkowitz shared that he first met the NASA Administrator was six years ago, while he served as head of the Israel Space Agency. It is quite rare to meet someone with such a big personality. Charlie is one of the most sensitive and wonderful people I have ever met. In Yiddish, wed call him a mensch, said Prof. Hershkowitz. Hershkowitz added that Bolden began his 34-year career in the US Marine Corps as a pilot in the US Navy and later on became an astronaut who flew four times to space. Thats four times more than I did, Hershkowitz quipped. NASA, he continued, is the giant in space, and the space agency is privileged to have Bolden as its Administrator. Hershkowitz noted that Bolden will receive an honorary doctorate in the framework of the Universitys 61st annual meetings of the Board of Trustees. Charlie will receive an honorary doctorate tomorrow, but the honor is really ours, concluded President Hershkowitz.

Administrator Bolden said he is humbled by the thought of receiving an honorary doctorate from a fine institution like Bar-Ilan University and was blown away by all the wonderful research being conducted at the University which he saw during a tour of the campus last October.

Prior to the lecture Director General Menachem Greenblum hosted a reception for Bolden in the presence of NASA and Bar-Ilan University officials, former Israel Space Agency Director Aby Har-Even, and Rona Ramon.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
This time it is Shas and not Bayit Yehudi that has given an ultimatum to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu  to fire the newly-appointed Chairman of the Board of Channel 10 News, Rami Sadan, or Shas will not vote with the coalition. Sadan, a public relations person and Knesset lobbyist is known to maintain good ties with PM Netanyahu and Mrs. Netanyahu. He was also employed as a personal spokesman for Mrs. Netanyahu in the past.

Deri called on the Prime Minister on Tuesday, Rosh Chodesh Sivan, while Mr. Netanyahu is on a state visit in Russia. He is demanding the ousting of Sadan for his bigoted comments. Mr. Netanyahu is also Minister of Communications so the matter remains in his court.

Sadan has reportedly spoken out during a board meeting against Sephardim in general and the Shas party in particular. Earlier in the day, Deri spoke with Kol Chair Radio but would not comment as he had not confirmed the reports alleging Sadans bigoted remarks. However, later in the day Deris position changed, apparently after confirming the report attributed to Sadan.

A person present is quoted by Haaretz anonymously saying It was outrageous and embarrassing  things that wafted  the smell of authoritarianism, arrogance and racism. He added that Sadan also spoke out negatively about Deri. He is also quoted saying I hate the Shas party and Deri the thief.

Sadan denies the statements attributed to him, insisting certain person are obviously trying to create a rift between different religious factions and nothing more.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
Conveniently passing this political hot potato, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has sent a letter to Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, calling upon the ministry to assist in the matter of severely disabled Operation Protective Edge veteran Yehuda HaYisraeli of Yishuv Ofra. After close to two years of medical care and rehabilitation, HaYisraeli is ready to return home to Ofra but the Defense Ministry will not fund the renovations to accommodate him because the homes in Ofra are not legal despite the fact the community was establishment by Israeli governments. As a result, he cannot return home for the latter is not wheelchair accessible.

When the family realized it was up against a brick wall it turned to the tzibur to raise the required funds privately, and BH the public donated over NIS 1.3 million.

Mr. Netanyahu tells Lieberman that two weeks ago the Defense Ministry rejected the request to renovate the family home due to legal issues regarding the status of the home. Mr. Netanyahu cites the embarrassing situation in which a citizen who becomes disabled serving his country must seek private funding to accommodate his disabilities. Mr. Netanyahu explains Israel is duty-bound to assist the soldier at this time.

The Prime Minister calls on his newly-appointed Defense Minister to do what he can in light of the special circumstances in the case.

There are media reports that PM Netanyahu is trying to allocate NIS 1.5 million to the HaYisraeli family in addition to the money raised privately to assist the family but his hands are tied from a legal perspective so he is now turning to Lieberman to find a way to assist.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
The federal judge who has been criticized by presumed Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump for a ruling in a lawsuit involving Trump University is not a Mexican as Trump once suggested, but a native-born American whose immigrant father worked in a Northwest Indiana steel mill.

U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel was born in East Chicago, Indiana, and graduated from Indiana University before moving to California, where he was a federal prosecutor before his elevation to the bench.

Here are some things to know about Curiel:



BORN IN THE USA

Curiel is the youngest of four children born in the U.S. to Mexican immigrants who relocated to East Chicago for work in the steel mills.

Curiel graduated in 1971 from a Catholic high school in Hammond and completed his Indiana University law degree in 1979. He practiced law for several years in Dyer, a city in the northwest corner of Indiana about 30 miles south of Chicago, before leaving the state.

My parents were not wealthy, or well connected, or even educated, Curiel said during a 2014 commencement address at his alma matter, Indiana Universitys Maurer School of Law. My parents came to Indiana from Mexico 70 years ago with little more than a fourth-grade education and a belief that they could build a life for their family.



FEDERAL PROSECUTOR

As an assistant U.S. attorney in southern California, Curiel helped negotiate the extradition of Mexican drug traffickers to the U.S. and oversaw the prosecution that brought down the Arellano Felix drug cartel. At the time, Curiel received a death threat and was placed under protection of the U.S. marshals for a year, according to his friend Gregory Vega, a former U.S. attorney in the Southern District of California, who spoke of that ordeal in interviews with several other media outlets. His brother, Raul Curiel, has also spoken to media about the threat.

Curiel was appointed to the federal bench in 2012 by President Barack Obama. In 2006, then-California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, appointed Curiel to the Superior Court of San Diego.



CONTINUING TIES

Curiel is a decorated alumnus of IUs Maurer School of Law in Bloomington. In April, he was named an Academy of Law Alumni Fellow  the schools highest award  recognizing graduates who have distinguished themselves in their careers through personal achievements and dedication, according to the school.

Curiel also helped start a scholarship program named for his deceased brother Antonio, who also was a Maurer graduate.

During the 2014 commencement address, Curiel urged Maurer graduates to have civility and respect for those working with you and those opposing you.

Your reputation will be based as much on your legal ethics and civility as your work ethic and work product, he said, according to a transcript of the speech.

(AP)
Republicans controlling the Senate are abandoning an effort to use their power over the federal purse strings to block implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

The more pragmatic approach came Tuesday on a huge $164 billion spending measure and reflects a hope by top Republicans like Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky to remove veto bait from must-pass spending bills in hopes of advancing them more easily with Democratic support.

President Barack Obama has already vetoed separate legislation aimed at repealing the law, and he has easily kept language to defund Obamacare out of the final versions of annual funding bills.

Top bill sponsors Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., instead focused their efforts on boosting medical research, year-round Pell Grants for low-income college students, and a major boost in funding to treat opioid or heroin addicts.

The measure sailed through a Senate Appropriations panel Tuesday morning by voice vote and was the first time in seven years that the measure  which funds the departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education and is the largest of the domestic appropriations bills  has been drafted on a bipartisan basis.

The measure would increase health research funding at the National Institutes of Health by $2 billion to $34 billion; almost doubles, to $261 million, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention opioid abuse programs; and restores Pell Grants for summer school for an about 1 million students.

Blunt said year-round Pell Grants would help students stay on track for graduation, accelerate program completion by taking courses year-round, and, ultimately, enter or re-enter the workforce sooner and graduate with less debt.

Last year, Blunt inserted several policy riders aimed at curbing Obamacare, blocking a Labor Department fiduciary rule on retirement investment advice thats opposed by much of the financial services sector, and preventing the national labor Relations Board from streamlining votes to certify union representation. That measure advanced through the Appropriations Committee on a party line vote and was bundled into a year-end omnibus spending bill after the most controversial policy provisions were stripped out.

Murray praised the measure for not including any new policy riders that would have poisoned the bill.

Top Senate leader McConnell has been trying, with some success so far, to revive the moribund appropriations process in which both House and Senate are supposed to separately debate and amendment 12 annual spending bills funding the operating budgets of every federal agency. The Senate has passed three of the 12 bills, but the House has passed only a single measure.

(AP)


[COMMUNICATED CONTENT]

A new social trading platform has been taken over by an anonymous investor calling himself Superman704, making his followers incredible profits.

By Carly Davis

UK-Sipping on a half-finished Heineken while flipping through Facebook on his laptop, Leeds native Trent Crowdleys money is multiplying by the second. Its all thanks to a new social network that allows investors to copy the trades of highly successful financial analysts with no Broker or Middleman fees. Social trading lets users literally copy the trades of some of the best Forex traders out there. When I tell people that I trade for a living, they assume that I actually understand financial markets he jokes. But the truth is, I just deposit the money and let someone else much smarter than me make all the trading decisions (and money) for me.

Like many other profit seekers worldwide, Trent joined this fast-growing crowd of worldwide profit seekers on Trade 24s social trading network. Thanks to social trading, members of this social network are earning an extra income without even working an extra hour. This money-making potential has taken the internet by storm, but despite its raving success, it has some brokers on Wall Street quite concerned.

The Suits are Worried

The problem with social trading is that you dont know who is on the other side trading for you so its hard to know if he will actually make you money or not claims Greg Halsrom, a junior broker at a well-known investment firm in downtown Manhattan. Trent disagrees! Pointing to the list of traders to choose from, he shows how to research each traders success following the track record which is clearly displayed on the network for all to see. Pointing to one investor going by the alias Superman704, Crowdley notes this guy has a 96% success rate so I will latch onto his trades. Trent clicks on Superman704s impressive 3-year trade history which reveals generating some remarkable returns using a conservative risk level of 2.59/10 and a profit/loss ratio value of +69.49% to boot.

The Proof is in the Profits

Despite the fact that the mystery trader doesnt reveal his real name, the proof is in the profits. He just makes me money. It doesnt get any more transparent than that Trent quips. With just two clicks, Trent has entrusted a complete stranger to manage his initial 500 investment. He then exits out of the page to browse Facebook, YouTube and the Daily Mail for about fifteen minutes. Upon returning to the Online Exchange, Trent discovers that Superman704 made him 80 pounds in pure profit. Who else do you know makes 80 Quid in just 15 minutes? Crowdley asks with a stride of beaming confidence. And just for clicking on the mouse twice no less! Since Trent started using this system to trade online, he has been able to quit his day job and make a decent living from home.

Round-the- Clock Opportunities

Since the social network is based on a Forex platform, trades are placed roughly every 15 minutes in a 24 hour span. This means that the investor Crowdley selected (Superman704) gives him roughly 96 opportunities a day to make (or not make) money. Another reason this social trading network is pushing Wall Street brokers into an abyss of irrelevance is its wild success.

No background in finance needed

I barely graduated high school by the skin of my teeth he recalls. If you would have told me one year ago that Id be trading full time online, I would have recommended putting you in a mental institution. I was horrible at math in school and the very idea of trading in the Stock Market scared the wits out of me. One day, Crowdley was down on his luck and sick and tired of waiting tables at a local pub in his Seacroft neighborhood. It was then that he saw an ad online for Trade 24s Social Trading Network. The platform offers a simple means of trading in financial markets from virtually anywhere in the world with an internet connection.

Conclusion

Many on Wall Street are skeptical of this new online trading method with some claiming that those who have never traded before could be at a real disadvantage as they dont fully understand financial markets. Nonsense! Exclaims Crowdley Im the last person who should be trading and Ive made an excellent salary doing it from homein my PJs. He concludes with a few words of wisdom if I can do it, trust me-anyone can do it.

Carly Davis

The author is a boutique hedge fund manager overseeing $21 million in assets and is a regular contributor to various financial media outlets. Superman704 is the hottest name in the social trading arena with a success rate of +97%, maximum drawdown of only 12% with risk level of only 2.59/10. Trade24 has a special connection with the Jewish religious community and trades with a Heter Iska.

To visit Trade24 for more information, click here.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo nominates Lieutenant Colonel George Beach to serve as Superintendent of the New York State Police.

The search committee, established by the governor in April, also unanimously recommended Lt. Colonel Beach to serve as the next Superintendent.

Lt. Colonel Beach will replace Joseph DAmico who has served as superintendent of New York State Police since 2011. DAmico announced he was retiring in April.

Lt. Colonel Beach is supremely qualified to serve as superintendent of the New York State Police, Cuomo said in a statement. From serving as troop commander to staff inspector, Lt. Colonel Beach has led the State Police with tremendous courage, pride and honor. Lt. Colonel Beach has demonstrated unparalleled integrity throughout his 33-year career and he is truly one of New Yorks finest public servants. I congratulate Lt. Colonel Beach on his nomination, and I look forward to working together to protect and serve the people of New York State.

Lieutenant Colonel Beach is an experienced law enforcement professional with more than 30 years of expertise in crisis response, operational planning, emergency management and public policy.

(AP)
Voters in six states cast ballots in presidential primary contests Tuesday, but many were clearly looking ahead to the general election.

Voters in Democratic and Republican primaries told The Associated Press they have long been weighing and comparing candidates of both parties with an eye toward who would make the best general election candidate in November.

Hillary Clinton reached the 2,383 delegates needed to become the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee on the eve of Tuesdays voting, according to an AP tally. Her total is comprised of pledged delegates won in primaries and caucuses and superdelegates, the party officials and officeholders who can back a candidate of their choosing.

On the Republican side, Donald Trump has had the nomination locked up for weeks.

Tuesdays elections in New Jersey, California, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota and South Dakota featured a contest between Clinton, the former secretary of state, and Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is urging superdelegates to drop their support for Clinton, arguing he is a stronger candidate to take on Trump.

Here are some voters thoughts:

___

In San Diego, 82-year-old Harry Backer strolled past cyclists, skateboarders and kayakers on the way to vote for Clinton. The retired teacher, who also worked in construction, said America needs a level-headed, grounded woman with world experience.

Im left of Bernie Sanders, but I know that shes the candidate that can possibly get something done, Backer said.

He also wanted to be part of history in making Clinton the first woman to top the ticket of a major U.S. political party.

___

In Albuquerque, New Mexico, Lucy Demir voted for Sanders.

I like him because hes really honest, said Demir, 37. I think hes really direct, and I appreciate how he really is trying to stay on his side of the street. I actually think some of his ideals are kind of like utopic and hes probably not going to achieve them, but I like his character.

___

In Closter, New Jersey, an upscale suburb, Izabela Biel voted for Trump, saying his success as a businessman symbolizes the American dream for her. Biel came to the U.S. from Poland about 25 years ago, and she offered that even though he isnt the perfect candidate, she prefers him to the Democratic candidates, who want to make everybody equal.

I grew up in communism, said Biel, 46. Ive lived it, and I absolutely know that its proven that it doesnt work. You cant make everybody equal; that just doesnt exist in the real world.

___

Bob Burhenn, 82, a retired Sioux Falls, South Dakota, businessman, said he voted for Clinton because its time to put a woman in the nations highest office.

Men have been in charge long enough, Burhenn said. And theyre smarter than us, anyway.

Burhenn said he was once a Republican but changed party affiliations within the last 15 years. He said he was a big supporter of Bill Clintons presidency.

___

Paul Westendorf, a 53-year-old Sioux Falls resident who works in financial services, voted for Trump, though he wished he had other viable options. He said it was more about finding what I dislike the least.

Its hard to get a read on what he really stands for, and I think that some of that is intentional, Westendorf said.

Westendorf is strongly anti-abortion, and he said hes uncomfortable because he doesnt have a good sense of Trumps true stance on that issue. But he said Trump has the capability to surround himself with competent people and he hopes Trump can pull them together to build a great team.

___

In Helena, Montana, decorative painter Carmela Linguista had no hesitation about whom she was voting for: Hillary, Hillary, Hillary.

Hillary has pretty much devoted her life to the needs of women and children, Linguista said. I think her forte is on the world stage.

She also pulled few punches about Trump.

The man is insane. Hes a danger, she said. Hes not presidential material.

___

Glenda Winslow, a 59-year-old special education teacher, has voted in every presidential race since she was 18, but she had never been as disappointed in her options as she was Tuesday in Sonoma, California.

Im not happy with anybody, said Winslow, who voted for Republican Ben Carson despite knowing he would lose.

She said she couldnt bring herself to vote for Trump or Clinton.

I dont think they have good morals, she said.

___

In Kearney, New Jersey, a blue-collar community, Antonio Cunha voted for Sanders, saying the candidate focuses on issues important to regular people.

I like the idea of helping people afford college, whether its totally free or not, said Cunha, 32, who works for a civil engineering firm. Back in the day everybody got around with a high school education, but now I can see how much more people make in their careers if they have college degrees. And everybodys saddled with that debt, so that would be a big help.

___

In Montana, Sanders supporter Sonya Goes Ahead held out hope that he could still get the delegates needed before the primary.

The other candidates are not very truthful. They are in it for money, said Goes Ahead, who grew up on Montanas Crow Reservation and is studying education at Montana State University in Billings.

Sanders was the first presidential candidate to campaign in Montana, in early May, when he also met privately with American Indian leaders from the states reservations

He wants to help communities, help bring jobs to the reservation, the 24-year-old Goes Ahead said. Theres not many jobs in my home  just the schools.

(AP)
The United States has a concrete plan to deport a Jordanian-born Palestinian who put a bomb on a passenger flight in 1982, a government lawyer said Tuesday, arguing he should stay in custody until then because he remains a terrorist threat.

An attorney for Mohammed Rashed called the claim another in a long line of delay tactics by the government and argued for Rasheds immediate release from immigration custody, where he has been since finishing a prison sentence in early 2013.

Both sides want Rashed removed from the United States, the lawyers told U.S. District Judge Richard Arcara, who did not immediately rule on whether Rashed should remain locked up in the meantime. Rashed is being held at a federal detention facility outside Buffalo.

U.S. Department of Justice lawyer Christopher Dempsey said in court the Rashed case is absolutely a front-burner case.

The government is really prioritizing this case and has a concrete plan in place, he said.

He said a Department of State working group would focus for the next 30 days on long-running efforts to have Rashed sent to his stated destination of choice, the West Bank. If that falls through, officials would move to a Plan B with hopes of identifying five other options by the end of June, he said.

Rashed pleaded guilty in 2002 to setting off a bomb on Hawaii-bound Pan Am Flight 830, killing a Japanese teenager and injuring 15 other people. As part of the plea agreement, the government said it would work to deport Rashed to the country of his choice after he finished serving his sentence on murder and conspiracy charges.

But efforts to deport Rashed have stalled amid diplomatic complications. Dempsey said a Department of State official plans to raise the case during an upcoming visit to Israel, which controls access into and out of the territory.

Rasheds attorney Robert Tucker called the prolonged post-prison detention unconstitutional and said a Washington, D.C., halfway house where Rashed has support would be the perfect place for him.

Hes entitled to be released today, Tucker said. Hes been entitled to be released for a long, long time.

Rashed was not in court for the hearing.

Tucker asked the judge to require government updates on removal efforts every one or two months to ensure things move forward. He said freeing Rashed in the meantime would speed the process.

Dempsey said the directors of the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security have weighed in and, Theres just no way the government is comfortable with Mr. Rashed being out on the streets under any conditions.

Rashed was a top lieutenant to Abu Ibrahim, a Palestinian bomb maker who formed 15 May, a terrorist faction that took responsibility for several attacks in the 1980s. In 1982, Rashed, on a flight to Japan, tucked a bomb beneath a seat cushion, pulled the pin, engaged a timer and then disembarked when his flight landed in Tokyo. The device exploded as the plane continued on to Honolulu, killing the 16-year-old boy who sat in Rasheds seat on the flights next leg.

Rashed was arrested in Greece in 1988 and was prosecuted there. He was released in 1996 but was arrested in 1998 by U.S. authorities in another country and was sent to Washington for prosecution.

Besides the Pan Am bombing, Rashed has admitted involvement in four other bombings or attempted bombings, Dempsey said.

(AP)
The President of the NYC Correction Officers Union was arrested by the FBI early Wednesday morning.

Norman Seabrook was taken into custody at his Morris Park home without incident, according to the FBIs New York office.

According to multiple reports, his arrest grew out of an ongoing investigation into investments made with the unions pension money.

Allegations have been made that several high ranking law enforcement members had been accepting kickbacks from business owners.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara is expected to announce charges against Seabrook at a news conference this afternoon.

The FBI also arrested a hedge-fund financier who lives in Lawrence, NY.

The two are charged with one count of honest services wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud. They will appear Wednesday in federal court in Lower Manhattan.

The feds claim that Seabrook received kickbacks for funneling about $10 million from the unions pension fund to Platinum Partners, the Times reported.

(YWN World Headquarters  NYC)
Jerusalem Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Moshe Amar Shlita during an interview with Kikar Shabbos News expressed tenacious opposition to any and all deals with representatives of the Reform Movement.

The rav was interviewed on Tuesday evening 1 Sivan, after another day of provocation as the Women of the Wall hid a Sefer Torah under garments and smuggled it into the ezras noshim of the Kosel. Rav Amar stated that he spoke with Kosel Rav Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz Shlita and explained that even if gedolei yisrael feel some deal must be made with them, he personally remains opposed but will nevertheless comply with the wishes of the gedolim.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
Eli Adler, 54, is a resident of Elad and he works to reach out to chareidi youths whom have abandoned the beis medrash. He seeks to persuade them to consider entering one of the chareidi programs in the IDF and to begin weighing joining the work force towards getting a life other than hanging around. Adler serves as the director of the dropouts program for IDF Shachar program, working tirelessly to scoop up the youths who are in limbo  between beis medrash but not joining mainstream society.

Speaking with Walla News, Adler explains that his efforts are not applauded by all, and in fact, extremist chareidi elements as he describes them regularly threaten him and his family. His wife confirms that in the past two years she and the family have been targeted by those threatening them, also referring to the extremists in the chareidi camp.

While Adler explains he is not afraid, he questions why nothing is being done in response to the constant threats against him and his family.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
The main witness in the case against Rabbi Eliezer Berland Shlita, Itai Nachman Shalom, was once a close talmid of the rav but now, he has broken his silence and spoken with Walla News. During this interview he describes his personal Holocaust that has been his life as a result of the ravs actions. However, adds Shalom, there is no despair and he plans to tell his truth even at the cost of our lives he exclaims.

Today Shalom insists we will not rest and we will no longer remain silent, determined to bring the truth to light, highlighting Not with threats or physical violence. Everyone who harmed us  it is a big mitzvah for us [to seek justice].

After a journey to many countries since fleeing Israel in 2012, Rav Berland was arrested in South Africa two months ago. Now, it appears he will be extradited from Johannesburg to stand trial in Israel. The delay appears to be the Justice Minister has yet to sign the extradition order. In the interim, Rav Berland remains in custody.

The young former chossid of the rav was among those who waited outside his Betar Illit home for hours in the hope of seeing him engulfed in davening or limud. However, he now tells Walla that he saw the rav inside with a female (YWN omits the details from the Walla report) and these actions brought him to a crisis and doubting his emunah in HKBH. As the rumors of the report spread, police began a probe but during the interim, Rav Berland fled Israel and has been on the run since.

At present, four former female students have filed complaints with police, accusing the rav of assaulting them. There are other complaints addressing alleged attacks against chassidim by the rav. Shalom explains that in response to his exposing the rav, he receives death threats and has been assaulted. He has fled together with his family, having to leave Yerushalayim to relocate in Tzfat. He recounts that even on Rosh Hashanah at the tziyun of Rav Nachman in Uman he was recognized and assaulted.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
The latest allegations being made against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu allege that in 2001, French billionaire Arnaud Mimran gave Netanyahu over 1 million in campaign contributions. The Prime Ministers Office, which first denied the report, now states Mr. Netanyahu received $40,000. Mimran is currently standing trial in France for tax fraud. The origin of the report is the daily Haaretz, which alleges Mr. Netanyahu has maintained a long-time relationship with the billionaire and that he has been making use of an apartment owned by the family in Paris 16th Arrondissement.

Mimran was quoted by Israels Channel 10 News stating he gave Netanyahu 170,000, deposited into his personal bank account. Mr. Netanyahu has since explained the money was contributed to a fund he ran, not taken personally, and the sum was recorded as required by law. Mimran reportedly added that one cannot hide this for there are records of transactions and he gave $150,000, not $40,000 for public activities as the PMOs confirms. There were campaign contributions and money for public activities.

Mimran is denying the accuracy of the statements quoting him, insisting he never said he gave Netanyahu 1 million in 2001, adding at that time the currency was still the franc, not the euro. The equivalent of 1 million francs he explains is about 170,000. He adds Netanyahu did not run in the 2001 elections, an election that elected only the Prime Minister and not the Knesset. Ariel Sharon defeated Ehud Barak in that election. Mimran confirms he and Mr. Netanyahu have been friends for many years.

Maitre Schnerb, the lawyer for Arnaud Mimran, told the J. Post the statements made by PM Netanyahu are correct and it is possible his client erred during the interview with Channel 10 News last week. Mr. Schnerb is working with Channel 10 to clear up the matter.

The final version, the one given by PM Netanyahu and now supported by Mr. Mimran is that $40,000 was transferred to Mr. Netanyahu back in 2001 for public activities, and money was not placed into a private bank account.

In a somewhat related matter, the Israeli press did not miss an opportunity to embarrass itself, questioning Mr. Netanyahu about the alleged scandal during his joint press conference in Russia with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Mr. Netanyahu responded, but one could see the level of discomfort on the Russian leaders face as his guest was defending himself against a local scandal during this high-level diplomatic visit. Many feel that once again the Israeli media has shown it has long crossed the red-line of accepted norms, preferring to push diplomatic etiquette aside for the scoop.

In his response, PM Netanyahu stated this is part of the ongoing witch hunt against him and Mrs. Netanyahu, pointing out his opponents are now digging up events dating back to 2001 to discredit him.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
As he acclimates to his new responsibilities, newly-appointed Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman this week visited Israels northern border, accompanied by IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-General Gadi Eizenkott, Northern District Commander Major-General Aviv Kochavi and other senior division commanders.

Lieberman was briefed by the senior military officials, commenting he has a feeling of assurance after seeing the level of preparedness first hand. He sent a message to Israels neighbors, that Israel seeks calm but quickly added a warning, I do not recommend that anyone test us.

The senior minister upon conclusion of the visit commented he is confident the area is in good hands and the IDF is doing an exemplary job along the countrys northern border.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
Following the High Court of Justice ruling banning private hashgachos in place of the state kashrus, the Chief Rabbinate Kashrus Enforcement Unit inspectors on Tuesday afternoon 1 Sivan distributed final warning letters to stores with private kashrus such as Hashgacha Pratit.

The High Court has not outlawed private hashgachos but the latter may not operate without the Chief Rabbinate. The so-called badatz hashgachos continue to operate for they will not give certification if the business does not have kosher certification from the local religious council.

Often one only sees a badatz teudah hanging in a store for a store in a frum area feels it does not benefit from the regular rabbinate certificate but this does not mean he does not have one. The major badatzim will not take on a store until is has verified the latter has a teudat kashrut from the local religious council.

A store according to law must have kosher certification, regular or mehadrin, from the respective local religious council. Only then may a private badatz step in alongside a rabbinate certificate.

The Hashgacha Pratit organization headed by Rabbi Aaron Leibowitz, challenged the system by offering his services in place of the rabbinate, not alongside. Rabbi Leibowitz has explained for him, it is not about money, but he and others feel that the Jerusalem Rabbinate has long stopped doing what it should and too many mashgichim are no shows and they get paid a handsome fee nonetheless. Hence, they turned to Rabbi Leibowitz who decided to step in.

Chief Rabbinate Director-General Moshe Dagan on Tuesday morning 1 Sivan told Galei Tzahal (Army Radio) stores would be given a period of time to adapt to the courts decision but inspectors were out issuing final warnings that afternoon. The papers distributed by the inspectors also carried the courts ruling and warned if the restaurant fails to comply, legal action would follow.

Haaretz quotes officials from Rabbi Leibowitzs Hashgacha Pratit saying for now, it plans to continue providing kashrus supervision to its 27 clients, with another expected to join this week.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
[VIDEO, PHOTOS & EARLIER REPORTS IN EXTENDED ARTICLE]

10:30PM IL: The wounded terrorist is reportedly a resident of Hebron. Ichilov Hospital is reporting that he is currently in surgery.

At least one victim of the attack has been transported to Tel Hashomer Hospital. The victims condition is unknown.

Zaka reports that in addition to the three persons who were murdered RL, there is one victim in critical condition and three others in serious condition.

UPDATE 10:15PM IL: Zaka reports the critically wounded victim had been pronounced dead at Ichilov Hospital.

A Yarkon District police spokesman reports that the first call for shooting at the complex came in at 21:30. A number of people were wounded as a result, treated and transported to Ichilov Hospital from the scene. A few minutes later, additional calls came in for shooting in different areas. A large force was dispatched. The scene is now under control. Police continue to comb the area.

It appears police fear explosive devices may have been placed at the scene.

There are unconfirmed reports that a search is ongoing for another terrorist who may have fled the scene. what is certain is that a police chopper is operating in the area along with commando and SWAT teams.

UPDATE 10:11PM IL: Magen David Adom reports nine victims at this time with one in critical condition, five serious and three in moderate-to-light condition.

UPDATE 10:06PM IL: The following is based on the preliminary information available at the scene. One armed terrorist fired randomly as he ran through the complex. He either ran out of ammunition or his makeshift weapon jammed. While police continue to comb the complex, it does not appear likely that the attack was carried out by a single terrorist.

The terrorist is alive and in custody.

UPDATE 10:00PM IL: Police are still operating on the assumption that there is a shooter(s) in the area. The Sarona market area has not been secured and all persons are ordered to remain where they area as the area is being combed by police and specialized units.

The area is swarming with SWAT and commando forces as well as EMS units, with the latter being held at the perimeter as the shopping complex has not been secured.

A spokesman from Ichilov Hospital confirms nine victims are being treated and others are reportedly on the way.

One eyewitness to the attack reports that the terrorist continued shooting in all directions until he ran out of bullets and then ran.

UPDATE 9:57PM IL: Update from Ichilov Hospital. A total of nine victims. One victim is in critical condition, two serious and the others with various degrees of non-life-threatening injuries.

Ichilov is very close to the scene of the attack and it is unlikely that victims will be transported to other hospitals.

FIRST REPORT 8:35PM IL: At least nine people have been injured a short time ago at the Sarona Market complex in Tel Aviv in what appears to be a shooting attack. At least one person, believed to be the terrorist, has been neutralized.

Magen David Adom Chief of Operations Eli Bin confirms nine wounded, with at least one person in traumatic arrest.

Police seem to be confirming a number of other shooting incidents in the Sarona complex. Police are shutting the area down, calling on people to remain where they are and not to leave stores. It appears a number of people are in traumatic cardiac arrest.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem / Photos: Media Resource Group)
Police Commissioner Roni Alsheich arrived at the scene of the fatal shooting attack, Tel Avivs Sarona Market complex. Three persons have been murdered by terrorist gunfire in the attack. A number of others are wounded, some fighting for their lives.

Tel Aviv Police Chief Chico Edri in his statement to the media from the scene:

This was a serious terror attack involving two terrorists who fired in all directions. To our sorrow nine persons were wounded. One terrorist was neutralized and the second wounded.

There was no intelligence warning ahead of time of an attack planned for Tel Aviv. We do not believe there is another terrorist at large at this time. People are urged to resume their regular routine. This is what we know with certainty at this time, nothing else. Schools will open tomorrow as regular and if there is anything else to announce, the public will be informed.

Channel 10 News: Reports the two terrorists were dressed as chareidim appears to be false. It was reported that wore long black coats and fedoras.

Channel 2 TV News: Both terrorists are from Dura, in the Hebron district.

Update from Ichilov Hospital:

10:46PM IL: Chief of Emergency Medicine Prof. Pini Halprin reports a total of ten victims arrived in the hospital. Two were in critical condition and died a short time later. (Appears the 10th victim is a terrorist)

At present four victims and a terrorist remain in serious condition, all being treated, some in surgery. All five remain in life-threatening condition.

Two other victims are in lighter condition.

Shlomi Hagigi  Director of the Sarona Market:

The actual shooting was outside, not inside the complex. I commend the security personnel who prevented the terrorists from entering the shopping complex. Had the terrorists entered, the outcome would have been far more disastrous. The security personnel placed the lives of visitors to the complex before their own. The market is busy and safe, with about 18,000 to 20,000 people visiting on a regular weekday.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
Credit Suisse boss Tidjane Thiam, has 'lost the building'

Credit Suisse's princely boss Tidjane Thiam, 53, is facing revolt at the beleaguered investment bank, where it is reported he has 'lost the building'  management speak for losing employees' respect.

Such is their displeasure, morale-sapped traders now hiss whenever he appears on television.

Dashing, Ivory Coast-born Tidjane's tall and sleek appearance is offset by a 'blunt and domineering' style of management which has rankled staff, thousands of whom face the chop after the bank posted 344million losses.

As has his recent acquisition of a lavish 7million schloss on the banks of Lake Zurich.

JP Morgan's relaxed new dress code will provoke febrile claret spluttering among the old guard at the Queen's stockbrokers, Cazenoves, which merged with JP in 2009.

Blue-blooded partners at 'Caz' were resolutely fastidious about office attire. Upon arrival, languid young shavers were frostily informed: 'Shoes have laces, trousers have braces.'

The Bank of England's lustrous, Canadian-born governor Mark Carney, 51, has spent 133,276 on overseas jaunts in the past year, far more than donnish predecessor Lord King.

Officials say the discrepancy is due to the 'wider-ranging' powers held by the Bank of England since April 2013.

The ex-Goldman Sachs banker's salary is certainly wider-ranging. He was awarded a 880,000 remuneration package after dazzled George Osborne secured his services. Could the Chancellor find a perch at Goldman when he's out on his ear?

The decision to award brooding French trader Jerome Kerviel, 39, 350,000 for 'wrongful dismissal, despite losing Societe Generale 3.8billion in illicit trading bets, pricks the ears of the original 'rogue trader' Nick Leeson.

'If only I had a bank left to sue,' sighs the waggish jailbird, 49, whose 827million losses toppled Barings.

Singapore-based financial PR guru and bon viveur Piers Pottinger is featured in the new PR Week Power Book, a compilation of the most influential spin-doctors around the globe.

Convivial, racing-mad 'Potty', 62, whose turf accountant excitedly awaits his visit to Royal Ascot next week, does not appear to be taking the accolade entirely seriously.
Holidaymakers who buy travel insurance from price comparison websites are being pushed towards policies that are full of holes, a Money Mail investigation reveals today.

Our tests show that three in five of the cheapest deals listed on comparison sites leave holidaymakers exposed to huge bills if they suffer the most common travel mishaps.

Policies promoted as the 'best deals' typically contain stinging catches in the small print. Some pay out only a tiny amount if you suffer a serious injury abroad or if your bag is missing.

Caution: Holidaymakers who buy travel insurance from price comparison websites are being pushed towards policies that are full of holes

And holidaymakers who lose a ring on the beach or have their mobile phone stolen will find the cover almost worthless.

The findings raise concerns that vast numbers of people who shop around for cheap insurance this summer risk being stranded abroad with huge bills.

Our investigation found policies that will:

Make you pay the first 500 of medical bills yourself.

Offer just 150 to replace a stolen 2,000 engagement ring.

Leave a family of four facing a 1,200 bill for a ruined trip to Florida.

Refuse to help elderly couples if they suffer a nasty accident in Spain.

Block claims for injuries caused by common activities such as snorkelling.

Pay just 10 to compensate for a 12-hour flight delay.

Some 18 million travel insurance policies are sold every year and around 50,000 claims are rejected, industry figures obtained by Money Mail show. This is often because the policy failed to live up to expectations, say experts.

James Daley, founder of consumer website Fairer Finance, says: 'Comparison sites need to work harder to help customers make their decision. Insurers have whittled down the prices, but there is enormous variation in the level of cover offered.'

We searched all the major comparison websites - moneysupermarket.com, gocompare.com, comparethemarket.com and confused.com - for cover for four holidays this summer: a family of four visiting Florida or Tuscany and an older couple travelling to Spain or New York for two weeks.

Pathetic payouts for lost jewellery

With some cheap policies, making a claim is hardly worth it because there is an enormous excess - and a tiny payout.

AVOID CAR COVER RIP-OFFS Buying hire car insurance at the last minute is nearly always a ripoff. You can pay ten times more than if youd bought it before the holiday. Standard car insurance comes with excesses of around 2,000 if you crash. Many car hire companies offer insurance at the pick-up desk, which they say covers any excess above the 2,000. But these deals can be hugely over-priced, costing up to 25 a day. The same cover can cost as little as 2 a day from a UK insurer if you buy before you go. Thats a saving of more than 300 over a two-week holiday. Companies that offer excess insurance at reasonable prices include icarhireinsurance.com, carhireexcess.co.uk and the AA.

You need to pay the excess fee before your insurer will step in to cover the claim.

When we searched gocompare.com for a family of four going to Tuscany for two weeks, Big Blue Cover's economy policy was ranked fifth cheapest, costing 11.10.

It pays out a maximum of 100 for lost or stolen valuables and 100 if you miss your flight.

But to see either of these paltry payouts you have to first stump up 175. So, you can forget claiming for valuables worth less than this.

If you are claiming for a laptop computer worth 1,000, the first 175 of this is your responsibility.

The insurer will pay the next 100, but it won't offer a penny towards the remaining 725 cost.

Cheaper.travel insurance.co.uk seems to live up to its name - its bronze policy costs 29.61 for a family of four spending a fortnight in Florida and is ranked the second cheapest on the website moneysupermarket.com.

But a closer look throws up some nasty surprises. Lose a wedding ring or another piece of jewellery on the beach and the most you will receive is 150. There is also a 250 excess.

So, if you claim for a 2,000 engagement ring, you have to pay the first 250. The insurer will pay 150 of the remaining cost, taking the total to 400. But you'd be on the hook for the remaining 1,600.

The insurer is paying only 7.5 per cent of your bill

Puffin Insurance consistently tops the charts of many comparison sites, offering bargain deals such as 35.10 for a couple heading to New York.

Its cheapest bronze policy will pay out 150 if you lose your passport - but there is a 200 excess.

InsureandGo's popular Light Economy policy, fourth cheapest on gocompare.com, is a snip at 41.09 for the same holiday.

It pays 300 for lost or stolen personal money and a maximum of 750 for lost or stolen baggage. But there is a 200 excess for each of these claims - meaning in reality the amount you get back is far less.

Lose every penny if you miss your flight

Hours of hanging around in an airport for a delayed flight is a miserable start to any holiday.

Many travellers take some small comfort in knowing their insurance policy will compensate them.

But many of the cheaper deals promoted by price comparison sites offer nothing. And others use sneaky small print to deny payouts.

Standard cover with insuratrip.com costs 33.66 for a couple in their 70s travelling to Spain. It shows up first on moneysupermarket.com, but does not cover delays or an airline going bust. Flexicover's 41.80 economy policy won't pay out anything at all if your trip is delayed or you miss your departure.

The policy was offered to a family of four on a trip of a lifetime to Disney World in Florida - meaning they would lose every penny of the cost of the trip, likely to be thousands of pounds, if they missed their flight.

If a holiday is cancelled or curtailed, customers can claim 1,000 each, but there is a 250 excess per person.

Other firms just pay paltry amounts: alphatravelinsurance.co.uk offers a deal at 29.68 and comes up second on moneysupermarket.com.

It pays 10 for every 12 hours you are delayed up to a maximum of 150. And there are catches: if you wait 11 hours or the delay is caused by your flight being diverted after its departure, you won't get a penny.

If you are forced to cancel a holiday due to illness, some policies offer small amounts that will cover only a fraction of the trip.

Thomas Cook's 32.15 policy pays up to 500 per person for a cancelled holiday  and there is a 190 excess on top. The policy was being offered as one of the top deals for a family of four heading to Florida on travelsupermarket.com.

A 14-night trip to the Crowne Plaza hotel in Orlando, including flights, is 813 per person on lastminute.com. So, the payout will not cover the full 3,252 cost of a ruined family holiday.

Stranded abroad on a hospital bed

Most people's biggest fear when going abroad is falling ill or suffering an accident and being stranded

Most people's biggest fear when going abroad is falling ill or suffering an accident and being stranded.

All the policies we saw covered at least 10 million of medical bills.

However, the small print of all goodtogoinsurance.com's silver deals state that you must cover the first 500 of costs yourself.

Some firms force you to pay the first 250 of a claim even if you have a European Health Insurance Card, which is supposed to reduce the cost to the insurer of your treatment.

Other deals, including InsureandGo's Light deal, refuse to cover you if you've been diagnosed with high blood pressure and haven't declared it and then suffer an illness believed to be linked to your condition.

No one likes to think about it, but every year thousands of holiday- makers are seriously injured or killed in terrible accidents while abroad.

Good policies pay out tens of thousands of pounds under their personal accident clause if someone is badly injured, disabled or killed.

But some cheaper deals pushed by price comparison websites offer nothing - or at best a paltry sum.

Travelinsurance.co.uk's Super Saver policy costs 34.58 for a family of four heading to Florida. But there's no cover for serious injury, deemed to be loss of sight or an accident that causes permanent disability.

Insuratrip.com's standard policy, which costs 36.80 for a couple in their 60s heading to Spain, has the same exclusion.

Other policies pay out relatively low amounts - typically 5,000 for adults who are made totally disabled and just 1,000 for a child under 18.

In some cases, insurers also pay out less to adults over the age of 75. And if your loved one's body needs to be flown home, some insurers give only a set amount.

Sneaky catches if you lose your cash

If your items are lost or stolen on holiday or your baggage is delayed, recouping the cost from a travel insurer should be straightforward.

But many of the cheaper deals cover only a fraction of the value of an item. They offer headline-grabbing payouts but often anything classed as a valuable - for instance, smartphones, jewellery or laptops - is limited to a tiny amount nowhere near the value of the item.

Insuratrip.com's standard cover offered to a couple in their 70s heading to Spain will pay 100. Claims for valuables under Big Blue Cover's economy policy are also limited to this sum. But a new smartphone can cost around 600, while an iPad is 499.

If your items are lost or stolen on holiday or your baggage is delayed, recouping the cost from a travel insurer should be straightforward. But many of the cheaper deals cover only a fraction of the value of an item

Cheaper.travelinsurance.co.uk's bronze policy will pay out 250 in total per person for lost and stolen money. But just 150 of this can be cash - not cards - and if your money goes missing on a beach, you are limited to 50.

Puffin Insurance will pay out 250 for personal money with its bronze policy, but there's a 200 excess.

CUT YOUR TRAVEL MONEY COSTS Most credit and debit cards will charge hefty fees of around 3 per cent for foreign transactions, with extra charges for withdrawing cash abroad. There are several current accounts and credit cards which offer reduced fees or waive overseas charges altogether. If you would rather not change banks, currency cards offer holidaymakers the chance to load up a card with money to spend while they are away and potentially benefit from lower rates. Travellers should make sure these rates are better than their bank and check all the small print but typically these cards offer highly competitive exchange rates plus zero exchange rate fees. You can find out more about how these cards can help you save money and where to find the best deals in our roundup here. FairFX is also offering This is Money and MailOnline readers a free MasterCard prepaid card, which usually costs 9.95. By Emma Gunn

This means there's no point claiming for anything less than 200. If you've taken a lot of cash - as many did during the height of the Greek debt crisis last year, when cash machines closed - you may find only a small portion of it is covered.

Claiming a payout poses a further challenge. Some firms add sneaky loopholes - for instance, alpha travelinsurance.co.uk will pay a maximum of just 50 for items stolen next to a lido.

Items are considered unattended and are therefore not covered if they are not on your person or kept in a locked car boot in daylight hours.

When snorkelling voids your cover

All sorts of companies, from airlines to ferries and credit card providers, flog cheap travel insurance.

But industry analysis covering the whole insurance market reveals that there are vast differences in what policies cover.

Most deals insure travellers up to the age of 75 or even 80. But we discovered 64 policies with an upper age limit of 60.

And hidden in the small print are lists of common holiday activities for which you don't have any protection at all - even if they are not that adventurous.

Hidden in the small print of many deals are lists of common holiday activities such as snorkelling for which you don't have any protection at all

We discovered four policies that won't pay out if you're injured snorkelling and another 153 won't give you any cash for claims involving banana boating - where you ride on an inflatable raft pulled by a speedboat.

And if you fancy topping off your trip with a sedate flight in a hot air balloon - beware. We found 31 policies - largely sold by airlines and credit card providers - that won't cover you if something goes wrong.

Other deals have tough restrictions around cancelling your trip.

The majority will give you a refund if you are made redundant and can no longer afford to go. But 13 of the budget options will not.

Most firms will also refund members of the Armed Forces who have to cancel their trip because they have been called into action.

But we discovered that 148 travel insurance policies refuse to pay out in these circumstances.

Here's what the insurers had to say

A Flexicover spokesman says: 'Policy wordings are clearly laid out so a customer can make an informed choice before purchase.'

Alphatravelinsurance.co. uk says: 'We use excesses to reduce the premium that a customer pays.'

An insuratrip.com spokesman says: 'We would always strongly recommend that customers read the policy wording before purchase to ensure an insurance policy meets their needs.'

Puffin Insurance managing director James Clarke says: 'If you buy products with more comprehensive coverage at a higher premium, then the excesses are far lower.'

InsureandGo insurance services, the firm behind cheaper.travel insurance.co.uk, travelinsurance.co.uk and InsureandGo Light, declined to comment.

Kevin Pratt, consumer affairs expert at moneysupermarket.com, says: 'If you want a higher level of insurance for your belongings, including gadgets, you need to shop around for the right cover, and it might cost a bit more.'

A gocompare.com spokesman says: 'Along with the premium, we clearly display medical, cancellation and baggage cover levels and excesses, as well as star ratings from independent financial researcher Defaqto.'

A comparethemarket.com spokesman says: 'While products are initially ranked by price, we also highlight the quality of each policy in order to help our customers make the most suitable choice for them.

'Customers can filter products by their Defaqto star rating as well as limits and excesses.'
A rogue trader who lost billions in one of the biggest trading scandals in history was unfairly dismissed, a court has ruled.

Jerome Kerviel was fired by Societe Generale in 2008 and jailed after racking up a record trading loss of 3.8billion at the bank.

But yesterday the Frenchman won a claim for unfair dismissal at an employment tribunal in Paris  and 350,000 in damages from Societe Generale, including a 234,000 bonus for his work in 2007.

Jerome Kerviel was fired by Societe Generale in 2008 and jailed after racking up a record trading loss of 3.8billion at the bank

The court ruled that Kerviel, 39, had been fired without genuine or serious cause despite bringing the bank to its knees.

It said the bank had known about Kerviels dodgy trades long before he was shown the door, adding that he was dismissed not for his actions but for their consequences.

Societe Generale cant pretend it was not aware of Jerome Kerviels fake operations, said Judge Hugues Cambournac.

The bank said it will appeal the ruling. Its a scandalous decision, said Arnaud Chaulet, one of its lawyers.

But Kerviels lawyer, David Koubbi, said the ruling tore apart the story which Societe Generale has presented from the beginning.

While Societe Generale has sought to pin the blame for the losses entirely on Kerviel, the former trader has claimed his bosses were happy to turn a blind eye so long as his trades were profitable.

A senior Societe Generale executive said during the trial: Jerome Kerviel is not Robin Hood. Jerome Kerviel is the trader who lost the largest amount of money in the world.

The bank lost 3.8billion in a matter of days in January 2008 as it rushed to close out 39billion of trading positions taken by Kerviel.
Ocado was one of the biggest fallers as investors got to grips with a trolley full of supermarket news.

Sainsbury's trading today is expected to reveal the retailer is under increasing pressure from a growing consumer trend towards convenience stores and a rise of online rivals.

Data from Kantar Worldpanel shows Sainsbury's sales have declined 1.2 per cent while its market share has fallen to 16.2 per cent as discount retailers Aldi and Lidl continue to gain popularity.

And like Ocado it is facing upheaval from the threats posed by the rise of online shopping  with the market awash with rumours in recent months that Amazon may soon be able to stake its claim for a slice of business.

Ocado was one of the biggest fallers as investors got to grips with a trolley full of supermarket news

Ocado fell back 3.7 per cent, or 9.9p, to 259.4p. Sainsbury's shares fell 0.4 per cent, or 0.9p, to 246.7p.

Residential lettings franchise Belvoir moved up the ladder after it announced the acquisition of Northwood.

The purchase of the group will make Belvoir the largest property franchise group in the UK, with a total of 301 outlets.

Belvoir is initially paying 11.5million for Northwood, but that figure could rise to 22million over the next two years.

The acquisition of Northwood's 86 outlets will bring the number of properties Belvoir has under management up to 54,000. Belvoir will part-fund the purchase through a share placing of 2.5million.

Some 6million of the purchase will come from new bank loans. Last year Aim-listed Belvoir bought two franchise groups, Newton Fallowell and Goodchilds. Belvoir shares jumped 3.8 per cent, or 4.5p, to 121.5p.

Equipment rental company VP ratcheted up after it published its final results. Profit before tax climbed 11 per cent to 29.8million in the year ended March 31.

Investors are set for a total dividend pay-out of 18.85p for the year, up 14 per cent on last year's. VP says it is entering the new financial year in good shape and more progress should be made in the coming year, particularly after two UK acquisitions in recent months.

The firm also purchased TR Pty, an audio visual equipment rentals firm which operates in Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia, back in April. Shares advanced 3.2 per cent, or 22.5p to 732.5p.

The FTSE 100 ticked up just 0.18 per cent, or 11.13 points to 6284.53 yesterday.

Shell was the biggest climber of the day, gaining 3.1 per cent, or 52.5p to 1754.5p as the oil price crossed $51 a barrel for the first time in six months.

Evraz advanced 10.2 per cent, or 11.8p to 127.3p, making it the highest riser of the day. Antofagasta eased off 2.2 per cent, or 9.9p to 440.1p though after the previous day's steep gains.

Architecture and interior design firm Aukett Swanke sunk on a disappointing update. While revenues had climbed 9 per cent to 10million in the six months to the end of March, profit before tax had almost halved compared to the same period last year, from 815,000 to 417,000.

The interim dividend of 0.07p a share is down more than a third on the 0.11p paid out in 2015, while earnings per share have fallen from 0.43p to 0.17p.

Chief executive Nicholas Thompson said the EU referendum had impacted results and was likely to do so for the full financial year. Shares fell 18 per cent, or 1.12p, to 5.12p.

SyQic provides live TV and on-demand video content on mobile phones and the internet through its Korean Cool2vu video streaming website and Yoomob video app and website.

In April it revealed it was in discussions with Hong-Kong firm MMV Investments and its own chief executive Jamal Hassim about being acquired.

SyQic had suspended its shares from trading on the Aim market just two days before, following a trading update in which it said an announcement was pending.

MMV and Hassim were given until May 18 to make an offer or retract its interest. As the date arrived, an extension until June 7 was granted.

Yesterday SyQic said the pair would have until June 21 to make an offer. A year ago SyQic's shares were 47.6p. Yesterday they slid 10.8 per cent, or 2p, to 16.5p.

Mountfield Group fits out data centres for IT firms and refurbishes commercial office buildings, hospitals and education facilities.

In its annual results the group reported it had moved back into the black, with operating profit up to 203,895, bolstered by its Connaught Access Flooring arm.
AO World saw losses widen last year despite rising sales as it continues to feel the impact of investments in Germany and the Netherlands.

The group, which sells washing machines and other appliances online, said pre-tax losses rose to 6.7million in the year to the end of March from 2.9million the previous year.

It comes on the back of losses of 20.3million at its European arm, up from 11.6million in the previous year.

Spin: Losses widened at the group because of investment in Europe, but AO's UK arm saw profits rise

AO said this reflected investment and trading losses incurred in Germany and start-up costs in other European territories.

However, the groups UK arm posted a good performance, with full-year profits rising to 13.6million from 8.7million. And total revenue for the year grew 25.7 per cent to 599.2million, with the firm forecasting that its launch into computing will drive sales further.

Chief executive John Roberts said: We are growing the business as fast as we can safely, expanding in our chosen categories and countries, whilst keeping a tight grip on our culture.

Computing is a natural extension of our current categories and there is good potential for cross-selling to our existing customer base, making it an exciting opportunity for the business.

FTSE-250 listed AO floated on the London Stock Exchange in February last year at 285p. Today its shares were down 1.47 per cent, or 2.45p, at 164.65p in morning trading.

Reiterating what it had already announced in its pre-closing announcement , AO said its operation on the continent would focus on finding efficiencies until a distribution centre opened in Bergheim, Germany, later this year.

AO also announced it had appointed Geoff Cooper, currently at Card Factory, as its new chairman, replacing Richard Rose, who will leave the group after eight years.

Rose is set to step down next month when the company holds its annual general meeting.

Looking ahead, the group said it was confident and expected revenues in Europe to come in between 90million-110million (77million), below some analysts' expectations.

Whilst we are mindful of the recent softening of UK consumer confidence and the recent reduction in property transactions, and in Europe we are in still in a start-up phase, the Board remains confident in the long-term prospects of the Group, AO said in a statement.

Analysts at Numis said that, despite the results, they remained confident about its long-term prospects.

'While disappointing to be lowering numbers, the rationale is clear  AO is choosing not to push aggressive growth while 1) product margin from certain suppliers, while progressing, is not yet at the right level, 2) capacity and efficiency from the new Bergheim DC will not be fully operational until Autumn', they said.
Leading MPs have called for an investigation into risky websites that lend savers cash to strangers.

Money Mail has revealed how peer-to-peer firms are offering savers 7 per cent returns - then bundling their cash into enormous unsecured loans.

In some cases, they are issuing loans up to 261,250 for cars and home improvements.

Risky? Zopa has revealed it will offer loans to people buying mobile phones

In the past few weeks, Zopa, the pioneer of this type of website, has revealed it will offer loans to people buying mobile phones.

Peer-to-peer deals are risky because investors money can be lost if the deal goes sour.

The Treasury Select Committee is concerned that savers may not realise the dangers.

Its chairman, Andrew Tyrie, has written to the chief executive of the City regulator asking it to consider stricter rules on peer-to-peer.

Savers sick of paltry High Street rates have been pouring 9million a day into these sites. That is set to soar as they can now be classed as Isas, meaning the interest earned is tax-free.

Mr Tyries letter, which follows our expose, warns that unsecured loans require closer scrutiny by the Financial Conduct Authority.

It says: To what extent investors would benefit from stronger consumer protection needs careful thought.
Threat: Cases of phone banking fraud doubled to 11,380 last year

Criminals are exploiting banks weak telephone security checks in order to pose as elderly customers and steal their savings.

Cases of phone banking fraud doubled to 11,380 last year, costing banks and victims 32.3 million, according to Fraud Action UK.

It registered 5,778 fraud cases in 2014, costing 16.8 million in total.

The scam typically starts with fraudsters tricking victims into sharing sensitive details by pretending to be bank staff.

Once theyve got these details they call the victims bank and pose as the customer.

Answering basic security questions such as the mothers maiden name and password can be enough to allow the criminals to transfer vast sums out of the victims account and into their own.

Experts say scammers have started targeting phone banking fraud because its easier than breaking through online security systems.
Introduction: Robin Saunders brought in bankrupt businessman Paul Sutton to meet Sir Philip Green

A top banker once dubbed the Queen of the City admitted introducing Sir Philip Green to a convicted fraudster  in a move which effectively paved the way for BHS to be sold for 1.

Robin Saunders, who made her name at German bank WestLB in the early 2000s and was once worth 350million, brought in bankrupt businessman Paul Sutton to meet Green after learning he wanted to sell the 88-year-old chain.

It was this meeting that is thought, in turn, to have opened the door for Dominic Chappell  an acquaintance of Suttons  to make his successful bid for BHS in March last year.

Saunders, an American born financier, yesterday confessed to MPs her role in the collapse of BHS.

This morning the same committee will hear from Chappell, who makes his first public appearance since the department store went bust in April.

Saunders, 54 today, is a long-time business acquaintance of Green and helped him raise funds to buy BHS in 2000 and dealt with Sutton for five months before discovering his background.

Sutton is reported to have previously been sentenced to three years in prison after being found guilty in his absence of embezzlement in France in 2002.

Saunders told MPs although her team had completed a check on Sutton they had only found two disputes but nothing serious and said: If we had known about his past we would have made different choices.

She said she was under the impression he had capital, enormous deal experience and that he was a charismatic character.

As a high-flyer in the City in 2002, she hosted a three-day event costing 400,000 for her 40th birthday in Florence.

But her career has not always run smoothly and she quit WestLB when the bank was forced to make write-offs for the deal she had done for TV rental firm BoxClever that went into administration.

She worked closely with Green over a decade ago and sat on the BHS board. Saunders ended her involvement with Green and BHS in 2003 but continued to see him on social occasions, perhaps once a year.

However, they had begun to speak more regularly in recent weeks in the run up to the hearings and she said he had wished her luck at the hearing.

The Work and Pensions and Business Select Committees have been investigating the protagonists involved in BHS and its sale to Chappell.

The chain fell into administration in April risking 11,000 jobs while its pension fund has a 571million black hole.

Saunders said she met Sutton in late January 2013 and held casual discussions before introducing Green to Sutton in mid-April. She ended her discussions by June.

Green continued speaking to Sutton until March 2014 and according to advisor River Rock Sutton attended a meeting with Chappell in October 2014 about buying BHS.

Chappell and Sutton were known to be business associates. However, on finding information about Suttons past, Green asked for, and was given, assurances by Chappell that Sutton was no longer involved.
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By Madina Toure

Some 40 southeast Queens residents learned about everything from the history of voting rights to voting trends in the borough at a voter education forum sponsored by state Sen. James Sanders (D-South Ozone Park).

The forum, held at Calvary Baptist Church in Jamaica May 26, featured presentations and a panel discussion with Steven Romalewski, director of CUNY Mapping Service; Carmen Dixon, educator and organizer for the New York City Chapter of Black Lives Matter; Michael Higgins, Jr., organizer for Families United for Racial and Economic Equality; and Lurie Daniel Favors, general counsel for the Center for Law and Social Justice.

In an interview with TimesLedger, Sanders said he wants his district, which includes Richmond Hill, South Ozone Park, and South Jamaica, to be the starting point of a national conversation about getting people more involved in the democratic process.

Let this district become known as the most thought-provoking thinking district that we have in New York City, he said. Im prepared to accept a challenge, of course, that no one is fully worthy of, of standing up for democracy. And I believe this will re-engage the people.

Chiedu Uzoigwe, Sanders constituent liaison for South Jamaica, who led and represented him at the forum, echoed similar sentiments.

We want to re-engage the subject of voting and why it is so important and why we are not doing enough to make sure that everyone is given the equal right to vote, Uzoigwe said.

Romalewski, who showed maps featuring voter patterns, said most New Yorkers are Democrats and noted that registered Republicans are mainly concentrated in Staten Island, southern Brooklyn and parts of Queens, though not in southeast Queens.

Registration patterns and voting patterns also tend to always follow predominantly race and ethnicity patterns, he said.

Dixon emphasized the importance of other types of civic engagement, arguing that not everyone who votes is part of the democratic process.

We are not in a democracy, she said. We are in an oligarchy.

Favors said that in the 200 years before African-American people gained the right to vote, the system has been crafted in a way that excludes them.

It was intentionally designed so we would never get the right to vote, she said.

Higgins chronicled the history of voting rights, including the colonial era when only Caucasian men who owned property, including slaves, could vote, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and present-day issues, such as voter suppression laws throughout the South.

Guest panelist Onida Coward Mayers, director of voter assistance with NYC Votes, a program of the city Campaign Finance Board, discussed the agencys Voter Day program where they take members of the public to Albany to speak to legislators.

Rosedale resident Dr. Linda Guillebeaux, 50, yelled during the Q&A session about the 126,000 voters taken off the rolls in the April 19 New York primary.

Im appalled, Guillebeaux exclaimed. That was criminal. St. Albans resident Samantha Brown Menjivar, 40, whose 5-year-old son attends PS 360, said students should be learning about voting and civic engagement in school.

In my opinion, its a matter of us as a community to build those grassroots from (the age of) 5 and 6, Menjivar said.

(Chiedu Uzoigwe is Sanders constituent liaison for South Jamaica, not his chief of staff, and Sanders district does not include Cambria Heights.)
John Fetterman and Dr. Oz debate: Takeaways from close Pa. Senate race

Senate candidates John Fetterman and Mehmet Oz squared off Tuesday evening in the first and only debate of their hotly contested race.
Contributed photo Chisholm Trail Heritage Center in Duncan, Okla., will feature an exhibit of photographs by Kelli Brown, who operates the 121-year-old R.A. Brown Ranch with her husband, Donnell. The images capture the lives of the ranch's cowboys and cowgirls. A reception runs from 4:30-6:30 p.m. Thursday.

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By Chisholm Trail Heritage Center

DUNCAN, Okla.  Chisholm Trail Heritage Center's latest exhibit features images of life on one of Texas' oldest ranches  the R.A. Brown Ranch. The photographs are by co-owner Kelli Brown, who operates the 121-year-old estate with her husband, Donnell.

An opening reception runs from 4:30-6:30 p.m. Thursday at the center.

"We are glad to have her work exhibited here this summer. Executive Director Stacy Cramer Moore met Kelli at a trade show in Texas about a year ago and knew she'd be a great artist to bring in, especially with our theme of the American Cowgirl for the summer education programming," CTHC Public Relations and Marketing Coordinator Toni Hopper said.

Brown was a Nebraska farm girl who got involved with FFA in eighth grade. She rose to become the national FFA president but didn't stop there. After a transfer to Oklahoma State University, and some twists and turns  including meeting Donnell Brown, son of Peggy and Rob Brown of the historic R.A. Brown Ranch in Throckmorton  chapters in her life became even more interesting. She and Donnell married, and her leadership roles didn't just include the title of mom. She served six years on the Red Angus Association of America board of directors, sat on various RAAA committees and even represented the organization on its Genetic Performance Solutions board of directors. In 2008, the RAAA elected her as president.

Brown has participated in eight photography workshops by David R. Stoecklein, considered the master at storytelling imagery of the cowboy lifestyle.

Brown told CTHC, "As a wife, mother, owner and a worker on this particular ranch, those pictures, those images are a big part of what we're able to share because of how we make our living in the bull business. They aren't sitting on my computer. We are able to use them to market our work here."

She said she is proud of the dedication her husband puts into the family legacy, creating a stronger future for more generations of Browns. They are the fifth generation, and their sons  the sixth  are just as dedicated to the heritage.

"He (Donnell) won't tell you, I will, and others will tell you, we have some of the finest stock here because of his work. We use all state-of-the-art tools to build better beef, from embryo transfer to feed efficiency testing. Everything we do, for us and our employees, is making a more predictable product. We have Angus, Red Angus and Sim-Angus and Quarter Horses."

Brown, the marketing manager, isn't bragging when she talks about the ranch or the stock. The ranch sells bulls twice a year  this year was the first year for a spring show. Each October, between 800 to 1,000 bulls are sold to customers in 39 states.

"Red Angus is the largest growing beef breed in the country," Brown said.

The exhibit, which will run through Aug. 12, features the ranch's history and awards and includes magazine features.

"Kelli will only be in Duncan to visit with the public on June 9, so we encourage everyone who is interested to attend the open reception for her. It's a chance for our members and the public to really visit and get to know the artist and learn more about her work and the ranch," Moore said.

Admission to the center includes access to the exhibit. Brown's images are also available for purchase.

Chisholm Trail Heritage Center is at 1000 Chisholm Trail Parkway. Hours are from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 1-5 p.m. Sunday. Information: 580-252-6692.
Lauren Roberts/Times Record News file photo Elijah and Isaiah Viramontes and volunteer Jane McGough touch a giant African millipede at Bug Fest at the River Bend Nature Center in 2015. This year's event will be June 17.

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Bug Fest returns to River Bend June 17

All things wriggly and jiggly will invade River Bend Nature Center June 17 during Bug Fest.

From 6-9 p.m., children and their families can gawk at a 10-inch millipede and look a tarantula right in its eight eyes. Participants will learn about the importance of bugs in their daily lives while exploring their beauty and fascination.

Activities at Bug Fest will include OSU's Insect Adventure, where youngsters can see, hold and touch a multitude of insects, a bug hunt contest, bug games and buggy crafts. Visitors can also enjoy River Bend's own "Bug Stop" Live Collection and experience "Peyton's Place" Butterfly Exhibit in the Ruby N. Priddy Butterfly and Nature Conservatory.

Popcorn and hot dogs will be available.

Admission is $5 for the public and $4 for River Bend members. Children age 1 and younger are admitted free.

River Bend Nature Center is located at 2200 Third St., just outside the entrance to Lucy Park. For information, call 767-0843.

Wings over Wichita event set for June 21

The Museum of North Texas History will present its second annual "Wings Over Wichita" Dinner June 21 at the Wichita Falls Regional Airport.

The dinner will celebrate Wichita Falls' contribution to aviation while raising money to benefit the "Jenny to Jet" exhibit at the airport. Local combat pilots from World War II through Operation Desert Storm will give presentations. Pianist Josh White will provide live music. The dinner will be catered by Gourmet on the Fly, the airport's restaurant.

Tickets to the program are $80 and reservations must be made by June 14.

Information: 322-7628.

Desk and Derrick will meet at Luby's

The Desk and Derrick Club will meet at noon June 16 at Luby's Cafeteria, 1801 Ninth St.

Dr. Jonathan Price, a professor at Midwestern State University, will give a program about the Wichita Mountains. Cost for the meal is $12. For reservations, call Geneva Wood at 636-0491 by June 14.

Iowa Park plans youth robotics camp

Iowa Park High School will offer its first robotics camps this summer in the A-building of the high school.

A camp for fourth-through sixth-graders will run from 9 a.m. to noon June 13-16, and will include a Hexbug for each participant. Campers will also learn basic coding, build their first robot and engage in fun engineering challenges. The cost is $60.

A one-day robot build for seventh-through ninth-graders will be from noon to 5 p.m. June 17. The cost is $25.

Register on the Iowa Park CISD website or call Joanne Hawkins at 447-1542. The camps are open to students from throughout the area.
SHARE Hanaba Munn Welch/Special to the Times Record News Gary Andrew Callaway, center, walks Tuesday morning toward the Hardeman County Courthouse for the second day of the testimony phase of his trial for two counts of capital murder in the shooting deaths of Terrance Besaw, 41, of Chillicothe and Lisa Marie Waddle, 46, of Burkburnett. Leading the way is Deputy Benny Biddy. Following Callaway is Deputy Scott Dabbs. Related Coverage Callaway to serve life in prison after capital murder conviction

By Hanaba Munn Welch, Special to the Times Record News

QUANAH  The most intriguing aspect of the second day of the capital murder trial of Gary Andrew Callaway in 46th District Court on Tuesday was not what happened, but what didn't happen.

Two witnesses did not appear  neither when they were called Tuesday morning by the prosecution nor Tuesday afternoon when they were again called by the defense. Their whereabouts remained unanswered through mid-afternoon, when Judge Dan Mike Bird granted the request of the defense for a continuance of the trial to allow more time for the search for the two.

Both Shirley Brown and Patrick Morris, potential witnesses, had been subpoenaed by both sides to testify. Brown is the sister of the defendant; Morris is a member of the family that owns the vacant house where the double homicide occurred. Morris was characterized as Brown's "boyfriend, I guess" by her daughter, Kristin Brown, a witness Monday for the prosecution.

Tuesday's proceedings were dull and abbreviated compared to Monday's full agenda of opening arguments and testimonies from witnesses, including the playback of an audio recording of a conversation between the defendant and Texas Rangers. Jurors and spectators heard the voice of Callaway as he told Rangers he shot both Terrance Besaw, 41, of Chillicothe and Lisa Marie Waddle, 46, of Burkburnett at a farmhouse west of Quanah, claiming self defense against Besaw.

Callaway's words and the accounts of other witnesses painted a graphic picture of Besaw's murder in the house and Waddle's death outside, where she allegedly fell after trying to escape the scene, loosing her flip-flops in one place and her necklace in another, almost making it to the fence by the road.

The double homicide happened in April 2015. Authorities spent a week looking for Callaway, finding him at a Motel 6 in Wichita Falls and arresting him on a warrant for credit card abuse before obtaining his confession to shooting Besaw and Waddle.

Callaway remained subdued Tuesday as he had Monday, making notes and showing little emotion.

Gary Callaway, father of Drew Callaway, testified at the opening of Tuesday's proceedings.

Staley Heatly, 46th District Attorney, asked Gary Callaway, a rural resident of Hardeman County, if his son shot both the man and the woman.

"That's what he said," Gary Callaway said.

The prosecution also called witnesses who had given Drew Callaway rides and lodging at the time authorities were looking for him.

Bowie resident Kevin Romine, a former co-worker of Drew Callaway at Tyson's in Vernon, said he gave Callaway and his companion, Dimitri Graves, a ride from Quanah to Vernon April 8. Callaway was quiet during the ride, Romine said.

Dominic Fells of Wichita Falls, who also knew Callaway at Tyson's, said Callaway spent time with him at his house in Vernon later that day. Fells said Callaway told him "I f up. I ended two people.  He was in a room. He was sleeping."

Fells said Callaway told him he shot the man first in the leg.

"The man got up screaming," Fells said Callaway told him. "I shot him in the head."

Fells didn't recall much of what Callaway told him about the death of Lisa Waddle except she was running, he told the court.

Callaway put a trash bag and a pair of boots in a dumpster, Fells said.

The defense questioned the lack of clarity in Fells' recall of events and continued to drive home the point that none of the witnesses  neither for the prosecution or the defense  actually saw what happened at the farmhouse that day.

Among witnesses called by the defense was Heather Berry, who said she called 9-1-1 to report the death of Besaw when she saw his body.

"He was laying on the floor with bullet holes in his head," she said.

Berry said she arrived at the scene from 9 to 9:30 a.m. April 9, 2015, the day after the shootings.

Callaway told Rangers and Kristin Brown it was the smell of anhydrous ammonia, a meth-making chemical, that caused him to "snap" and shoot Besaw. The lag between the time the deaths occurred until they were reported the following day would have allowed time for tampering with the scene to occur, a situation acknowledge both by the prosecution and the defense.

The trial is set to resume Wednesday morning, the question from Tuesday remains as to whether Morris and Shirley Brown will testify.
SHARE Hanaba Munn Welch/Special to the Times Record News Gary Andrew Callaway, center, walks Tuesday morning toward the Hardeman County Courthouse for the second day of the testimony phase of his trial for two counts of capital murder in the shooting deaths of Terrance Besaw, 41, of Chillicothe and Lisa Marie Waddle, 46, of Burkburnett. Leading the way is Deputy Benny Biddy. Following Callaway is Deputy Scott Dabbs. Related Coverage 2 witnesses no show second day of Callaway trial

A Hardeman County jury pondered capital murder charges Wednesday against Drew Callaway, 31, just 35 minutes before returning their midday verdict, finding him guilty of killing two people at a vacant rural residence west of Quanah in April 2015.

Shot to death were Terrance Besaw, 41, of Chillicothe, and Lisa Marie Waddle, 46, of Burkburnett.

Wednesday's proceedings began with the testimony of previously missing witness Patrick Morris.

Testifying for the defense, Morris answered questions about a .22 revolver, his late grandfather's gun, found under the bloodstained mattress where Besaw's body was found.

"I was looking for it that morning," Morris said. "He told me he had it, right there (gesturing to his own right front pocket to indicate Besaw had it similarly pocketed)."

Under questioning by Jonathan Whitsitt, attorney for the defense, and Trish Byars, assistant attorney for the prosecution, Morris told the court that he left the scene of the crime about 3 p.m. the day the murders occurred. At the same time, his girlfriend, Shirley Brown, arrived with her brother, Drew Callaway, and a young black man Morris didn't know.

Morris and Brown returned to Quanah, leaving his pickup at the farmhouse.

"The last time you saw Waddle she was sitting in that red truck, waiting on Terry (Terrance) to get up," Byars said. "She was going with him.  The last time you saw Terry Besaw he was asleep, laying in the bed. That's right when Mr. Callaway arrived."

"Correct," Morris said.

After Morris left the stand, the defense called Shirley Brown. She did not appear. Morris had said from the stand that he did not know her whereabouts.

"She was having trouble getting out of Oklahoma City," he said. "She went to see her sister."

Closing arguments followed Morris's testimony.

Staley Heatly, lead attorney for the prosecution, began by calling Callaway "a coldblooded killer"  the same term he had used in his opening argument. He clearly summarized the prosecution's case, filling in the blanks for spectators who had not been able to understand all the words of soft-spoken witnesses.

"He went to that farmhouse on April 8, 2015, and he executed two human beings," Heatly said. "Executed.

"He was looking for a gun earlier that day. He was going there to execute Terrance Besaw.  Lisa Waddle happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Heatly said he felt sorry for Cristin Brown, Callaway's niece, who testified that he was at her house on the morning of April 8 asking for a gun.

"She loves her uncle," he said.

"Terrance Besaw, he thinks, is working for the police," he said, continuing with the scenario. "Maybe they're going to cook some dope out there and his sister, Shirley Brown (mother of Cristin Brown), is going to get into trouble. He's mad at Besaw. He thinks he's a snitch."

A text message from Callaway to Cristin Brown at 3:31 was "I need a ride now," Heatly said.

"Somewhere around three o'clock is when he gunned down Terrance Besaw," he said. "Finally at 4:10 p.m. (another text message to Cristin Brown) 'I love you. Stay home. Erase everything.'"

Heatly summarized other witness testimonies to corroborate the supposed scenario, mentioning in particular that Callaway told his friend Dominic Fells that he had "ended two people."

The fact that Callaway told Texas Rangers he picked up his own shell casings was a point Heatly emphasized.

"What would you do if you were there calm and cool to shoot somebody?" he asked the jurors. "You'd pick up those shell casings."

As for the death of Waddle, Heatly played a portion of Callaway's recorded confession, including these words:

"Bang. Bang. Missed. Bang. She falls. I ran out there. She was still breathing. Put another one in her  a foot away from the fence."

Not till Callaway's shot shattered her tibia did she fall, despite other wounds, Heatly said.

"He came over and he finished her off," Heatly said, ending his first opening argument.

Jonathan Whitsitt, defense attorney, countered Heatly by describing how Callaway could have been defending himself against Besaw, as he had claimed in his statement to the Rangers. Callaway could have hit Besaw first in the abdomen, then the leg, he said.

"Besaw gets up out of the bed and has that gun, still looking to do Mr. Callaway harm," Whitsitt said. "Mr. Callaway delivers the final blow."

As for why Callaway shot Waddle, "protecting his own interests"  Callaway's words  does not necessarily mean he thought she might testify against him as a witness to Besaw's death, Whitsitt argued.

Heatly, in his final argument, combined emotion with logic, pointing out that the lack of eye witnesses to Callaway's crime was the very reason for Waddle's death.

"Lisa Waddle was our eye witness to this case," Heatly said. "Lisa Waddle could have sat on that stand, raised her right hand to tell you what she saw.  He killed Lisa Waddle because she was there and she was running to the road and she was going to tell somebody."

The jury apparently did not disagree, giving the state the verdict it asked  guilty  with just 35 minutes of deliberation.

Callaway will serve a life sentence without parole for the deaths of Waddle and Besaw.

"We gave him the best defense we possibly could," Whitsitt said.

For Whitsitt, only 31, the Callaway trial was his first capital murder case, as it was for Byars, special assistant to Heatly. Heatly said it was only his second.

"Jonathan did a good job," said Earl Griffin, the seasoned Childress attorney who assisted Whitsitt, a Vernon attorney.

Heatly gave much credit to the Rangers' for their work on the case.

"The Texas Rangers conducted an extremely thorough, extensive investigation, including obtaining important admissions from the defendant."

During jury deliberations, Waddle's parents and sister ate lunch at a nearby restaurant, not expecting the process to end while they were away from the courthouse.

"She was a fun kid to be around," Lois Waddle said, remembering her daughter in her youth. "She was a fun person and had a good heart."

"Lisa and I could be standing in a Walmart line and make a new best friend," her sister, Karen, said.

At the courthouse, officials gave the Waddles the news they had expected and hoped to hear.

"A just verdict," said Bill Waddle.
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By Patrick Johnston, patrick.johnston@timesrecordnews.com

A woman is behind bars for reportedly assaulting a Cash Saver store employee while stealing $11.71 worth of items .

Wichita Falls police were called to the store located at 2720 Southwest Pkwy., around 1:33 p.m. Monday for a theft.

The employee told officers he passed a suspicious woman, later identified as Tesha Brooke Bernal, 39, in the deodorant aisle of the store, WFPD Public Information Officer Jeff Hughes said.

The employee went to watch the woman on surveillance video and saw her conceal a stick of deodorant under her bag, Hughes said. She also later grabbed a bag of cheese.

Bernal concealed the items in her bag and left the store, Hughes said. The employee tried to stop Bernal at her vehicle and asked her to come back inside to talk about the items she concealed.

She resisted and attempted to flee, but the employee grabbed her keys and wrapped his arms around her to prevent her from leaving, Hughes said. Bernal then turned and bit the employee on the shoulder, Hughes said.

While searching her bag, Hughes said officers found two packages of breakfast sausage, a bag of cheese and a stick of deodorant  a total value of $11.71.

Bernal is charged with robbery  a second-degree felony  and remained in Wichita County Jail Tuesday afternoon in lieu of $30,000 bail. She also had a theft warrant out of Young County.
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Bluffing is Donald Trump's one great talent, and he brazenly bluffed his way to the Republican nomination. Now he is showing his cards, however, and they are utter garbage: racism, ignorance, capriciousness, egomania and general unfitness for office. That should be  it must be  a losing hand.

Imagine what a disaster it would be if this man were elected president. Really think about it. Then consider your obligation, as a citizen, to prevent such a thing from happening.

Mitt Romney is usually not the most eloquent of public figures, but he got it right when he explained his increasingly lonely resistance to Trump: "I wanted my grandkids to see that I simply couldn't ignore what Mr. Trump was saying and doing, which revealed a character and temperament unfit for the leader of the free world."

The outrages pile up so fast that it's hard to keep track and put them in context. Trump's reaction last week to seeing a black man at one of his rallies -- "Look at my African-American over here!" -- reflected a kind of casual bigotry. Much more sinister was his insistence that Indiana-born U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is hearing a civil suit against Trump University, is biased because "he's a Mexican."

Consider that for a moment. Trump's argument, in essence, is that a judge of Hispanic origin should be disqualified from the case because Trump is so racist against Hispanics. Likewise, he claimed, a Muslim judge perhaps should be disqualified as well. He is basically saying that only Aryans need apply. Let me digress for a moment to recap what we know about "Trump University," which I frame with quotation marks because the name is a total lie. As news organizations including The Washington Post have explained, it was not a university at all but a series of seminars about investing in real estate. And, despite what was promised, Trump had little personal involvement beyond overseeing how the purported university was marketed to unsuspecting people.

The Post reported that one of the instructors' central tasks was identifying which students had financial resources  then hectoring them to max out their credit cards or raid their retirement accounts to buy "packages" of additional seminars and counseling that cost up to $34,000. Some students believe they gained useful knowledge, but many believe they were hoodwinked.

Trump initially promised that any profits from the "university" would go to charity. Investigators estimate he made about $5 million before the operation was folded  amid a flurry of investigations and lawsuits  but not a penny went toward philanthropy. No one should be surprised. After all, Trump made a much-ballyhooed donation to veterans' groups only after persistent reporters demanded to know where the money was.

I mention all of this because it speaks to Trump's character, or lack thereof. If he were just a real estate developer and reality television star, the matter of the "university" would concern only Trump, his conscience and the relevant local, state and federal authorities. But next month, at what will surely be a bizarre convention in Cleveland, he will officially be named the Republican nominee for president. As such, his character is of urgent importance to the nation and the world.

GOP leaders who choose "party unity" over principle should know that there is no way back; when you embrace Trump, you make a decision that will stay with you forever. House Speaker Paul Ryan, your claim to intellectual leadership of the Republican Party is forfeited by your endorsement of a man who mocks the high ideals you espouse. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, your legacy is marred by support of a candidate you know to be unfit for the presidency. Sen. Marco Rubio, your future in politics will be undermined by your support of a nominee you once rightly called a "con artist."

I suspect that most of the establishment Republicans who now meekly support Trump believe he will lose, perhaps badly, and are positioning themselves for the aftermath. But that is no excuse for putting the nation in peril by endorsing Trump and thus bettering his chances, even incrementally.

He's not going to change. He's not going to become presidential, he's not going to grow a thicker skin, he's not going to take an interest in policy or become less of a bigot. He's not going to temper his language or close his Twitter account. Donald Trump turns 70 next week. He is who he is.

The question for those who cynically support him: Who are you?

Eugene Robinson's email address is eugenerobinson@washpost.com. He writes for The Washington Post Writers Group.
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Join Women@Work for local career events and networking opportunities.

FINANCIAL

CITIZENS BANK

Helmut Gerstenberger joined as a senior loan officer for the Mortgage Northeast Division, supporting all of the Capital Region. Gerstenberger has more than 30 years of experience in the finance industry.

BALLSTON SPA NATIONAL BANK

Brittany Lindenmayer was named relationship manager. Lindenmayer is responsible for providing financial solutions to customers and maintaining the daily operations of the Greenfield Center and Wilton branch offices.

Nancy Koval was named senior mortgage loan officer, responsible for working with new and existing customers to originate residential mortgage loan products. Koval has nine years of mortgage origination experience.

COMMUNITY RESOURCE FEDERAL CREDIT UNION

Marc DeNofio joined as vice president of marketing and retail delivery. DeNofio has more than 20 years of experience in the marketing sector and previously worked at Schenectady ARC.

GLENS FALLS NATIONAL BANK AND TRUST CO.

Timothy Bartlett joined as a trust officer. Bartlett, a member of the New York state Bar Association's Trust and Estates Law Section with nearly 10 years of financial services experience, will focus on the administration of personal trust accounts while building and strengthening customer relationships.

MANUFACTURING

SI GROUP INC

Bethany Savage joined as enterprise process analyst, North America. Savage provides support and strategic guidance for business systems and processes.

Darlene Falzo joined as payroll and accounting analyst. Falzo is responsible for the administration of all North American payroll activities.

Shane D. Fleming joined the board of directors. Fleming has more than 35 years of experience in the chemical industry and recently retired from Cyctec Industries.

Lori Burry joined as global regulatory adviser. Burry is responsible for ensuring regulatory compliance across the group's global footprint.

Kari Mavian joined as senior director  regulatory affairs. Mavian has more than 20 years of experience in regulatory affairs in the chemistry industry and will provide support and strategic guidance.

Tanya Butler joined as global compensation analyst. Butler is responsible for the planning, development and implementation of global compensation evaluation programs and processes.

Monchima Utamapetai joined as senior logistics program manager at the global headquarters in Niskayuna. Monchima is responsible for the procurement and management of international and domestic non-bulk freight services for North America.

Peter Miranda joined as product stewardship and advocacy specialist. Miranda is responsible for implementing programs that continue the group's commitment to safeguarding environmental health and safety.

MEDIA

CMK MARKETING

Dayton King joined as a business development specialist. King is the mayor of Gloversville.

Courtney Rauch joined as marketing account manager. Rauch oversees content writing, digital strategy and media relations.

PROFESSIONS

DOWLING LAW PLLC

Margaret Place joined as associate counsel. Place, a volunteer with local nonprofits, will be advising and representing corporations and organizations in labor and employment and litigation.

MAYNARD, O'CONNOR, SMITH & CATALINOTTO LLP

Scott F. Adelmann joined as firm administrator.

SERVICES

LABERGE GROUP

Christopher Schroeder joined as survey director. Schroeder has more than 15 years of field and office experience including high definition laser scanning, ALTA surveys, GPS control, aerial control and the use of robotics.

 Jennifer Patterson
Most people recognize Kim Neaton by her voice. For some, it is the familiar sound that rings out from an open second-story window of a putty-colored Victorian house on a side street in Manchester, Vt. For others, it is the voice that comes across the radio during the workday when the dial is turned to 102.7 FM.

That voice  sweet enough to be your kid sister, but with a hint of rasp best described as stoner-chic  is part of the backbone that forms WEQX, one of the few remaining independent commercial radio stations in the Capital Region. The station went live at 10:27 a.m. on Nov. 14, 1984, and has been a fixture in the Capital Region music scene ever since.

WEQX is known for its irreverent blend of alternative music that spans genres and styles, ranging from heavy, driving bass lines of Red Hot Chili Pepper's latest single, "Dark Necessities," to funky head-bobbing vibes of Vulfpeck's "Back Pocket." The music  selected and chosen by the WEQX staff  displays the passion that imbues every aspect of station operations.

Passion wasn't always the root of the station, however. When Brooks Brown, a lanky Texan with sandy hair, first moved to Manchester and discovered there was no radio station in town, he set out to put his childhood interest in radio to work and start his own. The choice to play alternative rock was more a business decision to fill a void in the on-air soundscape than one based on musical preference. Brown was more James Brown than Jesus and Mary Chain in his tastes, but it didn't prevent the local airwaves from filling with the post-punk sounds of the mid-1980s.

Brown was given many offers to sell the station in an era marked by corporate giants gobbling up smaller stations, but the decision to remain independent was more important than the income from the sale. Even in lean times and with the death of Brown in 2013, the station still operates much the same as it did in the early years.

A staff of four core members, with a half dozen part-time DJs and an overnight sound engineer, operate from the Elm Street Victorian that Brown converted into studios. (Mimi Brown, his widow and current station manager, says he wore mostly suits in the 1980s, but by the mid-1990s she would have to remind him to take off his Carhartts and toolbelt.) A 50,000 watt antenna on top of Mount Equinox (the tallest peak in the Taconic range) broadcasts tunes across four states, from Killington, Vt., to Woodstock, N.Y., and as far west as Cooperstown.

Jeff Morad, program director and morning drive host, attributes this success to the personal connection the station and its personalities make with the listeners. The only metric used for gauging that connection is the interaction with the listeners online and in person. A Listener Advisory Board allows the audience to rank and review new songs, and Morad's "Bandwidth" segment features a new song suggested by listeners.

"If you don't like one song we're playing, the next one is completely different," says Neaton, and that variety of music, unheard of on most mainstream stations, is the core of EQX's brand.

Morad estimates that he, Neaton and production director and afternoon drive host Jason Keller collectively attend 500 concerts a year, which helps give the station a public face. The internet has also strengthened the brand, and the station is active on Spotify and YouTube.

EQX House Sessions is the forward-looking foray into video production and deeper audience engagement. The new Studio BB, a former office space in the building remodeled by Neaton's boyfriend Chris Jordan into a live performance space, is the setting for these sessions.

Sign up for The Knick  Get the latest news and features with our afternoon newsletter.

"Albany is a warm-up town" and many bands start their tours here before moving to bigger cities, says Morad. EQX capitalizes on the deference many passing-through bands and artists have for the station by having them perform stripped-down songs to share with WEQX's fans.

"Artists know about this station," says Keller, and performing in the House Sessions is a way to pay respect to the station's role in building a band's career. The studio itself is like a museum of WEQXs history, built from the talismans, ephemera and oddities left behind by Brown's packrat tendencies. Holding live sessions to air online connects the rich history of the station with the forward momentum that propels it into the next chapter of radio and music.

Despite what has and might change for WEQX ("I'm not a DJ anymore, I'm a MP3-J," jokes Morad), Brown's advice to staff remains the guiding principle: Just keep doing what you do really well.

If one song could sum-up the pillars of WEQX's radio philosophy, Neaton says it would be "The Distance," by Cake. As the song suggests, "reckless and wild, they pour through the turns. Their prowess is potent and secretly stern," no offer to buy the station, no change in guard, and no devastating loss of equipment will diminish the soul of what WEQX does, which is simply to have passion for good music. Thankfully, passion is still transmittable on FM radio.

Deanna Fox is a frequent contributor to the Times Union. www.deannafox.org @DeannaNFox
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Saratoga Springs

The City Council voted 4-1 Tuesday night to pass a law that bans people from sitting or lying on sidewalks in an action supporters called a public safety issue in the city.

Others called it an effort to end increasingly aggressive panhandling by homeless people who deter patrons from entering restaurants and other downtown businesses.

Mayor Joanne Yepsen cast the lone no vote on the measure, calling it too harsh.

More than a dozen city residents and others spoke against the ordinance, some asking the City Council to table the measure.

Public Safety Commissioner Chris Mathiesen said the ordinance is about public safety and does not target specific groups of people. "This has to do with not tripping on people," Mathiesen said during the public hearing while city resident Patty Riggi was speaking.

"We have a bigger problem," Riggi said later, noting issues of heroin and opioid use. "Regardless of what they say, they're aiming for the homeless."

Saratoga Springs resident Kim Palermo cautioned the council, saying how the city responds to issues of homeless will be judged "very harshly."

"We are Saratoga Springs, New York, and we can do better than this," Palermo said. "This is a pivotal moment for us. We have to decide what kind of town we want to be. Do we want to be humanists?"

The ordinance, which won approval as the city prepares for its busy tourist season, outlines that a warning would be issued first, but if the offending person continues to sit or lie on the sidewalk, a fine could be issued. Initially it would be $50 to $100, but repeat offenders could face a misdemeanor charge, a fine of $400 to $500, community service, imprisonment, or both a fine and imprisonment.

Several spoke in favor of the plan, describing their own experiences of panhandlers asking for money and getting belligerent if they received nothing.

"I support this 100 percent," resident David Bronner said. He often walks on Broadway and described people aggressively asking for money. "It's about safety and civility."

Melanie Trimble, director of the New York Civil Liberties Union Capital Region Chapter, said the homeless could be targeted by the ordinance.

"Courts have long recognized the importance of public streets and sidewalks as forums for free speech and peaceable assembly, and this ordinance would infringe on those fundamental rights," Trimble said. "Homelessness is a tragedy, not a crime."

Police Chief Greg Veitch previously reassured the public that the homeless wouldn't be targets for aggressive law enforcement.

afries@timesunion.com  @mandy_fries
Albany

Albany County on Wednesday will become only the third county in New York to ban the sale of tobacco products and e-cigarettes to adults under the age of 21.

County Executive Dan McCoy is expected to sign the legislation passed last month by county lawmakers as part of national push to raise the age in hopes of preventing young adults from ever taking up a tobacco habit.

"This law will help get the message out that smoking kills and that we are working to enhance public health and help save lives," the Albany Democrat said in a statement to the Times Union explaining his intent to sign the law.

"We all know that tobacco is the leading cause of preventable deaths in the United States and it is our responsibility to do what we can to help spread the message that smoking is a dead end," McCoy said. He had not previously spoken publicly about the proposal, and supporters were publicly pressuring him to sign it.

McCoy angered anti-tobacco activists in September 2014 when he vetoed first-in-the-state legislation that would have banned the sale of tobacco products in stores that also included retail pharmacies in favor of working with retailers to ban cigarettes' display. His proposal banning displays never got out of the legislature, but several retailers  including Price Chopper, Hannaford and ShopRite  voluntarily complied.

Albany County's legislation, sponsored by Guilderland Democrat Paul Miller, follows similar bans in New York City, Suffolk County on Long Island and Chautauqua County in western New York.

It passed, 24-13, largely along party lines. Four Democrats joined most of the GOP minority in opposing it.

Opponents cast the law as another in a line of county measures designed to regulate otherwise legal behavior and micromanage residents' lives.

The state convenience store lobby argued it misfired by targeting legally sold cigarettes, which it contended are not the source of tobacco used by teens.

Responding to criticism that signing the law would make it illegal for men and women old enough to serve in combat to buy tobacco products, McCoy  a sergeant first class in the New York Army National Guard  noted the Department of Defense itself has banned tobacco use during basic training because of its negative effect on soldiers' fitness and health.

A statewide ban taking effect this week in California exempts active-duty military personnel. Statewide efforts to raise the age in New York have stalled in the Capitol in recent years, prompting advocates to turn instead to local governments.

In addition to conventional tobacco products, the law bans the sale of liquid nicotine and electronic cigarettes to anyone under 21. Also prohibited is the sale of paraphernalia like non-tobacco hookah pipes, pipes and rolling papers to people under 21.

Businesses that violate the law will face fines between $300 and $1,000 for a first offense and $500 to $1,500 for subsequent offenses.

It will take effect immediately after being filed with the state.

"By signing this law, we are making a choice to help kids stay away from all tobacco products, not just cigarettes," McCoy said. "I am proud that once again Albany County is providing leadership on an issue that the state has yet to address."

jcarleo-evangelist@timesunion.com  518-454-5445
TROY  A $22 million state Neighborhood Revitalization Program to combat "zombie properties" will bring 20 to 30 buildings back to life in the city.

Troy was identified as one of six communities in New York with a high concentration of these properties.

"Abandoned and foreclosed 'zombie properties' drag down surrounding home values and can impact the economic health and public safety of entire communities," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in announcing the initiative Tuesday. "With these new programs, we are taking action to crack down on these neighborhood blights, and help more New Yorkers achieve and maintain the American Dream of homeownership."

Mayor Patrick Madden welcomed the opportunity to expand local home ownership while cleaning up blight as the city embarks on a program to spend $500,000 to raze at least 11 buildings that are severely deteriorated.

"Homeownership continues to be the cornerstone of stable and vibrant neighborhoods. The funding made available through the Neighborhood Revitalization Program will go a long way in confronting the challenge of blighted and abandoned 'zombie properties' in the City of Troy," Madden stated.

Troy Rehabilitation and Improvement Program (TRIP) will administer the program, with funding through New York State Homes and Community Renewal from JPMorgan Chase settlement funds. Home purchases will be made through HCR's State of New York Mortgage Agency Purchase Renovation Mortgage, which allows qualified low- and middle-income buyers to receive up to $20,000 in additional funds for home improvements with no interest

kcrowe@timesunion.com  518-454-5084  @KennethCrowe
Were you Seen at the Women@Work Connect event with Daquetta Jones, executive director of the YWCA of the Greater Capital Region, held at the Times Union on Wednesday, June 8, 2016?

Capital Region Women@Work is a community of women supporting each other in their business and professional lives. Members get six issues of our magazine, first alerts and discounts on events, special advertiser discounts and invitations to free member-only networking and educational events. Join now for just $25 a year.
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Albany

The new leader of Albany Molecular Research, Inc.'s largest contract revenue segment doesn't shy away from pointing out that her first months on the job have been a change of pace.

Dawn Von Rohr took the reins of AMRI's active pharmaceutical ingredients business in January, responsible for setting the unit's goals and achieving them. Even after a below-expectations first quarter, the company projects that the API unit will produce $260 million in revenue this year, with most of the company's revenue and earnings shifted to the second half of the year.

The prospect of rapid growth, she said, is exciting. But this atmosphere at AMRI is a far cry from that of Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals PLC, a multibillion dollar biopharmaceutical company where she served as vice president and general manager for global active pharmaceutical ingredients.

She led a $400 million global unit at Mallinckrodt, where she began as an associate chemist in 1993.

"I was one part of it  an important part of it, but just one part of it," she said of her role at the company, which she described as "a well-oiled machine" in a recent interview at AMRI's Albany headquarters.

Mallinckrodt's stability, she said, is not present at AMRI because of the company's growth projections. In the first month, she said she was "a deer in the headlights."

"People take it one of two ways  you either say, 'Oh my gosh, this is too overwhelming, this is not for me,' or it's energizing," she said. "I found by week three it was crazy energizing."

AMRI, which employs about 600 people in the Capital Region, researches, develops and builds drugs. The API unit manufactures the most important biological parts of complex drugs.

The company says it generates more than $200 million of its revenue in New York. AMRI's largest manufacturing facility is in Rensselaer on Riverside Avenue, and its headquarters and chemistry research and development are at two Albany campuses.

Von Rohr said she was attracted to the company because its advanced technology and sound quality system fit with her career focus. She said it was apparent that the executive management team worked closely together.

"Selfishly, I really thought I could learn from them," she said of Chief Executive Officer William Marth and George Svokos, the chief operating officer.

Von Rohr said she decided to work in Albany because the Capital Region hosts central company operations, which will enable her to get to know AMRI more quickly, she said.

The active pharmaceutical ingredients business has expanded this year with AMRI's acquisitions of two global companies: Gadea Pharmaceutical Group and Prime European Therapeuticals SpA, or Euticals.

Von Rohr said the July purchase of Gadea brought AMRI international customers and manufacturing facilities, plus expertise on steroids and hormones  a pillar of complex drugs that AMRI looked to strengthen.

About 10 months later, AMRI announced it would acquire Euticals, which will double the size of the ingredients business across pain management, peptides, steroids, hormones and niche complex products. Euticals has more than 200 ingredients in its product portfolio. The company had more than $240 million in total revenue in 2015 and the acquisition will more than double AMRI's ingredients contract revenue, AMRI said.

"Now we're going to have some meat to the business," Von Rohr said.

Euticals' solid generics business will help AMRI expand in non-brand sectors, she said. About a quarter of AMRI's business has traditionally been in generics, said Patty Eisenhaur, AMRI's head of investor relations, and the company wants to lift that percentage to about 40 percent.

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This shift mirrors industry trends, Von Rohr said.

AMRI reported a $10.1 million first-quarter loss in May, citing higher selling expenses and other investments. A year prior, the loss was $2.2 million.

Active pharmaceutical ingredients sector results disappointed, which Marth attributed to capacity constraints in the company's Spain facility in addition to the closure of the UK Holywell facility in December.

The company said it still expects full-year revenue to be between $465 and $490 million, and it also added that it plans to continue to invest and hire in the Capital Region.

Svokos said in a January statement to the Times Union that Von Rohr's appointment is one element of active pharmaceutical ingredients growth. The company is working to expand API manufacturing capabilities in Rensselaer, he said, and alliances with other companies to promote new products will also advance the sector.

"With Dawn now on board at AMRI, we believe we have the appropriate leadership for optimizing short, medium, and long-term strategies for the existing API platforms and expanding the future capabilities offered by AMRI," he said. Citing her work at Mallinckrodt, he said, "Dawn essentially redesigned the business from volume focused to product value and differentiation and turned around a low-performing business."

Von Rohr said she often wears a necklace with a charm that reads "journey" in the AMRI headquarters. "That's exactly what it has been," she said of her first few months. "It's been an incredible, exciting journey."

lellis@timesunion.com  518-454-5018  @lindsayaellis
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Albany

It looks like the state Department of Environmental Conservation can put off a decision on a long-delayed crude oil plan at the Port of Albany for bit longer.

Facing a court-ordered June 13 deadline to rule on a plan by Massachusetts-based Global Companies to heat crude oil for shipment, DEC obtained a stay in the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court that pushes off the deadline while the state appeals the earlier ruling.

Outside DEC headquarters on Broadway on Tuesday, more than two dozen protesters urged that DEC reject Global's plan, which calls for a heating plant at the port that opponent fear would allow the company to handle thick Canadian tar sands oil.

Tar sands oil is so thick it must be heated during winter months so it can be pumped from railroad tank cars into land-based storage tanks, and then into barges or tankers on the Hudson River. This type of oil is also called diluted bitumen, or dilbit. Heavier than common crude oil, it sinks in water, making it very difficult to clean up from rivers and other waterbodies.

On Tuesday, former Albany city council member Dominick Casolaro, a resident of the South End near the port, said DEC should either reject the heating plant proposal or "stand up and admit you made a mistake" and reverse an earlier ruling that the project was not environmentally risky, and thus, did not require a full-scale environmental review.

"They took the word of Global on the pollution risk. It is mind-boggling," said Casolaro. "This should get a full environmental review."

Another opponent, Susan Weber of People of Albany United for Safe Energy, said the derailment and explosion of a crude oil train in Oregon last week was "another wake-up call" on the risk posed by massive trains that carry crude oil from the Bakken fields of North Dakota.

On Tuesday, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown and other state leaders called for a moratorium on oil trains in the Columbia River Gorge. No one was hurt when 14 oil tankers derailed near Mosier, Ore., with four catching fire, but the city water and wastewater systems were damaged, and local schools closed for summer a week early.

After Global sued DEC in 2015 over lack of action on the oil heating project, state Supreme Court Justice Roger McDonough ruled in April that DEC had to free the matter "from legal limbo" within 60 days, resulting in the June deadline. McDonough did not order DEC how it should rule, only that it had to.

Global already operates an oil terminal at the port, and in June 2013 the company applied to DEC for a federally required air pollution permit for the heating facility. As public concern mounted, particularly among neighbors of the port in Albany's South End neighborhood, DEC extended deadlines for public comment seven times.

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In May 2015, just before a ruling on the permit was legally due, DEC issued a statement that it intended to revoke its earlier ruling that the heating plant project would have no adverse environmental impact.

But the agency has yet to issue the actual revocation, which would require Global to produce a full-blown Environmental Impact Statement on the proposal.

Global has said that it wants DEC's original environmental ruling on the heating plant to stand. But if it would be reversed, then Global would have legal grounds to challenge, something it cannot do now.

Global's lawyer, Jeffrey Baker, of the Albany firm of Young Sommer, did not return telephone calls seeking comment.

bnearing@timesunion.com  518-454-5094  @Bnearing10
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Albany

Imagine a high school exclusively for students who have struggled with addiction to alcohol or drugs, have gone through treatment and want to stay clean.

Call it Recovery High School. The concept is among ideas being discussed by the Cuomo administration and state lawmakers as the legislative session winds down to its final days.

It's not a new concept. Three dozen recovery high schools, including one established last year in New York City, operate nationwide, according to the Denver-based Association Of Recovery Schools.

But it is being promoted for expansion as the state deals with an epidemic of heroin and opioid abuse that has resulted in a rising number of deaths in recent years, including among young people. About 2,300 New Yorkers died in 2014 due to drug overdose.

About 85 percent of teens who have gone through addiction treatment and return to their original schools start using drugs again with a year, according to research by Andrew Finch of Vanderbilt University.

Kristen Harper, executive director of the Association Of Recovery Schools, said teens in recovery from alcohol and drug addiction tend to perform better in a new environment, away from the friends they used drugs with before. Some families will go to extremes to get them into one of these schools after grueling and scary battles with alcohol or drug addiction.

"Oftentimes, we'll see parents who will literally move their entire families  if they have the means  to, let's say Houston, Texas, because we have two really good schools down there," Harper said.

The office of Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, who led the recently created Governor's Heroin Task Force on a statewide listening tour, would not confirm specific proposals the group is running by lawmakers in advance of formal recommendations. But according to a doctor's group and addiction recovery advocate, the establishment of recovery high schools is one of a number of proposals being discussed.

Recovery schools nationwide vary greatly based on community needs and student makeup. Some are private, but most are public charter or alternative high schools, Harper said. Their average size is 35-40 students.

Costs average $15,000 per student per year for schools with fewer than 25 students, Harper said. That's $4,000 more per student than the average for a regular public high school nationwide. Most recovery schools raise the additional money needed through fundraising, Harper said.

Students are usually admitted to a recovery high school after parents request a referral from their original schools and complete what is often a rigorous application process, Harper said. It's not uncommon for teens to resist placement at the schools, Harper said, as there's a stigma associated with attending. That stigma might be lessened if the schools become more common, she said.

"We're all working to fight that stigma," Harper said. "Nobody should have to choose between an education and recovery."

In addition to regular classes, recovery high schools often offer therapy and support groups onsite, in addition to recognizing important milestones, like the anniversary of someone's staying clean.

Graduates of recovery high schools are often recruited by colleges with recovery programs, Harper said. There are about 100 of those around the country, including one at the University at Albany.

Albany-based Friends of Recovery-NY supports the establishment of recovery high schools as one of a number of ideas to create a "culture of recovery" for New Yorkers struggling with addiction to drugs and alcohol. The group has also pushed for the establishment of more recovery community centers, where former addicts can get support.

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"It is the least developed component of the system of services that currently exist," said Robert Lindsey, chief executive of FOR-NY. "The end result is too often, people begin their recovery through a treatment program, and when they leave, the supports they need in the community to make the transition into a recovery lifestyle, plain and simple, aren't available to them."

Lindsey, who has been engaged in talks about the possible legislative proposal, said that recovery high schools are generally established in urban areas where there is enough population to support them.

The idea has already been discussed at Capital Region BOCES, which runs an alternative high school program, according to Laura Combs, the organization's director of substance abuse services. BOCES provides programs for multiple school districts that cannot be supported by an individual district.

Combs questioned whether even an educational collaborative could support a recovery high school in the Capital Region, given the area's size. It would be difficult to provide educational offerings especially for students who needed either remedial help or qualified for advanced academic placement.

Capital Region BOCES has considered other ways to offer recovery programming  a part-day program, for instance, where students from different schools would come each day.

Combs acknowledged, however, the need for such programming among the students served by Capital Region BOCES.

"We have to be creative and think outside the box," she said.

chughes@timesunion.com  518-454-5417  @hughesclaire
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Albany

The lawn signs carry a simple message: "To Our Muslim Neighbors. Blessed Ramadan."

On Tuesday, two days after the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, dozens of the signs had been planted in front of churches and synagogues, and on urban and suburban lawns across the Capital Region.

They were meant as a kind of metaphor, these small candles of interfaith solidarity lighted against the darkness of religious intolerance and racism.

More Information Neighborly conversation To purchase a $10 Ramadan sign, call Deb Riitano at 462-5450 or go to the Council of Churches website, www.capareacc.org What: "Meet Your Muslim Neighbors" with Fazan Saleem-Ismail and two other local Muslim women. When: 5:30 p.m. Monday. Where: Guilderland Public Library, 2228 Western Ave. Info.: 456-2400 or www.guilpl.org Contact Paul Grondahl at 518-454-5623 or email pgrondahl@timesunion.com See More Collapse

They were a rebuke to anti-Islam rhetoric spouted by the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Donald J. Trump, who called for a ban on Muslims entering the United States.

"This community has become very diverse and our strength comes from supporting all faith traditions," said Deb Riitano, executive director of the Capital Area Council of Churches. It was founded in 1941 and its 91 member churches promote ecumenism through service and advocacy.

Riitano sold dozens of the $10 lawn signs in the past few days, including one to Rabbi Ted Lichtenfeld of Congregation Agudat Achim of Niskayuna.

"I'm seeing a lot of good outreach between the Jewish and Muslim communities," said Riitano, who has been involved in interfaith efforts for 35 years, including the Jewish-Catholic Dialogue. "This area is recognized as one of the most tolerant in the country when it comes to interfaith issues, but it's not all sweetness and light."

Riitano was contacted by local imams last fall, after threats were made through social media against mosques in the area. Police added patrols, but the threats never materialized and there were no reports of any trouble.

A recent study published by Georgetown University's Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding cited an increase in violence against Muslims across the United States. The report cited 180 reported incidents of anti-Muslim violence between March 2015 and March 2016, including 12 murders, 34 assaults, nine arsons, eight shootings and bombings and 56 acts of vandalism. Some experts suggested the spike coincides with heated rhetoric in the presidential campaign, the San Bernardino shootings and the Syrian refugee crisis.

The idea for the Ramadan lawn signs came after the Rev. Peter Cook, executive director of the New York State Council of Churches, learned that his Minnesota counterpart had launched a Ramadan sign campaign last month.

"We wanted to say to our Muslim community that discrimination and hate speech is not consistent with the Christian faith, or who we are as New Yorkers," said Cook, a United Church of Christ minister who heads the 7,000-church, Albany-based organization.

Riitano ordered 500 signs, and they're selling fast.

"I came across one of the lawn signs yesterday and it was a wonderful thing to see," said Taiymoor Naqi, of Albany, a 32-year-old Muslim and state employee who attends the Al-Hidaya mosque in Latham. "At a time when many are sponsoring intolerant and Islamophobic rhetoric, this type of interfaith support is critical."

He called Riitano to thank her for the Ramadan sign initiative.

Ramadan, which runs from June 5 to July 5, is a holy month for the world's 1.6 billion Muslims. It is a time of fasting and other acts of spiritual contemplation, extra prayer, increased charity and generosity, along with intense study of the Quran.

In the Capital Region, the Muslim community has more than doubled between 2005 and 2015. There are now more than 10,000 Muslims and seven mosques in the area.

"The signs are a wonderful thing to be doing to show our solidarity with the Muslim community," said Lois Caulfield, of Delmar, who picked up two signs to place in front of her church, Delmar Reformed Church, and one for her home. Caulfield has been helping resettle Burmese refugees for the past 15 years and has many Muslim friends.

"We need to stand alongside Muslims, as well as all persecuted groups," said Walter Ayres, a Catholic deacon and director of the Commission on Peace and Justice for Catholic Charities of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany. He bought three signs on Monday and stopped Tuesday to purchase five more signs, which will go to parishes in Saratoga and Washington counties.

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"It wasn't that many decades ago that Catholics were targeted and harassed," Ayres said. "It's important to take a stand against all intolerance."

Meanwhile, Fazana Saleem-Ismail will present a talk on June 13 at the Guilderland Public Library titled "Meet Your Muslim Neighbors."

"I'm incredibly grateful for the support from the Ramadan sign program and the Capital Area Council of Churches, but it's also sad to me we still need such a program," said Saleem-Ismail, 43, a mother of two who lives in Guilderland and works as a research scientist with the State University of New York Research Foundation.

She has given similar talks at local high schools and at last month's Tulip Festival in Albany's Washington Park.

"If people could just meet and interact with local Muslims, they would understand the vast majority are peace-loving people. The actions of a few extremists should not overshadow our beautiful religion," said Saleem-Ismail, whose family is from Sri Lanka and who grew up on Staten Island.

"We need to confront the pockets of hatred that are out there," said Riitano, who has received hateful email and anti-Muslim posts on social media since announcing the Ramadan sign initiative.

She was informed that one Ramadan sign was taken down in Niskayuna a day after it was placed on a lawn there. "It's hard to say what was behind it, but it concerns us," she said.

"The signs are a small way for us to extend kindness and hospitality to our Muslim brothers and sisters," Cook said. "We feel this is what Christ calls us to do."

pgrondahl@timesunion.com  518-454-5623  @PaulGrondahl
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Colonie

A housing project for homeless veterans five years in the making is poised for approval by the Albany County Legislature.

Last week, the Audit and Finance Committee approved a 50-year lease agreement for the former Ann Lee Home with Soldier On, a Massachusetts-based nonprofit that provides homes for homeless veterans.

Soldier On will take over the building off Albany Shaker Road, adjacent to the Watervliet Shaker National Historic District.

Soldier On's proposal is to renovate the 91,320-square-foot forrmer nursing home into about 100 apartments and to construct two three-story buildings with an additional 100 apartments.

The project will cost between $25 million and $30 million, said John Downing, CEO of Soldier On. The money will come from a mix of state and federal support, including affordable housing grants and tax credits. Downing expects to have a $5 million to $6 million shortfall, which Soldier On will fill by direct fundraising and private foundation support.

The complex will also include on-site job training and counseling services. It would be modeled after the Gordon H. Mansfield Veterans Community in Pittsfield, Mass., which opened six years ago. Mansfield is a former deputy secretary of veterans affairs. An Army veteran, he was paralyzed in Vietnam. The Colonie community will also carry his name.

The Ann Lee Home closed in 2008 and Downing said he first visited the site in 2011. It was a perfect location, he said, because it is close to the Albany International Airport and public transportation.

Soldier On began pursuing approvals from the town of Colonie and the county in 2012. The committee vote signals the County Legislature will likely approve the project at its June 13 meeting. The committee also voted to issue a "negative declaration" after an environmental review of the site, which means the group doesn't think development of the veterans' community will negatively effect the environment.

The goal of Soldier On is to rehabilitate troubled veterans to become contributing members of society. A portion of the housing will be occupied by vets who pay rent and taxes, a model that Soldier On developed for several reasons.

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"When you've lost everything in your life and then re-established yourself, you feel you can never give back," Downing said. "Paying taxes is a way for our veterans to feel they're part of the community, and it puts them on equal footing with everyone else in the community."

Downing estimates more than 1,200 veterans in the Capital Region need housing, jobs and medical treatment. He is motivated by the unspoken agreement the country's 23.5 million veterans made when they put on a uniform.

"They said, 'We will die for you,'" Downing said. "And there is a price to pay for combat and being separated from our families."

lhornbeck@timesunion.com  518-454-5352  @leighhornbeck
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Green Island

The United Auto Workers will hold what it hopes will become a massive rally Wednesday, June 15, in Green Island to support the 41 workers locked out of the Honeywell Aerospace factory over an ongoing contract dispute.

News of the rally, which is expected to draw at least 500 union supporters, came as Honeywell and the UAW entered the second day of contract talks in South Bend, Ind.

"That rally next week is important to us," said Jim McKeever, assistant vice president of UAW Local 1508, which represents the locked out workers.

McKeever said Verizon workers, fresh off their own strike, and union supporters from New York City are expected to descend on Green Island for the rally, which will be from 5 to 7 p.m. across from the Cohoes Street factory.

Honeywell Aerospace, which makes steel brake pads used in airplanes at the factory, locked out union workers here and at a larger factory in South Bend, Ind., last month after UAW members rejected what the company described as its "last, best and final" contract offer. The company has brought in temporary workers during the lockout, which had remained in place since May 9.

HONEYWELL LOCKS OUT GREEN ISLAND WORKERS

Honeywell Aerospace spokesman Scott Sayres said that the two sides met Tuesday and again Wednesday in what he called "productive" talks that were attended by a federal mediator but did not produce a new agreement. He said Honeywell did not revise its previous five-year offer.

"Honeywell remains committed to bargaining in good faith and open to considering union counter-proposals. Employees can return to work once an agreement is reached," Sayres said.

HONWEYWELL, UAW TO MEET AGAIN IN INDIANA

Union members picketing outside the Green Island plant Wednesday said they were frustrated that the company did not revise its offer. They admitted to stopping trucks trying to make deliveries to the plant, eventually allowing them to pass.

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"They won't negotiate," said one worker who asked that his name not be used because he was not authorized to speak on behalf of the union.

Honeywell, which has decided not to give its non-union workers raises this year, is offering UAW members an 8 percent increase in wages over five years. The typical Green Island worker makes about $55,000 a year in salary.

Union leaders say the main sticking point is higher health care costs. Workers at the picket line say the average out-of-pocket expenses for a family under the plan included in the company's offer will rise by as much as $7,000 a year.

Sayres, the Honeywell spokesman, couldn't verify that number, although he said the plan is the same that all non-union Honeywell employees get, including CEO David Cote, who made $25 million in total compensation in 2015.

lrulison@timesunion.com  518-454-5504  @larryrulison
A fresh civil action has been filed in California against former Ballingarry priest Fr Michael Kelly. The 62-year-old cleric was removed from his ministry when he fled his parish in Stockton last April after a jury found him liable in a separate civil action alleging sexual abuse in the 1980s.

A fresh civil action has been filed in California against former Ballingarry priest Fr Michael Kelly. The 62-year-old cleric was removed from his ministry when he fled his parish in Stockton last April after a jury found him liable in a separate civil action alleging sexual abuse in the 1980s.

Fr Kelly left for Ireland during the second part of the civil hearing to determine whether or not the diocese had any liability in the matter, but did not return to his native village.

While he has no relatives still in Ballingarry, it is believed Fr Kelly has family in North Tipperary as well as Kilkenny and Dublin.

Fr Kelly was ordained in St Patricks College, Thurles, in 1973, but as he was sponsored by the Diocese of Stockton, he never ministered in Ireland, though it is understood he would say Mass on his visits home.

The latest civil action involves a now 24-year-old man who was an altar boy at the time of the alleged abuse. He claims he was abused by Fr Kelly from the age of 12 in the 1980s.

Under documents filed last week, the man claims he had been under Fr Kellys supervision in St Andrews Parish, San Andreas, when the alleged incidents took place.

The man, referred to only as John CC Doe, alleges that Fr Kelly would often come to his home unannounced and sexually abuse and harass him in his bedroom, often when his parents were out of the house.

The Bishop of Stockton in northern California, Steven Blaire, and Mons Richard Ryan are co-joined in the law suit on the basis that the diocese breached their duty to the boy. The complainant alleges that the diocese knew about earlier allegations of child sexual abuse against the priest, but placed him in a position of trust and authority, and that the diocese ignored a psychological assessment carried out in 1999 that recommended Fr Kelly not be allowed administer to children while alone.

Included in the 10 charges against Fr Kelly, Bishop Blaire and Mons Ryan are allegations of sexual battery, fraud and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

During the April hearing, the jury found Fr Kelly liable of three sexual abuse charges in another case involving a student at Stocktons Cathedral of the Annunciation in the mid-1980s where he served. His most recent assignment was to St Joachims Catholic Church in Lockeford.

After he fled to Ireland in April before he was set to testify in the second phase of the same case alleging the diocese knew Fr Kellys history of sexual misconduct allegations, the diocese reached a $3.75m (E2.8m) settlement with the victim.
Two of the regions leading Republicans will support their partys presidential candidate, Donald Trump, if nothing more than as a means to th
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton spoke to supporters Tuesday night in New York in a historic moment in American history.
[June 08, 2016] Biosimilars: Safe and Effective? Global Doctors Split on Trust

SERMO, the leading global social media network exclusively for doctors and largest health care provider polling company, announced today that in a May poll of 3,849 global doctors, 53 percent (2,043 doctors) would not or do not feel like they have enough educational information to prescribe biosimilars to their patients. For an infographic of the full results of the poll, please click here. Biologic drugs are derived from genetically modified cells, and are generally very big and complex molecules - regularly 200 to 1000 times bigger than the more common category of medicine called small-molecule drugs. Biologics include a wide range of products such as vaccines, blood and blood components, allergenics, somatic cells, gene therapy, tissues, and recombinant therapeutic proteins. They can address a range of diseases including cancer, diabetes, and anemia. A biosimilar is a biological that is shown to be highly similar to another approved biological product. They are different from generics in that they are not exact copies of other products under a different name. Biosimilars are an emerging market, with two agents approved in the United States and 22 in European countries. In the U.S., the two biosimilars that have been approved to date are Zarxio, a biosimilar to Neupogen (filgrasim) and Inflectra, a biosimilar of Remicade (infliximab). Doctors need to see more testing The main concern that doctors expressed in the conversation that accompanied the poll on SERMO was the speed with which these products are going to market, and the lack of testing they face before being given to patients. A U.S. rheumatologist who participated in the poll articulated the risk of adverse effects presenting in the general population, which may increase when products are fast-tracked - "The only way to determine safety that a biological does not produce unexpected adverse events in a large population is through extensive human testing. But, the 'expensive' human testing phase is the very corner that is being cut to make marketing biosimilars less expensive and accelerate their arrival on the market. High stakes gambling." A Venezuelan allergy and immunology specialist doubled-down on the need for clinical trials, saying "Biosimilars are not equivalent to small molecules, so they will not be able to have a real biological equivalence  they need phase III clinical studies (not only equivalence) to prove that they are as effective as the original molecule." One gastroenterologist in Greece stated, "Biosimilar agents are still untested, so safety and efficacy cannot be known without clinical trials Unfortunately since initial testing has been skipped, biosimilars will probably have a negative effect on patient outcomes After testing, they might prove safe and effective. But, that would require huge amounts of funds and a minimm of 10 years of studies."



A U.S. rheumatologist also questioned the current scientific backing of biosimilars, "Are they safe and effective? Who knows? In order to save a buck, these - new compounds - are being approved for marketing for numerous diagnoses for which no studies have been performed Each biosimilar is a 100% completely new compound. Approving such a totally new chemical compound to be marketed to treat potentially millions of patients with a half-dozen different diagnoses...Without thorough testing? ...Not for my child, thank you. Not for my patients. The FDA proposing taking very promising compounds and turning them into treatments is one step away from snake oil (which was also marketed without appropriate testing)." A Spanish oncologist reiterated the sentiment, sharing "The important thing is that they are backed by powerful studies," and a Canadian General Practitioner concluded "More studies and long term follow up are warranted before concluding safety."

Doctors who have biosimilars are not confident in their efficacy Doctors practicing in countries where biosimilars are approved shed light on their experiences with biosimilars to date, and the results were not promising. According to a dermatologist in Mexico, "I have personally used biosimilars and they were a disappointment. [They are] not only ineffective, but also caused adverse effects. In Mexico, this is a major problem - widespread, nationwide." A Venezuelan Pediatrician also shared negative experiences, "Unfortunately right now in Venezuela, specialists are the only ones who get biosimilars, and their performance is 50% of the original." Even more tests may not convince physicians A Mexican Occupational Medicine specialist stated unequivocally, "It is impossible that biosimilars will have the same effect as they are molecules produced by living tissue. In the same batch, there are differences in the molecules. The simple change of temperature can create variations, so imagine when it is not even the same colony, tissue, conditions etc. it definitely can not be biosimilar to a small molecule." An ophthalmologist from the U.S. highlighted the differences that exist even between generics and original products, explaining, "Given the huge discrepancy between branded drugs and generics that we see in simple eyedrop formulations, I hate to think how different the biosimilars could be." An Irish rheumatologist commented, "Where I have a major concern is the extrapolation of indications. This is incorrect and has only come about due to health budget issues." A French intensive care physician noted, "It is difficult to say anything about drugs that have not been studied prior to marketing. Their absorption, pharmacokinetics, tolerance vary from one laboratory to another. There are many examples of side effects The active molecule remains the same and is known but this is not enough to affirm the efficacy or tolerance of the drug." Given all the concerns, a Spanish General Practitioner raised an important question: "If you already have the original molecules, my opinion is that drug companies should focus their efforts on obtaining new molecules, not making "roughly equivalent" copies of existing ones. What is the advantage [of biosimilars] for patients?" 47 percent of doctors said they believe biosimilars will prove safe and effective enough to prescribe. 43 percent of doctors polled (1,670 doctors) said they would need more educational information on biosimilars before prescribing the agents to patients. 10 percent (373 doctors) reported that they would not prescribe biosimilars, even if provided more educational information about safety and effectiveness. This SERMO poll was administered via email to a random selection of members of the SERMO community in 28 countries: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Canada, Chile, Columbia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Poland, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United States and Venezuela. Participation was voluntary and results were kept anonymous. The margin of error is 2 percent. For more information on the methodology of SERMO polls, please go to http://www.sermo.com/polls. About SERMO SERMO is the leading social network for physicians - the world's largest virtual doctors' lounge where doctors talk real world medicine. SERMO's mission is to revolutionize real world medicine by providing physicians a safe, private and trusted platform for free and open dialogue on an unprecedented global scale. SERMO has close to 600,000 fully verified and licensed members and is now available for doctors in 30 countries: the U.S., the U.K., Australia, Canada, Ireland, Mexico, South Africa, Spain, Italy, Argentina, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, New Zealand, France, Finland, Colombia, Venezuela, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Peru, Israel, Austria, Switzerland, Greece, Hungary, Poland and Germany. SERMO is also the world's largest health care professional polling company with 1.8 million HCPs in both the social network and a digital research network, spanning 80 countries. SERMO conducts 700,000 surveys a year. Learn more at www.SERMO.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160608006083/en/

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[June 08, 2016] CEP America Appoints New Members to Executive Leadership Team

One of the nation's largest providers of acute care management and staffing solutions, CEP America, is planning for the future by promoting and expanding its experienced executive team dedicated to transforming healthcare delivery. In January, the CEP America board announced the appointment of President Imamu "Mu" Tomlinson, MD, MBA, as Chief Executive Officer as of January 2017 to replace current CEO Wesley Curry, MD, FACEP, who joined the company in 1982 and has been on the Board of Directors since 1992. Today, Tomlinson announced additional executive realignments effective January 2017: Theo Koury, MD, will be promoted from Chief Operations Officer to President, and Prentice Tom, MD, will be promoted from Chief Medical Officer to Chief Innovation Officer. The new member of the executive team is Denise Brown, MD, who had been serving as Vice President, Business Development. Her new role will be Chief Strategy Officer, and she will be the first hospitalist and first female member of CEP America's executive team. "As the healthcare environment continues to change and become more complex, CEP America's opportunities continue to expand," says Tomlinson. "Our executive team members, who have worked together in some cases for decades, share a commitment to leading CEP in building relationships and identifying opportunities nationwide that align with our board's vision to continue our growth in acute care and beyond." Previous to his appointment position as President, Tomlinson served as Regional Director for the Sequoia Region, where he led the integration of one of CEP America's first multi-hospital, multi-specialty integrated networks. He also serves as the Chief of Staff for Adventist Medical Center Hanford and Adventist Medical Center Selma, where he will continue to practice as an emergency physician. He received his bachelor of science in biology from St. Lawrence University in New York and his medical degree from the University of Cincinnati in Ohio. He completed his residency at Miami Valley Hospital in Ohio and is board certified in emergency medicine. In 2012, Dr. Tomlinson completed his MBA in healthcare adminstration from California Coast University.



In his current position as COO, Koury is responsible for day-to-day operations at all CEP America service locations, across all specialties. His mission is to develop and implement operational initiatives aligned with the strategic direction of CEP America while working closely with the organization's vice presidents. He is a practicing emergency physician at John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek, CA (News - Alert). Koury attended the University of Southern California, where he obtained his bachelor's in biology, and earned his medical degree at the Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, Va. He completed his residency in emergency medicine at the Eastern Virginia Graduate School of Medicine in Norfolk, Va., where he served as Chief Resident and received the John P. McDade Award for "Research in Emergency Medical Care." He has been with CEP America since 1997.

As Chief Medical Officer, Tom oversees CEP America's performance improvement programs and the development and dissemination of best practices. A noted national speaker, he provides leadership in the areas of risk management, quality, continuing medical education, patient experience and other aspects of emergency care. Tom holds a bachelor's degree in medical physics from the University of California, Berkeley, and a medical degree from Harvard Medical School, where he co-founded the Asian Health Organization. He completed his residency in emergency medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Md. He was a Kaiser Fellow in Health Policy and Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He joined CEP America in 1993. Brown has been a leader with CEP America since 2002, when she became Medical Director of Dignity Health's Sequoia Hospital, a CEP America partner. She has been instrumental in identifying new opportunities for CEP America hospitalist services, first as Director of Practice Development for Galen Inpatient Physicians, then as Vice President of Business Development when Galen transitioned into the partnership. Brown is one of the visionaries behind CEP America's expansion into an integrated multi-specialty organization. She has seen first-hand the positive impacts of integration on the patient experience and on the day-to-day work environment of providers. By combining her grasp of CEP America culture and her real-world insights, she inspires and empowers others to champion the integrated and team-based focused care needed by hospitals today. Brown holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Berkeley, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and a medical degree from the University of Chicago with election to Alpha Omega Alpha. Dr. Brown completed her internal medicine residency at Stanford University. About CEP America Since its founding in 1975, CEP America has expanded to offer a wide range of clinical, staffing and administrative expertise designed to increase clinical quality and service excellence across the acute care continuum. Over the last 40 years, CEP America has grown to include over 2,900 providers treating 6.3 million patients a year at over 200 practices specializing in urgent, emergency, inpatient, perioperative and post-acute care. Visit www.cepamerica.com. Follow CEP America on Twitter (News - Alert) at twitter.com/CEP_America. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160608005394/en/

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[June 07, 2016] Community Health Systems Reschedules Presentation Time for Jefferies 2016 Global Healthcare Conference

Community Health Systems, Inc. (NYSE: CYH) today announced that management has rescheduled its presentation time for the Jefferies 2016 Global Healthcare Conference being held this week at the Grand Hyatt New York in New York City. The investor presentation, previously scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Eastern time, will now begin at 8:00 a.m. Eastern time, 7:00 a.m. Central time, on Wednesday, June 8, 2016, and will be available to investors via a live audio webcast. A link to the broadcast can be found at the investor relations section of the Company's website, www.chs.net, and a replay will be available for 30 days using that same link.



Community Health Systems, Inc. is one of the largest publicly traded hospital companies in the United States and a leading operator of general acute care hospitals in communities across the country. Through its subsidiaries, the Company currently owns, leases or operates 159 affiliated hospitals in 22 states with an aggregate of approximately 27,000 licensed beds. The Company's headquarters are located in Franklin, Tennessee, a suburb south of Nashville. Shares in Community Health Systems, Inc. are traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "CYH." More information about the Company can be found on its website at www.chs.net.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160607006785/en/

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Padwa Joins DarrowEverett

After six distinguished years in public service at both the municipal and state levels, Jeffrey M. Padwa, Esq. is joining the law firm of DarrowEverett LLP as a partner, the firm announced today.

This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160607006787/en/

Padwa Joins DarrowEverett (Photo: Business Wire)

Padwa, of Providence, brings more than 20 years of private and public law practice to DarrowEverett, offering deep experience in regulatory matters such as zoning, city planning, licensing and tax appeals as well as complex litigation, internal investigatons and negotiating and drafting contracts and legislation. In addition, Padwa has experience in handling federal investigations conducted by the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission and other agencies.







In announcing the appointment, Zachary Darrow, chairman of DarrowEverett said: "We are thrilled that Jeff has joined our team. His combination of extraordinary legal expertise, business acumen and thoughtful leadership will further bolster our great team of advisors across our firm's national offices."

"I am very excited about the opportunity to start the next chapter in my career at DarrowEverett and to represent businesses looking to grow and prosper throughout the region," Padwa said.

Padwa is a 1985 graduate of Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia and received his Juris Doctor, cum laude in 1992 from Suffolk University Law School, Boston, Massachusetts. Padwa is admitted to practice in the state and federal courts of Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

About DarrowEverett LLP:

With offices in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New York and Florida, DarrowEverett LLP is a full service business law firm with a wealth of experience in a myriad of fields, including mergers & acquisitions, private equity and joint ventures, real estate development and land use, all forms of leasing, condominiums, hospitality, corporate and real estate finance, securities, commercial transactions, health care, personal and corporate tax matters, estate planning, and commercial litigation. DarrowEverett legal and business advisors have substantial knowledge and experience on both the business and legal side of transactional and non-transactional matters.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160607006787/en/
[June 08, 2016] Singapore Payments Companies Selected for Wells Fargo Startup Accelerator

Wells Fargo (News - Alert) (NYSE: WFC) announced today that it has selected two early stage payments companies - Alpha Payments Cloud and Jewel Paymentech - for investments of up to $500,000 for the spring 2016 class of the Wells Fargo Startup Accelerator, a non-exclusive, six-month, semiannual program where Wells Fargo mentors and helps startups refine their potential breakthrough technologies for financial services and other applications. Wells Fargo business and technology leaders will work closely with the incoming accelerator participants to test their concepts for merchants and guide them through the process of bringing their ideas to market. Wells Fargo is now accepting applications worldwide through June 26 for its fall 2016 class at https://accelerator.wellsfargo.com. "Regularly collaborating with startups on a wide range of technologies through the Startup Accelerator helps Wells Fargo explore big ideas outside our walls and industry for our customers' benefit," says Steve Ellis, head of Wells Fargo's Innovation Group, which serves as the catalyst for transformational change across Wells Fargo. "We're excited to invest in Alpha Payments Cloud and Jewel Paymentech through our Startup Accelerator. Their solutions are particularly interesting for merchants in terms of facilitating international payments and minimizing transaction fraud risk." New Class of Spring 2016: Alpha Payments Cloud (Singapore) consolidates the broad payments spectrum onto one payments-as-a-service platform called the AlphaHub that enables banks, merchants, payment service providers (PSPs), and independent sales organizations (ISOs) to access any payment type and any solution provider from anywhere in the world through application program interfaces (APIs). The depth and range of connected service providers and solutions span across the entire transactional, risk management, and commerce solution spectrum.







"Despite the wave of payments innovation, there is a massive disconnect across legacy acquirers on how to capitalize on it," said Oliver Rajic, CEO at Alpha Payments Cloud. "The AlphaHub introduces vendor ubiquity and interoperability, whilst also offering banks a pathway to this now critical agility and value creation by embracing - not disrupting - their current technological framework. Working with Wells Fargo allows us to learn from one of the world's most significant and experienced banks and managed service providers (MSPs) and draw upon its deep knowledge pool to continue to evolve our solution and stay ahead of the game."

consolidates the broad payments spectrum onto one payments-as-a-service platform called the AlphaHub that enables banks, merchants, payment service providers (PSPs), and independent sales organizations (ISOs) to access any payment type and any solution provider from anywhere in the world through application program interfaces (APIs). The depth and range of connected service providers and solutions span across the entire transactional, risk management, and commerce solution spectrum. "Despite the wave of payments innovation, there is a massive disconnect across legacy acquirers on how to capitalize on it," said Oliver Rajic, CEO at Alpha Payments Cloud. "The AlphaHub introduces vendor ubiquity and interoperability, whilst also offering banks a pathway to this now critical agility and value creation by embracing - not disrupting - their current technological framework. Working with Wells Fargo allows us to learn from one of the world's most significant and experienced banks and managed service providers (MSPs) and draw upon its deep knowledge pool to continue to evolve our solution and stay ahead of the game." Jewel Paymentech (Singapore), a financial risk technology company, develops intelligent risk solutions for the banking and electronic payments industry. Jewel's solutions help banks and payment facilitators conduct research and analysis on merchants and manage transaction fraud risks by using predictive analytics. Jewel also offers automated real-time solutions to large merchants, such as online marketplaces, to identify illegal and counterfeit goods.



"We are excited that Wells Fargo has recognized our technology," said Sean Lam, CEO at Jewel Paymentech. "It affirms our vision in delivering intelligent merchant risk solutions, especially amidst the challenges of a changing payments landscape." Wells Fargo's Startup Accelerator team looks to work with innovators in areas including: analytics, mobile, cybersecurity, payments, lending, user-interaction design, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, digital marketing, and operations. Wells Fargo pairs each startup with a mentor who provides education and guidance around the process of approaching and selling products and services to a Fortune 500 company, as the demands, scale, and requirements are unique for a company this size.

An example of a Wells Fargo Startup Accelerator success story is EyeVerify, one of the three companies chosen in August 2014 to participate in the inaugural class of the program. Wells Fargo is launching a biometric authentication technology provided by EyeVerify for its corporate customers. EyeVerify's Eyeprint ID captures an image of the veins and micro features in and around the eye of users' eyes to verify their identity using the front-facing camera on their mobile device. Since its inception in 2014, the Wells Fargo Startup Accelerator has received applications from more than 800 innovative companies in over 40 countries. Also, the Wells Fargo Startup Accelerator was named in March 2016 a top U.S. fintech accelerator by eFinancialCareers. About Wells Fargo Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is a diversified, community-based financial services company with $1.8 trillion in assets. Founded in 1852 and headquartered in San Francisco, Wells Fargo provides banking, insurance, investments, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance through 8,800 locations, 13,000 ATMs, the internet (wellsfargo.com) and mobile banking, and has offices in 36 countries to support customers who conduct business in the global economy. With approximately 269,000 team members, Wells Fargo serves one in three households in the United States. Wells Fargo & Company was ranked No. 30 on Fortune's 2015 rankings of America's largest corporations. Wells Fargo's vision is to satisfy our customers' financial needs and help them succeed financially. Wells Fargo perspectives are also available at Wells Fargo Blogs and Wells Fargo Stories. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160608005681/en/

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[June 08, 2016] SolarWorld Donates 50 kW of Solar Panels to Provide Clean Power for Haiti Hospital

SolarWorld, the largest U.S. crystalline-silicon solar manufacturer for more than 40 years, announced today that the company's donation of 50 kilowatts of high-performance solar panels has enabled a hospital in Bonne Fin, Haiti, to dramatically reduce reliance on expensive and faulty diesel generators. This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160608005060/en/ A volunteer with Smucker's Energy of Pennsylvania puts final touches on an installation of SolarWorld solar panels atop Hospital Lumiere in Bonne Fin, Haiti. SolarWorld donated 50 kilowatts of solar panels to dramatically reduce the hospital's reliance on expensive and faulty diesel generators. Credit: Eric Forberger for SolarWorld. SolarWorld donated the solar panels for Hospital Lumiere - a nonprofit, 120-bed primary care and medical-surgical hospital operated by Apostolic Christian HarvestCall - through the company's Solar2World program, which provides solar panels for community-oriented, rural-electrification projects in developing economies. Smucker's Energy, a SolarWorld Authorized Installer based in Lancaster County, Pa., designed and built the system at cost with a volunteer crew and reduced engineering cost from engineer of record, Michael P. Manlove, based in Hershey, Pa. Solar World distributor Civic Solar provided engineering support and major components at reduced cost. A video released today portrays the project. On the opening day of the fourth annual SolarWorld Installer Summit on Tuesday, June 7, in Portland, Ore., SolarWorld also bestowed a humanitarian award on Smucker's Energy for its work on the project (see other award winners below). A blog about the project is published on SolarWorld's website.



"Helping those in need is a family tradition; being a family business, it's something we've done with Smucker's Energy from the start," said John Smucker, president and owner of Smucker's Energy. "I've been to Haiti several times, and the need there is great. We feel strongly about contributing and about quality. We wanted to provide this charitable install with the same high-quality solar modules we use in the states, and SolarWorld helped make that happen. It's very important to use high-quality modules; they hold up longer and produce more over a system's lifetime." In addition to serving a local population estimated at 60,000 residents, Hospital Lumiere (Creole for "Hospital of Light") is known for admitting patients who travel across Haiti to benefit from the hospital's care, regardless of their religious faith or ability to pay.

Located in mountains about 5 hours by vehicle from the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, the hospital lacks electric utility services. Instead, the hospital formerly depended on hydroelectric and diesel generators for power, which were subject to continual fuel and maintenance costs as well as power disruptions that undermined patient treatment, expensive medical equipment and proper medicine storage. A solar-and-battery installation totaling 84 kilowatts, undertaken in late winter, now is expected to provide nearly all of the hospital's energy needs. SolarWorld provided solar panels for a hospital in Haiti before the earthquake disaster on Jan. 12, 2010; thereafter, it donated panels for three other hospital projects, not including Lumiere. "Six years after the earthquake, the people of Haiti still need a lot of help," said Mukesh Dulani, president of SolarWorld Americas Inc., based in Oregon. "Our donated solar panels are now powering at least five hospitals in Haiti, demonstrating the clean power of solar to generate electricity for what should be clean, quiet and safe care facilities. Solar panels require no fuel, moving parts, noise or emissions to do their jobs. For those reasons, they are ideal for powering health-care facilities in energy-restricted locales such as Haiti." Other award winners were Corporate Sustainability Champion, Reckitt Benckiser Group; Most Valued Partner, PetersenDean Inc.; Woman Solar Leader of the Year, Valerie Serrato, PetersenDean; Excellence in Customer Service, Infinity Solar Inc.; Solar Champion, Secure Futures; American-made Advocate, North State Solar Energy; and 2015 Highest Volume Registrations, Robco Electric Inc. About SolarWorld REAL VALUE: SolarWorld manufactures and sells high-tech solar power solutions and, in doing so, contributes to a cleaner energy supply worldwide. The group, headquartered in Bonn, Germany, employs about 3,800 people and carries out production in Freiberg, Germany; Arnstadt, Germany; and Hillsboro, Oregon, USA. From raw material silicon to solar wafers, cells and modules, SolarWorld manages all stages of production ? including its own research and development. Through an international distribution network with locations in the United States, Europe, Singapore, Japan and South Africa, SolarWorld supplies customers all over the world. The company maintains high social standards at all locations across the globe, and it has committed itself to resource- and energy-efficient production. SolarWorld was founded in 1998 and has been publicly traded on the stock market since 1999. Connect with SolarWorld on Facebook, Twitter (News - Alert) and www.solarworld.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160608005060/en/

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Young Scientists Honored in Washington, DC for Their Winning Innovations in World's Largest K-12 Science Competition

This week, science students from across the United States and Canada will travel to Washington, D.C. to be honored for their achievements as national winners of the 24th annual ExploraVision program, the world's largest K-12 science competition. Sponsored by Toshiba and administered by the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), the ExploraVision competition challenges students to use scientific research to imagine future technologies that will solve problems in our world.

On Thursday, June 9, the eight winning teams of the competition will spend the day on Capitol Hill to meet with members of Congress and their staff as they exhibit their winning projects during a STEM Education Science Fair. They will also participate in a Senate panel to discuss the importance of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education with policymakers.

On Friday, June 10, the student teams will formally present their projects during the ExploraVision Science Showcase at the National Press Club. The celebration will culminate that evening with the ExploraVision Gala Awards Banquet, where special guests from Toshiba (News - Alert) and NSTA will honor the teams' creativity and achievements.

The ExploraVision competition encourages students to expand their imaginations and practice their teamwork, problem-solving and creative-thinking skills, while further developing an interest in STEM. Students of all ages are asked to think ahead 20 years into the future and propose an idea for a new technology based on a challenge or limitation of what exists today. (See below for complete list of winning projects.)

STEM Education Science Fair and Panel

The STEM Education Science Fair will take place on Thursday, June 9 from 9:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. in the foyer of the Rayburn House Office Building. Students will showcase their projects and prototypes to members of Congress and their staff.

The Senate STEM Panel will feature ExploraVision student winners, teachers and mentors, all of whom will share their experiences in the competition, discuss the importance of STEM education, and answer questions from members of the audience in G-50 Dirksen Senate Office Building.

Science Showcase and Gala Awards Banquet

During the Science Showcase on Friday, June 10, the eight student teams will display their innovative prototypes and self-designed project websites to visually demonstrate their proposed solutions. The students will present to members of the press, their peers, parents, educators, NSTA board and council members, and leaders in education policy, including Melissa Moritz, Deputy Director of STEM at the US Department of Education; and Joyce Ward; Intellectual Property Attorney, Education Coordinator, Office of the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property & Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The Science Showcase will also be attended by several leaders of the NSTA, including Dr. Mary Gromko, President; and Dr. David Evans, Executive Director; Dr. Arthur Eisenkraft, ExploraVision Co-Creator and Head Judge; and Mr. John Anderson, President, Toshiba America Foundation.

At the Gala Awards Banquet that evening, speakers will include Bill Nye "The Science Guy," Dr. Arthur Eisenkraft; Dr. Naoto Nishida, Corporate Executive Vice President and General Executive, Research & Development Division, Toshiba Corporation; Dr. Mary Gromko, NSTA President; and Dr. Eleanor Ross, former ExploraVision winner and a practicing pediatric cardiologist at Children's Hospital in Chicago.

More Than Just a Science Competition

More than 4,000 team projects were entered in the Toshiba/NSTA ExploraVision competition this year, representing nearly 15,000 students from across the United States and Canada. This year's winning projects ranged from a magnesium-infused bulletproof vest to an edible water bottle.

Members of the four first place ExploraVision national winning teams will each receive a $10,000 U.S. Series EE Savings Bond (at maturity). Members of the second place national winning teams will each receive a $5,000 U.S. Series EE Savings Bond (at maturity). Canadian winners will receive bonds purchased for the equivalent issue price in Canadian dollars.

The Toshiba/NSTA ExploraVision program, is open to all K-12 U.S. and Canadian students who are citizens or legal residents, and is just one of a host of Toshiba-sponsored programs that encourage STEM literacy. For example, past ExploraVision participants in grades 8-11, as well as NSTA-member high school teachers are eligible to apply to the TOMADACHI Toshiba Science & Technology Leadership Academy, a week-long, cross-cultural exchange program where students and teachers from Japan and the United States work in teams to develop proposed solutions to global issues using learning experiences that are central to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). To learn more about the eight students, four teachers and two teaching assistants who will travel to Tokyo in August for this opportunity, visit http://www.toshiba.com/csr/education_tomodachi_stem.jsp.







For more information or to access an application for the 2016/2017 program, visit www.exploravision.org or e-mail [email protected]. Follow ExploraVision on Twitter (News - Alert) at @ToshibaInnovate or join the ExploraVision Facebook (News - Alert) Fan Page at www.Facebook.com/ToshibaInnovation.

Toshiba/NSTA ExploraVision 2016 National Winners

2016 First Place Winners

Grade K-3: The Tick Detective

Bayville Intermediate, Bayville, N.Y.

Website: http://nstawebdirector.wix.com/thetickdetective

Grade 4-6: Hubble NEST (Next Elimination of Space Trash)

Locust Valley Intermediate School, Locust Valley, N.Y.

Website: http://nstawebdirector.wix.com/hubblenest

Grade 7-9: Bulletproof Vests

Rothesay Netherwood School, Rothesay, New Brunswick

Website: http://dev.nsta.org/evwebs/2195g/

Grade 10-12: BEISight: Bionic Eye Implant for Sight

University Laboratory High School, Urbana, Ill.

Website: http://dev.nsta.org/evwebs/2638b/

2016 Second Place Winners

Grade K-3: Triple-E: Edible, Electrolyte Balanced, Eco-Friendly Water Bottle

Chapman Hill, Salem, Ore.

Website: http://dev.nsta.org/evwebs/1458a/

Grade 4-6: A.P.P.: Anti-Paralysis Procedure

The Village School, Houston, Texas

Website: http://nstawebdirector.wix.com/app-ex-1

Grade 7-9: The VISOR: A Neuro-olfaction Device for Perceiving Smell Remotely

Arlington High School, Lagrangeville, N.Y.

Website: http://dev.nsta.org/evwebs/3978m/

Grade 10-12: Intra-Neuromuscular Cellular Regeneration Promoter

Plainview-Old Bethpage John F. Kennedy High School, Plainview, N.Y.

Website: http://dev.nsta.org/evwebs/4804b/

About Toshiba

Founded in 1965, Toshiba America, Inc. (TAI) is a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Toshiba Corporation and the holding company of six Toshiba operating companies that offer a broad range of products and solutions for the residential, commercial, and industrial sectors. The six companies, which along with TAI are known collectively as Toshiba America Group, are Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. (Semiconductor and storage solutions), Toshiba America Energy Systems, Corp. (Power generation solutions), Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc. (Digital products), Toshiba America Nuclear Energy Inc. (Nuclear power solutions), Toshiba International Corporation (Industrial, power electronics & transmission & distribution solutions), and Toshiba America Research, Inc. (R&D).

For more information visit www.toshiba.com

About NSTA

The Arlington, VA-based National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) is the largest professional organization in the world promoting excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all. NSTA's current membership includes approximately 55,000 science teachers, science supervisors, administrators, scientists, business and industry representatives, and others involved in science education.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160608005109/en/
[June 07, 2016] Trilliant honored for EVN and TNB projects at Asia Utility Week 2016 Awards

BANGKOK, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Two important energy infrastructure projects utilizing the Trilliant Smart Grid Communications Platform won top honors at Asian Utility Week 2016. Trilliant was honored with Ho Chi Minh Power Corporation in Vietnam (EVNHCMC) for the region's "Best Digital Transformation Project." Trilliant was also named with Malaysia's Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) and other partners for the "Best Customer Value AMI Infrastructure Rollout." Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150127/171757LOGO "As economic growth in Southeast Asia drives the need for smart energy solutions, we applaud the efforts of leading utilities like TNB and EVNHCMC to lay the foundation," said Bryan Spear, managing director for APAC. "It's an honor to be able to contribute and to see our solutions recognized in this year's awards." The Asia Utility Week onference attracted over 2,000 attendees and the awards dinner hosted 250 of Asia's most renowned industry professionals.



Tenaga Nasional Berhad won the "Best Customer Value AMI Infrastructure Rollout" award. Installation will begin this year in the state of Malacca as part of TNB's multi-year upgrade to smart meters/AMI, announced in 2014, to give customers greater control over their energy use. This award celebrates the achievements within the past year of AMI Infrastructure and smart grid rollouts or comprehensive trials of integrated systems of smart meters, communications networks and data management systems. The judges looked at the following factors when making their decision:

Size of the rollout;

Whether the rollout offers superior customer value;

Degree of interoperability, open architecture, system performance and security;

Having the right product, servicing the customer properly and delivering in a timely fashion. Trilliant's EVNHCMC project won the "Best Digital Transformation Project" category. This award celebrates the accomplishments within the past year of a utility digital transformation that cost-effectively improved utility performance across key organizational goals including revenue generation, network performance, large-scale integration of renewable resources, improving workforce management, engaging customers, advancing operational excellence and improving energy efficiency. For this project, Trilliant delivered an end-to-end RF mesh communications platform for Ho Chi Minh City, providing a secure network connecting EVNHCMC's metering infrastructure with the "who's who" of global tech firms at Saigon Hi-Tech Park. About Trilliant

Trilliant offers the energy industry's only enterprise-wide Smart Communications Platform for connecting the internet of things (IoT) through a secure, standards-based, multi-technology, open spectrum solution. With three decades' experience and the most field-proven and globally compliant solution, Trilliant maximizes smart grid and smart city investments and makes operations future-ready. www.trilliantinc.com





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[June 08, 2016] QuEST Forum Announces Second Annual Global Sustainability Awards Winners

DALLAS, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- QuEST Forum, a global organization dedicated to quality and sustainability in the ICT community, named today the winners of its Second Annual Global Sustainability Awards. This honor recognizes organizations achieving excellence and showcasing energy, passion and innovation in corporate sustainability. QuEST Forum is actively involved in issues related to sustainability and looks to its members to take leadership roles in sustainable practices. QuEST Forum created the Sustainability Awards to promote, encourage and honor the efforts of those serving as leaders in the field of Sustainability. Entrants in the competition measured their performance against the QuEST Forum model to demonstrate their progress to date. The winning companies were honored during a reception and ceremony on Tuesday evening at a VIP Dinner hosted by The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) during their Network of the Future Conference in Dallas, TX. The winners of the 2016 QuEST Forum Global Sustainability Awards are: BEST OVERALL PERFORMANCE AWARD: Sector Supply Sector Supply operates within a mature companywide quality management system designed and implemented to conform to the highest industry standards, including ISO 9001:2008, TL 9000, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001. Every department at Sector Supply is trained, monitored and internally audited on a regular basis to ensure procedures are followed and our customers' requirements are being met. In addition, their Texas headquarters, test lab, and distribution center are registered and audited annually by 3rd party registrars to provide independent confirmation of their quality and business excellence certifications.



MOST IMPROVED AWARD: Argent Associates Argent Associates, founded in 1998, is a company focused on new technology, reselling and distribution services. Within the last 18 years, it has evolved from a Value-Added Reseller to a multi-division company providing engineering, technology development, sustainability, and cloud based solutions. As a supply chain innovator, Argent combines cloud based internet-of-things applications with logistics systems to monitor, predict and optimize supply chains. Argent Associates' mission is to offer innovative supply chain solutions that deliver real-time information, increase security, introduce process efficiencies and deliver high quality products and services to our customers while protecting the environment.

With over 30 global organizations now participating in the QuEST Forum Sustainability Initiative (SI), QuEST Forum wanted to give organizations an opportunity to be publicly recognized and rewarded as leaders in corporate sustainability. Fraser Pajak, CEO of QuEST Forum said, "Only in its second year, participation in the QuEST Forum Global Sustainability Awards has really taken off. I was truly impressed by the number of submissions we received. There were so many examples of companies doing exemplary work in the area of sustainability. The real challenge here was narrowing it down to only two winners!" He goes on to say, "As an organization, we are very fortunate to have so many companies participating and passionately supporting the growth of QuEST Forum's Sustainability Initiative. I thank each and every one of them for their continued support." QuEST Forum's Sustainability Initiative is open to all companies in ICT, and has no cost requirements to participate. Those wishing to compete for the awards in 2017 need only to join in this great work, improve their performance and enter to win next year. For more information on how to participate, click here. About QuEST Forum QuEST Forum is a global association of companies dedicated to impacting the quality and sustainability of products and services in the ICT industry. We are very unique in that we create a collaborative environment for service providers and suppliers, who are often times competitors, to come together and develop innovative solutions to relevant industry issues. QuEST Forum unifies the ICT community through the implementation of TL 9000 (an ICT specific quality management system that is built on ISO 9001), performance benchmarking, and a broad array of common metrics that support the rapid industry adoption of new technologies and consistent quality of communication networks around the world. CONTACT: Megan Crawley [email protected] Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160608/376903 Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160608/376904 To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/quest-forum-announces-second-annual-global-sustainability-awards-winners-300281579.html SOURCE QuEST Forum

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[June 08, 2016] First Sino-US Sharing Economy Industry Conference Held in San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The Sino-US Sharing Economy Industry Conference of 2016 took place in San Francisco on May 31st to June 2nd. The conference sponsored by Sharing Economy Committee of Internet Society of China, brought together representatives from Chinese government, and experts from educational and corporate institutions to discuss the future development of sharing economy between US and China. The participants included representatives from Chinese Academy of Cyberspace Studies, Internet Society of China, NY University, Stanford University, as well as "pioneers" of the sharing economy in the US and China, such as Airbnb, Didi Chuxing, Lyft, WeWork and others. Sharing economy is growing at an unprecedented rates in China and the Chinese government has increasingly recognized its importance for sustainable economic development. During the conference, Chinese Representatives shared the insights and latest examples of sharing economy in China. Xi Jingjing, Vice President of the Working Committee of Sharing Economy of InternetSociety of China, stated that more than 500 million people in China had already participated in sharing economy market. Moreover, sharing economy is expected to continue growing at 40% per year in the next 5 years in China.



Experts from the US also introduced their latest findings. Professor Arun Sundararajan from New York University underlined that the development process from industrial economy to sharing economy is also a transformation process from an institution-based management mode to a crowd-based mode. April Rinne, a sharing economy advisor explained that each city around the world is opening to the concept of sharing economy. Since each city in China has its own distinctive features as well as the big development potential, companies in China should continue developing based on specific features of different cities. Chinese delegation also visited several "pioneers" of the US sharing economy, including Airbnb, Lyft and WeWork. In the meetings the senior management of these companies has shared the best practices of sharing economy in different fields, including short-term rental, transportation and office sharing.

About Sharing Economy Committee: Established in Dec 13 2015, Sharing Economy Committee of Internet Society of China has been attracting extensive attentions. More than 60 units have established the membership with the committee, covering 7 major fields, including companies such as Airbnb, DiDi Chuxing, Ant Financial and WiFi Master Key etc. The committee has been making continuous efforts with respect to research, industrial regulation, innovative venture and international communication and has issued the first development report on the sharing economy in China. To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/first-sino-us-sharing-economy-industry-conference-held-in-san-francisco-300281475.html SOURCE Sharing Economy Committee

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[June 08, 2016] PlaceWiz Social Networking App Lets Users Find, Save and Share Favorite Places and Services Around the World

FLOWER MOUND, Texas, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- A new social networking app is poised to make finding and sharing the best places and service providers easier than ever before. PlaceWiz connects millions of people and places worldwide, all within an elegant and simple user interface. Developed for iPhone users, PlaceWiz is free and available now from the App Store. (Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160607/376785) (Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160607/376784) "We built PlaceWiz to meet the constant need to locate the best services in any given area, whether in one's own community or while traveling in a new area," says CEO and Founder Juan Rodriguez. "The app encourages users to share their favorite places and services with friends and family. A trusted recommendation can do wonders for a business, and the social sharing aspect of PlaceWiz should help the cream rise to the top. Users will definitely appreciate the intuitive design ad strong performance of the app. If you can find it on Google, you can find it on PlaceWiz."



PlaceWiz users don't need to know the name of any particular place or service. Instead, the app allows for category searches. Those looking for health care providers and specialists can even search using diagnostic codes. The range of services that are searchable via the app is immense. Everything from schools and clinics to car mechanics, contractors and spas can be located in a matter of moments. Once a search is complete, users can quickly make a call, get driving directions, visit a service's website or read success stories by category  all from within PlaceWiz. The social dimension of PlaceWiz is quite robust. Users can create and share "boards" that include all of their favorite places and service providers. Likewise, users can follow those places that interest them, receive notifications when anyone reviews or comments on a place, and even follow other users who seem to have similar interests.

PlaceWiz provides all of the features and tools to act as a mobile Rolodex for the digital age, but with more information and options than could ever fit on paper cards. Users can save all of their most frequented places and services for quick access. On the other hand, PlaceWiz can be used to curate lists of potential places to visit during a vacation. The app's versatility is why its developers expect it to have broad appeal. People can use PlaceWiz to help themselves or to help friends and family members, or both. Most importantly, the app is more focused and intuitive than Google searching, which often returns results that are too broad to be efficient and useful. About PlaceWiz PlaceWiz is a smart, social and powerful tool that helps people explore, save and share millions of places from around the neighborhood  or the world. Anyone can quickly and conveniently find, follow and share the places that people in their communities like the most. Contact: Juan Rodriguez

214-223-2014

Email To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/placewiz-social-networking-app-lets-users-find-save-and-share-favorite-places-and-services-around-the-world-300281505.html SOURCE PlaceWiz

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[June 08, 2016] App-X V.P. Jeff Williams to Moderate Panel Discussion at P.E.I.'s Investor Relations and Communications Forum

App-X, the leading provider of flexible, web-based software solutions for Alternative Asset Fund Managers, Institutional Investors, and Impact Investors, announced that Vice President Jeff Williams will be moderating a panel at Private Equity International's upcoming Investor Relations and Communications Forum, to be held at the Convene Conference Center in New York City from June 14-15, 2016. Mr. Williams will lead a discussion with other industry leaders titled "Responding to LP demands for separate accounts," at 9:50 a.m. ET on June 14. The session will specifically tackle the pros and cons of separate accounts from both the LP and GP perspectives, as well as current trends in utilizing these vehicles in asset allocation and risk reduction strategies. "App-X is a proud sponsor of PEI's Investor Relations and Communications Forum this year, and is looking forward to a great discussion," noted Mr. Williams. "As investors continue t seek more customized and transparent investment vehicles, it's no surprise that demand for Separately Managed Accounts among LPs is on the rise. The time is definitely right to examine how they have evolved, and explore what their future may hold."



App-X's prominent role at the Investor Relations and Communications Forum highlights the company's on-going focus in this field. The announcement follows last week's launch of AIM Inbox powered by ZynBit, which seamlessly integrates App-X's core AIM product with Microsoft (News - Alert) Outlook and allows its private equity clients to utilize CRM data without leaving their inbox. App-X plans to leverage insights from the event to continue developing innovative ways to improve prospecting, fundraising and marketing processes for its clients, facilitating the roles of investor relations and communications. Joining Mr. Williams on the panel will be Andrew Bernstein, Managing Director of Capital Dynamics; Dale J. Meyer, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Revelstoke Capital Partners; Sid Murdeshwar, Principal at AlpInvest, and Jordan Peer, Managing Director and Global head of Capital Formation (News - Alert), H.I.G. Capital.

Now in its eleventh year, the conference is the premier event for anyone responsible for the vital functions of IR, fundraising and communicating with LPs, prospective investors, media and other important stakeholders. About App-X

Application Experts, App-X, is the leading provider of flexible, web-based software solutions for Alternative Asset Fund Managers, Institutional Investors, and Impact Investors. The firm's proven knowledge of the alternative asset industry has resulted in hundreds of successful implementations and a suite of software solutions that provide a distinct competitive advantage to their clients. To learn more visit: http://www.app-x.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160608005556/en/

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[June 08, 2016] Dairy Herd Management Market Worth 2.90 Billion USD by 2021

PUNE, India, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- According to a new market research report "Dairy Herd Management Market by Product (Hardware (Milk, Fertility, Feeding, & Cattle Management Systems), Software (On-Premise & Web-Based)), Application (Milk Harvesting, Reproduction, Heat Stress, & Calf Management), and Region - Global Forecast to 2021", published by MarketsandMarkets, The market is estimated at USD 1.99 Billion in 2016 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 7.8% during the forecast period to reach USD 2.90 Billion by 2021. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160303/792302 ) Browse 87 market data Tables with 36 Figures spread through 148 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Dairy Herd Management Market" http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/dairy-herd-management-market-36572220.html Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report. This report studies the global dairy herd management market over the forecast period of 2016 to 2021. The report analyzes and studies the major market drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Rest of the World. Based on product, the global dairy herd management market is broadly categorized into hardware & systems and standalone software. The hardware & systems segment includes milk management systems, fertility management systems, feeding management systems, cattle management systems, and accessories; whereas the standalone software segment includes on premise software and web-based/cloud-based software. The hardware & systems segment is estimated to account for the largest share of the dairy herd management market in 2016; this large share is attributed to the rising demand for herd management systems as well as dairy products, increasing preference for automated hardware and systems, technological advancements, and increasing number of dairy cattle globally. The standalone software segment is estimated to grow at the higher CAGR from 2016 to 2021 primarily driven by the growing use of software-enabled recording, storage, retrieval, analysis, and dissemination of information about a large number of dairy animals. On the basis of application, the global dairy herd management market is segmented into milk harvesting, reproduction management, animal comfort, calf management, feeding manageent, heat stress management, and other applications (genetic management, cattle sorting, weighing, data analysis, decision support, and financial management). The milk harvesting segment is expected to account for the largest share of the dairy herd management market in 2016. A number of factors such as increasing preference for automated milk harvesting systems, high focus of farmers towards increasing milk yield, and growing demand for dairy products are driving the market growth in this application segment. The reproduction management segment is estimated to grow at the highest CAGR from 2016 to 2021; the high growth in this segment is predominantly driven by the rising availability of innovative reproductive technologies such as artificial insemination (AI) for proper management of cattle in the gestation period.



In 2016, Europe is estimated to account for the largest share of the global dairy herd management market. The increasing number of dairy cows, high efficiency ratio along with positive growth rate of milk production, significant contribution of dairy industry, and large pool of dairy exports in Europe are driving the market growth in the region. The APAC dairy herd management market is expected to witness the highest growth during the forecast period owing to the increasing demand for milk and milk products as a result of the rising population, growing disposable incomes, rapid urbanization, and implementation of government initiatives towards the development of the dairy farming industry. Talk to our Expert: http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownload.asp?id=36572220

The key players in the Dairy Herd Management Market include Afimilk Ltd. (Israel), BouMatic (U.S.), Dairy Master (Ireland), DeLaval (Sweden), GEA Group AG (Germany), Infovet (India), Lely Holdings S.A.R.L (Netherlands), SCR Dairy, Inc. (Israel), Sum-It Computer Systems, Ltd. (U.K.), and Valley Agriculture Software (U.S.) Browse Related Reports: Veterinary Software Market by Product (Practice Management Software, & Imaging Software), Delivery Model (On-Premise, & Cloud/ Web-based), Practice Type (Small Animal, Mixed, & Large Animal), & End User (Veterinary Clinics, & Laboratory) - Forecast to 2019 Veterinary Equipment and Disposables Market by product (Anaesthesia Machine, Vaporizer, Ventilator, Patient Monitoring Devices, Oxygen Mask, Infusion Pump), by Animal (Canine, Feline, Equine, Bovine, Zoo Animals & Others) - Global Forecast to 2020 http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/veterinary-equipment-disposables-market-14169630.html About MarketsandMarkets MarketsandMarkets is the world's No. 2 firm in terms of annually published premium market research reports. Serving 1700 global fortune enterprises with more than 1200 premium studies in a year, M&M is catering to a multitude of clients across 8 different industrial verticals. We specialize in consulting assignments and business research across high growth markets, cutting edge technologies and newer applications. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model - GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. M&M's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "RT" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets. The new included chapters on Methodology and Benchmarking presented with high quality analytical infographics in our reports gives complete visibility of how the numbers have been arrived and defend the accuracy of the numbers. We at MarketsandMarkets are inspired to help our clients grow by providing apt business insight with our huge market intelligence repository. Contact:

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[June 08, 2016] Technology Investment Priorities in Australian Mining, 2016

LONDON, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Synopsis This report provides a detailed analysis of investment intentions across different areas of technology in the Australian mining sector. The analysis is based upon Timetric's survey of 100 mine, general, maintenance, and procurement managers, including other mine-site and corporate decision-makers. The focus is on what technologies mines currently have, and in which technologies they are planning to invest over the next two years.



Areas of analysis include:



- Mining companies' intentions for investments in the coming two years, across a range of mine-site technologies including UAVs/drones, remote control/machine automation, real-time video training, collision avoidance/proximity detection, energy management and predictive maintenance.



- Comparisons of investment intentions across segments, including four commodity groups, three mine types, five mine-size categories and company revenues.



- Comparisons highlighting differences between current and prospective investments across three major states: Western Australia, Queensland and New South Wales.



- Specific insight into the software platforms each mine site is using across five different mine site departments, with details of market leaders and their software products.



- Comparison of the penetration of technologies in 2014 contrasted to current investment levels in 2016.



Summary

Overall trends in the data revealed:



- The primary technologies expected to see the greatest increases in penetration over the next two years are UAVs/drones, followed by remote control/machine automation, and real-time video training.



- 80% of mines have already invested in collision avoidance, scheduling and shift optimization, tire monitoring, predictive maintenance, fleet management and environmental monitoring technologies.



- UAVs/drones have the least penetration of the technologies with only 40% currently invested. This was followed by real time video training with 42% of mines invested.



- The greatest increase in penetration over the last two years has been in collision voidance technologies, with expectations in Timetric's 2014 survey far exceeded. Fleet management, tire monitoring and fatigue management technologies were other fields that also exceeded investment expectations from Timetric's previous survey in 2014.







- Markets expected to have the greatest increases in technology penetration over the next 2 years are expected in Queensland and within the coal and precious metals sectors.



- Companies with revenues below US$1 billion are planning more investments over the next two years than all other companies.





- Vulcan is the most used software, nominated by 33% of the mines This was followed by Surpac with 16% and Xpac with 10%.



Scope

The report is based on responses from a survey of 100 senior decision makers at operating Australian mines, responsible for the purchase of equipment for plant and mine operations, along with consumables and services. The mines are located across eight different states and territories, with Western Australia , Queensland and New South Wales accounting for 88% of the mines. This included four main commodity groups and a range of surface and underground mining operations.



Reasons To Buy

- Understand which technologies have and are attracting the most investment, and how this varies by commodity group, mine type, global company revenue and Australian state.



- Target the segments with the greatest opportunity for technology products and services.



- Segment the market according to those fully invested, and those planning to make new investments into each technology.



Key Highlights

- The primary technologies expected to see the greatest increases in penetration over the next two years are UAVs/drones, followed by remote control/machine automation, and real-time video training.



- 80% of mines have already invested in collision-avoidance, scheduling and shift optimization, tire monitoring, predictive maintenance, fleet management and environmental monitoring technologies.



- UAVs/drones have the least penetration of the technologies with only 40% currently invested. This was followed by real-time video training with 42% of mines invested.



- The greatest increase in penetration over the last two years has been in collision avoidance technologies, with expectations in Timetric's 2014 survey far exceeded. Fleet management, tire monitoring and fatigue management technologies were other fields that also exceeded investment expectations from Timetric's previous survey in 2014.



- Markets expected to have the greatest increases in technology penetration over the next 2 years are expected in Queensland and within the coal and precious metals sectors.



- Companies with revenues below US$1 billion are planning more investments over the next two years than all other companies.



- Vulcan is the most used software, nominated by 33% of the mines This was followed by Surpac with 16% and Xpac with 10%. Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/2216527/



About Reportbuyer

Reportbuyer is a leading industry intelligence solution that provides all market research reports from top publishers

http://www.reportbuyer.com



For more information:

Sarah Smith

Research Advisor at Reportbuyer.com

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +44 208 816 85 48

Website: www.reportbuyer.com To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/technology-investment-priorities-in-australian-mining-2016-300281991.html SOURCE ReportBuyer

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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.
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Having well and truly kicked off 2016 in style thanks to the release of the bands sophomore EP Miles Away, Tully On Tully have just wrapped up their national tour.

Miles Away came after an intense period of song cultivation. Th EP was written whilst the band were abroad in New York City and represents their experiences in the metropolis and the tyranny of distance. Upon their return to Australia Tully On Tully retreated to a recording studio in the Victorian highlands to put their new work to wax.

To celebrate the EP release, the band have kindle penned a track by track run down of the record which you can check out below (along with the album stream). Check out the EP below and if you like what youre hearing be sure to visit the bands Facebook page for more info.

HONESTLY

Lyrically Honestly draws inspiration from the New York City streetscape. Natalie wrote a lot while wandering around the big apple on her own when we were on tour.

Musically we wanted to try and create something understated that wasnt too up dynamically so the few peaks in the song had more of an impact on the listener.

Thanks to this a lot of the song is just bass, drums, vocals and a few looping drones in the background. We also teamed up with Around The World In 80 Music Videos and created a stop motion video that explores Melbourne CBD in a really interesting way.

ALL THESE WORDS

All These Words is a coming of age story about the experiences that open your eyes to new things and shape the way you are today. Its about those times when inhibitions fade and sexuality knows no boundaries.

We got together with producer Tony Buchen (Andy Bull, The Preatures, Montaigne) for this track and he really took us to new levels that we had never experienced before.

He liked the original vocal loop that Nat did in this so much that we kept the original take of our first demo instead of rerecording them!

TWO BIRDS

When we wrote Two Birds it actually had a dueling male vocal line in the verses, which we decided to remove at the last minute!

The track is about a couple trying to keep the romance alive and go to drastic lengths to fix their relationship only to realise that what they do could potentially destroy them. The track is filled with floating synthesisers and simple vocal melodies that make the even simpler lyric I only wanted you so much more poignant. When we were trying to think of a song title for this song, we wanted to steer clear of using a lyric.

We were all really into Mac De Marco at the time and drew some inspiration form his song Ode To Viceroy and named our song after a beer. We were literally sitting around our backyard drinking Two Birds Golden Ale (a favourite at the time) trying to come up with a good name and it just seemed to work with everything about the song so we went with it.

COLD HANDS

Cold hands came about while we were playing around with a bunch of vintage synths and its working title for months was actually Juno.

We wanted to write a song that conjured up a really strong visual of creepy isolation so Natalie created some dark as lyrics and we got to work producing a soundscape to match. Like most of the songs on the EP MILES AWAY Cold Hands has a pretty solid 80s pop styling.

Rather than imitate the 80s outright we tried to take bits and pieces of its signature sound and blend it with modern Australian music. Which was kinda easy when youve got a group of Aussie musicians playing instruments that were cutting edge thirty years ago.

MILES AWAY

We wrote 90% of Miles Away in the course of one session at our studio in Melbourne. Wed just gotten back from touring in Nth America and were trying to churn out as much material as we could.

It came together super organically and what was a simple guitar part snow-balled into a fully fledged song in the course of nine or so hours.

We drew a lot of inspiration for this one from pop/rock production of the 1980s hence the chorusing guitars, gated drums and a bit of phaser on absolutely everything. We got together with Jam Nawaz and shot a video inspired by the lyric in the song I could be somebody else.
Community radio music directors often have an encyclopedic knowledge of local music and an insatiable thirst to keep their ears ahead of the curve. So in this Tone Deaf series, the Australian Music Radio Airplay Project (Amrap) invites music directors to highlight new Aussie tunes that you might have missed.

In this edition, Aeron Clark from Edge Radio in Hobart contributes with a selection of tracks currently making their way to community radio through Amraps music distribution service AirIt. Check out Aerons selections below and if youre a musician you can apply here to have your music distributed for free to community radio on Amraps AirIt

Sarah Mary Chadwick  Makin It Work

Sarah Mary Chadwick is an amazing performer. Shes incredibly raw and vulnerable on stage, with a sparseness to her work that allows the listener to give their full attention to the lyrical content.

Shes unflinching and affecting and makes me hurt a little bit, but shes never depressing. This ones the first single from her new album Roses Always Die, which will be out in August.

Ermine Coat  Rent Network

Alex Griffins latest release under the name Ermine Coat is the beautifully lo-fi Faulty Landscape album, out on his home label Workplace Safety.

This song is a yearning lament to a share-house dalliance, with frank lyrics that demonstrate Griffins knack for youthful uncertainty and suburban ennui.

Mount Trout  Top of the Road

Top of the Road is taken from the record Geeveston B and was recorded in a shack about an hour south of Hobart.

Starkly beautiful, the song instantly transports me to the drizzly Tasmanian bush, and I am certain I want to hitch a ride in the back of that ute theyre going on about.

Pikelet  The Neighbours Grass

Evelyn Ida Morris is a fascinating artist, with a wonderfully exploratory approach to pop music. The Neighbours Grass pulses gently and seductively, somewhat in contrast to the bleakness of the lyrics.

Morris even adds a touch of hip-hop into the mix on this song, which is taken from the fantastic new tape release Tronc.

Heart Beach  Counting

Hobart sad-pop three piece Heart Beach have a knack for deftly articulating those little moments in our lives that are perhaps a lot more significant than we appreciate at the time.

Counting is two and a half minutes of perfectly understated summery pop that sticks in my head for days at a time. Make sure you check out the B-side, Relief also.

Nearly Oratorio  Veracity

Nearly Oratorio is the solo project of Simon Lam, known for his work with Ills and Kllo.

In this guise, he blends electronic and acoustic instrumentation seamlessly with cracked, vulnerable vocals. Veracity is evocative, yet warm and comforting, and is taken from Nearly Oratorios stunning EP Tin.

The Drones  Boredom

The Drones seventh album Feelin Kinda Free is an enthralling listen. The band are moving in a really exciting direction at the moment, and their latest single Boredom, plus accompanying video, is a great example of the unhinged nature of this genre defying record.

Rainbow Chan  Nest

On Nest, Rainbow Chan combines her trademark slightly left of centre beats with sugary vocals to create an addictive retro-pop gem.

The classically trained artist has a knack for producing delicately constructed musical collages. Late last year we were also treated to the engaging first release from her more experimental project Chunyin, titled Softcall 101.

POPPONGENE  Do It Girl

POPPONGENE is the solo project of Melbourne based Sophie Treloar, who also plays in Sunbeam Sound Machine.

Shes currently busy recording her first EP, but for now we have debut single Do It Girl to keep us interested. Its kind of like being enveloped by a cosy, psychedelic cloud.
Theyre calling it the greatest Aussie road trip since Priscilla set out for the red centre and they could just be right. Up The Guts is a brand new, unprecedented live music touring circuit straight up the middle of the country (hence the name).

From 22nd July to 7th August, ScotDrakula, Scott and Charlenes Wedding, Ali E, and Ben Wright Smith will be on a one-way trek from Hobart, up through to Darwin, hitting up spots like Burnie, Castlemaine, Mount Gambier, and Coober Pedy along the way.

Therell also be an appearance from Jack, Jo & friends, a collaboration between tour co-creator and Pretty Littles frontman Jack Parsons and Big Scary drummer Jo Syme. The two will be performing a collection of classic covers at each stop.

But this isnt just an excuse for a gang of old mates to hang out. The entire Up The Guts team will present a series of music development workshops for communities in Tasmania, Victoria, South Australia, and NT.

The workshops, presented in conjunction with Music Tasmania, Victoria, SA, and NT, will look to inspire youth to pick up an instrument, learn about songwriting, and the different opportunities that exist in a career in the music industry.

Tour creators Parsons and Clarke have described the roadtrip as, a throwback to the grassroots touring that Aussie pub rock was built on in the late 70s and 80s. Its a rock and roll adventure through the desert!

Up The Guts Tour

Friday, 22nd July 2016

Brisbane Hotel  Hobart

Saturday, 23rd July 2016

Royal Oak  Launceston

Sunday, 24th July 2016

The Butter Factory  Burnie

Monday, 25th July 2016

The Gasometer  Melbourne

Tuesday, 26th July 2016

The Golden Vine  Bendigo

Wednesday, 27th July 2016

Bridge Hotel  Castlemaine

Thursday, 28th July 2016

The Loft  Warrnambool

Friday 29th July 2016

Commercial Hotel  Mount Gambier

Saturday, 30th July 2016

The Exeter  Adelaide

Sunday, 31st July 2016

Tassie Tavern  Port Augusta

Wednesday, 3rd August 2016

The Desert Cave  Coober Pedy

Thursday, 4th August 2016

Montes Lounge  Alice Springs

Friday, 5th August 2016

Jacksons Bar  Tennant Creek

Saturday, 6th August 2016

The Heritage Hotel  Grove Hill

Sunday, 7th August 2016

Railway Club  Darwin
Kansas City Killing Unsolved

B-Word = Beat Down For KCMO Kid

Kansas City Morning Robbery Aftermath

Dead Tree Media Good Times

Suburban Scam Payback

Hometown Hope Or Hype???

White People Problems Solved

and her hotel hotness sets the mood for this evening asinspires us to check a great many Kansas City mainstream media links . . .And this is thefor right now . . .
Here's a roundup of a Kansas City urban core ruckus after a busy night for police that involved another murder . . .Check the compilation of a standoff still underway:And so . . .Standoff is over,. His condition at this time is unknown.Developing . . .
"The group predicts that more and more sex scandals are emerging and will continue to emerge in large, independent mega-churches because their pastors are often very powerful and charismatic and theres little or no lay oversight or church hierarchy that might hold predatory preachers accountable."

"Last October, Kessler P. Lichtnegger was sentenced to 17 years in prison for sexually abusing two girls as a volunteer leader at Vacation Bible School at Westside Family Church, a large, non-denominational mega-church in Lenexa, Kansas.





"A new lawsuit, brought by those two children and their families, charges that church officials knew Lichtnegger had committed similar crimes years before but still gave him access to kids. Church staff claim they told Lichtenegger that he could be in the building only with his father. But they still let him be a leader in his small group and volunteer in Vacation Bible School."

Kansas City's most well known opponents of sex abuse among the clergy have found a new target in Johnson County.CHECK IT:Quote from the victim's rights organization:Here's the sitch according to SNAP:Today the group plans a protest that you'll see later in the MSM but FIRST on TKC.Developing . . .
SOME OF THE TOP LEADERS AND MEMBERS OF THE BIZ COMMUNITY ARE RAPIDLY ORGANIZING IN OPPOSITION TO TOY TRAIN STREETCAR EXPANSION PLANS!!!

"The Save The Plaza crowd seem to have found a new cause. They don't want to be a part of another TDD and they don't want to be near a TDD. They view this as another fight for Kansas City's crown jewel and what's surprising here is there are former supporters of the 1st streetcar now on board with the effort to stop it."

Amid a bloody Kansas City Summer 2016 where local media, the majority of this town's political debate is focused on development.Thankfully, some of theshared this important tidbit with us recently . . .Here's the money quote:It seems that behind the scenes, top-secret pitch meetings with some members of the group have failed to impress and don't have much assurance that biz losses during construction, parking trouble and traffic considerations won't decimate Plaza biz that has suffered one setback after the next over the years.From our blog community perspective . . .Let's not forget that streetcar expansion was. More to the point, as hard economic times and more budget cuts await Kansas City . . . There is a repeated demand that a citywide streetcar vote is necessary since it's clear that, in the end, all of the money comes out of the same pocket and investment in streetcar transit takes cash away from other city services despite the sketchy claims of TDD gerrymandering enthusiasts.Developing . . .
IN AN EPIC TREATISE THE NORTHEAST NEWS TAKES ON MAYOR SLY JAMES AND CONFRONTS HIS ANTI-GUN AGENDA WITH COLD, HARD FACTS!!!

"The Mayor, in his 714-word missive, talks a lot about neighbors working with the various agencies that make Kansas City safer. What he fails to mention, however, is that he and the City Council approved drastic cuts to the police budget two years running, severely hindering law enforcement from effectively doing their job of combating violent crime. One day last week there were less than ten officers on the streets on the day shift in all of East Patrol, the citys busiest and arguably most violent police zone. Telling the general public to work with the tools in the citys toolbox to make their communities safer, then systematically stealing the tools from the box is not a successful strategy. Theres a reason violent crime and homicides are on the rise. Do the math."

Kansas City Mayor Sly James recently penned startling declaration of his intention toamong the Missouri General Assembly in Jefferson City.However . . .Take a look:Money line . . .because it's a point-by-point refutation of policy that not only guides the Mayor's office but also has found support from the Jackson County prosecutor while Kansas City's rate of violence and murder continues to increase.You decide . . .
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Non-oil trade, inclusive of free zone activities, between the UAE and Thailand amounted to $5.2 billion in 2015, according to a report issued by the UAE Ministry of Economy.



The report mentioned premium raw aluminum, ornaments and precious metals as the main exports from Thailand, with cars and vehicles for transport of people and goods as well as jewellery counting among the primary imports into the country.



Hind Al Youha, director of foreign trade policies in the Ministrys Foreign Trade Sector, said that the report is in line with the ministrys objective of improving public and private sector awareness on the trade and investment the UAEs key economic partners.



The report showed that the Thai economy experienced a decline in GDP growth in 2014, down to 0.9 per cent in comparison with the 7.3 per cent growth in 2012 as a result of high purchasing power.



The report pointed out that Thailand is characterised by a diversified manufacturing sector supported by financial incentives and customs protection. The government has worked towards developing the rubber sector to address global prices, increased supply, and lower demand. Thailand maintains a strong presence in banking, telecommunications and transportation services.



The report indicated that the Thai Government is making improvements to better facilitate trade. It joined the Kyoto amended Convention as of June 2015, and in stages to support the ratification of the trade agreement.  TradeArabia News Service


Oman's government is keen to develop its RO300-million ($775 million) medical city project in the Barka region of the sultanate on a public-private-partnership (PPP) model, said a report.



The flagship healthcare venture will feature a cluster of world-class tertiary care hospitals, medical college and R&D (research and development) facilities, reported the Oman Observer.



The medical city, which will come up in a five million sq m area, boasts an array of speciality hospitals offering a total of 1,200 beds, it stated.



In addition to a dedicated paediatric hospital and general tertiary care hospital, the complex will also include a trauma centre, rehabilitation centre, neurology centre, diagnostic radiology centre, medical laboratories centre, medical college, and research hub, the report said.



Earlier this year, the ministry had signed an MoU that secures the support of the Supreme Council for Planning and the wholly government-owned sovereign wealth fund, Oman Investment Fund (OIF), in the execution of the landmark project.



PPP has long been the cornerstone of the governments strategy for attracting private investment in the electricity and water sector, a policy that is also sought to be progressively promoted in a number of other infrastructure sectors, including ports, logistic chains, civil aviation, solid waste management, said the report, citing a senior official.



The PPP model delivers outstanding outcomes in the provision of large-scale public services, stated Dr Fabio Scacciavillani, the chief economist at OIF.



Contracts based on a PPP framework help improve transparency, enhance accountability, reinforce responsibility, and establish performance benchmarks for the benefit of the citizens. PPP is not merely a cost-containment exercise; it sets standards of excellence; it enables the delivery of professionally managed public services according to international best practices, he added.
Kuwait-based Jazeera Airways has announced the start of its four-weekly direct flights to Taif, a leading summer destination located in Saudi Arabia's Makkah Province.



The inaugural flight J9801 departed Kuwait International Airport at 4:00 pm yesterday (June 7), landing at Taif Regional Airport at 6:00 pm local time. Passengers departing were met with an airport ceremony attended by Jazeera Airways management who welcomed the passengers at the check-in counters and handed them flowers and discounted vouchers. The return flight, J9802, departed at 7:00 pm from Taif and arrived in Kuwait at 9:00 pm local time.



Taif is an amazing destination, where our customers can enjoy, rejuvenating their senses while appreciating the beautiful, refreshing scenery, said Dr. Mohammed Barakat - vice president Marketing and Product at Jazeera Airways.



We are today the only Kuwaiti carrier flying to Taif. This translates our continuous strategy to address our customers interest while providing them with our best in-class services on-ground and on-board, added Dr. Barakat.



The new destination will continue until September 23, 2016, with four weekly flights from Kuwait to Taif on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays.



Nestled in the western part of the country, Taif serves as the cool and green summer capital, where people from all over the Gulf region relish its moderate weather, beautiful scenery and the towns stress-free atmosphere.



Visitors to Taif are greeted by a fresh breeze as they ascend to the city. Set in a plateau between granite hills rising from the eastern slope of the Hejaz in the southwest region of the kingdom, this city has become the official summer seat of Saudi Arabians and Gulf travellers.



For centuries, visitors to this mountain city 5,600 feet above sea level have enjoyed the captivating views from wind-sculpted rocks, a pleasant climate and the verdant setting of its surroundings, as well as the abundance of fruits which grow in its fertile valley. Fragrant roses, lush parks, sunny skies and exotic birds and wildlife have for generations drawn families to this resort town each summer. Not only is Taif popular among vacationers, but it has become the most popular holiday resort.



With this new route, Jazeera Airways now extended its network to reach three main cities in the kingdom including Riyadh, Jeddah and now Taif, with a total of 25 weekly flights. - TradeArabia News Service


Brazil is no doubt, one of the most beautiful countries in the world. But because of the Zika virus that has spread in the area, some people might be hesitant to visit it. However, there are still more places in South America that travelers can try.

Here are some places in South America that travelers will find very interesting.

1. Argentina. There are many captivating sceneries in Argentina, being the eighth biggest country in the world. You can visit the Argentine Patagonia from the Lake District to the rustic cattle ranges of Southern Patagonia, Travel US News suggested. You can also visit the El Bosque Tallado, or the Carved Forest, an open-air art museum featuring about 30 sculptures made from the burned remains of trees.

2. Peru. One will surely enjoy this country, apart from its famous Machu Picchu attraction, since it has three Amazon regions which include the riverine national parks and reserves; the Chachapoyas-Gocta-Kuelap circuit, that has mummy museums and waterfalls and the Tambopata reserve, where one can try boat trips, the Telegraph wrote.

3. Colombia. This is the South American country that boasts both Caribbean and Pacific coasts, and is considered as one place that you have to include in your bucket list. You must not miss visiting Medellin, which is a metropolitan in a valley with enjoyable nightlife. You will see more than 20 larger-than-life, voluptuous sculptures by artist Fernando Botero at the Botero Plaza.

4. Ecuador. Another beautiful country in the South American region is Ecuador,d wherein the Andes divided into two ranges, where one can find the Avenue of the Volcanoes. These are located hours from the capital and will also be ideal for those who like hiking. You can also enjoy the Peguche Waterfall as well as the Animal Market in Otavalo where you can try eating a Guinea pig.

5. Uruguay. If you love beaches, you will no doubt enjoy Uruguay with its Atlantic coast. There are also agricultural towns like Tacuarembo and Treinta y Tres that are good for riding and birding holidays. Thrillist also suggests that you visit Colonia, which is just a ferry ride across the way from Buenos Aires. When you get to Colonia, it features cobblestone streets and historic buildings since it is Uruguay's oldest enclaves.

See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018
Uber releases driver-friendly app improvements much to the delight of its drivers. Uber claims that the new features are incorporated to make the driving experience smoother.

One new feature is a "pause" switch, which allows the drivers to turn off ride requests when they are on break. Hitting the switch would automatically take their visibility off the GPS grid. This is also good if they want to end their shift and don't want to accept new customers. In the past, drivers would have to decline a request, resulting to a negative review.

Also new is a tweak in its "destinations" feature. The drivers can now search for customers who are going to a specific route. Uber's algorithm will inform the drivers of related ride requests along the way. The app would automatically filter out requests that are out of the route.

Now in key areas like New Jersey, New York City, Dallas and Phoenix, Uber has allowed drivers to charge extra if the riders make them wait for more than two minutes. With this feature, it has been found out that drivers were encouraged to be prompt at the pick-up point. Uber plans to roll out the feature to even more American cities.

Another Uber initiative is the offering of its premier credit cards to drivers in cities. If they have the card, their earnings would automatically be credited there.

Add to that, Uber has intensified its customer support in 250 key locations around the globe. Representatives can now be contacted whenever there are driver queries and problems.

Uber's app improvement stems from its desire to placate Uber drivers from their several demands. Drivers wanted more control on their ride requests. They have also demanded for fines for riders who are late, better compensation packages, employee benefits, and creation of workers' union.

See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018
Mammootty's Rorschach hits all the right notes, except in the end | Movie Review
Rush Visa is necessary for those who change their travel plans at the last minute, arrive at the airport without an approval letter or other uncontrolled reasons. VietnamVisaHQ.com is the one and only visa agency visa on arrival in emergency case even on Saturday, Sunday or Public Holidays!



(TRAVPR.COM) VIETNAM - June 8th, 2016 - Rush Vietnam visa on arrival service is beneficial for those who forget to apply for Vietnam visa in advance or who have sudden business in Vietnam. In the continuing effort to provide this special service, VietnamVisaHQ.com assures that you won't miss your trip to Vietnam if you contact them early enough. In emergency cases, it takes only 30 minutes to complete a visa approval letter to send to customer via email. You should consider before applying for rush Vietnam visa since you might be subject to higher processing fee than normal ones.

Depending on your selected date of arrival and current time, the secured online application form will automatically show the best available options for you to choose. They could be one or two of the following:

1, Next Day (08 working hours process): The application will be finalized within 08 hours from the time of payment (08:00 AM-17:00 PM, Monday  Friday)

2, Same Day (04 working hours process): The application will be finalized within 04 hours in day from the time of payment (08:00 AM-17:00 PM, Monday  Friday)

3, Urgent (01 working hours process): The application will be finalized within 02 hours in day from the time of payment (08:00 AM-17:00 PM, Monday  Friday)

4, Emergency ( 30 mins process): The application will be finalized within 01 hours from the time of payment (08:00 AM-17:00 PM, Monday  Friday)

5, Overtime (30 mins hour process): Instant process is available from Monday to Friday, out of working hours. This is a special service from Vietnam Visa HQ. The application will be finalized within 30 mins from the time of payment (17:00 PM  22:00 PM, Monday  Friday)

6, Weekend & Holidays (01 hour process): The application will be finalized within 01 hours from the time of payment (07:00 AM-22:00 PM, Saturday  Sunday or public Holidays)

"We always suggest our customers to apply for Vietnam visa as soon as possible if they don't want to spend much money on it. If you don't have a visa in hand at the last minutes, you should change the flight to have more time for visa processing. If you can't change the flight, we are willing to assist at our best." according to Mr Chau Tran - Director Manager.

He further added, "We give our esteemed clients the best possible visa service in order to make their travel to Vietnam as comfortable and hassle free as possible. Our staffs are continuously trained to improve their customer service for your pleasure."

Moreover, Vietnam Visa HQ offers a big discount for group of travelers from 02 persons up to 20% off. Another 5% will be added for returned customer who book the service from 2nd time.

Vietnam visa on arrival can be easily obtained by 04 steps that takes only 05 minutes in estimate. Customers are free to watch the explainer video to know more on how it works at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnJuwqYSnts

Vietnam Visa HQ is a private/commercial website offering advices, informations, and visa approval letter for individuals, families, and businesses in need of visa to Vietnam.

We offer a wide range of services based on your budget that including:

Visa on arrival (or Visa at embassy) and travel advice.

Daily tours in Vietnam.

Airline ticketing (International & Domestic).

Visa Extension, Work permit, Residence card.

Airport transfer and Fast track service.

Our Policy:

Bring to all customer the highest quality of service.

Approval letters are always delivered on time as our commitment.

24/7 online support via phone, email

We are reliable and trustworthy.

Fees are competitive and big deals for return clients.

###
If you are close to have a trip on Vietnam and try homestay, these information about Vietnamese weather will help you to choose appropriate time for the finnest experiences



(TRAVPR.COM) VIET NAM - June 8th, 2016 - Viet Nam has typical tropical monsoon climate. While this type of climate is normally equated with rain, Vietnamese weather witnesses the significant variations from one region to another due to the country length of more than 2000 miles from north to south. There is no ideas about the good and the bad time to visit Vietnam, because when one climate zone is cold and dry, the other will be hot and wet. Therefore, as planning for your intended visit and homestay in Vietnam, it is worth unraveling the complexities and keeping your head around it by imaging the country as three particular parts, the north, the central and the south.

Northern Vietnam

The North of Vietnam experiences cool to cold but mostly dry climate during the winter from November to March. The coldest months from January to March can witness the temperature down to 10oC in Hanoi Capital and Halong Bay with heavy mist preventing visibility. In this time you can even see snow in a tropical country in the far north region like Sapa. Summer time lasts from April to September which is hot and humid, plus highest rainfall level. The temperature can rise up around 40oC and severe weather like typhoons can happen during the time between July and November.

Suggestion for traveling to and staying in Northern Vietnam is from September to December when the humidity is not high. However, if you want for adventurous experiences or even leisure recreations like kayaking on Halong Bay, cruising on northern seas and rivers, or simply just would like to try summer specialty of the northern Vietnam, enjoying the sun from July to November is also considerable option.

Central Vietnam

The weather in the central of Vietnam is something between the weather patterns of the North and the South. Northern section of the Central region (Hue, Da Nang and Hoi An) experiences hot and dry summer during February to late August. The coastal area may suffer harsh storms in the time from August to November. During winter time from December to January, freezing conditions can occur in highlands. Further to southern coastal strip from around Nha Trang to Mui Ne, there is less effect of the rain but longer sunny hour.

If you want to discover the Central part of Vietnam, the best time is December to March because the weather in this time is dry and cool. The summer time in this region, the weather is considered quite harsh, but is nothing for animated minds if they want to discover comprehensively lives of regional people in the way they face the severity of the nature.

Southern Vietnam

Southern part of Vietnam experiences constant temperature of between 25-35oC all year round. The weather is simply split into two main seasons, wet season and dry season. Wet season of the south lasts from May to November with dramatic rainfall, and the highest figures are achieved from June to August. In the far south as Phu Quoc Island, the weather may be really poor with rough seas. The weather tends to be very dry during December to April. February to May is the hottest and most humid time of the year.

December to April is favorable time to travel and stay in the South if you do not want to experience its distinctive wet condition. Although flooding is believed uncomfortable and unfavorable, see how it goes in southern Vietnam can be one of the most memorable experiences of you in this country.

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Are you shopping for a new oven? Here are some things to consider before making a decision, particularly if you care about keeping your house a non-toxic space. When it comes to cleaning ovens, there are several different features, including self-cleaning, steam-cleaning, and manual cleaning. Its important to know the differences and why these matter.

Self-Cleaning Ovens

Self-cleaning mode is a popular feature, but it has some serious drawbacks.

How It Works

Self-cleaning means that the oven heats up to 900 or 1000F in order to burn off the food residue, leaving a thin layer of ash in the bottom of the oven that can be wiped up easily once the cycle has completed and the oven has cooled.

The Drawback

Self-cleaning ovens contain a pyrolytic ground coat enamel (containing glass), which enables food residue to be reduced to ash by exposure to high temperatures. From a patent that provides details on such enamel and ground coatings:

"There are several concerns associated with heating oven coatings to such temperatures. First, high temperatures are required, necessitating extra insulation around the oven chamber and safety interlocks for oven operation. Second, producing such high temperatures requires relatively large amounts of energy consumption. Third, depending upon the materials exposed to such high temperatures, concerns exist as to the possible release of toxic fumes. Fourth, the cleaning cycle used in association with these coatings takes up to three hours to complete and potentially reduces the overall service life of the oven. Further, in order to withstand multiple cleaning cycles, such enamel coatings generally contain hard, chemically-resistant frits that, without high-temperature exposure, have inherently poor release properties, thereby compounding the difficulty in removing baked-on residues."

The line about toxic fumes is of particular concern to green-minded home owners. If you have ever been inside your house during a self-cleaning cycle, you will know the stench that is emitted. Its so bad that many people complain of headaches, lung irritation and dry eyes, particularly with the first few cycles of a new oven. Anyone with asthma or respiratory problems should leave the house altogether. Pet birds, in particular, are affected by the gases. Although polytetrafluoroethylene toxicosis is more a symptom of heating non-stick cookware, there are accounts of birds dying in their cages during oven self-cleaning cycles. Self-cleaning ovens are known to emit acrolein and formaldehyde, as well as toxic carbon monoxide gas from the burning food residue -- a " silent killer," according to the North Iowa Municipal Electric Cooperative Association. Manufacturers recommend that as much food residue as possible be removed prior to the cycle to minimize carbon monoxide release, which somewhat defeats the purpose of a self-cleaning oven.

Steam-Cleaning Ovens

Steam-cleaning ovens use lower heat and steam to loosen residue.

How It Works

You pour a few cups of water into the bottom of an oven with AquaLift technology and let the cycle run for a short period of time (less than one hour, compared to 3-6 hours for regular self-cleaning). It runs at a much lower temperature, around 200F, which consumes less energy.

The Drawback

Reviewers say it doesnt work. The cycle leaves the bottom of the oven clean, but the sides and top remain dirty, requiring a fair bit of scrubbing in order to get it clean. There are also accounts of an off-gassing stench in the first few cycles of a new oven.

Manual-Cleaning Ovens

Manual-cleaning ovens have no special cleaning features.

How It Works

You scrub them yourself. The interior finish is usually metal coated with enamel, without the self-cleaning ground coats. Manual clean oven have removable doors that make it easier to access the oven for thorough cleaning.

The Drawback

A non-self cleaning oven, according to this patent information, "requires significant cleaning efforts by the consumer and/or harsh alkaline saponifying cleaners that have a pH of approximately 14. As will be appreciated, significant safety concerns exist when using, handling, and storing such hazardous and often toxic cleaners." In other words, many home owners opt for toxic chemicals such as Easy-Off to get the job done. (Fortunately, it can be done more safely with all-natural ingredients such as white vinegar, baking soda, lemon juice, cream of tartar, and lots of elbow grease. More oven-cleaning tips here.)

Because they are not designed to get hotter than regular baking temperatures (up to 500F in most cases), manual clean ovens lack insulation compared to self-cleaning and AquaLift ovens.

When I asked a local oven technician what kind of temperature difference were talking about, he used this Frigidaire model as an example, saying it's hard to touch the side of a manual clean oven when it heats up. This causes problems when its being inserted into a hole between two countertops in a kitchen. The technician also told me that, although he owns a self-cleaning oven, he would never use the feature because he doesnt like the idea of that much heat.

What Is the Best Way to Clean an Oven?

The tech advised going with a self-cleaning oven to get the extra insulation, but not using the feature. He pointed out that AquaLift technology can be replicated at home if the heating element is beneath the floor. Just put some water in the bottom and heat at 200F for 20-40 minutes, depending on how dirty it is. Same idea as a microwave, he explained. Youll be able to wipe it down easily afterward.

He recommended against lining the bottom of an oven with aluminum foil, as it can destroy the finish. Its better to place a cookie sheet on the lowest rack to catch any spills and bake above it. A lot depends on how you care for an oven, he said.

A sales rep told me that the iconic British AGA stoves do not have any sort of non-stick coating on the interior, as theyre made of cast iron, but they tend to be exorbitantly expensive. I cant seem to find any non-stick-free (or would that be sticky?!) ovens on the market. Some Miele ovens feature a PerfectClean catalytic enamel finish on the difficult-to-reach back panel, although the finish on the sides, bottom, and top are not mentioned.

Do you readers have any thoughts or suggestions? What would you choose?
New Delhi, June 7

Social networking giant Facebook today said it has appointed former Adobe executive Umang Bedi as managing director of its India operations.

Bedi, whose appointment is effective July, will lead in building and maintaining strategic relationships with top clients and regional agencies in the country, Facebook said in a statement.

He will take over from Kirthiga Reddy, who will be returning to the US to take on a new role at the company's headquarters at Menlo Park in August.

Bedi comes to Facebook with close to two decades of leadership experience covering sales, marketing and partnerships.

He was the managing director of the South Asia region at Adobe.

"India is known for its great talent pool and we are really pleased to have Umang Bedi, a proven business executive to lead our business in India. I also want to wish Kirthiga the very best in her new global role," Facebook Vice president Asia Pacific Dan Neary said.

India is the largest market for Facebook outside the US with close to 150 million monthly active users.

"We see significant opportunities to help Indian business -- large and small -- deliver against their business objectives in the mobile world," Neary said.

Bedi said: "It's a promising opportunity to participate in India's digital growth, and I can't think of a better place to be at."

An engineering graduate from University of Pune, Bedi is an alumni of Harvard Business School.

Reddy will join Facebook's Global Accounts team at Menlo Park, where she will manage a set of global brands. She will also lead the emerging markets efforts globally for the Global Accounts team, which manages Facebook's relationships with the world's largest global advertisers.

"After six years in India building our operations and business, it's hard to leave a team I now call family. As I look ahead, I am excited about how well positioned our business is, to grow from strength to strength with Umang's leadership," she said.  PTI
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 8

TI Cycles of India, a part of the Murugappa Group, will inaugurate its state-of-the-art bicycle manufacturing factory at Rajpura tomorrow. The plant has been built with a capital expenditure of Rs 105 crore and has the capacity to manufacture 2.50 lakh cycles per month.

This is the companys fourth plant in India. Currently, the company has manufacturing units at Chennai, Nasik and Noida. The combined capacity of all the four plants is 65 lakh bicycles per annum. The company manufacturers bicycle under the brand name BSA, Hercules, Montra, Roadeo, Mach City and Ladybird etc.

Apart from contributing to the development of the ancillary industry in Punjab, this will also offer employment opportunities (both direct and indirect) to around 3,000 persons.

TII chairman MM Murugappan said, This is our second investment in Punjab. We already have a factory manufacturing tubes in Mohali which is running successfully. This plant will cater to the demand of bicycles in the North and Eastern parts of India.
Gagan K Teja

Tribune News Service

Patiala, June 8

The Government Medical College, Patiala, once a premier medical institute of North India, has suffered a major setback, thanks to the indifferent attitude of the Punjab Government towards recruiting medical teachers at the entry level itself.

Out of 313 posts of medical teaching cadre, more than half i.e. 166 posts are vacant at present. The only grace being that 13 medical teachers have accepted re-employment offers of the government giving a face-saving and one professor has agreed on extension in service, because there would have been no medical teacher left in that department, had he retired.

However, at the time of the Medical Council of India (MCI) inspection, senior residents, who are essentially of the PCMS cadre and come for a fixed three-year tenure, are presented before the MCI team as teachers, which brings about the shortage to somewhat lower level.

Out of the three categories of medical teachers i.e. professors, associate professors and assistant professors, it is the entry-level category of assistant professors, where the vacancies are highest.

Out of the sanctioned 145 posts, as much as 60 per cent of them (over 85) are vacant. A total of 75 per cent of these posts are filled by promotion from the PCMS cadre and 25 per cent posts are filled by direct recruitment.

The situation in case of professors, the senior-most position, is no good. As much as 50 per cent of the posts of professors out of the 77 sanctioned posts are lying vacant as of today. Similarly, in case of associate professors, almost 45 per cent posts out of a strength of 91 are lying vacant. Notably, 75 per cent of the posts of professors and associate professors are filled by promotions within the teaching cadre for which no advertisement or inviting of applications is needed, but even these posts are not filled urgently.

In several cases, eligible candidates with the requisite experience are not available within the teaching cadre because the entry-level posts of assistant professors were not filled in time. Hence, the incumbents could not get the required experience by the time when higher-level post fell vacant.

The three key service departments that are worst hit include Anaesthesia, Radiology and Transfusion Medicine (Blood Bank).

The Anaesthesia Department runs the Intensive Care Unit, where extremely serious patients are admitted. But ironically, 12 out of the 20 posts of medical teachers are lying vacant.

The Radiology Department, entrusted with the job of X-rays, ultra sounds, CT scan and MRI investigations, is equally hit where 10 posts out the 16 sanctioned are lying vacant.

The (Blood) Transfusion Medicine department has only one professor and the post of associate professor and 2 posts of assistant professors are lying vacant.

The condition of Radiotherapy Department and Drug De-addiction Centre is equally miserable despite the government had spent crores on infrastructure there.

Dr DC Sharma, President, Doctors Federation of India, and former Deputy Director, Health Services, Punjab, said for the past few years, the Medical Education Department was more inclined towards raising buildings rather than creating required manpower.

The non-availability of candidates with the required experience for senior posts of professors and assistant professors is no excuse for keeping the posts vacant. The government must fill all posts by appointing assistant professors against all vacant posts of associate professors and professors, if some eligible candidates are not available. There is no dearth of eligible candidates in the PCMS cadre. This was the practice earlier, too, and there is nothing objectionable in posting a junior person against a senior post. Similarly, the reserved posts where no candidate of the reserved category is available can be filled from the general category, DC Sharma said.

Meanwhile, Secretary Medical Education and Research Department Hussan Lal said: The process of getting new rules notified in consonance with the MCI guidelines and holding DPCs accordingly took almost two years. Moreover, there are certain legal hitches following which there was certain delay. But the process of filling these vacant posts is underway and within next two months, we should be able to able to fill almost 90 per cent vacant posts.
New Delhi, June 8

One more person was arrested today in connection with the kidney racket being busted at Apollo Hospital here last week, taking the total number of arrests in the case to ten.

The tenth accused, Bhanu Pratap, was arrested from Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh. He was identified as one of the donors associated with the racket, a senior police official said.

Kingpin of the racket, Rajkumar Rao, who is believed to be associated with similar rackets in Nepal, Sri Lanka and Indonesia, was arrested in West Bengal yesterday. Three donors, including two women, were also arrested in the case.

Rao was under police scanner for operating similar rackets in Jalandhar, Coimbatore and Hyderabad. He was identified with the interrogation of the middlemen in the racket and teams were rushed to several states to track him down.

Police had also arrested a couple Umesh and Nilu from Kanpur, and Mamta alias Maumita, wife of one of the five accused was nabbed last week.

Umesh and Nilu told the police that they had sold their kidneys for Rs 4 lakh and Rs 3 lakh, respectively as they were in urgent need of money for their minor sons leg surgery. They were in contact with a tout of the racket, Satya Prakash, who was arrested along with four others as police busted the racket last week.

Maumita, wife of another tout Devashish Moulik, had led the police to make the arrests in connection with the racket.

The police said they will also question the ten doctors of Apollo Hospitals internal assessment committee for transplant surgeries.

Under the scanner for the kidney racket, Indraprastha Apollo hospital has constituted a three-member inquiry committee to study the existing system for giving approval for transplant of an organ in the hospital.

The police has short-listed the names of three senior doctors from the hospitals in-house assessment committee for verifying documents related to transplants. The doctors are likely to be questioned first as they had cleared the papers in connection with the surgeries under the scanner.

The investigators have also come across names of two senior nephrologists in connection with the racket. It is suspected that a few kidney transplants which were facilitated by the racketeers were done by the doctor concerned in Apollo Hospital.

The police have so far come across five cases of kidney transplants conducted in the city through this racket and during interrogation, the accused disclosed that about 10-15 more transplants had been done at Jalandhar and Coimbatore in the past two years.

The government has also set up a five-member panel to investigate the kidney racket and asked it to submit its report within 15 days.  Agencies
Amir Wasim

TAKING part in a discussion on an adjournment motion moved by PML-N's Javed Abbasi on the "recent test of an intercept missile by India contributing to an unhealthy arms race in the region", the senators also expressed their concerns over India's growing relations with Afghanistan, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

In their speeches, they highlighted the recent visits of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to various countries which were considered to be friends of Pakistan. In its efforts to have a full-fledged and multi-layered ballistic missile defence system, India on May 15 had successfully test-fired an indigenously-developed supersonic interceptor missile, capable of destroying any incoming ballistic missile.

Mushahid Hussain Sayed, who is also the chairman of the Senate defence committee, drew the attention of the house towards the "growing collusion between India and the US". The PML-Q senator said the Indian Prime Minister was currently in Washington where he was scheduled to address the US Congress. In the next couple of days, he said, the member states of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) would be considering India's request to join the group.

Alleging that Pakistan's diplomacy had failed, Sayed said that if India became a member of the NSG, it would be able to block Pakistan's entry into the group. "We have alienated Iran and Afghanistan and the two countries are now improving their economic ties with India," he said. "We are going to enter an unending arms race," he said while referring to the May 15 Indian missile test. Besides efforts to counter Indian designs through military means, he called for "cohesion" within the country, saying that India should not be in a position to take advantage of the situation inside Pakistan.

Calling for an honest review of the security and defence policies, PPP's Farhatullah Babar said the policy of supporting non-state actors for advancement of certain security objectives had also spurred arms race in the region. "There will be no arms race in the region if foreign and security policies are formulated by civilians," he added. Babar was of the view that the civilian and political leadership must wake up and retrieve the space in formulating security policies already dangerously ceded to the security establishment.

Former Interior Minister Rehman Malik said Iran was even ready to provide its base to India. He said the US had never recognised Pakistan's role in the war on terror. He asked why the US did not target Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Mansour through its drones while he was travelling in Iran.

Winding up the debate, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said Pakistan would take all possible measures to augment its defence capabilities. "Pakistan is not oblivious to its defence requirements and upgrading its capabilities through suitable technologies without entering into an arms race," he said, adding that "our efforts for peace and friendship must not be interpreted as our weakness. We are fully capable to defend our people and territory".

Aziz said the country's scientists and experts were monitoring and evaluating the strategic threats that Indian nuclear doctrine posed to national security. He said that despite limited resources, Pakistan had developed a robust nuclear deterrent system.

The adviser said Pakistan was planning to highlight the dangerous implications of India's plan to nuclearise the Indian Ocean at all the relevant international forums. He said Pakistan was also considering the option of moving a resolution in the UN General Assembly, seeking to declare the Indian Ocean as nuclear-free. Aziz said Pakistan was lobbying effectively and proactively in all the member countries of the NSG, adding: "Our efforts towards non-discriminatory approach will pay off."

Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani suggested that if the members desired, the Senate could be converted into the committee of the whole house to prepare new "terms of engagements with the US". Amidst desk-thumping, he said the committee could invite stakeholders and hold in-camera sittings on the matter.

 By arrangement with the Dawn.
KC Singh

PRIME Minister Narendra Modi is on a five-nation trip, making on June 4 a whistle-stop in Afghanistan  to inaugurate the Salma Dam on the Hariud, which will irrigate 640 villages around Herat, besides generating power  en route to a two-day stopover in Qatar. He then swung through Switzerland on June 6, before arriving in the US for his seventh meeting with President Barack Obama in the PMs two years in office. The joint statement calls it the third major bilateral summit between the two leaders. He would return to India via Mexico, having crunched five countries in a week or less. Gone were the diaspora hooplas or extended detours into the hinterland. Modi, the working statesman, had arrived.

The underlying themes were those etched during earlier visits  consolidate past work; explore economic advancement and dovetail it into the PMs vision, like Make in India; reposition India in a world witnessing the rise of China, radical Islam and economic slowdown; and seek, as the joint statements title spells it, enduring global partners. There were, however, specific reasons for each stopover or longer engagement on the way to the US, on which the trip was focussed.

Afghanistan has been for India, since Independence, an important counter-balance to Pakistan, and since 1996, when the Taliban captured Kabul, and specifically 1998, when a hijacked Indian plane ended up in Kandahar  a region where Pakistan influence via surrogates had to be curtailed. The Salma Dam was part of Indias strategy, denied by the US a security role since its intervention in 2001, to use development projects to consolidate partnership. The dam construction in the face of Taliban attacks, sponsored mostly by Pakistan or allegedly even Iran (which as a lower riparian beneficiary resents the blockage of water), was the victory of resolve over disruption. The PMs presence and hyperbolic address went down well in a nation seeking pacification and stability.

The visit to Qatar was part of Modis outreach to Gulf nations, balancing between the Sunni and Shia powers, the latter led by Iran. Qatar has been a principal supplier of LNG and LPG to India, despite neighbouring Iran having competing large reserves of gas. Qatar has deep pockets and a small population, though as an adherent to the Wahabbi brand of Islam of Saudi Arabian provenance  albeit more tolerant  it has boxed above its international weight by two means: the ruling family-owned crusading Al Jazeera news channel; and sponsorship of disparate extreme right-wing affiliates in the post-Arab Spring battles in Libya, Syria, etc. Unmentioned during the PMs visit was the need to consider a sub-sea natural gas pipeline, aligned from Oman to Gujarat, to carry both Iranian and Qatari gas, as the source is a shared gas field. India has invited Qatar to join the second phase of Indian strategic oil reserve storage. Besides the usual homilies about Indias visionary conceptions about smart, clean and connected cities, the Qatar Investment Authority was approached to open its purse strings and direct investment in India. The success of this and approaches to other five Gulf Cooperation Council nations depends on the follow-up and creation of an enabling environment for them to look at India as more than a supplier of manpower, a civil aviation junior partner and the exporter of select commodities.

The Swiss refuelling halt and meeting with the Swiss President was focussed on obtaining support for Indias membership of the NSG, which, with Mexico, are the few remaining nations with reservations; and to seek better cooperation in investigating black money transfers. On the first there was success; on the second there was dissimulation and promise of an early agreement on an automatic exchange of information. Switzerland, some years ago, had already agreed to cooperate if India could establish criminality of account holders. The problem is that India is often on a fishing expedition based on sketchy evidence.

The US was the prime reason for the visit. With time running out for the Obama presidency and with over 50 sub-groups devoted to examining different aspects of the bilateral engagement, there was a dire need to consolidate, give a top-down push and recommit to a strategic vision adumbrated in the declarations during Obamas India visit in 2015. Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar called it sketching the road map for the vision statements of the past.

President Obama pushed legacy issues like climate change, fearing that a Trump victory could unravel the Paris Accord, which the US wants made operational before December. India, in turn, has sought financial and technical commitments to move to cleaner non-fossil fuel energy before it ratifies the accord. The additional burden of curtailing hydrofluorocarbons under the amended Montreal Protocol puts India in a further financial and economic conundrum. But it is crucial the two largest polluters  the US (17.89%) and China (20%)  ratify it first. For the Paris Accords operationalisation, at least 55 signatory states, out of the 190-odd signing, and whose total emissions exceed 55 per cent of global emissions, must ratify it.

The US has a long list of demands concerning trade, intellectual property rights, market and financial reforms, which perhaps the Obama administration realises it no longer has time to pursue. Two issues, however, needed addressing. One was to bring the civil nuclear cooperation  the US having done the heavy lifting to get India the waiver from the NSG  back on track. A significant announcement was, after steady effort to address the issue of suppliers liability, that contracts relating to six AP 1000 reactors of Westinghouse would be finalised within a year. The related issue of Indian membership of the NSG was flagged. The US will push China, but ultimately, China would want to extract some promise of a similar deal later for Pakistan. India, too, will have to bilaterally soften China, which would not want to be isolated or push India more stoutly into US arms.

The second issue was defence cooperation, including co-production, transfer of technology and inter-operability of forces and logistics. Strategic independence has been a cornerstone of Indian foreign policy since Independence. Post-Cold War, India has been evolving towards selective partnerships. The finalisation of the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement and Modi laying a wreath at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier were signals that India was moving towards a new kind of big power engagement. The raison detre has been the rise of China, its unabashed transfer of weapons of mass destruction technology and delivery systems to Pakistan and mutating radical Islamist groups which have degraded the Indian and South Asian security environment. The Modi visit has taken the next logical step in that direction.

Ironically, while the joint statement talks of shared values of freedom, democracy, universal human rights, tolerance and pluralism, a caucus of the US Congress examines Indias poor record on this count. Highlighting the same paradox has been the fracas over the ham-handed censoring of Udta Punjab, depicting the nexus between politics and drugs. The media attention that the director got, distracting from Modi visits coverage, demonstrates that Modi the politician and Modi the statesman cannot function in silos. Hopefully, he would have deduced during his tete-a-tete with his friend Obama that what endangers democracies the most are not external threats, but the Trumps within.

The writer is a former Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs
Apoorvanand

THE violence at Mathura has outraged people. But more than anger, there is bewilderment. It is difficult for people to accept that right in the heart of a town like Mathura, part of the mainland, there existed and flourished a liberated zone. Liberated zones in our imagination are created only by Naxalites or Maoists in the jungles of Chhattisgarh or Jharkhand. And they are inspired by alien ideologies like Marxism or Maoism. This makes it easy for us to label them as anti-nationals, conspirators who are out to dismember our nation. They have collaborators hiding in palces like the JNU, masquerading as students and teachers.

People and political parties are upset that government parallel to the one they form through the legitimate process of elections was running the show at Jawahar Bagh for more than two years. Some news reports have described it as a free nation. The government agencies are treating them as squatters who had illegally occupied a public property called the Jawahar Bagh.

It is also metaphorical that a park named after Nehru was occupied by members of what is being called a Bose Cult. The members of this cult believed that the Nehruvian Indian nation was a falsehood which needed to be undone, using the ideas of Subhas Chandra Bose. It is said that their leader, Ram Briksh Yadav was also a follower of the Jai Gurudev cult, a Baba of repute of yesteryear. He led nearly 3,000 people, from different parts of Uttar Pradesh and other states to Mathura and camped at Jawahar Bagh. He distributed plots to the people on which they built houses, a school used to operate there, armed training was imparted to the young and old. The Bose-Gurudev nation also had its own economic structure. There was a police force and an army which used to protect the "nation." For all pratical puposes, this was the base camp from where they wanted to spread further. That there was support outside this fortress is evident from the fact that the "nation" used to get regular supply of foodgrain and other necessities from places not only in UP but also Madhya Pradesh. For the inhabitants of Jawahar Bagh, the idea of this nation was so real and serious that they were ready to die for it. It was interesting to see that most of the media described the clash between them and the Indian police as a battle.

More than 29 people have died. Two senior police officers had to sacrifice their lives to assert the sovereignty of India over Jawahar Bagh. We are yet to see them decorated as martyrs. Jawans of our armed forces are immediately called martyrs when they die in Chhattisgarh or Jharkhand or Jammu and Kashmir. It would be too much to confer martyrdom on the functionaries of the state who are merely engaged in the eviction of illegal squatters.

The whole incident, had it not been so bloody, looks amusing. There is a something quixotic about it. The foolhardiness or audacity of the "citizens" of this "Bose-Gurudev" nation beats one's imagination. Did they seriously believe that they could beat back the might of the Indian State? Hypothetically speaking, if the idea of the "Bose-Gurudev" nationhood could capture the imagination of 3,000 people, what prevents it from bringing three lakh or three million people under its spell?

What is it that upsets us in the whole episode? Is it the bloodshed? Or is it the fact of illegal occupation of a public land? Was not it not done recently in the capital of India, on the bed of Yamuna against the orders of an institution which sought to assert the sovereignty of the nation against a Godman like Jai Gurudev? Is it the profile of the following of the living Godman something to do with the sheepishness of the organs of the Indian State before the Godman, who openly challenged the might of the State by declaring that even after being declared illegal, he would carry on with the congregation? The police and the Army was employed to facilitate the illegality and the Prime Minister of the country blessed the illegality.

We also read, and again with outrage, that the SP government was toying with the idea of giving the park to the cult on lease for 99 years. Why should it go against the UP government when we have instances like granting of acres of land in the heart of the protected ridge of Delhi to Asaram Bapu by a government led by the BJP by the orders of the then Home Minister LK Advani, or more recently to Baba Ramdev by the BJP government of Chhattisgarh? What makes Sri Sri or Asaram Bapu or Ramdev more deserving than Ram Briksh Yadav? What public good these worthies serve which Ram Briksh was incapable of doing?

Be it the three-day event at the Yamuna or the ashrams of these gurus, it is not the will of the Indian State which is supreme there. It is their own security, their own little armies under the rule of these gurus which are in command.

It cannot be that we did not like the name of a person like Bose being turned into a stupid cult. For, this is what we have witnessed in these last seven decades. A cult around Bose, the myth of his immortality has been cultivated very carefully to compete with and delegitimise the idea of a Nehruvian India. It is a militarist notion of a nation which has been propagated by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and its associates, the BJP being part of them. We have seen that it is quite possible to mobilise masses around this militant idea.

We find the idea of people following a half-educated man like Ram Briksh Yadav very funny. Has it occurred to us that we have willingly elected an organisation as our ruler which believes that the first organ transplant was done by god Shiva and we had a fully developed science of aeronautics in times of Lord Rama?

The fact of armed training at Jawahar Bagh is also being seen as unacceptable. We witness and many of us participate in the armed training camps run by the RSS and its allies. We are not only not offended by that but find the whole act patriotic. We conveniently ignore the fact that along with arms these people are also being trained into an idea of a nation which seeks to replace, if not overthrow the current idea of India, as enshrined in its Constitution. There may be people willing to be fooled by the-Constitution-as-my-sacred-book proclamation of their leader but his following knows in its heart that a true nation is only one which has complete Hindu supremacy.

In the aftermath of the bloodshed at Jawahar Bagh of Mathura, we need to remember that Ram Briksh Yadav may be dead and his nation vanquished but the Gurudev-Bose notion of Indian nationhood is very much alive in many other forms and with our active participation in promoting it.

The writer is a Professor of Hindi at Delhi University.
Hillary Clinton has finally made to the presumptive Democratic nominee for US president. What was presumed to be a cakewalk turned out to be a long and bruising battle, but then she fared far better than her Republican counterparts, all of whom exited in the face of an unanticipated challenge from the man that Clinton now faces  Donald Trump. Clinton may well savour her victory for the moment. She has shattered a major glass ceiling. She is the first female presidential candidate in the US, 95 years after women got the right to vote. She will, however, need to swiftly build bridges with her rivals within the party, particularly Senator Bernie Sanders.

Clinton will have to recalibrate her message to reach out to the kind of supporters that Sanders appealed to. His campaign showed the strength of his anti-Wall Street, anti-greed, anti-rich stand. The negative connotation that had hitherto been attached to socialism has largely been negated, no mean feat in the US. The Democratic nomination has taken a toll on the Clinton camp and she still faces many challenges, including the baggage of her long innings in public life. The security implications of using non-secure e-mail accounts may cost her, and she has to go the extra mile to show that her ties to the Wall Street will not stand in the way of much-needed reforms.

The battle for the presidency of the United States will be a bruising one. Trump has secured a nomination which was widely thought to be impossible when he threw his hat in the ring. He is thin on detail, where Clinton, given her vast experience and intellect, has an advantage. Clinton counts on the powerful support of African Americans, women and immigrant groups, including those from India. The faceoff will be brutal, but the prize is a chance to shape the destiny of the most powerful nation in the world. May the better person  which is she  win!
Prime Minister Narendra Modis latest meeting with US President Barack Obama was no different from their previous six engagements. Both sides have been smitten equally by the desire for a closer strategic embrace but find themselves having to move cautiously because of their existing commitments to other countries and their different belief systems. It was in line with this approach that the US declared India a major defence partner which, on paper, will lead to fewer formalities in transferring closely guarded defence technologies. Both countries also wrapped up a military cooperation agreement, besides making progress in facilitating the setting up of US nuclear plants in India.

The two sides also broke fresh ground in bilateral security and defence cooperation by expanding technology cooperation to cover more systems, announcing further steps to deepen collaboration against terrorist threats and deciding to share terrorist screening information. On the global stage, the US expectedly supported Indias membership to the UNSC and other global organisations but in order to keep China in good humour, both sides consciously downplayed future plans for a joint endeavour in the South China Sea. Amidst the emphasis on security issues, the US has inserted itself as an early bird in the India drive to ramp up the share of renewable power in the total energy mix with a slew of agreements.

While trade, defence, clean energy and security got their due, India could not wangle more work visas nor could it stop Washington from deducting social security payments from temporary workers. However, high net-worth Indians may not have to face a Shah Rukh Khan moment when they enter the US in the near future after both sides signed an MoU on an expedited traveller initiative. There were two other military agreements on the menu but were not signed because that would spell the end of Indias military trade with Russia. The US also desisted from using strong words against Pakistan, while India walked away with the satisfaction of having named its tormentor in the joint statement. In the end, existing compulsions put the brakes on a convergence that could have been faster.
Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 8

With suspense looming large over the Congress strategy for the June 11 Rajya Sabha elections from Haryana, the party has called a meeting of its state MLAs on June 10, a day before the poll.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi today appointed senior leader and party general secretary BK Hariprasad as central observer for the Haryana Rajya Sabha elections, assigning him the task of engaging the MLAs on the issue.

Hariprasad said , We have called all Haryana Congress MLAs for a meeting in Delhi on June 10. We will hold detailed discussions on the pros and cons of issues involved. After a feedback from the MLAs, I will apprise the party leadership. The final call will be made accordingly.

Sources in the Congress said almost all Congress MLAs, including former Chief Minister of Haryana Bhupinder Singh Hooda, former minister Randeep Surjewala and Kuldeep Bishnoi favour abstaining from voting. They are learnt to be of the opinion that the Congress, which cannot secure a victory on its own might, should stay away from the RS elections because the party has not fielded a candidate.

Having shared their views with the party leadership, all MLAs, including Hooda, have left the decision to Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.

Hooda and Bishnoi had met Rahul yesterday to convey their understanding of the situation which requires the Congress to choose between two Independent nominees  the BJP-backed media baron Subhash Chandra or the INLD-backed RK Anand.

The Congress is on the revival path in Haryana with INLD strongmen joining us. By voting alongside the INLD we will send the wrong signals to the people here. As for stopping a BJP candidate from entering the Rajya Sabha, it wont make much difference as the BJP is anyway in power in both Haryana and the Centre. We have to also to consider where the Congress is positioned in Haryana and whether or not standing with the INLD will weaken us politically, a Haryana Congress leader said.

A section of central Congress leadership feels the BJP should be prevented, at all costs, from adding to its RS tally. If the Congress abstains from voting, Chandra will win.

Anand calls on Sonia

In another important development, RK Anand today met Sonia to seek her support.

I have met Sonia ji and sought her support for my independent candidature in national interest. I hope a secular party like the Congress will back a nominee who is pitted against a BJP candidate in Haryana Rajya Sabha elections, Anand told The Tribune today.
Sat Singh

Tribune News Service

Bhiwani, June 8

A day after Sheoran khap decided to support the agitation by the Akhil Bharatiya Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti, another prominent khap has decided to throw its weight behind the protest. The Sangwan khap  40 has now declared its support to Jats sitting on dharna in Charkhi Dadri. It has also given an ultimatum to the state government to get the stay on Jat reservation vacated by June 13 or else face stir.

Nar Singh Sangwan, secretary of Sangwan khap-40, said the state government should either get the stay vacated else they would join indefinite dharna in Charkhi Dadri.

He said the state government should desist from trying to divide the Jat community by issuing threatening statements as they would not mellow down their stand.

Sangwan said it was wrong on part of the state government to banish candidates from upcoming police recruitment drive just because they supported or participated in a peaceful dharna.

Staging dharna within the ambit of law is the right of every citizen. To penalise is unjustified, he said.

Rajkumar Hadodi, district president, All-India Jat Arakshan Sangrash Samiti, said on one hand the administration gave permission to hold dharna while on the other they registered cases against protesters for violating section 144 of the CrPC.
Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, June 8

Objecting to the increase in demand charges which will hike the monthly power bill by three to five per cent for medium and large category industries in the state, the investors today said this was contrary to the assertions of the state government for having frozen the power tariff for five years.

The Parwanoo Industries Association (PIA) has severally criticised this hike and has filed objections before the Himachal Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (HPERC). The association said the government froze the tariff for only two years, though it has been claiming its credit during the investors meet to attract investors. The new electricity tariff has become applicable from April 1.

The commission has not increased the energy charges but increased the demand charges by Rs 20, 50, and 75 per kVA per month for medium, large and EHT, respectively. The impact of the same is expected to be about 5 to 15 paise per unit depending on the usage of power.

The regulatory commission has the obligation to provide adequate budget to the HP State Electricity Board Limited (HPSEBL) under the Electricity Act, 2003. On the other hand, the power is largely surplus in the state and the average rate at which the power is sold across the country is around Rs 2.22 these days. Under these circumstances, it makes more sense to sell power within the state, which can easily fetch Rs 2.92 per unit to HPSEBL, opined Rakesh Bansal, general secretary, PIA.

The investors said instead of introducing covert charges to hike the power tariff, the state government should contemplate subsidising the industry marginally so as to attract the new industries as well as retain the existing industry. Since the manufacturing sector was witnessing a poor growth rate, the advent of new industries was less and measures like hike in power tariff, despite claims to freeze tariff for five years, would dissuade the industry from investing in the state.

The subsidy can be granted in two ways. The easiest would be to phase out electricity duty. Alternatively, the objective can be achieved by providing subsidy in a way that is being followed for the domestic category of consumers. There is a need of subsidy to an extent of Rs 0.25 to 0.50, in order to maintain the industrial growth in the state, opined Bansal.
Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, June 8

Lobsang Sangay, Tibetan Sikyong (leader of Tibetan people-in-exile), on Wednesday flayed China for its allegation that Central Tibetan Administrations (CTA) was involved in the ongoing anti- mining protests in north eastern Tibet.

The allegation by the local Chinese authorities that the CTA is engaged in the anti-mining protests in Minyak and Amchok are unfounded, baseless and unacceptable, said Sangay while addressing a press conference here.

These protests are result of occupation of Tibet, repression of the Tibetan people and environmental destruction on the roof of the world, Sangay alleged.

Protests in Amchok in Sangchu of Tibet began on May 31 against the mining in mountainous region. The Chinese police had unleashed a brutal crackdown on Tibetan protestors and warned against any kind of meeting.

Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful protests and demonstrations. Therefore, to have an official local circular which categorically declares punishment for peaceful protestors is against the human rights norm and unacceptable, Sangay said.

As far as the CTA is concerned, Sangay said, Our environment policy is simple that any project related to environment has to be environmentally sustainable, culturally sensitive in the context of Tibetan peoples religious and cultural sentiment and economically beneficial to the local Tibetans.

The mining activities in Minyak and Amchok are in clear violation of Chinese environmental guidelines, alleged Sangay.

First of all, the extractions of minerals being done in Minyak and Amchok are illegal without consent of local Tibetans and are causing environmental degradation, he said.

Tempa Gyaltsen, researcher at Tibet Policy Institutes Environment and Development Desk, Tempa Gyaltsen, provided a detailed report on the environmental abuses as result of the two mining activities.

Since 2009, there have been 30 recorded cases of anti-mining protests in Tibet and 2016 has seen the most number of protests than in the previous years, said Gyaltsen.

As of recently, he said, Tibetans in Minyak Lhagang, Dartsedo County in Karze Prefecture held a two-day protest against Lichu river contamination caused by lithium extraction in the area. The mining was temporarily put at halt citing environmental problems and in order to resolve remaining issues.

The Chinese government and the local authorities should take concern of the rising number of anti-mining protests by Tibetans and resort to better treatment of the situation instead of giving punishment. Three Tibetans have self immolated at the mine site to protest the unethical mining, he said.
Pratibha Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, June 8

Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) president Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu today made it amply clear that ticket distribution during the 2017 Assembly polls will be strictly based on performance and it is not necessary that all ministers and sitting MLAs would be fielded in the polls.

The State Executive of the HPCC met here today under the leadership of Sukhu to discuss important issues and to hold conventions in all the 85 Block Congress Committee (BCCs) in the state to expose the failure of the Modi regime during its two-year rule. Others who attended the meeting included senior leaders Gangu Ram Musafir, Ram Lal Thakur, Rangila Ram Rao, Harshwardhan Chauhan, Harbhajan Singh Bahjji, AN Vidyarthi, Biru Ram Kishore and Vinod Sultanpuri. District Congress Committee (DCC) and BCC presidents from all over the state were also present in the meeting.

Sukhu also warned that attempts to destabilize party leadership by workers would not be tolerated and said action would be taken against those who indulged in such anti-party activities. The issue of some Youth Congress leader showing black flags to former minister and HPCC president Rangila Ram Rao in Gopalpur was discussed at the meeting.

Sources said the State Executive took strong note of the Gopalpur incident and decided that the BCC Gopalpur should issue show cause notice to such party workers to rein in indiscipline. All senior leaders demanded that action should be taken against such elements in the party as this was an act of indiscipline which would only weaken the party. Incidentally, Rao happens to be the Political Adviser to CM Virbhadra Singh.

The HPCC also took serious note of the fact that there were instances where some senior party leaders, including MLAs, were sheltering those involved in heinous crime, thus leading to public resentment against the ruling party.

The HPCC decided to constitute a state level committee to look into the murder of a young girl resulting in agitated family members and relatives blocking road for more than two hours in Paonta Sahib in Sirmaur, alleging political shelter to the accused.
Nikhil Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, June 7

In the Burundi national Yannick Nihangaza murder case, one of the accused Jaskaran Singh, who was got extradited from Australia by the Jalandhar Commissionerate, along with two other accused Harsh Gosain and Sumant Ralhan have gone underground.

The bail of the latter Harsh and Sumanth were also rejected by court.

Jaskaran is already on bail since December.

The trio had gone underground from the day when the police received the death certificate and medical report of Yannick from Burundi which had signalled that the murder trial could start in the case anytime. The trio escaped due to the fear of being arrested in a murder case, as they were earlier arrested in an attempt to murder case and were also convicted.

Now, the police have been conducting raids at the suspected hideouts of the accused, yet their whereabouts are a mystery for the police.

Taking cognisance of the medical report and death certificate received from Burundi in March this year, the Jalandhar Commissionerate has already converted the attempt to murder (Section 307 of the IPC) case into a murder case. The development has apparently empowered the police to file a fresh chargesheet in the Sessions Court, thereby clearing the way to start the murder trial against all accused.

Sources said since the medical documents that came from Burundi were photocopies, the court had told the police to submit the original documents  a must to start murder trial.

A senior police official said the embassy had already told the police that the original documents were dispatched which could reach in the coming few days. Once the documents are received by the police, fresh supplementary challan under Section 302 of the IPC would be filed against the accused.

Meanwhile, police division No. 7 said raids were on to arrest the trio.

Yannick, who remained in a comatose condition for two years after the murderous attack in Jalandhar on April 22, 2012, had died at his home in Burundi on July 1, 2014. He was airlifted to Burundi in an air ambulance from the Patiala Aviation Club on June 16. Yannick was pursuing a bachelors degree in computer science at Lovely Professional University in Phagwara. He was on his way to a party when he was attacked by a group of nine students in the Defence Colony area. Seven of the nine attackers were sentenced to 10-year imprisonment on October 24, 2013, including Sumant Ralhan, Sahildeep, Romy Uppal, Amandeep Singh, Amarbir Singh Bajwa, Harsh Gosain and Jaswant Singh.
Tribune News Service

Samba, June 8

Four Army men were killed and eight critically injured after their truck fell 25 feet down the road on the Jammu-Pathankot highway near Jatwal in Samba district today.

According to the police, the Army truck was on its way to Akhnoor area of Jammu district from Amritsar when it met with the accident at Jatwal. The victims were on way to Akhnoor when the accident took place, the police said.

The driver of the truck lost control over the vehicle while trying to save a cow crossing the highway. The truck skidded off the road and rolled down nearly 25 feet from the road before turning turtle, the police said. The police, assisted by local people and Army jawans from a nearby unit, rushed to the spot and started the rescue operation. The Army had to use cranes to retrieve the bodies from the truck. The injured have been shifted to Military Hospital, Samba.
Tribune News Service

Srinagar, June 8

Governor NN Vohra has impressed upon the Committee to Strengthen Border Protection (CSBP) to work out an effective strategy to counter infiltration from across the border to ensure that there is no repeat of the Pathankot terror attack.

Vohra made this point during a meeting with the CSBP chairman and former Union Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta. The Governor was briefed about the CSBP assessment of the situation on the international border in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir and the steps that should be taken to address this problem impacting the national security. Gupta along with members of his committee called on the Governor here today.

The Pathankot air base came under terrorist assault in January this year in which seven security personnel, including officers, were killed. Jaish-e-Mohammad, an outfit floated by Masood Azhar, has been held responsible for the attack.

The other members of the CSBP included Arvind Gupta, Deputy National Security Adviser; K Vijay Kumar, Adviser in the Ministry of Home Affairs; Ashok Prasad, former Secretary (Internal Security) in the Ministry of Home Affairs; and National Security Council Secretariat officers Arvind Kumar and Shivananda.

This meeting of the panel with the J&K Governor comes after its recent visit to the international border.

During his discussions with the committee, the Governor recalled the repeated terror attacks from across the international border and the Line of Control in the Jammu and Kashmir regions, particularly since 2012, and stressed that after the Pathankot air base terror attack it had become a matter of vital importance to review the existing anti-infiltration arrangements on the ground and ensure time-bound strengthening of the counter-infiltration and counter-terrorism grids, particularly along the international border in the Jammu region.

The Governor also discussed with the committee several other important issues related to the internal and external security management in J&K and in the neighbouring Punjab.

Gupta, who is here to assess the ground realities of the border management, shared his assessment with the Governor about the sustained attempts at cross-border infiltration and the steps which would be required to strengthen and plug any existing loopholes.
Tribune News Service

Srinagar, June 8

Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh today informed the Legislative Assembly that 85 per cent of work of the Srinagar Master Plan had been completed.

The Deputy Chief Minister, who also holds the portfolio of Housing and Urban Development Department, said this while intervening during the question hour on a reply to the question of Mohammad Ashraf Mir. Responding to the concerns of MLAs, he said elected representatives would be taken on board for the Master Plans of Srinagar and Jammu.

Nirmal Singh said during the formation of the Plans, the government had taken on board experts of various departments concerned. He said some of the national and international experts were also invited to deliberate on the Master Plans during seminars and workshops held across the state. Their valuable suggestions and technical comments have been incorporated in the draft, he added.

Earlier, while replying to the main question, Minister of State for Housing and Urban Development Asiya Naqash informed that the Master Plan of Srinagar was in vogue and the revision of Master Plan for Srinagar 2035 was under an advanced state of finalisation and would be completed by July this year.

Several members of the Assembly claimed they had not been consulted while formulating the Plans. PDP MLA Mohammad Ashraf Mir, who was the Housing and Urban Development Minister in the coalition government last year, expressed his concern that elected representatives were not being involved in the process.
Amarjot Kaur

Summer vacations arrive with a peer pressure of sorts... Oh! You didnt go anywhere this summer?, Did you travel in India or abroad? Did you check out his vacation pictures on Instagram and Facebook? Dont tell me you didnt go anywhere this year!

Clearly, there is no room for applauding those who prefer the comfort of staying at home. But then, one would rather stay at home than taking on the Herculean task of visa formalities to travel to different countries! However, as an Indian, you would be glad to know that you can travel to 58 countries without a visa!

According to the Passport Index official website, holders of American or British passport can travel to 147 countries without a visa or get visa on arrival. For Indian passport holders, there is a list of countries you can travel to without a visa, followed by the list of countries that offer visa on arrival.

Reeta Kohli, senior advocate and additional general advocate, Punjab, recently went to Sri Lanka and it cost her lesser than a trip to Goa! While she contemplates a journey to the UK this summer, she says shes harrowed by the visa formalities. Half the time, you get put off with visa formalities. I was to go to UK in June, but I didnt get time to get the visa and most of my holidays are over already. Firstly, getting a visa is too time-consuming and if you are travelling to Europe, you need to get a separate visa, which could be quite a cumbersome process, she says.

Reeta and many others opine that most countries that have strict visa rules end up putting off travellers. If you dont want people to come, make the visa process cumbersome instead of saying, you arent welcome. For instance, Pakistan; its so near, yet so far, she shares. Also, most of the times when you go to these countries, you get the coldest vibes right at the custom clearance. If it is a matter of security, there is far too much technology to check the authenticity of the traveller. I got my visa on arrival when I went to Sri Lanka and it was so convenient as well as welcoming. All I had to do was to buy the tickets and reach there.

For Prabhinder Lal, city-based artist, a visit to Bhutan was quite enriching. I was in Bhutan for an art workshop and trust me, its a clean country; people are good and the weather is good too. We were at Paro and Wangchuck Cultural centre. I love the architecture of monasteries, traditional dresses and Bhutan is a carbon negative country, so the environment was good too, he says. Meanwhile, Pramod Sharma of Yuvsatta says, I went to Indonesia, and would recommend everyone to visit Bali at least once. The countrys culture is quite similar to ours, and 95% of Balis population is that of Hindus. Also, they greet you in Sanskrit. I did not need any visa or pay visa fees; all you need to do is to show your Indian passport.

Go Global

No visa

Bhutan

Dominica

Ecuador

El Salvador

Fiji

Grenada

Haiti

Indonesia

Jamaica

Mauritius

Micronesia

Nepal

Saint Kitts and Nevis

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Sri Lanka (special permit)

Trinidad and Tobago

Vanuatu

Bhutan

Hong Kong

South Korea

FYRO Macedonia

Svalbard

Montserrat

Turks & Caicos Islands

Get e-visa

Gabon

Georgia

Cote dIvoire

Moldova

Myanmar

Rwanda

Sao Tome and Principe

Zambia

Zimbabwe

Visa on arrival

Djibouti

Ethiopia

Guinea-Bissau

Guyana

Jordan

Laos

Madagascar

Maldives

Mauritania

Palau

Saint Lucia

Samoa

Senegal

Seychelles

Somalia

Tanzania

Thailand

Togo

Bolivia

Cambodia

Cape Verde

Comoros

Timor-Leste

Tuvalu

Uganda

Antartica

amarjot@tribunemail.com
First go the kisses from the last Bond outing, Spectre, leaving the audience perplexed; then Jungle Book gets U/A certification and now cine-lovers are up in arms for Censor Boards stance towards Udta Punjab. Mired in controversies, looks like Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) is enjoying all the attention it is garnering!

What, how much, where, with whom do we watch films should still be left to the judgement of an eclectic board of members? We ask the youngsters. While a UPSC aspirant Ketan Garg stands by the Censor Board, film enthusiast Gursimran Datla takes an opposing stand.

Regulation warranted

Ever since Udta Punjab controversy came into social media space, people have been clamouring for dissolution of the Censor Board. While I strongly believe that we cannot replicate the Western sensibility on our soil, there is a cultural gap that must be taken into account; there has to be equal respect for creative liberty due to filmmakers. One just cannot let any kind of films play on screens, but the cuts demanded and certification granted should be just. One cannot expect that from a Board thats been put together by political bigwigs.

Its nothing new though, Kissa Kursi Ka, a political satire starring Shabana Azmi was banned during Emergency. Anyone reading newspapers knows about the drug menace in Punjab; just because the elections are approaching, political powers cannot pull the strings.

The solution lies in creating an impartial body like our election commission and Union Public Service Commission that make informed decisions, not just arbitrary verdicts. I also feel that the board can work way more effectively in case it has equal representation of men and women.

 Ketan Garg, UPSC aspirant

Abolish now

I am against the current system of Censor Board as well as the law of censorship. Today, when we are skilled enough to take our own decisions, independent enough to choose whatever we want to watch or read why this censorship? The Censor Board was always under the ruling government and every political party has used for their own purpose, either it was ban on Aandhi by the Congress or Udta Punjab by the BJP.

The government uses censorship to spread mass hysteria among people. They are happy to run their advertisements in the cinema halls and they also want to curb the creative freedom of filmmakers.

The Cinematograph Act, 1952, is more than 70 years old. Its worse than most of the developing countries. Its a shame for this largest film industry that countries like Iran, Iraq and Turkey have produced more revolutionary content than India. Today when TV, newspapers and radio are working without any censorship, why not films? Its a good time to come together and abolish the Censor Board. Let people decide what they want to watch.

 Gursimran Datla, film enthusiast

- As told to Mona

If you want to write for Split Ends, share your name, number and a picture on lifestyletribune@gmail.com
Vijay Mohan

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 8

The Indian Army will help establish a Signals training school for the Namibian armed forces in the African country as part of its growing engagement with countries located in what was known as the dark continent. At the same time, India, besides focusing on bilateral trade and cultural relations, will also push for procurement of uranium from Namibia.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) for helping setting up the military school was expected to be signed between the two countries during President Pranab Mukherjees state visit to Namibia next week, senior officials of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said. Besides Namibia, the president will also visit Ghana and Cote dIvoire (Ivory Coast).

While this is the first-ever visit of an Indian President to Cote dIvoire and Ghana, a presidential visit to Namibia, is being undertaken after 21 years. The reaching out to African countries, many of which have historical and cultural ties with India, comes in the backdrop of China having made significant inroads in that continent. China has major presence in the aforementioned countries with major developmental projects and high volume of trade. A team of three Indian Army officers and other staff will proceed to Namibia for the project once the formalities are worked out. A defence cooperation agreement with Namibia was signed in 1995, following which Indian Air Force training teams have been stationed in Namibia, which has also procured some defence equipment from India, including three transport helicopters from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.

MEA officials said an agreement was signed with Namibia, which is the fourth largest producer of uranium, for peaceful civilian use of nuclear energy, but its implementation had been held up as it was still to be ratified by the Namibian legislature. An agreement among African countries on uranium export is another impediment to the agreement. A number of other agreements are also expected to be signed with the countries that the President is visiting, besides holding delegation level talks with leaders of the respective countries and interaction with the local diaspora.

An agreement for setting up a gas-powered fertiliser plant in Ghana and reopening the regional office of the EXIM Bank for West Africa are also on the agenda. The President will address a joint business forum and students and faculty of the University of Ghana besides unveiling a statue of Mahatma Gandhi gifted by the Indian Council of Cultural Relations. In Cote dIvoire, among other official engagements, Mukherjee will be honoured with the National Order of the Republic of Ivory Coast, the highest civilian award of that country.
Thiruvananthapuram, June 8

A complaint has been filed against Congress president Sonia Gandhi, KPCC chief VM Sudheeran and former minister Ramesh Chennithala in a local court in Thiruvananthapuram over non-payment of dues in connection with the construction of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhis statue at Neyyar Dam.

Leading construction company Heather Constructions, which on Wednesday sent a legal notice in this regard, has alleged that it was given a contract for construction of Rajiv Gandhis statue and is yet to receive dues amounting to Rs. 3.5 crore.

The project was commissioned by former KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala.

Meanwhile, the Congress has rubbished the charges and assured to settle the matter soon.

Neither any criminality involved nor any default of payment. Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Development Studies is an institute constituted under KPCC, they had constituted a research centre, Congress leader Randeep Surjewala told ANI.

There is an ongoing dispute between engineers, who built the institute, and contractor, who executed the work. Contractor had filed a civil suit, issue is almost sorted out. Within 24 hours, all parties will sit together and settle the issue, he added.

According to reports, the Congress president had inaugurated the project in 2005. She had asked the KPCC to make necessary payment after the construction company sent a notice for non-payment of funds.

The company in the complaint claims that they had not been paid yet. ANI
Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 8

A day after the US returned 200 Indian artefacts valued at $100 million, news is that a precious cache of Le Corbusier and his associate Pierre Jeannerets design heritage will go up for sale in New York tomorrow.

The live auction by US-based house Phillips involves the sale of heritage furniture Corbusier and Jeanneret designed for Chandigarh, the city former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru assigned them to build as a symbol of modern India.

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The price quoted for these nine items is $2,70,000 to 4,01,000 which translates to Rs 1.8 crore to Rs 2.67 crore.

As for the pieces on sale, these include Le Corbusiers and Jeannerets sofa model designed for the High Court and Assembly buildings and valued at $70,000 to one lakh; a set of four armchairs designed by Jeanneret for the Chandigarh College of Architecture priced at $40,000 to 60,000 and a pair of console tables Jeanneret designed for Chandigarhs administrative buildings valued between $35,000 and 55,000.

Ahead of tomorrows auction, Chandigarh resident Ajay Jagga, who has been crusading since 2010 to preserve citys heritage, has written to the Department of Homeland Security, US, to stop the auction and check if the sellers entered India on business or tourist visas and if they paid Indian customs for the items before taking these abroad.

Jagga, whose campaign, recently resulted in the establishment of the Heritage Protection Cell under the Chandigarh Administration, said he had written a complaint to CBIs Interpol branch in New Delhi to enable inter-country cooperation for protecting Indian artefacts from being illegally taken out. CBI Interpol has now asked the Bureaus Chandigarh branch director to investigate the matter and inform if any cooperation is needed in the case from the crime departments of the US and France. The Tribune is in possession of the CBIs letter.

Jagga, a member of the Chandigarhs Administrations Heritage Cell, has shared with the CBI details of five previous auctions of Chandigarhs iconic furniture and fixtures, including manholes, in the US and France. The last such auction took place in New York on March 5 and led to the sale of Chandigarh heritage worth $45,000. The items included two sets of chairs and student desks of the Central Library of Panjab University and a pair of round stools of Panjab University Science block.

Even items as mundane as manholes designed under Corbusiers charge have fetched Rs 11 lakh per manhole in auctions across the US and Europe, while these items are being sold in Chandigarh as scrap with each manhole going for Rs 300, says Jagga, whose earlier PIL in this case had for the first time led to the Chandigarh Administration cataloguing 244 heritage items of Corbusiers era and promising to the Punjab and Haryana High Court that these wont be allowed to be squandered anymore.

Foreign auctions of Corbusiers Indian creations have, however, continued unabated in the absence of law enforcing at the home front. The Swiss architect and his associate Jeanneret not only designed Chandigarh, but also designed the furniture that would occupy the citys spaces. The heritage is going for a pittance today.
Kolkata, June 8

Gandak River in Bihar has established itself as the third breeding ground in the country for the critically-endangered gharials after the birth of 7-8 baby crocodiles near Valmiki Tiger Reserve on World Environment Day.

As part of a Gharial conservation programme of the Bihar forest department and Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), a team of experts have been releasing captive-bred gharials in the wild and into river Gandak after which breeding in the wild began.

This is the first record of wild bred gharials in the river. Decades ago there used to be a good number of gharials but gradually the number depleted. Now breeding has once again begun, Samir Kumar Sinha, head of the Gharial conservation project told PTI from Patna.

He said they noticed six nests at a stretch of about 700 metres in April after which they formed a team to monitor it 24/7 along with two local villagers so that predators like jackals and raptors did not feed on the eggs.

We are happy that on June 5 when we were celebrating the World Environment Day, 7-8 hatchlings came out from the eggs along the banks of the river after 59 days, he said.

Renowned expert on crocodiles Dr B C Choudhury said this is the third breeding population of Gharials, endemic to the Indian sub-continent, in the country after Chambal and Girwa rivers.

The state government is committed to conserve gharials in the Gandak River and with discovery of breeding population and nesting sites we are encouraged to strengthen our commitments further, U S Jha, Chief Wildlife Warden, Bihar, said.

A study in 2010 recorded 15 gharials in the river before the conservation project started but now a survey done by WTI in 2015 recorded a minimum of 54 gharials of which 26 were adults.

The nests were protected throughout the incubation period by WTI field team with active supports of local farmers.

Besides fending off predators and covering the nests with sand and iron mesh, they also guarded it with bamboo fences. Some of the nests had to be shifted due to floods. One such nest may contain anything between 20-40 eggs.

We even assisted the hatchlings to come out of the nest as we removed the sand cover on the ground nest to check when they are ready to come out, Sinha said

In one of the cases, the mother gharial abandoned the eggs thinking they will sink in flood waters but were later recovered by the field staff.

Barely 3-4 days old, the babies are now about 8 inches long and feed on their own in a small pool of water near the river.

When the monsoon comes they will be flown in the main river and will have to survive on their own in the wild, Sinha said.  PTI
Beijing, June 8

India cannot rise by containing China or picking one side against the other, a Chinese state-run paper said on Wednesday, taking note of the Indo-US ties which are being ramped up to an unprecedented level.

Four visits to the US and seven meetings with President Barack Obama in two years--Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has ramped up the India-US relationship to an unprecedented level. How the two countries will engage with each other has raised heated discussions, an op-ed article in state-run Global Times said.

Picking one side or camp against the other is not the way India will rise. New Delhi is looking into a multi-faceted diplomacy. The well-performing Indian economy will give incentives to the country to be more confident with multilateralism and to seek balanced international relations.

Although rivalling China in many aspects, India knows its great vision cannot be realised by bashing or containing China. Instead, they should expand cooperation, explore the potentials and build mutual trust for their own good. China is more of a help than a competitor for India. This will eventually constitute Indias fundamental understanding of China, it said referring to Modi's current visit to the US.

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With Modis visit, New Delhi hopes there will be breakthroughs in many aspects, especially business and trade, security cooperation and nuclear issues, the article titled Indias vision cannot be realised by containing China said.

The transformation of the geopolitical landscape is the major driver drawing the US and India much closer.

Washingtons rebalance to the Asia-Pacific makes the US realise Indias strategic significance, economic potential and ideological commonality, it said.

India hopes that by consolidating its relationship with the US, it could gain leverage in development and forge an international status that is worthy of its potential. Modi has riveted his interactions with the US on this simple outlook to make India a veritable powerhouse. He was eager to boost a broader and better economic relationship with the US.

He urged the signing of the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement, a landmark deal promoting logistics and defence cooperation with the US and he also expects an endorsement from the US to help India become a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the last step to solidify Indias status as a nuclear powerhouse, the article said.

As for Washington, it is always hoping that India could serve as its right hand to counterbalance Chinas rise. But so far, Washingtons calculations do not work well. Turning down Washingtons invitation to join a patrol in the South China Sea, New Delhi has no intention to cast away its founding principles: independence and non-alignment, it said.

In the process of fulfilling its ambition to be a major power, India has always employed independent and pragmatic approaches. A balance between other major powers will be its primary and optimal choice, the article added. PTI
Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 8

Contours emerging from last nights India-US joint statement hint at a new script in the defence relationship of the two nations.

The text of the logistics exchange memorandum of agreement (LEMOA)  which will allow US warships and planes to be refuelled and repaired in India  has been finalised. The US now recognises India as major defence partner and New Delhis entry into the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) means it can now shop armed drones and other long-range missiles.

The joint statement was made around 3 am IST on Wednesday after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Barack Obama met in the US. The LEMOA will not just help the US, it will act as a vital tool for India as it expands its Naval footprint and outreach. The US has a string of bases in East Africa, Persian Gulf, Diego Garcia (Indian Ocean), The Philippines, Japan, Australia and Japan. Indian warships and planes can seek similar refuel and repair facilities at these bases on long deployments, which are very frequent nowadays.

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The LEMOA will cover four aspects  training, exercises, port calls and the humanitarian assistance. Indian planes used refuelling facilities at Djibouti for evacuating Indian citizens from Yemen last year. Both countries will have to seek advance permission to seek facilities and it does not entail any permanent bases for the US in India like it has in countries like Japan.

A formal signing of the LEMOA could happen soon and the pact will go through the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS). The LEMOA will be facilitator as earlier such matters of refuelling and repair were considered on a case-to-case basis.

The other important aspect of the statement is the US recognising India as a Major Defence Partner. This will be a new nomenclature for the US bureaucracy and lawmakers to apply as a priority-yardstick on dealing with India-related issues. Though this does not mean that India will get unhindered access to technology like the NATO allies of the US get, it will fix a kind of parameter and send a signal to the officialdom. The US is looking toward facilitating technology sharing with India to a level commensurate with that of its closest allies and partners.
Manas Dasgupta

Ahmedabad, June 8

A controversy over dressing an idol of Lord Swaminarayan in RSS outfit has put BJPs Gujarat unit president Vijay Rupani on the defensive.

If it is true, I do not approve of it, Rupani said when asked about a photograph of the idol in the RSS outfit that has gone viral on the social media since yesterday evening. He said he was surprised that the temple authorities should play such a mischief.

The incident has given the Congress an opportunity to attack the BJP. This is very unfortunate, Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly Shankarsinh Vaghela, a former Chief Minister, said. Hinting that he believed it to be a deliberate ploy of the BJP hierarchy, Vaghela said, What do you want to prove by dressing up the God in khaki shorts? I pity those who have done that. Today, you have dressed the Lord in the RSS outfit, tomorrow you will dress the idol in BJP style. This is very unfortunate, he said.

The authorities of the Swaminarayan temple in the Laskana area of Surat, however, did not see anything wrong in it. We dress up the Gods idol in various outfits presented by devotees. This dress of a white shirt tucked in khaki short was also presented by a devotee recently. It may be RSS uniform but we have dressed the idol as per our common practice of honouring the wishes of devotees and not to create any political controversy, Swami Vishwaprakashji, one of the trustees of the temple, said.

The BJP authorities are worried over the controversy as the party leadership felt that in case the incident hurt religious sentiments of the Swaminarayan sect, which has a very large following in Gujarat, it could cost the party dearly in the coming elections because the followers of this sect are usually considered strong supporters of the BJP. With its strong support base among the Patels already in doldrums over the reservation stir against the Anandiben Patel government, the BJP could ill-afford to displease the Swaminarayan followers by showing the Lord like a normal human being.
Mumbai, June 8

The Shiv Sena on Wednesday said Prime Minister Narendra Modis remarks in Doha about India being plagued by corruption maligned the nations image, and questioned if scams in BJP-ruled Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat could be attributed to the Gandhi family.

Since Modi was the face of the nation, other countries might believe what he says about India which in turn might affect the financial condition of the country, an editorial in Senas mouthpiece Saamna said.

Vowing to root out corruption in India, the Prime Minister had on Sunday said in Doha that he faced problems by depriving the sweets of many and saved over Rs 36,000 crore annually by stopping leakage and theft in government schemes.

The Prime Minister garnered applause for speaking on how corrupt India is. This is like maligning the reputation of the country on foreign soil. If people are talking about corruption two years after the new government coming to power, whom do we blame for it? Can we attribute what is happening in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat to the Gandhi family, the editorial said.

Since Modi is the face of the nation, other countries might believe what he speaks and take decisions based on that which might affect the financial condition of India. Jibes at opposition should be taken within the country itself. One does not need to go to America or Europe to take potshots at Modi or the Gandhi family, it added.

Sena, an ally of the ruling NDA, said that it was enough of leveling corruption charges against Robert Vadra and Gandhi family. It is now time to take action against them if they have indulged in wrongdoings, the party said.

(Former Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister) Ajit Pawar had recently said he lost power because he lost control on his tongue. This should become a political mantra, the Sena said.  PTI
Washington, June 8

Treating the Pathankot attack on par with 26/11, US President Barack Obama in a clear message asked Pakistan to punish the perpetrators and vowed to stand with India against terror threats emanating from Pakistan-based groups like JeM, LeT and D-company.

They (Obama and Modi) called for Pakistan to bring the perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai and 2016 Pathankot terrorist attacks to justice, a joint statement issued on Tuesday after the Obama-Modi meeting at the White House said.

During the meeting, Modi and Obama acknowledged the continued threat posed to human civilisation by terrorism and condemned the recent terrorist incidents from Paris to Pathankot, from Brussels to Kabul, the statement said.

They resolved to redouble their efforts, bilaterally and with other like-minded countries, to bring to justice the perpetrators of terrorism anywhere in the world and the infrastructure that supports them, the statement said.

During the meeting, Obama and Modi committed to strengthen cooperation against terrorist threats from extremist groups, such as al-Qaeda, Daesh/ISIL, Jaish-e Mohammad, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, D Company and their affiliates, including through deepened collaboration on UN terrorist designations.

The two leaders directed their officials to identify specific new areas of collaboration at the next meeting of the USIndia Counter-terrorism Joint Working Group, the statement said.

Recognising an important milestone in the US-India counter-terrorism partnership, the leaders applauded the finalisation of an arrangement to facilitate the sharing of terrorist screening information, it said.

Modi and Obama also affirmed their support for a UN Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism that advances and strengthens the framework for global cooperation and reinforces that no cause or grievance justifies terrorism, the statement said.

The two leaders had a very extensive and thoughtful conversation about the rise of extremism and the need for all countries to work together to address this challenge, a senior Obama administration official said.

The two leaders also underlined the need to ensure that the civil society and the minority communities are fully participating in addressing the issue, the official said. PTI
New Delhi, June 8

The Supreme Court today refused to entertain the bail plea of sacked Uttarakhand minorities panel chief Sukhdev Singh Namdhari, accused in a 2012 shootout here that killed liquor baron Ponty Chadha and his brother Hardeep, saying charges against him were "grave".

We are not interested in entertaining the petition. The charges against you are grave, a vacation bench comprising Justices PC Ghose and Amitava Roy said.

The apex court took strong note of the fact that Namdhari earlier secured interim bail on health grounds from the trial court during the pendency of his regular bail plea in the Delhi High Court.

"It is strange. The trial court grants you interim bail when the bail petition is pending in the High Court," it said.

Namdhari, in his plea before the apex court, said he was not keeping well and hence be enlarged on bail during the pendency of trial.

In April this year, the trial court, which is currently recording prosecution evidence in the case, has cancelled the interim bail of Namdhari and sent him to jail.

The trial court, while cancelling the interim bail, had said the main complainant, Nandlal Mahto, had turned hostile in the matter and it could not be ruled out that Namdhari had threatened him or given him gratification to turn hostile.

The plea seeking cancellation of Namdhari's interim bail was filed by wife of Hardeep in the trial court.

Namdhari, the alleged main conspirator in the case, was granted interim bail on November 27 last year on medical grounds which was extended time to time.

The accused had said that he was suffering from various ailments like hepatitis C, those related to blood pressure and heart problems apart from depression and having suicidal tendencies.

Ponty and Hardeep, who were allegedly involved in a property dispute, were killed in a shootout at a Chhattarpur farmhouse here on November 17, 2012. Subsequently, Namdhari was arrested on November 23, 2012. Later, the remaining accused were apprehended.

The trial court in July last year had framed charges under Section 302 (murder) read with section 149 (offence committed by member of unlawful assembly) of the IPC against all the 21 accused, including Namdhari and his Personal Security Officer (PSO) Sachin Tyagi.  PTI
Simran Sodhi

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 8

In his address to the US Congress in Washington today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke about various aspects of the India-US relationship, including 'shared values'. The new inject was the PM's statement, "Today, our relationship has overcome the hesitations of history. Comfort, candour and convergence define our conversations." This could be interpreted as a signal to the US that India is ready to move from being a non-aligned player to a natural ally of the US.

Editorial: A matter of proportions

The PM's message on terrorism was loud and clear. Without mentioning Pakistan, he said terrorism was being "incubated in India's neighbourhood" and pressed for action against groups like the Lashkar-e-Taiba, Taliban and ISIS. "Distinguished members, not just in Afghanistan, but elsewhere in South Asia, and globally, terrorism remains the biggest threat.

In the territory stretching from West of India's border to Africa, it may go by different names, from Laskhar-e-Taiba to Taliban to ISIS. But, its philosophy is common: of hate, murder and violence. Although it's shadow is spreading across the world, it is incubated in India's neighbourhood." He commended the members of the US Congress for "sending a clear message to those who preach and practice terrorism for political gains," and thanked the US for showing solidarity during the Mumbai attack.

The PM started his address by referring to his visit to the Arlington Cemetery two days ago and paid his respects to the brave men and women who laid down their lives for their nations. "Freedom, liberty form strong bonds between our two democracies," said the PM. He added that diversity, equal respect for all faiths were some of the values that India shared with the US. "India lives as one, India grows as one, India celebrates as one," he said.

His remarks seemed to convey to the US his government's response to critiques of intolerance and lack of religious freedom. "For my government, the Constitution is the real holy book," Modi said and went on to add that "1.25 billion Indians have freedom from fear every moment of their lives." He recalled former PM Atal Behari Vajpayee had described India and the US as 'natural allies' and went on to talk about the 2008 phase.

He skipped any mention of the man responsible for the civil nuclear deal then, former PM Manmohan Singh.

His tongue-in-cheek reference to the bipartisan workings of the US Congress and the workings of the Indian Parliament provoked a chuckle. He also spoke of the defence purchases that had moved 'from almost zero to 10 million dollars in less than a decade."

The PM said that strong ties between India and the US could anchor stability- from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific. And in his closing remarks, he played to the gallery by quoting famous American poet Walt Whitman: "Orchestra have sufficiently tuned their instruments, the baton has given the signal.' And to that, if I might add, there is a new symphony in play. "
Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 8

Thailand on Wednesday received validation from the World Health Organization for having eliminated mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis, becoming the first country in Asia and the Pacific region and also the first with a large HIV epidemic to ensure an AIDS-free generation. India is far from the elimination goal with new deadlines being fixed repeatedly.

WHO has already given the certificate of validation to Thailand during a ceremony in New York on the eve of the United Nations General Assembly high-level meeting on ending AIDS.

This is a remarkable achievement for a country where thousands of people live with HIV. Thailands unwavering commitment to core public health principles has made elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis a reality, a critical step for rolling back the HIV epidemic. Thailand has demonstrated to the world that HIV can be defeated, Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia Region, said presenting the certificate to Thailand.

Thailand has turned around its epidemic and transformed the lives of thousands of women and children affected by HIV," said UNAIDS Executive Director, Michel Sidibe.

Untreated women living with HIV have a 15-45 per cent chance of transmitting the virus to their children during pregnancy, labour, delivery or breastfeeding. However, that risk drops to just over 1 per cent if antiretroviral medicines are given to both the mother and the child throughout the stages when infection can occur.

In 2014, the WHO published a guide on global processes and criteria for the validation of the elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis and the different indicators countries need to meet.

As treatment for prevention of mother-to-child-transmission is not 100 per cent effective, elimination of transmission is defined as a reduction of transmission to such a low level that it no longer constitutes a public health problem.
Washington, June 8

With Pakistan obviously in mind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said terrorism is being incubated in India's neighbourhood and pressed for action without making any distinction against groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba, Taliban and ISIS who share the same philosophy of hate, murder and killings.

In his address to the joint sitting of US Congress here, Modi said terrorism has to be fought with "one voice" as he commended the American Parliament for sending out a clear message by refusing to "reward" those who preach and practice terrorism for political gains, an apparent reference to the blocking of sale of 8 F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan.

In the course of his 45-minute speech, he covered all major aspects of the growing relationship between India and the US, particularly strategic ties and civil nuclear cooperation, and emphasised that the two countries should leave "constraints of the past" behind as the "foundations of the future are firmly in place".

Dressed in trademark white kurta pyjama and grey-colour half-jacket, Modi was warmly received by the American lawmakers who interrupted his address more than 40 times to cheer him, a few times by standing. When his predecessor Manmohan Singh addressed the US Congress in 2005, his speech was applauded 33 times, according to Sanjay Baru, who was the Media Adviser to the then Prime Minister.

Underscoring that both India and the US share the vision of peace and prosperity of the world, the Prime Minister said "globally, terrorism remains the biggest threat" and it must be fought at many levels" as the traditional tools of military, intelligence or diplomacy alone would not be able to win defeat it.

"In the territory stretching from West of India's border to Africa, it may go by different names, from Laskhar-e-Taiba, to Taliban to ISIS. But, it's philosophy is common: of hate, murder and violence," Modi said.

"Although it's shadow is spreading across the world, it is incubated in India's neighbourhood," he said an apparent reference to Pakistan.

He said those who believe in humanity must come together to fight against terrorism as one and speak against this menace in one voice.

"I commend the members of the US Congress for sending a clear message to those who preach and practice terrorism for political gains," Modi said, adding "Refusing to reward them is the first step towards holding them accountable for their actions."

He was clearly referring to the blocking of sale of 8 F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan by the US Congress recently.

Emphasising that "terrorism must be delegitimised", he said, "The need of the hour is for us to deepen our security cooperation."

He said the cooperation should be based on a policy that "isolates those who harbour, support and sponsor terrorists; that does not distinguish between 'good' and 'bad' terrorists; and that delinks religion from terrorism."

The Prime Minister noted that both the countries have lost civilians and soldiers in combating terrorism and highlighted how the US stood by India in the aftermath of terror attack in Mumbai in November 2008, which originated from Pakistan.

Modi became the fifth Indian Prime Minister after Rajiv Gandhi, PV Narasimha Rao, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh to address the US Congress.

As he arrived at Capitol Hill, the Prime Minister was received by House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan.  PTI
Washington, June 8

The Sikh-American community's compassion and forgiveness in the aftermath of the 2012 gurdwara shooting incident in Wisconsin in which six people were killed has been a lesson, US House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan told Prime Minister Narendra Modi today.

Ryan, who is a representative from Wisconsins First District, received Prime Minister Modi at Capitol Hill here and offered his condolences for the shooting incident four years ago that shook the Indian-Americans, especially the Sikh community.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook and Twitter @thetribunechd)

Following shooting incident in gurdwara in my constituency, the Sikh community's compassion and forgiveness has been a lesson, Ryan was quoted as telling Prime Minister Modi by spokesperson of Ministry of External Affairs, Vikas Swarup, in a tweet.

Six people were killed and four others injured when 40-year-old Wade Michael Page, a white supremacist and US Army veteran, opened indiscriminate firing at a gurdwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, on August 5, 2012.  PTI
Mumbai, June 8

Amid the controversy over drug-themed Bollywood film Udta Punjab, its producers moved the Bombay High Court on Wednesday seeking a copy of the order passed by the Censor Boards Review Committee purportedly suggesting cuts in the movie and removal of reference to Punjab in it.

The petition said that producers had not yet been given a copy of the order by the government or the Censor Board and that unless they had a copy of the order in hand, how could they proceed in the matter to undertake the amendments purportedly suggested by the Committee on May 3.

The movie is slated for release on June 17.

The petition, filed by Phantom Films, a production and distribution company established by Anurag Kashyap, sought a direction from the high court to the government and the Censor Board to hand over a copy of the review committees decision on the objectionable scenes and dialogues in the film.

The petition is slated to come up for hearing before a bench headed by Justice SC Dharmadhikari on Wednesday afternoon.

The makers of the film are said to have been asked by the Review Committee of Censor Board to remove all references to Punjab and make 89 cuts. Kashyap, however, said they are waiting for an official letter from the Board on the issue.

The Shahid Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Diljit Dosanjh-starrer movie that delves into how the youth in Punjab have succumbed to drugs has also unleashed political sparring prompting Kashyap to ask parties to stay away from the censorship row.

Punjab goes to polls next year.

Kashyap on Tuesday had hit out at Censor Board chief Pahlaj Nihalani, calling him oligarch and dictator and that it was like living in North Korea.

He got the support of several filmmakers, including Karan Johar, Mahesh Bhatt, Ram Gopal Varma and Mukesh Bhatt.

It is a dark day for freedom of expression and creativity in the country, Mukesh Bhatt said, calling Nihalani a stooge of the government.

The Bombay Velvet director took to Twitter to vent his ire at Censor Board and said there is no sense of freedom. I always wondered what it felt like to live in North Korea... Ab to plane pakadney ki bhi zaroorat nahin..., Kashyap posted on Twitter.

I request the Congress, AAP and other political parties to stay out of my battle. Its my rights vs the censorship. I speak only on my behalf, he said.

The AAP and Congress had earlier accused Punjabs ruling SAD-BJP alliance of exercising its influence to censor the movie, a charge denied by the state government. PTI
Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 8

There is no drug problem in Punjab, or so says the BJP which along with ally Akali Dal is currently holding the fort in the state that has become notoriously synonymous with drug menace over the past few years.

The Akali Dal-BJP government is doing excellent work.....I dont think there is any problem (related to drugs in the state), said Union Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy today in response on whether he believed drugs was an issue in Punjab where the incumbent government is currently battling allegations of inaction over widespread abuse and trafficking of drugs.

Notably, the senior BJP leader, who also happens to be a former office-bearer of Punjab University Students Council, not just dismissed the thought (of any drugs-related problem in the state he was closely familiar with), he also denied Centres interference with the certification of the controversial film Udta Punjab.

Rudy also rejected allegations levelled by AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal that Censor Board chief Pahlaj Nihalani censored the film on the directions of the Centre. The Centre has nothing to do with it (certification of Udta Punjab). AAP survives on controversies. It creates controversies for political purpose, he said on the controversy which has now snowballed into a major political issue in the poll-bound state.

Nihalani, who heads the CBFC, dismissed the charge that he was under any pressure from the Centre to censor the film. In turn, Nihalani has alleged that he had heard co-producer Anurag Kashyap had taken money from AAP.

Though Kashyap denied any allegiance to any political party, making the most of Nihalanis statement Kejriwal tweetedPahlaj Nihalanis statement (linking Kashyap with AAP) makes it amply clear he has stopped the film on BJPs instructions. While rivals Congress and AAP are preparing to reap good political harvest out of the controversy, as per the Akali Dal and the BJP, the film tarnishes the image of the state and its people.

Fatehgarh Sahib: The raging debate over the release of Udta Punjab on June 17 is refusing to die with Anandpur Sahib MP Prem Singh Chandumajra alleging that certain parties were behind the move to defame the SAD-BJP regime through the film.

The Centre should ban the film immediately as it was likely to hurt the sentiments of the people of Punjab.

However, the AICC secretary and the Congress MLA Kuljit Singh Nagra said that political parties had no role in defaming the SAD-BJP government as the government it its report to the high court had admitted that the state was in the grip of drugs.

He asked whether there was any role of political parties in denying of siropa (robe of honour) to CM Parkash Singh Badal and Deputy CM Sukhbir Badal at the Golden Temple. Nagra alleged there was a complete chaos in the state due to the 10 years of misrule of the SAD-BJP government.  TNS

Hoshiarpur: Hitting out at the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) for raising "unnecessary" objections over the upcoming film "Udta Punjab", the Dal Khalsa slammed it "for working in a biased and selective manner".

Referring to the film Nanak Shah Fakir, party spokesperson Kanwar Pal Singh said the that was supposed to be banned, but was given a go-ahead by this CBFC, whereas the film which required to be passed without any cuts was being censored illogically.

He recalled how the pleas of the Sikhs to ban Nanak Shah Fakir that challenged the fundamentals of the Sikhism were overlooked by the CBFC. Udta Punjab was about the rising drug problem that Punjab was facing and it was a harsh reality that the situation had reached alarming level, he alleged.

On allegations that the Akalis were blocking its release, he said the Akalis approach towards the drug abuse was like a proverb that says a pigeon closes eyes on seeing a cat, thinking she doesnt exist.  OC
GS Paul

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, June 8

As many as 169 pilgrims on way to Pakistan to observe the martyrdom day of Guru Arjan Dev remained stranded at the Attari railway station for around nine hours today.

Despite possessing valid visa documents, they were not allowed to proceed to the other side of the border due to lack of communication between the railway station authorities and the Ministry of External Affairs. The agitated pilgrims raised slogans against the government to lodge their protest. They were allowed to go only after the clearance came at 5.50 pm.

Attari station incharge SS Madan said the customs and immigration process was furnished only after the ministrys approval. As soon as we got the approval from the ministry, we took no time to sort out the matter at our end, he said.

This jatha, sponsored by the SAD (Delhi), will visit Gurdwara Dera Sahib, Panja Sahib, Nankana Sahib and Kartarpur Sahib in Lahore.

Maninder Singh Dhuna, political secretary of former DSGMC president and SAD (Delhi) chief Paramjit Singh Sarna, said the pilgrimage was planned for Pakistan to observe the martyrdom day on June 16 as per the original Nanakshahi calendar. The Centre harassed the pilgrims at the instance of the Punjab government, he alleged.

The jatha comprising mostly elderly people faced inconvenience at the railway station. The pilgrims had to take shelter under the trees to get relief from the scorching heat.

Pritpal Singh (72) and his wife, who came from Dehradun, alleged that despite having proper documents, they were subjected to harassment for no fault of theirs. We felt like some culprits who were detained by the police, he said.

Dharamvir Singh (68) and his wife said there was no provision for stay at the Attari station which was considered an international platform. Even there is no proper facility for drinking water or washrooms, he said.

Jasbir Singh of Dehradun who was leading the jatha said: We received a communication from the Pakistan Waqf Board president that they have made the arrangements. But the delay at Attari sent wrong signals to Pakistan about the inefficiency our system, he said.
Aman Sood

Tribune News Service

Patiala, June 8

Lack of will of police officials to serve under the Jail Department is clearly visible as three of the four such officers sent on deputation as jail superintendents have proceeded on leave.

Information gathered by The Tribune has revealed three of the four PPS officers, including Kulwinder Singh Khaira, Superintendent, Kapurthala jail; Shivinder Singh Sandhu, Superintendent, Amritsar jail; and Dilbagh Singh, Superintendent, Gurdaspur jail, have proceeded on leave. The only exception is PPS officer Bhupinder Virk, who is with the Central Jail, Patiala, for the past two years.

Though officially the officers have given different reasons behind the leave, insiders confirm that the leave has been availed to go back to their parent cadre.

Sources say the officers are trying to get a posting back in the Police Department as the jail job is indeed challenging and without any reward in sight.

These officers feel that as a jail superintendent, they are always on toes and have to ensure their presence in jail everyday and with limited manpower at disposal, the job demands complete supervision, they stated.

A pep talk given to all senior jail officials by Punjab DGP Suresh Arora and ADGP (Jails), Punjab, MK Tiwari only last month failed to boost the morale of policemen.

As a police officer, even if you are not in the field job at least you have manpower, a vehicle and free time. All of this is missing in the jails wing. Shortage of staff in jails to tackle the inmates is another reason that deters many officers from joining this department, they said.

A senior jail official confirmed that even the jail-cadre officers are not happy serving the department as they have low pay scale as compared to police and in case of any recovery from inmates inside jail they are always at the risk of facing departmental action.

We have no choice but it is high time that the government looks into the issue. Even newly appointed officers have refused to join the department and prefer other jobs, they said.

Recent raids in prisons of the state by the police brought to light how drugs, mobiles and even other objectionable items were stored by inmates.

Last month Tiwari made personal SOS calls to over 20 such senior Indian Police Service (IPS) and Punjab Police Service (PPS) officers, but a majority of them politely refused to come to the Jail Department on deputation, citing tough working conditions and poor infrastructure in jails.

Tiwari had even assured medals and appreciation letters to them.

A few officers cited increased political interference in the department in tackling criminals inside jails and providing illegal facilities to them as a major reason of staying away from jails. Some of the officers also said there was no motivation in the jails and thus it was tough to work there without any government support.

Jails in Punjab are breeding grounds for crime and once in jail, the inmates do not fear the law. Further, the recent policy by the government, allowing a 21-day parole after every three months has also acted as a deterrent, they said.

Recently, directly recruited Deputy Superintendent of Jails (DSJ) in Punjab declined to join the department, citing poor working conditions and pitiable infrastructure.

Already at the junior level, the Jail Department is short of 1,300 officials from the total 2,450 sanctioned posts.

Tiwari was not available for comment despite repeated attempts.
Tribune News Service

Sangrur, June 8

The relatives of Bhupinder Singh (27), a resident of Jhanerri village (near Bhawanigarh) who died yesterday, did not allow his postmortem examination at the Civil Hospital due to non-registration of a murder case.

He is survived by wife, a son and a 12-day-old daughter.

Bikkar Singh Jhanerri, a relative of the deceased, said a few months ago his nephew Bhupinder Singh used to work as an employee with liquor contractors of the Bhawanigarh area. After leaving the job, he started working as a mason. Suspecting that Bhupinder Singh sold liquor in the area, liquor contractors also had an altercation with him, he added.

Bikkar alleged that on Sunday his nephew was beaten up mercilessly at Phaguwala Kenchian (near Bhawanigarh) by the contractors and their men with rods, following which he fell unconscious.

Someone took him to government hospital at Bhawanigarh, from where he was referred to Government Rajindra Hospital, Patiala. On Tuesday, when he was being taken to DMC Hospital, Ludhiana, he died on the way. They brought his body to the Sangrur civil hospital and kept it in the mortuary, he added.

Bikkar said they would not allow the postmortem of the body till the police registered a case against the liquor contractors under Section 302 of the IPC. He said the police had registered an accident case for Bhupinder Singhs death.

SP (D) Jaskiranjit Singh Teja said the police had registered a case against unidentified persons under Section 304-A of the IPC (causing death by negligence). He said the police would get the postmortem of the body done. In case any thing came to the fore, indicating murder-like situation, the police would amend the section of the IPC, he added.
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, June 8

Chief Minister Harish Rawat today charged a rebel Congress MLA, who recently joined the BJP, with trying to disturb communal harmony in Haridwar for political benefits.

Some elements and a turncoat, who recently left the Congress, had tried to disrupt peace and harmony in Haridwar in a bid to retrieve the lost political ground. Things are completely normal now and I am grateful to the people of Haridwar for remaining calm in a volatile situation, said Rawat while addressing mediapersons here.

Rawat, who had yesterday deposed before the CBI, demanded a similar questioning of BJP leaders, who secretly engineered rebellion in the Congress on March 18 and the incidents that took place afterwards.

I have said before the CBI that if at all the horse-trading issue is to be examined, these persons should also be examined along with the persons whose names allegedly figure in the sting CD, he said.

Rawat emphasised that the CBI should also investigate the beneficiaries of the alleged horse-trading as the BJP benefited from the nine Congress MLAs switching side.

He said the CBI was questioning him on the basis of the conversation in the alleged sting CD. Why will I try to bring those people back against whom I had petitioned?, said Rawat.

Harish Rawat sought to make a distinction between the rebellion by the nine disqualified MLAs and the issues raised by Kishor Upadhyay in the aftermath of his pitching for Pradeep Tamta, a leader from Kumaon, for the Rajya Sabha nomination instead of a leader from Garhwal.

These rebels never complained about my style of functioning in any of the party forums (Central or state). However, the issues raised by Upadhyay will be addressed when the Cabinet is expanded, he said.

The Chief Minister urged the Central government to shun obduracy and release the budget that the Uttarakhand Vidhan Sabha had passed on March 18. After the floor test, they should accept that the budget too was passed in the interest of the state, said Rawat.
Tribune News Service

Mussoorie, June 8

The Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), fearing horse-trading ahead of the Rajya Sabha poll in Haryana, has taken 15 of its MLAs to Mussoorie to avoid poaching by rival parties.

The 15 MLAs did not come out of the five star hotel and they would be joined by the remaining MLAs soon. The move is aimed at ensuring that party MLAs do not vote against the party line in the Rajya Sabha elections scheduled for May 11, believe sources.

The INLD is supporting advocate RK Anand and any carelessness could result in the victory of BJP-backed candidate media baron Subhash Chandra in the Rajya Sabha elections.

Hotel officials refused to comment on the issue citing the privacy clause and client privilege guidelines.

Meanwhile, Parminder Singh Dhull, MLA from Julana, said he had proposed at the legislature party meeting held in Chandigarh on Monday that since all INLD leaders were together they should leave to some hill station to discuss the long term strategy. Hence, they decided to head for Mussoorie. Asked about the absence of Kalanwali Shiromani Akali Dal MLA Balkaur Singh, Dhull said he was busy in a religious function in Amritsar and would join them at Mussoorie today evening.

We have no fear of cross-voting as our MLAs are committed to voting on the party line. I am confident that the INLD-supported candidate will win the Rajya Sabha seat from Haryana, said Dhull. It was an old practice in the party that MLAs visit a hill station together every year, he added.

Out of the two Rajya Sabha seats in Haryana, Union minister Birender Singh is likely to sail through while it is believed that a fierce contest could be witnessed between RK Anand and Subhash Chandra for the other seat. Of the 90 MLAs in the Haryana Assembly, the BJP has 47, the INLD19 while the Congress has 17 MLAs. The SAD and the BSP have one MLA each while there are five Independents.
Our Correspondent

Pithoragarh, June 8

The ITBP deployed its disaster response and rescue personnel at the 42-km trek between Gala and Gunji on the Kailash Mansarovar yatra route from today. Earlier, it had established a control room at its headquarters at Mirthi in Didiihat.

ITBP officers said the step had been taken as the countdown for the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, commencing from New Delhi on June 10, has started.

The control room established at Mirthi will keep track of the pilgrims whereabouts en route to and in Tibet. It will also provide information about them to their relatives, who often inquire about them during the yatra, an ITBP officer at Mirthi said.

The Pithoragarh District Magistrate said from this year, pilgrims would not be allowed to leave the trek during the yatra as this sometimes creates difficulties during the ardous pilgrimage.

We have decided to erect barricades on the trek route from Garbadhar to Gunji to prohibit pilgrims from entering danger zones. Workers have been dispatched from the district headquarters to do the work, said RL Sharma, SP, Pithoragarh.
Ajay Ramola

Tribune news Service

Mussoorie, June 8

An exorbitant fee being charged at the parking lots of the local bodies in Mussoorie and Kempty has left tourists baffled. Local residents and tourists often flay the administration for ignoring inconvenience being caused to tourists.

Bijendar Singh, a tourist, who reached Kempty Falls along with his family, said overcharging at the parking lots of the Zila Panchayat, Tehri Garhwal, was a regular feature. Another tourist, Harish Chandra, showed a slip of Rs 200 that he was charged for parking his vehicle for an hour.

Other tourists, who have used the parking lots of the Municipal Council and the Mussoorie Dehradun Development Authority (MDDA), have a similar tale to narrate.

Anuj Gupta, a member of the Mussoorie Municipal Council, said fleecing of tourists should be stopped. Most of the parking lots have been given on contract to the near and dear ones of the Municipal Council president. No rate list has been displayed at the parking lots near the Municipal Council office. The same is the case with the parking lots of the MDDA near Darpan Hotel and the Clock Tower cafe in Landour Bazaar, he said.

Gupta said the Municipal Council chief gave the contracts of the parking lots in the town to those who had supported him in the last Assembly elections from the Dhanaulti seat which he had lost.

A contractor cant charge more than Rs 60 per day for parking services as per the norms but tourists are being charged between Rs 200 and Rs 400.

Rajat Aggarwal, president of the Mussoorie Traders Association, said only a few parking lots were being constructed in Mussoorie causing inconvenience to tourists. Parking contractors should charge people in accordance with the rate set by the local bodies. Overcharging from tourists in Mussoorie and Kempty Falls is damaging the image of the tourist town, he said.

Sandeep, a resident of the town, said the Municipal Council and the MDDA charge taxes for the services they provide in the town. Charging money from tourists once again for the same services is unfortunate. Services like parking facility should be provided free of cost, he said.

Tehri Zila Panchayat president Sona Sajwan said the parking lot at Kempty had the capacity to accommodate around 80 vehicles and no money was being charged from tourists.

Some persons might be charging tourists illegally. Though it is the duty of the administration officials, we will look into the issue and ask the officials concerned to take necessary action, said Sajwan.

Dhanaulti SDM Laxmiraj Chauhan said action would be taken against those involved in overcharging for parking facilities. Employees of the Zila Panchayat, if found involved in fleecing tourists, will not be spared, the SDM said.

Meanwhile, MC member Anuj Gupta said he had already sent a complaint to Urban Development Minister Preetam Sajwan. We have warned him of a massive agitation if no action is taken in this regard, he added.
Kuala Lumpur: You may not be anonymous online as you think, according to a new study that found that just 30 minutes of browsing behaviour can indicate your personality and provide a unique digital signature to identify you. "Our research suggests a person's personality traits can be deduced by their general internet usage. This differs from other studies that have only looked at the use of social media platforms," said Ikusan R Adeyemi from the Universiti Teknologi in Malaysia. A person's general online browsing behaviour can reflect their choice, preference and reflexes, which is largely controlled by their unique psychological characteristics. PTI

Delhi to open new consulate in Seattle

Washington: India will soon open its sixth consulate in Seattle to cater to the needs of large number of Indian-Americans living in the northwestern part of the US. "We hope to open a new Indian consulate in Seattle," Indian Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar said after the conclusion of the talks between PM Narendra Modi and US President Barack Obama. "Both sides committed to opening additional consulates in each other's country. India will be opening a new consulate in Seattle and the US will open a new consulate at a mutually agreed location in India," a statement said. Apart from its embassy in Washington, India has consulates in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Houston and Atlanta. PTI

India ranks 141 in global peace index

London: India was on Wednesday ranked low at 141st place on a Global Peace Index - making it less peaceful than countries such as Burundi, Serbia and Burkina Faso - with violence taking $680-billion toll on its economy in 2015. In a ranking of 163 countries, compiled by global think tank Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), Syria has been named as the least peaceful, followed by South Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia. On the other hand, Iceland was ranked as the world's most peaceful country, followed by Denmark and Austria. PTI

Blackout in Kenya: A monkey did it

Nairobi: A monkey plunged Kenya into a massive blackout after falling on a key transformer in the country's largest hydroelectric plant, the KenGen power generating company said on Wednesday. The wild primate climbed onto the roof of Gitaru plant, located on the Tana river and fell onto a key transformer. The activated transformer overloaded the plant, leading to a loss of 180 MW of power and triggering a nationwide blackout that lasted four hours. The monkey survived and is being looked after by the Kenya Wildlife Service. IANS
Washington, June 8

Hillary Clinton on Wednesday claimed the Democratic presidential nomination after decisive victories in the New Jersey and New Mexico primaries, creating history by becoming the first woman to lead a major American political party in the race to the White House.

Thanks to you, weve reached a milestone, the first time in our nations history that a woman will be a major partys nominee, Clinton, 68, told her supporters at her campaign headquarters in Brooklyn, New York.

US President Barack Obama congratulated Clinton for securing the 2,383 delegates necessary to clinch the Democratic Partys presidential nominee.

However, Obama did not formally endorse Clintonhis former Secretary of State.

Her historic campaign inspired millions and is an extension of her lifelong fight for middle-class families and children, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said in a statement.

Obama called both Clinton and her Democratic rival Bernie Sanders to applaud them for running inspiring campaigns that energised Democrats. The President will meet Sanders at the White House on Thursday at the Vermont senators request, the statement said.

In the November presidential elections, Clinton would face fellow New Yorker Donald Trump, from the Republican Party who, she said, is not fit to lead the country.

If elected in the November general elections, she would be the first-ever woman President of the US.

To every little girl who dreams big, yes, you can be anything you wanteven President. Tonight is for you, Clinton said.

We cannot let a man who demeans women, attacks people for their race or religion, and trafficks in paranoid conspiracy theories take the oath of office, she said, attacking 69-year-old Trump.

We wont let a man who said he would order our troops to commit war crimes by killing the wives and children of suspected terrorists become Commander-in-Chief. This election isnt about the same old fights between Democrats and Republicans...Its about who we are as Americans. And it is an argument we must win, Clinton said.

In most of the polls, Clinton is leading Trump, though the margin has been reducing every passing day.

Clinton said the Republican candidate would take America back, back to a time when opportunity and dignity were reserved for some, not all.

Hes not just trying to build a wall between America and Mexico, hes trying to wall off Americans from each other, she alleged.

When Donald Trump says a distinguished judge born in Indiana cant do his job because of his Mexican heritage, or he mocks a reporter with disabilities, or calls women pigs, it goes against everything we stand for because we want an America where everyone is treated with respect and their work is valued, Clinton said. PTI
Santa Monica, June 8

Hillary Clinton celebrated her triumph as the first woman to lead a major party in a race for the White House, scoring big wins in California and New Jersey to cement her grip on the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination.

The former first lady, US senator and secretary of state spoke to supporters at a raucous event in Brooklyn, New York, and placed her achievement in the context of the women's rights movement.

"Thanks to you, we have reached a milestone," Hillary said in a speech. "We all owe so much to who came before." Clinton appealed to supporters of party rival Bernie Sanders. She said Democrats had been bolstered by his campaign for eradicating income inequality, which has commanded huge crowds and galvanised younger voters. Not yet ready to concede, Sanders vowed to fight on.

Hillary also harshly attacked Donald Trump, her presumptive Republican rival in the presidential election, for using divisive rhetoric that belittled women, Muslims and immigrants.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday showed Clinton leading Trump by 10 percentage points nationally as they launch their general election battle, little changed from a week earlier.

Hillary edged Sanders out in a rough-and-tumble battle that stretched over four months and 50 states. She won support, especially among older voters, with a more pragmatic campaign focused on building on the policies of her fellow Democrat, President Barack Obama.

Obama called both Hillary and Sanders on Tuesday. The White House said he congratulated her on securing the delegates necessary to clinch the nomination and would meet Sanders on Thursday.

In California, Hillary won 56% to Sanders' 43%, avoiding what would have been an embarrassing loss in America's most populous state. The California win came on the heels of a decisive win in New Jersey and narrower victories in New Mexico and South Dakota. Sanders won Montana and North Dakota.

A defeat in California would have reinforced doubts about Hillary's candidacy. Now, she can turn her attention to healing her fractured party and drawing in Sanders' passionate supporters.

Hillary, who won California, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota, now has 2,755 delegates or more than half of the 4,051 total pledged delegates while Sanders has 1,852.  Reuters

Democrat elites throw weight behind Clinton

Democratic Party elites are lined up squarely behind Hillary Clinton, including most likely President Barack Obama, who may endorse his former secretary of state as early as this week. Pressure will mount on Bernie Sanders to exit graciously and throw his support to Hillary

Eight years ago in June 2008, Hillary did exactly that when she ended her bitter primary fight with Obama. At the time, it appeared unclear whether Obama would be able to garner the support of Hillarys most ardent backers, but that election drew the highest voter turnout in generations

Prominent Democrats say that unifying the party now is the highest priority, and that if Sanders maintains his challenge to Clinton through the July 25-28 convention, Trump will benefit

Bernie Sanders vows to stay on
Ankara, June 8

Kurdish militants appear to have been behind a car bombing that killed 11 people in central Istanbul on Tuesday, a presidential spokesman said, while a second bomb on Wednesday killed four persons in the Kurdish southeast.

A car bomb ripped through a police bus in Istanbul during the morning hour on Tuesday, killing six police officers and five civilians near the main tourist district, a major university and the mayor's office.

On Wednesday a bomb attack on a police station in the southeastern town of Midyat killed four people and wounded more than 30, hitting a province bordering Syria in a region where Kurdish militants have waged a three-decade insurgency.

"All indicators and signs regarding the attack in Istanbul yesterday point to the separatist terror organisation," President Tayyip Erdogan's spokesman Ibrahim Kalin told a news conference, referring to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

"The Midyat attack is very fresh and we can only make an assessment once we have all the information," Kalin said.

There has been no claim of responsibility from Kurdish militants but they have carried out similar attacks in Turkey's major cities in the recent past. Violence has spiralled since a ceasefire with the PKK collapsed almost a year ago.

The unrest has been fuelled by the war in Syria. Turkey says the PKK, considered a terrorist organisation by Ankara, the European Union and the US, has deep ties to the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia fighting just across the border.

The groups do not deny links. The PKK founded the YPG as a Syrian organisation a decade ago and both are inspired by Abdullah Ocalan, who led the PKK from its inception and lived in Syria shortly before his capture in 1999. He remains in jail.

The explosion in the town of Midyat destroyed the facade of a five-storey block, damaged other buildings and sent a plume of thick black smoke rising over the area. Clashes broke out between security forces and PKK militants in Midyat as the attack took place, security sources said.  Reuters
Pretoria, June 8

The South African government reacted angrily today to warnings by the United States and Britain about possible imminent terrorist attacks by Islamic extremists in the country's major cities.

Without naming the countries, a strongly-worded statement described the warnings as alarmist and said diplomatic action had been taken to register South Africas displeasure.

The US said it had received information that terrorist groups were planning to carry out attacks in upmarket shopping malls in South Africa during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Britain issued a similar alert two days later. The information provided as a basis for the latest terror alerts on South Africa has been found to be very sketchy, the government said in a statement.

We have found the information to be dubious, unsubstantiated and provided by a 'walk-in' source based on questionable conclusions.

South Africa rejected attempts to generate perceptions of government ineptitude, alarmist impressions and public hysteria on the basis of a questionable single source, it said.

The South African government has demarched the affected embassies to register our displeasure, the statement added. The US and UK embassies were not immediately available for comment.

South Africa, which has a Muslim minority of around 1.5% in a population of 53 million, has so far escaped the jihadist attacks seen in several other African nations.  AFP
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British High Commissioner Tim Stew, left, is greeted by THA Chief Secretary Orville London and Secretary of the Division of Tourism and Transportation, Tracy Davidson-Celestine.
Skinner Trace which is off the S.S. Erin Road is experiencing major land movement which has 
Media watchdog the Australian Communications and Media Authority has begun a review of the captioning rules for broadcasters and calling for public submissions to a consultation paper.

The captioning rules for television broadcasters are set out in the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 (BSA) and include:

targets for the amount of programming that must be captioned

reporting and record-keeping requirements

exemptions from captioning requirements

requirements about quality set out in the Captioning Standard.

The BSA also requires the ACMA to conduct the review before 31 December 2016 and to provide a report to the Minister before 30 June 2017.

Free-to-air television broadcasters are required to caption:

100 per cent of programs broadcast between 6 am and midnight on their primary channels

all news and current affairs programs broadcast at any time on their primary channels.

Subscription television licensees are gradually moving towards a requirement to caption 100% of programs in a 24 hour period.

The captioning of Australian television broadcasts is essential for many Australians, and the ACMA encourages all interested parties to make a submission to the review, said ACMA acting Chairman Richard Bean.

Submissions are due COB Friday 22 July 2016.

Captioning obligations.


This premise sounds a little bit familiar.

Next month SBS 2 premieres French-UK crime drama Spotless, which centres around a man who runs a crime scene cleaning business. But when his brother arrives they end up involved in organised crime.

The cast includes Marc-Andre Grondin, Denis Menochet, Miranda Raison and Brendan Coyle. The show is co-created and written by BAFTA Award-winner Ed McCardie.

There were 10 episodes in all, produced in 2015, which will air in double episodes from July.

Spotless tells the story of a troubled man, Jean Bastiere (Marc-Andre Grondin), whose tidy life is turned upside down when his outlaw brother, Martin (Denis Menochet) crash lands into his world, forcing dark secrets of the past into the light, and getting both of them fatally involved in organised crime.

The brothers are very different  Jean is a conservative and successful French immigrant to London; Martin is a visceral and libidinous wanderer. In truth, they are two sides of the same coin, their lives marked forever by a violent killing in La Vendee 25 years ago.

Played out against a backdrop of Jeans niche Crime Scene Cleaning business, with gangsters, corruption, drugs and death a constant hazard, Jean, Martin and their dysfunctional family struggle to gain control over life, business and their shared destiny.

Saturday, 9 July at 9.30pm and 10.30pm on SBS 2.
June 20 will mark a new-look Monday for Nine with new Reality series The Briefcase beginning at 7:30pm.

Based on a US format of the same name, the series sees families facing big decisions over a surprise $100,000 that lands on their doorstep. Not to be confused with a Seven series also due this year, The Day The Cash Came, it was criticised in the US for preying on the less-fortunate (something Nines promos are happily spinning.).

It will be followed by the return of Love Child.

What would you do with $100,000?

Thats the life-changing decision twelve deserving Australian families are about to face when The Briefcase premieres Monday, June 20 at 7.30pm on Channel Nine.

Each week on The Briefcase we meet two families who, through no fault of their own, are facing crippling financial troubles. They have agreed to tell their stories about how they struggle to make ends meet. But how will they react when a briefcase containing $100,000 in cash lands on their doorstep?

With the briefcase comes a huge decision. Will they keep all the money? Share it? Or give it all away to the other family, who theyve never met?

Over the episode they learn more about each other until a final decision is reached about what to do with the money.

In episode one, we meet Jim and Jenny Carter and their two teenage daughters. The family lost their historic homestead in the 2014 Grampians bushfires in Victoria, along with 75 per cent of their stock and 99 per cent of their fencing, wiping out their livelihood in one go. The old homestead was insured but the farm wasnt. So until the Carter family have the funds to rebuild their home, all four of them live between the shearers quarters and a caravan on the property.

Also featured in the premiere episode is Mandy McCracken, who in 2014 contracted a bacterial condition resulting in toxic shock and septicaemia. The only way to save her life was to amputate both her arms and legs. Mandys husband Rod gave up his job as a primary school teacher to become Mandys fulltime carer and help raise their three young daughters.

When given a chance to help themselves, will they instead help a stranger in need? Is it better to give than to receive?
Dont tell Ray Martin, but John Safran is returning to television, with a one hour special on SBS The Goddam Election! With John Safran.

Safran, who has recently appeared on The Book Club and Media Circus, will again be looking through a religious prism -this time at the federal election.

Over a one-hour television special, Australias premier provocateur John Safran investigates the micro parties contesting the 2016 Australian Federal Election, revealing bizarre alliances that upend our perception of Australian multiculturalism. In The Goddam Election! With John Safran he uncovers what could be our most religious election ever.

Safran explores the religious underbelly of the election, sidestepping the Coalition, Labor and the Greens to delve deep into the lesser reported minor parties  many of whom are guided by religion.

He begins his journey following the recent rise of anti-Islam parties, and soon discovers a peculiar political fringe where some Sikhs, Hindus, alleged neo-Nazis and a Sri-Lankan priest join forces with each other to carve a path all the way to Parliament House. The more he digs, the more he discovers that religion is a growing force that filters into Australian politics in surprising ways.

Safran once again brings his sardonic wit and penchant for biting rants to our screens, whether running with riot police, driving through Sydney with radical Muslims, having dinner with Fred Nile or door stopping Pauline Hanson.

As the nation heads towards a neck-and-neck election, the micro parties supported by Australias religious minorities could end up with a balance of power. Join Safran as he a cracks the lid on unlikely alliances and surprising frenemies in his inimitable style.

8.30pm Sunday 26 June on SBS.
Madonna has been booked to join President Barack Obama on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, airing in the US on Thursday night.

The NBC late-night program promised it would be a one of a kind episode.

This will be Obamas first time on Tonight since Jimmy Fallon took over as host.

Madonna most recently appeared on Fallons show in April 2015, to perform and to fulfill her dreams of performing stand-up comedy.

The episode is expected to air in Australia on Friday on E! and Monday on ABC2.

Source: Deadline
Not good news for Home and Away today with high-quality photos of a soapie wedding published by Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail Australia (the latter even suggests new photos had been newly-released).

Staging key scenes on a Palm Beach exterior will always leave the show open to trigger-happy snappers.

TENs Bachelor has also been the target of paparazzi recently -whether Reality or Drama storylines leaked months before airing it doesnt go down well with networks. And sometimes even fans are unhappy, especially when an online page unveils unaired information before the reader has made a decision about whether to be spoiled.

Seven has sometimes been overly protective of its Summer Bay storylines, but on this occasion it may have left itself open for the sake of the backdrop.
Sweden touched down 15 minutes ahead of schedule at Saint-Nazaire but if their arrival in France was early, they are aiming to leave their departure from UEFA EURO 2016 as late as possible.

The mayor of Saint-Nazaire feels the same way. "We are all dreaming of a final between France and Sweden," said David Samzun, who was the first to receive the team as they disembarked from their plane. A notable absentee was Zlatan Ibrahimovic; the Paris-based striker was not on the flight from Stockholm, having come earlier, settling in at the Swedes' hotel base along with members of the team management.

He is not the only Swedish player at home in France. Kim Kallstrom spent nine seasons in the country with Rennes and Lyon, and was greeted on the tarmac by a warm hug from Jean-Francois Creachcadec, sporting director during his Rennes stint and now part of the local organising committee for UEFA EURO 2016.

After unwinding for a few hours at their hotel by the beach in nearby Pornichet, the Swedes drove back to Saint-Nazaire through streets decked out in yellow and blue for a public training session in front of around 3,000 well-wishers at Stade Leo Lagrange.

"We Nazariens are extremely proud to be hosting one of the teams at this tournament, along with Pornichet," added Samzun. "With Sweden and Zlatan Ibrahimovic there will be lots of cameras, lots of microphones, showing Saint-Nazaire to the world." We can only hope Sweden are ready for their close-up.

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It is almost impossible to wipe the broad grin off Granit Xhaka's face these days.

Having signed a long-term contract with Arsenal late last month, the 23-year-old former Monchengladbach midfielder is about to embark on his second major tournament with Switzerland  and will likely face brother Taulant when Vladimir Petkovic's side play Albania in Lens on Saturday.

In a wide-ranging interview with UEFA.com, Xhaka spoke about the upcoming contest with his older sibling, the mood inside the Swiss camp and the Nati's objectives in France.

Everything you need to know about Switzerland

Granit Xhaka on ...

Signing for Arsenal

"I'm very happy. I'm glad the signing of the contract took place before the tournament and that I can play freely without worrying. This is my second big tournament, my first here in France, and I'm looking forward to it."

The atmosphere in the Swiss camp

"It's very good. After losing two friendly games in a row against Bosnia and the Republic of Ireland, we played very well against Belgium. Unfortunately, we lost again. When we played against Moldova it was important to get a positive result. The atmosphere is excellent and I hope, of course, that it will stay that way."

Switzerlands EURO star: Xherdan Shaqiri

Team-mate Xherdan Shaqiri

"The two of us have always got along quite well and we still do. He's a very good player  a very important player for us, on and off the pitch, who can do things other players can't."

Switzerland's Group A opponents

"I agree with those who say France are the favourites, but we cannot underestimate Albania and Romania either. They made a lot of progress last year. Albania are taking part for the first time, while Romania are very good defensively and have not lost in years. It's an interesting group."

Watch Granit Xhaka in goalscoring action

Playing against his brother on Saturday

"My brother and I have a very good relationship. We're not just brothers but best friends. Immediately after the draw was made, we had a weird feeling about it. Both of us were a bit nervous, but we're both quite relaxed about it now."

Who his parents will be supporting in Lens

"They will both be in the stadium. Who will they support? Luckily enough, my parents both have two hands  five fingers for Switzerland, five fingers for Albania!"

Switzerland's ambitions in France

"Our first priority is definitely to make it through the group stage. After that you need to have a bit of luck with the draw, but I think with the team we have, we should be able to make it to the quarter-finals."
A Ukrainian serviceman lot his life over the last day in the ATO zone, governor of the Donetsk Region State Pavlo Zhebrivsky told a visiting session of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Freedom of Speech in the interim regional capital of the Donetsk region Kramatorsk, a local Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"Over the past day, one military was killed, several others were injured. And this fact worries us," he said.

Zhebrivsky also pointed out that local people are "very sensitive" concerning coverage of the problems existing in the region. "People are like an open nerve," the official noted.

tl
The militants launched 36 attacks on ATO troops in eastern Ukraine over the past day.

This is reported by the ATO Headquarters press center.

"The situation in the ATO area remains tense. The militants shelled the Ukrainian troops 36 times in last day," the report reads.

As noted, 17 enemy attacks were launched in Donetsk direction. The terrorists used small arms, heavy machine guns, grenade launchers of various systems, 82mm and 120mm mortars to fire at Ukrainian positions near Avdiyivka (18km north of Donetsk) and Butovka coal mine (11.4km north-west of Donetsk).

In Mariupol direction, the militants launched 18 attacks on positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In particular, heavy machine guns and 82mm mortars were used to shell Ukrainian strongholds outside Novotroitske (32km south of Donetsk) and Vodiane (19km north-east of Mariupol).

ol
The Ukrainian State Security Service (SBU) has not supported an initiative of the Verkhovna Radas lawmaker Nadiya Savchenko to start direct talks with the leaders of the so-called DPR and LPR Oleksandr Zakharchenko and Ihor Plotnytsky to release the prisoners, advisor to Chairman of the SBU Yury Tandit told TV 5 Channel.

"According to the Ukrainian legislation, both Plotnytsky and Zakharchenko are criminals. Zakharchenko was placed on the international wanted list back on July 31, 2014. He is suspected of planning terrorist attacks, he said.

Meanwhile, he hopes that MP Savchenko in one way or another will participate in the process of setting Ukrainian prisoners and political prisoners free.

tl
The EU mission has praised the process of re-certification in the National Police of Ukraine and promised to continue to support this process.

This was stated by Rafal Zamrzytski, the senior adviser at the European Union Advisory Mission to Ukraine.

"The European Union Advisory Mission has become an observer of the process, and praised the progress. We understand that our partners in Ukraine want to see instant results. However, we have already emphasized that this process takes time, and now it is improving," the press service of the National Police quotes the official as saying.

The EU representative also commended the membership of certification commissions which were selected based on the experience and awareness of work of the police, political, economic and criminal situation in the regions."

"We will continue to support this process," the European Union Advisory Mission representative said.

ol
About a third of Ukrainian citizens support continuing the Anti-Terrorist Operation in the East of the country till Ukrainian control is fully restored over the temporarily- occupied territories.

As an Ukrinform correspondent reports, this is evidenced by the results of the poll conducted by the Razumkov Ukrainian Centre for Economic and Political Studies.

In particular, 31% of respondents support continuing the ATO till the full restoration of Ukraine's control over the occupied territories in Donbas, while 22% of Ukrainians believe certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions should be granted special status as part of Ukraine. In turn, 16% of Ukrainians wanted these territories to be separated from Ukraine. The pollsters pointed out that 31% of those polled are undecided on this issue.

ol
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Published June 8, 2016

MONROE, La.  The University of Louisiana Monroe will send six contestants to the 53rd Annual Miss Louisiana Pageant to be held in Monroe on June 23-25 at the Monroe Civic Centers W.L. Jack Howard Theater.

The six ULM contestants are:

Sarah Torregrossa

Samantha Vaughn

Jo Hilliard

Jlyn Henderson

Baylea Huffman

Christina Gray

ULM is no stranger to Miss Louisiana. For the last 12 years, the university has hosted the contestants for the Miss Louisiana Pageant. Providing housing accommodations, rehearsal space, dining options and a short commute to Monroes Jack Howard Theater, ULM has become the hub for all things Miss Louisiana.

On June 19, ULM will welcome all 32 contestants and the Miss Louisiana Organization to its campus.

Among the contestants representing ULM is Sarah Torregrossa, the 2016 Miss University of Louisiana Monroe.

Being crowned Miss ULM was a dream come true for me, but it was just the beginning, said Torregrossa. I have dedicated my entire adult life to becoming Miss Louisiana and have diligently prepared for the responsibilities that come with the crown. I am very much looking forward to this pageant.

The Miss ULM Pageant is a preliminary to the Miss Louisiana Pageant and is sponsored by ULMs Campus Activities Board and Student Government Association. As the winner of the 2016 Miss ULM Pageant, Torregrossa is automatically qualified to compete in the 2016 Miss Louisiana Pageant.

Miss ULM is a serious commitment, according to Laura Jennings, ULMs Director of Student Life and Leadership. We consider this to be a job. Miss ULM is the ambassador for the university. Sarah [Torregrossa] has already made 50 appearances throughout the year, and a lot of people dont realize how much preparation actually goes into it.

Jennings has seen all six ULM contestants compete over the years. Just watching them grow and mature over time has been a wonderful experience, she expressed.

ULM is a corporate (diamond) sponsor for the Miss Louisiana Pageant and it also hosts all the meetings leading up to the main event. At these meetings, the contestants turn in all their paperwork for competition, submit ads for the program book, take headshots, and go through what pageant week is going to be like, said Jennings.

The winner of the state pageant is guaranteed a spot in the 2016 Miss America Pageant, to be held in Atlantic City, N.J. in early September.

We are thrilled to continue our partnership with the Miss Louisiana Organization, said Lisa Miller, ULM Assistant Vice President of Marketing, Recruitment and Communication.

This is an exciting time for these six young ladies and for our university, which they so proudly represent. We wish them all the best.

About the Miss Louisiana Organization

The Miss America Organization is the world's largest competitive scholarship program for young women, and one of the nation's leading achievement programs. The Miss Louisiana Scholarship Organization is honored to be part of this program. This year, the Miss Louisiana Scholarship Organization and local pageants across our State made available over $634,000 in cash and tuition scholarships. Through this program, contestants receive thousands of dollars in scholarships and gain poise, confidence, and life skills that will benefit them, the State of Louisiana and our Country for the rest of their lives.

For more information about the 2016 Miss Louisiana Pageant, visit misslouisiana.org.
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Published June 8, 2016

MONROE, La.  The University of Louisiana Monroe School of Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA) will host the High School Flute Camp from June 16-18.

Campers will receive meals, living accommodations, flute lessons, and masterclass opportunities; other activities specific to each students abilities are also offered.

Participants include flutists entering grades 9-12, and flutists who just finished grade 12 are welcome. The camp welcomes students at a variety of playing levels. Grouping is based on ability level so each student can get the most positive experience possible.

Dr. Sandra Lunte, Professor of Music at ULM, will serve as the main teacher at the camp. She will be assisted by past and present flute students.

Dr. Lunte has served on ULMs faculty for 21 years and has held two endowed professorships. She has won many grants and awards, including the 2005 Louisiana Division of Arts Artist Fellowship. Dr. Lunte has presented recitals and masterclasses around the U.S. and has been heard twice on National Public Radios Performance Today.

The camp is available for commuters and resident campers. In order to qualify for early registration, a deposit must have been sent by 5/30. The deadline for all registration is 6/12, and the fees are $300 for resident campers (staying on-campus or $225 for non-resident campers (not staying on-campus).

For more information about the flute camp, please contact Dr. Sandra Lunte at lunte@ulm.edu.

For more information about camps being offered, visit https://www.ulm.edu/summercamps/music.html.
From social media to online chatting, the Internet has countless avenues for sharing and connecting with friends and communities. But this open network also carries many risks, especially for children. After falling victim to cyberbullying, Nicole is on a mission to make sure the same doesnt happen to her peers.



BANGKOK, Thailand, 7 June 2016  Fourteen-year-old Nicole is a confident and outgoing girl from Kuala Lumpur, or KL as locals call it. Famous for its iconic Petronas Twin Towers, her city is the high-rise metropolitan capital of Malaysia. Nicoles dream is to become an architect and help design the next generation of KLs buildings.

Nicole is a digital native (someone who grew up with the Internet) who spends three to four hours online each day. My school uses iPads as learning tools and our teachers give us tests online, she says. We dont have any textbooks. Its easier because we dont just have one source of information. We can get material from different countries. I like reading the BBC, chatting online with friends, and sharing photos on Instagram.

But the Internet has not always been a safe space for Nicole  just a few years ago she was a victim of cyberbullying.

When I was 10 to 12, other children at school picked on me because I was a loner and didnt have a mobile phone, Nicole recalls. Everyone else was on Facebook. We had a laptop at home, so I set up a Facebook profile, but they still bullied me. They posted comments saying I was stupid and didnt belong. I was in a very emotional state. I cried a lot and wondered why the other kids hated me.

Nicoles mum suggested that she read up on cyberbullying, and advised her to stay strong. I confronted some of the other children at school and asked them Why are you doing this? Nicole says. Afterwards they stopped. I learned to talk more to my parents and not keep everything inside. Since then Ive been much more open.

These days, Nicole is a child protection advocate who works hard to help her peers stay safe online. At a recent online safety workshop in Bangkok, she confidently shared her experiences and opinions with other teenagers from across Asia.

>> Read the UNICEF report: Perils and Possibilities: Growing up online



Childrens rights online

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is the main international treaty on childrens rights. It was ratified in 1989, before the rise of the Internet. Some of the CRC rights impacted by the Internet include the right to access information and mass media, to be protected from violence and abuse, to get an education, and to take part in cultural activities and play.
U.S. astronomers have obtained data giving them a peek under the clouds of Jupiter using the Karl G Jansky Very Large Array telescope in New Mexico.

The multi-antenna telescope revealed traces of ammonia in the gas giant, which is just bellow the planet's clouds, the BBC reported.

The team of astronomers based in New Mexico have even managed to observe the Great Red Spot, which is a large storm ravaging the gas giant for over 400 years, in greater detail.

The astronomers were delighted to reveal that the level of detail gathered was unprecedented with this type of study. A team-member, Michael Wong of the University of California in Berkley, disclosed that this was possible due to the upgrade done to the VLA added with a newly developed technique by one of his co-workers.

Their data shows different zones within tens of kilometers into Jupiter's atmosphere, as well as turbulent features, vortices, and the great red storm, which is quite a landmark on the planet surface, according to Gizmodo.

The upgrade, along with the new technique has made the telescope into a more sensitive observational tool. It makes use of radio emissions to create a picture of the planet, in contrary to a conventional telescope which makes use of visible light to project the image.

This allows the astronomers to peek through the dense atmosphere of the planet, enabling more data to be studied. The process also eliminates the smearing effect caused by long exposure shots and the fast rotating planet, as the planet's "day" is only 10 Earth-hours.

The radio wavelengths revealed that the seemingly calm planet is actually has a dynamic atmosphere and weather patterns. The average pressure of the atmosphere fluctuates between 2 to 3 bar, as explained by the Science Magazine.

The planet features low-ammonia concentration locations which helps the VLA to get a better view, where ammonia primarily makes the gas giant opaque.
This month, smartphone maker Samsung will release another mid-range device, Galaxy On5 in the US market. The smartphone will debut via MetroPCS alongside new LG smartphone.

Compared to Samsung Galaxy On7, On5 will have smaller dimensions and lower camera quality. The dual-SIM phone will use micro SIM cards.

Samsung Galaxy On5 specs

The mid-range smartphone is enhanced with plastic chassis with faux leather on the rear panel. With dimensions 142.30 x 72.10 x 8.50, it is reportedly having capable specs including 2,600 mAh battery cell and 3G /4G LTE cellular network. On the camera, Galaxy On5 will be equipped with 8 MP lens on its back camera and 5 MP for selfie camera. Selfie mode is said to include Wide Selfie and Gesture Selfie with beautifying effects.

On the screen display, the smartphone will have 5 inch display, 720 x 1280 pixels. The emerged news claimed that the handset will have 15 hours talk time.

Running on Android 5.1, Galaxy On5 has 1.5 GB RAM on board. Internal storage capacity 8 GB will be expandable using MicroSD up to 128 GB. The specs that Samsung installs on Galaxy On5 might be modest, compared to Galaxy S series.

Samsung Galaxy On5 price

The original price of Galaxy On5 is $129 but the budget-friendly smartphone offers $70 instant rebate, making it quite cheap with only $60.

Samsung Galaxy On5 release date

The rumor on handset's release date will be on June 27 and will hit the US via T-Mobile's subsidiary, MetroPCS, PocketNow reported. MetroPCS has also launched LG Stylus 2 Plus in Taiwan and it is likely to launch both handsets in the US on the same date. However, LG's Stylus will have a higher price.

Carrier MetroPCS has not made any confirmation regarding the leak information on the device. Budget-concern Samsung fans will have to wait till the release date to find out more.

What do you think about the handset release?
Mark Zuckerberg's Twitter and Pinterest accounts were defaced by a hacker this Monday.

The Facebook CEO was allegedly re-using passwords, which was used to log in to both accounts. The hackers, who goes by the name "OurMine," disclosed that they acquired the details of Zuckerberg among the 117 million stolen passwords from LinkedIn's database, The Guardian reported.

The hacker group apparently got through Zuckerberg's Twitter account, by posting "you were in Linkedin Database" and claiming that the password used was "dadada," while his Pinterest account's name was changed to "Hacked By OurMine Team."

"OurMine" also claimed to have logged into Zuckerberg's Instagram account, as of which Instagram is owned by Facebook, but the social media giant denied the claims, stating that "no Facebook systems or accounts were accessed," VentureBeat reported.

The hacker group was referring to the stolen passwords from LinkedIn back in 2012, which was released online only last month.

LinkedIn has responded since then by invalidating the information acquired because of the breach, and prompting users to reset their passwords. This may explain why, if true, the Facebook owner was using a relatively simple passphrase.

Upon realizing the breach, Twitter has responded by suspending Zuckerberg's finkd account. It has now since been activated and the threatening tweet deleted, and it seems that the account was returned under Zuckerberg's control, albeit Zuckerberg's last tweet was back in 2012.

On the other hand, Pinterest has kept silent during the fiasco, although Zuckerberg's account has now been fixed, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The hack serves well as a reminder for those who have made a habit of reusing their passwords, or not updating them.

The string of breach in security within social media websites' databases still pose a threat as hackers tend to correlate multiple sources of information to lead them to a single user, which has been apparent in Zuckerburg's case.
More students are choosing to pursue STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) courses. With the boom, high schools have also begun to place greater emphasis on providing a more STEM-based curriculum.

U.S. News & World Report has listed the top 10 STEM public high schools for 2016. The rankings were based on the schools' STEM-based curriculum and the rate of student participation. To be eligible for the rankings, the schools also had to be included in the Top 500 High Schools across the country.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the median pay of STEM graduates is almost twice the average salary of other occupations.

No. 1 - High Technology High School, Lincroft, New Jersey

With a STEM Index score of 98, High Technology High School offers mainly engineering courses, including civil engineering, architecture, computer integrated manufacturing, and digital electronics.

No. 2 - Early College at Guilford, North Carolina

Aside from its STEM Index score of 96, Early College at Guilford also ranks No. 1 among North Carolina high schools. Enrolled students have the chance to enlist in the Advanced Placement (AP) course and take the exams. The participation rate is 98 percent.

No. 3 - Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Alexandria, Virginia

Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology offers a STEM-intensive curriculum which begins with its Integrated Biology, English and Technology course. Facilities include 10 specialized research laboratories for various subjects including astrophysics and oceanography. It has a STEM Index Score of 95.8.

No. 4 - BASIS Scottsdale, Scottsdale, Arizona

The school has a STEM Index score of 95.6. It also ranks first among Arizona schools, and has an AP course work and exams participation rate of 100 percent.

No.5 - Whitney High School, Cerritos, California

With a STEM Index score of 92, Whitney High School offers students an array of honor programs and AP courses such as computer science, physics and Model United Nations.

No. 6 - BASIS Tucson North, Tucson, Arizona

BASIS Tucson North is ranked No. 2 among Arizona schools and has a STEM Index score of 89.9. Student participation rate for the AP course is 100 percent.

No. 7 - Raleigh Charter High School, Raleigh, North Carolina

Raleigh Charter High School has a STEM Index score of 89.8 and AP course participation rate of 96 percent. It is also ranked second among

No. 8 - International Community School, Kirkland, Washington

With a STEM Index score of 89.7, International Community school's curriculum places emphasis on international studies, humanities, world languages, the arts, sciences and math. Advanced years are offered an honors or AP course.

No. 9 - Academy of Allied Health and Science

Ranked ninth with a STEM Index score of 89.1 and 189th among high schools at the national level, Academy of Allied Health and Science offers its students the chance to take the AP course work and exams. The participation rate is 71 percent.

No. 10 - Troy High School

Troy High School has a STEM Index score of 89.1 and is ranked 432nd among high schools at the national level. Participation rate among students for the AP course is 61 percent.
June 8 2016

The latest project to complete as part of the Scenic Routes initiative has been unveiled at the Caledonian Canal, Banavie, offering visitors a viewpoint from which to observe a flight of canal locks known as Neptunes Staircase.Conceived by architecture students Angus Ritchie and Daniel Tyler the wood framed cabin is clad in mirrored stainless steel and sits under the shadow of Ben Nevis.Incorporating benches Neptunes Mirror is intended to blend into its environment whilst opening up views of the surrounding landscape and will be in-situ throughout the summer.Helena Huws, architect at Scottish Canals, said: Set on the longest flight of canal lock gates in Britain and providing fantastic views of the Great Glen, the new viewpoint is the perfect place to sit back, relax, and watch the world  and one or two boats  pass by.The temporary structure has been built as a travelling counterpart to Lookout, a permanent viewpoint within Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park at Loch Voil
June 8 2016

TCD Architects have obtained planning permission to construct a home extension to a B-listed crescent in Aberdeen, the first such full-width application to be approved on the street.Argyle Crescent in the citys Rosemount district is an inverted crescent with a concave rear determined an innovative approach to comply with Historic Environment Scotlands stipulation that nothing be done to obscure the full extent of the existing elevation.To achieve this TCD have detached the extension visually by employing a glazed link to physically marry the existing facade to the extension without interrupting it.Practice director Steve Lawrence commented: These are the projects we relish at TCD as their complexities due to listed-building regulations make the design process more challenging.The completed build will add a spacious area to the property while also retaining the integrity and character of the grade B listed property.Work on the build is expected to get underway in August.
Erectile dysfunction (ED) is often a reason for consultation revealing the existence of cardiovascular risk factors. The objective of this study was to determine the cardiovascular risk factors associated with ED in the Dakar region.

A descriptive and analytical cross-sectional study was conducted from March 18 to June 2, 2013. The study population was composed of married male subjects who sought care at the Ouakam Geriatric and Gerontology Center and the Grand Yoff General Hospital. Erectile function was assessed with the International Index of Erectile Function using the simplified five-item questionnaire (IIEF 5). R 2.2.9 software was used for the logistic regression multivariate analysis. Associations were measured using the adjusted odds ratio (ORaj) with confidence intervals.

A total of 253 men were surveyed during this period. Average age was 16.758.2 years, range 24-90 years; 47% were aged under 60 years. ED was diagnosed in 110 patients (43.5%). ED was considered mild (33.6%), moderate (5.5%) or severe (4.3%). ED was more severe in patients older than 60 years. Cardiovascular risk factors associated with ED were diabetes ORaj=2.4 (1.24-4.68), sedentary lifestyle ORaj=3.08 (1.69-5.61), and hypertension ORaj=2.53 (1.33-4.81).

These results should prompt health care providers to target patients with diabetes, hypertension and sedentary lifestyle for systematic ED screening as a routine practice in order to ensure early and effective care.

Revue d'epidemiologie et de sante publique. 2016 May 18 [Epub ahead of print]

M M M Leye, A Faye, O Ka, I Seck, A Tal Dia

Service de medecine preventive et sante publique, UCAD, Dakar, Senegal. Electronic address: ., Service de medecine preventive et sante publique, UCAD, Dakar, Senegal., UFR sante, universite Alioune Diop de Bambey, Bambey, Senegal., Service de medecine preventive et sante publique, UCAD, Dakar, Senegal., Service de medecine preventive et sante publique, UCAD, Dakar, Senegal.

PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27208998
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With the next NXT Takeover paired with the name "The End" many wrestling fans were shocked and convinced that the ominous title spelled the end of the developmental show forever.

However, the NXT Universe can sleep soundly as Triple H took to social media to confirm the setting for its next event, leaving the name drop of the next special hanging in the air.

Takeover in Brooklyn

Triple H broke the news regarding NXT's latest special event (image: cagesideseats.com)

With the Florida, Full Sail University based show increasing in popularity ever since its creation in 2012 it's special Takeover events have become a huge success with the most recent show in Dallas selling out the 9,000 seat arena at the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center.

The next special will take place in its home venue in Winter Park, FL with the main event featuring Samoa Joe (The NXT Champion) squaring off against the number one contender Finn Balor inside a steel cage, but despite the hype around this event, the announcement of the following special is already making noise.

The announcement that there will be a Takeover in Brooklyn has put to bed the rumors of the developmental show ceasing which was one of the main questions linked between the next specials name and the announcement of the Brand Extension.

Triple H said on Twitter "#NXTTakeOver heads BACK to #Brooklyn on Sat. Aug. 20th Presale starts Wed. at 10am On sale Sat. at noon. #WeAreNXT."

Following the confirmation, speculation has begun over what the ominous naming of the most recent one, with the most popular belief is that it refers to the end of Balor, Bayley and the rest of the main stars of NXT on the developmental stage as they make their way to the main roster.

Samoa Joe - Finn Balor

Samoa Joe will face Finn Balor for the NXT Championship (image: f2wonline.com)

The main event of NXT TakeOver: The End will witness NXT Champion Joe taking on the man who he defeated for the title at a house show, Balor.

The two leading men of the roster have a wild history with one another and with their rivalry spanning back months; both stars will be willing to go to war inside the perilous metal enclosure in search of claiming the ultimate prize in NXT.

Their last bout at the special event saw Finn defeat the former TNA heavyweight as he was busted open minutes into the brawl, despite dominating much of the encounter the Champion prevailed.

Joe however in a shocking and surprising turn of events, finally claimed the gold in a house show in April but with Finn seemingly set for a run on the main roster, it is likely that Joe will retain his title, as Balor looks set for pastures new.
Contributed Photo The Ojai Art Center will host Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Huynh Cong "Nick" Ut Saturday at 7 p.m. in the Ojai Art Center Theater.

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Huynh Cong "Nick" Ut, Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer, will be on hand for a special event at the Ojai Art Center Theater on Saturday evening.

During the Vietnam War in 1972, Ut captured a photo of several children fleeing a botched napalm attack on their village. One girl in the image, an unclothed 9-year-old Kim Phuc, would capture the hearts of many, in what would become an iconic image from the war.

"As a Vietnam veteran and photographer, Nick's images from the war leave an indelible mark in my memory," said Art Center photography chairman David Baker. "They truly tell the horror of war, especially for the innocents. The "Napalm Girl: image shows that better than any image I have seen."

While Ut has said Phuc was initially "very upset about the picture," she is still in communication with Ut from her home in Canada where she does humanitarian work.

The presentation is at 7 p.m. and will include a slideshow of Ut's photographs and a question-and-answer session with the artist. For tickets, visit ojaiact.tix.com. For more information call 646-0117 or visit www.ojaiartcenter.org.
LISA MCKINNON/THE STAR Masa Shimakawa, chef de cuisine for ONYX at the Four Seasons Hotel Westlake Village, prepares to judge the dish that later took first place in the savory category of the 2016 Yummie Top Chef culinary competition at the Casa Pacifica Angels Wine, Food & Brew Festival: hoisin-tamarind glazed pork shanks with tropical coleslaw by chef Alex Castillo of Twenty88 Restaurant in Camarillo. LISA MCKINNON/THE STAR Masa Shimakawa, chef de cuisine for ONYX at the Four Seasons Hotel Westlake Village, prepare to judge the dish that later took first place in the savory category of the sixth annual Yummie Top Chef culinary competition at the Casa Pacifica Angels Wine, Food & Brew Festival: hoisin-tamarind glazed pork shanks with tropical cole slaw by chef Alex Castillo of Twenty88 Restaurant in Camarillo.

Lisa McKinnon Columnist SHARE LISA MCKINNON/THE STAR Former "MasterChef" contestants Olivia Crouppen and Troy Glass pause between dishes while judging the Yummie Top Chef competition at the Casa Pacifica Angels Wine, Food & Brew Festival. LISA MCKINNON/THE STAR Nicholas Albrecht, food and beverage director at University Village Thousand Oaks, left, and Alex Castillo, executive chef at Twenty88 Restaurant in Camarillo, celebrate their respective second- and- first-place finishes in the savory category at the 2016 Yummie Top Chef culinary competition. LISA MCKINNON/THE STAR Winners in the "sweet" category of the Yummie Top Chef culinary competition pose during the awards ceremony at the Casa Pacifica Angels Wine, Food & Brew Festival last Sunday in Camarillo. They are, from left: Patty Brown of 805 Treats, third; Alex Montoya of The Cave at Ventura Wine Co., second, and Momo Galera of University Village Thousand Oaks, first.

Nearly a quarter century after its debut, the Casa Pacifica Angels Wine, Food & Brew Festival has turned into a fundraising force to contend with, attracting more than 225 restaurants, wineries, breweries and others to help feed a sold-out crowd of roughly 4,800 people on the CSU Channel Islands campus in Camarillo.

But while VIP ticket holders flowed through the gates at noon Sunday, judges for the Yummie Top Chef competition got down to serious, nice-work-if-you-can-get-it business.

"It's like a dream come true, eating all day," joked Olivia Crouppen, an Oak Park High School grad who cooked her way into the Final 10 on the sixth season of "MasterChef."

She was joined at judges' table by a group that included myself, Ventura County Star restaurant critic Rita Moran, chef and past Yummie winner Nic Manocchio, chef Masa Shimakawa of ONYX at the Four Seasons Hotel Westlake Village, Sarene Wallace of Edible Ojai & Ventura County, and another Gordon Ramsay survivor: Troy Glass, a Thousand Oaks High School student who made it into the Final 4 on the first season of "MasterChef Junior" in 2013.

The competition joined the festival in 2009, albeit under a different name and format. That year, former "Leave It to Beaver" star Jerry Mathers and his fellow judges went from one participating booth to the next to collect entries. (We burned a lot of calories that day.)

The contest has since added a helpful crew of volunteers to coordinate the delivery of dishes, to better ensure that judges don't know which dish was made by which chef.

But it still pits self-selected chefs, restaurants and/or caterers against one another in the quest for its saute-pan trophies, which are now awarded in "sweet" and "savory" categories.

The results this year include a mix of new and familiar faces, along with some dishes available on menus now that the festival is finished for another year.

In the savory division, chef Alex Castillo of Twenty88 Restaurant in Camarillo (2088 Ventura Blvd., 805-388-2088, http://twenty88.com) nabbed first place with a fall-off-the-bone, hoisin- and- tamarind-glazed pork shank served with tropical coleslaw.

A previous Yummie winner, Castillo said he'd share the recipe with anyone who ordered the dish 10 times. It appeared as a dinner special the next day, and soon will be part of the regular menu, said Vince Pillard, the restaurant's co-owner.

But you'll need an invitation to get another taste of the first-place sweet winner. That honor went to Momo Galera, pastry chef at University Village Thousand Oaks, the retirement community next to California Lutheran University. Galera's dish included dollops of chocolate mousse and mandarin marmalade served with a miniature vanilla bean Pavlova, or meringue, and an edible flower.

The University Village team also took second with a savory dish that paired an oxtail grilled cheese sandwich with a flute of summer tomato consomme.

Third place savory went to the Dark Seas slider presented by chef Bernardo Rodriguez of the Ojai Beverage Co. (655 E. Ojai Ave., 805-646-1700, http://www.ojaibevco.com), where a full-size version of the burger topped with beer-battered bits of lobster and crab is served on a squid ink-infused bun.

For the second year in a row, second place in the sweet category went to sous chef Alex Montoya, executive chef Brandon Worrell and the team from The Cave inside the Ventura Wine Co. (4435 McGrath St., Suite 301, 805-642-9449, http://venturawineco.com). The prize this time was for a RumChata frozen custard topped with brown sugar-dusted churro bites  a combination that makes occasional appearances on the dessert menu.

Third place "sweet" went to Yummie first-timer Patty Brown of 805 Treats (http://805treats.com) for toffee made with house-roasted almonds and Ghirardelli chocolate.

Look for any  or all  of these chefs to take part in the fourth annual Yummie Top Chef Dinner when it unfolds in the VIP tent two days before next year's festival. Until then, click on https://www.cpwineandfoodfestival.com.

Lisa McKinnon is a staff writer for The Star. Her Cafe Society column appears in the Sunday Life section and Fridays in the Time Out section. For between-column updates, follow 805foodie on Twitter and Instagram and "like" the Facebook page VCS Eats. Please send email to lisa.mckinnon@vcstar.com.
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By Jean Moore of the Ventura County Star

When Cesar Morales heard that Helen Chavez, a civil rights activist and widow of Cesar Chavez, died Monday, he wanted to honor her.

So Morales, superintendent of the Oxnard School District, asked his principals to fly their flags at half-staff Tuesday.

"It was an emotional moment for me," Morales said. "My father was a farmworker. We have many farmworkers here in Oxnard. ... I just thought it was the appropriate thing to do.

"Helen Chavez was an important leader in the movement. We don't honor female leaders enough, let alone women of color."

But someone complained because only the president, governors and the mayor of the District of Columbia can order flags flown at half-staff. Morales said Wednesday he didn't know that protocol, but now he does.

He planned to send an email to principals explaining the Flag Code.
DAVID YAMAMOTO/SPECIAL TO THE STAR Incumbent Supervisor Steve Bennett receives applause from Ruth Owens (right) and other supporters during an election party Tuesday after it was announced that Bennett was far ahead of challenger David Grau in the first voter returns.

SHARE Steve Bennett DAVID YAMAMOTO/SPECIAL TO THE STAR Incumbent county Supervisor Steve Bennett shakes hands with Tom Robinson during an election party Tuesday after it was announced that Bennett was far ahead of challenger David Grau in the first voter returns. CARMEN SMYTH/SPECIAL TO THE STAR David Grau (from right) speaks with Greg and Kathy Smith during Grau's election party at the Watermark Restaurant in Ventura on Tuesday night. Grau is running for the 1st District seat on the Ventura County Board of Supervisors. DAVID YAMAMOTO/SPECIAL TO THE STAR Incumbent Supervisor Steve Bennett gives recognition to his supporters during an election party Tuesday night at the Pierpont Racquet Club in Ventura.

By Kathleen Wilson of the Ventura County Star

Incumbent Steve Bennett appears to have coasted to a resounding victory over challenger David Grau for the Ventura-based 1st District seat on the Ventura County Board of Supervisors, capturing 60 percent of the vote to 40 percent for Grau.

Grau said Wednesday morning that it looked like he had lost.

"I assume the votes are pretty much counted," he said. "It is a bit of a distance between the two of us. Probably I would say we didn't make it this time."

Meanwhile, four candidates lead the crowded field seeking to win the 3rd District seat held by Supervisor Kathy Long, who is retiring in January. Candidates Carla Castilla and Kelly Long were on top, followed by two Camarillo councilmen.

"I am overwhelmed by the outpouring of support," Castilla said.

Bennett charged out front in the vote-by-mail returns posted shortly after the polls closed and held on in a second wave of results from the polls and then a third. With all 156 precincts reporting, the elections office showed Bennett with 19,793 votes and Grau with 13,166.

Even with all precincts reporting, the elections office has ballots to count. Vote-by-mail ballots were dropped off at precincts throughout the county, which still have to be counted, as well as votes cast provisionally. Officials say they expect to have an estimate on outstanding ballots late Wednesday.

Bennett credited his volunteers for turning back what he termed a deceitful big-money campaign by his opponent.

"I think that tonight made it clear that there are lots of people that share core values, and you have a responsibility to give a voice and unify those people so their energy and core values get expressed in policies," he said.

He declined to elaborate on what those core values are, but has previously described them as a belief in good government and the ability to vote on preservation of farmland and open space.

Grau said Wednesday that he did not plan to call Bennett and concede because of the incumbent's accusation that Grau had run a deceitful campaign.

Bennett, 65, a slow-growth proponent seeking his fifth and final term, ran on his record. Grau, 68, a retired businessman, said the board needed to find ways to keep people from leaving the county to find good jobs.

The two Ventura residents vied for the nonpartisan office just months before Bennett's signature open space initiatives are headed for the November ballot. Called Save Open-space and Agricultural Resources, they require voter approval for development of protected farmland and open space.

Bennett is helping lead the effort to renew the initiatives, while Grau would like to see a compromise with agricultural interests who own and work the land. The two were also at odds over a proposed sales tax for transportation. Bennett favors asking voters to approve the tax; Grau hoped to find the money in existing resources.

In the 3rd District, seven candidates pursued the seat after the incumbent, Kathy Long, decided to retire. No one was expected to capture a majority vote in the primary because of the large field of candidates.

That looks to be the case with no candidate near the threshold of 50 percent plus one vote needed to win the office outright. The top two finishers are expected to move on to a runoff in the general election.

Castilla, an aide to state Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, was on top with 25 percent of the vote with all 123 precincts reported. Kelly Long, a Pleasant Valley School District board member, captured 22 percent.

Camarillo Councilman Kevin Kildee was running third with 19 percent, followed by Camarillo Mayor Mike Morgan with 17 percent.

Trailing were Santa Paula Mayor Martin Hernandez with 9 percent, and businessmen Dan Goldberg and Jesus Torres, who each won 4 percent and 5 percent of the vote respectively.

The winners of the two seats will take office in January. The 1st District includes Ventura, the Ojai Valley, part of Oxnard and coastal communities north of Ventura.

The 3rd District covers a far-flung territory running from Camarillo west to southeast Oxnard and Port Hueneme, then back to the Santa Paula-Fillmore area.

Supervisor John Zaragoza was also on the ballot but was unopposed for the Oxnard-based seat on the board. He claimed 96 percent of the vote with the rest going to write-in candidates.

The Board of Supervisors oversees the county government, which provides public safety, health care, environmental regulation and other services. The public entity employs 9,000 people and spends about $2 billion a year.
SHARE CONTRIBUTED Janice Kamenir-Reznik Henry Stern JOSEPH A. GARCIA/THE STAR Jessica Ocegueda(cq) (center) unloads counted ballots that will be stored at the Ventura County Elections Division on Tuesday night, June 7, 2016. 06/07/2016 Ventura, CA JOSEPH A. GARCIA/THE STAR John Davila brings in ballots at the Ventura County Elections Division on Tuesday night, June 7, 2016. 06/07/2016 Ventura, CA

By Gretchen Wenner of the Ventura County Star

Results in a high-stakes primary battle between two leading Democrats hoping to succeed state Sen. Fran Pavley favored challenger Henry Stern with all precincts reporting Wednesday morning.

Stern, an attorney who helped pen some of Pavley's landmark environmental legislation and who had the senator's endorsement, had 26.5 percent of the vote, ahead of Janice Kamenir-Reznik's 19.7 percent.

In the 27th District, the only Republican in the field of six, Steve Fazio, held the No. 1 spot as expected, with 37.5 percent of the total, or 58,151 votes.

Even with all precincts reporting, some ballots are left to count. That number includes vote-by-mail ballots dropped off at the polls on Tuesday.

The battle in the 27th Senate District is one of four competitive primaries for state and federal office that include parts of Ventura County. The top two finishers in the four contests, regardless of party, will go on to the November general election.

The district includes Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks, Moorpark and surrounding unincorporated areas, with Ventura County voters accounting for a third of the district total. In Los Angeles County, the boundary stretches from Malibu to the Santa Clarita Valley.

The race to succeed Pavley, who has reached her term limit, created an intense contest among Democrats that, in the final week before the primary, broke the $1 million mark in spending by outside interest groups, filings with the California secretary of state show. All of the independent expenditures went to support or oppose Stern, Kamenir-Reznik and Shawn Bayliss, who had 6.1 percent of the vote with all precincts reporting.

Pavley, D-Agoura Hills, is known for groundbreaking environmental legislation on climate change, fracking and other issues.

Kamenir-Reznik is a nonprofit leader and former land-use attorney widely known in Los Angeles City Hall circles and elsewhere. Her supporters include heavy hitters such as U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

Moorpark Councilman David Pollock, the only Ventura County resident in the race, had 7.3 percent of the vote early Wednesday.

ASSEMBLY DISTRICT 38

Two candidates showed strong leads in the race for the open state Assembly 38th District seat held by Scott Wilk, R-Santa Clarita.

Christy Smith, the only Democrat in the field of four candidates, held the top spot with 33,022 votes, nearly 45 percent of the total. Republican Dante Acosta had close to 36 percent of the vote.

Wilk is running for a state Senate seat that opened suddenly in March.

The district encircles Simi Valley and branches into northwestern Los Angeles as well as Santa Clarita, Castaic and Agua Dulce.

Republicans Tyler Izen and Jarrod DeGonia each posted less than 12 percent of the total with all precincts reporting early Wednesday.

LOIS CAPPS' SEAT

With all precincts reporting, Democrat Salud Carbajal held the top spot in the race to succeed retiring Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara.

Republicans Justin Fareed and Katcho Achadjian were in a tight battle for second place, with Fareed ahead at 20.5 percent and Achadjian less than two percentage points behind.

The 24th Congressional District race has attracted much attention and campaign cash.

The district includes a small piece of Ventura County, taking in communities along the coast and a portion of Ventura, although the 5,302 local registered voters make up less than 1.5 percent of the district total. All of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties are included.

Nine candidates in all were on Tuesday's ballot.

KNIGHT to SAIL THROUGH

Rep. Steve Knight, R-Palmdale, should easily survive the primary, as expected, after posting 49 percent of the vote. Of two Democrats vying for the second spot in the 25th Congressional district, Bryan Caforio took the lead, with 28.7 percent, over Lou Vince's 14.9 percent. All precincts had reported results.

Simi Valley sits within the district, which extends past Santa Clarita and Palmdale in Los Angeles County.
JUAN CARLO/THE STAR Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton appears during her rally Saturday at Hueneme High School in Oxnard.

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By Wendy Leung of the Ventura County Star

Hillary Clinton won the Democratic presidential primary among Ventura County voters, according to semi-official results released by the county Elections Division Wednesday morning.

Clinton received 53 percent of the county vote, while Bernie Sanders received 45 percent. All 568 of the county's precincts had been counted as of 1:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Results of the election are expected to be certified in less than 30 days.

Sanders and Clinton, both of whom made appearances in the county, were in a virtual tie based on polling days before the primary. On Monday, before six states were set to vote in the primary, The Associated Press reported Clinton had enough delegates to clinch the Democratic nomination. On Tuesday, Clinton embraced that nomination.

Clinton campaigned in Oxnard on Saturday, making an appearance at Hueneme High School. Sanders held a May 26 rally at Ventura College.
KRISTIE AKIN/SPECIAL TO THE STAR Jake Findlay, a Port Hueneme lifeguard and emergency medical technician, talks about ocean safety with junior lifeguard program tryouts Saturday near the Hueneme Pier.

SHARE KRISTIE AKIN/SPECIAL TO THE STAR Jared Moody, 10 (left), from Port Hueneme, and Kalani Martin, 9, from Camarillo, make a lap around the Hueneme Pier on Saturday while trying out for the city's junior lifeguard program. KRISTIE AKIN/SPECIAL TO THE STAR Port Hueneme lifeguard Casey Graham oversees junior lifeguard tryouts Saturday as they demonstrate their ability to walk through ocean currents. KRISTIE AKIN/SPECIAL TO THE STAR Port Hueneme resident, Jani Chavez, 11, enjoys a moment with her dad, P.J., on Saturday after passing tryouts for the city's junior lifeguard program.

By Anne Kallas, Special to The Star

Embracing Port Hueneme's "beach culture" means educating as many people as possible about the dangers of ocean waters, according to Casey Graham, senior lifeguard for the city and head of its junior lifeguard program.

But this year, as the City Council is struggling to balance its budget, a proposal came up to end all lifeguard services at the beach.

Graham and other lifeguards scrambled to come up with a plan that wouldn't require as much money from city coffers, but they had to give up junior lifeguard scholarships to do so. The revised budget was approved by the council.

To make up for the lost scholarships and teach water safety to more people 8 to 16 years old, a luau benefiting the junior lifeguard program will be held Saturday at the Oceanview Pavilion in Port Hueneme.

"We just want the public to be safe and enjoy the public resource of the beach," Graham said. "And we want to make up for lost funding. We want to deal with the cuts, and we want to go beyond."

Graham said area residents organized the luau in a matter of weeks.

"Port Hueneme is not a wealthy community," he noted. "We want to offer scholarships to city residents who may not have $250. While $250 is relatively cheap for a four-week program, it can be out of reach for many families."

The luau is being put on by the Hueneme Ocean Lifeguards Association, which was established this year and is working to obtain nonprofit status, Graham said. It is being held to coincide with National Beach Safety/Rip Current Awareness Week. Any contributions to HOLA can be processed through the California Surf Lifesaving Association as a tax deduction, Graham said.

While some tryouts have already taken place, Graham said there will be three more: at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Hueneme Pier and on the first day of each four-week junior lifeguard session  9 a.m. June 20 and 9 a.m. July 18.

One person who has found the junior lifeguard program invaluable is Kayla McCormick, 14, who was named the Ventura County Junior Lifeguard of the Year for 2015 by the California Surf Lifesaving Association. She has addressed the Port Hueneme City Council a few times about the necessity of the program, which she said made her more than just a strong swimmer.

"When I first moved to Port Hueneme I was kind of stuck in my shell," she said. "But everyone in the program was nice. They helped me push my boundaries, but they didn't push too far. They help you as you try to work as hard as you can."

Sharon Kloeris, executive vice president of the Oceanview Pavilion, said it is only fitting that the facility host the event.

"Being across from Hueneme Beach, we realize how important it is to educate the public about the hazards of the ocean. Hueneme Beach is an incredible place to come, but oceans can be very treacherous," Kloeris said. "Plus Oceanview gives to the community."

She said calling this event the "first annual" was a deliberate expression of optimism.

"We're hoping to continue to have this year after year," she said. "Ideally, we'd like to see lifeguards here in October and November on the weekends."

Graham said that because the beach at Port Hueneme is especially treacherous, with a confluence of factors increasing the likelihood of rip currents that can sweep even the best swimmers far from shore, it's essential to have a strong lifeguard and junior lifeguard program.

"Beach culture sells," he said. "Look at any beach community. If they have invested in beach culture and expanded their programs to include permanent lifeguards, they are thriving."
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Donald Trump needed validation.

At a rally Friday, Trump was discussing racial violence at his events and the perception that nonwhite people are against him, when he singled out a black man in the crowd.

"Look at my African-American over here," Trump said, pointing. "Look at him. Are you the greatest?"

The gesture  reminiscent of Trump with a Cinco de Mayo taco bowl at Trump Tower and tweeting "I love Hispanics!"  was as respectful as if he had just instructed the crowd to "look at my Irish setter over here." And it was as clumsy as if he had tried to validate his pro-Israel position by saying, "Look at my Jew over here," or to neutralize his general intolerance by saying, "Say hello to my lesbian," or, "Take a gander at my Chinese-American."

It turns out Trump's African-American, Gregory Cheadle, says he's not a Trump supporter. He said he wasn't offended by Trump taking possession of him, telling NPR it would have been worse if Trump followed "my African-American" by saying, "What's up, dawg?" or the N-word.

Small consolation.

A confluence of three factors has caused a sudden and sharp change in Trump's fortunes. The media scrutiny has increased significantly since he secured the nomination, and journalists, rather than chasing his outrage du jour, are digging in to report more on Trump University, Trump's stiffing of charities, his lies and his racism. Hillary Clinton has, finally, made the shift to attacking Trump vigorously over his instability.

And Republicans are, belatedly, discovering that their presidential candidate wasn't putting on a show during the GOP primaries: He's an actual racist.

You know you're in trouble when you're being lectured on sensitivity by Newt Gingrich. The former House speaker, a frequent Trump defender, emailed The Washington Post's Dan Balz to say Trump's claim that a federal judge had a conflict of interest because the Indiana-born jurist is "Mexican" was "completely unacceptable." (He softened his criticism of Trump on Monday.)

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine concurred that Trump's attack on the judge and his claim that a Muslim on the bench also couldn't judge him fairly was "absolutely unacceptable."

House Speaker Paul Ryan, just one day after endorsing Trump, said on a radio show that Trump's remarks about the Hispanic judge were "out of left field."

Sorry, Mr. Speaker, but that's nonsense. The things Trump is doing now  disparaging the "Mexican" judge, disqualifying Muslim judges, calling Sen. Elizabeth Warren "Pocahontas" and singling out "my African-American"  is very much in line with what he has been doing for the past year, and before.

More than six months ago, I began a column by proposing, "Let's not mince words: Donald Trump is a bigot and a racist." His bigotry went back decades, to the Central Park jogger case, and came to include his leadership of the "birther" movement suggesting President Obama was a foreign-born Muslim, his vulgar expressions for women, his talk of Mexico sending rapists into America, his call for mass deportation, his spats with Latino news outlets, his mocking Asian accent, his tacit acceptance of the claim that Muslims are a "problem" in America, his agreement that American Muslims should be forced to register themselves, his call to ban Muslim immigration, his false claim about American Muslims celebrating 9/11, his tweeting of statistics from white supremacists, his condoning of violence against black demonstrators and his mocking of a journalist with a physical disability.

Now that Trump has secured the nomination, Republican officeholders are shocked to discover that his racism continues?

A month ago, the Trump campaign chose prominent white nationalist William Johnson to be one of its delegates. The campaign blamed a "database error" and Johnson resigned, but the racist American Freedom Party claims it has "more delegates" on Trump's list. Another Trump delegate was indicted recently on federal child-pornography and weapons charges, and Mother Jones magazine, which discovered Johnson's selection, on Friday reported that another Trump delegate, David Riden, has said that U.S. leaders who abuse the Constitution should be "killed by American citizens with weapons."

The Chicago Tribune reported that Illinois Trump delegate Lori Gayne uses the social-media handle "whitepride" and said: "I'm so angry I don't even feel like I live in America. You can call me a racist."

Republicans, look at your nominee over here. It's a grotesque sight.

Follow Dana Milbank on Twitter, @Milbank. He writes for The Washington Post Writers Group.


Justin Bieber took over REHAB, the dayclub at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, to host one of Las Vegas hottest fight weekend parties on Saturday, May 2 (Photo:  Erik Kabik / www.erikkabik.com).

Photo:  Erik Kabik / www.erikkabik.com.

Bieber arrived to the blue carpet shortly after 3 p.m. He showed off his Calvins and posed for photos with Australian model Shanina Shaik, actor Kyle Massey, Vine superstar Andrew King Bach Bachelor, co-founder of Shots Sam Shahidi and others.

Photo:  Erik Kabik / www.erikkabik.com.

The group then headed into REHAB where they were joined by Corey Gamble. Resident DJ Loczi dropped Biebers song, Wait For A Minute, as he and a friend ran back and forth across the stage to scope out the crowd.

Photo:  Erik Kabik / www.erikkabik.com.

Bieber got on the mic to let everyone know that he was cheering for Floyd Money Mayweather before performing his latest, chart-topping single, Where Are U Now.

Photo:  Erik Kabik / www.erikkabik.com.

Throughout the entire afternoon, Bieber was seen with a smile on his face while he danced on stage, took pictures with guests, shook hands with his fans and sprayed champagne showers over the partygoers.

Photo:  Erik Kabik / www.erikkabik.com.

Around 4 p.m., rappers Flo Rida and Red Cafe showed up to the dayclub. Guests were in for a surprise as Flo Rida, who helped celebrate REHABs grand opening last week, did an impromptu performance to G.D.F.R and Low.

Photo:  Erik Kabik / www.erikkabik.com.

The party was started earlier in the day as DJ ACE spun at the DJ booth to warm up the crowd for Biebers arrival.

Photo:  Erik Kabik / www.erikkabik.com.

Photo:  Erik Kabik / www.erikkabik.com.

Photo:  Erik Kabik / www.erikkabik.com.

Photo:  Erik Kabik / www.erikkabik.com.

Photo:  Erik Kabik / www.erikkabik.com.

Photo:  Erik Kabik / www.erikkabik.com.

Photo:  Erik Kabik / www.erikkabik.com.

Photo:  Erik Kabik / www.erikkabik.com.

Photo:  Erik Kabik / www.erikkabik.com.

Photo:  Erik Kabik / www.erikkabik.com.

Photo:  Erik Kabik / www.erikkabik.com.

Photo:  Erik Kabik / www.erikkabik.com.

Photo:  Erik Kabik / www.erikkabik.com.

Photo:  Erik Kabik / www.erikkabik.com.

Photo:  Erik Kabik / www.erikkabik.com.

Photo:  Erik Kabik / www.erikkabik.com.

Photo:  Erik Kabik / www.erikkabik.com.

Photo:  Erik Kabik / www.erikkabik.com.

Photo:  Erik Kabik / www.erikkabik.com.


Springs Preserve is Las Vegas ultimate kids nature playground, with different themes every week. From Creepy Crawlers to Movie Magic to Dinosaurs, Aliens and Time Travelers, campers explore a different topic each week (Photo credit: Springs Preserve).

Every camp week includes: cool museum explorations; acting with Drama Kids International; swimming Fridays at the YMCA; animal shows; guest speakers; fun crafts, awesome games and cool theme projects.

Photo credit: Springs Preserve.

Join our Springs Preserve education specialists for your favorite themes or spend the whole summer with us. Kids age 6  12 only. Mondays through Fridays, June 6  August 26, 2016, 9 a.m.  4 p.m. $200 per week for members, $225 for non-members. After-hours care is an additional $50 fee per week. Visit springspreserve.org to register and for more details.

Photo credit: Springs Preserve.

Summer-Fun Camp Themes

Week 1: Creepy Crawlers (June 6-10) Find out whats really bugging us here at the Springs Preserve. From the stink bugs stench to the worms slime to the scorpions ultraviolet glow, well dig into world of arthropods and discover the truth behind our creeping, crawling companions.

Week 2: Movie Magic (June 13-17) Lights! Camera! Action! Join us as we explore all the magic  and science  of Hollywood. Whats so special about special effects? Why do we eat popcorn at theaters? Well roll out the red carpet, dodge paparazzi and settle in for a week of all things silver screen.

Week 3: Dinosaurs: Prehistoric Predators (June 20-24) Not all dinosaurs were created equal. Join us for a teeth-gnashing adventure as we celebrate the most terrible of the terrible lizards: the carnivores! Claws, venom, spikes and teeth reign supreme in this dino-mite prehistoric adventure.

Week 4: Operation Alien (June 27-July 1) Its a bird, its a plane, its a UFO! Is there life out there or already among us? From Area 51s history to the latest news from the surface of Mars, well explore all things extra-terrestrial for an out of this world week of camp!

Week 5: Days! Days! Holidays! (July 4-8) Well be patriotic partying for the 4th of July Monday morning, but why stop there? With a different holiday every day theres always something to celebrate at the Springs Preserve.

Week 6: Make It & Break It (July 11-15) Back by popular demand! Theres nothing more fun than building cool thingsother than getting to smash those things when youre done! Build catapults, drop eggs, see the cutting edge in alternative energy and spend a week thats all about creativity and crushing.

Week 7: Time Travelers (July 18-22) Ever wanted to visit ancient Rome, explore medieval courts and castles or sneak up on ninjas? Then join us for this time-traveling adventure as each new day brings a fresh blast from the past.

Week 8: Rainforest Wonders (July 25-29) Well leave the dry desert behind to explore the amazing Amazon and the spectacle of rainforests. From the rainbow of animals to weird and wonderful plants, its a jungle out there!

Week 9: Under the Big Top (August 1-5) Step right up! Step right up! Were not clowning around as we bring the circus to life this week. Camp becomes a carnival of crafts, games and science when you join us under the big top!

Week 10: Desert Adventures (August 8-12) From the days of the Wild West, to the bright lights of the big city, to surviving harsh Mojave extremes, well explore everything unique about Las Vegaspast, present and future. Its a wild ride out in the desert: Do you have what it takes?

Week 11: Once Upon a Time (August 15-19) This weeks camp is legendary  literally! Go back in time with legends like the Knights of the Round Table and fairy tales like Peter Pan, then get real-world as we explore the cool science and history behind them.

Week 12: Moving and Grooving (August 22-26) Its the last week of summer and were ending with a bang. Dancing, stomping, running, smashing, yelling, singing, clanging, banging: Well move and groove it all out of our system!
Investors looking to take advantage of lower tariffs must understand and comply with rule of origin guidelines.

Vietnam is a party to several free trade agreements making it an ideal destination for manufacturers looking to produce goods there.

As Vietnam benefits from the myriad of agreements, it has also increased scrutiny on products that defy rule of origin guidelines.

For businesses seeking to take advantage of tariff-free exports and low labor costs, Vietnam has become the ideal destination.

In 2019, manufacturing and processing accounted for 64.6 percent of total investment capital and with the recent signing of several free trade agreements, including the European Union-Vietnam FTA (EVFTA) and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), this amount is expected to rise.

As a compliment to pending agreements, Vietnam already benefits from operational FTAs with members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), China, Japan, South Korea, India, New Zealand, Australia, and Russia.

Although FTA agreements present a tempting way to lower export costs, the ability to tap into their benefits is largely contingent upon compliance with elaborate rules outlined within each agreement. At hundreds of pages in length, agreements set out specific tariff concessions and compliance requirements at a product-specific level.

Rules of origin: A primer

In order to ascertain the manner in which goods will be treated, it is first necessary to identify the Harmonized System (HS) code that will be designated to the finished product. This is to determine the applicable tariff. The HS system is a classification of products and allows participating countries to classify traded goods for customs purposes. HS codes classify goods in a six-digit code system.

From a compliance perspective, HS codes are also used to determine the requirements that a good will be subject to under an FTA. Areas of compliance will often pertain to the manner in which a good is produced, how it is labeled and the certifications that it requires to be exported and recognized.

To understand the specifics applied under a given agreement, one of the most important sections of an FTA is that of rules of origin. Rules of origin establish the method by which signatories of free trade agreements determine if goods entering their borders qualify for the benefits of the agreement.

It is also important to note that rules of origin are included and utilized within international law to determine when to apply anti-dumping duties.

In order for Vietnamese exports to qualify for tariff reductions under free trade agreements of which Vietnam is a participant, rules of origin requirements mandate varying degrees of the manufacturing process to be conducted within Vietnam.

The objective of these rules is to enforce the trade agreement and to prevent third parties from free-riding off of the concessions of FTA signatories. Adapting to the complex and global nature of many corporate supply chains, rules of origin chapters have become increasingly complex and require careful due diligence to ensure compliance.

Product-specific requirements

For a product to benefit from tariff reduction, it must originate from a country party to the trade agreement. The product can be wholly obtained from that nation or meet certain requirements in the event that the product is not wholly obtained.

Wholly obtained goods

These generally refer to raw materials and other resources such as livestock and agriculture. These goods must be sourced exclusively from within the FTA zone or territory to qualify for tariff reductions. Under many free trade agreements, a list of goods that must meet these requirements is specified.

For companies involved in the sale of similar goods from multiple jurisdictions, it will be important to ensure a thorough understanding of how raw materials and other exports are treated under Vietnams FTA framework. For companies exporting goods from both Vietnam and China, it may not be possible for Chinese produced goods to qualify for tariff reductions under certain agreements.

Goods not wholly obtained

While some goods must be entirely sourced in Vietnam by their inclusion under FTAs as wholly obtained goods, modern trade agreements also attempt to accommodate the rise of multinational supply chains through certain allowances. Outlined under trade agreements as regulations pertaining to not wholly obtained products, many goods must meet certain requirements to benefit from tariff reductions.

There are two ways that a not wholly obtained product is generally classified as eligible for tax breaks:

It has been sufficiently transformed within the FTA zone; and

A certain percentage of the product is originating from that area.

The standard for each of these categories varies based on the agreement and the goods in question. It is common for FTAs to require that a certain percentage of inputs be sourced from within the FTA zone and that the goods undergo a degree of change within the zone to qualify for reductions. Furthermore, the technique by which the value for each category is evaluated differs based on the agreement and the goods in question.

For companies attempting to benefit from tariff reductions, the challenge is not only to navigate complex rules that determine an originating product, but also to manufacture goods in a way that is suitable under several trade agreements. It is crucial to conduct a cost-benefit analysis of manufacturing in accordance with the complex FTA guidelines.

Supply chain and logistics optimization

Vietnamese based operations are never far away from potential suppliers in China and India, while a great distance from sources of demand in the Americas and Europe. To facilitate regional supply chain integration and support the shipment of goods to their final destination, free trade agreements increasingly implement articles dealing with extra FTA supply and transit.

Advantages of cumulation

In an attempt to further adjust to extensive supply chains, articles pertaining to cumulation allow companies to maintain multinational supply chains without losing originating status. Because it is impractical for businesses to manufacture entirely in one nation, FTAs authorize the producer to tap into tax reductions while utilizing the comparative advantage of several countries that may not be included within the FTA in question.

Manufacturers can work in countries within the zone of an FTA or in a nation collaborating with the agreement. For example, under the EU-Vietnam FTA, if a fabric originating in South Korea is brought to Vietnam and further processed, it can be considered as originating in Vietnam and applicable to the tariff break under the agreement.

Those with existing supply chains in close proximity to Vietnam should review articles of cumulation found within Vietnams FTA network to ensure that goods are afforded the lowest tariffs possible upon export.

Transit/Transshipment

To accommodate companies whose products are shipped through several ports, FTAs ensure that applicable goods do not lose preferential status simply due to the transit route. While this gives manufacturers the freedom to ship along the best-suited lane, importers may require proof that the good was in no way altered at an intermediate location, which would disqualify it from the reduced tariff.

Challenges

The rules of origin under the FTAs are incredibly detailed and complex. Nations may also be part of several FTAs that have different rules of origin. With extensive supply chains, it is important for companies to harmonize them in accordance with the varying trade agreements. Manufacturers are also obligated to keep records of the eligibility of their goods and are subject to customs audits. At the very least, this involves keeping track of the origin of the materials.

Note: This article was first published in June 2016 and has been updated to include the latest developments.
A toll booth on the Ha Noi-Hai Phong expressway. The public has expressed concern over the shortcomings of road projects under BOT and BT contracts, such as high tolls and unplanned toll stations on national highways. - VNA/VNS Photo Huy Hung

Speaking at a meeting to review transport investment in the form of build-operate-transfer (BOT) and build-transfer (BT), the deputy PM said that "defining exactly the cost of BOT and BT projects will have the support of the people."

The deputy PM also said the public had recently expressed concern over the shortcomings of BOT and BT projects, such as high tolls and unplanned toll stations on national highways.

Transport Minister Truong Quang Nghia reported at the meeting that between 2011 and 2015, VND186 trillion (US$8.33 billion) was mobilized in private investment, accounting for 42 per cent of total investment in 62 BOT and BT transport infrastructure projects.

So far, 26 projects with a total investment of VND74.8 trillion (US$ 3.35 billion) have been put into operation and another 36 with an investment of VND111.8 trillion ($5 billion) have been completed, Nghia told the meeting.

"The operation of infastructure transport projects has brought meaningful economic value, meeting the increasing transport demand, contributing to reduction of traffic congestion and accidents as well as promoting regional economic delopment," said the minister.

According to the minister, the World Economic Forum (WEF) ranked the efficiency and quality of Viet Nam's transportation infrastructure in 2014 in 74th place among 138 countries, compared to 90 in 2012 and 103 in 2010.

Many who spoke at the meeting said that invesmnent in transport infrastructure projects in the form of Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) was more complicated than traditional investment forms, requiring that all three sides benefit - State, investors and road users.

Quality concern

According to the ministry, one of the biggest concerns of BOT and BT projects was the quality of the works, which is the responsibility of the investors and projectors. Recently, several projects have been found to be of poor quality once they were put into operation.

The ministry has penalised investors on those projects by halting their fees or asked them to pay themselves to fix their construction mistakes.

Such was the case with the National Highway 1 in Vinh City of Central Nghe An Province and Ha Tinh City.

The Ministry of Transport explained to participants of the meeting that the current rate of tolls was in compliance with that set by the Ministry of Finance.

The ministries of Finance and Transport have proposed an increase in tolls but they will seek opinions from other ministries and localities.

At present, there are 88 toll tax stations on national highways, 74 of which are managed by the Transport Ministry and the rest under the control of local People's Committees.

Tran Dinh Thien, director of the Viet Nam Economic Institute, said: the cost of BOT projects in Viet Nam was higher than in other countries, resulting in higher tolls and public dissatisfaction.

Thien suggested that the State should help investors by allowing them to collect tolls for a longer period so as to reduce toll rates.

Nguyen Ngoc Bao, vice head of the Central Economic Committee, told the meeting that the State management in the field has exposed some shortcomings, such as lack of a master plan for BOT projects for specific region.

Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyen Nhat said the State Budget has met 11 per cent of the demand and thus the PPP investment model was a necessary solution.

However, its implementation faces many hurdles, such as lack of a legal framework, long-term domestic credit and policies for access to foreign capital.

The Transport Minister suggested that the Government carry out some PPP transport infrastructure projects on a trial basis to help formulate policies and mechanism for this investment model.
A view of Song Than Industrial Zone in southern Binh Duong Province. IZs nation-wide have attracted nearly $150 billion FDI so far.  File Photo

The report also showed that local investors poured VND1.18 quadrillion (US$52.7 billion) investments into some 7,000 projects in the industrial zones (IZs).

IZs have contributed trillions of Vietnamese dong to the State budget each year and provided millions of jobs. Last year, IZs contributed VND90.3 trillion to the national coffer and employed 2.6 million people.

However, the occupancy rate of IZs has remained low. The report revealed that some 285,000 hectares, or just 49 per cent of the total industrial land was leased to date. The occupancy rate of 219 IZs, which were in operation, averaged nearly 70 per cent.

More than 90 IZs were under construction.

The report said that Viet Nam had 16 economic zones.

Under the target approved by the National Assembly (NA), the industrial land would total 200,010 hectares by 2020, increasing by 96,680 hectares from 2015.

At the NA meeting in March, the government proposed to reduce the target of industrial land to 191,420 hectares by 2020, however.

The NA Economic Department said that the government would review the IZs and economic zones nationwide to ensure socio-economic efficiency.
According to a release posted on the companys website yesterday, PetroVietnam is going to hold 75 per cent of the company after the IPO. In June, PV Power is going to announce its value and the size of the stake to be sold to employees at a preferential price and submit its business plan for the next five years. The equitisation plan is going to be approved by the prime minister in August. The first shareholders meeting reflecting the shifting ownership is going to be held in December this year.

PV Power is looking for a strategic investor. Recently it had meetings with foreign investors such as South Korean SK and Kospo and Japanese Tohoku Electric Power Co. to discuss a sale of stakes at its associate companies.

As of the end of 2015, PV Powers shareholders equity was VND21.8 trillion ($980 million). The companys 2015 revenue stood at VND25.3 trillion ($1.13 billion) and its pretax profit at VND3.1 trillion ($140 million).

PV Power currently has 26 subsidiaries and associate companies. It is managing eight power plants with a combined capacity of 4,208 MW, accounting for 11 per cent of the countrys total generation capacity. In the 2016-2021 period the company is going to have three more power plants, gaining an additional capacity of 3,600 MW.

In the first quarter of 2016, PV Powers power output was 5.7 billion kWh. PV Power targets a total power output of 21 billion kWh, a total revenue of VND29.4 trillion ($1.3 billion), a pre-tax profit of VND680 billion ($30.5 million), and an after-tax profit of VND600 billion ($27 million) in 2016.
A view of land assigned to the Steel project in Quang Ngai Province. - Photo nhandan.com.vn

On Monday, the provincial People's Committee announced its conclusions from its inspection of the use and management of land assigned to the steel project, as well as from it review of the process of developing the project, which has acquired total capital of US$4.5 billion.

The committee said all conditions to propose ending project operations had been met. It also said the stop order should go into effect this month, noting it had forwarded its proposal to the ministries and the central administration to gain the approval of the government, Tien phong newspaper reported.

At present, Guang Lian has not agreed to the proposal and has officially refuted the conclusions of the public inspection.

According to the investment agency, the Guang Lian Dung Quat steel project received an investment license in 2006. The project is located in Dung Quat Economic Zone, Quang Ngai Province, and received initial investment capital of $556 million from the Tycoons Group of Taiwan.

After many adjustments in scale and design capacity, in 2008 Tycoons co-operated with E-United Company from Taiwan to increase the project's capital to $4.5 billion and the annual capacity to 7 million tonnes of steel - 5 million tonnes higher than its initial capacity.

To create favourable conditions for the project, the management board of the Dung Quat Economic Zone cleared the site, providing 337ha of land.

In July 2015, Guang Lian notified provincial authorities it could not secure funding for the project, stalling operations from mid-2014 to date. By September 2014, the investor had given $42 million to the project and provincial authorities had advanced the company VND175 billion for the clearance of project land.

The People's Committee held many meetings to discuss ending the project, before proposing a revocation of the provided land and liquidation of project assets to avoid wasting the land.

The proposal was made by Quang Ngai authorities after the investor held onto the land for a decade and had little investment capital to contribute to the project's development.
The wrecked cockpit of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was reconstructed at the Gilze Rijen airbase in the Netherlands. (AFP/Emmanuel Dunand)

THE HAGUE: German and Swiss authorities have carried out raids seizing documents after learning a German private detective had investigated the MH17 air disaster, Dutch officials and media said on Tuesday (Jun 7).

Among the objects seized during last week's raids were "apparently explosive papers" which Dutch investigators hope may narrow down the search for those behind the 2014 tragedy, said the daily De Telegraaf.

All 298 passengers and crew - the majority of them Dutch - died when Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was hit by a Russian-made BUK anti-aircraft missile while flying over war-torn eastern Ukraine on Jul 17, 2014. The Boeing 777 was en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.

"It's possible that the suspected culprits behind the firing on MH17 may have been in contact with" the detective's office, de Telegraaf said, citing what it said was the Netherlands' request to Swiss authorities for help.

According to the Dutch paper, the private detective was paid some 17 million (US$19 million) by a rich donor - whose identity remains unknown - to investigate the causes of the crash.

Identified only as Josef R., the detective began his inquiries two months after the disaster, having been initially promised a fee of some 30 million euros.

"We are hoping to get some information about this. That's why the raids at his home were carried out," the spokesman for the prosecution service, Wim De Bruin, told AFP.

After the private eye's home in Bad Schwartau in northern Germany was searched, a safe deposit box in a bank in Zurich, Switzerland, was also emptied and its contents seized.

"We don't actually know what was in the box. The Swiss judge must now decide if its contents can be handed over to Dutch officials," de Bruin added.

The news comes after Dutch investigators on Monday released an update on their inquiry to the families of the victims. It included pictures of fragments of the BUK missile found at the crash site.

The same pictures were also included in the final conclusions of the initial Dutch-led international investigation, which determined in October that the flight was shot down by the Russian-made missile, fired from an area in eastern Ukraine held by pro-Russian separatists.

Now a criminal investigation in the Netherlands is underway to identify exactly who fired the missile and where from, even though many believe that those to blame will never be arrested and tried.

The first official findings by the criminal investigators are now expected after the summer, as they await further information from Russia.
illustration photo

Hue told a workshop on capital market development for start-ups at the HCM Stock Exchange (HoSE) yesterday that he expected such an exchange to be established within the next two to three years.

Hue said he knew how start-ups faced difficulties in raising capital for their businesses. Most banks were afraid of the high risk involved in lending money to a company that is just starting out. Thus, most startups have had to depend on capital from the owners' friends, families or the general public and from private investment funds, which also involves navigating many obstacles.

The deputy PM said the exchange would meet the capital needs of start-ups, but it would require plenty of research and a clear roadmap, with a thorough evaluation of institutions and the mechanisms of activities to avoid creating an ineffective exchange.

Hue hoped the stock exchange would easily attract investments.

The deputy PM expects to see 1 million active businesses by 2020, up from the current 900,000 registered businesses, where only some 528,000 are active. Thus, he said, start-ups were a key factor in business development.

"The government is striving to make Viet Nam a start-up-friendly country," Hue said, adding that it needed to become a partner and an initial caretaker for companies in their early stages.

At the workshop, Ha Huy Tuan, deputy chairman of the National Finance Supervision Committee, said the establishment of the trading platform for start-ups was new to not only Viet Nam but also many other countries.

Tuan added that so far, Korea was one of the experts in the field, with the first start-up exchange that was launched in 2013. It now has 88 start-ups listed on the new exchange, a threefold increase from its launch.

Therefore, a study on start-up exchanges is essential and urgently required to boost the Vietnamese start-ups in particular and the local economy in general.

However, Tuan emphasised that the government was still in the early stages of considering this move. The National Finance Supervision Committee and the State Securities Commission as well as other agencies are still discussing the issue.
Speaking at a press conference in Hanoi on May 23, President Obama said he might enjoy iced milk coffee. He would also bring his wife and children to Vietnam for travel after retirement. The drink Obama mentioned is one of the specialties that have always been favored by international travelers to Vietnam, and praised by the international media. Bloomberg said it was the top 10 coffee drinks in the world, including iced milk coffee of Vietnam. This drink is served in most coffee shops in Saigon. A specialist on restaurants and chef John Quilter also listed milk coffee of Vietnam among the top 5 iced coffee drinks. A deliciously sweet variation on a regular iced coffee, this drink consists of dark-roasted coffee poured over a small amount of sweetened condensed milk. Known nationally as Ca phe sua da, the shortage of fresh milk meant that this sweeter substitute became the natural alternative. Once adopted, it quickly spread, he wrote. The coffee should be brewed directly from a French drip press into a glass thats a quarter-full with sweetened condensed milk. This mixture should then simply be poured over ice and stirred well. If you dont happen to have a drip press handy, simple brew with a cafetiere, or use a nice, light espresso. CNN also suggests milk coffee as one of the 10 dishes travelers should try in Vietnam. Coffee was brought to Vietnam by the French and is, along with baguettes, one of their lasting culinary legacies. Beans are grown in Vietnam and roasted, often with lard, before being ground and served in single-serving metal filters. Drinking a cup of cafe nau da, iced coffee with condensed milk, on a busy side street is one of Hanoi's great pleasures. This casual but very tasty drink is also in the list of the best coffee drinks in the world by CN Traveler. This classic Vietnamese drink is widely available throughout the world, but its an especially delicious treat to seek out while visiting Vietnam. Coarsely ground dark roast coffee beans are slowly strained through a traditional Vietnamese coffee press (known as a ca phe phinconsider picking one up so you can enjoy an authentic brew back home) and then mixed with sweetened condensed milk and plenty of cracked ice for an intensely flavored, completely refreshing sip. Vietnams milk coffee impresses international tourists, according to The Daily Meal.


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After four years away from the courtroom, Kaing Guek Eav, the chief of Phnom Penhs notorious S-21 Khmer Rouge security center, returned to the Khmer Rouge tribunal on Tuesday to argue that Nuon Cheas attempt to distance himself from atrocities committed at the jail were meaningless.

In 2010 Guek Eav, better known as Duch, who oversaw the torture and execution of more than 15,000 people at the prison, became the first Khmer Rouge official to be found guilty of crimes during the reign of the regime, during which an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians died.

Duch last testified in Case 002/01 in 2012 and returned yesterday to give evidence in the same case, which sees Khmer Rouge second-in-command Nuon Chea and the regimes head of state Khieu Samphan on trial for genocide.

Duch repeated allegations on Tuesday that Duch had given direct orders for the interrogation and torture of those brought to the prison.

Responding to questions from the co-investigating judges, Duch said he was surprised to learn that Chea had rejected allegations he ordered torture at S-21, also known as Toul Sleng.

This rejection is meaningless, he said, adding that all actions taken at the prison were done under the supervision of the top Khmer Rouge leadership.

The rejection [of the allegations] by Uncle Nuon is a surprise to me. Im really surprised. I did not expect that. S-21 was like other security departments in Democratic Kampuchea, he said, using the official name of the country at the time.

The fact that  Uncle Nuon rejected this is wrong. In the communist party, it was the secretary and deputy secretary who made decisions, he said. That was a measure taken by the communist party.

The former S-21 chief was sentenced to life in prison for crimes against humanity and violating the Geneva Convention.

The current phase of Case 002/02 focuses on the Khmer Rouge internal security department.

On Tuesday, Duch spoke of how Son Sen, the Khmer Rouge defense minister who was his immediate superior, had also given orders for him to implement.

When I was called to work, I only met one-on-one with Son Sen and Nuon Chea. I had a journal to jot down the agenda they told me on that day and I had to implement what I briefly wrote down, he said.

However, he said he had not been involved in making arrests and transferring detainees to the security center.

Chres Phy, a 36-year-old farmer from Kampong Speu provinces Udong commune who lost two brothers during to the Khmer Rouge, said he was unhappy with the inaccurate answers given by Duch.

He has to give clear answers concerning his role. If he gives a clear answer, the people will be satisfied, he said, adding that survivors and their relatives were still searching for answers to the root causes behind the mass slaughter of Cambodians by Cambodians.

Neth Pheaktra, a spokesman for the Khmer Rouge tribunal told VOA Khmer that Duchs testimony would continue for several days.
Voters surveyed by VOA Khmer have said they saw only harm coming from the ongoing breakdown in relations between the ruling Cambodian Peoples Party and the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party.

Relations between the parties are at a low not seen since mass street protests in the wake of the 2013 general election paralyzed the capital. In recent weeks four human rights workers and an election official have been detained on bribery-related charges, while another election official selected by the opposition for the post is also facing a costly legal battle, which opposition supporters say is politically motivated.

Kem Sokha, the CNRPs acting president while its leader, Sam Rainsy, remains in self-imposed exile, has avoided arrest until now, but is wanted for questioning for solicitation and missing court appearances.

Voters on Wednesday said they expected nothing positive to come from the recent developments.

Ouk Tath, a retired NGO worker, said the older generation, who had witnessed near total societal breakdown under the Khmer Rouge, desired only peace, and warned of the dangers of resorting to the politics of fear and division.

He added that since Cambodia held its first democratic elections in 1993, politicians had turned from fighting for power with arms to fighting for peoples votes.

However, after the elections, they started to fight each other for power again, he said.

Tath, 79, firmly believes in the power of dialogue, and urged the two parties to once more hold negotiations to end the tension, rather than continue to serve their own interests at the expense of the people they are supposed to represent.

They should change their mentality to pave the way for negotiations to serve the public interest. However, these days they are not talking. 

A coal seller from Kampong Speu province, Sao Song, 36, appealed to the government to focus on improving rural infrastructure.

I want to see the nation develop with new bridges built and ponds dug for the rural people, he said. When they [politicians] talk and reconcile, it benefits the people. But if they still argue with each other, its hard.

Chea Phirum, 39, a food vendor in Phnom Penh, said the government had made some advances, but was critical of its human rights record.

I see that the government has helped people in some ways, while they have been inactive in some others. Nowadays the government does respect human rights but not the same as other nations. I dont like it this way. If they are locked in a dispute with one another, the people are not happy and the nation cannot progress.

Chatting over coffee at a popular Phnom Penh cafe, Prum Sothy, 60, a tuk tuk driver, said he expected free and fair elections in 2018.

I want peace. I want to see a free and fair election in Cambodia, without any intimidation. People have the right to freedom of expression. The people are the ones who fall victim whenever there's a dispute between political parties.

Another Phnom Penh resident, who asked not to be named for security reasons, asked how ordinary people could expect to be treated if the government was willing to target rights workers and even lawmakers. 

Since the 2013 election up till now, those who won the elections did not do much to earn the people's trust. They are just locked in dispute and fight for power without thinking about the nation's interest. The people want a true democracy. They want freedom and peace without robberies, murder and oppression. They want the nation to be strong and a stop to the free-flow of foreigners into the nation, the resident said.

Kem Ley, founder of the Grassroots Democracy Party, said that while there are always disputes in democracies, when one side decides it cannot win the argument and resorts to arrests and causing injuries, thats wrong Disputes in parliament are normal.

The ruling party should implement the policies it committed to before the elections. But the thing is that there's not much success. Deforestation still goes on, corruption and nepotism are still ripe. The things that they promised to eradicate before the elections have actually become worse. The big issues remained unsolved, such as land disputes, Vietnamese immigrants and so on, said Ley.
Civil society activists in South Sudan are angry over an opinion piece apparently penned by President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar in Tuesday's edition of The New York Times. In the piece, Kiir and Machar call for a truth and reconciliation commission instead of a hybrid court, as stipulated in the August peace agreement.

Activists said the two leaders are trying to eliminate the formation of a fair court and allow those who committed atrocities during South Sudan's two-year conflict off the hook.

Beny Gideon Mabor of the South Sudan Law Society said the president and Machar have no regard for the victims of the bloody conflict.

"The president and the first vice president calling for truth, not trial, is to me a surprise because a person of a right mind could not negotiate himself or herself into jail or stand trial for that matter," he told VOA. "I say this because the principal parties to the peace agreement, majorly the government of the Republic of South Sudan and the SPLM-In Opposition, are the primary accused of violations of human rights and international humanitarian law."

In the opening to their piece, the two leaders said, "Building a nation is not an easy task, we know this because it is our life's work."

The article emphasized the need to implement a national healing, truth, peace and reconciliation program, as opposed to forming a hybrid court to try people accused of committing crimes during the war.

Undoing the peace deal

But lawyers and activists say the two leaders' plan condones impunity and would not improve the culture of distrust in South Sudan.

"The South Sudanese people have seen this game played out and over again. Amnesty has been offered to people who had [committed] violence, they have been welcomed back into the system with political and military appointments and that has generated the circle of violence," said David Deng, research Director at the South Sudan Law Society. "The only way to relieve that is to begin to address the cause of violence, and the hybrid court for South Sudan will be one important means for doing that."

Chapter five of the peace agreement calls for establishment of an independent hybrid court from the national judiciary, to be supervised by the African Union Commission. It says the court shall investigate and prosecute those individuals bearing responsibility for violations of international and South Sudanese laws since the beginning of the conflict in December 2013.

Deng said there has never been a legal process in South Sudan to hold accountable people who have committed grave human rights abuses. And he fears that if the court is allowed to lapse, the rest of the peace agreement will go, too. "There is nothing to stop them from dismantling the peace agreement bit by bit," he said.

Eroding confidence

Edmond Yakani is executive director of the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization, a South Sudanese civil society organization.

Yakani said while peace, healing and reconciliation should take place before justice, abandoning principles of justice and holding people accountable will undermine trust and confidence in the government.

"You are sending a signal that people [can] start using violence as a way of buying political leadership," he said. "So any politician that is discontented with the system will use violence as a way of buying political power."

Yakani says the 2013 conflict resulted when leaders who were discontented during the 2010 elections took up arms against the government.

Mabor of the South Sudan Law Society says that try as they might, Kiir and Machar cannot undo a hybrid court.

"The two leaders have signed the agreement which constitutionally obliges them to subscribe to this international or regional legal instrument; the hybrid court which is going to be established soon by the African Union Commission and subsequently ratified by the transitional government."

Dismay

The Executive Director of Voice for Change, a human rights lobby group in Juba, called the op-ed piece "painful.

"Of course this is why sometimes there is that continuous recurrence of this conflict taking place in the country, because they know they will not be held accountable. We were hoping that this agreement has to be implemented as it is."

Mabor had one piece of advice for the two leaders:

"If they could locally conduct opinion polls ... as what do they prefer between truth and reconciliation and legal accountability, and the answers could be published by the same New York Times. If the answer is in their favor, they of course we can welcome their idea."
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Wednesday introduced his nominees for the posts of minister of defense and head of intelligence to parliament for approval.

Masoom Stanekzai and General Abduallah Khan Habibi have been nominated to head of the National Directorate of Security or NDS and Defense Ministry respectively. A vote is expected next week.

The action was taken as Afghan officials confirmed the Taliban gunned down at least 12 security personnel who had been abducted by the insurgents Tuesday evening in the eastern Ghazni province. The Taliban has also warned other Afghan forces of a similar fate if they do not desert their posts.

Stanekzai served as the caretaker defense minister for nearly a year before being assigned the new job. He could not win parliamentary approval in 2015 when Ghani nominated him to head the ministry after his earlier two choices were also rejected by lawmakers.

Habibi was chief of staff of the Afghan Defense Ministry until last month, when he was appointed as its acting head.

The parliamentary introduction of the two men came amid sustained criticism of Ghanis national unity government for allowing caretakers to run the two key institutions despite deteriorating security.

It also came ahead of NATOs summit scheduled for next month (July 8-9) in Warsaw, where the alliance is set to stress its long-term commitment to Afghanistan. NATO withdrew the bulk of its troops from the war-torn country in 2014.

Afghan Second Vice President Mohammad Sarwar Danish, while introducing the nominees for the two key positions, said the government hopes the lawmakers will support its decision.

He went on to say that parliamentary approval is crucial to enabling NATO partners of Afghanistan to win future military assistance for Afghan forces at the Warsaw summit.
Afghan authorities are disputing police reports that insurgents abducted nearly 50 passengers from a bus in Kunduz province in northern Afghanistan Wednesday morning.

Gen. Mohammad Qaseem Jangalbagh, the Kunduz provincial police chief, said the bus was carrying 47 passengers and security forces managed to rescue a few of them. He said police are now planning an operation for the release of the rest.



However Sated Mahmood Danish, a spokesman for Kunduzs governor, told VOAs Afghan service that only 18 passengers were abducted and 10 have already been freed. He said the passengers on the bus were all civilians who were deported from Iran and just wanted to go home.

No group has taken responsibility for the incident yet.



Mass kidnappings



This is the third mass kidnapping in the last nine days. All of them happened in northern Afghanistan, with two of them in Kunduz.



Taliban fighters killed more than a dozen passengers in Kunduz last week when they set up an illegal check post on a highway and stopped multiple vehicles to kidnap around 200 people. They are still holding up to ten of those passengers hostage.



In a second kidnapping in neighboring Sar-e-Pul province, local elders intervened to secure the release of 17 hostages.



The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan had expressed its concern last week over the spate of abductions, hostage-taking and summary executions carried out in recent days against passengers travelling in civilian vehicles.



Nicholas Hayson, the head of UNAMA, had called it indefensible and demanded an end to the horrible practice.

VOAs Afghan Service contributed to this report.
An international team of researchers is using mobile genetic technology on the ground in Brazil to combat the Zika virus.

The team, with a state-of-the-art DNA sequencer, and two vans, is analyzing up to 750 blood samples along a coastal stretch of northeastern Brazil. The region has been hardest hit by the virus, which causes birth defects.

Babies with microcephaly have been born to mothers infected with Zika. They have unusually small heads and brains, a condition that can lead to intellectual disabilities, movement problems and seizures.

The virus is also thought to be responsible for the paralytic illness Guillian-Barre syndrome.

Researchers are looking for viral signature of infection and mutations to try to track the spread of Zika, according to Nick Loman of the Institute of Microbiology and Infection at the University of Birmingham in England.



Loman, who is leading the mobile Zika surveillance project, ZIBRA, said scientists are hoping to construct a map see where the virus has come from and where it may be headed, from population dense regions to small towns.

Getting genome sequence information is really one of the nicest ways of getting an unbiased view of what the pathogen is doing, how its moving around populations, how many times its moving from one place to another, Loman said.

The data from the sequencing project will be made freely available to any researchers or public health analysts investigating the spread of Zika.

Lessons from Ebola

Loman said Zika was first identified in Uganda in the late 1940s and it eventually spread to Asia. He says microcephaly was not a feature of those earlier cases, so the virus has picked up mutations along the way that contribute to the birth defect.



Loman hopes better understanding the relationship between Zika and microcephaly will speed development of treatments and vaccines.

The lightweight DNA sequencer researchers are using in their road study weighs less than 100 grams and is powered by a laptop.

The equipment was first used by the investigators in Guinea to analyze Ebola in blood samples in the West Africa country. Scientists were able to learn almost immediately how Ebola cases were related during the epidemic.

That information aided World Health Organization epidemiologists and others to contain the deadly virus.

Comparing new Zika strains with older ones in Brazil will hopefully offer up clues to how the virus is now behaving, according to Loman.



We really want to get a good view of how Zika looked in 2015 and how its looking this year in order to compare and to see how the virus has evolved and how its mutated, and see whether those mutations give us an idea about how quickly its spreading around Brazil, and try to make predictions about what it might do next, Loman said.

That information is extremely important in light of the looming Summer Olympics Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Loman is hoping the genetic analysis of Zika can be used to lessen the threat of Zika infection to attendees to the international sporting event hosted by Brazil.

The Zika project is a joint venture of the University of Birmingham, the Brazilian Ministry of Health, the University of Sao Paulo and the Fundacao Oswaldo Cruz. The team also includes researchers from Australia and Canada.
Political analysts say a vote in favor of Britain leaving the European Union would raise concerns among the former Soviet states in the Baltics and eastern Europe that are now EU members and neighbor a resurgent Russia.

If British voters decide in a June 23 referendum to leave the EU, a so-called "Brexit," former Soviet states Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania would have good reason to question European unity, says the director of the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of Europe, Alexey Gromyko.

"I think for the Baltic states and for Poland it would be much more difficult to press forward with this staunch opposition to any kind of easing in relations with Russia," he tells VOAs Moscow bureau.

After Crimea, the Baltics?

Russia's annexation of Crimea and aggression in east Ukraine, ostensibly to save ethnic Russians against what the Kremlin paints as fascist Ukrainians, stoke fear among some in the Baltics they could be next.

Significant populations of ethnic Russians moved to the Baltic states during the Soviet era. About one-third of the people in Latvia are Russian.

Very few expect Russia would attempt an attack on any Baltic states, as the majority of people there have no interest in reuniting with Russia over the European Union.

Outside a British-style pub in Moscow, Latvian tourist Klaus Ristaposhin told VOA he hopes the British vote to stay in the European Union.

"I don't think England should leave the European Union," he said in Russian, "because it is a very dear country for us all. Europe could suffer serious damage if England exits the European Union," he added.

Implications for NATO

Baltic states are also members of the NATO military defense alliance. An attack on one member is considered an attack against all 28 NATO members and would require retaliation.

Nonetheless, a NATO build-up in the region for deterring Russia could see side-by-side growth in national defense, said the director of the Political Capital Institute in Budapest, Peter Kreko, via Skype.

"I think even the NATO cooperation would deeply suffer in a Brexit and its negative political and economic, consequences," he said. "So, I do think a lot of countries would begin to spend more on military and defense."

While other analysts argue NATO would not be affected, U.S.-EU unity against a resurgent Russia could still wane.

"Great Britain always was considered as the most pro-American party inside the Union," said the Carnegie Moscow Centers Alexander Baunov.

"And, the Baltic States and Poland, and some other eastern European countries are interested in more American influence in the European politics, not in less," he added.

There would be some advantages for Moscow not having Britains criticism of Russian policy heard in the European Union, acknowledges Gromyko.

"But...all these things," he says, "no matter from what capital, from what European capital, you look at them, are tactical. They do not help Moscow, Riga or Tallinn, or Vilnius or London to solve any substantial regional or global problems," said Gromyko.

"And, keeping in mind that the European Union, in spite of two years of the sanction war, is the leading trading partner of Russia," he said, "I do not think that it is in Russian strategic interest to have any developments [that] may lead to further stagnation in the economy of the member states of the European Union."

Expressing confidence in the NATO alliance, Estonia's leaders in May told VOA's Russian service that any military action by Moscow would be foolish.

They expressed faith also in the European Union overcoming its many challenges, including Russian aggression and a possible Brexit.

"We have had to deal with more complicated issues in the course of history," Estonias foreign minister and former ambassador to Moscow Marina Kaljurand told VOAs Yulia Savchenko in an exclusive interview. "So Europe will emerge more consolidated, stronger, and more self-assured," she concluded.
Future trade with the European Union is a major issue as British voters decide this month whether their country should remain in the bloc, and there are concerns about the future of the U.S. trade relationship, Britain's most important.

Opponents of a Brexit, a British exit from the EU, have for months warned of dire consequences in terms of losses in exports and productivity. The British Treasury has estimated those losses at $6,200 per British household, figures that Brexit proponents say are the work of scaremongers.

Those who favor leaving the EU argue that a Britain outside the European Union can easily negotiate new trade agreements with EU members and others.

But that notion was challenged by President Barack Obama during his visit to Britain in April, when he warned that Britain would go to the back of the queue on trade agreements if it left the European Union.

That statement angered many Britons, who saw it as disrespectful of their nation's sovereignty. Some accused the U.S. leader of meddling in Britain's internal affairs.

Taking it seriously

But Richard Pears, owner of a startup software solutions provider in southwest Englands Cornwall region, said he took the threat at face value.

Pears company operates in Britain and in Germany, and he said EU membership allows it to have servers in both countries. He fears that in the absence of a common market, that could change.

If we pull out of Europe, theres a lot of rules and regulations in Great Britain that will mean we cant actually address customers over here, he told VOA.

Some analysts say Obamas warnings were based more on politics than on the laws of economics and trade.

The United States is negotiating an agreement on tariffs with the European Union known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or TTIP. Obamas warning suggested that if Britain left the European Union, the British would lose their preferred position in that negotiating process, said Shanker Singham, director of economic policy and prosperity studies at the Legatum Institute in London who also serves as an adviser to the U.S. government on trade deals.

I think the problem with that characterization is it doesnt really understand how trade is negotiated between countries, Singham told VOA. Trade is not negotiated between countries because heads of state say it should be negotiated. Its negotiated between countries when theres a business need and a commercial need for it.

Britain and the U.S. already have a strong trade relationship, and analysts say that in itself could be a guarantee for continued robust trade. The U.S. is Britains top export market, accounting for more than one-sixth of British exports in 2015.

Deep connections

The two economies are deeply intertwined, and U.K. businesses provide the U.S. with massive levels of direct foreign investment, said Tim Evans, professor of business and political economy at Middlesex University London.

Sharing important bonds of history, language, common English law and a commitment to open and free trade, neither side would ever allow a democratic mandate to legitimate the other going to the back of any substantive economic queue, he said.

The U.S. and Britain are also closer on some of the stickier regulatory issues preventing the conclusion of a TTIP agreement. The negotiations with the EU at large have been stuck on regulatory matters that analysts say can only be resolved if either the U.S. or the EU changes its system to adopt the other's  something analysts say is unlikely to happen.

That impasse may give Britain an advantage, Singham said. Britain, in this particular case, if they were to be outside of the EU, would be able to negotiate an agreement with the U.S. relatively quickly, he said.

Separate deals a 'fantasy'

Anti-Brexit campaigners say dealing with the European Union after a split would be a different matter, and some doubt it would be easy for Britain to renegotiate separate trade deals with every EU member.

Thats somewhat of a fantasy to me because it suggests that basically after leaving the union, every single country will be happy to just sign a free-trade agreement with the U.K.,said Jeremy Ghez, professor of economics and international affairs at the HEC Paris business school.

Concluding trade deals, economists say, could take years.

That is a big concern for business people like Richard Pears, who said he and others who have deep business ties to the EU are bracing for an uncertain future.

Nobody knows what is going to happen, and the worst thing is that up until recently, it looked like Brexit was not going to happen. So plans are not in place for the eventuality of coming out of Europe, he said.

Trade deals are massive, theyre complex. Were going to have a minimum of five or six years of economic uncertainty.
A New York City public pool is keeping its popular women-only swimming hours despite an anonymous complaint that gender segregation conflicts with law governing the separation of church and state.

The Metropolitan Recreation Center in Brooklyn, New York last week eliminated its four-times-a-week "women's swim" hours in response to the complaint, but after public outcry, the women's swim time was quickly reinstated.

The pool, located in a neighborhood that is heavily Jewish Orthodox, has reserved a few hours a week for women-only swimming since the 1990s. The segregated hours allow recreation time in the water for women whose beliefs prohibit them from swimming in mixed company.

The Brooklyn pool is the latest example of the clash between allowing people freedom to practice their religion and protecting others from being restricted by that practice. Nearly one-quarter of Brooklyn residents are Jewish, although not all are Orthodox.

The anonymous complaint lodged with New York City's Commission on Human Rights said the women-only hours violate the law on public accommodations that says people cannot be excluded from a public facility on the basis of their gender.

"The best solution," wrote the New York Times in an editorial last week, "would be for the city to immediately end religious segregation in the pools, and limit the rules of separation only to practical considerations, like keeping lap swimmers away from splashing children. Let those who cannot abide public, secular rules at a public secular pool, find their own private place to swim."

Benefits of women-only swims

But supporters of segregated swim times say the benefits of segregated swim times are important, especially to women in conservative religious groups and others who feel vulnerable disrobing in public.

In Sweden, the city of Malmo has increased public participation at its swimming pools by adding women-only hours, which helps accommodate the city's growing Muslim population. Sweden's feminist political party has a sexual policy spokeswoman, Toktam Jahangiry, who told the Christian Science Monitor that women may prefer gender-segregated swimming for more reasons than just religion.

Jahangiry noted that women are self-conscious about their bodies, perhaps because of a mastectomy, anxiety about weight, or even bruises from violence. She said those women are often more comfortable in a women-only setting, and those who need to reach out for help may be more likely to do so.

The New York Times earlier this year reported on a pool in Toronto, Canada, where Somali women and girls gather for women-only time on Saturday evenings. Many say it is the only time they would be able to swim because their religion doesn't allow them to be seen by men while they are "uncovered."

That particular pool, which covers its glass walls with screens while the women swim, leaves them up for a private session afterward that is often attended by transgender people.

A pool in Seattle, Washington, has tried to stay away from legal complaints by following its 90 minutes of women-only swimming on Sunday afternoons with 90 minutes for men. The men-only swim time suffers from low attendance.

Back in Brooklyn, public outcry saved the women's hours at Metropolitan Recreation Center. They are still on the summer swim calendar and expected to continue for the near future. But the ethical problem has not gone away. While few residents have spoken out strongly against the segregated hours, the New York Times notes that the case in Brooklyn has what it calls a "strong odor of religious intrusion into a secular space" -- and the way forward remains unclear.
Muslims around the world are marking Ramadan with prayer and fasting. In Cameroon, Christians and Animists are joining Muslims for the evening meal as a show of solidarity against the terrorist group Boko Haram, which has been carrying out attacks in the north since 2014.



Hundreds of people gather at Yaoundes largest mosque to pray and break fast. But not all are Muslims. Christians have come to share supper. They wait outside in the courtyard while the Muslims pray.



"The message is just one: let Cameroon remain [the] same. Christians and Muslims should live together. We should not discriminate and we pray for a better Cameroon,"said Charles Nzobo, an elder at the Catholic cathedral across town.

Fear of tensions



Cameroon does not have a history of religious conflict. But some fear that the Boko Haram insurgency in the north is creating tension and suspicion between Christians and Muslims as it did in Nigeria.

About a quarter of Cameroons population is Muslim. Authorities have arrested dozens of Muslim clerics for their alleged support for Boko Haram. But those gathered at the mosque say people should not generalize.



Joseph Ndinga, a notable from the nearby traditional rulers palace at Tsinga-Yaounde, says gathering to break fast is a show of solidarity with the Muslim community that will help fight Boko Haram.

It is African tradition. If somebody is either enjoying or in pain, there is that aspect that you go to your brother or sister, be it he is having something bad or something good," he said.



Open doors



For Muslims, Ramadan is the holiest month of the year. Some imams say only Muslims who have fasted should partake of the evening meal.

But Muhamadou Labarang, secretary of the mosque, says all are welcome. He begins with a prayer.



He says they share collective meals in respect of the holy Korans prescription that the faithful should share so as to have favors and blessings from God. He says they thank God that Muslims and non-Muslims can live together in Cameroon and they pray for peace.
Supporters of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, who affirmed their positions Tuesday as the presumptive nominees in the U.S. presidential election, must now get to work unifying their parties' divisions.

Clinton supporter Maxine Waters, a Democratic member of Congress, attended a campaign event in California, one of six states to hold presidential preference contests Tuesday. Hillary Clinton started tonight to unify, she said, noting Clinton's praise of Sanders' success in attracting young voters to his campaign.



Waters said it is time to start discussing joint areas of concerns in the party election platform, such as education, and that Clinton supporters need to reach out to our many friends who are on the other side.

Vietnamese-American Trung Ta, a Democratic Party activist and Clinton supporter, said the party rallied behind Barack Obama in 2008 after hard-fought primaries, and can do it again.

Grace Barrios, a Philippine-American supporter of Clinton, said Republican Trump will be the catalyst to unify Democrats.

That unity has not come yet. In Santa Monica, California, Sanders vowed take his fight to Washington, D.C., which will hold its primary June 14, and to the nominating convention in Philadelphia. The struggle continues, he said.

A polarizing candidate



Republicans face the challenge of unifying their party behind a nominee who remains polarizing, despite the fact that his opponents are out of the race. In Whittier, California, local Republican official Sylvia Southerland said rank-and-file members are gradually rallying, and that former Democrats and independent voters have been coming to the campaign office to change their registration to Republican.

This small city near Los Angeles has deep ties to the party. Former U.S. President Richard Nixon got his start in Whittier as a young lawyer, but today, the city has a majority Latino population, which tends to vote Democrat.

Mexican-American Oscar Llamas, a new Republican, is one of the exceptions. I was always told that I was a Democrat and for that reason, I've always voted Democrat, he said, but he drawn by Trump's promise to make America great again and the party's message of self-sufficiency.

You learn to be dependent on yourself and not dependent on the government, he said. Trump's pledge to build a wall along the southern US border does not offend him, nor do the candidate's criticisms of a Mexican American judge who is presiding over a lawsuit against a Trump business interest.

He's definitely not a racist, Llamas said, rejecting a criticism of Trump often heard from Latinos, and now from some Republican leaders.

Republican Olga Kirakossian is a reluctant Trump supporter, since I will not vote for Hillary, she said. Others see Clinton as a catalyst to motivate Republicans to vote.



Sami Autry, a 14-year-old student and part-time Hollywood actress, is an enthusiastic supporter who has been knocking on doors for the candidate, impressed with Trump's performance in the debates. Her mother, Barbara, says dislike of Hillary Clinton will motivate Republicans to vote.

Rita Topalian, a Republican candidate for the California assembly, is not endorsing Trump but wants voters in her district to decide for themselves in the presidential race. She says the election is polarizing, and we wouldn't even have gotten here if the electorate wasn't fed up on both sides.

Trump won all six Republican contests Tuesday, in California, New Jersey, New Mexico, Montana, and North and South Dakota. Clinton won four, with Sanders claiming victory in only in North Dakota and Montana.

Millennial voters

Morley Winograd, a one-time Democratic Party official and a political analyst at the University of Southern California, said so-called Millennial voters, who are in their late teens through their early 30s, could make the difference in his election. He says Bernie Sanders has motivated Millennials and that Clinton has captured the minority and women's votes. He says the challenge for Democrats is to reconcile these strands of the party.

He says the goal for Republicans is to expand their voter base beyond those who took part in the party primaries.



Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a senior statesman of the party, has urged Trump to stop insulting minorities. In New York Trump assured his listeners I understand the responsibility of carrying the mantle of Republican nominee, and he added that he would not let them down.
Denmark's Supreme Court on Wednesday stripped the citizenship from a Danish-Moroccan bookseller jailed for inciting terrorism, upholding the verdict of a lower court and potentially paving the way for his deportation to Morocco.

Sam Mansour, now 56, was found guilty of supporting al-Qaida and Syria's al-Nusra Front in posts on Facebook and for his help in publishing books by Abu Qatada, a Jordanian cleric who was deported from Britain for trial at home.

He was sentenced to four years in jail in December 2014, but the prosecution sought also to strip him of his citizenship, possible only because he still has Moroccan citizenship.

Denmark's high court took the initial decision to strip Mansour of his Danish citizenship last July, in the first case of its kind in the country. He appealed against that ruling, arguing that he would face torture if returned to Morocco.

It was not immediately clear after the Supreme Court's ruling on Wednesday whether he would serve out the remainder of his jail term or be deported immediately to Morocco.
Authorities in Burundi arrested 11 students last week for defacing a photo of President Pierre Nkurunziza. Hundreds more were suspended from two other schools on similar charges.The United Nations Children's Fund says it is concerned with the situation, and is calling on Burundian authorities to respect the students' right to an education.

Burundi has undergone more than a year of turmoil since President Pierre Nkurunziza decided to run for a third term, which his critics said was unconstitutional. Violence since then has killed an estimated 500 people and prompted more than a quarter-million to flee the country.

Tension spreading



Now the tension appears to be spilling into the country's high schools. Last week, 11 students in the central province of Muramvya were arrested for allegedly writing derogatory remarks on a photo of the president in a textbook.

UNICEF spokesman Christophe Boulierac says the students, who attend three different schools, were held for questioning. He tells VOA that other students have reacted angrily to the governments heavy-handed action.

Now, we have got reliable sources, which report that other children of these schools took to the streets to protest the arrests of their classmates.And, during these protests, two children were injured by gunshots and one of these children is still receiving care.

As of Wednesday, five of the arrested students remain in jail, while six under the age of 18 were temporarily freed by a judge on Tuesday.

More than 330 students at two schools near the capital Bujumbura were suspended for similar activities the last week in May. Those students have been invited to return but many have not gone back.

Children victimized



UNICEF says details surrounding these alarming events are murky. But, on all accounts, it says such action against children trying to pursue an education is totally unacceptable.

Boulierac says UNICEF is on the ground with other aid workers following up on the cases of the children who have been arrested and injured. The agency says these disturbing incidents are only the latest in which children in Burundi have been victimized since the outbreak of political violence in April 2015.

Since then, it reports 30 children have been killed and more than 300 arbitrarily arrested.It says many of these children have been imprisoned with adults, often in squalid conditions with little food and water.

UNICEF says it has assisted in the release from detention of 134 children who had been arbitrarily arrested on so-called crisis-related charges.
U.N. investigators on Wednesday accused the Eritrean government of a quarter-century of widespread, systematic violations amounting to crimes against humanity.

The U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in Eritrea released its second report on alleged violations of human rights in Eritrea, which painted a disturbing picture of a society in which abusive conditions and the use of conscripts as forced labor are the norm, rather than the exception.

The commission of three independent experts regarded Eritrea as an authoritarian state, with no independent judiciary, national assembly or democratic institutions. Commission Chairman Mike Smith said there was a vacuum in governance and the rule of law, resulting in a climate of impunity for crimes against humanity to be perpetrated over a quarter of a century.

He added that these crimes are still occurring today.

According to the report, crimes of enslavement, imprisonment, enforced disappearances and other inhumane acts are committed to instill fear in the population and deter political opposition.

Calm facade

The investigators said people should not be fooled by what they called the facade of calm and normality that visitors to Eritrea see. Smith told VOA many visitors to the capital, Asmara, and even foreigners living there, describe a situation that is very different from the apparent reality.

Human rights abuses of the type that we describe do not generally happen in the streets of Asmara," he said. "They are happening in detention centers across the country. They are happening in military camps. They are happening in training centers where foreigners simply do not have access.

Smith said violations, including torture, rape and murder, occur in hidden places. He estimated between 300,000 and 400,000 people have been enslaved during the past 25 years, doomed to serve indefinitely in the countrys system of national service.

Total loss of choice

The principal elements are the complete loss of choice  the fact that you are having to work and that you are not remunerated for your work; that you have to work, come what may, he said.

Smith said the military and national service programs are of indefinite duration and are frequently cited as a main reason for people fleeing the country. He said he thought Eritrea was still operating under a shoot-to-kill policy to stop people from crossing its borders.

He noted, however, that there has been "some relaxation, certainly at the local level, as to whether the soldiers really do shoot or not, or shoot all the time."

So people risk their lives just crossing the border, he said. They then risk their lives crossing the desert to get to the southern Mediterranean. That is the north of Africa, to Libya and similar places, from where they can then get a boat and risk that journey across to Europe, which is extremely dangerous.

The U.N. refugee agency said 47,025 Eritreans applied for asylum in Europe last year. Many others died while making the risky sea crossing. In one particularly tragic event, 366 people drowned when their boat capsized in October off the Italian island of Lampedusa. The UNHCR said nearly all the victims were Eritreans.

Refusal to cooperate

For a second year, Eritrean authorities refused to allow the commissioners to visit the country, so the U.N. officials gathered their information from 833 interviews with Eritreans abroad and 160 written submissions received from mid-2014 to mid-2015.

The commission also received 45,000 written submissions, which were largely critical of the commissions first report. The independent experts said these submissions were the direct result of an organized government campaign to attempt to discredit the inquiry.

Yemane Gebreab, adviser to Eritreas president, rejected this claim. He said members of the Eritrean diaspora have mounted a global campaign to oppose the unsubstantiated allegations of the Commission of Inquiry.

He said testimonies of those in the diaspora were given to the Commission of Inquiry secretariat. It is very strange that the commission that is set up to investigate into the human rights situation in the country would dismiss offhand the testimony of 42,000 people, he said.

Gebreab offered a lengthy, methodical rebuttal of the report, attempting to refute each accusation made and calling the report seriously flawed, unprofessional and one-sided. He dismissed the commissions charge that Eritrea had committed crimes against humanity since it gained its independence in 1991 as being without merit.

'No solid evidence'

The COI has no solid evidence or firm legal basis to support this extreme and unfounded charge, " he said. "The report of the COI fails to meet the principles of impartiality, objectivity and nonselectivity.

When asked by VOA to justify his criticism of the report as being one-sided, given that his government had refused the commission entry into the country, he said, We have not allowed the members of the Commission of Inquiry to visit Eritrea because from the very get-go, they have shown that they lack independence, impartiality and objectivity.

The investigators said they had compiled dossiers of evidence against a number of individuals they think bear responsibility for crimes against humanity. They said the evidence would be made available at the appropriate time to relevant institutions to ensure there is justice for the Eritrean people.

They called for the U.N. Security Council to refer Eritrea to the International Criminal Court. The commission will formally present its findings to the U.N. Human Rights Council on June 21.
The reporter in the Clintons' crosshairs 20 years ago remembers the new Democratic presidential nominee as a "formidable figure."

Michael Isikoff was the first journalist to discover the affair between President Bill Clinton and intern Monica Lewinsky. He remembers better than anyone how fiercely Hillary Clinton fought for her husband and the fate of his presidency as the White House battled Isikoff and the rest of the news media.

"She's smart. She's tenacious. She doesn't give up," Isikoff said. "She's a political combatant but you know beneath that sometimes friendly, benign demeanor, there's one strong political competitor."

Clinton is an unlikely nominee in an election cycle marked by populist sentiment and a desire for authenticity. The battles that made her a formidable political personality will also create significant challenges as she moves on to the next step of facing presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in her effort to become the first female president of the United States.

Clinton's public image has undergone as many changes as her titles, from wife of the governor of Arkansas to first lady of the United States, U.S. Senator and Secretary of State. The barriers of public life have often prevented her from showing her personality.

Cool, calm, calculating

"She was cool  and I mean that in the right sense. She was calm; she was calculating," said Ron Fournier, a journalist who has known Clinton since the 1980s.

Fournier recalls witnessing a turning point in Bill Clinton's career in Arkansas that could inform the battle to come in November. He watched Hillary Clinton interrupt a news conference to defend her husband against his Democratic primary challenger for the governorship, completely ruining the opponent's chances in a matter of moments.

Fournier says that if she wants to be seen as a transformative 21st-century leader, "to be a lot better than Donald Trump and blow him away and not just barely beat him or not lose to him, you have got to be more like that scrappy, transparent, funny, vulnerable person that you were in Arkansas."

Clinton herself has acknowledged that she is not a natural politician like her husband and, in a 2008 debate, then-presidential candidate Barack Obama told primary opponent Clinton that she was "likable enough." The two went on to have a good working relationship as president and Secretary of State, but Obama's comment summed up a general feeling that has plagued Clinton for years yet is not entirely true, says Fournier.

Fournier says he used to bump into Clinton and her husband in the park and grocery stores in the small town of Little Rock, Arkansas, and enjoyed chatting with her while in the press corps on her trips as first lady.

"She's got a very engaging sense of humor," Fournier said. "She's very good at being funny in the moment. That self-deprecating humor. That laugh that drives a lot of people crazy, I actually find very engaging because it's very authentic, earthy, it's very contagious in person."

Fournier says Clinton has changed a great deal since that time. From negative, sexist attacks on her keeping her maiden name after marriage and her education and health care reform initiatives in the 1980s and 90s to the revelation of her husband's infidelities, he says Clinton "built up a lot of scar tissue."

Distrust of news media

Clinton faces significant questions about her credibility and authenticity headed into a general election battle with Trump, and she risks recalling the battles of the 1990s as she approaches those problems.

"This was all one big battle for the Clintons, and you know the goal was to smash the accusers and beat back the press," Isikoff said of Clinton's time as first lady. "So I think a lot of Hillary Clinton's views on the press were shaped during that very critical period."

Even now, Clinton's suspicion of the news media extends into her campaign. She favors the more controlled atmosphere of TV interviews over news conferences, where reporters can ask a range of questions. In a battle that recalls the current controversy over her private email server as secretary of state, Clinton fought as first lady to prevent the release of records relating to the Whitewater investigation.

"There were people inside the White House who were urging very strongly the Clintons to do that and Hillary Clinton said no," Isikoff recalled. "She was the one who pushed back and said, 'No, we don't want to give them anything. If we give them any material, they'll just use it against us.'"

Fournier says Clinton operates as if it is still the 1990s, when problems could be spun or explained away.

"You can tell people that you did it out of convenience, even though that's not why you did it. And it wouldn't matter, we could fake our way through it, we could get our base to buy it and just push it through."

Nudge from Bernie

But the 2016 primary season challenge from Vermont senator Bernie Sanders may have pushed Clinton to become a better candidate by forcing her to address issues like her speaking engagements before Wall Street groups.

"Why would you give the appearance that you are in the pocket or cozy with Wall Street or some of the other special interest groups she spoke to?" Isikoff said. "Why would you do that when you know you are going to be running for president?"

Even if Clinton can overcome personal hurdles, American voters will ultimately be the ones deciding if the figure they have known in the country's political consciousness for the past three decades should have an opportunity to hold the top spot for four  or even eight  more years.

"She's a figure from another era and elections tend to be about the future, tend to be about who is going to change things, shake them up and make them different," Isikoff said. "It's very hard for people to see Hillary Clinton  somebody who has been around for so long  in that light."
Nadia El Bouga still remembers two women who helped to shape her career. Both were pregnant, and both said that, technically, they had not had sex. Both, too, happened to be Muslim.

For the young midwife, the cases were a first. None of her medical textbooks had prepared her for either experience.

I told myself, Nadia, you have to get training," recalls the 39-year-old mother of two.

El Bouga is speaking from the studio of French radio station Beur FM, minutes after wrapping up her latest show on sexuality that reaches audiences as far as North and sub-Saharan Africa. Todays topic was female genital mutilation, a practice that affects roughly 200 million women and girls worldwide, including an estimated 60,000 in France.

No subject appears off limits for El Bouga, Frances rare and perhaps only veiled Muslim sexologist. Premature ejaculation, homosexuality, pedophilia and masturbation  all are fair game at her weekly Beur FM appearances and in private sessions at her Paris area clinic.

Nadia is always ahead of the curve, said Beur FM journalist Philippe Robichon, who invited El Bouga to join the show just more than a year ago, after meeting her through a friend.

For El Bouga, the show on female genital excision was an occasion to set the record straight.

Its a mutilation thats not at all in the religious texts, the Muslim texts, she tells her audience, delving into the physical and psychological scars of women she has treated.

Its a way for men to control female sexuality, she adds, noting the practice also hurts a couple's relations, and calling on people, especially Muslim religious leaders, to take a stand.

Increasingly, El Bougas frank parlance is gaining attention. She is being solicited by other French media, and by mosques and Muslim womens associations.

They want to know about how to talk to their children about sexuality, El Bouga says of a topic that some conservative Muslims still consider shameful. They dont know what to do.

El Bouga learned about freewheeling exchange, as well as tolerance, from her Moroccan parents, who joined the immigration wave to France in the 1970s. Talks with her father, over cups of strong, sweet Moroccan tea, became an after-school ritual.

He told me how he met my mother; it was a marriage of love, not an arranged marriage, she says. He told me about my ancestors, about philosophy. He asked my opinion about world events. It was an emotional and spiritual education.

Like many French teens, El Bougas sexual education came from school, friends and magazines. Years later, working as a midwife in a northeastern French hospital, she discovered more troubling dimensions of sexuality, confronting problems that were not in her textbooks.

It was there that she confronted the pregnancies of the married woman and the teenager who had said that they hadn't had what could be considered traditional sex. Both were Muslim, and the teenager was distraught about how her conservative family would react to the news.

During my years of study, these questions were never treated, says El Bouga of her training as a midwife.

So it was back to university, to specialize in sexology. In 2014, El Bouga opened a private practice north of Paris.

Most of her patients are fellow Muslims, who track her down by word-of-mouth.

And while most of her clients are women, a surprising number of men turn up at her office.

People think a Muslim man would have a hard time talking about sexuality to a female therapist, she says, but in fact many prefer a woman, because they dont feel theyll be judged on their lack of masculinity or impotence.

Marion Schaefer of the French activist group Excision, Parlons-En (Excision, Lets Talk About It), who appeared on Beur FMs show about female genital mutilation, says El Bougas outspokenness can be a powerful weapon.

Its important to have a Muslim woman who confronts this problem, she says. People may reject the message coming from non-Muslims like me. But they may think differently when it comes from someone like Nadia."

El Bouga uses Islamic texts sparingly, where its useful, she says  to counter, for example, false assumptions that genital excision is authorized under Islam.

Some Muslims are affronted by her frank take on sexuality.

Ive had negative reactions on my website and Facebook page, but not many, she adds. Some men think sexology is some form of prostitution, and suggest I must be depraved.
The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, recently said that the Soviet Union preserved Russias Christian morality  a claim that raised more than a few eyebrows. Omitting any mention of the Soviet governments mass persecution of religious institutions, Kirills words appeared to some as an attempt to reconcile Russias conservative Orthodox traditions with its Soviet past.

One of Russias most outspoken critics of the Church, however, isnt convinced.

Alexander Nevzorov, a former member of the Russian parliament, journalist, author and filmmaker, is one of the few public figures who has actively criticized what he and others have called the clericalization of Russia. That term refers to the growing involvement of the Russian Orthodox Church in state affairs, despite Article 14 of Russias constitution, which explicitly declares the country a secular state.

Everything we see the Russian authorities doing is only the continuation of standard, primitive, imperial policies which definitely include an Orthodox component, Nevzorov said.

Still, Nevzorov said he doubted that Kirills recent statement was an attempt to reconcile Christian faith with the Soviet past.

I cant take his [Kirills] statements seriously, he said. I dont see any content in them besides clowning, affectation, and pretentiousness.

'Miracle of God'



Patriarch Kirill, whose secular name is Vladimir Gundyayev, was installed as patriarch after the death of his predecessor, Alexei II. Since Vladimir Putin returned to the Kremlin for a third presidential term in 2012, the patriarch, who has called the Russian presidents rule a miracle of God, has been seen as a close ally of the Russian president, as Putin himself has increasingly used the Orthodox Church to try to legitimize his actions.

In a speech on the annexation of Crimea in 2014, Putin characterized the peninsula as sacred land to Russians, referring to the baptism of Vladimir the Great in Kherson [part of present-day Ukraine] in 988. "His spiritual feat of adopting Orthodoxy," Putin said of Vladimir, "predetermined the overall basis of the culture, civilization and human values that unite the peoples of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus."

Kirill has in turn blessed Putins foreign policy, such as in 2015 when a spokesman for the patriarch called Putins military campaign in Syria a holy battle.

In between such grandiose statements, Kirill has often come under criticism for his interference in domestic politics as well as for his allegedly extravagant lifestyle.

Case of Pussy Riot

Both criticisms overlapped in 2012, during the case of Pussy Riot, a feminist punk band that staged an anti-Putin demonstration in Moscows Cathedral of Christ the Savior. While many believers urged mercy and forgiveness for the three women on trial, Kirill publicly condemned such sentiments and declared that the women had been doing the work of the devil.

Around this time, observant critics noted that the patriarch had been seen on several occasions wearing a Swiss Breguet watch valued at more than $30,000. Kirill denied the claims and, in a now-infamous photo, the watch was airbrushed off his wrist. Whoever doctored the photo neglected to remove the watchs reflection in the table where Kirill was sitting.

For the three members of Pussy Riot, however, there was little cause for amusement. Two of the bands members were sentenced to two years in a penal colony, only to be released in December 2013 as part of an amnesty ahead of the Winter Olympics held in Sochi the following year.

In June 2013, Russias lower house of parliament, the State Duma, overwhelmingly passed legislation that criminalized acts committed with the purpose of offending the feelings of religious believers. Potential sentences for those convicted include steep fines and a prison sentence of up to two years.

Supporter of controversial bills

The Russian Orthodox Church also supported other controversial bills, such as the ban on adoption of Russian children by American citizens and the so-called gay propaganda law, which bans the promotion of non-traditional relationships to minors.

The new laws were believed to be an attempt to bolster Putins image of Russia as a bastion of traditional values and Christianity.

As for critics who express concern for human rights in Russia, Patriarch Kirill has a rebuttal. Speaking after a service in March of this year, the patriarch called belief in human rights that contradict the Bible a global heresy.

Many Christians have accepted these views and gave more priority to human rights than the word of God, he said. We must protect Orthodoxy from the heresy of our times."
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress on Wednesday and called for a closer relationship between India and the U.S., particularly in the area of terrorism.

The fight against terrorism has to be fought at many levels. And the traditional tools of military, intelligence or diplomacy alone would not be able to win this fight, Modi said before members of the Senate and House of Representatives.

We have both lost civilians and soldiers in combating [terrorism]. The need of the hour is for us to deepen our security cooperation, he added.

In addition to terrorism, some congressional members are interested in Indias positions on nuclear and maritime security, and military threats from China, North Korea and Iran.

Modis trip to the U.S. is an attempt to strengthen the burgeoning relationship between the two countries. It is also an opportunity for Modi to assert India as a global power and tout its economy as the worlds fastest growing.

White House meeting

Modi met with U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday and afterward Obama announced India would proceed with the construction of six nuclear reactors that will be built by U.S. companies, the result of a landmark civilian nuclear agreement the two countries reached in 2008.

The White House is also working with Modi to finalize an agreement on defense logistics. And Modi and Obama announced after their meeting that India would approve the Paris climate accord by years end.



House Speaker Paul Ryan invited Modi to address a joint meeting of Congress Wednesday, the fifth Indian prime minister to do so since 1985. The last speech was delivered in 2005 by Modis predecessor, Manmohan Singh.

Modis speech before Congress was delivered after years of being ignored by the U.S. over religious violence in his home state. He was denied a U.S. visa in 2005 after Indian authorities found the government in his home state of Gujarat, where he was the top official, was responsible for Hindu-Muslim riots there in 2002 that claimed the lives of more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims.

U.S. officials generally avoided Modi until he became prime minister in 2014, and since visited the U.S. four times.
As leader of a nation beset with sectarian, religious and ethnic divisions, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought common understanding with U.S. lawmakers through humor.

Im informed that the working of the U.S. Congress is harmonious. I am also told that you are well-known for your bipartisanship, Modi said to hearty laughter followed by applause, addressing a joint meeting of Congress Wednesday.

Well, you are not alone. Time and again, I also witness a similar spirit in the Indian Parliament, he added with playful sarcasm. As you can see, we have many shared practices.

Modi returned to humor again and again, noting that more Americans bend to yoga than throw a curveball, as the prime minister hailed a deepening relationship between Washington and New Dehli.

From blossoming trade to energy cooperation to shared strategic interests, Modi said the distance and mistrust that once marked U.S.-India ties are a thing of the past.

Our relationship has overcome the hesitations of history. Candor and convergence define our conversations, he said, and urged an even closer partnership for shared goals.

Modis speech was the sixth delivered by an Indian head of government to the U.S. legislature. It followed Tuesdays meeting with President Barack Obama and an announcement that India will construct six nuclear reactors to be built by U.S. companies, the result of a civilian nuclear agreement the two countries reached in 2008.

India also aims to approve the Paris climate accord by years end.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Modis address shows how far our relationship has come in recent decades. Mutual misgivings have given way to mutual benefits in both the economic and security spheres. We are now key trading partners. Were the two largest democracies in the world.

The growing relationship between us and India, I think, will be a good check and balance to China, said Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Theyve become a regional superpower, and they can help us in Afghanistan and a lot of places.

Graham added that closer ties with New Dehli do not mean the U.S. is downgrading Pakistans importance. I dont see it as a zero-sum game, he said.

I thought his [Modis] emphasis on renewable energy was important, said Independent Senator Angus King of Maine, who caucuses with Democrats. The temptation is to build the easiest, cheapest energy generation, and that would be unfortunate.

I was in India a year and a-half ago, and its an incredibly dynamic society. They have great challenges and great opportunities, King added.

Modis visit to Washington prompted protests by Sikhs and other minority groups.

The prime minister said India aspires to heal divisions.

India kneels as one. India grows as one. India celebrates as one, he said.

He [Modi] has a difficult country to run with all kinds of difficult problems, said Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah. Its a large country with a large population, with untold resources and very brilliant people.

Modi noted that many of Indias best and brightest are flourishing in the United States.

They are among your best CEOs, academics, astronauts, scientists, economists, doctors  even spelling bee champions, he said.
U.S. lawmakers have expressed concern that the Obama administration may not be engaged enough in countering what they view as Russias bad behavior in Ukraine and Georgia.

I worry that the message that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin must be taking from our response is that his limit-testing aggression and opportunism is the right approach, said Democratic Senator Bob Menendez.

At issue is Russias 2014 annexation of the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea and its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Also in 2008, Russia intervened militarily in Georgia, later recognizing the breakaway republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states.

Why arent we more aggressively engaging in tools of diplomacy that can help us hopefully have Russia understand that there are consequences, asked Menendez at a Tuesday Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.

Russia has paid a steep price for its aggressiveness, said State Department Assistant Secretary of European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland, through U.S. and multi-national sanctions.

Since Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine, the U.S. and EU have imposed several rounds of asset freezes, travel bans and other penalties on Russia.

Separately, world powers have been urging both Russia and Ukraine to fully implement Minsk, a cease-fire accord designed to end fighting between Ukraines government and the countrys pro-Russian rebels.

This month, the EU is considering whether it will roll over its broad economic and targeted sanctions against Moscow for its involvement in Ukraine.

Nuland said the U.S. is cautiously optimistic the EU will extend the penalties.

In addition to sanctions, the U.S. is providing military assistance to Ukraines forces. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Michael Carpenter said the U.S. is spending $335 million this year training and equipping Ukrainian forces.

But lawmakers question if the U.S. is doing enough to change Russias behavior.

There is basically a lot of frustration by U.S. lawmakers, said foreign government relations analyst Adam Ereli.

There is concern that Russia has continued to wage war, violate borders, take over territories of other countries with very little price to pay, he said.

The questions also come at a time when there is both cooperation and tension between the U.S. and Russia over efforts to defeat Islamic State militants in Syria.

Also, both countries are part of the International Syria Support Group. But U.S. officials say Russian backed Syrian airstrikes have mostly targeted rebels and not terrorists in Syria.

Response sought to Russian INF violations

Republican Senator John Barrasso questioned when the U.S.will punish Russia for violating the INF, a historic nuclear test ban treaty.

Washington has accused Moscow of breaking the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty by testing ground launched cruise missiles.

Nuland told lawmakers the U.S. is engaged in discussions with Russia to try to bring it back into compliance and work with allies to put pressure on Moscow for the violations.

Military exercise raises tensions

The lawmakers questions come at a time of increased tensions between Russia and the U.S. and its Western allies over Tuesdays launch of a NATO exercise in Poland.

The training mission is designed, in part, to reassure Central and Eastern European countries that have been concerned about Russias actions in nearby Ukraine.

Russia denounced the exercise, saying it does not contribute to an atmosphere of confidence and security.
Human rights group Amnesty International has accused Malawi of a systematic failure in policing following the abduction and killings of several albino men, women and children in recent months.

Its believed the victims bones are sold to practitioners of traditional medicine in the belief they will bring good luck and wealth.

Amnesty said that since November 2014 in Malawi, at least 18 people with albinism have been killed, and at least five have been abducted and remain missing. The organization suspects the real numbers are much higher because most of the crimes are not reported.

The issue of persons living with albinism and the discrimination against them is not new," said Amnesty Secretary-General Salil Shetty, "but what weve picked up now is an alarming rise in horrific practices of killings, abductions." There were four killings, including a baby, in April alone, he said.

One story, that of a woman named Edna who has twin albino sons, typifies the horrific nature of the abductions.

Earlier this year, a group of men broke into the family home and grabbed one son by the head. Edna said she grabbed the child's legs, and the boy was pulled in different directions as she tried to rescue him. Then, in response to instructions from a man who had remained outside the home, one abductor drew a large knife and cut the mother's arm. She released the child, and the men took him.

Discrimination, fear

Around 10,000 Malawians live with albinism, a noncontagious, genetic condition in which the skin, hair and eyes lack pigment. Campaigners say they face discrimination daily  and the increase in attacks has left them terrified.

Amnesty accuses Malawian authorities of a systematic failure of policing.

Only two cases of murder have actually resulted in convictions, so there is no deterrent effect," Shetty said. "So one of the things we are calling on the Malawian government to do, particularly in rural districts, is that there should be visible policing.

Disputing Amnestys findings, government spokeswoman Patricia Kaliati told VOA that new measures to tackle the killings include a ban on traditional herbalists and harsher sentences for the perpetrators.

We are making all those steps to ensure that we protect persons with albinism," Kaliati said. "There are those stiff punishments which we are giving to the perpetrators. We cant wake up in the morning and say, Start killing those [who] are being caught killing persons with albinism. 

Amnesty said the measures dont go far enough to protect one of the countrys most vulnerable communities.
Malawi has one of the world's highest rates of child marriage. Half of girls wed before their 18th birthday and nearly one in eight is married by 15. One person, known as Chief Kachindamoto, has been on a mission to reverse that trend.

Chief Kachindamoto

Shes managed to break up 850 marriages involving children under the age of 18 in Malawi. She says nothing makes her happier than seeing some of the former child brides back in school. "I tried my best to see these girls to be a lot in classes. So, as you can see, indeed, I am a happy chief."

A hereditary tribal chief, Kachindamoto left her longtime job as a secretary to lead 900,000 people in central Malawi's Dedza district 13 years ago. In a country where child marriage is deeply entrenched in society, the chief has had a difficult, but not impossible, task.

"Theres [are] mother groups and we have these community policing, child protection workers who are going out looking at each and every house to follow these children," she expressed.

Former child brides stories

Judith Kabango was married at 14 and has a four-year-old son. Kabango's marriage was annulled after chief Kachindamoto, while carrying out a door-to-door campaign, found her working in a maize field during school hours. She has since gone back to school at age 18. I wasted valuable time, Kabango says but now I am in full-time learning and making a future for me and my child."

Stories like Kabango's are similar to those of countless girls in Malawi. Via Skype, Joyce Mkandawire told VOA the story of Josephine. Mkandawire is Malawi country coordinator for Rise Up, an umbrella organization that unifies many groups including Let Girls Lead, Champions for Change and the Youth Champions Initiative, to benefit millions of girls, youth and women globally.

At 15 years old she has two children. This girl was married off at 12 years old and the reason why, according to her, is because of poverty and because she lost her parents to HIV/AIDS. There is no one literally to support her. Mkandawire also points out that Josephine complained bitterly about being beaten and abused by her former husband, who also had another wife.

You can just imagine a girl at 15 telling you she has to look after her two children when she is a child herself, Mkandawire recalls. With her organizations help, Josephine is now back in school, but the impact she says is that by the time girls like Josephine turn 18 theyve already had three or four children, having started child-bearing so early.

New law versus Constitution

Following advocacy efforts by civil society and people like Mkandawire and Chief Kachindamoto, the countrys parliament last year passed a law raising the minimum marrying age to 18. However, according to Lyric Thompson of the International Center for Research on Women, the new law may be in conflict with Malawi's constitution.

My understanding is that the constitution itself still allows for parental consent under the age of 18. So we see this in many countries where there's a tension between the letter of the law and the constitution saying one thing, a piece of national legislation saying another thing, and then customary or Tribal Law saying another thing altogether. And then the question is, how did these pieces fit together? The constitution is the law of the land. That does need to be amended in order to be in harmony with the new legislation. Mkandawire echoes that sentiment. While she championed the passing of the law, she also says its a challenge that its in English while most of the girls directly affected speak Chichewa, the local language. And in the deep parts of the rural areas, judges are not even aware of the law because they havent been civically educated, and they end up just using the constitution which is the law of the land, she adds.

Thompson also says its important to invest in dismantling the root causes, including poverty and gender inequality. Taking the economic issues that are driving parents to say, 'you know what, I can only afford for one child to go to school. Am I going to send my boy who's going to come back and reinvest in my family or my girl whos probably just going to get married off at some point? No, let me send the boy.' These are decisions that families are making every day that are based in their own realities and are not because they don't care about their girls.

Across the globe, according to UNICEF, rates of child marriage are highest in South Asia, followed by sub-Saharan Africa.
Online retail giant Amazon is investing $3 billion into its India operations this year, according to founder Jeff Bezos, who was speaking at the U.S.-India Business Council Annual Leadership Summit in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday as a part of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modis U.S visit.

The additional money brings the total investment in Amazon India to $5 billion.

In a statement from the council, Bezos said Amazon India, which launched in 2013, has already created some 45,000 jobs in India and continue[s] to see huge potential in the Indian economy.

India is home to the most rapidly developing e-commerce market in the world, according to Morgan Stanley, which predicted it would be worth $119 billion by 2020.

Amazon has some stiff competition in India from e-commerce sites Flipkart and Snapdeal. Flipkart has gotten venture capital backing of $3.15 billion, while Snapdeal has venture capital backing of $1.54 billion.

Morgan Stanley reported in February that Flipkart was the leader in gross merchandise volume, with a 45 percent market share. Snapdeal was second with 26 percent, and Amazon was third at 12 percent.

I can assure you its only the beginning, and as we say in Amazon, its only day one, said Bezos, who was given a leadership award from the council.

Amazon is not the only tech firm looking at the potential of India.

In May, Apple CEO Tim Cook visited the worlds largest democracy, which boasts the second-largest population, to meet with business and political leaders, including Modi.
Researchers and engineers keep improving the machines that help doctors better understand and diagnose conditions that affect our brains. One of the goals is to find causes of Alzheimers and Parkinsons disease, which affect millions of people throughout the world.

Since the 1980s, doctors have used Magnetic Resonance Imaging machines, or MRI scanners, to look into patients bodies without exposing them to the harmful effects of X-rays.

An alternating magnetic field created inside the MRI's tube excites hydrogen atoms in the bodys tissues, making them emit radio waves. Those waves can be turned into pictures, similar to X-ray images.

The magnet of a new MRI, built by Siemens, has 7 tesla units, making it more than 100,000 (7/0.000065 = 107,692) times more powerful than the earths magnetic field.

Using something like 7-tesla imaging, you can do very high resolution imaging, you can get the contrast that you need in order to identify the particular sub-parts of the nuclei that you need, said Peter Jezzard, a professor of neuroimaging.

But even high-resolution two-dimensional black-and-white pictures are quite different from three-dimensional color renditions that can be viewed from all angles.

Using MRI-generated images of water molecules moving within the brains white matter, scientists at the British company Holoxica created a hologram showing the connections between neurons.

The brain is such a complex three-dimensional structure, and sometimes it is quite difficult to describe, or understand, the actual connections," said neurosurgeon Basil Ridha. "So to see it in 3-D, that may be a short cut to education, and it can reinforce the learning process.

The holographic display is still in prototype phase, but researchers say, once ready for production, it will be compatible not only with MRI machines but also with CT and ultrasound scanners.
A Nigerian rebel group has rejected the government's offer of talks to end pipeline attacks that are disrupting the country's oil production.

The Niger Delta Avengers said on its Twitter account Wednesday that it is not negotiating with any government committee.

It also said the group blew up an oil well known as RMP 20, belonging to the Chevron corporation in the Warri North area, at 1 a.m. local time.

The Avengers have claimed responsibility for a wave of attacks in southern Nigeria on facilities owned by Chevron, Shell and ENI. Analysts say the damage has cut Nigerian oil output by at least 25 percent, more than a half million barrels per day.

The Nigerian government, which is heavily dependent on oil revenue, said this week it was forming a committee to open talks with the rebels.

A previous wave of attacks in the south ended in 2009 with the start of an amnesty program that paid former militants.

The Avengers said Tuesday that the group behind the earlier attacks, known as MEND, no longer exists. It said its mandate "is to liberate the Niger Delta people."
South Koreas government on Wednesday declined to directly confirm the reported resumption of plutonium production in North Korea but said it is watching the relevant movements closely with serious concern.

"It's a well-known fact that North Korea has been continuously pursuing various reprocessing activities to secure additional plutonium," Unification Ministry spokesman Jeong Joon-hee told reporters. "There has been close coordination between South Korea and the United States on this issue."

Processing plutonium

Unnamed U.S. and U.N. officials say North Korea is again using spent nuclear fuel to process plutonium at the Yongbyon facility.

The director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Yukiya Amono, had said Tuesday there are indications of a resumption of the nuclear reprocessing.

Photographic evidence of increased activity

The comments from the officials and the IAEA follow reports of satellite imagery indicating activity at the Yongbyon facility, which was shuttered in 2007 as part of an international deal in exchange for aid which subsequently collapsed.

North Korea is trying to put pressure on not only U.S. and South Korea, but also China, that if there won't be any early breakthrough in favor of North Korea in a meaningful dialogue and negotiation then North Korea will engage in further provocation, Bong Youngshik, senior research fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, told VOA.

North Korea in 2013, announced it was restarting the graphite-moderated reactor and an uranium enrichment plant at Yongbyon.

Until recently, analysts say, there was no concrete evidence the reactor was again fully operational.

The North, regarded as one of the worlds most repressive and isolated countries, conducted its fourth underground nuclear test in January, which it claimed was a hydrogen bomb, and is attempting to extend the capabilities of its ballistic missiles, in defiance of various U.N. resolutions.

There has been significant speculation recently that North Korea is preparing a fifth nuclear test.

Conducting another nuclear test I don't think that will really change China's attitude in favor of North Korea. It may even make the Xi Jinping government angry, said Bong.

The Yongbyon five-megawatt reactor provided the North with the weapons-grade plutonium for its first three nuclear tests, starting in 2006.

The modest reactors fuel rods, according to experts, are capable of providing enough plutonium to make at least one bomb per year.

It is estimated that Pyongyang possesses at least 10 nuclear weapons but it has not demonstrated the capability to miniaturize them for placement on a long-range guided missile.
North Korean diplomats in Pakistan caught selling liquor illegally are continuing the illicit activity by using their immunity status, multiple sources familiar with the subject said.

North Korean diplomats have frequently been suspected of engaging in illicit activities of various sorts to make up for inadequate government funding or to pay the so-called loyalty payments to the government in Pyongyang.

In April, a North Korean diplomat posted in the Pakistani city of Karachi was apprehended while trying to bring 855 boxes of duty-free liquor, nearly double the amount allowed, into the country.

A source in Pakistan Tuesday identified the diplomat as Kang Song Gun, a commercial counselor at North Koreas consulate in Karachi.

In May 2015, another North Korean diplomat, Koh Hak Chol, a third secretary at the consulate, was apprehended by customs officials while carrying liquor that exceeded quotas, the source said. Pakistani officials questioned Koh for several hours but released him without charge. The Pakistani source said both Kang and Koh are still with the diplomatic mission.

Immunity abused

Another source in Pakistan said some North Korean diplomats who were arrested for illegal liquor selling continued the illicit activity after their release. Trading alcohol in a black market is an important money-making source for many North Korean diplomats although the sale of alcohol is strictly banned in the Muslim country, according to the source.

The United States is calling for enhanced vigilance against the practice, citing a U.N. Security Council resolution.

UNSCR 2270 specifically highlights the need to exercise vigilance against DPRK diplomats engaged in illicit activity, and obligates member states to expel DPRK diplomatic personnel involved in sanctions evasion or UNSCR violations, said Katina Adams, a spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department, referring to the resolution adopted in March.

Repeated violations

There have been at least 10 confirmed cases of illegal liquor trade involving North Korean diplomats in Pakistan since 2009, another Pakistani source said.

In April 2015, a North Korean diplomat and his wife were caught selling liquor inside the upscale Defense Housing Authority (DHA) development in Karachi. In 2013, Pakistans Express Tribune newspaper reported Pakistani officials had investigated complaints that North Korean diplomats were selling alcohol at the complex.
A hacker only needs to succeed once to break into a system.

One tiny flaw  a singular vulnerability found  and an entire wall of cyberdefense can crumble.

The influx of data available in the invisible, interconnected cyber realm has become "both an opportunity and a challenge," Steve Welby, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering and the Defense Department's Chief Technology Officer, told VOA in an exclusive one-on-one interview.

"Almost everything we're doing in the department is software enabled," Welby said. "There's almost no system today where new capabilities aren't being inserted much faster than ever before by downloading apps into our systems."

The increased speed and capability comes with a major vulnerability to cyberattacks, making the fortification of the cyber realm arguably as critical as the defense of air, land, sea and space.

"The tradition in cybersecurity is to put a Band-Aid on, and when that doesn't work, put another Band-Aid on top of it," Strategic Technologies Program Director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies James Lewis told VOA. "It's the wrong approach."

Lewis argues there are other militaries out there  particularly the Russians  with cyber capabilities that are equally as good as the United States' abilities. Until there's a new, better protected system in place for the U.S. military, hackers with unlimited time and resources eventually can find ways to break through.

"It's not so much that our defenses are weak. It's just that they are hard to defend against," he said.

Why is cyberspace so hard to defend?

The Department of Defense built the first workable prototype for the internet decades ago with the goal of sharing data. The point of the cyber realm, Welby said, was connecting people, without an eye toward providing protection.

Even as security experts today see the need to balance connectivity with protection, the technology market's dynamics are making it hard to change the status quo.

"People want convenience. They want stuff to work and connect immediately, and security doesn't come anywhere near that as a priority," Lewis said.

That means the Pentagon, not the commercial sector, is largely left with the task of brainstorming new systems that are inherently defensible from design.

Welby says the military is doing just that with three techniques  researching new computer architecture, providing arenas for the private sector to produce new cyberdefenses and developing new software that can communicate defensive techniques with the user.

"That idea of having systems that can explain its behavior is an exciting one and is at the root of an entirely new field of cyberdefenses that we're just starting to explore," Welby said.

Experts say the best defense is refreshing and modernizing systems. But the reluctance of Congress to fund the purchase of new systems could lead to major security problems in the near future, Lewis said.

"Within three years, five years, they [opponents] know every bug, they know every opening, they know every vulnerability, so the system isn't protectable anymore," he told VOA. "Some of the stuff the Defense Department is running is over 20 years old, so there's no way to protect that."

Secretary of Defense Ash Carter has courted several technology developers to help the Pentagon as it seeks to improve America's cyber, land, air, sea and space defenses. Carter will meet Wednesday with Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of SpaceX and the product architect of Tesla Motors.
Poland has stopped issuing visas for North Korean workers amid reports that Pyongyang is sending its citizens to foreign countries in harsh working conditions to earn hard currency.

The Polish Foreign Ministry told VOA that Poland has not issued visas for North Korean workers after the North conducted its fourth nuclear test in January. Poland issued 156 visas for North Korean workers last year, according to the ministry.

Last year, the European Alliance for Human Rights in North Korea, a British-based group that advocates for human rights in North Korea, released a report that named Poland as one of nearly 20 countries that hosts North Korean laborers. Poland is one of two European Union countries on the list.

Controversial scheme

"As the member state of the EU, we are convinced that the primary duty of the international community is to promote this legitimate concern. DPRK's citizens working in Poland, in shipyard or any other workplace, are subject to the Polish law and are not discriminated in any way," said the ministry in an email sent Saturday to VOA.

"The government of the Republic of Poland follows with great attention information on DPRK citizens' employment in Poland, especially concerning working conditions and observance of labor law standards," the ministry said.

Some media speculate that as many as 800 North Koreans are working in Poland, but the ministry says only 482 work permits were issued for North Koreans as of 2015. The figure accounts for less than 1 percent of all work permits issued in the country.

"Existing cooperation in this field is being carried out on the basis of private agreements between entities from Poland and the DPRK," the ministry said. "Polish authorities neither mediate in any way in employing DPRK citizens in Poland, nor do they carry out promotional campaigns for this purpose."

International pressure

In March, U.S. President Barack Obama signed an executive order imposing fresh sanctions on North Korea to curb the North's nuclear weapons program. The measure allows the U.S. Treasury Department to freeze assets of any party found to have engaged in exportation of workers from the North. A U.N. report found last year that Pyongyang earns as much as $2.3 billion a year from workers exported to other countries, where they are often subject to harsh working conditions.

On Tuesday, South Korea's Foreign Ministry welcomed the Polish move, saying there have been growing international concerns about the practice.
A tree covered with the bloody dead bodies of more than a hundred villagers  women, children and elders. A dying young boy telling the story about merciless forces of darkness that came at night to slaughter the innocent. The remorseless rage of the inhumane warlord who ordered the genocidal act.

Fans of the 2006 Hollywood blockbuster 300" would say these horrifying images are from the movies famous tree-of-the-dead scene.

There is a distinct similarity, but they come from one of four eyewitness accounts contained in a new anti-Islamic State brochure that is being distributed in Russias public schools, colleges and universities as required reading.

The 38-page illustrated brochure, Strashnaya Skazka Daesh ("Daesh Horror Story"), says its aim is to unmask IS recruitment strategies. It was prepared by the Russian Peace Foundation, which is part of Russias Public Chamber, a government entity established to monitor the nations human rights.

In announcing that the brochure would be distributed among the countrys students, Yelena Sutormina, a Public Chamber official and co-author, said late last month that its aim was to inform teenagers about the methods of various pseudo-religious and extremist organizations so that they can resist their recruiters.

The brochure, Sutormina said, contains real stories of people who were able to escape the influence of recruiters.

The first-person accounts contained in the brochure, all of which are anonymous, describe alleged atrocities committed by American troops as being a major motivating factor for joining IS.

The Russian government frequently expresses concern about the threat to Russian security posed by IS-linked extremists. According to government data, more than 5,000 Russian citizens have joined IS and other jihadist groups in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. Some experts put the actual number at 7,000.

Alleged U.S. brutality

The tree-of-the-dead scene in the brochure depicts atrocities allegedly committed by U.S. troops in an unnamed village near Tikrit, Iraq. The anonymous narrator describes how the American troops brutality stuck in his mind, burning his soul with a desire for revenge and eventually pushing him to join IS. The man, self-described as an anthropologist, says he became an IS cameraman who filmed the executions committed by the infamous Jihadi John (Mohammed Emwazi), who, he says, was a drug addict hardly able to perform his duties, cutting the throats of the IS prisoners. One of the real Jihadi Johns victims was American reporter James Foley, who was beheaded in August 2014.

The cameramans story ends with him preparing to shoot himself in the head.

Nothing even remotely like that has ever happened in U.S. military history, Robert Schaefer, a member of the U.S. Army Special Forces (Green Berets) and a Eurasian Foreign Area Officer, said in an emailed response to VOA after studying the brochure. We've had a few folks that have committed some atrocities. Every single one of them has faced trial.

Perceived U.S. hostility

In a poll conducted last month by the Levada Center, an independent Russian polling agency, the United States topped the list of five countries that respondents said were the most unfriendly and hostile to Russia. Center director Lev Gudkov said the polls results showed the impact of what he called an extremely powerful and effective anti-American campaign being conducted by the Russian authorities.

Some experts say the anti-IS brochure is part of this campaign.

Stephen Blank of the American Foreign Policy Council said the brochure is clearly a propaganda narrative and is at least as anti-Western as it is anti-ISIS."

It does not actually make IS look like such a dangerous terrorist organization, Blank told VOA. I am not sure what effect it is going to have on people in persuading them not to join ISIS, but it certainly is tempting to link terrorism with the West.

Grigory Shvedov, chief editor of the independent Russian news agency Caucasian Knot, said the accounts in the anti-IS brochure were deliberately aimed at spreading hatred towards the West. While some of the information in the brochure is accurate, he said, its narrative is unfortunate and does not help achieve its publicly stated goal of thwarting recruitment by IS and other extremist groups.

Hollywood-inspired

The publication of Daesh Horror Story is not the first time the Kremlin propaganda machine has been accused of using the horrific scenes from fictional movies in its campaigns against countries it sees as rivals.

After Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and began supporting armed rebels in eastern Ukraine, Russian state-run televisions Channel One ran a story, also told by an anonymous eyewitness, about a child who was allegedly crucified by Ukrainian troops. No footage or other witnesses were ever presented, and the Ukrainian website Stopfake.org identified the account as a replica of a scene from an episode in the fourth season of the popular HBO series "Game of Thrones."

Schaefer said the fact that Russian government entities have to use images from Hollywood movies to try to paint Americans in a bad light speaks to the utter dearth of their ability to come up with plausible lies.

On the other hand, Schaefer said, this implausibility may have been intentional: Maybe the writer, unhappy with the task of writing propaganda, made it so outlandish and made the reference to the movie so clear it would be readily seen for the farce and fictional account that it is.
President Barack Obama and Indias Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighted the strong bonds between their two countries, the worlds two largest democracies, during a visit to the White House on Tuesday by the prime minister.

In an interview with VOA, Michael Kugelman of the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars said the rapport between the two leaders and the transformation in bilateral ties has been remarkable.

There has been a sea change in U.S.-India relations over the course of the Obama administration," he said. "When President Obama first came to power, he really wanted to focus on the war in Afghanistan. He wanted to take ownership over that war. And that meant a very narrowly defined strategic focus on South Asia that really emphasized Afghanistan and, by extension, Pakistan. It didnt really leave that much room for the relationship with India.

But Kugelman said all that changed dramatically during Obamas second term, and especially during the past two years, when the president got serious about his pivot to Asia and ended combat operations in Afghanistan. Kugelman said the Obama administration views India as the power most qualified to counterbalance China and its maritime aggressions in the South China Sea.

Good personal ties

Kugelman said there is definitely good personal chemistry between Obama and Modi, which is surprising, considering that until three years ago, Modi was barred from entering the United States after religious riots broke out in a state he governed.

Modi has come a long way, with official Washington celebrating him this time. He received a festive welcome and working lunch with the president and vice president at the White House, and an invitation to address a joint meeting of Congress on Wednesday.

The two leaders said they are committed to signing the Paris climate change agreement this year, although there was no formal announcement of a signing date, as some had hoped.

Obama thanked Modi for his serious commitment to clean energy. Sitting with Modi in the Oval Office after the first part of their meeting, Obama said: A key priority for both of us is how to promote economic prosperity and opportunity, and poverty alleviation for our people. We continue to discuss a wide range of areas where we can cooperate more effectively in order to promote jobs, promote investment, promote trade and promote greater opportunities for our people, particularly young people, in both of our countries.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the U.S. and India's "collaborative efforts to address climate change." In a statement he said the actions of Washington and New Delhi demonstrate "the growing momentum towards the rapid entry into force and successful implementation of the Paris Agreement."

Pool of talent

For his part, Modi pointed out that India has 800 million people younger than 35, adding: The United States is well aware of the talent that India has. We and the United States can work together to bring forward this talent, and use it for the benefit of mankind, and use it for the benefit of innovations, and use it to achieve new progress.

Obama and Modi also discussed security issues and strengthening global nuclear nonproliferation efforts.

On a personal note, Modi said: I will always treasure the help and friendship that my friend President Obama has extended. It is something that I will always remember.

But despite all the celebration, some U.S. lawmakers are still cautious, remembering how bad relations were between the two countries for decades.

The Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, a bipartisan caucus in the House of Representatives, held a hearing Tuesday on human rights in India, focusing on concerns about the treatment of Indias poorest, the Dalit, formerly known as untouchables, and about human trafficking in some areas of the country.

One witness was John Sifton, Asia advocacy director with Human Rights Watch. He said India has made important strides in legal reforms in recent years, including protection for women and some of the countrys most vulnerable. But he called on Indias government to do much more to implement those reforms, and said Obama could be more outspoken about it.

"I think President Obama did raise the issues of religious discrimination, violence against religious minorities, in his own subtle way  oversubtle way," Sifton said. "I know the State Department has raised concerns. I would like those concerns to be raised more volubly, but they have been raised."

BJP assailed

Another witness, human rights activist and journalist Ajit Sahi, was very critical of Modis ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, saying: "We should recognize it is the director, and not just the actor. It is the producer of human rights violations in India. It is the director of human rights violation because it springs from an organization which is fundamentally racist, an organization that has indulged in human rights abuses and violence for nearly 90 years."

An Indian official in Washington played down the human rights hearing, saying one society should not preach to another.

Modi is expected to receive a warm welcome Wednesday on Capitol Hill for his first address to a joint meeting of the House and Senate.
What was science fiction just a few years ago is now among the Pentagon's most innovative new technologies.

The Defense Department's chief technology officer, Steve Welby, sat down with VOA to talk about some of the craziest and most remarkable breakthroughs being developed in military laboratories across the country.

Here are some of our favorites.

Squid-inspired camouflage

Ever want to just disappear? A new type of camouflage will help soldiers blend in with their backgrounds, and even disguise themselves from infrared cameras.

Researchers are focusing on a protein called reflectin, which is found on the skin of certain species of squid and octopus, and allows them to very quickly mimic their surroundings and virtually vanish from sight. Reflectin-based invisibility stickers could help the military control the reflectivity of people and equipment, and perhaps even allow thermal management.

"We're now learning from nature and applying it in new ways," Welby said. "There are now some interesting prototypes that folks are playing with."

WATCH: Squid Offers Possibility of Virtually Vanishing

Restoring sense of touch

A program called Hand Proprioception and Touch Interfaces (HAPTIX) is making robotic arms even more true-to-life.

"The next frontier is the work going on in programs like HAPTIX, where we're not just trying to restore the function of those limbs, but actually trying to restore the sensory function as well," Welby said.

HAPTIX will be able to send information from the prosthetic limb back into the body, much like the nerve endings on fingers tell the brain how hard the hand is squeezing something, or how rough or smooth a surface is. Volunteers who thought they'd never have their sense of touch back are already experimenting with prototypes.

"It's just an amazing idea that we're now being able to map that kind of two-way feedback into the nervous system," Welby said. "Being able to touch people's lives in these kinds of ways  it's really rewarding work."

Faster than a speeding bullet

The Navy is using electromagnets to shoot projectiles at hyperspeed, many times faster than any bullet can be shot out of other guns.

"That's important because it might allow one to be able to defend oneself against, perhaps, missiles that are coming at you, to be able to shoot them out of the air," Welby said.

The new technology could also provide the ability to attack an enemy long before the enemy could engage U.S. service members.

The gun creates the electromagnetic field used to fire a projectile by shooting an electric pulse down one negatively charged rail and one positively charged rail.

It can fire a projectile at a speed of up to 7,400 kilometers per hour.

Decoding 'language of the mind

Since 2001, more than 250,000 U.S. service members have struggled with memory loss from traumatic brain injuries and degenerate brain problems. And it's not just a problem on the battlefield. Millions of people around the globe are affected by memory disorders from injuries and diseases such as Alzheimer's every year.

The military is looking to help people retrieve memory through wearable systems that could restore function in parts of a damaged brain.

"We're now decoding the language of the mind, how we actually store facts," Welby said. "It's an entirely new field, areas that we just didn't think were possible before."

Researchers are working to understand the way the brain forms memories so that they can identify and correct problems when pathways to memories become damaged.

Welby is among many who have had friends and family suffer from memory loss, and he says the hope that the research offers is "enormous."

Tank tech

While technology has shifted in many military areas at lightning-fast speed, ground vehicle technology has evolved very slowly.

"If you go back to look at a tank from World War II and look at a tank today, boy, they look awful familiar from a distance," Welby told VOA.

The challenge of improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, however, has driven a recent push to develop safer tanks. Welby says researchers are developing lightweight armor and completely new tank designs that increase the likelihood of the crew's survival in an attack.

Lessons from war and the emergence of new materials are helping ground vehicle technology develop much faster than before.

The Army is working to place hybrid systems in tanks that can use either gasoline or electricity for fuel, much like the hybrid systems seen in some commercial vehicles. The lighter armor being developed will help tanks move at faster speeds than current weights allow.
Sudan has extradited a man suspected of being behind a migrant trafficking network to Italy, Italian police said Wednesday.

The Eritrean Medhanie Yehdego Mered, 35, was arrested in Khartoum at the end of May. He has been on a wanted list for over a year for international people smuggling.

"Mered is considered one of the biggest migrant traffickers operating on the Libyan-sub-Saharan route," Italian police said in a statement.

"He directed operations not only in Africa but also kept fellow operators in Italy up to date on the arrival of boats, to enable the migrants to continue to their final destinations [in Europe]."

Police have also said that tapped phone conversations indicate Mered was in contact with traffickers in Northern Europe. They also indicated that he showed "disregard for the lives of the migrants, appearing cynical and unscrupulous."

Sudanese forces worked with Italian and British intelligence to track down Mered.

He is the first suspected top smuggler to be arrested in Africa and detained in Italy which, like Greece, has been overwhelmed by an influx of hundreds of thousands of migrants since 2008.
When Loyce Maturu was 10, she lost her mother and brother to AIDS and tuberculosis in the same week. Two years later, she was diagnosed with both illnesses.

The young Zimbabwean experienced harsh emotional and verbal abuse from a family member because of the stigma attached to her health status, and in 2010 she attempted suicide. But today, she is a thriving 24-year-old who is working to empower girls and adolescents who are HIV-positive.

Now every day that I live, I am thankful that I am one of the 17 million people that mark the success of HIV treatment over the past years, and it shows that together we have the greatest strength of saving more lives, she told the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday during a high-level meeting on ending HIV/AIDS by 2030.

HIV/AIDS has greatly affected young people. About 14 million children have been orphaned by the epidemic. Young people also have a high infection rate  about 2,000 new ones each day. This has led to an increase in AIDS-related deaths among the young. It is now the second-leading cause of death in adolescents globally.

We need to equip them, we need to bring skills, we need to make sure sex education becomes a reality everywhere, so they can really be able to avoid risky behavior, said UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe.

He said it also was vital that young people be at the center of what he called a prevention revolution.

On the fast track

In the past 15 years, substantial progress has been made in the global fight against HIV/AIDS, and the U.N. is trying to consolidate that success to end the epidemic by 2030.

We have halted and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the meeting. New HIV infections have declined by 35 percent since 2000. AIDS-related deaths have gone down by 43 percent since 2003.

He said this was due in part to cheaper anti-retroviral drugs, new funding and leadership from those within the HIV/AIDS community and civil society.

Ban urged donors to meet the annual funding target of $26 billion, saying the next five years offered a unique opportunity to change the direction of the epidemic and end AIDS forever.

If we do not act, he warned, there is a danger the epidemic will rebound in low- and middle-income countries.

Currently, 36.7 million people are living with HIV/AIDS around the world. Each year, another 2.1 million people will become infected, and half that number will die. The U.N. says if the global response can be fast-tracked, millions of new infections can be avoided.

One area in which there has been welcome news is in reducing mother-to-child transmission.

Four countries  Armenia, Belarus, Cuba and Thailand  have eliminated transmission of the disease from pregnant mothers to their infants, and 80 more countries are getting close, with fewer than 50 babies born each year with HIV.

Challenges

But the road ahead still has many hurdles. Infections are on the rise in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Many of those infections come from intravenous drug users, and Sidibe said UNAIDS is working with countries to encourage them to not treat intravenous drug users as criminals.

Any time you are criminalizing, you are losing people. They are hiding, they are going underground and they are continuing to infect, Sidibe said.

In eastern and southern Africa, the worlds most affected region, AIDS-related deaths are down by more than one-third since 2010. But in west and central Africa, more than half the 6.5 million people infected continue to go without treatment.

While the number of people on lifesaving HIV treatment worldwide doubled over the last five years to nearly 17 million people, those living in west and central Africa are missing out and in desperate need of treatment, said Dr. Cecilia Ferreyra of Doctors Without Borders.

Discrimination also continues to affect HIV-positive people. Thirty-five countries do not allow HIV-positive foreigners to enter or live in their states. Others find in their homeland it is harder to find and keep a job, and for others, social stigmas persist.

Global action

The U.N. General Assembly adopted a political declaration on accelerating the response to ending HIV/AIDS, setting out specific time-bound targets.

Several countries objected to language in the text, including references to sex education, birth control and men who have sex with men. Some civil society groups expressed disappointment, saying the text was not strong enough.
The United States will have two aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean Sea to support European interests and operations against Islamic State militants.

The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower crossed Wednesday into Atlantic waters under U.S. European Command on its way to the Mediterranean, while the USS Harry S. Truman remains in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, where it arrived last week, according to Navy Lieutenant Loren Terry.

U.S. defense officials erroneously reported Wednesday that the Eisenhower had already reached the Mediterranean.

The Eisenhower will be arriving in the western Mediterranean in the next three days, a U.S. navy official told VOA Thursday.

The Truman and the Eisenhower will overlap territorial responsibilities for about three weeks before the Truman heads back to the United States, said Pentagon spokeswoman Lieutenant Colonel Michelle Baldanza.

The Eisenhower is deploying to the Navys 5th Fleet, which is responsible for naval forces in the Middle East.

A U.S. defense official told VOA the Eisenhower would be supporting Operation Inherent Resolve, the U.S.-led coalitions operation to defeat IS in Iraq and Syria, but it is unclear whether the Eisenhower would conduct anti-IS strikes from a position in the Mediterranean or from the Persian Gulf.

The strengthened U.S. military presence in the Mediterranean could increase tensions with Russia, which a U.S. defense official said is also operating warships in the Mediterranean.

The Eisenhower will be visiting various Italian ports in the coming days, Baldanza said.
It would be hard to find anyone in Washington who has known Hillary Clinton, America's first female presumptive presidential nominee, longer than Senator Richard Blumenthal. The Connecticut Democrat was Clinton's classmate  as well as that of former president Bill Clinton  at Yale Law School in the early 1970s.

"Everyone had the sense that Bill Clinton was going to be in politics," Blumenthal told VOA, "[but] not so much Hillary, because she was different [in] personality and interests  in many ways more serious than most of us in law school."

Blumenthal declined to provide any anecdotes about either Clinton at Yale, but has said in the past that Hillary Clinton was a better student than he or her husband-to-be. The senator said the strengths she exhibits today were evident more than 40 years ago.

"What Hillary Clinton has, more than even her extraordinary intelligence and intellectual insight, is a sense of judgment and history and compassion for every individual," Blumenthal said.

"It is one of the more exciting days in my career in public service to see my very good friend of Yale Law School class of 1973 become the presumptive nominee. But there is a lot of work ahead to make her the first woman president, which I hope will happen," he added.

Marking the milestone

Lawmakers of both political parties said Tuesday that America is making history by nominating a woman to be president. Beyond that, perceptions differed.

"It's a milestone in American history. Congratulations to Hillary," said Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. "I don't dislike her as a person. I think she'd be a third term of Barack Obama, and I can't support her for president ... The first female president, I hope, will be a Republican."

"Anytime we have people in our country break through glass ceilings, it's something to be celebrated," said Republican Senator John Thune of South Dakota. "I just hope she's not the next president."

At first, Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri told VOA she'd rather not comment while votes were being cast in Tuesday's final state primary elections.

"I think it would be better to wait and get emotional about this after the polls close tonight," she said.

Seconds later, her enthusiasm won out.

"For women who have fought in the trenches for many, many years to have our voices heard, to have a woman leading a ticket is a big deal," McCaskill said, adding that a female presidential nominee is long overdue. "It's been 100 years since we [women] got the vote."

Standing nearby, Democrat Chuck Schumer of New York chimed in.

"Watching her [Clinton] this morning on TV, I got misty-eyed. I did," Schumer said. "It's historic."

"This is a big deal," McCaskill added for emphasis.

Not over yet

On the other side of the Capitol, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi endorsed Clinton, a former secretary of state, over challenger Bernie Sanders, a senator from Vermont.

While expressing excitement over the prospect of Hillary Clinton as president, appearing on ABC's Good Morning America program, Pelosi noted that the Democratic nominating process has not concluded.

"It's not over till it's over," Pelosi said.

Sanders has challenged news media assessments that Clinton has clinched the nomination and promised to take the battle to the Democratic National Convention next month.

"His [Sanders'] decision about his course is for him to make," Blumenthal said of his Senate colleague. "But I think he can help us come together as a party by what he does now. I think he'll do the right thing in seeking to defeat [presumptive Republican presidential nominee] Donald Trump."
As Hillary Clinton basks in the glory of claiming the democratic presidential nomination, she and democratic rival Bernie Sanders inched closer to what party loyalists hope will be a period of amicable reconciliation and party unification before the party's convention in late July.

Clinton claimed her party's nomination after primary victories in California, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota, making her the first woman to be the presumptive presidential nominee of a major U.S. political party.

Her democratic rival, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, won North Dakota's and Montana's primary elections.

Despite Clinton's status as the democratic party's presumptive presidential nominee, Sanders is showing few signs of giving up.

In a speech late Tuesday in Santa Monica, California, Sanders told supporters he was determined to stop presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump from winning the White House, barely acknowledging Clinton's triumph.

Sanders promised to "fight hard" to win the last primary election next week in Washington, D.C.

As Sanders publicly expresses his intent to march toward the White House, Sanders is reportedly laying off about half his campaign staff, mostly members of the advance team. Staffers who are not involved in next week's primary in D.C. or the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia next month will also lose their jobs.

A small group of people are expected to help negotiate peace between the Clinton and Sanders camps, including Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid. Sanders and Reid will meet Thursday, amid growing calls for Sanders to end his campaign. Reid has not called for Sanders to quit, but he said last week that "sometimes you have to give up."

Meanwhile, Senator Bill Nelson of Florida said Wednesday Sanders should "stand down." Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania has called on Democrats to "come together and unify." Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire said she would like to see Sanders wind down his candidacy sooner rather than later.

In congratulating Sanders on his primary victories, Clinton delivered a message of party unification. We believe that cooperation is better than conflict, unity is better than division, empowerment is better than resentment, and bridges are better than walls," she said.

After her primary victories, Clinton addressed a crowd of screaming fans waving American flags in Brooklyn, New York.

President Obama called both democratic candidates Tuesday, congratulating Clinton on winning the necessary delegates to secure the nomination. He also thanked Sanders for mobilizing millions of Americans and bringing attention to issues such as economic inequality.

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump also spoke Tuesday to an enthusiastic crowd. He attacked Clinton, accusing her of "selling access" to the State Department when she was secretary.

The sharp-tongued Trump also said Clinton and her husband, former president Bill Clinton, have "turned the politics of personal enrichment into an art form for themselves."

Trump said his goal is to bring people together and he promised to never back down from a fight or let his supporters down. Together we accomplished what nobody thought was absolutely possible. And you know what that is. Were only getting started and its going to be beautiful. Remember that," he said.

Tuesday's primary elections were the last major primaries before the Republican and Democratic party conventions in July.
South Africas anti-corruption czar, who threw a spotlight on the $23 million in public funds used to upgrade President Jacob Zumas private home, wants to launch another high-level investigation that could land in the presidents lap.



This time, Thuli Madonsela has asked for resources to examine the Guptas, a wealthy Indian family known to have close ties to Zuma.



On Tuesday, Madonsela told journalists in Johannesburg that she is looking into "whether or not the government of South Africa, and in this particular case the president, unlawfully helped the Gupta family to choose ministers and other occupants of high offices."



A top South African official has claimed that members of the Gupta family who are not government officials directly offered him a job as national finance minister. South Africas constitution says only the president can appoint ministers.



Madonselas seven-year term as public protector has been distinguished - or, say her critics, marred - by her persistence in investigating top officials.

Her most prominent target has been the president, whom she criticized for the government-funded improvements to his country home near the eastern town of Nkandla. Zuma had argued the upgrades were for national security reasons.



Madonselas 2014 investigation, titled Secure in Comfort, meticulously debunked the presidents claims that a swimming pool, amphitheater and chicken breeding grounds were necessary for his official security.



South Africas top court backed Madonsela, and ruled in April that Zuma should pay back some of the money.



Zuma's approval ratings have tumbled since the home-improvement scandal broke, and that could hurt his ruling African National Congress party during nationwide municipal elections in August.

No Regrets

Madonsela, whose term ends in October, said Tuesday that she does not regret taking the job as anti-corruption czar in 2009. The almost preternaturally calm lawyer and scholar cut an unlikely figure as the South Africa's national watchdog, and her merciless investigations earned her death threats.



The Zuma investigation earned Madonsela a spot on Time magazines annual list of the most 100 influential people in the world.



After October, Madonsela says she plans to take a long sabbatical, eventually returning to teaching and to social activism. Reflecting on her time as public protector, she said her biggest challenge was dealing with politics and politicians.



But would she do it again?



Absolutely, she said.



Id say, sign me in, she said.
Hillary Clinton claimed the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday, which would make her the first woman to represent a major party in the race for the White House.

Her democratic rival, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, won North Dakota and Montana Tuesday, but Clinton won South Dakota, New Mexico, and New Jersey.

President Obama called both candidates Tuesday, congratulating Secretary Clinton for securing the necessary delegates to secure the nomination. He also thanked Senator Sanders for mobilizing millions of Americans and bringing attention to issues such as fighting economic inequality.

Sanders, who is currently leading in Montana, told supporters in California that he called Secretary Clinton this evening to congratulate her on her victories. He spoke about working together to defeat Trump, but did not acknowledge Clinton's presumptive nomination and gave no indication that he intended to concede, vowing to "continue the fight".

"Thank you all. The struggle continues," he concluded.

California results are not yet available. Sanders has pinned a lot of hopes on gaining a major share of California's delegates, previously hopeful that they could keep him in the race long enough to battle for the nomination at the Democratic convention.

Clinton addressed a crowd of screaming fans waving American flags in Brooklyn on Tuesday evening.

The first time, the first time in our nations history that a woman will be a major partys nominee for president of the United States, she said.

Clinton will not be the party's official nominee until the voting at the Democratic convention in July.

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump spoke earlier in the evening, also addressing an enthusiastic crowd.

He strongly attacked Clinton, accusing her of "selling access" to the State Department when she was secretary.

The sharp-tongued Trump said Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, have "turned the politics of personal enrichment into an art form for themselves."

He said his goal is to bring people together and he promised to never back down from a fight or let his supporters down.

Together we accomplished what nobody thought was absolutely possible. And you know what that is. Were only getting started and its going to be beautiful. Remember that," he said.

U.S. media say Clinton already has the support of the 2,383 delegates she needs for the nomination. This includes the 571 so-called superdelegates who are free to support any candidate, but already have pledged their backing to Clinton. Superdelegates rarely change their minds.

Sanders has given no sign that he is ready to quit the race while campaigning in California Tuesday, saying he thinks he has "a shot."

He said declaring Clinton the winner before the superdelegates -- who conceivably could change their minds --- cast their votes at next month's convention is a "rush to judgment."

Hillary Clinton congratulated Sanders on a strong campaign on Tuesday, though Sanders has not conceded.

We believe that cooperation is better than conflict, unity is better than division, empowerment is better than resentment, and bridges are better than walls," she said.

Along with New Jersey and delegate-rich California, voters went to the polls in Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota and South Dakota.

These are the last major primaries before the conventions.
Some Zanu PF youth in Zimbabwes Manicaland province say they want President Robert Mugabe to rule until he dies.

Their remarks are coming at a time when some war veterans recently endorsed Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa as President Mugabes heir apparent, saying he is the most senior person in the party to take over from the 92 year-old Zimbabwean leader, who has been in power for 36 years.

Mubuso Chinguno, chairperson of the ruling partys provincial Youth League, described the war veterans move as treasonous, stressing that no-one should be declared President Mugabes successor until he dies.

Chinguno attacked the war veterans said to be aligned to the Mnangagwa faction of party for going around Zimbabwe announcing the endorsement of the vice president as Mr. Mugabes successor.

He said there is currently no vacancy in the presidium, adding that they expect the president to die in office like his late deputies Joshua Nkomo, Simon Muzenda, Joseph Msika and John Nkomo.

First and foremost we in the Zanu PF party agreed from the onset that Cde Mugabe is our first secretary, president and also our candidate come 2018 elections; so the talk of endorsing people that is happening is being stubborn, rebellious, its the same as organizing a coup, its equally treasonous as well, he said.

But ex-combatant, Irvine Mbengo, and a member of Manicaland provincial executive of former freedom fighters, said a decision to have Mr. Mugabe rule to his grave cannot be made by a small group of Zanu PF youth.

Mbengo said such a decision should be broad-based and can be reached through a national referendum. He added that Zimbabwe, being a parliamentary democracy, has to subscribe to tenets of modern democracy with people making their own leadership choices.

The way forward on this is to hold democratic elections within the party or country, or a referendum, just like the controversial bond notes we need to do same, and the best way when one needs to introduce a controversial issue it has to be by a majority vote or referendum again.

Llyod Munguma, a political activist based in Manicaland province, described as misguided the Zanu PF youths suggestions that Mr. Mugabe should rule until he dies.

I think that is unacceptable and also totally nonsensical and as youths we are fighting for democracy in Zimbabwe, we are the future leaders and some bring up such a sick proposal that Mr. Mugabe dies in office. I find it quite absurd to say the least.

MDC-T Manicaland provincial spokesperson and Mutasa Central member of the National Assembly, Trevor Saruwaka, said such a call from the ruling party youth is regrettable.

I think thats a shame for the youngsters to make such a statement because as far as we are aware Mr. Mugabe has run his race and he is far past his sale by date and is now a liability to this country. What we expect from the youths is for them to call for his resignation. Zimbabwe cannot continue to live in the past, we need to forge ahead.

Last month, the Zanu PF youth organized what they called a One-Million-Man-March to show their allegiance to the ageing leader and asked President Mugabe to ensure that they get residential stands and land for agricultural purposes, among several other issues.

Two ruling party factions  one allegedly led by Mnangagwa and another by First Lady Grace Mugabe  are said to be fighting over the succession of Mr. Mugabe. The two have dismissed suggestions that they habour presidential ambitions.
Over 300 Zimbabwean students enrolled in various programs in Algeria under the Zimbabwe-Algeria Bilateral Scholarship Program claim that some of them have now turned into prostitution and drug dealing in order to survive as the government of Zimbabwe has failed to pay the agreed $3,000 allowances per student a year. They claim that attempts to seek help from the Zimbabwe Embassy in Algiers and state authorities back home have been in vain.

Zanu PF youths in Manicaland province have lashed out at war veterans for endorsing Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa for the presidency, saying the move is treasonous since the president is still in office. Two Zanu PF factions are fighting for the succession of the 92 year-old Zimbabwean leader.

Villagers of Dombwe, Zvimba communal lands in Mashonaland West province, who are on a food-for-work program, say they are being denied food after working for 15 days a month.

And a Zimbabwean living in Britain ventures into a dress-making project.

Stay tuned for these stories and more coming up on Studio 7 at 7:30 pm on 9-0-9 Medium Wave and on the 4-9-3-0, 5-9-4-0 and 1-5-4-6-0 shortwave frequencies. We also broadcast on www.channelzim.net. Please check us out on Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter.

This evening on Livetalk our hosts Gibbs Dube and Jonga Kandemiiri will be talking with listeners about the food situation in Zimbabwe. Some people under the food for work program claim that they are not even getting food after working for the state for 15 days a month.

Participate by sending your messages on our WhatsApp number 001 202 465 0318.You can also post comments on this Facebook wall or send us your number so we can call you back. Please note that we are livestreaming on all Studio 7 Facebook pages. Stay tuned!!!!!!
A high-level delegation led by Health Minister David Parirenyatwa is in New York for an annual meeting at the United Nations General Assembly, which started Wednesday and ends Friday.

Some people living with HIV/AIDS, representatives of the National Aids Council, parliamentarians, representatives of civic society groups like the Southern Africa HIV/AIDS Information Dissemination Service (SAfAIDS) are among Zimbabweans attending the meeting.

A statement issued by the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon on the UN website said, Ending the AIDS epidemic is a crucial part of achieving the sustainable development goals. The 2016 United Nations General Assembly high level meeting on ending AIDS can help close the gap between needs and services and advance our efforts to leave on one behind."

SAFAIDS director Lois Chingandu told VOA Studio 7 she is happy with the commitment shown by the Zimbabwean government in fighting HIV/AIDS despite the challenging economic situation in the country.

"Our biggest hope is to see a continued commitment to fight HIV/AIDS particularly by the governments of our countries and of the region," said Chingandu.

According to the United Nations, in 2015 the number of people accessing antiretroviral therapy worldwide reached nearly 16 million - double the number just five years earlier.

Chingandu said despite the declining economy in the country there are indications that the government is continuing with its obligation to fight HIV/AIDS using the monhtly AIDS levy.

"We have no doubt on government commitment to fighting HIV/AIDS because if we look historically even when Zimbabwe was at its lowest in the past five years the government has never gone back on its commitment on the national AIDS fund. We anticipate and have been assured that that commitment is going to continue irrespective of what is going on in the country, said Chingandu.
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Every week, Vulture highlights the best new music. If the song is worthy of your ears and attention, you will find it here. Read our picks below, share yours in the comments, and subscribe to the Vulture Playlist for a comprehensive guide to the years best music.

Drake, 4PM in Calabasas

From 9AM in Dallas to 5AM in Toronto to 6PM in New York, when Drake bothers to tell you the time of day he recorded the song, he means business. All three rank among his best pure rap performances, and each finds the Toronto rapper doing spring cleaning in his personal and professional life. 5AM is the one where he says everything on the radio sounds like Drake featuring Drake, and 6PM is the one where he tells Tyga, You need to act your age and not your girls age. The brand-new 4PM in Calabasas is more of the same: The vocal is simultaneously harder and more agile than any of the 20 songs on Aprils Views, and the production finds an unseen middle ground between the airy sonics of his team of Toronto hit-makers and the glossy funk of the jiggy era. Its not squarely apparent whether this is Diddy homage or mockery: The two once had a row over the beat for Drakes 0 to 100/The Catch-Up that is said to have come to blows, but is Drake really dark enough to wait three whole years to use the guys own catchphrases in a diss track? Who cares? This slaps. Craig Jenkins (@CraigSJ)

Pusha T ft. Jay Z, Drug Dealers Anonymous

There are many rappers whove built entire brands off tall tales about moving weight. Pusha T and Jay Z are elite storytellers, but they dont need to sell you fiction. You know the line I sold kilos of coke, Im guessin I can sell CDs? Yeah, that wasnt just Jay Z showing off. Google him, baby, you crazy. Like the man says in a rare guest spot alongside fellow kingpin Pusha T, Before Reasonable Doubt dropped, the jury hung, referencing the fork in the road Hov met when he turned from drugs to rap. Make no mistake, both Jay Z and Pushas drug-slinging days were very real, which is what makes them uniting on a song to trade pristine bars that vividly recount their come-up so refreshingly authentic. Youve got to have a past to rap about one. Id rather hear Jay Z flip the Damn, Daniel meme into a reference to the Feds any day over some struggle rapper whos never spent a day in the streets spin lies about their fake trap life. Beyonces husband was a drug dealer. For 14 years he did sell crack cocaine. But if Tomi Lahren thought she could get away with using either fact as an insult, ha. Dee Lockett (@Dee_Lockett)

Angel Olsen, Intern

Two years after the release of her excellent sophomore album Burn Your Fire for No Witness, Angel Olsen is finally back with a new song and what feels like it could be a new sonic direction. On Intern, soft synth lines replace the stomping rhythms and plucked acoustic guitars that characterized Burn Your Fire, but the thing that holds it all together is Olsens voice, which tantalizingly alternates between being drolly disaffected and warbling with emotion. Im gonna fall in love with you someday, Olsen sings at the songs climax. Its clear we already have. Samantha Rollins (@SamanthaRollins)

Kanye West, 2 Chainz, Big Sean, Gucci Mane, Quavo, Yo Gotti, Travis Scott, and Desiigner, Champions (Round and Round)

There is so much to parse with this song (just look at the lineup!), but like any excellent posse cut, we have to focus on the winning verses. 2 Chainz doesnt just have the best verse  he holds the title for most southern line on a song featuring Kanye maybe ever: I wear pajamas to Ruths Chris. Only 2 Chainz can get away with dining at an upscale steakhouse looking like he just rolled out of bed. Naturally, our runner-up is Gucci Mane, who, fresh out of prison, is wasting no time reclaiming his throne. Now that Guccis home its over for you Gucci clones, he eye-rolls on the first of two verses (hes earned it), pointing out what everyone else has been afraid to say since he got home. Special shout-out to Quavo (of Migos) for giving us a sort of hook that includes the line They tried to turn me to an animal / But white people think Im radical. Who needs summer when theres a Cruel Winter looming? DL



Bat for Lashes, Joes Dream

Theres a tear in my lovers eyes could be the opening line of every Bat for Lashes song. Shes the queen of melodramatic, aching love songs that are never as much about the act of loving as they are about the loss of love. Joes Dream is typically bathed in melancholy, and it haunts like every gorgeous Bat for Lashes song should. DL

Maxwell, 1990x

The name Maxwell next to the year 1990 should send an immediate shiver to anyones sweet spot. You already know what youre getting yourself into. The thing about Maxwell, though, is he makes it difficult to just press play on one of his songs and get to business. Theres no fucking to a Maxwell record; he forces you to fall so deep in love theres no climbing out. Just look at this lyric video: You start with sensual lip-biting, then suddenly you end up on the moon. At one point the man has the audacity to sing in that irresistible falsetto of his, Theres no song that defines it Theres no music behind it / Theres no lyric to read from / Its just you and the moment. And I swear, in that moment, we were infinitely played by the master of the tease. DL


What didnt he miss? Photo: Theo Wargo/WireImage

Now that weve reached the performance categories  musicals today, plays tomorrow  the time has come to discuss snubs and splits, none of which exist. Snubs are nominations that didnt happen, supposedly with deliberate malice. Benjamin Walker, it is said, was one such snubee; despite a much-praised performance as the title character in American Psycho, he did not reach the final five. This thinking presumes that the Tony nominators are a cabal capable and desirous of conspiring to punish individuals. In fact, there is no discussion among the nominators and the votes are blind. A more likely explanation is that they preferred other performances, or disliked American Psycho so much that Walker, however good they found him, could not, in their individual opinions, rise above it.

You also have to ask: Who among the best-actor nominees should Walker have displaced? With a maximum of five names in each category, and with the quality of performance at a very high level across the board, its inevitable that some actors giving excellent performances wont make the cut. I list a few of them below, after each category, without necessarily suggesting that someone else took their places unfairly. Awards for great performances are even more nonsensical than awards for great writing, which, being scarcer, is easier to discern. Splits are said to happen when several performers from one production, nominated in the same category, all lose, having divided the voters allegiances enough to allow a lesser performance to sneak through. I doubt this really happens; shows are not political parties. In any case, the matter will be tested this year by Hamilton, which has multiple nominees in both the leading- and featured-actor categories. Its hard to imagine that any voter trying to choose between, say, Lin-Manuel Miranda (as Hamilton) and Leslie Odom Jr. (as Burr) would mutter, Oh, screw it; Ill vote for Danny Burstein. Burstein made a terrific Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, an entirely rethought character from top to bottom; if he wins, it will be on his own merits, not on the agonies of a split vote.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical

That said, I doubt Burstein will win. Less so do I think that Alex Brightman, who plays Dewey in School of Rock, and Zachary Levi, the Me in She Loves Me, have much of a chance. Dewey is not so much a coherent character as a comic endurance test, which Brightman passes easily. But thats not the capital-A Acting voters usually look for. Levi, charming in a role that is possibly mislabeled as leading, faces a similar problem: She Loves Me is a comedy. Bursteins role, being both hefty and historical, is the only one in which an excellent performance might provide competition to Miranda and Odom, who together form the helix of Hamilton. Choosing between them is a difficult matter. Miranda is riveting, of course: by definition definitive in the role. (He wrote it to his strengths.) But Odom brings a higher polish to his role, and his technique has kept him at peak level for a year, even as Mirandas voice grows more ragged. Ive heard some voters say that because Miranda will likely receive three other major awards  Best Book, Best Score, and Best Musical (which technically is given to a shows producers)  he will magnanimously defer to Odom here. Voting doesnt work that way, though. If its true that he hopes Odom will win, I think hes going to go home triumphant and disappointed.

BOTTOM LINE

WILL WIN: Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton.

SHOULD WIN: Leslie Odom Jr., Hamilton.

SHOULD HAVE BEEN NOMINATED: None.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical

Audra McDonald, winner of six Tony awards in four different categories, in effect campaigned not to be nominated for another. Her humility was rewarded, but perhaps grudgingly so, because her performance as Lottie Gee in Shuffle Along is at her usual prize-worthy level. Or perhaps, in a season of terrific leading actress showings, the nominators were simply relieved to put McDonald aside with impunity. The job was already hard enough, and made harder by a different panels decision to consider Eliza Hamilton  Alexanders long-suffering wife  as a leading rather than a featured role. (She does get the shows last word.) That ruling lifted Phillipa Soo out of competition with her cast mate Renee Elise Goldsberry (nominated in the featured-role category) but into the oncoming path of an imposing and probably unbeatable diva phalanx.

Two of those divas are new to Broadway: Carmen Cusack and Cynthia Erivo. Cusack plays a complicated double role in Bright Star: the prickly editor of a literary magazine in the 1940s, and a spunky teenage version of herself in the 1920s. Shes terrific, but the show itself is a hobbled mess, and voters almost never give out best-in-a-lost-cause awards unless nothing better is available. Something better is: Erivo in the revival of The Color Purple. Her performance as Celie, universally acclaimed, is not only good in itself but is part of the redemption of the property, which now seems so much more powerful than it did a decade ago.

The two newbies face two much-loved Broadway stalwarts, each with a previous Best Actress award. In Waitress, Jessie Mueller once again combines uncanny mimicry of a pop star  this time Sara Bareilles instead of Carole King  with the kind of personal intensity that overrides potholes in the writing. In She Loves Me, there are no potholes for Laura Benanti to override; its a perfect musical. All Benanti has to do is give a perfect performance, which she does.

BOTTOM LINE

WILL WIN: Cynthia Erivo, The Color Purple.

SHOULD WIN: Cynthia Erivo, The Color Purple.

SHOULD HAVE BEEN NOMINATED: Audra McDonald, Shuffle Along.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical

If splits existed, this is where one would happen. Daveed Diggs, Jonathan Groff, and Christopher Jackson are all nominated for their performances in Hamilton. As King George III, with about ten minutes of stage time, Groff has the kind of supporting role that voters sometimes reward: a secondary or even tertiary character who makes a strong, quick impression and then goes back to the dressing room. (Groff sings Youll Be Back and two reprises thereof at different points in the action.) Christopher Fitzgerald in Waitress has another such role: strange little Ogie, whose one big number  Never Ever Getting Rid of Me  stops the show even though its basically a defense of stalking. Brandon Victor Dixons role in Shuffle Along is more central; he plays Eubie Blake, the real-life composer of the shows tunes. But Shuffle Along has a very big center. (Brian Stokes Mitchell, Joshua Henry, and Billy Porter also share it, not to mention McDonald.) For those reasons, and also the fact that Groff did not create his role  Brian DArcy James did, off Broadway  I think it comes down to the two other Hamilton men.

It would seem hard to beat a guy playing George Washington, the superego of the revolutionary project as Miranda has reimagined it. (Hamilton is the restless ego, and Burr the id.) But Jacksons interpretation is more than schematic; his Washington is as passionate on the inside as he is stern on the outside. In some ways, his is the most, well, revolutionary portrait in the show, since the real man is such a familiar icon. Not so Hamilton, nor the first of two characters played by Diggs, the Marquis de Lafayette. And though Diggss second character, Thomas Jefferson, is much better known, the role isnt much based on his real personality; hes a comic foil. Tony lore suggests that the more central, serious role would win, but in this case the buzz is mostly in Diggss favor. Hamilton is a dark work, its humor mostly arriving in the abstract form of puns, rhymes, and anachronisms. Diggs is the only actor in the middle of the action who gets to break through that. It doesnt hurt that, in addition to his mile-a-minute rap skills, he has a terrific singing voice, a sure physicality, and a killer smile. Audiences will probably get to see that smile in full glory on Sunday.

BOTTOM LINE

WILL WIN: Daveed Diggs, Hamilton.

SHOULD WIN: Daveed Diggs, Hamilton.

SHOULD HAVE BEEN NOMINATED: Billy Porter, Shuffle Along.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical

Lets just start with Jennifer Simard, the sole survivor of the sunk ship that was Disaster! (It closed last month, having hobbled through 104 performances.) For all the usual reasons  the role was small; the show was, nominally, a comedy; its gone  shes not going to win the award. But, boy, was she funny as the requisite nun in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Everyone else in this category was lucky to be handed the opposite situation, and smart enough to make the most of it. The most surprising, perhaps, was Danielle Brooks, previously known as Taystee on Orange Is the New Black, playing the indomitable Sophia in The Color Purple. The role is natural award-bait (it brought Oprah an Oscar nomination in the movie version) but Brooks, under John Doyles direction, makes it her own. Still, its the third lead in a top-heavy show, a situation that also diminishes the chances of Adrienne Warren in Shuffle Along. (She plays two minor characters, both marvelously.) That leaves Jane Krakowski in She Loves Me and Renee Elise Goldsberry in Hamilton. Krakowski, who has twice previously been nominated for a Tony, and won for Nine, plays Ilona Ritter, the heroines humorously dim and romantically unlucky sidekick; the casting would perhaps even seem too on-the-nose, given Krakowskis 30 Rock persona, were it not for her tremendous stage-likability (and a dress slit to the hip for dancing). But Goldsberry, as Angelica Schuyler, has a more challenging job; she is both Hamiltons sister-in-law and his muse, with a lifetime of diverted feeling to master. Its the kind of plum supporting role they dont write any more, except when they do.

BOTTOM LINE

WILL WIN: Renee Elise Goldsberry, Hamilton.

SHOULD WIN: Renee Elise Goldsberry, Hamilton.

SHOULD HAVE BEEN NOMINATED: Jennifer Hudson, The Color Purple.

Tomorrow, well look at the races for performers in non-musical plays.

The Tonys will air on CBS on Sunday, June 12.
Waco-McLennan County Library will continue its Summer Showcase with a free Zooniversity! Animal Fun program at 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Wednesday at the West Waco Library, 5301 Bosque Blvd.

Other showcase programs include:

Mad Science! featuring exciting demonstrations of hands-on science experiments, at 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Thursday at the Central Library, 1717 Austin Ave.

BaGar Theater presentation of Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock at 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Friday at the South Waco Library, 2737 S. 18th St.

For more information, call visit www.waco library.org.

Waco Friends of Peace

Waco Friends of Peace/Climate will have a screening of the documentary Racing Extinction at 6 p.m. Thursday at Poppa Rollas PIzza, 703 N. Valley Mills Drive.

The film shows a relationship between climate change and what scientists call the sixth mass extinction, and exposes an illegal international wildlife trade.

The free lecture will include a pizza and salad buffet.

For more information, visit www.friendsofpeace.org.

RiverSounds relocates

McLennan Community Colleges RiverSounds Concert Series will continue with a free concert by Ruthie Foster and Emily Gimble at 8 p.m. Thursday at McLennan Community Colleges Highlands Gym.

The concert has been moved from MCCs Bosque River Stage because of recent flooding.

For more information, visit www.mclennan.edu/brs.

Desert Storm vets

Veterans One Stop, 2010 LaSalle Ave., will hold an educational seminar for veterans of Operation Desert Storm and their families at 6 p.m. Thursday.

The free program will cover symptoms of Gulf War illness and how to seek treatment.

For more information, call 744-0351.

Lorena AARP

Lorena AARP Chapter 5198 will meet at 11 a.m. Thursday at the West Waco Library, 5301 Bosque Blvd.

For more information, call Jean Woodard at 857-4724.

MCC tele-course

McLennan Community College will accept applications through Thursday for a basic emergency telecommunicator course that prepares students for a profession in emergency communications.

The course is approved by the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement and will be from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays from June 20 to July 7.

Tuition cost is $163.
Waco City Council on Tuesday chose James C. Holmes, an investment banking executive, to fill the District 5 council seat recently vacated by Mayor Kyle Deaver.

Holmes was sworn in and seated after a 6-0 vote, which culminated an afternoon of public interviews of nine candidates interested in the one-year term. The district represents West Waco, China Spring and the South Bosque area.

Deaver, who moved up to mayor after the May 7 election, said Holmes impressed the council with his enthusiasm and his financial abilities.

We felt Jim had the right skill set with all his history running different businesses, he said.

Holmes, 59, who goes by Jim, said he was surprised by the choice given the strong slate of candidates.

Im thankful for your confidence in my ability to do this, he told the council. You have all set the bar very high. . . . I wont let you down. Im here to work 24/7 to represent District 5.

Holmes is director and former chief operating officer of Waco-based FirstCity Commercial Corp., which was bought by Trimont Real Estate Services. He is a director of eight other varied businesses in Texas, California, Mexico and Chile.

A native of rural Nebraska, he attended Baylor Law School but dropped out to work at Mbank in 1984, then joined J-Hawk owner Jim Hawkins and others in establishing FirstCity in Waco in 1991.

He has traveled the globe for business and adventure, and he said he is always mindful of his role as an ambassador for Waco. That used to mean educating people about the Branch Davidian catastrophe, but now it means talking about Baylor Universitys progress and the Magnolia Fixer Upper phenomenon.

Its a great thing to be able to talk about Waco as a cool place, he said in the council interview.

Holmes serves on the board of the Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce and the Waco Symphony Orchestra and is a lay leader at St. Louis Catholic Church. His resume does not include service on city boards and commissions, in contrast with several other candidates.

The list included LaRaine DuPuy, vice chairwoman of the City Plan Commission, as well as attorney Wes Filer and Roger Fuller, both veterans of the Plan Commission and other city boards.

Other candidates were Dr. Brad Holland and Dr. Clay Sawyer, both leaders in the Waco medical community; financial adviser and Waco Aviation Board member Tom Flowers; investor Edward Getterman; and social worker Jennifer Hobbs.

In an interview after the meeting, Holmes said he expects to run again for a full term in next Mays elections.

He said he is looking forward to digging into economic development, especially in downtown.

Im very bullish on whats happening in downtown Waco, Holmes said. We went walking around this Saturday from the farmers market to the Texas Ranger Museum. It looks like its all ready to build out.
The ex-wife of a McLennan County Sheriffs Office dog handler collected a $30,000 settlement this week from the countys insurance carrier over injuries to her two sons caused by the aggressive dog named Ace, a former county-owned narcotics and apprehension dog.

Penny Walter filed a lawsuit against the county in May, seeking compensation for a dog bite to her older sons forehead and leash burns along the neck of her younger son, which occurred in June 2015.

Waco attorney Mike Dixon, who represents McLennan County, said the countys insurance risk pool made the decision to settle the lawsuit with Walter, which was finalized Tuesday in Wacos 414th State District Court.

In reviewing the situation, it was pretty apparent that the plaintiff was committed to pursuing the lawsuit, and obviously, the costs of litigation are pretty significant, Dixon said. So the risk pool, factoring everything in, decided to settle this case, as it has the right to do. There wasnt an actual lawsuit at the time the settlement was reached. But the suit was filed as a friendly suit to get court approval for settlements involving minors.

Walter is represented by Austin attorney Vic Feazell, a former McLennan County district attorney, who did not return phone messages Wednesday.

Ace, who cost the county $15,000, is a Belgian Malinois that also bit the arm of a deputy in what Sheriff Parnell McNamara determined to be an improper training exercise. He was retired by the county in April.

County commissioners approved an agreement to transfer Ace to the United States K-9 Unlimited law enforcement dog training academy in Kaplan, Louisiana. Ace was initially trained at the academy and then was sent back for a remedial session after he became more aggressive and harder to handle.

In the agreement, Dixon wrote that the county transferred ownership and possession of the 3-year-old dog to K-9 Unlimited without warranty AS IS and WITH ALL FAULTS, if any. When asked about the reference to faults, Dixon said the terms merely are legal jargon.

He has been deactivated from service in McLennan County and sent back to a training center, Dixon said. The sheriffs office is going away from bite dogs, that is, dogs that are used in the assistance of apprehension, and going completely to narcotics and explosive detection dogs. There was not a need for him anymore, and the best option was to send him back where he came from, because otherwise the county would still have the obligation and spend thousands of dollars every year to care for him.

The boys were on a weekend visit with their father, Deputy Esteban Bustillos, when Ace got startled and bit the older boy on the forehead, Dixon said.

It was not a major injury but required stitches, Dixon said. The other boy had a leash burn from getting caught up in the dogs leash while the dog was running. He had a burn across his neck, but neither one had permanent injuries.

McNamara reprimanded a former office K-9 handler 18 months ago after an internal investigation revealed the corporals tactics transformed Ace, the once-sociable, skilled narcotics dog, into a vicious animal that bit a deputy twice on the arm.

Investigation launched

Deputies launched the internal investigation after Aces aggressive behavior was so concerning to the training staff at the Louisiana training academy that they sent Bustillos, Aces new deputy handler at the time, home early from what was supposed to be a five-week school.

According to reports, a trainer at the United States K9 Unlimited dog training academy said Ace exhibited major behavioral issues, including lunging at Bustillos and trying to bite others around him.

Somehow, Ace developed some issues, and they need to be fixed, trainer Debbie McLean wrote to sheriffs office administrators. At the current point, there is a very high possibility that Ace will injure someone. There were no issues with Ace when (Cpl.) Joseph Ballew certified last January 2014. From many, many years of experience, our trainers can acknowledge that allowing people to pick on or constantly tease the dog causes traits such as these.

Ballew, a 10-year sheriffs office veteran, was Aces handler before the dog and the departments other K-9, Impulse, a 6-year-old German shepherd, were transferred from the patrol division to McNamaras Organized Crime Unit.

Ballew elected to stay in patrol so he wouldnt have to take a pay cut, so Bustillos took over as Aces handler, McNamara said at the time.

Ballews training methods and other incidents involving Ace, including his twice biting the arm of Deputy James Wolfe in the patrol office on Washington Avenue, were criticized by supervisors and others in the internal investigation, leading to the sheriffs reprimand.

McNamara said the reprimand was for training Ace in an unauthorized area on the day Wolfe was bitten. His injuries were minor, and Wolfe declined medical treatment, McNamara said last year.

Ballew denied the findings in the internal report last year, calling it completely one-sided.

He said at the time that he would not do anything detrimental to the dog or its training.
Woodway Public Safety officers began investigating the group after reports from officials at H-E-B Plus!, 9100 Woodway Drive, that at least 10 checks totaling $67,000 appeared to be fraudulent. Officials reported the checks were cashed by at least 10 different suspects April 3.
Waco police arrested a 37-year-old woman Monday after her 78-year-old neighbor reported a string of burglaries at her East Waco home that started in the weeks before Christmas, Waco police Sgt. W. Patrick Swanton said.

The woman was on probation on two convictions for crimes against the elderly when she was arrested Monday, Swanton said.

Lashonda Marie Mims, of Waco, was arrested after her neighbor noticed cash and checks missing from her home in the 2700 block of Old Marlin Road in February. The suspicious activity continued, prompting the victims nephew to install a home surveillance camera in the womans home, Swanton said.

The camera captured a woman police identified as Mims going into the house while the elderly woman was asleep and taking cash and checks, Swanton said.

According to the arrest affidavit for Mims, the burglaries began about three weeks before Christmas and continued on a weekly basis. The victim told police in February about $3,500 in cash was missing.

Before identifying the suspect as Mims, Waco detectives posted images of her to social media in April. She was arrested Monday on three counts of burglary of a habitation and was taken to McLennan County Jail. Police said additional charges are pending.

People will set up cameras all the time, like nanny cams or baby cams, or set up wildlife cameras out on their property and houses, and it can definitely help us in solving these types of crime, Swanton said. This is what helped us solve this case.

During the investigation, police learned Mims was convicted last year of theft from an elderly person and credit card abuse against an elderly person, Swanton said. She was on probation on those convictions when she was arrested Monday, he said.

Mims previously worked for a home health care provider for senior citizens, Swanton said.

She was convicted of using a clients credit card to pay for phone bills and stealing more than $15,000 in jewelry from another client, who was 92 years old at the time, he said.

Swanton said Mims and her daughter were arrested after pawning jewelry in Waco. Swanton said police recovered property from various pawn shops.

To take advantage of an elderly person like this, these kinds of people just need to be in jail when they are preying on innocent elderly citizens, Swanton said. We are fortunate to get this lady in jail, especially in light that she has done this in the past.

Mims remained in McLennan County Jail on Tuesday in lieu of a $30,000 bond.
The Brazos River through Waco is expected to rise this week as Lake Waco and Lake Whitney begin releasing floodwaters that have approached near-record levels.

But the Brazos is not expected to rise high enough to swamp flood-prone homes in McLennan County, according to local and federal officials.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began gradually opening gates Tuesday, and by Wednesday morning, officials were expecting flows of 6,000 cubic feet per second from Lake Waco and 24,000 cubic feet per second at Lake Whitney.

Frank Patterson, coordinator for the Waco-McLennan County Office of Emergency Management, said he expects Brazos flows this week through Waco of about 30,000 cubic feet per second, based on discussions with the Corps.

The Honey Lane residential area of Downsville normally floods when the Brazos hits 34,000 cubic feet per second, as it did around Halloween last year. There are no plans to evacuate that area in the near future, barring further rains, Patterson said.

Our goal is not to flood any house, he said. My goal is to continue to communicate with the Corps to keep that from being an issue.

Lake Whitney, Lake Waco and several other Central Texas lakes have spent the last week holding back heavy rainfall runoff in order to protect already flooded areas far downstream on the Brazos River in Rosenberg and Richmond. Parks and roads around both lakes are closed indefinitely.

Lake Waco on Tuesday evening stood at 484.52 feet above sea level  up 22.3 feet above normal and about level with Mondays reading.

Lake Whitney was continuing to rise Tuesday, reaching 560.9 feet  27.9 feet above normal.

Lake Whitney lake manager Abraham Phillips said about 31,000 cubic feet of water per second were rushing into the lake Tuesday from the Brazos and other major tributaries, but he expected the ramped-up releases to help stabilize the levels.

Its significantly slowing down, Phillips said.

Phillips said he hopes to reopen some lake park facilities by Labor Day. Lake Waco officials have said most lake parks here also will be closed most of the summer.
A specially called Bellmead City Council meeting Tuesday to discuss hiring a former Prairie View police chief to investigate the citys police department was canceled because not enough elected officials showed up for a majority vote. Three of the six voting council members were present.

Mayor Gary Moore called the meeting to discuss hiring Larry Johnson for $8,000 to investigate the turnover rate at the citys police department. Johnsons tenure in Prairie View included one of his officers assisting in the arrest of Sandra Bland and another officer using a stun gun on a city council member.

Moore and Bellmead council members Mark Pace and Ernest Anz were the only elected officials at the meeting. Pace and Anz were each elected to the council last month.

Council members Travis Gibson, Doss Youngblood and Alfreda Love did not attend. The meeting was canceled seven minutes after it was supposed to start.

Youngblood and Love did not return calls for comment. Gibson could not be reached.

Moore said he will place the decision on whether to hire Johnson on the agenda for the next meeting June 14.

This is my cake, and Im eatin it. Im the one that called it, Moore said after the meeting.

He said he knew the other council members wouldnt show.

Asked about the a lack of a voting majority forcing the cancelation of the meeting, Pace said, I expected us to have a meeting is all I can tell you.

Moore raised the issue of investigating the police department during the councils May 24 meeting. He tried to move the city council into executive session during the meeting and then began to discuss an investigation in public session. Conversations were halted when the city attorney pointed out the topic was not listed on the agenda.

Moore asked the council to hold a special meeting before the June 14 meeting to discuss the matter but did not receive support. Several council members said at that time they wanted to wait until the next regularly scheduled meeting.
The pen is mightier than the sword, goes the timeworn adage, and for two writing workshops in Waco this June, the pen may help those who have used the sword.

Veteran Writes, a project of Dallas-based The Writers Garret, will lead a weekly writing workshop for veterans and their spouses beginning Thursday at the Doris Miller Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Waco and a broader June 18 workshop and panel discussion, Writing as a Healing Practice, at the West Waco Library, 5301 Bosque Blvd.

Leading the weekly Learning to Share Your Story workshop is Austin writer Leila Levinson, author of the 2013 Texas Nonfiction Book Award finalist Gated Grief. Levinson teaches writing at St. Edwards University in Austin and for three years has led writing workshops for veterans in Austin.

Her family experience got her involved in the subject, she said in a phone interview. Her father, Reuben Levinson, was a World War II Army captain, a surgeon with the Third Army, Seventh Corps, but rarely talked about it.

But Levinson stumbled across a shoebox filled with his war photos one day and discovered a deeper, detailed look at her fathers experience, from the Allied landing at Utah Beach on D-Day to the Battle of the Bulge and the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps near the wars end. She wondered why her father didnt talk about any of this.

It was a light-bulb moment, she recalled.

Levinson later undertook a book project in which she interviewed more than 100 World War II veterans involved in freeing the survivors of Nazi work and death camps. Decades later, some veterans still could not put words to their memories.

They were clearly still in the grip of the shock and horror of what they had found in the camps, she said.

But as some veterans talked about their experiences, they discovered ways to process and cope with traumatic memories.

The process of writing can prove healing for veterans with painful memories and suppressed emotions, research suggests, and Levinson, winner of the Military Writers Societys 2011 Presidents Award, thinks the focus needed to describe something in words plays a key role in that healing.

Mindfulness is a valuable strategy for vets. . . . When you put something on the page, it makes it organized from the swirling chaos of our feelings and memories, Levinson said.

Waco veteran Robert Cervantes, a research data manager with the Department of Veterans Affairs in Waco and a U.S. Army veteran with two tours of duty in Iraq, is a believer in writing as therapy and plans to attend the June workshop. Cervantes, 42, had two deployments in Baghdad between 2002 and 2008, the first as a private, the second as a noncommissioned officer and each with their own stresses and emotional pressures.

Trained as an artilleryman, Cervantes found his unit assigned to infantry patrol duties, and the experience of front-line combat left him with post-traumatic stress disorder, as the majority of the soldiers he served with. Writing was part of his therapy upon returning and it helped.

What a vet thinks in his head is not always reality, but built up from that self-talk that we do, he said. Those memories tucked away are brought to the surface (in writing), and only by listening to or reliving those deeper memories do you understand that.

Prompts and exercises

Though attuned to the experiences and perspectives of veterans, Levinson addresses more of the mechanics of writing, using writing prompts and exercises to get workshop participants busy writing rather than second-guessing.

Its an irony that we have to have rules to eliminate rule-making, she said. Theres no magic to any of this.

Sometimes writing exercises are shared with others in the group, but often not. What is surprising is that participants often dont write about their military experiences, Levinson said.

Its all over the place. A lot (of participants) ended up writing about childhood stuff or their relationships with their children, she said.

That is no surprise to Cervantes, who notes that veterans coming home from war are still are individual personalities and each handles problems in his or her way. For some, writing helps. For others, group discussion or activities such as fishing do the trick.

Its important to try, he said.

The June 18 panel discussion, held from 1 to 2:30 p.m., takes a broader look at the healing work of writing, with Levinson joined by authors Jack Woodville London, Ruth Pennebaker and Wacos Jenuine Poetess.

Poetess, founder of the Waco Poets Society, also is involved with therapeutic creative writing programs for youth at Klaras Center for Families and the Texas Juvenile Justice Department facility in Mart.

Grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Texas Commission on the Arts are funding the two programs.

Veteran Writes Workshop: Learning to Share Your Story will be held from 4:30 to 6 p.m. Thursdays in June at the Building 91 Conference Room, Doris Miller Department of Veterans Affairs, 4800 Memorial Drive.

To register for the Learning to Share Your Story workshop, go to learningtoshareyourstory. eventbrite.com. For information on the June 18 Writing as a Healing Practice discussion, contact Maggie McCarthy at geemaggie@gmail.com.
I left Waco in 2010 and moved to the cool woods of Minnesota at the other end of Interstate 35. That interstate is a road I have traversed many times between the two spots. Smack in the middle is a fascinating place: the Flint Hills of Kansas.

Every spring, the tallgrass prairie there burns, red flames and smoke against a stark blue sky. Its not an anomaly; rather, its how the ecology there is constructed. Grow, dry and burn  a cycle that repeats like clockwork.

Unfortunately, the political ecosystem at Baylor University bears an uncomfortable resemblance to the Kansas prairie. The last three presidents at Baylor (Robert Sloan, John Lilley and Ken Starr) have all been fired by the board of regents. Each time, there has been a wave of controversy, conflict and humiliation for the departing executive. The grow-and-purge cycle that is good for the prairie is not good for a university.

The one constant through this pattern of calm and tumult is a board of regents that consecutively embraces and rejects leaders. To fix this problem, they must go beyond just picking a new president they think will do a great job; after all, thats how the past three cycles began. It is time for the board to re-evaluate how it engages with the university and the contentious issues that crop up at any university.

The latest upheaval is rooted in a legitimate and important concern. The Pepper Hamilton report presented to the board included allegations that Baylor officials not only failed to address rape allegations but in at least one instance retaliated against someone who complained of rape. That is, as the board put it, horrifying. While many have weighed in for or against the boards actions in response to the report, I wont do that here. If I learned one thing as a federal prosecutor, it was this: Dont decide a matter while key facts are obscured. Here, most key facts about who did what and when are still cloaked in darkness.

So why cant Baylor enjoy a presidency that does not end in flames?

My hunch is that secrecy has something to do with the problem. Discussions of troubling subjects are too often tightly confined to the board of regents itself. Tensions build among the members of that board like volatile chemicals in a bottle till it explodes. In more functional schools, a regular burbling of public debate that includes governing bodies leads to a different type of chemistry. A more active, ongoing discussion between the governing board and various stakeholders outside formal meetings must be part of the solution at Baylor. Trusting the president of Baylor simply to relay all concerns has not worked out.

One element of that change should involve the relationship between the board of regents and Baylor students. Yes, there is a nonvoting student representative on the board, but no one student can represent the voices of an entire, diverse student body. A broader engagement is needed if the true urgency of an issue like the rape of students is to be addressed. Those discussions can then inform the directions that the board gives to the president and other officials.

One step toward this kind of openness would be allowing Pepper Hamilton to make a presentation on its findings directly to the students of Baylor. I understand there is no written report to release. However, the skilled attorneys who briefed the board should do the same for the very people who were put at risk and answer their questions (while protecting confidential information about individual victims). That would signal a new outlook. It also invites the students into a role as valued participants in a process and outcome that ultimately is about them.

Eleven years ago, I got to be part of a remarkable event. Bill Underwood had just been chosen as interim president of Baylor, and I sat on the stage with Underwood and Interim Provost Randall OBrien as in turn we addressed a raucous crowd in Waco Hall. At the end of the session, no one knew quite what to do. As the crowd watched, Underwood, a tall man, simply strode straight out of the auditorium. When he opened the back door, the stark, strong sunlight of Texas in June suddenly flooded in  that best disinfectant of transparency that Judge Starr recently referred to, quoting Justice Louis Brandeis. In this time of tumult, the board of regents should strive for sunlight and move boldly to break the pattern of growth and destruction that is better suited to an old prairie than a great school.

Formerly of the Baylor Law School faculty, Mark Osler is the Robert & Marion Short Distinguished Chair at the University of St. Thomas School of Law.
Our criminal justice system is built on a very basic principle of innocent till proven guilty. It works well and creates fairness. Yet our bail system is tied to money and in many cases is anything but fair.

While our jails are not meant to house innocent people, many county jails are doing just that. In our major cities, approximately 70 percent of people being held in county jails are awaiting trial despite the fact that people are presumed innocent under our justice system.

One of the biggest issues is with our mental health population sitting in jails. Instead of getting treatment, theyre stored away in a box awaiting trial for crimes they may, or may not, have committed  crimes that may have been brought on by the mental issues that arent being appropriately identified or treated within the county jail system.

The external consequences of jail are harsh. While they are in jail, they are not working. Many lose their jobs, their health insurance, cant make child support payments and are denied access to their families. Without a job, they cant pay rent or make house payments, so they may end up homeless by the end of the process. A whole list of things that someone presumed innocent shouldnt have happen to them.

Keeping violent criminals who are a danger to others behind bars is paramount. But for the rest of the population, especially those who are innocent, there must be a better system than the one we have now. The system of today works mainly on the critical factor of whether you have money for bail or not.

Moneys a great motivator for many things. It can motivate people to show up for court, and the lack of money can keep violent criminals behind bars till trial. It also can punish the poor unfairly and destroy lives of people who dont deserve it.

There is a better way. The Laura and John Arnold Foundation has developed one possible solution: a Public Safety Assessment Tool. It takes money out of the equation and replaces it with data. A judge would use a set of unbiased risk factors for each case to determine whether it is safe to release a defendant to await trial at home instead of in a county jail.

That would mean the defendant could potentially keep his or her job and other commitments while awaiting trial; stay on schedule with medication and mental health treatment; and keep personal commitments with family.

It also would mean that those people who are dangerous would be kept where they belong, in jail removed from society, while they await trial regardless of how much is in their checking account.

Reforming the system in this way would take away much of the economic prejudice of the current system; save county taxpayers the cost of housing people presumed innocent; and make our justice system run more smoothly.

This kind of change wont be easy to implement. The current process means big money to some powerful interests. It, however, is something we must consider when the Legislature returns next year.

We all would like to think that we have the fairest criminal justice system in the world, and in many respects we do, but we can always do better. This would be one giant step in making the system more fair and our streets safe.

Texas has long been a leader in criminal justice reform. It is time to take the lead again.

Cathy DeWitt is vice president of government affairs of the Texas Association of Business, which works to improve the Texas business climate and to help make our states economy the strongest in the world.
The idea of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other Republicans expressing shock and outrage at Republican presidential nominee Donald Trumps latest burst of racism reminds us of Aesops fable of the frog and the scorpion. For the past 10 months, Trump has served up evidence almost daily of his true nature  and now, weeks after endorsing him to unify their party, they condemn him for his statements involving a Mexican judge whos actually an American.

Who do these people think theyre fooling?

For days, Trump has attacked a federal judge presiding over civil cases involving Trump University because of the judges Hispanic heritage. Trump claims U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel is a Mexican judge and, because of Trumps attacks on Mexican immigrants as rapists and vow to build a wall to keep them out, he claims the judge, by his ethnicity, can be presumed biased against Trump in this legal case.

Even for Republicans who ignored Trumps attacks on POWs (losers), women, Muslims and the handicapped, this proved too much. The judge, whose elevation to the judiciary began with a Republican governor, was born in Indiana. As an assistant U.S. attorney, Curiel prosecuted drug cartels so vigorously that he was targeted for assassination. This is the courageous jurist Trump believes is unfit to preside over his personal legal battle  this Mexican judge.

This has nothing to do with being politically correct, as Trump defenders cravenly claim whenever he launches a visceral attack on someones race, sex or religion. This is racism. Some days ago, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, a Texas Republican for whom we have had great respect, asked rhetorically how any Republican could not support the Republican presidential nominee. Well, senator, heres a pretty good reason.

If McConnell and Cornyn expect us to believe they do not condone Trumps racism (and his odious threat of retribution upon Judge Curiel once hes president), they have a chance to prove it  and not by fickle words but by action. They must hold hearings for President Obamas Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, and hold an up-or-down vote on him  now. And they must explain why they do this  to show everyday Americans, if not Trump, that the Republican Party will not risk the judiciarys makeup and integrity to such demagoguery.

Trumps suggestion that Hispanics have loyalty to Mexico, not the United States, disqualifies him from picking any federal judges. And we fear some nominees Hillary Clinton might well put forward. Obama has shrewdly given Republicans a way out with a judicial moderate of impeccable credentials, now left sitting on the political sidelines. Republican leaders should prove they dont share Trumps contempt for American principles. But do they have the guts?
ALVO  The Nebraska Department of Roads will hold an Information Open House on Thursday, June 16 regarding the proposed improvement of Nebraska Highway 63 in Cass County, known as Alvo North.

The open house will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Alvo Fire Station, Fire Department and Rescue Squad Meeting Room, 135 Main Street, in Alvo.

The proposed project would begin just south of the northern corporate limits of the Village of Alvo, at mile marker 4.20, and extend north to mile marker 10.49, approximately 0.32 miles south of the Interstate 80 and Highway 63 interchange.

The planned construction would replace the existing asphalt pavement with doweled concrete pavement on a shifted alignment for approximately 6.29 miles, which would include 0.14 miles of shoulder work on Highway 63. The alignment of Highway 63 would be shifted to the west or east of the existing highway centerline at various locations along the project to minimize impacts to streams, wetlands, homes, and two cemeteries.

Construction could begin as early as spring of 2017 with completion by fall of 2018. The proposed project would be constructed in two phases and would require detouring Highway 63traffic. A designated detour would be provided, utilizing U.S. Highway 34, Nebraska Highway 50, Nebraska Highway 66 and I-80.

Phase 1 would begin in spring of 2017 and take approximately one construction season. It is anticipated that work would begin on the south end, just north of Alvo, and extend to a point south of Church Road. The detour would be temporarily lifted during the winter of 2017 and put back in place in the spring of 2018 to begin work on Phase 2.

Work would begin a point south of Church Road to the end of the project, just south of the I-80 Interchange, and would be complete by fall of 2018. During the 2018 construction season (Phase 2) the already completed south portion of the highway would be made available to local traffic.

The proposed project would require the acquisition of additional property rights from adjacent landowners, which includes new right-of-way, permanent easements and temporary easements, for construction throughout the project area.

Access to adjacent properties would be maintained during construction, but may be limited at times due to phasing requirements.

Personnel from the Department of Roads will be at the open house to answer questions, receive comments, and discuss any aspect of the proposed highway improvement project.

Information regarding the project will be available after the meeting on the NDOR website at www.roads.nebraska.gov/projects/future-projects/ by clicking on the Alvo North link.
ASHLAND  Carol Joy Holling Camp near Ashland sanitized its buildings and took extra precautions before campers arrive after it was confirmed that one of the camps staff members has the mumps.

The staff member was sent to the emergency room on May 29 after he showed symptoms of the viral illness. The staff member, who was vaccinated, was quarantined at home, where he will stay until its safe for him to return to camp.

The case is tied to an outbreak of mumps among students at Midland University in Fremont that was first reported in May. The staff member incubated the illness while a student there, according to Casey Fuerst, communications director for Nebraska Lutheran Outdoor Ministries.

Ten cases of mumps were reported among students at Midland University in May. Officials said the outbreak began in April and all of the students involved had been vaccinated. The source of the virus is being investigated.

When the cases were initially reported, HHS warned the outbreak could spread to other areas as students returned home for summer break.

The number of cases related to the Midland outbreak has since more than doubled to 23 as of Friday afternoon. New cases have been reported in Cass, Douglas, Dodge, Hall, Madison and Platte counties in Nebraska in the past week.

The camp is owned and operated by Nebraska Lutheran Outdoor Ministries and serves 1,700 campers and 20,000 other guests annually. Summer camp started on Sunday and has weekly sessions running through July 28.

When the mumps case was confirmed, all exposed surfaces were sanitized, and this year all campers will have to be vaccinated to attend, said Fuerst.

Children arriving at camp who have had both doses of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine will be encouraged to get the booster shot, Fuerst said. The Three Rivers Public Health Department and the Sarpy/Cass Department of Health and Wellness will be providing the vaccinations at camp check-in for free.

Campers that received only one dose of the vaccine will need to get the booster. If campers have never received the vaccine, they cannot attend the camp immediately. If they choose to get the vaccine, they can attend later.

Terra Uhing, executive director of the Three Rivers Public Health Department, said that speaking as a mother, she would not hesitate to send her kids to camp.

But Uhing said people should avoid things like sharing utensils or drinking out of the same cup. Washing hands often and covering noses and mouths when coughing and sneezing also is encouraged.

Mumps is a highly contagious virus that causes swelling of the glands in the face and neck. Symptoms include ear ache, jaw pain, testicular pain, fever, fatigue and muscle aches, according to the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services.

It is spread by coughing, sneezing and sharing saliva, and people are most contagious three days before and five days after their symptoms begin.

About one in three people with mumps may have no symptoms or symptoms may be very mild, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Mumps can be the most severe in adulthood and can lead to meningitis, an infection of the covering around the brain and spinal cord, according to the CDC. About 15 percent of adults with mumps develop meningitis, but most adults recover within about 10 days.

The effectiveness of the MMR vaccine can wane over time. The CDC recommends that children get the first MMR dose at 12 to 15 months of age and the second at 4 to 6 years of age.

Leah Bucco-White, spokeswoman for HHS, said the outbreak is ongoing, and officials are concerned about the possibility of further spread.

If people start experiencing mumps-like symptoms, they should contact their health care provider, and weve alerted health care providers to be on the lookout for mumps cases, she said.
Celebrated American author Mark Twain may have said it best: Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didnt do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

Humans exhibit a wanderlust that is ingrained in our souls. It propels us to places that are unfamiliar or even uncomfortable in an attempt to learn and grow and enjoy. Even those who do not dream of traveling far, still long for something that is different from their every day life.

Our readers dream of travel that takes them just a few states away, across the ocean or to the northernmost reaches of our country. But the idea of travel doesnt have to be a far off destination. Adventures await even within walking distance. It is the dream of someplace exotic or a place that evokes fond memories that keeps us going.

Wrigley field, Chicago

- Mark Adel

The United Kingdom is most definitely my dream destination. I've always been fascinated with the beauty and history. More specifically, England and Northern Ireland. Maybe in my next life.

- Tina Rhode

Alaska. I want to camp out on a glacier and watch the northern lights for as long as humanly possible.

- Kassie McKnight

Paris!

- Annie Laushman

Ireland. I would love to spend time with my family visiting the castles and mountains or Northern Ireland.

- Amanda Comstock Naab

If my parents were still alive, I would want to go visit them on the farm near St. Edward, Neb.

- Shirley Niemeyer

I also would love to go to Ireland and I think Greece would be fantastic as well. In the U.S., Ive always wanted to see the Grand Canyon and to travel to San Francisco.

- Suzi Nelson
WAHOO  The Saunders County Board of Supervisors began public discussion this morning about the idea of consolidating two county offices headed by elected officials.

The board discussed some pros and cons of consolidation with Register of Deeds Don Clark and Assessor Cathy Gusman, the two officials currently heading the offices that would be affected.

Clark will retire at the end of his term, two years from now, ending his 40-year tenure in the Register of Deeds office. His first question to the members was whether they had already come to a consensus about consolidation.

With no negative responses from the board, Supervisor Scott Sukstorf said the decision to begin discussions was based on money and convenience.

Sukstorf said the money saved would be about $1.50 per county resident.

Clark said the decision would not directly affect him due to retirement, but that he believes the county still needs to have the position. He said the office makes the county a lot of money and has a very high standard of operations, the best in the state.

Gusman said potential pitfalls of consolidation would be that the county would not save money. She added there was also the potential cost of software that both offices could operate, as they currently use incompatible programs.

Supervisor Ed Rastovski said consolidation would lead to more efficiency, as more workers could be cross-trained to do more jobs for each office.

Deputy Register of Deeds Rhonda Andresen said that the county would still run two separate offices, but simply eliminate the one elected position.

Andresen, Clark and one part-time staff are the only employees in the deeds office.

Clark said that 16 of the 93 counties in Nebraska have a Register of Deeds office.

Many counties that have combined offices have done so by combining the Register of Deeds and County Clerk offices, but Clark said that if consolidation happened, the right way would be with the Assessors office.

Administrative Assistant to the Board of Supervisors Louis Austin said that a county must have 20,000 residents to have a Register of Deeds office.

According to the 2014 Census, Saunders County has nearly 24,000 residents.

The decision could rest in the hands of Saunders County residents, if put on the November ballot.

Andresen said that if consolidation did take place, it would not be until the end of Clarks term in office, two years from this coming January.

Discussion will continue regarding whether or not to keep moving forward or stop the process at the June 14 Supervisors meeting, as the board agreed to have it on the agenda.

It will come down to what the public wants, said Supervisor David Lutton.

We should look at a lot more positions like this, said Sukstorf.
LINCOLN  The Nebraska Legislature may have ended its session for the year, but District 25 State Sen. Kathy Campbell still has work to do before she finishes out her final term in the Unicameral.

Everybody thinks you finish at the end of the session, she said, adding that shes still in office until the next successor moves in. I have enough to keep me busy until the end of the year.

She serves on the Health and Human Services Committee and is working with others on some studies before she finally steps down.

After two terms as a state senator, Campbell doesnt see her departure as bittersweet. Its more just how things go.

I tried to have a mindset going in, knowing the term limits, she said. Ive geared my mindset to that.

Campbells road to the Unicameral began more than eight years ago, stretching back to the 16 years she spent on the Lancaster County Board of Commissioners.

Serving on that body was excellent experience, she said. She got a real firsthand look at how local politics play out. And though the actual work may be different from being a state senator, Campbell wouldnt trade her commissioner experience.

They are very different roles, she said. But I cant think of a better background than coming from the county board.

The county board operates on a smaller level, enacting the mandates that the legislature passes down. Going from enforcement to policy made the transition into the role easier.

When I came to the legislature I had a familiarity with those issues and that really helped, Campbell said.

When voters elected her to the Legislature in 2008, Campbell already had an idea of where she would focus her lawmaking abilities. She had dedicated much of her career to the well-being of children in the state and being in the Unicameral would allow her to work with other senators to enact broader change.

Eventually she took the chance to spearhead a major effort.

When I came to the legislature, the State of Nebraska was in the midst of an initiative to privatize child welfare, Campbell said. Quite frankly, it was a dismal failure.

Many were up in arms over the situation, she said. Including judges, advocates and people working within the welfare system. Campbell introduced LR37 in Jan 2011, which allowed the Health and Human Services Committee to review, assess and investigate the child welfare reform initiative.

The resolution was unanimously adopted later that year.

All pieces of the child welfare system seemed to be in turmoil, she said. We spent a whole year studying what had happened.

Out of that investigation, the legislature produced five pieces of legislation.

That was the most major project I did in all eight years, Campbell said.

Campbell had been involved in bettering youth for disadvantaged children long before the legislature, volunteering for child welfare advocacy groups and impacting the legislature as a lobbyist on behalf of such groups.

It was a pretty natural area when I came to the Legislature, she said. Im still proud of what we did as volunteers.

Since the passage of LR37 and its following bills, Campbell said she thinks the child welfare system has become more efficient, inclusive and accountable.

We've certainly seen a change in the leadership at the Department of Health and Human Services, she said. The new CEO Courtney Philip is, I think, doing a great job to serve the needs of people in Nebraska. Yes I do think there's been a change in the system.

There are some issues she worked on in the Legislature that shes sorry she wont be able to finish, she said. Among those issues is the expansion of Medicaid, which failed in this years session, and a law proposed to tighten the reins on predatory payday lending.

I will be sorry that I wont have a chance to finish that one out, she said.

Though she does think term limits should be extended to 12 years to allow legislators to get a firm grip on the lawmaking process, she does try to coordinate with newer senators who can continue her work after shes gone.

Im a big believer in you play the long game, she said. For major policy changes you should be thinking in terms of increments of 10, 15, 25 years.

As far as the future of the Unicameral is concerned, Campbell, a Republican, said she thinks looming partisanship is threatening the legislatures ability to effectively legislate. She was one of 13 senators who recently signed a letter reminding Gov. Pete Ricketts that the Unicameral is a nonpartisan operation after Ricketts expressed disappointment that they werent adhering to the GOP party line.

I think we've seen some more partisan politics seeping in at the legislature, she said.

The houses nonpartisan arrangement is what makes it important and unique among other states.

It's all out there, she said. People can watch the process play out.

There are no backroom deals or party caucuses influencing lawmakers behind the scenes, she added.

Senators have been very protective of that, she said. If we're not going to stand up for the Legislature as a branch of government, who will?

That may be an issue the next District 25 senator will inherit. But for the next few months, Campbell will continue serving constituents.

After that, who knows what shell do.

Im going to let life come as it comes, she said.
PRESS RELEASE  Visitors from around the world can once again walk in the footsteps of presidents, astronauts, test pilots and those brought out of captivity as the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force opens its fourth building on June 8.The new $40.8 million, 224,000 square foot fourth building, which was privately financed by the Air Force Museum Foundation, will house four galleries  Presidential, Research and Development, Space and Global Reach, along with three science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) Learning Nodes.

During the official Grand Opening Ceremony on June 7, Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James said the stories that will be told in these four galleries feature fascinating and important aspects of the Air Force mission. This new building is full of compelling stories of men and women who for many decades have served and defended this nation, said James. These people, their stories and the weapon systems they designed, developed, flew, maintained and supported are worthy of recognition and will be highlighted in this magnificent new building to millions of visitors for generations to come. Thank you to all who helped make this fourth building possible  especially the Air Force Museum Foundation and their contributors.

Among the stories found in the fourth building will be the VC-137C Air Force One (SAM 26000), which was used by eight presidents  Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Clinton; the only remaining XB-70 Valkyrie; the C-141C Hanoi Taxi, which airlifted the first American prisoners of war out of North Vietnam in February 1973; the Space Shuttle Exhibit featuring NASAs first Crew Compartment Trainer; and a massive Titan IVB space launch vehicle that weighs 96 tons.It took leaders in both industry and the military to field weapon systems and other important artifacts that are now on display at the museum. Many of these prominent aviation figures had a significant connection to the fourth building galleries, and deserve a special and lasting distinction as individuals whose legacy continues to further the U.S. Air Force mission today.

In honor of these individuals, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh unveiled the new official names for each of the four galleries would be the Maj. Gen. Albert Boyd and Maj. Gen. Fred Ascani Research and Development Gallery; Allan and Malcolm Lockheed and Glenn Martin Space Gallery; William E. Boeing Presidential Gallery; and the Lt. Gen. William H. Tunner Global Reach Gallery.

Maj. Gen. Albert Boyd and Maj. Gen. Fred Ascani were two people who spent their lives in research and development. Boyd, commonly called the Father of Modern Air Force Flight Test, had a remarkable career as a test pilot. He flew over 700 types of aircraft including many of the experimental aircraft on display here, directed the X-1 program, and commanded the Air Force Flight Test Center. Ascani was an accomplished combat leader in World War II and became the Director of Experimental Flight Test and Engineering at Edwards AFB. He also flew some of the aircraft on display in the R&D Gallery and managed the XB-70 program. Allan and Malcolm Lockheed overcame numerous challenges and setbacks and founded the organization bearing their names. Their company grew into one of the Air Forces most important producers of military rockets, aircraft and other systems that helped move America and the Air Force into air, space and cyberspace. Martin helped develop the close relationship needed between the military services and American industry. He built many military aircraft between the 1920s and the 1940s, and the company he founded continued by producing such systems as the Titan launch vehicles, including the core of the Titan IVB.

The first aircraft that carried a U.S. president was produced by a company founded by William Boeing. Aircraft from The Boeing Company have carried U.S. presidents for most of the time since then and continue to do so to this day. In addition to the numerous Boeing aircraft and missiles on display throughout the entire museum (including the B-17 Flying Fortress, B-29 Superfortress, B-52 Stratofortress, LGM-30 Minuteman IA and III, etc.), Boeings legacy is also on display with the C-17 Globemaster III (in the Air Park) and Bell-Boeing CV-22B Osprey (currently in the Restoration Hangar). William H. Tunner was known as the Father of Modern Airlift. During WWII, Tunner established the Ferrying Command that flew desperately needed American aircraft to the beleaguered British; organized the Womens Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS) that became the famous Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs); and commanded The Hump airlift over the Himalayas to China. After the war, Tunner commanded the Berlin Airlift operations in Germany  the newly created USAFs first military operation. During the Korean War, he commanded the critical airlift operations into Korea, and as the commander of the Military Air Transport Service (MATS), he directed major strategic airlift operations during the Lebanon and Taiwan Crises.

Although the building will open to the public on June 8, special weekend activities and demonstrations are being planned to continue celebrating the building opening, However, if you cant make it out during the opening week, there is a good chance some kind of activity or event will be taking place taking place in the fourth building the next time you visit, said Museum Director Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Jack Hudson. Educating the public about the Air Force story and inspiring our youth are the primary missions of the museum, Hudson said. This fourth building  with the air and space vehicles, dynamic exhibits and three STEM Learning Nodes  will help us to accomplish our mission even better.

The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio, is the worlds largest military aviation museum. With free admission and parking, the museum features more than 360 aerospace vehicles and missiles and thousands of artifacts amid more than 19 acres of indoor exhibit space. Each year about one million visitors from around the world come to the museum. For more information, visit www.nationalmuseum.af.mil.
The following companies are subsidiares of Bristol-Myers Squibb: 1096271 B.C. ULC, 345 Park LLC, A.G. Medical Services P.A., AHI Investment LLC, AbVitro LLC, Abraxis BioScience Australia Pty Ltd., Abraxis BioScience Inc., Abraxis BioScience International Holding Company Inc., Abraxis BioScience LLC, Abraxis BioScience Puerto Rico LLC, Acetylon Pharmaceuticals Inc., Adnexus, Adnexus a Bristol-Myers Squibb R&D Company, Allard Labs Acquisition G.P., Amira Pharmaceuticals, Amira Pharmaceuticals Inc., Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Apothecon LLC, B-MS Generx Unlimited Company, BMS Benelux Holdings B.V., BMS Bermuda Nominees L.L.C., BMS Data Acquisition Company LLC, BMS Forex Company, BMS Holdings Sarl, BMS Holdings Spain S.L., BMS International Insurance Designated Activity Company, BMS Investco SAS, BMS Korea Holdings L.L.C., BMS Latin American Nominees L.L.C., BMS Luxembourg Partners L.L.C., BMS Omega Bermuda Holdings Finance Ltd., BMS Pharmaceutical Korea Limited, BMS Pharmaceuticals Germany Holdings B.V., BMS Pharmaceuticals International Holdings Netherlands B.V., BMS Pharmaceuticals Korea Holdings B.V., BMS Pharmaceuticals Mexico Holdings B.V., BMS Pharmaceuticals Netherlands Holdings B.V., BMS Real Estate LLC, BMS Spain Investments LLC, BMS Strategic Portfolio Investments Holdings Inc., Blisa Acquisition G.P., Bristol (Iran) S.A., Bristol Iran Private Company Limited, Bristol Laboratories Inc., Bristol Laboratories International S.A., Bristol Laboratories Medical Information Systems Inc., Bristol-Myers (Andes) L.L.C., Bristol-Myers (Private) Limited, Bristol-Myers Middle East S.A.L., Bristol-Myers Overseas Corporation, Bristol-Myers Squibb (China) Investment Co. Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (China) Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (Israel) Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (NZ) Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb (Proprietary) Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb (Shanghai) Trading Co. Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (Singapore) Pte. Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb (Taiwan) Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (West Indies) Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb A.E., Bristol-Myers Squibb Aktiebolag, Bristol-Myers Squibb Argentina S. R. L., Bristol-Myers Squibb Australia Pty. Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb Axia Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb B.V., Bristol-Myers Squibb Belgium S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb Business Services Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Canada Co., Bristol-Myers Squibb Canada International Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Delta Company Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Denmark Filial of Bristol-Myers Squibb AB, Bristol-Myers Squibb EMEA Sarl, Bristol-Myers Squibb Egypt LLC, Bristol-Myers Squibb Epsilon Holdings Unlimited Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Farmaceutica Ltda., Bristol-Myers Squibb Farmaceutica Portuguesa S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb GesmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb GmbH & Co. KGaA, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holding Germany GmbH & Co. KG, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings 2002 Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings Germany Verwaltungs GmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings Ireland Unlimited Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings Pharma Ltd. Liability Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Ilaclari Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb India Pvt. Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb International Company Unlimited Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb International Corporation, Bristol-Myers Squibb Investco L.L.C., Bristol-Myers Squibb K.K., Bristol-Myers Squibb Kft., Bristol-Myers Squibb Luxembourg International S.C.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Bristol-Myers Squibb MEA GmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb Manufacturing Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Marketing Services S.R.L., Bristol-Myers Squibb Middle East & Africa FZ-LLC, Bristol-Myers Squibb Norway Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb Nutricionales de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Bristol-Myers Squibb Peru S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma (HK) Ltd, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma (Thailand) Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma EEIG, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma Holding Company LLC, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma Ventures Corporation, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceuticals Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceuticals Unlimited Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Polska Sp. z o.o., Bristol-Myers Squibb Products SA, Bristol-Myers Squibb Puerto Rico Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb Puerto Rico/Sanofi Pharmaceutical Partnership Puerto Rico, Bristol-Myers Squibb Romania S.R.L., Bristol-Myers Squibb S.A.U., Bristol-Myers Squibb S.r.l., Bristol-Myers Squibb SA, Bristol-Myers Squibb Sanofi Pharmaceuticals Holding Partnership, Bristol-Myers Squibb Sarl, Bristol-Myers Squibb Service Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb Services Sp. z o.o., Bristol-Myers Squibb Spol. s r.o., Bristol-Myers Squibb Theta Finance Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb Trustees Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Verwaltungs GmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb de Colombia S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb de Costa Rica Sociedad Anonima, Bristol-Myers Squibb de Guatemala S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Bristol-Myers Squibb/Astrazeneca EEIG, Bristol-Myers Squibb/Pfizer EEIG, Bristol-Myers Squibb/Sanofi Pharmaceuticals Partnership, Bristol-Myers de Venezuela S.C.A., CHT I LLC, CHT II LLC, CHT III LLC, CHT IV LLC, CR Finance Company LLC, Cardioxyl Pharmaceuticals, Cardioxyl Pharmaceuticals Inc., Celem LLC, Celem Ltd., Celgene, Celgene A.B., Celgene AS, Celgene Ab (Finland), Celgene Alpine Investment Co. II LLC, Celgene Alpine Investment Co. III LLC, Celgene Alpine Investment Co. 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Ltd., Celgene Pte. Ltd., Celgene Pty Ltd, Celgene Puerto Rico Distribution LLC, Celgene Quanticel Research Inc, Celgene R&D Sarl, Celgene RIVOT LLC, Celgene RIVOT Ltd., Celgene RIVOT SRL, Celgene Receptos Limited, Celgene Receptos Sarl, Celgene Research Incubator At Summit West LLC, Celgene Research S.L.U., Celgene Research and Development Company LLC, Celgene Research and Development I ULC, Celgene Research and Development II LLC, Celgene Research and Investment Company II LLC, Celgene S. de R.L. de C.V., Celgene S.L.U., Celgene S.R.L., Celgene SAS, Celgene Sarl AU, Celgene Sdn Bhd, Celgene Services Sarl, Celgene Sociedade Unipessoal Lda, Celgene Sp. Z.o.o., Celgene Sro [Czech Republic], Celgene Summit Investment Co, Celgene Switzerland Holding Sarl, Celgene Switzerland II LLC, Celgene Switzerland Investment Sarl, Celgene Switzerland LLC, Celgene Switzerland Sarl, Celgene Tri A Holdings Ltd., Celgene Tri Sarl, Celgene UK Distribution Limited, Celgene UK Holdings Limited, Celgene UK Manufacturing II Limited, Celgene UK Manufacturing III Limited, Celgene UK Manufacturing Limited, Celgene d.o.o., Celgene sro [Slovakia], Celmed LLC, Celmed Ltd., ConvaTec Divestiture, Cormorant Pharmaceuticals, Cormorant Pharmaceuticals AB, Crosp Ltd., Delinia Inc., Deuteria Pharmaceuticals Inc., DuPont Pharmaceuticals, E. R. Squibb & Sons Inter-American Corporation, E. R. Squibb & Sons L.L.C., E. R. Squibb & Sons Limited, EWI Corporation, EngMab Sarl, F-star Alpha, FermaVir Pharmaceuticals L.L.C., FermaVir Research L.L.C., Flexus Biosciences, Flexus Biosciences Inc., Forbius, Galecto Biotech, GenPharm International L.L.C., Gloucester Pharmaceuticals LLC, Grove Insurance Company Ltd., Heyden Farmaceutica Portuguesa Limitada, IFM Therapeutics, Impact Biomedicines Inc., Inhibitex, Inhibitex L.L.C., Innate Tumor Immunity Inc., JuMP Holdings LLC, Juno Therapeutics GmbH, Juno Therapeutics Inc., Kosan Biosciences, Kosan Biosciences Incorporated, Linson Investments Limited, Mead Johnson (Manufacturing) Jamaica Limited, Mead Johnson Jamaica Ltd., Medarex, Morris Avenue Investment II LLC, Morris Avenue Investment LLC, MyoKardia, O.o.o. Bristol-Myers Squibb, Oy Bristol-Myers Squibb (Finland) AB, Padlock Therapeutics, Padlock Therapeutics Inc., Pharmion LLC, Princeton Pharmaceutical Products Inc., Receptos LLC, Receptos Services LLC, RedoxTherapies Inc., Route 22 Real Estate Holding Corporation, SPV A Holdings ULC, Seamair Insurance DAC, Signal Pharmaceuticals LLC, Sino-American Shanghai Squibb Pharmaceuticals Limited, Societe Francaise de Complements Alimentaires(S.O.F.C.A.), Squibb Middle East S.A., Summit West Celgene LLC, Swords Laboratories, VentiRx Pharmaceuticals Inc., Westwood-Intrafin SA, Westwood-Squibb Pharmaceuticals Inc., X-Body Inc., ZymoGenetics, ZymoGenetics Inc., ZymoGenetics LLC, ZymoGenetics Paymaster LLC, iPierian, and iPierian Inc..

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Cenovus Energy Inc., together with its subsidiaries, develops, produces, and markets crude oil, natural gas liquids, and natural gas in Canada, the United States, and the Asia Pacific region. The company operates through Oil Sands, Conventional, Offshore, Canadian Manufacturing, U.S. Manufacturing, and Retail segments. The Oil Sands segment develops and produces bitumen and heavy oil in northern Alberta and Saskatchewan. This segments Foster Creek, Christina Lake, Sunrise, and Tucker oil sands projects, as well as Lloydminster thermal and conventional heavy oil assets The Conventional segment holds assets primarily located in Elmworth-Wapiti, Kaybob-Edson, Clearwater, and Rainbow Lake operating in Alberta and British Columbia, as well as interests in various natural gas processing facilities. The offshore segment engages in the exploration and development activities. The Canadian Manufacturing segment includes the owned and operated Lloydminster upgrading and asphalt refining complex, which upgrades heavy oil and bitumen into synthetic crude oil, diesel fuel, asphalt, and other ancillary products, as well as owns and operates the Bruderheim crude-by-rail terminal and two ethanol plants. The U.S. Manufacturing segment comprises the refining of crude oil to produce diesel, gasoline, jet fuel, asphalt, and other products. The Retail segment consists of marketing of its own and third-party refined petroleum products through retail, commercial, and bulk petroleum outlets, as well as wholesale channels. Cenovus Energy Inc. was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada.
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A financial planning company whose advisers allegedly tipped clients into costly products they didn't need is at the centre of a landmark court action by the corporate watchdog.

Melbourne's NSG Services on Wednesday because the first financial advice group to be taken to court under new consumer protection rules introduced nearly three years ago that require advisers to act in the "best interests" of their clients. The duty was introduced with the 2013 Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) reforms.

"ASIC alleges that NSG failed to take reasonable steps to ensure that its advisers complied with the best interests obligation when providing advice to clients; and as a result, on numerous occasions, NSG advisers did not act in the best interests of their clients," the financial regulator said in a statement.

"ASIC contends that NSG has trained its advisers that it is almost always in a client's best interest to take out some form of life risk insurance, regardless of a client's financial situation.
As Western Australia's debate about the culling of great white sharks heightens in the wake of two deaths in the past week, vision of another surfer coming face-to-face with a monster of the deep has surfaced.

Actress Blake Lively posted the latest trailer for her shark thriller The Shallows on Facebook on Wednesday. Filming of the movie began off the coast of New South Wales and moved to the Solomon Islands.

In the film Lively plays Nancy Adams, a young American pro surfer from Houston, who surfs at a secluded beach called "Paradise" when she gets attacked by a great white.

Scrambling to safety on a giant rock 180 metres from shore the shark continues to stalk Lively and fatally attack other surfers.
Amber Heard was reportedly charged with a domestic violence offence in 2009 following a fight with a former girlfriend, it has been revealed.

The actor is divorcing husband Johnny Depp, whom she has accused of physical and emotional abuse.

Now details about her past struggles have been reported by celebrity website TMZ.
School friends in the NSW Riverina region are mourning the loss of a "beautiful soul" and popular teenage boy who was allegedly stabbed to death by a relative's estranged boyfriend.

Residents on Acacia Street at Kooringal, a suburb of Wagga Wagga, heard yelling and a scuffle on Tuesday night before calling 000.

Police on Acacia Street in the Wagga Wagga suburb of Kooringal where a teenager was stabbed to death. Credit:Rowan Forster

Paramedics arrived at a split level property about 8pm to find a 16-year-old boy with multiple stab wounds.

Despite best efforts to revive him, the teenager, who can't be identified, died at the home locals say he shared with his mother.
Some came for butter and lollies, but most wanted flat screen televisions.

More than 100 people braved the cold on Wednesday morning to line-up outside the new Aldi store in Kwinana to fill their trolleys with goods from the giant German discount shop.

And while a handful of early morning shoppers just wanted to see what all the fuss was about, many bargain hunters headed straight for the 48-inch, Ultra HD 4K Smart TV's - for $549.

The idiot boxes were flying off the store floor quicker than frantic staff could replace them, as shoppers attempted to dodge and weave around each other to get their hands on a TV as if their life depended on it.
Another controversial development in South PErth blocks light to a neighbour's balcony. Credit:Emma Young 'Serious conflicts' over high-profile developments have been the recent focus of public debate. Ms Matheson said developers' exclusive access to the tribunal meant DAPs had little clout. Planning expert Ian Macrae presents research to a public forum raising concerns about DAPs' efficiency. Credit:Emma Young "If they refuse it on council recommendations the developer appeals to the SAT which will then mediate, in secret, an outcome between the developer and the DAP," she said.

"Then the DAP will hold a meeting and approve the development. This South Perth apartment block will be boxed in by a zero-setback development after a contested decision by one of the DAP panels. Credit:Paul Ruthven "An unaccountable, unelected system is making decisions." She said Perth communities were not anti-development but many, such as South Perth, had suffered an "intense" loss of amenity. Ms Matheson will write to WA councillors to seek support before the August 3 WALGA meeting.

"Together we can prevail and get a good planning system in place, instead of one that takes control from the community and its elected members," she said. DAPs were introduced in imitation of the eastern states, to address a belief that "not-in-my-backyard" issues were slowing progress. They were also intended to improve efficiency, and the government says they have facilitated $30 billion in development. But developers appeal 14 per cent of DAP decisions to the SAT. Mayor Hipkins said WA was the last state to adopt the system and Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland had all now changed their systems to a ministerial call-in for projects of state significance.

"In New South Wales the threshold for a DAP to consider an application is $20 million  in Perth it's the opposite, dropping from $7 million to allow any developer with a project of $2 million or more to opt-in," he said. WALGA research, presented by former Local Government Planning Association president Ian MacRae at a public forum, said average decision times had blown out from 76 days in 2011 to 95 in 2015. The research showed up to two-thirds of development applications, that would formerly have been dealt with by council staffers, were now going through full DAP. There has been a 20 per cent rise in development application fees to pay for the experts' time. Costs to the taxpayer, including establishment of a DAPs unit in the Department of Planning, had risen from $700,000 to more than $2 million. The SAT appeals also cost the state money.

Mr MacRae said the appeals stampede showed developers' disappointment that a hoped-for "open season" had not eventuated. He said what the state government had taken for time-wasting was actually necessary negotiation between council officers and applicants. DAPs systems did not allow for this, unless decisions were deferred and a new meeting arranged, which all meant more time and expense  deferrals had also skyrocketed from a couple a year to 37 last year. "So DAPs have resulted in delays, greater costs, bureaucratic double handling and appeals. Hardly the model of good governance touted by the Government," he said. A spokeswoman for the Department of Planning said 40 per cent of DAP applications being 'opt-in' (developers spending between $2 and $7 million can choose whether they want a council or a DAP decision) showed developers' confidence in the system. More than 98 per cent of the appeals were resolved through mediation and did not require tribunal decisions.

She said decision times were largely under or close to the statutory timeframe, and changes a year ago included a "stop-the-clock" option, allowing timeframes to be 'paused' to accommodate council requests for extensions of time to submit their recommendations to DAPs. "The WALGA average approval timeframes before "stop-the-clock" did not take into consideration the number of extensions of time requested by the local government," she said. "DAPs fees are based on a cost recovery model that takes into account the estimated number of applications, travel costs and staff required to support the DAP process across a twelve-month period." Planning Minister Donna Faragher said there was no plan to abolish DAPs. She was aware of council concerns and would meet with councils, including Nedlands, to discuss them.
Washington: US House Speaker Paul Ryan has called Donald Trump's criticism of a Hispanic-American judge "the textbook definition of a racist comment" and said he "disavows" the remark.

But Mr Ryan also reiterated his support for Mr Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, against Hillary Clinton.

Mr Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, has repeatedly suggested Judge Gonzalo Curiel of the US District Court, who is overseeing a suit against the now-shuttered Trump University, is a "hater" who is "biased" against him because the candidate plans to build a wall between Mexico and the US.
It appears unlikely that we will get a final result for the California primaries tonight. So that means no victory speech from Clinton.

Here's a summary of what has been an historic night, with Hillary Clinton becoming the first woman to claim the mantle as the presumptive nominee in a presidential run-off. That's all for tonight. Thanks for tuning in.

Mont. Sanders 51% Clinton 45% Votes counted: 85%

N.D. Sanders 64% Clinton 26% Votes counted: 100%

N.J. Clinton 63% Sanders 37% Voted counted: 99%

N.M. Clinton 52% Sanders 48% Votes counted: 100%

S.D. Clinton 51% Sanders 49% Votes counted: 100%

IN PROGRESS

Calif. Clinton 59% Sanders 40% Votes counted: 43%
Patrick Norman Pat Chapman is a 34-year-old, Caucasian male who was last known to be in Piedmont which is near the area of Greenville, Missouri on May 10, 2020.

Pat had stayed the night with a friend and his wife at their home. In the early morning when the friend woke to go to work.

Pat was gone in his own Burgundy color 1995 Ford Escort. That is the last anyone was known to have seen him. The vehicle was later recovered on May 29, 2020 in Mill Spring, Missouri.
#childbirths Childbirths hit new nadir in Aug. amid record deaths The number of babies born in South Korea touched an all-time low in August with deaths soaring to a record high amid rapid aging and the COVID-19 pandemic, data showed Wednesday. ...

#BTS BTS leader RM to emcee new educational TV show RM of K-pop supergroup BTS will emcee a new educational-entertainment TV show on cable channel tvN, the channel has said. Director Jang Hang-jun will co-host "The Dictionary of...
When I went to bed last night the votes for the four Equal Rights Amendments to our Constitution were all going down to overwhelming defeat.

For a country that suffered the indignity of racial segregation to vote against Bahamian women having the same rights as Bahamian men is at minimum confusing.

What an embarrassing trend.
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VERNON PARISH -- An Oakdale woman led authorities on a multi-agency, multi-parish chase on Tuesday afternoon, along La. 10 through Pitkin and up U.S. 171 through Leesville.

According to a news release from the Vernon Parish Sheriff's Office, 46-year-old Edna Miller is facing a list of charges in the pursuit.

Vernon authorities were notified by Rapides authorities that they were in pursuit of a white female in a green Ford Ranger pickup.

Authorities had been in pursuit of her in Rapides Parish before she traveled west into Vernon down La. 10 and at U.S. 171 in Pickering, turned north.

Spike strips were deployed on three occasions, but authorities said Miller was able to travel into another lane of 171 to avoid the strips.

Ultimately, deputies pursued her to an area on 171 just south of West Hawthorne Road. Authorities said Miller lost control, striking a bridge railing which caused her to travel into a VPSO unit, causing damage.

Miller's vehicle then overturned and she was taken into custody without incident.

Agencies involved in the pursuit included the Rapides Parish Sheriff's Office, Glenmora Police Department, McNary Police Department, Louisiana State Police, Fort Polk Military Police, New Llano Police Department and Leesville City Police Department.

Authorities said Miller faces numerous traffic violations, bench warrants and some drug arrests.
One arrested, two to the hospital after hit-and-run crash on I-24 in Christian County
By The Associated Press Jun. 08, 2016 | 12:45 PM | FRANKFORT, KY

A Kentucky judge has issued a temporary injunction blocking Gov. Matt Bevin's executive order that abolished the Workers Compensation Nominating Commission and recreated a new one.

The Lexington Herald-Leader reports Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd issued the order Wednesday and said it will remain in effect until he issues a final ruling.

Kentucky's administrative law judges decide if and how much employers have to pay workers who were hurt on the job. These judges are appointed by the governor, but Kentucky law says the governor can only appoint a judge that has been nominated by the Workers Compensation Nominating Commission. Last month with an unprecedented six vacancies to fill  Bevin abolished that commission, rewrote the law that governed it and then re-created it with new members, all by executive order.

Two labor unions and four injured workers filed a lawsuit challenging the move.

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By The Associated Press

Jun. 08, 2016 | NASHVILLE, TN

By The Associated Press Jun. 08, 2016 | 05:55 AM | NASHVILLE, TN

The Southern Baptist Convention says it lost more than 200,000 members in 2015.



It's the ninth straight year of decline for the nation's largest Protestant denomination, which also saw baptisms drop by more than 10,000 in 2015.



According to denomination statistics released on Tuesday, membership stands at 15.3 million, down from 15.5 million in 2014. Baptisms fell to just a little more than 295,000. Baptisms are an important measure for the denomination because of its strong commitment to evangelism.



The denomination reported an increase in overall giving and in the number of Southern Baptist Churches.



But Executive Committee President and CEO Frank Page refused to put a positive spin on the declines, exclaiming in a news release, ``God help us all! In a world that is desperate for the message of Christ, we continue to be less diligent in sharing the Good News.''






Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 08/06/2016 (2331 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Every year at this time, one of the citys best classical music gems springs to life for another jam-packed summer season.

The eagerly anticipated Music at The Millennium Centre series kicks off next Tuesday, June 14, noon at the Millennium Centre, 389 Main St., featuring an all-new slate of free weekly noon-hour concerts that runs through Aug. 16.

Its a true artist showcase of the talent and ability that we have in our own community, founding director Richard Turner, also longtime principal harpist for the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, says during a phone interview. The programs are all very broad-based with each one a discovery.

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

Notably, the series that regularly draws more than 200 listeners each week is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. Founded as the brainchild of esteemed local arts patron and business entrepreneur Bill Loewen and Turner, Music at the Millennium Centre features Winnipegs top classical musicians  the lions share being either principal players or frequent guest performers with the WSO  in up-close-and-personal chamber recitals.

Turner sings praises for Loewen and his wife Shirley, who have sponsored the series since its inception through their company, TelPay. MATM continues to produce an entire annual season of professional concerts sans a nickel of public funding  a rare feat for any arts organization in todays precarious times.

We couldnt have done any of this without them, he says of the snowy-haired couple frequently spotted in each weeks audience. This series is a great testament to their love of music and to their commitment to our community. We owe them a debt of gratitude that well never be able to fully repay.

The series starts with a bang June 14, as WSO concertmaster Gwen Hoebig joins associate concertmaster Karl Stobbe in a program of works by Henryk Wieniawski and Jean-Marie Leclair. Another violin duo comprising two lesser-heard artists, Darryl Strain and Julie Savard, also perform an eclectic bill on July 12, featuring music by Mozart, Haydn, DeBeriot, Corelli and Kreisler.

Each year also brings new surprises. Last years MATM audience members were treated to WSO resident conductor Julian Pellicano on accordion. This time, WSO maestro Alexander Mickelthwate marks his series debut. However, hell not be wielding his usual baton, but tickling the ivories to accompany violist Elise Lavallee on June 21.

It will give another dimension to his work here, Turner states of the German-born musician, who just wrapped up his 10th season on the WSO podium. It gives an opportunity for people to see a person whos usually in front of us, now beside us.

Its always a special treat to hear WSO principal cellist Yuri Hooker performing solo. The sublime musician and audience favourite will play J.S. Bachs iconic Suite No. 2 in D Minor and Suite No. 6 in D Major on Aug. 2, certain to be a series highlight. For cello fans who still need more, Hooker also performs a duo concert with cellist Emma Quackenbush on July 19.

Saxophone whiz Allen Harrington teams with collaborative pianist Laura Loewen on Aug. 9. Another cant-miss concert is oboist Beverly Wang with pianist Madeline Hildebrand on July 26.

Bassoon fans will enjoy a rare chance to hear their favourite woodwind instrument in action when Kathryn Brooks, accompanied by Hildebrand, perform on July 5. Violinist Elation Pauls with clarinetist Micah Heilbrunn and the tireless Hildebrand will treat listeners to a compelling program of trio works on July 28.

Even Turner is getting into the act this year. He closes the series on August 16 with flutist Laura MacDougall and violist Daniel Scholz, performing Baxs lyrical Elegiac Trio, and Debussys Sonate for Flute, Viola and Harp. Turner says the latter choice was inspired after he noticed the memorial wall located inside the antechamber of the Millennium Centre last year.

MELISSA TAIT / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES The Millennium Centre, a heritage building on Main Street, is the sumptuous venue for Music at the Millennium Centre, a free lunch-hour classical music series that showcases some of Winnipegs top musicians. The weekly concerts begin June 14 and run through Aug. 16.

The wall commemorates fallen soldiers  and former Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce employees, including those who once worked at the marbled centre  who perished during the First World War. Debussy wrote his 20th-century masterpiece as a response to the horrors of war in his native France in 1915.

Its an unusual work. Its a profound work, and Im very happy to be performing it with Laura and Daniel this summer, says the harpist, who last appeared onstage two years ago.

One of Music at the Millennium Centres unique strengths has always been its emphasis on local musicians  or what Turner calls the home team. Rather than parachuting guest artists in for concert gigs, MATM features only those whose artistic roots run deep into city loam.

These individuals remain here. The music they create lingers. I cant stress enough how important that is, Turner states. Thats how I think the arts thrive; when theyre organic, and embedded, and thats where the support comes from, he explains. And for a small community to have these kinds of high-calibre artists available is something to be celebrated.

MATM kicks off Tuesday, June 14, at noon runs every Tuesday through Aug. 16. For further information, contact Richard Turner at 204-668-6983, or email rturner@mts.net.

holly.harris@shaw.ca
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 08/06/2016 (2331 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TORONTO  Ontarios climate change action plan, which will provide billions of dollars in subsidies and incentives to businesses and homeowners, was greeted with cautious optimism Wednesday by environmentalists and businesses.

The province will spend up to $8.3 billion on a range of programs to encourage people and companies to switch to more energy-efficient heating systems, buy electric or hybrid cars, convert big trucks to natural gas, add more bio-fuel to gasoline, and help the agriculture and industrial sectors adopt low-carbon technologies.

Most of the money will come from a cap-and-trade program for industrial polluters that the Liberal government expects will raise $1.9 billion a year. All of the cap-and-trade money will go into a dedicated fund for lowering Ontarios carbon footprint.

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne speaks as she makes a climate change policy announcement at Evergreen Brickworks in Toronto, Wednesday June 8, 2016. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Mark Blinch

Two groups representing automakers said continued rebates of up to $14,000 for electric vehicles, free overnight charging for four years, and a cash-for-clunkers program to get older cars off the roads will help create consumer demand for EVs.

The rebates, combined with looking at renewable fuels, is sort of a broad-based approach to reducing emissions overall from the transportation sector, said David Adams, president of Global Automakers of Canada.

Many of the initiatives announced today will help consumers understand that electric vehicles are part of the future, of their future, said Mark Nantis of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers Association.

However, the manufacturers want more details on the cap-and-trade plan, which takes effect in January when Ontario joins a carbon market with Quebec and California.

In our industry, many of the investment decisions are upon us now, so theres many details that we have to work out in collaboration with the government, added Nantis.

The Ontario Home Builders Association said getting to net zero carbon homes by 2030 will require extensive consultations with the industry, and called for a cost-benefit analysis for consumers.

We need to make sure that the upgrades to the 2030 Building Code are worth it to the consumer, said the associations president, Joe Vaccaro.

Greenpeace said Ontario is on the right track by trying to phase out fossil fuels and by recognizing that climate change is an opportunity as well as a threat.

Lots of bad things will happen if we dont break our addiction to fossil fuels, but there are also a lot of good things  green jobs, cleaner air  that come with action on climate change, said Greenpeace Canada spokesman Keith Stewart.

The International Institute for Sustainable Development, a non-profit research group, strongly supports the plan to put cap-and-trade revenues back into actions that will help lower greenhouse gas emissions.

We hope that these provincial strategies will bolster our federal leaders efforts to develop a national action plan on climate change, including an ambitious cross-country price on carbon emissions, said Institute spokesman Amin Asadollahi.

The Pembina Institute, a clean energy think tank, said the government is grappling with the tough choices required to meet its emission reduction targets.

By providing both the ambition, and the required support to businesses and consumers, this is a good step towards our climate goals, said Pembinas Eli Angen.

Details on rebates for home retrofits will come later, but Environment and Climate Change Minister Glen Murray said no one will have to get rid of their natural gas furnace or old car until theyre ready.

Were not forcing anyone to do this, he said. We want people to avoid the carbon price in the future, and the way you do that, is to use very low or non-carbon emitting fuels and technologies in your homes and transportation systems.

Premier Kathleen Wynne said the province will invest in projects that will give families and businesses the ability to lower their carbon footprint, and their energy bills.

The Progressive Conservatives called the plan a laundry list of Liberal promises based on money the government doesnt even have yet.

I was very concerned today at the manner in which they continually dodged what this is really going to cost Ontarians, said PC environment critic Lisa Thompson.

Green Party of Ontario Leader Mike Schreiner said Ontario needed bold action on climate change 10 years ago, but hes concerned the Liberals plan favours businesses, especially big polluters who will get exemptions early on in the cap and trade plan.

One hundred of Ontarios largest polluters are getting a free pass on the cap-and-trade plan, and it looks like most of the financial benefits are going to business and not individuals, said Schreiner. So is this fair to the people of Ontario?



Follow @CPnewsboy on Twitter
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 07/06/2016 (2332 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Sixty-five members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police D Division were honoured by the province on Tuesday, receiving a provincial order for their work while deployed to Fort McMurray, Alta., this May.

The officers received the Order of the Buffalo Hunt, the highest honour the Province of Manitoba may bestow on individuals who have demonstrated outstanding skills in areas of leadership, service and community commitment. The award was presented by Premier Brian Pallister in a ceremony that took place at the Manitoba Legislative Building, and accepted on behalf of the group by Insp. Paul Saganski.

Const. David Giroux, one of the 65 members being honoured, said he didnt think twice when he got a text from a friend and fellow member informing him about the deployment and that members were needed to travel to Fort McMurray. He said the honour meant a lot to him, but didnt cross his mind when he embarked.

WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS In centre, Premier Brian Pallister and Heather Stefanson, Minister of Justice and Attorney General with members of the RCMP "D" Division who attended the Order of the Buffalo Hunt ceremony in the Manitoba Legislative Building Tuesday. A total of 65 members were deployed to Fort McMurray at the height of the wildfires. The Order of the Buffalo Hunt is the highest honour the province can bestow to individuals who have demonstrated outstanding skills in the areas of leadership, service and community commitment.

Its nice to be honoured and thought of, but, in reality, we didnt expect anything, he said. We just wanted to go out and see if we could help out the people of Fort McMurray, and our counterparts, the (RCMP) members that had their own homes burned down.

The members were from the D Division Tactical Troop or were RCMP uniformed members. The groups were deployed from May 9 to 18, and served at either the Emergency operations Centre, where they controlled checkpoints and ensured access of emergency personnel to Fort McMurray, Anzac and Gregoire Lake, or at the Wood Buffalo and Fort McMurray detachment area, where they worked closely with firefighting personnel to assist in emergency evacuation of oil industry camps under threat and assisted with safekeeping of personal properties, business and infrastructure in the City of Fort McMurray.

All of us, we all kind of just jumped the gun, and wanted to help out and do our part in Fort McMurray, he said.

Giroux said the experience was one he would never forget.

The devastation that I saw, but also the beauty, he said. Id never been to Alberta personally, but I saw the Northern Lights there, and Fort McMurray is a beautiful city. It was just a really devastating thing that happened to them.

Pallister thanked the members for their exemplary conduct, displayed at the height of a terrible fire that shocked the world with its intensity.

You displayed courage in the face of terrifying danger, you displayed care and compassion to those who lost and everything, Pallister said. We are so very proud of you.

Const. Scott Cherney said the groups experience in Alberta was a difficult one.

It was long hours, it wasnt the best conditions to be working in, especially with all the smoke, he recalled. Hot spots were flaring up daily, the whole 10 days we were there. Its unexplainable, to be able to tell you exactly how it was when we were there.

Like Giroux, Cherney said he was struck by the devastation of the community.

It was hard, especially, speaking to some of the firefighters involved who were fighting not only for their own community but for their own homes, Cherney said.

aiden.geary@freepress.mb.ca
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 08/06/2016 (2331 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TORONTO  Two Canadian companies reported vastly different financial results Wednesday, with Dollaramas profits soaring and Sears Canada continuing to falter.

Their finances hint at how legacy retailers can struggle to respond to a shifting shopping landscape while newer entrants thrive because theyre not bogged down by past investments, says one marketing expert.

Sears Canada (TSX:SCC) reported a $63.6 million net loss in its first quarter ended April 30, up from $59.1 million in the same period a year earlier, as it announced it was ramping up its cost-cutting efforts this year. Overall revenue was down 14.5 per cent, dropping to $595.9 million from $697.2 million.

Dollarama (TSX:DOL), on the other hand, recorded a 28.4 per cent jump in its net income in the first quarter, rising to $83.2 million from $64.8 million. Its revenue shot up 13.2 per cent to $641 million from $566.1 million, in part because its retail network grew to 1,038 stores from 972 a year earlier.

It wasnt always like this for Sears, said Alan C. Middleton, an assistant professor of marketing at York Universitys Schulich School of Business.

It used to be one of the great brands of retail, he said of the more than six-decade old department store chain.

Now companies like Dollarama, which isnt necessarily a direct competitor, are likely eating into Sears bottom line, Middleton said.

Sears is being nibbled away at by everybody, he said.

The big advantage for Dollarama, he said, is that its more contemporary. The Montreal-based chain, founded in 1992, offers good value to customers, he said.

Chief Financial Officer Michael Ross said the company is able to offer consumers low prices because it doesnt sell perishable food items nor spend any money on publicity or flyers.

All these savings allow us to reinvest in the value of the products, he said.

Dollaramas success means it has more money to invest in its business, Middleton said.

Where Dollarama can invest the money because its on an upward growth curve, Sears is on a downward growth curve, he said.

Sears said it will attempt to lower its annual costs by between $127 million and $155 million, more than it previously planned. Some of those savings will be reinvested in growth initiatives, the company said.

The company is working on improving its stores to help boost sales and will test a new layout at some outlets this fall, said CEO Brandon G. Stranzl.

Sears hasnt announced a timeline for when it aims to be profitable again, but Stranzl said he is confident in its ability to get back into the black in the future.

 With files from Ross Marowits

Follow @AleksSagan on Twitter.
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CALGARY  Former television war correspondent Arthur Kent choked back tears Wednesday after winning an eight-year-old lawsuit against one of Canadas largest media companies over a column that called him Dud Scud.

A judge ruled that Postmedia and its former columnist Don Martin defamed Kent while he was running for a seat in the Alberta legislature in 2008.

Im feeling a measure of vindication from the ruling, Kent said outside court. Truth still matters in journalism  and isnt that good news. Truth, accuracy and balance matter on the Internet and  no genuine journalist will be anything but reassured and encouraged by this court decision.

Former TV journalist Arthur Kent, who is suing PostMedia and columnist Don Martin for defamation, stops for a photo outside of the Calgary Courts Centre prior to the start of a four week defamation trial on Friday, Dec. 11, 2015. Kent has won a lawsuit against Postmedia and one of its columnists over an unflattering article that called the one-time TV reporter a "Dud Scud." THE CANADIAN PRESS/Bill Graveland

Justice JoAnne Strekaf ruled that the article when read as a whole would cause right-thinking members of society to think less of Mr. Kent.

She said the damage to Kents reputation was exacerbated by the exaggerations and sarcastic tone in the article, by aspects of Mr. Martins conduct and by the unfairness to Mr. Kent from Mr. Martins failure to provide him with an opportunity to respond prior to publication of the article.

While the article did not accuse Mr. Kent of any illegal or immoral acts, it characterized him as an egotistical, politically naive, arrogant candidate whose campaign was in disarray, she wrote.

She awarded Kent a total of $200,000 in damages from the defendants  $150,000 from Martin and Postmedia for the article and an additional $50,000 from Postmedia for continuing to publish the article online.

Martin referred calls to CTV, where he is now a host. CTV also declined to comment. Postmedias Phyllise Gelfand would only say the company is reviewing the decision.

Kent, who got the nickname Scud Stud while reporting for NBC during the Persian Gulf war, was a star candidate for the Alberta Progressive Conservatives during the 2008 campaign, but was on record as disagreeing with some party policies.

Martins column, which used unnamed sources, painted Kent as an out-of-control, egomaniac who had alienated party staff.

Alberta Conservatives have bestowed problem candidate Arthur Kent with a less flattering designation as he noisily blusters his way through their reeling election campaign  the Dud Scud, Martin wrote.

The Tories went on to win a majority in the election, but Kent lost his race.

The trial heard from Martins sources.

Lawyer Kristine Robidoux acknowledged that she sent Martin emails from Tory insiders complaining about Kent, but said she regretted doing that after seeing the article.

Party insider Alan Hallman testified he had no problem feeding Martin information, because he thought Kent had embarrassed the party.

The two central figures also testified.

Kent called the article a bomb that cratered his campaign and has since prevented him from pursuing other political opportunities.

Martin testified that, while the article may have run on news pages, it was clearly an opinion piece based on extensive research.

But under cross-examination, he acknowledged that the line about Progressive Conservatives calling Kent the Dud Scud had come from only one source, whose name he couldnt remember.

Id write it differently today, Martin said.

Martin testified that he left a voice message seeking Kents response before the article was published, but the final version had no comment from him.

Postmedia later refused to publish a rebuttal that Kent submitted.

Follow @BillGraveland on Twitter
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TORONTO  The lack of women on corporate boards has become a source of tension among shareholders at the annual meetings this week of two big-name companies.

The CEO of Dollarama (TSX:DOL) was confronted with the issue head-on Wednesday, when a shareholder urged him to increase the number of women on the retailers 10-member board of directors. The board has one woman, who joined the board in February 2015.

We are in 2016, said Andre C. Gauthier. I think we need to improve the presence of women on boards.

A Dollarama store is seen Tuesday, June 11, 2013 in Montreal. The lack of women on corporate boards has become a source of tension among shareholders at the annual meetings this week of two big-name companies. The CEO of Dollarama was confronted with the issue head-on Wednesday, when a shareholder urged him to increase the number of women on the retailer's 10-member board of directors. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson

CEO Neil Rossy defended the companys inclusion of women in leadership positions in a news conference after the meeting.

In 2014, Dollarama hired Johanne Choiniere as its chief operating officer, its most recent upper management opening, Rossy said.

The next time a vacancy arises on the board of directors, a woman may be given more consideration than a man in an effort to establish greater balance, he said.

We all think its the right thing to do, Rossy said.

The matter is also set to come up Thursday at the annual general meeting for Restaurant Brands International, the parent company of Tim Hortons and Burger King.

In a shareholder proposal, OceanRock Investments Inc., which owns more than 13,000 common shares in the company, and the Shareholder Association for Research and Education (SHARE) are asking RBI to write a formal board diversity policy and inform shareholders how and when it intends to increase the number of women on its 10-member board of directors and in senior management positions.

We believe RBIs all-male board is a step backwards for diversity at the company, said Fred Pinto, OceanRock Investments chief executive, in a statement.

Before Tim Hortons and Burger King merged and became RBI in late 2014, one-quarter of the Tim Hortons board was comprised of women, according to the shareholder proposal.

RBI declined to make a recommendation on how its shareholders should vote.

Shareholders in BCE Inc. (TSX:BCE) rejected a similar proposal in April. A shareholder and member of Mouvement deducation et de defense des actionnaires (MEDAC) asked the company to set targets to boost the number of women on its senior management team.

Despite rejecting the proposal, BCE said it is committed to having women fill one quarter of its board positions, responding to a call from Catalyst for Canadas FP500 companies to do so by next year. Some of Canadas big banks, telecoms and other firms have all signed on to the so-called Catalyst Accord.

Catalyst, a non-profit organization working towards greater inclusion of women in the workplace, released a report this week on how to accelerate gender diversity on Canadas corporate boards.

It recommended companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange commit to having women represent at least 30 per cent of the seats on their boards of directors over the next three to five years.

Ontarios Liberal government announced a higher target, saying it wants women to make up at least 40 per cent of all appointments to provincial boards and agencies by 2019. Premier Kathleen Wynne encouraged other businesses and corporations to do the same.

 With files from Ross Marowits

Follow @AleksSagan on Twitter.
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WINNIPEG  A credit-rating agency is suggesting the Manitoba governments recent budget may not help the provinces credit rating because it offers a weak fiscal outlook.

The May 31 budget forecasts a deficit of $911 million, down slightly from the previous year, and forecasts a return to balanced books could take eight years.

Moodys Investors Service says that plan is lengthy and points out that provincial debt is now more than 150 per cent of the provinces annual revenues.

DAVID LIPNOWSKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Manitoba's Legislative Building.

Moodys is not adjusting Manitobas credit rating, but says the budget is credit-negative  which means there are concerns about the governments finances.

On the plus side, Moodys says the provincial economy is performing above the national average and government revenues will benefit from low unemployment, a low Canadian dollar and a strong manufacturing sector.

Moodys downgraded the provinces credit rating last July to double-A2, citing the previous NDP governments struggles in containing deficits.

In a news release, Moodys said Manitoba continues to face challenges.

To help finance the higher deficits, the provinces debt burden is expected to rise faster than previously forecasted, Adam Hardi, Moodys assistant vice-president said in the release.

However, the expectation of continued solid economic growth should help ensure revenues grow at a solid pace.
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In case you havent been keeping up, Canadian interest in the Chinese market is not just about low-cost manufacturing anymore.

In fact, Chinas middle class now numbers more than 400 million people and is expanding by about 30 per cent per year.

What that means is theres a huge growing marketplace for quality products the likes of which Manitoba companies produce.

Weldon Epp

Weldon Epp, Canadas Manitoba-born consul general in Shanghai, spoke to a group of Winnipeg business people on Tuesday about a new way for small- and medium-sized enterprises to enter the Chinese market without having to commit a significant amount of resources  e-commerce.

Of course e-commerce is well established around the world but its preponderance in China is fairly new and growing dramatically. Epp says that means there is a bit of a moving target when it comes operational and regulatory strategies.

China is now the largest e-commerce market in the world, said Epp. But it is growing so quickly that the toolkit keeps evolving.

And the numbers are staggering. Its already a US$600 billion per year market that is expected to surpass US$1 trillion by 2019. In 2008, it was only US$20 billion.

And while Epp points out many of the consumers are just as attractive to companies as their North American or European brethren  young, educated and affluent  there are some peculiarities to the Chinese e-commerce scene.

For one thing, about 90 per cent of the transactions take place on the large platform aggregators like Tmall.com operated by the Alibaba Group  which is the largest by far  JD.com and the Walmart-owned grocery site, Yihaodian.com.

Epp said domestic vendors are responsible for most of that $600 billion market but the Chinese government has recognized the growing demand for imported consumer goods.

The Chinese government supports a number of cross-border e-commerce pilot operations that, for a fee, can provide a full slate of services like creating a web presence (including providing search engine optimization), bonded warehousing and marketing and distribution.

For Canadian companies that want to kick the tires, theres now an option to do that without taking a big risk and committing a huge amount of resources to try to get into the China market, Epp said. This platform will give you a complete solution approach.

The Canadian consular service has identified this new commercial platform and is looking to raise awareness among Canadian businesses.

Foreign markets can be daunting for small businesses, particularly a market like China, Epp said. In doing outreach on new opportunities like e-commerce, were tying to help where we can to get companies with winning products and solutions to be able to diversify their markets and grow jobs in Manitoba without taking risks that are unreasonable for small companies.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca
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Shell Canada is donating its controversial Arctic energy exploration permits to clear the way for creating Canadas third national marine protected area.

The 30 legally questionable permits are being given to the Nature Conservancy of Canada, which in turn has handed them to the federal government.

(The region) is adjacent to where the government has already said it would like to establish a conservancy, so our hope is that it will contribute to a much larger marine conservation area in the North, said Shell Canada president Michael Crothers.

The permits cover 8,600 square kilometres north of Baffin Island at the eastern gate of the Northwest Passage. They also encompass the waters of Lancaster Sound, a particularly rich area of Baffin Bay that is home to belugas, narwhals, seals, walrus and many other Arctic animals.

Inuit who depend on the area for hunting have sought to have the area declared a marine conservation area since the mid-1980s.

This delicate ecosystem represents our natural wealth as a people, said Natan Obed of Canadas national Inuit group, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami. I am encouraged to see such momentum towards protecting these waters for future generations of Inuit.

Obed added his people expect to be consulted as the sanctuary is created.

Fisheries Minister Dominic LeBlanc told a World Oceans Day summit in Ottawa on Wednesday that the government needs to find a faster way to create marine conservation areas and promised to erase years of inaction.

But the Lancaster Sound proposal remains stalled by a debate over its borders. The federal government has outlined a smaller area that doesnt include the permits, while Inuit and environmental groups have been holding out for a much larger protected zone that does.

In April, the World Wildlife Fund filed documents in Federal Court that argued Shells permits dont even exist. The lawsuit claims the permits, purchased in the mid-1970s, were never renewed and have lapsed  a position that has found support among legal scholars.

Crothers said that lawsuit is unrelated to the companys decision.

We had initiated talks with the government and with (the Nature Conservancy of Canada) months ago. We dont think that litigation is the way to go.

David Miller, the president of the World Wildlife Fund, said the court challenge might have nudged both Shell and the government, but added, Shell has absolutely done the right thing.

If the litigation helped move it along, thats great, but thats not the point for us, said Miller.

Minutes from 2014 meetings between federal and Shell officials suggest the company was unwilling to part with the permits without compensation or without conducting at least some seismic tests.

Crothers suggested the companys thinking has changed since then.

People were talking more hypothetically, looking to get some return. But from my perspective, we saw an opportunity that was pretty special  to be part of a conservation effort.

These are lands with really special ecological significance.

Shell will receive no benefit for the donation, Crothers said.

John Lounds, president of the nature conservancy, said the donation beats waiting for the courts.

Im pleased we were able to work with Shell. They really understand the importance of Lancaster Sound.

Greenpeace Canada issued a release framing the feel-good announcement as a historic defeat for Shell and for the oil industrys Arctic ambitions more broadly.

This is their attempt to score some brownie points and exit from the scene gracefully, rather than have the permits pried from their hands by force, Arctic campaigner Alex Speers-Roesch said in a release.

The federal government is likely to resume consultations with Inuit groups on the larger boundaries now made possible, said Miller.

I see no obstacles in being able to announce this marine sanctuary in the relatively near future.

The announcement comes a week after a report from the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society found the three North American governments are falling far behind their promises to protect marine environments.

Canada, Mexico and the United States have all pledged to protect at least 10 per cent of their waters. The report said less than one per cent of oceans off the continent are in fully functioning protected areas with permanent legal status and a management plan.

Adding an expanded Lancaster Sound would double the amount of ocean Canada has protected.

 With files from Bruce Cheadle in Ottawa

 Follow Bob Weber on Twitter at @row1960
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ROCKY MOUNTAIN HOUSE, Alta.  A central Alberta school division is facing the prospect of a large staff cut as it feels the pinch of the provinces economic downturn.

The Wild Rose School Division expects 239 fewer students will be registered this fall compared to last year, as many families move away to better job prospects.

Supt. Brad Volkman says the big drop could mean a significant staff reduction as the division grapples with less government funding, a $1.3 million deficit and a reserve fund thats almost dried up.

Volkman says in past years, trustees have used their reserve to spend more than its received, but thats changed and trustees must produce a balanced budget for next year.

He says all they can hope for now is a turnaround in the economy.

The district will also look at reducing hours spent on building maintenance, but expects no changes in existing programming or class sizes.

Volkman said personnel cuts would involve certified and non-certified staff across the division.

When you have fewer students, you have less funding. The logic, as well, is that fewer students require less staffing, he said. It will be significant  much more than we hoped for or expected, thats for sure.

He said when the economy eventually improves, families will move in and business will pick up.

Weve just got to ride through this, do the best we can and be responsible with the funding we get.

The division has 19 schools and employs more than 650 full-time and part-time staff, including 319 teachers and 350 support, maintenance, IT specialists and bus-driving staff.

It serves the communities of Rocky Mountain House, Drayton Valley, Caroline, Leslieville, Condor and Breton.

(CKGY, The Canadian Press)

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. An earlier version included the world public in the name of the school division.
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TORONTO  Two Canadian retailers reported vastly different first-quarter earnings Wednesday, with Dollaramas profits soaring as Sears Canadas continued to sink. The first-quarter numbers:

Sales: Sears $595.5 million; Dollarama $641 million

Same-store sales: Sears down 7.4 per cent; Dollarama up 6.6 percent

Net profit: Sears reports a $63.6 million loss; Dollarama reports an $83.1 million profit

Market capitalization: Sears $389.1 million; Dollarama $11.33 billion

Employees: Sears 19,000; Dollarama 20,000

Stores: Sears 424; Dollarama 1,038
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MEMBERTOU, N.S.  A potentially groundbreaking royalty deal between 11 Mikmaq chiefs in Nova Scotia and a coal mining giant for a proposed undersea coal mine may signal companies are more willing to share resource wealth with First Nations, says an expert on aboriginal economic development.

Harold Calla, executive chair of the First Nations Financial Management Board, says the accord between the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mikmaq Chiefs and Kameron Coal Management Ltd. is rare because it applies to bands in Nova Scotia located hundreds of kilometres from the mine site itself.

The Squamish band member and aboriginal accountant says the expanding law around the duty of companies to consult has encouraged companies to cut these kinds of deals  and First Nations are likely to continue pursuing them vigorously.

This could very well be a groundbreaking kind of event that could be drawn upon by others, he said in a telephone interview from Vancouver.

Whats important in this is developing own source revenues  and creating revenue streams that you can leverage for economic development in your communities.

Few details were available about the deal, but Chief Terrance Paul of Membertou First Nation said it will provide a significant flow of money from the subsidiary of the U.S.-based Cline Group to bands around the province who were party to the deal.

Its a lot of money per tonne and we have a reserve of over a billion tonnes here, said the Cape Breton chief. Its significant for all the Mikmaq of Nova Scotia.

He said a separate financial entity would be set up to receive the monies and distribute it to the bands who are part of the assembly.

Paul calls the deal historic, and adds hes expecting the assembly will cut more such agreements with resource firms in the years to come.

The proposed Donkin mine has two shafts about eight metres wide that extends about three kilometres under the Atlantic Ocean, starting from a location about 30 kilometres east of Sydney.

While local politicians have welcomed the addition of jobs to the struggling Cape Breton economy, the proposal has been criticized by environmental groups as potentially adding to Canadas contributions to greenhouse gas emissions.

Stephen Thomas, the energy issues co-ordinator at the Ecology Action Centre, said Canada is in an era of coal being phased out and being replaced by renewable sources that dont add carbon to the atmosphere.

He said the environmental group supports First Nations receiving a fair share of resource developments but firmly opposes the project.

We applaud Mikmaq being recognized and their unceded territoriy being recognized, but  the Donkin coal mine is not the right choice for Nova Scotians. Well have to disagree on this point today, he said, adding that several large Mikmaq communities are not party to the deal.

Paul says the coal produced would meet regulatory standards and could replace coal that is being imported and burned in the province.

The coal theyll be burning will meet the standards  Close to half our energy comes from coal. Here we are standing on it and were buying it from overseas, he said.

 By Michael Tutton in Halifax

Follow @mtuttoncporg on Twitter.
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Assiniboine Community College president Mark Frison is holding his breath  close to $100 million is at stake for the redevelopment of a 103-year-old Brandon building into a gleaming new campus.

The NDP promised hundreds of millions of dollars for post-secondary education projects  but the Pallister government is reviewing every project.

Whether its $150 million for the University of Manitobas $500-million Front and Centre capital campaign, or $66.7-million for the redevelopment of Assiniboine Community College, schools will have to wait and hope.

TIM SMITH / BRANDON SUN FILES During a news conference at the Assiniboine Community College's Parkland Building in January, the NDP government commited to redeveloping the building and the college's North Hill campus. Now, that commitment may not be certain under the new PC government.

The previous administration handed us a $1-billion deficit, Premier Brian Pallister said Tuesday.

If the province funds all of them, therell be no money for projects next year and the years after that, he said.

Frison said he has yet to hear from the new Conservative government about the college project. Education Minister Ian Wishart was at ACCs convocation recently, but that was ceremonial, not business, Frison said.

Frisons hopes are up because the college has applied for $31 million under the federal Build Canada fund, whose approved projects are expected to be named by June 30. Ottawa needs to know provinces back the projects, Frison said  Ottawa has told the ACC its getting good signals from the province.

The (federal) government said the province has signalled that it remains a priority, Frison said.

The feds can contribute up to one-third. Weve received word that our project remains a priority.

The NDP said Assiniboines redevelopment meets the Tories own criteria of a return on investment by creating jobs.

The project will redevelop the Parkland Building, which will be home to a new Centre for Health, Energy and Environment, serving as a hub for learning and research innovation.

 Nick Martin
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OTTAWA  Fisher River Cree Nation Chief David Crate believes he has a solution to Manitobas on-reserve housing crisis.

Crate was in Ottawa this week to lobby the federal government to help fund a national centre of excellence for on-reserve housing, which is to provide training for reserve residents on sustainable home construction, housing operations and maintenance.

This could have a really positive impact, said Crate after two days of meetings with politicians and staff.

The plan would be to partner with Atco Sustainable Communities Inc. to build a training centre in Fisher River. It would provide a classroom setting to train band members in better housing management systems, as well as maintenance schedules and work, to prolong the life of on-reserve housing.

A second component would have band residents build modular homes in Fisher River, which would be shipped back to their home reserve for installation.

About 40 people would be hired to do the training, and 150 homes could be built in the first year.

Fisher River and ATCO are seeking funding for the training. Crate said they have their own resources for the construction of the centre.

A federal report last year concluded Manitoba reserves have the deepest deficit of housing in any province, with $1.9 billion needed to address the issues of overcrowding and uninhabitable housing. Only $50 million was budgeted for housing on all Manitoba reserves this year, and $150 million nationally.

Almost one-third of Manitobas indigenous people live in poor quality housing.

Crate said his community  considered one of the better ones in Manitoba  needs 200 new homes. This year they will be lucky to build 10.

Fisher River is 180 kilometres north of Winnipeg.
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When school teacher Mahdere Seyoum came to Canada in 2013 as a refugee from Eritrea he was shocked to find out a local Eritrean community organization supports the regime he and thousands of others have fled.

This community is being hijacked by the government of Eritrea, said Seyoum, who works in IT in Winnipeg. He was taken aback that the Eritrean Community in Winnipeg Inc. is urging people to sign a petition against the UN-mandated commission of inquiry into Eritreas human rights abuses. Its not serving us, said Seyoum. It serves the government thats making us leave that country.

On Wednesday, the UN commission of inquiry reported Eritreas systematic, widespread human rights abuses should be referred to the International Criminal Court as crimes against humanity that include enslavement of up to 400,000 people. Eritrean refugees are one of the largest groups trying to cross the Mediterranean sea to Europe.

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Eritrean refugee Mahdere Seyoum says the Eritrean government rules people by fear.

The situation back home is beyond description, said Seyoum. He described indefinite national service thats a form of slavery with no constitution or rule of law to protect people. Military officers can do anything with you.

When Seyoum complained to the Winnipeg community organization that it is not supposed to be political  that its objective is to help newcomers and promote Eritrean culture and language  his membership was not renewed. The non-profit group backs the Eritrean regime politically through the Coalition of Eritrean Canadian Communities and Organizations, said Seyoum. Its spokesman is Lambros Kyriakakos, the longtime president of the Winnipeg community group who did not respond to a request for comment. The coalition called on the United Nations Human Rights Council to reject the findings of the special rapporteur on human rights in Eritrea and the commission of inquiry. In a May press release, the coalition accused the commission of impartiality. Of Winnipegs estimated 1,000 Eritreans, at least 10 submitted testimony to the UN commission.

We want the world to know what is happening in Eritrea, said a former high school principal who wanted to be identified by just his initials out of fear for his parents and siblings still inside Eritrea. We want all these things that happened to people without committing any crime to be known, said HH. He testified he was locked up in October 2005 for 18 months of interrogation, beatings and nearly starved to death.

He was accused of going against the Eritrean government and letting students who dropped out of school return to classes the following academic year rather than go directly to military service. As a high school principal, I did not accept that policy because my students had acceptable reasons to drop their studies, and that is why I readmitted them to pursue their studies, he testified. For this sole reason I was detained for a year-and-a-half without any trial. During my stay I was tortured and mistreated, said HH, who spent most of the time in solitary confinement and darkness that damaged his eyesight.

That kind of treatment is what is forcing Eritreans to flee, said HH, who arrived in Canada in 2011.

There are more and more refugees coming, said Seyoum. They would benefit from connecting with the Eritrean community in Winnipeg, he said. They need to be close to their culture, they need counselling and services that are neutral not political, he said. What they dont need is the Eritrean government hounding them here, he said. It rules people by fear.

The situation back home is beyond description. Military officers can do anything with you  school teacher Mahdere Seyoum, of Eritrea

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca
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The worlds human rights watchdog is keeping a closer eye on one of the most troubled spots on the globe.

We need to be where the violations occur, said Alain Roy, who spent last year setting up Amnesty Internationals West Africa office in Dakar, Senegal.

When we support the African peoples struggle for human rights, we make conflicts less likely and we contribute to the development of a more peaceful and stable world for us all, said Roy, who is in Winnipeg this week to meet with Amnesty supporters. With its West Africa office, Amnesty is keeping an eye on human rights in 22 countries, he said.

PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Alain Roy spent the past year setting up Amnesty Internationals West African office to be closer to respond more quickly and effectively to human-rights violations.

We can maximize our impact and respond more quickly in a way thats more relevant to new and developing issues, said Roy.

In Cameroon, for instance, school children were held in detention for months by government forces responding to Boko Haram attacks. The government authorities raided schools where teachers were alleged to be sympathizers of the terror group and detained them all. Roy said Amnesty International was there to investigate. It met with government officials and got the children released without having to launch a full-scale public campaign.

A deepening of dialogue with authorities has made us more effective, said Roy. Theres more trust in where were coming from with our critiques and criticism of how security is handled, he said. Were there to shine a spotlight on issues in the darkness and bring them to light.

In a globalized world, people in places like Canada cant afford to stick their heads in the sand and remain in the dark, said Roy who met with Amnesty International letter writers at a private home in Winnipeg Tuesday night.

Events in other parts of the world related to the economy, conflicts, migration and the environment affect all of us, said Roy, who is now Amnesty International Canadas director of campaigns and activism. And caring about the rights of people in Africa is just the right thing to do, said Roy.

If we are more connected through globalization, we have an ethical obligation to help our fellow human beings.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca
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OTTAWA  Manitoba Conservative Senator Donald Plett is the target of animal-rights activists on Twitter this week after he took to the social media platform to express his support for the Marineland theme park in Niagara Falls, Ont.

Plett has been vocally opposed to legislation introduced in the Senate last year that would phase out the keeping of whales, dolphins and porpoises in captivity. Marineland and the Vancouver Aquarium are the only two facilities in Canada which currently hold those mammals.

Nova Scotia independent Liberal Senator Wilfred Moore introduced the bill and told the Senate the evidence shows that keeping these incredible creatures confined in swimming pools is unjustifiably cruel.

SEAN KILPATRICK / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES Conservative Senator Don Plett.

Manitoba Conservative Senator Janis Johnson backed the bill in a speech in the Senate in March.

The evidence shows that captive whales and dolphins suffer in a way that is not justifiable, Johnson said.

However, Plett spoke out against the bill last month in a speech in the Senate, saying the scientific evidence does not support allegations captivity is too stressful or harmful to marine mammals.

This bill is fundamentally flawed, constitutionally suspect, contrary to over 100 years of environmental legislation and policy, scientifically unsound, contrary to public interest and bad for the economy, he said on May 3.

Fast forward to last Sunday, when Plett posted a photo of himself on Twitter with Marineland owner John Holer, and the statement: Fantastic tour of @marinelandcan led by Mr. Holer. Beautiful facility with impeccable care standards. Plett deleted the tweet relatively quickly with no explanation but not before it was screen captured by Phil Demers, a former Marineland trainer who has been publicly critical about the amusement parks treatment of its animals. Demers supports Moores bill. Demers retweeted the screenshot, with the caption Just as Sen @DonPlett thought Marinelands facilities were impeccable, he also thought he could delete this tweet.

With that, the backlash against Plett began in earnest. Plett started off stoking the fire himself but has gone silent on Twitter at the moment and did not respond to the Free Press when asked for an interview on the matter.

American race car driver and self-proclaimed vegan hippie chick Leilani Munter retweeted Pletts comment, saying Senator @DonPlett on @MarinelandCan where 19 orcas have died: beautiful facility with impeccable care standards.' To which Plett responded everyone loves Marineland. When Munter then said You cant be serious @donplett. You havent heard of the lawsuits, protests, exposes in Toronto Star & Daily Beast, Plett responded who is Toronto Star and Daily Beast.

That was followed by a torrent of tweets attacking Plett for his position. One called him a disgusting human being and another said no, not everyone loves Marineland. Its disgusting and barbaric. Lets lock you in a dog crate and see how you like it.

Moore says Plett is lining up speakers to delay the bill going on to committee for further study.

Senator Plett, as the self-appointed spokesperson for keeping whales and dolphins in captivity, should allow the discussion to take place, Moore said in an email to the Winnipeg Free Press. Given the moral and scientific concerns, we need to review the reasons for keeping whales and dolphins in swimming pools.

mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca
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This article was published 07/06/2016 (2332 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A planned task force charged with examining the relocation of city rail lines could be derailed by the Pallister government.

Premier Brian Pallister refused Tuesday to commit to continuing with plans for the $400,000 task force announced by the Selinger government in January. He dodged directly answering whether the task force had a future, instead accusing the NDP of saying yes to every project in the run-up to the April 19 provincial election.

I think it is a great idea. It has been a great idea for 40 years and the NDP did nothing about it in their entire 17-year term  now theyre telling me to get Johnny-on-the-spot and take care of a problem they ignored for decades? Pallister said when asked about the task forces future Tuesday after question period.

PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Premier Brian Pallister refused Tuesday to commit to continuing with plans for the $400,000 task force announced by the Selinger government in January.

The task force was to be led by former Quebec premier Jean Charest, who was to assemble the group and work on the feasibility study that will calculate the cost of moving the lines and yards. A request for comment to Charest was not returned.

The funds for the task force were approved by the treasury board prior to the election, but Pallister said the (Selinger) government has approved a lot of stuff that they shouldnt have.

Nahanni Fontaines St. Johns riding is a couple kilometres north of the Arlington Bridge  a 104-year-old structure nearing the end of its 2020 lifespan  which crosses the CPR Winnipeg Yards. It is expected to cost hundreds of millions to replace. By relocating the rail yard, the New Democrat MLA argues removing the rail lines can help unite the city.

She pushed for Pallister to move ahead with the planned task force.

The rail lines have fundamentally  in so many different ways  divided the city, she said. It is literally this physical barrier between the north and the south and in 2016 we need to be courageous and visionary.

The announcement of the task force made good on a promise made by former premier Greg Selinger in his fall throne speech to move rail lines out of Winnipeg. The group would also look into the savings that could be made by avoiding the construction of overpasses and other grade separations and the value of new development on the former rail lands.

During the January announcement, Selinger said the task force would determine what lines would be easier to move in the short term, such as BNSFs tracks through River Heights and the West End or the CPRs Winnipeg Beach line through the North End. Both CN and CP Rail have been publicly lukewarm to the idea, frequently citing costs and complexity when asked about the topic. The cost is unknown, but could cost billions depending on how many rail lines are moved.

CP has maintained if a community would like to conduct a study into moving certain rail lines out of their city, it may participate.

However, relocation of rail lines and yards is a complex and serious issue that would involve CP, local and national customers, regulators, local community organizations and all levels of government, said a statement on the companys website.

The task force is just one of many projects promised under the Selinger regime that Pallister has refused to commit to following through on.

There isnt a single project or idea that the NDP said no to in the last year in the lead up to the election. They tried to elevate the hopes of everybody on every single idea that is out there, Pallister said. You say yes to all these projects, then youre going to have to start saying no to some serious requests for real and important things next year.

St. Boniface Coun. Matt Allard was supposed to play a role on the task force, but said it has yet to be assembled. He remains optimistic it could still happen.

Im looking forward to working with the new government, considering it is really important for Winnipeg, Allard said. I havent been told whether it will be continuing.

kristin.annable@freepress.mb.ca
Opinion

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This article was published 07/06/2016 (2332 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Many politicians campaign on a pledge to improve ethics in government. And most of those politicians probably believe what they are saying, at least at the moment they say it.

After the election is won, however, those same politicians discover that higher ethical standards are a mixed blessing. In reality, they can be cumbersome and annoying. As a result, many previously hopeful politicians retreat to a less ambitious but more realistic agenda once in power.

The Progressive Conservative government is now facing this dilemma. Premier Brian Pallister promised during the spring election to introduce tougher conflict of interest guidelines, strengthen the powers of the conflict of interest commissioner and boost overall standards of openness and transparency. By any measure, that is an ambitious plan.

JOHN WOODS / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister.

Will Pallister deliver, or come up short in the interests of political expediency? If you consider that Pallister has suffered personally from the vagaries of the current legislation, there is every reason to believe he will act.

The NDP has had great fun recently attacking Pallister for not disclosing ownership of two registered companies in Costa Rica, as required under the Conflict of Interest Act. The companies allow him to own real estate and vehicles in the Central American country. Under the terms of that act, Pallister should have disclosed all personal assets within a couple of weeks of winning a 2012 byelection. Failure to meet that requirement is punishable (in the extreme) with an order to vacate his seat in the legislature.

Pallister has denied he had any obligation to disclose these assets, although he has not been very forthcoming about why. All he has said, over and over again, was that he was instructed by Manitobas conflict of interest commissioner that he could exclude the Costa Rican assets on his disclosure form.

And then, on May 30 he blinked. Pallister did not scrum on the about-face, but in a statement indicated he had included his Costa Rican assets on his official disclosure form for purposes of greater openness and transparency.

Did Pallister break the law? Perhaps. But we should answer a more pressing question before we get to any other concerns: is the Conflict of Interest Act doing what it is supposed to be doing?

The short answer is no. It is one of the most woefully inadequate and profoundly imprecise laws on the books in Manitoba. So much so that it has already allowed genuine instances of unethical behavior to go unpunished.

That was certainly the case earlier this year when the conflict of interest commissioner cleared former NDP cabinet minister Steve Ashton of any wrongdoing in the now infamous Tiger Dam scandal. Media reports revealed that Ashton tried to obtain an untendered contract, against government procurement guidelines, for the purchase of flood-mitigation equipment from a company represented in Manitoba by a long-time political and personal friend.

It is still not clear how Ashton escaped punishment for that one. On the other hand, Ashtons stunning defeat in the April election seems to be evidence that political karma is alive and well in Manitoba.

If the Ashton case revealed huge loopholes in the law, Pallister may be revealing how inherently unfair it is in its current form. In fact, all things being equal, Pallister has a legitimate bone to pick with the current legislation.

The law requires the disclosure of MLA assets to ensure MLAs avoid participating in any government business that might involve an individual or entity that is also party to government business. Tory sources indicated that when Pallister contacted the conflict of interest commissioner, he was told informally that because there is virtually no possibility he could be in a conflict involving property owned in Costa Rica, he did not have to list them on his disclosure form.

That has a certain common sense logic. Unfortunately, the law does not make allowances for assets that are either too geographically or legally extraneous to be relevant to a conflict of interest.

When all of that is taken into consideration, we are left with two inescapable conclusions: first, that Pallister broke the law; and second, its a really stupid law.

Before anyone gets too indignant about the NDP tack on this issue, it is important to remember this only became a story because Pallister repeatedly fibbed about how much time he spent at his vacation property. If he had admitted he was in Costa Rica during the 2014 summer floods (he initially claimed he was at a family wedding), and that he spent nearly 20 per cent of his time every year visiting the tropical paradise, its unlikely the NDP would find any traction on this issue.

Furthermore, there is a benefit for Pallister in keeping his assets in Costa Rica off the grid. Taken together, they are a literal and figurative embarrassment of riches that have the potential to rankle a fickle electorate. Make no mistake, Pallister wanted to keep these assets off his disclosure form. It seems to matter less now that, in truth, there was little moral justification for demanding he make them public.

Manitoba desperately needs a law that can more effectively punish true ethical breaches, while relieving MLAs of extraneous or unreasonable demands to disclose personal financial information.

Will Pallister deliver on his election pledge to bring in new conflict of interest legislation? Time will tell, although given the attacks he has suffered the last two weeks at the hands of the NDP, he certainly wont be lacking in motivation.

dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca
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This article was published 07/06/2016 (2332 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The discreet downtown office filled with original indigenous art work was a safe place for some 1,200 survivors of Indian residential schools to make claims for years of sexual and physical abuse they endured as children.

The Winnipeg Hearing Centre closed Tuesday.

Two elders conducted a series of indigenous ceremonies to mark the occasion, including a purification with a sage smudge, pipe ceremony, healing songs and a final prayer to help us walk in a good way, and forgive and let go.

JOE BRYKSA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Garry Dano plays a healing song on his drum during the closing ceremony for the Winnipeg Hearing Centre Tuesday.

Today marks a milestone in the work of the Indian Residential Schools Adjudication Secretariat, chief adjudicator Dan Shapiro said.

To date we have held over 26,000 hearings for claimants who submitted a claim for abuse at Indian residential schools, Shapiro said. We have resolved 91 per cent of the 38,000 claims from former students.

Another hearing room is still open in Vancouver, but is due to wrap up later this year. Just 200 cases are left to be heard.

From the time the Winnipeg hearing centre opened in 2009, staff with the federal secretariat from Gatineau, Que., Regina, Winnipeg and Vancouver also organized hundreds of hearings in locations from hospitals to nursing homes, from private houses to prisons and in dozens of remote First Nations.

Ottawa spent more than $3 billion on compensation payments, with settlements through the hearing process averaging about $80,000 per abuse survivor.

A separate common experience settlement was also paid out previously to tens of thousands more. That cost was more than $2 billion.

The two compensation mechanisms were part of the largest class-action settlement in Canadas history and a separate component of the same settlement that also saw the creation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which conducted its own hearings into survivors stories.

The testimony from the abuse hearings remain contentious. They are at the centre of a court battle between Ottawa and the TRC; the TRC wants them preserved; the settlements secretariat promised survivors theyd be destroyed.

Headed by former Manitoba Justice Murray Sinclair, now a senator, the commission issued its 94 recommendations a year ago for reconciliation between the countrys indigenous people and other Canadians.

The event Tuesday held elements of that spirit of reconciliation and elders Debbie Cielen and Garry Dano emphasized that shutting the doors on the hearings shouldnt be mistaken for closing the books on a dark chapter in Canadas history.

Residential schools operated in Canada for 150 years, the majority staffed by churches but funded by Ottawa. The last one closed in 1996. For generations, First Nations children were taken from their families and placed in the boarding schools for years at a time. The practice was a cornerstone of accepted and often quoted federal policy to kill the Indian in the child and eradicate indigenous culture in Canada.

This chapter is not over yet; probably wont be for another five generations. Theres a lot of work to be done yet, in the area of healing, Dano said. Dano attended the first hearing ever held in Winnipeg, in 2005, years before the hearing room was set up in 2009.

Hes now a spiritual adviser at the Remand Centre, where he said he works with the grandchildren of residential school survivors caught up in the justice system.

The only survivor Tuesday was Dianne Starr, a great-grandmother, now 66, who acknowledged mixed feelings inside the room where survivors disclosed the horrible memories of their childhoods.

Starr was taken as a girl of six from her home in Sagkeeng First Nation, 100 kilometres north of Winnipeg, to Kenora, Ont. She spent eight years at the Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School, known for some of the more horrific abuses exacted on children.

Starr said she got compensation but she gave it to her children and grandchildren. The legacy of the abuse she suffered is inter-generational and highly personal: even now, she regrets her childrens childhoods and her lack of parenting skills.

I pity my kids and sometimes I do (feel guilty) because I want to be a good mom, Starr said.

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca
Opinion

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This article was published 08/06/2016 (2331 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Bill C-14, the governments response to last years Supreme Court ruling  the Carter case  on medical assistance in dying, is generating a lot of criticism from diametrically opposed perspectives: those who think it too permissive and those who think it is too restrictive.

University of Ottawa constitutional law expert Errol Mendes, in testifying before the Senate committee, was right to invoke the old adage: Perfection is the enemy of the good. That is especially apt when there are so many different versions of what constitutes the perfect where assisted dying is concerned.

The Supreme Court of Canada concluded the absolute ban on physician-assisted suicide was contrary to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms because it went too far in its attempt to protect the vulnerable  those who seek death in a moment of weakness and ruled that medical assistance in dying should be available to clearly consenting, competent adults with grievous and irremediable medical conditions that are causing enduring suffering they find intolerable.

JONATHAN HAYWARD / THE CANADIAN PRESS Price Carter, son of Kay Carter (in photograph) pauses for a moment during a news conference at British Columbia Civil Liberties in Vancouver, on Monday. Price and his sister Lee Carter were speaking on the Supreme Court of Canada's death with dignity ruling.

The court suspended its declaration of invalidity of the ban until Mondays missed deadline in order to give Parliament time to develop a complex regulatory regime.

The so-called Carter decision was the end of a long legal battle waged by Lee Carter on behalf of her mother Kay, who was suffering from agonizing and irreversible  but not terminal  spinal stenosis and travelled to a Switzerland clinic in 2010 to end her life at the age of 89.

And thats the most contentious aspect of the tabled legislation; it denies the right to doctor-assisted suicide to patients whose death would not be expected in the near future. There is disagreement about whether it would apply to patients in Carters situation.

Very restricted access to assisted dying, such as the one proposed by Manitoba Conservative MP Ted Falk suggesting that access be limited to those whose death is expected within 30 days, would almost certainly fail a charter challenge.

Those who think Bill C-14 is too permissive should consider the consequences of defeating or significantly delaying the bill. It would only make things far worse from their perspective. Thats because having no criminal legislation  and thus only the Supreme Court of Canadas ruling invalidating the ban on physician assisted dying  now results in much wider access than under Bill C-14.

At the other end of the spectrum are those who think wide access is constitutionally required, and that Bill C-14 is unconstitutional in its limitation to those with a reasonably foreseeable death. They claim that since the Supreme Courts declaration said nothing explicit about death being reasonably foreseeable, or any other end-of-life stipulation, there cannot be any such limitation. If an end-of-life stipulation were allowable, the argument goes, the Supreme Court would have said so.

The opposite point is more compelling.

If the Supreme Court had already determined Parliament could not adopt an end-of-life stipulation, it would have explained why not. But it never weighed the pros and cons of any end-of-life stipulation, such as exists in some American states and in Quebecs legislation. It handed over the task of evaluating an end-of-life stipulation to Parliament.

The principled defence of Bill C-14  why it warrants being found to be constitutional  is that the risks of error are much higher for those not already close to death. The error in question is subjecting people to premature death who may have changed their minds if death had not precluded that option. To claim all that counts is individual autonomy is to deny the social responsibility to protect the vulnerable.

Humanist Jean Vanier offered sage advice in advocating caution. The Supreme Court ruling has not obliterated suicide prevention as important public policy. Bill C-14 may not be perfect, but it is far better than the alternatives of wide-open access.

Dianne Pothier is professor emeritus, Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University. Her expertise includes constitutional and disability law.
Opinion

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This article was published 08/06/2016 (2331 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by, English writer Douglas Adams once said. On Monday  the deadline given to Parliament to create new legislation on assisted death  there was a pretty big whoosh. Some say this was because the governments proposed legislation, Bill C-14, is not broad enough to comply with the Supreme Courts Carter decision. It seems to me, however, that the missed deadline is the result of a seemingly widespread indifference to the rule of law.

On significant social policy issues  such as giving criminal immunity to someone to intentionally cause the death of another, also known as homicide  the appropriate law-making authority is Parliament, not the court. Consistent with other courts around the world, the Canadian Supreme Court in Carter acknowledged the law-making authority of Parliament on this controversial subject. Unlike these other courts, however, the court found the prohibition on assisted death unconstitutional and created no end of mischief in doing so, proving the old legal maxim that hard cases make bad law.

The courts decision turned principally on the Criminal Code prohibition against aiding or abetting suicide. The court declared that prohibition was overly broad because there were ways to put in place safeguards that could protect vulnerable persons from being induced to commit suicide at times of weakness  the objective of aiding or abetting suicide prohibition. Yet, when it comes to the use of a lethal injection (as opposed to assisting suicide, which can be self-administered by the individual) the Carter ruling did not provide any analysis on the constitutionality of the provisions most relevant to the act of euthanasia by lethal injection. It is possible that if it had, the Criminal Code provisions in respect of lethal injection would have been upheld. Indeed, four U.S. states that have legalized physician-assisted death restrict it to obtaining prescription medication for self-administration.

Add to this the fact that the Supreme Court did not provide a definition of physician-assisted death or dying (PAD), causing much disagreement as to what termination of life acts have actually been legalized in Carter. The court declared that the prohibition of PAD for a competent, consenting adult person who has a grievous and irremediable medical condition and is enduring intolerable suffering is of no force or effect. However, the court properly acknowledged that the scope of its declaration responds to the factual circumstances of the case and that it made no pronouncement on other situations where physician-assisted dying may be sought.

Yet we continue to see ongoing disagreement as to the interpretation of Carter. All-in proponents of assisted death want to include mature minors, incompetent or unconscious persons pursuant to advance directives, and persons with mental suffering  none of which was at issue in Carter. These proponents argue that anything less than all-in will be found unconstitutional, either by relying on the declaration outside Carters factual context or by projecting possible future charter arguments. This is advocacy, not legal interpretation.

The Supreme Court stated in the Carter case that complex regulatory regimes are better created by Parliament than by the courts. The creation of such a regime is now in the democratically elected hands of Parliament and deference is owed. While Parliament has the option of crafting a response solely in response to Carter, any new Criminal Code amendments will depend on future evaluation of their compliance with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Future evaluation may show that state-sanctioned lethal injection as a response to suffering is a mistake. Recent cases from European countries that permit euthanasia are providing evidence in that regard. In the meantime, Canadas Parliament is suggesting a limit similar to that imposed in the four U.S. states: that criminal immunity only be granted to certain health-care practitioners who give medical aid in dying to adults whose deaths have become reasonably foreseeable.

As stated by the Supreme Court in Carter, The sanctity of life is one of our most fundamental societal values. In addition to respecting both the values of life and autonomy, the limit provides room to encourage the ongoing exploration of life-affirming responses to the wide range of circumstances that shape the individual experience of suffering. Although assisted death may now be a legal option for those who are imminently dying, it must never be promoted as the solution. Everyone deserves equal protection and respect under the law and it is incumbent on us to continue in our efforts to maximize quality of life, participation and inclusion in our society.

Mary J. Shariff is a law professor at the University of Manitoba who teaches bioethics and law.
Opinion

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This article was published 08/06/2016 (2331 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When Expo 67 opened in Montreal in April 1967, it featured a futuristic geodesic dome. Star Trek was wowing audiences with technologies such as voice-recognition and machine-supported medical diagnostic systems. Childrens television cartoon the Jetsons imagined a future of robots and flying vehicles. In the era of the space age, the future looked promising, with the dream of increasing leisure time as robots took over the most mundane jobs and services.

In 2016, some of that has indeed happened. ATMs have replaced bank tellers. Pressing 1 has meant an end to hearing a human voice on the telephone. Swiping bar codes takes the place of cashiers. But the future isnt bright because automation has resulted in job losses and wage stagnation that are expected to continue.

Which is why discussions about a guaranteed annual income (GAI) seem to be more animated. GAI is fairly self-explanatory; individuals receive a basic amount of money, whether they work or not. That amount is reduced as the individuals paid wages go up, until it is eventually stopped. It would replace other social programs such as welfare and subsidized housing, and alleviate the need for the bureaucratic networks those programs bring with them.

PAUL CHIASSON / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES A special climbing squad of Montreal firefighters practise on the former U.S.pavilion from Expo 67.

Its not a particularly new idea. The Manitoba basic annual income experiment  Mincome  was implemented in Dauphin, Winnipeg and some rural communities in Manitoba in the 1970s. Some say it was quite successful, with researchers pointing to higher educational outcomes and lower hospitalization rates. People did not stop working all together because the income was too low to actually survive on, but to quote University of Manitoba economist Evelyn Forget, the income was enough to add some cream to the coffee.

Other economists have been less positive, suggesting that since the program only ran for three years, its difficult to determine its long-term effects. As well, as U of M economist Gregory Mason has argued, its very expensive. Still others point to increased saving in the implementation of welfare, health care and other social programs. There is never an easy answer in economics.

Earlier this week, Swiss voters rejected a proposal to implement a guaranteed annual income. The Dutch have a pilot project about to take off in January 2017, and the Finnish are also examining the long-term effects of the policy. Perhaps its time Canada did the same.

In Manitoba, the Conservatives took positive steps toward improving the prospects for low-income earners by increasing the basic personal income tax exemption on Jan. 1, 2017, which will remove 2,770 low-income earners from the tax rolls. However, at the same time, the budget released last month ruled out a minimum wage increase. Steps forward, steps back.

Poverty is still an issue in this province, with the highest child poverty rate in the country. Many come from single-parent families. Many are indigenous. What will their futures be like as jobs disappear?

The gap between rich and poor appears to be widening. While layoffs were the norm in the oil and gas industry last year, the CEO of Encana did very well, earning $112 million. He joins many of the countrys 100 highest-paid chief executive officers who saw their compensation increase in 2015. One executive  Michael Pearson, the former CEO of Valeant Pharmaceuticals  saw his remuneration increase by a whopping 1,512 per cent to $182 million. By comparison, the average Canadian income for 2013 was around $47,358, which has remained pretty static since the 1980s.

Its time for a rethink in Canada that breaks the cycle of poverty and ensures the middle class isnt stuck with the bill. Despite best attempts by government and social policy experts, we cant seem to find a way to make poverty history. Perhaps GAI is the route to go.
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP)  President Bashar Assad vowed Tuesday his troops would liberate every inch of Syria, just like they recaptured the ancient town of Palmyra from the Islamic State group, in a speech that reflected his renewed confidence as the military pressed on toward Raqqa, the extremists self-styled capital.

His remarks in parliament came as his opponents, backed by Turkey and Saudi Arabia, are struggling for survival and his troops have almost encircled rebel-held neighborhoods of Aleppo, Syrias largest city.

Saying the military situation was much better than it was months ago, Assad told the lawmakers that Aleppo will be the graveyard where the hopes and dreams of the butcher Erdogan will be buried.

The reference was to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, one of the staunchest supporters of the rebels fighting to topple Assad. Erdogan has allowed safe passage from his country for fighters and weapons over the border into Syria.

Assad also described Erdogan as a thug and a fascist in the speech, which was frequently interrupted by applause.

When Assad walked into the chamber to speak, the legislators had stood and chanted, Our soul, our blood we sacrifice for you, Bashar!

The civil war, now in its sixth year, has turned in Assads favor ever since Russia began a bombing campaign in September, helping Syrian troops recapture wide areas from insurgents.

The biggest victory came in March, when government forces evicted the Islamic State group from Palmyra, a desert town in central Syria world famous for its majestic Roman-era ruins.

The way we liberated Palmyra, and before that many areas, we will liberate every last bit of Syria from their hands. We have no choice but to be victorious, Assad said to a furious applause.

Our war on terrorism will continue not because we like war. They imposed the war on us, he added, reiterating his often-used line of blaming foreign countries for the conflict. The shedding of blood will not end until we uproot terrorism, wherever it is.

Erdogan denies he is aiding the Islamic State, although he does support other rebels fighting to oust Assad. The U.S. supports the predominantly Kurdish, U.S.-backed Syria Democratic Forces fighting IS.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner dismissed the speech as vintage Assad.

There were no surprises in what he said, unfortunately, Toner told reporters in Washington. Assad should recognize his role in the carnage in Syria and pledge to step aside so that a political transition could take place, he said.

The Islamic State group also is under siege in neighboring Iraq, as government forces there surround the western city of Fallujah, which has been held by the extremists for more than two years.

The speech was Assads first to Syrias newly elected parliament and his first public remarks since January. He also thanked China for using its veto at the U.N. Security Council months after the crisis began to prevent the imposition of sanctions on Syria as well as Russia, Iran and Lebanons Hezbollah group  three key allies who have played a critical role in boosting Assads forces.

He blamed the opposition for the failure of three rounds of indirect peace talks in Geneva this year, blasting his opponents as traitors for foreign countries who have become mats for the feet of their masters.

The opposition demands that Assad play no part in any transitional or future political establishment in Syria.

Assad spoke as a two-pronged advance is underway to capture key urban strongholds of the Islamic State group and its de facto capital of Raqqa. The Syrian army, backed by Russian airpower, is moving from the southwest, while the Syria Democratic Forces are pushing from the north and west. The SDF are closing in on the IS stronghold of Manbij, 72 miles to the northwest of Raqqa.

Our war on terrorism will continue not because we like war. They imposed the war on us. The shedding of blood will not end until we uproot terrorism, wherever it is. Syria President Bashar Assad
A 66-year-old Wabasha man entered guilty pleas in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis to charges of attempting to smuggle elephant ivory carvings out of the United States.

According to a plea agreement reached Monday, Jay Anthony Anderson admitted to violations of the Endangered Species Act and other federal statutes when he sold a carved ivory figurine to a buyer in Fushan City, China, for $1,356.

The figurine, described as a carved Chinese ivory figure of a elder fisherman, was put in the mail June 10, 2011, with a U.S. Customs declaration describing the content of the mailing as resin carvings with a value of $30. The mailing was not accompanied by a valid Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) export permit, nor did he declare the export of the object to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The package was intercepted at a Chicago postal facility.

In a second incident, on Jan. 29, 2012, Anderson imported a carved elephant ivory crucifix from a Montreal, Canada auction house without making the required declarations to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Less than a year later, he sold the carving for $700, $400 more than his purchase price.
JUNEAU -- Olivia Raasch and Dustin Winkelman have joined the Dodge County UW-Extension as 2016 summer interns.

Raasch is the Dodge County 4-H youth development summer agent. She is a sophomore at UW-Oshkosh, pursuing a degree in English. Raasch spent 11 years as a member of the Jackson Explorers 4-H Club in Washington County.

Raasch said her biggest project will be Wild Wacky Weekdays Camp, a three-day summer camp that will be held at Swan City Park in Beaver Dam on July 9, Ledge Park in Horicon on July 15 and Harnischfeger Park in Ixonia on Aug. 9. The camp is open to children ages five to nine years old. The theme is Crazy Ocean Creatures. Youths will attend five different learning sessions, including crafts, recreation, and hiking, all while learning about ocean animals.

Each day camp runs from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. with check-in beginning at 8:15 a.m. Pre-registration is required. The fee is $18 per camper which includes lunch, a T-shirt and program activities.

Kids, Cops and Canine Safety Day Camp is another project Raasch is working on for the extension.

It is for the same age range but this camp focuses on safety, Raasch said.

The camp will be held on July 20 at Dodge County Fairgrounds.

Information about the two camps can be found at http://dodge.uwex.edu/camps/.

Winkelman joins the UW-Extension staff as the youth dairy and livestock summer intern. Winkelman is a junior at UW-Madison studying dairy science and working towards earning a certificate in ag-business management. Originally from Watertown, he was a 4-H member in Jefferson County for 13 years, and currently serves as the adult FFA representative for Jefferson County Meat Animal Project committee and adult leader for the Concord Center Clovers 4-H Club.

Winkelman said he received the American FFA Degree, the highest honor for FFA.

Winkelman said he will be preparing for the Dodge County Fair for the UW-Extension and also is working on Ag Day Escape. Winkelman said Ag Day Escape will be held July 19 and is for fifth graders and up to show them area businesses and what careers are available to them.

There are only 45 seats available, Winkelman said.

Those wanting to find out more about Ag Day Escape should contact the UW-Extension office.

Both will also have additional duties during their months as interns for the Dodge County UW-Extension office.

For more information about any of the programs listed contact the Dodge County UW-Extension Office at 386-3790.
MADISON (AP)  Wisconsin insurance industry leaders are worried a potential state move toward self-insurance is already on its way to being a done deal.

At a Wisconsin Health News panel Tuesday, panelists and audience members critiqued the possible change, which would reshape health insurance for nearly 250,000 state workers, retirees and family members and could weaken competition across the states insurance market. Under a self-insurance model, the state would pay for benefits directly instead of purchasing insurance from 17 HMOs.

State officials at the panel emphasized the coming months will provide more detail and guidance on whether the state should switch over, but some in the industry think its a foregone conclusion.

I think there are a number of ways that things have been phrased and said that would give the perception that its further down the road than a lot of people want to believe, said Group Health Cooperative of Eau Claire CEO Pete Farrow, a panelist at Tuesdays event.

Republican Gov. Scott Walker highlighted the possible switch to a self-insurance plan in his State of the State address this year, pointing to the potential savings as a way to fund education initiatives.

State consultants have estimated the financial impact could range anywhere from $42 million in savings each year to $100 million more in costs per year. State officials hope to get a better picture from a request for proposals the Group Insurance Board authorized in February.

State Deputy Insurance Commissioner J.P. Wieske repeatedly said the state needs to see where that process goes before drawing conclusions about how the move would impact Wisconsins health insurance market or consumers.

I dont necessarily think the sky is falling, as I keep hearing here, Wieske said.

The states Group Health Insurance Program makes up 14 percent of the entire commercial health insurance market, according to the Wisconsin Association of Health Plans, which opposes the plan and represents Group Health Cooperative and other HMOs. A move to a self-insurance model would mean those HMOs would lose state business.

Farrow raised concerns that the process wont thoroughly assess the options and would weaken competition. A 2011 Kaiser Family Foundation analysis found Wisconsin had the most competitive health insurance market in the country for individuals and families.

Wisconsin is totally like any other state from a health insurance perspective, Farrow said.

The average annual cost increase for the program over the past five years has been 2.5 percent, compared to 5 to 7 percent nationally, said Lisa Ellinger, director of the Office of Strategic Health Policy at the Department of Employee Trust Funds.

Ellinger said the department has been discussing the self-insurance concept since at least 2012. Nationally, 46 states partially or total self-insure, according to a memo she sent to the Group Insurance Board.

Since our program is financed by the taxpayers, we also have a responsibility to explore and evaluate whether alternatives to our current structure are more cost effective, Ellinger said.

She said the request for proposals is the best way to get more information on a host of possible changes to the program. The department plans to put out a full draft of the request this week so stakeholders can provide input. It will solicit full responses by September.

Legislators have expressed reservations about the move, questioning what it would do to the rest of the states insurance market. Walker signed a bill in December giving the Legislatures budget committee oversight of any contract moving public workers to the new system.
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 opennessand 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 themlimiting 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, Illinois, was threatened with liability for printing vehicle owners personal informationobtained from DMV recordson 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 functionsone 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 departmenta question 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 remainwithout further litigation.

Your Right to Know is a monthly column distributed by the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council (www.wisfoic.org), a nonprofit group dedicated to open government. Dustin Brown is an attorney at Godfrey & Kahn, S.C.
Within groups in need there are still those who can be easily overlooked and, looking over a mound of diapers, wipes and baby clothes, volunteers looked forward to doing something for new mothers and their infants.

The Pregnancy Resource Center received $1,000 in donations from Knights of Columbus and Columbia County Right to Life that are now being disbursed to an underserved and overlooked group.

We have a lot of phone calls coming in from the community that really have needs so we are able to pass out  diapers, strollers, and pack-and-plays  to them that have nothing, said Anne Zydowsky. There are actually some pregnant women who are sleeping on couches. Were able to find a friend who has a bed for them.

We see clients every week, said Pregnancy Resource Center President Liesa Zastrow. We have a lot of repeat clients that come and see us and we provide services for the whole family so if we dont have a particular item, we have a network that we can call different folks to bring in the item that is needed.

In April the Economic Policy Institute released a study detailing the cost, per state, of raising a child. Wisconsin is the 13th most expensive state in which to raise a family, with average infant care costing 27 percent more than the average.

The study showed having a child in diapers to be more expensive than having a child in college, with an infant costing $11,579 per year as opposed to college tuition being an average $8,406.

At the same time, the necessities for raising a small child are not tracked with the same detail as other day-to-day requirements.

There are people who track food security and housing security  hose studies are out there  but Ive never seen anything that tracks basic care-giving items for kids, for example, I dont know any study like that at all, said UW-Extension Family Living Educator Patty Herman.

To get a sense of the ongoing demand, a person, she explained, would largely have to talk with the people on the ground. One example she could speak to was a change at Reach Out Lodi, where offerings were expanded beyond standard non-perishables.

They found that when people came to the food pantry, they also needed personal essential items like shampoo and basic home care things, Herman said. So in addition in addition to food they also developed an outreach called Personal Essentials. Sometimes those responses come from the lived experience of people doing the outreach to those in need.

Zydowsky explained how they had a recent delivery in which there were two complications. The first was of finding the home they were looking for  a tiny dwelling hidden behind trailers  and then also a slight language barrier.

That happens sometimes, said PRC Director Bernie Whiting. I wont say a lot, but we get calls where we need to get help from a translator.

Despite some confusion, the woman welcomed Zydowsky in to see the baby, next to a father, sleeping after coming home from the morning shift on a farm.

Every call we get, the mom needs a box or two of diapers and sometimes its for more than one kid, said Whiting. If you do a monetary donation, thats about a $50 donation that she is in need of and a lot of them need diapers for older kids and thats something we dont get as often that we have to purchase.

Eileen Knecht became involved through Columbia County Right to Life, which has a clear focused goal, though broader attached obligations.

Wisconsin Right to Life Columbia County, we work hand-in-hand with the PRC because we are not only interested in stopping abortion, but in helping men, women and babies make it that have trouble making it, she said. So were on both sides of the issue  how to stop it, and help. Dont just drop them and leave them to fend for themselves.

Most of the clients that PRC works with are young, single mothers, sometimes without family support, according to Whiting.

They are younger and some of them are alone, but some of them have family support, but they just need extra support. They are kind of alone in a way.

To keep the flow of diapers and wipes going, the PRC continues with its outreach and requests for assistance in the way of donations of volunteers. The group is looking forward to the July 6 Concert at the Portage, where they hope to see a swell of resources  although donations are appreciated  by way of pie sales.

Each of the PRC members reiterated one time or another, the priority of the organization being helping families in need however they can. All that is asked of clients Whiting said is a few sheets of confidential paperwork  a name, some background  thats because we want to know where they are coming from, so we can help the best that we can.
The Portage Wal-Mart store is making another push for a retail liquor license.

The large multinational retailer appealed the citys recent 5-3 denial of an application that would have allowed the store to sell retail alcohol products  setting up yet another vote on the matter by the Common Council on Thursday.

This time, however, much of the debate regarding the liquor license application is expected to take place behind closed doors, outside the publics view.

According to Thursdays Common Council agenda, the Council plans to convene in closed session to reconsider the liquor license application.

Any Council action, however, would need to take place in open session. Thursdays agenda indicates the Council will likely take action later in the evening.

City Administrator Shawn Murphy said Wal-Mart chose to have the discussion in closed session. We give applicants the option and Wal-mart chose a closed session, he said Monday.

Governmental bodies are allowed to go into closed session  where the public and media are asked to leave the meeting room  according to state law for a handful of reasons including licensing.

Thursdays agenda cites Wisconsin State Statutes 19.85(1)(b) as the exemption to open meeting rules the city will use as justification. That exemption reads:

Considering dismissal, demotion, licensing or discipline of any public employee or person licensed by a board or commission or the investigation of charges against such person, or considering the grant or denial of tenure for a university faculty member, and the taking of formal action on any such matter; provided that the faculty member or other public employee or person licensed is given actual notice of any evidentiary hearing which may be held prior to final action being taken and of any meeting at which final action may be taken. The notice shall contain a statement that the person has the right to demand that the evidentiary hearing or meeting be held in open session. This paragraph and par.(f) do not apply to any such evidentiary hearing or meeting where the employee or person licensed requests that an open session be held.

On May 12, the Common Council voted 5-3 to deny Wal-Mart a retail liquor license. But some of those who voted no  including Council members Dennis Nachreiner and Mark Hahn  said their vote could more accurately be described as not yet, because they wanted to further review the application and city ordinances.

City licensing rules give applicants the right to appeal. Wal-Mart chose that path. The initial vote can be overturned with a simple majority at Thursdays meeting.
PARDEEVILLE  Pardeeville Schools tabbed two new leaders Monday in the hiring of principals John Jack Hammer and David Bell.

Pardeeville School Board unanimously approved the hiring of Hammer as high school principal and Bell for the middle school, candidates Superintendent Gus Knitt called strong listeners and people who work at all sides to come to solutions.

Hammer spent more than 20 years in the Mauston School District as a high school science teacher, while Bell spent about 10 years as a math teacher in Reedsville School District, near Manitowoc.

Hammer and Bell both come to Pardeeville from the classroom, Knitt said, but both have exhibited leadership in their respective careers. Hammer, for example, had served as interim associate principal in Mauston and had also been a teacher contract negotiator, while Bell was involved recently in Reedsvilles hiring process at the high school, setting up interviews and talking to administrators about his assessment of the candidates.

Contracts for Hammer and Bell begin in July, though both have expressed interest in getting started this month, Knitt said. A short administrator orientation day will be held in the district at 10 a.m. June 21, a chance for the new principals to review staff and student handbooks, among other things.

Ted Lenz submitted his letter of retirement from the middle school in March, while Jason LeMay in April informed the district hed accepted a high school principal position in Altoona. Both of their tenures were five years.

The district since April received 24 applicants for high school principal and 38 for middle school, and in May Pardeeville had narrowed the field to six and five finalists, respectively.

Pardeevilles pool of candidates was very strong, Knitt said, noting, however, that rural school districts like Pardeeville typically dont receive a lot of interest from heavily experienced administrator candidates. Experienced principals, if they want to climb the ladder, theyre going to bypass us, and theyre going to go larger.

Members of the districts personnel committee visited the districts of Hammer and Bell to interview those who worked with them.

We met with parents, with community people, their principals, Knitt said of visits that confirmed to the committee their abilities as listeners  a skill vitally important when working with such a diverse group.

We also felt they were very strong at being able to reflect on things, that neither of them would make rash decisions, that they will contemplate, they will review as theyve listened, and they will be able to come up with decisions that will be well thought out, whether that comes to student discipline, to teachers, dealing with parents  they will listen to all the info.

What people will learn is you can talk to them.

Theyre not in-your-face administrators, Knitt added. They each like to work behind the scenes.

Both Hammers and Bells backgrounds in curriculum is a huge plus, Knitt said, especially since principals in the Pardeeville district also take on the roles of curriculum directors. Insights into math and science curriculum, Knitt said, will be helpful since those areas are getting more scrutiny in todays schools.
Weve been down this road before. Unfortunately, its no pleasure drive.

Absent more money in the states transportation budget, motorists can expect yet another delay, perhaps two extra years, in the Interstate 90/39 expansion.

Mark Gottlieb, Gov. Scott Walkers transportation secretary, signaled that prospect May 25 in Madison. At a roundtable the next day, the Transportation Development Association of Wisconsin discussed ramifications with business leaders in Janesville.

Sure, this advocacy group lobbies for the construction industry, but its statewide Just Fix It campaign resonates.

Already, a one-year delay from fallout of the current biennial budget means those driving the freeway from Beloit to Madison will endure construction signs, orange barrels and detours at least until 2022.

Instead of swallowing a tough but logical plan of raising revenues, as Gottlieb-led task forces have twice recommended, Walker vowed to veto higher gas taxes or registration fees. So in this budget, lawmakers borrowed more to fund roadwork. Transportation debt service has doubled in just 10 years. That isnt sustainable, and interest payments dont buy a shovelful of asphalt.

On June 2, Walker told reporters he wouldnt accept higher taxes or fees to fund roadwork without equal cuts elsewhere in the state budget. That came a day after Gottlieb told the Wisconsin State Journal his budget request, unlike the last one that sought $750 million in new taxes and fees, would include no major revenue increases.

Meanwhile, a 2015 federal report rated 71 percent of Wisconsin roads poor or mediocre, third-worst nationwide. Without adequate state dollars, counties and municipalities watch roads crumble and drivers steer into repair shops more often to fix shocks, axles and tires.

What do predictions of another delay in the interstate project tell companies that depend on moving products and services swiftly?

What do delays tell prospective developers whose projects may hinge on the current freeway schedule? This concern is acute in Rock County, just gaining traction after the Great Recession and the loss of Janesvilles General Motors plant.

What do they tell thousands of commuters who depend on free-flowing traffic to reach work on time each morning and get home safely each evening?

What do they tell taxpayers? With construction costs rising 5 percent annually, each years delay costs tens of millions more.

What do they tell crash victims? More than 300 collisions occurred on I-90/39 last year in Rock County alone. The human carnage from another delay is hard to calculate. But last June, a semitrailer truck crossed the median on Janesvilles south side and struck a pickup, killing the driver. The 18 miles of median barriers to be erected include that spot and might have prevented that tragedy.

What do they tell the many Illinois residents who might stay home more often to avoid bumper-to-bumper weekend traffic jams rather than pump tourism dollars into Wisconsin?

What, Dear Governor, would another delay suggest to those youve heard you proclaim Wisconsin is open for business? Wisconsin sends a terrible message when six freeway lanes in Illinois bottleneck to four at the state line.

Neighboring Michigan and Iowa raised gas taxes in recent years. With gas prices still low, this would be a good time to boost Wisconsins, as well.

Sure, Republican leaders want to see results of an audit that might show how Gottliebs department could boost efficiencies. That makes sense but wont fill this Volkswagen-sized funding pothole.

Gas tax revenue has dipped as cars become more efficient. Raising gas taxes enough to shore up a funding shortfall this large would stun drivers. Instead, it will take a mix of gas taxes, registration fees and perhaps even a tax on mileage driven and enactment of some tolls.

Time is wasting. Borrowing more or ignoring the problem wont solve it. Voters should quiz lawmakers seeking re-election this fall about just how they would plug this funding gap and ensure that the I-90/39 project stays on schedule.
Bubba is one of the first things that visitors to my office in Madison notice, and its not hard to understand why  Bubba is the wall mount of a Brown Swiss cow and in a building with numerous stuffed deer heads, she stands out. Often Ill be asked, Why a cow head?, and that allows me to talk about dairy farming  not only my experiences as a dairy farmer, but also, the economic impact that dairy farming has on the state of Wisconsin.

By now, most are familiar with the statistics  that dairy contributes $43.4 billion to the Wisconsin economy, that Wisconsin is number one in the country for cheese production (we produce 26 percent of Americas cheese), and that Wisconsin is number two in milk production (we produce 13.9 percent of Americas milk).

But lets go beyond the statistics and talk about the people behind the business of Wisconsin dairy. Ninety-six percent of Wisconsins nearly 10,000 dairy farms are family owned, and the average size of a herd is around 120 cows. Those families that operate a farm are participating in a way of life that goes back thousands of years. Farming methods may change, but at its core, farming is about finding a balance with the land, and working together as a family to produce the food that enables a community to keep running  all the while competing against variables like disease and bad weather. At a young age, I learned about the slim margin between success and failure that farmers deal with on a regular basis. I learned about the value of hard work and strong character.

Farmers are not, however, the only contributors to the dairy industry. The journey from farm to table has several stops, many of which could be in the 50th Assembly District. Processing plants, like the ones owned by Foremost Farms, Saputo, and Carr Valley purchase milk from farms then make it into cheese. Bottling plants across Wisconsin purchase raw milk from farms, separate the milk into skim and cream, then recombine the two so that we have standardized skim, whole, and 2 percent milk. The separated whey protein can be made into nutritional supplements used by humans and bovines alike. Plants like Alcam and Schreiber in Richland Center purchase surplus cream and use it to make butter or yogurt. Along the way, of course, the milk needs to be shipped  which is where stainless steel tankers like the ones made at Walker Stainless in New Lisbon come into play. At every stop there is a job to do, and that job is done quite often by our friends and neighbors here in Central Wisconsin.

The farmer, the milk processors, the bottlers, the drivers  theyre the reason that Bubba hangs on my wall today. She gives me the opportunity to talk with all sorts of visitors from school children to my fellow legislators about the importance that dairy plays in my district and in the state. So this June, lets remember to celebrate dairy month for two reasons  the excellent products that our state produces, and the men and women who are responsible for producing them.
Its noon on a Wednesday in Endeavor, and the Add LIFE Senior Dining group is called to order.

The 22 adults in attendance, most of them of the pre-Baby Boomer (older than 70) demographic variety, sit around two long tables in the Ada Mills Donner and Melvin R. Donner Civic Center meeting room.

Cathy Kampen, one of the groups co-founders and a regular attendee at the mid-week, mid-day lunch, makes some announcements. She notes that one of todays diners recently took the Honor Flight for Veterans from Madison to Washington, D.C. Everyone applauds.

Kampen reminds the group of a couple of upcoming field trips  one of them a potential visit to a local slaughterhouse  then reads a short, humorous story.

After the laughter from the story subsides, Kampen tells the group, lets do our exercises. She leads a minute or so of seated calisthenics, mostly clapping, whooping and a little giggling, with everyone joining in.

Kampen then announces that its time to eat, and she directs one table of diners to kick it off by taking their place in line at the kitchen window at the front of the room.

Lunch today consists of an Asian salad with chicken and raisin bread on the side, with cake and ice cream for dessert  and the entree choice this day apparently has made for a smaller crowd than usual at the Endeavor meal site, according to Kampen.

Were meat and potato people, she said with a grin.

In spite of the somewhat exotic fare, everyone quickly secures their meal, returns to their tables and commences eating. The lively discussion and occasional laughter resumes as well.

This scene from a recent spring Wednesday afternoon is being repeated several times today and every weekday, at locations across the region. From Portage to Mauston and Wisconsin Dells to Sauk City, groups of senior citizens today and this week will convene at noontime in at least one location in each of the regions five counties, for whats officially known as the congregate senior lunchtime meal.

Sometimes a card game or another activity  such as a guest speaker or presentation regarding a topic of potential import to senior citizens  will precede or follow the meal. Sometimes the gathered seniors  at times a couple of dozen, at times a few or a couple  simply enjoy the fellowship, lively conversation and a late-morning or early-afternoon cup of coffee with their peers.

More Than a Meal

No wonder, then, that Wisconsins Department of Health Services (DHS)  which works with the Aging and Disability Resource Centers (ADRCs) serving Adams, Columbia, Juneau, Marquette and Sauk counties in administering local programs for senior citizens and people with disabilities  refers to these ubiquitous, state-wide lunchtime gatherings as More Than a Meal.

In addition to reducing hunger and food insecurity among older adults and providing them with nutritious meals, senior dining centers provide an environment that promotes socialization, said DHS spokesman Jennifer Miller in an email. In fact, many of the people who regularly attend the programs say that their main reason for coming is so they can visit friends.

Of the 37 key indicators of well-being for older Americans identified in a 2012 report by the Federal Interagency Forum on Ageing-Related Statistics, the weekday congregate senior meal bolsters at least two indicators: nutrition and use of time.

For senior citizens who are looking for something engaging to do  especially those who live alone  the senior meal offers a respite of engagement and socialization as well as nourishment.

We are people persons, said Kampen, who along with three fellow seniors helped to found the Endeavor meal seven years ago.

Kampens cohorts in Marquette County last week and those found at just about every other meal site recently in the region used words as the people, camaraderie and friendliness to describe what they liked about their senior meal time.

The chance to have a well-prepared meal for an affordable price also is a positive factor for the participants  exotic fare notwithstanding.

Not having to cook is really good, said Erlene Rollins with a laugh during a recent lunch at the Frank Fischer Community Center in Lake Delton.

Older Americans Act of 1965

For approximately half a century, the government-sponsored, local senior lunchtime meal has been a fixture in American life, including the Dairy State. Its availability and nutritional value at a very affordable cost to people 60 and older  as well as to those with disabilities who qualify  exists thanks to the Older Americans Act of 1965, signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson.

The Act established the U.S. Administration on Aging (AOA), whose purpose today is the same as it was then: To promote the well-being of older individuals by providing services and programs designed to help them live independently in their homes and communities, said to the AOAs website. The Act also empowers the federal government to distribute funds to the states for supportive services for individuals over the age of 60.

In addition to providing meals to seniors  both in congregate gatherings like those taking place every day throughout the region as well as to thousands of qualifying senior citizens at their homes  the AOA has helped to fund such critical services for seniors as job training, senior centers, caregiver support, transportation, health promotion, benefits enrollment and more, according to the AOA website.

The majority of those programs, including senior meals, are administered across the region by ADRC organizations that serve each of the regions five counties.

The settings for the half dozen or so meal sites in each county range in such traditional locales as the dining rooms in sparkling new community centers like the one in Endeavor or the recently opened Frank Fischer Community Center in Lake Delton, to such humble gathering spots as the basement of the city of Portages municipal building on Pleasant Street to even such local restaurants as Beagles Bar and Grill in downtown Lyndon Station.

Anyone 60 or older can get a meal at one of the sites for a requested donation of around $3, depending on the county and location, but we wont turn anyone away if they dont have it, according to Carrie Kroetz, an Older Americans Act consultant for the Greater Wisconsin Agency on Aging Resources (GWAAR).

GWAAR is the state advocacy and administrative organization formed to deliver innovative support to lead aging agencies as we work together to promote, protect, and enhance the well-being of older people in Wisconsin, according to its website.

62,941 congregate meals in 2015

The organization estimates that the regions five counties, each of which has between four and six senior meal sites, served 62,941 congregate meals to people 60 and older in 2015 and have served 24,211 meals to seniors so far in 2016, according to information compiled by GWAAR.

Attendance at the meals can range from what reportedly are consistently robust gatherings in Endeavor to smaller handfuls of diners in Lake Delton or Lyndon Station.

Were up and were down, said Jan Vertein, site manager for the senior meals that take place Monday through Friday at Lake Deltons new Frank Fischer Community Center, which includes a kitchen and dining room included expressly for senior meals. Somedays we only have five or six, and this past Tuesday (for a special post-Memorial Day cookout), we had 22.

As steadfast as the mid-day senior lunch has become across America in the 51 years since the passage of the Older Americans Act, the senior meal is likely to undergo some changes as the group it serves swells in number like it never has.

The Baby Boom Generation  that behemoth of U.S. age groups that has influenced everything in its path since the end of World War II  began to turn 70 this year, and sooner or later more and more members of that group will begin turning up at senior meal sites.

A meat and potato crowd, the Boomers are not, according to a recent Associated Press story. and as they age, Boomers are expected to start putting on senior dining sites to adapt by offering such menu items as organic vegetables, locally sourced meat and gluten-free or vegetarian options, according to a Colorado-based food consulting firm quoted in the AP story.

Put your seatbelts on because expectations are going to grow greatly, Donna Manring, owner of Innovative Dining Solutions, told the wire service.

Boomers bring change

Anticipating such Boomer-sized expectations, Wisconsins senior meal providers already have begun contemplating and preparing for that generations inevitable impact.

The traditional meal format isnt necessarily what theyre looking for, said Charlene Norberg, Juneau Countys ADRC director, referring to todays newly minted seniors. Were moving toward trying to entice people and try to find ways to provide more choice in what theyre getting  more sites have begun doing that, and its something weve discussed (in Juneau County).

Wisconsins Bureau of Aging and Disability Resources in 2014 began funding innovative senior dining pilot programs efforts throughout the state, and this year state grants have helped senior meal providers in Columbia and Sauk counties add a few forward-thinking wrinkles.

Since January, the dining site in the basement of Portages municipal building has been transformed once a month into a soup, salad and sandwich bar catered by a local restaurant, and every weekday at the Sauk Prairie Community Center diners can make a Cafe Connection before and after lunch in a cafe/bistro atmosphere with extended hours, snacks and great programming.

If we can structure dining sites to have that familiarity as the Boomers age in, we can make them successful, said Sauk County ADRC Director Susan Blodgett. I think its all in the surroundings and the presentation, what we make it for their comfort level.

As indicated by that recent, robust mid-week turnout in Endeavor in the face of a less-than-popular entree choice, Marquette County apparently is ahead of this senior meal revitalization curve.

In Marquette, the phrase congregate meal has given way to the Add LIFE senior meal, with LIFE standing for Laughter, Independence, Friends and Energy.

Marquette Aging Unit Manager Sylvia Phillis decided a few years ago that the perception and presentation of senior meals across the county needed a modernizing reboot.

People more or less felt like (senior dining) was a soup kitchen-type thing, Phillis said. We decided a few years ago we were going to change that. Weve changed the phrase meal site to Add LIFE.

All six of Marquettes senior meal sites include the phrase Add LIFE in their names, and they all feature a robust slate of activities in line with the revitalization efforts being attempted at sites elsewhere in the region and the state.

Activities at Marquettes meal sites routinely include guest speakers  among them state and federal legislators who talk about issues important to those gathered  and in recent years the county has begun putting on an occasional evening meal for seniors with attendance of up to 50.

Yet even in places visited for this story where the gatherings were smaller and the meal was the sole focus, those on hand seemed to be enjoying their time out in their respective communities.

The meal itself is secondary, really, Phillis said. The purpose is socialization, finding out whats going on in the community  its a network.
Sexual predators are everywhere

The School of Public Health recently hosted a dynamic discussion on gender-based violence and rape culture on campuses.

The reactivation on campuses in South Africa and abroad to confront gender-based violence, such as sexual harassment and rape, as well as the lack of effective institutional and societal responses, calls for urgent transformation and the need to address the gender power imbalances in our society, such as patriarchy, gender inequality, discrimination, prejudice and stigmatisation of women survivors.

The Wits School of Public Health, together with student activists, journalists, and researchers at the forefront of rape and gender-based violence advocacy and research, recently held a dynamic discussion to deconstruct the responses to Gender-based violence and rape culture on campus.

"We are tired women ... This how this event came about" - @NoBornFree pic.twitter.com/dy0PSa98KV  Pontsho Pilane (@Pontsho_Pilane) May 31, 2016

#IAmOneInThree

#IAmOneInThree student activist, Tshepiso Maleswena, said while she is still a fallist and supporting the #FeesMustFall movement, the reaction and lack of support for the Rhodes Universitys #RUReferenceList made me sick.

.@Tshepiso_29: Res Culture perpetuates rape culture. Female students are groomed to be "ladies"&male students are groomed to take over world  Pontsho Pilane (@Pontsho_Pilane) May 31, 2016

"Varsities have an institutionalised culture that is deeply embedded in patriarchy" - Maria Wanyane, Wits GEO.  Pontsho Pilane (@Pontsho_Pilane) May 31, 2016

"....we are talking about a violation of a womens body that happens every day. #IAmOneInThree talks about Rhodes you are not alone. It is not a Rhodes problem. It is not a Wits problem. It is actually a #SAReferenceList. It is all our problems, Maleswena said.

Rapists are not holograms

Panelist, Li'Tsoanelo Zwane (Masters in Education student and activist), said government campaigns that deal with gender-based violence are pretty much useless because they always do this thing of real men dont rape and that is very problematic because it implies that we are being raped by these holograms; (that) its not men who are raping us.

And it also creates the idea that all rapes are inherently violent which isnt the case because not all rapists are these strangers that come from dark alleys and come and snatch us, and take us away and kidnap us. Rapists walk among us.

"We found out that rapists were some of our favourite ppl on campus. Our lecturers, our tutors and our friends" @Pontsho_Pilane  Xola (@XolaNohajimkoko) May 31, 2016

Rapists are people that we are married to. Rapists are people that we go on dates with. We are friends with rapists as well.

"A rapist isnt this hologram, out of space, abstract thing. It is a very tangible person that we deal with in our day-to-day lives, Zwane said.

Women as the ones who always have to defend their actions

Reading from the poem Sons by Rudy Francisco, journalist Pontso Pilane said: Rape culture is the worst kind of teacher our kids are learning the most from. It teaches women that it is their responsibility to not get raped. It teaches men that boys will be boys.

We had men who said:

1. men are also raped

2. mothers (only mothers) must teach their kids to behave

3. women must cover up to avoid rape  Pontsho Pilane (@Pontsho_Pilane) May 31, 2016

It's only in rape trials that you have to stand as a victim - what were you wearing? What were you doing? - Hlengiwe Ndlovu #RapeCulture  Captured Third Force (@neon_nu) May 31, 2016

The govts anti sugar daddy campaign paints the victims as the devil. It's actually a shaming campaign against women, abused women.  Xola (@XolaNohajimkoko) May 31, 2016

Changing the language

Lisa Vetten (political scientist at Wits) said that society needs to continuously challenge the gender norms that we keep on producing over and over again in issues of consent, gender roles in relationships and heterosexuality.

"You cannot separate heterosexuality from rape culture" - Lisa Vetten.  Pontsho Pilane (@Pontsho_Pilane) May 31, 2016

"Language of 'Men must man up and protect our women from rape' is problematic. Who are we protecting them from?" - Lisa Vetten  Kingsley Kipury (@MzansiMaasai) May 31, 2016

Even talking about who pursues and who consent is problematic because even if we have campaigns around consent who we are assuming is doing the consenting because that is implicitly saying who we think should be doing the asking and who sit back and wait to be asked, Vetten said.

Language needs to shift on who is vulnerable. Men are the ones that need to be protected.They are a danger to themselves. - Lisa Vetten  Captured Third Force (@neon_nu) May 31, 2016

The panelists included Thandokazi Maseti (lecturer in Family Medicine at Wits); Tshepiso Maleswena and Hlengiwe Ndlovu (#IAmOneInThree student activists); Li'Tsoanelo Zwane (Masters in Education student and activist); Pontsho Pilane (journalist); Maria Wanyane (clinical social worker, Gender Equity Office at Wits); Dumisane Rebombo (One Man Can National Manager, Sonke Gender Justice); Lisa Vetten (political scientist at Wits); Abigail Hatcher (researcher, School of Public Health at Wits).




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US-India deal helps pave way for new nuclear in India

08 June 2016

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Westinghouse can start building six AP1000s in India following an agreement signed yesterday during talks at the White House between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Barack Obama. It is the first such opportunity for a US company since the countries signed a civil nuclear deal in 2008.

Modi and Obama at the White House yesterday (Image: Indian Prime Minister's Office)

According to a joint statement by the two leaders, Nuclear Power Corporation of India and Westinghouse Electric can now begin engineering and site-design work for the reactors. The final contract is to be completed in June 2017.

"Culminating a decade of partnership on civil nuclear issues, the leaders welcomed the start of preparatory work on-site in India for six AP 1000 reactors to be built by Westinghouse and noted the intention of India and the US Export-Import Bank to work together toward a competitive financing package for the project," the statement said.

Once completed, the project would be among the largest of its kind, it said, "fulfilling the promise of the US-India civil nuclear agreement and demonstrating a shared commitment to meet India's growing energy needs while reducing reliance on fossil fuels."

The US-India Contact Group has worked to address the issues presented by a 2010 Indian law on nuclear liability through India's ratification of the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage, the statement noted.

The USA and India "share common climate and clean energy interests and are close partners in the fight against climate change", it continued. "Leadership from both countries helped galvanize global action to combat climate change and culminated in the historic Paris Agreement reached last December," it added.

The USA "reaffirms its commitment" to join this agreement as soon as possible this year, it said, and India "similarly has begun its processes to work toward this shared objective".

Obama welcomed India's application to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), and re-affirmed that India is "ready for membership", according to the joint statement. It added that the USA has called on NSG Participating Governments to support India's application when it comes up at the NSG Plenary later this month.

Researched and written

by World Nuclear News

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The monthly value of local real estate transactions tracked through the MLS during May was more than $744 million for homes and nearly $95 million for condos, high-rise condos and townhomes. Compared to one year ago, total sales volumes in May were up 10.1 percent for homes, but down 2.0 percent for condos and townhomes.

In May, 71.2 percent of all existing local homes and 67.7 percent of all existing local condos and townhomes sold within 60 days. That compares to one year ago, when 71.1 percent of all existing local homes and 62.4 percent of all existing condos and townhomes sold within 60 days.

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According to the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors (GLVAR), local home prices heated up in May 2016, as the housing supply remained tight.GLVAR reported the median price of existing single-family homes sold in Southern Nevada during May increased to $229,250. That was up 8.5 percent from $211,250 one year ago.Meanwhile, GLVAR said the median price of local condominiums and townhomes, including high-rise condos, sold in May was $118,000. That was up 5.4 percent from $112,000 one year ago."As we head into the summer, we're seeing more demand for the limited number of homes that are available for sale," said 2016 GLVAR President Scott Beaudry. "Demand is exceeding supply in most parts of the country, but I think it's more pronounced here in Southern Nevada. Our tight housing supply seems to be driving up prices, especially for entry-level homes. Even with our limited inventory, we're still selling more homes so far this year than last year."According to GLVAR, the total number of existing local homes, condominiums and townhomes sold in May was 3,349, down slightly from 3,363 total sales in May of 2015. Compared to the same month one year ago, 1.6 percent fewer homes, but 4.9 percent more condos and townhomes sold in May.Beaudry said local home sales in 2016 have been running nearly 10 percent ahead of the pace from 2015, when GLVAR reported 38,578 single-family home, condominium, townhome and high-rise condo sales. That was more than in 2014, but fewer sales than during each of the previous five years.Beaudry noted that the number of homes listed for sale in Southern Nevada increased slightly in May compared to the previous month and year. But at the current sales pace, he said Southern Nevada still has less than a three-month supply of homes available for sale, when a six-month supply is considered to be a balanced market.The total number of single-family homes listed for sale on GLVAR's MLS in May was 14,220, up 4.8 percent from one year ago. GLVAR tracked a total of 3,676 condos, high-rise condos and townhomes listed for sale on its MLS in May, up 5.9 percent from one year ago.By the end of May, GLVAR reported 7,626 single-family homes listed without any sort of offer. That's up 6.9 percent from one year ago. For condos and townhomes, the 2,237 properties listed without offers in May represented a 1.4 percent decrease from one year ago.GLVAR continued to report declines in distressed sales and a corresponding increase in traditional home sales, where lenders are not controlling the transaction. In May, 4.5 percent of all local sales were short sales - when lenders allow borrowers to sell a home for less than what they owe on the mortgage. That's down from 7.3 percent of all sales one year ago. Another 6.1 percent of all May sales were bank-owned, down from 8.0 percent one year ago.Though they continue to make up a smaller percentage of the local housing market, Beaudry said short sales might continue to be an attractive option for some homeowners in 2016 since Congress voted in late December to again extend the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007. If Congress had not voted to again extend this tax break to help distressed homeowners, any amount of money a bank wrote off in agreeing to sell a home as part of a short sale would have been taxable when sellers file their federal income taxes.GLVAR said 28.2 percent of all local properties sold in May were purchased with cash, down from 29.1 percent one year ago. That's less than half of the February 2013 peak of 59.5 percent, indicating that cash buyers and investors are still more active in Southern Nevada than in most markets, but that their influence continues to wane.
Toader Ciprian Enache and Jana Enache

By: Mahesh Sarin

A man killed his wife because he was angry that she missed her flight to Italy, following a business trip in Spain, according to police.

Huelva police said that they have arrested 34-year-old Toader Ciprian Enache, after being accused of using a rope to strangle his wife, 32-year-old Jana Enache.

Toader was charged with one count of murder.

According to the police investigation, the couple, who was married for 15 years, worked as circus performers and the two have recently come to the country for business.

On Tuesday evening, Jana went to the Seville Airport, where she was supposed to fly to Italy, to perform at a circus. Jana missed her flight, and her husband became very angry.

The husband found an abandoned car in the parking lot of the airport, where he used a rope to choke his wife to death. He then placed her dead body in the car and covered it with a blanket.

The following day, Toader handed himself in to police.
The suspect

By: Wayne Morin

(Scroll down for video) Police are looking to arrest a man on a charge of indecent exposure after allegedly pulling down his pants and showing his private parts to women at a cemetery, according to police in the United Kingdom.

Exeter police said that a woman recorded the suspect walking in the cemetery without his pants and staring at women. 32-year-old Sadie Ellicott told investigators that she spotted the suspect in the cemetery at least three times.

He looks very creepy, and stares until he is sure that the women are looking at him. Ellicott, who is a mother of children, said that she recorded the suspect in order to warn other women.

She also handed the video over to police. Ellicott said that the police arrived 10 minutes after they were called, but the suspect already left from the scene.

Police described the suspect is described as a white male, about 30 years old, clean shaven, with dark hair and medium built.

Ellicott, who works as a waitress in a bar, said that the man was wearing a black hooded jacket and nothing else.
Christy Kelley

By: Feng Qian

A woman who was under the influence of a drug, stripped naked and tried to kill herself with a bra in front of police officer, according to police in South Carolina.

Spartanburg County police said that they have arrested 31-year-old Christy Kelley, after being accused of disorderly conduct.

She was booked into the Spartanburg County Detention Center, pending a bail hearing. According to the police, around 6:45 p.m. on Sunday, police responded to a report of a disorderly woman on Riverrun Drive.

Officers approached Kelley, but when she tried to get up, she immediately fell to the ground. Kelly said that she had been staying with friends who had attacked and injured her.

Kelley was loud and unsteady on her feet, but she refused medical attention or to be taken to a hospital.

Police spoke to Kelleyas landlord, who said that she became violent after taking a drug that was not prescribed to her, and she inflicted injuries on herself.

When officers tried to arrest Kelley for disorderly conduct, she resisted.

When she was finally placed in the back of the patrol car, she managed to take off all her clothes and used the strap of her bra to choke herself.
Wrexham Is A Safer Place Tonight As Police Arrest Two On Drugs Warrants

This article is old - Published: Wednesday, Jun 8th, 2016

Armed police were been seen in Caia this afternoon alongside uniformed officers as a drugs related arrest warrant was executed.

UPDATE 7:30pm: DCI Harrison has updated further confirmed two men were arrested today with support from armed officers. He adds, Wrexham is a safer place tonight.

Original information below

North Wales Police have told us that police were not responding to a specific incident, rather executing an arrest warrant in Bryn Hafod.

DCI Neil Harrison confirmed a 25 year old man from Merseyside has been arrested, with the operation ongoing.

Nearby roads were temporarily closed off for a short period while police went about their work.

Earlier one reader Val told us: police in protective gear have closed the road in Caia near the pub and shops, with another local resident saying one person has been arrested.

Thanks to SmithMeister and Mark for the above pictures sent to us.
Voters went to polls on Tuesday in the final six primary contests of the 2016 election cycle, with the exception of the District of Columbia, which will vote next week. Hillary Clinton declared victory in the Democratic Party nomination contest Tuesday evening.

WSWS reporters spoke to voters throughout the state of California. California, while traditionally having relatively little influence on the nomination process due the voting schedule, nonetheless is a significant gauge as it is the largest state in the country.

More than 650,000 Californians registered to vote in the final six weeks of the registration period, pushing the states total registered voters to 18 million, the most ever heading into a primary election. Many of these newly-registered voters were under the age of 45, a group that has favored Sanders heavily over Clinton.

In Los Angeles, many voters said the growth of social inequality and poverty were motivating factors in their election decisions.

We have so many problems here, one voter said. I take the bus down 7th street and theres homeless people everywhere. Its ridiculous for us to continue spending money in places like the Middle East. But at the same time weve caused everything thats going on over there.

Another expressed frustration with the medias declaration of Clinton as the presumptive nominee the day before the California vote. They shouldnt have done that, he said. They should have to wait until all the ballots are counted to make sure people feel free to vote for the candidate of their choice.

WSWS reporters also spoke to voters in Berkeley, California, many of who expressed illusions in both the Sanders and Clinton campaigns.

Bob, an engineering student in Berkeley, said that he voted for Sanders. I believe he has good policies for social change that will represent the younger generation, he said. Public education is a big deal for me. I believe its important to have an educated population.

Asked about Clinton, Bob replied, I think shes an acceptable candidate. I would have nothing against her as a candidate, but Bernie Sanders seems to have much more audacity.

Helcio, a Brazilian national, expressed a growing and widespread resignation about the US election system. Its pretty sad, he said. There is not much hope anymore. All the top 1 percent are in control. It doesnt matter what you do, it will take a long time for people to get power again.

Chris, a database architect, said he voted for Sanders because of concerns over income inequality. Paraphrasing Robert Reich, I think Hillary Clinton is the best candidate for the system we have, and Bernie is the best for the system we would like to have. Im voting my conscience in the primary. Asked about the lack of discussion of war in the presidential election, Chris replied, Were to the state of a forgotten war.

Rishi, an engineer, also voted for Sanders. His primary concerns are the environment, climate change, and having a good foreign policy that doesnt lead to war, he said. Trump is out of his mind. Hillary is a little too pro-war, pro-involvement in all the things she voted for. That was probably the biggest reason I voted for Bernie.

When asked what kind of issues were of particular concern to him, Patrick, a voter in the San Francisco area, said, The big one for me is medical debt. It hits me personally because I have kidney failure. I was diagnosed last November. For just a four-day stay in the hospital, it would have been $80,000. Luckily, I was able to qualify for Medi-Cal, the states Medicaid health care program.

Many voters in San Diego also expressed distrust in the election process and a disbelief that anything would significantly change regardless of which candidate wins in November.

Alex, a student worker, said, The super delegates can do whatever they want instead of doing what the people want. I read last night that Hillary Clinton is now the nominee. Why should we even bother voting now? The election process is rigged, we dont have a voice.

WSWS reporters in San Diego also spoke to voters from City Heights, a mostly Hispanic working class and immigrant community.

Freddie a telecom worker told reporters he was voting because, Im tired of blue-collar workers like myself suffering due to the financial institutions, Wall Street banks and corporations.

When asked if he felt that this framework could adequately address the democratic rights of the population, he responded, No! It doesnt feel like it is a democracy when the politicians can be bought and sold. I dont feel like its a democracy if hundreds of police can get away with killing people.

Freddie was engaged in the strike by 1,700 workers for AT&T, which was contained by the union to San Diego. When our reporters asked why the union, the Communication Workers of America, made strikers return to work without a contract, Freddie responded that he was disappointed in AT&T. When pressed why the union had allowed them to even work without a contract, he agreed that the unions were no longer organizations of the working class.

Speaking on the difficulties of making ends meet, Freddie also said, Its not [quite] the [official] poverty line, but its paycheck to paycheck and thats poverty. We work our whole lives and what do we get in the end? To pay off our car, maybe pay off a house that we can pass on to our children. Thats it?! You work so hard and youve got nothing to show for it at the end of your lifetime.

Juan is a 30 year old military veteran who spent time in Afghanistan. He said he was there to vote for Sanders because he agreed with the way Sanders spoke about Wall Street and the difficulties of life for average people. Despite Sanders saying he would support Hillary Clinton if she won the primary, Juan maintained the impression that Sanders would never support Clinton. He said he would refuse to vote for Clinton, believing the Democratic and Republican parties are thoroughly corrupt and can only be reformed by Sanders.

When asked about Bernie Sanders support of the wars in Libya and Syria, as well as his votes to fund the wars in Iraq, Juan said he believed that Sanders did not really support the current wars in the Middle East.

A young mother also spoke to our reporters briefly saying she was going to the polls because it was her obligation. Expressing her disapproval of US military interventions abroad she said, Its my taxes that are paying these people to send soldiers to war and kill thousands of people in other countries. We are paying these people and they should answer to us.

Daniel, a cook and student at a local community college said he was disgusted with growing social inequality, and expressed disbelief that it could be in any way addressed through either of the two big business parties. The election is controlled by the 1 percent of both parties, the Democrats and Republicans. The race has become a popularity contest, we have no idea what politics is.

Daniel continued, We cant trust anything Hillary says, she is two-faced. There will be no difference if Hillary or Trump wins.
The Green Party and the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) are holding a national tour billed as the Left Debate on the EU. This will culminate in a debate between Green Party leader Natalie Bennett and the SWPs Joseph Choonara at the SWPs upcoming Marxism event in July, Where next after the EU referendum?

The Greens are part of Another Europe is Possible, which they describe as the progressive EU alliance in the campaign for the June 23 referendum on continued UK membership, in which they are working closely with the Labour Party. The SWP is part of Left Leave, in alliance with the Stalinist Communist Party of Britain, the Maoist Indian Workers Association, the SWP split-off Counterfire and the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union.

The SWP and Greens are well aware that their participation in the referendum campaign has damaged them politically. The Greens stand in same trench as Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron and the dominant sections of the ruling elite in backing the EU, specialising in peddling claims that it functions as a progressive brake on Camerons own government.

Left Leave focuses most of its energies arguing that the xenophobic character of an official Leave campaign in which right-wing Tory leaders and representatives of the UK Independence Party demand Britain take back control of our borders is secondary to the possibility that the Conservative schism over Europe creates conditions for a Labour government under Jeremy Corbyn.

The tour, in which each side accepts the stated political motives of the other and their claim to speak for progressive opinion, serves to provide a mutual amnesty for their real role as backers or apologists for different wings of the British bourgeoisie dedicated to the pursuit of austerity, anti-migrant measures and war. Being part of opposing camps on the issue of the EU referendum is treated for what it isa tactical disagreement between political friends.

Central to this charade is the claim that they are both determined opponents of racism, to which end they cynically utilise the fate of hundreds of thousands of refugees seeking access to the EU and the UK.

The necessity for adopting a leftist pose is seen in the paucity of their justifications for supporting Remain or Leave.

At the Manchester debate last week, Bennett claimed the EU was a haven of workers rights. One would not know from her comments that the EU has been at the forefront of imposing devastating attacks on working people in Greece and throughout the continent since the 2008 financial crash.

In truth, the Greens support for the EU is based on their own pro-capitalist programme. The partys web site warns that the EU gives British businesses, both small and big, access to a 500-million strong market, and that leaving the EU would risk economic stability in Britain.

Aware of mass disillusionment throughout Europe in all the capitalist parties and institutions, Bennett argued, We need a huge amount of reform [in Britain], but that doesnt mean the answer is to give up on Westminster or give up on democracy I think the answer is to stay in with Westminster and fight to reform it, just as we need to stay in as part of the EU and fight to reform that.

Choonara rubbished fears that a leave vote would strengthen the right wing. With criminal light-mindedness he argued, The reality of the EU referendum campaign is not the threat from the right. Should former Conservative London Mayor Boris Johnsonthe leading light in the official Leave campcome to power following a vote for Brexit, he would inherit a disastrously damaged, weakened Tory government, and that government will not survive.

At the meeting, Bennett said she supported open borders and celebrated the free movement of people. For this she was praised by Choonara, who said, I think the stance that Natalie has taken over refugees and migrants is absolutely commendable.

After this mutual backslapping, the meeting concluded with a call for everyone to support a Convoy to Calais being organised by number of groups, including the Stop the War Coalition, Peoples Assembly and seven national trade unions. Its stated aim is to deliver aid of any sort, material or financial, to refugees living in squalid conditions in the northern French port town of Calais.

It is hard to imagine a more deeply cynical exercise than this transparent effort to utilise the terrible plight of refugees in Calais and throughout Europe as political camouflage.

Bennett regularly gives speeches peppered with phrases opposing Fortress Europe and Fortress Britain. However, the reality is that the Greens support the EU, which is imposing Fortress Europe. The deal reached with the EU by Cameron, which will be implemented should Remain win, pledges further attacks on the rights of EU migrants.

The SWPs fight against Fortress Europe is centred on the coming to power of the most xenophobic sections of the Tory party.

The SWP routinely employ the argument that demands by Johnson and UKIP leader Nigel Farage to end free movement to EU citizens is of no importance because the main issue at stake is to open all borders. But this is just rhetorical blather, which commits them to nothing. Above all, it is intended to avoid any conflict with the SWPs Stalinist trade union allies in the Leave campaign, especially the RMT, which has argued for years that the free movement of labour must be opposed as a mechanism for social dumping. (Barring these three smaller unions, the rest of the UKs trade unions are signed up to the Remain campaignwith the Trades Union Congress declaring its support for the freedom of movement of workers in the European Union and a managed migration system for those outside the EU.)

The donation of a few tins of soup and bottles of water to refugees at Calais does nothing to offset the unions portrayal of migrants as a threat to working conditionsconditions that the unions themselves are responsible for through their suppression and betrayal of all struggles against big business and the government.

The longer-term purpose of the Green/SWP debates is to ensure that, after June 23, this temporary fallout between friends is forgotten as quickly as possible so they can resume their collaboration. It should be remembered that during the 2015 General election campaign Bennett led calls for a progressive alliance between Labour and the Greens, to be bolstered by other pro-capitalist parties, the Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru (the Party of Wales). At that point they were spurned by then-Labour leader Ed Miliband, but they hope that Corbyn will be more amenable.
One of the most right-wing nationalist groups being given considerable coverage by the mainstream media for the July 2 Australian federal election is the Jacqui Lambie Network (JLN), set up just a year ago by the senator of the same name.

Lambie cannot claim to have mass support or political credibility. The former soldier and military police officer won a Senate seat in Tasmania at the 2013 election, as a member of mining magnate Clive Palmers self-styled Palmer United Party (PUP).

Palmers party hoodwinked many voters by claiming to represent an anti-establishment alternative to the three major partiesLabor, Liberal-National and Greens. PUP has since become so discredited that it has not yet announced any candidates for 2016 and appears on the verge of collapse.

As a PUP candidate, Lambie picked up about 7 percent of the statewide vote in Tasmania and secured a Senate spot via preference-swapping deals with various other groups. Once Palmers party began to disintegrate, Lambie jumped from his sinking ship, without advancing any political differences with him. Her JLN has announced Senate tickets in Tasmania and Victoria, and has said it will also run Senate candidates in New South Wales and Queensland.

Despite her chequered history, Lambie was featured again on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation televisions nationally broadcast Q&A program on May 30. It was her second appearance for the year, and fourth within two years. Alongside another third party senator, Nick Xenophon, she was presented as a candidate to hold the balance of power after July 2.

JLN is one of a number of right-wing formations being given prominence because of growing signs that the popular hostility to the major parties could result in another hung parliamentwith no party able to command a majority. The media, corporate and political establishment is seeking to channel this disaffection back into the parliamentary framework.

Media outlets routinely describe Lambie as outspoken. The truth is that her views are xenophobic, bigoted and authoritarian. She seeks to whip up Australian patriotism as a means of diverting mounting popular discontent over job losses, falling working class living standards and deep budget cuts in reactionary directions.

Her policies include barring foreign workers, accusing them of stopping our children from winning apprenticeships and jobs. JLN also proposes banning Islamic headwear, blocking Chinese investment, arresting all suspected terrorists and restoring the death penalty.

Among her main proposals is for a return to compulsory national service. With youth unemployment officially at 12 percent, and 15.2 percent in Tasmania, Lambie claims that military training will give young people skills and work experience. But her policy is directed at preparing for war.

JLN wants to cut off government payments to all 18-year-olds who are not earning, learning or serving. That is, they must either undertake basic military training, or be employed or studying, or have their welfare entitlements scrapped.

This policy serves multiple aims. One is to slash welfare spending, in order to help meet the demands of the corporate elite and financial institutions for austerity measures and lower taxes for companies and high-income recipients. Another is to push the young employed into low-paid work, thus helping drive down wages for all workers.

Above all, however, the purpose is to train and indoctrinate working-class youth for war. According to Lambie: Its time to teach [our youth] some respect, loyalty and honour.

In February, after dining with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull at his official residence with other Senate crossbenchers, Lambie told reporters she was disappointed that the governments Defence White Paper did not reintroduce conscription. He launched a 10-year $450 billion defence program and nowhere in that program did he or his government have room for the revival of a national service program for young people, she said.

Lambie has repeatedly raised the spectre of China invading Australia. If anybody thinks that we should have a national security and defence policy, which ignores the threat of a Chinese Communist invasionyoure delusional and got rocks in your head, she declared in August 2014.

This agitation is in line with the US military and strategic pivot to Asia to confront China and assert American global hegemony, with Australia on the frontline of this conflict.

Likewise, Lambie last year supported a chauvinist and protectionist campaign by the trade unions against the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement. She accused China of push[ing] totalitarian ideologies and being anti-democratic and a bully, thief, liar and international human rights abuser.

These views echo the accusations advanced by sections of the military, political and media establishment in the United States and Australia to justify preparing for war with China.

Lambie combines her militarist agenda with populist appeals and election promises aimed at exploiting widespread social discontent and disaffection. No one should give any credence to her pledges to oppose cutbacks to aged pensions, healthcare and penalty wage rates. Like other right-wing populist groups, she and her JLN have no solutions to the worsening social crisis and stand foursquare for the defence of Australian capitalism.

Formations such as Lambies have only been able to emerge and posture as defenders of working people as a result of the decades of betrayals carried out by the Labor Party and trade unions. The dramatic reversal of the living standards of workers began with the Hawke-Keating Labor governments of the 1980s and 1990s, backed to the hilt by the unions under the Accord. The trade unions have collaborated with employers and governments, Labor and Liberal-National Coalition, in enforcing factory closures, eliminating jobs and hard-won conditions and undermining wages.

Lambies web site features an interview she conducted with New South Wales South Coast Labor Council secretary Arthur Rorris after he testified at a Senate committee inquiry into alleged Chinese dumping of steel. It is no accident that Lambie receives support from trade union leaders, as she draws from the same reactionary traditions of Laborismnationalism, protectionism and militarism in the defence of Australian capitalism.

Along with Labor, the Coalition and the Greens, the myriad of other parties and self-styled independents, such as Lambie, represent no alternative for the working class since they all defend the profit system, which is the ultimate cause of war, exploitation and social inequality. We urge workers and young people to reject these formations and turn instead to the genuine socialist policies advanced by the SEP to completely reorganise economic life to meet human need, not the insatiable profit appetites of the wealthy elite.

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.
A report published by the New York Times on June 5 details how the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, the subject of the Panama Papers leak, helped wealthy US clients avoid taxes. The report, which appeared in the June 6 print edition, reveals a system of private foundations, bogus charities and shell companies, replete with codenames, to facilitate tax avoidance on a massive scale.

Until now, few Americans have been exposed as utilizing Mossack Fonsecas services, although the Panama Papers have led to multiple scandals internationally since their April release. Icelandic Prime Minister Sigmundur Davi Gunnlaugsson resigned after the Panama Papers showed that he and his wife had operated a shell company in the British Virgin Islands to avoid Icelandic taxes and profit from the post-2008 bailout. Meanwhile, UK Prime Minister David Cameron faced a political scandal due to his benefiting from his fathers Panamanian company, managed by Mossack Fonseca.

Many US-based businesses and wealthy individuals opt to leave their assets in the United States, relying instead on states with low tax rates, such as Delaware and Wyoming, in order to maximize their assets. Oxfam, in an April report unrelated to the Panama Papers, detailed the massive assets stored by US corporations overseas, effectively hiding $1.4 trillion in profits in offshore accounts.

Most of the reportage on the Panama Papers has been coordinated through the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), based in Washington, DC. The German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung originally received the leaked documents, totaling 2.6 terabytes of data, anonymously.

The Times report discusses several of Mossack Fonsecas US clients, including an exorbitantly wealthy family, an international financial criminal residing in Texas and a self-help author attempting to hide $1 million. Interwoven with this is a discussion of the mechanisms whereby vast sums of money were squirreled away.

Mossack Fonseca helps its clients hide their identities and avoid US taxation through numerous shady practices. Chief among these is the creation of private foundations in Panama, which are untaxed and not required to donate to charity.

A leaked Mossack Fonseca document describing these private foundations begins with their literally medieval origins and then describes their purpose in frank terms: Private Foundations  need not be acknowledged by any administrative authority aside from the Public Registry, are not subject to external legal governmental control provisions and are an ideal vehicle in the offshore industry.

Mossack Fonseca often uses its own employees as the officers of the foundation functioning on behalf of their client. The Panamanian firm handles the legal infrastructure of creating a private Foundation/company combination for a flat fee of US$4,500.00, Ramses Owens, then a partner at Mossack Fonseca, said in an email to a client.

Money moved to these foundations can then be moved around, including to shell companies owned by family memberssuch as in the case of the wealthy Ponsoldt family, which had a father, son and daughter all employing Mossack Fonsecas services. Moving money in this way to avoid US ceilings on tax-free gifts from parents to children is illegal.

American residents and citizens are required to pay taxes on passive income earned on offshore investments, although Mossack Fonsecas practices actively help its clients avoid paying these taxes. The firm claims that it is the clients responsibility to ensure that they pay their taxes.

In one of the leaked documents, a Mossack Fonseca staff member sums up the character of the super-rich in the United States: At hearing that he can make nearly $8 million per year just on tax savings [a client] was now wide awaken. The staffer continues: I could even detect sweats coming down from his forehead and his cheeks were beginning to blush with crimson excitement. Noticing his interest, I went in for the kill.

This wide array of services attracts a well-heeled clientele. Among those profiled in the Times piece are the PonsoldtsWilliam Ponsoldt, a real-estate magnate and investor, and his children, Tracey and Christopher. Mossack Fonseca provided services for the family members, each of whom was given a code name (father, daughter, son).

All in all, the Ponsoldts used Andorran and Panamanian shell companies and Swiss bank accounts to shield tens of millions of dollars from US taxes. This was then moved around as neededincluding a potentially illegal transfer of $800,000 from father to son, that is, from one offshore account to another.

Tracey Ponsoldt Powers, or daughter, made a revealing request in October 2008 asking for some of the money to be moved to Panama and then converted into gold coins. She wrote to Owens: I feel VERY unsettled with this election and how the media is censoring information and spinning the American Public to vote Obama. It is so obvious to me, that they are setting us up with a Socialist  but most people cant see it happening before their eyes! Its like propaganda that is brainwashing Americans to forget the Principles of Hard Work, Ingenuity, Risk and Boundless Success! [sic]. The delusion is staggering.

Mossack Fonseca has repeatedly claimed that it performs due diligence when it takes on clients, which includes not working for known financial criminals. In 2013, the firm vetted Kjell Gunnar Finstad, a Texas resident convicted of securities and accounting violations, including fraud, in Norway. However, Finstads prior conviction is not discussed in Mossack Fonsecas records of his vetting, which included procuring a copy of his passport.

The last person profiled in the Times report is Marianna Olszewski, author of Live It, Love It, Earn It: A Womans Guide to Financial Freedom. She wanted to move $1 million without her name being attached to the transaction. Needless to say, there is a chasm separating Olszewski and the working-class women targeted by her book.

In order to conduct the transaction, Mossack Fonseca used a natural person trustee, that is, a resident who could affix their name to the transaction in lieu of the actual beneficiary (in this case, Olszewski). The Times describes this practice as one of the remaining illegal ploys favored by Americans today.

The work of investigative journalists around the world, coordinated by the ICIJ, has played a valuable role in exposing the machinations and criminality of the worlds financial elite. That being said, the ICIJ has refused to release the files to the public. WikiLeaks, founded by Julian Assange, tweeted shortly after the initial coverage, If you censor more than 99% of the documents you are engaged in 1% journalism by definition.

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Imperialism, political corruption and the real face of capitalism

[6 April 2016]
No city in Iraq is more symbolic of the criminal consequences of the US invasion of Iraq than Fallujah. Prior to 2003, the 300,000-strong, prosperous, predominantly Sunni Muslim community on the Euphrates River, one of humanitys oldest continuous urban settlements, was known as the city of mosques. After 13 years of destruction at the hands of the US military and its client state in Baghdad, it is today a labyrinth of ruins, a city of the dead.

Following weeks of air strikes by US, British and Australian bombers, a combination of Iraqi government forces and Shiite militias is reportedly on the verge of a final offensive to seize back Fallujah from some 500 fighters of the Sunni-extremist Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which took control of the city in early 2014. Iraqi special forces units are accompanied by elite troops of the US, British and Australian militaries, who direct air strikes and ground artillery bombardments and provide tactical advice to Iraqi commanders.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR) Zeid Raad al Hussein has issued urgent appeals concerning the fate of the estimated 50,000 civilians who are trapped in Fallujah, without food or water. Civilian deaths caused by the offensive have been justified in advance by the US-backed Iraqi government with allegations that the occupiers are using the population as human shields. ISIS is accused of murdering dozens of people who have attempted to flee.

Men and teenagers who do escape are being detained by Iraqi government and militia units. According to the UNHCR, they are being subjected to physical violations and other forms of abuse, apparently in order to elicit forced confessions of being ISIS members or supporters. The UNHCR has received unconfirmed accounts of at least 21 summary executions.

In the media coverage, the question as to how and why ISIS was able to gain control of the city two years ago is largely ignored. To the extent it is raised, the explanation given is Sunni resentment over the sectarian and discriminatory policies of the Shiite-dominated governmentafter the withdrawal of American troops in 2011. The Iraqi people as a whole are generally portrayed as incurably divided along Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish lines, incapable of living in harmony together and inherently attracted to extremist ethno-sectarian ideologies.

A review of the tortured history of Fallujah since 2003 makes clear that this narrative is a lie. The current situation in Iraq and neighbouring Syria is the outcome and continuation of the deliberate stoking of sectarian conflict by the American occupation for the purpose of dividing the Iraqi masses and cementing the US grip over the oil-rich Middle East.

After the illegal invasion of Iraq and overthrow of the Baathist regime of Saddam Hussein, Fallujah was the scene of one of the first widely reported crimes by American troops against Iraqi civilians. Two hundred youth demanding the reopening of their school were fired on by troops of the US 82nd Airborne Division. Seventeen were murdered and over 70 wounded.

Over the following months, Fallujah emerged as a centre of Iraqi resistance to the US occupation. By early 2004, the city was effectively controlled by armed groups overwhelmingly made up of former members of the Iraqi Army and local Sunni tribes. Religious-based extremists, such as the small grouping calling itself Al Qaeda in Iraq, had only a minor presence.

The killing of four Blackwater mercenaries in Fallujah in March 2004 triggered a massive American military response. Across Iraq, the defiance of the people of Fallujah became a clarion call for resistance. In the first week of April, the stand in the city against the occupation was joined by an uprising of tens of thousands of Shiite working class youth in Baghdad and cities across southern Iraq. The armed insurgency against the US forces spread to predominantly Sunni cities such as Ramadi, Tikrit and Mosul.

The dominant feature of the anti-occupation resistance in Iraq in 2004 was that it objectively unified Iraqis of all backgrounds who opposed the US occupation and its local collaborators. However, it lacked any coherent perspective or strategy. In city after city, Iraqi fighters were overwhelmed by the superior firepower of the US military, including in Fallujah in November 2004. After a months-long siege, the city was left depopulated and in rubble. Of its 200 mosques, 60 were destroyed or damaged, along with some 39,000 homes and other buildings.

The other central feature of the US occupation in 2004 was the deployment of US-trained Shiite death squads, such as the Wolf Brigade, against the Sunni population. Thousands of people were murdered. At the same time, Al Qaeda in Iraq escalated sinister bombings of Shiite civilians, which assisted the US occupation in driving a wedge between the two communities. By 2006, US policy had provoked a full-scale sectarian civil war that forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee for safety into areas controlled by the militias of their religious denomination.

The origins of the present savage sectarianism in Iraq lie in the manner by which US imperialism stabilised Iraq under the control of its Shiite-dominated puppet state, using the criminal methods of divide-and-rule, mass killings and mass dislocation. In 2011, as it withdrew its forces from Iraq, Washington launched a regime-change war in Libya and began sponsoring a regime-change operation in Syria using the same methods that had triggered civil war in Iraq. In Syria, however, the CIA and US military worked through Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states to arm Sunni-based groupings to overthrow the Russian- and Iranian-backed Shiite-dominated government of Bashar al-Assad.

One of the main groupings that benefited from the flow of arms was the remnants of Al Qaeda in Iraq, which sent fighters into Syria and soon emerged as a dominant force in the civil war. In April 2013, strengthened by a flood of foreign Islamist fighters who were permitted to enter Syria from Turkey, it renamed itself the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

The ISIS fighters who entered Fallujah in late 2013 and claimed control over the city in January 2014 had been financed, equipped and armed as part of the US intrigues in Syria. ISIS seized other areas of Sunni-dominated western and northern Iraq, most dramatically the city of Mosul, in July 2014. To the extent the Islamist movement received support, it was because it pledged to defend the Sunni population from the consequences of the US invasion, including the depredations and abuses of the US-backed government in Baghdad. Both materially and ideologically, ISIS is the by-product of US policy.

The current onslaught on Fallujah is only the latest chapter in the catastrophe that US imperialism has inflicted on the peoples of Iraq and the Middle East as a whole. It can be ended only through the building of a mass international anti-war movement based on the working class and the fight for socialism.
Four people have been killed and at least seven injured after police shot at protesting students today when they attempted to march from the University of Papua New Guinea in Port Moresby to the national parliament.

According to the media, the police blocked the march and demanded that the students hand over the student union president for arrest. When they refused, the police fired directly into the crowd. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation is reporting that about 2,000 students and staff are currently being held by police at the University of Technology in Lae, the countrys second largest city.

The police attacks follow five weeks of protests by Papua New Guinea students.

On May 31 students demonstrated outside parliament as opposition parties attempted to call a no-confidence vote in the Peoples National Congress Party government. The students have been boycotting classes for a month, demanding Prime Minister Peter ONeill step down to face corruption allegations.

Five hundred people attended the rally but, according to a student leader, Gerald Tulu Manu-Peni, police would not let them into parliament to watch the proceedings from the public gallery.

The University of Papua New Guineas (UPNG) first semester has been suspended for 10 days over the protests, with the 4,000 students given 48 hours to vacate the university. The closure followed the occupation of the university by heavily-armed police, beginning May 17, in an effort by its administration, backed by the government, to suppress the student movement.

Protests have spread through other tertiary institutions, including the University of Goroka and Lae Unitech, where students are also boycotting classes. Students from at least six secondary schools joined the sit-in at UPNG.

The university council decided last Thursday to lift the suspension and resume classes from June 13. Acting Chancellor Dr. Nicholas Mann said the suspension should have given the students time to think things through. The Student Representative Council (SRC) said it would meet to decide whether to resume the boycott.

The National Court earlier last week granted an application by the SRC for a judicial review of the order to vacate the campus. While the case has been playing out in the courts, most of the universitys 2,400 resident students opted to remain on campus in defiance of the administration.

ONeill has flatly refused to step down or cooperate with the corruption inquiry. Fraud squad police secured an arrest warrant for him two years ago over alleged illegal state payments of $US30 million in legal bills to a law firm, Paraka Lawyers. His arrest was prevented by a series of legal challenges to the investigation. Last month, the Supreme Court lifted the stay orders, paving the way for the case to be pursued.

The student movement reflects heightened anti-government sentiment amid the countrys devastating economic crisis, driven by the collapse in global mining and energy commodity prices. According to the Australian Financial Review, PNG ended 2015 in crisis management with cash shortages and budget cuts more severe than those in Greeces austerity package.

International financial institutions are expressing growing concern. Sydney based think-tank, the Lowy Institute, cited projections by the Asian Development Outlook that PNG growth is set to fall to 4.3 percent in 2016, then 2.4 percent in 2017. For a country that in 2015 had the fastest growth in the region, it has been a sharp and sudden reversal of fortune, the report noted.

Massive spending cuts have been imposed, targeting the urban and rural poor. Public servants are going without pay, power blackouts have become regular in Port Moresby and Lae, and budget reductions have been imposed in health and education. This is all taking place amid a prolonged and disastrous drought.

Protests and strikes have broken out involving important sections of the working classpower workers, miners, teachers and public servants.

In the past week, groups of students have toured the provinces to campaign over their grievances. A public forum in Goroka attracted about 4,000 people. Large rallies have been held in most provincial capitals in PNGs Highlands region. In Simbu province, around 6,000 people attended a forum.

Police have shown little tolerance for the student-led meetings. In Wewak, 18 students were arrested on May 30 after the police commander claimed the students caused a commotion and unlawfully assembled in the township area.

In Wabag, more than 15,000 people had gathered when about 100 police started firing tear gas. During the ensuing melee, the Bank of South Pacific and provincial centre buildings were stoned and shops around the town attacked. Government MP Robert Ganim denounced the student protests as a threat to national security.

Opposition politicians are continuing to exploit the student movement, while seeking to limit its demands to the issue of corruption. Following the Wewak arrests, Pangu Pati leader Don Pomb Polye criticised the detentions as uncalled for in a democratic country like PNG; it is unlawful and might lead to chaos in the country. The provincial Governor and former Prime Minister Michael Somare negotiated for the students release and covered their bail.

With the ruling elite under pressure from financial institutions and ratings agencies over the dire fiscal position, no section of the bourgeoisie has any solution except more austerity. The opposition parties, and the student leaders who are closely aligned with them, are desperate to confine the movement within the parliamentary system, isolating it from the increasingly restive working class. SRC leaders have emphasised they are only seeking respect for the office of prime minister and for the countrys constitution.

Last weeks parliamentary session was the oppositions fourth attempt to oust the government over the corruption allegations. Previous attempts have been struck down due to questions about the validity of the signatures on documents. The governing party has asked the courts to make a ruling on the latest motion. With elections due in 2017, no-confidence votes will soon be barred as the constitution prevents them being taken less than 12 months out from a general election.

All the opposition parties are part of the ruling elite and mired in corruption. PNG Party leader Belden Namah has postured as the principal defender of the students, while warning them against taking the law into their own hands. Namah is Somares former forestry minister and was deputy prime minister under ONeill. Before entering politics he was an army officer and businessman, describing himself as being into the multi-billion-dollar business of logging. In 2009, the Samoan Central Bank announced an inquiry into money laundering offences over several properties purchased by Namah, worth more than 4 million PNG Kina.

PNGs former colonial power, Australia, may be turning against ONeill, who was installed in 2011 through an illegal parliamentary manoeuvre. His predecessor, Somare, was ousted with Canberras involvement, because he was considered too close to Beijing.

In January, however, ONeill removed 15 senior Australian officials who were working as so-called advisors within the finance, treasury, transport and justice ministries. This was a marked setback for Australias neo-colonial interests.

The Lowy Institute has now criticised ONeill, saying the corruption furore was distracting from the desperate attention the economy needs. With an election looming next year, it complained, the bold action urgently requiredi.e., deepening attacks on the working classseems unlikely.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton claimed the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday night after winning four state primaries, in California, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota, giving her a majority of elected delegates for the Democratic National Convention.

Clinton won the two largest states to vote June 7: California, the most populous state, and New Jersey, the 11th largest. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders narrowly won the Montana primary, as well as winning the North Dakota caucuses.

The size of Clintons victory in California far exceeded the two percentage point margin shown in polls leading up to the vote. This suggested that the intensive media campaign declaring Clinton the presumptive nominee, launched 24 hours before the polls opened, may have had the desired effect of depressing the Sanders vote.

Clintons victories in South Dakota and New Mexico, and the close contest in Montana, also suggested a significant decline in the vote for Sanders, who had been expected to win all three states.

Clinton declared victory in the overall contest for the Democratic nomination in a speech delivered just before the polls closed in California.

Her campaign set the tone of the speech with a video introduction that presented Clintons nomination as the culmination of nearly two centuries of struggle for womens rights, going back to the first convention for womens suffrage at Seneca Falls, New York. Thanks to you, weve reached a milestone, Clinton said. The first time in our nation's history that a woman will be a major party's nominee.

The New York Times set the tone for the exultation in the media over a Clinton nomination, writing in an editorial posted on its web site: Mrs. Clintons name on the ballot in November would be another milestone in the quest for womens rights, which, as she noted years ago, are human rights. This achievement is worth cheering by all, regardless of party, because it further opens the door to female leadership in every sphere."

This invocation of gender politics is modeled on the racial politics used to justify the Obama administration, with the claim that the policies of the first African-American president must be progressive, simply because of the race of the occupant of the White House.

In reality, Obama defended the interests of Wall Street just as fervently as his Republican predecessor Bush, bailing out the banks at the expense of the working class, and waging war around the world on behalf of American imperialism. Clinton served for the first four years of the Obama administration and would follow in its reactionary footsteps.

Clinton congratulated Sanders and his supporters on a vigorous debate, claiming to agree with the goals of raising incomes, reducing inequality and improving conditions for the poor and working people. But she went on to repeatedly extend an olive branch to Republicans and supporters of the candidates defeated by Donald Trump for the Republican nomination.

She denounced Trump, claiming that his signature slogan, Make America great again, was code for lets take America backwards. Back to a time when opportunity and dignity were reserved for some, not all. In other words, she presented Trumps appeal as a purely racial one, aimed at white men. She avoided any suggestion that the billionaire demagogue was able to gain a hearing because of the deteriorating economic conditions affecting all working people, regardless of race and gender.

In the most significant passage in her speech, Clinton declared, This election is not, however, about the same old fights between Republicans and Democrats. This election is different. It really is about who we are as a nation.

This is clearly to be the axis of the Clinton general election campaign: downplaying any critique of the right-wing Republican policies of budget austerity, tax cuts for the wealthy and militarismwhich Clinton herself supportsin favor of an anyone but Trump scare campaign.

Sanders addressed his supporters late Tuesday night California time, as he prepared to fly back from the West Coast to his home in Burlington, Vermont. His campaign announced that he would travel on to Washington, DC Thursday for a campaign rally there and a meeting at the White House the same day with President Obama, at Sanders request.

Obama telephoned Sanders Sunday for a private conversation, which press reports suggested involved White House pressure for Sanders to acknowledge a Clinton victory quickly. It included the (stated or unstated) threat that Obama would make a formal endorsement of the former Secretary of State this week, ending his nominal neutrality in the nomination contest.

Also Tuesday night, the political crisis in the Republican Party came to a head over Trumps incessant and openly racist attacks on the federal judge hearing the civil suit brought against Trump University by former students who claim that the real estate training program was a scam run for Trumps personal profit.

Trump has blamed legal setbacks, including adverse rulings by Judge Gonzalo Curiel, on the fact that the Indiana-born judge was of Mexican ancestry. Hes a Mexican, Trump said in one interview. Were building a wall between here and Mexico.

The racist vilification of the judge has provoked criticism of the Republican nominee within his own party, culminating in back-to-back statements by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan, disavowing his comments. On Tuesday, Republican Senator Mark Steven Kirk of Illinois publicly withdrew his support for the presidential nominee, citing the attacks on Judge Curiel.

Trump gave a televised speech Tuesday night, ostensibly to thank voters in the Republican primaries held that day, all of which he won in the absence of any remaining opponents. Its real purpose was damage control. Earlier in the day, the Trump campaign released a brief statement claiming that his statements on Judge Curiel had been misconstrued. Trump did not refer to the affair in his speech, but his promises not to embarrass the party were clearly aimed at assuring party officials and candidates that he would avoid further controversies of that type.

The speech included an appeal to Sanders supporters, claiming shared opposition to the terrible trade deals that Bernie was so vehemently againstand hes right on that. Trump also professed sympathy for communities in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Indiana, and Ohio, whose manufacturing jobs, literally, these jobs have virtually disappeared.

While Clintons victory speech oozed complacency and promised to continue the supposed progress under the Obama administration, Trump presented the condition of the United States as disastrous. Were broke. We are $19 trillion in debt, he said, going quickly to $21 trillion. Our infrastructure is a disaster. Our schools are failing. Crime is rising. People are scared.

He combined this indictment with a rant against immigrants, characterizing them as robbers and murderers. This echoed the infamous speech in which he announced his campaign a year ago, when he vilified Mexican immigrants as rapists and murderers. It sets the tone for an increasingly fascistic turn in the Republican Party.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - An accountant who works for Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi says she tried to return a controversial $25,000 donation from Donald Trump's foundation, but it was not accepted.

The Trump Foundation gave the money to Bondi's political committee in 2013, but renewed questions about it were raised shortly after Bondi endorsed Trump for president.

Nancy Watkins is the treasurer for a political committee run by Bondi. She said this week that the group sent a check to the Trump Foundation in March after they became aware the foundation was a charity, an apparent violation of the rules surrounding political activities by charities.

Watkins said the Trump Foundation refused to accept the check, saying Trump wrote a personal check to his foundation covering the amount.
TALLAHASSEE Fla.-- A Leon County Jury has just found a 36-year-old Tallahassee father, Travis Morris, not guilty of three counts of aggravated child abuse by malicious punishment.

Each count carried a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.

Morris was accused of using an old and worn leather belt with no buckle or metal to spank his three children, ages 3, 4 and 6.

Testimony revealed the spanking was for the children having had many instances of behavioral issues in their daycare, including defiant and destructive behavior, disrupting the daycare, non-stop screaming, throwing tantrums, fighting other children, throwing items at other children and teachers, and other destructive behavior.

According to reports the parents were called to respond to the daycare over a dozen times each. The daycare told the parents that if the destructive behavior continued, their children would be expelled from the daycare.

Someone at the daycare, contacted the Department of Children and Families (DCF) to report marks on the children. DCF immediately responded to the school and investigated the matter.

DCF investigators observed and photographed any marks or welts on the children.

DCF initiated a case plan after observing and photographing marks on the children. They spoke to both parents and ended up closing their investigation without any further action taken against the parents so long as they followed certain recommendations.

About three weeks later, after the case was closed by DCF, the Office of the State Attorney then initiated a criminal case against Mr. Morris and began a criminal prosecution of Mr. Morris in Circuit Court in and for Leon County, Florida.

The police arrested Mr. Morris for three counts of Child Abuse, however, the State increased the charges to Aggravated Battery By Malicious Punishment.

As the case progressed, the State Attorneys Office actually sought application of the Prison Releasee Reoffender act meaning that because Mr. Morris had recently been to prison, a guilty verdict would mean a mandatory 30 years in prison for each count and the trial judge would have no discretion to go any lower.

Mr. Morris could have received up to 90 mandatory-minimum years in prison if found guilty of all three counts. Mr. Morris had a criminal history of 3 burglaries of structure or conveyance in 2000 (when he was 18 years of age), one count of selling less than 20 grams of marijuana, one count of aggravated assault. He had never been accused of any type of child abuse or neglect before.

Morris' attorney Michael J. Bauer said The prosecution of Mr. Morris in criminal circuit court for spanking his children with a belt was a much too aggressive position for the State Attorneys Office with the facts in this case. This aggressiveness of the prosecution concerns me since there were many other agencies involved and the Department of Children and Families initiated a case plan which was followed by both parents and they ended up dropping the matter. However, the application of the PRRA and a potential mandatory minimum of 90 years for a guilty verdict is completely uncalled for whether or not Mr. Morris had ever been to prison before. I have no idea why this would be the objective in this particular case against this father.

After hearing all of the allegations, the jury found Mr. Morris not guilty on all counts.
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An elk nicknamed Bullwinkle is seen lying in a pasture in Kittitas County. The elk was killed in December 2015. (Courtesy photo)
The nine members of the Washington state Supreme Court, including Chief Justice Barbara Madsen, center, have ordered monetary sanctions against the state for not adequately funding basic education. The justices are shown here during an out-of-Olympia hearing at Heritage University in Toppenish in March. (GORDON KING/Yakima Herald-Republic file)
YAKIMA, Wash. -- About 13 percent of all U.S. K-12 students missed 15 days of school or more in the 2013-14 school year, according to new federal data released Tuesday.

More than 99 percent of all U.S. school districts submitted their numbers on a variety of issues, such as bullying and harassment, discipline, personnel, restraint and seclusion, among others.

This years data dump  the Civil Rights Data Collection  by the U.S. Department of Education, though, presented new datapoints for public analysis, such as chronic absenteeism. The federal agency surveys all U.S. public school districts on a number of topics, and is a mandatory data collection.

According to the survey, more than 6.5 million students were labeled as chronically absent. Among other findings on the same topic, more than 3 million high school students were chronically absent, or about 18 percent of the U.S. high school population.

Absenteeism rates were higher among some races, such as American Indian or Alaska Native, 26 percent; Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, 25 percent; black, 22 percent; multiracial, 21 percent; and Latino, 20 percent.

Students with disabilities were 1.3 times as likely to be chronically absent, according to the data. Furthermore, English language learners also were chronically absent at a higher rate than the national average, at about 20 percent.

Chronically absent students tend to fall behind in their coursework, with some of them unable to fully recover. Earlier this year, the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction addressed the topic through its own report. As state Superintendent Randy Dorn mentioned earlier in the year, When students arent in school  for any reason  its harder for them to learn what they need to know to be successful.

The federal data may actually lag behind the states. In the Washington state data  which was based on the 2014-15 school year  the statewide average was 16 percent among school districts with enrollments of 500 or more students.

Absentee rates differ greatly in Lower Valley districts Located 26 miles apart in the Lower Yakima Valley, Granger and Mt. Adams school districts ar

Locally, the chronically absent rates ranged from as high as 37 percent in the Mt. Adams School District and as low as under 4 percent in Granger. How school districts combat absences varies; Granger, for instance, has created an incentive program rewarding attendance, while Mt. Adams has strengthened its partnership with the Yakama Nation through programs such as the tribal courts juvenile system.

How Granger mastered the ABCs of school attendance GRANGER  Youre unlikely to find the third-graders in America Velascos class skipping school.

Both the state and the feds have contrasting definitions of chronic absenteeism. While the Department of Education defined it as someone absent for 15 or more school days, OSPI listed it as 18 or more school days. OSPI spokesman Nathan Olson said the state uses 18 because it amounts to 10 percent of a typical 180-day school year.

Another new item addressed in the civil rights data was how many schools employ school resource officers with arresting authority. According to the survey, 24 percent of elementary schools and 42 percent of high schools have sworn law enforcement officers, or SLEOs. On another note: 51 percent of high schools with high black and Latino student populations had SLEOs in the 2013-14 school year.

Meanwhile, it appears public preschool is becoming more affordable for parents  and more are free, as another new question addressed the state of preschool costs. Survey results showed that 86 percent of preschool-providing school districts offered free half-day or full-day programs, while 14 percent still required parents or guardians to pay the full price.

View the federal report at: http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/2013-14-first-look.pdf
Courtesy photo Sebastian Zebbie Castilleja speaks at the Washington State Youth of the Year Competition in Seattle, Wash. on March 31, 2016.
SaFyre Reese photographed in her bedroom at the Strickland's residence in Tieton, Wash. Tuesday, June 7, 2016. As Reese's grandmothers recovers from heart surgery, Safyre has been living with the Stricklands in order to finish off her senior year at Highland High School. She will be attending CWU this fall and plans to transfer to University of Washington medical school for pathology program. (MASON TRINCA/Yakima Herald-Republic)
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GENEVA/UNITED NATIONS- The United Nations is still waiting for Syrian government agreement for an aid convoy to enter the besieged town of Daraya and has requested approval to airlift food into four locations if land routes are unavailable, UN officials said on Tuesday.

Rebel-held Daraya got its first UN aid convoy since 2012 on June 1, but the shipment did not include food. The United Nations has said malnourished children in the Damascus suburb will die without outside help, a claim President Bashar al-Assad's government has denied.

"The blockage of aid is a political issue," UN spokesman Ahmad Fawzi told a regular UN briefing in Geneva. "Daraya is 7.5 miles from Damascus, so it can be done but we need the political go-ahead from the government."
SYDNEY- Rioting, looting and gunshots erupted in the capital of Papua New Guinea on Wednesday after police opened fire on a student demonstration, wounding about a dozen people and killing as many as four, officials and residents said.

A groundswell of political unrest has surged in the island nation, just to Australia's north, in recent weeks amid calls for Prime Minister Peter O'Neill to resign over corruption allegations.

People in Port Moresby reported police firing on the public and using tear gas to disperse crowds during a protest at the University of PNG's Waigani campus.
Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) revealed the Drone Guard- a new system for drone detection, identification and flight disruption on Tuesday .

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The IAI said that it has recently begun to sell this system to some customers, after it was also successfully tested in scenarios of simultaneous drone attacks.

Israel Aerospace's Drone Guard

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The Drone Guard is also intended for civilian applications. If the customer wishes, it would be possible to defend against intrusion of drones into private areas. Recent sales have been related to protection of strategic assets.

The use of small drones has increased dramatically over the years, making them a potential threat to critical infrastructures, other aircraft and homeland security due to their small size, low speed and low flight altitude. These drones may be used for a number of reasons, including hostile purposes such as intelligence gathering, smuggling, or as weaponized platforms, IAI stated.

Israel Aerospace Industries Drone Guard

IAI's subsidiary, ELTA Systems Ltd., developed the Drone Guard and offers specially adapted 3-Dimensional radars and Electro-Optical sensors for detection and identification, as well as dedicated electronic attack jamming systems for disrupting drone flight.

The IDF considers drones a threat which is still in its infancy but one that is nonetheless growing. Therefore, the response to it is still being developed. Both Hezbollah and Hamas have drone capabilities, and the organizations used them during the Second Lebanon War and Operation Protective Edge respectively.

Hezbollah drones flown into Israel were intercepted by Israel Air Force aircraft in recent years. A few weeks ago, a shipment of drones to Gaza equipped with quality cameras suspected of being designed to gather intelligence on IDF forces was stopped from falling into Hamas or other terror groups' hands.

According to defense establishment estimates, Hamas and Hezbollah will use drones to try to achieve psychological gains in the form of photographing Israeli territory or military bases, and not operational achievements such as a crash on an Israeli target due to the limited ability of drones to carry explosives.

The Drone Guard is based on the ELM- 2026 family of radars meant for short (10km), medium (15km) and long (20 km) ranges, has special drone detection and tracking algorithms, and is fitted with Electro-Optical sensors for visual identification of the target.
Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is holding an official visit in Israel, where she and her ministers are meeting the Israeli leadership and entrepreneurs to further cooperation between both countries in all fields. Johnson Sirleaf, a Nobel Prize Laureate, is the first woman to be elected to the head of an African state, and has been called the "Golda Meir of Africa."

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Sirleaf, who began her tenure as President of Liberia in 2006, came to Israel to receive an honorary doctorate from the University of Haifa for her efforts in promoting women's equality and for her role in human rights promotion. During her acceptance speech on Tuesday evening, she spoke about her worry that ISIS and Boko Haram pose to world stability, thank Israel for its work in helping Liberia fight its Ebola epidemic , and for the need to break down barriers.

The Liberian president arrived in Israel with four other Liberian ministers: the defense minister, the foreign minister, the trade minister, and the minister of information, culture and tourism.

Liberian President Sirleaf with female IDF soldiers at the Western Wall (Photo: Shlomi Amsalem, Israeli Foreign Ministry)

When asked if she has any advice for solving the Israel-Palestinian conflict, she said "Barriers need to be broken down, not built up."

She already met with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and throughout her week long stay she is slated to meet with Prime Minister Netanyahu, Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz, and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked.

During President Rivlin's meeting with Liberian President Sirleaf, Rivlin said "as a leader of your country and as a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, you are a symbol. It's a pleasure to be able to host you here, with the knowledge that you not only work for the betterment of your nation, but for the world as a whole. We deal with similar challenges, and both (our nations) look to the future."

Liberian president and ministers eating Israeli cucumbers (Photo: Shlomi Amsalem, Israeli Foreign Ministry)

He continued, saying "Israel is working and trying to bring an end to the tragedy with the Palestinians. We must respect the idea (of a Palestinian state) because they're here, and they must recognize the idea that the Jewish nation has returned to its homeland. These are difficult challenges when there is no trust between nations. You (also) faced challenges in your region, and you understand that sometimes there is a need to fight for freedom. Yet we are always looking towards the future, a better future."

Sirleaf responded to Rivlin, saying "I thank you for the warm welcome. I visited Israel in 2007, and I returned today to strengthen and renew the cooperation between our two countries which has existed for many years  since the establishment of the state of Israel. Since that time, we have had lots of cooperation. Liberia has gained a lot of experience from Israel in regards to our development goals. While this friendship was put on hold during the conflict in Liberia, I am happy because since I was elected President of Liberia in 2006, we have renewed the cooperation between us."

President Sirleaf planting perform the Zionist tradition of planting a tree in Israel (Photo: Shlomi Amsalem, Israeli Foreign Ministry)

She added, saying "throughout my visit with my delegation we wanted to learn about the extraordinary developments which Israel has made, especially in agriculture, which we look at with wonder each time we see it. You have done wonderful things in the field of water. There are a lot of similarities between Liberia and Israel. I wish to thank Israel for its help during our Ebola crisis, when Israel joined other forces and bilateral initiatives for the purpose of helping us beat this disease."

The Liberian president visited Yad Vashem and laid a wreath in the Hall of Remembrance. She also visited the Western Wall where she took a picture with female IDF soldiers at the women's section of the wall, and visited other holy sites.

President Sirleaf lays a wreath at the Yad Vashem Hall of Remembrance (Photo: Shlomi Amsalem, Israeli Foreign Ministry)

She last visited Israel in 2007 as the headliner for a conference held by the Israeli Center for International Development.

Israel and Liberia have a long history of cooperation. Israel assisted Liberia in the establishment of its Public Defender, and the Israeli Ministry of Justice even has two public defense workshops in Liberia.

Meanwhile, the West African nation was one of the first countries in the world to recognize Israel and voted in favor of the partition plan.

Today there is cooperation between the two countries in the fields of agriculture, defense, and Israeli construction companies played a large role in helping to develop the West African nation.
Egyptians officials say a bomb threat has forced an EgyptAir plane en route to Beijing from Cairo to make an emergency landing in Uzbekistan.

The passengers have been evacuated and the aircraft is now being searched.

The plane, an Airbus A-330-220 with 135 passengers and crew on board, landed in Uzbekistan three hours after it took off from Cairo at around 11:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

The plane landed at the airport in the town of Urgench, about 840 kilometers (600 miles) west of the Uzbek capital, Tashkent.
BEIRUT- Rebel groups broke through an ISIS siege around an opposition-held town in northwestern Syria on Wednesday, reopening their main road to the Turkish border, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The rebel groups besieged in the town of Marea had launched a counter attack against ISIS after issuing a statement saying they had united ranks. The stranded rebels were air dropped weapons last week by the US-led coalition against Islamic State, rebel sources said at the time.

The fighting had trapped thousands of civilians in Marea.
A team of experts began a historic renovation at the spot where Christians believe Jesus was buried On Monday, overcoming longstanding religious rivalries to carry out the first repairs to the site in more than 200 years.

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The project is focused on reinforcing and preserving the Edicule  the ancient chamber housing Jesus' tomb in Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It has been the first repair work at the tomb since 1810, when the shrine was restored and given its current shape following a fire.

Renovations at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (Photo: Associated Press)

An ornate structure with hanging oil lamps, columns, and oversized candlesticks, the Edicule was erected above the spot where Christian tradition says Jesus' body was anointed, wrapped in cloth and buried before his resurrection. It stands a few hundred meters from the site of Jesus' crucifixion.

Though the church is one of Christianity's holiest shrines, its hallowed status has not prevented clerics from engaging in turf rivalries over the years, mainly those from the three major denominations that manage the site: Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian Orthodox.

The Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian churches are responsible for maintaining separate sections of the church, and each denomination zealously guards its domain. While the clergymen who work and pray at the church generally get along, tensions can occasionally rise to the surface. In 2008 for instance, an argument between Greek Orthodox and Armenian monks erupted into a brawl.

The clergymen are attempting to put aside their differences for the renovation  a testament to the dire need for the repairs. This was made all the more clear when last year police briefly shut down the building after Israel's Antiquities Authority deemed it unsafe, prompting the Christian denominations to join forces.

"We equally decided the required renovation was necessary to be done, so we agreed upon it", said the Rev. Samuel Aghoyan, the top Armenian official at the church.

Work on the church began late Monday, and it was carried out by a team of nine Greek experts who have done similar restoration work on the Acropolis as well as to Byzantine churches throughout the Mediterranean.

While a group of nuns looked on, the sound of clanking tools filled the vast arched space where conservators and restoration experts began chipping away at mortar between marble slabs. Using cotton swabs dipped into a solution of liquid soap and water, one expert scrubbed away centuries-old layers of wax and carbon dioxide. Another airbrushed the dirt as the work progressed.

Antonia Moropoulou, an architect at the National Technical University of Athens, is supervising the renovation. She noted the intricacy of the historic effort, saying, "Nobody envies this responsibility and challenge," she said. "Because, it is a challenge to work here in this ambient of an open monument visited by thousands of people daily."

Moropoulou said the tomb is stable, but that it needs urgent attention after years of exposure to environmental factors like water, humidity and candle smoke.

"The marble and stone slabs have developed some deformations due to the stresses," she said. In addition, the structure needs to be protected from the risk of earthquake damage. As Moropoulou noted, even the iron cage erected around the Edicule by British authorities in 1947 cannot bear the stress.

Church of the Holy Sepulchre (Reuters)

The project will bolster the structure by replacing the mortars and strengthening its columns. It is expected to take eight to 12 months, during which time pilgrims will be able to continue visiting the site.

Some of the work will be done in the early morning or late at night, when the church is closed. This quiet atmosphere will make it easier for experts to concentrate on the delicate task and help avoid disruptions for the thousands of pilgrims and tourists who visit daily.

The project will cost about $3.3 million ( 3 million), said Theophilos III, the Greek-Orthodox patriarch of Jerusalem. Each church is contributing funds to the project, and in addition King Abdullah of Jordan has made a personal donation. Jordan controlled Jerusalem's Old City until the 1967 Mideast war, and the kingdom continues to play a role in safeguarding Muslim and Christian holy sites.

Despite the sometimes tense relations between the denominations, the tomb serves as a potent symbol of Christian unity. Its centrality to all Chirstian sects was made clearer when in May, 2014, Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I (the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians) prayed there together.

In a show of unity, on May 20 clerics from the three denominations posed and shook hands in front of the scaffolding erected around the tomb ahead of the work. "What has happened is a very good sign, a sign of togetherness," said Theophilos III.

One of the world's oldest churches, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was built in 325 AD by the Roman Emperor Constantine. The original structure was destroyed in 1009 by Muslim Caliph al-Hakim. A 12th-century restoration by the Crusaders gave the Holy Sepulchre its current appearance, while in 1808 a fire all but destroyed the Edicule.

In 1852, the Ottoman authorities then governing the Holy Land provided a framework for resolving disputes inside the church. They put into effect the "status quo," a set of historic laws and power-sharing arrangements that rigidly regulates the denominations' activities inside the Holy Sepulchre.

The Rev. Athanasius Macora, a Franciscan monk who represents the Catholics at the inter-church commission that negotiates disputes at the Holy Sepulchre, said the renovation might have been more ambitious if not for the status quo rules.

"I personally would have liked to maybe contemplate some alternative to simply restoring the current structure. But because the status quo is so conservative in its nature , we had to more or less accept the fact that there would be no change whatsoever to the current structure, and it would be restored as it is now," he said.

Still, for pilgrims like Italian Claudio Pardini, the restoration is "an important sign" that all of the Christian churches are getting together to preserve their faith's traditions.

"It's good to take care of our churches so that we can leave the next generations a sign, something to visit," he said. "Because Christ isn't an idea. He's a story."
The trial of Elor Azaria, the soldier who fired at an already-neutralized terrorist in Hebron last March resumed Wednesday morning at Jaffa Military Court.

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The court heard the testimonies of the Palestinian cameramen who documented the incident for left-wing NGO B'Tselem.

Among those giving testimony was Imad Abu Shamsiyah, who claimed that he did not edit the controversial video.

Further evidence will be heard from a police forensic expert of the police related to the reliability of BTselem videos.

Azarias defense team has casted doubts in recent months regarding the credibility of the controversial videos and wondered if they were "cooked up during editing". The opinion of an expert from the DIFS (Division of Identification and Forensic Science) consisting of dozens of pages will be revealed Wednesday in the military court, and the conclusion is that BTselems videos are authentic since they were forwarded to the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) Military Police the morning of the incident, with the original memory card of the camera that documented the incident.

B'Tselem cameraman Imad Abu Shamsiyah at Jaffa Military Court (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

With his full video being screened in the background, Abu Shamsiyah said, I and my wife were at home that morning. I heard shots, I went out fast holding my camera. My wife was behind me. I got to the street and saw a guy on the floor in a black coat. I heard another voice and saw another man lying on the ground. I aimed my camera at him and started filming seconds after I heard the shots. I filmed the incident with this small Panasonic camera. The whole while Azaria watched the video but his father Charlie did not.

Abu Shamsiyah added, "After I shot the video, I told a B'Tselem activist that I have an important video but that I was in Tel Rumeida  a closed military zone. I sent my little boy to her with the memory card. The CID called me to be interrogated and asked me to bring the original card. I told the interrogator that that was the original material and that I didnt add anything. I didnt change anything in the video. I'm not a cameraman and work with shoes. I volunteer for BTselem without salary for the image. My house is about 30 meters away from scene of the incident. I did not know such an incident would occur. "

Defense attorney Eyal Beserglick asked Abu Shamsiyah: "Is it true that your child Aouni, 17, was arrested by the accused and the deputy commander even before the incident?"

Abu Shamsiyah responded: "My son was arrested and I do not know by whom in the army exactly. I do not know what they accused him of. He returned home after his arrest. We live in Tel Rumeida so it is expected that each of us will be arrested. If they had something on my son, he would have been tried.

Next to testify was Aref Jaber, a cameraman who filmed the handshake between right-wing activist Baruch Marzel and Azaria, after Azaria shot the terrorist. Jaber recounted that he went out to film after hearing about the incident on Palestinian radio. Defense lawyers also brought up BTselems claim which surfaced in recent days, that the first terrorist was also shot dead by soldiers although already neutralized. The IDF rejected this argument, saying that it contradicted the findings of the operational investigation.

Azeri's attorney, Ilan Katz, said, "We proved that the film was biased. They filmed whenever it suited them to, and this is proved by the fact that in their films one does not hear the cries about a suspected explosive device. It has been proven that the distances which are seen in the film are not the real distances.
In an unprecedented move, rabbinates from Israel and Europe will set up a database with the names and photos of Jewish husbands who refuse to grant their wives a divorce or who remain missing. The move has been discussed over the last few days at a conference for European rabbinical judges being held in Brussels, Belgium.

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The database will aid with a general effort to fight the phenomenon of husbands denying their wives a divorce, by having local communities carry out sanctions against the men.

An ultra-Orthodox woman whose husband refuses to grant her a gett (Photo: Eli Mandelbaum)

The Rabbinical Center of Europe has made it clear that the Jewish communities under their jurisprudence will deny husbands refusing to grant a divorce any and all religious services and honors, including allowing them to join a "minyan" or offering them hospitality in Jewish homes. The move could aid in putting pressure on the husbands to agree to a Jewish divorce, or gett.

Israel's Rabbinical Courts Administration's Agunot Department Head Rabbi Eliyahu Maimon spoke at the conference, describing the at times long and acrimonious battles that refusing to grant a gett can bring about. His appeal to address the matter started a discussion among the rabbis, which eventually resulted in their decision to set up an information center for cases in Europe and Israel that would include identifying details of these husbands.

Another course of action was offered by General Director of the Rabbinical Centre of Europe Rabbi Menachem Margolin, who suggested that his organization work with leaders of the European Union and strengthen the status of rabbinical courts in European countries in order to apply sanctions on gett refusers. Margolin added that much like in Israel, rabbinical courts in Europe would request their host country to even impose jail time on men who withhold getts from their wives, as is the case in Israel.
While speaking to the heads of the Russian Jewish community on Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu touched upon the subject of Syria and the civil war's implications on Israel.

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"We're making sure that Syria doesn't become a launch pad for attacks against Israel. Not by the Assad regime, not by Hezbollah, and not by Islamist groups. We have enough enemies. My policy is to take every step necessary to prevent attacks. We act from time to time as is needed."

Netanyahu responded to another question saying "you're asking me about future relations with President Assad? I would ask what the future of Assad is at all. We're not even going to get into that question."

Bibi Netanyahu meets with the heads of the Russian Jewish community (Photo: Haim Tzah, GPO)

The prime minister highlighted that he doesn't know if "the Syrian omelette will ever return to its egg. The countries which surround (Israel), especially Syria, some of them have fallen apart and need a new arrangement. I spoke about this at length with President Putin, and the important thing (to consider) is that what will take their place won't bring about more tragedy and won't threaten (Israel)."

Netanyahu spoke a bit about Israeli aid to refugees, saying "I gave the order to construct a field hospital which has helped thousands of Syrians; babies, women, children, me, all with terrible injuries. We treat them there and in our hospitals (in Israel)."
The Israel Police decided on Wednesday not to permit funerals and burials for terrorists from East Jerusalem in their neighborhoods or villages, but rather only in Muslim cemeteries of the police's choosing.

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This decision comes following the funeral of the terrorist Alaa Abu Jamal several weeks ago that attracted some 200 persons to the Jabel Mukaber cemetery and wherein cries of support for the terrorist and incitement against Israel rang out. This stood in opposition to the agreements and promises of the family.

The funeral in Jabel Mukaber

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Following reporting on the funeral, Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan ordered a freeze on returning the bodies of terrorists to their families until the incident could be investigated and new conditions could be imposed to ensure funerals that would not contain incitement.

According to the new decision, which has received the minister's support and authorization, the police will decide the location of the funeral, which will allow full control over the attendees and their actions.

As a result of the police's decision, the lawyer Mohammed Mahmoud has filed a petition with the High Court of Justice on behalf of two terrorists' families whose bodies have yet to be returned.

A terrorist's funeral (Photo: Reuters)

One of those families is that of the terrorist Baha Aliyan from Jabel Mukaber, who carried out the terrorist attack in East Talpiot in which three Israelis were murdered. Aliyan became a symbol in Jabel Mukaber in particular and in the Palestinian arena in general. His father even has set out in a campaign to memorialize his son, lecturing on his son's "legacy" publicly in various forums, including at schools.

Erdan stated, "We mustn't allow shows of incitement and support of terrorism in the streets of Jerusalem, and a family that doesn't meet the requirements of the police doesn't need to receive the body to bury."

Gilad Erdan in Ynet studios

According to an investigation by the Israel Police's Jerusalem District following Abu Jamal's funeral, the results of which reached Ynet, the bodies of 38 residents of East Jerusalem have been returned to their families, and their funerals were held in accordance with agreements with the families: The bodies were returned around 1am, a 1.5-hour funeral was held with no more than 30 attendees who were family members only, and no incitement was noted.

According to the investigation, on the eve of Abu Jamal's funeral, a funeral bearing his corpse reached the village, and by 1am, 150 persons were gathered in the cemetery. At this stage, his family was informed that the body would not be returned in these conditions. As a result, the family appointed somebody to identify persons and only allow entry to those permitted.

The body was transferred to the ritual preparation area alongside the mosque. When it was being transferred, a large crowd gathered, and cries of "With blood and fire, we will avenge you, martyr," and "Allah akbar." The head of the Jerusalem District Police, Yoram Levi, decided to allow the funeral to continue rather than re-seize the body, and Erdan supported that decision.
Silver coins dating back to the Maccabean Period (from around 126 BCE) have been found at an archeological excavation site near Modi'in. The project is led by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), and the digging is part the construction of a new neighborhood in the Modi'in-Maccabim-Re'ut Municipality.

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The treasure is presumed to have been hidden in a cranny adjacent to a large agrarian manor that was also discovered as part of the excavation project. Abraham Tendler, who is managing the excavation for the IAA, described the discovery as "a rare find of silver coins from the Late Hellenistic Period that includes shekels and half shekels." He identified the profiles minted on the coins as King Antioch IV and his brother, Demetrios II.

"The treasure is a fascinating piece of evidence showing that after saving for months and months, one of the people living in the manor had to leave for an unknown reason," explained Tendler. "He must have hid his money here, hoping to reclaim it later. Apparently, he was not so lucky, as he doesn't seem to have ever returned for it. It's exciting to think that this treasure had been waiting here for some 2,140 years until we discovered it."

A coin of Antioch VII with others found at the site (Photo: Clara Amit)

In addition to silver coins, the excavation also uncovered many bronze coins with the names of such Jewish Maccabean leaders as Yohanan, Yudah, and Matthathias.

The excavation also found apparent that possibly point to the manor inhabitants' possible participation in the Maccabees' first revolt against the Romans in 66 CE, as some of the coins read "Year 2" (of the revolt), as well as the slogan, "Freedom of Zion."

The excavation site (Photo courtesy of Israel Antiquities Authority)

The excavation found that the manor was still operating in 70 CE, and as such, according to Tendler, "It appears that the manor's inhabitants held onto hope that they would still break free from Rome." He assessed, "They were preparing to fight as part of the Bar Kokhba Revolt."

As the excavation continued, it was found that those who lived in the manor had prepared for a battle by building a fortified wall and hiding places beneath the floors. "A beautiful mikveh (ritual bath) was also uncovered," said Tendler. "And as we kept digging, we unearthed an opening to an intricate tunnel system used for hiding, with many findings from the Bar-Kokhba Revolt."

Minister of Culture and Sport Miri Regev (Likud) was particularly joyous for the discovery. "The treasure and manor that were found provide us, once more, with irrefutable archeological evidence of the continuous settlement of Jews in the Jerusalem and Judea areas for hundreds of years. The discovery constitutes another exciting testimony to the Jewish people's connection to its homeland."

The unique finding will be preserved as an archeological park at the heart of the neighborhood to be built at Modi'in-Maccabim-Re'ut.
Islamic State's far-flung enemies in Syria and Iraq pressed ahead on Wednesday with major advances on multiple fronts that have put some of the greatest pressure on the ultra-hardline Islamists since they declared their caliphate two years ago.

A spokesman for a U.S.-backed alliance in northern Syria said it was poised to enter the city of Manbij, a week after launching an assault with the aim of cutting off the last stretch of Turkish frontier still under Islamic State control.

A short distance further west, rebels fighting against both Islamic State and the government of President Bashar al-Assad said Islamic State fighters had pulled out of an area near the border.
Passengers aboard a Ukraine International Airlines flight that landed in Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion International Airport on Tuesday night suffered a feline delay. A lounging cat decided to plant itself on the runway leading to Terminal 3.

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The landing began normally, but the Boeing aircraft encountered the animal en route to the Terminal-3 access road. The pilot stopped the plane a few meters before the cat and waited.

Feline incident on the runway

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A video that reached Ynet and shown here shows the cat unbothered by the plane's rumbling engine; it remains in its place. The pilot's attempt to encourage the animal to move by flashing the plane's bright lights was unsuccessful.

The cat lying flat

The pilot's attempt at flashing the lights

An airport vehicle chasing off the cat

Finally, a car from the Israel Airports Authority was dispatched to chase away the feline. The cat scurried off, and according to airport employees, his current location is unknown.
Four people have been killed and 16 people have been wounded in a terror attack at the Sarona Market in Tel Aviv in a terror attack. One of the terrorists was neutralized at the scene and taken to hospital in critical condition while the second terrorists was taken into custody.

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Footage from an adjacent restaurant

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Security forces in a restaurant (Photo: Reuters)

Ido Ben-Ari, 42, from Ramat Gan; Ilana Nave, 39, from Tel Aviv; Dr. Michael Feige, 58 from Midreshet Ben-Gurion; and Mila Mishayev, 32, from Rishon Lezion.

Dr. Michael Feige, left, and Ido Ben-Ari (Photo:Ben-Gurion University, Danny Machlis)

Multiple shots were heard at the open-air shopping center in the heart of Tel Aviv, adjacent to IDF and Ministry of Defense headquarters, the Kirya. Magen David Adom (MDA) arrived at the scene and declared multiple wounded, and their paramedics evacuated wounded persons to Ichilov and Tel Hashomer Medical Centers. Of the 16 wounded, four died, and three are still in the hospital.

Terrorists neutralized

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The terrorists, two cousins from Yatta in the Hebron area, sat at the popular restaurant Max Brenner before they set out on their shooting spree. They wore suits and ordered food before they set out killing indiscriminately.

Photo: Reuters

The restaurant's manager said, "I was sitting in the restaurant, and they got up and started shooting. Before that, they had ordered someting to eat and acted like any other customer...They had bags with them; they didn't shout anything, just took out their weapons and started shooting."

The improvised weapon

One of the terrorists shot with an improvised weapon that he left behind when he fled, though he was soon shot. The Israel Police and Shin Bet immediately took him for questioning.

Blood at Benedict restaurant

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu landed at Ben Gurion International Airport, returning from his visit to Russia, and he proceeded immediately to the Kirya to hold a security meeting.

One of the neutralized terrorists

Minister of Defense Avigdor Lieberman was in his office a the Kirya at the time of the attack and has been kept up to date with updates.

Aiding one of the wounded

Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai commented on the incident, "It was a hard night in Tel Aviv. There was another attack in which terrorists, who were apparently sitting at a coffee shop, hid their weapons and then started firing indiscriminately.

Terrorst shooting at Max Brenner restaurant in Tel Aviv

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"We ask the public to remain calm. We in Tel Aviv are a target of terrorism, and they are trying to disrupt our lives. We will continue to enjoy living in the city, and terrorism will not make us surrender. I ask everyone to return to their daily routine tomorrow."

Police at the scene (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

Tomer, who came to Sarona to enjoy the evening, said, "We were sitting outside and a round of bullets (were fired). Everyone started running. This is not like a normal terror attack. The shots were fired for at least a minute. There was a large panic, and we were asked to go inside the building. They held and kept us (there), and then they came to check that we were okay. We are waiting for them to open the roads so that we can leave. We have not seen such a thing in a long time."

Ha'arba'a Street

A young woman who was hiding in a store until now, said, "I was sitting near Max Brenner and I saw shots fired. They were fired incessantly in all directions. I ran to the Super-Pharm and (the assailant) then ran toward me. I was then told to hide and I tried to escape."

Police at the scene

The Israel Police announced at around 10:20pm, "As of now, the public can return to their daily routine; however, they are requested to employ high vigilance and call the police at 100 to report any suspicious event."

Evacuating the wounded

Israel's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Ambassador Danny Danon called on the secretary general and the security council, "Definitively condemn murderous Palestinian terrorism."
Twenty human rights groups urged United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday to put a Saudi Arabia-led military coalition back on a UN blacklist for killing and maiming children in Yemen because the evidence against it was "overwhelming."

The United Nations removed the coalition from its annual blacklist on Monday pending a joint review by the pair. Riyadh, a key UN donor, had threatened to cut off funding, diplomatic sources said on Tuesday. Saudi Arabia denied using threats.
LINCOLN  Forty-three recent high school graduates have been selected to join the College of Business Administration Honors Academy at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln this fall.

The incoming freshmen are high-achieving students with an average ACT score of more than 31 who have demonstrated leadership potential through involvement in school and community activities. This will be the fourth group to join the academy since its founding in 2013. Grant Biggs, a finance major, of Seward and Joshua DeMers, an actuarial sciences major, of High Plains are included in this group.

The quality of students enrolled in the CBA Honors Academy and the number of outstanding applicants we are attracting nationwide demonstrates the colleges growing national stature, said Donde Plowman, CBA dean. To be selected as a member of this cohort is a testament to their scholastic achievement, exceptional leadership and communication skills, and their desire to become leaders in the business world.

The cohort includes students from seven states who plan to study in nine majors within CBA. They will complete most of their foundation and core business courses together using an action-based learning style focused on the development of critical thinking, technical and communication skills.

The new students will participate in leadership activities to build their skills and participate in student competitions. They also will participate in internships and study abroad experiences to prepare them to make an impact in the business world after graduation. This summer, 22 current academy students are studying abroad in 12 countries, and 40 percent of the academys students are participating in paid internships across the United States and abroad. Current students are also engaged in philanthropy within the Lincoln community, where they have worked with more than 70 local agencies and volunteered more than 1,400 hours within the last academic year.

Were all very excited to welcome the fall 2016 cohort to the academy. They bring a wealth of diverse experiences and unique personal goals, coupled with incredibly impressive scholastic and community achievements, that will immediately make an impact on the culture of the academy, CBA and the UNL campus as a whole, said Erin Burnette, director of the academy. Our staff is eager to help this cohort realize their potential as they grow and continue to achieve great things over the next four years.
Flying Jennies take part in D-Day 72nd anniversary events

C-130's were seen flying over many towns, villages, and historical sites near here Friday in honor of the 72nd Anniversary of D-Day today.



The U.S. Air Force Reserves 815th Airlift Squadron, along with 400 U.S. troops, participated in several ceremonial events Wednesday through Saturday to commemorate the anniversary of the largest multi-national amphibious landing and operational military airdrop in history.



U.S. European Command established Task Force D-Day 72 to lead U.S. forces participation, which included representation from eight historical units, to include the 815th AS, which participated in the June 6, 1944 campaign. In 1944, more than 160,000 allied troops landed on the French coast line to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy. The then 815th Bombardment Squadron, flew the B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber. More than 13,000 aircraft and 5,000 ships supported the invasion, according to the Army.mil website.



Seventy-two years later, from the sky looking down, 1st Lt. Will Garey, 815th AS pilot, said that he could see the flashes from the many cameras pointed upward taking photos as they flew over the town of Sainte-Mere-Eglise during the re-enactment ceremony Friday. This was one of many ceremonial events in honor of the 9,000 Allied soldiers who were killed and wounded during the invasion that allowed more than 100,000 soldiers to make their way across Europe to defeat Adolf Hitlers regime.



After completing the fly-overs, 815th AS aircrew members went into Sainte-Mere-Eglise to visit with the local community and other visiting service members.



John and Esther Van Vlaardingen, Netherland residents and D-Day role play actors, said that the fly-over was great and looked good. The D-Day re-enactors were given a tour of the 815th AS C-130J before the fly-overs began Friday.



"It was great to see our friends from the "Flying Jennies" again," said John. "We met Mark (Maj. Mark Suckow, 815th AS pilot) seven years ago and he gave me a coin. Never thought we would meet him again and to also get a tour."



The fly-overs are one part of the commemoration. The 815th AS provided transport for military airborne troops for the drop Sunday. The airborne troops' jump was in remembrance of the service members who served during World War II.


Bio Portrait

Maj. Gen. Stayce Harris has been nominated by the president for appointment to the grade of lieutenant general and assignment as the assistant vice chief of staff and director of the Air Staff, U.S. Air Force, Pentagon, Washington, District of Columbia.
After two weeks on the job, Col. David Condit took the guidon from 22nd Air Force Commander Stayce Harris and accepted his charge as the new commander of the 908th Airlift Wing during a change of command ceremony at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., June 4.

While Condit has been in command of the wing since May 15, Saturdays ceremony held during the monthly Unit Training Assembly was conducted in front of 908th members to signify the formal passing of responsibility, authority, and accountability to the new commander.

"I knew he was the right man for the job," said Harris upon offering Condit the position. "I knew it was a win-win, not only for the wing, but for our nation."

"I wanted to be with these great Airmen, with this great mission, this great community, and this great state, so thats why Im here. Because I chose to be," said Condit.

Condit served on active duty for 10 years prior to his service in the Reserve, and has experience as an Air Reserve Technician, Active Guard Reserve, and as a Traditional Reservist. Because of this, Harris said he "can speak to the opportunities and challenges of these statuses and how we as Reservists try to balance work, school, family, and serving our nation."

As he addressed the audience, Condit made clear, "Im here for you."

"As a wing commander, my job is to ensure that were ready to fight our nations wars," he said.

He credits the units current condition with the former Commander Col. Adam Willis, who is now commander of the 445th Airlift Wing at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.

"He set me up for success," Condit said of Willis. "Im just excited to continue his legacy."

"Im going to take my time, get to know the people, get to know the community, and really find out where were at," said Condit. "This unit is doing great, and this team is doing great, so Im going to see where I can facilitate to keep us on track, keep us mission ready, and keep those combat forces ready to go any time."

The wings mission is to provide combat ready support across the spectrum of operations. "The key word is combat," said Condit.

Its a refrain thats stuck with him since he first mentioned joining the Air Force. His father, an F-4 pilot who was in Vietnam, told him that it wasnt about the relationships, the adventures, or seeing the world. "Youre there for combat," Condit remembered his father telling him.

"I dont want this wing to forget that this is a combat wing. We have members in combat today  thats what we do; thats why we exist. I dont care what your role is, it makes a difference," he told the Airmen in the audience.

As commander of the 908th Airlift Wing, he will have 1,200 Airmen who will continue to airlift people and cargo, maintain aircraft, provide medical care for patients in flight and on the ground, and support combatant commanders with logistics, engineering, security forces, communications, and other critical services.

Prior to this position, Condit was the Operations Group Commander of the 403rd Wing at Keesler Air Force Base, Miss. He has been a professional aviator for more than 26 years. He has experience flying multiple aircraft including trainers, reconnaissance, special operations and airlift.
The 315th Airlift Wing represented Joint Base Charleston in Berlin, Germany to participate in the 2016 Berlin Air Show June 1-4. The show had approximately 230,000 visitors and exhibitors from more than 65 countries.In addition, the 315th AW was one of the few representatives of the United States during the international event.Held every two years, the Berlin Air Show is a unique opportunity for the United States, along with other military allies, to showcase their leadership in aerospace technologies while supporting various armament procurement competitions taking place throughout Europe.

The United States supports its NATO partners through participation in this international event, said Lt. Col. Craig Bartosh, 701st Airlift Squadron aircraft commander. This action reaffirms U.S. EUCOMs commitment to our partners while understanding that no nation can confront todays challenges alone.

The military departments have been given approval to participate in select international air shows by the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy. By participating in this German-sponsored event, the U.S. demonstrates a strong presence and promotes our strong ties with NATO and Europe.Its great to see such a patriotic outpour from the German community, said German Air Force Maj. Rico Persy, Hamburg, Germany native and 14th Airlift Squadron C-17 pilot. Its important for people to understand the role the military plays, and how were here to ensure their security.Persy is a German foreign exchange pilot that was a part of the aircrew assigned to the event.Various models of U.S. military aircraft and equipment, along with aircrews and support personnel from bases in Europe and the United States attended the event. Including the C-17 Globemaster III from Joint Base Charleston, South Carolina.Military participation is the core of the air show, said Bartosh. It offered technology and solutions for security of today and tomorrow.Bartosh added, the Berlin Air Show demonstrates the U.S., and our allied industries are producing equipment that will be a credit to the success of future military operations.Participation in this premier event highlights the strength of U.S. commitment to the security of Europe and demonstrates that U.S. industry is producing equipment that will be critical to the success of current and future military operations.The Berlin Air Show provided an opportunity to strengthen the U.S. and European partnership that has been forged during the last seven decades and built on shared values, experiences and vision, said Bartosh.
Released yesterday, CoreLogics latest Rent Review has shown the combined capital city rental rates remained at $489 per week for houses and $469 per week for units during May; however rents were 0.3% lower year-on-year compared to May 2015.

Cameron Kusher, CoreLogic research analyst Cameron Kusher, said current weakness in the rental market is likely to persist for some time.

It is anticipated that the weakness in the rental market will persist and where on an annual basis, well see rents fall further over coming months, Kusher said.

Since we started tracking annual rent changes back in 1996, the May 2016 results represent the lowest annual change on record, he said.

Source: CoreLogic

Kusher said there was a range of factors that have played a part in the weakening of rental conditions.

A number of factors such as the softest wages growth on record have contributed to this slow down, he said.

At the same time, we also saw unit construction hit record high levels and a lack of population growth which has contributed to a lesser demand for rentals.

The year-on-year fall in rents was driven mainly by the continual deterioration of conditions in Perth and Darwin.

In the 12 months to May, rents fell 16.9% in Darwin and 8.8% in Perth, while smaller falls of 0.9% were also recorded in Brisbane and Adelaide.

The remaining capital cities did see rents grow in the 12 months to May, however it was mostly subdued.

Hobart saw the highest annual growth rate at 3.7%, followed by Melbourne at 2.9% while rents grew in Sydney and Canberra by 0.9% and 0.1% respectively.

The slow rate of rental growth, along with strong capital growth seen in many markets recently has also impacted rental yields.

Source: CoreLogic

At a combined capital city level, gross rental yields were recorded at 3.3% for houses in May 2016 and at 4.2% for units, both of which are record lows.

Rental yields are lowest for houses in Melbourne (2.9%) and highest in Hobart (5.3%).

Unit yields are lowest in Sydney at 4.0% and highest in Hobart at 5.5%.

House yields are at record lows in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra while unit yields are at a record low in Sydney
The Simplified Student Visa Framework (SSVF) aims to support the sustainable growth of Australias international education sector by reducing red tape. Key changes under the SSVF include reducing the number of student visa subclasses from eight to two and introducing a simplified single immigration risk framework for all international students.

The head of Australia for Chinese property portal, Juwai.com, Gavin Norris, said the new framework is positive for the Australian housing market.

Six out of every 10 Chinese property buying inquiries made in Australia last year were related to education, Norris said.

Juwai.com sent about AU$1.6 billion of property buying inquiries to Australian vendors last year, and almost $1 billion of that value came from families who wanted to buy homes for their children to live in while studying here.

Anything Australia does to increase the number of Chinese students will also increase investment in strategic areas of the real estate market that generates more construction jobs, more new housing being built and more economic growth.

Last year, Chinese students made up one out of every four international students in Australia, and international students support about 130,000 jobs, according to research from Juwai. Norris said these statistics demonstrate the invaluable contribution foreign students have on the Australian economy.

When Australia wins a foreign student, it gains tens of thousands in education fees, additional tens of thousands in retail and services spending, hundreds of thousands in a potential real estate investment and  most important of all  the possibility that highly educated individual will decide to stay and work here and contribute to our economy over the long term, he said.

Every student who might have come here, but doesnt, could represent substantial lost benefits.

The reverse is also true. Anything that discourages international property investment also risks causing adverse impacts the education industry.

Norris has also praised other SSVF changes, which include trialling visa applications in Mandarin and trialling 10-year student visas.

These visa changes are smart, and help Australia catch up to nations like the US, which offer similar visa terms.

The most important elements are the Mandarin language applications, the 10 year validity pilot and the simplified paperwork.

For the most part, these changes are about avoiding the loss of our privileged place as a destination of choice for overseas students, rather than beating the competition, Norris said.
A-37 Dragonfly

A new commemorative plaque, three years in the making, was dedicated at the Plaza of Heroes adjacent to the Association of Graduates Doolittle Hall Tuesday, June 7. About 85 people, including pilots and support personnel who were part of the A-37s operations in Southeast Asia, were on hand for the morning ceremony. The plaque, dedicated to those who flew and supported the A-37 during its five-year history as part of the Vietnam War, will join seven other plaques currently displayed on the unit or affinity wall that is part of the Plaza of Heroes.

Other plaques currently on display commemorate Forward Air Controllers, Raven FACs, Operation Commando Sabre, Jolly Green Giant Rescue Crews, A-1 Skyraider Pilots, Red Marker PACs and Operation ARC Light units.

Lon Holtz, president of the A-37 Association, conducted the days event. He recounted that about 350 pilots flew the A-37 close air support aircraft during its five-year history. Forty-three of those pilots were United States Air Force Academy graduates. Thirteen A-37 pilots lost their lives during the Vietnam War, three of whom were USAFA graduates.

During its history, A-37 pilots flew about 75,000 combat sorties over Southeast Asia. The plaque, which was designed and created by Jim Nance 71, was unveiled by Eric Jackson, representing the enlisted members of the A-37 Association, and John Lamb, representing the officers of the 8th Special Ops Squadron.

Brig. Gen. (Ret.) Roger Carleton 67, chairman of the board of the Association of Graduates, was on hand to accept the gift of the plaque for the Plaza of Heroes.





Attendees for the A-37 Dragonfly plaque dedication enjoyed a tour of the Plaza of Heroes prior to Tuesdays ceremony. Gary Dahlen 70 explains the unit wall where the A-37 will be displayed.

Eric Jackson (left) and John Lamb (center) unveil the A-37 Dragonfly plaque, while AOG Chairman Roger Carleton 67 and the crowd look on.

Association of Graduates Board Chairman Roger Carleton 67 speaks to the assembled crowd at the Plaza of Heroes.
Shanghai Yiqian circling Hahn airport Updated: 2016-06-08 10:50 By Shi Jing(China Daily)

A passenger walks past the terminal of Frankfurt Hahn airport 100 kilometers west of Frankfurt, Germany, June 6, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

Shanghai Yiqian Trading Co is set to buy a major stake in Germany's Hahn airport, located more than 120 kilometers from Frankfurt, in a move that underscores the growing interest by Chinese companies in overseas infrastructure acquisitions.

Shanghai Yiqian plans to buy a 82.5 percent stake in Hahn airport from the current owner, the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, for an undisclosed amount, Reuters reported.

The state will provide around 70 million euros ($79 million) in subsidies for the airport for the next 10 years, according to the interior ministry. But the subsidies still await approval from the European Commission.

The new owners will be expected to cover at least 50 percent of the investment costs, according to the interior ministry.

Transformed from a former military base, Hahn airport ranks fifth in terms of freight volume in Germany. But it has struggled in recent years with falling business and lost as much as 16 million euros last year. According to its official website, only 2.66 million passengers used it in 2015 compared with more than 4 million in 2007.

Irish budget airline Ryanair used to be Hahn airport's major user, but has been cutting back on services from Hahn and diverted business to other airports.

Hahn is the most distant airport from Frankfurt, with passengers needing to take a 100-minute shuttle bus ride to the city center. As a result, it has proved less convenient for transport connections, another major reason for its dwindling popularity.

Hahn airport, however, does have the merit of a 24-hour flight permit, giving it a competitive edge on airports with more restricted flying hours, handy for freight flights in particular.

Yu Tao Chou, chairman of Shanghai Yiqian, told Reuters that increased air freight links from Germany would help supply China with Western products such as meat, at a time when local producers were struggling to keep pace with growing demand.

Before Shanghai Yiqian's offer, Henan Civil Aviation Development & Investment Co Ltd, as well as e-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc, were reported to be interested in buying the stake in Hahn.

Zhou Yangji, an air industry consultant based in Zhengzhou, Henan province, said the airport's losses were the biggest challenge the new owner will have to address.

He said the Chinese investors should be prepared to use modern aviation industry management tactics, utilize local operational experience and develop detailed plans to link the German airport and the Chinese domestic network.

German airport acquisitions are nothing new to Chinese investors. China PR Group Co Ltd acquired Luebeck airport in 2014, which unfortunately went bankrupt one year later. LinkGlobal International Logistics Group bought Baltic airport in 2007.
Bank of Beijing to invest in tech startups for high growth Updated: 2016-06-08 10:52 By Jiang Xueqing(China Daily)

The logo of Bank of Beijng. [Photo/IC]

Bank of Beijing Co Ltd is preparing to launch an investment subsidiary to invest in technology companies with potential for high growth, as well as lending to startups.

The move follows the Bank of Beijing's selection by the China Banking Regulatory Commission as one of the first batch of 10 banks to participate in a pilot program to establish an "investment and loan linkage mechanism" for qualified technology startups.

"A team headed by our Chairman Yan Bingzhu was formed to carry forward the pilot program," said Xu Ningyue, vice-president of Bank of Beijing.

"We have submitted our plan to the CBRC Beijing office and we are awaiting regulatory approval. During the process, we've strengthened coordination with relevant departments of the Beijing municipal government," he said.

In April, the CBRC, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the People's Bank of China jointly issued guidelines to encourage banking institutions to join the pilot program for the qualified technology startups.

It is a major breakthrough compared with the existing rules, which prevent commercial banks from investing in non-bank financial institutions and companies.

Previously, if a commercial bank wanted to invest in a company, it had to do so through a non-bank financial institution.

The Bank of Beijing, for example, invested 7.6 million yuan ($1.2 million) through an asset management company in a Beijing-based network technology firm, which mainly serves radio, television and telecommunication operators. That helped the tech firm raise the funds to establish a data center.

"The investment and loan linkage mechanism will give strong support to innovation of the Law on Commercial Banks," said Bank of Beijing's Xu Ningyue.

He added that more innovation in the financial markets should be done to help tech firms, which had grown tremendously in the past 20 years.

Xiao Ying, deputy director-general of the CBRC Beijing office, said regulators were doing systematic research to further clarify the functions of the new investment subsidiaries to be set up by the banks and their financial arms specializing in serving technology companies.
Patna: Three important files pertaining to the fodder scam, in which former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and several others faced conviction, have now gone missing, said reports on Wednesday.

According to ANI, the files have disappeared from Bihar Animal and Fisheries Resources Departments office in Patna.

An FIR has been lodged at old secretariat police station of Patna in connection with the missing files.

Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad Yadav has been convicted in the 17-year-old fodder scam case that dates back to his days as Bihars chief minister, and had faced immediate disqualification as a member of Parliament under a Supreme Court judgement in 2013.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) targeted Chief Minister and JDU leader Nitish Kumar for the missing files, as JD(U) is in power in Bihar in alliance with RJD and Congress.

The scam pertains to fraudulent withdrawal of public money worth Rs 950 crore from the treasuries of undivided Bihar under the head of the animal husbandry department (AHD) from 1990 onwards.

The withdrawals were carried out on the basis of fake bills and vouchers for buying feed, fodder and medicine for livestock by AHD officials in connivance with suppliers and the top layer of the states bureaucracy and politicians cutting across parties, including the RJD, Congress, JD(U) and the BJP.

Some CBI sleuths preferred to refer to it as treasury scam instead of fodder scam.
Gurgaon: Two persons were killed on Wednesday when a truck headed to Delhi with meat rammed into a stationary truck on the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway, police said.

A third person was critically injured in the accident which caused a huge traffic jam as the meat spilled on to the road.

Police said the identity of the dead and the injured was not known.
New Delhi: The pace at which species who are a part of marine life are approaching the endangered list is horrifying.

One of the species that are nearly within the radar of extinction is the Vaquita Porpoise, also known as the Panda of the sea, and their population's decline has marine scientists concerned.

Today, the world is home to only 60 vaquita's. Statistics reveal that the world's smallest porpoise has seen its population drop by 92 percent in less than 20 years in Mexicos Gulf of California as they suffocate to death one-by-one in gillnets.

The declining vaquita species have made scientists at the International Committee for the Recovery of the Vaquita (CIRVA) contemplate a once inconceivable option, that is, captive breeding.

However, as per the scientists, this procedure would be highly risky and is probably a desperate effort to save the porpoise population.

Barbara Taylor, one of the worlds foremost experts on the vaquita with NOAA, told The Guardian that, We have no idea whether it is feasible to find, capture and maintain vaquitas in captivity much less whether they will reproduce. The uncertainties are large.

Captive breeding basically points at putting the dolphins in breeding pens, either in coastal waters or elsewhere.

Although the scientists were aware of the major fall in vaquita population over the two decades, they restrained themselves to pull them out of their natural habitat. This is primarily because, the scientists were afraid that any captured vaquitas would perish quickly outside of their habitat. And even if they miraculously survive, trying to force a pair of vaquita to mate and produce a healthy calf under captive conditions would possibly require lots of trial and error  and there arent many vaquita left to bargain with.

In December, however, as the porpoise numbers dropped further, scientists realised that all conservation options needed to be considered.

The Associated Press quoted Omar Vidal, the head of the Mexico office of the World Wildlife Fund, the WWF, who said that, Capturing vaquitas to breed them would be far too risky and is not a viable option. With only around 60 vaquitas left, we simply cannot gamble with killing some while experimenting. Every single vaquita counts! I see no other way to save this porpoise than by focusing all efforts and resources in eliminating its accidental deaths in fishing activities.

The option of captive breeding is only being considered as of now, which means that the main plan of action is simply to begin studying the idea. This is because, as per The Guardian, the scientists dont want discussion of captive breeding to undermine Mexicos resolve in what they say is the real battle today: banning gillnets and fighting the illegal trade in totoaba fish.
Panaji: A 16-year-old girl was hospitalized on Wednesday after unknown persons flung acid on her while she was sleeping at her home in Guirim village, 10 km from Panaji, police said.

The victim has been admitted to the Asilo Hospital in Mapusa town.

"She was asleep in her bedroom when some persons threw acid on her through a window," a police officer said.
Rajkot: Congress workers on Wednesday disrupted a press conference here of Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu who later hit back alleging that the party was losing grip in states it once ruled and must introspect on this.

As soon as the Urban Development Minister began his conference at the circuit house here, some Congress workers, including Rajkot Municipal Corporation leader of opposition Vasram Sagathia, rushed into the conference room and disrupted the presser, Pradyuman Nagar police station in-charge inspector RY Raval said.

There was a heated discussion between Congress and BJP workers in the room.

Police were soon alerted and 10 Congress workers, including Sagathia, were detained, the officer said, adding that all were later released.

Naidu termed as "unfortunate" the incident and said "it's unfortunate that our opposition cannot digest our success and are misleading people."

Sagathia told reporters outside the circuit house that they had come to hand over a memorandum to the minister regarding alleged irregularities in Rajiv Awas Yojna.

"In democracy, it's their right to oppose government's policy and decision but they (Congress) play cheap politics, tactics which will lead them to become a cheap party," Naidu said.

"They are not doing this just here, they are doing the same at the national capital...Not allowing both the Houses (Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha) to function smoothly," he said.

The opposition should rather try to improve their position instead of indulging in 'cheap protests', he added.

Meanwhile, at the conference, Naidu said Congress should introspect as it is "losing" grip in many states.

"Congress leaders are quitting party one by one while the party is also losing grip in states where they once ruled and it's better for Congress to do introspection," Naidu said at the press conference.

He also advised Congress to respect the mandate given by the people in the 2014 General Elections.
Bengaluru: Richard Huckle, a British paedophile who has been convicted for sexually abusing children in orphanages while posing as an English teacher, had come calling at an orphanage in Bengaluru three years ago, a report said on Wednesday.

According to The New Hope for Children Orphanage, Huckle visited the facility in 2013 but was not allowed to be around children.

In a statement posted on Facebook, the orphanage said no child was harmed while Huckle was at the facility.

The orphanage was 'shocked' to find out that the UK national was accused of sexually assaulting children in Southeast Asia, The Deccan Chronicle reported.

Several years ago, Huckle briefly visited New Hope for Children Orphanages, where he created a video about the work of Pastor George (executive director of Helping Hands, a Bengaluru-based non-profit organisation). Praise God that Huckle was at no time allowed to be around any of the children in India without supervision. Pastor George assures us that none of the children in India could have been harmed, the statement stated.

Huckle, who hails from Ashford, Kent, was arrested in Australia while the police there was probing a child abuse case.
Washington: India is all set to become member of Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) as all hurdles related to its membership have been cleared, the US has said.

However, certain formalities remain to be completed before it can be formally announced.

Member countries of MTCR "have agreed that India should be a member," a senior administration official said yesterday, adding that all the hurdles in this regard were cleared.

"There was a silent procedure that ended just, which passed successfully indicating that there is consensus for India to join the MTCR," the senior administration official said requesting anonymity.

"There are still technical procedure that may still be in play. But politically the decision has been made," the official said within a few hours after the Obama-Modi meeting at the White House.

The meeting lasted for more than two hours including a working lunch.

"Once these technical barriers are carried out, India will become a member of MTCR," the administration official said, adding that Obama in his meeting with the Prime Minister praised India's record on nuclear non-proliferation.

"China is not a member of MTCR. So China has had no opportunity to express its reservation to India's membership," the official said when asked about China's objection to India's membership to Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) which mostly handles nuclear nonproliferation issues.

The Indian officials, however, refrained from making any comment on the status of its membership.

"India has applied for membership to MTCR," Indian Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar said.

India becoming a member of MTCR is expected to pave the way for increased defence trade and technology transfer between India and the US. India has shown keen interest in purchasing armed drones from the US.

However, the US has not made decision in this regard so far, the senior administration official said.

"MTCR did prevented us from certain forms of cooperation. It would help India to continue to advance its non-proliferation leadership in the world," the US official said.

Obama and Modi, he said did talk about defence cooperation including in the field of 'Make in India' and sharing of military technology.

"There is no decision to provide India UAV," the official said.
New Delhi: The Election Commission (EC) has indicated to the government that holding of elections to Parliament and all state Legislative Assemblies simultaneously was possible.

As per a report in The Indian Express, the EC has supported the idea of holding the polls together, in a letter to the Union Law Ministry dispatched last month.

It is for the first time that the poll panel has officially said it could conduct Lok Sabha and state polls together.

Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in favour of holding all polls together to save cost and time.

In March, at a meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Modi had said that the polls to panchayats, urban local bodies, states and Parliament should be held simultaneously.

In so far as the Election Commission is concerned, the issues involved in holding simultaneous elections are not insurmountable for it. If there is political consensus and will across the board, needless to say that the Commission supports the idea of considering simultaneous elections, the EC said in its two-page letter, as per the newspaper.

The Law Ministry had sought from the EC its views on the 79th Report of the Department-related Parliamentary Committee on the Feasibility of Holding Simultaneous Elections to the House of People (Lok Sabha) and State Legislative Assemblies.

The EC letter was in response to that communication.
New Delhi: The first batch of women fighter pilots, comprising three cadets, will be inducted into the Indian Air Force on June 18.

The three women pilots will be commissioned into the fighter stream on June 18 this year after successful completion of the initial training, official sources said. Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar is also expected to attend the event.

Thereafter, they would undergo advanced training for one year and would enter a fighter cockpit by June 2017.

Bhawana Kanth, Mohana Singh and Avani Chaturvedi are the trainees who qualified for the fighter stream after it was thrown open to women in October 2015.

They will go to Bidar in Karnataka in June 2016 for their stage-III training for a year on Hawk advanced jet trainers, before they get to fly supersonic warplanes.

Six female cadets were competing to become fighter pilots after the government, in a landmark move, approved an IAF plan in October to induct them as fighter pilots.

However, only three female trainees were selected for the fighter stream.
6.6 trillion yuan earmarked for low-carbon cities: report Updated: 2016-06-08 11:19 (Xinhua)

Workers with the power supply company in Chuzhou, Anhui province, check the transmission network under the State Grid before it is connected with a local wind power farm. [Song Weixing/For China Daily]

BEIJING - China is set to invest 6.6 trillion yuan (about $1 trillion) on developing low-carbon cities in the next five years, according to a report released on Tuesday.

The money will be mainly spent on developing low-carbon buildings, green transportation system and clean energy to meet China's low-carbon ambitions outlined in the 13th Five-Year Plan, according to a report jointly released by the Paulson Institute, Energy Foundation China and a branch of the China Association of Circular Economy.

The majority of the investment, about 4.45 trillion yuan, will go to build or upgrade energy-efficient and environmentally friendly railways, buses and other infrastructure, the report said.

About 1.65 trillion yuan is needed to finance construction of green buildings or reconstruction of existing residential and commercial properties so that they conserve more energy.

Developing distributed solar photovoltaic power generation infrastructure, considered to be vitally important to clean energy, will require investment of about 500 billion yuan before 2020, according to the report.

Ma Jun, the Chinese central bank's chief economist, said the sums of money needed for this work are too great to be covered by the government alone. China needs to turn to specialist financing like issuing green bonds to introduce more private support, Ma said.
New Delhi: India is all set to become a member of Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) as all hurdles related to its membership have been cleared.

After this announcement, India and the US are likely to quicken their discussion on the sale of Predator drones for the Indian military.

The CIA prefers using the Predator series of unmanned aircraft in a number of operations. The drone recently eliminated the Taliban leader in Afghanistan.

Member countries of MTCR "have agreed that India should be a member," a senior administration official said on Tuesday, adding that all the hurdles in this regard were cleared.

"There was a silent procedure that ended just, which passed successfully indicating that there is consensus for India to join the MTCR," the senior administration official said requesting anonymity.

"There are still technical procedures that may still be in play. But politically the decision has been made," the official said within a few hours after the Obama-Modi meeting at the White House.

The meeting lasted for more than two hours including a working lunch.

"India has applied for membership to MTCR," Indian Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar said.

India becoming a member of MTCR is expected to pave the way for increased defence trade and technology transfer between India and the US. India has shown a keen interest in purchasing armed drones from the US.

However, the US has not made a decision in this regard so far, the senior administration official said.

"MTCR did prevent us from certain forms of cooperation. It would help India to continue to advance its non-proliferation leadership in the world," the US official said.

(With PTI inputs)
Beijing: The US is hoping to use India as its "right hand" to counterbalance China`s rise, but New Delhi must understand that its vision cannot be realised by "bashing or containing" China, a leading Chinese daily said on Wednesday.

The op-ed article in Global times, against the backdrop of Prime Minister Narendra Modi`s fourth visit to the US -- and his seventh meeting with President Barack Obama -- suggests that "picking one side or camp against the other is not the way India will rise".

Instead, it says, New Delhi should stick to its "founding principles: independence and non-alignment".

Modi`s visit has been described as a success by most commentators, with India and the US signing key nuclear and climate deals. India is also set to become a member of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), while the US is backing its inclusion in the elite Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), a move that China opposes.

The article says the US interest in India is because of the "transformation of the geopolitical landscape", specifically "Washington`s rebalance to the Asia-Pacific" and New Delhi`s "strategic significance, economic potential and ideological commonality".

India, on the other hand, hopes that by consolidating its relationship with the US, it will "gain leverage in development and forge an international status that is worthy of its potential", the article notes.

"Modi has rivetted his interactions with the US on this simple outlook: to make India a veritable powerhouse. He was eager to boost a broader and better economic relationship with the US. He urged the signing of the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement, a landmark deal promoting logistics and defence cooperation with the US and he also expects an endorsement from the US to help India become a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the last step to solidify India`s status as a nuclear powerhouse."

The article contends that the US strategy may not play out as it expects, because India is not likely to entirely toe its line.

As an example of New Delhi`s assertion of independence, the article cites its "turning down (of) Washington`s invitation to join a patrol in the South China Sea".

"In the process of fulfilling its ambition to be a major power, India has always employed independent and pragmatic approaches. A balance between other major powers will be its primary and optimal choice," the article notes.

"Although boasting a western-style democracy, India`s culture and society differs from the West. The Indians know they cannot copy the West exactly, so they will try to find out what is best for them, including foreign relations."

"Although rivaling China in many aspects, India knows its great vision cannot be realised by bashing or containing China. Instead, they should expand cooperation, explore the potentials and build mutual trust for their own good. China is more of a help than a competitor for India. This will eventually constitute India`s fundamental understanding of China."
Beijing: India cannot rise by "containing" China or picking one side against the other, a Chinese state-run paper said on Wednesday, taking note of the Indo-US ties which are being ramped up to an "unprecedented level".

"Four visits to the US and seven meetings with President Barack Obama in two years - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has ramped up the India-US relationship to an unprecedented level. How the two countries will engage with each other has raised heated discussions," an op-ed article in state-run Global Times said.

"Picking one side or camp against the other is not the way India will rise. New Delhi is looking into a multi-faceted diplomacy. The well-performing Indian economy will give incentives to the country to be more confident with multilateralism and to seek balanced international relations.

"Although rivalling China in many aspects, India knows its great vision cannot be realised by bashing or containing China. Instead, they should expand cooperation, explore the potentials and build mutual trust for their own good. China is more of a help than a competitor for India. This will eventually constitute India's fundamental understanding of China," it said referring to Modi's current visit to the US.

With Modi's visit, New Delhi hopes there will be breakthroughs in many aspects, especially business and trade, security cooperation and nuclear issues, the article titled 'India's vision cannot be realised by containing China' said.

"The transformation of the geopolitical landscape is the major driver drawing the US and India much closer. Washington's rebalance to the Asia-Pacific makes the US realise India's strategic significance, economic potential and ideological commonality," it said.

"India hopes that by consolidating its relationship with the US, it could gain leverage in development and forge an international status that is worthy of its potential. Modi has riveted his interactions with the US on this simple outlook to make India a veritable powerhouse. He was eager to boost a broader and better economic relationship with the US.

"He urged the signing of the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement, a landmark deal promoting logistics and defence cooperation with the US and he also expects an endorsement from the US to help India become a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the last step to solidify India's status as a nuclear powerhouse," the article said.

As for Washington, it is always hoping that India could serve as its right hand to counterbalance China's rise. But so far, Washington's calculations do not work well. Turning down Washington's invitation to join a patrol in the South China Sea, New Delhi has no intention to cast away its founding principles: independence and non-alignment, it said.

"In the process of fulfilling its ambition to be a major power, India has always employed independent and pragmatic approaches. A balance between other major powers will be its primary and optimal choice," the article added.
Mumbai: India's first bullet train project between Ahmedabad and Mumbai appears to have hit a roadblock, and that too a major one.

As per a report in The Indian Express, the Maharashtra government has told the Indian Railways that it would not allow the most crucial station of the Rs 98,000-crore project  Mumbai  to be built at the proposed site.

The Railways is set to construct the Mumbai station underground at the Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC), which is a central business district.

The plan to construct the Mumbai station at BKC was prepared by Japanese consultants, who had done a thorough research before zeroing in on the area.

However, the state government is now reported to have told the Railways that the proposed station at BKC would affect its plans to come up with a financial centre at the same place.

The Maharashtra government is not ready to budge despite the fact that the bullet train station would be underground, the newspaper report said.

The state government estimates a loss to the tune of Rs 10,000 crore if the station is built at the proposed site.

Officials from the Railway Ministry have already met Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and other officials but no breakthrough has been reached.

It is expected that the matter would now be taken to the Prime Minister's Office where a solution could be found or a compromise reached.

And that is a real possibility keeping in mind PM Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party rules in Maharashtra.
New Delhi: JNU students led by union president Kanhaiya Kumar on Wednesday staged a protest outside UGC office demanding that reservation to OBC candidates be granted during appointments at Associate Professor level.

The students claimed that UGC had recently said 27 per OBC reservation is applicable only at the level of Assistant Professor and demanded that the reservation be implemented at Professor and Associate Professor level as well.

However, the University Grants Commission (UGC) had yesterday clarified that there has been no change in reservation policy for teachers in universities.

The protesting students submitted a memorandum to UGC officials demanding that the OBC reservation be implemented at both professor and associate professor level, in promotions and the number of national fellowships for OBCs be increased.

In a recent letter to Registrar of Universities, the UGC said that there has been no change in the reservation policy in faculty positions in central universities.

In the letter, UGC had said that in teaching positions reservation for SCs in 15 per cent, STs 7.5 per cent is applicable at all three levels- Assistant Professor, Associate Professor and Professor.

The letter added that in case of OBCs, 27 per cent reservation is applicable only at the level of Assistant Professor only.
New Delhi: Several foreign-funded Non Governmental Organisation (NGOs) are involved in religious conversion in India.

According to Intelligence agencies, while some NGOs are working in the country to promote religious conversion, many are also involved in flaring up communal tension.

Around 18 foreign donors have been identified who have been constantly funding these NGOs. As per the details available, two each donors have been identified from the US, South Korea and Europe.

The NGOs believed to be involved in conversion are active in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha.

According to a Home Ministry report, Rs 12,980 crore reached NGOs from the foreign donors in 2013-14, out of which some part was meant for religious conversion.

Last year, a total of 69 NGOs were blacklisted by the government from receiving foreign funds.

Informing the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju had said among those NGOs which were prohibited from receiving the foreign funds include 14 from Andhra Pradesh, 12 from Tamil Nadu, five each from Gujarat and Odisha, four each from Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Kerala and three from Delhi.
New Delhi: Several Twitter users must be wondering why the hash tag #MODIfiedForeignPolicy is top trend on Wednesday.

The hash tag #MODIfiedForeignPolicy became the top trend in the wake of PM Narendra Modi's visit to US and how his government's foreign policies have scored big on global plaform.

#MODIfiedForeignPolicy started trending when several Twitter users started posting about PM Modi's global achievements.

Basically, #MODIfiedForeignPolicy started trending in the wake of three developments - Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and stolen Indian artefacts.

NSG

India's candidature for membership of the elite Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) was supported by US President Barack Obama on Tuesday as he

discussed with Prime Minister Narendra Modi ways to take the bilateral ties to new heights.

MTCR

In a major win for India, the members of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), a key anti-proliferation group, has reportedly cleared the way

for the South Asian nation's membership.

Stolen Indian artefacts

The US has returned to India over 200 stolen cultural artefacts, some dating back 2,000 years, estimated at USD 100 million, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi describing the cultural heritage as a great binding force in bilateral relationships.

The tweets mentioning #MODIfiedForeignPolicy also talked about how the PM boosted bilateral ties with various nations.

Here are some of the viral tweets on #MODIfiedForeignPolicy:-

#MODIfiedForeignPolicy helped FDI go up by 40% n India has jumped 16 spots on World Economic Forums Global pic.twitter.com/OheqpvBgt6  Bhagwati Prasad (@bpj_india) June 8, 2016

#MODIfiedForeignPolicy

India jumps to second position in ease of doing business in Global Retail Development Index. pic.twitter.com/c1Onq1lHRz  Lilly Mary Pinto (@LillyMaryPinto) June 8, 2016

India joins Hague Code of Conduct further strengthening global non-proliferation objectives. #MODIfiedForeignPolicy pic.twitter.com/0LTu6jsdb2  Lokesh Chahar (@LkChahar) June 8, 2016

#MODIfiedForeignPolicy East or West, @narendramodi is best and popular in all directions of World pic.twitter.com/qkWEgfqEOP  Dr.Bhaarat Singh (@DrBharatSingh2) June 8, 2016

India in MTCR. USA lifts Vietnam

arms embargo. Ind 2 export

Brahmos missiles 2 Vietnam.

Deciphering#MODIfiedforeignpolicy taming

china  Angreji beat (a.k.a (@saurabht71) June 8, 2016

#US Ambassador to India Richard Verma on US recognizes India as 'Major Defence Partner' #ModiInUS#MODIfiedForeignPolicy  Jaswant Singh (@JasBJP) June 8, 2016

#MODIfiedForeignPolicy#ModiInUS

India becomes the 35th member of the Missile Technology Control Regime #MTCR  Nilesh Desai BJP (@Nilessh_Desai) June 8, 2016

#MODIfiedForeignPolicy Thanks @narendramodi ji to bring Jain's Bahubali Bhagwan's 1000yrs old Pratima alongwith others from US to India.  HarshVardhan (@talktovardhan) June 8, 2016

See wat our Indians who r working in Qatar said about about Modiji #MODIFiedForeignPolicy pic.twitter.com/Gdkl95dmts  Ramrao kulkarni (@RamraoKP_) June 8, 2016

Make in India:makes india an investment Magnet. Bucks Global Trend of 16% contraction in FDI. #MODIfiedForeignPolicy pic.twitter.com/DTM30aivVt  Lokesh Chahar (@LkChahar) June 8, 2016

New paradigm in India's foreign policy

Bringing her cultural heritage back. . #MODIFiedForeignPolicy pic.twitter.com/sdkxva8tu4  Ramrao kulkarni (@RamraoKP_) June 8, 2016

Which ever country he visit he follow his own tradition &culture nt bend to others tradition #MODIFiedForeignPolicy pic.twitter.com/9t31C3yzV9  Ramrao kulkarni (@RamraoKP_) June 8, 2016

MODI Driving ForeignInvestmnt

People mock hs foreign trips

&ignore Money influx he drives2IND#MODIfiedForeignPolicy pic.twitter.com/nLH2eCg5O3  quirkyMe (@quirky1_) June 8, 2016

China publicly names Pakistan for Mumbai terror attacks

Morons questioning #MODIfiedForeignPolicy are hiding like rats in gutters  Archie (@Archu243) June 8, 2016

Remember the time when 65 traitors stopped USA from issuing a visa to Modi #MODIfiedForeignPolicy pic.twitter.com/uGDzNHjzUo  Kavita4BJP (@Kavita_M57) June 8, 2016

US agrees to return India's stolen cultural artifacts soon after Modi's visit #MODIfiedForeignPolicy pic.twitter.com/WKDLbBG02N  vishal #AHF (@vishalp88938569) June 8, 2016

A grt diplomatic achievement 4 the country.China will hopfuly c the reason now not to oppose India's entry into NSG#MODIfiedForeignPolicy  Good Looking Rascal (@EncapsulatdSoul) June 8, 2016

A proud moment for every true Indian, thanks to #MODIfiedForeignPolicy India made its way into elite MTCR nations club & now headed for NSG  Archie (@Archu243) June 8, 2016

We have Afghanistan and Iran as our strongest ally which are Islamic countries..

#MODIfiedForeignPolicy  BLEED SAFFRON (@ModiiBHAKT) June 8, 2016
New Delhi: Islamic State (IS), the world's deadliest terror group, is reported to have tried hard but failed to make its presence felt in India.

And now, the IS is reported to have changed its tactics and is believed to be co-ordinating with regional terror groups like the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) to carry out attacks in India.

The Deccan Chronicle reported on Wednesday about an alert issued by the Intelligence Bureau. The alert states: ISIS is desperate to make its presence felt in India and for this purpose is trying to co-ordinate with LeT to outsource some of its operations.

The alert further says the IS would plan and supervise the entire operation while it would be executed by the LeT, which already has a presence in India.

A lone wolf attack on a high profile target is also a real possibility under the plan, intelligence agencies believe.

Such a high-profile attack will help ISIS mark its presence in the country as it would claim responsibility for it and, in the process, attract youth into joining its cadre, the alert states.

The alert comes just days after a video emerged in which IS recruits from India were seen issuing a threat to carry out attacks here.
New Delhi: 'Suryanamaskar asana' will not be part of this year's Yoga Day celebrations and chanting of 'Om' won't be compulsory even though Yoga is incomplete without it, Ayush Minister Shripad Naik said on Wednesday about the June 21 event which is expected entail a collective cost of hundreds of crores of rupees.

"The Suryanamaskar asana...Last year also we had not taken it. It is a complex exercise. It is difficult to do in 45 minutes and for people who are new to the exercise. Therefore we have not kept this one," Naik, whose ministry is the nodal agency for organising the annual celebrations, told the media.

There has been a controversy over this asana, with Muslim groups saying their faith does not allow such a practice.

The International Yoga Day is celebrated on June 21 since last year, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi taking a lead in this. Modi performed the Yoga at Rajpath here last year and this time, he will do so in Chandigarh.

Naik also dismissed the controversy related to chanting of 'Om' during the event and it has not been made compulsory.

"There is always some opposition whenever some good work is done. There is no opposition this year to it. We have not made it compulsory.... We have made those people who are opposing understand this and it seems they have understood," he said, but added that "without OM, yoga cannot be complete."

Chanting of 'Om' has also been a matter of controversy, with Muslim bodies saying members of their faith cannot do so.

There was a controversy recently too over the UGC's directive asking universities and colleges to follow Ayush ministry's yoga protocol that begins with chanting of 'Om' and some Sanskrit shlokas during Yoga Day celebrations on June 21.

The government, however, had insisted that last year's protocol has been maintained and no changes have been made. "There is no compulsion to chant 'Om'," it had earlier said.

About whether a holiday will be declared on June 21, Naik said, "It is not needed, nobody has demanded that. Last year, also no such demand came....Yoga's time is early morning. It will go on around 8 am...There is no need of a holiday."

However, "if the demand comes, I will request the Prime Minister to do so (declare holiday)," he said. The Yoga Day this year falls on Tuesday while last year it was a Sunday.

Ayush Ministry officials said that yoga has been added in the physical activity sessions in various schools for class six to tenth but it has not been made compulsory.

Naik said that a circular has also been issued by the HRD Minister to all the schools to include yoga and while many schools have adopted it, for others, "work is in progress".

"HRD minister has sent circular to schools. Work is in progress. All schools have started adopting," Naik said.

Asked about the budget for the celebrations, Ministry secretary Ajit Sharan said every ministry is spending its own money and Ayush Ministry is not supporting anybody in terms of funds for celebrating this.

"Although if all is taken collectively, it may be hundreds of crores. But from the AYUSH Ministry side, the sum is around Rs 15 crore," he said.
China to grant RQFII quota to US: official Updated: 2016-06-08 14:59 (Xinhua)

Yi Gang (C), vice governor of the People's Bank of China, attends a press conference during the eighth round of China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogues and the seventh round of China-US High-Level Consultation on People-to-People Exchange, in Beijing, June 7, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

BEIJING - China will grant the United States a quota of 250 billion yuan ($38 billion) under the country's Renminbi Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (RQFII) program, an official with the central bank said Tuesday.

"China values the cooperation with the US, and both sides will jointly promote renminbi businesses in North America," Yi Gang, vice governor of the People's Bank of China, told press at the China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogues on Tuesday.

The RQFII mechanism was launched in December 2011 to widen investment channels for overseas renminbi funds on the Chinese mainland, allowing those that qualify to invest in China's securities market within a permitted quota. It aims partly to increase the international use of renminbi.

Yi said China was considering appointing qualified foreign institutions as settlement institutions and bond underwriters, and is simplifying the approval procedures for its RQFII program.

The new quota will expand the mechanism by about 50 percent. The combined RQFII quota stood at 501.77 billion yuan at the end of last month.

By the end of May, China had approved RQFII quotas to 165 institutions from 10 countries and regions.

Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang told a news briefing Tuesday that China and the US welcomed continuous cooperation between financial platforms and both sides would strive to connect their financial markets and products.

Financial regulators from both countries are willing to enhance cooperation in information sharing and cross-border law enforcement, Wang said.

The vice premier added that the two sides had agreed to promote exchanges to address money laundering, the financing of terrorism and counterfeit bank notes.

The two sides reiterated that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) should increase quotas, the voting power and maximum financial commitment, for emerging markets and developing nations.
Washington: Treating Pathankot attack at par with 26/11, President Barack Obama today sent out a clear message to Pakistan, asking it to punish its perpetrators amid the US vow to stand with India against terror threats from Pakistan-based groups like JeM, LeT and Dawood "company".

"They (Obama and Modi) called for Pakistan to bring the perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai and 2016 Pathankot terrorist attacks to justice," a joint statement issued after the Obama-Modi meeting at the White House said.

During the meeting, Modi and Obama acknowledged the continued threat posed to human civilisation by terrorism and condemned the recent terrorist incidents from Paris to Pathankot, from Brussels to Kabul, the statement said.

"They resolved to redouble their efforts, bilaterally and with other like-minded countries, to bring to justice the perpetrators of terrorism anywhere in the world and the infrastructure that supports them," the statement said.

During the meeting, Obama and Modi committed to strengthen cooperation against terrorist threats from extremist groups, such as "al-Qaeda, Daesh/ISIL, Jaish-e Mohammad, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, D Company and their affiliates, including through deepened collaboration on UN terrorist designations."

"In this context, they directed their officials to identify specific new areas of collaboration at the next meeting of US?India Counter-terrorism Joint Working Group," the statement said.

"Recognising an important milestone in the US-India counter-terrorism partnership, the leaders applauded the finalisation of an arrangement to facilitate the sharing of terrorist screening information," it said.

Modi and Obama also affirmed their support for a UN Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism that advances and strengthens the framework for global cooperation and reinforces that no cause or grievance justifies terrorism, the statement said.
Islamabad: Pakistan has expressed serious concern over India's recent development of an anti-ballistic missile system, saying that it may give India a false sense of security, leading to unexpected complications which are contrary to its policy of a friendly neighbourhood.

India had successfully test-fired indigenously developed supersonic interceptor missile, capable of destroying any incoming ballistic missile, from a test range off Odisha coast on May 15.

The criticism came in the meeting of Senate yesterday, the Express Tribune newspaper reported today.

Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz told the government's response to the Senate.

"Massive conventional nuclear and missile development programmes pursued by India are now leading to nuclearisation of the Indian Ocean," he said.

"The development of an anti-ballistic missile system (ABM) may give India a false sense of security, leading to unexpected complications. Such actions are also contrary to the policy of a peaceful and friendly neighbourhood, which our prime minister (Nawaz Sharif) has repeatedly espoused," Aziz said.

"Pakistan has serious concerns over these developments and will take all necessary measures to augment its defence capabilities," he said.

"The balance of power has been disturbed in South Asia the way it was disturbed following India's nuclear tests in 1998," said Senator Javed Abbasi of ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

"I'm not aware of our military's response, but I suggest that the security establishment take a note of the Indian interceptor missile test and devise a strategy accordingly," he said.

"The (interceptor missile) test has increased military threats from India," said Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed of opposition Pakistan Muslim League Quaid-e-Azam (PMLQ).

Referring to an upcoming meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) in Seoul, Mushahid said ground was being paved for India's elevation to the NSG.

"This is our diplomatic failure. The Indians are encircling us from all sides. Even our immediate neighbours, like Afghanistan and Iran, have gone to India. It's a result of our failed diplomacy and traditionally passive foreign policy," he added.

Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Senator Farhatullah Babar blamed flawed security policies for the foreign policy debacle.

"Isn't it a reality that we protected non-state actors to further our security agenda? Our age-old policy of harbouring non-state actors is taking a toll on us," he said.

Chairman of the Senate Raza Rabbani said a clear strategy must be devised to respond to the situation created by India's missile test.
Islamabad: Pakistan has failed to take concrete action to keep a lid on banned militant outfits like Hafiz Saeed-led Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad which continuously resurface under new names challenging the government's authority, a media report said today.

Under the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997, it is the job of the Interior Ministry to determine whether any group is to be banned, but it should also keep tabs on such organisations and prevent them from re-emerging, the Express Tribune reported.

However, the ministry has failed to take concrete action to restrain actions of groups beyond adding their name to a central list, the daily said

"The ministry presented a list of banned organisations to the Senate in December 2015 with 61 names on it. That list has not been updated since nor has it been made available to the public," it said.

The daily said that one of the organisations which have circumvented the government's restrictions by rebranding themselves is LeT, led by 2008 Mumbai attack mastermind Saeed, which was banned in 2002.

"The group and Saeed were able to reinvent themselves under the banner of Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and expand their operations into a vast charity network as well," the daily said.

It said despite being sanctioned by the United Nations, the government has only kept the outfit on "observation" while its chief "Saeed continues to headline events across the country delivering public speeches."

Another such entity is JeM, accused of carrying out deadly attacks in India, which was first banned on January 22, 2002, the report said.

"It did not take long for the group to resurface under the new name of Khuddam-ul-Islam. The government banned that group on November 15, 2003. However, the group has continued to operate in the shadows."

Another group surviving the ban is anti-Shiite Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), which was first banned on January 22, 2002, the report said, pointing that the outfit resurfaced as Millat-e-Islami before the government banned that iteration in November 2003.

But it did not deter the group who managed to reinvent itself as the Ahl-e-Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ), the daily said.

"Though the ASWJ was banned on February 15, 2012, it has continued to flout that ban by staging sporadic activities across the country without much fear of retribution from the state," it said.

"Poor enforcement of law is the lead cause of such issues," the daily said quoting Imtaiz Gul, the executive director of Centre for Research Security Studies (CRSS).

He added that the seventh point of the government's National Action Plan (NAP) also specifically deals with re-emergence of proscribed organisations under different names.

"These outfits don't require registration to operate and they rename themselves to avoid surveillance from security agencies," Gul said.

"We have an existing framework of law and the only thing we need is enforcement of law through consolidated efforts," he said.
Washington: With Pakistan obviously in mind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said terrorism is being 'incubated in India's neighbourhood' and pressed for action without making any distinction against groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba, Taliban and ISIS who share the 'same philosophy of hate, murder and killings'.

Addressing a joint sitting of US Congress, he also described America as an 'indispensable partner' and stated that a strong India is in the US' strategic interest.

In the course of his 45-minute speech, he covered all major aspects of the growing relationship between India and the US, particularly strategic ties and civil nuclear cooperation, and emphasised that the two countries should leave "constraints of the past" behind as the "foundations of the future are firmly in place".

Dressed in trademark white kurta pyjama and grey-coloured half-jacket, PM Modi was warmly received by the American lawmakers who interrupted his address more than 40 times to cheer him, a few times by standing.

"In every sector of India's forward march, I see the US as an indispensable partner, PM Modi said, adding, "Many of you also believe that a stronger and prosperous India is in America's strategic interest."

He said India could be an ideal partner for US businesses searching for new areas of economic growth, markets for their goods, a pool of skilled resources, and global locations to produce and manufacture.



India's strong economy, and growth rate of 7.6 per cent per annum, is creating new opportunities for our mutual prosperity, the Prime Minister said.



Transformative American technologies in India and growing investment by Indian companies in the United States both have a positive impact on the lives of our citizens.

He also pointed out that today India was the destination of choice for American companies for their global research and development centres.



The Prime Minister thanked the US Congress for passing the India-US civilian nuclear deal in 2008.



In the fall of 2008, when the Congress passed the India-US Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement, it changed the very colours of leaves of our relationship, he said.

Turning to the Indian economy he said that his to-do list by 2022, the 75th anniversary of India's independence was ambitious. "My to-do list is long and ambitious. But you will understand.



It includes a vibrant rural economy with robust farm sector; a roof over each head and electricity to all households; to skill millions of our youth; build 100 smart cities; have a broad band for a billion, and connect our villages to the digital world; and create a twenty-first century rail, road and port infrastructure, PM Modi said.

PM Modi, who invoked Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, Swami Vivekananda and Atal Bihari Vajpayee in his speech, said India and the US, the world's largest and oldest democracies, had learnt a lot from each other's philosophies and practices, making them "natural allies".

"As we deepen our partnership, there would be times when we would have differing perspectives. But, since our interests and concerns converge, the autonomy in decision-making and diversity in our perspectives can only add value to our partnership," he said, adding "So, as we embark on a new journey, and seek new goals, let us focus not just on matters routine but transformational ideas."

He said these ideas should focus "not just on creating wealth but also creating value for our societies; not just on immediate gains but also long term benefits; not just on sharing best practices but also shaping partnerships; and not just on building a bright future for our peoples, but in being a bridge to a more united, humane and prosperous world.

"And, important for the success of this journey would be a need to view it with new eyes and new sensitivities. When we do this, we will realise the full promise of this extraordinary relationship."

Underscoring that both India and the US share the vision of peace and prosperity of the world, the Prime Minister said "globally, terrorism remains the biggest threat" and it must be fought at many levels" as the traditional tools of military, intelligence or diplomacy alone would not be able to win defeat it.

"In the territory stretching from West of India's border to Africa, it may go by different names, from Laskhar-e-Taiba, to Taliban to ISIS. But, it's philosophy is common: of hate, murder and violence," Modi said.

"Although it's shadow is spreading across the world, it is incubated in India's neighbourhood," he said an apparent reference to Pakistan.

He said those who believe in humanity must come together to fight against terrorism as one and speak against this menace in one voice.

"I commend the members of the US Congress for sending a clear message to those who preach and practice terrorism for political gains," Modi said, adding "Refusing to reward them is the first step towards holding them accountable for their actions."

He was clearly referring to the blocking of sale of 8 F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan by the US Congress recently.

Emphasising that "terrorism must be delegitimized", he said, "The need of the hour is for us to deepen our security cooperation."

He said the cooperation should be based on a policy that "isolates those who harbour, support and sponsor terrorists; that does not distinguish between 'good' and 'bad' terrorists; and that delinks religion from terrorism."

The Prime Minister noted that both the countries have lost civilians and soldiers in combating terrorism and highlighted how the US stood by India in the aftermath of terror attack in Mumbai in November 2008, which originated from Pakistan.

Highlighting India's growth of 7.6 per cent and the immense opportunities it offers, the Prime Minister said, "in every sector of India's forward march, I see the US as an indispensable partner."

He noted that many Americans believe that a stronger and prosperous India is in the strategic interest of the US and said, "Let us work together to convert shared ideals into practical cooperation. There can be no doubt that in advancing this relationship, both nations stand to gain in great measure."

As the US businesses search for new areas of economic growth, markets for their goods, a pool of skilled resources, and global locations to produce and manufacture, India could be their ideal partner, Modi said.

PM Modi also hailed the achievements of the Indian diaspora in the US.



Connecting our two nations is also a unique and dynamic bridge of three million Indian Americans, he said.



Today, they are among your best CEOs, academics, astronauts, scientists, economists, doctors, even spelling bee champions.



The Prime Minister described the Indian Americans as the strength of the US and the pride of India.



He also brought in yoga, and much to everybody's amusement, said that though there were 30 million practitioners of this ancient Indian physical exercise, India has still not claimed intellectual property right over it.



That Modi was not lacking in humour became evident when he compared the functioning of the US Congress with the chaos in Indian Parliament.



I am informed that the working of the US Congress is harmonious, he said much to everybody's laughter.



I am also told that you are well-known for your bipartisanship, he said.



Well, you are not alone. Time and again, I have also witnessed a similar spirit in the Indian Parliament, especially in our Upper House.

PM Modi concluded by quoting Walt Whitman - "The Orchestra have sufficiently tuned their instruments, the baton has given the signal."

Later the PM tweeted saying - "Honoured and privileged to address a joint meeting of the US Congress."

Honoured & privileged to address a joint meeting of the US Congress. Here is my speech. https://t.co/rEw8uuhhEk pic.twitter.com/HxiEzX0Jbq June 8, 2016

A big thank you to all Congressmen, Congresswomen, Senators and guests who attended the address.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 8, 2016

(With Agency inputs)
Washington: With Pakistan obviously in mind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said terrorism is being "incubated in India's neighbourhood" and pressed for action without making any distinction against groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba, Taliban and ISIS who share the "same philosophy of hate, murder and killings".

In his address to the joint sitting of US Congress here, he said terrorism has to be fought with "one voice" as he commended the American Parliament for sending out a clear message by refusing to "reward" those who preach and practice terrorism for political gains, an apparent reference to the blocking of sale of 8 F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan.

In the course of his 45-minute speech, he covered all major aspects of the growing relationship between India and the US, particularly strategic ties and civil nuclear cooperation, and emphasised that the two countries should leave "constraints of the past" behind as the "foundations of the future are firmly in place".

Dressed in trademark white kurta pyjama and grey-coloured half-jacket, Modi was warmly received by the American lawmakers who interrupted his address more than 40 times to cheer him, a few times by standing.

Following is the full test of PM Modi's speech:

Mr Speaker, Mr Vice President, Distinguished Members of the US Congress, Ladies and Gentlemen.

I am deeply honoured by the invitation to address this Joint Meeting of the US Congress.

Thank you, Mr Speaker for opening the doors of this magnificent Capitol.

This temple of democracy has encouraged and empowered other democracies the world over.

It manifests the spirit of this great nation, which in Abraham Lincoln's words, "was conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."

In granting me this opportunity, you have honoured the world's largest democracy and its 1.25 billion people.

As a representative of world's largest democracy, it is indeed a privilege to speak to the leaders of its oldest.

Mr Speaker,

Two days ago, I began my visit by going to the Arlington National Cemetery -the final resting place of many brave soldiers of this great land.

I honoured their courage and sacrifice for the ideals of freedom and democracy.

It was also the seventy-second Anniversary of the D-Day.

On that day, thousands from this great country fought to protect the torch of liberty on the remote shores of a land that they did not know.

They sacrificed their lives so that the world lives in freedom.

I applaud India applauds, the great sacrifices of the men and women from 'The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave' in service of mankind.

India knows what this means because our soldiers too have fallen in distant battlefields for the same ideals.

That is why the threads of freedom and liberty form a strong bond between our two democracies.

Mr Speaker,

Our nations may have been shaped by differing histories, cultures, and faiths.

Yet, our belief in democracy for our nations and liberty for our countrymen is common.

The idea that all citizens are created equal is a central pillar of the American constitution.

Our founding fathers too shared the same belief and sought individual liberty for every citizen of India.

There were many who doubted India when, as a newly independent nation, we reposed our faith in democracy.

Indeed, wagers were made on our failure.

But, the people of India did not waver.

Our founders created a modern nation with freedom, democracy, and equality as the essence of its soul.

And, in doing so, they ensured that we continued to celebrate our age old diversity.

Today, across its streets and institutions, in its villages and cities, anchored in equal respect for all faiths; and in the melody of hundreds of its languages and dialects.

India lives as one; India grows as one; India celebrates as one.

Mr Speaker,

Modern India is in its 70th year.

For my government, the Constitution is its real holy book.

And, in that holy book, freedom of faith, speech and franchise, and equality of all citizens, regardless of background, are enshrined as fundamental rights.

800 million of my countrymen may exercise the freedom of franchise once every five years.

But, all the 1.25 billion of our citizens have freedom from fear, a freedom they exercise every moment of their lives.

Distinguished Members,

Engagement between our democracies has been visible in the manner in which our thinkers impacted one another, and shaped the course of our societies.

Thoreau's idea of civil disobedience influenced our political thoughts.

And, similarly the call by the great sage of India Swami Vivekananda to embrace humanity was most famously delivered in Chicago.

Gandhi's non-violence inspired the heroism of Martin Luther King.

Today, a mere distance of 3 miles separates the Martin Luther King memorial at Tidal Basin from the statue of Gandhi at Massachusetts Avenue.

This proximity of their memorials in Washington mirrors the closeness of ideals and values they believed in.

The genius of Dr BR Ambedkar was nurtured in the years he spent at the Columbia University a century ago.

The impact of the US constitution on him was reflected in his drafting of the Indian constitution some three decades later.

Our independence was ignited by the same idealism that fuelled your struggle for freedom.

No wonder then that former Prime Minister of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee called India and the U.S. 'natural allies'.

No wonder that the shared ideals and common philosophy of freedom shaped the bedrock of our ties.

No wonder then, that President Obama has called our ties the defining partnership of the 21st century.

Mr Speaker,

More than fifteen years ago, Prime Minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee stood here and gave a call to step out of the 'shadow of hesitation' of the past.

The pages of our friendship since then tell a remarkable story.

Today, our relationship has overcome the hesitations of history.

Comfort, candour and convergence define our conversations.

Through the cycle of elections and transitions of Administrations the intensity of our engagements has only grown.

And, in this exciting journey, the U.S. Congress has acted as its compass.

You helped us turn barriers into bridges of partnership.

In the fall of 2008, when the Congress passed the India-U.S. Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement, it changed the very colours of leaves of our relationship.

We thank you for being there when the partnership needed you the most.

You have also stood by us in times of sorrow.

India will never forget the solidarity shown by the US Congress when terrorists from across our border attacked Mumbai in November of 2008.

And for this, we are grateful.

Mr Speaker,

I am informed that the working of the US Congress is harmonious.

I am also told that you are well-known for your bipartisanship.

Well, you are not alone.

Time and again, I have also witnessed a similar spirit in the Indian Parliament, especially in our Upper House.

So, as you can see, we have many shared practices.

Mr Speaker,

As this country knows well, every journey has its pioneers.

Very early on, they shaped a development partnership even when the meeting ground was more limited.

The genius of Norman Borlaug brought the Green Revolution and food security to India.

The excellence of the American Universities nurtured Institutes of Technology and Management in India.

And, I could go on.

Fast forward to today.

The embrace of our partnership extends to the entirety of human endeavour-from the depths of the oceans to the vastness of the space.

Our S&T collaboration continues to helps us in cracking the age-old problems in the fields of public health, education, food, and agriculture.

Ties of commerce and investment are flourishing. We trade more with the U.S. than with any other nation.

And, the flow of goods, services and capital between us generates jobs in both our societies.

As in trade, so in defence. India exercises with the United States more than we do with any other partner. Defence purchases have moved from almost zero to ten billion dollars in less than a decade.

Our cooperation also secures our cities and citizens from terrorists, and protects our critical infrastructure from cyber threats.

Civil Nuclear Cooperation, as I told President Obama yesterday, is a reality.

Mr Speaker,

Our people to people links are strong; and there is close cultural connect between our societies.

SIRI tells us that India's ancient heritage of Yoga has over 30 million practitioners in the US.

It is estimated that more Americans bend for yoga than to throw a curve ball.

And, no Mr. Speaker, we have not yet claimed intellectual property right on Yoga.

Connecting our two nations is also a unique and dynamic bridge of three million Indian Americans.

Today, they are among your best CEOs; academics; astronauts; scientists; economists; doctors; even spelling bee champions.

They are your strength. They are also the pride of India. They symbolize the best of both our societies.

Mr Speaker,

My understanding of your great country began long before I entered public office.

Long before assuming office, I travelled coast to coast, covering more than 25 States of America.

I realized then that the real strength of the U.S. was in the dreams of its people and the boldness of their ambitions.

Today, Mr Speaker, a similar spirit animates India.

Our 800 million youth, especially, are particularly impatient.

India is undergoing a profound social and economic change.

A billion of its citizens are already politically empowered.

My dream is to economically empower them through many social and economic transformations.

And, do so by 2022, the seventy-fifth anniversary of India's independence.

My to-do list is long and ambitious. But you will understand.

It includes:

 A vibrant rural economy with robust farm sector;

 A roof over each head and electricity to all households;

 To skill millions of our youth;

 Build 100 smart cities;

 Have a broad band for a billion, and connect our villages to the digital world;

 And create a twenty-first century rail, road and port infrastructure.

These are not just aspirations; they are goals to be reached in a finite time-frame.

And, to be achieved with a light carbon foot print, with greater emphasis on renewables.

Mr Speaker,

In every sector of India's forward march, I see the U.S. as an indispensable partner.

Many of you also believe that a stronger and prosperous India is in America's strategic interest.

Let us work together to convert shared ideals into practical cooperation.

There can be no doubt that in advancing this relationship, both nations stand to gain in great measure.

As the U.S. businesses search for new areas of economic growth, markets for their goods, a pool of skilled resources, and global locations to produce and manufacture, India could be their ideal partner.

India's strong economy, and growth rate of 7.6% per annum, is creating new opportunities for our mutual prosperity.

Transformative American technologies in India and growing investment by Indian companies in the United States both have a positive impact on the lives of our citizens.

Today, for their global research and development centres, India is the destination of choice for the U.S. companies.

Looking eastward from India, across the Pacific, the innovation strength of our two countries comes together in California.

Here, the innovative genius of America and India's intellectual creativity are working to shape new industries of the future.

Mr Speaker,

The 21st century has brought with it great opportunities.

But, it also comes with its own set of challenges.

Inter-dependence is increasing.

But, while some parts of the world are islands of growing economic prosperity; other are mired in conflicts.

In Asia, the absence of an agreed security architecture creates uncertainty.

Threats of terror are expanding, and new challenges are emerging in cyber and outer-space.

And, global institutions conceived in 20th century, seem unable to cope with new challenges or take on new responsibilities.

In this world full of multiple transitions and economic opportunities; growing uncertainties and political complexities; existing threats and new challenges; our engagement can make a difference by promoting:

 Cooperation not dominance;

 Connectivity not isolation;

 Respect for Global Commons;

 inclusive not exclusive mechanisms; and above all

 adherence to international rules and norms.

India is already assuming her responsibilities in securing the Indian Ocean region.

A strong India-US partnership can anchor peace, prosperity and stability from Asia to Africa and from Indian Ocean to the Pacific.

It can also help ensure security of the sea lanes of commerce and freedom of navigation on seas.

But, the effectiveness of our cooperation would increase if international institutions framed with the mindset of the 20th century were to reflect the realities of today.

Mr Speaker,

Before arriving in Washington DC, I had visited Herat in Western Afghanistan to inaugurate Afghan-India Friendship Dam, a 42 MW hydro-electric project built with Indian assistance.

I was also there on the Christmas day last year to dedicate to that proud nation its Parliament, a testimony to our democratic ties.

Afghans naturally recognize that the sacrifices of American have helped create a better life.

But, your contribution in keeping the region safe and secure is deeply appreciated even beyond.

India too has made an enormous contribution and sacrifices to support our friendship with Afghan people.

A commitment to rebuild a peaceful, and stable and prosperous Afghanistan our shared objective.

Yet, Distinguished Members, not just in Afghanistan, but elsewhere in South Asia, and globally, terrorism remains the biggest threat.

In the territory stretching from West of India's border to Africa, it may go by different names, from Laskhar-e-Taiba, to Taliban to ISIS.

But, its philosophy is common: of hate, murder and violence.

Although it's shadow is spreading across the world, it is incubated in India's neighbourhood.

I commend the members of the U.S. Congress for sending a clear message to those who preach and practice terrorism for political gains.

Refusing to reward them is the first step towards holding them accountable for their actions.

The fight against terrorism has to be fought at many levels.

And, the traditional tools of military, intelligence or diplomacy alone would not be able to win this fight.

Mr Speaker,

We have both lost civilians and soldiers in combating it.

The need of the hour is for us to deepen our security cooperation.

And, base it on a policy:

 that isolates those who harbour, support and sponsor terrorists;

 that does not distinguish between "good" and "bad" terrorists; and that delinks religion from terrorism.

Also, for us to succeed, those who believe in humanity must come together to fight for it as one, and speak against this menace in one voice.

Terrorism must be delegitimized.

Mr Speaker,

The benefits of our partnership extend not just to the nations and regions that need it most.

On our own, and by combining our capacities, we are also responding to other global challenges including when disaster strikes and where humanitarian relief is needed.

Far from our shores, we evacuated thousands from Yemen, Indians, Americans and others.

Nearer home, we were the first responders during Nepal's earthquake, in the Maldives water crisis and most recently during landslide in Sri Lanka.

We are also one of the largest contributors of troops to UN Peace Keeping Operations.

Often, India and the US have combined their strengths in science, technology and innovation to help fight hunger, poverty, diseases and illiteracy in different parts of the world.

The success of our partnership is also opening up new opportunities for learning, security and development from Asia to Africa.

And, the protection of environment and caring for the planet is central to our shared vision of a just world.

For us in India, to live in harmony with mother earth is part of our ancient belief.

And, to take from nature only what is most essential is part of our civilizational ethos.

Our partnership, therefore, aims to balance responsibilities with capabilities.

And, it also focuses on new ways to increase the availability and use of renewable energy.

A strong US support for our initiative to form an International Solar Alliance is one such effort.

We are working together not just for a better future for ourselves, but for the whole world.

This has also been the goal of our efforts in G-20, East Asia Summit and Climate Change summits.

Mr Speaker and Distinguished Members

As we deepen our partnership, there would be times when we would have differing perspectives.

But, since our interests and concerns converge, the autonomy in decision making and diversity in our perspectives can only add value to our partnership.

So, as we embark on a new journey, and seek new goals, let us focus not just on matters routine but transformational ideas.

Ideas which can focus:

 Not just on creating wealth but also creating value for our societies;

 Not just on immediate gains but also long term benefits;

 Not just on sharing best practices but also shaping partnerships; and

 Not just on building a bright future for our peoples, but in being a bridge to a more united, humane and prosperous world.

And, important for the success of this journey would be a need to view it with new eyes and new sensitivities.

When we do this, we will realise the full promise of this extraordinary relationship.

Mr Speaker,

My final thoughts and words would reiterate that our relationship is primed for a momentous future.

The constraints of the past are behind us and foundations of the future are firmly in place.

In the lines of Walt Whitman,

"The Orchestra have sufficiently tuned their instruments, the baton has given the signal."

And to that, if I might add, there is a new symphony in play.

Thank you Mr. Speaker and Distinguished members for this honour.

Thank you very much.
Washington DC: India and the United States on Tuesday held bilateral talks on a wide range of issues, including measures to bolster economic and trade ties between both the countries.

In a joint statement issued after the third major bilateral summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Barack Obama, the leaders highlighted the strong and expanding economic relationship between the United States and India and committed to support sustainable, inclusive, and robust economic growth, and common efforts to stimulate consumer demand, job creation, skill development and innovation in their respective countries.

In order to substantially increase bilateral trade, they pledged to explore new opportunities to break down barriers to the movement of goods and services, and support deeper integration into global supply chains, thereby creating jobs and generating prosperity in both economies.

Both sides said that they would look forward to the second annual Strategic and Commercial Dialogue in India later this year to identify concrete steps in this regard. They also commended the increased engagement on trade and investment issues under the Trade Policy Forum (TPF) and encouraged substantive results for the next TPF later this year. They welcomed the engagement of U.S. private sector companies in India's Smart City program.

The leaders applauded the strong bonds of friendship between the 1.5 billion peoples of India and the United States that have provided a solid foundation for a flourishing bilateral partnership, noting that two-way travel for tourism, business, and education has seen unprecedented growth, including more than one million travelers from India to the United States in 2015, and similar number from the United States to India.

The leaders resolved to facilitate greater movement of professionals, investors and business travelers, students, and exchange visitors between their countries to enhance people-to-people contact as well as their economic and technological partnership. To this end, they welcomed the signing of an MOU for Development of an International Expedited Traveler Initiative (also known as the Global Entry Program) and resolved to complete within the next three months the procedures for India's entry into the Global Entry Program.

The leaders recognized the fruitful exchanges in August 2015 and June 2016 on the elements required in both countries to pursue a U.S.-India Totalization Agreement and resolved to continue discussions later this year.

Recognizing the importance of fostering an enabling environment for innovation and empowering entrepreneurs, the United States welcomes India's hosting of the 2017 Global Entrepreneurship Summit.

The leaders welcomed the enhanced engagement on intellectual property rights under the High Level Working Group on Intellectual Property and reaffirmed their commitment to use this dialogue to continue to make concrete progress on IPR issues by working to enhance bilateral cooperation among the drivers of innovation and creativity in both countries.

The United States also welcomed India's interest in joining the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, as India is a dynamic part of the Asian economy.
New Delhi: Travelling in the national capital region or Delhi-NCR is going to get hi-tech very soon.

Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari informed on Tuesday that the Rs 4,000 crore Metrino public transport project, as part of which people can travel in driverless pods suspended on a ropeway, will set into motion in the next two months.

The minister said the work on the ambitious project is all set to begin as the government has received four tenders for Metrino project to be built from Dhaula Kuan in Delhi to Manesar in Haryana.

We have received four tenders for that and expect the work to begin in the two months, Gadkari said.

In the first phase, the Metrino project will cover the 70-kilometre stretch between Dhaula Kuan in Delhi and Manesar in Haryana.

The aim of the project is to decongest the national capital region and ease traffic.

The ropeway-like system runs on electricity and driverless pods and comes down at designated stations thus removing the traffic burden from already congested roads, the minister said.

While Rs 250 crores are required to build per kilometre of the Metro, the 'Metrino' project needs a capital cost of Rs 50 crores only for the said distance.

Under the project, fully automatic, driverless small pods travel independently suspended over an overhead network which is usually 5 to 10 meters above ground, reported PTI.
Washington: A bipartisan group of 18 American lawmakers has written to House Speaker Paul Ryan, asking him to raise the issue of religious freedom in India during his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"Religious minority communities including Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, and Sikhs have endured ongoing violence and harassment for decades in India, and continue to live in a climate where known perpetrators commit violence with impunity," the members of the Congress, led by Trent Franks and Betty McCollum, wrote.

"We respectfully request that during your meetings with the Prime Minister, the 'shared value' of the fundamental right of religious freedom will be a priority in your conversation," they said ahead of the Ryan-Modi meeting.

"It is in the best interest of the US and India to reaffirm religious freedom as a shared value in this growing partnership and ensure that conversation concerning justice and accountability for such horrific acts of violence continues," the letter said.

In the letter, the lawmakers cite several specific examples of violent attacks that have killed or displaced religious minorities.

Human rights groups in India have investigated and traced these attacks to specific groups, but a current climate of impunity exists in India around such attacks and many victims never receive justice, they said.

"As we consider the shared values of the US and India, due attention to the fundamental human right of religious freedom is of the utmost importance," Franks said.

"Religious minority communities in India have endured incidents of harassment, discrimination, intimidation and violent attacks for decades, often with little hope for justice.

"It is my sincere hope that every person in India will experience true freedom of faith, regardless of religion," he said.

"The important relationship between India and the US is based on our shared democratic values. Religious minorities in India Muslims, Christians, Buddhists and Sikhs deserve the freedom to live out their faith without fear," McCollum said.

The Congressmen who signed the letter were Chris Smith, Juan Vargas, Andre Carson, Keith Ellison, Patrick Meehan, Keith Rothfus, Randy Weber, Dan Kildee, Mike Honda, John Conyers Jr, John Garamendi, Robert Aderholt, Anna Eshoo, Joe Pitts, Barbara Lee and David Valadao.

Modi is scheduled to address a joint session of the US Congress today.
Washington: Led by Speaker of House of Representatives Paul Ryan, top US lawmakers on Wednesday lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address to the joint sitting of the Congress, describing it as "insightful".

"It was an honour to host Prime Minister Modi at the Capitol today. He spoke eloquently about the importance of a strong US-India relationship to promoting peace and freedom around the globe," Ryan said in a statement after Modi's address.

Congressmen and Senators from both the Republican and Democratic parties gave a standing ovation to the Prime Minister several times during his address.

A number of them also queued up to get his autograph after Modi came into the well of the House.

"Given the importance of fighting poverty, it was encouraging to hear the prime minister's steadfast commitment to making sure everyone has an opportunity to rise. I share his commitment to strengthening our critical partnership, and I thank him for joining us," Ryan said.

Ryan and several top Congressional leaders received the Prime Minister as he came to the Capitol Hill in the morning for his address to the Congress.

Ryan was joined by Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid for a meeting before Modi's address to the Congress.

About three dozen top lawmakers greeted the Prime Minister as he entered the hall for his address.

Prominent among them were Majority Whip Steve Scalise, Chair, Republican Conference, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Chairman, National Republican Congressional Committee, Greg Walden and Chairman, Committee on Foreign Affairs on Foreign Affairs, Ed Royce.

"He delivered a very insightful speech, which laid out the mutual benefits of our growing relationship with India," said Congressman Brad Sherman.

"The Prime Minister has played an important part in improving relations on issues as varied as alternative energy development, defence and security cooperation, counter- terrorism, and climate change," he said.

"As things stand, our current trade relationship amounts to around USD 110 billion. I am encouraged by Prime Minister Modi's reform efforts and hope we can work together to make it easier for US companies to export to India and achieve the goal of a USD 500 billion balanced trade relationship," Sherman said.

Congressman Joe Crowley said, "It was a historic speech.

"I'm proud to welcome Prime Minister Modi to the US Capitol," Royce said.

"As the oldest and largest democracies, the US and India have a special relationship. Our partnership on such issues as defence, nuclear power, renewable energy and space exploration is very strong. And I am confident that Prime Minister Modi's address will provide new momentum for additional progress," Royce said in a statement.

As the world's oldest democracy welcomed the leader of the world's largest democracy, I was pleased to hear from Prime Minister Modi on his vision for the next chapter in US-India relations," Crowley said.

"The US-India relationship - rooted in shared democratic values and strong people-to-people ties - is one of the world's most rapidly growing partnerships," he said.

The prominent lawmakers present at the joint session included George Holdin, Co-Chairman, Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans; Kay Granger, Chair, Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programmers; and Ted Poe, Chairman, Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade.

Among the prominent Senators were Mitch McConnell, Majority Leader; John Corny, Majority Whip, Orrin Hatch, Chair Finance Committee, Roy Blunt, Committee on Intelligence, John Barasso, Committee on Foreign Relations and Roger Wicker , Committee on Armed Services.

Other Senators were Amy Klobuchar, Ranking Member, Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights; Ben Cardin, Ranking Member, Senate Foreign Relations Committee; Mark and Warner, Co-Chair India Caucus.

Indian-American Congressman Ami Bera, Co-chair House India Caucus and Tulsi Gabbard were also there to greet the Prime Minister.
Washington: It was a proud moment for Indians across the world when Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday got a standing ovation from the US lawmakers.

Addressing the joint sitting of US Congress, Modi praised the manifold contributions of the Indian-American community to the US.

Connecting our two nations is also a unique and dynamic bridge of three million Indian Americans, Modi said.

They are among your best CEOs, academics, scientists, economics, doctors, even spelling bee champions, he said eliciting standing applause at the Capitol Hill.

The House rises in applause as PM mentions the Diaspora, says they are the pride of India pic.twitter.com/KB2Vj86fEj  Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) June 8, 2016

PM on the diaspora bridgebuilders: They are among your best CEOs; academics; scientists; economists; doctors; even spelling bee champions  Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) June 8, 2016

Modi is the fifth Indian Prime Minister after Rajiv Gandhi, PV Narasimha Rao, Atul Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh to address a joint sitting of the US Congress.

Watch his full address here:
Myanmar's economic zone near China border to be completed in 2017-18 Updated: 2016-06-08 15:51 (Xinhua)

YANGON - The Muse Central Economic Zone of Myanmar, which is located near its border with China in eastern Myanmar, will be completed in the fiscal year 2017-18, official media reported Wednesday.

The zone is set up on about 120 hectares of land on the river's edge near Muse township in northern Shan State. It is being implemented in cooperation with the Shan State government and New Starlight Company.

The project is undertaken with a fund of over $51 million.

Local authorities approved plans for the Muse Central Economic Zone in early 2013 to boost cross-border trade at the most important crossing between Myanmar and China.

The zone will include trade zones, condominiums, high-profile branch offices, a finished jade products market, 300 high standard houses, three hotels, supermarkets, police stations, fire stations and one ethnic village.

At present, 80 percent of the infrastructural construction has been completed.
Srinagar: Coming together, different Kashmiri separatist groups on Wednesday came out with a "campaign" schedule to oppose setting up of separate township for Kashmiri Pandit migrants and Sainik Colonies, notwithstanding the government's assertion that there are no such moves.

The two factions of Hurriyat Conference -- one headed by hardline leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani and the other by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq -- said a seminar would be organised on June 12 and a sit-in protest will be held on June 15 to "create awareness about the anti-Kashmir plans" of the government.

In identical statements issued here, the separatist groups said the statements of the PDP-BJP coalition government over Sainik Colony, satellite townships for Kashmiri Pandits and the new industrial policy were "vague, ambiguous and confusing".

They said if such steps were taken, there would be "alarming consequences" and the separatist groups would "not stay silent over these issues".

The decision to organise protests comes despite Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti asserting that there are no such moves.

The unity in the separatist camp has come after six years.

The last time separatist groups functioned from a single platform was in 2010 summer agitation that left nearly 120 people dead.
Hizbul Mujhadeen commander assures terror free Amarnath Yatra, says no separate colonies for Kashmiri Pandits

Srinagar: In a surprise move, most wanted Hizbul Mujhadeen commander of Kashmir, has assured terror free Amarnath Yatra for Hindu pilgrims.

In a video released, 22-year old Burhan Muzaffar Wani, has assured the Hindu pilgrims that there are no plans to attack the people coming for the pilgrimage.

They (Hindu pilgrims) are coming here to fulfill their religious duties and we have nothing to do with it, said Burhan.

The Hizbul Mujhadeen commander's statement comes days after a top Border Security Force (BSF) officer said that there are intelligence reports about militants planning to attack the forthcoming Amarnarh Yatra in Jammu and Kashmir.

In the video Burhan is seen opposing separate colonies for Kashmiri Pandits. However, he further said, Pandits can come here and live in their respective places.

They have their own lands, house and other properties, We will not allow separate colonies on Israel pattern for Hindus.

The 22-year-old, hailing from Tral area of south Kashmir, warned the security officials saying, Now we will not give any more warnings. There will be action against every person in uniform who furthers the laws of India in Kashmir.

He warned the police officials not to harm his men and urged them to discharge their duties and join his outfit.

Burhan also warned media asking it to mend its way while projecting the militants in Kashmir. Had we been the terrorists we could have shut you up a long back. You go through the history and find out who is the terrorist, he said.
Bengaluru: Anupama Shenoy, who resigned as Deputy Superintendent of Police, Kudligi Sub-division in Ballari district, is in the news once again.

Shenoy resigned as DSP on June 04, 2016, reportedly in protest against some Congress workers' interference in her official duties.

She later moved to an undisclosed location.

However, Shenoy is not silent and has waged a war against Labour Minister Parameshwar Naik.

In a Facebook post, Shenoy dared Naik to resign: "I have resigned already, Parameshwara Naik, when will you?"

The post also said that if Naik fails to resign, she would release a CD that should be viewed only in the midnight. She also warns that the CD is not meant for children, reports OneIndia.

She wrote: CD beku?... Audio beku?...  (Do you want a CD or a audio tape?) using hashtags #ParameshiPremaPrasangaBhaga1 and #WashingPowderNirmaPart2.

She also took a dig at former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy and described the Siddaramaiah government as `Rum Rajya`.

In another post, she wrote that an FIR may be filed against her considering the status. "Heard FIR would be filed against me after going through my status in Facebook #Brihannalas".

Earlier, the 2010-batch IPS officer, Shenoy wrote: 'Resigned and jobless  with a smile emoticon.

Her profile picture  the Jeffersonian quote: "When injustice becomes law, rebellion becomes duty  bespeaks her protest against the unfair treatment meted out to her."

Last week, state BJP president BS Yeddyurappa had charged Chief Minister Siddaramaiah with silently backing some Congress workers who caused 'mental agony' on Anupama Shenoy.

Anupama had tendered her resignation on June 4 after these people protested against the preventive detention of the trio, who wanted to extend their liquor shop, which would have blocked a road leading to Ambedkar Bhavan.

The complaint was lodged by Dalit leaders.
Thiruvananthapuram: The LDF government in Kerala is aiming at a corruption-free and transparent governance, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Wednesday.

"A corruption free and transparent civil service is what the government is targeting," he said addressing the state Secretariat employees here.

Obsolete administrative rules would be done away with, he said adding e-filing and e-governance will be given thrust by his government.

E-governance would be immediately implemented at the Secretariat, he said at the meeting attended by senior IAS officers among others.

Action would be taken against the employees who fail to take decisions and delay early clearing of files, the Chief Minister said.

The applicants, who approach the government, with their grievances, can keep track of the progress of their files through telephones, he said.

On transfer of employees, he said accurate guidelines would be followed and there would be no political vendetta.
Bhopal: A Municipal corporation official was shot at on Wednesday over dispute regarding water supply in water-scarce Betul district in Madhya Pradesh.

The accused has been identified as a local resident of Betul.

On Monday, the Madhya Pradesh government had imposed Section 144 of the Indian Penal Code (unlawful assembling of people) in the district in wake of the deteriorating law and order situation due to water crisis in the region.

All construction works, whether government or private, has been restricted at the moment in this region.

Madhya Pradesh is facing a drought like situation for the second consecutive year with water scarcity being reported in over 40 districts across the state.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier on May 10 chaired a high-level meeting with Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on drought and water scarcity in the state.
Khargone (MP): Two persons were killed when their motorcycle was hit by a speeding truck near Jaavda village on Khargone-Indore road, police said today.

The victims were returning to the Nimgul village after a family member's funeral on the banks of Narmada river when the mishap took place yesterday, Additional Superintendent of Police Antarsingh Kanesh said.

Both the victims, identified as Dharmendra Revaram (35) and Totaram (50), died on the spot, he said.

The truck driver fled after the mishap leaving behind the carrier which was impounded by police.

A case has been registered in this regard at Kasrawad police station and further investigation is on.
Mumbai: Mumbai Police has busted a high-profile sex racket and has arrested two models from Goregaon area, as per a media report.

As per India Today, one of the two arrested models is said to be a known female TV actor.

She is supposedly seen regularly on the crime show 'Savdhaan India'.

As per the report, the boss of the racket has not been arrested as yet.

Mumbai Police's social service branch had received a tip-off regarding a high-profile sex racket. An undercover cop posing as a 'supplier' contacted some persons reportedly associated with the racket.

The police team the raided a building near Film City and arrested the two models and another two persons.

The website quoted police as saying that the operatives of the racket used to share photos of the models and actors with their prospective clients through social media sites and then supplied models to them who allegedly charged between Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh per assignment.

The report further said that the police arrested the TV actor and a female Marathi actor after interrogating one of the persons.
Mumbai: Nisar Ahmed Sayyed Bilal, one of those injured in the September 2008 blast at Malegaon in north Maharashtra, has moved a special court here seeking rejection of the charge sheet filed by NIA which gives a clean chit to Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and five others.

"The investigating officer has to only investigate and not appreciate the evidence," says the application, adding there was no need for the NIA to re-examine the witnesses.

The agency did not try to collect additional evidence but made efforts only to show the contradictions in the earlier chargesheet, it alleges.

The application is likely to be heard on June 10.

NIA, in its chargesheet filed on May 13, dropped all the charges against Pragya and five others citing lack of evidence. The agency also revoked the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act against the remaining accused.

Seven people were killed in a blast at Malegaon, a predominantly Muslim town, on September 29, 2008.
Mumbai: The Shiv Sena on Wednesday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi "to stop maligning India on foreign shores" with his public utterances on corruption in the country.

The Sena took strong objection to Modi's repeated statements criticizing the corrupt systems in India during his foreign trips, saying this would prove counter-productive in the long run.

"The PM said publicly in Doha how India was steeped in graft, and outlined the measures he had initiated to clean up the mess. The gathering clapped and cheered him. This is nothing but maligning the country's fair image abroad," the Sena said in an editorial in its mouthpiece 'Saamana'.

It wondered who was responsible if there was talk of corruption among the masses even two years after a Bharatiya Janata Party-led government took charge of the country.

"The (corruption) matters coming up in (BJP-ruled) Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh - can the Gandhi family be still blamed for it?" it asked.

"The PM knows better. He's the country's face and the world has faith in him. But the world may also misinterpret his statements abroad and this could directly hit our economy," the Sena cautioned.

Chiding Modi, it advised him to criticize corruption and other ills plaguing India domestically and tackle them effectively.

"Enough has been spoken about the alleged corruption of Gandhi family and Robert Vadra. Now, its time for action against them. No need to travel to Europe and America shouting about it," the editorial said.

"As a nation we are all united, and despite our political differences, we are like a big 'undivided family' and this is the image which should be presented before the whole world."

Touching on Modi's recent trip to Switzerland, it chided Modi's request seeking the names of Indians holding black money in that country's banks. This, Saamana said, was "ruining India's image abroad".

"The Swiss economy thrives on stash monies from all over the world and they will never reveal whose black money is lying there.

"Modi had assured Rs.15 lakh to each Indian by bringing back the hidden money in foreign banks. But all this must be done very discreetly," the Sena said.

Anyway, it pointed out that there was enough black money within India. "So what is being done about it?"

The Sena said India must be the only country in the world where it's a sin to eat beef, mutton, chicken, eggs, fish, garlic and onions but it is no crime if public money is stolen.
Jaipur: Inspired by the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, a tribal has sold off his goat and mortgaged the ornaments of his wife to complete the construction of a toilet in his house in Rajasthan's Dungarpur district.

A daily wager, Kanti Lal Rot, who lives with his mother, wife, children and widow of his brother, in a thatched house along Dungarpur-Ratanpur road was inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India Mission) after he was informed about the campaign by local activists.

The activists convinced him to construct a toilet in his house.

He was told that he will get Rs 4000 each from the Centre, the state government and from the municipality if he constructs a toilet in his house following which he started to construct the toilet.

"He started digging work all by himself and constructed a structure with the help of some labourers after he got the first installment. The amount he got was spent in construction work. When he had no money to pay labourers, he sold one of his five goats for Rs 5000 and mortgaged silver ornaments of his wife and made the payment," K K Gupta, Vice Chairman of Muncipality Dungarpur, said.

Gupta visited the family today after he came to know that he had to sell his goat to make the payment for toilet construction to labourers and praised him.

He also gave him Rs 4000 to get back the mortgaged ornaments and felicitated him.
JD.com's drone delivery goes into operation Updated: 2016-06-08 20:14 By Meng Jing(chinadaily.com.cn)

JD.com for the first time used its self-developed drones to deliver online purchases made by villagers in Suqian city of East China's Jiangsu province. JD staffer Liu Genxi, pictured, sends the packages to village shoppers after collecting the delivery from a drone. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

JD.com Inc successfully used drones to deliver online purchases to rural shoppers in Jiangsu province on Wednesday, kicking off the e-commerce giant's trail operation of using unmanned aircraft for "last mile" distribution.

The drones developed by China's largest online direct sales company can fly up to 10 kilometers to deliver goods from a local distribution center in Suqian city of Jiangsu province to a nearby village.

"With the help of drones, rural shoppers can enjoy the efficiency and convenience of online shopping just like those in mega cities in China. And for us, using drones can significantly reduce delivery cost," said Xiao Jun, who is in charge of JD's X Lab, a business unit dedicated to adopting cutting edge technology in logistics and delivery.

Rather than using drones to deliver goods directly to shoppers, JD.com employs them to transport goods from rural distribution stations to deliverymen based in villages. The deliverymen then pass the goods to online shoppers.

Xiao said that to ensure the safety of drone delivery, unmanned craft only fly on carefully designed fixed routes.

JD received a one-year license to fly drones in Suqian city and the company is applying for licenses to fly drones in other four provinces in China in a bid to expand the service, Xiao said.
Punjab province: A Pakistani teenager was burnt alive by her mother on Wednesday after marrying a man of her own choice, police said, the latest in a string of so-called "honour killings" in the country.

Zeenat Bibi, 16, was set on fire by her mother Perveen Bibi in the eastern city of Lahore a little more than a week after the wedding, police said.

"Perveen Bibi killed her daughter Zeenat Bibi by burning her alive around 9:00 am on Wednesday," Haidar Ashraf, a senior police official told AFP, adding the teen had married a man named Hasan on May 29.

It was the third such "honour killing" in as many months.

Last week, 19-year-old Maria Sadaqat was tortured and burned by a group of people in a village close to the holiday resort of Murree, outside the capital Islamabad, for refusing a marriage proposal from the son of a former colleague.

Another woman believed to be aged between 16 and 18 was drugged, strangled and her body burnt on the orders of a village jirga (council) in northwest Pakistan on April 29, allegedly for helping a friend to elope with her lover.

Zeenat`s husband Hasan told local TV station Geo News that the pair had eloped, but he had reluctantly allowed her to return to her family home after they promised they would hold a celebration and not harm her.

He said: "After living with me for four days following our marriage, her family contacted us and promised they would throw us a proper wedding party after eight days then we could live together.

"Zeenat was unwilling to go back to her home and told me that she would be killed by her family but later agreed when one of her uncles guaranteed her safety.

"After two days, she called me and said that her family had gone back on their word and asked me to come get her, but I told her to wait for the promised eight days. Then, she was killed."



Ashraf, the police official, said Perveen and other family members had confessed to the crime and that police had seized kerosene oil from the scene.

Another senior police official confirmed the details of the killing.

Hundreds of women are murdered by their relatives in Pakistan each year on the pretext of defending what is seen as family honour.

"A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness" -- a film telling the story of a rare survivor of an attempted honour killing -- won an Oscar for best documentary short in February.

Amid publicity for the film, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif vowed to eradicate the "evil" of honour killings but no fresh legislation has been tabled since then.
Islamabad: Pakistani lawmakers on Wednesday lashed out at Defence Minister Khawaja Asif after he made "unpleasant" comments about a fellow female member at the National Assembly on Wednesday.

Targeting Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf leader Shireen Mazari, Asif pointed towards her and said, "Someone make this tractor trolley keep quiet" when she and other lawmakers protested against his speech on load-shedding during Ramadan.

However, the minister did not stop there and also commented on her "manly voice".

"It will be better if you first transform your masculine voice into a more feminine one," Asif told Mazari.

Mazari later tweeted, "Told Asif if he had any "sharm or haya" he would know how to deal with women but he was besharam and behaya! Luckily my voice louder than his".

The PTI leader also said the party will not keep quiet. "An ill-mannered person is government`s minister. Khawaja Asif lacks morals and ethics," she added.

Not only did Asif`s comments create chaos in the Assembly, but people from across the country took to Twitter to disapprove of his behaviour.
Lucknow: Islamic seminary, the Darul Uloom of Deoband, has issued a decree restricting selective abortion of female foetuses, said reports on Wednesday.

Calling the ''act unlawful and against Islam'', Deoband spokesperson Maulana Ashraf Usmani said, "It's a first fatwa against sex-selective abortions.''

''The act is against Islam and there is no grace in the eye of Allah for those doing it," said Usmani.

The seminary took into account individual queries and media reports on skewed sex ratio among Muslims before issuing the decree.

As per the government figures, the number of girls up to six years old per 1,000 boys in the same age group among Indian Muslims declined from 950 in 2001 to 943 in 2011.

"We appeal to Muslims to refrain from any act which discriminates the girl child. Our vice-chancellor has termed sex-selective abortions cold-blooded murders," said Usmani.
Lucknow: Family members of Superintendent Police (city) Mukul Dwivedi, who was killed in the Mathura violence last week, on Wednesday demanded trial of the district magistrate and the district police chief for his "murder" and for allegedly "mishandling" the whole situation.

Prafulla Dwivedi, younger brother of Mukul Dwivedi, said that the Uttar Pradesh government should order a CBI probe into the whole incident and the circumstances leading to the violence.

If no action is taken against the then District Magistrate Rajesh Kumar and Senior Superintendent of Police Prakesh Singh, Prafulla said, parents of Mukul, his widow and two children will stage a sit-in at Jawaharbagh in Mathura, where the SP was killed.

The Dwivedis have started a campaign for more stringent action against Rakesh Singh and the district magistrate, who they allege, left the police force to go unprepared to Jawaharbagh on June 2.

The Uttar Pradesh government has already transferred both of the officials and has ordered a judicial probe into the incident.

However, anger continues to simmer against the then SSP Rakesh Singh, whom many in the force in Mathura blame for the tragedy.

The violence during an anti-encroachment drive at Jawaharbagh left 29 persons, including two police officials, dead on June 2.

In the past, Singh was suspended after violence in Firozabad but soon found plum postings due to his "political connections", an official alleged.


Mathura: A US-made rocket launcher was found by the Uttar Pradesh bomb disposal squad from the encroached land in Jawahar Bagh area in Mathura district.

The deadly weapon was found when the security officials were searching the 280 acres of government land, which was encroached by Swadheen Bharat Vidhik Satyagrahi outfit.

Mathura SSP Bablu Kumar said, "We have recovered equipment (from Jawahar Bagh) which says "Launcher, Made in USA". He further said that officials are verifying the details.

The police is now probing as to who supplied the sophisticated weapons to the group.

The members of the obscure cult were heavily armed and outnumbered the police force which went to evict the encroachers from the Jawahar Bagh park last week on a court order. Grenades and automatic weapons were freely used against the police.

The temple town Mathura on June 2 witnessed massive violence, which claimed 29 lives, including an SP (City) Mukul Dwivedi and SHO (Farah) Santosh Yadav.

Meanwhile, facing flak for the inept handling of an anti-encroachment drive in Mathura by civil and police officials, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday ordered a judicial probe into the Jawahar Bagh violence in the town.

Doctors yesterday conducted post-mortem of Ram Vriksha Yadav, who had led the encroachers of Jawahar Bagh, and was among 29 killed in the clash with the police before he was cremated here.
Mathura: Days after the deadly violence in Mathura that left 29 people including two policemen dead, a rocket launcher is said to have been recovered from Jawahar Bagh during combing operations.

The launcher is said to be US-made.

"We have recovered equipment (from Jawahar Bagh) which says 'Launcher, Made in USA'. It is being verified," Mathura's new Senior Superintendent of Police Babloo Kumar said, as per ANI.

We have recovered equipment (from Jawahar Bagh) which says "Launcher, Made in USA". It is being verified: #Mathura SSP Bablu Kumar  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) June 8, 2016

However, later, Hari Sharma, IG, Law and Order (UP) denied the report.

"No rocket launcher was found at Mathura violence spot, it is a tear gas gun," he said.

No rocket launcher was found at #MathuraViolence spot, it is a tear gas gun: Hari Sharma, IG Law and order(UP) pic.twitter.com/TFufs8Uckd  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) June 8, 2016

Meanwhile, bowing to Opposition demand, Uttar Pradesh government yesterday ordered judicial probe into last week's violence.

The probe will be conducted by a retired judge of Allahabad High Court Imtiyaz Murtaza and the inquiry committee has been asked to submit its report within two months.

Mathura SP Mukul Dwivedi and SHO Santosh Kumar Yadav were killed in the clash between the police and encroachers that broke out in the city on June 2 when police tried to evict illegal occupants, believed to be of Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi from Jawahar Bagh on Allahabad High Court orders.

Ram Vriksha Yadav, who had led the encroachers, was among those killed in the clash with the police.

(With Agency inputs)
Noida: The Noida unit of Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday filed a written complaint against unidentified persons who allegedly defaced the poster of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the city.

The incident is said to have taken place near Sector 35 area of Noida.

It is alleged that on Sunday, some Congress workers smeared grease on the poster of PM Modi as a mark of protest against the completion of two years of the BJP-led NDA government in centre.

"VK Pandey, the owner of the hoarding approached us with a complaint and an FIR was registered against unidentified persons," Neeraj Kumar Singh, in charge, Sector 24 police station, said.

The city unit of the Congress maintained that they have only registered their protest against the fake advertisements of the achievements of the Modi-led government.

What police case do they want against us? Cant we mark our protest against the fake advertisements by the government? People are suffering from skyrocketing prices of petrol, diesel, pulses, vegetables and other basic commodities. The government has recently imposed additional tax on each product and services. The BJP is trying to manipulate the issue with such acts. There was nothing wrong in that protest, said Pawan Sharma, in charge, Noida city Congress committee.
Kolkata: Rajya Sabha member Kunal Ghosh, in jail as an undertrial in the Saradha chit fund scam, will be out on parole for two hours on Thursday to meet his ailing mother.

The journalist turned politician had applied for interim bail to visit her mother in a city nursing home.

However, a lower court rejected the appeal, but agreed to release him on two-hour parole on humanitiarian grounds.

Ghosh - group CEO of Saradha Media - was arrested on November 23, 2013, for his alleged involvement in the multi-billion rupee scandal.
Melbourne: Five Indian-origin people, including two women, are among the 200 candidates contesting for next month's general elections in Australia.

In the House of Representatives all 150 seats will be contested, as well as the 76 Senate seats -- the first time this has happened in an early election since 1987.

The Indian-origin candidates in the fray include two women of Indian background, 51-year-old Australian Sikh Alex Bhathal representing the Greens Party and 43-year-old Fiji Indian Lisa Singh of Labor Party.



Shashi Bhatti, who migrated from India in 1989 and Chris Gambian, an Australian born to Indian parents from Bangalore, are also contesting the elections from Labor Party.

39-year-old Mohit Kumar is the only India-born who is contesting the elections from Liberal party. He is a Faridabad resident who migrated to Australia in 1994 as an international student.

Kumar said it was his consistent hardwork that paid off for him to win the party ticket.

It was imperative for Indians to join the high offices of the country and to be a part of policy making, he said.

"True multiculturalism does not come from lip service or attending Indian events. It also comes from having a fair representation at all the levels including government, parliament, business and other areas," Kumar said.

Gambian said, while there was a low representation of Indians in the Australian politics more Indian background people should become its part.

"I joined the Labor party when I was 16-years-old and I thought it was a party of social justice and fairness," Gambian said adding that his key to win the party was getting involved in party works and believing party policies.

On May 8, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had announced that Australia will hold elections on July 2, barely eight months after he ousted his predecessor Tony Abbott, promising to revive the sluggish economy.
Jakarta: As many as 18 houses were damaged in Indonesia's North Maluku province after a powerful quake measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale jolted the country early Wednesday, officials said.

The epicentre of the quake was located 58 km deep and 124 km northwest of Ternate city in North Maluku province, an official told Xinhua news agency. The USGS reported that the quake measured 6.5 on the Richter scale.

"We did not issue a warning for tsunami for this quake," Wahyu Kurniawan, official of the meteorology and geophysics agency said.

The quake triggered panic in Ternate, Hallmahera Barat town of Maluku province, and Bitung and Manado cities of North Sulawesi province, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman of national disaster management agency said.

The damages took place in Batang Dua sub-district, the nearest area with the quake epicentre, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman of national disaster management agency told Xinhua.

Indonesia is prone to quake as it lies on a vulnerable quake-hit zone called "the Pacific Ring of Fire".
47% of European businesses would expand business in China Updated: 2016-06-07 18:54 By Chen Yingqun(chinadaily.com.cn)

Representatives from European countries attends the 10th European Union-China Business and Technology Cooperation Fair. [Photo by Hu Qing/ chinadaily.com.cn]

About 47 percent of European businesses would expand business in China this year, and a clear majority would likely increase their investment if they see China's reforms in many sectors to be better implemented, says a survey released on June 7.

"Despite slowing and L-shaped growth, China's economy could be powered, for another two or three decades, on high-quality expansion by measures including further pruning overcapacity, supply side transformation and strengthening innovation," said Roland Berger CEO Charles-Edouard Bouee.

"Addressing these tasks and the challenges highlighted by the Business Confidence Survey will ensure both that all of this growth ultimately takes place. And that European businesses are able to make a major contribution towards attaining it," he says.

The European Chamber, in cooperation with Roland Berger, today, released its annual Business Confidence Survey 2016, which says that 41 percent of European companies are now re-evaluating their China operations and planning to cut costs through head count reduction. While 56 percent of respondents report that doing business in China has become more difficult, a five-point increase from 2015, 70 percent of respondents do not feel more welcome in China than they did 10 years ago, and 72 percent European companies' willing to invest in R&D in China , dropped from 85 percent in2015.

China has vowed to provide a more open and competitive market for foreign companies. However, the reports says European companies still think China's progress in reforms is not fast enough, which triggers some pessimism among them.

Xu Hongcai, director of the economic research department at the China Center for International Economic Exchanges says that China is undergoing an economic slowdown and an economic transformation.

"It is also tackling the problems of overcapacity, so European companies might need time to adapt to this situation, but they should see China is speeding up the process of reform and opening up," says Hu.

Moreover, Hu says there are still huge opportunities in China for Western companies.

"The key is for them to do more field researches in different regions and industries of China to find out the specific demands in different regions and industries and find opportunities for themselves. For example, in China's urbanization process and the development of green industries, Europe's technology, capital and management experiences are all greatly needed."

European Chamber President Joerg Wuttke says that the China-EU bilateral investment treaty, which is still undergoing negotiations, would be integral to improving the business environment and reducing market access barriers.

"European companies now need a road map. This will give them with the confidence they need to commit more to China's future development in these economically challenging times," Wuttke said.

The survey was based on response from 506 European companies in China, of which half of them are small and medium-sized companies.
Vienna: Austria`s anti-immigration Freedom Party filed Wednesday a legal challenge after its candidate narrowly lost out on being elected the EU`s first far-right president, alleging "terrifying" irregularities.

"We are not sore losers. This is about protecting the very foundations of democracy... The extent of irregularities is more than terrifying," FPOe leader Heinz-Christian Strache told a news conference in Vienna.

"You don`t have to be a conspiracy theorist to have a bad gut feeling about this whole election... Without these glitches and irregularities (FPOe candidate Norbert) Hofer could have become president."

Alexander Van der Bellen, an independent backed by the ecologist Green Party, defeated Hofer in May 22`s runoff by just 30,863 votes, prompting relief among Europe`s struggling centrist politicians.

Preliminary results released that evening had given a narrow lead to gun enthusiast Hofer, 54, presented as the friendly face of the FPOe, but who is highly critical of Islam and the EU.

However after some 700,000 postal votes -- a record number -- were counted, Van der Bellen, 72, was declared the winner of the largely ceremonial but coveted presidency the next day.

Authorities have said they were investigating several cases of alleged election irregularities. For the most part, however, they concerned postal votes being opened too early.

The Greens said Wednesday that the FPOe "has failed to present one single concrete case of a vote being miscounted". Procedural problems "need to be avoided in future but are not electoral fraud".

But Strache, flanked by two lawyers, said Wednesday that the law had been broken in 94 of Austria`s 117 constituencies, including 82 where postal votes were counted too early, representing over 570,000 votes.

The constitutional court has four weeks -- until July 6 -- to decide if the FPOe`s 150-page challenge stands up. The election could in theory be held again partially or in its entirety.

This could make for a tense wait with Van der Bellen set to be sworn in on July 8. Court spokesman Christian Neuwirth said it was "getting straight down to work" in order to finish well in time.Hofer -- absent at Wednesday`s news conference -- for his part accepted defeat on May 23 but Strache has been crying foul ever since the result was announced.

Strache`s popular Facebook page -- "liked" by 370,000 people -- has been inundated with calls for him to challenge the outcome.

He was however obliged to call on supporters to tone down their comments after some called for violence and Van der Bellen`s address was published, reportedly prompting extra police protection.

Mirroring populists elsewhere, the FPOe has tapped into unease about immigration and the faltering economy to win support principally from poorer, less educated voters but also across the board.

Austria last year saw 90,000 people claim asylum, the second-highest number per capita in the EU, while around 10 times as many passed through at the height of Europe`s migrant crisis.

The FPOe is also looking ahead to the next general elections, due in 2018, leading opinion polls with more than 30 percent.

The two centrist parties in the governing coalition look set to fall short of a majority, despite being headed by popular new Chancellor Christian Kern since mid-May.

Next week far-right politicians from across Europe are due to meet in Vienna, including Marine Le Pen from France`s National Front, who will run for president in 2017.

nla-stu/jm

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Bangkok: A raid on a large Bangkok brothel notorious for its `soapy massages` has found underage sex workers and logbooks detailing big kickbacks to corrupt cops and officials, investigators said Wednesday.

Thailand`s police force has a reputation for graft, but it is rare for authorities to reveal so clearly how the protection rackets work.

More than 100 officers from Thailand`s Interior Ministry raided Nataree Massage, which is in downtown Bangkok and popular with locals and foreigners.

During the Tuesday evening raid they found documents detailing alleged payments worth thousands of dollars to police and city officials.

"The account book with the hush money is very clear in detailing which agencies and persons received the money. Most are police and police agencies," Ronnarong Thipsiri, director of the Territorial Defence Office, which was involved in the raid, told AFP.

"We did not inform police ahead of the raid because we had information that they were benefiting from this operation," Ronnarong added.

A photograph of one log book page, taken by local reporters who joined the raid, showed more than $10,000 worth of payments made to multiple police officers and law enforcement agencies over a 20-day period in March this year.

Ronnarong, who said the photo was legitimate, added that one section of the brothel`s account book showed 19 million baht ($539,000) in takings, though he did not say over what period of time the money had been made.

The raid also uncovered multiple underage sex workers under the age of 18 inside the brothel, most of them foreign -- a stark reminder of how impoverished teenage migrants continue to be lured into Thailand`s sex trade.

Ronnarong said around 90 percent of the 121 women found working in the brothel at the time of the raid were Myanmar nationals, primarily ethnic minority women from the two country`s border regions.

"Three held documents proving they are under the age of 18," he told AFP, adding that investigators believed at least 12 others were suspected of being underage.

Prostitution is technically illegal in Thailand but is ubiquitous across the country.

Despite its reputation as a global sex tourism destination, the vast majority of sex work caters for locals.

Because of their criminalised status, brothel owners and sex workers often have to offer protection payments to police or criminal gangs to ward off arrest or closure.

Activists have long advocated for the trade to be legalised to better protect the many women, men and transgender people who sell sex commercially.

But it is a cause few politicians have been willing to embrace in a country that remains socially conservative when it comes to sex.

The head of Bangkok`s police force, Lieutenant General Sanit Mahathavorn, told reporters on Wednesday he had appointed a task force to investigate the hush money payment allegations.

Multiple large brothels, which have not been raided, also operate in the area.
Cairo: An EgyptAir flight from Cairo to Beijing made an emergency landing in Uzbekistan on Wednesday after a bomb threat that turned out to be a hoax, the airline said.

Uzbek authorities checked the Airbus A330 and found no explosives on board, EgyptAir chairman Safwat Musallam told AFP.

"The authorities there cleared the plane for departure after they searched the plane and found no threats," he said.

Musallam said an anonymous call was received warning there was a bomb on board after flight MS955 had left Cairo, and it landed at the nearest airport.

Uzbek authorities confirmed the plane had made an emergency landing at an airport in Urgench in the west of the country.

The flight had left Cairo five minutes before midnight on Tuesday, and the plane was scheduled to land in Beijing at 3.34 pm on Wednesday, according to EgyptAir`s website.

It is the latest in a series of incidents involving Egyptian planes or airports.

An EgyptAir plane crashed in the Mediterranean with 66 people aboard on May 19 while en route from Paris to Cairo.

In October a Russian airliner with 224 people on board was downed by a bomb over Egypt`s Sinai Peninsula after taking off from Sharm el-Sheikh, in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group.
Ottawa: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has expressed doubts about the reliability of the US F-35 stealth fighter, as the government looks to replace its ageing fleet of jets.

"For 10 years, the Conservatives completely missed the mark when it came time to deliver to Canadians and our military the equipment they need," the Liberal prime minister said in parliament yesterday.

"They clung to a plane that does not work and is far from working."

Canada had joined the United States and its allies in 1997 to develop the F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter, and later announced it would buy 65 of them.

But after coming under fire over its spiralling costs and an apparent lack of transparency and competition in the procurement process, the previous Conservative government widened its search for a new fighter jet.

Trudeau campaigned against the F-35 and after coming to power last November ordered a reopening of the bidding process, calling the F-35 buy a boondoggle.

This marked the second reboot in three years of the largest military procurement project in Canadian history.

On Monday, the National Post reported that Ottawa was looking to replace its F-18s, which have been flying since 1982, with Boeing's Super Hornet.

Others in the running included the Eurofighter Typhoon, the Dassault Rafale and the Saab Grippen.

Public broadcaster CBC, meanwhile, said the Canadian government had recently missed a 32 million Canadian dollar payment for its contribution to the development of the F-35.
Ankara: Three people were killed and dozens injured in a car bombing Wednesday at a police station in southeast Turkey, a day after 11 people were killed in an attack on police in Istanbul.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim blamed the attack on the "killer PKK", referring to the outlawed rebel Kurdistan Workers` Party.

"We will fight them both in urban centres and rural areas with determination," he vowed.

Turkey remains on high alert after multiple attacks on its soil that have killed well over 200 people in the past year and have been blamed on, or claimed by, Kurdish militants and Islamic State (IS) jihadists.

Images carried by Turkish media showed a massive plume of black smoke rising from the rubble of the severely damaged police station in the town of Midyat near the Syrian border.

The windows of houses in the neighbourhood were shattered by the force of the blast.

Yildirim said one police officer and two civilians have been confirmed dead so far while 30 people were injured.

The police station blast comes a day after a bombing in the heart of Istanbul killed 11 people, including several police, the latest in a spate of attacks in Turkey`s largest city.

The government on Wednesday put the toll at six officers and five civilians.

There was no claim of responsibility for the Istanbul bombing but President Recep Tayyip Erdogan too suggested that Kurdish militants were behind it.A radical splinter group of the PKK, the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), claimed responsibility for two bombings in

Ankara earlier this year that killed dozens of people.

Violence flared last year between Kurdish rebels and government forces, shattering a 2013 ceasefire reached after secret talks between PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan and the Turkish state.

Turkey has been waging an intense offensive against the PKK, deploying tanks in several towns in the southeast in recent months to "cleanse" them of rebel elements.

Activists have accused the security forces of causing huge destruction and killing civilians.

But the government says the operations are essential for public safety, blaming the PKK -- listed as a terror group by Ankara and its Western allies -- for the damage.

Over 40,000 people have been killed since the PKK took up arms in 1984 demanding an independent state for Kurds. Since then the group has narrowed its demands to greater autonomy and cultural rights.

NATO-member Turkey is also a member of the US-led coalition fighting the IS group, which controls large swathes of territory in neighbouring Syria and Iraq.

Ankara blames the jihadists for two suicide blasts in Istanbul this year, in which a total of 15 tourists were killed.
Geneva: Eritrea`s government has systematically committed crimes against humanity over the last 25 years, with top ranking officials bearing direct responsibility, UN investigators said Wednesday.

The second report of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry (COI) on human rights in the secretive Horn of Africa nation also said there was a "rule of law vacuum" there.

The independent UN investigators found sweeping evidence that Eritrean officials, especially in the security services, were guilty of enslavement, enforced disappearances, torture, rape and murder, among other offences.

These acts were perpetrated to terrify and control the civilian population, while crushing opposition, the COI said.

"Crimes against humanity have been committed in a widespread and systematic manner in Eritrean detention facilities, military training camps and other locations across the country over the past 25 years," the commission said in a press release.

"Particular individuals, including officials at the highest levels of state, the ruling party - the People`s Front for Democracy and Justice - and commanding officers bear responsibility for crimes against humanity," according to the COI.
Ankara: Five people including a pregnant policewoman were killed in a car bombing in Kurdish majority southeastern Turkey, a day after a deadly attack hit Istanbul.

Both bombings targeted Turkish police and have been blamed on Kurdish rebels waging a decades-long insurgency against the state.

A massive plume of black smoke rose from the rubble of the police station after yesterday's attack in the town of Midyat near the Syrian border.

A spokesman for the Turkish presidency, Ibrahim Kalin, said it was too early to attribute blame but Prime Minister Binali Yildirim blamed the "killer PKK", referring to the outlawed rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party.

"We will fight them both in urban centres and rural areas with determination," he said.

The Anatolia news agency said dead included two police officers, including a pregnant woman. At least 51 people were injured.

The car -- loaded with half a tonne of explosives -- drove at the Midyat police station and blew up when police opened fire to stop it, the private Dogan news agency reported.

Turkey remains on high alert after multiple attacks on its soil that have killed well over 200 people in the past year and have been blamed on, or claimed by, Kurdish rebels and Islamic State (IS) jihadists.

On Tuesday, a car bombing in the heart of Istanbul killed 11 people, including six police officers and five civilians, the latest in a spate of attacks in Turkey's largest city.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pointed the finger at Kurdish militants for that attack.

"Thousands of heroes" were ready to "defend their people and their country with their lives" against "terrorists", he said in Ankara yesterday.

Yildirim, along with former president Abdullah Gul and opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu attended the funeral yesterday of the slain Istanbul police officers.

Their coffins were draped with red and white Turkish flags as mourners shouted: "Damn terror" and "Martyrs never die and the homeland will never be divided."

A group of mourners staged a protest against Kilicdaroglu, who heads the secular Republican People's Party (CHP), tearing up a wreath he had laid for the victims.

"You are a killer!" they shouted.

Kilicdaroglu has been accused in some quarters of failing to give enough support to the government's Kurdish policy.

The CHP leader lashed out at what he termed a couple of "provocateurs" after the prayers and said one of them hurled a bullet at him before being detained by a plainclothes officer.
District of Columbia: The protagonists are set: Hillary Clinton versus Donald Trump. The battleground? Fifty states. Voters will now be treated to a historic, bruising spectacle as two of America`s most polarizing figures wage war for the White House.

On the Democratic side is a candidate rich with political experience, a pioneering if controversial stateswoman embracing her chance to become the nation`s first female commander-in-chief.

The Republican standing in her way is the brash billionaire businessman and political neophyte who rewrote the campaign playbook as he vanquished his many rivals for the nomination with a mudslinging unparalleled in modern American politics.

The ferocity of the primaries -- Americans and many around the world had never seen a modern US presidential race play out with such insulting and denigrating attacks -- promises to be just a preview of what is in store for the general election.

Hillary, the former secretary of state, euphorically seized the Democratic Party mantle on Tuesday, seizing the nomination in dramatic fashion with primary wins in four of six states including the grand prize, California.

On perhaps the biggest night of her political career, as she declared a historic milestone for women, she assailed Trump for his divisiveness and his trademark slogan, "Make America Great Again."

"That`s code for let`s take America backward," she said, "back to a time when opportunity and dignity were reserved for some, not all."

"Don`t let anyone tell you that great things can`t happen in America," she said.

Trump was pledging a tough fight, choosing to lay into Hillary in his own presumptive victory speech and accusing her and her former president husband Bill of enriching themselves by "selling access, selling favors, selling government contracts."

And he signaled there would be no honeymoon, announcing a "major speech" for early next week in which he will address "all of the things that have taken place with the Clintons."The trajectory of the race is unlikely to soar into loftier issues.

Norman Ornstein, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, feared the race will be less a battle over substance like the economy or foreign policy than a clash of two outsized personalities.

"(Hillary) Clinton has deep knowledge and detailed platforms, but because Trump doesn`t have any, nobody focuses on the differences," Ornstein told AFP in an interview.

"And because we have two candidates who are more distrusted than trusted, more disliked than liked, this becomes a race to the bottom."

Hillary will be looking to exploit the various controversies ensnaring Trump -- most recently his criticism of a Mexican-American federal judge, which sparked uproar within his own party -- as a way to enhance her own resume.

"There`s no out-Trumping Trump, he is an extremely talented unique character," said Tim Miller, a former communications adviser to Republican Jeb Bush, one of the many candidates defeated by Trump in the primaries.

"Getting down in a mud-wrestling fight with him is going to be a loser. She has to focus on the issues that drive her base" of minorities and women and inspire young voters, Miller said. But she will also need to make a compelling case for supporters of her Democratic rival, Bernie Sanders, to embrace her campaign to defeat Trump in November.

Trump, beating Hillary to the punch on Tuesday, extended an olive branch to Sanders` supporters, saying: "We welcome you with open arms."

Sanders refused to capitulate Tuesday, vowing to "continue the fight" to the final Democratic primary in the capital Washington next week, and then on to the Democratic convention in July.

But the Vermont senator meets on Thursday with President Barack Obama -- perhaps a sign that Obama will play a significant role in uniting a deeply divided Democratic party to battle the 69-year-old real estate mogul.

Obama is soon expected to offer a formal endorsement of the 68-year-old Clinton, perhaps serving to coax hardline "Bernie or bust" fans back into the party tent.

Hillary has appeared completely dialed in to combatting Trump, especially since last week in San Diego when she earned plaudits from Democrats for her blistering critique of Trump as "temperamentally unfit" to be president, a line of attack she repeated Tuesday night.

Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor who ran for president in 2004, said he was impressed with Clinton`s historic achievement.

"Any time a glass ceiling is shattered, it`s important," he told AFP.

But he was quick to note that Hillary is capable of turning tough in an instant.

"If Hillary Clinton continues to campaign the way she did last week in San Diego, I think Trump is toast," he said.
Hong Kong: A pro-democracy protester told Wednesday how he was kicked and punched during mass rallies in 2014 as seven police officers stood trial over the attack, which was captured on film and beamed around the world.

Civic Party activist Ken Tsang testified for the first time in the much-anticipated trial which kicked off last week.

All seven accused officers have pleaded not guilty.

Video footage of the assault, filmed by local media near the city`s government headquarters, shocked residents and dented their faith in the usually trusted police force.

Police have been criticised for their heavy-handed treatment of protesters during the rallies, which brought parts of the city to a standstill for more than two months. The demonstrators were asking for fully free elections for their future leaders.

Tsang, 40, said he was "assaulted" by seven men after he was subdued by police at a rally.

"I was dumped to the ground, then I was kicked and punched. I curled up my body with my face facing towards the wall," said Tsang, dressed in a suit and yellow tie.

"I sensed I was beaten with (a) hard object. Someone stepped on me...I was in great pain. The pain lasted for a long time," he said through an interpreter as the seven defendants sat stern-faced.

Tsang was also shown video footage in which prosecution lawyers asked him to identify himself. In one clip, he was thrown to the floor before several men kicked him in a dimly-lit corner next to an electricity substation.

The seven police, including senior officers, are charged with causing grievous bodily harm with intent on Tsang, while one also faces an allegation of common assault.

They were suspended from duty after their arrests.

Tsang himself was sentenced to five weeks in prison for assaulting and resisting officers after he splashed liquid on police on the same night he was beaten.

Tsang has said the accusations against him were to distract attention from his case against the police.

Pro-police supporters gathered outside court, chanting "We support our police force" while several Tsang supporters carried yellow umbrellas, a symbol of the democratic movement.

Defence lawyers have said they will challenge the authenticity of the videos.

Footage captured by local network TVB and broadcast at the time showed a group of men hauling a handcuffed Tsang to a dark corner in a public park, where he was beaten.

One man stood over him punching him while three others were seen repeatedly kicking him.

Nearly 1,000 people were arrested during the rallies, with student leader Joshua Wong facing a verdict later this month.

He was acquitted Tuesday in another protest-related case.

The hearings come as tensions remain high in the semi-autonomous city, with fears growing that Beijing is tightening its grip.

Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997 under a "one country, two systems" agreement and enjoys much greater freedoms than in mainland China, but there are concerns those freedoms are being eroded.
Jakarta: Indonesia plans to quadruple maximum jail terms for animal poachers and traffickers in a major overhaul of wildlife crime laws, but environmentalists expressed scepticism Wednesday the changes would be effective.

Maximum sentences for poaching and trading protected animals will be increased from five years to 20 under the new legislation proposed by the environment and forestry ministry.

"We want stronger law enforcement, we want people who transgress the law to face higher sentences," Tachrir Fathoni, a senior ministry official who is spearheading efforts get the law passed, told AFP.

Indonesia is one of the most biodiverse nations on Earth, home to vast tracts of rainforest and a kaleidoscope of rare animals, from orangutans to tigers and rhinos.

But many have been pushed to the brink of extinction. While destruction of their habitats due to rampant logging has played a role, endangered animals are also frequently targeted by poachers who sell their body parts for use in Chinese medicine.

The government has faced criticism for inaction, with green groups saying laws relating to protected animals are not strong enough.

The environment and forestry ministry hopes the planned overhaul of the old law, which dates from 1990, can improve the situation.

The ministry will submit its proposal to parliament in the coming months, and hopes the new regulations will come into force next year.

Environmental group WWF welcomed the proposed overhaul but cautioned that it will not solve the problem of weak enforcement in far-flung parts of the archipelago, where laws set in Jakarta are often flouted.

"Having a new set of rules doesn`t mean much if the law isn`t being enforced," said WWF Indonesia spokesman Nyoman Iswarayoga.

"Better supervision, investigating cases more intensively, and monitoring how animals are being sold are equally important."

Critics also point out that changes to the law won`t necessarily translate to longer jail sentences. Convictions for wildlife crime are rare, and courts have been criticised for not taking poaching and trafficking seriously enough and handing down short sentences.

Fathoni insisted efforts were being made to improve enforcement, with a new senior position focusing on enforcing the law created in his ministry, and specialist police officers dispatched to every province to tackle wildlife crime.

However he admitted the Indonesian government faced an uphill battle as demand for endangered species remains high.

"As long as there is demand, the supply will keep coming," he said.
Naymiyah: A column of black Humvees carrying Iraqi special forces rolled into southern Fallujah today, the first time in more than two years that government troops have entered the western city held by the Islamic State group.

The counter terrorism troops fought house-to-house battles with the militants in the Shuhada neighborhood, and the operation to retake the city is expected to be one of the most difficult yet.

"Daesh are concentrating all their forces in this direction," said Gen. Haider Fadel, one of the commanders of the counterterrorism forces, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State militants.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi promised a swift victory when he announced the start of the operation on May 22 to liberate Fallujah, about 65 kilometers west of Baghdad. But the complexity of the task quickly became apparent.

Although other security forces from the federal and provincial police, government-sanctioned Shiite militias and the Iraqi military have surrounded the city, only the elite counterterrorism troops are fighting inside Fallujah at this stage of the operation. And they are doing so under the close cover of US-led coalition airpower.

"We expect to face more resistance, especially because we are the only forces entering the city," Fadel said.

The Islamic State group has suffered setbacks on several fronts in the region where it captured large swaths of territory two years ago.

In northern Syria, US-backed rebels made a final push today in the town of Manbij a key waypoint on the IS supply line to the Turkish border and its self-styled capital of Raqqa. And in Libya, forces loyal to a UN-brokered government have advanced deep inside the coastal city of Sirte, the main stronghold of the IS group's local affiliate.

Fallujah is one of the last IS strongholds in Iraq. Government forces have slowly won back territory, although IS still controls parts of the north and west, as well as the second-largest city of Mosul.

The sky above Fallujah's Shuhada neighborhood today filled with fine dust and thick gray smoke obscuring minarets and communication towers as artillery rounds and volleys of airstrikes cleared the way for Iraqi ground forces.

At a makeshift command center, Iraqi forces coordinated the operation via hand-held radios, with Australian coalition troops stationed at a nearby base. One of the Australians listed the casualties among the militants.

"Two KIA (killed in action), one wounded with a missing arm his right arm," the unidentified Australian radioed after calling in an airstrike on Islamic State fighters.
Rome: A policeman in Italy has shot dead a migrant who stabbed him during a brawl in an area renowned for tensions between immigrants, locals and police, media reports said Wednesday.

The fight reportedly broke out after one migrant accused another of trying to steal from him in the vast tent camp in San Ferdinando, which sits on the outskirts of the southern city of Rosarno.

The tent camp houses thousands of people who work largely in the area`s orange groves.

As two policemen intervened, one of the migrants pulled out a knife and stabbed one of the officers, who shot him, the reports said.

There was no information given about the nationalities of the migrants involved.

Rosarno is notorious in Italy for the climate of tension between its seasonal workers -- many of whom hail from sub-Saharan Africa -- security forces and local residents, and has been the scene of repeated clashes.

Two days of unrest in 2010 prompted more than 1,000 Africans to flee the Calabrian town after clashes left 67 people injured, between migrants, police officers and locals.

Doctors Without Borders at the time fiercely condemned local attitudes towards the migrants, saying conditions in the Italian tent camps were often worse than in refugee camps in Africa.

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Strasbourg: More than 10,000 people have died crossing the Mediterranean to Europe since 2014, the UN said Tuesday, as the EU unveiled fresh plans to stem the migrant flow from Africa.

Following a rash of deadly shipwrecks that have claimed hundreds of lives, the UN refugee agency said the number of deaths at sea had risen sharply, with a record 2,814 people drowning since January.

With Europe in the grip of its worst migrant crisis since World War II, the rising death toll has prompted urgent efforts to tackle the problem.

Brussels has been seeking ways to clamp down on the Africa route after a deal with Ankara in March slashed numbers trying to cross from Turkey.

"We cannot tolerate the loss of life on this scale, we need to do everything to stop it," said European Commission vice-president Frans Timmermans.

The new proposal involves using EU funds to promote private investment of up to 60 billion euros ($68 billion) in countries where many migrants come from -- Ethiopia, Niger, Nigeria, Mali and Senegal, as well as Jordan and Lebanon, Timmermans said.

Eight billion euros of EU funds are available to support migration deals with external countries, many of which were first mooted at a crisis summit last year.

The Commission also wants to speed up readmission deals with African countries and with Pakistan and Afghanistan to make it easier to send back people who do not win refugee status.

"There will be consequences for those that refuse to cooperate," Dutchman Timmermans told the European Parliament, alongside EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.

The European Commission is also set to unveil a plan for a "blue card" system for skilled migrants to come to Europe legally.

The aim is to reduce the incentive for people to try to smuggle themselves into the continent on flimsy boats and put their lives at risk.

"If we ever want to compete with the US Green Card, we need an EU Blue Card that deserves the same merit," Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said.Breaking down the figures, the UN said a total of 3,771 people had died at sea in 2015 and 3,500 the year earlier, plus this year`s deaths.

"You`ve now had since the start of 2014 -- when this phenomenon of rising numbers across the Mediterranean happened -- 10,000 deaths," said UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards.

"This is clearly an appalling number of deaths that have occurred in the Mediterranean, just on Europe`s borders, just in the past couple of years," Edwards told AFP.

Shortly after the UN announcement, the Libyan coastguard said it had intercepted 117 migrants, including six pregnant women, on a boat bound for Europe, which they brought back ashore.

More than one million people made the journey to Europe in 2015, the majority fleeing war in Syria and the Middle East, and a further 204,000 have come since January, the UNHCR says.

Crossings on the deadly route between Libya and Italy have dropped sharply since a controversial deal between the EU and Turkey designed to halt the flow of largely Syrian migrants across the Aegean Sea.

Two migrants have filed the first cases with the EU`s top court seeking to overturn the Turkey deal, sources close to the matter said on Tuesday.

The EU has been anticipating legal challenges, particularly over the asylum application processing system set up in the Greek islands to manage such claims quickly.

Separately, the EU`s top court ruled Tuesday that countries cannot imprison illegal migrants just for crossing borders in the Schengen passport-free area, in a new blow to efforts to crack down on the crisis.

The Schengen passport-free area of 26 European countries has come under severe pressure from the migration crisis, with many countries bringing back border controls that were dismantled a decade ago.
Islamabad: Pakistan on Wednesday asked NSG member states to be "objective and non-discriminatory" while deciding on expanding the grouping's membership as Islamabad stepped up diplomatic efforts to raise support for its inclusion in the elite 48-nation bloc whose membership India is also eyeing.

The Pakistan Foreign Office (FO) said in a statement that Additional Foreign Secretary (UN and Economic Coordination) Tasnim Aslam held a briefing session for the NSG countries' diplomatic missions here ahead of NSG plenary session this month in Vienna.

It said that the briefing was part of the ongoing diplomatic efforts for mobilising support for Pakistan's membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

"The Additional Secretary highlighted the factors which placed Pakistan's application for NSG membership on solid grounds, including Pakistan's technical experience, capability and well-established commitment to non-proliferation and nuclear safety and security," it said.

"While urging NSG countries to adopt objective and non-discriminatory criteria for the membership of non-NPT states, she cautioned against any country-specific exemptions which would negatively impact strategic stability in South Asia," according to the statement.

It did not give an exact number of envoys who attended the briefing but said that "a large number of ambassadors and other senior level representatives" were present.

The meeting seems to be part of efforts to stop India gaining membership of the group after the US supported it during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's current visit there.

Earlier, Advisor to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs, Sartaj Aziz, told the Senate yesterday that Pakistan was making efforts for "non-discriminatory approach" for NSG membership and these efforts would pay off.

It is believed that Pakistan has support of the China which has assured that it would not support India's membership until Pakistan was also given the same treatment. Last month Pakistan formally applied for the NSG membership.
Aleppo: Syrian rebels reopened a vital supply line by capturing two villages today from the Islamic State group as it came under pressure on a range of fronts in Syria and Iraq.

IS has controlled large areas of both countries since declaring its self-styled "caliphate" in 2014 but is losing territory in the face of separate assaults.

In Syria, pro-government forces, rebels and a US-backed Arab-Kurdish alliance are all engaged in offensives to squeeze the extremists' supply lines, while Iraqi forces are advancing on the IS-held city of Fallujah.

The Damascus regime has also kept up its assaults on opposition areas, particular in second city Aleppo, where at least 15 civilians were killed today in bombing by pro-government forces that struck near a hospital.

North of the city, rebel fighters re-opened a key supply route linking their two main bastions in Aleppo province: Marea and Azaz.

In late May, IS captured several villages between the two towns, cutting off access to the Turkish border for Marea's opposition forces.

But early today, rebels backed by Islamist groups launched simultaneous attacks from both Marea and Azaz, squeezing IS jihadists out of the villages of Kafr Kalbin and Kaljibrin and reopening the road, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Director Rami Abdel Rahman said IS fighters even pulled back from towns and villages east of the supply route, including Dudyan near the border.

Government bombing meanwhile outside the Al-Bayan hospital in Aleppo's Shaar neighbourhood killed 10 people, according to Observatory.

An AFP photographer saw bodies wrapped in bloodied white bags outside the hospital, while inside, the force of the blast had knocked supplies and parts of drywall onto the floor.

Al-Bayan hospital said a staff member was wounded in the strikes and the building had been evacuated.

According to the Observatory, five other civilians - including two children - were killed in attacks on the Al-Marja and Al-Maadi districts.

Rescue workers known as the White Helmets gave a higher toll of 23 dead in rebel-held areas.

The Observatory later reported seven rebel fighters killed in bombardment of Aleppo's eastern Al-Sakhur neighbourhood.

IS forces had long coveted Marea and battered the town for over a year with deadly car bombs and suicide attacks.

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Ankara: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has signed into law a reform lifting immunity for lawmakers, his office said, in a move critics believe is aimed at evicting pro-Kurdish MPs from parliament.

Erdogan`s approval came late Tuesday, less than a month after parliament adopted the highly controversial reform, which lifts the immunity of 138 deputies from all parties who face potential prosecution.

The pro-Kurdish Peoples` Democratic Party (HDP) says the measure, drafted and backed by Erdogan`s Justice and Development Party (AKP), is squarely aimed at expelling its members from parliament.

Erdogan`s government sees the HDP as a political front for the Kurdistan Workers` Party (PKK), considered a terrorist group by Ankara and its Western allies.

The reform could see dozens of HDP deputies facing criminal prosecution and losing parliamentary seats on accusations of supporting the PKK, which has waged a three-decade insurgency in the southeast.

Should a number of HDP deputies leave parliament, it would ease the way for Erdogan to realise his aim of changing the constitution to create a presidential system and further beef up his powers.

The HDP, the third largest party group in parliament, has said the bill, passed by parliament on May 20, could lead to the prosecution of 50 of its deputies out of its total contingent of 59.

Earlier this month, the HDP`s charismatic co-leader Selahettin Demirtas said he was "not afraid of being put on trial".

He said however that the accusations he and other party MPs faced stemmed from a search for "political revenge".

German Chancellor Angela Merkel last month told Erdogan of her "deep concern" over the law.

Following the collapse of a two-year ceasefire in mid-2015, Turkey has been waging an intense offensive against PKK militants and the renewed conflict has claimed hundreds of lives.
Islamabad: In an apparent honour killing, a Pakistani woman who married a man of her choice was allegedly set on fire on Wednesday in Lahore, a media report said.

The woman, identified as Zeenat, married a man of her choice a few days ago. She was burnt alive in the Factory Area of the Punjab capital city, Geo TV quoted police as saying.

The deceased woman's mother, identified as Parveen, was taken into custody.

Love marriages are considered as bringing dishonour to families in the extremely conservative parts of the country.
Tehran: Syria`s defence minister is to hold Tehran talks with his Iranian and Russian counterparts on Thursday as government forces press an offensive against the Islamic State group, state media said.

Moscow has sent warplanes and special forces in support of President Bashar al-Assad`s regime, while Tehran has deployed military advisers and trained and equipped pro-government militias.

The visit by Syria`s General Fahd Jassem al-Freij comes as the Damascus regime steps up its campaign against both IS and rebel fighters in second city Aleppo it charges are in cahoots with Al-Qaeda.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu travels to Tehran after Moscow pledged to step up its air strikes against rebel forces in and around Aleppo, accusing non-jihadist rebels of failing to deliver on a February ceasefire pledge to break ranks with Al-Qaeda`s Syria affiliate Al-Nusra Front.

The talks are being held at the invitation of Iran`s General Hossein Dehghan, the state IRNA news agency said.

Tehran has provided Damascus with military and financial support ever since the uprising against Assad`s regime erupted more than five years ago.

Moscow`s military intervention last September has significantly improved the regime`s position.

Russian forces helped government troops to recapture the famed ancient city of Palmyra in March and are now backing a push towards Syria`s largest dam at Tabqa in the Euphrates Valley.

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Washington: The United States suggested today that if Syria continues to block efforts to drop food aid to its besieged communities that Russia might want to use its own planes for the task.

Foreign capitals have asked the World Food Program to plan an air bridge to save thousands of Syrian civilians facing starvation in communities besieged by Bashar al-Assad's forces.

But Assad has refused to permit such flights and on the ground his troops block UN road convoys in some areas or to remove vital supplies from others before they reach rebel-held towns.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Russia, which with Washington is co-chair of the International Syrian Support Group, had passed on a Syrian offer to permit one convoy on Friday.

But he expressed skepticism that Assad would indeed allow unfettered humanitarian access to the town of Daraya and said that this would not be enough in any case to meet its needs.

The spokesman went on to accuse Russia of not living up to its commitment, made at a May 17 ISSG meeting in Vienna, to push Assad to support the planned UN humanitarian air drops.

"We are obviously disappointed, to put it mildly," Toner told reporters, adding that Secretary of State John Kerry had spoken to Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

"But, you know, you talk about air assets and permission, and Russia actually has air assets on the ground in Syria and ostensibly has the permission of the Syrian government to fly."

Asked if this meant he was suggesting that Russia itself carry out the food drops, since Assad was unlikely to block his ally's flights, Toner said: "I am suggesting."

"They are on the ground with air assets in Syria and are able to carry out these kinds of operations," he added.

Later, a senior State Department official confirmed that Washington was "throwing down a gauntlet" to see if Moscow was serious about aiding beleaguered Syrian civilians.
Washington: The Obama administration has opposed the move of the US Senate to impose conditions on the USD 300 million aid to Pakistan, saying restrictions would "unnecessarily complicate" progress in bilateral ties and would be against America's national interest.

The White House said the Obama administration objects to Senate version of the National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA), which would make Pakistan ineligible for the Secretary of Defence's waiver authority unless he provides a certification to the congressional defence committees.

Passing the NDAA-2017, Senate Armed Services Committee last month blocked USD 300 million US military aid to Pakistan unless the Defence Secretary certifies to the Congress that Islamabad is taking demonstrable steps against the Haqqani network.

"We share the Committee's concerns regarding the threat posed to our forces and interests in Afghanistan by the Haqqani network and we continue to engage with Pakistan at the highest levels regarding the need for concerted action specifically against the group," the White House said.

The restriction imposed by the Senate would "unnecessarily complicate progress in US-Pakistan bilateral relationship on this issue and would limit the Secretary of Defence's ability to act in the US national security interest", it said.

NDAA is scheduled to come up before the Senate for voting this week. Senate version of the NDAA differed with that of the House on many issues including Pakistan.

The House version of the bill, passed last month, calls for blocking USD 450 million of the USD 900 million US aid to Pakistan in coalition support fund. The Senate version has reduced both the figures respectively to USD 300 million and USD 800 million.

However, for release of this fund, both seek certification from the Secretary of Defence that Pakistan is taking action against the Haqqani network. The White House had made similar objection to the House version of the NDAA.Defence that Pakistan is taking action against the Haqqani network. The White House had made similar objection to the House version of the NDAA.

NDAA-2016, which ends on September 30, makes it mandatory for the Defence Secretary to certify that Islamabad is taking action against the Haqqani network for the release of last USD 300 million of the coalition support fund to Pakistan. The Defence Secretary has not taken a decision yet.
YEREVAN, JUNE 7, ARMENPRESS. CIS Prime Ministers Council singed 21 documents on economic, armed forces and humanitarian cooperation during the Bishkek session on June 7.

In particular, they signed October 18, 2011 protocol of free trade agreement on state procurement regulations between the participating states, as well as they approved the Convention on the conservation of agro-biodiversity.

A number of decisions were made relating to the preparation of cadres of the Armed forces of the member states, energy, healthcare.

Moreover, the CIS Prime Ministers Council approved the strategy on Healthcare of the population of CIS member states.

They also signed an agreement over the implementation of interstate program of the innovation cooperation until 2020.

In addition, the CIS Prime Ministers Council signed documents related to conducting population census, works with the youth and developing youth entrepreneurship within the CIS member states until 2020, RIA Novosti reported.
YEREVAN, JUNE 8, ARMENPRESS. In the sidelines of the Open Doors programme of the National Assembly of Armenia the students and lecturers of Haybusak University visited the parliament on June 8.

As Armenpress was informed from the press service of the National Assembly of Armenia, the Deputy Speaker of the parliament Eduard Sharmazanov conducted the open lesson. Welcoming the attendees the Deputy Speaker noted that he is always ready to meet with both the pedagogues and the students.

During the sincere talk the students addressed questions to the Deputy Speaker, which he gladly answered.

The questions mainly referred to the steps to be taken in the creation of the new jobs by the state, the problems of the social-economic, healthcare spheres, the increase of the investments for the development of science, as well as the events occurred on the Karabakh-Azerbaijani line of contact.

The Deputy Speaker called on the students to study well, get qualified education and become the best specialists in their chosen sphere.

Before the meeting the students took a tour in parliament, got acquainted with the exhibition presented in the foyer adjacent to the Session Hall and attended the debate of the Annual Report on the State Budget Execution for 2015.

At the end of the visit the students and the lecturers took a photo with the Deputy Speaker Eduard Sharmazanov.
Uber unveiled its first self-driving car last month, announcing it had begun testing an autonomous vehicle on the streets of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Uber is in talks with Italian-American auto giant Fiat Chrysler (FCA) and others about potential driverless car alliances, a source close to the matter told AFP on Wednesday.

The source cautioned that discussions were in an early phase, and not exclusive to any one automobile maker.

Earlier in the day, Bloomberg news agency cited a source as saying a deal between the automobile maker and Uber could be announced by the end of the year, adding that FCA was also reaching out to online commerce giant Amazon on the potential for using vehicles for deliveries.

Amazon has been consistently exploring technology that could improve efficiency of distribution or delivery of goods handled by the online retail colossus.

Uber Technologies and FCA declined AFP requests for comment. Amazon did not respond to an AFP query.

Fiat Chrysler announced an alliance with Google parent Alphabet in May, saying self-driving cars could hit roads within five years.

Google began testing its autonomous driving technology in 2009, using a Toyota Prius equipped with the tech giant's equipment. The deal with FCA sees it snap up 100 new 2017 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans.

An array of automobile makers including Audi, Ford, Mercedes, Lexus, Tesla and BMW are working on building self-driving capabilities into vehicles.

Uber unveiled its first self-driving car last month, announcing it had begun testing an autonomous vehicle on the streets of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

In April the California group was among the founding members of an industry group called the Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets which also includes Alphabet unit Google, Ford, Volvo and Lyft.
In its death throes, the Republican Party is a toilet of racist, sexist, misogynistic bullshit. Today, Iowa State Senator David Johnson has changed his party affiliation to "No Party", and compared the rise of Donald Trump, the Republican candidate for president, to that of the fascist German National Socialists in the 1930s.

Via TPM:

Johnson, who said he would change his registration to No Party, compared Trump's rise to the top of the GOP ticket to the rise of Adolf Hitler in the 1930s.

Trump won "by reducing his campaign to reality TV and large crowds and divisive language and all the trappings of a good show for those who like that kind of approach and that's what happened in the 1930s in Germany," he told The Guardian.

"I think that's all I need to say but certainly the fascists took control of Germany under the same types of strategies," he added.

Johnson, who noted that his own father was part of the first U.S. unit to help liberate a Nazi prison camp, said that Trump's attacks on the "Mexican" heritage of U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel flew in the face of everything he'd been taught as a child.

"If we're going to exclude Muslims from traveling to the United States, who's next? Are we going to come down on Jews?  He's not fit to be president," Johnson told the publication.
By Rod Nickel (Reuters) - Agrium Inc , North America's largest retail seller of products for crop farming, could benefit if some of the biggest makers of seed and agricultural chemicals merge, Chief Executive Chuck Magro said on Wednesday. Responding to a question during a company investor day in Toronto about how possible tie-ups of ChemChina and Syngenta AG or Bayer AG and Monsanto Co could affect Agrium, Magro said assets could become available if the companies need to raise capital or satisfy anti-trust concerns. "We're watching the situation carefully," he said. "From a consolidation perspective, this is healthy and normal, as part of the industry ... There could be some very good opportunities." The company would be interested in proprietary seed or chemicals that fit its portfolio, Magro said. Many of the big producers are already suppliers of Agrium's farm retail stores. Bayer made an unsolicited $62 billion offer for Monsanto in May, aiming to create the world's biggest agricultural supplier. Monsanto turned it down but said it was open to further talks. Shareholders in Swiss pesticides maker Syngenta have a deadline of July 18 to accept a $43 billion takeover bid from state-owned ChemChina. Agrium is also looking for acquisitions of more retail stores and plans to claim a quarter of the U.S. market over time, up from its current leading share of 17 percent. Agrium intends to build 10 to 30 stores in the region by 2020, Magro said. (Reporting by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg, Manitoba; Editing by Alan Crosby)
An Iranian military fighter plane flies past an oil tanker during naval manoeuvres in the Gulf and Sea of Oman April 5, 2006. REUTERS/Fars News/File Photo (Reuters)

By Keith Wallis and Henning Gloystein

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - More than 25 European and Asian-owned supertankers are shipping Iranian oil, data seen by Reuters shows, allowing Tehran to ramp up exports much faster than analysts had expected following the lifting of sanctions in January.

Iran was struggling as recently as April to find partners to ship its oil, but after an agreement on a temporary insurance fix more than a third of Iran's crude shipments are now being handled by foreign vessels.

"Charterers are buying cargo from Iran and the rest of the world is OK with that," said Odysseus Valatsas, chartering manager at Dynacom Tankers Management. Greek owner Dynacom has fixed three of its supertankers to carry Iranian crude.

Some international shipowners remain reluctant to handle Iranian oil, however, due mainly to some U.S. restrictions on Tehran that remain and prohibit any trade in dollars or the involvement of U.S. firms, including banks and reinsurers.

Iran is seeking to make up for lost trade following the lifting of sanctions imposed in 2011 and 2012 over its nuclear programme.

Port loading data seen by Reuters, as well as live shipping data, shows at least 26 foreign tankers with capacity to carry more than 25 million barrels of light and heavy crude oil, as well as fuel oil, have either loaded crude or fuel oil in the last two weeks or are about load at Iran's Kharg Island and Bandar Mahshahr terminals.

The resumption of international shipping of Iranian oil has been made possible by an increase in interim, limited, insurance cover by "P&I clubs" - maritime mutual associations that provide "protection and indemnity" insurance to shippers.

The International Group of P&I Clubs, which represents the world's top 13 ship insurers, increased the amount covered by so-called "fall-back" shipping insurance from 70 million to 100 million euros ($113.36 million) in April.

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"In the first days after lifting sanctions only Iranian ships were loaded in the country, mainly due to several problems in finding insurance/reinsurance," said Luigi Bruzzone of ship broker Banchero Costa.

"The strong interest of the market in these trades pushed all the stakeholders to solve all the problems ... and almost all P&I Clubs have granted their insurance."

INSURANCE RISK?

The "fall-back" cover is designed to offset any shortfall in payments from U.S. reinsurers, who are still not allowed to deal with Iran.

"We are not surprised to see the increase in Iranian cargoes given the progress made by the P&I clubs and obviously the increase in Iranian production," said Brian Gallagher, head of investor relations at leading Belgian tanker owner Euronav, which itself is not involved in Iran yet.

"We're interested in such trade ... (but) it will still take time for Iran to be fully integrated as there remain restrictions around dollar denominated transactions."

Indeed, while the partial lifting of sanctions means foreign tankers can now transport Iranian oil, risks remain because large accidents might not be fully covered.

As a result, insurers say many first-tier oil shippers, many of them publicly listed such as Euronav, Teekay Group or Frontline, still shy away from carrying Iranian oil.

If the fall-back cover is exhausted in an incident, Andrew Bardot, executive officer at the International Group of P&I Clubs, said that costs like "collision and cargo liabilities, will not be covered, and will remain with the shipowner".

A single Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) supertanker costs around $90 million, and the costs of a large oil spill can reach into the billions of dollars.

"The limitations of the 'fall-back' cover - together with other continuing restrictions, for example those relating to the U.S. dollar and use of the U.S. financial system - however have discouraged a number of shipowners, and in particular the large shipping groups, from resuming trade with Iran in which they were previously engaged," said Bardot.

NEAR PRE-SANCTIONS LEVELS

With international vessels supporting Iran's own tanker fleet, traders said that its oil exports was now close to pre-sanction levels of around 2.5 million barrels per day (bpd).

"Iran has ramped up harder and faster than expected," Citi analysts said.

Traders said that if Iran was close to capacity, it might not be able to offset supply disruptions that have occurred in other regions recently - including Nigeria or Libya - and which have already helped tighten the market and pushed oil prices to around $50 per barrel. [O/R]

Iran's oil exports were between 2.1 and 2.3 million bpd in April and May, up from 1.3 million bpd a year ago, when Iran was shut out of the European market and dependent on limited shipments to Asian buyers.

Asia is the main destination for crude shipped by foreign vessels, with India, China and Japan the biggest takers, but at least four international tankers are also heading for Europe.

India, in particular, is taking a lead role as its demand soars and refiners such as Essar Oil, Reliance Energy, Hindustan Petroleum Corp, and Bharat Petroleum Corp enjoy good ties with Iran.

The non-Iranian companies currently chartered to carry its oil include Chinese state controlled shipper China Shipping Development, PetroVietnam and Japan's Idemitsu Kosan.

Greek, Turkish and Seychelles-owned tankers are also shipping Iranian crude.

($1 = 0.8821 euros)

(Additional reporting by Osamu Tsukimori in TOKYO, Nidhi Verma in NEW DELHI, and Jonathan Saul in LONDON)
By Anya George Tharakan (Reuters) - Polycom Inc said it received a revised offer from a private equity firm - the third time the bidder has revised its offer since the video conferencing equipment maker agreed to be acquired by Canada's Mitel Networks Corp . Polycom's shares rose about 2.5 percent to the new offer price of $12.25 in light premarket trading on Wednesday. The revised offer values Polycom at $1.66 billion, based on its outstanding shares as of April 21. Mitel's cash-and-stock deal was valued at $1.96 billion in April. Polycom, which did not name the private equity firm, said in a filing that the new offer comprised $650 million of equity financing and $950 million of debt financing. (http://1.usa.gov/1svOlvk) Mitel and Polycom announced a deal on April 15, bowing to pressure from activist investor Elliott Management. In October, Elliott had disclosed a stake of 6.6 percent in Polycom and of 9.6 percent in Mitel. San Jose, California-based Polycom said on Wednesday that its board still recommended its shareholders vote in favor of the Mitel deal. Mitel reiterated in a statement that its acquisition offered "superior and greater upside to both Polycom and Mitel." The tax "inversion" deal will help Polycom trim its tax bill as the combined company will be based in Canada. Mitel executives have brushed off concerns the deal could be affected by the U.S. Treasury's new tax inversion rules. The private equity firm's previous offer in May comprised a cash dividend of $11 per share and purchase of $650 million in shares of a new convertible preferred stock of Polycom. The private equity firm has held deal talks with Polycom since 2015, according to a filing by Mitel in May. (Reporting by Anya George Tharakan in Bengaluru; Editing by Kirti Pandey)
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., June 08, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Meritage Hospitality Group Inc. (OTCQX:MHGU), one of the nations premier restaurant operators, today announced it has completed the acquisition of 8 Wendys restaurants located in the Oklahoma City designated market area. The Company also reported it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire an additional 10 Wendys in the Oklahoma City designated market area, with the transaction closing planned for late summer.



Chief Executive Officer Robert Schermer, Jr., stated, We are very excited about the opportunity to expand our footprint west of the Mississippi river with a portfolio of Wendys restaurants which have a long operating history and a market area with new restaurant growth opportunity. This transaction represents our fifteenth acquisition in the past five years and is consistent with our past acquisition underwriting criteria. We intend to immediately begin the integration of these 8 Wendys restaurants into our web-based operating & accounting systems platform with 10 additional Wendys to follow later this summer.

The Company expects the 8 restaurant acquisition to add approximately $11.5 million in annual sales and be accretive to earnings. The transaction was funded with a combination of cash-on-hand and debt financing provided by Mercantile Bank.

The Company continues to make significant restaurant investments in 2016 with the renovation of 18 existing Wendys locations utilizing the new image activation design standards and developing new casual dining restaurants. The Company also reported that it has withdrawn from a previous purchase agreement to acquire 19 casual dining restaurants and continues to seek Wendys and casual dining acquisition opportunities where the Company believes it can add value using its web-based operating and accounting systems.

Meritage Hospitality Group is one of the nations premier restaurant operators, with 173 restaurants in operation located in Florida, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma and Virginia. Meritage is headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan, operating with a workforce of approximately 5,500 employees. The Company has approximately 5,706,173 (basic) common shares outstanding. The Companys public filings can be viewed at www.otcqx.com, under the stock symbol MHGU, or the Companys website www.meritagehospitality.com.

SAFE HARBOR STATEMENT

Certain information in this new release, particularly information regarding future economic performance and finances, and plans, expectations and objectives of management, constitutes forward-looking statements. Factors set forth in our Safe Harbor Statement, in addition to other possible factors not listed, could affect the Companys actual results and cause such results to differ materially from those expressed in forward-looking statements. Please review the Companys Safe Harbor Statement at http://www.meritagehospitality.com.
English Latvian

Olaine, 2016-06-08 15:00 CEST (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Webinar will be hosted by the Member of the Management Board Salvis Lapins. The presentation will be held in English.

During the webinar Salvis Lapins will inform about AS Olainfarm latest activities, provide more detailed information about the recent acquisition - company Tonus Elast and analyze the financial results of the first quarter 2016. During the webinar the attached presentation will be presented.

What is webinar?

Webinar is a virtual conference, during which companys representative gives information about the company, its activities and future plans. Webinar allows interactive communication and provides an opportunity to ask questions and get answers directly from the company.

How to join the webinar?

All you need is a computer with internet connection and headphones.

To join the webinar, we invite you to register via ej.uz/OLF_Q1_2016.

You will be provided with the webinar link and instructions to join webinar successfully. When joining the webinar for the first time, you will be asked to download the system application on your computer which will take only few seconds.



For more information on webinar service please visit: http://www.nasdaqbaltic.com/en/products-services/webinars-3/



Join the webinar and be the first one to hear the news!

JSC Olainfarm is one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in Latvia with more than 40 years of experience in production of medication and chemical and pharmaceutical products. A basic principle of company's operations is to produce reliable and effective top quality products for Latvia and the rest of the world. Products made by the Group are being exported to more than 35 countries of the world, including the Baltics, Russia, other CIS, Europe, Asia, North America and Australia.
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, June 08, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Paramount Group (www.ParamountGroup.com), the African-based global defence and aerospace company, unveiled a new generation 8x8 (eight wheeled) armoured vehicle in Astana, during the annual Kazakhstan Defence Exhibition. The technologically superior Mbombe 8 infantry combat vehicle represents the pinnacle of land system innovation; it was designed to meet the world-wide demand for sophisticated and affordable military equipment that provides unrivalled protection for land forces personnel, in an era of unprecedented asymmetrical threats and conflict.

View multimedia content: http://bit.ly/1U75nJA

Paramount Group has been responsible for the development and production of a broad range of advanced armoured and mine protected vehicles that are in operation around the world. As such, the Mbombe 8 is at the vanguard of armoured vehicle technologies. It has been designed and developed to meet the increasing demand for multi-role, high mobility, and mine hardened platforms, providing a solution to the ever-changing demands of the global battlefield.

This is a momentous occasion in the evolution of the Paramount Groups offering, and we are very excited to develop this high speed, long-range, and low profile 8x8 armoured vehicle, says Founder and Executive Chairman of Paramount Group, Ivor Ichikowitz. In less than a decade, Paramount has designed, developed, and industrialised an armoured vehicle nearly every two years. We have built a reputation for pushing the boundaries and pioneering armoured vehicles that are groundbreaking in their design, protection levels, and mobility, without exception.

Ben Jansen, CEO of Paramounts armoured vehicle business said: "The Mbombe 8 is world-leading in its class, this is a product that we are very proud of. We pioneered mine-resistant flat floor technology which is central to the design of the new 8x8 platform. The development of Mbombe 8 has enabled Paramount Group to provide potential customers with a complete family of 4 x 4, 6 x 6 and 8 x 8 AFVs which share over 80% of common components to reduce through life costs and make for easier training and logistics. This presents a unique opportunity for the global market, affording a prospective end-user of all three vehicles significant savings in the areas of maintenance and logistical support.

The Mbombe 8 is based on the design of the Paramount Groups Mbombe 6  an infantry combat vehicle that employs an inventive new form of provide unprecedented levels of protection, while keeping its profile to a minimum. The Mbombe 8 also draws on the Paramount Groups experience of designing the highly effective and battle-tested Marauder and Matador mine-resistant vehicles.

This highly advanced and comprehensive vehicle addresses the threats and operational requirements that are unique to the Commonwealth of Independent States region, and represents the innovation and transfer of technology at the heart of the strategic industrial partnership between Paramount Group and its partners in Kazakhstan Paramount Engineering.

Key features of the Mbombe 8 include:

Gross weight of 28 tonnes and kerb weight of 19 tonnes



Payload of 9 tonnes



Max speed of 110km/h



Operating range: 800 km



High levels of ballistic and mine protection: ballistic protection: STANAG 4569 Level 3+ and blast protection: STANAG 4569 Level 4a and 4b



The cooling systems and driveline have been tested and proven in winter conditions of -55 Celsius and desert conditions of +55 Celsius



The first advanced prototype of the Mbombe 8 will soon start extensive mobility trails, and production will be undertaken in South Africa and Kazakhstan.

South Africa has been leading the world in armoured vehicle and land mine protected technologies for decades. We have a truly remarkable skills base; we are home to some of the best engineers in the world, who have developed technologies that are used globally to save lives daily, concluded Ichikowitz.

For further information about Paramount Group visit www.ParamountGroup.com.

Distributed by APO (African Press Organization) on behalf of Paramount Group.

ABOUT THE PARAMOUNT GROUP:

Paramount Group (www.ParamountGroup.com) is Africas largest privately-owned defence and aerospace business. It is a leader in defence and security innovation and is a trusted partner to sovereign governments around the world, providing ground-breaking products, services and consultancy, including support for peacekeeping missions. Please visit www.paramountgroup.com for more information, or follow us on Twitter: @ParamountGroup1
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
John Oliver made history this week on his show Last Week Tonight. And it wasnt the first time.

Oliver and HBO conducted the largest one-time giveaway in television history, beating Oprah Winfreys famous free-car giveaway, back in 2004. Winfreys car gifts amounted to $8 million; Olivers debt forgivenesses doubled that figure.

Theres good reason Oliver made Times 100 Most Influential People list in 2015. He uses his unique position and platform  his is at heart a comedy show  to do real reporting and shed light on important issues. Beginning with his latest move, heres a look at 5 times Oliver exposed problems in corporate America and urged viewers to take action.

1. Medical debt keeps coming back from the dead

On June 5, Oliver did a segment on the many companies that buy up consumer debt at a reduced price and then, in many instances, mercilessly hound and threaten borrowers to pay up. To illustrate how easily an individual can set up a debt collection agency, the show created one based in Mississippi. Oliver named the company Central Asset Recovery Professionals, or CARP, after a bottom-feeding fish, he explained. He made himself chairman of the board andHBO purchased $15 million worth of medical debt ($14,922,261.76, to be precise) for $60,000.

Olivers next step? CARP partnered with RIP Medical Debt, a nonprofit that specializes in forgiving medical debt with no tax consequence to the debtor. The alliance allowed Oliver to forgive all the debt CARP now ownedquite a gift to the 9,000 people who owed it.

Look, it is pretty clear by now that debt buying is a grimy business and badly needs more oversight, said Oliver. Because as it stands, any idiot can get into it. And I can prove that to you, because Im an idiot and we started a debt-buying company and it was disturbingly easy.

To be sure, Oliver isnt suggesting all debt, medical or otherwise, is unjust and that debtors shouldnt have to pay. Clearly, if you have debts, you should pay them if you can, Oliver cautioned. But many people can find themselves in debt for no direct fault of their own.

Story continues

Olivers target, rather, is the billion-dollar debt industry that has made it all too easy for businesses to buy up large bundles of debt

at reduced cost from the original creditors and reap the profit. American households own over $12 trillion in debt, $436 billion of which is 90 or more days overdue.





2. Aggressive tactics at Trump University

On the same June 5 show, Oliver dug deeper into the scandal over Trump University, the seminar business Donald Trump launched in 2005 and which is now facing three lawsuits stemming from complaints by former students. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee has drawn heat for saying a judge presiding over one of the cases is unfit to rule because of his Mexican heritage.)

In his segment Oliver quoted New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who brought a $40 million civil suit alleging fraud against Trump U.: We started looking at Trump University and discovered that is was a classic bait and switch game, it was a scam, starting with the fact that is was not a university.

He also found that through a deposition related to the lawsuit, Trump admitted that he didnt handpick instructors as the school claimed it did. And most of the instructors had no background in real estate. One teacher was a salesman for Lowes and another a manager for Buffalo Wild Wings. Oliver also found that guidelines given to teachers were basically instructions on upselling students to buy more expensive courses. If a student complained about prices, instructors were told to remind them that Trump is the best.

Oliver found a quote in the instructor playbook demonstrating the kind of aggressive tactics staffers were supposed to use to get new customers: Money is never a reason for not enrolling in Trump University, if they really believe in you and your product they will find the money. You are not doing any favor by letting someone use lack of money as an excuse.

3. Miss America blasted on scholarship claims

Miss America, the organization that runs the pageant of the same name, has long called itself the largest provider of scholarship assistance to young women in the United States. In 2014, John Oliver disproved that claim.

Miss America said at the time that it provides $45 million in scholarship funds annually. Oliver found that Miss America offers recipients multiple scholarships to different colleges and then counts each scholarship offered as part of the $45 million, even though a recipient can only attend one school. Only a fraction of the scholarships are provided each year. In 2012, the actual sum paid out to women was $0.

In a statement following the show, the Miss America Organization issued a statement

, saying: As with any scholarship, the full amount awarded may not always be used as recipients plans change or evolve. The Miss America Organization works every day to administer these scholarships to young women across the country and encourages our participants to utilize these scholarships provided by colleges and universities nationally who partner to fund education.







4. The bad deal of the for-profit college

Oliver highlighted another troubling financial issue, the skyrocketing student debt graduates are saddled with when they leave school and continues to burden them well into their 20s and 30s. (The average college graduate has $37,000 in student debt, according to estimates.)

Some of the causes of this continuous rise include the slashed funding for education in a number of states, public institutions raising tuition rates, and the growing number of for-profit colleges. This last issue became the focus of an Oliver segment in 2014.

For-profit schools account for nearly a third of all student loans despite having just 13% of our countrys students, Oliver said. That is way out of proportion, adding that for-profit schools are five to six times the cost of a community college.

Last Week Tonight examined one of the for-profit schools, ITT Technical Institutes public filings, and found that in 2012, just a quarter of the schools 115 students graduated and only 13 found work in their field after graduation.

In 2014 the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities (APSCU), a for-profit school trade group, successfully lobbied against gainful employment regulations proposed by the Obama administration. The rules require that schools demonstrate that its students are making livable wages after graduation, or else the schools risk losing federal student aid.

In response, Oliver provided viewers with a complaint form they could fill out and send to the APSCU  mainly as a way to pester the group.

Olivers show may have had an impact. In July 2015, the Obama administration implemented stricter standards on for-profit schools, requiring that most for-profit programs and certificate programs at private non-profit and public institutions prepare students for gainful employment in a recognized occupation.

The student debt crisis goes far beyond the for-profit schools, but they have exacerbated the issue. If they went away, student debt problem will still be here, he said. Because all leaders have decided that while education is incredibly important, it is not important enough to actually pay for.







5. How doctors get in bed with pharma companies

Last year John Oliver showed a news segment that found that 70% of Americans take at least one prescription drug, more than half of us take two. Researchers say a record of 4 billion prescriptions were written in the 2011.

Those are noteworthy numbers, but Oliver decided to focus not on how many people take prescription drugs, but on the marketing of those drugs.

"Drugs aren't like most other products," Oliver said, because you need someone's permission to buy them." Thats why you will almost always hear the line, Ask your doctor at the end of a drug ad on TV. And people might assume that doctors have their best interest in mind when prescribing medication, but as Oliver found, thats not always the case. Last Week Tonight reported that most docs get offered thousands of dollars in promotional payments to offer patients overpriced and sometimes unnecessary drugs. Pharmaceutical reps are trained to offer doctors these payments  most commonly in the form of meals and drinks  in exchange for promoting the drugs to their clients or colleagues.

To be sure, the fact that doctors are often paid by pharmaceutical companies to push their drugs is not news. But Last Week Tonight took it a step further by directing viewers to a searchable federal database, accessible to the public thanks to the Affordable Care Act, that shows all the benefits every doctor gets from pharma firms. There is information on this database you should know, he said. And this should really just be the beginning. If drug companies really want to regain our trust, maybe they should let us know the effect their money has on doctors.

Oliver found that drug companies spend nearly $4 billion marketing to consumers, but an estimated $24 billion marketing to doctors. He cited multiple reports on top prescribers for certain drugs who were often getting money from the companies that made them.

Which is worrying, he said, because we trust doctors.







--

Minyoung Park is a reporting intern at Yahoo Finance.

Read more:



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Nigerien soldiers patroling on a road between Diffa and Bosso on May 25, 2015 (AFP Photo/Issouf Sanogo)

N'Djamena (AFP) - The first of an expected 2,000 troops from regional military powerhouse Chad began arriving in neighbouring Niger Wednesday, where Boko Haram insurgents inflicted heavy losses in the town of Bosso last week, a local security source said.

Chad is a leading member of a multi-national force fighting the Nigeria-based Islamist fighters who have extended their attacks to neighbouring countries from their base in northern Nigeria.

"The first Chadian soldiers have already arrived in Bosso on board around 30 heavily-armed all-terrain vehicles," the source said.

A Chadian military source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the troops will "search everywhere for Boko Haram".

The planned offensive comes after Boko Haram on Friday attacked a military post in Bosso in Niger's Diffa region, killing 26 soldiers including two from neighbouring Nigeria, in one of its deadliest attacks in Niger that sent tens of thousands fleeing.

A total of 55 insurgents were killed in the fighting and "many" injured, according to Niger authorities.

On Tuesday, witnesses near Bosso said Boko Haram remained in control of the town though the Niger government had said the previous day that "Bosso was totally under control."

In the regional capital, Diffa, some 140 kilometres (87 miles) to the west, teacher Ari Issa said he had seen many fighter planes.

Local radio Anfani said "military planes are coming and going between Lake Chad and Diffa airport".

There was no immediate confirmation from the Chadian army.

Last year, Chad dispatched soldiers to Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon to fight Boko Haram. The multi-national force includes the four countries.

- '50,000 displaced' -

Some 50,000 people have fled the Bosso area, UN refugee agency (UNHCR) spokesman Adrian Edwards said Tuesday.

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.

Story continues

The UNHCR said most of those fleeing the violence in Bosso had walked to Toumour, some 30 kilometres to the west.

In Abidjan on Wednesday, the medical charity Doctors Without Borders called for urgent help for those displaced in Bosso, saying they were short of water and food as well as medicine.

A local journalist working with Radio Anfani told AFP earlier this week that on Tuesday he was sheltering in Toumour with no food, along with many others who had fled the violence.

"The Boko Haram gunmen stayed in Bosso from 6:30 pm (1730 GMT) on Friday to 3:00 am on Saturday, burning the military barracks, police facilities and local administration office before looting shops and carting away food supplies," he said.

He said the gunmen used heavy artillery which allowed them to overrun the town's garrison.

"They came in large numbers shouting 'Allahu Akbar' (God is greatest)," he said.
By Steve Holland WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump kicked off a fierce general election battle, with Democrats accusing Trump of erratic behavior and the Republican threatening to bring up old Clinton scandals. Clinton, the former secretary of state, made history when she became the first woman to lead a major political party in its quest to capture the U.S. presidency. Big primary election wins on Tuesday in California and elsewhere catapulted her to victory over Democratic opponent Bernie Sanders. If elected on Nov. 8, the 68-year-old former U.S. senator from New York would return the Clinton family to the White House 16 years after her husband, Bill Clinton, completed two terms as president. All signs point toward a negative campaign as Clinton accused Trump of being temperamentally unfit to serve and the New York businessman charged that Clinton had a dark past and a weak record as President Barack Obama's first-term secretary of state. Clinton told NBC on Wednesday she would not run a "campaign of insults," but she sought to portray the 69-year-old Trump as not fit for the Oval Office after the real estate developer repeatedly accused a Mexican-American judge of showing bias against him because of his ethnic heritage. The Clinton campaign has pointed to criticism from leaders in Trump's Republican Party to make this case. "I'm going to talk about why he's unqualified to be president based on his own words and his deeds. And I'm going to continue to make the case he is temperamentally unfit to be commander in chief," she said in the interview. Trump gave a carefully crafted primary race victory speech on Tuesday laying out his own plan of attack. To keep from straying off message, he used a Teleprompter and avoided his typical stream-of-consciousness delivery. Trump said money given to the Clinton Foundation charity from foreign donors had earned the Clintons millions of dollars and had a corrupting influence when Clinton was secretary of state. "Hillary Clinton turned the State Department into her private hedge fund - the Russians, the Saudis, the Chinese - all gave money to Bill and Hillary and got favorable treatment in return. It's a sad day in America when foreign governments with deep pockets have more influence in our own country than our great citizens," Trump said. He said he would give a speech next week discussing all of the things that have taken place with the Clintons. CLINTON LEADS A Reuters/Ipsos poll on Tuesday showed Clinton leading Trump by 10 percentage points nationally, little changed from a week earlier. [nL1N18Y1Z2] Both Clinton and Trump must unite their parties but the Democrat appeared to face the easier path with Sanders, a leftist U.S. senator from Vermont, nearly out of options to challenge her. Trump has an uphill battle. U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan described Trump's remarks about the judge as a "textbook definition of a racist comment," but said he would still support him. Trump said on Wednesday he was "disappointed and surprised" by charges of racism from Republicans. "I had just won more votes than anyone in the history of the party," he told Time. "But you know, they have to say what they have to say. I'm a big boy. They have to say what they have to say." Ryan met behind closed doors on Wednesday with House Republicans. An aide said Ryan "discussed with his members the thinking behind his endorsement (of Trump) and how to move forward and reiterated he had confidence Trump would support the House Republican agenda. "I'd say the general attitude is, 'Good. Now let's just move on,'" said U.S. Representative Chris Collins of New York, a Trump supporter. "The irony here and the frustration was that he's not racist." Others said Trump needed to stop engaging in petty battles with former rivals and build a fundraising organization. Trump will meet on Thursday in New York with top fundraisers of the Republican National Committee, a party official said. Hopes flickered among some anti-Trump Republicans that there would be a revolt against him when delegates convene to nominate him formally in Cleveland from July 18 to 21. Representative Morgan Griffith, a Virginia Republican, said that was unlikely but that Trump needed to improve as a candidate. "Don't step into the cow pie," Griffith said. "He can't afford to be stepping into any more controversies like that." Clinton edged Sanders out in a rough-and-tumble battle that stretched over four months and 50 states. She won support, especially among older voters, with a more pragmatic campaign focused on building on the policies of fellow Democrat Obama. Clinton said she had spoken to Sanders on Tuesday to congratulate him on his campaign. "I am looking forward to working with him to unify the Democratic Party against the threat that Donald Trump poses to our country," she told PBS on Wednesday. "So we are talking. We will be having an opportunity to discuss in greater detail in the days ahead how we can best work together." Democratic Party elites are lined up squarely behind Clinton, including most likely Obama, who may endorse her as early as this week. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters that Obama would not endorse until after he meets with Sanders on Thursday. Obama and Sanders have spoken three times in the past month, Earnest said. The president's eventual endorsement would put pressure on Sanders to exit graciously and throw his support to Clinton. Sanders is also due to meet with Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid. (Additional reporting by Susan Heavey, Doina Chiacu, Emily Stephenson, David Morgan, Roberta Rampton and Richard Cowan in Washington; Editing by Alistair Bell and Peter Cooney)
* Firms suspected of blocking gas exports to other EU countries

* Gazprom charged with similar offence a year ago (Adds Petrom to list of companies raided)

By Foo Yun Chee and Luiza Ilie

BRUSSELS/BUCHAREST, June 7 (Reuters) - EU antitrust regulators have raided Romanian state-owned gas producer Romgaz , gas pipeline operator Transgaz and top oil and gas firm OMV Petrom over suspected blocking of gas exports to other EU countries.

The European Commission said the raids took place on Monday but did not name the companies, in line with its usual policy.

Romgaz, Transgaz and OMV Petrom, controlled by Austria's OMV , said on Tuesday they were raided.

The EU competition enforcer charged Gazprom last year with a similar offence, a case which the Russian gas company is trying to settle with concessions to avoid a possible billion-euro fine.

Allowing cross-border gas sales is a cornerstone of the Commission's strategy to create a single energy market in the 28-country bloc.

"The Commission is investigating potential anticompetitive practices in the transmission and supply of natural gas in Romania, in particular relating to suspected anticompetitive behaviour aimed at hindering natural gas exports from Romania to other member states," the EU executive said in a statement on Tuesday.

Romgaz, one of two major gas producers in Romania, said it was a target of the raids.

"We confirm the inspection. It is ongoing and as a result we cannot comment over the motives," the company said.

State-owned Transgaz also confirmed the EU raid.

"OMV Petrom is cooperating with the European Commission within an inspection related to potential practices on the gas market in Romania, which could envisage restrictions of gas exports," the third company said, declining further comment.

Romania is one of the EU's least energy-dependent states. It produces the bulk of its gas locally and imports up to 8 percent of its needs from Russia.

However, its interconnections are not fully developed, meaning Romania can import significantly more than it can export. Its investment in making interconnections work both ways has been lagging.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Adrian Croft and Matthew Lewis)
Marco Mattiacci 2

Faraday Future (FF), the mysterious electric-car company that debuted a radical race-car concept at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, is bringing on a seasoned Ferrari executive to a top leadership post.

The new hire is Marco Mattiacci, an award-winning auto executive who led Ferrari North America and Ferrari Asia Pacific between 2006 and 2014, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

The addition of Mattiacci is expected to be announced officially on Thursday, the person said, asking not to be identified. This person wouldn't say what role he will assume at FF.

Ever since it came out of stealth mode, FF has been a tough nut to crack. The Southern California-based startup has become somewhat notorious in the tech and automotive worlds for its lofty but secretive agenda.

One piece of the Faraday puzzle that has remained unknown is who the company's CEO is. As of now, we still don't know.

The source wouldn't say if that's the role Mattiacci would take, but called him "a great asset for Faraday Future with regard to a global viewpoint on the automotive space, both in manufacturing and in representation in the two biggest markets that FF is looking toward  North America and China."

Mattiacci has held executive roles in the automotive and motorsport industries for the past two decades, earning the Automotive Executive of the Year Award in 2012 while helming Ferrari's North America operations.

FF has poached some big auto-industry names from BMW, Ford, and General Motors  plus aerospace company SpaceX and several others. Nick Sampson, the man overseeing the development of FF's vehicles, is a Tesla alumnus.

Faraday Future

Story continues

The company is backed by a billionaire in China who runs LeEco, a tech giant that makes smartphones, virtual-reality headsets, and TVs.

Faraday is building a massive $1 billion factory in Nevada while eyeing additional property for a second facility in California.

The company is also deep into the testing of its forthcoming electric, self-driving vehicle technology, represented right now in the form of mules  decoy vehicles with FF underpinnings. Those cars have undergone testing throughout the country.

NOW WATCH: Heres where Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and Steve Jobs started as interns





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Who will be the leader that will stand up and say we need to get all of the world leaders together at the White House and discuss how we get Islamic Radicalists to stop committing terrorist acts and killing innocent people? I would get as many world leaders as possible, Presidents, PMs, the Pope, Imams, Patriarchs, business leaders, anyone who can figure out a way to get these people to stop these acts. In the final analysis, this really doesn't come down to gun control or homophobia. It is about a radical sect of people who want to either kill non believers of their religion or push their ideology on the rest of the world. Whoever steps up and says this, gets an ongoing conversation with world leaders started and an action plan with countries and faith leaders, will have the support of a vast majority of the US and world population. I wish Mr. Obama were the person to do this as he is a black man with a family that has had Muslim members in the past. He would be the perfect person to lead this "fight" or unification of the fight to stop this violence, but he just seems to cautious in his words and deeds and wants to relate terrorist acts to work place violence or gun control issues. We need a leader to get the country and the world together to stop this senseless violence.
Aqua Ohio Cited After Trench Collapse Leads to Death of Employee

OSHA has cited the utility company for failing to protect workers in trenches.

A man died due to injuries when a trench collapsed on him in March while he was working, and as a result, OSHA found the employer, Aqua Ohio Inc., did not provide trench cave-in protection for its employees. The company has been cited for one repeated and five serious safety violations. This is the second time the agency has cited Aqua Ohio for trench-related issues.

"This young man's death was preventable. It is unacceptable that Aqua Ohio again risked the lives of its employees in an unprotected trench," said Howard Eberts, OSHA's area director in Cleveland. "The company knows cave-in protection is required in a trench more than 5 feet deep, but their failure to comply cost a man his life."

Crain's Cleveland Business reported that penalties in the case totaled $44,800.
TSCA Reform Bill Passed By Congress

The long-delayed bill overhauling the Toxic Substances Reform Act is heading to President Obamas desk for his signature.

A long-delayed bill that will overhaul the Toxic Substances Reform Act, updating the country's standards for chemical safety, passed the U.S. Senate on June 7 and is headed to the desk of President Obama for his signature. Senate passage of the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act came by a voice vote two weeks after the U.S. House of Representatives passed the bill, but a decade has passed since some in Congress began working on the measure.

It gives EPA new regulatory power over thousands of chemicals, including new ability to order testing. "This is long overdue. All stakeholders across the political spectrum agreed for decades that this aspect of the law needed to be updated," said Sen. David Vitter, R-La., a lead sponsor of the bill. "We needed to fully protect public health and safety, which we all want to do. We also needed to ensure that American companies, which are world leaders today in science, research, and innovation, remain so and do not get put behind by a regulatory system which is overly burdensome and unworkable."

Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., is the lead Democratic sponsor of the bill. He said the old law was inadequate. "Most Americans believe that when they buy a product at the hardware store or the grocery store, that product has been tested and determined to be safe. But that isn't the case. Americans are exposed to hundreds of chemicals from household items," he said.

Udall became the main Democratic sponsor in 2013, after the death of then-Sen. Frank Lautenberg, a New Jersey Democrat who made passing chemical reform his top priority for several years.

"Today's victory is a culmination of years of hard work and dedication from both sides, and I know that the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act will provide the real reforms necessary to fulfilling Frank's legacy," Vitter said. "After four decades of living under a stagnant chemical safety law, I am so very glad to have passed a law that strengthens our country's international competitiveness, provides desperately needed regulatory certainty for industry, and mandates that the federal government use better science and provide more transparency. This law will be a game changer for the safety of our families and communities and will help promote economic success in an industry that is of paramount importance to Louisiana. I know Frank would have been pleased with this huge historic accomplishment."

"Passage of this bill in the Senate means that for the first time in 40 years, the United States of America will have a chemical safety program that works -- that protects our families from dangerous chemicals in their daily lives," Udall added. "When this bill becomes law, there will finally be a cop on the beat. And I want to thank my partner in this effort, Senator Vitter, and all of the co-sponsors and advocates who have pushed to get this bill passed and sent to the president's desk. This is a historic day and a fitting way to honor Frank Lautenberg's years of work for a healthier and safer environment for our children and grandchildren."
The first of an expected 2,000 troops from regional military powerhouse Chad began arriving in neighbouring Niger Wednesday, where Boko Haram insurgents inflicted heavy losses in the town of Bosso last week, a local security source said. Chad is a leading member of a multi-national force fighting the Nigeria-based Islamist fighters who have extended their attacks to neighbouring countries from their base in northern Nigeria. "The first Chadian soldiers have already arrived in Bosso on board around 30 heavily-armed all-terrain vehicles," the source said. A Chadian military source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the troops will "search everywhere for Boko Haram". The planned offensive comes after Boko Haram on Friday attacked a military post in Bosso in Niger's Diffa region, killing 26 soldiers including two from neighbouring Nigeria, in one of its deadliest attacks in Niger that sent tens of thousands fleeing. A total of 55 insurgents were killed in the fighting and "many" injured, according to Niger authorities. On Tuesday, witnesses near Bosso said Boko Haram remained in control of the town though the Niger government had said the previous day that "Bosso was totally under control." In the regional capital, Diffa, some 140 kilometres (87 miles) to the west, teacher Ari Issa said he had seen many fighter planes. Local radio Anfani said "military planes are coming and going between Lake Chad and Diffa airport". There was no immediate confirmation from the Chadian army. Last year, Chad dispatched soldiers to Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon to fight Boko Haram. The multi-national force includes the four countries. - '50,000 displaced' - Some 50,000 people have fled the Bosso area, UN refugee agency (UNHCR) spokesman Adrian Edwards said Tuesday. 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. The UNHCR said most of those fleeing the violence in Bosso had walked to Toumour, some 30 kilometres to the west. In Abidjan on Wednesday, the medical charity Doctors Without Borders called for urgent help for those displaced in Bosso, saying they were short of water and food as well as medicine. A local journalist working with Radio Anfani told AFP earlier this week that on Tuesday he was sheltering in Toumour with no food, along with many others who had fled the violence. "The Boko Haram gunmen stayed in Bosso from 6:30 pm (1730 GMT) on Friday to 3:00 am on Saturday, burning the military barracks, police facilities and local administration office before looting shops and carting away food supplies," he said. He said the gunmen used heavy artillery which allowed them to overrun the town's garrison. "They came in large numbers shouting 'Allahu Akbar' (God is greatest)," he said.
General Motors (NYSE: GM) CEO Mary Barra was all smiles when she met reporters before the company's annual meeting Tuesday morning.

Who could blame her?

Thanks to strong sales in North America, the automaker is riding one of the most profitable periods in its more than 100-year history. Her mood was particularly notable given its stark contrast to just two years ago, when the grim-faced CEO announced the scathing results of an internal investigation into its deadly ignition switch scandal.

Since that day, when Barra said GM suffered from a "pattern of incompetence and neglect," she and her company have delivered steady improvements on a number of key metrics. That is, with one large and glaring exception: its stock price.

Shares of General Motors are down more than 15 percent since June 5, 2014, compared with a slightly positive S&P 500. That includes a steeper than 10 percent decline this year, despite the automaker raising its earnings guidance in January .

So why are investors ignoring GM?

Susquehanna analyst Matt Stover attributed the drop in GM's share price to expectations that there will be "massive negative earnings" at some point in the future, as the cyclical auto industry comes off record-high sales.

"A lot of people are saying, 'I should take all forecasts regarding future profits with a huge grain of salt,'" Stover said.

The analyst likewise expressed doubt that GM's stock would move substantially higher until the company shows its balance sheet can weather a recession  something automakers have historically struggled to do well.

Though he does not have any immediate fears surrounding a recession, these periods are particularly rough on automakers, who have to balance investing in future products with conserving cash.

"Until they can prove they can handle falling sales and lower profits in a recession, the stock's multiple will not grow," Stover said.

Story continues

Speaking with reporters before GM's annual meeting, Barra barely mentioned the company's lagging stock.

"We are growing margins, [and] having record EBIT margins improving across the board," she said. "We are going to stay and continue to do what we say we are going to do and we believe over time that will be reflected in the share price."

During the meeting, one shareholder asked whether GM's U.S. market share, which slipped to 15.7 percent in May, has dropped too low as a result of the company passing up less-profitable sales of fleet vehicles to rental car companies and private firms.



Barra responded by saying, "We are very focused on market share, but we also work on profitable market share growth."

Clarification: GM's U.S. market share was 15.7 percent in May. That was not clear in an earlier version.





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Jewel Paymentech is part of the first round of companies from Asia to participate in the programme; a point of pride

Jewel Paymentech, a Singapore-based financial risk management company, has announced today it has been accepted to participate in the Wells Fargo Startup Accelerator and as part of the programme has received an undisclosed investment from the bank.

While the specifics of the Wells Fargo investment could not be made public, the accelerator programme advertises an up to US$500,000 investment for approved companies. It also takes a minority equity stake in the company.

Jewel Paymentech President and COO Wooi Siang Lee told e27 the investment is in addition to the S$1.5 million (US$1.1 million) Series A reported in January. Todays announcement officially closes the round led by Tuas Capital Partners Pte. Ltd.

Weve been speaking to Wells Fargo for quite some time now, Lee told e27. They had been keen to participate in our Series A all long, but it was more a timing issue, he said.

He went on to explain the bank only runs two intakes per year for its 6-month-long programme, so todays announcement coincides with the latest admission.

Also Read: Singapores financial risk management startup Jewel Paymentech raises US$1M

Jewel Paymentech provides three risk analysis solutions for banks as they handle payments for merchant clients. For example, if a retailer were selling counterfeit goods, the Jewel Paymentech products are in the business of alerting the banks of this information.

Lee said the Wells Fargo accelerator is a big opportunity for the company.

Although the focus will be on Southeast Asia, the accelerator is an invaluable opportunity to gain exposure to the US market  a channel the company does not possess at this point. He cited access to mentors, business leaders and an opportunity to learn about the US market and its dynamics.

Furthermore, the acceptance is not a tie-up with Wells Fargo so JewlPaymentech is free to spread its wings.

Story continues

Other goals to accomplish during the programme are customer acquisition, product refinement and team expansion.

Also Read: 8 for fortune: OCBC fintech accelerator reveals its participants

Wells Fargo pitches the accelerator as a way for companies outside of the bank to explore analytics, mobile, cybersecurity, payments, lending, user-interaction design, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, digital marketing, and operations in partnership with the financial institution.

We are excited to be investing in Jewel Paymentech through our Startup Accelerator and have it be part our investment portfolio, Steve Ellis, Head of Wells Fargos Innovation Group, said in an official statement.

Jewel Paymentechs risk technology and focus on onboarding procedures and speed and scalability in a banks merchant acquisition efforts, make it particularly interesting for us to explore

It is a competitive accelerator and the latest batch is the first time the programme has looked towards Asian companies for participation.

Jewel Paymentech will be the first home-grown Singaporean company to be accepted into the accelerator  although a participant, Alpha Payments Cloud has moved headquarters from New York to Singapore.

Being something of a regional representative is a heartening validation for JewelPaymentech.

We are proud to say we are one of the [trailblazing] guys from Asia to go into the program, he said.



Photo courtesy of Pixabay.

JewelPaymentech is a Echelon Top100 alumni, to witness Echelon Asia Summits TOP100 2016 startups take the next steps to success, secure your tickets at e27.co/echelon/asia now!

The post Opening doors: Singapores Jewel Paymentech hopes Wells Fargo accelerator can be springboard to US appeared first on e27.
(Bloomberg) -- Vietnam is accelerating the cleanup of its financial system to help boost lending in an economy threatened by a crippling drought and lower oil revenue.

The Vietnam Asset Management Company, set up to buy the bad debt of banks, will make its first cash purchase of non-performing loans this year, Nguyen Quoc Hung, chairman of the agency also known as VAMC, said in an interview Tuesday in Hanoi. The purchase will help lay out steps to quicken the bad debt resolution process.

VAMC currently issues special bonds in return for the bad debt, which banks may use as collateral to secure funding from the central bank. Paying cash to clear the debt will give banks funds to speed up lending.

This is a major step, said Alan Pham, chief economist at VinaCapital Group Ltd. in Ho Chi Minh City. The net effect is to resolve the bad debt instead of moving it around. Once you pay the market price and you pay in cash, the debt is extinguished.

Banking Cleanup

Vietnam has done much to clean up its banking industry since 2012 when a lending spree and weak controls led to a surge in bad debts, the arrest of bank executives and a plunge in stocks. Non-performing loans stood at 17 percent at the time. The government created VAMC in 2013 to remove the bad debt from lenders.

The state agency also plans to resolve about 30 trillion dong ($1.3 billion) of bad loans this year by selling debt and collateral, Hung said. VAMC has recouped about 8 trillion dong so far this year, he said.

This is going to help banks that need liquidity and to offload their bad debt, said Trinh Nguyen, a senior economist at Natixis Asia Ltd. in Hong Kong. We really have to wait and see what is the size of this.

VAMC, which is lacking in resources, will probably need financial support from the government or organizations such as the International Monetary Fund to address all of the bad debt in the countrys banking system, Pham said.

Spurring Growth

Banks have crimped lending to businesses because of bad debt, a situation the government wants to reverse as it seeks to spur economic growth to 6.7 percent this year. The economy expanded 5.5 percent in the first quarter, the slowest pace since June 2014.

Story continues

The central bank is aiming to curb non-performing loans to below 3 percent of total lending. Governor Le Minh Hung in April allowed VAMC to buy and sell bad debt at market prices, according to its website.

The World Bank said in a report in April that progress has been slow in consolidating the banking industry. The governments target of reducing the number of commercial banks to as little as 15 by 2017 from 34 currently remains challenging, it said.

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde said in a March interview that the banking system needs to be made stronger, better and more capitalized with less stressed assets so that lenders can help spur the economy.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nguyen Dieu Tu Uyen in Hanoi at uyen1@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nasreen Seria at nseria@bloomberg.net, John Boudreau

2016 Bloomberg L.P.
AFP News

Rishi Sunak on Tuesday became Britain's third prime minister this year and the first person of colour to lead the former imperial power, vowing to overcome an economic crisis provoked by the "mistakes" of Liz Truss's calamitous 49-day tenure. In his first order of business, Sunak retained Jeremy Hunt as chancellor of the exchequer, bidding to keep financial markets on side after Truss's budget plans shocked investors, and also retained her foreign and defence ministers, among others. Sunak, a practising Hindu who at 42 is Britain's youngest leader since 1812, became the ruling Conservatives' new leader on Monday after a prior stint as chancellor himself. Addressing the nation in Downing Street Tuesday shortly after his appointment by King Charles III, Sunak said the country faced "profound economic crisis". "I will place economic stability and confidence at the heart of this government's agenda," Sunak vowed, capping the latest extraordinary twist in UK politics following Boris Johnson's demise in July. - 'Mistakes' - Truss -- chosen by Tory members over Sunak in the summer to replace Johnson -- left office as the UK's shortest-serving premier in history. The 47-year-old wished the new leader "every success", noting she remained "more convinced than ever" that Britain needs to be "bold" in confronting the challenges it faces. Sunak countered that, though Truss was motivated by a well-intentioned desire to kick-start growth, her tax-cutting measures were "mistakes nonetheless". "And I have been elected as leader of my party and your prime minister in part to fix them," he said. "The government I lead will not leave the next generation... with a debt to settle that we were too weak to pay ourselves," he added, helping to drive the pound more than one percent higher against the dollar. Sunak, a wealthy descendant of immigrants from India and East Africa, secured the top job after rival contender Penny Mordaunt failed to garner enough nominations from Tory MPs and Johnson dramatically aborted a comeback attempt. Breaking his silence, Johnson offered his "full and wholehearted support" to Sunak -- having privately blamed his ex-minister for toppling him in July. Sunak in turn praised Johnson, but in a nod to the many scandals that brought Johnson down, vowed his own premiership would offer "integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level". - Cabinet continuity - In some of the other cabinet retentions aimed at stability, Sunak kept James Cleverly as foreign secretary, Ben Wallace in the defence brief and Kemi Badenoch in international trade. Just days after she left Truss's cabinet, hardline right-winger Suella Braverman was re-appointed as interior minister, in charge of policing and immigration control. Grant Shapps, who had briefly replaced Braverman, was named business secretary with partial oversight of climate policy, instead of Johnson loyalist Jacob Rees-Mogg. Sunak brought close ally Dominic Raab back as deputy prime minister and justice secretary, and veteran cabinet member Michael Gove to tackle the country's entrenched regional inequality. Mordaunt remains in a post overseeing government business in parliament, which may disappoint the ambitious centrist who had been tipped for a more senior role. The line-up "reflects a unified party and a cabinet with significant experience, ensuring that at this uncertain time there is continuity at the heart of government," a Downing Street source said. The new top team is set to meet early Wednesday, British media said, before Sunak faces his first weekly face-off with opposition parties at "Prime Minister's Questions" in parliament. - Foreign calls - In his first call with a foreign leader, Sunak told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky Britain would continue its "steadfast support" following Russia's invasion. He also spoke to US President Joe Biden, who had earlier hailed his appointment as the first British-Indian prime minister as "groundbreaking" and "pretty outstanding". "President Biden said that the UK remains America's closest ally, and the Prime Minister agreed on the huge strength of the relationship," a Downing Street spokeswoman said. European leaders offered their own congratulations, while Irish premier Micheal Martin reminded Sunak of their "shared responsibility" to safeguard peace in Northern Ireland following tensions under Johnson and Truss. Domestically, Labour leader Keir Starmer praised Sunak on "making history as the first British-Asian PM". But he reiterated accusation the Tories "have crashed the economy" and that the public needs "a say on Britain's future". Sunak has rebuffed opposition calls for a snap general election after becoming the latest leader who lacks a direct mandate from the electorate. Pollster Ipsos said that 62 percent of British voters want an election by the end of the year. Voters in London Tuesday spelled out the scale of his challenge. "The whole country is in shambles at the moment, he has got to make a difference, if he doesn't there's going to be riots," insurance adviser Helen Gorman told AFP. bur-jj/ah
German board brand Favorite Skateboard Co. presents Daggers  a solid 37 minutes of smooth precision shredding from Daniel Ledermann, Mario Ungerer, Valentin Ott, Michel Funke, Thomas Eckert, Patrick Freitag, Daniel Trautwein, Michi Heindl and Jonas Rosenbauer. Some high levels of board control going on here!

The Cirencester Skatepark Scratch and Skate Jam 2018, organised by Decimal Skateshop, can now be seen courtesy of James Harris' lens.

Power moves from Bromley here as Blast Skates welcomes Joe Howard to the team with two minutes of RWTB assisted DIY quarterpipe shredding.

Here are our favourite shots from the #CanonFirsts competition, including the two winners

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If you are looking for a food franchise opportunity and have a passion for sushi, a business in this industry might be an excellent option for you! Sushi is a huge market, and with its healthy options and delicious taste, it is becoming more and more popular in the United States every day. There are many different sushi franchises to choose from, so it is important to do your research before making a decision.

Here, well discuss the benefits of owning a sushi franchise and provide helpful information on some of the top opportunities available.

What is a Sushi Franchise?

In simple terms, it is a way of distributing services and sushi products to a sushi franchisor. In this business arrangement, the franchisee establishes the franchisors brand and operations after paying an initial investment. The franchisee then pays royalties and other fees to the franchisor for the right to operate the establishment under the franchisors name.

Moreover, a sushi franchise is a great opportunity for those who relish Japanese food and want to be their own boss. When you purchase a sushi franchise, you are given the right to use the franchisors name and logo, as well as access to their recipes, methods, marketing materials, and more.

READ MORE: See our Franchise Guide

The Sushi Industry in 2022

As the healthy eating index in the United States increases, the potential for successful sushi franchises does too. In fact, the number of businesses in the sushi industry in the United States has grown 3.6% per year on average between 2017  2022, according to industry reports. That trend is expected to continue. Thats a lot of rice bowls!

Additionally, Japanese sushi bars have evolved over the last three decades. During that time, masterful chefs offered their own unique spin on traditional Japanese cuisine, helping to make it more mainstream. Sushi can now be found in supermarkets, kiosks, all-you-can-eat conveyor belt eateries and even gas stations.

Why You Should Consider a Sushi Franchise

There are many reasons why you should consider sushi franchising in 2022, but weve compiled the top four:

Its a recession-resistant industry: When the economy takes a downturn, people still want to eat outthey just trade down to cheaper options. Sushi is seen as an affordable luxury, so it tends to weather economic storms better than other restaurants. You like being your own boss: Small business owners usually do well if they enjoy what they do and are knowledgeable about the operation. If you like the idea of entrepreneurship and providing excellent service as a sushi master, then a sushi franchise may just be perfect for you. Its a healthy option: Sushi is often made with fresh seafood, vegetables, and riceall of which are extremely healthy. As the health-consciousness of Americans continue to rise, so too will the demand for sushi. Its a growing industry: As mentioned before, the sushi industry is expected to grow significantly in the next few years. This provides a great opportunity for those who want to get in on the ground floor of a booming industry.

Top Sushi Franchise Opportunities

Now that weve discussed the benefits of owning a sushi business, lets take a look at some of the potential franchises available:

1. Rock n Roll Sushi

If youre looking for a business that is both fun and profitable, Rock n Roll checks all the boxes. The company was founded in 2010 in Mobile, Alabama by husband-and-wife super team Lance and Gerry Mach Hallmark. The eateries also have full bars, making them perfect for enjoying a night out with friends. Rock n Roll features American-style sushi products that set them apart from other sushi restaurants.

Financial Overview

Opportunites: 50+ units

Initial investment: $218,500  $585,000

Franchise Fee: $30,000

Rock n Roll Sushi franchising information

2. Koi Sushi Bar

Incorporated in 2010, Koi allows new potential franchisees to visit and shows well to potential buyers. Their theme includes amazingly-priced fresh and delicious fish served in authentic Japanese sushi bar style. Its business model is structured to make sure you have a smooth and stable business every day. So if youre looking for a sushi franchise opportunity that can provide you with a steady stream of customers, Koi is definitely worth considering.

Financial Overview

Opportunities: 12 units

Initial investment: $187,468  $461,600

Franchise Fee: $60,000

Koi Sushi Bar franchising information

3. Samurai Sams Teriyaki Grill

While not exactly a traditional sushi place, per se, quick-service Samurai Sams Teriyaki Grill offers a wide selection of healthy Japanese cuisines like grilled egg rolls, wok-stirred veggies, Gohan bowls, and yakisoba noodles. Founded in 1994, they have a fast-casual atmosphere, making them perfect for busy families or those on the go.

Financial Overview

Opportunities: 19 units

Initial investment: $106,260  $432,050

Franchise Fee: $7,500  $30,000

Royalty fees: 6%+

Samura Sams franchising information

4. Ace Sushi

Since 1990, Ace has been creating and serving high-quality sushi and other Asian fusion foods to great success in kiosks located within U.S. supermarkets. They started offering franchise opportunities in 2005, providing services such as chef instruction, kiosk set up, and access to all the supplies needed to run a franchise. Plus, franchisees can create a wide array of assortments from AFCs wide selection of products.

Financial Overview

Opportunities: 1,000+ locations worldwide

Initial investment: $16,832  $40,519

Franchise Fee: $2,400  $3,600

Ace franchising information

5. Benihana

The Benihana company was founded in 1964 by Hiroaki Rocky Aoki, and it makes the list because they delve into sushi and other Japanese cuisines. Their main focus is teppanyaki-style cooking where the chef prepares the meal in front of you on a large griddle. Teppanyaki is not to be confused with hibachi, known as shichirin in Japan. Shichirin is a less expensive option when it comes to franchising, and it involves placing a small charcoal grill in the center of the table for customers to cook their own meals.

Opportunities: 100+ units

Minimum initial investment: $3,000,000

Franchise Fee: $40,000

Royalty Fee: 5%

Benihana franchising information

6. Sansai Fresh Grill

Founded in 2002, Sansai Fresh Grill is a unique California sushi franchise that offers an array of healthy and delicious meals. Its main goal is to be a leading national restaurant for quality sushi and bento items. Their menu lineup includes sushi rolls, soups, salads, tempura, grilled skewers, combo plates and more. If you decide to contribute to their expansion program, youll receive assistance with site selection, accounting, marketing support and more.

Opportunities: 22 units

Investment: $440,900  $801,000

Franchise Fee: $35,000

Royalty Fees: 5.5%

Sansai Fresh Grill franchising information

7. Komotodo

Alonzo Martinez visited Singapore in 2013, and during his time there he saw an early concept of a sushi burrito firsthand. Afterward, he had the ingenious idea to put a Latin spin on things and the mashup buredo concept was born. His creation led to the first fast-casual and chef-inspired Komotodo chain in Denver, Colorado a year later. Guests visiting Komotodo can choose from a variety of burritos that are packed with flavors.

Financial Overview

Investment: $168,000  $439,000

Franchise Fee: $30,000

Royalty Fees: 5%

Komotodo franchising information

8. Gyu-Kaku

GYU-Kaku has been awarded the prestigious Hot Concept Award by the Oscars of the eatery business, Nations Restaurant News. Gyu-Kaku features tiered all-you-can-eat courses cooked Japanese BBQ style, or yakinuku, as it is known in Japan. They also serve their house Gyu-sushi, which is hand-crafted roast beef sushi splashed with their shoyu barbecue sauce and served alongside Kuki-wasabi.

Financial Overview

Units in operation: 50 units in North America

Investment: $1,215,444  $2,606,540

Franchise fee: $50,000

Royalty fees: 4.5%  5.0%

Gyu-Kaku franchising informaion

9. Sushi Freak

Sushi Freak is a fast-casual establishment that was founded in San Diego, California. The chain is known for its customizable sushi rolls, where customers can choose from a variety of fresh fish, vegetables and sauces. If you decide to become a Sushi Freak, you can expect support in specific areas like recipes and food preparation, architectural design, corporate training and ongoing updates for increasing profitability.

Financial Overview

Units in operation: 3,300

Initial investment: $179,900  $279,000

Franchise fee: $35,000

Sushi Freak franchising information

10. Ninja Sushi

If you are interested in being a franchisee in the tropical paradise of Hawaii, then check out Ninja Sushi. The company was founded in 2003 and has been providing quality sushi ever since. They sell nigiri sushi, hand rolls, specialty rolls, and chirashi, as well as bento boxes, salads and noodle dishes. They provide training, materials, equipment and more through their franchise program . The locations available right now are Oahu, Maui, Big Island and Kauai.

Financial Overview

Opportunities: 10 units

Investment: $247,300 and $500,600

Franchise fee: $30,000

Ninja Sushi franchising information

11. Sumo Sushi & Bento

Sumo Sushi & Bento has been franchising for over a decade and is now taking the leap to other countries, including the United States. As the name suggests, the casual dining company serves both sushi and bento boxes, as well as gorgeously crafted tartare, poke bowls and hibachi-grilled meats. In exchange for ongoing royalties, they provide things like expert training and ongoing assistance to help you build a Class A business.

Financial Overview

Investment: $817,000  $1,100,000

Franchise fee: $35,000

Royalty fees: 4.5%  5.0%

Sumo Sushi & Bento franchising information

12. Sarku Japan

Sarku knows that in Japan folks often take their lunches quickly, and their storefront and mall locations play to that by delivering fresh made-to-order sushi rolls, bento boxes, tempura and teriyaki without delay. Its business model has earned it a place as one of the most successful quick-service restaurant chains (QSR) in the United States.

Financial Overview

Units in operation: 250

Investment: $292,300  $598,500

Franchise fee: $30,000

Sarku Japan franchising information

13. AFC Sushi

AFC is another sushi bar company that supplies delicious sushi rolls, meat bowls and cold and hot noodles to grocery stores. They also service other industries such as university and military campuses and corporate office food courts. If youre looking for a franchise that has a global presence, AFC with over 4000 locations in the United States, Canada, and Australia, has one of the largest sushi franchises in the world.

Financial Overview

Units in operation: 4,000

Startup costs begin at $50,000

AFC Sushi franchising information

14. Kaiten-Zushi

Sushi bars that offer kaiten-zushi use a strategically placed conveyor belt to deliver tasty dishes to customer tables. For the most part, these types of establishments arent offering franchise opportunities. There are a few that do, but they require you to contact them for franchise information. If you are tech-oriented and have a vision of owning an uber-efficient sushi bar, this might be the franchise or even a nice startup idea for you.

15. Yoshinoya

Yoshinoya started their Tokyo fish markets in 1899, expanding to California in the late 70s. They prepare and serve sushi and other traditional Japanese dishes such as donburi and udon. If you take on a Yohinoya franchise, youll be happy to know theyll provide your enterprise with instruction and manuals, marketing help and POS systems for accepting payments and training.

Financial Overview

Units in operation: 89

Investment: $509,498  $806,375

Franchise fee: $24,750  $27,500

Royalty: 5.0%  5.5%

Yoshinoya franchising information

How to Choose the Best Franchise to Set Up Your Sushi Restaurant

When it comes to choosing the best franchise to set up your sushi restaurant, there are a few factors you should consider.

The initial investment: Franchises in this industry can range in price from a few hundred thousand dollars to well over a million dollars. You should choose a franchise that is within your budget. Also, make sure to consider other fees and that you have the minimum liquidity they require.

The location: Where your business will be is important for success. Therefore, youll want to choose a location that is in a high-traffic area with a lot of potential customers.

The menu: The franchisors menu is important because it will determine what type of Japanese food you will serve. Also, its best to choose a franchise that has a menu that you are passionate about.

The support: The assistance that the franchisor provides to your business is important and will largely determine your ability to run your business. You want to choose one that provides you with the most training, constant support and other perks so your operating model can be as successful as possible.

READ MORE: How to Start a Food Truck Business

How Much Does It Cost to Open a Sushi Franchise?

The costs of opening a franchise of any kind can vary depending on the size and location of your restaurant. It can also vary wildly depending on the type of establishment it is. For instance, we saw startup costs range from about $50K for a grocery store kiosk to $3M for a high-end teppanyaki restaurant like Benihana.

However, on average, you should expect to spend at least $500,000 on startup costs when you figure in the initial franchise fee, an investment fee, royalties, marketing, liquor licensing and other miscellaneous costs. Technology concepts can drive up the cost of ownership, so if you have your heart set on a sushi-making robot or conveyors, be sure to tally in their costs as well.

Are Sushi Franchises Profitable?

Perhaps the better question franchisees should ask is: Is selling sushi solely on its own profitable? In many Asian restaurants, sushi and sashimi typically lose money. On the bright side, the profits gleaned from mass-produced cooked foods often offset monetary losses.

That being said, there are many sushi franchises that are profitable. These businesses have several things in common:

Theyre usually part of a larger chain of restaurants, so they have the buying power to get discounts on fish and other ingredients.

They tend to be located in high-traffic areas, such as malls or airports.

They offer a wide variety of menu items, so they can appeal to a wider range of consumers.

They have efficient operations, so they can keep their costs down.

READ MORE:
Pizza is always in demand with consumers, which means it provides plenty of thriving franchises. Todays best pizza franchises range from traditional delivery outlets to trendy build-your-own pie restaurants.

Get your slice of the thriving pizza market with our best pizza franchise list topped with the finest advice in the business.

Pizza Hut and Dominos may be the largest restaurant franchises, but you are not limited to them. Here are 30 of the best pizza franchises.

1. Pizza Hut

Pizza Hut operates the most pizza franchises in terms of locations. The company enjoys a 58 year history of success, from its founding by brothers Dan and Frank Carney. Aside from the brand recognition, Pizza Hut pioneered innovations including having a variety of formats from family-style dine-in to carry-out franchises. The company offers a few different types of franchise opportunities. However, the initial investment usually ranges from $297,000 to $563,000. The initial fee for a franchise is $25,000.

2. Dominos

Dominos puts a unique twist on its franchise for pizza with a focus on customer convenience. The company has been around for more than 50 years and has more than 17,000 franchises. This makes it the largest pizza company in the world. It has other offerings including chicken wings. Dominos Pizza utilizes a simple tech platform to facilitate online ordering with a streamlined customer experience from all its locations. Most franchisees start by learning the ropes at a current Dominos before purchasing their own store. The franchise fee is $10,000 and the initial investment ranges from $100,000 to about $600,000.

3. Papa Johns

Papa Johns remains one of the more popular nationwide brands and among the largest pizza franchise opportunities available. The name refers to founder John Schnatter. The company offers both traditional and non-traditional franchise opportunities, so even those with access to unique venues or locations can consider it as an option. Initial costs for an average-sized location range from about $250,000 to $300,000. The franchise fee for a U.S. store is $25,000.

4. Little Caesars

Little Caesars has been in business a long time. Entrepreneur Mike Ilitch founded the pizza chain with just one pizzeria in Metro Detroit in 1959. That modest shop grew into an internationally recognized brand in 24 countries, making it one of the largest franchises in this niche. The company prides itself on unique offerings, like its $5 Hot-N-Ready food and online ordering portals on the company website . The initial investment can range from $250,000 to $335,500. And the franchise fee is $20,000.

5. Marcos Pizza

Marcos Pizza currently has hundreds of franchises throughout the United States, with even more opportunities for growth in select markets. Both single and multi-unit franchises for a pizza restaurant are available. Youll need to spend between $223,535 and $586,410 to get started with a traditional franchise location. The initial franchise fee is $25,000.

6. Sam & Louies

Sam & Louies specializes in New York-style franchise of pizza. Originally launched in Oklahoma, this franchise quickly spread across nearby states and is now expanding throughout the U.S. and Canada. The company offers flexible design options to adapt its franchises to various communities. The total initial investment ranges from $331,500 to $474,700. And the franchising fee is 25,000.

7. MOD Pizza

MOD Pizza offers fast, simple, and customizable pies. The company owns and operates most of its own stores. But it does collaborate with select franchise partners who are interested in developing multiple units. The franchise fee is $30,000. The initial investment ranges from $714,000 to $985,000.

8. RedBrick Pizza

Red Brick Pizza specializes in brick oven pizzas made with quality ingredients. The fast-casual restaurant chain provides several different franchises to suit your community and customer base. You can also choose between single and multi-unit franchises. The initial fee is $30,000 for a traditional cafe. Initial costs range from $316,400 to $548,200.

9. Hungry Howies

Hungry Howies currently has more than 550 franchises across the U.S. The company provides opportunities for both single and multi-unit franchises. The company offers training, a nationwide distribution network, mobile and online platforms, and marketing assistance. Costs to launch a Hungry Howies franchise falls between $200,000 and $375,000. The franchise fee for Hungry Howies is $25,000.

10. The Pizza Press

The Pizza Press is a restaurant chain that uses the concept publish your own pizza. Guests get to create their own custom pies and can finish their meal with ice cream treats. So franchises create a real experience for the customers in their area. The company is currently seeking out developers seeking multi-unit franchises and those who are willing to expand internationally. The fee for one franchise is $35,000 and $28,000 for any subsequent units. Total costs to get going range from $300,000 to $645,000.

11. Pizza Ranch

Pizza Ranch has a dine-in / carryout restaurant model for its franchises with a focus on creating a welcoming environment for guests. In addition to their pizza offerings, they also serve fried chicken among other items. These franchises are equipped with FunZone arcades. The company provides training, marketing assistance and ongoing support to franchisees. The total initial investment ranges from $1.3 to $3.4 million, with a $30,000 franchising fee. Single and multi-unit franchises are available.

12. CiCis

CiCis is a buffet chain with 430 franchises across more than 30 states. The company provides marketing support, training and distribution. Incentives are available to veterans to make the initial investment easier. The upfront investment ranges from $686,445 to $1,033,180. The franchising fee is $30,000 with incentives available to bring that cost down.

13. East of Chicago Pizza Company

East of Chicago Pizza Company is a Midwester pizza chain in business for more than 20 years. The company has a proven business model and a dedication to creating pizzas and other food items with quality ingredients. The initial fee is $20,000. Upfront costs range from $162,000 to $463,000.

14. Uno Pizzeria & Grill

Unos is one of the best pizza franchises in the Chicago style. It offers full service franchises. Each restaurant has a casual theme, but offers numerous profit opportunities including salads, other menu items, and bar options. The franchise fee is $40,000. Initial costs for these franchises range from $850,000 to $2.5 million.

15. Happys Pizza

Happys Pizza chain provides delivery, carry-out, dine-in and catering options for customers. The company provides its franchises with help in training, real estate acquisition, marketing and more. Happys currently has franchises in Michigan, Ohio, Nevada, and California, and is looking for even more expansion opportunities. The initial fee is $25,000, with discounts available for those opening multiple franchises. Total upfront costs range from $336,500 to $608,000. Additionally, the company charges a flat monthly fee instead of collecting royalties.

16. My Pie

My Pie is part of the growing custom market. But the company specializes in New York style. Franchise opportunities are currently available nationwide. Youll need between $190,000 and $545,000 in build-out costs depending on the number and type of franchises. The initial franchising fee is $35,000.

17. Pieology

Pieology offers personalized pies right from its online platform. The company currently has 130 franchises in 22 states. And they offer exclusive territories for new franchises. The initial fee required is $25,000. Upfront costs range from $458,500 to $874,500.

18. LaRosas Family Pizzeria

LaRosas is known for its family recipe and inviting atmosphere. With more than 60 years in business, the company currently has franchises in Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky. They offer delivery, dine-in, and even catering services, which provides diverse profit potential. The initial fee is $35,000. Startup costs range from $400,000 to $950,000, again depending on the number and type of franchises you plan to operate.

19. Papa Murphys

Papa Murphys has over 1,300 franchises in the United States, Canada, and the United Arab Emirates that serve take n bake pizza. The company provides training and support to franchisees. And there are current and future markets open to expansion around the country. The initial fee is $25,000. And startup costs range from $286,919 to $524,205.

20. Russos New York Pizzeria

Russos New York Pizzeria brands itself as an upscale casual pizzeria. The restaurant uses fresh ingredients and family recipes brought to the forefront by Chef Anthony Russo. Franchises offer sit down, takeout, delivery, and catering service. Theres a $39,500 initial fee. Total costs to start in one of these franchises range from $450,000 to $750,000.

21. Ledo Pizza

Ledo Pizza is a Maryland based company that is currently offering franchises in select markets around the U.S. The pizzeria offers a varied menu and online ordering options to increase customer loyalty. The initial fee is $30,000. Costs to start range from $126,000 to $442,000.

22. Pizza Factory

Pizza Factory is known for its fresh ingredients and community involvement. The company boasts a strong family oriented culture, and offers discounts for veterans interested in operating franchises. The initial fee is $30,000. Costs to start range from $372,000 to $562,000.

23. Rosatis Pizza

Rosatis is another of the franchises specializing in authentic Chicago style offerings. The family owned company provides training and assistance with site selection and various other aspects of running your franchise. The initial fee is $35,000. And startup costs range from $136,200 to $1,241,000.

24. Mountain Mikes

Mountain Mikes has been in operation for more than four decades. Originally opened in Northern California, the company looks to sell franchises throughout Southern California, Utah, Nevada, and Oregon. The franchise is known for its quality ingredients and ties to the communities it serves. The franchise fee is $30,000. The upfront costs range from $208,020 to $593,520.

25. Vocelli Pizza

Vocelli Pizza specializes in artisan pizzas and other classic Italian dishes. The company has been around for more than 25 years and falls into the growing fast casual segment of franchises. Your initial costs can range from $156,000 to $330,900. The franchising fee is $30,000.

26. Kono Pizza

Kono offers a unique take. The Kono Cone changes the entire shape of traditional pies in an effort to make it easier to eat. The company offers food truck franchises with low overhead and mobile business opportunities. The initial investment ranges from $25,000 to $150,000 depending on which model you choose. Theres also a $25,000 fee for a single unit.

27. Foxs Pizza Den

Foxs Pizza Den is a family owned business that prides itself on being accessible to potential franchisees. The companys $10,000 franchise fee and flat $300 per month royalty rate make it a fairly affordable option compared to other pizza franchises. Total upfront costs range from $93,550 to $115,550.

28. Jets

Jets is a Detroit style pizza restaurant that provides carryout and delivery. The company provides training, opening assistance and ongoing support to franchisees. Jets charges a $25,000 franchise fee. And total upfront costs range from $437,500 to $631,000. The company is also open to those who want to convert existing restaurants into franchises.

29. Round Table Pizza

Round Table Pizza offers both dine-in and carryout and delivery franchise models. The company is known for its authentic ingredients and flexible business models. The franchise fee for both options is $25,000. For dine-in locations, total upfront costs range from $471,500 to $1,061,250. For carryout/delivery locations, those costs range from $327,300 to $510,250.

30. Blaze Pizza

Blaze Pizza offers fast service and wood-fired pizzas with quality ingredients at all its locations. Restaurants also offer convenient features like online and mobile ordering and contactless pickup. The total initial costs range from $319,800 to $858,000. The franchise fee is $30,000 per restaurant, or $20,000 for certified training stores.

Some pizza chains were left off our list like Toppers Pizza which includes many company owned stores and Donatos Pizza founded by Jim Grote.

FAQs About Pizza Franchises

These frequently asked questions summarize key points about pizza franchise opportunities.
As the battle continues between National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the International Franchise Association (IFA)  a battle that started in August last year  Virginia is still struggling to push back a major NLRB ruling that redefined how the relationship between a corporation and its franchisees is viewed.

On August 27 last year, the NLRB issued a ruling which clearly stated that anyone who exerts indirect control over a workers terms and conditions of employment  even if that worker is an independent contractor  is essentially an employer. In making this decision, the NLRB is departing from previous definitions of what constitutes a joint employer.

The original case in reference to which this landmark ruling was passed concerned Browning-Ferris Industries of California Inc., which was considered a joint-employer with Leadpoint, the company supplying many of its contract employees.

Since then, there has been contradicting thoughts from various pockets of the political landscape. While some believe that the ruling will threaten the survival of small business in America and, some like Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe beg to differ.

Virginia Governor Vetoed House Bill 18

On April 8, McAuliffe exercised his veto against House Bill 18, legislation which would have protected Virginias nearly 25,000 franchise businesses that support 287,000 jobs in the Commonwealth. In his veto explanation, McAuliffe said the bill created a categorical prohibition that would force small businesses to shoulder responsibilities that ought to fall to the larger franchising company.

He further added, As proponents of this legislation have acknowledged, franchisees and their employees are not considered employees of the franchisor in typical franchisor/franchisee relationships.

However, the nature of that relationship is subject to a particularized fact-based inquiry, and in situations of dominant franchisors, the franchisees and their employees are de facto employees of the franchisors. House Bill 18 would relieve these dominant franchisor/employers of the obligations and responsibilities an employer owes to its employees. As a result, it would fall to the dominated franchisees  usually small, Virginia-based businesses  to shoulder the burdens more appropriately placed on the dominant franchisor.

His comments received tremendous resistance from International Franchise Association, who view this as a major disappointment that McAuliffe has chosen to side with labor bosses in Washington rather than his constituent small business owners in Virginia.

HB 18 was introduced in the wake of a decision by the NLRB to change 50 years of federal labor law and legal precedent. The bill would have reinstated that a franchisee nor any employee of it shall be deemed to be an employee of the franchisor for any purpose under Virginia law.

IFA is the worlds oldest and largest organization representing franchising worldwide. Today IFA protects, enhances and promotes franchising through more than 800,000 franchise establishments that support nearly 9.1 million direct jobs, $994 billion of economic output for the U.S. economy and 3 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

In a comment in response to McAuliffes veto, the IFAs head of Media Relations and Public Affairs Matt Haller said, We are interested to see and understand the Governors reasoning to veto legislation that has passed in seven other states. We hope that the legislature will put the interest of franchising first and override the Governors veto.
It has taken a while, but small businesses are finally realizing the potential of mobile apps to gain more customers and increase sales.

According to a new survey by B2B research company Clutch, nearly 50 percent of small businesses will have mobile app by 2017. Thats impressive considering only 20 percent of small businesses have mobile apps today.

Three years ago, a small business might see 10 percent of its total traffic coming from mobile, but right now its closer to 70 percent. Within the next couple of years, a shift to a mobile app or a mobile-friendly site will become obvious, says Viktor Marohnic, CEO of the app builder Shoutem.

Small Businesses Will Have A Mobile App by 2017

The survey has found that the majority of small businesses are building apps to increase sales (55 percent), improve customer experience (50 percent) and become competitive in a specific market (50 percent).

Marohnic explains, A good mobile app can facilitate quick checkout for a purchase, leading to an increase in sales. Customer experience amounts to simply browsing through an inventory, seeing whats available. An app can definitely improve that experience, compared to a mobile website, where the user has to login again every time they use it, provide payment details, and so on.

Marhonic also adds that consumer-facing industries such as restaurants, churches, small event organizers, car dealers, and stores are the obvious adopters of mobile apps for small business. According to him, these businesses want to build loyalty programs and keep their customers informed.

The survey findings support Marhonics assertion as it has been revealed that small businesses consider customer loyalty features (21 percent) as the most valuable feature of their current mobile app.

Should You Opt for a Mobile App for Your Business?

The big question now is whether or not you should go for a mobile app for your small business?

Before you consider the option, you should know that apps are no longer a mere branding exercise for small businesses. From simplifying online purchases to providing easy-to-access information, apps provide several benefits for small business owners.

Its worth noting that for the business owners, there are various sophisticated software tools and app builders that are making their lives easier. These easy-to-use and affordable tools can get businesses started and help leverage the potential of apps.

Founded in 2012, Clutch is a Washington DC based research firm. For the study, Clutch surveyed 352 owners or managers in the United States and asked if their small businesses will have a mobile app by 2017.

Market Image via Shutterstock, Chart Image via Clutch 2016 Survey Data

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Veterans account for a significant percentage of small business owners in the United States. While there are many programs, and resources available to help veteran-owned businesses, securing a loan can be difficult. In this article, well look at ten business loans thatll help veteran-owned businesses secure the funding they need to grow.

What Is a Small Business Loan for Veterans?

A veteran business loan is a type of loan specifically designed for veterans who are starting or running a small business. These loans can be used for a variety of purposes, including financing working capital, buying equipment or inventory, or refinancing debt. They are typically offered by banks and other financial institutions and can be used to finance a wide range of small businesses.

READ MORE: SBA Continues Boots to Business Entrepreneur Training for Military Veterans

How Can a Veteran Qualify for a Business Loan?

There are multiple qualifications a veteran or active duty service member participating in the militarys Transition Assistance Program must meet to be qualified for a loan, such as:

A good credit score. Your personal credit score will be one of the first things a lender looks at when considering you for a loan. A high credit score indicates to lenders that youre a low-risk borrower and are more likely to repay your loan on time.

Collateral. Many lenders will require you to put up some form of collateral, such as your home or another piece of property, to secure a loan. This gives the lender a way to recoup their losses if you default on your loan.

A solid business plan. Before you apply for a loan, its important to have a clear and well-defined business plan. This will show lenders that youre serious about your business and have a good understanding of what it will take to be successful.

Veteran status. There are several veteran-specific business loans available, so its important to let lenders know that youre a veteran when youre applying for financing. Doing so will give you access to loans with better terms that you may not otherwise be eligible for.

READ MORE: 30 Best Franchises for Veterans

Top Small Business Loans for Veterans

The Small Business Administration (SBA) not only offers training programs but several veteran business loans. There are also numerous private lenders that offer veteran-friendly loans. Here are some of the top small business loans for veterans:

1. Small Business Administration Loans

The SBA offers several loan programs to help businesses grow and expand. The SBA Veterans Advantage Program is designed specifically for veterans, service-disabled Vets, and military spouses. The SBA7(a) and SBA Express loans are available to businesses with a minimum credit score of 650.

The Military Reservist Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program (MREIDL) is available to service-disabled Veterans who have suffered economic injury as a result of being called to active duty. The SBA also has the Office of Veterans Business Development which promotes Veteran entrepreneurship.

2. Navy Federal Credit Union

Navy Federal Credit Union offers a business line of credit, vehicle loans, equipment loans, and term loans for working capital. The minimum credit score requirement is 650, and the maximum loan amount is $100,000. The estimated APR range is 11% to 18%.

3. LoanBuilder

LoanBuilder is a lending platform owned by PayPal. The platform offers loans up to $500,000 with a maximum term of 12 months. The minimum credit score required is 620, and borrowers are required to make weekly repayments.

4. PNC Bank

PNC Bank is a great option for a line of credit. The minimum credit score required is 720, and the maximum loan amount is $100,000. The APR range is 12.99% to 14.99%, which is competitive compared to other lenders.

5. Fundbox

Fundbox is a line of credit designed for small businesses. The minimum credit score required is 600, and the maximum loan amount is $150,000. The APR ranges from 10.10% to 79.80%. FundBox is an option for Veterans with a low credit score.

6. Bluevine

Bluevine is a company that provides lines of credit to small businesses. The maximum loan amount is $250,000 and the minimum credit score is 625. The APR ranges from 15.00% to 78.00%. This too is a decent option for Veterans with low credit.

7. Kabbage

Kabbage is a well-known company that provides small businesses with the capital they need to grow and succeed. Kabbage offers loans up to $250,000 and requires a minimum credit score of 640.

The company also requires that businesses generate at least $3,000 in monthly revenue and at least one year in business.

8. Credibility Capital

Credibility Capital is a credible online term loan provider. Their minimum credit score requirement is 650, and their estimated APR ranges from 6.99% to 24.99%. This makes them a reliable option for Veteran borrowers with good credit scores. Additionally, their maximum loan amount is $500,000, making them a good choice for those looking for a larger loan.

9. SmartBiz

SmartBiz offers online SBA loans with low-interest rates to established Vet-owned businesses. The maximum loan amount is $5 million and the minimum credit score is 650. These loans can be used for a variety of purposes, such as working capital, equipment purchases, or business expansion.

10. OnDeck

OnDeck offers online term loans up to $250,000 for businesses with a credit score of at least 600. The APR on these loans ranges from 29.90% to 97.30%.

OnDeck is one of the leading providers of online term loans, and its loans are designed to help businesses grow and expand. However, the high APR makes these loans a less attractive option for many borrowers.

How Hard Is It For Veteran Business Owners to Get a Business Loan?

Veteran-owned small businesses can have a harder time getting business loans than other small businesses. This is because the lenders might see them as a higher risk, since they may not have as much experience in running a business.

However, there are some programs available specifically for veteran-owned businesses, so it is worth checking into those if you are a veteran looking to start a small business.

How Much Can You Get with a VA Business Loan?

A VA loan offers veterans and active-duty servicemembers the opportunity to borrow up to $350,0000 for their business with one to five-year terms. The loan can be used for a variety of purposes, such as starting or expanding a business, purchasing equipment or inventory, or refinancing debt.
Every business has a different set of goals. But increasing profits is a pretty universal objective for businesses of all sizes. There are plenty of different ways to go about working toward that goal. Members of our small business community shared some simple steps you can take in the list below.

Test Your Financial Literacy

To make sure that your business is on the right track financially, youll need to make sure that youre financially literate enough to make that determination. This Sageworks post includes a quiz made to test out your financial literacy so that youll be better equipped to make those tough decisions.

Focus on Managing Your Payroll

Payroll management is part of running a business that can sometimes get neglected. But its incredibly important for you to have people dedicated to managing your payroll operations and transactions, even if you have set processes in place. Hmd Ali explains more in this post for The Raymond Solutions.

Form Habits That Lead to Long Term Success

Making a quick dollar is nice. But youll need to think differently if you want your business to actually succeed over the long run. That means you have to form habits that can actually lead to long term success, as Martin Zwilling shares here in the Startup Professionals Musings blog. You can also see conversation surrounding the post over on BizSugar.

Avoid These Usability Mistakes That Destroy Mobile Conversion Rates

If you want your business to make money in 2016, you need to be able to convert mobile customers. That means that your site or platform needs to actually be usable for people on mobile devices. So you need to avoid the usability mistakes outlined in this post by Jeremy Smith in the Jeremy Said blog.

Convert Blog Visitors Into Customers

Having a lot of blog readers or visitors can be great for your business. But that alone wont necessarily make you any more profitable. Instead, you can check out this post by Neil Patel and work on converting all of those blog visitors into actual paying customers.

Understand That Your Products Are Commodities

No longer are products just products. In this Kexino post, Gee Ranasinha explains why businesses now create products that are also seen as commodities to consumers. And the BizSugar community also share thoughts on the post too.

Consider Changing Your Legal Structure for Tax Year 2016

If you got hit hard by taxes this year, you might want to consider changing your businesss tax structure for the coming year. In this CorpNet post, Nellie Akalp discusses some ways you might be able to change your businesss structure so that you could benefit come tax time.

Keep Track of Your Online Reputation

You already know that your reputation is important. But it can also have an impact on your businesss bottom line. This post by Rachel Strella of Strella Social Media includes some tips for tracking and managing your online reputation. And BizSugar members comment on the post here.

Follow These Investment Tips for Beginners

Investing can be a tricky game, whether youre personally investing what youve made from your business or making investments specifically to help your business grow. But this Noobpreneur post by Ivan Widjaya includes some investment tips specifically aimed at beginners.

Use These CRM Tools to Skyrocket Your Success

Any business that wants to make money needs customers  and more specifically, loyal customers. If you want to keep your customers happy and engaged with your business, youll need some kind of CRM system. Apple Pineda shares some options in this post on the RightMix Marketing blog.

If youd like to suggest your favorite small business content to be considered for an upcoming community roundup, please send your news tips to: sbtips@gmail.com.
FedEx has announced a settlement date for its $4.8 billion takeover of European rival TNT Express.

After clearing a gauntlet of global regulatory hurdles, FedEx confirmed recently that it has unconditionally declared its final offer for the Dutch-based delivery firm TNT  with 88.4 percent of all company shares having already been committed, and every single offer condition having been either satisfied or waived.

The acquisition was made official this week on May 25, and will see ordinary shareholders compensated at 8.00 per share.

FedEx Acquires TNT Express

By taking on TNTs global operations, FedEx will catapult itself to the forefront of previously untouched European markets. The Memphis-based firm will also be well positioned to challenge the global dominance of industry leader UPS.

We are pleased with the outcome of the public share offer, said David Bronczek, President and CEO of FedEx Express, speaking optimistically about the future of both TNT and FedEx.

Together, we will transform the global transportation industry, connecting even more people and possibilities around the world, he added.

UPS certainly did its best to block the merger.

In 2013, the worlds largest parcel delivery company attempted to launch its own takeover bid of TNT. Yet the deal inevitably fell through after antitrust concerns were raised by European Union authorities.

FedEx entered the fray in April of last year after striking another deal with TNT  and although UPS lobbied hard against the merger, E.U. officials ultimately agreed to the takeover on the basis that FedEx currently possesses a much smaller European market share than UPS.

Yet with the FedEx acquisition of TNT Express, FedEx has effectively become one of Europes most important delivery companies overnight.

TNTs expansive continental network includes over 700 flights and 55,000 trips by road each week. By leveraging that existing infrastructure, FedEx will now be in a position to provide better trans-Atlantic coverage that customers say will drastically improve their ability to conduct business on a global scale.

The implications for this deal are going to be huge on both sides of the pond, said Graeme Donnelly, CEO of the UK-based company formation and B2B services provider Quality Formations.

We work with a wide range of small companies that rely heavily on imports from the United States and further afield. Any move to strengthen that delivery network will make a world of difference in helping those small businesses to open up and expand.

That being said, UPS CEO David Abney made clear in an April earnings call that he was relatively unconcerned by the impacts the FedEx-TNT deal may have on his own company in the long-term.

We have a very strong position in Europe, Abney said. Weve been winning in Europe for some time now, and weve certainly been sprinting over the last several years. We havent changed our strategy.
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.
Stephanie Holmes is founder and CEO of The Money Finder, a financial services training company, based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

After a decade-long career as a financial advisor, Holmes discovered that her real passion was to make cash flow planning a standardized process in financial services. Upon this discovery, she sold her book of business and now shares her expertise with financial advisors across Canada.

In an interview with Small Business Trends, recorded in April 2016 at the Infusionsoft ICON conference, Holmes talked about her passion for providing clients with expert financial advice. She also shared other valuable tips for small business owners and entrepreneurs, to impact their bottom line.

A Passion For Financial Services Training

When she became a financial advisor, Holmes had high hopes she would provide exactly that, advice, only to be sorely disappointed.

When people see a financial advisor, what ends up happening is that they leave with products, which are also important, but thats not financial advice, she said. I was an advisor for ten years and became extremely frustrated by the fact that, although my managers said I was going to help people, all they taught me was how to sell life insurance.

Holmes went to her managers, telling them that she was encountering clients with $100,000 or more in annual income but who did not know where their money was going. To her dismay, the response she received was less than supportive.

[My managers] patted me on the head like a Cocker Spaniel and said, Dont be so naive. If people dont know where their money is going, its not your problem,' she said.

The response proved to be the catalyst Holmes needed to pursue a career path that more closely aligned with her goal of providing cash flow advice to clients.

I determined that, if I couldnt find a course, structure or method to make it a regular thing for my clients to come to me for advice about how to manage their cash flow, then I would create one myself, she said.

Holmes then sold her book of business and built what eventually became The Money Finder, a financial services training firm that provides online training for financial advisors.

When we started The Money Finder, we thought we would focus on helping the public directly, she said. What we discovered, however, was that financial advisors serve as accountability partners for the person, so we made them our client instead.

Cash Flow Planning Advice

Through her financial services training products, Holmes created a way for every financial advisor to provide their clients with cash flow planning advice.

We give advisors the tools to do what they were recruited to do: fund peoples dreams, she said. I cant tell you how many times financial professionals send us emails or come up to us at conferences and say This is what I thought I was going to do when somebody told me I should be a financial advisor, yet I had never been given the tools until today. You changed my life.

The change in direction not only resulted in a payoff for Holmes emotionally but also financially. This year, her company will earn nearly $3 million in recurring income.

Weve grown our revenue by 750 percent in two and a half years, Holmes said. From early 2013 to early 2016, we went from very little income to tracking toward $3 million in recurring revenue. Also, during that time, we went from just me and a virtual assistant that I used a few hours a week to 17 full-time employees.

Advice for Small Business Owners, Entrepreneurs

During the interview, Holmes shared three pieces of advice for small business owners and entrepreneurs that, although not directly related to financial matters, could impact the bottom line if put into practice.

Stop Doing and Delegate

Holmes advised that business owners stop doing busy work and learn to delegate, focusing instead on activities that grow the company.

All the things you do in your day where you tell yourself No one but me can do this or I can do it better or I cant trust anyone else to do it, if youre doing a lot of tasks you have to stop, Holmes said. Instead, what you should be doing is setting the vision, removing barriers and turning people into leaders.

Create Space in Your Schedule

She also advises business leaders to make space in their calendar and appointment book for time to think.

To be a great entrepreneur, founder of a great company or a great CEO who grows your business and multiplies your people, you need time to think, Holmes said. Make room in your calendar and appointment book and protect it like your life depends on it. Make sure your team protects it as well, as the most valuable revenue-producing time in your entire schedule.

Learn to Decide

Decide to succeed, Holmes advised.

The word decide in Latin means to cut off, to let go, to stop and move in a particular direction, she said. You should decide with a maniacal focus to only do those things that positively impact your life, your purpose, your mission, your clients, family and team. If thats not what the task youre doing at the moment offers, it doesnt belong there.
An entrepreneurs scarcest resource is her time. There is never enough of it for everything a founder needs to do  develop products, sell to customers, hire employees, and so on.

Nowhere is this problem more apparent than when an entrepreneur needs to raise money. Time spent fundraising has a huge opportunity cost. Every moment spent looking for capital is a moment not spent creating a product, selling a customer, hiring an employee, or otherwise building a business.

Fundraising Time Problem

So how can a business founder best minimize the fundraising time problem? My experience as an angel and as an entrepreneurship researcher suggests five things:

Understand Bootstrappings True Value

Most entrepreneurs think about fundraising in terms of the trade-off of equity for capital, which is why a lot of them choose to bootstrap. However, the hidden  but very real  value of bootstrapping is time savings. Every moment that an entrepreneur spends pitching investors could be spent pitching customers. But time spent bringing in revenue is better than time spent bringing in capital because ultimately the founder will have to spend time bringing in revenue. So entrepreneurs need to ask themselves, will the time spent bringing in capital reduce the future time spent bringing in revenue? If it wont then bootstrapping is probably the way to go.

Think About the Time/Money Trade-off in Fundraising

Successful entrepreneurs think of raising capital in terms of the trade-off of time for money. Heres why. Once a lead investor is on board, the money-for-equity ratio has already been established by the companys valuation. However, the time-for-money ratio has not been set yet. Successful entrepreneurs recognize this and compare the amount of money investors can provide with the amount of time they will take to persuade. Qualifying investors and going after only those who provide a high ratio of money provided to time spent is a good approach.

Avoid Investors Who Dont Get It

There is a lot of uncertainty involved in investing in startups. Notice the word uncertainty here, not risk. As the great classical economist Frank Knight explained back in the 1920s, risk and uncertainty are very different things. Outcomes are risky when their probability is low. Outcomes are uncertain when you cant know their probabilities. Because its impossible to know the odds of success of a brand new company that has not yet built a product, sold to customers, competed against incumbents or built an organization, all investors can hope to figure out from their evaluation is whether the founder has any path to success and, if so, how big the potential return will be if success is achieved.

Entrepreneurs should simply avoid investors who take months to make decisions or who need to ask pages of questions and see reams of documents before taking the plunge. Searching for more information when information is unknowable doesnt improve investors chances. Diversifying a portfolio and focusing on only very high potential businesses are the only answers. Entrepreneurs should skip investors who try to know the unknowable.

Reduce Your Valuation and Your Ask

Successful entrepreneurs often choose to raise smaller amounts of money at a discount to market valuations, rather than large amounts at above market valuations. Consider the following scenario: The market valuation of a company like yours at your stage of development is $1.5 million. Hit a key milestone (completion of a team or a first sale, for example) and your market value will rise to $3 million. Instead of trying to raise $500,000 at $1.5 million, try raising $400,000 at $1.25 million. Valuing your company at a discount will speed fundraising. The time saved will allow you to hit your milestone for less capital because you will be spending time achieving the milestone rather than talking to investors unsuccessfully. You come out ahead from the slightly smaller raise at the slightly lower valuation.

Have Your Investors Help You Raise Money

Raising money from strangers to fund an early stage company is very hard to do. Its easier to get money for uncertain new companies from people you know. After all, people want to know that someone they trust is behind the company.

Most entrepreneurs have an intuition about this, which is why they raise money from friends and family before going to angels. But the same principle can be applied to raising money from angels. If your early angels tap their networks to help you raise money from other angels, it will help avoid the fundraising time problem and take you much less time to raise money than if you go after strangers.
The no tipping policy trend in restaurant chains and eateries is slowly gaining traction across the U.S. According to a recent restaurant trade survey (PDF) released by American Express ahead of the 27th annual American Express Restaurant Trade Program, 29 percent of restaurant operators plan to adopt the no-tip policy in their establishments, while 18 percent report they already have.

Why is the No Tipping Trend Taking Hold?

Well, according to the 2016 American Express Restaurant Trade Survey, one of the biggest technology trends predicted by restaurant operators for the restaurant industry in the next 12 months is mobile payments. Mobile payments are taking off and could be complicating tipping.

Moreover, new economic realities and government regulations are also helping dismantle the deeply entrenched tipping culture in the country. For example, when New York Governor Andrew Cuomos administration hiked the minimum wage for tipped workers by 50 percent last year, it exacerbated the pay disparity between servers and kitchen staff, for whom minimum wage inched up by only $.25.

Restaurant operators felt they needed to do something to offset the inequality in restaurant workers pay for servers and kitchen staff, such as cooks and dishwashers.

Offsetting Pay Disparity among Restaurant Staff

Wages for back of the house workers like cooks has remained stagnant at $10 to $12 an hour for years, while servers tip-based take has risen with menu prices and government regulations. As a result, there is always some level of dissatisfaction among the back of the house staff, especially when servers celebrate a big night and cooks are left behind, some restaurateurs have observed.

To address this long-simmering inequality, an increasing number of restaurant chains and eateries are choosing to go gratuity-free, raising menu prices to make up the difference. Some restaurants have even implemented revenue-sharing to keep servers wages stable after they lose tips.

So, which are these leading restaurants that have adopted a no tipping policy?

Restaurants and Eateries that Have Gotten Rid of Tipping

When it comes to tipping, we may be nearing a tipping point in America. Below are some high-end restaurant businesses that have adopted the no-tipping policy across the country.

California

1. Brand 158

Located in Glendale, CA, Brand 158 says it adopted a no-tipping policy to create a less competitive workplace for servers, and, as such, a better experience for diners. If people came to work and didnt know what they were going to make for the week, that tension would eventually translate to the customer, says owner Gabriel Frem.

2. Comal

This chic restaurant serving Mexican cuisines says it automatically tacks on a 20 percent service charge to all bills in order to move to a new model of compensation that will be sustainable and fair in the long run for our entire staff.

New York

3. Cafe China

The midtown Sichuanese spot is one of New York citys first high-end traditional Chinese restaurants to defect to the no-tipping camp. Prices shot up 10 to 15 percent, and servers receive $15 an hour plus commission based on dine-in sales. Kitchen workers receive bonuses based on takeout, dine-in and delivery sales.

4. Riki

The Japanese restaurant adopted a no-tipping policy in 2014, citing the need to be more in line with Japanese customs. It features signs posted at each tatami table that reads: Riki Restaurant is now a non-tipping establishment. Tipping is not required nor expected.

5. Dirt Candy

Owned by Amanda Cohen, who is also head-chef extraordinaire, the inventive vegetarian restaurant in New York reopened in a new, bigger and bolder space early 2015 with a new no-tipping policy. It also introduced a new price plan, subbing in a 20 percent service charge on each customer check.

Chicago

6. Alinea

Alinea and its sister restaurant, Next, add a 20 percent service charge for their special dinners so that patrons dont have to tip extra.

Denver

7. Abruscis

This high-end Italian restaurant located just outside of Denver in Wheat Ridge banned tipping and introduced a 20 percent service charge to bills. Servers now are guaranteed at least $20 an hour, while kitchen staffers receive a minimum of $14.50 per hour.

Philadelphia

8. Girard

Girard says its business model is similar to many European restaurants with staffers receiving a fair wage plus paid time off. It includes a 15 percent service charge to all bills, explaining that the removal of gratuities from the equation eliminates the pressure on the guest to worry about paying our staff.

Pittsburgh

9. Bar Marco

The minimalist hangout in Pittsburgh adopted the no-tipping policy saying the policy would bring consistency to everyones lives and ensure people arent making $200 one week and $1,000 the next. The policy has been so successful that Bar Marcos founder Bobby Fry says hes expanding it to sister restaurant, The Livermore.

Kentucky

10. Packhouse

The buzzy hangout (PDF) with creative cocktails, all-meatball menu and no tipping in Newport, KY says it established the no-tipping policy to provide income security for our servers. Servers earn $10 per hour or 20 percent of their individual food sales per shift, whichever is greater. No tipping signs are posted prominently in the restaurant and on the menu.

San Francisco

11. Bar Agricole

A contemporary tavern situated on an industrial block of San Franciscos SOMA district, the Bar Agricole lists all prices on beverages and food with Service included, making it easier to accept the no-tipping policy and to stomach the high cost of $15 cocktails.

12. Manos Nouveau

The artistic Latin-French restaurant and wine bar in the heart of Castro added a 30 percent surcharge to all checks beginning May 1, 2015. The fee, billed as an equality allocation to all of their checks, covers taxes, gratuity and a Healthy San Francisco Surcharge.

See Also: Spacious Transforms Restaurants into Coworking Spaces for Freelancers

Seattle

13. Ivars Salmon House

One of Seattles best seafood restaurants, Ivars eliminated tipping and increased its menu prices by about 20 percent across the board in 2015. All workers got a boost in wages to a minimum of $15 an hour.
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Business travel is a balance of being safe while sticking to your plans, but its often difficult to know whether youre traveling as safely as possible. Therefore, its essential to keep safety a top priority when undertaking international business travel or domestic travel. Thats why this article is looking more closely at business travel, and specifically, business travel tips to help you travel more safely for work, including state department advice.

What is the Biggest Risk for Business Travellers?

With business, travel comes quite a few risks, so its important to stay aware and take extra care. For example, you might be traveling to far destinations with political unrest or other issues, taking sensitive or confidential information as well as expensive office equipment.

During business travel, its important to protect yourself and your belonging just as you would with personal travel. For females, its also crucial to seek out travel safety tips for women specifically to ensure youre feeling safe and comfortable before leaving and while in your destination.

Top Travel Safety Tips for Business Travellers

To help make business travel as smooth as possible, weve put together some practical tips to help you travel safely. While this isnt a complete list, these tips are a great starting point to help you plan a safe and productive business trip.

Read More: business travel tips

1. Purchase travel insurance

Business travel often means that youre traveling with sensitive information and office equipment. Purchasing travel insurance protects your trip not only in case of cancelations and delays but also the contents of your belongings while traveling to keep you perfectly safe.

2. Keep your important documents safe

When traveling for work, youre likely going to carry crucial documents  both personal and professional with you. That might include:

Passport

ID

Drivers license

Work clearance

Work visa documents/entry authorization

Contracts

Memos

Competitive research and/or product information

Keep your documents in your hotel room as much as possible, and use the safe for storing important information for when youve left your room to prevent any issues. Save copies of the documents on Google Drive for an extra layer of protection.

3. Keep an eye on personal belongings

Like your documents, keeping your personal belongings safe should be a priority. Use the hotel safe when possible, but also invest in travel equipment that has a protective element when youre out in the city. For example, a tamper-proof day bag or something like a messenger bag where its kept close to you can help keep your valuables safe when out of the hotel.

4. Dont put all your money in one place

Always separate your credit cards and cash when traveling. Generally, the safest bet is to keep some cash and one card with you and leave an emergency credit card and some cash in different bags like your suitcase and carry-on. This ensures that you always have some kind of access to emergency money and other valuables, even if youre in an unfamiliar destination.

5. Be extra cautious when traveling alone

There needs to be extra caution practiced on these kinds of trips for solo travelers. When traveling solo, take extra care to keep yourself and your belongings safe. Stay alert when out and about, and always trust your gut feelings  if something doesnt feel right, even if its as simple as eye contact for a little too long, walk away. Paying attention to your surroundings, particularly on public transport, is also crucial. Also, try to learn some of the local language and local customs beforehand.

6. Ensure you have access to emergency money

Emergency money is incredibly vital and in different forms. As mentioned earlier, make sure you divvy up your money and ensure that you have a way to access your accounts and transfer money. Test out local ATMs with small amounts with your card, and always keep a few bucks on you in pockets or bags -its better than not having anything at all.

7. Drink responsibly when traveling

Its tempting to go out in a foreign country, but if you are, drink responsibly  especially if its your first trip for work! Its easy to get carried away, and thats when someone will most likely try taking advantage of you. So keep your drinking limited to two or three, and stay aware of your surroundings when making your way back to the hotel.

8. Purchase a money belt

Try to keep a credit card with you that doesnt have foreign transaction fees as a backup so you can save money. Travel equipment like money belts helps protect your cash and credit card from thieves and pickpockets. You can place a dummy wallet in your pocket as a distraction and use a money belt to keep your important stuff, such as cash and credit cards, safe when navigating around the city.

Read More: international business travel

9. Invest in a travel lock

Another key piece of travel equipment for your business travel should be travel locks. You can use them for suitcases and bags during transit and have a locked bag while youre staying at the hotel. Travel locks come in different types, including a travel lock where you can set your own combination for extra security. You can use this in case youre traveling with pricy equipment such as expensive camera gear or even flashy jewelry.

10. Watch out for travel scams

Unfortunately, travel scams are pretty common in most parts of the world, and visitors tend to be easy targets. Double-check before you leave about what kinds of scams are specifically done so you can be aware. In addition, you can reach out to other travelers for safety tips and read up on blogs and travel experiences to understand what professional scammers are doing so you can avoid it.

11. Look for travel advisories

Some destinations are safer than others, so check any advice that might be out there before embarking on your next trip. Additionally, the State Department and other government bodies often post-travel advice depending on political, economic, or weather conditions that are work checking out before you solidify your travel plans.

12. Note down your local embassy contact details

Whenever youre in a new country, always do some research on the nearest embassy. When unexpected circumstances come up, such as political issues, a stolen passport, or other emergencies, your countrys embassy can help you with the situation and provide safety information.

13. Write down numbers for emergency services

Following the last point, one of the most important travel tips is also researching emergency services. It would be best if you have emergency info on hand for the country youre visiting. That includes locating the nearing police station, your credit card company phone number, and noting any posted signs as you explore the city.

See Also: Beef Up Customer Experience with These 4 Tips

14. Purchase a local SIM where possible

If you dont want to pay expensive roaming charges, you can still have a working phone by purchasing a local SIM. It ensures that theres an easy way for family members to reach you and that you have access to data. That enables you to use Google Maps more easily and navigate public transportation without identifying yourself as a non-native too easily.

15. Use a virtual private network for business

Whether youre doing work at a local office or a coffee shop, you should always use a VPN when working from abroad. This protects your work data while also keeping your computer device from being easily compromised, especially when using open networks and public wifi.

16. Share your accommodation details

This is particularly important if youre traveling by yourself for business, but also during general travel. Share where youre staying with a family member, your general plans, and any other information that might be helpful in case of an emergency.

17. Do your research

Most travel safety tips will always come back to this one  research! While you wont be able to cover absolutely everything when digging around, you can learn a lot just through a quick search on the country youre planning to visit. Look up basic information, including the latest news, any laws travelers should be aware of, and any context that can help you navigate easier as a local. Travel communities on websites such as Reddit might also be able to help you provide on-the-ground advice before arriving and while youre at your destination.

International Travel Safety

Before traveling internationally, its always wise to look at State Departments advice on other countries and whether its safe to travel. You can find a complete list of no-travel zones on the official State Department website travel advisories. It includes an updated list of countries that are safe to visit, medium and high-risk countries, including detailed advice for citizens planning their trips.

As of April 2022, here are some of the destinations that are listed under the no-travel zones. Please note that this list is subject to change often, so its crucial to double-check on official government websites when planning travel.

Libya

Hong Kong

Syria

Ukraine

Sudan

South Sudan

Somalia

Russia

Moldova

Haiti

Yemen

Venezuela

Tonga

Papua New Guinea

North Korea (Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea)

Mali

Iraq

The central African Republic

Burma (Myanmar)

Burkina Faso

Afghanistan Travel Advisory

Read More: travel safety tips for women

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For many, online marketing is a tool to drive online sales, improve customer engagement and boost brand equity. But what many small business owners may not realize is that online marketing can play a significant role in driving in-store sales too.

French clothing brand Petit Bateau discovered more about just how customer online interaction drive its customers in-store purchases by combining in-store data with information from Google Analytics.

In a recent case study shared on the Google Analytics Solutions blog, the Google Analytics team explains:

Petit Bateau customers in France can shop in 153 physical stores as well as on Petit-bateau.fr. Users log into the website which makes it possible to later match the traffic of logged-in users with subsequent in-store transactions made with a loyalty card.

How Online Marketing Drives In-store Sales

By comparing the data, the company found 44 percent of in-store buyers had visited the site within seven days before making their purchases. About 9 percent of in-store buyers had visited the site on the same day as their purchase in the physical shop.

Further data analysis revealed the online-to-offline effect was particularly strong on mobile. To give an example, mobile visitors converted within stores at an 11 percent higher rate than desktop visitors.

Moreover, mobile visitors in-store spend was 8 percent greater than desktop visitors.

What Businesses Can Learn from Petit Bateau

Using Google Analytics to measure online-to-offline purchase behavior paid off for Petit Bateau as it could better understand the impact of online marketing on in-store sales and target customers who research products online. The company was able to use the data to reassess AdWords return on ad spend, which proved to be six times greater with in-store sales incorporated.

A deeper understanding of its in-store transactions is enabling the company to optimize its digital marketing programs and make more informed decisions about its media budget allocation.

For small businesses, understanding how to make the right decisions on marketing budget allocation is an important lesson to be learned. It becomes all the more important for them because they dont have a lot to spend.

What Petit Bateau has also done really well is shifting budgets from offline to online marketing, with a significant focus on driving new customers through generic search terms. The company has increased its investment on Google Search by 60 percent year-over-year.

Small businesses can take a page from Petit Bateaus book and learn how focusing on online marketing drives in-store sales and lead to desired results.

Whats more mobile bids have gone up by 20 percent, and mobiles share of search budget has reached 43 percent, above the current share of mobile traffic. Meanwhile internal communications is now helping store teams to understand digitals role in the customer journey and to appreciate the growing importance of promoting browsing, digital shopping, buying and comparing.

Petit Bateau is a French fashion house famous for creating high quality, stylish clothing and undergarments. Founded in 1893, the company operates an online store and an international network of 400 shops.
A small business owner easily might become overwhelmed when it comes time to buy health insurance. With so many types of small business health insurance from which to choose, and so many companies offering those benefits, where is one to begin selecting health insurance? After all, there are a lot of health insurance acronyms to understand.

Fortunately, the decision to purchase health insurance doesnt have to be a daunting one. With just a little bit of knowledge and some basic information about small business health insurance companies, small business owners can make the best decisions for their companies and their employees

Types of Small Business Health Insurance

Before small business owners can understand the different health insurance options and various health insurance premiums, they must first understand the different types of small business health insurance plans. There are a few types of small business health insurance, each with its own benefits, deductibles and costs.

HMO Plans  Health management organization (HMO) plans are limited health insurance plans with the goal of cutting healthcare costs. HMO plans work great for healthy individuals who are on a tighter budget and who are comfortable only visiting doctors within a prescribed network of healthcare providers.

 Health management organization (HMO) plans are limited health insurance plans with the goal of cutting healthcare costs. HMO plans work great for healthy individuals who are on a tighter budget and who are comfortable only visiting doctors within a prescribed network of healthcare providers. PPO Plans  Under preferred provider organizations (PPOs), patients have access to a larger network of doctors and more flexible care options, but they also typically pay higher costs for premiums and care. PPO plans are great for those who want to shop around for doctors, who are comfortable with and able to spend more, and who might need specialized care for a medical condition.

Under preferred provider organizations (PPOs), patients have access to a larger network of doctors and more flexible care options, but they also typically pay higher costs for premiums and care. PPO plans are great for those who want to shop around for doctors, who are comfortable with and able to spend more, and who might need specialized care for a medical condition. POS Plans  A point of service (POS) plan combines the benefits of an HMO and a PPO. While customers still need a specialists referral from a primary care physician, they pay less for out-of-network medical visits. The cost of a POS generally falls somewhere in between an HMO and a PPO.

 A point of service (POS) plan combines the benefits of an HMO and a PPO. While customers still need a specialists referral from a primary care physician, they pay less for out-of-network medical visits. The cost of a POS generally falls somewhere in between an HMO and a PPO. EPO Plans  When consumers rely on an exclusive provider organization (EPO) plan for health insurance, they are encouraged to remain within their healthcare provider network, but they dont need to get a referral if they choose to venture beyond it. The cost-effective health insurance option offers extra flexibility to small businesses.

 When consumers rely on an exclusive provider organization (EPO) plan for health insurance, they are encouraged to remain within their healthcare provider network, but they dont need to get a referral if they choose to venture beyond it. The cost-effective health insurance option offers extra flexibility to small businesses. HDHP  A high deductible health plan can be a risk for those that are uncomfortable paying out of pocket for medical care. The high deductible means the plan wont start paying toward healthcare costs until the patient has incurred at least $1,300 in expenses. These plans can be offset by establishing health savings accounts through the federal government. HSA for small businesses is a tax-advantaged account that can be contributed to by both employers and employees in conjunction with an HDHP.

Choosing the Best Small Business Health Insurance Plans

While understanding the different types of group health insurance plans will help small business owners when selecting health insurance, choosing health insurance coverage still remains a challenge for many small business owners. What do various health insurance plans have to offer, which is the best health insurance company, and how much does small business health insurance cost from various sources? Some health insurance providers might even offer additional options like self-employed health insurance, health savings accounts, benefits of dental insurance, and vision insurance coverage.

Best Small Business Health Insurance Companies

What are the best health insurance providers for small businesses in 2022? Small business owners must consider a variety of factors when choosing the best health insurance company, including coverage, flexibility and cost. Most health insurance companies will offer similar plans, but each will feature unique elements and pricing. A small business owner might want to offer a health insurance option that includes dental insurance or even vision benefits, or they might seek the most affordable options or the best health insurance provider for overall general health coverage.

1. United Healthcare

Best For: Extensive coverage

Often chosen as the best health insurance for small business owners, United Healthcare features a large number of in-network providers and thousands of facilities throughout all 50 U.S. states. The health insurance provider makes substantial investments in technology to meet consumer demands, and it offers effective group coverage options for a variety of small businesses.

2. Blue Cross Blue Shield

Best For: Data-driven healthcare solutions

Other popular health insurance providers for small businesses include Blue Cross Blue Shield, which operates through the 36 local and independent health insurance companies in all U.S. states. Health benefits from Blue Cross Blue Shield are effective options for small business owners because the brand is trusted by millions of small businesses and their employees, and the health insurance plan is one of the nations most popular PPO networks.

3. Humana

Best For: Preventative care advantages

Providing health insurance as a small business can become a reality by choosing Humana as a small business health insurance provider. One of the largest insurance providers in America, Humanas plans are known for their preventative care coverage and convenient plan features like wellness rewards. Humana makes it possible to offer health insurance by offering a variety of affordable plans for small business owners and their employees.

4. Kaiser Permanente

Best For: Affordability

Small business owners in eight U.S. states and the District of Columbia can choose an affordable small business health plan from Kaiser Permanente. The largest managed care organization in the country, Kaiser Permanente offers many affordable small business health insurance plans and options. With a strong emphasis on preventative care, Kaiser Permanente health insurance customers have the chance to stay healthy.

5. Aetna

Best For: High deductible health plan options

One of the largest companies that provide health insurance in America, Aetna features competitive and affordable health insurance options for small business employers, including funding options and wellness offerings. In addition to offering health insurance, Aetna offers self-funded coverage to small businesses, and the health insurance provider is known for its high levels of customer satisfaction.

6. Cigna

Best For: Flexible premiums and deductibles

While only available in 10 states, Cigna is still one of the best health insurance providers thanks to its broad range of small business health insurance options that accommodate a variety of needs, as well as its flexible premium and deductible options. Cigna features a large provider network, a detailed website and outstanding customer service.

7. Anthem

Best For: Integrated health care

The largest for-profit managed health care company in the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, Anthem is available to customers in 14 states. The health insurance provider has one of the most extensive networks in the country, so finding a doctor is a cinch. Because Anthem takes an integrated approach to medical care through combined health plans, patient data is connected to more effectively manage care.

What Health Insurance Companies Rank Best for Customer Satisfaction?

Both Forrester and Verint Systems have released studies ranking the nations top insurance payers based on customer satisfaction, with varying results. According to Forresters survey of more than 85,000 U.S. adults, Human ranks first for customer satisfaction, followed by Kaiser Permanente. Verints report, on the other hand, ranked United Healthcare first in customer satisfaction, with Humana coming in second place.

What Is The No. 1 Health Insurance Company in the United States?

With total revenue exceeding $286 billion in 2021, United Healthcare is the largest health insurance company in the United States by revenue, according to analysis by ValuePenguin. The insurer is also the largest company by membership and market share. Anthem is the second-largest health insurance provider in all three categories.
Tech is one of the fastest growing sectors in the economy with demand for qualified candidates often outpacing the supply. These tech roles offer above average salaries and many tech companies of all sizes are looking to hire highly-skilled talent as quickly as possible.

Indeed, which continues to research small business hiring trends, has dissected what types of tech jobs are being filled at small companies nationwide. The firm compared those roles to those being hired more often at bigger companies.

Types of Small Business Tech Jobs

There is a difference in what types of tech roles small businesses are looking for compared to their larger peers.

Small businesses are looking to hire more product-oriented roles like software and hardware engineers, versus support roles like testers, analysts, and database administrators.

This makes sense to Indeed economic research analyst Daniel Culbertson. This is reflective of a startup looking to build out their product, versus a more established company that is looking to support and maintain their flagship product, he said.

At small businesses, jobs that allow tech-savvy employees and prospects to flex their creative muscles and be more involved in the development of a product  like an app  are in high demand. Thats not exactly the case at bigger businesses.

Per Indeeds data, in addition to software and hardware engineer jobs, small businesses are looking to fill jobs in systems software and application development. As jobs become less creative and more regimented  like in a support specialist role or as an administrator of some kind, they tend to be more in demand by big businesses more than small.

Startups have an inherent advantage when looking to recruit this type of more creative talent.

Engineers typically enjoy building products and making an impact on what is the core of a company, said Culbertson. Sometimes there isnt as much leeway for creativity in the development of the core product at a larger company, which is why startups are appealing to many tech workers.
Google now shows third party hotel reviews in a quest to provide the best hotel reviews to travelers.

Previously, a search for hotel reviews on Google would show you Googles own hotel reviews only, but now a quick search for hotel reviews brings up Googles reviews as well as third party reviews.

Google Now Shows Third Party Hotel Reviews

Google has added an additional section on its reviews page, highlighting reviews from other websites such as Agoda, Priceline, and Booking.com, among others.

One of the reasons that might have forced the tech giant to add third-party reviews on its site is credibility. Many people who are searching for hotels online are now accustomed to reading reviews from different websites.

Google adding third party hotel reviews to their search results might have as well solved the longtime problem where travelers had to search for reviews from a whole lot of websites. The new feature is also linked with Google maps so you get to kill so many birds with a single click.

This additional search feature will probably rub hoteliers the right way. Every hotelier wants direct bookings and now that customers can read a whole lot of reviews from one place then the chances of direct online bookings are going to increase.

Third Party Hotel Reviews  And More!

Besides adding third party reviews, Google has also gone ahead to provide suggestions of other hotels that people frequently searched for within the area. Keep in mind that all this is happening within your Google Maps interface, so you can see directions, read reviews, see nearby hotels and get to compare a variety of reviews across the board.

Both businesses and customers benefit when a service or business is reviewed on Google. Businesses get the chance to directly strengthen their relationship with customers by responding to reviews while customers are able to make informed decisions based on reviews from past customers.

Google has even gone a step further to show you how you can encourage reviews for your business.

Go ahead and read a great tutorial on how to maximize and optimize your Google places via google maps marketing
When news of new ways around Twitters character limit were announced, people rejoiced, screamed emphatically, and waved their hands in a similar manner as if they didnt care. The soon-to-be technical structure of a tweet is something many of us, especially in the world of marketing, have been requesting for years now. Elements such as the ability to not worry about a persons handle, new methods of retweeting and not needing to worry about the URL of a picture or a link in a reply is a boon to the Twitterverse. However, it would behoove us all, especially us marketers, to remember to heed the words once spoken by Ben Parker,  with great power comes great responsibility.

Twitters Character Limit Tweaked

The majority of the power that I am referring to here can be found at the beginning of the extended tweet structure above. As you can see, the 140-character count is now considered in the space after a users Twitter handle(s) and before a link whether that URL is an image, GIF or link to a web page. This new extension allows for up to 50 auto-populated handles to be mentioned in an individual tweet.

The potential issue here is a simple one: SPAM. Think about how a tweet with 50 people in it would look. It would be inadvisable, to say the least, to tweet to that many people, especially unsolicited, at once just because you can. There are certain rules of engagement in social media that must be followed and they include following regular social cues in order to hold a conversation with people and not jumping into conversations that you werent invited to. And speaking of that 

Twitter has also dropped the worst kept secret hack on the platform, the .@ convention. Replies are now broadcast automatically instead of only to those who follow both you and the person to whom you are replying. Once again, weve reached another point where we as marketers can show that we know how to use Twitter responsibly.

The spirit of the initial change that resulted in the .@ convention was one that focused conversations like that on the parties in the conversation. It provided a small layer of protection for the people conversing as well as cleared other users streams of conversations. To quell the justified fears of people jumping into conversations to which they have not been invited, we can simply not jump into conversations wherein we have not been invited.

As a whole, changes coming to Twitters character limit appear to be beneficial to users and that is something that we should all be happy about. With that being said, we must remember all that we should do in order to make Twitter a place those who connect with us want to be. Showing our worth in that way makes everything better.

Republished by permission. Original here.
The human gut is a complex and amazing system, and the more we learn about it, the more amazed we are. It turns out
- Kenyan and Ugandan women are fighting over the oldest profession in the world- prostitution

- This was after 'young and beautiful' Kenyan hookers took over the Ugandans' market and stole all the clients

- The Ugandans demand that the Kenyan women either shaped up to their rules or they ship out of their market

Kenyan prostitutes who had taken over a trading center in Kampala were beaten black and blue by their Ugandan counterparts for being young and beautiful.

READ ALSO: Sex workers in Athi River are frustrated, read their story

The hostile takeover culminated in a fight between the two groups after the Ugandans accused the Kenyans of offering services at a cheaper price and stealing all the clients for themselves.

Ugandan prostitutes celebrate after the Cranes won a match. They had promised to offer the team free sex if they won the Worl Cup qualifiers against Togo. Photo: Uganda Sun

According to Ugandan media, the fracas occurred on Tuesday night, June 7, and it took the intervention of local leaders to break up the fighting.

Two Kenyans sustained minor injuries.

Esther Nyambura, one of the Kenyan prostitutes, said it was unfortunate that the Ugandans opted to beat them up instead of calling for a sit down to discuss the matter.

READ ALSO: Why more than 140 bars in Naivasha have been shut down

Prostitute working on Ugnada's infamous Speke road, it's top red light district

According to the Ugandans, the Kenyans were charging half the price for a shot which lured their customers who are mainly composed of truckers operating the Mombasa-Uganda-Congo to Burundi route to ferry goods.

To curb the number of Kenyans flocking to their market, the Ugandans plan to begin charging Ksh 800 for registration.

A foreign client solicits a prostitute in Uganda. Photo: Uganda Monitor

The Kenyans also agreed to charge their clients the full price of the same amount.

READ ALSO: What motivates men to pay for sex? Is it right or wrong?

Prostitution has always been the go-to work for people who fail to secure formal employment.

Prostitution in Kenya is considered illegal and in spite of this, it is rife all over the country with most operating out of hotels and commercial houses for rent.

Despite most women exiting the profession, undergoing rehabilitation and training in a skill set, most employers refuse to hire them for fear that they havent changed.

Image: E News

Source: TUKO.co.ke
john kerry

After a cursory look into a mysteriously edited State Department briefing video pertaining to the Iran deal, Secretary of State John Kerry promised Wednesday to launch a comprehensive investigation into who ordered the department to scrub video of an exchange between a Fox News reporter and then State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki.

During a press briefing, agency spokesman Mark Toner announced that the department had reversed its decision not to investigate who ordered a State Department official to edit out several minutes of a YouTube video of a 2013 briefing that was discovered missing in May.

"We're going to continue to look at additional troves of information in an effort to find out, again, what happened," Toner said.

"That is basically because the secretary said he wants to dive deeper into this, look more into what happened, and try to get to the bottom of what happened."

In the 2013 briefing, Psaki essentially admitted to Fox News Chief Washington Correspondent James Rosen that negotiations to initiate the multinational nuclear deal with Iran had taken place as early as 2011.

"There are times where diplomacy needs privacy in order to progress," Psaki told Rosen at the time. "This is a good example of that.

Though the department previously maintained that the editing was a "glitch," earlier this month, State Department spokesman Admiral John Kirby revealed that an employee deliberately edited out the exchange, but asserted that the agency would not investigate the incident further.

Rosen's revelation is part of the continued fallout from a controversial profile of President Barack Obama's deputy national-security adviser, Ben Rhodes, who told the New York Times magazine that he had misled reporters to about the timeline of the Iran deal in order to create a favorable narrative.

Rosen told Business Insider in a phone interview earlier on Wednesday that he hoped the department would investigate further. But he also noted that he had faith in independent media investigations and an informal House Oversight Committee inquiry into the incident.

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"Its a significant moment because its not often in the annals of a modern presidency where an administration is forced to admit publicly that it has sought to censor the record of its public briefings," Rosen said.

"Theres a number of outstanding demands from congressional committee chairmen for documents, for testimony, for evidence relating to this incident .... So I think that there have been some demands for more evidence in this whole set of incidents, and I think we havent heard the last of it."

The Fox News reporter contended that the Obama administration misjudged interest in the edited video.

"There was an early assessment that this incident wouldnt amount to much, that no one would care about what happened here, that it would just be seen as a Fox News thing or James Rosen trying to inflate his own reputation," Rosen said.

"But instead theyve seen this ferocious reaction from the rest of the news media and on social media," he added. "People care about this stuff - they dont like it when people tamper with history or shut down a reporter whos asking tough questions. They recognize that for what it is, which is authoritarian in nature. I think they mis-gauged this whole set of events."

NOW WATCH: 9 people who may be on Donald Trumps 'short list' for vice president





More From Business Insider


The logo of Swiss bank Credit Suisse is seen outside their branch in Bern, Switzerland May 9, 2016. REUTERS/Ruben Sprich/File Photo - RTSFS40

By Joshua Franklin and Wendell Roelf

ZURICH/CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - Financial watchdogs from Switzerland and Britain are looking into Credit Suisse's (CSGN.S) involvement in Mozambique, where heavy undisclosed sovereign borrowing has pushed the country close to default.

Swiss regulator FINMA said it was in touch with the Zurich-based bank over the Mozambique issue, while the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is looking at the role of Credit Suisse and Russian lender VTB (VTBR.MM), according to a source familiar with the situation.

Credit Suisse and VTB have both been active in the southern African country, arranging loans for state-owned firms as well as helping with a eurobond issue.

Credit Suisse declined comment. VTB said it had been open and transparent with the regulator on the Mozambique transaction and was not aware of any investigations.

In April, the Mozambique government belatedly disclosed as much as $1.35 billion (0.92 billion) of sovereign borrowing arranged without parliamentary approval, as required by law.

This followed a rescheduling deal on an $850 million eurobond launched in 2013 that Mozambique was struggling to repay. Since then, a state-owned company has missed a repayment due last month on a $535 million loan arranged by VTB.

As this loan carries a sovereign guarantee, Mozambique risks being declared in default unless it can negotiate another rescheduling agreement.

A spokesman for FINMA told Reuters on Tuesday it had contacted Credit Suisse over its engagement with Mozambique. "We are aware of the issue and are in contact with the bank over this matter," he said on Tuesday, declining to give any further details.

Mozambique's problems are casting a shadow over investment in the country, one of the world's poorest, which had been picking up as banks were attracted to energy projects following recent gas discoveries.

South Africa's Standard Bank (SBKJ.J) said on Tuesday that it is to pause work on power sector projects in Mozambique because of its sovereign debt problems.

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"At the moment we are all cautious when we do new projects in Mozambique," Rentia van Tonder, Standard Bank's head of renewable energy, power and infrastructure told Reuters on the sidelines of an African oil conference. "We do have sovereign limits and certain guidelines we look at, and our country risk team is currently reviewing our approach to Mozambique."

Standard Bank, which was considering coal projects as well as an expansion to the Cahora Bassa hydroelectric scheme in Mozambique, was the lead arranger on the 100 megawatt Gigawatt independent power producer project.

Separately, a source told Reuters on Monday that the British FCA was looking into the role played by both Credit Suisse and VTB in Mozambique.

VTB said debt figures had been published when the eurobond was launched. "As we previously said, the total public debt number disclosed in the prospectus of the issued sovereign eurobond was inclusive of all outstanding direct and publicly guaranteed government debt, as confirmed to us by Ministry of Finance of Mozambique," the Russian bank said.

VTB has held talks with Mozambique on the $535 million loan it arranged in 2014 for state-owned Mozambique Asset Management after a $178 million repayment due on May 23 was missed.

Mozambique's foreign debt has ballooned in the last four years, largely due to expectations it was set to become a major natural gas producer.

However, those expectations are now being shown to be wildly premature, leaving the country with a foreign debt burden equal to $400 per head - only a fraction below the International Monetary Fund's $435 annual per capita GDP estimate.

(Reporting by Joshua Franklin and Oliver Hirt in Zurich, Alexander Winning in Moscow and Ed Cropley in Luanda; Editing by Michael Shields, Alexander Smith and David Stamp)
By Tom Miles

GENEVA (Reuters) - The idea that Britain could scrap all import tariffs to avoid long, messy trade negotiations after quitting the European Union is "almost theoretical" and probably not feasible, the head of the World Trade Organisation said in an interview.

While leaders of the so-called Brexit campaign have mainly advocated the forging of new trade deals with the EU, United States and China if Britain votes "Leave" on June 23, some economists have proposed the more radical zero-tariff plan. They call it the "WTO option" because Britain would rely on the basic rules of the 162-member organisation to police unfair trade.

But WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo told Reuters: "The example that were talking about is an extreme example, and I think it's very unlikely that politically this would be feasible.

"My experience has been that I havent seen a true free trader on this real earth yet. Everybody somewhere has some degree of protection or limitation in one sector or another."

Hong Kong and Macau offer duty-free models, but their economies are smaller and less complex than Britain's. And even if goods trade was totally liberalised, it might still be useful to have a written agreement on liberalising trade in services, rather than a blank sheet, Azevedo said.

"The moment you want to write a limitation here or there, technically any member of the WTO may say 'I disagree with the limitation that youre introducing'," he said.

He insisted that he wasn't telling Britain how to vote in this month's referendum or passing judgment on the policy options.

"All that I am saying is that unless you go for some kind of radical, almost theoretical, argument that no negotiations are needed, any other scenario would require some negotiation with all WTO members."

TRADE CHOICES

Pro-Brexit campaigners, who lead the "Remain" camp in the latest opinion polls, have mostly argued that the world's fifth largest economy would be able to forge new trade deals on advantageous terms with the EU, the United States and China.

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But Patrick Minford, a former adviser to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and member of the group "Economists for Brexit", told Reuters that the WTO option, as an alternative to these kinds of agreements, would be "incredibly beneficial to the British economy" by bringing down import prices.

"That creates the tremendous dynamism, because falling prices means unprotected industries have lower input costs, and wages of course come down because consumers have lower costs. So we afford to cut wages and still be better off, and improve the competitiveness of British industry," he said.

Azevedo, however, said that instead of the promised clean break, pulling out of the EU would plunge not just Britain but also Brussels into lengthy talks with the rest of the WTO as the two newly divorced economies would both need to rejig their relationships with the rest of the world.

"It is very likely that both the EU and the UK will have to negotiate with all WTO members," Azevedo said.

To disentangle themselves, London and Brussels would have to allocate Britain a portion of the agricultural subsidies and low-tariff quotas that currently come under the EU umbrella.

"Those are not easily sorted out when somebody enters the EU, or leaves the EU," Azevedo said.

Not only Europe's food sector, but global interests such as New Zealand lamb exporters and Brazilian beef farmers could be dragged into such a negotiation.

Leading pro-Brexit politicians are confident Britain could do a quick deal with the EU to keep trade flowing. But even if that happens, Britain's rights at the WTO will be in "a vacuum".

"I don't see how just negotiating with the EU is going to obviate the necessity to establish what the parameters are between the UK and all other WTO members," Azevedo said.

He declined to predict how long such talks could take.

"It could be a few years, it could be decades. But our experience suggests that to expect smooth sailing and quick results would be a high-risk bet."

The EU has not yet finalised its WTO rights after enlarging to 25, 27 and finally 28 member states, which could add a further level of complication.

"It is not far-fetched to imagine that some members may say that it's difficult to negotiate the Brexit terms with both the EU and the UK while the current status of the EU membership is not fully ascertained," Azevedo said.

(Reporting by Tom Miles; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
(Reuters) - Japan said it may ask the World Trade Organization (WTO) to help resolve a dispute related to Indias "safeguard" tariffs on the import of hot-rolled steel.

India has extended its safeguard import taxes on some steel products until March 2018, in a bid to stop cheap overseas purchases from flooding its market and bolster the domestic steel sector.

Japan will make repeated requests to the Indian competent authority to ensure the consistency of their measures with the WTO agreements, the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said in a report.

(Reporting by Arunima Banerjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)
It was initially quite frustrating that David Cameron and Nigel Farage wouldnt be going head-to-head in last nights ITV debate. But then it turned out that the audience made a much better interrogator of the two men than they would have been of each other. Cameron got a rough ride, but nothing like that faced by his opponent. They tore the Ukip leader apart.

Farage is so used to fawning supporters that he cant quite handle critical ones without becoming visibly cross and emotional. And then he starts making things up, evading the question and speaking down to the audience.

Case in point:The Ukip leader was subject to a grilling from an audience member on the net economic contribution to the UK from EU migrants.



A number of high profile studies have clearly shown that EU migrants contribute far more to this economy than they take out, he said. How can you constantly ignore these findings and continually tell us immigration is a disaster for the UK?

Farage replied: We see reports that say EU migrants pay more tax than they take out. I saw a report yesterday that suggested that actually its a marginal loss for the country. Ill tell you what well do - Ill meet you in the middle. Well agree with the House of Lords who looked at this and said in economic terms its probably about neutral.

The report Farage mentioned says nothing of the sort. I asked Ukip which report he was referring to this morning and they pointed me to this one, by PwC, which came out last month. They highlighted the following passage:

There is also some evidence of small, negative impacts of immigration on wages in semi- and low-skilled occupations in the UK as a result of EU and non-EU migration. Research has found that a 1% increase in the share of migrants in the UK-born working age population leads to a 0.6% decline in the wages of the 5% lowest paid workers. However, this study also found that a 1% increase in the inflow of immigrants also leads to a 0.7% increase in the median wage and a 0.5% increase in the top 10% of highest paid workers. Therefore, on balance, evidence suggests that there has been a slight positive overall effect on natives employment and average wages, but the distributional story is more complex, with positive impacts at the higher end of the skills distribution counteracting negative impacts at the lower end.

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This is interesting but it doesnt say what Farage claims it said. In fact, the reports conclusions say the precise opposite.

The introduction of tighter restrictions on migration is estimated to reduce UK GDP by around 1-1.6% due to reduced labour supply. This will particularly impact sectors which are heavily dependent on low-skilled migrant workers at present, such as agriculture, food and accommodation services. [Emphasis added]

So even according to the report Farage was citing, EU migration brings a net economic benefit to the UK. Ive pointed out this discrepancy between what Farage said and what the report says to Ukip. If they can provide a different report, which does say what Farage says it did, then Ill update this blog accordingly. But thatll be easier said than done, because the overwhelming majority of the academic evidence agrees with the PwC report: EU migrants are net contributors to the economy.

This extremely literate and knowledgeable audience duffed up Farage very effectively. One man from the pharmaceutical industry told the Ukip leader the firm he worked for would move its headquarters from London if the UK left the EU.

I dont buy the fact that a pharmaceutical company is in Britain because its in the EU, Farage answered. Theyre in Britain because they want to be in Britain.

The man stopped him. Im sorry to interrupt you there. Some operations can only be done in the EU. I cant do my job in Switzerland. I cant review certain EU products. You have to be in the EU. And thats why they have EU headquarters in the EU.

What was Farages response to the fact that someone with experience of what he was talking about had just disproved his argument? He started jabbering on about alternative medicine. I have to say Im not really happy with the way much of the pharmaceutical industry has behaved, he said. In particular I see their lobbying in Brussels. And I see the way they are very good at putting out of business people who produce alternative medicines.

Its good of Farage to add alternative medicine to the list of things hes wrong about. There is no such thing as alternative medicine. There is just medicine, which has been subjected to peer-reviewed, controlled trials, and then theres everything else. Its an alternative to medicine in the same way that a toothbrush is an alternative to a novel. But it should be unsurprising that he decided to focus on quackery, given that his own performance showed a total disregard for facts or reason.

Farage truly became unstuck when he got dragged onto the subject of his own comments on immigration. Here we saw the full portfolio of his character defects. He became emotional, angry, entitled and condescending and frantically tried to avoid answering the questions being put to him. He repeatedly cited a vague kind of Remain conspiracy acting against him, even though he was being asked about his own words.

One woman asked him about the danger of increased racial tension in the UK due to his comments on immigration. You use scare mongering and inflammatory comments in your campaign which have gone against people who look non-white, she told him. The audience applauded and you could see Farage become noticeably more angry.

Im sorry, Im sorry, he said, I tell you what, if you want to think that

She interrupted. I dont think that - the majority of people who look black British or non-white have those concerns. Theyre very real concerns. And youre dismissing them.

Well lots of them voted for my party at the last election.

Did they? Did they? Can I see the evidence? On what numbers?

And then Farage just lost his cool. Youre not listening to me are you? I cant do a lot, unless Im allowed to talk.

No-one was impressed by this little tantrum. He looked to the host, Julie Etchingham, to intervene. She wasnt having any of it. Shes put a very clear question to you, she said simply.

Once again this attempt to demonise the Leave campaign or me Farage answered.

But no-one took him apart like the young woman who asked about his comments on British women being subject to sexual assault from migrants if the borders remain open (00:11:11 in the video above). Whoever she was, Newsnight should hire her immediately. She broke this professional politician using reason and a bemused smile.

Its tough to be confident in these scenarios. There are TV cameras everywhere, you know youre on air, these are practiced, famous political figures. To stay calm is challenging. But she didnt waver at all.

How can you have the audacity to use such blatant scaremongering tactics for the Leave campaign? she started. In light of recent horrific sexual assaults in Germany, you have basically suggested that a vote to remain is a vote for women to be subjected to the same horrific assaults.

Farages first response was, genuinely: Just calm down there a little bit.

It was an astonishing thing to say. It came across as - and probably was - deeply sexist and patronising.

I am calm, she said simply.

Even the host joined in. She asked it perfectly calmly, she said.

Farage then launched into one of the most patronising explanations I can remember seeing from a political leader. If mansplaining exists then this was the textbook definition.

Sometimes in life what it says at the top of a newspaper page and what youve actually said can be totally different things, Farage said. Im used to being demonised because Im taking on the establishment.

Arent you demonising migrants?

Just let me finish. When I first suggested we should have an Australian-style points system youd have thought Id said something dreadful and now Im pleased to say lots of people are saying it.

I dont think thats what I asked.

Farage then started banging on about Merkel. Youre targeting a certain group of people and using them as bait to prey upon British peoples rational fears about mass migration, the audience member said.

Farage answered: Im sorry, this is an issue for the future. It is a tiddly little issue as far as Im concerned in this election campaign. But I knew at some point in this campaign the Remainers would come for me and would try to conflate something I said out of all proportion.

Its a fascinating exchange, because it reveals many of the techniques Farage uses to avoid answering questions. He patronises the questioner, cites imaginary conspiracy theories against him and then frantically tries to avoid the substance of the query.

But whats best about this moment is the womans face. Shes got him and she knows shes got him. It was a hugely satisfying moment which showed just how inept Farage is at handling anyone but his core support.

This is the real Farage: inventing reports, avoiding the arguments, obsessed with imaginary conspiracy theories and patronising young people and women. ITVs audience did a much better job of holding him to account than Cameron ever could.

Ian Dunt is the editor of Politics.co.uk
We can help you make sense of the agribusiness industry, extending from chemicals and fertilizers used as inputs into agriculture, to the commodities, food and by-products that are an output to farming, with policy and regulation applied at every step of the value chain.
There has been a significant increase in the number of GP-led transactions reviewed by LPs over the past 12 months, according to a study by Capstone Partners focused on GP-led Secondaries.
YEREVAN, JUNE 7, ARMENPRESS. The First Family of Azerbaijan and a close business partner made a series of financial transactions in the days and weeks before a crippling 2015 devaluation of the national currency that eventually earned them at least 100 million manat (US$ 64 million) in just two deals while additionally protecting their banks and companies, Armenpress reports, citing OCCRP.

Meanwhile, the rest of the countrys banking sector lost more than one billion dollars from that devaluation and a later Central Bank decision to scrap the manats peg to the US dollar and let it float freely. The turmoil caused by the sharply falling manat would cause four banks to lose their licenses. Average Azerbaijanis were the real losers, as up to half of their life savings evaporated in a single year.

On Saturday, Feb. 21, 2015 the Central Bank of Azerbaijan depreciated the countrys currency - the manat - by one-third against the US dollar. The surprise move came after months of interventions by the Central Bank designed to prop up the manat and government promises that it would maintain the stability of its currency.

President Ilham Aliyev reassured the concerned public: On the contrary, the manat is even stronger, he told media as devaluation planning was underway. The Central Bank also promised, up to two days before the devaluation, that the currency would remain strong.

The transactions raise questions about what the president knew and whether he or anyone in his administration told his family and business partner of the impending devaluation and whether together they moved to protect their businesses and earn a profit from the crisis.

At the center of the controversy are three banks: Caspian Development Bank, AtaBank and Pasha Bank. The three are owned by either the Aliyev family; their business partner, Ashraf Kamilov; or both.

All three banks also massively violated Azerbaijani banking regulations  violations that led to almost no action by regulators.

When the Central Bank switched to a floating rate for the national currency on Dec. 21, 2015, the manat lost value again, ending up at half its original value. In both devaluations, the presidents family and Kamilov won.
YEREVAN, JUNE 7, ARMENPRESS. The graduation ceremony of the first university trainings in Armenia was organized at Yerevan State University in the framework of IBM Academic Initiative on June 6. As Armenpress was informed from the Enterprise Incubator Foundation, university trainings were organized by IBM Innovative Solutions and Technology Center and Enterprise Incubator Foundation aiming at developing and empowering capacities of Armenian higher educational establishments in the field of technologies as well as giving opportunities to universities to make use of IBMs wide range of resources.

In total 200 hours, more than 35 students and 60 lecturers gained modern knowledge in the following directions: Information Security, Cloud technologies and programming basics in BlueMix environment, Mobile programming in cloud environment, IBM Watson analytic application, Statistical data analysis, Data analysis and prediction through IBM SPSS program, Integrated e-marketing basics, Information system management, Business process management and automation.

The majority of graduate students are now employed and some have formed start-up companies. Up to today, more than 50 trainings and seminars have been implemented at IBM Innovation Solutions and Technologies Center involving more than 800 students and lecturers. More than 70 lecturers from different universities of Armenia have become members of IBM Academic Initiative.

Students and lecturers from 9 Armenian universities got the opportunity to take part in the trainings, including;

1. Yerevan State University

2. American University of Armenia

3. Armenian State University of Economics

4. French Higher Institution of Engineering in Armenia

5. French University of Armenia

6. Eurasia international university

7. State Engineering University of Armenia

8. National University of Architecture and Construction of Armenia

9. European Academy

The Center implements continuous modernization of subject lists at universities as well as discusses importing of new Masters Degree programs in some universities and improving existing programs. The main goal of the Center is to develop and strengthen the educational capabilities of Armenian higher educational institutions in IT/High-Tech, to enhance their research potential in educational context, as well as create a favorable environment for formation of sustainable businesses.

The Center for Innovative Solutions and Technologies will be situated in YSU premises, though all the universities of the Republic of Armenia and private sector may freely make use of all the resources including trainings of Academic Initiative, virtual library, software and equipment and Centers staff and IBM experts are ready to support in any issue. The opening of the Center is expected in the coming months.
YEREVAN, JUNE 8, ARMENPRESS. First Deputy Minister of Economy of Armenia Garegin Melkonyan says representatives of more than 26 Czech companies arrived in Armenia to participate in the Armenian-Czech business forum.

More than 85 Armenian companies take part in the forum. This is the third forum within 5 months of this year.

Garegin Melkonyan says the sides are interested to strengthen relations in trade and investment.

The two Presidents aim to develop the economic relations, there are mutually beneficial projects that aim to strengthen the business ties between the two states. These issues are also widely being discussed within the framework of the intergovernmental commission, Armenpress reports, Melkonyan stated.

He stated that several decisions were made within the intergovernmental commission which relate to a number of fields, including trade, industry, ecology, production.

Such kinds of meetings enable us to present the Czech businessmen Armenias proposals of doing business. Armenias accession to the Eurasian Economic Union, Armenias neighborhood with Iran with which the sanctions were eliminated, Armenias rather liberal picture of legislative regulations create a great interest among the Czech businessmen, the First Deputy Minister said.

Presidents of Armenia and the Czech Republic take part in the Armenian-Czech business forum.
Lebanon's politics might be in a mess but the country's central bank is determined to maintain the country's financial stability, its governor told CNBC, and to make sure U.S. sanctions are implemented against the supporters of militant political group Hezbollah,

Speaking to CNBC in Beirut, Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh said that his central bank was battling to maintain monetary stability amid political divisions within the country  which has not had a president for over two years  and wider unrest in the Middle East. Lebanon has also had to contend with a massive influx of 1.1 million refugees from war-torn Syria  a huge burden on a country with just 4.4 million inhabitants.

"The problem is that we have a deadlock and it seems that the Lebanese political class can't solve it. Usually they rely on external intervention but obviously there is also deadlock on the level of the region and the only interest of the international community in Lebanon is that Lebanon is receiving Syrians and to make sure that those Syrians are kept in Lebanon and not thrown out," Salameh said.

Political disunity and sectarianism in Lebanon has meant that the country has had no president for two years  and no parliamentary elections can take place without a president. The last parliament was elected in 2009 and another election is now not expected until 2017.



The next presidential election is due on June 23 yet it will be the 40th attempt to elect a (largely ceremonial) leader, one Lebanese newspaper noted. Salameh said that there had been no international help to solve the political deadlock.

"The international visits we've received so far were related to the Syrian refugees. The visits we had from important world leaders were dedicated for the Syrian refugees and the Lebanese are left on their own to solve their problems," he said.

"Unfortunately, structurally, we are in deadlock, that's why we cannot elect a president and that's why the coalition government has to act very prudently because it is the only constitutional institution working now. The parliament is not meeting and we don't have a president so as a central bank we have to try to cope with these vulnerabilities and try to maintain stability in the currency," Salameh warned.

Story continues

Maintaining the Lebanese pound's value against the U.S. dollar was important as it had an impact on the flow of remittances back to the country, he said, which represented 20 percent of the country's gross domestic product and were "fundamental to the funding of the private and public sector."

"The stability in monetary policy is essential and we have to implement that in an environment that is not really ideal. The instability in the region affects us as our export markets are disrupted, we have refugees other than the Syrians coming from Iraq and Palestine and the labor market in the country is witnessing competition that is negatively impacting on the Lebanese themselves," he said.

Despite its political woes, Lebanon has remained relatively stable considering the civil war being waged in neighboring Syria.



It is no stranger to sectarianism, however, being the focal point of a proxy war between Israel and Shia-dominated Iran, which is widely seen as the source of funding and ideological support for Hezbollah, a powerful Islamist militant and political group that was created in the mid-1980s to counter an Israeli invasion of South Lebanon.

Labeled as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and Israel (which, most recently, fought a short war against Hezbollah in 2006 before a United Nations-brokered ceasefire went into effect), Hezbollah remains opposed to Israel and has called for its destruction. The European Union has proscribed its militant wing as a terrorist organization.

Hezbollah is often seen as a "state within a state" in Lebanon and remains popular with the country's Shia community despite its destabilizing effect on an already disjointed political scene.

In December, the U.S. passed a law (called the Hezbollah International Financing Prevention Act, or HIFPA) that threatens to sanction anyone who finances Hezbollah. The act has caused tensions between Hezbollah and the central bank to rise, Reuters reported in May, but Salameh appeared sanguine and said that the central bank was working to implement the law. He said that 100 Hezbollah-related accounts had already been frozen.

"Our priority is to keep Lebanon on the international financial map so we have taken a resolution that we will implement that U.S. law in Lebanon and we have put in place a structure to do it to satisfy the objectives of that law and at the same time preserve the rights of the Shi'ites to have access to the banks," he said.

On a wider level, it was crucial for Lebanon to adhere to international financial practices, he said, to improve its credibility in international markets. "The more you improve your reputation the more funds you get that are serious, we don't want illegal funds in our system. We don't want a few Lebanese to spoil the image of the country or the financial markets in Lebanon," he said.





More From CNBC


Modified On Jun 08, 2016 02:30 PM By Aman for Porsche Panamera 2017-2021

Good news for the Panamera lovers as the next generation of a one-of-a-kind luxury saloon from the German powerhouse is set to be launched soon on June 28, 2016. Porsche has disclosed a new teaser image and an introductory video ahead of its unveiling. The same will also be a part of Porsches line-up at the Paris Motor Show later this year.

Although, several spied pictures have already surfaced online which indicate some significant changes for the second generation model. The C-pillar underwent a significant change, as it now has been contoured with a sharp and an aggressive rear. In tune with that, it will also manifest a stretched bonnet and a lowered roofline. This will help the saloon to achieve a sportier stance rather than an estate like demeanour. Its connected LED strip at the back seems to be inspired from the current 911 series, while the front-end might also witness a new four-point LED design borrowed again from the 911 sportscar.

Riding geometry will also improve as the next-gen model is set to use the Volkswagen Groups new multi-material MSB platform which will help this bulky saloon shed at least 90kg compared to the current model. Refusing to deploy naturally aspirated engines, we firmly believe that a new set of V6 and V8 turbocharged motors will also be introduced on the Panamera and a hybrid version will soon follow. Keep reading this space to know more about the Panamera.

Read More on : Panamera india

Image Courtesy: Auto Express UK
Exceeding the EU limits for certain mycotoxins can result in wheat being rejected for human use, leading to the loss of valuable premiums.

However, not all fungal species that cause ear blight produce mycotoxins and being able to identify what species if any are present in crops before harvest will enable farmers to segregate grain from high risk fields.

See also: Angled sprayer nozzles give best wheat ear disease control

This avoids cross contaminating grain from clean fields, thereby keeping the financial impact to a minimum. Here we look at the key species including the symptoms and mycotoxins produced.

Microdochium nivale and majus

There are two key species of microdochium that produce fusarium ear blight symptom (M nivale and majus), with neither producing mycotoxins. Early season, they produce browning at the stem base and towards the end of May, produce perithecia [fruiting bodies].

For example in the last high pressure year of 2012, stem bases were covered in perithecia.

These perithecia then produce ascospores which are wind-dispersed and can spread about 10m, landing on leaves and ears. However, moisture must be present for them to be released and a dew can be sufficient for this to occur.

Given the right conditions, the ascospores cause ear infection. They rarely cause a problem on leaves, but can in very wet seasons like in 2012.

Ideal conditions for ear infection are similar to those for fusarium: wet and humid at flowering. However, one key difference Dr Jennings points out is that microdochium can cope with cooler temperatures, 15C instead of 18-20C for fusarium.

Ear infection is seen as the characteristic bleaching, but unlike fusarium, it does not progress up the ear. One spore will affect just one spikelet.

However, Dr Jennings adds that you can still end up with a whole white ear, when there are multiple infections.

Where the whole ear is bleached, the way to tell if it is due to fusarium or michrodochiom is by looking at the rachis [centre spine of an ear]. This will stay green with microdochium while fusarium progresses up the ear turning the rachis white too.

When examining the grains, they may appear slightly shrivelled, but still look relatively healthy. In fact, it can be difficult to tell there is a microdochium infection by just looking at grains, as there is no pinking or whitening as seen with the fusarium species, he explains.

Fusarium culmorum and graminearum

These two important species are similar in the way they look on the ear, but he points out that they develop differently.

F culmorum

It is rare to see Fusarium graminearum at the stem base, but F culmorum is a secondary coloniser. Crop Monitor data has shown that microdochium is generally isolated from the stem base during early spring (April onwards), but culmorum isnt normally isolated until early May.

Culmorum macroconidia develop on crop debris and these are spread by rain splash, says Dr Jennings.

They need rain and it is where the saying good rain for fusarium comes from. He adds that as they are splash-carried, they will generally spread about 1m.

Both F culmorum and graminearum species produce deoxynivalenol (Don) and zearalenone (Zon).

Don producers lead to the characteristic white bleached ear, with a single infection resulting in the ear above it turning white. But as mentioned earlier the rachis is also bleached.

The mycotoxin is mostly produced in the chaff following infection at flowering and is transferred into the grain by water. As the grain ripens(GS80 onwards), it becomes more hydrophilic.

As Don is water soluble, it is taken up by rain and transferred from chaff into grain. As the grain dries, the toxin is left behind.

This is why rainfall from growth stage 75 onwards can make a big difference in mycotoxin levels in grain.

He points to 2007 and 2008, which were similar years in terms of infection caused by Don-producing species, but saw a big difference in mycotoxin levels as 2008 was a wet season.

They were very different mycotoxin years despite similar infection.

In contrast to Don, Zon is produced later in the season particularly when harvests have been delayed because of wet weather.

Where delays to harvest are sufficient that the starch in the grain begins to be broken down into to sugars, this leads to secondary colonisation on the grain and hence the pink grain.

If you see pink around the embryo chances are there is a zearalenone contamination, he says.

F graminearum

Fusarium graminearum produces similar symptoms and the same mycotoxins as culmorum. Inoculum develops as perithecia develop on crop debris when fully mature these then release wind dispersed ascospores.

Perithecia need a warm dry spring to develop, with water during late May to fully mature and release ascospores. Unlike culmorum, it doesnt need heavy rainfall to spread. A heavy dew can be sufficient for ascospores to be released from perithecia.

Key F graminearum hotspots are down the east coast and around The Wash area.

Other fusarium species causing ear blight

There are some other less important species including Fusarium poae and langsethiae. They prefer dryer conditions to infect at flowering and, therefore, tend to be seen when the other fusarium ear blight pathogens are lower.

Both are not really an issue in wheat, but langsethiae can be a problem in oats producing the mycotoxins HT2 and T2, he says.

Four key species at a glance
- A Christian man from Kaduna has described how he was stabbed for eating

- He said Muslim youths set upon him as he was eating during the Islamic fast of Ramadan

- The unfortunate man survived the region's governor has promised to hunt down those responsible

Barely 10 days after a mob killed an Igbo woman for allegedly committing blasphemy in Kano, a 41-year-old carpenter, Francis Emmanuel, was stabbed yesterday afternoon by unknown youths for eating during the Ramadan fast.

Governor Nasir El-Rufai visited the victim of the assault earlier this morning at St. Gerard Catholic Hospital where he ordered the police to fish out the perpetrators for prosecution.

The incident occurred at 2:30pm on Tuesday when Emmanuel was eating in his workshop when the youths suddenly appeared from nowhere and started attacking him for eating on the afternoon of Ramadan.

Kano has been wracked by considerable violence recently

Speaking with journalists from his hospital bed, the carpenter spoke of his terrifying ordeal.

It happened around 2:30pm at Sokoto Road, Kakuri, on Tuesday, when I went to the market to buy wood to do some work, Emmanuel said.

So, when I came back, I bought food to eat. As I was eating, about six Hausa boys came to ask me if I am a Muslim or a Christian, but I did not answer them.

READ ALSO: 11-year-old boy slaughtered in Kano

They asked why I was not fasting, then, I told them that I am not a Muslim. Before I know it, one of them slapped me. As I stood up, the rest came and surrounded me and started attacking me with knives.

Emmanuel then told the gathered journalists he did not know the identity of the vicious and bigoted attackers.

Nobody could come to my aid because of the type of knives the boys were carrying. They used cutlasses scissors and knives, I became unconscious, I dont even know who brought me to the hospital, he added.

READ ALSO: Kano Muslims set to receive N7 million for Ramadan

Source: Legit.ng
Lisbon (AFP) - Portuguese authorities on Wednesday said they had detained an intelligence services officer on suspicion of being a double agent and selling secrets to Russia.

A Lisbon court judge ruled that Frederico Carvalhao Gil, extradited following his arrest in Rome on May 21 on suspicion of handing over confidential documents to a Russian national, should be detained on suspicion of spying.

The 57-year-old is being held on suspicion of espionage, selling state secrets, corruption and money laundering.

Some of the documents he is accused of passing to a Russian handler for payment reportedly contain confidential information on European security and NATO operations. Portugal is both an EU and NATO member.

Gil's lawyer Jose Preto, in comments to Portugal's Lusa press agency, called the arrest of his client "totally illegal" and the allegations against him "absolute fiction" and "absurd."

Media reports indicated Gil is a long-serving and senior member of Portugal's SIS intelligence services, set up in 1985 just as the country prepared to join the European Union.
Mirrors Edge and Mirrors Edge: Catalyst present a troublingly possible vision for the future. The world DICE crafted represents the logical conclusion of surveillance, political suppression and police brutality taken to their extremes, all in the name of safety and security. The seeds of their world are present and growing in ours today. The Snowden leaks, increasing voter suppression and widespread violence by police officers make it clear that The City of Glass isnt as science fiction as it may seem.

Its hard to find ways to communicate these days without half the world listening in, Faiths friend Birdman says to her early on in Catalyst, but it could have just as easily been said about today. Mirrors Edge: Catalysts City of Glass is blanketed in security cameras that regularly scan citizens to ensure they are following the letter of the oppressive law. Anytime Faith approaches one, it will scan her and alert authorities, who come running, armed to the teeth. Billboards across Glass display the image of a Robocop-esque masked officer with the words We Are Watching blazoned across.

The U.S. is more secretive about its surveillance than Glass, but it is becoming more and more insidious. Snowdens leaks made it painfully clear that the U.S. government spied on millions of citizens through the mass collection of phone records for years. The 2015 USA Freedom Act rolled back the NSAs ability to collect everyones phone records; however, this by no means prevents future Congresses or Presidents from removing the law or finding workarounds. It also doesnt address one of the baseline problems: the growing power of the executive branch and its ability to keep secrets like these from Congress and the American people. The limits of the Freedom Act were seen when, at the end of last year, the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act was signed into law, which compels businesses to share mass data about internet users with the government without the need for a warrant. The government markets these tactics as necessary for safety, and have convinced 42% of Americans to approve of the widespread surveillance. The advertised goal of mass surveillance in both Mirrors Edge and America may be to catch lawbreakers, but over time they remove notions of privacy, inspire fear in the general population, and stifle political dialogue. The effects of this fear are already being seen today, discouraging some from openly discussing their political views on the internet.

This political discussion is largely absent from the general populace of Glass. The average person, known as an employ, is too distracted by the meaningless pursuit of status and the furthering of their careers, unaware of the impossibility of upward class mobility. The Krugers have established their totalitarian control over the ruling government. Mirrors Edge: Catalysts nation of Cascadia was formed with democratic ideals, but quickly began curbing voting rights. In Faiths time, Gabriel Kruger is a clear autocrat, unquestioned by the employs. Political suppression starts small though. Government initiatives such as requiring IDs to vote, decreasing opportunities to vote by removing early voting, and removal of voting rights for committing crimes, even misdemeanors, are seeds of large scale political suppression, and they are all already happening in America. In addition to the results of such political oppression, Mirrors Edge: Catalyst also depicts the endpoints of an unchecked militaristic police force.

The opening scene of Mirrors Edge: Catalyst shows Faith on her last day in prison. A guard comes to escort Faith out. The guard gets close to Faith, brandishing her baton, and threatens Faith, saying Maybe youd like another three months? before slamming Faith against the wall of her cell. It would be so easy, the guard says, trying to elicit any sort of response from Faith to use as an excuse to keep her in prison. Personal freedom comes at a cost, is poignantly heard from the prerecorded exit message playing over the prisons PA. The police officers in Mirrors Edge: Catalyst, known as KrugerSec (after the ruling Kruger family), always engage with violence first. They carry machine guns and cover their faces with masks and shields. They are impersonal tools of violence and suppression used by the ruling elite to keep the employs in line and society stable.

Recent years have brought the extent of police brutality in America to the forefront. However, police brutality in the U.S. has a clear racial element that is not present in Mirrors Edge. Police violence is felt most directly by black Americans, whereas the police force in Mirrors Edge: Catalyst is cruel to anyone not in the upperCaste. Yet the way the police immediately begin shooting Faith in both Mirrors Edge games is eerily reminiscent of how quickly police resort to violence in America. This video by Slate brings together some of the most egregious uses of violence by the police in 2014. It is harrowing to watch, but brings home the horrifying extent of police brutality in America.

Open defiance by average citizens in Mirrors Edge was quelled in a series of protests, called the November Riots. A similar linguistic argument takes place in Mirrors Edge as in our world over these anti-government movements, with different media outlets or individuals referring to people as either protesters or rioters, depending on their views. KrugerSec responded to the November Riots similarly to the response to protests across America: with Swat teams covered in military gear brandishing machine guns at civilians. For protesting the government, Faiths parents lost their lives to this state-sanctioned police violence. Despite similar violence in the U.S., brave Americans continue to protest police brutality.

The greatest irony in Mirrors Edge: Catalyst is the importance the government places on the concept of individual freedoms, without actually granting any. Together we have created a world where we celebrate individual freedoms and enterprise. A world where everyone who contributes is rewarded with safety and prosperity, Gabriel Kruger announces to the city on giant, Times Square-like monitors. And the employs continue working. Theyve been blinded to the greatest hypocrisy. The government pays lip-service to individual freedom, and grants it to a few of the elite, but keeps the vast majority oppressed.

Mirrors Edge: Catalyst presents at surface level as far future sci-fi, but its world is entirely grounded in problems plaguing our country today. DICE has presented a vision for the future that is all too possible. Mirrors Edge: Catalyst argues that its world is one possible future trajectory, one where conformity is the rule of law and violence is used as a tool of safety. In Mirrors Edge Faith doesnt try to take down the government, she just wants to keep herself and her sister safe. Catalyst once again presents Faith as skeptical of directly opposing the government. Her world may already be too far gone, but Catalyst tacitly reminds us that ours isnt.

Kyle McKenney writes for Swarthmore Colleges student newspaper the Daily Gazette and is an intern at Paste. You can follow him on Twitter @TotallyKyle95.
John reported here a few days ago that Britain was scaling back wind power, and it looks like much of the rest of Europe is following. The Global Warming Policy Foundation gives a nice roundup today, starting with Denmark, which is postponing additional offshore wind for almost ten years:

Denmark Scares Off Investors After Energy Agenda Is Jettisoned It was the first country ever to venture into offshore wind power. Now, Denmark is scaring off potential investors by abandoning some of the policies that once helped make it an international poster child for green energy. The center-right government of Lars Loekke Rasmussen wants to scrap an electricity tax that has helped subsidize wind turbines since 1998. The administration says its decision follows a complaint from the European Union that such subsidies favor domestic businesses. But Denmarks Wind Energy Association, which estimates the change would lead to a massive drop in new capacity, warns the development is dangerous. Jan Serup Hylleberg, the chief executive officer of the Wind Association, says investors are struggling to interpret the latest signals from Denmark. Political uncertainty is poison, he said. Its more of a headache to investors than predicting how the wind will blow.

AaannnnndGermany:

Germany will slow the rollout of renewables Angela Merkel has put the brakes on Germanys rollout of renewable energy following extensive talks with the countrys state leaders. The rapid expansion of green energy as part of the Energiewende programme has driven electricity costs up and placed a strain on the grid in Europes largest economy. Last year, renewables provided one-third of the total electricity in Germany, with 3.5GW of new onshore wind capacity installed. New restrictions will cap onshore wind power at 2.8GW per year. Solar PV will also have a limit of 600MW imposed upon it. Germanys economic ministry backs the energy cuts, claiming that clean energy rollout needs to be slowed in order to accommodate improvements to the national grid. Some critics fear that the cuts will lead to job losses in the green energy sector and inhibit Germanys ability to meet its long-term energy goals.

Im sure they need the energy subsidy funds for unexpected refugee resettlement costs instead.
Focus Estate Fund acquired Galeria Sandomierz retail centre in south-eastern Poland, from Euro Real Estate Investments LLP. The buyer was represented by Cushman & Wakefield and JLL acted on behalf of the Seller. Galeria Sandomierz is the only modern retail centre in the city and its surroundings. Operating since March

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Sometimes good fish go bad. But it's not their fault.

In a three-year effort to understand the effects of known stressors such as overfishing and nutrient pollution on coral reefs, scientists made a totally unexpected finding: A normally healthy interaction between fish and coral had turned deadly.

In typical conditions, parrotfish -- like many other species -- are essential to the health of coral reefs, nibbling at them to remove algae while causing no permanent damage. However, a new study conducted by UC Santa Barbara field ecologist Deron Burkepile and colleagues in the Florida Keys found that 62 percent of corals weakened by nitrogen and phosphorus pollution died when parrotfish bit them. The results appear in the journal Nature Communications.

"Normally benign predation by the parrotfish turned into coral murder," said Burkepile, an associate professor in UCSB's Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology. "But it's not the parrotfishes; they're like the reef janitors, keeping it clean. Those extra nutrients -- nutrient pollution -- turn parrotfishes into an actual source of mortality by facilitating pathogens in the wounds left by their bites. Excess nutrients turn a coral accomplice into a coral killer."

The researchers found that multiple local stressors combined with warming ocean temperatures weaken corals to such an extent that opportunistic pathogens build to levels that kill them. "When we looked at the patterns of how corals died in our experiment, we saw high coral mortality when we removed herbivorous fishes from the reefs," Burkepile said.

"This allowed seaweeds to grow next to the corals and compete with them, which slowed the corals' growth rate," he added. "Seaweeds also transferred bacterial pathogens directly to the corals from their surface, which made the corals sick."

Investigators from six institutions conducted a three-year experiment that simulated both overfishing and nutrient pollution on a coral reef. They built exclosures to keep herbivorous fishes away from corals; in some reef areas, they added nutrients to mimic nutrient pollution in order to understand the relative roles of each scenario. The large body of field data generated helped to resolve some of the fundamental questions about the cause of coral reef declines.

"When corals are so weakened, they cannot withstand normal impacts," said corresponding author Rebecca Vega Thurber, an assistant professor in the College of Science at Oregon State University (OSU). "The solution will be to help those corals recover their health by ensuring that their local environment is free of nutrient pollution and that fish stocks are not depleted."

The findings make it clear that in the face of rising ocean temperatures, some of the best opportunities to protect coral reefs lie in careful management of fishing and protection of water quality. This would give corals their best chance to have a healthy microbiome and resist warmer conditions without dying, according to the researchers.

"We need to know how human activities are affecting coral reef ecosystems," said David Garrison, program director in the National Science Foundation's Division of Ocean Sciences, which funded the research. "Coral reefs are among the most sensitive indicators of the health of the oceans. This report is a major contribution toward understanding how reefs will fare in the future."
In a world of digital natives, microfiction and social media in academic settings, Twitter is the ideal tool for regenerating twenty first century writing, according to a recent study in New Writing.

With its live nature -- the need to edit at speed, the strict character limit -- the imposed brevity, Twitter enforces critical inquiry. The text based social media channel equips the twenty first century writer with the necessary skills to thrive in the face of emerging technologies.

Josie Barnard, Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing with Journalism, Middlesex University, conducted a study to determine whether Twitter can help students develop creative writing skills in the classroom and in what way. She argues that pen, paper and imagination alone are no longer sufficient tools for competing in the writers' arena. The pilot study was undertaken to test if there was any value in introducing Twitter to the creative writing classroom.

"The learning experiences were exciting to see. The exercises helped students develop a new rigour. Tough self-editing is needed to pare a narrative right back. The exercises also helped with writer's block, providing fresh stimulation that aided students' creativity. The 21st century brings new challenges for aspiring writers. They must become multimodal writers, that is, flexible enough in their creative practice to be able to move between different types of writing for different modes of dissemination often within small time frames. The Twitter exercises helped the students begin to develop these skills."

Traditionally, the best creative writing was thought to arise within a solitary environment. In twenty first century writing, there is a need for new writers to engage in self-promotion and communicate with their reader community. Social media invites writers to build author platforms and post regularly. Generating publicity is no longer the sole responsibility of the publisher. However, in spite of a burgeoning interest in the literary world with 'microfiction', a genre that Twitter, with its 140 character limit, is well suited to, there remains a reluctance to embrace Twitter in the teaching of creative writing. In a Faculty Focus survey of 1,958 education professionals, academics view Twitter, 'as more technological clutter,' explaining why Twitter may be rejected in an academic setting.

Two BA creative writing classes were asked to complete exercises as well as an evaluation sheet between November 2012 and March 2013. Students were invited to tweet about a set topic and given a hashtag to embed within tweets. Storify was used to collate the tweets and projected on a smart board where the micro narratives were arranged accordingly. In the class, students still considered and submitted work in conventional formats but moved between different forms of writing. Working together as a group inspired confidence in editing the work of others highlighting the importance of community on what was once considered an isolated pastime. The majority of participants in the pilot study claimed that Twitter helped meet all the learning objectives stipulated in the assessment forms.

The use of Twitter in creative writing teaching challenges convention -- brevity replaces the long words often perceived as signs of good writing. The absence of handouts and live nature of tweets refined the skills needed to critique on the spot. Twitter lays foundations for crafting the story for the twenty first century writer.
The unusual electronic properties of some superconducting materials permit lossless and dense electrical currents at very low temperatures, even in high magnetic fields. Conductors made of these materials are thus ideal for winding coils to generate very high magnetic fields, which are essential for a number of applications like magnetic medical imaging, magnetic resonance spectroscopy for the analysis of complex molecules or even accelerator magnets. To generate ever-higher magnetic fields, physicists at the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and an R&D team of Bruker BioSpin in Fallanden (ZH), both in Switzerland, started a collaboration in 2012, which was partially funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). Together, they successfully developed and tested the first superconducting coil able to reach a magnetic field of 25 Tesla. A first in Europe.

Today, the magnets used in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and medical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) represent the primary commercial applications of superconductivity. NMR, used mainly in the chemical and pharmaceutical industry, allows discovering new molecules, studying the structure of proteins or analyzing food content. It is essential for drug development or the quality control of chemical compounds. Modern measurement instruments available on the market today and manufactured particularly by Bruker BioSpin, world leader in this field, are able to produce magnetic fields of up to 23.5 Tesla. This limit is related to the physical properties of conventional superconducting materials used to generate the magnetic field. "However, there is a need for more powerful spectrometers in the biomedical field," says Carmine Senatore, professor in the Department of Quantum Matter Physics in the Faculty of Science at UNIGE. "Indeed, the stronger the magnetic field, the better the resolution of molecular structures. The goal of our collaboration was therefore to reach the new record for the magnetic field intensity of 25 Tesla with newly available superconducting materials, which was a real scientific and technological challenge. It is also an important milestone in the introduction of crucial technologies for the development of commercial ultra-high-field NMR products."

To create the magnetic field of 25 Tesla, the researchers combined a Bruker laboratory magnet producing 21 Tesla, already installed at UNIGE, with an innovative superconducting insert coil increasing the field by an additional 4 Tesla; so in total, a field well beyond the 23.5 Tesla reachable with conventional superconducting coils could be generated. In order to operate, the coil must be cooled with liquid helium to a temperature of 269C (4.2 K). The superconductor chosen to achieve such a field is a copper-oxide-based ceramic, YBCO. A one-micrometer thick layer of superconductor covers a thin steel tape which is then wound onto a cylindrical support to obtain the coil. 140 meters of 3 mm wide tape were necessary to produce the superconducting insert coil. In the preliminary design phase, many types of commercially available superconducting tapes were systematically studied and tested in order to understand and control their electrical, magnetic, mechanical and thermal properties. The challenge consisted of finding a conductor with the right balance of properties: it must carry high currents without dissipation, endure the winding process without degradation and withstand the magnetically generated mechanical stresses. This has been accomplished.

"In addition to the achievable higher resolution, which will certainly stimulate the scientific community and the network of institutions working at the forefront of molecular science, the use of YBCO will also simplify the operation of NMR spectrometers by using less complicated cooling systems," explains Riccardo Tediosi, manager of Bruker BioSpin's Superconducting Technologies group.

This first 25 Tesla coil will be a central and integral part of the laboratory of applied superconductivity at UNIGE. Although the coil is not a commercial product, the know-how developed for its design and manufacture represents an invaluable contribution to commercial NMR systems based on this technology. This project demonstrates how the Swiss network of research institutes and corporations active in this field in Switzerland are able to master such technologies. In the near future, this record magnet will be used for basic and fundamental research while scientists and engineers will aim at even more challenging goals: all-superconducting coils generating stable and homogeneous magnetic fields beyond 30 Tesla.
A team of researchers belonging to the Prehistory Area of the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country has published the results of its recent investigations in the San Cristobal Rock-shelter (Sierra de Cantabria. Laguardia. Alava, Basque Country). This is the first time that empirical data have been presented and which demonstrate the use of rock-shelters as enclosures (for sheep/goats) by agropastoral communities from the early Chacolithic onwards (about 5,000 years ago) in the area of the Basque Country and throughout the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula.

The UPV/EHU team was led by the Professor of Prehistory Javier Fernandez-Eraso and the work is the outcome of interdisciplinary collaboration coordinated from the UPV/EHU's Prehistory Area in which experts from the University of Barcelona and the CSIC have also participated.

Previous studies conducted by this same UPV/EHU research team had documented the existence of livestock enclosures dating back to the Ancient Neolithic (over 6,000 years ago) at other sites on the Sierra de Cantabria. Nevertheless, this is the first time that data of a geoarchaeological (microsedimentological analyses) and palaeobotanical (phytoliths, pollen, charcoal and seeds) nature have been incorporated. The aim is to find out about the specific practices that the human groups in the area were engaged in inside these shelters, and to know what function was fulfilled by these practices in their economy and in their strategies for organising the territory during the Chalcolithic.

"This is a piece of pioneering work in the studies on agropastoral communities on the Iberian Peninsula. We have evidence that the human groups that occupied San Cristobal during the Chacolithic used the shelter as a pen for goats and/or sheep and that this use, although repetitive throughout hundreds of years, was not ongoing but of a temporary nature linked to a seasonal exploitation of the rich natural resources available on the Sierra de Cantabria. We also know thanks to the microscopic study of the sediments that every now and again they used to burn the debris that had built up, probably to clean up the space that had been occupied and that this combustion process was carried out in line with some specific habits: they used to pile up the debris and on top of them pile up woody remains, perhaps to help to get the fire going before going on to burn the debris," explained Ana Polo-Diaz, a researcher in the UPV/EHU's Department of Geography, Prehistory and Archaeology.

On the other hand, the correlation of the microsedimentological and phytolith analyses (mineral remains that make up the skeleton of plants) has made it possible to determine what the livestock ate, and which was largely based on the grazing available around the shelter.

Hazelnut trees and oaks

The data on the pollen have revealed that a forest, in which hazelnut trees predominated along with deciduous oaks (possibly gall oaks), grew in the immediate surroundings of San Cristobal during the period studied. There is also evidence of holm oaks, box and pine.

The study of the charcoal remains preserved on the site has made it possible to go into how the timber available on the Sierra de Cantabria was used, and the results indicate a clear change in the selection of woody materials throughout the Chalcolithic occupation of the shelter: during the oldest phase a predominance of pine followed by yew is observed while in the most recent phase there is an increase in the use of species such as oak, holm oak, the rose family and box.

The pollen analysis also indicates the existence of grazing areas and farmland fairly close to the shelter, so the use of San Cristobal as an enclosure has to be understood in the context of a way of life in which agricultural and livestock activities were combined as a means of subsistence. Although it has not as yet been possible to locate any site in the open air in the area close to San Cristobal, a settlement may well have existed close by from which during specific periods of the year the livestock were moved to make use of the resources on the ridge.

The correlation of the data obtained at San Cristobal with the information provided by the neighbouring sites on the Sierra de Cantabria itself and its immediate area has also revealed that San Cristobal also formed part of a network of shelters-cum-enclosures used at the same time and for the same purpose by human groups with similar cultural features; it has also emerged that the communities that occupied these shelters-cum-enclosures were very likely the same ones that used the dolmen constructions of the Rioja Alavesa area during the Chalcolithic.
Storms that battered Australia's east coast are a harbinger of things to come and a stark reminder of the need for a national effort to monitor the growing threat from climate change, UNSW coastal researchers warn.

"The damage we've seen is a harbinger of what's to come," said Ian Turner, Director of the Water Research Laboratory at the University of New South Wales. "Climate change is not only raising the oceans and threatening foreshores, but making our coastlines much more vulnerable to storm damage. What are king high tides today will be the norm within decades."

Turner's lab manages one of the world's longest-running beach erosion research programs, at Collaroy and Narrabeen in Sydney, using drones, real-time satellite positioning, fixed cameras, and airborne LiDAR and quadbikes. The variability, changes and trends in coastal erosion at the beaches have been tracked since 1976.

But the data collected by the UNSW team is only reliable for modelling when it comes to predicting effects in southeastern Australia. For the vast bulk of Australia's 25,760 km long coastline, researchers -- and the governments and coastal communities they advise -- are largely making guesses based on limited or non-existent data, say researchers.

"The wealth of data we've collected over decades makes our models of coastal variability increasingly more reliable -- but only for a 500 km stretch of southeastern Australia," Turner added. "But when it comes to modelling other parts of Australia, in many locations we are basically working blind.

"There are very different coasts across the country exposed to very different conditions, and we just don't have the observational data we need to make predictions with any great confidence," he said. "For that, we need a national approach."

The long-term data from the UNSW program has been crucial in understanding how climate change is changing Australia's coasts, recently showing that El Nino and La Nina cycles will intensify coastal hazards, leading to changes in behaviour of storms, extreme coastal flooding and erosion in populated regions across the Pacific.

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As a result, estimates of coastal vulnerability -- which once focussed on sea level rise -- now have to factor in changing patterns of storm erosion, more intense storms, and other coastal effects.

Dr Mitchell Harley, a Senior Research Associate at the Lab who manages the Narrabeen-Collaroy program, said that beach erosion and coastal variability has been found to be a lot more complex than had originally thought, partly thanks to insights from the UNSW data.

"It's now clear that sea level rise is not the only player in climate change: shifts in storm patterns and wave direction also have consequences, and distort or amplify the natural variability of coastal patterns," Harley said.

Turner added, "These are precisely the conditions we experienced in Sydney over the past weekend -- waves from the north-east, combined with unusually high sea levels brought on by king tides wreaked considerable damage. And, as sea levels rise, even ordinary tides will reach higher. What we consider king high tides today will be commonplace within decades."

In 2014, Australian coastal researchers called for the creation of a national coastline observatory, with basic data -- such as sub-aerial profiles, bathymetry and inshore wave forcing measurements -- collected routinely from a network of around 20 'representative' beaches across Australia.

This would provide valuable data that could be used to more accurately model how Australia's more than 11,000 beaches are changing, and predict how they will respond as climate change sets in.

The long experience gained by UNSW in Sydney's Northern Beaches "gives us a template of what can be achieved across Australia," said Turner. "But without consistent and national observational data -- from very different regions like the tropical north, or the highly energetic southwestern coastlines, or the Indian Ocean coastlines of Western Australia -- it's of little value. To say we have blindspots is an understatement."

Harley agreed, adding: "For the great majority of Australia's coastlines, we don't have observations for how they are behaving now -- let alone any clear idea how they might respond to increasing variability in the future. We see it happening at Narrabeen-Collaroy, and can therefore predict it for this part of Australia. But elsewhere, we're largely operating in the dark."
A study appearing in the journal PLOS ONE this week shows that bioluminescence -- the production of light from a living organism -- is more widespread among marine fishes than previously understood.

Most people are familiar with bioluminescence in fireflies, but the phenomenon is found throughout the ocean, including in fishes. Indeed, the authors show with genetic analysis that bioluminescence has evolved independently 27 times in 14 major fish clades -- groups of fish that come from a common ancestor.

"Bioluminescence is a way of signaling between fishes, the same way that people might dance or wear bright colors at a nightclub," said W. Leo Smith, assistant curator with the University of Kansas Biodiversity Institute, who co-authored the paper. He added that some fish also are thought to use bioluminescence as camouflage.

Smith said the huge variety in ways bony fish can deploy bioluminescence -- such as leveraging bioluminescent bacteria, channeling light though fiber-optic-like systems or using specialized light-producing organs -- underlines the importance of bioluminescence to vertebrate fish in a major swath of the world's deep seas called the "deep scattering layer."

"When things evolve independently multiples times, we can infer that the feature is useful," Smith said. "You have this whole habitat where everything that's not living at the top or bottom of the ocean or along the edges -- nearly every vertebrate living in the open water -- around 80 percent of those fish species are bioluminescent. So this tells us bioluminescence is almost a requirement for fishes to be successful."

Indeed, the KU researcher said the most common vertebrate species on the planet lives within this habitat and is bioluminescent.

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"The bristlemouth is the most abundant vertebrate on Earth," Smith said. "Estimates of the size are thousands of trillions of bristlemouth fish in the world's oceans."

Smith and colleagues Matthew P. Davis of St. Cloud State University and John S. Sparks of the American Museum of Natural History Museum found all fish they examined evolved bioluminescence between the Early Cretaceous, some 150 million years ago, and the Cenozoic Era.

Further, the team shows that once an evolutionary line of fish developed the ability to produce light, it tended soon thereafter to branch into many new species.

"Many fish proliferate species when they evolve this trait -- they differentiate, but we don't know why," Smith said. "In the ocean, there are no physical barriers to separate groups of deep sea fishes, so why are there so many species of anglerfishes, for example? When they start using bioluminescence for species recognition, they diversify into a lot more species."

To follow this line of inquiry, Smith and his co-authors now are working with a grant from the National Science Foundation to identify specific genes associated with the production of bioluminescence in fish.

In May, Smith and his two colleagues returned after taking a KU-chartered vessel to sea from the West Coast to collect samples of bioluminescent fish for analysis.

"We need fresh specimens for modern genetic approaches," he said. "We'll catch fishes and look at their mRNA to see what genes are being expressed. In the groups that produce their own light, we want to get the mRNA from the light organs themselves. With this information we can begin to trace the variation within the system, including the possibility of uncovering how this system evolved."
The smallest ones were in cages when rescuers found them. Three larger dogs were running around outside unattended. Two unlucky ones didn't make it.

Aimee Stubbs / Animal Rescue Corps

When the Animal Rescue Corps (ARC), a national animal protection nonprofit, sent its team to Gibson County, Tennessee, these were the conditions that greeted them when they arrived.

Aimee Stubbs / Animal Rescue Corps

Two hours west of Nashville, a breeding facility had kept these 48 dogs on its property to sell for profit. Mostly small breeds like Chihuahuas, Boston terriers and shih-tzus, the moms were constantly forced to give birth, until they were spent.

Aimee Stubbs / Animal Rescue Corps

Some of the animals were just puppies, days old and still nursing, according to the ARC. They were held in wire cages like storage, soaked in their own urine and feces, and unable to leave.

Dodo Shows Foster Diaries This Pregnant Pittie Foster Story Is The Happiest Thing Ever

Aimee Stubbs / Animal Rescue Corps

"These dogs have been locked in a cage their whole lives and forced to have litter after litter," Scotlund Haisley, president of the ARC, said in a statement. "They have never known what it's like to be a dog. Most of them have never felt the ground beneath their feet or a kind touch."

Aimee Stubbs / Animal Rescue Corps

Two of the pups huddled in a cage had to share their filthy crate with another dog who had died, according to the ARC. The property owner had simply looked the other way.

Aimee Stubbs / Animal Rescue Corps

Many of the dogs and puppies had gone without nourishment for an unknown duration, visibly lacking access to food or water when rescuers arrived. Some were kept directly in the sun without shade.

Aimee Stubbs / Animal Rescue Corps

Now, the 48 surviving pups can learn how to be dogs, stretch their legs and, hopefully, find families who can give them a comfy spot in the bed. But first, they need to get well.

Aimee Stubbs / Animal Rescue Corps

The rescue operation, dubbed Operation Summer Saves, is caring for each of the dogs in an emergency shelter 40 minutes from Nashville, where they will receive medical exams, get baths and, most importantly, relax.

Aimee Stubbs / Animal Rescue Corps

"Cruelty and abuse, whether inflicted on a person or animal, will not be tolerated in this county," Paul Thomas, sheriff of Gibson County, said in a statement. "We are, once again, grateful to Animal Rescue Corps for being a resource for our community to address these large scale cases of abuse." The property owner is now being charged with 50 counts of animal cruelty, according to a statement by the ARC.

Aimee Stubbs / Animal Rescue Corps

Meanwhile, in Morgan County, Tennessee, another similar rescue operation, Dire Straits, is underway.

Aimee Stubbs / Animal Rescue Corps

Rescuers saved 32 animals - including 20 dogs, four miniature donkeys, two ponies, a potbellied pig, three roosters and one hen - from their neglectful and dangerous living conditions.

Aimee Stubbs / Animal Rescue Corps

One weak and malnourished pup, whom rescuers named Bonaparte, was in particularly bad shape after being found unconscious. The ARC is currently fundraising for Bonaparte's continued medical care, including a fractured jaw.

Aimee Stubbs / Animal Rescue Corps
Everyone loved Harry, a western lowland gorilla described as peaceful and gentle, who lived at the Dublin Zoo in Ireland for 20 years, with his longtime mate and mother of his six children, Lena. So when Harry passed away suddenly of unknown causes at the age of 29, hearts shattered - not least of all, Lena's.

Lena has been very quiet since the sudden loss, according to reports. Harry, a silverback, was the leader of the Dublin Zoo gorilla troop, Heidi O'Sullivan, a representative for the zoo, told The Dodo. Harry was born in captivity at the Frankfurt Zoo in 1986. He moved to the Dublin Zoo in the fall of 1995, where he met Lena, who would become his companion for the next two decades. During his time in Dublin, Harry fathered two girls and four boys.

Dodo Shows Faith = Restored Rescued Wild Horse Loves To Play With A Little Donkey

"We are deeply saddened to announce that, after a brief illness, Harry, the western lowland gorilla, died on the morning of May 29 in the Dublin Zoo," O'Sullivan said. "Everyone is devastated to lose this much-loved gorilla." Gorillas can normally live into their 40s.

Lena, with one of her and Harry's children | Dublin Zoo

Western lowland gorillas, who normally live in the tropical forests of Africa, are a critically endangered species, because of habitat destruction and poaching. So the loss of Harry is a loss to his family, as well as to his species.

Lena, just after giving birth to one of her children with Harry | Facebook/Dublin Zoo

It's expected that in Harry's absence, Lena may very well step up to become the leader of the troop. The zoo is waiting for the final results of a necropsy to determine the exact reason for Harry's sudden passing.

"He never wanted to show off his strength," one zookeeper said, remembering Harry. "He was a relaxed, quiet, peaceful animal, and led his family with dignity ... If more humans had his humility and dignity, the world would be a better place. I really mean that."

Harry, with two of his children | YouTube/zootvseries
She hasn't seen another elephant for the past three years, and she's been in a zoo for over half a century.

Her name is Lucky.

Now 56 and the only elephant at the San Antonio Zoo, Lucky was taken from the wild as a baby back in the 1960s. She was shipped to the U.S., where she has lived in captivity ever since.

In 2013, Boo, Lucky's last companion, passed away. Even though it's against Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) guidelines, for the past three years, Lucky has lived totally alone.

Elephants are generally highly social animals who, in the wild, live in herds of up to 100 other elephants.

"Our position is that by housing Lucky in solitude, for a species as social as elephants are, it's unequivocally harmful to her," Carney Anne Nasser, senior counsel at the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF), told The Dodo. ALDF is currently pursuing a lawsuit on Lucky's behalf. "ALDF's goal is to ensure that Lucky gets to spend her last years at a sanctuary, in a more appropriate habitat with other elephants, where she can have a meaningful existence, and not just be a way of selling tickets."
Heres another way of looking at Hillary Clintons striding into history moment.

The recent report in the New York Post that Clinton was sporting a $12,000-plus Giorgio Armani jacket while delivering her New York primary victory speech in April, dovetails neatly with her being crowned the presumptive Democratic nominee in the race to be the next U.S. president.

The first image paints a portrait of a member of the elite, the establishment, as the richly attired candidate called for good jobs for all, increased wages and reduced inequality. (The crowd cheered.) The second, based on a superdelegate count by the Associated Press and reported throughout the media, including the Toronto Star, had the air of a crown being placed gently upon her golden head.

The Intercepts Glenn Greenwald took a jaundiced view of a nomination consecrated by a media organization, on a day when nobody voted, based on secret discussions with anonymous establishment insiders and donors whose identities the media organization  incredibly  conceals. The nomination process, he wrote, was drawing to a close in an elite-driven manner.

Voxs Jeff Stein was less scathing, but still: By using the superdelegates to declare the race over, these news outlets risk giving greater circulation to the false idea that these party elites have somehow stolen the nomination from [Bernie] Sanders.

Clinton has the numbers, so theres no thievery involved. But these complimentary images reinforce the Clinton profile, at least to her critics, as someone above-it-all, unreachable, unknowable and inauthentic who has tailored her campaign and speeches  building ladders of opportunity and so forth  in a manner that seems as substantive as candy floss at a summer fair. Even some of her fans can see her faults.

The contemporary notes of economic elitism  superficially the jacket, substantially the speeches to Wall Street  merely accessorize a career that has been buoyed by a rich personal narrative. Literally.

One might recall her days as a 30-something lawyer who, according to James Stewarts Blood Sport, shorted 10 live cattle contracts in the fall of 1978. She was new to investing, according to Stewart, and eager to learn perhaps because of her husbands lack of interest in making money.

Hillary Rodham Clinton made a $5,300 (U.S.) profit in a single day, and another $8,000 profit two days later. In less than two weeks, she was able to recoup five times her original investment, Stewart writes.

She had her losses too. Stewart recounts that while in labour with Chelsea, Clinton was worried about her sugar contracts. (Mercifully, we wont get into land development deals here. Nor the jogging that preoccupied Bill Clinton in his days as governor and never resulted in weight loss nor exercised sweat glands.)

So when Clinton falls back on her anything is possible campaign line we can see, financially, where shes coming from. How does such experience shape a person?

Clintons base, specifically older white women, see a Clinton win as the ultimate feminist achievement. When she failed in 2008 and likened her 18 million supporters to 18 million cracks in the highest, hardest glass ceiling, she went on to say that the light is shining through like never before, filling us all with the hope and the sure knowledge that the path will be a little bit easier next time.

As it turned out, the path has been far rockier than anticipated, and the American electorate has Bernie Sanders to thank for that. His clear, principled campaign repositioned Clinton time and again. Would she even be talking about reining in Wall Street were it not for Sanders?

Free of Democratic opposition where will Clinton come down on, say, the push by Republicans working hard at eviscerating the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the most progressive financial legislation in a decade?

And then theres the bigger picture. How will Clinton revitalize the American economy? How will she bridge the crevasse between the 90 per cent of Americans who grow poorer daily and the 10 per cent who grow richer? Its not enough to diagnose problems, she said in her New York victory speech, wearing her very pretty jacket.

She didnt sound very inspiring. She didnt sound emotionally attached to her material.

She is the first woman chosen for the top U.S. ticket. Huzzahs. Its just tough for this older white woman to get very excited about that.

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On a Monday in May, swathed in white tie, Imran Amed strode into Tory Burchs 10-room, to-die-for apartment at the Pierre Hotel in New York City. Kisses were volleyed. Admirations exchanged.

It was the night of the Met Gala  the Kentucky Derby of fashion  and everyone who had been invited to sit at Burchs table was summoned first to the designers home for pre-party tipples. Later, zipping over to the big event  where the gang included everyone from Beyonce and Jay Z to George and Amal, and Anna Wintour was by to preside  Amed squeezed between two ingenues, Freida Pinto and Emma Roberts.

It felt a bit like the prom, he confesses.

This week, his haute monde goes on. Amed  a boy raised in Alberta, in a town best known for its annual Stampede  was honoured at the Council of Fashion Designers of America Awards (sometimes called the Oscars of Fashion) in Manhattan on Monday.

Neither a designer nor a company man, hes the most stealthily powerful Canadian in the world of high apparel, which the latest prize only affirms. The recipient of this years Media Award  the same award that went to the founders of Instagram last year  the 41-year-old was part of a ceremony feting Gucci designer Alessandro Michele (who nabbed this years International Prize), as well as a very special tribute to commemorate David Bowies style legacy. On hand to do the requisite ribbing as emcee: comedian Joel McHale.

Shimmering company, all around, for the Harvard Business School grad. And, certainly, an apogee for the same fella who started his blog, Business of Fashion, in 2007, from the sofa in his Notting Hill flat, turning it slowly-but-surely into a cant-live-without aggregator for nearly 2 million followers daily  one that bridges the divide between the artistic/fabulous/bonkers and a multi-billion-dollar business.

BOF translates business for fashion people is how Amed explained it to Vanity Fair in a profile last year.

Talking to me from London, before the big night, Amed said he was a taken aback by the recognition of the Council of Fashion Designers. Were just getting started. Its a massive honour, but also a wider testament to a need that the industry has. Especially in a time where theres so much noise, so much fluff. I wasnt ever trying to do clickbait.

Having run into Amed a few times during my own globe-trotting, Ive been struck by his obvious perspicacity, as well as an indelible sereneness (honed by a strict meditation routine, he shares). I wanted to know what he considered the most fascinating and also the most frustrating parts of the world he covers: all the movers, shakers, the snakes and the ladders.

He had a ready answer. The most fascinating part is how fashion just attracts all these social rejects, if you will, from around the world, encourages individuality. Theyre the people who make the industry tick. The most frustrating thing? I guess the people, too. People have such strong opinions.

For someone who comes from my business background, getting fashion people aligned around certain things can be a challenge. In a way, the industry is so forward-looking. And yet, sometimes people in fashion are not open to change.

Ameds own biography speaks to the idea of turning your bliss into your biz: the child of parents from East Africa, with his formative years spent in Calgary, there was a stop at McGill University, then more school in Boston and later a gig with the global consulting firm McKinsey & Company (doing work like helping a South African bank redesign its mortgage approval process).

Inspired by some interactions with luxury brands in that job, his original blog was meant just as a newsletter for friends and family. Fast-forward to today  when BOF is followed by execs and buffs alike, has a staff of 30 and subsists in part on seed money in the area of $2.5 million  and Ameds web trajectory reminds me a little of the foodie adventures of Julie Powell. The restless civil servant began, in the early aughts and out of pure whim, chronicling her attempts to cook all the recipes from Julia Childs Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which then turned into a bestselling book and later, a Meryl Streep movie.

Curious as to why Ameds headquartered in the U.K., I queried. He immediately lauded London as the true global centre of the world.

If you look at geography, if you look at time zones . . .  trails off the guy who travels 120 days a year. Faster than you can say Giselle, though, he underlines that he is the product of a no-sweat multiculturalism provided by Canada. Ive taken a global approach and thats almost innate growing up in Canada.

During his time at Western Canada High School (where he did the International Baccalaureate program), One of my closest friends was a half-black, half-Jewish girl. Another good friend had a shaved head . . . but I was also friends with jocks. I was a floater, I guess you could say.

No doubt, that early training comes in handy in his present occupation: being an envoy between the tribes of creatives and business.

Covering the mercurial world of fashion  a world upturned by social media and a heavy turnover of late of marquee designers at many of the bigger houses  gives him quite the peephole, clearly. He looks at much of it not from some dreamy writers POV but as a problem-solving exercise.

For a long time fashion could live in insulation, he said, as our conversation waned. But fashion doesnt live in a bubble world.

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James Ehnes packed his wife Kate, daughter Caroline, 4 and son Chris, 2, into a minivan last April and drove from Florida to Canada on a great adventure to celebrate his 40th birthday: a concert tour titled James Ehnes @40.

The violinist, accompanied by pianist Andrew Armstrong, took their program of Handel and Beethoven with new compositions by Canadian Carmen Braden and Bramwell Tovey, to venues large and small.

Married to an American with a home base in Florida, Ehnes plotted a tour that took him to every province and territory. He was determined to show his family as much of Canada as he could and, in the meantime, rediscovered old friends and unlocked memories of playing in small halls.

A lot of the tour is about reconnecting with people whove been great to me, sharing spaces big and small.

Ehnes recently performed in the Royal Conservatorys 21C Festival. But it is a different program he brings in an Elgar/Stravinsky concert with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra Thursday to Saturday at Roy Thomson Hall. This is the last concert in the TSOs Decades Project, which examined music from 1910 to 1919.

Ehness family, who flew home for a wedding, returned to Toronto for his concerts here. They will hop back into the minivan for the Ontario, Quebec and East Coast legs of the tour in the fall. The first concert was in Ottawa in April. The last concert is Nov. 5 at Memorial University in St. Johns, NL.

Because he knows people from so many places due to years of touring, Ehnes has discovered a wonderful social component to the trip. He and his family have stayed in homes of friends across the country. Hes revived memories and had new adventures.

He visited the house he grew up in Brandon, Man.; he camped in a tent with his accompanist in Yellowknife and cooked smores over an open fire; he played in the new hall in Calgary for the first time; visited the Northwest Territories for the first time.

Although his birthday was in January, Ehnes wisely chose to launch the tour in spring. Im not an idiot, going on tour in January, he said,

Its been all he expected . . . and more.

Ive been feeling nostalgic this last month, just looking back at things Ive done professionally. Im looking forward as well.

When you are young there is a lot of pressure to prove yourself. Now, I feel I can enjoy it.

For the TSO shows, the program will include Elgars Violin Concerto, written in 1910, one of his longest and the last of his concertos to gain instant popularity; and The Rite of Spring, Stravinskis evocation of prehistoric life that caused riots when it was first heard in 1913.

James Ehnes Plays Elgar is at Roy Thomson Hall, 60 Simcoe St., June 9 to 11, with Peter Oundjian conducting. Ehnes will sign CDs after the shows and there will be intermission discussions on June 9 and 10 and party in the lobby after the June 11 show.

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Every moment happens twice: inside and outside, and they are two different histories  author Zadie Smith.

Some of us had been waiting so long for Hillary Clinton to make history as Americas first female presidential nominee that we missed the moment  both inside us, where a small stirring of feminist jubilation might have occurred; and outside, where the world, and the U.S. presidential race might have changed forever, but didnt. Not yet.

Admittedly, that moment came surprisingly early, on a Monday night, before the final key primary races on Tuesday, with a story from The Associated Press, which had polled the superdelegates, indicating that even without the results of California or New Jersey, Hillary Clinton had secured enough delegate votes to become Americas first female presidential nominee.

I saw it on Twitter and thought wait, what? On CNN they were still focused on Donald Trumps bigoted attack on a judge. Bernie Sanders was still promising to take his fight to the convention floor. The Bachelorette was in full swing. A Stanford University student convicted of sexually assaulting an inebriated young woman behind a dumpster was burning a hole in the Internet with his light sentence (six months) and his fathers astounding assertion that he shouldnt be punished too severely for 20 minutes of action.

Its 2016. The world in which a woman inches closer to being the most powerful leader on the planet is still mighty full of contradiction. A historic moment occurs  and even its heroine, in her crumpled trademark royal blue pantsuit, initially downplays it: We have work to do.

Earlier Clinton was asked whether it mattered that she could become the first female presidential nominee. My supporters are passionate, she said. They have voted for me . . . for many reasons. But among those reasons is their belief that having a woman president will make a great statement, a historic statement about what kind of country we are, what we stand for. Its really emotional.

Yes, it is really emotional. Despite a profound generational shift in which many younger women, consumed by their own issues, most notably income inequality, and rightfully defining their own feminism, backed away from a 68-year-old woman who has been famous for longer than some of them were alive, it is a moment to celebrate.

Of course Clinton could still lose the nomination, be indicted (those damn emails) or in the general election, be Trumped by a GOP opponent who every day seems crazier and unwilling to grasp even fundamental concepts of democracy, separation of powers, conflict of interest.

How do you effectively run against crazy? Clinton had a good week showing she could compete and stay presidential, authoritatively filleting Trumps tone, demeanour and dangerously incoherent ideas in a speech that won widespread acclaim.

She also seemed increasingly comfortable in her own skin, although as writer Rebecca Traister pointed out in a masterful profile in New York magazine, there is such a wide disconnect from the Hillary Clinton her inner circle sees on the trail in one-on-one moments  funny and warm and devastatingly smart  that its difficult for people who know her to comprehend why the rest of America cant see what they do.

Well, nows their chance. And hers. As President Barack Obama got set to endorse his former Secretary of State, I wondered whether he, a father of two daughters, was propelled and enchanted too by this new promise of making history.

It matters very much that women attain the highest and most powerful places in political life. They are, after all, as our own brief (unelected) flare of a female PM once cleverly said, one of two founding genders. Young women need a beacon. As with Obama being the first African-American president, if you cant see it, you cant want to be it.

But not THIS woman, moan the Hillary critics, sick of an old narrative that encompasses not only every compromise, every evasion that Clinton as former First Lady, New York Senator and Secretary of State made, but also every awful act by her sexually undisciplined husband, former president Bill Clinton. (In my gyms locker room last weekend, a woman said: Hillary is more immoral than her husband.)

Reality check. You go with what youve got, or you dont go at all. Martin Luther King Jr. and every other improbable, flawed leader knew this. He said, We are not makers of history, we are made by history.

Hillary Clinton is truly a remarkable creation of history  a baby boomer, a woman, wife, mother, grandmother, lawyer, a politician so dogged in her determination to lead her country that she has so far survived decades of humiliation, defeat, marital devastation, and relentless scrutiny and criticism.

Facing the scorn of Donald Trump? Nothing new.

Eight years ago, almost to the day, when she conceded the Democratic primary race to the comet that was Barack Obama, Clinton said, Although we werent able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling, thanks to you its got about 18 million cracks in it and the light is shining through like never before.

Her delegate victory doesnt feel like undiluted light. There are still clouds galore.

But history was made with the promise of more history-making to come: if Hillary Clinton actually wins the presidency, she will be far more significant in history than her husband. Imagine that.

Judith Timson writes weekly about cultural, social and political issues. You can reach her at judith.timson@sympatico.ca and follow her on Twitter @judithtimson

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Sasha Mordovets | Getty Images. Rosneft's profit drop raises questions over how much money the government can glean from its crude producers as commodity prices continue to lag.

Russian majority state-owned oil giant Rosneft (: @ROSLFDC16N-GB) posted a swingeing 75 percent drop in first-quarter net profit, raising questions over how much money the government will be able to glean from its crude producers as commodity prices continue to lag.

Rosneft missed analyst forecasts, reporting 14 billion rubles ($216.8 million) in net profit, against Reuters consensus polls predicting 33 billion roubles in net income.

The drop didn't seem to worry equity investors, with Rosneft's Moscow-listed stock jumping around 2.8 percent to 30-day highs by 4:30 a.m. ET.

However, the plunge is likely to disappoint Moscow, which is banking on state-owned companies like Rosneft to bolster revenues. The Russian government holds a 69.5 percent stake in Rosneft through state-owned firm Rosneftgaz.

In April, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev announced he had signed a resolution requiring state-owned companies to distribute no less than 50 percent of their net profit in dividends. He said the budget was likely to receive an additional 100 billion roubles ($1.6 billion) as a result.

But, Chris Weafer, a senior partner at Macro-Advisory, told CNBC in a phone interview that the urgency to impose those income-generating proposals has somewhat subsided thanks to a slight oil price recovery, continued ruble weakness, and prospects of a Rosneft stake buy-out.

The Russian government is planning to sell stakes in some state-owned firms in another bid to shore up cash. Moscow is expected to maintain a majority stake of at least 50.1 percent in Rosneft, leaving about 19 percent up for grabs.

Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev told reporters on Wednesday that they may consider selling stakes to both strategic investors and the stock market, according to Reuters.

At a valuation of nearly $54 billion, a full 19 percent stake sale could deliver over $10 billion in income for the Russian government.



"The sale of the surplus equity or even half of that would greatly ease pressure for the government to implement either extra taxation, or dividend requirements on Rosneft," Weafer explained, saying investors are also holding out hope for a buy up that could create new energy partnerships and developments going forward.

Story continues

And rather than focus on the dismal profit drop, investors turned their attention to Rosneft's cost controls; the group reduced net debt by 45 percent to to $23.9 billion by the end of the first quarter.

Big companies like Rosneft have Russia's central bank to thank for maintaining policies that have kept the ruble relatively weak, Weafer said, boosting revenues for those earning in dollars or other foreign currencies.

Russia's ruble has appreciated 10 percent versus the U.S. dollar over the past 3 months, trading between 60 and 70 roubles over that period.

Rosneft ended up proposing a dividend payout worth 35 percent of their income for full-year 2015, successfully deflecting the 50 percent government requirement on the idea that production would suffer without enough reinvestment, Weafer explained.



In the meantime, global benchmark crude oil prices have jumped over 38 percent year-to-date to over $50 per barrel, raising government income and easing the urgency of a stake sale and high dividend requirements.

However, if the oil price weakens, both energy sector taxation reforms and the higher dividend requirements will be back on the table after Russia's state Duma lower house elections in September, Weafer said.

Rosneft shares are up over 34 percent year-to-date.





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The Blandings turtle, a sunny little reptile already prone to smiling, must be beaming this week like somebody whod won a lottery the same day they were awarded the Nobel Prize.

For the third time in the past three years, a legal decision was handed down in favour of the endangered species, and against a proposed wind turbine development in Prince Edward County, east of Toronto, that threatened to cause the turtle serious and irreversible harm.

In a ruling released Monday, an Environmental Review Tribunal ordered the initial renewable energy approval issued by the Ontario Environment Ministry four years ago to Ostrander Point GP Inc. revoked.

As far as opponents of the development are concerned, their fight is as good as won.

Yippee! Hooray! said Cheryl Anderson, a member and past president of the Prince Edward County Field Naturalists. Its been a long haul.

The tribunal found, she said, that none of the remedies that were proposed will do what needs to be done to make that a safe place for the Blandings turtle.

I think it probably is the end of the road for this (development), she said.

Dan Hardie, interim president of Gilead Power Corp., parent of Ostrander Point GP, said were very disappointed.

He told the Star he was to meet with his board and consultants Tuesday to see where were going to go from here and expected to have more to say later in the week.

In essence, the tribunal ruled that whatever the benefits of renewable energy  and whatever a governments policy interest in promoting it  they do not override the public interest in protecting against environmental harm. (Migratory birds, bats and monarch butterflies were also said to be at risk under the wind turbine proposal.)

In December 2012, the provincial approval was awarded to Ostrander to install nine wind-turbine generators and supporting facilities on Crown land at Ostrander Point.

That decision was appealed to the Environmental Review Tribunal, which in July 2013 found the project posed serious and irreversible harm to the Blandings turtle, a species that is globally endangered and threatened in Ontario.

The developer appealed that finding to Ontario Divisional Court, then to the provinces Court of Appeal.

In April 2015, the Appeal Court upheld the tribunals finding on the potential environmental harm, but said the panel had failed to allow Ostrander to propose a remedy.

After hearings held last fall and earlier this year, the tribunal concluded that the proposed remedies were insufficient to safeguard the turtle and that, in effect, there were no known remedies available.

The Blandings turtle, named after the Philadelphia naturalist who identified it in the 1800s, averages 1.3 kilograms in weight, is 18 to 25 centimetres long and can have a lifespan of up to 70 years.

Its such a beautiful turtle, you know, with its bright yellow throat, said Anderson. Its so distinctive and so beautiful and so rare.

And now, it would appear, so much safer.

The Blanding's Turtle story:

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MONTREALA university professor from Montreal has been jailed in Irans notorious Evin prison, her family said Wednesday.

Homa Hoodfar, 65, was arrested Monday after being interrogated by authorities, according to a statement published by her family.

Hoodfars relatives say the Concordia University professor was in Iran conducting research.

She was initially arrested in March, shortly before she was scheduled to leave the country, her family says, and was prohibited from leaving.

Her passport, research documents, computer and other personal belongings were confiscated by the state, the statement said.

Hoodfar was then rearrested this week.

The authorities have not made clear whether Prof. Hoodfar is being charged with espionage, sedition or propaganda against the state, her family said.

Her lawyer and family have not been allowed to see her, nor has the cause of arrest been explained to them.

Hoodfar has written articles on women in Muslim societies, including Iran.

Her plight has harrowing echoes of the case of Zahra Kazemi, a Canadian-Iranian freelance photographer who was killed in the same prison in 2003.

Concordia Universitys website says Hoodfar is a professor of sociology and anthropology.

Her family says Iranian authorities have not allowed them to provide her with medication for a neurological illness and that she suffered a stroke last year.

The Canadian government says it is working with allies to help Hoodfar.

Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion said he and his parliamentary secretary for consular affairs met a member of her family.

Will do everything we can, said Dion, who did not give additional details because of privacy concerns.

The new Liberal government has said it will re-establish relations with Iran and reopen the embassy the previous Conservative government closed in Tehran 2012.

It would be easier to have an embassy in Iran, Dion said. Because its not the case, we will do everything we can and working with the like-minded countries that are in Iran.

But a senior government official not authorized to speak on the record told The Canadian Press this week that reopening the embassy is not imminent and more work needs to be done before relations can be re-established with Iran.

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OTTAWATwo CF-18 fighter jets were scrambled into the skies over Ottawa after reports of a large drone flying near commercial jets, the Star has learned.

The fighters were dispatched from their base in Bagotville, Que., and were quickly over the nations capital after the pilots of two arriving airliners spotted the unmanned aerial vehicle during their approach into Ottawas airport on May 25.

While the presence of drones has become increasingly common over Canadian cities, scrambling fighter jets to intercept them is a rare occurrence, suggesting this incident jangled nerves among security officials.

What were concerned with from a NORAD perspective, obviously, is any unidentified aircraft, said Maj. Steve Neta, senior public affairs officer for the North American Aerospace Defence Command Canadian region headquarters.

Its a relatively new phenomenon . . . something that everyone is trying to deal with and to address. Its certainly not common for us, from a NORAD perspective either.

The risk that these things could pose to aircraft, considering a large airliner approaching an airport . . . is significant.

Neta could not say why fighter jets were deployed in this incident. But the fact it was a large drone, flying over the nations capital probably all factored into the decision to scramble the jets.

Its something that were definitely taking very seriously, he said.

Federal Transport Minister Marc Garneau said the incident underscores growing worries about the proliferation of drones in Canadian skies.

We are hearing more and more from pilots . . . that they are spotting drones at different altitudes near airports, Garneau told the Star Tuesday.

The airspace around Ottawa airport  like most major airports in the country  is controlled by air traffic controllers to ensure the safe separation of aircraft.

As well, some airspace in the Ottawa area is barred to low-flying aircraft because of security concerns, such as over the Parliament buildings, Rideau Hall, the prime ministers cottage retreat in Quebecs Gatineau Hills, and the secret training facility for JTF2, Canadas special forces soldiers.

While its not clear whether the drone violated any of that restricted airspace, it had no authorization to fly into the airspace overseen by air traffic controllers.

The pilots of an arriving WestJet Boeing 737 were the first to report the aerial intruder at 2,042 metres during their descent into Ottawa airport.

Just to let you know that we just flew pretty close to a drone, the pilots told the controller, according to a recording available on LiveATC.net.

About 11 minutes later, the controller alerts the pilots of an Air Canada jet arriving from Toronto about the drone, telling them of a target hes got on radar.

Type and altitude unknown. It might be that drone, the controller said.

Thanks for the heads up, the Air Canada pilot replied

The controller called with another warning a few minutes later  the target is now 1.2 km off the left wing of the Air Canada Airbus A320 jet.

I see him there now. Yeah, a couple of thousand feet below me and yeah, I can see the drone, the Air Canada pilot replied.

It was soon after that last report that the CF-18s  on standby as part of their duties for North American air defence  were scrambled from Bagotville.

They did go over Ottawa to investigate the reported area where the drone was reportedly spotted. They did a pretty thorough search of the area and werent able to find anything, Neta said.

Our fighters were not able to make any positive identification.

With an hourly operating cost of about $8,700, the price tag to scramble the two fighters for the 90-minute mission would have clocked in at about $26,000.

The incident was turned over to the RCMP for follow-up.

Garneau said the department is moving on two fronts to counter the possible risks of drone flights.

Were working very hard to put in place not only the education but also the regulation. This is something that has exploded all over the world, the minister said.

Transport Canada laid out a proposal to regulate drones last year. The rules would apply to drones weighing 25kg or less and would set out requirements to have the drones marked with a four-letter registration for identification. It would also require training for those operating them.

The federal regulator says growing sales of drones have given rise to novice pilots who are in the dark about aviation rules and lack the knowledge to operate the devices safely.

Those operating drones heavier than 25kg are currently required to get special authorization from Transport Canada.

In the meantime, Transport Canada is educating drone operators about existing rules. Those include not operating them within nine kilometres of an airport, not flying them higher than 90 metres, not allow them to travel beyond line-of-sight.

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OTTAWAThe Senate voted Wednesday to allow suffering Canadians who are not near death to seek medical help to end their lives, knocking out the central pillar underpinning the federal government's proposed new law on medically assisted dying.

Senators voted 41-30 to amend Bill C-14, deleting the requirement that a person's natural death must be reasonably foreseeable.

The amendment replaces the eligibility criteria in the bill with the much more permissive criteria set out in last year's landmark Supreme Court ruling, which struck down the ban on assisted dying.

That sets the Senate on a potential collision course with the government.

Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould signalled earlier Wednesday that the government is unlikely to accept such an amendment.

We've worked incredibly hard on this piece of legislation to ensure that we find the right balance and we're confident that we've found the right balance between recognizing personal autonomy and protecting the vulnerable, she said outside a Liberal caucus meeting.

If we were to consider removing reasonable forseeability, that would broaden the regime, the balance that we have struck.

She added: There would need to be additional safeguards ... This is an incredible and momentous change in our country and we're confident what we put forward is the right choice for Canada right now. It's a first step.

In anticipation of that reaction, the amendment, proposed by Sen. Serge Joyal and passed late Wednesday night, is intended to go hand-in-hand with another amendment, to be proposed by Conservative Senate leader Claude Carignan,

Carignan's amendment would impose an additional safeguard, requiring a judge to sign off on an application for assisted dying by anyone who is not close to death. It is to be debated and voted upon separately.

The near-death proviso in the bill has been widely condemned by legal and constitutional experts who maintain it renders the legislation unconstitutional and flies in the face of the Supreme Court ruling.

C-14 would allow assisted dying only for 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.

That's more restrictive than the Supreme Court's directive that medical assistance in dying should be available to clearly consenting, competent adults with grievous and irremediable medical conditions that are causing enduring suffering that they find intolerable.

We are thrilled that the Senate has listened to reason and has done its duty  to give second thought to flawed bills adopted by the House of Commons and to uphold the rights of Canadians, said Josh Paterson, executive director of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, a plaintiff in the court case that resulted in the assisted dying ban being struck down.

We commend senators on their serious and thoughtful approach to this issue and for having the fortitude to stand up and fix this bill which would violate the charter rights of suffering Canadians.

Senators voted for Joyal's amendment despite a warning from Sen. Peter Harder, the government representative in the upper house, that it largely guts the bill.

Joyal and others argued that the amendment was necessary to ensure the bill is constitutional.

I believe this bill is deeply flawed and I can not support it as it stands because, in my view, it is unconstitutional, said Sen. James Cowan, leader of independent Liberal senators.

Others cast the amendment in terms of ensuring compassion for those who are suffering intolerably.

Conservative Sen. Linda Frum said she doesn't believe that Parliament has an obligation to echo the Supreme Court's ruling word-for-word. But she added: I do believe that there are fates worse than death, such as unbearable and excruciating pain that promises to last for years on end, grievous physical and mental suffering, the loss of human dignity.

It's possible for all of these conditions to exist separately from a reasonably foreseeable death.

The amendment puts the Senate on the path towards a potential impasse with the House of Commons, which must decide whether to accept or reject any changes proposed by the upper house.

If the Commons rejects the amendment, Carignan has predicted the Senate will insist upon it.

There is no mechanism for breaking a deadlock between the two houses of Parliament.

Theoretically, the Senate could repeatedly send the bill back to the Commons with the same amendment, until one chamber or the other gives in.

The two chambers could also agree to hold a conference  a procedure to resolve an impasse that has not been used in some 70 years.

Another option would be for the Senate to refuse to pass the bill until the government refers it to the Supreme Court to test its constitutionality, Joyal said.

The Senate did that with the Harper government's initial attempt to unilaterally reform the Senate. The government eventually did refer the matter to the top court, which advised that the reforms could not be achieved without constitutional amendments supported by at least seven provinces.

An impasse between the chambers would prolong the time in which Canada is without a criminal law governing medical assistance in dying. When the top court struck down the ban on assisted dying, it gave Parliament a year, later extended by four months, to craft a new law. That deadline passed on Monday.

In the absence of a law, the procedure will be governed by the eligibility criteria spelled out by the Supreme Court, guidelines issued by medical regulators in each province and any rules set by provincial governments.

The Senate is expected to continue debating the bill and voting on other amendments into next week. Other amendments are expected to propose allowing advance requests for assisted dying for those diagnosed with competence-eroding conditions like dementia and explicit protection for the conscience rights of health care providers who refuse to provide assistance in dying.

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The Trudeau Interview, second in a five-part series

Justin Trudeau was eight minutes late for our interview on Monday, which was no hardship, since wed budgeted a comfortable 40 minutes and I was waiting in the cozy confines of his own office on the third floor of Parliaments Centre Block. Framed photo of his dad in the corner, under a contemporary caricature of Wilfrid Laurier. Medallion in the shape of the Montreal Canadiens logo hanging from the bookshelf in the opposite corner.

Trudeau was somewhere else. Whats he doing? I asked his press secretary.

Briefing for this, I think.

Tommy Desfosses, the PMs assistant, wandered in, hunting for the bosss suit jacket. I was once jokingly critical of Trudeau for going without a jacket at a public event. This time hed have it on when he made his entrance.

When the prime minister did show up, he was so thoroughly prepared on so many files he was like an inflated balloon. Answers came out in a rush. He had a lot to say. It was an easy decision to run his answers over several days.

The Liberals had just climbed down, spectacularly, on the composition of a special committee looking into electoral reform. At first Maryam Monsef, the young lead minister on the file, had announced a committee on which the Liberals were the majority, as they are in the Commons. The NDP screamed blue (orange?) murder, and finally Trudeau and Monsef relented: the Liberals would give up their majority in a way that more closely reflected the 39 per cent of the popular vote they had in last Octobers election.

Part 1 of the Trudeau Interview: 'This is a big step in Canadian society and justice,' Trudeau says of assisted dying bill

Trudeau told me it was a peace-making effort. Over the past months it became clear that the toxicity levels in the House were rising. And were happy to demonstrate that we are serious about doing things differently.

But his other remarks suggested this was a tactical retreat. When the composition of the committee was the issue, the Liberals were isolated, a bullying majority with a veto over every other partys preferences. Now Trudeau hopes to isolate one of his opponents: the Conservatives.

The Conservative opposition has insisted that any change to the way MPs are elected must be approved by Canadians in a national referendum. But theyre the only ones pushing for a referendum, Trudeau told the Star.

The other opposition parties think we should have much broader, more open consultations and a more open-ended engagement with Canadians than the specific up-or-down of a referendum.

As always, Trudeau offered no details on the precise nature of the open-ended engagement he prefers to a national vote on election reform. But he made it clear he will avoid a referendum if he can.

You know, referendum campaigns are tremendously exciting in terms of selling newspapers. But do they directly lead to better outcomes for Canadians in their electoral system? I think theres a strong argument to be made that, not necessarily.

I thought he was maybe selling the merits of selling newspapers short. Whats wrong with selling newspapers? But Trudeau was adamant.

The black-and-whiteness of a referendum  and the political campaigning around self-interest that happens anytime you have the starkness of a referendum  impedes the very free and grounded conversation about what kind of values underpin our electoral system, he said.

We want to get to the substance of the conversation. What do people expect from their governments in terms of representation? What do they expect from parliamentarians? How do they want to go about choosing those parliamentarians? How do we get to governments that have greater than just, you know, 39 per cent of the population for a majority of seats?

That last bit sounded self-deprecating. It was, in fact, Trudeaus own Liberals who won a majority with just 39 per cent of the popular vote last October, much as Stephen Harpers Conservatives had done four years earlier.

But it also sounded like a reminder that Liberals, including Trudeau, are usually thought to prefer a very specific kind of electoral reform. Proportional representation would give each party a number of seats closer to its share of the popular vote. Preferential ballots would allocate the second choices of voters who preferred less-popular parties to more-popular parties. The first system would leave the Liberals with 39 per cent of the seats in the Commons, scrambling for coalition partners. The second would swell their ranks with second-choice support from fans of smaller parties.

Does Trudeau have a soft spot for preferential balloting?

He didnt say no. But he claimed hes trying not to let his own preferences matter.

Because Im the leader of a party that is very much focused on appealing to the broadest possible number of people as opposed to narrowing voices, you could certainly make arguments around one form or another, he said, backing away from a clear answer in the home stretch of a long sentence.

But Im really open. Im really open to listening to Canadians. And actually, I have moved in my thinking toward a greater degree of openness towards what Canadians actually want.

Im very aware that the decision we take on electoral reform  we as a country  will have long-reaching implications over the next generations. Because you dont change your parliamentary system very quickly or easily. And my long-term focus is getting the right system for Canadians. And its not up to any one person, even if its the prime minister, to define exactly what that right system is.

We can all have different opinions and perceptions, but mine are obviously going to be coloured by the fact that I think diversity within a party, broad-based consensus, is the best thing for this country. Liberals would certainly agree. Canadians might not agree. And I think this is an important conversation to have, where we do have to respect Canadians.

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City leaders admit there are no simple solutions to stop Torontos recent surge in gun violence, which has claimed 21 lives so far in 2016.

There is no magic wand on this, Mayor John Tory told a news conference Wednesday flanked by several city councillors.

Toronto is not alone with this particular problem right now, Chief Mark Saunders said at a separate media event. There is no one solution or one cause for it.

Saunders said police already deploy officers into high-risk areas. Its not like we arent doing anything, he said.

So far Toronto residents are dying by gunfire at a pace that even outstrips 2005, dubbed The Year of the Gun.

This years first homicide came on Jan. 4, when 17-year-old Joseph Petit was shot dead minutes after two men showed up at his home in the Victoria and Danforth Aves. area.

We loved and adore our son, his mother, Ana Pavao, said tearfully at a news conference at police headquarters on Wednesday. If we want to end gun violence, lots of people need to do their part and people need to come forward.

The citys most recent murder was the brazen execution-style slaying of a man in his Range Rover near Yonge and Eglinton Sts. on Tuesday afternoon.

Back in 2005, the city set a grim record with 52 gun deaths, out of a total of 78 homicides. Torontos bloodiest year on record was 1991, when 89 people died.

This year, there have been 33 homicides, 21 of them fatal shootings. Those numbers increase by one if you count the infant boy who died this week after being born by emergency C-section following the shooting death of his mother, Candice Rochelle Bobb, as she sat in a car in Rexdale three weeks ago. The infant's death hasn't so far been ruled a homicide.

There were 22 gun deaths in all of 2013, and 27 each in 2011, 2014 and last year. This year, there were 10 homicides in January alone.

In the period through June 8, there have been more shooting deaths this year than any year since 2000. In the closest years, 2004 and 2005, there were 16 shooting deaths through June 8.

Tory said he supports a call for a gun amnesty but acknowledged theres little evidence such events make a difference.

Im not going to rule out any tool that we can use . . . to try and get at this.

Public co-operation, federal efforts to curb gun smuggling at the U.S. border, and directing resources to programs to steer marginalized youth from street life represent our best efforts, he said.

The mayor described other steps underway to help stamp out gun violence.

Toronto Community Housing is launching a blitz to repair lighting and surveillance cameras and installing state-of-the art digital cameras across its housing stock, he said.

Tory also asked the federal and provincial governments to discuss how they can partner with the city to provide more resources for community-based programs.

Knia Singh, of the African Canadian Coalition of Community Organizations, who was at city hall for the news conference, said he was encouraged by the mayors positive message about addressing root causes of violence.

We need immediate resources in our community to address this issue, because it is a crisis, Singh said.

Data analysis by Cameron Tulk

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When Toronto police Chief Mark Saunders announced details of last weeks pot shop raids, there were rumblings that Health Canadas licensed marijuana producers were behind the mass arrests.

This is about protecting the corporate profits of stock-market businesses who have sent police to arrest people to protect their own financial interest, Vancouver-based marijuana activist Jodie Emery said, scolding Saunders at his news conference.

Undeniably, some licensed producers who invested tens of millions of dollars to become legitimate players in the medical marijuana market were unhappy that politicians of all levels had done nothing to stop the proliferation of unlicensed dispensaries in Vancouver and Toronto.

The licensed producers, or LPs as theyre known in the pot world, are also competitors of the pot shop entrepreneurs: both are hoping for a piece of post-legalization action once the federal government makes good on its election promise.

But the notion the LPs were behind the raids in Toronto is more conspiracy theory than reality, said Bruce Linton, chair and chief executive officer of Canopy Growth. They are one of 18 federally authorized, mail-order medical marijuana suppliers in Ontario.

We have no capacity to cause anybody to shut anything down; in fact, I dont even think weve been particularly vocal, Linton said. Ive had a number of calls about the conspiracy (theory). I do not have such power.

Neil Closner, CEO of MedReleaf, an LP with a 55,000-square-foot facility in Markham, admits he wasnt disappointed that police and city bylaw officers took action, but we were not directly involved in making that happen.

He played down the fact the Toronto Lobbyist Registry shows that MedReleaf Corp. has retained the services of a consultant with CCSGroup for the period of May 12, 2016, to April 12, 2017.

While CCSGroup is representing the companys interests in Ottawa, Closner said he was unaware the company had registered with the city and said the company has had no direct or indirect contact with the mayor or councillors offices.

I could easily make the case that the only reason they got shut down was because they opened too many too quickly, said Closner, a former vice-president of business development at Mount Sinai Hospital.

If they had been more reserved in their push, more pragmatic, where they were locating, and self-policed a little bit better, they would probably all still be around.

Another person not displeased by the crackdown was Ronan Levy, co-founder of Canadian Cannabis Clinics, which has 12 outlets in Ontario staffed with physicians who prescribe marijuana to patients.

About a year ago, Levy met with Kevin Moraes, a special assistant in Mayor John Torys office, to warn about the green wave hurtling toward Toronto.

There was no further contact after that, and Levy was dumbstruck when his prediction came to pass and Tory, city council and Toronto police for months did nothing to intervene.

It kind of felt like we were the taxi drivers in the Uber debate. We were doing the right thing, complying with the law, working with Health Canada, said Levy, who is a lawyer.

Then you see the dispensaries open up. They were doing brisk business; they would see more people in an hour than we would see in an entire day.

Mark Sraga, director of investigations services with the citys licensing division, says hes also heard the rumour that LPs were a driving force behind the raids.

All I can say, I know thats not the case from my perspective, he said, adding that not one communicated with him.

What prodded the city and police into action was residents and councillors starting to complain about the concentration of pot shops in some parts of the city, particularly Kensington Market and along the Danforth, Sraga said.

Osgoode Hall law professor Alan Young, who has worked extensively in the area of cannabis law reform, believes that, rather than a movement by the LPs, the raids were more about optics.

The Canadian way is not to celebrate the progressive steps we take, such as moving toward pot legalization, but to keep things as low-key as possible, he said.

I think what happened in Toronto was the exact opposite of low-key and discreet.

I think city officials felt that they lost control, and they (pot shops) would continue to grow, while Ottawa studies how to regulate and legalize marijuana, Young said.

While waiting, they didnt want all those pot signs all over the city. They prefer parking signs.

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TORONTO POT DISPENSARY TIMELINE

May 12: Mayor John Tory writes to Tracey Cook, executive director, municipal licensing and standards, asking her to work with police to crack down on illegal pot dispensaries.

May 25: Municipal licensing and standards office said it had issued 78 notices to property owners warning them they could face bylaw infraction charges if they were renting premises to a pot shop.

May 26: Toronto police arrest 90 people and lay 186 criminal charges after officers, accompanied by city municipal licencing and standards officials, execute search warrants at 43 storefront pot shops.

May 30: Representatives of the Toronto Dispensary Coalition appear at city hall to ask the TPS to drop any charges. The board of health, meanwhile, endorses a report calling on Ottawa to take a public health approach to pot legalization and regulation.

June 27: Staff will report to licensing committee on a discussion framework for what regulation might look like in Toronto.

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Staff miscalculations on the ridership of the Scarborough subway will leave taxpayers on the hook for millions more, after city council voted to settle a dispute with developers.

According to a secret report before council on Tuesday, the contents of which were shared with the Star, the citys lawyers advised councillors to accept a settlement with the group representing developers, the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD).

The settlement, which reduces the amount builders will have to pony up to help finance the subway, is expected to cost the city as much as $6 million in lost revenues.

There had been concern that staff would be forced to acknowledge at a public hearing that at least one of their own ridership calculations was wrong  an admission that casts further doubt on citys planning process for the controversial project.

The closed-doors discussion of the settlement came late in the meeting, long after a charged speech by Councillor Josh Matlow, who criticized plans for a six-kilometre tunnel to Scarborough Town Centre  what he dubbed Torontos longest hole  with council now headed toward a debate over new taxes and fees to raise desperately needed revenues.

Council rejected a provincially fully-funded LRT plan that would have provided seven stops for Scarborough residents, serving more residents for far fewer dollars, Matlow said. In no way, in good conscience, can I go back to my neighbours, your neighbours, and say I want you to give us more money through new revenue tools when I know for a fact were blowing their money out the door here.

We have mismanaged, we have mishandled and we have been dishonest when it comes to the transit planning of our city, and weve got to get our act together.

BILD challenged the citys calculations on ridership and development fees at the Ontario Municipal Board last year.

The citys lawyers said in the confidential report discussed Tuesday that councillors should accept the settlement offer because the city stands to lose even more if its numbers were to face further scrutiny at the public OMB hearing. Councillors agreed to support it, directing the citys lawyers to attend a hearing scheduled for August..

The citys chief planner, Jennifer Keesmaat, whose division produced the numbers at issue, didnt respond to questions from the Star Tuesday. A city spokesperson responding for her said the city was unable to comment with a confidential report before council. A spokesperson for BILD said the organization could not comment with the appeal ongoing.

In 2013, under pressure from self-styled subway champion Rob Ford and several Scarborough councillors, council voted to switch from a seven-stop LRT fully funded by the province to a three-stop subway costing $2 billion more. Of the total $3.56-billion cost, the city needs to fund $910 million  most of it landing on homeowners tax bills. The city anticipated raising the remaining $165 million by charging developers under provincial legislation.

Senior staff have acknowledged there was a rushed process to produce updated estimates of ridership on the proposed subway at peak hours  a standard calculation to determine what type of transit is most cost-effective. They reported that by 2031 there would be 14,000 people riding the subway at the busiest time in the busiest direction  a number that just barely justified the switch to a higher-capacity, more expensive subway.

After BILD questioned the ridership calculations, the city walked away from a one-day mediation meeting this April in a compromised position. BILD offered the city a deal.

Given that city witnesses have already determined that when challenged they would be forced to concede the (development charge) rates would need to be reduced by at least 10 per cent, capping the citys risk at 10 per cent is the financially prudent course of action, the confidential report says.

While senior city officials continue to defend the 14,000 figure, they are now acknowledging a flaw in a related calculation.

Provincial rules governing development charges say growth should pay for growth, meaning the city is not allowed to charge developers for costs related to how the subway would benefit existing development.

With that in mind, the city needed to come up with a baseline figure for how many people would have used the subway had it already been fully operational in 2015  before new developments might boost the figure. The number the city came up with was a peak ridership of 5,500.

BILD believed that 5,500 baseline was too low. A low starting figure would have the effect of exaggerating future ridership growth  and increasing the amount developers would have to shell out. BILD argued the baseline number, lifted from a 2013 TTC report, didnt actually reflect potential subway riders but rather future ridership for lower-capacity options such as an improved SRT, an LRT or bus rapid transit.

The citys hired consultants acknowledged BILD was right about that, but still defended the 5,500 figure, saying it was generally representative of the ridership for a subway option and was reasonable based on the best available information.

Now, the citys lawyers told council that the citys own witnesses would have to concede that the benefit to existing share ought to have been higher by an amount that would lead to a reduction of the overall (development charge) rate of 10 per cent or more.

BILD would also challenge various other aspects of the citys calculation, the report says. While staff are said to believe that these other aspects are based on sound data and analysis, the lawyers said taking the issue to a hearing would risk the OMB agreeing with BILDs arguments.

Publicly, senior staff and Mayor John Tory have defended the 14,000 ridership projection. But Tory has appeared to distance himself from it over the past week, saying he cant speak to the numbers that were bandied around before I was here.

When Matlow questioned a lack of transparency over how the 14,000 figure was reached in February 2015, most of council, including Tory, voted to shelve his request for more information. Later that year, Keesmaat told the Star the rushed process that produced that number was problematic. But in a letter to Matlow in October, she said the numbers were accurate.

The subway plan was significantly revised this year, reduced from a three-stop to one-stop extension. While staff say the money saved is enough to build an 18-stop LRT east along Eglinton Ave., critics have questioned the $2 billion cost of a single subway stop, now projected to carry just 7,300 riders at rush hour.

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RIDERSHIP PROJECTIONS

8,000: The projected number of future riders for a seven-stop LRT provided to council before it confirmed that plan in 2012.

9,500: The projected number of future riders for a three-stop subway aligned under McCowan Rd provided to council before it backed the LRT.

14,000: The updated projected number of future riders for the three-stop subway provided to council before it scrapped plans for an LRT.

7,300: The most recent projection for future riders of a one-stop subway aligned under McCowan Rd. provided to council ahead of a vote to confirm that plan.

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Fighting climate change will cost you.

But Premier Kathleen Wynne insisted Wednesday that the cost of inaction is far greater than the additional $13 a month tab the government is estimating for higher gasoline and natural gas prices.

You know, what are the costs of insurance that will go up, increased costs of food? What are the increased costs of continuing to pollute? And thats the cost we have to avoid, Wynne said as the Liberal government unveiled its five-year, $8.3-billion climate change action plan.

Ministers have talked about supports for low- and modest-income families where there are costs. Thats what this plan is about . . . making sure that those impacts dont affect people who cant afford them, she told reporters at the Evergreen Brick Works.

But the costs of doing nothing are enormous and we are not willing to impose those costs on a future generation.

To that end, the province is launching a 28-directive strategy that includes means-tested cash-for-clunkers scheme to convince low- and moderate-income motorists to switch to electric cars, a hydro bill rebate to make it free to charge vehicles overnight at home, and measures to help homeowners make their houses more efficient.

The plan will be bankrolled in part by gasoline prices rising next January by 4.3 cents a litre and an average monthly natural gas bill hike of $5.

As well, Ontario has joined a cap-and-trade system with Quebec and California that puts a price on carbon.

Under cap and trade, industries have caps on emissions and will be able to trade credits to those who exceed their quotas, which is intended to create an economic incentive to pollute less.

The government estimates that between $5.9 billion and $8.3 billion will be collected and then spent over the next five years. By law, all of those proceeds must be earmarked for reducing greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.

Its all about choices  more choices and better choices, said Environment and Climate Change Minister Glen Murray.

But Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown warned that Ontarians wont have a choice when it comes to their pocketbooks.

Ontarios hydro rates are skyrocketing, forcing many families to turn to natural gas to heat their homes. The premiers solution to this? Just raise natural gas prices higher than electricity, he said.

Sure, you may be able to keep a natural gas stove or barbecue, but heating your home with natural gas will no longer be an option.

Brown, who has spent the past fortnight predicting the Liberals would somehow ban natural gas as a home-heating fuel, has made vague promises of a revenue-neutral carbon tax if elected in 2018.

New Democrat MPP Peter Tabuns (Toronto Danforth) said climate change is going to be the great challenge for our society and weve got to get it right.

This cant be a question simply of photo ops and feel-good government commercials, said Tabuns, who expressed concern at the ambiguity of the Liberals scheme.

For this plan to sustain public support, it needs to be fair, effective and transparent. Low-income, rural and northern communities face a disproportionate burden. Climate change action will cost them more of their income than other Ontarians.

Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner implored the Liberals to avoid picking winners and losers.

The rollout of the climate plan needs to empower people and businesses in the marketplace to make the best choices for lowering their carbon footprint, said Schreiner.

But the city of Toronto gave the climate strategy a warm welcome.

Were still going through the plan, but it is completely supportive of the citys goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent by 2050, said Jim Baxter, Torontos director of energy and strategic initiatives.

For the first time that I can recall, the federal government, the province and the city are aligned on carbon.

The Toronto Environmental Alliance predicted the plan will get Torontonians better cycling infrastructure, put more electric cars on local roads and help while businesses reduce their energy bills.

Eli Angen, Ontario director at the Pembina Institute, an environmental watchdog, agreed its a good start.

Implementing cap-and-trade was a great first step, but achieving our climate goals was always going to require a lot of heavy lifting from complementary actions, said Angen.

Greenpeace praised the strategy because it empowers people to fight climate change.

To end our dependence on fossil fuels will require transforming our energy system by mid-century. This will require action from all of us. The climate action plan puts in place a suite of tools aimed at empowering Ontarians to do their part, the environmental group said.

With files from David Rider

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CHARLESTON, S.C.The federal death penalty trial of a white man charged with shooting and killing nine black parishioners during a Bible study at their Charleston church will be held in November, a judge announced Tuesday.

Chief U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel set Nov. 7 to begin selecting jurors for the federal trial of Dylann Roof, 22, who faces numerous counts, including hate crimes, in the June 17, 2015, shootings at Emanuel AME Church.

Thats about two months before Roofs state death-penalty trial. Roof faces nine counts of murder in state court in a trial set to begin in January.

Handcuffed and clad in a grey-striped prison jumpsuit, Roof attended Tuesdays hearing but did not address the court.

But his attorneys reiterated previous comments that he would be willing to plead guilty if the death penalty were not on the table.

Our plea offer has not been withdrawn and will never be withdrawn, defence attorney David Bruck told the judge.

Setting a date for Roofs federal trial had been delayed a number of times since last year as the Justice Department weighed whether to seek the death penalty.

The decision was announced last month by Attorney General Loretta Lynch who said she was compelled by the nature of the alleged crime and the resulting harm.

On Tuesday, under questioning from the judge, both defence attorneys and federal prosecutors told Gergel they could complete their investigations, do the necessary legal research and be prepared to try their cases by November. They said they expected the trial could take as long as six weeks.

Gergel said that between 1,200 and 1,500 potential jurors might be summoned from throughout the state.

Most of the 75-minute hearing concerned setting deadlines for filing pretrial motions and other scheduling matters.

The church shootings, which occurred a year ago next week, reignited discussions about race relations and led to the removal of a Confederate battle flag from the South Carolina Statehouse. Roof had previously posed for photos with a rebel flag.

Due in part to problems in obtaining lethal injection drugs, no one has been executed in South Carolina since 2011. The federal government hasnt put anyone to death since 2003.

Roof was originally to go on trial in state court this July. But the case was delayed after the defence said doctors needed more time to complete psychiatric testing of Roof.

Last year, with the July trial date set, state prosecutor Scarlett Wilson had written Gergel saying the state preferred to prosecute Roof first.

She said after Tuesdays hearing the most important concern justice for the victims families.

The notion that we are arm-wrestling or arguing with the federal prosecutorsour federal counterpartsis just not there, she said. The most important thing is bringing justice to these families and trying this case as quickly and efficiently as possible.

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WELLINGTON (Reuters) - Sky Network Ltd on Wednesday said it is in discussions with Vodafone Group Plc about a possible merger of their New Zealand businesses. The talks regarded a potential transaction involving a combination of the businesses of Sky and Vodafone New Zealand, it said in a release to the New Zealand stock exchange. The discussions were "ongoing and incomplete and may not result in a transaction occurring", it added. Sky provides pay television and free-to-air television services in New Zealand while Vodafone New Zealand provides broadband, fixed-line and mobile phone services. The two companies already work together on some digital online offerings and Vodafone NZ offers Sky content as part of its packages. Vodafone New Zealand declined to comment on any possible transaction while Sky said it would not comment further. Advances in technology and competition meant that Sky was under pressure to retain subscribers, Hamilton Hindin Green broker Grant Williamson said. "I think investors are probably realising that Sky TV has to do something," he said, adding it was too soon to speculate on what sort of transaction might result from the talks. Sky Network shares are on a trading halt pending more detail. (Reporting by Rebecca Howard; Editing by Stephen Coates)
With an economic crisis so severe that corn flour and milk, antibiotics and blood pressure medication are in short supply, Venezuelans have reached their breaking point.

On Tuesday, thousands of opposition protesters chanted I am hungry, as they marched toward the presidential palace in Caracas to demand the ousting of President Nicolas Maduro. Once the protesters were within a half dozen blocks, riot police turned them back with tear gas.

It was the fourth protest to march on the palace in as many weeks.

Everything is falling apart, said Phillip Gunson, a Caracas-based analyst with the International Crisis Group. If street disturbances exceed the capacity of riot squads, then the government may have to call out the army. And the army may not back the government. Some people fear that could lead to a coup.

The South American country of 30 million has the worlds largest proven oil reserves, but its economy is collapsing to the point that the government cannot pay for imports, and has had to operate schools and services part time to save on electricity and water.

Hospitals can barely function, unable to run dialysis machines and incubators or print X-rays. Recently, blackouts knocked out respirators in a maternity ward in the coastal city of Barcelona and seven newborns died in one day, reported the New York Times. Yet Maduro has refused to allow international humanitarian organizations to bring in supplies.

According to local polling firm Datanalisis, scarcity in Caracas supermarkets reached 82 per cent this year, meaning that people only find two out of every 10 items on their list. Looting has become more common.

The recession has been compounded by a spiralling political crisis. The opposition Democratic Unity coalition, which won control of the National Assembly in parliamentary elections Dec. 2015, submitted a petition for a recall referendum with nearly two million signatures last month. But the government-dominated national electoral council keeps postponing meetings with the opposition to rule on the first stage of the referendum process.

In the meantime, Maduro is ruling by emergency decree.

The political spat is threatening to engulf the hemisphere. Luis Almagro, head of the Organization of American States, called Maduro a petty dictator and last week invoked the forums democratic charter, a move which could result in Venezuelas suspension from the 35-member body.

In a show of solidarity with its old socialist ally, Cuban President Raul Castro then called the OAS an instrument of imperialist domination and said Cuba would not return to the forum, which promotes democracy and human rights in the region.

Maduro has called Almagro, Uruguays well-respected former foreign minister, a spy for the CIA, and told him: you can shove that democratic charter wherever it fits.

The hemisphere has to get involved because there has been a breakdown in democratic order. Maduro is using the tools of democracy to have a dictatorship, said Dany Bahar, a Venezuelan-born economist and fellow at the Washington-based Brookings Institution.

Analysts say the current crisis is the result of years of irresponsible policies.

Venezuela remains almost wholly dependent on oil and has to import food staples and medicines. With the price of oil having plunged from more than $130 per barrel to about $50, the government has run out of money to pay for imports, and to service its substantive debt repayments.

Maduros predecessor Hugo Chavez, president from 1999 to 2013, funded widespread social reforms in his self-styled Bolivarian Revolution, using record-high oil revenues of the 2000s. But he also overspent, built up a multi-billion-dollar debt and failed to diversify the economy or invest properly in the state-run oil and gas company, Petroleos de Venezuela, known by its Spanish acronym PDVSA.

The country used to export three million barrels of oil a day. Today it is closer to two, said Bahar.

Human Rights Watch has criticized Maduros government for arbitrarily arresting opposition politicians and for intimidating, censoring and prosecuting critics.

Gunson believes the government would rather lose power in a coup, than through an opposition referendum. Then Maduro could maintain the narrative that they are victims of a plot, and not rejected by their own people, he said, adding that he hopes the political impasse can be resolved through dialogue.

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JOHANNESBURGEritreas systematic, widespread human rights abuses should be referred to the International Criminal Court as crimes against humanity that include enslavement and torture, a United Nations commission of inquiry said Wednesday.

The commission said the tiny Horn of Africa country has made no progress on the most critical rights violations the group first documented a year ago.

Eritrean refugees are one of the largest groups trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Europe. The new report says 47,025 Eritreans applied for asylum in Europe in 2015.

Rights groups say Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki, who has been in power since 1991, has become increasingly repressive.

The crimes of enslavement, imprisonment, enforced disappearance, torture, persecution, rape, murder and other inhumane acts have been committed as part of a widespread, systematic campaign against the civilian population since 1991, commission chair Mike Smith told reporters in Geneva.

The commissions role was investigative, not prosecutorial, Smith said, stopping short of identifying any potential suspects or saying how many there are.

Officials at the highest levels of state bear responsibility for crimes against humanity, the report said, and the commission has compiled dossiers of evidence for a number of officials that will be made available at the appropriate time to relevant institutions, including courts of law.

Eritreas government quickly shot back. A statement from presidential adviser Yemane Gebreab accused the panel of being entirely one-sided.

The three-member UN commission, which was not allowed to visit Eritrea, said many violations occur behind the facade of calm and normality that is apparent to the occasional visitor to the country.

It highlighted the indefinite duration and abusive conditions of Eritreas military service.

Smith estimated that between 300,000 and 400,000 people are enslaved in Eritrea, mostly through military conscription.

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When the two armed men entered the McDonalds in Besancon, a city in eastern France near the Switzerland border, they found about 40 people dining on fast food.

Heres what they didnt know: among the customers were 11 off-duty members of the French paramilitary special forces, soldiers who specialize in hostage situations, reported The Telegraph.

As the men burst into the restaurant late Sunday night, firing a warning shot and allegedly ransacking the cash register, the special forces just waited. They wanted to avoid drawing their guns, officials told The Telegraph, to prevent any collateral damage.

With his loot allegedly in hand, about $2,270 (U.S.) according to AFP, one of the robbers rushed toward the door. But his getaway was quickly thwarted. Mid-escape, he tripped.

The special forces pounced.

When his partner attempted the same manoeuvre, the military officers intervened again, reported AFP, and demanded the second alleged robber drop his weapon. He refused, according to the newspaper, and the officers shot him in the stomach.

During the holdup, the gendarmes didnt do anything, local prosecutor Edwige Roux-Morizot told The Telegraph, referring to the elite French special forces unit. It was out of the question to use their weapons, as this would have created difficulties and could have placed many peoples lives in danger.

The two alleged robbers, both in their early 20s, were taken to a local hospital, according to news reports. Roux-Morizot told The Telegraph they face multiple charges, including armed robbery.

The special forces officers belong to the Groupe dIntervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale, also known as the GIGN. The unit was created in the aftermath of the hostage situation at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, when Israeli Olympians were held against their will and eventually killed.

The group has intervened in numerous high profile, violent events, including the 1994 hijacking of an Air France flight that later was made into a film.

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Human evolution is usually portrayed as a neat linear progression, from hunched primate to tall, proud man. In 2003, a discovery on the Indonesian island of Flores scrambled that narrative.

In cave called Liang Bua, researchers found the nearly complete skeleton of a tiny human who lived between 50,000 and 100,000 years ago, and who stood just over a metre high. They declared it a new species, officially called Homo floresiensis but quickly nicknamed the hobbit hominin. But almost everything about these extinct people was a mystery. Where did they come from, and how did they get there?

On Wednesday, researchers writing in the journal Nature announced they had discovered much older, even tinier human fossils on Flores. The 700,000-year-old remains are helping scientists understand the origins of one of the most enigmatic members of our genus.

These guys survived there for 650,000 years or so, which is quite amazing, said Bence Viola, a professor of paleoanthropology at the University of Toronto, who was not involved in the research.

The research team found the new fossils in 2014 at a site called Mata Menge, which sits more than 70 kilometres away from the Liang Bua cave. Archeologists had already discovered tools at Mata Menge that are at least a million years old, but until now, there had been no human fossils to match.

In a layer of sediment that dates to 700,000 years ago and also contained stone tools and fossils of several animals, the researchers discovered a jaw fragment and teeth belonging to at least three individuals. Amazingly, the jaw was 20 per cent smaller than the smallest jaw from Liang Bua.

The research team was careful to say that until more specimens are discovered, they cant say for sure if these even tinier people are the direct ancestors of Homo floresiensis. But the discovery helps resolve some of the arguments about the hobbits origins.

The species of human thought to be responsible for dispersing out of Africa, Homo erectus, was about as tall as us. Did Homo floresiensis undergo dwarfism on the island? Or are they descended from smaller, more ancient primates  Homo habilis, or even Australopithecus  that most researchers think did not leave Africa, nevermind make it to Asia? Some scientists even argued Homo floresiensis was a diseased modern human.

Because the new teeth and mandible bear none of the traits of the more primitive primates, the discoveries support the theory that Homo floresiensis evolved from Homo erectus, our own species ancestor. Their age, which predates Homo sapiens by 500,000 years, punctures the idea that the hobbits are just diseased modern humans.

It seems to confirm what most of us suspected all along, said David Begun, also a U of T paleoanthropologist who was not involved in the research. It makes more sense, since Homo erectus had a big brain and was more sophisticated in terms of its adaptations to the environment . . . You had to be pretty sophisticated, cognitively, to get to Flores.

That means Homo floresiensis likely shrank after reaching the island. Island dwarfism is in fact an established phenomenon: constrained by lack of food, large-bodied animals on small islands tend to shrink over millennia, a pattern observed in deer on the island of Jersey and mammoths on Siberias Wrangel Island. Smaller animals, meanwhile, tend to become larger-bodied, since there are fewer predators.

In fact, the elephant species that lived on Flores at the same time as the hobbits was also dwarfed  it was about the size of a pig  and the rats that lived on Flores were giant. But island dwarfism had never been observed in a primate, and on Flores it appears to have happened extremely rapidly, in just 300,000 years.

We often think that humans create our own environment. We have cities, civilizations, agriculture  that were kind of immune and dont evolve, said Begun. This shows humans react to the environment the same way that any other animal does.

Mysteries of the hobbit remain. How did they get to Flores? When sea levels were lower, Java and a lot of other islands in Indonesia could be reached by foot. But Flores is far enough that it was never connected to Asia. You always needed a boat to get there, or a raft, Viola said. Did these early human species have maritime technology?

And the tool technology associated with Homo floresiensis appears to have never evolved, which is very unusual for that long a period  in fact, some technologies even disappeared.

Scientists hope that more discoveries on Flores will help resolve these questions.

I would like to know more about the archeology, about the culture that they had, Begun said. It looks like they were on that island for a really long time, basically in total isolation. I would like to know what they were doing there.

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Canadian governments of different political stripes have spent more than a decade trying to figure out whether to buy new fighter jets and which one to buy.

The Conservatives developed an aversion to military-procurement commitments, deferring some, bungling others; Liberals, by contrast are in the habit of politicizing military procurement decisions.

First they make an election plank out of scuttling the F-35 sole-source fighter purchase, now we learn that they are looking at sole-sourcing the F-18. Instead of politicking, which jet Canada buys and how many is secondary to having a proper process that generates and legitimates a commitment on which to follow through.

Recently, the Danish government concluded the F-35 is cheaper, more efficient, and more effective than the alternatives and recommended the F-35 over the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet and Eurofighter Typhoon to replace its aging F-16 fleet. Contrary to the approach taken by Conservatives or Liberals in Canada, the Danish options analysis was transparent, public, and its findings were validated independently. There are important lessons for Canada here on both substance and method.

The Danish government considered four criteria: military performance, acquisition and life-cycle costs, industrial benefits, and strategic considerations  primarily the ability  to support or fulfil Danish defence and security policy objectives, including potential co-operation with other countries.

They evaluated each category separately and concluded the F-35 trumps the F/A-18 and the Typhoon in all four categories.

Given the F-35s reputation, the conclusion about costs was most surprising  and key to the budget-conscious Danes. The detailed analysis provided to the parliament and public found that life cycle costs were driven by the number of expected flight hours of each aircraft: 8,000 for the F-35 and 6,000 for the F/A-18 and Typhoon. Since they last longer, the Danes concluded they could meet their defence needs over 30 years with fewer F-35s.

Critics have questioned the data used by the Danish Ministry of Defence. But the information was supplied by the companies themselves as part of the bidding process. Eurofighter explained they were very conservative in their estimate then, but have since calculated the Typhoon could fly for 8,300 hours. Boeing made a similar case: that the actual flight hours for each F/A-18 Super Hornet is 9,500.

The Danes have stood by their process, using data the manufacturers submitted, which they verified and was validated independently by external auditors. It is now up to the Parliament to consider the governments recommendation.

There are two lessons here for Canada. First, reach a cross-party consensus in principle. In the Danish case, the political parties agreed in 2012, as a matter of principle, that a new combat aircraft purchase will take place, even with a minority government now in power.

Second, Parliaments external validation can challenge but should not substitute new metrics for those used by the government. In Canada, the Parliamentary Budget Office, the Auditor General, and KPMG all used different metrics, including different life cycle lengths: whether you calculate jet fuel over 20 or 40 years makes quite the difference!

The Danish process included external validation by RAND Europe and Deloitte Consulting  whose joint report is also publicly available  as well as independent, outside experts. Barring illegality or incompetence on the part of the New Fighter Program Office, the Ministry of Defence, RAND Europe, and Deloitte, it is difficult to see how Boeing or Eurofighter can convince the Danish parliament to forego the governments recommendations.

The Danish process is democratic and transparent, which makes it difficult to assail. It demonstrates democratic representatives can agree if the processes in place have integrity.

But process does not determine outcome: Canada might well conclude an aircraft other than the F-35 best meets its defence needs. That the largest military purchase in Danish history is proceeding so quickly and with little controversy puts Canadian military procurement processes to shame.

If the Canadian government is serious about the Defence Policy Review it has initiated, learning from Danish technocrats how to procure it may be a good place to start.

Gary Schaub, Jr. is senior researcher at the Centre for Military Studies at the University of Copenhagen. Christian Leuprecht is professor at the Royal Military College of Canada and Queens University, and a senior fellow at the Macdonald Laurier Institute.

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The union that represents Toronto Star newsroom employees called Tuesday for an independent investigation into the death of a Star reporter who recently took her own life.

By all reports of those closest to her, the last thing this award-winning global environment reporter wanted was to be the focus of this story about her suicide and its aftermath. She left explicit instructions that this very thing should not happen (Please dont talk about me. Please dont let anyone write about me, she wrote.) Nor did she want an obituary in the Star, the Stars common practice when one of its newsroom employees dies. Her family also made clear those explicit wishes and the Star had tried to respect that.

I know for certain that I am letting Raveena Aulakh down in writing this story in my role as public editor tasked with reporting to our readers about her death in light of this now public call for an independent investigation. I can say that because several years ago, she sent me a note about my role at the Star, telling me, You have never let a Star reporter become a public spectacle and that comes from owning up to mistakes quickly and honestly before it spirals out of control.

This tragedy should not be a public spectacle and I wish it had not come to this. Certainly, serious mistakes of a personal nature have been made, and relatively quick and serious action taken by the Star as a result. But, sadly, too much here has spiralled out of control and in making this reporters death news in the interests of the transparency todays journalism seems to always demand we are all doing exactly what Raveena, 42, implored against.

The Stars policy on suicide says that the Star generally does not cover suicide unless there is some overriding public interest in doing so. While I, and Star editor Michael Cooke, questioned this in a 2012 public editor column on media coverage of the traditionally taboo subject of suicide, I also made clear in a previous column about suicide coverage my grave concerns that writing more openly about suicide could lead to intruding on the privacy of grieving families. To me, the wishes of the family are paramount and I am sorry we are going against the wishes of Raveenas family here.

Journalists use the word tragedy a lot in reporting on the sad things of our world and to use it here seems to me to somehow belittle the dark grief so many of us feel now that one of us has died in such a heartbreaking manner. The Stars newsroom is reeling, trying to make sense of the reality that Raveena chose not to live any longer. I have worked in newsrooms for 40 years and have never seen anything like the level of grief and anger exploding here.

The newsroom is heartbroken and angry. Employees want answers. Workplace health and safety is at stake, said a letter dated Tuesday from Unifors Toronto Star Unit, Local 87M to Brian Daly, the Stars vice-president of human resources.

Those in the highest levels of senior management at the Star have told me they have conducted a thorough internal investigation following revelations and allegations made by the reporter in emails sent to several people in the newsroom shortly before she died. Those emails revealed that Raveena and Jon Filson, the senior manager, who had led the Stars tablet project in the past year, had been involved in a relationship for some time that had ended recently. Further, the clearly heartbroken reporter made allegations in those emails about an improper relationship between Filson and his boss, managing editor Jane Davenport.

From the outset, those in the highest levels of Toronto Star management took these revelations and allegations with the utmost seriousness, said David Holland, Torstar CEO and the Stars acting publisher. Both Holland and Torstar chairman John Honderich were informed immediately of Raveenas shocking death. They tell me they quickly ordered an investigation into circumstances connected to her death and the shocking revelations and allegations in her emails and suicide note.

That investigation was carried out throughout last week by Daly and Alan Bower, the Stars executive director of labour relations. I have been told that this is the usual course of action whenever allegations involving senior managers come to light. In this case, Daly and Bower, both trained as HR investigators, reported directly to the CEO and chair.

I do not know all of the details of what this investigation revealed but I can understand that much of what all are dealing with here are private personnel matters and that the Star has a long-standing policy not to comment on personnel issues.

A tough investigation was conducted but we are obviously constrained from reporting any details because of the confidentiality of the people we interviewed and the circumstances under which the information was gathered, Holland said.

In some circumstances the people interviewed did so on the basis of anonymity.

Action has been taken following this investigation. Filson and Davenport have lost their jobs in the newsroom. Filson has gone from the Star and Davenport will move to a new role outside the newsroom and within Torstar, effective immediately editor Cooke announced to the newsroom Monday.

As well, Holland told me, the investigation looked into the organizations policies related to workplace relationships and conflicts of interest. It has concluded that these policies need to be amplified. This will be undertaken immediately.

In seeking an independent investigation, the union says the newsroom does not think these measures go far enough.

We recognize the Stars HR department is conducting an investigation and has taken some immediate action. We support this procedure, stated the unions letter, which was also sent to Honderich Tuesday.

In a bulletin to newsroom staff, the union stated that it has listened to newsroom members in formally seeking an outside investigation: We want the third-party investigators mandate to include workplace health and safety and harassment issues, along with company policies and practices.

For the companys part, it says it has looked at those issues and has offered to meet with union officials to outline what was learned in last weeks investigation and address any other concerns related to the Stars policies and procedures on all of these aspects. That offer was turned down.

We have conducted a serious investigation at the highest levels; two senior managers have lost their jobs in the newsroom and policies are under review, Honderich said. We are open to any suggestions about policies moving forward and are ready to listen to anyone who wants to come forward with concerns.

In its bulletin, the union made clear the ugliness of this tragedy as rumour and innuendo have mixed with few verified facts in the past week: It is important to note that a significant amount of unconfirmed speculation is swirling about. We urge our members not to engage in public speculation.

Certainly, no one here should ever minimize the fact that a talented, smart, journalist who achieved distinction for the Star in her courageous reporting, chose to end her own life. But, much sensitivity is called for too. The Mindset Guide on Reporting on Mental Health, written by journalists for journalists in co-operation with the Mental Health Commission of Canada, warns journalists not to jump to conclusions when reporting on suicide, pointing out that the reasons why people kill themselves are usually complex.

I do not know all of the relevant facts here, but certainly, as I have also written in past, any media coverage of suicide demands caution, context and compassion, as well as deep understanding that suicide is never just another story, but the end of a life in the most tragic way possible.

Sadly, that has become all too clear to all of us at the Star in recent days.

RIP, Raveena.

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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, denied a visa to enter the United States for nearly a decade, on Wednesday addressed a joint meeting of Congress, declaring that India and the United States are natural allies and urging the two nations to establish even closer ties.

Dressed in a white knee-length shirt, gray sleeveless tunic and handkerchief in the Indian flags colors, the white-haired, bespectacled Modi waved to long introductory applause before addressing Congress in English.

Modi leavened his speech with jokes about bipartisanship, Indian American immigrants and intellectual property, the latter being a thorny issue in talks about the financing of measures to slow climate change.

I am informed that the working of the U.S. Congress is harmonious. Im also told that you are well known for your bipartisanship, he said to laughter. Well you are not alone, he added to more laughter. Time and again I have also witnessed a similar spirit in the Indian Parliament. As you can see we have many shared practices.

[Obama and Indias Modi promise deals on climate change and energy]

Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis., laugh as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses a joint meeting of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Evan Vucci/AP)

He said that the 3 million Indian Americans are your strength. They are also the pride of India. And he mentioned the Indian American children who have won recent Scripps National Spelling Bees. Three of them attended the speech: Jairam Hathwar and Nihar Janga, the 2016 co-champions, and Sriram Hathwar, 2014 co- champion.

Modi noted that the United States is Indias largest trade partner and joked that it is estimated that more Americans bend for yoga than throw a curveball. He said that India, which has said that it should not pay for intellectual property for renewable energy technology, had not yet claimed intellectual property right on yoga.

Foreign heads of state, including four earlier Indian leaders, have addressed joint meetings of Congress on 118 occasions since 1874, usually on state visits. A handful of leaders have done it more than once. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has done it three times, as did British leader Winston Churchill.

[Here are three climate change breakthroughs possible during Modis trip to Washington]

It was a particularly unusual address for Modi, who was barred from entering the United States for years because of his failure to stop a series of deadly riots in 2002 by Hindus against minority Muslims in the Indian state of Gujarat, where he was chief minister. Moreover, human rights groups remain concerned about Modis treatment of domestic critics and his failure to vigorously protect womens rights.

But Modi struck a different tone Wednesday, hailing Mahatma Gandhis philosophy of nonviolent civil disobedience and its influence on the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., drawing a standing ovation from members of Congress. Modi said the proximity of the King memorial and the statue of Gandhi on Massachusetts Avenue mirrors the closeness of ideals and values they believe in.

He called Congress a temple of democracy and said that by inviting him to speak, you have honored the worlds largest democracy.

Modi also stressed the importance of the U.S.-India strategic partnership, noting that a strong India is in Americas strategic interest. He said India helped secure sea lanes crucial for trade, contributed soldiers to U.N. peacekeeping missions, gave aid to Afghanistan and sought to stem terrorism.

[U.S. senators attack Indias human rights record before Modis Capitol Hill address]

India exercises more with the United States more than we do with any other partner, Modi said, adding that the sale of U.S. military goods to India has increased from almost zero to $10 billion in less than a decade. Those sales have included mostly big-ticket items such as Chinook and Apache helicopters and P-8 reconnaissance planes.

The Indian leader also thanked Congress for adopting a nuclear cooperation agreement in 2008, opening up the possibility for U.S. companies to help build and supply Indian nuclear power reactors. So far, other legal and contractual issues have prevented any deals, though Indias state-owned nuclear power company and Toshiba subsidiary Westinghouse Electric said they would start preparing a construction site and would aim to reach a deal by June 2017.

The nuclear cooperation agreement changed the very colors of leaves of our relationship, Modi said.

[India abuzz over future of its rock star central banker]

Obama has reached out to Modi in the two years since the Indian leader became prime minister. His administration has been eager to counter Chinas expansion. On Tuesday, a joint statement by the two leaders said that the United States would work toward facilitating the sharing of some of the most sensitive U.S. military technology with India, as the United States now does with only its closest allies. The two also said India would receive technologies that could be used for military purposes as well as nonmilitary. There have been some restrictions ever since India diverted peaceful nuclear technology to its nuclear weapons efforts.

In addition to seeking to establish India as a strategic bulwark, Obama has sought to persuade Modi to take swift action to slow climate change and to back the accord reached at the international climate summit in Paris in December. With the worlds fastest economic growth rate, a boom in fossil fuel energy output could trigger vast new greenhouse emissions.

Modi said that his economic to-do list is long and ambitious, including a roof over each head with electricity for all households. He said India would build smart cities with broadband to connect even remote villages to the digital world, and expand the countrys road and port infrastructure, much of it by 2022.

[Endangered tigers under threat in Indian forest that inspired The Jungle Book]

These are not just aspirations but goals to be reached in a finite time frame, he said, while pledging to do so with a light carbon footprint and a great emphasis on renewables.

That was a reference to Obama agreeing that India should become a permanent member of a reformed U.N. Security Council. That detail was in the joint statement distributed Tuesday. Modi mentioned it obliquely, though. Modi did not read one line that was in his prepared remarks that were distributed just before he started speaking.

The effectiveness of our cooperation would increase if international institutions frame with the mind-set of the 20th century were to reflect the realities of today, Modi said.

He addressed a full chamber, though several seats in the side sections of the House floor appeared to be filled by staffers and Indian officials. The Obama administration members who sat in the front area included Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, Office of Management and Budget director Shaun Donovan, Environmental Protection Agency administrator Gina McCarthy and U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman. .

Jeffrey P. Bezos, owner of The Washington Post and chief executive of Amazon, also attended. On Tuesday, Bezos pledged that Amazon would invest an additional $3 billion in India, boosting its investment in the country to more than $5 billion.
The Post's food critic Tom Sietsema granted Founding Farmers, a D.C.-favorite restaurant, zero stars in a recent review. Here's why. (Nicki DeMarco/The Washington Post)

T here are lines I can fathom and lines I cant.

People waiting for a table outside Bad Saint, the tiny Filipino charmer in Columbia Heights, or Shake Shack, the downtown burger phenom from New York, know the rewards for getting through the door include food that leaves them smiling and eager to return.

Other queues leave me scratching my head. Consider Bens Chili Bowl, the subject of a recent critique in these pages and best savored for its history, period.

One of my jobs as food critic is to lead diners to diamonds and steer them from dross, which brings me to todays topic, an eight-year-old restaurant I ranted about in 2012 but feel obliged to reexamine with fresh eyes. Since I last looked at it seriously, or tried to, the brand has grown to include three offshoots in the region (with more on the way) and a cookbook celebrating a farm-to-table philosophy, aided and abetted by big jars of preserved fruits and vegetables on the restaurants shelves.

[Where to eat instead: Tom Sietsemas 2016 Spring Dining Guide]

My cab driver recognizes my destination near the International Monetary Fund before I can finish its address: Founding Farmers! he says. Similar energy awaits me at the Foggy Bottom restaurant, where (for real!) huddled masses in the foyer act as if theyre about to board a flight to nirvana. This busy restaurant doesnt need hosts so much as air traffic controllers.

Attempting to access Founding Farmers for dinner on short notice tends to net you the dreaded time slots of 5:30 or 9:30. My strategy has been to go for an early lunch as a solo diner and head for the bar, a trek I made four times in recent months before I scored an actual table in the dining room with a group  albeit at 6 p.m. on a Monday with almost two weeks notice.

Your waiter is likely to ask if youve been in before and, if you havent, to tick off reasons you should be pleased to make the acquaintance of the LEED gold-certified restaurant, where the tables are reclaimed wood and the menus use recycled paper. Were a fresh and seasonal restaurant, a server says, and we try to make as much as we can from scratch, including breads and pastas.

[The most scathing restaurant reviews Tom Sietsema has ever written]

There are several wrinkles in the script, one of which is that restaurant patrons more or less expect that any self-respecting kitchen these days is going to offer fresh and seasonal. Further, simply because something is said to be made on site doesnt confer on the dish a blue ribbon. Witness a skillet of cornbread, bright with corn kernels but also doughy in the center, and pickled seasonal vegetables that turn out to be mostly sliced cucumbers. The snack is also unpleasantly mouth-puckering.



The decor suggests a wide array of preserved crops awaiting use in your meal. The plate often tells a different story. (Deb Lindsey /For The Washington Post)

Forget the subtle barn motif, the online videos suggesting conscientious cooks are fussing over breakfast, lunch and dinner. Almost everything Ive eaten here in recent months  chicken wings so small they should be called chick wings, gummy cheesy pasta with listless lobster  smacks of coming from something other than a kitchen with a chef in charge. (Kudos, however, for the homey mashed potatoes.) Whoever penned the epic menu, invariably sticky from fingers other than my own, apparently didnt want to leave a soul behind. The portions are enormous, which only magnifies their flaws. Slices of soft, sepia-toned Many Vegetable Mushroom Loaf lead me to believe salt must be a vegetable. Like too many entrees here, the blimp of roast chicken, shot down by woody green beans (with even-woodier stems attached), shows up on the heels of an appetizer of bacon lollis. Essentially bacon strips threaded on skewers, they resemble a cross between jerky and liquefied cinnamon toast. The temptation to finish an order is zero.

[The unwritten rules of dining that all people should follow]

Is the staff in on the joke? A bartender doesnt blink when I tell her Im done with a plank of prosciutto- and mascarpone-paved farm bread  seemingly a loaf of sliced ciabatta  after a few bites. With barely a glance, she chucks the lot, sullied with a cloying balsamic reduction, into the garbage. In the dining room a few weeks later, no one asks why so much food remains when staff come to collect our plates. Had my waiter inquired, my posse would have told him the swamp posing as shrimp and grits was about as close to the southern model as rap is to opera. Also: Land and Sea goes down like a forced marriage between beef steak thats never cooked the shade you ask and a crab cake whose seafood is masked by salt and heat. The best part of the goat cheese burger has nothing to do with the unfortunate sandwich but with the squat brown paper bag alongside it. Inside are potato chips. Theyre okay. Not okay: Chicken pot pie weighed down with an arid biscuit the size of a softball.

Main courses average an agreeable $19. The prices signal a bargain until you realize youd rather pay extra for better food  elsewhere.



Reservations for prime dining hours are hard to come by. (Deb Lindsey /For The Washington Post)

I feel like Im in a cafeteria, a companion says on a recent weeknight on the second floor, where a flock of ceramic birds floats above our heads. (I would envy them their freedom, but theyre just as stuck here as we are.) The din and strangely stale air lend credence to the sentiment. Shouldnt a restaurant as vast as this one smell like some cooking is going on? If the nose isnt exactly assaulted, the ears certainly are. On any given night, the sound equivalents in the dining room fall between that of a garbage disposal and a passing diesel truck.

On my sixth visit, hoping to crack the restaurants appeal, I bought The Founding Farmers Cookbook, copies of which are locked in display cases and must be retrieved by a manager. (Plan to wait 10 minutes or more, and spend $40. Counter to what the restaurant delivers, the fetching food photography and homespun advice in the book practically had me humming America the Beautiful.) I couldnt help but notice a plug on the back of the recipe collection from a former president of the North Dakota Farmers Union  the entity behind this sad state of affairs. Maybe Alice Waters was busy.

Frankly, I can think of only three reasons for the crowds: location, location, location. With the White House a few blocks away, the place is hard to miss.

[8 of the best tiki drinks in the D.C. area]]

On second thought, there is one other redeeming quality at this farm-to-fable establishment: the drinks. Your gin gimlet, in other words, comes with fresh lime juice, and if you opt for a Paloma, spiced the way you like it, the result is a breeze (of tequila and citrus) to finish.

Therein lies a key to survival: Never mind that its noon. Order a Sazerac. It will help you forget what youre about to eat, or at least keep you much better company than the cooking.


Hillary Clinton claimed victory Tuesday in the campaign to be the Democratic Partys nominee for president of the United States. But opponent Bernie Sanders says hes not done fighting for the nomination. (Julio Cortez/AP)

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has enough delegates pledged to vote for him at the convention to win his partys nomination. (Carlo Allegri/Reuters)

Hillary Clinton declared herself the winner in the Democratic presidential nominating race after victories Tuesday in three state primaries.

Clinton is turning her attention to Donald Trump, the presumed Republican candidate in the November general election.

Sanders refused Tuesday to concede defeat to Clinton. (Jonathan Alcorn/AFP via Getty Images)

But Senator Bernie Sanders says he will continue to fight Clinton through Tuesdays Democratic primary in Washington, D.C., and on to Julys Democratic convention.

The nomination is a numbers game. The person who wins 2,383 delegates to the Democratic convention will become the partys candidate. Clinton has 2,191, and Sanders has 1,816. (Twenty delegates are up for grabs in the D.C. primary.) There are also about 700 Democratic delegates who arent required to promise whom to support. Many have said they favor Clinton.

Trump has 1,441 delegates pledged to vote for him at the Republican convention in July. He needs only 1,237 votes to win his partys nomination. The eight other Republicans who were candidates when the primaries started in February have since ended their campaigns.
The logo of T-Mobile Austria is seen outside of one of its shops in Vienna, Austria, February 25, 2016. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger

By Malathi Nayak

(Reuters) - T-Mobile US Inc (TMUS.O), the No. 3 U.S. wireless provider, wants to turn its monthly subscribers into shareholders by offering them a share in the company's stock for free, it said on Monday.

Shares of T-Mobile closed 1.3 percent lower at $43.07.

T-Mobile, which calls itself the "Un-carrier," said in a statement it would offer a full share of T-Mobile US (TMUS) common stock to millions of existing and new postpaid service customers. The so-called Stock Up plan is not available to prepaid customers.

"This has never been done before," by a public company, Chief Executive John Legere said on a media call after the announcement.

Legere has led the rollout of a series of consumer-friendly offers in the past three years, such as the free video streaming option "Binge On" and data rollover plans, some of which have been copied by rivals. These have helped T-Mobile gain market share as it fights a price war in an oversaturated wireless market with Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N) and AT&T Inc (T.N), as well as smaller competitor Sprint Corp (S.N).

T-Mobile said in a statement it had also launched a T-Mobile Tuesdays app to give its postpaid and prepaid customers weekly perks such as free food, movie tickets and ride shares through partnerships with firms such as Domino's Pizza Inc (DPZ.N) and Lyft. It will also offer an hour of free Wi-Fi to customers on domestic flights that have Gogo Wi-Fi connectivity.

Postpaid customers who recommend T-Mobile to friends can get another share for every new user who signs up and can get up to 100 shares a year, the company said.

The latest offers will ensure T-Mobile customers stay with the carrier and recommend it to friends, Chief Marketing Officer Andrew Sherrard said in an interview. "Some (free offers) will cost us some money but over time we think it will be a really good investment."

T-Mobile will not be issuing new shares for the "Stock Up" plan, executives said on the media call.

T-Mobile's brokerage partner LOYAL3 will buy the carrier's shares and offer them to customers, they added, noting that the company would cover all associated charges.Bellevue, Washington-based T-Mobile, controlled by Deutsche Telekom (DTEGn.DE), said it added 2.2 million customers on a net basis in the first quarter ended March 31.

(Reporting by Malathi Nayak; Editing by Andrew Hay and Richard Chang)


Michelle and Robert King created the critical hit "The Good Wife," and their new series, "BrainDead," is about politicians whose brains are eaten by bugs. (Erin Baiano /The Washington Post)

CBS wanted a smart show about Capitol Hill, so the network brass turned to producers Robert and Michelle King, who had tackled state politics with The Good Wife.

It was right around the budget crisis, the government shutdown. There was an element of insanity out there, says Robert, 56, perched in their office in Brooklyns Greenpoint neighborhood. Our solution to truly addressing a ludicrous situation in D.C. was with some ludicrous plotting.

Naturally, the married couple thought of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Politicians, the thinking went, often behaved like aliens, as if their bodies had been invaded by some outside force and they were not responsible for their actions, which often defied precedent or logic.

The worry was always, how do you keep this from being earnest? Going to sci-fi seemed like it would certainly inoculate us against that, says Michelle, 54.

Earnest is the last thing you would label BrainDead, the 13-episode series that debuts Monday. It features a meteor, green health juice, a three-decade-old hit by the Cars and, most important, brain-eating bugs.

Mind you, this was all considered before the current election took a decided left turn (or right, or both) to uncharted alien territory. The presidential race is a backdrop, though the seasons last episode will air in August.

Despite the title, the series is not a documentary about the capitals political quagmire, but a stew of genres. Robert describes it as the comedy of Men in Black mixed with the satire of Network and the relationships of The West Wing. 

The bugs come to Earth via a meteor that lands in Russia, and they travel to America via container ship. In Washington they become devious, powerful and rampant, entering congressmen and their constituents through the ear, eating half the brain and leaving the host ultimately changed. Slime is involved.

The Kings are loath to reveal all but, at least by the end of the first episode, the bugs are not paid for by lobbyists.

Essentially, it seems, theyre a metaphor for Washingtons dysfunction.

The infected actually get smarter and clearer, more focused and more articulate, says Tony Shalhoub, who plays Sen. Red Wheatus (R-Md.), a Baltimore good ol boy, his brain among the bugs first brunches.

As a result, they become automaton-like in pursuit of their agendas. As series star Mary Elizabeth Winstead explains, Nothing gets done. Its such an absurd explanation for what is really happening in Washington.

Winstead plays idealistic documentary filmmaker Laurel Healy, who works for her brother, Sen. Luke Healy (D-Md.), a politician with a pronounced zipper problem (played by Danny Pino). Laurel says thing like I hate politics and I hate D.C., although she hails from a political dynasty akin to the Gores, says Winstead, who is shuttling between this show and Richmond for her role as a Civil War nurse in PBSs Mercy Street.



In BrainDead, Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays a documentary filmmaker who says things like I hate politics. I hate D.C. (Michael Parmelee/CBS)

Robert, who penned the 1988 Roger Corman killer-cockroach thriller The Nest, explains: The bugs exploit what is human about the person but makes them even more extreme. Adds Michelle: The bugs are looking to keep their host in tip-top shape and, as a result, the infected get healthier. They dont drink. Theyre not so interested in sex.

Not so interested in sex? We will pause here to have that sink in. For seven seasons, The Good Wife was all about sex and politics, with a relentlessly randy politician who was a mashup of Eliot Spitzer, Bill Clinton and, well, you name it.

Instead, the infected imbibe vast quantities of green juice. They constantly play the Cars 1984 ditty You Might Think, inspired by Roberts experience of having a former upstairs landlord play Dire Straits Walk of Life ad nauseam. (The rights to that song proved too expensive.)

The infected also babble in zombielike fashion, although  note to zombie loathers everywhere, and we are a large, overlooked and powerful multitude  this is not a zombie show. The Kings make it clear that half the brain is still operating. The first episode has a fair amount of muck, but no blood.

[D.C. insider Judy Smith is the basis for ABC Drama Scandal.]

Despite going buggy, the show is trying to get the politics right. David McCallum, the deputy chief of staff to Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), serves as the shows Washington consultant. He was recommended to the Kings by D.C. crisis manager Judy Smith, the inspiration for Scandal.

McCallum informed the Kings that Laurel would never be hired to do constituent casework on her brothers senatorial staff, because of nepotism laws.

Robert responded, Heres the problem: Thats the basis of the show.

The writers inserted a line about Luke appealing to the ethics committee for an exception. The line was cut later due to time constraints. Lets face it: Ethics chatter is stultifying in the face of cerebellum-devouring insects.

Where might senators of opposing parties meet  like thats going to happen  if one is trying to get the other to switch his vote? I suggested the Senate gift shop, McCallum says. Its small, in the basement in the Dirksen building, and nobody hangs around there.

As for his advice and wisdom, McCallum says, the Kings and the shows six writers may listen to you, or they may not.

Which is so Washington. And Hollywood, too.

BrainDeads soundstage, located a few blocks down (fittingly) Kingsland Avenue from the couples office, re-creates sections of the Russell Senate Office Building, including basement quarters for a minority party senator (not true). The wardrobe room has a vast collection of nondescript shirts for men and black pencil skirts for women (true and true). And cherry blossom trees in full flower appear outside virtually every window (if only).

[The Good Wifes mission accomplished: Alicia has triumphed.]



Julianna Margulies, left, Chris Noth and Christine Baranski in "The Good Wife" (Jeff Neumann/CBS via AP) (Jeff Neumann/AP)

The Kings insist BrianDead will be fair and balanced, skewering both Democrats and Republicans.

Christine Baranski, who played Diane Lockhart on The Good Wife, says that, on that series, They tried to see both sides of the story and not write just from the liberal point of view, often the default Hollywood position. Robert has found comedy in the political divide before, in his screenplay for 1994s rom-com Speechless, about speechwriters working for opposing candidates.

The Kings have mapped out BrainDeads next three seasons  if the series is renewed. The same characters will movie to Wall Street.

Michelle: They have a reason. Robert, laughing: Wait? Is it that strange that characters would move from Washington to Wall Street? The hard one is the third season, which is supposed to move to Silicon Valley. The final season would be set in Hollywood.

The theme, Robert insists, will remain the same: It is all about how our institutions are made stupid.

With or without the help of brain-eating bugs.
Tammy Darvish, the local auto executive who became the face of the Darcars empire, has lost her legal bid for a share of the family business.

Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Robert Greenberg prevented the case from moving forward Tuesday, ruling that Darvish  who worked for her fathers company for 31 years  did not have a legal claim because she could not prove that her father had promised to give her one-third of the company.

The court is mindful of the fact that Plaintiff faithfully served Darcars for several decades, and believed that her sacrifice would result in an inheritance of her fathers business, or at least one-third thereof, Greenberg wrote. It is not unsympathetic to her plight, and the present estrangement from her father and stepbrothers. It cannot, however, create a cause of action where none exists. For the reasons stated above, summary judgment is granted in favor of all Defendants on all claims.

A spokesman for Darcars released a brief statement Wednesday saying, With this decision, the case is over. We are pleased to have this behind us.

Darvish was traveling Wednesday and was unavailable for comment. Her attorney, Rachel McGuckian, said that her client intends to continue her legal fight.

We are disappointed with the ruling and plan to appeal the courts factual and legal findings, she said. We have every expectation that the appellate court will reverse the decision and afford Tammy her right to have her claims determined by a jury.

The case hinged on the question of whether a child working in a family business has legal rights based on oral promises made by a parent.

[The Darcars family drama: Passed over, a daughter sues]

Darvish started working in her fathers car dealerships when she was 20 years old and helped build what is now one of the largest car dealerships in the country. She became her fathers right hand and confidante and claimed that he repeatedly promised that she would share the business with her younger half-brothers, John Darvish Jr. and Jamie Darvish, when he retired or died.

But in 2014, after a failed attempt to draw up a succession plan that they could all agree on, her father handed the company over to his sons, stripped his daughter of power and told her to clean out her desk. She claims that her half-brothers pressured their father to renege on his promises to her and give them control or else they would leave the company.

Darvish filed a lawsuit last year, asking for the equivalent of one-third of the $400 million family empire. The suit made national news because of Darcars importance in the auto industry and the number of family-owned and operated dealerships.

John Darvish Sr. denied promising his daughter an equal share of the business, saying that nothing was put in writing and calling her characterization pure fiction. His lawyers successfully argued that there was no written agreement stating what she would inherit and that, as owner, Darvish Sr. could change his mind or divide the privately held business in any way he saw fit.

Greenbergs ruling cited the employment contract that Tammy Darvish signed in 2002, which spelled out her compensation and terms of employment. He also stated that in all the documents produced during the year-long discovery process, none contained an explicit written agreement granting Tammy Darvish a specific share of the business.

Accordingly, this court finds no consideration to support the alleged oral agreement; Plaintiff was under a pre-existing duty to carry out her duties, whatever they might be, pursuant to what all parties agree was a lucrative Pay Plan. Her employment was terminable at any time by her employer, Darcars, and thus any oral agreement was illusory, Greenberg wrote.

Tammy Darvish left the car business in 2014 and is executive vice president at PenFed Credit Union in Alexandria.
Anne Arundel County

The following were among incidents reported by the Anne Arundel County police. For information, call 410-222-8050.

BROOKLYN AREA

ROBBERIES

Church St., 700 block, noon, May 30. Two armed men robbed a liquor store and customers inside, and fled.

GLEN BURNIE AREA

ROBBERIES

Tall Pines Ct., 7800 block, 3 p.m. June 1. Two armed males with masks forced a boy, 11, to lie on the ground. They stole his shoes, backpack and keys.

PASADENA AREA

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Kingsley Ct. and Leeds Dr., 4 a.m. May 28. A man was found rummaging through a vehicle. A Pasadena man, 27, was charged with tampering with an auto.

Annapolis

These were among incidents reported by the Annapolis Police Department. For information, call 410-268-9000.

ASSAULTS

Brightwater Dr., 100 block, 9:45 p.m. May 27. Two men were hit several times with paintballs fired from a moving vehicle.

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Bertina Nick Way, 100 block, 2 to 3:30 a.m. May 31. A door frame at a house was damaged.

Cedar Ridge Ct., 1000 block, 10 a.m. May 27 to 12:30 p.m. May 30. Someone entered a home and moved items around, but nothing was reported stolen.

Janwall Ct., 2:50 p.m. May 29 to 6 p.m. May 30. Jewelry was stolen from a home.

Moreland Pkwy., 1900 block, 10 a.m. May 30 to 10 a.m. May 31. A catalytic converter was stolen from a Ford F350 truck.

Timber Creek Dr., 1000 block, 9 a.m.-11:20 p.m. May 27. A tablet computer, watch and cameras were stolen from a home.

Tyler Ave., 1300 block, noon-6 p.m. May 27. A boys bicycle was stolen from the front yard of a home.

Tyler Ave., 1300 block, 9:40 a.m.-4 p.m. May 29. Electronic devices and cash were stolen from a home.

MOTOR VEHICLE THEFTS

Carver St., 1:11 p.m. May 29. A vehicle left running with keys in the ignition was stolen. A Harwood man, 22, was charged with theft of a motor vehicle.

WEAPONS

Clay St., 4:38 a.m. May 29. After a report of shots being fired, a man was found with injuries that were not life-threatening injures. He was taken to a shock trauma center.

Copeland Ct., 1900 block, 9:12 p.m. May 29. An occupied vehicle was struck with two bullets. No one was injured.

Martha Ct., 1000 block, 8:15 p.m. May 29. Shots were fired at an apartment building.

Howard County

These were among incidents reported by the Howard County Police Department. For information, call 410-313-2236.

CLARKSVILLE AREA

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

White Marble Ct., 6100 block, 9 p.m. May 31 to 6:30 a.m. June 1. A wallet, cash and electronics were stolen from an unlocked vehicle.

COLUMBIA AREA

ROBBERIES

Little Patuxent Pkwy., 10300 block, 9:02 p.m. May 26. Two men knocked down a woman and stole cash. Two Baltimore men, 22 and 27, were charged with robbery, second-degree assault and theft.

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Cherry Tree Dr., 7400 block, 2:50 p.m. May 27. An all-terrain vehicle, a power washer and a chain saw were stolen from a shed.

Cherry Tree Dr., 7400 block, 10:22 a.m. May 28. Two lawn mowers were stolen.

Dobbin Rd., 6400 block, 10:13 p.m. May 31. A man who damaged a door lock and went into a fenced-in area at a business fled after being seen by an employee.

Fair Oaks, 10400 block, 9:25 a.m. May 27. A bicycle was stolen from a garage.

Flamepool Way, 9000 block, 12:09 a.m. June 1. A vacant house was entered through an unlocked window; nothing was stolen.

Gramercy Pl., 10600 block, 5 p.m. May 27 to 6:40 p.m. May 29. Someone broke into a vacant apartment and caused damage.

Greystone Lane, 8400 block, 9:30 a.m. May 31. A man was forced to open a front door at a home; nothing was reported stolen.

Greystone Lane, 8400 block, 8:55 a.m. June 1. A front door frame was damaged at a vacant apartment; nothing was reported stolen.

Greystone Lane, 8400 block, 1:48 a.m. June 1. After loud noises were heard in a vacant apartment, officers found that the door frame was damaged but that nothing was stolen.

Little Patuxent Pkwy., 10100 block, 6:46 a.m. May 31. Copper was stolen.

Whitewasher Way, 10300 block, 2 to 9:30 p.m. May 29. Coins and collectibles were stolen.

ELKRIDGE AREA

ROBBERIES

Devlon Pl., 6600 block, 7:29 p.m. May 27. A male youth shot two people with a BB gun, stole cash and fled on a bicycle. An Elkridge boy, 12, was charged with armed robbery, theft, and first- and second-degree assault.

Washington Blvd., 7800 block, 1:10 a.m. April 9. Three masked and armed males stole a womans purse. An Elkridge boy, 15, was charged with armed robbery, conspiracy to commit armed robbery, assault, theft, fraudulent credit card use and other related charges.

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Old Waterloo Rd., 7000 block, 6 p.m. May 30 to 9:30 a.m. May 31. Cash was stolen from a public storage facility.

ELLICOTT CITY AREA

ROBBERIES

Harpers Farm Rd., 5400 block, 1;45 a.m. May 28. A man was assaulted and robbed of his shoes, keys, cash and medication.

ASSAULTS

Lee Farm Ct., 4900 block, 9:09 p.m. May 29. During a fight man stabbed another man in the arm.

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Ridge Rd., 8600 block, 9:25 a.m. May 27. A handgun was stolen.

MOTOR VEHICLE THEFTS

Early Spring Way, 9700 block, 9:30 p.m. May 30 to 10 a.m. May 31. A 2012 copper Dodge Avenger was stolen.

Hayshed Lane, 8800 block, 2:58 p.m. May 26. During a pursuit of a man driving without a seat belt, the man jumped from the vehicle. A man, 22, was charged with unlawful taking of a motor vehicle, unauthorized removal of property and theft.

HANOVER AREA

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Athlov Ave., 6700 block, 6:41 p.m. May 29. A ladder and paint sprayer were stolen from a home.

Howard Lane, 6300 block, 2:48 a.m. May 28. A front window was broken at a business; nothing was reported stolen.

Washington Blvd., 6300 block, 10:58 p.m. June 1. Four vending machines were damaged at a carwash, and another had pry marks. Two Ellicott City men, 19 and 36, were charged with second-degree burglary, two counts of fourth-degree burglary and malicious destruction of property.

MOTOR VEHICLE THEFTS

Hi Tech Dr., 7000 block, 1:17 p.m. May 27. A 2010 blue Honda Civic was stolen.

Maier Rd., 9000 block, May 30 to 7:42 a.m. May 31. A trailer was stolen from a tractor-trailer.

JESSUP AREA

ROBBERIES

Washington Blvd., 8600 block, 3:19 p.m. May 29. A masked armed male stole cash and cigarettes from a store, and cash and property from customers.

MOTOR VEHICLE THEFTS

Patuxent Range Rd., and Preston Ct., 7 p.m. May 26 to 4 p.m. May 31. A 2005 white Sterling truck was stolen.

LAUREL AREA

ROBBERIES

Foxborough Dr., 8500 block, 3:11 p.m. June 1. A male with a knife stole cash and prescription drugs from a woman sitting in a vehicle.

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Bryant Ave., 9100 block, 1:30 a.m. June 2. A man forced open a basement slider at a home but fled when an occupant made a noise.

Junction Dr., 9000 block, 7 p.m. May 31 to 8 a.m. June 1. A back door at a business was damaged; nothing was reported stolen.

INDECENT EXPOSURE

Washington Blvd., 10100 block, 10:51 a.m. May 31. A naked man was seen behind a commercial property. A Beltsville man, 39, was charged with indecent exposure.
He once campaigned on a Segway handing out oranges.

Now, D.C. Council member Vincent B. Orange (D-At Large) is playing it mellow in a reelection campaign facing challengers who were barely tying their shoes when he was making his first run for office in 1990.

Opponents in Tuesdays Democratic primary  Robert White, a former aide to Attorney General Karl A. Racine, and David Garber, a former neighborhood commissioner  blast Orange as an ethically challenged career politician with outlandish ideas.

[Five questions for D.C. at-large candidates]

For his 11th run for public office in the District, Orange, 59, is presenting himself as someone with a record of creating worker-friendly laws, instead of relying on fruit pun slogans.

Longtime D.C. Councilman Vincent B. Orange gives a closing statement at the conclusion of a D.C. Council at-large debate at John Tyler Elementary School in Southeast in Washington. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)

In his earlier campaigns, it was always orange this, orange that. Now hes much more mature and a seasoned presence, said former mayor Anthony A. Williams, who was elected mayor in 1998, the same year Orange won his first council seat. He doesnt need to rely on the gimmicks anymore.

But Oranges opponents are playing up some of his more eccentric ideas in his 12 years on the council. He has proposed a water park at the RFK Stadium site, metal detectors in Metro stations and building 1,000 tiny houses for low-income workers and millennials to address D.C.s housing crunch.

Orange acknowledges many of his proposals wont advance but says even the Nationals Bryce Harper does not hit every time he swings.

Why cant I have a lot of ideas? Orange asked. You cannot be afraid to dream, to put ideas out on the table and help get the greatest good for the greater number of people based on sound reasoning.

And he claims some of his ideas have prompted real change. For example, he credits his proposal about tiny houses as an inspiration for the citys decision to replace the D.C. General Hospital mega-shelter for homeless families with smaller buildings across the city  although smaller shelters were discussed more than a year before Orange pitched his plan for tiny houses.

White compares such braggadocio to Donald Trump and posted a photo of Orange posing with Trump to his Twitter feed and campaign Facebook page. They have so much ego, hubris and self interest, said White, who finished behind Elissa Silverman as an independent in a 2014 at-large race. They are both people who are not looking out for the people, but themselves.

Orange jokes that he cant be Trump on a public servants salary.

Persistence has been a mainstay of Oranges political career.

The native of Oakland, Calif., got his start in D.C. politics as a staffer in the citys financial department in the late 1980s, and he made several unsuccessful runs for the council before winning a Ward 5 seat. He gave up that position for a failed run for mayor in 2006, mounted an unsuccessful bid for council chairman in 2010 and then secured his at-large seat in a 2011 special election. He squeaked into a full term the next year and barely registered in the 2014 mayoral race with just 2 percent of the vote.

[Vincent Orange running to win, but willing to lose in 2014 mayoral race]

Critics say Oranges seemingly never-ending campaigning reflects naked ambition, not sincere interest in the office.

What people are looking for is someone who is going to represent them . . . and not being in it to run for office because youve run for 100 offices in the past and keep running until you win, said Garber, who is making his first bid for office.

Orange says he is dedicated to public service and that his victories prove he is more than a perennial candidate.

He says he would not rule out a future run for mayor but that he likes Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) and has been a reliable vote on the council for Bowser, who has endorsed him. He said his positions have shifted from pro-business to pro-labor; he recently led the negotiations over the deal to raise the citys minimum wage to $15 an hour.

[D.C. Council approves $15 minimum wage]

In 2013, Orange became the first council member to be admonished by the citys new ethics board when he interfered with health inspectors trying to shut down a rat-infested produce shop owned by a campaign donor. Orange said he was trying to keep the stores workers employed during the holidays.

White, a 34-year-old Brightwood Park resident, says Orange is too cozy with special interests, and he criticized Oranges campaign for inviting city contractors to a May fundraiser and for raising money from businesses affected by legislation considered by his committee.

Orange counters that White has also raised money from lobbyists and companies with business before the city.

After graduating from law school, White worked as a legislative counsel to D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) before resigning to make his first run for an at-large seat in 2014. He worked as a community outreach director for Racine for less than a year in 2015  drawing criticism from Orange for planning his next run while employed by the city.

White says hed bring tougher oversight to city agencies, including the departments of transportation and consumer and regulatory affairs.

A fifth-generation Washingtonian who says his relatives have left the city because of rising costs, White wants to create more affordable housing. He said the city should enforce requirements that new developments include lower-cost units and should rezone struggling commercial corridors such as Georgia Avenue NW to allow for more housing.

With help from consultants who ran Racines campaign for attorney general, White is trying to increase his visibility with paid canvassers and campaign signs plastered across the city. We know the vast majority do not like Vincent Orange and will vote for me as long as they know who I am, he said.

At a recent Ward 6 candidate forum, Pleasant Plains resident Lenwood Johnson said he was warming to White but was hesitant to support someone untested.

Im going to have to look at what Vincent Orange has done and if Im willing to give Robert a chance, said Johnson, a 56-year-old administrative assistant at a law firm.

Garber, 32, has had a tougher time in the race, with the least cash on hand as of the latest March campaign reports.

A Shaw resident who has worked in real estate, Garber is also a former Navy Yard advisory neighborhood commissioner and at one time ran a blog about Anacostia. Well-known in city-planning circles, he has a large following on social media.

In 2014, Garber became a substitute teacher in D.C. Public Schools to better understand education issues, but he had to quit and pay a $1,000 fine for violating a federal law barring District employees from engaging in political activity.

Garber wants the return of plainclothes vice units and more affordable housing. He says he would focus on neighborhoods and constituents and would not be beholden to special interests. Voters are looking for someone who isnt old-style D.C. politics, said Garber, who would also be the councils only openly gay member.

Orange is the only citywide candidate in a contested race on Tuesday. Council member David Grosso (I-At Large) faces reelection in November, and his opponents can formally enter the race after the Democratic primary.
WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 2: Candidates for the DC council at-large seat are introduced before the debate at John Tyler Elementary School in Southeast June 02, 2016 in Washington, DC. Longtime DC Councilman Vincent Orange, center, faces a challenge from two political newcomers, Robert White, left, and David Garber, right, in one of the few contested races in D.C. on June 14. (Photo by Katherine Frey/The Washington Post) (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)

Registered Democrats in D.C. will go to the polls on Tuesday in the citys primary election. In a city where 75 percent of the Districts 438,373 registered voters are Democrats, the partys primary election generally decides the winners in the November general election. More than 9,300 voters have cast ballots in early voting, which began May 31.

The race for an At-Large seat on the D.C. Council is the only citywide contest on the ballot. Incumbent Vincent Orange is being challenged by David Garber and Robert White. Below are brief biographical sketches of the candidates and their answers, in alphabetical order, to a Washington Post questionnaire, which has been edited for clarity.

Name: David Garber

Age: 32

Neighborhood: Shaw

Education: Bachelors degree in political science, geography, & business from Calvin College.

Family: Single

Occupation: Former substitute teacher, real estate project manager

Key Endorsements: None

Name: Vincent B. Orange Sr. (incumbent)

Age: 59

Neighborhood: Brookland/Michigan Park

Education: Bachelors degree in Business Administration and Communications from the University of the Pacific, a law degree from Howard University and a Master of Laws in Taxation from Georgetown University

Family: Married to Gwendolyn Evans-Orange. Children: Vincent Jr., 32; Paul Wesley, 28; Jannie Elizabeth, 20.

Occupation: At-large councilor (2011 - present), Ward 5 councilor (1999-2007). Lawyer and accountant with stints at Pepco and as a city government auditor.

Key endorsements: Mayor Muriel E. Bowser, Council member Jack Evans (D-Ward 2), several labor unions and Washington Post editorial board.

Name: Robert White

Age: 34

Neighborhood: Brightwood Park

Education: Bachelors degree from St. Marys College of Maryland and J.D. from American Universitys Washington College of Law

Family: Married to Christy White, with their first child due in July.

Occupation: Director of Community Outreach for Attorney General Karl Racine (2015), previously legislative counsel to D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D)

Key Endorsements: Racine, Council member Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3), DC Sierra Club, Current Newspaper.

Why should voters choose you over your opponents?

David Garber: District residents deserve an elected official who will be responsive to the diversity of needs that exist across the city. As a former two-term elected neighorhood commissioner (2010-2014), I am the only person in this race who has experience representing and advocating for neighborhood-level issues and interests. ( Editors note: White and Orange says he was president of a citizens association) I fought with parents to open a school that opened this past fall, made inclusivity and diversity in housing options a priority with new development, worked to bring amenities (parks, diverse transportation options, river recreation, retail and restaurants) to the waterfront. As a member of the council, my focus will be on being responsive and results-oriented, and making sure that this is a city that the diversity of residents that call DC home can live in for the long-term.

Vincent Orange: Voters should vote for me to continue receiving results they can count on. These results include a $15 per hour minimum wage, 5 days of sick leave pay for tipped wage workers, $635 million to be spent with D.C. small businesses, and pursuing real affordable housing for our D.C. residents. Currently, I am working to make UDC-Community College a tuition-free institution for obtaining associate degrees, making D.C. a free WiFi and Internet access jurisdiction to reduce the digital divide, and $1 billion dollars of affordable housing.

Robert White: I am the only candidate in this race who has a vision that includes all of our residents, and I am the only candidate that can bring the people of the District together to support the work required to make the District more inclusive. Vincent Oranges record has been one of pay-to-play politics and election year horse-trading, and he has failed us on the job training program and affordable housing. In terms of the other person in the race, he has little professional experience and would do well to be further down a career pathway so that his contribution in the future could be substantive.

What should be the D.C. councils number one priority?

David Garber: Ive lived in and been an active participant in a diverse set of communities across D.C. Whats become clear to me is that we still have a long way to go to have neighborhoods that are equitably served by amenities, economic opportunity and a great quality of life. There are still many communities being left behind, where commercial corridors are empty and kids dont see a pathway to a success-filled future. The D.C. Councils number one priority needs to be bringing opportunity to neighborhoods and residents who are still being left behind.

Vincent Orange: The number one priority should be fiscal responsibility. While being fiscally responsible, we can provide real affordable housing for our workforce, enhance school reform and modernization, implement homeless initiatives and provide for better public safety.

Robert White: Our first priority should be to hold oversight hearings on the Job Training Program, and set a milestone-based course for implementing a short-term plan to put the tens of millions of dollars in federal grant funds to work. Our residents need certifications and new skills that enable them to apply for some of the 50,000 job openings in the District  but for which many of our residents currently do not have the requisite education or skills. The Job Training Program has to be the means of moving individuals  and families  out of poverty and hourly wage jobs and into career-track positions.

What will you do to reduce the number of homeless families in the city?

David Garber: I am supportive of the councils plan to build housing for women and children experiencing homelessness in all wards of the city. As Council member, I will work to provide additional funding for the Housing Production Trust Fund, target and streamline processes for receiving housing services and subsidies, make sure we are including family-sized units in new affordable housing projects, and preserve existing affordable rental housing

Vincent Orange: We must close D.C. General and implement the homeless shelter plan that includes all eight Wards participating. We must train our residents for job opportunities and provide wrap-around services where needed. Also, we must provide mobile shower buses for the homeless and free personal hygiene products for homeless women.

Robert White: We have to go into the homeless community and begin the conversation with each person to find the appropriate solution; not everyone who is homeless has become homeless for the same reasons. For families or individuals who are on the streets as a result of job losses or a loss of housing, we need short-term solutions, but we must also address the root causes of a lack of affordable housing, a lack of employment (which may result from a lack of skills), and a lack of education. We have to stabilize more families and position them for success in our city.

What do you see as the biggest threat to the Districts future  and how would you address it?

David Garber: The biggest threat to the Districts future is the rising wave of violent crime thats happening across the city. My five-step plan for reducing crime across the city focuses efforts on: increasing the number of officers and doing a better job of retaining officers in the Metropolitan Police Department, reinstating localized neighborhood crime units, addressing the underlying issues -- systemic poverty and economic opportunity -- that lead to crime, mentorship and incentive-based programs for at-risk young people and increasing transparency across agencies handling prosecution in the District.

Vincent Orange: Congress is the greatest threat to the Districts future. We must have budget autonomy and be able to enact laws that are beneficial to D.C. We have proven that we can maintain our own finances because we have balanced 22 consecutive budgets, we went from a fiscal year 1999 $518 million deficit to a fiscal year 2017 budget of $13.4 billion. Today we have over $2 billion in our rainy day fund. We are a financially sound city, and Congress should allow us to control our affairs.

Robert White: The future of the District is bright, but the question is whether we are willing to make that future an inclusive one or an exclusive one. So many people have suffered through D.C.s worst times, waiting for better days, but as a stronger D.C. is emerging, they are being shown the door. We must invest in the future of our middle class and low-income families. That starts with affordable housing, an improved job-training program, and stable households that then embrace and can participate in the education of their children as well as their own education.

Whats the biggest mistake the D.C. Council has made in recent years  and what would you have done differently?

David Garber: The Councils biggest mistake in recent years has been the lack of oversight on school modernization projects across the city. There is no reason the District should be spending more per square foot than public charter schools on similar projects, and leaving some school communities in the dust while lining the pockets of those lucky enough to get non-compete construction contracts. My experience in communities and schools across the District, as well as my years working in the real estate and construction fields gives me the perfect level of experience to provide the oversight needed to force the District to be more responsible with D.C. taxpayer dollars, while improving more schools in neighborhoods across D.C.

Vincent Orange: D.C. Councils biggest mistake has been not ensuring the completion of the New Communities Initiative. This initiative provides for 1,645 affordable housing units in Barry Farms, Lincoln Heights, Northwest One and Park Morton. In addition, D.C. Council must provide $1 billion of affordable housing including to seniors on fixed income, homeless families and households making $30,000 to $60,000. Furthermore, the D.C. Council must mandate that our 3rd graders are reading independently and can add, subtract, multiply and divide upon entering the 4th grade; thus providing a pathway to middle school success and a pathway to graduate from high school.

Robert White: The Council, and specifically Vincent Orange, has dropped the ball on oversight of the job-training program. This is a cornerstone program and the lack of attention to it has had dire consequences on the lives of people losing ground in a city with rising costs. As chairman of the committee with oversight of the job-training program, Vincent Orange has either been grossly negligent or willfully uninterested in doing the real work required in his position.
A Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School teacher was arrested for using his cellphone to take pictures of female students without their consent in his classroom, according to a letter the schools principal sent out to parents Wednesday.

The Montgomery County Police Department arrested and charged Todd Scriber, a 38-year-old science teacher, of Gaithersburg on three counts of sexual abuse of a minor.

The three female victims were all Scribers students. The students were fully clothed in the photographs, although some of the pictures emphasized various areas of the female anatomy, according to the police department.

Principal Donna Redmond Jones said Montgomery County Public Schools learned of the allegations in October and immediately put Scriber on leave. He is no longer an employee of Montgomery County Public Schools.

I know that our community finds the allegations in the charging document as disturbing as I do, Jones wrote. The charges represent a serious breach of trust, responsibility, integrity and the law.

Todd Scriber (Montgomery County Police)

The school learned of the allegations after a 14-year-old female reported to police that while she was completing an exam in his classroom after school, she approached his desk to ask a question and noticed that he appeared to be holding his cellphone and taking photographs underneath her skirt.

According to police, the student jumped back to create distance between the two of them, finished her exam and told her parents what had occurred.

The students report launched an investigation.

The day after the student reported the incident, a detective spoke to Scriber, who agreed to allow the detective to search his phone. The detective found pictures of underage girls seemingly in Scribers classroom. The photos were of specific areas of the teenagers bodies.

When Scriber realized the detective was viewing the photos, he tried to grab the phone. The detective then seized the phone and obtained a search warrant to sift through the device for evidence.

The female victims were two 17-year-olds and one 16-year-old.

Any student who may have pertinent information to the investigation is asked to call the Special Victims Investigations Division of the Montgomery County Police Department.
MARYLAND

Vaccine-development firm to add 850 jobs

Novavax, a Gaithersburg vaccine-development company working to stop the spread of the Ebola virus and other infectious diseases, plans to add 850 jobs in Montgomery County, aided by $7.5 million in state and local assistance, officials said Wednesday.

The company recently signed a lease for about 150,000 square feet of new space on Clopper Road, about a mile from its current headquarters. It will triple the size of its staff from 400 to 1,250.

Novavax is receiving $5 million in loans from Marylands economic development fund, $2.5 million in grants from Montgomery County and a $50,000 grant from the city of Gaithersburg, contingent on the creation of the jobs. It may also qualify for state tax credits and other programs.

The company is developing an Ebola vaccine that is in clinical trials. It recently announced that it is in the early stages of work on a possible vaccine for the Zika virus.

 Bill Turque

VIRGINIA

Man in custody after shooting that kills 2

A man and a woman were killed Wednesday in what appears to have been a domestic-related shooting in Annandale, Fairfax County police said.

The incident prompted authorities to call out a SWAT team, dispatch a helicopter and warn nearby residents to temporarily shelter in place in the 3400 block of Beverly Drive, police said.

County police took a man into custody but continued to search homes in the area until declaring the neighborhood was safe shortly before 3 p.m.

Officers were called to the scene about 1:30 p.m. by the report of a shooting, police said. Officers found a dead man in the yard of a home and a woman who was injured inside, police said. The woman died at the hospital.

Police did not immediately release additional details about the incident or the identities of the victims or the man in custody. Police said they are working to establish the relationship between the victims and the man.

 Justin Jouvenal

Fatal shooting near Old Town Alexandria

A shooting Wednesday near Old Town in Alexandria ended with a man dead and another person on the run, an incident that prompted nearby schools to temporarily prohibit people from entering or leaving their buildings.

Alexandria police said they went to a housing complex in the 1000 block of Montgomery Street at about 12:35 p.m. after the report of a shooting.

Pierre Clark, 28, of no fixed address, was found shot multiple times and later died at a hospital, the city of Alexandria said in a statement.

The person who shot Clark was at large Wednesday evening, police said.

We dont believe that the person is still in the area or that theres an immediate danger to the community, Deputy Chief David Huchler said.

 Rachel Weiner

and Justin Wm. Moyer

Man is arrested in killing of roommate

Police in Prince William County said a man believed to have been involved in the killing of his 24-year-old roommate has been arrested in New York state.

The incident occurred about 9:18 p.m. Saturday in the 14900 block of Potomac Heights Place. Police, responding to reports of a shooting, found Najee Alexander Mason with a single gunshot wound, police spokesman Jonathan Perok said. Mason was taken to a hospital, where he died.

On Tuesday, federal marshals arrested Abdisalam Ali Roble in Syracuse, N.Y., on a charge of murder.

Roble, 25, was taken into custody without incident, police said, and he is awaiting extradition to Virginia.

Police said an investigation found that the two men had argued before the shooting.

It was not known what the dispute involved, but the incident is still under investigation.
In 2000 and 2001, Craig Harmon drove a 1964 firetruck along the route of the Lincoln Highway, from New York to San Francisco. Here, hes stopped at the Continental Divide in Wyoming. (Craig Harmon)

It was always going to be a long shot, Craig Harmons effort to persuade the National Park Service and the White House to fly a massive Stars and Stripes from atop the Washington Monument on June 14, the 100th anniversary of the largest Flag Day celebration the capital ever witnessed.

Ive written two columns about Craig, and while they garnered some support for his quixotic quest, a lot of people pooh-poohed the idea. The real problem was that no one in a position to actually make the event happen  to sign off on hoisting a gargantuan flag to the top of the 555-foot obelisk, to wrangle the president into delivering inspirational remarks  took the baton.

[Oh say, wouldnt you like to see a huge flag fly from the Washington Monument?]

Our plate is pretty full with the normal National Mall events, as well as planning for additional special ones for the [National Park Service] centennial, so we wont be able to take on another one for Flag Day, a National Park Service spokesman wrote in an email.

Harmon hopes that people will celebrate Flag Day, on June 14, all along the 3,400-mile length of the Lincoln Highway. (Craig Harmon)

Craig, while disappointed, is taking it in stride.

Its just another missed opportunity, thats all, he told me on the phone. Its not the end of the world.

[Big flag? I threw it against the wall, but readers said it didnt stick. It stunk.]

And so Craig has changed gears. He has started writing to more than a dozen U.S. governors and the mayors of more than 200 towns and cities  including the District  to ask that they issue proclamations in honor of Flag Day and encourage fire chiefs from coast to coast to send flag-bedecked fire trucks down their Main Streets at noon on June 14.

Craig, 60, sure doesnt make things easy on himself, especially when you consider that he starts chemotherapy Thursday to fight a recurrence of cancer.

Im in pain, but its the 100th anniversary of Washingtons Flag Day event, he said. You got to get through it. . . . From my standpoint, Flag Days more important than my health.

Craig is doggedly old-fashioned when it comes to notions of patriotism. Hes also hard to stop. In 2000 he embarked on a two-year journey across the country at the wheel of a flag-bedecked 1964 firetruck. He followed the Lincoln Highway, the commemorative road linking New York City and San Francisco that was announced in 1913.

Thats why Craig is reaching out to only a handful of U.S. governors and not all 50. He founded the Lincoln Highway National Museum and Archives and is hoping to involve the states through which the road passes. (Pennsylvania Avenue in the District was a ceremonial feeder route to the highway.)

On Flag Day in 1916, communities all along the 3,400-mile length celebrated. Craig thinks it would be cool to do that again. He thinks fire departments are the key.

Fire services are used to doing things PDQ, he said. They generally always have a flag. They have the firetruck with lights and sirens. It would be very easy at 12 noon to go out and do a flag-raising, hop in the truck and go down the street. Then you have an impromptu Flag Day parade.

Flag Day has had its ups and downs over the decades. A Wisconsin schoolteacher named Bernard Cigrand is often credited with inventing the day in 1885, though Craig said it really got its start in 1861, with Jonathan Morris of Connecticut.

President Woodrow Wilson threw himself into Flag Day big time, establishing it as an official event and marching at the head of the 1916 parade in Washington. (Thats the year U.S. sailors were dispatched to raise a 38-by-60-foot flag to the top of the Washington Monument.)

Craig said that Warren Harding didnt share Wilsons ardor for Flag Day, believing the nearby Memorial Day and the Fourth of July were sufficient. During World War II, Franklin Roosevelt rejuvenated the holiday, broadening the concept to include World Flag Day, in which all allied nations would fly their own flags as well as those of the allies.

After the war, though, Flag Day atrophied. As historian Adam Goodheart put it in the New York Times in 2011, For the 1960s generation, it became more or less the epitome of square: a vaguely embarrassing grade-school memory to be filed alongside duck-and-cover drills and mandatory prayers.

Said Craig: When you mention Flag Day today, people give you this dumb look: Whats that? 

Its the day that harks back to June 14, 1777, when Congress established the nations flag, decreeing that it be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the Union be thirteen stars, white on a blue field, representing a new constellation.

A new constellation. We dont always achieve the promise inherent in those words, but its something we should strive for.

After spending the past 12 years in Washington, Craig is back home in Galion, Ohio, to receive chemo. Its a town on the Lincoln Highway. I asked him what hell be doing on June 14.

We have a 60-foot flag pole on the property here, he said. I run a big flag up.

Twitter: @johnkelly

For previous columns, visit washingtonpost.com/johnkelly.
Esther P. Gelman, a former president and 12-year member of the Montgomery County Council whose legislative work included sponsorship of measures to prohibit smoking in public places and the establishment of a shelter for abused women, died June 6 at her home in Potomac, Md. She was 84.

The cause was complications from pulmonary hypertension, said a daughter, Sharon Gelman.

Mrs. Gelman, a Democrat, was elected to the County Council in 1974 and reelected to two successive four-year terms. In 1983, she was elected to a one-year term as president of the council, all of whose seven members were Democrats.

She left elective office after her defeat in the 1986 Democratic primary to succeed retiring U.S. Rep. Michael D. Barnes (D). In the general election, state Sen. Stewart Bainum Jr. (D) lost to a moderate GOP candidate, state Del. Constance A. Morella.

Mrs. Gelman was born Esther Paper on on June 14, 1931, in Baltimore. Her father was a baker, and both her parents were Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. She grew up in Denver, and she graduated from the University of Colorado in 1952.

Esther Gelman (Family Photo)

She settled in Montgomery County in 1957 and soon became active in the local Democratic Party and in neighborhood and civic organizations. She later served on the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, whose responsibilities included regulation of development and zoning in Montgomery and Prince Georges counties.

In time, she acquired a reputation as a shrewd, outspoken politician, The Washington Post once wrote of her.

On the County Council, Mrs. Gelman championed equal pay for women and men doing equivalent jobs, improved day-care facilities for children, and religious-leave entitlements. She publicly disagreed from time to time with County Executive Charles W. Gilchrist, a fellow Democrat, but extended a peace offering upon her election as council president.

I expect to take the county executive into my confidence on matters of public business, and I hope to be taken into his, she said.

On leaving elective office, Mrs. Gelman remained active in local Democratic politics, supporting such Montgomery figures as Rep. Chris Van Hollen, currently a nominee for U.S. Senate, and state Sen. Jamie B. Raskin, the nominee in Marylands 8th Congressional District.

She was a leader in the establisment of the Montgomery County Public Schools Educational Foundation, which provides grants and scholarships.

Survivors include her husband of 64 years, Norman I. Gelman of Potomac; two daughters, Judith Gelman of Bethesda, Md., and Sharon Gelman of Los Angeles and Potomac; three grandchildren; and a great-grandson.
Prince Georges County

These were among incidents reported by the Prince Georges County Police Department. For information, call 301-772-4710.

District 1

HQ: Hyattsville

301-699-2630

SEXUAL ASSAULTS

Westbrook Dr., 6200 block, 8:28 a.m. May 25. A sexual assault was reported.

85th Ave., 5900 block, 2:20 a.m. May 28. A sexual assault was reported.

ASSAULTS

Cherokee St., 2500 block, 10:01 p.m. May 24.

Furman Pkwy., 6900 block, 3:42 p.m. May 27.

Windom Rd., 3400 block, 6:41 a.m. May 27. Cutting.

15th Ave., 8100 block, 11:16 p.m. May 29. Cutting.

24th Ave. and Chapman Rd., 11:48 p.m. May 26. Cutting.

51st Ave., 2500 block, 10:57 a.m. May 27.

85th Ave., 5300 block, 8:03 p.m. May 26.

ROBBERIES

Adelphi Rd., 7000 block, 11:34 a.m. May 24. Robbery reported.

Drexel St. and Guilford Rd., 3:47 a.m. May 28. Robbery reported.

Good Luck Rd., 7300 block, 7:03 p.m. May 26. Robbery reported.

Longfellow St., 5600 block, 11:07 p.m. May 24. Robbery reported.

New Hampshire Ave., 8100 block, 12:16 a.m. May 29. Robbery reported.

Riverdale Rd., 7800 block, 10:22 a.m. May 24. Robbery reported.

14th Ave., 8100 block, 10:55 p.m. May 26. Robbery reported.

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Ager Rd., 6100 block, 9:13 a.m. May 24.

Amherst Rd., 1900 block, 9:16 p.m. May 26.

Annapolis Rd., 7500 block, 12:24 p.m. May 23.

Baltimore Ave., 9200 block, 2:53 p.m. May 26.

Bladensburg Rd., 4100 block, 1:58 p.m. May 28.

Carrollton Pkwy., 8300 block, 4:51 p.m. May 25.

Chillum Rd., 2400 block, 9:49 p.m. May 27.

Dickinson Ave., 7500 block, 3:55 a.m. May 29.

Good Luck Rd., 9900 block, 8:35 p.m. May 23.

Hartwick Rd., 4300 block, 3:19 a.m. May 26.

Kenilworth Ave., 3000 block, 2:28 p.m. May 26.

Madison St., 8500 block, 11:47 a.m. May 24.

Mount Pisgah Lane, 1800 block, 5:07 p.m. May 28.

New Hampshire Ave., 6700 block, 6:47 a.m. May 23. Theft from auto.

New Hampshire Ave., 6700 block, 12:04 a.m. May 25. Theft from auto.

New Hampshire Ave. and University Blvd., 1:47 p.m. May 25.

Newport Rd., 6700 block, 6:59 a.m. May 26. Theft from auto.

Red Top Rd., 6600 block, 7:30 a.m. May 28. Theft from auto.

Rhode Island Ave., 5000 block, 6:35 p.m. May 29.

Riggs Rd., 9500 block, 8:46 a.m. May 24. Theft from auto.

Riverdale Rd., 6800 block, 9:38 a.m. May 23.

Riverdale Rd., 7700 block, 9:01 a.m. May 27. Shoplifting.

Sargent Rd., 5600 block, 1:47 p.m. May 25.

Seminole Pl., 6200 block, 9:42 a.m. May 23.

Toledo Pl., 3200 block, 6:22 a.m. May 27. Theft from auto.

Toledo Terr., 3400 block, 10:47 p.m. May 24.

University Blvd., 1400 block, 6:18 a.m. May 28. Theft from auto.

University Blvd., 1800 block, 1:48 a.m. May 29.

15th Ave., 7900 block, 4:24 a.m. May 29.

15th Ave., 8100 block, 4:28 p.m. May 25.

34th Ave., 8900 block, 12:24 p.m. May 28.

49th Ave., 8600 block, 6:01 a.m. May 26. Theft from auto.

53rd Pl., 3900 block, 5:18 a.m. May 26.

56th Ave., 5400 block, 12:15 a.m. May 25.

57th Ave., 6200 block, 1:34 p.m. May 29. Theft from auto.

60th Ave., 5000 block, 9:55 a.m. May 28. Theft from auto.

62nd Ave., 3900 block, 12:19 p.m. May 26.

66th Ave., 5900 block, 12:06 p.m. May 24.

76th Ave., 5400 block, 10:53 a.m. May 23. Theft from auto.

85th Pl., 6400 block, 8:17 a.m. May 26. Theft from auto.

VEHICLE THEFTS

Bladensburg Rd., 3300 block, 8:06 a.m. May 23.

Karen Elaine Dr., 5500 block, 7:40 a.m. May 27.

Macbeth St., 5400 block, 8:07 a.m. May 28.

Metzerott Rd., 1800 block, 12:01 p.m. May 26.

Oglethorpe St., 2000 block, 6:14 a.m. May 25.

Varnum St., 3400 block, 8:28 p.m. May 28.

Westland Dr., 6100 block, 3:24 a.m. May 28.

35th Ave., 8700 block, 4:13 a.m. May 23.

VANDALISM

Dean Dr., 3600 block, 6:45 a.m. May 27.

District 2

HQ: Bowie

301-390-2100

ASSAULT

Cleaver Dr., 11800 block, 11:11 a.m. May 26.

ROBBERIES

Falls Lake Dr. and Lake Arbor Way, 10:10 p.m. May 25. Robbery reported.

Shoppers Way, 1100 block, 1:15 p.m. May 24. Robbery reported.

Trumpeter Swan Ct., 13300 block, 9:58 p.m. May 23. Robbery reported.

CARJACKING

St. Michaels Dr., 900 block, 3:05 a.m. May 27. Carjacking reported.

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Atlantis Dr., 15600 block, 6:29 p.m. May 27.

Ballpark Rd., 16500 block, 12:21 p.m. May 23.

Ballpark Rd., 16500 block, 5:22 p.m. May 27.

Campus Way S., 10400 block, 1:11 p.m. May 24.

Chrysler Dr., 15400 block, 8:25 a.m. May 27. Theft from auto.

Church Rd., 3100 block, 11:39 a.m. May 25.

Cipriano Rd., 6600 block, 3:44 p.m. May 24.

Crain Hwy. SW, 600 block, 6:54 p.m. May 24.

Excalibur Rd., 15900 block, 3:03 p.m. May 27.

Fairwood Pkwy., 12400 block, 3:57 p.m. May 29.

Fox Lake Dr. and Fox Meadow Way, 10:38 a.m. May 25.

Good Luck Rd., 9700 block, 11:19 a.m. May 25.

Harry S Truman Dr., 700 block, 5:32 p.m. May 29.

Hickory Hill Ave., 9000 block, 10:49 a.m. May 27.

Hollow Log Dr., 13500 block, 11:22 a.m. May 27. Theft from auto.

Indian Summer Ct., 10200 block, 11:02 a.m. May 29. Theft from auto.

Joyceton Dr., 11200 block, 6:57 a.m. May 24. Theft from auto.

Major Lansdale Blvd., 15200 block, 1:49 p.m. May 23.

Mandarin Dr., 1100 block, 10:45 a.m. May 27. Theft from auto.

Martin Luther King Jr. Hwy., 10300 block, 4:52 p.m. May 24. Theft from auto.

McConnell and Village drives, 11:19 a.m. May 26. Theft from auto.

Old Chapel Rd., 13800 block, 11:40 a.m. May 25.

Overbrook Lane, 13400 block, 3:04 p.m. May 26.

Oxbridge Way, 9700 block, 4:21 p.m. May 24. Theft from auto.

Palamar Turn, 7000 block, 4:43 p.m. May 26.

Post Oak Dr. and Spanish Oak Way, 8:45 a.m. May 24. Theft from auto.

Prince Pl., 10200 block, 7:42 a.m. May 23. Theft from auto.

Roblee Dr., 5300 block, 5:09 a.m. May 27. Theft from auto.

Rose Mount Lane, 2600 block, 11:11 a.m. May 24. Theft from auto.

Storch Dr., 10400 block, 6:07 p.m. May 24. Theft from auto.

Swanson Rd., 16100 block, 10:40 a.m. May 25.

Thompkins Lane, 12900 block, 11:42 a.m. May 25.

Waesche Dr., 11400 block, 12:15 a.m. May 23.

Watkins Park Dr., 100 block, 11:37 a.m. May 25.

VEHICLE THEFTS

Chinaberry Ct., 1700 block, 9:41 a.m. May 24.

Good Luck Rd., 9700 block, 10:32 p.m. May 24.

Greenbelt Rd., 10000 block, 8:14 a.m. May 23.

Kavanaugh Lane, 12500 block, 6:24 a.m. May 27.

Lords Landing Rd., 4500 block, 6:48 a.m. May 25.

St. Michaels Dr., 900 block, 9:07 a.m. May 28.

District 3

HQ: Palmer Park

301-772-4900

ASSAULTS

Hil Mar Dr., 6400 block, 11:33 a.m. May 26.

Walters Lane, 3200 block, 11:19 p.m. May 27.

ROBBERIES

Barlowe Rd., 7800 block, 12:30 a.m. May 29. Robbery reported.

Donnell Dr., 3300 block, 8:09 a.m. May 28. Robbery reported.

East Lombard St. and Fire House Rd., 11:25 p.m. May 28. Robbery reported.

Forest Ave., 7300 block, 9:54 p.m. May 23. Robbery reported.

Marlboro Pike, 6400 block, 1:05 p.m. May 23. Robbery reported.

Regency Pkwy. and Surrey Service Dr., 9:52 a.m. May 27. Robbery reported.

Silver Hill Ct., 5000 block, 11:05 p.m. May 24. Robbery reported.

Spectator Ave., 500 block, 5:36 p.m. May 23. Robbery reported.

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Addison Rd. S., 1200 block, 4:24 a.m. May 25. Theft from auto.

Arnold Rd., 4400 block, 4:37 p.m. May 27.

Atwood St., 6700 block, 11:49 a.m. May 23.

Brightseat Rd., 1700 block, 1:05 p.m. May 25. Theft from auto.

Brooks Dr., 2100 block, 10:30 p.m. May 27.

Central Ave., 6200 block, 2:23 p.m. May 23. Shoplifting.

Corporate Dr., 8300 block, 7:35 a.m. May 24. Theft from auto.

Country Club Ct., 6400 block, 10:23 p.m. May 28.

Cryden Way, 7900 block, 12:05 p.m. May 26. Theft from auto.

Dodge Park Rd., 3400 block, 7:30 p.m. May 23. Theft from auto.

Donnell Dr., 2900 block, 9:20 a.m. May 27. Theft from auto.

Drum Ave., 600 block, 3:35 p.m. May 28. Theft from auto.

East Pl., 5600 block, 1:07 p.m. May 25. Theft from auto.

Fernham Lane, 8000 block, 1:48 p.m. May 24. Theft from auto.

Foster St., 6200 block, 7:15 p.m. May 26.

Halleck St., 6900 block, 5:34 p.m. May 25.

Hampton Overlook, 9000 block, 1:49 p.m. May 27. Theft from auto.

Hanbury Ct., 1000 block, 7:01 p.m. May 25. Theft from auto.

Hil Mar Dr., 5300 block, 3:53 p.m. May 23.

Hil Mar Dr., 6400 block, 10:52 a.m. May 23. Theft from auto.

Karen Blvd., 1300 block, 7:04 a.m. May 24. Theft from auto.

L St., 6400 block, 12:51 p.m. May 24. Theft from auto.

Landover Rd., 7700 block, 3:46 p.m. May 27. Theft from auto.

Lewis Ave., 2400 block, 1:05 p.m. May 24.

Logan St., 3000 block, 1:07 p.m. May 28. Theft from auto.

Marlboro Pike, 4800 block, 10:18 a.m. May 29.

Marlboro Pike, 5600 block, 9:19 a.m. May 23.

Marlboro Pike, 7600 block, 12:57 a.m. May 26.

Martin Luther King Junior Ct., 6000 block, 1:12 p.m. May 25.

Nalley Rd., 1200 block, 8:59 a.m. May 26. Theft from auto.

Opus Ave., 900 block, 6:32 p.m. May 28.

Porter Ave. and Silver Hill Rd., 12:51 a.m. May 27.

Regency Pkwy., 3400 block, 4:42 p.m. May 23.

Regency Pkwy., 3400 block, 12:57 p.m. May 29. Theft from auto.

Ritchie Marlboro Rd., 1400 block, 8:18 a.m. May 23. Theft from auto.

Ritchie Marlboro Rd., 1400 block, 9:48 a.m. May 27. Theft from auto.

Ritchie Rd., 600 block, 2:10 p.m. May 24. Theft from auto.

Roslyn Ave., 2200 block, 8:29 a.m. May 23. Theft from auto.

Sheriff Rd., 5300 block, 4:20 p.m. May 23. Theft from auto.

Sheriff Rd., 8000 block, 7:40 p.m. May 23.

Silver Hill Rd., 5200 block, 8:28 a.m. May 23.

Silver Hill Rd., 5500 block, 1:26 p.m. May 25.

Silver Hill Rd., 5500 block, 12:43 p.m. May 27.

Silver Hill Rd., 5600 block, 11:08 a.m. May 26.

Suitland Rd., 3900 block, 10:18 p.m. May 23. Theft from auto.

Tayside Way, 300 block, 4:56 p.m. May 24.

Victorianna Dr., 500 block, 7:52 a.m. May 24. Theft from auto.

Victory Lane, 3000 block, 8:03 p.m. May 28.

Walker Mill Rd., 6700 block, 12:01 a.m. May 23.

Will St., 4300 block, 5:05 p.m. May 27.

Wood Creek Dr., 3600 block, 9:30 a.m. May 23. Theft from auto.

VEHICLE THEFTS

Barlowe and Palmer Park roads, 4:17 p.m. May 24.

Dodge Park Rd., 3400 block, 11:25 p.m. May 24.

Homefield Dr., 8000 block, 1:35 p.m. May 24.

Hubbard Rd., 3500 block, 7:14 a.m. May 24.

Ironwood Pl., 3900 block, 9:51 a.m. May 23.

Landover Rd., 7300 block, 11:17 a.m. May 24.

Marbury Dr., 2000 block, 11:28 p.m. May 24.

Mason St., 7000 block, 2:16 p.m. May 24.

Prosperity Way and Rochell Ave., 1:33 a.m. May 23.

Rainswood Dr. and West St., 2:35 p.m. May 23.

Ronald Rd., 6600 block, 7:13 a.m. May 23.

West Forest Rd., 6800 block, 8:33 a.m. May 25.

75th Ave., 3200 block, 2:55 a.m. May 27.

VANDALISM

Kipling Pkwy., 7700 block, 10:51 a.m. May 28.

District 4

HQ: Oxon Hill

301-749-4900

ROBBERIES

Marcy Ave., 1000 block, 9:18 p.m. May 24. Robbery reported.

Oxon Hill Rd., 6100 block, 3:05 a.m. May 23. Robbery reported.

CARJACKINGS

Branch Ave., 3500 block, 9:39 p.m. May 25. Carjacking reported.

Reamy Dr., 4400 block, 9:46 p.m. May 25. Carjacking reported.

Silver Park Dr., 3500 block, 6:39 a.m. May 29. Carjacking reported.

23rd Pkwy., 3900 block, 5:38 p.m. May 28. Carjacking reported.

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Allentown Rd., 6300 block, 2:38 p.m. May 26.

Audrey Lane and Indian Head Hwy., 11:09 p.m. May 27.

Black Hawk Dr., 5700 block, 6:01 p.m. May 24.

Branch Ave., 3100 block, 7:02 p.m. May 24.

Brinkley Rd., 2600 block, 6:49 a.m. May 26. Theft from auto.

Collinson Ct., 6700 block, 7:30 a.m. May 26. Theft from auto.

Curtis Dr., 3200 block, 4:29 p.m. May 26.

Fleet St., 100 block, 6:30 p.m. May 29.

Good Hope Ave., 3100 block, 5:21 p.m. May 24.

Henry Ave., 3100 block, 11:23 p.m. May 26.

Marcy Ave., 900 block, 6:13 a.m. May 23. Theft from auto.

Maxwell Dr., 6300 block, 5:51 a.m. May 24. Theft from auto.

Midtown Sq., 4300 block, 11:38 p.m. May 26. Theft from auto.

Norfolk Ct., 4800 block, 4:54 a.m. May 27. Theft from auto.

Old Branch Ave., 4500 block, 7:44 a.m. May 27. Theft from auto.

Old Soper Rd., 4700 block, 3:42 p.m. May 27. Theft from auto.

Oxon Hill Rd., 6100 block, 8:45 p.m. May 24.

Oxon Hill Rd., 6800 block, 1:24 p.m. May 24.

Oxon Hill Rd., 6800 block, 2:31 p.m. May 26.

Oxon Hill Rd., 6800 block, 1:48 p.m. May 27.

Palmer Rd., 900 block, 9:36 a.m. May 26.

St. Barnabas Rd., 4800 block, 5:01 p.m. May 23. Theft from auto.

Terrace Dr., 3500 block, 3:58 p.m. May 23.

Waterfront St., 100 block, 11:44 a.m. May 29.

Wheeler Rd., 4500 block, 11 a.m. May 29. Theft from auto.

24th Ave., 4100 block, 2:45 a.m. May 26. Theft from auto.

27th Ave., 3500 block, 3:41 p.m. May 27. Theft from auto.

27th Ave., 4100 block, 3:01 p.m. May 29. Theft from auto.

VEHICLE THEFTS

Auth Rd., 5800 block, 10:18 a.m. May 29.

Brinkley Rd., 3100 block, 11:37 a.m. May 28.

Brinkley Rd., 4900 block, 6:09 a.m. May 28.

Livingston Rd., 6500 block, 10:25 a.m. May 28.

Marcy Ave., 1000 block, 6:25 a.m. May 27.

Marianne Dr., 6700 block, 2:26 a.m. May 26.

Oxon Hill Rd., 6200 block, 9:11 a.m. May 26.

St. Barnabas Rd., 6700 block, 8:58 a.m. May 23.

Stag Way, 1000 block, 2:23 a.m. May 24.

Wheeler Rd., 4400 block, 2:17 a.m. May 28.

23rd Pkwy., 4700 block, 5:41 a.m. May 25.

District 5

HQ: Clinton

301-856-3130

ASSAULT

Maui St., 4700 block, 7:39 p.m. May 23.

ROBBERIES

A Woodyard Rd., 9000 block, 11:10 a.m. May 24. Robbery reported.

Old Branch Ave., 7700 block, 11:11 p.m. May 26. Robbery reported.

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Allentown Rd., 6300 block, 3 p.m. May 25.

Bald Eagle School Rd., 16000 block, 11:28 a.m. May 24.

Beddington Ct., 7800 block, 10:38 a.m. May 26.

Branch Ave., 8700 block, 6:12 p.m. May 25.

Brandywine Rd., 9400 block, 10:08 a.m. May 23.

Butterfield Dr., 5600 block, 6:15 a.m. May 23. Theft from auto.

Foxcroft Ave., 9500 block, 3:46 p.m. May 27.

Kirbywood St., 4900 block, 5:31 a.m. May 25. Theft from auto.

Meadow Lark Ave., 9600 block, 11:08 p.m. May 23.

Old Alexandria Ferry Rd., 8000 block, 7:19 p.m. May 25. Theft from auto.

Old Branch Ave., 8000 block, 2:02 p.m. May 25. Theft from auto.

Pendall Dr., 4600 block, 12:13 p.m. May 23.

Piscataway Rd., 9300 block, 3:10 p.m. May 24.

Sheffield Dr., 7000 block, 7:22 a.m. May 25. Theft from auto.

Sheila Lane, 7300 block, 6:20 p.m. May 25.

Susan Lane, 9100 block, 3:45 p.m. May 23. Trespassing.

Varus Pl., 9800 block, 2 p.m. May 28.

Wood Sorrel Ct., 10300 block, 7:44 a.m. May 26. Theft from auto.

Woodyard Rd., 8900 block, 2:37 p.m. May 27. Theft from auto.

Zephyr Ave., 5400 block, 8:07 p.m. May 25. Theft from auto.

VEHICLE THEFTS

Brandywine Rd., 14100 block, 12:49 p.m. May 26.

Plata St., 5700 block, 10:09 p.m. May 26.

Tinkers Creek Dr., 7700 block, 6:30 a.m. May 25.

Weatherwood Ct., 8200 block, 7:52 a.m. May 23.

District 6

HQ: Beltsville

301-937-0910

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Old Gunpowder Rd., 14600 block, 1:05 p.m. May 25.

Baltimore Ave., 10500 block, 11:38 a.m. May 29.

Brickyard Blvd., 12400 block, 10 a.m. May 23. Theft from auto.

Cherry Hill Rd., 11200 block, 8:13 a.m. May 28. Theft from auto.

Cherry Lane, 9200 block, 9:38 a.m. May 26.

Contee Rd., 9000 block, 11:21 a.m. May 27. Theft from auto.

Evans Trail, 11300 block, 5:56 p.m. May 27.

Gorman Ave., 8200 block, 7:22 a.m. May 25.

Holger Ct., 5800 block, 6:37 a.m. May 28.

Margo Rd., 8300 block, 1:35 p.m. May 24.

Mount Pleasant Dr., 12200 block, 11:40 a.m. May 24.

Muirkirk Rd., 9500 block, 8:23 a.m. May 29. Theft from auto.

Powder Mill Rd., 4000 block, 11:14 a.m. May 23.

Sellman Rd., 4300 block, 2:29 p.m. May 25.

Sellman Rd., 4300 block, 9:41 a.m. May 26.

Snowden Oaks Pl., 8400 block, 1:15 p.m. May 24.

VEHICLE THEFTS

Bacon Dr., 10100 block, 2:43 p.m. May 23.

Baltimore Ave., 14100 block, 1:42 p.m. May 23.

Merrill Lane, 8900 block, 11:48 a.m. May 23.

Taunton Dr., 4200 block, 5:21 a.m. May 26.

District 7

HQ: Fort Washington

301-292-5300

ROBBERY

Arrow Park Dr., 12000 block, 2:17 a.m. May 29. Robbery reported.

CARJACKING

Fort Washington Rd., 12000 block, 10:54 p.m. May 29. Carjacking reported.

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Albert Rd., 7500 block, 8:31 p.m. May 23.

Aragona Blvd. and Navigators Ct., 7:37 p.m. May 27.

Brolass Rd., 12300 block, 2:54 p.m. May 29. Theft from auto.

Desert Peace Ct., 7100 block, 11:15 a.m. May 24. Theft from auto.

Elkhurst Pl., 700 block, 9:38 p.m. May 27. Theft from auto.

Frontier Ct., 2000 block, 3:54 p.m. May 25.

Frontier Ct., 2000 block, 7:20 p.m. May 25. Theft from auto.

Glynis Rd., 12800 block, 8:38 a.m. May 27. Theft from auto.

Lavender Dream Lane, 16000 block, 5:21 a.m. May 24. Theft from auto.

Lavender Dream Lane, 16100 block, 6:20 a.m. May 24. Theft from auto.

Lowe Lane, 3100 block, 7:50 a.m. May 25. Theft from auto.

Old Allentown Rd., 9800 block, 4:41 p.m. May 27. Theft from auto.

Old Fort Rd., 12100 block, 8:16 p.m. May 23. Theft from auto.

Palmetto Sunrise Ct., 7200 block, 7:07 a.m. May 24. Theft from auto.

Piscataway Rd., 10700 block, 6:52 p.m. May 25. Theft from auto.

Riverview Rd., 12000 block, 8:56 a.m. May 26.

Tall Timber Ct., 1900 block, 7:33 a.m. May 25. Theft from auto.

White Plains Lane, 7400 block, 5:46 a.m. May 24. Theft from auto.

White Plains Lane, 7400 block, 6:34 a.m. May 24.

Windbrook Dr., 12400 block, 4:28 p.m. May 25.

Windjammer Ct., 1400 block, 3:15 a.m. May 25. Theft from auto.

Windjammer Ct., 1400 block, 5:40 a.m. May 25. Theft from auto.

VEHICLE THEFT

Proxmire Dr., 12500 block, 4:58 p.m. May 23.

Greenbelt

These were among incidents reported by the Greenbelt Police Department. For information, call 301-474-7200.

ASSAULT

Greenbelt Rd., 6100 block, May 28.

ROBBERIES

Cherrywood Lane, 5500 block, May 26. Strong-arm robbery.

Frankfort and Jacob drives, May 27. Armed robbery.

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Edmonston Ct., 9100 block, May 30.

Good Luck Rd., 7900 block, May 27.

Greenbelt Rd., 6000 block, May 26.

Greenbelt Rd., 6000 block, May 29. Shoplifting.

Greenbelt Rd., 7600 block, May 26. Shoplifting.

Hanover Pkwy., 7700 block, May 31.

Hanover Pkwy., 7800 block, May 31.

Springhill Dr., 6000 block, May 31.

VEHICLE THEFT

Springhill Terr., 6100 block, May 30.

VANDALISM

Breezewood Ct., 6100 block, May 28. Malicious destruction.

Hanover Pkwy., 6900 block, May 29. Malicious destruction.

Hanover Dr., 7200 block, May 28. Malicious destruction.

Hyattsville

These were among incidents reported by Hyattsville police. For information, call 301-985-5060.

ASSAULTS

Crittenden St., 4200 block, 11:51 p.m. May 27. A juvenile was arrested after he shot a BB gun at a passing motorist.

Hamilton St., 3400 block, 12:02 a.m. May 23. An employee of a laundromat was assaulted during a dispute with a customer.

Oglethorpe St., 4200 block, 12:46 a.m. May 27. A person was arrested for assault stemming from a domestic dispute.

ROBBERIES

Ager Rd., 5400 block, 8:19 p.m. May 25. Robbery reported.

Ager Rd., 5900 block, 6:56 p.m. May 27. Robbery reported.

East-West Hwy., 3300 block, 1:30 p.m. May 24. Robbery reported.

East-West Hwy., 3500 block, 7:54 p.m. May 25. Robbery reported.

Nicholson St., 2600 block, 1:16 p.m. May 22. Robbery reported.

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Baltimore Ave., 5300 block, 3:30 p.m. May 25. Theft from auto.

Baltimore Ave., 5700 block, 8:01 p.m. May 26.

East-West Hwy., 3300 block, 5:04 p.m. May 28. Shoplifting.

East-West Hwy., 3500 block, 1:28 p.m. May 22. Shoplifting.

East-West Hwy., 3500 block, 3:04 p.m. May 22. Shoplifting.

East-West Hwy., 3500 block, 3:33 p.m. May 22. Shoplifting.

East-West Hwy., 3500 block, 11:46 a.m. May 23. Shoplifting.

East-West Hwy., 3500 block, 10:52 a.m. May 24. Shoplifting.

East-West Hwy., 3500 block, 3:36 p.m. May 24. Shoplifting.

East-West Hwy., 3500 block, 2:33 p.m. May 25. Shoplifting.

East-West Hwy., 3500 block, 3:45 p.m. May 25. Shoplifting.

East-West Hwy., 3500 block, 9:40 p.m. May 25.

East-West Hwy., 3500 block, 9:59 p.m. May 25.

East-West Hwy., 3500 block, 10:09 p.m. May 25.

East-West Hwy., 3500 block, 2:06 p.m. May 27. Shoplifting.

East-West Hwy., 3500 block, 4:49 p.m. May 28. Shoplifting.

East-West Hwy., 3500 block, 8:48 p.m. May 28. Shoplifting.

Hamilton Manor Dr., 5600 block, 9:54 a.m. May 27. Theft from auto.

Jefferson St., 3500 block, 4:19 a.m. May 27. Theft from auto.

Nicholson St., 2700 block, 2:46 p.m. May 25. Property was stolen from an apartment.

33rd Ave. and Lancer Dr., 6:49 a.m. May 27. Theft from auto.

40th Pl., 4900 block, 5:18 p.m. May 25. Property was stolen from a shed.

VEHICLE THEFTS

33rd Ave., 5800 block, 2:38 p.m. May 27. Theft reported.

40th Ave., 5300 block, 8:25 a.m. May 25. Theft reported.

VANDALISM

East-West Hwy., 3500 block, 5:15 p.m. May 23. Vandalism to automobile.

Laurel

These were among incidents reported by Laurel police. For information, call 301-498-0092.

ROBBERY

Bowie Rd., 100 block, midnight May 30.

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Baltimore Ave., 14200 block, midnight May 15. Shoplifting.

Baltimore Ave., 14300 block, midnight May 9.

Baltimore Ave., 14300 block, midnight May 24. Shoplifting.

Baltimore Ave., 14300 block, midnight May 26. Theft of motor vehicle parts and accessories.

Baltimore Ave., 14700 block, midnight May 23.

Baltimore Ave., 14800 block, midnight May 27.

Baltimore Ave., 15100 block, midnight May 29. Shoplifting.

Fairlawn Ave., 800 block, midnight May 11.

Haynes Rd., 15700 block, midnight May 27.

Little Montgomery St., 200 block, midnight May 11. Theft of motor vehicle parts and accessories.

Montgomery St., 400 block, midnight May 23. Theft of motor vehicle parts and accessories.

Mulberry St., 8300 block, midnight May 27.

Nichols Dr., 900 block, midnight May 23. Theft from vehicle.

Normandy Ct., 14700 block, midnight May 27. Attempted burglary.

Park Hill Rd., 900 block, midnight May 29. Theft of motor vehicle parts and accessories.

Philip Powers Dr., 900 block, midnight May 27.

Runabout Ct., 14300 block, midnight May 26.

Wicklow Lane, 14300 block, midnight May 26.

Fifth St., 800 block, midnight May 16. Theft of motor vehicle parts and accessories.

Fourth St., 700 block, midnight May 28.

VEHICLE THEFTS

Ashfor Pl., 14900 block, midnight May 13. Theft reported.

Baltimore Ave., 15700 block, midnight May 28. Theft reported.

Fourth St., 14700 block, midnight May 19. Theft reported.
A shooting in Alexandria near Old Town on Wednesday afternoon ended with one man dead and another person on the run, an incident that prompted nearby schools to temporarily prohibit people from entering or leaving their buildings.

Alexandria police said they responded to a housing complex in the 1000 block of Montgomery Street at about 12:35 p.m. after the report of a shooting. Pierre Clark, 28, of no fixed address, was found shot multiple times and later died at an area hospital, the city of Alexandria said in a statement. The person who shot Clark was still at large, police said.

We dont believe that the person is still in the area or that theres an immediate danger to the community, Deputy Chief David Huchler said.

A woman who identified herself as the Clarks older sister, but would not give her name, stood at the corner outside the crime tape, with tears in her eyes.

He was a good person, she said. He just had a lot of people who was jealous of him, because he dressed nice. A lot of people just hate. Thats what they do around here.

She shook her head. But to kill him in broad daylight, she said and started to cry. In broad daylight!

Al Lewis, 48, said he was getting out of a bus down North Henry Street at about 12:30 p.m. to get lunch at Blue and White Carry Out when he heard four shots.

Boom, boom, boom, boom, Lewis said. At first, he said he thought it might have been a mechanics shop, but when he walked down the street after getting lunch he saw the gathered police.

About 1 p.m., Alexandria schools tweeted that they were on lock-in due to police activity in the area. Students could still move within schools and attend class, but no one would be allowed in or out of school buildings, according to Helen Lloyd, a spokesman for Alexandria City Public Schools.

We did that because we dont know where the suspect is, nor do police, Lloyd said. So its a precaution. We need to make sure all of our students are safe.

Alexandria schools tweeted that the lock-in was lifted at about 1:45 p.m.

The city of Alexandrias statement said anyone with information about the shooting should call Detective William Oakley at 703-380-5019.

T. Rees Shapiro contributed to this report.
Andrew G. Schmuhl was miserable. He said Tuesday that he suffered from chronic back pain, high blood pressure, persistent insomnia, incontinence and uncontrollable sweats. As a result, he took a long list of prescribed painkillers that sometimes left him confused.

So when he was asked by a prosecutor if he had attacked a McLean couple in their home on Nov. 9, 2014, tying them up, holding them hostage, Tasering the man and shooting and stabbing the woman, Schmuhl didnt deny it.

He said he simply didnt remember.

I typically dont break into peoples houses, Schmuhl testified. When Chief Deputy Fairfax Commonwealths Attorney Casey Lingan asked him if he did on Nov. 9, Schmuhl replied, Not that I recall.

Schmuhl took the witness stand in his own defense Tuesday, on his 33rd birthday, facing two counts each of aggravated malicious wounding and abduction, plus burglary and using a firearm in a felony, as his attorneys tried to construct a defense of involuntary intoxication for Schmuhls actions. The charges carry a minimum of 108 years in prison if run consecutively.

Andrew Schmuhl (Fairfax County Police)

The victims, Leo Fisher and his wife, Susan Duncan, were targeted because Fisher had fired Schmuhls wife from her law firm job, prosecutors said.

Late Tuesday, a psychiatrist from the University of Virginia began to testify about the interactions of the 14 medications Schmuhl was taking, though she could not speak to the specifics of Schmuhls case because Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Randy I. Bellows ruled that the intoxication case was too similar to an insanity defense, for which Schmuhls attorneys did not provide notice.

[Judge rules out involuntary intoxication defense in McLean home invasion trial]

The case became notorious when Schmuhl and his wife, Alecia Schmuhl, 31, were arrested about 30 minutes after the home invasion ended, and Andrew Schmuhl was found to be wearing nothing but a diaper. I dont really remember wearing a diaper, Andrew Schmuhl told Lingan. Honestly I could have been wearing a dress and not realized it. He said his medications caused him incontinence, but he did not wear diapers routinely.

Schmuhl had been a lawyer in the Armys Judge Advocate Generals Corps, but he was separated from the military in 2012 after suffering a back injury in 2010. He said the injury occurred while he was doing pushups on ice during Army physical training. He did not elaborate on how that exercise worked, or how the injury spiraled into the full-body pain he said he felt by 2014. Lingan showed photos of him repairing his roof with his mother two weeks before the home invasion, which he clearly recalled, and Schmuhl also acknowledged playing in a kickball tournament in summer 2014.

Schmuhl must overcome a barrage of physical evidence and testimony linking him and his wife to the attack. At the beginning of the trial, Fisher and Duncan told the jury highly similar accounts of their harrowing experience on a Sunday evening, hearing the doorbell ring and not thinking it would be suspicious. Fisher said when he opened the door slightly, a man pushed him backward and then shot him with Taser darts, knocking him to the ground.

[McLean home invasion victim: Intruder would jump on me and stab me over and over]

The man then tied both Fisher and Duncan with plastic zip ties and led them to their bedroom. As he did, Fisher recognized him as the husband of Alecia Schmuhl, 31, whom he had fired from the law firm where he is managing partner, Bean, Kinney & Korman, just weeks earlier.

Fisher and Duncan said the man asked them questions about the law firm, about a murder-for-hire plot, about a Mexican drug cartel, and forced Fisher to access his law firm email account. After more than three hours, the man knocked Fisher backward on his bed, placed a pillow on his face, slashed his throat and stabbed his head and shoulders.

Duncan, who Schmuhl had allowed to go to the bathroom, came back into the room and she said the man fired a gunshot that grazed her head. When she moved to the bed to call 911, the man jumped on her back and stabbed her repeatedly in the back and shoulders. Police arrived and Fisher said he identified his assailant to them.

Alecia Schmuhl, who prosecutors said was outside the home during the attack, is awaiting trial.

In addition to painkillers Fentanyl and Dilaudid, Andrew Schmuhl was taking Xanax for his insomnia and Clomid for low testosterone. He said that drug gave him a weird, disconnected, fuzzy feeling, on top of the confusion the other drugs were causing. It was weirdness on top of weirdness.

Lingan asked Andrew Schmuhl about the weekend of Nov. 7-9, 2014, when receipts and video show Alecia Schmuhl buying a Taser from a gun store, disposable cellphones from Best Buy and adult diapers from Walgreens. Andrew Schmuhl said he was unaware of any of that. Lingan showed him a surveillance photo of their car outside Fisher and Duncans home two nights before the attack, but Schmuhl didnt remember being there.

He remembered his wife driving him to the Shenandoah Valley that Sunday, but nothing after their return. You dont remember using the Taser? Lingan asked. No, Schmuhl answered. You dont remember tying them up with zip ties? the prosecutor asked. No. Lingan asked about every act in the invasion, including the stabbings and the shooting. Schmuhl said he remembered none of it.
A former Washington nurse Wednesday was found guilty of sexually assaulting three women who were emergency room patients.

Prosecutors charged Jared Kline, 38, with 10 counts of second-degree sexual abuse of a patient involving four women who were patients at George Washington University Hospital, MedStar Washington Hospital Center and United Medical Center between 2013 and 2014.

In finding Kline guilty, the D.C. Superior Court jury also rejected some of the accusations made by the women and acquitted him on an additional three counts. The jury was not able to reach a unanimous verdict in the four remaining counts.

[D.C. area nurse Jared Kline rejects plea deal in sexual assault of patients]

Kline, of Falls Church, Va., is scheduled to appear in court again on June 28 at which point prosecutors will decide whether to retry him on the four counts. Kline faces a maximum of two to five years in prison for each of the three guilty verdicts.

Jared Kline, a former Washington nurse, was found guilty of sexually assaulting three patients. (Prince Georges County States Attorneys Office )

Prosecutors Jason Park and John Timmer argued Kline forced the women to touch him inappropriately as he was taking their blood pressure and performing examinations. Klines attorney, Nikki Lotze, argued the touchings were accidental as Kline was trying to perform his nursing duties.

Earlier this year, Kline was acquitted in Prince Georges County of similar charges when he worked at Bowie Health Center in 2014.
Authorities said they have recovered the bodies of two men who went missing on the Potomac River when their boat capsized.

[Two vanish in Potomac after boat capsizes upstream from District]

Robert Evonne Lee, 51, of Frederick, Md., and Lawrence W. Grey Jr., 62, of Brunswick, Md., went fishing Sunday on the river near the Route 15 bridge between Loudoun County, Va., and Frederick County, Md., according to officials with the Maryland Natural Resources police.

[Body found in Potomac River near Great Falls]

Lee was found about 4 p.m. Tuesday near where the boat capsized at Point of Rocks. Grey was found late Tuesday about 30 miles downstream at Great Falls.
To hear federal authorities tell it, William and Roxanne Granberrys marriage was a real-life mashup of The Sopranos, Breaking Bad and The Fast and the Furious. He organized a ring that sold prescription painkillers on the black market. She controlled the cash, managing her husbands addiction to gambling and race cars.

But Roxanne Granberrys defense attorney said that story is as fantastical as the movies it resembles.

All of this is trash. Its fiction. Its a fairy tale, Jonathan Simms told a jury Tuesday, during opening statements in Granberrys trial. He said the mother of two had no idea about her husbands dealing.

Both sides agree that William Granberry and an assortment of relatives were, over five years, writing fake prescriptions for opioids, filling them at various pharmacies in the Washington area and beyond, then selling the drugs. He and eight other conspirators have pleaded guilty; five more defendants face trial. Together, officials estimate that the group obtained about 65,000 oxycodone pills.

Prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia are now trying to convince a jury that Roxanne Granberry played a role in that scheme. The office has aggressively targeted prescription opioid dealers in recent years as overdose deaths in the region and nationally have skyrocketed.

Oxycodone can save your life, Assistant U.S. Attorney Gene Rossi said in his opening statement. However, when its used illegally, it can become whats called heroin in a pill.

Rossi told the jury that Roxanne Granberry bought several fancy cars and expensive jewelry that could not have been legally paid for by her or her electrician husband. A salesman will also testify that Roxanne Granberry gave him a $26,000 cash down payment on a backyard pool, Rossi said.

The Granberrys were not an ordinary married couple, Rossi said. She was not an ordinary mother.

Authorities first learned of the ring in 2013, after the arrest of a person who had passed a fake oxycodone prescription in New York, according to court papers. That defendant, identified only as D.T. in court papers, told authorities about the network.

The group forged the signatures of actual doctors and sometimes used fictitious patient names, court papers say. Runners, often using rental cars, filled the prescriptions at pharmacies in states including Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania, then returned the drugs to William Granberry.

Simms argued that Granberry, who is set to be sentenced Friday, kept his wife in the dark about his drug-dealing and extramarital affairs. The Hughesville, Md.-based couple had separate bank accounts and at one point were separated, the lawyer said. William Granberry had his own apartment, where evidence of his drug-dealing was found and where witnesses said he met both his associates and his mistresses.

If I had to count the number of times he lied to my client, wed be here all day, Simms said. If I had to count on my hands the number of times he cheated on my client, Id run out of fingers.

Roxanne Granberry, Simms said, was simply a hardworking elevator specialist and mother.

Nikko Moses, William Granberrys brother, testified Tuesday that at one point Roxanne Granberry told him that her husband was not allowed to do anything . . . because of his financial irresponsibility and the things he did with money. She was in charge.

Moses testified that Roxanne Granberry introduced him to one oxycodone buyer, gave cash to him and was present when he got prescription papers and brought bottles to her husband. At one point, he said, Granberry indicated to him where prescription papers were waiting.

Andre Granberry, another brother, testified Wednesday that at one point when he asked for a raise for his role filling fake prescriptions, William Granberry called his wife to get permission.

Just give it to him, he recalled Roxanne Granberry saying.

Both Moses and Andre Granberry have pleaded guilty to involvement in the conspiracy and have hopes of reduced sentences in exchange for their testimony.

Andre Granberrys wife, Jennifer Granberry, testified Wednesday that she took a trip to Georgia with both her brother-in-law and his wife, Roxanne, to try and fill oxycodone prescriptions at a clinic. When they got back, she said, Roxanne Granberry said she was not going to be able to take off again for this crap.

Jennifer Granberry was given immunity in exchange for her testimony.

All three witnesses acknowledged under cross-examination that they had lied to authorities and given inconsistent statements about Roxanne Granberrys involvement in the scheme. All agreed that they dealt primarily with her husband, often at his rental property, and that William Granberry lied to and cheated on his wife regularly.

None of the people who sold pills, Simms said, are being called to testify by prosecutors, because none of them dealt with Roxanne Granberry at all.

Rossi himself said from the outset that Roxanne Granberry is not accused of writing or filling fake prescriptions or of selling opioids.

Roxanne Granberry had some role in a conspiracy, Rossi said. She didnt have to be the kingpin.

Roxanne Granberry is charged with conspiracy to distribute oxycodone, a felony. If convicted, she could face 20 years in prison.
Police in Prince William County said two men allegedly involved in a fatal shooting on Saturday have been charged with murder.

The homicide occurred around 9:18 p.m. in the 14900 block of Potomac Heights Place. Police had received reports of a shooting. They arrived to find Najee Alexander Mason, 24, of Woodbridge, suffering from a single gunshot wound, police spokesman Jonathan Perok said. Mason, who was found near the Elan Potomac Heights luxury apartments, was transported to a nearby hospital where he died shortly thereafter.

[Prince William County police investigating Saturday night shooting death]

On Tuesday, police said federal marshals found a suspect  Abdisalam Ali Roble, the victims roommate  in Syracuse, N.Y. Roble, 25, who is also from Woodbridge, was arrested without incident in that area and remains in a jail in New York awaiting extradition to Virginia. He is charged with murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.

Police said an initial investigation found that the two men had argued before the shooting. It was not known what the dispute involved. The incident is still under investigation.

On Friday, police announced that a second man has been charged in connection with the murder. Ricardo Stephen Tompkins, 24, of Mechanicsville, Md., was located during Tuesdays arrest of Roble in Syracuse, Prince William County police said in a statement.

Tompkins also remains jailed in New York pending extradition back to Virginia, police said. He is charged with second-degree murder and use of a firearm in commission of a felony. Police spokesman Perok declined to give further details about Tompkinss alleged involvement in the killing.

Masons killing was the 11th homicide of the year in Prince William County, Perok said.
HEALTH

40 percent of women are obese, data show

The nations obesity epidemic continues to grow, led by an alarming increase among women. For the first time, more than 4 in 10 U.S. women are obese, according to new government health statistics.

Obesity rates for men and women in the United States had been about the same for about a decade. But in recent years, women have surged ahead, and now just over 40 percent of women are obese, compared with 35 percent of men.

The percentages were reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in two articles published online Tuesday by the Journal of the American Medical Association. The numbers are based on a small government survey that is considered the best measure of the nations obesity problem.

The rate of obesity in women is also higher than in men across the world, although far lower overall than in the United States. According to the World Health Organization, 15 percent of women worldwide and 11 percent of men are obese.

Obesity, which means not merely overweight but seriously overweight, is considered one of the nations leading public-health problems because it can trigger diabetes and lead to heart disease and other serious health problems.

 Associated Press

OHIO

Zoo exhibit where gorilla was shot reopens

The Cincinnati Zoo reopened its gorilla exhibit Tuesday with a higher, reinforced barrier installed after a young boy got into the exhibit and was dragged by a 400-pound gorilla, which was shot and killed.

The exhibits reopening came a day after Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters said that he would not bring charges against the boys mother, who was tending to another child when her 3-year-old just scampered off, she said.

The barrier, which had passed repeated inspections by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, will be 42 inches high  a half-foot taller than before  with solid wood beams at the top and bottom, plus knotted rope netting at the bottom, the zoo said. Surveillance cameras were added.

The boy apparently climbed over the previous barrier May 28, made his way through some bushes and fell about 15 feet into a shallow moat. A special response team shot the agitated, 17-year-old gorilla to protect the boy, who was treated for scrapes.

 Associated Press

SOUTH CAROLINA

Accused church shooters trial set

The federal death-penalty trial of a white man charged in the slayings of nine members of a historic black church will be held in November, a judge said Tuesday.

Chief U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel set Nov. 7 as the day to begin selecting jurors for the federal trial of Dylann Roof, 22, who faces numerous federal counts, including hate crimes, in the June 17 shootings at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston.

Handcuffed and clad in a gray striped jumpsuit, Roof attended Tuesdays hearing but did not address the court.

In court, Roofs federal attorneys reiterated previous comments that he would be willing to plead guilty if the death penalty were not on the table.

Roofs state trial on murder charges is scheduled for January. State prosecutors also are seeking the death penalty.

 Associated Press

Ex-astronaut charged with murder in road crash: A former astronaut who flew five missions and helped lead NASA back into space after the space shuttle Columbia disaster is charged with murder after an early morning wreck that killed two girls in Alabama, state troopers said. James Halsell Jr., 59, of Huntsville was arrested after a crash killed Niomi Deona James, 11, and Jayla Latrick Parler, 13, of Brent, on Monday, a spokesman for Alabama state troopers said. Troopers said a Chrysler 300 driven by Halsell collided with a Ford Fiesta in which the girls were passengers. Both victims were ejected from the vehicle and died. Two adults who were in the car suffered injuries and were hospitalized. A preliminary investigation indicated alcohol and speed may have been factors in the crash, trooper said. The wreck occurred at 2:50 a.m. on U.S. 82, a rural highway east of Tuscaloosa.

 Associated Press
IRAN

U.S. lawmakers denied visas over nuclear deal

Iran said Tuesday that it would not grant visas to three U.S. congressmen opposed to its recent nuclear deal with world powers, calling their request to monitor the accord a publicity stunt.

The three Republican lawmakers  Reps. Frank A. LoBiondo of New Jersey, Mike Pompeo of Kansas and Lee Zeldin of New York  all voted against the deal in the House and are part of a GOP backlash against the pact negotiated by the Obama administration and other governments. The accord limited Irans ability to enrich uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

In a letter released Tuesday in Tehran, Irans Foreign Ministry said it refused the visa request over the completely inappropriate way you have demanded to visit Iran and interfere in what is of no relevance to [your] official functions.

Despite what you seem to presume, [members] of the U.S. Congress do not get to dictate the policies of other countries, the letter read.

In a statement, LoBiondo said it was deeply disappointing, though not surprising, that Iran denied our legitimate request with insults and deflections.

 Associated Press

PERU

Presidential runoff tightens further

The nail-biter race for Perus presidency tightened Tuesday as the daughter of imprisoned former president Alberto Fujimori gained ground on her rival thanks to votes trickling in from remote rural areas and embassies abroad.

Former World Bank economist Pedro Pablo Kuczynskis razor-thin lead over Keiko Fujimori shrank to fewer than 48,000 votes early Tuesday. With tallies from more than 95 percent of polling stations counted, Kuczynski had 50.1 percent of the votes compared with 49.9 percent for Fujimori.

Although two quick counts showed Kuczynski prevailing, ballots cast by 885,000 Peruvians eligible to vote abroad, the majority living in the United States, were still being counted. These voters turned out massively for Fujimori in the 2011 election, which she nevertheless lost.

If Kuczynski holds on to his lead, it would be a stunning turnaround. Fujimori topped a field of 10 candidates in the first round of voting in April and consistently led Kuczynski in polls before Sundays runoff.

Kuczynski, 77, climbed back by abandoning his above-the-fray appeal and attacking his rival as a risk to Perus young democracy. Playing on memories of Alberto Fujimoris ties to corruption, organized crime and death squads, for which he is serving a 25-year prison term, Kuczynski seized on scandals that hobbled Keiko Fujimori late in the race.

 Associated Press

Car bomb kills 7 in Iraqi holy city: A car bomb in Iraqs Shiite holy city of Karbala killed 10 civilians and wounded 26, officials said. Karbala is home to the Imam Hussein shrine, one of the holiest sites in Shiite Islam. No one asserted responsibility for the attack, but the Islamic State, a Sunni extremist group, often targets Iraqs Shiite majority. Meanwhile, separate bombings in and around Baghdad killed seven civilians, police said.

Attackers kill Hindu priest in Bangladesh: Unidentified bike-riding assailants shot and hacked a Hindu priest to death in Bangladesh amid a spate of similar attacks blamed on radical Islamist groups since last year. Police said three men intercepted Anando Gopal Ganguly, 70, while he was riding his bicycle to a temple. Police said the attackers first shot Ganguly and then slashed him with sharp weapons before fleeing the scene.

Ethiopia passes law against sharing defamatory speech online: Ethiopias Parliament approved a law to imprison people who distribute defamatory speech, pornography and spam online. The laws most severe penalty is 10 years in prison for sharing pornography online. Sharing defamatory speech or spam garners at least three years in prison. The government has said the law will enable it to prosecute cybercrimes more efficiently. But bloggers and activists said it is meant to silence dissent.

11 students jailed for doodling on photos of Burundis leader: Eleven secondary school students were put in jail in Burundi for scribbling on photos of President Pierre Nkurunziza, parents and a government official said. A court later released six of the youths, who are minors, said lawyer Eric Batunwanayo, who is assisting them. The youths, ages 14 to 19, were charged with insulting the head of state, a crime punishable by imprisonment and fines. Nkurunziza won a third term in office last year that critics deemed unconstitutional.

 From news services
House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) speaks outside the D.C.-based charity House of Help City of Hope on Tuesday. (Jim Lo Scalzo/European Pressphoto Agency)

Seven white men and a white woman, Republican members of Congress all, boarded vehicles on Capitol Hill on Tuesday morning for a voyage deep into Anacostia, a largely black and poor section of Washington.

Their mission: to reassure nonwhite voters frightened by Donald Trump, their partys presumptive presidential nominee.

Their odds of success: exceedingly low.

The lawmakers must have perceived their mission to be risky, for they traveled with a veritable arsenal: a Capitol Police mobile command center truck, a canine unit, four or five squad cars and a half-dozen black police vans. Police closed the street to traffic, and security officials wearing plainclothes and earpieces kept a watchful eye in all directions as a white van disgorged the lawmakers at the residential addiction-treatment program they were visiting. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan zoomed up moments later in his two-Suburban motorcade.

The lawmakers, six of them in matching blue dress shirts, sat at a table in the shelters basement, then invited the cameras in to capture a few seconds of their supportive nods and ingratiating smiles while African American residents told their tales of recovery. Later, they reassembled outside, where the GOP officials gave a news conference while residents of the shelter, House of Help City of Hope, stood silently, human props in the background.

This is my third time, Ryan said, at the House of Help, the City of Help. Uh, the City of Hope. The House of Hope, City of Help.

To his credit, Ryan takes poverty seriously and talks about it often. He made it the first item on his six-point policy agenda. But if Ryan thinks his outing to the Anacostia shelter is going to offset the yuuuuge damage Trump is doing to the party with Latinos, African Americans, women, immigrants and others  well, to borrow a favorite Trump epithet, hes a loser.

The first six questions for Ryan after his remarks at the shelter Tuesday were about Trumps racist campaign to disqualify the judge in a fraud case against Trump because the judge is Hispanic:

Do you have any regrets about your endorsement last week?

How can you continue to support the candidate?

How concerned are you that . . . its going to undercut what your party is trying to sell here?

Ryan was blunt. Claiming a person cant do their job because of their race is sort of like the textbook definition of a racist comment, he said. He acknowledged that these kinds of comments undercut these things [his anti-poverty rollout] and Im not going to even pretend to defend them.

1 of 23 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  23 well-known people who support Donald Trump View Photos See who supports Donald Trump. Caption See who supports Donald Trump. Paul D. Ryan The House speaker endorsed Trumps bid for president on June 2. Joshua Roberts/Reuters Wait 1 second to continue.

But he elevated party unity above his concern about the party standard-bearers racism. Im going to defend our majority and . . . I see it as my job as speaker of the House to help keep our party unified, he said. I think if we go into the fall as a divided party, we are doomed to lose.

That was a frank rationale for Republican officials deal with the Devil. Maybe party unity will protect their congressional majorities in the short term. Their tolerance of a bigoted nominee could also mean losing nonwhite voters indefinitely, and with them their standing as a national party.

Ryan argued that his agenda would fare better under Trump than Hillary Clinton, and thats probably true. House Republicans have proposed cutting about $1 trillion over a decade from programs such as food stamps and welfare. Trump, for his part, has said food stamps shouldnt be needed often, and he has complained that people make more money by sitting there doing nothing than they make if they have a job.

At Tuesdays event, Ryan didnt cite the deep cuts he plans for anti-poverty programs, only obliquely mentioning the need to measure success based on results, not dollars.

Another of the lawmakers, Rep. Bradley Byrne (Ala.), was more direct: We get to save the taxpayers money because we wont have to be doling out more money for these programs that dont work.

Democrats say the programs do work: that the average family uses food stamps for only 8 to 10 months, and that, when you figure in programs such as the earned-income tax credit, the child tax credit and food stamps, government efforts have reduced poverty by some 40 percent.

But thats an argument for another day  or another year. Ryan has said that passing legislation such as the anti-poverty agenda this year is really not the goal.

The goal for now is to remove the taint of Trump. And its going to take more than an armed tour of Anacostia.

Twitter: @Milbank

Read more from Dana Milbanks archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.
POLAND IS due to host a NATO summit next month, providing its eight-month-old government an opportunity to bask in international attention and celebrate the alliances bolstering of its eastern defenses. Unfortunately, the ruling Law and Justice party and its leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, are in danger of poisoning their own showcase. Rather than underline NATOs determination to stand up to a heightened threat from Russia, the summit may be derailed by a divisive debate over another threat  to democracy and the rule of law in Poland.

If so, Mr. Kaczynski and his party will have only themselves to blame. Since taking office last fall under Prime Minister Beata Szydlo  Mr. Kaczynski chose to rule from behind the scenes  Law and Justice has moved aggressively to bring Polands security services, the state media and, most troubling, the judiciary under its control. The aim appears to be to push Poland down the same quasi-authoritarian path blazed by Hungarys Viktor Orban, who has curtailed media, civic and religious freedoms while proclaiming his contempt for liberal democracy.

In addition to prompting the rise of a mass domestic opposition movement, Mr. Kaczynskis maneuverings have now drawn the censure of the European Unions executive branch, the European Commission. Last week it adopted a formal opinion that Poland had compromised the rule of law in its tampering with its constitutional court. Shortly after taking office, the new government sought to revoke several appointments to the court, pack it with its own nominees and change its procedure to require that its rulings be backed by a two-thirds majority of the justices. When the court found these actions unconstitutional, the government refused to accept its decision.

The E.U. ruling was not precipitous; it came after months of discussions and negotiations led by Frans Timmermans , the commissions first vice president. Until recently, it appeared a compromise could be struck under which Law and Justice would give ground on the courts membership and yield on the voting rules. But Mr. Kaczynski retreated from the deal, thereby forcing the commissions hand. Now Poland must respond to the E.U. finding or face at least the theoretical possibility of sanctions.

The E.U. action has been greeted with public defiance by Mr. Kaczynski and his circle, some of whom appear to believe they can ride out the censure. The cockiness is shortsighted. Whether or not the commissions process goes forward, Polands behavior could well discourage some NATO governments from supporting or contributing to a plan to station troops and equipment in Poland in order to deter Russian aggression.

The Obama administration, which has been a prime promoter of that plan, will no doubt stick to it. But President Obama should be prepared to forcefully and publicly challenge the Law and Justice government over its democratic violations if it does not correct them before his arrival in Warsaw. Mr. Kaczynski must understand that his policies threaten to wreck relations with the United States  and thereby undermine Polish security.
IN AN ideal world, American households would be immune from the financial vicissitudes that can oblige them to meet cash crises by borrowing small amounts at high interest. In the real world, 46 percent of households lack the ready funds to meet an unexpected $400 expense, according to a recent Federal Reserve study; and about 4 percent of that group told the Fed they would cope using a payday loan or similar option. A significant percentage of payday borrowers may, in turn, find themselves paying off old small-dollar loans with new ones, creating a crushing burden of debt. Hence this policy question: how to preserve realistic credit options while minimizing the potential for abuse and exploitation.

Ever since its inception in 2010, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has had in its sights the nations estimated 20,000 payday lenders, which do business in 36 states and online. Now the CFPB has unveiled a proposed regulation that would radically change the payday lending business model  or, the industry complains, destroy it. Similar to an outline the bureau sketched a year ago, the proposed rule requires the kind of expensive, ability-to-pay underwriting that payday lenders characteristically avoid. Their business model mitigates the inherently high risk of default by charging high fees and interest and, often, churning accounts.

The rule has been attacked not only by the payday lending industry but also by consumer groups such as the Center for Responsible Lending, which says the CFPB would allow too many revolving loans, albeit under what the bureau says are tighter restrictions. Probably the most complex critique has come from the Pew Charitable Trusts small-dollar loans project, which argues that the CFPB has failed to encourage commercial banks to offer relatively consumer-friendly alternative loan products.

Pews point is that most payday borrowers have checking accounts (indeed, payday lenders often insist on access to those accounts to guarantee payment) and that banks are therefore well-positioned to serve such customers with small-dollar loans at considerably lower costs than the existing payday industry. Specifically, Pew proposed a standard whereby loan payments would be limited to 5 percent of a borrowers monthly income. This would have enabled banks to offer a $500 loan for five months at a total cost of $125 in fees and interest, compared with $750 for an equivalent loan from a payday lender.

This might have the advantage of simplicity as compared with the CFPBs 1,300-plus-page proposed rule  but opponents have said the Pew proposal isnt backed by sufficient empirical evidence, a fair enough point since, by definition, its a new idea. Fortunately, the CFPB also declined to rule out the idea and has said its willing to consider comments and data in support of it between now and a September deadline. By its nature, small-dollar lending is always going to be a high-risk, low-reward business for both borrowers and lenders. Yet its probably better to have such an industry in a legal form thats maximally protective to consumers than to drive it underground. Keeping those realities in mind, the CFPBs rulemakers should avoid making the perfect the enemy of the good.
KC Johnson is a professor at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center. Stuart Taylor Jr. is a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Last week, a California judge sentenced former Stanford University swimmer Brock Allen Turner to six months in jail for a horrifying sexual assault on an unconscious, alcohol-impaired woman. The resulting uproar over the sentences undue leniency risks missing the most important lesson of the case.

Contrary to campus conventional wisdom, the Turner case shows that the best way to deal with a campus sexual assault problem is to rely on law enforcement professionals to protect women and to pursue justice, not on campus disciplinary systems run by amateur sex bureaucrats.

The backlash against Turners sentence is being exploited by a powerful but misguided movement to delegitimize law enforcement as the best way to handle campus sexual assaults. The accusers rights group Know Your IX has claimed that even reporting an assault to police could harm campus victims. #copsoffcampus, the group recently tweeted.

A myth that our universities are mired in an epidemic of sexual violence fuels this movement. Campus activists, the Obama administration and many in the media have used discredited surveys claiming that there are hundreds of thousands of campus sexual assaults annually to degrade due process protections for accused students.

Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky could be removed from the bench in a recall effort prompted by the six-month sentence he handed down in the Stanford sexual assault case. (Gillian Brockell/The Washington Post)

Still, the 4,959 rape allegations reported by universities in 2014 alone are more than enough to call for the best possible protections. And the handling of the sexual assault by Turner in January 2015, while his victim was lying helpless on the ground outside a campus party, shows how those protections can work.

Two students saw Turner on top of the victim, rushed to her aid and restrained the intoxicated Turner. Police were called and found the now 23-year-old victim completely unresponsive and partially clothed. They interviewed the witnesses and secured physical and medical evidence. Prosecutors won a jury conviction of Turner, now 20, for sexual penetration of the victim with his fingers. They asked Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky for a six-year state prison sentence.

We understand the victims pain and outrage at the leniency of the judges sentence  six months in a county jail, plus three years probation and lifetime registration as a sex offender. But we also understand how much better the criminal-justice system operated than the alternative likely would have.

Campus activists at Stanford and nationwide have championed secretive disciplinary processes run by administrators who know little about gathering evidence (or about fair procedures). Indeed, had this case been initially channeled through the school, critical evidence  including Turners highly incriminating statement to police  might have been lost.

The Obama administration now requires schools to use the lightest possible burden of proving guilt  by a mere preponderance of the evidence  in handling sexual assault cases. The procedural rules are systematically slanted against the accused. And accusers are not subject to meaningful cross-examination, which the Supreme Court has called the greatest legal engine ever invented for the discovery of truth.

The result has been the expulsion as sex offenders of many innocent or probably innocent students  in dozens of cases that we have studied  as well as guilty ones. The innocent face lives ruined by terrible injustice. The guilty often go free, expelled from school but walking the streets having faced no criminal penalty at all. Such outcomes do less to make campuses safe than would the robust law enforcement presence that accusers rights activists and university leaders oppose and that brought Turner to justice.

Stanfords disciplinary process for sexual assault accusations prevents the accused and his representative from cross-examining the accuser or any other witnesses. Adjudicators have been trained that an accused students acting persuasive and logical should be considered a sign of his guilt, and warned to be very, very cautious in accepting a mans claim that he has been wrongly accused of abuse or violence.

For these and other reasons, a campus finding of guilt inspires little public confidence that justice was done.

By contrast, in the Turner case police and prosecutors did what they do best. The defendant was presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. He had a lawyer who could test the credibility of all witnesses, a right to exculpatory evidence, an impartial jury of his peers and other protections against wrongful conviction. The public nature of the trial provided a check against misconduct, either by law enforcement or by the university.

Despite criticisms of the sentence, Persky appears to have presided fairly during the trial. He based his sentence on the recommendation of the probation office, a common approach for judges. While Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen sharply disagreed, he has also condemned the recall drive mounted against Persky.

Yes, six months is too short a jail term. But it may also be the least of Turners punishments. The stain and notoriety of his crime will mark this champion athlete turned registered sex offender for the rest of his life, everywhere he goes. As it should.
The five days in 2008 between the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary were Hillary Clintons crucible. They showed what shes made of and that she should never be underestimated.

After Barack Obamas overwhelming victory in Iowa, the polls all suggested he was about to deliver the second shot of a one-two punch that would have crippled Clintons campaign.

If he had, the once-inevitable front-runner would have lost her chance to fight Obama to a virtual draw in the Democratic contests over the next five months. In turn, Obama might never have seen her as a natural and unifying pick for secretary of state.

Clintons comeback was powered by characteristic moves, and then a big surprise.

Reflecting what some praise as her persistence and others see less charitably as doggedness, she loaded her schedule with town halls that wouldnt end until she had answered every voters question.

At a high school in Penacook, a colleague turned to me to dismiss her offerings as a laundry list of wonkery  fair enough if the standard of comparison was Obamas prophetic rhetoric. A CNN account poked fun at her for spending her day talking . . . and talking . . . and talking. But voters are not journalists: They appreciated her efforts.

That night, Obama made a mistake when an interviewer asked Clinton about her likability problem. (Its amazing how media stereotypes have a longer half-life than nuclear waste.) Clinton sounded genuine but also wry when she replied to the questioner: Well, that hurts my feelings. And when Obama said, Youre likable enough, Hillary, he seemed, unintentionally perhaps, snarky and superior. More votes to Clinton.

And the day before the primary, she choked up when a friendly questioner asked her about the grueling nature of campaigning: How do you do it?

Her show of emotion shocked those who thought everything about her was bottled up. It reassured many in New Hampshire who refused to see her as an automaton. She delivered a classic Clinton message in the process: Some people think elections are a game, lots of whos up or whos down. Its about our country. Its about our kids futures. And its really about all of us together.

She won New Hampshire, and the rest is history  a complicated, often painful history that involved losing to Obama, serving in his Cabinet, facing a surprisingly strong challenge from Bernie Sanders and, finally, securing the Democratic presidential nomination that had eluded her.

On Tuesday, she returned to the message of that vulnerable moment in New Hampshire for the template of her critique of Donald Trump. Bridges are better than walls, she said. We believe that we are stronger together.

For a quarter-century, Clinton has confronted searing criticism and profound skepticism about her motives and her way of doing things. But if this is all you pay attention to, you cannot explain how she got to that victory party in Brooklyn or why she has received tens of millions of votes over two campaigns.

The Hillary Clinton who prevails and wins loyalists, Id argue, brings together two aspects of the Methodist tradition in which she was raised and, by extension, two sides of the American character.

She embodies the tensions and, sometimes, contradictions of what the theologian Michael Novak once described as the communitarian individual. Her individualistic side sees salvation as depending on determination, grit and a dedication to work, and more work. Her communal side (she wrote a book, after all, called It Takes a Village) runs through all her policy proposals, the values she lifts up (all of us together in 2008, stronger together now) and her attitude toward her friends. Those two instincts keep her going.

None of this explains away Clintons flaws or blind spots or the mistakes she has made. Well hear plenty about those. But these are her standards, and they are the reason that, beyond his assorted electoral weaknesses, Trump is the opponent she would have prayed to face.

The upright Midwestern Methodist who insists that life is about more than deals, who thrives on meticulous preparation, who is better with individual voters than with big crowds and who always had to get there the hard way believes it from the bottom of her heart when she says that Trump is temperamentally unfit to be president. When she takes him on, there will be no authenticity problem.

She didnt know it during those five days in New Hampshire, but this is the fight she was preparing herself to wage.

Read more from E.J. Dionnes archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.
Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the 40th Summit of Foreign Affairs Ministers of the Organization of American States in 2010. (Ernesto Benavides/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images)

One of the mysteries of Campaign 2016 is why the Iran nuclear deal has vanished as an issue. But a new book reveals some startling details about how the diplomacy with Tehran began in secret, long before reformers took power there, and the crucial role played by presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

The diplomatic narrative is laid out in Alter Egos, by New York Times White House correspondent Mark Landler. Hes the first to disclose the full extent of the Omani back channel to Iran that opened in 2009 through a colorful fixer named Salem ben Nasser al-Ismaily.

Landlers account shows how early and extensively Clinton and her State Department staff were involved in the Iran talks, despite her initial wariness. And in a campaign in which Donald Trump often advocates a blunderbuss approach to foreign affairs, this story is a reminder that breakthroughs often come via strange and invisible pathways  ones that, in this case, the administration sometimes sought to obscure.

The Ismaily contacts began in May 2009, just four months after President Obama had taken office, when Dennis Ross, a top adviser to then-Secretary Clinton, met the 51-year-old Omani at the State Department.

At that first meeting, the Omani surprised the Americans with an offer by Iran to negotiate about the nuclear program, writes Landler. Obama had already sent a secret letter to Irans Ayatollah Ali Khamenei proposing negotiations but had received a diffident response. Ismaily assured Ross he could bring the Iranians to the table and that Oman would be an ideal venue for secret negotiations.

Both promises turned out to be true. First, though, came the uproar of the Iranian presidential election in 2009 and the brutal suppression of the Green Revolution. Some critics have argued that Obamas eagerness for a diplomatic opening to Iran blunted the U.S. response to the stolen victory by hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

But the Omani mediation track continued. After Iran seized three American hikers in July 2009, Ismaily secretly began negotiating their release. The first was freed in September 2010, the other two a year later. Ross and a colleague traveled to Oman in December 2010 to hear more about the channel. Clinton had a similar exploratory talk with Omans sultan in January 2011, though she wrote that she initially saw the opening as a long shot.

John Kerry was jumping into the Omani channel even before he became secretary of state. He got to know Ismaily during the hiker negotiations and made several visits to Oman in 2011 and early 2012. Kerry also met the Omani intermediary in London, Rome and Washington.

In his zeal to jump-start the negotiations, Kerry passed several messages to the Iranians through Ismaily, according to Landler. One of these messages may have been crucial: Kerry, still a senator and thus not formally speaking for the administration, suggested that under a nuclear agreement, the Iranians would be able to enrich uranium  Tehrans baseline demand. In some ways Kerry and his enthusiastic Omani go-between were merely cutting to the chase, writes Landler.

More secret meetings through the Omani channel followed in 2012 with Clintons top aides, Deputy Secretary Bill Burns and Deputy Chief of Staff Jake Sullivan. Then, in 2013, the train began to accelerate with Kerrys appointment as secretary of state and Hassan Rouhanis election as president of Iran. By the end of that year, an interim nuclear agreement had been reached.

Sullivan explained in an email that although Clinton was skeptical at first about the Omani contacts, they proved important: Without that channel, we likely would have spent the fall of 2013 trying to figure out who to talk to and how.

Landlers book also underlines the question of whether the administrations media campaign, led by deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes, emphasized the post-Rouhani chapters in its public telling of the story and obscured the largely unnoticed early contacts through the Omani channel. A New York Times Magazine profile of Rhodes argued last month that this impression was largely manufactured for the purpose for selling the deal.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest addressed claims that one of President Obama's top security advisers, Ben Rhodes, promoted misleading information about the Iran deal. I havent seen anybody produce any evidence that thats the case, Earnest said. (White House)

The administrations hand was also visible in the State Departments deletion of footage of a December 2013 news briefing asking about secret negotiations with Tehran.

The Iran nuclear agreement deserves more attention in this campaign. Kerry and Obama may have concluded it, but Clinton helped get it started. Trump needs to explain why the world would be safer without this deal and how he would have negotiated a better one. And the administration needs to explain why it opted for secrecy on a landmark agreement.

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The economy seems to be evolving into one in which fewer companies and workers are required to produce the goods and services everybody needs. And so more and more people are expected to have an increasingly challenging time finding work. Meanwhile, a shrinking pool of workers and investors is accumulating a disproportionate amount of the worlds wealth.

To address this problem, more and more economists are proposing universal basic income (UBI), a policy which would use taxes to redistribute wealth to the needy in the form of a paycheck you dont need to earn.

Switzerland voted no

Swiss citizens on Sunday voted against an initiative to get an unconditional monthly income. A group of artists and writers got the proposal for individuals to receive a UBI on the ballot after gathering 100,000 signatures for a petition. The final tally of the referendum showed that the overwhelming majority  77%  voted against the plan and only 23% supported it.

The bad news is UBI is a horrible idea but the good news is that its never going to happen. And, there was no actual plan on the ballot and the group advocating for UBI had to fill it in, so it was unclear what people are actually voting on, Kevin Milligan, economics professor at the Vancouver School of Economics at the University of British Columbia, told Yahoo Finance.

The Swiss proposal had a lot of missing blanks that were only partially answered by the supporters (who suggested that every adult receive 2,500 Swiss francs ($2,570) and each child receive 625 Swiss francs ($642) per month). The idea of UBI has been hotly contested around the world, with countries like Finland and the Netherlands piloting trial programs and a Silicon Valley startup accelerator is even plotting a mini experiment in Oakland, Calif. to figure out how to pay people, collect data, and choose a random sample, among other things.

UBI: A utopian ideal?

Of course, in theory, the idea of having a fall-back income foundation sounds delightful. But what most advocates arent getting specific about is where exactly this money would come from.



Jim Pugh, co-founder of San Francisco-based nonprofit Universal Income, says the Swiss proposal didnt prescribe a source of revenue because its Parliaments duty to come up with how to fund the proposal. Theres only one problem with that proposition  not one of Switzerlands 12 parliamentary parties supported the idea.

Story continues

If UBI were to be implemented in the US, it would cost more than $3 trillion a year to provide the nations 300+ million people with $10,000 per year, according to Robert Greenstein, the president of Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. That would cost between $30 trillion and $40 trillion over the next 10 years. An expenditure this huge could come as a shock to people in the US. Greenstein says Americans have not been willing to accept neither the kinds of levels of taxation nor the breadth of social support seen in western Europe.

In the US, UBI would likely take the place of food stamps, temporary assistance, supplemental security income, and other smaller programs. But that would only address part of the net expenditure.

When you look at the math, its extremely difficult to see how you could get close to UBI in the United States without going to levels of taxation that are inconceivable to me or alternatively eviscerating most of the current safety net that includes things like food assistance or social security, Greenstein says.

But advocates for UBI like Pugh say that individuals have to take a long-term view when thinking about implementing UBI.

Were talking 10-20 years for the United States. Theres no scenario where we get a national version before then, he says. There are experiments and smaller scale programs that could be implemented sooner that would help us understand how basic income works.

The idea of UBI, however, becomes less feasible even when taking a long-term approach, says Greenstein: In 15 years, the baby boomers will be fully retired and well need considerably more resources for Social Security and Medicare, which are unable to pay full benefits under the current structure. The math, if anything, gets even more daunting.

Can case studies be extrapolated to larger initiatives?

Even within the US, individuals are hatching small initiatives to test basic income on a micro level. Sam Altman, the president of startup accelerator Y Combinator, spearheaded a short-term pilot in Oakland, Calif., which he hopes to convert into a larger, long-term study.

The pilot will include fewer than 100 people and run for between six and 12 months, but we dont know how much exactly participants will be receiving each month. Y Combinator chose Oakland because its a city of great social and economic diversity, and it has both concentrated wealth and considerable inequality."

Source: Twitter

The primary goal of the experiment, according to the company, is to examine how technological advancements can impact individuals livelihood. Although basic income seems fiscally challenging today, in a world where technology replaces existing jobs and basic income becomes necessary, technological improvements should generate an abundance of resources and the cost of living should fall dramatically, a company statement by Altman read.



Milligan takes issue with the sample size of the program, though.

We learn almost nothing from this kind of experiment. Why is it 100 people, and not 1,000 or 10,000? Of course they cant afford to do a pilot with 10,000 people, he says. Im not sure what an experiment of 100 people will actually indicate."

Such tests have been conducted in the past  take, for example, the mincome (minimum income) experiment in Dauphin, a town of 12,000 people in Canada. About 30% or 3,600 people qualified to receive the a check from the government (a family of four received ~$15,000 current US dollars per year).

Despite Canada spending millions of dollars on the project, no one ever wrote a final report. There was no more money forthcoming to do an evaluation of the project and it just disappeared, Evelyn Forget, an economist at the University of Manitoba, told the Freakonomics podcast.

Unfortunately, they werent able to do deep analysis right away, but the government did find decades later that there was a small decrease in the workforce participation, though that change could be explained by young people staying in school longer and young parents staying with their kids. More education ultimately means more productive work, Pugh says.

Despite the impracticality of implementing UBI in the US ever, never mind in the near future, 68% of people across the 28 EU countries said they would definitely or most likely vote for a UBI, according to a May poll by Dalia research.

Countries like the Netherlands and Finland have a pilot program in the pipeline, and unlike the Swiss experiment, the Finnish government is supportive of the initiative. Actually, the prime minister of the country has been at the helm of its rollout. For me, a basic income means simplifying the social security system, he said.

Realistic alternatives to UBI

Though Milligan denounces UBI, he says perhaps a wiser method would be to implement something similar for solely children in need. He helped design a program Canada is implementing starting July 1.

Called the Canada child tax benefit (CCTB), the tax-free monthly payment is intended to help eligible families with the cost of raising children under 18 years old. Families would have to file their tax returns on time every year (even if there was 0 income) in order to receive the benefits: Children under the age of 6 would receive $6,400, and children over 6 would receive $5400 every year.

This would support 97% of low-income or impoverished children, according to Milligan. I think this is a lesson that you can take from this basic income debate, he says. I imagine it as taking food stamps and other programs with kids and providing them in a cleaner, more rational way.

Greenstein agrees that universal children's allowances may be the best starting point to help those in need, noting that several western European nations offer similar programs.

I would like to see the US do something like that. Politically, I think its hard, but not impossible, to get there, he says. The first step is to broaden the child tax credit in America so that all low-income children get the help they need.

Though Milligan and Greenstein dont see UBI as a realistic or desirable possibility, they both admire and respect advocates desire to end poverty in America; its just not a feasible way to actually close the inequality gap, they say.

Its more productive to talk about things that you can actually advance and win within our political system rather than focusing on a highly impractical utopian vision, which distracts people from more practical ways of making solid progress, says Greenstein. I actually view myself as someone who shares a lot of the same policy goals as UBI supporters.

Milligan echoes this sentiment: Society needs dreamers. And society needs accountants. You have to think about how we can actually pay for these ideals  theyre putting all of this energy behind something that will simply not happen.

Read more by Melody:



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Why high-skilled workers are thinking H-1B visas
Suppose you are advising Hillary Clinton, now the presumptive Democratic nominee for president. What worries you? Well, probably the stubbornness of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who wont admit he has lost. And, of course, the unpredictability of Donald Trump, whose outlandish pronouncements defy conventional political wisdom.

But what really ought to frighten you is the governments latest employment report. It raises a fearful specter: recession.

This could transform the campaign. The argument now is mostly over character and experience: Whos most suited to be president? This seems to give Clinton the edge based on her long involvement with government and policy. But a recession would dramatically shift the focus to the economy. Advantage Trump? He would surely brandish his business credentials and label the slump Obamas Recession or Clintons Recession.

Lets review the economys performance. Superficially, it seems a Democratic political asset. The recovery has proceeded for seven years. From employments low point, jobs have increased by more than 14 million. The unemployment rate has hovered around 5 percent since last August (it was 4.7 percent in May). President Obama has repeatedly argued: The Republicans made the financial mess, and weve cleaned it up.

But now comes the May employment report suggesting a slowdown and possibly a recession. To recap: The report, released June 3 by the Labor Department, was weaker than expected. Payroll jobs increased by only 38,000; job creation for the previous two months was also revised down by 59,000. Since March, payroll jobs have grown at an average monthly rate of only 116,000, half of 2015s 230,000.

None of this was anticipated, but neither does it make a recession inevitable. It could signal that the economy is at or near full employment. There arent that many more workers left to hire. Or it might reflect the recoverys patchy nature, with rapid growth in some quarters and virtual stagnation in others.

In a June 6 speech, Janet Yellen, chair of the Federal Reserve Board, was cautiously optimistic about the outlook. She found many signs of strength. Vehicle sales are booming at more than 17 million units annually. The housing market continues to expand. She even cited evidence of a healthy labor market, in spite of the slow job growth. The quit rate  the share of workers voluntarily leaving their jobs  is now close to pre-recession levels, indicating that workers are feeling more confident about the job market and are likely receiving more job offers.

Still, she noted less favorable omens: not only the weakness in job creation but also a reluctance of companies to invest in new plants and equipment. She also warned that all forecasts involve huge uncertainties. What will happen to oil prices or China?

Prosperity is a state of mind as well as a state of production. The next few months will be crucial in shaping the perceptions that Americans take into the voting booths. Whats a Clinton adviser to do? Well, maybe take the offense and blame all the uncertainty caused by Trump for companies reluctance to hire and invest. If theres a recession, the elections outcome may depend on whose name gets attached to it.

Read more from Robert Samuelsons archive.
Despite Hillary Clinton's delegate gains on June 7, presidential candidate Bernie Sanders promised to "continue to fight for every vote and every delegate," until the Democratic convention. He also slammed GOP rival Donald Trump as "a candidate whose major theme is bigotry." (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

Despite Hillary Clinton's delegate gains on June 7, presidential candidate Bernie Sanders promised to "continue to fight for every vote and every delegate," until the Democratic convention. He also slammed GOP rival Donald Trump as "a candidate whose major theme is bigotry." (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

After Tuesday night, Bernie Sanderss infinitesimal chance of winning the Democratic nomination rests on one possibility: that Democratic superdelegates will overturn the will of the voters.

This is no small irony: Sanders spent much of his campaign railing against superdelegates and fighting to eliminate the practice of giving party officials and establishment types a say in the nominating process. But the only thing keeping him in the race is the vain hope that superdelegates, the vast majority of whom support Hillary Clinton, will defy the popular vote and throw their support to him.

Little noticed in Clintons resounding victories in California and New Jersey Tuesday: She clinched an outright majority of regular, pledged delegates. Her 2,203 (to Sanderss 1,828) are a majority of the 4,051, even before D.C. has the final Democratic primary next week. If there were no such thing as superdelegates  as Sanders claims to desire  Clinton already would have won.

For some context: Clintons lead of nearly 400 pledged delegates is triple the lead Barack Obama had over Clinton when the 2008 primaries ended. Clinton has won 13 of the past 19 Democratic contests, compared with Obamas wins in three of the last 10 in 2008. Clinton has won 15.6 million votes, which is 3.7 million more than Sanders has received. (As for the Sanders claim to have brought new voters to the party, turnout has been lower than it was in 2008.)

By Sanderss own argument, superdelegates have no right to overturn the result of the popular vote. On June 4, 2008, Sanders, who hadnt endorsed during the primaries, decided to back Obama  days before Clinton dropped out and months before superdelegates voted. At the time, Sanderss hometown Burlington Free Press wrote: Sanders said he held off supporting either of the Democrats because he has made it a custom not to support any Democrat for the presidential nomination until the party had chosen its nominee.

So why isnt Sanders using the same standard now, even though Clinton has an outright majority of pledged delegates and a lopsided number of superdelegate commitments? Call it the politics of pique.

Politico, in an extensive look at the waning days of the Sanders campaign, described a candidate aggrieved. Sanders is himself filled with resentment, on edge, feeling like he gets no respect  all while holding on in his head to the enticing but remote chance that Clinton may be indicted before the convention, Edward-Isaac Dovere and Gabriel Debenedetti wrote. His guiding principle under attack has basically boiled down to a feeling that multiple aides sum up as: Screw me? No, screw you. 

Politico reported about an email from the Sanders rapid-response director about the campaigns scorched-earth position against the Democratic Party in Nevada, just to pick up two f---ing delegates in a state he lost. Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver replied that Sanders himself is driving this train.

Sanders now seeks the ouster of Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz and other party officials as payback. So, if this is all about Sanderss hurt feelings, let us praise and affirm him. He has run a brilliant campaign, invigorated the left, pushed Clinton in his direction and made his populist politics ascendant in the Democratic Party. He is entitled to his share of happiness. Hes good enough, hes smart enough and, doggone it, people like him.

But its time to abandon the canard that he is saving democracy in his bid to rid the party of superdelegates. In the young history of superdelegates there never has been a case when party-appointed delegates overruled the popular vote  even in 2008, when Clinton had early commitments from most of the superdelegates. Had Sanders won the popular vote, they would have swung to him, as they did to Obama.

Sanders seemed to be of two minds Tuesday night when he delivered a speech alternately defiant and conciliatory.

He vowed to continue the fight in the next primary, in Washington, D.C., and to take our fight for social, economic, racial and environmental justice to Philadelphia for the Democratic convention.

But he also said that we will not allow Donald Trump to become president of the United States, and that, in regards to Clinton, our fight is to transform this country and to understand that we are in this together.

As the crowd cheered Sanders in California Tuesday night, The Posts Robert Costa reported, his wife whispered to him: Theyre still with you.

They are. And Sanders can either lead them to work with Clinton for the ideas he believes in  or to nurse pointless grievances over a race Clinton won, fair and square.

Twitter: @Milbank

Read more from Dana Milbanks archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.
ON TUESDAY night, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton became the first woman to claim the presidential nomination of a major American political party. It was a historic moment  but she and the nation have little breathing space to savor the milestone.

There is, first, the question of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Mr. Sanders has fought hard, and he has won much along the way. The issues that matter to many of his supporters, such as income inequality, financial reform, health-care expansion and campaign finance, have come front and center  with Ms. Clintons campaign paying them more attention than might otherwise have been the case. But Mr. Sanders has also lost by every measure: delegates, primaries, total votes. Its time for him to concede while there is still a chance to do it with grace and to clear the road for Ms. Clinton to battle Donald Trump.

That raises the second question: What kind of campaign will Ms. Clinton wage? We hope she will focus on more than the negative. Its understandable for Ms. Clinton to run an anti-Trump campaign in the face of his unprecedented ugliness and bigotry. Yet surely one effective antidote to his vacuity would be substance; one answer to his divisiveness: a commitment to civil dialogue and a respect for independents and Republicans who will disagree with many of her views.

Ms. Clinton was widely praised, for example, for her searing attack last week on Mr. Trumps unfitness to lead as commander in chief. Fine, but as the presumptive Democratic nominee, she also needs to fill in the blanks of her own foreign-policy intentions. A day after that speech, 13 military and diplomatic leaders wrote a letter to President Obama pressing him not to withdraw more troops from Afghanistan during the rest of his term. What is Ms. Clintons view on that question? Her foreign-policy speech offered no clue, but voters deserve to know. As we noted recently, her refusal to hold news conferences doesnt help.

Ms. Clinton began her campaign  long, long ago  on the premise that voters would embrace an experienced leader offering substantive, pragmatic policy proposals. With Mr. Trump and Mr. Sanders ascendant, the market for substance and pragmatism came to seem limited at best, and Ms. Clinton understandably made some course corrections. But her initial judgment about what the nation needs was right. Now she has a second chance to explain how her deeply held convictions would influence her policymaking, and how she would accomplish her policy goals in what will remain, no matter which party controls Congress, a deeply divided country.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton spoke at her Brooklyn headquarters June 7. She thanked supporters and said that rival Donald Trump is "trying to wall off Americans from each other." (Victoria Walker/The Washington Post)

As the first major female presumptive nominee in the nations history, Ms. Clinton is already a role model of one kind. In providing a positive, substantive platform over the coming months, she could become a role model of another important sort  a leader who respects the art of governing, the fragile beauty of our constitutional system and the prerogatives of its citizens to make an informed choice.
Molly Roberts graduated last month from Harvard University and is an intern for The Posts editorial page. Twitter: @mollylroberts.

A female presidential candidate has clinched a major-party nomination for the first time in U.S. history. No one seems to care  at least not many people in my millennial generation. Not even women, although they should.

Maybe my cohort is caught up in the moment of Donald Trump: Millennial liberals may think its more vital to ward off an age of authoritarianism than to usher in a new era for feminism. Certainly, weve been distracted by Bernie Sanders: For idealistic young voters, a rabble-rousing revolutionary feels more alluring than a political pragmatist, even one with two X chromosomes.

College campuses buzz these days with talk of intersectionality, the notion that different forms of discrimination interact and overlap. So to many voters of my generation, being a woman alone might not seem like enough, if youre also white, straight, rich and, by the way, a Clinton.

Carrying that name means carrying a lot of baggage. Clinton has gotten flak for policies her husband championed while president, when todays youngest voters hadnt even reached preschool. Detractors point to the anti-crime and welfare reform efforts that took a greater toll on African Americans than any other population  and for which Hillary Clinton has since apologized.

Now, as Clinton champions an extension of the policies of the past eight years over Sanderss radical revisionism, many millennials are convinced she will always align herself at the center of the established order  wherever that is at any given moment.

Theyre missing the point.

Many millennials find it easier to pillory Clinton for her mistakes than to praise her for her successes as first lady. But they fail to appreciate how striking those successes were for a first lady at the time. They also fail to understand why Clinton couldnt go further  when its remarkable she got as far as she did at all.

Unlike her predecessors, Clinton didnt ask Americans to say no to drugs or yes to literacy. Instead, she set out to remake the health-care system. Installing a first lady in a prime-real-estate West Wing office rather than relegating her to traditional East Wing duties was an unprecedented move.

Back then, Clinton was hit from the right for overstepping the bounds of the first-lady role and involving herself in policy. Now, ironically, she is hit from my millennial friends on the left for, well, having involved herself in policy.

And Clinton wasnt viewed as a threat only because she was a woman: She was also too liberal. During Bill Clintons administration, critics accused her of yanking her husband to the left. Bill had promised two for the price of one. Yet when the package deal turned voters off, it was Hillarys job to step back. She was, after all, just the wife.

Today, ironically again, Clintons ideological views present a problem for many millennial voters for the opposite reason: She is, in their assessment, not liberal enough.

The millennial generation is now the largest, most ethnically diverse generation in American history. (Daron Taylor/The Washington Post)

My generation underrates not only Clintons past efforts but also her present significance. Our mothers faced gender barriers; their mothers faced even more. In the 1960s and early 70s, when many of our mothers were children, the most obvious career choice for a woman was housewife. For those who did work outside the home, the gender pay ratio hovered around 60 percent.

Women of my generation, on the other hand, grew up being taught  including by our mothers  that we could do anything. For the most part, it has played out that way. When we turn on the news, theres often a woman at the anchor desk  sometimes reporting on another woman. In any given year in the 70s, there were at most 19 women in the House and two in the Senate  including a four-year stretch with no female senators at all. In November, the combined number of women in both chambers passed 100 for the first time.

Our parents may have been surprised  our mothers were probably pleased  that Clinton secured an office in the West Wing at all. We see it as inevitable that one day a women will occupy the one that is oval-shaped.

So the necessity of having that occupant be Hillary Clinton, or of having that moment occur in 2017, feels less urgent. And the notion of the first female major-party presidential nominee is greeted with a collective millennial yawn.
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.

Even before the polls closed in New Hampshire, Hillary Clinton knew she was in for a very bad night.

The establishment worrywart caucus was freaking out, and the media was rife with speculation of an imminent staff shake-up. Was she once again being set up for a fall, a lumbering front-runner about to be toppled by a charismatic outsider?

Her answer: Get me a bigger plane.

Robby Mook, her penny-pinching campaign manager, blanched. But Clinton insisted that she did not want her aides trickling back to the Brooklyn campaign headquarters, one by one, nursing their dejection. Everyone would fly together.

As 30 or so aides boarded, Clinton and her husband, former president Bill Clinton, stood at the top of the stairs, shaking each ones hand and thanking them.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton spoke at her Brooklyn headquarters June 7. She thanked supporters and said that rival Donald Trump is "trying to wall off Americans from each other." (Victoria Walker/The Washington Post)

It was not just a gracious gesture. Clinton wanted to send a signal, one that would be understood internally, even if it took the rest of the political world a while to catch on. She and her team had a plan. She believed in it. They were sticking to it.

Hillary 2.0 would be very different from her 2008 operation, which had run aground in part because her campaign had failed to master the fundamentals. All over the map, they had been outmaneuvered; even where Clinton won, Barack Obamas more nimble and sophisticated team had somehow managed to squeeze out extra delegates.

Like Mook, Marlon Marshall had been a part of that failed effort.

When he joined the 2016 campaign as its director of state campaigns and political engagement, Marshall recalled, one of the first things that Robby and I talked about was, what is our delegate strategy?

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont proved to be a formidable opponent. His anti-establishment message was in tune with the disgruntled left, and he raised money by the boatload. The first sign came in September, when he raised more than $25 million  just $3 million less than she did.

They also knew that the money and the enthusiasm of his supporters meant that Sanders could stay in the fight even as Clinton built up her delegate lead  and methodically snuffed out any realistic chance he had of securing the nomination.

The real surprise was how things played out on the other side.

Iowa voters at a Clinton rally in Des Moines in January. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)

Clintons advisers had expected the Republicans, with their enormous field of candidates backed up by super PACs, to also have a drawn-out battle.

Although her campaign chairman, John Podesta, had been predicting privately since last summer that Donald Trump would be the GOP standard-bearer, none of her advisers expected him to clinch it as suddenly and decisively as he did.

After Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.) beat Trump in Wisconsin, Clintons advisers even held a planning session to get up to speed on how a contested Republican convention would work and figure out what that meant for them.

Instead, when Cruz dropped out in early May, Clinton was effectively running two campaigns at once  the final stages of a primary race and the opening ones of a general election.

Clinton has never been a dazzling campaigner. Not one for mega-rallies, she prefers small, scripted settings where she can discuss the policy intricacies of heroin addiction, mental health treatment, college debt or gun control  all the while keeping her campaign press corps at arms length.

There have also been times when her tone-deafness could be spectacular.

In March, during a CNN town hall in Ohio, she boasted that she was the only candidate which has a policy about how to bring economic opportunity using clean renewable energy as the key into coal country, and added: Were going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.

Those words came back to haunt her in West Virginia. I do feel a little bit sad and sorry that I gave folks the reason, or the excuse, to be so upset with me, because that is not what I intended at all, she told an out-of-work miner who confronted her about that comment.

Meanwhile, old questions about her character have been revived by an FBI probe into the security issues raised by her unauthorized use of a private email system while she was secretary of state.

And Democrats, unlike Republicans, are not generally receptive to do-overs by their failed candidates. They prefer to turn the page.

So it was both poignant and ironic that the day Clinton would celebrate making history as the first woman to clinch a major partys nomination was also the eighth anniversary of her concession to Obama.

That speech is remembered mostly for the line in which she declared that she had put 18 million cracks  the number of votes she had gotten  in that highest, hardest glass ceiling.

But there was also what, in retrospect, sounded like a declaration that she would be back.

Life is too short, time is too precious and the stakes are too high to dwell on what might have been, Clinton said. We have to work together for what still can be.

Iowa: A test of lessons learned

What have you done for Iowa today? read the message Mook had scribbled on a whiteboard in Brooklyn. Whenever someone would erase it, he would write it again.

The way they ran Iowa was to be the test of whether Clinton and her team had really learned from their mistakes.

And in the end, it was also a caution. They barely squeaked by Sanders, who had gotten a late start there and who did not have anything close to Clintons organization.

His huge rallies, and the fire he lit with young people in particular, stoked worries that Clinton might be in for a replay of 2008.

We said from the beginning it was going to be close, that we werent going to take anything for granted and that we were going to have to compete for every single supporter in Iowa, recalled Matt Paul, her state director. All of those things turned out to be true.

Still, a win was a win, and it was also a little bit of insulation against Sanderss 22-point blowout eight days later in New Hampshire.

Conceding in New Hampshire, Clinton was already looking forward to South Carolina and Nevada, both of which have more racially diverse populations than the first two states.

Crack down on corporations that game the system. Stop other countries from taking advantage of us with unfair trade practices, she said, in a nod to Sanderss populist lines.

But even all that is not enough, she added. We also have to break through the barriers of bigotry. African American parents shouldnt have to worry that their children will be harassed, humiliated, even shot because of the color of their skin. Immigrant families shouldnt have to lie awake at night listening for a knock on the door. LGBT Americans shouldnt be fired from their jobs because of who they are or who they love.

It was within the minority communities that she would gain traction. Her campaign had considered Nevadas caucuses what one aide called a coin flip, but she won by a surprisingly comfortable five points.

And in South Carolina, the margin was a staggering 48 points.

Averaging across all the primaries, Clinton won 78 percent of African American voters, to Sanderss 21 percent, and Latinos by 60 percent to his 39 percent. Among whites, he narrowly edged her out, 49 percent to 48 percent.

The age disparity was also significant  and worrisome for Clinton, who needs younger voters to rally around her this fall, as they did for Obama.

Sanders won Democrats ages 18 to 29 by a 43-point margin in primary season. The two candidates ran close to even among voters in their 30s and 40s. Clinton carried older voters handily, winning the 45-to-64 age group, which made up 40 percent of the Democratic primary electorate, by an average of 28 points.

But Mooks mantra remained the same: Its all about the delegates.

After his loss in South Carolina, Sanders barely contested delegate-rich states in other parts of the Old South, concentrating instead on places where he could beat Clinton  such as Oklahoma.

That made sense in some way, in that it maintained the appearance of momentum and kept his supporters enthusiasm going.

They were going for wins, instead of spreading out their resources to narrow the margins everywhere, a key calculation, given the Democrats system of proportionally allocating delegates, said one top Clinton campaign aide, giving a frank assessment in return for anonymity.

It was a strategy for staying in the race. It wasnt a strategy for winning, the aide added.

At one point in April, Sanders could count seven victories out of the previous eight contests. But that string of wins did little to cut into Clintons delegate lead, thanks to the way the Democrats proportional system works. In Wyoming, for instance, he got 56 percent of the vote, but he and Clinton came out with seven delegates each.

Yet Sanderss superior financial resources required Clintons campaign to make some calculations of its own.

Clinton had to be careful, for instance, in deciding where to buy television advertising. Instead of running spots in the expensive Dallas market, the campaign bought time in Waco, which was cheaper and had the potential to yield more delegates. Macon, Ga., made more sense than Atlanta because the campaign could reach into more congressional districts while spending less.

Even though no one would have fathomed it, we ended up being the leaner, meaner campaign and were more efficient, said spokesman Brian Fallon.

In accumulating delegates, Mook thought there were three big milestones: March 1, a.k.a. Super Tuesday, when there were contests in a dozen states and territories, including Texas and Georgia; March 15, another big round, including Florida, Ohio and Illinois; and a smaller trove on March 26, which would make her lead all but insurmountable.

In retrospect, those contests turned out to be as decisive as she had hoped. As of last weekend, Clinton held a lead of roughly 290 pledged delegates  nearly half of which could be attributed to Texas and Florida alone.

But there were also miscalculations, the biggest of which was Michigan. Just days before the March 8 primary, public surveys had Clinton up by double digits; Sanders ended up winning by a point and a half.

Clinton strategists do not have an explanation for what went wrong. They say their internal polls had the race much closer. But they also acknowledge that they made a mistake by concentrating their efforts in Detroit and Flint, while neglecting the rest of the state. It was a mistake they vowed not to repeat.

By the beginning of May, they faced a delicate dilemma. Clinton did not want to appear dismissive of Sanders or the fact that there were more primaries to go. But with the GOP contest over, they could not afford to wait any longer to get on a general-election war footing. The campaign started quietly staffing up in the battleground states and now has state directors, as well as communications and organizing operations, in 10 of them.

Looking ahead to Trump

One of the things that has worried some Democrats is the question of how a by-the-book candidate like Clinton would deal with someone as wildly unconventional as Trump.

When violence broke out ahead of a Trump rally in Chicago in March, forcing him to cancel, he took to television to encourage his fans to blame Sanderss supporters.

Clinton remained silent for hours, and her initial response was tepid. It was not until the next day that she accused Trump of setting the tone that encouraged the melee. If you play with matches, youre going to start a fire you cant control, she said in St. Louis.

But she found her footing more quickly the night of the Pennsylvania primary.

Trump, with the GOP nomination in hand, had been vowing to recalibrate his style and become more presidential. His chief strategist, Paul Manafort, had assured members of the Republican National Committee in a closed-door briefing that the real estate mogul had merely been playing a part in the primary, that Trump would begin evolving into the part that youve been expecting. The negatives will come down, the image is going to change.

That was exactly what Clinton and her team expected as well  and it worried them. But so far, those fears havent been realized.

In the car on the way to the airport in Philadelphia, they heard of Trumps latest fusillade.

Frankly, if Hillary Clinton were a man, I dont think shed get 5 percent of the vote. The only thing shes got going is the womans card, Trump said. And the beautiful thing is, women dont like her. Look how well I did with women tonight.

On the short flight to Teterboro, N.J., they deliberated what to do. Should she express outrage? Should she dispute the fairness of what he had said?

As it happened, the campaigns digital staff had already prepared a video of one of Clintons often-used lines, which she had repeated that night: If fighting for womens health care and paid family leave and equal pay is playing the woman card, then deal me in.

That, communications director Jennifer Palmieri told the others on the plane, is our only response.

In retrospect, Palmieri said, that was the night he became the Republican nominee. It was important to freeze that moment in time. The next two days saw the biggest online fundraising of the entire campaign.

In San Diego last week, Clinton eviscerated Trump in a speech billed as a foreign policy address. Her technique was to use Trumps own words to make the case against him.

Her allies cheered.

It put a lot of Democratic bed-wetting on pause, said one campaign official. Now they can visualize how we will take the fight to him.

Campaign officials said they are already planning a similar speech focused on the economy.

But they also insist that they cannot count on the Republican nominee to be his own undoing.

We cant go into it thinking our opponent will excite our base. We have to give people a reason to vote for us, too, Marshall said. We have an opportunity to go out there and earn it.

Clinton has already made history by locking up the nomination. And she has shown that she can learn from her own mistakes. Now comes the biggest chance of all, and this time, there will be no margin for error.

Anne Gearan in New York, Abby Phillip in Los Angeles and Scott Clement in Washington contributed to this report.
Minutes before her address declaring victory as the Democratic presidential nominee Tuesday evening, Hillary Clinton was worried she might not make it through her prepared remarks without crying.

I was overwhelmed, Clinton said in an interview with The Washington Post on Wednesday.

It just was a sense of momentous historic experience  that I was part of it and it really was hard to actually, you know, make sense of it, Clinton said, marvelling a day later at the sight of thousands of supporters crowded into a Brooklyn warehouse to celebrate.

I was worried that if, when I went out to speak, just the emotion of the moment would be so intense that I might have trouble getting through the speech itself. So I did have to collect myself and try to get prepared.

Clinton spoke by telephone a day after becoming the first woman in U.S. history to be the presumptive leader of a major-party presidential ticket. In her victory address on Tuesday, Clinton claimed the mantle in the names of suffragists and others who went before her.

On the night six states including California and New Jersey went to the polls, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) vowed to continue "the struggle," even as rival Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton had pivoted to thanking supporters and slamming Republican Donald Trump. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)

[The full transcript: The Hillary Clinton interview]

She spoke quietly at first. Supporters at the Brooklyn speech screamed as Clinton spread her arms in a gesture of triumph and gratitude. Some wept.

She said Wednesday that she had to work especially hard to keep her composure during a long passage crediting her late mother, Dorothy, with setting an example of hard work and kindness.

I practiced the part about my mother several times, because I teared up every time I practiced it. And I tried to get myself so that I could be, you know, a little more used to saying it. And it still was for me personally one of the most extraordinary and meaningful public experiences Ive ever had.

In her first Post interview since launching her campaign 14 months ago, Clinton expressed cautious hope that rival Bernie Sanders, whose candidacy produced an unexpectedly hard-fought nominating contest, would soon rally behind her. And she left open the possibility that one of his chief demands  a change in the Democratic Partys system of superdelegates  might be met.

Clinton fiercely denounced Republican opponent Donald Trump for what she said are racist views. She stopped short of labeling him a racist.

I dont know whats in his heart. I have no way of telling that, Clinton said. I can just say that if you look at what hes been proclaiming since he started the campaign, he has been engaging in divisive and prejudiced attacks against people.

View Graphic Donald Trump vs. Hillary Clinton on the issues

Clinton is expected to formally become the nominee at the Democratic Partys convention next month in Philadelphia. She begins general-election campaigning in earnest next week, with visits to the battleground states of Ohio and Pennsylvania. She has started campaigning directly against Trump, calling him dangerous and unfit to lead the country.

Trumps complaints about a U.S.-born federal judge of Mexican heritage prompted some of Clintons most pointed criticism of Trump to date. The episode allowed her to paint Trump as racially insensitive just as she was making an important appeal to Hispanics in the run-up to Tuesdays primary in California, where Hispanics are 40 percent of the population.

And I think part of the reason he launched that attack using the racist language he did was to divert attention from the scam that is Trump University, she said. Which has been called a fraudulent scheme by officials on the staff of Trump University. And then he doubled down, saying he wasnt sure a Muslim judge could be impartial, given his support for banning all Muslims from coming to the country.

Part of Democrats strategy will be to try to allow Trump to dig holes for himself, as Clinton allies think he did with the controversy over the judge.

Trump and Clinton are roughly tied in the RealClearPolitics average of recent national polls, with Clinton ahead by just two percentage points. Many of those surveys were conducted before the judge controversy, which has led many national Republican figures to condemn Trumps comments even if they do not disavow him as the presumptive GOP presidential candidate.

Even though I cant say whats in his heart, if you say someone cant do their job because of their heritage, that is certainly a racist attack, Clinton said. And its just plain wrong. It has no place in our politics. And as we have seen in the last week, a lot of Republicans, prominent Republicans, have rejected that and distanced themselves from it.

Clinton ended up winning California handily Tuesday after a primary battle that was more difficult and divisive than predicted. A Sanders victory in California would not have changed the fact of Clintons overall victory Tuesday but would have blotted her success with a reminder of how many young and very liberal Democrats are not supporting her.

Trump had secured the Republican nomination weeks before, while Clinton was waging a fight with two opponents. Some Democrats are worried about the toll the long campaign took on Clintons standing nationally  and about the difficulty she may have uniting Democrats behind her.

Weve had a tough-fought race, and I, you know, admire his energy, his determination and commitment, Clinton said of Sanders.

I am certainly reaching out. Our campaigns are talking about how we can be unified, against the threat that Donald Trump poses to our future, and I want to unite the party and the country, Clinton said. Weve got to do that to run the most effective race we can against Trump, and then we have to keep working to unify the country to get things done.

Sanders did not concede after Tuesdays round of primaries. He had said previously that he planned to take his cause to the convention.

Asked whether she is concerned that Sanders might not be a full partner once his candidacy is finally over, Clinton paused.

I certainly hope he will be, she said. I think he and his supporters understand how much is at stake, that we need to join together to defeat Trump. And Im going to really reach out, do everything I can to persuade him.

As to the role of superdelegates, which Sanders has said contribute to a Democratic primary election system that he has called unfair, Clinton said she expects that the Democratic National Committee will at least consider a change.

Yeah, were going to have a discussion. I think thats something that the DNC does after every convention, she said.

She did not express a direct personal opinion about whether the superdelegate system should be retained. Superdelegates are elected officials and party elders who, unlike pledged delegates won in state contests, can cast a vote for any candidate at the convention. Clinton had the support of a huge number of superdelegates throughout the campaign, adding to the obstacles facing any insurgent campaign to catch her.

Clinton said the FBI has not yet scheduled a time to interview her about the private email system she used at the State Department. The FBI is investigating whether classified information or national security were compromised through her use of a system that operated separately from the regular State Department email system.

I certainly would like to see this wrapped up, she said.
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Kamala Harris, a candidate for the U.S. Senate, thanks supporters who worked a phone bank for her at the California Democratic Party on election day. (Rich Pedroncelli/AP)

Kamala Harris was declared the winner of the Senate primary in California early Wednesday morning, handily beating her competition with 40 percent of the vote with 76 percent of precincts reporting, according to the Associated Press.

Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D) was trailing far behind Harris with 16 percent of the vote, but she was still in second place. If that result holds, it means the two Democratic women would face off against each other in November for the seat of retiring Sen. Barbara Boxer (D). In third place as the early returns were being counted was Duf Sundheim, the former California Republican party chair.

Harris, 51, the states attorney general, was easily the top vote-getter among a field of 34 candidates. She bested a field that included a dozen Republicans, whose party struggled to contend for the first open Senate seat in the Golden State in 24 years.

I am just thrilled. I am a proud daughter of California and I cannot be more proud than I am tonight, Harris said in San Francisco. We have run a campaign, and we will continue to run a campaign, that is about fighting for the ideals of our country. We have so many challenges as a country and we are prepared to lead, she said, citing passing comprehensive immigration reform, combating climate change, reforming the criminal justice system and eliminating that income divide that is making so many families suffer.

Sanchez, 56, a 10-term House member, was well behind but still in second place. Under the states primary rules, the two candidates with the highest vote totals, regardless of party, advance to the general election.

Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-N.C.) lost her June 7 primary despite being the first member of congress to receive an endorsement from Donald Trump. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)

The two women led in polling during the past year, owing to a significant Democratic registration advantage and a roster of Republicans who lacked statewide name recognition.

Harris and Sanchez each drew national attention and support because each is poised to make history if elected: Harris would be only the second black woman elected to the Senate, and Sanchez would be one of the first Latinas. Catherine Cortez Masto, a Latina Democrat running for the open Nevada seat of Sen. Harry M. Reid (D), also has a shot at winning in November.

In other significant congressional races Tuesday night, Rep. Renee L. Ellmers (R-N.C.), who was endorsed by Donald Trump, lost her bid for reelection Tuesday, becoming the first GOP congressional incumbent to be defeated in 2016.

Rep. George Holding (R-N.C.) beat Ellmers  who was targeted by conservative groups who once backed during her 2010 election in the tea party wave  and Greg Brannon in North Carolinas 2nd Congressional District, which includes suburban and rural Raleigh.

Holding represents the 13th Congressional District but chose to run in the 2nd District after court-mandated redistricting took effect earlier this year, prompting an incumbent-versus-incumbent showdown.

[Heres what happens when a tea party darling becomes the movements enemy]

And in California, several Republican House members who could be endangered in November were on the ballot Tuesday night. California had a surge of last-minute voter registrations  76 percent of which were Democrats.

U.S. Rep. Loretta Sanchez exits a voting booth in Orange, Calif. Early results showed Sanchez in second place in the U.S. Senate race, and if that holds, she will face Kamala Harris in November. (Ken Steinhardt/Orange County Register via AP)

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, representing the Bakersfield-based 23rd District, spent more than $2.1 million from Jan. 1 to mid-May to strengthen his standing even without a well-funded challenger, running TV and radio ads in the primarys final days.

The most vulnerable Republican incumbent may be Rep. Steve Knight in the 25th District, which includes northern Los Angeles and Ventura counties. Other House Republicans who may be at risk, but probably less so, are Reps. Jeff Denham and David Valadao, who represent parts of the Central Valley.

Rep. Darrell Issas reelection bid is another one to watch  the 49th District includes parts of San Diego and Orange counties. Issa has been a staunch Trump supporter, and there could be blowback from voters that could benefit Democratic challenger Doug Applegate.

In the Senate race, Harris, a native of Oakland and a former San Francisco district attorney, jumped into the race immediately after Boxer announced she was leaving the Senate at the end of her fourth term. She won the endorsement of the California Democratic Party, and two weeks ago Gov. Jerry Brown (D) gave her his blessing. Harris also has been backed by some of the states largest labor unions, the Congressional Black Caucuss PAC and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

Sanchez, whose district is based in Orange County, embraced her underdog status in the race, casting Harris as the establishment candidate. She also has sought to make the case that she is the only candidate in the race with congressional experience, which would make her a more effective lawmaker in the upper chamber. Sanchez has the backing of several California House members, the Congressional Hispanic Caucuss PAC and the Latino Victory Fund.

[Hispanic congresswoman: California Dems lack of support for Sanchez disgraceful]

For the most part, the two women avoided criticizing each other during the primary. That is likely to change as they enter the next phase of the contest.

Harriss campaign thinks that she has the advantage from having won two statewide races in 2010 and 2014. She also starts the general election with $4.7 million in cash.

Sanchez has $1.3 million in cash, but her campaign is banking on increased support from Latino and Southern California voters who see a chance to capture one of the Senate seats.

The congresswoman, who serves on the Armed Forces and Homeland Security committees, also is hoping to get support from Republicans, who might find her more politically palatable than Harris.

Recent polls, however, have suggested that a significant number of Republican voters say they would not vote for either Democrat.
The senator from Vermont is Hillary Clintons rival in the contest for the Democratic presidential nomination.

The senator from Vermont is Hillary Clintons rival in the contest for the Democratic presidential nomination.

The senator from Vermont is Hillary Clintons rival in the contest for the Democratic presidential nomination.

The competition between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders entered an urgent new phase Wednesday  a delicate minuet that Clinton and leading Democrats hope will soothe tensions and move their divided party toward enthusiastic unification behind the presumptive presidential nominee.

If all goes well, the Democrats will arrive at their convention in Philadelphia in late July with Sanders fully supportive of Clinton and his millions of fervent followers ready to become foot soldiers in the race against presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.

But all that presupposes that Clinton and the senator from Vermont can quickly reconcile. And there was little evidence Wednesday that this would be an easy task.

Clinton said Wednesday that she called Sanders after Tuesday nights primaries, which secured her the nomination, to congratulate him on what she called an extraordinary campaign. She said she admires his determination and highlighted their shared commitment on policy goals like universal health care and rising wages.

I think he and his supporters understand how much is at stake, that we need to join together to defeat Trump, Clinton said in an interview with The Washington Post, the first of her 14-month campaign. And Im going to really reach out, do everything I can to persuade him. I will be obviously reaching out to his supporters to make that same case.

On the night six states including California and New Jersey went to the polls, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) vowed to continue "the struggle," even as rival Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton had pivoted to thanking supporters and slamming Republican Donald Trump. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)

Still, Sanders  who digested his new circumstances and discussed a path ahead with advisers and family Wednesday aboard a cross-country flight home to Vermont  has vowed to fight on. He has a rally planned for Thursday evening in Washington ahead of next Tuesdays District of Columbia primary, the final contest.

On Wednesday, some Sanders backers urged him not to back down until Clinton makes meaningful concessions. Shes going to have to inspire trust, said Ben Jealous, a former NAACP leader and a Sanders supporter.

But others, including Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Rep. Raul M. Grijalva(D-Ariz.), are gently urging Sanders to accept the reality that Clinton will become the nominee.

A handful of people are playing key roles in trying to broker peace between the two warring campaigns, including President Obama, Vice President Biden, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.).

Obama and White House political director David Simas, as well as Warren and Reid, have been in communication with both camps to lay the foundation for an eventual coming together, according to several senior Democrats. Obama called both candidates Tuesday night and was scheduled to meet with Sanders at the White House on Thursday. Sanders also plans to meet with Reid that day on Capitol Hill.

Its not a one-way street. Theyre both going to have to, in effect, compromise, Reid said in an interview Tuesday. Reflecting on his earlier career as a trial lawyer, the Senate Democratic leader said, I never knew what was going to happen when I went to trial, so if I could get a decent offer I would settle that case, and thats what I think my two friends should take a look at.

In one way, what Sanders and Clinton will be doing is common at the end of spirited nomination battles. Just eight years ago, Clinton was on the other side as the losing candidate, eventually reaching an accommodation with Obama, but not without some hiccups along the way.

View Graphic We narrowed Clintons vice presidential possibilities to 27. Now you pick one.

[How Clinton did it the second time around]

Leading Democrats say that this time is different and potentially more difficult. For one, Sanders operates outside the Democratic Party structure. He has run in Vermont as an independent and self-described democratic socialist. And although he caucuses with Democrats in the Senate, his ties to the institutional party are decidedly looser than were Clintons.

Even more important, however, is that his candidacy  like Obamas in 2008  generated great enthusiasm and spawned a powerful grass-roots movement made up of independents and others who do not identify with the Democratic establishment. Clinton will need his voters in the fall, and that no doubt will require the help of Sanders.

How Sanders approaches this period is a source of uncertainty and anxiety.

He is certainly against Trump and will do anything to stop Trump, said Tad Devine, a senior strategist for Sanders. If he is going to get out and endorse her before the convention, how do you do that in a way to persuade as many of his supporters as possible to support her? Not just, Im for her, but, You be for her, too. 

[Clinton claims nomination victory in Brooklyn speech Tuesday]

Even though the primary calendar has nearly run out, the Sanders movement is very much alive. He has addressed big, boisterous rallies in California for the past several weeks.

Hes obviously struggling and in great internal conflict about whats going on, said former Vermont governor Howard Dean (D), a Clinton supporter. He knows intellectually that he cant win, but he cant stop himself. . . . There is part of him that doesnt want to quit.

Sanders probably will find very little sympathy for the case that he has said he would make between now and the convention, which is to ask the hundreds of superdelegates  Democratic elected officials and party leaders  who have publicly committed to Clinton not only to change their allegiance, but also to go against the total popular vote and the results of state-by-state contests over the past four-plus months.

Even among Sanderss supporters, that argument may not hold water. Many progressive activists dislike the very concept of superdelegates  a position that Warren, whose liberal base is the same that fueled Sanderss candidacy, advocated over the weekend.

Im a superdelegate and I dont believe in superdelegates. I dont think that superdelegates ought to sway the election, Warren, who has not endorsed a candidate, told reporters in Massachusetts.

[Democratic superdelegates: The villains of a rigged system, according to Sanderss supporters]

Warrens comment about superdelegates notwithstanding, she is seen by other leaders of the party as uniquely credible and positioned to play one of the most influential roles in bridging the Clinton and Sanders divide.

A Warren adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly, said of the senator, She takes the threat of Trump very seriously and she takes seriously her potential role in helping unify the party.

One danger is that Sanders could be met by a chorus of Democrats urging him, both personally and publicly, to bow out. We have to be thoughtful about having a few voices at one time as opposed to everyone talking and preaching at the same time, said Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr. (D-Pa.), a Clinton backer. You cant have 30 people call and start lecturing.

There is considerable recognition among some party leaders that Sanders deserves deference from Clinton as well as some concessions that would continue to elevate the populist ideas that have been at the heart of his candidacy.

At a meeting Tuesday morning of the Senate Democratic leadership, some senators vented about Sanders vowing to fight on and said that they had lost their patience with him. One Democratic official who relayed the exchange said Reid quieted the chatter, telling his colleagues,We have to remember that Bernie has always been good to us, hes always been there when we needed him, and we need to treat him fairly.

In the interview, Reid, who endorsed Clinton in February, reiterated those feelings and stressed the need to treat both Sanders and his followers respectfully. He said Sanders has been a tremendously important part of my caucus, and Democrats would need to depend on Bernie for the final seven months of Obamas presidency.

A lot of people he has energized and they are rabidly involved in the system now, Reid said. What I am so impressed with is that we have these new people, so its extremely important that Clinton and Bernie . . . both understand what theyve got to offer and that they work toward a middle.

Supporters of Sanders see it as especially crucial that Clinton as well as the Democratic National Committee make genuine concessions. They already have seated five Sanders supporters on the 15-member committee responsible for drafting the party platform in Philadelphia. The committee had its first meeting Wednesday.

Other ideas from Sanders allies include stronger policy positions by Clinton and in the platform on trade, fracking, Social Security, the role of money in politics and other reform issues.

Were not talking about little tiny changes, Merkley said. My hope and expectation is that Secretary Clinton will find a way to understand how big these issues are and to find that she believes in aggressively taking them on. That would be necessary for the Sanders team to feel like they really want to get out and knock on those doors.

Some Democrats think that the most important step Clinton could take to bring Sanderss supporters enthusiastically behind her candidacy  short of naming him as her vice-presidential running-mate  would be to tap Warren for the ticket. The idea has gained currency in Washington in recent weeks.

One potential obstacle is that Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican, would have the power to fill Warrens seat in the Senate were Warren to become vice president. But Reid, who has long expressed his admiration for Warren, recently ordered up a legal analysis of Massachusetts election law, first reported by the Boston Globe, which concluded that there are avenues open to the Democrats to minimize the threat.

Im a big fan of Elizabeth Warren, Reid said in the interview. I would hope that Clinton and Bernie understand what a good woman she is and that they find a role for her, whatever that might be.

Reid raised the example of Obama in 2008 inviting Clinton into his circle, just as President Abraham Lincoln did in building a team of rivals. He reached out to her and gave her the best job he had to offer, secretary of state, and I think the history books will recount that was a brilliant move, he said.

Asked whether he would counsel Clinton to ask Sanders to join her ticket, Reid said he would not give her advice.

You can make a case for who is the strongest at this stage, either Clinton or Bernie, but the point is they have to work it out, Reid said. No one can do it for them.

Robert Costa, Anne Gearan, Greg Sargent and John Wagner contributed to this report.
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 day after the Affordable Care Act passed the House, several of President Obamas top advisers met in the Situation Room. Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was buoyant, and she congratulated everyone in the room, recalled former White House adviser David Axelrod. Then Obama walked in, and Clinton  who had tried and failed to pass comprehensive health-care reform when her husband was president in the 1990s  gave him a big hug.

Eight years ago, Clinton and Obama were competitors who had taken several well-publicized swipes at each other, and whose surrogates had engaged in much worse. But that unguarded moment at the White House, when Clinton affectionately acknowledged that her 2008 presidential rival had succeeded where she had failed, reflected the evolution of an alliance that has defied expectations.

Now, after dutifully supporting Obamas presidency, Clinton is ready to reverse the roles. And as she assumes the mantle of the Democratic Partys standard bearer, no single relationship may be more important to realizing her current aspirations than the one she has forged with Obama.

Clinton and Obama have already met a couple of times at the White House since she launched her presidential bid  sessions that were disclosed after the fact. They chat by phone periodically  including on Tuesday night, when Obama called to congratulate her on clinching the nomination.

The president hasnt provided tactical advice, according to an individual familiar with the conversations, but he has offered broad guidance about the importance of Clinton staying true to her own values and the issues that matter. But his role is likely to change dramatically in the coming days and weeks  and Clintons team cant wait.

In this image digitally altered by the source to diffuse the paper in front of then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, President Obama and Vice President Biden, along with members of the national security team, receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in the Situation Room in May 2011. (Pete Souza/White House via AP)

Many of her top staffers served as senior Obama administration officials, and they believe the presidents political gifts and enduring popularity will only help her in the general-election contest against Donald Trump. Several Democrats said the president probably will serve a similar role to the explainer in chief function that Bill Clinton played for Obama in 2012, pointing out flaws in the Republicans arguments.

[In break with protocol, Obama criticizes Trump while overseas]

Obama would be a uniquely valuable voice in support of Clinton, campaign press secretary Brian Fallon said.

He came away from the 2008 campaign with enough respect to make her a part of his Cabinet and relied on her advice when she accepted, Fallon said. He has already shown in recent appearances that he is an effective messenger in terms of explaining the danger Donald Trump poses.

Obamas and Clintons comfortable rapport, in which the president is offering insights on how to navigate rocky political shoals, was not inevitable.

Former congressman Barney Frank (D-Mass.), a Clinton supporter, said it was understandable that the two politicians emerged from their lengthy primary battle with bruised feelings.

First of all, nobody likes the person youre running against, he said. One of the biggest lies in politics is, We ran against each other, but were good friends. 

[Next for Democrats: A delicate dance to broker peace between Clinton and Sanders]

There were some particularly sharp moments, such as when Obama told Clinton she was likeable enough, or when Clinton remarked that her rivals willingness to meet without preconditions with the leaders of hostile nations such as Iran, Cuba and North Korea was irresponsible and frankly naive.

But the breach was repaired as both Clinton and her husband worked to mobilize voters on Obamas behalf once she had conceded the nomination. And her move that year to nominate Obama for president by acclamation at the Democratic National Convention smoothed the way for them to cooperate on the campaign trail.

Still, Axelrod, who helped Obama win the White House and retain it four years later, said the presidents selection of Clinton to serve as his secretary of state was surprising to a lot of us, because we had just run a two-year campaign that was very competitive. Over time, however, he and others observed them develop a true affinity.

There was a genuine relationship there rooted in respect, admiration and friendship, he said. They came to symbolize that element of our democracy.

When Clinton addressed foreign audiences, she often used her own example to describe how the American system works. He won, I lost, and I went to work for him, she would say. No one staged a revolt. No one died. No one went to jail.

Initially, Clinton allies largely saw the post as a reward that carried some risks. She would be in the public eye, always a double-edged sword, and she would be lashed to Obamas foreign-policy decisions for good or ill.

At times, Clinton fretted about her role within Obamas inner circle. In an exchange released last year in connection with a probe of her private email server, she asked aides why she had arrived for a morning meeting at the White House only to discover it was canceled.

This is the second time this has happened, she wrote. Whats up???

The job ended up producing Clintons highest approval ratings of her long public career  numbers her closest aides at the time said could never last  and also some of the largest liabilities she now faces as a candidate. Her private email server is the subject of an FBI inquiry. She was in charge when four Americans died at poorly secured U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya.

The relationship was not without its disagreements over policy or approach to foreign crises. But over the four years of her tenure, her relationship with Obama became one of deep admiration and trust on both sides. When she left, in early 2013, she did so with Obamas implicit endorsement as his successor. They gave a joint television interview  the only such session he had ever done  in which he declared, I think Hillary will go down as one of the finest secretary of states weve had.

[With legacy in the balance, Obama tries to shore up Democrats in 2016]

Each said they relied on the advice and perspective of the other, and they displayed an easy familiarity that suggested they could speak frankly with one another.

In recent years Obama has made a point of praising the toughness of Clinton and another prominent female Democrat hes worked with most closely, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), saying that female politicians of their generation have faced challenges their male counterparts did not.

Reflecting on the 2008 race in an interview in January with Politicos Glenn Thrush, the president remarked, I mean, we had as competitive and lengthy and expensive and tough primary fight as there has been in modern American politics, and she had to do everything that I had to do, except, like Ginger Rogers, backwards in heels.

She had to wake up earlier than I did because she had to get her hair done. She had to, you know, handle all the expectations that were placed on her, he continued. She had a tougher job throughout that primary than I did and, you know, she was right there the entire time and, had things gone a little bit different in some states or if the sequence of primaries and caucuses been a little different, she could have easily won.

Frank noted that the race eight years ago was a pair of firsts, the first African American president versus the first woman president. If Obama can help Clinton this time around, Frank added, the president wont go into the history books as the guy who prevented the first woman president from taking office.

While riding on Marine One on Wednesday, Obama discussed with his aides how he was struck by the historic nature of last nights speech, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said. Regardless of which candidate you intend to support in the fall, the fact that we have a woman whos . . . been nominated by a major party as a candidate for president of the United States is a history-making moment.

Republicans have argued that the drawn-out primary season has exposed Clintons vulnerabilities as a candidate along with the publics unease with establishment politicians, two factors that Obamas support alone cannot overcome.

But the president has already played a central role in her campaign narrative. Clinton has made the story of her selection as Obamas top diplomat a standard part of her stump speech. He had to ask her more than once, she says, and he would not take no for an answer. She praises him, often extensively, for his work to right the U.S. economic ship in 2009, and for what she calls crisp and principled decision-making. Lately, she uses the example of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden to draw a comparison between Obamas leadership style and what the country might get under Trump.

Clinton and Obama are poised to forge the closest campaign relationship between a two-term president and a potential successor in a generation. Then-Vice President Al Gore famously avoided campaigning with Bill Clinton in 2000, in the aftermath of the presidents impeachment.

In 1988, George H.W. Bush consciously aligned himself with Ronald Reagan to capitalize on Reagans popularity, but the two were not close. And while Bush struggled to overcome Reagans shadow, Clinton has not suffered from the second banana problem many vice presidents and other Cabinet members have experienced in similar situation, said David Karol, a political science professor at the University of Maryland.

People dont see her as an obsequious person, even the people who dont like her, he said. Thats not her problem.
The senator from Vermont is Hillary Clintons rival in the contest for the Democratic presidential nomination.

The senator from Vermont is Hillary Clintons rival in the contest for the Democratic presidential nomination.

The senator from Vermont is Hillary Clintons rival in the contest for the Democratic presidential nomination.

During a fiery speech to supporters late Tuesday night in California, Bernie Sanders rattled off several reasons why hes staying in the race against Hillary Clinton. But there was strikingly little said about what typically would be the most compelling one: winning the Democratic nomination.

The senator from Vermont drew deafening cheers from the crowd of more than 3,000 in Santa Monica when he said he would make good on his promise to fight for every vote, including in the final primary Tuesday in the District.

And his followers screamed in appreciation when Sanders talked about the issues he still plans to press, including breaking up the big banks and making health care a universal right.

But the reality of a long day in which Sanders lost decisively to Clinton in California  where he had hoped to score a statement-making upset  appeared to be sinking in.

I am pretty good in arithmetic, and I know that the fight in front of us is a very, very steep fight, the self-described democratic socialist told his supporters. But we will continue to fight for every vote and every delegate we can get.

Despite Hillary Clintons delegate gains on Tuesday, presidential candidate Bernie Sanders promised to continue to fight for every vote and every delegate, until the Democratic convention. He also slammed GOP rival Donald Trump as a candidate whose major theme is bigotry. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

The reality is, what for weeks had already been a narrow path for Sanders to catch Clinton in the delegate chase had turned into the remotest of possibilities.

[Weve reached a milestone: Clinton claims the nomination]

With Tuesdays results, Clinton extended her lead in pledged delegates  those won in primaries and caucuses  to 375, the largest it has been since the primary season began, and far larger than Clinton ever trailed now-President Obama during the 2008 election, according to a preliminary tally by the Associated Press.

The margin is likely to grow by next week after the primary in the nations capital, where Clinton is heavily favored.

That means that Sanderss only remaining path to the nomination is persuading hundreds of the superdelegates who have announced their support for Clinton to switch sides before the Democratic convention in July. And the superdelegates  elected officials and party elites free to support their choice for president  have so far been presented with few compelling reasons to do so.

A close look at the math should be particularly sobering for Sanders and his supporters.

On the night six states including California and New Jersey went to the polls, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) vowed to continue "the struggle," even as rival Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton had pivoted to thanking supporters and slamming Republican Donald Trump. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)

As of Wednesday, Clintons combined delegate count  pledged delegates and superdelegates  stood at 2,777, or 394 more than she needed to clinch the nomination.

That means that to catch her, Sanders would have to persuade more than two-thirds of the 574 superdelegates who have already announced for Clinton to abandon her and join his cause.

And he is asking them to do it at the end of a nomination process in which Clinton has won more states, more pledged delegates, more superdelegates and more overall votes than Sanders.

Clinton has run stronger in the partys primaries, which attract more voters, while Sanders has shown more strength in caucuses, in which a smaller group of more devoted followers tend to participate. And Clinton has tended to do better in the bigger, more racially diverse states than Sanders, who struggled from the outset to connect with African American voters.

Sanders has also won fewer states and fewer votes than Clinton did during her failed primary campaign against Obama in 2008.

[Next for Democrats: A delicate dance to broker peace between Clinton and Sanders]

During his Tuesday night speech, Sanders recalled that he had initially been written off as a fringe candidate and that his campaign had proven the pundits wrong. He has run a spirited race and given Clinton a far stiffer challenge than her campaign ever envisioned.

For some time now, though, Sanderss rationale for staying in the race has been evolving.

More than a month ago, he summoned reporters to Washington and said that he expected to go on a run in the final stretch of the primary season and had a reasonable shot at catching Clinton in the pledged delegate count.

That was among the reasons Sanders said superdelegates should consider backing him  because he would be the candidate with momentum. That argument vanished after Tuesdays defeats in California and New Jersey, another delegate-rich state, and a decisive loss in Puerto Rico over the weekend.

Sanders has also argued  and continues to make the case  that he would be a stronger candidate than Clinton in the fall election against Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump. That is based on a series of polls that generally have shown him winning by more than Clinton.

Clinton partisans counter that Sanders has never been on the receiving end of a national negative ad campaign, and that those numbers would probably change as soon as that happened.

Sanders also touts his strength with independent voters as an asset for the fall, as well as his far greater appeal than Clinton among young voters. He tends not to mention that Clinton has done comparably well with older voters.

One constant in Sanderss drive toward the finish line is his belief, aides say, that the more delegates he accumulates, the more influence he will have over the Democratic Party platform.

Sanders has made income inequality a rallying cry during his campaign, and most of the related issues he champions are the same ones he has pushed for decades in his congressional career.

During the campaign, he has seemingly pushed Clinton to her left on several issues, including trade policy and Wall Street reform.

And Sanders has already secured an unusual number of seats on the committee that will draft the Democratic platform, which met for the first time Wednesday. Sanders has indicated he wants to push the party on a range of issues, including support for a $15 minimum wage and a more balanced policy toward the Middle East.

Sanders is also seeking to open more primaries and caucuses to independent voters and has said he would like to see the influence of superdelegates curtailed in future elections.

Several weeks ago, as Sanders was asked about his staying power in the race, he said that it would be undemocratic to bow out before every voter in the Democratic primaries and caucuses had a chance to express their preference.

With his decision to contest the District primary next week, Sanders is staying true to his view.

His campaign announced plans Wednesday for a large-scale rally on Thursday night at RFK Stadium in Washington.
Presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton spoke by telephone Wednesday with The Washington Posts Anne Gearan. It was Clintons first interview with The Post since before launching her presidential campaign in April 2015. Following is the full transcript of the roughly 10-minute interview.

Hillary Clinton: Hello?

Anne Gearan: Hello, Madam Secretary. Its Anne Gearan.

HC: Hi Anne, how are you doing?

AG: Im fine. Nice to talk to you. Thanks for being willing to do this on what Im sure is a busy day for you. Well jump right in.

HC: An exciting day.

AG: Yeah. Good. You sounded reflective, I mean, maybe almost quiet at the start of your remarks last night. It must have been pretty emotional. What will you remember most and if youve thought about it, what do you think youll tell [granddaughter] Charlotte about last night when shes old enough to hear about it from you?

[I was overwhelmed: Clinton recalls taking the stage to claim the nomination.]

HC: Uh, thats a great question because I was overwhelmed. I had been upstairs in that building to do an interview, and the room we were in had a glass wall overlooking the crowd. And I was absolutely stunned by the level of excitement and the incredible enthusiasm, and the energy, and the moment. And how this meant so much to the people who had worked so hard for me in the campaign, so many people who had been, you know, really hoping for this to happen.

And it just was a sense of momentous historic experience that I was part of it, and it really was hard to actually, you know, make sense of it. And I was worried, I was worried that if, when I went out to speak, just the emotion of the moment would be so intense that I might have trouble getting through the speech itself.

So I did have to collect myself and try to get prepared. But going out there and actually being in the midst of it, not just looking down on it like I had a few minutes before, just was an incredible moment for me, and I hope one that many other people could take a lot of joy and pride in.

AG: Did you actually end up choking up? You appeared to get through it without delay.

HC: Well, I worked really hard at that. And particularly, I practiced the part about my mother several times because I teared up every time I practiced it. And I tried to get myself so that I could be, you know, a little more used to saying it. And it still was for me personally one of the most extraordinary and meaningful public experiences Ive ever had.

AG: With your permission well pivot to, back to hard politics. What do you think it will take to fully include Bernie Sanders in your candidacy and your campaign? Is it important in your view to make him and his supporters feel like theyve won even as hes lost?

HC: Well, you know, I called him last night to just congratulate him on running such an extraordinary campaign. Weve had a tough-fought race and I, you know, admire his energy, his determination and commitment. And I think it [has] been, as I said last night, very good for the Democratic Party and for our country. I am certainly reaching out. Our campaigns are talking about how we can be unified against the threat that Donald Trump poses to our future, and I want to unite the party and the country. Weve got to do that to run the most effective race we can against Trump, and then we have to keep working to unify the country to get things done. So Im going to do whatever I can to make that happen.

AG: Are you concerned that hell be less than a full partner in that effort as you were with President Obama in 2008?

HC: [Pauses] I certainly hope he will be. I think he and his supporters understand how much is at stake, that we need to join together to defeat Trump. And Im going to really reach out, do everything I can to persuade him. I will be obviously reaching out to his supporters to make that same case. Theres a lot to discuss. His voters are passionate about many matters, and so are mine. We believe in a lot of the same goals like universal health care coverage. We know that we both want to raise the minimum wage contrary to Trump, who doesnt think it needs to be. So weve got a lot in common, and I would argue that we have much more in common that should unite us in this general election than was perhaps as clear as it now can be coming out of the primary, and that we certainly, whatever differences we might have, are just absolutely against Trump and what he represents.

AG: Going forward, do you think you would favor resisting, excuse me revisiting, the role of superdelegates or reducing the role of superdelegates in future elections?

HC: Well, you know, I think were going to always try to look to see what we can do to improve the process and to try to, you know, get as many ideas about how to do that as possible. Im very proud that, you know, weve won 12 out of the last 19 contests and that Im leading Sen. Sanders by 3 million votes and Trump by 2 million; that I dont have all the numbers yet from the big wins we had in New Jersey and California and wins in South Dakota and New Mexico yesterday. But we had yesterday a lead of more than 300 pledged delegates. So, you know, we feel that, on the criteria that matter, popular vote, number of states won, number of pledged delegates won, that we did very, very well in the process, but we always want to see what could be done to, you know, to make it better.

AG: It sounds like you dont rule it out, revisiting the 

HC: I think were going to have, yeah, were going to have a discussion. I think thats something that the [Democratic National Committee] does after every convention. And I think some changes were made, I dont know all the details, I wasnt involved, but I have heard changes were made after 08 and I think even after 2012. So there will be an opportunity to discuss all of this.

AG: What does it say about the country at this moment that both you and Donald Trump have the highest negatives of any major party nominees in probably our lifetimes, if not more? And specifically, what does that say about you as you start this head-to-head contest with him?

HC: [Sighs or draws a breath] Well, Anne, I think what it says about me is that when I serve in jobs, like senator or secretary of state, I have, you know, high approval ratings. I think when I was serving as secretary of state, and you covered a lot of that, I had an approval rating of 66 percent. But Im also the, you know, very favorite target of Republicans, and others who disagree with my positions. And theyve been running many millions of dollars of ads against me ever since this campaign started. Im certainly aware of that. In fact, a lot of analysis pointed out that if you took all of the outside groups and all of the Republican campaigns they probably spent more money running ads that are negative against me than they did against each other. Ive come to accept that, and I intend to do everything that I possibly can to make the case as to why I am not only prepared and experienced, but ready with the ideas that I think will produce results for the American people, provide protection for our country and lead the world and unify us. And it seems to have hit a very positive chord in the primaries because of how well I did overall, and I think it will find a positive audience in the general election.

AG: You spoke last week and again since then about rejecting the politics of fear in this election. But in a way, are you not running a campaign of fear yourself  just the fear of Donald Trump?

HC: I dont think those are equivalent at all. I think Trumps campaign is to stoke fear and anger among Americans against each other. His desire to posit making America great again raises a lot of anxiety and insecurity in people who feel left out and left behind. He has no real answers. He has slogans. And I think he has basically run a campaign from the very first day, when he stoked fear of immigrants, calling Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals. And he continues it with his attack on the federal judge presiding over his case at Trump University; claiming that he cannot be fair because hes of Mexican heritage. When this man was born in Indiana, hes as American as I am or as American as Trump is. Its a plain and simple racist attack. So I think that what Ive said is that we should be confident and optimistic going into the future. Ive said many times that I think Americas best years can still be ahead of us, but we cant take it for granted. Weve got work to do. And I think what you see coming from him is exactly the opposite. Its all about fear  stoking it and playing to it. And I find that really troubling, and were gonna run hard against it.

AG: Do you think Donald Trump is a racist?

[Clinton aide Nick Merrill interjects. The interview had run about 90 seconds over the allotted 10 minutes at this point.]

NICK MERRILL: Anne, were gonna, were going to have to go 

HC: Well, Ill just, yeah, Ill answer that. I dont know whats in his heart. I have no way of telling that. I can just say that if you look at what hes been proclaiming since he started the campaign, he has been engaging in divisive and prejudiced attacks against people. I called him out last summer, for what he said about Mexican immigrants. I think I was the first to call him out for that sort of divisive rhetoric. So even though I cant say whats in his heart, if you say someone cant do their job because of their heritage, that is certainly a racist attack. And its just plain wrong. It has no place in our politics. And as we have seen in the last week, a lot of Republicans, prominent Republicans, have rejected that and distanced themselves from it. And I think part of the reason he launched that attack using the racist language he did was to divert attention from the scam that is Trump University. Which has been called a fraudulent scheme by officials on the staff of Trump University. And then he doubled down, saying he wasnt sure a Muslim judge could be impartial, given his support for banning all Muslims from coming to the country. You know, its just a reminder that he has insulted and demeaned women, POWs, Muslims, immigrants, African Americans, people with disabilities. And I just fundamentally disagree. I dont think you build our country up by tearing people down.

AG: Thank you. I could ask you very super quickly about the FBI interview. Has it been scheduled and would you like to get it over with?

HC: [Laughing] It has not, and I certainly would like to see this wrapped up.

AG: Okay, thank you for your time. I appreciate it.

HC: Thank you.

AG: Yup.

HC: Bye.

AG: See you on the road.
Donald Trump gets off his plane to speak at a rally on June 1 in Sacramento, Calif. (Jae C. Hong/AP)

Under a deluge of criticism from fellow Republicans that peaked on Tuesday, Donald Trump said that he intends to stop talking about a Latino federal judge he has repeatedly admonished on the basis of his ethnicity and that his words were misconstrued. He did not apologize for his remarks.

Trumps new position came only minutes after Sen. Mark Kirk (Ill.) became the first vulnerable Republican senator to abandon support for the real estate mogul and several hours after House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (Wis.) said Trumps attack on the judge was the textbook definition of a racist comment.

In a lengthy written statement issued after an uncharacteristically quiet day on social media, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee said that his repeated comments about U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel were misconstrued as a categorical attack against people of Mexican heritage.

Trump said he does not feel that ones heritage makes them incapable of being impartial. But he reiterated that he believes he has been treated unfairly by Curiel in two fraud cases against his defunct Trump University real estate seminar business and is therefore justified in questioning whether I am receiving a fair trial.

He concluded: While this lawsuit should have been dismissed, it is now scheduled for trial in November. I do not intend to comment on this matter any further.

Donald Trump's latest attack on the "Mexican" judge overseeing his Trump University case has left his surrogates scrambling to defend his remarks. Here are some of their attempts at defending him. (Monica Akhtar/The Washington Post)

In an interview with Fox News Channel that was broadcast Tuesday night, Trump said Republicans who were upset by his comments about Curiel should get over it, ideally. In a Tuesday night speech celebrating his presumptive nomination at the official end of primary season, Trump sought to push beyond the controversy, avoiding the matter altogether and instead striking a confident tone as he vowed to charge forward to the general election.

Trumps sustained ethnic attacks on Curiel had quickly become a litmus test and near-existential crisis for the Republican Party, which is struggling to balance a need for minority support with Trumps racially charged campaign. The episode also stretched the limits of Trumps fraying relations with many of the people who will officially nominate him in Cleveland in six weeks: Their standard-bearer had suddenly forced them to choose between being disloyal to the party and backing a candidate who attacks a judges ethnicity as part of a petty personal feud.

While most lawmakers twisted and contorted themselves, GOP strategists, pundits and others in the anti-Trump camp hardened their opposition and revived talk of trying to derail him. Some, such as the blogger and pundit Erick Erickson, cast the episode in stark moral terms, arguing that no conservative could in good conscience support Trump.

If you believe Trumps comments are racist, you have an obligation to publicly reject him, not just say you disagree, Erickson wrote Tuesday. Shame on you if you do not.

Trump first lambasted Curiel months ago when he was part of a crowded primary field. But after clinching the nomination, he revived the assault in late May at a rally in San Diego, going on an extended 11-minute monologue about the case and mentioning that the judge happens to be, we believe, Mexican. Curiel was born in Indiana to parents who emigrated from Mexico in the 1920s.

In media interviews in following days, Trump continued to harangue Curiel in more explicit terms. He told the Wall Street Journal that Curiels Mexican heritage presented an absolute conflict given that the mogul wants to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Im building a wall, Trump said. Its an inherent conflict of interest.

1 of 14 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  These Republicans refuse to vote for Donald Trump View Photos And theyll tell you why. Caption And theyll tell you why. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell General Powell said at a meeting of the Long Island Association that he would be voting for Hillary Clinton, a spokeswoman confirmed Oct. 25. Powell added in an interview that he picked Clinton because I think shes qualified, and the other gentleman is not qualified. Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue.

The backlash from within the Republican Party gained force and quickly overshadowed other messages GOP leaders were trying to push. Moreover, Tuesday marked the official end of the GOP primary season  a moment many Republicans had hoped would mark an end to any serious intraparty skirmishing.

Ryan, who went to the Anacostia neighborhood of Southeast Washington on Tuesday morning to lay out a Republican anti-poverty agenda, was questioned repeatedly by reporters about Trump.

While the House speaker criticized Trump for his racist comment, he said he would continue to back the presumptive nominee.

Its absolutely unacceptable, Ryan said. But do I think Hillary Clinton is the answer? No, I do not.

Other Republicans took a stronger position against Trump. Kirk, who is facing a challenging reelection campaign in a heavily Democratic state, said Trumps remarks cemented his decision not to back him.

While I oppose the Democratic nominee, Donald Trumps latest statements, in context with past attacks on Hispanics, women and the disabled like me, make it certain that I cannot and will not support my partys nominee for president regardless of the political impact on my candidacy or the Republican Party, Kirk said in a statement. The senator suffered a stroke in 2012 and now often uses a wheelchair.

About a month ago, Kirk had described Trump  who won the Illinois primary in March  as a net benefit to his candidacy who was luring many new Republican voters to the polls.

Shortly before Trump issued his statement, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), a Trump supporter, said it was time to quit attacking various people you competed with or various minority groups in the country and get on message. McConnell said Trump has an opportunity to do that; this election is eminently winnable.

I hope thats what hell do, McConnell added. Were all anxious to hear what hell say next.

Many Republicans continued to occupy a gray area between denouncing Trump and warmly supporting him, highlighting the angst many Republicans feel about the election,

Theyre racially toxic, and he needs to get on to the general election, and we need to win, Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.), the only black Republican senator, said of Trumps remarks.

Asked whether Republicans should rescind their endorsements of Trump, Scott offered a flat no and said he would back Trump.

Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), a former 2016 presidential candidate who has refused to endorse Trump, said, Im not going around telling people: Dont endorse Trump. 

Graham rejected the idea that Republicans could pull back their endorsements and deny Trump the nomination.

I dont see that as a viable alternate, he said. I dont see a third-party challenge as a viable alternative.

Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), who has said he cannot back Trump right now, raised the possibility that Trump could face a revolt at next months Republican National Convention in Cleveland as a result of his racial rhetoric. Such a scenario he said, is certainly more likely now than it was last week.

Even beyond the halls of Congress, the anger with Trump could be felt. In Iowa, state Sen. David Johnson announced that he was suspending his Republican Party membership because of Trumps racist remarks and judicial jihad.

Democratic leaders vowed to exact a toll on both Trump and down-ballot Republicans. They aggressively sought to tie Republicans in competitive states and congressional districts to the real estate magnate.

The Donald Trump-House Republican ticket will hit them where it hurts: in the suburbs, with female, nonwhite, well-educated and independent voters, said Rep. Ben Ray Lujan (N.M.), the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), who was the first senator to endorse Trump, said: I do think its important that the campaign put its full focus on this campaign, the issues of the campaign, the vulnerabilities of Hillary Clinton, and try to avoid distractions and issues unrelated to what the American people are really concerned about.

As recently as Monday, Trump was steadfast in defending his ethnicity-based criticism of Curiel and gave every indication that he intended to push ahead  causing turmoil and infighting within his campaign. In a conference call Monday, the real estate mogul told surrogates to step up their attacks on Curiel as biased and on reporters as racists, overriding a directive from his own staff distributed over the weekend, according to reports.

There were numerous efforts in recent days to urge Trump and his senior advisers to back off, including from major GOP donors and Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus.

Curiel, who has declined to comment on Trumps attacks, is overseeing two class-action lawsuits against Trump University in San Diego. Last week, as part of court proceedings, Curiel ordered the release of embarrassing internal documents that revealed Trump Universitys predatory marketing practices. Staff members of the business were instructed to push customers to purchase expensive follow-up courses, often well beyond their means, with promises of success and trade secrets.

The Trump campaign and its surrogates have regularly pointed to Curiels membership in the San Diego La Raza Lawyers Association  an organization for Hispanic lawyers  to erroneously suggest that Curiel has participated in political activities against Trump. They appear to have conflated the lawyers group with the National Council of La Raza; the two groups are separate.

In his statement on Tuesday, Trump again seemed to allude to a potential association while continuing to suggest that Curiels Mexican heritage may have affected the judges decisions.

Due to what I believe are unfair and mistaken rulings in this case and the Judges reported associations with certain professional organizations, questions were raised regarding the Obama appointed Judges impartiality, Trump said in the statement. It is a fair question. I hope it is not the case.

Jose A. DelReal and David Weigel contributed to this report.
If youre planning to sell your house, arrange for multiple presentations by agents who specialize in your neighborhood. (BigStock)

Its one of those hush-hush practices that homeowners rarely hear about but real estate agents know only too well: Its called buying the listing.

What it means is that some agents want the listing to sell your house so badly that theyll go along with whatever price you ask, even if its outlandishly above what comparable houses are commanding.

They know that theres only a minuscule chance the house will sell at the inflated price youre proposing, but they take the listing anyway. They fully expect that after a few weeks with no takers, youll sober up and agree to what may have to be a series of price reductions.

Buying the listing works for some agents because they get cut into a commission payout that they would have missed had they lost the listing to competitors who counseled lower prices. And they reap immediate benefits: Theyve got their name plastered on a sign in front of your house, and they can hold open houses that could bring them new clients and other houses to sell.

[More Harney: Mortgage rules changed eight months ago. What difference has it made?]

But there are potentially big drawbacks for you as the seller. Overpricing a house can doom it to months of sitting unsold, even with price reductions. Serious buyers get turned off by new listings with inflated prices, and they may not come back when the price inevitably gets reduced. At the end of the process, you could be left with a final price well below what you would have gotten had you priced it realistically earlier.

Buying the listing is a controversial issue in the real estate field. Most agents insist they dont condone it or engage in it themselves. Its also potentially an ethical violation for members of the National Association of Realtors, who are prohibited from attempting to secure a listing by deliberately mislead[ing] the owner as to the market value. Not advising overly optimistic sellers about the true value of their property  solely to obtain the listing  can be construed as misleading them.

How common is this? It depends on location and market segment.

Some agents report that it rarely occurs in their areas. Others, such as Tony Marriott, an agent with Keller Williams Arizona Realty in Phoenix and Scottsdale, say its so commonplace that better than 50 percent of the listings start out notably overpriced.

Agents elsewhere say that initial listings with inflated prices account for anywhere from 10 percent to more than 30 percent of all new properties put on the market. Diana Keeling, an agent with Coldwell Banker in Bethesda, told me the practice is most common in the upper brackets, where a lot of agents want the listing at all costs.

[More Harney: Bill attempts to protect people from flaws in credit-reporting system]

Dean Moss, a Keller Williams Realty Partners agent in Chicago, says some agents have agendas of listing as many houses as they can  regardless of how off-base the initial pricing may be  as an advertising billboard for themselves. Passersby see their signs frequently and figure, wow, that agent must be the best. Moss says that when he confronts these agents and tells them their list price is off the charts, they sometimes reply, I know. Make an offer!

Some agents defend taking listings at elevated prices because they discuss pricing strategy in advance with the sellers. They draw the line: If the sellers of a house that should be priced around $400,000 are insisting on a listing at $495,000, they wont touch it. But if they see the sellers are trying to push a little  say, pricing at $415,000 or $420,000  theyll take the listing.

Alan May, a Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage agent in Evanston, Ill., says hes open to listing properties that are slightly overpriced, but only after showing the sellers comparable recent sales and agreeing to price adjustments downward if the house doesnt sell within specific time periods.

Bottom line: If youre planning to sell your house, arrange for multiple presentations by agents who specialize in your neighborhood. Study the market analyses they offer. Dont choose your agent mainly because he or she says your house is worth the most. Choose based on the key factors: proven sales record at or close to listing prices; strength of marketing strategies and resources; outstanding references and reviews.

If you let an agent buy your listing at a price thats not supported by hard data, you may regret it months later when it still hasnt sold and your asking price is much lower.

Ken Harneys email address is kenharney@earthlink.net.


Volunteers working alongside Israeli archaeologists sift the dirt in the Cave of Skulls in the Judaean wilderness. (William Booth/The Washington Post)

 Amir Ganor is an Israeli cop, but not the kind who chases car thieves or bank robbers. Ganor is a Jewish Indiana Jones, an archaeologist gumshoe, but instead of a coiled bullwhip at his side, he shoves a pistol into his pants and manhandles jeeps through seemingly impassable goat trails.

The investigators beat is the antiquities bazaars of the Holy Land and the remote caves of the Judean Desert, where hinky Israeli dealers, Palestinian tomb raiders and Bedouin guides conspire to traffic in the worlds oldest merchandise, especially the loot unearthed from the time of Roman legions and Jewish rebels and Jesus of Nazareth.

Today the target of Ganors investigation is a remarkable cavern located high in the pitiless mountains above the Dead Sea, a frying pan of extreme heat and dryness, rich in artifacts from the deep prehistory of humankind.

A team of archeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem are on the biggest archeological dig in this area of the Judean Desert in 60 years. (TWP)

Why did we come here? We came to stop the looters from taking it all, said Ganor, who sported blue tinted sunglasses and seemed relaxed and loose in the broiling air. They led us here in a way. They destroy much, but they find things, too. Clever. Always watching. They are very destructive, but sometimes they know where to look.

[King Tut had a dagger made from metal of extraterrestrial origin]

After busting a crew of tomb robbers armed with shovels and metal detectors digging at the site two years ago, Ganor and a team of archaeologists from Hebrew University in Jerusalem launched an emergency excavation last month to sift the powdery dust and bat guano before looters made off with everything.

The three-week dig, just now completed, is the largest, most complex and most intensive Israeli excavation in the desert in 60 years.



Volunteers working alongside Israeli archaeologists sift the dirt in the Cave of Skulls in the Judaean wilderness. (William Booth/The Washington Post)

Archaeologists call the site the Cave of Skulls, for the seven craniums found buried deep inside in 1953.

The cave has yielded artifacts from the Neolithic Period to the Copper Age. The cavern may also have been a redoubt for rebels with the Bar Kochba Revolt against the Romans in A.D. 132 to 136.

If so, it was a desperate stand, archaeologists believe, with the cave serving as a temporary hideout for women and children as well as fighters.

The Bar Kochba rebellion was a last gasp, led by a messianic figure who declared himself prince of a Jewish state. The Romans crushed the rebels; thousands of Jews were slaughtered. After the revolt was beaten down, Emperor Hadrian banished Jews from Jerusalem, and the name of the territory became Syria Palaestina.

The cave may hold not only bits of bone, clay and wood, as the team is finding, but the most sought-after treasure of all: more Dead Sea scrolls, fragments of words written on pieces of papyrus reed or skin parchment and preserved for 2,000 years in the dry desert air.

The most famous collection of scrolls was found to the north of the Cave of Skulls in 11 caverns near Qumran. The Dead Sea texts are of tremendous historical and religious interest, as the ancient manuscripts illuminate early versions of the Hebrew Bible and religious prayer and practice at the time.

[One of earliest known copies of Ten Commandments sees the light of day]

It is possible that the Cave of Skulls has papyrus with printed text, but if it does, it will likely be just a scrap or two  and nothing like the trove found in Qumran, a mass of material so rich that it has its own pavilion at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem called the Shrine of the Book.

Still, hundreds of young volunteers have cycled through, sleeping in a rough camp at the canyon rim by night and during the day venturing 260 feet down a cliff face to the job site, where they excavate buckets of dirt and sift the soil, working in a fog of brown dust, their faces blackened with sweat and dirt. They are working side by side with archaeologists.

They commute to the dig by donning harnesses and clipping themselves with rappelling gear onto a series of fixed ropes and cables for the trip up or down. A careless moment and a slip on the loose rock could find them plummeting to the streambed 1,000 feet below.



Getting to and from the Cave of Skulls in the Judean Desert at Nahal Tze'elim is difficult. (William Booth/The Washington Post)

So far, the archaeologists have found plenty of bird and bat excrement. But theyve also uncovered animal and human bones, awls, arrowheads, spindles, flint, a lice comb and, most intriguing, a fragment of papyrus that could match a piece confiscated by antiquities police in 2009 that looters from Hebron said they had found in the Cave of Skulls.

We always wish we could find something with writing on it. This was our big hope, but we are happy with what we have found so far, said Micka Ullman, an archaeologist at Hebrew University, who sat covered in fine dust at the caves entrance.

We have found papyrus. It doesnt show any writing on it. We will test in the lab  maybe under analysis, something will show itself, said Ganor, the head of the robberies division for the Israeli antiquities authority.

The Cave of Skulls was professionally excavated in 1953 and 1960. Then looters had their turn.

[Why do people steal art?]

In 2009, when the fragment of incredibly old papyrus with some Hebrew writing was offered for sale by a cagey middleman in Jerusalem, Ganor and his team laid a trap to recover the scroll.

An undercover agent posed as an American buyer, with a suitcase allegedly stuffed with $2 million in cash. He met the seller in a fancy hotel lobby. The cops swooped in. They seized a brittle page of reed paper, preserved in the desert heat. If you didnt know what you were looking for, it would look like nothing much at all.

But the scroll is now being studied at the Israel Museum; it turned out to be a fragment of a letter, with place names and an intriguing clue.

The letter was dated four years after the destruction of Israel.

After the antiquities police interrogated the traffickers, Ganor and his investigators learned that looters were digging at a site that archaeologists call Cave 32, better known as the Cave of Skulls.



Volunteers taking part in an archeological dig in a cave known as the Cave of Skulls in Wadi Tzeelim in the Judean Desert sift through sand and mud looking for artifacts that indicate human life here. (Ruth Eglash/The Washington Post)

After the emergence of more scroll on the black market seven years ago and the arrest of a gang of tomb raiders with shovels, picks and metal detectors at the Cave of Skulls in 2014, the antiquities authority decided that it had to dig the cave or lose the material forever.

The thieves took all the main things that they knew to be valuable, but we are looking and finding interesting things, too, said Uri Davidovich, a research fellow from Tel Aviv University and Hebrew University who is leading the dig.

[Newly discovered mass graves could be filled with an ancient Greek tyrants followers]

We have found wooden combs, pieces of leather sandals, spindle whorls that were used for sewing. Small things that have no value on the black market but that help us to understand what happened here and who was here.

Davidovich said: There were not just rebels here who were fighting. We think there were also families with women and children, even elderly people, who were hiding here from the Romans. We are finding items from daily life, not just things that were used in the fighting. There are items here that helped them stay here till the end of the rebellion.

The archaeologist said he is not disappointed with the dig.

Although there is nothing hugely special, in everything that we find we can feel the person who is behind it, the person who used it, he said.

One special thing that we found were hairbrushes. We found four of them, not all complete, but I can feel the person who was behind it, Davidovich said.

The fragment of papyrus they found during this dig will be analyzed and compared with the one Ganor and the antiquities cops recovered in 2009. If they are the same material, archaeologists could start digging in other caves along the streambed.

There are 34 more caves  each with evidence of human use.

Most have hardly been touched, except by looters.

Read more:

A Palestinian teen killed an Israeli mom. Now their families struggle with why.

In a first, Israel lets Jordanian workers cross border for jobs

Tourism is the new front in Israeli settlers battle for legitimacy

Today's coverage from Post correspondents around the world
An American flag flies behind the barbed and razor wire at the Camp Delta detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. (Brennan Linsley/AP)

The Obama administration believes that at least 12 detainees released from the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have launched attacks against U.S. or allied forces in Afghanistan, killing about a half-dozen Americans, according to current and former U.S. officials.

In March, a senior Pentagon official made a startling admission to lawmakers when he acknowledged that former Guantanamo inmates were responsible for the deaths of Americans overseas.

The official, Paul Lewis, who oversees Guantanamo issues at the Defense Department, provided no details, and the Obama administration has since declined to elaborate publicly on his statement because the intelligence behind it is classified.

But The Washington Post has learned additional details about the suspected attacks, including the approximate number of detainees and victims involved and the fact that, while most of the incidents were directed at military personnel, the dead also included one American civilian: a female aid worker who died in Afghanistan in 2008. The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter, declined to give an exact number for Americans killed or wounded in the attacks, saying the figure is classified.

[Pentagon official: Release of Guantanamo detainees has led to American deaths]

Lewiss statement had drawn scrutiny on Capitol Hill, where some lawmakers see the violence against Americans as further evidence that the presidents plans for closing the prison are misguided and dangerous. They also describe the administrations unwillingness to release information about the attacks as another instance of its use of high levels of classification to avoid discussion of a politically charged issue that could heighten political opposition to its plans.

One U.S. official familiar with the intelligence said that nine of the detainees suspected in the attacks are now dead or in foreign government custody. The official would not specify the exact number of detainees involved but said it was fewer than 15. All of them were released from Guantanamo Bay under the administration of George W. Bush.

The official added: Because many of these incidents were large-scale firefights in a war zone, we cannot always distinguish whether Americans were killed by the former detainees or by others in the same fight.

Military and intelligence officials, responding to lawmakers requests for more details, have provided lawmakers with a series of classified documents about the suspected attacks. One recent memo from the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), which was sent to the House Foreign Affairs Committee after Lewiss testimony, described the attacks, named the detainees involved and provided information about the victims without giving their names.

But lawmakers are prohibited from discussing the contents of that memo because of its high classification level. A similar document provided last month to the office of Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), a vocal opponent of Obamas Guantanamo policy, was so highly classified that even her staff members with a top-secret clearance level were unable to read it.

There appears to be a consistent and concerted effort by the Administration to prevent Americans from knowing the truth regarding the terrorist activities and affiliations of past and present Guantanamo detainees, Ayotte wrote in a letter to Obama this week, urging him to declassify information about how many U.S. and NATO personnel have been killed by former detainees.

[Cuba wants the base at Guantanamo back. The U.S. isnt budging.]

President Obama sent his plan to close the Guantanamo prison to Capital Hill, but the plan was met with immediate condemnation. (Jason Aldag,Julie Vitkovskaya/The Washington Post)

Rep. Edward R. Royce (R-Calif.), who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has also written legislation that would require greater transparency surrounding the transfer of Guantanamo detainees.

Royce and Ayotte are among the lawmakers who opposed a road map for closing the prison that the White House submitted to Congress earlier this year. That plan would require moving some detainees to U.S. prisons and resettling the rest overseas.

The administration is releasing dangerous terrorists to countries that cant control them, and misleading Congress in the process, Royce said in a statement. The president should halt detainee transfers immediately and be honest with the American people.

Just under 700 detainees have been released from Guantanamo since the prison opened in 2002; 80 inmates remain.

Secrecy about the top-security prison, perched on an inaccessible corner of Cuba, is nothing new. The Bush administration for years refused to provide a roster of detainees until it was forced to do so in a Freedom of Information Act case in 2006. To this day, reporters have never been able to visit Camp 7, a classified facility that holds 14 high-value detainees, including the five men on trial for organizing the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Both the Bush and Obama administrations have provided only limited information on current and former detainees; most of what the public knows about them comes from defense lawyers or from documents released by WikiLeaks.

According to a 2012 report from the House Armed Services Committee, the Defense Intelligence Agency ended the practice of naming some suspected recidivists in 2009 when officials became concerned that it would endanger sources and methods.

National Security Council spokesman Myles Caggins said it was difficult to discuss specific cases in detail because the information was classified.

But, again, we are committed to being forthcoming with the American people about our safe and responsible approach to Guantanamo detainee transfers, including about possible detainee re-engagement in terrorist activities, he said.

One Republican aide who has reviewed the classified material about the attacks on Americans said the information has been grossly overclassified.

Administration officials say that recidivism rates for released Guantanamo inmates remain far lower than those for federal offenders. According to a recent study, almost half of all federal offenders released in 2005 were rearrested for a new crime or rearrested for a violation of supervision conditions. Among former Guantanamo detainees, the total number of released detainees who are suspected or confirmed of reengaging is about 30 percent, according to U.S. intelligence.

Nearly 21 percent of those released prior to 2009 have reengaged in militancy, officials say, compared with about 4.5 percent of the 158 released by Obama.

Human rights activists say the statistics are suspect and cannot be verified because the administration provides almost no information about whom it is counting and why.

Most of those suspected of re-engagement are Afghan, reflecting the large numbers of Afghans detained after the Sept. 11 attacks and the ongoing war there. More than 200 Afghan prisoners have been repatriated from the prison.

Officials declined to identify the woman killed in Afghanistan in 2008. But there are two female aid workers killed that year who might fit the description.

Cydney Mizell, a 50-year-old employee of the Asian Rural Life Development Foundation, was abducted in Kandahar as she drove to work. Her body was never recovered, according to a former colleague who said he was told about a month later that she had died.

Another woman, Nicole Dial, 30, a Trinidadian American who worked for the International Rescue Committee, was shot and killed the same year south of Kabul, along with two colleagues.

Relatives of Mizell and Dial said they have not been in touch with the FBI for years. Dials brother said he was unaware of a former Guantanamo detainee being involved in his sisters killing.

Mizells stepmother said she was never told the exact circumstances of her daughters death or who abducted her.

She was definitely killed, Peggy Mizell said. I figured she was shot.

Julie Tate contributed to this report.

Read more:

Obama asks lawmakers to lift obstacles to closing prison at Guantanamo Bay

The Guantanamo military prison population is now below 100

Hunger striker at Guantanamo Bay slated for transfer
Mexicans voted on June 5 for governors, legislators and city mayors in 12 of Mexicos 31 states, comprising 30 percent of its population of 128 million.

The ruling Party of the Institutional Revolution (PRI) suffered significant if not historic losses. Prior to the elections, the PRI had nine of the 12 governorships up for grabs. It lost six of those, including those in four states that had never seen a governor from another party since the PRIs founding in 1929. It won in two states that it previously did not control.

The election demonstrated Mexicos extreme political instability. Gubernatorial candidates who won failed to garner 50 percent of the vote, most winning with percentages in the 40s or even in the low 30s. Most that won did so by entering into contorted electoral alliances with multiple parties.

It is little surprise that the PRI fared so poorly. Polls on the eve of the election showed the approval rating of PRI President Enrique Pena Nieto to be a dismal 30 percent. His popularity plunged after the disappearance and likely brutal killing of 43 Ayotzinapa teaching college students in Guerrero state in 2014, and continued after he and his wife were shown to be personally mired up to their necks in corruption.

The entire ruling structure has been discredited by endemic corruption, state and drug cartel violence, an economy limping along at 2.5 percent annual growth, high unemployment, low wages, high prices and a falling peso. This has been combined with attacks on the working class under Pena Nietos so-called Pact for Mexico, approved in 2012 by all three of Mexicos main political partiesthe PRI, the right-wing National Action Party (PAN), which held power from 2000 to 2012, and the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).

Polls typically show that seven to eight of 10 voters say they do not trust these parties. There is a general sentiment that all the parties operate to protect the interests of the wealthy at the expense of the overwhelming majority of the people.

Limping back from its defeat in the 2012 presidential election, the PAN managed to win governorships in seven of the 13 contested states, but in four of them through formal electoral alliances with the PRD. The PANs base is in the wealthier states in the north that border the US. It also won in states with the worst drug violence and corruption, even though its corruption while in power extended beyond awards of large government contracts to the protection of drug cartels.

In Tamaulipas State, bordering eastern Texas, the PAN candidate won handily over the PRI candidate. The state is home to the Gulf Cartel and the vicious cartel of the Zetas. It is often described as having an official and a criminal government, although the two are effectively indistinguishable. The PAN winner, Francisco Garcia Cabeza de Vaca, had been accused of enjoying the protection of gang bosses. His PRI opponent, Baltazar Hinojosa Ochoa, has been accused of taking money from the Gulf Cartel and is under investigation by the US Treasury Department for money laundering.

In Chihuahua State, home of the violence-infested city of Juarez, the PAN candidate Javier Corral won with substantial support from the PRD. Corral modeled his campaign on that of the successful independent campaign for governor in 2015 of Jaime Rodriguez Calderon, in the northeastern state of Nuevo Leon, eschewing the support of Mexicos television duopoly.

The PAN won in the large north-central state of Durango, besting a coalition of the PRI, the green PVEM and two other minor parties.

The PAN also won in the small central industrial state of Aguascalientes, home to many auto plants, besting a coalition of the PRI, the PVEM and New Alliance (PANAL). The PANAL is based on the unions, and particularly the corrupt 1.4 million-member National Educational Workers Union (SNTE), which supported Pena Nietos education reform after its prior head, Ester Gordillo, was jailed after she supported the PAN.

The other four governorships won by the PAN involved formal alliances with the PRD.

Most significant was its win in Veracruz State on the Gulf of Mexico, Mexicos third largest state in terms of population. Under Pena Nietos program to open the Mexican oil industry up to foreign investment, the city of Veracruz was expected by many to become the new Houston. Instead it has been plagued by drug cartel battles. Its PRI governor, Javier Duarte, was deeply implicated in cartel activity and the murder of journalists. He is accused of plundering hundreds of millions of dollar in public funds.

The PAN coalition candidate, Miguel Angel Yunes, won in Veracruz, even though his sons name appeared in the Panama Papers detailing money laundering operations. The rival PRI candidate, his cousin Hector Yunes Landa, accused him of being a pedophile.

The PAN candidate also won in the Yucatan state of Quintana Roo. Coming in second was a coalition of the PRI, PVEM, PANAL and the Socialist Party (PT). Finally, the PAN-PRD coalition prevailed in the states of Puebla, which adjoins Mexico State.

Apart from its historic losses, the PRI picked up governorships in Oaxaca and Sinaloa states. Oaxaca is a poor southern state that has seen a decade of social unrest, including by militant teachers, and government repression. The governor had been from the PRD. The PRI candidate eked out a win with about 31 percent of the vote, followed by the PRD candidate at just under 30 percent and the PAN candidate a distant third.

Sinaloa is an agricultural state that runs along Mexicos mainland on the Gulf of California, which had a PAN governor. A coalition of the PRI, PVEM and PANAL prevailed over a candidate from the Citizens Movement, a party that depicts itself as democratic socialist, and whose initial leader was Lopez Obrador.

The PRI also maintained governorships in the small states of Tlaxcala and Hidalgo near the state of Mexico through a coalition with PVEM and PANAL, as well as in the central industrial state of Zacatecas.

Putting aside its coalition in races with successful PAN candidates, the PRD won no governorships, and it lost Oaxaca. PRDs national percentage in the 2015 elections had already shrunk to around 10 percent. The results caused the current chair of the PRD, Augustine Basave, to insist loudly that the PRD was not dead.

Perhaps most crushing to the PRD in Sundays election was its defeat in Mexico City by Morena. Mexico City had long been the center of the PRDs electoral power. In elections to a Constituent Assembly in Mexico City that will draft a new constitution for the mini-state, Morena bested the PRD. Morena already had garnered 22 deputies against 19 for the PRD in the 2015 Mexico City elections.

Lopez Obrador crowed that Morena had become the first electoral political force in Mexico City. While Morena did not win any gubernatorial elections, it had strong showings in three it ran in. Significantly, Morenas candidate Soledad Luevano Cantu won the mayoral election in the important industrial city of Zacatecas. Lopez Obrador also emphasized that Morenas national vote on Sunday increased by 800,000 over its 2015 total to 2.5 million.

Morenas advances were so significant that the chair of the PAN said he viewed Lopez Obrador as PANs main rival in the 2018 presidential election, not whoever will be the candidate of the PRI. Two weeks before the election, Jorge Castaneda, the former leftist and minister of foreign affairs under the presidency of PANs Vicente Fox, wrote a prominent column asserting that Lopez Obrador would likely become president in 2018 because the other political parties will be so discredited in the eyes of the Mexican population.

The WSWS has long explained that Lopez Obrador is a bourgeois politician heading up a bourgeois party. When needed he will indeed serve the Mexican ruling class as a means of upholding the political establishment, much as Bernie Sanders is doing in the US.
Philippine President-elect Rodrigo Duterte announced in the wake of his election in May that he intended to grant the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos a state burial in the Libingan ng mga Bayani (Heroes Cemetery). Preparations are now being made for a state funeral on September 11, the 99th birth anniversary of the former president.

The Maoist Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) has supported Duterte for years and their front organizations are now enthusiastically supporting his presidency. Three CPP selected candidates have been installed in Dutertes cabinet, and the CPP itself is actively engaged in peace talks with the president. On June 4, Joma Sison, the head of the CPP, announced that he did not oppose Dutertes intention to give Marcos a state burial.

In calling for a state burial for Marcos, Duterte is looking to close ranks with the influential Marcos political dynasty. The children of the late dictator, Imee and Bongbong Marcos, are the governor of Ilocos Norte and a Senator respectively. Bongbong Marcos narrowly lost the vice-presidency in the recently concluded election.

Duterte is doing more than securing the support of the Marcos dynasty, however. He is refurbishing the politics of the martial law dictator, as he himself prepares the instruments of police-state rule. Since his election, Duterte has been advancing a fascistic political agenda, promoting the use of death squads and police murder against alleged criminals.

Ferdinand Marcos ruled the Philippines for nearly 20 years. Elected to office in 1965 and re-elected in 1969, he retained his hold on power by declaring Martial Law in 1972 with full support from Washington. During his military dictatorship, he implemented a regime of arrest without warrant, of torture and extrajudicial murder.

A new word entered Filipino English during martial lawsomeone who was salvaged simply disappeared, suddenly taken by police, military or paramilitary forces. Their brutally tortured corpses would later be found in empty lots on the outskirts of Manila. The official tally of extra-judicial murders during the Martial Law regime is 3,257. The torturers and murderers of the Marcos dictatorship were trained by the CIA.

When Marcos fell from power in 1986, he was granted asylum by the United States where he lived in exile in Hawaii. He died in 1989 in Honolulu. In 1993, President Ramos allowed Marcoss remains to be repatriated to the Philippines on the condition that he would not be allowed a state funeral in Libingan. The Marcos family, funded by its immense stolen wealth, rapidly recovered their prominence in Philippine politics. The late dictators waxy, embalmed corpse was put on display in a mausoleum in Batac, Ilocos, in the northern Philippines.

From 1993 until 2016, the CPP and its front organizations always denounced the idea of a state burial for Marcos. Joma Sisons 2004 autobiography stated that an enraged people refused to let his body have a state funeral or be buried, as Imelda [Marcos] wanted, in the Heroes Cemetery. All of the representatives of the Makabayan Coalition, the political front organization of the CPP, introduced a resolution in Congress in 2011 describing the proposal to bury Marcos in Libingan as a grave travesty of justice and monumental historical distortion tantamount to declaring hero a dictator who committed crimes against humanity. Rafael Mariano, a signatory of this resolution, now heads Dutertes Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).

In April 2011, Ang Bayan, the official paper of the CPP, denounced any attempt to bury Marcos in Libingan as an attempt to make him a hero.

The CPP is now entering an alliance with Duterte, and Joma Sison is changing his tune to match that of the incoming president. Neither Sison, nor any of the CPP installed members of Dutertes cabinet have raised a word of objection to Dutertes proposal to give Marcos a state burial.

Sison issued a press statement in which he stated that he was not opposed to the state burial of Marcos in the Heroes Cemetery. He justified this position with the most dishonest language. Sison stated that the burial was being carried out by the president of the reactionary government. This is the same manDutertewhom Sison is holding up as a socialist and a progressive, and in whose cabinet the CPP has now integrated itself. Sisons duplicitous references to Dutertes government as reactionary cannot cover up the ongoing support which the CPP is giving to the administration.

Sison then stated that the cemetery is not a burial ground of heroes, but of reactionaries. Marcos was entitled to a burial there, Sison argued, not as a hero, but as a former soldier. On this lying basis, Sison has given a green light to according a state burial to a murderous dictator. He reassured Duterte and the press that the decision to bury Marcos would not upset peace negotiations between the government and the CPP.

Among the reactionaries buried in Libingan, Sison listed three puppet and corrupt former presidents. The presidents buried in Libingan are Elpidio Quirino, Carlos Garcia and Diosdado Macapagal. These reactionary, corrupt presidents had been supported by the Communist Party.

The front organizations of the Stalinist Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP, Communist Party of the Philippines) actively campaigned to support the nationalist Filipino First policy of the Garcia presidency, 195761. This policy targeted businesses owned by Chinese Filipinos, and, under the rubric of nationalization, transferred private ownership to individuals of Filipino ancestry. The front organizations of the PKP worked to expand this policy to target Chinese immigrant labor, calling on Garcia to nationalize labor and take jobs away from Chinese Filipino workers and give them to workers of Filipino ancestry.

Sison entered the PKP in 1962 and was immediately thrust into its leadership. In 1963, Sison led the newly-formed Lapiang Manggagawa (Workers Party), which was under the leadership of the PKP, to enter a coalition government with Diosdado Macapagal. Sison hailed Macapagal as a revolutionary and wrote the handbook which was printed and distributed by the Macapagal administration in support of its land reform program.

In November 1964, Sison led the founding of the PKPs youth wing, the Kabataan Makabayan (KM, Nationalist Youth). In 1965 they broke with Macapagal, and Sison began denouncing their erstwhile ally as a reactionary.

Sison and the KM supported Ferdinand Marcos and his Nacionalista Party for the presidency in 1965. Claiming that the Nacionalista Party represented the interests of patriotic businessmen and that Marcos would keep the Philippines out of the Vietnam War, Sison called for support for Marcos. Two weeks after his election, Marcos announced that he would be sending troops to Vietnam. Despite this, Sison wrote a supportive public letter to the Marcos government as late as November 1967, advising Marcos on what Sison argued was the correct nationalist course. The letter was signed Very truly yours, Jose Ma. Sison.

The reactionaries, whom Sison now denounces, including Marcos, were political figures that he led the Communist Party to support. He relies on decades of lies and a carefully cultivated historical amnesia within the CPP to cover up for the constant alterations in his political line.

In 1967, the PKP split into two parties. Both were Stalinistopposed to the political independence of the working class, and looking to ally with a section of the bourgeoisie in the name of nationalismbut they were divided by loyalty to either Moscow or Beijing. Sison founded the new pro-Beijing party, the CPP. The CPP allied with the opposition to Marcos and began denouncing Marcos as a fascist. The PKP, seeing Marcos begin to open diplomatic and trade ties with the Soviet Union, moved to support him. In the wake of the declaration of Martial Law, the leadership of the PKP entered into an alliance with Marcos, murdering those of their members who opposed this policy.

Sisons CPP had brought the mass opposition to Marcos under the leadership of his bourgeois rivals. With the declaration of Martial Law, the majority of the bourgeois opposition quietly acquiesced. The CPP channeled all residual resistance to the countryside. The Stalinist partiesPKP and CPPwere thus directly responsible for allowing Marcos to establish a police state.

As Duterte is moving rapidly to bring back the methods of dictatorial rule, the CPP is supporting him. In order to secure their place within his regime, Sison and the CPP are endorsing the state burial of Ferdinand Marcos.
Clear evidence of a connection between rising suicide levels, job losses and worsening living conditions emerged last month when mental health advocacy groups released details of suicide rates between 2009 and 2012 across 28 federal electorates.

In a media release, they called for all major parties and candidates in the 2 July election to spell out what they will do in the next parliament to address the rising toll of suicide and self-harm across Australia.

The results are part of a report, Suicide PreventionAn Action Agenda, prepared by consultancy ConNetica and the Brain and Mind Centre at the University of Sydney. The report draws a link between deteriorating economic conditions and the 22 percent increase in suicide between 2004 and 2014.

Where countries have dramatically altered the social safety net for long-term unemployed and those with disabilities, suicide rates have risen sharply, the report states.

For example, in the Netherlands, rates rose over 30 percent between 2008 and 2012 with the combined impact of the GFC [global financial crisis] and harsh fiscal austerity measures. The evidence is clearapply harsh fiscal austerity measures and a lot of people will die from suicide. Individuals lostfamilies crippledcommunities damaged.

Speaking at a media conference, ConNetica director John Mendoza said a common characteristic of electorates with the most severe rates of suicide was the impact of economic change. Workers had lost jobs or conditions. Issues like the loss of manufacturing, the downturn in resources and construction industries, housing affordability and the high cost of education and retraining is hitting hard.

Mendoza continued: If you want to give people a mental health problem, if you want to raise their psychological distress, what do you do? Dose them up on uncertainty, dose them up on fear. Thats what causes mental illness, thats what gets them to the point they see no other option but to take their own life.

The electorates with the highest number of recorded suicides from 2009 to 2012 were:

 Casey, spanning the outer-eastern suburbs of Melbourne, with an official youth unemployment rate of 12.31 percent, had 184 suicides.  Longman, which includes the working-class Brisbane suburb of Caboolture, with a youth unemployment rate of 14.63 percent, experienced 162 suicides. Queensland has some of the highest youth unemployment rates in the countryfrom 20 to 28 percent in many regions.  Corangamite, which covers part of the regional city of Geelong, near Melbourne, had 111 suicides. It has a youth unemployment rate of 18.15 percent and the nearby rural town of Colac has a youth unemployment rate of 19.05 percent.

The Geelong region is being devastated by the closure of manufacturing industries, such as Ford and Alcoa, and the ongoing rise of indebtedness in the farming sector.

These disturbing figures provide a glimpse of the growing social crisis facing workers and young people as a result of unemployment, poverty, the gutting of funding to education and training facilities, lack of social supports and the absence of affordable housing.

A key aspect of the report is the under-reporting of suicides. It noted: Suicide is implicated in many poisonings, falls and motor vehicle accidents. It is generally accepted that the actual number of deaths is 20-30 percent higher than the official numbers.

Data released earlier this year by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) in the Causes of Death Report 2014, revealed suicide was the leading cause of death for those aged 15 to 44. There was an average of 7.8 deaths by suicide each day, totalling 2,864 people during 2014. This equates to 12.0 suicides per 100,000 people. Suicide rates among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are double that of non-indigenous Australians.

A greater number of people attempt to end their lives every dayapproximately 180 officially.

Successive Labor and Liberal-National governments have done nothing to address the chronic lack of mental health resources. In 2012, the Gillard Labor government commenced the rollout of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). But this only shifts funds to cheaper service providers. While promising high-quality lifelong services for the disabled, in reality the NDIS will see hundreds of thousands of people with mental illness fail to qualify for assistance.

Prime Minister Julia Gillards government also introduced major changes to welfare payments, transferring thousands of single parents and the disabled from pensions onto lower-paying unemployment benefits. It is estimated that 60 percent of people already moved off the Disability Support Pension (DSP) suffer mental illness. There are now plans for a further 90,000 people to have their eligibility re-assessed.

In 2014, the current Liberal-National Coalition government made a number of changes to health funding agreements with states and territories, identifying savings of $1.8 billion over four years. Funding guarantees under the National Health Reform Agreement 2011 (NHRA) were replaced by activity based funding until July 2017. Following this, funding will be linked to movements in the consumer price index (CPI) and population growthessentially a return to the funding model the NHRA replaced.

The National Partnership Agreement on mental health was also terminated. It was providing approximately $45 million a year to states and territories to supposedly improve services, particularly in the priority areas of accommodation support and presentation planning in hospital emergency departments.

Neither Labor nor the Coalition has committed any extra funding during this election campaign. Both are committed to the National Suicide Prevention Strategy, with the ongoing re-allocation of existing funds, effectively shifting the onus of responsibility and burden onto families, GPs and local organisations. The Greens have earmarked a paltry extra $400 million over four years, which is a drop in the ocean of what is required.

The South Australian government recently announced the closure of two key mental health facilities in Adelaide, following a $5 million cut to federal funding. One of the services, in Salisbury, is adjacent to the northern suburb of Elizabeth, which is being impacted by the closure of the car manufacturing industry.

With a further $15 million cut to funding, other services in the state are facing closure by July, including an after-hours acute community mental health service, as well as services in Whyalla, a regional city built around the steel industry that is facing the threatened closure of the Arrium steelworks and iron ore mines.

Mendoza told the media conference: We are sleepwalking into a national disaster. Far from sleepwalking, major companies and governments are consciously imposing these attacks on the most oppressed and vulnerable sections of the working class, not only in Australia but internationally.

The reality is that unless people can afford to pay for health insurance and private clinics, they are denied access to best practice care.

The factors that contribute to suicide are complex. However, the links between persistent and increasing economic hardship and uncertainty, and deep psychological distress and lack of hope are undeniable. The upward trajectory of suicide rates is one of the sharpest expressions of the social crisis facing the working class. Can there be a more damning indictment on society?

Under the existing economic system of capitalism, which is driven by profit and the never-ending accumulation of wealth for a tiny minority, the basic and social needs of the majority, the working class, will never be met.

Authorised by James Cogan, Shop 6, 212 South Terrace, Bankstown Plaza, Bankstown, NSW 2200.
We could hear a kid screaming, a little baby screaming, Leah Woodward recalled.



Leah and her husband, Joel Woodward, had just witnessed a head-on collision between two cars in Idaho, and rushed to the site of the crash. Fortunately, Joel is a police officer with first-responder training and the pair were able to break the rear window of the car they heard the screams coming from with a trailer hitch.



They discovered a horrific site: Four-year-old Killian Gonzalez still strapped in his booster seat, surrounded by a strange pinkish liquid. Woodward would later find out it was spinal fluid.



While her husband comforted Brandy Gonzalez, the boys mother, Woodward held Killians neck as rigidly still as possible for over a half-hour while waiting for paramedics to arrive, according to Idahos KBOI.













At the hospital, they discovered the true extent of the Brandy and Killians injuries: Gonzalez fractured bones in both legs and her left arm, and Killian suffered a ruptured spleen, multiple broken ribs. Both his arms were broken and most alarmingly, he experienced a rare trauma to his neck described clinically as an internal decapitation, in which the ligaments connecting the skull and the spine are severed.









The injury is frequently fatal. A 2010 report of 69 cases involving the injury showed that 47 people died instantly, 15 succumbed to their injuries at the hospital. Only seven of the 69 lived.









Woodwards ordeal as a first responder has been credited as the reason for Killians miraculous survival. Experts stress that its crucial to keep an individuals neck isolated when a spinal injury is suspected. Killian did not undergo surgery for the injury and is doing amazing, according to his mother.



Hes shocked everyone there. They keep telling me heas the talk of the hospital, she told KTLA 5 News. [Woodward] saved my baby. She gave him back, Gonzalez continued. A GoFundMe page has been set up to defray the cost of medical expenses for the family.

People Magazine videos:
A Hawaii woman who was behind the wheel of a truck that plunged off a cliff is facing second degree murder charges in the death of her identical twin sister, who was in the passenger seat, PEOPLE confirms.



Prosecutors say 37-year-old Alexandria Duval, also known as Alison Dadow, intentionally caused her twin sister, Anastasia Duval's, death when her Ford Explorer plunged about 200 feet off of a cliff in Maui on the Hana Highway on May 29, the Associated Press reports.



Alexandria's attorney, Todd Eddins, confirms the charge to PEOPLE but does not confirm that his client was driving the vehicle.



"The sisters had an exceptionally close bond even by identical twin standards," Eddins says. "This is a devastating, heart-shattering tragedy for Alison and her family. We will explore all avenues to combat a charge that, in our view, is extreme and cold-hearted."







According to The Washington Post, the sisters were well-known yoga entrepreneurs who drove matching Porsches in Florida.



Witnesses reported seeing the sisters arguing with each other, with the passenger pulling the driver's hair, according to the AP. Witnesses also said that they saw the truck "accelerate forward and then take a sharp left over the cliff," one prosecutor said.





Hawaii Woman Charged With Murder of Identical Twin Sister After Car She Was Allegedly Driving Plunges Off Cliff| Crime & Courts, Death, Murder, True Crime, True Crime

 Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.



Rescue crews had to pry the women from the mangled vehicle and Anastasia was pronounced dead at the scene, KHON 2 reports.



Alexandria was arrested on Friday and appeared in a Wailuku courtroom Monday for the murder charge, appearing to suffer only an injured arm.



One witness called Alexandria's survival a miracle.



"I'm amazed that that lady survived," Lawrence Lau told KHOU. "I am really amazed because I saw how far she fell."



After being freed from the vehicle, Alexandria didn't want to cooperate with officers, according to court documents obtained by the AP. She was denied bail, with prosecutors calling the woman a flight risk, the AP reports.





Hawaii Woman Charged With Murder of Identical Twin Sister After Car She Was Allegedly Driving Plunges Off Cliff| Crime & Courts, Death, Murder, True Crime, True Crime

"We had information after she was discharged from the hospital she attempted to fly out of the jurisdiction Wednesday night," Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Emlyn Higa said in the documents.



Higa added, "All we know is she was trying to leave the state," Higa said. "We were afraid she would try to leave the country as well."
A shooter opened fire outside of Jeremiah Burke High School in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, killing one and injuring three others, the Boston Globe reported.

One dead, three injured in shooting outside Dorchester schoolhttp://bos.gl/KhB4fMa

Four area schools were placed on lockdown as police searched for the gunman, who remains at large. According to Officer James Kenneally, the person killed in the shooting was a male in his late teens. Two other teenagers were also shot at the scene, as was a 60-year old woman who was treated for a bullet graze wound on her leg.

Police could not confirm whether or not the teenage victims were students at Jeremiah Burke High School.

BREAKING: Authorities say 1 dead, 3 injured in Boston shooting outside school. http://trib.al/KaY6ivT pic.twitter.com/f2TU7fcCl6 https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ckc8vCdWYAALoPd.jpg:large

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.

Correction: June 8, 2016

A previous version of this story misidentified the location of Dorchester. Dorchester is a neighborhood in Boston.
Risk-averse investors interested in both growth and value investing may opt for large-cap blend mutual funds to achieve their objective. While large-cap funds usually provide a safer option than small-cap and mid-cap funds, blend funds provide significant exposure to both growth and value stocks. Blend funds  also called hybrid funds  aim value appreciation by capital gains. It owes its origin to a graphical representation of a funds equity style box.

Meanwhile, large-cap blend funds have exposure to large-cap stocks, providing long-term performance history and assuring more stability than what mid caps or small caps offer. Generally, companies with market capitalization of more than $10 billion are considered large-cap firms. However, due to their significant international exposure, large-cap companies might be affected by a global downturn.

Below we share with you three top-rated large-cap blend mutual funds. Each has earned a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and is expected to outperform its peers in the future. To view the Zacks Rank and past performance of all large-cap blend mutual funds, investors can click here to see the complete list of large-cap blend funds .

DFA US Large Company DFUSX seeks total investment return similar to that of the S&P 500 Index. DFUSX invests a minimum of 95% of its assets in securities of companies listed in the S&P 500 Index and tries to maintain a similar company weight. DFUSX may also invest in derivatives including futures contracts and options on futures contracts for adjustment of market exposure. The DFA US Large Company fund has a three-year annualized return of 11.4%.

DFUSX has an expense ratio of only 0.08% compared with the category average of 1.02%.

T. Rowe Price Capital Opportunity PRCOX invests the major portion of its assets in companies that are listed in the S&P 500 Index. PRCOX is expected to maintain company weights similar to the index. The fund maintains a portfolio of 250325 stocks. Though PRCOX invests in companies throughout the globe irrespective of market capitalization, it primarily focuses on acquiring common stocks of domestic large-cap firms. The T. Rowe Price Capital Opportunity fund has a three-year annualized return of 11.5%.

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As of March 2016, PRCOX held 246 issues, with 3.15% of its assets invested in Apple Inc.

Vanguard Growth & Income Investor VQNPX seeks stocks that are believed to provide dividend income and have impressive growth prospect and that, as a group, appears likely to provide higher returns than the Standard & Poors 500 Index while having similar risk characteristics. VQNPX invests in a diversified group of stocks chosen with the help of quantitative analysis. VQNPX invests a minimum of 65% of its assets in companies included in the index. The Vanguard Growth & Income Investor fund has a three-year annualized return of 11.7%.

VQNPX has an expense ratio of 0.34% as compared to the category average of 1.02%.

To view the Zacks Rank and past performance of all large-cap blend Mutual Funds, investors can click here to see the complete list of funds .

About Zacks Mutual Fund Rank

By applying the Zacks Rank to mutual funds, investors can find funds that not only outpaced the market in the past but are also expected to outperform going forward. Pick the best mutual funds with the Zacks Rank.



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To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
By the end of this month, the UK will finalize whether it will remain in or leave the European Union (EU). This possibility is now widely known as Brexit. In a plebiscite on June 23, votes in favor or against of Brexit will be requested. This will decide the fate of the nation in the future.

Recently, several polls showed that though most of the voters are speculated to be in favor of Brexit, a significant number of them are still unsure. These voters may play an important role in the final call. Against this backdrop, mutual funds that have significant exposure to securities issued in the UK will remain on investors radar in the coming months.

Will Brexit Happen?

While five out of the eight most recently published surveys showed that percentage of people supporting Brexit exceeded those who are against it, only two indicated that Brexit may not happen. One opinion poll was tied. There remains a sizeable contingent of undecided voters. This portion of the population will swing the Brexit vote. (Read: Welcome to the June Glooms: Odds on Brexit?)

An ICM poll of 1,741 people taken from June 35 showed 48% would vote for an exit, up from 47% a week earlier, while 43% would opt to stay, down 1% from a week earlier. A YouGov poll of 3,495 people on June 13 showed 45% would opt to leave the EU, up from 40% in a comparable poll a month earlier, while 41% would opt to stay, down from 42%. Separately, these polls showed that around 11% of voters were still undecided, down 2% from a month earlier.

Arguments in Favor of Brexit

Issues that were mostly discussed regarding Brexit over the past few months are immigration, membership cost and trade. Immigration is one of the foremost reasons why a large portion of the population wants to break away from the EU. UK has no real say in limiting the number of people that can come in as citizens of EU members who are allowed to live in any member country. Current migration in the country is over 300,000 per year compared with the governments target to bring it to below 100,000. Brexit supporters argue that public services are under pressure to provide for the growing population. (Read: The 3 Largest Issues Surrounding the UK's Potential Brexit)

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Cost for being a member of the EU is another argument that was put forward by Brexit supporters. According to them, over 1 billion pound that is spent every month to be a EU member can be allocated to address other economic concerns. They also argue that the UK could ink free trade agreements with China and the U.S. if it breaks away from the EU as the European commission takes the lead in negotiations. This means that no EU member will have direct access to unique trade deals with other nations.

Arguments Against Brexit

People who are against Brexit also have some counter arguments regarding the above-mentioned issues. For an instance, the remain side argues that taxes that are paid by immigrants are more than what citizens of UK pay. So this offsets any burden to public services that crop up due to immigration. They also believe that immigrants increase the mobility of the workforce, which is poised to boost the economy. Since close to half of all of Britains trade is with the EU, this side argues that the benefits received by the UK for being a member of EU offset membership costs incurred by the nation. They also say that the risk of being exposed to euro is much lower in the case Britain compared to the other members as it has its own currency.

Regarding UKs trade, the remain side argues that if Brexit happens it will lead to an increase in tariffs between the EU and UK and may in turn have a negative impact on the countrys trade. They also speculate that Britains trade may be more affected by a global economic slowdown if the nation decides to break away. While EU has a share of nearly half of the countrys exports, the volume of Britains imports from the EU exceeds its exports.

Mutual Funds in Focus

While there are solid arguments in favor of and against Brexit, it is also quite difficult to assess the extent of consequences that Brexit will have on the economies of Britain, the EU and the global economy. But one thing is assured that securities including stocks, ETFs and mutual funds with significant exposure to the UK will be in focus in the near term. Hence we have highlighted four European mutual funds from popular fund families that have more than 30% exposure to the UK and are poised remain on investors radar.

Fidelity Europe FIEUX primarily invests in common stocks of companies located across different European companies. According to Morningstar, it currently allocates nearly 36.2% of its assets in securities from the UK. It holds 81 securities. This Zacks Mutual Fund Rank #1 (Strong Buy) fund invests around 87% of its assets in large- and mid-cap securities and the rest in small-cap securities. As of April 30, SAP SE took the top spot among the funds holdings with 3.57% assets invested in it.

Invesco European Growth A AEDAX invests a large chunk of its assets in European securities. It currently allocates over 44.7% of its assets in securities from the UK. This Zacks Mutual Fund Rank #2 (Buy) fund has holdings of 82 securities. It invests more than 90% of its assets in large- and mid-cap securities and rest in small-cap securities. As of March 31, DCC PLC took the top spot of the funds holdings with 3.77% assets invested in it.

Putnam Europe Equity A PEUGX invests a major portion of its assets in equity securities of companies from Europe that are believed to have impressive investment prospects. It currently allocates more than 30.8% of its assets in securities from the UK. This Zacks Mutual Fund Rank #2 fund holds 94 securities. It invests more than 97% of its assets in large- and mid-cap securities. As of March 31, Royal Dutch Shell PLC Class A had the top spot among the funds holdings with 4.29% assets invested in it.

T. Rowe Price European Stock PRESX invests the lions share of its assets in common stocks of companies that have their primary operations in Europe. It currently allocates nearly 31.9% of its assets in securities from the UK. This Zacks Mutual Fund Rank #3 (Hold) fund holds 63 securities. It invests more than 70% of its assets in large-cap securities, while the other assets are invested in mid-cap securities. As of March 31, Nestle SA took the top spot of the funds holdings with 3.57% assets invested in it.

About Zacks Mutual Fund Rank

By applying the Zacks Rank to mutual funds, investors can find funds that not only outpaced the market in the past but are also expected to outperform going forward. Learn more about the Zacks Mutual Fund Rank at https://www.zacks.com/funds.

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report >>



Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report



Get Your Free (PRESX): Fund Analysis Report



Get Your Free (PEUGX): Fund Analysis Report



Get Your Free (FIEUX): Fund Analysis Report



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To read this article on Zacks.com click here.



Zacks Investment Research
Before this superstar made his debut in CNBlue, he was already famous in his hometown! Jung Yonghwa was known for being an ulzzang - an affectionate term for outstandingly good looking people on the internet. Scouted by an agent after his ulzzang competition photos were uploaded, Yonghwa refused the offer but his parents later convinced him to give it a try. Its entirely thanks to his parents that you get to see his singing, acting and comedic actions on TV!

Watch his latest appearance on Infinite Challenge as Kwanghees team

With her huge eyes and innocent looks, its no surprise that Ku Hye Sun also began her industry life as an ulzzang! Many remember her in the classic Boys Over Flowers opposite Lee Min Ho, as Geum Jan Di. But now Ku Hye Sun would be more commonly known as Ahn Jae Hyuns wife! The couple met on the set of Blood in 2015, and registered their marriage on May 20, 2016.

Find out more about the couple in Entertainment Weekly

We definitely cant miss out the Big Boss in the list of ulzzangs! Song Joong Ki was the flower boy of his school, gracing the cover of his school magazine as a model, and even working as a broadcast announcer for a bit! This talented actor is also brainy, making it to the prestigious Sungkyunkwan University and the finals of Quiz Korea, an annual TV program by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He later skyrocketed to international fame with Descendants of the Sun, which was also awarded the Global Star Award at the Baeksang Awards 2016!

See Song Joong Ki in his hit drama, Descendants of the Sun

This multi-talented idol followed in Yonghwas footsteps as the 4th winner of the ulzzang competition, and we can definitely see why! Since debut, Lee Joon has shown his diversity through his singing and acting, being relatively well known amongst the industry for his major in modern dance in university. After his acting stint in Gabdong - Memories of Murder as a genius psychopath, he has slowly gained recognition in the acting industry and has been receiving more love calls!

See Lee Joon in his latest drama, The Vampire Detective
Like many San Franciscans, Rose Dawydiak-Rapagnani has had her car window smashed in twice in recent years. The first time she left her gym bag visible in the back seat while parked in San Francisco's SoMa (or "south of Market Street") neighborhood, and the second break-in happened about a month ago while she was taking a daytime yoga class in the city's Mission neighborhood.

After both break-ins, Dawydiak-Rapagnani filed a police report but received no updates. And both times she replaced the window along with the stolen items herself. "Now if I have to bring [my car] into an area that I guess is high risk, I'm using Uber more [to avoid parking my car there]," she says.

[See: 10 Money Leaks to Shut Down Now.]

Car break-ins in San Francisco rose 31 percent from 2014 to 2015, according to local police department data published in the San Francisco Chronicle. National data on auto break-ins can be hard to find, but it's a growing concern for tourists and residents in many cities.

To reduce your risk, avoid leaving valuables such as laptop bags and suitcases as well as spare change visible through the windows. "People break into vehicles because they see laptops or cellphones that they can easily resell," says Terri Miller, executive director of Help Eliminate Auto Theft, Michigan's statewide tip line where bystanders can anonymously report auto theft activity. "Put [valuables] in the trunk or use a blanket to conceal it. Anything that makes it less valuable to break into the vehicle is better," she explains.

Also, try to park in well-lit public areas. "Avoid parking in areas that are poorly lit or places that are not immediately seen by the public," says Loretta Worters, vice president of communications for the Insurance Information Institute. "This will not only keep you safe when you exit the car; it will also help keep your car safe because thieves tend to avoid areas that are highly visible," she says. Park in a garage rather than on the street if you can.

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Still, car break-ins can feel almost inevitable even when you take extra precautions. Here's what to do if your car is broken into:

Take an inventory of your missing items. Figure out what was taken from your car so you can notify the police and determine which items need to be replaced. In addition to money and electronics, sometimes license plates, license plate tabs or auto parts such as tires and rims or catalystic converters are stolen as well, so keep an eye out for those missing items. Report stolen license plates as soon as possible so you're not on the hook for speeding tickets or toll rides taken by the perpetrators. Serial numbers on your electronics or helpful features like Apple's "Find My iPhone" tracking tool can be useful for law enforcement. Hopefully, you didn't store any credit or debit cards or financial documents in your car, but if you did, you'll want to notify your bank to request new cards immediately and be on the alert for potential identity theft.

[Read: How to Protect Your Credit Card From Thieves.]

File a police report. Unfortunately, some police departments don't have the resources to investigate every auto break-in. "Law enforcement is going to do what they can, but it's very difficult to respond when you say 'my laptop was stolen,'" Miller says. "There's not much they can do about that."

Still, even if you're not optimistic about getting stolen goods recovered or a burglar brought to justice, you should alert the police for two key reasons. First, you'll likely need a police report if you decide to file an insurance claim for damage to your vehicle. Second, reporting car break-ins can help law enforcement identify patterns such as neighborhoods or streets that burglars are targeting more heavily. Depending on your jurisdiction, you may need to show your driver's license, vehicle registration and other documents to file a police report.

Park your vehicle somewhere secure until you can repair your windows. A car with one or more broken windows is an easier target for auto theft, so try not to park your vehicle on the street. Instead, park in a secure garage or other location until your car doors and windows can be fully secured. Parking indoors will also protect your car's interior better than duct tape and plastic in case of inclement weather such as rain or snow.

Decide whether to file an insurance claim. Damage caused by a burglar and stolen personal property could fall under two different insurance policies. "If you have comprehensive coverage on your auto policy, your insurance company will most likely pay to repair any damage the burglar has done to your car," Worters says. "Theft coverage applies to the loss of the vehicles as well as parts of the car such as damaged or stolen airbags." To recoup losses on stolen personal property, you'd likely need to file a claim under your homeowners or renters insurance, which are subject to the limits of individual policies.

[See: 50 Ways to Improve Your Finances in 2016.]

On the other hand, if you can afford to repair a broken window or replace stolen laptop or if the cost of repairs or replacement isn't much higher than your deductible, you might decide not to file an insurance claim and risk an insurance rate hike. "If there was significant damage done to the car and a lot of personal possessions claimed, premiums on your auto insurance and homeowners or renters insurance policy could rise from the one incident," Worters says. "Premium rates for comprehensive insurance are affected by the risk of loss, meaning the likelihood that an insured car will be stolen or damaged, and also the car's value at the time of the loss," she adds.





More From US News & World Report


Looking for a gift for the college graduate? Consider the gift of investing knowledge.

While many college graduates may be concerned primarily about paying off loans, many don't think about investing. A 2015 Bankrate.com survey showed only 26 percent of adults younger than 30 own stocks.

Part of that may come from feeling they don't have a lot of extra money, and part of it may be not knowing how to invest. Parents can play a part in helping students learn how to start investing and saving for their future.

[See: The 9 Best Investors of All Time.]

Opening a Roth IRA. In lieu of a physical gift, parents or friends of the graduate can give money to start an individual retirement account, says Tim Steffen, director of financial planning at Baird in Milwaukee.

"It's a common strategy with parents who have some extra cash flow. Technically that's a gift; you give the money to the child, they invest it in the account. The account is the child's account; you can't open it in the parents' name," he says.

Richard R. Dwyer, chief executive officer and financial adviser at Wealth Financial Group First Coast, in Jacksonville, Florida, recommends a Roth IRA for the graduate because of the tax benefits.

"They're in a lower or the lowest tax bracket they'll likely be in since they'll be in the initial part of their career. By putting money in a Roth account there are great benefits, not the least is tax-free funds when they retire," Dwyer says.

Living at home -- and saving. Many people under 30 are still living with their parents, particularly this generation.

Angie O'Leary, senior vice president, head of investment products at U.S. Bank Wealth Management in Minnesota, says parents can use this time with the kids back in the nest to help them get a start on their finances.

Living at home means they can save on rent, and if they're younger than 26, still be covered under their parents' health insurance. However, O'Leary says, parents and children need to agree that if parents cover some living expenses, then the child needs to commit to save, especially if they have a 401(k) at a new job. She says she made this deal with her own son, telling him they would cover his phone, health insurance and other incidentals if he would save.

Story continues

"He did that, and managed to save $20,000 between when he first started his career. Now he is 26. That includes the free company match. That was pretty exciting. He got his statement the other day and sent me a picture. He was pretty proud of that," she says.

This is a good time for parents to share their investing philosophy, she says.

[See: 11 Ways President Trump's Tax Plan Could Affect Americans.]

"It's a great time to talk about risk and long-term goals and how all of that works with that young grad," she adds.

Steffen agrees the talk should be about long-term goals versus retirement savings, as "a 22-year-old is not thinking about retirement."

Instead, he says, talk about what they want to do.

"So you want to take a big European vacation and go backpacking through the mountains. How are you going to pay for that? You have to build up some capital to do that. You do that through saving and investing," he says. "You (the parent) have to ask, if you're not going to invest, what is your alternative? How else are you going to build up the nest egg you want to do the things you want to do?"

Keep things simple. An index fund in a 401(k) is a good starting choice for young grads, Steffen says.

Fund choices can be overwhelming, and while most 401(k) plans have online guides, parents can help with choices, or bring their graduate to talk to their financial advisor.

"I know a lot of investment advisors would be more than happy, if not eager, to talk to their client's children about investing strategies. A lot of the good advisers have ... younger members of the teams who can relate to those new college grads or younger investors," he says.

Balance loan payoffs with saving. The average 2016 graduate holds $37,172 in student debt, according to calculations by student loan expert Mark Kantrowitz. With that debt overhang, it's easy to understand why graduates may focus on paying off debt instead of investing.

Look at the math when deciding whether to accelerate paying down debt or investing in a company 401(k) or a Roth IRA.

"(Let's say) you have a low student-loan debt number, say 3 percent, and on your 401(k), you're getting a match from your employer. You're making 100 percent on that (match). So do you want to pay off 3 percent and give up 100? The reason why it's such a hard question to answer is so many people want to get out from under that debt. I say to them always put something into their 401(k) to get the match, and then whatever is left over, if they want to accelerate the down payment on the debt, they can," Dwyer says.

Steffen says a combination of paying off debt and investing can work. He also says people should take into consideration how they feel about the student-loan debt.

[Read: BP Still Paying at the Pump.]

"The emotional side, the psychological side is, if you sleep better at night not having that debt hanging over your head, then by all means pay it off," he says.





More From US News & World Report


Looking for a gift for the college graduate? Consider the gift of investing knowledge.

While many college graduates may be concerned primarily about paying off loans, many don't think about investing. A 2015 Bankrate.com survey showed only 26 percent of adults younger than 30 own stocks.

Part of that may come from feeling they don't have a lot of extra money, and part of it may be not knowing how to invest. Parents can play a part in helping students learn how to start investing and saving for their future.

[See: The 9 Best Investors of All Time.]

Opening a Roth IRA. In lieu of a physical gift, parents or friends of the graduate can give money to start an individual retirement account, says Tim Steffen, director of financial planning at Baird in Milwaukee.

"It's a common strategy with parents who have some extra cash flow. Technically that's a gift; you give the money to the child, they invest it in the account. The account is the child's account; you can't open it in the parents' name," he says.

Richard R. Dwyer, chief executive officer and financial adviser at Wealth Financial Group First Coast, in Jacksonville, Florida, recommends a Roth IRA for the graduate because of the tax benefits.

"They're in a lower or the lowest tax bracket they'll likely be in since they'll be in the initial part of their career. By putting money in a Roth account there are great benefits, not the least is tax-free funds when they retire," Dwyer says.

Living at home -- and saving. Many people under 30 are still living with their parents, particularly this generation.

Angie O'Leary, senior vice president, head of investment products at U.S. Bank Wealth Management in Minnesota, says parents can use this time with the kids back in the nest to help them get a start on their finances.

Living at home means they can save on rent, and if they're younger than 26, still be covered under their parents' health insurance. However, O'Leary says, parents and children need to agree that if parents cover some living expenses, then the child needs to commit to save, especially if they have a 401(k) at a new job. She says she made this deal with her own son, telling him they would cover his phone, health insurance and other incidentals if he would save.

Story continues

"He did that, and managed to save $20,000 between when he first started his career. Now he is 26. That includes the free company match. That was pretty exciting. He got his statement the other day and sent me a picture. He was pretty proud of that," she says.

This is a good time for parents to share their investing philosophy, she says.

[See: 11 Ways President Trump's Tax Plan Could Affect Americans.]

"It's a great time to talk about risk and long-term goals and how all of that works with that young grad," she adds.

Steffen agrees the talk should be about long-term goals versus retirement savings, as "a 22-year-old is not thinking about retirement."

Instead, he says, talk about what they want to do.

"So you want to take a big European vacation and go backpacking through the mountains. How are you going to pay for that? You have to build up some capital to do that. You do that through saving and investing," he says. "You (the parent) have to ask, if you're not going to invest, what is your alternative? How else are you going to build up the nest egg you want to do the things you want to do?"

Keep things simple. An index fund in a 401(k) is a good starting choice for young grads, Steffen says.

Fund choices can be overwhelming, and while most 401(k) plans have online guides, parents can help with choices, or bring their graduate to talk to their financial advisor.

"I know a lot of investment advisors would be more than happy, if not eager, to talk to their client's children about investing strategies. A lot of the good advisers have ... younger members of the teams who can relate to those new college grads or younger investors," he says.

Balance loan payoffs with saving. The average 2016 graduate holds $37,172 in student debt, according to calculations by student loan expert Mark Kantrowitz. With that debt overhang, it's easy to understand why graduates may focus on paying off debt instead of investing.

Look at the math when deciding whether to accelerate paying down debt or investing in a company 401(k) or a Roth IRA.

"(Let's say) you have a low student-loan debt number, say 3 percent, and on your 401(k), you're getting a match from your employer. You're making 100 percent on that (match). So do you want to pay off 3 percent and give up 100? The reason why it's such a hard question to answer is so many people want to get out from under that debt. I say to them always put something into their 401(k) to get the match, and then whatever is left over, if they want to accelerate the down payment on the debt, they can," Dwyer says.

Steffen says a combination of paying off debt and investing can work. He also says people should take into consideration how they feel about the student-loan debt.

[Read: BP Still Paying at the Pump.]

"The emotional side, the psychological side is, if you sleep better at night not having that debt hanging over your head, then by all means pay it off," he says.

Debbie Carlson has more than 20 years experience as a journalist and has had bylines in Barron's, The Wall Street Journal, the Chicago Tribune, The Guardian, and other publications. Follow her on Twitter at @debbiecarlson1.
Nikhil Puthran

Toyota had launched the new Toyota Innova Crysta earlier in May this year. In just about a month, Toyota has reportedly sold over 7,000 units of the new Innova Crysta. The impressive sales numbers has resulted in 44 per cent growth in sales in comparison to sales figures for the same period last year.



With this, the Toyotas Innova brand has reclaimed its title of Best-selling MPV, from the Maruti Ertiga. Toyota has reportedly received over 20,000 bookings for the Innova Crysta. The numbers are indeed impressive given the fact that the Innova Crysta is not available for sale in Delhi NCR region, which has been a strong market for Toyota until now.



The Innova Crysta has been offered in two engine options  a five-speed manual transmission option which generates 150bhp of power and 343Nm of torque and a 2.8-litre engine which comes mated to a six-speed automatic transmission to generate 174bhp and 360Nm of torque. The smaller engine claims to return a fuel efficiency figure of 15.1kmpl, while the bigger engine returns 14.29kmpl.



The Innova Crysta is available in G, GX, VX and ZX variants. The automatic option is available in only the GX and ZX variants. In terms of safety, the Innova Crysta gets ABS, EBD and three airbags (dual front and knee airbag) as standard.

For more news,reviews,videos and information about cars, visit CarWale.com.

Check On-Road Prices | Find New Cars | Upcoming Cars | Compare Cars | Dealer Locator
At 87, there`s not much that Hubert Evans hasn`t seen or done. A former solider in the Jamaican Defense Force, he came to America in the 1980`s, in search of the American dream. For the past 25 years, he`s been a public safety officer at CUNY`s Brooklyn College. CUNY employees get free tuition, so he set out to get his bachelors degree in liberal arts from Medgar Evers College and that he did.
Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks to his supporters at a campaign rally in Santa Monica, Calif., June 7, 2016. (Photo: Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is heading to Washington Thursday for back-to-back meetings with President Obama and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid. A Senate aide familiar with the planning of the latter meeting said the expectation is that Sanders will push for leadership changes at the Democratic National Committee when the pair sit down. This could include a call for the removal of the partys chairwoman, Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

Sanders planned meetings come as he is facing mounting pressure to end his presidential campaign. His rival in the Democratic primary, Hillary Clinton, secured enough delegates to become the partys presumptive nominee on Monday. In spite of Clintons victories in Tuesdays primary contests, Sanders indicated he plans to stay in the race and contest the Democratic convention next month.

The Senate aide noted that Fox News Chad Pergram reported that Sanders could ask for the removal of Wasserman Schultz in his meetings with both Obama and Reid. In a series of tweets, Pergram said some Dem sources believe the key to getting unity with Sanders after a tough primary campaign is booting Wasserman Schultz. Sanders campaign has also called for the removal of the co-chairs of the DNCs standing committee on rules, Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy and former Rep. Barney Frank. The Senate aide expected that Sanders will present Reid with plans that would help him join a post-primary effort to unify the party.

Weve been in listening mode for the most part. Hes going to be hearing what Bernies ideas are for bringing the party together and hoping he comes with some ideas, the aide said of Reid. And hopefully there are some good ones they can work on together.

If Sanders does indeed call for removing Wasserman Schultz or other DNC leaders, the aide said Reid would be open to hearing him out.

Sanders campaign did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Yahoo News about plans for the meetings.

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Throughout the primary campaign, Sanders and his team have criticized the DNC as biased in favor of Clinton. Among other things, the Sanders campaign took issue with debate scheduling, the partys handling of a data breach allegedly perpetrated by Sanders staff, and criticisms of the Sanders campaign that were made by DNC leaders. Tensions reached a boiling point last month when Sanders endorsed Wasserman Schultzs primary opponent in Florida.

Chair of the Democratic National Committee and U.S. Rep Debbie Wasserman Schultz is interviewed on the Fox Business Network, March 21, 2016. (Photo: Richard Drew/AP)

Last month, The Hill reported that some congressional Democrats had discussed whether Wasserman Schultz should step down because her strained relationship with the Sanders campaign could prove an obstacle to an upcoming party unity push. The Hill quoted an unnamed lawmaker who said senators were holding meetings about Wasserman Schultzs future.

I dont see how she can continue to the election. How can she open the convention? Sanders supporters would go nuts, the lawmaker told The Hill.

Yahoo News asked the DNC about a potential Sanders push for a leadership shakeup. DNC communications director Luis Miranda did not directly address the issue, but he touted Wasserman Schultzs accomplishments and said the DNC is dedicated to bringing the party together for the race against presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and other down-ballot elections.

The chair and the DNC are going to continue to focus on uniting Democrats and on being an asset to help elect them up and down the ballot in November, just as weve done for many in both chambers, Miranda said, adding, Having successfully paid off $24 million in debt from winning the 2012 elections, the DNC has been able to reinvest in strengthening our state parties, and in building the infrastructure and coordinated campaigns that are vital to keeping Donald Trump out of the White House, and thats where were going to keep our focus.

Wasserman Schultz has repeatedly said she plans to remain in her position until after the next president is inaugurated in January 2017.

On Tuesday, White House press secretary Josh Earnest discussed Sanders meeting with Obama, which was requested by Sanders. According to a press pool report, Earnest said Obama plans to praise Sanders for his campaign.

I think the president certainly wants to congratulate Sen. Sanders on a remarkably successful campaign, Earnest said. I think the president will also convey his appreciation for the kind of agenda that Sen. Sanders has run.

The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comments from Yahoo News about a potential push for a DNC shakeup by Sanders. However, both Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have previously expressed support for Wasserman Schultz. In response to The Hills article on Wasserman Schultz last month, a Biden aide said he supports her and her leadership of the committee. And earlier this month, Obama praised Wasserman Schultz at a DNC event in her home state of Florida.
The 9-foot alligator seen with a human body in its jaws on Tuesday has been captured and found to have human remains in its stomach.



A contract trapper for the state caught and killed a 9-foot alligator last night around 8:30, Sgt. Gary Gross of the Lakeland Police Department tells PEOPLE. The medical examiner examined the contents of its stomach this morning and found human remains that match the missing parts of the body. 



On Tuesday afternoon, a witness called 911 to report that he had seen the alligator with what appeared to be a dead body in its mouth in Lake Hunter in Lakeland, Florida.









Ive got a dead body over here in the lake it looks like an alligator is trying to pull him down under, the caller said.



Sgt. Gross said the reptile released the body shortly after police responded to the scene.



He rolled a few times in the water and then let go [of the body] and swam off, he said.





Watch on #Periscope: Body pulled out of the lake in Lakeland - Police Investigation https://t.co/lVQqr9s5gH a Sgt. Gary B Gross (@GaryBGross) June 7, 2016





Police then retrieved the body while the Florida wildlife and game commission dispatched alligator trappers to attempt to catch the gator.



The gator was caught on Tuesday night and the contents of its stomach were examined Wednesday. Gross says the cause of death of the victim, a white male whose body appeared to have been in the water for more than a day is still under investigation.



We havenat determined manner or cause of death because of the body parts that are missing and the decomposition from the water, Gross explains.



An autopsy has been completed and results of the toxicology report could take up to a month. While there are no open missing persons cases in the area, Gross says a few items have been retrieved from the lake that could be related to the case.



There was a backpack we found at the boat ramp and other items around the lake like a shirt but we dont know if theyre tied with this or not, he says. People fish here a lot and they often leave things behind. 





Body has been pulled out of the water. Unk victim. Detectives on the scene. Press release will be sent out later pic.twitter.com/8mt66K8tYj a Sgt. Gary B Gross (@GaryBGross) June 7, 2016





Alligators are a common sighting at Lake Hunter and are not known to be particularly aggressive. Its a very fine line to call them aggressive because our alligators are known to sun themselves on the bank, Gross says. Every once in a while you get a call that one of them is charging somebody or trying to get their pet but very few are aggressive unless you agitate them in some way.



Gross added that the alligators in the area may be more aggressive than usual during their mating season, which runs from April to late June.



On Wednesday, the Lakeland Police returned to Lake Hunter to respond to a call about another alligator seen with something in its jaws.



The caller thought maybe it was more human remains, but it turned out to be a cat, Gross says.
(JERUSALEM)  Two Palestinian gunmen opened fire in central Tel Aviv Wednesday night, killing three people and wounding at least five others, Israel police said.

Tel Aviv district police commander Moshe Edri said there was shooting in two locations close to the popular open-air Sharona market

This was a harsh terror attack. Two terrorists opened fire at civilians, Edri said, adding that both attackers were detained and one was being treated for a gunfire wound.

Police had initially said there might be a third attacker but later ruled that out.

Meital Sassi told Channel 10 TV she was out with her family celebrating her sons birthday when she heard shots and immediately understood it was a terror attack.

We ran like lighting with the baby and the stroller, she said. I yelled at people who didnt understand what was happening to run.

Police said the two gunmen were members of the same family from the Palestinian village of Yatta, near the West Bank town of Hebron, which has been a flashpoint for violence during a recent wave of unrest.

Israel has been struggling to cope with eight months of Palestinian attacks, mostly stabbings, that have killed 31 Israelis and two Americans. About 200 Palestinians have been killed during that time, most identified as attackers by Israel.
Hong Kongs democratic movement is breathing a sigh of relief. On Tuesday morning, a magistrates court acquitted Joshua Wong, a figurehead of the pro-democracy movement, and three other activists of obstruction charges stemming from protests in 2014. The decision has renewed faith in the citys judiciary, which has taken a beating from Beijing.

Wongs acquittal comes shortly after a visit to Hong Kong by the head of Chinas rubber-stamp legislature. As chair of the National Peoples Congress, Zhang Dejiang is, in effect, Chinas top lawmaker. During his visit, he darkly hinted that local authorities should crack down on those calling for more political freedoms, and to not appease acts that challenge the rule of law.

Those comments follow remarks by Beijings top official in the territory, Zhang Xiaoming, who last year said that separation of powers between the executive and the judiciary does not suit Hong Kong. They also come in the wake of the detention in mainland China of five members of a Hong Kongbased publishing firm that produced books critical of Chinese Communist Party officials, in a case widely seen as a blatant violation of Hong Kongs autonomy by Beijing.

China has no rule of law  it really is complete lawlessness, Democratic Party chairperson Emily Lau tells TIME. She says that yesterdays verdict wasnt merely an exoneration of four youthful activists but a powerful testament to the vigor of the Hong Kong judiciary branch in the face of Chinese intimidation. I certainly hope that [the mainland Chinese authorities] have learned a lesson and will leave Hong Kong alone.

A social-science professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, David Zweig, tells TIME that the Wong verdict thwarted Beijings demand that the judiciary owe their loyalty to the state. He says, This is very important for the future of Hong Kong.

Story continues

Michael Vidler, founder of the law firm that specializes in civil rights and which defended Wong, agrees. The judiciary, he says, are judicial officers only according to the law. Long may that continue.

Local conservative politician and tycoon Michael Tien also expresses relief. The government is heavily influenced by China, so [the verdict] provides a check and balance, he says, adding that the judiciary is alive and kicking and thriving.

Wong  who appeared on the October 2014 cover of TIMEs international edition  faces another hearing later this month, when a verdict will be given on charges of inciting an uprising.
Joe Scarborough

Joe Scarborough slammed Donald Trump again Wednesday on "Morning Joe," saying the presumptive Republican nominee is acting like a "bigot" and needs to get his act together.

"Donald, guess what? I'm not going to support you until you get your act together. You're acting like bush-league loser, youre acting like a racist, youre acting like a bigot," the MSNBC host said on the show Wednesday.

He continued:

This is called art of the deal. I'm taking my deal off the table. Until you come to the table and get on the other side of the table and prove to me you're not a bigot and you don't take my party down in the ditch, you don't have my endorsement.

Scarborough's latest rant came the day after he implored fellow Republicans to retract their endorsements of Trump.

On Wednesday, Scarborough railed against the idea that Republicans could be convinced to vote for Trump because he's a better alternative than the presumptive Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton. He specifically took issue with Trump's attacks against a federal judge because of his Mexican heritage.

"Don't use Hillary Clinton as a threat against me. Don't use Hillary Clinton as an excuse, as your blank check to say racist things about people born in Indiana," Scarborough said of Trump's attacks. "No, Donald, you don't get to play it that way."

Scarborough later warned that if Republicans "embrace the racist to beat Hillary, they lose to Hillary and destroy the party."

Trump, for his part, hit back at Scarborough on Wednesday.

"Nobody is watching @Morning_Joe anymore," he tweeted. "Gone off the deep end - bad ratings. You won't believe what I am watching now!"

Criticism of Trump has escalated this week as politicians from both sides of the aisle decry the billionaire real-estate mogul's attacks on a judge who's presiding over lawsuits of the now-defunct Trump University.

Trump has repeatedly said US District Judge Gonzalo Curiel cannot be impartial because "he's a Mexican." (Curiel was born in Indiana to Mexican parents.) Trump argues that Curiel's heritage is relevant because of his promise to build a wall along the US-Mexico border if he's elected president in November.

Story continues

House Speaker Paul Ryan, who has endorsed Trump for president, characterized Trump's attacks as "the textbook definition of a racist comment." Mark Kirk, a Republican senator from Illinois, announced Tuesday that he would not support Trump, citing "un-American" attacks on the judge.

Watch below:

NOW WATCH: Watch this 11-year-old put Mike Pence on the spot with a tough question about his role as Trump's VP





More From Business Insider


Taraneh Alidoosti at Cannes last month. (Image via AP Photo/Joel Ryan)

Iranian social media recently was consumed by two questions: Does Taraneh Alidoosti have a tattoo, and is she a feminist? To the latter, the 32-year-old Natalie Portman of Iran says via tweet, Keep calm and YES Im a feminist. But as for the tattoo, Alidoosti is not talking, the New York Times reports. Its a private matter, she says.

Related: Topless Women Crash Muslim Conference

The whole brouhaha was sparked by a photo taken last week during a press conference in Tehran at which Alidoosti was promoting her new film, The Salesman, New York magazine reports. As she reached for a microphone, Alidoosti revealed what appeared to be a tattoo of the woman power symbol on her left forearm. Reactions to the apparent tattoo ranged from support from Alidoostis fans to accusations from conservatives that she supports abortion, a right that does not exist in Iran, Emirates 24/7 reports.

Related: More of Us Are Knocking Boots With the Same Sex

Now that I think about it, read one supportive tweet, per the Times, I have been feminist from the very beginning. But another Twitter user writes, You are advertising foreigners. Another jokingly warned Alidoosti that she may end up in Tehrans Evin Prison.

Related: Pilot Wont Let Woman on Flight Over Her Short Shorts

Calling Irans womens rights movement officially nonexistent, the Times notes that the label of feminist often carries negative connotations in the country, with hard-liners saying that feminism equates to a war against the family. Alidoosti, who the Times notes is married with a child, sought to explain her feminist stance in another tweet: Feminist: a person who believes in the social, political, and economical equality of the sexes.

By Luke Roney

More From Newser:

Your Earwax Says a Lot About You

Mom Goes Into Hospital to Give Birth, Leaves Without Legs



This article originally appeared on Newser: Actresss Apparent Tattoo Causes Uproar in Iran
Pretoria (AFP) - The South African government reacted angrily Wednesday to warnings by the United States and Britain about possible imminent "terrorist" attacks by Islamic extremists in the country's major cities.

Without naming the countries, a strongly-worded government statement described the warnings as "alarmist" and said diplomatic action had been taken to register South Africa's "displeasure".

The US embassy, which Wednesday stood by its warning, said Saturday it had received information that "terrorist groups" were planning to carry out attacks in upmarket shopping malls in South Africa during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Britain issued a similar alert two days later -- but Pretoria rejected the warnings as unsubstantiated.

"The information provided as a basis for the latest terror alerts on South Africa has been found to be very sketchy," the government said in a statement.

"We have found the information to be dubious, unsubstantiated and provided by a 'walk-in' source based on questionable conclusions."

South Africa said it rejected "attempts to generate perceptions of government ineptitude, alarmist impressions and public hysteria on the basis of a questionable single source," it said.

The US embassy insisted, however, that it stood by its warning.

"U.S. Embassy in Pretoria confirms that there is no change in status of the Security Message issued on June 4, 2016. It was based on specific, credible, and non-counterable threat information."

The British embassy did not immediately comment.

South Africa, which has a Muslim minority of around 1.5 percent in a population of some 53 million, has so far escaped the jihadist attacks seen in several other African countries.
The past week saw the raising of the 2016 profitability outlook for the airline industry to $39.4 billion from $36.3 billion by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), courtesy weak oil prices. All regions, barring Africa, are expected to perform well in 2016 with North America expected to lead the show.

Moreover, woes related to passenger unit revenue (PRASM, a measure of unit revenue) continued to hurt Delta Air Lines, Inc. DAL with the Atlanta, GA-based carrier revealing that the metric declined 5% in May. On the other hand, Alaska Air Group, Inc. ALK, the parent company of Alaska Airlines, reported healthy traffic numbers for May buoyed by increased demand.

Furthermore, expansion-related and labor friendly updates from Southwest Airlines LUV and Spirit Airlines SAVE gained attention over the past week. American Airlines Groups AAL announcement of modifying its frequent flier program also grabbed headlines.

Recap of the Past Weeks Most Important Stories

1. Deltas May traffic  measured in revenue passenger miles (RPMs)  improved 3.3% and capacity expanded 3.5%. The greater increase in capacity compared with traffic caused load factor (percentage of seats filled by passengers) to decrease to 85.3% in the month. However, PRASM continued to decline due to adverse foreign exchange movements and soft domestic yields. Moreover, rumors regarding the airline behemoths interest in buying the Latin American carrier Avianca Holdings S.A. AVH grabbed attention (read more: Delta Air Lines' May Traffic Up, PRASM Declines 5%).

2. At its Annual General Meeting in Dublin, the IATA increased its projection for 2016 global net profit for the industry to $39.4 billion from the earlier $36.3 billion. The comparable 2015 figure was $35.3 billion. In the event of the forecast coming true, 2016 will be the fifth successive year of profit improvement for the airline industry (read more: Good Times to Continue for Airlines? IATA Says So).

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3. Alaska Air Group saw its May air traffic move up 11.6% year over year on an 11.3% rise in capacity. Load factor increased to 84.7%, courtesy the greater rise in traffic (read more: Alaska Air Group May Traffic Maintains Growth Trend).

4. In a bid to expand, Southwest Airlines has filed an application with the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) for permission to fly to three more Mexican cities. The carrier intends to operate non-stop flights between Los Angeles and the Mexican destinations  Cancun, San Jose del Cabo/Los Cabos and Puerto Vallarta  from Nov 6, 2016, assuming that it gets the approval by Jun 30 (read more: Southwest Airlines Looks to Add 3 Mexican Destinations).

5 Spirit Airlines inked a pay related tentative contract with the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers or IAM. The provisional deal covers the members of the ramp service team of the low-cost carrier based at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. The ratification voting procedure will carried out later in the month.

6. In a customer-friendly move, the Fort Worth, TX-based American Airlines Group modified its AAdvantage Loyalty Program. Following the modification, the elite members of American Airlines AAdvantage program will earn bonus miles for every dollar spent rather than the distance flown. The changes, similar to those made by its peers like Delta, will take effect from Aug 1. The carrier said that its elite fliers will earn five miles for every dollar spent on tickets (base fares and carrier-imposed fees). That number of miles awarded rises to seven, eight or eleven with an increase in elite status level - gold, platinum and executive-platinum, respectively. Also from Jan 1, 2017, American Airlines intends to introduce another level to its elite class  placed between platinum and executive platinum levels. Moreover, for being eligible for the elite status, fliers need to meet minimum annual spending levels in addition to the existing elite-qualification requirements. For example, to qualify for the gold level, a flier will have to spend at least $3,000 apart from flying 25,000 miles or 30 segments annually. This change will also take effect from Jan 1, 2017.

Performance

The following table shows the price movement of the major airline players over the past week and during the last 6 months.

Company Past Week Last 6 months HA 3.81% 6.79% UAL 1.60% -21.89% GOL 8.10% -16.39% DAL -2.83% -16.25% JBLU 3.63% -28.93% AAL 1.32% -27.36% SAVE 2.81% 8.49% LUV 1.90% -4.37% VA 0.23% 55.47% ALK 0.64% -22.53%

The table above shows that all airline stocks barring Delta traded in the green over the past week, leading to a 4.01% rise in the NYSE ARCA Airline index to $86.84 over the same time frame. Shares of GOL Linhas appreciated the most (8.10%) as investors seemed to be pleased with its restructuring efforts.

Over the past six months most airline stocks lost value with the NYSE ARCA Airline index declining 4.25%. Shares of JetBlue Airways have shed the maximum (28.93%) over the period.

What's Next in the Airline Space?

We expect May traffic updates from airline heavyweights like American Airlines Group and United Continental Holdings UAL over the coming days.

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CHICAGO (AP) -- As a young boxer, Muhammad Ali searched for a faith to guide him as he confronted the indignities of racial discrimination. What he found was the Nation of Islam, the controversial black Muslims who preached a doctrine of strict separation of the races and described white people as devils.

The move to a group feared by whites and rejected by many blacks stunned fans who were dazzled by the showmanship, quick wit, and fast fists of the boxer who had won an Olympic gold medal as Cassius Clay. But Ali, who adopted a Muslim name, didn't waver amid withering criticism. He resisted calls to join black civil rights activists, declaring that forced integration wouldn't work.

Ali parted ways with the Nation after about a decade, embracing mainstream Islam, which teaches that believers should embrace all races and ethnicities. He remained a devout Muslim until his death last week at age 74. As one of the most famous Muslims in the world, he traveled widely as a goodwill ambassador, spreading the message of Islam as a religion of peace.

But Ali's decision to join the Chicago-based Nation of Islam more than 50 years ago reflected a recurring theme in his life: a willingness to defy the establishment and do what he believed was right. He offered no apologies for aligning himself with the polarizing group. He found comfort there.

''The Nation did provide him a sense of belonging and group support,'' says Larry Mamiya, professor emeritus at Vassar College who has studied the group for four decades. ''It enabled him to be himself in a world where his sport was controlled by whites. But his charismatic presence also enabled the Nation to attract new members. So it worked both ways.''

While Martin Luther King Jr. preached nonviolence, Ali preferred the Nation's emphasis on self-defense, says Mamiya, pointing to the group's most celebrated member, Malcolm X, who believed ''if you hit me, I'll hit you back.'' Ali also was attracted to the group's core principles -'''know yourself'' and ''do for self,'' a message of financial independence that led to many Nation members becoming merchants, the professor adds.

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Ali went public with his membership in the Nation in 1964, shortly after defeating Sonny Liston for the heavyweight title. He abandoned what he called his slave name, Cassius Clay, and briefly was known by Cassius X before declaring: ''I am Muhammad Ali, a free name - it means beloved of God and I insist people use it when speaking to me and of me.''

Ali's interest in the Nation of Islam began in his high school years in Louisville, when he lived under the yoke of Jim Crow laws, even after returning home with an Olympic gold medal in 1960. In 1962, he attended a Nation of Islam conference in Detroit and was captivated by the words of Elijah Muhammad, the group's leader, and the more dynamic Malcolm X, Mamiya says.

In a 1964 interview with The Associated Press in which he formally declared himself a Muslim, Ali said he didn't like the phrase ''Black Muslims,'' and described Islam as ''the true way to save the world, which is on fire with hate.'' He declared ''forced and token integration'' was a ''pacifier,'' or temporary solution to problems blacks face, and one group should not impose its culture on another.

''They have been telling me I should carry signs, that I should join integration marches,'' he said. ''They tell me it would be fine if I married a white woman - it would be good for brotherhood. I don't buy this. I don't want to get blown up. I don't want to be washed down the sewer. I don't want to go to jail.''

Ali also emphasized he didn't hate anyone. ''I like white people. I like my own people,'' he said. "They can live together without infringing on each other. You can't condemn a man for wanting peace - if you do, you condemn peace itself.''

The Nation's appeal wasn't that unusual in the turbulent 1960s as black pride, black power and African names became more popular. Ali saw the alternative - blacks beaten, jailed and murdered in civil rights struggles, says Harry Edwards, an expert on black athletes and professor emeritus of sociology at the University of California-Berkeley.

''The mainstream asked that we continue to have faith in a constitution and a government that was clearly not working for us,'' Edwards says. ''If you're going to have faith, at least have faith in something that advocates for you. That's what the Nation of Islam was. ... Ali simply had the courage of his convictions. His relationship with Malcolm X cemented the deal.''

Malcolm X became Ali's mentor and close friend. Their relationship ruptured when Malcolm X split from the Nation after disclosing Elijah Muhammad had fathered several out-of-wedlock children with his secretaries. Ali remained loyal to Muhammad, whose son, Jabir Herbert, was the boxer's longtime manager

Two years later, Ali refused to be drafted into the U.S. Army, citing his religious convictions. He was stripped of his heavyweight title and didn't box for more than three years. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned his conviction on draft evasion charges. During his exile, Ali ''was surprised, disappointed and ... devastated'' by the lack of support among some Nation members, Edwards says. And, he adds, Ali also regretted he hadn't reconciled with Malcolm X before his assassination in 1965.

In 1975, after Elijah Muhammad died, his son, Imam W.D. Mohammed, succeeded him and moved the group toward orthodox Sunni Islam. Ali was a faithful member, providing some star power by appearing at some of W.D.'s speeches. (Those who rejected the transformation and still accepted Elijah Muhammad's teachings followed Louis Farrakhan as a new leader of the Nation of Islam.)

In his later years, Ali studied Sufism, a mystical Islamic tradition. His book, ''The Soul of a Butterfly,'' quotes Sufi sayings and stories extensively.

Ali will be buried Friday in Islamic tradition, his body facing Mecca.
Rome (AFP) - An Eritrean dubbed "the general", suspected of controlling a migrant trafficking network responsible for shipping thousands of people to Europe and sending some to a watery grave, has been extradited to Italy.

Medhanie Yehdego Mered, 35, who had been on a wanted list since 2015 for international people smuggling, was arrested in the Sudanese capital Khartoum and flown to Italy late Monday.

He is "the accused ringleader of one of the four largest criminal migrant trafficking organisations", the Sudanese interior ministry said in a joint statement with the country's British and Italian embassies.

Referred to in wiretapped conversations between his subordinate alleged traffickers as "the general" for his control over a large area and number of "troops", Mered is accused of organising the smuggling of up to 8,000 people a year on migrant boats.

Investigators believe his organisation was responsible for packing migrants onto a boat that sank in 2013 off the Italian island of Lampedusa, claiming at least 360 lives in one of the worst disasters in the Mediterranean.

He reportedly described the sinking as "Allah's will" in a wiretap.

His arrest is "a key turning point in the fight against people trafficking," prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi told a press conference, while Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano dubbed it "an extraordinary result" in a bid to stop "merchants of death".

It is the first time a suspected top smuggler has been arrested in Africa and brought to face justice in Italy, which has been overwhelmed by the arrival of hundreds of thousands of people since the migrant crisis began in 2008.

Mered allegedly directed operations in Africa but also kept fellow operators in Italy up to date on the arrival of boats, so migrants could be picked up and squeezed for more money to continue to their final destinations in Europe.

Between 2012 and his capture, he also played a key role in helping migrants escape from Libyan jails and detention centres, bribing guards to let them out and then holding them to extort money from their relatives back home, police said.

Story continues

- 'Beaten with iron sticks' -

Mered was tracked down by the Sudanese intelligence services, with support from Italy's organised crime police and Britain's National Crime Agency.

A top Sudanese police officer told AFP on condition of anonymity that Mered was "accused of smuggling youngsters from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia and Sudan across the Mediterranean through Sudan or Libya or Egypt".

Wiretaps of Mered's conversations revealed he was in contact with traffickers in northern Europe, particularly in the Netherlands and Scandinavia, and held a "senior position in a criminal network operating in several continents", Italian police said.

The taps followed smugglers who were constantly on the move between Eritrea, Ethiopia, Libya, Sudan, the UAE and Europe.

Mered was a contact point for people worried relatives may have disappeared during the perilous Mediterranean crossing.

He was loving with his family on the telephone, making several references to leaving Libya and moving to Sweden to be with his wife, but showed "utter disregard for the lives of the migrants, appearing cynical and unscrupulous", Italian police said.

There have been numerous reports from survivors of people being forced to board boats and dinghies on Libyan beaches at gunpoint, as well as reports of people being shot dead if they refuse or try to escape.

According to the UN's refugee agency (UNHCR), over 48,500 people have arrived in Italy by boat so far this year. More than 10,000 people have died crossing the Mediterranean to Europe since 2014.

On Wednesday, rescuers were hard at work off Libya, pulling at least 800 people to safety.

Doctors Without Borders, which picked up 226 people, quoted on Twitter a survivor who said "we're happy to be alive but our brothers are still in Libya".

"Last night they were beating us with iron sticks".
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / June 8, 2016 / Alliance Mining Corp. (TSX-V: ALM) ("Alliance" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has entered into an exclusivity agreement (the "Exclusivity Agreement") with Madeira Resources ("Madeira"), a privately held exploration company located in Winnipeg, Manitoba whereby Alliance will have up to 30 days to conduct due diligence on certain of Madeira's mineral claims commonly known as the Lotus and Denver claims located in Manitoba (the "Property"), with a view to negotiating the terms of a letter of intent and, if applicable, a definitive agreement in order to complete the acquisition of certain of Madeira's mineral claims (the "Transaction").

The Lotus and Denver claims are located within the Archean Rice Lake greenstone belt in southeastern Manitoba. This belt forms part of the Uchi Subprovince that includes the Red Lake and Pickle Crow belts in northwestern Ontario. The Uchi Subprovince has produced in excess of 15 million ounces of gold with some copper and zinc. Gold production from the Rice Lake belt exceeded 1.7 million ounces with no significant production of other metals. The Lotus claims are just off a provincial highway located approximately 35 kilometers west of the town of Bissett where the Rice Lake Mine is located.

The discovery of gold has played a big part in developing this area of Manitoba. Over the many years there have been multiple smaller mines which include the Jeep Mine and the Poundmaker to only mention a few.

The Lotus property was originally discovered in 1924. Esso Resources Canada Ltd. conducted a channel sampling and mapping program in 1979 and followed up with a diamond drilling exploration program in 1980., A total of 22 holes for 3,850 feet of drilling was completed at that time, with four gold bearing zones identified, according to an Esso report, completed in 1980, " Report on Diamond Drill Program on Lotus Prospect, Esso Resources Canada Ltd, R.S.Hall, October 20, 1980", (non NI43-101 compliant) http://www.gov.mb.ca/data/em/application/assessment/92914.pdf.

Another drilling program was conducted in 1981 by Esso, where 20 holes for 3,660 feet of drilling was completed at that time and associated report being completed, "Esso Minerals Canada, Division of Esso Resources Canada Limited, Lotus and Ling Veins, CB 8344, 1981 Exploration, J.G. Jansen, December 1981", (non NI43-101 compliant) http://www.gov.mb.ca/data/em/application/assessment/92914.pdf.

In 1982, a joint venture between Esso and Brinco Mining Limited developed and mined at the Lotus property. This material was processed through Brinco's mill at the Rice Lake Mine location (Government of Manitoba, Science, Technology, Energy and Mines Department, Mineral Inventory File No 375).

The Property is considered to be early stage exploration property; there are no known mineral resources. All information and references are not being relied upon by the company in order to proceed with any potential transaction. Any data in this press release is considered historical and are not 43-101 compliant and should not be relied upon as accurate by the reader.

The Transaction is subject to, among other things, the completion of due diligence, completion of a National Instrument 43-101 technical report on the Property, the execution of a mutually satisfactory definitive agreement and obtaining all necessary regulatory approvals, including the TSX Venture Exchange. Further details about the Transaction will be provided in a comprehensive news release if and when the parties enter into a letter of intent and/or a definitive agreement.

Alliance is very excited to be working in the province of Manitoba where it ranks as one of the top locations worldwide for investment attractiveness.

Michael Willett, P.ENG has reviewed and approved the contents of this new release and is a Qualified Person as defined in National Instrument 43-101. Alliance is formulating a technical committee of which Mr. Willett may be a part of to advise the Company.

This news release may contain forward-looking statements including but not limited to the Transaction, completion of a 43-101 technical report, comments regarding the timing and content of upcoming work programs, geological interpretations, receipt of property titles, potential mineral recovery processes, and the execution of the definitive agreement. This news release refers to historical reports with reserve and resource calculations and or estimations that no NI 43-101 compliant and therefore cannot be relied upon whatsoever. Such statements are made purely for reference and should not be relied upon for its accuracy or for investment purposes. Forward-looking statements address future events and conditions and therefore involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements consist of statements that are not purely historical, including any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. Such information can generally be identified by the use of forwarding-looking wording such as "may," "expect," "estimate," "will," "anticipate," "intend," "believe" and "continue" or the negative thereof or similar variations. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements and the Company undertakes no obligation to update such statements, except as required by law. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking information. There can be no assurance that the proposed transaction with Madeira will be completed or, if completed, will be successful.

Completion of the Transaction is subject to a number of conditions, including but not limited to, TSX Venture Exchange acceptance. There can be no assurance that the Transaction will be completed as proposed or at all.

Forward-looking statements are based on the then-current expectations, beliefs, assumptions, estimates and forecasts about the business and the industry and markets in which the Company operates, including that: the current price of and demand for minerals being targeted by the Company will be sustained or will improve; the Company's current exploration programs and objectives can be achieved; results of exploration activities; the Company will be able to obtain required exploration licences and other permits; general business and economic conditions will not change in a material adverse manner; financing will be available if and when needed on reasonable terms; the Company will not experience any material accident; and the Company will be able to identify and acquire additional mineral interests on reasonable terms or at all. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions which are difficult to predict. Investors are cautioned that all forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, including: that resource exploration and development is a speculative business; that the Company may lose or abandon its property interests or may fail to receive necessary licences and permits; equipment breakdowns; labour disputes; the increase in cost estimates and the potential for unexpected costs and expenses; the results of exploration activities; that environmental laws and regulations may become more onerous; that the Company may not be able to raise additional funds when necessary; potential defects in title to the Company's properties; fluctuating prices of commodities; operating hazards and risks; competition; potential inability to find suitable acquisition opportunities and/or complete the same; and other risks and uncertainties listed in the Company's public filings. These risks, as well as others, could cause actual results and events to vary significantly. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and information, which are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. There can be no assurance that forward-looking information, or the material factors or assumptions used to develop such forward looking information, will prove to be accurate. The Company does not undertake any obligations to release publicly any revisions for updating any voluntary forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable securities law.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

Al Beaton

Director

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

Alliance Mining Corp.

(604) 488-3900

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, nor shall there be any sale of securities in any state in the United States in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. The securities referred to herein have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from registration requirements.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of them TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Certain of the statements made and information contained herein is "forward-looking information" within the meaning of the Ontario Securities Act. This includes statements concerning the Company's plans at its mineral properties, which involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Forward-looking information is subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties which could cause actual events or results to differ from those reflected in the forward-looking information, including, without limitation, the availability of financing for activities, risks and uncertainties relating to the interpretation of drill results and the estimation of mineral resources and reserves, the geology, grade and continuity of mineral deposits, the possibility that future exploration, development or mining results will not be consistent with the Company's expectations, metal price fluctuations, environmental and regulatory requirements, availability of permits, escalating costs of remediation and mitigation, risk of title loss, the effects of accidents, equipment breakdowns, labour disputes or other unanticipated difficulties with or interruptions in exploration or development, the potential for delays in exploration or development activities, the inherent uncertainty of production and cost estimates and the potential for unexpected costs and expenses, commodity price fluctuations, currency fluctuations, expectations and beliefs of management and other risks and uncertainties. In addition, forward-looking information is based on various assumptions. Should one or more of these risks and uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in forward-looking statements. Accordingly, readers are advised not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

SOURCE: Alliance Mining Corp.
Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos has pledged to invest $3 billion in India, in a big bet on the growth of online shopping in the fast-growing South Asian economy.

Speaking in Washington DC as India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits the United States, Bezos told a gathering of business leaders that he saw "huge potential" in India.

The investment, announced Tuesday, comes on top of $2 billion Amazon invested in India in 2014, and will boost Modi's campaign to attract foreign cash to create much-needed jobs.

"We have already created some 45,000 jobs in India and continue to see huge potential in the Indian economy," Bezos said at the US-India Business Council meeting, according to a statement from the group.

"Our Amazon.in team is surpassing even our most ambitious planned milestones," he said.

Amazon has made steady inroads in India since entering the cut-throat, rapidly growing e-commerce market in 2013.

But it faces stiff competition from local rivals Snapdeal and Flipkart, which have attracted billions of dollars in overseas investment.

E-retailers in India, including Amazon, typically adopt a "marketplace" structure, acting as technological platforms that connect buyers and sellers rather than stocking their own products.

The government in March set new rules for foreign investment in online marketplaces, including allowing up to 100 percent foreign ownership.

India's e-commerce market was worth about $23 billion in 2015, according to business body Assocham.
Amber Heard isn't keeping a low profile.

The 30-year-old actress was snapped running errands in Los Angeles on Tuesday, the same day ET confirmed that she was arrested and booked in 2009 for Assault in the Fourth Degree - Domestic Violence, a misdemeanor offense, against her then-girlfriend, photographer Tasya van Ree, though charges were never filed. Heard is accusing her estranged ex, Johnny Depp, of physically abusing her throughout their relationship.

Wearing jeans, a simple white t-shirt and a black jacket, Heard looked somber as she covered up in a hat and sunglasses.

MONEY$HOT-XCLU$IVE / Splash News

WATCH: Amber Heard Was Arrested on a Charge of Domestic Violence Against Her Girlfriend in 2009

The prosecuting attorney's office declined to file criminal charges against Heard in September 2009, since both Heard and van Ree, 40, lived in California, and Heard was arrested in Seattle, Washington. According to TMZ, the two got in an argument at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, which triggered the arrest. Heard allegedly grabbed and struck van Ree in the arm, which upset her.

Still, Heard's friend -- writer and TV host iO Tillett Wright, who called 911 to report Depp's alleged abuse in May -- went on the offensive on Monday, passionately defending the actress.

"How much evidence does a woman need to present?!" Wright tweeted. "She has photos, texts, witnesses, and filed a restraining order This culture of victim blaming makes me sick. I'm a witness. I'm here. I'm standing up. I can't take any more of this witch hunt."

Depp, 52, has yet to directly respond to Heard's allegations against him. His divorce attorney, Laura Wasser, claimed in court documents that Heard is "attempting to secure a premature financial resolution by alleging abuse."

The actor's close friends and family are also defending him. Depp's ex and the mother of his two children, Vanessa Paradis, penned a letter slamming Heard's allegations.

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"He is a sensitive, loving and loved person, and I believe with all my heart that these recent allegations being made are outrageous," Paradis wrote. "In all the years I have known Johnny, he has never been physically abusive with me and this looks nothing like the man I lived with for 14 wonderful years."

WATCH: EXCLUSIVE -- Inside Johnny Depp & Amber Heard's 'Volatile' Relationship and When It All Went Wrong

But after Depp's friend, comedian Doug Stanhope, wrote that Depp was being "blackmailed" by Heard in a guest column published by TheWrap.com, the actress filed a defamation lawsuit against Stanhope. According to court documents obtained by ET, Heard claimed 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 added that the allegations in the article "have caused and will continue to cause her tremendous harm."

Watch below:

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Fueling Freedom author Kathleen Hartnett White says the U.S. is sitting on $50 trillion in oil and gas, but the government is stopping us from getting at it. Why is the government blocking access to Americas abundant resources and preventing the country from becoming energy independent?

Yes, its quite a big number and its the governments number if you combine all of the Department of Energys estimates and I might add it also includes coal, White told the FOX Business Networks Stuart Varney.

White said the shale revolution is a key factor in improving access to those energy resources.

The shale revolution is misunderstood. Its demise has been overestimated. While 60% of the rigs are gone from the fields, we still through 2015 maintained record production levels. And whats happened is that select wells on the basis of rapidly improving technology are increasing productivity and cutting costs, White said.

This shale revolution, according to White, has been a game changer for the U.S. energy sector.

The real victory of the shale revolution is access to what geologists call the source rock where the bulk of hydrocarbons lie, said White.

This access is a huge leap compared to the oil and gas available through traditional wells.

Conventional wells may get out only 1%-10% of the oil and gas resource in a geologic formation. The shale revolution through fracking and other high-tech technologies has given us access to the mother load of oil and gas resources, White said.

And because of that White said America can now credibly talk about sustainable oil.

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Not only does America got talent, Americas got talent from all kinds of people. Some are weirdos with tape faces who talk with oven mitts, others are growling grandpas with a penchant for bodies hitting the floor. Then theres sweet Grace VanderWaal, the 12-year-old ukulele player who stunned the Americas Got Talent judges by performing an original song, I Dont Know My Name. On her YouTube page, Grace described the tune as being about finding who you are and where you fit in. She fits in on a stage, in front of millions. Just ask Simon Cowell, who called her the next Taylor Swift.

And probably not because she dances while listening to Jimmy Eat World.

Related Links:





New York native VanderWaal is one of the first contestants in Americas Got Talent history to receive the Golden Buzzer, which the judges are allowed to use once a season. When pressed, it means the act goes straight to the live shows, which thanks to Howie Mandel is where VanderWaal, who said she feels like she can win because miracles can happen, is headed next.

This is a show about surprises, Mandel praised. I think you are a living, beautiful, walking miracle. (Via)

Soon, the whole world might know her name.

(Via Fox News)
8 Jun - Talent manager and former actress Annabelle Rama has denied that President-elect Rodrigo Duterte has offered her a position as the chairperson of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB).



According to Coconuts Manila, Rama, who accepted an interview recently, stated that she is clueless as to how the rumour began, since Duterte never offered the position to her.



"Even if he offers me the post, I'd say decline it. I know nothing about the job," she said.



Her response was similar to what daughter Ruffa Gutierrez stated previously, when asked about the possibility of her mother becoming the new chair of MTRCB.



Gutierrez stated that it would be impossible for her mother to accept such a position even if it was offered to her, since it might affect her friendship with many movie producers.



(Photo source: lifestyle.abs-cbn.com)
Apollo Global Management, LLC APO has reportedly submitted a bid in the final round of Concordia Healthcare Corp. CXRX auction process. However, there is uncertainty regarding materialization of the deal. The news was reported by The Wall Street Journal on Monday, citing a person acquainted with the matter.



Apollos move comes in sharp contrast with the decision of two other private-equity firms  The Blackstone Group L.P. BX and Carlyle Group LP  that decided not to pursue the acquisition of the Canadian pharmaceutical company despite initially expressing interest in it.



Concerns over Concordia



The report stated that prospective buyers had concerns over Concordias ability to sustain its profitability amid the heightened regulatory scrutiny on the health-care sector in the wake of aggressive pricing of drugs by Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. VRX.



Also the Food and Drug Administrations efforts to enhance competition in the pharmaceutical industry and restrain the rise in drug prices may affect profitability of Concordia. There are also concerns regarding drug companies in the U.K. as regulators may put a ceiling on the National Health Systems spending on branded drugs and may extend the policy to include generics. Notably, Concordia generates more than half of its revenue from the sale of generics in the U.K., mainly through its Amdipharm Mercury Co. Ltd. acquisition.



On Thursday, Concordia said in a statement that it would continue to review its strategic alternatives. However, at the same time it noted that there can be no assurance that any transaction will occur.



What Might have Triggered Apollos Interest?



While several private equity firms have shun interest from Concordia, industry participants believe Apollos plans might have been driven by the current headwinds faced by Concordia, as the New York-based investment manager has a successful track record of supporting companies that face challenges.



As an investment management firm, Apollo has grown through meaningful acquisitions, strategic alliances and divestures. Apart from health care, the company's interest lies in varied spaces including chemicals, commodities, mining, agriculture, technology, financial services and manufacturing. We look forward to the company's greater involvement in deals that augur well for its growth.



However, we remain concerned about the adverse effects of the present capital market volatility and stringent regulatory landscape that could weigh on the company's financial performance in the near term.



Apollo Global currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).



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Apple (AAPL)  Apple raised $1.38 billion in its first bond sale in Taiwan, nearly 40% more than initially expected, according to the Taipei Exchange. The 30-year bond will list on June 22.

Amazon (AMZN)  CEO Jeff Bezos says Amazon will up its investment in India by $3 billion, bringing the total amount to $5 billion. Bezos, who made the announcement at a meeting with business leaders, released a statement that said the company sees huge potential in the Indian economy.

Lululemon (LULU)  The retailer posted a rise in sales during the first quarter and lifted its full-year forecast, but said its profit fell 5.2%. Lululemon reported a profit of 33 cents a share, down from 34 cents a share one year ago, while its revenue rose 17% to $495.5 million.

Skullcandy (SKUL)  The stock is in focus on Wall Street on news that Skullcandys founder Rick Alden wants to take the company private. In a 13D filing, Alden mentioned he was exploring the option.

Southwest Airlines (LUV)  The airline reported that it flew 10.9 billion revenue passenger miles in May, a 6.4% rise compared to one year ago. Southwest also said that based on current trends, it expects to see a modest increase in second-quarter operating revenue.

Lending Club (LC)  Reuters is reporting that Lending Club co-founder and CEO Renaud Laplanche has been speaking to private equity firms and banks about financing a potential buyout of the online lender. Reuters, citing sources, said the talks were preliminary and may not lead to a deal.
In early May, the Hollywood Reporter told us Batman v Superman director Zack Snyder, the man DC tapped to shape its franchise, was seeing his control lessened. Instead, DC Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns and Executive VP Jon Berg were going to be the creative leads of their cinematic universe. With the onslaught of negative articles directed at Snyders film and the hand-wringing over what would come to pass in future films, youd think DC was in a state of turmoil. Not the case, says Aquaman director James Wan.

In an interview with Cinema Blend, Wan said, To be honest, its not as dramatic as the press is making it out to be  from what Im seeing. And right now Im seeing everything as more an outsider looking into this box. So from that perspective, its really cool that its not crazy, crazy dramatic. I think its great. While Wan mentioned he hasnt really seen the shakeups, he has been working closely with Johns on Aquaman.

Wan has been all over the news recently, in part because of his promotional tour for The Conjuring 2. Here are some of the other things hes said.

When asked about the poor reception to Batman v Superman, he diplomatically told Bad Taste, I know how hard it is, from making Conjuring 2, how much anticipation there is just from the first movie. I think you do the best you can and tell the best story you can.

The director, who can claim Furious 7 among his credits, also told The Straits Times hes actively seeking more diversity in his films and that hes going to keep that in mind as Aquaman casts more supporting actors to accompany its lead, Jason Momoa.

As for Aquaman news, Wan told Uproxx that he could have directed the Flash movie if hed wanted but chose the man who can talk to fish because the bar is lower when it comes to his film. He also told Metro UK that he intends to put his stamp on the character, something that wont be hard given the lack of (real) Aquaman movies. As for why the king of the seas hasnt graced silver screens before, Wan told CinemaBlend it was due to the lack of technology to properly do a movie about a guy in an underwater kingdom.

Jeremy Irons Says Batman v Superman Criticism Was Deserved:
Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fcard%2fimage%2f110609%2fgreenlandseaice

Arctic sea ice plunged to a record low for the month of May, and now lies in a more brittle, fragile state than normal for this time of year, just as the height of the summer melt season gets underway.

According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colorado, sea ice extent across the Arctic was 4.63 million square miles, which was an astonishing 224,000 square miles below the previous record low for the month of May, set in 2004.

Compared to the 1981-2010 average, sea ice extent was a whopping 537,000 square miles below average.

To put this another way, this means that the Arctic was missing a chunk of sea ice that was twice the size of the state of Texas.

SEE ALSO: Arctic sea ice set a record low every single day in May

I think people have a hard time getting a grasp on how big a loss this is," NSIDC director Mark Serreze told Mashable in an interview. This is a lot of real estate.

The sea ice record occurred after record lows were also set in January, February and April, following a record warm winter throughout large parts of the Arctic that surprised even veteran climate scientists.

"Were losing ice in all seasons now. And what happened, why we are where we are for this May, so very low, is very clearly a reflection of how absurdly warm it was over the Arctic all winter and into the spring, he said.

In a press release on Tuesday, the NSIDC said that "an unusually early retreat" of sea ice cover in the Beaufort Sea to the north of Alaska, and "pulses of warm air entering the Arctic from eastern Siberia and northernmost Europe" helped prime the Arctic for the record low.

Regarding the prospects for setting an all-time record sea ice minimum at the end of the summer, Serreze told Mashable, "We are starting off definitely on a bad footing here.





Every day in May set a daily sea ice record low, the NSIDC reported, with daily sea ice extents tracking about 232,000 square miles below any previous year in the 38-year satellite record. While the satellite record dates back to 1979, other records from submarines, indigenous peoples' knowledge and clues found in glacial ice cores and other sources point to the sea ice cover likely at its smallest and thinnest state in human history.



Story continues

Importantly for what the May record could mean for the summer sea ice minimum coming up in September, the NSIDC found that daily sea ice extents were two to four weeks ahead of the levels seen in 2012, when the existing September sea ice minimum was recorded.

Comparing May 2016 with May 2012 shows a stark difference, with last month averaging more than 386,000 square miles below the extent observed in May 2012.

That doesn't necessarily mean that the 2016 sea ice minimum will set a new record, Serreze says, though it does increase the odds of such an outcome.

According to Serreze, a rule of thumb in sea ice forecasting holds that the earlier the sea ice melt season starts, the lower the summer sea ice minimum is likely to be. This is because as the reflective, brightly colored sea ice gives way to dark open ocean water, the ocean absorbs more incoming heat, and causes the water to warm up.

Image: NSIDC

This in turn raises overlying air temperatures, helping to melt more ice and continuing the feedback loop known to scientists as Arctic amplification.

This is part of the reason why the Arctic is, on average, warming twice as fast as the rest of the globe.

Right now, sea ice cover is unusually small and thin, which means it's more susceptible to melting under the right weather conditions.

However, the rule of thumb does not always hold true or prove to be exact, since summer weather patterns will play a big role in moving the ice cover around  either encouraging some of it to remain intact or instigating a more rapid melt if sunny, mild weather prevails.

The NSIDC reported on Tuesday that sea ice extent remains below average in the Kara and Barents seas, which continues a pattern seen last winter through this spring.

Image: NASA/Modis via nsidc

Sea ice is also below average in the Bering Sea and East Greenland Sea. And in the Beaufort Sea to the north of Alaska "large open water areas have formed near the coast and ice to the north is strongly fragmented due to wind-driven divergence," the NSIDC said in a statement.

"The opening began in February, continued through March, and greatly expanded in April," the NSIDC said.



Air temperatures near the surface during May were 4 to 5 degrees Fahrenheit above average across most of the Arctic Ocean, with even higher temperatures, at up to 9 degrees Fahrenheit milder than average, affected sea ice across the Chukchi Sea, which lies to the northwest of Alaska.

Serreze says research is underway to determine what led to the record warmth throughout the winter, and he suspects part of the answer lies in the strong El Nino event in the tropical Pacific Ocean, which released vast quantities of stored ocean heat into the atmosphere. The other major factors, of course, were human-caused global warming, with a dose of natural climate variability added in for good measure.

Image: Weatherbell analytics

One of the main areas to watch throughout the rest of the melt season is the Beaufort Sea, where a large area of fragmented sea ice exists, extending all the way to the North Pole. This has led to larger, thicker multiyear ice floes surrounded by thinner first-year ice and open water.

The early emergence of open water areas there may mean that, as in 2007, more of the thick, multiyear ice will perish this summer, which continues a long-term trend.

Due to a malfunctioning satellite sensor, some of the NSIDC's exact figures may change, but the overall record will not be affected since sea ice was so far below average.
From Esquire

Because of all the noise at the top of the news, a weekend column from Frank Bruni in The New York Times hasn't received nearly as much attention as it deserves. We note it here because it involves Senator Tom Cotton, the bobble-throated pen-pal of the mullahs from the state of Arkansas, who is somebody at the top of everyone's list of potential Republican saviors if the Trumpageddon really does befall the party.

Some people are ideologues. Some people are charlatans. Some people are opportunists. And some people are simply raging, flaming holes of pure ass. As Bruni's column makes clear, at least in the case of Tom Cotton, these categories are far from mutually exclusive.

The column tells the story of a woman named Cassandra Butts, who recently passed away from leukemia at the age of 50. In 2014, prior to her diagnosis, the president proposed to name Butts the U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas-which sounds to these ears anyway to be a pretty sweet gig. That was when the nonsense began. First, Tailgunner Ted Cruz put a hold on all nominations because he was upset with the deal the president cut with Iran, and because the Tailgunner is an unlikable algae of a human being. Later, our man Cotton jumped in and slapped a hold on Butts and a couple of other nominees for ambassadorships.

Let's let Bruni tell the tale from there. From the Times:

[Cotton] had a legitimate gripe with the Obama administration over a Secret Service leak of private information about a fellow member of Congress, and he was trying to pressure Obama to take punitive action. But that issue was unrelated to Butts and the Bahamas. Cotton eventually released the two other holds, but not the one on Butts. She told me that she once went to see him about it, and he explained that he knew that she was a close friend of Obama's-the two first encountered each other on a line for financial-aid forms at Harvard Law School, where they were classmates-and that blocking her was a way to inflict special pain on the president.

Story continues

(By the way, according to Bruni, Cotton's office basically confirmed Butts's account of their meeting, but the coatholders also made sure Bruni knew that Cotton "had enormous respect for her and her career." Yeah, blow me, Gomer.)

Tom Cotton weaponized a dying woman's final days in order to "inflict special pain" on the president. Tom Cotton is a petty, sadistic swine who has the basic conscience of a cholera outbreak. He should be shamed from office, and he should be shunned by decent people.

God, I hope there's a hell, and that it's as advertised by Dante.

Click here to respond to this post on the official Esquire Politics Facebook page.
Washington (AFP) - A US-backed Kurdish and Arab alliance is set to attack an Islamic State-held city in northern Syria within days, a military spokesman said Wednesday, helping clear the way for an eventual assault on the jihadists' stronghold of Raqa.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are on the northern edge of Manbij, a strategically important town held by IS forces that serves as a waypoint between Raqa and the Turkish border.

"At the pace they're moving now and at the speed that they've been able to fight the enemy, we think they're a matter of days before they conduct the attack on (Manbij)," Baghdad-based military spokesman Colonel Chris Garver told Pentagon reporters in a video call.

The Arab-Kurdish offensive on Manbij is one of two major assaults on the route the IS group uses to send in more fighters, weapons and money from the Turkish border to Raqa.

Tabqa, another IS-held transit town which lies near Syria's largest dam, is also under attack.

Russian-backed regime forces are also attacking IS jihadists in the region and the proximity of Russian- and US-backed forces has led observers to question whether the two powers are coordinating over an eventual assault on Raqa.

"There is no coordination between us and those (Russian-backed) forces at this time," Garver said.

"The forces we support are focused on Manbij right now, and that's where we're supporting them."

Washington, which has more than 200 special forces troops deployed to back the SDF, has said some 3,000 Arab fighters are taking part in the assault, supported by about 500 Kurds.

But the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says that of the 4,000 fighters it estimates are taking part, most are actually Kurdish.

Garver said "anywhere upwards of a couple thousand" IS fighters are in Manbij.
ProFootball Talk on NBC Sports

Sam Ehlinger officially becomes the starting quarterback of the Colts. If he fails or gets injured, Nick Foles will take over. And if Foles gets injured, the quarterback will be anyone but Matt Ryan. Ryan is done. Hes out. He wont play again, for reasons rooted in his contract. Put simply, once the team decided [more]
Auditions are being held this weekend to play Martin Shkreli in a upcoming musical about the infamous millionaire, hoverboard-riding pharma bro called "Martin Shkreli's Game."

Remember when the internet thought that Bill Murray could legally steal back the $2 million Wu-Tang Clan album, Once Upon A Time In Shaolin, from that pharma bro Martin Shkreli? Well, get excited world, because were bringing that heist to you! That's right, this show has Bill Murray teaming up with the Wu-Tang Clan in an epic battle against the most hated man in America. Will Bill Murray succeed, or will he just end up another pawn in Martin Shkreli's Game? the musicals website says.

Shkreli, 32, became infamous last September when he was the CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals and raised the price of a drug called Daraprim  used to treat parasitic infections  from $13.50 to $750 per pill.

Only adding to the ire, it was revealed in December that Shkreli had purchased the only copy of Wu-Tang Clans latest album back in August for $2 million and he hadnt even listened to it.

Soon after, a fake sales contract made the rounds on the web that Bill Murray and Wu-Tang could take the album from Shkreli.

We followed the exchange between Wu-Tang and Shkreli when he was bidding on the album, the musicals writer and lyricist Lauren Gundrum said, adding that it was such a bizarre story.

The musicals plot begins with Shkreli winning the Wu-Tang album auction and follows Bill Murray and Wu-Tang as they attempt a heist to reclaim it. Some of the songs include Im Martin Fkin Shkreli and Every Days The Same When Youre Bill Murray.

Were trying to explore different sides of Shkrelis character, Gundrum said. On one hand, hes the most hated. Hes also very clearly intelligent. He treats the world kind of as his financial game. Its unclear what his motivation is sometimes Were trying to show both sides of that and let the audience decide for themselves.

Story continues

Gundrum said the the musicals composer Joel Esher called Shkreli during one of his livestreams and asked what he would do if someone wrote a musical about him. According to Gundrum, Shkreli responded that he wouldnt care.

In addition to casting Shkreli, theyre also looking for a Bill Murray and Wu-Tang members RZA, GZA, and Ghostface Killah. Someone has already been cast to play the ghost of Ol Dirty Bastard.

The 70-minute show will play in the Midtown International Theater Festival this summer beginning July 19.

Meanwhile, the real-life fate of the Wu-Tang album is unclear.

On December 17, Shkreli was arrested by the FBI on charges of securities fraud related to a now-defunct hedge fund he previously managed. Specifically, Shkreli has been accused of defrauding investors in his hedge fund by making "material misrepresentations" about the performance and assets under management. He's also accused of preventing investors from redeeming their capital.

The US governments complaint says it may "seek forfeiture" of "any property, real or personal, which constitutes or is derived from proceeds traceable to any such offenses." On the day of the arrest, the FBI Tweeted that it did not take the Wu-Tang album.



Julia La Roche is a finance reporter at Yahoo Finance.

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VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / June 8, 2016 / Auxellence Health Corporation (CSE: AID, OTCQB: AXHLF) ("Auxellence" or the "Company") announces the start of the Stage II Commercial Pilot and Clinical Study of its online self-care system (TULIP).

The one-year study will enroll up to fifty Canadian, physician-supervised patients. The focus will be on normalizing body weight, blood pressure, and blood glucose, as well as monitoring adverse events.

The study will evaluate the TULIP system in terms of scalability, interoperability, and marketability, as well as real-life, end-to-end system performance. Any additional benefits will be documented.

"Following the success of the Pioneer Pilot Program, we are now ready to survey the opportunities of providing TULIP self-care services to doctor-supervised patients. We want to study the impact factor of TULIP on the patients' daily routines, as they seek to normalize their body weight, blood pressure, and blood glucose levels," said Sydney Au, Chairman and CEO.

Contact:

Sydney Au, CEO

Auxellence Health Corporation

Email: ceo@auxellence.com

Phone: (604) 780-3311

Website: http://www.auxellence.com

CSE Micro-site: http://thecse.com/en/listings/technology/auxellence-health-corporation

About Auxellence Health Corporation (CSE: AID, OTCQB: AXHLF)

Auxellence is a technology company engaged in the provision of medical monitoring, diagnostics, therapeutics and biomedical online services for common health problems. The company offers an extensive platform for physiologically interactive computing supporting therapeutic-diagnostic (theranostic) devices, expert systems, and recommender applications for personal health management (focusing on weight management and skin conditions).

About Tulip

TULIP is a medical device cleared for sales in Canada and Europe as a blood pressure monitor with interactive protocols. The device enables physiologically interactive health apps useful in testing, tracking, and treating common health conditions. The online system is aimed primarily at "practicing patients" interested in normalizing blood pressure, blood glucose, and body weight. Session schedules, measurement procedures, and conditioning protocols are prescribed automatically by the system from extemporaneous data acquired from the user.

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Disclaimers - Forward Looking Statements

This news release may contain forward-looking statements based on assumptions and judgments of management regarding future events or results. Such statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties which could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those reflected in the forward looking statements. The company disclaims any intention or obligation to revise or update such statements. For a description of the risks and uncertainties facing the Company and its business and affairs, readers should refer to the Company's Management's Discussion and Analysis and other disclosure filings with Canadian securities regulators which is posted on www.sedar.com, and on http://thecse.com/en/listings/technology/auxellence-health-corporation.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities described herein and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such. Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE or CNSX Markets Inc), nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities described herein in the United States. The securities described herein have not been registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or any state securities law and may not be offered or sold in the "United States", as such term is defined in Regulation S promulgated under the U.S. Securities Act, unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration requirements is available.

SOURCE: Auxellence Health Corporation
"There had never been a [Broadway] show written, directed and fully performed by women of any color, and that is something that I thought definitely was a barrier that needed to be broken," says Danai Gurira, the playwright whose Tony-nominated play Eclipsed has done just that, as we sit down at New York's iconic Empire Hotel to record an episode of the 'Awards Chatter' podcast.

"I'm thankful we did that," she adds. "But I also would love for it to be very clear to all that stories that are women-led, stories that are about women, are no less powerful or commercially viable or whatever else than stories about men."

Click above to listen to this episode now, or click here to access all of our episodes via iTunes. (Past guests include Steven Spielberg, Amy Schumer, Louis C.K., Lady Gaga, Will Smith, Jennifer Lopez, Harvey Weinstein, Jane Fonda, Aziz Ansari, Brie Larson, J.J. Abrams, Kate Winslet, Samuel L. Jackson, Kristen Stewart and Michael Moore.)

The 38-year-old, who was born in Iowa to Zimbabwean parents and spent most of her childhood in Zimbabwe before returning to America for college and graduate school, is also an actress - she's best known for her portrayal of Michonne on AMC hit The Walking Dead, whom she's played since 2012, and also gave an Obie-winning performance in 2005's off-Broadway production In the Continuum, which she co-wrote; contributed a memorable supporting turn in the 2007 film The Visitor; and made her Broadway debut in 2009's Joe Turner's Come and Gone.

But she's says her life's mission - to which she connects even her Walking Dead character - is sharing with the world stories about women on or from the African continent, which she feels are generally underserved.

"The story of the African," she argues, "can be one-dimensionalized, can be told from a very flimsy perspective, can be told from a very Disney perspective - not that I have anything against Disney. It's about the idea of taking a story that's very dire and making it something light and trite." She continues, "I just want something rich and full and multi-dimensional and fun and scary and dangerous and edgy and complex - I want all those things for the African that I've seen other people receive throughout my lifetime."

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This season, two such shows that she wrote were warmly embraced in New York: off-Broadway's Familiar, a story of tensions between Zimbabwean parents and their American-born kids, plus Eclipsed, a story of several women - one played by Gurira's longtime friend, Oscar winner Lupita Nyong'o - during Liberia's second Civil War, which ran off-Broadway last season and then opened in February uptown, where it will run through June 19. At the end of every performance of the latter, she has the show's stars read - and have the audience repeat back to them - the names of two of the 276 girls kidnapped in Nigeria in 2014 by Boko Haram, hoping to keep a spotlight on their situation.

"My work must be a channel for activism and advocacy," Gurira says. "It's not so that I can have my name on a marquee. It's so that voices can be heard and issues can be given attention and we, as a world, retain our conscience about these issues and realize that we can make changes to this world. We don't have to accept where it is, but we also have to know what it is, in order to do that."
A raid on a large Bangkok brothel notorious for its 'soapy massages' has found underage sex workers and logbooks detailing big kickbacks to corrupt cops and officials, investigators said Wednesday.

Thailand's police force has a reputation for graft, but it is rare for authorities to reveal so clearly how the protection rackets work.

More than 100 officers from Thailand's Interior Ministry raided Nataree Massage, which is in downtown Bangkok and popular with locals and foreigners.

During the Tuesday evening raid they found documents detailing alleged payments worth thousands of dollars to police and city officials.

"The account book with the hush money is very clear in detailing which agencies and persons received the money. Most are police and police agencies," Ronnarong Thipsiri, director of the Territorial Defence Office, which was involved in the raid, told AFP.

"We did not inform police ahead of the raid because we had information that they were benefiting from this operation," Ronnarong added.

A photograph of one log book page, taken by local reporters who joined the raid, showed more than $10,000 worth of payments made to multiple police officers and law enforcement agencies over a 20-day period in March this year.

Ronnarong, who said the photo was legitimate, added that one section of the brothel's account book showed 19 million baht ($539,000) in takings, though he did not say over what period of time the money had been made.

The raid also uncovered multiple underage sex workers under the age of 18 inside the brothel, most of them foreign -- a stark reminder of how impoverished teenage migrants continue to be lured into Thailand's sex trade.

Ronnarong said around 90 percent of the 121 women found working in the brothel at the time of the raid were Myanmar nationals, primarily ethnic minority women from the two country's border regions.

"Three held documents proving they are under the age of 18," he told AFP, adding that investigators believed at least 12 others were suspected of being underage.

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Prostitution is technically illegal in Thailand but is ubiquitous across the country.

Despite its reputation as a global sex tourism destination, the vast majority of sex work caters for locals.

Because of their criminalised status, brothel owners and sex workers often have to offer protection payments to police or criminal gangs to ward off arrest or closure.

Activists have long advocated for the trade to be legalised to better protect the many women, men and transgender people who sell sex commercially.

But it is a cause few politicians have been willing to embrace in a country that remains socially conservative when it comes to sex.

The head of Bangkok's police force, Lieutenant General Sanit Mahathavorn, told reporters on Wednesday he had appointed a task force to investigate the hush money payment allegations.

Multiple large brothels, which have not been raided, also operate in the area.
One stock that might be an intriguing choice for investors right now is Bank of Montreal BMO. This is because this security in the Banks-Foreign space is seeing solid earnings estimate revision activity, and is in great company from a Zacks Industry Rank perspective.

This is important because, often times, a rising tide will lift all boats in an industry, as there can be broad trends taking place in a segment that are boosting securities across the board. This is arguably taking place in the Banks-Foreign space as it currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 52 out of more than 250 industries, suggesting it is well-positioned from this perspective, especially when compared to other segments out there.

Meanwhile, Bank of Montreal is actually looking pretty good on its own too. The firm has seen solid earnings estimate revision activity over the past month, suggesting analysts are becoming a bit more bullish on the firms prospects in both the short and long term.

In fact, over the past month, current quarter estimates have risen from $1.29 per share to $1.33 per share, while current year estimates have risen from $5.13 per share to $5.30 per share. This has helped BMO to earn a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), further underscoring the companys solid position.

So, if you are looking for a decent pick in a strong industry, consider Bank of Montreal. Not only is its industry currently in the top third, but it is seeing solid estimate revisions as of late, suggesting it could be a very interesting choice for investors seeking a name in this great industry segment.

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Bernie Sanders has run for president like a lone prophet, a solitary Jeremiah who scribbles sprawling end-of-days speeches on his yellow legal pad from his hotel room or his car. He has few advisers and even fewer confidantes. He delivers sermons to adoring crowds whom he usually later avoids. He often wishes he were back home in Vermont, tending to the wood stove.

Now, with the primary effectively over, Sanders will do one final thing by himself: decide how it ends.

On Wednesday morning, Sanders is flying from California to Vermont, where he will spend a day weighing his own future and his partys. He will review plans drafted by his advisers and consider his next move. Will he fight to the convention, or concede to Hillary Clinton, who has clinched the delegates she needs to win? Will he seek to transform the party and risk bloodying his opponent, or step aside with a whisper?

No one, not even Sanders close aides, know exactly what he is thinking. At wild rally in Santa Monica on Tuesday night, Sanders gave a hint, but no clear answer.

I am pretty good at arithmetic and I know that the fight in front of us is a very, very steep fight. But we will continue to fight for every vote and every delegate we can get! Sanders said defiantly.

He promised to wage a fight in the final, dead-last, tiny Washington, D.C. primary. We are going to fight hard to win the primary in Washington, DC and then we take our fight for social, economic, racial and environmental justice to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania! Sanders said.

What exactly that means, and whether Sanders eventually will graciously step aside, will be up to him alone. It is a deeply emotional and personal decision, one Sanders will make with the bitter taste of a nasty primary lingeringand the sense that he was wronged by the Democratic Party and cheated.

He now has to land the plane, said former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who lost a bitter primary fight against John Kerry in 2004 and conceded the race. The big question is, how does he use what he accomplished to move his cause forward?

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Only he can decide that, Dean added.

Sanders is far from any concrete decision. Campaigning in San Francisco on Tuesday, Sanders didnt know what he would do next in the next twelve hours, much less the next twenty-four. By midday, he didnt have a speech written for that evening. He had not yet decided whether his charter plane on Wednesday morning would go to Burlington or Washington, D.C. (He settled, finally, on Burlington.) And he didnt know how hard he would fight against Hillary Clinton.

The Sanders who barnstormed in Santa Monica on Tuesday did not seem like a man ready to concede anything. He promised to try to win over superdelegates to his campaign, a near-impossible gamble that would overrule the popular vote, which has favored Clinton by a significant margin. If he contests the convention, he will do it knowing that he could permanently damage Hillary Clinton in the fight against Donald Trump.

On Thursday, Sanders will huddle at the White House with President Obama, who is likely to recommend that Sanders find a graceful exit. The president advised Sanders on a Sunday phone call that he is planning to endorse Clinton as early as this week.

Theres been little time to plan ahead. He has been thinking one day at a time, campaigning in California from San Diego to Sacramento and beyond, shuttling from one rally to the next and then to his hotel. He had staked everything on winning the biggest state in the Democratic primary, which he appeared to be losing by a large margin on Election Night.

All of our thinking has been about winning California, spokesman Michael Briggs, who is nearly always at Sanders side, said on Tuesday afternoon. The last couple weeks have been nonstop.

To make matters more complicated, Sanders mood has darkened since he began his campaign. During a lengthy interview with TIME for a cover story two weeks ago, he scowled in the San Diego sunlight, called the reporter a member of the corporate media and said that he didnt want to waste his time. They play very dirty, he said about the Clintons. He snapped at another reporter in a televised news conference on Monday. Is that a serious question? he said. Sanders bitterness has made him a tougher negotiating partner, on issues ranging from settling the debates schedule with the Clinton campaign to heated and biting rhetoric against his opponents. It also may make it harder to concede.

Sanders has already said he wants to fight at the convention for a $15 minimum wage, a ban on fracking, Medicare-for-all, free college tuition and other progressive dream items on the Democratic Party platform. Hell have complaints for the rules committee on how primaries are run, and hell have to decide what voice he wants on Clintons Cabinet. But until Sanders sits down and makes a concerted plan for the convention, his aides hands are tied. Clinton staffers have little idea what to expect.

The stakes are high. Pressure has been building on Sanders from Democrats who want to see him concede the nomination gracefully and bring his supporters to back Hillary Clinton. Democrats believe he risks dismantling the party and weakening Clinton against Donald Trump. Clinton insiders believe he has already hurt her, and they want him to make it better.

But trouble lies in both directions. If Sanders exits the race too early, he loses much of his influence. If he fights in what many, including his own allies, consider will be a futile battle at the convention, he will likewise waste his credibility, and his sway, Democrats say.

The Democratic conventions drafting committee for the platform meets on Wednesday, and it will the opening salvo for both sides in hearing what comes next. His aides still think the Vermont senator can wait until after the Washington, D.C., primary on June 14 to make a final decision.

His allies believe that if he handles his exit gingerly, he will be able to gain concessions from the Clinton campaign, keep a semblance of his movement and return to the Senate more influential than ever before. That may be what he finally wins.

Thank you all, Sanders said on Tuesday, finishing his speech. The struggle continues!

The biggest struggle, however, will be Sanders own choice.
Coming off a lopsided loss in California on Tuesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders vowed to continue his fight for the Democratic nomination all the way to the convention.

We are going to fight hard to win the primary in Washington, D.C., and then we take our fight for social, economic, racial and environmental justice to Philadelphia, Sanders told the crowd at a hangar in the Santa Monica Airport, which cheered wildly. Thank you all! The struggle continues!

Though Hillary Clinton claimed victory in the Democratic primary at a Brooklyn rally earlier in the evening, Sanders gave no hint of winding down his campaign, nor did he acknowledge her insurmountable delegate lead.

I am pretty good at arithmetic and I know that the fight in front of us is a very steep fight, he said. But I will continue to fight it.

It was the answer the crowd wanted to hear. Earlier in the evening, amid reports that Sanders had sought a meeting with President Obama on Thursday, it appeared the senator might be preparing to drop out. Sanders was losing the California primary by more than 20 points when he took the stage, about 45 minutes late. As they waited for him to arrive crowd, the crowd struck a defiant tone, chanting The media is corrupt! and Bernie or bust!

He should take the fight to the convention, said Susan Hartley, 71, of Santa Monica. The longer he stays in, the more leverage we have for the revolution we need.

However, for some there was a hint of resignation as the California results showed a massive victory for Clinton.

He is so far behind at this point, we know what is going to happen, said Mila Todorova, of Los Angeles. Im just happy he got his voice across. He was the one true and honest person out there.

In his speech, Sanders did acknowledge the importance of defeating Donald Trump.

We will not allow right wing Republicans to control our government, he said. The American people, in my view, will never support a candidate whose major theme is bigotry.

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But he quickly added that defeating Trump is not his only goal: Our mission is more than just defeating Trump. It is transforming our country.

Nancy DelFavero, a Clinton supporter, said she empathized with the Sanders camps disappointment.

I hope everybody can bury the hatchet and come together, she said. We just cant have Donald Trump as president. Thats the bottom line.

Her friend Neal Dickens, a Sanders supporter, acknowledged that the party needs to unite. But he also argued Clinton should heed the 45% of the Democratic electorate that backed Sanders and modify her approach to certain issues, such as campaign finance reform and health care.

There has to be some negotiation on both sides, he said. Shes gotta extend the hand if she wants our support.

Related stories

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Hillary Clinton Marks Historic Victory as First Woman to Clinch Major Party Nomination

Hillary Clinton Wins New Jersey as She Prepares to Claim Nomination
While Bernie Sanders vowed on Tuesday night to continue the very, very steep fight for the Democratic nomination, some of his congressional supporters  recognizing Hillary Clintons primary victory  are instead turning their attention to how the Vermont Senator can unify and influence the party outside the nomination.

I think its important for Bernie to find a way to carry on his cause, but were getting at that point where unity is going to be essential to beat Donald Trump, and Bernie knows that, Vermont Rep. Peter Welch said in an interview on Wednesday. Welch, a superdelegate who was one of eight U.S. Representatives to endorse Sanders, said the verdict is in on the partys nominee, but he will continue to support Sanders at the convention if he stays in the race.

Clinton won voting contests on Tuesday in New Jersey, New Mexico, South Dakota and Californiathe last of which came as a particular blow to Sanders, who had prioritized winning the delegate-rich state. Instead, he won contests in Montana and North Dakota.

Welch said the question now is how Sanders will continue his fight for social and economic justice without the nomination. Going forward, Bernies going to be a big voice in the Democratic Party, he said. I think its really important that he stay in the process. Welch said he trusts Sanders judgment in deciding whether to concede or continue on to the convention.

Theres no question in my mind that Hillary Clinton will bring us together and lead us to victory in November, said Minnesota Rep. Rick Nolan in a statement, calling Sanders the drummer who moved the party forward. But now its time to unite under the banner of a progressive and inclusive platform to defeat Donald Trump and the forces that would roll back a century of progress for this nation.

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Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley, the only U.S. Senator to endorse Sanders, has called for party unity in multiple interviews in the past couple days.

Once a candidate has won a majority of the pledged delegates and a majority of the popular vote, which Secretary Clinton has now done, we have our nominee, Merkley said in an interview with the Washington Post published Wednesday. This is the moment when we need to start bringing parts of the party together so they can go into the convention with locked arms and go out of the convention unified into the general election. Merkley said he would not support efforts to try to flip the votes of superdelegates  something the Sanders campaign said it would attempt.

At some point, when were trying to flip 400 super-delegates, and its not gaining traction, I think you have to come to the conclusion that its not going to happen, said Arizona Rep. Raul M. Grijalva, who had also endorsed Sanders, in the same Post column. You just move into a different direction. And that different direction is that we begin to try to integrate the party.

Both Merkley and Grijalva said they want to see Clinton and Sanders work together.

Im proud that Democrats have two progressive candidates fighting for a just and tolerant America, while the Republican nominee is openly spouting racism, Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison, who endorsed Sanders last year, said in a statement Wednesday. There is no question Democrats will be unified at our convention in July and defeat Donald Trump come November.

In a Facebook post Tuesday night, Florida Rep. Alan Grayson, who endorsed Sanders earlier this year, said his revolution has always been about more than any one candidate, or any one campaign. Grayson could not be reached for further comment on Wednesday.

Other high-profile Sanders supporters praised his accomplishments on Wednesday, while moving on to congratulate Clinton.

Congratulations @HillaryClinton & all her supporters on your Historical win. My Sanders family, lets keep pushing our Progressive values, actor and prominent Sanders supporter Mark Ruffalo posted on Twitter on Wednesday morning. Chin up @BernieSanders supporters. We are doing impossible things together. We too have won historically and we are just getting started!




Bernie Sanders will not go quietly into that good night, and neither will his fans.

On Tuesday night, Hillary Clinton made history as the first woman to become the presumptive presidential nominee for a major U.S. political party, but Sanders vowed to continue his fight until the last ballot is cast.

Slideshow:The campaign for primary day, June 7 >>>

For Sanders supporters, his campaign represents a different kind of history: A self-proclaimed democratic socialist focused on economic inequality far exceeded expectations. Some celebrated the Vermont senators tenacity for not suspending his campaign, while others thanked him for highlighting hitherto neglected issues. All were unified under the hashtag #ThankYouBernie after Clinton clinched the Democratic nomination.

Jill Stein, a presidential candidate for the Green Party, accused the Democratic Party of blatantly rigging the system against Sanders from the start. She thanked him for reminding the U.S. that (in her opinion) most honest politicians come from outside the two-party system and showing that progressive ideas can catch on with media coverage.

#ThankYouBernie for proving that a true progressive agenda just needs to get a bit of media coverage to catch on like wildfire.  Dr. Jill Stein (@DrJillStein) June 8, 2016

Many Sanders supporters, including talk show host Montel Williams, thanked him for reaching out to the next generation and inspiring many young people to get involved in the political process.

#ThankYouBernie for reminding us all young people will get very involved If you reach them. That will be @BernieSanders legacy.  Montel Williams (@Montel_Williams) June 8, 2016

#ThankYouBernie for helping prove that my generation is incredibly caring and socially conscious, despite what everyone says about us.  John Haltiwanger (@jchaltiwanger) June 8, 2016

#ThankYouBernie for inspiring an entire generation to become more politically involved.Your impact will last 4 many more generations to come  Lightning (@martha_jazz) June 8, 2016

The outpouring of gratitude also focused on Sanders consistent commitment to liberal causes, such as marriage equality, often drawing unfavorable comparisons to Clintons evolving opinions over the years.

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#ThankYouBernie for showing America that we don't have to settle for less.  People For Bernie (@People4Bernie) June 8, 2016

#ThankYouBernie for not changing your views on gay rights and for caring for black lives way before the election. pic.twitter.com/StQEXhDhg0  knowles. (@ImALiveC) June 8, 2016

#ThankYouBernie for everything you've done in the past thirty years, and staying true to cause for us all. pic.twitter.com/ZeVQScl3yD  Mickey D (@Urza83) June 8, 2016

#ThankYouBernie for being a true public servant. Tireless, brave, humble. For giving a damn about people and what's right, popular or not.  Melissa Navia (@melissaCnavia) June 8, 2016

Late Tuesday, in a speech to supporters, Sanders said he would take his battle to Washington, D.C., next week for the nations final primary and to Philadelphia in July for the Democratic convention, despite the steep climb to victory. The crowd booed at the very mention of Clintons name when he discussed congratulating her on the phone for her victories that night.

Her likely opponent in the general election is already trying to tap into this hostility.

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has also presented himself as an antiestablishment candidate who is fed up with politics as usual. Though hes called Sanders a communist throughout the campaign, Trump extended an olive branch to disappointed Sanders supporters after Clinton locked in the nomination.

To all those Bernie Sanders voters who have been left out in the cold by a rigged system of superdelegates, we welcome you with open arms, Trump said in a speech Tuesday night. And by the way, the terrible trade deals that Bernie was so vehemently against  and hes right on that  will be taken care of far better than anyone ever thought possible. And thats what I do.

Clinton, easily one of the most experienced candidates in the election (as former secretary of state, New York senator, and U.S. first lady), was not without her fanfare online Tuesday night. Her supporters celebrated the fact that for the first time in American history, the Democratic presidential nominee will be a woman.

Congrats @HillaryClinton on becoming the first female nominee of any major party in the US! #HistoryMade #ImWithHer pic.twitter.com/rltm43OpdE  Eva Longoria Baston (@EvaLongoria) June 8, 2016

#ThankYouBernie but it's time to unify and fight against the GOP and Trump. We must win. #ImWithHer #NeverTrump  Honey 17011 (@Honey17011) June 8, 2016

With tears in my eyes and joy in my heart, I revel in this historic moment I waited 8 years to see. @HillaryClinton #ImWithHer Proudly!  Chaz Bono (@ChazBono) June 8, 2016

Many Sanders supporters say they feel ambivalent about Clinton but will acquiesce in voting for her in the general election because they consider Trump a far worse option. This general reluctance spawned #GirlIGuessImWithHer.

#GirlIGuessImWithHer is the perfect sentiment???? Come November I'll be like pic.twitter.com/GmBuF803bX  TC Ivy (@BienSur_JeTaime) June 8, 2016

me leaving the polls after voting for Hillary #GirlIGuessImWithHer pic.twitter.com/HNRNAuq7nT  milk (@fireregui) June 8, 2016

(Cover thumbnail photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Sen. Bernie Sanders vowed to continue his fight for the Democratic nomination early Wednesday morning, despite the fact that the door all but shut in his face as Hillary Clinton clinched the majority of pledged delegates with a sweeping win in New Jersey.

During a short speech in Santa Monica, California, a defiant Sanders praised the millions of voters who joined his "political revolution," and vowed to take his candidacy to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia in July.

"Next Tuesday, we continue the fight in the last primary in Washington, D.C.," Sanders told a raucous audience of supporters, who yelled so loud they delayed the start of his speech as Sanders could not speak over the din of their cheers. "We are going to fight hard to win the primary in Washington, D.C., and then we take our fight for social, economic, racial and environmental justice to Philadelphia!"

At first, Sanders' speech sounded as if he was ready to throw in the towel on the nomination fight.

He spoke nearly an hour after his slated time, following a brutal loss in New Jersey and unexpected losses in South Dakota and New Mexico.

And he was also trailing Clinton by a wide margin in California at the time of his speech  a state he declared a "must-win" for his campaign.

The losses will require Sanders to flip an impossible number of superdelegates  or party leaders and elected officials  to defect from Clinton's campaign and back his bid if he has any shot of becoming the nominee. It's an unlikely scenario, especially given that President Barack Obama declared Clinton the nominee in a statement Tuesday night.

@POTUS congratulates @HillaryClinton on clinching the nom. Will meet w @BernieSanders on Thurs. The end is nigh.pic.twitter.com/U9KHzLmAIl https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CkZnS83XAAEm-Im.jpg:large

Early in his remarks, he reflected on where his movement started, and vowed never to allow presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump to win the White House.

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"Our campaign from day one has understood some very basic points, and that is first, we will not allow right-wing Republicans to control our government. And that is especially true with Donald Trump as the Republican candidate," Sanders said.

But his tone took a distinct turn for the defiant toward the end of his remarks.

"I am pretty good at arithmetic and I know that the fight in front of us is a very, very steep fight," Sanders said. "But we will continue to fight for every vote, every delegate."

Sanders said he was looking forward to meeting with Obama on Thursday to "work with him to make sure that we move our country forward."

And he ended his speech with a vow to press on.

"The struggle continues," he said.
Hillary Clinton is the presumptive Democratic nominee.

She won by every available metric  popular vote, number of states won, pledged delegates and superdelegates  a series of accomplishments that cemented her place in the history books as the first woman to be the presidential nominee of a major political party.

Yet it appears the only person who doesn't accept that truth is Sen. Bernie Sanders, whose petulant refusal to acknowledge Clinton's win could not only mar Sanders' legacy, but diminish his clout as a political leader.

"Bernie Sanders to supporters in Santa Monica: "Thank you, all. The struggle continues." https://t.co/4Z4gUNP2eN"

"Instead of putting on a bandaid and healing open wounds, he's putting salt in them," Dave Jacobson, a California Democratic strategist, said in an interview.

While Sanders outperformed every measure set for him when the Democratic primary began last year, there's no denying he came up far short of the grand prize.

But instead of congratulating Clinton on her victory early Wednesday morning, he vowed to fight all the way until the Democratic National Convention in July  despite the almost negligible odds that waiting so long would change the outcome of his fate.

Though he's vowed never to allow Donald Trump to win the presidency, Democrats say the longer he stays in the race and sows discontent among his fervent base, the more damage he could inflict upon Clinton heading into the general election.

And possibly aiding a Trump victory in November would endanger his hopes of enacting the change he's staked his legacy on, such as free public college tuition and universal healthcare.

Also, similar to how the #NeverTrump movement lost relevancy after Donald Trump clinched the Republican nomination, Sanders risks losing leverage with each day that passes from those who he must work with to win concessions from the Democratic National Committee in adopting the policy positions he holds most dear.

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"There's a five- to six-week gap between the D.C. primary and the Democratic convention," Jacobson said. "Five weeks after Trump claimed the nomination, the anti-Trump movement dissipated because they essentially became irrelevant. Does his campaign become more reflective on that the longer he waits?"

It's something even his superdelegates are admitting, publicly urging Sanders to concede and work to unite the party.

"At some point, when we're trying to flip 400 superdelegates, and it's not gaining traction, I think you have to come to the conclusion that it's not going to happen," Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona told the Washington Post. "You just move into a different direction. And that different direction is that we begin to try to integrate the party."

To be sure, Clinton did not concede to President Obama in 2008 on the night he was declared the presumptive nominee.

It took her four days of licking her wounds before she emerged to acknowledge defeat and wholeheartedly endorse Obama's nomination.

It's possible Sanders could be on the same trajectory.

He has a meeting Thursday at the White House with Obama, who came out Tuesday night to congratulate Clinton on securing the Democratic nomination. After the meeting, it's conceivable that Sanders decides to pack it in.

@POTUS congratulates @HillaryClinton on clinching the nom. Will meet w @BernieSanders on Thurs. The end is nigh.pic.twitter.com/U9KHzLmAIl https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CkZnS83XAAEm-Im.jpg:large

But Sanders' defiance  both Tuesday night and for the past few weeks, when it grew increasingly clear his path to the nomination had dried up  means anything is possible.

He continued to send fundraising emails after his losses Tuesday, and has a scheduled rally in Washington D.C., Thursday night.

"It's hard to imagine he comes out of a meeting with the president saying, 'I'm still running, screw him,' " said Mark Mellman, a long-time Democratic strategist. "It took Clinton four days, maybe it will take him five or six, but yes, I have to believe he's going to come around. And if he doesn't, it's really to his detriment."
Bernie fans never say die  or, at least, not willingly.



As Hillary Clinton ends the primaries as the first-ever female presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Bernie Sanders doesn't seem quite ready to let go, charging that superdelegates could still help him become party's leader.



Yet, with 1,812 pledged delegates and 571 superdelegates, according to ABC News, Clinton has enough support to claim victory.



So what's next for the Vermont senator's steadfast troop, which includes former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura, and New York state senator Bill Perkins?







"Based on past history, I'd expect most Sanders supporters to rally behind Clinton for the general election, in the same way her supporters in 2008 rallied to Barack Obama," Tom Bevan of RealClearPolitics.com tells PEOPLE, "despite a close and bitterly fought primary race."



Bevan notes that there are two distinct groups of Sanders supporters  independents and young voters  that Clinton must "consolidate." Independents will be a hard-fought challenge for the Former Secretary of State, Bevan says, citing Donald Trump's current lead over Clinton "by an average of six points in the most recent general election polling."



The young voters, he says "were among Sanders' most die hard supporters," and getting them on board should be among Clinton's "top priorities."



But those voters won't go quietly into the Hillary camp. Melissa Baldridge, a 39-year-old digital marketing recruiter, told CNN, "Everybody in the mainstream media is in such a rush to have the story first that they call things prematurely."



"By announcing that she had (the nomination), a lot of people decided to stay home, Baldridge charged. "That's a form of voter repression."



Others took to Twitter, with an account called World For Bernie writing, "WE WILL NOT YIELD. Even if @BernieSanders asked us to support @HillaryClinton, we won't."





Story continues





#ImWithHerNow = my fight for social &economic equality was attention seeking behavior. I will now become one with corruption #BernieOrBust a SuzieButtercup1 (@SuzieButtercup1) June 8, 2016





Chin up @BernieSanders supporters. We are doing impossible things together. We too have won historically and we are just getting started! a Mark Ruffalo (@MarkRuffalo) June 8, 2016





I will never support a corporatist warmonger like HRC, if Bernie is out I will turn to a real progressive woman @DrJillStein #ImWithHerNow a Elephant Ignoramous (@charlieMakeBao) June 8, 2016





Third-party candidates are also vying for Sanders' send-offs, including Green Party nominee Jill Stein, who told CNN, "We are here in the event that they feel like they don't have a place to go." Even Trump got in on the action, saying during his Tuesday speech, "To all those Bernie Sanders voters who have been left out in the cold by a rigged system of superdelegates, we welcome you with open arms."



"The real choice facing Sanders over the next couple of weeks is what kind of lesson he wants to impart to his supporters," Vox's Matthew Yglesias told the Washington Post. "Does he want to tell them that the system is rigged, and that candidates worth rallying for don't have a chance to win? That they may as well join the large group of Americans who don't really participate in the political process at all? Or does he want to tell them that when you fight the good fight, you sometimes lose, and then you stop and think about how to win next time?"





Hillary Clinton's Selfie Game is on Point For 2016





Immediate resolution? Sanders will meet with President Barack Obama on Thursday, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said, noting, "The President looks forward to continuing the conversation with Senator Sanders about how to build on the extraordinary work he has done to engage millions of Democratic voters, and to build on that enthusiasm in the weeks and months ahead."



Obama and White House political director David Simas have been in communication with both campaigns, hoping to create some sort of unification before Philadelphia's convention, reported the Post. The responsibility, however, is not on Sanders' shoulders alone, though. "They're both going to have to, in effect, compromise," Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said in an interview.



Sanders was at home Wednesday, "assessing" his campaign, as plans were made to lay off at least half of his campaign staff, including both advance and field workers, a campaign official and a former campaign staff member told The New York Post.
Hillary Clinton

In a soaring Tuesday-night speech, her first as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton basked in the historic nature of her candidacy and previewed the ugly upcoming battle with Donald Trump.

Clinton relished the historic nature of her candidacy as the first woman to lead a major presidential ticket.

"Thanks to you, we reached a milestone," she told her supporters.

She opened her speech from Brooklyn with a video of that situated her candidacy at the end of a long quest for women's equality in the US, noting that she stood under a literal glass ceiling.

"I'm going to take a moment later tonight and in the days ahead to fully appreciate the history we made here," Clinton said toward the end of her speech.

But Clinton's speech also looked ahead to the general election, on the same night Trump promised to soon deliver a major speech targeting Clinton.

The former secretary of state took repeated shots at Trump, contrasting her candidacy with his inflammatory rhetoric about immigrants and women.

"When he says let's make America great again, that's code for let's take America backwards," Clinton said, referencing Trump's slogan. "Back to a time when opportunity and dignity were reserved for some, not for all."

She added: "It's clear that Donald Trump doesn't believe that we are stronger together. He wants to win by stoking fear and rubbing salt in wounds and reminding us daily just how great he is."

"We are better than this," she said later of Trump. "We won't let this happen in America."

Clinton also praised her Democratic rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders. He has maintained that he'll take his fight to the Democratic National Convention, but has increasingly signaled that the future of his campaign is uncertain.

"He has spent his long career in public service fighting for progressive causes and principles and has excited millions of voters, especially young people," Clinton said. "And make no mistake: Senator Sanders, his campaign, and the vigorous debate we've had ... have been very good for the Democratic party and for America."

Story continues

The newly presumptive Democratic presidential nominee also noted that she understood the feeling of losing a hard-fought presidential election.

"It never feels good to put your heart into a candidate who comes up short. I know that feeling well," Clinton said.

NOW WATCH: CLINTON: 'We've reached a milestone'





More From Business Insider


(Adds quotes, details)

WASHINGTON, June 7 (Reuters) - Amazon Inc Chief Executive Jeff Bezos said on Tuesday the company would invest an additional $3 billion in India, boosting its committed investment in the country to over $5 billion.

Bezos told an event in Washington attended by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi - who met earlier on Tuesday with President Barack Obama - that India was Amazon's fastest growing region.

"I can assure you it's only the beginning and as we say in Amazon, it's only day one," Bezos said, adding that the investments would help start-ups in India and accelerate the country's role as a hub for innovation and digital entrepreneurship.

He said Amazon would open a Web Services Cloud Region in India this year and the country would soon become home to the firm's largest software engineering and development center outside of the United States, located in Hydrabad.

Bezos said Amazon had so far built 21 fulfillment centers with more than 5 mln cubic feet of storage space. He said its link-up with India Post enabled it to reach all serviceable postal codes in the country.

He said the Hyderabad center would create jobs and career development opportunities for thousands of people and a "significant" number of jobs would be created over time because of the deployment of Amazon Cloud Services.

Bezos, the world's fourth-richest man, made the comments the same day Warren Buffett, the world's third richest man, praised him for embodying the potential of small business owners who build their companies.

(Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Editing by Leslie Adler and Andrew Hay)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Amazon Inc Chief Executive Jeff Bezos said on Tuesday the company would invest an additional $3 billion in India, boosting its committed investment in the country to over $5 billion. Bezos told an event in Washington attended by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi - who met earlier on Tuesday with President Barack Obama - that India was Amazon's fastest growing region. "I can assure you its only the beginning and as we say in Amazon, its only day one," Bezos said, adding that the investments would help start-ups in India and accelerate the country's role as a hub for innovation and digital entrepreneurship. He said Amazon would open a Web Services Cloud Region in India this year and the country would soon become home to the firm's largest software engineering and development centre outside of the United States, located in Hydrabad. Bezos said Amazon had so far built 21 fulfillment centres with more than 5 mln cubic feet of storage space. He said its link-up with India Post enabled it to reach all serviceable postal codes in the country. He said the Hyderabad centre would create jobs and career development opportunities for thousands of people and a "significant" number of jobs would be created over time because of the deployment of Amazon Cloud Services. Bezos, the world's fourth-richest man, made the comments the same day Warren Buffett, the world's third richest man, praised him for embodying the potential of small business owners who build their companies. (Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Editing by Leslie Adler and Andrew Hay)
Bill Simmons spilled the beans.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Simmons opened up about his relationship with ESPN boss John Skipper, learning about being fired on Twitter and what he thinks of his former network. One quote in particular caught the attention of many.

"ESPN has now gotten rid of everybody who is a little off the beaten path. Ask yourself this: 'Who could work there that you respect right now?'"

Earlier this afternoon, Simmons was quick to apologize for the remark. In an Instagram post about his former co-workers, Simmons wrote, "They meant a lot to me and still do. So today made me feel bad. My apologies for being a jackass."

Related Link: ESPN Is Hemorrhaging Subscribers

Simmons left ESPN last summer. His new media venture, The Ringer, debuted on June 1, 2016. Meanwhile, Walt Disney Co (NYSE: DIS)'s ESPN has been mired in a talent exodus as subscribers continue to dwindle.

Here is Simmons' full post.

See more from Benzinga

 2016 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Environmental activist Tom Steyer endorsed Hillary Clinton on Wednesday for U.S. president a day after she secured the Democratic nomination to run in the Nov. 8 election. "Hillary Clinton is an experienced leader who will lead us to victory because she embodies the best values of our country," Steyer, a former hedge fund manager, said in a statement. "Now is the time to come together to defeat Donald Trump, who is utterly unfit to be our next president." (Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
Billionaire Republican businessman Ken Langone blasted Donald Trump on Wednesday for calling a Mexican-American judge biased but said he still plans to support the presumptive GOP presidential nominee.

Langone, co-founder of Home Depot (NYSE: HD), said on CNBC's " Squawk Box " that Trump's statements were "disgraceful," and the real estate mogul should make a public apology.

"A lot of people said ... give [Trump] time, he'll blow up. Well, if he hasn't blown up, he came as close as he can to blowing up without blowing up," Langone said, adding Trump was "100 percent wrong" to make those "destructive" and "divisive" comments.

"Redemption is for everybody," Langone continued. "[Trump] has got to start, in my opinion, [by saying] 'You know what, I really blew that one.'"

Last week, Trump said U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel's opinion in a case against Trump University was being influenced by the judge's heritage because of the candidate's campaign rhetoric about Mexicans and illegal immigration.

Despite Trump's record of controversial statements throughout the campaign, Langone said: "This one here bothers me more than all the others put together because I can empathize here very easily ... [as] a rough-around-the-edges Italian kid going to Wall Street when it was all whiteshoe 50 years ago."



On Tuesday, House Speaker Paul Ryan denounced Trump's statements as "textbook" racism, though the Wisconsin Republican and 2012 GOP vice presidential candidate still supports Trump for president.

Bowing to pressure from fellow Republicans, Trump said Tuesday he would no longer talk about Curiel. Trump said his remarks were misconstrued as a broad attack on Mexican-Americans. Stopping short of an apology, Trump released a statement that read in part: "I do not feel that one's heritage makes them incapable of being impartial, but, based on the rulings that I have received in the Trump University civil case, I feel justified in questioning whether I am receiving a fair trial."

Story continues

Langone  who first supported New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and then Ohio Gov. John Kasich in the Republican race  said he still believes Trump has the best chance to get the nation back on track, calling presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton power-hungry and self-centered.

Reiterating comments he made in May on "Squawk Box," Langone said while he'll vote for Trump, he won't be doing any fundraising for the fellow billionaire businessman.

 Reuters contributed to this report.





More From CNBC


Blair Rich has been tapped as president of worldwide marketing at Warner Bros.

In her new position, Rich will oversee the development and execution of all the studios marketing campaigns, as well as full marketing oversight on releases from New Line Cinema and Warner Bros.' production partners, Alcon and MGM.

Prior to the promotion, the Georgetown grad served as executive vp worldwide marketing at the studio, assisting with the campaigns for films in the Harry Potter franchise and Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight films. She has been with Warner Bros for 19 years, starting with the company as a marketing trainee.

Rich is currently working on the campaigns for the studio's big summer releases, including Tarzan and Suicide Squad, after which she will continue on to other highly anticipated projects, including the Harry Potter spinoff Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and the DC superhero films.

Rich will report to Sue Kroll, who on Monday extended her contract as president of worldwide marketing and distribution. She and Kroll will work on the larger, conceptual creation of the marketing campaigns, with Rich working on day-to-day development and execution.

"Blair is a dynamic marketing executive and so deserving of this expanded role," Kroll said Wednesday in a statement. "Opening almost two dozen films a year is an enormous task for any marketing group, but Blair has demonstrated time and again the ability to keep sight of the big picture while managing the crucial details."

Read More: Sue Kroll Reups With Warner Bros. in New Multiyear Deal
Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fcard%2fimage%2f109064%2fengagement

A couple's beautiful display of true love was recently met with a great deal of online hate.

When Mzznaki Tetteh, a nurse from Accra, Ghana, and her fiance, Kojo Amoah took engagement photographs, they simply wanted to visually capture and celebrate their love.

Unfortunately, after Tetteh posted the photographs, she was met with harsh criticism from body shamers.

SEE ALSO: Man surprises his girlfriend by proposing during their maternity photo shoot

After Tetteh shared photos from the shoot on Instagram, users began shaming her for her weight. Some even shared the photos to Twitter with negative comments about both Tetteh and Amoah.





Despite the negativity that resulted from the photos, the body shaming ultimately sparked a flood of positive encouragement, and many people began reaching out to Tetteh via social media to offer their support.

When faced with the negative comments, Tetteh remained strong and confident, and did not let the haters stop celebrating her happiness. She even posted a photo of herself from the shoot with her hands on her hips, captioned, "Still confident...your rubbish comments ain't ruining my happiness...thanks to all for the compliments and best wishes...am honored."

The photographs and Tetteh's empowering response to her body shamers have inspired others, and she now has 27.3k Instagram followers.

Tetteh remains thankful for her supporters, and we hope she continues to inspire others by advocating for self-love and positive body image.

Mashable reached out to Tetteh for comment and will update this article once we hear a reply.

BONUS: Corgi butts in slow motion
The Boeing Co. BA has won an undefinitized fixed-price-incentive contract for foreign military sales (FMS) to Qatar, worth $667.5 million, from the U.S. Army. Contracting activity is the Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, AL.



Per the contract, Boeing will provide 24 AH-64E Apache helicopters, one Longbow crew trainer, equipment for ground support, and Thales radios.



Work is scheduled to be complete by May 31, 2020 and will be executed in Mesa, AZ.



Boeings Apache, with a cruising speed of 279 kilometers (over 150 knots) per hour, is a twin-engine, four-bladed, two-pilot, multi-role combat helicopter that secured high ratings for engine competency and weapons load. Apache has also been noted for its target acquisition potential.



The Longbow Crew Trainer is the main focus of training for the AH-64 Apache helicopters. Pilots and other personnel use this high-fidelity flight simulator to practice aircraft procedures and prepare for missions.



We note that Boeing witnesses a steady flow of contracts from the U.S. DoD. The company is one of the major players in the defense business. Its defense business stands out among its peers by virtue of its broadly diversified programs, strong order bookings and order backlog.



Internationally, the company is witnessing strong demand for its defense products. In a volatile budget environment, rising FMS contracts are more than welcome. In 2015, non-U.S. customers accounted for approximately 59% of Boeings revenues.



International demand remains strong, accounting for 37% of the first quarter 2016 backlog and 37% of its quarterly Boeing Defense, Space & Security (BDS) revenue.



Boeing currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).



Stocks to Consider



A couple of better-ranked stock in the aerospace and defense industry is Engility Holdings, Inc. EGL and Leidos Holdings, Inc. LDOS, both carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Investors interested in the aerospace and defense equipment industry may also consider HEICO Corporation HEI, with a Zacks Rank #2.



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Cairo (AFP) - An EgyptAir flight from Cairo to Beijing made an emergency landing in Uzbekistan on Wednesday after a bomb threat that turned out to be a hoax, the airline said.

Uzbek authorities checked the Airbus A330 and found no explosives on board, EgyptAir chairman Safwat Musallam told AFP.

"The authorities there cleared the plane for departure after they searched the plane and found no threats," he said.

Musallam said an anonymous call was received warning there was a bomb on board after flight MS955 had left Cairo, and it landed at the nearest airport.

Uzbek authorities confirmed the plane had made an emergency landing at an airport in Urgench in the west of the country.

The flight had left Cairo five minutes before midnight on Tuesday, and the plane was scheduled to land in Beijing at 3.34 pm on Wednesday, according to EgyptAir's website.

It is the latest in a series of incidents involving Egyptian planes or airports.

An EgyptAir plane crashed in the Mediterranean with 66 people aboard on May 19 while en route from Paris to Cairo.

In October a Russian airliner with 224 people on board was downed by a bomb over Egypt's Sinai Peninsula after taking off from Sharm el-Sheikh, in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group.
MOSCOW/CAIRO (Reuters) - An EgyptAir passenger plane en route from Cairo to Beijing was forced to make an emergency landing in Uzbekistan on Wednesday after receiving a security threat that the airline said turned out to be a hoax. All 118 passengers and 17 crew members on board the Airbus plane were evacuated in Urgench, western Uzbekistan, after the threat was made three hours into the flight, EgyptAir said in a statement. The plane and passengers were searched by Uzbek authorities who confirmed that the threat was a hoax, it said. "The necessary actions are underway to resume the journey to Beijing Airport," it said. The emergency landing comes weeks after an EgyptAir flight crashed into the Mediterranean on May 19, killing all 66 people on board. An investigation is underway into the causes of the disaster. EgyptAir has received a number of bomb threats since the crash, all of which have turned out to be hoaxes. An EgyptAir official, who asked not to be named because he is not authorised to speak to the media, said the hoaxes had caused numerous delays and cost the company a lot of money. "It is a conspiracy against EgyptAir," he said. "It is very costly. Last month's crash was the third major aviation incident for Egypt since a Russian plane was brought down by a bomb in late October. In March, a man wearing a fake suicide belt hijacked an EgyptAir plane and diverted it to Cyprus. Wednesday's false security threat, which was unusual in that it was made after the plane had taken off, could add to a climate of uncertainty that has already put off visitors. The number of tourists visiting Egypt fell 54 percent in April 2016 compared to a year earlier as Egypt has struggled to restore confidence and lure visitors back to its sandy beaches and pharaonic relics. Egypt's tourism industry, a cornerstone of the economy and a critical source of hard currency, has been struggling since the 2011 uprising that ended Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule and ushered in a period of political and economic upheaval. Egyptian forces are also battling to end an Islamist insurgency that is raging in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, where the Russian plane crashed. Islamic State claimed responsibility for that attack. (Reporting by Maria Kiselyova and Anton Zverev in Moscow and Lin Noueihed and Amina Ismail in Cairo; Writing by Dmitry Solovyov and Amina Ismail; Editing by Andrew Osborn)
By Jeff Mason and David Brunnstrom WASHINGTON (Reuters) - India has agreed to work toward joining the Paris Agreement on climate change this year, India and the United States said on Tuesday, giving a jolt of momentum to the international fight to curb global warming. At a time of heightened tensions in Asia over China's assertive pursuit of territory, the two countries also pledged to expand military cooperation and outlined principles for cooperation on cyber issues. President Barack Obama welcomed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the White House for their seventh meeting since Modi took office in 2014, underscoring the warm relationship between the leaders and the world's two largest democracies. Modi is to address the U.S. Congress on Wednesday. "We discussed how we can, as quickly as possible, bring the Paris Agreement into force," Obama told reporters. Climate change is a legacy issue for the U.S. president who leaves office in January. India's potential entrance into the agreement this year would help accelerate its enactment, perhaps years ahead of schedule. India is the worlds third-largest greenhouse gas emitter after China and the United States. The two countries also welcomed preparations that could lead to the building of six nuclear reactors in India by U.S.-based Westinghouse, in what would be the culmination of some 10 years of work to resolve civil-nuclear issues. The joint statement said India and the U.S. Export-Import Bank were working to complete a financing package for the project and that the Nuclear Power Corporation of India and Westinghouse had confirmed engineering and site design work would begin immediately. It said Westinghouse and the Nuclear Power Corporation of India would work toward finalizing the contract by June 2017 - a year later than Westinghouse's chief executive, Daniel Roderick, said he hoped for in an interview with Reuters in late March. Modi told an event organized by the U.S. India Business Council that relations between India and the United States were "closer than ever." He said the planned reactor purchases would mark new era in nuclear and scientific cooperation. Modi's address to a joint session of Congress will be a significant personal step. Although this has become an tradition for Indian prime ministers, he was once banned from the United States over massacres of Muslims. More than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in sectarian riots in Gujarat in 2002 when Modi had just become the state's chief minister. Modi has denied any wrongdoing, and India's Supreme Court in 2010 ruled there was no case. In the joint statement, the United States said it now recognized India as a "Major Defense Partner" and would work on technology sharing "to a level commensurate with that of its closest allies and partners." The text of a logistics agreement, which will allow the countries' militaries to use each other's land, air and naval bases, would be signed soon, a U.S. official said. Tensions between the United States and Pakistan as well as regional concerns about China have served as a backdrop to increased security cooperation. Senator John McCain, chairman of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, said the address to Congress was "entirely appropriate" given the new partnership. "Theres no doubt there are significant tensions and challenges in the region, which argues for closer coordination between our militaries," he said. While Modi is generally popular with U.S. lawmakers, they criticize what they see as lingering unfriendliness to U.S. firms and a stifling bureaucracy, in spite of Modi's pro-business image. They also question New Delhi's record on human rights. Modi got a boost on Tuesday when Amazon Inc AMZN.O Chief Executive Jeff Bezos said his company would invest an additional $3 billion in India, boosting its committed investment in the country to over $5 billion. CLIMATE CHANGE PROGRESS Obama and Modi agreed to work together on an "ambitious" amendment to an international pact known as the Montreal Protocol to reduce hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, a particularly potent greenhouse gas. The two countries said India would take steps to join the Paris agreement this year. "India and the United States recognize the urgency of climate change and share the goal of enabling entry into force of the Paris Agreement as early as possible," the joint statement said. "The United States reaffirms its commitment to join the agreement as soon as possible this year. India similarly has begun its processes to work toward this shared objective." The agreement, forged in 2015, will take effect when at least 55 countries representing 55 percent of global emissions ratify it. By late last month 17 small countries had ratified it, according to the United Nations, and many others including the United States and China have pledged to do so in 2016. Environmental groups had hoped Modi would say that India was ready to ratify the agreement during his Washington trip. With India now on board, a growing chorus of countries are seeking to bring the Paris Agreement into full effect as soon as possible," Andrew Steer, president of the World Resources Institute, said in a statement. (Additional reporting by Valerie Volcivici and Timothy Gardner; Editing by Leslie Adler and Michael Perry)
This mom was made to feel ashamed for breastfeeding. (Photo: Getty Images)

Jasmine Millar has three kids  all of whom she has breastfed, despite physical struggles to do so. Recently, while attending a Boy Scout meeting with all three kids, she was asked to cover up while breastfeeding  it was called inappropriate and offensive to the other parents at the meeting.

I was using the two-shirt method, which covers the top and bottom of the breast. I was toward the back of the room with all scouts in front of me, she explained to the Facebook group Breastfeeding Mama Talk, which posted her story.

After the meeting, she was approached and told that what she was doing wasnt appropriate.

I was told I needed to leave or cover completely with a blanket from now on. This was our third troop and the first time anyone has ever had issues with me breastfeeding. I was so shocked and embarrassed. I felt outnumbered and bullied. I ended up leaving in tears and continued to cry the remainder of the night.

After the incident, Millar contacted her local city council and was advised that she was well within her legal rights to breastfeed at the meeting. A follow-up phone call confirmed this. But then she received a letter from Vance Lackey, the director of field services for Boy Scouts of America, that shocked her.

In the letter, Lackey agrees that Millar was within her rights to nurse at the meeting but explained that there are those in your sons troop who are uncomfortable.

When you choose to nurse your baby uncovered and/or in the same room as the Scouts, it causes disruption. Some young boys do not fully understand about breastfeeding and have families who may not be ready to have this discussion and some Scouts and/or families are simply uncomfortable with public breastfeeding.

He then goes on to ask her for a compromise, suggesting she wear a cover or step into another room.

All families and volunteers in attendance have one main purpose of the meeting, which is to provide a positive Scouting experience to young boys. Perhaps this concession to those with different views can get this unit back on track. Parents respecting one anothers personal boundaries is a good lesson for boys to observe.

Story continues

I couldnt believe what I had just read. Did they really just side with the very same people who shamed me?

She decided to share her story with Breastfeeding Mama Talk in hopes that others will rally with her to prevent incidents like this from happening to other mothers.

They made me feel so small, and I refuse to take this abuse and be bullied into hiding. All I wanted was my rights to be respected and an apology, and for them to educate their staff and volunteers, she wrote.

Since posting her story to Facebook, it was picked up by local news, attracting the attention of Larry Brown at the Middle Tennessee Council. He admitted in an interview with Forbes that Millar deserves an apology.

I saw the letter before it went out, and I didnt really think about it, but I went back and looked at the letter. And in looking at the letter candidly, it does isolate her, Brown says. It almost sounded like we were taking the leaders side in the letter, and thats not what it was meant to be.

Brown hopes to work with Millar toward a solution with her local chapter.

Really, at the end of the day, its an issue with the local unit, and I want to get a good resolution with our volunteers and with her and try to get everybody to where they are OK with things and then move on, serve kids, and focus on the program, Brown said.

UPDATE 8/6/16: Larry Brown from The Middle Tennessee Council BSA has since reached out to Jasmine Millar expressing the councils sincere apologies and support for her and all breastfeeding mothers.

There is no question, Boy Scouts of America understand and respect your rights to breastfeed your child, the letter reads. Scouting members are always encouraged to treat all people with dignity and respect. Moving forward, we will reinforce to our adult volunteers they need to accommodate breastfeeding mothers. Once again, please accept my heartfelt apology.



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By Guillermo Parra-Bernal and Leonardo Goy SAO PAULO/BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil's antitrust watchdog on Wednesday approved Banco Bradesco SA's purchase of HSBC Holdings Plc's local unit with some conditions, marking the latest departure of a foreign lender from one of the world's most concentrated banking markets. Five board members of the watchdog known as Cade voted to pass the deal as long as Bradesco , the country's No. 3 listed commercial lender, agrees to refrain from making any rival acquisitions for at least 30 months. The remaining two board members did not cast ballots. After sitting on the sidelines for years while local rivals bulked up through takeovers, Bradesco made a grab for HSBC Bank Brasil Banco Multiplo SA last August. The $5.2 billion purchase allowed Bradesco to increase assets by 16 percent and add 5 million clients. The transaction will help Bradesco cut the gap with state-controlled Banco do Brasil SA and Caixa Economica Federal and private-sector rival Itau Unibanco Holding SA - Brazil's top three banks by assets. Consumer groups have warned, though, that the deal could hurt competition where the top 10 banks control almost 90 percent of the industry's assets. Domestic firms acquired 84 of 104 for-sale Brazilian banks and financial targets since 2008, Thomson Reuters data showed. The purchase will give Bradesco control of 13 percent of Brazil's banking assets, 12 percent of total deposits and the nation's third-largest loan book. Analysts have said the deal, the largest in Bradesco's 75-year history, will test Chief Executive Officer Luiz Carlos Trabuco's ability to absorb large asset management, banking and insurance assets at a time when the economy is headed for the harshest recession in eight decades. "We are up to the task, we have done our homework," Alexandre Gluher, a senior Bradesco vice president, told reporters at a conference call to discuss the deal on Wednesday. Gluher expects Bradesco to finalize the integration of HSBC's 851 branches, 5 million clients and over 19,000 employees by October. Non-voting shares in Bradesco, the bank's most widely traded class of stock, accelerated gains on the news. The shares rose 3.3 percent to 25.03 reais, the highest level in three weeks. TOO TOUGH The HSBC exit highlights the impact of state intervention in the sector since 2012, when Brazil's government instructed state banks to aggressively cut borrowing costs. While local private-sector lenders reacted by retreating to protect profits, HSBC Bank Brasil was "caught in the middle," a source involved in the sale said last year. HSBC Chief Executive Officer Stuart Gulliver plans to use proceeds from the sale to boost capital metrics and ensure the bank remains the biggest dividend payer among European banks. Growing asset concentration in the hands of local lenders proved too tough for "the World's Local Bank," as HSBC is known globally. According to International Monetary Fund data, banking industry concentration in Brazil is the highest among the so-called BRICs group of the world's largest emerging market economies. In addition, former executives at HSBC put corporate client relationships before profitability, kept branches overstaffed and failed to foresee weaker loan book quality when growth in Brazil began to wane around 2012, analysts said. In recent years, Citigroup Inc and Societe Generale SA sold their consumer-finance operations, following the steps of Intesa Sanpaolo SA, Bank of America Corp., Credit Lyonnais SA and Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA since the start of the century. Citigroup this year announced plans to sell retail banking operations in Brazil, leaving Spain's Banco Santander SA as the only major foreign retail lender in Brazil. (Additional reporting by Lawrence White in London; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Chizu Nomiyama)
By Guillermo Parra-Bernal and Leonardo Goy

SAO PAULO/BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil's antitrust watchdog on Wednesday approved Banco Bradesco SA's purchase of HSBC Holdings Plc's (HSBA.L) local unit with some conditions, marking the latest departure of a foreign lender from one of the world's most concentrated banking markets.

Five board members of the watchdog known as Cade voted to pass the deal as long as Bradesco (BBDC4.SA), the country's No. 3 listed commercial lender, agrees to refrain from making any rival acquisitions for at least 30 months. The remaining two board members did not cast ballots.

After sitting on the sidelines for years while local rivals bulked up through takeovers, Bradesco made a grab for HSBC Bank Brasil Banco Multiplo SA last August. The $5.2 billion purchase allowed Bradesco to increase assets by 16 percent and add 5 million clients.

The transaction will help Bradesco cut the gap with state-controlled Banco do Brasil SA and Caixa Economica Federal and private-sector rival Itau Unibanco Holding SA - Brazil's top three banks by assets. Consumer groups have warned, though, that the deal could hurt competition where the top 10 banks control almost 90 percent of the industry's assets.

Domestic firms acquired 84 of 104 for-sale Brazilian banks and financial targets since 2008, Thomson Reuters data showed. The purchase will give Bradesco control of 13 percent of Brazil's banking assets, 12 percent of total deposits and the nation's third-largest loan book.

Analysts have said the deal, the largest in Bradesco's 75-year history, will test Chief Executive Officer Luiz Carlos Trabuco's ability to absorb large asset management, banking and insurance assets at a time when the economy is headed for the harshest recession in eight decades.

"We are up to the task, we have done our homework," Alexandre Gluher, a senior Bradesco vice president, told reporters at a conference call to discuss the deal on Wednesday.

Gluher expects Bradesco to finalize the integration of HSBC's 851 branches, 5 million clients and over 19,000 employees by October.

Story continues

Non-voting shares in Bradesco, the bank's most widely traded class of stock, accelerated gains on the news. The shares rose 3.3 percent to 25.03 reais, the highest level in three weeks.

TOO TOUGH

The HSBC exit highlights the impact of state intervention in the sector since 2012, when Brazil's government instructed state banks to aggressively cut borrowing costs. While local private-sector lenders reacted by retreating to protect profits, HSBC Bank Brasil was "caught in the middle," a source involved in the sale said last year.

HSBC Chief Executive Officer Stuart Gulliver plans to use proceeds from the sale to boost capital metrics and ensure the bank remains the biggest dividend payer among European banks.

Growing asset concentration in the hands of local lenders proved too tough for "the World's Local Bank," as HSBC is known globally. According to International Monetary Fund data, banking industry concentration in Brazil is the highest among the so-called BRICs group of the world's largest emerging market economies.

In addition, former executives at HSBC put corporate client relationships before profitability, kept branches overstaffed and failed to foresee weaker loan book quality when growth in Brazil began to wane around 2012, analysts said.

In recent years, Citigroup Inc and Societe Generale SA sold their consumer-finance operations, following the steps of Intesa Sanpaolo SA, Bank of America Corp., Credit Lyonnais SA and Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA since the start of the century.

Citigroup (C.N) this year announced plans to sell retail banking operations in Brazil, leaving Spain's Banco Santander SA as the only major foreign retail lender in Brazil.

(Additional reporting by Lawrence White in London; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Chizu Nomiyama)
(Adds details on market concentration, comments throughout)

By Guillermo Parra-Bernal and Leonardo Goy

SAO PAULO/BRASILIA, June 8 (Reuters) - Brazil's antitrust watchdog on Wednesday approved Banco Bradesco SA's purchase of HSBC Holdings Plc's local unit with some conditions, marking the latest departure of a foreign lender from one of the world's most concentrated banking markets.

Five board members of the watchdog known as Cade voted to pass the deal as long as Bradesco, the country's No. 3 listed commercial lender, agrees to refrain from making any rival acquisitions for at least 30 months. The remaining two board members did not cast ballots.

After sitting on the sidelines for years while local rivals bulked up through takeovers, Bradesco made a grab for HSBC Bank Brasil Banco Multiplo SA last August. The $5.2 billion purchase allowed Bradesco to increase assets by 16 percent and add 5 million clients.

The transaction will help Bradesco cut the gap with state-controlled Banco do Brasil SA and Caixa Economica Federal and private-sector rival Itau Unibanco Holding SA - Brazil's top three banks by assets. Consumer groups have warned, though, that the deal could hurt competition where the top 10 banks control almost 90 percent of the industry's assets.

Domestic firms acquired 84 of 104 for-sale Brazilian banks and financial targets since 2008, Thomson Reuters data showed. The purchase will give Bradesco control of 13 percent of Brazil's banking assets, 12 percent of total deposits and the nation's third-largest loan book.

Analysts have said the deal, the largest in Bradesco's 75-year history, will test Chief Executive Officer Luiz Carlos Trabuco's ability to absorb large asset management, banking and insurance assets at a time when the economy is headed for the harshest recession in eight decades.

"We are up to the task, we have done our homework," Alexandre Gluher, a senior Bradesco vice president, told reporters at a conference call to discuss the deal on Wednesday.

Story continues

Gluher expects Bradesco to finalize the integration of HSBC's 851 branches, 5 million clients and over 19,000 employees by October.

Non-voting shares in Bradesco, the bank's most widely traded class of stock, accelerated gains on the news. The shares rose 3.3 percent to 25.03 reais, the highest level in three weeks.

TOO TOUGH

The HSBC exit highlights the impact of state intervention in the sector since 2012, when Brazil's government instructed state banks to aggressively cut borrowing costs. While local private-sector lenders reacted by retreating to protect profits, HSBC Bank Brasil was "caught in the middle," a source involved in the sale said last year.

HSBC Chief Executive Officer Stuart Gulliver plans to use proceeds from the sale to boost capital metrics and ensure the bank remains the biggest dividend payer among European banks.

Growing asset concentration in the hands of local lenders proved too tough for "the World's Local Bank," as HSBC is known globally. According to International Monetary Fund data, banking industry concentration in Brazil is the highest among the so-called BRICs group of the world's largest emerging market economies.

In addition, former executives at HSBC put corporate client relationships before profitability, kept branches overstaffed and failed to foresee weaker loan book quality when growth in Brazil began to wane around 2012, analysts said.

In recent years, Citigroup Inc and Societe Generale SA sold their consumer-finance operations, following the steps of Intesa Sanpaolo SA, Bank of America Corp., Credit Lyonnais SA and Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA since the start of the century.

Citigroup this year announced plans to sell retail banking operations in Brazil, leaving Spain's Banco Santander SA as the only major foreign retail lender in Brazil.

(Additional reporting by Lawrence White in London; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Chizu Nomiyama)
By Brad Brooks

RIO DE JANEIRO, June 8 (Reuters) - He is a symbol of Brazil's biggest corruption investigation - a ballyhooed battle against impunity for powerful politicians and businessmen.

But on Wednesday, federal police agent Newton Ishii sat in the same jail where he had been photographed and shown on TV escorting countless high-profile politicians and executives linked to a kickback scandal at state-run oil company Petrobras .

It is a long fall for Ishii, perhaps the first Brazilian policeman ever to be exalted in a Carnival song, sung by party-goers who wore masks bearing his likeness and dressed in his black police garb.

Known in Brazil simply as "the Japanese cop," due to his heritage, Ishii's face appeared on placards at massive rallies in the past year that demanded the impeachment of now-suspended President Dilma Rousseff.

Ishii's visit to Brazil's lower house of congress in February created a commotion as deputies, including the far right-wing Jair Bolsonaro, took selfies with him. Rumors even floated that the agent might consider a political career.

But his growing cult of personality rubbed some high-level federal police officials the wrong way, two authorities familiar with the situation said on condition of anonymity, and Ishii has not been seen in the Petrobras police raids since his congress visit.

Federal police in the southern city of Curitiba, where investigators, prosecutors and a judge are spear-heading the Petrobras probe, said Ishii was arrested on Tuesday afternoon.

His case is under seal, so the exact reason for his detention is not known. But it is likely tied to a previous conviction, the two authorities said.

Ishii, along with several other police, tax collectors and professional criminals, was arrested in 2003 when authorities broke up a ring that bribed authorities to ferry contraband into Brazil over the Triple Frontier area, where Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay meet.

It is a region renowned for trafficking all manner of goods, from drugs and arms to electronics and cigarettes.

Story continues

Ishii was found guilty in 2009, but had remained free on appeal.

Beyond his corruption conviction, Ishii was accused by the lawyer of a state's witness in the Petrobras case of selling information about the investigation to the press - which police say they are probing.

Calls to the last known lawyer for Ishii were not returned.

Memes quickly spread online Wednesday - many depicting Ishii, wearing his trademark dark sunglasses and black bullet-resistant vest and sullen expression, escorting a Photoshopped handcuffed version of himself to jail.

(Reporting by Brad Brooks; Editing by Dan Grebler)
By Brad Brooks RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - He is a symbol of Brazil's biggest corruption investigation - a ballyhooed battle against impunity for powerful politicians and businessmen. But on Wednesday, federal police agent Newton Ishii sat in the same jail where he had been photographed and shown on TV escorting countless high-profile politicians and executives linked to a kickback scandal at state-run oil company Petrobras . It is a long fall for Ishii, perhaps the first Brazilian policeman ever to be exalted in a Carnival song, sung by party-goers who wore masks bearing his likeness and dressed in his black police garb. Known in Brazil simply as "the Japanese cop," due to his heritage, Ishii's face appeared on placards at massive rallies in the past year that demanded the impeachment of now-suspended President Dilma Rousseff. Ishii's visit to Brazil's lower house of congress in February created a commotion as deputies, including the far right-wing Jair Bolsonaro, took selfies with him. Rumors even floated that the agent might consider a political career. But his growing cult of personality rubbed some high-level federal police officials the wrong way, two authorities familiar with the situation said on condition of anonymity, and Ishii has not been seen in the Petrobras police raids since his congress visit. Federal police in the southern city of Curitiba, where investigators, prosecutors and a judge are spear-heading the Petrobras probe, said Ishii was arrested on Tuesday afternoon. His case is under seal, so the exact reason for his detention is not known. But it is likely tied to a previous conviction, the two authorities said. Ishii, along with several other police, tax collectors and professional criminals, was arrested in 2003 when authorities broke up a ring that bribed authorities to ferry contraband into Brazil over the Triple Frontier area, where Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay meet. It is a region renowned for trafficking all manner of goods, from drugs and arms to electronics and cigarettes. Ishii was found guilty in 2009, but had remained free on appeal. Beyond his corruption conviction, Ishii was accused by the lawyer of a state's witness in the Petrobras case of selling information about the investigation to the press - which police say they are probing. Calls to the last known lawyer for Ishii were not returned. Memes quickly spread online Wednesday - many depicting Ishii, wearing his trademark dark sunglasses and black bullet-resistant vest and sullen expression, escorting a Photoshopped handcuffed version of himself to jail. (Reporting by Brad Brooks; Editing by Dan Grebler)
(New throughout, adds analyst comment, changes dateline previously SAO PAULO)

RIO DE JANEIRO, June 8 (Reuters) - Brazilian mining company Vale SA said on Wednesday there have been no attempts within the company to remove Chief Executive Murilo Ferreira, responding to local media reports that his job was under threat.

In a securities filing, Vale said the dismissal of Ferreira had not been discussed at the world's largest producer of iron ore, and it had not received any communication from controlling shareholders about a desire to change CEO.

Valor Economico reported last week that the new government of Interim President Michel Temer was looking to oust Ferreira because he is regarded as too closely allied to suspended President Dilma Rousseff who hand-picked him for the job in 2011.

The government did not respond to a request for comment on the Valor report.

A government move to replace Ferreira would be controversial as Vale is a private company and supposedly free from state intervention.

However, Ferreira's predecessor, the late Roger Agnelli, was pushed out during Rousseff's first term after the government exerted pressure through state pension funds that have seats on Vale's board.

Analysts at BTG Pactual on Tuesday expressed concern over the potential removal of Ferreira, saying it would increase the perception of political risk at the company.

"We see no need for a management change at this point, which could end up being value destructive for shareholders," the analysts said in a note to clients.

(Reporting by Guillermo Parra-Bernal in Sao Paulo and Stephen Eisenhammer; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
A fitting farewell for a hero. Bretagne, the golden retriever who was the last known 9/11 search and rescue dog, was given a tearful sendoff before she was euthanized on Monday, June 6.

PHOTOS: Celebrities and Their Pets

The 16-year-old dog, who was also deployed for Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, had retired but was physically ailing as her owner, Denise Corliss, walked her into the Fairfield Animal Hospital in Houston on Monday.



Bretagne, who worked 12-hour days alongside 300 other dogs at Ground Zero, walked past an honor guard of firefighters from the Cy-Fair Volunteer Fire Department, who saluted as she passed by on her way into the veterinary hospital, according to the Houston Chronicle.

PHOTOS: Celebrity Activists

After her death, Bretagne was brought out in a casket covered with a Texas flag and carried by pallbearers from the local search and rescue unit.

Corliss spoke to the Today show on Monday about Bretagne's final day. "She was really anxious last night and she just wanted to be with me," said the heroic dog's owner and handler, who worked by Bretagne's side for two weeks straight at the World Trade Center site in 2001. "So I laid down with her, right next to her. When she could feel me, she could settle down and go to sleep. I slept with her like that all night."



PHOTOS: Celebrity Charity

Bretagne retired from search work at the age of 9 in 2009, but remained active, visiting firehouses, helping to train other search and rescue dogs and helping elementary-school kids learn to read by sitting by their side and listening. She celebrated her 16th birthday last September back in NYC, where she was pampered and greeted with toys, treats and a gourmet cheeseburger.



"Some may say that the most a dog could be is a pet. However, to the over 400 members of the Cy-Fair Volunteer Fire Department, Bretagne was a civil servant, a hero and is family," the department said in a statement on Monday. "We will remember her fondly, and continue serving the community with her as inspiration."




LONDON (Reuters) - India has signed up to a scheme to clamp down on tax evasion and corruption launched by Europe's biggest nations, Britain's government said on Wednesday.

Signatories to the scheme - announced in April by Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain - undertake to give one another free access to information on who ultimately owns companies.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised in his 2014 election campaign to recover billions of dollars sent to tax havens abroad to avoid income tax.

Earlier this week Switzerland promised to work with Indian authorities to tackle tax dodgers who stash money in Swiss bank accounts.

Most European countries apart from Switzerland have signed up to the information exchange, in addition to several Caribbean tax havens, Mexico, the United Arab Emirates and Nigeria.

(Reporting by Andy Bruce; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
By William James LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister David Cameron accused those campaigning for Britain to leave the European Union of lying, saying on Tuesday he had to challenge their views after watching TV news bulletins. The prime minister called an unexpected news conference at short notice during which he tried to move the focus away from immigration in an increasingly heated campaign before the June 23 referendum on whether to remain in the 28-member bloc. It was a tactic that Cameron, who is leading the "In" campaign, also used in a television debate with anti-EU campaigner Nigel Farage, whom he accused of wanting to turn the country into "Little England" rather than Great Britain. Opinion polls have suggested that the "Leave" campaign may be gaining momentum. "It is irresponsible. It is wrong. It is time that the Leave campaign was called out on the nonsense that they are peddling," said Cameron, appearing on a rooftop terrace with sweeping views of the London skyline and the Houses of Parliament. He dismissed suggestions from the Leave campaign and some local media that he was worried he was losing. He said he was concerned that "people are being told things that aren't correct". "I was watching the news last night and it just came over to me so clearly that there is such a contrast between the weight of independent expert opinion ... and a series of assertions from the Leave campaign that just simply aren't right." Cameron, keen to get the focus of the campaign on the economy, cited recent warnings on the economic impact of an EU exit made by Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, Hitachi's chief executive and the head of the WTO. His last-minute decision to hold the news conference signaled a break from what has so far been a carefully choreographed campaign. "The In campaign is in a blind panic," said Vote Leave spokesman Douglas Carswell, a lawmaker from the anti-EU UK Independence Party. TELEVISION DEBATE Later on Tuesday, in front of an audience on ITV television, Cameron pressed his criticism of those campaigning to leave the European Union. He accused Farage, leader of the UK Independence Party and a leader of one of the groups wanting a British exit, or Brexit, of wanting to damage Britain's economy. "I hope that when people go to vote on June 23, they think about ... the sort of country that we want to build together and they vote to say that we don't want Little England of Nigel Farage. We want to be Great Britain," he said. Cameron had previously held back from criticizing the main figures in the official Leave campaign, many of whom are senior members of his Conservative Party, including former London mayor Boris Johnson and Justice Secretary Michael Gove. But on Tuesday, he cited several arguments made by Johnson, Gove and others and dismissed them. "It's so important to say to people: 'don't take a decision to leave the EU and damage our economy on the basis of clearly false information that you're being given,'" he said. (Additional reporting by Kate Holton and Elizabeth Piper Writing by William James and Estelle Shirbon; Editing by Stephen Addison and James Dalgleish)
By Umberto Bacchi LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - A union representing British lecturers has defended its decision to bar from special sessions of an equality conference representatives who are able-bodied, straight, white and male, saying the ban serves to create a "safe space" for discussion. The University and College Union's (UCU) equality conference, scheduled for later in the year, typically focuses on topics such as the gender pay gap and discrimination at work. As part of the annual meeting, the union organises closed-door discussions for female, gay, disabled and black representatives of universities and colleges across the country. Last week a motion to change the rule to allow all representatives to take part in all sessions was dismissed. "Members felt that it was important that those from different minority groups should be able to meet to discuss the unique hurdles they face together," a UCU spokesman said in a statement. Gargi Bhattacharyya, a professor of sociology at University East London who sits on UCU's Black members' standing committee, said the rules had been loosely enforced in the past with non-minority members occasionally taking part in closed sessions. "I would be very surprised if it comes to a point of rejecting people from a meeting," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Like others, however, Bhattacharyya backed the rule saying people from minority groups felt more comfortable addressing issues, such as sexual harassment at work, with their peers. Roddy Slorach, vice chair of a UCU committee of disabled members, described the controversy as "a storm in a tea cup", saying most members agreed with the union's policy. Pura Ariza, a senior lecturer in education at Manchester Metropolitan University and part of the UCU's LGBT members' standing committee, also defended the union's position. "Some people think we should all be together as we are going to fight for equality together. That's a really positive position," she said. "But I don't think that we have reached that stage, unfortunately, where there aren't equality issues and there isn't a need for what we call a safe space." (Reporting by Umberto Bacchi @UmbertoBacchi, Editing by Katie Nguyen.; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org)
brock turner-Feature

Santa Clara Sheriff's Office

Facebook recently decided that Brock Turner, the now infamous convicted rapist and former Stanford athlete, didnt need to have a meme made out of him. The site took down a widely shared image of his athlete headshot, with the text Hi, Im Brock, And Im A Rapist written on it, and claims the image was taken down in error. Some felt it should stay down. But that raises the question of how far a meme should go as it sits uncomfortably at the axis of free speech, commerce, public safety and privacy.

Does Shame Have A Shelf Life?

The meme, its worth noting, was a protest. Police authorities had refused to release Turners mugshot, despite it being public record, and that forced the media to use his athlete headshot and other photos in stories about him. The meme was designed to protest this, to tag that headshot with Turners crimes, and so Facebook taking it down, even accidentally, was received poorly.

Photography is the real language of the internet, thanks to a combination of cameras in almost every pocket in the world and instant connection across borders and cultures. As digital cameras have improved, and social media has become ubiquitous, one of the unexpected consequences has been that total strangers, just living their lives, have been elevated to fame thanks to a moment of personal triumph or, far more likely, a moment of personal embarrassment. Bad Luck Brian, Overly Attached Girlfriend, Scumbag Steve, and more were all just people who had a photograph taken, one of billions likely taken that day, and either hit the lottery or got struck by lightning, depending on your perspective.

In the case of using memes to highlight a persons deliberate misbehavior, though, things get even murkier. Shame, whether accidental or self-inflicted, has suddenly gotten a much longer shelf-life thanks to the internet both tying public records to your name and making those records instantly accessible. While a case like Turners is painfully clear-cut, people who committed minor offenses or were simply arrested and let go can find themselves paying for their crimes years or even decades later. In some cases, they paid in a very literal sense: Until recently, a common scam was for a website to find a persons mugshot, post it online without any context, and demand you pay them to take it down.

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Public authorities were powerless to do anything, as mugshots are public records and websites, including this one, can post them at will. Ultimately, Google stepped in and removed the sites from their search algorithm, effectively rendering most mugshot sites invisible. But that, in of itself, opens up another can of worms.



Do We Have A Right To Be Forgotten?

Google has, de facto, a powerful grip on peoples lives, and being able to remove links from Google, a right EU citizens have and something any American can request, is a powerful tool for shaping how were perceived. In the vast majority of cases, its simply private information that the person in question has every right to ask be removed. On the other hand, the BBC tracks which of its links Google removes under that right, and in many cases, its information worth knowing about a person. We have no idea why Google removed those links. Unlike a court, its under no obligation to make those statements or discuss its decision-making process.

And its true there are many situations where a photograph needs to come down. If youre the victim of a malicious act, it doesnt matter if youre the one who created the photo or if someone else did it for you. Whats less clear, especially with perpetrators, is when we cross from protecting public safety or offering comment on a public figure to something undeserved. Should the court of public opinion have a statute of limitations? Does the ownership of a photograph trump public safety? And should a private corporation decide these things?

Does The Internet Have Limits?

This question boils down to where public good blurs into private malice, and frankly, nobody is entirely sure. Part of the issue is that while the internet never forgets, the vast majority of people eventually do, which brings us back to Turner and his meme.

In the end, there are two people who have to live with Turners actions and their consequences for the rest of their lives: Turner, who is decidedly unrepentant, and the woman he raped, who had to learn what happened to her from the news. There will be a lot of discussion about whether Turner deserves to be shamed for the rest of his life for his actions, but in discussions of crimes like this, that argument tends to ignore that the survivor of the attack doesnt get a vote about whether to carry a burden inflicted upon them by the cruelty and selfishness of other people. If were going to ask whats fair, that should include asking who, exactly, our actions would be fair to.
On Thursday, the age at which tobacco products may be purchased in California will increase, to 21. The states governor, Jerry Brown, signed the bill in May, bringing California into line with Hawaii as the states with the most restrictive statewide tobacco-buying ages.

But, looking back at the history of tobacco sales in the United States, its clear that the idea that 18 is an appropriate age for a person to be able to buy cigarettesor that 21 is a particularly high barrieris a relatively new one.

In a comprehensive paper published recently in the American Journal of Public Health, Dorie E. Apollonio and Stanton A. Glantz take a look back at age restrictions on American tobacco sales, going all the way to 1863. As they discovered, age restrictions on buying cigarettes and other tobacco products are older than the average person might think, especially considering that the landmark Surgeon Generals warning on the dangers of smoking only dates to 1964. And within that early history of minimum ages, there are plenty of examples of 21-and-over laws.

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Apollonio and Glantz start their survey in the 1880s, when New Jersey banned tobacco from being sold to anyone under 16, with New York, Connecticut, Michigan and Oregon all following suit that decade. During the rise of the anti-alcohol temperance movement, cigarettes were a natural target for reform. And it wasnt just a matter of teetotalism. Around the turn of the century, children were picking up the habit at shockingly young ages, even to people back then. Though pipes or other tobacco products were an enduring part of American culture, as Cassandra Tate explains in her book Cigarette Wars, cigarettessold individually, cheaply enough to be purchased with pocket moneywere seen as a danger to young children, prompting the New York Times to editorialize in 1905 that they had an appalling hold on American youth beyond anything which the public at large had dreamed of. (Tate notes that, not coincidentally, the turn of the century was also the era that saw the growth of the modern idea of childhood, that theres a period during which an innocent young person must be protected.)

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In fact, around the turn of the century more than a dozen states flat-out banned cigarettes. By the end of 1920, all but 2 states had enacted some kind of age limit on cigarette sales, and at least 14 had set an age limit of 21 years, Apollonio and Glantz write.

It was only around World War I that cigarette manufacturers were successful in fighting back, conveying the ideasomething still heard today in arguments over Californias new lawthat a man who could fight should be able to smoke too, and moreover that cigarettes were essential to the American soldiers morale. In the years that between that war and the end of World War II, many states dropped their age limits. Cigarettes were actively marketed to younger people, they were largely socially acceptable and, as Apollonio and Glantz report, by the 1960s the tobacco industry had decided that 18 was a reasonable limit to fight to maintain.

States that tried to get them back up around 21 (like Massachusetts and Oregon in 1963) were unsuccessful. In 1985, when the American Medical Association proposed a national 21-and-over rule, that didnt go anywhere either.

The 18-for-tobacco idea was, by then, stuckor at least it seemed that way. Today, things might be changing.
Hillary Clinton wasn't the only woman who made political history Tuesday.

Democrats Kamala Harris and Loretta Sanchez  both candidates for the U.S. Senate seat held by retiring Sen. Barbara Boxer  handily shut their Republican opponents out of the California primary race.

Harris, California's state attorney general, and Sanchez, a congresswoman representing Orange County, were the top two vote-getters in the state's primary election, according to unofficial results. Harris led Sanchez by 23 points, the Los Angeles Times reported.

"We understand that we have so many challenges as a country and we are prepared to lead," Harris said at her victory party in San Francisco.

Sanchez also celebrated her second-place finish at an event near Los Angeles Tuesday night.

"We know we're going to be there [in the general election] and we're just going to start working tomorrow toward November," she .

This election has been about all of us coming together as proud Californians to fight for the ideals of our country.pic.twitter.com/nIgDt28R7p https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CkZ4ppUWkAEXGmd.png:large

Sanchez crowd going nuts as she celebrates declares their march forward to Novemberpic.twitter.com/WPZ4w2tNMj

California has never sent a black woman or a Latina to the U.S. senate. Both the state's current senators  Dianne Feinstein and Boxer, who announced she would not seek reelection in January  are white women.

When t hey fac e off in the general election in November, Harris or Sanchez could add some much needed racial and gender diversity to the federal government. T hough non-white people make up more than a of the U.S. populati on and w omen m a ke up , both groups are severely underrepresented in the senate.

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Source: Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Just of America's 100 current U.S. senators are women, while are people of color.

The six are as follows: Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Tim Scott (R-SC), who are black; Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who are Hispanic; and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), who in 2013 became the first woman elected to the U.S. senate from Hawaii, the first Asian-American woman elected to the senate ever, and the first member of the senate born in Japan.

None of this is lost on Harris, who celebrated her victory in San Francisco Tuesday.

"Our diversity is our power," the attorney general

Kamala Harris

Nevertheless, racism still makes reaching the senate an uphill battle for racial minorities. Of the more than 1,950 senators who have ever served in the institution, only nine have been black, according to NPR.

"It's that much harder for minorities to get to the Senate because they have to run statewide," Boxer, the California senator who is white, NPR in 2013 after Sen. Booker was elected in New Jersey. Running statewide means minorities in majority-white states often must appeal to voters who may hold racial prejudices against them.

With any luck, the successes of Harris and Sanchez in California herald a sea change for electoral politics in increasingly diverse states around the country. Only time will tell.
(Corrects last paragraph to state that Airbus is yet to disclose location for China H135 helicopter assembly line)

* Liberalisation opens up new markets for aircraft makers

* China may need 3,000 medivac helicopters - Airbus exec

* Manufacturers building China base seeking market share

* Creaking hospital infrastructure may hamper development

By Siva Govindasamy and Fang Yan

SINGAPORE/BEIJING, June 8 (Reuters) - As China opens up its low-level airspace to civilian aircraft, the global aviation industry is laying the groundwork for a boom beyond private business jets and pilot training schools - with the purchase of fleets of air ambulance helicopters.

The freeing up of airways previously reserved for military use is a huge opportunity for Norbert Ducrot, head of Airbus Group's helicopters unit in China. Ducrot says there could be enough demand for more than 3,000 emergency medical choppers in China - up from as few as about 20 now in service.

While the United States already has more than 1,500 air ambulance helicopters, China's fleet is minimal because of the civilian airspace curbs. In a country where the World Health Organisation has estimated more than 250,000 annual road traffic deaths, air evacuations from both clogged Chinese city streets and remote rural areas could speed medical care and save lives.

The change proposed by China's State Council is set to ultimately raise the ceiling on airspace for general aviation to 3,000 metres from 1,000 metres. That would radically multiply both the heights and the routes air ambulances could use, a boon for pioneers like Qian Siwei's China Air Medical Service Ltd.

"Emergency air medical services have a great growth potential in China because our target customer is the general public, not just the privileged," Qian, a gynaecologist by training, told Reuters. While the going rate for a helicopter evacuation is around 30,000 yuan ($4,565) per hour, companies like Qian's offer discount schemes that can cut costs by as much as 50 percent in some cases.

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Based in the province of western Shaanxi, China Air Medical has a fleet of four helicopters and two business jets, operating with the backing of local authorities. Qian claimed his service has proved so popular that three other provinces have invited Chen Air Medical Service to set up similar operations.

China Air Medical is just one of a raft of operators across a broader aviation sector that Beijing is seeking to develop into a thriving home-grown industry. State-owned aircraft maker AVIC, which also supplies helicopters, is another.

But the liberalisation is also enticing Western firms like Airbus and U.S. aircraft maker Textron Inc, keen to target what they see as a major growth opportunity.

HELIPADS 'COMPLICATED'

For Airbus executive Ducrot, the arithmetic is simple. He expects to sell 60 helicopters to China this year - for prices he declined to disclose - and for the country to buy up to 300 helicopters annually by 2025 as its economic growth still outpaces developed markets and liberalisation kicks in.

"By 2025, China will become the most important helicopter market in the world," said Ducrot.

While some local authorities are enthusiastic, as in Qian's case, and some modern hospitals may be able to accommodate helipads, China's healthcare sector is already creaking and ageing hospital infrastructure may act as a brake on air ambulance growth.

At the Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital in the city of Chengdu, southwestern China, engineer Liu Xiaoxi, said that when the facility was under construction in the 1980s, a helipad was considered, but rejected as being "too complicated".

"It's difficult to add things on to the building, especially as tall towers have sprung up on all four sides," said Liu. While some hospitals would be able to add them, he said, "If you want to add a helipad on top of a building then you have to design that in early on in terms of the various beams and supports."

Still Beijing is ploughing ahead with reforms, despite uncertainty on issues like healthcare infrastructure, helipad construction and how Beijing will regulate a low-level civil aviation business.

GROWTH WARNING

China could have 2,000 general aviation airports by 2030 if the country opens the sector up to private investment, says Francis Chao, publisher of monthly publication China Civil Aviation Report and a contractor with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration on U.S.-China aviation exchanges.

That compares with a projection by China's State Council of 500 airports by 2020.

But Chao warned growth could be restricted "without further relaxation on flight permits, availability of chartering and fuel supply, more and accessible airfield and flight services".

Apart from emergency medical services, companies like Airbus and Textron unit Bell Helicopters - which declined to comment for this story - are targeting sales in the rapidly growing domestic tourism market, fire-fighting and police services, and by companies that need to patrol pipelines and power lines.

For example, Airbus agreed to set up a final assembly line in China for its H135 helicopters last October, though it has yet to announce a location for the new facility. It's also investing in support services like sales offices, maintenance hubs and a training center for pilots - the latter being in short supply across the country. (reut.rs/1Uns7SG) ($1 = 6.5722 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Reporting by Siva Govindasamy in SINGAPORE and Fang Yan in BEIJING; Additional reporting by SHANGHAI newsroom; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)
(Adds comment from Morneau)

By Andrea Hopkins

TORONTO, June 8 (Reuters) - Canadian Finance Minister Bill Morneau said on Wednesday that the country's expensive housing market is a "very real issue" and the government was "looking at all evidence" as it considers whether it needs to move again to tighten mortgage regulations.

Noting that the Vancouver market was "very strong" and the Toronto market was "strong ... where there are some dynamics that are moving pretty fast," Morneau said the government was considering its options to keep the housing sector healthy.

"If you're in Vancouver today, it is challenging for people to think about how they can get into the market and how their children can get into the market. So it is a very real issue for Canadians," Morneau said at an economic conference in Toronto hosted by The Economist.

The Liberal government, elected in October, moved quickly to raise the minimum down payment on more expensive homes in a bid to cool parts of the housing market. The change, announced in December, took effect in February and there are some signs those markets have peaked.

Asked whether he was worried about the market, which some have said is a property bubble, Morneau said: "It's important to pay attention," and joked that he would parse his words very carefully as he answered the question.

"We are doing a deep dive on this. So we are looking very carefully at the dynamics of the market," he said.

Noting the stronger labor markets and stronger population growth in Toronto and Vancouver, which make up nearly 60 percent of the nation's housing market, Morneau also hinted the government was looking at foreign ownership rules.

"So there are underlying dynamics that are impacting us, and as we get at the challenge around whether there is foreign ownership issues, we need to consider the evidence, so we are looking at all the evidence we have... (to) do what we can to ensure this market stays healthy," he said.

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Vancouver's market, in particular, has been driven higher in part due to Chinese investment, sparking some backlash against foreign buyers in the city.

Morneau later told reporters that the government wanted to fully understand the market before making any more macroprudential changes, and said changes would be announced only once when the government was ready to announce them.

(Additional reporting by David Ljunggrenin Ottawa; Editing by Alan Crosby)
By Ethan Lou TORONTO (Reuters) - Operators of Toronto's unlicensed marijuana stores said on Tuesday they would defy Canada's drug laws and continue their sales despite a police crackdown two weeks ago that targeted nearly half of the city's roughly 100 stores. Representatives from industry associations and at least 35 medical marijuana stores met to discuss how to keep selling as Canada moves toward legalizing the drug's recreational use. Medical marijuana is legal in Canada, though selling directly to the public is not. Currently, only a few federally approved producers are allowed to sell medical marijuana - and only through the mail. Still, hundreds of shops have popped up across the country since the Liberals came to power last year on a pledge of recreational legalization. The government said in April that it will introduce legalization laws in spring 2017. Vancouver has also started cracking down on its marijuana stores, but those efforts were met by mostly indignant pot purveyors adamant on remaining open. Critics say such outlets operate without oversight and quality control, and their prevalence in cities may expose minors to marijuana. At Tuesday's meeting, which was held at a marijuana-smoking lounge and attended by about 50 people, operators whose stores were raided told the audience what to expect. A lawyer spoke about how retailers can best deal with police. Some unlicensed stores have been accused of selling to people without proper prescriptions. Some, such as the Cannabis Culture franchise in Toronto and Vancouver, sell openly to recreational users. The federal government, which sets laws on both recreational and medical marijuana, has given little direction to municipalities on how to deal with either. Cities have used different regulatory and enforcement methods. A recommendation asking police to proceed with "enforcement of all laws relating to marijuana-related retail businesses" in certain parts of the city was on the agenda at Toronto's City Hall on Tuesday before the meeting was postponed. Toronto's municipal government and police could not be immediately reached for comment. (Reporting by Ethan Lou in Toronto; Editing by Alan Crosby)
By Alastair Sharp TORONTO (Reuters) - Green talk is in the air in Canada these days, but investors are waiting for the public policy dust to settle and risk-reward metrics to improve before committing big money to what are still largely considered boom-or-bust companies. Ontario's government released a climate change action plan on Wednesday that it hopes will help cut pollution and encourage green industry, partly funded by a cap-and-trade scheme that puts a price on greenhouse gas emissions. And Toronto is this week hosting conferences on responsible investing, sustainable business, and innovation, with the latter including an address from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Trudeau has promised Canada would do more to curb its emissions, and must work with the country's provinces to execute a plan that will make energy extraction a more expensive undertaking. While the money he has committed to help fund the transition to a low-carbon economy are expected to turn into projects later this summer, money managers aren't investing yet. "This is an industry that is still in its infancy," said Philip Petursson, chief investment strategist at Manulife Investments. Those working in clean technology stress the opportunities available and the urgency to adopt them. "Canada is perfectly positioned... with great understanding of resources and energy," said Annette Verschuren, a former head of Home Depot Canada who runs energy storage company NRStor Inc. But the inevitable and massive industrial pivot required for world leaders to hit the targets agreed to in last year's Paris climate talks will take time. "I have no doubt that in five years carbon pricing will be prevalent in the Western world," said Mike Pedersen, who heads U.S. banking operations at Toronto-Dominion Bank . Pedersen said TD has lent billions of dollars on green projects. Globally, companies have combined revenues of $2.9 trillion from selling green goods and products, according to London Stock Exchange Group-owned FTSE Russell. The company this week launched a data model that measures the money being made adapting to, mitigating or remediating the impact of climate change, resource depletion or environmental erosion. "What has been missing is a way to identify the growth, the pace, the scale and number of companies that are invested in green products and services to help enable this shift to a low carbon economy," said Tony Campos, who heads the company's environmental, social and governance operations for the Americas. Such detailed classification of green exposure should help investors improve their risk models and therefore improve their decision-making when considering green investments, Campos said. (Reporting by Alastair Sharp; Editing by Robert MacMillan and Alan Crosby)
Cap-Bucky-Feature

Marvel

Captain America is a 75-year-old comic book owned by Disney about a 98-year-old super soldier who was recently dead and might currently be a fascist. If that sounds like a busy schedule for a nonagenarian, then consider his third movie, Captain America: Civil War, which was released on May 16, 2016 and is already the highest-grossing film of the year, while also sporting a 90 percent rating over at Rotten Tomatoes.

Lets acknowledge the fact that Captain America was conceived as a propaganda piece for a war that ended more than 75 years ago, but has managed to stay more relevant than most contemporary fictional characters. He recently kicked off two hashtags on Twitter which snowballed into bigger and broader conversations across the internet: #Saynotohydracap and #Givecapaboyfriend.

The first refers to the controversial twist ending of Caps new monthly comic, Steve Rogers: Captain America, where Steve throws his partner (Jack Flagg) out of a plane and greets a kidnapped scientist on board with, Hail Hydra, the secret salute shared between members of Marvels villainous agency, Hydra. It is unknown whether the backlash against the cliffhanger was organic or manufactured by the Disney marketing machine, but it got people talking about the meaning and representation of Captain America and his role in pop culture  a role many feel is behind the times.

#Givecapaboyfriend was started by a fan named Jess Salerno on May 10. She felt that Cap needed to be more inclusive to queer fans and an American icon in a same sex relationship would fold queer representation into popular consciousness. As she explained in her own words to Metro U.K.:

It sucks that people in the LGBT community dont get the representation that they deserve and it would be so amazing for something like Captain America or Marvel to be able to portray that. And maybe just let people know that its okay to be who you are.

After all, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a multi-billion dollar franchise about a disparate group of people uniting to save the world, but their concept of diversity is specifically hetero-normative men and women. Its fair to say Marvels Cinematic Universe is indeed lacking in queer representation, which isnt a fair representation of the source material.

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Arnie-Roth

Marvel Comics

What most people dont know about the comic books is that Captain America had a longstanding, albeit platonic, relationship with an openly gay friend since the early 1980s. The friendship was revealed during writer J.M. DeMatteiss run on the title. When the Reagan administration was publicly ridiculing the gay plague, Captain America was busy connecting with his childhood friend, protector, big brother figure, and one of Marvels first openly gay characters  Arnie Roth.

steve-arnie-origin

Via marvel comics

Steve and Arnie grew up together in Brooklyn, with Arnie being the bigger and stronger of the two and often protected the scrawny Steve from neighborhood bullies. The Roth family became a second home to Steve while his single mother worked to support him. The two were inseparable, and essentially brothers.

cap270-2

As time marched on, Steves mother died, and World War II started, and the young men drifted apart. Arnie joined the Navy and Steve undertook the experiment which would turn him into Captain America. When the two meet again in issue #270, Arnie admits hed always suspected Captain America was Steve. Arnie also concedes that running into Steve and Bernie on the street was no accident. He sought out Steve because he needed some super-powered help. Arnie had gotten in trouble over some gambling debt and his boyfriend of 10 years, Michael, had been kidnapped by the mob and threatening to kill him if Arnie didnt pay up.

Of course Captain America helps Arnie out, but while en route to rescue Michael, Arnie admits he was being blackmailed into leading Cap into a trap but just couldnt sell him out. Steve forgives Arnie and jumps headfirst into the trap to rescue Michael anyway. Cap and Arnie save the day, but Michael winds up in the hospital. Meanwhile, Arnie becomes a regular character in Captain America.



arniesavesmike

Via marvel comics

Arnie turns out to be just the friend Steve needs. He is someone from the same era; they share the same values and worldview. Arnie is also Steves only tie to his old life. He is someone he has a bond with  a connection from before he was Cap. This connection helps him deal with being a man out of time.

Arnie-Cap

Via Marvel Comics

It is also that connection which makes Arnie vulnerable. Being openly gay, Jewish, and one of Steves true friends makes Arnie the perfect target for Baron Zemo, a former Nazi, and his partner, the sadistic Mother Night. They kidnap him and Michael (again), this time leading to Michaels death all before undertaking a bizarre plot which involves haunting Arnies dreams, terrorizing him at his home and eventually abducting and mind-controlling him. This leaves Cap to hunt him down yet again.

zemo

Via marvel comics

Eventually, Cap tracks the real Arnie down to a Cabaret club, where a brainwashed Arnie is forced to give a disgusting song and dance for Cap. In the song, he denigrates himself for being gay and wonders if the reason Cap actually likes him is because Cap is, as he says, one of us.

Arnie-296

Via marvel comics

Cap destroys the brainwashing device as Arnie wrestles himself free of Zemos spell. This moment, which was supposed to break both Steve and Arnie, instead ends with Cap giving a speech about the power and beauty of Arnies love for Michael.

captain-america-speech

Via marvel comics

The story and character of Arnie Roth appeared more than 30 years ago, yet there is still no contemporary representation of queer characters in the Captain America comics or movies. The drought is noticeable in 2016, especially when youre dealing with a company who has recently prided itself on its progressive characters. The lack of representation might be why a subsection of fandom known as shippers have been demanding a relationship between Cap and Bucky in the movies and why a hashtag like #givecapaboyfriend was trending at all. When fans dont see themselves or their peers properly represented in the media they love, they make their own via slash fiction or become shippers who demand seemingly obvious story lines.

Cap and Bucky getting together in the films could make more sense. In the comics, Bucky was a plucky kid who idolized Captain America before becoming his partner and eventually dying on a mission with him. The age difference was stressed, with Bucky being known as Caps teenage sidekick. That aspect of his character was integral to their father-son relationship. A sexual relationship between the two in the books might be a tough sell even though Bucky is now Caps age (thanks to the wonders of Cryo sleep) because there are still the politics of power, authority, and grooming in their early relationship to think about.

Meanwhile, the movie versions of Cap and Bucky dont have that problem. The cinematic Bucky swaps out him as a teenage sidekick and instead replaces it wholesale with the origin of Arnie Roth. In the movies, Bucky is Steves childhood best friend, the bigger, stronger of the two who protects him from bullies and whose family is a second home to Steve  exactly like Arnie. This isnt just speculation either as the creator of Arnie Roth confirmed it on Twitter:

And Arnie's back story was used for Bucky in the Cap movies. https://t.co/PHnCiagm3F  J.M. DeMatteis (@JMDeMatteis) May 24, 2016



Part of what Bucky and Cap shippers have said for years is that a romantic relationship in the films has been hinted at since the beginning. They offer up moments and lines of dialogue from the movie that could be interpreted to represent a romantic subtext. This is usually the kind of fan speculation people balk at, but now we know that the origin of the cinematic Bucky borrows from a character who was gay, possibly showed feelings for Cap, and questioned him about his own sexuality. It doesnt seem out of the question to imagine maybe the shippers were actually picking up on a subtext that was meant to be there all along.

tumblr_inline_o85w8p7kxF1qgp297_500

Marvel Films

Officially, Chris Evans stated he plays the character as heterosexual and with unresolved feelings for Peggy Carter. With this in mind, all of Caps actions seem reasonable, especially the ones where he refuses to ask out women who are clearly into him or the fact that he only kissed Black Widow as a tactical maneuver. Both are considered evidence by shippers as proof of his romantic feelings for Bucky.

Also, Steves a man out of time. He dissatisfied with being a fish out of water in our era since Nicky Fury defrosted him. With Peggy gone, Bucky is his only link to the world he knows. Not to mention that Caps history of healthy, platonic bromances with everyone from Falcon to Demolition Man and Jack Monroe. Part of what Cap does is act as a father figure to a lot of down and out men and women on the fringes. We actually see a bit of this in Civil War when in mid-fight he tells Spider-Man he has heart and asks where hes from. Turning any one of those relationships into a sexual one might be as inappropriate as Wolverine hooking up with Jubilee or Kitty Pryde (once theyre legal.) Still, the idea of a boyfriend in general isnt any more unreasonable than the rest of Caps life.

Steve Rogers became Captain America through a mixture of Vita-Rays and a dose of Dr. Erskines Super Soldier Serum. Since then, hes punched out Hitler, been a werewolf, traveled into space, died and been reborn, regressed into childhood and aged into the body of a powerless 95-year-old man. Stasis, crisis, resolution, month after month, for 75 years. The only constant in Steves life is life-altering change. Coming out of the closet or discovering his feelings for the first time would be right up there with the kind of drastic changes he has dealt with for 75 years.

While it doesnt look like Marvel intends to portray Captain America as queer now or in the foreseeable future, that isnt to say we should dismiss that it could ever happen. Joe and Anthony Russo, the directors of Winter Soldier, Civil War and the upcoming Infinity War, are on record saying the chances of a LGBQT character in the Marvel cinematic universe are strong. That most likely will not be Captain America, even with more of Marvels audience demanding Cap upgrade his red, white, and blue with some more rainbow hues. But the future is wide open to experimentation and growth. As the Arnie Roth character highlighted, Cap has always embodied progressive, inclusive values, not just those currently tolerated or politically safe.
Ankara (AFP) - Five people including a pregnant policewoman were killed in a car bombing Wednesday in Kurdish majority southeastern Turkey, a day after a deadly attack hit Istanbul.

Both bombings targeted Turkish police and have been blamed on Kurdish rebels waging a decades-long insurgency against the state.

A massive plume of black smoke rose from the rubble of the police station after Wednesday's attack in the town of Midyat near the Syrian border.

A spokesman for the Turkish presidency, Ibrahim Kalin, said it was too early to attribute blame but Prime Minister Binali Yildirim blamed the "killer PKK", referring to the outlawed rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party.

"We will fight them both in urban centres and rural areas with determination," he said.

The Anatolia news agency said dead included two police officers, including a pregnant woman. At least 51 people were injured.

The car -- loaded with half a tonne of explosives -- drove at the Midyat police station and blew up when police opened fire to stop it, the private Dogan news agency reported.

Turkey remains on high alert after multiple attacks on its soil that have killed well over 200 people in the past year and have been blamed on, or claimed by, Kurdish rebels and Islamic State (IS) jihadists.

On Tuesday, a car bombing in the heart of Istanbul killed 11 people, including six police officers and five civilians, the latest in a spate of attacks in Turkey's largest city.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pointed the finger at Kurdish militants for that attack.

"Thousands of heroes" were ready to "defend their people and their country with their lives" against "terrorists", he said in Ankara on Wednesday.

- 'Damn terror' -

Yildirim, along with former president Abdullah Gul and opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu attended the funeral Wednesday of the slain Istanbul police officers.

Their coffins were draped with red and white Turkish flags as mourners shouted: "Damn terror" and "Martyrs never die and the homeland will never be divided."

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A group of mourners staged a protest against Kilicdaroglu, who heads the secular Republican People's Party (CHP), tearing up a wreath he had laid for the victims.

"You are a killer!" they shouted.

Kilicdaroglu has been accused in some quarters of failing to give enough support to the government's Kurdish policy.

The CHP leader lashed out at what he termed a couple of "provocateurs" after the prayers and said one of them hurled a bullet at him before being detained by a plainclothes officer.

Yildirim visited the scene of Tuesday's attack in Istanbul's Beyazit district and spoke with shopkeepers. European Union member states' consuls laid flowers at the site.

Turkey has been on edge for months after a string of deadly attacks by Islamic State jihadists and Kurdish militants.

A radical splinter group of the PKK, the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), claimed responsibility for two bombings in Ankara earlier this year that killed dozens of people.

- 'Cleansing' operation -

Violence flared again last year between Kurdish rebels and government forces, shattering a 2013 ceasefire reached after secret talks between PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan and the Turkish state.

Turkey has been waging an intense offensive against the PKK, deploying tanks in several towns in the southeast in recent months to "cleanse" them of rebel elements.

Activists have accused the security forces of causing huge destruction and killing civilians.

But the government says the operations are essential for public safety, blaming the PKK -- listed as a terror group by Ankara and its Western allies -- for the damage.

Erdogan late Tuesday signed into law a reform lifting immunity for lawmakers, in a move critics believe is aimed at evicting pro-Kurdish MPs from parliament.

His government sees the Peoples' Democracy Party (HDP) as a political front for the PKK.

Over 40,000 people have been killed since the PKK took up arms in 1984 demanding an independent state for Kurds. Since then the group has narrowed its demands to greater autonomy and cultural rights.

NATO-member Turkey is also a member of the US-led coalition fighting the IS group, which controls large swathes of territory in neighbouring Syria and Iraq.

Ankara blames the jihadists for two suicide blasts in Istanbul this year, in which a total of 15 tourists were killed.
MADRID (Reuters) - Catalonia's secession drive suffered a big blow on Wednesday when one party backing the Spanish region's pro-independence government rejected the annual budget bill, a move that could prompt a confidence vote in September. The anti-capitalist CUP, which backed a coalition government of separatist parties in January, said the budget had been dictated by Spain's central administration and did not include enough spending on social and pro-independence issues. After the budget bill failed, the head of Catalonia's regional government Carles Puigdemont said he would call a confidence vote in September to test whether his administration still had the CUP's support. "We don't have a budget and we don't have a parliamentary majority," Puigdemont told Catalan lawmakers. Although parties seeking independence won local elections in September, separatist fervor in the wealthy region has dulled since 2012 when, at the height of Spain's recession, rallies drew about a million people onto the streets of Barcelona. A tentative economic recovery in Spain has started to chip away at one of the highest unemployment rates amongst developed nations and Catalan businessmen have warned that political uncertainty in the region could put off investors. The budget bill's failure highlights the frailty of Catalonia's separatist administration at a time when Spain itself has been without a government for six months after a December election that failed to deliver a clear mandate. If the coalition breaks down and CUP votes against the government in September, new regional elections would be called. The future of Catalonia was a major sticking point for national parties in failed talks to form a coalition administration after December's elections. Whether to allow Catalans a referendum on independence is a key policy difference between new leftist party Podemos, which supports a vote, and the more established Socialists, who don't. (Reporting by Sonya Dowsett; Editing by Julien Toyer and Catherine Evans)
Barcelona (AFP) - The pro-independence coalition ruling Spain's Catalonia broke down Wednesday after its most radical component refused to back the government budget, forcing the regional president to call a parliamentary vote of no confidence.

The development deals a blow to the coalition's planned 18-month roadmap for independence from Spain by 2017, which it announced after winning a parliamentary majority in regional elections last September.

Catalonia has so far done little to implement the plan, which calls for the regional government to create basic laws, a tax system and state structure for the wealthy, industrialised northeastern region whose capital Barcelona is a major tourist draw.

Further complicating the project, the far-left, anti-capitalist CUP party that makes up the coalition turned against it Wednesday, refusing to back the government budget for 2016 and joining other non-independence opposition parties in voting against examining it in parliament.

"We can't continue in these conditions, we're going nowhere with such volatile bases," Catalonia's pro-independence president Carles Puigdemont said after the vote.

"My government has lost the necessary majority to be able to work and accomplish our government plan," he added, announcing that he would submit himself to a vote of no-confidence in September.

Opposition parties will most likely vote against him, and if the CUP also decides to reject Puigdemont, the no-confidence motion will go through, which will mean negotiating a new regional government or calling fresh elections -- the fourth since 2010.

CUP lawmaker Joan Garriga said the road to independence from Spain had not been blocked with his party's rejection of a budget it believes maintains austerity in the heavily-indebted region.

But the Catalan government will now be forced to extend the 2015 budget, giving it a limited margin for manoeuvre, particularly where its independence plan is concerned.

Support for independence has soared in recent years in Catalonia -- a region of 7.5 million people with its own language -- but it does not have the backing of a strong majority.

Pro-independence parties including the CUP won a majority in the 135-seat regional Catalan parliament in September but their share of the vote was 48 percent, giving their opponents a powerful argument against secession.
Prague (AFP) - Four eastern EU states on Wednesday said they needed Britain to stay in the bloc, two weeks before the landmark UK referendum on membership.

Poland's Prime Minister Beata Szydlo, speaking at a meeting in Prague with Czech, Hungarian and Slovak counterparts, said that London played a very important role in the EU and "we need Britain there."

Szydlo, whose Law and Justice party is eurosceptic, warned that "it won't be possible to create a good platform for cooperation with Britain outside the EU."

Ahead of the June 23 vote, an average of the last six domestic opinion polls published by the WhatUKThinks website puts the "Remain" camp slightly ahead at 51 percent and the "Leave" campaign at 49 percent.

Slovakia's Premier Robert Fico, whose country will take over the rotating six-month EU presidency on July 1, said Brexit will be an issue regardless of the referendum outcome.

If Britain stays the EU would be "in for a difficult period of implementing its (reform) deal" with London, he said.

Fico also noted that there is no blueprint in the EU treaties for the departure of a member state.

The premiers of the four so-called Visegrad group countries also said in a joint statement it would be easier for the EU to tackle its "many difficult challenges" with Britain as a member.

Some 800,000 Poles and hundreds of thousands of Czech, Slovaks and Hungarians have migrated to Britain seeking jobs and a better life since the EU's eastward expansion in 2004.
N'DJAMENA (Reuters) - Chad has sent 2,000 troops to Niger to prepare a counterattack against Boko Haram after the militant group seized a Nigerien town, two senior military sources said on Wednesday. The sources, one at Chadian military command in N'Djamena and another in the Lake Chad region where Boko Haram operates, told Reuters the troops arrived on Tuesday and were advancing on Bosso, a town near Lake Chad that has been the scene of clashes in recent days. Boko Haram killed 30 soldiers and forced 50,000 people to flee when it took Bosso on Friday, its deadliest raid in Niger in over a year. "About 2,000 soldiers with tanks went into Niger yesterday. They should link up with the Nigerien forces in Diffa and advance on Bosso," said one of the Chadian military sources. A security source in Niger confirmed that about 2,000 troops were heading to Bosso on Wednesday. Clashes have continued in Bosso in recent days. Niger troops briefly regained control of Bosso on Saturday, according to the defense ministry, but the militants retook it on Sunday, Bosso Mayor Mamadou Bako said. Boko Haram has been trying to establish an Islamic state adhering to strict Sharia, Islamic law, in northeast Nigeria since 2009. About 2.1 million people have been displaced and thousands killed during the insurgency. Chad's intervention comes after Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou flew to Chad for talks with President Idriss Deby on Tuesday. Chad and Niger started joint army operations against the militants early last year. Chad's involvement in combating the insurgency, which affects the whole Lake Chad region where Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad meet, was decisive in taking back control of territory controlled by Boko Haram. The Chadian military was also instrumental in defeating al-Qaeda's west African wing in Mali two years ago. (Reporting by Madjiasra Nako, writing by Edward McAllister; Editing by Tim Cocks and Janet Lawrence)
N'Djamena (AFP) - The first of an expected 2,000 troops from regional military powerhouse Chad began arriving in neighbouring Niger Wednesday, where Boko Haram insurgents inflicted heavy losses in the town of Bosso last week, a local security source said.

Chad is a leading member of a multi-national force fighting the Nigeria-based Islamist fighters who have extended their attacks to neighbouring countries from their base in northern Nigeria.

"The first Chadian soldiers have already arrived in Bosso on board around 30 heavily-armed all-terrain vehicles," the source said.

A Chadian military source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the troops will "search everywhere for Boko Haram".

The planned offensive comes after Boko Haram on Friday attacked a military post in Bosso in Niger's Diffa region, killing 26 soldiers including two from neighbouring Nigeria, in one of its deadliest attacks in Niger that sent tens of thousands fleeing.

A total of 55 insurgents were killed in the fighting and "many" injured, according to Niger authorities.

On Tuesday, witnesses near Bosso said Boko Haram remained in control of the town though the Niger government had said the previous day that "Bosso was totally under control."

In the regional capital, Diffa, some 140 kilometres (87 miles) to the west, teacher Ari Issa said he had seen many fighter planes.

Local radio Anfani said "military planes are coming and going between Lake Chad and Diffa airport".

There was no immediate confirmation from the Chadian army.

Last year, Chad dispatched soldiers to Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon to fight Boko Haram. The multi-national force includes the four countries.

- '50,000 displaced' -

Some 50,000 people have fled the Bosso area, UN refugee agency (UNHCR) spokesman Adrian Edwards said Tuesday.

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.

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The UNHCR said most of those fleeing the violence in Bosso had walked to Toumour, some 30 kilometres to the west.

In Abidjan on Wednesday, the medical charity Doctors Without Borders called for urgent help for those displaced in Bosso, saying they were short of water and food as well as medicine.

A local journalist working with Radio Anfani told AFP earlier this week that on Tuesday he was sheltering in Toumour with no food, along with many others who had fled the violence.

"The Boko Haram gunmen stayed in Bosso from 6:30 pm (1730 GMT) on Friday to 3:00 am on Saturday, burning the military barracks, police facilities and local administration office before looting shops and carting away food supplies," he said.

He said the gunmen used heavy artillery which allowed them to overrun the town's garrison.

"They came in large numbers shouting 'Allahu Akbar' (God is greatest)," he said.
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Not only has Chewbacca Mom's viral fame lasted for a long three weeks and racked up over $400,000 in gifts, but she is now charging for autographs.

After her initial Facebook Live video, she has received swag from Kohl's, trips to New York, California and Disney World, as well as college scholarships for her whole family. Money estimates the net value of it all to be a whopping $420,000.

SEE ALSO: Chewbacca woman reaches new level of joy when her kids get masks, too

According to TMZ, the viral star, whose real name is Candace Payne, charged $20 for autographs and photos at Dallas' Fan Expo on Sunday. Her booth was next to Game of Thrones star Jack Gleeson's.

Reportedly, Payne is donating a portion of the proceeds to a Christian ministry initiative - Oaks Fellowship "All-In."

Even though some have posited that Payne is undeserving of her array of rewards, it's hard to be mad at her when you're laughing your way through her original video.

[H/T: The Frisky]
Former Stanford student Brock Turner who was sentenced to six months in county jail for the sexual assault of an unconscious and intoxicated woman is shown in this Santa Clara County Sheriff's booking photo taken January 18, 2015, and received June 7, 2016. Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department/Handout via REUTERS

Multiple venues have canceled indie band The Good English's shows as a result of the letter that its drummer, Leslie Rasmussen, wrote in support of the ex-Stanford swimmer convicted of sexual assault, The Gothamist reported.

Since high school, Rasmussen has been a close friend of 20-year-old Brock Turner, who was found guilty of three felony counts for sexually assaulting an unconscious and intoxicated woman in January 2015. Last Thursday, a judge sentenced Turner to six months in a county jail, which some have decried as a slap on the wrist.

Prior to sentencing, Rasmussen wrote a character statement to Judge Aaron Persky defending Turner and partially blaming an insistence on political correctness for his conviction.

"I don't think it's fair to base the fate of the next ten + years of his life on the decision of a girl who doesn't remember anything but the amount she drank to press charges against him," she wrote. "These are idiot boys and girls having too much to drink and not being aware of their surroundings and having clouded judgment."

The letter drew ire from many who feel her words perpetuate rape culture. Now, four Brooklyn, New York, venues  including one hosting the anticipated Northside Festival  set to host the band this weekend have canceled its shows.

Two of the venues explicitly made public statements about rape culture, according to The Gothamist.

Since facing the public scrutiny, Rasmussen has issued a statement clarifying her words and insisting they had been misconstrued.

"I understand that this appeal has now provided an opportunity for people to misconstrue my ideas into a distortion that suggests I sympathize with sex offenses and those who commit them or that I blame the victim involved," the statement reads. "Nothing could be farther from the truth, and I apologize for anything my statement has done to suggest that I dont feel enormous sympathy for the victim and her suffering."

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Here's Rasmussen's original letter, in full:

06 turner letter.w529.h793





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SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Chilean cabinet chief and Interior Minister Jorge Burgos resigned on Wednesday, the government said, after a series of policy disputes with other government officials and as the popularity of President Michelle Bachelet plumbs all-time lows. Burgos, a member of the Christian Democrat (DC) party, part of Bachelet's New Majority governing alliance, had butted heads with fellow ministers over labor policy reforms and the government's crime-fighting agenda. The government said Burgos presented his resignation due to "personal reasons" and has replaced him in the post with fellow Christian Democrat Mario Fernandez Baeza, who had up until now served as ambassador to Uruguay. The government issued its statement confirming the resignation originally revealed by congressman Matias Walker, who also serves as vice president of the Christian Democrats. "It took us by surprise and we regret it very much," Walker told reporters. Bachelet's popularity dropped to 24 percent in May from 29 percent the previous month, returning to last year's all-time low, according to a survey by pollster Gfk Adimark. She is about midway through a term that began in March 2014 and has seen her previously high approval ratings weakened by financial scandals and anger over a stagnant economy. (Reporting by Antonio De la Jara and Felipe Iturrieta; Writing by Hugh Bronstein & Anthony Esposito; Editing by David Gregorio)
SINGAPORE  If you wanted a taste of rising tensions between the United States and China, the stern rebuke delivered this weekend by Adm. Sun Jianguo, deputy chief of general staff of the ruling Chinese Communist Partys military  the Peoples Liberation Army  was a good place to start.

Dressed in a spotless white uniform, his voice often rising sharply as he spoke, Sun delivered a tough-worded set of remarks on the final day of the Shangri-La Dialogue, a major Asia-focused security summit hosted each year in Singapore. The meat of his comments focused on a much-watched forthcoming ruling  from an otherwise obscure international court based in The Hague, known as the Permanent Court of Arbitration  concerning his nations expanding military claims in the South China Sea.

On the one hand, we have noticed that some countries apply international laws only when it is convenient. On the other hand, they support allies confronting China, Sun told a hall packed with defense ministers, military figures, and other security analysts. The United States was guilty of militarizing the region, he added. China firmly opposes such behavior. We do not make trouble, but we have no fear of trouble.

The subject of Suns ire was no accident. In as soon as the next few weeks, the Netherlands-based tribunal will rule on a case brought against China by the Philippines, one of four nations  alongside Brunei, Malaysia, and Vietnam  waging a kind of proxy conflict with their larger neighbor over maritime claims in nearby waters. The details are complex, but relate to the legality of Chinas so-called nine-dash line, by which Beijing claims the majority of the South China Sea as its own, and which the Philippines disputes. The ruling is widely viewed as a major test case for the ability of the United States and its allies to defend what they describe as rules-based order in the Asia-Pacific.

Most observers expect China to lose the case, filed by the Philippines in 2013. Whatever the outcome, however, Sun this weekend said Beijing would not recognize or honor the ruling, reiterating previous Chinese arguments that the court has no jurisdiction.

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Behind the spat, however, lie broader worries about an escalation of stress around the South China Sea, against a backdrop of what many in the region view as Chinas increasingly aggressive moves to construct military facilities on small islands, whose ownership is often disputed with neighbors. This in turn leaves the United States in a bind, and one that provides a taste of the dilemmas it is now likely to face more frequently in Chinas own backyard.

On the one hand, if there are no real consequences for Chinas decision to ignore an international ruling, it makes Western talk of a rules-based order seem hollow and undermines the U.S. pivot to Asia undertaken since 2011. On the other, if Washington tries to find ways to punish Beijing for noncompliance  for instance, by increasing its military presence in the region, or, more improbably, by trying to economically sanction China  it risks inflaming regional tensions, alienating allies, and allowing China to paint it as an aggressor.

So far, the United States has mostly taken the latter approach, but there are signs that Washingtons patience is wearing thin. In his remarks on the opening day of Shangri-La on June 4, U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter described the forthcoming ruling as an opportunity for China to sign up to a principled regional order. If it did not, however, he said China risked alienating its neighbors by erecting a Great Wall of self-isolation.

As Suns remarks the next day made clear, the question now is what happens when China does indeed ignore the ruling. One possible answer is not much, beyond perfunctory statements of condemnation from the Philippines, the United States, and its closest allies. Washington is likely to try and cajole the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), an important regional body, to make a joint statement along the same lines  although few analysts believe ASEAN will be able to do so, largely because so many of its members fear annoying China.

Instead, the real risk may be that China feels the need to prove that it will not be constrained by the ruling, pushing it to escalate its maritime activities.

One scenario posed to Carter during this weekends conference by Bonnie Glaser, a longtime China-watcher at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, was that China could expand its island-building activity to include Scarborough Shoal, a disputed reef claimed variously by China, Taiwan, and the Philippines, and which lies roughly 125 miles from a U.S. naval base in the Philippines. Any action of that sort would be provocative and destabilizing, and for China, self-isolating, Carter replied. It would come with consequences too, he added  although without hinting at what these might be.

In private, most U.S. allies in the region want a tougher stance, and have supported Washingtons recent turn toward shows of strength, which have involved sailing ships close to structures built on islands claimed by China. But these allies are often unwilling to forcefully say so in public  and, fearing Chinese repercussions, are certainly not willing to risk military operations of their own.

All this raises alarm about a feeble response to the Philippines ruling. Nothing really suggests the United States is contemplating anything more substantial than they are already doing, said Peter Jennings, a delegate at Shangri-La and executive director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute think tank. The cupboard is somewhat bare when it comes to the U.S. thinking on what it can do to stop further construction or militarization.

Hopes that rising tensions between the two nations might be defused also look unlikely. Adam Ward of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the U.K.-based think tank that hosts the Shangri-La gathering, notes that both Washington and Beijing are backing themselves into corners by basing their positions on unbending principles. China says its claim rests on inviolable national sovereignty. The United States points to the fundamental right of freedom of navigation for itself and its allies, or, as Carter put it, the ability to fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows.

Such things make compromise difficult, a fact that the state of domestic politics in both countries hardly helps. The administration of Chinese President Xi Jinping has struck an increasingly nationalistic tone of late, making accommodation with regional rivals tricky. Meanwhile, whatever the result of this years U.S. presidential election, heightened tensions are likely: Donald Trump has promised a de facto trade war with China, while most analysts nonetheless expect Hillary Clinton to take a harder line with Beijing than Barack Obama.

The Philippines ruling therefore marks the latest in what are likely to be increasingly frequent skirmishes, leading to more strained relations between the worlds two largest military powers. Those who fear trouble between the United States and China, unlike Sun, probably wont have long to wait.

Image Credit: ROSLAN RAHMAN/AFP/Getty Images
By Idrees Ali and Ben Blanchard WASHINGTON/BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese fighter jet carried out an "unsafe" intercept of a U.S. spy plane on routine patrol on Tuesday in international airspace over the East China Sea, the U.S. Pacific Command said, as China again demanded an end to U.S. surveillance flights. The intercept involved two Chinese J-10 fighter planes and a U.S. Air Force RC-135 reconnaissance plane, U.S. Pacific Command said in a statement. "One of the intercepting Chinese jets had an unsafe excessive rate of closure on the RC-135 aircraft. Initial assessment is that this seems to be a case of improper airmanship, as no other provocative or unsafe maneuvers occurred," Pacific Command said. It did not say how close the Chinese fighter came to the U.S. plane. "The Department of Defense is addressing the issue with China in appropriate diplomatic and military channels," the statement said. China's Defense Ministry said it had noted the report and was looking into it. "Judging by the report, the U.S. side is again deliberately hyping up the issue of the close surveillance of China by U.S. military aircraft," it told Reuters in a statement. "Chinese military pilots consistently carry out operations in accordance with the law and the rules, and are professional and responsible," it added, without elaborating. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said such patrols seriously harmed China's security, and repeated a demand they stop. "China has the right to take defensive measures," he told a daily news briefing, without identifying the site of the intercept. Asked if the incident had been timed to coincide with high-level China-U.S. talks in Beijing, attended by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Hong responded, "Ask the Americans." In May, the Pentagon said two Chinese fighter jets flew within 50 feet (15 meters) of a U.S. EP-3 aircraft over the South China Sea. The Pentagon determined that the May incident violated an agreement the two governments signed last year. Earlier this week, Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States would consider any Chinese establishment of an air defense zone over the South China Sea to be a "provocative and destabilizing act." U.S. officials have expressed concern that an international court ruling expected in coming weeks on a case brought by the Philippines against China over its South China Sea claims could prompt Beijing to declare an air defense identification zone, or ADIZ, as it did over the East China Sea in 2013. China has claimed most of the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in trade is shipped every year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims. Washington has accused Beijing of militarizing the South China Sea after creating artificial islands. Beijing, in turn, has criticized increased U.S. naval patrols and exercises in Asia. At a conference in Singapore last week, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said the U.S. approach to the Asia-Pacific remained "one of commitment, strength and inclusion," but he warned China against provocative behavior in the South China Sea. (Editing by David Gregorio and Clarence Fernandez)
BEIJING (Reuters) - China said on Wednesday it hopes India, which suspects China of dumping cheap steel products, will be prudent in any use of trade subsidies.

An online Commerce Ministry statement said trade protection measures were an obstacle to global trade and would not solve the problem of the global steel surplus.

India is investigating the possible dumping of cheap steel products into the country by six nations, including China. Previously, it imposed a floor price in an effort to curb purchases of cheap foreign steel.

(Reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Nick Macfie)
China's imports decreased at their slowest pace in more than a year-and-a-half in May, official data showed Wednesday, in a possible sign domestic demand in the world's second-largest economy may be recovering.

The country is a key driver of world growth and its demand for commodities has enormous implications for resource-rich nations from Australia to Nigeria.

China's imports have been shrinking since late 2014 as the country's once blistering expansion lost steam, slowed down by manufacturing overcapacity, a slowing property market and mounting debt.

But the year-on-year drop of 0.4 percent in May imports marked the slowest rate of decline since October 2014, when they grew 4.6 percent, customs data showed.

The results were also well ahead of the Bloomberg News median forecast of a 6.8 percent decrease based on a poll of economists.

"Recovering commodity prices and relatively resilient domestic demand are driving a recovery in import growth," Julian Evans-Pritchard, an analyst with research firm Capital Economics, said in a note.

The value for May imports stood at $131.1 billion, according to the Chinese customs office.

The improvement in imports is likely to last for the remainder of this year and "return to positive territory before long" partly because "the continued feed-through from earlier policy easing helps to prop up domestic demand", said Evans-Pritchard.

However, exports fell 4.1 percent last month from a year ago to $181.1 billion, following a 1.8 percent decline in April and leaving a trade surplus of just under $50 billion, the figures showed.

The key export sector has shown year-on-year declines for eight of the past 10 months as the country's economic growth has fallen to its slowest level in a quarter of a century.

- Supply glut -

Steel and aluminium exports continued to rise by volume in May, as the international community takes Beijing to task over concerns that it is flooding the market with the commodities.

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China's steel exports increased 20 percent last year to 112 million tonnes, a record high, and in May rose 2.4 percent year-on-year to 9.4 million tonnes, official data showed.

China shipped 420,000 tonnes of aluminium last month, up 2.4 percent on year, according to the customs.

The increases come as countries around the world blame China for a supply glut that has left industry in Europe and elsewhere in turmoil.

As part of its promised reforms, the government has listed reducing overcapacity and excess inventory and cutting down borrowing as top priorities, with the country's ailing steel industry a key target.

But foreign governments say they have seen little movement towards implementing its promises to tackle the problem.

The issue was a major sticking point at a key annual meeting between the US and China this week, where American treasury secretary Jack Lew said Chinese steel and aluminium production has had a "distorting and damaging effect on global markets", an accusation angrily denied by his Chinese counterpart.

Washington has punished Beijing with harsh tariffs, most recently in March, when it slapped a 300 percent rate on the cold rolled steel used to make auto parts.

The EU, the second-biggest steel producer, has launched a dumping probe into Chinese steel, with angry manufacturers urging it to mirror the US's tough tariffs.
Chinese prosecutors have charged 74 people in connection with a series of grisly murders aimed at extorting compensation from coal mining firms, state media said Wednesday.

The workers are accused of a killing spree that left 17 dead in six regions across the country, the Global Times said, with the deaths made to look like work accidents.

The slaughter was all part of a complicated con by participants who posed as the victims' family, and then offered mine-owners their silence in exchange for a big pay day, the paper said.

"Once paid, they would quietly move on... since they knew how easy it was to con and extort money out of coal mine owners, they would kill again and again," the paper reported.

The newspaper cited lawyers as saying that such murders have been common in China's vast mining sector in the past decade.

The country is the world's largest producer of coal and hundreds die each year in accident-prone mines, though the number of deaths has fallen in recent years.

"There have been loads of cases like this in Chinese coal mines dating back 20 years," Sun Yong, a lawyer from Beijing's Shouxin Law Firm told the Global Times.

"Most of these people haven't been caught and their crimes are still hidden," he added.

Sun said the number of such scams rose after 2011, when an amended regulation almost doubled compensation for worker deaths.

"With the compensation now reaching 600,000 yuan ($91,290), people... take greater risks to extort money," Sun said.

The alleged murders are eerily similar to those depicted in the 2003 Chinese film "Blind Shaft", about two con artists who pose as relatives of mine workers they murder for compensation money.

The film won the Silver Bear award at the Berlin International Film Festival.

The workers were indicted in Bayannur, part of the North China's Inner Mongolia region, it said. They will stand trial, the paper said.

Last year three miners were sentenced to death for brutally murdering their co-workers using stones, hammers and shovels, among other tools, before extracting compensation money, state-media said.
BEIJING (Reuters) - A glacier that is one of the largest at the source of China's Yangtze River is fast retreating because of climate change, state media said. The Jianggudiru Glacier on Geladaindong Mountain in a remote part of the western province of Qinghai has shrunk 34 meters (38 yards) over the past six years, Pu Jianchen, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told the Xinhua news agency. The glacier started to shrink slowly in the 1970s, then expanded between 1989 and 1994 before retreating more quickly from 1995, Pu said, Xinhua reported late on Tuesday. Yang Xin, president of the Green River Environmental Protection Association, told Xinhua the glacier retreated two meters a year in the 1980s and 1990s but about six meters a year over the past several years. "This is direct evidence of global climate change," he said. Pu said the Yangtze would get more water in the short term as that glacier and others melt, but eventually no more water would flow from them. China, the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitter, has promised to bring greenhouse gas emissions to a peak by "around 2030" as part of its commitments to a global pact to combat global warming, signed in Paris last year. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Robert Birsel)
BEIJING (Reuters) - China said on Wednesday the Philippines has ignored a proposal for a regular talks mechanism over maritime issues, as it repeated that its door was always open to bilateral talks with Manila on the South China Sea. China claims most of the waters, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims, as well as close military ties with the United States. The Philippines has brought a case at an international tribunal in The Hague contesting China's claims, a case rejected by China which wants to solve the issue bilaterally. In a statement released in both Chinese and English, China's Foreign Ministry said the two countries had agreed in 1995 to settle disputes in the South China Sea "in a peaceful and friendly manner through consultations on the basis of equity and mutual respect". China and the Philippines have held many rounds of talks on the proper management of maritime disputes, though have had no negotiations designed to settle the actual disputes in the South China Sea, the ministry said. "China has on a number of occasions proposed with the Philippines the establishment of a China-Philippines regular consultation mechanism on maritime issues; however, to date, there has never been any response from the Philippine side." The Philippines Foreign Ministry declined to comment. A ministry official familiar with the arbitration case said that as Manila is expecting the tribunal to hand down a ruling this month it would rather remain quiet until then. A former Philippine foreign minister and a U.S. security expert said on Tuesday Philippine President-elect Rodrigo Duterte should not hold unconditional bilateral talks with China to try to resolve their South China Sea dispute. Duterte has said he would not go to war against China and may hold bilateral talks. China's ministry repeated that it would not accept any dispute settlement being imposed on it, but the door of China-Philippines bilateral negotiations was always open. "China urges the Philippines to immediately cease its wrongful conduct of pushing forward the arbitral proceedings, and return to the right path of settling the relevant disputes in the South China Sea through bilateral negotiation with China," it said. The Philippines is contesting China's claim to an area shown on its maps as a nine-dash line stretching deep into the maritime heart of Southeast Asia, covering hundreds of disputed islands and reefs. China told the United States on Tuesday it should play a constructive role in safeguarding peace in the South China Sea, as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called for talks and a peaceful resolution. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Additional reporting by Manuel Mogato in Manila; Editing by Robert Birsel and Michael Perry)
Beijing accused Washington of "hype" on Wednesday after the US said two Chinese jets conducted an unsafe intercept of one of its spy planes over the East China Sea.

The spat came soon after the world's two largest economies concluded an annual dialogue overshadowed by disagreements over maritime issues.

US Pacific Command spokesman Commander David Benham said two Chinese J-10 fighter jets flew close to an American RC-135 reconnaissance plane that was on a routine patrol.

The Pentagon downplayed the encounter and blamed it on shoddy piloting.

"One of the intercepting Chinese jets had an unsafe excessive rate of closure on the RC-135 aircraft," Benham said, without specifying exactly where the incident occurred.

"The US once again is deliberately hyping this issue," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a regular briefing on Wednesday.

"The relevant Chinese military personnel have always acted professionally and in accordance with law."

He also called on the US to stop carrying out "close surveillance activity against China...to prevent similar incidents from happening again".

The East China Sea is part of the Pacific and home to small islands whose ownership is disputed by China, Japan and Taiwan.

China also claims a string of islets across the South China Sea and its military expansion in the contested waterway has sparked heightened tensions with regional neighbours and the United States.

Pentagon chief Ashton Carter attended a security summit in Singapore over the weekend, promising unspecified "actions" if China continued its buildup.

Last month the Pentagon said two Chinese jets conducted an "unsafe" intercept of a US reconnaissance plane over the South China Sea.

Still, PACOM head Admiral Harry Harris told reporters in Singapore on Saturday that such incidents were rare.

Tuesday's reported intercept came as US Secretary of State John Kerry urged China to settle its territorial rows peacefully and based on the "rule of law" on a visit to Beijing.

Beijing will not budge on its claims of ownership over a vast tranche of the South China Sea, a top official insisted Tuesday, as a key two-day annual meeting ended in the Chinese capital.
BEIJING (Reuters) - A sensitive border region in China's violence-prone far western region of Xinjiang has begun asking applicants for travel documents to provide DNA samples, fingerprints and voice prints, rules released just ahead of the holy fasting month of Ramadan. Ramadan, which began this week, is a sensitive time in Xinjiang, where deadly attacks in recent years blamed by Beijing on Islamist militants have left hundreds dead. People who live in Ili, on the border of Kazakhstan, will need to provide the additional identification when applying for passports and separate documents issued for travel to the Chinese territories of Hong Kong and Macao as well as the self-ruled island of Taiwan, the official Ili Daily said last week. The rules are effective from June 1. The story was picked up by Hong Kong-based media this week. Authorities in Xinjiang in the past have stepped up controls around this time, including on the practice of Islam followed by the Uighur ethnic minority during Ramadan, a people who call Xinjiang home. China said last week there was no religious discrimination in the far-western region of Xinjiang and there would be no interference in the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, despite criticism from rights groups. The Ili Daily newspaper did not give a direct reason for the new rules, but said two simplifications to the application process last year there had been a massive increase in applicants. Calls to the government in Ili seeking comment went unanswered. Ili's prefectural capital Gulja, also known in Chinese as Yining, was the site of deadly ethnic riots in 1997 in which at least 10 died. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Michael Perry)
* French alarmed by blue chip champions leaving Paris

* France seeks Chinese capital, but not always control

* Investment spree comes before EU decision on China status

By Paul Taylor

PARIS, June 8 (Reuters) - When reports hit the headlines in France that a state-owned Chinese firm might be taking creeping control of AccorHotels, a national champion and Europe's biggest hotel chain, President Francois Hollande felt obliged to respond.

"Accor has Chinese shareholders because it is growing in Asia," Hollande told La Voix du Nord newspaper. "But I am watching closely to make sure that the capital of this big company remains in diverse hands."

The comment signalled a desire for Chinese authorities to restrain tourism group Jin Jiang, majority owned by the city of Shanghai, from going beyond its current 15 percent holding to acquire a controlling stake in AccorHotels.

AccorHotels, which controls 3,900 hotels from the luxury Sofitel brand to the budget Ibis, is not a strategic national asset by any French legal definition but it is a household name.

Jin Jiang may have stumbled into the firing line of French establishment alarm over a spate of departures of other blue-chip companies to foreign capitalist shores.

"Today, foreign investor groups are interested in France because of our companies' strong performance. But we have to be careful not to lose the decision-making centres," Hollande said.

Media and politicians have raised the alarm after several stalwarts of the CAC40 index came under foreign flags, in some cases for what look like tax reasons.

They include engineering corporation Alstom, swallowed by U.S. giant General Electric last year; telecoms equipment maker Alcatel, taken over by Nokia of Finland; cement manufacturer Lafarge, which merged with Swiss group Holcim and moved headquarters to Zurich; and oil services company Technip, which is merging with FMC Technologies of the United States and moving to London.

"There is an understandable sense of panic," said economist Elie Cohen, director of research at the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). "We have seen an accelerating haemorrhage of big French corporations in the last two years."

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INVESTMENT VS CONTROL

Like Germany, France has generally welcomed Chinese investment as a boost to its economy and an opportunity to expand into fast growing Asian markets, but it remains more reluctant to cede control, especially over advanced technology.

German Vice-Chancellor and Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel voiced concern last week at a bid by China's Midea Group Co Ltd to take over German industrial robot maker Kuka though the Berlin government has denied reports that it is trying to organise a rival offer.

Jean-Francois Dufour, an analyst at Montsalvy Consulting in Paris specialised in Chinese industrial investment, said Beijing had often complied quietly in the past when foreign governments signalled its companies were not welcome in certain sectors.

"The Chinese government is at least indirectly involved because even private groups need finance from state-owned banks to fund foreign acquisitions," he told Reuters.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has taken a hands-off approach to foreign takeovers of German firms and this year alone, ChemChina agreed to buy machinery maker KraussMaffei for $1 billion; Beijing Enterprise Holdings announced a 1.44 billion euro takeover of German waste management company Energy from Waste; and Fujian Grand Chip Investment Fund LP said it was buying German semiconductor equipment maker Aixtron for 670 million euros.

French officials complain that Beijing does not permit reciprocity in investment. Foreign firms wishing to enter the Chinese market have to partner with Chinese companies and cannot hold more than a 50-percent stake.

The European Union Chamber of Commerce in China said in a survey this week foreign companies face "a business environment that is increasingly hostile combined with a playing field that is perpetually tilted in favour of domestic enterprises".

Debate in Europe on the issue is gaining momentum before a politically sensitive decision by the EU this year on whether to grant China market-economy status, which would give it better protection from anti-dumping lawsuits.

HOUR OF NEED

The French have been eager to seek Chinese capital in their hour of need, or when the state needs cash.

"France accepts Chinese investments when its companies are in trouble, but when it comes to talking about control, that raises opposition," Dufour said.

In late 2013, when PSA Peugeot Citroen was close to bankruptcy, the head of the state shareholdings agency was sent to cajole Chinese state-owned carmaker Dongfeng into paying 800 million euros ($909 million) for a 14 percent stake in the auto manufacturer, balanced by a matching French government stake. Then chairman Thierry Peugeot was not told in advance about the trip and was annoyed.

With Peugeot's finances now back in good health and the government looking to sell off some less strategic holdings, new Chief Executive Carlos Tavares has sounded the clearest note of caution about a possible state withdrawal from Peugeot -- which could shift the power balance in Dongfeng's favour.

In other sectors, Paris has rolled out the red carpet for the Chinese, notably in the travel and tourism sector, keen to strengthen France's place as the third biggest recipient of Chinese investment after Germany and Britain.

A Chinese-led consortium bought a 49.99 percent stake in Toulouse airport last year when the government privatised the regional hub, home of European planemaker Airbus.

France raised no objections when diversified Chinese group Fosun took control of Club Mediterannee, the standard bearer of French middle-class holiday culture, last year after a bidding war with an Italian suitor.

"We on the board went out looking for a Chinese partner ... because we anticipated that China would become the world's biggest tourism market and it wouldn't have made sense to go it alone," Club Med CEO Henri Giscard d'Estaing told Reuters.

The Chinese have also been buying up agricultural assets from milk-producing farms in Brittany to big-name vineyards in Bordeaux and Burgundy without official opposition.

"In the past two years, France has actually been quite open and non-interventionist for Chinese investment," said Francois Godement, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations think-tank. "Up to now, there hasn't been any red light for taking stakes in big French companies in either real estate or tourism."

Godement said Beijing appeared to be pursuing an official strategy of building up holdings in entire value chains such as tourism, to ensure that part of the income from Chinese tourists abroad accrues back to China.

But there was also a trend, not encouraged by the Communist authorities, of state-owned enterprises that have some private shareholders buying stakes in foreign companies and real estate in an apparent effort to move assets abroad.

($1 = 0.8800 euros) (Additional reporting by Laurence Foster, Tim Hepher, Yann Le Guernigou and Dominique Vidalon in Paris, Barbara Lewis and Foo Yun Chee in Brussels and Noah Barkin in Berlin, Writing by Paul Taylor, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
There are many reasons for which I would have loved to date a guy with a former Spice Girl as a mother. First of all, I loved the Spice Girls. Their songs and dance moves stirred me to my core. Second of all, he would have had four other equally cool Spice Aunts.

Third of all, he would totally appreciate empowered women. And Chloe Grace Moretz just confirmed it. After leaving the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles following a Hillary Clinton fundraiser, Moretz told Access Hollywood that her boyfriend, Brooklyn Beckham, 17, fully supports her work with Hillary Clinton. One of the main reasons? His cool mum, Victoria Beckham, a.k.a. Posh Spice.

I think hes used to powerful women in his life. I mean his mum is a very powerful woman, she said. I think he admires kind of what I stand for and hes always like, Go do your political thing, Chloe! So it's good.

Posh Spice knows how to raise 'em.

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LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. bank Citi told its UK staff that it could look to spread its British business across the European Union if the UK voted to leave the bloc, in what would be a blow to London's financial district. Campaigners seeking to win a vote for Britain to remain in the EU in a June 23 vote have said the country's role as a global financial hub could be under threat if it gives up its membership, resulting in job losses. Citi, which employs 9,000 people Britain, said in a memo to UK staff on Wednesday it was reviewing the situation ahead of the referendum and that a leave vote would likely have implications for its business. "To continue to serve our clients and maintain efficient access to those markets currently enabled through the EU passporting regime, we would likely need to rebalance our operations across the EU," wrote Citi's UK Country Officer James Bardrick. Citi declined to comment on the memo which was first reported by Sky News. The Citi comments echo those from U.S. bank JPMorgan Chase earlier in June when CEO Jamie Dimon told British staff a decision to leave the European Union could mean "fewer" jobs with the bank there and more jobs in Europe. (Reporting by Freya Berry, writing by Sarah Young, editing by David Evans)
Washington (AFP) - The United States underestimates the long-term impact of civilian deaths on its military missions and is failing to implement lessons learned from 15 grueling years in Afghanistan, a report released Wednesday found.

While the US military frequently stresses it does all it can to prevent civilian casualties, the report said poorly planned air strikes, misidentified targets, unexploded ordinance and rogue partner troops have too often led to non-combatant deaths in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and elsewhere.

The study by Open Society Foundations, a charity created by US magnate and philanthropist George Soros, found that in Afghanistan, such deaths seriously undermined the mission and fueled the growth of the Taliban.

A US-led coalition invaded the country at the end of 2001 and war still rages between Taliban and other insurgent groups and US-backed Afghan national forces.

Speaking at a Washington discussion with the study's authors, Michele Flournoy, a former under secretary of defense for policy, said the United States is quick to commit to new military engagements without stopping to digest the costly knowledge it has just acquired.

"After more than 15 years of war, there is still far too little reflection on what the lessons we should be learning from these experiences are, particularly at the strategic level," said Flournoy, who is widely tipped for consideration as the next Pentagon chief if the Democrats win the presidential election.

In Afghanistan, feuding locals have frequently duped US forces into attacking rivals and those fights often ended up with civilian dead, further fueling anti-US resentment.

"Civilian harm accelerated the insurgency and undermined the US and Afghan governments," said Army combat veteran Christopher Kolenda, a study co-author.

"It was like burning a candle at both ends with a blowtorch."

The report describes several causes of civilian casualties, and is particularly critical of unplanned air strikes to support troops on the ground as being a "primary driver" of civilian harm.

Story continues

In Afghanistan in 2008, for instance, air strikes accounted for 64 percent of the 828 non-combatant deaths blamed on pro-government forces.

- US backs 'predatory partners' -

The Pentagon is still reeling from the fallout of last year's inadvertent strike on a hospital in the Afghan city of Kunduz, in which 42 people were killed.

In Syria and Iraq, where a US-led coalition has been bombing Islamic State targets since August 2014, the US military has publicly acknowledged killing 41 civilians, even though it has conducted nearly 13,000 strikes.

Study co-author Rachel Reid said the number was a massive underestimate.

"The US really does not know the scale and impact of the civilian harm that it is currently causing in Iraq and Syria," she said.

Additionally, the report blasts "predatory partners" the United States worked with in Afghanistan who could "operate with near impunity due to their close and highly visible relationship to the US military."

Amnesty International in January said US-backed Kurdish forces fighting jihadists in Iraq have destroyed thousands of homes in an apparent bid to uproot Arab communities, actions that may constitute war crimes.

Study authors make a slew of recommendations including the implementation of "civilian protection cells" that would monitor civilian harm and communicate with commanders to improve battlefield decision making.

The military should also "respond to civilian harm in ways that avoid premature denials, provide timely and clear communication of the outcomes of investigations and accountability measures to host nations, victims, and the public," the report states.

Lessons learned need to be applied to US military interventions in Iraq and Syria, in Yemen -- where strikes target Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula -- and in Pakistan, where US drones hunt the Taliban.

Still, the report acknowledged some of the difficulties the Pentagon faces as it tries to avoid killing civilians.

"In Yemen, Iraq, Syria, and Pakistan, US forces are confronted with incredibly challenging targeting and operational environments, and have been taking considerable steps to protect civilians," the report states.

But "other parties to the conflict have at times displayed a callous disregard for civilian life, including egregious war crimes in Syria, in particular."
Hillary Clinton's career has been a series of firsts: first student to give a speech at commencement at Wellesley College. First lady. First female senator from New York.

Now, she has claimed an iconic distinction further cemented by Tuesday's multiple primary wins: the first woman to secure a major party's nomination for president.

Addressing a massive, cheering crowd at the Brooklyn Navy Yard on Tuesday night, Clinton looked both energized and relieved, digesting the reality of accomplishing what she had failed to do eight years ago, and what no woman in U.S. history has ever done before.

"Thanks to you, we've reached a milestone," Clinton said, stopping her remarks when screams of joy from the crowd made it impossible for her to be heard.

"Tonight's victory is not about one person. It belongs to generations of women and men who struggled and sacrificed and made this moment possible," she added.

Clinton's victory speech came after her campaign showed a video of people throughout history marching for women's rights, and served as the capstone, live event following more than a century and a half of struggle.

"It's just fabulous. I've been tearing up all day," says Ellen Malcolm, founder of EMILY's List, which seeks to elect female, pro-abortion rights Democrats to office. When the group was created in 1985, "people would ask me when we were going to elect the first female president, and I would just scratch my head. The whole idea was inconceivable," she says.

But after helping to put scores of women in the House, Senate and governor's mansions, Malcolm believes she will see that goal accomplished.

After a grueling and unexpectedly protracted primary battle, Clinton had -- with pledges of support from so-called superdelegates -- racked up the 2,383 delegates necessary to claim the nomination on Monday, The Associated Press reported, citing its own tallies. But four more wins -- in California, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota -- in a six-state series of contests on Tuesday more clearly underscored Clinton's role as presumptive nominee.

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"It's completely historic," says Jennifer Lawless, director of the Women & Politics Institute at American University. And despite the setbacks Clinton has faced and the potential for continued opposition from Sen. Bernie Sanders, "it's important not to underestimate what she's accomplished."

Lawless considers this Clinton moment "the most significant" for women in politics in her own lifetime. "She's cracked one glass ceiling and is on her way to cracking a second," she says.

Clinton now shifts more fully into general election mode, a transition she already started with a blistering foreign policy speech last week in which she slammed presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump as not just crude, but dangerous to American national security.

Meanwhile, she must still deal with the delicate matter of how to handle Sanders, a democratic socialist who won Tuesday's contests in Montana and North Dakota and has mounted a stunningly strong challenge for the nomination. While Sanders was not a fixture in Democratic politics and fundraising -- indeed, he only joined the party when he decided to seek its presidential nomination -- his message against Wall Street and income inequality played well with a party that has been moving to the left.

Clinton had kind words at the Brooklyn Navy Yard for Sanders, whom she credited with conducting a debate that made both the country and the Democratic Party better. She was unabashedly harsh on Trump, calling him "temperamentally unfit to be president" and saying his signature campaign line -- "make America great again" -- is in fact "code for 'let's take America backwards.'"

Savoring the moment, Clinton lamented only that her mother, Dorothy Rodham, was not there to see her mark it. But Clinton, who has spoken often of the influence her mother had on her, said Rodham "taught me never to back down from a bully" -- a clear reference to Trump.

For his part, Sanders has declared an intention to stay in the race until the July convention, on the theory that he could convince enough superdelegates -- party bigwigs and elected officials who don't vote until the actual convention -- to switch their allegiances from Clinton. That appears highly unlikely, especially since Sanders has criticized the very existence of the superdelegates as undemocratic and a tool of the establishment.

Yet on Tuesday in California, he gave a rousing late-night speech in which he thanked his supporters, castigated Trump and pledged to "continue the fight" through next week's Democratic primary in the District of Columbia.

"Thank you all," he told a boisterous crowd of supporters. "The struggle continues."

Still, for the Clinton campaign, Tuesday night was about celebration -- not just for Clinton, but for those who have watched her break barriers for female candidates and women in general.

"This is so historic," says an ebullient Alan Schechter, emeritus professor at Wellesley College and Clinton's senior thesis adviser. "I was thinking -- it took 70 years from the first women's rights convention in 1848 to pass the right to vote [for women] and then 45 more years to pass the first law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of gender. Now, we may be electing the first female president."

"The process has been very long, very slow and complex. It's just so hard to change our culture," adds Schechter, who remains personal friends with Clinton.

Clinton, Schechter recalls, did not want to bring about change in elected office, thinking she would instead advocate for her causes outside that arena. But when New York Democrats asked the then-first lady to run for the Senate, she decided to do so, thinking her voice would have more authority if she were a senator and not just the wife of a former president, Schechter says, remembering a dinner conversation he had with the Clintons at the White House in 1999.

Clinton assiduously avoided making her gender an issue in her unsuccessful 2008 bid for the nomination, instead casting herself as the more experienced contender, someone better able to handle the "3 a.m. call" of a national security emergency. But this year, Clinton spoke more openly about matters such as equal pay, reproductive rights and paid family leave -- issues aimed at female voters.

Her gender is an unavoidable factor in her general election campaign. But because she has such a long history, for better or for worse, in public life -- from "Hillarycare" in the early 1990s to her posts in the Senate and at the State Department -- voters will be evaluating a more nuanced figure, says Michele Swers, an American government professor at Georgetown University and author of "Women in the Club: Gender and Policy Making in the Senate."

"She has a lot of roles in the public mind, from senator to secretary of state. Those roles, and the thoughts you have about the images of the Clintons and where they stand in politics -- maybe that does set the [gender] narrative aside a little bit," Swers says.

There has been a gender gap in presidential elections since 1980, with women tending to vote for the Democrat and men for the Republican. Clinton must still, however, win over the support of millennial women who were backing Sanders.

Malcolm says she can do that.

"I talk to millennial women and they tell me their mothers told them they could be whatever they wanted," Malcolm says. "Until tonight, you couldn't be a nominee for a major party for president. They may not realize it, but my guess is, if and when she's sworn in as president, they're going to feel a little taller."

Susan Milligan is a political and foreign affairs writer and contributed to a biography of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, "Last Lion: The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy." Follow her on Twitter: @MilliganSusan
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By Patrick Graham and Noor Zainab Hussain

LONDON (Reuters) - Peter Cruddas, one of the City of London's most prominent Brexiteers, has much to gain from the imminent vote on Britain's membership of the European Union, no matter the outcome.

While other UK companies are fretting about the impact of the referendum on their business, Cruddas is one of those who could cash in the more turmoil the vote generates.

"From a business point of view we are not concerned about it (the referendum) at all," he said. "We think from a volatility point of view it will generate more business for us."

His spreadbetting firm, CMC Markets, went public this year almost three decades after Cruddas launched it with a 10,000 pound investment. CMC lodged profits on Wednesday of 53.4 million pounds ($78 million) for the full year to March.

Cruddas said he was optimistic, after a sluggish couple of months, of a boost this month to the volatility the company thrives on as one of the biggest of a new generation of online financial gambling portals.

That would come less than a year after Cruddas, a former Treasurer of Britain's ruling Conservative Party donated 1 million pounds to the Leave campaign being led by former London Mayor Boris Johnson and other senior Conservatives.

"I'm not involved with the campaign. I'm working full time in CMC. I've helped them raise money and I definitely don't regret it. I think we'll win, I think we'll Brexit."

Cruddas said the bulk of his London-based workers would be at their desks through the night after the polls close on June 23.

Cruddas and Chief Financial Officer Grant Foley, scarred by lessons from a surge in the Swiss franc last year which left the company in conflict with clients, said they would have up to 40 additional workers in the office compared to normal staffing.

They said that the company, which listed on the London stock market in February with a valuation of 691 million pounds ($1 billion), was on track to achieve its target of 220 million pounds net operating income in the year ended March 2020.

Story continues

Its rivals include IG Group Plc (IGG.L), Denmark's Saxo Bank and FXCM Inc (FXCM.N).

CMC said active client numbers grew 14 percent to 57,329 in the year, while revenue per active client rose 4 percent to 2,828 pounds. The value of client trades rose 445 billion pounds to 2,071 billion pounds.

CMC, whose stock has risen 15 percent since its debut, said it would pay a final dividend of 5.36 pence per share, up from the 3.57 pence it paid last year.

(Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)
colombia cocaine

Cocaine seizures along Colombia's Pacific Coast have spiked so far this year, suggesting criminal groups and traffickers in the country have undertaken a significant shift that could mean trouble for the country in the future.

Authorities intercepted 34 tons of cocaine between January and May this year, 65% more than was seized over the same period last year, according to Colprensa.

Moreover, naval forces in the region seized 15 tons of cocaine during the first five months of this year, more than double the 6.1 they seized during the same period in 2015.

Rear Admiral Pablo Guevara, the commander of Colombia's Pacific naval forces, attributed the increased interdictions to better intelligence and technology, but he did admit that illicit activity in the area had increased, as well.

"There is an increase in illicit cultivation in Putumayo and the Pacific, because aerial spraying is suspended, as is manual eradication," Guervara said.

Colombian authorities have also captured a significant number of narco submarines. According to Colprensa, the Colombian navy reported seizing five submarines, two of which were loaded with more than a ton of cocaine, and the others ready to be put into operation.

According to Mexican newspaper El Universal, Colombian forces have captured seven narco subs through the end of May this year. Two of them left the southwest department of Narino and were caught near the Galapagos Islands.

narco sub

The others were captured in various stages of completion in improvised shipyards.

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On May 20, for the first time in Colombian history, a manned submersible carrying a ton of cocaine was detected and captured near the Sanquianga national park in southwest Colombia.

Authorities confirmed it was heading to Central America, a major transshipment point for Colombian cocaine.

'Those are huge amounts of money'

While better policing may have driven the spike in drug seizures, as Insight Crime notes, it's likely that criminal groups have been more active in the Pacific region  and thus more exposed to police  due to the "balloon effect," or the movement away from areas facing heavy law-enforcement activity.

Chief among those criminal groups is Los Urabenos, one of Colombia's most powerful criminal trafficking groups. In early 2015, Colombian authorities launched Operation Agememnon, which saw 1,200 troops deployed to the group's main operations hub in north-central Colombia.

Los Urabenos have, as a result, shifted some operations to Colombia's southwest, according to Insight Crime. This has brought them into conflict with some of Colombia's other criminal groups, and sets the stage for more violence in the country, even if it concludes a peace deal with FARC rebels in the near future.

Colombia_departments_english

In the central Pacific department of Choco, Los Urabenos have reportedly clashed with both the FARC and the ELN, another Colombian rebel group that has launched violent attacks in different parts of the country.

Clashes in Choco have already led to the displacement of thousands of local residents, adding to Colombia's extensive internal-displacement problem.

In Narino, which is both a major cultivation area and an embarkation point for drug shipments, various criminal groups have clashed with FARC rebels, who control much of the territory.

While the Colombian government and FARC rebels appear to be nearing a peace deal that would take the rebel group out of the drug trade, many suspect that elements within FARC will continue cultivating and trafficking cocaine.

"Right now the FARC the biggest drug-trafficking organization in Colombia," Mike Vigil, the former chief of international operations for the US Drug Enforcement Administration, told Business Insider earlier this year.

"Even if they reach an agreement, most of the FARC members are going to continue with their drug-trafficking activities. That's what they know," Vigil added. "They know ... those are huge amounts of money. My prediction is most of them will go strictly into the drug trade."

Fragmented rebel groups vying with powerful criminal groups for control of drug cultivation and trafficking in western and southern Colombia, as well as in the country's valuable eastern plains, makes it likely that Colombia's longstanding violence will continue.

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Lori Conleys mugshot. (Image via Reynoldsburg Division of Police)



Katie Mulkey left her son with a babysitter and went to workbut her boy was dead by the end of the day. Police say unlicensed caregiver Lori Conley is to blame for giving 8-month-old Haddix Mulkey a drug he never should have taken, ABC News reports.

Authorities say Mulkey dropped off Haddix at Conleys home in Reynoldsburg, Ohio, on May 13, and during the day Conley quieted Haddix with a dose of the allergy medication Benadryl. Conley, who was babysitting eight toddlers and infants, later found him unresponsive and hysterically rushed him outside seeking helpbut responding paramedics couldnt revive him, police tell the Columbus Dispatch. A toxicology report released Friday found that Haddix died from a deadly dose of Benadryl.

Related: Man Realizes Hes Babysitting a Kidnap Victim

Conley told detectives the child was fussy and that she gave him an adult dose of Benadryl to help him sleep, says a police sergeant. Benadryl boxes include the warning, Children under 6: DO NOT USE (as does the online guide), so Conley, 43, was charged with murder and child endangering, WBNS-10TV reports.

Related: Mom Goes Into Hospital to Give Birth, Leaves Without Legs

But Mulkey says the real story is about Haddixthe birthdays hell never have and the steps hell never take.

I will always have a broken heart because a piece of me is gone, she says. We had so many hopes and dreams for him and now its all gone."

Related: Family Credits Womans Actions After Crash for Saving Boys Life

She also says his death should serve as a warning against reckless medicating. "This is a common practice that people think its OK to give your babies medicine  to help them sleep, she explains. This didnt have to happen. (Another mom died in a car crash on the way to give birthbut her baby lived.)

By Neal Colgrass

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This article originally appeared on Newser: Cops: Babysitter Killed Infant With Allergy Medication
By Joseph Ax and David Ingram NEW YORK (Reuters) - The union leader for New York City's prison guards and a hedge fund financier were charged on Wednesday with orchestrating a bribery scheme involving union retirement and operating funds in a case stemming from a wide-ranging federal corruption probe. The Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested Norman Seabrook, the president of the Correction Officers' Benevolent Association, and Murray Huberfeld early on Wednesday. According to a criminal complaint, Seabrook invested $20 million of union money in 2014 in New York-based Platinum Partners in exchange for kickbacks from Huberfeld, who worked at the firm. The men were charged with honest services fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud. The case is the first major prosecution to emerge from several overlapping state and federal corruption probes examining New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's fundraising practices, among other avenues of inquiry. It is also the latest high-profile public corruption case brought by the office of Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan. The investigations have proven to be a distraction for de Blasio, who will be up for re-election in 2017. He has repeatedly said that he and his administration have acted legally. On Wednesday at a public appearance, de Blasio reiterated that he was "absolutely comfortable that we have done things properly. What Norman Seabrook did with his pension fund has nothing to do with how we run our government day to day." In April, Reuters reported that Seabrook had invested union funds in Platinum, a mid-sized firm with a history of buying into controversial businesses. Representatives for Platinum Partners did not respond to a request for comment. Seabrook was released on a $250,000 bond package after an appearance in federal court in Manhattan. Huberfeld was released on a $1 million bond package. "The charges are not strong," Seabrook's defense lawyer Paul Shechtman said during a court hearing. The criminal complaint referred to a "cooperating witness" who has pleaded guilty and is helping the government. According to prosecutors, the witness initially referred Seabrook to Huberfeld and Platinum and helped arrange the bribery scheme. A person familiar with the matter previously told Reuters that Jona Rechnitz, a New York real estate investor, introduced Seabrook to Platinum. Rechnitz's lawyer, Alan Levine, declined to comment on Wednesday. Rechnitz, who has contributed more than $150,000 to efforts supported by the mayor, is at the heart of an ongoing probe into de Blasio's fundraising activities and also police corruption. Investigators have focused on Rechnitz and another businessman, Jeremy Reichberg, and whether they gave police officers gifts and trips in exchange for official favors. Several high-ranking officers have been reassigned or disciplined as a result of the probe. Rechnitz and Reichberg had ties to de Blasio when he ran for mayor in 2013, serving on his inaugural committee. MORE TO COME? The complaint indicated that the cooperating witness was still giving information to government investigators. The witness met Seabrook through a police officer in 2013, according to the complaint. He also knew Huberfeld, who had an office at Platinum, the complaint said. According to the witness, Huberfeld was secretly running Platinum, but his role was not publicly acknowledged because of "a prior lawsuit or investigation relating to a fund Huberfeld previously ran," the complaint said. Platinum founder Mark Nordlicht could not be reached for comment on Wednesday. According to the complaint, the witness, Seabrook, a police officer and others took two trips in 2013 to the Dominican Republic. Seabrook complained to the witness that he worked hard to invest the union's money but made none for himself, the complaint said. He told the witness it was time "Norman Seabrook got paid," according to the complaint. Authorities said the witness helped orchestrate a fraud scheme in which Huberfeld promised to return half of Platinum's 20 percent commission to Seabrook as a kickback. According to the complaint, on Dec. 11, 2014, the witness bought an $820 Salvatore Ferragamo bag, filled it with $60,000 in cash and handed it to Seabrook as the first of what was intended to be several kickbacks. (Additional reporting by Svea Herbst in Boston and Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and James Dalgleish)
Wearables Chart

Wearable devices are becoming more sophisticated and growing in popularity, but could they actually replace smartphones one day? Despite whispers of underwhelming Apple Watch sales, could we all be wearing the smartwatch instead of taking iPhones out of our pockets?

Nearly half of all consumers seem to think so.

In a survey from Ericsson's Wearable Technology and the Internet of Things June 2016 report, 43% of smartphone users said they believe wearables could replace smartphones at some point. And 38% of respondents (which included 5,000 online iPhone and Android phone users in the U.S., U.K., Brazil, China, and South Korea) said they believe wearables could replace most smartphone functions within the next five years.

Consumers primarily use wearables as secondary screens now, but users seem to feel that improvements in these wearables, such as standalone connectivity, will push them to become primary devices.

Wearables are already affecting smartphone users' behavior, as approximately 40% of survey respondents said they spend less time looking at their smartphones because they receive notifications on their wearables.

But consumers by and large are still waiting for the killer app for wearables, and mass adoption likely won't occur until that happens. Approximately 25% of new wearable users say their devices did not meet expectations, according to Ericsson.

And the lack of standalone features is also turning away users, as 21% of respondents who use wearables said they gave up on the devices because of a limited functionality and use, while 23% did so because of lack of built-in connectivity.

Wearable manufacturers and developers are already trying to address these issues. As of June 1, Apple required all new Apple Watch apps to be built using the WatchOS 2 SDK, which supports native apps that can run without a tethered iPhone and leads to faster and more responsive apps.

By requiring developers to make apps specifically for the Apple Watch, the company is urging them to focus on formats and functionality specific to the smartwatch, which should propel the Apple Watch evolution.

Story continues

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Abuja (AFP) - The families of eight people killed by Nigerian security forces hunting Boko Haram insurgents in Abuja have been awarded $200,000 compensation each, the West African bloc ECOWAS said Wednesday.

Eleven people injured in the raid on an uncompleted building in the Nigerian capital on September 20, 2013, were also awarded $150,000 each, it added.

A civil rights group brought the case against the Nigerian government, army and intelligence service to the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice, which ruled on the matter on Tuesday.

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) argued the shooting was a "flagrant abuse of their fundamental human rights to life and dignity" under international law.

Lawyers for Nigeria's government argued that SERAP lacked the legal authority to bring the case and that the security forces acted appropriately to protect the life and property of citizens.

But a panel of three judges disagreed, ruling that while the facts of the shooting were not in dispute, the security forces had a duty to respect the right to life.

The court's decisions are binding on all member states of the Economic Community of West African States, final and not subject to appeal.

Nigeria's main intelligence agency, the Department of State Services, said after the shooting that security agents were searching for a weapons cache in a building under construction.

They claimed they came under fire from Boko Haram insurgents but the US Embassy indicated in a security message the violence involved squatters.

Several witnesses who were injured told AFP later they were unarmed.

Abuja had been attacked before 2013, notably in 2011 when the UN headquarters was hit in a suicide bombing killing at least 25, and newspaper offices and a shopping centre were attacked.

Boko Haram's Islamist insurgency has killed at least 20,000 people since 2009 and left more than 2.6 million others homeless, spreading from northeast Nigeria into neighbouring countries.

The military has regularly been accused of human rights abuses in its response, particularly against civilians and suspected members of the Islamic State group affiliate.
A new ray of hope can be seen in the energy space with the crude barrier for both Brent and WTI breaching the $50 per barrel. This calls for a recap for the space, which earlier only doled out anguish for all players, both major and minor, across the value chain.

Crude prices have witnessed the longest run of monthly advances in seven years, crossing the $50 mark on May 26, 2016, from the below-$30 level in February. The upside is more pronounced for the oilfield services industry, while the exploration and production industry is looking for the sun to shine again over the horizon.



Has the Recovery Come?



With the broader consensus divided on the issue of recovery, the one thing we can safely say is that the space is consistently hitting headlines. On the one hand, we have the race to breach levels higher than both Brent and WTI. On the other hand, the commodity showed signs of a revival after the recent Baker Hughes Inc. BHI report showed a rise in the U.S. oil rig count for the first time in almost three months -- indicating a resurgence in shale drilling activities. Things were however hampered by a dismal May jobs data, underlining weak oil demand. The commodity was already under pressure from the uneventful OPEC summit that again failed to agree on a production freeze.



2016 to Date for Big Oil



Year to date, the big oil players on average have gained approximately 9% of their market capitalization. Of this, the biggest gainer was the domestic energy powerhouse Exxon Mobil Corp. XOM which gained 16.4%, followed closely by the British energy giant, BP plc BP which put on 14.9% of its weight. Apart from these, Royal Dutch Shell plc RDS.A and French major Total S.A. TOT gained more than a tenth of its market perception.



The gradual recovery of the commodity encouraged investors  precipitated by a domestic inventory decline alongside signs of resurgence of demand round the globe. This rekindled both the big integrated oil companies and the more focused oil exploration and production firms. With the price of the commodity showing signs of further improvement, we expect a subtle change in the second-quarterly numbers from the staple weakness since 2014 for oil investors.



The gradually improving price of crude that is creating significant investor wealth brings up a host of contenders craving for credit.



The Real Credit for Crude Recovery Goes to Fed



The foremost among them is the role played by the central bank of the U.S. known as the Federal Reserve, and informally referred to as the Fed. With the broader market abuzz with Yellen pushing back chances of another rate hike we feel the upside for the beleaguered commodity is here to stay. Our bullishness stems form the Feds inaction as avoiding further rate hike would not make the greenbacks dearer at a time when excess domestic supply is breathing heavily on the fortunes of the commodity.



Saudi Also Helping the Crude Rally



If this domestic twist is not acceptable as a good read for our readers, we have an alternative theory related to Saudi Arabia, the prominent member of the apex body of the international cartel of oil producers  OPEC or the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. In the face of a sheer turnaround in crude prices, the Saudi opposition to cutting back production has kept the commoditys steady southward march going. In the short run, this may look detrimental but over the longer time frame this will effectively shed excess production from the space and add stability to crude price.



4 Outperformers



With the help of our Zacks Stock Screener, we have selected four stocks from the space that have more than doubled investor wealth year to date. While these companies may be outperforming, they still hold the potential to make investors stand out with gains in these capricious times. Here are the four stocks:



Bill Barrett Corp. BBG



Headquartered in Denver, CO, Bill Barrett is an independent oil and gas developer in the Denver-Julesburg Basin of Colorado and the Uinta Basin of Utah. Boasting an impressive production profile, improved operating efficiency and financial flexibility, Bill Barrett is in a strong position to successfully navigate the difficult macro environment. The upstream energy operators shares have shot up roughly 112.2% year to date.



Denbury Resources Inc. DNR



Plano, TX-based Denbury Resources is a growing exploration and production (E&P) company engaged in the acquisition, development, operation, and exploration of oil and natural gas properties in the Gulf Coast and Rocky Mountain regions of the U.S. It is the largest oil producer in Mississippi, with properties in Louisiana, Alabama and Southeast Texas as well. As of year-end 2015, the company had approximately 289 million oil-equivalent barrels in proved reserves. The company has seen a 116.8% spike in its share price year to date.



Dawson Geophysical Company DWSN



Midland, TX Dawson Geophysical Company is a leading provider of North America onshore seismic data acquisition services with operations throughout the continental United States and Canada. Dawson acquires and processes 2-D, 3-D and multi-component seismic data solely for its clients, ranging from major oil and gas companies to independent oil and gas operators, as well as providers of multi-client data libraries. The stock has jumped 126.9% year to date.



Southwestern Energy Company SWN



Based in Houston, TX, Southwestern Energy engages in the exploration, development and production of natural gas and crude oil in the United States. The company operates in two segments, E&P and Midstream Services. The company has seen a 113.9% spike in its share price to date.



Will Oil Pull Bourses Too?



The question that crops up at the onset of oil resurgence is whether the bourses would follow crude trends in the time to come. Our bullishness stems from the fact that higher crude prices do point to higher consumption. Add to it, the sharp drop earlier in crude prices since 2014 that brought a host of highly leveraged energy players near the precipice. If this phenomenon starts to reverse these companies would be surefire bets to rake in the mullah for smart investors who know how to benefit from the wisdom of Zacks.

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Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia isn't particularly well known for its wildlife, unless you count kale juice drinking gym junkies as fauna.

That's why this cute little seal appearing on the shores of Bondi Tuesday is a pretty special sight. The city has been at the receiving end of intense weather in the past few days, as wild storms lashed coasts and made excellent conditions for ridiculous surfing competitions.

SEE ALSO: A photo of a fish trapped inside a jellyfish is a strangely beautiful sight

It's perhaps a reason why this adorable thing took some time out from the swell, leaping out of the sea and taking a rest on the beach's steps. Curious onlookers watched on as the seal waddled over to the stairs at the north end of the beach. A video was captured by "Julian" and uploaded to the Macelleria Facebook page.

Another Instagram user, Bj Edwards, also got close  but not too close  to the strange visitor, snapping a few photos for later. "The ocean life is getting way too mainstream, would rather drink coffee and do yoga," one of the captions reads.

The seal didn't stick around for long however, returning back to the sea after its sojourn, according to the photographer.

"[I] was amazed at the discipline everyone showed by keeping distance. I would say it appeared for five or six minutes max and then swam to the rocks and then back into the ocean," Edward told Mashable Australia via Instagram message.

The small crowd that formed also helped the animal from not getting too lost in its short adventure.

"I would say in a bizarre way the eight or so people watching it, helped by blocking its way up to the five meter high boardwalk and nobody blocked its path to the ocean or rocks. Best morning ever," he said.

Thanks for dropping by, little guy.

UPDATE: June 8, 2016, 11:37 a.m. AEST Added comments from BJ Edwards.
And heres what the fixed rate home loan package means for Singaporeans.

Have you ever wondered which jobs are the most in-demand despite this year's economic gloom? Now that were almost halfway through 2016, buzzing words like retrenchment and a slowing economy hanging bitterly in the air, it is difficult for many to remain completely composed. Contrary to what many people think, banking professionals arent immune to business cycle dips and surges. Despite the lacklustre global economic outlook, according to Randstad Singapore, banks are still looking to hire talents to fill up the gaps in a multitude of key areas in the banking world. Read more here.

Frasers Logistics & Industrial Trust intends to raise up to S$900 million in its initial public offering (IPO). If it proceeds as planned, this would be the largest listing in Singapore since 2013, reported Bloomberg. Sponsored by Frasers Centrepoint , the trust will hold a total of 51 properties that were acquired after its backer purchased Australand Property Group in 2014. According to a prospectus submitted to the local stock market on Friday (3 June), the trust will offer shares at 85 to 89 Singapore cents apiece. Find out more here.

Its 2016 and almost everyone in Singapore has a smartphone. So its hard to imagine that there was a time, not so long ago, when a mobile phone without a keypad was considered an impractical concept. Apple changed all that with the iPhone, and since then, an idea that no one thought would work has become the new standard for all mobile phones. Apple has continually led the way in terms of innovation, with everyone else just playing catch-up. Read more here.





More From Singapore Business Review


Daniel Radcliffe in January, 2016 (Associated Press)

If anything has become clear in the five years since Daniel Radcliffe hung up the Hogwarts robe, its that the 26-year-old British actor loves mixing it up (also rapping, but more on that later). Nearly every role he has taken this decade has marked a departure from the iconic role of Harry Potter that made him famous; hes essentially creating his own blueprint for how to escape that owl hole, well aware that its always going to be brought up (see: the first sentence of this story).

For his latest act, Radcliffe plays his first traditional movie villain, an honor he jokingly calls a rite of passage for any British performer. In Now You See Me 2, the razzle-dazzle sequel to the 2013 sleeper hit, Radcliffe plays Walter Mabry, a sketchy tech genius who lures The Four Horsemen (Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, and Lizzie Caplan, stepping in for Isla Fisher) to Asia and forces them to work their magic in another high-stakes heist.

Hell also be seen this summer in Swiss Army Man, which made some noise at this years Sundance (pun intended), where it earned the apt sobriquet The Farting Corpse Movie (Radcliffe is said corpse). The ever-candid Radcliffe talked to Yahoo Movies about becoming the big bad in Now You See Me, how weird fan encounters have actually increased over the years, and more. And even he cant help bringing up Potter (see first answer below).

Now You See Me 2 feels different from anything youve done.

Theyre fun movies. I enjoyed the script and I was like, Yeah, I have not done a film like this. Including Potter; Potter was huge, but it was huge in a different way. This is huge and slick and cool. And also with Jon Chus background, you knew that it was going to be visually just really energetic. So it was something different, definitely.

I feel like youve made an art form of jumping out of whatever box we wanted to put in over the years since Potter, from going nude onstage in Equus, to growing horns in Horns, to playing a corpse in Swiss Army Man. And now this is your first villain. Was that the big draw?

Totally. There was the villain thing, there was also the fact that for a long time Ive wanted to do a supporting role in a big ensemble thing. And I love the cast of this movie so much that I was like, That would be amazing to be a part of that group. Those were the boxes [that I wanted to check]. I had never done those things. And playing the bad guy, I feel that, as a Brit, is a rite of passage. Doing my first British bad guy was great.

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Related: Now You See Me 2 Review: Sequel Conjures Up the Magic of the Original



Was it more fun?

You have less responsibility to the main through-line. Like normally Im playing roles where I have to be the emotional center of the film, and Im sort of the audiences avatar. And Im just not in this at all. So you have no responsibility over those things, which is great I can just try and be petulant and weird.

When you hear British bad guy, its hard not think about send-ups of Bond villains, the mustache-twirlers and whatnot. How do you make sure hes not cartoonish? Especially considering he actually has a mustache.

Right. There were a couple moments originally in the script where I was like, I think were laboring his Englishness a bit too much now. My thing with him was like, OK, hes crazy and hes malicious and hes got all these sort of slightly sly intentions, where is that coming from? How do we play that, how do we make it seem real? So ultimately I came to the conclusion that if Walter is somebody taking himself out of society and faking his own death, the likelihood is that he would be incredibly fking bored. Incredibly bored, and probably really lonely, and just wants friends.

My backstory on it was [that] he was not the cool kid at school. He was the fking dork everyone probably st on him all the time, and he desperately wanted to be one of the cool kids. Hes the kid at school who would pay people to come to his birthday party. And thats essentially what hes doing with The Four Horsemen. He has this lust for power and control and obviously this thing that he wants them to get will increase that. But more than that, I think he just wants them to like him, and wants to be impressive to them, but also wants to be their boss. Hes just a very confused, insecure guy.

Were you influenced by any classic villains? Or any real-life villains?

Not villains, just like a bunch of posh private school boys that I knew at school. They were sort of petulant and angry and had daddy issues. Im drawing on a couple of them.

Whos the best magician in the cast?

The person whos amazing, genuinely, in our film at all that stuff, is Dave Franco. He can fking cut st in half with playing cards.

And Woody has done some actual mentalism.

He definitely has. But Ive seen him fk up as much as Ive seen him be right [laughs]. Whereas Dave is fking on it.

Speaking of talents. I just recently talked to Dave and Jesse at CinemaCon in Las Vegas and asked them if theyd gotten to witness your rapping abilities firsthand. They didnt even know you rapped. Why arent you sharing this talent with people?

Because its a weird thing to just break into on set [laughs]. Thats why I think I was so pleased when Jimmy Fallon gave me an opportunity to do that. I was like, Ill finally get to show people this weird skill I have. But theres a probably a surplus of white people rapping in the world, so we dont need more.

Are we going see you rap again?

Ive got the periodic table down, Ive done that before on another show. I do just love any kind of intricate, weird lyrics. I dont know, hopefully. Maybe theres an Eminem biopic in the future that I could jam my way into.

We lost one of the greats this year when Alan Rickman passed away. How did your experience with him help shape you as an actor?

The thing you realized when you went to Alans memorial was just how nurturing he was of just any younger talented actor. Hed really look out for them and encourage them. At one point he cut short his holiday to come see me in a play, and then took me out for dinner afterwards and talked to me about the play. He was just incredibly good with advice, and listening.

He was very intimidating at first, when you first met him on set. I remember being really scared of him when I was younger. And then you suddenly realize when youre like 13 or 14 that, Oh no, hes not scary, really. Hes just got a really deep and intimidating voice. And hes actually really funny and self-deprecating and vulnerable and all the stuff that you dont expect. And just watching him on set, and his focus, it was amazing. I couldnt have wished for a better villain to work opposite against for years. He was really just extraordinary.

Related: Remembering Alan Rickman: His Most Memorable Roles

What is your take on the fan argument that Snape is truly the hero of Harry Potter?

I think thats absolutely very valid. Thats the one thing about the character, is that heroes can be dislikable. He doesnt like Harry, he never did. But he is absolutely a real hero, and its the sort of bravery you dont see very often because its bravery that doesnt want any credit for being brave. So yeah, I would go along with that.

I know over the tenure of the Potter series you had all sorts of bizarre fan encounters. Have those waned over the years?

Oh, no. If anything theyve gotten more and more. Just because I feel like the people that were kids and were the biggest fans of Potter growing up are now my also my age, so were all walking around now. Theyre not home with their parents anymore. So I meet them a lot more.

Generally speaking, the fan encounters are great. Its just very occasionally There was this woman the other day. I was going into a restaurant and she said, Hey! Daniel! And I turned around and I was still about to go in, and she had her daughter with her and she ripped her hat off her daughters head, revealing her daughters head was bald. And she just went, You cant go in! Get back over here! She has alopecia! And I was just like, Of course, I will come over and meet your daughter. But I was [thinking], You are a disgusting parent for ripping your childs hat off and shouting that on the street.

That is not great parenting.

So sometimes you have moments like that, where being a famous person just brings out the worst in people. But you also have moments, like Im regularly being told how important I was to someones childhood, which is like When I think about the people who meant a lot to me in my childhood, like The Simpsons or whatever, the fact that I might occupy that space with someone else is mind-blowing and lovely still.

It seems like people feel so badly that they need to seize that moment seeing you that they lose all social etiquette.

Sometimes, I think thats what it is, and I get that. But sometimes it doesnt make it any less shocking. I saw a nanny once  admittedly it wasnt her kid, but still its her job  see me and literally do that [motions to let go] with her stroller and that stroller started rolling into the road and my security guy had to grab it, and there was a fking kid in it. Sometimes it gets the better of people.

Youve also got Swiss Army Man coming out soon, which generated a lot of buzz at Sundance. Ive got to ask you the question on everyones mind. Was any of that farting Method?

No. One of Paul Danos is in the film, though. Because our directors [Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert] said to everybody, If you have any farts, you can go over to our sound mixer and he will record them and we will put them in the film and you will get a credit. And I think only two people contributed, and Paul was one of them. I remember we were just doing a scene, we were about to go for a take, and Paul just went, Hold on. He grabbed the boom and he just put it down and farted on it. And then Matt [Hannam], our editor, has one at another moment. Those were the only two real ones.

Related: Daniel Radcliffes 'Swiss Army Man Delivers Smart Art In Between Farts

Are those fart sounds being pumped in live or are they all added in post?

That was all in post. During filming we just had our director making fart noises off camera for me to react to. It was very low-tech.

Now You See Me 2 opens Friday. Watch the trailer:
On June 8, 1789, James Madison addressed the House of Representatives and introduced a proposed Bill of Rights to the Constitution. More than three months later, Congress would finally agree on a final list of Rights to present to the states.

Some of Madisons opening list of amendments didnt make the final cut in September. The House agreed on a version of the Bill of Rights that had 17 amendments, and later, the Senate consolidated the list to 12 amendments. In the end, the states approved 10 of the 12 amendments in December 1791.

One of two amendments rejected by the states was eventually ratified in 1992 as the 27th Amendment; it restricted the ability of Congress to change the pay of a sitting Congress while in session. (The other proposed amendment dealt with the number of representatives in Congress, based on the 1789 population.)

But if Madison had his original way, our Constitution would have a two-part Preamble that includes part of Thomas Jeffersons Declaration of Independence before the current preamble.

On June 8, 1789, Madison told Congress the Preamble needed a pre-Preamble.

First. That there be prefixed to the Constitution a declaration, that all power is originally vested in, and consequently derived from, the people. That Government is instituted and ought to be exercised for the benefit of the people; which consists in the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the right of acquiring and using property, and generally of pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety. That the people have an indubitable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to reform or change their Government, whenever it be found adverse or inadequate to the purposes of its institution.

In essence, Madison wanted to bury arguably the most famous sentence in American history, We the People, in the middle of a combined Preamble.

Roger Sherman of Connecticut was among the first to question the move to downplay We the People.

The truth is better asserted than it can be by any words what so ever. The words We the People in the original Constitution are as copious and expressive as possible, he said. And in time, Congress deleted the entire pre-Preamble as the Bill of Rights went through committees.

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Another item that Madison proposed was making sure at least three of the liberties guaranteed in the Bill of Rights applied to all states. No State shall violate the equal rights of conscience, or the freedom of the press, or the trial by jury in criminal cases, Madison said in the fifth part of his original Bill of Rights proposal. The selective incorporation of parts of the Bill of Rights to the states didnt happen until the early part of the 20th century as the Supreme Court interpreted the 14th Amendment in a series of cases.

Madison also wanted to clearly spell out that each branch of government had clear, distinct roles.

The powers delegated by this Constitution are appropriated to the departments to which they are respectively distributed: so that the Legislative Department shall never exercise the powers vested in the Executive or Judicial, nor the Executive exercise the powers vested in the Legislative or Judicial, nor the Judicial exercise the powers vested in the Legislative or Executive Departments, he said in the last part of his proposed Bill of Rights.

Neither of these items made it through the congressional review process. But Madison felt strongly enough about the separation of powers clause that he wanted it as the new Article VII in the Constitution.

And the second part of the new Article VII did survive in the Bill of Rights. It read, The powers not delegated by this Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively.

Another interesting twist in Madisons proposed Bill of Rights was a different version of what became the Second Amendment.

The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; a well armed and well regulated militia being the best security of a free country: but no person religiously scrupulous of bearing arms shall be compelled to render military service in person, said Madison.

And the final, big difference that Madison wanted was the entire Bill of Rights interwoven within the Constitution, and not appended at the documents end.

That idea didnt pass muster with Congress because there were concerns of an appearance that the Constitution was being rewritten. Madison dropped his support of interweaving the amendments during the House debate about moving his already amended Bill of Rights to the Senate. In the end, many core ideas introduced by Madison in June 1789 made it into the ratified version of the Bill of Rights.

I think we should obtain the confidence of our fellow citizens, in proportion as we fortify the rights of the people against the encroachments of the government, Madison said in his address to Congress in June 1789.

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ABUJA (Reuters) - The Niger Delta Avengers militant group on Wednesday rejected an offer of talks with the government to end its attacks on oil facilities and also said it had blown up a Chevron well in the delta. Attacks by militants on oil and gas pipelines in the southern Delta swamps have brought Nigeria's oil output to a 20-year lows and helped to push oil prices to 2016 highs on Tuesday. [O/R] Nigeria's oil minister had said on Tuesday the government would start talks with the Niger Delta Avengers which has claimed responsibility for a string of attacks in the Delta. The Niger Delta Avengers rejected the offer of talks on its Twitter account. "We're not negotiating with any committee," the group said. "If the Fed (Federal) Govt (Government) is discussing with any group they're doing that on their own." The Avengers said it had blown up a Chevron well called "RMP 20" located next to the Dibbi flow station in the Warri area in the Delta at 0100 a.m. local time. It has previously attacked Chevron, Shell and ENI facilities. "The attack on Chevron's RMP 20 is confirmed," said local community leader Chief Godspower Gbenekema. "The place is on fire." Chevron, citing long-standing policy, declined to comment. While Chevron is the third-largest oil producer in Nigeria, its biggest production streams are offshore, which has mitigated the immediate impact on oil output from the spate of attacks on its infrastructure. A group of former Niger Delta militant leaders issued a statement on Wednesday condemning the actions of the Avengers and urging them and other groups to "re-consider their activities". "We enjoin our brothers to give peace a chance, lay down their arms and accept the offer for a meaningful dialogue," said the Leadership, Peace and Cultural Development Initiative. (Reporting by Ulf Laessing, in Abuja, and Tife Owolabi, in Yenagoa and Anamesere Igboeroteonwu, in Onitsha and Libby George, in London; Writing by Ulf Laessing and Alexis Akwagyiram; Editing by Jane Merriman and William Hardy)
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Denmark's Supreme Court on Wednesday stripped the citizenship from a Danish-Moroccan bookseller jailed for inciting terrorism, upholding the verdict of a lower court and potentially paving the way for his deportation to Morocco. Sam Mansour, now 56, was found guilty of supporting al Qaeda and Syria's al-Nusra Front in posts on Facebook and for his help in publishing books by Abu Qatada, a Jordanian cleric who was deported from Britain for trial at home. He was sentenced to four years in jail in December 2014, but the prosecution sought also to strip him of his citizenship, possible only because he still has Moroccan citizenship. Denmark's high court took the initial decision to strip Mansour of his Danish citizenship last July, in the first case of its kind in the country. He appealed against that ruling, arguing that he would face torture if returned to Morocco. It was not immediately clear after the Supreme Court's ruling on Wednesday whether he would serve out the remainder of his jail term or be deported immediately to Morocco. Mansour's defense lawyer told Danish television his client would appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. "He (Mansour) has a big connection to Denmark due to his long residence in the country, and his children and grandchildren are in the country. And finally, he has been punished for mere statements, not actions," the lawyer said. (Reporting by Nikolaj Skydsgaard; Editing by Gareth Jones)
A judge has thrown out the murder convictions of a Detroit man who pleaded guilty to four slayings when he was 14 years old.

Read: Man Who Spent 34 Years in Prison For Teen's Murder is Freed By DNA Evidence, Says He'll Eat Steak

Davontae Sanford will have his convictions overturned after spending nearly a decade in prison for the 2007 drug den shootings.

Now 23, Sanford will be released on bond until all charges are eventually dropped, per the order of Judge Brian Sullivan at the request of the Wayne County Prosecutor's office.

Sanford and his family have been trying to undo his guilty plea to second-degree murder charges for years. Relatives have claimed he has a developmental disability and was coerced into the confession.

However, a statement from the prosecutor's offe appears to place blame on former Deputy Chief James Tolbert of the Detroit Police.

After the case was reopened in spring of 2015, Tolbert was interviewed as part of the investigation.

In his recorded interview, "Tolbert contradicts his sworn testimony that Davontae Sanford drew the entire diagram of the crime scene, including the location of the victims' bodies, while being questioned by the police," the statement reads.

"Recognizing the importance of that testimony, attorneys from the Wayne County Prosecutors Office worked with Davontae Sanford's attorneys from Dykema Gossett to move to dismiss his case."

A call placed to a number lilsted under Tolbert's name rang unamswered Wednesday.

What prosecutors do not mention is that a professional hit man has reportedly been taking responsibility for the murders since 2008.

Read: Man Spends Nearly 5 Months in Rikers Island Prison, Unaware His Bail Was Just $2

"He's not guilty. He didn't do it," Vincent Smothers told the AP in 2012 from prison, where he's serving over 50 years for other crimes. "I understand what prison life is like; it's miserable. To be here and be innocent: I don't know what it's like."

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Smothers signed an affidavit attesting to his role in the murders, but it has not been acknowledged by prosecutors, CBS reports.

"I have nothing to gain from testifying about my commission of the Runyon murders," Smothers said. "I only want to tell the truth in order to prevent an innocent kid from serving time for crimes that I committed."

Watch: Diane Sawyer Gets Unprecedented Access to 'Hell' - Rikers Island Prison

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32-year-old Apprentice director Boo Junfeng. Photo: Hannah Teoh/Yahoo Singapore

There cannot be many Singaporean filmmakers who have been to the prestigious Cannes Film Festival twice, not to mention getting a standing ovation for his latest movie.



Three years after director Anthony Chen won the prestigious Camera dOr at Cannes with Ilo Ilo, it was Boo Junfengs turn to shine with Apprentice, the story of a correctional officer who befriends a veteran hangman.

Screened at the Festival last month, the film did not garner any awards but the standing ovation was really overwhelming for Boo and lead actors Firdaus Rahman, Mastura Ahmad and Wan Hanafi Su.

Along with K. Rajagopals A Yellow Bird, it was the first time that two Singaporean films had featured at Cannes. People havent seen the film yet, but I suppose the pride associated with having two films (at Cannes) this year, is something I think people have responded to very positively, said Boo, 32.

Filming in Australia





Video by Jeremy Ho

Soft spoken and thoughtful, Boo spoke to Yahoo Singapore on the day that Apprentice was released in France. The movie has also been picked up in countries such as the United Kingdom, Turkey and China.

It took Boo five years to make the movie, following lengthy conversations with former executioners, families of executed prisoners and former religious counselors who took inmates through their final walks. The goal was to listen to their stories and understand what that trauma might have been like from a first-person perspective, said Boo.

Once funding was secured from numerous sources such as the Singapore Film Commission  the film is a co-production involving five countries including Singapore and France  the decision was made to shoot the prison scenes in two disused gaols in Australia.

Boo noted, I wanted the prison space in the film to not just be a physical space. It needed to be a psychological space, for the character to go through what he goes through, as he journeys deeper into the prison, in the way he journeys into himself.

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For me, the most ideal place would have been the old Changi Prison, if it still exists. Currently, the new prisons (in Singapore) are all a bit too clean and a bit too sterile to be really cinematic, in my opinion.

Capital punishment debate

Firdaus Rahman plays a young correctional officer in Apprentice. Photo: Paris Match



Apprentice certainly goes to dark places, with key scenes including a five-minute Steadicam take of a condemned inmates final walk. It addresses the death penalty in Singapore, a controversial subject which human rights organisations like Amnesty International have regularly assailed against.

As such, Boo admitted to being pleasantly surprised by the Media Development Authoritys support for the movie. I cant speak for them, and I cant speak for why we got the funding. But I think, so far at least, the subject matter hasnt been too big of a barrier.

But when asked if his perspective on the death penalty has changed since he wrapped up production, Boo replied with an emphatic No. He elaborated, I dont believe that society has the right to take the life of any person, even if the person had done something terribly wrong. But I always say that thats not what the film is about.

Coincidentally, just three days after Apprentice screened at Cannes, Sarawakian Kho Jabing was executed in Singapore for murder, following a long legal battle. When Yahoo Singapore asked how this made him feel, Boo took a long pause before replying.

I was sad that he had to go. It was quite a surreal week for me, having all that red carpet and the applause and all that, and then realising that Friday, someone was going to be executed. But I think its a discussion that needs to be had for the longer term.

Freedom of expression in Singapore

Boo Junfeng at Cannes. Photo: MDA

Recognition has come at an early age for Boo: he first went to Cannes in 2010 with his debut film Sandcastle, the story of a teenager who is about to enlist for National Service. He has also made numerous short films since, including one released last month that has gone viral.

But what of the climate of artistic expression in Singapore now? Does Boo think that it has become more open, or is it still largely conservative?

I think the space is there, and I think we are seeing film makers, or artists, who continue to push boundaries, continue to create and reflect society, even if sometimes society may not be ready to look at itself in the mirror.

Im not saying all artists should take that role, but sometimes art has a role to play in society in making sure that that soul of society isbeing represented.

Apprentice will be released in Singapore on 30 June.
In a further indication of the pay-TV boom underway in the Middle East and North Africa, a large-scale Discop Dubai TV content market is being launched by Basic Lead, the Los Angeles-based trade show organization that already runs branded Discop marts for the global industry in Africa, Turkey and Eastern Europe.

The inaugural three-day edition of Discop Dubai will run January 29-31, 2017. The market will target countries from the Middle East, North Africa, the Gulf and the Asian subcontinent, including India. Organizers are expecting more than 1,500 attendees to descend upon Dubais Madinat Jumeirah resort, the same venue where the Dubai Film Festival is held.

The Dubai Film Festival, in December, includes what is arguably the only bona-fide film market in the Middle East.

The new Discop Dubai TV market is being launched amid a double- digit increase in pay-TV households in the areas it targets.

According to a report issued last month by London-based firm IHS, the number of pay-TV households in the Middle East and North Africa grew in 2015 by 10% to 4.95 million. This prompted a 37% year-on-year revenue rise from subscriptions to 1.17 billion euros ($ 1.33 billion) last year.

IHS forecasts that pay-TV subscribers in the MENA region will steadily continue to grow in coming years, reaching 6.54 million pay-TV households by 2020, which represents a more than 30% growth margin. During this period revenues are expected to double to more than 2 billion euros.

Thats still a relatively low number considering that, also according to IHS, in 2015 there were 16.6 million pay-TV households in the U.K., by far Europes most mature pay-TV market. Still, the MENA region pay-TV boom is not negligible, and Dubai is playing a significant role in this process.

Dubai is fast becoming one of the televisions industry most important regional hubs, Basic Lead said in a statement, adding that there are more than 135 international, regional and local TV channels presently transmitting from UAE in Arabic, English, Farsi, Hindi, Urdu and other languages.

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Discop Dubai is aiming to attract global and local suppliers of popular television content, public and private broadcasters, advertising agencies, brand managers and airtime buyers, alongside pay-TV, satellite and mobile operators, independent producers, and alternative online distribution platforms, the statement said.

The idea is to combine a classic market concept comprising premiere screenings of new Ramadan shows with international formats and high-end TV series, and presentations from industry innovators and events hosted by the Emirates top media enterprises.

The launch of Discop Dubai is likely to modify the territorial focus of the Discop Istanbul market, which has in past years catered to the MENA region, besides Turkey and Israel.

During the 2015 edition of Discop Istanbul, tensions emerged between Arab and Israeli participants when a panel of Arab judges refused to listen to format pitches from one of Israels top production companies. That may have played a part in Basic Lead deciding to branch out with a separate Dubai Discop.

With viewers watching more TV now than ever before, regional co-productions and the trade in adaptation rights continues to contribute significantly to the rapid increase in international sales, the statement quoted Discop founder Patrick Zuchowicki as saying.

Discop Dubai, as all other Discop markets, will once again accompany that trend and open doors in new marketplaces that are still difficult to reach, he added.

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In a recent interview with CNN Money, Dolly Parton offered her own assessment of North Carolina's anti-LGBTQ "Bathroom Bill."

"I think everybody should be treated with respect," the country music star noted. "I don't judge people, and I try not to get too caught up in the controversy of things. I hope that everybody gets a chance to be who and what they are.

Read More: Maroon 5 Joins Growing Number of Bands Boycotting North Carolina Over Anti-Gay Bill

"I just know if I have to pee, I'm going to pee," she continued. "I don't care where it's going to be."

Parton recently started the Pure & Simple Tour - her biggest tour in years - which touched down Friday in Greensboro, N.C. Later this year, she plans to release a new album.

Watch Parton share her thoughts on North Carolina's legislation below.

This article originally appeared on Billboard.com.

Read More: North Carolina Lawmaker on Hollywood Boycott Call: "I Don't Think Critics Have Even Read the Bill"
When Donald Trump began his improbable campaign for the White House almost a year ago, it's safe to believe almost no one, including himself, envisioned he'd be where he is today.

The second line of the U.S. News story covering Trump's June 16, 2015, entry into the 2016 contest stated that he began "with unmatched star power, unfiltered rhetorical bravado, gobs of money and little chance of victory." The New York Times characterized Trump as a "remote prospect" for Republicans. The Washington Post assumed he'd face "an uphill battle to be taken seriously by his rivals."

And then Trump mounted one of the most unorthodox, rule-shattering campaigns in the history of American politics.

[READ: Who's on Donald Trump's Vice President List?]

With the final five GOP primaries in the books, the 69-year-old New York City real estate mogul is now the de facto Republican Party presidential nominee, having vanquished 16 opponents, won 36 states and collected more than 12 million votes.

"It's the greatest rise in the history of politics," says Corey Lewandowski, Trump's campaign manager.

While the feat is easy to take for granted now, given Trump's unceasing presence in the news cycle, the endeavor was always a high-risk gamble -- much like many of his business pursuits.

[Sign up for The Run 2016]

The final chapter of Trump's 2016 adventure has yet to be written. But even if he falls short of the presidency in November, his candidacy will be remembered as a historic one that reshuffled the GOP and rewrote the conventional political playbook.

Here's a walk-through of the most crucial moments of Trump's unlikely ascent over the last 12 months.

The Announcement

After years of taunts and teases, Trump's audacity to finally pull the trigger on a candidacy was jolting to the system in itself.

What came out of his mouth during his unscripted 45-minute launch at Trump Tower turned out to be a series of tremors that would shake the party to its core.

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He threw a gauntlet down on immigration, alienating Hispanics but endearing himself to hard-line conservatives with a missive against immigrants from Mexico: "They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people."

In what was a precursor of the relentlessly emasculating onslaught to come, he took relish in mocking the presumed front-running candidacy of Jeb Bush, who had formally launched his campaign a day earlier.

"I don't see how he can possibly get the nomination. He's weak on immigration. He's in favor of Common Core. How the hell can you vote for this guy?" Trump asked.

And he unfurled his characteristic braggadocio with an over-the-top vow to be "the greatest jobs president that God ever created."

Looking back, that first speech was a remarkably reliable template of what Trump's candidacy ultimately would encompass: extravagant branding, incessant Bush-bashing and a nativist immigration plan.

An NBC poll at the time showed that three-quarters of Republicans said they wouldn't support Trump. But by the time the first primary debate rolled around, he was in first place in the polls. Still, he looked like a flash in the pan, a summer fling, a gift to the late-night comics.

And then he upped the ante again.

The First Debate

Fox News opened the inaugural Republican presidential primary debate in Cleveland last August with a question crafted to put Trump on the spot: Would he ultimately support the Republican nominee, even if it was not him?

In the days leading up to the debate, Trump was openly hinting he might not, leaving the door wide open for an independent run that almost certainly would hand Democrats another term in the White House. But with an estimated 24 million viewers tuned in, getting Trump on the record on the question in such a high-profile forum would have a colossal impact.

[PHOTOS: Who Supports Donald Trump?]

His refusal to raise his hand to sign on to party unity was one of his earliest and most brazen gambits. Trump couldn't even restrain a menacing smile as he was roundly booed by the live audience. Even moderator Bret Baier appeared taken aback.

"Mr. Trump, to be clear, you're standing on a Republican primary debate stage, the place where the RNC will give the nominee the nod. . . . You can't say tonight that you would make that pledge?" Baier pressed.

"I cannot say," Trump replied.

This was one of the litany of supposed offenses Trump committed that pundits figured would doom him. But in reality, it only reinforced his independence from political institutions and his courage to go against the grain.

"Everyone else gave that bull answer," Lewandowski recalls. "Look where we are now. A number of people on that stage still haven't supported the Republican nominee. Because they're politicians: all talk, no action."

Later, Trump was confronted by co-moderator Megyn Kelly with a list of degrading comments he had made about women over the years. Again, his defiant rebuttal led to something no revered Washington consultant would ever recommend in a Republican primary: an ugly personal spat with Fox News' brightest star.

But in taking on Fox, Trump again underlined how radically different his candidacy was from anyone else's. Most commentators underestimated how much Republican voters yearned for a take-no-prisoners fighter, but Trump sensed it and seized it.

His monthslong feud with Kelly demonstrated his willingness to take great risk and buck convention on a grand stage.

As Lewandowski puts it, "Donald Trump is not afraid to lose this election, but he's not afraid to win."

The Muslim Ban

In the wake of the San Bernardino, California, terror attacks on the second day of December, Trump was sitting on his airplane being ferried around the country, stewing that something drastic needed to be done.

The two responsible for massacring 14 people during an office holiday party were Islamic State group sympathizers. Just three weeks prior, the terrorist group coordinated a series of simultaneous attacks in Paris, killing 130 people and unleashing a wave of palpable fear throughout the globe.

In South Carolina on Dec. 7 -- the anniversary of Pearl Harbor -- Trump went onstage and, uncharacteristically, carefully read a statement calling for a "total and complete" ban on Muslims entering the U.S.

[MORE: 10 Times We Thought Trump's Campaign Would Crash and Burn]

"We have no choice, we have no choice," he said to cheers.

The proposed temporary barring of Muslims was panned by members of both parties, leaders of religious groups and international heads of state.

Party chairs of the first three nominating states condemned Trump's call. House Speaker Paul Ryan said it was "not who we are as a party." Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell described it as "completely inconsistent with American values."

But a Washington Post/ABC News poll taken in mid-December found that a majority of GOP voters agreed with Trump. Republicans endorsed the measure by a margin of 59 percent to 38 percent, showing its appeal across large swaths of the GOP electorate.

It wouldn't be until weeks later that exit polls of the primaries showed similar results. In South Carolina, 75 percent of GOP primary voters indicated they agreed with Trump's position. In the five states that voted on March 15 -- Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, Missouri and Illinois -- about two-thirds of Republicans were on board with the ban.

Trump has since recalibrated his remarks a bit, saying the ban was merely a suggestion. But his willingness to foist the radical idea to the forefront of the debate underscored how far away GOP elites had drifted from the base of their party.

'New York Values'

Even in defeat, Sen. Ted Cruz ran an exemplary campaign that would've likely been successful if only a bigger, more unruly outsider hadn't come along. But perhaps the Texan's most singular strategic mistake came on the night of the sixth GOP debate, less than three weeks before the February caucuses in Iowa.

Feeling the pressure to stave off Trump in evangelical-heavy Iowa, Cruz expounded upon his geographical slight aimed at denigrating The Donald in the eyes of flyover country.

[OPINION: Donald Trump Shouldn't Unite the GOP]

"Everyone understands that the values in New York City are socially liberal or pro-abortion or pro- gay marriage, focus[ed] around money and the media," Cruz said at the Fox Business debate. "Not a lot of conservatives come out of Manhattan. I'm just saying."

Trump was ready, deftly recalling the city's resilience after the Sept. 11 attacks and how its citizens pulled together even as fear and "the smell of death" permeated the air.

"We rebuilt downtown Manhattan and everybody in the world watched and everybody in the world loved New York and loved New Yorkers. And I have to tell you, that was a very insulting statement that Ted made," Trump said.

Cruz knew he had been whipsawed: His face dripped of defeat, though he went on to claw it out in Iowa.

What he didn't calculate is how much that statement would come back to haunt him three months later, when the New York primary would matter.

Even after Cruz scored a win against Trump in Wisconsin, lending his campaign a lifeline for a comeback and a shot at denying Trump the necessary delegates, his momentum was quashed in the days running up to New York, where Trump not only had a natural home-field advantage, but a damning statement to deploy against Cruz. This is also the time period when Trump savvily began taking aim at a "rigged system" that rewarded crafty insiders rather than representing the popular will.

Cruz ended up getting clobbered in the Empire State, sopping away any lift he had gotten from Wisconsin. And Northeastern states surrounding New York were just as hostile to the senator. In a recent radio interview explaining his loss, he lamented that the media ignored his success in April states preceding New York and noted that his poll numbers dropped "through the floor."

"It was devastating for Ted; he really misplayed that," Lewandowski says of the "New York values" remark. "He never thought it was going all the way to New York."

The Rout Through the South

It's difficult for Team Trump to pinpoint the one victory that was most important along the way. Lewandowski says the campaign actually hit its vote goal in Iowa (45,000), even as they finished second.

New Hampshire will always be sentimental because it delivered Trump his first electoral win. Their Granite State vote goal was 100,000; Trump netted 100,406.

But the South is where Trump unexpectedly vanquished Cruz, his most relentless nemesis.

[PHOTOS: The Big Picture -- May 2016]

That process began in South Carolina, where the entire establishment was lined up against the front-runner, from Gov. Nikki Haley to Sen. Tim Scott and Rep. Trey Gowdy.

Here, the Trump campaign actually fell short of its vote goal of 240,000 (Trump got 239,851). But his 10-point victory was the start of a rout through the South that dispatched Bush's wayward candidacy and unlatched Cruz's assumed lock on evangelical voters.

The Southeast turned out to be Trump's strongest region in the primary, as he carried every state there below the Mason-Dixon Line. The area was supposed to be Cruz's firewall, where his hard-line social conservatism would overpower Trump's less ideologically driven populism.

But on March 1 -- the day of the so-called SEC primary -- it was the South that broke Cruz's back and highlighted Trump's broad appeal, especially among groups with backgrounds nothing like his own: lower-income voters without college degrees.

They connected with Trump on a much more visceral level than biography.

Explained Scott Huffmon, a political science professor at Winthrop University in South Carolina: "He's screaming at people in power, which is what they would like to do."

David Catanese is senior politics writer for U.S. News & World Report and founder of the blog The Run 2016. You can follow him on Twitter and send him feedback at dcatanese@usnews.com.
Taipei, June 8 (CNA) The Supreme Prosecutor Office launched a massive search of two major financial companies Wednesday, based on tipoffs that the firms were involved in illegal property and stock transactions. Some 448 prosecutors and policemen were mobilized to carry out the search of the Taipei headquarters of Financial Holding Co. and the Gobo Group, as well as residences of senior executives, according to the Special Investigation Division (SID).
Trump in a box

It was clear on Tuesday that Donald Trump had gotten the message: He needed to go inside his box.

After realizing that he had alarmed establishment Republicans with his persistent and racist attacks on Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is presiding over fraud cases involving Trump University, Trump did the unthinkable: He stayed off Twitter for a full 20 hours.

He issued a statement saying, "I do not feel that one's heritage makes them incapable of being impartial" and "I do not intend to comment on this matter any further."

He even gave a canned speech from a teleprompter  despite previously saying that teleprompters should be banned  that provided a window into how Trump would behave if he were a normal politician: He would be boring. Unlike on many election nights, he took no press questions after the speech.

The point of all of this self-repression was to reassure Republican elites and donors that he would stop running his mouth in damaging ways.

They would be foolish to believe that.

The best metaphor for why they shouldn't came from one of my followers on Twitter, who pointed out that putting Trump in his box is like closing the lid of a jack-in-the-box. He might go away for a bit, but you never know when he's going to spring back out, punch you in the face, and shout, "Mexican!"

Indeed, Trump's stated intention to not comment on the Trump University matter any further lasted all of about five hours. He discussed it on "Hannity" on Fox News later on Tuesday night and again on Cal Thomas' radio show on Wednesday morning.

Trump's unsatisfactory answers about the matter  he hasn't apologized, instead telling Republicans to "get over it"  won't be enough to get interviewers to stop asking him about it. Plus, he has a near-irrepressible impulse to whine at length when he feels like he has been wronged, as he clearly feels about this litigation. He's already back on Twitter, sniping at my MSNBC colleague, Joe Scarborough, for his coverage of it.

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So, the judge story won't go away.

Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump Makes Primary Night Remarks

Even worse for Republicans are the unknown unknowns: What else might Trump say to hurt his electoral prospects and damage the Republican Party at the same time? What new, unforced scandals might he create?

There are two reasons why Trump can't credibly promise to stop running his mouth in ways that are likely to damage himself and the Republican Party.

One is that running his mouth is central to his campaign strategy. Trump is likely to be outspent by hundreds of millions of dollars. His stated strategy is to do what he did in the primary: overcome his financial disadvantage by earning tons of free media, especially on television.

This will require being constantly off script.

Trump will need to submit to near-constant press interviews, in which he may be asked questions like which kinds of ethnic and religious minorities are suitable to judge cases involving him. He will also, if he wishes to retain attention for his stump speeches, need to return to his usual practice of making novel and sometimes controversial comments, instead of reading consultant-approved remarks from a teleprompter.

The other reason is that running his mouth is central to his personality. Trump has been a crass, irrepressible boor for decades. Republican officials have been naive about this so far, but perhaps this incident has taught them not to expect Trump to get a personality transplant as he approaches 70.

Trump's not going to stay in that box. So if you're watching him in one of his calm phases, then you should just hum "Pop Goes the Weasel" in your head and brace yourself for the moment when he bursts out.

NOW WATCH: 'The textbook definition of a racist comment': Paul Ryan disavows Trump's attacks on a federal judge





More From Business Insider


Donald Trump

In his first interview since the end of Republican primary season, Donald Trump discussed the progress he's made in his search for a running mate.

The presumptive Republican nominee for president told Bloomberg that he has narrowed the field to "four or five politicians from within the party's establishment."

Trump wouldn't name any names, but said that some of the politicians on his short list are former rivals who dropped out of the race for the Republican nomination. One of these former rivals has refused to endorse Trump, but the billionaire real-estate mogul said he thinks this person will "come over to [his] side."

Marco Rubio, the Florida senator who blasted Trump during the primaries before indicating that he'd support him, has declined to offer a formal endorsement. Ted Cruz, the Texas senator and another former Trump rival, said Tuesday he's still "assessing" whether or not to endorse Trump.

Among the vice-presidential contenders are two "respected military officials," Bloomberg reported, but Trump told the news outlet that he probably won't pick either of them because he thinks he's "going to do very well on national security."

He ruled out a business-oriented pick on the basis that he doesn't "need that type of ability."

An experienced politician, on the other hand, has already been vetted by the media and public, so it's less likely that people would "find out that they were doing terrible, terrible things with their life," Trump said.

Trump ruled out Rick Perry, the former Texas governor who ran for president in 2012 and 2016, but said he'd "like to get him involved in some capacity at a high level."

"I think he's very good," Trump told Bloomberg. "I think he's very very good. He's also very good on the border."

NOW WATCH: 9 people who may be on Donald Trumps 'short list' for vice president





More From Business Insider


Donald Trumps former butlerwho in March called for President Barack Obama to be killedsaid Wednesday that the presumptive Republican nominee is not racist.

Speaking at Gold Coast Tiger Bay Club in Boca Raton, Florida, Anthony Senecal said there was no credence to criticism that Trump is racist, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

I saw him working with everybodyyou know, the Hispanics, the blacks, the foreigners. I mean, he would talk with any of them, all of them, Senecal said. There isnt a racist bone in his body.

In March, Trump denounced Senecals horrible statements, referring to a Facebook post in which Senecal said Obama should have taken out by our military and shot as an enemy agent.

Read more: Donald Trumps Longtime Butler Reveals Moguls Quirks

Trump has come under fire from GOP leaders for his comments about Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is presiding over the class-action lawsuit against Trump University. Trump has said Curiel has a conflict of interest because of his Mexican heritage. Curiel, an American, was born in Indiana. In a statement on Tuesday, Trump said his comments about Curiel were misconstrued, but he did not apologize.
Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump said in an interview Wednesday that he was disappointed and surprised by Republican leaders who criticized his comments about a federal judge as racist.

After House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell sought to distance themselves from their partys standard-bearer, Trump issued a statement Tuesday stepping back from his criticism of U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel. But in an interview with TIME, Trump said he was upset with the GOP leaders.

I was disappointed and surprised, he said Wednesday morning at Trump Tower in New York. Asked if he considered the comments disloyal, Trump noted that they came just as he was set to formally clinch the required number of delegates to win the nomination. I had just won more votes than anyone in the history of the party, so I was a little bit surprised when they said that, Trump said. I didnt think it was necessary. But you know, they have to say what they have to say. Im a big boy. They have to say what they have to say.

Trump has questioned whether Judge Curiel, an American citizen born in Indiana to Mexican immigrant parents, can be impartial in a lawsuit against him because of his Mexican heritage.

Claiming a person cant do their job because of their race is sort of like the textbook definition of a racist comment, Ryan said Tuesday.

Its time to quit attacking various people you have competed with, or various minority groups in the country, and get on message, McConnell said later that day.

In his subdued address Tuesday night, Trump didnt mention the attack on the judge, as he sought to adjust his tone to appear more presidential. Trump told TIME that the new messageand the use of teleprompters as an aidwas to mark the special momentindicating it wouldnt be a permanent shift for his campaign.

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I felt that I had a lot of detail in that speech, I have a good memory, but I had a lot of detail, Trump said of relying on teleprompters, something for which he has previously mocked other politicians.

I felt it was an important time somehow, so I thought I wanted to give a very detailed oriented speech, Trump said. By nature when you give a detail oriented speech youre going to be a little bit more low-key.

A Trump aide said he hopes to redirect the energy deployed against Judge Curiel toward Hillary Clinton, which would be more productive. Trump just so happens to have an event scheduled in Tampa this weekend, which will mark the return of his high-energy events.
Donald Trump told a well-known Christian conservative writer that he hopes not to have to ask God for much forgiveness.

In an interview with political columnist Cal Thomas, the presumptive Republican nominee was asked about his statement in 2015 that he had not asked God for forgiveness. This time, he gave a slightly different answer.

I will be asking for forgiveness, but hopefully I wont have to be asking for much forgiveness, he said.

Trump has been courting evangelical Christians in recent weeks as he tries to unite the Republican base for the general election. As TIMEs Elizabeth Dias reported, a group of top evangelical and social conservative leaders are planning to meet with him soon to talk about his positions and his faith.

Thomas also asked Trump, who is Presbyterian, about his thoughts on Jesus.

Jesus to me is somebody I can think about for security and confidence, he responded. Somebody I can revere in terms of bravery and in terms of courage and, because I consider the Christian religion so important, somebody I can totally rely on in my mind.

In a 2015 interview at an Iowa event sponsored by social conservative groups, Trump said that he doesnt bring God into that picture when hes trying to make amends, though he does participate in Holy Communion.

When I drink my little winewhich is about the only wine I drinkand have my little cracker, I guess that is a form of asking for forgiveness, and I do that as often as possible because I feel cleansed, he said. I think in terms of lets go on and lets make it right.'

During the Republican primary, Thomas opposed Trumps candidacy, saying he did not believe he was a true conservative and arguing that his story of how he became pro-life after previously supporting abortion rights lacks credibility.
Image Movers and Voltage Films have signed the No Escape filmmaking duo John Erick Dowdle and Drew Dowdle to direct action-thriller The Gafin Academy.

The Dowdle brothers  whose credits include Quarantine and Devil  will direct from a script by Aaron Rapke and Stewart Kaye. The screenplay is based on Danny Kings novel, School for Scumbags.

The story centers on a habitual teenage delinquent whos expelled from yet another school and finds himself hauled off to Gafin Academy, a reform school thats host to thieves, bullies, arsonists and vandals. Rather than rehabilitating the students, the academy uses them to pull off a massive heist.

The Dowdles co-wrote, directed and produced No Escape, starring Owen Wilson, Pierce Brosnan and Lake Bell. John Dowdle directed 2010s Devil, based on the story by M. Night Shyamalan with Drew Dowdle and Shyamalan producing for Universal.

Principal photography is set to commence in the fall, produced by Craig Flores and Nicolas Chartier from Voltage Films, alongside Jack Rapke and Jackie Levine from Image Movers and Matt Sinnreich. Robert Zemeckis will executive produce the project along with David Matalon, Andrew Vajna and Voltages Jonathan Deckter.

Matalon optioned School for Scumbags in 2008.

J.J. Meyers brought the screenplay into Voltage. Voltage will handle worldwide sales and distribution for the picture. The news was first reported by Deadline Hollywood.

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The cult of In-N-Out burger is not reserved for those lucky enough to live near one, it is a worldwide phenomenon.

Its outlets are concentrated on America's west coast and in Texas, meaning fans who don't live near one would need had to travel thousands of miles to get a bit of that fresh taste.

SEE ALSO: Burger King's latest unholy fast food mashup is the 'Whopperrito'

From time to time, the burger chain opens pop-up restaurants around the globe. At In-N-Out's last Australian pop-up, fans spent hours waiting in scorching heat to get their fix. Suffice it to say: It's not easy being an In-N-Out fan.

An Australian cover of In-N-Out

Like the hundreds of pub cover bands that have mimicked American acts in the years gone by, Down-N-Out is a heartfelt Australian tribute to a Californian classic. It's a burger pop-up open for two weeks at the Sir John Young Hotel, an unflashy pub in Sydney's city centre.

At Down-N-Out, you can get yourself a homage of the chain's famous double-double, which you can have served "tiger style" (similar to In-N-Out's animal style). This option adds mustard-cooked patties, pickles, extra Thousand Island spread and grilled onions to your burger.

down out

Image: mashable australia

Punters can even add bacon on a burger, while vegetarians can devour theirs with a soy-based "fake meat" patty. Both of these options are unheard of at the original In-N-Out, which doesn't have much variety.

Behind the pop up is Hashtag Burgers, a group who have been putting on burger related events around the city with the aid of established chefs. The creation of Down-N-Out is the result of the group always wanting their own restaurant.

"We always wanted to do our own thing, with our own chefs and space," Ben Kagan from Hashtag Burgers told Mashable Australia.

Their take on the In-N-Out burger was spawned from the group's monthly event, Funk-N-Burgers, which have served up tributes to other famous burgers such as the Big Mac, the Whopper and White Castle sliders.

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Yet it was the group's In-N-Out tribute burger, the Down-N-Out, that got the most praise. "Everyone loved it," Kagan said.

It took the group six months to find the perfect location, with the restaurant opening in a space that combines all their passions. One thing is certain, it is nothing like an In-N-Out restaurant. "We didn't want to do it half arsed, as it's a big idea. We wanted to put all the things we love inside, like comic books and old hip hop. It looks like my bedroom actually," Kagan laughed.

Is it the same burger and fries as In-N-Out?

Not really, but that's not a bad thing at all. Mashable Australia got to try a double-double burger with added "tiger style" ahead of the pop up's launch on Wednesday.

Taste wise, it is very close to the original animal style In-N-Out burger, largely thanks to the Thousand Island sauce and sweet, intensely caramelised onion which makes the flavour pretty spot on. The spongy bun appears similar, and the thin, 120 gram patties are cooked through. It's just like In-N-Out, where it counts.

The key difference is the burger is larger in size compared to the original, which is something that will cause alarm to purists. That's an intentional decision, however. "We don't want to just rip it off, we wanted to make it a substantial burger," Kagan said.

The pop up is also trying to set itself apart with its own "secret menu" that will be different to In-N-Out's iteration.

down out

Image: mashable australia

Also different is the price: It's A$10 (US$7.44) for the standard burger, A$14 (US$10.41) for the double-double, and A$3 (US$2.23) for fries. It's A$2 (US$1.49) extra if you want any of it "tiger style."

It's definitely not the cheap and cheerful prices of In-N-Out, where you can get yourself a double-double meal for US$6.60 (A$8.87). But it is in Australia after all, where everything costs more  so deal with it.

A pleasant difference, however, is the fries: They're excellent.

In-N-Out's fresh cut fries sound delicious on paper, but they're well known as being a stodgy, undercooked disappointment. One needs to order them well done for it to be palatable, but then it's like eating shards of glass.

Down-N-Out's fries appear the same, but are still crunchy and fluffy on the inside. The only thing we'd wish is more of that "tiger style" topping on the fries, because you can never have enough of that Thousand Island bliss.

down out

Image: mashable australia

The food is spot on, but the romance isn't there

So, Down-N-Out have the product down pat. The only thing missing is the romance of being in an actual In-N-Out thousands of miles away. Yes, we know that's weird.

There is nothing quite like being jetlagged in an In-N-Out store complete with those white tiles, red seats, employees wearing funny paper hats and eating food with Bible citations on the packaging. It's those details that make the visit just a little more magical.

But like an impressive Pink Floyd or ABBA cover band, Down-N-Out is a spot on tribute to one of the world's most sought after burgers.

It's the best Australian fans can expect. Considering In-N-Out hasn't even reached the eastern states of the U.S. let alone Down Under, and it isn't likely to happen in our lifetimes, if ever.
Genval (Belgium) (AFP) - Veteran Democratic Republic of Congo opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi said Wednesday he was ready for dialogue with President Joseph Kabila under international oversight as he called for unity against the government.

DRC opposition figures began a two-day meeting in Belgium to thrash out a common position against Kabila who is widely believed to want a third term, in contravention of the constitution which allows only two.

Tshisekedi, 83, told them they were gathered "as patriots to exchange views on the grave crisis affecting our country."

"More than ever, we must be united to get rid of you know who," he said, referring to Kabila who has been in power since his father's assassination in 2001.

At the same time, the opposition must be mindful of the possible dangers and get the president "to leave quietly... and not expose the people to bullets," he said.

Tshisekedi, who leads the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), said the opposition could consider dialogue with Kabila but on conditions -- respect for the constitution, release of political prisoners and oversight by the international community to make sure any agreement was implemented.

The meeting at a hotel in Genval near Brussels was called by Tshisekedi who has been convalescing in Belgium since 2014.

Moise Katumbi, a leading DR Congo opposition figure who has announced his candidacy for the presidency, had been expected to attend but sent his closest advisers instead, organisers said.

Katumbi quit the DRC in May ostensibly for medical treatment and is now staying in Britain. He left his country a day after the government announced he would be tried for endangering state security.

Tensions have been soaring in the DRC in recent months over fears that Kabila will postpone elections due to be held late this year as he manoeuvres to extend his time in office.

Tshisekedi, an opposition leader since the rule of strongman Mobutu Sese Seko, came second to Kabila in a fraud-tainted 2011 election.

Story continues

His UDPS party, struggling with internal divisions, was the only major opposition group to have shown willingness to negotiate with the government.

No date has yet been set for a new election, and late last year Kabila said he hoped to organise a "national dialogue" aimed at reaching a wide consensus ahead of any poll.

Tshisekedi last appeared in a video in January looking tired and struggling to speak clearly.
What Were Following: The Last Super Tuesday

After weeks of buildup for todays decisive primaries, the Associated Press announced that Hillary Clinton already had enough delegates to lock up the Democratic nomination for presidenthours before the polls in six states even opened. While Clinton was expected to get those delegates tonight, the APs surprise report prompted outcry from the Bernie Sanders campaign, which said the race is far from over. But as the delegate math stands now, Clinton is indeed the presumptive nominee, and the first woman to be in line for a major-party presidential nomination in the history of the United States.

The Latest Bombing in Turkey: At least 11 people were killed in a car-bomb attack that targeted a police bus in Istanbul, the latest strike in a country that is battling Kurdish separatist groups and the Islamic State. Seven of the dead were police officers, and at least 36 people were injured. Dozens of people have been killed in attacks in crowded, public places in Turkey this year.

Recommended: A Brief Introduction to the Pro-Holocaust Twitterverse

The Lost Boy in Japan: The seven-year-old Japanese child whose parents left him on a mountain road as punishment for misbehaving has left the hospital and returned home to his mother and father. Yamato Tanooka disappeared into the wilderness and was found last week after a massive six-day search that captivated the country and ignited an international conversation about child discipline. Tanookas father says the boy has accepted his apology.

Snapshot

A man, carrying his son on his back, plays a traditional Andean flute known as a quena as he walks through the Peruvian Andes to celebrate Qoyllur Riti, or the Snow Star Festival. See more photos of the festival here. (Rodrigo Abd / AP)

Quoted

Everyone wants to be the most beautiful girl in the room. Instagram provides a platform where you can enter that competition every day. Rachel Simmons, a gender researcher, on Instagrams mostly female users

A huge number of criminal groups across the globe are now adopting ransomware as one of their primary techniques because it is so easy to do. A first-year computer-science student can do it and then you just sit back and wait for the money to hit your account. Dmitri Alperovitch, who runs a cybersecurity firm

Story continues

The textbook definition of a racist comment. how U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan described Donald Trumps recent remarks about an American judge with Mexican parents

Evening Read

Julie Beck on untangling gun violence from mental illness:

After a shooting, once the dust has settled, and the initial shock and panic has abated somewhat, fearful minds begin to cast about for explanations. Given the frequency with which gun deaths occur in the United States, Why did this happen? and Who could do something like this? are questions the country faces with grim regularity. Unfortunately, a consistent and dangerous narrative has emergedan explanation all-too-readily at hand when a mass shooting or other violent tragedy occurs: The perpetrator must have been mentally ill. We have a strong responsibility as researchers who study mental illness to try to debunk that myth, says Jeffrey Swanson, a professor of psychiatry at Duke University. I say as loudly and as strongly and as frequently as I can, that mental illness is not a very big part of the problem of gun violence in the United States.

Continue reading here.

News Quiz

1. A five-year drought in __________ has led to an increase in wildfires.

Recommended: Hollywood Has a Big Millennial Problem

(See answer or scroll to the bottom.)

2. The last-known __________ died at the age of 16.

(See answer or scroll to the bottom.)

3. __________ voted to increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2020.

(See answer or scroll to the bottom.)

Reader Response

The mother of the 3-year-old boy who climbed into a gorillas zoo enclosure in Ohio has been criticized on social media and elsewhere for letting her child evade her. A parent shares her experience of briefly losing her own kids:

I lost both my kids at Sea World FOR FIFTEEN MINUTES.  My kids, age five and eight, went into a large pirate-ship play structure in the middle of a pond (lots of safety netting around it). Since none of the (six) adults with us realized the structure had another exit, we didnt see a need to actually go over the gangplank and go into the structure with the kids. Well wait right here; come out when youre done. Sure enough, the children went out the wrong end and wandered around looking for us before getting distracted and going into a different play structure  Had my son drowned in the play structure pond because he climbed the safety netting on the ship, would I have been vilified on the internet? Told I should have got ON the pirate ship like the parents of toddlers did? Perhaps I should have had my eye on him for the entire ten minutes he was on the enclosed structure with his older sister? Do parents do that with five- and eight-year-olds at playgroundsnever take their eye off the kid? I dont think so.

Continue reading here, and read other parents stories here.

Verbs

Helen Chavez remembered, the art of the office meeting hacked, gravitational waves hunted, fish better understood.

Read more from The Atlantic:

This article was originally published on The Atlantic.
Oil prices keep climbing higher with West Texas Intermediate futures topping $50 per barrel on Tuesday for the first time in 10 months. That could be enough to entice some investors revisit some volatile equity-based energy ETFs.

Still, making the sectors rebound this year all the more impressive is that it comes against the backdrop of still low oil prices, little help in the way of significant production cuts and massive spending reductions by global oil majors.

Related: Why Investors are Bearish on Oil ETFs

P lenty of skeptics remain regarding oils fundamental outlook. There might be something to that skepticism as many of the worlds major ex-U.S. producers of oil have not displayed a willingness to pare production. Even the output reductions in the U.S. have been modest. The good news is U.S. shale output is slightly declining, but challenges remain on the output front from OPEC producers.

Todd Gordon of TradingAnalysis.com told CNBC he sees XOP breaking through to new highs. More specifically, Gordon believes that the XOP is actually set to break above the $37 mark and has set $36.50 as the key level to watch for in the next coming days, according to the network.

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Making the sectors rebound this year all the more impressive is that it comes against the backdrop of still low oil prices, little help in the way of significant production cuts and massive spending reductions by global oil majors.

There are plenty of factors to consider before coming to the conclusion that oil and the related exchange traded products are completely out of the woods. Earlier this month, Saudi Arabia and Iran failed to find common ground during the oil freeze talks in Doha, Qatar.

Story continues

Related: Oil ETF Bears Continue Aggressive Forecasts

If the XOP does move to $36.50, Gordon predicts that oil will keep moving up, according to CNBC.

Other ETFs with exploration and production exposure include the PowerShares Dynamic Energy Exploration & Production Portfolio (PXE) and the Guggenheim S&P Equal Weight Energy ETF (RYE) .

Want more Oil ETF news and analysis? Visit www.etftrends.com/oil

SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF
The latest rally in oil prices for the last three months seems to have legs with U.S. crude staying above $50 a barrel lately for the first time in about a year. The reversal in the downing trend of oil prices for the last three months came on the back of drawdown of U.S. crude stock piles and geo-political issues in a key oil producing nation Nigeria.

The rebalancing in the global demand/supply scenario is likely to support crude prices ahead. The latest upbeat forecast by Goldman Sachs for oil has given the commodity a fresh lease of life. Goldman upped the price target for crude oil to $45 per barrel for the second quarter and $50 per barrel for the second half of the year from $35 per barrel and $45 per barrel, respectively, as predicted in March (read: Two Ways to Tap Rising Oil Prices with ETFs).

Favorable Demand-Supply Balance

Core Laboratories CLB CEO David Demshur sees a net decline of about 2.75 million barrels by the end of this year and greater demand of about 1.2 million.In fact, some of the industry experts expect oil to reach $60 by the end of 2016, as per CNBC.

As per The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), U.S. crude output will decline by 830,000 bpd this year to 8.6 million bpd, and by 410,000 bpd to 8.19 million bpd in 2017. On the other hand, EIA upped the projection for U.S. oil demand growth for this year.

Trend of Budget Cut Over?

So far, the plunge in prices has wrecked havoc on the global energy market forcing several companies to reduce capital expenditure or shelve projects. But now this sluggish trend seems to be easing (read: Energy ETFs in Focus as ConocoPhillips (COP) Cuts 2015 Capex).

Expecting a meaningful recovery in industry fundamentals, two industry chief executives recently indicated that crude prices will go on rising this year and some oil companies may resume capital expenditures, as per CNBC.

However, these industry experts noted that several U.S. exploration and production companies are now short of money. So, even if capital expenditure is resumed, it would be by a handful of companies only. Investors should not expect a broad-based activity.

Story continues

Which Stocks and ETFs to Play?

Investors must be intending to play this likely pickup in spending. For them, we have picked a few stocks with a Zacks Growth Style score of A or B and Rank #1, (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) at the time of writing. We have also highlighted the ETFs in which these growth stocks are invested.

Stocks

Enbridge Inc ENB  Rank #2; Growth A

Transcanada Corp TRP  Rank #3; Growth B

Tortoise North American Pipeline Fund (TPYP)

The fund puts over 7% weight in each of top three holdings  Transcanada, Spectra Energy Corp (SE) and Enbridge. Among these, TRP and ENB have a Growth score of B and while SE has a score of C. Several other holdings of the fund have decent Growth scores, making the fund an apt pick (read: Inside Surging MLP ETFs).

Notably, TRP and ENB have heavy weights in other MLP ETFs like Global X MLP & Energy Infrastructure ETF (MLPX) and Alerian Energy Infrastructure ETF (ENFR). SPDR S&P International Energy Sector ETF (IPW) also has considerable focus on these two stocks.

Stocks

Antero Midstream Partners AM  Rank #3; Growth B

Tallgrass Energy Partners TEP  Rank #3; Growth B

NGL Energy Partners LP NGL  Rank #3; Growth B

Global X Junior MLP ETF (MLPJ)

Investors can tap all the three above-mentioned stocks by investing in MLPJ. AM, TEP and NGL hold about 8.8%, 6.6% and 5.99% in the basket, respectively.

Stocks

PDC Energy Inc PDCE  Rank #3; Growth B

Carrizo Oil & Gas Inc CRZO  Rank #3; Growth A

PowerShares S&P SmallCap Energy Portfolio (PSCE)

The small-cap U.S. energy ETF puts 14.33% and 11.8% of weight in PDCE and CRZO, respectively. As much as 25% exposure in growth securities gives the fund a certain growth potential (read: Oil Rally Likely to Continue: ETFs & Stocks to Watch).

Stocks

RPC Inc. RES)  Rank #3; Growth B

Patterson-UTI Energy Inc. PTEN Rank #3; Growth B

Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc DO  Rank #3; Growth A

SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Equipment & Services ETF (XES)

The above-mentioned stocks get places in the top 10 holdings of XES with over 3.7% weight.

Other Picks

Investors can also try investing inPowerShares Dynamic Oil & Gas Services Portfolio (PXJ), putting focus on growth stocks like CLB and DO. Many other stocks of the fund have decent growth scores.

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ANTERO MIDSTRM (AM): Free Stock Analysis Report



CORE LABS NV (CLB): Free Stock Analysis Report



PATTERSON-UTI (PTEN): Free Stock Analysis Report



DIAMOND OFFSHOR (DO): Free Stock Analysis Report



ENBRIDGE INC (ENB): Free Stock Analysis Report



TRANSCDA CORP (TRP): Free Stock Analysis Report



CARRIZO OIL&GAS (CRZO): Free Stock Analysis Report



NGL ENERGY PART (NGL): Free Stock Analysis Report



PDC ENERGY INC (PDCE): Free Stock Analysis Report



TALLGRASS ENRGY (TEP): Free Stock Analysis Report



SPDR-SP O&G EQP (XES): ETF Research Reports



GLBL-X JR MLP (MLPJ): ETF Research Reports



PWRSH-DYN OIL&G (PXJ): ETF Research Reports



TORTS-NA PIPLN (TPYP): ETF Research Reports



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Chantilly (France) (AFP) - England centre-back Chris Smalling allayed concerns about his fitness on Wednesday after being pictured with strapping on his left knee.

The Manchester United centre-back, 26, had a large white bandage around his knee as he alighted from the team bus following England's open training session at their Chantilly base on Tuesday.

But he is fully confident that he will be able to line up against Russia in Marseille for England's Euro 2016 opener on Saturday.

"There's no injury scare, it's normal," he told a press conference at the England media centre.

"I often ice different parts of my body or jump in an ice bath. It's the normal recovery process."

Smalling was also optimistic about Ryan Bertrand's chances of featuring against Russia, despite the Southampton left-back having trained away from the rest of the squad on Tuesday.

"I'm not too sure. I've seen him doing parts (of training)," Smalling said. "I think he's close, so fingers crossed."
San Salvador (AFP) - Police and soldiers painted over gang graffiti in a town in El Salvador as part of a vigorous new campaign against criminal gangs that for decades have terrorized the Central American country.

"We are going to erase these tags as many times as is needed," police deputy commissioner Oscar Nuila vowed as the operation was conducted in Quezaltepeque, just north of the capital San Salvador.

Armed security officials, their faces covered to hide their identities, wielded brushes and paint cans to cover over letters and symbols graffitied on walls by the Mara Salvatrucha gang, a feared organization also known as MS-13.

One security team was seen obscuring an expanse of wall on which the words "Mara Salvatrucha" had been painted in black letters. One soldier wrote the word "Paz" ("Peace" in Spanish) over it.

The activity, aimed at rolling back the gang's visible presence in the town, added to a raft of government measures taken in recent weeks to hem in MS-13 and Calle 18, the two main rival gangs, and various smaller organizations.

El Salvador is the country with the highest murder rate in the world, outside of a war zone -- around 20 homicides a day. Most of the violence is attributed to the gangs, which engage in killings and extortion.

- Pressuring the gangs -

In April, the government cracked down on jailed gang bosses to prevent them giving orders to their troops, and set up heavily armed elite forces to hunt down gang members on their turf.

There are an estimated 70,000 gang members in the country, of whom 13,000 are locked up in prison.

Tuesday's paint-over operation added to the pressure by deleting markers MS-13 had painted on walls to assert their rule over the Los Izotes district in Quezaltepeque.

According to officials, MS-13 would go to the public school in Los Izotes to recruit boys into its ranks -- part of a strategy of using minors to carry out its crimes.

Story continues

Nuila said getting rid of the gang's graffiti was a "preventative" work meant to reassure local residents.

Two suspected gang members were also arrested in the district on Tuesday.

Using law enforcement to crack down on petty urban wrongs such as graffiti or other vandalism to curtail bigger crimes and counter an underlying sense of insecurity is known as the "broken windows" theory.

The tactic was used in New York City in the 1990s, where it was generally credited with reducing a high crime rate. Critics however said other, societal factors might have been at play.
Ankara (AFP) - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has signed into law a reform lifting immunity for lawmakers, his office said, in a move critics believe is aimed at evicting pro-Kurdish MPs from parliament.

Erdogan's approval came late Tuesday, less than a month after parliament adopted the highly controversial reform, which lifts the immunity of 138 deputies from all parties who face potential prosecution.

The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) says the measure, drafted and backed by Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP), is squarely aimed at expelling its members from parliament.

Erdogan's government sees the HDP as a political front for the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), considered a terrorist group by Ankara and its Western allies.

The reform could see dozens of HDP deputies facing criminal prosecution and losing parliamentary seats on accusations of supporting the PKK, which has waged a three-decade insurgency in the southeast.

Should a number of HDP deputies leave parliament, it would ease the way for Erdogan to realise his aim of changing the constitution to create a presidential system and further beef up his powers.

The HDP, the third largest party group in parliament, has said the bill, passed by parliament on May 20, could lead to the prosecution of 50 of its deputies out of its total contingent of 59.

Earlier this month, the HDP's charismatic co-leader Selahettin Demirtas said he was "not afraid of being put on trial".

He said however that the accusations he and other party MPs faced stemmed from a search for "political revenge".

German Chancellor Angela Merkel last month told Erdogan of her "deep concern" over the law.

Following the collapse of a two-year ceasefire in mid-2015, Turkey has been waging an intense offensive against PKK militants and the renewed conflict has claimed hundreds of lives.
Geneva (AFP) - Eritrea's government is guilty of committing crimes against humanity since independence a quarter-century ago with up to 400,000 people "enslaved", and should face international justice, a UN probe said Wednesday.

The United Nations Commission of Inquiry (COI) on human rights said the government of President Isaias Afwerki, in power since 1991, was guilty of systematic enslavement, forcible conscription and other abuses.

"We probably think that there are three to four hundred thousand people who have been enslaved," chief investigator Mike Smith told journalists in Geneva.

According to the United Nations, around 5,000 Eritreans risk their lives each month to flee the nation where forcible army conscription can last decades.

"Very few Eritreans are ever released from their military service obligations," Smith said.

Refugees from the repressive Red Sea state have in recent years made up one of the largest contingents of people risking the dangerous journey to seek a new life in Europe.

Eritrean presidential advisor Yemane Gebreab immediately rejected the COI's findings as "incredible and really laughable".

"The COI's case against Eritrea is legally indefensible," he told reporters in Geneva, accusing UN investigators of being biased and using shoddy methodology.

Since it was established in June 2014, the COI has interviewed more than 800 Eritrean exiles.

Following its report in June, the commission was flooded with 45,000 written responses, mostly in support of Eritrea's government.

- 'Widespread abuses' -

Smith said those letters appeared to be the product of an organised campaign by Asmara.

Overall, the COI concluded that "crimes against humanity have been committed in a widespread and systematic manner in Eritrean detention facilities, military training camps and other locations across the country over the past 25 years".

"Particular individuals, including officials at the highest levels of state, the ruling party  the Peoples Front for Democracy and Justice  and commanding officers bear responsibility for crimes against humanity," it said.

Story continues

The UN published testimony from several alleged victims, whose names were withheld for fear of reprisal.

One man, who said he escaped from prison in 2015, told the COI that his testicles had retracted after suffering repeated beatings in detention.

- International Criminal Court -

He said this abuse was sparked by a March 2014 request to be released from national service on grounds that only "big bosses" were benefiting from his work, which led to his arrest.

"I was placed in shackles and detained in a cell alone for eight months. I was repeatedly beaten and tortured," he was quoted as saying.

"Each time two people held me down and two others beat me with stakes and rubbers. They submerged my head in a deep container with dirty water. They beat me on my testicles many times...I have no testicles now, they disappeared", the witness further said.

The 1991 split between Ethiopia and Eritrea followed a three-decade independence war, which saw Eritrean rebels battling far better-equipped Ethiopian troops backed first by Washington and then by the Soviet Union.

Smith said Isaias presided over a state of more than six million people with no functioning democratic institutions.

"This has created a governance and rule of law vacuum, resulting in a climate of impunity for crimes against humanity," he said.

He said there was no chance that Eritrea's judicial system could bring the perpetrators to justice through a legitimate trial and called for the perpetrators to be brought before the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

"What we are asking for is the Security Council to contemplate targeted responses" against individuals responsible for rights abuse, he said, without naming any potential suspects.

Eritrea has repeatedly denied UN investigators access to the country.

The country ranks below North Korea as the worst in the world for press freedom, according to Reporters Without Borders.

With an annual per capita gross national income of $480, Eritrea is one of the world's poorest nations, according to the World Bank.
Port-au-Prince (AFP) - The European Union said Wednesday it is ending its election observation mission in Haiti, calling the decision to cancel last fall's election results unjustified.

European Commission Vice President Federica Mogherini announced the decision to pull out of the island nation in a statement, saying that "the conditions were not met for the continuation of its activities in Haiti."

Haiti annulled last year's controversial first-round presidential election results on the recommendation of an independent commission that found fraud had tainted the vote.

In another EU statement released Wednesday, the head of the EU observer mission, Elena Valenciano, said the work of Haiti's independent commission "had many factual, legal, methodological and conceptual weaknesses."

She added in her statement that, according to the findings of European observers, the 2015 elections "were generally in line with international standards, despite some flaws and irregularities, and not likely to affect the overall results."

The United States, a major aid donor to Haiti, also expressed disappointment Wednesday that Haitian authorities opted to cancel the results and schedule a re-run.

"The Haitian people deserve to have their voices heard, not deferred," said State Department spokesman Mark Toner, arguing that the October 25 results should stand.

Local activists often accuse the US of picking sides in Haiti's chaotic political scene.

The October 25, 2015 poll results were widely disputed by the opposition, who condemned the vote as an "electoral coup" in favor of the party of then-president Michel Martelly.

Martelly's hand-picked candidate Jovenel Moise won with 32.76 percent of the vote against Jude Celestin's 25.29 percent.

Initially set for December 27, 2015, the runoff was postponed twice as protests broke out. An interim government replaced Martelly after he departed in February without a successor.

Story continues

In an attempt to overcome political crisis the independent evaluation committee studied electoral documents for a month, concluding in late May that the vote should be cancelled. The commission's president Francois Benoit said it was impossible to trace the origin of 40 percent of the ballots.

More than seven months after the initial poll, the Provisional Electoral Council announced Monday a new electoral timetable, setting the first round for October 9 and the second for January 8, 2017.

The EU initially deployed its mission to the island nation in July 2015 at the invitation of Haitian authorities.

The observation mission's statement echoes much of the international community's reservations concerning Haiti's decision.

Representatives from Western countries and the UN worry that an election re-run will have serious financial consequences for the poorest country in the Americas.
New York (AFP) - For ecstatic Hillary Clinton supporters it was a celebration of history in the making, a night of euphoria setting aside moments of past doubt to dream what once seemed impossible.

"Thanks to you we've reached a milestone, the first time in our nation's history that a woman will be a major party's nominee," she told a packed warehouse of cheering supporters in New York.

The enormity of the moment moved obstetrician Ellen Landsberger almost to tears, having sacrificed her own retirement party to leave work early and bag a prime spot in the front of the crowd.

"If America doesn't elect her it will be a shame on us," she said dressed in "A Woman's Place is in the White House" Clinton T-shirt.

As a girl, Landsberger remembered just one woman in the Senate. In her career she saw sexism in the workplace and now she was overjoyed to see Clinton on the cusp of shattering the ultimate glass ceiling.

"Everyone is so delighted," she gasped. A volunteer for the campaign, she was at the same Brooklyn warehouse two months ago for Clinton's last debate against her Democratic Party challenger Bernie Sanders.

Back then, she remembers the tension as Clinton and Sanders came to verbal blows in their acrimonious rivalry to sew up the nomination. In contrast, Tuesday at the Duggal Greenhouse in the Brooklyn Naval Yard was a scene of "overwhelming joy and happiness," she told AFP.

"Hillary, Hillary, Hillary," screamed the crowd with an deafening energy previously unmatched in an often lackluster Clinton campaign.

Four giant US flags hung from the rafters behind the podium. A live band belted out motivational anthems and pop tracks.

"I feel like we're on the precipice of history, of doing something historic and I wouldn't miss this for the world. I have goosebumps just thinking about it," agreed Will Liu, 30, who works in finance.

- Uphill battle -

Story continues

He came to Clinton's victory party with his husband, the couple stopping to buy beer from one of a string of bar stands set up with the glittering Manhattan skyline in the distance.

It was a fitting venue for Clinton to celebrate becoming the first woman to win a major party nomination for the White House.

New York is her adopted home and the state that twice elected her to the US Senate. Her national campaign headquarters is up the road. Her family's global foundation is based in New York and it is the home of her much loved daughter Chelsea, now pregnant with her second child.

The Greenhouse from which the lights of Manhattan glitter across the river, is also a high octane venue for the privileged -- playing host to parties, fashion shows and Lady Gaga's recent album launch.

"We really want to celebrate because even though she was ahead in almost everything it seemed like an uphill battle," said Gina Basnuh, a 45-year-old waitress who works in a jazz bar.

Michael Medeiros, a 46-year-old Manhattan dentist born to immigrants from Portugal, was so delighted he came dressed in a Hill for 2016 T-shirt, a Hillary pin on his white cap and even had the cast protecting his broken arm colored blue and red in her campaign logo.

"Amazing," he said when asked how he felt. "I got my beer with me and my little flags and my Hillary gear," he added, a long-time supporter of Clinton who wanted to see her beat Barack Obama in 2008.

"I think by having a female president, she would bring women up and take a place within this country and they deserve it," he said.

Republican nominee Donald Trump, he said to laughter, "should stick to running businesses and let Hillary run the country."

But underneath the festivities, even ardent fans confessed to concerns looking ahead and how well a candidate often criticized for being stiff and weighed down by scandal over her use of a private email server would fare against the brash New York businessman and master in self-promotion.

"You campaign, you support, you donate, you talk about her and hopefully everything works out," said Medeiros.
American travelers seem to be undeterred by travel alerts warning of potential terror strikes in Europe, with leisure organization AAA reporting that Rome and London are their most popular bookings this summer.

Their list of the top 10 international summer destinations for travel between June 1 and August 15 is dominated by Europe, which takes five of the top spots, while the balance is divided between Canada and the Caribbean.

After Rome and London, Cancun, Vancouver, and Paris round out the top five spots.

The findings are interesting in light of the US State Department's alert issued on travel to Europe which cites the risk of potential terror attacks.

Travel alerts are one grade down from travel warnings, which urge travelers to reconsider their travel plans to a country that may be experiencing civil war, intense crime, violence or frequent terror attacks.

The strength of the US greenback and favorable exchange rates are cited as some of the main factors motivating travelers to fly across the pond or drive across the border into Canada. Vancouver and Calgary also crack the top 10 list.

Meanwhile, more than half (56 percent) of Americans surveyed said they plan to hit the road this summer to take advantage of the lowest summertime gas prices recorded in 11 years. Predictably, Orlando, Fla. takes top billing as the most popular domestic destination this summer, followed by Seattle, Washington, Los Angeles and Anaheim,, Honolulu and Las Vegas.

Here are the top international bookings on AAA, for travel between June 1 and August 15:

Rome, Italy London, England Cancun, Mexico Vancouver, Canada Paris, France Dublin, Ireland Punta Cana, Dominican Republic Montego Bay, Jamaica Calgary, Canada Amsterdam, Netherlands

Top domestic destinations:
Strasbourg (France) (AFP) - The European Parliament launched Wednesday a far-reaching probe into potential tax fraud in Europe revealed by the Panama Papers scandal.

Over the next 12 months, MEP's will grill officials and executives over any connections to Mossack Fonseca, the Panama law firm that allegedly helped thousands of the world's richest and most powerful individuals create offshore shell companies that some apparently used to hide their wealth from the taxman.

The committee's 65 MEPs will begin work this summer. They are under a specific mandate to uncover alleged violations by the European Commission or EU member states in applying European law.

Law firm Mossack Fonseca and the Panama government will be called to testify, said Burkhard Balz, MEP from the right-of-centre EPP group, parliament's biggest group.

MEPs "want to shed light on structural problems which make it so difficult to tackle the problem," Balz said.

"Very often it is national egoism which paralyses international action against tax dodging and tax avoidance", he added.

Greens MEP Eva Joly said the probe would especially target any alleged collusion between European governments in aiding the wealthy to skip paying their due tax.

"The committee will focus its work on possible ties between EU governments as well as the role of middlemen, including those from the financial sector and law firms," she said.

The announcement comes two months after the first reports from the Panama Papers, a trove of documents covering four decades of activity from Mossack Fonseca's computer archives.

The massive leak revealed leaders, politicians, celebrities and wealthy individuals from around the world who used Mossack Fonseca to create offshore entities to hide their assets.

Offshore companies are not in themselves illegal, but the sudden publication of troves of data drew attention to rampant tax avoidance and even money laundering crimes.

Full-fledged probes by the European Parliament are rare.

MEP's last year refused to set up an investigation into to the Luxleaks scandal, which revealed thousands of secret tax deals between the government in Luxembourg, then led by now Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker, and several of the world's biggest multinationals.
* Erste falls on move by Uniqa to sell Erste shares

* Ingenico hit by drop in U.S. peer VeriFone

* World Bank cuts economic growth forecasts (Adds detail, updates prices)

By Kit Rees and Sudip Kar-Gupta

LONDON, June 8 (Reuters) - European shares fell on Wednesday, retreating after two straight days of gains, as a drop in Austrian bank Erste knocked back financial stocks.

Mixed Chinese economic data, along with a decision by the World Bank to slash its 2016 global economic growth forecast, also gave some traders a reason to take a negative view on the outlook for stock markets.

"The Chinese export figures looked a bit disappointing, and the World Bank's cut to its forecasts is another reason to be a bit bearish on the markets," said Berkeley Futures' associate director Richard Griffiths.

The pan-European STOXX 600 and FTSEurofirst 300 indexes both fell 0.5 percent, after having risen for the last two days.

Erste fell 3.7 percent, after insurance company Uniqa said late on Tuesday that it would sell around 17.4 million Erste shares.

The shares of payment systems company Ingenico also fell 4.3 percent, impacted by a slump in its rival VeriFone after VeriFone posted lower-than-expected earnings.

Shares in German pharmaceuticals company Stada Arzneimittel dropped 4.1 percent after it said that it had not held talks with CVC Capital Partners over a potential buyout.

Among the top risers, German utility E.ON gained 3 percent. Its Chief Executive Johannes Teyssen urged shareholders to support the company's plans to spin off Uniper, the operator of its conventional energy business.

Today's European research round-up

ADVISORY- Reuters plans to replace intra-day European and UK stock market reports with a Live Markets blog on Eikon (see cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets for site in development). In a real-time, multimedia format from 0600 London time through the 1630 closing bell, it will include the best of our market reporting, Stocks Buzz service, Eikon graphics, Reuters pictures, eye-catching research and market zeitgeist. Breaking news and dramatic market moves will continue to be alerted to all clients and we will continue to provide a short opening story and comprehensive closing reports.

If you have any thoughts, suggestions or feedback on this, please email mike.dolan@thomsonreuters.com.

Mike Dolan, Markets Editor EMEA.
LISBON (Reuters) - A former CIA agent will be extradited to Italy for her involvement in the kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric under the U.S. "extraordinary rendition" program, after a last appeal to Portuguese authorities failed, she said on Wednesday.

Sabrina De Sousa, a joint U.S.-Portuguese citizen, was one of 26 people convicted in absentia on charges of snatching Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr from a street in Milan in 2003 and taking him to be questioned in Egypt.

The case focused attention at the time on the treatment of suspects moved around the world for interrogation in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and strained relations between Washington and Rome.

De Sousa was arrested in Portugal in October at the request of Italian prosecutors, who want her to serve a six-year sentence. De Sousa lodged an appeal against the extradition in January but Portugal's constitutional court has now rejected it.

"Yes, it (the rejection of the appeal) was confirmed about 10 days ago," De Sousa said in a an email response to Reuters. "The (extradition) process started last night. I have no idea of the date because Portugal (Interpol) have to contact Italy to agree on a date."

She said she had no idea if she would now have to serve the prison sentence in Italy or if she would be given a new trial to be able to counter the charges, as she has requested.

De Sousa has sent a letter to the Pope appealing for his intervention.

"Italy has guaranteed Portugal that I will be notified of my sentence and have the opportunity to counter the charges against me," De Sousa wrote in the letter, which she provided to Reuters. "Whether that happens, remains to be seen."

Some of the people convicted in Italy for being involved in the rendition of the Egyptian cleric have been pardoned.

(Reporting By Axel Bugge and Shrikesh Laxmidas; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
While this is quickly becoming the summer of celebrity splits, one of Hollywood's most gorgeous couples appears to have reconciled. For now, at least.

Gigi Hadid and Zayn Malik are back together, a source close to Hadid tells ET. However, the relationship is reportedly still rocky.

"Yes, they're back together, but could be over again in any second," the source says.

WATCH: Gigi Hadid Shares Cryptic Snaps After Zayn Malik Rumored Split, Steps Out in Skimpy Style for Night Out With Jenner Sisters

But it looks like the 21-year-old supermodel is pretty enamored with her former boybander beau.

"Gigi is obsessed with Zayn -- she won't let go of him too easily," the source adds.

Rumors that Hadid and 23-year-old Malik had broken up swirled earlier this month, however, the model appeared to debunk the reports last Friday, when she referenced her "boyfriend" while speaking with Elle. When asked whether she prefers a night out or night in, Hadid replied, "Night in. Cook. Paint. Play with my dog. Hang out with my boyfriend. Watch movies. Just chill."

Tellingly, she also lip synced to Malik's hit, "Pillowtalk," when she hosted the Maybelline New York Beauty Bash at the Line Hotel in Los Angeles on Friday.

An eyewitness told ET that Hadid went up to the DJ booth, where it appeared that she herself requested the song. Once it started playing, she reportedly insisted that the DJ turn it up twice as loud.

NEWS: Gigi Hadid Photographed With a New Man -- and Kids! See the Adorable Pic

Malik and Hadid have been dating since last November. Their last public appearance together was at the Met Gala in May.

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Watch the video below to see the two looking crazy in love -- and beautiful -- in a romantic Vogue photo shoot in April set in Naples, Italy.

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By Michelle Conlin and Caren Bohan NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senator Elizabeth Warren will soon endorse presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and, while not currently interested in serving as her running mate, has not ruled it out, several sources close to Warren told Reuters. Advisers to Warren, a fiery critic of Wall Street and a popular figure among progressive Democrats, have been in close contact with Clinton's campaign team and the conversations have increased in frequency in recent weeks, the sources said. Warren, 66, represents her home state of Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate. The sources said that foremost in her thinking is how best to help the Democratic Party defeat the presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump in the Nov. 8 presidential election and advance issues such as income inequality which top Warren's agenda. An endorsement of Clinton could come within a week or two, one of the sources said. Clinton has been appealing for Democratic Party unity. On Twitter over the weekend, Warren echoed that call and emphasized the importance of the party coming together to beat Trump. Get ready, Donald, she tweeted. We're coming. Warren has stayed neutral in the Democratic primary race, notably remaining the only woman senator not throwing her support behind the first woman presidential nominee of a major political party. Were she to join the Clinton ticket, she could help energize progressives and win over supporters of Clinton's rival Bernie Sanders, a democratic socialist U.S. senator from Vermont. Sanders' calls for reining in Wall Street and breaking up big banks dovetail with Warren's views. Warren, a former special adviser in the Obama administration for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has been one of the Democrats' most effective Trump critics. An ongoing feud with Trump gained steam on social media with a series of posts in which she labeled the celebrity businessman racist, sexist and xenophobic and said she was going to fight to make sure his toxic stew of hatred and insecurity never reaches the White House. Warren joined Clinton late last month in criticizing Trump for rooting for the 2008 financial crisis and delivered a 10-minute invective on the subject at an annual Washington gala two weeks ago. What kind of a man roots for people to get thrown out of their house? Ill tell you exactly what kind of man does that, Warren said. It is a man who cares about no one but himself - a small insecure money-grubber who doesnt care who gets hurt so long as he makes a profit off it. Trump has ridiculed Warren by calling her Pocahontas in a mocking reference to her having said in the past that she had Native American ancestry. Pocahontas was a famous Native American in early colonial Virginia. (Additional reporting by Megan Cassella and Amanda Becker in Washington; Editing by Amran Abocar and Howard Goller)
By Olzhas Auyezov AKTOBE, Kazakhstan (Reuters) - One of the men blamed by authorities in Kazakhstan for an armed raid on a national guard base, the deadliest attack in the country's history, had posted a video online that was sympathetic to Islamic State. The video, posted on the social media page of Rustem Omarov, represents the first time Islamic State ideology has been linked to an act of militant violence in Kazakhstan, central Asia's wealthiest country and a major oil producer. People from Kazakhstan and other central Asian states are fighting for Islamic State in Syria. There was no evidence the attack was ordered by the group, but its methods and ideology could threaten the already volatile region, which is mainly Muslim, has repressive governments and millions of people living in poverty. Kazakhstan's president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, said on Wednesday the attackers had received instructions from abroad and were adherents of a pseudo-religious movement, though he did not identify it. Omarov was one of more than 20 men who, according to the Kazakh authorities, were behind a "terrorist attack" in the north-western city of Aktobe. Nineteen people were killed in the attack on two gun shops and a national guard base on Sunday and its aftermath on Monday, including many of the attackers. A person with the same name has an account on VKontakte, a social media network similar to Facebook that is popular in Russian-speaking countries. That account posted a video which featured the Islamic State flag, an Arabic inscription on a black background. In the video, a Russian-speaking narrator described how sometimes true believers in Islam have to follow their faith even if it means being cast out by their family as extremists. The video, posted some time between April 8 and June 5, when Omarov last logged on, was uploaded from the account of a group called Paradise under the Shade of Sabres, which routinely promotes Islamic State online. POLICE LIST Kazakhstan is the biggest ex-Soviet oil producer after Russia. Foreign energy majors including ENI, Chevron and BG Group have production-sharing deals for Kazakh oil and gas fields. There are oil fields in Aktobe region, some of which are being developed by Chinese and Korean oil firms, but none were affected by the attacks. The Kazakh authorities have not officially named Omarov as one of the attackers in Aktobe. But his was one of the names on a list of suspects drawn up by the police and leaked to Kazakh media. Reuters confirmed the authenticity of the list by visiting the addresses given for several other people on the list and talking to relatives or neighbors. It was not possible to visit the address given for Omarov, because it was in a remote village, called Terensay. A local official in the village, contacted by phone, confirmed Omarov was registered there and had been sought by police over the attack. It was not clear if Kazakh police had captured or killed Omarov. He was not among the suspected attackers who the police said were still at large. The account on VKontakte for Rustem Omarov listed his location as Aktobe, and another person on the leaked police list of suspected attackers, Arsen Tanatarov, was a subscriber to Omarov's page. The date of birth given for Omarov on the leaked police list was Dec. 1, 1990, while the date of birth on Omarov's VKontakte account was Dec. 5, 1990. It was not clear why there was a discrepancy. Nazarbayev, the Kazakh president, designated Thursday as a day of mourning for the victims of the Aktobe attacks. He ordered security forces to detain those attackers still on the run, and to "destroy" them if they put up any resistance, according to the presidential web site. In the aftermath of the shooting in Aktobe, which is about 100 km (60 miles) from the Russian border, Kazakh officials described a coordinated series of attacks on the two commercial gun shops and then on the national guard base. Andrei Grozin, a senior research fellow at Moscow's Institute of Oriental Studies, said it was possible the Aktobe attackers were an Islamic State sleeper cell, or simply people who associated themselves with the group. "These are people who may not be connected in a 'superior-subordinate' relationship with the so-called Caliphate, but people who are mentally linked, who share their point of view and take up arms," said Grozin. (Additional reporting by Maria Tsvetkova in MOSCOW and Raushan Nurshayaeva in ASTANA; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Philippa Fletcher)
The imposition of a total alcohol ban on all U.S. sailors in Japan, following the arrest over the weekend of an American sailor on drunk driving charges, has brought into renewed focus the sometimes tense relationship between the U.S. military and its Japanese hosts.

There are more American soldiers based in Japan than in any other foreign country. Around 54,000 U.S. military personnel are stationed there, with a mission is to keep the peace in the Pacific. But the American military presence has clouded bilateral relations  nowhere more so than on the tropical island prefecture of Okinawa, which has the heaviest concentration of U.S. military bases. Heres what you need to know.

Why Japan? After Japans defeat in World War II, the U.S. occupied the country and devised a constitution that prevented its erstwhile enemy from forming a normal military. While Japan spends lavishly on its defense, the nation cannot form an offensive force. Instead, the U.S. promises to defend Japan, and its soldiers on Japanese soil add muscle to this obligation. (The U.S. also has a large military presence in South Korea.) Japans Prime Minister Shinzo Abe would like to amend the constitution and allow for a more traditional military, especially as tensions proliferate with China. But the majority of the Japanese public remains skeptical of the constitutional change that would be required.

Why Okinawa? Originally an independent kingdom called Ryukyu, Okinawa was absorbed into Japan by the late 19th century, even though its populace is culturally distinct from that of the rest of the country. The end of World War II brought immense tragedy to the tropical island chain at the tail end of the Japanese archipelago. In the Battle of Okinawa, the Japanese imperial army compelled local civilians to resist the Allied assault and even commit mass suicide. Around 150,000 Okinawans perished. The Americans, who after the war scattered military bases across the coral-fringed islands and occupied Okinawa for two decades longer than the rest of Japan, were originally welcomed by some locals as an improvement over the Japanese army. But local opposition to the U.S. presence has growneven as the Japanese government presents Okinawa as a bulwark against a potentially more assertive China.

Why the anti-American sentiment? Although rare, crimes committed by American soldiers and contract workers against Okinawan civilians have crystallized opposition against the U.S. bases. In May, an American military contractor was arrested on charges related to the murder of a 20-year-old local woman. The stabbing death has conjured up memories of the 1995 kidnapping and rape of a 12-year-old Okinawa schoolgirl by three U.S. servicemen. U.S. President Barack Obama, who visited Japan last month, expressed regret over the alleged murder by an American. On Sunday, Okinawa police arrested an American sailor on charges of injuring two people in an alleged drunk-driving accident, prompting the alcohol ban both on and off base. It is imperative that each sailor understand how our actions affect that relationship, and the U.S.-Japan Alliance as a whole, said Rear Admiral Matthew Carter, the head of the U.S. naval forces in Japan.

Will U.S. troops stay? For years, Okinawan politics has been dominated by the base issue. The latest question is whether a U.S. Marine air station located on prime Okinawa real estate will be relocated to a new facility in a less-populated area or whether the base will be shuttered altogether. In Sundays assembly elections in Okinawa, the antibase faction consolidated its majority. But previous efforts to significantly counter the U.S. military presence  even when briefly supported by a Japanese central government controlled by the now opposition  have failed. Of course, if Donald Trump, the Republican contender for the U.S. presidency, has his way, local debate over Okinawa bases could be moot. In a primary-season debate, Trump said that U.S. allies, like Japan and South Korea, should pay all costs of maintaining American bases on their soil  or else risk the U.S. pulling its troops.
A Brazilian police officer of Japanese origin -- and the driving force behind high-level arrests in a government corruption investigation -- was jailed for smuggling Wednesday, according to local press.

Newton Ishii, known as "the Japanese cop," gained fame for arresting dozens of well-known businessmen and politicians as part of the "Operation Car Wash" probe that began as a money laundering investigation but has since turned to the massive Petrobras fraud scandal.

An appeals court convicted Ishii of smuggling charges, sentencing him to four months and three weeks for facilitating the import of smuggled goods from Paraguay, his lawyer Oswaldo de Mello Junior told the Brazilian news outlet G1.

Ishii's involvement was uncovered in Operation Sucuri, an investigation into federal agents participating in illegal smuggling efforts.

The federal police branch in Parana had not responded to repeated AFP confirmation requests as of noon local time.

In addition to arresting prominent Brazilian figures, Ishii -- always sporting a flak jacket and dark sunglasses -- is known for taking selfies with politicans. He lept to prominence during the last carnival as revelers donned masks in his likeness, and after a song about him gained YouTube fame.

Ishii also inspired an erotic novel available on Amazon titled "Arrest me, Japanese Cop!"

The once-revered social media star became the laughing stock of online networks after his arrest Wednesday, with the hashtag #japonesdafederal -- "Japanese Cop" -- appearing alongside mockeries and doctored photos of the officer arresting himself.
Wrapped around the entire perimeter of the hulking Palace Theatre in Londons West End, over a thousand Potterheads patiently waited for their bags to be checked before entering the grand red-brick, Victorian building. Many touted grins, no doubt from the knowledge that they will be some of the first in the world to be watching the play, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

This is an important moment in the Harry Potter history  if you have grown up with it and it has been a part of who you are for so long says 18-year-old Jess Hart, an aspiring actress from Oxfordshire, U.K. This play is so much more  than just a book or story, it is literally the next chapter.

The Cursed Child picks up 19 years after the end of the original series. The books hero, Potter, now works in the Ministry of Magic while his son Albus struggles with a family legacy he never wanted. The play is split in two parts, with the first being shown on Tuesday night. This preview, which is essentially an extended period of dress rehearsals, has brought people from around the globe who share in their intensely personal connection to the Harry Potter franchise.

Christine Worden, a home-school tutor from Cypress, Texas, couldnt believe her luck. This really is a big trip for us she tells TIME, having flown to Britain for the first time with her three children just to watch the play. The 44-year-old shares an affinity with Harry Potter novelist J.K. Rowling, who like Worden was a jobless, single mother while writing her book. I have been a single mother  I also was in poverty and homeless, she says. Because of her inspiration I always found the strength to believe that anything is possible.

Under an iron awning that holds the plays artwork of a giant snitch-like nest, Nabshan Karim from Karachi, Pakistan, says he has always related to Potter because he was the only character that was the same age as me. Today, 25-year-old Karim has again found common ground with a middle-aged Harry, who is a father-of-three in the play. Well I am about to be married and probably going to have kids soon. I feel like I have been following him, says Karim, who is currently studying a masters course at Kingston University, London.

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The plays eponymous character might be the obvious star, but the real highlight for many watching is the casting of a black Hermione Granger, played by Olivier-award-winning actress Noma Dumezweni. I am excited to finally see Granger in her true form  how she should have been in the films and how the books described her, says Hart from Oxfordshire, who came to the preview with her cousin. The actor is going to be amazing.

Wearing a 24-carat gold Time Turner necklace  based on the magical timepiece Granger used to turn back time in book three The Prisoner of Azkaban  Rosa Hadjiska, 23, from North Yorkshire, U.K., says that the curly-haired character is her favorite of them all: she is the epitome of girl power.

Around two and a half hours later, Worden emerged from the theater spellbound. It was so magical. It was unbelievable, she says. While Hadjiska hinted that there was a dramatic twist in the play she was reluctant to reveal anything more due to J.K. Rowlings YouTube appeal asking fans to not reveal spoilers. Sirius death, Dumbledores death  nothing compares to tonight, she tells TIME. We expected laughter, we expected tears, we did not expect the shivers that came.

The eighth Potter story was co-written by Rowling, scriptwriter Jack Thorne and the productions director, John Tiffany. Little is known about the plot of the Cursed Child, and tickets are now sold out till May 2017. Potter fans without tickets must wait until the script is released on July 31  Harry Potters birthday  and a day after the official opening of the play in London.
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From the fireflies that light up our backyards to the graceful, glowing jellyfish we admire in aquarium tanks, bioluminescence  an organisms ability to create its own light  has captivated and intrigued humankind for ages. Now, researchers have unlocked some of the secrets of its evolution.

Theyve found that  in fish, at least  the ability to bioluminesce has evolved many more times than scientists previously thought. And thats given us some big insights into the traits usefulness in the Earths dark places.

SEE ALSO: The Secret, Flamboyant World of Fluorescent Fish

Bioluminescence is widespread in ocean animals, from tiny plankton to deep-sea squid. And as far as we know, marine fish are the only vertebrates that have the ability. Altogether, researchers have documented about 1,500 bioluminescent fish species, most of them found in the deep sea.

These fish are able to create light in at least two different ways. Some of them can produce chemical reactions within their own bodies that cause the glow.

Others have developed symbiotic relationships with bioluminescent bacteria, who live on or in their bodies and make the light for them.

In the latter case, the fish have typically evolved certain mechanisms or functions in their bodies that can cause the bacteria to turn the glow on or off as they need it.

Image: Getty Images

Lights under the sea

This ability can be used for a variety of purposes, said Matthew Davis, an assistant professor of biology at St. Cloud State University.

Functionally, probably the majority of fishes that have bioluminescence use the light for camouflage, he said, noting that the glow can actually help hide a fishs body in the water column when its placed in the right way.

But he added that other species use their bioluminescence to attract prey (think of the anglerfish in Finding Nemo), or to communicate with one another and attract mates.

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Within these 1,500 species, there are several different classes of fish that have the ability, such as certain types of sharks, which belong to a class of cartilaginous fishes  fish whose skeletons are made of cartilage, rather than bone.

In a new study, published Wednesday in the journal PLOS ONE, Davis  the lead author  and colleagues John Sparks and Leo Smith focused specifically on ray-finned fishes, as theyre the largest class of fish on the planet, comprising at least 25,000 species (and, in fact, one of the largest groups of vertebrates altogether).

An evolutionary mystery

While scientists know that many species of ray-finned fishes are bioluminescent, theyve been unsure how the trait actually evolved over time. Was there a single evolutionary event that spawned the ability  or did it arise multiple times in multiple lineages, independently, over time?

Image: MATT DAVIS

Investigating such questions can provide important insights into a traits usefulness and how it has contributed to the present-day success of a group of animals.

If a single characteristic evolves independently in multiple groups throughout history  and doesnt disappear over time  then scientists can typically infer that the trait is useful and contributes something to the survival and success of the organisms who have it.

The researchers tackled the question by drawing on a large genetic database and using models to help them construct an evolutionary history of the ray-finned fishes.

Previously, scientists have suggested that bioluminescence probably evolved a handful of times in this class of fish. So the new research delivered some ground-breaking news when it concluded that, actually, the ability has arisen independently a whopping 27 times, starting at least 150 million years ago.

Its an amazing number, according to Prosanta Chakrabarty, curator of ichthyology at Louisiana State Universitys museum of natural science, who was not involved with the new study.

Image: RENE MARTIN

First, scientists can assume that a trait that arises independently so many times must be useful, or that theres some pressure on marine fish to possess the trait. But according to Chakrabarty, the research also suggest that developing the ability to bioluminesce must be easier than scientists thought.

How do deep sea animals pick up bioluminescence so quickly and efficiently? he said. For me its an amazing thing. Its got to be something thats a pretty simple process.

Additionally, the new studys researchers found that fish who use bioluminescence specifically for communication, feeding and reproduction have branched off into many more species than they would have expected.

A lot of this likely has to do with the way bioluminescence can help fish attract mates, Davis said.

If theyre being able to use that light to communicate, they can be using that as a genetic isolating mechanism for sexual selection or species recognition, he said.

Click here to view this gallery

In other words, specific light displays may be attractive only to particular types of fish.

This helps species isolate themselves from one another, rather than interbreeding, which can help groups branch off from one another and evolve separately. Over a long period of time, this process leads to the rise of many different individual species of fish.

The study opens up many additional questions about the evolution of bioluminescence, Chakrabarty noted, such as how exactly the ability forms in the first place.

On a similar note, he added that the relative ease and frequency with which the trait has arisen in marine fish opens up questions about why it hasnt developed in freshwater fish  particularly cave-dwelling fish, who live in the dark and could probably benefit from such an ability.

So it seems that there are still some mysteries to be solved. But in the meantime, the new study has provided some tantalizing insights that may inform future research into a phenomenon that has captured imaginations for centuries  serving as a light, so to speak, in the dark.
By Toni Clarke (Reuters) - A U.S. advisory panel on Wednesday recommended approval of Pfizer Inc's long-acting opioid painkiller Troxyca ER, saying it dulls pain and its design could deter abuse by addicts in search of a quick high. The panel, however, had reservations about the drug's ability to curb all forms of abuse, voting against a claim that it deters oral abuse while endorsing claims of deterring injecting or snorting the drug. Troxyca ER contains oxycodone and naltrexone, a drug designed to cancel the effect of oxycodone. When taken as directed, the naltrexone remains hidden and does not diminish the effect of the oxycodone, which is released over time. The product is designed to deter addicts from crushing the pellets to release the oxycodone for a quick high. When crushed, the naltrexone is released along with the oxycodone. The panel concluded that addicts could use certain solvents to extract oxycodone and only limited amounts of naltrexone, though they said it would be harder to take the additional steps needed to snort or inject it. The FDA is not obliged to follow the advice of its panels, but typically does so. On Tuesday the panel concluded that a different long-acting opioid made by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd was likely to deter abuse whether addicts sought to swallow, snort or inject it. Panelists were more conflicted about Pfizer's drug, voting 9-6 to recommend approval of the product but voting 9-6 against the claim that it deters oral abuse. They voted 11-4 that the drug deterred nasal abuse and 9-6 that it deterred intravenous abuse. "The committee is in a quandary about Troxyca ER," Dr. Raeford Brown, Jr., a professor of anesthesiology and pediatrics at the University of Kentucky, said, summarizing the views of the panel. "The data are not clear." Panelists also wrestled with their role in recommending approval for any high-dose opioid at a time when opioid abuse has reached epidemic proportions. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 78 Americans die every day from opioid overdose. Music superstar Prince died from an accidental overdose of an opioid painkiller in April. Dr. Jeanmarie Perrone, a professor of emergency medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, described the entire discussion as one of "whether we should approve another high-dose opioid with maybe a bit of abuse deterrence." A number of panelists said Pfizer met current standards for approval, but said they would like to see those standards raised. Companies that make abuse-resistant opioid painkillers are supposed to conduct subsequent studies to prove whether they reduce abuse in the real world. None of those results have come in so far. (Reporting by Toni Clarke in Washington, Editing by G Crosse and Leslie Adler)
San Francisco (AFP) - Uber is in talks with Italian-American auto giant Fiat Chrysler (FCA) and others about potential driverless car alliances, a source close to the matter told AFP on Wednesday.

The source cautioned that discussions were in an early phase, and not exclusive to any one automobile maker.

Earlier in the day, Bloomberg news agency cited a source as saying a deal between the automobile maker and Uber could be announced by the end of the year, adding that FCA was also reaching out to online commerce giant Amazon on the potential for using vehicles for deliveries.

Amazon has been consistently exploring technology that could improve efficiency of distribution or delivery of goods handled by the online retail colossus.

Uber Technologies and FCA declined AFP requests for comment. Amazon did not respond to an AFP query.

Fiat Chrysler announced an alliance with Google parent Alphabet in May, saying self-driving cars could hit roads within five years.

Google began testing its autonomous driving technology in 2009, using a Toyota Prius equipped with the tech giant's equipment. The deal with FCA sees it snap up 100 new 2017 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans.

An array of automobile makers including Audi, Ford, Mercedes, Lexus, Tesla and BMW are working on building self-driving capabilities into vehicles.

Uber unveiled its first self-driving car last month, announcing it had begun testing an autonomous vehicle on the streets of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

In April the California group was among the founding members of an industry group called the Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets which also includes Alphabet unit Google, Ford, Volvo and Lyft.
A jubilant Hillary Clinton was all smiles as she took the stage following her New Jersey primary victory and declared, Were all standing under a glass ceiling right now, but dont worry  were not smashing this one. Thanks to you, weve reached a milestone.

At her Brooklyn, New York, headquarters on Tuesday, Clinton delivered her victory speech, which opened with a video featuring prominent womens rights moments from throughout history.

Tonights victory is not about one person, it belongs to generations of women and men who struggled and sacrificed and made this moment possible, Clinton said.

Also Read: Hillary Clinton Takes New Jersey

Clinton stepped up to the podium shortly after presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump finished addressing his supporters, and took the opportunity to razz her rival by calling him temperamentally unfit to be president.

When he says, Lets make American great again, thats code for lets take America backwards, Clinton said. Back to a time when opportunity and dignity were reserved for some, not all.





Brooklyn crowd waiting for @HillaryClinton to make speech celebrating historic role as 1st woman likely nominee pic.twitter.com/j8OSse5MKg  Andrea Mitchell (@mitchellreports) June 8, 2016





I wish she could have seen her daughter become the Democratic partys nominee for president of the United States, Clinton said when discussing her late mother.

Clinton, whose first failed attempt at the Democratic nomination ended eight years to the day, has now presumably become the first woman ever to win the presidential nomination of a major political party in American history.

Story continues

The Clinton campaign released a slickly produced victory video that features womens rights highlights from throughout history. It was released on YouTube prior to the close of polls in New Jersey and portions of it were used as the introduction to tonights speech.

Also Read: Donald Trump Rips Reporters, Hillary Clinton Ignores Them - Which Is Worse?

The former senator and secretary of state won the primaries in California (with its 475 pledged delegates) as well as New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota. Meanwhile, rival Bernie Sanders scored a victory in Montana and the caucuses in North Dakota.

Clinton entered Tuesdays voting contests with 1,812 pledged delegates in primaries and caucuses, according to APs count. She also has the support of 571 superdelegates. The AP surveyed all 714 superdelegates repeatedly in the past seven months, with only 95 superdelegates remaining publicly uncommitted.

Though superdelegates will not formally cast their votes until the partys July convention in Philadelphia, those tallied have told the AP they will unequivocally support Clinton.

It takes 2,383 total delegates to win the nomination.

Meanwhile, check out Wednesdays New York Post cover.





Tomorrow's NY Post cover  > pic.twitter.com/pikkS0DpR0  Teddy Davis (@TeddyDavisCNN) June 8, 2016

Related stories from TheWrap:

Hillary Clinton Claims Nomination and Wins New Jersey, New Mexico, South Dakota

Roger Clinton, Hillary's Brother-in-Law, Arrested for DUI In California (Photo)

Hillary Clinton Releases New Campaign Promo Before Polls Close: 'History Made' (Video)
(The following statement was released by the rating agency) SINGAPORE, June 08 (Fitch) Fitch Ratings has assigned Malayan Banking Berhad's (Maybank, A-/Negative/F2) HKD220m 2.09% senior fixed-rate notes due June 2019 a rating of 'A-'. The notes were issued under the bank's USD15bn multicurrency medium-term note programme. KEY RATING DRIVERS The notes are rated at the same level as Maybank's 'A-' Long-Term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) as they constitute direct, unconditional, unsubordinated and unsecured obligations of Maybank and hence rank equally with all its other unsecured and unsubordinated obligations. RATING SENSITIVITIES The notes rating are sensitive to changes in Maybank's Long-Term IDR, which is currently on Negative Outlook. For more details on the drivers and sensitivities of Maybank's ratings and credit profile, see www.fitchratings.com/site/pressrelease?id=990521"> Fitch Affirms Maybank at 'A-', Hong Leong Bank at 'BBB+', dated 9 September 2015, and www.fitchratings.com/site/re/874002"> Maybank's full rating report, dated 17 November 2015, available at www.fitchratings.com.">www.fitchratings.com. Maybank's other ratings are as follows: - Long-Term Foreign-Currency IDR 'A-'; Outlook Negative - Short-Term IDR 'F2' - Long-Term Local-Currency IDR 'A-'; Outlook Negative - Viability Rating 'a-' - Support Rating '2' - Support Rating Floor 'BBB' Contacts: Primary Analyst Elaine Koh Director +65 6796 7239 Fitch Ratings Singapore Pte Ltd 6 Temasek Boulevard #35-05 Suntec Tower Four Singapore 038986 Secondary Analyst Wee Siang Ng Senior Director +65 6796 7230 Committee Chairperson Mark Young Managing Director +65 6796 7229 Date of the Relevant Rating Committee: 8 September 2015 Media Relations: Leslie Tan, Singapore, Tel: +65 67 96 7234, Email: leslie.tan@fitchratings.com. Additional information is available on www.fitchratings.com Applicable Criteria Global Bank Rating Criteria (pub. 20 Mar 2015) https://www.fitchratings.com/creditdesk/reports/report_frame.cfm?rpt_id=863501 Additional Disclosures Solicitation Status https://www.fitchratings.com/gws/en/disclosure/solicitation?pr_id=1005731 Endorsement Policy https://www.fitchratings.com/jsp/creditdesk/PolicyRegulation.faces?context=2&det ail=31 ALL FITCH CREDIT RATINGS ARE SUBJECT TO CERTAIN LIMITATIONS AND DISCLAIMERS. PLEASE READ THESE LIMITATIONS AND DISCLAIMERS BY FOLLOWING THIS LINK: HTTP://FITCHRATINGS.COM/UNDERSTANDINGCREDITRATINGS. IN ADDITION, RATING DEFINITIONS AND THE TERMS OF USE OF SUCH RATINGS ARE AVAILABLE ON THE AGENCY'S PUBLIC WEBSITE 'WWW.FITCHRATINGS.COM'. PUBLISHED RATINGS, CRITERIA AND METHODOLOGIES ARE AVAILABLE FROM THIS SITE AT ALL TIMES. FITCH'S CODE OF CONDUCT, CONFIDENTIALITY, CONFLICTS OF INTEREST, AFFILIATE FIREWALL, COMPLIANCE AND OTHER RELEVANT POLICIES AND PROCEDURES ARE ALSO AVAILABLE FROM THE 'CODE OF CONDUCT' SECTION OF THIS SITE. FITCH MAY HAVE PROVIDED ANOTHER PERMISSIBLE SERVICE TO THE RATED ENTITY OR ITS RELATED THIRD PARTIES. DETAILS OF THIS SERVICE FOR RATINGS FOR WHICH THE LEAD ANALYST IS BASED IN AN EU-REGISTERED ENTITY CAN BE FOUND ON THE ENTITY SUMMARY PAGE FOR THIS ISSUER ON THE FITCH WEBSITE.
By Sharon Ogunleye LAGOS (Reuters) - A floating school built to withstand storms and floods at a lagoon in Nigeria's commercial capital Lagos and educate children from a nearby slum has collapsed only seven months after its official opening. The aid-funded Makoko Floating School offered free education to children from nearby huts on stilts. Most of their parents fish for a living and, like most of the megacity's 23 million residents, lack a reliable electricity and water supply. Heavy rains brought down the pyramid-shaped wooden school, built on a platform held afloat by hundreds of plastic barrels, on Tuesday. None of its nearly 50 pupils were in the building when it collapsed, officials said. Classes had already been moved to another location in late March after heavy downpours at the start of the rainy season began to affect classes. "It is not only the floating school that collapsed. It collapsed many houses surrounding the floating school," said David Shemede, Makoko resident and brother to the school's director. Building collapses are a common problem in the West African nation, sometimes due to the use of poor materials and weak enforcement of regulations. At least 30 people died when a building collapsed in an upmarket Lagos district in March. The school was built to adapt to changing water levels and withstand the storms and floods that lash Lagos in the four-month-long rainy season. Its Nigerian architect Kunle Adeyemi said in a statement that the Makoko community was considering upgrading the structure and rebuilding an improved version of the school. Makoko was established as a fishing village hundreds of years ago but climate change and rapid urbanization are now threatening its way of life. The school was officially opened in November 2015 after being in use for more than a year beforehand. It took three years to build and catered to children coming from the only English-speaking school in the area. Pupils traveled to the school by canoe. (Writing by Alexis Akwagyiram; Editing by Ulf Laessing and Tom Heneghan)
By Mark Hosenball WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A former senior official in the Reagan administration and prominent Republican foreign policy insider told Reuters he provided input for the late-April foreign policy speech by Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. "I was asked to contribute material" for Trump's April 27 speech at the Center for the National Interest, a Washington, D.C., think tank, said Richard Burt. Burt said he is not part of Trump's campaign. "But I am happy to talk to people looking for advice on foreign policy issues," said Burt, a managing director of McLarty Associates, a Washington-based consulting firm co-founded by former President Bill Clinton's White House chief of staff and counselor Thomas "Mack" McLarty. Burt said he also would be willing to offer foreign policy advice to Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, if she asked for such advice, though he added, "She's not going to."Burt is also chairman of Global Zero, an independent group devoted to ridding the world of nuclear weapons. Trump told The New York Times in April that he was not sure it would be "a bad thing" for the United States if Japan had nuclear weapons, and has said the same about South Korea and Saudi Arabia. Burt said the main theme he talked about to Trump was the need for the United States to pursue a "more realist foreign policy," in which the United States would avoid seeking "regime change" abroad, and instead make protecting the United States and its interests the main policy goal. Trump, who became the Republican's presumptive nominee last month after the last of his challengers dropped from the party's race, articulated this theme again in a campaign speech late on Tuesday, as he claimed victory in the last Republican nominating contests. Under Reagan, Burt headed the State Department's Bureau of Political-Military Affairs and then its European and Canadian Affairs bureau and served as U.S. ambassador to Germany from 1985 to 1989. Some of Burt's contemporaries from the administrations of Presidents Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, have publicly denounced Trump's foreign policy views or remained mute. Earlier this year, Trump met with a group of 11 foreign policy advisers, headed by Republican Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, one of Trump's most outspoken supporters. Reuters sought comment on the recent activities of Trump's foreign policy team from several of its members and from a campaign spokeswoman. Most declined to comment, and the campaign did not immediately reply to a request for comment. One campaign team member, who asked for anonymity because he is not authorized to comment publicly, said that while the team had held several discussions since Trump's speech, the candidate remains his own most important foreign policy adviser. (Reporting By Mark Hosenball; Editing by John Walcott and Leslie Adler)
By Ian Simpson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Four finalists have been picked in a contest for monument designs in Washington, with proposals that include talking automated parrots and dying cherry trees, organizers said on Wednesday.

The contest aims to find alternatives to the crowded National Mall as a monument site and creative and less expensive ways to commemorate people and events in the U.S. capital.

The finalists "offer a variety of innovative approaches to share and add new narratives, and connect people and places from across the nation," a National Park Service spokeswoman said in a statement.

One of the proposed designs, "Climate Chronograph," showcases rising sea levels. It depicts receding shorelines by having rising waters flood rows of cherry trees along a ramped shore.

In a Washington neighborhood park, "Im(migrant)" commemorates journeys that people have taken through the U.S. landscape.

For "Voiceover," parrot-like automated storytellers would hover over sites that could range from memorials to ordinary street corners. One would drop by periodically to tell passersby stories about the site.

In "American Wild," the 59 U.S. national parks would be projected by high-definition video at full scale. The interactive memorial would include audio recordings.

The designs are aimed at providing examples of what new monuments in Washington might look like. Besides the National Park Service, the contest is organized by New York's non-profit Van Alen Institute and the National Capital Planning Commission.

The contest was launched in April, and the four finalists were picked from 89 submissions. The winner will be named in September.

(Reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)
MANILA/KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Four Malaysian sailors kidnapped by Filipino gunmen in April were freed on the southern Philippine island of Jolo on Wednesday, a Philippine army spokesman said. The sailors, part of the crew of a tugboat traveling between Malaysia and the Philippines, were abducted by members of the Abu Sayyaf militant group off the eastern Malaysian state of Sabah on April 1. It was not immediately clear if a ransom had been paid. The Philippines rarely publicizes such payments, but it is widely believed no captives are released without them. Canadian John Ridsdel, 68, a former mining executive, was executed in April by Abu Sayyaf who captured him and three others in 2015 while they were on vacation on a Philippine island. Philippine Major Filemon Tan told reporters the Malaysians were released on Jolo, Abu Sayyaf's stronghold in the southern Philippines. The sailors were then sent by speedboat to Sabah. "We have yet to confirm whether ransom money was paid in exchange for the safe release of the victims," Tan said, adding that the kidnapping was led by Abu Sayyaf leader Madjan Sahidjuan, also known as Apuh Mike. Malaysian authorities have yet to confirm the sailors' release. Abu Sayyaf, a group linked to the Islamic State, have become notorious for kidnapping, earning millions of dollars in ransom. Last month, 14 Indonesians kidnapped by the group were released but several people, including Norwegian, Canadian and Japanese citizens are still being held. Security is precarious in the southern Philippines, despite a 2014 peace pact between the government and the largest Muslim rebel group that ended 45 years of conflict. (Reporting by Manuel Mogato and Rozanna Latiff; Editing by Nick Macfie)
Paris (AFP) - France's highest administrative court on Wednesday rejected an appeal by five men stripped of their nationality after being convicted for terrorism.

"Due to the nature and seriousness of the terrorist acts committed... the punishment of the stripping of nationality was not disproportionate," said the State Council in its ruling.

The five dual-nationality citizens involved were sentenced in France in 2007 for their role in a series of bombings in Casablanca, Morocco, in 2003 that left 45 dead.

Four of the men hold dual Moroccan nationality and the fifth dual Turkish nationality, and the ruling means they can now be deported to their country of origin.

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve requested in parliament last October that the men be stripped of their nationality.

French law only allows nationality to be removed from a citizen who holds a second passport and such cases are rare.

The interior minister said at the time that only one French person had been stripped of their citizenship since 2007, a jihadist with joint Moroccan citizenship who had his passport taken away in September.

France has stepped up the battle against jihadists since two major attacks in 2015 left 147 people dead.

After Islamic State gunmen and bombers attacked Paris in November, President Francois Hollande tried to change the constitution to strip all convicted terrorists of their nationality.

The reform sparked a fierce debate over the risk that it would create stateless persons, and even led to the resignation of justice minister Christiane Taubira who opposed the measure.

Hollande was eventually forced to scrap the plan in an embarrassing blow to his already beleaguered government.

The lawyers for the five men who lost their French citizenship argued that the decision amounted to a "double sentencing" and that if their clients were expelled from France they faced torture in their home countries.
Lyon (AFP) - One of France's most powerful Catholic leaders, Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, was questioned by police on Wednesday over allegations he covered up the sexual abuse of Scouts, his lawyer said.

Barbarin, the archbishop of Lyon in central France since 2002, has been accused of failing to remove a priest from his diocese when he became aware the man had sexually abused young boys 25 years ago.

Barbarin spent 10 hours at the police's family protection unit where he was interrogated as part of a preliminary investigation, but has not been taken into custody, his lawyer said.

State prosecutors will now have to decide whether to pursue the case against Barbarin, which has shaken France's Catholic Church.

The diocese of Lyon said in a statement after Wednesday's quizzing that the cardinal would continue to cooperate with the inquiry and that he hoped his testimony would "contribute to the establishment of the truth".

Barbarin's interrogation comes four days after Pope Francis issued a decree that senior Catholic officials guilty of negligence in child abuse cases can now be dismissed from office.

It was not immediately clear whether the papal decree would affect the Barbarin case.

The pope came under fire for meeting with Barbarin in May and has said it would be "nonsensical and imprudent" to seek the archbishop's resignation at this stage.

- 'Absolutely never' -

Barbarin has said he learned in 2007 that the priest, Bernard Preynat, had been accused of sexually abusing Scouts.

Preynat was only charged in January after a victim who was allegedly abused in the 1980s realised in 2015 that the priest was still in service. Several other victims have also come forward.

Barbarin has said that when he learned of the priest's past he immediately called a meeting with him and when he asked Preynat if he had committed further abuses since 1991 the priest swore he had not.

"You can reproach me for having believed him... but covering up means knowing and letting it happen," Barbarin said, adding he had "absolutely never" done that.

Story continues

Prosecutors say Preynat -- who was removed from service in 2015 -- has admitted the charges.

When complaints were first made against him in the 1980s, he was merely suspended for a few months.

The victims have filed complaints against several senior diocesan officials, including Barbarin, accusing them of failing to report the priest or remove him from duty despite being aware of his past.

Barbarin has admitted to "errors in the management and nomination of certain priests".

Several other members of the Lyon diocese have already been questioned by investigators and several police raids have been carried out at the archbishop's office.

On Friday the Lyon appeals court will decide whether there is a statute of limitations on the charges against Preynat, which could also have an impact on the case against Barbarin.

- Conspiracy of silence -

Barbarin has also been accused of covering up the abuse of a second Lyon priest, but was not being questioned in that case on Wednesday.

The scandal is the worst to hit the Catholic Church in France since 2001, when a bishop was given a three-month suspended jail sentence for failing to inform authorities about a paedophile priest.

Pope Francis came to power promising a crackdown on cover-ups and a zero tolerance approach to abuse itself.

But the Barbarin case, the recent Royal Commission hearing on Australia's Cardinal George Pell's alleged involvement in cover-ups and the lenient treatment of abusive Italian priest Mauro Inzoli have reopened old wounds.

After decades of scandals that have badly damaged the Church's standing in many countries, victims complain they are still not being listened to, that bishops will not hand priests over to police and that a conspiracy of silence remains in place.
LAS VEGAS, NV / ACCESSWIRE / June 8, 2016 / Frontier Energy Corp. (OTC MARKETS: FRGY): Frontier would like to provide shareholders with an update concerning recent corporate achievements and a plan of operations moving forward over the coming weeks.

On April 20th the Company filed a Form 8-K disclosure announcing that we have engaged the services of GBH CPAs, PC ("GBH") as the Company's independent registered public accountants and auditors. GBH has commenced the audit review process of Company's financial statements and corporate information. Upon the completion of this review, the Company intends to file with the SEC to bring the Company's filing obligations current.

The Secretary of State of Nevada has been updated, and the Company has increased its authorized capital structure to accommodate forthcoming acquisitions. The current outstanding shares of the company are 975,954,648 issued and outstanding and 874,703,989 in the public float. The current capital structure on OTC Markets is accurate, and the Company has no intentions to affect a reverse split.

Updates will be provided via the Edgar System, Accesswire and Twitter: https://twitter.com/frgycorp

Safe Harbor : This release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 27E of the Securities Act of 1934. Statements contained in this release that are not historical facts may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain. Actual performance and results may differ materially from that projected or suggested herein due to certain risks and uncertainties including, without limitation, ability to obtain financing and regulatory and shareholder approval for anticipated actions.

Frontier Energy Corp.

Contact: Investor Relations

Email: info@frontierfrgy.com

SOURCE: Frontier Energy Corp.
By Michael Martina and Matthew Miller

BEIJING (Reuters) - As the United States and China wrapped up talks this week touting bilateral cooperation on strategic and economic issues, many in the U.S. business community say the annual dialogue is delivering diminishing returns in resolving commercial disputes.

Foreign business in China is growing increasingly pessimistic, in part due to the country's slowing economy, but also because of growing fears of protectionism and rules that companies think could make it harder to operate there.

Concerns include draft regulations for China's insurance and banking industries and a pending cyber-security law that business groups say could limit sales for foreign companies in favor of domestic competitors.

Beijing's Made in China 2025 plan also calls for a progressive increase in domestic components in sectors such as advanced information technology and robotics, and President Xi Jinping has pledged to increase government support for technology companies, raising concerns that foreign providers will be at a disadvantage.

Those plans and proposals sit uneasily with China's "commitments to not impose nationality-based conditions on the sale, purchase or use (of info-technology)", a pledge repeated during the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED), which on Tuesday wrapped up its eighth and final round under President Barack Obama.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said on Wednesday that China would "earnestly put into effect" the many important consensus reached during the talks, but many in the U.S. business community feel the talks provide a forum to repeat previously made promises rather than push progress on market-opening reforms.

"Increasingly, there's been a sense that commitments have been made, and not necessarily adhered to. There's a sense that a growing set of bilateral challenges is outpacing the ability of the dialogue to effectively manage those areas of difference," said Jeremie Waterman, executive director for Greater China at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Story continues

Just hours after the S&ED finished in Beijing, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday heard testimony on concerns over China's enforcement of competition law, which include draft regulations that could force firms to license technology to competitors or face sanctions.

But the list of outcomes from this week's talks made no mention of antitrust policy.

China's promise to table next week an updated list of sectors off-limits to U.S. investors for ongoing talks on a bilateral investment treaty was seen as a highlight of the dialogue, though people in the U.S. business community privately say they are not optimistic it will be enough to make real progress on the treaty before Obama leaves office.

RELATIONSHIP BENEFITS

James McGregor, Greater China chairman for communications consultancy APCO Worldwide, who attended a Tuesday event for executives with senior U.S. and Chinese officials, said executives were blunt in stressing how negative things were becoming for foreign companies in China.

"I think they (officials) all walked out of the room feeling like they'd learned something today and that things are changing and not heading in a good direction now," McGregor said.

The official rhetoric in China has focused less on the concrete achievements of the dialogue and more on the relationship benefits.

The official Xinhua news agency said the talks had infused relations with a "shot of confidence".

"Only by constantly augmenting the areas of cooperation and pursuing consensus can China-U.S. ties move in a positive direction," it said in a commentary late on Tuesday.

That can help counter some of the anti-China sentiment whipped up during the American presidential race, some Chinese officials have said.

"During the ongoing raging fire of the U.S. election, candidates from both parties frequently make a fuss about trade problems with China. But China has not made an excessive response because we can more truly and accurately understand the true nature of problems and avoid misjudgments through the dialogue mechanism," Vice Premier Wang Yang said in a speech on Monday.

U.S. businesses also acknowledge that the S&ED has provided a high-profile forum to air their concerns and are advocating reforming it, not writing it off.

"In the next administration, the mechanisms for dialogue can be tweaked to make further improvements and become more effective, but high-level engagement is now mandatory in the U.S.-China relationship," the U.S.-China Business Council said in a statement.

(Reporting by Michael Martina and Matthew Miller; Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Will Waterman)
London (AFP) - The British government said Wednesday it would extend voter registration for the EU membership referendum after a last-minute surge in demand crashed the applications website -- but "Brexit" supporters cried foul.

The midnight Tuesday deadline for registrating to vote will be extended by 48 hours, the government announced.

Emergency laws will be rushed through parliament on Thursday, two weeks ahead of the historic June 23 vote, to legalise the extension.

Hundreds of thousands of people tried to register at the last minute, causing the online site to fail.

Applications came particularly from younger voters, who according to opinion polls tend to favour staying in the EU -- and "Remain" campaigners had complained the glitch would lessen their chances of victory.

"They've just told the House of Commons that their website crashed last night because of the high demand," Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the Vote Leave campaign said in a statement.

"But we know that the government and their allies are trying to register as many likely 'Remain' voters as possible," he said, adding: "Don't let the government skew the result of the referendum."

"Whitehall will do anything to stop this country taking back control from the EU," he said, referring to the centre of government administration.

- Youth vote -

Around 132,000 of the 525,000 people who did successfully register on Tuesday were aged under 25, compared to around 13,000 from the 65-to-74 age group.

"We think it is right to extend to midnight tomorrow to allow people who have not yet registered time to get the message that registration is still open and get themselves registered," Cabinet Office Minister Matt Hancock said.

Tim Farron, leader of the fervently pro-EU Liberal Democrats, Britain's fourth-biggest party, said: "Younger people are overwhelmingly pro-European, and if they are disenfranchised it could cost us our place in Europe".

Story continues

The surge in requests came immediately after a tense TV face-off between Prime Minister David Cameron and anti-EU leader Nigel Farage.

Cameron fended off hostile questions about high immigration rates of EU workers while Farage was forced to defend himself against charges of racism.

The referendum campaign has intensified long-held euroscepticism in Britain but a major survey on Tuesday showed it was not alone.

The Pew Research Center survey said opposition to the EU has also increased in traditionally more positive countries -- with a 17-point drop in EU support to 38 percent in France, for example, over a single year.

In the 10 countries surveyed, only Greek voters, forced by the EU and international lenders to adopt a harsh austerity programme, are more upset with Brussels than the French.

The Union is still supported among newer members, with 72 percent of Poles and 61 percent of Hungarians expressing a favorable view, compared to only 27 percent of Greeks.

In Britain, it found 48 percent of voters were unfavourable to Europe and 44 percent were in favour.

The WhatUKThinks website's average of the last six domestic opinion polls puts the "Remain" camp is on 51 percent and the "Leave" campaign on 49 percent.

- 'Little England' vision -

In Tuesday's debate, Cameron faced repeated questions from the audience on high immigration from other EU countries -- the "Leave" side's trump card during the campaign so far.

But the Conservative leader attacked what he called Farage's "little England" vision and said a Leave vote would mean "quitting, and I don't think we're quitters".

Warning that Brexit could lead to Scotland leaving the UK, he said: "You don't strengthen your country by leading to its break-up."

Scotland's governing secessionist Scottish National Party has said Britain voting to leave the EU, while a majority of Scots voted to stay in, would trigger a second referendum on independence.

However, a TNS survey of 1,008 Scottish voters found that in those circumstances, Scots would still not back independence, just as in the September 2014 referendum.

Excluding "don't know" voters, 71 percent of Scots would vote to remain in the EU, but 56 percent would vote to stay in the UK if Britain pulled out of the bloc, the poll found.
jon-snow-oathbreaker

HBO

There are only three episodes of Game of Thrones left this season. Thats the bad news. The good news: Vice Principals is around the corner, and HBO released the titles for the remaining episodes. This Sundays is No One, a common expression amongst the Faceless Men (Arya better watch out). Then we get to the good stuff. Episode nine (and the 59th episode overall) is Battle of the Bastards, followed a week later by episode 10, The Winds of Winter.

Theres no official plot synopsis for either episode (HBOs website reads, Please come back for upcoming HBO Original Programming information), but its not as if the Mad Men-esque summaries have been helpful this season, anyway. Plus, the titles give away a lot. Particularly for Battle of the Bastards, or as its commonly known amongst hyped Game of Thrones fans, the Bastard Bowl. The clash is what much of season six has been leading towards: Jon Snow, Sansa Stark, the Wildings, and badass Lyanna Mormonts 62 soldiers versus Ramsay Bolton and other evil people. The winner takes the north. Battle of the Bastards contains the shows biggest (read: most expensive) action sequence ever, with writer Bryan Cogman calling it a proper battle, with one army on one side, one army on another side.

As for The Winds of Winter, its unclear exactly what thats referring to, because, as you may have heard, author George R.R. Martin hasnt finished writing the book of the same name. Some readers have theorized that its the Starks ominous Rains of Castamere, or it means the Wall is about to come crashing down (and the White Walkers break on through to the other side). But thats all speculative. We do, however, know that Winds will be the longest Game of Thrones episode yet, clocking in at 69 minutes. Nice.

nice

HBO

To tide you over, heres the preview for this Sundays No One.

(Via Watchers on the Wall)
DailyFX.com -

What's inside:

GBPUSD likely to be confined until the vote

Upper and lower boundaries provide clarity on range

Currently in middle of range, need to wait for resistance or support before making any movies

The upcoming EU referendum is wreaking havoc on price action in GBP/USD, as both sides of the market react to various poll releases and speculate on the outcome of the vote. This is causing some wild swings as implied volatility in the options markets heats up. These swings may appear rather chaotic, but if handled properly as a trader they can be taken advantage of.

Its likely a range-traders market until after the vote, so we will treat it as such until either the upper or lower boundary is fully breached. GBP/USD currently sits in the middle of the roughly 400-point range, which makes establishing a position here not ideal. First, the middle of the range doesnt provide much directional indication. Secondly, there arent good reference points from which to determine stops and targets.

Mondays gap lower and reversal off the lower parallel near the May trough presented a decent spot to enter, but that is past us now. So, we will either wait for a move back towards the high-end of the range around 147 or back towards the 144 level. These are approximate levels, so watching how price behaves once around those levels will be important. Blindly buying into support or selling into resistance is not the favored approach on this end; rather waiting for a reversal in momentum once a zone of support or resistance is met is the preferred.

Additional note: Be careful on holding positions or at least full-sized positons into the weekend.

GBPUSD Daily

GBPUSD  Likely Range-trader Friendly Until the EU Vote

Levels to watch:

Long: 14330/14400 (rising parallel may require support elevating above 14400)

Short: 14700/14770

Exits: For both sides of the tape we will look for moves to carry towards the other side of the range with the prior levels in focus as ultimate targets.

*Risk/reward should be around 1:2 or greater.

Story continues

Looking for a real-time sentiment gauge? Check out our SSI indicator.

---Written by Paul Robinson, Market Analyst

You can follow Paul on Twitter at @PaulRobinsonFX, and/or email him directly at probinson@fxcm.com



original source

DailyFX provides forex news and technical analysis on the trends that influence the global currency markets.

Learn forex trading with a free practice account and trading charts from FXCM.
BERLIN (Reuters) - The German government will recommend that the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) rescue fund releases the next tranche of aid to Greece, according to a letter from Deputy Finance Minister Jens Spahn to the budget committee seen by Reuters on Wednesday.

The budget committee will discuss the release of 10.3 billion euros ($11.7 billion) in credit later on Wednesday.

Last week Greek lawmakers approved a set of extra measures demanded by international lenders to receive further bailout funds and cheap bank funding from the European Central Bank.

(Reporting by Gernot Heller and Matthias Sobolewski; Writing by Madeline Chambers)
From Popular Mechanics

China Defense Blog has republished a series of photos depicting life on one of China's most modern ships. The photos show a world not too different from western navies, albeit with more spartan living conditions.

Hefei, a Type 052D guided missile destroyer, is roughly the equivalent of the U.S. Navy's Arleigh Burke-class destroyers. Displacing 7,000 tons, Hefei has a Type 346 phased-array radar system for detecting aerial threats. It's equipped with 64 HQ-9 "Red Banner" missiles, roughly comparable to the SM-2 standard surface-to-air missile system, eight YJ-62 anti-ship missiles, a single 130-millimeter dual purpose ship gun, two close-in weapon systems, and six anti-submarine torpedoes. The ship also embarks a single Harbin Z-9 helicopter and has a crew of approximately 280.

Hefei is the third ship in her class, the first type of Chinese destroyers capable of providing fleet air defense. The 052D class destroyers would provide anti-air protection for China's aircraft carriers-of which one is in service and at least one more is under construction-and its amphibious task forces. Life on board the Hefei looks similar to life on board U.S. Navy ships and is a visible improvement over past living spaces. As China grows more wealthy, potential Chinese sailors are accustomed to a higher standard of living, meaning the People's Liberation Army Navy has had to step up its accommodations game.

See more at China Defense Blog.
By Alex Whiting LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The world has become increasingly violent with deaths from conflict at a 25-year high, terrorist attacks at an all-time high and more people displaced than at any time since World War Two, the 2016 Global Peace Index showed on Wednesday. The annual index, which measures 23 indicators including incidents of violent crime, countries' levels of militarization and weapons imports, said intensifying conflicts in the Middle East were mostly to blame. But beyond the Middle East, the world was actually becoming more peaceful, researchers behind the index said. "Quite often, in the mayhem which is happening in the Middle East currently, we lose sight of the other positive trends," said Steve Killelea, founder of the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), which produces the index. "If we look in the last year, if we took out the Middle East ... the world would have become more peaceful," Killelea told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. More than 100,000 were killed in conflict in 2014, up from nearly 20,000 in 2008. Syria, where nearly 67,000 people were killed in 2014, accounted for the bulk of the increase, according to the index. The United Nations has said the number of displaced people is likely to have "far surpassed" a record 60 million last year. The index showed that most attacks it classed as terrorist were concentrated in five countries - Syria, Iraq, Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The economic cost of violence over the past decade was $137 trillion - greater than the global GDP in 2015, the IEP showed. The indicator which improved the most in the last year was funding for U.N. peacekeeping operations, which reached record highs in 2016, IEP said. "However, peacebuilding and peacekeeping spending remains proportionately small compared to the economic impact of violence, representing just 2 percent of global losses from armed conflict," Killelea said in a statement. More than 120,000 U.N. peacekeepers are currently deployed in 16 operations worldwide. The largest are in Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan's Darfur region, South Sudan, Mali, Central African Republic and Lebanon. Another improvement in peace, is a 10 percent fall in global military spending in the last three years, IEP said. BUILDING LASTING PEACE Europe is the most peaceful region in the world, although the region's peace score dropped in the wake of attacks in Paris and Brussels. Deaths from such attacks in Europe have more than doubled over the last five years. Last year, world leaders agreed to "significantly reduce all forms of violence" by 2030 and find lasting solutions to conflict and insecurity, as part of a set of Sustainable Development Goals to fight inequality and extreme poverty. Building lasting peace takes more than just improving security, Killelea said. "Quite often as an international community we lose sight of that and try and have a one shoe fits all (approach)," he said. "For me the most profound thing about the index is the ability to use it ... to better understand the qualities ... which create peaceful societies," Killelea said. Iceland is the world's most peaceful country listed in the index, followed by Denmark, Austria, New Zealand and Portugal. The least peaceful country is Syria, followed by South Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia. (Reporting by Alex Whiting, Editing by Katie Nguyen.; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, corruption and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org)
Few countries trade with so much volatility in investor sentiment as China. Investors are manic about watching economic reports from the world's second largest economy, and the slightest change in statistics can mean a plunge in sentiment.

Shares trading on the Shanghai Stock Exchange are up 74% over the last ten years, but the long-term note masks some spectacular ups and downs over shorter periods. The index lost 28% of its value over the last nine months of 2011. And who can forget the meteoric boom over the year to June 2015 when the market surged 140%?

Investors have once again abandoned shares of Chinese companies despite strong economic fundamentals and valuation. I've already put together two trades on the theme for a gain of 54% and 45% in less than three months' time.

Now I'm going for the long-term trade on China for even stronger gains as fundamentals come back to drive shares higher.

Recent Economic Reports Have Investors Fleeing

The release of three economic reports late May renewed fears of a hard landing for the Chinese economy. The official May manufacturing PMI was unchanged from April at 50.1 to mark the third month just barely above the 50-level for expansion.

A separate survey measuring small- and medium-sized companies fell for the 15th consecutive month to 49.2 last month, signaling contraction. The government also reported the service sector dropped to 53.1 in May, threatening the idea that service sector growth could support the transition from an export-led economy.

[More from StreetAuthority.com: Is Your Portfolio Ready For Another Rate Hike?]

Beyond the prospect of a struggling economy, Chinese companies listed as American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) in the United States have also been under pressure since May 6 when the China Securities Regulatory Commission announced it was studying the impact of companies delisting on foreign exchanges through a private buyout to relist on domestic exchanges. More than 40 Chinese companies with ADR shares have received buyout offers since early 2015 for more than $35 billion, with about three-quarters of the deals yet to complete.

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The idea is that the companies can delist overseas to issue shares in the growing Chinese market, fetching a huge premium if they go public during one of the market's frenzied surges.

China bears like to point to questionable statistics and the undeniable fact that the country isn't growing by double digits as it did in the past. Even on a slowing economy, the IMF expects China's GDP to grow by 6.5% this year and 6.2% in 2017. That's more than three-times the growth expected in advanced economies. High income growth and structural reforms are expected to further the transition from manufacturing to a service- and consumption-driven economy.

One statistic being sorely overlooked by the bears is the staggering amount of foreign investment being made by China and its citizens every year. Investment abroad through outbound foreign direct investment already tops $1.2 trillion and is expected to reach $2 trillion by 2020, making China one of the largest cross-border investors in the world. This number doesn't include the massive amount of foreign exchange reserves and portfolio investments held by the world's second largest economy, bringing total Chinese-owned offshore assets to $6.4 trillion and which are estimated to grow to $20 trillion by 2020. On the current weakness in advanced economies, China represents 25% of total global investment. That pace of investment now is going to fuel consumption and the domestic economy in the future.

Flip-Flopping On China For Big Returns

I haven't been a perma-bull on China, positioning against the iShares China Large Cap (NYSE: FXI) in May of last year with a put options strategy that resulted in a 54% gain in less than two months.

[More from StreetAuthority.com: The Next Financial Crisis Looms In This Sector]

I was back in on the China trade in September, this time buying call options on the potential for government stimulus to support the struggling economy. I positioned in the December call options at the $36 strike price for a $2.75 premium. My $40 target price was reached late October and the options were sold for a 45% profit in just over a month's time.

Long-term investors don't have to worry about getting in and out at the right time. The recent hit to investor sentiment has made shares of Chinese companies attractive again. The SPDR S&P China ETF (NYSE: GXC) is down 6% this year and it's more than 30% off its high from April of last year. Shares trade for just 10.5 times forward earnings of the 359 companies held, a discount of 40% to the forward multiple of 17.8 times on stocks in the S&P 500. The fund has made several runs to $75 and beyond over the last few years, including last years rally that went to nearly $100 per share. I would be a buyer to $72.50 with a short-term target of $80 per share which is 14% above the current trade. Over the long-term, shares will eventually take out their previous high as the economy grows and Chinese corporations expand their influence outside the country.

Irrespective of the ups and downs in the market, which make for great short-term trades on the herd mentality, the long-term picture makes for a strong investment as China takes its place on the global stage. Economic growth is still the envy of everyone but a few countries, and China is quickly becoming the owner-of-record to the world's assets.

[More from StreetAuthority.com: This Online Dating Stock Is A 'Buy']

Understand that not all China ETFs are created equal, the larger iShares FXI is heavily weighted to financials (52% of holdings) against the relative diversification in the GXC which holds only 30% in financials, followed by IT (28%) and consumer discretionary (10%). The large weighting to financials may cause the FXI to lag if the government further weakens the Yuan, causing more capital flight and draining domestic banks.

Risks To Consider: Chinese stocks may remain undervalued for an extended time before surging as investors return to the space.

Action To Take: Take the contrarian side to go long on shares of the China ETF as investors flee on a temporary slowdown. Near-term upside on improved sentiment and stronger long-term gains await as China becomes a real economic powerhouse.

Editor's Note: It's been called "shockingly accurate." That's because this powerful buy/sell indicator has quietly been crushing the S&P, delivering gains of 72%... 89%... even 128% all in less than a year. You can find out which stocks it's signaling as a "buy" right now by clicking here.

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MOSCOW (Reuters) - U.S. bank Goldman Sachs <GS.N> has cut staff in Russia in the past few months and more cuts are expected by the end of the summer, sources familiar with the layoffs told Reuters.

One source said Goldman had sacked traders, back office staff and investment bankers in the past few months.

One Goldman stock trader was fired in May, a second source said.

A source at Goldman said the U.S. bank was making job cuts across the world but that in Russia it was mainly cutting investment-banking jobs as there were no deals.

The third source estimated Goldman was cutting over 10 percent of its Russian staff. Two sources said more cuts would follow by the end of the summer.

A Goldman Sachs representative declined immediate comment.

(Reporting by Oksana Kobzeva and Zlata Garasyuta; Additional reporting and writing by Alexander Winning; Editing by Christian Lowe and Adrian Croft)
google noogler

A little whining can go a long way:

Google parent-company Alphabet just promised to bring back swag bags to its annual shareholders meetings and even rushed free hats to all attendees after an investor complained.

It started when the first person to ask a question at the meeting begged the company to bring back free gifts.

"I thought we were gonna get a cute little bag or cap or mug!" griped Linda from Fresno. "I know to you it's not that big, but to me it is. Can you bring that back?"

Not only did Google SVP David Drummond say that her request would be duly noted for next year's meeting, but about 30 minutes later, Linda's wish came true.

"The question from the shareholder from Fresno affected me deeply, so I went ahead and asked a colleague to go ahead and pick up about a hundred hats form our store," said Google's head of people, Laszlo Bock, at the very end of the meeting. "They should be delivered here in five or ten minutes."

Ta-da! Google might not be able to make concrete financial promises or approve investor proposals that it should provide more details of its government lobbying efforts, but at least it can dole out some branded headgear.

No word on whether the shareholders got caps or beanies since Google sells both  and a lot of other stuff  in its online store:

Schwag

Schwag

NOW WATCH: How to find Netflixs secret categories





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By Anastasia Moloney BOGOTA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Every day 33 people become entrapped in sex trafficking rings in Guatemala, including a "shocking" proportion of children, some of them sold into the sex trade by their mothers, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said. Nearly 60 percent of the 50,000 victims of sex trafficking in Guatemala are children, according to a report by UNICEF and the U.N. Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), which estimates the industry to be worth $1.6 billion a year. "We never imagined the magnitude of the number of children being sexually exploited. People were shocked by the figures, as were we," Kagoshima said, referring to the recent U.N. report. Girls as young as 12 work in brothels and are forced to have sex with up to 30 customers a day, while virgin girls are recruited at schools, she said. Sex trafficking is fueled by a "social tolerance" of children being sold for sex work, a business equal to 2.7 percent of Guatemala's gross domestic product, she said. "Society collectively closes its eyes to children being exploited. We have to open our eyes to the problem," Kagoshima told the Thomson Reuters Foundation late on Tuesday. Poverty is one of the biggest drivers of sex trafficking in the central American country where three in five people live on less than $3.10 a day, UNICEF said. Traffickers often target poor, uneducated and unemployed women and girls, luring them with false promises of earning money as a waitress or model, UNICEF said. DOMESTIC VIOLENCE Guatemala's engrained macho culture, along with widespread sexual abuse in the home, also fuels trafficking. "Often human trafficking starts from domestic and sexual violence by fathers and stepfathers. This is a very common scenario in Guatemala," Kagoshima said. She said such violence prompts boys and girls to run away from home, leaving them prey to sexual exploitation by traffickers. The U.N. report cited the case of Claudia, who was caught in a sex trafficking ring aged 12 after leaving home to escape abuse by her stepfather. "For months, Claudia endured the touching, until the stepfather threatened her one day of abusing her little sister if she would not have sex with him," the report said. "She accepted to have sex to save her little sister but she was unable to tolerate the situation for long," it said. Mothers who are known to sell their children into the sex trade are often themselves victims of trafficking or domestic abuse. "They go to car parks where there are trucks and sell their daughters for a very low price," Kagoshima said. The report gave the example of Juanita, who at 14 was sold by her mother in 2011 for $13,000 to a policeman who kept her captive as a sex slave for nearly a year. "I said I didn't want to do anything with him ... he threatened me with a gun and he said "well, you have to do it," the report quoted Juanita as saying. Guatemala has introduced several initiatives and laws to tackle human trafficking. These include a 2009 anti-trafficking law, a protocol implemented in 2014 to guide officials when assisting victims, and greater focus on combating the online child sex trade. Despite these efforts, there are just two prosecutors working on sex trafficking cases across the country, and the number of trafficking convictions in Guatemala remains low, the U.N. report said. In 2014, the Guatemalan authorities convicted 20 human traffickers, according to the 2015 U.S. State Department report on human trafficking. "Only 1,600 sex trafficking cases are detected a year. The rest are kept in the dark," Kagoshima said. (Reporting by Anastasia Moloney, editing by Katie Nguyen.; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, corruption and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org)
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / June 8, 2016 / H.E.L.P. for Street Youth of Canada Society ("HELP") is pleased to announce that it has entered into a three-year financial partnership with National Bank Private Banking 1859.

HELP is a private non-profit CRA registered charity, based in Vancouver, BC, which operates both The H.E.L.P. for Street Youth Fund and Project Backpack.

The H.E.L.P. for Street Youth Fund assists homeless and at-risk youth (ages 18-25) get out of poverty by providing bursaries to allow them to pursue studies, primarily at vocational-focused schools. HELP's goal is intended to assist youth obtain an education and thus receive the skills to secure meaningful and steady employment.

Now in its 10th year, Project Backpack is a community-based initiative that both provides essential items to homeless youth for survival on the streets, as well as educating students and citizens about youth homelessness. Project Backpack has coordinated and assisted in the stuffing of thousands of backpacks, all containing basic essentials (warm clothing, toiletries, food coupons, etc.) to help youth survive on the street. These packs are then distributed to youth centres throughout Vancouver.

"Our partnership with HELP represents our commitment to promoting the well-being of the communities we serve," said Sheila Jarvis, Vice President, Private Banking 1859-Vancouver at National Bank of Canada. "Through our One for Youth program, we are helping younger generations to develop to their full potential. We are thus proud to support an organization that gives youth a second chance."

Cara Sinclair, HELP founder & president stated: "We are honoured that National Bank Private Banking 1859 has chosen to partner with us and assist vulnerable and at-risk youth who have fallen through the cracks and risk being street-entrenched forever. The funds received from National Bank will go directly towards assisting at-risk youth obtain an education. Through our collective efforts we hope to make a difference in the lives of these young people."

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For Further Information, Please Contact:

National Bank Private Banking 1859

Johanna McLellan

johanna.mclellan@nbc.ca

H.E.L.P. for Street Youth of Canada Society

Cara Sinclair

info@helpstreetyouth.org

Website: www.helpstreetyouth.org or www.projectbackpack.ca

Twitter: @HELPPBP

SOURCE: H.E.L.P. for Street Youth of Canada Society
MIAMI, FL / ACCESSWIRE / June 8, 2016 / EmergingGrowth.com, a leading independent small cap media portal with an extensive history of providing unparalleled content for the Emerging Growth markets and companies, issues a new Acquisition report on Halitron Inc. (OTC Pink: HAON).

Halitron, Inc. (OTC Pink: HAON), during June 2016, ventured further into acquisitions with its fifth acquisition of 2016 and the eighth since 2015.

With the completion of its fifth acquisition, EmergingGrowth.com looks at valuation and the road ahead for HAON.

View the report here: http://www.EmergingGrowth.com/halitron-inc-otc-pink-haon-five-acquisitions-2016-forecasted-generate-1-2m

HAON a roll-up equity holding company with a market cap around 1 million as of June 2016 according to OTC Markets, is a Connecticut - based company which focus on acquiring assets for sales, marketing and manufacturing.

About EmergingGrowth.com

EmergingGrowth.com is a leading independent small cap media portal with an extensive history of providing unparalleled content for the Emerging Growth markets and companies. Through its evolution, EmergingGrowth.com found a niche in identifying companies that can be overlooked by the markets due to, among other reasons, trading price or market capitalization. We look for strong management, innovation, strategy, execution, and the overall potential for long- term growth. Aside from being a trusted resource for the Emerging Growth info-seekers, we are well known for discovering undervalued companies and bringing them to the attention of the investment community. Through our parent Company, we also have the ability to facilitate road shows to present your products and services to the most influential investment banks in the space.

Disclaimer

All information contained herein as well as on the EmergingGrowth.com website is obtained from sources believed to be reliable but not guaranteed to be accurate or all-inclusive. All material is for informational purposes only, is only the opinion of EmergingGrowth.com and should not be construed as an offer or solicitation to buy or sell securities. The information may include certain forward-looking statements, which may be affected by unforeseen circumstances and / or certain risks. EmergingGrowth.com may either hold a stock position in or have been compensated by or for a company or companies discussed in this article. EmergingGrowth.com does not have a stock position in any securities discussed in this article. Please view our full disclosure which can be found here, http://www.emerginggrowth.com/disclosure-4266. Please consult an investment professional before investing in anything viewed within. When EmergingGrowth.com is long shares it will sell those shares. In addition, please make sure you read and understand the Terms of Use, Privacy Policy and the Disclosure posted on the EmergingGrowth.com website.

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CONTACT:

Company: EmergingGrowth.com - http://www.EmergingGrowth.com

Contact Email: EmergingGrowth1@gmail.com

SOURCE: EmergingGrowth.com
No-spoilers alert: J.K. Rowling, your secrets are safe here. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, the two-part sequel that starts 19 years after the final chapter in the franchise finale Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, began two months of sold-out previews Tuesday night at Londons Palace Theatre before its July 30th opening. In a video message released Monday, Rowling implored theatergoers to keep the plays secrets: Let audiences enjoy Cursed Child with all the surprises that weve built into the story.

Whether the media will follow suit is another matter. Several newspapers broke with tradition and protocol last year by sending critics to the first previews of Benedict Cumberbatchs performance in the title role of Hamlet. Interest in the stage debut of Harry Potter, in a new storyline, is no less intense: When tickets went on sale last October, 175,000 sold out in 24 hours, with fans queuing online for several hours to secure their spots. Will everyone really #KeepTheSecrets, as a golden hashtag on the souvenir tickets beseeches? So far, early verdicts from The Telegraph and the Daily Mirror were careful to stick to description rather than opinion, keeping plot details confined to the previously-announced hints the production had approved. Though there was a bit more detail in the New York Times precis.

The tricks rarely feel like tricks; that theyre happening live makes the magic often more impressive than the CG wizardry of the movies.

So suffice it to say on first viewing that John Tiffanys staging of Jack Thornes play (Rowling conjured the story in concert with Thorne and Tiffany) goes to great lengths to deliver the Wizarding World without shying away from its magic. Designer Christine Jones (Old Times, Hands on a Hardbody) set conjures Kings Cross and the many rooms of Hogwarts, turning on a dime. And a wide variety of ingenious stage trickery illuminates the tale, which picks things up where they were left in Rowlings Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows epilogue. Those tricks are often simple and age-oldlike stagehands in shadows, clever light projection and pyrotechnic flashes. But the particular alchemy employed here is like nothing the West End has ever seen, and there are many wow moments for even the greatest skeptics.

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Crucially, the tricks rarely feel like tricks; that theyre happening live makes the magic often more impressive than the CG wizardry of the movies. And a score of rearranged instrumental Imogen Heap tracks might be a 180-degree shift from John Williams familiar theme, but it struck as no less magical.

After a thunderous round of applause when the lights went down, the 1,400-strong audience responded emphatically to plot twists, stage magic and the appearance of a live owl with oohs, ahhs and general enthusiasm. It felt more Broadway than West End (where even die-hard Cumberbatch fans saved their appreciation for the Hamlet curtain call), but this show can expect friendly audiences for many months to come on brand value alone, and its hard not to get into the spirit.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

It didnt seem to take the fan-heavy audience any time at all to adjust to a new, older trio playing Harry, Ron and Hermione, with Jamie Parker, Paul Thornley and Noma Dumezweni in the respective roles. But the importance of the younger charactersparticularly Harry Potters son Albus (Sam Clemmett) and Draco Malfoys son Scorpius (Anthony Boyle)cant be overstated. There was some debate in the stairwells afterwards about the identity of the Cursed Child of the title, along with anticipation that all would be revealed at Thursday nights second part. The feeling of excitement and of being on an extended theatrical journey not available either from the books or the films recalled that of the Royal Shakespeare Companys groundbreaking two-parter The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby more then three decades ago. This is the most significant Potter work since that last book, and the plays script wont be published until July 31, though its already topping bestseller lists.

It remains to be seen how long Londons critics will wait before weighing in on what undoubtedly will be a social-media tidal wave of discussion about the shows merits, with plenty advice for producers Sonia Friedman and Colin Callender as they move forward toward opening and, presumably, Broadway. Matt Wolff of the International New York Times expected tonights preview would feature its share of media, but that full reviews would not be forthcoming. The lengthy preview, he told Deadline, is to be expected of a two-part play with staging as complex as any musical. Im guessing the preview period will be respected when it comes to actual, full-fledged reviews, he said. Hamlet was slightly different in some peoples minds in that Shakespeares play, of course, is a fully formed entity. This is a brand-new, two-part play that has never been staged anywhere before.

No one in the audience found cause to balk at the 2hr45 runtimethe pace ensures it just zips by, with a story as dense as any of the books. And as the play endedno shock to say, on a cliffhangeranticipation for where the tale would turn in the 2h35 second part suggested no one was ready for it to end. A standing ovation was all but guaranteed, but it was brief: there was no curtain call from the cast. That will come, no doubt, with Part 2 on Thursday evening. Well let you know.

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Enthusiastic reports of a magical night at the theater began streaming in Wednesday after the first performance of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, one of the most highly anticipated productions in Londons West End in years.

Previews began Tuesday at the Palace Theater and will continue for eight weeks until the official opening night of July 30. The play is in two parts, with the inaugural performance of part one on Tuesday evening and the second part set for Thursday.

Audience members took to Twitter to give the play a thumbs-up, with one commenting: Literally the best live production I have ever seen in my life. Another wrote: VERY impressive magic happening on stage. Funny script.

The first tranche of tickets for the Palace Theater run, which ends May 27, 2017, sold out within 24 hours of going on sale in October  unsurprisingly, given the legions of devoted fans around the world of the boy wizard whose adventures through seven books have also been turned into highly successful films. A spinoff movie, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, is set for release this fall.

In the run-up to the launch of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Rowling had said that, as a theatrical experienceit will be unlike anything people have seen before. She also urged attendees via social media not to reveal plot details, and the hashtag #KeepTheSecrets featured heavily in tweets.

The play, directed by John Tiffany and written by Jack Thorne, is set 19 years after the last novel. Harry is working at the Ministry of Magic, and his son Albus is about to set off for Hogwarts, accompanied by Rose Granger-Weasley, the daughter of Harrys friends Ron and Hermione, and Scorpius Malfoy, son of his frequent antagonist Draco.

Christine Jones stage design is simple: a Gothic arched hallway that serves as the backdrop for multiple locations, including Kings Cross Station, the main hall at Hogwarts, and the corridors of the Ministry of Magic. Old-fashioned traveling trunks are strewn about the stage. Neil Austins imaginative use of lighting plays a strong part in creating the atmosphere, while old-fashioned stage effects recreate the wizardry generated by computer effects in the movies.

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Signs at the theater warned the audience that the production contained theatrical smoke and fog effects, pyrotechnics, high-intensity flashing lighting effects, adding that the auditorium lighting will be extinguished for short periods of time.

Initial reaction from audience members suggests that Thornes script delivers the humor and plot twists that have made the books beloved of millions of readers worldwide. Many of those in the audience Tuesday evening were Americans. One of the hotly debated questions before the performance was whether Albus would be assigned to Slytherin House instead of Gryffindor when he arrives at Hogwarts.

About a quarter of the 40-strong cast and several leading characters, including Hermione, are from ethnic-minority backgrounds. Rowling called those objecting to the casting of black actress Noma Dumezweni as the grown-up Hermione a bunch of racists, and tweeted that Rowling loves black Hermione.

Almost inevitably, the production was met with a standing ovation. The only reported mishap during the performance was when a live owl escaped backstage.

Related stories

Warner Bros. Completes Harry Potter Franchise Team With Polly Cochrane Promotion

J.K. Rowling Slams 'Bunch of Racists' Attacking Black Hermione Casting

See First Photos of 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child'
Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fcard%2fimage%2f110603%2fminalima_int

You know all of the stunning graphic artwork and props that give the Harry Potter films that extra magical touch? Well now you can see them in person.

The MinaLima studio  the ones responsible for all Harry Potter-related graphic art  has opened a massive, four-story exhibition in Soho, London, to showcase its work.

SEE ALSO: Mom turns self-conscious son's cut into epic Harry Potter scar

As the MinaLima website explains, Miraphora Mina and Eduardo Lima started working together to design art after meeting on the set of Harry Potter back in 2001.

The fascinating exhibit at The House of MinaLima displays the print material they designed for the Harry Potter films  including fan favorites like The Daily Prophet newspaper and the Marauders Map, along with book covers, posters and more.

The Warner Bros. Studio Tour in London has loaned about 50 props to the exhibition, and according to It's Nice That, some of MinaLimas other iconic works, such as illustrations from recent publications of Peter Pan and The Jungle Book will also be on display.

Check out some featured items below to get a taste of what's in store:

Image: MinaLima

Image: MINALIMA

Image: minalima

Image: minalima

Image: minalima





Image: minalima

The House of MinaLima  located at 26 Greek Street, London  will remain open until Feb. 4, 2017.
(Corrects Costco slashed prices on its own-brand products, not Sonova's in 6th paragraph)

By Ole Mikkelsen

COPENHAGEN, June 7 (Reuters) - Hearing aid maker William Demant is looking for more retail acquisitions to increase control over the sale of its products and fight competition from discount chains such as Costco.

The group will not hesitate to buy retail chains if necessary to protect the sale of own-brand hearing aids, Chief Executive Niels Jacobsen told Reuters on the sidelines of the company's investor meeting in Copenhagen on Tuesday.

"We are looking at what is coming up for sale and if it fits in our strategy then we are ready to buy," Jacobsen said.

He declined to specify how much money the company had to spend, but said it had strong cash flow.

William Demant's focus on retail follows Costco Wholesale's move to become a major player in the retail market for hearing aids in the United States, where about 40 percent of all hearing aids are sold. Costco now accounts for around 10 percent of hearing aid sales in that market.

Last month, Swiss market leader Sonova said it missed full-year sales and profit targets, partly because Costco slashed prices on its own-brand products at prices that Sonova's devices struggled to compete against.

More than 90 percent of the $6 billion hearing aid wholesale market is controlled by six companies and no new players of significance have come on the scene for the past three decades.

Sonova and William Demant are estimated to control more than 40 percent of global market. Other hearing aid makers include Denmark's GN Store Nord and Widex, Germany's Sivantos and Starkey in United States.

William Demant has already bought French retail chain Audika for 1.3 billion Danish crowns ($198.4 million) and Sonova bought Dutch-based Audionova for 830 million euros ($941.4 million) in May.

"It's purely defensive moves," analyst Daniel Jelovcan from brokerage firm Bank am Bellevue in Zurich said about recent acquisitions in the industry.

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Analysts have questioned if a move into retail makes sense for William Demant, Sonova and other hearing aids makers because they are newcomers to the retail business and there is uncertainty about the impact on their earnings.

William Demant has defended its plans by saying up to 70 percent of the money made in the hearing aid business comes from the retail side.

William Demant said it had refused to sell its premium brand hearing aid Oticon to Costco and was only willing to sell its older and cheaper brands to the U.S. group.

($1 = 6.5526 Danish crowns)

($1 = 0.8817 euros) (Editing by Jane Merriman)
Brock Turner sentencing photo

Last Thursday, a judge sentenced 20-year-old Brock Turner to six months in a county jail and three years' probation after he was convicted of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman in January 2015. Turner will also have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

Before his sentencing, Turner wrote to the court a defense letter, which was obtained by The Guardian. In it, Turner, who was previously a star athlete on Stanford University's swim team, describes how his life has changes since the events of January 17, 2015.

"I've lost two jobs solely based on the reporting of my case," he wrote. "I wish I never was good at swimming or had the opportunity to attend Stanford, so maybe the newspapers wouldn't want to write stories about me."

The letter offers a glimpse into Turner's reaction to his conviction. While he expresses some remorse about the assault, he blames Stanford's "party culture" for much of what occurred.

He wrote:

I wake up having dreamt of these horrific events that I have caused. I am completely consumed by my poor judgment and ill thought actions .... I've been shattered by the party culture and risk taking behavior that I briefly experienced in my four months at school. I've lost my chance to swim in the Olympics. I've lost my ability to obtain a Stanford degree. I've lost employment opportunity, my reputation and most of all, my life.

Those words likely ring hollow to the victim of Turner's attack, referred to as Emily Doe to protect her privacy.

"You took away my worth, my privacy, my energy, my time, my safety, my intimacy, my confidence, my own voice, until today," Emily wrote in her own letter to the court.

Her powerful letter explaining the aftermath of the attack has gone viral. She wrote:

You cannot give me back the life I had before that night either. While you worry about your shattered reputation, I refrigerated spoons every night so when I woke up, and my eyes were puffy from crying, I would hold the spoons to my eyes to lessen the swelling so that I could see.

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Defendants often write letters to the court in the hopes of obtaining a lesser sentence, and Turner's words may have resonated with Judge Aaron Persky, who presided over the case.

"A prison sentence would have a severe impact on him. I think he will not be a danger to others," Persky told the court.

Some have decried Persky's sentence as a "slap on the wrist" and petitioned for his removal from the bench.

On the night of the assault, two graduate students saw the incident occurring behind a garbage bin outside of a fraternity house at Stanford University. When Turner tried to run, the graduate students pinned him down until the police arrived.

You can read Turner's full statement here:

The night of January 17th changed my life and the lives of everyone involved forever. I can never go back to being the person I was before that day. I am no longer a swimmer, a student, a resident of California, or the product of the work that I put in to accomplish the goals that I set out in the first nineteen years of my life. Not only have I altered my life, but Ive also changed [redacted] and her familys life. I am the sole proprietor of what happened on the night that these peoples lives were changed forever. I would give anything to change what happened that night. I can never forgive myself for imposing trauma and pain on [redacted].

It debilitates me to think that my actions have caused her emotional and physical stress that is completely unwarranted and unfair. The thought of this is in my head every second of every day since this event has occurred. These ideas never leave my mind. During the day, I shake uncontrollably from the amount I torment myself by thinking about what has happened. I wish I had the ability to go back in time and never pick up a drink that night, let alone interact with [redacted]. I can barely hold a conversation with someone without having my mind drift into thinking these thoughts. They torture me. I go to sleep every night having been crippled by these thoughts to the point of exhaustion. I wake up having dreamt of these horrific events that I have caused. I am completely consumed by my poor judgment and ill thought actions. There isnt a second that has gone by where I havent regretted the course of events I took on January 17th/18th.

My shell and core of who I am as a person is forever broken from this. I am a changed person. At this point in my life, I never want to have a drop of alcohol again. I never want to attend a social gathering that involves alcohol or any situation where people make decisions based on the substances they have consumed. I never want to experience being in a position where it will have a negative impact on my life or someone elses ever again. Ive lost two jobs solely based on the reporting of my case. I wish I never was good at swimming or had the opportunity to attend Stanford, so maybe the newspapers wouldnt want to write stories about me.

All I can do from these events moving forward is by proving to everyone who I really am as a person. I know that if I were to be placed on probation, I would be able to be a benefit to society for the rest of my life. I want to earn a college degree in any capacity that I am capable to do so. And in accomplishing this task, I can make the people around me and society better through the example I will set.

Ive been a goal oriented person since my start as a swimmer. I want to take what I can from who I was before this situation happened and use it to the best of my abilities moving forward. I know I can show people who were like me the dangers of assuming what college life can be like without thinking about the consequences one would potentially have to make if one were to make the same decisions that I made. I want to show that peoples lives can be destroyed by drinking and making poor decisions while doing so. One needs to recognize the influence that peer pressure and the attitude of having to fit in can have on someone. One decision has the potential to change your entire life.

I know I can impact and change peoples attitudes towards the culture surrounded by binge drinking and sexual promiscuity that protrudes through what people think is at the core of being a college student. I want to demolish the assumption that drinking and partying are what make up a college lifestyle I made a mistake, I drank too much, and my decisions hurt someone. But I never ever meant to intentionally hurt [redacted]. My poor decision making and excessive drinking hurt someone that night and I wish I could just take it all back.

If I were to be placed on probation, I can positively say, without a single shred of doubt in my mind, that I would never have any problem with law enforcement. Before this happened, I never had any trouble with law enforcement and I plan on maintaining that. Ive been shattered by the party culture and risk taking behavior that I briefly experienced in my four months at school. Ive lost my chance to swim in the Olympics. Ive lost my ability to obtain a Stanford degree. Ive lost employment opportunity, my reputation and most of all, my life. These things force me to never want to put myself in a position where I have to sacrifice everything.

I would make it my lifes mission to show everyone that I can contribute and be a positive influence on society from these events that have transpired. I will never put myself through an event where it will give someone the ability to question whether I really can be a betterment to society. I want no one, male or female, to have to experience the destructive consequences of making decisions while under the influence of alcohol. I want to be a voice of reason in a time where peoples attitudes and preconceived notions about partying and drinking have already been established. I want to let young people now, as I did not, that things can go from fun to ruined in just one night.





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A man holds a smartphone, with the Google Maps app open, in Sarajevo, April 15, 2015. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic

Google Maps could be the source of Google's next billion-dollar ad business.

The company recently announced new types of ads within Maps that analysts at Morgan Stanley believe could help the business deliver $1.5 billion in incremental revenue in 2017.

The new Promoted Pins ads in Google Maps nudge people into visiting businesses, like restaurants or gas stations, that appear along their route. Google is also rolling out other new local search features, like letting advertisers list special offers or local product inventory search bars.

Google has never broken out how much money it makes from Maps specifically  it lumps the revenue from its core websites like Search, YouTube, and Maps together, totaling about ~80% of its ad revenue  but analysts see huge potential.

"In our view, Maps remains one of Google's most under-monetized assets," Morgan Stanley wrote in the note to investors on Wednesday.

Maps has more than 1 billion monthly users and Morgan Stanley analysts say that even if Google slowly ramps up its Maps ad load  increasing it by 50% in two years  it could hit $1.5 billion in incremental revenue in 2017:

Google

NOW WATCH: How to see everything Google knows about you





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On Wednesday, Davontae Sanford will walk free after eight years in prison for a 2007 quadruple murder in Detroit he did not commit  eight years after a paid assassin confessed to the crime, provided the murder weapon and said Sanford was innocent.

The Innocence Project at the University of Michigan, an advocacy group for the wrongly convicted, told CNN the then-14-year-old Sanford plead guilty "once he realized his defense attorney was not going to do anything to defend him." Two weeks later, hit man Vincent Smothers confessed, but Sanford languished under a 37-90 year prison sentence. In 2015, the Michigan State Police re-opened the case and recommended perjury charges for one of the officers who testified at his trial, according to CNN.

Read more: More Prisoners Were Found Wrongfully Convicted in 2014 Than Ever Before

On Tuesday, Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Brian Sullivan ordered Sanford immediately released and his conviction vacated, reported the Detroit Free Press.

Davontae Sanford's family says they're grateful the Michigan Innocence Clinic is fighting for a new trialpic.twitter.com/8wY6EU2J8M https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CCqTjeBUkAA2fmF.jpg:large

According to the American Civil Liberty Union's Cassandra Stubbs, black defendants are significantly more likely than white defendants to be wrongfully convicted.

So too are impoverished defendants, wrote lawyer Arthur L. Rizer III in the William Mitchell Law Review. Rizer argued the "most prevalent [factors leading to wrongful convictions] are the lack of competent counsel, the lack of resources, police misconduct, the focus of law enforcement, and a general lack of credibility given the impoverished by society ... With the lack of credibility comes a host of other problems, such as police misconduct in the gathering of confessions. Based on what has been learned from DNA exonerations, 44% of wrongful convictions involved false confessions obtained through police misconduct."

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Vincent Smothers.

That may well have been the case with Sanford's trial. Center on Wrongful Convictions of Youth co-director Megan Crane told the Free Press Sanford was interrogated for two straight days on the killings, and his state-appointed attorney, who has faced state reprimands for misconduct, failed to bring the nature of Sanford's confession to light during the case.

Even with the alternative confession from Smothers, Sanford's appeals proceeded with "excruciating slowness," reported the Free Press.

A

The justice system only works when defendants are treated fairly by authorities and given a full and equal opportunity to argue their side in a court of law. In Sanford's case, that didn't happen and it looks like race and poverty had a big role to play in explaining why.
D Hillary Clinton's victory speech after the New York primary in April, she talked about job creation, retirement schemes and inequality in America. And she just happened to do all of that while wearing a boxy, woven, mauve jacket designed by Giorgio Armani worth $12,495.

To some, the look was hypocritical. To others, it seemed like a massive oversight on her campaign's part.

Source: Kathy Willens/AP

How the Armani jacket came to exist probably has to do with the fact that Clinton recently hired a team of image experts, one , that are in charge of taking her style and dress and making it more relatable. When's the last time you heard a rich man attempting to do the same? (That's right. Never.)

"She's had to have spent in the six figures on this wardrobe overhaul," political image consultant Patsy Cisneros told the New York Post.

This is what Hillary Clinton, the now-presumptive Democratic nominee for the president of the United States after big wins in California and New Jersey on Tuesday night, feels she must do in order to look acceptable.

What this latest instance of criticism really highlights is not just the attention that is paid toward what female politicians and public figures wear, but just how difficult it is to be deemed "acceptably dressed" by the American public when you are a woman. And unfortunately, this $12,000 jacket fiasco (which is now actually a $7,000 jacket fiasco, because the jacket is now on sale) is just the latest chapter in the long, tired history of political women around the world being called out for how much they spend on their appearance.

Palin in 2008, Romney in 2012 and Obama in 2014

Clinton's not the first: In 2008, the Republican National Committee was blasted for paying about $150,000 for new clothing and accessories for their hopeful vice president Sarah Palin.

In 2011, then-Rep. Michele Bachmann was called out for spending $4,700 on hair and makeup two months.

In 2012, Ann Romney, whose husband Mitt was running for president, almost took down a campaign when she wore a $990 shirt. "Does Ann Romney wear her $990 designer shirt while driving one of her two Cadillacs?" asked the Washington Post's Suzi Parker.

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In 2013, German Chancellor Angela Merkel caught heat because she admitted to getting her hair and makeup done every day.

In 2014, Michelle Obama was criticized for wearing a $12,000 gown to a state dinner, when there's actually a good chance it was given to her as a gift.

Bachmann in 2011 and Merkel in 2013

It's not even just the women who dole out lots of cash for personal upkeep who people have a problem with, but also the women who don't pay enough, like Michelle Obama.

"The reality is that the garment and textile trade has been a dying industry for the last 10 years. So why are we so excited when we see our first lady in cheap, imported clothes?" author Elizabeth Cline asked in the Huffington Post.

"Now we've got this system where you're either in designer clothes that no one can afford or you're in cheap, imported clothes," she continued. "I think, if anything, [Michelle Obama] should make people feel sad about the state of the fashion industry."

Source: John Locher/AP

To add Clinton to this list, she was mocked in 2012 for not wearing any makeup at all as Secretary of State, with Fox News r she looked "tired and withdrawn." Now, she wears a jacket worth more than $12,000 and without any proof that she actually paid that amount, people lash out. And, again,

More and more, it seems, with the attentiveness of the internet, female politicians are in a damned if they do, damned if they don't situation. Meanwhile, during all of this indignation over Clinton's jacket, Donald Trump has been open about his favoritism towards Brioni suits, which cost $7,000 a pop, and the media has so far been mum about them.

Source: Getty Images

The political pink tax: What makes dressing as a female politician even more difficult now is what we're going to call the "political pink tax," which is how much more clothing costs for women, versus men.

Just like razors and deodorant and shampoo, designer clothing for women is simply more extravagant. Take a shirt from Tom Ford. At Neiman Marcus, a button-down shirt for a woman by Tom Ford costs $1,490. A button-down shirt for a man by Tom Ford costs $570. At Saks Fifth Avenue, a sleeveless blouse by Burberry is $525. At that same store, a dress shirt for a man by Burberry is $250. When it comes to designer clothing, women often pay far more than men.

Another aspect of this political pink tax has to do with the additional attention paid toward what women wear, and how they simply cannot get away with wearing the same five suits over and over again on a cycle, like a man could. To show this fact exactly, an Australian TV news anchor conducted an experiment in which he wore the same suit for a year and absolutely no one noticed. Now, think about how the public usually reacts when famous women repeat outfits.

"I've worn the same suit on air for a year  except for a couple of times because of circumstance  to make a point," Australian newscaster Karl Stefanovic said. "I'm judged on my interviews, my appalling sense of humor  on how I do my job, basically. Whereas women are quite often judged on what they're wearing or how their hair is ... that's [what I wanted to test]."

Source: Getty Images

In order to avoid criticism, women have to innovate  and that often means they have to spend money. Over the past few weeks alone, Clinton has worn blue and turquoise and black and white and purple and red and orange and even plaid. In the '08 cycle, she repeated outfits quite often, and obviously it ended up not paying off. So this cycle, she must innovate and, in turn, pay in order to avoid yet another uproar.

Amid this particular "scandal," what the real question may be for everyone is: Why do we care? Why, oh why, do we care enough to shame a woman who has a lot of money already, and has gone out and maybe paid $12,000 for a jacket? As first lady, seemingly the issue would be that some people think taxpayers pay the bill (they don't). Is it the fact that she was talking about inequality? In that case, has anyone pulled the price tags on President Barack Obama's suits?

What difference does it make if the woman who may very well have the nation's missile codes is wearing a $12,000 jacket or a $3 one from a bargain bin?
On Jun 7, we issued an updated research report on Batesville, IN-based medical device manufacturer Hill-Rom Holdings, Inc. HRC. The company currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Hill-Rom posted a mixed second quarter of fiscal 2016 with the bottom line surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate and the top line missing the same. On the brighter side, the company is reaping significant benefits from the Welch Allyn acquisition as is evident from this business contribution to revenues as well as gross margin in the second quarter.

Hill-Rom has set its long-term financial goals (till fiscal 2018) taking the Welch Allyn buyout into consideration. The company projects revenue increase from its organic activities in the range of 3%5% annually at constant exchange rate with adjusted operating margin expansion likely to be 450550 basis points (including the benefits from the Welch Allyn acquisition). Adjusted earnings per share (EPS) CAGR is expected in the mid-to-high teens compared with the 2015 EPS figure

Apart from Welch Allyn and Trumpf, several of the companys recent noteworthy acquisitions include Virtus, Aspen, Surgical and Volker. Each of these transactions has been driving growth for the company.

During the fiscal second quarter, on account of the Welch Allyn buyout, Hill-Rom launched Connex Spot Monitor in the U.S., which is already witnessing strong traction in the domestic market. The company is also rolling out a new product, RetinaVue, which is expected to boost growth.

On the flip side, unfavorable currency movement continues to be a dampener and the company does not expect any improvement any time soon. Hill-Rom also expects foreign exchange to impact its full-year 2016 revenue outlook by approximately 2%3%.

Moreover, the company witnessed top-line deterioration in most of its overseas businesses, except Asia-Pacific, on account of persistent weakness in the Middle East and Latin America. In addition, competitive and global economic headwinds are the other downsides.

Story continues

Key Picks in the Sector

Better-ranked medical stocks are Baxter International Inc. BAX, Boston Scientific Corporation BSX and LeMaitre Vascular, Inc. LMAT. All the three stocks carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

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Washington (AFP) - Hillary Clinton locked in the Democratic White House nomination on Tuesday, but Bernie Sanders has yet to officially throw in the towel -- having vowed to fight on all the way to the party convention in July.

The American political tradition is for presidential rivals to bury the hatchet once the primary season is over, and throw their joint weight into the battle against the opposite camp as election day draws near.

But wiping the slate clean might not come easy. Here are some of the harsh words they've fired at one another.

- Hillary on Bernie -

"I'm so sick of the Sanders campaign lying about me. I'm sick of it," Hillary Clinton told a climate activist in New York in March, after she accused her of accepting donations from fossil fuel lobbyists. The candidate rarely let her anger slip so unabashedly, but animosity between the rivals has risen throughout the Democratic primaries.

"His campaign, which he claims to be a positive campaign, has engaged in artful smear, innuendo and insinuation and enough is enough," she said in a television interview in February.

But she's aimed her toughest words at the heart of her socialist opponent's message: She says it's not up to snuff. "I think he hasn't done his homework and he'd been talking for more than a year about doing things that he obviously hadn't really studied or understood, and that does raise a lot of questions," she said in the lead-up to the April New York primary.

Addressing Sanders' main social and economic reform plans, she says: "The numbers just don't add up."

- Bernie on Hillary -

Bernie Sanders has crusaded for more than a year to convince Democrats that Hillary Clinton, despite her experience, would make a poor leader. His first piece of evidence is her 2002 Senate vote in favor of the Iraq War -- a vote she later said she regretted.

"I do question her judgment. I question a judgment which voted for the war in Iraq -- the worst foreign policy blunder in the history of this country," said Sanders in the last Democratic debate held in New York in April.

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"Maybe Secretary Clinton might want to apologize to the families who lost their loved ones in Iraq?" he said in an interview.

Clinton's historical connection to Wall Street is Sanders' other main talking point. "I don't believe that she is qualified if she is through her Super PAC taking tens of millions of dollars in special interest funds," he said in April.

And when Clinton claimed she was certain of being the party nominee well before the primaries were over, Sanders brushed it off: "Just a tinge of arrogance there, I think."
Washington (AFP) - On the subject of women in politics, Hillary Clinton is fond of quoting the words of another illustrious first lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, who once said: "You need to grow a skin as thick as a rhinoceros."

When out on the stump, in cafes, churches and rallies across the country, Clinton tells a thousand tales of the adversity she has faced down over the course of four decades in public life.

"I have the scars to prove it," quips the former secretary of state, painted by her enemies as "crooked," "corrupt" -- even an enabler of her husband's affairs -- as the Republican attacks flew thick and fast throughout the 2016 White House campaign.

A Machiavellian image clings to the ambitious Midwesterner, dating back to her years in the political spotlight as a tandem with Bill. She is considered "dishonest" by a majority of Americans, and the mudslinging is only set to intensify as she heads into a brutal showdown with Donald Trump.

And yet, at age 68, Clinton now stands at the threshold of the White House, making history as the first woman to carry the colors of a major US political party in the presidential race.

"Yes, there are still ceilings to break for women and men, for all of us. But don't let anyone tell you that great things can't happen in America," Clinton told supporters at a rally in New York, fired up by her victory in the Democratic primaries.

- From Chicago to Arkansas -

Hillary Diane Rodham was born October 26, 1947 and raised in a middle-class household in Chicago suburb Park Ridge.

She adored her mother Dorothy but described her father Hugh Rodham, born from Welsh immigrants, as a stubborn and rigid taskmaster.

He imposed his work ethic on young Hillary, but also his frugality. She still puts uneaten olives back in the jar and is loath to waste anything, she wrote in her 2003 autobiography, "Living History."

Clinton shared her father's Republican convictions in adolescence, as well as his thunderous laugh. The family is Methodist, and to this day Hillary remains in the church.

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Since her school days, she chased success, earning honors and accolades that could fill a bookcase.

From age 13, she took odd jobs to help finance her studies. Smart and ambitious, Hillary was admitted in 1965 to Wellesley, an elite women's college near Harvard where she was eventually elected president of her class.

It was the social tumult of the sixties, and Clinton's eyes were opened to the struggle for civil rights, the explosive debate over Vietnam and the fight for gender equality.

When she was accepted in 1969 at prestigious Yale Law School, she met Bill Clinton, the "Viking" from Arkansas who would change the course of her life.

After working for the Children's Defense Fund, and a period in Washington in 1974 on the commission investigating the Watergate scandal, she gave in and joined Bill in Arkansas.

He was soon elected Arkansas governor and Hillary Rodham joined a prestigious law firm, eventually becoming its first female partner. Chelsea, their only child, was born in 1980.

- Political first lady -

She soon dropped her maiden name and became Hillary Clinton, first lady of Arkansas and then the nation after her husband's White House election victory in 1992.

Her assertive style contrasted with that of her predecessors. She played an active political role, symbolized by the location of her office in the West Wing.

Her relations with lawmakers and journalists quickly soured, particularly over her efforts to reform the health care system, a role bestowed on her by her president husband. Republicans branded her a radical feminist.

She suffered intense humiliation when news of Bill's affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky surfaced in 1998. But her popularity has never been higher than the 67-percent approval rating she enjoyed in December 1998, according to a Gallup poll at the time.

- Solo career -

Pressured by friends and associates in Hillaryland, the first lady launched herself into politics, winning a US Senate seat for New York in 2000.

She laid low during the 2004 presidential race, but four years later she entered the fray to challenge fellow senator Barack Obama, who savaged her vote supporting the Iraq war.

Clinton chose to run on her experience, refusing to campaign on gender. But Americans opted instead for the 40-something political neophyte Obama, bringing hope of change after eight years of George W. Bush.

After a period of detente with his party rival, Obama appointed Clinton secretary of state.

Her critics argue she can claim no major diplomatic successes, and Republicans accused her of incompetence over a 2012 militant attack on the US mission in the Libyan city of Benghazi that left the US ambassador and three other Americans dead.

Her use of a personal email account instead of an official government one has proved a crippling scandal for her, fueling suspicions that the Clintons see themselves as above the law.

But her four globe-trotting years in the post also cemented her image as a powerful stateswoman -- consistently ranked the most "admired" woman in America -- and that potent mix of tenaciousness and cold realism finally saw the better of her idealist Democratic challenger Bernie Sanders.
Hillary Clinton, who has become the first woman to secure a presidential nomination for a major U.S. political party, celebrated the historic victory at the Brooklyn Navy Yard Tuesday night.

Read: House Speaker Paul Ryan Blasts Trump's Judge Comments as 'Textbook Racism'

She was joined on stage by her pregnant daughter, Chelsea, and husband, President Bill Clinton.

Thank you for this milestone, she told the roaring room of supporters. This is the first time in our nations history that a woman will be a major party nominee for president!

The former Secretary of State also spoke about her Democratic rival, Bernie Sanders, and how she now wants to unify the party.

Let there be no mistake, she said. Senator Sanders, his campaign, and the vigorous debate that weve had about how to raise incomes, reduce inequality, increase upward mobility have been very good for the Democratic Party and for America.

Sanders told supporters in California he's still not ready to give up the fight and pledges to stay in the race.

"Next Tuesday we continue the fight," he said. "We are going to fight hard to win the primary in Washington, D.C., and then we take our fight for social, economic, racial and environmental justice to Philadelphia. The struggle continues."

He added: "Our vision will be the future of America!"

Read: Hillary Clinton Clinches Democratic Nomination, Becomes First Woman to Lead Major Party's Ticket

Donald Trump celebrated his wins at his country club in Westchester County. He was flanked by wife, Melania, and daughter, Ivanka.

Tonight, we close one chapter in history and begin another... Youve given me the honor to lead the Republican Party to victory this fall. I understand the responsibility of carrying this mantle, and I will never let you down. I will make you proud of your party  and our movement, he said.

Story continues

Tuesday night's speech was one of the rare times Trump has used a teleprompter. In the past, he has mocked other politicians for using one.

Hillary Clinton made a speech today using the biggest teleprompter I have ever seen. In fact, it wasn't even see through glass, it was black  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 5, 2015

Hillary said such nasty things about me, read directly off her teleprompter...but there was no emotion, no truth. Just can't read speeches!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 5, 2015

Bad performance by Crooked Hillary Clinton! Reading poorly from the telepromter! She doesn't even look presidential!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 2, 2016

The podium in the Oval Office looks odd! Not good, but the words will be the key.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 7, 2015

"@JFK4701: @realDonaldTrump he is reading off the TelePrompTer." But that is O.K. in this case.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 7, 2015





Watch: Woman Pelted With Eggs by Anti-Trump Mob at San Jose Rally Identified as Bodybuilder

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Hillary Clinton claimed victory on Tuesday as the first woman to become the presumptive nominee of a major political party, savoring the history she had made 96 years after American women first won the right to vote.

Thanks to you, weve reached a milestone, Clinton told a screaming crowd in Brooklyn. Dont let anyone tell you that great things cant happen in America. Barriers can come down.

For Clinton, it was an emotional moment that culminates a remarkable, decades-long career in politics in which she sometimes struggled to escape the long shadow of her husband, former President Bill Clinton. With the klieg lights on her  and Bill Clinton off-stage  the evening at the center of a Brooklyn warehouse was her one-woman show that is perhaps a preview of Americas next four years.

The White House announced that President Obama had phoned Clinton on her victory. Her historic campaign inspired millions and is an extension of her lifelong fight for middle-class families and children.

Flush with victory and relishing the exuberant crowd, Clinton thrust her arms up and mouthed her thanks for several minutes before telling her supporters she had won a majority of the delegates decided by voters. It was a key development for the coming intra-party fight that rival Bernie Sanders plans on waging all the way to the nominating convention in Philadelphia. Sanders now has lost all chance of winning the Democratic nomination through a popular vote, but he still could persuade superdelegates, who overwhelmingly back Clinton, to switch allegiances.

Clinton paid it little heed. This campaign is about making sure there are no ceilings, no limits on any of us, she said in a speech that always seemed to teeter on all emotion breaking loose.

With a bruising primary behind her and an arduous general election battle ahead, Clinton now stands in the eye of a hurricane. Her aides are bracing for a brutal campaign against presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump. But for the moment, those aides and advisers took a moment to relish in the history they had helped create.

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On Monday, as the Associated Press unexpectedly published its tally of delegates that named Clinton the presumptive nominee, campaign chief Robby Mook climbed atop a desk in his sneakers and popped a bottle of sparkling wine. A day later, in audience heavy on Clinton aides and their families, staffers sipped beer and wine while they waited for Clinton to arrive. They were checking their mobile devices less frequently than they had in months. I forgot what it was like to have a conversation that wasnt illuminated by an iPhone screen, joked one staffer.

Before Clintons motorcade arrived at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, her soundtrack was heavy on female themes: No Doubts Im Just a Girl, Britney Spears Stronger, Destinys Childs Independent Women, Christina Aguileras Fighter. Supporters were eager to cheer Clinton in the coming fight against presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, who was expected to win all of his primaries on Tuesday.

Clinton, too, was taking a minute to enjoy the moment. This campaign is about making sure there are no ceilings, no limits on any of us, she said. I am going to take a moment to fully absorb the history weve made here. Then, never one to dilly-dally, she is scheduled to head to campaign in swing states Ohio and Pennsylvania at the start of next week. Her work to defeat Trump starts now, and it would be far easier if she were confident that Sanders supporters were with her.

Let there be no mistake: Senator Sanders, his campaign and the vigorous debate that weve had about how to raise income, reduce inequality, increase upward mobility, have been very good for the Democratic Party and for America, Clinton said.

Clinton was deferential to Sanders even as she took her victory, praising his supporters for joining the political process and pushing progressive issues to the fore. She hinted that she might co-opt those ideas in a bid to woo Sanders allies. But she also flatly made clear that her campaign against him was over. We all need to keep working toward a better, fairer, stronger America, Clinton said. We believe that we are stronger together, and the stakes in this election is high and the choice is clear.

She urged Sanders supporters to link arms with her in a fight against Trump, even though the Sanders-istas were still stinging from the loss. I know it never feels good to pour your heart into a candidate or a cause and come up short. I know that feeling well, she said, eight years to the day she conceded the 2008 campaign to Barack Obama.

There was unlikely to be such an exit from Sanders, who scheduled a speech in California for 1 a.m. on East Coast. President Obama called him on Sunday to take his temperature, and phoned him again Tuesday night. Sanders planned to lay off about half of his remaining staff later this week, but asked for a meeting with Obama. The pair is set to meet on Thursday.

We believe cooperation is better than conflict, unity is better than division, empowerment is better than resentment, and bridges are better than walls, Clinton told the crowd.

Clinton claimed wins in New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota. Montana was just starting to count its ballots. The biggest pot of delegates, however, was California, and polls there suggested a tight race as of midnight on Tuesday. The APs coronation of Clinton on its eve was certain to have an impact, although there was little unanimity about what that was.
Hillary Clinton declared victory Tuesday night in her grueling battle for the Democratic presidential nomination, in doing some becoming the first woman to lead a major American political party.

The #ImWithHer hashtag immediate began trending as artists, celebs, thinkers, business leaders and many others took to social media to applaud and recognize Clinton's historic achievement.

Ricky Martin, Christina Aguilera, John Legend & Stevie Wonder Play Hillary Clinton's 'She's With Us' Concert

"Tonight's victory is not about one person," Clinton said during an emotional rally in Brooklyn, eight years to the day after she ended her first failed White House run. "It belongs to generations of women and men who struggled and sacrificed and made this moment possible."

Check out some of the reaction below.

For the first time in our history, a woman will be a major party's nominee for President of the United States. pic.twitter.com/4iLojpuPj8

- Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 8, 2016

Watching Hill & Tears are in my eyes----I'm So proud of this MomentIm SO Proud Of Her.

SAY WHAT YOU WILL

THE CHICK'S A WARRIOR--- Cher (@cher) June 8, 2016

WHEN I was young,Didn't Think woman COULD B PRESIDENT

THOUGHT IT WAS AGAINST LAWLAST NITE I CALLED HILL"MY PRESIDENT"

I THINK I'M 1ST 1--- Cher (@cher) June 8, 2016

and you thought I was gonna take a selfie with it on my lips ----

A photo posted by KATY PERRY (@katyperry) on Jun 7, 2016 at 6:09pm PDT

Proud to support @HillaryClinton! She's making history not for herself, but for women everywhere! #ImWithHer

- Christina Aguilera (@xtina) June 7, 2016

Congratulations, Hillary on your great victory. And thank you for a beautiful speech tonight. This is a... https://t.co/uFOA60UjmO

- Anne Rice (@AnneRiceAuthor) June 8, 2016

My daughter can be president too!!! #ImWithHer #BreakingThroughThatCeiling @HillaryClinton pic.twitter.com/OVDQ0kD6ne

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- Perez (@ThePerezHilton) June 8, 2016

#ImWithHer since day 1 - nice speech, H.

- Lo Bosworth (@LoBosworth) June 8, 2016

#ImWithHer. I am SO with her.

- julieplec (@julieplec) June 8, 2016

Congrats @HillaryClinton on becoming the first female nominee of any major party in the US! #HistoryMade #ImWithHer pic.twitter.com/rltm43OpdE

- Eva Longoria Baston (@EvaLongoria) June 8, 2016

\

I keep saying Hillary is the ultimate changemaker, and tonight she proved it. I couldn't be more proud. History made. #ImWithHer

- Bill Clinton (@billclinton) June 8, 2016

Congratulations to @HillaryClinton! This is a great victory for NYC and the country. pic.twitter.com/YOkjxAAatz

- Bill de Blasio (@BilldeBlasio) June 8, 2016

The ceiling is shattered. Thank you @HillaryClinton. pic.twitter.com/KE4K7gUgtB

- Debra Messing (@DebraMessing) June 8, 2016

Her fight is our fight. @HRC is proud to stand with @HillaryClinton #ImWithHer pic.twitter.com/vdyiyvgtec

- HumanRightsCampaign (@HRC) June 8, 2016

#HILLARY2016 VOTE for the 1st female US president in history. This country could use a little rock n' roll. ------------ pic.twitter.com/3kYJsvclc0

- Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) June 7, 2016

Congratulations to @HillaryClinton on her historic win!

- John Legend (@johnlegend) June 8, 2016

Thank you #ShirleyChisholm for paving the way for tonight's momentous achievement by @HillaryClinton! Now the REAL WORK begins! #ImWithHer

- Angela Bassett (@ImAngelaBassett) June 8, 2016

A lot of little girls are in bed right now dreaming for the first time, without limits. You broke the mold @HillaryClinton ----

- KATY PERRY (@katyperry) June 8, 2016
Hillary Clinton

The presumptive presidential nominees from both major parties are fighting to win over the supporters of an insurgent candidate who won significant popular support but fell short of the delegates needed to clinch the Democratic nomination.

Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, and Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, made appeals Tuesday night to supporters of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has vowed to fight on for the Democratic nomination.

In her first interview since becoming the presumptive nominee, Clinton told ABC News that she has been in contact with the Vermont senator's campaign.

"I'm certainly reaching out," she said. "Our campaigns are talking to one another. I want to unify the party. I look forward to talking with him personally because I think his campaign has been a really dynamic and exciting experience for the millions of Americans  particularly young people  who supported him."

She appealed to Sanders supporters by pointing out the common ground that she and the senator share on certain Democratic issues.

"I want them to know that I'm going to be working on a lot of the same issues that Sen. Sanders and I spoke about, that we both care about, and that we have so much more in common than we do with the Republican presumptive nominee, Donald Trump," Clinton said.

Trump is also hoping to woo some Sanders voters over to his camp.

"To all those Bernie Sanders voters who have been left out in the cold by a rigged system of superdelegates, we welcome you with open arms," Trump said in his victory speech Tuesday. "We can't fix a rigged system by relying on  and I mean this so strongly  on the very people who rigged it," he continued, referring to Clinton.

In recent weeks, Trump has been blasting the Democrats' "rigged" system of superdelegates and saying the deck is stacked against Sanders. But Clinton is ahead of Sanders in the delegate count even without superdelegates, who aren't bound by states' primary votes.

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For her part, Clinton doesn't seem worried about losing Sanders supporters to Trump.

"Anyone who supported Bernie Sanders, who thinks we should raise the minimum wage, who thinks that we should have universal healthcare coverage, who thinks that the wealthy have not paid their fair share, would certainly not find that Donald Trump's views are in line with theirs," she told ABC News.

Sanders is reportedly preparing to lay off half his campaign staff, but he still plans to campaign in Washington, DC, which holds the final primary of the 2016 cycle on June 14.

He's set to meet with President Barack Obama at the White House on Thursday. The White House said the meeting came at Sanders' request.

Watch Clinton's interview below:

NOW WATCH: CLINTON: 'We've reached a milestone'





More From Business Insider


It took a year, but Hillary Clinton finally seems to be building momentum as the Democratic nominee for president. That includes a gusher of money starting to flow her way.

Victories in the final week of state primary elections finally gave Clinton enough delegates to make her the de facto Democratic nominee, facing off against Republican counterpart Donald Trump. And almost immediately, Clinton won one of the most coveted endorsements in politics: Billionaire hedge-fund manager Tom Steyer, the most prolific Democratic donor of recent times.

Steyer donated $73 million to candidates in the 2014 midterms, most of it through his own super PAC, NextGen Climate Action. For the 2016 cycle, he's donated $13 million so far. Steyer is a devout environmentalist who mostly spends his money campaigning against Republicans who dispute the effects of climate change and the need for solutions. Steyer didnt say how much hed be willing to spend on Clinton, but his endorsement suggests he may contribute more than if he were merely supporting the Democratic cause generally.

Clinton already has a sizable funding advantage over Trump. Between her campaign and various super PACs supporting her, Clinton had more than $80 million on hand at the end of April. Trump had just a couple million. Trump has self-financed about 75% of his campaign up till now, but even billionaire Trump has nowhere near the liquid assets to fund a battle with a candidate who could easily raise $1 billion, when super PACs and other sources are combined.

Republican finance guru Fred Malek said recently that Trump could face a fundraising shortfall of $300 million to $500 million. That would be a giant gap, especially considering that Republican Mitt Romney lost to Democrat Barack Obama in 2012, even though fundraising was roughly even between the two candidates.

Theres no lack of wealthy GOP donors. But they dont automatically write million-dollar checks just because a candidate shows up. And Trump spent most of the campaign so far bashing super PACs and by extension their donors, portraying the whole arrangement as part of the rigged system Americans are sick of. Trump is now assembling a traditional fundraising team, but hes years behind Clinton, who started raising money for her presidential bid in 2014  and has a network to call on that dates back more than 20 years, to her husbands presidency.

Trump will probably snag some big donors  including possibly Sheldon Adelson, the casino baron who spent roughly $100 million on GOP candidates in 2012, making him the single biggest donor in that cycle. But wealthy GOP donors have already blown $400 million on failed candidates such as Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz. Some are fed up with their partys presidential prospects and focusing on Congressional races or state-level contests. In this contest, Trump the dealmaker may have to settle for less than he feels he deserves.

Rick Newmans latest book is Liberty for All: A Manifesto for Reclaiming Financial and Political Freedom. Follow him on Twitter: @rickjnewman.
There always has to be a first. Though she just became the first woman to clinch the nomination of either major U.S. political party, Hillary Clinton wasnt by any stretch the first woman to run for President. Her success, as she noted in her victory speech Tuesday night in New York City, comes as she stands on the shoulders of generations of American women.

Thanks to you, weve reached a milestone: the first time in our nations history that a woman will be a major partys nominee, she said. Tonight it really is not about one person. It belongs to generations of women and men who struggled and sacrificed and made this moment possible.

With every candidacy, the public grew more used to the idea. And the notion was furthered by Hollywoods fixation on women in politics in the past decade, many of those characters based, in part, on Clinton. With every discussion of the sexism female candidates faced, their challenges in media, the criticism of how the looked or sounded, their difficulty raising money compared to their male rivals, their responsibility for their husbands flaws  ground was tilled and it became easier each time for a woman to advance. With this victory, Clinton takes another of those steps. And even if Clinton doesnt win the Oval Office this time, her candidacy has already made history, already made it easier for the next woman to run.

Women have run in at least 35 races for President since Victoria Woodhull announced her groundbreaking candidacy in a letter to the New York Herald on April 2, 1870. Considering this was 50 years before women won the right to vote, her bid was pretty astonishing. Never mind that 33-year-old Woodhull wasnt legally old enough to become President, she won the Equal Rights Party nomination and selected as her running mate Frederick Douglass, the renowned former slave and abolitionist leader. Woodhull, whose open marriage was the talk of New York, traveled the country promoting her platform of suffrage, free love and birth control. She once declared marriage to be nothing more than legalized prostitution.

There is no escaping the fact that the principle by which the male citizens of these United States assume to rule the female citizens is not that of self-government, but that of despotism, she declared in an 1871 speech. King George III and his Parliament denied our forefathers the right to make their own laws; they rebelled, and being successful, inaugurated this government. But men do not seem to comprehend that they are now pursuing toward women the same despotic course that King George pursued toward the American colonies. Woodhulls revolution would be another 145 years in the making.

On June 4, 1919  the day that Clintons mother, Dorothy Howell Rodham, was born  Congress passed the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. When Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the amendment a year later, women got the vote.

I really wish my mother could be here tonight, Clinton said. I wish she could see her daughter become the Democratic Partys nominee.

It would be 45 years after Dorothy Rodham was born before America saw the first credible female candidate for President. That happened in 1964 when Maine Senator Margaret Chase Smith ran for the GOP nomination. Smith, who served in the Senate from 1940 to 1973, was the first woman to serve as chair of the Senate Republican Conference, the No. 4 leadership position in the Senate. Smith rose to prominence in June 1950 after going toe to toe with Joe McCarthy of Red Scare fame. She was the first of his colleagues to condemn his methods, leading McCarthy to derisively label her and subsequent dissenters, Snow White and the Six Dwarfs. After her blistering exchange with McCarthy on the Senate floor, one of her male colleagues remarked that if a man had given that speech hed have been the next President of the United States.

The argument contends that I would be pioneering the way for woman in the future  to make her more acceptable  to make the way easier  for her to be elected President of the United States. Perhaps the point that has impressed me the most on this argument is that women before me pioneered and smoothed the way for me to be the first woman to be elected to both the House and the Senate  and that I should give back in the return that which had been given to me, Smith said in announcing her candidacy. She received 227,007 votes, the most of any women until Hillary Clintons candidacy, and won 27 delegates at the convention, denying Barry Goldwater a clean sweep.

Smith did ease the way for other women to run. Almost double the number of women would run for President in the next 40 years than in the previous 93. In 1972, New York Representative Shirley Chisholm became the first woman to run for the Democratic nomination. In 2000, former Transportation and Labor Secretary Elizabeth Dole led in many polls, but she entered the race too late and never caught up with George W. Bush and Steve Forbes fundraising advantage, despite leveraging her husbands lists from Bob Doles 1996 bid. After seven months in the race, Dole had raised $4.7 million to Bushs $57 million.

What money Dole did raise, 51% of it came from female donors  a rarity given that women give far less to political campaigns then men. You could see women kind of sit up in the audience when you talked to them about womens responsibility in politics and the things I would say about how much we needed women to really be active, Dole told me for my book, Broad Influence: How Women Are Changing the Way America Works. It didnt fit because we were too late. I truly believe that. If wed started a year earlier it couldve been a different picture.

In 2000, Minnesota Representative Michele Bachmann ran for the GOP nomination. In an interview, she told me that her proudest moment was when the Washington Post wrote that Bachmann had set a new standard in politics for always being perfectly turned out. There was no moment during my day when I couldnt be camera ready, she said. Maintaining this look made napping on the bus impossible because it would wreck her hair and makeup. For a woman, hair moves, makeup slides off your face, a nylon runs, something gets spilled on a jacket, you have to be prepared for anything, she said.

Of course, the woman who came the closest to winning the presidency before this election was Clinton herself in 2008. She won the support of 18 million voters, or 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling, as she called them in her concession speech to Barack Obama, exactly eight years ago Tuesday. She began her speech by lightheartedly referencing that one.

It may be hard to see tonight but we are all standing under a glass ceiling right now  but dont worry, were not smashing this one, she said.

Newton-Small is author of the recent book, Broad Influence: How Women Are changing the Way America Works, available on amazon.com and at bookstores widely.
Hillary Clinton wins New Jersey and New Mexico, secures Democratic nomination, makes HISTORY!

Hillary Clinton wins New Jersey and New Mexico, secures Democratic nomination, makes HISTORY!

Today is a huge day for Hillary Rodham Clinton. Primaries were held in Montana, New Jersey, North and South Dakota, New Mexico, and California. So far, Clinton has won New Jersey and New Mexico and although Monday night it was reported that she had enough delegates already to clinch the Democratic partys nomination, the news of these wins is huge. Because Clinton is the presumptive Democratic Partys nominee.

Thanks to you, we made history tonight. Celebrate with a free magnet: https://t.co/87M0j1zqrg  Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 8, 2016

Why is this win so important?

Clintons lead in delegates means that she will very likely be the first woman on the presidential ballot.

In her victory speech, Clinton triumphantly stated, We are all standing under a glass ceiling right now But dont worry, were not smashing this one. Thanks to you, weve reached a milestone tonight  The first time in our nations history that a woman will be a major partys nominee for president.

Voters took to Twitter, expressing their excitement for this amazing moment in history:

I really hope Hillary Clinton wins & becomes the 1st female president!!! #ImWithHer  JEWLZ (@Yojuliee) June 8, 2016

@HillaryClinton we'll keeping fighting for you. Great job tonight. Your hard work is a wonderful example to us all.  Geoff Owens (@GeoffOwens64) June 8, 2016

No matter who has your vote, history did take place today. You can't deny that. #HillaryClinton #Hillary2016 https://t.co/qBxWQlzh3S  Amber (@AmberGalvin) June 8, 2016

Did you hear that? Oh yeah, it was the shattering of the glass ceiling. #HillaryClinton #DemocraticNomination pic.twitter.com/YcNm5FMP0r  Callie (@calliegeissler) June 8, 2016

What now?

According to Quartz, Clinton still needs a third of Californias delegates by 8 p.m. tonight. Even with just under 50 percent, she will have more than 215 delegates she requires in order to defeat Senator Bernie Sanders.

Story continues

To every little girl who dreams big: Yes, you can be anything you wanteven president. Tonight is for you. -H pic.twitter.com/jq7fKlfwGV  Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 8, 2016

What about Bernie Sanders?

So far, Sanders has not dropped out of the race. According to The New York Times, Sanders has not held any meetings in regards to whether he should withdraw, and he doesnt have any speeches prepared to announce his withdrawal. It looks like hell keep fighting until the Democratic convention in July  regardless of the California primary results.

Watch Clintons full speech on C-SPAN.

The post Hillary Clinton wins New Jersey and New Mexico, secures Democratic nomination, makes HISTORY! appeared first on HelloGiggles.
A Hong Kong protester told Wednesday how he was kicked and punched during pro-democracy rallies in 2014 as seven police officers stood trial over the attack, which was captured on film and beamed around the world.

Civic Party activist Ken Tsang testified for the first time in the trial which began last week in the semi-autonomous Chinese city.

All seven officers have pleaded not guilty.

Video footage of the assault, filmed by local media near the city's government headquarters, shocked residents and dented their faith in the usually trusted police force.

Police have been criticised for their sometimes heavy-handed treatment of protesters during the 79 days of rallies and street blockades which brought parts of the city to a standstill.

The demonstrators were seeking fully free elections for Hong Kong's future leaders.

Tsang, 40, said he was assaulted by seven men after he was subdued by police at a rally.

He was shown video footage in which prosecution lawyers asked him to identify himself. In one clip, he was thrown to the floor before several men kicked him in a dimly-lit area.

Footage by local network TVB and broadcast at the time showed a group of men hauling a handcuffed Tsang to a dark corner in a public park, where he was beaten.

One man stood over him punching him while three others were seen repeatedly kicking him.

Defence lawyers have said they would challenge the authenticity of the videos.

One of them told the court there were inconsistencies in what Tsang had told police in his early statements, including his failure to point out the exact number of people who assaulted him.

Cheng Huan suggested Tsang had no "independent memory" of what happened and was influenced by footage that became widely available afterwards.

The seven police, including senior officers, are charged with causing grievous bodily harm to Tsang, while one is accused of common assault.

They were suspended from duty after their arrests.

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Tsang himself was sentenced to five weeks in prison for assaulting and resisting officers after he splashed liquid on police on the same night he was beaten.

Pro-police supporters gathered outside court, chanting "We support our police force" while several Tsang supporters carried yellow umbrellas, a symbol of the democratic movement.

Nearly 1,000 people were arrested over the course of the protests, with student leader Joshua Wong facing a verdict later this month.

He was acquitted Tuesday in another protest-related case.

The hearings come as tensions remain high in the city.

Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997 under a "one country, two systems" agreement and enjoys much greater freedoms than in mainland China, but there are concerns those freedoms are being eroded.
The housing market is gaining momentum. The latest reading on U.S. home prices showed a 5.4% year-over-year jump, pushing prices back to near-record highs. This report, coupled with a slew of other positive data in the housing sector, has prompted warning calls from some investors that the U.S. may be in the middle of a new housing bubble that could eventually burst.

However, Hessam Nadji, CEO of Marcus and Millichap (MMI), told Yahoo Finances Seana Smith in the video above that now is not the time to panic. Hes not worried about a bubble. Rather, he's confident in the housing recovery and thinks it's a reflection of a strengthening job market.

Consumers are now viewing home buying as a necessity that goes along with household formation, job growth and the real reasons why you should own or buy a home versus the speculation we saw in the marketplace in 2005 or 2006 that led to the bubble.

In addition to the housing market, Nadji said he sees strength in commercial real estate. In fact, he thinks its an attractive alternative investment play. Commercial real estate as a whole has really emerged as a great investment vehicle because of the yields that are in the 5% to 7% range in a cycle that is not plagued by overbuilding.

In terms of specific investment plays, Nadji notes that office property, the only major real estate sector that has yet to surpass pre-recession price levels, is finally seeing higher growth. He thinks two companies positioned to benefit are Boston Properties (BXP) and Vornado Realty Trust (VNO).
A human embryo is shown in a three-dimensional film on human reproduction. (Image via AP Photo/Fred Ernst)



After multiple failed pregnancies, Maria Lancaster miscarried again when she was 46. At age 47, however, she finally gave birth to a daughter, though her pregnancy did not come through in vitro fertilization, or egg or sperm donation. Rather, Lancaster is a snowflake mom, Ozy reports, having adopted an embryo in order to become pregnant and have a child.

Related: She Sent Her Boyfriend Ultrasound Photo, Vanished

There were believed to be more than 600,000 frozen embryos being stored in the US in 2011, reports LA Weekly, which terms embryo adoption a sort of by-product of IVF"making use of embryos left over after women successfully undergo the procedure. A rep for the nearly 20-year-old Snowflakes Embryo Adoption and Donation programthe first embryo adoption agency to open its doors, per LA Weeklysays at least 1,000 snowflake babies have been born over the years.

Related: Mom Goes Into Hospital to Give Birth, Leaves Without Legs

Where IVF can cost as much as $20,000 and still have less than a 4% success rate with women over 44, per Ozy, embryo adoption costs about $3,500 and gives a woman in her 40s a 50-50 shot of becoming pregnant.

"If youre doing embryo adoption, age doesnt really matter as long as you have a uterus, an OB-GYN tells Ozy. Another doctor tells LA Weekly that her clinic at USC transfers adopted embryos into women up to 53 years old; the American Society for Reproductive Medicine recommends age 55 be the cutoff.

Related: Girl Born Pregnant With Twin Fetuses

It is becoming more and more common, but theres a very small minority of people who want to donate their embryos, an attorney tells the Chicago Tribune. Ozy has more on the processand how much the government has spent promoting it. (These human embryos grew outside the womb for 13 days.)

Story continues

By Luke Roney

More From Newser:

11 Stars Whose Kids Are Adopted

Your Earwax Says a Lot About You

This article originally appeared on Newser: How to Get Pregnant at 50 Without IVF
HSBC Holdings Plc HSBC is cutting senior investment banking positions as part of its ongoing plan to reduce costs and improve profitability. The company is also disposing unprofitable/non-core operations and focusing on other cost-curtailment efforts.



In February, HSBC had announced its plan to expand the global banking unit by merging it with its capital financing unit. The integration thereafter resulted in replication and overlapping of roles, which is now being removed through job cuts.



A major change to the companys operational structure is the set up of a new Corporate, Financials and Multinational unit which brings together a range of investment banking, transaction banking and lending activities. Apart from helping in controlling costs, this unit is also expected to aid in expanding HSBCs share in advisory services and equity capital markets.



We have a global savings programme of $1.1bn in our global banking and markets business, Mr. Samir Assaf, the CEO of HSBC Global Banking and Markets, said, This programme will contribute tens of millions of this $1.1bn.



In another operational restructuring initiative, the company is cutting back risk-weighted assets in the investment banking and trading unit by up to one-third.



As announced by HSBC last June, massive job cuts and restructuring plans are being adopted in order to cut down its expenses and improve its profitability position. The U.K. based global bank plans to slash nearly 22000-25000 jobs through branch closures and consolidation of IT and back office operations to result in a savings of $4.5-$5 billion by 2017.



The bank also announced a pay freeze in January but reversed the same due to hostile reaction from the staff. A hiring freeze, however, is still in place.



Currently, HSBC holds a Zacks Rank of #5 (Strong Sell). Some better ranked foreign banks are Bank of Montreal BMO, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce CM and Royal Bank of Canada RY. All these banks hold Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).



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From Popular Mechanics

NATO forces have begun the largest military exercise in Europe since the end of the Cold War. Designed to simulate the alliance's response to a Russian attack on Poland and the Baltic States, the 10-day exercise will include parachute landings, live-fire exercises, bridging operations, and electronic warfare and cyberwar scenarios.

The U.S. Army calls Anakonda 2016 a "joint defensive operation on a large scale" that features 31,000 participants from 24 NATO countries. With 14,000 U.S. troops participating, American Army units are at the center of the Polish-led exercise. Paratroopers of the Sicily-based 173rd Airborne Brigade will drop in western Poland, complete with their own heavy artillery, to establish a secure passage for the Second Cavalry Regiment, which will travel across Europe from bases in Germany in Stryker armored vehicles.

Next, the 82nd Airborne Division will fly from Fort Bragg, North Carolina to conduct a drop with Polish and British paratroopers into the Torun training area in central Poland. Their objective: to "secure key terrain east of the Vistula River." From there, the Army's 18th Military Police Brigade will team up with a multinational bridging battalion to build a temporary bridge over the Vistula expected to accommodate 300 armored vehicles. The Second Cavalry will cross the bridge and continue north, arriving in Lithuania on June 10 and Estonia on June 15.

The bridge across the Vistula will likely be what's known as a "ribbon bridge." Its sections can be trucked in or flown by helicopter and connected by engineers in boats. Ribbon bridges can handle a variety of weights including tanks, but they are vulnerable to changes in weather that may vary the river height and current speed. Here's a video of U.S. Army Reservists constructing an improved ribbon bridge:

Other exercises include a response to a chemical attack, an artillery exercise controlled by the Oklahoma Army National Guard, and an air and missile defense exercise with Patriot missiles by the 174th Air Defense Artillery Brigade. The exercise will climax with a live-fire exercise held by the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division.

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The exercise is clearly designed to simulate NATO coming to the aid of Poland and the Baltic States of Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia-all NATO member states-in the face of a Russian ground offensive. In the event of war, Russia would almost certainly target bridges across the Vistula and elsewhere with precision-guided weapons to isolate their targets and cut off NATO reinforcements.

Via The Washington Post
Never mind James Bond. Idris Elba, long rumored as a contender to slip on the iconic 007 agent's tuxedo, already has a sharp-dressed hero of his own: DCI (that's Detective Chief Inspector) John Luther, the tough-as-nails detective at the heart of the BBC's dark procedural Luther.

Elba, 43, views the London-based character as a superhero of sorts (especially when donning his trademark trench coat), matching wits with a vile array of serial killers and saving lives but sacrificing his own in the process. But whereas Luther rarely sees light at the end of the tunnel, Elba's ride with the role has earned him numerous accolades, including a Golden Globe in 2012, a SAG Award in 2016 (the same year he won for Netflix's Beasts of No Nation) and a slew of other nominations.

What happens next for the limited series, following the events of 2015's two-episode fourth season? Elba, tight-lipped as ever, spoke with THR from the South Africa set of The Dark Tower, the Stephen King feature adaptation he's filming.

Read More: Idris Elba Joins Jessica Chastain in Aaron Sorkin's 'Molly's Game'

About two years passed between filming the third and fourth seasons of Luther. Was it difficult to slip back into the character's skin?

There's always a little wiggle room when you come back to a character. You have to remember where he's coming from and try to bring it all alive again. It's never difficult, because all I have to do is put on the coat, and I'm him.

Is it intense to live with this character?

Definitely, yeah. Just the process of being a murder detective is a deep, dark place to go to. Luther is such a visceral show, and we really take the audience there. I end up living through some of this stuff that Luther ends up seeing, and that isn't necessarily fun. The character is dark. He has a lot of demons. You do end up taking some of that home with you.

Elba won two SAG awards this year for his roles in Luther and Beasts of No Nation.

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You've talked about Luther's coat as his superhero suit. How much does a character's aesthetic fuel your performance?

Some actors come from within. Others are exterior. I work in both. I do a lot of work on movement, personality and the inner workings of the character. Once you put the costume on, it starts to come together. For me, it's a massive component.

Luther's exterior undergoes a shift in season four; he begins in civilian garb before eventually reverting to his detective uniform.

It was a bit weird. But given that he was on the edge of a cliff and living a secluded life, it felt pretty good and natural. It definitely felt good to put the coat back on. That's when you're reimprinting the DNA of the show.

Read More: Drama Showrunner Roundtable: 6 Top TV Bosses on Fighting for Diversity, Getting Pigeonholed and Casting "Aholes"

You've earned three Emmy nominations, you won a Golden Globe and you won at the SAG Awards this year - for two roles. What does it mean to have your work on Luther recognized in this way?

I always describe Luther as "the little train that was" because it was a step into familiar territory for me, in terms of going back to television [after The Wire], but this time as a leading character. I didn't know what the outcome was going to be. It was good writing, but I wasn't sure whether the audience would go with it. To see it still going four seasons on, and with such a worldwide audience, it makes me so proud. It reminds me that sometimes, when you find the little gems, and you put work into them, they become beautiful diamonds. Take patience and have the balls to step back and say, "I'm going to work on something smaller."

The future is unknown for Luther, both as a character and a franchise. Now that some time has passed since the last season wrapped, have you thought about the next step?

All I can tell you is that there has been some thought. (Laughs.) The great thing about Luther is that you never know what may or may not happen next. I think that's part of its appeal. Each season feels like a capsule, but then you feel like, "Oh, it's got to come back." I will say that there has certainly been some thought about what to do next  if anything.

This story first appeared in a special Emmy issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
SAN DIEGO, CA / ACCESSWIRE / June 8, 2016 / IFAN Financial, Inc. (OTC PINK: IFAN), ("IFAN" or "the Company"), a designer, developer, and distributor of software to enable mobile payments, announced that banking industry veteran Steve Sala has joined IFAN as Senior Vice President of Banking Operations. Mr. Sala will be leading all banking and compliance operations in association with onboarding clients into the IFAN Platform.

Steve Sala has over 30 years of experience in the banking and financial industry, and brings a wealth of knowledge that encompasses many aspects of the financial industry to IFAN. Mr. Sala served as President and CEO of the Transportation Alliance Bank (TAB) and sat on the Board of Directors.

Previously, as an advisor, Mr. Sala has served as CLO and CEO for numerous financial institutions responsible for the workout and restructure of their commercial loan portfolios. Additionally, Mr. Sala has served as CFO and Board of Director for Skaggs Companies, Inc., President of S Four Enterprises, and was CFO for Santa Fe Partners and as Founder & President of Solution Advisors, LLC.

"We're thrilled to welcome Steve to our team," said J. Christopher Mizer, President and CEO of IFAN Financial. "Steve joins IFAN at a crucial time for the Company, where we've experienced a remarkable ramp up in new clients joining the IFAN Platform over the past few months. Steve was selected based on his 30 years of experience, knowledge and expertise in the banking and finance industry. Steve will serve in one of our most critical positions, as he will lead in the process of establishing our new clients onto the IFAN Platform. Bringing Steve on board will be instrumental towards overseeing and building our back-office capabilities, which we anticipate will lead to tremendous progress in executing our long-term growth strategy."

About IFAN Financial, Inc.

IFAN Financial, Inc., along with its wholly owned subsidiaries and joint ventures, design, develop, and distribute technology to enable and enhance mobile and traditional payments. The IFAN Platform consists of proximity based beacons, merchant processing, a mobile wallet, and prepaid card and debit card options. IFAN's consumer facing entity, PayX, includes a portfolio of payment solutions through the mobile optimized platform capable of facilitating on-demand payments, auto-payments, split-funded payments, proximity marketing, and spending of platform funds through a linked card. IFAN and PayX provide businesses with the world's first white label, mobile optimized platform that connects to any point of sale system and enables the next generation of marketing and payments with the capability to remit internationally. For more information, visit www.ifanfinancial.com.

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Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Although forward-looking statements in this release reflect the good faith judgment of management, forward-looking statements are inherently subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to be materially different from those discussed in these forward-looking statements, including but not limited to our ability to maintain our website and associated computer systems, our ability to generate sufficient market acceptance for our products and services, our ability to generate sufficient operating cash flow, and general economic conditions. Readers are urged to carefully review and consider the various disclosures made by us in our reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time which attempt to advise interested parties of the risks and factors that may affect our business, financial condition, results of operation and cash flows. If one of more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or if the underlying assumptions prove incorrect, our actual results may vary materially from those expected or projected. Readers are urged not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this release. We assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements in order to reflect any event or circumstance that may arise after the date of this release.

Contact:

IFAN Financial, Inc.

Steve Scholl

Chief Financial Officer

3517 Camino del Rio South

Suite 407

San Diego, CA 92108

Direct: 858-277-9868

FAX: 619-923-2907

sscholl@ifanfinancial.com

www.ifanfinancial.com

SOURCE: IFAN Financial, Inc.
ALMHULT, Sweden (Reuters) - Furniture retailer IKEA Group expects to grow sales about 8-10 percent in its current financial year, leaving it on track to reach its target of hitting 50 billion euros ($56.9 billion) in 2020, its top executive said.

"We are on that journey. That means we need to grow 8-10 percent annually to reach it and that is probably roughly where we'll land this year," IKEA CEO Peter Agnefjall told Reuters.

"We are well on track to realise the plans we have."

Speaking on the sidelines of a design event in the small, southern Swedish town where IKEA first set up shop, Agnefjall said trends in demand remained similar to last year, with a continued recovery in its biggest market, Europe.

In China, a key growth market for IKEA, the company was little affected by a wider economic slowdown, he added.

"There has been talk for three years that China is slowing down. We don't see those signs," he said.

The company, known for its large warehouse-like out-of-town stores and flat-packed self-assembly furniture, reported a 11.5 percent sales rise to 32.7 billion euros in its previous fiscal year, which runs through the end of August.

Online sales at the home furnishing giant, which last fiscal year totalled about 1 billion euros, were expected to grow around 40 percent this year, roughly equalling annual growth in the previous three years, Agnefjall said.

In Russia, where IKEA once expanded rapidly, investments remained on hold, he said, while the company, which plans to open its first Indian store in just over a year, in Hyderabad, was close to finalising deals to buy land in New Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai. ($1 = 0.8795 euros)

(Reporting by Anna Ringstrom; editing by Niklas Pollard and Keith Weir)
By Daniel Wiessner

(Reuters) - The attorney general of Illinois on Wednesday filed a lawsuit claiming fast-food franchise Jimmy John's unlawfully requires its low-wage workers to sign agreements barring them from working at other sandwich shops in wide swaths of the country.

In the lawsuit filed in Cook County Circuit Court, Attorney General Lisa Madigan said the use by Jimmy Johns Enterprises LLC and Jimmy Johns Franchise LLC of the non-compete agreements is both illegal and "unconscionable."

By locking low-wage workers into their jobs and prohibiting them from seeking better paying jobs elsewhere, the companies have no reason to increase their wages or benefits, Madigan said in a statement.

According to the lawsuit, Jimmy John's has "no legitimate business interest" to warrant the non-compete agreements on shop employees and assistant managers.

Jimmy John's, which is based in Illinois, did not immediately return a request for comment. The company has 274 stores in Illinois and more than 2,000 nationwide, according to the lawsuit.

Requiring white-collar workers to sign non-compete agreements is not unusual, and frequent legal battles over the validity of such agreements focus on the length of time they are in effect and their geographical limits. But the pacts are almost unheard of in fast-food and other service industries.

The Jimmy John's agreement prohibits workers during their employment and for two years afterward from working at any other business that sells "submarine, hero-type, deli-style, pita, and/or wrapped or rolled sandwiches rolled sandwiches within two miles of any Jimmy John's shop in the United States, according to the lawsuit. An agreement in effect from 2007 to 2012 extended the bar to three miles.

Democrats in the U.S. Congress in 2014 asked the U.S. Department of Labor and other agencies to investigate Jimmy John's non-compete agreements. Months later, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said his office had requested information from Jimmy John's and a number of its New York franchises on the agreements, but he has not announced any action.

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The Illinois lawsuit seeks a court order that the agreements are unenforceable and void. Madigan said in a statement that her office is investigating other companies that require employees to sign similar agreements.

The case is the People v. Jimmy John's Franchises LLC, Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, No. 2016-CH-07746.

(Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Leslie Adler)
The New York Daily News released a cover mocking House Speaker Paul Ryan for standing by his endorsement of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump despite saying recent comments of his represented "the textbook definition of a racist comment."

Ryan later clarified that he thinks the comment is racist rather than the candidate himself, but still, the damage was done.

Here was the Daily News cover:

New York Daily News Donald Trump Paul Ryan

However, just hours after releasing the cover on Twitter, the New York tabloid nixed it in favor of a front page about Hillary Clinton's successful clinch of the Democratic nomination.

"STOP THE PRESSES!" the Daily News wrote in a tweet announcing the change. "New front page...HER!"

Daily News

This story was updated on June 8 at 12:18 a.m. ET to reflect the Daily News' decision to change its Wednesday cover. Oliver Darcy contributed to this report.

NOW WATCH: 'The textbook definition of a racist comment': Paul Ryan disavows Trump's attacks on a federal judge





More From Business Insider


By Rajendra Jadhav

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Cotton exports from India, the world's biggest producer, have nearly halted as local prices have rallied due to tight supplies because of drought, forcing key importers like Bangladesh, Pakistan and Vietnam to turn to other suppliers.

The freeze in Indian export will prompt Brazil, Australia and United States to raise shipments and has pushed global prices to near their highest since August.

The price rise could subsequently push up fabric and clothing prices and put pressure on the margins of garment makers.

"In last three-four weeks Indian exporters could not sign a deal. Our cotton is more expensive than Brazilian or Australian supplies," said Chirag Patel, chief executive officer at Jaydeep Cotton Fibers Pvt. Ltd, a leading exporter.

The landed cost of Indian cotton for buyers in Pakistan and Bangladesh is at 75 cents to 76 cents per lb compared to around 73 cents for Brazilian cotton, he said.

Pakistan and Bangladesh prefer Indian cotton due to lower freight charges.

Local cotton spot market prices have surged 10 percent from a month ago to 38,400 rupees per candy of 356 kg (73.5 cents per lb) due to limited supplies after consecutive droughts cut production. A candy is equivalent to about two Indian bales of 170 kg each.

India may produce about 34.1 million bales of cotton in the 2015/16 season that started on Oct. 1, down from last year's output of 38.3 million, the Cotton Association of India (CAI) estimates.

India has exported around 6.5 million bales of cotton so far during the 2015/16 season, with Bangladesh and Pakistan accounting for more than half of the total exports, said Dhiren Sheth, president of CAI. In 2014/15 India exported 6 million bales.

Cotton supplies in spot markets have been dwindling even as domestic textile units are ramping up purchases, Patel said.

In October to April cotton supplies in Indian spot markets fell 12.5 percent from a year ago.

"The industry failed to judge the impact of drought on the production. Output turned out lower than the initial estimate," said a dealer with a global trading firm.

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"Now textile units are aggressively buying to make sure they have stocks for the next four months."

The new cotton crop starts arriving from late September, but this year supplies could start from mid-October as sowing has been held up in key producing states because of a delay in the monsoon rains, said a trader based in Rajkot, Gujarat.

(1 Indian bale = 170 kg)

(Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)
Mumbai (AFP) - Indian filmmakers Wednesday took a bitter censorship row to court, the latest dispute involving the notoriously sensitive censor board that has renewed fears over creative freedoms.

A lawyer told Mumbai's highest court the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) had demanded 13 cuts to "Udta Punjab", a Bollywood movie depicting drug addiction in Punjab state.

The CBFC last year blocked the release of a toned-down version of "Fifty Shades of Grey" and deemed two James Bond kissing scenes unsuitable for an Indian audience.

"Udta Punjab" producers had filed a petition with the Bombay High Court asking it to order the CBFC to release its list of required cuts, amid reports the board was seeking 89 changes to the movie.

They received the suggested list of 13 cuts shortly before the hearing, their lawyer told the court. Judges adjourned the case until Thursday to give the filmmakers time to decide their next move.

No details were given about which cuts should be made but Indian media has widely reported that the CBFC wants the filmmakers to remove all references to Punjab, including in the title.

The northern Indian state is due to hold local elections in 2017. Critics allege that the CBFC is censoring the movie to avoid embarrassing the state government.

CBFC chairman Pahlaj Nihalani suggested Wednesday that references to Punjab could be cut because, despite claiming the characters are fictitious, "the whole movie is on Punjab and they have taken names from Punjab".

"The film has been passed. They need to submit the cuts and take the certificate," Nihalani told reporters.

The dispute has renewed fears over creative freedom in India, with one of "Udta Punjab's" producers, Anurag Kashyap, tweeting on Monday that the CBFC's stance was akin to living in North Korea.

A number of Bollywood actors and directors have come out in support of the filmmakers.

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India's censors have a long history of barring movies and cutting scenes, including those that are deemed too racy or capable of causing religious offence. Filmmakers accuse censors of intolerance.

The movie, starring Kareena Kapoor, Alia Bhatt and Shahid Kapoor, is scheduled for release on June 17. The CBFC is set to grant it an "Adult" rating if the film's producers agree to the cuts.

The filmmakers can go to a tribunal if they disagree with the changes.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi joked that the U.S. Congress was known for its bipartisanship and its harmony during a lengthy address to a joint session on Wednesday. The joke was one of several lighthearted moments that peppered Modis address, which marked another chapter in shifting relationship between the U.S. and India.

Mr. Speaker, Im informed that the working of the US congress is harmonious, Modi said as the House chamber erupted in laughter. I am also told that you are well-known for your bipartisanship.

Nods to the millions of Americans who practice yoga, the Scripps Spelling Bee Champions (who were in attendance for the address), and the spirits of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King were among the several applause lines of the sweeping address  India, the Prime Minister said, had not yet claimed intellectual property rights to yoga, he joked. But the focus of the address stayed straight and narrow. During the bulk of the time Modi spent before Congress, he largely noted the strength of the two countries points of collaboration in fighting terrorism, increased trade cooperation, and in the science and technology sectors.

Our independence was ignited by the same idealism that fueled your struggle for freedom. No wonder then that former prime minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, call India and the U.S. natural allies, Modi said Wednesday. No wonder that the shared ideals and common philosophy of freedom shaped the bedrock of our ties. No wonder then that President Obama had called our ties the defining partnership of the 21st century.

Modis address to Congress followed a bilateral meeting and working lunch at the White House on Tuesday, where the White House said the two leaders worked toward solidifying their commitments to the Paris Climate Agreement. The leaders also discussed expanding economic partnerships and preventing nuclear proliferation.

Though the visit wasnt Modis first, the address was significant due to the fact that the leader was denied entry into the U.S. for more than 10 years starting in 2005 because of his role in a deadly spate of riots. As TIMEs Rishi Iyengar reported this week, the address alone was seen as a real moment of triumph.
By Eveline Danubrata and Johan Purnomo BOGOR, Indonesia (Reuters) - Yakobus Mebri stepped in front of his classmates at a training center in Indonesia's West Java province and, at the top of his voice, demanded if their hearts burned to defend the nation. "It does! It does! It does!" the recruits thundered back, breaking into what appeared like a war dance. Their instructor, Major General Hartind Asrin, then asked them to sit down: the Bela Negara - "defend the nation" - class was starting. "We have to be more vigilant of potential threats in their infancy," he said as students diligently took notes. The sprawling training center in Bogor, about 60 km (35 miles) south of the capital, Jakarta, is at the heart of a movement spearheaded by officials from the ministry of defense and military against perceived threats such as communism, drugs and homosexuality. The concept of defending the nation in this way has existed since before Indonesia's independence in 1945, officials say, but they now see a need to shore up protection against "influences" that deviate from the founding principles and norms of the country with the world's largest Muslim population. Over the last few months, the movement has gained momentum, partly in a reaction to support from President Joko Widodo for an investigation into an anti-communist purge in 1965. Historians say at least 500,000 people died in the violence that followed when suspected communists killed six generals in an attempted coup against then-president Sukarno. Successive governments have refused to apologize or accept that death toll, and Widodo's move has outraged many among the military's elite. For a video on Indonesia's frontline in training, click http://www.reuters.tv/bKh/2016/06/08/indonesia-s-frontline-defense-against-communism "THEY DESERVED TO DIE" Defense minister and retired general Ryamizard Ryacudu, who told Reuters recently that communists may now be seeking revenge, last week drew a comparison with the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945 to justify the massacre of half a century ago. "This was an uprising, they deserved to die," he told a conference of retired officers and nationalist groups from which a reporter said she was ejected because some there accused her of being a lackey of the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI). More than 2,000 members of "Bela Negara" and Islamic groups marched from a mosque to the presidential palace in Jakarta on Friday to protest against what they see as a resurgence of communism, burning hammer-and-sickle flags in the streets. Many in the march said they feared a revival of the PKI, which was one of the largest communist parties in the world before it was outlawed in 1966. Like other protesters Reuters asked, 40-year-old Ilyas from Jakarta had never met a communist. But he had seen signs of their return: "Many features of communism have appeared, from the perspective of culture and clothing and other areas," he said. Under the authoritarian General Suharto who took over from Sukarno, the PKI was dissolved and leftist symbols were banned. Critics believe the recent whipping-up of a "red scare" - along with condemnations of gays and other "foreign influences" - is an attempt by the army to re-militarize Indonesian society following its loss of influence in civil and political affairs with Suharto's fall from power in 1998. JOGGING, SONGS AND LECTURES "Bela Negara" official Major General Asrin told Reuters the program was necessary to strengthen nationalistic values and said about 1.8 million people had signed up for it. Officials aim to have almost 900 training centers across the country by early 2018, with lesson materials and funding being provided by the government and trainers coming from the military or police, Asrin said. At the training center, a typical day starts at 5 a.m. with a jog, songs and marches, followed by lectures and practical sessions. Officials insist the aim is to make people better citizens, not soldiers, though Reuters saw some participants learning how to assemble a gun. The spirit of "Bela Negara" can be implemented in various forms, such as reporting a misbehaving peer to the authorities, said Gianto, one of 10 trainers at the center, who teaches a session on leadership skills. Gianto, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, said he tried to instill a "one for all, all for one" mindset in his students and said a practical example of this would be punishing an entire group of students for the mistake of an individual. The program stemmed from the concerns of the authorities that some trends in society were not in line with nationalistic values, said political analyst Djayadi Hanan. "But it became controversial because the military and the defense ministry are involved in this program, prompting suspicion that this is militarization," he said. For "Bela Negara" student Mebri, however, it will cultivate in Indonesians a love for their country from a young age. "This course helps me to shape my character and personality, so I'll become a strong, determined and honest person who is always ready to follow the orders of my superiors," he said. (Reporting by Eveline Danubrata and Johan Purnomo in Bogor; Additional reporting by Agustinus Beo Da Costa and Fergus Jensen in Jakarta; Editing by John Chalmers, Robert Birsel)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of the largest conservative group in the U.S. Congress, Representative Bill Flores of Texas, said he could not back Republican Donald Trump for president at this time, CNN reported on Wednesday. Flores, the head of the Republican Study Committee in the House of Representatives, told CNN he was incredibly angry about comments that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee made about U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel. (Reporting by Timothy Ahmann; Editing by Doina Chiacu)
Inside the lockup of the Chacao district police station in eastern Caracas, a mass of prisoners stand shirtless against each other, struggling to breathe amid seething heat and the smell of sweat and feces. The cells here are built for 36 inmates to be held up to three days, before being released or transferred to a larger prison facility. But thanks to a profound crisis in Venezuelas judicial system, it now holds over 150 prisoners, some who have been here for months or years. The number grows daily as more Venezuelans are arrested for crimes, including mugging, kidnapping and murder. In the most crowded cell, prisoners have no room to even sit down, and take turns resting on sheets tied to bars like hammocks.

Read More: These 5 Facts Explain Why Venezuela Could Be on the Brink of Collapse

The police station is rife with disease. Several prisoners show red lumpy rashes on their skin, a sign of contagious scabies; one coughs from tuberculosis; another is HIV positive. With a medical crisis in Venezuela, most are getting no treatment for these ailments, and with a food crisis, many are malnourished. Widespread water shortages mean the prisoners get access to water only one hour per day. They urinate and excrete in plastic bags and bottles and wait for the guards to collect them.

In these conditions, your mind deteriorates. You have to shut down parts of it to survive, says Daniel Sayago, 24, wrestling his way through the bodies to able to get the bars and speak. After being arrested for mugging, he has been in the lockup for one year and four months, while conditions have gotten steadily worse. You stop being the same person. You become somebody else.

While all Venezuelan society feels the nations economic and political crisisthe countrys economy is poised to contract by 10% this yearthe police station lockups, known as calabozos, are perhaps the most acute example of how the South American nation is nearing total collapse. Prisoners at some lockups have erupted into riots, including one at a national police facility several days ago, providing yet another fire for the government of President Nicolas Maduro to put out. Maduro also faces daily outbreaks of looting, food riots, hunger strikes and marches across Venezuela. The opposition, who control the nations congress, are calling for a referendum on Maduros rule, which could end 17 years of government by the socialist party founded by his popular predecessor Hugo Chavez.

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Read More: Venezuela Goes from Bad to Catastrophe

Venezuelan prisons have never been pleasant, but the conditions have been worsened by a violent crime wave that is overwhelming the judicial system. According to the government, there were a stunning 18,000 murders last year in Venezuela, while an independent group claims there were really almost 28,000 killings. The nations larger prison facilities are at breaking point, with 52,000 inmates in penitentiaries designed for 20,000, according the Window to Liberty human rights group. Violence inside these prisons claims hundreds of lives a year.

With the major penitentiaries boiling over, the courts leave thousands of inmates in the police station lockups like that in Chacao. Across Venezuela, there are about 20,000 inmates in the police cells designed for 5,000 prisoners, according to Window to Liberty. An energy shortage has added to the problem; in April, all government officials were ordered to work a two day week to save power, slowing down court cases even more.

Read More: Venezuelas Murder Epidemic Rages on Amid State of Emergency

Ramon Muchacho, the mayor of Chacao, says he is trying desperately to move inmates out of the lockup into larger penitentiaries, but the prison authorities wont take them. What we have here is a massive violation of human rights, Muchacho said. The country is insensitive to prisoners as we have so many problems and many of these guys were probably criminals. But these are human beings. And this can end in a tragedy. Even as Muchacho was speaking to TIME in a Chacao restaurant, police arrested a man just outside for mugging. This is another person we will have to take to the calabozo, Muchacho said. The man cried on the sidewalk in police cuffs, claiming that he was robbing to feed his starving family.

The lack of medicine in Venezuelathe collapse of the bolivar has made it impossible to import drugs from abroadaffects the mental as well as physical conditions of the prisoners. In the Chacao lockup, Erlinson Solorzano, 24, says he has a psychotic condition, which he treats with various pills, including the drug clonazepam. Until two weeks ago, his mother would bring him the medicine, but she is no longer able to find it in Venezuelas pharmacies. I am in real pain here, Solorzano said. I am having panic attacks. When I go crazy, my cellmates have to tie me up.

Some prisoners cant take it anymore. Last week, a group of 45 inmates managed to break out of a police cell in the Independencia district, on the outskirts of Caracas, before they were recaptured. And over the weekend, prisoners at a national police base in Caracas with about 600 inmates held three officers hostage, demanding they be moved to a less crowded facility. On Sunday, hundreds of family members supported the protest from outside the base. It is an underworld in there, said Olga Alvarez, the mother of one prisoner. Their rights are violated everyday.

For many Venezuelans, the solution to the judicial crisis and other problems can only be found with a change of government. But the horrific conditions in police cells and prisons also serve as a deterrent to people protesting. There are currently about 120 prisoners in Venezuela who has been arrested on political protests. According to activist Jesus Gomez, about 30 percent of these prisoners have been tortured in police cells or prisons. It is no secret that there is torture in Venezuelan jails, Gomez said. This is a tactic to scare people into submission.
London (AFP) - An Islamic State-inspired knifeman who tried to behead a stranger in a London Underground station was convicted Wednesday of attempted murder.

Somali-born Muhaydin Mire, 30, said during the rampage that he was doing it "for my Syrian brothers", while a bystander shouted at him "You ain't no Muslim, bruv" -- a phrase that went viral.

Mire attacked 56-year-old musician Lyle Zimmerman with a rusty knife as he walked through Leytonstone Tube station in east London on December 5.

He forced him to the ground and repeatedly kicked his head before trying to cut his throat. He also lashed out at other passers-by before police shot him with electric stun guns.

Mire's mobile phone contained a graph showing US and coalition air strikes on the Islamic State jihadist group and images of IS hostages before they were executed by having their throats cut.

The out-of-work minicab driver also had images of Lee Rigby, a British soldier who was murdered by Islamic extremists in a beheading attempt in southeast London.

"This was a random attack, completely unprovoked. He wasn't a member of IS, (but) he was inspired by IS," said commander Dean Haydon, of the police Counter Terrorism Command.

Mire shouted as he lashed out: "This is for my Syrian brothers. I'm going to spill your blood."

He had added: "Do you know if you live in Syria they bomb you? I'm going to attack your civilians."

Mire pleaded guilty to wounding Zimmerman with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, and to attempting to wound four other Tube passengers.

A jury took five hours to convict him at the Old Bailey in London, England's central criminal court.

Mire has suffered from mental illness for years and suffered his first psychotic episode in 2006, the court heard.

A month before the Leytonstone station attack, doctors referred him to the mental health services, saying he had paranoid delusions he was being followed by the security services.

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His family were due to send him back to Somalia the day after the attack.

Haydon said some IS propaganda emanating from Syria was "specifically targeted" at vulnerable people.

"Terrorist organisations will prey on the vulnerable. This is a classic case where that propaganda has inspired him to commit an attack," the police commander said.

Both the judge and the police praised the actions of Londoners who helped Zimmerman and tried to engage Mire until the police arrived.

Mire was remanded in custody at a secure psychiatric hospital and will be sentenced on July 27.
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For years, there were few creatures on earth less GIF-able, less meme-worthy, than the Department of Justice and the United States Supreme Court.

Scroll through your inbox and discover just how many hilarious David Souter Tumblrs and Michael Mukasey memes you'll find. Go back through your Facebook posts and pull up all your fave Justice Samuel Alito listicles and John Roberts Photoshop battles. Remember "3 epic tweets by Stephen Breyer?" Of course you don't. There was no such thing. There never would be.

It wasn't until Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Loretta Lynch came along that these two institutions finally became worthy of the web's notoriously fickle heart.

SEE ALSO: Justice Department fires back at North Carolina with lawsuit of its own

Neither the DOJ nor the Supreme Court have been particularly beloved by younger generations, especially those that grew up on web. For Millennials and Gen-Xers, who lean left and live part-time on the Internet, there was nothing particularly Tumblr-worthy about conservative justice Samuel Alito or former Attorney General Michael Mukasey. While Scalia gleefully and imaginatively attacked identity politics, justices like Alito and Roberts were more muted (and less meme-worthy) in their dissents.

Even Anthony Kennedy, whose moderate social views more closely align with the the Tumblr generation, never inspired lasting GIFs. For many, his decision in favor of same-sex marriage felt simultaneously earnest and anachronistic.

"No union is more profound than marriage," Kennedy wrote, sans irony, in his opinion.

Scroll through Giphy or Tumblr and you'll find endless GIFs of the 83-year-old justice, slouching in her crown: the eternal signifier of hip. Though Lynch's Internet presence is significantly smaller, take a look at Twitter the day the Attorney General announced the DOJ's lawsuit against North Carolina. Lynch didn't just go after Republican governor Pat McRory. The notoriously un-notorious Attorney General was "living her best life." She had slayed the state.

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Image: amazon

If Ginsburg was shareable GIF-made human, then Lynch was a viral headline: born to be retweeted.

While both women enjoy social media fame, Ginsburg's star rose first. In 2012, Shana Knizhnik was inspired by the justice's dissent in Shelby County versus Holder, the decision that gutted the Voting Rights Act. So Knizhnik created a "Notorious RBG" Tumblr, where the visibly frail Supreme Court justice took on the accoutrements of the celebrated hip-hop icon.

Like Biggie, Ginsburg projected a confident, unapologetic voice on social issues. Ginsburg wasn't afraid to vote liberal on a persistently conservative court. She articulated her own opinions social issues: in clear, clever, eminently re-tweetable form.

"People ask me sometimes, when  when do you think it will it be enough? When will there be enough women on the court? And my answer is when there are nine," Ginsburg told the students of Georgetown University in 2015.

Loretta Lynch doesn't have Ruth Bader's Ginsburg sizable web presence, but her May 9th remarks on North Carolina's HB-2 catapulted her to celebrity status (and built her a meaningful Twitter following).

Compared to Holder, the Attorney General had a slightly quieter approach to police reform: not exactly the material dreams/listicles are made of. But when Lynch expressed empathy for the transgender community on May 9th, she did it forcefully, explicitly.

In her announcement, Lynch displayed a full range of (web-friendly) emotions: her disappointment in North Carolina, her subsequent empathy for a disenfranchised community and her (highly sharable) confidence that the government ("the good guys") would work to protect them. Optimism is the best form of SEO.

"The Department of Justice and the entire Obama Administration wants you to know that we see you; we stand with you; and we will do everything we can to protect you going forward," Lynch said, in one of her finest (and most GIF-able) moments.

But it isn't just the words these women speak that make them so explicitly viral: its the bodies that they come from. Ginsburg is one of four women to have served on the Supreme Court in its 227 years of existence. She's all of 5-foot 1-inches, and she barely has any detectible body mass. Ginsburg, like or it not, falls into one of the web's favorite tropes: "sassy" elderly folks who display just the right amount of misanthropy and poise.



"If I had any talent in the world, any talent that God could give me, I would be a great diva," Ginsburg said in 2013 on WXQR's OperaVore.

Lynch may be less of a diva than Ginsburg (Ginsburg did, after all, fall asleep drunk during the 2015 State of the Union). But her story is, similarly, an abnormality: she is the second African-American to serve as Attorney General in our over 200 years of history. She is our first African-American woman. And while she had an otherwise unremarkable start to her her term, her speech on May 9th  as woman from multiple disenfranchised groups, speaking on behalf of another  touched the hearts of liberal-leaning Tweeters and Tumblr enthusiasts everywhere (as well as you know, real humans).

It was the dream of Gen-X identity politics, finally come alive.

Neither Lynch nor Ginsburg are as progressive as some on the Internet imagine them to be. Ginsburg is more moderate on business issues, and Lynch has held slightly more conservative views on other issues, including the legalization of marijuana. They are not wild-haired Vermont socialists or rap icons, oozing with braggodacio. One works on the Supreme Court, the other in the Department of Justice. They eat in cafeterias. They wear business casual. They're not "trying out" Facebook Live.

Still, both women exemplify what the web holds closest: contradictions.

Two women, one white, one black, in historically male-dominated institutions; speaking forcefully on social issues using no uncertain (or patronizing, as in Kennedy's case), terms. While some Redditors and Imgurians might have different opinions about the officials, the consensus is clear.

Lynch and Ginsburg exemplify the values of the left-leaning web culture: not just in the views they hold, but in their willingness to get up, stand up, then say 'em.
Just because many of us enjoy drinking wine, investing in the industry isn't necessarily a good idea for everyone. For investors with a high net worth who are looking to further diversify their portfolio, wine offers an asset class similar to art, and some experts say there are opportunities to be found.

To do so, it takes significant startup capital for any type of return, says Mathew Dahlberg, owner of Main Street Investments, a wealth management company in Kansas City, Missouri. "In order to see any type of return, you're talking investing $10,000 or more," he says.

Miguel Farra, an avid wine collector and chairman of the tax and accounting department of Morrison, Brown, Argiz & Farra, a public accounting firm in Miami, says some of his friends purchased cases of 1982 Chateau Lafite Rothschild on release for $40 a bottle ($480 per case) and sold their investment for $4,000 a bottle ($48,000 per case).

[See: 11 Ways President Trump's Tax Plan Could Affect Americans.]

"Wine depends on the providence and the condition of the bottle," he says. "When you buy it on the secondary market, you have to be careful. There's a lot of fraud that is happening in the high-end wine market."

Before investing in a case of these liquid assets, here are some tips to consider.

Where to go? Although wine futures weren't in a great place from 2011-2014, there are a few opportunities now to buy futures of recently barreled wine that is aging in chateau cellars, says David Sokolin, author of "Investing in Liquid Assets" and president of Sokolin, a fine wine retailer in Bridgehampton, New York.

The rarer the wine, the better the investment, he says, because rare wines will continue to be the most sought-after vintages. "Over time they continue to appreciate," Sokolin says. "Because they are finite and decreasing in quantity, and are now chased by a global clientele, they should go up in price."

Story continues

The 1961 Bordeaux are hard to acquire, but Sokolin recommends that investors focus on vintages of Bordeaux from 1982, 1990, 2000, 2005, 2009 and 2010. "I think the opportunity lies in those wines," he says.

Sokolin points to "a secular change in the market" since influential U.S. wine critic Robert Parker, known for his 100-point rating system, sold his major stake in The Wine Advocate and no longer tastes Bordeaux on release. Although U.K. critic Neal Martin now rates the wine and Parker still tastes back vintages, "you can feel the absence of Robert Parker in the futures market this year," Sokolin says. "Even though 2015 is the first excellent vintage since 2010, you don't feel that sense of momentum in the market to buy it."

Instead, Sokolin says historical wines that Parker rated 100 points are going to "live on in history" as the greatest wines ever made because no one reviewing wines today compares to Parker's fame and reputation for reviewing wine. "Robert Parker exiting the market has created an opportunity to buy older Robert Parker-reviewed wines," he says.

For wine investors who are considering Burgundy vintages, Sokolin points to Allen Meadows's burghound.com for tips. He also suggests buying cases of wine in their original wood cases to increase the value since loose bottles are generally not investment-worthy. Look at the scores of the wines since investment grade wines are rated 97 to 100 points.

"Burgundy is a great investment, it's very hard to get at, quantities are extremely low and there's a lot of people chasing it," he says. "The question is how much higher will the prices go? The general consensus says higher."

Other trends to consider. While Bordeaux and Burgundy are the focus of most fine wine investors, many emerging markets are starting to come online and will likely be a factor during the next decade, says Spiros Malandrakis, senior alcoholic drinks analyst for market researcher Euromonitor International in London.

Along with the rise of the more casual mass market and millennial drinker, Malandrakis says growth has continued in countries such as Chile, Australia, China and even the U.K., citing champagne houses like Taittinger that purchased land in Kent, England, late last year to create sparkling wine. The reason, he says, is the anticipation of global warming and rising temperatures that will make the region more akin to traditional Champagne region of France in future years.

"And within the next decade we will be talking about Chinese wines," Malandrakis says, adding that the Chinese, which only focused on French wine a few years ago, are slowly incorporating wine, most red -- thanks to its symbolism as a lucky color -- into their everyday life.

[See: 11 Health Care ETFs for a Heart-Healthy Portfolio.]

Review the wine stock market. To get a general sense of the market, consider tracking the industry benchmark, Liv-ex, the London International Vintners Exchange, a global trading platform for fine wine merchants, and its Fine Wine 100 Index that tracks the price movement of the 100 most sought-after fine wines.

"If the index is moving down, the market is shrinking because the price for the most 100 sought-after wines is declining as people are unloading them," says Burak Kazaz, a professor at Syracuse University's Whitman School of Management. "Bottle prices will follow the market movement."

Liv-ex is open only to professional fine wine traders, so private wine investors typically buy from a wholesaler, distributor or retailer who has access to the market. Before any investor makes a fine wine purchase, experts suggest asking the merchant to show proof of the storage location of the wine.

Farra also recommends using tools such as wine-searcher.com and going to vetted auctions at Sotheby's and Zachys Wine Auctions or preferred fine wine merchants such as Hart Davis Hart Wine Co. in Chicago or Sunset Corners Fine Wine and Spirits in Miami.

Watch out for the pitfalls. "As romantic as it sounds, investing in wine is risky business," says Philip Kiernan, financial advisor and managing director at Highlander Capital Management in Short Hills, New Jersey. "A lot can go wrong from the time the wine is made to when the bottle is opened. Poor handling and storage can hurt a wine just as much as overall scarcity and positive reviews can help enhance its reputation."

As an illiquid liquid, many experts say investors have to hold onto their wine or wine futures for a minimum of 7 to 15 years. Similar to investing in art or a private company, wine has a perceived market value -- based on a customer's opinion of the product or service's value that may not correctly correspond with an investment's true value when it comes time to sell.

Only a small percentage of the high-net-worth population should be investing in the market, says Phil Corcoran, a certified financial planner and managing director at Savant Capital Management in McLean, Virginia.

"When you look at the world's supply of wine production, only 1 percent of that in any given year would fall into the investable quality category," Corcoran says. "Those odds are terrible. In my opinion, I wouldn't even bother. I don't think it's for most people."

[See: 10 Ways You Can Throw Retail Stocks in Your Chart.]

Instead, Corcoran recommends investing in more traditional methods such as the Standard & Poor's 500 index, with its broad market of industries. "In any given year you're getting 85 percent of your benchmark will outperform any group of active managers," he says. "The 1 percenters are going to argue against me, that's fine. They can quibble and take their chances on that 1 percent."

Dawn Reiss is an award-winning journalist in Chicago who has written for TIME, Reuters, Chicago Tribune, The Atlantic and Travel + Leisure and many other publications. Follow her on Twitter, Google+ and Instagram @dawnreiss.
(Reuters) - Officials were investigating on Wednesday the deaths of five cyclists and injuries of four others after a pickup truck plowed into their group along a southwest Michigan road, the state's governor said. The driver of the pickup, who has not been named, is in custody and charges against him could be filed on Thursday after the investigation into the crash is concluded, the local prosecutor said on Tuesday night. Michigan State Police were called in to help determine what happened, Governor Rick Snyder said in a statement on Wednesday. The cyclists were struck at about 6:30 p.m. local time on Tuesday along the shoulder of a rural road north of Kalamazoo, by a pickup driven by a 50-year-old man, Kalamazoo County Prosecuting Attorney Jeff Getting told a news conference on Tuesday. The man was taken into custody a short distance from the collision, Getting said. Five bike riders were pronounced dead at the scene while four riders were taken to hospital. The identification of those killed and injured will not be made public until families are notified, Getting said. All cyclists killed and injured were adults, Getting said. He gave no further details about the bike riding group. Local ABC affiliate WZZM reported that one rider was in critical condition and another was in fair condition. The condition of the other two injured riders was unclear, the news station said. Several local law enforcement agencies received calls reporting that the vehicle was being driven erratically about 30 minutes before the collision, according to Getting and local media reports. Kalamazoo County Undersheriff Paul Matyas told local broadcaster WOOD, an NBC affiliate, that the driver fled on foot after the collision. (Reporting by Suzannah Gonzales; Editing by Fiona Ortiz and Steve Orlofsky)
By Saif Hameed

BAGHDAD, June 8 (Reuters) - Iraq plans to set up a deposit guarantee fund to encourage Iraqis to use banking services and to develop the financial industry, the central bank said.

An estimated 30 trillion dinars ($25.71 billion) in cash are held outside the Iraqi banking system, according to a central bank statement received on Wednesday. About 10 trillion dinars only are kept in the banking system.

Iraq has been prey to war and insurgency since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003. As a result, Iraqis are reluctant to use banks in case violence prevents them accessing their cash or restrictions are placed on withdrawals.

Many Iraqis also worry they that might lose their savings in the event of a bank collapse.

Last year, the government stopped payments to bank branches in areas held by Islamic State, the militant group that controls swathes of territory in northern and western Iraq.

The central-bank supervised fund will have a capital of 100 billion dinars and will collect a certain percentage of the deposits held by the private and state-owned banks, it said, without indicating the amount.

About 70 percent of total private sector bank deposits are now held in state banks, according to the central bank. ($1 = 1,167.0000 Iraqi dinars) (Reporting by Saif Hameed; Writing bv Maher Chmaytelli)
Baghdad (AFP) - Iraqi government forces fighting to retake Fallujah from the Islamic State group seized a southern neighbourhood of the city on Wednesday, officials said.

Led by the country's counter-terrorism service, Iraqi forces and allied militias backed by air support from a US-led coalition began an operation on May 23 to wrest the city from IS.

Iraqi forces made incursions into Fallujah, 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Baghdad, in the early days of the offensive, but their advance soon slowed.

They managed last week to enter parts of the southern neighbourhood of Al-Shuhada Al-Thaniya and on Wednesday took full control of the district, Sabah al-Noman, the spokesman for the counter-terrorism service, told AFP.

"Counter-terrorism service forces liberated Al-Shuhada Al-Thaniya entirely from Daesh control and raised the Iraqi flag over buildings in the district," he said, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

"The army and the police will be responsible for controlling the neighbourhood after it has been cleared of bombs," Noman said.

A colonel in the Anbar province police force confirmed government forces took control of the district and said five members of the security services were injured during fighting on Wednesday.

Lieutenant General Abdelwahab al-Saadi, who is commanding the operation, said on Tuesday that Iraqi forces were advancing on the centre of the city from the south and vowed that "within the coming days we will announce the liberation of Fallujah."

Jasim Al-Halbous, a member of the Anbar provincial council, said the taking of the district was an important strategic victory.

"Al-Shuhada Al-Thaniya is the largest neighbourhood in southern Fallujah and its liberation marks the launch of a rush by security forces for the centre of Fallujah," he said.

"Daesh fighters were hiding in fortified tunnels and various houses in the district."

Fallujah is one of the most important bases of IS -- which seized control of large parts of Syria and Iraq in mid-2014 -- and the second-largest city in Iraq still under the jihadist group's control after Mosul.

Fallujah was the first Iraqi city to fall out of government control in January 2014 and was the scene a decade earlier of some of the worst fighting US forces had seen since the Vietnam War.

The Iraqi advance on the city comes as IS is also under pressure in Syria from twin offensives by US-backed Arab and Kurdish fighters and regime troops supported by Russia.
Rome (AFP) - A policeman in Italy has shot dead a mentally unstable migrant who stabbed him during a brawl in an area renowned for tensions between immigrants, locals and police, media reports said Wednesday.

The fight reportedly broke out after the Malian migrant suffered a psychotic episode, became violent and tried to steal from fellow seasonal workers in the vast tent camp in San Ferdinando, which sits on the outskirts of the southern city of Rosarno.

The overcrowded and dirty tent camp houses thousands of people who scrabble to get work largely in the area's orange groves.

Two policemen intervened, but called for back-up when they failed to calm the Malian. When he saw extra police arrive he lashed out with the knife, wounding one of the officers near the eye, the Corriere della Sera said.

Fearing a possible second attack, the officer shot the migrant in the chest, killing him instantly, it said.

Shocked and angry migrants then circled the officers, who drew their weapons and called for more back-up. The situation calmed down after several hours when police in riot gear arrived, but tension remained in the camp, the report said.

Dozens of migrants were taken to the local police station for interviews.

Rosarno is notorious in Italy for the climate of tension between its seasonal workers -- many of whom hail from sub-Saharan Africa -- security forces and local residents, and has been the scene of repeated clashes.

Two days of unrest in 2010 prompted more than 1,000 Africans to flee the Calabrian town after clashes left 67 people injured, between migrants, police officers and locals.

Doctors Without Borders at the time fiercely condemned local attitudes towards the migrants, saying conditions in the Italian tent camps were often worse than in refugee camps in Africa.

The Corriere della Sera said the camp was littered with rubbish, water was limited and migrants fought over the few jobs to be found.
We issued an updated research report on Brazils Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. ITUB on Jun 7.



In May, the company reported disappointing first-quarter 2016 results. Notably, the Sao Paulo-based lender saw a 10.3% year-over-year fall in earnings to R$5.24 billion ($1.34 billion). Increase in non-interest expenses was a headwind. However, higher operating revenues, increased managerial financial margin along with higher revenues from insurance, pension plans and capitalization operations were recorded.



Despite posting a disappointing quarter, the stock jumped almost 44% year-to-date.



Itau Unibanco has a solid funding position as well as loan-making potential which enhance its long-term prospects. The company enjoys a large deposit base with R$266.3 billion in first-quarter 2016. Moreover, loans and leases stood at R$517.5 billion as of Mar 31, 2016, with expectations of an increase of 0.5%4.5% in 2016. Such a bullish trend represents continued organic growth for the company.



Additionally, amid growing concerns over profitability in the Brazilian economy, Itau Unibanco is making efforts to internationalize the bank.



In this regard, the company recently completed the merger of its Chilean operation with CorpBanca which led to the formation of a major bank in Latin America. Further, in the domestic market, the company acquired an 89.08% stake in debt collection company  Recovery do Brasil Consultoria S.A.  which is likely to help Itau Unibanco gain a strong foothold in Brazil's booming non-performing debt collection industry.



Further, Itau Unibanco exhibited steady efforts in improving its credits quality. In 2011, the company initiated a policy for mitigating risk in credit granting. Notably, the company continues to witness improvement of the default rate due to the change in the credit profile of the portfolio.



Nevertheless, increasing investments and expansion measures will drive expenses, thereby raising the operational risks for the company.



Over the past 30 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings per share remained stable at 91 cents and 99 cents for 2016 and 2017, respectively. Itau Unibanco currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).



Stocks to Consider



Other foreign banks worth considering include Bank of Montreal BMO, Royal Bank of Canada RY and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce CM. All the three stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).



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MELBOURNE, June 8 (Reuters) - Jacobs Engineering has won the main contract to build the $5.3 billion Oyu Tolgoi underground copper and gold mine in Mongolia, the companies said on Wednesday.

Development of the underground mine at Oyu Tolgoi is key to operator Rio Tinto's ambitions to expand in copper and for the growth of the Mongolian economy, which has suffered with the global commodities slump.

"Following the final notice to proceed for the underground development last month, this contract is a critical piece as we ramp up towards full construction," Oyu Tolgoi Chief Executive Andrew Woodley said in a statement.

Bernstein Research on Wednesday raised questions over the expected 20 percent internal rate of return on the underground project, based on the long lead-time to full production and potential risks, including political shifts and the challenges of block cave mining.

"The project has significant technical and non-technical risks that could derail the investment case, even if copper prices increase to above $3.0 per pound as Rio expects (and, indeed, so do we)," Bernstein analysts said.

Their conclusion was based on an assessment of the Oyu Tolgoi underground project that they commissioned from Rio Tinto's former general manager of valuation, Neal Brewster.

The first stage of Oyu Tolgoi, an open pit mine, was approved in 2010 and started producing in 2013. The underground project was put on hold in 2013 amid disputes with the government which were resolved last year.

"It's a 17-year window over which they will have been investing and ramping up," said Bernstein analyst Paul Gait.

"Had they known the delays and the issues the Mongolian political situation precipitated, I don't think they would have pressed the button (on Oyu Tolgoi) in 2010 in its entirety," Bernstein analyst Paul Gait said.

Rio Tinto declined to comment on the Bernstein report.

(Reporting by Sonali Paul; Editing by Ed Davies)
Come and enjoy Read more [...]
By Taro Fuse

TOKYO, June 8 (Reuters) - Japan Display Inc's top investor, the state-backed Innovation Network Corp of Japan, is set to meet with Mizuho Bank and other lenders on Wednesday to discuss the health of the smartphone display maker, four people familiar with the matter said.

The sources told Reuters the meeting comes just weeks after the Apple Inc supplier received a short-term loan of 30 billion yen ($280 million) from the lenders in late May. The company repaid that money after a payment from Apple came through.

Mizuho Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank expect INCJ, which owns 36 percent of Japan Display, to eventually ask for more funding, three of the sources told Reuters.

But one source denied the fund or Japan Display was seeking more funding, saying Wednesday's meeting was aimed at more general discussions over the screen maker's future.

INCJ declined to comment on the meeting, but said it would continue to support Japan Display's growth strategy. The banks and Japan Display also declined to comment.

The sources declined to be identified because the talks were not official.

Japan Display has no debt, but two years of losses and faltering demand for smartphones have tightened its liquidity at a time when it needs major investment in new technology to meet a shift in clients' demand. ($1 = 107.2200 yen) (Reporting by Taro Fuse; Additional reporting by Kentaro Hamada, Yoshiyasu Shida and Makiko Yamazaki; Writing by Ritsuko Ando; Editing by Chris Gallagher)
Jazz Jennings isn't afraid to stand up for herself.



In an exclusive sneak peek at Wednesday's episode of her TLC docu-series I Am Jazz, the transgender teen confronts a teacher and the anti-LGBTQ Liberty Counsel at a public town hall.



"You are trying to brainwash some of these kids," a man tells Jennings, 15. "I think it's a sick thing basically."



The man, who is a teacher, also asked Jennings what bathroom she uses.







"I use the female restrooms because I am female," replies Jennings.



Alongside her mother Jeanette and Jessica Heathel, who co-authored Jennings' children's book I Am Jazz, the reality star and activist then takes on the teacher and an anti-trans group that threatened to sue a Wisconsin school system for a planned reading of I Am Jazz.



"As soon as I could express myself, I instantly said that I was a girl and I knew who I was and I didn't let anyone else define me," Jennings tells the crowd.



TLC's I am Jazz returns Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET, and Jennings' memoir Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen is out now.
As the presidential race heats up ahead of the summer conventions, fundraising for the remaining candidates continues to factor into the strength of their respective campaigns.

John Jordan, the CEO of Jordan Winery and a Republican donor, told the FOX Business Networks Liz Claman he is keeping close tabs on these war chests.

Its important to see the cash on hand number, he said. Two, the importance of money in politics, in terms of buying air time, which is where a huge percentage of political money goes, really isnt as important as it used to be.

The vintner said the burn rate of a campaign is also an important number to monitor, as is the cost of how these presidential candidates are marketing themselves.

Earned media, which is basically free mediasocial media and so forthwhich Donald Trump has proved so adept at, has proven to be dominant to this election cycle.

Jordan, who said he voted for Donald Trump in Californias primary on Monday, weighed in on the presumptive GOP nominees recent controversial remarks about the Mexican-American judge presiding over the Trump University lawsuit.

This whole incident has been completely unfortunate, Jordan said. Its offensive to a lot of people, myself included. But most importantly, in the context of this race, it has taken Trump off message Its taken him off of winning messages and got him on defense. And its a wasted week and a wasted opportunity for Mr. Trump.

Late Tuesday, the Trump campaign issued a statement saying his comments surrounding the judge and Trump University were misconstrued.

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On Tuesdays second episode of its two-part special, The Bachelorette continued to feature the bloodlust of Chad, the meathead. Chad has made enemies in the house by grabbing contestants, punching doors, and making threats. However, Chad has tried to show his softer side to JoJo. But when he and one of his most outspoken critics, Alex, were paired up for a two-on-one date together, the truth came out.

In the middle of the woods next to a tranquil river, drama soon raged. Alex, in a private conversation, told JoJo that although Chad hadnt been violent, hes made serious threats to the other men. Jojo confronted Chad about this  then gave Alex a rose and Chad the boot.

Everyone celebrated as Chads luggage was removed from the house, but it was premature: Chad knocked on the door of the house as the show ended.



The Bachelorette airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on ABC.

Watch The Bachelorettes Chad get violent with other contestants.

Tell us what you think! Hit us up on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram  or leave your comments below. And check out our host, Cynthia LuCiette, on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.


By Karen Brooks (Reuters) - A federal judge in Alabama has issued a permanent injunction barring state officials from denying same-sex couples the right to marry in that state, according to court documents made public on Wednesday. The order, filed on Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Callie Granade, came in response to a 2014 lawsuit challenging Alabama's ban on same-sex marriage, finalizing a decision Granade made in early 2015 that the state law was unconstitutional. The legality of gay marriage was at the center of a national debate until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June 2015 that the U.S. Constitution provided same-sex couples the right to marry. Despite that order, Alabama officials continued to resist the change in the law. Last month, Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore was suspended for issuing an administrative order to state probate judges that they should not issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. In March, the Alabama Supreme Court dismissed petitions by opponents of same-sex marriage asking to reinstate the ban on those unions but refused to vacate or withdraw its own March 2015 ruling in favor of the same-sex marriage ban, made just months before the U.S. Supreme Court ruling. "This brings a finality by permanently prohibiting Alabama from enforcing its marriage laws which are discriminating against gay couples," said Susan Watson, executive director of the ACLU of Alabama. "Given Alabama's fierce resistance, this permanent relief was required to ensure marriage equality in the state." Officials from the office of Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange, who is named in the lawsuit, could not be reached for comment on Wednesday. Strange's attorneys had asked for the lawsuit to be dismissed because the state was currently complying with the federal law. But Granade said in her ruling that "promising to sin no more" did not render a permanent injunction unnecessary. The actions of the suspended chief justice and other officials suggested that other attempts may be made to undermine the constitutional right of same-sex couples to marry, she wrote. "It cannot be said with assurance that there is no reasonable expectation that Alabama's unconstitutional marriage laws will not again be enforced," the order said. (Reporting by Karen Brooks in Fort Worth, Texas; Editing by Peter Cooney)
By Dan Whitcomb LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The judge who gave a six-month jail term to the former Stanford University swimmer convicted of sexually assaulting an unconscious young woman has received a string of death threats after the sentence was widely condemned as too lenient, court officials said on Wednesday. Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky has come under withering nationwide criticism and faces a recall effort for the sentence he imposed last week on 20-year-old Brock Allen Turner for the January 2015 attack. Prosecutors had asked that Turner be put behind bars for six years. "Because of all the Brock Turner stuff, people are acting poorly," Gary Goodman, supervising attorney for the Santa Clara County Public Defender's office. "They don't like the sentence." Goodman said the threats have prompted the county sheriff's office to increase its security presence at the courthouse. The uproar over the sentence, fueled in part by the victim's harrowing letter in which she detailed the assault in graphic terms, is part of growing outrage over sexual assault on U.S. college campuses. The furor has also led to threats of another kind as a group of self-styled witches set up a Facebook page named "The Hexing of Brock Turner." Because Persky ran unopposed for re-election, he did not appear on the ballot for Tuesday's primary election, but could still face a write-in candidate in November, county officials said. A Stanford University law professor, Michele Dauber, has begun a formal effort to recall Persky in an election next year and said she expected her campaign to gather the needed signatures. "What we need to do is replace Judge Persky with a judge who understands sexual violence against young women and wants to keep them safe on college campuses," Dauber said. The law professor said she was "appalled," however, that Persky was receiving death threats, saying she too had received them for speaking out on behalf of the victim. The outcry over Turner's sentence has also prompted several online petitions seeking his removal. And the furor prompted a North Carolina pastor to write a widely circulated "open letter" to Turner's father, Dan Turner, in which he criticizes the father for seeking leniency from the judge in a much-derided missive that discussed his son's favorite foods and other memories. "To be honest, I dont give a damn and if his victim was your daughter Im quite sure you wouldnt either," John Pavlovitz wrote. (Editing by Matthew Lewis)
Now your summer can officially start. Kendall and Kylie Jenners eponymous swimwear line for Topshop has arrived and its packed with pieces that are bound to turn a few heads on the beach. (Just look at that gold bondage inspired one-piece  $75  that Kylie is wearing in the photo below.)

Kylie Jenner Topshop Swim Line 2016

Being raised in California our whole lives, we definitely love the beach and the sun, Kylie tells PeopleStyle. We wanted to capture the beachy L.A. summer vibe but put our own special twist on it. We picked lots of bold shades and prints to create the line and make it unique.

And the Calabasas queens are definitely comfortable modeling tiny bikinis as seen in this BTS clip from their shoot:

The 37-piece capsule collection features bikinis, one-pieces and cover-ups ranging from $35 to $85 and will be available in stores worldwide and on Topshop.com June 9th.

Kendall + Kylie for Topshop Swim Line 2016

Kylie adds that she loves have Kendall as her creative partner  even if they dont always agree.

Even though Kendall and I have different personal styles, we actually have very similar tastes, she says. The creative process is definitely a lot of back and forth until we come up with something we really like. We help each other edit and refine our ideas. Its great having a creative partner through everything.

Kendall Jenner Topshop Swim Line 2016

For more on the sisters new swim line, pick up the new issue of PEOPLE on newsstands everywhere Friday. Plus, shop it at Topshop.com starting tomorrow.

What do you think of the collection? Which pieces will you buy? Sound off below.

Brittany Talarico
NAIROBI (Reuters) - A Kenyan court charged six men with manslaughter on Tuesday over the collapse of a multi-storey building in Nairobi's Huruma district in April which left at least 51 people dead. The six-storey structure had been built near a river and collapsed after heavy rain. People were living in the building despite authorities having condemned it as unsafe. Edward Oonge, one of the defence lawyers, told Reuters that five of the six men had been summoned to appear in court on June 15. The sixth was present in court as the charges were read. In May, Kenyan authorities started evicting people from poorly built buildings and demolishing those declared unsafe. Nairobi is struggling to find homes for its fast-growing population, and developers often put up buildings to cater for the soaring demand in violation of construction codes. Analysts say widespread corruption means few are ever prosecuted. Several other buildings in Nairobi have collapsed in recent years but none have killed as many people. (Reporting by Humphrey Malalo; Editing by Elias Biryabarema and Louise Ireland)
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya's president on Wednesday called for a bipartisan committee of lawmakers to resolve a row over an electoral oversight body at the heart of more than a month of unrest, but the opposition swiftly dismissed the initiative. At least four people have been killed in almost weekly protests since late April held by people who want the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) scrapped, saying it is too biased to deliver a fair vote in 2017. The opposition CORD coalition wants dialogue but has rejected the government's demand that any talks be held in parliament in line with constitutional requirements. A previous opposition petition was rejected by parliament, where President Uhuru Kenyatta's Jubilee coalition dominates. Kenyatta said he was proposing a joint select committee of pro-government and opposition MPs. "I do hope (CORD) ... will also accept for us to follow this particular ground and resolve the impasse of the IEBC within the framework of ... our constitution," he said. The opposition dismissed the offer and said protests would continue as planned. "There is nothing new the president has said," Dennis Onyango, spokesman for opposition leader Raila Odinga, told Reuters. The opposition has summoned people back onto the streets next week, defying a ban announced by the government on Monday on grounds that protests had turned violent. Opposition figures say police used live ammunition that killed protesters in western Kenya. Officials deny this. The violence has worried the east African state's Western donors, prompting ambassadors from the United States, Britain and others to call for dialogue and condemn what they have described as the use of excessive force by police. (Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
Abu Dhabi (AFP) - US Secretary of State and former presidential candidate John Kerry declared on Wednesday that Hillary Clinton "will make a terrific president."

Speaking on a flight from Beijing to Abu Dhabi, Washington's top diplomat told reporters: "As a father of two daughters, I'm proud."

Kerry was Clinton's successor at the State Department after she left to prepare her bid to become the Democratic presidential nominee.

And he has some idea what she is up against, having himself tried and failed to win the White House for the party in the 2004 campaign.

On Tuesday, Clinton all but guaranteed herself the nomination with victories in the Democrats' last major primary races, including California.

Her opponent, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, has yet to concede but appears to have no practical way to beat her convention delegate count.

President Barack Obama has congratulated Hillary and now Kerry, who has been reluctant to intervene in the campaign, has lent his support.

"I have great respect for the election process which is why I didn't say anything until people had voted last night," he said.

"But that said, I believe that she is in tune with and in touch with major issues... I think she's a great candidate. The American people will decide."

Kerry said he was particularly pleased that Clinton is the first woman chosen as a major party nominee, dubbing this "a truly historic moment."
Khloe Kardashian may have ended her talk show, Kocktails With Khloe, after one season, but the reality star isn't done with her hosting duties just yet. Ellen DeGeneres let the 31-year-old take over her daytime show on Wednesday.

After DeGeneres' request, Khloe replied, "I've done Miami, I've taken over the Hamptons. I can take over Burbank!"

WATCH: Kendall and Kylie Jenner Don Prosthetics and Makeup to Go Undercover on 'Keeping Up With the Kardashians'

The blonde stunner wore a fitted nude dress, and joked with DeGeneres, "We wear the same glam and everything, so I'm good right?"

"That's what I was going to wear for the next show!" the host quipped, pointing to Khloe's outfit.

Though she has plenty of experience with hosting, not just with her own show but taking over Chelsea Handler's Chelsea Lately in the past and don't forget her time on The X Factor  Khloe still felt the need to enlist her older sister Kourtney to help her out.

She FaceTimed with the mother of three, declaring, "Look, Kourt. I have a real audience today!"

Khloe then quizzed Kourtney on several superlatives for their various siblings.

MORE: Khloe Kardashian Admits to Flirting Amid Odell Beckham Jr. Romance Rumors, Insists She's Still Single

It turns out, Kylie Jenner is the messiest, Khloe is the troublemaker, best present giver, and best babysitter, and Kim Kardashian complains the most.

As for the worst babysitter among the famous family?

"Kendall because she doesn't babysit," Kourtney said of their younger half-sis.

"Well, she's like a famous model," Khloe said. "I think she's good."

Kourt gave herself the titles of "funniest" and "sexiest" sister before forcing Khloe to get up and dance for the cheering crowd. Watch now!

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Kris Jenner had a good time at the winery.

In a preview for Sunday's Keeping Up With the Kardashians, Kourtney and Khloe Kardashian joke with their 60-year-old mother for getting a little tipsy during a short trip to a winery in Napa Valley, California.

WATCH: Kris Jenner Wants to Change Her Name Back to Kardashian -- 'I Was the Original Kardashian'



"My mom is definitely into wine in general and she could definitely just go on and on," Kourtney says to the camera. "Khloe and I just, like, want to explore Napa."

When Khloe calls her ex-boyfriend, French Montana, while picking up her mom, Kris goes into a profanity-ridden rant directed at the rapper, all the while searching for her sunglasses that Khloe's been wearing the whole time. "The drunk is coming," Khloe announces as Kris gets in the car.

"Oh, hello, mother f**ker! Hello, mother f**ker, f**ker, f**ker!" Kris yells at French as he starts laughing.

WATCH: Khloe Kardashian Says Heavy Drinking and Partying Nearly Put Her in Rehab After Father's Death

After Kourtney records Kris excitedly saying "walkie talkie" repeatedly, the momager declares, "They're making fun of me. It's fine."

"Nobody is making fun of you, you psycho," Khloe responds to her mom.

WATCH: Kris Jenner Worries Youngest Daughter Kylie Will Drink During First Club Appearance

Back in March, Kourtney posted a funny video to Snapchat of Kris from this excursion.

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- Chad Johnston became the fourth crew chief suspended this season by NASCAR over loose lug nuts on a car during a Sprint Cup race.

Kyle Larson's crew chief was also fined $20,000 for the infraction at Pocono earlier this week and will miss Sunday's race at Michigan.

NASCAR began checking cars for properly affixed lug nuts last month after Tony Stewart suggested there was lax enforcement of what he deemed to be a safety issue. Since NASCAR reduced officials on pit road, the sanctioning body no longer ensured teams had the maximum amount of lug nuts (five per tire) as drivers left pit road.

Teams then began skipping lug nuts in an effort to have faster pit stops. Stewart was fined for his criticism, but NASCAR began checking for lug nuts the next week.

Also suspended for one race this season were crew chiefs for Kyle Busch, AJ Allmendinger and Kurt Busch, who won at Pocono with an interim drew chief.
Nearly 39 million people live in California , and looking at Tuesday's primary ballot, you'd think every one of them is running for U.S. Senate.

Senate seats don't often come up for grabs, but with the retirement of Democrat Barbara Boxer, who has held the seat for 24 years, seemingly every resident over age 30 who can cough up the $3,480 filing fee  or 10,000 signatures  is taking a shot.



The front-runner is Democratic state Attorney General Kamala Harris, who will probably face Democratic Rep. Loretta Sanchez in the general election. In California, it's an open primary for Senate and the top two finishers face off on November regardless of party affiliation.

But enough about that. It's the other contenders running for Senate who blow the mind. Of the 34 on the ballot, 20 have submitted statements.



Sure, there are a few serious candidates, along with some longshots who seem like nice people.



Then there are the dozen or so who bring a certain political je ne sais quoi that you can only find in the land of fruits and nuts.



Here are a few of the people running for the United States Senate from the great state of California.

Elizondo said this is her 13th campaign for office. It's not clear she's ever won. Elizondo lays out her views in an hour long video on Vimeo, where she said she wants to stop all spending on everything from defense to highways. Her primary economic goal is to legalize marijuana to "save our Earth financially." She spoke specifically of a type of cannabis toilet that doesn't require water "or no hole-in-the-ground septic system." The sales of such a toilet could bring in "many billions of dollars, probably much more."



Like many candidates Munroe wants to get rid of the Federal Reserve . She'd like to replace it with a Citizens Bank subjected to regular audits "and will be charged with creating Government Created Money." Some of that created money will pay down the debt, (which was created by the original "created money").



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But Munroe's platform doesn't end there. She's also making it a priority to end "directed, targeted and extremely painful directed electromagnetic radiation for the purpose of human behavior modification, cognitive mind control, and nonconsensual human experimentation."

"Run for God's Heart and America's Freedom, challenge 10 giant chaos in economy and economy-related sectors," reads Ling Ling Shi's voter statement. She also provides a link to something called the Wells Ark center, which appears to be a career training and religious site. On the site she sells an e-book called "Build an American ARK, the Strategy and Method for U.S. Economic Revival," which "will bring you on a tour from spiritual realm to physical realm to reveal the hope of revival in the U.S.A., to explore the new era's economic strategy and method to overcome the crises, to turn the economic chaos to cosmos!" She has also posted videos performing religious songs she composed.



Hougo is a teacher with tech in mind. He's running what he calls a "donation free campaign" to take you to Washington with him. "As your U.S. Senator, I will work with California-based tech companies to develop a voter-driven platform that allows you to voice your opinion on every Bill before the Senate," Hougo writes. "I will vote in the Senate based on the majority vote of Californians-every single time." That way, you decide for him. Along similar lines ...



Hanania is running as an "Evoting Candidate" bent on "Re-Engineering Democracy." Hanania said Evoting Candidates represent no political party, do not accept donations, and agree to use the Evoting Service.



"The Evoting Service is an electronic voting software system-owned and controlled by the American People. If an Evoting Candidate gets elected, they become an Evoting Congressman. Through the Evoting Service, Evoting Congressmen do exactly what the American People tell them to do."

Beitiks sees a world of trouble. "ISIS. Immigration reform. The NSA. Gun control. The end of the two-party system as we know it," he writes on his campaign site. "What do all of these terrifying issues for the 2016 election have in common? None of them matter because we're all going to die." Climate change is killing us, says Beitiks, who adds, "I swear on the graves of future Californians that I will not sacrifice our actual climate to our political climate."

Beitiks doesn't say how he pays the bills, but he did list some of his qualifications for office: "I am willing to make mistakes. Huge Mistakes," and, "I am ready to risk assassination attempts from corporate henchmen, misguided populists, shortsighted libertarians, cult leaders, and lobbyists of every industry modern society was built upon as I implement wildly unpopular policies."

Gildersleeve said he's running for Senate because, as a Christian, he wants to follow the Golden Rule to love thy neighbor as thyself. Gildersleeve admits in a campaign video that "the odds are against me," but said his ulterior motive is to gain name recognition. "I intend to run for other offices as they become open and available."







Why be a Senator when you're already President? Cristina Grappo declared herself as such, pitching herself to prospective voters with, "I am mainstream Facebook in social media!" (We're not sure what that means.) She has no campaign website listed, just a P.O. box in Alameda. However, we did find a Facebook page where she has, in fact, revealed she is the 45th president of the United States.



Who knew?





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From Country Living

In the dark days after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, hundreds of search dogs helped find survivors-and the dead-amid the rubble of the World Trade Center. Now, the last known dog to do that heroic job has died, Today.com reports.

Bretagne (pronounced Brittany) the golden retriever was almost 17 when she died on Monday, with her handler, Denise Corliss, right by her side. Though she was chipper for most of her old age, she started to suffer from kidney failure and stopped eating. "She was really anxious last night and she just wanted to be with me," Corliss told Today.com. "So I laid down with her, right next to her. When she could feel me, she could settle down and go to sleep. I slept with her like that all night."

The pup, along with Corliss, did search and rescue work at the Twin Towers, and also helped out after Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Rita, and Hurricane Ivan as part of Texas Task Force 1. She officially retired from search and rescue back when she was 9, and worked as a reading assistance dog at an elementary school. To help with her ailing joints, she went swimming for at least 10 minutes every day.

When she turned 15, Bretagne and Corliss returned to the site of their 9/11 rescue work to visit the new memorial. One year later, they returned to New York City to give Bretagne the birthday party she truly deserved, complete with a dog-friendly cake, her photo displayed in Times Square, and lots of ear scratches.

She was put down at a Texas animal hospital after a proud tribute to her service. People from the rescue teams she worked with appeared at the hospital to salute her as she entered, and as she left, with an American flag draped over her body.

"This was a very small way for us to pay tribute to a dog who truly has been a hero," Cy-Fair Volunteer Fire Department Captain David Padovan told Today.com. "Just because she's a K9 doesn't make her any less part of our department than any other member." Her body will be studied by researchers who are examining what happened to the health of 9/11 search dogs.
Lea Michele and Robert Buckley are taking their real-life romance onscreen.

The duo will be starring together in Dimension 404, a six-episode sci-fi fantasy anthology drama on Hulu.

WATCH: Lea Michele Blushes Over New Beau Robert Buckley

Michele, 29, will play Amanda, a witty, type-A girl who finds herself using online dating services as a way to try to get over a bad breakup. She matches with a guy named Adam (Buckley), who makes the mistake of saying "I love you" too soon.

Trophy Wife star Ryan Lee has also been tapped to star in a stand-alone episode set in 1982, playing Andrew, an introverted, bullied teen who is addicted to video games.

The series is inspired by the Internet's "404" code error and will explore the mysteries of the digital age through hour-long episodes. According to a press release for the show, Dimension 404 "aims to evoke that 3 a.m. feeling of wandering onto the weird side of the web, stumbling upon stories that cannot be explained in the world that we know."

Last month, a source told ET that Michele and Buckley, 35, met through mutual friends and have been dating for a couple of months. They are "totally crazy" about each other, the source added.

When ET caught up with the Scream Queens actress at the FOX Upfronts in New York City, she played coy when we asked her to spill all on her new beau.

WATCH: Lea Michele and New Boyfriend Robert Buckley Step Out for Dinner Date

"You know, I'm just feeling really great right now and super happy," she gushed. "I feel very, very, very lucky and grateful in my life right now and that's all that matters."

A week after ET's interview with Michele, she was spotted out on a dinner date with the iZombie actor in Los Angeles. Watch the video below to hear more.

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Authorities have confirmed a shooting spree at in downtown Tel Aviv, Israel, resulted in at least three deaths and nine injuries, multiple news agencies reported on Wednesday.

"UPDATE: 9 people wounded, at least 3 killed in Tel Aviv attack, Israeli media reports https://t.co/AJtr8jmt2w"

Conflicting reports on the number of dead and injured mean the exact toll cannot be determined at this time.

I . Video posted by Amichai Stein, deputy editor at Israeli broadcaster Channel 1, captured the moment a police officer opened fire on one of the suspected gunmen (who cannot be seen in the clip).

BREAKING: Video of the moment Policeman shot the terrorist in central Tel Avivpic.twitter.com/rEzX2GDQGb

Stein posted additional photos from the scene showing the security response and evacuation of victims, as well as what appeared to be an n laying on the ground at the scene of the assault. According to Stein, two gunmen were captured.

BREAKING: Tel Aviv shooting attack update: 9 people injured - 3 in critical condition, one shooter caughtpic.twitter.com/j3WP1tkxu3 https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ckc09shWYAEO-EW.jpg:large

VIDEO: Injured being evecuated from the scenepic.twitter.com/BRfOQo6YRR

TEL AVIV SHOOTING UPDATE: 8 Injured 8n terror attack - 3 seriously. Terrorist enters a restaurat and opened firepic.twitter.com/I8tiltyrET https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ckc3orKW0AA3kZT.jpg:large

BREAKING: 2 shooters in custody, search goes on for a possible 3rd shooter #TelAviv #Israelpic.twitter.com/Irs87aSqKu https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ckc5W8XWsAAHC7s.jpg:large

This is a breaking news story and will be updated as more information becomes available.

June 8, 2016, 4:02 p.m. Eastern: This story has been updated.
Tripoli (AFP) - Libya's unity government said its forces on Wednesday captured two military barracks from jihadists of the Islamic State group near their stronghold of Sirte in the east of the country.

"Our forces are in full control of Tagreft barracks and military engineers are inspecting the zone to clear anti-personnel mines," the forces of the Government of National Unity (GNA) said on Facebook.

It said the fighting 20 kilometres (12 miles) outside Sirte left six dead and 15 wounded.

A second barracks, named Al-Jalet, was also seized as well as a bridge and an intersection that leads to the western entrance to the city of Sirte, it said, in operations backed by seven strikes by the Libyan air force.

The GNA forces said one of the air raids destroyed a booby-trapped truck before it reached their lines.

Anti-personnel mines and booby-trapped vehicles left behind by retreating IS fighters were failing to slow the GNA forces, they said.

The unity government's forces and those of a rival authority in the east are currently engaged in a race to be the first to drive IS out of Sirte, the hometown on the Mediterranean of Libya's ousted dictator Moamer Kadhafi.

The international community believes this could jeopardise efforts to defeat IS, whose threat has grown since it established a foothold in Libya at the end of 2014.

The UN's special envoy on Libya, Martin Kobler, has called on the rival administrations set up since the fall of Kadhafi in Libya's 2011 revolution to "unite their efforts" into a single army.
The two-day Lights All Night festival will return to Dallas for the seventh straight year on Dec. 30 and 31. In addition, a sister event will take place this year for the first time in El Paso.

Headliners at the Dallas edition include deadmau5, Above & Beyond and Zedd. A$AP Ferg, Nero, and RL Grime are slated to play as well. According to a press release, the full lineup for both locations will be revealed in the weeks to come.

Above & Beyond Deliver Acoustic Tour de Force at Hollywood Bowl

"We are excited to host some of the hottest electronic acts in music, in two locations over New Year's Eve weekend," organizers Scott Osburn and Hank Keller wrote in a statement. "Expanding the brand to El Paso has been a goal for us - it's a huge hub of music, culture and arts, and we've had our eye on it for a while now. Our mission is to provide a spectacular New Year's Eve experience for the patrons. We are excited to give our west Texas and central America fans their own piece of Lights All Night to experience."

Osburn and Keller also hinted that more locations may be in the works for this festival: "We anticipate this being the first of other new markets for Lights All Night in 2017 and beyond."
Lionel Richie will receive the Johnny Mercer Award, the Songwriters Hall of Fame's highest honor, on Thursday night at the induction ceremony in New York. From early fame with the Commodores to finding his own voice, Richie remains a master at crossing genres and embracing unique collaborations. He spoke with Billboard about his musical journey thus far, including the story behind breakthrough hit "Three Times a Lady" and his views on the change in tempo when the music industry went corporate.

The Song Hall also will honor Elvis Costello, Marvin Gaye, Nick Jonas, Tom Petty, Nile Rodgers & Bernard Edwards, Chip Taylor and Seymour Stein. The B-52s, James Corden, Kenneth Gamble & Leon Huff, Jennifer Hudson, Marcus Mumford, Roger McGuinn, Rachel Platten, Sister Sledge, Jussie Smollett and Jon Voight are among the presenters and performers slated to appear.

Nile Rodgers to Be Inducted Into Songwriters Hall of Fame, Remembers 'Le Freak' & More

Secret stash of songs: "My grandmother was a classical piano instructor at Tuskegee University. I grew up in a house and in a neighborhood where Bach and the classicals were just present every day in my home and yet I was born and raised in Alabama, so country music was very much a part of my everyday listening. With 'Three Times a Lady,' this was before the days of me having a piano in my own home. So I wrote this song on the university campus. It's funny how I started writing things. I didn't only write things for the Commodores. I also would write songs with somebody in mind, who I thought could sing it and I thought Sinatra. Back in the day I would find someone else. Remember, we were a funk, party band from Alabama competing against the Ohio Players, Kool and the Gang, Earth, Wind & Fire. So a waltz was nothing close to what we needed at the time. But when my co-producer James Carmichael learned that I had this secret stash of songs, what he said to me was, 'Let's go back and see what you've written for other people.' And I played him 'Three Times a Lady' and said I want to give this to Sinatra. And he said, no you won't, you're going to give this to the Commodores."

Once, twice: "When I wrote 'Three Times a Lady' the inspiration came from, and this is the joke of the family my father. He's a very warm and huggy guy any way, but one day he decided to get up and make a toast to my mom, about how he felt about her. It was just out of the blue -- I don't think it was a birthday. I always say when a man makes a statement in the middle of nothing, there's no special occasion, he's guilty for something [laughs]. My sister and I looked at my dad and said, 'Dad, are you OK?' He said, 'She's a great lady, she's a great mother, and she's a great friend.' And I thought that was a great little toast, so I wrote basically this waltz -- it wasn't considered an R&B song. Well, it now becomes a hit around the world, it's our first Commodores smash record and I went on Johnny Carson to explain that basically it came from my father's toast. And that part of the story was that you can never really repay your parents for all they've done for you. And my dad after that called me and said, 'Son I saw your interview with Johnny Carson,' and he said, 'I was very touched by the fact that you said you can never repay your parents for all they've done for you. But let me ask you a question, Would you try? Would you try to repay your parents as much as possible?' [laughs] So when the royalty check came out he was looking for his check I've spent the rest of my life trying to pay him off for 'Three Times a Lady.'"

Theory Is overrated: "I didn't know I was a writer. I thought you had to be able to read and write music and understand theory before you could write songs like that and then as I got into Motown, I realized probably half of the great writers there couldn't read or write music. Once I got that permission, if you will, it set me free from the standpoint of technically trying to write the notes down. And we met James Carmichael, who was a master arranger at Motown, and it was just very easy to translate that to the record. The beautiful thing about it was, I think by not knowing so much theory, it set me free from the rules. I didn't know there was an R&B chart, and a classical chart and a pop chart. When I was writing I thought I was competing against the 'music business.' Motown didn't have a pop department and an R&B department -- we just had Motown."

Lionel Richie Shares Hilarious Tale of Writing 'We Are the World' With Michael Jackson

When music went corporate: "We went thought an incredible period, a period in the music business where we did 20 years of hit music back to back. For 20 years we had just no problem, here's the next record. Then there was a period where corporate America discovered the music business, and they started buying up all of the record companies, and putting them under one tent. When we went thought that period and Motown was sold and it became PolyGram, and then Polydor and then Mercury and it went through Universal. It was going through so many different name changes. Just imagine, I had the same promotional team for 20 years. Were they ready to go with the next single? Of course! It was basically simultaneous release around the world. You dropped 'Three Times a Lady' on Monday, it was in every country on Thursday. That's just how it worked. Then we went through a period where we blurred the lines a lot. And now we're back to regional releases so you'll have a hit in London, maybe it's a hit in Germany."

The opposite of "Hello": During that time, I wrote a song that's the opposite of 'Hello,' which is 'Goodbye.' I lost my mom and my dad and my grandmother in that period of time and I never really write the goodbye song so at one point I sat down and wrote Goodbye [sometime around 2005]. It was probably one of the hardest songs I've ever had to write in my life. It was about, saying goodbye. You've had a great life, you share the memories, you appreciate all of the joys and the events that you've done and you're basically saying goodbye to a person you spent a lifetime with. It is one of those songs I was so excited about, and of course during that period of time they sold the company again and the song was never really heard. It was never released as a single, and the album got lost. It came in and it went out. At that time it was more important that they acquired a label than to put out the music."
The Grain Farmers of Ontario (GFO) has commissioned a study to look at the long-term economic impact the new neonicotinoid regulations will have on Ontario farmers.This is the next step in the GFOs battle against the regulations after losing a court appeal on April 20. The GFO has hired BDO, a Canadian accounting and advisory firm, to study the economic impact over the next three years to give the GFO hard data to bring to the government. Whether the GFO wants the province to change the regulations or come up with a program to compensate farmers for their losses is still up in the air.A cynic might say the province can always blame lower yields on numerous factors other than neonics.I guess it depends on how responsible the government wants to be for its actions, said GFO chair Mark Brock. Ultimately its up to government to decide what they want to do. If we were to put together decent numbers in a good report that reflects on issues to untreated seeds, I think government needs to realize were not trying to make this up.There have already been numerous studies that looked at the economics of neonics but this will be the first one to use real-time numbers instead of estimates.A 2014 Conference Board of Canada report said that restricting the use of neonicotinoids would reduce corn and soybean revenues by more than $630-million per year in Ontario. Taking into account the 28,000 members of the Grain Farmers of Ontario, that equals about $22,500 per farmer.mole nice comment:
ELKO, NV / ACCESSWIRE / June 8, 2016 / Lithium Corporation (LTUM) "the Company" is pleased to announce that it has received the initial payment of the San Emido Exploration Earn-In Agreement, and received notice that American Lithium Corp. (TSX-V LI) is buying all the outstanding share capital of 1067323 B.C. LTD., a private British Columbia company, who recently optioned an interest in the San Emidio lithium brine property in Washoe County, Nevada from Lithium Corporation. American Lithium recently also assumed the responsibilities with respect to a similar option on the Company's Fish Lake Valley lithium brine prospect.

The terms of the agreement are; payment of $100,000, issuance of 300,000 common shares of American Lithium Corp., and work performed on the property by the Optionee in the amount of $600,000 over the next three years to earn an 80% interest in the property. American Lithium then has the option to purchase Lithium Corporation's remaining 20% working interest within three years of earning the 80% by paying the Company a further $1,000,000, at that point the Company would retain a 2.5% Net Smelter Royalty, half of which may be purchased by American Lithium for an additional $1,000,000. Should American Lithium elect not to exercise the subsequent buy out, a joint venture will be established.

Mr. Brian Goss, president of Lithium Corporation recently stated, "I am extremely pleased that we are partnering again with American Lithium Corp., and especially look forward to working with Mike Kobler - American Lithium's president on this project."

For further information with regard to Lithium Corporation, please contact Tom Lewis or Brian Goss at (775) 410-2206 or via email at info@lithiumcorporation.com.

About Lithium Corporation

Lithium Corporation is an exploration company based in Nevada devoted to the exploration for energy storage related resources throughout North America, looking to capitalize on opportunities within the ever expanding next generation battery markets. The Company maintains a strategic alliance with Altura Mining, an ASX listed natural resource development company that is currently developing its 100% owned world-class Pilgangoora lithium pegmatite property in Western Australia.

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Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This current report contains "forward-looking statements," as that term is defined in Section 27A of the United States Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Statements in this press release which are not purely historical are forward-looking statements and include any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future.

Actual results could differ from those projected in any forward-looking statements due to numerous factors. Such factors include, among others, the inherent uncertainties associated with mineral exploration and difficulties associated with obtaining financing on acceptable terms. We are not in control of minerals prices and these could vary to make development uneconomic. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release, and we assume no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Although we believe that the beliefs, plans, expectations and intentions contained in this press release are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions will prove to be accurate. Investors should consult all of the information set forth herein and should also refer to the risk factors disclosure outlined in our most recent annual report for our last fiscal year, our quarterly reports, and other periodic reports filed from time-to-time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

SOURCE: Lithium Corporation
Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing the US Congress. Photo: AFP

Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived at the Capitol Hill on Wednesday morning to address the US Congress, it will be his 10th address to a foreign parliament in the last two years.

The Prime Minister spelt out how India and the US can work together and what they can contribute to the world through a strategic partnership.

PM Modis address tackled all major issues of the day  from climate change to terrorism, defence and security cooperation to trade and economic relationship. It will be followed by meetings with the US House foreign relations committee and the Senate foreign relations committee, and a reception hosted by Speaker Paul Ryan.

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# Defence purchases have moved from almost zero to 10 million dollars in less than a decade. Our cooperation also secures our cities and citizens from terrorists: PM Modi.

# We thank you for being there when the partnership needed you the most. We will never forget the solidarity shown by US when terrorists attacked Mumbai in 2008: PM Modi.

# Today, our relationship has overcome the hesitations of history. Comfort, candour, and convergence define our conversations: PM Modi.

# Out independence was ignited by the same struggle that fueled your freedom: PM Modi.

# Martin Luther King was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi: PM Modi.

# PM Modi recalls the time Swami Vivekananda delivered his rousing speech in Chicago.

# Engagement between our two democracies have been visible in the way thinkers shaped our societies: PM Modi.

# Our founders created a modern nation with freedom, democracy, and equality as the essence of its soul: PM Modi.

# There were many who doubted India when, as a newly independent nation, we reposed our faith in democracy: PM Modi.

# You have honoured the worlds largest democracy. It is indeed a privilege to speak to this House: PM Modi.

# This temple of democracy has empowered other democracies: PM Modi.

# US Congress leaders give a rousing welcome to PM Modi.
nashville season 5

ABC

After Nashville ended its run on ABC this spring with a major cliffhanger about one of the main characters, the studio behind the show  Lionsgate  made it exceedingly clear that they dont intend to let the music stop without a fight. Deacon Claybourne would be proud of that tactic, and would probably be first in line to scrap with prospective networks in order to find his show a place on television again. Now, after weeks of suspense and back-room finagling by the studio it looks like there is a chance Nashville will indeed live to sing another day with a potential Season 5 coming to CMT.

The country music channel, with shows such as Nashville Star (which gave us the joys of Miranda Lambert, which basically gave us Juliette Barnes on Nashville because time is a flat circle) and an upcoming Billy Cyrus project, is truly the apex of all things bedazzled denim, cooking shows with butter-heavy recipes, and great location shots of rural ranches. So its no surprise that if all of the streaming networks passed on picking up the show and it couldnt find a place alongside other programming geared towards women at Bravo or Lifetime, then CMT is allegedly stepping up to revive things at The Blue Bird Cafe.

As previously touched upon, the show ended with a crazy cliffhanger when (spoilers!) Juliette Barnes plane went missing on a flight home to meet her one true love back in Tennessee. Her better half Avery was ready and waiting at the airport to forgive her her faults and put their lives back together when he found out the news, and then the screen cut to black. Fans didnt exactly appreciate the show prioritizing the faint possibility of a renewal over the happiness of the audience and the completion of an ongoing romantic story. It will be interesting to see whether the audience forgives the show those trespasses once the strategy pays off with a renewal elsewhere, or if any goodwill went permanently out the window when the decision was made to air the cliffhanger instead of an alternate happy ending that was also filmed.

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Putting aside the cliffhanger kerfuffle, the show was already limping to the finish line with iffy ratings and some truly ill-advised plot lines before the cancellation decision was made. Pretty much the entire fourth seasons worth of storylines about Rayna James and her family could have been scrapped and the show would have been better for it. Between the endless circular narrative about Deacons alcoholism, a truly random foray into runaway musicians with secret pasts, and Raynas daughter deciding to emancipate herself because her mom wouldnt let her play open mic nights at skeezy dives, nothing the show did in that area paid off or even made sense as a story choice in any way.

There were more problems than those surroundings a few characters out of the larger ensemble, and most fans would agree that certain sections of the soap need to be overhauled completely for it to confidently move forward as an entertaining show. When the best part of your season is a main character tumbling to his death off a rooftop in the most unintentionally hilarious way possible, you might have some serious problems on your hands. Even putting aside the story issues, the behind the scenes changes possibly underway could be even more drastic. Hayden Panettierre has been publicly battling post-partum depression for the past few months, a fight that took her away from filming for a large chunk of the past year. After the cancellation degree came down from on high, Hayden tweeted that she would be taking some time off to care for herself and her family.

Whether that personal time will be over before filming potentially resumes again or not, there is a good chance that the show will have to write Juliette off completely (thank goodness for that cliffhanger!) to accommodate Haydens real life needs. If that happened, it would remove one of the best chess pieces the show had to play with from the board and without Panettiere on board as the soaps secret weapon everyone would need to work twice as hard to bounce back from a tough year.

Some fans even feel like theyve been experiencing Stockholm Syndrome with the show as the quality has diminished over time. (Dear Reader, it me.) Would those on the fence stick around without Juliette Barnes, or after a network switch? If CMT does announce the renewal in the next few days  possibly at the CMT Awards this week  it will be interesting to track fan reaction about the decision. Is the show really that missed, or was everyone just hoping they would get to see the outcome if the thirtysomething creators got their hands on a nighttime soap set in the world or country music.

(via The Hollywood Reporter)
After evaluating a BMW and Tesla to determine the practicality of electric vehicles for police work, the Los Angeles Police Department will lease 100 BMW i3s, L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti and LAPD chief Charlie Beck announced Monday.

The BMWs will be used for police business and community outreach, not as patrol cars. Last year, the LAPD acquired a Tesla P85D Model S and a BMW i3 for field testing. Although the $105,000 P85D is much more powerful, faster and has longer range - 200 miles-plus to the i3's 80 - the BMW costs only $42,000, is expected to mesh well with the LAPD's communications network and be convenient to service.

Besides the i3's zero emissions, the LAPD's decision was influenced by the fact that the car's components are manufactured at green factories and sustainable materials such as reclaimed eucalyptus are used for the interior, Petter Witt, BMW's executive vp of North American operations, told The Hollywood Reporter.

"The mayor and police chief have a vision of going green and being a sustainable city," Witt said. "This vehicle fits in very well with what they are trying to achieve."

L.A.'s current procurement guidelines that stipulate 50 percent of new light-duty municipal vehicles must be electric will increase to 85 percent by 2025, part of the Sustainable City Plan championed by Garcetti.

"We should be thinking green in everything we do - and these new EVs show how local government can lead," said the mayor. "Our sustainability plan pushes L.A. to speed adoption of greener practices and technologies, which also save money and resources."

In addition to the i3s deploying this spring, the LAPD plans to add 100 EVs to its fleet per year for the next five years. Witt said that the BMWs will be delivered to the LAPD with no special equipment under 36-month leases similar in price to consumer leases (currently about $290 a month in Southern California).

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The LAPD also will add 100 Level 2 chargers and four DC fast chargers provided by Greenlots, an open-source energy company, which will integrate its software with the city's fleet management.

Acknowledging the competition with Tesla for the contract, Witt said, "A neat thing for us is that, after about a year's worth of testing, to be the vehicle of choice is a testament to what we've accomplished with this vehicle."
Brasilia (AFP) - Just 11.3 percent of Brazilians support the government of Brazil's acting president Michel Temer, according to a survey released Wednesday.

The weak approval ratings mirror the historically low public opinion of Dilma Rousseff, who received an 11 percent approval rating before she was suspended as president in May.

Despite the weak approval number, just 28 percent of Brazilians consider Temer's administration to be "bad" or "very bad," compared to Rousseff's negative evaluation of 62.4 percent, said the survey commissioned by Brazil's National Confederation of Transport.

Since 2011 Temer had served as Rousseff's vice president. But in the weeks leading up to her impeachment their relationship grew increasingly bitter, with Rousseff accusing Temer of orchestrating a "parliamentary coup" against her.

Rousseff will face an impeachment trial on charges that she illegally concealed government shortfalls using creative accounting during her 2014 reelection.

If convicted by two-thirds of the full Senate, she will lose the presidency for good, a decision that could come in August as the Rio de Janeiro Olympics are in full swing.

Temer is embroiled in his own scandal, after revelations implicated several of his cabinet members and prominent figures in his PMDB party in a multi-billion dollar graft scandal engulfing the national oil company Petrobras.

The 75-year-old interim president has lost two ministers in just 20 days, as his government struggles to stabilize and gain legitimacy amid a severe economic recession.

According to the new survey 54.8 percent of Brazilians believe Temer's government "is equal to Dilma Rousseff's and that no change has happened in the country," though 62.4 percent did agree with the decision to suspend Rousseff.

Although Rousseff was not formally accused in connection to the Petrobras corruption -- which caused the state to lose more than $2 billion -- 66.9 percent of those polled think the suspended president is guilty of participating.

Just over 2,000 people were surveyed, with a margin of error of 2.2 percentage points.
Madonna will offer a musical interlude to Jimmy Fallon's political episode Thursday night.

The artist is set to perform on Thursday's Tonight Show, which will feature the first-ever appearance by President Barack Obama. She last appeared on the show in April 2015 to perform "Bitch I'm Madonna" with an elaborate dance routine after performing "Holiday" with classroom instruments and trying her hand at stand-up comedy.

Madonna recently performed a tribute to Prince, singing "Nothing Compares 2 U" and "Purple Rain," at the 2016 Billboard Music Awards.

"Where else besides The Tonight Show and New York City can you have the president and the queen on one show?" said Jimmy Fallon in a statement.

During his term, Obama has made appearances on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, David Letterman's Late Show, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, but has yet to visit Fallon on his Tonight Show. First Lady Michelle Obama has also joined Fallon for several sketches on the late-night show, including the "Evolution of Mom Dancing."

Read More: President Obama to Make First Appearance on Jimmy Fallon's 'Tonight Show'
Donald Trump

Conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Wednesday said the GOP should look to change the rules at this summer's Cleveland convention so it can ditch Donald Trump as its nominee.

The host came to that conclusion after what he called the worst 72 hours for the party in more than 15 years.

"The worst 72 hours for the Republican Party since 2000 when the George W. Bush DUI was dropped," he said on his program, adding, "We're going to get killed. We're going to get killed."

Hewitt said that what the "self-savaging" party leaders inflicted on Trump after he continued to pursue a racial line of attack against a federal judge was like nothing he had ever seen.

The latest Trump firestorm centered around his persistent attacks on US District Judge Gonzalo Curiel over his Mexican heritage. The Manhattan billionaire said Curiel cannot fairly preside over a civil case involving his now-defunct for-profit real estate school, Trump University, because he is of Mexican descent and Trump is "building a wall" along the US/Mexico border if elected in the fall.

Curiel is from Indiana.

Republicans from all sides of the party have publicly condemned the remarks and demanded that Trump change his tone. In a Tuesday late-afternoon statement, Trump took a step back from the attacks but did not apologize. He made no mention of his attacks against the judge in his prepared post-primary speech later that night.

"Paul Ryan had to come out and say those are racist comments," Hewitt said. "Sen. Mark Kirk unendorsed him. Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona said, 'Well, he might not be our nominee.' Mitch McConnell hammered him. It was a day of self-savaging of the Republican nominee, I've never seen anything like it. And by the end of the day, it was clear: Trump's campaign was in free-fall and on fire."

Listen to some of the audio below:

He said that Tuesday was the day when it occurred to him that Trump had no chance of winning in November.

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Acknowledging that Republicans have "never" defeated Bill and Hillary Clinton, Hewitt said: "We're not going to beat her now with Donald Trump.

"Right now the Republican Party is facing  the plane is headed towards the mountain after the last 72 hours," he said.

Donald Trump

Hewitt said the Republican Party "ought to get together and let the convention decide."

He called for a rules change that would inhibit Trump from becoming the party's nominee in Cleveland.

"And if Donald Trump pulls over a makeover in the next four to five weeks, great, they can keep him," he said. "It would be better if he had done so five weeks ago."

Hewitt is not the first to suggest Republicans change the convention rules to stop Trump.

On Tuesday, the former New Jersey chairman for Ted Cruzs 2016 White House bid said delegates have a moral obligation to launch an insurrection and unbind themselves to halt the billionaires rise. Moreover, a Wall Street Journal editorial on Wednesday suggested that if Trump doesnt start to act like a political leader he could hear rumblings that delegates are looking for someone else to nominate.

NOW WATCH: 'The textbook definition of a racist comment': Paul Ryan disavows Trump's attacks on a federal judge





More From Business Insider


Last known living 9/11 search dog dies in Texas at age 16THE ASSOCIATED PRESSFirst posted: Tuesday, June 07, 2016 07:33 PM EDT | Updated: Tuesday, June 07, 2016 07:40 PM EDTCOLLEGE STATION, Texas -- The last known living 9/11 search dog has died in a Houston suburb at age 16.Bretagne, a golden retriever, was euthanized Monday at a veterinary clinic in the Houston suburb of Cypress, according to a statement from the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service.Bretagne was 2 years old when she and her handler, Denise Corliss, were part of the Texas Task Force 1 sent to the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan after the terrorist attack brought down the buildings on Sept. 11, 2001. They spent 10 days at the scene searching rubble for human remains.About two-dozen first responders lined the sidewalk leading to the veterinarian's office and saluted Bretagne as she walked by for the final time Monday, The Houston Chronicle reported. An American flag was draped over her body as she was carried out of the facility.Bretagne retired from active duty at age 9. At 15, she was taken by Corliss to the 9/11 memorial and participated in an interview with Tom Brokaw of NBC News. Corliss told NBC's "Today" that in recent weeks Bretagne began experiencing kidney failure and slowing down.Bretagne was nominated for a Hero Dog Award from the American Humane Association in 2014. An online biography posted by the organization says that Bretagne served as an ambassador for search and rescue dogs in retirement, often visiting elementary schools.Bretagne and Corliss met with former President George H.W. Bush at his presidential library late last year.A post on the Texas Task Force 1 Facebook page remembers "the valiant effort and dedication to finding a victim trapped in a destroyed building that Bretagne showed us on a regular basis."Bretagne the last surviving search and rescue dog from 9/11 looks is brought into the Fairfield Animal Hospital, Monday, June 6, 2016, in Cypress, Texas to be euthanized. Bretagne was 2 years old when she and her handler, Denise Corliss, were part of the Texas Task Force 1 sent to the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan after the terrorist attack brought down the buildings on Sept. 11, 2001. They spent 10 days at the scene searching rubble for human remains. (Karen Warren/Houston Chronicle via AP)
LONDON (Reuters) - A man who stabbed a passenger at a London underground train station in December while shouting that he was acting for Syria, was convicted on Wednesday of attempted murder, police said. Muhaydin Mire, 30, of east London, beat his victim, forced him to the ground and kicked his head before attempting to cut his neck, leaving the man with a 12-cm (5-inch) gash that required five hours of surgery. Initially described by police as a "terrorist incident", the attack at Leytonstone station in east London was investigated by the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command. "Whilst Mire has not been accused of any terrorist offences it would appear from comments he made at the time of the attack and the content he had downloaded on his phone that he may have been inspired by extremist ideology," said Commander Dean Haydon in a statement. Mire, who also tried to attack several other people during the incident, had pleaded guilty to four counts of attempted wounding but denied trying to kill his victims. A jury at London's Old Bailey court found him guilty of one count of attempted murder. He will be sentenced in July. Several people filmed the incident on their phones, which helped the prosecution, police said. Some of the footage was posted on the Internet shortly after the attack, including images of a bystander shouting "You ain't no Muslim, bruv", a phrase which circulated widely and was applauded by Prime Minister David Cameron. After stabbing his first victim, Mire walked out of the station and back in again, lashing out at people with his knife on at least four occasions and chasing one victim who was filming his actions. Police said a doctor present at the scene rushed to help the victim as he lay bleeding, while onlookers talked to Mire to keep his attention and restrict his movements, confining him until police arrived and used Taser stun guns to disarm him. "This was Londoners responding calmly and sensibly to a very dangerous individual and all should be praised," said Haydon. The Leytonstone incident took place at a time of heightened tension over Islamist militancy in Europe following the Nov. 13 attacks that killed 130 people in Paris. (Reporting by Estelle Shirbon; editing by Stephen Addison)
Paris (AFP) - Timeline on Maria Sharapova doping case after the Russian star was banned for two years on Wednesday:

2016

Jan 26 - Sharapova loses to old rival Serena Williams in the Australian Open quarter-finals.

March 7 - Sharapova calls press conference at a Los Angeles hotel where she reveals that after her loss in Melbourne she tested positive for meldonium, a substance placed on the WADA banned list at the start of the year.

March 8 - Nike, Tag Heuer and Porsche halt their lucrative relationships with Sharapova.

March 8 - Sharapova's old rival Williams praises the Russian's "courage" in fronting up to developments.

March 9 - World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) president Dick Pound describes Sharapova's actions as "reckless beyond description".

March 10 - Sharapova's racquet manufacturer Head says it will stand by the Russian.

March 12 - Sharapova insists that contrary to media reports, she had not received five separate warnings about changes to anti-doping rules. "I should have paid more attention to it. But the other 'communications'? They were buried in newsletters, websites, or handouts," the Russian star said. "I guess some in the media can call that a warning. I think most people would call it too hard to find."

March 15 - United Nations suspends Sharapova as a goodwill ambassador.

March 24 - World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) says 123 cases involving meldonium recorded since the endurance-boosting drug was banned on January 1.

April 13 - WADA says athletes could escape a ban for taking meldonium because it does not know for sure how long it takes the substance to leave the body.

April 14 - Russian President Vladimir Putin declared athletes' use of the performance-boosting drug does not constitute doping.

May 26 - Named on Russian Olympic tennis team

June 7 - Sharapova earned $21.9 million (19.2 million euros) over the past 12 months, down almost $8 million from the previous year, according to Forbes Magazine.

June 8 - Banned for two years by ITF, Sharapova announces she will appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
By Kathryn Doyle (Reuters Health) - Marriage has been linked to health benefits, especially happy marriage, but when it comes to developing or controlling type 2 diabetes, marriage quality seems to have opposite effects on men and women, according to a U.S. study. For women, a happier marriage meant lower risk of developing diabetes over a five-year period, but for men, declining marriage quality was tied to lower risk of diabetes and better control of the condition for those who had it, researchers found. The results for men suggesting that an increase in negative marital quality is related to lower risk of developing diabetes and higher chance of controlling diabetes are surprising, said lead author Hui Liu of the department of sociology at Michigan State University in East Lansing. A good marriage may provide a source of emotional and social support and help to reduce stress for women, who are more sensitive to stress than men, Liu told Reuters Health by email. Wives are more likely than husbands to regulate the spouses' health behaviors, reminding their husband to quit smoking, eat healthier and take medication, which may promote the husbands' health but at the same time may also increase marital strain, she said. The researchers looked at data from two national surveys, in 2005 and 2010, and focused on 1,228 married people aged 57 to 84 years who participated in both waves. Each time, the men and women answered questions about closeness, happiness and emotional satisfaction in their marriages, how much of their free time they prefer to spend with their spouse and how often their spouse made too many demands on them. Participants also had lab tests in 2005 and again in 2010. In the first wave, 389 people, or 19 percent of the whole group, had type 2 diabetes based on formal diagnosis or on blood sugar levels at the time. In 2010, 30 percent of participants were diabetic. For women, an increase in reported marriage quality between 2005 and 2010 was tied to a lower risk of having diabetes in 2010. But for men, an increase in negative marital quality was associated with lower risk of having diabetes in 2010 and a higher chance of controlling diabetes in 2010, according to the results in the Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences. Its unclear if marriage quality causes changes in diabetes management or if the two are related in some other way, Liu said. In a previous study, Liu found that poorer marital quality is related to higher risk of cardiovascular disease for women, but not men. Some forms of marital strain can be protective, but support can be stifling, said Deborah Carr, professor of sociology at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, who was not part of the new study. Marital conflict doesnt necessarily mean tension and discord, it can be squabbles over things like, why didnt you take your meds?, Carr told Reuters Health. This paper and most others accounted for other factors like race, age, socioeconomic status and other physical health conditions, Carr said. For older men with a health condition, being supported and coddled might actually be anxiety provoking, she said. For women, improving marital quality may help to reduce the risk of diabetes, Liu said. For men, wives' nagging on health behaviors may be good for their health. Its a very rare patient who is wholly responsible for their own health, Carr said. Its important for healthcare providers to get a sense of what marriage is like and important for spouses to go to doctor appointments together, she said. SOURCE: http://bit.ly/24hvVua Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, online May 23, 2016.
Martha Stewart is not impressed with the ladies from Litchfield. The famed businesswoman and celebrated homemaker served jail time in 2004 and revealed on the latest episode of Netflix's Chelsea that she has no interest in watching the network's popular prison series Orange Is the New Black.

When host Chelsea Handler asked if it "hit too close to home," Stewart replied, "It's not as good as the real thing."

MORE: Martha Stewart's Advice for Jessica Alba Amid Lawsuits: 'Try to Fix It'

Stewart spent five months in jail, and said the Netflix series simply did not compare to her time behind bars.

"When you live through something like Orange Is the New Black, the real characters are better," she said.

As for her prison TV time, she certainly didn't get to binge-watch.

"In prison it was BET television at all times. I had to get up really early to watch the news," she said. "So if I wanted to watch the stock market and stuff like that, I had to get up really early and watch it by myself."

RELATED: 'Orange Is the New Black': 22 Burning Questions We Have After Seeing These New Season 4 Photos!

The 74-year-old lifestyle guru got very candid about her TV choices while chatting with Handler. She revealed that she binge-watches House of Cards and that she's also a fan of The Blacklist.

"I just think [James Spader]'s so great. I hate the girl," she said of Blacklist lead Megan Boone. "The girl I hear was just killed. Thank God. She's terrible."

Sorry, Martha, but Elizabeth Keen just returned to the show after fans thought she'd been killed off.

Orange Is the New Black Season 4 premieres on Friday, June 17 on Netflix.

Related Articles
(Adds details on funds, other business at meeting)

By Svea Herbst-Bayliss

BOSTON, June 8 (Reuters) - The Massachusetts state pension fund hired hedge funds for the second time this year on Wednesday, adding Contrarian Capital and IPM Informed Portfolio Management to its roster of managers.

Trustees for the $60 billion fund voted at a board meeting to put up to $200 million each with Greenwich, Connecticut-based Contrarian Capital Management and Stockholm-based IPM Informed Portfolio Management AB.

The pension fund invests roughly $5.1 billion in roughly two dozen hedge funds including Brevan Howard, Och-Ziff Capital Management, King Street Capital Management and Glenview Capital among others.

Contrarian oversees $3 billion in assets. The Massachusetts pension fund is investing in its Contrarian Capital Management Emerging Markets Strategy, which is managed by Xiao Song and seeks to find stressed, distressed and defaulted corporate and sovereign debt. Contrarian has offices in London, Paris, Sao Paulo and Hong Kong and its team speaks Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, French, German and Italian, something the pension fund feels is critical to finding deals and understanding foreign legal structures.

IPM oversees a total of $5.1 billion in assets, and the Massachusetts fund is investing in its IPM Systematic Macro Strategy, which has become so popular in the last two years that assets more than doubled in size to $1.8 billion. The strategy seeks to make money on the divergences between fundamentals and market prices with proprietary computer models.

The state is making the hedge fund investments at a time many public pensions are considering exiting the sector, following a period of lackluster returns at many funds and growing political concerns about hedge funds' high fees.

Massachusetts, which invests roughly 8.4 percent of its assets in hedge funds and has some of the largest hedge fund allocations of any public pension fund in the United States, has long pushed for fee cuts at expensive hedge funds. It will soon have some $2 billion invested through managed accounts.

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The money going into Contrarian and IPM will be in managed accounts, more custom-tailored structures that often involve lower fees and more transparency.

The vote to put money into Contrarian and IPM comes only a few months after trustees voted in February to put $150 million each with New York-based SECOR and London-based East Lodge Capital.

The fund is also reviewing whether it may want to eventually manage some of its investments internally, something a number of large public plans are now doing to cut fees as well as attract investment talent.

(Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss; Editing by Dan Grebler and Tom Brown)
After what must have been a wild Sunday night out, three British 20-somethings working at the famed Ayia Napa resort in Cyprus embarked on a boozy dolphin hunt and reportedly ended up in Tartus, Syrias second largest port city, according to a report in news.com.au. Lewis Ellis, 25, told the Australian news portal from Cyprus that we went to watch f-cking dolphins and we ended up in f-cking Syria.

Only it may not be true. Some British media reports now say that the story was a prank. Facebook posts purportedly showing Ellis boasting about how he made it up for fun began circulating elsewhere on social media.

Both the Independent and the Telegraph said that reports that the trio had planned a diving and dolphin-watching trip for their Monday off work, as well as photos shared on SnapChat, were false. The Telegraph said Ellis had previously posted pranks to his YouTube channel.

The story told to news.com.au was full of elaborate detail. Ellis claimed that when he and his friends stumbled out of the nightclub at 7:30 a.m., their tickets were too far away in their apartment to retrieve in time for the 9 a.m. boat. So they figured they would take it upon themselves and catch a random boat instead.

Lewis told news.com.au they began panicking when they realized they were deep at sea. We said to the crew, like, Why are we so far from land? Nine hours later, he claimed they landed in Tartus, Syria, with no phone signal and $17 total. Russian troops supposedly greeted them and took them away for questioning, news.com.au said.

When we explained what happened they realised how ridiculous it was, Lewis told the portal. They took photos of us, selfies.

He said he and his friends had been treated like heroes. Journalists from all over the U.K. are trying to get in touch with us. Its just ridiculous.

Or not, as the case may be.

[news.com.au]
With her style uniform of a blunt blonde bob, opaque black sunglasses and head-to-toe Prada combined with a deadpan delivery of fashionable maxims, Anna Wintour was practically born to be celebrated and parodied. The Vogue Editor-in-Chief is known for having an opinion on pretty much everything, from sweatshirts to Taylor Swifts hair, a trait perfectly encapsulated by Maya Rudolph in her eerily perfect impression of the industrys reigning arbiter of chic.

Jamie Lee Curtis Warcraft Cosplay Red Carpet





On the newest episode of Maya & Marty, the comedian delivers a tour de force performance as fashions most formidable ruler, doling out one-liners that even Anna herself would be hard-pressed not to crack a smile over. In the skit, Maya as Anna waxes poetic on what makes her New York just so great, a city she describes as a silk mens blouse, loose and too big. Martin Short makes a brief, but crucial, cameo as Chanel impresario Karl Lagerfeld with air kisses and attitude to spare.

RELATED PHOTOS: Anna Wintours Met Gala Style Evolution

Maya also manages to crack the code on one of fashions greatest mysteries  what is Anna hiding under those pitch black sunnies? Why yet another pair of sunglasses, of course. And thanks to her, we now know that the best crab in the city can be found at Hans Deli. (Its imitation crab, but you liter-ally cannot tell.) So don your favorite Chanel tracksuit and Prada shades, kick back in your Eames chair, and enjoy a nice cup of lime Jello while Anna and Karl explain to you all the joys of free bodega bathrooms.

What do you think of Mayas Anna Wintour impression?

Emily Kirkpatrick






UK has 'secretly' upgraded Trident arsenal and developed an entirely new warhead, report finds



At a glance



Vanguard Class Nuclear Subs







HMS Vengeance





The Royal Navys four Vanguard Class nuclear-powered submarines carry Britains Trident nuclear deterrent.

Length: 492 ft





Displacement: 15,900 tonnes





Crew: 132

Top speed: 25 knots

In service: 1993 to present





Armament: Spearfish torpedoes and up to 16 Trident II D5 nuclear missiles



Power: Rolls Royce PWR2 nuclear reactor

Boats: HMS Vanguard, HMS Vengeance, HMS Victorious, HMS Vigilant



launches an unarmed warhead in the Atlantic just off Florida in 2012





UK has 'secretly' upgraded Trident arsenal and developed an entirely new warhead, report finds Launch: HMS Vigilantin 2012



8 June 2016The TelegraphThe row over Trident is set to reignite after it emerged Britain has been secretly upgrading its arsenal of nuclear weapons and developed an entirely new warhead.A report from the Nuclear Information Service revealed ministers have already authorised 85 million for the more accurate and destructive Mark 4A warhead without consulting Parliament.According to the report, the costs and the timetable of the program have not been revealed to Parliament. David Cameron is now facing calls for an urgent vote on the issue of Trident's renewal following the EU referendum.The independent research body said work has already been undertaken at the Atomic Weapons Establishment in Aldermaston, and new warheads have been tested at Sandia National Laboratories in the US.A joint US-UK working group was set up to allow collaboration on the programs, it said.The Ministry of Defence meanwhile has refused to answer questions on the cost of the overall Trident programme on the grounds that the information is classified. Estimates put its eventual cost at more than 200 billion.Peter Burt of the NIS (Nuclear Information Service) said: "The Mark 4A warhead modification programme will allow Trident nuclear warheads to remain in service until the middle of this century, and plenty of money is being spent to pave the way for developing a new generation warhead which will remain in service for even longer."Emily Thornberry, Shadow Defence Secretary, urged Labour MPs to vote against Trident's renewal A spokesman told The Times: "The Tories have entirely abandoned the principle that Britain should be working towards multilateral disarmament, and by secretly investing in ever more destructive warheads, they are now actively working against it."The Labour Party that helped create the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty should be united as one against that."John Woodcock, the Labour MP for Barrow - where the Royal Navy's new submarines are being constructed - is leading the effort to maintain the party's pro-deterrent stance. He said: "Anyone concerned about keeping down the cost of Trident should surely welcome attempts to eek as much life out of the existing warhead by modifying it rather than going straight for a replacement."This report suggests nothing has changed in the long-announced plans for maintaining and ultimately upgrading the UK's stock of nuclear warheads. It will be interesting to see whether it becomes the latest nugget to be distorted and missed by anti-Trident campaigners seeking to cast doubt ahead of the parliamentary vote."
The entire body of the Carbon Series 675LT Spider will feature a gloss carbon-fiber application.

It will feature a longtail design similar to the marques famed F1 GTR racecar and recent 675LT Coupe.

The 666 hp topless titan will be able to accelerate from zero to 62 mph in 2.9 seconds.

Only 25 examples will be built.

Announced today, the McLaren Special Operations (MSO) Carbon Series 675LT Spider takes light and fast to the next level. Based off of the limited-edition 675LT Spider (McLarens fastest roadster to date) that debuted in December, the new variant features a body completely covered with a gloss carbon-fiber application. The decision to use 40 percent more of the material than on the original model is due to the popularity of the carbon-fiber McLaren P1 showcased at the Geneva International Motor Show in March.

The composite convertible reflects the marques longtail design made famous by its F1 GTR racecar that took second and third place at Le Mans in 1997. Both componentry and aerodynamic aesthetics will incorporate carbon fiber, including the front bumper (with enlarged splitter) and rear fender, front underbody, side skirts and intakes, diffuser, longtail airbrake, and electronically retractable roof and tonneau.

Giving more power per pound is a 3.8-liter twin-turbo V-8 engine unleashing 666 hp and 516 ft lbs of torque. And to ensure that there is no loss in performance and handling when paired with the new body construction, 50 percent of the power trains parts will be replaced from the standard version. The result will be the same launch rate (from zero to 62 mph in 2.9 seconds) and top speed (203 mph) as the latter and only a .2-second decrease in acceleration compared to the coupe. To help measure the metrics, the McLaren Track Telemetry Pack (with three cameras) will also come with the car.

Beginning in the fall, only 25 examples will be produced with first deliveries planned for the end of the year. But as quick as the new MSO Carbon Series 675LT Spider promises to be, demand has it beat, as each one has already been presold. (cars.mclaren.com)

Story continues

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[Editor's note: This article was originally published in January 2016. Megan Hilty is now a 2016 Tony Award nominee.]

For Megan Hilty, her return to Broadway in the Roundabout Theatre Company revival of the 1982 comedy, Noises Off, presented multiple challenges. Not because it is her first Broadway production since 9 to 5: The Musical, which ran for five months in 2009 and earned the 34-year-old actress a Drama Desk Award nomination. Or that it follows the short-lived, but beloved, part on NBC's Smash and subsequent recurring TV roles, which have taken her back and forth between Los Angeles and New York City. It just took a lot of work to pull off.

The revival, directed by Jeremy Herrin, follows the run of Nothing On, the play within a play, from its dismal dress rehearsal to its absurd final performance. Hilty plays the inexperienced bombshell, Brooke Ashton, in her first speaking part. It's a very mechanical play, with an ensemble cast constantly moving about. A single performance -- when pulled off brings tears of laughter to the audience -- is no small feat.

MORE: 'Hamilton' Cast Opens Up About Diversity, Beyonce, and Crashing Phone Lines

"It's more mentally exhausting if anything, especially on two-show days," Hilty tells ETonline on a Wednesday between performances of the three-act production. "By the end of the day, we've technically done the play within the play six times in different ways. By the end of the night, you have to really, really be focusing. You can't let your mind wander, otherwise you'll lose tiny cues."

And those cues are plentiful, especially in the second act, which is largely performed in silence as the audience watches the action taking place backstage. Rehearsals -- which started in November 2015, just one month before previews began -- were especially tedious. "It was not easy," she says of the process that included a mock set with its six on-stage entrances and multiple levels. "It's all mechanical. There's a rhythm to it and the play is very, very precise."

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That precision seen on stage features several gasp-worthy moments, including an axe hurled up to Hilty, who's standing on the ledge of the two-story set. Admittedly, she has missed the prop a few times, once it even hit the wall. "Stuff like that happens all the time," the actress says. "That's the beauty of it. It kind of goes along with the nature of the show that it must go on and you have to figure it out."

"It's even better to see people panic along the way," Hilty giggles.

MORE: 'OITNB' Star Danielle Brooks Is Busy, but Grateful to Make Broadway Debut

Perhaps the biggest panic moment for Hilty came when she -- pregnant at the time -- learned the revival was moving forward. Her character, Brooke, spends most of her time in lingerie and four-and-half inch heels. "I never ever thought I'd play a character that wore this little clothing," she admits. "Like, to the point where I got a giant tattoo on my back, because I thought, 'Nobody is going to hire me for something where I have my clothes off.'"

So after giving birth to her daughter, Viola Philomena, with husband Brian Gallagher, the actress knew she had little over a year to lose the baby weight. "That was great motivation," Hilty laughs. "I'm either the craziest person or the smartest."

While she looks stunning on stage, Hilty is still finding the confidence to run around (as well as climb ladders and crawl on the stage) in her slinky costume. "The hardest thing about doing the show was telling myself to be confident in whatever state my body was in," she says, not wanting her trepidation about her figure to distract from her performance. "I did a lot of work up until when we opened to get myself physically in shape for this. Right before our first audience, I really had to come to terms with -- everybody feels insecure, certainly when they're showing this much skin -- but I really had to come to terms with being confident with wherever it is that my body is right now."

"That was a tough thing for me to swallow and to go forward with," Hilty says.

Noises Off runs now through March 13 at the American Airlines Theatre.

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For a comedic actress, Melissa McCarthy takes embodying her character's very seriously.



Her upcoming role in Ghostbusters is no different, and in her cover story for Elle's first Women in Comedy issue, McCarthy jokes that her dedication to her parts can sometimes get on her director's nerves.



"I get so psychotically attached to all of my characters, and I fight for them in probably the most annoying way," she tells famed shoe designer Brian Atwood, who interviewed her for the story.



"I hear myself saying to Ben [Falcone, her husband] or Paul [Feig, Ghostbusters' director], 'She wouldn't phrase it that way.' I know it's such an actory thing, but I feel it to my core: I have to represent the woman I'm getting to be. Even if she's fictitious, she's always real to me: three-dimensional, flawed, loving, screwed-up, as real women are."









Melissa McCarthy on Playing 'Flawed, Loving, Screwed-Up Real Women' and Annoying Ghostbusters Director Paul Feig on Set| Ghostbusters, Movie News, Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy





Each of her Ghostbusters' costars were also interviewed for cover stories, some of which featured interviews conducted by fellow celebrities. Kristen Wiig talked with fellow Saturday Night Live alum Will Ferrell about her first skits on the sketch comedy show.



"My very first show I got on something that I wrote. I was weirdly less nervous for that than I was for the first sketch I was in, which was about someone being pregnant in their butt. I think it was Poehler, and we had a baby shower for her and "





Melissa McCarthy on Playing 'Flawed, Loving, Screwed-Up Real Women' and Annoying Ghostbusters Director Paul Feig on Set| Ghostbusters, Movie News, Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy





"God, that's good," Ferrell interjects.



"I was scared that I was going to freeze or swear or pass out," Wiig adds.





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Kate McKinnon spoke with Elle writer Lizzy Goodman about understanding herself differently as she grows as an actress. "I came to a reckoning that [pretending to be other people] is in fact such a real, huge chunk of the way I communicate. I thought it was something I was putting on to disguise something else, but it's not."



Asked if that means she is in fact Justin Bieber, whom she impersonates on the show, McKinnon answered, "That is what I am telling you, yes."



Leslie Jones, meanwhile, opened up about breaking out as a comedian. "I just knew that I was funny, and I knew that it was just a matter of time. I didn't know what was going to actually happen  this is definitely way bigger than I thought  but I knew there was no way I was going to be that funny and nobody was going to notice it."
(UNITED NATIONS)  The U.N. General Assembly president hinted Tuesday that he would like to see groups and individual countries in the world body come up with shortlists of candidates to become the next U.N. chief now that the 11 current contenders have made their case to the 193 member nations.

According to the U.N. Charter, the secretary-general is chosen by the General Assembly on the recommendation of the 15-member Security Council. In practice, this has meant that the councils five permanent members  the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France  have veto power over the candidates.

But assembly president Mogens Lykketoft told reporters the more that members express their preferences, the more they raise the probability that out of the Security Council will come a name which is generally accepted also in the membership.

Read More: There Are Now Four Women Vying to Become the First Female U.N. Secretary-General

Asked whether he will recommend that assembly members come up with shortlists, Lykketoft replied, I will not recommend. I will certainly look at it with great sympathy if it happens.

He added, to some laughter, that he was being very diplomatic.

Lykketoft spoke after the last two candidates  Argentinas Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra and Slovakias Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak  answered questions from assembly members for two hours in separate sessions.

Lykketoft urged other candidates to come forward quickly, but said the assembly will offer the same question-and-answer opportunity however late they arrive.

Read More: Here Are the Candidates for the Next U.N. Secretary-General

He told reporters he plans to send a letter to the Security Council with his impressions of the first-ever opportunity for member states to question candidates to lead the U.N.

Lykketoft said his first point will be this is a procedure that has come to stay for future selections of secretary-generals.

Story continues

Another impression, he said, is that there is a strong wish from the membership of a strong personality at the helm of the United Nations, an independent one, a courageous secretary-general who will use all powers provided by the (U.N.) Charter in order to advance peace and security, development and human rights.

Lykketoft said he believes ambassadors and diplomats from all countries have gotten a clearer picture of the personalities and priorities of the candidates  and the questions have also pinpointed priorities that members see for the future of the United Nations in peace and security, human rights, and in the way the whole United Nations works.

Malcorra, a former chief of staff to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, said in her session that if she is selected my job will be being faithful to the Charter which means being faithful to member states. She said the secretary-general must also be an early warner to the organization and a forceful advocate for human rights.

My vision calls for a United Nations that is centered on people, the planet and prosperity; driven by issues and focused on delivering a positive impact, she said.

Lajcak, a former high representative in Bosnia, said for me, the United Nations is about peace  and that should be a priority because there can be no development or human rights without peace. He called for greater emphasis on preventing conflict and mediation, saying he has spent many years as a mediator.

The secretary-general is the communicator, Lajcak said, stressing the importance of the U.N. chief talking to nations, peoples, and improving interaction between agencies in this globalized, interconnected world.
Who wore it best: Meryl Streep or Donald Trump?

At Monday's annual Shakespeare in the Park Public Theater Gala, held in New York City's Central Park, the three-time Oscar winner channeled the Republican party's presumptive nominee in a duet with Christine Baranski, who played a less convincing Hillary Clinton.

Dressed in an overstuffed black suit with a long red tie, her face heavily, orangely made-up and her hair piled into a Trump-esque ducktail, the actress sang Cole Porter's "Brush Up Your Shakespeare" from Kiss Me Kate, learning a few lessons in how to clinch that sweet sweet women's vote.

"We could do a deal, you'll let me know, why it is all the women say no," Streep-as-Trump harumphed.

"Brush up your Shakespeare and the women you will wow," Baranski sang. "Just declaim a few lines from Othello, and they'll think you're a hell of a fella."

Meryl Streep just added Donald Trump to her resume at the Public Theater Galapic.twitter.com/5ftmcKbRjN

Predictably, the internet went wild.

Watch Meryl Streep ape Donald Trump: Let's give her an Oscar for this too http://read.ht/BGJ1 pic.twitter.com/fkKmTY3hEv https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ckbam7YWkAA_CeH.jpg:large

Excellent !http://fb.me/5pITIvJ7O

Meryl Streep impersonating Donald trump is my aestheticpic.twitter.com/zSKYhdtFAB https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ckbat_QXIAEuIPN.jpg:large

meryl streep does donald trump love this woman!!! #merylstreep

Perhaps surprisingly, Trump's been silent on the subject of Streep's performance, not lashing out at the actress on Twitter as is his wont. Could it be that even he can't argue with her spot-on portrayal? Too hard to face oneself in the mirror? One thing, regardless, is clear. Streep really can play anyone.
Just call her LOLdemort, because meteorologist Sian Welby had the hosts of London radio show Capital Breakfast laughing into their microphones when she delivered a Harry Potter themed forecast on Tuesday.

She packed more than a dozen Harry Potter puns into less than two minutes on air, including such gems as "Time to QuidDITCH that winter coat" and "a few showers will Slyther-in."

Meteorologist Delivers the Most Pun-Tastic 'Harry Potter' Weather Report

Welby ended her forecast with the quite excellent suggestion that everyone "Muggle together" outside for a nice barbecue.

The special theme of the weather report was a nod to the upcoming play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which started previews on Tuesday.
Billionaire media mogul Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City, says he wont let his children work for his company.

I will not let my daughters work for my company, Bloomberg said the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses 20th graduation ceremony at LaGuardia Community College on Tuesday.

Bloomberg encouraged the small business owners in the audience not to hire their relatives.

Dont hire your relative, dont hire your friend, unless you absolutely have to because...you cant treat those people fairly. Its not fair to the other people. Ive always been opposed to that.

Bloomberg said that if youre starting a small business, you need to find the right people. Youre not likely to hire from Harvard, Yale, or Princeton. Instead, you want to find that person whos a hard worker in your own neighborhood.

Ive always said, I would like to hire the person whose father never was there, whose mother was in a drug treatment program, and he had to go and work three shifts at McDonalds to take care of his siblings. Thats the kind of person you want somebody, no matter how bad things are, looks on the bright side, takes the bull by the horns, puts in the sweat capital, and thats where the results are.

And in order to find the right people, you have to network, he said.

You have to network. There are employment agencies you can go to. You can go on LinkedIn. But youre more likely to find somebody in your neighborhood. Ask people, who do you know thats looking for a job?

Bloomberg was joined by Warren Buffett, the founder of Berkshire Hathaway; Jack Dorsey, cofounder and CEO of Square and Twitter; and Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs.

Buffett, the legendary billionaire investor, encouraged the small business owners to remember these three words: "Delight my customers." If they do that, they will generate an organic salesforce of people in their community who will support and advocate on behalf of that business for free.

Story continues

10,000 Small Businesses is a program created through a partnership between Goldman Sachs and LaGuardia Community College that aims to help entrepreneurs grow their businesses and create jobs by providing access to education, capital, and technical assistance.







Julia La Roche is a finance reporter at Yahoo Finance.

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Michigan Rider Deaths Continue to Rise After Helmet Law Repeal

Recent statistics show Michigans motorcycle fatality rate has continued to rise in the wake of a 2012 repeal of its mandatory helmet law.

According to a report by The Detroit News, the number of helmetless deaths has risen 460 percent over the past four years. Safety campaigners say it is a statistic that provides strong evidence of the need for a helmet law.

Overall, motorcycle deaths have risen 26 percent in Michigan since 2012. This was a trend RideApart spotted and reported on just a year after the repeal. The state saw 109 motorcyclists killed in 2011, whereas last year 138 riders were killed.

We knew from other states experiences that deaths increase when motorcyclists are allowed to ride without helmets, Pete Kuhnmuench, executive director of the Insurance Institute, told The Detroit News. Unfortunately, the predictions were accurate and more motorcyclists are dying in motorcycle crashes.

READ MORE: Federal Government Weighs National Helmet Law | RideApart

No helmet

Meanwhile, Michigan State Police say that among those killed in accidents the number of helmetless riders has increased dramatically. Last year, 56 of the aforementioned 138 deaths involved riders not wearing a helmet.

The majority of U.S. states do not require a helmet for fully licensed adult riders (our favorite law comes from Delaware, where riders dont have to wear a helmet but do have to have one in their possession). In some states, riders who choose to forego a helmet are required to carry extra insurance. That is true in Michigan, where riders who opt to ride without a helmet are required to carry at least $20,000 in first-party medical benefits on their insurance policies.

Nonetheless, the statistics in Michigan have led some in the state to call for a helmet law to be reinstated. A spokesman for Gov. Rick Snyder, who signed the repeal into law, told The Detroit News that the governor felt such a decision would have to be made by state legislators.

The state of Michigan has some 490,427 licensed riders.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared Wednesday that India and the United States should work together more closely to defeat terrorism and head off regional instability.

While the Indian leader did not mention Pakistan by name, Modi urged US lawmakers to help isolate those who support terrorism that is "incubated in India's neighborhood."

And, while he did not address China's maritime territorial ambitions, Modi said a US-India partnership would "help ensure security of the sea lanes of commerce and freedom of navigation."

Modi made the remarks in an address to a joint session of the US Congress during a visit to Washington designed to build on improved ties between the world's two largest democracies.

Once effectively banned from the United States because of his alleged role in anti-Muslim riots before coming to national office, Modi has built a rapport with US President Barack Obama.

Now, with Obama's final term coming to an end in seven months, the two partners are keen to secure support for India's civil nuclear program and build an enduring great power partnership.

Modi said Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi had inspired US civil rights hero Martin Luther King and that both countries had been inspired by their "struggle for freedom."

- 'Natural allies' -

"No wonder then, that former Prime Minister of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee called India and the US 'natural allies'," he told the US lawmakers.

"No wonder then, that President Obama has called our ties the defining partnership of the 21st century," he added.

India has a tradition of shunning formal alliances and relations with the United States were strained in the past by Cold War tensions.

Modi was also still careful to paint the relationship as one of equals, stressing that Obama supports Delhi's bid to become a permanent member of the UN Security Council.

But he was keen to play up for his Washington audience the more than $10 billion India has spent on US weaponry in the past five years -- and its role in securing regional stability.

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"A strong India-US partnership can anchor peace, prosperity and stability from Asia to Africa and from Indian Ocean to the Pacific," he declared.

While not formally adopting the role of a US military ally, India has helped international rescue foreign nationals from war-torn Yemen and in anti-piracy operations off Somalia.

Modi also suggested that Delhi would be a positive influence as Washington seeks to defuse a confrontation with China over its territorial claims in the South China Sea.

- Terror threat -

But he also pointedly urged his new US friends to see India's long stand-off with neighboring Pakistan through the prism of Islamabad's alleged history of support for Islamist extremism.

He thanked Congress for what he said was its support when "terrorists from across our border" launched the Mumbai attacks in November 2008.

"Globally, terrorism remains the biggest threat," he argued before the body that must authorize American arms sales to Pakistan.

"In the territory stretching from west of India's border to Africa, it may go by different names, from Laskhar-e-Taiba, to the Taliban to ISIS."

Lashkar-e-Taiba is a Pakistani-based group blamed for attacks inside India, the Afghan Taliban use safe havens in Pakistan and ISIS, or the so-called Islamic State, has opened a South Asian affiliate.

Modi's speech, coming a day after a successful visit to the Democratic president in the White House, was warmly received by the Republican leaders in Congress.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell agreed the visit was an opportunity to hear Modi's view "on India's economic growth and how he feels we can strengthen the strategic partnership between our countries."

After giving his address, Modi was to be hosted for lunch by House majority leader Paul Ryan and then attend a reception organized by Congressmen for 500 dignitaries.

"He spoke eloquently about the importance of a strong US-India relationship to promoting peace and freedom around the globe," Ryan said.

During his three-day visit he has also met US and Indian business leaders -- and has already secured a promise of $3 billion in investment by online retailer Amazon.
By Patricia Zengerle and Megan Cassella

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for a closer security relationship between his country and the United States on Wednesday, in an address to the U.S. Congress stressing the importance of warming ties between the two countries.

He dedicated much of the speech to the importance of fighting terrorism, thanking Congress for U.S. support after a Pakistan-based military group's rampage in Mumbai killed 166 people in 2008.

"The fight against terrorism has to be fought at many levels. And the traditional tools of military, intelligence or diplomacy alone would not be able to win this fight," Modi told a rare joint meeting of the Senate and House of Representatives.

"We have both lost civilians and soldiers in combating it. The need of the hour is for us to deepen our security cooperation," Modi said.

He leavened the speech to lawmakers, the first such address by an international leader since Pope Francis' in September, with jokes about Congress' bitter partisan divide and yoga. But Modi used it to make serious points about India's neighbour and arch-rival Pakistan and regional concerns about Chinese expansionism.

"I commend the members of the U.S. Congress for sending a clear message to those who preach and practice terrorism for political gains," he said, not mentioning either country by name.

Modi is on the U.S. leg of an international tour. On Tuesday, he met with President Barack Obama at the White House, where the two leaders said India agreed to work toward joining the Paris Agreement on climate change this year and discussed security and cybersecurity issues.

The visit, two years after Modi became prime minister, capped an improving relationship between New Delhi and the United States. Before he was elected, Modi was barred from even entering the country because of concerns about his handling of 2002 riots that killed at least 1,000 people, mostly Muslims.

Story continues

PERSONAL TIES TO OBAMA

Today, he is one of the international leaders most popular in Washington, where Modi's government is seen as a counterbalance to China. He and Obama have a warm personal relationship.

"We are now standing shoulder to shoulder in ways that no one could have imagined a generation ago," Representative Eliot Engel, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs committee, said at a reception for Modi after the address.

In a 45-minute speech interrupted by cheers and at least eight standing ovations, the 65-year-old Indian leader said deeper U.S.-Indian security cooperation should isolate anyone who harbours, supports or sponsors terrorists.

Although he did not mention Pakistan, that line was greeted with applause from the lawmakers, many of whom are increasingly frustrated with what they see as Islamabad's failure to crack down on militants behind attacks on American troops in Afghanistan.

Modi also stressed that India is committed to helping rebuild a peaceful and stable Afghanistan.

Amid heightened tensions over China's assertive pursuit of territory in the South China Sea, Modi said a stronger U.S.-India partnership could boost peace and prosperity "from Asia to Africa and from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific." He did not mention China.

"It can also help ensure security of the sea lanes and commerce and freedom of navigation on seas," Modi added.

Democrats leaped to their feet when Modi referred to the recent climate change summit. But Republicans in the House chamber remained seated, reflecting the U.S. political divide over the issue.

House Speaker Paul Ryan greeted Modi at his office before his speech. After the Indian leader's remarks, he attended lunch with congressional leaders and a reception with members of the House Foreign Affairs and Senate Foreign Relations committees.

(Writing by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by James Dalgleish)
By Patricia Zengerle and Megan Cassella WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for a closer security relationship between his country and the United States on Wednesday, in an address to the U.S. Congress stressing the importance of warming ties between the two countries. He dedicated much of the speech to the importance of fighting terrorism, thanking Congress for U.S. support after a Pakistan-based military group's rampage in Mumbai killed 166 people in 2008. "The fight against terrorism has to be fought at many levels. And the traditional tools of military, intelligence or diplomacy alone would not be able to win this fight," Modi told a rare joint meeting of the Senate and House of Representatives. "We have both lost civilians and soldiers in combating it. The need of the hour is for us to deepen our security cooperation," Modi said. He leavened the speech to lawmakers, the first such address by an international leader since Pope Francis' in September, with jokes about Congress' bitter partisan divide and yoga. But Modi used it to make serious points about India's neighbor and arch-rival Pakistan and regional concerns about Chinese expansionism. "I commend the members of the U.S. Congress for sending a clear message to those who preach and practice terrorism for political gains," he said, not mentioning either country by name. Modi is on the U.S. leg of an international tour. On Tuesday, he met with President Barack Obama at the White House, where the two leaders said India agreed to work toward joining the Paris Agreement on climate change this year and discussed security and cyber security issues. The visit, two years after Modi became prime minister, capped an improving relationship between New Delhi and the United States. Before he was elected, Modi was barred from even entering the country because of concerns about his handling of 2002 riots that killed at least 1,000 people, mostly Muslims. PERSONAL TIES TO OBAMA Today, he is one of the international leaders most popular in Washington, where Modi's government is seen as a counterbalance to China. He and Obama have a warm personal relationship. "We are now standing shoulder to shoulder in ways that no one could have imagined a generation ago," Representative Eliot Engel, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs committee, said at a reception for Modi after the address. In a 45-minute speech interrupted by cheers and at least eight standing ovations, the 65-year-old Indian leader said deeper U.S.-Indian security cooperation should isolate anyone who harbors, supports or sponsors terrorists. Although he did not mention Pakistan, that line was greeted with applause from the lawmakers, many of whom are increasingly frustrated with what they see as Islamabad's failure to crack down on militants behind attacks on American troops in Afghanistan. Modi also stressed that India is committed to helping rebuild a peaceful and stable Afghanistan. Amid heightened tensions over China's assertive pursuit of territory in the South China Sea, Modi said a stronger U.S.-India partnership could boost peace and prosperity "from Asia to Africa and from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific." He did not mention China. "It can also help ensure security of the sea lanes and commerce and freedom of navigation on seas," Modi added. Democrats leaped to their feet when Modi referred to the recent climate change summit. But Republicans in the House chamber remained seated, reflecting the U.S. political divide over the issue. House Speaker Paul Ryan greeted Modi at his office before his speech. After the Indian leader's remarks, he attended lunch with congressional leaders and a reception with members of the House Foreign Affairs and Senate Foreign Relations committees. (Writing by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by James Dalgleish)
By Matthias Williams CHISINAU (Reuters) - Moldovan Prime Minister Pavel Filip said on Wednesday that Russia was not offering enough help to his government to track down and recover $1 billion that was siphoned from the banking system. The scandal, in which around one-eighth of Moldova's gross domestic product disappeared mostly in unsupported loans, caused uproar in the ex-Soviet country and discredited the pro-European leadership that has pivoted it away from Moscow. Bringing more transparency to the financial sector in Europe's poorest country is a crucial reform needed for Chisinau to secure a memorandum with the International Monetary Fund. That in turn would unlock aid from the European Union on which the 2016 state budget, which has yet to be approved by parliament, relies. But only 600 million Moldovan lei ($30.5 million) of the missing $1 billion have been clawed back. "As regards identifying assets, for example, we are working very well with some of the countries. The Baltics for example, where they're really putting the finger on assets or they're showing us exactly what's the network, the chain by which something was passed over," Filip said in an interview. "Truth is we're not really working well with the Russian Federation as regards this info on their side. As regards any possible financial chains or networks coming via Russia or towards Russia, as regards the money." Russian lender VEB Capital had a 24.9 percent stake in one of the banks involved in the scandal, Banca de Economii, while one oligarch suspected of involvement in the scandal was believed to have ties to Russia. Russia's foreign ministry declined to comment on assistance to Moldova in investigating the scandal. The investigative committee, the Russian state body that investigates crime, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Filip, who took over in January amid street protests as the fifth prime minister since 2009, stressed that Moldova and Russia were working on a co-operation agreement between their respective prosecutors, which may improve matters. Some, including former Prime Minister Ion Sturza, have said the Moldovan banks were a hub for Russian money laundering. Filip's government is waiting for recommendations from the Kroll consultancy on how best to recover the assets. "We are focusing on asset recovery actions. And this is our expectations from the Kroll company to identify all the assets and subsequently to tell us what actions can be legally done," Filip said. IN THE DRIVING SEAT Sitting in front of an EU flag, Filip outlined a series of reform measures to restore public confidence in the political system and to show Moldovans that the government is working in their best interests. The central bank will receive more powers to step in quickly to tackle problems, instead of waiting for permission from the ministry of justice as it had to before, Filip said. A move to slash the number of intrusive inspections - currently at 69 - by government institutions into businesses to check on their operations will make the investment climate more favorable, he said. Another reform will change the mandate of the anti-corruption agency to focus only on high-level cases. The move follows in the footsteps of Romania, which has seen an unprecedented crackdown on graft by some of its richest and most powerful politicians and businessman. But while the political situation in Moldova has stabilized, opposition to Filip's government has been vocal. Protests in January trained their fire on the prime minister's close ties with Vladimir Plahotniuc, Moldova's richest man and first deputy leader of the ruling Democratic Party, who is seen by critics as pulling the strings. Filip dismissed the idea. "I would use a metaphor. At that moment in January I was well aware of the fact that I was taking the keys of a car that was broken, that it has no fuel," he said, speaking through a translator. "The truth is, I am driving that car, I am in the driver's seat, and I am happy to drive this car to success." ($1 = 19.6500 Moldovan lei) (Additional reporting by Alexander Tanas in Chisinau and Ludmila Danilova in Moscow; Editing by Tom Heneghan)
From Redbook

Taking your kids to the beach can be one heck of a production. Between remembering the totes with the toys, the snacks, the koozies, and the err, adult beverages, sometimes bringing enough sunscreen to last the full afternoon becomes an oversight. But that wasn't the issue for Virginia mom, Jennifer Sayers, who is sharing images of what happened to her 3-year-old son after he returned from their beach day with blistering burns.



Though Liam Sayers was in the sun all day, his mom made sure to reapply SPF 50+ Banana Boat kids spray often.

"Multiple times during the day we had the kids come out of the water, dried them off completely and then reapplied the spray as directed," she told WTVR CBS 6.

Although he appeared to be fine that evening, the next morning his eyes were practically swollen shut.

"I can never guarantee to a family you won't get burned despite doing all of the right things," Pediatrician Dr. Eric Freeman told CBS. He also cautioned that sunscreen used on sensitive areas, like the face, should include zinc oxide or titanium dioxide, which Banana Boat does not.

Dermatologist Dr. Doris Day added that sunscreen alone is not enough.

"For optimum protection avoid mid-day sun from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., wear a hat and sunglasses, and seek shade when you can. Also, reapplying sunscreen every two hours is key," she told redbookmag.com.

In a statement, Banana Boat said, "Nothing is more important to us than the well-being of the people who use our products. Consumers can rest assured that Banana Boat products provide safe and effective broad spectrum UVA and UVB protection when used as directed on the product label, and with (ITALICS) other sun protection measures as necessary."

Although it surely seems as though Sayers did as instructed, her son's story is an important reminder that while sunscreen can surely help prevent sun damage, when you're out on a clear day for five hours, it pays to put on a nice floppy hat.
The strange and deadly saga of two inseparable, identical twins took an even stranger turn when one was charged with killing the other.

But gossip columnist Jose Lambiet tells Inside Edition that Anastasia and Alexandria Duval, aka Ann and Alison Dadow, both 37, did everything together but had deep-seated anger issues and often fought with each other.

Read: Days Before He Turns 69, Rolling Stones Guitarist Ronnie Wood's Wife Gives Birth To Twins

"The had a rage problem, an anger problem, (and) were arrested several times with anger incidents involving even the police," he said.

Those alleged issues culminated in the May 29 death of Anastasia Duval, who was killed when her sister drove their car off a seaside cliff in Hawaii.

Anastasia was pronounced dead at the scene. Alexandria was airlifted to a local hospital with critical injuries. She appeared in court with her arm in a sling, and pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder charges on Monday in Maui.

The car crash is the latest twist in the bizarre lives of the glamorous twins, punctuated by allegedly running yoga studios and then abandoning them, leaving behind unpaid debts and employees, according to local reports.

The sisters left behind a studio in West Palm Beach, Florida, without paying its bills or its employees, according to local reports. They had matching Porsches and shopped at upmarket stores.

Read: Trans Sisters Who Grew Up As Brothers Support Each Other In Coming Out

Another studio they allegedly started in Utah later went bankrupt, and was hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, the station reported.

The success and money got to their heads, Lambiet said. They started spending a lot of money and I think they fell behind.

They have a criminal history that includes arrests for public intoxication, driving under the influence, assaulting a peace officer and battery, the paper reported, citing 2014 and 2015 court records from Florida and Utah.

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In January, one of them showed up at a homeless shelter asking for money and saying she had nowhere to go, the paper reported.

She is being held without bail.

Watch: Identical Twins Who Share Same Boyfriend Want To Get Pregnant Together

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Bayer AG CEO Werner Baumann on Wednesday said despite the cool reception by Monsanto (NYSE:MON) to his $122 a share bid for the St. Louis, MO-based agricultural company, talks are going on in private. Further, he said Monsanto is comfortable with the strategic rationale of the deal, the FOX Business Network has learned.

Baumann was speaking at a private Deutsche Bank conference described by attendees as a standing room only event. He spoke about the German agricultural and chemical conglomerates efforts to purchase Monsanto, which have so far been rebuffed.

Monsanto rejected Bayers $60 billion all-cash offer on May 24, but said it was interested in further discussions at a higher buyout price.

Since then, traders have been skeptical about the prospects of a merger, sending shares of Monsanto significantly below Bayers offer. Market participants have digested various roadblocks to the deal including Monsantos desire for a higher price that Bayer shareholders might not be comfortable with, and the possibility that the transaction might not get approval from European and U.S. regulators over anti-trust and other concerns.

However, at the Deutsche Bank conference, Baumann indicated that the two sides are still talking and that a deal could still happen, according to attendees, and a document outlining his remarks.

According to these sources, Baumann gave no details on whether Bayer will increase the size of the dealor by how much. In private meetings with investors last week in New York he indicated the company might be willing to go somewhat higher in its offer.

But he added in his remarks on Wednesday that Monsanto is still open to continued and constructive discussions, while Bayer is looking forward to discussions with Monsanto and prepared to proceed immediately with due diligence and negotiations to achieve agreed transaction.

Baumann said Bayers talks [with Monsanto] will take place in private for now, but he added, the document said, that Monsanto is comfortable with strategic rationale, of the deal.

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Monsanto wants comfort on finance, regulatory [issues], and to discuss valuation, or a higher price, adding that Bayer is not at that point yet, the document said.

According to people who attended the conference, Baumanns view on the negotiations was neutral.

Press officials for Bayer didnt return telephone calls and emails for comment; Monsanto and Deutsche Bank officials declined to comment.

During the presentation on Wednesday, Baumann addressed concerns voiced by some Bayer shareholders that the size of the deal would be difficult for the company to digest and would thus depress its share price. Baumann, according to the document said Bayer is very comfortable with the size of an acquisition like Monsanto and that Bayer has done such deals multiple times.

He said Bayer has increased its market capitalization four-fold since 2004 and integrated a number of various size companies, many multiple billion Euro transactions.

He said the proposed Monsanto deal is no more complex.

Bauman also said the purchase of Monsanto would pay for itself, and since both businesses have little overlap, the combined company will produce so-called synergies or savings and additional revenues from customized product combinations. He said after three years he expects a total synergy potential of $1.5 billion (plus additional further out), according to the document.

The Bayer CEO said the deal is a great idea primarily because of the need for mass-produced agricultural products even though Bayer and Monsanto have been criticized by environmental groups for their production of so-called GMOs or genetically modified organisms.

But Baumann said in the next 30 years, there will be an additional three billion people to feed on the planet. Land is limitedSolution is for companies with financial means and scientists to develop new solutions.

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It's a neck-and-neck race.

June 7 was the deadline to register to vote in the UKs referendum on staying in the EU. Such was the last-minute scramble to apply that the government registration website crashed due to what the Cabinet Office called unprecedented demand.

Even with the glitches, 525,000 people registered in a single day, in a dramatic last-minute spike. Not only is that more than double the 226,000 who registered the day prior, but it is greater than the record-breaking 469,000 people who registered to vote the day before the deadline for the general election last year.

In light of yesterdays technical problems, the Electoral Commission is calling for the voter registration deadline to be extended. David Cameron has urged voters to continue trying to register.

It looks like it will be a tight race come June 23. According to the latest poll from YouGov, 43% of voters would choose to remain in the EU versus 42% opting to leave, and 11% are undecided. Opinion polls suggest the result could come down to voter turnout by age group, as younger voters are more likely than older voters to reject the idea of Brexit. The tipping point for being more likely to support a breakaway seems to happen at age 43. So its worth noting that more than half of yesterdays registrants302,000 of the 525,000 totalare under the age of 35.

Read this next: How Brexit opinion breaks down by age, class and political views

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By Jonathan Stempel

(Reuters) - Morgan Stanley (MS.N) has agreed to pay a $1 million fine to settle U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission civil charges that security lapses at the Wall Street bank enabled a former financial adviser to tap into its computers and take client data home, the regulator said on Wednesday.

The settlement resolves allegations related to Galen Marsh's unauthorized transfers from 2011 to 2014 of data from about 730,000 accounts to his home computer in New Jersey, some of which was hacked by third parties and offered for sale online.

Marsh was sentenced in December to three years probation and ordered to pay $600,000 in restitution after pleading guilty to one felony count of unauthorized access to a computer. Prosecutors had sought prison time.

According to the SEC, Morgan Stanley violated a federal regulation known as the Safeguards Rule by failing to properly protect customer data, allowing Marsh to access names, addresses, phone numbers, and account holdings and balances.

"Given the dangers and impact of cyber breaches, data security is a critically important aspect of investor protection," Andrew Ceresney, director of the SEC enforcement division, said in a statement.

Morgan Stanley did not admit or deny wrongdoing.

In a statement, the New York-based company said it has changed account numbers and offered credit monitoring and identity theft protection services for affected clients. The theft did not result in fraud against any client account, it added.

Marsh accepted a related five-year securities industry ban from the SEC, the regulator said. He has said he did not offer to sell customer information to anyone.

"We appreciate the SEC taking a look at the full weight of the evidence and making an appropriate decision," his lawyer Derrelle Janey said in an interview. He said Marsh and his wife are now raising their 6-month-old daughter.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Chris Reese and Richard Chang)
MAPUTO (Reuters) - Mozambique's state firm MAM is still in talks with Russia's VTB Bank over a late $178 million loan repayment, Finance Minister Adriano Maleiane said on Wednesday, urging both parties not to rely on a government bailout. Mozambique Asset Management (MAM) borrowed $535 million from VTB to build shipyards in Maputo and the northern town of Pemba in expectation of a rapid takeoff in the offshore gas sector but missed a May 23 deadline for its first loan repayment. "To ensure that the debt service costs do not fall on the state budget, the government instructs the managers of firms to explore all possible alternatives," Maleiane told parliament. Restructuring the loan, updating business plans and bringing onboard strategic partners were all possible ways to avoid a default on the debt, Maleiane said. Delays to gas projects and at least $1.35 billion of secret government borrowing have created a foreign debt burden that threatens to plunge one of the world's poorest countries into economic crisis. The International Monetary Fund and bilateral donors were angered by the hidden loans and cancelled direct budgetary support, adding to Mozambique's fiscal shortfall. Financial watchdogs from Switzerland and Britain are investigating Credit Suisse and VTB Bank for arranging the heavy undisclosed sovereign borrowing. Maleiane also said the government had revised its economic growth forecast for this year down to between 5 to 6 percent from an original target of 7 percent as austerity measures and debt repayments limited state spending. (Reporting by Manuel Mucari; Writing by Joe Brock; Editing by James Macharia)
Warren Buffett, Lloyd Blankfein, Mike Bloomberg, Jack Dorsey

Former New York City mayor and business mogul Michael Bloomberg says that when it comes to hiring, he always looks for one type of job candidate.

The multibillionaire, whose financial data company employees some 19,000 people in nearly 200 countries around the world, described his ideal employee to a group of small-business entrepreneurs at the 20th graduation of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program.

"I've alway said I would like to hire a person whose father was never there, whose mother was in a drug treatment program, and he had to go and work 3 shifts [a week] at McDonalds to take care of his siblings," Bloomberg said.

"That's the kind of person we want  somebody that, no matter how bad things are, looks on the bright side, takes the bull by the horns, puts in the sweat capital, and that's where the results are."

He also encouraged the graduating entrepreneurs not to hire friends or family unless absolutely necessary.

"We have a no nepotism policy at my company because you can't treat those people fairly," he said.

As for his advice to those on the job hunt, Bloomberg kept it simple.

"You have to network," he said.

NOW WATCH: Hugh Hefner's son reacts to the sale of the Playboy Mansion





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Murali Pillai, fifth from right in white, getting ready to break fast with members of the different faiths on Wednesday evening. (Photo: Yahoo Singapore/Safhras Khan)



A month after he won the Bukit Batok by-election, MP Murali Pillai said on Wednesday (8 June) that hes been focusing on getting the right people to work on improving the estate.

The lawyer revealed that his taskforce will focus on helping residents in areas such as healthcare, job placement and mentorship for children.

Now that Ive completed forming the task force, I hope that in the coming months we are able to set up the programmes to benefit Bukit Batok residents, said the Peoples Action Partys MP, who was speaking to reporters on the sideline of an iftar session where he was the guest-of-honour. Iftar is the breaking of the daily fast during the holy month of Ramadan.

Murali, who is more affectionately known as Ah Mu, defeated the Singapore Democratic Party chief Chee Soon in the 7 May by-election, garnering 61.21 per cent of the votes. He was sworn in as MP on 9 May.

Besides setting up the taskforce, Murali has been busy meeting Bukit Batok residents at his meet-the-people sessions (MPS), some of which had ended as late as 3 in the morning.

However I am used to the routine as Ive been involved in MPS before and so far its been good, he said.

Murali Pillai greeting the Malaysian High Commissioner Ilango Karuppannan. (Photo: Yahoo Singapore/Safhras Khan)



Murali joined leaders of different religions, community leaders and others at the iftar session organised by the Muslim Kidney Action Association, which was held at the associations headquarters in Telok Kurau Road. He praised MKAC for organising the annual event, saying that it was useful for people from different faiths to bond over dinner.

The president for MKAC, Ameerali Abdeali, said that the association was honoured to be the host of the event.

It is more than just an iftar session as the different faith groups in Singapore are able to use it as a platform to foster stronger friendship with one another, said Ameerali.
Navistar International Corporation NAV reported second-quarter fiscal 2016 (ended Apr 30, 2016) earnings of 5 cents per share, as against adjusted net loss of 57 cents per share recorded in the year-ago quarter. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the reported quarter was of a loss of 18 cents per share. Results benefited from continued progress in business operations and initiatives to effectively manage costs, partially offset by lower Class 8 truck volumes.



Navistars revenues fell 18% year over year to $2.19 billion in the quarter, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.24 billion. The decline resulted from lower volumes in the company's Core U.S. and Canadian markets due to sluggish industry conditions and the discontinuation of the Blue Diamond Truck (BDT) joint venture in mid-2015. Revenues were also adversely affected by lower engine volumes in Brazil owing to ongoing weak economic conditions, partially offset by higher sales in the Parts segment.



Segment Details



Revenues at Navistars Truck segment decreased 25% year over year to $1.5 billion. The decline was due to lower Core truck volumes and the adverse impact of a shift in product mix in Core markets. The segment recorded a loss from continuing operations of $23 million, considerably narrower than a loss of $51 million in the prior-year quarter. This improvement was backed by lower structural cost, improved mix, lower accelerated depreciation charges and other income.



Revenues at Navistars Parts segment increased 6% year over year to $647 million in the reported quarter. The year-over-year improvement was driven by enhanced retail programs in the U.S. market, partially offset by unfavorable currency exchange rates and market pressures, primarily in Canada and Mexico. The segment registered a profit of $176 million, higher than $133 million recorded in the year-ago period. The increase in profit was driven by margin improvements and cost-reduction mechanisms.



Revenues at Navistars Global Operations segment plunged 41% to $77 million. The decline resulted from a downturn in South America engine operations due to lower volumes and unfavorable movements in foreign currency exchange rates. The segment recorded a loss of $1 million in the quarter as against a profit of $1 million a year ago. The year-over-year change was primarily owing to lower manufacturing and structural costs, more than offset by a net gain in second-quarter fiscal 2015 related to customer dispute settlements.



Revenues at Navistars Financial Services segment dropped 3% to $58 million from $60 million a year ago. The segment registered a profit of $25 million, up from $22 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2015. The year-over-year improvement can be attributed to an increase in gains on lease terminations and a decrease in the provision for loan losses and cost-reduction initiatives.



Financial Position



Navistar had cash and cash equivalents of $589 million as of Apr 30, 2016, down from $912 million as of Oct 31, 2015. As of Apr 30, 2016, notes payable and long-term debt was $5.2 billion compared to $5.3 billion as of Oct 31, 2015.



Net cash used in operations totaled $104 million in the first six months of fiscal 2016 versus $237 million in the year-ago period. Capital expenditure was $53 million, up from $45 million in the comparable year-ago period.



Guidance



Navistar projects Class 68 retail deliveries in the U.S. and Canada in the range of 330,000360,000 units for fiscal 2016, down from the previous forecast of 350,000380,000 units. Class 8 deliveries should be in the range of 220,000250,000 units, down from the previous estimate of 240,000270,000 units, and 279,000 units in fiscal 2015. Sales volume of the medium, school bus and severe service segments are expected to improve.



Revenues are expected in the band of $8.2$8.6 billion for fiscal 2016, lower than the $9$9.25 billion range projected earlier. Adjusted EBITDA is anticipated to be $550$600 million, compared with the previous guidance of $600$650 million. Manufacturing cash at the end of fiscal 2016 is expected to be $800 million.



Navistar manufactures and sells commercial trucks, mid-range diesel engines, buses, military vehicles, and chassis for motor homes and step-vans. It also provides service parts for trucks and trailers.



Zacks Rank



Currently, the company carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).



Some better-ranked automobile stocks include Lear Corp. LEA, Oshkosh Corporation OSK and Superior Industries International, Inc. SUP. All these stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).



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A European space mission has achieved the closest thing to a true free fall ever observed for a human-created object, demonstrating the technology needed to build a future observatory that will hunt for gravitational waves far from Earth, scientists said.

The two gold-platinum cubes inside the European Space Agency's (ESA) LISA Pathfinder spacecraft are virtually motionless with respect to each other, with a relative acceleration equivalent to the weight of a virus here on Earth, mission team members announced today (June 7).

"With LISA Pathfinder, we have created the quietest place known to humankind. Its performance is spectacular and exceeds all our expectations by far," Karsten Danzmann, director at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics and director of the Institute for Gravitational Physics at Leibniz University Hannover, both in Germany, said in a statement. [The LISA Pathfinder Mission Explained (Video)]

"Only by reducing and eliminating all other sources of disturbance could we observe the most perfect free fall ever created," added Danzmann, the co-principal investigator of the LISA Technology Package. "And this has shown us that we can build LISA, a space-based gravitational-wave observatory."

Gravitational waves: The hunt is on

Gravitational waves are ripples in space-time that were first predicted by Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity a century ago.

According to Einstein's equations, the acceleration of massive objects generates gravitational waves, which then propagate through the universe at the speed of light. Dramatic events such as black-hole mergers and supernova explosions produce the strongest gravitational waves.

These ripples cause tiny distortions of space-time that should be identifiable, given a precise enough instrument. And in February, the first such direct detection was announced, by scientists with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) consortium, which operates huge detectors in Louisiana and Washington state.

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The announcement made a big splash among scientists and laypeople alike, because gravitational waves offer a new way to study the universe. The waves don't interact with matter, so the information they carry across billions of light-years is "pure," free of distortion or alteration, researchers have said. [Gravitational Waves Detected by LIGO: Complete Coverage]

But ground-based instruments such as the LIGO detectors can spot only a subset of gravitational waves, because of interference from seismic activity and other factors here on Earth, ESA officials have said. Space-based observatories will therefore be needed to hunt for lower-frequency waves, such as those generated by mergers between the supermassive black holes that lurk at the hearts of galaxies, the officials added.

ESA aims to launch such an observatory, provisionally known as LISA, in 2034. The mission will likely consist of three spacecraft arrayed in a triangle, with each leg about 620,000 miles (1 million kilometers) long. Inside each craft will be a "free-falling test mass"; lasers will measure the distance between these masses, spotting the minuscule anomalies caused by passing gravitational waves, researchers have said.

Such work will require incredible precision, which means that the test masses will have to be in near-perfect free fall, unperturbed by sunlight pressure and other forces. And that's where LISA Pathfinder comes in.

Paving the way

LISA (short for Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) Pathfinder  whose total cost to ESA is $490 million (430 million euros)  launched on Dec. 3, on a mission to demonstrate the technology required for the future observatory.

At the heart of LISA Pathfinder are the two identical gold-platinum cubes, each of which weighs 4.3 lbs. (1.96 kilograms) and measures 1.8 inches (4.6 centimeters) on a side. The cubes are separated by 1.5 inches (3.8 cm), and they hang inside the spacecraft, which surrounds but does not touch them.

A laser precisely measures the cubes' positions, orientations and distance from each other.

"We can determine the distance of the two free-falling test masses to less than the diameter of a single atom," Gerhard Heinzel, leader of the Interferometry in Space research group at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics and Leibniz University in Hannover, said in the same statement.

On Jan. 22, LISA Pathfinder reached its destination in space, a gravitationally stable spot known as Lagrange Point 1, which lies about 930,000 miles (1.5 million km) from Earth, in the sunward direction.

Then, on March 1, the probe began its six-month science mission, performing a variety of experiments, including a crucial one that attempted to place the test masses in a virtually perfect free fall. LISA Pathfinder used its thrusters to maneuver precisely, shielding the masses from external forces  and did so incredibly effectively.

The relative acceleration between the two test masses was lower than 1 part in 10 millionths of a billionth of Earths gravitational acceleration, mission team members said. This result  which is based on the first two months of data collection, and was published today in the journal Physical Review Letters  proves out the key technologies required to detect and study gravitational waves in space, Danzmann said.

"At the precision reached by LISA Pathfinder, a full-scale gravitational-wave observatory in space like LISA would be able to detect fluctuations caused by the mergers of supermassive black holes in galaxies anywhere in the universe," he said.

"The results reported by the LPF team are, quite simply, a tour de force in precision measurement," LIGO executive director David Reitze, who's based at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, wrote in an accompanying "Viewpoints" piece that Physical Review Letters also published today.

"These results bode extremely well for the future LISA mission," added Reitze, who was not involved in the LISA Pathfinder (LPF) study. "The LPF experiments firmly establish that the precision needed by LISA for measuring test-mass displacements are well in hand, setting the stage for the next era in gravitational-wave detectors."

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.

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Nickelodeon is losing a longtime executive at the top of its ranks.

Russell Hicks, president of content development and production for the Nickelodeon Group, is stepping down after 18 years at the company.

"Russell Hicks has decided to step down from his position effective immediately," a spokesperson for Nickelodeon on Tuesday told The Hollywood Reporter. At this time, there are no plans for him to be replaced.

Read more: Comedy Central Shake-Up: Kent Alterman Replaces Michele Ganeless at Top

In his role, Hicks managed the company's live-action, animation development and production teams for all of Nick's content platforms, which include Nickelodeon, Nick at Nite, Nick Jr., TeenNick and Nicktoons. Before he was upped to president in 2012, he served as Nick's chief creative officer.

Hicks' departure comes amidst turmoil at Viacom's networks: Comedy Central, TV Land, VH1 and MTV all have undergone executive shakeups within the past two years.

Here's the internal memo from Cyma Zarghami, president of Viacom Kids & Family Group, that went out Wednesday:

I wanted to share with you the news that Russell Hicks has decided to step down from his position at Nickelodeon.

For the last 18 years, Russell has been an incredible creative partner not just to me, but to our entire organization, first as Chief Creative Officer, but especially during these last four years, in which he served as our President of Content Development and Production.

Though it is hard to have to say good-bye to someone who has been such a fixture at the company, and a friend, this transition comes at a time when the Nickelodeon brand truly is in a position of strength.

Since moving to the West Coast in 2012, Russell expertly shepherded our terrific development and creative teams to some of our greatest creative successes. Our content pipeline at the moment is the most full and varied it has ever been. Our relationships with the creative community have never been as deep as they are today. And we have a schedule of hits, in every genre, across all of our platforms.

Story continues

All of our great work has put us back at number one--with preschoolers, with kids 2-11, and as of the end of May, with kids 6-11 once again. In fact, our just-launched show, The Loud House, which originated from our shorts program, is already the top animated kids' show on TV, joining SpongeBob and Alvinnn! to lock up the overall top three.

The current temporary structure for our teams will remain in place while we regroup and formulate the right plan for going forward.

I hope you will join me in wishing Russell all the best and thanking him for his immeasurable contributions to Nickelodeon; I know we will miss him. I could not be more proud of all of you and all the great work at Nickelodeon right now.

--Cyma

This article was updated on June 8, 2016 at 11:20 a.m. with the internal memo above.
(Adds Chevron comment, description of RMP)

ABUJA, June 8 (Reuters) - The Niger Delta Avengers militant group on Wednesday rejected an offer of talks with the government to end its attacks on oil facilities and said it had blown up a Chevron pipeline site in the Niger Delta.

Attacks by militants on oil and gas pipelines in the southern delta swamps have brought Nigeria's oil output to a 20-year low and helped push oil prices to 2016 highs.

Nigeria's oil minister said on Tuesday the government would start talks with the Niger Delta Avengers, which has claimed responsibility for a string of attacks in the delta.

The militant group rejected the offer of talks on its Twitter account. "We're not negotiating with any committee," the group said. "If the Fed Govt (federal government) is discussing with any group they're doing that on their own."

The group said it had blown up a Chevron site called "RMP 20" located next to the Dibbi flow station in the Warri area in the delta at 0100 local time. It has previously attacked Chevron, Shell and ENI facilities.

An RMP, or remote manifold platform, is a gathering location where small oil or natural gas pipelines converge before connecting to a larger storage hub. It is not a producing well, though the Niger Delta Avengers have conflated the two terms in posts on social media and other platforms.

"The attack on Chevron's RMP 20 is confirmed," said local community leader Chief Godspower Gbenekema. "The place is on fire."

Chevron, citing long-standing policy, declined to comment.

"We do not comment on the safety and security of our personnel and operations," Chevron spokesman Kent Robertson said.

While Chevron is the third-largest oil producer in Nigeria, its biggest production streams are offshore, which has mitigated the immediate impact on oil output from the spate of attacks on its infrastructure.

A group of former Niger Delta militant leaders issued a statement on Wednesday condemning the actions of the Avengers and urging them and other groups to "re-consider their activities."

"We enjoin our brothers to give peace a chance, lay down their arms and accept the offer for a meaningful dialogue," said the Leadership, Peace and Cultural Development Initiative.

(Reporting by Ulf Laessing in Abuja; Additional reporting by Tife Owolabi in Yenagoa, Anamesere Igboeroteonwu in Onitsha, Libby George in London and Ernest Scheyder in Houston; Writing by Ulf Laessing and Alexis Akwagyiram; Editing by William Hardy and Leslie Adler)
By Libby George LONDON (Reuters) - Refineries from India to the United States are backing away from buying Nigerian oil amid heightened uncertainty about deliveries as the country squares up to militants in the restive Delta region. Their reluctance to buy is limiting the prices Nigeria can get for its oil even as there is less of it  another hit to the finances of a country battling its worst economic crisis in decades. A group calling itself the Niger Delta Avengers has staged a number of attacks on oil installations belonging to Shell, ENI and Chevron, pushing output in what is usually Africa's largest crude exporter down past 20-year lows last month. Some oil facilities have clawed back output, but the Avenger attacks have continued and the group has vowed to bring Nigerian production to "zero". "Not everybody wants to be caught up in that, so they will avoid it," said Olivier Jakob, managing director of PetroMatrix in Switzerland. "The refineries will walk away from it." India's HPCL was forced last month to cancel a vessel it chartered to carry 2 million barrels of West African crude due to the Qua Iboe force majeure. India's state-run Indian Oil Corp. Ltd  a major buyer of Nigerian grades over the past year  has stated in its recent tenders that it would not take grades under force majeure. Qua Iboe remained off the list in its latest tender, according to a document seen by Reuters, an extremely unusual development in its requests for sweet crude. Indonesia's Pertamina, another frequent buyer, also chose not to buy Nigerian grades in its recent tenders, favouring Congolese Coco, Angolan Girassol and Saharan Blend from Algeria instead. Traders said Pertamina had shifted its preferences since the violence and uncertainty escalated, although Daniel Purba, senior vice president of ISC Pertamina, told Reuters by text message that Pertamina is "monitoring" Nigeria, but "currently it's still not affecting crude purchasing." Four of Nigeria's oil grades  including the largest stream, Qua Iboe  have been under force majeure in the past month  a legal clause that allows companies to cancel or delay deliveries due to unforeseen circumstances. ExxonMobil, which declared force majeure on Qua Iboe in May due to an accident, lifted the declaration last week, but the unpredictability is too much for some buyers. The reduced demand means Nigeria is not benefiting as much as others from a rebound in Brent crude prices, which is partly driven by its own oil outages. Even refineries on the U.S. East Coast, which have been on a buying spree for Nigerian crude in recent months that averaged 240,000 barrels per day (bpd) in April and May, according to Reuters shipping data, are starting to turn away. "When you plan your crude run months in advance and commit buying cargo, you need to be comfortable that the cargo will be there when you go to lift," one U.S. east coast oil trader said. As a result, differentials to dated Brent for Qua Iboe, Bonny Light and other grades are under downward pressure. There are several unsold cargoes for June loading, even with more than half a million barrels of production missing. The Nigerian government set up a team this week to launch dialogue with the Avengers, but the group, via their Twitter feed, rejected the offer to talk and blew up another Chevron well. "The nature of the recently re-emerged militancy in the Niger Delta suggests it is here to stay for the foreseeable future," said Elizabeth Donnelley, assistant head of the Africa programme at Chatham House, a London-based think tank. (Additional reporting by Jarrett Renshaw in New York, Nidhi Verma in New Dehli, Wilda Asmarini in Jakarta and Florence Tan in Singapore; Editing by Susan Fenton)
Lagos (AFP) - The Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) militant group on Wednesday rejected a truce offer to end attacks on key oil infrastructure that has cut output in Nigeria, and claimed another strike.

The NDA wrote on its Twitter account @NDAvengers: "We're not negotiating with any committee. If (the) federal government is discussing with any group they're doing that on their own."

It added that it had blown up a Chevron well called "RMP 20" next to the Dibbi flow station in the Warri area of Delta State at about 1:00 am (0000 GMT) on Wednesday.

There was no immediate confirmation of the attack from the company while the Nigerian Navy, which has been involved in security operations in the region, said it did not have details.

But spokesman Commodore Chris Ezekobe told AFP nine suspected militants blamed for previous attacks around the port city of Warri had been arrested.

"The suspects include the mastermind of recent attacks on Shell's Forcados trunkline and Chevron's Escravos pipeline," he added.

Ezekobe said a cache of arms, ammunition and bomb-making equipment was also seized.

The Avengers have attacked facilities operated by the Nigerian subsidiaries of Shell, Eni, Chevron, and the state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) since the start of the year.

Nigeria's government this week announced it had set up a committee headed by the national security advisor to open talks with the rebels to bring an end to the repeated attacks.

Junior oil minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu also said military operations to hunt down the group in the creeks and swamps of the oil-rich delta region in the south had been scaled back.

The violence over poverty in the region and repeated oil spills has slashed production to 1.6 million barrels per day, well below the budgeted-for 2.2 million bpd, Kachikwu said on Monday.

The NDA is believed to have sympathies for a former oil rebel leader active in the region in the 2000s and who is now wanted on money laundering and corruption charges.

It has also pressed for self-determination for the Niger delta region but maintain its activities are only targeting oil installations rather than the personnel or the military.
Nine years after confessing to the murders of four people, a 23-year-old Detroit man will soon be freed after his convictions were vacated, PEOPLE confirms.



During court proceedings held on Tuesday, Judge Brian Sullivan approved a request from the Wayne County prosecutor's office to vacate Davontae Sanford's convictions.



In 2007, when he was only 14, Sanford, now 23, pleaded guilty to killing four people. But prosecution sources tell PEOPLE the case has been scrutinized in recent years, after an admitted professional hit man named Vincent Smothers came forward claiming responsibility for the drug den slayings.



Sanford remained a resident of the Marquette Branch Prison in Marquette, Michigan, until Wednesday afternoon, his lawyer said, noting he was released from custody at around 2 p.m.



 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.



A prosecution spokeswoman confirms that all of the criminal charges against him will be cleared from his record.



Sanford pleaded guilty to the second-degree murder when he was 15, and has tried to undo that plea ever since 2008, when Smothers confessed to the killings.



For years, investigators allegedly ignored Smothers's admission, which came during a police interrogation in 2008.



Smothers is in prison, serving 52 years for killing eight other people, including the wife of a Detroit police officer.



While he signed an affidavit last year claiming responsibility for the four homicides, fresh criminal charges have not yet been filed against Smothers, a prosecution source says.



Sanford's family has long maintained the then 14-year-old confessed to the killings to appease the investigating officers.



Sanford's relatives had argued in court that he's developmentally disabled and that police coerced him to confess without a parent or lawyer present.
Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. NSANY and Takata Corp are facing a criminal complaint in Japan. The suit was filed as the passenger-side airbag made by Takata exploded in a Nissan X-Trail sport-utility vehicle during a crash, thereby injuring a Japanese woman. This is the first case filed in Japan for these defective airbags.



According to media reports, the woman was injured in Oct 2015, in Shizuoka Prefecture, Central Japan. The metal fragments which injured her head and wrist were from the airbag inflator. The case was lodged on May 30, 2016. Takata announced that it will fully cooperate and investigate the accident. Nissan will also cooperate for this investigation.



The auto industry is under pressure due to a series of recalls by different companies over faulty Takata airbags. Safety recalls dent the brand image of a company and add to expenses. Recently, six automakers announced that they will be recalling around 2.5 million more vehicles in the U.S. due to flawed Takata airbag inflators.



Takata airbag inflators explode with excessive force, throwing metal fragments into a vehicle at passengers and the driver. These defective airbag inflators have been linked to 13 deaths worldwide and more than 100 injuries. While 11 deaths have been confirmed to be due to these inflators, authorities are still investigating the causes behind 2 deaths in Malaysia.



Takata uses ammonium nitrate to inflate airbags in a crash. However, the chemical can deteriorate over time when exposed to high heat and humidity.



Currently, Nissan carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).



Some better-ranked automobile stocks include Lear Corp. LEA, Oshkosh Corporation OSK and Superior Industries International, Inc. SUP. All these stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).



Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days.Click to get this free report >>



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To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
Leeds (United Kingdom) (AFP) - A British brewery has launched a range of beers to stimulate debate over the country's European Union membership, with early results suggesting that guzzlers were united with their continental counterparts.

Little Valley Brewery in Yorkshire, northern England, has brewed 10,000 pints (5,600 litres) of three pale ales, bearing the names "In", "Out" and "IDK" (I Don't Know).

Punters are encouraged to order according to how they will vote in the June 23 referendum on Britain's EU membership, with each pint of "quaffable political dialogue" brewed to reflect the two camps.

"'In' is fruity and hoppy and strongly influenced by the continental attitude, while the second, 'Out' is a light ale with bold hints of euroscepticism and a dry bitter finish," said Sue Cooper, co-owner and founder at Little Valley Brewery.

"'IDK' is a mellow and malty pale ale, with a complex and thought-provoking finish."

The brewery will publish results of each beer's popularity before the vote, but the "In" brew received a high-profile endorsement on Friday following a visit by Labour Party deputy leader Tom Watson.

"The Vote 'In' beer is an exceptional brew and must be drunk by as many people as possible!" he said.

The brewery, run by an Anglo-Dutch couple, relies on the continent for imports of hops, malts and yeast, and exports its finished products to beer buffs across the Channel.

"It's something we feel incredibly strongly about and will definitely be voting to stay when the time comes," said Cooper.

"We know that everyone likes to think they are a political expert down the pub and these beers will help to spark that great debate."

The Aire Bar in Leeds, which is stocking the "In" and "Out" brews, said that thirsty voters had sunk around 30 more pints in support of the EU, and that the ales had greased the wheels of political chat.

"Most people comment on it, it grabs the attention and has definitely sparked debate," bar staffer Rose Perry told AFP.
From Esquire

Last night, Hillary Clinton became the first woman in the history of the United States to secure the nomination of a major party for president. I don't care what your politics are-nobody does-this was a moment.

Now: forget that.

Here's even bigger news, America: Donald Trump is shattering the glass ceiling on behalf of women.

Hillary who?

On the campaign trail yesterday, Trump told Bill O'Reilly:

"Number one, I have great respect for women. I was the one that really broke the glass ceiling on behalf of women, more than anybody in the construction industry."

Let's parse that statement.

Trump does not have "great respect" for women. He has spent a lifetime making sexist comments, tearing female journalists and politicians apart, and, oh yeah, comparing his wives to buildings. As for the glass ceiling bit, Trump does have a history of promoting women to top positions in his company-though there are some icky stories from women who get paid by a Trump corporation. It's his campaign that is the problem: The Boston Globe found that only 28 percent of his staffers are women, and they are compensated a third less than the men on staff.

You can't pick and choose your glass ceilings, Trump. They all have to come down. That's kind of the point.

[h/t: The Washington Post]
Kanye-West-NYPD

Image via YouTube

After Kanye Wests unsuccessful attempt at holding a surprise 2 a.m. pop-up show at Webster Hall in New York City on Sunday night, some residents complained of damaged property and near-riot conditions. A spokesperson for the New York Police Department clarified to People that Kanye will not be facing criminal charges, however.

Not every dumb idea should be criminalized, former NYPD policeman and criminal justice professor Eugene ODonnell said.

His actions Sunday were irresponsible, which would almost be a compliment for a guy like Kanye, added former NYPD detective Nick Casale. In my opinion, what he did Sunday night did not cross the threshold of criminality.

Having avoided formal charges, lets hope Kanye takes up Mayor Bill De Blasios offer to throw a block party to make up for the failed surprise show.

More from Pigeons & Planes
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama called former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday to congratulate her on securing the delegates needed to become the Democratic presidential nominee, the White House said. "Her historic campaign inspired millions and is an extension of her lifelong fight for middle-class families and children," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said in a statement. Obama also spoke to Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont, and will meet with him on Thursday at Sanders' request, Earnest said. "The president thanked Senator Sanders for energizing millions of Americans with his commitment to issues like fighting economic inequality and special interests' influence on our politics," Earnest said. (Reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Michael Perry)
Leaping into his role as Democratic peacemaker, President Obama telephoned his partys presumptive nominee, Hillary Clinton, and her defeated rival, Bernie Sanders, late on Tuesday, the White House said.

In separate calls, Obama congratulated Clinton for securing the delegates necessary to clinch the Democratic nomination for president, press secretary Josh Earnest said in a statement.

Her historic campaign inspired millions and is an extension of her lifelong fight for middle-class families and children, Earnest said.

Obama thanked Sanders for energizing millions of Americans with his commitment to issues like fighting economic inequality and special interests influence on our politics, according to the statement.

At Sanders request, Obama also invited the Vermont senator to the White House on Thursday.

The president looks forward to continuing the conversation with Sen. Sanders about how to build on the extraordinary work he has done to engage millions of Democratic voters, and to build on that enthusiasm in the weeks and months ahead, Earnest said.

Slideshow: The campaign for primary day, June 7 >>>

Obama had technically not endorsed a candidate in the Democratic primaries, but left little doubt that he favored Clinton. Aides say that the president will now work to unite the Democratic Party heading into next months party convention and the November elections.

Sanders had hoped a big Tuesday in California would have given him some momentum, but Clinton won big victories there and in New Jersey. Sanders, sounding conciliatory, nevertheless vowed to fight on through next weeks primary in Washington, D.C.
The obesity rate among U.S. women continues to tick upward, with the latest study showing that about 40 percent of American women are obese.

However, the obesity rate in U.S. men has stayed about the same over the past decade, the study found.

In the study, researchers gathered new data on U.S. obesity rates from a national survey conducted during 2013-2014, and also looked at changes in obesity rates over the previous nine-year period. Obesity was defined as having a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more.

In 2013-2014, 40.4 percent of all U.S. women were obese  up from 35.3 percent in the same survey from 2005-2006. The percentage of U.S. women who are severely obese, with a BMI of 40 or more (known as "class 3 obesity"), also increased, from 7.4 percent in 2005-2006 to 9.9 percent in 2013-2014.

But for U.S. men, the overall obesity rate in 2013-2014 was 35 percent, which was not a significant change from the rate in 2005-2006, the researchers said. The rate of severe obesity among U.S. men also did not change significantly during the study period, and was at 5.5 percent in 2013-2014. [The Best Way to Lose Weight Safely]

Earlier studies found that obesity rates increased among U.S. men from 2001 to 2004, but subsequent studies suggested that obesity rates might be leveling off for both men and women.

The exact reasons for the new increase in obesity among women are not known, and it's not clear whether U.S. obesity trends will "accelerate, stop or slow," the researchers, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics, wrote in their report, published today (June 7) in the journal JAMA.

Dr. Vincent Pera, director of weight management at The Miriam Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island, who was not involved in the study, said it is concerning "when any segment of the population is showing an increase" in obesity.

However, researchers need more information to figure out why obesity rates are increasing in women, Pera said. A number of factors can affect whether people gain or lose weight  including behavioral and socioeconomic reasons  and so now, more studies are needed to determine which factors are impacting female obesity rates, he said.

Story continues

In particular, rates of obesity are highest among black women  about 57 percent of black U.S. women are obese, the report found. What's more, this high obesity rate remains constant across young, middle and older age groups among black women. In comparison, most other racial groups have lower rates of obesity in the younger and older populations than they do in the middle age groups. Future studies could look at why obesity rates among black women show this pattern, Pera said.

Dr. Jody Zylke, deputy editor of JAMA, and Dr. Howard Bauchner, editor-in-chief of JAMA, wrote in an accompanying editorial that "the news is neither good nor surprising," referring to the new study and another report, also published today, that found an increase in obesity rates among U.S. teens. Despite efforts to turn the obesity epidemic around, the new findings "certainly do not suggest much success" in these efforts, they said.

Future obesity-prevention efforts may need to focus more on involving the food and restaurant industries, which are "in part responsible for putting food on dinner tables," the editorial said.

"The food and restaurant industries may be the sector of society with the greatest potential to affect the obesity epidemic in a reasonable time frame These industries have been good at developing and successfully marketing unhealthy foods; perhaps it will be possible for them to develop and market healthy foods," the editorial said.

Original article on Live Science.

Editor's Recommendations

Copyright 2016 LiveScience, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Ads are coming to Apple's App Store for iPhones and iPads, the company announced on Wednesday.

Soon, paid search ads will show up when users search for a new app. For example, hypothetically, Uber could pay to show up as the top search result for "taxi" or "car service."

Phil Schiller, Apple senior vice president, told the Telegraph that the paid search ads will be chosen on an auction system like Google's AdWords, and advertisers can choose specific demographics to target.

Apple will only display one ad per search, and it will be clearly marked with a blue background. Here's what the ads will look like:

hero discoverability small

That blue box means that the app  in this example, LightRight  has paid for the placement. It's also clearly marked with "Ad."

Apple announced the change in a blog post on Wednesday:

Search Ads is an efficient and easy way for you to promote your app directly within the U.S. App Store search results, helping customers discover or reengage with your app, while respecting their privacy. Starting this summer, youll be able to participate in the Search Ads beta and see the ads in action.

On its website, Apple played up the possibility that these paid ads could help unpopular apps find a niche: "Various targeting features will enable deeper discovery of apps, including lesser known or niche apps."

Apple's App Store has been undergoing several changes since Schiller took the department over from online services boss Eddy Cue in December, and paid ad placement had been rumored as one of his first major changes, most notably in an article from Bloomberg. In an interview with the Verge, Schiller said the App Store had a "renewed focus and energy."

Paid apps will be trialed by developers and beta testers over the summer, and search ads might start showing up on user iPhones in the fall.

NOW WATCH: How to find Netflixs secret categories





More From Business Insider


By Suzannah Gonzales

(Reuters) - An Ohio man whose infant daughter was discovered dead in a crib by a cable television installer was found guilty on Wednesday of abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence.

Medina County Judge Christopher Collier also found Eric Warfel guilty of possession of cocaine and child endangering, county prosecutor Dean Holman and Collier's bailiff Terry George said.

Collier revoked Warfel's bond and ordered him held in jail, George said. His sentencing was scheduled for July 7 in Medina County Common Pleas Court.

Warfel faces a maximum six years in prison. His lawyer Michael O'Shea said planned to appeal the verdict.

The body of Ember Warfel was found last July in a crib surrounded by bags of trash in an apartment in Medina, about 32 miles (52 km) south of Cleveland.

Records showed that her body was so badly decomposed that the medical examiner was unable to determine a cause of death.

Officials said the child, born in October 2013, had been dead for at least a month.

"We're pleased with the verdict. The case presented complex legal issues," Holman said. He declined to elaborate, citing the upcoming sentencing.

Warfel, who went on trial last month, had waived his right to a jury trial and opted for a bench trial in which a judge decides the verdict.

In August he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, but Collier ruled that he was competent to stand trial after a psychiatric evaluation.

Police had found Warfel living in a motel with another daughter, who was 7 years old at the time.

According to records, a domestic court judge had given Warfel custody of Ember Warfel in part because of drug problems of the child's mother. Warfel had another child who died at five months old. The cause of death was ruled undetermined by a local medical examiner.

Police investigated the five-month old's death and no charges were filed.

(Reporting by Suzannah Gonzales)
Brock Turner's six month-long sentence for sexually assaulting a woman at Stanford University has fueled a tornado of internet rage.

And that he's being characterized as an "athlete who made a mistake" instead of a "criminal who can also swim," highlights the bias and privilege awarded to men with regards to sexual crimes.

Facebook user Louisa Curry has had enough of this. And her post nails why we should all as well:

Source: Tumblr

Turner's dad said his son's life had been "deeply altered forever" by "20 minutes of action." All because he lost his swimming scholarship at Stanford.

Meanwhile, the victim was interrogated about whether what she was wearing could have provoked the assault.

20 year-old Brock Turner, whose life had been "deeply altered forever," because he decided to sexually assault someone.

The Brock Turner case is not an exception.

For example, Owen Labrie: The 20-year-old was convicted of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl in March, and the media framed him as a bright, young man whose academic potential was wasted by committing sexual assault  not a criminal.

"His dream of attending Harvard Divinity School was derailed," an excerpt from the Boston Herald, about Labrie seeking another trial, read.

Source: Jim Cole/AP

Labrie, who was originally sentenced to a year in jail, was released after two months in May.

"For someone who's never been incarcerated one hour, two months can be a very long time," Labrie's lawyer Jaye Rancourt said.
While some companies are slammed by investors and the tech media for dumping time and resources into far-reaching projects that may or may not ultimately pan out, Google's "moonshots" have become something the company is constantly celebrated for. Google regularly discusses some of these bold projects during earnings calls and in interviews, reaffirming its commitment to spending money on projects it believes could help make the world a better place (while also earning the company some money, of course).

Some of Google's moonshots are already taking shape, such as its autonomous cars and "Project Loon" internet balloons. But one of the more exciting projects that we've heard about a few times from Google  and even seen, or so we thought  might not be as far along as we thought. In fact, it might not exist at all.

DON'T MISS: Brand new images show us how hot the iPhone 7 will actually be

We were first introduced to Google's smart contact lenses all the way back in January of 2014, more than two years ago. No, they weren't intended to be some kind of next-generation Google Glass  though plenty of tech writers speculated on the many exciting uses cases that devices like this might have. Instead, the contacts would allow diabetics to monitor their blood sugar, potentially eliminating the need to draw blood in order to test glucose levels.

google-smart-contact-lens-2

At the time, Google said that the lenses featured "chips and sensors so small they look like bits of glitter, and an antenna thinner than a human hair." It sounds absolutely fascinating and it's easy to see how technology like this could save lives, but there might be a big problem with Google's plans. Now, two-and-a-half years after Google first told the world about its innovative contact lenses, a former employee is claiming that they don't actually exist.

According to a former manager at Verily, Google's biotech startup, this revolutionary contact lens isn't a real product at Google. Speaking anonymously with STAT, Google's smart lens is actually just "slideware," a slang term used to describe a product that exists only in a PowerPoint presentation. Meanwhile, as Stat points out, Google said in 2014 that the company had "completed multiple clinical research studies" as it worked toward building a prototype.

Story continues

Google hasn't made any recent announcements regarding its smart contact lens. STAT's full report, available at this link, also notes other Google projects that have seemingly fizzled following public announcements.

Related stories

Google's Larry Page has secretly spent more than $100M to build flying cars

How Google's transformation into Alphabet led to Tony Fadell's ouster

Your first look at Google's redesigned search page

More from BGR: This is what the Galaxy Note 7 will look like

This article was originally published on BGR.com
H (noun): a chemical substance that controls most bodily functions.

And recently, hormones have dominated the news cycle.

First with Brock Turner, the former Stanford University student who was convicted of assault with intent to rape, which brought about a common "she was asking for it" narrative.

Then with Hillary Clinton, the first woman to become the presumptive nominee of a major American political party who has faced slews of backlash and scrutiny for having emotional qualities of a woman.

It turns out, according to as the.mighty.feminist's Instagram, the two might have more in common than you thought.

A photo posted by Amal n Dev (@the.mighty.feminist) on Jun 8, 2016 at 12:23am PDT

Here's the breakdown:

While some consider Clinton's a flaw that would make her a bad president ...

One Instagram Post Perfectly Captures the Double Standard

... Hormones have a curious way of becoming an excuse for sexual criminals, who, because of their hormones, do things they can't control.

One Instagram Post Perfectly Captures the Double Standard

The bottom line:

A woman's capability to do something (like run the country) shouldn't be based off of her "emotions" or "hormones," especially if a man is able to use it as an acceptable excuse to do what he pleases (like assault someone).
Hollywood screenwriter David Franzoni is reportedly working on the script for a film on legendary Muslim poet Rumi. Franzoni, who said he wanted to pay tribute to Rumi in hopes of shattering Muslim stereotypes, wants to make the biopic to "give him a face."

But according to the Guardian, Franzoni wants Leonardo DiCaprio to play the lead role. Franzoni is even considering Robert Downey Jr. for the role of the poet's spiritual adviser, the Shams of Tabriz.

If your goal is combatting stereotypes about Muslims, it seems odd to cast a white guy as the Persian poet. Franzoni wrote the script with a white actor in mind for the lead role, which raises two points about Hollywood: There are very few films that feature positive portrayals of Muslims, and few opportunities for Muslim actors to play Muslims.

Twitter user Aayesha, a Muslim who hails from South Africa, points out the with casting. Casting directors are willing to put an effort in finding Muslim talent for stereotypical roles, but not when casting for a positive and influential character like Rumi.

So they want a white man to play Rumi, a SUFI PERSIAN poet, but when they need a terrorist they find Muslim actors so easily #RumiWasntWhite

She has a point.

When Muslims are cast in films, they are usually asked to play one of the four Bs: billionaires, burqas, belly dancers or bombers. High-grossing films like American Sniper, Indiana Jones, and even Aladdin feature Muslim actors portraying villains. Rather than challenge these depictions, casting white actors to play heroic Muslim characters suggests

Moreover, it perpetuates erasure of some of the most iconic figures in history. DiCaprio playing the role of Rumi may make the film more palatable to white audiences, but it whitewashes the "13th century Shakespeare."

Story continues

There are plenty of Muslim and Persian actors, a lot of them prominent in Hollywood, who are more than capable of playing Rumi. Shaun Toub, who comes from a Persian Jewish family and acted in Iron Man, is a good example. There's also Argo's Bobby Naderi, the Gladiators' Omid Djalili and comedian Maz Jobrani.

Jobrani  a "Muslim-ish" Iranian-American comedian and actor known for his appearances in The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore, 13 Going on 30 and his standup performances  has mentioned that he often finds himself typecasted in stereotypical roles.

After years of being casted as a terrorist, Jobrani wrote I'm Not a Terrorist, but I Play One on TV, where he pledges to never play the part of a terrorist in any film or show.

"Early on in my career I played a couple of terrorist roles and didn't feel good doing it. I have since declared that I won't do any more terrorist parts," Jobrani said in an email. "I don't mind playing other Middle Eastern parts like cab drivers or falafel store owners or whatever since I know those people in real life."

A 2010 Time poll finding 69% of Americans have never met a Muslim before, which means that the few portrayals of Muslims on television have an outsized impact. It's imperative to question and scrutinize Hollywood's whitewashing.
U.S. stocks opened higher on Wednesday as oil prices traded at a 10-month high with West Texas Intermediate at $51 a barrel and Brent over $52. Meanwhile, some weak economic data out of China was released, with exports falling 4.1 percent in May, compared to a 1.8 percent drop in April. Lululemon shares fell after issuing weak second quarter guidance. The company expects revenue of $505 million to $515 million, while analysts had expected $514 million. Finally, Ralph Lauren was upgraded by analysts at Bank of America to neutral from underperform with a $96 price target. The stock currently trades at $94 a share. The analysts pointed to cost cutting measures, which is expected to boost the stock. TheStreet's Scott Gamm reports from Wall Street.
Netflix's Orange Is the New Black will tackle timely social issues when it returns for its fourth season this month.

What began as the addictive love story between incarcerated drug smugglers Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling) and Alex Vause (Laura Prepon) has morphed into a series that will again use its ensemble cast to put its spotlight on recent headlines.

During the show's fourth season (returning June 17), creator Jenji Kohan and her team of writers will continue to use Piper, commonly referred to as her "Trojan horse," as a lens to tell untold stories of all the incarcerated women at Litchfield. The Hollywood Reporter has watched all of season four and, without spoiling specific events, the storyline will reflect Black Lives Matter after an unprecedented culture war breaks out in the overpopulated prison. The new and inexperienced guards employ levels of brutality and racial injustice that ultimately evoke the movement in an event that will impact all of the inmates.

Read More: 'Orange Is the New Black' Binge-Watching Guide: The Best Way to Devour Season 4

Kohan's prison dramedy has consistently highlighted the prison's race groups, but the lines between the women grow deeper as the new season unfolds. By the end of the 13 episodes, the actions and fallout from the decisions made by the new powers-that-be - a consequence of Litchfield's new regime, MCC - impact the black women directly and send all of the factions clutching to their respective tribes like never before.

"Danger is the underlying theme: racial tension and danger," Selenis Leyva, who plays chef Gloria Mendoza, tells The Hollywood Reporter. "This season is definitely going to start up conversations that we're dealing with now. That's the beauty of what Jenji does, with the writers. They really take things that are happening, that are current events, and deal with topics that people are afraid to really dive into. And we're going to go there this season, especially with the prison system."

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Read More: 'Orange Is the New Black' Season 4: TV Review

Kate Mulgrew (Red), left, and Selenis Leyva (Gloria Mendoza). Photo Credit: Netflix

Black Lives Matter has been in the news cycle since OITNB last aired in summer 2015, and the storyline will be the latest example of the movement getting the TV treatment. In the last year, FX's American Crime Story: The People v. O. J. Simpson highlighted the racial divide in its retelling of the influential trial; ABC's Scandal ripped from the headlines with an episode of the shooting of an unarmed black man; and Blackish, also on ABC, veered from comedy for a dramatic focus on police brutality.

Last season, the treatment of transgender inmates was put front and center on OITNB, thanks in part to Emmy-nominated co-star Laverne Cox. Season three also explored the prevalence of guard-inmate rape with Pennsatucky (Taryn Manning) and scratched the surface of mental-health issues with Healy's (Michael Harney) backstory - all storylines that will be continued when the series returns.

"The prison system is going to be a character this year," says Leyva. "We're going to see if it's corrupt and how it trickles down to these women. It's a menacing season. What's happening out of these prison walls is going to really effect these women."

Read More: 'Orange Is the New Black' Season 4: Taylor Schilling Previews "Kingpin" Piper

Last season left off with Cox's Sofia still in SHU, her solitary confinement blamed on a need to keep her safe from other inmates, which is something that Cox has said happens everyday to trans people.

"Look at these laws, these ridiculous laws that are being passed," says Leyva, whose sister is transgender. "I fear for my sister every day because it's terrifying to me that last year there were more transgender deaths than any other year. As much attention as has been put into the community, that's also made them more vulnerable."

Manning says season four will see Pennsatucky empathizing will others who are also suffering as she attempts to process the trauma she experienced at the hands of CO Coates (James McMenamin). "What's cool is that I see someone rehabilitating in prison, which is a really hard thing to see it actually happen," she says about her character. "They don't really want you to get better in there."

Taryn Manning (Tiffany "Pennsatucky" Doggett), left, and Lea DeLaria (Big Boo). Photo: Netflix

After revealing last season that Healy's mother was mentally ill, Harney's CO will link up with another inmate who similarly suffers in season four, continuing to expose the treatment of those who are ill both in and out of prison.

"Crazy Eyes, that's a great example," he says about Uzo Aduba's Emmy-winning character. "I think that's one of the reasons that the character's so phenomenally on fire, aside from her wonderful performance - it's that it's really an issue. It's very common but it's hidden. There are people in our country and all over the world, so I think that exploring that is a real gift. In the hopes that you'll say, 'Hey, you're not weird, you're not f - ed up, you're OK. And just don't be quiet, just talk about it.'"

But it's Kate Mulgrew, aka Red, who summarizes the darkness of the upcoming season most ominously.

Read More: 'Orange Is the New Black': 7 Key Takeaways From Season 4 Trailer

"The hardest thing is battling what appears to be insurmountable odds, in a physical way, in an emotional way and in an intellectual way: Red's threatened on every level," she says. "You've seen the tsunami when it swept through Japan, right? Not many people survived, but it's how they do it that is so absolutely captivating. That's season four."

Season four of Orange Is the New Black bows June 17. THR's The Live Feed will have full coverage. For complete OITNB coverage, click here.
LONDON (Reuters) - Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said Turkey would not join the European Union, rebutting one of the arguments made by campaigners who want Britain to leave the EU and who are forecasting higher migration if Turkey joins the bloc. "I don't think it's going to happen in my lifetime," Osborne told BBC television on Wednesday, ahead of Britain's EU membership referendum on June 23. "Is it going to be a member of the European Union? No, it's not." Campaigners seeking to get Britain out of the EU have put immigration at the centre of their push and have said Turkey joining the EU could add to the big flows of migrants already arriving in the country. Fears among some voters that the numbers of people coming to Britain is out of control is seen as one of the main weaknesses of the "In" camp backed by Osborne and Prime Minister David Cameron. Opinion polls have shown the rival "In" and "Out" camps running almost neck and neck with just over two weeks to go until the referendum. Osborne was questioned about Cameron's previous support for Turkey to join the EU. In 2010, Cameron said he would be the "strongest advocate" for Turkish membership of the bloc. "Turkey has gone backwards. There are concerns about democracy and human rights there," Osborne said. "British government policy is that it should not join the European Union today." Last month, Cameron dismissed the assertion from "Out" campaigners that Turkey would join the EU soon, joking that its current progress towards accession meant it would not become a member until the year 3000. Turkey said in May that EU membership remains a strategic goal and a deal to liberalise visas for Turks visiting the bloc should accelerate the accession process. Vote Leave, the main "Out" campaign ahead of the referendum, responded to Osborne's comments by saying the British government's position on Turkey was not clear. "The government must now urgently clarify whether its policy on Turkey has changed. Is it now promising to veto Turkish membership?" a spokeswoman for the group said. Osborne also said in his interview with the BBC that the government was sticking to its target of bringing net migration into Britain to below 100,000, something it has missed by a wide margin in recent years. He said improving economies in other European countries would help dampen migration into Britain. "As both economies grow, the European economy and the British economy, you don't have this exceptional situation you've had for the last couple of years where you've had very weak economies on the continent of Europe," he said. (Reporting by Sarah Young; Writing by William Schomberg; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
Kiev (AFP) - Foreign monitors observing Ukraine's separatist conflict said on Wednesday that a missing local staff member "was returned" to the mission in the rebel-controlled eastern city of Donetsk.

"The SMM staff member who went missing on 7 June was returned today to the Mission in Donetsk," said a statement on the Facebook page of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe's Ukraine mission.
MANILA (Reuters) - Denounced by journalists' groups for a comment that news people were "not exempted from assassination", Philippine President-elect Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday changed his stance, vowing to protect them and pursue their killers. The 71-year-old lawyer was elected president on May 9, propelled by his loud approval of hundreds of execution-style killings of criminals over nearly two decades, and takes office at the end of June. About 175 journalists have been killed in the Philippines since 1986. The country ranks 138th among 180 nations in the 2016 World Press Freedom Index of Reporters Without Borders. "I do not condone nor tolerate killing of journalists, regardless of the motive of the killers, or the reason for their killing," said Duterte, who has stopped holding news conferences in the wake of his controversial remarks. "I never said that killing journalists is justified because they are involved in corruption," Duterte said in a statement sent to news organizations by his spokesman, Salvador Panelo. "My duty as president is to uphold and enforce the law and I will pursue and prosecute these killers to the hilt." Last week, Duterte said journalists were "not exempted from assassination if you are a son of a bitch", drawing an outcry from journalist groups, including France-based Reporters Without Borders, which called for a press boycott of the leader. "Reporters Without Borders is outraged by Philippine President-elect Rodrigo Dutertes comment yesterday that corrupt journalists are legitimate murder targets," the group said on June 1, demanding legal action against him. Although political allies said Duterte, who has been mayor of the southern city of Davao for seven terms, was quoted out of context, he himself declined to apologize for his fierce media criticism, characterizing some journalists as "vultures". On Wednesday, Duterte explained the context of his comment. "What I said is that you don't have to be a journalist to be the subject of an assassination," he added. "There are many cases where journalists are killed by reason of their advocacy, but there are those who are killed because they take sides and accept bribes and renege on their commitments. "The noble vocation of journalism does not apply to extortionists and criminals." A Philippine group of lawyers and journalists working for press freedom said it welcomed Duterte's latest statement. "We hope that we will hear from him not just a clear policy directive against the culture of impunity, but concrete steps to cripple and finally eradicate it," said Romel Regalado Bagares of the Center for International Law in Manila. (Reporting by Manuel Mogato and Neil Jerome Morales; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
N'Djamena (AFP) - Some 2,000 troops from regional military powerhouse Chad headed to neighbouring Niger on Wednesday, where Boko Haram insurgents inflicted heavy losses in the town of Bosso last week, a military source said.

Chad is a leading member of a multi-national force fighting the Nigeria-based Islamist fighters who have extended their attacks to neighbouring countries from their base in northern Nigeria.

Chad's "heavily armed" soldiers will "search everywhere for Boko Haram," added the source, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Boko Haram on Friday attacked a military post in Bosso in Niger's Diffa region, killing 26 soldiers including two from neighbouring Nigeria, in one of its deadliest attacks in Niger.

A total of 55 insurgents from the Nigeria-based Islamist group were killed and "many" injured, according to Niger authorities.

On Tuesday, witnesses near Bosso said Boko Haram remained in control of the town though the Niger government had said the previous day that "Bosso was totally under control."

In the regional capital, Diffa, some 140 kilometres (87 miles) to the west, teacher Ari Issa said he had seen many fighter planes.

Local radio Anfani said "military planes are coming and going between Lake Chad and Diffa airport".

There was no confirmation available from the Chadian army.

Last year, Chad dispatched soldiers to Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon to fight Boko Haram. The regional multi-national force includes the four countries.

- Tens of thousands displaced -

Some 50,000 people have fled the Bosso area, UN refugee agency (UNHCR) spokesman Adrian Edwards said Tuesday.

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.

The UNHCR said most of those fleeing the violence in Bosso had walked to Toumour, some 30 kilometres to the west.

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In Abidjan on Wednesday, the medical charity Doctors Without Borders called for urgent help for those displaced in Bosso, saying they were short of water and food as well as medicine.

A local journalist working with Radio Anfani told AFP earlier this week that on Tuesday he was sheltering in Toumour with no food, along with many others who had fled the violence.

"The Boko Haram gunmen stayed in Bosso from 6:30 pm (1730 GMT) on Friday to 3:00 am on Saturday, burning the military barracks, police facilities and local administration office before looting shops and carting away food supplies," he said.

He said the gunmen used heavy artillery which allowed them to overrun the town's garrison.

"They came in large numbers shouting 'Allahu Akbar' (God is greatest)," he said.
In a bid to attract Hollywood and local productions, the government of Australias New South Wales announced a $15M (AUD$20M) fund on Wednesday. The move by the Oz state was spearheaded by Deputy Premier and Minister for the Arts, Troy Grant, who made no bones about the aim. We have our sights firmly set on stealing Queensland and Victorias big film and TV productions, the politico wrote on his Facebook page.

New South Wales, whose capital is Sydney, has had its fair share of big productions in recent years including Foxs Ridley Scott-helmed Alien: Covenant, TV series Rake and Mad Max: Fury Road. Bordering state Queensland, however, has lately attracted Legendary/WBs Kong: Skull Island; Disney/Mavels Thor: Ragnarok; and Disneys Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, a bullish Grant wondered, Why cant we make the next Star Wars episode here? Why cant we bring Game Of Thrones here?

The paper also notes that Grant supported repeated industry calls for the federal governments location offset to be more competitive. This has been a source of contention locally where the incentive remains stuck at 16.5%. It has occasionally been increased on a one-off basis for a major U.S. production.

The state made an AUD$21.6M contribution to Pirates 5 while Ragnarok and the Alien project were allotted a collective $34M in government funds, effectively raising the 16.5% location offset to 30%.

The new Made in NSW fund will double existing government funding for the screen industry, to almost AUD$40M, over the next two years. Grant said it would mean up to 10,000 more jobs, over AUD$300M to local communities and a significant lift for tourism.

Grant today was surrounded by Australian actors including Bryan Brown when he called the fund a warning to the other states in Australia that were taking you on and were going to beat you, the SMH reports.

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The husband of a 16-year-old Pakistani girl who was murdered by her family for marrying him vowed Thursday to do whatever it took to get justice for his young wife.

Zeenat Bibi was set on fire Wednesday in Pakistan's cultural capital of Lahore, a little over a week after she wed 20-year-old motorcycle mechanic Hasan Khan against the wishes of her family.

Her mother Perveen Bibi has admitted to the killing, though details of the brutal murder remain unclear. Early reports suggested she had been burnt alive though police now say she may have been asphyxiated first, with a post-mortem report not expected until later this month.

Bibi's charred remains were buried by her new husband's family before dawn after none of her relatives sought to claim her body.

Speaking to AFP on Thursday, a visibly distraught Khan said: "I am determined to continue the legal proceedings against the family. I am after them, and my family is supporting me.

"It is my destiny now to bring her justice -- if the accused are condemned it will bring calm and peace to my soul."

Khan, who said he had met his wife while they were students at high school, also suggested that Perveen had been helped in the murder by her brother and son, and was covering up for them.

The case has drawn widespread outrage even in a country used to so-called "honour killings", which account for hundreds of deaths every year.

It was also the third such case involving burning over a three-month span.

An AFP reporter said Zeenat's family home was closed and locked Thursday, as neighbours expressed their shock.

Zeenat had taught the Koran to local children, and the mother of one told AFP her daughter was frightened after the killing.

"Before sleeping she asked many questions: 'Why was my teacher killed? Why did her mum kill her?'" said Rani Bibi -- who shared the common last name with Zeenat's family -- of her ten-year-old Maham.

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"I said, 'Don't worry. You are my beloved daughter.'"

- Culture of impunity -

Pakistan amended its criminal code in 2005 to prevent men who kill female relatives escaping punishment by pardoning themselves as an "heir" of the victim.

But it is left to a judge's discretion to decide whether to impose a prison sentence when other relatives of the victim forgive the killer -- a loophole which critics say is still exploited.

Leading opposition senator Sherry Rehman, who is also a prominent women's rights activist, called on the government Thursday to pass a long-awaited bill aimed at amending the law.

"What is the reason for the delay? Three girls have been burnt to death -- this is a scary new trend.

"It's not as though we didn't have thousands being killed before. It's not as though the law will put an end to it but the the state must put its full force into addressing the issue," she told AFP.

Rehman added that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had promised to push through legal reform after a documentary highlighting the issue won an Oscar in February, but had failed to act.

"I think they are pandering to the religious parties," she said, referring to Pakistan's Islamist opposition parties who wield considerable influence beyond their representation in parliament, where they hold around five percent of seats.

Those who would kill in the name of honour "have increasing impunity -- they can see that despite public anger it's the hallowed halls of power are turning a blind eye," she added.
(Repeats story that ran Tuesday with no change in text)

By Emily Chow

KUALA LUMPUR, June 7 (Reuters) - In 2004, Malaysian palm oil producer IOI Group became a founding member of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and later an executive board member in what seemed like a cosy arrangement.

Twelve years later, IOI attempted to take legal action against RSPO over an environmental ruling that has cost the company sales in the United States and Europe.

In March, the RSPO withdrew its "sustainability certification" from IOI, based on a decision to uphold a complaint from Amsterdam-based group Aidenvironment.

The complaint alleged that IOI had illegally chopped down rainforests in the Indonesian province of West Kalimantan and planted oil palms on peatlands, which are drained and then highly flammable. Fires across Indonesia in recent years have led to a massive haze of dangerous pollution across large parts of Southeast Asia.

Certification of environmentally sound behavior is now required by some major palm oil buyers in the West, including major food and candy makers. The suspension of IOI's green credentials caused Nestle, Unilever, Mars and Kellogg to drop IOI Group as a supplier.

In response, IOI filed a lawsuit against the RSPO in Zurich, where RSPO is based, saying the move had "caused significant disruption" to its business in Europe and America.

IOI withdrew the suit on Monday in the face of a barrage of criticism from its customers and activists, and announced it was voluntarily adopting a more stringent certification system the RSPO is putting in place by the end of the year.

"Since the filing of the challenge proceeding, IOI has engaged with many of our stakeholders such as customers, NGOs and RSPO to resolve this matter," IOI said in a statement.

How the plantation firm and its overseer got into this situation may hold lessons for other companies in sensitive industries that are working with environmentalists to prevent deforestation and an increase in greenhouse gases, which most scientists say contribute to global warming.

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"This is a call to all industries also to clean their operation and supply chain from deforestation," said Annisa Rahmawati, Greenpeace Indonesia's forest campaigner. "There will be no market for companies that are still destroying our people's life and planet."

IOI is not the only plantation under pressure.

Malaysia's government-linked Felda Global Ventures , the world's third-largest plantations company, voluntarily withdrew RSPO certifications from all of its 58 processing mills after what happened to IOI.

Felda said it needed to clean up its supply chain before seeking certification again.

The plantation industry appeared to get outmaneuvered on the RSPO, whose membership had evolved from 47 entities largely from the industry itself to 1,346 voting members, including 33 environmental and social activist groups and 612 consumer goods manufacturers, according to interviews with company executives, government officials, traders and activists.

CHEAP AND UBIQUITOUS

Palm oil is the most widely used edible oil in the world, found in everything from margarine to cookies and from soap to soups. One of the cheapest edible oils on the market, it is extracted from the pulp of the palm fruit that drops from trees in tropical plantations, most of them in Malaysia and Indonesia.

Between 1990 and 2010, up to 3.5 million hectares of forests were cut down for palm oil plantations in Indonesia, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). That's a land area the size of Germany.

The fastest and cheapest way to clear new land for plantations is by burning. Every year, hundreds of thousands of hectares go up in smoke before monsoon rains begin to fall, choking people as a haze spreads over the region.

Palm oil plantations operating in remote rainforests have come under unprecedented scrutiny the past few years, not only from the mounting influence of activists, but from their customers as well.

"The market itself said it was not good enough," said Eric Wakker, senior consultant at Jakarta-based Aidenvironment Asia which first brought the complaint against IOI to the roundtable six years ago. "The big manufacturers like Unilever had overtaken RSPO itself when it came to deforestation."

By 2013, the industry was on the defensive.

Environmentalists that year organised boycotts of palm oil products at supermarkets. Greenpeace and other activists made videos for YouTube about burning forests and stranded orangutans. Pollution from that year's forest fires reached record levels in Singapore and Malaysia.

That's when the RSPO itself decided it was time to change. At its annual general assembly in November 2013 in Medan, Indonesia, members voted overwhelming to beef up their standard and enforcement regime, and to commit to producing 100 percent certified sustainable palm oil.

More importantly, RSPO agreed to overhaul its complaints panel to make it more independent. Up until then, the RSPO executive board, dominated by the plantations, ruled on complaints. "It was filled with conflicts of interest," Wakker said.

"The IOI case cost us six years and I almost fired myself over the lack of progress in 2013, when I realized... the system was crooked," he said.

When RSPO finally adopted a resolution to make its complaints panel more transparent, "My response to bystanders was 'now finally Aidenvironment can become an RSPO member'. And we did."

NEW COMPLAINTS PANEL

RSPO Secretary-General Darrel Webber, who presided over the 2013 General Assembly, said in an interview the group's new complaints panel is now in place, while the system for monitoring plantations' compliance with sustainability standards should be fully operational by year's end.

"People said we lack bite and take so much time," he said. "The main point is to make (the system) independent, perceived to be independent, and efficient."

It was this new RSPO complaints panel that suspended IOI in April, based on Aidenvironment's complaint.

The complaint alleged that IOI had illegally chopped down rainforests in the Indonesian province of West Kalimantan and planted on peatlands, a rich storehouse of greenhouses gases, whose release into the atmosphere contributes to global warming.

IOI admitted to clearing peatlands, in a statement to the RSPO, but denied planting oil palm trees on them, saying it rehabilitated the area by planting "cuttings of an indigenous jungle species".

The company said it is also improving firefighting capabilities in the forests, engaging consultants on various Indonesian laws, and setting aside land in their concessions for conservation.

The share price of IOI's listed unit has lost 11 percent since the RSPO move, and analysts estimated it could see a 7 percent decline in net profit for the year.

Meanwhile, demand for palm keeps growing, notably from top consumers China and India, which do not demand RSPO sustainability certificates. The two countries alone account for 30 percent of global imports, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

It's a frustrating issue for the growers, who say they incur extra costs to comply with RSPO standards, but often can't get the green premium on the market. Traders say around half the certified palm oil on the market is sold at uncertified prices because of low demand for it.

Nestle said in a statement to Reuters that the issue is not about premiums. "It is about choosing suppliers who share our commitment to sustainability and are willing to continuously improve their practices. Together, industry, suppliers, consumers, and the general public need to work together to further sustainability."

(Additional reporting by Joseph Sipalan; Editing by Bill Tarrant.)
By Matt Siegel SYDNEY (Reuters) - A Papua New Guinea court has granted an injunction barring university students from protesting on campus after dozens of people were wounded during clashes between student protesters and police in the capital, Port Moresby. A groundswell of political unrest in recent weeks has surged in the country, just to Australia's north, amid calls for Prime Minister Peter O'Neill to resign over corruption allegations. The government said initial reports that up to four people had been killed were incorrect. An official at the Port Moresby General Hospital said 38 casualties had been treated there, including four with bullet wounds, but no deaths. Students and officials said police fired on the public and used tear gas to disperse crowds during a protest at the University of PNG's Waigani campus in Port Moresby. Protests were later reported in the PNG highland cities of Goroka and Mt. Hagen, and in Lae on the north coast. Papua New Guinea Higher Education Minister Malakai Tabar welcomed the court order blocking students from resuming their rolling protests, blaming the violence on "thuggery" and the opportunists in the political opposition. "The overwhelming majority of students simply want to go to class, sit their exams and proceed to the next semester," Tabar said, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported. Thousands of students across PNG have been protesting and boycotting classes for weeks amid growing political unrest. O'Neill, who came to power in 2011 promising to reign in corruption, denies allegations he authorized millions of dollars in fraudulent payments to a leading law firm. Student protest leader Noel Anjo told Reuters on Thursday the protesters had no intention of giving up, noting that the injunction barred students from protesting but not other members of civil society. "We're not going to give up. The students are not going to give up until and unless the prime minister resigns or surrenders himself to police and is arrested and charged," Anjo said by phone from Port Moresby. "This fight will continue." Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop urged Australians travelling in Papua New Guinea to exercise caution, saying Canberra's influence only went so far in influencing the "very volatile" situation. "We are calling for calm. The police response should at all times be proportionate," Bishop said in an interview with ABC radio. "Australia plays an important role in supporting PNG but at the end of the day, it's a sovereign nation." (Editing by Lincoln Feast)
Police in Papua New Guinea on Wednesday opened fire on student protesters in the capital, Port Moresby, with reports claiming four deaths and up to 10 students injured.

The Australian Broadcasting Corp. (ABC) reports that the students  who have been calling for the ouster of Prime Minister Peter ONeill over allegations of corruption and economic mismanagement  were prevented from marching from the University of Papua New Guinea to the Parliament.

Student protester Gerald Peni told ABC that officers fired shots directly at the crowd. They fired tear gases, I was right in front, he says. And many of the students they fell, they got injured, we dont know how many casualties we may have at the moment.

The citys general hospital reportedly confirmed that 10 injured people had been admitted. In the confusion following the incident, reports were unclear on casualties, but an ABC reporter tweeted that the countrys parliament was told four had been killed.

The prime minister has ordered an inquiry into continued student unrest promoted by individuals outside the student body. A statement from ONeills office says the inquiry will also look into alleged external funding for the protests that have lasted weeks, the Guardian reports.

The facts relayed to me are that a small group of students were violent, threw rocks at police and provoked a response that came in the form of tear gas and warning shots, the prime minister says.

In a claim that could not be verified, ONeill says the reports of deaths were made falsely by opposition politicians. The factors that led to students being injured are yet to be ascertained, he says.

[ABC]
Poll after poll shows the health of Americas economy is a top concern for voters in the 2016 election season and speeches by both the presumptive nominees of the Democratic and Republican presumptive parties proved the candidates are listening.

Presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump, in a speech thanking voters for their turnout during the primary season, called for tax and regulatory reforms alongside stronger job creation in the nation. By the same token, Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton, who after a win in New Jersey against rival Bernie Sanders gave her the necessary pledge delegates to secure her partys nomination, said the economy should work for all classes, not just the 1%.

On the FOX Business Networks Cavuto Coast-to-Coast Wednesday afternoon, Eliana Johnson, Washington editor at the National Review, said Clinton would love to discuss the economy given her husbands, President Bill Clinton, economic success.

The economy is improving right now relatively, though it hasnt been very strong through the Obama administration. But she can harken back to the Clinton years in the 90s. Its something she wants to talk about, Johnson said.

To that point, the economy has recovered substantial ground since the Great Recession as the housing and labor markets have made a comeback as recent data show home prices have rebounded and consumer confidence continues to move higher.

However, Scott Martin, United Advisors chief market strategist, argued Clintons association with her husband is exactly what could turn the electorate against her in the General Election.

Things like the Community Reinvestment Act were the genesis of the housing crisis. The fact that Clinton really cant take credit for the tech boom that we saw in the late 90s, he said.

Martin continued by saying her association with her husbands administration, having served as First Lady gives her a middle road kind of advantage, in his view, compared to the experience Trump brings as a businessman.

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Its an advantage Trump carries: That private-sector experience, the creation of tens of thousands of jobs, that he can bring to his resume, Martin said.

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By Reyna Gobel (Reuters Health) - The quality of care doesn't suffer when surgeons-in-training are new at their jobs, according to a survey of patients hospitalized for surgery. In fact, the patients felt care was better during those periods. Every July 1, newly graduated medical students start their first year of training as surgeons, and older surgical trainees are promoted to take on new responsibilities. Multiple studies have shown that obtaining care at academic medical centers in July is just as safe as any other month of the year, Dr. Cornelius Thiels of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota told Reuters Health by email. But how do patients feel about the process? "We wanted to ensure that patients were not only having the best outcomes during this yearly time of transition but also having the best experience with their care, Thiels said. He and his colleagues surveyed 10,822 patients having various kinds of surgeries in 2013 or 2014, including 1,674 (15 percent) who were admitted to the hospital in July or August. Overall patient quality wasnt lower during these times. In fact, surgical patients had equal, and by some measures improved, perceptions of their care in July and August, the authors reported. The researchers tallied patients' responses to come up with an overall score, plus subscores for communication with physicians, pain management and communication about medicines, care transition and discharge information. The global score and all subscores were similar between patients admitted in July or August compared with those admitted in any other month, the study team found. They did see some seasonal variations, with better scores in July and August than in September/October or January/February. Dr. Karl Bilimoria of Northwestern University in Chicago, who has studied the effect of surgical residents on patients but wasnt involved in the new research, told Reuters Health that in July and August, there may be more vigilance and extra staffing to make sure surgical residents receive supervision and patients receive the best care. Hes not sure, however, that the new results reflect teaching hospitals everywhere. The survey only looks at a single institution and its the Mayo Clinic, one of the best hospitals in the country, he said. Patients who seek care at this hospital are highly motivated and will travel great distances to get there, he said  which means that how patients view care at the Mayo Clinic may not be the same as how theyd view care at a hospital in their neighborhood. SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1PhNTpq JAMA Surgery, online June 1, 2016.
From Esquire

Paul Ryan, the zombie-eyed granny-starver from the state of Wisconsin and runner-up in our most recent vice presidential pageant, got himself all up in the 'hood today to talk about his latest attempt to put old hemlock in new bottles, but all anyone wanted to ask him about was how firmly he stood behind his party's presumptive presidential nominee.

As a Serious Man Of Ideas-just ask anyone in a green room-Ryan is somewhat distressed that the clamorous racism of the Republican standard-bearer might drown out his new marketing scheme for knuckling the poors and starving the grannies. Which it will, because Ryan's new plan is simply the same old song. Per TBOTP, which takes the whole damn thing-and Ryan himself-much too seriously:

The GOP proposal, however, is sweeping in scope and reflects Ryan's own ambitions to tackle this issue-and it breaks some new ground in the process. For instance, Republicans suggest reforming the long untouchable Social Security Income program, which helps those 65 or older, blind people and the disabled. They also call for changes to the wildly popular Pell Grants program, which provides financial aid to students.

I don't know how many times I have to say this, but Ryan's "ambition" is not to help with the problem of poverty, it is to destroy the concept of a federally-funded social safety net because, ideologically and philosophically, he doesn't believe it to be a legitimate function of the federal government. And, my god, "breaking new ground"? That's an embarrassment. The SSI program has been in the crosshairs for years. The last president to take a whack at it was Bill Fcking Clinton, and then this happened to a little boy named Marcus Stephens about whom Paul Ryan couldn't give less of a damn.

The rest of it is the same old bait-and-switch swill that Ryan has trafficked in for years. He wants poor people to work even harder for their benefits, and he'd like to block-grant the federal programs back to the states so that the likes of Rick Scott, Rick Snyder, and Scott Walker can dole out the cash to their cronies.

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And, in the middle of all this repackaged bogosity, as Jordan Weissman points out at Slate, Ryan makes sure to dole out a little sugar to his buddies in the financial services sector.

Specifically, Ryan and the GOP would like to abolish the Department of Labor's recently released "fiduciary rule," which once it's fully implemented in 2018 will simply require that investment professionals act in their clients' best interests when offering advice on their retirement accounts. You may be shocked to discover that this is, in fact, a new thing. But traditionally, advisers have been permitted to consider their own bottom lines when deciding where to steer their clients' money, so long as the investments are "suitable" to the customers' needs. That's left the door open for massive and expensive conflicts of interest, since brokers have been allowed to push expensive, high-fee savings products that also happen to offer them a fatter commission, even when their client might just be better off with, say, a low-cost index fund. The fiduciary rule will end that practice, which the Obama administration estimates costs consumers billions of dollars each year in retirement savings. Of course, the change has given some corners of the financial services industry fits, since it's ruining one very profitable business model. Conservatives, meanwhile, have claimed the rule will make it harder for low- and middle-income families to get financial advice, which how is it makes its way into Paul Ryan's anti-poverty agenda.

Ryan tries to use this new rule as an example of the dead hand of government regulation, which is not a compelling argument, because Ryan is such a complete charlatan. As Weissman says:

Any family that was previously getting ripped off by an adviser steering it into high-fee investment products is almost certainly better off putting its money into a Vanguard retirement fund anyway (and that free bit of insight isn't exactly hard to find online). The basic consumer protections offered by the fiduciary rule aren't going to deprive anybody of essential financial advice, and fighting it is an obvious sop to a powerful industry. Trying to cloak it in the language of an anti-poverty effort is as sad as it is hilarious.

It happens that I watched Ryan's press conference Tuesday morning. Someone asked him about the push for a $15 minimum wage. As you might expect, Ryan deplored the whole thing as a job-killer, threw up a bunch of jargon that nobody with a brain would ever believe, and then cited for approximately the 4,987,231st time his days working as a fast food fry cook. And also, for approximately the 4,987,231st time, he neglected to mention that his family was dependent upon Social Security survivor's benefits because his father, who'd gotten rich on government construction contracts, had died when Paul was fairly young. These benefits tided him over until he could arrange government work for himself for the rest of his adult life.

Take it, Smilin' Uncle Joe Biden.

Biggest. Fake. Ever.

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SHANGHAI, June 8 (Reuters) - The People's Bank of China will allow the yuan to rise or fall against a basket of currencies in the medium term, the central bank's chief economist was quoted saying by the China Business News on its website on Wednesday.

"What we do, is to reduce the yuan's short-term volatility against the basket using the mid-point pricing mechanism as the main thread, but will allow some degrees of appreciation or depreciation against the basket in a relatively long period of time," Ma Jun was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

Ma said that the yuan's medium-term trend is determined by a number of factors, including macroeconomic situations, market supply and demand, people's expectations and price indexes in different countries, the newspaper quoting him as saying.

(Reporting by Samuel Shen and Brenda Goh; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
[Photo: Getty]

Hillary Clinton has a plan to fix economic inequality. If elected president, shell give working families a raise and implement tax reliefs, create jobs by investing in infrastructure, and crackdown on corporate loopholes. But the presumptive Democratic nominee is currently under fire for being a part of the problem  not the solution.

A new report from The New York Post has revealed that during a speech in April, during which she detailed her plan to close the wage gap, Clinton was wearing a jacket worth 8,606.

The red tweed coat comes from Italian design house Giorgio Armani and is just one of many statement pieces in Clintons wardrobe. Known for her pants suits, shes reportedly spent the past few months rehabilitating her appearance, having hired image consultant Kristina Schake, who was supposedly tasked with making Clinton more relatable and formerly worked with Michelle Obama and .

Although, as many have noted, sporting a single article of clothing that costs about as much as the annual salary of one minimum wage worker is far from accessible.

[Photo: Getty]



It should be noted that the funds for Clintons fashions are most likely coming out of her personal funds, according to MarketWatch.

Others have come to Clintons defense, pointing out the fact that Republican opponent Donald Trump spends thousands on custom suits. Additionally, his wife, Melania Trump, often wears designer items from the same brands Clinton shops from.

Clinton is far from the first politician to get flack for her high-end outfit choices. Michele Obama, a fan of J. Crew and Target, likes to mix these mass brands with 371 Lanvin sneakers. Her daughters Sasha and Malia even wore 13,775 dresses to a recent state dinner at the White House. In 2008, Sarah Palin was criticized for a $100,000 makeover from Alaskan governor to potential vice president.

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This week on the antepenultimate episode of CBS Person of Interest, Team Machine tended to their most VIPOI ever, in POTUS  before discovering some very interesting information about the depth of their own troops.



RELATEDPerson of Interest Bosses Spill Secrets Behind Episode 100s Avalanche of Grief and Loss, Share One Regret

In the wake of Episode 100s pivotal events, Shaw is repressed and stoic (but in a different way?), while Finch has made tracks for Texas, with The Machine-as-Root in his ear. Its a voice that takes some adjusting to, but after a brief attempted segue into his sixth-grade teacher, he allows Her to channel Ms. Groves.

Reese, Shaw and Fusco meanwhile get a new number, and its a biggie  the president of the United States. Arriving in D.C., Shaw and Reese infiltrate a fundraiser, where they 1) bump into Season 2 POI/tech titan Logan Pierce, and 2) discover a bomb on the premises. After diverting the blast, they catch up to a suspicious, fleeing waiter, who  following a bit of quasi-torture  leads them the next day to a Dupont Circle brownstone. There, Shaw discovers a surveillance room pointing to a planned attack on POTUS at a plaza speech. With Reese on the ground, Shaw in a snipers perch and Fusco running the comms, the team comes to realize that the attack will be made via a drone they cannot reroute. Instead, Shaw detours the president  by firing several shots in his general direction.

RELATEDPerson of Interests Amy Acker: Roots Bold, Selfless Move Makes Me Happy

The prez is saved, but then the Secret Service comes charging after our guys. Luckily, Season 1 POI/army vet Joey Durban, whom Reese bumped into earlier, arrives on the scene to exfiltrate Shaw and Reese (by way of some cammies), while onetime POI Harper plays Homeland honcho to whisk Fusco to freedom. Meanwhile, we learn that Harold has ducked into a top-secret facility housed inside a Texas air force base to commandeer Ice9, a computer virus that, The Machine affirms, could bring Samaritan to its knees but with potentially devastating consequences for the rest of the world. Harold attests he has no other choice, and then leverages his way past a guard with information about a donor heart the guys little girl desperately needs.

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Back in D.C., Reese and Fusco learn that The Machine sent Logan, Joey and Harper to secure their extraction after they saved POTUS  because they received Johns number. Yes, there is another team that does what our guys do  and perhaps others exist. After Logan leaves Reese with a tip on Finchs whereabouts, Reese and Fusco forego basking in their big, presidential win to instead brace for one helluva fight.

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Lima (AFP) - The doctors told Victoria Vigo her third child must be born by Cesarean. It was safest, they said -- she was seven months pregnant and there were complications.

They cut her open -- but they didn't stop there. Without telling her, they also tied her fallopian tubes. She would have no more children.

Her baby died, and Vigo became one of 300,000 people campaigners say were forcibly sterilized by the Peruvian state between 1996 and 2001.

Next month, thousands of them hope to learn whether the courts will at last agree to investigate charges against the man they blame: the president at the time, Alberto Fujimori.

"What most upset me was the death of my son. But what's more, I heard they had sterilized me. I felt impotent, angry," Vigo told AFP.

"I wasn't expecting it," she said. "I was outraged. The doctor had never come and talked about the decision with me."

Vigo, 32 at the time of the operation, sued the doctor who sterilized her.

"He said he was following orders," she recalled.

Five years later, a court awarded her $2,500 in compensation.

What she really wants is for Fujimori and his former health ministers to go on trial.

- 'Crime against humanity' -

Fujimori's government called it a "reproductive health and family planning" program.

Rights groups say it was something much darker.

"Fujimori said he wanted to guarantee that women could decide how many children they wanted to have," said Maria Ysabel Cedano, leader of the Peruvian women's rights group DEMUS.

"In practice, what he wanted was for poor women and men to stop reproducing," she said.

"Those most affected were poor women, (indigenous) Quechua-speakers in rural areas, young women."

Peru's first lady at the time was Fujimori's daughter, Keiko.

She narrowly missed out on following in her father's footsteps in elections on June 5.

She eventually conceded defeat to her rival Pedro Pablo Kuczynski. He won the presidency by less than a quarter of a percentage point.

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Keiko Fujimori, 41, had promised to compensate the victims of the forced sterilizations. She has not admitted the state was to blame.

Kuczynski has described the sterilizations as "a crime against humanity." He says the state owes the victims compensation.

"That reassures me somewhat," said Alfonso Ramos, 56. His sister Celia died in 1997 after a botched sterilization in the family's home city of Piura.

He says health officials came repeatedly to his sister's house pressuring her to agree to be sterilized.

"She did not want to. She resisted," he said. "They offered the family food and medicine if she would do it. And in the end she did."

Celia Ramos was in such pain after the operation that doctors gave her a second anesthetic, her brother said. That gave her a heart attack. She fell into a coma and died weeks later.

She was 33 and had three young children. "The state has never compensated them to help repair the harm done," her brother said.

"It is frustrating but even so I think that one day there will be justice."

- 'Unhealthy and dangerous' -

State prosecutors had been expected to announce in February whether they would formally investigate the victims' charges against Fujimori and his ex-officials.

The date of that hearing was postponed. It is now expected in early July.

DEMUS said the hearing was postponed due to "political interference" to protect Keiko Fujimori's election chances.

According to the rights group and Peru's state ombudsman, around 300,000 people were sterilized under the program. Of those, Cedano estimates that 23,000 were men who were made to undergo vasectomies.

Amnesty International's regional director Erika Guevara-Rosas last year called it "one of the most serious human rights violations in the Americas."

Cedano says doctors were pressured to meet quotas for sterilizations.

The evidence, she says, is in documents filed by lawyers for more than 4,000 people who are suing the Peruvian state.

Alberto Fujimori is already in jail serving a 25-year sentence for massacres of alleged terrorists in the early 1990s.

The state prosecution service declined to pursue a case against him in 2014 over the sterilizations.

Instead it brought charges against six doctors. It said there was not enough evidence to show that Fujimori had pursued a deliberate policy of forced sterilizations.

Victims appealed that decision.

Despite the painful memories of her father's rule, Keiko Fujimori won virtually half the votes in the election, and her party won a majority in Congress.

"That this could be done with impunity and that many people justify it... and that a political group capable of doing that could be elected -- that is really unhealthy and really dangerous," Cedano said, wiping away tears.

"It is painful and outrageous. What happened to those women could have happened to anyone."
Lima (AFP) - Peruvians waited Wednesday to learn who their next president will be, as ex-Wall Street banker Pedro Pablo Kuczynski's camp called his lead insurmountable and controversial rival Keiko Fujimori insisted she still had a shot.

Three days after Sunday's runoff election, the race to lead one of Latin America's fastest-growing economies was still too close to officially call, even though 99.5 percent of the ballots had been counted.

The Oxford-trained economist known as "PKK" maintained his razor-thin edge over Fujimori, the daughter of jailed ex-president Alberto Fujimori: 50.12 percent to 49.88 percent.

Electoral officials said they would likely finish tallying ballots Thursday.

But even then the race may not be over.

About one percent of the ballots have been challenged, and the race is so close they could theoretically swing it back in Fujimori's favor.

An electoral court is considering each challenged ballot one by one, deciding whether to count them despite stains, improper markings or other issues.

However, while Fujimori isn't mathematically eliminated, it would be "impossible" for her to close the 42,000-vote gap between her and Kuczynski, said the head of polling firm Ipsos Peru, Alfredo Torres.

"I think we can say PPK's victory is definitive," he told newspaper El Comercio.

Kuczynski's camp all but declared him president-elect.

"We have a lead that makes us the winners. But we are respectful of the (electoral) institutions and we will wait until the counting process reaches 100 percent," said his running mate, Martin Vizcarra.

"But we ask it be done quickly," he added.

- Delivery by boat -

Kuczynski, 77, has said he won't declare victory until the official verdict is in.

But he couldn't resist stepping out on the balcony of his house in an upscale Lima neighborhood Monday and indulging in a few dance moves alongside his wife.

Fujimori, 41, has said she is "cautiously waiting."

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Her campaign is hoping she will win heavily in remote areas still sending in their results thanks to her father's pull with poor rural voters.

Some Peruvians fondly remember Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000) for his populist streak, his ruthless campaign to wipe out leftist Shining Path rebels and his management of a strong economy.

But his legacy has also been heavy baggage for his daughter. His violent decade in office ultimately landed him in prison for 25 years for massacres by an army death squad.

Electoral officials said results were still trickling in -- some by boat -- from a very remote region of the Amazon jungle known as VRAEM (the acronym for the Apurimac, Ene and Mantaro River Valleys).

Fujimori's campaign said she had strong support there because voters fear the drug traffickers who hold sway over the region and remnants of the Shining Path hiding out there.

- 'Anti-fujimorismo' -

Both candidates are right-leaning, US-educated politicians from immigrant families.

They vowed to fight crime and create jobs in the nation of 31 million people, a major source of gold, copper -- and cocaine.

Famed for its ancient Incan cities high in the Andes mountains and its fusion-fueled cuisine, symbolized by the refreshing raw fish dish ceviche, Peru has been one of Latin America's best-performing economies.

But growth slowed under outgoing leftist President Ollanta Humala, from 6.5 percent when he took office in 2011 to 3.3 percent last year.

Kuczynski, son of a Jewish doctor from Germany, studied at Oxford and Princeton.

His American wife is a cousin of Hollywood actress Jessica Lange.

A former economy minister, he has a long career in business and finance.

Fujimori, whose father is the child of Japanese immigrants, was aiming to become Peru's first woman president.

But analysts say she was damaged by a late surge of "anti-fujimorismo" -- though her party won a congressional majority in the first-round vote in April.
By Sebastien Malo NEW YORK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates, speaking in front of chickens pecking and clucking in a New York City skyscraper, announced plans on Wednesday to donate 100,000 chicks to poor nations in an effort to end extreme poverty. The chicks will go to rural areas in two dozen developing countries from Burkina Faso to Bolivia, where the Heifer International charity manages breeding operations and distribution, according to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Raising and selling chickens can lift families out of poverty, and a farmer breeding 250 chickens a year could make $1,250 U.S., said the Foundation, which is partnering with the Heifer International. "There's no investment that has a return percentage anything like being able to breed chickens," said Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft Corp. He urged the public to donate through Heifer International. "The numbers today in terms of Americans who give to Heifer or things like that is actually quite small, so we'd like to see that scaled up," Gates said. Referring to the proverb that teaching a man to fish will feed him for a lifetime, he said: "The parable could have been stated in terms of giving somebody a chicken and showing them how to raise chickens." Gates said he aimed to boost household chicken ownership in places such as West Africa, where it is now 5 percent, to 30 percent. Gates made his announcement on the 68th floor of a new building at the World Trade Center, a site not typically used for showcasing chickens, he said. "We snuck them in," he quipped. According to the United Nations, an estimated 800 million people live in extreme poverty, with those in fragile and conflict-torn states suffering the most. (Reporting by Sebastien Malo, Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org)
Manila (AFP) - Four Malaysian sailors held for more than two months by a notorious kidnapping-for-ransom gang in the strife-torn southern Philippines were released on Wednesday, the Philippine military said.

The Abu Sayyaf, a loose network of Islamic militants that has earned millions of dollars from kidnappings in recent years, released the sailors just after midnight on Jolo island, one of its strongholds, according to regional military spokesman Filemon Tan.

The sailors were then taken by speedboat about 300 kilometres (200 miles) back to Malaysia, Tan said.

He confirmed that the Abu Sayyaf kidnapped the sailors, but could not say if ransoms were paid.

"We have yet to confirm whether ransom money was paid in exchange for the safe release of the victims," said Tan.

Formed in the early 1990s, the Abu Sayyaf is a radical offshoot of a Muslim separatist insurgency in the south of the mainly Catholic Philippines.

The militants regularly abduct foreigners and locals to extort money for their release.

In May, the Abu Sayyaf released 14 Indonesian sailors who had been kidnapped in two high-seas raids similar to the abduction of the Malaysians.

The kidnappings prompted Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines to launch joint patrols in their waters and set up a security hotline.

In April, the Abu Sayyaf beheaded Canadian hostage John Ridsdel after a deadline for paying a ransom of $6.4 million passed, and in November last year killed a Malaysian man.

Ridsdel was kidnapped along with a Canadian friend, a Norwegian man and a Filipina from aboard yachts at a marina in the southern Philippines in September last year.

The Abu Sayyaf has warned it will kill either the Canadian or the Norwegian if a multi-million-dollar ransom is not paid by Monday.

The Abu Sayyaf is also holding a Dutch birdwatcher kidnapped in 2012.

The Abu Sayyaf's leaders have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, but analysts say it is more focused on kidnappings for ransom than setting up a caliphate.
Piers Morgan is partnering with TLC and Investigation Discovery for a new two-part series on female murders called Killer Women with Piers Morgan, the networks announced Wednesday.

In each episode, Morgan will travel to meet one of Americas most notorious killers for in-depth conversations to discover what drives some women to kill.

In the first episode, Morgan travels to Gatesville, Texas, to meet Erin Caffey, who at 16, plotted to kill her entire family.

Also Read: Chrissy Teigen, John Legend Take Turns Trolling 'Unequivocally Douchy' Piers Morgan

Morgan speaks with Caffey at her maximum security prison, and then meets with her father  who survived the attackand friends, who all paint a picture of a sweet, church-going girl. However, her counselor describes Erin as the best liar Ive ever seen.

In Episode 2, Morgan reconstructs the case of Amanda Hutton, who was convicted of killing her daughter but maintains her innocence. He will then speak with Rhonda Glover, who was found guilty of murdering her wealthy boyfriend in cold blood.

The series is a co-production between Morgan and Plum Pictures for ITV. Morgan and Plums managing director Stuart Cabb serve as executive producers. Plum Pictures are represented internationally by Hat Trick International who brokered the sale to TLC & ID.

Morgan is a client of The Alternative.

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Killer Women with Piers Morgan will premiere on TLC on July 8 at 8 p.m./7c with two weeks of consecutive encores on ID beginning July 12 at 8 p.m./7c.

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Pink Dot Singapore 2016 held at Speakers Corner. (Photo by Yahoo Singapore)

The organisers of Pink Dot SG, the champions of Singapores LGBT community, said on Wednesday (8 June) that their events are held within the law after the Government stated that foreign entities should not support such events.

In an updated statement issued to the media on Tuesday (7 June), the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said that foreign entities should not interfere in domestic issues, especially political issues or controversial social issues with political overtones and this has always been the Governments general position.

Such issues involve political, social or moral choices that are for Singaporeans to decide, the statement said. As such, foreigners are not allowed to organise or speak at events like Pink Dot that are held at the Speakers Corner.

The Ministry of Home Affairs will take steps to make it clear that foreign entities should not fund, support or influence such events held at the Speakers Corner. In the context of LGBT issues, this will apply both to events that advocate the LGBT cause such as the Pink Dot, as well as events whose purpose is to oppose the LGBT cause, the statement added.

The announcement came just days after Pink Dot SG held its eighth rally at the Speakers Corner on Saturday (4 June), which saw a record number of foreign entities registered as sponsors for the event. Among the 18 sponsors include tech giants like Google, Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft and financial heayweights Goldman Sachs and J. P. Morgan. Pink Dot SG, which began in 2009, has had corporate sponsors since 2011.

While the organisers did not reveal the attendance level at the event on Saturday, media reports have said that tens of thousands of people turned up.

List of Pink Dot Singapore 2016s corporate sponsors. (Photo by Vernon Lee)



In an email to Yahoo Singapore, a spokesperson at Pink Dot SG said, For all the LGBT Singaporeans and their allies that this movement has striven to help give a voice to and done its part to push the envelope in helping to create greater visibility of Singapores LGBT community, we have done all we can to ensure Pink Dot SG stays within the law.

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The corporate sponsors that have supported Pink Dot are registered and incorporated in Singapore, the spokesperson added. We are fortunate to count among them admired household names, employers of choice for a sizeable portion of our workforce, inextricably linked with and fully a part of this beautiful fabric we call home.

The spokesperson also told Yahoo Singapore that MHA has not contacted the organisers about the sponsors for Pink Dot.

List of Pink Dot sponsors from 2009-2016



2009: No sponsors

2010: No sponsors

2011: Google

2012: Google and Barclays

2013: Google, Barclays, J.P. Morgan, PARKROYAL on Pickering, CooperVision, and The Gunnery

2014: Google, Barclays, J P Morgan, PARKROYAL on Pickering, CooperVision, The Gunnery, Goldman Sachs, and BP

2015: Google, Barclays, J.P. Morgan, The Gunnery, Goldman Sachs, BP, Bloomberg, Cathay Organisation, and Twitter

2016: Google, Barclays, J. P. Morgan, The Gunnery, Goldman Sachs, BP, Bloomberg, Twitter, Apple, Clifford Chance and Cavenagh Law, Facebook, General Electric, Gravitate, Infinite Frameworks, Microsoft, NBCUniversal, PS.Cafe, and Visa
LYON, France (Reuters) - French police questioned the Roman Catholic cardinal-archbishop of Lyon on Wednesday for over 10 hours in an inquiry into the activities of a pedophile priest in the early 1990s and why they were not reported to the civil authorities, lawyers said. Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, 65, who has denied covering up the activities of Father Bernard Preynat, was questioned as a witness by officers of the child and family protection brigade at a police station in the central city. "He's been dragged in the mud for numerous months and he wanted to respond," Barbarin's lawyer Jean-Felix Luciani told journalists after the cardinal emerged from questioning. Several victims of alleged pedophile abuse have filed complaints against the prelate, who holds the honorific title of Primate of the Gauls, for failing to report the incidents to the justice authorities and leaving the accused priest in place. Preynat was placed under judicial investigation in January for alleged sexual abuse of Catholic boy scouts in 1991 and released on bail. His lawyer said he had admitted the facts of "sexual abuse on minors under 15 years old by a person in a position of authority" to an investigating magistrate. While Barbarin has denied any wrongdoing, he acknowledged "errors in the management and appointment of some priests" in a statement issued in April. Prosecutors are likely to decide this month whether there are grounds to seek a formal criminal investigation or not. Barbarin's lawyer said he was optimistic the case would be dropped. Barbarin had a private audience with Pope Francis in Rome last month and the pontiff said afterwards in an interview with the Catholic newspaper La Croix that it would make no sense for the cardinal to resign. "We will see after the trial is over. But now, it would be declaring oneself guilty," the pope said. "According to the information at my disposal, Cardinal Barbarin took the appropriate measures, he took things in hand. He is brave, creative, a missionary," Francis was quoted as saying, adding: "We must wait now to see where the civil legal procedures leads." A papal decree issued on Sunday said bishops found "negligent" when dealing with cases of sexual abuse will be investigated and could be removed from office. The order backed up Francis's declaration of "zero tolerance" for anyone in the church who abuses children. (Reporting by Catherine Lagrange; Writing by Paul Taylor and Leigh Thomas; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
Port Moresby (AFP) - Police in Papua New Guinea opened fire Wednesday on students protesting against the prime minister, injuring almost 40 according to an international rights group which slammed the shooting as "disgraceful".

Students have been locked in a month-long standoff with authorities and have boycotted classes as they demand Prime Minister Peter O'Neill step aside over corruption allegations.

Witnesses said the clashes broke out in the capital Port Moresby as students prepared to march from the University of Papua New Guinea to parliament, where O'Neill was due to face a no-confidence vote.

Anti-corruption campaigner Noel Anjo Kolao, who helped organise the protest, said police had set up roadblocks and pointed their guns at students.

"Then they started shooting at them," he told AFP by phone, saying he saw several injured students.

"We have two sets of laws in Papua New Guinea, one for the prime minister and one for ordinary citizens."

Police Commissioner Gari Baki said in a statement that 23 people were hurt. Five of them were critically injured, according to the Port Moresby General Hospital and the Gerehu St John's Hospital.

Reports in Australian media that four people had been killed were denied.

Amnesty International said it had information that 38 people were injured, including four in critical condition.

The shooting was "a disgraceful attack on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and expression", the rights group said in a statement.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he was "concerned" by the reports and stressed "the importance of respect for peaceful protest and freedom of assembly and a commitment to rule of law, dialogue and non-violence", according to a statement from his spokesman.

Baki said that when police told the students their march was illegal, they were pelted with stones before shots were fired in the air to disperse the crowd.

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He added that as news circulated on social media, a large crowd armed with machetes, bows and arrows and homemade guns tried to burn down a police barracks but were thwarted.

Crime and lawlessness is rampant in the sprawling and impoverished Pacific nation, where many still live traditional subsistence lives in remote areas.

Cases of cannibalism have been reported in recent years, as well as women brutally beaten after being accused of "sorcery".

- 'Political agendas' -

O'Neill has been wanted for questioning by anti-corruption police for the past two years but has refused to comply with a warrant for his arrest.

Police are investigating whether he authorised millions of dollars in illegal payments from the government to Paraka Lawyers, one of the Pacific nation's largest law firms.

When the arrest warrant was issued in 2014, O'Neill sacked the PNG police commissioner, fired his attorney-general and suspended numerous other justice department and police officials.

He also moved to disband the anti-corruption watchdog.

O'Neill has denied the graft allegations, and last month published a lengthy letter responding to the students' concerns that suggested the accusations were politically motivated.

He said on Wednesday that "a small group of students were violent, threw rocks at police and provoked a response that came in the form of tear gas and warning shots".

"The factors that led to students being injured are yet to be ascertained," O'Neill added, blaming the situation on his political opponents he referred to as "agitators".

"The people behind these protests have political agendas," he said.

Both Canberra and Washington issued warnings, with the US embassy in Port Moresby saying: "The situation is still volatile and could escalate at any time."

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop urged calm.

"We call on all sides for calm to de-escalate the tensions and certainly call on all sides to respect the peaceful and lawful right to protest," she said.
Florida police have pulled a man's body from a lake, where witnesses saw a gator with the remains in its teeth, authorities said.

When cops arrived at Lake Hunter in Lakeland Tuesday, the body was in the water and the alligator was nearby, according to Lakeland Police Sgt. Gary Gross, CBS affiliate WTSP-TV reported.

Read: Alligator Holds Up Traffic During Rush Hour: 'He Just Crossed the Crosswalk Like It Was Normal'

Police said the body appeared to have been in the water for more than a day. On Saturday, police were notified of a shirt floating in the water, and of a backpack and pair of pants left near a boat ramp.

Officers didn't find a body or a gator when responding to that call, authorities said. Police were called out again on Sunday, after a resident reported something floating in the water being circled by an alligator. Officers were again unable to find anything, authorities said.

Read: Grisly Scene as Alligators Are Found Feasting on Dead Body in Florida Canal

On Tuesday, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers brought in a gator trapper to capture the reptile, thought to be about eight feet long.

Then wildlife officials can determine if human remains are in the predator's stomach, police said.

Watch: Gator Wrangler Shocked To See 7-Foot Alligator Behind Wheel of Her Car

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From Cosmopolitan

Police in Hawaii are accusing Alexandria Duval, 37, of intentionally killing her twin sister by driving off a cliff. She has now been charged with second-degree attempted murder, but is pleading not guilty, and her case just gets weirder from there.

On May 29, the twins were involved in a grisly car crash off Hana Highway in Hawaii; their car fell off a 200-foot cliff and onto rocks, according to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Alexandria was taken to the hospital in critical condition, while her sister, Anastasia, was pronounced dead on the scene. Rescue crews arrived and had to manually pull them out of the wreckage. Had the car landed 10 feet in any other direction, both women would have died, Maui News reports.

A witness, Lawrence Lau, told KHON that he saw the sisters fighting before they crashed. "I saw a pair of hands jerking the head, pulling the hair," he said. "My first thought when she was coming past us was, 'Don't hit me, don't hit me,' because she was slightly out of control. She was doing 40 miles an hour from a dead stop at that point." Investigators say there was no evidence of Alexandria hitting the brakes, and that the car actually sped up and steered to the left before the crash. Prosecutors say that Alexandria was trying to leave the state before she was arrested on Friday, but her defense attorneys say she was just trying to attend Anastasia's funeral in New York. She was denied bail on Monday.

But here's where things start getting strange. Their original names are actually Alison and Ann Dadow, and their pasts are pretty murky. Using the Dadow name, they had opened a yoga studio in Florida called Twin Power Yoga in 2008, and seemingly had some success, later opening a second location and driving expensive cars. According to the Star-Advertiser, they suddenly closed the studio in 2014, despite customers having unfulfilled coupons. They then opened up a studio in Utah, and later filed for bankruptcy, saying they were hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. Through the years, they both reportedly had run-ins with the law in both states, as well as North Carolina. This past December, they arrived in Hawaii and began using different names; they were reportedly trying to start a new yoga studio in the state.

Alexandria (Alison)'s lawyer denied that she intentionally hurt her sister. "Alison did not try to harm herself or the person she most loved and was closest to in the world," Todd Eddins said in court, calling the situation a "heart-shattering" tragedy.

Follow Megan on Twitter.
* Pvt equity firm revises offer to $12.25/shr

* New offer values Polycom at $1.66 bln (Adds details, background, shares)

By Anya George Tharakan

June 8 (Reuters) - Polycom Inc said it received a revised offer from a private equity firm - the third time the bidder has revised its offer since the video conferencing equipment maker agreed to be acquired by Canada's Mitel Networks Corp.

Polycom's shares rose about 2.5 percent to the new offer price of $12.25 in light premarket trading on Wednesday.

The revised offer values Polycom at $1.66 billion, based on its outstanding shares as of April 21. Mitel's cash-and-stock deal was valued at $1.96 billion in April.

Polycom, which did not name the private equity firm, said in a filing that the new offer comprised $650 million of equity financing and $950 million of debt financing. (http://1.usa.gov/1svOlvk)

Mitel and Polycom announced a deal on April 15, bowing to pressure from activist investor Elliott Management. In October, Elliott had disclosed a stake of 6.6 percent in Polycom and of 9.6 percent in Mitel.

San Jose, California-based Polycom said on Wednesday that its board still recommended its shareholders vote in favor of the Mitel deal.

Mitel reiterated in a statement that its acquisition offered "superior and greater upside to both Polycom and Mitel."

The tax "inversion" deal will help Polycom trim its tax bill as the combined company will be based in Canada. Mitel executives have brushed off concerns the deal could be affected by the U.S. Treasury's new tax inversion rules.

The private equity firm's previous offer in May comprised a cash dividend of $11 per share and purchase of $650 million in shares of a new convertible preferred stock of Polycom.

The private equity firm has held deal talks with Polycom since 2015, according to a filing by Mitel in May.

(Reporting by Anya George Tharakan in Bengaluru; Editing by Kirti Pandey)
(Corrects this June 7 story to remove reference in paragraph 6 to Swedish diplomat Hans Blix and IAEA chief Yukiya Amano, who did not attend the conference.) By Toby Sterling AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Tension between Russia and the West may be distracting them from cooperating to prevent an accidental nuclear confrontation or a dirty bomb attack by militants, nuclear policy experts said on Tuesday. Former U.S. Secretary of Defence William Perry said he regretted the current lack of communication between the United States and Russia, which went into a deep freeze after Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea. "We are about to recreate the conditions that nearly brought us to the brink of nuclear war" during the Cold War, Perry said. Anatoly Adamishin, a former Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, argued that the U.S. has focused on a policy of "strangling Russia" and hoping for the departure of Russian President Vladimir Putin, which has the effect of putting Russia at the forefront of a list of U.S. enemies. "The U.S. simply has to rethink its own policy: what should be in focus is nuclear reductions," he said. "Russia and the U.S. are not inherent enemies." They made their comments at a conference organised by the the Luxembourg Forum on Preventing Nuclear Catastrophe. The forum's head, Moshe Kantor, said the threat of a 'dirty bomb' attack on a European city was at its highest level since the end of the Cold War. Security experts have raised concerns since the attacks in Paris and Brussels by Islamist militants that poorly guarded European nuclear facilities pose a risk. Kantor cited chemical weapons attacks carried out by Islamic State in Iraq, their stated desire to carry out more attacks in Europe, and evidence militants linked to the attacks in Paris had also been studying a Belgian nuclear power plant. "This, combined with poor levels of security at a host of nuclear research centres in the former Soviet Union mean the threat of a possible dirty-bomb attack on a Western capital is high," Kantor said. He urged the United States and Russia, both nuclear powers, to cooperate on using their technological resources to monitor the illegal transportation of radioactive materials. Gorbachev, appearing by satellite link, said he was alarmed by the increasing readiness of many nations to use military force to resolve conflict rather than negotiation. "I note that these have not solved the problems, but they have served to undermine international law and weaken international relations," he said.
By Alwyn Scott

MIDDLETOWN, Conn., June 7 (Reuters) - The head of aircraft engine maker Pratt & Whitney countered criticism on Tuesday from Qatar Airways and Lufthansa about Pratt's new Geared Turbofan engine, saying early teething issues that have delayed delivery of some Airbus planes have been fixed.

"I'm not going to debate the CEO of Lufthansa or the CEO of Qatar. I'm just going to state the facts to you as I know them," Bob Leduc, president of Pratt & Whitney, said at a media event in Connecticut.

The chief executive of Qatar Airways, Akbar Al Baker, said last week he had canceled one Pratt-powered A320neo, part of a large Airbus order, over concern that the engine required extra time to start under certain conditions.

Some A320s are at Airbus' factory in Toulouse, France, awaiting engines, and Lufthansa is not flying the plane into some airports because of the slow start issue.

Pratt, a unit of United Technologies Corp, is one of the world's biggest aircraft engine makers, along with General Electric Co and Britain's Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc .

Leduc ticked off Pratt's numbers: three airlines flying seven A320s with the engine, known as the PW1100G, which is demonstrating a 16 percent cut in fuel burn and 75 percent noise reduction compared with prior engines. In more than 2,000 takeoffs and landings so far, it has shown no major in-flight or takeoff issues, Leduc said, and it has dispatch reliability of 99.75 percent, meaning it was able to leave the gate on time.

"This has been a phenomenal entry into service" second only to the Boeing 777 in 1995, he said.

The GTF's performance is critical as Pratt speeds up production from about 200 engines this year to 1,200 annually by the end of the decade, working through a backlog of 7,100 firm orders and commitments, enough to keep its factories running for eight years and generate $750 billion in revenue over 25 years.

The GTF engine is being used on new commercial jetliners from Airbus, Brazil's Embraer SA, Canada's Bombardier Inc, Japan's Mitsubishi and Russia's Irkut.

Story continues

To ensure the ramp-up goes smoothly, Pratt is buttoning down its network of 1,600 suppliers, which provide about 80 percent of the engine's content. Pratt is holding them to such a high standard that many do not quite measure up.

"About 44 percent of that (1,600) is what we would consider to be underperforming," said Gregory Hayes, chief executive of United Technologies Corp. "That is, they don't deliver at 95 percent on time and they don't deliver with (quality of) 500 parts per million or better."

If a supplier is not meeting standard, Pratt will send engineers to help fix the problem, part of a multibillion-dollar investment in the new engine.

The company is about halfway through investing $1.3 billion in new facilities. At a sparkling white plant here, workers were assembling five engines on Tuesday.

Each 7,000-pound (3,175 kg) machine hung in a cradle from an overhead track, allowing workers to maneuver them for easier assembly, a trick learned from auto plants.

Two engines stood near the door, wrapped in white plastic, ready to ship to Airbus. A similar line exists in West Palm Beach, Florida, part of Pratt's strategy of having no single point of failure on its lines.

The company also has doubled up on suppliers, trying to find second or third sources for parts to ensure it will always have what it needs on time, Leduc said.

Leduc said Pratt is looking more deeply into its supply chain. It is shifting to monitoring suppliers 100 weeks ahead of when parts are due to arrive, up from 20 weeks in January.

If suppliers are not ready "and you're six weeks out, you're dead in the water," he said.

(Editing by Matthew Lewis)
President Obama will not be traveling to Kentucky for Muhammad Alis memorial service later this week as it conflicts with his daughter Malias high school graduation, the White House said.

Ali, who died last Friday of septic shock at the age of 74, will be put to rest on Friday in his hometown of Louisville. Obama has offered his condolences to Alis widow Lonnie in a phone call, the BBC reported, but will spend Friday at the high school commencement ceremony at Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C., where Malia is a graduating senior and his younger daughter, Sasha, just finished freshman year.

Obama and his wife Michelle have also written a letter to Alis family, which will travel to Kentucky with White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, who knew the late boxer. Former President Bill Clinton will speak at the funeral, and numerous other dignitaries  including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan  will be among the congregation.

[BBC]

For much more on Muhammad Ali, see TIMEs ALI: The Greatest, a 112-page, fully illustrated commemorative edition. Available at retailers and at AMAZON.COM
By Alex Dobuzinskis and Amy Tennery (Reuters) - Senator Barbara Boxer on Monday decried a California judge's decision to sentence a college athlete to just six months in jail for sexual assault, and signatures on an online petition calling for the jurist's ouster later passed 400,000. The sentence last week by Santa Clara County Judge Aaron Persky against former Stanford University swimmer Brock Turner gained international attention after a letter from the athlete's father to the judge that was posted online described the assault as "20 minutes of action." "Six months for someone who viciously attacked a woman, especially after she was so brave to come forward, is outrageous," Boxer said in a statement released late Monday. Asked for a comment on the controversy over his ruling, Santa Clara Superior Court spokesman Joseph Macaluso said Judge Persky is prohibited from commenting on the case because there may be an appeal. Last week, the victim in the case read a 12-page letter to the court detailing her feelings in the wake of the assault. It was later read millions of times online. The victim's name has not been released to the public. The uproar over the sentence is part of growing outrage in the United States over sexual assault on college campuses. In the Stanford case, prosecutors said that witnesses saw Turner, 20, on top of the woman as she lay motionless outside a fraternity party in January 2015. When Turner ran away, two students tackled and held him for police, prosecutors said. Turner in March was convicted of intent to rape an intoxicated and unconscious person, penetration of an intoxicated person and penetration of an unconscious person. His lawyer said on Tuesday that he was considering appealing the conviction and had filed a notice of intent to appeal with the court. An online petition at Change.org urging the removal of the judge had collected more than 400,000 clicks of support by Tuesday afternoon, in a largely symbolic gesture. Stanford law professor Michele Dauber has vowed to start a more formal recall effort against Persky, but that is a difficult process rarely used in California. International interest in the case has led media organizations to request interviews with the woman, but prosecutors said on Tuesday that she wished to remain anonymous. In a statement released by Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Alaleh Kianerci to CNN, the woman said that in addition to wanting to protect her privacy, she could better represent all woman if her name and image were not known. "I'm coming out to you simply as a woman wanting to be heard," she said in the statement to CNN. "For now I am every woman." (In first paragraph of previously corrected story changes "while" to "and" and adds "later" to clarify timeline, in paragraph 3 adds "released late Monday.) (Additional reporting by Suzannah Gonzales in Chicago and Ben Klayman in Detroit; Editing by Sharon Bernstein, Bernard Orr)
By Sharon Bernstein SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - California voters on Tuesday were poised to choose two Democrats to face off against each other in the race to succeed Barbara Boxer in the U.S. Senate, shutting out Republicans in a sign of diminished support in America's most populous state. State Attorney General Kamala Harris and U.S. Representative Loretta Sanchez will meet in what would be the state's first single-party Senate election under a 2010 California law advancing the top two primary vote-getters to the general election, regardless of party affiliation. With 16 percent of precincts reporting in early returns on Tuesday, Harris, 51, led the crowded field of 34 candidates with 40 percent of the vote. None of the Republican contenders came close to Sanchez, 56, who was firmly in second place with 16 percent of the vote. Boxer, 75, a Democrat, is retiring after 24 years in the Senate. Republicans hold no statewide offices in California and represent about 27 percent of registered voters. The state, home to former Republican Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, last elected a Republican to the U.S. Senate in 1988. On Tuesday, former California Republican Party chairman Duf Sundheim was in third place with 10 percent in early returns, followed by fellow Republican Phil Wyman with 6 percent. Harris is the daughter of two college professors. Of African-American and Indian descent, she was raised amid civil rights activism in Berkeley and Oakland, eventually becoming a prosecutor in San Francisco. She was elected attorney general in 2010 and 2014. For the primary, Harris ran a tightly controlled campaign, touting her role negotiating a settlement with big banks over the mortgage meltdown and using her position as the state's top prosecutor to fight human trafficking, cyber crime and other issues. Sanchez, who represents Orange County near Los Angeles, has served in Congress since 1997. Her win in the once staunchly Republican county was an early sign of California's demographic shift, as the state became more ethnically diverse and far more Democratic. COULD GO NEGATIVE Such a matchup could easily go negative, experts said, straining relationships within a party that are already bruised by the tense competition between former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders for the Democratic presidential nomination for the Nov. 8 election. Clinton and Sanders also face off in California on Tuesday. "The fact that they're both in the same party doesn't mean they're going to treat each other with kid gloves," political analyst Sherry Bebitch Jeffe said of Harris and Sanchez. "When ideological and policy differences aren't as great, it's only natural for the candidates to focus on personal issues," said Dan Schnur, who heads the Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California. Sanchez, seeking to become the state's first Latina U.S. senator, has raised less money than Harris and trails her by about 8 percentage points in polls. But factors including a recent surge in voter registration among Latinos will make her a strong competitor in the general election, analysts said. She has positioned herself more to the political center than her opponent. With support from Latinos, independents and Republicans, Sanchez could win in November despite Harris' advantages, Schnur said. "We're prepared for any turn in the race," said Harris spokesman Nathan Click. A Sanchez campaign spokesman did not respond to a request for comment. (Reporting by Sharon Bernstein; Editing by Peter Cooney and Michael Perry)
With Bernie Sanders yet to concede the Democratic presidential nomination to Hillary Clinton, what are the historical precedents, in recent years, for a candidate with the second-most pledged delegates taking a nomination?

sanders535

As of Wednesday morning, Sanders has vowed to fight on, despite big Clinton wins in California and New Jersey. I am pretty good at arithmetic and I know that the fight in front of us is a very, very steep fight but we will continue to fight for every vote and every delegate that we can get, Sanders said in California.

Technically, Clinton now has 1,981 pledged delegates won in directly in elections, compared with 1,643 for Sanders. The nominee will need at least 2,383 to take a first-ballot nomination. In the category of additional Super Delegates, Clinton has the support of at least 542 more delegates, giving her a 140-delegate victory margin. And that doesnt include 370 directly elected pledged delegates available to both candidates from California as of early Wednesday morning.

The math, indeed, is steep for Sanders, who would need to convince hundreds of Super Delegates to switch their commitments on the first ballot. But such a move wouldnt be unprecedented.

In recent years, there have been scenarios where Dwight Eisenhower, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale lead going into conventions without a clear first ballot majority of pledged delegates. In each case, these candidates gathered enough ground support to win on the first ballot anyway. But the 1984 convention with Mondale is the only one where the Super Delegates were in play.

Back in 1952, the Eisenhower camp was engaged in hand-to-hand combat with Robert Taft supporters over the delegate seating process. Primaries were in their infant stage, and Eisenhower headed into the Chicago convention with a narrow delegate lead over Taft. On the convention floor, Eisenhowers managers contested the seating of Taft delegates from several southern states. Ironically, Eisenhower manager Herbert Brownell used the same Fair Play amendment strategy employed by William Howard Taft in 1912 to deny Theodore Roosevelt the GOP nomination. (President Taft was Robert Tafts father.) The Fair Play victory led to Eisenhowers first ballot nomination.

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President Ford also faced a delegate challenge in 1976 from former California Governor Ronald Reagan. Ford was a sitting President who hadnt been elected as Vice President or President, and Reagan had used a late primary winning streak to pull nearly even with Ford heading to the Kansas City convention. The Reagan team demanded a roll call vote to force Ford to name his Vice Presidential pick before the first nomination ballot. (Reagan had named Pennsylvania Senator Richard Schweiker as his VP pick, which had offended some conservatives.) If Ford lost that vote and refused to name a Vice Presidential pick, his delegates would have been free to vote for other candidates. Instead, Ford won the challenge by 89 votes, indicating he would win a first ballot nomination the following night.

The bitter 1980 Democratic convention fight between Jimmy Carter and Edward Kennedy led to the creation of Super Delegates for future Democratic conventions. Carter had a 700 pledged-delegate lead heading into the convention in New York, with an estimated 300 more delegates than needed for the nomination. But the Kennedy supporters forced a last-ditch floor vote to allow pledged delegates to vote for anyone on the first ballot, citing President Carters low popularity poll numbers. The convention debate took place on prime-time television, and the Carter took the floor vote, forcing Kennedy to concede the nomination.

In 1984, the Democrats moved to a new Super Delegate system, which was intended to appoint party leaders as special uncommitted delegates chosen outside of the presidential primary process. These party leaders, in theory, would be able to avert an ugly floor fight like the Carter-Kennedy struggle in 1980. Governor Jim Hunt of North Carolina led the commission that created the Super Delegate system; among the opposition was Senator Edward Kennedy. A compromise proposed by Geraldine Ferraro led to Super Delegates making up 14 percent of the total convention delegates.

That system came into play quickly in 1984, when former Vice President Walter Mondale headed to the Democratic convention in San Francisco with a plurality, but not a majority of pledged delegates. Mondale had a big lead in getting commitments among Super Delegates, who shunned Gary Hart and Jesse Jackson, his two biggest rivals. (Mondale had commitments from an estimated 80 percent of the Super Delegates.)

But Hart won the California primary and then claimed he had been able to sway some delegates away from Mondale, putting Mondales first ballot nomination in doubt. However, Mondale responded by getting 40 more Super Delegate commitments and holding a press conference to declare victory over Hart and Jackson.

Hart didnt quit his campaign after the Mondale announcement. Instead, he appealed to Jackson for Jacksons endorsement and the release of the Jackson delegates to vote for Hart. The reasoning was that Hart performed much better that Mondale in head-to-head match-up polls against President Ronald Reagan. Instead, Jackson kept his delegates so his name could be placed in nomination at the convention, and Mondale took the first ballot win.

In overall popular voting during the primary season, Mondale took 38 percent of the vote, with 36 percent for Hart and 18 percent for Jackson. Mondale had 1,606 directly elected pledged delegates before the nomination, with 1,967 needed for the nomination. His final total was 2,192 including Super Delegates. Mondale subsequently lost 49 states in the general election match-up against President Reagan.

For Sanders, he now trails in the 2016 Democratic Primary overall popular vote by 3.6 million votes, in addition to lagging behind Clinton in pledged delegates. He has pledge to fight until the Democratic convention, but how that fight unfolds remains to be seen.

Scott Bomboy is the editor in chief of the National Constitution Center.

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Prosecutors on Wednesday raided Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Co., one of South Korea's three giant shipbuilders, as part of a probe into a $2 billion accounting fraud.

Some 150 staff from the Supreme Prosecutors' Office stormed DSME headquarters in Seoul and its Okpo shipyard on the southern island of Geoje, the company said.

"This morning, they started collecting accounting books, computer hard disks and other documents," a spokesman for the company told AFP.

DSME faces allegations it manipulated its financial statements in 2013 and 2014 in order to make it appear financially healthier than it really was.

Prosecutors have imposed travel bans on former CEO Nam Sang-Tae, who led the company from 2006 to 2012, and Ko Jae-Ho, who succeeded him until last year.

In January, auditors filed a petition with prosecutors calling for a probe into suspected accounting irregularities.

More than 400 shareholders have also launched a lawsuit against the company and Ko claiming $21 million in compensation for losses suffered when the firm's shares fell because of the alleged fraud.

DSME is accused of hiding $2 billion of losses from 2013 and 2014.

Auditors argue the shortfall was then factored into its 2015 accounts, when the company reported a 5.1 trillion won ($4.4 billion) net loss -- six times higher than the previous year.

DSME and two other South Korean shipbuilding giants -- Hyundai Heavy Industries and Samsung Heavy Industries -- have enjoyed a decade of almost uncontested global dominance.

But a prolonged slump in oil prices and the global economic slowdown has sapped demand for tankers and container ships, while overcapacity, regional rivalry and competition from cheaper Chinese shipbuilders has squeezed profit margins.

After racking up a collective loss of 8.5 trillion won last year, the three shipbuiders have come under pressure from the government and creditors to come up with restructuring plans to keep themselves afloat.

Minister of Finance and Strategy Yoo Il-Ho said Wednesday the companies had decided to raise a total of 10.3 trillion won through asset sales and cuts in jobs and wages.

DSME plans to raise 5.3 trillion won by selling all its 14 subsidiaries, downsizing facilities, reducing wages and laying off employees, the finance ministry said.
Chick fil A

Chick-fil-A rolled out a new app last week that promises to fix one of customers' top complaints about eating there: long lines at the register.

We tested it out during peak lunch time  when Chick-fil-A is typically slammed with customers  to see if it really lives up to its promise.

The app, Chick-fil-A One, allows customers to order and pay for their food in advance and then pick it up at a counter designated for online orders.

This isn't a new concept. Starbucks was one of the first major chains to successfully offer this service.

We wanted to know whether it could work just as seamlessly at a full-service restaurant as busy as Chick-fil-A.

After downloading the app at home, I selected a Chick-fil-A restaurant in Richmond, Virginia, and ordered a spicy chicken sandwich, a side of waffle fries, and a vanilla iced coffee.

The ordering process went smoothly. I found it easy to navigate the menu, add sides and sauces, and customize my order.

When I arrived at the restaurant 20 minutes later, it was about 12:15 p.m. and as busy as I had expected.

Chick fil A

The parking lot was completely full  I had to park at a nearby store  and there were at least 20 cars in the drive-thru lane. Inside, most of the dining tables were occupied and there was a line of 11 people at the register.

To the right of the front counter, I saw a "pickup" sign hanging from the ceiling over a table that displayed signs for Chick-fil-A One. I figured that this was where I should wait for my food.

img_6984

I opened the Chick-fil-A app to see if it recognized that I had arrived at the restaurant. Unfortunately, it didn't, so I clicked "I'm here" to manually let the app know that I had arrived. I got a message saying that my order was in progress and that my credit card had been charged.

I started a timer and, 65 seconds later, an employee called my name and handed me my food by the "pickup" table.

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I sat down at a dining table to eat. The food was piping hot and the order was accurately filled.

As I ate, I noticed three more customers come into the restaurant for online orders. None of them had to wait longer than a minute for their food.

Meanwhile, the line for the registers stayed steady with about 10 customers queuing at a time.

Chick fil A

This was only one experience with the app, but at least this time it appeared to follow through on its promise of enabling me to avoid standing in line.

I was a little disappointed that the geo-targeting function of the app didn't work, so I had to manually let the restaurant know that I had arrived. I assume that this will be fixed in future updates.

As Chick-fil-A One grows in popularity, there's a risk that the queues for food will simply shift from the registers to the online pickup area. If that happens, then Chick-fil-A will have to hire more employees during peak meal times to pack orders.

Fortunately for Chick-fil-A, however, packing online orders is likely more efficient than taking orders at the register. Employees can fill more orders faster when they aren't spending time communicating verbally with customers and exchanging money at the register. So the shift to online ordering could help Chick-fil-A increase productivity.

NOW WATCH: Chick-fil-A is giving out free sandwiches  here's how to get one





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Stuttgart (Germany) (AFP) - Roger Federer's return to action lasted just 20 minutes on Wednesday when heavy rain led to an overnight suspension of his opening Stuttgart ATP grasscourt clash against American teenager Taylor Fritz.

Federer was 4-3 ahead when action was halted for the day.

The massive rain dump, which lasted for up to an hour, prevented any more play on the lawns of the Wesissenhof Club before the 34-year-old raced off to a waiting car with security in his wake after tweeting news of the day's cancellation.

"Unfortunately we can't play today anymore, too much of this stuff ???????????? See you tomorrow @MercedesCup," the top seed wrote.

Federer was a break up against his 18-year-old opponent with whom he trained last summer at Wimbledon.

The Swiss veteran was playing for the first time since losing a May 12 match against Dominic Thiem in Rome with a back injury then ruling him out of the French Open.

Federer last competed in Stuttgart a decade and a half ago when it was a Masters event and played indoors.

Fritz is making his debut at the German venue and has never beaten a top 10 player (0-2).

The Thursday programme will feature Federer and Fritz resuming and second seed Marin Cilic, one of three Grand Slam champions in the field along with Federer and Juan Martin del Potro, opening against qualifier Radek Stepanek.

Only two matches were completed on Wednesday before the heavy weather moved in.

German seventh seed Philipp Kohlschreiber enjoyed a 7-5, 6-3 win over Denis Kudla while compatriot Florian Mayer reached the last eight of a tournament for the first time in a year, beating another German, Michael Berrer 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.
By Subrat Patnaik

(Reuters) - Ralph Lauren Corp <RL.N> is cutting about 1,000 jobs and closing 50 stores as part of a sweeping plan to lower costs and revive sales growth at the luxury fashion brand.

Shares of Ralph Lauren, which also forecast declines in full-year and first-quarter revenue, fell as much as 10.4 percent to $86.32 in early trading on Tuesday.

The jobs being eliminated represent about 8 percent of the company's full-time jobs, spokesman Ryan Lally told Reuters.

Ralph Lauren, like some other luxury brands, has been struggling amid sluggish spending on luxury apparel and accessories. The company's margins have taken a knock as department stores discount heavily to get rid of excess inventory.

Moreover, the company's lower-end Polo and Lauren brands are facing competition from retailers such as H&M <HMb.ST> and Inditex's <ITX.MC> Zara, which are known for their shorter production times.

Ralph Lauren said on Tuesday it would try to reduce the time taken to get new products to shelves to nine months from 15.

The company brought in Stefan Larsson as chief executive late last year in the hope that he would replicate his success of reviving sales at Gap Inc's <GPS.N> Old Navy, where he cut down production times and focused on offering trendy clothes at low prices.

Larsson has also worked with H&M for about 15 years, where he helped grow the company's sales to $17 billion from $3 billion and introduced partnerships with luxury brands such as Versace and Karl Lagerfeld.

The company will focus on its luxury Ralph Lauren line and the lower-end Polo and Lauren brands, Larsson said in the 49-year old company's first investor day call on Tuesday.

The company's sales have fallen in every quarter in fiscal 2016, leading to a full-year sales decline of nearly 3 percent.

Ralph Lauren said it expects net revenue for the current fiscal year to fall in the low-double digit percentage range, hurt partly by store closures, pullback in inventory receipts and weak traffic.

Story continues

The company said it expects to record restructuring charges of up to $400 million and an inventory reduction-related charge of up to $150 million, mostly in the current fiscal year.

The restructuring measures are expected to result in annualized savings of about $180-$220 million.

The company had about 493 directly operated retail stores and employed about 26,000 people, roughly 15,000 of who work full time as of April 2.

Shares of the retailer had recouped losses and were trading down 4.8 pct at $91.96. Up to Monday's close of $96.33, the stock had fallen nearly 14 percent this year.

(Reporting by Subrat Patnaik in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)
(Reuters) - Yellowstone National Park rangers on Wednesday were attempting to recover the body of a man who was believed killed after falling into a hot spring at the tourist attraction in Wyoming, a park spokesman said.

Colin Nathaniel Scott, 23, was seen by his sister on Tuesday slipping and plunging into the hot spring near Pork Chop Geyser in the Norris Geyser Basin after straying some 225 yards from a wooden boardwalk designed to prevent such accidents, according to park spokesman Morgan Warthin.

We extend our sympathy to the Scott family, Dan Wenk, the park's superintendent, said in a written statement. This tragic event must remind all of us to follow the regulations and stay on boardwalks when visiting Yellowstones geyser basins.

The National Park Service warns on Yellowstone's official website that hot springs, where water temperatures average 143 degrees Fahrenheit, have injured or killed more people than any other natural feature.

Warthin said that on June 6 a father and son suffered burns in the Upper Geyser Basin after walking off the designated trail in the thermal area.

Last month, Yellowstone managers warned visitors to leave wildlife alone after two tourists put a newborn bison calf in their car, touching off a string of events that ultimately led to the animal's death.

Each year some four million people visit Yellowstone, the first national park established in the United States.

(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Alistair Bell, Bernard Orr)
SANDERS: Thank you!

(APPLAUSE) Let me  let me thank  let me thank. Let me thank

(APPLAUSE)

Let me thank

(APPLAUSE)

Let me  let me thank all of you  let me thank all of you for being here tonight.

(APPLAUSE)

And let me thank all of you for being part of the political revolution.

(APPLAUSE)

I especially want to thank the tens of thousands of volunteers here in the state of California.

(APPLAUSE)

And I want to thank the people of California for their incredible hospitality.

(APPLAUSE)

It has been one of the most moving moments of my life to be out throughout this state in beautiful evenings and seeing thousands and thousands of people coming out.

(APPLAUSE)

People who are prepared to stand up and fight for real change in this country.

(APPLAUSE)

All of you know, all of you know that when we began this campaign a little bit over a year ago, we were considered to be a fringe campaign.

(BOOING)

But over the last year I think that has changed just a little bit.

(APPLAUSE)

By the end of tonight, well have won, I believe, 22 state primaries and caucuses.

(APPLAUSE)

We will have received well over 10 million votes. (APPLAUSE)

And what is most extraordinary to me is the fact that in virtually every single state, we have won by big numbers. The votes of young people.

(APPLAUSE)

Young people understand that they are the future of America and they intend to help shape that future.

(APPLAUSE)

And I am enormously optimistic about the future of our country when so many young people have come on board and understand that our vision, a vision of social justice, economic justice

(APPLAUSE)

 racial justice and environmental justice

(APPLAUSE)

 must be the future of America. Our vision will be the future of America!

(APPLAUSE)

Our campaign from day one has understood some very basic points and that is first, we will not allow right-wing Republicans to control our government.

(APPLAUSE)

And that is especially true with Donald Trump as the Republican candidate.

(BOOING)

The American people, in my view, will never support a candidate whose major theme is bigotry

(APPLAUSE)

 who insults Mexicans, who insults

(BOOING)

 who insults Muslims and women, and African-Americans. We will not allow Donald Trump to become president of the United States.

(APPLAUSE)

But we understand that our mission is more than just defeating Trump; it is transforming our country.

(APPLAUSE)

The vast  the vast majority of the American people know that it is not acceptable that the top one-tenth of 1 percent owns almost as much as wealth as the bottom 90 percent. We are going to change that.

(APPLAUSE)

And when millions of Americans are working longer hours for lower wages, we will not allow 57 percent of all new income to go to the top 1 percent.

(APPLAUSE)

And we will end a corrupt campaign finance system.

(APPLAUSE)

Democracy is not about billionaires buying elections.

(APPLAUSE)

And we will end a broken criminal justice system.

(APPLAUSE)

And we will break up the major banks on Wall Street.

(APPLAUSE)

And we will join in the rest of the industrialized world and guarantee health care to all people as a right.

(APPLAUSE)

And we will bring about real immigration reform and a path toward citizenship.

(APPLAUSE)

And we will  and we will tell the billionaire class and corporate America that they will start paying their fair share of taxes.

(APPLAUSE)

And what we understand, and what every one of us has always understood, is that real change never occurs from the top on down, always from the bottom on up.

(APPLAUSE)

That is the history of the America, whether it is the creation of the trade union movement, the Civil Rights movement, the womens movement, the gay movement.

(APPLAUSE) And that is what our movement is about.

(APPLAUSE)

What  but you all know it is more than <Bernie. It is all of us, together.

(APPLAUSE)

It is what this movement is about, is millions of people from coast to coast standing up and looking around them and knowing that we can do much, much better as a nation.

(APPLAUSE)

That whether Wall Street likes it, whether corporate America likes it, whether wealthy campaign contributors like it, whether the corporate media likes it

(APPLAUSE)

We  together  together, we know what to our job is, and that is to bring the American people together to create a government that works for us, not the 1 percent.

(APPLAUSE)

Next Tuesday, we continue the fight in the last primary in Washington, D.C.

(APPLAUSE)

We are going  we are going  we are going to fight hard. We are going to fight hard to win the primary in Washington, D.C.

(APPLAUSE)

And then, we take our fight for social, economic, racial and environmental justice to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

(APPLAUSE)

I am  I am pretty good at arithmetic, and I know that the fight in front of us is a very, very steep fight. But we will continue to fight for every vote and every delegate we can get.

(APPLAUSE)

Tonight, I had a very kind call from President Obama, and I look forward to working with him to make sure that we move this country forward.

(APPLAUSE)

And tonight, I had a very gracious call from Secretary Clinton and congratulated her on her victories tonight. Our fight is to transform this country and to understand  and to understand that we are in this together.

(APPLAUSE)

To understand that all of what we believe is what the majority of the American people believe.

(APPLAUSE)

And to understand that the struggle continues.

(APPLAUSE)

I want to thank the people of North Dakota.

(APPLAUSE)

It appears that we will likely win Montana as well.

(APPLAUSE)

I dont think anybody knows what will end up here in California, but I suspect the gap will significantly diminish.

(APPLAUSE)

If this campaign has proven anything, it has proven that millions of Americans who love this country are prepared to stand up and fight to make this country a much better place.

(APPLAUSE)

Thank you all. The struggle continues.
From Cosmopolitan

Earlier this week, the father of Brock Allen Turner - the former Stanford student convicted of sexual assault - wrote a response to his son's light sentencing, saying Brock doesn't deserve to be a lifelong registered sex offender and spend six months in jail for "20 minutes of action out of his 20 plus years of life."

Dan Turner's letter defending his son has generated a lot of anger, largely because it makes light of the gravity Brock's crime: sexually assaulting an unconscious woman behind a dumpster. The most recent response to Dan Turner's letter comes from another dad, pastor John Pavlovitz from Raleigh, North Carolina.

In a post on his blog titled "To Brock Turner's Father, From Another Father," Pavlovitz urges Dan Turner to see that Brock's life has only been "deeply altered" because he committed a serious crime and "made a reprehensible choice to take advantage of someone for his own pleasure." In response to Dan Turner's claim that Brock's life will never be the same because he had a 20 minute lapse in judgement, Pavlovitz wrote:

"This young woman will be dealing with this for far longer than the embarrassingly short six months your son is being penalized. She will endure the unthinkable trauma of his '20 minutes of action' for the duration of her lifetime, and the fact that you seem unaware of this fact is exactly why we have a problem."

What Pavlovitz's letter does well is illustrate that the way Dan Turner is defending his son is part of why so many (white) young men continue to rape and assault women. He writes that humanizing criminals in the hopes that it erases the horror of their crimes is why certain people continue to commit those crimes. He calls Dan Turner out for trying to highlight charming facts and memories about his son's favorite snacks, and how he no longer enjoys eating them in light of his actions, because the victim surely has favorite snacks she no longer enjoys eating, too (you can read her powerful statement in full over at Buzzfeed).

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Pavlovitz also draws attention to the fact that just because Brock only committed this crime once doesn't excuse him from being properly punished. "The idea that your son has never violated another woman next to a dumpster before isn't a credit to his character," he writes. "We don't get kudos for only raping one person in our lifetime. I don't believe your son is a monster but he acted like one and that needs to be accounted for."

The letter ends with a call to action on the behalf of all parents to love their children enough that they grow up to be better than Brock Turner. You can read the letter in full on Pavlovitz's blog.

Follow Hannah on Twitter.
[] one that you have taken with me and I am so grateful to you. It is wonderful to be back in Brooklyn, here in this []. And it may be hard to see tonight, but we are all standing under a glass ceiling right now. But dont worry, were not smashing this one.

Thanks to you, weve reached a milestone  the first time in our nations history that a woman will be a major partys nominee for president of the United States.

Tonights victory is not about one person. It belongs to generations of women and men who struggled and sacrificed and made this moment possible. In our country, it started right here in New York, a place called Seneca Falls, in 1848. When a small but determined group of women, and men, came together with the idea that women deserved equal rights, and they set it forth in something called the Declaration of Sentiments, and it was the first time in human history that that kind of declaration occurred.

So we all owe so much to those who came before, and tonight belongs to all of you.

I want to thank all the volunteers, community leaders, the activists, and organizers who supported our campaign in every state and territory. And thanks especially to our friends in New Jersey for such a resounding victory tonight. Thanks for talking to your neighbors, for making contributions. Your efforts have produced a strong majority of the popular vote, victories in a majority of the contests, and after tonight, a majority of pledged delegates.

I want to thank all the people across our country who have taken the time to talk with me. Ive learned a lot about you and Ive learned about those persistent problems and the unfinished promise of America that you are living with. So many of you feel like you are out there on your own, that no one has your back. Well, I do. I hear you, I see you.

And as your president, I will always have your back. I want to congratulate Senator Sanders for the extraordinary campaign he has run. He has spent his long career in public service fighting for progressive causes and principles, and hes excited millions of voters, especially young people. And let there be no mistake: Senator Sanders, his campaign, and the vigorous debate that weve had about how to raise incomes, reduce inequality, increase upward mobility have been very good for the Democratic Party and for America.

This has been a hard-fought, deeply-felt campaign. But whether you supported me, or Senator Sanders, or one of the Republicans, we all need to keep working toward a better, fairer, stronger America.

Now, I know it never feels good to put your heart into a cause or a candidate you believe in  and to come up short. I know that feeling well. But as we look ahead to the battle that awaits, lets remember all that unites us.

We all want an economy with more opportunity and less inequality, where Wall Street can never wreck Main Street again. We all want a government that listens to the people, not the power brokers, which means getting unaccountable money out of politics. And we all want a society that is tolerant, inclusive, and fair.

We all believe that America succeeds when more people share in our prosperity; when more people have a voice in our political system; when more people can contribute to their communities. We believe that cooperation is better than conflict, unity is better than division, empowerment is better than resentment, and bridges are better than walls

Its a simple but powerful idea. We believe that we are stronger together. And the stakes in this election are high. And the choice is clear.

Donald Trump is temperamentally unfit to be president and commander-in-chief. And hes not just trying to build a wall between America and Mexico  hes trying to wall off Americans from each other. When he says, Lets make America great again, that is code for, Lets take America backwards. Back to a time when opportunity and dignity were reserved for some, not all, promising his supporters an economy he cannot recreate.

We, however, we want to write the next chapter in American greatness, with a 21st century prosperity that lifts everyone whos been left out and left behind, including those who may not vote for us but who deserve their chance to make a new beginning.

When Donald Trump says a distinguished judge born in Indiana cant do his job because of his Mexican heritage  or he mocks a reporter with disabilities  or calls women pigs it goes against everything we stand for. Because we want an America where everyone is treated with respect and where their work is valued.

Its clear that Donald Trump doesnt believe we are stronger together. He has abused his primary opponents and their families, attacked the press for asking tough questions, denigrated Muslims and immigrants. He wants to win by stoking fear and rubbing salt in wounds. And reminding us daily just how great he is.

Well, we believe we should lift each other up, not tear each other down. We believe we need to give Americans a raise  not complain that hardworking peoples wages are too high. We believe we need to help young people struggling with student debt  not pile more on to our national debt with giveaways to the super-wealthy. We believe we need to make America the clean energy superpower of the 21st century  not insist that climate change is a hoax.

To be great, we cant be small. We have to be as big as the values that define America. And we are a big-hearted, fair-minded country. We teach our children that this is one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Not just for people who look a certain way or worship a certain way or love a certain way. For all. Indivisible.

This election is not, however, about the same old fights between Democrats and Republicans. This election is different. It really is about who we are as a nation. Its about millions of Americans coming together to say: We are better than this. We wont let this happen in America.

And if you agree  whether youre a Democrat, Republican or independent  I hope youll join us.

In just a few weeks, we will meet in Philadelphia, which gave birth to our nation  back in that hot summer of 1776. Those early patriots knew they would all rise or fall together. Well, today thats more true than ever.

Our campaign will take this message to every corner of our country. Were stronger when our economy works for everyone, not just those at the top, with good-paying jobs and good schools in every ZIP code, and a real commitment to all families and all regions of our nation.

Were stronger when we work with our allies around the world to keep us safe. And we are stronger when we respect each other, listen to each other, and act with a sense of common purpose.

Were stronger when every family in every community knows theyre not on their own, because we are in this together. It really does take a village to raise a child  and to build a stronger future for us all.

I learned this a long time ago, from the biggest influence in my life: my mother. She was my rock, from the day I was born till the day she left us. She overcame a childhood marked by abandonment and mistreatment, and somehow managed not to become bitter or broken. My mother believed that life is about serving others. And she taught me never to back down from a bully, which, it turns out, was pretty good advice.

This past Saturday would have been her 97th birthday, because she was born on June 4th, 1919. And some of you may know the significance of that date. On the very day my mother was born in Chicago, Congress was passing the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. That amendment finally gave women the right to vote. And I really wish my mother could be here tonight. I wish she could see what a wonderful mother Chelsea has become, and could meet our beautiful granddaughter Charlotte. And of course, I wish she could see her daughter become the Democratic Partys nominee for president of the United States.

So yes, yes, there are still ceilings to break  for women and men, for all of us. But dont let anyone tell you that great things cant happen in America. Barriers can come down. Justice and equality can win. Our history has moved in that direction  slowly at times, but unmistakably  thanks to generations of Americans who refused to give up or back down.

Now you are writing a new chapter of that story. This campaign is about making sure there are no ceilings  no limits  on any of us. And this is our moment to come together.

So please, join our campaign. Volunteer. Go to hillaryclinton.com. Contribute what you can. Text Join, J-O-I-N, to 4-7-2-4-6. Help us organize in all 50 states. Every phone call you make, every door you knock on will move us forward.

Now, Im going to take a moment later tonight and the days ahead to fully absorb the history weve made here. But what I care about most is the history our country has yet to write. Our children and grandchildren will look back at this time, at the choices we are about to make, the goals we will strive for, the principles we will live by. And we need to make sure that they can be proud of us.

The end of the primaries is only the beginning of the work were called to do. But if we stand together, we will rise together, because we are stronger together. Lets go out and make that case to America.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.
Kinshasa (AFP) - Nearly 100 people have been kidnapped in northeast DR Congo during an attack blamed on Uganda's rebel Lord's Resistance Army, the United Nations said Wednesday.

Lieutenant-Colonel Martin Amouzou Codjo, spokesman for the UN's MONUSCO peace mission in DR Congo, said the suspected LRA members had "attacked and looted" two villages during Saturday's attack in Bas-Uele province.

"These attackers also kidnapped nearly a hundred people to carry the loot," Codjo told a press conference, condemning the regular atrocities committed by the ruthless LRA against civilians in northeast DR Congo.

The LRA first emerged in northern Uganda in 1986 when it took up arms in the name of the Acholi ethnic group against the government of President Yoweri Museveni.

Over the years it has moved freely across porous regional borders, shifting from Uganda to sow terror in southern Sudan before heading into northeastern DR Congo in 2005, finally crossing into the southeastern Central African Republic in 2008.

Combining religious mysticism with guerrilla tactics and bloodthirsty ferocity, its leader Joseph Kony has turned scores of young girls into his personal sex slaves while claiming to be fighting to impose the Bible's Ten Commandments.

The group has killed more than 100,000 people and kidnapped more than 60,000 children, forcing many of them to become child soldiers, according to the UN.

Top LRA commander Dominic Ongwen, himself a former child soldier who became one of the group's most feared leaders, is due to go on trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in December charged with keeping sex slaves and recruiting child soldiers.

Kony, who remains elusive after a decade-long manhunt, has also been charged by the ICC with war crimes.
- By Faisal Humayun





As oil tops $50 per barrel, energy stocks have witnessed bullish momentum, and there are quality names in the industry that can be considered even after the big rally for the sector. Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ) has surged by 43.5% year to date, but there is more upside to come in the foreseeable future.

Canadian Natural Resources was among my selected stocks from the energy sector for value buying when energy prices were depressed, and itas pleasing to see the stock outperform several big names in the industry.





Coming to bullish factors, Canadian Natural Resources expects robust capital expenditure of $3.5 billion to $3.9 billion for the fiscal year, and the company's strong investment plan, even at lower oil prices, is backed by strong fundamentals that I will discuss later. The important point is that the company also expects $3.3 billion to $3.7 billion in operating cash flow for the fiscal year, and this implies that the investment will be entirely funded by internal cash flows during the year. Therefore, the companyas credit metrics will remain strong with no leveraging required even with a relatively aggressive investment plan.

It is also important to consider factors beyond 2016 that will serve as upside triggers for Canadian Natural Resources. The following estimates from the company underscore my point that the stock is worth holding not just for the medium term but for the next three to five years.

For fiscal year 2017, Canadian Natural Resources expects unallocated cash flow of $865 million over capital required to maintain production and dividends. This cash flow is likely at $43 per barrel WTI. For fiscal year 2018, Canadian Natural Resources expects unallocated cash flow of $2.1 billion over capital required to maintain production and dividends. This cash flow is likely at $45.5 per barrel WTI.

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Therefore, even if oil remains at $50 to $60 per barrel over the next 24 to 36 months, Canadian Natural Resources will be positioned to increase production, pay robust dividends and also have extra cash buffer in the balance sheet that can potentially be used for deleveraging or acquisition opportunities.

The companyas 38% debt to capitalization as of March indicates that the balance sheet is not stretched, and deleveraging will only improve the credit profile. Besides the liquidity buffer visibility for the next 24 to 36 months, Canadian Natural Resources has $2.3 billion in undrawn credit lines, and this is likely to provide additional liquidity support for the next few years. This makes Canadian Natural Resources fully funded for the coming years; if oil continues to trend higher, the cash flow visibility will be even more attractive for 2017 and 2018.

The expansion in production coming from Horizon Oil Sands project based in Fort McMurray, Alberta, will create value in the next two to three years from the perspective of cash flow upside from the asset. With operating cost for Horizon Oil Sands targeted below $25 per barrel, the EBITDA margin is likely to be attractive if the uptrend in oil continues in the coming years.

From an asset perspective, it is also important to note that Canadian Natural Resources has proven reserves of 5,713mmboe along with proved and probable reserves of 9,041mmboe. With significant scope for proven reserves growth, the investments in the coming years will also translate into upside for the stock as proved reserves increase.

With all these positives, Canadian Natural Resources is certainly worth considering for the medium to long term; I donat see the big rally this year as a deterrent for fresh exposure to the stock at current levels. Investors willing to hold the stock patiently for the next three to five years are likely to be rewarded handsomely.

Disclosure: No positions in the stock.

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This article first appeared on GuruFocus.






Lorraine (Vera Farmiga) finds herself in a disturbing room in The Conjuring 2. (Warner Bros Pictures)

Marcus Goh is a Singapore television scriptwriter. Hes also a Transformers enthusiast and avid pop culture scholar. He Tweets/Instagrams at Optimarcus and writes at marcusgohmarcusgoh.com. The views expressed are his own.

Secret ending? No, but the credits are an interesting look at the real life case it is based on.

Running time: 132 minutes (~2.25 hours)

The Conjuring 2 is a supernatural horror film based on the Enfield poltergeist case that serves as a sequel to 2013s The Conjuring. Paranormal investigators Lorraine and Ed Warren come out of retirement to handle a case that could prove too much to handle. It stars Vera Farmiga (Lorraine Warren), Patrick Wilson (Ed Warren), Frances O'Connor (Peggy Hodgson), Madison Wolfe (Janet Hodgeson), Simon McBurney (Maurice Grosse), Lauren Esposito (Margaret Hodgson), Patrick McAuley (Johnny Hodgson), Benjamin Haigh (Billy Hodgson), and Franka Potente (Anita Gregory). It is rated NC-16.

I yelped twice (as in, physically made a sound because I was scared) watching "The Conjuring 2 because some of the scares were truly unexpected. So yes, its a terribly frightening movie! But behind the hauntings lie two very human stories that show us the best of the human spirit despite overwhelming circumstances. And thats what makes the scares all the more impactful, because it happens to characters that we care about.

Vera, Maurice (Simon McBurney), Ed (Patrick Wilson), and Peggy (Frances O'Connor) discuss what has happened in The Conjuring 2. (Warner Bros Pictures)

Highlights

Variety of scares

While some scares are unexpected, they dont shock you for the sake of shocking. The film draws out the tension and springs the ghost on you when you least expect it, by skilfully alternating between special effects and the unseen. The Conjuring 2 keeps you in suspense and plays with your darkest fears, always keeping you cringing for the next appearance of the supernatural. By using a multitude of scare techniques, frights never become stale.

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Lorraine and Eds struggle

It takes a while before Lorraine and Ed get involved, but as returning characters its impressive to see that they have their own story arc and character development! Its not just a simplistic battle against forces unseen, but a conflict between what seems to be an inexorable outcome. In the face of what they know and what theyre struggling with, it makes both our protagonists even more heroic, and increases their stature from the previous film.

Investigative and adventure elements

Part of what makes The Conjuring 2 so scary is that theres a pretty interesting plot which sees all parties trying to find out the truth of the matter. At times it feels like an adventure, and this is where the film jerks you back into the realm of horror with another supernatural sighting. This means that not everything is as straightforward as it seems, and generates dramatic tension that amplifies your already jangled nerves.

Madison Wolfe as the possessed Janet

Madison Wolfes portrayal of Janet doesnt seem all that impressive, until you watch the scenes where a restless spirit takes control of her. Her visage completely changes (with no special effects), and she moves and speaks like a completely different person. Its an impressive performance from such a young actress, and speaks volumes about her talent.

Lorraine and Ed in The Conjuring 2. (Warner Bros Pictures)

Letdowns

Slightly long

Although the pacing and tension are spot on, the film runs a little long for a horror film. Of course, thats also partly because of the way the plot brings all the characters together. Still, a shorter, punchier length would have helped The Conjuring 2 intensify its scares.

Peggy (Madison Wolfe) in The Conjuring 2. (Warner Bros Pictures)

The Conjuring 2 will give you nightmares.

Should you watch this at weekday movie ticket prices? Yes!

Should you watch this at weekend movie ticket prices? If you like horror.

Score: 4.0/5

The Conjuring 2 opens in cinemas 9 June, 2016 (Thursday).
Welcome to Ciociaria, a wild and scenic mountain region south of Rome. Once a poor land  the name comes from local shepherds worn-out cioce, or hairy leather shoes  this was a place of farmers and cattle breeders where less than a century ago young people left in droves. Today, though, sleepy Ciociaria is enjoying a renaissance of sorts.

Italians have a saying: Life is like a staircase: Some people go, others come. While refugee boats land almost daily on Mediterranean shores, a well-heeled class of migrants has quietly gained a foothold in Italy, returning to the small villages their forebears left generations prior in search of a better life. Families who 70 years ago fled to England, Scotland, Canada, the United States and even Australia in the hope of building a rosier future have begun a reverse migration, trickling back to the land abandoned by their grandparents. Some of those grandparents fared well in their new homes and made fortunes  and now their descendants have returned with stacks of cash, in search of their roots.

Investments from Ciociarias old-new immigrants have revived the local economy in the form of restyled medieval dwellings and abandoned farmhouses, and the global promotion of local artisanal products like pecorino sheep cheese, black pig lard and goat ricotta. All buildings have been restored by the sons and daughters of immigrants who went to the U.K. looking for a job, says local Daniele Venditti, a resort concierge. Everything is neat and shiny.

Some of these newcomers stay only during the summer, while others live here half of the year. Most are concentrated in the Comino Valley at the foot of the rugged Apennine Mountains. Visit the tiny hamlet of Casalattico and youll find yellow Victorian-style mansions with elegant white columns and balconies juxtaposed with ancient Roman bridges, medieval castles and Renaissance arches. Its like walking through a sort of Little Britain.

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Birds eye view of Casalattico.

Source: Phillip Hay/Flickr CC

In the neighboring town of Settefrati, Venditti points out a tall redheaded couple leisurely walking dogs as the day fades to evening. See them? he asks, noting their Irish roots. When they retired from work, they decided to spend the rest of their lives in their grandparents town, make a fresh start. This peculiar category of wealthy reverse migrants has bought chunks of villages, opened luxury resorts and started bio farms as well as premium wine resorts.

Those who return often have nostalgic memories pulling them  and their pocketbooks  back to Italy. In Picinisco village, dating back to pre-Roman times, Scottish lawyer Cesidio Di Ciacca has led the way to a real revival. My grandparents left this land decades ago, he says. I was born in a tiny fishermens village near Edinburgh, [but] my family never lost contact with Italy. Indeed, Di Ciacca used to return every year with his family to spend time with cousins and other relatives. The attachment for this place grew inside me as time went by, and all of a sudden I found myself visiting more regularly, bringing my own wife and children here to discover and admire Picinisco, he says.

Finally, he decided to make the big leap backward: Buy a house and make it home. This was no ordinary dwelling. He moved into the old palace of an abbot, part of the original village watchtower that he lavishly restyled into a multiroom deluxe suite. Next he created a luxury resort, Sotto le Stelle, featuring medieval apartments turned into modern rooms. Then he purchased an entire hamlet  Borgo I Ciacca  of crumbling buildings that his family slowly abandoned over generations. Though the restoration is ongoing, it has become a thriving farm that produces olive oil, jams and honey. And now hes recovering ancient vineyards and breeding free-grazing black pigs, renowned for their succulent meat.

But big investments like these (Di Ciacca wont say exactly how much hes dished out so far) take time to turn a profit, and sometimes never do. Meanwhile, if other curious investors on the sidelines dont see profit potential here, then other struggling Italian villages and hamlets may continue to crumble away. Its a life mission  you need to believe in it [and] have money, sure, but above all, [you need] patience and tons of passion, says Daniele Kihlgren, a popular Italian businessman who has invested around 10 million euros in purchasing abandoned hilltop towns and giving them a second life.

At Borgo I Ciacca, the bakery room fills on weekends with the scent of fresh loaves and pizza when Di Ciaccas employees  all local  come here to relax. They say they feel like part of a big family. He asked me if I could run this farm for him when he was away in Scotland, and despite knowing little about wine or olive oil back then, I studied and he took me on board, says Marika Tuzi, the 24-year-old manager who runs the estate.

This small-scale economic revival isnt limited to Comino Valley. On some tiny islands, such as Ventotene, a visitor might hear Italian spoken with a strong foreign accent. Enter Frank Imparato, a New York-based insurance broker who owns several properties on the island and regularly travels back and forth from New York, staying on Ventotene roughly a couple of weeks each summer. It takes my sister and me about three hours to walk a few hundred meters, he says with a Manhattan accent, noting they should really be staying months instead of weeks. At every corner theres a faraway cousin or uncle who stops to say hello and offers an espresso.

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On Wednesday, Facebook's "Trending News" feature signal boosted a story first reported by the National Enquirer, which claimed that eccentric fitness guru Richard Simmons is in the process of transitioning into a woman.

The Enquirer story claimed that Simmons now identifies as "a softly spoken woman named Fiona," and that he has undergone two years of secret surgeries to complete the transformation.

National Enquirer: Richard Simmons Has Transitioned - http://www.joemygod.com/2016/06/08/national-enquirer-richard-simmons-has-transitioned/ ...pic.twitter.com/dPvfzOIOy4 https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CkbvAD9UUAEwibt.jpg:large

But Simmons, 67, wasn't and isn't transitioning into a woman, according to a press statement from spokesman Tom Estey. Though he was admitted to the hospital on Friday for what TMZ reported as "incoherent behavior," Estey told People that the reports of a transition were false.

In a Facebook post, Simmons himself wrote, "I was dehydrated and needed some fluids and now I am feeling great!" and thanked fans for their concern and support.

So why would Facebook  the same company that in May said it has "rigorous guidelines in place for the review team to ensure consistency and neutrality" in its Trending News section  publish single-source tabloid stories on topics as sensitive as gender reassignment surgery?

Facebook has increasingly become a source of hard news for many Americans. A May 2016 poll by the Pew Research Center examined which social media sites people use to get their news and found that Facebook leads the pack, with two-thirds of its users (66%) getting hard news from the site.

pretty questionable that facebook is citing a national enquirer report regarding the richard simmons "news"pic.twitter.com/8IWAdLtrSP https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CkcUYg-WgAEolE7.jpg:large

That means Facebook now shares in the rest of the media world's responsibility to get the story right.
United Nations (United States) (AFP) - Twenty leading human rights groups on Wednesday urged UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to reverse his decision and put the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen back on a list of shame for the deaths of children in Yemen.

Ban decided to remove the coalition from the annual list of child rights violators under pressure from Saudi Arabia, which reacted furiously to the decision and threatened to cut off funding to UN agencies.

Diplomats and UN officials said Saudi Arabia had also enlisted allies from the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation and the Arab League to lobby Ban to make the changes.

"The secretary-general's decision flies in the face of overwhelming evidence that violations by the Saudi-led coalition have killed and maimed hundreds of children in Yemen," said Jo Becker, a director at Human Rights Watch.

"Allowing governments that commit abuses against children to bully their way off the list makes a mockery of the UN's children protection efforts," she said.

Amnesty International, the Child Rights International Network, Oxfam and Physicians for Human Rights were among the 20 groups that made the appeal in a letter sent to Ban.

The United Nations blacklisted the coalition after concluding in a report released Thursday that it was responsible for 60 percent of the 785 children killed in Yemen last year.

Three days later, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric announced that the coalition would be scratched from the list pending a joint review with the Saudi-led alliance.

Saudi Ambassador Abdullah al-Mouallimi said the number of child deaths blamed on the coalition was "wildly exaggerated," and later proclaimed that the decision to be taken off the list was "irreversible."

- Saudis 'whip up' allies-

A Security Council diplomat said the Saudis had "whipped up a lot of supporters and some of those supporters added to the pressure to the secretary-general and the UN to make the changes."

Story continues

Saudi Arabia threatened to pull tens of millions of dollars in funding to the UN Palestinian relief agency UNRWA and warned that UN-brokered peace talks on Yemen could be affected, diplomats said.

"Saudi Arabia and others make their viewpoint very clear, in various conversations," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

But he insisted that a final decision had yet to be made on the list.

"We are not walking back from the content of the report," said the spokesman.

Ban is expected to address the uproar over his decision to de-list the coalition during a press conference on Thursday.

The coalition launched an air campaign in support of Yemen's President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi in March 2015 to push back Huthi rebels after they seized the capital Sanaa and many parts of the country.

The war has left some 6,400 people dead, with more than 80 percent of the population in desperate need of humanitarian aid, according to the UN.
By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Twenty human rights groups urged United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday to put a Saudi Arabia-led military coalition back on a U.N. blacklist for killing and maiming children in Yemen because the evidence against it was "overwhelming." The United Nations removed the coalition from its annual blacklist on Monday pending a joint review by the pair. Riyadh, a key U.N. donor, had threatened to cut off funding, diplomatic sources said on Tuesday. Saudi Arabia denied using threats. The letter to Ban on Wednesday, signed by groups including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Oxfam, criticized Ban, who steps down at the end of the year, saying he capitulated to Saudi Arabia and tainted his legacy. "If the Saudi-led Coalition wants to be removed from the list, it should stop killing and maiming children and bombing schools and hospitals in Yemen  the violations for which it was listed," the groups wrote. The U.N. report, released last Thursday, said the coalition was responsible for 60 percent of child deaths and injuries in Yemen last year, killing 510 and wounding 667, and half the attacks on schools and hospitals. "The responsibility of the Saudi-led coalition for grave violations against children in many of these attacks is not in doubt," the rights groups wrote. "The evidence of grave violations against children in Yemen by the Saudi-led Coalition is overwhelming." Saudi U.N. Ambassador Abdallah Al-Mouallimi has described the U.N. figures as "wildly exaggerated." The Saudi-led coalition began a military campaign in Yemen in March last year with the aim of preventing Iran-allied Houthi rebels and forces loyal to Yemen's ex-President Ali Abdullah Saleh from taking power. Some 6,000 people, about half of them civilians, have been killed in Yemen since last March, according to the U.N. The rights groups said Ban's decision to remove the coalition from the U.N. list undermined "an invaluable tool in efforts to curb violations against children in armed conflict." "The list creates pressure on parties to armed conflict to comply with international law. Over 20 governments and armed groups have signed U.N. action plans and taken steps to end violations against children in order to be considered for 'de-listing'," they wrote. Last year, the United Nations left Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas off the blacklist, after they had been included in an earlier draft, but criticized Israel over its 2014 military operations. (Editing by David Gregorio)
A labour court has ordered Societe Generale SA (ADR) (OTC: SCGLY) to pay rogue trader Jerome Kerviel 450,000 in damages for his unfair dismissal, according to a BBC report.

The report said the French ex-trader's unauthorized transactions lost his bank 4.9 billion, but the court ruled the bank dismissed Kerviel "not because of his actions, which it must have known of, but for their consequences."

SocGen will be appealing the "scandalous" decision, which has run "counter to the law," the BBC said, citing one of the bank's lawyers.

Related Link: Societe Generale First-Quarter Net Profit Jumps

The BBC reported Kerviel has served a three-year jail term following his October 2010 conviction of fraud and breach of trust. "He was charged with gambling 50 billion (39 billion) of Societe Generale's money on trades without the bank's knowledge, which nearly brought down the business," the article outlined.

Kerviel argued SocGen was aware of his actions, but "turned a blind eye."

"One of the judges at the tribunal said that the bank could not pretend it was unaware of Mr. Kerviel's fake operations and said he was fired 'without genuine or serious cause.'"

ADRs of SocGen were down 1.60 percent to $7.99 at time of writing.

See more from Benzinga

 2016 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
Moscow (AFP) - Russia unveiled Wednesday the first MC-21 medium-haul passenger plane as Moscow aims to revive its beleaguered civil aviation industry and challenge giants Airbus and Boeing.

The prototype of the MC-21 plane that can carry up to 211 passengers was presented in the hangar of the Irkut aircraft manufacturer in the Siberian city of Irkutsk in a glitzy ceremony broadcast on Russian state television.

The unveiling of the aircraft was a "long-awaited event for our civil aviation, for aeronautic construction and for our whole country," said Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

"This confirms that we are able to create such aircraft that not only make our civil aviation progress but that will compete with other countries," he said.

Medvedev also pledged that Russia would keep updating its domestically-produced civil aircraft.

The MC-21 passenger jets -- which can be up to 42.3 metres long and have a wingspan of 35.9 metres -- are expected to replace the ageing, Soviet-era Tupolev Tu-204 and make their first test flights by the end of the year or in early 2017.

The aircraft, 30 percent of which is made up of foreign parts, is scheduled to come into service in late 2018.

Irkut said that it has signed contracts with a number of airlines, including Russian flagship carrier Aeroflot, UTair and the Kyrgyzstan Air Company, for the delivery of 175 planes and that it had preliminary agreement to sell another 100 planes.

A number of the planes will be purchased by state-owned Russian companies for leasing.

Medvedev said that the demand for Russia's MC-21 would grow once it makes its first flight.

Russia has its hopes set on competing with the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737, which dominate the international civil aviation market.

The unveiling of the MC-21 comes five years after Russia's short-haul Sukhoi Superjet aircraft came into service and has since had serious technical issues.

Russia's aviation agency in 2013 grounded the Superjets -- which have had technical issues with landing gear and leak detection systems since they came into service in 2011 -- over a series of technical issues before being allowed to resume flights.

A Superjet performing at an Indonesian air show in 2012 slammed into a volcano, killing all 45 on board, in a crash Indonesia blamed on pilot error.
Yerevan (AFP) - Russia is working on setting up a joint air defence system with all of its ex-Soviet military allies, a senior official said Wednesday.

"The merger of regional air defence systems will pave the way for creating a common air defence (system) over the entire territory of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation," Nikolai Bordyuzha, the head of the Russia-led alliance of six countries, told a press conference in the Armenian capital Yerevan.

CSTO, Russia's answer to NATO, groups Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.

Moscow has a joint air defence system in place with Belarus and Kazakhstan, and the agreement to create one with Armenia "is being considered for ratification" by the two countries' parliaments, Bordyuzha said.

Moscow has stepped up military cooperation with its CSTO allies since becoming embroiled in its worst standoff with the West since the Cold War over its 2014 annexation of the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine and the subsequent start of a pro-Russian uprising in Ukraine's east.

Russia, for its part, accuses NATO of expanding its military reach close to its borders.

In May, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Washington that Moscow will consider measures to "end threats" from NATO's anti-missile systems in Europe that are based essentially on US technology.

The Western military bloc's missile shield includes the progressive deployment of missile interceptors and powerful radar in eastern Europe and Turkey.

NATO and the United States said this spring that they will switch their defence doctrine from assurance to deterrence in eastern Europe in response to a "resurgent and aggressive Russia".
(Refiles to clarify plane's official name is MC-21)

MOSCOW, June 8 (Reuters) - Russia on Wednesday presented a new medium-range passenger plane which state media said was superior to its Western-made counterparts in many respects and would be snapped up by both Russian and foreign carriers.

In a glitzy ceremony at a factory in Siberia attended by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Irkut Corporation rolled out its new MC-21 passenger plane which is still undergoing testing but is due to enter serial production next year. The plane is sometimes also known as MS-21.

Medvedev hailed the new twin-engine short and medium-range aircraft as "cool," saying it was important that Russia remained in what he called the top league of aircraft makers despite the high costs involved.

Squeezed by Western sanctions over its role in the Ukraine crisis, the Russian government is trying to rejuvenate domestic industrial production to make the country less dependant on foreign firms.

"I only want to say that I am absolutely certain that the airliner will be the pride of Russian civil aviation, and that our citizens and foreign people will take pleasure in flights on MC-21," said Medvedev.

The plane will be built in two variants, the MC-21-300 which will have 160-211 seats, and the MC-21-200 which will have 130-165 seats. Deliveries are expected to start in 2018 and state media said numerous contracts with domestic and foreign carriers had already been agreed.

State-controlled United Aircraft Corporation, of which Irkut is a subsidiary, said the new plane would be able to service routes of up to 6,400 kilometres (3976.78 miles) and that its operational costs would be up to 15 percent cheaper than current generation aircraft.

Vladimir Volkov, vice president of Irkut Corporation, said: "It is not made of metal, it is made of composite materials. That allows us to give it a special shape. It is much lighter and stronger so it is a great step in the development of our aviation industry." (Reporting by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Alexander Winning)
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia on Wednesday presented a new medium-range passenger plane which state media said was superior to its Western-made counterparts in many respects and would be snapped up by both Russian and foreign carriers.

In a glitzy ceremony at a factory in Siberia attended by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Irkut Corporation (IRKT.MM) rolled out its new MC-21 passenger plane which is still undergoing testing but is due to enter serial production next year. The plane is sometimes also known as MS-21.

Medvedev hailed the new twin-engine short and medium-range aircraft as "cool," saying it was important that Russia remained in what he called the top league of aircraft makers despite the high costs involved.

Squeezed by Western sanctions over its role in the Ukraine crisis, the Russian government is trying to rejuvenate domestic industrial production to make the country less dependant on foreign firms.

"I only want to say that I am absolutely certain that the airliner will be the pride of Russian civil aviation, and that our citizens and foreign people will take pleasure in flights on MC-21," said Medvedev.

The plane will be built in two variants, the MC-21-300 which will have 160-211 seats, and the MC-21-200 which will have 130-165 seats. Deliveries are expected to start in 2018 and state media said numerous contracts with domestic and foreign carriers had already been agreed.

State-controlled United Aircraft Corporation (UNAC.MM), of which Irkut is a subsidiary, said the new plane would be able to service routes of up to 6,400 kilometres (3976.78 miles) and that its operational costs would be up to 15 percent cheaper than current generation aircraft.

Vladimir Volkov, vice president of Irkut Corporation, said: "It is not made of metal, it is made of composite materials. That allows us to give it a special shape. It is much lighter and stronger so it is a great step in the development of our aviation industry."

(This version of the story has been refiled to clarify that the plane's official name is MC-21.)

(Reporting by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Alexander Winning)
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Igor Kim, a Russian businessman who co-owns mid-sized Expobank, has signed an agreement to buy the Kazakh business of British bank RBS (RBS.L), a spokesperson for Kim said on Wednesday.

Kim is waiting for approval from the Kazakh central bank for the deal to be completed, the spokesperson said.

The businessman emerged with his partners as an asset consolidator after the global crash of 2008 forced Western banks to downsize, buying the Russian commercial banking unit of Barclays in 2011.

In January he said he was interested in acquisitions in Russia and abroad in 2016.

(Reporting by Oksana Kobzeva; Writing by Alexander Winning; Editing by Lidia Kelly and Louise Heavens)
Airbnb Brian Chesky

It's fight, flight, or comply for Airbnb in San Francisco, and the company refuses to say which avenue it will pursue.

On Tuesday, San Francisco's Board of Supervisors voted 10-0 to pass tougher legislation that would make short-term rental companies responsible for enforcing some of the city's rental laws.

As it stands, Airbnb hosts in San Francisco are required to be registered with the city. Now, the new legislation requires that Airbnb list on its website only properties that are in compliance and have a registration number.

If it fails to do so, then the city will fine Airbnb and home-sharing companies like it up to $1,000 daily for every day that a company maintains listings on its site that aren't registered properly.

The company told Business Insider that it questions the whole registration system and how complex it is to have a license in the first place, implying that this process was making it too difficult for people using Airbnb for necessary income.

An Airbnb spokeswoman told Business Insider:

An estimated 1,200 San Franciscans avoided foreclosure or eviction by hosting on Airbnb, and this legally-questionable proposal puts their housing at risk without offering any real solutions to fix the complex process. The Board acknowledged that the registration system is broken and, in order to help people to be able to stay in their homes, The City needs to fix it.

Airbnb didn't respond to questions about whether it would comply with the new rules, though the company is on the record opposing the tougher legislation on a legal basis, claiming that it violates the federal law protecting internet freedom.

Before the vote, law firm Davis Wright Tremaine sent a letter commissioned by technology coalition CALinnovates to the San Francisco city attorney, arguing that the amendment would threaten "vital protections" of online content and "would be vulnerable to a legal challenge."

Story continues

But the attorney's office argued that it was regulating business practices, not online content, according to the San Francisco Examiner. Supervisor David Campos, who put forth the legislation, likened it to a rental-car company requiring a driver's license to operate.

The Board of Supervisor's 10-0 vote means that it will not go to the mayor's desk for a veto, but instead be put into law 30 days from now.

If Airbnb opts to fight, then it could take a page from Uber and Lyft and pull out of a city that doesn't offer it favorable regulations, or it could end up paying a daily fine to continue operating as is.

"We hope the Board will act to fix this broken registration system, and we are considering all options to stand up for our community and keep fighting for real reform," an Airbnb spokeswoman said.

NOW WATCH: We stayed in an Airbnb in Cuba which looked great but had one big issue





More From Business Insider


U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., and U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore. (Getty Images)

With Hillary Clinton now the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, some of Bernie Sanders top endorsers are calling for the Vermont senator to end his primary campaign.



Sanders was defeated Tuesday night in the California primary, as well as others, and cannot mathematically overtake Clinton in delegates. Sanders had hoped that a Golden State win would boost his flagging campaign.

Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley, Sanders only Senate colleague to endorse him, said on CNN Tuesday that his party must begin uniting against Republican Donald Trump.

We have to be unified to take on Trump, Merkley said the morning after the Associated Press reported that Clinton had gained enough delegates to clinch the nomination. And that unity is going to begin today as soon as the polls close.

Merkley clarified his stance on Wednesday in an interview with the Washington Post, saying that Clinton is now clearly the nominee.

Once a candidate has won a majority of the pledged delegates and a majority of the popular vote, which Secretary Clinton has now done, we have our nominee, Merkley said.

Sanders has remained defiant in taking his populist campaign to next months Democratic convention in Philadelphia. His campaign sent out a fundraising email to supporters Wednesday saying that the effort would continue to try to flip superdelegates. Sanders also scheduled a rally in Washington, D.C., ahead of the districts primary next week.

Another key Sanders endorser, Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva, also told the Post that he expects Sanders will do the right thing and drop out sooner rather than later.

The reality is unattainable at some point. You deal with that. Bernie is going to deal with this much more rapidly than you think, Grijalva said. At some point, when were trying to flip 400 superdelegates, and its not gaining traction, I think you have to come to the conclusion that its not going to happen. You just move into a different direction. And that different direction is that we begin to try to integrate the party.

Story continues

Grijalva was Sanders first congressional backer and was actively calling on Sanders to remain in the race as recently as Tuesday.

Sanders needs to keep doing what hes doing, Grijalva wrote in a USA Today editorial Tuesday. He needs to keep bringing a progressive vision for the future to communities that have never heard it before, and that respond favorably every time.

Meanwhile, progressive group Moveon.org is supporting Sanders decision to stay in the race but also said the group would adhere to the notion that the candidate with the most pledged delegates is the nominee.

MoveOn members believe, as we have long advocated, that the nomination should go to the winner of the majority of pledged delegates, and that undemocratic superdelegates should not overturn the will of the voters, the organization said in a Wednesday statement.
Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton made history Tuesday night as the first woman to claim a major partys presidential nomination. She delivered a final blow to her chief rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders, by soundly beating him in California, New Jersey and two other states.

Democrat Clinton beat Sanders in California, 56 percent to 43 percent, thwarting Sanderss last crucial opportunity to make the case to party leaders and national delegates that he would be the stronger nominee to take on billionaire Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, this fall. The Golden State, with 475 national delegates and a highly diverse population and economy, was deemed the ultimate prize in the 2016 primary season, and a loss by Clinton would have been a huge humiliation and setback for the partys newly crowned standard-bearer.

Related: 7 Ways Bernie Sanders Transformed the 2016 Election

Sanders vowed to carry on his now highly improbable liberal crusade, but at this point, his only hope is that somehow lightning will strike  such as an indictment coming out of the FBI investigation of Clintons misuse of personal email at the State Department -- and he could claim the party mantle. The 74-year-old veteran lawmaker told a large crowd in Santa Monica last night that he would take our fight for social, economic, racial and environmental justice to Philadelphia.

But Clinton destroyed Sanderss last shred of hope by winning four of the six primary contests staged on a final Super Tuesday, including New Jersey, 63 percent to 37 percent; New Mexico, 52 percent to 48 percent, South Dakota, 51 percent to 49 percent, and California, 56 percent to 43 percent, according to complete but unofficial returns. Sanders only victories came in North Dakota and Montana.

In an emotional victory speech delivered in Brooklyn to a boisterous crowd, including many women and young girls savoring the moment, Clinton declared, Thanks to you, weve reached a milestone, the first time in our nations history that a woman will be a major party nominee.

Story continues

Her speech, delivered eight years to the day she was forced to concede the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination to Barack Obama, was laced with conciliatory lines directed at Sanders, the democratic socialist who surprised many with a campaign that nearly derailed Clintons candidacy, and stinging attacks on the bombastic and politically potent Trump.

Related: Some Democrats Pray for Clintons Indictment as Sanders Pushes On

Donald Trump is temperamentally unfit to be president and commander in chief, Clinton declared, continuing a line of attack she first unveiled in a major foreign policy speech in California last week. Clinton continued to portray Trump as a dangerous bigot and divider who threatens to undo decades of economic and social progress.

For his part, Trump last night vowed to make the campaign a referendum on Clintons email controversy, her ties to big money on Wall Street and questionable fundraising by the Clinton familys global foundation while she was secretary of state.

This election is not about the same old fights between Republicans and Democrats, she told thousands of supporters gathered nearby her Brooklyn campaign headquarters. Its about who we are as Americans.

As for Sanders, Clinton said, I know it never feels good to put your heart into a cause or a candidate you believe in and to come up short. I know that feeling well.

But as we look ahead at the battle that awaits, lets remember all that unites us, she added. Clinton then proceeded to provide a laundry list of challenges reflecting Sanders call for income equality, reforms on Wall Street, campaign finance reform and other efforts.

We all want an economy with more opportunity and less inequality, where Wall Street can never wreck Main Street again, she said, regarding the 2008 financial meltdown that ruined the economy. We all want a government that listens to the people, not the power brokers, which means getting unaccountable money out of politics. And we all want a society that is tolerant, inclusive and fair.

Related: We Now Know Hillary Lied Multiple Times About Her Email Server

The finale of the Democratic primary campaign came on a busy day following the declaration by the Associated Press late Monday that Clinton had clinched the nomination by reaching the magic number of 2,383 pledged and super delegates to the national convention this summer. Sanders and his aides complained that the announcement was premature, and that nothing was official until the convention meets.

The latest tally shows that the former first lady and secretary of state has 2,755 delegates  including 2,184 pledged to vote for her and 571 super delegates who are free to change their minds at any time.

Sanders only hope now is to persuade hundreds of super delegates to switch their allegiance from Clinton to him. But so far, he has been unable to persuade a single super delegate to abandon Clinton, despite polls showing he does better than she does in hypothetical polling matchup against Trump.

As Clinton claimed her historic victory, senior party leaders including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (CA), began stepping up effort to unify the fractured party, fearing that many of Sanderss most loyal young supporters would refuse to back Clinton in the general election.

According to The Washington Post, Obama indicated that he was eager to help broker peace between Clinton and Sanders and start campaigning for the partys nominee as soon as possible. The president made calls to both Democratic candidates Tuesday night and will meet with Sanders on Thursday.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
* Banks see Saudi Aramco IPO as way to other deals

* Water desalination agency, other firms also to be listed

* Offers banks respite from sluggish economies, regulation

By Anjuli Davies, David French and Sophie Sassard

LONDON/DUBAI, June 8 (Reuters) - Investment banks are jostling to take part in the listing of a chunk of Saudi Arabia's state-owned oil giant Aramco as a portal to the lucrative deals they expect to flow from the kingdom's plan to revamp its economy.

The prospect of new business will offer a respite for investment banks, struggling with dwindling revenue as the global economy slows and regulation eats away at their business.

"For banks, being on this (Aramco) deal is a game-changer for the league tables," said one senior executive at a European bank, declining to be named due to the sensitivity of doing business in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia's government released on Monday its National Transformation Plan, a 110-page list of policies and targets for 2016-2020 that aims to wean the economy off its dependence on oil.

It is part of a wider, long-term reform drive known as Vision 2030, announced by Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in April, and it includes the initial public offering of less than 5 percent of Saudi Aramco's value.

So big is the state oil company because of its rights to the kingdom's crude reserves, that selling even 1 percent of it would create the world's biggest IPO, Prince Mohammed said. He expects the IPO will value Aramco at at least $2 trillion.

Generally, government work across the world is poorly paid, but banks often vie for the contracts simply to build a relationship with the state in the hope of getting future business.

"The Aramco IPO of itself is not that interesting to us in terms of business," said a senior source at a big investment bank, speaking on condition of anonymity. "The fees won't be great, but it's about what other business will result."

Wall Street bank JPMorgan and independent boutique bank Michael Klein have already been picked to advise the country ahead of any listing.

Story continues

A beauty parade, where banks will pitch for a role, is expected to be held in the coming months to determine what could be a roster of dozens of banks, both international and local, coordinating the share sale.

"We would be doing it for sure in part as it would lead to other things," a chief executive of a major bank said, speaking anonymously. "If we're not on it, then it's a problem."

Aramco subsidiary companies will also be listed, as will stakes in other publicly held companies, such as the stock exchange. Details in Monday's plan showed the Energy Ministry aimed to transfer all its power generation to "strategic partners" by 2020 and Riyadh will also privatise its water desalination agency.

Saudi Arabia also signalled it is adopting new strategies to invest is petrodollars, with the $3.5 billion purchase of a stake in U.S. ride-hailing firm Uber, advised by JP Morgan.

MODEST PICKINGS

So far the market has been modest.

Investment banking in Saudi Arabia has netted banks just $1.75 billion in fees in the last ten years, Thomson Reuters data shows.

In the past decade, banks made the highest fees in 2007, when they shared $391 million, data shows. By comparison, banks working on the acquisition of Mannesmann by Vodafone in 1999, got more than $530 million, the largest-ever fee tally.

HSBC led the rankings in 2015 in terms of highest fees earned in Saudi Arabia, but even at number one, they reaped a mere $22.7 million, Thomson Reuters data shows.

So far this year Deutsche Bank is number one in terms of investment banking fees as well as mergers and acquisitions in Saudi Arabia, having earned $10 million, according to Thomson Reuters data published in June.

"Historically, transactions have been competitively bid out to both local and international banks with the lowest bidder typically winning the mandate," said Tamim Jabr, Deutsche's head of corporate and investment banking coverage in Saudi Arabia.

"We see this trend slowly shifting as more and more clients look for innovative solutions to meet their capital raising needs in order to fund their growth strategy."

In the past, Saudi companies were able to borrow very cheaply from local banks, which held vast deposits from oil sales. The fall in the price of oil has squeezed domestic liquidity, forcing companies to look internationally.

Jabr said Deutsche Bank views Saudi Arabia as a core growth market with huge potential for global investment banks.

There is plenty of other prestigious work for banks in Saudi Arabia - pitching is taking place this week for arranger roles on the country's long-anticipated sovereign bond, which is expected to run close to Argentina's $16.5 billion record for largest emerging market issuance.

"You need to show up ... get all your big guns out because it's such a big opportunity," said a fourth banking source, who also did not want to be named. "These deals don't happen twice." (Editing by John O'Donnell and Susan Thomas)
By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists unpicking the gene faults behind an aggressive blood cancer called acute myeloid leukemia (AML) have found it is not a single disease, but at least 11 different ones with important differences for patients' likely survival chances. The findings, from the largest study of its kind, could improve clinical trials for testing and developing new AML drugs and change the way patients are diagnosed and treated in future, according to the international team of researchers. "We have shown that AML is an umbrella term for a group of at least 11 different types of leukemia," said Peter Campbell, who co-led the study from Britain's Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. "We can now start to decode these genetics to shape clinical trials and develop diagnostics." "What we can clearly see is that a large proportion of what will happen to a patient is written and encoded in the genetic profile of that patient's leukemia," he told reporters at a London briefing. AML is an aggressive form of blood cancer that develops in cells in the bone marrow and can affect people of all ages. Estimates from the World Health Organization's 2012 GLOBOCAN project suggested some 352,000 people worldwide had AML, and the disease is becoming more prevalent as populations age. Treatment often involves months of intensive chemotherapy in hospital, but there are large variations in patient survival rates - something doctors and scientists had wanted to investigate. For this study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday, the team analyzed 1,540 patients with AML. They studied more than 100 genes known to cause leukemia and aimed to seek out common genetic themes behind the development of the disease. They found the patients could be divided into at least 11 major groups, each with different constellations of genetic changes and distinctive clinical features. Despite identifying common themes, the team also found that most patients had a unique combination of genetic changes driving their leukemia. This genetic complexity helps explain why AML shows such variability in survival rates, they said. "For the first time we untangled the genetic complexity seen in most AML cancer genomes into distinct evolutionary paths," said Elli Papaemmanuil, who co-led the study at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre in New York. She said having full knowledge of the genetic make-up of a patient's leukemia substantially improved the ability to predict whether that patient could be cured with current drugs. Such information could also be used to design new trials to develop the best treatments for each AML subtype, she said. (Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
EDINBURGH (Reuters) - Scotland will vote to remain in the European Union in a June 23 referendum, but support for a new independence vote is weak even if the country is pushed out of the EU by the vote in Britain as a whole, according to a poll published on Wednesday. Support to remain in the EU stood at 51 percent in Scotland versus 21 percent for those backing a "Leave" vote, according to the TNS poll of around 1,000 people, a bigger margin to stay than seen for Britain as a whole. Scots voted 55 to 45 percent against independence in September 2014. But the devolved nationalist government says it should have the right to hold a new vote if Scotland is forced out of the EU "against its will." The survey found that 46 percent of Scots did not think the country should hold a new referendum, even if it votes to stay and the rest of the United Kingdom votes to leave, while 43 percent thought there should be a new consultation. Support for independence per se was 38 percent while 48 percent backed sticking with the UK. The poll was carried out between May 4 and May 22. Scotland has about 3.9 million registered voters, out of a total of 44.7 million across the UK's four constituent parts. Britain's vote on whether to remain in the 28-member bloc has sweeping implications for the economy, trade, politics, defense and migration, as well as for the future of the EU itself. TNS said it conducted all interviews for the poll face-to-face, in people's homes, using a computer-assisted personal interviewing technique. (Reporting by Elisabeth O'Leary editing by Estelle Shirbon)
By Krishna V Kurup

June 8 (Reuters) - Southeast Asian stocks were trading

cautiously on Wednesday, in line with Asian markets, with

Indonesia snapping three consecutive days of gains on

profit-taking, while the Philippine index and Vietnam extended

gains from the previous session.

Asian peers were flat, as weak Chinese export data offset a

brightening energy sector outlook and an expected delay in

interest rate hikes by the U.S. Federal Reserve.

China's May exports fell by a more-than-expected 4.1 percent

from a year earlier, while oil prices stood steady near their

highest level in about eight months.

Indonesian shares fell 0.4 percent, dragged down by

telecommunication services and consumer staples.

"Expect JCI (Jakarta Composite Index) to experience profit

taking pressure given Fed's delayed rate hike in June have been

largely factored in," said Taye Shim, an analyst at Daewoo

Securities Indonesia in a note.

"Also, expect to see further softening of transaction volume

as investors are likely to wait for key market data ahead of BI

(Bank Indonesia) meeting, British referendum, and June FOMC

(Federal Open Market Committee meeting)," Shim said.

Britain is due to hold a referendum on June 23 on its

membership in the European Union. U.S. Fed policy-makers next

meet on June 14-15 to decide on rates.

The Philippine index however extended gains from

Tuesday, led by energy and telecommunication services.

Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co rose 4.2

percent, while San Miguel Corp was up 3.2 percent.

Analysts however said the index was ripe for a bout of

profit-taking.

"Based on near-overbought RSI, together with sustained

increase in ADX (momentum) readings, we expect the index to test

7,800 today," Regina Capital said in a note.

"However, we are also setting this as the 'take profit'

target due to expected increase in volatility which could bring

about corrections."

Vietnam was up a little more than 1 percent at

631.45.

The index rose on gains in energy stocks and several blue

Story continues

chips, said a trader in Vietnam, adding he expects it to drop

after hitting 630 points.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan

fell 0.1 percent.

For Asian Companies click;

SOUTHEAST ASIAN STOCK MARKETS

STOCK MARKETS

Change at 0440 GMT

Market Current previous Pct Move

close

Singapore 2856.55 2848.09 0.30

Bangkok 1440.27 1442.42 -0.15

Manila 7783.48 7710.54 0.95

Jakarta 4912.397 4933.989 -0.44

Kuala Lumpur 1654.54 1660.62 -0.37

Ho Chi Minh 631.45 624.65 1.09

Change on year

Market Current End prev yr Pct Move

Singapore 2856.55 2882.73 -0.91

Bangkok 1440.27 1288.02 11.82

Manila 7783.48 6952.08 11.96

Jakarta 4912.397 4593.008 6.95

Kuala Lumpur 1654.54 1692.51 -2.24

Ho Chi Minh 631.45 579.03 9.05

(Reporting by Krishna V Kurup in Bengaluru,; Additional

reporting by My Pham in Hanoi; Editing by Biju Dwarakanath)
Turns out, the internet cares about your well-being. Aww.

Source: Melanie Ehrenkranz/Mic

Microsoft scientists discovered that your search engine questions may be able to identify if you are suffering from pancreatic cancer before you've even been diagnosed, the New York Times reported.

The researchers looked at Bing searches (naturally, they are Microsoft scientists) of users (who remained anonymous) whose searches pointed to a recent diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. They then worked backwards, looking back "many months" ahead of these queries to look at patterns of symptoms, according to the paper published in the Journal of Oncology Practice.

"We found that signals about patterns of queries in search logs can predict the future appearance of queries that are highly suggestive of a diagnosis of pancreatic adenocarcinoma," the paper stated.

Source: Melanie Ehrenkranz/Mic

The researchers were able to identify 5% to 15% of the cases with an "extremely" low false-positive rate of 0.00001 to 0.0001, meaning the chance of telling someone that they probably have pancreatic cancer when they actually don't is very low.

"I think the mainstream medical literature has been resistant to these kinds of studies and this kind of data," Microsoft researcher Eric Horvitz told the New York Times. "We're hoping that this stimulates quite a bit of interesting conversation."

Interesting, indeed. This study shows that there is potential to diagnose a disease based on your web searches. The sooner cancer is detected the better; early screening could increase survival rate.

Researchers can explore symptom patterns to pinpoint a specific disease.
The unit will remain at Jurong shipyard.

Sembcorp Marine has lengthened the standstill agreement between North Atlantic Drilling and Jurong Shipyard for the delivery of the West Rigel, a semi-submersible drilling rig.

According to a press release by Sembcorp Marine, the agreement has been extended until September 2 of this year, and NADL will continue to market the Unit for an acceptable drilling contract.

JSPL will have the right to sell the Unit at an acceptable price. The Unit will remain at the JSPL yard in Singapore during this period, the press release noted.

In the event that no employment is secured and no alternative transaction is completed when the standstill period concludes, the press release added that the parties will form a Joint Asset Holding Company for joint ownership of the Unit to be owned 23% by NADL and 77% by JSPL.

NADL will continue to market the Unit for the Joint Asset Holding Company for an acceptable drilling contract while JSPL will continue to market the Unit for sale, Sembcorp Marine stated.





More From Singapore Business Review


Donald Trump

A top official on Donald Trump's campaign said on Wednesday that Hugh Hewitt should be barred from the GOP convention this summer after the conservative radio host said that the Republican Party should change the rules to strip Trump of the nomination in Cleveland.

"Assume hater Hugh Hewitt will not be attending the @GOP Convention," Dan Scavino, a senior Trump adviser, tweeted. "If he is - the RNC should BAN him from attending."

In an email to Business Insider, Hope Hicks, the Trump campaign's communications director, said that the campaign had "no comment" on Hewitt's early-morning remarks.

After Scavino's comment, Hewitt tweeted that he will be at the convention:

I'll be at the #Cleveland convention broadcasting my own show and with @NBC. I promised the @OhioGOP for which I keynoted last weekend.  Hugh Hewitt (@hughhewitt) June 8, 2016

Hewitt said that Tuesday was the day when it occurred to him that Trump had no chance of winning in November.

On his Wednesday-morning show, Hewitt strongly recommended that the GOP ditch Trump at the Cleveland convention and said he came to that conclusion after what he called the worst 72 hours for the Republican Party in more than 15 years.

"The worst 72 hours for the Republican Party since 2000 when the George W. Bush DUI was dropped," he said on his program, adding, "We're going to get killed. We're going to get killed."

Hewitt said that what the "self-savaging" party leaders inflicted on Trump after he continued to pursue a racial line of attack against a federal judge was like nothing he had ever seen.

The latest Trump firestorm centered around his persistent attacks on US District Judge Gonzalo Curiel over his Mexican heritage. The Manhattan billionaire said that Curiel cannot fairly preside over a civil case involving his now-defunct for-profit real-estate school, Trump University, because he is of Mexican descent and Trump will be "building a wall" along the US-Mexico border if elected in the fall.

Story continues

Curiel is from Indiana.

Republicans from all sides of the party have publicly condemned the remarks and demanded that Trump change his tone. In a Tuesday late-afternoon statement, Trump took a step back from the attacks, but did not apologize. He made no mention of his attacks against the judge in his prepared post-primary speech later that night.

Hewitt said:

Paul Ryan had to come out and say those are racist comments. Sen. Mark Kirk unendorsed him. Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona said, "Well, he might not be our nominee." Mitch McConnell hammered him. It was a day of self-savaging of the Republican nominee, I've never seen anything like it. And by the end of the day, it was clear: Trump's campaign was in free-fall and on fire.

Acknowledging that Republicans have "never" defeated Bill and Hillary Clinton, Hewitt said: "We're not going to beat her now with Donald Trump."

"Right now the Republican Party is facing  the plane is headed towards the mountain after the last 72 hours," he said.

Hewitt said that the Republican Party "ought to get together and let the convention decide."

He called for a rules change that would prohibit Trump from becoming the party's nominee in Cleveland.

"And if Donald Trump pulls over a makeover in the next four to five weeks, great, they can keep him," he said. "It would be better if he had done so five weeks ago."

Hewitt is not the first to suggest that Republicans change the convention rules to stop Trump.

On Tuesday, the former New Jersey chairman for Ted Cruz's 2016 White House bid said that delegates have a "moral obligation" to launch an "insurrection" and "unbind" themselves to halt the billionaire's rise. Moreover, a Wall Street Journal editorial on Wednesday suggested that if Trump "doesn't start to act like a political leader," then he could "hear rumblings that delegates are looking for someone else to nominate."

CORRECTION: This post originally said that Scavino had deleted the tweet. The posting was not deleted.

NOW WATCH: Donald Trump claims he never said these things  lets look at the footage





More From Business Insider


Baltimore City police have received reports of windows smashed out on 12 cars and a restaurant in the Canton area overnight. While the actual numbers are far less than what circulated online Wednesday morning through community groups online and on social media, authorities call the case troubling and a widespread crime of opportunity. The window of the restaurant was busted just after 4 a.m. and was replaced by lunch time. Many other victims weren't so lucky.
NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / June 8, 2016 / Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of Westar Energy, Inc. ("Westar" or the "Company") (WR) (ISIN:US95709T100) (CUSIP:95709T10) concerning the proposed acquisition of Westar by Great Plains Energy Incorporated ("Great Plains Energy").

Westar shareholders seeking more information about this acquisition are advised to contact Robert Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 212-661-1100 or 888-476-6529, ext. 9980.

[Click here to join a class action]

The investigation concerns whether the Westar directors are breaching their fiduciary duties by failing to adequately maximize shareholder value. Under the terms of the proposed transaction, Westar shareholders will receive $60.00 per share of total consideration for each share of Westar common stock, consisting of $51.00 in cash and $9.00 in Great Plains Energy common stock, subject to a 7.5 percent collar based upon the Great Plains Energy common stock price at the time of the closing of the transaction, with the exchange ratio for the stock consideration ranging between 0.2709 to 0.3148 shares of Great Plains Energy common stock for each Westar share of common stock, representing a consideration mix of 85 percent cash and 15 percent stock.

Pomerantz LLP, 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 LLP pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz LLP 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 defrauded investors. See www.pomerantzlaw.com.

SOURCE: Pomerantz LLP
From Popular Mechanics

You may think you know what you're getting when you buy fish, but research shows that a full third of them are mislabeled. That's why scientists in London are developing a device that will scan your fish and tell you exactly what species it is.

The team, comprised of developers Yassine Santissi and Sam Mbale, created an infrared spectrometer to scan a fish at the molecular level, along with software that identifies patterns in the infrared waves that can be used to uniquely identify a fish species. This type of software is also used in the popular music app Shazam, leading the developers to call their product Fishazam, because of course they did.

Mislabeling of fish is a big problem and not just because the result is people paying more for crappy fish. It also makes tracking global fish populations harder because agencies can't rely on sales data to determine whether a certain population is healthy, and it makes it easier to sell poached seafood. As a result, a fish could be threatened or endangered without governments even being aware of the problem.

The developers hope that Fishazam will bring a much-needed tool to a fish market with little accountability. The team is planning to build a database of spectrographic analyses of fish species for use by governments and retailers, and provide a referral service that recommends trustworthy fish markets.

Fishazam is a finalist in the Fishackathon, an event run by the US Department of State that encourages developers to create tools to promote sustainable fishing. The grand prize is $10,000, and the winner will be announced tomorrow.

Source: Hakai Magazine
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) has resumed purchases of Iranian crude, becoming the second major oil firm after Total (TOTF.PA) to restart trade with Tehran after the lifting of sanctions, trading sources said and ship tracking data showed.

Iran has been trying to claw back its market share since international sanctions were lifted in January and regaining a major buyer such as Shell will further aid its cause.

Shell declined to comment.

According to shipping data, Shell fixed Suezmax tanker Delta Hellas to bring 130,000 tonnes of Iranian crude from Kharg Island on July 8 to continental Europe.

Trading sources said the cargo would unload in Rotterdam.

Shell repaid its outstanding debt to Iran from pre-sanction times earlier this year.

Besides Total, European purchases of Iranian crude have gone to refineries in Spain, Greece and Italy since the sanctions were lifted in January this year.

Tehran's re-entry to the oil market has heightened tensions with arch-rival Saudi Arabia and attempts by OPEC to concoct a strategy to boost oil prices have been scuppered as a result.

Iran has resisted Saudi Arabia's calls for output caps as Riyadh is itself aggressively expanding its buyer list ahead of an IPO for its state firm.

A production freeze deal collapsed in April when Tehran skipped a key meeting in Qatar that included non-OPEC members. OPEC delegates also failed to agree on a plan during their June meeting.

Major oil producers including Venezuela and Nigeria have been hit hard by a steep fall and protracted weakness in global oil prices.

Iran's crude exports are now close to pre-sanctions levels of around 2.5 million barrels per day.

(Reporting by Olga Yagova and Dmitry Zhdannikov in London, Writing by Julia Payne; Editing by David Clarke and Mark Potter)
Ottawa (AFP) - Shell Canada said Wednesday it has surrendered its offshore oil exploration licenses in the Canadian Arctic, paving the way for the creation of a protected marine park for whales, walruses and seals.

The Anglo-Dutch group, which had already withdrawn from exploration in Alaska and Norway, handed over its rights to drill in the area east of Lancaster Sound to the Nature Conservancy of Canada.

In turn, the environmental group gave them back to the government of Canada to facilitate the creation of the park.

Ottawa is considering a proposal for a 44,500 square kilometer (17,182 square mile) marine conservation area in Lancaster Sound, near the entrance of the famed Northwest Passage.

Shell's contribution would allow for the creation of a larger park, adding 8,625 square kilometers.

Environmental groups estimate that up to 75 percent of the world's narwhals spend summers in the area, which also attracts large populations of beluga and bowhead whales, polar bears, seabirds, seals, and walruses.

John Lounds, president and chief executive of the Nature Conservancy of Canada, said they were grateful for the contribution from Shell, which has been in the crosshairs of environmental groups for its oil activities in sensitive Arctic regions.

"Together we are supporting the conservation of an area of uncommon beauty, incredible biodiversity and rich ecological importance for the benefit of Canadians and future generations," said Lounds.

On Tuesday, Shell announced it could exit up to 10 countries as it divests up to 10 percent of its oil and gas assets, amid a slump in oil prices.

The environmental group Greenpeace meanwhile warned that the Canadian Arctic is still under threat from other oil company activities.

It pointed to plans for seismic tests in the waters of Baffin Bay, next to the land Shell just gave up, "despite the dangers it poses to wildlife and strong opposition from Inuit."
Jerusalem (AFP) - Nine people were wounded, one gravely, in a shooting spree Wednesday near Israel's defence ministry and main army headquarters in Tel Aviv, emergency services said in a statement.

Police said that it appeared to be a militant attack, but they could not immediately give any details of the attacker or victims.
EXCLUSIVE: Show Dogs is on the move. The live-action talking-dog comedy from Scooby-Doo director Raja Gosnell has collared a new release date  November 10, 2017. It had been penciled in for October 13 that year. Open Road Films and Riverstone Pictures are co-producing and co-financing the pic.

Production is set to begin in September on Show Dogs, which centers on Max, a rugged, lone-wolf Rottweiler police dog. He and his human cop partners get a tip that an animal-trafficking ring is planning an attack on the Eastminster Dog Show. Macho Max must undergo a makeover  mud baths, ballet lessons, a Brazilian waxing  to go undercover in order to thwart the plot. With his new human handler Frank, Max gets in touch with his inner show dog and also learns that trusting the help of others can sometimes be more rewarding than working alone.

The film is moving into a weekend where its lone competition is Foxs thriller Red Sparrow. But the release will be sandwiched between tentpole comics-based actioners Thor: Ragnarok (November 3) and The Justice League Part One (November 17).

No cast has been announced for the family film, which was scripted by Max Botkin. Deepak Nayar and Philip von Alvensleben are producing, with Tom Ortenberg, Nik Bower, Max Botkin, Raja Gosnell and Scott Lambert as executive producers. Open Road International launched overseas sales at Cannes.

Related stories

'Playmobil' Producers Rip Weinstein Company In Cross Complaint Over Toy Movie

Helmer Kellie Madison Tries To Lift 'The Gate' For Female Action Directors

Jamie Foxx Starring 'Sleepless' Gets Release Date In 2017
Reliving mistakes- If you, regardless of your age, gender or religion have ever committed an error or a boo-boo or felony misdemeanor, lying, cheating or just plain something wrong, you are a part of the 99.9% of us in the guilty pool.

I believe most of us relive those past moments of transgressions several times during our lives.

There are several ways to approach the past. Some deal with it by feeling guilty, others simply put the blame on the wrong person. Our feelings run from sadness to gloom and from forgiving to unforgiving.

We only go around once so put aside excuses and try to be the better person. Lets all try!
Singapores Ministry of Home Affairs has warned multinational corporations that they should not continue to sponsor an annual gay-rights event.

Pink Dot SG took place Saturday against a backdrop of complaints that it goes against the city-states traditional conservative values. The events website lists tech giants Facebook, Apple and Google, as well as financial behemoths Barclays, J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs, among its corporate sponsors.

In a statement on its website Tuesday, the ministry said that the Singaporean government generally rejects foreign entities interfering in domestic issues. These are political, social or moral choices for Singaporeans to decide for ourselves, it said.

More specifically, the ministry said it would take steps to make it clear that foreign entities should not fund, support or influence such events  namely those advocating the LGBT cause.

Although not actively enforced, the conservative-minded government retains an official ban on sex between men, and there has recently been censorship of gay themes in the media.

Pink Dot SG  a relatively small event but the nearest thing Singapore has to Pride  has been held since 2009. The organizers say the event helped create greater visibility for Singapores LGBT community, while striving to stay within the countrys laws.

In a statement Wednesday, Pink Dot said the events corporate sponsors are all registered and incorporated locally, adding: We are fortunate to count among them admired household names, employers of choice for a sizeable portion of our workforce, inextricably linked with and fully a part of this beautiful fabric we call home.
Laughter yoga facilitator during one of her free sessions by the Singapore River. (Photo: Nurul Azliah/Yahoo Singapore)

Yoga typically conjures images of participants assuming challenging bodily postures while in a meditative state but one instructor is stretching the notion about the ancient discipline by embracing the maxim that laughter is the best medicine.

Yvonne Looi, 33, is a laughter yoga facilitator who has helped around 3,000 people in Singapore like executives and retirees to giggle their way to lower stress levels and greater happiness.

During each 45-minute session, Looi instructs participants to warm up by introducing themselves to one another, clapping, and holding a conversation. The fun part begins when the participants begin routines such as moving in pairs in circles and swiveling their waists, while laughing out loud at the same time.

Unlike many yoga sessions held in studios, Looi conducts two free laughter yoga sessions every month by the Singapore River outside the Asian Civilisations Museum. Since holding her first session in 2012, Looi has seen an increase in participation from just a handful to up to 30 people each time.

Calling herself a joyologist, or an expert in the science of happiness, Looi said that regular laughter yoga sessions can bring health benefits to participants such as lowering the risk of diabetes and improving blood circulation.

Its great for making you look younger, happier and happy people live longer, said Looi. One minute of laughter is equivalent to 10 minutes at the rowing machine. Its good for your heart.

Laugher yoga began in 1995 when Indian doctor Madan Kataria held the first session of the exercise routine in Mumbai, and has since taken off around the world with thousands of Laugh Clubs set up.





Targeting busy working individuals in Singapore

Looi chose the heart of the Central Business District to hold her sessions as she wants to reach out to very stressful executives who are caught up with the daily grind of working life.

Story continues

Work can be a very serious and stern place. Some of them told me that sometimes they dont even laugh or smile the whole day. So these sessions are really good for them, Looi said.

Alvin Lim, 42, who works in a bank, feels more refreshed physically and mentally after attending several laughter yoga sessions conducted by Looi. It helps me to manage my stress at work and at home, I have friendlier interactions with people and have less temper, he said.

During the sessions, Looi would also advise participants to adopt a positive outlook even when the going gets tough in their lives. Positive thinking alone is not enough, we need to constantly look for positive things to do that you enjoy, she said.

Living up to her mission to bring joy to the masses, Looi has managed to attract participants of diverse age groups. Among them is 76-year-old retiree Morris Ng, who decided to attend laughter yoga sessions regularly after trying it once.

Its something new for me to try. It makes me feel youthful, healthier, less stressful, and I get to know new people, Ng said.
Mexico City (AFP) - Mexicans don't need to fly to Rome to marvel at the Sistine Chapel's famous frescoes. With the Vatican's blessing, a life-size replica was installed in Mexico City.

It is the first time that the 15th century church, with its ceiling painted by Michelangelo, takes a trip abroad, albeit a virtual one.

While the original was built over eight years, it only took one month for Mexico's capital to get its own Sistine Chapel, which was inaugurated on Tuesday at the Republic Square, facing the Monument to the Revolution.

But a painter was not hired for the modern version of Michelangelo's masterpiece. A closer look shows that the frescoes, including of God and Adam, are actually images printed on canvas.

For the reproduction, photographers worked inside the Sistine Chapel for 170 nights.

"In total, 2.6 million images were used to create the replica," said Antonio Berumen, the project's director, who is from Mexico.

Berumen said the idea of making a replica came to him two years ago, when he saw an elderly Mexican woman weep inside the real Sistine Chapel at the Vatican.

After that, he made it his "mission" to bring the chapel to Mexico, the world's second biggest Roman Catholic country after Brazil.

The project cost more than $2 million, mostly paid by private partners.

"I felt as if I was in the Sistine Chapel when I went through the door," said Father Manuel Corral, a priest visiting the replica.

The 27-meter (88-foot) tall structure chapel will remain at the square until June 30, with free access to the public through reservations.

The structure will then be taken apart and taken on a nationwide tour over the next three years.
WELLINGTON (Reuters) - Sky Network Ltd (SKT.NZ) on Wednesday said it is in discussions with Vodafone Group Plc (VOD.L) about a possible merger of their New Zealand businesses.

The talks regarded a potential transaction involving a combination of the businesses of Sky and Vodafone New Zealand, it said in a release to the New Zealand stock exchange.

The discussions were "ongoing and incomplete and may not result in a transaction occurring", it added.

Sky provides pay television and free-to-air television services in New Zealand while Vodafone New Zealand provides broadband, fixed-line and mobile phone services. The two companies already work together on some digital online offerings and Vodafone NZ offers Sky content as part of its packages.

Vodafone New Zealand declined to comment on any possible transaction while Sky said it would not comment further.

Advances in technology and competition meant that Sky was under pressure to retain subscribers, Hamilton Hindin Green broker Grant Williamson said.

"I think investors are probably realising that Sky TV has to do something," he said, adding it was too soon to speculate on what sort of transaction might result from the talks.

Sky Network shares are on a trading halt pending more detail.

(Reporting by Rebecca Howard; Editing by Stephen Coates)
SL Green Realty Corp. SLG announced the signing of a 10-year renewal and expansion lease deal with New York Life Insurance Company at the Graybar Building. This move, which involved a total of 114,709 square feet at the 420 Lexington Avenue property, signifies solid demand for the companys properties from its existing tenants.



Lease Details



Specifically, the renewal involves 87,944 square feet of space which will cover the whole of the 15th floor and part of the 14th floor. On the other hand, the expansion runs for 26,765 square feet of space on a portion of the 14th floor. This deal, along with other leasing transactions, has led to more than 168,000 square feet of year-to-date leasing at the Graybar Building, which is encouraging.



Towering above Grand Central Terminal, the Graybar Building has good accessibility and boasts major tenants like Equinox, Metro-North Commuter Railroad Co., Pride Technologies besides New York Life Insurance.



Past Performance



SL Green reported first-quarter 2016 adjusted funds from operation (FFO) of $1.85 per share, exceeding the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.65 and the prior-year quarter figure of $1.51. A rise in combined same-store net operating income (NOI) aided results.



Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider



SL Green currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). However, investors interested in the REIT industry may consider stocks like DCT Industrial Trust Inc. DCT, Mack-Cali Realty Corp. CLI and PS Business Parks Inc. PSB. All these stocks carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).



Note: FFO, a widely used metric to gauge the performance of REITs, is obtained after adding depreciation and amortization and other non-cash expenses to net income.



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Kushner Joined The TMJ & Sleep Apnea Clinic as a Partner in 2014

POULSBO, WA / ACCESSWIRE / June 8, 2016 / The TMJ & Sleep Apnea Clinic, a Washington-base practice that specializes in treating sleep apnea, recently announced that one of its doctors, Tanya Kushner, was selected to be a Diplomate with the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine (AADSM). Dr. Kushner, who is a partner of the clinic, created a new website to honor this addition to her practice.

According to an article available on The TMJ & Sleep Apnea Clinic's website, sleep apnea is a problem that impacts nearly 25 million adults in the United States. Since untreated sleep apnea cases can cause sleepiness, fatigue, headaches, and memory loss, the ailment raises the risk of high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, and death. Dr. Tanya Kushner and her team are trained to conduct sleep evaluations and treat sleep apnea using oral appliance therapy.

"Your sleep impacts every aspect of your health and daily life--sleeping well helps you look, feel and perform at your best, but a sleep problem can be harmful to your health and well-being," noted Dr. Kushner. "Two of the most common sleep problems are snoring and obstructive sleep apnea, and it's important to learn more about the warning signs and how you can get help."

Founded in 1988, The TMJ & Sleep Apnea Clinic's dynamic and educated staff offers state-of-the-art diagnosis and care to its patients. The practice is well known for continuously staying up to date with procedures and helping its clients make well-informed choices. The TMJ & Sleep Apnea Clinic also treats patients who are affected by temporo-mandibular joint disorder.

Individuals interested in learning more about The TMJ & Sleep Apnea Clinic and its work can visit the clinic's website for additional information. Readers with questions about the clinic and Dr. Kushner's specialties are invited to contact the practice via phone or email.

About The TMJ & Sleep Apnea Clinic:

The TMJ & Sleep Apnea Clinic is located in Poulsbo, WA, a small city in Kitsap County. Dr. Tanya Kushner is a dentist who offers patients that suffer from Sleep Apnea an alternative to the CPAP machine with Oral Appliance Therapy. Her treatments have helped many patients with snoring and the health deteriorating effects of untreated Sleep Apnea. For more information, please visit http://www.tmdsleepapnea.com

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Contact:

Tanya Kushner

steve@sleepapneamd.com

360-779-7711

SOURCE: The TMJ & Sleep Apnea Clinic
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's rand rose its firmest in five weeks on Wednesday and government bonds also gained after ratings agency Fitch affirmed the country's investment grade credit status. Stocks fell led by insurer Sanlam, the biggest loser among bluechips, after it flagged lower earnings for the four months to end-April due to slow growth in its markets. By 1500 GMT the rand had gained 1.3 percent to 14.7095 per dollar, its firmest since May 4. The rand has gained 5.5 percent since Friday's decision by S&P's to maintain South Africa's investment grade BBB- rating. Fitch also maintained South Africa's stable outlook, but warned that political tensions could still derail efforts to boost growth. "The decision by (Fitch) not to adjust its outlook on South Africas sovereign debt rating to negative is somewhat unexpected, particularly in the context of a deterioration in the countrys economic growth outlook," NKC African Economics' Hanns Spangenberg said. Fitch's announcement gives policymakers more time to implement reforms and boost the economy, before the next round of reviews in December where a "junk" status looms if Pretoria fails to impress, analysts said. "The downgrade risk into junk has certainly not gone away and investors will still be cautious about getting into South African assets too quickly," said BNP Paribas Cadiz Securities economist Jeffrey Schultz. Official data showing the economy had contracted more than expected in the first quarter of the year had earlier weakened the rand, before it was buoyed by Fitch's decision. Government bonds also firmed, with the yield on debt maturing in 2026 falling 5 basis points to 9.05 percent. On the bourse, the benchmark Top-40 index fell 0.7 percent to 47,716 points while All-Share index slipped 0.64 percent to 53,960 points. Sanlam said it expected four-month normalised headline earnings per share to be down 13 percent while flagging a "major impact on first half and full year earnings. Its shares fell 5.07 percent to 63.70 rand. Trade volumes were lower than average, with 242 million shares changing hands compared to last year's daily average of 280 million shares. (Reporting by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo and Zandi Shabalala; Editing by James Macharia)
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It's not easy to launch something to the moon.

A rocket specifically designed to break the bounds of Earth's gravity will need to function perfectly under great stress to deliver an expensive payload to one of the most extreme environments imaginable, all while flying at tens of thousands of miles per hour.

Once that goes off without a hitch, the spacecraft then has to function perfectly with very little interference from the ground until its mission ends.

And all that doesn't even include the paperwork.

SEE ALSO: Private companies may profit by turning the moon into a space rest stop

Every private or public rocket launch in the United States needs to go through a rigorous regulatory approval process which makes sure the payloads, rockets and the missions they will be used for are safe and legal.

Aiming for the moon and beyond

Private companies like SpaceX regularly launch payloads to Earth's orbit for other companies and public organizations like NASA.

But plenty of private firms are now looking beyond Earth, hoping to fly their wares to an asteroid, the moon or even to Mars, places no spaceflight companies have gone before.

And that's where things get tricky. As it stands now, there's no regulatory framework in place to allow the United States to approve a private launch and exploration mission outside of Earth's orbit.

All of that could change, however, thanks to the little-known private spaceflight company Moon Express.

Moon Express wants to land its MX-1 spacecraft on the moon before the end of 2017 in order to win the $30 million Google Lunar X-Prize, awarded to the first private company to land on the lunar surface and perform a series of tasks.

The X-Prize is designed to help bolster the burgeoning commercial spaceflight industry and provide an incentive for people to aim for the moon, but the lack of regulation could throw a serious bureaucratic wrench in that plan.

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In April, Moon Express submitted its application for mission approval to the Federal Aviation Administration's Office of Commercial Space Transportation in order to jump start the creation of that regulatory process.

Building a regulatory framework

"Regulatory uncertainty could become the greatest risk for non-traditional space activities," said Rep. Jim Bridenstine, a Republican from Oklahoma, in a statement when Moon Express first filed the application.

"The mission approval framework created by Moon Express is an elegant solution to increase regulatory certainty and comply with treaty obligations," Bridenstine, a former Navy pilot who serves on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, added.

According to a recent report by the Wall Street Journal, Moon Express is close to receiving approval from the FAA (at least closer than they were in April), though nothing has been formally announced.

Right now the FAA is the agency responsible for approving payloads and contracts for private U.S. companies to fly missions to orbit or for re-entry.

Image: moon express

The government agency reviews payloads and rockets to make sure each mission is safe for people on the ground and the Earth itself should it fail. The review process also is designed to check whether the launch provider and payload operator have their licenses ahead of launch.

But once landing on the moon or other cosmic bodies comes into play, things get more complicated.

Instead of just looking at our planet, the review process will also need to account for anything that may harm the destination moon, planet or asteroid being aimed for, as well as other concerns.

An outer space treaty

One thing to consider is the United Nations Outer Space Treaty, which entered into force in 1967. This treaty was put in place specifically to set out certain rules for peaceful space exploration and utilization by countries around the world.

This is a sticking point: The FAA's payload review of private missions to the moon and beyond will most certainly deal with the Outer Space Treaty, but just what that means for private companies is something that hasn't quite been worked out.

"I don't think it's an unusual situation to be in," Moon Express CEO Bob Richards told Mashable in an interview, saying that his company is serving as a pathfinder for the FAA's policies on commercial exploration of the moon.

"It's not like somebody is at fault for a lack of vision here."

The treaty states that nations cannot land on another cosmic object and then claim it as their own, but countries are responsible for supervising non-governmental organizations' missions.

"At a minimum, the treaty language requires that the United States authorize and continually supervise the space activities of non-governmental organizations," Joanne Gabrynowicz, a space law expert, told Mashable in an interview.

The FAA did not respond to repeated inquiries from Mashable for comment, but according to a statement provided to the LA Times, the government is willing to work with commercial companies hoping to fly to the moon and beyond.

The agency is working to make sure a mechanism is in place that permits emerging commercial space operations, such as the one that Moon Express has publicly commented on," the FAA statement to the LA Times said.

If private companies are subject to the treaty, then they should also be protected within its confines, Richards argues. By that he means that they should be legally allowed to use resources mined from cosmic objects, even if they can't claim real estate on the moon or another body, such as Mars, as their own.

The Moon Express payload review "is the first time this has been done so we dont know how its going to look," Gabrynowicz said.

New missions on the horizon

Setting up this regulatory framework could be a very important step for any future missions planned by American companies. It could help nurture a growing private sector space industry or potentially stifle it in its infancy.

SpaceX  the golden child of the commercial space industry  is working toward launching a private, uncrewed mission to Mars by 2018, with human missions to follow as soon as 2024, if all goes according to plan.

Bigelow Aerospace, a company hoping to produce inflatable habitats for easy deployment in space, is also aiming for the moon, and multiple companies like Planetary Resources are hoping to extract minerals from asteroids at some point in the future.

Moon Express's request for approval also plays into new legislation.

The U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act, which became law in 2015, makes the United States "the first nation to explicitly recognize private sector space resource mining rights for abiotic water and minerals obtained from the Moon and other celestial bodies," according to a statement.

In addition, Bridenstine introduced a piece of legislation in April, known as the American Space Renaissance Act, to help bolster private companies in their space ventures. It would put in place a new framework for space initiatives within the federal government.

Of course, there are still many technological hurdles for companies to jump over before accomplishing their ambitious goals.

Even Moon Express is hoping to launch to the moon aboard a Rocket Lab-built rocket that has not yet flown a test flight, but for now, they're taking their trip to the moon one (bureaucratic) step at a time.
PLATTSMOUTH  Plattsmouth Board of Education members gave approval for several district maintenance projects to move forward at their regular meeting Monday night.

Six board members cast votes on several spending decisions during the evening. Mary Caverzagie, Tony Foster, Matt Glup, Nancy Lowery, Karen Parsons and Cory Wehrbein were present at the meeting. Mike Brodersen, Don Freeburg and Ken Winters were absent.

* Foster told board members work will soon be moving forward on a large project involving district parking lots. Foster and fellow Operations Committee members Winters and Wehrbein took part in a special meeting May 16 to review and award bids for the project.

Foster, Wehrbein and Winters approved a bid of $388,636 from American Paving and Asphalt Inc. at the committee meeting. The company will make asphalt repairs and put a two-inch overlay on all district parking lots. There will also be work done on curbs at Plattsmouth Community Middle School and Plattsmouth Elementary School.

* The full board approved a bid from Kellys Carpet in Omaha for carpeting work at Plattsmouth High School. The district will pay Kellys Carpet $82,470.56 to replace carpet in more than 20 rooms at the building.

* The board authorized the Operations Committee to review and award bids for carpet replacement work at Plattsmouth Elementary School, Plattsmouth Community Middle School and the PCS Administration Building. Foster said the committee would likely hold a meeting in two weeks to select a bid.

* The board also gave the Operations Committee authorization to review and award bids for heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) improvements in the district. Foster told fellow board members that the district had set aside $1,018,000 for repairs to several pieces of equipment. He said the committee would ask for additional bids after receiving several high preliminary offers. Several of the preliminary bids were close to $2 million.

Our hope is that we stay under the money we prepared for this, Foster said. One of the units at the high school has to be taken care of before the next school year, but our hope is that some of the others can be repaired instead of completely replaced.

* The board authorized Superintendent Dr. Richard Hasty to sell numerous supplies and materials from various buildings. Items for sale from the elementary school include globes, overhead projectors, computer tables, CD/radio sets and a four-shelf bookshelf.

Items for sale from the middle school include metal chairs, computer monitor holders and a distance learning cart. Many of the high school items for sale are related to the industrial technology department. The list includes a radial arm saw, sander, wood lathe, metal lathe, band saw, woodworking tables and an unfinished rocking horse.

* The district will also be selling multiple old textbooks and materials. Plattsmouth has replaced many of its former math textbooks with new items that follow the AGA Math and Go Math curriculum plans. Director of Instructional Services Dr. Cherie Larson told the board the new textbooks more closely align with new Nebraska state standards for math subjects such as algebra and geometry.
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / June 8, 2016 / Spearmint Resources Inc. (SRJ.V) ("SRJ" or the "Company") announces that it intends to complete a private placement of flow-through and non flow-through units (the "Private Placement").

Proceeds of the offering are expected to be used toward general working capital as well as work programs on the recently acquired Preissac Lithium property and Whabouchi Lake Lithium property in Quebec.

James Nelson, director of Spearmint, stated: "We are looking forward to getting to work on both of these lithium properties. The recent flurry in activity in the lithium space has been sped up by the significant increase in demand for lithium and we are optimistic that this prospect produces the next discovery in Canada's top lithium district."

The Company intends to issue up to 6,000,000 flow-through units at a price of $0.05 per unit (the "FT Units") for aggregate proceeds of up to $300,000. Each FT Unit will consist of one flow-through common share (the "FT Shares") and one non flow-through common share purchase warrant (the "FT Warrants"). Each whole FT Warrant will entitle the holder to purchase one additional non flow-through common share of the Company at an exercise price of $0.06 per common share for a period of 5 years from the date of issue. The FT Shares will entitle the holder to receive the tax benefits applicable to flow-through shares, in accordance with provisions of the Income Tax Act (Canada).

The Company also intends to issue up to 10,000,000 non flow-through units at a price of $0.05 per unit (the "NFT Units") for aggregate proceeds of up to $500,000. Each NFT Unit will consist of one non flow-through common share and one non flow-through common share purchase warrant (the "FT Warrants"). Each FT Warrant will entitle the holder to purchase one additional non flow-through common share of the Company at an exercise price of $0.05 per common share for a period of 5 years from the date of issue.

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Spearmint plans to rely upon the new existing shareholder exemption described in Multilateral CSA Notice 45-313, prospectus exemption for distributions to existing security holders (published March 13, 2014), or analogous exemption for shareholders of record as of June 8, 2016, as well as other exemptions. As at the date hereof, the existing security holder exemption is available in each of the provinces of Canada, with the exception of Newfoundland and Labrador. A finder's fee may be paid in accordance with TSX-V policy.

In addition to the existing security holder exemption and other available prospectus exemptions, a portion or all of the offering may be completed pursuant to Multilateral CSA Notice 45-318, prospectus exemption for certain distributions through an investment dealer, and the corresponding blanket orders and rules implementing CSA 45-318 in the participating jurisdictions in respect thereof. As at the date hereof, the investment dealer exemption is available in each of Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and New Brunswick. Pursuant to CSA 45-318, each subscriber relying on the investment dealer exemption must obtain advice regarding the suitability of the investment from a registered investment dealer. There is no material fact or material change of the corporation that has not been generally disclosed.

All securities issued pursuant to the Private Placement will be subject to a four-month hold period. The Private Placement is subject to approval by the TSX Venture Exchange.

Contact Information

Tel: 1.604.646.6903

Fax: 1(604) 689-1733

"James Nelson"

Director

Spearmint Resources Inc.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release.

SOURCE: Spearmint Resources Inc.
From Cosmopolitan

Early last year, Brock Allen Turner, a 20-year-old former Stanford student, raped a then-22-year-old unconscious woman behind a dumpster. He was caught only because two Stanford graduate students who happened to be biking by saw Turner lying on top of an unresponsive woman, pulled him off, and held him until police arrived. One of the graduate students was so shaken by what he saw that he cried relaying the story to law enforcement. Turner was eventually convicted of multiple felonies. Prosecutors asked for a six-year sentence.

Instead, Turner was sentenced to six months, of which he will likely serve just three. Judge Aaron Persky's reasoning: A longer sentence would have a "severe impact" on Turner.

The short sentence, the reasoning for it, and the stunning letter the victim wrote about the assault have collectively roiled the internet this week. In that letter, she details the ways in which the trial was as much about her as her rapist, illustrating what so many rape victims mean when they say going to trial is like being assaulted all over again.

"I was pummeled with narrowed, pointed questions that dissected my personal life, love life, past life, family life, inane questions, accumulating trivial details to try and find an excuse for this guy who had me half naked before even bothering to ask for my name," she wrote. "After a physical assault, I was assaulted with questions designed to attack me, to say see, her facts don't line up, she's out of her mind, she's practically an alcoholic, she probably wanted to hook up, he's like an athlete right, they were both drunk, whatever, the hospital stuff she remembers is after the fact, why take it into account, Brock has a lot at stake so he's having a really hard time right now."

It's an ugly, disturbing line of questioning. Rape survivors often know they are going to face interrogations like this, which may be one reason so many of them don't report; this kind of aggressive questioning often works, which may be partly why fewer than 20 percent of sexual assaults (and depending on who you ask, it could be as low as 3 percent) ever result in a conviction.

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It is easy to look at these questions and conclude the defense lawyer is a victim-blaming sleaze. Certainly the woman here has good reason to despise him. The rest of us, though, shouldn't be calling for his head. Instead, we should be rethinking American rape law, and the legal profession should be having tough conversations about the competing ethical obligations in sexual violence cases.

The questions Turner's lawyer asked were aggressive enough to serve as the art for the BuzzFeed post on the victim's letter. They're there at the top, in red: How old are you? How much do you weigh? What did you eat that day? Well what did you have for dinner? Who made dinner? Did you drink with dinner? No, not even water? When did you drink? How much did you drink? What container did you drink out of? Who gave you the drink? How much do you usually drink?

And on and on and on, questions that hurt your heart when you imagine them being asked of a young woman whose only crime was having the bad luck to be at a party with this particular man.

Still: This was the attorney's job.

I don't mean that in a shrugging way, the way that all kinds of abuses and oppressions have been justified with "I was just following orders." I mean: Vigorously defending a client is a defense attorney's job, and that vigorous defense is a vital component of our criminal justice system. This is a good thing. It is a valuable, necessary, essential thing. In a system like ours, it is the job of the prosecutor to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a criminal defendant is guilty, and it is the job of the defense attorney to zealously defend his or her client, raising doubts about the prosecutor's claims wherever possible. This is how it should work. It should be a high bar to convict someone of a crime, to put them in jail, take away their liberty.

And yet we don't hear victims of car theft saying that the trial was like being stolen from all over again, or robbery victims saying the trial felt like having their home burglarized again. We do hear rape victims say their trials are often humiliating exercises in re-victimization. It's a sentiment common enough to be cliche. There is, no question, something going very wrong here.

Before I was a journalist full-time, I was a lawyer. I didn't do criminal defense work, but I am the daughter of a public defender, and the friend, former classmate, and former colleague of dozens of defense lawyers. I'm not a religious person, but if there is anything I believe is the Lord's work, it is criminal defense, especially as a public defender for the indigent. It is under-paid, vilified, time-sucking, emotionally depleting work. It is also the backbone of our justice system. It is the last line of defense - the only line of defense - for millions of people, many of them young men, many of them poor, many of them of color, in a criminal justice system that houses more people in prisons than any society in the history of the world. Here in the United States, we put people in jail for a very long time and we ostracize them when they come out, breeding cycles of crime, poverty, and marginalization. Large corporations profit from this mass incarceration; politicians are elected because of it. We have built a moral disaster, and criminal defenders are some of the only bulwarks against that.

Brock Turner is not an indigent, underprivileged defendant. He's a comparatively wealthy white man, a former student athlete at one of the most elite universities in the world, who made a choice to commit an act of violence. His family was able to pay for an upmarket defense lawyer, and while that lawyer was unable to convince a jury that there was reasonable doubt of Turner's guilt, he was able to convince the judge that Turner shouldn't go away for very long. There are a series of privileges reflected in the judge's decision, some combination of racial, economic, and educational, and Turner's attorney played on them to get this result.

Still, this was the attorney's job, the unambiguous obligation of his profession.

How, then, can we reshape it to be less awful for rape survivors and also for the many criminal defendants who are, unlike Brock Turner, not coming from immense privilege, and are often at a significant disadvantage in a system that is supposed to put the burden of proof on the prosecution but too often sees defendants as guilty just for stepping into the courtroom?

Toward the end of the second-wave feminist movement, feminist legal scholars pushed for, and saw implemented, rape shield laws - rules of evidence that bar defense lawyers from introducing irrelevant information about a rape victim's sexual history at trial. Over the past several decades, rape law itself has evolved: marital rape is now largely outlawed (although only fairly recently and often with significant exceptions), some states have removed statutory requirements that rape victims fight back, and many states now take incapacitation from drugs or alcohol into account when criminalizing nonconsensual sex.

Still, we treat sex crimes differently, both legally and culturally, from many other crimes. Our social understanding of rape as something a woman should fight off, and our entrenched skepticism of the morals of sexually active women, explains why defense attorneys are able to point to women's behavior or supposed consent in defending their clients. This is fundamentally different than the defense of, say, a man accused of a mugging - it's hard to imagine "the victim agreed to give this stranger his wallet" or "he had willingly given a person money before" being successful defenses in those cases.

We need better sexual assault laws, which more accurately reflect the realities of both sexual violence and consensual sexual activity. Our laws have not appeared from thin air; they were written by men, litigated by men, developed and revised almost entirely by men, based on a foundation created by men according to men's perceptions, beliefs, and experiences. When the foundations for rape laws we now use in the United States were initially developed, women were for all intents and purposes the property of men (and enslaved women were very literally the legal property of men). It was legally impossible for a man to rape his wife, because the law presumed men had unfettered sexual rights to their wives' bodies. Sex was set up as oppositional, something men got from women, that women had a social obligation to protect and reserve only for a man with appropriate legal authority over her (that is, her husband, or at least her fiance). This is the groundwork upon which we have built today's rape laws. It is why even a relatively progressive sexual assault law like California's defines rape as an act done forcefully or under duress, in violation of a person's will or when they were unable to express their will one way or another because they were incapacitated - instead of, more simply, sex to which one party did not consent.

This could change with affirmative consent laws, which don't require that a party resists or says no, and instead require that both parties are consenting to sex. It's a small, subtle shift, but an important one. A prosecutor would have the burden of proving that an accused sexual assailant didn't have a "yes" for the sexual activity. As it stands, prosecutors generally have to demonstrate that a victim resisted and said no, was incapacitated and unable to say no, or was otherwise forced or coerced - which can be difficult when the only testimony is from the victim herself, and rape cases are somewhat unique in that juries often simply don't believe the sworn testimony of a victim. The Stanford case, for example, was probably won in part because of the two graduate student witnesses who interfered in the rape and offered sworn statements about what they saw. Had it been the victim's word against her perpetrator's, with her having to prove that she was fully incapacitated while also testifying that she remembered almost nothing, the prosecution's chances of a win would have nosedived. An affirmative consent standard wouldn't stack the deck in favor of the prosecution, but it would emphasize to a jury that both parties have a duty to obtain consent for sex  it's not just a woman's job to say no.

While an affirmative consent standard is increasingly used by universities (including the University of California system), it has not yet been codified into criminal law. If we understand that sex as something parties enter into for mutual pleasure as opposed to one party getting something from the other, and if we believe that the burden should not be on women to fight men off but on men to not penetrate people without consent - and while of course men are sexually assaulted, women are assaulted much more often, and it is almost always men committing sexual assaults - then affirmative consent should be the standard we use in determining whether a sex act was criminal. Our criminal code should change to reflect that standard.

There's an opportunity and an obligation for the legal profession here too. While the American Bar Association offers lots of information on representing or recommending legal counsel to victims of sexual violence, there's far less guidance on the ethics of defending those accused. There's no question that it is of course ethical to defend accused rapists, but the how matters. Does a zealous defense require going down every possible avenue, including those that feed into misogyny and victim-blaming - and which create future case law that entrenches misogyny and victim-blaming as par for the course in defending sexual violence cases? How does one draw the line, even, between victim-blaming and painting the circumstances in a light most favorable to your client - especially if your only defense is consent? Do lawyers have an obligation only to the individual client before them, or is there some greater duty we owe society to not cement its greatest ills into place - which would require not playing on racial animus or sexism or other forms of bias that lawyers can, and routinely do, manipulate to further their case?

These are not easy questions, and, even among feminist lawyers, there are not simple, clear answers. What is obvious is that we are long overdue for a profession-wide grappling. And, for those of us who care about justice in all corners of the courtroom, what is also clear is that the rights of criminal defendants don't have to be so starkly at odds with the interests of crime victims. A fairer system that incarcerated fewer people, focused on rehabilitation instead of just punitive punishment, and was truly about what was done instead of who did an alleged bad act would better serve defendants and victims alike. Many victims, including the woman raped by Brock Turner, do not want the people who hurt them to, in her words, "rot away in prison." What they do want is a criminal justice system that is fair, to both victims and accused criminals, and punishments that fit the crime itself, not the skin color or social class of the person who committed it.

There are few jobs more indispensable to the functioning of our legal system than defense attorneys. And yet it also seems there are few people these same attorneys hurt more than sexual assault victims. Our criminal justice system is just that: A system. It is what we make it; we get to change it if it's not serving its purpose, and we have changed it, many times over. It is only very recently that women have had any real say in the construction and implementation of this system; the same is true for men of color and poor men, who are also disproportionately likely to be caught up in it.

We want the law to be unassailable, to be black-and-white; we want justice to feel righteous and sweet. We want defense lawyers who are the Atticus Finches we read about as children, standing virtuously for the marginalized and falsely accused; we want prosecutors to be the zealous advocates who put the bad guys away on Law & Order. The inside of a courtroom is not so tidy, and these loftiest ideals often conflict.

What the defense attorney did in the Brock Turner case was his job, the obligation of his profession, a valuable and important requirement. And still, on the young woman who was unlucky enough to cross paths with Brock Turner, who showed up at the hospital bruised and dirtied and bloodied, this lawyer left another mark. For those of us who are not the victim or her family or her friends, even if we are currently outraged by the sentence, we will soon move on to the next outrageous thing, the next injustice (there will always be another). This case will fade. But the questions it raises, the conflicting values, and the imperfect, untidy solutions currently on offer aren't going to go away.

It is far past time we set out anew to address them. For those in the legal profession, and those who care about justice, there are few matters of greater urgency. The American Bar Association, and the Bar associations of all 50 states, should set to work on the question of how best to reform American rape laws, evaluating affirmative consent as an option alongside other proposals, with input from prosecutors, defense attorneys, feminist legal experts, and rape survivors alike. Ethics committees should develop a modern, highly specific set of best practices for arguments that rely on harmful stereotypes or play into biases, whether that's bringing up women drinking or having consensual sex or partying in rape cases; relying on a jury's racism in criminal cases generally; or utilizing defenses like the one known as "trans panic," used to justify the actions of men who murder transgender women by asserting that the man on trial panicked when he discovered a sexual partner's trans status and is therefore less culpable for killing her (the LGBT Bar is working on banning this defense nationwide). Judges should be more circumspect about what they allow to be introduced into their courtrooms. Law schools should address these complex questions and the roles lawyers play not just in carrying out the law, but in shaping American values, norms, and culture.

The Stanford case is not an example of an individual glitch or a bad defense lawyer. It is instead a very public and particularly egregious display of one of many problems baked into a system built by a narrow group of people, that simply has not evolved quickly enough. If order for anything to change, we have to be willing to tackle hard, complicated, messy questions.

It is time.

Follow Jill on Twitter.
This Website Offers Helpful Advice and an Innovative Program on How to Turn a Hobby into Income

LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / June 8, 2016 / The founder of WoodWorkingBusiness.net, a website that teaches people how to start a woodworking business with no former experience or capital, is pleased to announce the launch of the new and user-friendly site.

To celebrate the recent release of WoodWorkingBusiness.net, the founder is offering a free limited time bonus that includes 500 of the top, best-selling plans. This way, people who start their own woodworking business will never run out of ideas and projects to sell. In addition, the price of the program has been temporarily reduced from $97 to $37.

WoodWorkingBusiness.net understands that times are still tough for many people. Hard-working people are losing their jobs and it can be difficult to make ends meet. This has inspired many men and women to consider starting their own business and finding a way to make money doing something they love.

This knowledge inspired the founder to create the new website, and help people who want to be entrepreneurs to discover a way to launch a company that will not only be enjoyable, but also successful. In addition to offering advice on starting a woodworking business, the website reassures readers that launching this type of company does not require a lot of money, a huge workshop filled with expensive machinery or even previous experience.

"Your woodworking business will provide you with a great part-time income while allowing you to spend more quality time with the family. Best of all, you will have fun doing what you love. People can either moonlight at the new business while keeping their current job, or turn their woodworking business ideas into a full-time income."

"You don't have to suffer through the painful mistakes I've made because I will show you how you can avoid them and start a profitable woodworking business from Day 1."

Anybody who would like to learn more about how to start a woodworking business should visit the new WoodWorkingBusiness.net website for a step by step guide on how to make it happen.

Story continues

About WoodWorkingBusiness.net:

WoodWorkingBusiness.net is a new website that offers valuable advice and tips on how to start a profitable woodworking business from home. For people who are out of work or dissatisfied with their current job, the new site will help them to achieve their entrepreneurial goals. For more information, please visit http://woodworkingbusiness.net.

Contact:

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(949) 555-2861

SOURCE: WoodWorkingBusiness.net
Screen Shot 2016 06 08 at 4.16.57 PM

Stocks drifted higher on Wednesday as once again markets had a pretty uneventful day.

As of Wednesday's close, the S&P 500 is now just 12 points away from its record high and the Dow notched its first close above 18,000 since late April.

Scoreboard

Dow: 18,005.1, +66.8, (+0.4%)

S&P 500: 2,119.1, +7, (+0.3%)

Nasdaq: 4,974.6, +12.9, (+0.3%)

WTI crude oil: $51.40, +2%

10-year Treasury: 1.7%

Housing

The US housing market has been a hot topic of late, with commentary from analysts including Ivy Zelman and Conor Sen out this weekend re-focusing the economic commentariat on the idea that the economic and consumer cycle, really, is driven by housing.

And as for who will be the main driver of the housing market's next expansion, the answer is everyone's (least) favorite generational signifier: "millennials."

Bill Smead, CEO of Smead Capital Management, wrote in a note to clients this week that Zelman's thesis of an upcoming "elongated" housing cycle seems right, and the answer is because young people are getting their starts later in life.

"We would argue that many Millennials have removed themselves from their hometown and their college town via their employment and the lateness of marriage," Smead writes.

Adding: "We find it easy to estimate that the current new homebuilding pace of 629,000 units in 2016 will grow to a 1.5 million unit run-rate within five years. This would truly be a boom and could carry the U.S. economy along with it."

Neil Dutta, an economist at Renaissance Macro, also pointed out in a recent note to clients that this thesis is likely to play out because while millennials may have been slower to start along the path to becoming "real" adults  you know, owning homes, having kids, etc.  they still take the path. Millennials are people, too.

Read more from Akin Oyedele here 

US Economy

Job openings are at a record high.

On Wednesday, the BLS reported that in April the number of jobs open in the US totaled a record 5.788 million, more than than the 5.67 million openings that were forecast.

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This number wasn't all good, however, as the total number of hires fell slightly  not a shock given the decline in payroll gains in both April and May  and the hiring rate fell to 3.5% from 3.7% in the prior month.

The report also showed that the quits rate fell to 2% in April, down from 2.1% the prior month. The quits rate is seen as a proxy for worker confidence in the economy with the thinking being that you won't quit a job unless you're reasonably confident you can find another one.

In a note to clients following the report, Ian Shepherdson, an economist at Pantheon Macro, said that, "[Fed Chair Janet] Yellen is a keen watcher of the quit rate, citing it yet again in her speech in Philadelphia this week, so this decline reduces the chance of a July hike, at the margin. By the time of the September meeting, we expect the quit rate  which just moves inversely with the unemployment rate  will have risen again."

fredgraph (11)

The gap between jobs available and the number of hires we're seeing also continues to suggest that something is wrong in the US labor market. In short, there seems to be a mismatch between what employers want and what employees can offer.

Lululemon

Lululemon reported earnings on Wednesday.

It was a slight miss.

The stock rose 5%. Investors were fine with it!

So, too, were analysts.

Linette Lopez thinks they were too fine with it, though.

Here's Linette:

After missing analysts' earnings estimates by one penny, Lululemon CEO Laurent Potdevin extolled the virtues of his company's new loose tops for layering and its menswear strategy. He sounded excited about opening 18% more square footage of stores over the quarter, and he praised his company for being "channel agnostic."

It was a lovefest, and the only people more excited on the call than the CEO were the analysts. At least twice during the call, Potdevin's optimistic rundown of the company was met with an even more enthusiastic "great quarter ... really challenging environment ... really challenging ... great quarter" from Wall Street analysts.

The "great quarter, guys" saying is something that's been termed, by some of the very analysts who use this idiom, the "most embarrassing" thing you can say as a Wall Street analyst. Though, admittedly, this is a hard job.

As an analyst, you're paid to bring insights to your firm's clients they can't get elsewhere. Part of these insights, in theory, are developed from meeting with management. But some managements can be fickle, prickly even.

Sometimes, when analysts are hard on management they may get less access, or slower access, or no access. And this would then make the analyst's job harder to do, the clients harder to serve, and so on.

On the one hand being nice to management in a public forum like a conference call is embarrassing. On the other hand, it's just business.

I think I'm a bit more sympathetic to the analysts here than Linette is. Which is fine. We usually disagree.

As for the problems that appear to exist at Lululemon, inventory at the company rose 21% from the same time last year. As a retailer, this is bad. High inventory means sales are coming, means margins will be lower, meanings earnings could fall.

The circle of life.

Additionally

Every stock market crash in the last 60 years.

There's a new whiskey ETF.

The mobile app boom is over.

South Africa is 'clearly heading in the wrong direction,' according to Capital Economics.

Syria's civil war has been terrible for its economy.

Apple is making some changes to its App Store.

NOW WATCH: All 460 Sports Authority stores are closing  heres when clearance sales begin





More From Business Insider


Beirut (AFP) - Syrian government air strikes on rebel-held neighbourhoods of divided second city Aleppo killed at least 15 civilians on Wednesday, a monitor said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 10 of the dead came in raids just outside the Al-Bayan hospital in the Shaar neighbourhood.

Two children were among four people killed in strikes on the Al-Marja district using barrel bombs -- crude explosive devices packed with shrapnel and usually dropped from helicopters, the Observatory said.

One person was killed in a strike on the Al-Maadi neighbourhood.

Rescue workers -- known as the White Helmets -- gave a higher toll of 23 dead.

Al-Bayan hospital said a member of its staff had been wounded in the strikes and that the building had been evacuated.

An AFP photographer said the hospital entrance had been damaged but the rest of the building was intact.

Aleppo was once Syria's commercial powerhouse, but it has been a battleground since 2012 when rebels seized the east of the city confining the army to the west.

Since then, the rebels have repeatedly pounded government-held areas with rocket and mortar fire, while the army has hit rebel neighbourhoods with air strikes

A truce brokered by Russia and the United States in February has been persistently violated in and around Aleppo.
When it comes to the student loan process, many aspects can catch borrowers off guard. One of the biggest surprises is that the amount you borrow is not actually the amount you receive.

And soon, that amount will be slightly smaller.

The Budget Control Act of 2011, also known as the sequester law, lifted the debt ceiling. This legislation lowers the budget in a series of steps, so absent of Congress taking additional action, it will continue to affect government costs annually until 2021. Those costs, of course, include different aspects of the federal student aid program.

In addition to affecting student loan origination fees, which are set to rise slightly this year, the Budget Control Act of 2011 determines the maximum value of two federal grants for students: Iraq-Afghanistan Service and TEACH grants. Both will also decrease slightly beginning Oct. 1.

Student Loan Origination Fees

Lenders often charge a fee to originate, or issue, a student loan. They subtract this origination fee directly from the loan funds before disbursing them to you, the borrower. You still repay the entire loan amount, though.

For private student loans, origination fees vary from lender to lender. Some may omit these fees altogether. Others may omit them but include additional fees for the application, prepayment or extra services. Read your student loan agreement closely for these terms before signing.

[Read about the10 questions to ask before borrowing a private student loan for college.]

Origination fees are the only fees associated with today's federal student loans. Federal law dictates the fee amount.

For subsidized and unsubsidized student loans, the fee is 1.068 percent. For PLUS student loans, the fee is 4.272 percent.

For example, if you borrow $10,000 in unsubsidized student loans, you would receive $9,893.20 in funds with your lender -- in the case of all federal student loans today, the lender is the federal government -- receiving the remaining $106.80 as its origination fee. For the same amount in PLUS student loans, you would receive $9,572.80 and your lender would receive $427.20.

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Beginning Oct. 1, these fees will rise -- but only slightly. For subsidized and unsubsidized student loans, the fee will now be 1.069 percent, a change of 0.001 percent.

PLUS student loans will increase slightly more -- 0.004 percent -- to 4.276 percent. Using our examples above, these changes mean you would receive $9,893.10 and $9,572.40, respectively, for $10,000 worth of unsubsidized student loans and PLUS student loans.

[Take these steps to understandstudent loan interest rates.]

In the example, these changes subtract pennies from the loan amount. Still, most borrowers would likely rather receive more money than their lender, even if it is just a few cents.

Grant Amounts Affected

For grants first disbursed after Oct. 1, the maximum amount you can receive will be 6.9 percent less than the statutory maximum allowed by law. While that sounds like a steep decrease, it is actually a drop of only 0.1 percent year over year -- and still a nice increase from the 7.3 percent decrease required two years ago.

[Discover the10 colleges where merit aid is most common.]

To use real-world numbers, the statutory maximum Iraq-Afghanistan Service Grant is $5,815. Currently, students can receive up to a maximum of 6.8 percent less than that amount or $5,419.18. Beginning Oct. 1, that maximum will change to $5,413.77 -- roughly $5 less.

For TEACH grants, the statutory maximum is $4,000. At 6.8 percent less than that amount, borrowers can currently receive up to $3,728. When the Oct. 1 changes take effect, that number will dip to $3,724.

As with the origination fees, the changes hardly seem dramatic from a financial standpoint. Still, when determining how you are going to pay for next semester, it is important to know exactly how far your loans and grants will get you.

Ryan Lane is the senior editor for American Student Assistance, where he oversees the financial website saltmoney.org and serves as the editor of the SALT Blog. He graduated from Syracuse University with a B.S. in journalism.
By Jake Spring BEIJING (Reuters) - Carbon emissions from cars in the Chinese city of Chengdu could be underestimated by more than half under conventional testing methods, according to the preliminary results of a study released on Wednesday. The findings from the study in the central city were supported by a research arm of China's top planning body using data from Uber and taxi firms. It found that standard laboratory estimates of carbon emissions from cars were off by about 6,500 metric tonnes per day, or about 59 percent. The study aims to pave the way for more targeted carbon emissions policies in China. "In the (the Chinese government's most recent) 13th five-year plan, every region and city has the target, but the question is how you meet those targets and how do you verify the target has been met?" said An Feng, head of the Innovation Center for Energy and Transportation, a think-tank that led the study. "You cannot manage if you can't measure it." Vehicles emissions have previously been far more difficult to measure than fixed sources of pollution such as factories and power plants. Using data from ride-hailing services and taxis would be better than current laboratory testing arrangements in preventing manipulation by local governments and automakers, An told Reuters in an interview prior to the summit. To expand from ride hailing and taxis to all cars, the Chinese government would need to find an arrangement with automakers to gather data from private cars, although while also addressing privacy and security concerns, he said. An said he envisions the study expanding around China so that cities, and eventually even companies, can be ranked by carbon emissions. Systems and policies could then be tailored to this data, such as taxing companies or even products based on the amount of carbon they create. (Reporting by Jake Spring; Editing by Stephen Coates)
Beyonce Wears $9 Million in Diamonds to Accept CFDA Fashion Icon Award [Elle]

The news that Beyonce was the "surprise" winner of Monday night's CFDA Fashion Icon Award was the worst kept secret of the evening. What did come as a surprise, however, was the fact that the superstar chose to accessorize her glittering Givenchy pantsuit - custom-made by Riccardo Tisici - with $9 million of Lorraine Schwartz diamonds. A 100-carat necklace ($7M), 25-carat studs and no fewer than four diamond rings topped off Queen Bey's look. They don't call her a fashion icon for nothing.

Burberry Creative Director Christopher Bailey's Salary Slashed by 75 Percent [The Guardian]

Amid continuously falling sales, Burberry is undergoing a few internal changes in an effort to turn things around. To start, creative director Christopher Bailey is taking a massive pay cut - from an annual salary of 7.5 million to 1.9 million. The 75 percent pay cut can mostly be attributed to the fact that he did not receive a bonus; in 2014, Bailey received a 5.7 million bonus, which made up a significant portion of his pay.

Social Media (Over)Reacts to Hillary Clinton's $12K Armani Jacket [Yahoo]

Hillary Clinton is no stranger to taking flak for her fashion choices. This time, the former secretary of state was criticized for wearing a pricey Armani jacket during a speech while on the campaign trail in April. The New York Post pointed out that while speaking on income inequality, Clinton was rocking a red tweed blazer priced at $12,495.

Pat and Anna Cleveland Cover Vogue Italia [Instagram]

One day after Kate Moss and her daughter, 13-year-old Lila Grace, landed a Vogue Italia cover, one more cover from June's "Love" issue has surfaced - this one featuring another famous mother-daughter duo. Pat Cleveland and her daughter, model Anna Cleveland, as well as her husband, Pat van Ravenstein and her son, Noel van Ravenstein, were photographed by Mario Sorrenti for the not-so-average family portrait.

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A photo posted by Anna Cleveland (@anna_vrc) on Jun 7, 2016 at 12:16pm PDT

Ralph Lauren to Close Stores, Layoff Staff [Washington Post]

Ralph Lauren CEO Stefan Larsson on Tuesday revealed a new plan to investors which he hopes will help the company recover from falling profits. The shake-up includes shuttering 50 underperforming stores and eliminating nearly 1,000 jobs. The company also plans to narrow its focus on its core brands - Ralph Lauren, Polo Ralph Lauren and Lauren Ralph Lauren - and its signature, all-American aesthetic in order to revamp the business.
Nairobi (AFP) - The newly-reconciled leaders of South Sudan have called for a South Africa-style truth commission to heal the scars of a gruesome war in the world's youngest nation.

President Salva Kiir and the newly-appointed vice president, Riek Machar, a former foe, said in a joint piece in The New York Times they were committed to ensuring South Sudan never again goes through a civil war.

"Bringing South Sudan together can be truly guaranteed only through one route: an organised peace and reconciliation process with international backing," they wrote on Tuesday.

"We intend to create a national truth and reconciliation commission modelled on those of South Africa and Northern Ireland," they said, ruling out punitive action for past misdeeds.

"Disciplinary justice -- even if delivered under international law -- would destabilise efforts to unite our nation by keeping alive anger and hatred among the people of South Sudan," they said.

After gaining independence from Sudan in 2011, South Sudan erupted into civil war in December 2013, when Kiir accused Machar of plotting a coup and sacked him as vice president.

That set off a cycle of retaliatory killings that split the poverty-stricken, landlocked country along ethnic lines.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than two million have been driven from their homes.

The conflict has been characterised by horrific rights abuses, including gang rapes, the wholesale burning of villages and cannibalism.

The United States is pushing for the rapid creation of a special court backed by the African Union to try war crimes suspects.

In Washington, the State Department said there may also be a role for a truth and reconciliation commission, but warned that both leaders had signed up for a true court.

"We're disappointed," spokesman Mark Toner said.

"We firmly support the African Union's efforts to establish this hybrid court, which is called for by the peace agreement which was signed by President Kiir and First Vice President Machar in August 2015," he added.

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"And we expect the parties to fulfill their responsibilities."

The creation of the hybrid court and a separate truth and reconciliation commission was a key provision of a peace accord signed by Machar and Kiir in August last year.

But that failed to stop the fighting. In February, Kiir named Machar as his vice-president once again and Machar entered the capital Juba in May, finally paving the way for a unity government.

Kiir and Machar said the truth and reconciliation commission would have sweeping powers and be able to investigate everybody from "the poorest farmer to the most powerful politician".

"Those who tell the truth about what they saw or did would be granted amnesty from prosecution - even if they did not express remorse," they said.

The two leaders said the conflict had left "South Sudan with one of the highest levels of military spending by gross domestic product in the world."

To add to its woes, South Sudan's oil production virtually ground to a halt during the civil war after Kiir dismissed Machar as his vice president in December 2013.
baltimore

What happens to a city when long-simmering racial tensions erupt and it suddenly becomes a 2-week-long breaking news event on CNNwith nonstop images of burning buildings, looting, and shootings, and stomach-churning allegations of police brutality, all vividly delivered into living rooms, computers, and phones around the world?

The bigger question: Do riots destroy troubled, modern U.S. cities like Baltimore and Ferguson? Or do they save them?

Certainly the former has long been accepted as the conventional wisdom, and was one of the alarming takeaways from the civil rights era. Widespread urban race riots in the 60s and 70sespecially in Detroit; Newark, NJ; Cleveland; and the Watts section of Los Anglessped up an exodus to the suburbs by those who could afford it, leaving behind a glut of shuttered properties, empty commercial areas, and depressed home prices. And those cities have never fully recovered.

That lesson was reaffirmed yet again after the devastating 1992 Los Angeles riots, when home prices downtown took a major, protracted hit.

But something different now seems to be happening in Ferguson, MO, and Baltimore, MD. The cities erupted in violent, hugely publicized protests, in 2014 and 2015, respectivelyand have since seen housing prices recently increase above pre-riot levels.

Shattered storefront windows have been repaired, most businesses have reopened, and peacehowever uneasyhas returned. Now, fresh private and public money is being invested in the revitalization of the struggling communities where the #BlackLivesMatter movement took hold.

It suggests a startling possibility: Did all that ugliness actually spur a recovery?

Up from the ashes

In Ferguson, a small suburb of St. Louis where the shooting death of black 18-year-old Michael Brown by a white cop in August 2014 set off rioting, home prices are now higher than they were before the unrest. The year before Brown died, 2013, the average sale price of residential, condo, co-op, and villa properties in Ferguson was $58,368, according to the website of the St. Louis Association of Realtors. That went up to $74,156 in 2015, after the protests. Average prices have hit $108,075 so far this year.

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Theyre also rebounding in Baltimore, just a year after the April 2015 death of Freddie Gray, another young black man, in police custody also led to protests that turned violent, leading authorities to bring in the National Guard to restore order. The final tally of damage was about $9 million to two homes and nearly 300 businesses, according to a U.S. government survey.

This April, the median cost of a residence within the city limits hit $135,000more than 31% higher than in April 2015, when the turbulence began and prices were at $102,750, according to data provided by the Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors. In April 2014, the median home price was $119,700.

And even more homes were sold within the city limits in the year following the riots than the year preceding them.

How can that be? Experts say there are a number of reasons for the boomerang effect. Among them: the violence, however disturbing, never turned deadly; both areas, after their publicity, saw a big spillover from strong housing markets nearby; and both saw an influx in new money invested as a result of the uprising and turmoil.

It ends up having a better resolution than we ever could have hoped for, says Alan Ingraham, CEO of the Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors. After the unrest, nobody could avoid recognizing that there are widespread problems, like unemployment, poverty, and racial disparities that affect inner-city neighborhoods.

Home buyers are seeking bargains

Ferguson is benefiting from its proximity to St. Louis, which is just 20 minutes away, says realtor.coms chief economist, Jonathan Smoke.

Its more affordable, he says of the smaller citya fact not lost on cash-strapped buyers. The median home price in St. Louis is $169,900, according to realtor.com.

Baltimore gets its boost from its close proximity to Washington, DC, where the median home price in April$525,000was nearly four times as much as in the Maryland city, according to the Greater Capital Area Association of Realtors.

Negative publicity, housing experts say, tends to have more of an influence on people who are unfamiliar with the area. Prices and sales were down in Baltimore for about five or six months after the uprisings thrust the city into the spotlight, says Baltimore real estate agent Gina Gargeu of Century 21. But buyers have short memories.

A lot of out-of-towners and people relocating to the area shied away from downtown Baltimore and decided to move to the suburbs instead, she says. Now the demands increased.

That may also be because the violence in Baltimore and, especially, Ferguson was relatively mild, says Robert Margo, an economics professor at Boston University.

If a riot lasts only a day or two and no ones killed, theres not much looting or burning and its consigned to a small area, you might not see any effects on [real estate] prices, he says.

New investment in Baltimore

Since the riots, local auctioneer Adam Shpritz of the Ashland Auction Group has seen more investors come out of the woodwork looking for vacant, dirt-cheap homes in Baltimores troubled Sandtown-Winchester area, where Gray was arrested. (Theres still a glut of them on the market, he says.) The interest is due, in part, to government investment in the area.

The city and state have pledged about $94 million to raze empty properties in the hardest-hit (and poorest) areas, and $600 million more in subsidies designed to spur redevelopment, according to The Baltimore Sun.

We see a lot of excitement from investors trying to buy inventory in the area with the goal of renovating and developing to rent or resell, Shpritz says. Investors are following the trend [set by] the city and trying to buy while prices are still low.

Bids for vacant, three-story, row homes selling at auction start at just $5,000, according to realtor.com.

The result has been that more of these rundown buildings are getting much-needed rehabs, which will add value to the area.

Now that were a year out, we can truly say that the neighborhood is better than it was, says Ingraham, of the Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors.

However, the recovery throughout the city has been uneven. Prices in Sandtown-Winchester initially plummeted nearly 37% after the rioting, according to data provided by Live Baltimore, a group that promotes living in the city. They fell from an average $17,600 from January through April 2014 to just $11,113 during the same time period a year later.

They have since gone back up to an average $16,500 in the first four months of this yeara more modest 6.5% dip from 2014.

The unrest brought attention to the need to focus some reinvestment to these areas, says Steven Gondol, executive director Live Baltimore. The end result will be stable, thriving neighborhoods.

But real estate agent Gargeu cautions that without an anchor such as a large commercial development, these communities wont be able to really take off.

Its going to take a lot more development and developers taking [continued] interest in the area for it to actually improve, she says.

Promising signs in Ferguson

Ferguson, with a population of just more than 21,000 people at last count, may also be on its way up.

In April, health care company Centene opened a new call center, complete with 200 new jobs with benefitson a former blighted car lot. The citys first Starbucks fired up its Frappuccino machine the same month.

The QuikTrip convenience store that was burned during the chaos is slated to be replaced by a jobs training and placement community center early next year by the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, say organization officials.

There is also new local investment in the community. Ferguson landlord and developer Michael Palmer is putting up a new building with three commercial spaces and 23 high-end apartments across the street from the police station. Plans for the project began before Browns death, says Palmer, who grew up in Ferguson.

Im not going to let something like this stop me, says Palmer of the strife.

But the city is still in desperate need of state and federal money to improve the commercial district that was hardest hit by the protests, says Ferguson Mayor James Knowles III. And the Target, just outside the city limits where law enforcement had once set up a command center, is slated to close this summer.

Prices in the most depressed neighborhoods, where the violence spilled over, havent gone down, says longtime Ferguson real estate broker David Pope. But they arent going up either, he says.

Knowles attributes the jump in the overall citys real estate prices to the glut of foreclosures and short sales in Ferguson stabilizing and the properties being bought up, leading buyers to shell out for more market-priced homes.

Theres a trajectory to see this increased interest in investment in the city, Knowles says. But its not entirely true yet.

The future remains uncertain

So while the prospects for these wounded communities appear better than expected, theyre still a long ways from a happy ending. And rioting certainly shouldnt be seen as a tool to spur urban revitalization.

Once somebody starts a fire, they dont know whats going to burn down, says Kevin McGruder, a history professor at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, OH.

We can look at the aftermath and see that resources were directed toward those communities, he says. But it could [also] lead to abandonment.

The post The Surprising Comeback of the Real Estate Markets in Baltimore and Ferguson appeared first on Real Estate News and Advice - realtor.com.





Related Articles
Oh, Canada: For years you've been touted as America's friendlier neighbor to the north, a land where maple syrup flows like wine.

But there's a dark side to this snow-swept paradise many people don't know "aboat": Survey results published by the Environics Institute  a Canadian social research organization  and reported by the CBC this week reveal that non-indigenous Canadians have some troubling attitudes about their indigenous neighbors.

From the CBC, here are three key findings from the survey, in which researchers cold-called 2,001 non-indigenous Canadians in January and February and asked them general questions about the country's First Nations people:

1. Sixty-seven percent of non-Aboriginal Canadians agree indigenous people "have a sense of entitlement about receiving support from government and taxpayers."

2. Thirty-five percent of non-Aboriginal people in the Canadian state of Manitoba, 41% of non-Aboriginal people in Saskatchewan and 32% of non-Aboriginal Albertans said the biggest obstacle to economic and social equality is indigenous people themselves.

3. Only two-thirds of non-Aboriginal Canadians surveyed said they'd heard or read anything about the history of residential schools in Canada  schools that were designed to forcibly assimilate indigenous children into mainstream Canadian culture.

Such schools were rife with physical and sexual abuses. Over the course of their existence from 1876 to 1996, up to 6,000 Aboriginal youth died there, in perhaps the country's defining act of what its government later called "cultur

New Survey Shows How Canadians Really Feel About Indigenous People  And It's Not Pretty

Paradise lost?

The survey highlights a surprising level of racial hostility for a country seen as so utopian.

If any of it sounds familiar, it's because Americans feel similarly about black people: A 2014 Pew study of political attitudes in the US found that 63% of Americans think black folks who can't get ahead in society are mostly responsible for their own condition.

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That Canadians can feel similarly about a people their government has so routinely oppressed and degraded  as the US has done to black Americans  speaks to a staggering ability of those in power to view privilege and social mobility with little regard for history.

But there's also good news: Forty-eight percent of respondents think the residential school system is at least partly responsible for the current challenges indigenous people face. Such challenges include the highest child poverty rates in the country, high suicide rates in many indigenous communities and an epidemic of missing and murdered indigenous women the government has just started paying attention to.

Growing awareness around the factors that lead to such racial disparities in Canada is important to the nation's growth. But this survey also shows that racism is far from a uniquely American problem.
Hollywood actresses Susan Sarandon, Sigourney Weaver and Elizabeth Banks were among the winners atGlamour magazine's Women of the Year Awards in London on Tuesday, taking home a range of prizes voted for by readers. Banks, known for "The Hunger Games" and "Pitch Perfect," picked up the film maker trophy while Weaver was honored with the "Glamour Icon" award. Oscar winner Sarandon picked up the "Glamour Inspiration" award. Other winners on the night included Australian actress Rose Byrne, "Absolutely Fabulous" star Jennifer Saunders and girl music group Little Mix. (Writing By Sara Hemrajani; Editing by Marie-Louise Gumuchian)
By Naomi Tajitsu

TOKYO (Reuters) - Suzuki Motor Corp <7269.T> patriarch Osamu Suzuki is stepping down as chief executive and the Japanese automaker promised to cut executive pay and slash 2015 bonuses after the bruising admission of major flaws in its fuel tests.

Executive Vice President Osamu Honda, who also served as chief technical officer, will retire, taking responsibility for the research and development team at the heart of the testing scandal.

The company said that board members would choose the next CEO on June 29 after its annual shareholder's meeting, and that the top executive would be selected from among the board members.

Japan's No. 4 automaker by sales said in May it had used the wrong methods to calculate mileage for models going back to 2010, widening a mileage testing storm that had already rocked smaller rival Mitsubishi Motors Corp <7211.T>.

Those followed accounting scandals at Olympus Corp <7733.T> and Toshiba Corp <6502.T>, prompting criticism from some investors that the Japanese government's push to introduce new corporate governance rules has failed to shake up a cozy and often secretive corporate culture.

Suzuki, who has led the company for nearly four decades, acknowledged that during the past few years it had become difficult to oversee all of the company's operations on his own.

"Upon reflection, I believe that this may have contributed to the latest incident," he told reporters on Wednesday.

Suzuki, 86, will remain as chairman, but his narrower role is a recognition of responsibility for a testing error the company previously shrugged off.

The automaker used indoor tests for its cars' individual parts, rather than testing vehicles on an outdoor course. It said this was done because its testing site is on a windy hill by the sea, making readings erratic.

On Wednesday, it also blamed a lack of transparency in its key research unit.

"This latest incident occurred because of problems within the company which had continued for a long time, including an R&D division which was not transparent enough," said Toshihiro Suzuki, the chairman's eldest son. He took over from his father as president last year.

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"We are making these changes today to try to regain the trust of our customers, and to rebuild Team Suzuki."

Suzuki, as chairman, will oversee efforts to strengthen compliance and improve training for engineers, while reworking its mileage testing procedures to ensure they comply with regulations.

Raided by Japanese investigators last week as part of a probe over the tests, Suzuki also said it would encourage whistle-blowing.

Suzuki's changed role and Honda's retirement are effective June 29, subject to approval by shareholders at its annual general meeting, the company said.

The testing scandals at Suzuki and Mitsubishi come after Volkswagen AG <VOWG.DE> was first discovered last year to have cheated diesel emissions tests in the United States.

(Reporting by Naomi Tajitsu; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman/Ruth Pitchford)
By Alexandra Ulmer and Anggy Polanco PUERTO SANTANDER, Colombia (Reuters) - Thousands of Venezuelans living near the border discovered years ago that smuggling heavily subsidized food into Colombia made them far more money than the meager wages from regular jobs. But with crisis-hit Venezuela suffering drastic food shortages this year and local resale prices spiraling, some have decided to flip the business model: zipping into Colombia to buy flour, rice and even diapers for desperate shoppers back in Venezuela. "There's nothing left in Venezuela, what's left is hunger. Colombia is what's saving us," said one 30-year-old smuggler who now rides his motor bike to shop in Colombia's buzzing border town of Puerto Santander. "Colombia is what is saving people," said the smuggler, a former construction worker who asked to remain anonymous to avoid arrest. He says he keeps some food for his wife and three children but sells most of it to markets in Venezuela's Andean border state of Tachira or in the capital, Caracas. Leftist President Nicolas Maduro last year closed crossings into Colombia to try to end the smuggling he said was bleeding Venezuela dry. But the about-face in smuggling routes in the last few months was clear one morning late last week when Reuters journalists saw hundreds of people streaming into Colombia to buy food, medicines, and basic hygiene products. Dozens lined up on a bridge to plead with the military to let them through. Others drifted over in wooden boats right under the nose of Venezuela's National Guard and army. A half-dozen said they bribed officials to cross over dirt roads, and a few swam from one leafy shore to the other. The business is driven by Venezuela's worsening economic crisis. Poor and middle-class people brave food lines for hours but increasingly end up empty-handed. Many are forced to skip meals and survive on mangoes and plantains, or forage through garbage. Unruly supermarket lines have become riskier and a woman was shot dead in Tachira this week after frustrated shoppers raided warehouses. 'CRITICAL' SITUATION Venezuela's opposition is pushing to have Maduro removed via a recall referendum, saying it is the only way to avert a full-blown humanitarian crisis in the oil-rich country. "There's nothing in my fridge," said Gloria, 48, who got up at 4 a.m. on a recent morning to travel to Puerto Santander to buy rice, sugar and coffee for her family of eight. "In the last month the situation has become more critical, we can't find anything," she said, taking a break from carrying heavy shopping bags. Before shoppers like Gloria began showing up, Puerto Santander was suffering a downturn as Maduro's border crackdown and Venezuela's scarcities had dimmed the inflow of cheap goods smuggled in from Venezuela. To be sure, children, gangs, and even middle-class Venezuelans continued to smuggle Venezuelan gasoline - the world's cheapest - across the murky brown rivers that mark the 2,300-km (1,400-mile) border. But it is the reverse flow of goods that has Puerto Santander's once-shuttered stores humming again. Venezuelans drag bulky bags or suitcases down busy streets, shoppers with fistfuls of Venezuelan bills elbow their way to counters, and Colombians on motor bikes offer their services. "Thanks to the fact there's nothing in Venezuela this town has shot back to life," said store owner Jose Armando, 42, who now sells Colombian-made products to exclusively Venezuelan customers. Venezuela's Information Ministry did not respond to a request for comment. Colombia's government declined to comment. COLOMBIAN PRODUCTS - OR NOTHING On the other side of the border, Venezuelan shoppers are scooping up Colombian goods. Once out of reach, many goods have become a bit cheaper than the scarce and pricey Venezuelan products hawked locally by "bachaqueros" - resellers named for an industrious leaf-carrying ant. Rice, for instance, can be bought in Colombia for the equivalent of about 1,300 bolivars and sold in Venezuela for around 1,800 bolivars. Venezuela's government fixes a kilo of rice at some 120 bolivars, but on the local black market the coveted product now fetches approximately 2,000 bolivars - just $2 at the unofficial foreign exchange rate but around one-fifth of a monthly minimum wage, factoring in monthly food tickets. For two months now, Clarissa Garcia, 37, has bought Colombian soap, flour and sugar to sell in her small stall at the market of La Fria, a leafy town a half-hour drive from the border. "People would be dying of hunger if there weren't Colombian products," she said, washing tomatoes as shoppers streamed by inquiring about prices. Some grimaced at her response. Venezuela's poor, and those who live far from the border, have no choice but risk ever longer and more dangerous lines in front of supermarkets patrolled by National Guards soldiers where scuffles are now common. By 7 a.m. on a recent morning in San Cristobal, the capital Tachira, some 2,000 shoppers were waiting in front of a supermarket hoping to be among the lucky few able to buy soap and flour when its doors opened. "We can't stand this anymore," said Talia Carrillo, 38, who arrived the night before, slept in the line, and woke up in the morning to find others in line being robbed. "I earn minimum wage. That doesn't give us the base to buy expensive products. But we can't go on like this, we're barely finding anything." (Additional reporting by Nelson Bocanegra in Bogota; Writing by Alexandra Ulmer; Editing by Kieran Murray and Jeffrey Benkoe)
Beirut (AFP) - Syrian rebels ousted the Islamic State group from two villages near the Turkish border on Wednesday, re-opening a key supply route for opposition forces in northern Aleppo, a monitor said.

IS had captured several villages between the rebel-held northern towns of Marea and Azaz on May 27, cutting off rebel forces in Marea from their supply line with Turkey and forcing thousands of people to flee.

But on Wednesday morning rebels including several Islamist groups launched simultaneous attacks from the two towns to squeeze IS fighters out, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group.

IS "did not fight hard, but rather withdrew, as they are facing attacks on numerous fronts in northern Syria," said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.

Marea and the border town of Azaz, 20 kilometres (12 miles) to the northwest, have been in rebel hands since 2012.

The jihadist assault also threatened tens of thousands of displaced people sheltering in makeshift camps next to the Turkish border.

IS controls a band of territory along the Turkish border from parts of Aleppo province to the group's stronghold of Raqa on the Euphrates river to the east.

The group is under pressure from simultaneous attacks that threaten its supply lines from the Turkish border down to Raqa.

US-backed Kurdish and Arab fighters are advancing towards the IS-held town of Manbij in an attempt to cut off the jihadists' supplies of recruits and funds across the Turkish border.

Russian-backed regime forces are also advancing towards Syria's largest dam and the adjacent IS-held town of Tabqa, another key point along IS supply lines to Raqa.
Afghan authorities Wednesday recovered bullet-ridden bodies of 12 security officials recently captured by the Taliban in eastern Ghazni province, while gunmen kidnapped 40 others in the country's north as the insurgency escalates.

The violence underscores Afghanistan's fragile security situation as the Taliban, who launched their annual spring offensive in April, rejected government calls this week for a ceasefire during the holy month of Ramadan.

The 12 soldiers, police and intelligence officers were captured over the past two months from different highway crossings in the insurgency-prone province of Ghazni.

"The bodies... of our personnel captured by the enemy were discovered in Andar district this morning," Ghazni's Governor Mohammad Aman Hamim told reporters.

Separately, insurgents abducted 40 bus passengers in Kunduz on Wednesday, in the second such group abduction in the northern province in less than two weeks, officials said.

Seven other passengers managed to escape when Taliban fighters stopped the bus on the highway near Kunduz city, said police spokesman Mahfuzullah Akbari.

The Taliban have so far not commented on the 12 captives and the latest abduction.

The latter came after the Taliban killed 10 bus passengers, many of them summarily executed, and kidnapped dozens of others in Kunduz last week.

The insurgents said they were targeting Afghan security officials aboard the buses, and Amnesty International condemned the abductions.

"The kidnapping by an armed group of scores of civilians... in Kunduz represents an abhorrent new tactic that endangers civilian lives by ensnaring them in the conflict," the rights group said in a statement.

"By kidnapping a large group of civilians for the second time in as many weeks, armed groups have demonstrated contempt for the security of ordinary people. Combatants in a conflict have a responsibility to protect civilian life."

The Taliban have stepped up attacks after announcing Haibatullah Akhundzada as their new leader on May 25, elevating a low-profile religious figure after officially confirming the death of Mullah Mansour in a US drone strike.

Observers say Akhundzada, who is seen as more of a spiritual figurehead than a military commander, will emulate Mansour in shunning peace talks and intensify attacks against the Afghan government.
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is joined by his daughter Ivanka as he speaks at Trump National Golf Club Westchester on Tuesday. (Photo: Mary Altaffer/AP)

There is growing talk on the right of replacing Donald Trump, the Republican Partys presumptive nominee for president, and even chatter about a possible alternative.

As Trump has floundered over the past week after questioning a federal judges impartiality because of his Mexican ancestry, Trumps critics within the GOP have stepped up their efforts to thwart him. Some anti-Trump conservatives, who have tried for months to recruit an independent candidate, have begun looking more closely at attempting to persuade delegates at next months GOP convention to nominate someone other than Trump.

There is a rapidly moving train toward the convention to try to obstruct it at the convention. Trump in the last 72 hours has given hope to people who think its now possible, said Erick Erickson, a conservative radio talk show host and one of Trumps most resolute critics.

Hes starting to give everybody hope that he should be stopped at the convention, Erickson said, though he cautioned that if Trump cleans up his act then I think that hope will go away.

One of the central players inside the movement to recruit an independent conservative candidate also said Monday that an anti-Trump group was actively recruiting and setting a convention strategy.

And David French, a conservative writer who considered running as an anti-Trump independent candidate, told Yahoo News that Trump shouldnt take his convention nomination for granted. If Trump continues to be cocky, saying, I can do whatever I want and do whatever I want because I own these people, theres a limit to that, French said. Im sorry, but there is.

Public calls for Republicans to replace Trump grew Wednesday.

I want to support the nominee of the party, but I think the party ought to change the nominee. Because were going to get killed with this nominee, Hugh Hewitt, a nationally syndicated conservative radio talk show host, said. They ought to get together and let the convention decide. And if Donald Trump pulls over a makeover in the next four to five weeks, great, they can keep him.

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And the same day, Steve Deace, a conservative activist and radio talk show host from Iowa, reviewed Trumps most recent missteps on his radio show and urged the 2,500 delegates to the Republican convention to make this stop.

History is calling you to step up to the plate. You have not a choice but an obligation. You must save the country, Deace said to the delegates.

A.J. Spiker, a former Iowa Republican Party chairman, tweeted on Tuesday, The Republican Party needs a patriot to step forward, challenge Trump, work delegates and win the GOP nomination for president in Cleveland.

Prominent Republican politicians have also started to distance themselves from Trump. Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., said Tuesday he would not vote for Trump despite having pledged previously to support the partys nominee. And Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., who also has said he wont support Trump, told an Arizona radio station that there is fear and loathing of the partys nominee.

Theres not a lot of enthusiasm. Theres some resignation and some mixture of fear and loathing to think about what the next couple months will bring given the statements that he has made, Flake said.

Amid this agitation for a Trump alternative, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walkers name has been increasingly mentioned as a possible replacement. Walker was an early frontrunner in the GOP primary, but he suspended his campaign last summer in the face of sagging fundraising and poll numbers.

Walker previously said he would ultimately support the GOP nominee. But on Tuesday, Walker backed away from supporting Trump, pointedly saying, Hes not yet the nominee.

The conservative site RedState reported Wednesday that there are rumors that Walker is open to such an outcome. And one source who has been involved in the effort to recruit an independent candidate said Walker has told those working to find an alternative that he would be willing to serve as an alternative at the convention if Trump continues to implode.

Rick Wilson, a Florida-based Republican operative involved in the stop-Trump effort, said Walkers potential entry into the race was speculative but widely discussed.

For his part, Walker dismissed the speculation in a statement to Yahoo News: Let me be clear: I am focused entirely on being governor. If theres any campaign in the future, its going to be running for reelection in 2018, which is a decision that well make in the months ahead following the next state budget.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker speaks during the American Conservative Unions Conservative Political Action Conference in March. (Photo: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Not every anti-Trump conservative thinks the convention discussion is wise. People have scenarios of the convention. I think they are a waste of time, said Michael P. Farris, president of Patrick Henry College. Not that I wouldnt wish it. I wish it every day.

Nevertheless, many have argued that the delegates to the convention are technically free to nominate whomever they want, despite the impression that they are bound by the results of the primary votes in each state. Every convention votes on its own rules, so if this years GOP delegates wanted to unbind themselves, the argument goes, nothing would stop them. Numerous judicial rulings have found that even state laws, which purport to bind approximately one-third of the delegates, cannot govern the internal affairs of a national political party  such as how delegates vote at a convention.

Deace wrote in a column on Saturday that the convention rules allowing delegates to follow their consciences are in place to protect the system from just such a leader as Trump.

French pointed out that many of the delegates to the convention are people who loathe [Trump], and that hasnt changed.

In the past few days, Trump found himself in a new firestorm after he repeatedly brought up the Mexican heritage of U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel in order to question the judges impartiality in a case involving Trump University.

In February, Trump linked Curiels heritage to the judges supposed hostility in his rulings so far in a lawsuit brought by people who say they were defrauded by Trump University. But the Manhattan developer began escalating that claim last week. Curiel was born in Indiana and is an American citizen.

Trump argued that Curiel had a conflict of interest because he is of Mexican heritage. Trump said that because he wants to build a wall across the U.S.-Mexico border, Curiel is inherently predisposed to rule against him. As a result, Trump said Curiel should recuse himself from the case involving Trump University, a now-shuttered for-profit school focused on real estate training.

A wave of Republicans rebuked Trumps argument. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, an enthusiastic Trump supporter, said Sunday that it was one of the worst mistakes Trump has made. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., who endorsed Trump just last week, said Monday that Trumps comments were a textbook definition of a racist comment.

Trump went into damage control mode Tuesday afternoon and evening, issuing a long statement defending Trump University and his complaints about Curiel. Trump further insisted he would no longer talk about the case.

At an election night press conference celebrating more primary wins, Trump implicitly acknowledged his recent struggles by promising to do better.

Youve given me the honor to lead the Republican Party to victory this fall, Trump said, reading from a teleprompter. I understand the responsibility of carrying the mantle and I will never, ever let you down.

Many believe Trump is incapable of showing more discipline.

Every pivot of Trumps is a 360, Wilson said. Theres no better version of Donald Trump. Theres no good Donald Trump.
Dale Finney stood quietly amid the crowd of cheering, flag-waving people.

Thousands of well-wishers had gathered at Eppley Airfield on Monday night.

Their mission: to welcome home Vietnam veterans, like Finney, who were returning after a daylong trip to Washington, D.C.

Patriotic Productions, which previously sent 2,100 World War II and Korean War veterans to the nations capital, organized the Nebraska Vietnam Combat Veterans Flight.

Finney was one of seven combat veterans from Fremont  and 500 from Nebraska  to make the trek.

Standing in a waiting area, Finney took in the sights and sounds at the Omaha airport.

Then he silently unfolded two pieces of paper. They were pencil rubbings hed made of a names inscribed on the black granite Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall.

One was William Hurt, the name of his wife Sandys first husband, from Fremont, who died in Vietnam. The other was Finneys friend, Daniel Fernandez, who was killed when he threw himself on a grenade, saving the lives of his fellow soldiers.

It was kind of a moving day, Finney said.

Early Monday morning, Vietnam combat veterans from Nebraska boarded three chartered planes for flights which took them to the nations capital.

There, they were greeted by crowds of people at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. They saw war memorial monuments and the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery.

They were largest group of Vietnam veterans from any one state to ever visit the Vietnam wall.

That night, Fremont veterans smiled as they walked around in a waiting area before they were to proceed down the long, carpeted walkway.

I had a great time, said Ronald Clayton, who served as a U.S. Marine. It was a real adventure. I cant believe we did that much stuff in one day.

It was better than we expected, said Bob Yanke, also a U.S. Marine veteran.

Finney, a U.S. Army veteran, was pleased as well.

The Wall was fantastic and the Statue of Iwo Jima was very moving, Finney said. I got to go to all the war memorials. Ive never been able to do that.

Al Crook, who served in the U.S. Army, was moved when he saw the long Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall. Lincoln Journal Star photographer Mike Theiler took a photo of Crook with his hand on the reflective wall.

The Vietnam wall was the most emotional and very impressive, Crook said. I didnt know what to expect and the World War II memorial was unbelievable.

Fremonter Jim Burford, who served in the U.S. Marines, smiled often as he talked about the trip. He was amazed by the crowds at the Washington, D.C. airport, when the veterans arrived.

People, dressed in costume, danced to 1940s music as veterans prepared to head home to Nebraska.

It was really enjoyable, Burford said.

Clayton and Burford were touched by the numbers of people who greeted veterans in Washington, D.C., and Omaha.

The turnout in both places was fantastic, Clayton said. I cant believe that many people came out to see us.

In Omaha, people of all ages lined the walkway from the terminal to the airport entrance and outside. At places the line was 10 feet deep with people, who clapped, waved American flags, held Welcome Home signs and handed yellow roses to the veterans. Children, veterans groups, scouts and the elderly were part of the group.

A little kid came up and gave me a yellow rose, said Fremonter Ken Frost, who served in the U.S. Army. It was very overwhelming.

The enthusiastic greeting was a stark contrast to the bad treatment many Vietnam veterans received years ago when they came home from the war. Vietnam veterans have long shared stories of being spit on and called terrible names.

This is the thank you we should have got 46 years ago, Burford said of the welcoming crowd. The way they treated us (then), the country learned not to do that again.

Burford agreed the experience brought some closure.

Finney noted something else: Im going to make sure when any other soldiers come home, Ill be here to welcome them.

Both the veterans and their wives commented about how well they were treated during this experience.

It was very humbling, said Burfords wife, Kathy. People keep saying, Thank you for your husbands service, for supporting him.

People arent making fancy speeches, she added. Theyre just standing up and saying, This is overdue and were grateful for your service. Were sorry you were overlooked and welcome home.

The wives, who had their own specially scheduled activities during the day, enjoyed spending time together.

The camaraderie among the women was just fantastic, said Claytons wife, Dorothy. Everybody got along so well and we all related to each other. We talked with each other about our husbands and their service. The day went very smoothly.

All of us could not believe how well planned this was. Everything just went off like clockwork.

Then before their spouses arrived at the airport, wives were brought as a group down the walkway as onlookers clapped and cheered. Several women wiped tears from their eyes.

Its overwhelming, said Bob Yankes wife, Jan. I cant imagine what the guys will feel.

Karen Hiatt of Columbus, whose husband, Russell, was among the veterans wives who talked about the benefits of the trip.

I think this will be a healing experience for the guys, Hiatt said.

Hiatt said her husband doesnt talk about the war.

I know almost nothing about his experiences, she said. Im hoping this will open him up a little.

When she asked if her husband might tell her about his experiences in Vietnam, he said maybe.

I thought that maybe was good, she said.

Like other veterans, Crook looks forward to gathering with his fellow veterans again.

We had a lot of fun and made a lot of new friends, and we got to know our fellow Fremont veterans better, Crook said. And were going to continue to meet for coffee in the near future.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi dazzled a packed session of Congress on Wednesday in a speech drenched in American literary and cultural references  and a couple of jokes that showed the leader of the worlds biggest democracy had a sharp sense of humor.

The roughly 45-minute address marked a major step in the rehabilitation of both Modis stature in the United States and of U.S.-India relations in general, which have suffered from years of distrust borne out of the Cold War. It also highlighted Washingtons increasingly close defense ties with New Delhi, which has stepped up its military cooperation with the U.S. and its arms purchases from American defense contractors in the wake of Chinas growing footprint in the region.

It was just two years ago that Modi couldnt even enter the United States after being censured for not doing more to stop the mass killing of Muslims during communal riots in his home state of Gujarat in 2002. And three years ago, U.S.-India relations dipped dramatically over the arrest and strip search of an Indian official in New York accused of exploiting her underpaid housekeeper.

But a series of events have brought about a surprising turnaround for the two democracies, including a sharp deterioration in Washingtons ties with Pakistan  and a budding friendship between Modi and President Barack Obama.

Part of the so-called bromance between the two leaders stems from the amount of time theyve spent with each other during Modis short tenure. When Obama visited India in 2015, Modi called him by his first name and expressed gratitude for his deep personal commitment to their friendship. On Tuesday, Modi called the president my friend Obama.

In his speech, Modi name-checked a handful of American political and philosophical leaders who have influenced Indians, including Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, and Henry David Thoreau. Thoreaus idea of civil disobedience influenced our political thoughts, said Modi.

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Amid multiple standing ovations, he also drew laughs with references to Americas love of yoga, practice by an estimated 30 million citizens, and the recent spate of Indian-American spelling bee champions.

No Mr. Speaker, we have not yet claimed intellectual property right on yoga, he said.

Modi also noted that the three million Indian-Americans in the United States are among your best CEOs, academics, astronauts, scientists, economists, doctors; even spelling bee champions.

The Indian leaders visit hasnt just been about jokes and friendly rhetoric. On Tuesday, he finalized the text of an agreement with Obama that will allow the American and Indian militaries to exchange crucial supplies and give India advanced military technology typically reserved for Washingtons closest allies.

Indias new openness to partner with the United States has been attributed to Chinas growing military presence in the region  and aggressive moves like Beijings deployment of submarines in the Bay of Bengal.

In a nod to the growing military cooperation with Washington, Modi said that India exercises with the United States more than we do with any other partner.

Defense purchases have moved from almost zero to ten billion dollars in less than a decade, he added.

On his trip, Modi also said India would join the Paris climate agreement this year, a potentially historic move by the worlds fastest-growing producer of greenhouse gas and an important commitment for Obama, who is heavily invested in the far-reaching accord.

Modis standing in the U.S. has also benefitted from the growing tensions between Washington and Pakistan over Islamabads alleged harboring of leaders and fighters from both the Haqqani network and the Afghan Taliban  a dynamic many fault for prolonging the U.S. war in Afghanistan.

In an implicit reference to Pakistan, Modi emphasized the importance of isolating those who harbour, support and sponsor terrorists. He also noted that one cant differentiate between good and bad terrorists.

He added that India supports the shared objective of rebuilding a peaceful and stable and prosperous Afghanistan.

He also noted that he and Obama agreed that India should become a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council  a longstanding goal of New Delhi, which views the world body as woefully unrepresentative.
Teachers and supervisors are meant to inspire young people, to challenge them in their thinking while encouraging them to exceed any self-imposed confines. For 18-year old Netherlands native Lotte Lutjes, that was not the case, repeatedly being told "nobody cares and it won't get you anywhere."

"My school generally just doesn't really encourage art and creativity, so as someone who has a passion for those things I felt unwanted or wrong a lot," Lutjes said in an interview. "Whenever I'd mention wanting to do something creative after I graduated, I'd always be told not to, or 'Wow that's such a shame, you're so smart'. My supervisor once told me, 'Please just don't. Go do biology or something useful and keep that other stuff on the side.'"

Unbothered, or rather, keen to shake it off (#reference), Lutjes turned her love of Taylor Swift  not a teacher in the conventional sense, but no less influential to her myriad Swifties  into actionable inspiration. With an assist from her grandmother (and one trusty sewing machine), she turned some of her favorite Swift outfits into custom creations all her own.

"I had seen my grandma sew but I never thought I'd be able to learn it," Lutjes said. "I visited my grandma regularly and she'd help me out and teach me. I also started experimenting on my own and surprisingly, stuff actually worked. I also decided to start taking sewing lessons closer to home, as my grandma lives two hours away. I still do a lot of experimenting though, I never really know if something's actually going to turn out the way I had planned."

A photo posted by Lotte (@teatimetay13) on Dec 20, 2015 at 8:28am PST

From tour outfits to video looks, even Tay's now-famous 2016 Grammy dress, Lutjes has not missed a beat when it comes to expertly memorializing some of Swift's most notable get-ups.

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A photo posted by Lotte (@teatimetay13) on Apr 1, 2016 at 11:10am PDT

A photo posted by Lotte (@teatimetay13) on Nov 26, 2015 at 12:24pm PST

A photo posted by Lotte (@teatimetay13) on Jun 12, 2015 at 12:29pm PDT

So why Swift? According to Lutjes, it's all in Swift's message.

"Taylor just has this amazing way of teaching people to follow their heart and dreams, no matter what other people think," she said. "I've had some issues with that in the past but thanks to her I feel so much more empowered. She taught me that there will be people trying to tear you down, tell you you can't do this and that, you'll never make it etc. but as long as you want it and are willing to fight for that goal, you will get there somehow."

Thankfully, her hard work paid off in March when Swift herself took notice of the teen's handiwork, reblogging one of her looks on Tumbr with the caption "Lol I thought that was me."

A photo posted by Lotte (@teatimetay13) on Mar 29, 2016 at 8:08am PDT

Naturally, Lutje turned the six-word callout into a T-shirt:

A photo posted by Lotte (@teatimetay13) on Jan 19, 2016 at 11:34am PST

Her persistence is particularly noteworthy considering that in addition to a lack of inspiring leaders Lutjes has Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, a common neurological disorder that makes it difficult for her to walk or stand for long periods of time. As a result, sewing garments turned out to be the perfect hobby  especially considering the fact that some of these outfits take months to make.

"The outfits are something different though, as it's not just making them and, oh it's done, next," Lutjes said. "I can wear them and feel proud and confident, something that can be quite a lot harder when your body doesn't cooperate and you sometimes feel like it hates you. I also feel less limited now that I've seen what I can do, disability or not."

Source: Mic/Instagram

As for other young who might be living with a disability, Lutjes has a message: "Don't let anyone tell you what to do or like you're less valuable than others," she said. "Your passions and actions define you, not your disability. If you love something, go for it and don't let anyone tear you down."
Like many teens hoping to emanate strength and masculinity, 16-year-old Jarad isnt willing to reveal a single thing that scares himexcept snakes.

It seems like youre avoiding the question, screenwriting teacher Gabe Cowan says to Jarad in the documentary They Call Us Monsters, which premiered this week at the Los Angeles Film Festival.

Fear of death? Fear of isolation? Cowan offers as possibilities. Fear of staying here?

Jarad, who is serving more than 160 years in prison for multiple attempted murders, pauses on those ideas. His eyes glaze over for a moment before he shakes off the thought of never getting out of prison. No, Im scared of snakes, he says with a laugh.

They Call Us Monsters takes viewers inside the high-security compound at Sylmar Juvenile Hall in Los Angeles, where violent teen offenders being tried as adults are segregated from other juveniles. The film focuses on three boysJarad, Juan, and Antoniowho signed up to participate in a screenwriting class with L.A.-based nonprofit Inside Out Writers.

With each turn of the story they write, the teens reveal more about their personal histories and the elements that contributed to their incarceration. Each boy experienced a major trauma at 12 years old. Jarad witnessed his stepfathers suicide attempt, Juan was jumped into a gang, and Antonio became addicted to drugs.

Now, each faces a sentence longer than his natural-born life for crimes committed at age 14 or 16.

The situation that theyre in is so overwhelming, Ben Lear, the films director, told TakePart. To be looking at the possibility of never getting to live your life, at an age when you dont know what it means to live your life in the first place.

Despite looming sentences, the film shows that these teens are still children. They tease one another, skip homework, and make dirty jokes.

You see kids being kids, Cowan, who also produced the film, told TakePart. It doesnt take away the other important part of the discussion, which is that these people made bad choices, and they did horrible things that permanently affect the lives or took the lives of other people.

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Jarad was convicted of shooting a teen girl who is paralyzed and will spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair. Antonio faces 90 years for two counts of attempted murder. Juan is accused of shooting a young man at point-blank range three times and killing him.

I really was a monster, Juan says in the film. I really was.

But its that ideathat Juan was a monster and has the ability to changethat the film considers. Should violent juveniles be punished like fully culpable adults or like children who made mistakes and can change?

The implication is when youre a juvenile and youre transferred to adult court, youre a lost cause, Lear explained, adding that juvenile programs focus on rehabilitation, while adult facilities are punitive.

Roughly 250,000 kids are tried, sentenced, or incarcerated as adults annually, according to the National Juvenile Justice Center. Treating juvenile offenders the same way as adult offenders has come under increased scrutiny in recent years.

The Supreme Court declared the death penalty for juveniles unconstitutional in 2005, cut life without parole for non-homicide crimes by those under 18 in 2010, and struck down mandatory life without parole sentences for children who commit murder in 2012.

Neuroscience research has found that the prefrontal cortex area of the brainwhich informs impulse control and risk and reward reasoningis not fully developed until age 25. That makes juvenile offenders capable of both aging out of bad behavior and more receptive to therapy.

Along with tracking the boys foray into filmmaking, the documentary follows California Senate Bill 260, which allows prisoners who committed crimes before turning 18 to become eligible for parole after theyve served at least 15 years in prison. This bill, which went into effect in January 2014, requires the board to consider the prisoners age at the time the crime was committed.

Its so impactful to Jarad. Without that bill, he would have to serve 160 years before he would have an opportunity for parolewhich is a joke. I cant even say that seriously, Lear said.

Jarad racked up time on his sentence because, along with four attempted murder charges, he had several enhancement charges, including shooting at an occupied motor vehicle, possession of a short-barreled rifle or shotgun, and gang affiliation charges. Jarads sentence mandates that each conviction be served consecutively rather than concurrently.

There are still a lot of ways for juveniles to receive extreme sentences, Lear said. "I would love for this film to be a conversation starter around that.

Because of the length of some of Jarads individual charges, he will serve 25 years before hes eligible for parole. Juan will serve 15 years before hes eligible for parole. Antonio was released from Sylmar but was arrested again on robbery charges.

The filmmakers are optimistic about the future for Juan and Jarad and believe they will be good candidates for parole. Since the film ended, both have been transferred to Ironwood State Prison, an adult facility with a youthful offenders program. They are enrolled in college, attend church, and continue to participate in Inside Out Writers.

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Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fcard%2fimage%2f109796%2fkoala

If you thought you had seen all the baby animals, think again. This little lady will melt your entire heart into a puddle of mush.

Louise the koala was found by local resident Louise Haynes on the ground in a chicken pen in Hawkes Nest, Australia after wild storms lashed the east coast of the country. Haynes called her local koala rescue, HKPS Koala Care and Rescue, to come and help.

SEE ALSO: This cute little seal made a cameo appearance on Bondi Beach

Louise's foster mum, Sue Swain, wrote on Facebook she believed the baby koala had fallen from a tree and her mother was hanging out above. But trying to get the attention of the mother, probably drunk on eucalyptus leaves, proved fruitless.

"A koala was in a tree above who we assume was mum but after an hour of the Joey calling from the base of the tree the koala was unresponsive. Didn't even wake up for a look," Swain wrote.

Simone Aurino, the care and rescue coordinator at HKPS, told Mashable Australia said it isn't clear what happened between the joey and her apparent mother. A rejection could be caused by stress or something wrong with either mother or joey.

"We are unsure the cause of the separating between mother and baby," she said. "This female, who we assume is the mother of this joey, has had five joeys before and has also rejected a joey previously."

Louise's new life will be one with constant human care, unfortunately there is no going back to her koala mum.

"Once she is separated from mum, that's it," Aurino explained. "She will be a hand raised joey. She will move through all stages of development with her foster mum ... Once she is weaned she will be put into a kindergarden situation with other young koalas to learn to be a big girl koala."

The survival of Louise, who only weighs 356 grams, is pretty crucial due to a drastically declined koala population in the region. Swain has been keeping her warm, doing feeds throughout the nights and checking her health.

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"The Hawkes Nest koala population is considered on the brink of extinction so this little female is very precious. So there is a lot of pressure to get her back home," Swain wrote.

"She is very reluctant with her feeds but it is early days and all a bit foreign yet. Here's hoping she does well. Please cross your fingers for her survival. She is very small and her survival will need all the help we can provide."

Since Swain noted these updates, Aurino told Mashable Australia Louise has started to take better to feeds and is bonding nicely with her foster mother. "She is gaining weight, she is taking to her feeds a little better. It still is very early days," Aurino said.

"What has to happen is that this joey has to bond with her foster mum, who takes the place of mum."

In honour of this little treasure, here's a collection of all the photos we could find. It's a good day.
Six of Singapores biggest firms will provide mentorship.

Aspiring Singapore entrepreneurs are a step closer to the startup of their dreams, thanks to a partnership between Temasek and Microsoft.

According to an announcement on its website, Temasek and six of its portfolio companies have joined the Microsoft Accelerator (MA) programme as official global network partners in Seattle, Berlin, Tel Aviv and Bangalore.

The mentor-driven MA programme will provide startups with support to rapidly scale into enterprise-ready firms. This includes tackling issues that come with launching a company, global expansion, and securing customers.

Temasek and its portfolio companies will participate in the MA programme by providing part time programme managers. Involved in the projects are CapitaLand, Ascendas, InnoVen Capital, Quann, ST Engineering, and Fullerton Financial.

[The MA programme] offers partnering opportunities between promising startups and our portfolio companies to provide innovative solutions to operating pain points and enhance customer experience, commented Ong Beng Teck, Managing Director, Enterprise Development Group at Temasek.

For the startups, this provides them with the opportunity to work with established companies to pilot and validate their products and technologies. This is therefore a win-win partnership, Ong added.

Temasek and its portfolio companies have identified urban solutions, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, financial technology, cybersecurity, healthcare IT and digital media as key focus areas for the initiative.





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Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited TEVA received encouraging news with the FDAs Anesthetic and Analgesic Drug Products Advisory Committee and Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee voting in favor (14 to 3) of an approval of Vantrela ER. Teva is looking to get Vantrela approved for the management of pain severe enough to require daily, around-the-clock, long-term opioid treatment and for which alternative treatment options are inadequate.

The advisory committees also backed Vantrelas labeling as an abuse-deterrent product by the oral (14 to 3), nasal (14 to 3) and intravenous (16 to 1) routes of abuse, subject to approval.

Vantrela, which is an extended-release formulation of hydrocodone bitartrate, has been developed utilizing the companys proprietary abuse deterrence technology. Teva expects that Vantrelas label, upon approval, will carry a description regarding the products abuse-deterrent properties that are likely to reduce, but not fully prevent, abuse of the drug when the tablets are manipulated, based on the committees votes.

We note that the FDA generally takes the advisory committees' recommendation into consideration when reviewing candidates but is not bound by the same. With the panels in favor of approving Vantrela, we believe chances of gaining FDA approval are high.

We note that Pfizer, Inc. PFE, which is also seeking FDA approval for its pain drug Troxyca ER (oxycodone and naltrexone), is expected to come up before the advisory committees today.

Teva is a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) stock. Some better-ranked stocks in the health care sector include Pfizer, Retrophin, Inc. RTRX and Bristol-Myers Squibb Company BMY. All three stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

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(Digital Chaos)

Goodbye, compLexity. Seeya, Evil Geniuses. Later, Team Secret. Enjoy the losers bracket, Digital Chaos. The North American dream is on its last legs.

(Yes, I know that Team Secret isnt technically a North American team. But with that roster, they might as well be.)

The Manila Major hasnt been kind to Western squads so far, and particularly the North Americans. After EG and Team Secret got knocked out Tuesday, compLexity lost their spot at the tournament after going down 0-2 to Team Liquid. Meanwhile, the much-hyped Digital Chaos fell out of the winners bracket, dropping 1-2 to Newbee.

As the Manila Major rolls along, its becoming more and more clear that the NA squads werent quite prepared for the tournament. Their drafts were risky  particularly Digital Chaos in Game 3 against Newbee  and their executions were often well off the mark. North American teams failed to punish scaling compositions, giving up early kills to heroes that had no business getting them, essentially throwing away what should have been easy early victories.

And now, it looks like an Asian teams will be gunning for victory, with three of the four teams left in winners hailing from the region and three more waiting in the wings of the losers bracket. Newbee looked somewhat sloppy in Game 2 of their series against Digital Chaos, but was able to bounce back right away, cementing them as a favorite going forward. MVP Phoenix is still a clear fan favorite, however.

Unfortunately for European fans, their teams are being forced to commit regioncide (a word I totally just made up), with NaVi bringing down Alliance Tuesday night and facing off against Team Liquid next. Lets just hope whoever wins isnt too worse for wear.

Taylor Cocke is pulling for the Western teams to make a run at this thing, but isnt sure anyone can slow down Newbee. Follow him on Twitter @taylorcocke.
SANTA MONICA, Calif.  Hours after Hillary Clinton joyously declared victory in the Democratic presidential primary Tuesday night, a hoarse Sen. Bernie Sanders took the stage in an airplane hangar here and declined to concede the fight. He told thousands of boisterous supporters that he will continue to press on to win the final primary contest in Washington, D.C., next week and to build his movement through the Democratic convention in Philadelphia in late July.

Were going to fight hard to win the primary in Washington, D.C., Sanders said to huge applause. And then we take our fight for social, economic, racial and environmental justice to Philadelphia.

The crowd booed when Sanders said Clinton had called him and he had congratulated her on her victories in New Jersey, South Dakota and New Mexico Tuesday night. Sanders won Montana. California was not called for Clinton until the following morning, but the three earlier victories were more than enough to cement her status as the Democratic nominee  the first woman to ever rise that high in a major political party. Sanders did not acknowledge that victory, however, instead saying he realized he had a very, very steep climb to win the nomination and that he wanted to continue to fight for every delegate and vote until the end of the contest.

Sanders has some of this election cycles most passionate supporters, and many of them believe strongly that he should continue to fight Clinton until the Democratic National Convention. The senator has said multiple times this week that he believes the convention will be contested and that the Democratic nominating process was more like an anointment, because a majority of superdelegates backed Clinton from the beginning. (Clinton handily beat Sanders in pledged delegates and the popular vote, as well, besting Sanders by a substantially higher vote margin than Barack Obama beat her by in 2008.)

Sanders has been facing steep mathematical odds in his quest for a path to the nomination since fairly early in the primary, in part due to Clintons near-sweeps in Southern states, but he has insisted to his supporters that he could win and that the media was exaggerating Clintons lead. As Clinton continued to beat him in the popular vote and pledged delegates, Sanders began arguing that he would convince the superdelegates to back him. This was a long shot, since superdelegates have never backed a candidate who did not win a majority of pledged delegates, but many of his most ardent supporters have also held on to this hope.

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Several supporters who gathered in the airplane hangar to hear him speak said they would be disappointed if Sanders were to concede and not take his fight to Philadelphia. The raucous crowd alternated between cheering Bernie or bust! and We hate Trump! as they waited for the senator to speak.

I think he should absolutely go all the way to the convention, said one Sanders supporter, Saul Raye. Look at all the people still behind him.

Slideshow:The campaign for primary day, June 7 >>>

Bernie Sanders greets supporters at an election-night rally on June 7, 2016 in Santa Monica, Calif. (Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Dutch Merrick, another Sanders supporter, said he would be very disappointed if Sanders conceded before the convention, but added that he thinks it wont happen. I think its very unlikely, he said. Hes at the point of his life where hes dedicated and passionate about what hes doing.

The crowd booed live election results that showed Clinton in the lead, and also jeered at the news that Sanders would be meeting with President Barack Obama Thursday.

Sanders heads back to his home in Vermont Wednesday morning and then to Washington on Thursday to meet Obama. The senator is also preparing to lay off half his staff this week, the New York Times reported.

On Tuesday afternoon, Sanders senior strategist, Tad Devine, told reporters that the D.C. primary, the final contest, to be held next week, is very important and that Sanders will campaign ahead of it. But he conceded that Sanders strategy of flipping superdelegates would be less tenable if he did not win California and other states. In an interview with NBC that afternoon, however, Sanders said his campaign was on the phone right now with superdelegates attempting to flip their votes.

Ultimately, the decisions are going to be made not by [campaign manager] Jeff [Weaver] and me, but by Bernie Sanders, Devine said.

That assessment was borne out by a story in Politico that detailed infighting in the Sanders campaign over his campaigns final days. Weaver told the site that Sanders is committed to fighting until the end at Julys Philadelphia convention.

Though many of the Sanders supporters at his rally Tuesday night said they believe he should continue fighting, a handful said they believed he had taken the message as far as he can.

He clearly won, said Randall Klarin, a 66-year-old Santa Monica resident. He went from nothing to almost half. When she gets elected, I hope Bernie holds her feet to the fire.
spielberg selfie oscars

We've all done it.

We've taken a quick selfie and posted it on Facebook or Instagram. We've checked in online to a retail store, maybe to access some sort of discount. We've tweeted about our experience at an amusement park, a restaurant, or a movie theater.

Well, it turns out that that all adds up to more than just millennial chatter.

Foursquare, the company behind the namesake city guide app and Swarm, the social-media app that has its users "check in" to tell their friends what they are up to, has accurately predicted footfall, and therefore sales, at Apple and Chipotle.

Twitter, meanwhile, sells data to banks and hedge funds directly.

The service offered by Foursquare and Twitter is evidence of the growing use of "alternative data" on Wall Street.

This world of alternative data is comprised of obscure data sets that can be turned into tradable information. The data sets range from weather reports to web traffic to satellite imagery.

And this data is beginning to change the face of investing.

Alternative data is increasingly being used by traditional long-short, quantitative hedge, pension, and mutual funds to track industries ranging from construction and retail to tech and real estate, according to a panel on CB Insight's Future of Fintech conference, which took place on Wednesday at the Metropolitan Pavilion.

These alternative data sets are also helping to bring transparency to opaque markets like China, where economic data has known to be inflated.

jeff glueck

Twelve million people have opted in to share geolocation data and show every stop they make on Foursquare, the company's CEO, Jeff Glueck, said on CB Insight's panel. This information reveals consumer spending habits in real time.

Glueck believes that top hedge funds will be paying a premium for unique alternative-data capabilities.

"We want to be the Nielsen of the real world," he said.

But there are challenges, of course.

Learning where the data is predictive is still a work a progress, for example.

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"We are still learning what the predictive power of alternative data is," said Bina Kalola, a managing director in global banking and markets financial-technology investments at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

"It's a first mover advantage in this industry," she said.

And then there is the significant issue of privacy. The room was buzzing with the potential until moderator Robin Wigglesworth of the Financial Times brought up this issue at the CB Insights event.

In the era of big data, where individuals' every move can be tracked, how can we ensure that that privacy is protected?

Matthew Granade, chief market intelligence officer of Point72 Asset Management, said that funds were interested only in large data sets.

Glueck chimed in, saying: "We're interested in understanding broad aggregate demographics that reveal trends."

dsw shoes

For example, foot-traffic analysis shows that more millennial women are shopping for shoes at DSW instead of Macy's. That's interesting, but where Matt went for coffee one day isn't.

In other words, the value is in the aggregate data rather than the individual data.

When asked by the audience what alternative data sets they predict for the future, Kalola said that she would like to see data that is able to extract sentiment and the tone of consumers.

Granade said that he is interested in seeing data sets that are more applicable to a B2B world rather than just consumers. He would like to see data with industrial implications, for example, that predict how trucks move across the country.

What's clear is that in a tough environment for investors, the demand for alternative data is going to only go up.

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2016 GMC Sierra CarPlay 001

The auto industry is undergoing the most radical transformation in its history, as alternative propulsion technologies  electricity, fuel cells  and self-driving cars become more prevalent.

Ride-sharing companies such as Uber and Lyft are also contributing to the big change by challenging the idea that you have to own a car at all.

With all this going on, it's easy to lose sight of a much bigger battle that's shaping up over the future of mobility  the battle over data.

In the good old days, cars collected effectively no data. If a mechanic found some rust, he could make assumptions about where the car had been and how it had been maintained.

But vehicles are now rolling data-collection devices, with some  such as Tesla's  beaming information back to headquarters on a steady basis, as well as communicating with each other, establishing a "fleet learning" paradigm.

Google has gathered vast amounts of data on its self-driving car, but traditional automakers are also turning into huge information repositories. Executives are quick to point out that Fords, GMs, and Toyotas of the world are actually awash in data, about everything from navigation preferences to oil-change frequency.

If data is power  and it is  then an enormous question arises: Who owns it?

The owners own it

Bloomberg's Tommaso Ebhardt and Eric Newcomer reported recently that Fiat is talks over a partnership with Uber  but embedded in the story was a healthy assumption.

"Uber, which received a $3.5 billion investment from Saudi Arabia last week, offers access to a massive fleet of cars to gather data and help improve systems," they wrote.

The logo of car-sharing service app Uber on a smartphone over a reserved lane for taxis in a street is seen in this photo illustration taken in Madrid on December 10, 2014. REUTERS/Sergio Perez/Illustration/File Photo

Uber obviously owns the technology platform that undergirds its $60-billion-plus valuation, but for the most part, it doesn't own the fleet of cars that makes that lofty valuation possible. Uber drivers do.

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In fact, automakers don't own their fleets of cars, either. Essentially, most cars are owned either by individuals or by rental-car agencies and corporations or organizations, like local governments.

And in the majority of cases, the physical cars and all the data they collect are owned only provisionally, until the vehicle is paid off or comes off its lease. In those cases, a bank holds a stake in the car.

Well, this is awkward

Automakers have been tiptoeing around this issue. I've put the question to Ford CEO Mark Fields, who has the most diplomatic response, stressing that owners sharing data with Ford would be organized on an opt-in model.

Ford has been quite forward-thinking about how it's going to prosper as a "mobility company" in the 21st century, so Field's share-your-data-and-get-something-for-it plan could be the one that takes hold throughout the industry.

mark fields reuters

However, if data is as valuable as everyone seems to think it will be  the potential for selling it as research to marketing and advertising firms alone is vast  then smart owners aren't going to be too happy about being cut out of the deals.

You can see why this could turn into a pitched combat. If a car company or Uber makes millions or billions off my behavior in my car, and all I'm left with at the end is a machine that's ultimately headed for the junkyard, I'm going to feel profoundly shafted.

It hasn't been possible in the past to aggressively monetize what happens every single day after a car is bought or leased. Automakers have simply aimed to sell you another car or to get you to buy extended warranties, while dealers have hoped you'll come in a few times a year for service.

Sure, dealers and automakers will share some of your information with direct-marketing firms, but the impact of that is usually marginal: pitches for car insurance and various products start showing up in you real and virtual mailboxes.

Give it away for free?

The merger of millions of new cars with Big Data opens whole new vistas. And the general assumption seems to be that owners will gladly contribute the data that, when you suss it out, they own, in exchange for better maps, snazzier infotainment systems, increased safety, and so on.

There's already a titanic precedent for this, called social media. In exchange for access to various platforms, users have shown that they've happy to labor for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other for free. On the driving front, Waze needs drivers to contribute data about traffic to make the app work.

google selfdrivingcar

But maybe car owners won't be as receptive to this, given that cars are far more expensive than smartphones.

It makes no economic sense for owners to take information they've generated and donate it to anyone. And the ownership of that information isn't really much of an issue; the only wrinkle comes when you bring financing into the picture, because you don't own 100% of a vehicle when you have an auto loan (at least not right away) and you don't technically own any of it in a lease.

So what's the outcome?

Logically, car owners should be compensated for their data. And if you think about it, this is mind-bending. If you drive only the average amount in the US per year, about 20,000 miles, you'll generate a massive amount of information. Last year, 17.5 million new cars and trucks were sold in the US alone.

All of those vehicles have begun their slow march to the scrap heap, with values inevitably declining. But the data they generate over their lifetimes will be of continuing and probably even expanding worth, due to the power of large network effects.

Ownership of property and the right to profit from assets is a pretty well-established feature of capitalist human life. And it's alarmingly clear that automakers, Uber, and everyone else who isn't a vehicle owner haven't fully grappled with the implications of that basic fact.

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New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman at the International New York Times Energy for Tomorrow Conference in Paris. (Photo: Mandel Ngan, Pool via the AP)

Thomas Friedman is drawing attention for his blistering column about the state of the Republican Party, which he thinks should declare moral bankruptcy and start over.

The three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist said the United States needs a healthy two-party system but that the Grand Old Party is not doing its part, which traditionally has been to advocate for market-based solutions and sound fiscal policy. Instead, he said, its merely an empty shell willing to sell itself off to the highest bidders  untethered from principled, center-right conservatism.

On Tuesday, in an opinion piece for the New York Times, Friedman lambasted top Republican leaders  who had been willing to buck the party line in the past  for throwing their support behind Donald Trump despite his history of off-color comments.

He was perplexed that Ryan would still endorse Trump after the businessman questioned Judge Gonzalo Curiels ability to preside over the Trump University lawsuit without bias because of his Mexican heritage. Ryan called this a textbook definition of racism but said its worth backing Trump because he will sign off on a Republican agenda.

Really? Mr. Speaker, your agenda is a mess, Trump will pay even less attention to you if he is president and, as Senator Lindsey Graham rightly put it, there has to be a time when the love of country will trump hatred of Hillary, Friedman wrote. Will it ever be that time with this version of the G.O.P.?

Friedman also reprimanded Arizona Sen. John McCain and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.

Et tu, John McCain? You didnt break under torture from the North Vietnamese, but your hunger for re-election is so great that you dont dare raise your voice against Trump? I hope you lose. You deserve to. Marco Rubio? You called Trump a con man, he insults your very being and you still endorse him? Good riddance.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz, acknowledges a fellow Navy veteran during a Phoenix Memorial Day Ceremony, May 30, 2016. (Photo: Ralph Freso/AP)

Trump sparked controversy back in July when he said McCain is not a war hero, even though he spent more than five years in a notorious North Vietnamese prison: Hes not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who werent captured. OK, I hate to tell you.

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In an interview with Morning Joe Wednesday morning, Friedman admitted to being deeply disappointed in McCain because of how much he respects him. But, Friedman said, McCain wants to get reelected in Arizona, where the partys base has backed Trump.

Truly a war hero. A great American patriot, he said of McCain. Imagine if John were out there right now talking the way you both have been talking this morning. Clear. Principled. I dont think Trump would survive. I think this thing would be in a very different place right now. There are few people in that party whose voices count more than others, and his is certainly one of them.

In the op-ed, Friedman also went after New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a man who famously (or infamously depending on which side youre on) worked with President Obama in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy despite a fast-arriving general election. Now, according to Friedman, it seems that Christie is more interested in currying favor with the potential future president than defending his minority constituents against slander.

Chris Christie, have you not an ounce of self-respect? Friedman wrote. Youre serving as the valet to a man who claimed, falsely, that on 9/11, in Jersey City, home to many Arab-Americans, thousands and thousands of people were cheering as that building was coming down. Christie is backing a man who made up a baldfaced lie about residents of his own state so that maybe he can be his vice president. Contemptible.
Tel Aviv (AFP) - Two Palestinians opened fire at a popular Tel Aviv nightspot near Israels military headquarters Wednesday, police said, killing four people in one of the worst attacks in a months-long wave of violence.

The shooting spread panic, and video posted on social media showed a uniformed officer firing a handgun, though his target could not be seen.

Police said one of the attackers was arrested, while the other was wounded by gunfire and undergoing surgery.

Five people were injured in addition to the four killed at the Sarona Market in Israels commercial capital, police said.

Israeli authorities said the two attackers were cousins from the Hebron area in the occupied West Bank.

The market and complex of bars and restaurants is located across the street from Israels defence ministry and main army headquarters.

The nighttime shooting led police to clear the area.

Police said the wounded included those sitting at a coffee shop in the complex. The assailants weapons had been retrieved by officers, they said.

We are talking here about a pretty serious terrorist incident, Tel Aviv police chief Chico Edri told reporters.

Of the two terrorists, one was arrested and the other wounded by gunfire, he said.

We do not know of another terrorist at large and so from our point of view people can return to their normal lives, he added.

The nationalities and other details of the victims were not yet known.

- Horrific -

The United States called it a horrific terrorist attack.

These cowardly attacks against innocent civilians can never be justified. We are in touch with Israeli authorities to express our support, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.

UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Nickolay Mladenov, immediately condemned the shooting.

All must reject violence and say no to terror, he said in a statement.

I am also shocked to see Hamas welcome the terror attack. Leaders must stand against violence and the incitement that fuels it, not condone it.

Story continues

A spokesman for Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai quoted him as saying we will not be able to put a policeman on every street corner.

The lone assailant can appear from any corner, he said. That is the reality with which we have to live.

Slideshow: Shooting attack in central Tel Aviv >>>

Members of an Israeli ZAKA - Identification; Extraction and Rescue team work at the scene of a shooting outside Max Brenner restaurant in Sarona Market; on June 8; 2016 in Tel Aviv; Israel. (Lior Mizrahi/Getty Images)

The city however said in a statement it was increasing security at schools and municipal buildings.

Violence since October has killed at least 207 Palestinians, 28 Israelis, two Americans, an Eritrean and a Sudanese.

Most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, according to Israeli authorities.

Others were killed in clashes or by Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip.

The violence has steadily declined in recent weeks, though attacks have continued to occur.

Shooting attacks such as the one that occurred Wednesday night have been rare, though Tel Aviv has seen two other major incidents in recent months.

In March as US Vice President Joe Biden visited, a Palestinian went on a stabbing spree along the Tel Aviv waterfront, killing an American tourist and wounding 12 people.

On January 1, an Arab Israeli killed three people in a shooting spree in Tel Aviv.

Many analysts say Palestinian frustration with Israeli occupation and settlement building in the West Bank, the complete lack of progress in peace efforts and their own fractured leadership have fed the unrest.

Israel says incitement by Palestinian leaders and media is a main cause of the violence.

Last week in Paris, representatives from 28 countries, the Arab League, European Union and United Nations met to discuss ways of restarting Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts.

Negotiations have been at a complete standstill since a US-led initiative collapsed in April 2014.

Following last weeks meeting, France hopes to hold an international peace conference before the end of the year.

Israel strongly opposes the French plan, calling instead for direct negotiations, while the Palestinians support it.

France and others argue that the lack of any initiative leaves a vacuum that can be filled by extremists on either side.
From Cosmopolitan

Of the criticism consistently slung at big-stakes pageant competitions, most is directed at the swimsuit round - it's demeaning, it sells the contestants short, it promotes a too-uniform bikini body, it's not even relevant etc. And sure, none of these arguments are wrong. Here's a thought though: The Q&A round might actually be worse. Let's consider cutting that from the pageant instead, please.

As the final category on which the queens in contention are judged, a pageant's Q&A round is, ostensibly, an opportunity for the top five or so contenders to showcase their smarts and undercut the stereotypes all too often surrounding, you know, those airhead pageant peeps and their sequins. But let's be clear - nobody remembers the "right" answers. What is it known for instead? World peace, light jackets, and that one time Miss Teen USA 2007 hopeful Caite Upton struggled with the concept of maps. And maybe that whole awful Carrie Prejean mess, remember her?! (In 2009, Prejean fielded a question from judge Perez Hilton on the subject of same-sex marriage and said she was personally opposed to it, setting off a firestorm of criticism.)

From a production standpoint, the thorny questions in the mix seem increasingly engineered to trip the queens up - if they're not going to faceplant in their evening gown, they can at least trip up assessing the furor surrounding bathroom bills, the migrant crisis, #HARAMBE, and other hot button sociopolitical issues, right?! I mean, seriously, just ask them who's their fave on this season of The Bachelorette. That's what the people want to know!

During last night's pageant, this seemed to be particularly the case. Not only were all the proceedings predetermined (in previous years, there's been a tenuously random element at play, at least, regarding who got asked what), but the questions consistently went past the point at which it would even be possible for the contestants to put a smart hot take out there in the 30 seconds allocated - because yes, there are only 30 seconds for the contestants to mull over their thoughts and word vom them out there to the audience. And you can round that down to 25 seconds after you include the obligatory deep breath and "wow, that's a good question, thank you so much" opener.

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Of those five questions, only eventual winner Miss District of Columbia, Deshauna Barber, nailed her response - on the subject of roles newly opened up to women in the military. And really, given her own much-touted service in the Army reserves, it would have been tough for her not to. Otherwise, Miss Alabama, Peyton Brown, punted on boxer Muhammad Ali's legacy, while Miss Georgia, Emanii Davis's take on restrictive voting laws also fell a bit flat. And Miss California, Nadia Mejia, has already made fun of her flub on the subject of addressing income inequality, although again, how can you break down the economic theories necessary to foster change in this context just like that, and with a smize?! Though by her own admission, Mejia may not have had deep thoughts to profess, it'd be hard to formulate them on the fly on the main stage on such short notice even if she had. Give the girl a break, and a Powerpoint presentation backstage.

Most contentious of all, though, has been the thorny Q posed of first runner-up Miss Hawaii, Chelsea Hardin. She was asked, flat-out, whether she'd vote for Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton in this November's presidential election. The question was loudly booed by the audience, and condemned by viewers, even as Hardin very shrewdly sidestepped the topic somewhat, talking instead about how "what we need in the United States is someone who represents those of us who don't feel like we have a voice," and that it's not about gender. It's hard to see this as anything other than a "gotcha journalism" moment forced on both Hardin and, by proxy, the judges (all this year's questions were written by pageant officials behind the scenes). A contestant's politics don't need to be off the table, particularly in today's charged climate, but this was a nonsensical clickbait way of addressing the subject - especially given Donald Trump's history with the pageant. It's trolling for viral video views and watercooler lulz really, and the finalists deserve better.

This is not to say that there shouldn't be an opportunity for them to offer their take on "real issues," particularly those which inform their platform and the goals they would work toward as Miss USA. As the pageant community is forever having to remind the world at large of its queens' credentials extend beyond their silky hair and chandelier earrings, this would make real sense. As last night's Miss USA contestant montages made clear, they're ER nurses! They're political operatives! They're PhD students! (And so on.)

But if the Q&A round's objective is to showcase the brains accompanying all that beauty then, you know, let's actually give the smarts a chance to ~sparkle~ properly. Scrap the crazy time constraints, and allow the queens to speak on subjects they consider themselves well-versed - not just ones that serve as curveballs. Otherwise just scrap the segment altogether, because what amounts to a trick question pop quiz moment designed to highlight shortcomings as much as it does strengths doesn't gel with what's otherwise framed as a big, fun, empowering sequinfest.

Follow Alex on Twitter.
The following timeline charts the origin and spread of the Zika virus from its discovery nearly 70 years ago: 1947: Scientists researching yellow fever in Uganda's Zika Forest identify the virus in a rhesus monkey 1948: Virus recovered from Aedes africanus mosquito in Zika Forest 1952: First human cases detected in Uganda and Tanzania 1954: Virus found in Nigeria 1960s-80s: Zika detected in mosquitoes and monkeys across equatorial Africa 196983: Zika found in equatorial Asia, including India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Pakistan 2007: Zika spreads from Africa and Asia, first large outbreak on Pacific island of Yap 2012: Researchers identify two distinct lineages of the virus, African and Asian 201314: Zika outbreaks in French Polynesia, Easter Island, the Cook Islands and New Caledonia. Retrospective analysis shows possible link to birth defects and severe neurological complications in babies in French Polynesia March 2, 2015: Brazil reports illness characterized by skin rash in northeastern states July 17: Brazil reports detection of neurological disorders in newborns associated with history of infection Oct. 5: Cape Verde has cases of illness with skin rash Oct. 22: Colombia confirms cases of Zika Oct. 30: Brazil reports increase in microcephaly, abnormally small heads, among newborns Nov. 11: Brazil declares public health emergency November 2015-January 2016: Cases reported in Suriname, Panama, El Salvador, Mexico, Guatemala, Paraguay, Venezuela, French Guiana, Martinique, Puerto Rico, Guyana, Ecuador, Barbados, Bolivia, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Curacao, Jamaica Feb. 1: World Health Organization (WHO) declares public health emergency of international concern Feb. 2: First case of Zika transmission in United States; local health officials say likely contracted through sex, not mosquito bite Feb. 5: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says virus being actively transmitted in 30 countries, mostly in the Americas Feb. 8: U.S. President Barack Obama requests $1.8 billion to fight Zika Feb. 12: Brazil investigating potential link between Zika infections and 4,314 suspected cases of microcephaly. Of those, 462 confirmed as microcephaly and 41 determined to be linked to virus Feb. 17: Brazil investigating potential link between Zika and 4,443 suspected cases of microcephaly. Of those, 508 confirmed as microcephaly and most of those cases are linked to the virus. WHO seeks $56 million to fight Zika. Feb. 18: CDC adds Aruba and Bonaire to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 32. Feb. 23: CDC investigating 14 cases of possible sexual transmission of Zika. CDC also adds Trinidad and Tobago and Marshall Islands to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 34. Feb. 25: Brazil says confirmed microcephaly cases number more than 580 and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. Brazil is investigating an additional 4,100 suspected cases of microcephaly. Feb. 27: France detects first sexually transmitted case of Zika. Feb. 29: CDC adds St. Maarten, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 36. March 1: Brazil says confirmed microcephaly cases rose to 641 and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. Brazil is investigating an additional 4,222 suspected cases of microcephaly. March 8: WHO advises pregnant women to avoid areas with Zika outbreak and said sexual transmission of the virus is "relatively common." March 9: CDC adds New Caledonia to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 37. March 15: Cuba reports first case of Zika contracted in the country. March 16: Cape Verde identifies first case of microcephaly. March 18: CDC says during Jan. 1, 2015 to Feb. 26, 2016, 116 residents of the United States had evidence of recent Zika virus infection based on laboratory testing. Brazil says confirmed microcephaly cases rose to 863 and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. Brazil is investigating an additional 4,268 suspected cases of microcephaly. March 19: CDC adds Cuba to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 38. March 21: South Korea confirms first case of Zika. March 22: CDC adds Dominica to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 39. Bangladesh confirms first case of Zika virus. Brazil says confirmed microcephaly cases rose to 907 and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. Brazil is investigating an additional 4,293 suspected cases of microcephaly. March 29: Brazil says confirmed microcephaly cases rose to 944 and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. Brazil said the number of suspected cases of microcephaly dropped slightly to 4,291. March 31: According to the World Health Organization, there is a strong scientific consensus that Zika can cause the birth defect microcephaly as well as Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare neurological disorder that can result in paralysis, though conclusive proof may take months or years. April 1: CDC adds Kosrae, Federated States of Micronesia to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 40. April 4: CDC adds Fiji to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 41. April 5: Vietnam reports first Zika infections. April 6: Brazil says confirmed microcephaly cases rose to 1,046 and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. The number of suspected cases of microcephaly dropped to 4,046. April 7: St. Lucia confirms first two cases of Zika, contracted locally. April 12: Brazil says confirmed microcephaly cases rose to 1,113 and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. The number of suspected cases of microcephaly dropped to 3,836. It was the second week in a row that the overall total figure fell. April 13: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded that infection with the Zika virus in pregnant women is a cause of the birth defect microcephaly and other severe brain abnormalities in babies. The CDC said now that the causal relationship has been established, several important questions must still be answered with studies that could take years. CDC adds St. Lucia to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 42. April 14: Colombia confirms two microcephaly cases linked to Zinka. April 18: Peru reports first case of sexually transmitted Zika virus. CDC adds Belize to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 43. April 19: Chilean authorities find Zika mosquito for first time in decades. April 25: Canada confirms first sexually transmitted Zika case. April 26: Brazil says the number of confirmed cases of microcephaly climbed to 1,198 from 1,168 in the week through April 23, but suspected ones under investigation continued to decline to 3,710 from 3,741 a week ago. Brazil registered 91,387 likely cases of the Zika virus from February until April 2, the health ministry said, in its first national report on the epidemic. April 29: Puerto Rico reports first death related to Zika, according to the CDC. The country also confirmed 683 Zika cases, including 65 pregnant women, and five suspected cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome from Zika, the CDC reported. May 4: Panama confirms four microcephaly cases tied to Zika. May 6: Spain gets first case of Zika-related brain defect in a fetus. May 9: CDC adds Papua New Guinea, Saint Barthelemy and Peru to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 46. Honduras suspects first case of microcephaly in Zika patient. May 11: Brazil says the number of confirmed cases of microcephaly dropped to 1,326 in the week through May 7 as doctors and Brazilian health officials find that some suspected cases of microcephaly are not the disorder. Suspected ones under investigation continued to decline to 3,433. May 12: CDC adds Grenada to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 47. May 13: Puerto Rico reports first case of Zika-related microcephaly. May 20: WHO says an outbreak of Zika virus on the African island chain of Cape Verde is of the same strain as the one blamed for birth abnormalities in Brazil. May 24: Brazil reports the number of confirmed cases of microcephaly at 1,434 for the latest week to May 21. Suspected ones under investigation declined to 3,257. May 26: CDC adds Argentina to countries and territories with active outbreaks, bringing total to 48 SOURCES: World Health Organization, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Reuters (Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by the Americas Desk)
Kanye-Feature

Getty Image

Kanye West was busy this past weekend. On Friday, he dropped an untitled single  now known as Champions  to promote his surprise upcoming album Cruel Winter. No hard date has been set for the album release at this time, but itll probably be after his other upcoming album, Turbo Grafx 16, which he announced in February. With fans still in a tizzy about Cruel Winter, Kanye revealed on Twitter hed be playing a surprise show at New Yorks Webster Hall at 2 a.m. on Sunday night.

The result was beautiful, dark, twisted, and chaotic. The show was canceled after four thousand people showed up to a venue that can only hold 1,500 and everyone quietly went back to their lives. But you have to wonder how one man can have all that power and you have to remember that this is hardly the first time that it has been made clear to us all that Kanye is musics biggest star.

The Birth Of Yeezus

The 2005 rescue of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina was famously mishandled by authorities from FEMA all the way up to president George W. Bush himself. During an NBC telethon to raise money for the Red Cross, a young Kanye appeared with Mike Myers to appeal to citizens for donations. Kanye broke from the script on live, nationwide television to deliver a heartfelt appeal which spoke truth to power in the face of systemic racism. Myers ,still on script, interjected before Kanye buttoned the moment with a simple, straight forward, admonishment:

George Bush doesnt care about black people.

And thus, an iconoclast was born.



Every Album He Creates Is The Best Album Of All Time

So happy to be finished with the best album of all time pic.twitter.com/JBWa8OWvqw  KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) January 25, 2016

Long before Kanye was ready to drop The Life Of Pablo he was hard at work promoting the album on social media. One campaign saw him change the name of the album from Swish, to So Help Me God, and finally, Waves, while others had him engulfed in a flame war with Wiz Khalifa over Wizs use of the abbreviation kk. But probably the most effective way to get people talking about the new album, whatever he called it, was by taking a photo of the set list and announcing to the world that he was done with it and that it was the best album of all time. Nothing says star power like claiming the GOAT crown in the pre-release chatter and convincing people that you might have a shot at being right.

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Kanye Is Everyone

Kanye ended a 2015 Miami show with an extended freestyle in which he got real with the audience and revealed that he was Walt Disney, Steve Jobs, Howard Hughes, Malcolm X, JFK, Henry Ford, Michelangelo, and Picasso because  spoiler alert  he is all of us. I dont remember being most of those people (or you) but that may be why I never recorded an album as good as 808s and Heartbreak.



He Created An Algorithm

snl_kanye

NBC

In 2016, an audio recording of Kanye ranting backstage before his Saturday Night Live performance hit the internet. In it, Kanye got mad that the stage director moved his lights and screwed with his set. As the rant goes on however, Kanye begins complaining about his old foil Taylor Swift, calling her a Fake Ass, mentioning his last six years of hardship before threatening to break the internet in retribution for this injustice and finally revealing his Arnim Zola-esq algorithm for why he is a genius:



By 50 percent more influential than any other human being. Dont f*ck with me. Dont f*ck with me. Dont f*ck with me. By 50 percent dead or alive, by 50 percent for the next 1,000 years. Stanley Kubrick, Ye,

When Kanye Described Our Future Sky

The album Yeezus was a dark, minimalist, rap noir response to the epic abundance of Kanyes previous album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. During his press roll out for his latest opus, Kanye sat down with Zane Lowe to talk about what it means to be Kanye West in 2013 and let us all in on a little secret; Kanye is the number one rock star on the planet. Zane offered no response or follow up questions to the statement as its truth and meaning were self-evident. Kanye then went on to explain our future sky and how its a lot like the internet.



When Kanye Made A Powerful Enemy

As you may have heard, in 2009, Kanye hijacked Taylor Swifts video of the year speech to push for Beyonces Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It). As the audience boos, Kanye shrugs and repeats Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time. Celebrities tweeted their disdain for him and there were whispers of him having a breakdown. But he came back, harder than anyone imagined. His next album would be My Beautiful Dark, Twisted Fantasy with a meta critic rating of 94. Nine months later he dropped Watch The Throne which broke iTunes sales records.

Linking Up With The Kardashians

The Kardashian family brand is as big as Coca-Cola right now and in 2014, Kanye got in on that action by marrying head Kardashian, Kim. He managed to not let the domesticated life slow his roll. In fact, he has taken to bragging about Kim and dismissing her sex tape past with rapper Ray J in the song High Lights from The Life Of Pablo:

I bet me and Ray J would be friends. If we aint love the same b*tch. Yeah, he might have hit it first. Only problem is Im rich. Uh. 21 Grammys, superstar family. We the new Jacksons, Im all about that action.

He even bragged about Kims custom emoji Kimoji breaking the app store in the song Facts off the same album:

If you aint poppin sh*t then why you rap for? Haaan? Plus Kimoji just shut down the app store, ah And we made a million a minute, we made a million a minute. (We did) Yeah, we made a million a minute, we made a million a minute, ah!

When He Turned His Biggest Foil Into A Fan

http://www.mtv.com/videos/misc/1233966/taylor-swift-presents-the-video-vanguard-award-to-kanye-west.jhtml#id=1737438

Six years after interrupting Taylor Swift onstage, she awarded Kanye with the Video Vanguard award, admitting in her speech that Kanyes album The College Dropout was the first album she owned, declaring; Kanye West has had one of the greatest careers of all time! Thats more than success, thats revenge.

There Is Nothing More To Be Said

Kanye West

Twitter (@ELLE Espana)

During a conversation with the now defunct male fashion magazine Details way back in 2009, Kanye made it clear that there was nothing more to say about him and music. It wasnt that he was boring, uninteresting, or planning on an early retirement. He simply knew he was:

the fking end-all, be-all of music. I know what Im doing. I did 808s in three weeks. I got it. Its on cruise control.

Its been seven years since those comments and Kanye has not stopped talking about himself. Some might say its because hes a typical, self-absorbed, narcissist while others might point out its because hes an uncommonly gifted and accomplished, narcissist who has known unparalleled success.

If you need further proof of Kanyes mastery of music in the 21st century look no further than the fact that hes releasing two more albums this year on top of his already lauded The Life Of Pablo. Nary a hater has stepped up to call this self-indulgent. In fact, quite the opposite with both Turbo Grafx 16 and Cruel Winter are highly anticipated by fans and critics alike.
Hillary Clinton picked up the endorsement of billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer on Wednesday morning, hours after she was projected to win Californias primary.

Today I am endorsing @HillaryClinton for President, Steyer, founder of the California-based NextGen Climate advocacy group, announced on Twitter. Now is the time for us to unite and defeat Trump. #ImWithHer

Steyer, who was one of Clintons early backers during her 2008 campaign, hosted a fundraiser last summer for the former secretary of state. But he never came fully on board until this week, when Clinton locked up her partys nomination.

Why the delay in endorsing her this time around?

We really wanted to play a very specific role in this campaign, which was to make sure climate and energy were a central part of the conversation, Steyer told Yahoo News on Wednesday. So what we did was try and challenge every single candidate for both parties to come up with solutions to the climate crisis.

Today I am endorsing @HillaryClinton for President. Now is the time for us to unite and defeat Trump. #ImWithHer pic.twitter.com/jymN60VD4z

 Tom Steyer (@TomSteyer) June 8, 2016

As for the climate, Steyer said the choice between Clinton and presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump is crystal clear.

We couldnt imagine a starker choice between candidates than the ones were getting here, Steyer said. [Trump] is not a policy-driven candidate. He is an attitude-driven candidate, and his attitude is pretty much belligerence.

Last month, Trump outlined an energy policy plan that would roll back environmental protection regulations enacted by President Obama, expand fossil fuel exploration and revive the nations coal industry. During a recent campaign stop California, Trump, who once described global warming as a Chinese hoax, declared, There is no drought.

As far as I can tell, hes shown no understanding of the topic, no awareness of whats going on and no ability to take information and turn it into a forward-thinking policy, Steyer said, adding that a President Trump would absolutely be a disaster for the world.

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Steyer wouldnt say how much money hes willing to spend to make sure that disaster doesnt happen.

There is just a dramatic choice between these two presumptive candidates, he said. And it is really important that people rally around Secretary Clinton.

Clintons main primary rival, populist Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, continues to stay in the race despite the fact that Clinton now has enough delegates to be the nominee. Many observers have speculated that Clinton will need Sanders support to ultimately unify Democrats behind her candidacy.

Steyer, a former hedge fund manager, dismissed concerns that another big money endorsement of Clinton could hinder her efforts to attract supporters of billionaire-averse Sanders, who has railed against Citizens United  the 2010 Supreme Court ruling that opened the doors for so-called super PACs that could spend unlimited sums during elections.

Weve always been opponents of the Citizens United decision, Steyer said. Our role is to empower voter-to-voter contact to ensure there is the broadest possible democracy.
An eye in the sky may help big consumer-goods companies make good on promises to eliminate deforestation from their palm oil supply chains.

The new online tool, called PALM Risk, uses satellite data from Global Forest Watch to identify which of the worlds 800 palm oil mills in Malaysia, Indonesia, Africa, and South America are likely to drive forest loss.

Palm oil has to be processed quickly, within 24 hours of being harvested, said Sarah Lake, interim manager for Global Forest Watch Communities at the World Resources Institute, which created PALM Risk. That means that all palm oil mills source their materials from plantations within a days drive of their locations.

WRI introduced the tool Wednesday at a meeting of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, an umbrella group of industry, finance, and conservation organizations working to stem palm oildriven deforestation.

To create the tool, WRI identified palm oil mills using information from FoodReg, a company that traces the supply chains of products around the world. Forest data collected by satellite was used to map primary forests, protected areas, peat forests, or recent forest fires within a 31-mile radius of each mill.

A pilot project conducted with Unilever, one of the worlds largest purchasers of palm oil, found that 29 mills, or about 5 percent of the companys supply chain, were at high risk of causing deforestation. Unilever is now working on follow-up steps to identify key actions for each of the 29 mill sites, according to WRI.

RELATED: Fight for the Forests: Deforestation is accelerating climate change and the extinction of wildlife. These are the stories of the people fighting to save the trees.

Everyones going to have some high-risk mills, she said. What makes them high risk is the combination of significant impacts in the past but also the potential for impact in the future.

If the tool identifies untouched forest near a mill, Unilever or other buyers can intervene to make sure that the area does not face destruction from expanding nearby plantations. Protecting primary forests is important because they help biodiversity, provide ecosystem services, and provide carbon storage, Lake said.

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Similarly, if the tool shows a history of recent fires near a mill, its operators can tell suppliers to make sure that they are not burning down forests and to ensure that they have better fire-management programs in place.

Perhaps most important, the tool allows a company to quickly investigate a large portion of its supply chain without resorting to site visits, a process that can take years. Consumer-goods manufacturers are probably sourcing from several hundred if not thousands of mills, Lake said. The tool helps them to identify the five or 10 or 20 mills that are the highest priority.

PALM Risk is also be freely available to conservation organizations and the general publicanyone who wishes to monitor and track deforestation, Lake said. The system can identify both local areas and entire geographic regions containing forests in need of protection, allowing companies to work with local governments, groups of growers, and other regional stakeholders to stop or avoid deforestation.

Sign the Petition: Hold Big Business to Its Promises: Eliminate Deforestation

Related stories on TakePart:





 The Pervasiveness of Palm Oil

 Indonesia Threatens to Ban Leonardo DiCaprio Over Palm Oil Criticism

 Coming Soon: A Mobile App for Detecting Deforestation as It Happens

Original article from TakePart
Art Basel in Basel, Switzerland, is now the granddaddy of all modern and contemporary art fairs, drawing over 98,000 visitors and featuring about 286 international art galleries and museums from 33 countries. They bring the works of modern masters, as well as emerging art stars, to one of six main show floors, works meant to wow fairgoers and help add to their collections. Things kick off with a grand vernissage (by invitation only) on June 15, followed by public viewing days June 16 through 19. Tickets are priced from $29 to $124. Below are 10 of the most-anticipated highlights. (artbasel.com)

Bergamin & Gomide (Sao Paulo, Brazil)

This Brazilian gallery will feature works by Mira Schendel. Known for her drawings and sculpture, she is one of the most important Latin-American artists of the 20th century. The gallery will showcase works from the important phases of the artists career.

Fondation Beyeler (Basel, Switzerland)

Every year, this museum presents something special to coincide with Art Basel, and this time it is a retrospective of the man who made mobiles famous, Alexander Calder. The exhibition features 75 works spanning 4 decades of his productive career, juxtaposed with the collaborative work of contemporary artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss.

Blum & Poe (Los Angeles and other locations)

In the Parcours sector, Blum & Poe galleries will present Sam Durants installation Labyrinth (2015), a large-scale steel structure made of chain-link fencing materials. The work was developed by working with prisoners at State Correctional InstitutionGraterford near Philadelphia, Penn., and designed as a space for reflection on issues of freedom and imprisonment, movement and stasis. The gallery booth will feature a smaller version.

Gagosian (New York and other locations)

Gagosian will showcase the work of Davide Balula, both as part of its gallery presentation and as part of the Unlimited sector (in conjunction with Galerie Frank Elbaz). At the latter, Balulas Mimed Sculptures employs mimes shaping the air with their hands over empty plinths, recreating canonical sculptures by Louise Bourgeois, Alberto Giacometti, Barbara Hepworth, and others.

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Goodman Gallery / Marian Goodman Gallery (New York / Johannesburg, South Africa)

The galleries will feature noted South African artist William Kentridge, whose bold freehand drawings are often used to make stop-action videos. Both his dynamic and often stream-of-consciousness drawings and videos will be shown at Art Basel.

Kukje Gallery / Tina Kim Gallery (Seoul / New York)

In the Unlimited sector, the galleries will present a major installation, Sol LeWitt Upside DownStructure with Three Towers, Expanded 23 Times, Split in Three, by leading Korean contemporary artist Haegue Yang. The work is made up of stacks of open cubes with Venetian blinds inserted into them.

Timothy Marrinan and Richard Dewey, Filmmakers

Their new documentary film Burden (2016) will present a special screening as part of Art Basel. The subject is pioneering avant-garde artist Chris Burden, whose career spanned early performance art to large-scale installations, including Urban Light, which graces the entrance pavilion of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Metro Pictures (New York)

Metro Pictures will showcase the newest body of work from iconic American photographer Cindy Shermanher first since 2012. In this series Sherman transforms herself into movie-star heroines in the style of 1920s publicity stillsheavily made up and in stylized poses.

Regen Projects (Los Angeles)

This leading American gallery will be presenting a selection of works in various media by gallery artists, including art stars Doug Aitken and Anish Kapoor. Born in Bombay, Kapoor has worked in London since the 1970s, and the gallery will feature his radiant Mirror (Laser Red to Oriental Blue) (2016).

Jack Shainman Gallery (New York)

Located in the Unlimited sector, the gallery features El Anatsuis Gli (Wall) (2010), five hanging curtains made of recycled materials, coming together to create a large contemplative enclosure. El Anatsui is internationally famous for refashioning humble material into monumental sculpture.

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PM Modi signing autographs after addressing the US Congress. Photo: AFP

Washington D.C., June 8 (ANI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his historical address at the joint session of the US Congress at Capitol Hill here on Wednesday said the need of the hour for both the nations is to deepen their security cooperation.

While the Prime Minister received a multitude of standing ovations and applauses during his address, some of his words also left the Congress men and women laughing.

Here are the top ten quotes from Prime Minister Modis address:

1. India applauds the great sacrifices of the men and women from The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave in service of mankind.

2. India will never forget the solidarity shown by U.S. Congress when terrorists from across our border attacked Mumbai in 2008.

3. Those who believe in humanity must come together as one and speak against this menace in one voice. Terrorism must be delegitimized.

4. My dream is to economically empower our billion citizens through many social and economic transformations.

5. SIRI tells us that Indias ancient heritage of Yoga has over 30 million practitioners in the USA. And, we have not yet claimed intellectual property right on Yoga.

6. Connecting our two nations is also a unique and dynamic bridge of three million Indian Americans.

7. Terrorism incubated in Indias neighbourhood, commend US Congress for sending clear message to those who preach terror for political gains.

8. The philosophy of terrorism is common, of hate, murder and violence.

9. Mahatma Gandhis non violence inspired Martin Luther Kings heroism.

10. Connecting our two nations is also a unique and dynamic bridge of three million Indian Americans. They are your strength. They are also the pride of India. (ANI)
By Joseph White

June 8 (Reuters) - The top U.S. vehicle safety regulator said on Wednesday the government needs to be more nimble in designing rules for self-driving vehicles.

The industry "is on version 238.32 by the time we get regulations out," National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) administrator Mark Rosekind said during an appearance at an industry conference in suburban Detroit.

U.S. Department of Transportation guidelines expected in July will offer different approaches to oversight of self-driving, or autonomous, vehicle technologies, Rosekind said.

Regulations that remain static for years "will not work for this area," Rosekind said. "We will have something different in July."

Autonomous driving technology does not have to be perfect to be acceptable, Rosekind suggested.

"I'd say start at two times" better than conventional vehicles, he said. Current U.S. highway deaths are equivalent to "a 747 crashing every week for a year ... It's unacceptable."

Rosekind said he was aware of a proposal by Tesla Motors Inc to make available to the government its data from vehicles equipped with an autopilot self-driving feature for the highway.

"We're looking to see what the offer might be," Rosekind said. "If the offer is there, we're going for it."

In March, the NHTSA said significant legal hurdles must be cleared before self-driving cars without steering wheels and gas pedals can be sold, but there were relatively few legal hurdles in deploying self-driving cars with human controls.

Alphabet Inc's Google would like the NHTSA to urge states to adopt federal self-driving guidelines "rather than impose different, conflicting state rules. We have seen 15 states propose such laws over the last 12 months."

Google said it continues to explore other potential methods to enhance communication with pedestrians and bicyclists and urged the NHTSA to tell states not to bar innovations.

The industry should have "flexibility to develop their approaches to communicating with other road users in order to explore and innovate with different techniques," Google said.

Many states prohibit automakers from using "innovative light or sound techniques to communicate with other road users" like using a "lighted information sign on a self-driving vehicle to communicate with pedestrians." (Reporting by Joseph White in Detroit; Additional reporting by David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)
For the record, Americas top spy really doesnt care what restroom his spooks use.

Ill say without equivocation  in [intelligence community] facilities  you can use whatever restroom you feel comfortable and safe in, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said Wednesday in remarks at the Intelligence Community Pride Summit. He called the policy a chance to lead by example.

Clappers remarks come amid an acrimonious debate over transgender peoples access to restrooms. In March, North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory signed a law requiring individuals to use bathrooms in schools and public buildings that match the gender that they were assigned at birth.

The law has been widely condemned as discriminatory against transgender individuals. On Wednesday, Clapper skirted that broader debate.

I wont dwell on the issue of transgender rights, he said. I know our nation is currently engaged in a complex conversation.

Intelligence community leaders have described their welcoming attitude toward LGBTQ individuals as a recruiting priority since 9/11. In a 2014 speech, Clapper said making the gay community feel welcome in the ranks of intelligence officials is not just about whats right. Its about good business in our profession.

During the Cold War, homosexuality and what the government described as sexual perversion was an all but unmentionable within the intelligence community. Agents whose sexual orientation did not fall within the narrow bounds of heterosexuality were considered risks for blackmail by foreign intelligence services.

Agents were frequently dismissed on account of their sexual orientation. Witch hunts within the intelligence community drove many to suicide, as the Daily Beasts Shane Harris has written.

Increased openness toward homosexuality within the intelligence community has helped dispel the power that blackmail over sexual orientation might have once had over U.S. spies. For intelligence officials who no longer fear being outed or otherwise suffering career setbacks due to their sexual orientation, such blackmail has little payoff.

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In recent years, the U.S. intelligence community has tried to overcome a discriminatory policy that dates back to the 1950s, during the Eisenhower administration. And in 1995, then-President Bill Clinton signed an executive order mandating that security clearances couldnt be denied or revoked on the basis of an employees sexual orientation.

That order was separate, however, from the infamous 1993 dont ask, dont tell policy, which prohibited military officials from directly asking personnel about their sexual orientation  although troops still could be fired for engaging in gay acts or marriage. The law was repealed in 2010.

When I spoke at this summit two years ago, I mentioned that I was serving in the Air Force when Dont Ask, Dont Tell was enacted, Clapper said Wednesday. I am thankful that  as a nation  we have put that policy behind us.

JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images
Photographed by: James Withers

The Great Green Wall is a long-held African dream, currently taking root on the edge of the worlds largest hot desert: the Sahara. Dubbed the "next wonder of the world", the ongoing project will eventually see the growth of an 8,000km green wall made from trees and plants across the entire African continent, from Senegal in the West to Djibouti in the East. The aim? To transform the lives of some of the planets poorest people.

A fantastical and almost impossible-sounding initiative, it was first conceived in 2005 by the former President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, as a way to create an ecological barrier against the expanding Sahara desert  ultimately, to contain it. It has since evolved into a more ambitious pan-African movement, which aims to provide food, agriculture jobs and security for millions of people across the region. Once complete, the Great Green Wall will be the largest living structure on the planet, three times the length of the Great Barrier Reef.

The Sahel region of Africa, which spans the southern edge of the Sahara desert, is home to more than 100 million of the world's poorest people. The region is on the frontline of climate change and millions of locals are already facing its devastating impact through persistent droughts, lack of food, and conflicts over dwindling natural resources. For these reasons, it is estimated that as many as 60 million people could be set to migrate to Europe from degraded parts of Africa by 2020.

Amidst these challenges, the Great Green Wall offers a key part of the solution. By 2030, with the support of the international community, countries in the region hope to restore 50 million hectares of land and create 350,000 jobs. A new round of funding at the recent Global Climate Summit in Paris, to the tune of US $4 billion over the next five years, raises hopes that this grand ambition can now be realised.

A key partner in the initiative, the Head of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), Monique Barbut, says, The Great Green Wall is a symbol of hope not just for Africa, but for the whole world. It shows us that, by working with rather than against our natural environment, we can grow solutions to humanitys greatest challenges, like climate change and migration.

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James Withers, Creative Director of Film at the global brand agency, venturethree, was in Koyly Alpha, Senegal, late last year, on behalf of the UNCCD to document the filming of their VR film about the GGW, called Growing A World Wonder. Told from the perspective of an eight-year-old girl called Binta, the film shows the way in which the project is already transforming the lives of those living on, and indeed growing, the wall.

One of these people is Bintas own grandfather, Moussa, a village elder who remembers a time when the land could sustain a decent living for the people of his village: The Great Green Wall will make our lives better again. For a long time, there were no jobs here and young people were leaving for Dakar; now people have things to do and there is hope for the future.

Click through to see how this modern wonder of the world is taking shape and helping to change lives right across the Sahel.

Since the early 1970s, climatic changes, over-farming and persistent drought have had a catastrophic effect on agricultural production in the Sahel. The diminishing productivity of the land has had led to declining food and water security, and huge loss of jobs in rural areas. Moussa, a village elder from Koyly Alpha:I remember when the land here was beautiful and green, with huge trees and the animals had plenty of food to eat. Then 30 years ago the desert started taking over our land and life became very hard. The rivers and lakes dried up. People left to the cities. And it became harder and harder to grow food. Photographed by: James Withers

With diminished access to fertile land, shepherds across the region have increasingly been forced to graze their herds further afield as the land can no longer support livestock. In 2015, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that there were more than 20 million people at threat from starvation. Most of the poor and hungry live in rural areas and a major part of their income comes from agriculture. Since the Great Green Wall started less than a decade ago, significant progress has been made. For example, in Senegal 12 million trees have been planted, in Ethiopia 15 million hectares of degraded land has been restored, and in Nigeria 20,000 jobs have been created in rural areas. Photographed by: James Withers

Millions of young people are leaving rural Senegal and other areas of the Sahel due to declining productivity of their land, meaning a severe lack of employment opportunities in rural agriculture. First they migrate to the cities, where invariably work is difficult to come by too. Many then make the perilous journey across the Sahara desert to Libya and then onwards to Europe on makeshift boats in the hope of a better life. The Great Green Wall provides young people with renewed hope that they can make a decent living within their local community. Photographed by: James Withers

The women of Koyly Alpha preparing the land to be sown with crops. Food nurseries are springing up across the Great Green Wall to feed local populations and to create surpluses to sell at local markets. Photographed by: James Withers

Scientists and botanists, including at the Royal Botanical Gardens of Kew, London, have worked closely with local communities to select many of the seeds being planted along the wall. Communities along the Wall are growing plants that not only survive the harsh desert climate, but that have a nutritional and economic value for their lives. These drought-resistant species include the acacia, moringa and baobab, which are fast emerging as highly desirable super-foods in Western consumer markets. Companies like UK-based, Aduna, are combining business objectives with a social purpose by connecting local producers with international markets, in the process creating thousands of jobs in rural areas of Africa. Photographed by: James Withers

In Africa, 80% of agricultural production comes from smallholder farmers, most of whom are rural women. Photographed by: James Withers

The Fulani people of northern Senegal belong to the worlds largest nomadic group. Thousands of Fulani have been forced to migrate from their traditional homelands in the Sahel, to areas further south, because of the increasing encroachment of land degradation and desertification. Photographed by: James Withers

As the Great Green Wall evolves, healthy livestock are once again helping local communities to build sustainable lives. Photographed by: James Withers

Villagers gather around the newly built well, which is a vital source of water for the community and in sustaining the evolving tree nurseries. Photographed by: James Withers

The evolution of the Great Green Wall is also having an impact on education in the village. In hard times, many children were forced to leave school early to support their families, but as basic livelihood needs are met, children are increasingly returning to school to receive an education. Photographed by: James Withers

Mousa and granddaughter Binta - local villagers from Kolyi Alpha and stars of the VR film, Growing A World Wonder . The film was developed by the UN Convention to Combat Desertification and premiered to world leaders at the recent Global Climate Summit in Paris. Photographed by: James Withers

Moussa: The Great Green Wall will make our lives better again. For a long time, there were no jobs here and young people were leaving for Dakar  now people have things to do and there is hope for the future. Photographed by: James Withers

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Troy Ave recounted his version of the fatal shooting at New York's Irving Plaza and professed his innocence again on three tracks recorded over the phone from jail and released on a new mixtape, Free Troy Ave.

Rapper Troy Ave Arrested for Fatal Shooting at T.I. Show

Last week, the Brooklyn rapper pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder and criminal possession of a weapon stemming from a May 25th shooting at a T.I. concert that left four people injured  including Troy Ave  and one dead, the rapper's friend and bodyguard, Ronald "Edgar" McPhatter. Despite lacking a criminal record, a judge denied Troy Ave's request of a $50,000 bail and opted to keep him in custody without bail until the trial begins.

As HipHopDX notes, Free Troy Ave was previously called Real vs. Fake and features the single "Chuck Norris," as well as a handful of other tracks. It's interspersed with three cuts in which Troy Ave discusses the shooting, "Intro (Troy Ave Speaks/Freestyle)," "Intermission (Troy Ave Speaks)," and "Outro (Troy Ave Speaks)."

On "Intro," Troy Ave addresses the security footage from Irving Plaza that shows him firing a weapon inside the venue, rapping, "Pussy nigga tried to assassinate me / I took the gun from him and turned the tables 'round like a G." Elsewhere, he ruminates on McPherson's death and at the end of the track repeatedly proclaims his innocence.

Troy Ave speaks about McPherson more on "Interlude," a spoken-word message in which he admits, "I lost my best friend, and the sad part about it is I didn't realize he was my best friend until I lost him. And that shit hurt worse than these bullets from when I got shot." And on "Outro," Troy Ave thanks his supporters and speaks about remaining resilient in the aftermath of the shooting.

Since the shooting and the judge's orders that Troy Ave be kept in custody without bail, investigators reported that a gun found in the car that took the rapper the hospital matched the bullet that killed McPhatter. A trial date has yet to be set.

Related
By David Shepardson

June 7 (Reuters) - U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump rebuked General Motors Co on Tuesday, widening his criticism of American companies that have invested in Mexico.

Trump has made criticism of Ford Motor Co a staple of his campaign speeches for more than a year, repeatedly suggesting that the Dearborn, Michigan, automaker would back down from plans to expand in Mexico or face a 35 percent tariff on vehicle exports.

Trump also has criticized Carrier, a manufacturer of air conditioning units, which is owned by United Technologies Corp and Mondelez International Inc, the owner of Nabisco, for shifting jobs to Mexico.

"I am fighting hard to bring jobs back to the United States. Many companies - like Ford, General Motors, Nabisco, Carrier - are moving production to Mexico. Drugs and illegal immigrants are also pouring across our border. This is bad for all Americans, regardless of their heritage," Trump said in a statement defending his comments about a Mexican-American judge overseeing civil lawsuits against Trump University. His view of an ethnically biased judiciary has drawn criticism, including from within his own party.

A spokeswoman for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment on why Trump had decided to criticize GM.

GM spokesman Jim Cain declined comment on Trump's criticism.

In December 2014, GM said it was investing $5 billion in Mexico through 2018 - a move that would allow it to double its production capacity at its plants around the country. GM said in 2014 the investment would create 5,600 jobs in Mexico.

The Detroit News reported in May that GM plans next year to move some light-duty pickup production to the Flint Assembly Plant from Mexico, according to a memo from UAW Local 598 to membership.

Mexican auto production has been rising in recent years as numerous automakers expand operations.

Mexico produced 3.4 million vehicles in 2015, the seventh largest vehicle producer worldwide, and could surpass South Korea by 2020, producing more than 5 million vehicles, according to industry forecasts.

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Ford has repeatedly rejected Trump's criticism and emphasized its significant U.S. investments and employment.

In April, Ford announced it would invest $1.6 billion to build more small cars in Mexico. In 2015, Ford said it would invest $2.5 billion in new engine and transmission plants in Mexico, creating 3,800 jobs.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Howard Goller)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Wednesday he was "disappointed and surprised" by the criticism and charges of racism he had received from Republican leaders for comments he made about the Mexican heritage of a federal judge. I had just won more votes than anyone in the history of the party, so I was a little bit surprised when they said that, Trump told Time. I didnt think it was necessary. But you know, they have to say what they have to say. Im a big boy. They have to say what they have to say. (Reporting by Alana Wise; Editing by Alistair Bell)
In his uncharacteristically scripted victory speech Tuesday night, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump signaled that on Monday he will launch an attack on his Democratic counterpart, Hillary Clinton, and her husband, former president Bill Clinton. Calling the Clintons corrupt and accusing them of selling government contracts Trump said his major speech would cover all of the things that have taken place with the Clinton.

Trump is still reeling from multiple missteps in his handling of the controversy surrounding the now-defunct Trump University, and for that reason his remarks on Monday are likely to touch heavily on a little-known education company called Laureate International Universities, particularly Bill Clintons lucrative five-year run as honorary chancellor of the string of for-profit schools, a gig that paid him nearly $16.5 million, or about $3.3 million per year.

Related: Trump Tries to Behave, but Needs Another Time-Out After Hannity Interview

Laureate International Universities is a subsidiary of Baltimore-based Laureate Education, which itself grew out of Sylvan Learning Centers. Over the past decade and more, Laureate has bought up small private universities around the world and brought them under centralized management.

Backed by a whos who of well-known investors, including prominent Democratic Party supporter George Soros and top Republican fundraisers Henry Kravis and Steven Cohen, Laureate has 80 different programs under its umbrella in 28 different countries. In addition to private investors, the World Banks investment arm has plowed some $150 million into Laureate, praising its ability to turn struggling schools around.

Former president Clintons five-year deal with Laureate involved him traveling to at least 19 different campuses to deliver speeches, and also gave Laureate access to programs funded or otherwise backed by the Clinton Global Initiative. The deal, which began in the spring of 2010, was conveniently timed to expire just as Hillary Clinton prepared to officially announce her candidacy for the White House.

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The affiliation with Laureate may be embarrassing for the Clintons in several ways. First off, while Bill Clinton was making millions from Laureate, the company was also listed as a sponsor of the Clinton Global Initiative and a donor to the Clinton Foundation, creating at least the impression of Clinton using his non-profit activities as a means of self-enrichment.

Related: Trump Has One Card to Play and Hed Better Play It Now -- The Economy

Additionally, Bill Clintons time as honorary chancellor of Laureate overlapped the final two years of Hillary Clintons tenure as Secretary of State. In 2012, her final year at State, a non-profit foundation run by Laureates founder saw its grants from the federal government, including State, increase by nearly $11 million. This creates the impression, though not the proof, of a quid pro quo arrangement.

Also, Hillary Clinton has been a vocal supporter of the Obama administrations crackdown on for-profit educational institutions in the U.S., many of which have shockingly low graduation rates and often leave students deeply in debt and without a degree. That creates some awkwardness around the $16.5 million her husband took from what Bloomberg describes as the worlds largest for-profit education company.

It should be noted, however, that Laureate is not generally seen as one of the bad actors in the for-profit education space. The company has definitely been accused of putting profits ahead of students in some cases. But it can also boast that some of its schools are among the most highly-ranked by independent government analysts in their home countries.

As Laureate looks to be dragged into the conversation about Trump University, its important to point out that there are some notable differences between the two operations. Most notable is that Laureate operates accredited, degree-granting institutions. A bachelors or masters degree from one of Laureates schools is a legitimate academic credential, albeit one whose practical value is tied to the reputation of the particular school granting it. (But this is not unique -- graduates of Princeton and the local state college down the road might both have bachelors degrees in economics, but employers and other academic programs will weight them differently.)

Related: Ryan Rebukes Trumps Racist Comments About Judge in Trump U Case

The same cannot be said for Trump University, which was not in any real sense an institution of higher learning, and certainly didnt confer its graduates with an actual degree.

Trump is facing multiple lawsuits from former students of Trump University, which in reality was a business launched a decade ago to sell classes and seminars on real estate investing and financial management, all heavily branded with the Trump name and logo. Documents released last week detail the high-pressure sales tactics the company applied to sometimes vulnerable consumers. Using promises of financial independence and wealth, salespeople were taught to persuade buyers to exhaust their savings and go into debt in order to pay for ever-more-expensive classes.

Trump has obviously been stung by attacks on the business, which cut to the heart of his public image as a smart and successful businessman. Democrats, as well as the attorneys representing the plaintiffs, have used the documents from the trial to paint an alternate picture of him as a greedy fraud, willing to exploit the vulnerable for a profit.

In launching his attack on the Clintons, Trump can be expected to push the idea that Hillary and her supporters are all hypocrites for attacking him while supporting her, simultaneously damaging Clinton and deflecting criticism from himself.

Related: Trumps Insults Havent Stopped These GOP Leaders from Endorsing Him

For political rhetoric geeks, the roll-out of Trumps newest attack on Clinton will be a real-time example of a politician deploying what logicians call the tu quoque fallacy -- a rhetorical gambit in which the speaker tries to discredit an attack on himself not by refuting it on the merits, but by implying that the attacker is a hypocrite.

Whether or not Trump will accomplish his aim of creating some sort of equivalence between Laureate International Universities and Trump University remains to be seen. Whats certain, though, is that attempting to tar the Clintons as participants in a shady for-profit educational company wont do anything to dispel the mounting evidence that Trump University was a giant scam. It will also help drag the 2016 presidential race even deeper into the mud.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
Hillary Clinton put to bed many ghosts that have haunted her campaign when she claimed both the Democratic presidential nomination and a primary win in California early Wednesday. But an especially stubborn one staggers on: judgment.

Democratic Party leaders are outright pushing Clinton rival Bernie Sanders toward the exit now that the former secretary of state has blown past the necessary number of delegates for the nomination. But even as the Vermont senators impassioned campaign against economic inequality that surprised pundits and inspired voters comes to an inevitable end, one of his primary attack lines against Clinton  that shes shown poor judgment on foreign policy  lives on in an unlikely host, Donald Trump.

On Tuesday night, Clinton marked her history-making moment in an emotional speech to a raucous crowd in New York, eight years to the day after she conceded the 2008 Democratic primary to then-Sen. Barack Obama. But she didnt miss the opportunity to hit the general election strategy she launched last week against Trump in a sharp address focused on national security.

Donald Trump is temperamentally unfit to be president and commander in chief, Clinton said Tuesday night in Brooklyn.

As the presumptive GOP nominee for weeks, Trump already has honed a retort, questioning the former secretary of states judgment. Hes barraged her vote for the Iraq war and blamed her push for intervention in Libya with the current mess, as Obama himself put it last week.

In his own Tuesday night speech, reading off a teleprompter, Trump described his America First neo-isolationist foreign policy prescriptions as the opposite of Hillarys foreign policy, which invaded Libya, destabilized Iraq, unleashed ISIS, and threw Syria into chaos  just to name a few.

Notwithstanding Trumps spelling of the word judgment, his attacks sound all too familiar.

Hillary Clinton is not qualified to be president because her judgement has been proven to be so bad! Would be four more years of stupidity!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 22, 2016

Crooked Hillary Clinton overregulates, overtaxes and doesn't care about jobs. Most importantly, she suffers from plain old bad judgement!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 24, 2016

The Inspector General's report on Crooked Hillary Clinton is a disaster. Such bad judgement and temperament cannot be allowed in the W.H.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2016

With all of the Crooked Hillary Clinton's foreign policy experience, she has made so many mistakes  and I mean real monsters! No more HRC.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 2, 2016

Hillary Clinton is unfit to be president. She has bad judgement, poor leadership skills and a very bad and destructive track record. Change!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 5, 2016

Realizing fears of some Democratic leaders who fretted that Sanderss foreign policy attack could come back to haunt Clinton in the general, Trump has even explicitly cited the Vermont senator in parroting his rhetoric.

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Bernie Sanders was right when he said that Crooked Hillary Clinton was not qualified to be president because she suffers from BAD judgement!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 2, 2016

Ironically, hes pulling from the same playbook that Sanders borrowed from an unlikely source: Obama.

In 2007, then-candidate Obama undermined Clintons far more extensive experience on foreign policy by seeking to highlight the unintended but disastrous consequences of some of her policy decisions, primarily her 2002 vote for the Iraq war as a New York senator.

Even at the time, it was possible to make judgments that this would not work out well, Obama said of her Iraq vote the day after he announced his candidacy.

Obama, conveniently not in Congress at the time of the overwhelmingly bipartisan vote in favor of invading Iraq, made it a linchpin of his campaign and an albatross for Clintons. She eventually said she regretted her yea, based on intelligence later proved to be false, but she struggled to shake it.

History repeated with Sanders. His constant invocation of Clintons vote, contrasted with his own nay, became his go-to response to foreign policy questions throughout the 2016 campaign, papering over his own lack of details for how his national security strategy would differ from hers, or Obamas.

The major foreign policy issue in the modern history of this country was the war in Iraq. I voted against the war in Iraq; she voted for the war in Iraq, he told Foreign Policy in January. So Im not going to apologize to anybody about my judgment on foreign policy.

In April, when Sanders and Clinton exchanged fire over foreign policy in a bitter debate before the key New York primary, Sanders explicitly outlined the strategy.

Does Secretary Clinton have the experience and the intelligence to be a president? Of course she does, he said. But I do question her judgment.

Democratic leaders fretted that Sanderss argument could do lasting damage to the partys likely nominee in the general election, and set up an easy play for Trump.

Hes happily obliged.

Of course, after the at-times acerbic 2008 Democratic primary, Obama asked Clinton to be his first secretary of state, a point that she has repeatedly made in answer to Sanderss foreign policy attacks in 2016.

But against Trump, the same counterstrike may not be effective, as the real-estate magnate whos never been elected to public office seeks to tie her to a spate of foreign policy crises that have dogged the second Obama administration.

Instead, Clinton is pulling from a grab bag of controversial statements that the infamously inconsistent Trump has made on foreign policy. Its a preview of a general election in which her best attack lines against the presumptive GOP nominee may be his own.

Photo credit: Getty Images/Foreign Policy illustration
Donald Trump is right. He did electrify the electorate in the Republican primaries. And the numbers prove it.

In the 2012 GOP primaries, which former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney won, a total of 21.5 million votes were cast. In the 2008 primaries, which put Arizona Senator John McCain at the top of the Republican presidential ticket, 22.8 million people cast primary ballots, according to Real Clear Politics.

Related: Trump Tries to Behave but Needs Another Time-Out

But this year, about 7 million more Americans voted in the GOP primaries than in 2012, for a total of 28.5 million. Of those, 13.3 million votes were for Trump.

True, Romney won by 5.9 million votes in 2012, and Trump beat his closest competitor by about 5.6 million. But the Republicans started the 2016 primary season with 17 contenders, including well-known and well-funded candidates like former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and dogged, organized competitors such as Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who with 7.6 million votes came closest to challenging Trump. By contrast, Romney was up against a much less compelling field: former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Texas Representative Ron Paul.

On the Democratic side, the popular vote in the primaries tells a different story and calls into question all the hoopla about the candidacy of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

More than 27.4 million people cast Democratic primary ballots in 2016, far fewer than the 35 million in 2008, the last time there was a serious race for the nomination. And former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won a decisive popular-vote victory over Sanders: She bested him by almost 3.7 million votes.

There is little question that the viral popularity of Sanders, a 74-year-old democratic socialist, was the second biggest surprise of the 2016 primary season after the Trump juggernaut. However, there was arguably much more passion and intensity in the 2008 Democratic race, and the numbers bear that out: Obama beat Clinton in the popular primary vote by a mere 41,662 ballots  an 0.1 percent margin of victory.

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Related: Sanders Wont Give Up His Fight Despite Clintons Clear Victory

At the end of this mind-spinning run-up to November, though, does the popular vote foretell what will happen in the general election? According to the New York Times columnist David Brooks and data websites FiveThirtyEight and polifact.com, there is no correlation between the primary numbers and the outcome of the general election.

But while that may be historically true, this is a year in which the pundits, polls and prognosticators have been repeatedly wrong. It is a year in which for the first time in history a woman will be a major political partys candidate for the presidency of the United States. And it is a year in which perhaps the most outrageously self-absorbed and politically incorrect candidate in anyones memory has captured the attention of the country.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
Donald Trump on Tuesday did his best impression of a conventional presidential candidate, issuing a lengthy press release about his controversial comments on the lawsuit against now-defunct Trump University and delivering a sedate prepared speech via teleprompter vowing to the Republican Party faithful, I will never, ever let you down.

The intent was clear. Trump and his handlers were trying to restore a sense of order and decorum to a candidacy that, much to the distress of the Republican Party establishment, has demonstrated little of either in the weeks since the New York billionaire became its presumptive nominee.

Related: Ryan Rebukes Trumps Racist Comments About Judge in Trump U Case

The effect, though, was something akin to a surly adolescent being forced into an ill-fitting jacket and tie and told to be nice to the relatives who are coming to dinner. The question was never whether or not hed be able to hold it together, but rather how long it would be until the facade cracked and he told Aunt Betty her dress is ugly and called Uncle Lou a moron.

Earlier in the day, Trumps campaign issued a press release saying that his repeated public statements about the Trump University case, which were crystal-clear in conveying his belief Judge Gonzalo Curiels Mexican heritage made him inherently biased against him, had been misconstrued. The release concluded with a promise to let the matter rest, saying, I do not intend to comment on this matter any further.

That promise lasted no more than a few hours, dissolving the moment Fox News host Sean Hannity put a microphone in front of Trump and asked him about the case.

Hannity, whose Trump-friendly interviews usually accept premises that everyone but Trump would contest, did not change his style last night. He asked Trump if he regretted making the judges heritage an issue rather than focusing on the politics of the case, adding, The judge clearly has a political agenda.

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Related: Trump Has One card to Play and Hed Better Play It Now -- the Economy

No, I like to say what it is, and so many people are seeing that this whole thing is a disgrace, Trump said.

So much for backing off attacks on Curiels heritage.

He referred repeatedly to evaluation forms from former Trump University students that, he claims, are overwhelmingly positive. We have thousands of these evaluations and Im going through a trial. Its a disgrace.

Trump went on to trash the plaintiffs in the case, but something deep in his brain must have reminded him that he wasnt supposed to be going down this path, because at one point he said, Its really unfair, but I dont want to talk about it anymore.

Related: 7 Ways Bernie Sanders Transformed the 2016 Election

However, he Just. Couldnt. Stop.

Curiel, he said, is an Obama appointee judge -- say what you want -- but an Obama appointee judge, and went on to insinuate some sort of convoluted conspiracy in which the law firm representing the plaintiffs had paid speaking fees to Hillary Clinton.

The whole thing is disgusting, he said. Were going to win at trial.

The Hannity interview appears to have been taped prior to Trumps victory speech in New Yorks Westchester County on Tuesday night, in which he tried to undo some of the damage he has done to his standing with the Republican Partys establishment in recent weeks.

Related: Trumps Insults Havent Stopped These GOP Leaders from Endorsing Him

Rather than begin uniting the party after he effectively clinched the nomination five weeks ago, Trump has instead launched into a round of score settling and vituperation to which many GOP leaders and candidates felt forced to respond.

House Speaker Paul Ryan on Tuesday called Trumps claim that Judge Curiel is biased against him because of his Mexican heritage a textbook example of racism. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham called on fellow Republicans to un-endorse Trump, something that embattled Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk did on Tuesday afternoon.

In his speech last night, Trump seemed to nod those who have expressed concern about his fitness for office. I understand the responsibility of carrying the mantle and I will never, ever let you down  too much work, too many people, blood, sweat and tears, he said. Im never going to let you down. I will make you proud of your party and our movement, and thats what it is, a movement.

He even reached across the aisle, as it were, To those who voted for someone else in either party, I will work hard to earn your support and I will work very hard to earn that support. To all of those Bernie Sanders voters who have been left out in the cold by a rigged system of super delegates, we welcome you with open arms. And by the way, the terrible trade deals that Bernie was so vehemently against and hes right on that will be taken care of far better than anyone ever thought possible and thats what I do. We are going to have fantastic trade deals. Were going to start making money and bringing in jobs.

Related: Crooked Hillary Is Still a Better Choice than Dangerous Donald

However, Trumps promise to become the sort of leader that members of the Republican Party will be proud of was undercut by his statement earlier in the day that he didnt need or want the endorsement of all the GOPs major figures.

Asked by Hannity about Republicans still angry with him for the way he ran his primary campaign, Trump said, They have to get over it. They shouldnt be so angry for so long.

Near the end of his speech, though, Trump made one promise on which he seems certain to deliver: that in the future hell be spending more time attacking Hillary Clinton.

I am going to give a major speech on probably Monday of next week and were going to be discussing all of the things that have taken place with the Clintons, he said suggestively. I think youre going to find it very informative and very, very interesting. I wonder if the press will want to attend? Who knows?

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey expects a positive outcome in coming days in talks with the European Union about visa-free travel for Turks, a spokesman for President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday. Ibrahim Kalin also told a news conference in Ankara that EU allies should not ask for measures that limit Turkey's capacity to fight terrorism. The deal to give Turks visa-free travel to Europe in return for stemming the flow of migrants to the bloc has been held up by a disagreement over Turkey's anti-terror laws, which some in Europe see as too broad. Turkey says its needs the law to fight its multiple security threats. (Reporting by Tulay Karadeniz and Ece Toksabay; Writing by David Dolan; Editing by Daren Butler)
Between getting accused of genocide by a major ally and suffering repeated bombings by Kurdish militants, Turkey is having a pretty tough June  and its only been eight days. Bizarre and in some cases offensive comments from Turkish leaders and pro-government journalists arent making things any better.

On Sunday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan dubbed women who choose careers over having babies deficient and half persons. Working women can presumably safeguard their femininity by following Erdogans recommendation to have at least three babies.

On Tuesday, the pro-government newspaper Gunes accused Germany of secretly using an unspecified terrorist network to carry out Tuesdays car bomb attack in Istanbul that killed six police officers and five civilians. The ostensible reason, according to the state-friendly outlet? Berlins anger over a recent German resolution labeling the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915 a genocide.

The German parliament approved the measure on June 2. Turkey responded by recalling its ambassador to Germany the same day.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said in a speech following the vote that a racist Armenian lobby was behind the resolution.

Gunes claimed that Turkeys strong response had provoked Germany. Falling into panic, it has gone back to its old habits, the cover of the newspaper read. It went on to accuse Germany of having the terrorist organizations that it uses like marionettes carry out a bloody attack in Istanbul.

Erdogan blamed Turkish militants for the attacks.

On Wednesday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu kept the anti-German insults flying by asserting that the countrys free press was not actually free.

In Germany, nothing is left to chance, he reportedly told the state news agency TNT, None of the headlines hostile to Recep Tayyip Erdogan are random. In Germany, the press is not free.

This week, a Turkish mayor also covered the Mercedes logo on his car with a black cloth to protest the vote, according to the website Turkish Minute, which was formed in March after the Erdogan regime took over the once-independent English-language newspaper Todays Zaman.

Photo credit: OZAN KOSE/AFP/Getty Images
By Umit Ozdal DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) - A year after Turkey's pro-Kurdish opposition entered parliament as a party for the first time, to great fanfare about a maturing of Turkish democracy, its embattled leader is struggling to save it from banishment to the political wilderness. President Tayyip Erdogan, who accuses the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) of links to Kurdish militants, signed a bill on Tuesday lifting lawmakers' immunity from prosecution and has made no secret of his desire to see HDP members indicted. The move could see the party's parliamentary presence wiped out. Its supporters see a cynical strategy to bolster the ruling AK Party and Erdogan's chances of winning the majority he needs to change the constitution and create a presidential system. Erdogan, meanwhile, views the HDP as the political wing of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group, which has waged a three-decade insurgency in the southeast, stands accused of a deadly bombing in Istanbul on Tuesday, and is considered a terrorist group by the United States and European Union. "As we proceed towards a dictatorial regime, we will not accept being part of the trial that Erdogan desires," HDP co-leader Selahattin Demirtas told Reuters in Diyarbakir, the main city in the southeast and a heartland of HDP support. "We will not comply with the prosecutor's invitation to give a statement in court. If they want to take us by force, that's their call," Demirtas said in an interview on Tuesday, hours after Erdogan signed the bill. While the HDP and PKK share the same grass roots support, the political party denies direct links to the militants. Demirtas has repeatedly called for an end to the violence in the southeast since a ceasefire collapsed last July. Prosecuting members of parliament's third-biggest party could deepen unrest in the southeast, a restive region bordering Syria where clashes between the security forces and Kurdish militants are already at their worst since the 1990s. Attacks are increasingly spilling into cities elsewhere in the country. A car bomb ripped through a police bus in central Istanbul during the morning rush hour on Tuesday, killing 11 people and wounding dozens, in an attack which Erdogan's spokesman said appeared to have been carried out by the PKK. Hours later, speaking at a ceremony in Diyarbakir, Demirtas condemned the bombing and said the HDP had never accepted violence as a reasonable path. "Our party accepts tension and rivalry in the political arena but I want to once more express that we do not accept any form of violence as a means," he said. LONG-TERM STRATEGY Demirtas said the law approved by Erdogan, which affects 152 MPs across all four parties, was against the constitution and vowed to challenge it. The HDP fears virtually all its 59 deputies could be jailed, mostly for views they have expressed. "We will wage a powerful struggle in both the political and legal arena," he said. "We will never abandon parliament completely to the AKP. Our seats (in parliament) were obtained by legal means, they were obtained with people's votes." Lawmakers have until now enjoyed immunity from prosecution. The new law allows prosecutors to pursue cases against members of parliament currently under investigation, the vast majority of whom are from the HDP and main opposition secularist CHP. Some 800 dossiers must now be sent to the courts within two weeks in order to initiate the prosecution process. Demirtas, a charismatic former human rights lawyer, led the HDP into a parliamentary election on June 7, 2015, at which it seized enough seats to deprive the AKP, founded by Erdogan, of a working majority for the first time in more than a decade. The left-wing HDP gained traction after Demirtas campaigned on a progressive platform that took the party beyond its origins in Kurdish nationalism, appealing to a broader range of minorities and opponents of the Islamist-rooted AKP. But within weeks a 2-1/2-year-old ceasefire in the southeast collapsed, with attacks by PKK militants on the security forces and Turkish air strikes on the group's camps. Demirtas accused Erdogan of taking the region back to conflict to avenge the HDP's political gains, a charge the president strongly refuted. Last November, in a re-run of the election after efforts to form a coalition government failed, the AKP won back its majority and HDP support slipped. Erdogan cast it as a vote for stability, and a message to Kurdish insurgents that violence could not coexist with democracy. For HDP supporters, Erdogan is now seeking to complete his mission to wipe out the party. Demirtas said any effort to arrest his parliamentarians would be illegal and unethical. "Our stance against any arrests carried out on Erdogan's orders, political orders, will be to sit tight and fight. We'll continue to defend our principles wherever we are," he said. (Writing by Humeyra Pamuk and Daren Butler; Editing by Nick Tattersall and Peter Millership)
GHAZNI, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Suspected Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan killed 12 people after stopping their vehicles on a road in the east of the country, while 50 people were kidnapped in the north, the latest in a spate of highway attacks, officials said on Wednesday. The Taliban have made considerable gains in fighting in various parts of the country in recent months and the killing of their leader, Mullah Akhtar Mansour, in a U.S. drone attack last month has had no discernable impact on the violence. Attackers in the eastern province of Ghazni stopped two cars late on Tuesday and shot dead everyone they found. Several members of the security forces were among those killed, said Jawid Salangi a spokesman for the provincial governor. "Taliban ordered the passengers out and brutally shot them dead," Salangi said. Villagers later found 12 bodies, he said. Taliban spokesmen were not immediately available for comment. On Wednesday, suspected Taliban stopped a bus and a car near the northern city of Kunduz and took all 50 people in the vehicles hostage, a police spokesman in the area, Mahfozullah Akbari, told Reuters. "We are putting all our efforts into freeing them as soon as we can," he said. Travelers have faced a string of murders and kidnappings on roads in recent weeks. Insurgents killed at least nine people and kidnapped 20 when they held up three buses in Kunduz late last month. The Taliban claimed responsibility for that kidnapping. (Mustafa Andilib reported from Ghazni and Sardar Razmal reported from Kunduz; Editing by Robert Birsel)
Two Chinese tourists were killed in Thailand on Wednesday when a pair of speedboats smashed into each other, police said, the second fatal boating accident involving tourists in less than two weeks.

Tourism is a key source of revenue for Thailand, but accidents involving travellers are common in a country where safety regulations are often weakly enforced.

Investigators said three other Chinese nationals were in critical condition following the collision near Koh Phi Phi island, one of southern Thailand's most popular beach destinations.

One boat was carrying 36 Chinese tourists including two children, while the other had 26 passengers of whom 22 were Chinese tourists.

"Two Chinese tourists died, one man and one woman, while 20 sustained injuries, three of whom are in critical condition," said Lieutenant Prasert Srikhunrat, deputy commander of Phuket Marine Police.

Both boats were heading towards Koh Phi Phi, he told AFP.

On May 26 four foreign tourists died when the speedboat in which they were travelling flipped over in rough seas off Koh Samui island.

Police charged the captain of that boat with negligence.

On Sunday 28 people were injured when a speedboat carrying passengers back from an evening music concert on the island of Koh Samet smashed into a container ship.

Thailand's reputation as the "Land of Smiles" has suffered in recent years amid frequent deadly bus and boat accidents, crimes against foreigners and political unrest.

But visitors keep coming.

A record high of nearly 30 million travelled to the kingdom in 2015, a number boosted by a surge in mainland Chinese tourists.
(Reuters) - Two men have filed a lawsuit against Tennessee and its governor saying their constitutional rights as gay individuals are violated by a new law that allows mental health counselors to refuse to treat patients on the basis of "sincerely held principles." The law, signed by Republican Governor Bill Haslam in April, has been criticized as discriminatory against the gay community. The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday by Bleu Copas and Caleb Laieski in the Chancery Court for Anderson County, asks the court to void the statute because it violates the Tennessee Constitution and the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment, which guarantees equal protection to all citizens under the law. "LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) persons were the target of the statute. They are singled out for discriminatory treatment. There is no other group which could conceivably be the target of the statute," the lawsuit reads in part. A court employee sent Reuters a copy of the complaint on Wednesday via email. Jennifer Donnals, press secretary for Governor Haslam, said in an emailed statement: "We are not able to make comments on pending litigation." The law protects therapists and counselors from legal action when they cite their personal principles in refusing service, despite a provision in the American Counseling Association's code of ethics barring members from such denials of service. In the lawsuit, Copas says he is a homosexual man and a resident of Anderson County, Tennessee, while Laieski says he is homosexual and describes himself as a national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights activist residing in Alexandria, Virginia. With gay marriage becoming a lost cause for opponents - the Supreme Court ruled in June that same-sex couples have the right to marry - a new battleground has become a quest by conservatives in some states to allow people to refuse services to gay men and women on religious grounds. http://tinyurl.com/hj29fs9 The Tennessee law is among a number of state statutes passed over the last year or so, prohibiting sanctions against businesses, service providers, professionals or clerics who refuse service, in some cases to same-sex couples or in other cases to individuals, based on profoundly held beliefs. Some states, such as Arkansas and Indiana, enacted fixes to the measures after large companies and rights groups assailed them as discriminatory. (Reporting by Fiona Ortiz in Chicago; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)
By Heather Somerville and Dan Levine

SAN FRANCISCO, June 7 (Reuters) - Uber must hand over documents to a New York judge probing whether private investigators hired by the ride-hailing company fraudulently sought information about its opponents in an antitrust case, according to a court ruling on Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff is seeking to determine whether Uber instructed an investigator to lie in order to elicit information about Spencer Meyer, lead plaintiff in the antitrust lawsuit, and his attorney.

The suit, filed in December, alleges that Uber chief executive Travis Kalanick engaged in a price-fixing scheme with Uber drivers. The proposed class action names Kalanick and not the ride-hailing company, though Uber is seeking to intervene in the lawsuit.

In one instance, an investigator hired by Uber allegedly called Meyer's attorney's professional colleagues and "falsely stated that he was compiling a profile of up-and-coming labor lawyers in the United States," Rakoff wrote.

When confronted about the investigator's calls, attorneys for Kalanick initially denied that the company was involved with them, according to court documents.

In court filings, Kalanick's attorneys eventually acknowledged hiring an investigator from a company called Ergo to dig up information about Meyer.

However, Uber denied in a court filing that it knew the investigator had lied or concealed his identity.

An Uber spokesman declined to comment on Tuesday.

The lawsuit alleges that "Uber has a simple but illegal business plan: to fix prices among competitors and take a cut of the profits."

It argues that drivers conspired with Kalanick to charge fares set by Uber's algorithm, with an understanding that other Uber drivers would do the same, even if they might do better setting more competitive prices on their own.

In his order of Tuesday, Rakoff said he wanted evidence backing Uber's assertions that it did not know about the misrepresentations.

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"An Ergo investigator hired by Uber in connection with this case made false representations in order to gain access to information about plaintiff and his counsel, thus raising a serious risk of perverting the process of justice before this Court," Rakoff wrote in his order.

The judge has authorized the plaintiff's request to conduct a probe, which involves Uber turning over communications and documents pertaining to the investigative work performed by Ergo for review by the court.

Neither Ergo nor Andrew Schmidt, the plaintiff's attorney who was a target of Ergo's investigation, could be reached for comment on Tuesday evening.

Uber had appealed to the judge to reconsider, saying the requested documents were privileged, but Rakoff rejected that appeal on Tuesday.

"The Court finds that plaintiff has provided an entirely 'reasonable basis' to suspect the perpetration of a fraud and to suspect that Uber communications furthered such a fraud," Rakoff wrote.

Kalanick's attorneys earlier in the year asked the judge to dismiss the case, arguing that under the specific language of its passenger agreement, riders waive the right to bring class-actions against the company.

Rakoff denied that request in March.

The case in U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, is Spencer Meyer vs. Travis Kalanick, 15-09796.

(Reporting by Heather Somerville and Dan Levine in San Francisco; Additional reporting by Alison Frankel in New York; Editing by Sue Horton and Muralikumar Anantharaman)
By Louis Charbonneau, Michelle Nichols and Yara Bayoumy UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Muslim allies of Saudi Arabia piled pressure on U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon over the blacklisting of a Saudi-led coalition for killing children in Yemen, with Riyadh threatening to cut Palestinian aid and funds to other U.N. programs, diplomatic sources said on Tuesday. The United Nations announced on Monday it had removed the coalition from a child rights blacklist - released last week - pending a joint review by the world body and the coalition of cases of child deaths and injuries during the war in Yemen. That removal prompted angry reactions from human rights groups, which accused Ban of caving in to pressure from powerful countries. They said that Ban, currently in the final year of his second term, risked harming his legacy as U.N. secretary-general. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the sources said Ban's office was bombarded with calls from Gulf Arab foreign ministers, as well as ministers from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), after the blacklisting was announced last week. One U.N. official spoke of a "full-court press" over the blacklisting. "Bullying, threats, pressure," another diplomatic source told Reuters on condition of anonymity about the reaction to the blacklisting, adding that it was "real blackmail." The source said there was also a threat of "clerics in Riyadh meeting to issue a fatwa against the U.N., declaring it anti-Muslim, which would mean no contacts of OIC members, no relations, contributions, support, to any U.N. projects, programs." A fatwa is a legal opinion used in Islamic Sharia law. In Saudi Arabia fatwas can only be issued by the group of top, government-appointed clerics and are sometimes commissioned by the ruling family to back up its political positions. Responding to the allegations, Saudi U.N. Ambassador Abdallah Al-Mouallimi said "we don't use threats or intimidation," and Riyadh was "very committed to the United Nations." Mouallimi denied any threat of a possible fatwa. Thats ridiculous, thats outrageous, he said, adding that the meeting of Saudi clerics was to approve and issue a statement condemning the blacklisting of the coalition. On Monday Mouallimi described the annual U.N. report on states and armed groups that violate child rights in war as "wildly exaggerated" and demanded that it be corrected. The main Saudi complaints were that the U.N. had not based its report on information supplied by the Saudi-backed Yemeni government and accused the world body of not consulting with the coalition. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric, however, said on Tuesday that the Saudis had been consulted. Several diplomatic sources said that the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) would be hit especially hard if the blacklisting were upheld. Saudi Arabia was the fourth biggest donor to UNRWA after the United States, European Union and Britain, having supplied it nearly $100 million last year. Coalition members Kuwait and United Arab Emirates are also key donors for UNRWA, together supplying nearly $50 million in 2015. In addition to Saudi Arabia, Dujarric said that Jordan, United Arab Emirates and Bangladesh contacted Ban's office to protest the listing of the coalition. Diplomats said Egypt, Kuwait and Qatar also complained to Ban's office. The Saudi-led coalition includes Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Senegal and Sudan. There was no indication that the United States or any other Western Saudi allies encouraged the U.N. to reverse the blacklisting of the coalition. The U.N. report on children and armed conflict said the coalition was responsible for 60 percent of child deaths and injuries in Yemen last year, killing 510 and wounding 667. U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said he was not aware that the United States had contacted the U.N. about the report. "We take very seriously the protection of children in armed conflict in Yemen ... and continue to urge all sides in the conflict in Yemen to protect civilians and comply with their obligations under international humanitarian law," Toner said. Dujarric said the removal of the coalition was pending a review of child casualties in Yemen and could be reversed, though Mouallimi said the deletion was "irreversible and unconditional." Jordan's U.N. Ambassador Dina Kawar described her country's complaint to the U.N. chief. "The report was accusing the coalition and of course we are a part of it," she said. "So my (foreign) minister did contact the secretary-general and did voice his opinion that the report was biased and that they need to look into it." Bangladesh's mission told Reuters that their foreign minister contacted Ban's office prior to the reversal while on an official visit to Saudi Arabia. One diplomatic source familiar with the situation said the Saudi fury was to be expected, adding that "the SG's (secretary-general's) reaction to the pushback was disappointing." Several diplomats cited the U.N. decision not to blacklist Israel last year over child casualties in the Gaza Strip after the Israeli and U.S. governments lobbied Ban hard, saying that it was clear the current U.N. chief was vulnerable to threats. Another diplomatic source said the recent spat between the U.N. and Morocco over Ban's use of the term "occupation" to describe Morocco's presence in the disputed territory of Western Sahara had set a bad precedent. He noted that when Morocco demanded the expulsion of dozens of civilian staff in the U.N. peacekeeping mission there earlier this year, the U.N. Security Council failed to rally behind Ban with a strong show of support. That, he added, set a dangerous precedent for the world body's 193 member states. "The message was clear," the diplomatic source said. "If you get tough with the secretary-general, the Security Council isn't going to come to his aid." (Additional reporting by Angus McDowall in Riyadh, Yara Bayoumy, Lesley Wroughton and David Alexander in Washington; Editing by Andrew Hay)
GENEVA/UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations is still waiting for Syrian government agreement for an aid convoy to enter the besieged town of Daraya and has requested approval to airlift food into four locations if land routes are unavailable, U.N. officials said on Tuesday. Rebel-held Daraya got its first U.N. aid convoy since 2012 on June 1, but the shipment did not include food. The United Nations has said malnourished children in the Damascus suburb will die without outside help, a claim President Bashar al-Assad's government has denied. "The blockage of aid is a political issue," U.N. spokesman Ahmad Fawzi told a regular U.N. briefing in Geneva. "Daraya is 12 km (7.5 miles) from Damascus, so it can be done but we need the political go-ahead from the government." Daraya is one of four besieged areas for which the U.N. presented the Syrian foreign ministry on Sunday a backup plan to airlift food if land access is not approved, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York. It is awaiting approval. "The written request included a plan for airlifts  not airdrops - as a last resort, to Daraya, Douma and Mouadamiya in rural Damascus Governorate, and Al Waer in Homs Governorate," Dujarric said. So far Damascus has only authorized the delivery of medical assistance, school supplies and children's milk to Douma, Daraya and Mouadamiya during June, not food. Al Waer was not among the areas approved for June. The Syrian government noted in a statement that the Syrian Arab Red Crescent had delivered seven trucks of medical supplies, food and children's milk to the area on June 1. The U.N. convoy got through to Daraya on the day the Syrian government faced a deadline to admit aid by road or risk having air drops imposed by the countries of the International Syria Support Group (ISSG), which includes Syria's ally Russia. The convoy brought baby milk and medical supplies to support an estimated 4,000 civilians in the town besieged by government forces. U.N. officials had hoped food would arrive in a second convoy on Friday, but that was delayed with no government approval. Syria's opposition said the government approved the first convoy in a cynical ploy to alleviate international pressure. Bouthaina Shaaban, an adviser to Assad, said last week that "nobody is starving in Daraya", which was "producing peas and beans and food and wild berries that is enough for the entire Syria." (Reporting by Tom Miles and Stephanie Nebehayn in Geneva and Michelle Nichols and Louis Charbonneau in New York; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Andrew Hay)
By Andrea Shalal ABOARD USS HARRY S. TRUMAN (Reuters) - The U.S. military will have two aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean Sea this month ahead of a NATO summit in Warsaw as Washington seeks to balance Russian military activities and accelerate its fight against Islamic State militants. The USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier will hand off to the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower when it arrives en route to the Gulf, allowing the Truman to head back to the United States after an extended eight-month deployment, Navy officials on board the Truman said. The United States European Command later issued a statement confirming that the Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group had entered the Mediterranean Sea on Wednesday "in support of U.S. national security interests in Europe". The move coincides with NATO military exercises across eastern Europe and Turkey that may raise tensions with Russia. U.S. officials say Russia is operating warships and submarines in the Mediterranean and plans its own exercises in coming weeks. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday the NATO exercises did not contribute to an atmosphere of trust and security. Captain Ryan Scholl, commanding officer of the Truman, said there had been no interactions with Russian warships and U.S. and Russian pilots were largely abiding by the rules of engagement for air operations aimed at avoiding the potential for miscalculation. "The extension of Truman and movement into the European Command theater, plus the overlap with the Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group, enables the continued degradation of ISIL and a host of operational benefits," said Captain Danny Hernandez, spokesman for U.S. European Command, referring to the Islamic State militant group. He said the overlapping carrier deployments were also intended to enable missions such as Operation Atlantic Resolve, aimed at reassuring U.S. allies in Europe after Russia's annexation of Crimea. The Truman has used the 72 warplanes on board to drop 1,481 smart bombs and pamphlets on Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria since last December when it arrived in the Gulf, the Navy said on Wednesday. It said jets based on the Truman had launched 68 raids over Iraq and Syria and delivered 52 precision weapons since moving to the Mediterranean from the Gulf last Friday. Islamic State has lost 45 percent of its territory in Iraq and its oil revenues have been halved in Syria, said Rear Admiral Bret Batchelder, commander of the Truman strike group. (Additional reporting by Michael Nienaber in Berlin; Editing by Janet Lawrence/Mark Heinrich)
The Obama administration has deployed two aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean Sea for the first time since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. The ships are expected to launch strikes on the Islamic State across Syria and Iraq  the very country President Barack Obama promised to disentangle the United States from when he was running for office in 2008.

The returning double punch brings some much-needed firepower against the Islamic State as U.S. aircraft back up Iraqi forces in reclaiming the cities of Fallujah and Mosul, and Sunni rebels and Kurdish fighters who are battling it out with the Islamist group across northern Syria.

The presence of two carrier strike groups will support European allies and partners, deter potential threats and are capable of conducting operations in support of the counter-ISIL mission, Lt. Col. Dave Westover, U.S. European Command spokesman, said in a statement Wednesday. ISIL is an acronym for the Islamic State.

Thirteen years ago, the USS Harry S. Truman and USS Theodore Roosevelt bombed Iraqi army targets from the Med in the opening days of the U.S. invasion. They were part of a force of six U.S. carriers in Mideast waterways for the battle. Now the Truman is back in the Med, where it was joined Wednesday by the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, which U.S. defense officials expect will soon begin striking the Islamic State.

The Truman left the Persian Gulf last week after a seven-month tour and was stationed in the eastern Mediterranean by Friday. Over the weekend, it began hitting Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria, and its aircraft have flown 40 sorties and dropped 35 bombs on insurgent positions, a Navy official told Foreign Policy. The Truman is scheduled to head back to Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, in July. The Eisenhower, meanwhile, will take over the Trumans mission, but based in the Gulf.

During its tour in the Gulf, the Truman contributed about 25 percent of the firepower in the ongoing air war, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson told reporters at the Pentagon last month. It was so critical that earlier this year, the Navy extended its deployment by 30 days, which it is now finishing up with its handoff to the Eisenhower.

The two ships operating together comes just months after Washington ran out of flattops to send to the fight. After the Roosevelt left the Gulf in October, there was a two-month gap  the first since 2007  between carrier deployments there. Navy officials said the gap was necessary to shorten sailors deployments after years of extending them, and to do critical repairs and refitting that were prevented earlier by requirements to have two carriers continuously stationed in the Persian Gulf between 2011 and 2013.

Photo Credit: U.S. Navy/ Michael W. Pendergrass/Getty Images
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Haiti's decision to scrap the results of a disputed first-round presidential vote will prolong an already delayed process at a time the country needs a democratically elected leader, the State Department said on Wednesday. "The United States regrets that the electoral process is extended yet again with the president-elect unlikely to be installed before Feb. 7, 2017," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said. "Our concern is that now taking this back to zero ... will add to the length of the process and there needs to be leadership installed there," he added. The country's electoral council on Monday scrapped the results of the first round of Haiti's vote after a commission found evidence of fraud. The first round vote was in October, but a second-round run-off was postponed several times. Interim President Jocelerme Privert has said he will stay in office until next year to transfer power to an elected president unless parliament rules otherwise. Supporters of Privert and his allies say that international pressure to hold a vote quickly led to the flawed first round. Others say the vote should go ahead quickly to help the country recover from the devastating 2010 earthquake and food shortages. (Reporting by Lesley Wroughton; EDitin by Steve Orlofsky)
(Adds details about accounting fraud, response from parties' lawyers)

By Suzanne Barlyn

June 8 (Reuters) - Two former officials of IEC Electronics Corp improperly overstated its profits in financial statements by inflating inventory to meet targets, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said on Wednesday.

The New York company agreed to pay a $200,000 penalty in the case, without admitting or denying the charges, according to the commission.

An IEC spokesman and lawyer could not be immediately reached for comment.

Donald Doody, the company's former vice president of operations, and Ronald Years, the controller of an IEC subsidiary at the time, engaged in "false inventory accounting" to carry out the scheme, the commission said.

Neither Doody nor Years admitted or denied the SEC's charges.

The commission said the pair's actions affected various quarterly financial statements in 2012 and 2013, and IEC filed a revision in 2013 after discovering the misconduct.

The SEC barred Doody from being an officer or director of a public company for five years. He also agreed to pay $29,204 in disgorgement and interest, plus a $25,000 penalty.

Doody is pleased to put the matter behind him, his lawyer said in a statement.

Years, who is permanently suspended from appearing and practicing before the SEC as an accountant, agreed to a $40,000 penalty, the agency said.

A lawyer for Years declined to comment.

(Reporting by Suzanne Barlyn; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Lisa Von Ahn)
By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON, June 8 (Reuters) - A U.S. senator wrote to 14 major automakers on Wednesday, urging them to disclose whether they are selling new vehicles with defective Takata air bag inflators that will be recalled by 2018.

Senator Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat, last week released a report that found Toyota Motor Corp, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, Volkswagen AG and Mitsubishi Motors Corp are selling new vehicles with defective air bags that will eventually need to be recalled.

"This is wrong and outright fraud," Nelson said at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing. "These cars should be fixed before a consumer drives what they think is a perfect, new vehicle off the lot."

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx told the committee that he does not have authority to order automakers to stop selling vehicles subject to future recalls - and also cannot require disclosure of future recalls.

But Foxx said he agrees that automakers should disclose future recalls in new vehicles and said he would raise the issue with government lawyers.

Nelson sent new letters to the U.S. units of BMW AG , Ford Motor Co, General Motors Co, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, Mazda Motor Corp, Daimler AG , Nissan Motor Co and Honda Motor Co , among others, seeking details on new vehicles subject to future Takata recalls.

Last week, four automakers confirmed they are continuing to sell some vehicles with ammonium-nitrate inflators without a chemical drying agent. They cited engineering and supply challenges to explain why they are still relying on the faulty air bag inflators.

Takata inflators can explode with excessive force and spray metal shrapnel. They are suspected in 13 deaths worldwide and more than 100 injuries. Takata has declared nearly 70 million U.S. air bag inflator defective and nearly 100 million worldwide.

In total, 15 automakers have recalled nearly 16.4 million vehicles in the United States in the last two weeks stemming from Takata's decision in May to declare another 35 million to 40 million inflators with ammonium nitrate defective by 2019. Automakers previously recalled inflators in 24 million U.S. vehicles.

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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says new vehicles are safe to drive and pose no immediate risk. They do not become vulnerable to exploding airbags without long-term exposure to high humidity, it says and are much safer than the older models.

NHTSA said there have been no ruptures in vehicles built since 2008, and none in vehicles younger than six years at the time of the rupture.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Dan Grebler)
A U.S. spy plane conducting a routine patrol over international waters in the East China Sea on Tuesday was intercepted by two Chinese fighter jets.

U.S. military officials in the Pacific told Reuters that one of the Chinese planes came within an unsafe excessive rate of closure to the U.S. aircraft, but blamed the incident on improper airmanship, as no other provocative or unsafe maneuvers occurred.

The altercation underscores the geopolitical power struggle in maritime Asia between the U.S. and China. Beijing has claimed most of the contested reefs, rocks and islets of the South China Sea as its own territory. But Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have competing claims to various parts of the region.

Beijing responded to the incident by accusing Washington of deliberately hyping up the issue of the close surveillance of China by U.S. military aircraft, according to a statement quoted by Reuters.

Chinese military pilots consistently carry out operations in accordance with the law and the rules, and are professional and responsible, Chinas Defense Ministry said.

The U.S. Department of Defense said in a statement it was addressing the issue with Beijing.

The incident is not without precedent. On at least two occasions in the last year  once in September 2015 and again last month  Chinese jets came dangerously close to U.S. aircraft over Asian waters.

[Reuters]
Uber has raised $12.5 billion at an implied valuation of $66 billion, all without having to show the world its books. But without intending to, Uber may have revealed a major weakness that may bring it back down to Earth: wider adoption of its business model.

The creation of Uber in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis can be compared to an earlier disruptive innovation: the supermarket.

In 1930, in the early months of the Great Depression, Michael J. Cullen leased a vacant garage in Queens, New York, and built King Kullen, what is widely considered the first-ever supermarket and example of the "resource integration" model that has created the Uber ecosystem.



In the case of King Kullen, "the resource integration included the use of the customer to self select, pay cash and carry the groceries home. Previously, the merchant selected, gave store credit and often delivered the groceries," explained Bob Lusch, entrepreneurship chair at the University of Arizona and a member of the CNBC Disruptor 50 advisory council. The new model also led to much-needed cost savings for consumers and created much-needed new jobs.

Sound familiar?



Like King Kullen, Uber is the result of "clever resource integration" on the part of its founders, serial entrepreneurs Travis Kalanick and Garret Camp. "They integrated a mostly unused stockpile of personal automobiles, a large pool of potential drivers  [and] the resources of a digital ecosystem that can be accessed on a smartphone," Lusch said.



At the time of Cullen's innovation, none of the existing big dry grocery chains, including two of Cullen's former employers, Kroger and A&P, had thought to do what he did. But its merits were clear, and the idea caught on quickly, the textbook definition of a disruptive innovation. And here is where Uber should hope the comparison ends. The King Kullen business model proved easy to replicate, and eventually the big chains did. Today, Kroger is America's largest supermarket chain, with a 16.1 percent share of the national market; King Kullen remains a small local chain.



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Erkko Autio of Imperial College Business School in London and also a member of the Disruptor 50 advisory council, said, "Uber's business model is fundamentally flawed." What is fiercely guarded as one of its biggest strengths  the controversial model of making all drivers operate as independent contractors  also means Uber allows drivers to work for its competitors. "Uber does not remove drivers from the driver pool. The platform is novel and revolutionary even, but not difficult to replicate. It will get replicated," Autio said.

Speaking to CNBC from last week's Code Conference, Jean Liu, the president of Chinese ride-sharing company Didi Chuxing, pulled out a smartphone to show that the Uber app is directly referencing Didi Chuxing in aggressive discount offers : "I find it quite cute because I've never seen a company put their competitor's brand on their own homepage. ... This is very strong proof to show that we have better service." Didi Chuxing recently received a $1 billion investment from Apple (AAPL).

Uber's patent protection is not in the top tier among CNBC Disruptor 50 companies, according to MCAM International, which provided CNBC with a database of patent, trademark and other intellectual property information and analysis. Uber receives a lower-tier score on defensibility of technology, MCAM found.



Uber did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

Nevertheless, it should come as no surprise to see Uber atop the CNBC Disruptor 50 list in 2016 . To anyone who follows Silicon Valley, it's an obvious choice as the first company that comes to mind when you think of a disruptor. Uber is in more than 450 cities across Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Australia/New Zealand and the Americas. In the United States alone, more than 450,000 drivers use the Uber app daily, according to the company.





Some innovation experts contend the independent contractor model remains worth much more than it could ever cost Uber. "I have no trouble believing they're here for the long term," said Andrew McAfee, a scientist with the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy. "It's brilliant that [Uber] didn't try to lock down drivers into an employment situation," he said. "A huge part of their success and growth is, all you have to do is turn on an app and you can start making money with your car  on a schedule that you the individual choose."

The question, then, is what will Uber be in the long term?



A Pew Research study last month found that despite all the attention, 51 percent of the U.S. population has heard of ride-hailing apps like Uber and its closest rival, Lyft (No. 27 on this year's Disruptor 50 List) but never used them; one-third of the county hasn't even heard of them; and only 15 percent of adults told Pew they have used a ride-sharing service. (The popularity does go up as the age of adult goes down: Roughly one-quarter of 18- to 29-year-olds (28 percent) and 1-in-5 30- to 49-year-olds (19 percent) have used ride-hailing.

Is Uber destined to be just another app in a sea of sharing-economy choices used by a fraction of the population? Or will it instead retain its competitive edge and become the next company like Amazon or Xerox or GE  a company that starts with a core business model and through innovation, clever resource consolidation and smart execution becomes something much bigger and more important?



The key to Uber's long-term success may lie in how the company deploys its mountain of cash. Last week Saudi Arabia's investment fund revealed a $3.5 billion investment. "Free venture money is like doping," Autio said. "They have so much money, they can do anything. But that will not last."

Recently, Uber has watched cash flow to its competitors, as big public incumbents take aim at both its core business and its potential paths to future growth. In addition to Apple deploying $1 billion of its cash stockpile to invest in Didi Chuxing, which already had the upper hand on Uber in China, Lyft got a $500 million investment from General Motors (GM) last year, as well as $100 million from famed investor Carl Icahn. Lyft and GM recently announced a short-term car-rental program together that would bring more drivers into the driver pool and at the same time keep those new drivers from using Uber.

"Execution really matters," said Matt Glickman, a serial entrepreneur and guest lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business (and member of the Disruptor 50 advisory council). "It's the sustained, continued push to adapt and to improve that leads to long-term success."

We've heard this before: "Innovate or die." Or become just another supermarket  from the 1930s.
Travis Kalanick Uber Limo Driver_04

Don't expect to see Uber's CEO behind the wheel any time soon.

On stage at the Axel Springer NOAH Berlin tech conference, Travis Kalanick fessed up that he's let his driver's license expire.

As for owning a car? Yeah, that's broken too.

During the on-stage interview, Kai Diekmann, editor-in-chief of German newspaper Bild, asked the ride-hailing CEO if he actually owned a car or even had a driver's license at this point.

"I have a very weird car," Kalanick said. "Its a 1999 BMW M3 convertible. Now the alternator valve is broken and my drivers license has expired. So its been a while."

It's no surprise given he founded one of the world's largest transportation companies, although his entrance at the conference did include being driven in a Trabant that happened to be painted like a taxi.

Kalanick's lack of a license though probably puts a hold on his escapades as an Uber driver. When he does have a license, he claims he's a 5-star Uber driver and has even had passengers make out in the back seat while he's been at the wheel.

NOW WATCH: We tried the 'Uber-killer' that just landed a $300 million investment from Volkswagen





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By Andy Bruce and William Schomberg LONDON (Reuters) - British industrial output grew at the fastest pace in nearly four years in April, though economists said the surprise surge did not look like a return to stronger economic growth before the country's EU referendum. Industrial output rose 2.0 percent in April after a 0.3 percent rise in March, the biggest month-on-month increase since July 2012, official data showed. That was far stronger than even the highest forecast in a Reuters poll of economists. Bank of England policymakers are likely to take the data with a pinch of salt, having warned that economic figures are likely to be volatile and tricky to interpret before the June 23 referendum on Britain's European Union membership. A recent overall slowdown in the economy is largely due to uncertainty about the outcome of the vote, according to the overwhelming majority of analysts in a Reuters poll published on Tuesday. [ECILT/GB] Organisations ranging from the BoE to the International Monetary Fund have warned of a shock to the economy if British voters opt to leave the EU. The Office for National Statistics said manufacturing output also rose at the fastest pace since July 2012, up 2.3 percent on the month following a 0.1 percent increase in March. "Despite the upbeat tone of the ... figures, it is far too soon to proclaim that the sector is out of the woods, or shrugging off Brexit uncertainty," said Paul Hollingsworth, economist at Capital Economics. The data, which sent sterling to a session high, were boosted by the biggest monthly rise in the often volatile pharmaceuticals sector since February 2014, as well as a surge in electricity and gas production in an unusually cold April. Economists were doubtful that the figures heralded a return to solid growth. "Our central expectation is that April's spike corrects in May with a sharp fall, which would still mean that for Q2 as a whole, manufacturing production growth is slightly negative," BNP Paribas economist Dominic Bryant said. Manufacturing association EEF said the figures were in line with its view that the sector - which failed to contribute to economic growth in 2015 - is slowly turning a corner. Manufacturing represents around 10 percent of British economic output and the sector remains 6.4 percent below its pre-crisis peak. Looking at the three months to April, which gives a better sense of the underlying trend in what is often volatile data, industrial output rose 0.7 percent, the first increase this year. Britain's overall economy slowed in the first quarter, with the pace of growth easing to 0.4 percent compared with 0.6 percent in the previous three months. Things could get worse in the current quarter. A series of surveys of businesses from Markit/CIPS published last week suggested growth was on course to slow to just 0.2 percent in the April-June period. They also suggested some companies have put contracts on hold ahead of the referendum. (Editing by Andrew Heavens)
north sea

The Royal Navy's HMS Kent intercepted the Stary Oskol, a Russian Kilo-class submarine capable of carrying torpedoes and antiship cruise missiles, on Tuesday evening, The Guardian reports.

The publication reports that HMS Kent's commanding officer, Cmdr. Daniel Thomas, said, "Locating this submarine was a combined effort with NATO allies and shadowing such units is routine activity for the Royal Navy."

The Stary Oskol, a diesel-electric submarine, can go nearly silent when submerged and operating on stored electric power, making it difficult to detect.

This incident represents just one in a long line of Russian military planes and ships encroaching on UK and NATO territory. The trend has become prominent enough that Vice Admiral James Foggo III of the US Navy characterized the uptick in Russian submarine activity as the beginning of a "fourth battle of the Atlantic."

According to Foggo, Russian submarine activity is at its highest level since the Cold War, and that should be cause for concern.

Foggo wrote in the June issue of Proceedings, the US Naval Institute's monthly publication:

Once again, an effective, skilled, and technologically advanced Russian submarine force is challenging us. Russian submarines are prowling the Atlantic, testing our defenses, confronting our command of the seas, and preparing the complex underwater battle space to give them an edge in any future conflict.

Not only have Russia's actions and capabilities increased in alarming and confrontational ways, its national-security policy is aimed at challenging the United States and its NATO allies and partners.

russian submarine

In his piece, Foggo specifically mentioned the Kilo-class of Russian subs: "Russia rapidly is building and deploying more advanced and significantly quieter attack submarines and frigates armed with the long-range Kalibr cruise missile (including six new Kilo-class diesel-electric attack submarines destined for the Black Sea)."

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"As demonstrated last December by Kalibr launches into Syria from the Eastern Mediterranean, Russian leaders will use such weapons at will, without the same qualms we have about collateral damage," said Foggo.

Russian kalibr cruise missiles

Though the Royal Air Force and NATO forces spotted and intercepted this submarine in particular, the threat remains that there are more unidentified Russian subs patrolling valuable underwater infrastructure, such as oil rigs and telecommunication lines, that the US and NATO forces desperately rely on.

NOW WATCH: The Pentagon plans to hunt enemy submarines using this drone warship





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By Kylie MacLellan LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will extend the voter registration period for its June 23 referendum on EU membership by 48 hours after a late surge in applications crashed a key website shortly before the Tuesday night deadline. More than a million potential voters applied to register online over the last week, half of them on the final day, the government said, with a peak of more than 200,000 per hour ahead of the previous deadline of midnight (2300 GMT) on Tuesday. Turnout is expected to be important in determining the outcome of the close-fought referendum, with young people considered to be more pro-EU but also less likely to vote. More than half of those who registered on Tuesday were under 34. Some pollsters and analysts expect a high turnout to favour an "In" vote. Matt Hancock, a minister in the government department responsible for registration, said on Wednesday the government would legislate to extend the deadline. "We think it is right to extend to midnight tomorrow (Thursday) to allow people who have not yet registered time to get the message that registration is still open and get themselves registered," he said in a statement. Hancock said on Twitter that the legislation, which opposition parties earlier had said they would support, would be brought to parliament on Thursday. Several senior politicians and the Electoral Commission watchdog had earlier called for the deadline to be extended. The Commission is planning for turnout of around 80 percent, well above the 66 percent seen in last year's national election, Chair Jenny Watson told Sky News. "ABSOLUTE SHAMBLES" Earlier, Hancock told parliament there had been problems with the website in the final two hours before the deadline due to record levels of users. It is not known how many people had tried and failed to register before midnight, he said. The problems come after the Electoral Commission said last week a small number of EU citizens had mistakenly received notification they were registered to vote in the referendum but would not be allowed to do so. The Guardian newspaper also reported thousands of postal votes from Britons in Germany may have got lost in the post after confusion about the type of pre-paid envelope supplied. With polls showing Britons are evenly split, a narrow win for "In" could result in pro-Brexit campaigners questioning the way the referendum was conducted. Bernard Jenkin, a pro-Brexit lawmaker in Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative Party, said the deadline was set because the register had to be formalised and published before the vote. "Any idea of rewriting the rules in a substantial way would be complete madness and make this country look like an absolute shambles," he told Hancock during an exchange in parliament. "Will he bear these things in mind or risk judicial review of the result?" (Additional reporting by Estelle Shirbon and William James, Editing by Stephen Addison)
LONDON, June 8 (Reuters) - British finance minister George Osborne said Turkey would not join the European Union, pushing back at one of the arguments made by campaigners who want Britain to leave the EU and who are forecasting higher migration if Turkey joins the bloc.

"I don't think it's going to happen in my lifetime," Osborne told BBC television on Wednesday, ahead of Britain's EU membership referendum on June 23. "Is it going to be a member of the European Union? No, it's not."

He also said the government was sticking to its target of bringing net migration into Britain to below 100,000, a target it has missed by a wide margin in recent years.

(Writing by William Schomberg; Editing by Sarah Young)
(Adds background, further comments)

LONDON, June 8 (Reuters) - British finance minister George Osborne said Turkey would not join the European Union, rebutting one of the arguments made by campaigners who want Britain to leave the EU and who are forecasting higher migration if Turkey joins the bloc.

"I don't think it's going to happen in my lifetime," Osborne told BBC television on Wednesday, ahead of Britain's EU membership referendum on June 23. "Is it going to be a member of the European Union? No, it's not."

Campaigners seeking to get Britain out of the EU have put immigration at the centre of their push and have said Turkey joining the EU could add to the big flows of migrants already arriving in the country.

Fears among some voters that the numbers of people coming to Britain is out of control is seen as one of the main weaknesses of the "In" camp backed by Osborne and Prime Minister David Cameron.

Opinion polls have shown the rival "In" and "Out" camps running almost neck and neck with just over two weeks to go until the referendum.

Osborne was questioned about Cameron's previous support for Turkey to join the EU. In 2010, Cameron said he would be the "strongest advocate" for Turkish membership of the bloc.

"Turkey has gone backwards. There are concerns about democracy and human rights there," Osborne said. "British government policy is that it should not join the European Union today."

Last month, Cameron dismissed the assertion from "Out" campaigners that Turkey would join the EU soon, joking that its current progress towards accession meant it would not become a member until the year 3000.

Turkey said in May that EU membership remains a strategic goal and a deal to liberalise visas for Turks visiting the bloc should accelerate the accession process.

Vote Leave, the main "Out" campaign ahead of the referendum, responded to Osborne's comments by saying the British government's position on Turkey was not clear.

"The government must now urgently clarify whether its policy on Turkey has changed. Is it now promising to veto Turkish membership?" a spokeswoman for the group said.

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Osborne also said in his interview with the BBC that the government was sticking to its target of bringing net migration into Britain to below 100,000, something it has missed by a wide margin in recent years. He said improving economies in other European countries would help dampen migration into Britain.

"As both economies grow, the European economy and the British economy, you don't have this exceptional situation you've had for the last couple of years where you've had very weak economies on the continent of Europe," he said.

(Reporting by Sarah Young; Writing by William Schomberg; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
LONDON (Reuters) - British finance minister George Osborne said Turkey would not join the European Union, rebutting one of the arguments made by campaigners who want Britain to leave the EU and who are forecasting higher migration if Turkey joins the bloc. "I don't think it's going to happen in my lifetime," Osborne told BBC television on Wednesday, ahead of Britain's EU membership referendum on June 23. "Is it going to be a member of the European Union? No, it's not." Campaigners seeking to get Britain out of the EU have put immigration at the center of their push and have said Turkey joining the EU could add to the big flows of migrants already arriving in the country. Fears among some voters that the numbers of people coming to Britain is out of control is seen as one of the main weaknesses of the "In" camp backed by Osborne and Prime Minister David Cameron. Opinion polls have shown the rival "In" and "Out" camps running almost neck and neck with just over two weeks to go until the referendum. Osborne was questioned about Cameron's previous support for Turkey to join the EU. In 2010, Cameron said he would be the "strongest advocate" for Turkish membership of the bloc. "Turkey has gone backwards. There are concerns about democracy and human rights there," Osborne said. "British government policy is that it should not join the European Union today." Last month, Cameron dismissed the assertion from "Out" campaigners that Turkey would join the EU soon, joking that its current progress toward accession meant it would not become a member until the year 3000. Turkey said in May that EU membership remains a strategic goal and a deal to liberalize visas for Turks visiting the bloc should accelerate the accession process. Vote Leave, the main "Out" campaign ahead of the referendum, responded to Osborne's comments by saying the British government's position on Turkey was not clear. "The government must now urgently clarify whether its policy on Turkey has changed. Is it now promising to veto Turkish membership?" a spokeswoman for the group said. Osborne also said in his interview with the BBC that the government was sticking to its target of bringing net migration into Britain to below 100,000, something it has missed by a wide margin in recent years. He said improving economies in other European countries would help dampen migration into Britain. "As both economies grow, the European economy and the British economy, you don't have this exceptional situation you've had for the last couple of years where you've had very weak economies on the continent of Europe," he said. (Reporting by Sarah Young; Writing by William Schomberg; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
United Nations (United States) (AFP) - UN member-states agreed on Wednesday to fast-track their response to end the AIDS pandemic by 2030 despite a last-minute bid by Russia to dilute efforts to focus on drug users and gay men.

A political declaration was adopted by the 193-nation General Assembly that stressed the need to help intravenous drug users, sex workers, gay men, transgender people and prisoners who are at high risk of contracting HIV.

The HIV epidemic has been in decline over the past decade, but there are still 36.7 million people worldwide living with HIV/AIDS, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told delegates that "AIDS is far from over," and that the world had an opportunity over the next five years to "radically change the trajectory of the epidemic."

Ban appealed for treatment and services "without discrimination" to all people living with HIV. He singled out "young people, migrants, women and girls, sex workers, men who have sex with men, people who inject drugs, transgender people and prisoners."

The political declaration builds on a previous UN AIDS plan approved five years ago by placing more emphasis on those most vulnerable to HIV infection.

It sets out three targets to be reached by 2020: reducing new HIV infections, reducing mortality rates and eliminating HIV-related discrimination.

- Russian amendments fail -

Russia late Tuesday demanded changes to the new focus by adding references to national legislation in provisions that mention gay men, drug users and prisoners, diplomats and civil society groups said.

The amendments were rejected over fears that these would allow Russia, Iran and other countries that criminalize homosexuality to deny anti-retroviral treatment and other services to gay men.

Russia has also balked at harm-reduction treatment such as syringe and needle programs, even though the majority of HIV infections in that country are linked to drug injections.

Story continues

Russian senior health official Dilyara Ravilova-Borovik told the gathering that while more must be done to end HIV/AIDS, governments have a "sovereign right" to decide on their public health strategy.

The three-day meeting opened with a call to action from Nelson Mandela's grandson, Ndaba, whose father Makgatho died of AIDS in 2005. Makgatho was the late South African president's last surviving son.

Ndaba Mandela urged the leaders of 35 countries that deny entry visas to people living with HIV -- including Russia and Singapore -- to "end travel restrictions now."

"Bigotry and fear do nothing but spread the virus," he said.

In the lead-up to the conference, Russia, 51 Muslim countries, Cameroon and Tanzania blocked 22 LGBT groups from receiving accreditation to the conference.

After the United States and the European Union protested the exclusion, 16 groups were included in delegations from other governments and non-governmental groups.


Unconventional is Yahoo News complete guide to what could be the craziest presidential conventions in decades. Heres what you need to know today.

1. Decoding Bernie: what Sanders really means when he says the struggle continues

LOS ANGELES  In her speech last night at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Hillary Clinton accused Donald Trump of speaking in code.

She could have said the same thing about her Democratic rival Bernie Sanders.

After making thousands of his supporters wait until nearly 11:00 p.m. local time, the Vermont senator finally stepped on stage in a cavernous hangar at the Santa Monica Airport to deliver his post-primary remarks.

The days results had been disappointing. Despite wins in North Dakota and Montana, Sanders had not been able to overtake Clinton elsewhere. Not in South Dakota, where he had a real shot. Not in New Mexico, where he had thought that young Latinos might boost him to victory. Not in New Jersey, which Clinton won by more than 26 percentage points. And, worst of all, not in delegate-rich California, where Sanders had spent the last two weeks campaigning his heart out in the hopes that an upset would weaken Clintons superdelegate support and propel him to Philadelphia with the wind at his back.

Instead, by the time Bernie took to the podium, it was already clear that Clinton was headed toward a bigger romp in the Golden State than the polls or pundits had predicted. (With 69 percent of ballots counted, she currently leads Sanders 56 percent to 43 percent.)

In Santa Monica, Sanders fans were anxious. Would their candidate continue to insist  as he had insisted from one end of California to the other in the days before Tuesdays primary  that Philadelphia would be contested and that our job from now until the convention is to convince superdelegates to swing the nomination to him? Or would he concede that Clinton had clobbered him in his make-or-break state; defeated him by nearly 4 million votes nationwide; and finally earned a majority of pledged delegates, thereby by removing any incentive for the superdelegates to switch sides?

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Would Bernie bow out?

At first, it seemed as if he might. It has been one of the most moving moments of my life to be out throughout this state in beautiful evenings and seeing thousands and thousands of people coming out, Sanders said, sounding elegiac. Let me thank all of you for being part of the political revolution.

The crowd held its collective breath. But then, suddenly, Sanders shifted gears  and announced that his campaign was not, in fact, coming to an end.

Next Tuesday, we continue the fight in the last primary in Washington, D.C., he said. The room erupted; the cheers were deafening. We are going  we are going  we are going to fight hard. We are going to fight hard to win the primary in Washington, D.C.

More cheering.

And then, we take our fight for social, economic, racial and environmental justice to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Even more cheering.

I am  I am pretty good at arithmetic, and I know that the fight in front of us is a very, very steep fight, Sanders added. But we will continue to fight for every vote and every delegate we can get.

In Santa Monica, supporters were heartened to hear that, as Sanders put it in the final line of his speech, the struggle continues. In the press, journalists marveled at Sanders defiant tone in the face such daunting delegate math. Some even described him as delusional.

Theres reality, tweeted FiveThirtyEights Harry Enten, and then theres whatever world Sanders is in.

But Sanders isnt delusional; hes negotiating. And the proof was right there in his remarks.

You simply have to decipher his code. Anyone paying close attention Tuesday night would have noticed, for instance, that when Sanders said that he would continue to fight, he didnt say he would continue to fight for the nomination. He said he would continue to fight for every vote and every delegate we can get.

Where do you get votes and delegates? In the primaries. And theres only one primary left  next Tuesdays contest in Washington, D.C. Yes, Sanders said he would fight hard to win it. But he specifically did not say anything about superdelegates or continuing to fight for them after the D.C. primary  which is what he was saying before Tuesday night.

Bernie Sanders speaks to supporters following the closing of the polls in the California presidential primary in Santa Monica, Calif., June 7, 2016. (Photo: Mario Anzuoni/Reuters)

When Sanders did look beyond next Tuesday  to the convention in particular  he made sure to choose his language carefully. Yes, he promised to take our fight to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. But he also specified which fight he meant: the one for social, economic, racial and environmental justice. In other words, the campaign for Sanders goals  his policy prescriptions  heads to the City of Brotherly Love. His campaign for the nomination? Probably not.

Speaking in code means saying one thing that different listeners can interpret in different ways. Thats likely what Sanders meant to do Tuesday night. In order to maximize his influence over the Democratic platform and reform the primary process in Philadelphia  his real objectives at this point  Sanders needs leverage. He needs something that Clinton and the rest of the Democratic establishment wants. And what do Clinton & Co. want? Sanders supporters. To keep them in his corner  and to scare Clinton into thinking they might never come around  Sanders rhapsodized about the struggle and how it continues.

In short, he probably wants everyone to think hes a little delusional. Thats the point. Thats how you negotiate from a position of strength.

But Sanders also doesnt want to deceive his supporters. So he hedged his language to signal his true intentions and to lay the groundwork for the end of his campaign.

When will that campaign end? Only Sanders  who has allegedly been defying his top aides for weeks now  knows for sure. Its final act, however, will likely begin later this week when Sanders travels to Washington, D.C. Over the weekend, President Obama reportedly told Sanders that he would be endorsing Clinton as early as Wednesday; Sanders apparently asked Obama to wait and requested a meeting Thursday at the White House.

Obama is not only the most powerful person in the Democratic Party; hes also been an officially neutral figure, having refused, until now, to endorse either candidate. If anyone can broker a deal to bring the party together, its the president.

And make no mistake: a deal is what Sanders wants. Now he just has to name his price. Our guess is that hes heading to the Oval Office Thursday to do just that.

_____

2. Republicans are talking about replacing Trump in Cleveland  and Scott Walker is interested

Gov. Scott Walker speaks to the media Wednesday in Madison, Wis. Walker said he wants Donald Trump to renounce comments he made about a federal judges Mexican heritage. (Photo: Scott Bauer/AP)

By Jon Ward

There is growing talk on the right of replacing Donald Trump as the Republican Partys nominee for president, and even about a possible choice to do so.

As Trump has floundered over the past week after attacking a federal judges judgment because he has Mexican ancestry, anti-Trump conservatives who have been trying for months to recruit an independent candidate have begun looking more closely at attempting to persuade delegates at the GOPs national convention next month in Cleveland to nominate someone other than Trump.

There is a rapidly moving train toward the convention to try to obstruct it at the convention. Trump in the last 72 hours has given hope to people who think its now possible, said Erick Erickson, a conservative radio talk show host who has been one of Trumps most resolute critics.

Hes starting to give everybody hope that he [can] be stopped at the convention, Erickson said, though he cautioned that if he cleans up his act, then I think that hope will go away.

(Read the full version of this story here.)

One of the central players inside the conservative independent candidate movement said Monday that anti-Trump group was actively recruiting and setting a convention strategy.

And David French, a conservative writer who considered running as an independent candidate, told Yahoo News that if Trump continues to be cocky, saying, I can do whatever I want and do whatever I want because I own these people, theres a limit to that. Im sorry, but there is.

Public calls for Republicans to replace Trump grew Wednesday.

I want to support the nominee of the party, but I think the party ought to change the nominee. Because were going to get killed with this nominee, Hugh Hewitt, a nationally syndicated conservative radio talk show host, said. They ought to get together and let the convention decide. And if Donald Trump pulls over a makeover in the next four to five weeks, great, they can keep him.

And Steve Deace, a conservative activist and radio talk show host from Iowa, reviewed Trumps most recent missteps on his radio show and urged the 2,500 delegates to the Republican convention to make this stop.

History is calling you to step up to the plate. You have not a choice but an obligation. You must save the country, Deace said to the delegates.

A.J. Spiker, a former Iowa Republican Party chairman, tweeted on Tuesday, The Republican Party needs a patriot to step forward, challenge Trump, work delegates and win the GOP nomination for president in Cleveland.

Amidst this agitation for an alternative, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walkers name has been increasingly mentioned as a possible replacement.

Walker on Tuesday backed away from supporting Trump, and said pointedly, Hes not yet the nominee.  Officially, that wont happen until the middle of July.

Redstate.com reported Wednesday that there are rumors that Walker is open to such an outcome. And one source who has been involved in the effort to recruit an independent candidate said Walker has told those working to find an alternative that he would be willing to serve as an alternative at the convention if Trump continues to implode.

Rick Wilson, a Florida-based Republican operative involved in the stop-Trump effort, said a Walker bombshell was speculative but widely discussed.

Walker, in a statement to Yahoo News, said, Let me be clear: I am focused entirely on being governor. If theres any campaign in the future, its going to be running for re-election in 2018, which is a decision that well make in the months ahead following the next state budget.

Not every anti-Trump conservative thinks the convention discussion is wise. People have scenarios of the convention. I think they are a waste of time, said Michael P. Farris, president of Patrick Henry College. Not that I wouldnt wish it. I wish it every day.

Nevertheless, many have argued that the delegates to the convention are technically free to nominate whoever they want, despite the impression that they are bound by the results of the primary votes in each state. Every convention votes on its own rules, so if this years GOP delegates wanted to unbind themselves, the argument goes, nothing would be stopping them. Numerous judicial rulings have found that even state laws, which purport to bind approximately one-third of the delegates, cannot govern to the internal affairs of a national political party  such as how delegates vote at a convention.

Deace wrote in a column on Saturday that the rules allowing delegates to follow their conscience are in place to protect the system from just such a leader as Trump.

See, this is how a republican form of government works. The popular vote puts a check-and-balance on the political class, but elected representatives (in this case delegates) put a check-and-balance on the unbridled passions of a wayward electorate. Its why the Founding Fathers gave us mechanisms such as juries and the Electoral College in the first place, Deace wrote.

French pointed out that many of the delegates to the convention are people who loathe [Trump], and that hasnt changed.

_____

3. Does anyone still want to be Trumps running mate? Anyone? Bueller?

(From front, left to right) Donald Trump, Mike Pence, Newt Gingrich, Rich Scott. Chris Christie, Jan Brewer, Mary Fallin, John Kasich, Ben Carson, Joni Ernst, Marco Rubio, Bob Corker. (Photo illustration: Yahoo News, photos: John Moore/Getty Images, AP, Mike Segar/Reuters)

Bob Corker was supposed to be one of Donald Trumps most promising veep possibilities. Like Trump, the Tennessee senator was a rich builder before he entered the political arena; unlike Trump, he also has some real legislative experience under his belt. To top it off, Corker was saying nice things about Trump way back when the rest of the GOP still thought the Manhattan mogul was a joke. The two men even met at Trump Tower in May to, you know, get acquainted.

Then came Trumps comments about how Indiana-born Judge Gonzalo Curiel is unfit to preside over a class-action lawsuit against Trump University because he is a Mexican  and Corkers decision to fan the flames of criticism that followed.

At first, all Corker would say was that he did not condone Trumps repeated remarks about Curiel. But in an interview Tuesday with Yahoo News Chief White House Correspondent Olivier Knox, Corker went further, asserting that with his attacks on Curiel, Trump has 100 percent squandered any goodwill hed recently generated among Republican leaders  and that the nominee may be on the verge of dooming his chances in November as a result.

Hes obviously stepped in it, Corker told Knox. Hes got this defining period thats over the next two or three weeks where he could pivot, can pivot, hopefully will pivot to a place where he becomes a true general election candidate.  [But] if he keeps moving towards the convention with similar types of weeks like the last one, I just fear that hes going to be in a position that doesnt really allow him to fully take advantage of this incredible opportunity.

Corker wasnt the only conservative to criticize Trump over the Curiel controversy. In fact, very few Republicans of any real stature have defended Trumps remarks, and some have even characterized them as racist  which is an unusual position for any Republican standard-bearer to find himself in. But Corkers condemnation was especially revealing because it came, along with several other similar rebukes, from precisely the sort of politician who, in a normal election cycle, would be least inclined to publicly castigate his or her own partys presumptive presidential nominee: the Potential Running Mate.

Which raises an interesting question  and one thats indicative of just how odd the relationship between the GOP and its latest nominee really is. Trump has promised that he will attract record television audiences by revealing his vice-presidential pick, reality-show style, at the Republican convention in Cleveland. But at the rate hes going, will anyone want the job by then?

These days, a running mates most important role is to serve as the nominees top surrogate. To speak on his behalf whenever necessary. To brag about the good news. To spin the bad. To stay on message. And to defend the boss no matter what.

Seen in that light, the Curiel episode was a trial run of sorts. Trump just stumbled into his first big first controversy as the Republican nominee. Which vice-presidential wannabes would rush to his rescue?

The answer? Not many.

Quite the opposite, in fact.

Lets tally them up. Based on media reports and Trumps own remarks, a loose VP long list has emerged in recent weeks: Corker; former House Speaker Newt Gingrich; New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie; Florida Sen. Marco Rubio; Ohio Gov. John Kasich; Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst; Indiana Gov. Mike Pence; former presidential candidate Ben Carson; Florida Gov. Rick Scott; Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin; and former Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer.

Most of these sidekicks-in-waiting joined Corker in condemning Trump outright.

It was one of the worst mistakes Trump has made, Gingrich told Fox News. Inexcusable.

Every American is entitled to a fair trial and an impartial judge, but of course I think those comments were inappropriate, Pence said Tuesday at the Indiana Statehouse. I dont think its ever appropriate to question the partiality of the judge based on their ethnic background.

I think its wrong, Rubio told WFTVs Christopher Heath . He needs to stop saying it. That man is an American.

Every human being is an individual first rather than a member of an identity group, Carson said in a statement. The moment we forget that is the moment we enter into a phase of moral descent.

Attacking judges based on their race &/or religion is another tactic that divides our country, Kasich tweeted. More importantly, it is flat out wrong. @RealDonaldTrump should apologize to Judge Curiel.

As for the rest of Trumps veep contenders? They may not have attacked him in public  but they didnt seem particularly eager to stand up for him either.

I can tell you whats important to me is that all the candidates get their message out, Scott told Florida reporters during a press conference about Tropical Storm Colin. But right now I want to talk about the tropical storm.

I am on my way to the office, Ernst replied when questioned by ABC News at the Capitol. Thank you.

Fallin hasnt said a word about Curiel. So far, Brewer has merely reprimanded the Trump campaign for its lack of message discipline, snapping, You all better get on the [same] page.

Only Christie has actually attempted to shield his would-be boss from incoming fire, telling reporters in New Jersey that I am not going to get into critiquing a campaign that were in the middle of.

Donald Trump is not a racist, Christie added. The allegations that he is are absolutely contrary to any experience Ive had with him over the last 14 years.

Politicians are self-interested creatures. The reason they always accept the VP job when offered  despite the fact that, in John Garner Nances famous formulation, it isnt worth a bucket of something euphemized as warm spit  is that theyve calculated that its better for their careers to be a heartbeat away from the presidency than to keep doing whatever else it is theyre doing.

But Trump scrambled the usual calculus with his Curiel comments. For people like Corker, denouncing Trump suddenly became more advantageous than defending him. If this continues, Trump could become the first presidential nominee in recent memory who forces most respectable members of his party to conclude that the unusual costs of joining the current presidential ticket outweigh the usual benefits  leaving a leader who values loyalty above all else with few unsullied contenders left to choose from in Cleveland.

Or so Chris Christie hopes.

_____

4. VIDEO: Sanders supporters in California sound off on the rigged system  and say what it would take for Clinton to earn their votes



By Brian Goldsmith

SANTA MONICA, Calif.  At Sanders election night rally here Tuesday night, his supporters reflected the stubborn sensibility of their candidate. Most of those interviewed by Yahoo News refused to acknowledge that Clinton had earned the nomination and instead attributed Sanders loss to a rigged system. Given a choice between Clinton and the presumptive Republican nominee, Donald Trump, very few entertained supporting Trump. However, several said they might vote for a third-party Green or Libertarian candidate, depending on whether Clinton embraces elements of Sanders agenda.

Sanders base  as represented in that room  identified opponents in many quarters: the establishment, the Democratic National Committee, ignorant voters and, perhaps most of all, the mainstream media. When TV screens showed Clinton leading, the crowd shouted, CNN sucks. Uniting the Democratic Party may be a greater challenge than Clinton had imagined at the beginning of this long campaign for the White House.

_____

5. The best of the rest

If you're looking for the person responsible for the turn of Sanders' campaign of late, his name is Bernie Sanders https://t.co/O7vOp9HbwH  Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) June 8, 2016

Yes, there's a way GOP could yet deny the nomination to Trump, but it won't happen w/o catastrophic trend in polls. https://t.co/jq8zfczQWW  Ed Kilgore (@ed_kilgore) June 7, 2016

Top Bernie Sanders allies call on him to exit presidential race https://t.co/Iy6UAyhn58 via @YahooNews  Andrew Bahl (@AndrewBahl) June 8, 2016

SCOOP JUST IN: @BernieSanders plans to layoff more than half his campaign staff tomorrow https://t.co/5MPVE4lR0k By me and @maggieNYT  Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) June 8, 2016

This summer's GOP convention will be bookended by two key hearings in the Trump University lawsuits. https://t.co/HHBreGn6kz  McKay Coppins (@mckaycoppins) June 8, 2016

Meet the Organizers Behind Planned Protests at Philly DNC in July: https://t.co/mPWjY9YRwL pic.twitter.com/wyiy36BK0o  Brian X. McCrone (@BrianXMcCrone) June 7, 2016

_____

History lesson

The Rev. Jesse Jackson delivers a speech at the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta, July 20, 1988. (Photo: Ron Edmonds/AP)

If Bernie Sanders pushes the Democratic Party to revise its primary process at the convention in Philadelphia  he has repeatedly called for open primaries, the elimination of the superdelegates and a revised calendar  he wouldnt be the first runner-up to do so.

In 1984, Jesse Jackson  who was in many ways the Sanders of his day, and whom Sanders himself would endorse in the next presidential election  won 20 percent of the popular vote. But at the convention in San Francisco, he wound up with only 12 percent of the delegates. Jackson claimed the rules had been stacked against him by organized labor and Democrats aligned with former vice president Walter Mondale, the eventual nominee.

Something similar happened when Jackson ran again in 1988, and again Jackson railed against the system. This time, however, with nearly 30 percent of the popular vote, he managed to force some changes at the Democratic convention in Atlanta despite bitter opposition.

As Jacksons son, Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr., wrote in 2008, winner-take-all and bonus primaries (in which an extra delegate was awarded the winner of each congressional district) were unfair to African-American voters, who, as a result of gerrymandering and de-facto neighborhood segregation, were largely concentrated in their own congressional districts. The new Jackson Rules replaced these methods with the system of proportional representation that the Democratic Party still uses today.

Another Jackson reform, however, didnt last for long. Arguing that superdelegates suppressed the voice of grassroots voters, Jackson pushed through a rule change blocking DNC members from joining their ranks. This would have reduced the total number of superdelegates by roughly 250 and sapped party elites of at least some of their influence.

A few months later, however, the DNC met and reversed the new rule, reinstating its members superdelegate privileges. Which just goes to show: you can fight the establishment, but the establishment will fight back.

_____

Countdown

For the latest data, make sure to check the Yahoo News delegate scorecard and primary calendar.



(Cover tile photo: John Locher/AP)
Washington (AFP) - The United States on Wednesday denounced a mass shooting in a nightspot in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv that left at least four people dead.

The State Department dubbed this latest in a series of assaults by alleged Palestinian extremists a "horrific terrorist attack."

"We extend our deepest condolences to the families of those killed and our hopes for a quick recovery for those wounded," spokesman Mark Toner said.

"These cowardly attacks against innocent civilians can never be justified. We are in touch with Israeli authorities to express our support."

Two men from the occupied West Bank had opened fire at patrons at sidewalk cafes across the street from Israel's military headquarters.

Israeli police later said one attacker had been arrested and the other had been wounded by gunfire and was undergoing surgery.

Since October, violence related to the Middle East conflict has killed 207 Palestinians, 28 Israelis, two Americans, an Eritrean and a Sudanese.

Most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, according to Israeli authorities.

The United States has called on both Israeli and Palestinian leaders to take "concrete steps" to restore confidence between the communities.

Washington stands firm behind the right of Israel to defend itself and condemns all attacks on Israeli civilians.

But US officials are also critical of Israel's settlement building on occupied land, arguing it undermines hopes for an eventual peace deal.
Current vaccines target only a small percentage of the more than 90 strains of the bacteria that cause pneumonia. But researchers say a new protein-based vaccine can defend against many more strainsand that its 100 percent effective at promoting the appropriate immune response.

Computer simulations indicate the vaccine would be effective against all strains of pneumococcus, but additional tests are needed to confirm that.

Related: Valeant CEO J. Michael Pearson Hospitalized with Sever Pneumonia

The vaccine offers what could be the most direct and broad response to preventing pneumoniathe leading cause of death of children under the age of 5 worldwide, according to the World Health Organizationas well as meningitis, sepsis, and other serious infections caused by pneumococcus.

These are very serious illnesses that we havent been able to completely suppress. The vaccine were developing could finally get that job done, says Blaine A. Pfeifer, an associate professor of chemical and biological engineering at the University at Buffalo School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

Pfeifer led the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, with former student Charles H. Jones, who is overseeing efforts to commercialize the vaccine.

With conventional vaccines, the approach has been, What bacteria do we want to target and how,' says Jones, CEO and founder of Abcombi Biosciences. Our strategy is to shift the paradigm to which diseases do we want to prevent.

Related: How to Fight Whats Killing Seniors  And Win

To treat and prevent illnesses caused by pneumococcus, doctors almost exclusively relied on penicillin and other common antibiotics. While still used, the effectiveness of these drugs has been waning for decades due to bacteria developing antibiotic resistance.

The situation led pharmaceutical companies to develop preventative vaccines, which have reduced deaths and illnesses, especially in developed nations. But pneumococcus remains a serious problem.

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Pneumonia killed 1.3 million people worldwide in 2011, with the majority of deaths in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. In the U.S. alone, about 1 million people are hospitalized with pneumonia each year, and 50,000 die from the disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

One reason for this is that current vaccines, which identify pneumococcus by a sugar coating that surround the bacteria, are 56 to 88 percent effective. Preventing pneumonia will also save a fortune in health care costs  roughly $4 billion annually.

Related: Why Adult Vaccination Is An Economic No-Brainer

Why this vaccine is different

The new vaccine identifies strains by proteins attached to the surface of pneumococcus. Laboratory tests show the vaccine can defend against more than 12 strains.

Its like the arcade game Whac-A-Mole. Think of the mallet as a traditional vaccine. It cant stop all the moles, or in our case, all the strains of bacteria at once, Jones says. But our vaccine does just that. Its like a mallet with 90 heads that strikes all the moles simultaneously.

The new vaccine also differs from whats on the market by its response to the bacteria.

Current vaccines teach the immune system to indiscriminately destroy bacteria and other pathogens. The approach works, but there is growing concern that it can create space within the body for new and potentially more harmful alternatives to establish residencesimilar to antibiotic resistance resulting in new and more potent pathogens.

The new vaccine allows bacteria to exist as long as it causes no harm to body. It instructs the immune system to attack only when the surface proteins, mentioned above, break free of the bacterial coating.

Thats the signal that this bacteria is becoming a troublemaker, thats its threatening the body, and that its necessary to fight back, Pfeifer says.

The National Institutes of Health, Swedish Medical Research Council, and the Arthur A. Schomburg Fellowship Program at the University at Buffalo funded the work.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
Shares of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. VRX were down 14.6% after the company slashed its guidance for 2016 due to continued weakness across most of its business franchises. Its first-quarter results were dismal as well, adding to the companys woes.

Quarterly Results

Earnings of $1.27 decreased from $2.02 in the year-ago quarter and missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.42. However, revenues of $23.7 million were up from $21.7 million in the year-ago quarter and above the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $23.4 million.

Revenues in the Developed markets were $1.9 billion, up 11% driven by acquisitions. However, the dermatology business remained under pressure. Launch of the Walgreens business led to flat volumes and lower average selling prices. Revenues from Emerging markets were $442 million.

Cost of goods sold increased to 27% from 24% in the year-ago quarter primarily due to unfavorable foreign exchange rates, lower high-margin dermatology revenues due to changing market dynamics, and the addition of lower-margin products acquired in 2015.

Selling, general and administrative expenses increased 42% to $813 million.

Lowered Guidance

The company has lowered its guidance yet again. Revenues are now expected in the range of $9.9 billion to $10.1 billion, down from the prior projection of $11.0$11.2 billion. Earnings per share are anticipated to be $6.60 to $7.00, down from the previous guidance of $9.50$10.50.

The dermatology and gastrointestinal businesses continue to face challenges from lower script volume, a decline in fill rates, decreased ASPs and overall higher managed care rebates. The Salix business, on the other hand, is performing beyond managements expectations.

Our Take

Once an acquisition giant, woes do not seem to end for Valeant. The company has been under the spotlight since Aug 2015 for all the wrong reasons including price hike of specialty drugs, erroneous financial reporting, and termination of contracts with Philidor Rx Services. However, at every turn, it seems that the going just gets tougher for Valeant. Earlier, the company had delayed its earnings release due to the review of certain accounting practices. Valeant has also received a notice of default from its debtors.

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As if the delayed results were not enough, the slash in guidance hints at more troubled conditions ahead.

According to the new CEO, Joseph Papa, the first-quarter results reflect the impact of a significant disruption that the pharmaceutical company has faced over the past nine months. Management transition issues, heavy debt levels and persistent organizational distractions are expected to impact its results even further, going ahead.

Valeant currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell). Some better-ranked stocks in the health care sector include Abbott Laboratories ABT, ArQule Inc. ARQL and Johnson & Johnson JNJ. All three stocks carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

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The head of the Catholic Church in Guam has denied sexual abuse allegations after the Vatican appointed an administrator to perform his duties while an investigation is underway.

Archbishop Anthony Apuron has handed over his responsibilities to Vatican-appointed Archbishop Savio Hon Tai-Fai, the Archdiocese of Agana said on Tuesday.

It said Hon would remain in the US Pacific territory "pending the investigation of an abuse allegation".

The allegations surfaced last month and date back to the 1970s, with former altar boys alleging they were molested by Apuron, then a parish priest.

In an emotional video address from Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome posted to social media Tuesday, Apuron denied any wrongdoing.

"I reaffirm my innocence and I am a victim of these horrible calumnies," he said, urging "my dear people to pray for me, your shepherd and for our church".

Apuron stressed that he had asked Pope Francis to appoint the administrator and that it was a temporary move while he worked to clear his name.

"The Holy Father has understood the importance of establishing the truth and will allow an independent investigation of these false allegations to proceed," he said.

The initial accusations came from Roy Taitague Quintanilla, now 52, who claimed Apuron sexually assaulted him during a sleepover 40 years ago.

Then Doris Concepcion - a former Guam resident now living in the United States - alleged that her now deceased son, Joseph A. Quinata, told her before his death that Apuron had abused him.

This week, another man, Walter Denton, alleged Apuron raped him in April 1977, when he was a 13-year-old altar boy at the Mount Carmel Church in the village of Agat.

"It bothered me all my life. There were many times when I was alone I would just break down and cry," he told supporters outside Hagatna's Catholic cathedral.

Apuron, who has headed the Agana archdiocese since 1986, has not been charged with any crime.

The archdiocese said last week that it had hired a US law firm to conduct an independent investigation into "allegations and rumours" against Apuron.
Victoria's Secret

Victoria's Secret may be resorting to the retail industry's most dangerous strategy.

The company is famous for its Semi-Annual Sale, which means customers have to wait for bargains. If they can't, they pay full price.



But more recently, Victoria's Secret held another sale before the Semi-Annual Sale. And that could be a troubling sign, if it means that the company is giving in to the urge to increase markdowns for the sake of foot traffic.

Incessant discounting is a problem that's plaguing the retail industry, as many consumers have been conditioned to shop only at sale price. Once you go there, it's difficult to ever come back, as companies like Banana Republic have recently been forced to admit.

"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," Gap Inc.'s CEO Arthur Peck said on a recent conference call.



Wedbush Securities analyst Lupine Skelly wrote in a note Wednesday that during this year's Semi Annual Sale, both bras and swimwear were discounted at much deeper rates than they were last year.



Granted, the company is phasing out its swimwear sector, and a spokeswoman for the company said the additional sale was intended for that purpose.



Victoria's Secret is restructuring its business to zero-in on three major categories: lingerie, its younger sister brand, Pink, and its beauty sector.



But Skelly notes that some online beauty discounts were as steep as 70%. She notes that the company was not discounting its bralettes  the padding-free bra that's currently on trend  but with many other retailers also selling bralettes, they're not particularly unique to Victoria's Secret.

The new sale was called the "One Sexy Sale" and ran right up until the day before the regular Semi-Annual Sale began, according to Skelly.

"Although the initial turnout for the Semi-Annual sale looks acceptable, we are concerned by the deeper discounts on bras and feel that the push used to get customers shopping the One Sexy Sale during the second half of May could dampen the results for the Semi-Annual Sale especially given the similarity of product and discount," Skelly wrote in the report.



In May, the company advertised the "One Sexy Sale" in its Flatiron store's window:

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Victoria's Secret sale May

NOW WATCH: How Gisele Bundchen became the highest-paid supermodel in the world





More From Business Insider


ACCRA (Reuters) - Britain's Vodafone (VOD.L) said on Wednesday that plans to return its Ghana operations to profit-making were hampered by the West African country's failure to fulfil its financial obligations as minority shareholder.

The world's largest mobile group by revenue paid $900 million for a 70 percent stake in state-run Ghana telecom in 2008 while the government retained the remaining 30 percent with an enterprise value of around $1.3 billion at the time.

Since the acquisition, Vodafone has put an additional $1.2 billion to modernize network infrastructure and quality of service without the corresponding contribution from the minority shareholder, Kenneth Gomado, chief finance officer of Vodafone Ghana, told reporters in Accra.

The debts were mainly the principal and interest charges on a $550 million investment from the Vodafone Group and a $240 million loan from the World Bank's IFC.

Gomado said the government's inability to meet its obligations had resulted in accumulation of debt due to increasing interest charges on the investment loans, and he noted that Vodafone Ghana had yet to declare profit since its launch.

The company has delayed plans to list on the local stock exchange until ongoing talks with the government to redeem its obligations conclude, Gomado said.

"As we speak today, we are not making any profit before taxes ... we invested $1.2 billion, most of which is accruing interest and at the end of the day that puts our pre-tax profit in negative," he said.

"We've grown and improved quality and profitability of the business, but as of now I don't think we are able to list because there are certain balance sheet issues that we've been discussing with the government in the past three years that needs to be resolved," Gomado said.

Vodafone Ghana has around eight million subscribers on its network and is the second largest mobile operator in subscription and revenue after South Africa's MTN (MTNJ.J).

Serpil Timuray, group head for Africa, Middle East and Asia-Pacific, said despite the challenges, Vodafone would continue critical investments to build on growth, adding that the company's future in Ghana looked bright.

Also operating in Ghana are Millicom International Cellular's Tigo, India's Bharti-Airtel (BRTI.NS), Globacom of Nigeria and Sudan's Sudatel Expresso.

(Reporting by Kwasi Kpodo)
While the Skoda brand name of automobiles may be fairly unknown in the United States, according to a new report, the Czech automobile manufacturer and division of Volkswagen Group could be the newest automaker to open its doors in the USA. The only question is, will it?

According to trade publication Automotive News, a Skoda spokesperson has confirmed to the outlet that the Czech automaker is investigating entry into other world markets outside of Europe, that includes North America.

While this wouldnt be the first time a Skoda has been sold on these shores (a small number were imported to the US in the 1950s), it would mark a pivotal moment for one of Europes fastest growing manufacturers and a potential respite for parent company Volkswagen, which remains entrenched in its US diesel emissions scandal.

RELATED: This 1974 VW Beetle has Driven Just 56 Miles Ever

Since 1991, VW Group has owned the 121-year-old Czech automaker, and in the past two and a half decades Skoda has increasingly gained praise for remarkable build quality and customer satisfaction. In its world markets, Skoda vehicles are marketed at a price point below comparable Volkswagens, however all share their platforms with other VW Group automobiles.

It is worth noting that while both the United States and Canada adhere to similar and very strict vehicle safety standards, North America also includes Mexico, which meets a separate set of regulations. As such, many global car models and even some entire brands are sold in Mexico though not north of the border, including Peugeot, Renault, and SEAT vehicles, for example.

Considering the high cost of meeting US federal vehicle safety standards, this could mean Skoda vehicles may sell in Mexico, but not the United States or Canada.

RELATED: Check Out the Racy Skoda Fabia R5 Concept

Interestingly though, last month Skoda filed trademarks for three of its best selling vehicles with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Skoda Superb, Octavia, and Yeti crossover. A fourth vehicle, the new Kodiaq SUV, would seem ideal for the US market, though no trademarks for that model have surfaced yet.

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Thus far, Skoda is performing quite well for 2016, having delivered 276,600 vehicles globally in the years first quarter, bringing total revenue up 6.4 percent to 3.3 billion and operating profits up 30 percent to 315 million.

No decisions have reportedly been made yet regarding Skodas North American market entry though.

RELATED: You Can Buy Ferdinand Porsches VW Pickup Truck
Its been almost 20 years since the first Harry Potter book was published, 15 since the first movie was released, and fascination with JK Rowlings boy wizard shows no signs of abating. Managing and reaping rewards from the franchises continuation, Warner Bros has put the finishing touches on the senior executive structure of its Harry Potter Global Franchise Development team, promoting WB UK veteran Polly Cochrane to EVP & Group Marketing Director, Warner Bros UK & Ireland, and Chief Marketing Officer for HPGFD. The move comes on the heels of last nights first previews of West End production, Harry Potter And The Cursed Child, although WB Theatrical is not involved in the play.

Cochrane, who has been with the studio since 2009, will continue to evolve WB UKs marketing operation, while also leading on global brand strategy and guidelines for HPGFD, in partnership with JK Rowlings reps at The Blair Partnership and other WB business units.

The Harry Potter Global Franchise Development team is charged with optimizing the continuing expansion of the lucrative brand. Upcoming projects include feature series Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them, whose first film, starring Eddie Redmayne, releases in November; the Warner Bros Studio Tour London  The Making of Harry Potter; The Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme parks; and Harry Potter digital products including Rowlings Pottermore.

Will Harrison and Nicole Blake have also been hired as SVP & Chief Commercial Officer, HPGFD; and SVP, HPGFD, respectively. Harrison, who will be based in London and joins from HBO Europe, will lead commercial and business initiatives relating to the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts franchises. Blake, based in Burbank, will work with Cochrane and Harrison on strategy, marketing and business development. She was previously Head of Franchise at DreamWorks Animation. Each of the execs will report to Josh Berger, President & Managing Director, Warner Bros UK, Ireland and Spain, and HPGFD.

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Berger said, Pollys well-deserved promotion reflects her incredible track record, which has seen her turn our cross-divisional marketing into a best-in-class operation. Will is hugely experienced in international business development, while Nicole has an incredibly impressive background in franchise management.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Washington National Cathedral will remove Confederate battle flags from two stained glass windows honoring Confederate Generals Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee, the cathedral said on Wednesday.

Officials at the neo-Gothic Episcopal cathedral, one of the best-known U.S. places of worship, said in a statement the two images of the flag would be replaced by plain glass, with the cost borne by private donors.

The rest of the two windows will be left up for the time being and used as a starting point in discussions about racism, they said.

The Rev. Kelly Brown Douglas, a member of a task force that last week recommended removal of the flags, said the Lee-Jackson windows raised the question of race and the legacy of slavery, "and instead of turning away from that question, the Cathedral has decided to lean into it.

The task force report said the cathedral should readdress the issue of what to do with the Lee and Jackson windows within two years.

The battle flag used by Confederate forces during the 1861-65 U.S. Civil War has been at the center of controversy since a white supremacist allegedly gunned down nine black worshippers at a South Carolina church in June 2015.

Photos of the white man charged in the shooting showed him posing with the flag on a website that also carried a racist manifesto. The massacre has spurred efforts to remove the flag and other Confederate symbols from public places.

The windows at the cathedral were installed in 1953 to foster reconciliation between sections of the United States that had been riven by the Civil War.

Since 1907, the cathedral has been used for state funerals for three presidents, and a number of presidential prayer services. It has also hosted services for noted diplomats and dignitaries.

(Reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by Peter Cooney)
Plus, Martin Short makes an appearance as Karl Lagerfeld

While some might think that Anna Wintours favorite place to dine in New York would be Indochine or Da Silvano, it seems that her favorite culinary establishment is a humble bodegaat least, thats true when Anna Wintour is being played by Maya Rudolph.

In a skit titled My New York that premiered on Tuesday night on her variety show, Maya & Marty, Rudolph delivered an eerily accurate impersonation of Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour, complete with Wintours trademark Chanel suit, bobbed hairstyle, oversized sunglasses, and reserved demeanor.

Wintour a la Rudolph claims that, To me there is no place more New York than Hans Deli Bodega, and proceeds to hit the stores lunch buffet, selecting green Jell-O and imitation crab, as well as tons of hot sauce packets.

Other gems in the skit include Rudolphs Wintour holding an edit meeting with the entire Vogue staff in the bodega and meeting Karl Lagerfeld (Martin Short, with a spot-on German accent) for a chance lunch date.

Watch the full skit below.
Millennials, according to much conventional wisdom, are lazy, self-centered narcissists who habitually wait till the absolute last minute to finish anything that is important but boring. And in Britain, part of that stereotype may not be too far off the mark.

On Tuesday night, thousands of young Brits nearly missed the deadline to register for their countrys referendum on whether to leave the European Union after a massive surge in traffic caused the government-run registration website to crash.

The servers began to fail shortly before midnight, with traffic hitting a peak of more than 200,000 visitors per hour. Many of them received technical error messages. At five minutes before midnight, 26,000 people remained on the website and 20,000 still lingered a minute past midnight, meaning they had missed the deadline.

The British government blamed the server failure on unprecedented demand, but the root cause seems to lie with young voters who put off registration till the last day.

Most of the 500,000 potential voters who applied to vote on Tuesday were under 34. To further illustrate this age divide, roughly 132,000 of them were under 25, compared to 13,000 between the ages of 65 and 74, according to British broadcasting company Sky News. Older voters, in other words, had registered well in advance of the deadline to weigh in on the so-called Brexit.

Other unforeseen problems could also keep Brits from casting votes in the June 23 referendum. On Tuesday, it came to light that German postal workers threw out pre-paid envelopes sent to British citizens living abroad.

But the procrastinators who accidentally missed Tuesdays deadline will get a second chance. On Wednesday, the government extended the registration deadline by 48 hours to Thursday night.

Jordan Parker, a college student who was among the horde of millennials that crashed the website, told the Telegraph that the government made the right decision in extending the deadline.

Despite what some elderly naysayers might think about his and other millennials commitment to civic duty, he said he is excited to participate in the countrys historic vote.

Photo credit: JOHN KEEBLE/Getty Images
With exchange traded funds (ETFs) continuing to rack up the lions share of investors money, the sponsors of more traditional investment vehicles have taken notice  especially those who have spent decades building up huge offerings of mutual funds. Weve already seen mutual fund powerhouses like Fidelity, Oppenhiemer, Legg Mason, and John Handcock take the ETF plunge in order to turn back the tide of potential redemptions. Now we can add another powerhouse to that list.

Mutual fund giant Franklin Templeton was the latest to try their hand at ETFs.

Like its rivals, Franklin Templeton chose to differentiate itself from the pack by offering a suite of smart-beta ETFs. Its four new launches play directly into its specialty of being a manager of global and international portfolios.

Ultimately, the offerings continue to show how powerful the ETF movement has been and provide more tools to help build portfolios.

A Big Rebrand & Launch

Technically, this isnt Franklins first foray into ETFs: the mutual fund group launched the Franklin Short Duration US Government ETF (FTSD ) back in 2013. However, the actively managed cash solution hasnt exactly lit the industry on fire. After laying dormant for several years, Franklin Templeton is finally back to the ETF well as of June 1 by offering a suite of global funds dubbed as LibertyShares.

Like most smart-beta funds, the new LibertyShares lineup will feature fundamental indexing to try and improve on the returns of a broader parent index. In this case, the four LibertyShare funds will focus on measures of quality, value, and momentum, as well as low volatility standards. That should sound familiar for many ETF watchers, since those are the basic metrics that most fundamental indexes are built from.

However, what makes Franklins offerings stand out is just how they are weighted. LibertyShares will use a unique approach of using custom factor weightings in order to achieve outperformance, because the issuer believes that all factors are not created equal. Some produce better outcomes than others. The suite of funds will weigh a stocks quality at 50%, value at 30%, momentum at 10%, and low volatility at 10%.

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Thats a sharp contrast to most smart-beta funds, who tend to equally weigh the four factors. At the end of the day, it could help Franklin Templetons LibertyShares provide even more return than similar smart-beta funds.

The Four Funds

As we stated above, Franklins new funds focus on its abilities as a globally-focused manager of assets. As such, they run the gamut of developed and international investing themes.

The Franklin LibertyQ Global Equity ETF (FLQG ) offers an all-in-one approach to smart-beta investing. FLQGs investment universe is the MSCI ACWI. That includes all the nations of the world  the United States, developed markets, and emerging nations. You name it, its in here. FLQG will screen the broad parent index for the previous fundamentals in order to come up with its portfolio of both domestic and international stocks. Similarly, the Franklin LibertyQ Emerging Markets ETF (FLQE ) will focus solely on emerging markets and stocks included in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index.

The Franklin LibertyQ International Equity Hedged ETF (FLQH ) will focus its smart-beta and fundamental screens on developed market stocks. This includes equities domiciled in Europe, Japan, and Australia. The twist on FLQH is that its 100% hedged to the US dollar. By hedging its currency, the fund hopes to remove the undesirable effects of currency fluctuations on returns.

Finally, the Franklin LibertyQ Global Dividend ETF (FLQD ) adds its own twist: FLQD will follow the same basic screening pattern as the rest of the LibertyShares. However, the ETF then adds screens for dividend yield, and long-term dividend sustainability and growth, as well as underlying balance sheet strength. That creates a portfolio of high quality global dividend payers.

Expenses for these ETFs are all over the place. FLQG costs just 0.35%  or $35 per $10,000 invested in expenses. FLQE has an expense ratio of 0.55%, FLQH charges 0.40%, while FLQD charges 0.45%.

The Bottom Line

With ETFs continuing to dominate traditional mutual funds, its only inventible that many of the major mutual fund issuers would start offering ETFs. Franklin Templeton was just the latest. However, Franklins new LibertyShares have the potential to catch on due to their unique weighting processes.

Click here to read the original article on ETFdb.com.
ABIDJAN (Reuters) - ABIDJAN, June 7 (Reuters) - Turnover on West Africa's BRVM bourse more than doubled over the past year, reaching 209.26 billion CFA francs ($362.2 million) in late May, the manager of the stock exchange said on Tuesday. "We benefited from a favorable context. We live in a region with strong growth," Edoh Kossi Amenounve told reporters. He added that on May 31, the BRVM recorded 118.98 million securities exhanged for a value of 209.26 billion CFA francs, respective growth of 191 percent and 109 percent, compared to the same period last year. The West Africa bourse lists 40 companies from countries including Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Benin, Togo, and Ivory Coast. The stock exchange has several initiatives underway to develop its market and to attract more investors, Amenounve said, including launching diaspora bonds for countries such as Mali and Senegal to finance infrastructure projects, and listing sukuk or Islamic bonds for Ivory Coast and Senegal, scheduled to start in September. It also plans to launch an Islamic index for Sharia-compliant investments, and to open a market for mining, oil, and gas companies operating in the region, he said. The bourse will open a new division for small and medium-sized businesses and industries by the end of the year, he said. (Reporting by Loucoumane Coulibaly; Editing by Nellie Peyton)
(Corrects headline and paragraphs 1 and 12 to say additional production lines, not plants)

By Brad Haynes

SAO PAULO, June 8 (Reuters) - Whirlpool Corp will soon open its first Argentine factory in 14 years, with plans for two more production lines within five years, the company's chief Latin America executive said on Wednesday, saying conditions there were better than in his native Brazil.

The plans laid out by Whirlpool's regional head Joao Carlos Brega underscored Argentina's rising allure for foreign investment as messy politics in neighboring Brazil hurt the odds of structural reforms aimed at restarting growth in the scandal-plagued country.

"The process in Argentina is already ahead of Brazil. It's hopeful but they still need to deliver. They're doing their homework with support from Congress, the population and a serious government," Brega said at an event in Sao Paulo.

By contrast, he said the Brazilian economy is unlikely to rebound strongly after hitting bottom this year.

"There will be a sense of relief - not improvement but relief. That will last until the end of 2018, because the political calendar is dominating the economic calendar. Then the country will resume growth ... after the presidential election."

Investor enthusiasm for Brazil's interim President Michel Temer has been tempered in recent weeks by corruption scandals that forced out two ministers, hurting his business-friendly agenda.

The setbacks have weakened support for Temer, strained his coalition and raised the possibility that suspended leftist President Dilma Rousseff could survive a Senate trail and return to office.

Brega said the 2018 presidential campaign will be a chance to build social consensus for tax and labor reforms to spur a robust recovery. A poll on Wednesday showed most Brazilians oppose a pension system reform, underscoring the challenges to sweeping policy changes.

Whirlpool forecast an industry-wide 10 percent drop in Brazilian appliance sales this year, but Brega said the company has captured a larger share of revenue in the shrinking market.

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Since the end of 2013, Whirlpool has avoided rehiring as jobs turn over, reducing its head count in Brazil by 25 percent or more in two years, he said, adding that there are no plans to expand production in the country.

Brega recounted the painful experience of overseeing the 2002 closure of Whirlpool's last plant in Argentina during a severe crisis. Since then the company has made appliances in the country through local partnerships.

By September, Whirlpool plans to open a plant in Argentina making cooking appliances, he said, adding that there were plans for refrigerator and washing machine production lines over the next five years.

(Reporting by Brad Haynes; Editing by Tom Brown)
Microsoft mogul Bill Gates, number one on Forbes World's Billionaires list, has a dream to end global poverty  and that vision starts with a chicken.



At Wednesday's Coop Dreams event in N.Y.C., Gates, 60, explained how a single chicken has the potential to make a big difference for families living in extreme poverty in sub-Saharan Africa.



"Livestock is really something quite amazing to help lift people out of poverty," Gates told PEOPLE at the event. "If you give a family a starting kit, which is sort of a rooster and several hens, then they're breeding the chickens and using the eggs to make more chickensa They can take those chickens and sell them for $5."



Standing in front of a large chicken coop on the 68th floor of Manhattan's 4 World Trade Center, Gates told reporters he is working with global nonprofit Heifer International to boost the percentage of rural families raising vaccinated chickens from 5 percent to 30 percent.



"There's so much to be done to get a livestock revolution," Gates shared.









And while the philanthropist says chickens are great for families in Africa  the animals have a great return investment, can be used as currency and even empower women to take on larger roles in their communities  he has no experience raising the animals himself.



"In the place I live, if I had a rooster, I'm sure they would complain!" Gates said with a laugh. "I've never raised chickensa I'm in Africa several times a year and I'm learning about the whole livestock story."



He adds, "It's been eye opening for me."





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Working with Heifer International CEO Pierre Ferrari, Gates hopes to donate 100,000 chickens to families in Africa. He encourages those interested in the project to read his interactive blog post on gatesnotes.com.



Gates has pledged to donate a flock of chickens for every participant who correctly answers quiz questions (for example, "How much does a chicken typically sell for in West Africa?") and watches an explanatory video on his site.



"The 100,000 chickens will go to 12 different countries," Ferrari told PEOPLE. "We make sure the chicks are healthy and that the people receiving them are trained on how to raise them. That's fundamental, because without training the chicks die."



The donated chickens are primarily raised by women and because of this, Gates says the money made from selling chickens and eggs is reinvested into "nutrition and school fees."



"The chickens are almost entirely a woman's activity, because it involves being around the household all day long," he said.









While it may "sound funny," as Gates writes on his blog, a single chicken can truly make a big economic difference.



"It's a very uplifting thing," he said.
From Seventeen

Uh-oh. Vanessa Hudgens is being accused of cultural appropriation. She posted a selfie on Instagram on Monday wearing white face paint around her eyes and eyebrows with the caption, "When you try to do face paint like Beyonce."

Vanessa was probably alluding to the scene from Beyonce's visual album Lemonade when she wears similar face paint during the music video for "Sorry."

Beyonce's look was created by visual artist Laolu Senbanjo, who was born in Nigeria and now lives in New York City. He calls the white body paint the Sacred Art of the Ori ("ori" means "essence" in Yoruba, a language spoken in Nigeria).

"The paint is a white ink with very spiritual meaning in Yoruba culture," Laolu told ABC News. "It's something we often use as a dedication to worship of orishas, the gods in Yoruba religion. The vision Beyonce had was very intense and deep - connecting with the Yoruba culture and all. You know, the Yoruba religion and culture has traveled all over the world after the slave trade, and it resonates so much with African people from the diaspora all over the world."

Vanessa has Irish, Native American, Filipino, Chinese, and Spanish ancestors, according to KidzWorld. She doesn't have a personal connection to Yoruba culture or art, so some fans are calling her out for cultural appropriation in the comments of her Instagram.

Some commenters are defending Vanessa's choice to wear face paint because some Native American tribes wear it, too. But as another commenter (who has Yoruba heritage) points out, "Even if Vanessa is 1/4 native, her tribe may not use that face point. On top of that, it's still cultural appropriation if she's just using it for aesthetic purposes, which is what she's doing."

(It's unclear which Native American tribe Vanessa is descended from. She hasn't ever addressed the topic of her heritage in interviews or online.)

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Another commenter was upset by the extent of the appropriation and called out Vanessa for "plaiting her hair like Africans."

When some commenters jumped in to defend Vanessa and call her "gorgeous," another girl explained why cultural appropriation is such a sensitive and important issue.

"It's just not a picture with Vanessa," she wrote. "She makes money off of this. She gets media attention by starting trends and being fashionable and she's not being creative, she's appropriating cultures. The tribal African girl that does this every day does not get called queen and original like Vanessa, she gets shamed and called primitive and savage, if only she saw this..."

A commenter who is Filipino presented another idea: the paint is a nod to Vanessa's Filipino heritage. "Our ancestors wear war paint," she wrote. "Until this day, Filipinos wear war paint during this festival called 'Ati-Atihan' where we celebrate our ancestors. So please stop calling her out on this." (Ati-Atihan takes place on the third Sunday of January.)

It's a complicated issue and there are a lot of viewpoints to consider. Vanessa might have simply been paying tribute to Beyonce, but failed to recognize the rich cultural history behind Beyonce's decision to incorporate Laolu's designs into Lemonade. The bottom line is that we could all do better by educating ourselves about the origins and histories of our favorite styles before trying them for ourselves.
Muhammad Ali cared more about helping people than growing his wealth, but could his estate be worth more now that he's passed?

According to the late legend's longtime friend, Tim Shanahan, Ali gave away much of his estimated $80 million fortune.

WATCH: Muhammad Ali's Daughters, Rasheda and Jamillah, Remember Their Father's 'Beautiful' Final Moments

"He had a love for money, but the reason he loved money was so he could give it away," Shanahan said. "He was never interested in spending money on himself."

Regardless of how his finances were handled while he was alive, the champ's fortune could grow exponentially in the wake of his passing.

"Muhammad Ali sold the image and naming rights to Muhammad Ali that was held at a company he had set up about 10 years ago for $50 million," estate attorney Andy Mayoras told ET. "He retained 20 percent of that, which is still owned through this company he had set up, and should be controlled by his estate."

WATCH: Sharon Stone Recalls How Muhammad Ali Predicted She Would Be a Movie Star When She Was 17

The estates of stars like Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson saw huge spikes in earnings following their deaths, and it seems like Ali's estate may go in the same direction.

Last year, Under Armour used the late fighter's image for a clothing line and audio from an epic speech Ali made before his 1974 Rumble in the Jungle fight with George Forman was used in a Super Bowl commercial featuring Paralympian Amy Purdy.

Ali died on June 3 after a 32-year battle with Parkinson's disease. He is survived by his nine children (Rasheda, Jamilla, Laila, Asaad, Hana, Maryum, Khaliah, Muhammad Jr. and Miya) three grandchildren (Curtis, Sydney and Biaggio) and wife Lonnie, who were with him during his final moments.

WATCH: Celebs and Athletes Mourn the Loss of Muhammad Ali

The family will gather in Louisville on Thursday to pay tribute to their father with an Islamic funeral prayer program. Muhammad will then be buried on Friday following a funeral service, featuring Bill Clinton and Billy Crystal as speakers and Will Smith as a pallbearer. Get more details in the video below.

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Related Articles
Shark attacks have dominated Australian headlines during the past week, with two fatalities occurring just a few days apart in waters near Perth.

Those attacks may not be just a coincidence or bad luck: Shark attacks have been on the rise, with more attacks reported worldwide last year than in any other year on record, according to an annual survey.

The International Shark Attack File (ISAF), a database of shark attacks maintained by the Florida Museum of Natural History (FMNH), includes a yearly summary of so-called "unprovoked attacks"  aggressive interactions initiated by sharks against people in the sharks' habitat, without any prior contact  and tallied 98 such attacks in 2015. The previous record was 88 attacks, which occurred in 2000.

Forty-nine percent of the incidents involved surfers, according to the ISAF. [On the Brink: A Gallery of Wild Sharks]

However, the report noted that the increased number of attacks likely does not indicate that sharks are attacking people more frequently. Rather, human populations are growing, so there are more people swimming, surfing and diving in the ocean.

But concerns about sharks are currently running high in Australia. On June 5, a woman diving near a marina near Perth died after being mauled by a shark, becoming the second person in one week to suffer a fatal shark attack while in Australian waters.

The 60-year-old woman was attacked by a shark (possibly a great white shark) measuring an estimated 16 feet (5 meters), according to the trio of fisherman who tried to help her and who claimed that the shark was "longer than their boat," the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported.

ABC added that the woman was believed to have died before she could be moved to shore.

And on May 31, Ben Gerring, 29, was severely injured when he was bitten by a shark while surfing, also near Perth. Gerring was transported to Royal Perth Hospital and died of his injuries on June 3, ABC reported.

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A dramatic photo taken near the location where Gerring was injured showed a surfer riding a wave with a shark visible in the water behind him.

CLOSE CALL: Surfers have given #9News this photo, captured near where Ben Gerring was fatally killed by a shark. pic.twitter.com/MnjGpsBEvA  Nine News Perth (@9NewsPerth) June 4, 2016

Are reported shark attacks on the rise? Absolutely  that is, if you review the numbers over the decades and not just from year to year, said George H. Burgess, curator of the International Shark Attack File at the FMNH.

"If you go back to 1900 and look at the past 11 decades, each has had more attacks," Burgess told Live Science. "On a decade-to-decade basis, you see the big trends."

However, he cautioned, it's not because sharks have become more aggressive. Rather, throughout the world, there has been a growing human interest in aquatic recreation and an increase in people in the seas, Burgess said. In addition, both sharks and humans prefer the same nearshore ocean zones, thus increasing the likelihood of interactions.

In fact, nearly half as many people died of shark attacks in 2015 (six) compared with 2000, when there were 11 such deaths, the report noted. [8 Weird Facts About Sharks]

Shark numbers declining

But while the number of shark-human interactions may be going up, many shark populations are actually in decline, largely due to overfishing and the current popularity of shark fins as a high-priced luxury item in southeast Asian markets, Burgess said. Sharks are also vulnerable as bycatch  because they follow schools of smaller fish, they are often caught along with their prey, Burgess added.

And once shark populations shrink, they take decades to bounce back, Burgess said. Sharks can take eight to 10 years to reach sexual maturity, and some species aren't ready to reproduce until they're 18 to 20 years old. Females carry their young for about 12 to 18 months and then can't reproduce again for one to three years.

"Once you knock a species down, recovery takes a long, long time," Burgess said.

So why were there more shark attacks in 2015? The increase was likely due to a combination of environmental factors as well as a greater number of people in the water, Burgess told Live Science. [How to Avoid a Shark Attack]

"They're just animals, living in their environment"

When attacks occur close together, as they did recently in Australia, "there's a good reason from a biological point of view," Burgess said. During the summer of 2015, there were seven shark attacks along the North Carolina coast in three weeks. Burgess explained that warmer-than-average ocean temperatures, an earlier spring and an abundance of bait fish in the water were likely factors that meant more sharks were in those U.S. waters at the same time as people, thus increasing the risk of an attack.

But when it comes to pinpointing the environmental conditions that attract sharks to beach areas, scientists don't always know what they are, Burgess said. "Sometimes, we can look back and see them, but sometimes, they're more subtle things, like an upwelling pushing more nutrients closer to shore."



However, Burgess added, the one factor that humans can control is our own presence in the oceans  which sharks call home. And although attacks can have tragic outcomes, demonizing sharks and hunting them down after an attack is not the answer, he said.

"They're just animals living in their environment  we're the invaders," he told Live Science. "We need to understand that as ecotourists. If you know there will be more sharks in the waters because of environmental effects, it's incumbent on us to reduce the risk by avoiding certain areas," Burgess said.

Original article on Live Science.

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In this commentary, Adam Winkler from the UCLA School of Law argues that guns will likely play the role that abortion used to play in Supreme Court nomination hearings.

Guns are the new abortion. During the confirmation battles over Supreme Court nominees in the 1980s and 1990s, it sometimes seemed as if the only relevant question was how the prospective justice would vote on reproductive rights. Would the nominee vote to uphold Roe v. Wade, the controversial decision recognizing the right to choose, or overturn it? Although a Supreme Court justice votes on thousands of different issues, a spectator could be forgiven for suspecting that abortion was the only item on the Supreme Courts agenda.

In the next confirmation hearings for a Supreme Court nominee, be it Merrick Garland or someone else nominated by a President Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, guns will likely play the role that abortion used to play. Questions about how the nominee would handle Second Amendment cases are certain to dominate the hearingseven though the next Supreme Court justice is not likely to radically shift constitutional law on questions of gun control.

Guns will be at the forefront of the confirmation hearings because of the Supreme Courts 2008 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, the landmark ruling in which the justices, in an opinion written by the now-deceased Antonin Scalia, held for the first time that the Second Amendment guarantees an individuals right to own guns. Before then, guns were primarily a political issueone for legislatures to sort out without much judicial oversight. Now guns are also unambiguously a constitutional issue, which means the justices, not elected lawmakers, have the final say.

Heller was a 5-4 decision. Without Scalias vote, there would not have been a majority of justices in favor of an individual-rights reading of the Second Amendment. The National Rifle Association argues that if Scalia were to be replaced by Garland, or any other liberal to moderate justice, Heller would be overturned and your right to keep and bear arms would be little more than a memory.

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Of course, the NRA issues ominous warnings about the end of gun rights in America at least every four years. And yet, even with two terms of President Barack Obama and two Obama appointments to the Supreme Court, there are approximately 320 million guns in the United States. Despite what the NRA called Obamas 10-Point Plan to Change the Second Amendment, gun rights are alive and well in America, and gun sales are at historic highs. In most states, the NRA has won favorable legislation so often that the nations leading gun-advocacy group is left to push for guns in the few places left from which they are usually excluded, like kindergarten classrooms and churches.

The NRAs remarkable record of legislative success highlights one reason gun rights will not be significantly affected by a Justice Garland. Gun rights in America have been vigorously and successfully protected by the elected branches of government. Long before the Supreme Court weighed in with Heller, law-abiding Americans had the ability to have a gun in their home for self-defense (with the exception of residents of Washington, D.C., whose laws were struck down in Heller). In most states, it is easy to obtain a permit to carry a gun in publicand, increasingly, states are passing laws allowing public carry without any permit. Even if Heller were overturned, current state and federal laws giving people easy access to guns will remain on the books. Dont expect the lawmakers behind Georgias Guns Everywhere law to suddenly reverse course on guns just because Heller is overturned.

In any event, Heller is unlikely to be overturned. There are several high-profile cases that are likely to be reversed by a liberal Supreme Court, such as Citizens United and Shelby County. Heller, however, is not one of them. While there is no doubt that several of the justices believe Heller was wrongly decided, they have little reason to overturn the decision and every reason to maintain it.

Heller was a narrow decision that did not fundamentally reshape Americas regime of gun laws. The Court held that individuals have a right to have handguns in their homes. But only two cities, Washington and Chicago, and no states, had laws prohibiting handgun possession. (Chicago allowed residents to have long guns for self-defense.) In the eight years since Heller, there have been several hundred lawsuits challenging nearly every type of gun law on the books. Only a few laws, however, have been invalidated.

Even the justices who dissented in Heller now understand that the decision has not proved to be a roadblock to effective gun laws. All the laws at the top of the gun-control agendauniversal background checks, assault-weapons bans, and restrictions on high-capacity magazineshave all survived judicial scrutiny since Heller. Why would justices favorable to gun control vote to overturn a case that doesnt actually stop lawmakers from regulating guns?

Plus, there is one really strong reason not to overturn Heller: It would spark a backlash that would make the political movement to reverse Roe seem like a schoolyard kerfuffle. The NRA would push for a constitutional amendment to enshrine gun rights and would likely include language, like it has in a series of recent amendments to state constitutions, making it much harder to restrict guns. Although most proposals to amend the Constitution are quixotic, gun politics are such that 38 states might well pass a new, stronger Second Amendment in a heartbeat.

The justices know thisas do gun-control advocates. Several of the latter have told me they would not ask the Court to overturn Heller, even if a liberal is appointed to fill Scalias seat. In March, the liberal justices explicitly endorsed Heller in a case out of Massachusetts dealing with a ban on stun guns. The Massachusetts courts had upheld the ban, distinguishing Heller. The Supreme Court unanimously held that the Massachusetts courts erred, that Heller was not distinguishable, and that the judges should take a second look at the stun-gun ban in light of a more robust understanding of Hellers protections. If the liberal justices were eager to overturn Heller, they could have easily voted to uphold the stun-gun ban.

What the liberal justices would likely do is refuse to expand Heller significantly. They would not read the Second Amendment to prohibit bans on assault rifles or to overturn may-issue concealed-carry permitting laws that only allow people with a good reason to carry guns in public. Then again, the Court effectively reached the same result when Scalia was still alive, refusing to review lower-court decisions upholding bans on assault rifles and may-issue permitting. The more things change

Nor would a new conservative justice, say one appointed by Trump, change things all that much. He would replace Scalia, who, along with Justice Clarence Thomas, was already eager to read Heller more broadly. A Justice Ted Cruz, for example, would still face the same problem that Scalia faced, namely the moderate positions of Justice Anthony Kennedy and possibly Chief Justice John Roberts. Presumably, one or both of these justices are the reason the Court has not read the Second Amendment more broadly. They are likely the reason the Court has previously allowed the assault-weapons bans and may-issue permitting laws to stand.

Senators will nonetheless hyper-focus on Heller because the gun issue plays to both sides bases. The GOP knows that fighting to preserve Heller, despite its limits, is good politics and helps with campaign fundraising. The Democrats feel the same way, only about preserving the ability of governments to regulate guns.

So while there is sure to be much discussion of the Second Amendment in the coming confirmation hearingsif, indeed, any are forthcomingthe dirty little secret about Heller is that it doesnt matter very much. Gun rights in America are, and have been for a long time, protected by a forceful political movement led by the NRA, not by the courts applying the Second Amendment.

The personnel on the Supreme Court may change but gun rights, which are part of the nations political culture and tradition, are unlikely to be significantly impacted.

This article is part of Confirmations: The Battle Over the Constitution, a partnership with The Atlantic.

Adam Winkler is a professor at the UCLA School of Law. He is the author of Gunfight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in America.
Rape is never the victims fault. (Photo: Gallery Stock)

In 2012, a student at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts did what so many college students do: She went on a study abroad program, this one in Puerto Rico. While abroad, this same student faced a situation unfortunately all too common for college women: She was raped.

And yet, when the victim then brought suit against the school for gross negligence in failing to protect her from a criminal act, the attorneys for the insurance carrier who represented the university at the time of the incident said that the young woman herself was partially to blame for her own assault because she had been drinking that night and voluntarily followed a stranger onto the rooftop where she was ultimately raped.

The stranger in question, incidentally, was the security guard for her university-leased apartment building where she was boarding during her study abroad program.

In the wake of the Brock Turner case  and the narrative continually pushed by Turner, who was found guilty of rape, as well as his family, friends, and even the judge overseeing his case that he is not wholly to blame because the woman he violated had been drinking  the terms asserted by Worcester Polytechnics counsel and insurance company are especially disconcerting. It reinforces the tragic reality that Turners case is anything but a one-off. Systemic victim-blaming is alive and well when it comes to sexual assault and gender-based violence.

(Like Turner, the security guard, William Rodriguez, was found guilty by a jury of his crime. Unlike Turner, he is now serving a 20-year sentence for it.)

And while the Boston Globe reported that the universitys attorney asked the victim whether she was taught by her parents to not take candy from strangers and subjected her to other similarly offensive, victim-blaming lines of questioning, the schools president, Laurie Leshin, PhD, took to Facebook last night to clarify that the school itself does not believe victims of sexual assault should ever be blamed for having been violently violated.

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When a lawsuit is filed, the universitys insurance carrier at the time of the incident takes responsibility for the case, Leshin wrote on the schools Facebook page. Although we parted ways with that provider several years ago, they are litigating this case. Their legal approach and language have not been vetted or approved by the university. WPI has never and would never blame a victim for being raped. WPI strongly believes that the person responsible for this rape is the rapist. And he is in prison.



According to the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (RAINN), every 107 seconds, another American is sexually assaulted in the U.S. And in case you werent sure, none of them are to blame for their assaults. Ever.

In fact, RAINN makes a point to note that one of the very first things to say to a survivor of sexual assault is, Its not your fault. This statement is especially important since survivors so often blame themselves in some way for their assault.

Candice Lopez is the director of the National Sexual Assault Hotline run by RAINN. She tells Yahoo Style that, unfortunately, Sexual assault and rape are the only crimes where we put the blame on the victim of the crime. But the only person who is responsible is the person who committed the crime, the perpetrator. And its a dangerous situation when you start to put blame on a victim of sexual assault because it insinuates that she had some say in what happened.

Lopez also notes that when narratives of victim-blaming are perpetuated in the media or in legal matters, it only reinforces the utterly false message that a victim holds some level of responsibility for her own assault.

We here at the National Hotline know that a victim is never to blame, she says. In no way can someone do something or say something that would insinuate that they would want someone to touch them or do something to them against their will, she says. Lopez also notes that when we create a culture that tells victims that they can prevent their own assaults, we run the risk of silencing other survivors  and in turn, reinforcing this damaging culture that only further penalizes victims.

Lopez adds, Victims are very powerless in their interactions with their perpetrator, whether they know the perpetrator or not. There is not a lot they can do because they are not the active agent  only the perpetrator can be responsible for his own behavior. When a college doesnt come out in support of a victim or a survivor, it sends a message to their students about where they stand on [blame assignation] in sexual assault, and it can impact how survivors come out in the future and seek out services.

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Los Angeles (AFP) - Nearly half a million people had signed a petition calling for the ouster of a California judge who has sparked outrage for his lenient sentence in a high-profile sexual assault case.

Santa Clara Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky last week sentenced Brock Turner, a former Stanford University student, to six months in jail for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman in January 2015.

Lurid details of the case and the woman's emotional court statement recounting the assault and its impact on her life have gone viral on social media, with many denouncing the sentence as a slap on the wrist.

Persky, who automatically won another term on the bench during elections as he was unopposed, justified his sentence, saying that he feared a stiffer jail term would have "a severe impact" on Turner.

The ruling drew outrage and prompted an online petition that more than 480,000 people had signed by Tuesday afternoon.

The petition argues that Persky's sentence, which has drawn international attention, clearly showed bias.

"Judge Persky failed to see that the fact that Brock Turner is a white male star athlete at a prestigious university does not entitle him to leniency," says the petition, started by Maria Ruiz, a nurse in Miami.

"He also failed to send the message that sexual assault is against the law regardless of social class, race, gender or other factors."

Stanford law professor Michele Dauber told US media that she doubted Persky would complete his new six-year term given the huge outcry over the case.

-'Dangerous and wrongheaded' -

She said a hand-written petition would soon be launched to garner the necessary 70,000 signatures to put Persky's recall on the ballot.

"His ruling was dangerous and wrongheaded," Dauber told the USA Today newspaper. "We need to replace him with someone who understands violence against women."

The 20-year-old Turner, who was a member of the prestigious university's swim team, had faced up to 14 years behind bars for the assault.

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The judge said he decided to give him a lenient sentence based on the recommendation of probation officials who had suggested a six-month term given that he had no prior convictions and the fact that he was drunk when the assault took place.

A letter submitted to the court by Turner's father, Dan Turner, has also sparked outrage.

In it, the father argues that a jail term was "a steep price to pay for 20 minutes of action out of (Turner's) 20 plus years of life."

At the sentencing hearing last week, the victim, who has not been identified, read an emotional statement describing the impact the assault has had on her life.

She recounted waking up in a hospital bed on the morning of January 18, 2015 without any recollection of what had happened and described the invasive exam she underwent.

"TRUTH. Sitting in that courtroom was like a trip to the Middle Ages. Do we still burn witches?" Dauber tweeted after attending the sentencing hearing.

Turner was arrested after two bicyclists saw him assaulting the victim behind a dumpster on the Palo Alto campus.
(Adds background throughout)

June 8 (Reuters) - Williams Cos Inc said on Wednesday it will cut its dividend next quarter if a deal to sell itself to rival U.S pipeline company Energy Transfer Equity LP falls through.

Energy Transfer's proposed acquisition of Williams has been in doubt for months, with Williams alleging that Energy Transfer has been actively trying to break the deal. The two companies have sued each other, and a trial over tax issues that could scuttle the deal is scheduled for later this month.

Williams, which has paid a dividend every quarter since 1974, said it has not yet determined how much it will cut its dividend if the deal falls through, but said it could be a material reduction.

A shareholder vote on the deal is scheduled for June 27, and Williams said it is committed to closing the transaction "as soon as possible."

The company's shareholders face a dividend cut however they vote on the deal. Energy Transfer has previously said it will likely have to cut its distributions to shareholders entirely next year if the takeover is completed.

Williams said on Wednesday it would pay a regular dividend of 64 cents per share for the current quarter on June 27 to shareholders on record as of June 20.

Energy Transfer launched an unsolicited bid for Williams in June and reached a deal with the company in September that was then worth $33 billion.

Earlier this week, the mayor of Tulsa, Oklahoma -- the city where Williams is headquartered -- sent a letter to the company's shareholders asking them to vote against the deal. Energy Transfer has said it will said it will have to cut jobs substantially in Tulsa and Oklahoma City.

Three former Williams chief executives have also sent shareholders a letter recommending that they vote against the deal.

(Reporting by Swetha Gopinath in Bengaluru and Michael Erman in New York; Editing by Savio D'Souza and Tom Brown)
Witnesses described a terrifying and bloody scene following a fatal mass shooting in Tel Aviv that left four dead and six wounded, the latest in an ongoing series of Palestinian attacks that have killed 32 Israelis and two Americans.

The attack occurred on a busy Wednesday evening just before 9:30 p.m. at the popular covered Tel Aviv food market, Sarona.

According to a barman, two men dressed in suits and wearing ties ordered brownies at the Max Brenner chocolate restaurant, before carrying out the attack. Without touching the food, they got up, pulled out their weapons and opened fire on pedestrians near the restaurant and in nearby streets, said Yousef Jabari, a member of the restaurants staff.

Avraham Liber, who was sitting at Max Brenner restaurant eating ice cream with friends, said he was facing the shooter when the attack occurred.

I saw him, it looked like he was sitting in a chair at the cafe and he had a rifle in his hand. He was just shooting point blank at people. He didnt say anything.

A manager of a nearby clothing store, Meital Gonen, recounted chaos and horror as civilians raced to escape the shooting.

We heard gunshots and then we saw people running into our store and they said that there was a terrorist  please open the door. They were screaming and yelling and there was a lot of blood and people dying.

We opened the door to let people in to make sure they were safe.

Footage captured on CCTV inside Sarona Market showed diners fleeing a restaurant as they heard shots being fired. Ten ambulances from Magen David Adom arrived at the scene and paramedics treated the casualties. Seven of those wounded were evacuated to Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv and another was taken to Sheba Medical Centre, in Tel Hashomer. Of the six wounded, four are in a serious condition, but a senior medical official at Ichilov Hospital said three of the seriously wounded victims had stabilized.

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One of the shooters was captured by police. The other was seriously wounded by gunfire and among those taken to Ichilov Hospital, but he was alive when TIME sought an update on their condition. Photos released after the attack showed Carl Gustav submachine guns, a type of homemade weapon that has repeatedly been used by Palestinians in shootings since last October.

Israeli police spokeswoman Lubna Samri said in a statement that the shooters, both 21, whose names were yet to be confirmed, were two Palestinians from the same family, possibly cousins, from Yatta, south of Hebron in the occupied West Bank. Israels Channel 2 reported one of the shooters was on a Shin Bet suspect list. Senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh praised one of the shooters, calling him a hero.

Police boosted patrols around crowded areas in Tel Aviv following the attack and Israeli forces raided Yatta, a town near Hebron where the two men were reportedly from, shortly after midnight. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, returning from a trip to Moscow, landed in Israel soon after the shooting and convened an emergency security briefing.

This latest assault comes after eight months of Palestinians attacks have resulted in the deaths of 32 Israelis and two Americans. About 200 Palestinians, most of them attackers, have also been killed.

This is the third attack of the year for Tel Aviv. On Jan. 1, 29-year-old Nashat Milhem from a northern Israeli Arab town opened fire outside a bar in Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv killing two Israelis and a Bedouin taxi driver an hour later.

In March, 22-year-old Palestinian Bashar Massalha killed U.S. citizen Taylor Force and injured another 10 after going on a rampage along the Jaffa waterfront walkway.
By John Whitesides and Amanda Becker WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Winning over Bernie Sanders supporters who flocked to his insurgent presidential campaign will be the first and possibly toughest order of business for Hillary Clinton after she became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee this week. Every time the Vermont senator mentioned Clinton's name at a rally in California on Thursday night, his supporters booed as if she was Donald Trump, the Republican businessman who will face off against Clinton in the Nov. 8 election. But Clinton is wasting no time in launching her charm offensive. She called Sanders on Tuesday night, and during a celebratory rally in Brooklyn she praised his candidacy, saying their "vigorous debate" during the nominating contest had been good for the Democratic Party. Democrats in both camps said they expect to see more specific olive branches offered to Sanders in the weeks ahead, including compromises on the issues platform to be adopted at the party's July nominating convention and reforms in a Democratic primary process that Sanders criticized as rigged to favor the establishment. It may not be an easy sell for all of Sander's supporters, who have helped catapult him from political obscurity into the national spotlight, cheering his message on income inequality, campaign finance reform and Wall Street excesses. Given little chance a year ago, Sanders earned nearly 10 million votes and won more than 20 states during the nominating process. A Reuters/Ipsos poll in May found Sanders supporters have become increasingly resistant to Clinton in the past few months, with less than half saying they will vote for her if she becomes the partys nominee. Last month, 41 percent of Sanders' supporters said they would vote for Clinton over Trump in the general election. But that was down from 50 percent in April, and 52 percent in March. And some groups supporting Sanders plan to ramp up the pressure on superdelegates, prominent party officials who can vote for any candidate, in the last few weeks before Clintons nomination becomes official at the party convention in Philadelphia. The people behind the Occupy DNC Convention Facebook group, with around 25,000 members, are creating their own web-based app to contact superdelegates, planning daily emails to urge them to switch to Sanders. CLINTON'S TRUMP CARD Clinton moved to the left to fend off Sanders during the primary battle, opposing the Trans-Pacific Partnership, an Asian trade pact, and the Keystone oil pipeline from Canada, voicing support for a higher minimum wage and backing Sanders' general goals of reining in Wall Street and reducing income inequality. Her best move now to win over progressive voters who backed Sanders would be showing she will stand behind those positions. "One of the biggest points of skepticism that we hear from Sanders supporters and even lukewarm Clinton supporters is the question of whether she really meant the stuff she said in the primary," said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. "The next two weeks are a golden opportunity to make the answer apparent," he said, citing her pledges to seek criminal sentences for financial fraud, break up banks that pose economic risks and expand Social Security benefits. Several Democrats said Trump may prove to be the chief motivator for Sanders supporters to switch to Clinton. "Trump has done more than anyone to push the Sanders people toward Clinton for the general election," said Brad Anderson, an Iowa-based Democratic strategist who supported Clinton in the primary and said he has seen signs of a shift in the last few weeks. Clinton could make specific concessions or overtures to assuage Sanders, particularly by eliminating the superdelegates from the primary process. Sanders has complained about the involvement of superdelegates, who have heavily backed Clinton. Another easy way to get Sanders' most passionate supporters on board is to simply hire them, says Democratic strategist Steve Schale. That's what Schale, a Florida-based staffer for President Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, did once the bitter primary fight between Obama and Clinton ended that year. Florida was crucial to Obamas prospects  and his campaign need a large operation to work on voter registration, persuasion, and turnout. Clinton could offer Sanders diehards a similar opportunity to stay involved. "For a lot of these folks, the campaign is as much as social calling as it is a movement," he said. While there were concerns in 2008 that Clinton's supporters would be too disaffected to support Obama, Clinton endorsed him less than a month after the primary ended and unified the party. Democratic party leaders may also help ease tensions. Sanders will meet on Thursday with Obama and Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada. (Additional reporting by Luciana Lopez and Chris Kahn in New York, Ginger Gibson in Washington, James Oliphant in California)
By David Lawder

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - The World Bank slashed its 2016 global growth forecast on Wednesday to 2.4 percent from the 2.9 percent estimated in January due to stubbornly low commodity prices, sluggish demand in advanced economies, weak trade and diminishing capital flows.

Commodity-exporting emerging market countries have struggled to adapt to lower prices for oil, metals, and other commodities, accounting for half of the downward revision, the multilateral lender said in its latest Global Economic Prospects report.

It expects these economies to grow at a meagre 0.4 percent pace this year, a downward revision of 1.2 percentage points from the January outlook.

Commodity-importing emerging market countries are faring better, but the benefits of lower energy and other goods have been slow to materialise, the World Bank said. It now expects growth in these countries will reach 5.8 percent, down a tenth of a percentage point from the January forecasts.

In the United States, a steep decline in energy sector investment and weaker exports will also shave eight tenths of a percentage point from the World Banks 2016 forecast, bringing growth to 1.9 percent.

The euro area saw a slight downgrade of its 2016 forecast to 1.6 percent, despite extraordinary monetary policy support and a boost from lower energy and commodity prices.

As advanced economies struggle to gain traction, most economies in South and East Asia are growing solidly, as are commodity-importing emerging economies around the world, said World Bank Chief Economist Kaushik Basu said in a statement.

However, he cautioned that the rapid rise of private debt in several emerging and developing economies posed a risk to growth should non-performing bank loans rise.

The downgraded World Bank forecast follows a similar move by the International Monetary Fund, which cut its growth forecasts two months ago.

Among major emerging market economies, the World Bank kept Chinas growth forecast unchanged at 6.7 percent this year after 2015 growth of 6.9 percent. It expects Chinas growth to slow further to 6.3 percent by 2018 as the worlds second-largest economy rebalances away from exports to a more consumer-driven growth model.

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Indias robust economic expansion also is expected to hold steady at 7.6 percent, while Brazil and Russia are projected to remain in deeper recessions than forecast in January.

South Africa is forecast to grow at a 0.6 percent rate in 2016, 0.8 of a percentage point more slowly than the January forecast.

(Reporting By David Lawder; Editing by Bernard Orr)
DailyFX.com -

Talking Points

World Bank and OECD release their global growth projections

Both organizations express pessimism about economic forecasts

Both point out the diminishing returns of monetary policy stimulus

Showcase your trading skills against your peers in FXCMs $10,000 Monthly Challenge here.

The World Bank and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) released updated global growth surveys. Both institutions appeared to express concerns about gross output being either slower than previously estimated, or subdued.

Since the November outlook, the OECD lowered global growth estimates by roughly 0.3 percent for both 2016 and 2017. The decline in output follows a familiar path that has been repeated over the past 8 years as global growth languished. The global think tank pointed to a self-fulfilling low-growth trap as the cause of such disappointments.

This trap is a result of businesses having little reason to invest domestically and internationally due to insufficient demand, prolonged uncertainties, and a slowed pace of structural reform. The OECD points out that monetary policy has been the main tool used alone for too long in combating economic shortfalls. The group believes that there needs to be more use of fiscal policy to compliment central bank stimulus.

Additional comments from the OECD:

US Real GDP forecast is 1.8% y/y in 2016, 2.2% y/y in 2017

US CPI forecast is 1.1% y/y in 2016, 2.0% y/y in 2017

Eurozone GDP forecast is 1.6% in 2016, 1.7% in 2017

Eurozone Core CPI forecast is 0.9% y/y in 2016, 1.1% y/y in 2017

UK 2016 growth cut to 1.7% from 2.1% due to the uncertainty from the June 23rd referendum

Meanwhile, the World Bank cut its 2016 global growth forecast to 2.4 percent from 2.9 percent estimated in January. This adjustment was largely a result of sluggish growth in advanced economies, low commodity prices, weak global trade, and diminishing capital flows. According to the institution, the downside risks to forecasts have become more pronounced.

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Like the OECD, the World Bank also cited concerns about the effectiveness of monetary policy stimulus in advanced economies. The institution said that the tools utilized by central banks for accommodation may over time have diminishing returns. The World Bank added that the use of expansionary fiscal policy could provide more support to activity in a number of advanced economies.

Additional comments from the World Bank:

Cuts 2017 global growth forecast to 2.8% from 3.1%

Cuts 2016 U.S. growth forecast to 1.9% from 2.7%

Cuts 2016 Euro-Area growth forecast to 1.6% from 1.7%

Maintains 2016 Chinese growth forecast of 6.7%

U.K. referendum on EU membership accompanied by softening activity in the U.K.

The chart below shows the report by the OECD on budget deficit as a percentage of nominal GDP for the United States, United Kingdom, and the Eurozone. Since 2009, the size of government deficits have diminished implying reduced fiscal measures while monetary policy has remained more or less the same.

World Bank, OECD Express Pessimism on Global Growth Forecasts

Data extracted from Bloomberg

Keep an eye on short-term trends for the majors using the Grid Sight Index (GSI) here.



original source

DailyFX provides forex news and technical analysis on the trends that influence the global currency markets.

Learn forex trading with a free practice account and trading charts from FXCM.
Today, June 8, is World Oceans Day, and scientists and conservationists are using it to draw attention to a growing problem:

About 8 million metric tons of plastic are dumped into our oceans every year, according to research published in 2015, and scientists estimate there are over 5 trillion pieces of plastic floating in the ocean right now.

Source: JAY DIRECTO/Getty Images

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation found that if this trend continues, there could be more plastic by weight than fish in the ocean by 2050.

That much plastic has severe consequences for ocean ecosystems.

Sea creatures accidentally swallow plastic and die. Turtles and sea mammals get tangled up in it. Jellyfish are even hitching rides on plastic bags, allowing them to extend their range into nonnative waters.

What can we do about it?

Unfortunately, there aren't any catch-all solutions yet.

As great as they sound, biodegradable plastics aren't the answer.

"It's well-intentioned but wrong," Jacqueline McGlade, chief scientist at the United Nations Environment Programme, told the Guardian. "A lot of plastics labeled biodegradable, like shopping bags, will only break down in temperatures of 50 degrees Celsius, and that is not the ocean. They are also not buoyant, so they're going to sink, so they're not going to be exposed to UV and break down."

Others have proposed clean-up methods. You've probably heard of Boyan Slat  the mop-haired 21-year-old who dropped out of school to found Ocean Cleanup.

Source: Olga R. Rodriguez/AP

Slat wants to create a system of floating barriers attached to the seabed that will wait for ocean currents to naturally sweep plastic pieces into its nets. Many are skeptical about the feasibility of the project, but the first prototype is slated to launch this summer. Whether or not it works, this is the largest ocean cleanup ever attempted, so at least people are trying.

Going forward, the best way to reduce the amount of plastic that ends up in the ocean is introducing better garbage-collection methods and encouraging people and companies to recycle more, a United Nations report concluded.
Managers of a Scotland shopping mall have called in a ghost-busters team after receiving several reports of a supernatural specter lurking at the enclosed citadel of consumerism.

The ghost is said to be a woman dressed in old-fashioned black clothes, according to four sightings by customers.

Read: Did A Supernatural Being Possess This Woman In A Supermarket?

We are aware that a shadowy woman has been spotted around the center and we are taking the sightings extremely serious, said a spokesman for the Silverburn Shopping Centre in Glasgow, according to the Herald Scotland.

We have reached out to local experts in the field of paranormal activity, who will hopefully be able to shed some light on the matter, the spokesman added.

The 7-year-old mall recently added a wing. It is not uncommon for a spirit to be attached to a site before the present building was constructed, an employee of Glasgow Paranormal Investigations told the paper.

Read: Wish You Were Here? The 10 Most Haunted Places to Visit This Summer ... If You Dare

Possibly Silverburn or the construction of the new cinema disturbed it. This can be common in hauntings.

The most important thing is to ensure whoever it is finds a peaceful resting place, the employee said.

Watch: Guest at 'The Shining' Haunted Hotel Captures Eerie Ghost Figure

Related Articles:
It's been five days since tanks from a 96-car train derailed, burst into flames and spilled crude oil into the Columbia River near Mosier, Oregon, about 70 miles east of Portland.

The Union Pacific train was transporting Bakken crude oil  one of the most combustible forms of oil  from Eastport, Idaho, to Tacoma, Washington, last week, when it passed through the Columbia River Gorge near the Oregon-Washington border.

Around noon local time on Friday, for still-unknown reasons, 16 of the cars suddenly derailed. Four burst into flames and leaked oil into the river, though officials have still not determined the extent of the contamination  .

What's more, no one noticed the oil sheen spreading across the water's surface until first light on Saturday. Officials who rushed to contain the spill later told the Guardian they had detected . But the Yakama tribe  whose reservation lies north of Mosier, across the river in southern Washington  said the spill poses a direct threat to their livelihood.

"One of our fishers has a fishing site just downriver from this oil fire," JoDe Goudy, chairman of th explained in a statement, according to the Indian Country Today Media Network. "His livelihood and well-being, and the well-being of his family, could all be jeopardized by this single derailment."

The view from above Friday's crash near Mosier, Oregon.

In fact, the Yakama's concerns about such a spill had been substantiated by a government study less than two weeks before the accident. On May 27, the Oregon attorney general's office published a report saying an oil train or tanker spill in the Columbia River could take decades to repair, and cause up to $171 million in environmental damages, the Columbian reported.

Local Native Americans say they've been warning companies to stop transporting oil through the region for a long time.

"We have repeatedly warned of train derailments, corresponding oil spills and the contamination that could result when these trains are carrying crude oil," Chairman Goudy added, according to the Los Angeles Times. "These trains and their tendency to derail are grave threats to the Yakama People."

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A video posted by @betherfly22 on Jun 3, 2016 at 5:09pm PDT

The Yakama's concerns about the dangers of oil transportation by rail in the area are increasingly being proven correct. According to NBC News, citing data from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, crude oil spills from trains have spiked dramatically in recent years, causing fires, explosions and pollution in states from Pennsylvania to Colorado to Canada.

In 2013, 1.4 million gallons of crude was spilled in the US as a result of train accidents alone  more than was spilled in the previous 40 years combined. In 2014, 141 separate crude oil train spills occurred. Between 1975 and 2012, there was an average of only 25 such spills per year.

Other residents in Mosier and the surrounding area have also expressed concerns over this mode of oil transportation, and whether the US rail system has properly addressed its accompanying safety concerns.

"There is no safe way for these fossil fuel trains to come through our town," Emily Reed, Mosier city council president told the Guardian. "I'd like to see them stopped until there are standards and we know it's safe."

A previous oil train spill in Gogama, Ontario, Canada, in March 2015.

This increase in accidents over time can be partly attributed to America's growing thirst and capacity for oil. According to the US Energy Information Administration, the US produced 8.2 million barrels per day in 2014  a 1.2 million barrel-a-day increase over 2013, constituting the largest volume growth since 1900.

But as this thirst for oil has grown, so has the danger in moving it from place to place. Native American tribes  many of whom rely on the land the oil is being transported through  have long been among the loudest voices speaking out against crude oil trains and pipelines, which have proven highly volatile and prone to leakage, respectively.

Most recently, members of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe in North Dakota have been fighting to stop the Dakota Access pipeline from being built. If constructed, the pipeline would run 1,168 miles from northwest North Dakota into Illinois, and burrow under a section of the Missouri River  which the tribe uses for drinking water  located just a few hundred feet north of the Standing Rock reservation.

"We will stop it," LaDonna Brave Bull Allard, a tribal historian with the Standing Rock Sioux who provided family land for protesters in April, told the Associated Press. "We are not expendable."
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A 17-year-old New York girl who vanished in 2009 while on spring break in a South Carolina beach town was likely held captive for several days before being killed, federal agents investigating the girl's disappearance said for the first time on Wednesday.

Rochester, New York resident Brittanee Drexel, who was last seen on surveillance camera leaving her waterside hotel in the tourist hotspot Myrtle Beach, had been treated as a missing person since she vanished seven years ago.

Drexel's case, which was featured on the Discovery Channels Disappeared television show, has some similarities with the highly publicized vanishing of Mississippi teenager Natalee Holloway, whose fate is still a mystery.

Drexel's remains have not been found, and no one has been arrested in connection with her disappearance. After hundreds of interview and leads, investigators said they believe Drexel died in McClellanville, South Carolina, the last place Drexel's cell phone signal was traced to. McClellanville is a fishing town about an hour's drive south down the coast from Myrtle Beach.

"It is very difficult but the public needs to know, the family needs to know," said U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation special agent in charge David Thomas, who spoke at a news conference from the remote area, which was streamed live on the web.

Thomas declined to say how the FBI knew Drexel was dead or had been held captive. It was not clear whether the girl had chosen to travel to McClellanville from Myrtle Beach or if she was taken to the town against her will, he said.

Mother Dawn Drexel appealed on Wednesday to anyone who could help solve her daughter's case.

"After several long years of searching for my daughter, we know she isn't coming home alive," Drexel said during the news conference. "We need your help so we can find Brittanee's remains and lay her to rest."

A $25,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the capture and conviction of Drexel's killer or killers.

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"We think we're at a point where one or two small pieces of information could put us over the edge," Thomas said.

In a similar case, Holloway vanished while on a high school graduation trip with friends to the Caribbean Island of Aruba in 2005. Despite strong public interest and the involvement of U.S. law enforcement, her case remains unsolved.

(Reporting by Laila Kearney; Editing by Bill Rigby)
Donald Trump

Donald Trump announced during a post-election address Tuesday that he will deliver a "major speech" on the Clintons next week.

"I am going to give a major speech on probably Monday of next week and we're going to be discussing all of the things have taken place with the Clintons," the presumptive Republican nominee said from his Westchester, New York, estate. "And I think you're going to find it very, very interesting."

"The last thing we need is Hillary Clinton in the White House, an extension of the Obama disaster," he added.

Trump's Tuesday speech, which came on the night of the conclusion of the Republican primaries, struck a general-election tone as the Manhattan billionaire's campaign hit a major crossroads.

The real-estate magnate did not address the controversy surrounding his attacks on US District Judge Gonzalo Curiel over his Mexican heritage. Trump alleged that Curiel is unable to preside fairly over a civil case involving Trump's now defunct for-profit real-estate school, Trump University, because he is of Mexican heritage and the billionaire is "building a wall" should he get elected in the fall.

Curiel is from Indiana.

Republicans from all sides of the party have condemned Trump's remarks, which he released a statement about on Tuesday. Trump eased up on some of the rhetoric in the statement but did not back away from his line of thinking.

In his Tuesday speech, Trump spoke of working hard to earn the support of voters who did not cast ballots for him.

"I'll work hard to earn your support, and I will work very hard to earn that support," he said. "To all of those Bernie Sanders voters who've been left out in the cold by a rigged system of superdelegates, we welcome you with open arms."

"I'm going to be your champion," he later said. "I'm going to be America's champion."

NOW WATCH: Donald Trump claims he never said these things  lets look at the footage





More From Business Insider


From Country Living

How often have you sat at your desk, looking longingly out the window, thinking, "I wish I were outside right now"? It's hard to be cooped up in an office all day, stuck staring at white walls and gray carpeting-which is exactly why Swedish company King hired design agency Adolfsson & Partners to do something about their hum-drum offices. Check it out:

King, the company behind mega-popular online game Candy Crush, wanted to create a space that would encourage creativity and innovation. Adolfsson's press release reads:

With a strong vision from Adam Schaub, Studio Manager, we took this project to heart and came up with a concept that has its roots in the Swedish forests. We decided we wanted to apply the same inspiring and calming effect that you get from spending time in natural surroundings to this new King office.

The results are truly remarkable. Wherever you sit, nature abounds, from silhouettes of trees and animals to walls covered in Norwegian lichen. The most striking feature, perhaps, is the interactive floor that resembles an artificial stream that runs through a forest. The press release explains:

The stream is actually an interactive floor where people's steps get scanned and turned into movements in the water. Fish splashingin the water but hiding quickly when you walk passed and rippling water can flow between your feet. As the lighting design reflects the changing seasons so is the water in the stream. At the touch of a button thestream turns into ice that cracks beneath you.

It's hard not to be bowled over by the sheer ingenuity behind this office space. We can't help but feel pangs of jealousy looking at this creative space-and wonder what our lives would be like with a work space like this to come to every day.

Check out some more photos of the area below:

(h/t Slate)
For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL  June 8, 2016  Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include Devon Energy Corp. ( DVN ), Schlumberger Ltd. ( SLB ), National Oilwell Varco Inc. ( NOV ), Transocean Ltd. ( RIG ) and Hercules Offshore Inc. ( HERO ).

Today, Zacks is promoting its ''Buy'' stock recommendations. Get #1Stock of the Day pick for free.

Here are highlights from Tuesdays Analyst Blog:

Oil & Gas Stock Roundup

It was a week where oil prices fell from their multi-month highs but natural gas rocketed to levels not seen since early January.

On the news front, Devon Energy Corp. ( DVN ) announced a non-core asset sale of $1 billion, while Schlumberger Ltd. ( SLB ) acquired an automation technology company.

Overall, it was a mixed week for the sector. While West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell 1.4% to close at $48.62 per barrel, natural gas prices jumped 10.5% to $2.398 per million Btu (MMBtu). (See the last Oil & Gas Stock Roundup here: Exxon Rejects Climate Change Proposals, Suncor Resumes Output Post Fire Shutdown .)

Oil snapped its three-week winning streak after a Baker Hughes report showed rise in the U.S. oil rig count for the first time in almost 3 months -- indicating a resurgence in shale drilling activities. Things were further hampered by a dismal May jobs data, underlining weak oil demand. The commodity was already under pressure from the uneventful OPEC summit that again failed to agree on a production freeze.

On the other hand, natural gas surged big time following a bullish inventory report and predictions of strong cooling demand with forecasts of warmer temperature across the country over the next few days.

Recap of the Weeks Most Important Stories

1. Independent energy producer Devon Energy Corp. has entered into agreements with undisclosed parties to sell upstream properties worth almost $1 billion.

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The Oklahoma City-based oil and natural gas producer will offload non-core assets in East Texas for $525 million and Anadarko Basins Granite Wash area for $310 million. Additionally, Devon Energy will sell an overriding royalty interest in Northern Midland Basin for $139 million. Proceeds from the transactions  which are scheduled to close in the third quarter  will be used to further fortify the companys investment-grade financial position.

Devon Energy and other companies have been hit hard by the two-year long oil price collapse forcing them to slash jobs, defer/cancel projects worth billions of dollars and renegotiate contracts with suppliers to help protect their balance sheets. In February, Devon Energy slashed its dividend by 75% and cut 2016 capital investment by similar proportions.

2. Oilfield services behemoth Schlumberger Ltd. announced the purchase of Omron Oilfield and Marine, Inc., in order to strengthen its control system capabilities for integrated well construction.

Houston, TX-based Omron Oilfield and Marine, Inc. is a subsidiary of Japanese company Omron Corp. The company designs, manufactures, sells as well as offers aftermarket services for automated drive and control systems, power houses, and drillers cabins. The company also provides software-based drilling technologies on a rental or subscription basis.

Schlumberger is set to benefit substantially from the transaction. The buyout should help the company enhance its expertise and global reach. The deal is also expected to open up new market opportunities for Schlumberger.

3. Energy equipment maker National Oilwell Varco Inc. ( NOV ) has agreed to buy the completion tools operations of Trican Well Service. For the acquisition, National Oilwell will pay almost C$53.5 million that will include both cash and stock. The transaction is anticipated to close on or around Jun 30, 2016 but is awaiting approval from regulators.

The to-be-acquired completion tools business is engaged in designing a variety of innovative and patented downhole tools that are used for multi-stage fracturing and multi-zone completions. The equipments are sold in North American markets and also outside the continent. Most importantly, with this purchase, National Oilwell will significantly broaden the scope of its completion and production business and could offer better services to customers. (See More: National Oilwell to Buy Trican's Completion Tools Business .)

4. Offshore drilling giant Transocean Ltd. ( RIG ) has outbid its competitors for an offshore development in India at a time when drillers are facing rig contract terminations. The contract primarily helped Transocean to surge almost 15% on the NYSE.

Transocean has entered into a 730-day contract with Indias Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) for one semi-submersible rig that will likely be operating at a dayrate of $127,000. Though the dayrate being offered to Transocean is quite low but its still better than keeping the rig idle.

5. Hercules Offshore Inc. ( HERO ), along with some of its affiliates, has filed chapter 11 proceedings under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code for the District of Delaware after 99.7% of its first-lien lenders voted to endorse the prepackaged bankruptcy plan.

This is the second time that the Houston-based operator of drilling rigs and liftboats has filed for bankruptcy. Hercules Offshore emerged from bankruptcy protection just six months ago. The company had filed for Chapter 11 in Aug 2015, wherein it called upon bondholders to swap $1.2 billion in debt for control of the company.

Under the terms of the second bankruptcy plan, the company intends to shut down its business and sell all its assets to cover the payments to lenders. The remaining assets, if any, will be placed into a wind-down vehicle and would remain operational until sales are finalized.

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL  June 8, 2016  Today, Zacks Equity Research discusses the Consumer Staples (Part 1), including Coca-Cola Companies, Inc. ( KO ), McCormick & Company, Inc. ( MKC ), PepsiCo Inc. ( PEP ), Tyson Foods, Inc. ( TSN ) and Sysco Corp. ( SYY )

Industry: Consumer Staples (Part 1)

Link: https://www.zacks.com/commentary/82499/consumer-staples-stock-outlook---june-2016

Can Consumer Staples Stocks Fight Global Worries in 2016?

The traditionally defensive consumer staples sector had a strong start to 2016 and was one of the best performing sectors in the S&P 500 in the first quarter amid a moderate economic recovery and improving job market, rising wages, cheaper fuel, improved business and renewed optimism as a result of the housing recovery. If we analyze the trend on a year-to-date basis , consumer staples stocks have outperformed the S&P 500 as a whole.

An interesting fact in the first-quarter earnings season was that despite global worries, a bigger proportion of companies came out with positive surprises, for both earnings and revenues. The likely explanation for this development is that either investors were prepared for even weaker results or the guidance for most companies was already lowered to easy-to-beat levels.

A number of industry players including The Coca-Cola Companies, Inc. ( KO ), McCormick & Company, Inc. ( MKC ), PepsiCo Inc. ( PEP ), Tyson Foods, Inc. ( TSN ) , Sysco Corp. ( SYY ), among others, posted positive earnings surprises in the March quarter, while a few others missed.

We also note that consumer confidence - a key determinant of the economy's health  has slightly declined in April from a modest gain in March. According to the recent Conference Board data, the Consumer Confidence Index was down to 94.2 in April from the March reading of 96.1. However, the Employment Trend Index increased in April, after decreasing in March. It now stands at 128.28, up from 126.42 in March.

Story continues

We should keep in mind that the consumer staples sector continues to face headwinds from uncertainty related to the Fed, global market turmoil and continued volatility in the equity market. Partly offsetting these headwinds is the recent weakening of the U.S. dollar, which should help the groups margins in the quarters ahead. Also benefiting the sector is the continued lower commodity and energy costs, which should help boost their profit margins.

Zacks Industry Rank  Positive

Consumer Staples is one the 16 broad Zacks sectors within the Zacks Industry classification. We rank all the 260 plus industries in the 16 Zacks sectors based on the earnings outlook and fundamental strength of the constituent companies in each industry. To learn more visit: About Zacks Industry Rank.

As a guideline, the outlook for industries in the top 1/3rd of all Industry Ranks or a Zacks Industry Rank of #88 and lower is 'Positive,' the middle 1/3rd or industries with Zacks Industry Rank between #89 and #176 is 'Neutral' and the bottom 1/3rd or Zacks Industry Rank of #177 and higher is 'Negative.'

The consumer staples sector is further sub-divided into the following industries at the expanded level (260 industry groups): Agricultural Operations, Beverages  Alcohol, Beverages  Soft, Consumer Products  Miscellaneous Staples, Cosmetics & Toiletries, Food  Miscellaneous/Diversified, Publishing  Newspapers, Soaps & Cleaning Preparations, Textile  Apparel and Tobacco.

Quite a few industries are placed in the top 1/3rd of the 260+ industry groups. While Consumer Products  Miscellaneous Staples holds a Zacks Industry Rank #12, Agricultural Operations carries a Zacks Industry Rank #33 and Soaps & Cleaning Preparations holds a Zacks Industry Rank #37. Food  Miscellaneous/Diversified and Tobacco also falls in this category with Zacks Industry Rank of #51 and #75, respectively.

A number of them fall in the middle portion of the pack, with Beverages  Alcohol and Beverages  Soft holding the same Zacks Industry Rank #90. It is followed by Cosmetics & Toiletries and Textile  Apparel, holding ranks of #114 and #165, respectively.

Only one industry i.e. Publishing  Newspapers, with a Zacks Industry Rank #189, comes in the bottom one-third.

Looking at the exact position of these industries, one could say that the general outlook for the consumer staples space is positive. This is because results of most companies were better-than-expected in the first quarter of 2016, owing to a gradual recovery in the economic environment and cheaper gasoline prices, despite continued concerns over macro-economic issues.

Earnings Trends

With the Q1 earnings season now effectively behind us, total earnings for the sector in the S&P 500 were up +2.6% on -4.1% lower revenues, with 83.3% beating EPS estimates and 63.3% coming ahead of top-line estimates. This compares to earnings declines of -6.3% on -7.9% lower revenues in the preceding quarter.

For the second quarter, earnings are expected to decline 4%, while revenues are expected to decline 0.9%.

The sector is expected to contribute 6.8% of the total S&P 500 income for 2016 and it holds 8.5% market cap weight in the index at present.

For more details about earnings for this sector and others, please read our  Earnings Trends report.

Bottom Line

Given the performance of the consumer staples sector in the first quarter, things are looking up at the moment. The positive growth trend is expected to continue going forward. Easing currency pressure will also benefit margins of these stocks in the second half of 2016.

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Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss.

This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.



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In line with its strategy of growth through inorganic expansion, Zimmer Biomet Holdings, Inc. ZBH has gone for yet another mega acquisition. Yesterday this musculoskeletal major entered into a definitive agreement to acquire LDR Holding Corp. LDRH, another renowned medical device maker, for a total deal value of $1 billion.

According to Zimmer Biomet, the inclusion of this French spine device maker will not only bolster its presence in the $10 billion global spine market by significantly expanding its portfolio of innovative solutions, but will also provide it with a leading position in the fast growing cervical disc replacement (CDR) and MIS segments. The company believes this buyout will meaningfully accelerate its Spine business performance through the incremental revenues associated with its entry into the CDR market and cross-portfolio selling opportunities to both companies customer base.

Nonetheless, Zimmer Biomets strong optimism related to this transaction failed to gain much investor confidence at the moment as reflected from the 1.74% drop in the companys share price on yesterdays close.

Transaction Details

According to the definitive agreement, Zimmer Biomet will commence a tender offer to acquire all outstanding shares of LDR Holdings for $37.00 per share in cash, a premium of approximately 64% to LDR Holdings closing price on Monday, the day just prior to this announcement. The board of directors of both companies has already approved this deal. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2016 subject to certain customary closing conditions.

To finance this transaction worth $1 billion, Zimmer Biomet plans to use its cash in hand and existing availability under its revolving credit facility. The company also plans to issue $750 million of senior unsecured notes to repay the credit facility. Overall, Zimmer Biomet intends to maintain its deleveraging strategy.

Story continues

LDR Holdings and Its Integration Plans

We note that LDR Holdings develops innovative spine surgery devices that may provide improved clinical outcome in the treatment of spine disorders. The companys Mobi-C cervical disc replacement device and MIVo portfolio of products include a range of devices to support lumbar and cervical fusion procedures.

According to Zimmer Biomet, on transaction closure, LDR Holdings will be integrated into its Spine & CMF category. This upgraded segment will be led by Adam Johnson, Zimmer Biomet Group President, Spine, CMF and Thoracic, and Dental. Additionally, Zimmer Biomet plans to complement the Spine business headquarters in Broomfield, CO by maintaining a significant presence in LDR Holdings' strong technology hubs of Austin, TX and Troyes, France. According to management, this step is meant to leverage talent and product expertise from both the companies.

Financial Benefits of the Transaction

Apart from being a strategic fit and highly complementary to Zimmer Biomets business model, this transaction is also expected to drive significant financial benefits for both companies post 2017. Zimmer Biomet expects the transaction to accelerate future growth of its overall business. It is expected to be neutral to its adjusted diluted EPS in 2017 and accretive thereafter. However, for 2016, the company has reiterated its earlier provided revenue growth guidance of 2.0%3.0%. It has also reaffirmed its 2016 adjusted diluted EPS guidance of $7.85$8.00.

Zimmer Biomet currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Key Picks in the Sector

A couple of better-ranked medical products stocks are Boston Scientific Corporation BSX and ICU Medical, Inc. ICUI. Both the stocks carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Amazon Inc Chief Executive Jeff Bezos said on Tuesday the company would invest an additional $3 billion in India, boosting its committed investment in the country to over $5 billion. Bezos told an event in Washington attended by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi - who met earlier on Tuesday with President Barack Obama - that India was Amazon's fastest growing region. "I can assure you its only the beginning and as we say in Amazon, its only day one," Bezos said, adding that the investments would help start-ups in India and accelerate the country's role as a hub for innovation and digital entrepreneurship. He said Amazon would open a Web Services Cloud Region in India this year and the country would soon become home to the firm's largest software engineering and development center outside of the United States, located in Hyderabad. Bezos said Amazon had so far built 21 fulfillment centers with more than 5 mln cubic feet of storage space. He said its link-up with India Post enabled it to reach all serviceable postal codes in the country. He said the Hyderabad center would create jobs and career development opportunities for thousands of people and a "significant" number of jobs would be created over time because of the deployment of Amazon Cloud Services. Bezos, the world's fourth-richest man, made the comments the same day Warren Buffett, the world's third richest man, praised him for embodying the potential of small business owners who build their companies. (Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Editing by Leslie Adler and Andrew Hay)
Apple is making a change to the way search results appear in its App Store.

The company will soon let developers pay to have ads for their apps appear atop relevant search results, The Telegraph reported on Wednesday. The single ad would be clearly marked and displayed against a blue background to differentiate it from organic search results.

The company is only allowing ads for other apps in the App Store to be shown, and Phil Schiller, the companys senior vice president of marketing, says these ads will be related to the users search query. Apple will choose which ads to display through a price auction system and by assessing their relevance.

Bloomberg first reported the change in April, but this is the first time Apple has provided confirmation. Its a bold move for Apple, a company not traditionally known for making money in search like Google, which offers a similar paid system through its AdWords program.

The change could allow developers to make their apps more visible in the App Store, which can be difficult for those that arent prominently displayed in Apples Featured section. But some app makers are worried that the introduction of paid search ads in the App Store will only benefit larger companies with more money to spend on marketing, The Telegraph reports.

Other updates are coming to the App Store as well, Schiller told the paper. Apple will allow developers to earn more money from subscriptions if members dont cancel them for a certain length of time. The company typically takes a 30 percent cut of subscriptions for apps downloaded through the App Store, but that slice will be bumped down to 15 percent for app makers that retain their customers after the first year.

Apple will also modify the process for how it reviews apps before theyre available in the App Store in order to publish apps more quickly. This new system could cut the time it takes to review or update an app from days to hours, the report says.

The announcement comes just ahead of Apples Worldwide Developers Conference on June 13, where the company is expected to discuss new features coming to its major products.
Lenovo might not be too happy about its Motorola acquisition just yet, but the Chinese conglomerate is about to launch new Moto-branded smartphone  at least thats what most leaks suggest. A new teaser shows off the profile of a phone believed to be the upcoming Moto Z, a brand new Motorola flagship.

DONT MISS: It's now possible to hack Android to run on your iPhone

Previous leaks suggested the Moto Z will be a modular device that will let users customize their mobile experiences to a certain extent. But the Moto Z wont be an LG G5-like device. Rather, the smartphone would offer interchangeable modular back plates. Regarding specs, at least one version of the Moto Z family will pack top of the line hardware, in line with what flagship from other companies can offer: thats 5.5-inch 2K AMOLED display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 820, up to 4GB of RAM, and a 13-megapixel camera.

moto-z-render-leak

The image above was posted on Weibo, showing the profile of a device believed to be a Moto Z version. The standby button and volume rockers are clearly visible, as is the impressive camera bump on the back of the handset. The image also suggests the phone will be available in various colors  assuming its a genuine marketing image.

Whatever the case, Lenovo will unveil new mobile products on Thursday, at which point well know everything there is to know about this new Moto Z family of handsets.

Related stories

'Modular' smartphones are 2016's dumb trend

Next-gen Motorola Droid looks pretty fantastic in this leaked image

Motorola just launched a dirt cheap phone that takes better photos than the iPhone 6s

More from BGR: 10 paid iPhone apps on sale for free right now

This article was originally published on BGR.com
By Harro Ten Wolde BERLIN (Reuters) - Online education company Udacity plans to branch out of its core technology market to meet growing demand for digitally-skilled workers in areas such as banking and the car industry, its co-founder told Reuters as the company launched in Germany. The Silicon Valley start-up, now worth more than $1 billion, is betting its focus on vocational courses for professionals, as well as its work for global companies such as Google, will help it to stand out in the fast-growing online education industry. The market is expected to more than double to $97.8 billion in 2020 from $43.3 billion in 2015, according to research firm Research and Markets. Publishers such as Pearson , finding their traditional education textbook business under threat, are also investing heavily online. Udacity's main financial backer is German publisher Bertelsmann . "We have spoken to many CEOs in sectors like automotive, telecommunications and others - banking - and interest is very high," said Sebastian Thrun, co-founder of the Google X research lab who led development of Google's self-driving car before co-founding Udacity in 2011 with David Stavens and Mike Sokolsky. He pointed to the difficulty German carmakers were having in hiring software engineers to meet a surge in demand for hi-tech features as a sign of a gap in the market. BMW recently outlined a vision for a complete overhaul in which half its research and development staff would be computer programmers. Udacity's current clients are mainly big technology firms including Facebook as well as Google. Its courses include so-called nanodegrees in subjects such as data analytics, software development and artificial intelligence. "At the moment we are active in a niche market, but we plan to expand," Thrun said at Udacity's newly-opened Berlin office. Udacity currently operates in China, India and Egypt as well as the United States. Last year, it raised $105 million in a financing round that included Bertelsmann and valued the business at more than $1 billion. Other shareholders include investment firms Andreessen Horowitz, Charles River and Drive Capital. In total, the company has raised $165 million. Asked whether current funding was enough to roll out its strategy, Thrun said: "By far", adding it should last for the next three years. He declined to say whether he would prefer the company to stay private when more money is needed. "In the end we want to list our shares. That is our goal, but for us it is not so important. At the moment it is important to build our name," he said. Thrun dismissed concerns about a recent drop in funding for education technology. Data from research firm CB Insight show funding deals in the sector are on course to fall 57 percent in 2016 to $1.3 billion, from a record of $3.1 billion last year. "(This) is not a small niche market ... it impacts almost everybody who works. What we are offering will happen, no matter what," he said. (Editing by Mark Potter)
Singapore confirms it will cut off Internet access for government work stations within a year for security reasons, a surprise move in one of the world's most wired countries (AFP Photo/Roslan Rahman ) (AFP)

Singapore confirmed Wednesday it would cut off Internet access for government work stations within a year for security reasons, a surprise move in one of the world's most wired countries.

The decision will not disrupt government operations, the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) said after local daily The Straits Times reported that some 100,000 computers would be affected.

We have started to separate Internet access from the work stations of a selected group of public service officers, and will do so for the rest of the public service officers progressively over a one-year period," the IDA said in a written reply to AFP queries.

Industry sources said the measure was aimed at preventing cyber attacks as well as the spread of malware that might enter the government email network thought Internet-enabled work stations.

Singapore is one of the world's most Internet-savvy societies, offering broadband speeds envied by many.

A wide range of government services are available online, including registering for marriage, filing complaints to the police and video consultations with doctors.

Government services will not be disrupted by the security measures, sources familiar with the plan said.

The Straits Times said public servants would still have access to the Internet on their personal devices such as tablets and smartphones.

Dedicated Internet-linked terminals will be issued to civil servants who need them for work, the newspaper added.

The IDA said the government regularly reviews measures to make its network more secure.

"There are alternatives for Internet access and the work that officers need to do, does not change.

Singapore announced in 2014 it was stepping up IT security measures following attacks on a section of the prime minister's website, as well the website of the presidential residence.
A Google self-driving car is seen inside a lobby at the Google headquarters in Mountain View, California November 13, 2015. REUTERS/Stephen Lam (Reuters)

By Joseph White

(Reuters) - The top U.S. vehicle safety regulator said on Wednesday the government needs to be more nimble in designing rules for self-driving vehicles.

The industry "is on version 238.32 by the time we get regulations out," National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) administrator Mark Rosekind said during an appearance at an industry conference in suburban Detroit.

U.S. Department of Transportation guidelines expected in July will offer different approaches to oversight of self-driving, or autonomous, vehicle technologies, Rosekind said.

Regulations that remain static for years "will not work for this area," Rosekind said. "We will have something different in July."

Autonomous driving technology does not have to be perfect to be acceptable, Rosekind suggested.

"I'd say start at two times" better than conventional vehicles, he said. Current U.S. highway deaths are equivalent to "a 747 crashing every week for a year ... It's unacceptable."

Rosekind said he was aware of a proposal by Tesla Motors Inc <TSLA.O> to make available to the government its data from vehicles equipped with an autopilot self-driving feature for the highway.

"We're looking to see what the offer might be, Rosekind said. If the offer is there, we're going for it."

In March, the NHTSA said significant legal hurdles must be cleared before self-driving cars without steering wheels and gas pedals can be sold, but there were relatively few legal hurdles in deploying self-driving cars with human controls.

Alphabet Inc's <GOOGL.O> Google would like the NHTSA to urge states to adopt federal self-driving guidelines "rather than impose different, conflicting state rules. We have seen 15 states propose such laws over the last 12 months."

Google said it continues to explore other potential methods to enhance communication with pedestrians and bicyclists and urged the NHTSA to tell states not to bar innovations.

Story continues

The industry should have "flexibility to develop their approaches to communicating with other road users in order to explore and innovate with different techniques," Google said.

Many states prohibit automakers from using "innovative light or sound techniques to communicate with other road users" like using a "lighted information sign on a self-driving vehicle to communicate with pedestrians."

(Reporting by Joseph White in Detroit; Additional reporting by David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)
NISQUALLY REACH, Wash.  It was here before anyone made a map and called this corner of it the Pacific Northwest.

To me, said David McCloskey, waving an aging hand toward tidelands formed millenniums ago, its an energy field.

McCloskey, a retired sociology and ecology professor who has spent a lifetime exploring the regions mountain ranges and waterways, was standing here near the southernmost stretch of Puget Sound. He was trying to explain not just the view in front of him, but all of Cascadia, an elusive realm he helped conceive decades ago that stretches from Northern California to the coast of British Columbia, and deep into the imagination.

The idea of a separate land in the top corner of the country rose and faded over the years, a blend of science, environmentalism and a fuzzy sense of otherness that served as a counterpoint to the ceaseless commercial growth of Seattle, its once-quieter capital. Some called it New Age hokum. Others said it represented a true Ecotopia, maybe even a last redoubt against the worst effects of climate change.

Yet now, as the region booms with newcomers drawn to its technology economy, Cascadias distinctiveness has become both indisputably clear and darkly complicated. Its very existence is threatened with what scientists say is a strong likelihood that, sooner or later, it will be faced with the largest earthquake ever recorded in the United States.

On Tuesday, as many as 20,000 people across Washington, Oregon, California and Idaho, mainly federal employees, began a four-day exercise called Cascadia Rising  a trial run at responding to a massive magnitude-9.0 quake on the Cascadia Subduction Zone off the northwest coast near here, and the tsunami that would inevitably accompany it.

Scientists have established that the fault in the Cascadia zone caused a megaquake in 1700, before the regions written history, and they say one day  maybe next week, maybe next century  it will cause another. The death toll could reach 10,000 and leave much of the region without power, clean water or essential services.

Forty years ago, when McCloskey began teaching at Seattle University, plate tectonics were just beginning to be understood. Now the Juan de Fuca plate, just off the coast, has become a rising geologic star  or perhaps a sinking one. Seismologists say the plate is slowly creeping beneath the North American plate, creating the dynamic about which scientists are now so concerned.

Awareness of the potential threat peaked recently with a Pulitzer Prize-winning article in the New Yorker magazine, published last year, that described a worst-case scenario in vivid detail.

The increased attention has made clear that, while the Northwest may feel like a haven from much of the countrys other environmental woes  it could be a comfortable destination for people fleeing hotter, drier parts of the West as a result of climate change, for example  it is on very shaky ground.

Its earthquake season every single day of the year, said Kenneth Murphy, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agencys Northwest operations.

Rebekah Paci-Green, who was born and raised in the Seattle suburbs, said that after the New Yorker article was published, I had ... friends writing me and saying Is this really a good idea for you to live there?

Paci-Green, 41, understands the risks as well as anyone. She is the director of the Resilience Institute at Western Washington University in Bellingham and the lead author of a document that outlines the scenario on which emergency workers base the exercise. She called it a pretty extreme look at a pretty extreme event.

Odds are high that whatever megaquake does strike will not have such severe consequences as the worst predictions, Paci-Green said.

A megaquake will not be Hollywood-style catastrophic in the Puget Sound, she said, though she is careful to add: Its really important for emergency managers to be planning for a worst-case scenario.

For those wondering whether Cascadia means an ideal place to live, or a potential disaster zone, she says: You have to have risk and benefit in focus at the same time.

That aligns very much with what McCloskey says.

While he is unhappy that, for some people, Cascadia has suddenly become shorthand for death and destruction, McCloskey welcomes having more people recognize the power of the energy field of Cascadia.

This is part of the long process of getting grounded here in the ongoing life of the wider, deeper place, he wrote in an email.

That picked up on a point he made back at Nisqually Reach, where he had traveled as part of a research trip to better understand the glacial forces that shaped the region.

Its always about getting grounded in the backyard, where you are, all the way up to the planet and back, he said. The integral life of the place as a whole on all of these levels, in depth, unfolding through time, including culture, thats what were after. Thats what gives us a new story.
Geekologie has shut down.

Thank you to everybody.

Now go be happy.
Country music brings people together.

The annual Tree Town Music Festival that happened over Memorial Day weekend in Forest City is certainly an example of that.

In todays Summit we have two stories about the festival bringing people together. The Miller family gathered for the festival. The family said they enjoy the time together as well as the music.

The Summit has another story on a couple who spent its honeymoon at the music festival. The couple met at a country music bar in Arizona.

I sat under a tent the Saturday of Tree Town during one of the short but heavy rains. During a casual conversation with a couple from eastern Wisconsin, I learned they met at a country music festival.

The couple was at its first Tree Town.

I suggested the couple could get married at a country music festival. She didnt think that was such a great idea but she did laugh. He thought maybe it wasnt such a bad idea.

This years Tree Town was wet and muddy.

Thankfully, when Chris Janson sang about buying a boat, no one needed one on the festival grounds.

Janson and Old Dominion brought fans together on that Sunday as they sang and danced to the music. Really, that was much of the tone of the entire four days.

People gathered because they like country music or the Thursdays rock night.

Its cool to watch fans in their early 20s and fans in their 60s sing along with an artist.

I probably cant name many of the artists and their songs but I did catch myself singing along a few times as I waited to take photos of the next artist. So for those few minutes I got to be one of the fans who gathered for Tree Town.
This last week I had to finish up one of my last commitments in Des Moines as a legislator. I had the honor of being the guest speaker at the national AASHTO (American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials) meeting held in Des Moines. AASHTO is composed of state DOT directors and their staff.

Iowas DOT director, Paul Trombino, currently serves as the AASHTO president. This is a great honor for Director Trombino to be selected by his peers as their leader.

I realize there are some who are not big fans of the Iowa DOT. You have to remember that the Iowa DOT is more than blue cars inspecting trucks. The main purpose of the Iowa DOT is to keep the Iowa transportation infrastructure maintained and modernized. There are many great things happening within the Iowa DOT that many people dont realize. As Transportation Chairman, I have enjoyed my time working with the Iowa DOT.

Most recently the DOT has been working on logistics issues and the economic impact logistics has on the Iowa economy. That work has been recognized by American Shipper, a print publication that provides the shipping industry with pertinent news about shippers, service providers, regulatory issues, and technology. This is a big deal for Iowa to be showcased in this publication. Its recognition like this that will attract companies to Iowa.

In addition to the advances the Iowa DOT is making on logistics, you need to visit http://www.iowadot.gov/index.html#/services and check out the online tools the DOT provides Iowans. The DOT also has an app (Iowa 511) that you can download to your smartphone for road and traffic conditions. There is also technology available to the public where you can track a plow http://iowadot.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=3d5bc4ec8c474870a19c7e8f44b39c9c. I am still waiting for access to the software that allows me to track a trooper!

Its for these reasons I was so disappointed in the Iowa House Republicans for proposing cuts to the DOT budget. The DOT is doing some great things for Iowa and have really become an integral part of economic development in the state. They have evolved into much more than blue cars inspecting trucks, they are integrating 21st Century technologies into transportation in Iowa.

I have no doubt that the cuts to the DOT this session are the results of the fuel tax increase last session. This a payback from some legislators who did not support the fuel tax increase. Unfortunately, Iowa does have some vindictive, Washington D.C. style politicians.

It has been very seldom in my six years that I have been this disappointed. Looking back on my time in Des Moines it has been a pretty good experience and for the most part we are still worlds away from D.C. style politics. The most appalled I have ever been on a vote was the fuel tax vote last year when the party across the aisle told their members how to vote. I know of legislators who had publically supported the fuel tax to their constituents and were forced to vote no. If my party ever told me how to vote, I would have instantly switched my party affiliation to Independent. Last time I checked, you represent those who elected you, not the party.

Josh Byrnes, Iowa House District 51
SIOUX CITY  Brushing aside a challenge from a fellow Republican for the first time in his 14-year career, U.S. Rep. Steve King romped to a victory over state Sen. Rick Bertrand Tuesday night.

With 93 percent of precincts reporting in the sprawling 4th District that includes much of North Iowa, King led 65 percent to 35 percent. Republicans hold a significant voter registration advantage over Democrats in the district.

Bertrand, of Sioux City, framed the race on King's effectiveness and likability.

King, of Kiron, said he liked the way voters responded Tuesday.

"It feels good. The first thought, it is that gratitude to the people of the 4th District," King said in an interview from Washington, D.C., where he spent election night after casting his own vote in Odebolt early Tuesday morning.

King, who was first elected to the U.S. House in 2002, won in both rural and urban areas in the 39-county district in northwest and north-central Iowa.

In populous Woodbury County, King received 3,385 votes for 56 percent, while Bertrand got 2,620 votes. Bertrand represents Sioux City in the state Senate and is also a businessman and commercial developer.

In Sioux County, the state's most Republican county, King took 70 percent of the vote. King also won Story County, where the county seat, Ames, is home to Iowa State University.

In May, soon after Bertrand entered the race, King told the Sioux City Journal the long-shot challenge would prove to "be viewed as a big waste of time and money."

He doubled down on that thought Tuesday, saying, "The resources and time could have been used for good rather than division."

Bertrand did not return repeated calls Tuesday night.

Bertrand, who became the first Republican in 30 years to win a state Senate district in Sioux City in 2010, entered the 4th District race in late March, later than any of the other candidates in the Iowa congressional districts.

One reason Bertrand sought the Republican congressional primary battle was because King caused a stir 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, in order to defend an industry that is so important to the state.

King countered that powerful interests  including Bruce Rastetter, a major agribusiness and Republican donor, and GOP strategist Nick Ryan  were out to find a Republican to oust him in the June primary.

Bertrand said he would have the vigor and resources to knock off the veteran King. However, his campaign stops didn't typically draw large crowds, and some observers said he should have aired tougher rhetoric against King.

Bertrand had expectations of large fundraising. King brought in $110,193 from April 1 to May 18, compared to $52,727 for Bertrand during the same Federal Election Commission filing period. After spending, Bertrand's campaign had $34,473 cash on hand at the end of the reporting period, compared to King's $217,704 ending cash balance.

Other groups also spent on behalf of Bertrand, including advertisements produced by American Future Fund Political Action and Iowa Progress Project.

King after his win noted that he didn't run any campaign ads on television, radio or other media.

"We just let my work speak for itself," he said.

Both men defined them as conservatives. King piled up endorsements of the state's top elected heavyweights, essentially all notable Republicans except Gov. Terry Branstad. U.S. Sens. Charles Grassley and Joni Ernst, Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds and Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey were in the King camp.

The two candidates participated once in a public debate, on Friday in Sioux City, where Bertrand again leveled the charge that King was ineffective.

"I am going there to run a specific agenda that is outlined by Iowans. Right now, we have a congressman who believes he is untouchable," Bertrand said.
DES MOINES  Patty Judge, a former lieutenant governor and state ag secretary, won a four-way Democratic primary election Tuesday, giving her the right to challenge longtime Republican incumbent Chuck Grassley for one of Iowas seats in the U.S. Senate.

I am the Judge that Chuck Grassley cant ignore, Judge said in her victory speech late Tuesday in Des Moines.

Judge, a retired farmer from Albia, won what amounted to a two-way primary race, edging state legislator Rob Hogg while attorney Tom Fiegen and veterans advocate Bob Krause lagged far behind.

The Associated Press called the race for Judge late Tuesday evening.

At 11 p.m., with 87 percent of precincts reporting, Judge had 47 percent of the vote to Hoggs 38 percent, according to official results on the Iowa Secretary of States website.

Fiegen and Krause both were at 7 percent.

Using her name recognition advantage as a former lieutenant governor, state secretary of agriculture and state senator, Judge earned her partys nomination and the right to face Grassley, a six-term incumbent, in Iowas 2016 U.S. Senate race this fall.

Hes been in Washington way too long, Judge said. Its time for government to start working for us. Tonight we took the first step in making government work again.

Judge, 72, performed well in Iowas rural counties, while Hogg, 49, a 14-year veteran of the Iowa Legislature and a current state senator, was strongest in the urban areas.

Shortly after she entered the race in March, Judge was endorsed by the Democratic Partys national committee that works to elect Democrats to the U.S. Senate.

She also was the primarys best fundraiser: she raised nearly $370,000 in roughly 2 months, while Hogg raised just more than $250,000 over the course of 10 months.

Together, we are going to win in November. And now its time to party, Judge said.

Hogg ran an active, grassroots campaign, traveling across the state to hold dozens of meetings. He was endorsed by the states largest labor groups.

Im proud of the campaign we ran. We had a lot of grassroots enthusiasm and we ran a race focused on Iowans, Hogg said Tuesday night. Obviously were disappointed because we came a little short.

Hogg said he supports Judge wholeheartedly in the general election, and said he believes Congress needs new leaders.

We badly need Congress to work again, Hogg said. I look forward to voting for Patty Judge" in November.

Grassley has been re-elected by Iowans five times, never by fewer than 30 percentage points and each time garnering at least 60 percent of the vote.

But Democrats believe Grassley is vulnerable this year, largely because of two issues: Grassleys stand with Senate Republican leadership to not hold confirmation hearings on President Barack Obamas nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court vacancy, and the potential down-ballot impact of presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump.

In a statement issued Tuesday night, Grassley campaign manager Robert Haus suggested Judge failed to garner widespread support from Iowa Democrats, particularly those interested in labor, environmental and agricultural issues.

Members of these key constituencies voted against Patty Judge for clear reasons, and she will need to spend considerable time and resources to try to win back the support of those that remain hostile to her candidacy, Haus said in the statement, adding, Iowans know what she did when she had control in Iowa. They shudder at what she'll do if she's sent to Washington, D.C.

Fiegen and Krause offered themselves as candidates rich in ideas to bolster the suffering and sagging middle class, but challenged in the campaign financing needed to wage an effective statewide campaign.

Instead, they relied heavily on social media to carry their messages to rank-and-file Democrats and independents.
MASON CITY | The Cerro Gordo County Board of Supervisors will meet in regular session 10:15 a.m. June 14 to canvass the results of Tuesday's primary election.

The canvass will include election night results as well as any provisional ballots and absentee ballots that are determined to be valid and on time. The meeting is open to the public.

People with questions about the election may contact the county auditors office at 641-421-3041 or visit the county website at www.co.cerro-gordo.ia.us.
HAMPTON | The Hampton City Council Thursday night will consider supporting the Franklin County Supervisors in their pursuit of Prestage Farms.

Basically the council will be considering whether or not to send a letter of support to the supervisors, City Manager Ron Dunt said.

The item is listed on the councils agenda. The council will meet at 6 p.m. Thursday in City Hall chambers.

Prestage, Franklin County officials meet HAMPTON | Franklin County officials held a fact-finding meeting last week with a representat

Franklin County Supervisors approached Prestage Foods of Iowa after the Mason City Councils 3-3 tie vote on May 3 that defeated the plant.
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MASON CITY | It was a very, very slow day at the polls in North Iowa during Tuesday's primary.

Few hot-button issues and a relative lack of local contests resulted in low turnout and wide margins of victory in most North Iowa races.

Cerro Gordo County Auditor Ken Kline said that county's turnout, 1,779, was the third-lowest primary election since 1990.

It was a mere 5 votes more than the second-lowest, which was 1,774 cast in 2012, but well behind the 26-year low of 843 cast in 2004.

"The interesting thing about primaries is occasionally a statewide race or controversial race will generate interest, but many times it is the local races  a supervisor, a sheriff, whatever  that will be the highest turnout office of the election," Kline said.

The highest-profile national races in North Iowa were the Republican primary for the 4th Congressional District and the U.S. Senate Democratic primary.

For the House seat, incumbent Steve King, of Kiron, easily defeated challenger Rick Bertrand, a state senator from Sioux City, with 65 percent of the vote.

Former Iowa Lt. Gov. Patty Judge earned 48 percent of the vote to win the Democratic Senate primary over State Sen. Rob Hogg, Tom Fiegen and Bob Krause.

Statewide turnout was 9.5 percent.

In local Republican races, Worth County Sheriff's Deputy Dan Fank bested Forest City Police Officer Mark Wubben, 553-62, in Worth County sheriff primary. Franklin County Chief Deputy Linn Larson bested fellow deputy Rick Rieken, 634-559, in that countys sheriff primary.

Additionally, Mike Stensrud defeated Gary Ludwig, 171-43, in the Winnebago County Supervisor District 2 primary and Lizbeth Williams beat Jenee Simon, 446-232, in the primary for Butler County auditor.

The closest result in Tuesday's primary was Corey Eberling's 25-vote victory over David Schoning in the District 3 Supervisor Republican primary in Franklin County. He won 231-206.

The next-closest was Greg Barnetts victory over Rex Ackerman, 154-121, in the District 1 Republican primary in Butler County.

There were no contested Democratic primaries in North Iowa.

Although Tuesday's primary didn't cause much of a stir, party officials say it isn't an indication of what people can expect from the general election in November.

Mitchell County Republican Chairman Lowell Tesch said feedback from attendees at Iowa's Feb. 1 caucuses showed people are very interested in the future of the country.

A record 180,000 Republicans and a near-record 171,000 Democrats participated in the presidential caucuses, which were won by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

"I think the general feeling of the public or voters is they want to see something different and theyre tired of what the establishment has been for so many years," Tesch said.

The general election is Nov. 8.
MASON CITY | A day trip to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum and Bachman's Nursery in Minneapolis, sponsored by the local Wa Tan Ye service club, will be held on Saturday, June 11.

Lunch, transportation and admission are all covered for $70. Tram ride is $6 extra.

Departure is from Mason City Walmart at 8 a.m. Proceeds will be given to the Mason City Public Library.

To reserve a spot, call Donna at 641-430-6056 or Rhonda at 641-512-7238.
The folks working for the federal government can do some incredible things.

Over at NASA, for instance, theyre now putting the finishing touches on the new James Webb Space Telescope  an instrument The Washington Post says will be powerful enough to capture the heat signature of a bumblebee on the moon.

Amazing. We can now spot a bug in space.

So why cant we spot people who cheat on their taxes right here in the US of A?

A great many people, the IRS says in a new report, are stiffing Uncle Sam. Our federal tax gap  the disconnect between what taxpayers owe and what they eventually pay  is now averaging $406 billion a year.

That eye-opening figure comes from the 17 percent of taxpayers who misreport their income and underpay their taxes.

The other side of the coin is that 83 percent of Americans are paying their taxes, in full and on time. If you make a typical American income, you almost definitely fall within this 83 percent.

Actually, you dont have much choice. All wage and salary income  the overwhelming bulk of the income average Americans receive  gets automatically reported to the IRS and faces automatic withholding from your paycheck.

Under this system, notes the new study, only 1 percent of overall paycheck income goes under- or unreported.

But some Americans  the nations most affluent  dont make their money from wages and salaries. They get the bulk of their income instead from business profits, rents and the money they make buying and selling assets.

Most of this income doesnt get automatically reported so few of these dollars ever face any withholding at all.

That wouldnt matter all that much if the IRS had plenty of agents out in the field doing in-depth audits. But the IRS has been losing staff. The tax agency had 50,400 full-time-equivalent enforcement staff available in 2010. The 2016 figure: only 38,800.

With fewer watchdogs on the job, almost a fifth of individual tax due on capital gains and partnership income is going uncollected. An even higher share of rents, royalties and proprietor income  nearly two-thirds  is escaping taxes.

How much of this tax cheating involves big-time business people and how much involves mom-and-pop business operators? The IRS doesnt say. The agency doesnt break down the new tax evasion data by taxpayer income class.

But eight years ago, economists Andrew Johns and Joel Slemrod went through earlier IRS raw data and did just that.

Americans who make between $500,000 and $1 million a year, these two researchers found, misreport their income at triple the rate of taxpayers making between $30,000 and $50,000, and well over double the rate of taxpayers making $50,000 to $100,000.

One key point to keep in mind here: Were not talking about loopholes in the tax code when we talk about the tax gap. Loopholes let the deep-pocket set legally sidestep what otherwise would be a significantly higher tax bill. The IRS tax gap numbers only apply to outright illegal tax cheating.

The rich engaging in this cheating do get nabbed sometimes. This May, for example, a federal judge found that Texas tycoon Sam Wyly engaged in deceptive and fraudulent actions to avoid taxes on over $1 billion of his assets.

But the Sam Wylys remain outliers. Most high-income tax cheats dont get caught. And that wont change until Congress starts subjecting the incomes of the awesomely affluent to the same reporting and withholding standards that apply to the incomes of average Americans.
Icelandic English

Reykjavik, 2016-06-07 11:48 CEST (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Orkuveita Reykjavikur's (OR; Reykjavik Energy) Board of Directors has decided to enter into a loan agreement with the European Investment Bank to the amount of EUR 70 million. Terms are very favourable and the financing is in accordance with ORs Budget.

ORs finances have strengthened considerably in recent years. Rationalization and other measures in operations have given OR access to financing investments and improved cash position in foreign currencies at favourable rates. The loan, which has a term of 15 years, will be drawn on in the next three years.

In accordance with ORs risk policy, OR recently issued bonds in ISK.

The BoDs decision is subject to owners approval.
KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa., June 7, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Advanced Technology Group, Inc. (ATG), a leading provider of software for the community association industry, is proud to announce Matt Lineberger as its president. Lineberger will focus on delivering continued and consistent service to ATG's growing client portfolio.



ATG's cornerstone product is its Complete Control for Communities (C3) software platform utilized by community management companies for financial management, reporting, online training, security, integrated web capabilities and other cutting-edge homeowners' association and condominium association management tools.



"I'm excited to take on this role at a company that is a true trailblazer in the industry, innovating in ways no other player in the market is doing right now," says Lineberger. "The C3 platform has been leading the association management industry for many years, and the leadership team has a clear vision of the future and is ready to embrace the challenges ahead."



Lineberger came to ATG from Pariveda Solutions where he was responsible for leading sales and delivery of custom IT and software solutions to clients across the U.S. Prior to Pariveda, he worked in a variety of roles at Raytheon, an aerospace and defense contractor. Before joining Raytheon, Matt co-founded iTNovations, a technology consulting company focused on establishing the web presence for small to medium sized businesses. Previously he has also held positions at Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips. Lineberger holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Information & Operations Management from Texas A&M University.



Advanced Technology Group, Inc. is a premier provider of technology solutions for the community association industry. Founded in 1991, ATG's flagship product is Complete Control for Communities, commonly referred to as C3, and is used to manage the operations of some of the largest and most successful community association management companies in the industry. For more information on ATG and C3 please visit us on the web at www.atgonline.com or call us directly at (877) ATG-5050.



Photos accompanying this release are available at:

http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=40522



CONTACT:Billy Rudolph 610-272-3001 pr@atgonline.com
Beijer Ref AB (publ) is pleased to announce that the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has today unconditionally approved its acquisition of HRP Holdings Limited (HRP). The acquisition of HRP was announced in November 2015 and completed in February 2016. However, the CMA launched an investigation on its own initiative into the merger under United Kingdom merger control laws. In reaching its decision, the CMA is satisfied that the merger will not substantially lessen competition Beijer Ref can now proceed with its restructuring plans for the HRP business, which has been run separately out of Beijer Refs control during the CMAs investigation. The investigation started on 25 February 2016. HRP will be consolidated during June 2016. Per Bertland, CEO of Beijer Ref Group, said that we were highly confident that the acquisition of HRP would not reduce competition and are satisfied that the CMA has recognised this. My team and I can now get on and develop the HRP, 3D and HRP OEM brands. He went on to say I would like to take this opportunity to thank our suppliers, customers and employees for their understanding and support during this process. Malmo, 8 June 2016 Beijer Ref AB (publ) For further information, please contact: Per Bertland, CEO Telephone +46 40-35 89 00 or Jonas Lindqvist, CFO Telephone +46 40-35 89 00 Beijer Ref AB (publ) discloses the information provided here pursuant to the Securities Marcet Act and/or the Financial Instruments Trading Act. The information was submitted for publication on 8 June 2016. BEIJER REF AB is a technology-oriented trading Group which, through added-value products, offers its customers competitive solutions within refrigeration and climate control. Beijer Ref is one of the largest refrigeration wholesalers in the world, and is represented in 32 countries in Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania. www.beijerref.com
SAN JOSE, Calif., June 08, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Vocera Communications, Inc. (NYSE:VCRA), the leading healthcare communications company, invites industry leaders to experience the U.S. healthcare system through the eyes of the family during a unique webinar on Thursday, June 9, from 1-2 p.m. EDT. Voceras Experience Innovation Network, focused on thought leadership and research, is hosting the event to provide a platform for hospital leaders to hear firsthand from family members about ways to improve engagement in supporting patient experience. The webinar, titled Family Involvement in the Care Process, will feature three family members as co-presenters who will share their healthcare experiences and provide insights into best practices.

Webinar participants will hear personal stories from a mother caring for her child with cystic fibrosis, a wife managing the care plan for her husband who has a brain tumor, and a daughter helping provide care for her mother-in-law whose mental and physical health is deteriorating. These family members will offer valuable perspectives to assist healthcare providers redefine traditional approaches to communicating with family members and involving loved ones in supporting patient care.

Family members can be allies and advocates for patient care, providing support to their loved ones and extending the capabilities of the care team  but only if they are actively involved in the care process, said Liz Boehm, director of the Experience Innovation Network and webinar moderator. Too often family members are overlooked as valuable partners in care. Yet, when family members are empowered with the right resources, support and information, they can actually help improve patient understanding of the care plan and compliance.

Click here to register for this complimentary webinar hosted by Voceras the Experience Innovation Network, an international group of industry thought leaders focused on putting the science behind the experience of care and discovering innovative solutions that meet the Quadruple Aim of improving population health, elevating patient-centered care, and reducing costs while restoring joy back to the practice of medicine.

About Vocera

Vocera Communications, Inc. offers the most robust clinical communications system in healthcare. Installed in more than 1,300 organizations worldwide, Vocera delivers secure, integrated and intelligent communication solutions that enable care teams to collaborate more efficiently by delivering the right information, to the right person, on the right device, in the right location, at the right time. Vocera solutions provide hands-free voice communication, secure text messaging, patient engagement tools, and integrated clinical workflow with EHRs, nurse call systems and physiological monitors. These solutions help improve operational efficiency, quality of care, safety and satisfaction across the continuum of care. In addition to technology solutions, Vocera drives thought leadership and new standards in care to elevate patient, family, nurse and physician experiences via the company's research collaborative, the Experience Innovation Network. Vocera is headquartered in San Jose, California, with offices in San Francisco, Tennessee, Canada, India, United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. For more information, visit www.vocera.com and @VoceraComm on Twitter.

The Vocera logo is a trademark of Vocera Communications, Inc. Vocera is a trademark of Vocera Communications, Inc. registered in the United States and other jurisdictions. All other trademarks appearing in this release are the property of their respective owners.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, June 08, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cuba Ventures Corp. (TSX-V:CUV) (OTCBB:MPSFF) (Frankfurt:IJA2) (the Company), an online travel and digital media company specializing in travel marketing to Cuba, today released an in-depth Letter to Shareholders from President Jim Pettit.



My Fellow Shareholders and Investors:

With President Obamas recent and historic trip to improve US trade relations with Cuba, which actually began almost eighteen months ago, the economic and investment opportunities that loom are significant. Investors seeking exposure to Cuba need to find unique opportunities with companies focused on the island nation as well as have an intimate social and economic knowledge of the country.

For context, lets take a brief look at the progress of Vietnam which, 20 years ago, had a punishing US trade embargo lifted. The Vietnam Stock market opened at a base of 100 points in mid 2000 and is north of 600 points today. Vietnam has become Americas 29th largest trading partner with bilateral trade of more than $30 billion. Vietnam is regarded by US businesses as one of the most promising markets in Southeast Asia.

We believe there are similar and significant investment opportunities for those early into Cubas impending growth.

Why Cuba Ventures?

The Company and its team have a number of competitive advantages including being a first mover into Cuba. Most competitors have yet to build any meaningful Cuban economic relationships and without the necessary knowledge, things can take a long time to get done in Cuba. Our team has a combined 50 years experience in Cuba and we are continuing to expand both in scope and market share.

From the opening bell on Monday, March 21st it became apparent that Cuba Ventures carefully executed and strategic positioning over the last 20 years as the go-to e-commerce and informational platform for Cuba travel and digital media had garnered significant investor interest.

Cuba Ventures owns Travelucion Media, a company that was founded by Mr. Steve Marshall, who has recently been named Chief Executive Officer of Cuba Ventures as well. Mr. Marshall spent more than a decade in Cuba specializing in Cuban joint ventures and successfully founded a number of companies including:

Primeras Inversiones in the Havana Free Zone

First State approved Real Estate joint venture with CIMEX

Dimension W-Tech: a start-up joint venture with the Ministry of Communications

First Cuba-centric online marketing company handling over 30 million annual internet visitors with the Ministry of Tourism

Currently, Travelucion owns a vast portfolio of web assets consisting of 432 Cuba focused websites, which generate over 30 million page-views per year and direct traffic to the company's online booking and e-commerce sites. These websites cover all facets of Cuba including over 80 travel destinations, hotels & resorts, bed & breakfasts, tours, car rentals, restaurants, as well as Cuban culture, music, celebrities, sports, health care and more. In reality Travelucion has been and remains one of the only established Cuba-centric digital media and travel related platforms since 1995.

Investment Highlights

The growth potential of CUV is extremely compelling. With our extensive history in the emerging Cuban market that has been plagued by many barriers to entry, as well as the proprietary nature of our software, the Company is in position to grow its market share. Other businesses and groups will be forced to quickly spend untold millions to break into the Cuban market.

The case could be made that it may well be easier for various travel behemoths to simply acquire Cuba Ventures. In either case, Cuba Ventures is one of the only public vehicles that allows quick and quality exposure to the ongoing growth in Cuba.

Initial enthusiasm aside, I am confident that strong revenue growth over the last few years is sustainable for the long term. While the relationship between the US and Cuba remains complicated, the first mover advantage is already apparent and early entrants will have a distinct advantage.

Why is this thaw in social and economic relations happening now?

In the most recent edition of The Atlantic, Ben Rhodes, Obamas deputy security adviser stated,

By opening up travel, by opening up commerce, youre going to empower the Cuban people. Theyre going to get more resources; they're going to have more interconnectivity to the rest of the world. This over time has a greater chance of improving the human-rights circumstances in Cuba than isolation and pressure.

Travelucion's revenues have been rapidly increasing in the wake of notable shift in American policy towards Cuba as relations between the two nations normalize.

Travelucion Media has developed and owns one of the most significant portfolios of Cuban focused web assets generating over 30 million page-views per year, directing traffic to the main Travelucion Media booking and dozens of e-commerce sites including the flagship booking platform www.havanatur.com.

To show our confidence in this new company, insider CUV share ownership by management and other insiders exceeds 40 percent.

Cuba (Ventures) in the Future

Travelucion is in position not just to capitalize on Cuban growth, but also to handle the increasing rise in revenues and bookings. The websites, most of which have been active and continually updated since 1995, have a robust, complementary social media presence to enhance the user experience.

Furthermore, Travelucion has few US competitors given the current trade embargo. The two largest online travel companies, Expedia and Priceline, are not active in Cuba.

As a result of easing restrictions on Americans traveling to Cuba, US travel to Cuba has increased an impressive 50 percent over the last year.

On March 15th, 2016, the Obama administration announced further changes prior to its March 20-22nd trip:

Make travel easier under the current 12 exemption categories (cultural, educational, religious, etc.)

Further loosening of trade and banking rules

Revised regulations on how the US dollar can be used to trade with Cuba

The general ban for American tourists going to Cuba remains in place and will likely take some more political jockeying. That said, The rule changes are likely to allow more people to go on self-directed people to people and cultural trips without having to rely on group tours or be sponsored by an organization," two people familiar with the discussions said. (Reuters)

Cuba Ventures plans to prepare its booking platform, as part of an overall upgrade, for the Global Distribution (GDS) booking systems. While others scramble to capture market share, Travelucion is readying itself for additional rapid growth through streamlined bookings through a GDS, long-term established relationships with state-run Cuban travel suppliers for manual bookings as well as conclude contracts with other specialized travel groups servicing Cuba. All of these growth plans should provide ample news flow over the coming months as well.

Partnership with the Mercosur Chamber of Commerce

On Tuesday, May 31st, Cuba Ventures announced a partnership with the Mercosur Chamber of Commerce. Mercosur CC, headquartered in San Paolo, Brazil, was established in 1991 and covers a territory of six of the twelve countries of South America with total population of approximately 290 million people.

The primary goal of Mercosur CC is to further investment within South and Central America. Mercosur's purpose is to promote free trade and the fluid movement of goods, people, and currency as well as to facilitate investment within South and Central America. Mercosur merchandise trade, excluding Venezuela, grew from US$10 billion at the inception of the trade bloc in 1991 to over US$88 billion in 2010.

The collaboration agreement between Cuba Ventures and Mercosur CC will open up many opportunities for the Company to work with Mercosur on travel related opportunities, digital marketing initiatives and potential consulting agreements. Cuba Ventures' team has over 50 years' experience in Cuban commerce and investment which will be of value to Mercosur members interested in investing in Cuba.

Cuba Ventures' CEO, Steve Marshall stated this in regards to the newly formed partnership: "We are very excited to have partnered up with a group as prominent as Mercosur CC and view this as the start of a strong working relationship between Cuba Ventures and Mercosur and its member countries. There are renewed synergies between Mercosur members and the Republic of Cuba, and our team can bring a wealth of knowledge to those entrepreneurs and businesses considering the attractive and relatively untapped investment potential Cuba has to offer. Given the rapidly growing travel market in Cuba, there is a natural fit with Cuba Ventures and we expect numerous opportunities to materialize from this partnership for the Company to grow its current travel business. Beyond our working knowledge of Cuban bureaucracy, legal and financial structures, we are also able to offer worldwide marketing support for investors through our 432 multi-language Cuban focused websites collectively generating over 30 million page-views per year of highly targeted web traffic interested in everything Cuba. The recipe of proven consulting expertise and ongoing marketing support for future investors has undoubtedly been the reason we were chosen to aid Mercosur CC members going forward."

Medical Tourism

Besides straight vacation travel, one of the most robust growth areas is Medical Tourism. The sector revenues are expected to rise to $32.5 billion by 2019, which represents an impressive 17 percent CAGR from 2012.

The Cuban health care system is world renowned for quality of procedures and care and competitive pricing; perfectly situated only 90 miles off the coast of Florida.

Travelucion currently offers access to 252 medical procedures and treatments, from minor procedures to major and complex operations and cancer therapies. As prices and wait times increase in other countries, Cubas underutilized medical industry is becoming more and more popular. As well, those patients will want and need accommodation and some rest and relaxation while recuperating. All of this is available through Travelucion, which receives a 10 percent commission on each medical procedure and treatment transaction booked through one of its many Cuba focused websites.

Cuba Ventures still holds mineral assets from its previous incarnation as MPH Ventures. Management will look to sell or spin these properties out in a new public vehicle, maximizing the benefit to shareholders.

At Cuba Ventures, we appreciate your interest and support during these exciting times. Our singular mandate is clear: build consistent and sustainable shareholder value as Cuba continues to open up. We plan to be there every step of the way, just as it has been for more than two decades.

Feel free to email me with any questions or comments. I look forward to speaking to you again soon.

Sincerely,

Jim Pettit

President

Cuba Ventures Corp.

604-687-3376

info@cubaventures.com
NEW YORK, June 08, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Securities Arbitration Law Firm of Klayman & Toskes, P.A. (K&T), www.nasd-law.com, announced today that it filed a claim against Merrill Lynch on behalf of a UPS (NYSE:UPS) employee for losses sustained from an unsuitable covered call writing strategy for a concentrated UPS stock position. The suit was filed with FINRAs Arbitration Department, and seeks damages of $1,000,000.



According to the Claim, the Claimant worked over 33 years with UPS and accumulated shares of the company through UPS Employee Stock Purchase Plan and Managers Incentive Program. Merrill Lynch and its financial advisor facilitated the unsuitable investment strategy of selling covered call options on the UPS stock to produce income, despite Claimants investment objective and desire to hold onto his UPS stock. Merrill Lynch sold call options at strike prices that were far too low given market conditions and failed to buy back the options to ensure the stock was not called away. The consequence of Merrill Lynch not buying back the call options resulted in Claimant losing over 33,000 shares of his UPS stock, which took his entire career to accumulate.

We are currently investigating whether the covered call strategies deployed by Merrill Lynch and other investment firms were suitable for investors with concentrated stock positions which were acquired through Managers Incentive Programs or Employee Stock Purchase Programs. Current and former UPS employees who held accounts with Merrill Lynch, or other full-service brokerage firms, and have information relating to the manner in which the firm handled their concentrated, leveraged portfolios, are encouraged to contact Steven D. Toskes, Esq. or Raymond Gentile, Esq. of Klayman & Toskes, P.A., at 888-997-9956, or visit our firms website at www.nasd-law.com.

About Klayman & Toskes, P.A.

K&T is a leading national securities law firm which practices exclusively in the field of securities arbitration and litigation, on behalf of retail and institutional investors throughout the world in large and complex securities matters. The firm represents high net-worth, ultra-high-net-worth, and institutional investors, such as non-profit organizations, unions, public and multi-employer pension funds. K&T has office locations in California, Florida, New York and Puerto Rico.

Destination: http://nasd-law.com/investor-alert-the-securities-arbitration-law-firm-of-klayman-toskes-p-a-continues-its-investigation-and-files-claim-on-behalf-of-ups-employee-for-losses-sustained-from-unsuitable-covered-call-wr/
LOS ANGELES, June 08, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Genesis Capital announced today that its Board of Directors has appointed Rayman Mathoda and Robert Wasmund as co-Chief Executive Officers. Trixy Weiss, the companys founder and former CEO, will remain co-Chair of the companys board of directors.



Photos accompanying this announcement are available at

http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/0e66b7c1-ea50-438c-801c-69f8fd96ccf2

http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/6ebe276f-2b13-403d-a1b9-810eddb3faf9

As the founder of Genesis Capital, I am thrilled with the record breaking growth the company has experienced to become a market leader. I am excited to announce that we have promoted Rayman Mathoda and Robert Wasmund to be the co-CEOs of Genesis Capital, said Weiss.

Robert Wasmund joined the company in 2012 as head of loan originations and is a member of the companys Board of Directors. Under Wasmunds leadership, Genesis became an industry leader originating over $1 billion in loans with strong investor returns and no losses since 2014. It has been a privilege to work with our institutional partners to help build the leading value-add capital partner for the nations top residential real estate investors. Our responsive, flexible and reliable personal service empowers our clients to seize opportunities and grow their businesses while delivering excellent risk adjusted returns for our investors, said Wasmund.

Rayman Mathoda joined Genesis Capitals management team and Board of Directors in late 2014, bringing to the company an excellent industry track record spanning the mortgage finance, real estate, and affordable housing sectors. Our clients are driving the creation of high quality housing across the home affordability spectrum by upgrading and adding to Americas aged housing stock. I love coming to work every day to help the Genesis team create an enduring national specialty mortgage finance business and platform that have never before been created in the USA, said Mathoda.

Prior to joining Genesis, Mr. Wasmund served as executive vice president of acquisitions and originations at Anchor Loans. During his 15+ year career in real estate investments and lending, Mr. Wasmund has developed deep expertise in originating and structuring real estate deals in all parts of the real estate cycle. Ms. Mathoda was formerly President of Oversite Data Services, a legal big data start-up, Chief Revenue Officer of ALAW, a leading mortgage default services law firm, Chief Administrative Officer at one of the nations largest independent mortgage lenders, and co-leader of the west coast health care practice at McKinsey and Company.

Genesis Capital is a high growth specialty commercial lender focused on residential real estate markets - we provide financing for highly qualified and experienced real estate operators who fix and flip homes and apartment buildings. Genesis Capital is backed by Oaktree Capital Management, one of the world's premier money managers focused on lending and real estate markets. Privately held, Genesis Capital is headquartered in Los Angeles, CA. Visit Genesis Capital at www.genesiscapital.com.
LISLE, Ill., June 08, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Eckrich, the makers of naturally hardwood smoked sausage and savory deli meats, is on the hunt for the next country music star. Today, Eckrich announced their Music City Sing-Off competition, where they will host four regional qualifying events, with the winner of each advancing to the final competition to compete for the grand prize at Tootsies World Famous Orchid Lounge Birthday Bash on October 12th. The grand prize winner will receive a $50,000 brand ambassador contract with Eckrich and the opportunity to record a single with Grammy-nominated producer, Dave Brainard.



The first qualifying event will take place during CMA Music Fest on June 11, in the capital of country music, Nashville, Tn. at Tootsies Honky Tonk Alley. The additional regional qualifying events will occur at the Buckeye Country Superfest on June 19 in Columbus, Ohio, Summerfest on July 2 in Milwaukee, Wi. and the Oregon Jamboree on July 31 in Sweet Home, Or. The winners of each regional qualifier will gather in Nashville on October 12th where the winner will be determined during the competitions final round.

A judging panel consisting of country music professionals, radio station executives and the countrys top grocery retailers will help determine the winner of each competition. The Eckrich Music City Sing-Off will also be featured nationally on the Great American Country network, during their popular program, Top 20 Country Countdown throughout the course of the competition.

This is another exciting program from Eckrich that supports our passion for country music and its fans, said Chuck Gitkin, Senior Vice President, Marketing, Smithfield Foods. Eckrich is a proud partner of country music stars such as Randy Houser and Easton Corbin and has supported several other young artists. We are now proud to announce this program as we look for the next country music star.

For more information about the Eckrich Music City Sing-Off, please visit www.eckrichsingoff.com or follow Eckrich on Facebook and Twitter. Eckrich is a brand of Smithfield Foods.

About Eckrich

Founded by Peter Eckrich in 1894, Eckrich has a rich heritage starting from a small meat market in Fort Wayne, Ind. Through it all, Eckrich meats have been recognized for their great taste and supreme quality, craftsmanship, care and pride. For more information, visit www.eckrich.com.

About Smithfield Foods

Smithfield Foods is a $14 billion global food company and the world's largest pork processor and hog producer. In the United States, the company is also the leader in numerous packaged meats categories with popular brands including Smithfield, Eckrich, Nathan's Famous, Farmland, Armour, Cook's, John Morrell, Gwaltney, Kretschmar, Margherita, Curly's, Carando and Healthy Ones. Smithfield Foods is committed to providing good food in a responsible way and maintains robust animal care, community involvement, employee safety, environmental and food safety and quality programs. For more information, visit www.smithfieldfoods.com.
Thanks & Regards,

Anaira Mitch Signature Read More

P1: Industrial accidents are more common when some of the people in safety-sensitive jobs have drinking problems than when none do.P2: Since, even after treatment, people who have had drinking problems are somewhat more likely than other people to have drinking problems in the future,Conclusion: any employer trying to reduce the risk of accidents should bar anyone who has ever been treating for a drinking problem from holding a safety=sensitive job.The argument goes as follows:- accidents are more frequent when people in the safety business have drinking problems- people who've had drinking problems stand a greater chance of have drinking problems in the future- in order to reduce the risk of accidents, employers must not hire anyone who has been treated for drinking issuesB is definitely out because it does not touch on the issue of "people with drinking problems". The argument specifically discusses reducing risk of accidents as a result of having fewer employees with a history of alcohol abuse. In this respect, B is somewhat like A: it's an issue that's parallel to the argument itself.OK so C presents an issue with such an unforgiving policy, i.e. not hiring anyone who's had treatment: this creates an incentive for people with issues to lie. If such a policy were not in place, then people might seek treatment and therefore fewer people with drinking problems will be on the job. However, if you make it clear that anyone who's been treated before is not welcome, such a drastic measure might discourage some from seeking help, which means that they'll do anything in their power to avoid being detected. In other words, such a policy (of not hiring someone who's received help in the past) might backfire because people now have an added incentive to lie about their condition. So C is a good option (not a perfect one).Now D is one of my favorite options because it presents a different cause for something. It's the jobs themselves that are making people more likely to have drinking problems. So the idea you could derive from this option is that no matter what you do, you won't be able to eliminate the risk of accidents completely, since the job in itself is stressful and causes people to drink. However, you'd be missing a very subtle note here: the phrase that makes this option less convincing is "exacerbate problems that they may have". If you don't have drinking problems to begin with, then you won't necessarily develop them later. If you already do, then it get even worse and the potential for issues later on greatly increases. D actually supports the passage.The correct answer is definitely choice C, as many have pointed out.Choice C tells us that current workers may actually have a (current) drinking problem. So, by replacing them with those who have been treated for their drinking problem, we may actually decrease the risk of accidents, thereby weakening the argument.That some companies' policy is to put drinkers in residential treatment is clealy irrelelvant. Thus, choice A is incorrect.Because the argument was about reducing the risk of accident through a certain policy, that some accidents are attributable to an alternative explanation is irrelevant. Thus, choice B is incorrect.We don't care that safety-sensiive job holders are more likely to become drinkers. We care about whether the policy against hiring them will lead to a reduction in the risk of accident. Thus, choice D is incorrect.Choice E is wrong for the same reason that choice B is wrong: that some accidents are attributable to an alternative explanation is irrelevant._________________
[color=#004b80]Are you a US citizen? That matters in how your application is reviewed. But even If not, with these stats you are going to be a strong candidate.

Congrats on a very strong GMAT and GPA. This is going to get you a chance to make your case at every school.

Great work experience at Google! Like the promotions. 3.5 yrs work is good.

Think about how to position the impact of the club you started- how many hours of instruction was delivered when counting all participants? Do 75% now know how to program? made an app?

Good fit with current work and goals

This is always tough but you do compare well with their 4 yrs avg work, 733 avg gmat, 40% of students have engineering background- which means lots of competition, 40% intl -not sure if you are or not but if so they do take a lot

Your work is on lower side with avg entrance age 27, median GMAT 730 so good there, 34% intl so not as much as Stanford, avg gpt 3.66 so you over index there.

GMAT 732, work 5 yrs, only 6% coming in with technology background- could set you apart, only 25% coming in with engineering background

5 yrs work, gmat 726, gpa 3.6, takes 34% intl

33% come from engineering background, 41% female, 5 yrs avg work, GPA 3.6, GMAT 716

GMAT 715, gpa 3.5, age 28, intl 42%, engineers 13%- makes you more unique here

724 gmat, 26% engineers, work 5, gpa 3.6, intl 40%, women 43%,

So just from this little exercise what you want to do is look for places where you can add diversity, value, perspective. Just from this I see that Kellogg and Columbia and maybe wharton could use more engineers, that some of the schools with more intl students are stanford, kellogg- etc- But also you should be looking for "fit" because what will get you in is that you have a compelling narrative that explains why x school is right for you. At Stratus, we take a holistic approach and help you learn more about YOU so that you can tell that most compelling story! We'd love to give you a free consult and to work with you either on a package of schools or just for some more in depth strateging! Good luck and congratulations on your strong achievements so far!!

Would discourage 3rd degree from Haas as you already have this network; international options could add especially if you are looking to invest/work with tech companies from those regions.
After a two-month trial and four days of deliberations, a jury has convicted five Rikers Island correction officers of brutally beating an inmate and then trying to cover up the assault. Eliseo Perez Jr., who was an Assistant Chief of Security at the time of the assault, ordered five guards to beat Jahmal Lightfoot until he had fractured eye sockets and a broken nose, while three other officers stood guard, according to prosecutors.

Perez, along with Alfred Rivera, Tobias Parker, Jose Parra, and David Rodriguez, has been convicted of all charges, including a top charge of attempted gang assault in the first degree. The officers each face up to 15 years in prison for that charge alone, not to mention the myriad other charges against them, which include attempted assault in the first degree, assault in the second degree, and falsifying business records.

As the prosecution alleged, in July of 2012, the officers decided to "set the tone and make an example" of Lightfoot after an uptick in violence among inmates on Rikers. The officers were apparently searching inmates' cells for contraband when Lightfoot made eye contact with Perez, who became angered by the "stare-down" and ordered the other guards to attack him, according to the District Attorney's office.

Lightfoot, who is now 31 and was released from prison in 2014 after serving a sentence for robbery, said during the trial that he was kicked and stomped on by boots that felt "like a brick," and that he was unarmed and hadn't disobeyed the officers. After the beating, he said, he was hardly able to move; for months in the aftermath of the attack, he suffered frequent headaches and blurry vision, and spit up blood.

"They beat me almost to death," Lightfoot said following the officers' convictions. "I hope that nobody has to go through that."

10 officers were arrested in total in connection with Lightfoot's beating, and one, Jeffrey Richard, has been acquitted, after it was determined that he wasn't directly involved in the beating. Three other officers, Harmon Frierson, Dwayne Maynard, and Gerald Vaughn (the latter of whom prosecutors say also ordered the other officers to attack)will be tried by Justice Steven Barrett on Friday. A tenth officer will be tried separately because of medical problems, according to the New York Times.

"Today's convictions make a strong statement: savagely beating an inmate will not be tolerated in the City's jails," said DOI Commissioner Mark Peters, whose department worked on the investigation into the attack on Lightfoot. "This criminal investigation demonstrates how corruption can jeopardize the integrity of an elite response unit in the jails and the people's faith in the professionalism of the jail system overall."

Meanwhile, Norman Seabrook, who's president of the Correction Officers' Benevolent Association and was arrested this morning for wire fraud, called the verdict "an absolute travesty" and argued that "Correction Officers are treated differently and disrespected for doing the job they are sworn to doprotect New Yorkers."

Perez retired in June of 2013, but the four other officers convicted yesterday will be fired from their positions, according to the DOI. They'll all be sentenced on September 6th.

In the past four years, the Bronx DA's office has prosecuted 26 officers other than those arrested for the Lightfoot attack, all of whom have been accused of using excessive force against inmates or helping cover up attacks. According to the Times, 11 of those cases are still open, while 9 of the accused have been convicted and 6 acquitted.

In a report on Rikers Island released last week, a federal monitor noted that despite some progress, correction officers at the facility continue to use excessive force against inmates. When asked about the matter on WNYC last week, Mayor de Blasio said that "what was tolerated [on Rikers Island] for many years was just unacceptable," but cited the monitor's report of a slight decrease in violence against inmates and staff in 2016 as an indicator that "finally change is happening to Rikers Island."
Tomorrow, over a million NYC public school students will not be in school, sending their parents and caregivers into a frenzy of "Oh, crap, I totally forgot about this random day off a few weeks before the school year ends." And it's all because of a tradition that started back in 1829 to celebrate the founding of the first Sunday school in Brooklyn and Queens.

Called "Anniversary Day" in the Department of Education these days (PDF), the day is also known as "Brooklyn-Queens Day." The Queens Public Library once explained, "Brooklyn-Queens Day originated as a Protestant holiday celebrated in the City of Brooklyn in 1829. Back then it was known, and fondly remembered by some, as Anniversary Day. Anniversary Day is celebrated annually on the first Thursday in June, commemorating the founding of the First Sunday School on Long Island. The first parade was held in Brooklyn June 1829. The New York State Legislature enacted, in 1959 at the request of the Queens Federation of Churches, the bill permitting the schools in both Kings and Queens Counties to be closed on this day. It was signed by Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller."

Back in 2007, we looked at some historical coverage of the day:

A quick survey of the archives of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, placed online by the Brooklyn Public Library, reveals a story of a widely celebrated religion-themed public school holiday that eventually succumbed to the changing demographics of Brooklyn and Queens. The figures and accounts are exclusive to Brooklyn, an independent city until 1898, but we imagine parallel events were occurring in Queens. The following are brief descriptions of newspaper articles that we found to be just the tip of the iceberg of what the library's archive project offers. May 29, 1861 - "THE ANNIVERSARY, Grand Rally of the Brooklyn Sabbath Schools -- Patriotism Rampant"

In good weather, twenty-thousand children parade in separate contingents from Eastern and Western Brooklyn towards City Hall and then Fort Green. The Western Parade Marshall is identified as "Mr. Douglass," who may have been abolitionist Frederick Douglass. April 12, 1890 - "CHILDREN'S DAY, The Anniversary Parade for June 4"

Outlining plans for the celebration, 75,000 kids are expected to march in a parade celebrating the establishment of Sunday Schools. A portion of the parade route is talked of being moved to Cumberland St., because the heavily cobbled stones on Clinton Ave. were impossible for kids to walk on and they had to detour onto Clinton's sidewalks in prior years. The paper prints celebratory hymns, but reminds readers that they are property of the "Brooklyn Sunday School Union." May 23, 1899 - "HOW LOCAL SCHOOLS GOT AROUND THE LAW, Phases of the Anniversary Day Problem Which Has Caused So Much Trouble"

A year after consolidating itself into the greater City of New York, there is grumbling in Brooklyn about the celebration of a day which previously would be a "holiday granted without question." "This year the question of an Anniversary Day holiday became a business proposition to the board solely." There is squabbling about making it a half day, as members of the Brooklyn School Board and the Central Board contest the holiday. At issue is school funding, which is reduced if kids get the day off. A proposal is raised to consult with the Sunday School Union to move Anniversary Day to a non-school day.



Children at the 1944 Brooklyn-Queens Day Parade (Library of Congress)

February 11, 1900 - "ANNIVERSARY DAY PARADE, "Members of the Brooklyn School Board Regret Unwillingness of Sunday School Union to Compromise" Relations between the School Board and the Sunday School Union becomes adversarial when the latter refuses to change the date of the celebration from a school day. Consolidated Brooklyn can no longer grant exclusive holidays to its students without losing funding. April 27, 1902 - "AGAINST ANNIVERSARY DAY, 'An American Mother' Points Out Its Unfairness to Those Concerned in Parade"

A letter to the editor, in response to a separate letter from "A Brooklyn Mother" who presumably is in support of the holiday, protests that the religious nature of Anniversary Day that applies to 10% of Brooklynites violates the non-sectarian nature of public schooling. May 27, 1902 - Letters to the Editor

A number of letters to the editor decry the decision of the School Board to discontinue making Anniversary Day a school holiday.

In 2005, the United Federation for Teachers negotiated to have the day off, and in 2006, students in all five boroughs "celebrated" Anniversary day. Teachers and school staff are workingit's a "development day."

So, if you find yourself wondering why the subways are suddenly filled with kids during school hours tomorrow... now you know.
No New York City home is complete without a drawer full of balled-up ocean-clogging, wildlife-killing, atmosphere-wrecking plastic bags, and state legislators aim to keep it that way.

Last month, the New York City Council voted enact a five cent tax on plastic bags, identifying them as an environmental hazard that should be phased out in favor of reusable alternatives. The fee, which could reduce citywide plastic bag use by up to 60 percent, was slated to go into effect in October, but now the Times reports that the state Assembly has pushed that back to February. At the same time, Democratic Senator Simcha Felder has introduced a bill that would outlaw plastic bag fees statewide.

Opponents of the bag fee frame it as a regressive tax on the poor. In an interview with ABC, Felder spoke of being "disgusted" at the mention of any bag tax law. "This tax placed an undue financial burden on countless low and middle-income residents who already struggle," the Senator said.

But that notionthat the working class depends on plastic bags in order to get byis being called out as bullshit by city and state lawmakers. "I have five NYCHA developments in my district, and I challenge [the narrative] that communities of color simply can't remember to bring bags when they go shopping," Council Member Laurie Cumbo said in May before the vote to enact a bag tax.

State Senator Liz Kreuger also criticized those who deploy populism as a rationale for unregulated bag use. "Plastic pollution hurts low-income communities the mostthat's why it's particularly disturbing that the bag industry continues to use low-income people as human shields to prevent any effective action," Kreuger said Wednesday. "It's sad that the New York State Senate is such an easy mark for an industry that couldn't care less about the well-being of our constituents."

Kreuger went on to stress that the bag fee that the City Council passed last monthwhich allows businesses to keep each five cent fee but threatens a $250 fine for non-complianceis about improving day-to-day city life, not raising money.

"Nobody has to pay the fee, and despite offensive suggestions to the contrary from the bag lobby and their supporters, low-income New Yorkers are just as capable as anyone else of saying no to plastic bags or bringing a reusable bag. Far from paying a price, low-income communities will see an immediate benefit from the City law, with less litter and less garbage truck traffic in their neighborhoods."

Nationwide, the U.S. throws away 100 billion plastic bags each year, and New York City accounts for roughly ten percent of that waste. Other large cities including San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Seattle have enacted plastic bag taxes and seen a dramatic drop in their use. Their citizens have adopted reusable bags. The only ones hurting are the plastic bag manufacturers.

Still, Felder, who caucuses with Republicans in Albany, is characterizing the fee as an unfair tax. New Yorkers do not like being manipulated, they do not like being aggravated and they do not need government to irritate them the Senator told the Wall Street Journal.

New York City spends over $12 million in public funds to haul away 100,000 tons of plastic bags each year, according to Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia. Surely some of that money could repay the back-breaking hardship of a plastic bag fee.
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Last night, tens of thousands of people packed the Citi Field stadium to see Beyonce bring her Formation tour to New York. The evening was full of spectacular choreography, vocals, and one very viral sneeze, but for two New Yorkers who spent $85 apiece on tickets, it ended after just half an hour: Allison, a 26-year-old Brooklynite, was made to leave the stadium, along with her girlfriend, for using the men's restroom when the line for the women's room was too long.

The couple had been at Citi Field along with a few friends for several hours before Beyonce took the stage at about 10 p.m. During that time, Allison said, many women were using the men's room, as the line for the women's room was excruciatingly long. At one point, she said, there were about 50 people on line for the women's room but no one on line for the men's, and when she used the men's room earlier in the night, she was one of a dozen other women doing so. At another point, she said, they overheard a man telling his girlfriend to use the men's room, because of how long the line for the women's room was.

About 30 minutes into the show, after Beyonce had performed "Formation," "Sorry," "Flawless," "Run the World," "Mine," "Baby Boy," "Hold Up," "Countdown," "Me Myself and I," "Runnin' (Lose It All)," and "All Night," Allison and two friends noticed Citi Field security trying to force her girlfriend to leave the stadium for using the men's room.

"We pressed security with questions about whether or not this was actually a policy, and if it was grounds for being thrown out," Allison told us. "When I continued to ask these questions, and said that many women, including myself, had been using the men's restroom throughout the night, the security officers told me I was now also being thrown out and police would be called."

The guard who'd been yelling at her girlfriend to leave refused to say why he was throwing her out other than saying that using the wrong bathroom is illegal, Allison recalled. More security guards showed up, including one female guard, to whom Allison and her friends turned for solidarity, but to no avail.

When the guards threatened to call the police, Allison told them to go ahead, as she didn't believe she was violating any policy. When a police officer came, she says she demanded to know exactly why she was being asked to leave, at which point she says the officer handcuffed her and took her to a holding area. After some time, she was released and not arrested, but was escorted to the gate and made to leave, along with her girlfriend. (The NYPD didn't have any record of the incident.)

Gothamist has learned that Citi Field allows people to use the bathroom consistent with their gender identity, in accordance with the NYC's laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of gender identity or expression, but the venue does not appear to have a written policy prohibiting someone from using the facility that corresponds with the opposite gender with which they identify. Citi Field declined to make a statement on the incident, or its policy (or lack thereof).

The city's protections specifically aim to provide bathroom access to people consistent with their gender identity, but don't extend to cisgender women hoping to use the men's room, or vice versa. Bobby Hodgson, an attorney with the New York Civil Liberties Union, said that to his knowledge, there aren't any criminal penalties associated with accessing a space that does not conform to your gender identity, but private venues such as Citi Field are entitled to create separate spaces and enforce them.

"It feels like a literal policing on what women do with their bodies," Allison said. "I think that the architecture of many public spaces is inherently somewhat oppressive towards the needs of women. Huge lines for the women's bathroom are not uncommon at allif there's no line for the men's restroom at any point in the night, yet the women's line is at least 50 people deep the whole time, then clearly there's a problem that is not being addressed. Presumably, the crowd last night was a majority of women. Maybe that's not common at Citi Field, but perhaps they should've made proper accommodations. Or at the very least shouldn't have punished female visitors for what is essentially a design flaw."

Allison said she'd love a refund on the tickets, as she missed most of the show, and plans to file a complaint with Citi Field and possibly the NYPD. If Citi Field does have an explicit policy prohibiting the use of single-sex facilities that don't correspond with one's own gender identity, which the venue could not confirm today, Allison said that certainly wasn't made clear last night, and no one she talked to could state an official policy.

"Really, I just can't believe we all missed Beyonce because some guy cared where we peed," she said.
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara's corruption investigation into NYC officials has now landed another big fish: Correction union president Norman Seabrook was arrested this morning, on wire fraud charges. Seabrook is accused of receiving kickbacks in exchange for funneling millions of union retiree benefits and operating funds to a hedge fund run by Murray Huberfeld.

Huberfeld, who gave start-up capital to the fund Platinum Partners, was also charged with wire fraud.

In April, the Wall Street Journal reported, "Jona Rechnitz, a Brooklyn real-estate investor, referred Norman Seabrook, the president of the Correction Officers Benevolent Association, to Platinum Partners, the people said. The investment put a large percentage of the unions money in a firm that has had a mixed stretch. Platinum generally has reported steady returns. Last December it blocked investors from withdrawing some of their money in one fund that contains hard-to-sell assets, according to people familiar with the matter. Such moves have been rare in the hedge-fund world since the financial crisis."

The criminal complaint notes that members of the Correction Officers' Benevolent Association (COBA) pay $45 in union dues during each two-week pay period, resulting in $1,000+ of union fees a year; there are more than 9,000 union members. And Seabrook's power over the union's board was immense; from the complaint:

Rechnitz is one of the two businessmen at the center of the federal probe into corruption, with Rechnitz and Jeremy Reichberg using cash and jewels to allegedly get favors from city officials. Both were major donors to Mayor Bill de Blasio's election efforts. Numerous high-ranking police officials have retired or been demoted, for giving escorts or helicopter demonstrations.

The NY Times notes, "The relationship between the mayor and Mr. Seabrook has been close in the past. At a 2014 fund-raiser for a union charity, Mr. de Blasio referred to Mr. Seabrook as a 'friend' and a 'great leader.'"

Bharara is holding a press conference at 12:30 p.m. to discuss the charges.
Yesterday, the State Assembly met in Albany to codify Roe v. Wade as part of Governor Cuomo's Women's Equality Act. The move was mostly symbolic, since it won't change state abortion law, but it did prompt one (white) Republican assemblyman from Staten Island to purport that the high rates of abortion in black communities are actually "African American genocide." Things didn't go so well for him after that.

Assemblyman Ron Castorina, Jr. pointed to a report asserting that 15 million African Americans have been "murdered" (sigh) since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973. "I urge my friends in the African-American community to be very careful about supporting this legislation," Castorina, who was elected in April, said. "Were talking about African-American genocide." While one can't speak for Castorina's alleged African-American "friends," many of his fellow legislators were less than enthused.

A number of representatives attempted to debate him, then left the chamber in protest when he refused to give up the floor. Some pointed out that Castorina's comments were offensive both to women and the black community. Assemblyman Charles Barron, who missed Castorina's initial speech, pointed out that Castorina's argument was the "height of...racist hypocrisy." "I understand that in my absence, someone lost their mind," he said when he returned to the chamber. "People who mention abortions about black women and the black community, they dont give a hoot about black lives. So now, all of a sudden black lives matter  ooh they love our babies, they love our women now."

It also seemed like Castorina needed a little history lesson about actual genocide. "To have someone actually compare abortion to African-American genocide is absolutely deplorable and despicable in all regards, Assemblyman Michael Blake said, according to POLITICO. "I need us to appreciate the collective impact of what were saying to others  to the Native American community, to the victims of the Holocaust, to Cambodia, to Darfur, to Rwanda, to Bosnia  who did experience what that word actually is. Do not belittle your sentiment on this bill to hundreds of thousands of people who lost their lives."

After Castorina was done whitemansplaining abortion, the bill passed.
UPDATE 10:15 p.m.

With polls freshly closed in Tuesday's primary election, candidates on both sides of the aisle have opened with substantial leads in Senate District 40, which includes portions of Lewis and Clark and Powell counties.

On the Democratic side, former state Rep Hal Jacobson has an 83 percent advantage with 1,484 votes to 16 percent and 285 votes for Josh Manning. Manning suspended his campaign for personal reasons.

Terry J. Gauthier, owner of the Helena area McDonalds restaurants, also has a significant lead in the three-candidate SD40 Republican primary. Gauthier, with 68 percent and 1,032 votes is up against Drew Turiano, 24 percent and 366 votes, and Carl Garcia, 7 percent and 113 votes.

Early returns show former state lawmaker Steve Gibson opening a commanding lead over East Helena City Council President Kit Johnson in Montana House District 84s Republican primary race.

Partial results from each of that districts precincts show Gibson with a 25-percentage point advantage over Johnson.

Fairfield business broker Ross Fitzgerald has so far amassed more votes than the combined tally cast for Pendroy resident David Brownell and longtime Fairfield High School Teacher Charles "Charlie" Brown.

In HD 80, Republican Patrick Johnson holds a narrow 20-vote edge over Becky Beard, but a much more comfortable advantage over first-timer Zachary Wirth. Ballots tallied in HD 83s Democratic primary show Quinlan OConnor trailing Kim Abbott by a 9-point margin.
Voters made clear choices in Senate District 40s Republican and Democratic primaries Tuesday.

Helena-area McDonalds restaurant owner Terry J. Gauthier and former state Rep. Hal Jacobson held commanding leads shortly after polls closed that they maintained until press time.

Gauthier squared off against real estate investor Drew Turiano and college student Carl Garcia for the Republican spot on the general election ballot. The district, split between Lewis and Clark and Powell counties, was firmly behind Gauthier late Tuesday as he garnered 67 percent of the vote.

Turiano received 24 percent while Garcia trailed with 7 percent.

Gauthier, 58, grew up south of Seattle. Along with three years of college, he is a retired 20-year veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps and has owned McDonalds restaurants for 17 years, including the last 12 in Helena. He credited his supporters as he ran his first campaign.

A lot of people helped me and a lot of friends believed in me  I had friends that walked with me every night knocking on doors and that means a lot to have someone right beside me, he said Tuesday.

Montana must grow its tax base in the face of shrinking natural resource revenue, he said in the lead-up to the primary. A more business friendly environment amplified by Montanas outdoor opportunities would make the state a prime place for attracting businesses, he added.

I understand Montanas economy, the natural resources we have and the agricultural community, and we need to make Montana more accessible to future business growth, he said.

Gauthier says his message of jobs creation resonated with voters and likely gave him the edge over his opponents. Gauthier won despite Turiano, who self-financed his campaign, outspending him $17,000 to $5,000, according to campaign finance reports.

Turiano focused his campaign on national issues such as refugee resettlement and Obamacare  issues outside of the minds of voters electing local candidates, Gauthier speculated.

I just think (Turiano) missed the message  he talked about federal issues, not Montana issues and Im talking about job growth shortfalls, the coal industry, and how to create new jobs, Gauthier said Tuesday. Im running on job growth and maintaining the services were providing by figuring out how to generate new revenue.

Gauthier still has more than $8,600 in the bank per his last campaign finance report.

Garcia only raised a few hundred dollars and came in a distant third, but Gauthier praised him as a young man who may make a formidable candidate in the future. He also predicted that Turiano has a passion to serve and voters may see his name on a future ballot.

Listening to potential constituents was a highlight of the primary campaign for Gauthier. He says he heard from many in the district living on fixed incomes who are very concerned about raising taxes.

It was really fascinating and I feel more connected to Helena now and got to know Powell County really well, he said. Ill be working harder with my same message and just want to say thanks to everyone.

Jacobson took his first step in returning to the legislature and extending Democratic control of Senate District 40 which is currently held by term limited Christine Kaufman.

Jacobson, 65, will represent his party in Novembers general election, holding a resounding 84 to 15 percent primary lead over political newcomer Josh Manning, who suspended his campaign for personal reasons but still appeared on the ballot.

Jacobson was born and raised in Helena and attended Carroll College, earning a degree in political science. SD40 includes his old House district and Jacobson says he feels connected to both Lewis and Clark and Powell counties. He recalled catching his first brook trout in Powell and his last fishing trip with his brother and father took place on the Little Blackfoot River.

I so deeply appreciate all the voters that cast votes for me  its more than just gratifying, its deeply heartening to receive that kind of support, he said Tuesday evening. I absolutely relished, loved representing my old house seat  and I really the relish the fact I can do that again. Ill also say the other part of the Senate (district) are parts that I look forward to taking a great interest in.

Jacobson commended his opponent, saying that Manning, ran a very honorable campaign, and calling it unfortunate that he suspended.

In terms of fundraising, Jacobson raised nearly $15,000 and spent about $4,000 at the end of the last reporting period.

Jacobson served in the Montana House of Representatives from 2000 to 2008 and told the Independent Record in the lead up to the election that he has unfinished business in promoting good paying jobs and funding infrastructure and education.

We need to strongly support public education and certainly look for more funding, both at the K-12 level and for higher and vocational education, he said. I think theres a strong connection between a viable public education system and good jobs.

Jacobson touted his civic engagement including serving on the former Kessler School Board from 1991 to 1994, the Lewis and Clark County Heritage and Tourism Council, the Grandstreet Theatre board of directors and the Montana Board of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors.

In his eight years in the House, Jacobson says his 60-percent bill passage record shows he can work with both sides of the aisle.
Tuesdays primary elections revealed the makings of two potential landslides and at least one nail-biter among Helena-area state House contests.

With partial results counted in each of Montana House District 84s precincts, former Republican state lawmaker Steve Gibson looked to be well on his way to a rematch with state Rep. Mary Ann Dunwell.

Gibson, who Dunwell topped by fewer than two dozen votes in 2014, managed to mostly maintain a big early lead over Kit Johnson, ending the night with a 15-percentage point lead over the East Helena City Council President.

Still, with just 45 minutes left in the day, the former Republican lawmaker wasnt quite ready to declare victory, preferring to spend his anxious election night hours collecting campaign yard signs.

Meanwhile, Republican political rookie Ross Fitzgerald jumped out to an even bigger head start in HD17, amassing more votes than the combined tally cast for his opponents, with nearly half of all precincts reporting.

Longtime Fairfield High School teacher Charles Charlie Brown won outgoing state Rep. Christy Clarks endorsement, but spent less than one quarter the total reported by Fitzgerald, who also raised more cash than Brown and Pendroy resident David Brownell combined.

But Fitzgerald didnt chalk up Tuesdays results to his war chest, just old-fashioned shoe leather.

Ive lived in this area for more than 60 years, so its not unlikely people know who I am, the Fairfield business broker said. The biggest thing is getting into these communities.

Fellow newcomer Kim Abbott couldnt agree more.

Abbott, a Democrat and co-director of the Montana Human Rights Network, was prepared to pour herself a drink after partial results from each of HD 83's precincts showed her jumping out to an 11-point lead over Department of Labor and Industry attorney Quinlan OConnor.

It sounded as if shed earned it, running a get-out-the-vote campaign that she said kept volunteers knocking on doors until an hour before the polls closed.

I think my experience in this community really mattered to voters, she said. Quinlan worked really hard and I respect that.

Republican Becky Beard wasnt quite so relaxed.

With one third of HD 80s precincts reporting, the Elliston environmental consultant held a comfortable double-digit lead on Wolf Creek rancher Zachary Wirth, but only narrow 6-point advantage over Helena water engineer and two-time House contender Patrick Johnson.

Beard handily outraised and outspent Johnson, on top of winning an endorsement from outgoing four-term Rep. Mike Miller, who topped Johnson by a wide margin in 2014.

Still, she predicted she was in for a long night.

Republicans now hold an 18-seat advantage over Democrats in the House, where hard-line conservatives have clashed in recent years with moderate colleagues willing to support high-profile bills advanced by Democratic lawmakers.

Helena-area primary winners on both ends of the GOP spectrum could count among the favorites to help the party maintain its lead in the chamber.

Only one such Republican hopeful, either Gibson or Johnson, will face an incumbent general election opponent. That opponent, Rep. Dunwell, will be joined by Paula Bonar, a Libertarian, on East Helena ballots in November.

The top primary vote-getter in HD 80 will take on Independent Valerie Clague and familiar Democratic challenger Elizabeth Cain. HD 17s primary pick will square off with Democratic newcomer Barnett Sporkin-Morrison.

Whichever Democratic candidate emerges from HD 83 will face frequent Republican filer Bob Leach.

The Lewis and Clark County elections office on Monday reported 42,443 voters registered ahead of Tuesdays primary. The office said it was ready to count ballots already received from nearly one third of those voters.

More than 57 percent of voters turned out for primary contests in 2008, a year that, like this one, featured a presidential race with no incumbent.
VA Montana Health Care System Director John Ginnity has submitted his resignation, a day ahead of a scheduled hearing on whistleblower protection claims filed by a former top administrator at Helena's Fort Harrison Medical Center.

An attorney for Dianne Scotten, the center's ex-associate chief of inpatient care, on Wednesday confirmed that hearing was open to the public and scheduled to take place 9 a.m. today (June 9) at Fort Harrison's administrative building.

She declined further comment on Scotten's case.

Ginnity, who has helmed the state VAs medical system since March 2015, could not be reached for comment on the hearing or his exit. A Montana VA spokesman failed to respond to questions.

The outgoing director cited his family and his health among "several" contributing factors to his departure. He did not elaborate on the rest of those factors in a Wednesday email announcing the move to Fort Harrison medical staffers.

His last day will be July 8.

U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., said the Montana VA had failed to meet expectations.

Montana veterans deserve a leader who will ensure their needs are being met, and the Montana VA has not lived up to this commitment, Daines said in a statement. The Montana VA needs a strong leader who understands the mission and will not fail Montana veterans.

U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., agreed it was time for a change and called on the VA to seek out women leaders to promote.

Our veterans deserve the absolute best we have to offer; sadly the VA has fallen tragically short at fulfilling their mission of providing care to our warriors, the first-term congressman and U.S. Navy veteran said. The VA must immediately embark on a thorough search for the right person to lead the VA in Montana.

Its time to shake things up at the VA, and I think every effort should be made to get the right person in that job.

U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., promised to hold the VA accountable for moving quickly to find and vet Ginnitys replacement.

Statements released Wednesday closely echoed remarks the same lawmakers issued in February 2015, when Ginnity, who was named acting director in June 2014, was removed from that position after exceeding the 120-day cap on interim appointments.

His first day as permanent director came less than a month later, and only weeks after the VA announced it was temporarily closing its acute care mental health unit on the Fort Harrison campus because of chronic workforce shortages.

Tester, a vocal advocate for veterans issues and the top Democrat on the subcommittee that funds the VA, pointed out in a statement the top three leadership positions at VA Montana are now held by someone operating in an acting capacity.

A series of agency-rocking scandals surrounding lethally lengthy wait times, false record-keeping and disease outbreaks has seen a rash of resignations and firings at VA hospitals around the country.

A Tester spokesman on Wednesday blamed the agencys failure to fill some of those openings on a growing pay disparity between the VA and private sector pay scales.
Money means a lot in politics, but it didn't guarantee results in Tuesday's Montana primary.

While many who outspent their opponents won, several high-profile legislative races broke the other way. And candidates who provided most of their money themselves generally did not fare well.

More than $503,000 was spent in contested primaries statewide. Republicans put down an average of $5,416 compared to Democrats' $2,703, a reflection of tension between moderate and conservative wings of the GOP.

The last finance report filed before the primary was June 1. After May 19, candidates who received contributions of more than $200 were also required to report that within 48 hours. That means money spent in the two days before the primary might not be accounted for yet. In some races large sums of money, including $3,450 to one candidate, came in just days before the election

The most money spent in a contested primary  $39,994.99  was deployed in Senate District 10, which lies just south of Great Falls.

Republican State Rep. Steve Fitzpatrick, who is jumping from HD 20 to SD 10, dropped $20,617.78 to J.C. Kantorowiczs $19,377.21 and it paid off, with him getting 70 percent of the vote to Kantorowicz's 29 percent.

Fitzpatrick and Kantorowicz are at opposite sides of a bitter fight within the Cascade County Republican Party. Earlier this year Kantorowicz was recorded as saying a bullet could handle his opponent, the more moderate Republican Fitzpatrick.

Fitzpatrick, who spent $1,750 more than his opponent, raised $25,000 and received a significant amount of money from political action committees  $2,850 from 18 PACs representing the insurance, health care and natural resources industries. All but four of the PACs are based in Montana and most donations were reported as received in 2015 or early 2016.

He also received $1,843.26 in last-minute contributions made between May 22-28.

Kantorowicz brought in $23,250, with $12,000 coming from himself  $3,000 in January, another $3,000 in April and a final $6,000 in May.

Of the nearly $20,000 he spent, roughly $7,000 went to billboards.

Both candidates left a bit in the bank, $4,832.22 for Fitzpatrick and $3,872.79 for Kantorowicz.

SD15

It looked like money didnt hold much sway in Senate District 15, where nearly $33,800 was spent in a three-way contested primary on the Republican side of SD 15, with $22,758.45 of that coming from just one candidate, Hertha Lund.

The district includes Lewistown and the area north and stretches east to White Sulphur Springs.

Lund was down late Tuesday, with just 28 percent of the vote.

Her opponent Ryan Osmundson, who is jumping from HD 30 and has campaigned on lowering taxes, spent just $8,346.16, but led with 40 percent.

Lund is an attorney who works in Bozeman and lives on a ranch near Lennup. She reported bringing in $27,746, more than double Osmundson, who reported $10,845.

Of that total, Lund loaned her campaign $5,000, with half of that coming in May. Her husband also chipped in $250. She also received $100 from two ag-related PACs, and reported getting help from the Montana Republican Legislative Campaign Committee in the form of $35 for an hours worth of strategic planning.

Of Osmundson's $10,845 in contributions, $570 came from five PACs that represent energy companies, electricians, hospitals, agriculture and realtors. He also spent $1,270 of his own money on signs and loaned his campaign $200

On the day before the primary, Osmundson took advantage of new campaign finance rules that allow for higher donations. He reported getting nearly $2,000 on June 6, with four of the eight donors giving one-time contributions over the old limits of $170 per election. That includes Ray Thompson of Kalispell, founder of Semitool, who chipped in $530, and $500 from Daniel Zolnikov, who is running to keep his seat in HD 45 in Billings.

Thompson or his wife also gave money in two other contested Republican primaries where conservatives attempted to hold off moderate challengers, with $530 going to Jennifer Fielder and another $530 to Casey Lee Brock.

The third Republican in the race, Harry Klock, brought in just $4,065, and received 21 percent of the vote.

SD3

A little over $30,000 was spent by candidates in the contested Republican primary for Senate District 3, which includes Whitefish and stretches to the west.

Republican Don K. Kaltschmidt spent $21,544, or almost half of the amount of what the Chevrolet, Chrysler and Subaru dealership loaned his campaign, which was $10,000, but could only manage to get 45 percent of the vote. He received no money from PACs and raised a total of $32,167.

His primary opponent, Keith Regier, who is jumping from HD 4 to SD 3, spent just $9,278.99 but captured 54 percent of votes cast. He reported raising less than a third of Kaltschmidts total, at $11,359.

Of Regier's totals, $2,500 came in the form of a loan he gave his campaign. Regier also got a significant amount of money  $1,260  from PACs, many tied to natural resource industries. He brought in $1,800 in last-minute donations to Kaltschmidt $660.

HD45

Republican Daniel Zolnikov spent $17,753.56 holding on to his HD 45 seat in Billings. Primary challenger John Bedford spent $10,300. Zolnikov had 62 percent of the vote to Bedfords 37 percent on Tuesday night.

Bedford spent almost all the money he brought in, $10,300.43 of $10,880.

Though he lost, Bedford had more support from PACs, with $7,987.50 from law enforcement, natural resources and agriculture, credit union, contractors committees to Zolnikovs $340. He also loaned himself $1,675.

SD40

The candidate who spent the most  by far  in SD 40 lost handily. This district includes parts of Helena and stretches west and north.

In a three-way Republican primary, Drew Turiano, who got just 24 percent of the vote, spent $17,433.05, though in this case it was from the $18,558 that he loaned his campaign. That amount was the total amount of contributions Turiano, a real estate investor whose main platform is railing against amnesty and illegal immigrants, received.

Challenger Terry Gauthier won 68 percent of the vote. He brought in $14,303 but didnt spend much, only $5,650.62.

He had the support of PACs, with $780 coming from natural resources, energy and contractors PACs. Gauthier also loaned himself a significant amount, $5,000, or about a third of what he received in contributions.

A third Republican, Carl Garcia didnt raise or spend more than $350, and received 7 percent of the vote.

HD83

The most money thrown around on the Democratic side was in HD 83, where Kim Abbott outspent and beat Quinlan OConnor, 55 percent to 44 percent, in a race where $23,382.10 was spent.

Abbott reported $14,159.87 in expenditures the primary. OConnor spent less than half of what Abbott did, $9,222.23.

Abbott brought in $22,686.56, including a loan of $1,048.56 to herself. She got support the Pfizer PAC of New York to the tune of $170 and from the Montana Rural Voters Action fund for $72.18 of training.

OConnor had $14,230 in contributions. He spent $211.47 of his own money and loaned himself $295. He also got support from one PAC, United Transportation Union PAC based in Montana for $170.
New cereal offering

With the debut of Tiny Toast, General Mills is launching its first new cereal brand in 15 years.

Tiny Toast, which will arrive on store shelves this month, features pieces of crunchy toast covered with tiny pieces of fruit. Its one of only a few offerings in the cereal category flavored with real fruit, according to General Mills, which unveiled the cereal Monday. Tiny Toast comes in two flavors; strawberry and blueberry.

Cereal makers like General Mills often create line extensions of their classic brands: witness the proliferation of Cheerios flavors. New cereals are less common, since they often entail a bigger investment and more risk than a line extension. Work began on Tiny Toast more than a year ago.

The last new hit cereal brand that Mills launched was Reeses Puffs, which is made under license with Hershey Co. Launched in 1994, Reeses Puffs is still going strong.

China steel production

U.S. envoys pressed China on Monday to cut excess steel production that is flooding global markets and to reach a diplomatic settlement to territorial disputes in the South China Sea, as the two sides opened a high-level dialogue.

The annual meeting of Cabinet-level foreign affairs, trade and other officials from both sides is meant to head off conflict. Officials acknowledged differences on an array of issues but repeatedly stressed their interest in amicable cooperation, and pledged to work together to see the Paris agreement on curbing emissions of climate-changing gases ratified by the world's governments.

U.S. economy uncertain

Business economists are giving a more pessimistic outlook about U.S. economic growth this year for the third consecutive month and uncertainty over the November presidential election has proven to be damaging.

The median estimate from economists surveyed by the National Association for Business Economics calls for gross domestic product growth of only 1.8 percent, down from the 2.2 percent forecast in March. The outlook for next year calls for 2.3 percent growth.

Zuckerberg hacked

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg briefly found his Twitter account hijacked, as were at least two of his other social media accounts.

Zuckerberg's Facebook account and password were not compromised, the company said in a statement; his account on Facebook-owned Instagram was also unaffected. Facebook Inc. said Monday morning that none of the company's systems or accounts were accessed and that Zuckerberg's affected accounts have since been re-secured.

A person close to the situation confirmed that Zuckerberg's LinkedIn and Pinterest accounts also were affected. Officials for both of those social media networks didn't immediate respond to requests for comment.

Burberry CEO's pay cut

Burberry CEO Christopher Bailey has taken a 75 percent pay cut after the luxury retailer failed to hit profit targets amid a challenging global environment and a slowdown in the Chinese economy.

The company's annual report released Monday says that Bailey will be paid 1.9 million pounds ($2.75 million), down from 7.5 million the previous year. He and other top executive directors received no bonuses as adjusted profit before tax "was below the threshold target set by the Remuneration Committee."

Hostess recalls snacks

Hostess Brands has voluntarily recalled various snack cakes and doughnuts over concerns they may have come in contact with peanut residue not included in the ingredient list.

The Kansas City, Missouri-based company's recall announced Friday covers more than 700,000 cases of Ding Dongs, Zingers, Chocodiles and various doughnuts sold in grocery, dollar, drug and convenience stores in the U.S. and Mexico.

The recall covers single-serve products and multipack boxes.

Google appeal rejected

The Supreme Court won't hear an appeal from Google over a class action lawsuit filed by advertisers who claim the internet company displayed their ads on "low quality" web sites.

The justices on Monday let stand a lower court ruling that said the lawsuit representing hundreds of thousands of advertisers using Google's AdWords program could go forward.

Google argued that a federal appeals court in San Francisco should not have approved the class action because damages must be calculated individually for each company advertiser. The appeals court rejected that argument and approved use of a formula that would calculate harm based on the average advertiser's experience.

Flier reward changes

American Airlines is following other airlines by basing perks like free flights on how much passengers spend on tickets, not how many miles they fly.

The change, which matches those at Delta Air Lines and United Airlines, starts with flights on Aug. 1 and rewards American's highest-paying passengers.

Elite-status members of American's AAdvantage frequent-flier program will earn bonus miles for every dollar they spend.

American signaled in October that changes were coming, but gave few details until Monday.

AAdvantage has about 100 million members, making it the biggest and the oldest major airline loyalty program.
BLOOMINGTON  For heroin addicts, the first step to recovery can start with a near-death overdose, followed by a phone call that leads them to the threshold of a treatment center  where the tough work begins.

Since it opened its doors in April 2015, Chestnut Health Systems' Crisis Stabilization Unit has provided medical detox services to about 400 people  the majority of them looking for help with an opiate or heroin-related addiction.

If a stereotype of a heroin user ever existed, that profile has been replaced by a version that includes more people than it excludes, said Sonia Endress, regional nurse manager for the Bloomington facility.

"It's a wide open gamut, from mothers, fathers, nephews, business executives to homeless," said Endress.

How people arrive at the center also varies, with referrals coming from doctors, sponsors in 12-step programs, the local mental health crisis team and the jail. Admission is voluntary.

A Chestnut partnership formed in December with police in Lee County has resulted in a steady stream of patients looking for help with their addiction to heroin and other opiates.

Dixon Police Chief Danny Langloss Jr. said the Safe Passage Initiative that uses police as the conduit to drug treatment was created by law enforcement and community leaders in response to three local drug deaths in 10 days in 2015.

Chestnut's detox unit is one of 11 facilities that have agreed to provide services to addicts who come to the Dixon Police Department or Lee County Sheriff's Department. About a third of the 70 people who have come to Lee County police so far have been brought to Chestnut, said Langloss.

A team of volunteers, or guides, brings the addict to the Chestnut treatment facility, picks them up after treatment and offers support when they return home. Safe Passage, modeled after a similar program in Glouchester, Mass, requires police to think differently about addiction, said Langloss.

"I've done a 180-degree change since I came on with the department. When you understand it's a disease, I don't think there's any other strategy than to help people," he said.

The approach that attempts to reduce the drug market by shrinking the number of potential customers will soon be coming to Livingston County where Pontiac Police Chief Jim Woolford plans to join Safe Passage in mid-June.

Woolford heard about the program from a speaker at a January forum on local heroin issues.

Ten Livingston County volunteers have signed up to take people to detox centers at St. Mary's Hospital in Decatur and the Illinois Institute for Addiction Recovery through Unity Point Health at its unit based at Advocate BroMenn Regional Medical Center in Normal under Woolford's program that will include other county police agencies as planning progresses.

"We're not reinventing the wheel, but providing another option. The approach is, if a person is so rock bottom they are going to the police looking for help, why not help them?" said Woolford, adding that weekly heroin-related calls are routine for his officers.

Chestnut, one of 30 medical detox facilities in Illinois, begins its opiate treatment regimen with an assessment of the person's drug problem followed by medical treatment to lessen the uncomfortable effects of withdrawal. Intense nausea, vomiting, cold sweats and anxiety can last several days.

Then, the challenging recovery work begins with development of an individualized patient plan, said Allie Fields, a case manager for Chestnut detox patients. The plan may expand to include mental health services as people talk about what led them to using drugs.

"The majority of them have some kind of anxiety and depression," said Fields, adding about half of the referrals for mental health care come from the detox side of the crisis unit.

Group sessions help people deal with anger, trauma and family issues. "Some people have really burned their bridges" and need to rebuild relationships, said Fields.

Caring for patients, who stay between four to seven days for detox services, requires good listening skills, said nurse Katy Northcutt, who previously worked in a hospital emergency room where mental health-related calls were common.

"There's always a story that comes with the patient," said Northcutt.

The story often begins with opiate-based painkillers prescribed after a surgical procedure to a person who is unaware of their vulnerability to addiction, said Tamara Childress, Chestnut director of mental health services.

"Some got started with pain meds and transitioned to heroin because it was cheaper," said Childress, who supervises the unit that has cared for patients ranging from 18 to 69.

For others, the powerful drug came from a friend who offered it as relief for the emotional pain of a personal crisis and there was no turning back after the first dose. The sooner addicts understand the unrelenting appetite for opiates is a chronic condition, the better off they will be, said Childress.

"We are working to change the mindset from this being a personal flaw to it being seen as a chronic illness like diabetes or heart disease," said Childress, supervisor of the crisis unit and its 15 employees.

The positive changes can be seen on patients' faces as they regain control of their health and their lives, she said.

"We take a photo of them when they walk through the door. When we show them later, they're appalled at what they looked like," said Childress.

The length of time Chestnut patients have used drugs before seeking help varies from two weeks to 25 years, said Endress.

"Sometimes they're in trouble with law or they've lost their kids. Sometimes they're just had it," she said.
DECATUR  An increasing proportion of defendants participating in Macon County Hybrid Court are addicted to heroin or another opioid.

So says Bruce Angleman, criminal justice administrator for Heritage Behavioral Health Center, who said 26 percent to 29 percent of enrollees over the past three years have had that diagnosis, as did four of the 12 who successfully completed the program last month.

Excluding alcohol, it's the No. 1 drug, and it didn't start out that way, Angleman said.

Offering DUI and drug court services designed to keep people out of jail, Hybrid Court has produced 69 graduates since getting underway five years ago and is one of the newest treatment options available in Decatur.

Recent graduate Samantha Walter, 30, of Decatur said she's recovering from a hydrocodone habit thanks, in part, to the frequent interaction she had with staff at Heritage, the Macon County Probation Department and the court itself, overseen by Macon County Associate Circuit Judge Thomas Little.

I also had the support of my family, my kids and my fiance, Walter said, and it was me, too. I wanted to get clean.

Graduate Eric Buntain, 37, originally from Paris, Ill., had been to prison five times while addicted to heroin. He got clean while at Heritage but was arrested after an incident at his home, a violation of his parole.

When I'd got into trouble in the past, I'd always went to prison. This was the first time I'd been in that type of program, said Buntain, a father of three. They gave me a chance, and it came at the right time in my life. I was almost there as far as getting clean, but I just didn't know how to live a different lifestyle. I was still hanging out with the same sort of people, and it brought me down.

Drug court got me over the hump. It's a good program; it helped save my life.

But even with the addition of a new medication-assisted treatment program by Crossing Healthcare later this year, Decatur-area providers agree they are reaching only a small percentage of people addicted to opioids and that overdose is on the rise.

According to Macon County Coroner Michael Day, two people died from overdosing on heroin in 2012, seven in 2013, nine in 2014 and 11 in 2015.

Vice President Mike Burkham said this year through May 15 the Decatur Ambulance Service delivered 60 doses of Nalaxone, a drug that counteracts the effects of opioids, which is more than the service used during all of 2015.

Then, for many of those whose lives have just been saved, there is nothing available to help them pay for treatment.

Dr. Dennis Rademacher, medical director of the Substance Abuse Treatment Center at HSHS St. Mary's Hospital, said the patients he treats with buprenorphine (Suboxone) must be private pay and the same is true for patients being treated with the same drug through A&E Behavioral Health Care.

That's why Rademacher and the treatment center's substance abuse counselors welcome the outpatient medication-assisted treatment program to be offered by Crossing Healthcare in collaboration with Heritage to help Medicaid clients get off heroin or prescription opioids.

If you are someone who is low-income, you do not have options in our community, said Crossing CEO Tanya Andricks. This is the void we will attempt to fill.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded Crossing $405,000 annually for the next two years to establish the program, which will begin accepting patients Sept. 1 with a goal of enrolling 30 the first year and 100 by the end of the second year.

Its medical options will be buprenorphine and naltrexone (Vivitrol), and the program will work in conjunction with Heritage and its longstanding methadone program, which carries a caseload of 144 people.

Tim Macken, executive vice president and chief operating officer at Heritage, said only 42 slots in the methadone program are state paid, despite the rising need. Heritage also offers the only detox unit in Decatur, with roughly seven beds, followed by residential treatment for up to 16 patients for seven to 28 days.

Most of those clients are on Medicaid.

Dr. Dana Ray, chief medical officer at Crossing, said it's critical to get people with opioid addictions the right treatment, with methodone and buprenorphine better for patients with chronic pain, for example, and naltrexone a good choice for patients who are clean but addicted to multiple substances.

Yet Ray and other providers stress that medication is but one tool in managing what they see as a life-long, chronic illness that has no cure.

The St. Mary's outpatient center, for one, uses education, individual counseling and group sessions.

We want them to understand what they have, said Michael Reeves, a substance abuse counselor. We're going to talk about how you can overcome a craving and how you can get past triggers.

Although measuring success against addiction depends on how you measure it, Reeves and colleague David Vail say punishing the crime without treating the illness definitely does not work.

This is the only disease that we treat with incarceration, Vail said. Relapse is always possible, but 18 months seems to be the big number. Studies show if we can get a person to 18 months, their chances of long-term recovery grow exponentially.
SPRINGFIELD  Amid Illinois nearly year-long budget standoff, only a small number of issues have managed to bring lawmakers together across party lines.

One significant issue that has united Democrats and Republicans over the past year is the states heroin and opioid crisis. Major legislation aimed at combating addiction and stemming the tide of overdose deaths passed unanimously in the House in the fall and was approved in the Senate with only four votes in opposition, though many Republicans voted present or didnt vote.

Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner vetoed a portion of the bill, but members of both parties voted to override his changes.

State Rep. Lou Lang of Skokie, the No. 3 Democrat in the House, championed the bill.

I had read one too many reports about heroin taking over Illinois, said Lang, who has a track record of taking on difficult and controversial issues, including gambling expansion and medical marijuana. For Illinois to be ground zero in the heroin and opioid problem in this country made me stand up and take notice.

Lang worked closely with state Rep. John Anthony, R-Joliet, a former Kendall County sheriffs deputy, in developing the legislation.

Weve moved from crisis to epidemic, Anthony said, adding, I dont know any neighborhood thats unaffected by heroin.

The new law takes comprehensive approach to a problem thats growing throughout Illinois and across the country. Among its provisions:

Law enforcement agencies, fire departments and emergency medical service providers are required to possess anti-overdose drugs such as naloxone.

Once going through training, pharmacists are authorized to dispense naloxone without a prescription.

Hospitals, medical examiners and coroners are required to collect and report data on heroin and opioid overdose treatments and deaths.

The states Medicaid program was expanded to cover all forms of medication-assisted treatment approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration for alcohol and opioid dependence. The program also now covers anti-overdose drugs.

Private insurance plans are required to cover anti-overdose medications, and rules requiring insurance companies to cover mental health and addiction services in a comparable manner to other health issues were strengthened.

Drug courts, which provide an option other than prison for low-level drug offenders, have been expanded.

Because the bill cuts across several state agencies, many of its provisions are still being implemented.

For example, the Department of Human Services has just gotten an advisory committee for its prescription drug monitoring program up and running. The committee is tasked with identifying and distributing funding for a pilot program to encourage continued integration of hospitals electronic health records with the prescription monitoring program.

The department also continues to work with public safety agencies as requested to provide training on the use of anti-overdose drugs.

The Department of Public Health, meanwhile, has drafted rules for the required training of emergency medical personnel on the use of anti-overdose drugs. Public Health is also in discussions with the Illinois Hospital Association about the requirement that hospitals report overdose treatments provided in their emergency rooms. The department hopes to gather this information through the same system it uses for other diseases.

The Department of Financial and Professional Regulation has set up training for pharmacists who wish to dispense anti-overdose drugs as allowed under the law. The department doesnt track how many pharmacists have signed up for or completed the training, a spokesman said.

A spokeswoman for the departments of Human Services and Public Health said the lack of a state budget for nearly a year hasnt slowed the implementation of the law.

Given its scope and complexity, lawmakers and advocates say theyre generally happy with how the process has gone so far.

I think its going better than expected, said Kathie Kane-Willis, director of the Illinois Consortium on Drug Policy at Roosevelt University in Chicago.

However, there are still issues to be worked out, Kane-Willis said.

For example, the $75 fee for pharmacists to go through training on anti-overdose medications might prevent some from doing it, she said, adding that theres also the question of whether enough pharmacies will stock the medications.

Kelly OBrien, Illinois executive director for The Kennedy Forum, a mental health advocacy group, said the state Department of Insurance has also done a good job so far setting up educational programs for consumers on the laws requirements that insurance plans treat behavioral health and substance abuse the same as other medical issues. The department has also set up a hotline for consumer complaints.

While this all takes place, lawmakers are working on strengthening a few areas of the law.

One bill the General Assembly passed this spring would require any substance abuse program licensed by the Department of Human Service to provide educational information on medication-based treatments and the use of anti-overdose drugs. Another would allow people going through drug court programs to continue taking medication for opioid addiction as prescribed by their doctors.

State Sen. Melinda Bush, D-Grayslake, whos sponsored the heroin and opioid legislation in the Senate, said there are still some areas for further consideration. Those include programs offered in other states that allow police officers to direct people with addiction issues to treatment rather than jail and the expansion of drug take-back programs to pharmacies.

Lang said lawmakers have a tendency to move on to other issues once theyve passed legislation, but that wont be the case for him when it comes to combating heroin and opioid abuse.

As groundbreaking as (the new law) was, I did not look at it as the end of my journey, but the beginning, he said.
While the sudden resignation of Seth Goodman as Lincoln mayor Friday night may have come as a shock to some, officials in local government had been preparing for the possibility for some time. Goodman resigned his post Friday night, citing stress as the main reason.
DECATUR -- Demariel Cunningham had had no recollection of events and Roderick Dickerson walked out of the courtroom not guilty on Tuesday in connection with the 2011 murder of 17-year-old Mishyra Wheeler.

Assistant Macon County States Attorneys Tammy Wagoner and Christina Mullison entered the trial with evidence similar to what Wagoner and Assistant States Attorney David Spence had when they convicted Dickerson's co-defendant, Dennis E. Davis, on March 29, 2014. Davis was sentenced to 100 years in prison.

But the evidence didn't play out the same way this time around as two witnesses altered their stories or, in the case of Cunningham, refused to give any testimony. After the prosecution rested in the bench trial, Public Defender Thomas Wheeler, representing Dickerson, asked Associate Judge James R. Coryell for a verdict.

Wheeler argued that it wasn't necessary for him to put up a defense because the prosecution hadn't held up its burden of proof. After a recess to consider, Coryell agreed and ruled Dickerson not guilty.

"There are just too many contradictions and conflicting statements," Coryell said in his ruling. "The evidence was not sufficient."

Mishyra Wheeler was killed and three others wounded in a Sept. 3, 2011 shooting in the 1500 block of North Church Street. Charges were filed against Dickerson and Davis on Oct. 20, 2011 based on statements made by a witness who knew Dickerson and Davis, and also one of the victims, who identified Davis in a photo lineup.

More than a year after the murder, in November 2012, Cunningham told Decatur Police Detective Joe Patton on video that he had been in the house where Mishyra Wheeler's shooting occurred, hiding from police, who wanted him for the death of Marvin Dickerson, Roderick Dickerson and Davis' cousin. Cunningham said he saw the shooting by looking out the window and identified both shooters in a picture lineup.

The witness who knew Dickerson and Davis told police that Dickerson and Davis went to the house on North Church seeking revenge for the Aug. 22, 2011 shooting of Marvin Dickerson. He said the day after the shooting he saw Dickerson, whom he heard say that he and Davis had done the shooting and that Mishyra Wheeler was not the intended victim.

He later recanted that statement to police, but testified at Davis' trial that he'd heard Davis and Dickerson say they wanted revenge on "El," the street name for Cunningham, but if they couldn't find him, "any Cunningham would do."

But at Dickerson's trial, the witness said he couldn't remember that conversation.

The witness did repeat testimony that he'd seen two guns in a vehicle of a relative he knew belonged to Dickerson -- a black 9 mm with a brown handle and a silver .40-caliber with a black handle. In both cases, police detectives testified that all 38 casings found at the scene were 9 mm or .40-caliber.

But in Wheeler's cross examination of the witness, he pointed out all of the witness' changes in story and questioned if the witness' motivation was to try to get leniency on cases he had pending.

In Wagoner's redirect, she asked the witness, who was a longtime friend of the victim, known to friends as NuNu, why he changed his story after originally telling police he didn't know anything about the murder.

"That little girl," he said.

When asked why he later wrote a letter recanting what he told police, the witness said he was asked to write it by a family member of both the witness and Dickerson.

The victim, who had originally picked Davis out of a photo lineup, said at Davis' trial he had only picked Davis' photo because he knew Davis was in custody and was angry after being shot. He repeated that at Dickerson's trial.

At Davis' trial, Cunningham had corroborated what he told Patton, that Cunningham was staying at the house on North Church -- the home of Joel Shoulders -- while hiding from police. He said he stayed in a bedroom while Mishyra Wheeler and the other three victims were there, but was in the living room while they were on the porch. He said after his cousin Freedom Cunningham left the house, minutes later he saw Davis and Dickerson emerge from either side of the house with guns, and saw Dickerson shooting.

Cunningham said he got on the ground while the shooters let fly a flurry of bullets, then fled out a back door after the shooting stopped. He ran to his brother Demarta's house.

But none of the witnesses or victims in the case who were at the house that night testified they'd seen Cunningham at the house. And when asked about details of the night of Wheeler's shooting by Mullison, Cunningham answered either, "I don't remember," or "I can't recall."

Mullison made Cunningham go through Davis' trial line by line, asking him if he remembered being asked the question, then if he remembered what he testified.

"I don't remember," Cunningham said to the first question, then, "I can't recall," to the second.

Then Mullison asked him to recall what he'd told Patton, which had been recorded on video.

"I can't recall that," said Cunningham, who repeated some version of that phrase more than 50 times despite two objections from Wheeler.

When asked on cross examination by Wheeler to point out Dickerson, known by his street name as "Chunky," in the courtroom, Cunningham said he didn't see anyone named Chunky there. Asked if he'd seen Dickerson before, Cunningham said, "Maybe, maybe not." Asked if he'd seen Dickerson on Sept. 3, 2011, Cunningham said, "Can't say I did."

After Cunningham, the prosecution called Patton to the stand and showed the video of Cunningham's statement, and also entered the transcript of Davis' trial into evidence.

When it came time for Wheeler to present his case, he immediately asked the judge for verdict. After a recess, Coryell agreed with Wheeler that the witness close to Davis and Dickerson, and Cunningham weren't credible, but it was their testimony that was key to the case.

Wagoner said she'd suspected Cunningham might not give good testimony when speaking to him pretrial, but was surprised Coryell hadn't put more credence in the witness close to Davis and Dickerson, saying his conflicting testimony is explainable by his relationships to both the defendants and the victim.

But, Wagoner admitted it can be an uphill battle for convictions when witnesses are convicted criminals themselves.

"It's not usually preachers, pastors and rabbis who see murders," Wagoner said. "It's usually people who are involved in those kinds of activities themselves. As prosecutors we love to bring up criminal history of those on trial in cases, but that can also be used against you in cases where your witnesses have a criminal history."
SPRINGFIELD  In the summer of 2015, the state of Illinois had not yet passed a budget and public schools statewide stewed over whether they'd have the money to open in August.

Welcome to summer reruns.

Legislators appropriated enough money to open schools in 2015, but never passed a budget, and this year, the same effort is underway. In a conference call with media on Tuesday, Secretary of Education Beth Purvis talked about SB 3434 and HB 6583, which would fund schools without a state budget.

We're unfortunately three weeks out from the new fiscal year (which begins on July 1) and superintendents, principals, teachers and parents are working to get ready for the new school year, and no funding formula is in place, Purvis said.

Though legislators have been discussing a change in the school funding formula for a very long time, they can't come to an agreement on that, either, and since 2009, state budget shortfalls have meant that schools' general state aid has been prorated, with districts receiving only a percentage of the foundation level of $6,119 per student. State aid is figured based on enrollment, local property values and the number of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunches, and poorer districts are heavily dependent on that state aid. With districts receiving only 92 percent of their allotment in FY2016.

Purvis said the two bills would end that proration, and additionally include a hold harmless provision ensuring that no district would receive less money than it did in this fiscal year. Chicago Public Schools stood to lose $74 million due to declining enrollment, for example, and the bills add funding for early childhood education, and line items for programs like agricultural education and After School Matters, which is unique to Chicago schools.

This is a bridge year proposal to open schools on time, while committing to a new formula of equity and adequacy, Purvis said.

Questions during the conference call from media around the state included several on what schools would do if these bills don't pass. Both are still in committee and have not made it to legislators for a vote, she said.

With three weeks to go, Purvis said, the hope is that the bills will be in place before July 1, and if not, the Illinois State Board of Education is available to offer guidance to the state's 862 school districts, many of which will have tough financial decisions to make if no funding is available from the state. The General Assembly adjourned its spring session on May 31.
SPRINGFIELD (AP)  Illinois, on the cusp of a second year without a state budget, counts among its many unpaid bills one that threatens to provoke a dispute with the nation's top crime-fighting force.

Documents obtained by The Associated Press through the Freedom of Information Act show that the deadbeat state owes $3 million to the FBI for processing fingerprints and conducting background checks for professional licenses and permits. The debt is old enough that it could be turned over to the federal government's collection agency  the Treasury Department.

The delinquent payment is just the latest unexpected consequence of a stalemate between the Republican governor and Democrats controlling the legislature. The gridlock has left Illinois without a budget since July 1 and exacerbated a long-standing backlog of debt. As of Tuesday, the state had more than $7 billion in unpaid bills.

"The breadth of the issues covered by the budget impasse never ceases to amaze me," said Rep. Elaine Nekritz, a Democrat from the Chicago suburb of Northbrook and chairwoman of the House Judiciary Committee on civil matters.

Gov. Bruce Rauner is holding out for changes in law to cut business costs and restrict the power of labor unions. Democrats say consideration of Rauner's business and political agenda should take a back seat to taming a multibillion-dollar deficit through spending cuts and tax increases.

The fingerprinting money has already been set aside. There's nearly $19 million in an account used to pay for FBI fingerprint expertise. But without a legislative appropriation, no one has any authority to spend the money.

The FBI says states rarely fall more than four months behind in payments, but it has never cut services, and it has not stopped examining Illinois fingerprints.

A spokesman for the agency's Criminal Justice Information Service, Stephen Fischer, said the agency is exploring "alternative collection and processing options" to continue serving Illinois without additional expense. He did not elaborate.

Ken Zercie, who retired as laboratory director for the Connecticut Department of Public Safety, said the importance of verifying identity and criminal backgrounds means it's a safe bet that the Justice Department won't shut the door on Illinois.

"That would be kind of illogical given the state of everything," said Zercie, a vice president of the International Association of Identification. "It's a public-safety issue."

This isn't the first time the budget crisis has caused headaches for law enforcement. The AP reported in April that the secretary of state's police force had to carry cash from driver's license facilities for four months after an armored-truck company stopped work until it got paid.

Rep. Robert Pritchard, from the small town of Hinckley, about 50 miles west of Chicago, said he's more worried about unpaid human-services agencies shutting their doors. The ranking Republican on the House State Government Administration Committee urged Democrats to accept a short-term budget pitched by Rauner.

The FBI processes 260,000 sets of Illinois fingerprints annually in criminal background checks for those seeking jobs such as school bus driver or private detective or applying for permits to carry concealed firearms or cultivate medicinal marijuana.
In April 2016 the European Union extended final assistance of 3.75 million to enhance Armenias vocational education and training (VET) capacity. The disbursement was allocated out of 6 million (of which 5 million budget support, 1 million technical assistance), earmarked under 2012 Eastern Partnership Integration and Cooperation (EaPIC) programme. The programme aims to open up new horizons and foster job creation for youth, which will help maximise youth involvement in local development, curb labour migration to urban areas and support poverty alleviation in regions and across the country.

''The outcomes of the assistance include reform implementation across the whole VET sector of the country, provision of equal access to quality VET education for youth with special needs, recognition of non-formal and informal learning and review of VET qualifications and lists of VET professions to meet the swiftly evolving labour market needs.

As of 2016, about 4,500 students at 17 pilot colleges in all regions of Armenia and Yerevan benefited from the EU-supported reforms and the number is envisaged to grow in the near future.

Commenting on the outcomes of the EU support in the VET sector, one of the programme beneficiaries, graduate of Yerevan regional state college N2 Tehmine Sahakyan said, The knowledge and skills I gained at the college helped me pursue higher education at Armenian State University of Economics. They largely impacted my further achievements and career. I currently work at one of Armenias top insurance companies as a marketing expert and agent. I recommend all those, who are still undecided on their further specialisation to choose the VET sector as solid foundation for further career development.

Director of the National Centre for Vocational Education and Training Development Tatevik Gasparyan in turn, noted, The VET sector unlocks a range of opportunities for youth. State educational standards aimed at capacity building for the VET qualifications, educational programs and curricula are developed to meet the current labour demands.

Within the frames of the final phase of the programme, five VET colleges, specifically those located on the border, were rehabilitated and equipped, with two more upgraded with facilities for physically impaired students. Another essential outcome of the programme is the development of 3-year business plans and conduction of own market research at all regional colleges. Development of business plans has been hailed by college managers in terms of sustainable financial management of VET institutions.

The assistance programme incorporates international best practices and visions for innovation and enhancement of VET education aligning them with the local market needs.

**************

EU for education in Armenia: The EU has been actively supporting educational reforms in Armenia for the past 14 years with a clear focus on VET. Shortly after Armenia joined the European Neighbourhood Policy in 2006, the Government of Armenia and the European Commission agreed to focus 30 million of 2007 and 2009 Budget Support assistance of the European Union to Armenia on further reforms in the VET sector. The overall objective has been to support sustainable development in Armenia, by boosting the quality of VET sector to align it with the needs of the labour market.

Following the 2012 review of the ENP Progress Reports, 15 million assistance was allocated to Armenia under this programme. 6 million out of the allocation was earmarked for support in the VET sector.

The main directions of reforms as defined in the VET Reforms Programme and Action Plan of 2012-2016 adopted by the Government of Armenia in July 2012 are integration of the Republic of Armenias vocational education and training system into the European vocational education area, enhancing the VET system management efficiency, boosting reputation and prestige of VET system and development/strengthening of social partnership in the VET sector. Implementing partners of the programme are the Ministry of Education and Science, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Finance and social partners.

In addition to VET-focused assistance, the EU has been steadily supporting development of higher education in Armenia. "Empowerment of the Tertiary Level Education of the RA for European Higher Education Area IntegrationEHEA" Twinning (2014-2016) aims to contributes to Armenias full membership in the EHEA and improve the quality of higher education to the benefit of students, graduates and employers.

Strengthening Integrity and Combating Corruption in Higher Education in Armenia project, co-funded by the EU and Council of Europe, aims to strengthen integrity and fight corruption at higher education institutions by fostering effective implementation of the Armenian Governments Anti-Corruption Action Plan 2015-2018.

Erasmus+, the new EU programme targeting Education, Training, Youth and Sport for the period 2014-2020, brings together seven existing programmes, including Tempus and Erasmus Mundus. 21 ongoing Tempus and 5 Erasmus+ Capacity Building projects with involvement of 22 Armenian universities and 31 other organisations including enterprises, ministries and non-governmental organizations. There are also 17 ongoing Erasmus Mundus projects implemented across Armenia. Overall, around 800 students and staff of Armenian universities participated in Erasmus Mundus projects and Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree Programs in the period of 2004-2014''.
By Katherine Berjikian

I had been friends with Kyle Khandikian for a couple months before interviewing him. I had met him a couple months ago, shortly after I had I first arrived in Armenia. I had also interviewed him in the past for a previous article.

Before I interviewed him for this article, I ran into him at an Armenian NGO working towards LGTBQ rights in Armenia called PINK Armenia (Public Information Need of Knowledge NGO). I wasnt there to meet him, but to talk to someone else about another article I was working on. At that point, Kyle had been internet famous for a couple days; I had seen his Facebook post and had read about his situation in other articles. From there, I knew the basic facts about what happened to Kyle: on 19 May 2016, Kyle Khandikian had been kicked out of his Armenian dance class for being gay.

After I ran into him, we went for lunch to discuss what happened to him. He told me that he was afraid. His Facebook post had spread across the internet, and because of it he was basically outed in front of the entire Armenian community, within both the diaspora community and within Armenia itself.

I was confused; if he was afraid, why had he agreed to do so many interviews about what happened to him? As we spoke, he told me a version of the following. This statement would be repeated again when I formally interviewed him later:

What was done to me was an injusticeThere should be legal consequences for doing something like that. But there are no anti-discrimination laws [referring to the Armenian legal system]. And even though the constitution protects people from discrimination, it does not specifically protect people from discrimination based on sexual orientation, and or gender identity and gender expression.

And there was just no way that I was going to keep quiet about this. Did I think that my face and my name was going to be all over the internet? And that the whole Armenian world, that Armenians in Los Angeles were going to hear about this and write about this? No. But thats the way that it happened.

After his recount, I asked if he would be interested in doing an interview with me. He did, and the following is an account of that interview.

The Article That Started It All

Kyle Khandikians dance instructor did not find out that Kyle was gay because Kyle told him. He found out because he read a poem that Kyle had published online about homophobia in the Armenian community, in both Armenia and abroad.

A couple days before Kyle was kicked out of the dance group, he wrote a poem for the online magazine The Hye-Phen, which claims to be The only Armenian magazine and cyber collective committed to uplifting trans, queer, and radical narratives'.

The poem was called: Explain to me why and how I should be proud of being Armenian. It was inspired by the 2015 attack of an LGTBQ pride parade in Israel, which resulted in the murder of one teenager and the stabbing of several others. Kyle was inspired to write this poem after reading the comments of a Tert.am article about the event. The poem itself is made up of comments re-appropriated from that article.

The following is a segment of the poem Kyle wrote for The Hye-Phen:

Its little

It was little, they should have killed those faggots once and for all

It should have ended with fire.

Break the degenerates

Always like thisThis is good for your dignity, those four-legged animals should be burned, mother with child

When asked about the controversial title, Kyle explained that his reason for titling his poem Explain to me why and how I should be proud of being Armenian was the following:

I wrote those words because I wanted people to feel something. I wanted people to be angry. Because I wanted them to understand my anger, and to understand the anger of queer ArmeniansI know so many people here and in the diaspora who feel rejected by the Armenian community. And thats heartbreaking.

What Happened?

Before I describe the events that took place on May 19, I would like to state that I did attempt to contact Harut Baghdasaryan about his side of the story. However, I did not receive a response. Therefore, the following is an account of what happened by Kyle Khandikian, and all accounts of what Harut Baghdasaryan said in this interaction are recounted by Kyle.

Kyle had been learning Armenian dance for the past five months. He had been attending two different classes: the first class was a dance group for beginners called Bekor, and the second is a more advanced group called Aros. Both classes were taught by the same teacher, Harut Baghdasaryan, who eventually kicked him out of both classes.

Kyle described the incident in great detail. He stated that on May 19, he went to the dance group as usual. When he went there, Harut pulled him aside and told him that he wanted to talk to him in private. They went outside and the instructor asked him if he had written an article. He was referring to the poem that Kyle had written for The Hye-Phen.

When asked why he wrote his poem, Kyle stated that he didnt think he needed to explain to him that LGTBQ people are not accepted in our nation or the Armenian nation. In response to this Kyles instructor informed him that, I struggle against this, meaning homosexuality.

He then asked Kyle if he remembered the gay parade, from a couple years ago. There has never been a LGTBQ Pride parade in Armenia. Instead, he was referring to the diversity march that PINK and the Womans Resource Center had organized in response to the DIY bombing.

The DIY bombing refers to the bar DIY Rock Pub which was the target of an arson attack in May 2012. The pub was targeted because it was known to be a gay-friendly bar. After the attack, both PINK and the Womans Resource Center organized a diversity march in response to this attack. While it was not a Pride parade, news of the march spread before it started and was widely referred to as a gay parade. In response to this parade, ultra-nationalists appeared at the march as a counter demonstration. That night after the march, there were reports that the DIY pub was further vandalized.

Harut then told Kyle the following:

I was standing there. I was one of the first people there to protest against that march. And we were holding signs that said Send Gays to Baku.

He then told Kyle that if he saw someone like Kyle on the street, he wouldnt do anything but people like Kyle should be stoned. Afterwards, he told Kyle to leave and stated that he would tell every dance instructor that he knows Kyles name so that he would not be able to learn Armenian dance.

Kyle also informed me that during this interaction, his instructor told him that he had kicked out another student before Kyle. His name was Davit, and Harut had kicked him out because he was not part of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

The night that Kyle was kicked out of his dance class, he wrote about it on his Facebook page. That post spread from his friends, to their friends, and to the wider Armenian diaspora. As I am writing this, Kyles Facebook post has received five hundred and forty-four likes, one hundred and twenty-two shares, and one hundred and twenty-two comments.

Kyle has also done countless interviews about the incident. PINK, the NGO Kyle works for, has made a statement of support for Kyle and has called for the Ministry of Diaspora to respond to what happened to Kyle.

When Kyles story circulated around the internet, some of the people who heard about it tried to figure out who had kicked Kyle out of his dance class. In the original post, he did not state any names or information about the incident.

At some point in the Facebook posts of others, people started claiming that Gagik Ginosyan, one of the worlds most famous Armenian dancers, was the person who kick Kyle out. This is inaccurate. However, the story was so widespread that Gagik Ginosyan did an interview about Kyle with aravot.am. In that article, Gagik Ginosyan, who knew Harut Baghdasaryan and had been his former teacher, argued that it was Kyles poem and not his sexuality that was the reason he was kicked out of his dance class. When I spoke to Kyle, he stated that he thought neither his former dance instructor nor Ginosyan had actually read his poem. If they had, they would have seen the portion of the poem that stated that, I love Armenia even though Armenia doesnt love me back. Instead, they focused entirely on his title.

Regardless, it is interesting to note that while at the very least what happened to Kyle was somewhat due to his sexuality, Gagik Ginosyan refused to talk about Kyles sexuality once. Instead he focused on nationalism and pride.

We are afraid

So what about the people in Kyles dance classes? Did they hear about what happened to Kyle? What did they think about one of the people from their class being kicked out for being gay? According to what Kyle told me, he was actually close to some of the people in his dance group, and had gone on one trip with them outside of Yerevan to drink and to eat. He says he is still close to the people who were in the class.

While I was writing this article, I attempted to try to find some people from the class to talk about what had happened to Kyle. After I spoke with Kyle for this interview, he gave me the names of several people who were in his class who were his peers and thought would be interested in speaking to me about how they felt when he was kicked out. They had all expressed their frustration to him about what happened, and had chosen to leave the class in support of him. However, when I approached them one by one they all declined.

I was confused; at first I didnt understand why they didnt want to speak with me. When I spoke with my friend later about it, they explained that it was probably that they were scared. They might be put in danger if they spoke out in support of a queer person.

Because of this, I met them in person and offered to only use their first names, or to make them anonymous. Again, they all refused.

When I asked them why they didnt want talk about what happened to Kyle they responded that the reasons they did not want to talk to me were variations of I am afraid. The following are examples of what some of the dance students told me:

- Fear that they would be found out even if I made them anonymous in this article.

- That it might affect their future. They might not be able to get a job if they were connected to this in anyway.

- That Kyle is in danger because this was done to him, and because he chose to speak out about what happened. One person told me that they could avoid that. That they didnt have to talk about it.

I am not writing this to judge the people who chose to not participate in this article. While I do not know how close they are to Kyle, I do know for a fact that they have supported Kyle in person.

However, I wanted to use this example to point out that while the internet erupted with support after what happened to Kyle, people who supported him online, on their own personal Facebooks and other social websites, were afraid of speaking out in support of Kyle in a more public sphere, or even being vaguely connected to what happened to Kyle.

While I dont know the amount of violence the queer community faces in Armenia, there is no statistics to state the actual number, I can say that many people feel and think that there is a legitimate concern for the safety of the LGTBQ community in Armenia. And with incidents like the bombing of the DIY pub, who can contradict them.

It seems, that for some people in Armenia, being remotely connected to anything LGBTQ is enough to make someone feel like they are in danger.

An LGBTQ Friendly Dance Class

However, this fear has not stopped Kyle, or other people, including queer Armenians, who want to support him. Instead of giving up on learning Armenian dances, Kyle has decided to create his own Armenian dance class that would be open to people regardless of sexuality or gender. One of the reasons he stated for wanting to start this new dance class was because of the history of resistance the Armenian community had instilled in him:

If there was one thing that I learned back home in my Armenian school, in my Armenian community in Los Angelesit was this understanding of what injustice isThey put that spirit of struggle in me. It is really unfortunate that I had to experience this in my own homeland, but the struggle against injustice is just what it means to be Armenian. Im going to struggle, and Im going to do what I feel is right. And as Ive said in my post, and people keep referencing this, I am going to danceNo one can tell me that I cannot dance.

One of the members of Kyles new dance group, Melia Hadidian, a queer diasporan living in Armenia, talked to me briefly about why she wanted to join the dance group. She stated the following:

I joined Kyle's dance group becauseafter what happened to Kyle, I felt like I wanted to make sure I could learn Armenian dance in a context that would welcome me with open arms, rather than judging how "worthy" I was to be dancing the dances of my ancestors. It makes me incredibly sad that I now feel a moment of hesitation when a friend suggests coming along to another dance classWith Kyle's class, I know walking through that door that I will be welcomed and encouraged as a dancer, identity-politics aside.

(Katherine Berjikian is a Birthright Armenia volunteer from the U.S. now working at Hetq)
Audra Hoy, Greater Oshkosh EDC, moderates the panel discussion Wisconsin Entrepreneur's Conference panel "Lessons learned: Success stories from women entrepreneurs" at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison.
Dining options at the Dane County Airport are set to change this year, with a new gastropub and a wine and tapas bar. Metcalfe's is expanding and Ancora Coffee is set to get a makeover.
Share your opinion on this topic by sending a letter to the editor to tctvoice@madison.com. Include your full name, hometown and phone number. Your name and town will be published. The phone number is for verification purposes only. Please keep your letter to 250 words or less.
Dave Zweifel is editor emeritus of The Capital Times. dzweifel@madison.com and on Twitter @DaveZweifel
ABC News(NEW YORK) -- Hillary Clinton embraced her status as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee on Tuesday night in an historic move that makes her the first female major party presidential nominee in the history of the United States.



Thanks to you, we've reached a milestone, Clinton said during her victory speech in Brooklyn, New York, adding that it was the "first time in our nation's history that a woman will be a major party's nominee of the United States.



Its an achievement the former secretary of state has called emotional. She told a crowd of supporters in California on Monday that we are in the brink of a historic, historic, unprecedented moment.



Clinton took a few swipes at Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump, calling him "temperamentally unfit" to be president.



"When he says let's make America great again, that is code for, let's take America backwards," she said.



And in an emotional tribute to her late mother, Clinton talked very personally about how it felt to be the nominee.



"On the very day my mother was born, in Chicago, Congress was passing the 19th Amendment to the constitution. That amendment finally gave women the right to vote," Clinton said as the crowd danced and cheered, adding "I wish she could see her daughter become the democratic party's nominee."



Clinton first acknowledged her role as the Democratic presumptive nominee in a fundraising email, ahead of her victory speech.



"After all our hard work and tough fights -- and an unwavering commitment to love, kindness, our country, and each other -- we broke one of the highest, hardest glass ceilings in America," the fundraising email reads.



"For the first time ever, a woman will be a major partys nominee to become President of the United States," it states.



Her campaign has long seen Tuesday -- a day when six states are holding nominating contests -- as a turning point in the race when she can officially set her sights on unifying the Democratic Party to defeat presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump. Tuesday also marks exactly eight years to the day from when Clinton dropped out of the primary race against then-Sen. Barack Obama in 2008.



"Although we weren't able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time," she said during her concession remarks on June 7, 2008, "thanks to you, it has about 18 million cracks in it.



How Clinton handles unifying the party and bringing her rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders, into her camp remains to be seen.



Tuesday night, the Democratic presumptive nominee perhaps took the first step, congratulating her primary opponent, Bernie Sanders for running an "extraordinary" campaign and insisted on unifying the party.



Whether you supported me or Senator Sanders or one of the Republicans, we all need to keep working to a better, fairer, stronger America,  Clinton told a crowd of nearly 4,000 supporters. We believe that cooperation is better than conflict, unity is better than division, empowerment is better than resentment, and bridges are better than walls.



The drawn out and, at times, volatile primary for Democrats extended longer than the Republican race, something few had predicted. In the end, Clinton visited 42 states during the primary and held 419 public events, according to a campaign official.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, who endorsed Hillary Clinton an ABCs Good Morning America Tuesday, called Clintons achievement exciting, but said its historic "because she is the best, not because she's a woman."

Eight years ago today. pic.twitter.com/ZAHXdKbgHV  Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 7, 2016

RT if you're ready to make history. pic.twitter.com/1Pr9e5y5Bh  Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 7, 2016

Copyright  2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
A jury trial for one of the four people charged in an October stabbing in Baraboo has been cancelled.

The defense attorney for Christopher L. Nash of Baraboo had previously requested, and was granted, a speedy trial that was slated to take place in July.

But during a hearing last month, Madison attorney Eric Schulenburg withdrew that request.

But prosecutors said the families of the victims do not wish the matter to be delayed and want closure, according to online court records. The judge agreed with prosecutors that Nashs trial should take place after that of the alleged stabber, 28-year-old Jae M. Robinson of North Freedom.

A judge has severed the four defendants cases from one another, at the request of their attorneys. That means each may get a separate trial, if they do not reach an alternate resolution.

Prosecutors say Robinson and Nash were involved in a bar room dispute that escalated to a fight down the street from the Walnut Street Tavern in Baraboo.

At some point, their friend, 31-year-old Matthew T. Harvey of Baraboo, was called to the scene and was driven by 24-year-old Amanda N. Rotar of Baraboo, according to the criminal complaint.

The fight resulted in the stabbing death of Anthony Inman, 36, of North Freedom, and the hospitalization of his friend, 32-year-old Anthony Peterson of Mauston, prosecutors say.

Robinson, Nash, Harvey and Rotar have each been charged with being a party to the crimes of first-degree intentional homicide and substantial battery.
A Lake Delton Walmart cashier who took advantage of computer system glitches to pilfer about $5,000 from the retail giant reached a deal with prosecutors Tuesday.

Brenda L. Fry, 42, of Camp Douglas, pleaded no contest and was found guilty of felony theft by false representation in Sauk County Circuit Court. She signed a deferred prosecution agreement in which she must stay out of trouble for 18 months and pay restitution to Walmart.

Authorities said Fry used a technique known as glitching in which she scanned $10 coupons for a weight loss product called Hydroxycut, and then ran a $1 candy bar across the barcode reader rather than the intended item. Once that was done, the system left Fry with $9 of free money that she used to make other purchases.

Fry allegedly told officers that she learned the technique from a coworker and that there was information available on Facebook about how to pull off the scheme.

If Fry does not complete terms of her agreement, she could wind up back in court for sentencing on the charge, which carries a maximum penalty of 3 years and 6 months in prison and $10,000 in fines.

Fry initially claimed she did not know that she was doing anything wrong, since a coworker taught her the technique.

Two Council Bluffs, Iowa women  who also were Walmart employees  were charged with similar offenses earlier this year. One of the women pleaded guilty and received a sentence of two years on probation in exchange for her testimony against an alleged co-conspirator. The other woman has pleaded not guilty.
When a man drowned during a triathlon that Pat Hughes was also competing in several years ago, it was a life-changing moment for the shaken Hughes.

It seemed like a very preventable tragedy, Hughes said.

So Hughes and suburban Milwaukee high school classmate Mike Fox set out to develop what they envision as the worlds thinnest, most versatile life jacket.

Their product, the Wingman, won the top award Wednesday for their startup company, Hyde, at the 2016 Wisconsin Governors Business Plan contest.

It means a ton, said Hughes, a 2012 UW-Madison School of Business graduate.

Its nice to get recognition from the local support network in Wisconsin, he said.

The short flotation vest weighs only 11/2 pounds, fits over the head and goes about halfway down the chest. It sits flat  until its needed, when a rip cord inflates the device.

You reach for your heart and pull, Hughes said.

He said sports have come a long way in recent years, but safety devices have not kept up. The idea was to make a flotation jacket as minimalist as possible and useful by anyone from swimmers and surfers to anglers and kayakers.

He said he and Fox have been bootstrapping the young company, working part-time jobs in finance and taking advance orders on Kickstarter  $67,000 worth of orders.

Certified by the U.S. Coast Guard, the Wingman is being manufactured by an unnamed sportswear company. Hughes said the first production run should be ready within weeks.

Winners of the Governors Business Plan competition were announced at the Wisconsin Entrepreneurs Conference closing luncheon at the Alliant Energy Center. Hyde won first place in the advanced manufacturing category. Other first-place category winners were:

Business services: Complete Phytochemical Solutions, Cambridge  Expertise for nutritional supplements.

Information technology: POLCO, Madison  Polling analytics for public policy.

Life sciences: LynxBio, Madison  Technology to find the best treatment for individual blood cancer patients.

The contest drew 206 entries from 62 communities statewide. Winners receive cash and services  exact amounts are not disclosed by the Wisconsin Technology Council, which coordinates the competition.

Last years grand prize winner was bluDiagnostics, with a product to test for a womans fertility by checking hormone levels in her saliva.

In the past year, the young company has raised $1.2 million from investors and is still working on a final design for its product, the Fertility Finder, said co-founder Katie Brenner, who also attended the 2016 award luncheon.

This is really where it all began for us, said Brenner.

BluDiagnostics went on to win the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerces Pressure Chamber and the Doyenne Groups 5X5X5 competitions last summer.

The companys hormone testing technology was recently featured in Science Daily, and bluDiagnostics is a finalist in the WomenWhoTech pitch contest in San Francisco next week.
Nothing is sacred anymore, even a person's ashes.

A burglar who broke into a West Side home on Monday stole various items, but the worst thing the burglar did was dump out the cremains of the victim's father, into a pan on the stove in the kitchen.

The burglary at the residence on Kroncke Drive was discovered by the 40-year-old man at about 5:30 p.m. on Monday.

"The burglar likely didn't know what was in the container," said police spokesman Joel DeSpain. "It was sacred and special beyond words to the victim."

The burglar appeared to have entered the residence through an unlocked door, taking a gun, ammunition and money. The burglar didn't take the container holding the ashes, just dumped the contents.

"Those contents are worth more than anything the burglar would steal," DeSpain said.

No description of the suspect was given.
A UW-Madison student was arrested Wednesday for an alleged sexual assault Downtown that was reported early Sunday morning.

Nathan Friar, 21, was tentatively charged with second-degree sexual assault and strangulation, Madison police said.

The victim, a 21-year-old Madison woman, told police the attack happened in Friar's apartment, in the 400 block of West Gorham Street.

"She reported being strangled and sexually assaulted by a man she recently met but didn't know well," said police spokesman Joel DeSpain.

UW-Madison spokeswoman Meredith McGlone said Friar is currently enrolled at the university and just completed his junior year. McGlone declined to say whether the university has launched disciplinary proceedings against Friar.

"We are aware of the arrest and are responding as appropriate based on the available information," McGlone said.

Reporter Nico Savidge contributed reporting.
A Madison landlord who city officials say has a long history of owning rental properties that meet the legal definition of a public nuisance had control of them stripped by a Dane County judge Tuesday.

Ray Peterson, 90, was ordered to no longer manage or maintain any of his 38 properties declared to be a public nuisance by Dane County Circuit Judge Julie Genovese. She also appointed Anchor Property Management as a receiver to ensure that all of the nuisance properties owned by Peterson are brought up to code.

This means that we will finally be free of Ray Peterson and his perpetual code violations and nonpayment of forfeitures, said Assistant City Attorney Jennifer Zilavy.

Zilavy called Peterson the citys most notorious landlord for the past 20 years. She also said that despite his history of nonpayment, Peterson has paid the city $1.4 million in fines for building code violations since December.

It shows you he has the financial wherewithal to get his buildings fixed up and within code, Zilavy said. Hes stubborn, hes cheap and always took the easy way out to make repairs.

Peterson, who represented himself in the case, said he plans to appeal Genoveses decision. If I dont appeal I go broke. Theres no question about it, he said. The city wants to bankrupt me. I have to try to save what I can of my familys estate.

Peterson also said hell comply with Genoveses order during the appeal process.

I want to do whatever I can to divest myself of control by selling all the properties, he said. Ill take a tremendous loss on them but thats what happens in these sales.

Peterson can collect any money from the sales of his properties but the proceeds are subject to costs that the receiver incurred while managing the property, Zilavy said.

Genovese originally granted the city a temporary injunction in December that took away Petersons control of his properties after she ruled that 45 of his 48 rental properties met the criteria of public nuisance, which can be found when there are repeated violations of a city ordinance. Peterson filed a notice of appeal in January and the Court of Appeals dismissed it in February on the grounds that it was premature because there was not a final order. It then decided that a permanent injunction hearing needed to be set.

That hearing on March 4 led Genovese to conclude in her ruling issued Tuesday that Peterson has openly, continuously and repeatedly violated the citys housing and building code for 20 years.

In her ruling, Genovese wrote that Peterson has been prosecuted in Madison Municipal Court for building and housing violations on 283 occasions as of October 2015 and that police calls to his rental properties increased from 86 from May 1, 2009 to April 30, 2010 to 176 from May 2, 2015 through the end of this February.

The properties negatively impact the quality, health and safety of the neighborhoods in which they are located, Genovese wrote. Neighbors are subjected to conditions that negatively impact property values and tenants live in substandard housing with significant safety-related code violations. Peterson does not consistently monitor his properties and does not proactively maintain them to keep them code compliant.

Peterson disagreed that his rental properties constituted a public nuisance and said he was unfairly targeted by city officials.

As an example, Peterson said he had to pay fines of more than $580,000 for just one of his properties  a duplex at 1306 E. Washington Ave.  after a municipal judge increased the size of the fine amount he had to pay for every day it was deemed to be in violation of building codes.

I think thats unjust and unconscionable, Peterson said.

But Zilavy said city officials gave Peterson plenty of opportunities over the years to get his properties up to code so hed be in better position to sell them for more money.

Instead, he sabotaged himself. Hes his own worst enemy, she said. Everybody knows the name Ray Peterson in the city. And hes not a sympathetic old man, either. Not in my dealings with him.
A Wisconsin Dells man was arrested for his alleged fifth drunken driving offense Tuesday night after other drivers called police.

Joel Ribnek, 35, was arrested by a State Patrol trooper at about 6:50 p.m. at a Mobil gas station on Highway F in Jefferson County, near Interstate 94.

Drivers called to complain about a driver in the eastbound lanes of I-94, with the trooper locating the vehicle shortly afterward.

Ribnek pulled off the interstate and into the parking lost of the gas station, where he was arrested.
A Madison woman who is waiting for the Dane County district attorney to decide whether to prosecute her in the fatal stabbing of her ex-boyfriend last year had a misdemeanor charge from another case dismissed Tuesday, her attorney said.

Cierra T. Finkley, 24, had a disorderly conduct charge dismissed from a 2014 case after prosecutors agreed she had met the conditions of her deferred prosecution, attorney Jordan Loeb said.

Loeb said while Finkley was relieved to have that charge dismissed, the case involving the fatal stabbing of Terrence L. Woods on Aug. 18, 2015 outside her South Side apartment building on Moorland Road remains a millstone around her neck.

Finkley was tentatively charged with reckless homicide three days after the incident occurred following a confrontation initiated by Woods inside her apartment.

But on Sept. 24, District Attorney Ismael Ozanne told Dane County Court Commissioner Jason Hanson that he was declining to officially charge Finkley. He said he didnt want to make a hasty decision in the very complicated case.

I think we have reached the point where the time gap (between the incident and making a decision whether or not to charge) is unusual, Loeb said.

Finkley was acting in pure self defense when she stabbed Woods, Loeb said. I have no idea what the DAs office could be looking into, he added.

Ozanne did not return a phone call Tuesday.

It has reached the point where the case could become political fodder between Ozanne and Assistant District Attorney Robert Jambois, who is running against Ozanne for the DA seat this November, Loeb said.

Loeb also said hes worried about Finkleys well-being as she waits for Ozanne to make a decision.

She wants to move on with her life and be a good parent to her daughter, Loeb said.
Long distance learning and teaching has been around for over a century, but the way to do it has changed dramatically from sending lessons by mail carrier.

UW-Madison has been in the forefront of distance education, offering the world's first correspondence course in 1891, and the leadership by the state's flagship university continues to this day, with a three-day conference in August.

The Distance Teaching and Learning Conference will be Aug. 9 to 11 at Monona Terrace.

"The conference will help shape the future of education, giving participants new strategies for a digitally immersed world," said Jeffrey Russell, dean of the UW-Madison Division of Continuing Studies.

Nationally-known distance education leaders will be at the conference, including Richard Culatta, former director of the Office of Educational Technology at the U.S. Department of Education; Karl Kapp, assistant director at the Institute for Interactive Technologies, and Michelle Miller, professor of psychological sciences at Northern Arizona University.

The conference will use current research to explore technology-enabled teaching environments, including virtual reality and multimedia, the university said in a release on Wednesday.

Over 800 college administrators, faculty, instructional designers, technology support staff, K-12 teachers and corporate and military trainers are expected to attend the conference.

UW-Madison is partnering with the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction to put on the conference, so K-12 teachers can attend a day of the conference at a discounted price.

For more information, go to the conference website.
Two local businessmen are making a push to reignite a long-stagnant fundraising effort for a major public art project in Middleton.

Developers Bradley Hutter and Brad Duesler on Wednesday announced they would provide up to $30,000 in matching funds to help finance a sculpture for the citys Parmenter Street roundabout.

City officials selected a design for the site in 2010 as the first step in an arts master plan that called for installing iconic works of art at major entrances to the city.

But city leaders have been reluctant to use taxpayer money to fund public art installations, forcing supporters of the initiative to seek philanthropic dollars  a task that has proven more difficult than expected.

Hutter, president and owner of MIG Commercial Real Estate, and Duesler, president of Food Concepts Inc., hope to end the years of floundering the arts master plan has experienced by footing the majority of the estimated $50,000 cost to bring Indianapolis-based sculptor Beverly Stucker Precious Out of the Shell design to Parmenter Street.

This roundabout is really a gateway. Its a gateway to the high school on the right and downtown. Its a gateway to Parmenter and the public safety building, going straight, Hutter said. This is a really critical interchange and nothing was happening.

We decided we would do a match to get this one going and hopefully get some people to participate and get this happening, not just at this location, but around the rest of the city as well.

Hutter and Duesler have been key players in the revival of the former Highway 12 corridor that is now Parameter Street. The two partnered to open the Parmenter Center office building near the roundabout last year. They also plan to renovate and build an addition to the Lucigen Corp. headquarters, and are in the midst of designing another major office and retail complex, called Parmenter Place, which would be constructed beginning next year.

The Parmenter area has seen a rash of other recent developments and will eventually hold a Meriter clinic.

Hutter and Duesler found public art to be a logical way to spruce up the entrance to the rapidly redeveloping area, but prior to their announcement, donations had been few and far between.

Rob Conhaim, chairman of the citys Arts Committee, started fundraising in 2012 on behalf of the committee, but in two years raised only about $10,000 of the $50,000 needed for the sculpture.

In 2014, the City Council spent $2,000 to hire Sun Prairie-based fundraising and marketing consultant KTT & Associates, but Conhaim said the consultant wasnt able to raise additional money for the project.

Middleton has no arts legacy so were trying to start one from ground zero, Conhaim said. Were just trying to develop the idea and sell the idea that public art is good for business in Middleton. Getting the community to embrace that is a bit of a challenge but the fact that they stepped forward with this announcement I think will give us a lot of momentum to get us to hopefully move forward.

Stucker Precious design was chosen from a group of about 15 applicants after the Arts Committee displayed the proposals at the Middleton Public Library. Of the roughly 400 people who commented, more than half preferred her design.

Hutter said he was excited to support a piece of art that Middleton residents favored by such a wide margin, but he particularly liked the parallel between the nest-like sculpture and the area.

The whole Out of the Shell  birth, growth, regeneration  really speaks to this corridor, he said. If you look at what it had been  the moving of the Beltline and what Middleton has done  the color of it, the vibrancy of it, the message that this particular portion of the city is being reborn, is pretty cool.
Not without opposition, a committee reviewing the Madison Police Department has received a huge bump in funds.

The City Council voted early Wednesday to transfer $350,000 from the citys contingent reserve fund to an ad hoc review committee set up last year that will use the money to hire an expert to examine the Police Departments policies, procedures, training and culture. The transfer, which needed at least 15 votes for approval, passed by a vote of 19-1.

Beginning Tuesday evening, more than four hours of public comment, questions and debate pushed the vote to about 12:30 Wednesday. Ald. Paul Skidmore, 9th District, was the lone vote against the transfer.

Supporters, who made up the majority of the public speakers prior to the vote, said the funds are needed to hire a qualified consultant that will be able to produce a thorough review in a timely manner. Some also said the study will help to rebuild trust with law enforcement, primarily among communities of color.

Opponents argued the committee should go through the standard budget process to obtain the funding, and the thousands of dollars could go to other areas of importance, such as helping the homeless. Some also worried about the effect of smaller reserve fund could have if any emergencies arise.

Tuesday nights meeting became heated at times, with council members and Madison Police Chief Mike Koval sparring.

Ald. Shiva Bidar-Sielaff, 5th District, lead sponsor of the measure, said the review committees work was not intended to be divisive. She said it was meant to highlight the good work officers do and point out areas that need improvement.

Koval said in a blog post on Sunday he has no objections to an independent review, but questioned the price tag attached to the study for a department that he said regularly receives praise for its practices and policies.

The post was also critical of council members, who Koval said showed little support for a police department that is used as a political punching bag.

The perpetually offended of Madison who use their small but vocal numbers to dictate agendas has an incredible grip on this City, Koval wrote. No one dares to raise a voice lest they be marginalized in the PC world of Madison.

Ald. Mark Clear, 19th District, said Kovals comments were very hurtful and riled up the public. Other council members were also critical and hurt by the post, drawing some to tears.

Koval stood up to leave following Clears statements. In a heated conversation with several council members, Koval said he did not want to stay and listen to editorial statements. But Koval ended up staying for the rest of the meeting.

The chief defended his comments, saying the adversarial tone has at least started a conversation about the use of money. Koval said the citys financial situation is why hes against funding the study at this time, although, he said he has never opposed conducting one.

Ald. Samba Baldeh, 17th District, said based on the chiefs comments, he did not feel safe with Koval sitting behind him during the meeting with a gun.

I really resent the inference that you thought that someone sitting behind you with a gun was going to be a clear and present danger to you, Koval said in response.

The council appropriated an initial $50,000 for the committee in May 2015, following the shooting of Tony Robinson, an unarmed black 19-year-old, in March of last year.

Luis Yudice, co-chair of the review committee, said in order to complete the committees charge, a total of $400,000 is needed to hire a consultant. Yudice, who served 31 years in the Madison Police Department, said the price tag is drawn from a similar study of the University of Cincinnatis police department.

Steve Fitzsimmons, vice president of the Midvale Heights Community Association, said the committee should get the money through the budget process and not the reserve fund.

I dont think this council is being fair to the police chief. I dont think this council is being fair to the citizens of Madison, Fitzsimmons said.

Teresa Tellez-Giron, vice president of Latino Children and Families Council, said she believes Koval is a good police chief, but said he has turned the review committees work into a divisive conversation.

There continues to be trust gaps that we as Latinos face nationally and locally when interacting with law enforcement, Tellez-Giron said.

Dr. Beth Neary, who opposed the transfer, said she appreciates the work of Koval and the police department. While she supports looking into the department, Neary said, she has a problem with the amount of money and its source.

Sharon Irwin, Robinsons grandmother, spoke in support of the study and said its results could help change policies and prevent people from losing family members.

Doing (the study) this way, gives somebody outside an opportunity to say, Well heres your problem, and heres whats good, and heres what we can change,  Irwin said. Otherwise, theres going to be more families like mine who have been crying every day for a child who should not be dead.

The citys finance committee unanimously passed the appropriation May 24, though some members raised concerns about the existing amount left in the reserve fund. The appropriation leaves the reserve fund with a balance of about $514,000.
The Air National Guards Truax Field is in the running for a new generation of fighter jet, a U.S. Air Force spokesman said Wednesday.

Truax is among 18 Air National Guard bases across the country that are being evaluated, said Capt. Mark Graff, an Air Force spokesman in Washington, D.C.

Being chosen for the F-35A jet would be seen as a measure of security for prolonged operation of the field on Madisons North Side. In 2005, Truax was considered for closure  but spared in the end  as part of a national base realignment effort.

Another round of closures is expected in 2019, and aging F-16 Block 30 fighter jets, like those based at Truax and which can often be heard roaring across northeastern Madison, are among the oldest still in service. They have been retired as part of base closings elsewhere.

In 2005, managers at the adjacent Dane County Regional Airport discussed how they would replace the firefighting services provided by the Air National Guard and concluded that there could be substantial costs to replace specialized equipment if the Guard base closed, said airport spokesman Brent McHenry.

The Air Force announced in April that it was seeking two additional bases for the F-35A. The candidates were released to the Wisconsin State Journal on Wednesday.

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Madison Democrat, said in a statement that she plans to continue to advocate for improvements at Truax, including the new jets.

I expect us to be a very strong competitor, Baldwin said.

Spokeswomen for the Air National Guards 115th Fighter Wing couldnt be reached for comment, but Graff said the Air Force will narrow the list of possible bases to four, conduct environmental impact analyses and make a final decision based on projected cost and several other factors this year.

The new jets would arrive in 2022.

The basing criteria are mission (including weather, airspace and training range availability), capacity (hangar, runway, ramp space and facilities considerations), environmental requirements and cost factors, Graff said.

Air Combat Command and the Air National Guard will conduct site surveys at each candidate location as applicable, Graff said.

The Air Force is committed to a deliberate and open process to address F-35 basing, Jennifer A. Miller, the deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for installations, said in a statement in April. As we progress through the basing process, we will share information so interested communities are aware of what to expect.

The bases being considered have runways of at least 8,000 feet and operational A-10 Thunderbolt IIs, F-16 Fighting Falcons or F-15 Eagles, Graff said. Currently, three active-duty bases and one Air National Guard base have been chosen for F-35As, he said.

Graff said the other 17 airfields under consideration in the current selection round were Atlantic City Airport in New Jersey; Barnes Airport in Massachusetts; Boise Air Terminal in Idaho; Buckley Air Force Base in Colorado; Duluth Airport in Minnesota; Fresno Yosemite Airport in California; Fort Wayne Airport in Indiana; Jacksonville Airport in Florida; Joe Foss Field in South Dakota; Joint Base Andrews-Naval Air Facility in Washington, D.C.; McEntire Joint National Guard Base in South Carolina; Montgomery Regional Airport in Alabama; Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base New Orleans in Louisiana; Portland Airport in Oregon; Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Michigan; Toledo Express Airport in Ohio; and Tulsa Airport in Oklahoma.
In late February, Myra Hoye learned her lease would not be renewed, giving her 60 days to vacate her apartment.

Soon, Nelson Turner got the same news. So did Angela Lesure, and LaDonna Hunt, and Ruby Timberlake, and many others.

All were living in a neighborhood on Madison's Southwest Side where a group of new investors purchased several million dollars worth of rental housing, including the 90-unit Orchard Village Apartments, 5806 Raymond Road.

The new owners took to upgrading the units while also raising the rents and tightening the leasing standards. They told neighbors they intend to turn around a troubled area, and they are doing just that, many say approvingly.

Yet the improvements have come with a cost. Many leases have been terminated, thrusting some people, including children, into homelessness.

Social workers and housing advocates say they are seeing the same scenario play out across the city. It's another ramification of the city's tight rental market and new state laws that give housing providers greater discretion in screening tenants. With vacancy rates so low, landlords can charge more and be picky in choosing tenants.

"A lot of companies come in, buy a lot of properties, tighten up the screening standards, and not renew most or all of the people there," said Mike Bruce of Joining Forces for Families, a Dane County program that places social workers in neighborhoods with the greatest needs. "They put on a new coat of paint, do maybe a little bit of landscaping, and charge $100 or $200 a month more in rent."

This can be a brutal scenario for people with any sort of barriers to housing, such as low incomes, criminal convictions, poor credit scores or prior evictions, said Bruce, whose office is across from Orchard Village Apartments in the Meadowood Neighborhood.

"There's just nowhere for them to go," Bruce said. "So what we see is people doubling up, sleeping on couches, doing whatever they can to find a place, while a totally overburdened shelter system is trying to figure out what to do."

Josh Gierach, the lead investor in Orchard Village Apartments, said he is not unsympathetic to what is happening. He has successfully cleaned up other troubled properties, he said, and sometimes that has meant causing hardship in the lives of the people forced out.

But he said his first responsibility is to provide safe, well-maintained properties for the tenants who are following the rules and for the residents of the broader neighborhood.

"I have wrestled with the homeless situation. I'm well aware of it," he said. "When we go into neighborhoods, there is a massive amount of displacement that takes place. I don't know how to solve the crime problem without that happening."

'Shocking things'

Gierach, 35, owns j.k.ROCK Property Management. He took over the apartments in September and inherited "some pretty shocking things," he said.

Crime was widespread, from open-air drug and gun sales to youth vandalizing the property, he said. Of the 90 units, 11 were vacant and "in terrible shape," Gierach said. Tenants in about 40 units were either behind on rent or consistently not paying on time, owing $38,000 cumulatively in late rent, he said.

"You can't run a business like that, and you certainly can't make the improvements like we're doing when you give away free rent," Gierach said.

Upgrades include new light fixtures, landscaping and flooring. Rents have increased an average of $100 a month, topping out at $979 for a two-bedroom unit.

Because of the problems he encountered after taking over, Gierach said he decided to require all current tenants to reapply as their leases come due. Generally, the new standards require good landlord references and gross household income of more than $2,000 a month, Gierach said. Any "delinquent housing accounts or rental judgments" result in an automatic denial. Criminal records from the past 10 years are checked for any convictions related to tenancy or any convictions in areas that would endanger residents or property, he said.

So far, the new owners have issued 19 non-renewals, and there will be more, Gierach said. Tenants in 26 units have been offered renewals, and about half are staying on. Some of those leaving told the State Journal they cannot afford the higher rents.

All of this turnover is hitting the nearby Orchard Ridge Elementary School particularly hard. On April 29, for instance, which was move-out day for some tenants, children from four families became homeless, said Pazee Yang, the school's social worker.

Bruce, the county social worker, said it's agonizing in these situations to see the suffering of children, whom he considers the innocent collateral damage.

"Yet there's a tendency for all of us to oversimplify," he said. "This is not a case of 'evil landlord and angelic tenants' or 'perfect landlord and horrible tenants.' It's messier than that."

'Homeless forever?'

Riconda Buchanan and Rosevelt Pollard had lived at Orchard Village Apartments with their three children for one year and acknowledge they'd fallen about two months behind on rent after both of them lost their jobs around the same time. Buchanan, 30, said she got a new job within a few weeks and immediately began paying back the late rent.

The couple's lease was not renewed, and they have been homeless since December, living in their vehicle or at motels, they said. Buchanan is irate that Gierach kept the couple's $900 security deposit and assessed them an additional $2,000 for alleged damage to the unit. On top of that, she said the leasing office is badmouthing her to other landlords.

"I guess I'm just going to be homeless forever," she said.

Gierach is unapologetic about the couple. They are "super nice" people but "terrible" tenants, he said.

They were $1,584 behind in rent when he took over and owed $1,700 when they left, he said. Among other issues, a group of children that gathered at the couple's apartment on weekends was unruly and had broken neighborhood windows, he said.

"They should not be given a place to live anywhere in the United States," Gierach said of the couple. "They are going to bring down any other neighborhood they move into."

Buchanan disputes both the amount of rent she still owed  she says it was around $500  and the allegation that a child of hers was involved in breaking windows. As for Gierach's comments about her, she said he'll get his due on Judgment Day. "I'm going to let God deal with him," she said.

Gierach was equally remorseless when asked about some of the other former tenants  until Myra Hoye's name came up.

"That's a heartbreaking situation," he said. "She's like the freakin' model tenant."

Hoye, 62, lived at the complex for three years. She said she never missed a rent payment and was not given a clear reason for her lease termination.

"They told me they were taking back the neighborhood and that I don't meet their criteria," said Hoye, who is disabled and receives a federal Section 8 housing voucher to help pay her rent. "I think what they mean is they're just trying to get upper-income people in here."

On the day she had to move out, Hoye was in a hospital due to kidney failure. Her sons moved her possessions into storage. She considers herself homeless now, unable yet to find housing and temporarily doubled-up with a relative.

Gierach said his issue with Hoye was that when her grandchildren visited, they "would terrorize the building and yell and scream." They threw rocks, hit things with sticks, and bent light poles, he said.

"We talked to her about them," he said. "She tried to rein them in." It did not work, he said.

Aggressive approach

If there's a common complaint about Gierach, it is that he is hurting people indiscriminately. In responding to such criticism, Gierach brings up his prior experience managing Tucson Trails, an apartment complex also on Madison's Southwest Side.

In cleaning up that property, he took a slower approach over several years, he said. But that caused tension between the new tenants and the problem ones who remained, he said. He's taking a more aggressive approach this time.

"The problem was so extreme here that there was no other way than to just rip the Band-Aid off," he said. "That's my assessment. I know that's maybe not fair to everyone."

He has tried to minimize the hardship by letting people know about the new standards months in advance of their leases coming due and being flexible on move-out dates, he said.

Angela Lesure, 56, and her husband Allen were among the latest tenants let go. After three years at Orchard Village Apartments, they became homeless on May 31. It is an ironic development for Lesure, who works part-time as an assistant at a Madison homeless shelter. She also facilitates a support group for homeless women.

She said she can't help noticing that almost all of the tenants not renewed have been black, while the new residents moving in, at least in her building, have been white.

"I believe it is a racial thing to a certain extent," said Lesure, who is black.

The allegation is unwarranted, Gierach said.

"Applicants of all ethnicity have been denied, non-renewed, renewed and signed based on the same consistent screening criteria," he said.

Gierach said Lesure and her husband lost their lease because they had been late multiple times on rent and because their dog constantly barked. Lesure vehemently disputed the rent characterization, saying there was only one occasion when the federal Section 8 rental subsidy she receives was delayed, through no fault of her own.

Gierach's approach has made him enemies, but also many friends.

"Thank God for Josh," said Jerry Johnson, a retiree who owns a condo nearby and said the apartment complex had been in a downward spiral before Gierach took over.

"I'm liking the changes," said Benita Burruss, 50, who just re-upped for a third year at Orchard Village Apartments. "Things had become really chaotic and a lot of stuff was going on. I had a break-in, and there were shootings."

There's still work to be done on the crime front. While Gierach was being interviewed at the leasing office by the State Journal on May 4, shots rang out nearby, sending him running to investigate. Police said there had been a fight between four men and a woman on the 5800 block of Russett Road that ended in gunfire, though no one was hit.

Adam Kneubuhler, the neighborhood police officer, said the area generates significant police calls but has made strides in the last two years, which he attributed to hard work by many, including the Meadowood Neighborhood Association and the Meadowood Neighborhood Center.

Kneubuhler said he could not comment on Gierach's screening practices, but he said he has "noticed a drastic reduction in criminal activity at Orchard Village Apartments since (the new owners) took over."

This echoes what people say about Gierach in the Westhaven Trails Neighborhood, home to the Tucson Trails apartment complex.

"Over time, he was able to work with the police department to eliminate bad behavior from that area," said Enzo Ciarletta, the immediate past-president of the homeowners association. "He was a great asset."

'My responsibility'

Gierach has concluded that he can fix only so many problems.

"I can't help these people deal with alcohol abuse or drug abuse or their relationship issues or health issues or any of these other issues," he said.

There are other resources for each of those specific needs, he said.

"My responsibility, as I see it, is to protect and guard the neighborhood. People need to live somewhere safe, and they need to know that they don't have to worry about whether or not maintenance items will be taken care of."

The Road Home Dane County is among the nonprofit organizations working to provide community resources to the homeless and near-homeless.

"I completely agree that landlords should not have to be everybody's social worker," said Executive Director Kristin Rucinski.

Yet she wondered if Gierach had considered partnering with The Road Home or one of several other organizations that offer free case management services. These programs provide employees who walk alongside of higher-risk tenants, helping them problem-solve so that they can stay in their housing.

It's an approach that both landlords and tenant advocates say can work really well. Even if Gierach were to set aside just one unit at Orchard Village Apartments for this approach, it would help, she said.
The millennials have surpassed baby boomers to become the countrys largest living generation, according to the Pew Research Center. How does that make you feel? Responses in the form of a selfie or an emoji are optional.

If youve never taken a selfie or used an emoji  indeed, if you stumble over the terms  youre likely not a young-adult millennial. And you may wonder how things will pan out for society when they take charge. Especially since they never pry their phones away from their faces.

Thats not us talking. Were, ahem, slightly past millennial age, but work closely with those in the 19-35 age bracket and they knock us out. However, plenty of people in older generations are puzzled by millennials, concerned they will turn out to be less responsible than running the world requires. Nagging oldsters fuss over millennials quirks. To generalize (always unfair), the rap is theyre technology-addicted, entitled and frankly rather soft.

Psychology Today collected many of the perceived weaknesses in one paragraph: They seek constant feedback and immediate gratification. They multitask and cant focus. Theyre sensitive to criticism and unable to work alone. They refuse to pay their dues. Dont even mention their (limited) verbal and writing skills. ...

The marketing world struggles mightily to understand millennials as consumers and citizens. Fabrizio Freda, a baby-boomer cosmetics CEO, told The Wall Street Journal: Millennials are much more about immediate results than saving for the future. The 30-year-old today gets more photographs of themselves in a day than their mother did in a year, so they care about what their skin looks like now, not when they are 40.

Talk about self-absorption. No, not by millennials. By boomers, who see the world through their own lens, crowding out the ability to look objectively  or generously  at the younger generation.

Were not trying to shame Freda, who runs Estee Lauder. Millennials get grief all over. Writer Molly Worthen in The New York Times objected to millennial use of the phrase I feel like as an alternative to the declarative I believe or I think. She tied the squishy sentiment to the safe zone/trigger warning/microaggression movement: the silencing of controversial or provocative discourse in the guise of being inclusive and sensitive to others. Meanwhile, a put-down story about millennials in The Atlantic magazine was titled, The coddling of the American mind.

Each generational shift profoundly ushers in roiling changes to the culture at large that feel natural to the ones coming of age but startle older folks not paying close attention. Boomers as a group are set in their ways, and so is next-up Generation X. Millennials are still evolving, but one day soon  brace yourselves!  they will take power and reshape society based on their own experiences.

Already, their influence suffuses America. Offices look different because millennials have their own work style. Tattoos, beards, energy drinks, Chipotle  all millennial trends. Their priorities are different, their tastes are different. Everything about millennials is different. Except for one crucial, ironic twist: the concern this young generation sows in parents and grandparents. Looking down on the kids is something that never changes. Remember, boomers?

If you go back to the late 1960s, youll find the establishment was whipping itself into a frenzy over what to do about hippies, real and imitational. They would ruin everything! Young people were drug-addled (as opposed to technology-obsessed today), promiscuous (free love vs. Tinder and other hook-up apps today) and had awful taste in music (the Grateful Dead, compared to Deadmau5 today).

In August 1969, after the Woodstock musical festival, the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal lit into the concertgoers as self-centered, uncivilized regressives who wouldnt amount to anything. It would be a curious America if the unwashed, more or less permanently stoned on pot or LSD, were running very many things, the Journal sniffed.

The New York Times knew whom to blame: Surely the parents, the teachers and indeed all the adults who helped create the society against which these young people are so feverishly rebelling must bear a share of the responsibility for this outrageous episode.

Of course the boomers (who also mistrusted previous generations) turned out OK. Their cohort ended the Vietnam War, pioneered equality movements, started a tech revolution. But they didnt do everything right. They created a hellacious pension debt crisis to fund their retirements. Oh and thanks for the college tuition hikes. Thats the judgmental voice of millennials, saddled with paying for the messes left by older generations.

American millennials will face rising challenges. But they are our most educated generation in history and our most diverse, too. Theyre open-minded. Theyre demanding (they want to work from home or Starbucks) and yes, coddled (everyone gets a medal for competing!). Yet theyre also flexible, caring and savvy.

The millennials are unique but, like preceding generations, will prove themselves extraordinarily capable. Our country will be in good hands. Maybe better.
Not one of the companies he worked with at the time focused solely on plastics machining. That glaring industrial omission presented him with an opportunity to fill the void  something for which smart entrepreneurial-types are always looking.

ELK GROVE VILLAGE  Alex Curtiss launched Engineered Plastic Products in 1976 after being a manufacturing sales rep for several years. At that time, almost all plastics were being done by metal machining companies. My partners and I represented primarily plastic companies, Curtiss said.

Plastics specialists exist for a reason, Curtiss told TMAs News Bulletin. A lot of metal shops are doing plastics and they really dont have the technology and knowledge about plastics to do it properly. While the machinery is the same, plastics take different speeds, feeds and tooling.

And those differences between metal and plastics can lead to baffling product malfunction.

Very few houses exclusively work on plastics, Curtiss said. There are some plastics that also do metal, but plastic machining should never be done in a metal machine shop.

Those words are likely to be provocative among metal precision machinists, but Curtiss ably defends his view with examples from two companies that ran into problems because they didnt recognize how detrimental mixing metal and plastic machining can be.

An acrylic manifold company called Curtiss a few years back, concerned that a product was not functioning correctly a short time after being put into use. The customer suspected a static electricity issue was developing.

Its really odd because the manifold goes out into the field, and two or three weeks later, the ball hangs up, he told Curtiss. How would it develop a negative charge?

The company sent the problem manifold to EPP for inspection, and Curtiss examined it with a magnifying glass. He found tiny imperfections roughing up the surface inside one of the manifolds drilled holes.

Curtiss asked a few more questions, and found the metal machinist that was drilling the manifold holes used petroleum-based cutting oil, which attacked and eroded the plastic over time. That was why the problem wasnt showing up for weeks.

Because we work only with plastics, none of our machines have traces of petroleum based cutting oil, Curtiss said. We use special lubricants and none of them use petroleum.

Another customer in Ohio that manufactures analytical equipment for scientific and medical research built a two million dollar medical instrument that after a brief amount of time developed a short circuit, rendering it useless. The engineers could not figure out why it suddenly stopped working.

After dismantling the machine and x-raying its parts, they found the culprit to be a plastic part in which a sliver of metal accidentally embedded during the machining process. The supplier that produced the plastic part machined both plastics and metal in their facility.

Most plastic components tend to be molded, which is generally more cost effective. Plastic machining is necessary when a plastic product cannot be molded due to its design, precision required or the quantity needed.

The industries we serve are instrumentation, medical equipment, aerospace, some oil and gas, and some water treatment, Curtiss said. The one thing those companies have in common is that the components they need are not high volume. They use hundreds of parts per year or maybe a thousand, but they will never get to the point where they are ten thousand parts, which begins to economically justify the molding process.

While metal and plastics machining are similar, there are major differences between the two.

Metal machining companies do plastics, but, according to people Ive talked to, they do it reluctantly. They do it to hang onto the customers, and I totally understand that, Curtiss said. But when you talk to them in private moments, the majority will say, We dont really like machining plastics.

And when metal machinists start working at EPP, they often hesitate to work on plastics. EPP finds they need to train on the materials idiosyncrasies.

More and more, designers are turning to plastics as a non-corroding alternate to the much more expensive stainless steel option. Plastics also offer high weight to strength ratios. Plastics now can be specially formulated to withstand high temperatures and high pressures, and some plastics have self-lubrication abilities or high impact levels.

The four decades-old EPP now has 15 employees and is housed in its second location at a 10,000 square foot Elk Grove Village facility. Curtiss says more and more EPP is networking with area metal precision shops that have projects requiring plastics machining.

We tell our customers that well spend their money like its ours, Curtiss said, slipping back naturally into his former sales rep persona. Well look for the most efficient way to produce parts with the lowest possible cost and with the highest possible performance.

The company provides extensive information on their website at www. EPPCorp.com about plastics materials and services they offer.

EPP is located at 2542 Pratt Boulevard, Elk Grove Village, IL 60007.

First published in Technology & Manufacturing Association's News Bulletin. Used by permission.
Governor Rauner and House Minority Leader Jim Durkin deserve credit for their willingness and commitment to reform and extend Illinois medical marijuana program, Lang said in a statement provided to the pro-pot blog Medicine Jane last week. I want to thank them for their cooperation to find a bi-partisan legislative compromise on improving a program designed to ease the pain and suffering of seriously ill individuals, including children."

SB 10, sponsored by State Rep. Lou Lang (D-Chicago - the medical pot lobbyists' "go-to" lawmaker - is delighted with the law's progress and fully expects the governor to sign the measure into law.

SPRINGFIELD - Anyone in Illinois suffering from PTSD or a terminal illness will be able to legally acquire federally-banned marijuana if Governor Rauner signs into law a bill that passed the Illinois legislature before the end of session. That would make 37 different conditions on the list of pot-treatable conditions in Illinois to be the highest in the nation.

The bill not only makes Illinois the state with the most conditions for which medical pot can be legally obtained, it expands the Medical Cannabis program to ease pressure on doctors not so eager to have their practices associated with recommending medical pot. Instead, doctors will now simply need to certify a doctor-patient relationship and that the patient suffers from one of the qualifying conditions.

State Rep. Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton), a West Point graduate and Army veteran, said on the House floor that she opposed the expansion of the medical pot pilot program to treat PTSD.

"I'm very concerned about PTSD, and I serve on an advisory committee about veteran suicides," she told Illinois Review. "But medical pot isn't considered as a remedy for PTSD by the committee. SB 10 goes in the wrong direction and it expands the pilot program."

Amond the 87 "Yes" House votes, a surprising 27 Republican House members agreed with House Minority Leader Jim Durkin and a majority of the House Democrats to support expanding the pilot program.

Republican House members - Anthony, Batinick, Brady, Bryant, Butler, Cabello, Davidsmeyer, Demmer, Fortner, Hammond, David Harris, Hays, Jimenez, Leitch, McDermed, McSweeney, Bill Mitchell, Phillips, Pritchard, Sandack, Sommer, Sullivan, Tryon, Wehrli, Barbara Wheeler and Keith Wheeler - voted "Yes" on the expansion.

Senate Bill 10 includes "making patient and caregiver identification cards valid for three years instead of one, eliminating a fingerprint requirement for patients and caregivers renewing their registration cards, and allowing minor patients to have two registered caregivers. In addition, a new procedure for patients to petition the state to consider new qualifying conditions will be established," Medical Jane writes.

Employers are being placed in quandaries as they determine how to handle employees they discover are showing high levels of marijuana in their systems. When employers say their conditions are being treated with medical pot, employers are faced with either placing colleagues in unsafe conditions, not enforcing work rules and possibly being sued for discrimination.

And if an employee were to be hurt while at the job, but showing levels of medical marijuana in their systems, employers are faced with possibly even higher expenses associated with workmen's compensation cases.

Case law in California and Oregon has determined that a private employer may still terminate an employee for failing a company drug test, even if that employee is authorized under state law to use cannabis medicinally. Most states - including Illinois - however, have not reached a legal consensus on this issue.

Governor Rauner has 60 days to sign the legislation or to veto it. The House vote, 86 to 27.

Senate vote including Republicans Althoff, Barickman, Brady, Luechtefeld, McCann, McConnaughay, Nybo, Oberweis, Radogno and Syverson voting "Yes."
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.
Trump has made criticism of Ford Motor Co, suggesting that the Dearborn, Michigan, automaker would back down from plans to expand in Mexico or face a 35 percent tariff on vehicle exports.

In December 2014, GM said it was investing $5 billion in Mexico through 2018 - a move that would allow it to double its production capacity at its plants around the country.

By Reuters: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump rebuked General Motors Co on Tuesday, widening his criticism of American companies that have invested in Mexico.

Trump has made criticism of Ford Motor Co a staple of his campaign speeches for more than a year, repeatedly suggesting that the Dearborn, Michigan, automaker would back down from plans to expand in Mexico or face a 35 percent tariff on vehicle exports.

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ALSO READ: General Motors India rolls out first Beat for Argentina

Trump also has criticized Carrier, a manufacturer of air conditioning units, which is owned by United Technologies Corp and Mondelez International Inc, the owner of Nabisco, for shifting jobs to Mexico.

"I am fighting hard to bring jobs back to the United States. Many companies - like Ford, General Motors, Nabisco, Carrier - are moving production to Mexico. Drugs and illegal immigrants are also pouring across our border. This is bad for all Americans, regardless of their heritage," Trump said in a statement defending his comments about a Mexican-American judge overseeing civil lawsuits against Trump University. His view of an ethnically biased judiciary has drawn criticism, including from within his own party.

A spokeswoman for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment on why Trump had decided to criticize GM.

ALSO READ: General Motors to launch notchback Chevrolet Essentia in 2017

GM spokesman Jim Cain declined comment on Trump's criticism.

In December 2014, GM said it was investing $5 billion in Mexico through 2018 - a move that would allow it to double its production capacity at its plants around the country. GM said in 2014 the investment would create 5,600 jobs in Mexico.

The Detroit News reported in May that GM plans next year to move some light-duty pickup production to the Flint Assembly Plant from Mexico, according to a memo from UAW Local 598 to membership.

ALSO READ: General Motors India to showcase MPV Spin, 2 new concept vehicles at Auto Expo 2016

Mexican auto production has been rising in recent years as numerous automakers expand operations.

Mexico produced 3.4 million vehicles in 2015, the seventh largest vehicle producer worldwide, and could surpass South Korea by 2020, producing more than 5 million vehicles, according to industry forecasts.

Ford has repeatedly rejected Trump's criticism and emphasized its significant U.S. investments and employment.

ALSO READ: General Motors India gears up for Auto Expo 2016, teases Chevrolet Beat Cross

In April, Ford announced it would invest $1.6 billion to build more small cars in Mexico. In 2015, Ford said it would invest $2.5 billion in new engine and transmission plants in Mexico, creating 3,800 jobs.

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Suzuki will stay on as chairman, the company said, adding that Executive Vice President Osamu Honda will retire.

Japanese investigators raided the company's headquarters last week in their probe of the improper tests. (In Pic: Suzuki Motor's Chief Executive and Chairman Osamu Suzuki)

By Reuters: Suzuki Motor Corp's Chief Executive and Chairman Osamu Suzuki will step down as CEO, the Japanese automaker said on Wednesday, after revealing last month its use of wrong mileage testing methods.

Suzuki will stay on as chairman, the company said, adding that Executive Vice President Osamu Honda will retire.

ALSO READ: Suzuki Motors executive vice president to resign over false tests

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Japan's No. 4 automaker by sales said in May it had used wrong tests to calculate mileage for models going back to 2010, submitting figures compiled from indoor tests performed on individual parts, rather than vehicle coasting tests.

Japanese investigators raided the company's headquarters last week in their probe of the improper tests.

ALSO READ: Suzuki admits to using wrong fuel economy tests in Japan

The change to chairman Suzuki's role and the retirement of the vice president will be effective June 29, subject to approval by shareholders at its annual general meeting, the company said.

Suzuki said it plans to introduce improvements including better training for engineers and strengthening of its mileage testing systems. It would also encourage whistle-blowing, it said.

ALSO READ: There is no universal way of calculating mileage, says Suzuki chairman

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On May 18, Suzuki Motor had stated that it had used the wrong methods to test the fuel economy of its cars in Japan, but claimed that these didn't make the final results very different.

Earlier, Suzuki shrugged of use of wrong methods to test fuel economy of its cars in Japan, saying there was no universal method of calculating mileage.

By Reuters: Suzuki Motor Corp's executive vice president Osamu Honda is set to resign to take responsibility for the Japanese automaker's use of wrong mileage testing methods, the Nikkei reported on Wednesday.

Suzuki declined to comment.

ALSO READ: Suzuki admits to using wrong fuel economy tests in Japan

On May 18, Suzuki Motor had stated that it had used the wrong methods to test the fuel economy of its cars in Japan, but claimed that these didn't make the final results very different. Also, it did not affect cars sold by the company outside its home market.

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However, Suzuki shrugged of use of wrong methods to test fuel economy of its cars in Japan, saying there was no universal method of calculating mileage.

A fortnight after Suzuki Motor admitted using an improper method to test the fuel efficiency of its vehicles, its Chairman Osamu Suzuki said the methods of calculating mileage differ from country to country.

ALSO READ: There is no universal way of calculating mileage, says Suzuki chairman

Worries over similar damage for Suzuki sent shares in Japan's fourth-largest carmaker down as much as 15 percent during the day.

Suzuki said it would continue selling its mini-cars and saw no impact on its earnings. The correct readings, it said, were not significantly different to those it submitted.

Japanese authorities, however, have asked for further details from Suzuki before May 31, calling its use of non-compliant tests "outrageous".

ALSO READ: Maruti Suzuki to resume production at Gurgaon from today

"The company apologizes for the fact that we did not follow rules set by the country," CEO Osamu Suzuki told reporters, adding 2.1 million vehicles were affected.

Suzuki specializes in mini-vehicles, which have engines of up to 660cc and get preferential tax treatment under Japanese law. It has roughly a third of the country's mini-vehicle market. It also has a successful Indian subsidiary, Maruti Suzuki.



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Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje launched two mobile applications that would monitor air quality in cities and industrial areas in the state.

By India Today Web Desk: The Rajasthan government has launched a mobile application that will share information about the air quality of Jaipur, Udaypur and Jodhpur.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje launched RajVayu, a mobile app, on the occasion of World Environment Day. Rajasthan is the first Indian state to take such an initiative.





Some key features of RajVayu, the app:



The information on the app will be provided by air quality monitors and weather sensors

The Rajasthan State Pollution Control Board (RSPCB) and the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) has jointly designed the application

Citizens and visitors can get air pollution-related details such as level of pollutants such as sulfur oxide, nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, ozone particles and particulate matter (PM)

The app will also show measurements of temperature, wind speed, humidity, weather forecast and advisories for each city

The RajVayu app is based on the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting Research (SAFAR-India), which is presently catering to Delhi, Mumbai and Pune

The RajVayu app is likely to expand to other cities in Rajasthan including Ajmer, Alwar, Bhiwadi, Kota and Pali

P.S. Rajasthan CM Raje also launched Drishti, another mobile app that would monitor air quality in industrial areas. It is designed by the RSPCB and RajComp.



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What is Air quality Index?

Air Quality Index or AQI is basically an associate degree "index" pattern that is set by calculating the degree of pollution within the town or at a certain monitoring point. It includes five main pollutants like air particulate, ground-level gas density, carbon monoxide gas content, sulphur dioxide content and gas content. Each of those pollutants has an air quality normal of their own, that is employed to calculate the AQI for the town.

In numbers, AQI is diagrammatic between a scale of zero to 500, with zero representing smart air and 500 representing hazardous air. For higher understanding and presentation, the AQI is broken down into six classes. Every class is colour coded with the amount scale, which helps in calculating the magnitude.



How is air quality calculated?

The concentration of each and every waste matter is measured at each site at the end of every hourly interval. It is then regenerated into a number starting from zero placed on high, employing a common scale or index. The calculated variety for every waste matter is cited as a sub-index.

At a given web site, the best sub-index for any given hour becomes the AQI reading for that hour. The index, being a relative scale, is inversely proportional. In that case, the lower the index, the higher the air quality.

The measurement scale is based on a colour system and a definite scale:



Green- Air quality is considered satisfactory and air pollution poses little or no risk

Yellow- Air quality is acceptable with some pollutants, which might cause some health problems

Orange- Air quality is unhealthy for some people known as the sensitive group. The general people will not be affected

Red- Quality of air is unhealthy for all, causing a health hazard for the masses in general

Brown- Air quality is very unhealthy and is in a state of emergency

Black/Grey- The condition of the air is hazardous with a general health hazard experienced by all.

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P.S. It should be noted that Delhi tops the chart in terms of the highest number of air emissions.

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By India Today Web Desk: Tim Berners-Lee, the man who gave us the World Wide Web (WWW), was born on June 8, 1955. He had created the 'WWW' in a bid to share knowledge among the scientist-fraternity. An Oxford University graduate, Tim Berners-Lee was the first person to write the web client and server. His specifications such as HTTP and HTML were further refined as Internet started to spread.

Tim is a 3Com Founders professor of engineering in the School of Engineering with a joint appointment in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Laboratory for Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence (CSAIL) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He also heads the Decentralized Information Group (DIG) within MIT.

Though Tim Berner-Lee is called the father of 'www', he might not be happy with all the consequences that have followed the origin of the World Wide Web. He actively participates in movements against the censoring of internet. According to him, the spying and blocking of the free service is what undermines the purpose of Internet, which is to help people create. He plans to re-decentralize internet to make it more personal and less controlled by governments and corporations.

Here is a timeline of how Tim Berners-Lee made and evolved WWW:

Tim Berners-Lee had made a project in 1980 which was about readable texts embedded in links

In 1989, Tim Berners-Lee submitted his proposal of WWW in a descriptive format. Initially, he thought of names like 'Information Mesh', 'The Information Mine' and 'Mine of Information'

In 1990, with the help of Robert Cailliau, Lee built a 'Hypertext project' called WorldWideWeb which could only be accessed through a browser

In 1991, Tim published a short summary of WWW and internet was made accessible to the public

In 1993, CERN announced that internet would be free to everyone and there would be no fee for its use

In 1994, many websites erupted and the internet service got popular

In 1999, Darci DiNucci coined the term 'Web 2.0' which was later popularised in the year 2004

Its due to Web 2.0 that we see user-generated content, better usability, user friendly and two way communication on the Web

Berners Lee was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2004 for his work

Interesting facts about World Wide Web:

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Interested in General Knowledge and Current Affairs? Click here to stay informed and know what is happening around the world with our G.K. and Current Affairs section.

To get more updates on Current Affairs, send in your query by mail toeducation.intoday@gmail.com

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The collision happened about 9:15 pm on Tuesday during night training operations over a remote military operating area in Jefferson County, Georgia, a National Guard spokeswoman said.

By AP: Two South Carolina Air National Guard F-16 fighter pilots ejected safely after an apparent midair collision in eastern Georgia, the Guard said.

The collision happened about 9:15 pm on Tuesday during night training operations over a remote military operating area in Jefferson County, Georgia, a National Guard spokeswoman said.

The jets were assigned to the South Carolina Air National Guard's 169th Fighter Wing, which operates out of McEntire Joint National Guard Base in Eastover, South Carolina.

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NO IMMEDIATE REPORTS OF INJURIES ON THE GROUND

The two male pilots were taken to a hospital, said 1st Lt. Stephen Hudson, a spokesman for the Guard.

Guard spokeswoman Col. Cindi King said Wednesday morning she could not say whether the pilots had been released from medical care.

"The good news is, they were able to eject safely and contact the base immediately to say they were both okay," King said.

There were no immediate reports of injuries on the ground.

"We are dealing with two crash sites," Hudson said. Local first responders were securing the area and providing emergency services, the Guard's news release said.

McEntire Joint National Guard Base commander Col. Nicholas Gentile was heading to the crash scene Wednesday morning, King said. The South Carolina Army National Guard was flying Gentile to Georgia aboard a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter, King said.

"With the sun out, they will be able to see the area," she said, adding that the Blackhawk helicopters will help in their ability to fly over and assess potential damage.

The area is known as the Townsend Bombing Range and South Carolina Air National Guard fighter jets routinely train there for their electronic warfare and bombing missions.

King said South Carolina National Guard commander Maj. Gen. Robert Livingston Jr. was in Washington on Tuesday night when he got news of the crashes and was returning to Columbia to be updated.

The South Carolina Air National Guard and the US Air Force are dispatching teams to investigate the collision.

The collision comes after both of the military's precision flying teams suffered crashes last week.

OTHER CASES



A Blue Angels F/A-18 crashed last Thursday near Nashville, Tennessee, while taking off for a practice session. The pilot, Marine Capt. Jeff Kuss, was killed.

Also Thursday, a Thunderbirds F-16 crashed outside Colorado Springs, Colorado, but that pilot, Maj. Alex Turner, ejected safely. The Thunderbirds had just performed over the open-air graduation ceremony at the nearby Air Force Academy, where President Barack Obama spoke.

In May, two Navy jet fighters collided off the North Carolina coast. The four people on board the jets were pulled from the Atlantic Ocean by a commercial fishing ship.

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Albinistic people in Malawi, Africa are being hunted for their body parts because of superstitions that say body parts of albinos have magical powers to cure deadly diseases.

By India Today Web Desk: A new report from Amnesty International titled "We are not animals to be hunted or sold" sheds light on a disturbing trend that is on the rise in Malawi, a southeastern African country, ironically nicknamed "The Warm Heart of Africa" - violence against albinos - including harassment, abduction, rape, mutilation and murder.



What is albinism?

Albinism is a congenital disorder resulting in complete or partial absence of pigment in skin, hair and eyes. Affected people have white skin and hair, and in some cases, reddish eyes. The condition can lead to vision loss, extreme sun-sensitivity and psychological issues stemming from embarrassment.

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Superstition in Africa



Body parts of albinistic people have magical powers and bring good luck.

Result?



Albinos are being hunted for their body parts.

At least 18 people have been killed and at least 5 people have been abducted since 2014 who remain missing till date.

Albinos are being targeted for their body parts and this superstition has pushed more than 7,000 - 10,000 albinos to a lead a life in constant fear of being murdered by criminal gangs. Over 69 cases of crimes related to people with albinism have been reported to the Malawi Police. However, the Police maintain they're doing 'everything they can' and often point to the shoot at sight order against anyone who is suspected to be a 'albino hunter'.

Sadly, neither the Malawian police nor the Government of Malawi, have been successful in ensuring security of albinos living in the country. The government also failed to educate the citizens about the natural causes of albinism and eradicate superstitious beliefs. Uninitiated about the natural causes of albinism, many families abandon albinistic members and that makes things easier for criminal.

Height of superstitious beliefs

Talking of superstitious beliefs, myth that body parts of albinos have magical powers is not the most ridiculous one, but the belief that having sex with an albino woman will cure HIV/AIDS. As a direct implication, women face a bigger threat of rape and sexual assaults. Women and children are attacked more because criminals see them as easy targets.

Another myth is that bones of albinistic people contain gold or have medicinal, magical powers. A report from the International Committee of the Red Cross says that the criminals resort to such violence against albinos hoping they can make money as high as $75,000 (approximately Rs 4,50,000) by selling a 'full set' of albino body parts.

Ikponwosa Ero, an independent albinism expert working with the United Nations and an albino herself, told Al Jazeera that albinos in Malawai, neighboring Tanzania and Mozambique cannot even "die in peace" as their remains are robbed from graveyards.

It is said that if authorities stay blind folded towards the issues of albinos, they will face "total extinction".

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By Parmita Uniyal: The first trailer of 24 Season 2 sets the premise for the current season. The second installment of Anil Kapoor's much-awaited thriller promises a series of twists and turns that are sure to take the audiences by surprise. Here are a few of them.

Also read: All about Sakshi Tanwar's role in Anil Kapoor's 24 Season 2



Jai Singh Rathod is back. But he isn't the same person anymore, at least on the surface. He's battling alcohol issues in rehab. That's not it. His son holds him responsible for his mother's (Tischa Chopra) death, and hates him. Jai gets a terror mastermind Roshan Sherchan (Ashish Vidyarthi) arrested along with accomplice Shivani Malik. But Roshan's brother Haroon Sherchan (Sikander Kher) has made a deadly plan. He threatens to infect Mumbai with a virus that can put everyone's life at risk. While the Anti Terrorism Squad (including Sakshi Tanwar) is trying its best to solve the case, Jai Rathod is hatching a plan to free Roshan. What's his motive? There's a new woman in Jai's life, played by Surveen Chawla, and his son starts hating him even more for this. Jai apparently is doing everything for the sake of Surveen, who's also seen romancing Haroon aka Sikander Kher. What's her truth?

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24 Season 2 will star Anil Kapoor, Sakshi Tanwar, Surveen Chawla, Ashish Vidyarthi, Sikander Kher, Amruta Khanvilkar, Angad Bedi, Anita Raj, Harsh Chhaya, Madhurima Tulli, Neil Bhoopalam, Raghav Chanana, Sapna Pabbi, Sudhanshu Pandey among others.

Check out the trailer:





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Anupama Shenoy, who was posted as Deputy Superintendent of Police, Kudligi sub-division of Ballari district, has cited personal reasons behind her resigning from the post.

In January, Anupama Shenoy was shunted for putting a minister's call on hold. (Photo: Anupama Shenoy/Facebook)

By India Today Web Desk: Remember Anupama Shenoy, the senior Karanataka woman cop who was transferred for putting a minister's call on hold earlier this year? Shenoy has resigned from her post. The top cop has now stirred a controversy with three-word post on her Facebook page.

"Resigned and jobless," read Shenoy's post which was followed by a smiling emoticon.

LIQUOR, SAND MAFIA FORCED HER TO RESIGN?

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Shenoy, who was posted as Deputy Superintendent of Police, Kudligi sub-division of Ballari district, has cited personal reasons behind her resigning from the post. However, media reports said that the 2010 batch officer's decision to quit came after she had to face protest after she arrested three people constructing a building for a liquor shop.

The officer had also been in news for taking on liquor and sand mafia in her jurisdiction.

WILL LOOK INTO THE MATTER: SIDDARAMAIAH

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said he is aware about Shenoy's resignation but added that he has no information on what actually triggered her resignation. "The officers are looking into that. She has sent her resignation to the DG. Officers are will look into it," Siddaramaiah told reporters.

PAST CONTROVERSIES

Anupama Shenoy was shunted out in January for placing a phone call from a minister on hold.

Shenoy was sent on official duty order (OOD) by the Karnataka home department a few days after she unintentionally put minister PT Parameshwara Naik's call on hold on January 18.

Furious over the incident, Naik, reported the matter to Home Minister and Karnataka chief G Parameshwara. She was shunted soon after. The minister was also caught on camera bragging about how he "taught the officer a lesson."

The incident had triggered a massive outrage with the Opposition BJP leading the attack on the ruling Congress. Shenoy was reinstated in February.

Also Read:

Karnataka minister gets cop transferred, AICC seeks report



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PM Modi's meeting with President Barack Obama on Tuesday - their seventh so far and perhaps their last since Obama retires in January - was done in the backdrop of major deals being signed between the two countries.

By India Today Web Desk: It has been a series of diplomatic and personal victories for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, currently on his fourth visit to the US. His meeting with President Barack Obama on Tuesday - their seventh so far and perhaps their last since Obama retires in January - was done in a backdrop of major deals signed between the two countries. Today, on the last day of his US trip before he makes a brief stop in Mexico on his way back home, PM Modi will address a joint sitting of the US Congress, a rare honour for a visiting leader.



India and the US inked eight agreements, including in the sphere of defence and energy cooperation, and counter-terrorism. Here are the highlights:



NUCLEAR DEAL



The civilian nuclear agreement signed between India and the US over a decade ago has finally borne fruit with the two sides deciding to start preparatory work on six nuclear power plants in India.



"Culminating a decade of partnership on civil nuclear issues, the leaders welcomed the start of preparatory work on site in India for six AP 1000 reactors to be built by Westinghouse and noted the intention of India and the US Export-Import Bank to work together toward a competitive financing package for the project," a joint statement issued following Tuesday's talks between the two leaders said.



"Once completed, the project would be among the largest of its kind, fulfilling the promise of the US-India civil nuclear agreement and demonstrating a shared commitment to meet India's growing energy needs while reducing reliance on fossil fuels," it said.



The US-India Civil Nuclear Cooperation, also known as the 123 Agreement, was signed by then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and then US President George W Bush on July 18, 2005. The AP 1000 is a nuclear power plant designed and sold by Westinghouse, a subsidiary of Japan's Toshiba.



The US has also supported India's bid for the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). However, due to China's continuous opposition, India will still have to wait a bit longer to break into the elite 48-member club that regulates global nuclear trade.

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MAJOR DEFENCE PARTNER



The US has recognised India as a "major defence partner", a significant development which paves the way for the country to be treated at par with America's closest allies for defence related trade and technology transfer.



"Noting that the US-India defence relationship can be an anchor of stability and given the increasingly strengthened cooperation in defence, the United States hereby recognises India as a Major Defence Partner," said a joint statement issued after Modi held talks with Obama.



According to the statement, under the 'Major Defence Partner' recognition, the US will continue to work toward facilitating technology sharing with India to a level commensurate with that of its closest allies and partners.



Besides, officials from two sides said India and the US have finalised of the text of the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA). It is likely to be signed soon.



India and the US also finalised text of an Information Exchange Annex under the Joint Working Group on Aircraft Carrier Technology Cooperation.















COUNTER-TERRORISM



A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the exchange of terrorist screening information between the Multi-Agency Centre/Intelligence Bureau of India and the Terrorist Screening Center of the US under which the two sides shall "provide each other access to terrorism screening information through the designated contact points, subject to domestic laws and regulations".

The arrangement will enhance the counter-terrorism cooperation between the two countries.

CYBER SECURITY



India and the US also stressed on cooperation on cyber issues, including to promote closer cooperation between their law enforcement agencies to combat cybercrime and also to share information on a real time on malicious cyber security threats and establish appropriate mechanisms to improve such information sharing.

A fact sheet on the framework for the US-India Cyber Relationship says that cooperation on cyber issues is a key component of the bilateral relationship between India and the US. The two countries have also reached an understanding to finalise the Framework for the US-India Cyber Relationship.



CLEAN ENERGY



India and the US have announced the setting up of two financial assistance programmes worth $60 million for supporting India's much-needed clean energy initiatives, including solar power and other renewables.



"The United States is committed to bring to bear its technical capacity, resources and private sector, and is jointly launching with India new efforts, to spur greater investment in India's renewable energy sector, including efforts that can serve as a model for other ISA Member Countries," the White House said.



This includes a creation of a $20 million US-India Clean Energy Finance initiative, equally supported by the United States and India. This is expected to mobilise up to $400 million to provide clean and renewable electricity to up to 1 million households by 2020.



CLIMATE CHANGE



The historic climate change agreement in Paris may not have been possible without the leadership shown by India in making some "substantial commitments", the White House said after Modi's meeting with Obama.



"We've said on many occasions that India's role in that process was significant and it's unlikely that we would have actually reached an agreement in Paris last December had the Indians not stepped up and shown some leadership in making some substantial commitments," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters.



He made the remarks while responding to questions on the meeting between Obama and Modi wherein the two leaders reaffirmed their commitment to join the Paris agreement by the end of this year.

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Also Read:

Why US has recognised India as a 'major defence partner': Quick facts

US welcomes India's imminent entry to MTCR



Modi thanks 'friend' Obama for backing India on NSG Shoulder-to-shoulder on terror and energy, Obama backs Modi on NSG, MTCR

Visit No. 4: All about Modi's American sojourn

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By PTI: Patna, Jun 8 (PTI) With the noose tightening around him, Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) Chairman Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh resigned today in connection with 10+2 toppers scandal even as the state government overhauled the state board with new appointments.

Patna Commissioner Anand Kishore was today made Administrator of the BSEB, highly placed sources in the Education ministers office said. Anoop Sinha replaces incumbent Harihar Nath Jha as Secretary of BSEB, Education minister Ashok Choudhary told PTI. With evidence of irregularities in the toppers muddle following police investigation, Singh tendered his resignation.

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"We have received the resignation letter of Board Chairman Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh," houdhary said.

The minister said a show-cause notice was served to Singh as to why he should not be removed from the post for the irregularities committed in +2 plus examination results.

Singh was asked to give reply within 24 hours to the department. His resignation came before the deadline ended. Hours after resignation, police said Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh has gone underground. A Special Investigation Team (SIT) under Patna Senior Superintendent of Police Manu Maharaj raided Singhs home. Earlier, the SSP himself visited BSEB office and questioned some officials and checked documents. Maharaj told reporters at BSEB office, "Prima facie, anomalies have been found in the toppers scandal."

Police action was witnessed in Vaishali district too where the controversial Bishun Rai Intermediate college from where Arts and Science toppers Ruby Ray and Saurabh Shrestha hailed from.

Separate notice was pasted at the residence of four toppers Ruby Ray, Saurabh Shrestha, Rahul Kumar and Shalini Ray asking them to present themselves before SIT . SSP Patna, who is supervising the police action in the toppers muddle, said four persons have been detained by the police in the case lodged by the education department against seven persons on Monday night.

Bihar has drawn a bad name across the country after the scandal surfaced following a video featuring Arts topper Ruby Ray and first ranker in Science Saurabh Shreshth went viral in which both the students of Vishun Rai College were seen giving ridiculous answers to questions on their subjects. Ruby Ray had called Political science as "Prodigal Science" which according to her teaches cooking. Likewise, Saurabh sounded unaware of electron and proton. PTI AR SNS CR VMN

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BJP is eager to carry forward the momentum from its historic win in Assam to Uttar Pradesh.

By Siddhartha Rai: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is using the celebrations to mark its two years in power at the Centre to draw the battle lines in bellwether Uttar Pradesh, India's largest and most politically fractured state that is scheduled to have elections in 2017.

LION'S SHARE

UP has got the lion's share of the 198 "Vikas Parv" events planned by the party across the country amid speculation that the crucial polls could be advanced to December 2016 as the BJP and the state's ruling Samajwadi Party are not keen to give the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party much time to mobilise voters.

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While the state's political cauldron has been on the boil since two senior police officers were killed this month in clashes with an armed sect squatting on a piece of land and questions about crumbling law and order have taken centre stage, the BJP has meticulously planned the events and picked the places to benefit from a mix of polarisation and its pro-development image.

The party is eager to carry forward the political momentum from last month's historic win in Assam to Uttar Pradesh, a state that it has ruled four times but none of its chief ministers completed a full five-year term.

The BJP will present its two-year report card with a litany of achievements in nearly 30 major towns and cities, according to a party document accessed by Mail Today. A team of three-one senior minister assisted by a junior minister and a party functionary- will manage each such event, a template that will be followed across India.

The party has chosen just half a dozen towns in eastern UP, including the Prime Minister's constituency of Varanasi, apart from Mau, Raebareli, Mirzapur, Jaunpur and Gorakhpur.

"VIKAS PARV"



In contrast, the BJP has planned "Vikas Parv" celebrations at a slew of towns and cities in the western and central parts of the state, particularly in regions with a sizeable Muslim population and areas that have been centres of communal conflagrations in recent times, such as Muzaffarnagar, Moradabad, Rampur and Sambhal.

The last two, for instance, have an over 70 per cent Muslim population.

Another striking facet of the celebrations is that no UP based face of the party, including Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, has been used for taking its message across the state.

Party chief Amit Shah spoke to booth-level workers on Tuesday at Kasganj, again in the western part of the state. Though he maintained that the Ram Temple issue has been central to the BJP's manifesto, he said it will not be used as a rallying point in the assembly elections. The agenda of the polls will be development, Shah emphasised.

According to political observers, while the party does not want to rake up the issue overtly to avoid sounding divisive, it wants to somehow keep it simmering in the minds of the voters and reap the benefits of its pro-Hindutva image.

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HIGH HOPES

Shah said the BJP would get two-thirds majority in the UP polls, while hitting out at the ruling SP. "We are presenting a report card of two years of the NDA government, but Akhilesh babu (the chief minister), you should also tell the people what your government did in four years," he told his party workers.

He also took a dig at the SP over the Mathura violence. "This government is neither taking power to villages nor employment to youths, leave aside giving farmers the benefit of our PM's insurance scheme for them. So what are they doing? They are helping SP workers encroach on the state's land every day."

He said the UP BJP would launch a website where anyone would be able to report such instances of land grabbing.

"We will wage a mass movement against it," Shah vowed. The BJP chief alleged that in the 10 years of UPA, which was supported by the SP and BSP, scams worth Rs 12 lakh crore took place.

"They left no place, whether it's the sky, earth or beneath the surface, where corruption did not take place," he said. "There is not a single allegation of corruption against the present regime."

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ALSO READ:

Revealed: BJP's masterplan for 2017 UP Assembly polls



--- ENDS ---
By Siraj Qureshi: Giving rest to all speculations about the possible chief ministerial face of the BJP in the 2017 UP Assembly elections, BJP national president Amit Shah has made it clear that the party will only project PM Narendra Modi's face during the elections.

Amit Shah was in Kasganj on June 7, where he addressed the party workers and made it clear that the Prime Minister's face is going to be the rallying point for the BJP in the coming UP Assembly elections and the party will not declare any chief ministerial candidate. The name of the chief minister will be announced after the party has won full majority in the UP Assembly.

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CRUCIAL PIECE OF THE PUZZLE

Talking to India Today, a local BJP leader said that Amit Shah accepted in Kasganj that if the BJP hadn't got 73 MPs from Uttar Pradesh, the BJP could not have formed a government at the center. He added that the entire state should be honoured whenever Modi is honoured abroad, as Modi is also an MP from UP. The party's mission to completely take over India remains incomplete if the country's most populous state is not under the BJP's flag, so the primary focus of the party will remain on capturing Uttar Pradesh under PM Modi, who will be at the helm of the electoral campaign in 2017.

Interestingly, Amit Shah named only two party leaders during his discussion with the party workers and both have been the chief ministers of UP at one time - Rajnath Singh and Kalyan Singh. While Rajnath Singh is currently the home minister of India, Kalyan Singh has become the governor of Rajasthan. By talking about these two leaders, Shah also seems to have indicated that either of these two will be the party's first choice for UP chief minister.



OPPOSITION



He also added that the Samajwadi party and Bahujan Samaj Party may have declared their candidates for the election in advance, but the BJP will concentrate on nothing except the party symbol and PM Modi's image.



Senior citizen Rama Shanker Sharma said that if the BJP thinks it can win the election merely on the basis of PM Modi's image, then it should remember its fate in the Delhi and Bihar elections, where Modi's image could not do anything for the party and in both states, the BJP was completely routed. He said that the party should have presented a chief ministerial candidate before the people of the state, so that they knew whom they were voting for. To impose the party high command's will on the people was tantamount to dishonouring the people's mandate and this fact alone could make the BJP lose this election.

Also read:

UP election: Muslim leaders to float common front to take on 'communal forces



Congress betting big in UP, involves local leaders in decision-making

BJP betting high in UP, Shah hopeful of two-thirds majority





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Blood banks' pooling method is not just expensive but unsafe too.

Pooling technique is preferred by blood banks but the quality of blood gets compromised.

By Neetu Chandra Sharma: With the rampant practice of blood pooling in blood banks while testing it for viral infections like HIV and Hepatitis, patients are not only shelling out extra money but also losing out on zero-risk blood.

While the conventional ELISA kits are still being used for testing blood in majority of blood banks, hardly a hundred blood banks in India have implemented Nucleic Acid Testing (NAT), the latest and safest technology available to reduce the risk of deadly viruses transmitted through blood.

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BLOOD CHEATS



At present, around 10 per cent of the total blood units are tested by NAT, which too is being pooled. Pooling involves taking smaller volumes from multiple samples and mixing them before testing.

"Blood banks are making good money from pooling. A NAT test, which costs Rs 300-Rs 400 is sold for Rs 4,200-Rs 4,800 to patients. This is cheating and it reduces the effectiveness of NAT," said Sumit Bagaria, Managing Director and CEO at Hemogenomics, working on blood safety.

Doctors from central government hospitals and health experts have urged the Union Health Ministry to stop blood pooling and make mandatory the Individual Donor- Nucleic Acid Amplification Test (ID-NAT) across the country.

The ELISA kit cannot detect HIV before 22 days of infection; Hepatitis B before 59 days and Hepatitis C before 82 days. With the NAT pooling method, the window period is reduced to 11 days in case of HIV, 23 days in case of HCV and 34 days in case of Hepatitis B.

BLOOD'S WORTH BOTTLING

During the window period, a person can be infected with HIV or Hepatitis but still test negative.That accounts for approximately 50 per cent reduction in window period for HIV, 72 per cent for Hepatitis C and 34 per cent for Hepatitis B.

With IDT, the window period is further reduced to 5.6 days in case of HIV, 4.9 days in Hepatitis C and 35.4 days in Hepatitis B.

"It is essential that we ensure blood safety to prevent Transfusion Transmitted Infections (TTI). IDNAT helps to detect TTI's by narrowing the time window for HIV, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, malaria and syphilis," said Dr Kabita Chatterjee, Head, Department of Transfusion Medicine, AIIMS.

According to a recent study at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), a small pool of six samples could detect only 33.33 per cent of low viral load samples.

Another AIIMS study reported that one out of 847 blood units would be an infected unit that might be missed by conventional screening methods. It can only be detected by ID-NAT. Similarly, in a study by the central government-run RML hospital, as many as seven samples missed the virus load in pooling.

ALSO READ:

Blood bank Director booked for making sexual advances

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420 pairs of women's underwear were spread out during an anti-rape protest on Rio's iconic Copacabana Beach to represent the number of rapes perpetrated every 72 hours in Brazil.

By India Today Web Desk: Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro was strewn with 420 red and white pairs of women's underwear in protest of violence against women.

The number 420 chosen by the NGO Rio de Paz represents the number of women raped every 72 hours in Brazil. The exhibit also features photographs of 20 women who were victims of violence, by Marcio Freitas from his project entitled "I will never be silenced."



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Brazil has witnessed a number of nationwide protests after a 16-year-old girl was allegedly gang raped by 33 men.

This demonstration on Copacabana Beach comes almost two weeks after the video of the 16-year-old's rape by nearly 30 men was circulated widely on social media. The incident triggered a huge debate on sexism and violence in Brazil.

Rape Hashtags such as #EstuproNuncaMais (Rape Never Again) and #EstuproNaoTemJustificativa (Rape Can't Be Justified) quickly spread on Twitter.

The display will remained on sand until nightfall, so it could be viewed by thousands of Brazilians and tourists who visit Copacabana every day. The demonstrators plan to exhibit 100 of these pictures in other cities in Brazil to raise awareness about the issue.



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Since the beginning of this year, murder by assassins has become a common in thing in the once safe city. Hiring of goons has become much easier now.

By Pramod Madhav: Bloodshed in Chennai has become a routine news. Miscreants mostly target wealthy senior citizens, high profile businessmen and civil rights activists in particular.

Since the beginning of this year, murder by assassins has become a common in thing in the once safe city. Hiring of goons has become much easier now.

RISE IN CRIME

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Few months back, a senior official of Kalpatharu group was hacked to death, just ten meters away from his home. Two assailants, who followed him on a bike, cornered him in front of a clinic and slashed him with sickles and left him to die in a pool of blood. The official was supposedly investigating a major scam in the power sector and that resulted in his death. Authorities arrested two men, called them as hired killers and that's where the update ends.

Last month, a world renowned Oncologist was killed at her home. She was staying with her aged mother and fell prey to three men who had come for renovation work at her home. The doctor was found with her hands and legs tied, her mouth was taped and her head crushed. Police nabbed the culprits in two days and closed the case as "murder for gain". But for her daughter, Rashmi, the whole world changed in one day.

The murder trails didn't end there. A couple of weeks ago, two guys entered a tours and travel office and killed its owner. This time, the weapon was a gun. The travel company owner was shot at point blank. Even after acquiring the CCTV footage, the cops have apprehended few suspects and are only in investigating mode.

Recently, Javantraj Parasmal, an RTI activist was killed by goons in broad daylight. He was chased into a narrow lane, cornered and slashed with sickles. All this happened 500 meters away from the city Police Commissioner's Office. The murderers followed him in an auto and two motorbikes and knew that he will be alone at that time.

Police, reached the scene, informed Parasmal's family, sent the body for autopsy and incidentally acquired CCTV footage from a nearby car shed. They did what has become routine for them.

COPS BLAME LARGE IN-FLOW OF PEOPLE IN CHENNAI

Back in February, Chennai was rated the safest city in India. City Police authorities claimed that patrolling was intensified since the beginning of the year. They mentioned that steps were taken to even make night time in Chennai, a safe period.

Chennai City Police maintain that due to a large in-flow of people from other parts of Tamil Nadu and even from different states, it has become hard to maintain or update the data bank.

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It was found out that Chennai Police has been advised to complete a case keeping in mind that it shall not bring any kind of negative name to the government. Following the orders, a major portion of the cases are closed under 'murder for gain' or 'personal enmity' clause.

This kind of behaviour by the authorities has only given confidence to miscreants who are on a rampage mode. Minors and people from other states are used at large for committing such crimes for a cheap sum. After spending a while in prison, these men are released on bail and end up in a criminal underworld.

Also read:

How gang chased and hacked RTI activist to death in Chennai

Renowned cancer specialist in Chennai murdered, body found bound and gagged



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US Pacific Command claimed that one of the Chinese jets came very close to the US Air Force RC-135 reconnaissance plane.

By Reuters: A Chinese fighter jet carried out an "unsafe" intercept of a US spy plane on routine patrol on Tuesday in international airspace over the East China Sea, US Pacific Command said.

The intercept involved two Chinese J-10 fighter planes and a US Air Force RC-135 reconnaissance plane, it said in a statement.

PENTAGON'S CLAIMS

"One of the intercepting Chinese jets had an unsafe excessive rate of closure on the RC-135 aircraft. Initial assessment is that this seems to be a case of improper airmanship, as no other provocative or unsafe maneuvers occurred," Pacific Command said. Its statement did not say how close the Chinese fighter came to the US plane.

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"The Department of Defense is addressing the issue with China in appropriate diplomatic and military channels," the statement said.

CHINA REACTS

China's Defense Ministry said it had noted the report and was looking into it.

"Judging by the report, the US side is again deliberately hyping up the issue of the close surveillance of China by US military aircraft," it said in a statement sent to Reuters.

"Chinese military pilots consistently carry out operations in accordance with the law and the rules, and are professional and responsible," it added, without elaborating.

IT IS NOT THE FIRST TIME

In May, the Pentagon said two Chinese fighter jets flew within 50 feet of a US EP-3 aircraft over the South China Sea.

The Pentagon determined that the May incident violated an agreement the two governments signed last year.

Earlier this week, Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States would consider any Chinese establishment of an air defense zone over the South China Sea to be a "provocative and destabilizing act."

US officials have expressed concern that an international court ruling expected in coming weeks on a case brought by the Philippines against China over its South China Sea claims could prompt Beijing to declare an air defense identification zone, or ADIZ, as it did over the East China Sea in 2013.

China has claimed most of the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship borne trade passes every year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims.

Washington has accused Beijing of militarizing the South China Sea after creating artificial islands.

Beijing, in turn, has criticized increased U.S. naval patrols and exercises in Asia.

During a conference in Singapore last week, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said the U.S. approach to the Asia-Pacific remained "one of commitment, strength and inclusion," but he warned China against provocative behavior in the South China Sea.

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The Global Times said Modi's four visits to the US and seven meetings with President Obama had taken relations "to an unprecedented level". PTI photo

By Ananth Krishnan: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the United States for closer security and nuclear ties has evoked a cautious response in China, where media outlets have suggested India will only strike a "balance" between major powers rather than become a full-fledged US ally.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has in recent days also sought to play down differences with India on issues such as the South China Sea, which has emerged as a major sticking point in the China-US relations and formed a large part of Secretary of State John Kerry's talks in Beijing on Tuesday.

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The Prime Minister's US visit saw the finalising of the text of a logistic exchange memorandum agreement between the two militaries, which will facilitate mutual logistics support including port visits and joint exercises, besides moves to put forward the slow-moving talks for six Westinghouse nuclear reactors.

BEIJING'S RESPONSE

On Tuesday, Beijing issued a carefully-worded response to the comments made by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on the South China Sea dispute at the Shangri-La dialogue in Singapore. While not naming China, Parrikar said the region's shared prosperity "will be put at risk by aggressive behaviour or actions by any one of ".

Asked for its response to Parrikar's comments, the Foreign Ministry said that China "is poised to work alongside regional countries to maintain regional peace and stability, achieve economic prosperity and share development dividends."

"While firmly upholding territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests, China is committed to resolving disputes peacefully through consultation and negotiation, managing differences by establishing rules and mechanisms, achieving win-win results through development and cooperation, and safeguarding the freedom of navigation and overflight as well as peace and stability in the South China Sea," the ministry said in a statement to India Today.

A similar note was struck by some Chinese media outlets, with the Communist Party-run Global Times, a tabloid usually known for its hawkish views, saying in an opinion piece on Wednesday on the Prime Minister's US visit that "a balance between other major powers will be [India's] primary and optimal choice".

"As for Washington, it is always hoping that India could serve as its right hand to counterbalance China's rise. But so far, Washington's calculations do not work well. Turning down Washington's invitation to join a patrol in the South China Sea, New Delhi has no intention to cast away its founding principles: independence and non-alignment. In the process of fulfilling its ambition to be a major power, India has always employed independent and pragmatic approaches," the article said.

INDIA-US TIES

The Global Times said Modi's four visits to the US and seven meetings with President Obama had taken relations "to an unprecedented level".

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"India hopes that by consolidating its relationship with the , it could gain leverage in development and forge an international stat that is worthy of its potential. Modi has riveted his interactions with the on this simple outlook: to make India a veritable powerhoe. He was eager to boost a broader and better economic relationship with the . He urged the signing of the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement, a landmark deal promoting logistics and defense cooperation with the and he also expects an endorsement from the to help India become a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the last step to solidify India's stat as a nuclear powerhoe."

At the same time, the commentary argued that "picking one side or camp against the other is not the way India will rise".

"New Delhi is looking into a multi-faceted diplomacy. The well-performing Indian economy will give incentives to the country to be more confident with multilateralism and to seek balanced international relations," it said. "Although rivaling China in many aspects, India knows its great vision cannot be realized by bashing or containing China. Instead, they should expand cooperation, explore the potentials and build mutual trt for their own good. China is more of a help than a competitor for India. This will eventually constitute India's fundamental understanding of China."

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Modi thanks 'friend' Obama for backing India on NSG



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By PTI: Chandigarh, Jun 8 (PTI) CII members in Chandigarh today met Ambassador of Luxembourg to India Sam Schreiner and Deputy Head of the Mission Laure Huberty to discuss trade ties.

"Luxembourg has best policies for trade and local businesses in terms of clearances, tax free income on intellectual property, easy commute facilities and others making it easy for any business to set shop there.

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"Luxembourg is also a world leader in health technologies, green environmental technologies, bio solar water cleaning etc. India and Luxembourg can establish long lasting trade partnerships," Schreiner said.

Man Mohan Singh Kohli, former Chairman, CII Chandigarh Council & Chief Executive Officer Aroma Group said, "The economic and commercial relationship between India and Luxembourg, particularly investment relationship, has grown in recent years.

"FDI flows from Luxembourg to India between April 2000 and September 2015 are about USD 1,383.82 million, making it the 16th most important investor in India."

The delegation is also looking at establishing linkages with local businesses especially in IT/ITES, Tourism & Travel, Pharmaceuticals, Life sciences, Iron & Steel, etc, a party release said.

There are many developmental initiatives which require ownership of industry whether in education, skills, health care, water conservation, sustainability, etc, wherein companies and organisations based out of Luxembourg can partner with the local industry and offer their expertise to create boundless opportunities, it said.

Both sides will explore areas of mutual business, opportunities in IT/ITeS, Travel & Tourism, Banking & Finance, Pharmaceuticals, Life sciences, Iron and Steel, the CII release added. PTI CHS AYP ZMN AYP

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By PTI: (Attn.editors: The following press release comes to you under an arrangement with PRNewswire. PTI takes no editorial responsibility for the same). CleanMax Solar Recognized by MNRE for Excellence in Rooftop Solar Developers

DELHI, June 8, 2016/PRNewswire/-- CleanMax Solar has been honored twice by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) for excellence in the rooftop solar industry, recognizing its leading role in the industry, in which it is the largest player with 28% market share. CleanMax was the only solar developer to be honored twice at the event, in both the Developer and EPC categories. The National Excellence Awards 2016 were bestowed at the National Workshop on Roof Top Solar Power organized by MNRE at Vigyan Bhavan, MNRE on 7th June, 2016.

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Mr. Kuldeep Jain, Managing Director, CleanMax Solar received the prestigious awards from Mr. Piyush Goyal, Minister of State with Independent Charge for Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy, Government of India. Mr. Jain had also been invited, as the only representative from the private sector, to share his perspective and recommendations to the government on achieving its ambitious goals for rooftop solar in the country. (MORE) PRNewswire DL

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Markets suffered huge losses on Wednesday with the BSE Sensex closing 674.28 points down at 10,809.12 due to weak global cues. Nifty ended 180.25 points at 3,338.4.

By Indo-Asian News Service: After two days of impressive gains, markets ended lower on Wednesday on cues from other bourses, even as investors' mood was dampened by the way the central bank's proposal to help mutual funds found few takers.

The sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) opened weak at 11,245.27 points, against the previous close at 11,483.40 points. At close, the index fell to 10,809.12 points, with a loss of 674.28 points or 5.87 percent.

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All the 30 shares that make up the bellwether Sensex ended with losses, led by Jaiprakash Associates, down 14.47 percent, followed by Reliance Communications (-12.24 percent) and Reliance Infrastructure (-12.11 percent).

So was the case with the 13 sector-specific indices and the index for Small Cap and Mid Cap stocks. Consumer goods were the worst hit, with its index down 8.8 percent, followed by a 8.79-percent dip for consumer durables.

The broader 50-share S&P CNX Nifty index of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) was also down 5.12 percent, with analysts attributing the fall to the mood across the globe and limited impact of central bank's latest move to infuse liquidity.

Market men said weak Indian rupee, which depreciated by 46 paise to 48.55 against the US dollar, too dampened the trading sentiments.

Among banking stocks, ICICI Bank, the largest lender in the private sector, lost Rs 13.45 or 3 per cent at Rs 433.65, while State Bank of India was down by Rs 7.90 at Rs 1,520.50.

Other losers which dragged the Sensex down were Infosys Technologies, Satyam Computers, Tata Consultancy, Wipro, Reliance Industries, Reliance Infra, RCom, BHEL, Larsen and Toubro and Tata Steel.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had said on Tuesday it will conduct a special 14-day repo (repurchase of securities) auction at nine percent for Rs.200 billion ($4.18 billion) to enable banks meet the liquidity requirements of mutual funds.

But with bids coming for just Rs.35 billion each, the central bank Wednesday said it was extending the auction till such time the entire Rs.200 billion was not fully subscribed.

Even Finance Minister P. Chidambaram's pep talk early on Wednesday did not help in shaking the depressed market mood, which was concerned over what experts in the US said was a sure case of recession in the world's largest economy.

The finance minister said that Reserve Bank of India Governor D. Subbarao, with whom he and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reviewed the liquidation conditions in the Indian economy Tuesday evening, was expected to announce more measures in the coming days.

He said it was agreed at the meeting that credit to borrowers must be ensured at least to the extent of sanctioned amounts.

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"The prime minister reviewed the financial situation, with particular reference to the liquidity position. The developments in, and measures taken by, other countries were also reviewed."

It was noted at Tuesday's meeting, also attended by Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, that inter-bank lending remained a constraint.

"It is also important to enhance the credit limits where borrowers require more credit," he said, adding banks were able to access only Rs.35 billion from the special window of Rs.200 billion opened by RBI for liquidity to mutual funds.

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By PTI: Agartala, Jun 8 (PTI) A day after six dissident MLAs left Congress in Tripura and joined TMC, AICC Secretary Bhupen Bora today said the party would now be stronger and able to organise proper movements to protect the interests of people of the state.

Six MLAs led by former leader of the opposition, Sudip Roy Burman, had yesterday handed over a letter to Speaker Ramendra Debnath that they would join Trinammool Congress and leave the opposition Congress.

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Bora, who came here yesterday to take stock of the situation, held a meeting with the party leaders and left the state today.

"The dissidents led by Sudip Burman were trying to destabilise the party. Earlier, they tried to join BJP but the party refused to take them and then they joined TMC. Now we are free from infighting and the party would gain more strength to work for people," he told reporters.

Bora accepted that there was infighting in Congress and said it was a "temporary setback" but now the party will be more united as infighting will stop with the exit of the dissident MLAs.

"We came to know since one year back that Sudip Roy Barman did not want to work in Congress. He wanted to lead the Congress according to his own style which is not acceptable to the party. So, I think people are more happy that Congress in Tripura is united now and there will be no infighting," he said.

Congress leaders like Gegong Apang and P A Sangma had also left Congress and joined other parties but could not continue for long, Bora said adding, the party was not dependent on any single person and hence it will be able to regain its strength before the next Assembly election. PTI JOY CR SRY

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By PTI: Rajkot, Jun 8 (PTI) Congress workers today disrupted a press conference here of Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu who later hit back alleging that the party was losing grip in states it once ruled and must introspect on this.

As soon as the Urban Development Minister began his conference at the circuit house here, some Congress workers, including Rajkot Municipal Corporation leader of opposition Vasram Sagathia, rushed into the conference room and disrupted the presser, Pradyuman Nagar police station in-charge inspector R Y Raval said.

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There was heated discussion between Congress and BJP workers in the room.

Police were soon alerted and 10 Congress workers, including Sagathia, were detained, the officer said, adding that all were later released.

Naidu termed as "unfortunate" the incident and said "its unfortunate that our opposition cannot digest our success and are misleading people."

Sagathia told reporters outside the circuit house that they had come to hand over a memorandum to the minister regarding alleged irregularities in Rajiv Awas Yojna.

"In democracy, its their right to oppose governments policy and decision but they (Congress) play cheap politics, tactics which will lead them to become a cheap party," Naidu said.

"They are not doing this just here, they are doing the same at the national capital...not allowing both the Houses (Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha) to function smoothly," he said.

The opposition should rather try to improve their position instead of indulging in cheap protests, he added.

Meanwhile, at the conference, Naidu said Congress should introspect as it is "losing" grip in many states.

"Congress leaders are quitting party one by one while the party is also losing grip in states where they once ruled and its better for Congress to do introspection," Naidu said at the press conference.

He also advised Congress to respect the mandate given by the people in the 2014 general elections. PTI VJA PD ARS PAL

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By Press Trust of India: Carbon planets consisting of graphite, carbides and diamonds possibly hosted life in the early universe, a new study has revealed.

Scientists suggest that searching a rare class of stars might help find these 'diamond worlds'. Here's all you need to know about this discovery:

1. Our Earth consists of silicate rocks and an iron core with a thin veneer of water and life, but the first potentially habitable worlds might have been very different, researchers said.

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2. "This work shows that even stars with a tiny fraction of the carbon in our solar system can host planets," said Natalie Mashian, a graduate student at the Harvard University in the US. "We have good reason to believe that alien life will be carbon-based, like life on Earth, so this also bodes well for the possibility of life in the early universe," she added.

3. Primordial universe consisted mostly of hydrogen and helium, and lacked chemical elements like carbon and oxygen necessary for life as we know it. Only after the first stars exploded as supernovae and seeded the second generation did planet formation and life become possible.

4. Researchers examined a particular class of old stars known as carbon-enhanced metal-poor stars, or CEMP stars. These anaemic stars contain only one hundred-thousandth as much iron as our Sun, meaning they formed before interstellar space was widely seeded with heavy elements.

5. "These stars are fossils from the young universe," said Avi Loeb from the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics. "By studying them, we can look at how planets, and possibly life in the universe, got started," he added.

6. Although lacking in iron and other heavy elements compared to our Sun, CEMP stars have more carbon than expected at their age. This relative abundance would influence planet formation as fluffy carbon dust grains clump together to form tar-black worlds.

7. From a distance, these carbon planets would be difficult to tell apart from other Earth-like worlds. Their masses and physical sizes would be similar, and hence astronomers would have to examine their atmospheres for signs of their true nature. Gases like carbon monoxide and methane would envelop these unusual worlds.

8. Researchers believe a dedicated search for planets around CEMP stars can be conducted using the transit technique. "This is a practical method for finding out how early planets may have formed in the infant universe," he said."We'll never know if they exist unless we look," added Mashian.

The study was published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. PTI MHN SAR SAR

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By PTI: Bhopal, Jun 8 (PTI) Congress leader Digvijay Singh today recorded his statement with the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) here in connection with an alleged fraud case in a matter that dates back his chief ministership in Madhya Pradesh.

Singh and two others, including a former minister, are facing criminal charges like cheating and forgery.

"Digvijayji went to the EOW office with me at 11.30 am and got his statement recorded. We left the EOW office at around 2.30 pm," his lawyer Ajay Gupta told PTI.

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"Digvijayji is being hounded by the BJP government in the state for raising the Vyapam scam. My client is facing false accusations. Its purely a case of witch-hunting," he said.

Last year, Singh and two others, including one of his former Cabinet colleagues, were charged by EOW with fraud and showing undue favour to a private college.

In the case, the AICC General Secretary, who was chief minister of the state from 1993 to 2003, along with his Technical Education Minister, Raja Pateria, have been accused of unlawfully reducing a penalty on RKDF College from Rs 24 lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh.

Besides the two, RKDF Chairman Sunil Kapoor has also been booked.

According to a complaint by Radhavallabh Sharda, a local journalist, Singh and Pateria waived the penalty imposed on the institute by the Education Department over some "wrongful" admissions in 2000-01 and 2001-02.

The complainant had stated the college had requested Singh to reduce the penalty to Rs 5 lakh which was slashed to Rs 2.5 lakh.

The three had been booked under IPC Sections 420 (cheating), 467 (using as genuine forged document), 120 (b) (conspiracy) and relevant sections of Prevention of Corruption Act. PTI LAL MAS RSY TIR BAS

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By PTI: New Delhi, Jun 8 (PTI) India and Nepal today decided to enhance mutual cooperation in matters of disaster response, management and effective preparedness against them.

A 15-member Nepalese delegation today met the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) here and discussed issues related to sharing and cooperation in these subjects.

The Nepal delegation, led by Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs P K Suvedi, was briefed about the Indian disaster profile and scenario and its control and response mechanisms by NDRF chief O P Singh.

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Singh emphasised the need for mutual cooperation between two countries as both of them are are highly vulnerable to disasters and can help each other at times of crisis.

NDRF had been flown in by India for relief and rescue works when a devastating earthquake hit the neighbouring country in April last year.

The delegation is in the national capital to attend the 12th meeting of the India-Nepal Bilateral Consultative Group (BCG) on security issues.

The BCG facilitates both countries in three areas of supply of defence stores, military training and information sharing.

The delegation later travelled to the NDRFs 8th battalion based in Ghaziabad near here to see live demonstration of operations. PTI NES RG

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By PTI: New Delhi, Jun 8 (PTI) The Election Commission has supported the governments idea to hold simultaneous elections to Lok Sabha and state assemblies but has made it clear that it will cost a lot and the Constitution will have to amended to curtail or extend the term of certain state assemblies.

Law Ministry had asked the Commission to give its views on the report of a parliamentary standing committee which had batted for simultaneous polls.

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In its reply to the Law Ministry in May, the Commission said it supports the proposal but cost involved will be to the tune of over Rs 9000 crore.

Deposing before the parliamentary panel which gave its report on Feasibility of holding simultaneous elections to Lok Sabha and state Legislative Assemblies in December last, the Commission had expressed similar "difficulties".

The Commission has told the government as well as the committee that simultaneous conduct of elections would require large-scale purchase of Electronic Voting Machines and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines.

"For conducting simultaneous elections, the Commission expects that a total of Rs 9,284.15 crore will be needed for procurement of EVMs and VVPATs.

"The machines would also be need to be replaced every 15 years which would again entail expenditure. Further, storing these machines would increase the warehousing cost," the Parliamentary panel had said quoting EC.

Based on the report, the government has already set up a group of ministers to examine the issue. The GoM was set up set up to examine an Election Commission proposal to buy new EVMs but has also been mandated to examine the feasibility of holding simultaneous Lok Sabha and assembly polls in a bid to bring down the cost involved in the democratic exercise.

While as per electoral law, elections can be held six months prior to the end of the term of a House, the term of the House cannot be extended except during proclamation of Emergency.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said during a meeting of BJP office-bearers on March 19 that state elections coupled with local-level polls, spread across virtually every year, often "hinder" the execution of welfare measures. He was keen on simultaneous elections once in five years.

The government feels that while one-time cost in holding simultaneous polls would be high, but the exercise may bring down expenditure involved in election bandobast such as deployment of central forces and polling personnel. PTI NAB VMN

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All the 135 passengers onboard have been evacuated from the airline enroute to Beijing from Cairo.

By AP: Egyptian officials said a bomb threat forced an EgyptAir plane en route to Beijing from Cairo to make an emergency landing in Uzbekistan.

HERE ARE THE LATEST DEVELOPMENTS The passengers have been evacuated and the aircraft is now being searched. The plane, an Airbus A-330-220 with 135 passengers and crew on board, landed in Uzbekistan three hours after it took off from Cairo at around 11:30 p.m. on Tuesday. The plane landed at the airport in the town of Urgench, about 840 kilometers (600 miles) west of the Uzbek capital, Tashkent. The officials said an anonymous caller telephoned security agents at the Cairo airport to say that a bomb was on board the flight. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

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BACKGROUND

The Egyptian national airline has had a series of security-related incidents in the recent past.

Last month, EgyptAir flight MS804 crashed into the Mediterranean killing all 66 onboard, after it disappeared from the radar. The Airbus 320 with 56 passengers and 10 crew members was said to have been forced to turn around and make at least three emergency landings preceding the crash, according to the French public television channel France 3. The French authorities confirmed that the smoke detectors went off minutes before the crash.



Earlier, in March, flight MS181 was hijacked by one of the passengers onboard. The flight en route from Alexandria to Cairo was forced to land in Cyprus. It was later reported that he had hijacked the plane to reach his ex-wife who lives in Cyprus. All the 55 passengers were released.





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By Ashhar Khan: In times of great distress the Congress is turning towards experts for some advice. There is a proposal where the Congress may seek the help of individuals who are professionals in their own sphere. An idea which has found support in some quarters of the party but needs more fleshing out

Speaking on the issue, the Chairman of the SC cell of Congress, K Raju said," Congress is looking at a consultative mechanism so that the opinion of the party is formed after seeking the views of experts. " This means that on all issues, congress will be recieving apolitical advice. This will be helpful for the party in forming opinions.

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NATIONAL ADVISORY COUNCIL

Interestingly, the idea is to make sub groups on several issues. These include gender sensitization, social empowerment , climate change and several such others. The idea is still at a nascent stage but if things go all the way this could very well lead to the rise of the National Advisory Council which was active during the tenure of UPA in office

The National Advisory Council was headed by Congress President Sonia Gandhi. But in the current scheme of things there would be somebody else collating such information coming

It is being seen something of a parallel to the Congress working Committee as it is the highest consultative body presently in the Congress. Raju added that " there is no comparison as the expert would only be giving advice, policy decisions will be taken by the working committee only." The idea is that non political people would part of these groups hence there would be no conflict of interest

As things are not going right with the Congress it is experimenting with ideas. As of now no concrete decision has been taken on the National Advisory Council type of body. But the main point still remains that the Congress needs to give clarity to its leaders and workers. Otherwise the confusion will only lead to dark days ahead

Also read :

Congress Mukt Bharat: Top leaders' exit shows party is imploding



Notice issued against Sonia Gandhi over non-payment of dues by Congress in Kerala



Congress sends 14 K'taka MLAs to Mumbai, asks them to remain off-limit to JD(S) leaders

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Bihar Animal Husbandry Minister Awdesh Singh, however, has denied that the missing files were related to the fodder scam.

Lalu Prasad has been convicted in the scam which was unearthed in 1996. (File Photo/PTI)

By India Today Web Desk: Three important files related to the fodder scam have gone missing from the office of Animal and Fisheries Resources Department office in Patna. According to reports, the files have gone missing from one of lockers at the high security Patna Secratariat. The police have registered an FIR into the matter.

FILES NOT RELATED TO FODDER SCAM: MINISTER

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Bihar Animal Husbandry Minister Awdesh Singh, however, has denied that the missing files were related to the fodder scam.

"The files which have gone missing are not related to the fodder scam. Files related to the scam are already with the CBI and court, which is hearing the matter. The missing files contain details about retirement and pension of government of doctors. We have the photocopies of all the files," Singh said.

From India Today magazine: Lalu ban gaya gentleman



ATTEMPT TO PROTECT LALU?

A fierce political blame game has erupted over the missing government files. BJP's Rajiv Pratap Rudy said that "some people in the system are trying to get relief for Lalu Prasad in the fodder scam."

Another BJP leader Nitin Naveen raised serious objections to the way Nitish Kumar-led grand alliance government in Bihar is functioning and questioned whether attempts were being made to protect the RJD chief.

From India Today magazine: Lalu's last laugh



"Nitish Kumar should tell why he is protecting Lalu Yadav. The files that have gone missing are linked to Lalu Yadav. Nitish Kumar's action is affecting the future of Bihar," Naveen said.

WHAT IS FODDER SCAM

Unearthed in 1996, the scam pertains to syphoning of funds by non-existent companies in the name of supplying fodder. Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad, at present out on bail granted by the Supreme Court, was convicted in the case in 2014.

The scam pertains to fraudulent withdrawal of public money - about Rs 950 crore - from the treasuries of undivided Bihar under the head of the animal husbandry department when Lalu was the CM in 1990s.

Lalu, also an accused in another related case, is an ally of the ruling government in Bihar.

Also Read:

Lalu sentenced to five years in jail for fodder scam

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Foreign media has steered clear of much excitement, especially since it became clear today that Hillary Clinton is the most likely presidential nominee for the Democratic Party, but curiosity is in the air.

By Vishakha Saxena: Indian media has been engrossed with PM Narendra Modi's fourth trip to the US ever since it was announced. There have been a myriad of articles on the relevance of the visit, the PM's itinerary and expected outcomes. Even greater interest has been lavished on Modi's friendship with US president Barack Obama - real or unreal, fruitful or not, etc.

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The foreign media, however, has steered clear of such excitement, especially since it became clear today that Hillary Clinton is the most likely presidential nominee for the Democratic Party. Still, curiosity is in the air. Here's how they have been looking the visit.

THE HUGGING PRIME MINISTER

In the run up to PM Modi's arrival, the Washington Post published a hilarious article chronicling all of Modi's hugs and one infamous handshake (with Prince William). Here's a video they compiled:

Physical contact is something Indians are far more comfortable with than their Western counterparts, which explains the interest in "the Indian Prime Minister's impressively awkward physicality". Even so, the article concludes with a very interesting observation - "Hugging world leaders also puts India, an enormous country that has struggled with legacies of colonialism, on an equal footing with Western leaders." Even Associated Press took a moment to point out how "Modi pulled the president into a bear hug," during Obama's India visit in 2015.

'FROM PARIAH TO FRIEND'

In 2005, the US denied a visa to PM Modi on grounds of religious-freedom, emanating from allegations on his leadership during the Gujarat riots of 2002. This fact was mentioned and discussed by every media outlet.

"Once banned from the US, India's Modi set for historic address to Congress" read the headline of a Washington Post article documenting Modi's meteoric rise. On a similar note, while "the respect is particularly sweet in Washington," wrote AP. "Obama has much to gain from good relations with Modi," it said in another article.

The BBC reported along the same lines saying "Narendra Modi and the US come full circle" as the Indian PM goes from being a "pariah to friend". It wrote that Modi's first trip to the land of the free was carefully projected in India as "the US' acceptance of Mr Modi". The article didn't pull any punches, saying, "the lavish welcome on Capitol Hill is designed to heal any wounds that might have festered from the snub of 2005."

Even CNN played a similar tune saying "come Wednesday, the rehabilitation (from being an outcast) will be whole." It listed benefits of their friendship for both leaders - "For Obama, India could be seen as a foreign policy success, far away from the crises of Syria and Libya, the unease with Russia, or the competition with China," and for Modi, "being aligned closer to Washington means he can attract more business and trade, which has always been his top priority."



THE UNEXPECTED 'BROMANCE'

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The foreign press seems quite smitten by the friendship between the two state leaders. Marketplace - a radio program based out of Washington DC - called it a 'bromance,' while AP explained their bond as "surprising".

In an earlier article, the New York Times had called the Modi-Obama relationship an unlikely one, due to India's dubious track record in human rights and contrasts between Modi-Obama's familial ties. Various US lawmakers have repeatedly said they want Modi to improve human rights in India. According to AP, the two countries "have a surprisingly acrimonious relationship when it comes to human rights."

CLIMATE TALKS TRUMP ALL

Almost every foreign publication talked about the relevance of climate talks, given India is the third-largest carbon emitter in the world. And as the Post points out, Donald Trump's recent pledge to renegotiate the Paris climate accord has given world leaders "a sense of urgency" to put it into effect. According to the publication, "Getting India to "join" the Paris accord is one of the possible outcomes of Modi's meeting with Obama this month."

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USA Today voiced similar feelings in a column. While listing India's many struggles with pollution, it said: "Urban air pollution offers a good impetus for the two countries to work together."

In a Washington Post opinion piece, Max Bearak voiced some support for PM Modi's ambitious plan to create around 175 gigawatts of power from solar and wind energy. Understanding that the superpower can help India finance the project, he wrote "the opportunity for the United States is economically huge.

The Post pointed out the fact that "energy and climate issues have overshadowed other aspects of US-India relations." The USA Today went on to say the two countries had "a lot to learn from each other" in the energy space, adding that such cooperation will help accelerate change. "If India can tax coal and bet big on solar and wind when the stakes are so high, with hundreds of millions in want of energy, the US can certainly increase its renewable ambitions," it read.



DEFENCE AND SECURITY

According to CNN, "this week is more about symbolism and ironing out plans long in the works, such as military cooperation." In a column for CNN, Republican senator John McCain reflected upon the history of distrust between the two countries after the Cold War and how the two grew from there. "I see in India a country that can and should fight with us to maintain global security," he wrote. "If we can come together as defence partners, our countries can be immensely positive forces for increased global peace and security," he added.

An excerpt from McCain's column.

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Meanwhile, in a scathing editorial published earlier, NYT said no exceptions should be made for India for its inclusion in the Nuclear Suppliers Group. Historically, India has refused to accept legally binding commitments to pursue disarmament negotiations, halt the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons and not test nuclear weapons. The newspaper called this a "dangerous bargain."Timeline | Visit No. 4: All about PM Modi's American sojourns

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Narendra Modi became India's sixth Prime Minister to speak at the US Congress. Speaking today, Modi congratulated the US for empowering democracies across the world and said that "India and US together can make a difference".

US Vice President Joe Biden (L) and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan look on as India Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses a joint meeting of Congress in the House Chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington, US. (Photo: Reuters)

By India Today Web Desk: Am deeply honoured by the invitation to address this joint meeting of the US Congress. Thank you Mr Speaker for opening the doors of this magnificent capital. This temple of democracy has encouraged and empowered other democracies the world over. It manifests the spirit of this great nation which is in Abraham Lincoln's words was conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

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In granting me this opportunity, you have honoured the world's largest democracy and its 1.25 billion people. As a representative of the world's largest democracy, it is indeed a privilege to speak to the leaders of its oldest.



HONORING DEMOCRACY

Mr Speaker, two days ago I began my visit by going to Arlington National Cemetery, the final resting place of many brave soldiers of this great land. I honour their courage and sacrifice for the ideals of freedom and democracy. It was also the 72nd anniversary of the D-Day. On that day, thousands from this great country fought to protect the torch of liberty. They sacrificed their lives so that the world lives in freedom.

I applaud, India applauds the great sacrifices of the men and women from the land of the free and the home of the brave in service of mankind. [PM Modi applauds the Congress with claps]

India knows what this means, because our soldiers have fallen in distant battlefields for the same ideals. That is why the threads of freedom and liberty form a strong bond between our two democracies.

Mr Speaker, our nations may have been shaped by diverse histories, cultures and faiths, yet our belief in democracy for our nations and our liberty for our countrymen is common. The idea that all citizens are created equal is the central pillar of the American constitution. Our founding fathers too shared the same belief and sought individual liberty for every citizen of India. There were many who doubted India as a newly independent nation. We reposed our faith in democracy.

DEMOCRACY AS ESSENCE OF SOUL

Indeed, wagers were made on our future. But the people of India did not waiver. Our founders created a modern nation with freedom, democracy and equality as the essence of its soul, and in doing so we they assured that we continue to celebrate our age old diversity. Today, across its individuals and institutions, and in its villages and cities, in streets and states, are anchored in equal respect for all faiths. And in the melody of hundreds of its languages and dialects, India lives as one, India grows as one, India celebrates as one.

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Mr Speaker, modern India is in its 70th year. For my government, the constitution is its real holy book. And in that holy book, freedom of faith, speech and franchise, and equality of all citizens, regardless of background are enshrined as fundamental rights.

Eight hundred million of my countrymen may exercise the freedom of franchise once every five years, but all the 1.25 billion of our citizens have freedom from fear - a freedom they exercise every moment of their lives.

Distinguished members, engagement between our two democracies has been visible in the manner in which our thinkers impacted one another and shaped the course of our societies. Thoreau's idea of civil disobedience influenced our political thoughts and similarly the call by the great sage of India Swami Vivekanand to embrace humanity, was most famously delivered in Chicago. Gandhi's non-violence inspired the heroism of Martin Luther King.

Today, a mere distance of three miles separates Martin Luther King Memorial at Tidal Basin from the statue of Gandhi at Massachusetts Avenue. This proximity of memorials in Washington mirrors the closeness of the ideas and values they believed in. The genius of Dr Bhimrao Babasaheb Ambedkar was nurtured in the years he spent at the Columbia University a century ago. The impact of US constitution on him was reflected in his drafting of the Indian constitution some three decades later.

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SIMILAR IDEALISM

Our independence was ignited by the same idealism that fuelled your struggle for freedom. No wonder then, the former prime minister of India Atal Bihari Vajapyee called India and US natural allies. No wonder that the shared ideals and common philosophy of freedom shaped the bedrock of our ties. No wonder that President Obama has called our partnership - the defining partnership of 21st century.

Mr Speaker, more than 15 years ago Prime Minister Vajapayee stood here and gave a call to step out of the shadow of hesitation of the past. The pages of our friendship since then tell a remarkable story. Today, our relationship has overcome the hesitations of history. Comfort, candour and convergence define our conversations. Through the cycle of elections and transition of administrations, the intensity of engagements has only grown, and in this exciting journey the US Congress has acted as it compass. You have helped us turn barriers into bridges of partnership.

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In the Fall of 2008, when the Congress passed the India-US Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement, it changed the very colours of leaves of our relationship. We thank you for being there when the partnership needed you the most. You have also stood by us in times of sorrow. India will never forget the solidarity shown by the US Congress when terrorists from across our border attacked Mumbai in November of 2008. And for this, we are grateful.

Mr Speaker, I am informed that the working of the US Congress is harmonious. Am also told that you are well known for your bipartisanship. Well, you are not alone. Time and again, I have also witnessed a similar spirit in the Indian Parliament, especially in Upper House. So, as you can see, we have many shared practices.

EMBRACING PARTNERSHIP

Mr Speaker, this country knows well that every journey has its pioneers. The genius of Norman Borlaug brought the Green Revolution and food security to my country. The excellence of American universities nurtured institutions of technology and management in India. And I could go on, but fast forward to the present.

The embrace of our partnership extend to the totality of human endeavour. From the depths of the oceans to the vastness of space, our science and technology collaboration continues to help us in cracking the age old problems in the fields of education, public health, food and agriculture. Ties of commerce and investment are flourishing. We trade more with the US than with any other nation.

The flow of good services and capital between us generates jobs in both our societies. As in trade, so in defence. Indian army performs exercises with the US more than any other partner. Defence purchases have moved from almost zero to $10 billion in less than a decade. Out cooperation also secures our cities and citizens from terrorists and protects our critical infrastructure from cyber threats. Civil nuclear cooperation, as I told President Obama yesterday, is a reality.

Mr Speaker, our people to people links are strong and there is a close personal connect between our societies. Siri, you are familiar with the Siri, tells us that India's ancient heritage of Yoga has over 30 million practitioners in the US. It is estimated that more Americans bend for Yoga than to throw a curve ball. No Mr Speaker, we have not yet claimed intellectual property right on Yoga.

Connecting our two nations is also a unique and dynamic bridge of 3 million Indian Americans. Today, they are among your best CEOs, academics, astronauts, scientists, economists, doctors and even spelling bee champions.

They are your strength. They are also the pride of India. They symbolise the best of both of our societies. Mr Speaker, my understanding of great country began long before I entered public office. Long before assuming office, I travelled coast to coast covering more than 25 states of America. I realised then that the real strength of the US was in the dreams of its people and the boldness of their ambitions. Today, Mr Speaker, a similar spirit animates India. Over 800 million youth are especially impatient (sic).



AMBITIOUS TO-DO LIST

India is undergoing a profound social and economic change. A billion of its citizens are politically empowered. My dream is to economically empower them through many social and economical transformations. And do so by 2022 - the 75th anniversary of India's independence. My to-do list is long and ambitious. But you will understand it includes a vibrant and rural economy with a robust farming sector.

A roof over each head and electricity for all households. To train and make millions of our youth skilled, build 100 smart cities, have broadband for a billion and connect our villages to the digital world. And create a 21st century rail, road and port infrastructure. These are not just aspirations but goals to be reached in a finite time frame, and to be achieved with light carbon footprint and greater emphasis on renewables.

Mr Speaker, in every sector of India's forward march, I see the US as an indispensible partner. Many of you also believe that a stronger and prosperous India is in America's strategic interest. Let us work together to convert shared ideals into practical cooperation. There can be no doubt that in advancing this relationship, both nations stand to gain. As US businesses search for new areas of economic growth, markets for their goods, a pool of skilled resources and a global location to produce and manufacture, India could be their ideal partner.

India's strong economy and growth rate of 7.6 per cent per annum is creating new opportunities for our mutual prosperity. Transformative American technologies in India, and growing investment by Indian companies in the United States, both have a positive impact on the lives of our citizens. Today, for the global research and development centres India is the destination of choice for the US companies. Looking eastward from India, across the Pacific, the innovation strength of our two countries comes together in California.

WE CAN MAKE DIFFERENCE

Here the innovative genius of America and India's intellectual creativity are working to shape new industries of the future. Mr. Speaker, the 21st century has brought with it great opportunities, but it has also come with its own set of challenges. While some parts of the world are islands of growing economic prosperity, others are mad in conflicts.

In Asia, the absence of an agreed security architecture creates uncertainty. Threads of terror are expanding and new challenges are emerging in cyber and outer space.. and global institutions conceived in 20th century seem unable to cope with new challenges or take on new responsibilities.

It is war of multiple transitions and economic opportunities, growing uncertainties and political complexities, existing threats and new challenges. our engagements can make a difference by promoting, cooperation not dominance, connectivity not isolation, including not excluding mechanisms, respect for global commons and above all for international rules and norms.

India is already assuming her responsibilities in securing the Indian ocean region,. a strong India-US partnership can anchor peace, prosperity , and stability from Asia to Africa and from Indian ocean to the Pacific. It can also help ensure security of the sea-links of commerce and freedom of navigation on seas.

But the effectiveness of our co-operation would increase if international institutions frame with the mindset of the 21st century where they reflect the reality of today. Mr. speaker, before arriving in Washington D.C., I had visited Herat in western Afghanistan to inaugurate Afghan-India friendship dam built with Indian assistance. I was also there on the Christmas day last year to dedicate to that proud nation its parliament , a testimony to our democratic ties.

Afghans naturally recognise that the sacrifices of America have helped create a better life. But your contribution in keeping the region safe and secure is deeply appreciated by even beyond and India too has made an enormous contribution and sacrifices to support our friendship with afghan people. A commitment to re-build a peaceful and stable and prosperous Afghanistan is our sad objective.

LET'S FIGHT TERRORISM

It distinguished members not just in Afghanistan but elsewhere in south Asian and, globally terrorism remains the biggest threat. In the territory stretching from the west of India's border to Africa form different names from Lashkar-e-Taiba to Taliban to ISIS but its philosophy is common of hate, murder and violence.

Although, it is a shadow spreading across the world, it is intimated in India's neighbourhood. I commend the members of US congress for sending a clear message to those who preach and practice terrorism for political gains. Refusing the war is the first step to our holding them accountable for their actions.

The fight against terrorism has to be fought at many levels and the traditional tools of military intelligence or diplomacy alone would not be able to win this fight. Mr. speaker, we have both lost civilians and soldiers in combating terrorism. The need of the hour is for us to deepen our security cooperation and base it on a policy that isolates those who harbour and support and sponsor terrorist.

That does not distinguish between good and bad terrorist and that de-links religion from terrorism. Also for us to succeed, those who believe in humanity must come together to fight for each and one and speak against this menace in one voice.

Terrorism must be delegitimized. Mr. Speaker, the benefits of our partnership extend not just to the nation and regions that need it the most. On our own, and by combating our capacities we are also responding to other global challenges today when disaster strikes and when humanitarian relief is needed. Far from our shores, we have evacuated thousands from Yemen, Americans, Indians and others.

Near our homes, we have the first responders during Nepal earthquake, Maldives water crisis and most recently during the landslide in Sri Lanka. We are also one of the largest contributors of tools to the UN peacekeeping operations. Often India and the US have combined their strengths in science and technology and innovation to help fight hunger, poverty, disease and literacy in different parts of the world. The success of our partnerships has also opened up new opportunities for lowering (39:42) security and developing from Asia to Africa.

BALANCING RESPONSIBILITIES FOR GREENER TOMORROW

And the protection of environment and caring for the planet in central for our shared vision of a just world. For us in India, to live in harmony with mother earth is a part of our ancient belief and to take from nature only what is most essential is a part of our Indian culture. Our partnership therefore aims to balance responsibilities with capability and it also focuses on the new ways to increase the availability and use of renewable energy.

A strong US support for our initiative to form an international solar alliance is one such effort. We are working together not just for better future for ourselves, but for the whole world. This has also been the goal of our efforts in G20, east-Asia summits and climate change summits.

Mr. speaker, as we deepen our partnership, there will be times when we will have differing perspectives. But since our interests and concerns converge, the autonomy in decision making and diversity in our perspectives can only add values to our partnership.

So as we embark on a new journey and set new goals, let us focus not just on routine matters but also transform all areas. Ideas which can focus not just on creating waves but also creating values for our societies. Not just on immediate gains but also long term benefits.

Not just on solving best practices but also shaping partnerships and not just on building a bright future of our people but in being a bridge to a more united human and prosperous world and important for the success of this journey would be a need to view it with new eyes with new sensitivities.

When we do this, we will realise the full promise of this extraordinary relations. Mr. speaker, in my final words and thoughts, let me emphasize that our relationship is prime for a momentous future. The constraints of the past are behind us and the foundations of the future are in place.

In the lines of Walt Whitman, the orchestra has sufficiently tuned their instruments, the baton has given the signal and to that, if I might add, there is a new symphony in play.

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T Rajkumar Rao, the alleged kingpin, had been evading arrest since the last four days after police exposed a kidney transplant racket at a leading private hospital.

Delhi Police finally managed to nab the alleged kingpin of the Delhi kidney racket after chasing him in six cities across four states.

By Mail Today: After chasing the alleged kingpin of the Delhi kidney racket across six cities in four states, Delhi Police on Tuesday arrested T Rajkumar Rao from Kolkata. Rao was spearheading the syndicate for almost a decade.

The accused had been evading arrest since the last four days after the Delhi Police exposed a kidney transplant racket at a leading private hospital. Cops also arrested three others in the same case including a couple for donating their organs after taking money from touts. Police will also be questioning 10 doctors in connection with the same case.

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KINGPIN HAD WOMAN MENTOR

Rao, aged around 40 years, is believed to be associated with organ rackets in Nepal, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. He was introduced to the organ racket by a woman and her aide in Kolkata eight years ago. Police are on the lookout for the two as well.

"Teams had conducted raids in six cities but Rao managed to escape each time. Finally after four days of being on the run, he has been arrested and will be produced in a Delhi court on Wednesday.

He is being brought here on transit remand," a senior officer said.

The kidney racket kingpin was under the police scanner for operating similar rackets since 2007 and was connected to two similar rackets in Coimbatore in 2013 and Jalandhar in 2015.

Rao was identified after interrogating the middlemen in the racket and teams were rushed to several states to track him down.

Delhi Police have also arrested three persons from Delhi taking the total number of arrests in this high-profile case to nine. Five people were arrested earlier.

GANG BUST

Those arrested have been identified as Umesh and Nilu, who are a married couple based out of Kanpur, and Mamta alias Maumita, wife of one of the five accused arrested last week.

Their names emerged after the arrested touts divulged to the police that both had sold their kidneys to repay the loan which they had taken for their son's leg surgery.

The officer further stated that Neelu received a meagre Rs four lakh, while her husband Umesh ended up with just Rs three lakh. All 10 doctors in Apollo Hospital's internal assessment committee for transplant surgeries will be quizzed.

The committee comprises senior doctors working at the hospital, independent doctors as well as a government doctor.Taking serious action regarding the matter, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals has constituted an independent inquiry committee to investigate the racket.

The hospital has invited eminent jurist, Justice Mukul Mudgal, former Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court to head the committee.

The committee shall study the existing system for authorisation in the hospital and give its recommendations to ensure that current approval mechanisms are strengthened.

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During the initial probe, cops found a businessman living in a posh locality of Ghaziabad along with recipients at Jaipur and Hyderbad who were in touch with the gang.

ALSO READ:

Kidney racket: Cops tightening noose to break pan-India web of kidney trading



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By PTI: Kolkata, Jun 8 (PTI) Internet search giant Google has tied up with Tata Trusts to reduce the digital gender gap in rural areas of India by giving them data access.

"The digital gender gap in rural areas of India is vast. One out every ten women are familiar with internet and other data usages," head of marketing of Google India Sapna Chadha said.

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She said that the programme Internet Saathi aims at training women and empowering them on how to take advantage of internet and get information on education, various government schemes, weather, crop and on other matters.

Google was using the network of Tata Trusts rural network for the same.

This is the first such initiative by Google worldwide and India was selected owing to its huge population base, Chadha told reporters here today.

To a query, she said that the target was to decrease the divide by 50 per cent, for which more villages would be brought under the programmes fold.

At present, there are nine states where the programme had been rolled out and two lakh Internet Saathis had been trained.

Google is providing android tablets and smartphones to women as well as data access.

Chadha said the programme was adding 500 women per week. PTI DC KK AMS BSA

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ABC News(NEW YORK) -- As Hillary Clinton achieves a milestone as the first woman to clinch the presidential nomination for any major presidential party, she is looking ahead to what she says will be another signal moment in American history: debating Donald Trump.



The presumptive Democratic nominee, told ABC News David Muir Tuesday night that she is so looking forward to debating the real estate mogul.



Absolutely, I really am, Clinton said in an exclusive interview ahead of her remarks at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. "I think it would be a singular moment in American history, because I think Ill have chance to make clear why I believe why he is not qualified and temperamentally unfit to be president."



In a speech earlier Tuesday night in Westchester, New York, Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, invited supporters of Clintons rival, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders to come to his side. When asked about it by Muir, Clinton brushed it off as Trump trying to muddy the waters.



It really doesnt concern me, she said with a chuckle. "This is just more of his rhetoric to try to muddy the waters about what he stands for. Anyone who supported Bernie Sanders who thinks we should raise the minimum wage, who thinks that we should have universal healthcare coverage, who thinks that the wealthy have not paid their fair share, and I could go on and on, would certainly not find that Donald Trumps views are in line with theirs.



Recently, Clinton has escalated her rhetoric and attacks against Trump. However, she stopped short of calling him a racist in her interview with Muir in reference to Trump's controversial comments about a federal judge's ethnic background.



I dont know whats in his heart, she said. But I know that that comment about the very accomplished federal judge who was born in Indiana to parents from Mexico was a racist attack and I think that has been made clear by the many many voices speaking out against it and many from the Republican side, because clearly this was shocking to people and it went against everything we believe in that this is a meritocracy that people should be able to rise as high as their hard work, their ambition, their talent will take them.



Trump has said he's the "least racist person" during an interview with CBS.

Copyright  2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
By PTI: construction of Salma dam

New Delhi, Jun 7 (PTI) Taking note of successful construction of Salma Dam under "difficult" conditions in war-hit Afghanistan, government will felicitate the team of engineers and other personnel involved in the project on June 22 here, a source said today.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will grace the event which is expected to be attended also by an Afghanistan Minister and kin of those Afghan labourers who were killed for working on the project, the source added.

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"Our team of engineers and other personnel have achieved a remarkable feat. They completed the work literally in the middle of a war field as attacks were being launched locally on those who were attached to the project.

"Certain anti-development elements in that country were opposed to that project. But our people remained determined and completed the work. Hence, government plans to felicitate them," it said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani had on June 4 jointly inaugurated the Rs 1775-crore dam called Afghan-India Friendship Dam.

The multipurpose project, constructed on Chist-e-Sharif river in Heart province of Afghanistan, 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.

Funded by Indian government, the project work was completed in over 10 years by 1,500 Indian and Afghan engineers and other professionals.

The project was executed and implemented by WAPCOS Ltd, a public sector enterprise under Union Water Resources Ministry. PTI ENM/AMR SMJ PAL SMJ

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By India Today Web Desk: A controversy has erupted after a Surat-based temple dressed up the idol of Lord Swaminarayan in Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) uniform, with the Congress and even the BJP terming it as unfortunate.



The issue came to light after a picture, in which Lord Swaminarayan can be seen donning the Sangh outfit - white shirt tucked into a baggy khaki shorts with black cap and black shoes on - went viral on social media platforms last evening.



The idol is even seen holding the national flag in one hand.



The RSS is the ideological mentor of the BJP.



Temple denies agenda



According to Swami Vishwaprakashji of the temple, which is situated in Laskana area of Surat, the dress was gifted by a local devotee a few days back. "We have a common practice of presenting the God's idol in various dresses.



This RSS uniform was given to us by a devotee. We do not have any other agenda. We did not know that it will create a controversy," Vishwaprakashji said.



BJP, Congress fume



Even as the temple authorities denied having any intention of endorsing the views of the right-wing organisation, Congress leader Shankersinh Vaghela said temple authorities must refrain from such activities.



"What do you want to prove by dressing up the God in khaki shorts? I pity those who have done that. Today, you have dressed the Lord in RSS uniform, tomorrow you will dress the idol in BJP's uniform. This is very unfortunate," Vaghela said.



Gujarat BJP chief Vijay Rupani also said that it should not have been done. "I am really surprised. If at all it was done, I don't approve of it," he said.

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The supporters, including 25 Congress corporators, wanted Kamat to rejoin politics. The corporators threatened to resign if Kamat's resignation was accepted.

Former Congress MP Gurudas Kamat's supporters today gathered at the Mumbai Congress office demanding that the Congress President do not accept Kamat's resignation. Kamat had tendered his resignation from the Congress party and called off his political career on Monday.

A large number of his loyal supporters gathered today at the Mumbai Congress office demanding him to rejoin politics. Kamat, the Secretary of the All-India Congress Committee (AICC) and in-charge of the Congress unit in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, was apparently expecting a Rajya Sabha seat and a major 'say' in important affairs.

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Twenty five Congress corporators were also part of this show of strength. They were ready to resign if Kamat's resignation was accepted by the central leadership.

"He has given his 44 yrs to Congress, he has created leaders like us. We urge him to take back his resignation or else we'll resign" said Congress Corporator Sheetal Mhatre.

Meanwhile, sources in the party said Kamat was instrumental in Congress's win in Gujarat's local body elections.

"Congress was completely decimated in Gujarat. It was not in power for the last 15 years. But Kamat worked hard and built the network. He gave confidence to people that Congress can come back to power. The party performed well in Rajasthan also. So, he was expecting his nomination for Rajya Sabha. But the party chose P Chidambaram from Maharashtra. That is why Kamat is upset with the party leadership," the source said.



"Kamat was close to Rajiv Gandhi, and worked closely with Sonia Gandhi. He had worked under many Mumbai Congress president. His guidance is very much important for us ahead of crucial upcoming BMC elections," said Krishna Hegde, former Congress MLA from Mumbai.

Kamat was not available for any comment but via SMS, he appealed to his supporters not to hold any morcha relating to his resignation. He further asked his loyal corporators to not submit any resignation in protest.

Read More:

Mumbai Congress Chief Sanjay Nirupam under fire after Gurudas Kamat's retirement

Veteran Congress leader Gurudas Kamat quits politics



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Greece has strongly protested Turkish authorities' decision to allow a daily Quran reading that will be broadcast from Turkey's Hagia Sophia.

By India Today Web Desk: As the holy month of Ramzan begins, a massive row has erupted between Greece and Turkey.

Greece has strongly protested Turkish authorities' decision to allow a daily Quran reading that will be broadcast from Turkey's Hagia Sophia.

The Hagia Sophia, famous around the world for its large, iconic dome was originally a cathedral in Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, but when the Ottoman empire defeated them in the 15th century, the church was turned into a mosque.

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GREECE CALLS TURKEY'S DECISION BIGOTRY



Greece's Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement condemning the decision taken by Turkey and termed it 'bigotry' and 'not compatible with modern, democratic and secular societies.'

"Muslim rituals in a monument of world cultural heritage are incomprehensible and reveal a lack of respect for and connection with reality," the statement said.

WHAT TURKEY IS SAYING

However, as per the Turkish media reports, thousands of Muslim worshipers led by an Imam, had crowded around the Hagia Sophia last month, demanding the right to pray there.

"Let the chains break, open Hagia Sophia," chanted the crowds who gathered on the plaza in front of the museum, according to Turkey's Dogan news agency.

"In the name of thousands of our brothers we demand to be allowed to pray inside the Hagia Sophia mosque," said Salih Turhan, the president of the Anatolia Youth Association which organised the demonstration coinciding with celebrations for the anniversary of the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople.

A Sahur (predawn meal) program to be produced by TRT Diyanet, the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation's (TRT) TV channel focusing on Islam, will be hosted throughout the course of the holy month of Ramadan at Hagia Sophia, a landmark sacred to both Christians and Muslims.



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By PTI: London, Jun 8 (PTI) Drivers using a hands-free phone get just as distracted as those holding it in their hand, British researchers have found.

Scientists at the University of Sussex found telephone conversations while driving can cause the driver to visually imagine what they are talking about.

This uses a part of the brain normally used to watch the road, the study said.

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It is illegal in the UK to ride a motorcycle or drive using hand-held phones or similar devices.

Drivers can get an automatic fixed penalty notice if caught using one. They will get three penalty points on their licence and a fine of 100 pounds, the BBC reported.

The law currently says drivers can use hands-free phones, satellite navigators and two-way radios, but if the police think the driver is distracted and not in control of the vehicle, they could get penalised.

The study involved 20 male and 40 female volunteers who took part in video tests while sitting in a car seat behind a steering wheel.

One group of volunteers were allowed to "drive" undistracted while another two heard a male voice from a loudspeaker 3ft away.

Those who were distracted by the voice engaging them in conversation took just under a second longer to respond to events, such as a pedestrian stepping off the pavement, an oncoming car on the wrong side of the road or an unexpected vehicle parked at a junction.

The study showed that asking a simple question - such as, "where did you leave the blue file?"- during phone conversations could mean a driver concentrates on an area four times smaller than normal, because their brain is imagining the room where they left the file, instead of checking for hazards in front of them.

Dr Graham Hole, senior lecturer in psychology at the University of Sussex, said the research laid bare the "popular misconception that using a mobile phone while driving is safe as long as the driver uses a hands-free phone".

"The problem is enforceability - its very difficult for the police to tell if someones using a hands-free phone," he said.

"But on balance, I think the law should be changed to get the right message across and make it absolutely clear that any use of a mobile phone while driving is hazardous." PTI AKJ AKJ

--- ENDS ---

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Hillary Clinton beat Bernie Sanders in New Jersey, one of the six states which held contests on Tuesday.

By Reuters: Hillary Clinton declared herself the Democratic Party nominee for US President on Tuesday, embracing her role in history as the first woman to lead a major party in a race for the White House. In pics



The former first lady, US senator and Secretary of state celebrated her victory in the nominating race over rival Bernie Sanders at a raucous event with supporters in Brooklyn, New York, where Clinton placed her achievement in the context of the long history of the women's rights movement.

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"Thanks to you, we have reached a milestone," Clinton said in a speech. "We all owe so much to who came before."

Clinton, 68, spoke shortly after beating Sanders in New Jersey's nominating contest, expanding her lead in the delegates needed to clinch the nomination and setting up a five-month general election campaign against presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump in the Nov. 8 election.

New Jersey was one of six states holding contests on Tuesday, including California, the big prize where Clinton was still at risk of an embarrassing loss to Sanders as she heads into the campaign against Trump.

Polls in California closed at 11 pm ET (0300 GMT on Wednesday), but news networks said the race was too close to call.

In her speech, Clinton appealed to Sanders supporters to join her and said the Democratic Party had been bolstered by his campaign for eradicating income inequality, which has commanded huge crowds and galvanized younger voters.

Clinton edged Sanders out, especially among older voters, with a more pragmatic campaign focused on building on the policies of her fellow Democrat, President Barack Obama.

Although Sanders will be unable to catch Clinton even if he wins the primary in California, America's most populous state, a triumph there could fuel his continued presence in the race and underscore Clinton's weaknesses as she battles Trump.

The White House issued a statement saying Obama had called both Clinton and Sanders on Tuesday. It said he congratulated her on securing the delegates necessary to clinch the nomination and would meet Sanders on Thursday at Sanders' request.



TRUMP 'TEMPERAMENTALLY UNFIT'

Clinton harshly attacked Trump for using divisive rhetoric that belittled women, Muslims and immigrants, and took specific aim at his recent condemnation of an Indiana-born judge of Mexican heritage.

"The stakes in this election are high and the choice is clear. Donald Trump is temperamentally unfit to be president and commander-in-chief," she said.

New Jersey was one of six states holding contests on Tuesday, including California, the big prize where Clinton was still at risk of an embarrassing loss to Sanders as she heads into the campaign against Trump. Reuters photo

"When Donald Trump says a distinguished judge born in Indiana can't do his job because of his Mexican heritage, or he mocks a reporter with disabilities, or calls women pigs, it goes against everything we stand for," she said.

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Clinton also won in New Mexico and South Dakota and narrowly led in Montana, while Sanders, 74, was projected to win in North Dakota on the final night of big presidential nominating battles that began on Feb. 1 in Iowa. The District of Columbia, the last to vote, holds a Democratic primary next Tuesday. In a fundraising email to supporters, Clinton declared her campaign had broken "one of the highest, hardest glass ceilings."

On Twitter, she said: "To every little girl who dreams big: Yes, you can be anything you want - even president. Tonight is for you."

Clinton's race against Trump, 69, will unfold amid an ongoing investigation of her use of a personal email server while secretary of state. Opinion polls show the controversy has hurt Clinton's ratings on honesty and trustworthiness.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday showed Clinton leads Trump by 10 percentage points nationally as they launch their general election battle, little changed from a week ago.

PARTY UNITY

Clinton now must try to unify the party and win over Sanders supporters. But Sanders, a democratic socialist US senator from Vermont, has vowed to stay in the race until July's party convention that formally picks the nominee, defying growing pressure from party leaders to exit the race.

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A Sanders campaign spokesman castigated what he said was the media's "rush to judgment" after the Associated Press and NBC reported on Monday night that Clinton had clinched the number of delegates needed to win the nomination.

Clinton's victories on Tuesday ensured she will have a lead in the pledged delegates won in nominating contests. Clinton clinched the nomination with the added support of superdelegates, party leaders who are free to back any candidate.

Steven Acosta, a 47-year-old teacher living in Los Angeles, voted for Clinton on Tuesday, saying that was partly because he believed she stood a better chance of winning in November. "I like what Bernie Sanders says and I agree with almost everything that he says," Acosta said. "The problem is that I think Republicans would really unify... even more against him."

Trump, who became his party's presumptive nominee last month, outlasting 16 Republican challengers, is struggling to get the party's leaders solidly behind him after a bitter primary campaign during which he made a series of controversial statements directed at Muslims, Latinos, women and the disabled.

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On Tuesday night he addressed a crowd of supporters in New York, welcoming Sanders supporters "with open arms" should they decide to support him and declaring a new phase of the campaign had begun.

"I am going to give a major speech on probably Monday of next week, and we are going to be discussing all of the things that have taken place with the Clintons," he said. "I think you are going to find it very informative and very, very interesting. I wonder if the press will want to attend."

Also Read:

All you need to know about the Trump-Clinton battle and the election that will shape US world role

Meryl Streep dressed as Donald Trump: It will the best thing you see today



--- ENDS ---
By PTI: (Attn.editors: The following press release comes to you under an arrangement with PRNewswire. PTI takes no editorial responsibility for the same). Honor to Launch New Flagship Smartphone With 16nm Chipset

NEW DELHI, June 8, 2016/PRNewswire/ -- Honor, the leading e-brand for digital natives, from Huawei, is expected to launch its new flagship smartphone this month. The new smartphone is expected to come with 16nm chipset featuring the flagship FinFET Plus technology that offers lightning-fast performance compared with previous-generation 28nm chipsets. (Photo:http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160608/10147926)

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The combination of such an advanced processor is a first not just for Honor, but worldwide. The new Kirin 16nm chipset helps with multiple reductions in energy loss, multiple increases in speed and all-round solutions to lagging, slowness, and heat build-up.

The processor is expected to come with a faster 16nm FinFET Plus technology, making it superior to its competing chipsets, due to its greatly improved performance and reduced power consumption. More details would be available once Honor launches its new smartphone later this month.

About Honor:

Honor is a leading smartphone e-brand operated by Huawei Consumer Business Group. In line with its slogan, Honor for the brave, the brand was created to meet the needs of digital natives through Internet-optimized products that offer superior user experiences, inspire action, foster creativity and empower the young to achieve their dreams. In doing this, Honor has set itself apart by showcasing its own bravery to do things differently and to take the steps needed to usher in the latest technologies and innovations for its customers. Media Contact Aseem Tuteja aseem.tuteja@fleishman.com +91-9873177313 FleishmanHillard

Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160608/10147926

Source: Huawei PRNewswire DL

--- ENDS ---
"They would beat me with belts and stub me with cigarette buds to drown my voice out but when I would keep screaming and they couldn't house me anymore--they sold me to Kamathipura."

By Mini Dixit: At the age of 10, I remember stumbling upon a certain article on what I didn't exactly understand back then--child trafficking--in a magazine I obviously wasn't "allowed" to read.

While the exact details of the article stand forgotten, what does remain of its memory is me feeling confused, horrified and dare I say--safe.

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I say safe, because I thought it couldn't happen to me, or those around me. Or that it was fiction. Or that everything in the world was fine. But it was only a matter of some years that I realised how wrong I was--a fact that was reiterated after coming across a recent Facebook post by Humans of Bombay.

The post documents the story of a girl who was sold to a Nepali family as domestic help at the tender age of 6, and despite being subjected to the three-fold demons of poverty, human trafficking, and prostitution, this one emerged as more than just an inspiration.

"When I was 6 years old, my neighbour, who was like a brother to me, said that he'll take me to Bombay and educate me. So desperate was my thirst to learn, that without telling my parents I went off with him. It was the biggest mistake of my life. He sold me to a Nepali family for 50,000 Rupees and ran away," reads the post.

Also Read: These girls from Nepal were asked to photograph the things they aren't allowed to touch during their period

She then goes on to describe how she was "forced to go to a dance bar and wear inappropriate clothes" at the age of 8.

When her screams, rebellion and protests to being beaten up and burnt by cigarette stubs got too much for the family's liking, they sold her to Kamathipura--Mumbai's largest and Asia's second-largest prostitution hub--at the age of 10.

"I was beaten and forced to attend to over 10 clients a day--at the age of 10. I was broken--I lost my childhood and wondered if I would ever see light again," she says.

Also Read: Stanford Campus Assault: Rapist's father thinks jail too harsh a punishment for '20 minutes of action'

It was much later that she came across a client whom she describes as "someone with a heart". This client realised just how young she was and reported her case to the police. What followed was a raid, her being rescued and being taken to Devnath Home in Chembur for counselling and education.

"After 7 years, I was shifted to Purnata, a hostel where my new life began. I took hair cutting courses and parlour treatment courses. With this, I got a job at a parlour where I've worked every day and slowly collected money."

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Concluding with how she now has an "honest job, good colleagues and many friends", she goes on to state how she visits Kamathipura every month to motivate the girls stuck there to leave that place and start afresh--much like she has.

"A time will come, when I go to that place and have no one left to save..but until then I won't stop trying."

--- ENDS ---
According to a report, in his his first interview as IGNCA chief, Ram Bahadur Rai has been quoted as saying that Ambedkar's contribution in framing India's constitution is a myth.

By Brijesh Pandey: First it was RSS chief's reservation remark which practically singed whatever chance the BJP had in Bihar. Now the chief of Indira Gandhi National Centre of Arts, Ram Bahadur Rai's statement has triggered a controversy. What is worrying the BJP is that all this is happening in the middle of BJPs biggest Dalit outreach programme.

Ram Bahadur Rai was Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma's first choice when he had removed the entire panel of IGNCA in April, 2016 and replaced it with a team headed by him.

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WHAT IGNCA CHIEF SAID:



According to a report, in his his first interview as IGNCA chief, Ram Bahadur Rai has been quoted as saying that Ambedkar's contribution in framing India's constitution is a myth. As per the report, he also said that Ambedkar's role is only secondary and basically he only corrected the language of whatever was provided to him by Sir Bengal Narsing Rau, an Indian diplomat.

In the last year and a half, BJP has been making strong efforts to appropriate Dalit icon Babasaheb Bhim Rao Ambedkar.

"Why can't people be just a bit more careful when they talk on subjects like Ambedkar? One irresponsible statement hurts a lot of work done by party over a period of time and no amount of denial will solve anything," said a senior BJP leader.

Another UP BJP leader said that this statement is completely uncalled for. "BSP will definitely exploit this useless statement much to our dismay".

IGNCA CHIEF DENIES GIVING SUCH INTERVIEW



Meanwhile, Ram Bahadur Rai has denied giving any such interview to any publication. In an interview to Aaj Tak, he said that, "All this is a political conspiracy and the real aim is PM Narendra Modi. First these people used to target RSS now PM Modi has become the real target".

Rai also said that he is going to raise this issue with the Editors' guild. Though he refused to comment on the alleged remarks, he said that he dismisses the interview claim.

But political parties were quick to jump in the controversy. Demanding apology from Ram Bahadur Rai, K Raju of the Congress said that his statement reflects mentality of the BJP and the RSS.

"They hate the Constitution because it speaks about equality. Modi keeps on speaking about Congress mukt Bharat, but they actually want Constitution mukt Bharat," added K Raju.

--- ENDS ---
Work is already underway to set up a 1 Mega Watt solar plant in the campus. Solar panels are being installed on the rooftops across nine prominent buildings.

By Indrajit Kundu: West Bengal's premiere technology institute IIT Kharagpur is all set for a "green" makeover. The institute has embarked on an ambitious plan to reduce its monthly electricity bill by 10 - 15 per cent with the use of using renewable energy like solar power.

Work is already underway to set up a 1 Mega Watt solar plant in the campus. Solar panels are being installed on the rooftops across nine prominent buildings. The move comes after the Ministry of Human Resource & Development (MHRD) urged all government run academic institutions to use solar power to conserve energy.

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"The installation of this plant will help reduce our monthly energy bill by almost 10 -15 per cent. It will reduce the cost and the power we save can be supplied to places where there is a shortage," explains Prabodh Bajpai, Associate Professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering & School of Energy Sciences.

Experts say, this will reduce the weight on the state power grid and also ensure self reliability of the academic institution in the long run. But solar energy plants are not a new feature at the Kharagpur campus, with a 100 KW plant already functional in one of the buildings that was commissioned in November 2014.

After the plants successful operation for two years, the campus is all set for the launch of yet another solar project coming up with a government provided subsidy of 30 per cent. The institute hopes to commission the 100 KW plant in the next two months.

While the institute has always aimed at being an energy efficient campus, the installing of the solar panels will pave the way to make their own energy system a lot more reliable. Apart from the ambitious MHRD project, IIT Kharagpur also has a few stand alone solar plants of 5KW each that have been installed at the roof top of the swimming pool arena.

In a move to enhance utilization of solar energy for sustainable use, the energy conservation department of the institute has also initiated a research in this subject to analyze the performance of the solar plants. But even though the cost of solar plants have come down in the past few years, experts believe an effective use of the natural energy for long term use needs some more brain storming.

"We are using the research to improvise upon the technology so that we can work out ways improve the efficiency of the solar plants, because that is still less." concludes Bajpai.

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: From K J M Varma

Beijing, Jun 8 (PTI) India cannot rise by "containing" China or picking one side against the other, a Chinese state- run paper said today, taking note of the Indo-US ties which are being ramped up to an "unprecedented level".

"Four visits to the US and seven meetings with President Barack Obama in two years - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has ramped up the India-US relationship to an unprecedented level. How the two countries will engage with each other has raised heated discussions," an op-ed article in state-run Global Times said.

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"Picking one side or camp against the other is not the way India will rise. New Delhi is looking into a multi-faceted diplomacy. The well-performing Indian economy will give incentives to the country to be more confident with multilateralism and to seek balanced international relations.

"Although rivalling China in many aspects, India knows its great vision cannot be realised by bashing or containing China. Instead, they should expand cooperation, explore the potentials and build mutual trust for their own good. China is more of a help than a competitor for India. This will eventually constitute Indias fundamental understanding of China," it said referring to Modis current visit to the US.

With Modis visit, New Delhi hopes there will be breakthroughs in many aspects, especially business and trade, security cooperation and nuclear issues, the article titled Indias vision cannot be realised by containing China said.

"The transformation of the geopolitical landscape is the major driver drawing the US and India much closer. Washingtons rebalance to the Asia-Pacific makes the US realise Indias strategic significance, economic potential and ideological commonality," it said.

"India hopes that by consolidating its relationship with the US, it could gain leverage in development and forge an international status that is worthy of its potential. Modi has riveted his interactions with the US on this simple outlook to make India a veritable powerhouse. He was eager to boost a broader and better economic relationship with the US.

"He urged the signing of the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement, a landmark deal promoting logistics and defence cooperation with the US and he also expects an endorsement from the US to help India become a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the last step to solidify Indias status as a nuclear powerhouse," the article said.

As for Washington, it is always hoping that India could serve as its right hand to counterbalance Chinas rise. But so far, Washingtons calculations do not work well. Turning down Washingtons invitation to join a patrol in the South China Sea, New Delhi has no intention to cast away its founding principles: independence and non-alignment, it said.

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"In the process of fulfilling its ambition to be a major power, India has always employed independent and pragmatic approaches. A balance between other major powers will be its primary and optimal choice," the article added. PTI KJV CPS AKJ CPS

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: Srinagar, Jun 8 (PTI) Independent MLA Sheikh Abdul Rashid was today marshalled after he disrupted the proceedings in Jammu and Kashmir Assembly demanding a statement from the government over the arrest of Syed Shabir Ahmad Shah, a Muslim leader in Jammu.

As the House assembled this morning, Rasheed sought a statement from the government on why Shah has been arrested and booked under Public Safety Act (PSA).

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However, Speaker Kavinder Gupta paid no heed to the MLAs plea and proceeded with the Question Hour.

"Why is the government afraid of making a statement? Why has Syed Shabir Ahmad Shah been booked under PSA? Was it a crime to hold fateha khawani for Mufti Mohammad Sayeed (after his death)? Why are the Samba killers and those of Ishtiyaq Chowdhary and Zahid not booked under PSA?" Rasheed asked.

The speaker warned Rasheed to take his seat or "I will have not option but to have you marshalled out".

The Independent MLA from Langate was joined by National Conference and Congress members who too demanded a statement from the government.

CPI(M) MLA Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami, while supporting the demand for a statement, asked the members from all parties not to communalise the situation.

Several opposition MLAs said the Speaker cannot stop the members from raising issues concerning the people of the state. PTI MIJ AYP RT AYP

--- ENDS ---
Rashid demanded the release of Syed Shabir Ahmad Shah, a Muslim leader from Jammu, who has been booked under the Public Safety Act.

By Shuja-ul-Haq : Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly witnessed a ruckus on Wednesday when independent legislator and Awami Ittehad Party (AIP) supremo Engineer Rashid was marshaled out after he demanded the release of a Muslim leader from Jammu booked under the Public Safety Act (PSA).

Rashid had accused the government of acting under the directions of right wing forces and terrorizing the Muslims living in Jammu. Several other opposition members too joined Rashid and sought explanation from the government.

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On the other hand, BJP MLAs argued with Rashid leading to a confrontation, after which Rashid was marshallad out of the Assembly.

The Muslim leader being talked about was Syed Shabir Ahmad Shah, the president of the Muslim Development Forum, who was reportedly booked under the PSA for "being a threat to peace". Reports published in some local dailies suggested that Shah, who lives in Mohalla Jeevan Shah, had been accused of grave charges.

Read More:

'Kashmir not part of India' - Engineer Rashid's anti-India rant an attempt to incite chaos?

3 BSF men killed, 6 injured in terror attack on convoy in Kashmir's Anathnag



--- ENDS ---
By PTI: Srinagar, Jun 8 (PTI) A first-time Jammu and Kashmir legislator and minister today expressed surprise how a written reply by him was reported by media without it being read in the Legislative Council and his query to the House in this regard sent the members into peels of laughter.

Syed Farooq Ahmad Andrabi, who represents Dooru assembly constituency of south Kashmir in the state Assembly and is Minister of State for Haj and Wakf, while replying to a question in Legislative Council, sought to know how a similar question was reported by some sections of media even as it was not read during the Question Hour in the House yesterday.

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The starred question, tabled by Congress MLC Ghulam Nabi Monga on whether any Wakf land was under illegal occupation of any government department or the army, did not come up yesterday as the Question Hour ended after a stipulated time of one hour.

However, a written reply was issued to the House by the minister, which the media reported.

As the minister got up to reply a similar question today, he said, "I do not understand how this answer (of yesterdays question) got exposed in media when it was not read here."

The remarks of the minister, apparently unaware of the rules, drew laughter in the House including from other ministers present there.

However, the minister went on to reply the question, saying land measuring 96650 Kanals and 13 Marlas (about 4890 hectares) has been notified as Wakf land in the state, of which 55014 Kanals and 16 marlas (about 2783 hectares) are in Kashmir province and 41635 Kanals and 17 Marlas (about 2107 hectares) in Jammu province.

He said the Wakf land in possession of Auqaf is 90653 Kanals and 1 Marla (about 4586 hectares), while as 2710 Kanals and 16 marlas (about 137 hectares) is under occupation of army and other paramilitary forces.

The minister said the government departments occupy 896 Kanals and 15 marlas (about 45 hectares) and civilians occupy 2390 Kanals and 1 marla (about 121 hectares) of wakh land illegally.

Andrabi, a close relative of Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, said the government is actively pursuing with all departments and agencies concerned to either seek regularisation of the occupied land or ensure its vacation. PTI SSB MIJ ZMN

--- ENDS ---
Actress Katrina Kaif has denied rumours of her doing an item number with Salman Khan in his upcoming release Kick.

By IndiaToday.in: Actress Katrina Kaif has denied rumours of her doing an item number with Salman Khan in his upcoming release Kick.



Katrina Kaif is busy shooting for three films back-to-back

Her spokesperson told the media, "The rumours are baseless. Katrina has not even been approached for any song in Kick. She is currently busy wrapping up her three films for which she has been working non-stop."

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It was being speculated that Katrina will get together with ex-lover Salman Khan for a special song for Sajid Nadiadwala directed Kick, two years after Ek Tha Tiger.

Katrina earlier did a special number in Salman's 2011 blockbuster Bodyguard.

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Kejriwal also accused the Centre of ignoring the dismal law and order situation in Delhi as well as creating hurdles in the functioning of his govt.

By Mail Today: Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung are once again at loggerheads, with the CM blaming Jung of spying on the Delhi government on behalf of the PMO.

Kejriwal also accused the Centre of ignoring the dismal law and order situation in Delhi as well as creating hurdles in the functioning of his govt.

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The Delhi CM's response came in retaliation to Jung's letter to Nripendra Misra, principal secretary to the PM, informing him that a railway officer was found working with the Delhi govt while on study leave from his department.

ALSO READ:

Tit-for-tat? Kejriwal hits back at Centre, says give details of consultants hired by Modi govt

--- ENDS ---
Without naming Pakistan, PM Modi told the US Congress that terrorism was a global challenge and that it was "incubated in India's neighbourhood." Full text of Modi's speech.

By India Today Web Desk: The US lawmakers gave standing ovation on at least nine occasions during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speech at the joint session of the Congress clearly suggesting that the Indian PM struck the right chords among many of them. Full text of PM Narendra Modi's historic speech in the US Congress



TERROR INCUBATED IN INDIA'S NEIGHBOURHOOD

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Prime Minister Modi used the prestigious stage to highlights India's concern over terrorism. Without naming Pakistan, the PM said that terrorism was a global challenge and that it was "incubated in India's neighbourhood."

"From the western borders of India to Africa, it goes by different names - Lashkar-e-Taiba or Al Qaeda or ISIS. They all speak the same language of terrorism," Modi said.

"Globally, terrorism remains the biggest threat, going by different names, but with the common philosophy of hate, murder and violence. Although it's shadow is spreading across the world, terrorism is incubated in India's neighbourhood," Modi added.

Visit No. 4: All about PM Modi's American sojourns

"In granting me this opportunity, you have honoured the world's largest democracy and its 1.25 billion people," PM Modi said beginning his 40-minute speech, adding, "As a representative of the world's largest democracy, it is indeed a privilege to speak to the leaders of its oldest."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the US Congress today, the last of his three-day visit to Washington. Modi is the sixth Indian prime minister to speak at the joint session of the US Congress.

The first Indian PM to address a joint meeting of the US Congress was Rajiv Gandhi in 1985. Narasimha Rao in 1994, Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2000 and Manmohan Singh in 2005 were the other PMs who spoke at the the US Capitol, which houses the House of Representatives and the Senate. Country's first PM Jawaharlal Nehru addressed the US Congress in 1949.

HIGHLIGHTS OF PM MODI'S SPEECH:

The orchestra have sufficiently tuned their instruments, the baton has given the signal. And there is a new symphony in play: PM Modi

T he constraints of the past are behind us and foundations of the future are firmly in place: PM Modi

Those who believe in humanity must come together as one and speak against this menace in one voice. Terrorism must be delegitimised: PM Modi

PM @narendramodi: Humanity must speak in one voice. Terrorism must be delegitimized pic.twitter.com/vWdragTFgc Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) June 8, 2016

Terror is incubated in India's neighbourhood: PM Modi

I commend the members of US Congress for sending a clear message to those who preach and practice terrorism for political gains: PM Modi

A strong India-US partnership can anchor peace, prosperity, and stability from Asia to Africa and from Indian Ocean to the Pacific: PM Modi

India's strong economy and growth rate of 7.6 per cent per annum, is creating new opportunities for our mutual prosperity: PM Modi

I see US as an indispensable partner. Many of you believe that a stronger and prosperous India is in America's strategic interest: PM Modi

My dream is to economically empower our billion citizens through many social and economic transformations: PM

My to do list is long and ambitious: PM Modi

And, we have not yet claimed intellectual property right on Yoga: PM Modi

SIRI tells us that India's ancient heritage of Yoga has over 30 million practitioners in the US: Modi at US Congress

Our cooperation secures our cities and citizens from terrorists and protects our critical infrastructure from cyber threats: PM Modi

India will never forget the solidarity US Congress showed when terrorists from across the border attacked us in November 2008: PM Modi

No wonder President Obama has called our partnership defining partnership of 21st century: PM Modi PM @narendramodi: Our founders created a modern nation with freedom, democracy & equality as the essence of its soul pic.twitter.com/dz7vFASFLG Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) June 8, 2016

Mahatma Gandhi inspired the heroism of Martin Luther King Junior: PM Modi

Today, India lives as one; India grows as one; India celebrates as one: Modi

There were many who doubted India when, as a newly independent nation, we reposed our faith in democracy: PM Modi

India applauds the great sacrifices of the men and women from 'The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave' in service of mankind: PM Modi

In granting me this opportunity, you have honoured the world's largest democracy and its 1.25 billion people: PM Modi

This temple of democracy has encouraged and empowered other democracies the world over: Modi

Thank you Mr. Speaker for opening this door of temple of democracy for me: Modi

I am deeply honoured by the invitation to address the Congress: Modi

PM Modi speaking

Modi to address joint session of US Congress shortly.

Following shooting incident in gurudwara in my constituency, the Sikh community's compassion and forgiveness has been a lesson: US House of Representatives speaker Paul Ryan tells PM Modi

After the joint address, Speaker Ryan will host a lunch for the PM at the Capitol Hill which will be attended by top Congressmen.

US Congress Speaker Paul Ryan welcomes PM Modi at the Capitol Hill

PM Modi arrives at Capitol Hill Day 3 in DC: A day for democracy - PM @narendramodi arrives at Capitol Hill, is received by @SpeakerRyan pic.twitter.com/9z5gwnIoNq Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) June 8, 2016

Modi, Obama embrace history as India, US ink defence, counter-terror pacts: Highlights



The US Capitol building (File Photo/Reuters) The US Capitol building (File Photo/Reuters)

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US innovation, Indian human resource a win-win combo: PM Modi



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Modi was invited to speak at the joint session by House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, who had recently described the US-India ties as "a pillar of strength in an important region of the world."

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In 2005, the US Congress had denied visa to Modi, then Gujarat chief minister, for his 'failure' to stop 2002 riots in the state.

Also Read:

Why US has recognised India as a 'major defence partner': Quick facts



Shoulder-to-shoulder on terror and energy, Obama backs Modi on NSG and MTCR

--- ENDS ---
Admission to the MTCR would open the way for India to buy high-end missile technology, making more realistic its aspiration to buy surveillance drones such as the US Predator.

By Reuters: The members of the Missile Technology Control Regime, an international anti-proliferation grouping, have agreed to admit India, diplomats said, in a win for Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he met President Barack Obama in Washington on Tuesday.

Diplomats with direct knowledge of the matter said a deadline for members of the 34-nation group to object to India's admission had expired on Monday without any members resisting the move. They said the plenary meeting of the 34-nation grouping will take place later this year in Seoul during which India will be formally inducted as the new entrant into the bloc.

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Mission almost accomplished. Only some procedural formalities remain before India becomes member of MTCR, Roald Naess, Norwegian Ambassador to Ireland tweeted.

NO OBJECTION

Admission to the MTCR would open the way for India to buy high-end missile technology, making more realistic its aspiration to buy surveillance drones such as the US Predator. India also makes a supersonic cruise missile, the BrahMos, in a joint venture with Russia. Both countries hope to sell the technology to third countries. This development would make India a significant arms exporter for the first time.

Sources said India had applied for the MTCR membership last year and its application was under consideration as part of a silent procedure. There were certain formalities to be completed before India is inducted into the bloc, added the sources.

The development comes as India was expanding its diplomatic outreach seeking support for its entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group. India has developed a range of missile systems including Brahmos, Agni and Prithvi missile systems.

China has been opposing India's bid arguing that it was not a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

President Barack Obama backed India's NSG membership bid amid a major push to the strategic ties between the two countries which finalised a roadmap to give India the status of US' close partner in the defence sector.

ENTERING NSG

Obama, who held over hour-long talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, also promised to cooperate with India against terrorist threats from groups such as Pakistan-based Jaish-e Mohammad, Lashkar-e-Taiba as well as 'D' Company, a reference to underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. In this context, they (the two leaders) directed their officials to identify specific new areas of collaboration at the next meeting of U.S.India Counter-terrorism Joint Working Group, said a joint statement issued after the talks.

Significantly, the American side also committed itself to treating Pathankot attack at par with 26/11 terror strike in terms of ensuring punishment to perpetrators based in Pakistan.

The two countries also decided to start work on construction of six American nuclear reactors in India amid affirmation that the Liability issue has been addressed. Six pacts, including one on exchange of screening of terror information, besides two other documents were signed after the talks that mainly covered issues like terrorism, clean energy, climate change, defence, regional security, cyber security, economic ties and people-to-people contacts.

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Addressing the media jointly with Modi at his Oval office, Obama said it was natural for India and the US, two biggest democracies, to deepen and broaden partnership. Obama said. "I indicated support to India being a part of NSG," the US president said in remarks which assume significance since China is opposing such a move.

Obama underlined that India needs technology, which is critical for its progress and prosperity. The 50-point point Statement said, President Obama welcomed India's application to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), and re-affirmed that India is ready for membership. The United States called on NSG Participating Governments to support India's application when it comes up at the NSG Plenary later this month.

ALSO READ:

Shoulder-to-shoulder on terror and energy, Obama backs Modi on NSG and MTCR

--- ENDS ---
Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for a closer security relationship between his country and the United States on Wednesday, in an address to the U.S. Congress stressing the importance of warming ties between the two countries.

By Reuters: He dedicated much of the speech to the importance of fighting terrorism, thanking Congress for U.S. support after a Pakistan-based military group's rampage in Mumbai killed 166 people in 2008.

"The fight against terrorism has to be fought at many levels. And the traditional tools of military, intelligence or diplomacy alone would not be able to win this fight," Modi told a rare joint meeting of the Senate and House of Representatives.

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"We have both lost civilians and soldiers in combating it. The need of the hour is for us to deepen our security cooperation," Modi said.

He leavened the speech to lawmakers, the first such address by an international leader since Pope Francis' in September, with jokes about Congress' bitter partisan divide and yoga. But Modi used it to make serious points about India's neighbor and arch-rival Pakistan and regional concerns about Chinese expansionism.

"I commend the members of the U.S. Congress for sending a clear message to those who preach and practice terrorism for political gains," he said, not mentioning either country by name.



CHANGE IN FORTUNES

Modi is on the U.S. leg of an international tour. On Tuesday, he met with President Barack Obama at the White House, where the two leaders said India agreed to work toward joining the Paris Agreement on climate change this year and discussed security and cybersecurity issues.

The visit, two years after Modi became prime minister, capped an improving relationship between New Delhi and the United States. Before he was elected, Modi was barred from even entering the country because of concerns about his handling of 2002 riots that killed at least 1,000 people, mostly Muslims.



Today, he is one of the international leaders most popular in Washington, where Modi's government is seen as a counterbalance to China. He and Obama have a warm personal relationship.

"We are now standing shoulder to shoulder in ways that no one could have imagined a generation ago," Representative Eliot Engel, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs committee, said at a reception for Modi after the address.

In a 45-minute speech interrupted by cheers and at least eight standing ovations, the 65-year-old Indian leader said deeper U.S.-Indian security cooperation should isolate anyone who harbors, supports or sponsors terrorists.

REGIONAL SECURITY

Although he did not mention Pakistan, that line was greeted with applause from the lawmakers, many of whom are increasingly frustrated with what they see as Islamabad's failure to crack down on militants behind attacks on American troops in Afghanistan.

Modi also stressed that India is committed to helping rebuild a peaceful and stable Afghanistan.

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Amid heightened tensions over China's assertive pursuit of territory in the South China Sea, Modi said a stronger U.S.-India partnership could boost peace and prosperity "from Asia to Africa and from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific." He did not mention China.

"It can also help ensure security of the sea lanes and commerce and freedom of navigation on seas," Modi added.

Democrats leaped to their feet when Modi referred to the recent climate change summit. But Republicans in the House chamber remained seated, reflecting the U.S. political divide over the issue.

House Speaker Paul Ryan greeted Modi at his office before his speech. After the Indian leader's remarks, he attended lunch with congressional leaders and a reception with members of the House Foreign Affairs and Senate Foreign Relations committees.



ALSO READ

Terror incubated in India's neighbourhood: PM Modi's US Congress speech had strong message for Pakistan



US innovation, Indian human resource a win-win combo: PM Modi



Shoulder-to-shoulder on terror and energy, Obama backs Modi on NSG and MTCR

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: Vadodara, Jun 7 (PTI) The aim of Prime Minister Narendra Modis current US visit is to consolidate progress made by both the countries in diverse areas and to intensify cooperation for the future, BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav today said.

"The main objective of his visit is to consolidate the progress made (by India and US) in diverse areas such as economy, energy, environment, defence and security, and to intensify cooperation for the future," he said.

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The BJP leader was talking to reporters during his brief halt at Harni airport here on way to Mehsana city in North Gujarat.

Important announcements will be made during the PMs three-day US visit, he said without providing details.

Madhav attached importance to Modi addressing a joint session of US Congress during the trip.

The US Congress has been a source of strength for the Indo-American strategic partnership, he maintained.

Realisation of the full potential of Indo-US economic partnership has been a key priority for both countries and the progress achieved in this regard is reflected in the increased investment flows, Madhav said.

The BJP leader later left for Mehsana, about 200km from here, where he will attend an event marking two years of the Modi Government. PTI COR RSY SMJ SRE

--- ENDS ---
South-west monsoon has set in over Kerala and Lakshadweep, IMD said. Several parts of Kerala have been receiving heavy rains since Tuesday night

Several parts of Kerala are already witnessing heavy rains. Reuters photo

By Press Trust of India: Bringing much-needed respite from the heat, the Southwest Monsoon hit Kerala on Wednesday, more than eight days behind the due date and claiming one life.



Several parts of Kerala have been receiving heavy rains since Tuesday night. The IMD had earlier said that monsoon was likely to hit Kerala by June 9.

The monsoon is "very likely" to hit Kerala by June 9, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

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It said that the southwest monsoon has furthered advanced into some parts of south Arabian Sea, Maldives, Comorin area and some parts of southwest Bay of Bengal.

"In view of strengthening of cross equatorial flow and deepening of westerlies over south Arabian sea and development of feeble off-shore trough along Karnataka-Kerala coast, onset over Kerala is very likely by June 9," the IMD said in its latest bulletin.

The IMD had yesterday said that conditions continue to remain favourable for the onset of southwest monsoon over Kerala in next 48 hours, marking the start of rainy season in the country.

DELAYED MONSOON



Heavy rains claimed the life of a 36-year-old man following a landslip in Idukki district.

South-west monsoon has set in over Kerala and Lakshadweep, said K Santosh, head of India Meteorological Departments regional centre here.

Several parts of the state has been receiving heavy rains since last night.

Jobi John, former SFI Idukki district president, died and his mother was seriously injured when mounds of earth and rocks fell on their home following heavy rains at Vazhavara early today, police said.



However, his father escaped unhurt and informed neighbours who engaged in rescue operation.



The mother's condition is stated to be serious and she has been taken to a hospital in Kochi for treatment. Thiruvananthapuram district authorities are taking precautionary steps like restricting flow of tourists to hill stations like Ponmudi in view of heavy rains.



People are also being advised to avoid traveling during night on hilly roads.

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According to the police, the operatives of the racket used to share photos of models and actors with their prospective clients through social media sites.

By India Today Web Desk: The Mumbai Police has busted a high-profile sex racket and has arrested two models. One of the two arrested models is said to be a known female TV actor who is seen regularly on the crime show Savdhaan India. However, the police is yet to arrest the boss of the racket.

The social service branch of the Mumbai Police had received a tip-off regarding a high-profile sex racket being operated in the Goregaon area.

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HOW THE RACKET WAS BUSTED

Acting on the information, an undercover cop posing as a 'supplier' contacted some persons who were associated with the racket. After receiving a confirmation from the cop, a police team raided a building near Film City and arrested the two models and another two persons - Sayra and Ashraf alias Aman - who were allegedly associated with the racket.

Spas, night clubs offering sexual services turning Gurgaon into Delhi's Bangkok



THE MODUS OPERANDI

According to the police, the operatives of the racket used to share photos of the models and actors with their prospective clients through social media sites. After receiving a confirmation of the 'deal' from the clients, the models were supplied to them.

WATCH: High-profile sex racket busted in Delhi



The police arrested the TV actor and a female Marathi actor on the basis of information that Aman had yielded during interrogation. Police said the models used to charge between Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh per assignment. Most of their clients were from the corporate world.

Bengaluru: Call girl racket busted, 1 arrested



MORE PEOPLE FROM TV INDUSTRY INVOLVED?

A case has been registered and a probe is on. Further investigations could reveal more names from the TV world who are linked with the sex racket, police said.

Also Read:

Sex racket busted in Ghaziabad, 109 arrested



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Prime Minister Modi specifically spoke about India's defence sector and said this industry will be opened up further to domestic and overseas investment along with steps to ensure that projects do not get unduly delayed.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi invited USA Inc to invest in his country to forge a win-win partnership between American innovation and Indian human resource. Photo: PIB/Twitter

By Indo-Asian News Service: Assuring continuity in reforms and predictable tax policies, but with a firm hand against evasion, Prime Minister Narendra Modi invited USA Inc to invest in his country to forge a win-win partnership between American innovation and Indian human resource.

Speaking at a gala hosted by the US-India Business Council here, he also called upon rich nations to open up their economies to goods and services from emerging countries like India as they seek to make world-class merchandise not just for themselves but also for the entire globe.



INDIA: FUTURE POWERHOUSE OF THE WORLD

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"India is the future human resource powerhouse of the world with a young hard-working population. In my vision, a partnership between American capital and innovation, and Indian human resource and entrepreneurship can be very powerful," Modi said.

"I am convinced we can strengthen both our economies through such a partnership," said the prime minister to a packed audience that included the top brass of companies like PepsiCo, Master Card, Warburg Pincus, Lockheeed Martin, Boeing, Westinghouse, Intelsat, Emerson and 8Minute Energy.



MAKE IN INDIA

The prime minister said his government will continue to strengthen the Make in India initiative, which was intended not only for manufacturing for the domestic market or import substitution but was also about making world-class products and services for the whole globe.

"That is why, for us, improvements towards free trade are important. It is very important for us that developed countries open their markets not only to goods from countries like India but also to services. I see this as a win-win proposition for the US and for India."



TAX POLICIES

He also held out an assurance: "We will continue to make our tax policies more predictable."

Earlier, the office bearers of US-India Business Council said their members have already invested $28 billion in India since September 2014 and that another $45 billion was in the pipeline, even by a conservative estimate.

Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com, specifically said the US-based global e-commerce major had pledged another $3 billion investment in India in addition to the $2 billion that was announced in 2014 and had created over 45,000 jobs in India.



EXPANSION OF DEFENCE SECTOR

In his address, Prime Minister Modi specifically spoke about India's defence sector and said this industry will be opened up further to domestic and overseas investment along with steps to ensure that projects do not get unduly delayed.

"I am aware that licensing policies can sometimes slow down the process of investing in India's defence sector. We are exploring a simpler and more efficient project licensing approach for defence," he said.



NUCLEAR ENERGY

"In the field of nuclear energy, we are purchasing six nuclear reactors from Westinghouse, which will mark a new era in our nuclear and scientific cooperation. I was delighted when GE became one of the first companies to make a major investment in the newly liberalized railway sector."

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The prime minister said there were four key elements to his government's policies - a sound macro-economic foundation, ensuring growth with enhanced employment, efficiency and productivity, social inclusion to benefit the poor and a frontal attack on corruption.



CORRUPTION

On corruption, he said, even the worst critics of his government cannot deny the achievement that has been made since his government took office two years ago, adding graft is an issue that acts as the main deterrent to growth for any developing economy.

"We have taken decisive steps to curb corruption," he said, adding discretion in allocation of key resources has been replaced by auctions, people get direct cash for subsidies intended for them and senior positions are being entrusted to professionals of integrity.

"We have also launched an on-going campaign against tax evasion and black money. The poor are the greatest beneficiaries of the reduction in corruption."

--- ENDS ---
Ironically it is Pakistan's own all-weather friend China that continues to press for states being signatories to the NPT for making it to the NSG.

By Maha Siddiqui: Within hours of India managing to get US support for its Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) bid, Pakistan too got into action. Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's advisor on Foreign Affairs, Sartaj Aziz dialled Russia, Korea and New Zealand in a bid to garner support for its claim to the nuclear high table too.



PAKISTAN SEEKS SUPPORT

A press release from the Pakistan Foreign ministry said that Aziz spoke to Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov on June 7. The release further said, "Today, the Adviser also contacted, over phone, the Foreign Ministers of New Zealand, H.E. Murray McCully, and Republic of Korea, H.E. Yun Byung-se, to highlight Pakistan's credentials for the NSG membership with a view to seek their support. His interlocutors expressed support for a non-discriminatory approach on NSG expansion to non-NPT states."

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Ironically it is Pakistan's own all-weather friend China that continues to press for states being signatories to the NPT for making it to the NSG. In an attempt to block India's entry into the NSG, China has created hurdles for ally Pakistan's entry to the elite nuke group, or at least so it appears.

DIFFERENCE OF OPINION



Replying to news agency PTI yesterday, the Chinese Foreign ministry said, "Members within the group still differ on the accession of countries which are not party states to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT)."

On May 23, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying had asserted that its view "applies to all non-NPT countries including Pakistan."



'UNFAIR TO CLUB INDIA, PAK IN SAME CATEGORY'

Sources in the Ministry of External Affairs told India Today that it was unfair to club India and Pakistan in the same category. When asked how India reacts to Pakistan's attempts at becoming an NSG member a few days ago, a source said, "India's record in nuclear non-proliferation has been totally clean whereas the world and the NSG members are well aware of Pakistan's record on proliferation."

Prime Minister Modi made a brief halt in Switzerland before heading to the US to garner more support with members of the 48-nation NSG. "I am also thankful to the President for Switzerland's understanding and support for India's membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group," said PM Modi's statement after his bilateral meeting with Swiss President Johann Schneider-Ammann.

This latest move by Pakistan comes just a day before the 'extraordinary plenary' meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers Group in Vienna on the 9th of June where India's application is to come up for hearing.

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: From Lalit K Jha

Washington, Jun 8 (PTI) Treating Pathankot attack on par with 26/11, US President Barack Obama in a clear message asked Pakistan to punish the perpetrators and vowed to stand with India against terror threats emanating from Pakistan-based groups like JeM, LeT and D-company.

"They (Obama and Modi) called for Pakistan to bring the perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai and 2016 Pathankot terrorist attacks to justice," a joint statement issued yesterday after the Obama-Modi meeting at the White House said.

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During the meeting, Modi and Obama acknowledged the continued threat posed to human civilisation by terrorism and condemned the recent terrorist incidents from Paris to Pathankot, from Brussels to Kabul, the statement said.

"They resolved to redouble their efforts, bilaterally and with other like-minded countries, to bring to justice the perpetrators of terrorism anywhere in the world and the infrastructure that supports them," the statement said.

During the meeting, Obama and Modi committed to strengthen cooperation against terrorist threats from extremist groups, such as "al-Qaeda, Daesh/ISIL, Jaish-e Mohammad, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, D Company and their affiliates, including through deepened collaboration on UN terrorist designations."

The two leaders directed their officials to identify specific new areas of collaboration at the next meeting of US?India Counter-terrorism Joint Working Group, the statement said.

"Recognising an important milestone in the US-India counter-terrorism partnership, the leaders applauded the finalisation of an arrangement to facilitate the sharing of terrorist screening information," it said.

Modi and Obama also affirmed their support for a UN Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism that advances and strengthens the framework for global cooperation and reinforces that no cause or grievance justifies terrorism, the statement said.

The two leaders had a "very extensive" and "thoughtful" conversation about the rise of extremism and the need for all countries to work together to address this challenge, a senior Obama administration official said.

The two leaders also underlined the need to ensure that the civil society and the minority communities are fully participating in addressing the issue, the official said. PTI LKJ ASK AKK NSA AKJ NSA

--- ENDS ---
After being the first sitting American president to have visited Hiroshima, Barack Obama will now mark his presence in the city with origami cranes.

By Indo-Asian News Service: The origami cranes made by US President Barack Obama, who donated them to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum during his Tokyo visit, will be exhibited in the museum, starting Thursday.

Along with the cranes, the museum will also display the message the US leader wrote in its guest book, a museum spokesperson told Efe news on Wednesday.

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"We have known the agony of war. Let us now find the courage, together, to spread peace, and pursue a world without nuclear weapons," wrote Obama, the first sitting US president to visit Hiroshima, where Washington had dropped an atomic bomb on August 6, 1945.

During his historic visit to the city in May, the US leader presented two cranes to the museum, which explains the effects of the bomb on the city and its inhabitants, and gave another two to local students.

These figures, made by folding paper, have become a symbol of peace ever since they were popularised by Sadako Sasaki, a victim of the nuclear bombing who died at the age of 11 of leukemia.

The US president visited Japan to attend the G7 summit, held in the Ise-Shima national park, from where he travelled to Hiroshima to pay tribute to the victims of the atomic bombing.

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In an exclusive interview with India Today, Nihalani said Udta Punjab producer Anurag Kashyap's protest against the censor board is "politically motivated."

By India Today Web Desk: Under fire for ordering 89 cuts in soon to be released movie Udta Punjab, Censor Board chief Pahlaj Nihalani has announced his open allegiance to the BJP and PM Narendra Modi.

Pahlaj Nihalani's 5 greatest contributions to Indian cinema



In an exclusive interview with India Today, Nihalani hit out at Udta Punjab producer Anurag Kashyap for moving Bombay High Court against the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC). Nihalani said Kashyap's protest against the Censor board's decision is "politically motivated."

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HERE'S WHAT NIHALANI SAID:

Kashyap always has issues with CBFC. Logon ka kaam hai kehna, mujhe uski parwaah nahi. Main apna kaam kar rha hoon. (I don't care what people say. Let them say what they want. I am doing my job.) Main to PM ka bhakt hoon... ek leader ka bhakt hoon. Main Bhartiya citizen hoon, Italy ka nahi. (I am a bhakt of PM Modi. I am an Indian citizen, not an Italian.) I love the quality and PM Modi's way of working. I have been his fan since long. Social media is not the country. Ask the 125 crore people of the country what kind of work I have been doing.

Udta Punjab is slated for a June 17 release.

Also Read:

Bollywood unites to save Udta Punjab from Pahlaj Nihalani, demands Censor Board chief be removed



Udta Punjab vs Censor Board: Anurag Kashyap moves Bombay High Court



Anurag Kashyap called me extremely egoistic. Many people feel the same about him: Pahlaj Nihalani



--- ENDS ---
By PTI: From M Zulqernain

Lahore, Jun 8 (PTI) A teenaged Pakistani girl was today doused in petrol and then burnt alive here allegedly by her mother and brother for marrying a man of her choice, in the latest case of so-called honour-killings in the country.

Zeenat, 18, died on the spot, police said.

"We have arrested the mother of Zeenat and are looking for her brother for allegedly setting her on fire, killing her on the spot," Lahore police spokesman Nayyab Haider told PTI.

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He said Zeenats mother Parveen told the police in custody that her daughter had committed an unforgivable crime by marrying a man after eloping with him.

"Although Pareveen confessed to her crime, she denied the involvement of her son in killing Zeenat," Haider said.

Zeenat reportedly fell in love with Hasan, who lived in her locality, and asked her parents to accept his marriage proposal.

However, her parents refused following which Zeenat eloped with Hasan and married him in court.

The police official further said Zeenat,a resident of thickly-populated factory area, had contacted her mother a few days ago seeking her forgiveness for marrying against the will of her family.

"Parveen told her that she and other family members had forgiven her and she should return to take the blessing of her family," he said.

Getting into the trap, Zeenat agreed to return.

"Today, when Zeenat reached her parents house, first she was tortured by her mother and a brother and then they doused petrol on her setting her alight," he said.

Police have registered a murder case against Parveen, her son and two unidentified men.

The girls body has been shifted to a mortuary for autopsy.

Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has taken strict notice of the incident and directed Lahore police chief Amin Wains to thoroughly investigate the matter and bring the perpetrators to justice.

Last week, police arrested five men including asuitor for torching a19-year-old school teacher in Murree, some 35 kilometres from Islamabad, for refusing to marry him.

Similarly, last month, police arrested 13 members of a local tribal council including the parents of a teenage girl for strangulating her and later torching her body in Abbottabad for marrying a man of her choice.

According to Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, around 800women were killed last year in Punjab in honour killings.

The Punjab government has introduced more strict legislation for protection of women. PTI MZ SAI ZH SAI

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: (Attn.editors: The following press release comes to you under an arrangement with PRNewswire. PTI takes no editorial responsibility for the same). Parineeti Chopra Named Brand Ambassador for Sugar Free

NEW DELHI, June 8, 2016/PRNewswire/ -- To Propagate Smartness Waali Sweetness Mantra Pursuing Consumers to Give up Sugar While Retaining Sweetness Sugar Free, the market leader in the sugar substitute category in India, has signed Bollywood actor Parineeti Chopra as its brand ambassador. As part of its new brand campaign, the actor will be seen in a new television commercial that goes on air across GECs and news channels in the country. Sugar Free has also taken a step forward to reinvent itself and position the brand as a healthy alternate to direct consumption of sugar. The brands new tagline -Smartness Waali Sweetness - is aimed at attracting the audience to make a healthy choice of giving up sugar while continuing to retain sweetness. (Photo:http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160608/10147918)

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Talking about the new SF campaign, Mr. Tarun Arora, COO, Zydus Wellness said, "Our new campaign is all about making smarter choices. Today, consumers are inundated with a variety of options - be it foods, consumer goods or even health. Sugar Free is their partner in making an intelligent, smart choice of taste without having to give up on their indulgences. The concept of Smartness Waali Sweetness emphasizes on the smarter choice - To give up sugar, not the sweetness."

Mr Arora added, "Sugar Free is immensely proud to associate with one of Bollywoods finest actors in todays age, Parineeti Chopra. Her transformation, which is a reflection of her dedication and her willpower to make smart health choices resonated well with what we intended to say to our consumers. We have no doubt that this association with Parineeti will provide a good reason to the consumer and inspire them to opt for a smarter, healthier lifestyle without much compromise or change." (MORE) PRNewswire DL

--- ENDS ---
By Indo-Asian News Service: Upset over India's "aggressive" foreign policy moves, especially in the wake of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent visits to Afghanistan, Iran, the UAE and Qatar, Pakistani senators have asked the government to immediately "rectify its diplomatic failings".

The senators highlighted the recent visits of Modi to various countries which were considered to be friends of Pakistan, including Saudi Arabia, and expressed concern over India's growing relations with these Islamic Republic countries, it was reported on Wednesday.

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MODI ON 5-NATION TOUR



The concern of the Senators comes as Modi is on the fourth leg of a five-nation visit that took him to the Afghanistan, Qatar, Switzerland, US and Mexico.

Replying to a discussion on an adjournment motion moved by Pakistan Muslim League (PML)-N's Javed Abbasi on the "recent test of an intercept missile by India contributing to an unhealthy arms race in the region", Advisor to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz on Tuesday asserted that Pakistan would take all possible measures to augment its defence capabilities.

PAKISTAN NOT ENTERING INTO ARMS RACE: SARTAJ AZIZ



"Pakistan is not oblivious to its defence requirements and upgrading its capabilities through suitable technologies without entering into an arms race," he said, adding that "our efforts for peace and friendship must not be interpreted as our weakness. We are fully capable to defend our people and territory".

Aziz said the country's scientists and experts were monitoring and evaluating the strategic threats that Indian nuclear doctrine posed to national security. He said that despite limited resources, Pakistan had developed a robust nuclear deterrent system.

The advisor said Pakistan was planning to highlight the "dangerous implications" of India's plan to nuclearise the Indian Ocean at all the relevant international forums. He said Pakistan was also considering the option of moving a resolution in the UN General Assembly, seeking to declare the Indian Ocean as nuclear-free.

ALSO READ | Modi thanks 'friend' Obama for backing India on NSG





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Dear prime minister, Konark's Sun Temple is only 761 years old. Also, thanks for the 'skirt sanskriti' reminder.

By India Today Web Desk: While we already know about many in our country who keep reminding us about 'bharatiya sanskriti', we see even our Prime Minister Narendra Modi joining them.

During his visit to the United States, PM Modi spoke about India's culture and heritage and reminded us that skirts have been a part of it.

In an event where the United States returned over 200 cultural artifacts estimated at $100 million to India, Modi said Konark's Sun Temple show sculptures wearing skirts and carrying purses, something 'today's modern fashionable girl does'.

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Thank you PM! At least now it's clear that wearing skirts is not a sin. But let us ask you this. When the Hindu Mahasabha wanted to ban skirts as a uniform for school girls, why did the Bharatiya Janata Party go mute?

Modiji's statement about skirts being a part of the Indian culture has ignited quite a fierce dialogue on the social networking sites.

But why?

Firstly, because it is factually incorrect.

"Konark ke Sun Temple mein do hazaar saal pehle uss samay ke kalakaron ne aaj ki modern fashionable girl, jo skirt pehenti hai aur haath mein purse rakhti hai, unki murtiyan bhi banayi hui hai. Matlab uss samay bhi yeh cheezein maujood hongi," said Modiji.

But Konark temple is only 761 years old and not 2,000 years as you said. Archaeological Survery of India says the Sun Temple was made in the 13th century.

And this was not all, the Twitterati had a pretty strong response to this-



Modi says Konarak temple is 2000yr old & Bhakts scramble to prove him correct despite evidence that says otherwise pic.twitter.com/KbOf93YAaR SamSays (@samjawed65) June 7, 2016

Modi's team of Sadhvis&Swamys r against girls wearing jeans but Modi supports mini skirts, says our girls used to wear skirts 1000 yrs back. Abdulla Madumoole (@AMadumoole) June 7, 2016

@srivatsayb Modi must be having delusions of short skirt women ... Anyway bhakts will claim he increased tourist to that temple Man J (@jasmvk) June 7, 2016

Aur tab se leke aaj tak RSS aur Modi bhakt uss Skirt ???ke peeche pade hai.. pic.twitter.com/IpYGyIgUo9 ?? ? (@VoiceOfPM) June 7, 2016

Watch the video here:

--- ENDS ---
Principal confirms that the envelope containing the answer sheets received from Bishun Rai college wasn't sealed

By Rohit Kumar Singh: In a new disclosure in the tainted Bihar toppers scam, it has come to light that answer sheets of all examinees who appeared for Intermediate exam in Vaishali district was sent to Kaimur and Ara district for evaluation except candidates of Bishun Rai college which is under scanner at the moment.

Bishun Rai College was the only examination center in Vaishali district from which the answer sheets of examinees were sent to Patna's Rajendra Nagar Boys High School for evaluation.

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SIT on Tuesday raided this school where the answer sheets of candidates of Bishun Rai College was kept. After the initial investigation, the police sealed the room.

The Principal of this school, Bisheshwar Prasad Yadav has also been interrogated in connection with the topper scam.

" Police has called the Principal for questioning. Searches and raids were carried by SIT team", says the peon of the school, Radhe Shyam.

According to police sources, Principal Bisheshwar Yadav has said that the envelope which contained the answer sheets of Bishul Rai College sent to him for evaluation, had its seal broken. Also the answer sheets of the toppers were changed at this evaluation center.

After initial searches and raids at this school, police have also taken a list of persons/ officials who evaluated the answer sheets at this school.

Principal Yadav also happened to be the Superintendent of this evaluation center.

OTHER SUSPECTS

On the other hand police also detained Principal of GA Inter School, Hajipur, Shail Kumari from Patna along with three others in connection with the scam and questioned them for hours. Incidentally, GA Inter School was the examination center of all the candidates who were enrolled at Bishun Rai College.

The police team also carried searches at the GA Inter School and seized documents pertaining to candidates who appeared for intermediate exams, their seating plan and also series of answer paper distribution.

In another development, Chairman of Bihar School Examination Board, Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh resigned from his post after a show cause notice was served on him in connection with the scam.

In Hajipur, the tainted toppers of Science and Arts stream Saurabh, Rahul and Ruby along with their family members have gone underground after FIRs were registered against the toppers. Even Baccha Rai, the Principal of the dubious Bushun Rai College is absconding and evading arrest so far.



ALSO READ

Will commit suicide if cross-examined: Bihar 'topper'

Toppergate scam: FIR against Bihar toppers, SIT to probe criminal conspiracy angle





--- ENDS ---

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On Wednesday, a Patna police team reached the houses of tainted Science topper Saurabh Shrestha and Rahul Kumar, Arts topper Ruby Rai and handed summons to their family members.

Ruby Rai, the Arts topper who skipped the re-examination, has been given another chance to appear for the re-examination on June 11.

By Rohit Kumar Singh: After carrying out raids and searches at the office of the Bihar School Examination Board and seizing computers, laptops, hard disks and CPUs, the Patna police has now trained their gun on the tainted toppers.



POLICE SUMMON FAMILIES

Early morning, on Wednesday, a police team reached the houses of tainted Science topper Saurabh Shrestha and Rahul Kumar and Arts topper Ruby Rai and handed summons to their family members. The summons handed over to the parents of the tainted toppers have asked them to produce their wards before the police for interrogation.

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All the three toppers are students of the dubious Bishun Rai College in Vaishali which has literally turned into a topper manufacturing unit year after year, a reason because of which this college is also under scanner.

Patna SSP, Manu Maharaj said " We have formed three teams which are conducting raids at many places in Patna and Vaishali. We are questioning all officials related to the toppers scam".



POLICE ACTION



Police teams have also carried out searches at the Rajendra Nagar Boys High School in Patna where the answer sheets of Bishun Rai College students were evaluated. Police teams have also seized list of invigilators and evaluaters related to this college who were tasked to conduct free and fair examination.

Police have also raided the office of Bishun Rai College in Vaishali and seized several files in a three hour long exercise. Baccha Rai, however, has gone missing.

The swift police action comes soon after institution of FIR against the tained toppers Saurabh, Rahul and Ruby along with Baccha Rai, the owner of Bishun Rai College plus other officials involved in the examination process of these three toppers.

On Tuesday, police has also questioned the Chairman of the Bihar School Examination Board, Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh for over five hours.

In the meantime, RJD chief Lalu Prasad has distanced himself from Baccha Rai who is believed to be close to Lalu. Lalu said he was unaware about Baccha Rai. Lalu said the owner of Bishun Rai College should be sent to jail.

"Who is Baccha Rai? How did he make so many toppers? He has committed crime and he should be arrested and sent to jail. Because of this incident Bihar's image has been tarnished", said an angry Lalu.



Here are the highlights: The answer sheets of all examinees who appeared for Intermediate exam in Vaishali district was sent to Kaimur and Ara district for evaluation. Bishun Rai College was the only examination center in Vaishali district, the answer sheets of examinees was sent to Patna's Rajendra Nagar Boys High School for evaluation. SIT has raided this school where the answer sheets of candidates of Bishun Rai College is kept. After initial investigation, police has sealed the room in which these answer sheets are kept. The principal of this school Bisheshwar Prasad Yadav is being questioned. According to sources, principal has said that the envelope's seal in which answer sheets of Bishul Rai College was sent to him, the seal of that envelope was broken. Also the answer sheets of the toppers were changed at this evaluation center. Police has also taken a list of officials who evaluated the answer sheets at this school. Principal Yadav also happened to be the Superintendent of this evaluation center.

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Also Read:

Toppergate scam: FIR against Bihar toppers, SIT to probe criminal conspiracy angle Will commit suicide if cross-examined: Bihar 'topper'

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: Coimbatore, Jun 7 (PTI) The government today termed as "malicious" and "incorrect" a recent report which said that pollution levels in India were so high that they could shorten ones life span by a couple of years.

"The report is malicious and incorrect, especially coming as it does on the eve of the Prime Ministers visit to the US," Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar told reporters on the sidelines of an interactive session with industrialists here without naming the report.

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"The report has been extrapolated and not based on exact data or ground study," he said, adding, both the print and television media were highlighting the "negative" report to put down the Narendra Modi government.

"The Central Pollution Control Board is issuing a detailed response to the accusation made regarding the high levels of pollution in the country," he said.

"Yes, there is pollution, including in many cities in Europe and the US as well. Targeting India in this fashion is incorrect," he said, adding that the government would respond appropriately.

A study conducted by IITM scientists in collaboration with the National Centre for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Colorado titled Premature Mortalities due to PM 2.5 (finer particulate matter) and Ozone Exposure in India, found that life expectancy in Delhi has reduced by six years because of air pollution while Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra are likely to account for the highest number of premature deaths.

Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) is an autonomous body under the Ministry of Earth Sciences.

Earlier addressing a session organised by the local chapter of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Javadekar said there is a need to build up public opinion to usher in bold tax reforms.

"GST will be passed in this monsoon session and rolled out next year," Javadekar said.

Taking a dig at the Tamil Nadu governments "populist measures", he said in a democracy retaining public confidence was important.

"There is no dichotomy of interest between welfare and growth. We at the Centre though will not take to populist measures as in Tamil Nadu, but take a participatory approach," he said.

On the ease of doing business, Javadekar said it was ease of doing responsible business with due emphasis on compliance.

"While making compliance easier, we will make violation costly," he said.

"For violating norms, I plan to bring a New Civil Penalties Bill," he said, adding that the penalty that could be slapped for violation ranges from Rs 10,000 to Rs 10 crore, depending on the gravity of the offence. PTI NVM APR AAR

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By India Today Web Desk: If Kangana Ranaut has taken a break from the ugly spat with Hrithik Roshan, Ranbir Kapoor is nursing his broken heart after splitting with longtime girlfriend Katrina Kaif. But the two actors recently found themselves in an awkward situation when the rumours about their link-up started doing the rounds. So much so, that a hastag #nowranbirkangana started trending on Twitter recently.

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ALSO READ: Hrithik and Kangana decide to put an end to their battle

ALSO READ: Sometimes we mix personal and professional too closely, says Katrina Kaif



The rumours haven't gone down too well with Ranbir. According to a report in DNA, the new single in town is in a state of shock over the rumours.



A source close to the Tamasha actor was quoted as telling the daily, "He is wondering where these rumours originated as there is no truth to it. Ranbir, who is shooting for Jagga Jasoos in Mumbai, since he has come back from Morocco, is in a state of shock over the spate of stories that have sprung out of nowhere in the last few months."

Be it his break-up with Katrina or his link-up with a Delhi girl, the 33-year-old actor has always maintained silence and never issued clarifications. But this time around Ranbir has had enough and won't take things lying down.

"He is upset that people are taking advantage of the fact that he doesn't issue clarifications. There is no truth in the stories of Ranbir and Kangana's affair, yet in a very systematic manner this is being spread in media. He knows who is behind these rumours and if this continues, he is considering issuing a strong denial this time."

Recently, there were rumours that Ranbir and Katrina have become close after the two went through their turbulent relationships. But with Ranbir's strong denial, it seems the buzz will fizzle out soon.

On the work front, Ranbir will be next seen in Anurag Basu's Jagga Jasoos, while Kangana has recently wrapped up the shooting of Vishal Bhardwaj's period drama Rangoon.



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By PTI: Surat, Jun 8 (PTI) An idol of Lord Swaminarayan dressed up in RSS uniform of khaki shorts and white shirt at a Surat- based temple has kicked up a storm with the Congress today terming it as unfortunate while the temple authorities saw nothing wrong with it.

The issue came to light after a picture, in which Lord Swaminarayan can be seen donning the Sangh outfit -- white shirt tucked into a baggy khaki shorts with black cap and black shoes on -- went viral on social media platforms.

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The idol is also seen holding the national flag in one hand.

Seeking to play down the controversy, Swami Vishwaprakashji of the temple, which is situated in Laskana area of Surat, said the dress was gifted by a local devotee a couple of days back and it was the normal practice of showing the idol in different dresses.

"We have a common practice of presenting the idol in various dresses. This RSS uniform was given to us by a devotee. We do not have any other agenda. We did not know that it will create a controversy," Vishwaprakashji said.

Notwithstanding denials by the temple authorities of having any intention of endorsing the views of the right-wing organisation, Congress leader Shankersinh Vaghela said they must refrain from such activities.

"What do you want to prove by dressing up the God in khaki shorts? I pity those who have done that. Today, you have dressed the Lord in RSS uniform, tomorrow you will dress the idol in BJPs uniform. This is very unfortunate," Vaghela said.

Gujarat BJP chief Vijay Rupani also said that it should not have been done. "I am really surprised. I dont approve such action," he said. PTI PJT PD NP VMN

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According to witnesses a gang of men in an autorikshaw and two bikes surrounded Parasamal who was on his way to work and chased him till he got off his bike and began to run.

RTI activist and whistleblower Javanthraj Parasmal was allegedly hacked to death with sickles by a gang at Periamet, Chennai.

Javanthraj Parasmal (59) had highlighted many illegal constructions in Sowcarpet. He was in possession of vigilance department files, Housing and Urban Development GOs and Madras High Court demolition orders.

Here's What Happened Javanthraj Parasmal was on his way to work on his motorbike when a gang of men in an autorikshaw and two bikes surrounded him. According to witnesses the gang chased him till he got off his bike and began to run. The armed gang surrounded him and hacked him with sickles and fled, leaving him to bleed to death. The spot was just 1.5 km away from the police commissioner's office. Witnesses then called the authorities who reached the spot. Police authorities claim that they have confiscated CCTV footage from a nearby car shed and are analysing it. Parasmal is said to have been receiving threat calls. They maintain that they've identified the registration number of the auto rickshaw used by the assailants and are investigating the matter. The 59-year-old activist is survived by two daughters and a son. Some officials suggested the deceased allegedly pursued RTI as a means to settle scores with rivals, who may have gotten him killed.

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By PTI: Srinagar, Jun 8 (PTI) Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Council today witnessed a ruckus over the controversial statement of VHP leader Sadhvi Prachi that "it is time to make India free of Muslims", even as the state government termed the remarks as wrong.

Sadhvi had yesterday claimed that the mission of a Congress-free India has already been "accomplished" and it is now time to rid the country of Muslims.

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As soon as the House met this morning, opposition National Conference (NC) MLC Shehnaz Ganai raised the issue, demanding that the Council condemn Prachis statement.

Ganai was supported by her party colleagues and members from Congress.

The members from the treasury benches belonging to Jammu region entered into an argument with the opposition legislators, even as Legislative Council chairman Anayat Ali asked the members to calm down and raise the issue during Zero Hour.

As the pandemonium continued, Minister for Education Naeem Akhtar stood up and said the country was incomplete without Muslims.

"The report has been carried by newspapers. Whosoever said it, it is wrong. Muslims are a part of the country and it is incomplete without them," Akhtar said.

The minister said Muslims have to live in the country as equal stakeholders. There is no need to divide this House.

"Our state has many problems and we want to grapple them, so please allow us. We should not be provoked into a divisive tit for tat match. We all have to live in this country as equal stake-holders," he said. PTI SSB MIJ ARK RG ARK

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The Sena took strong objection to Modi's repeated statements criticizing the corrupt systems in India during his foreign trips, saying this would prove counter-productive in the long run.

By Indo-Asian News Service: The Shiv Sena today asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi "to stop maligning India on foreign shores" with his public utterances on corruption in the country.

The Sena took strong objection to Modi's repeated statements criticizing the corrupt systems in India during his foreign trips, saying this would prove counter-productive in the long run.

WHAT PM MODI SAID

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"The PM said publicly in Doha how India was steeped in graft, and outlined the measures he had initiated to clean up the mess. The gathering clapped and cheered him. This is nothing but maligning the country's fair image abroad," the Sena said in an editorial in its mouthpiece Saamana.

It wondered who was responsible if there was talk of corruption among the masses even two years after a Bharatiya Janata Party-led government took charge of the country.

"The (corruption) matters coming up in (BJP-ruled) Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh - can the Gandhi family be still blamed for it?" it asked.

"The PM knows better. He's the country's face and the world has faith in him. But the world may also misinterpret his statements abroad and this could directly hit our economy," the Sena cautioned.

Chiding Modi, it advised him to criticize corruption and other ills plaguing India domestically and tackle them effectively.

"Enough has been spoken about the alleged corruption of Gandhi family and Robert Vadra. Now, its time for action against them. No need to travel to Europe and America shouting about it," the editorial said.

"As a nation we are all united, and despite our political differences, we are like a big 'undivided family' and this is the image which should be presented before the whole world."

SHIV SENA RAISES BLACK MONEY ISSUE

Touching on Modi's recent trip to Switzerland, it chided Modi's request seeking the names of Indians holding black money in that country's banks. This, Saamana said, was "ruining India's image abroad".

"The Swiss economy thrives on stash monies from all over the world and they will never reveal whose black money is lying there.

"Modi had assured Rs.15 lakh to each Indian by bringing back the hidden money in foreign banks. But all this must be done very discreetly," the Sena said.

Anyway, it pointed out that there was enough black money within India. "So what is being done about it?"

The Sena said India must be the only country in the world where it's a sin to eat beef, mutton, chicken, eggs, fish, garlic and onions but it is no crime if public money is stolen.

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Also read:

Modi, Obama embrace history as India, US ink defence, counter-terror pacts: Highlights



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Shyam Benegal has given a thumbs up to Abhishek Chaubey's Udta Punjab and has called it a very well-made film.

By India Today Web Desk: Anurag Kashyap and the entire team of Udta Punjab can heave a sigh of relief as Shyam Benegal has given a thumbs up to the film. Benegal, who heads the Censor Board Revamp Panel, has called Udta Punjab a very well-made film.

ALSO READ: Bollywood unites to save Udta Punjab from Pahlaj Nihalani, demands Censor Board chief be removed

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ALSO READ: Anurag Kashyap moves Bombay High Court, gets response from CBFC



An exclusive screening of controversy-ridden Udta Punjab was organised for Benegal after the film's producer Anurag Kashyap slammed the Censor Board for its apparent issues with the film, which deals with problem of substance abuse in the state of Punjab.

After the film's screening, Benegal told IANS, "If you ask me technically, it's a very well-made film."

Benegal's committee includes as members Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Piyush Pandey, Bhawana Somaaya and Nina Lath Gupta. Sanjay Murthy, Joint Secretary (Films), Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, is member-convener.

With just 10 days left for the film to hit the screens, the makers were in for a shock when the film received an A certificate apart from the advised cuts. CBFC has explained the use of expletives as one of the major reasons for the certificate. Also, the makers have been advised to remove any reference to Punjab in the film.

This very suggestion hasn't gone down too well with the makers, who earlier today, moved the Bombay High Court seeking a copy of the order of the Censor Board Review Committee report on the film. Kashyap has also appealed to the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal.

Even the Bollywood fraternity came in support of the film. Be it speaking their mind on social media or holding a press conference, the industry united to put their weight behind Udta Punjab.

Veteran filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt said, "We can't turn into a Saudi Arabia where there is opulence but no free thought in society."



Shahid Kapoor, who plays the lead role in Udta Punjab, also said, "We all need to support the message this film is sending."

Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, a member of the committee, told IANS that the committee's recommendation is that the "scissors" of the censor board must be abolished.

But with Benegal giving a green signal to the film, it seems Udta Punjab would soon hit the screens without much changes.



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By PTI: Bhubaneswar, Jun 8 (PTI) Alleging that Rs 45 lakh was transferred to the bank account of arrested Maoist leader Sabyasachi Panda by the ruling BJD in 2014, former Union Minister Braja Kishore Tripathy today said he has already submitted documents relating to the claim to the Prime Ministers Office.

"I have submitted documents mentioning dates and amounts which were transferred to the bank account of the Maoist leader from the BJD bank account. A high level probe will prove my allegation," Tripathy told reporters on his return from Delhi.

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Tripathy, who held a press conference at New Delhi yesterday where he made the allegation, today claimed he has given documentary evidence to the PMO.

Ex-BJD MP Tripathy, also a member of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayees cabinet, has alleged that Rs 45 lakh was transferred to Pandas bank account during 2014 general elections.

He has claimed that on April 9, 2014, Rs 1.5 lakh was transferred from Pandas account to a BJD leaders account through cheque and alleged that the BJD had given money to get Maoist support during the elections.

Meanwhile, BJD spokesman Amar Prasad Satpathy refuted the allegations.

"BJD has never had any links with any Left Wing Extremists. We are advocating that rebels should join mainstream for which the state government is taking a number of measures in the Maoist-hit areas," Satpathy said.

Meanwhile, Maoist leader Sabyasachi Panda, who was brought to court at Parlakhemundi, denied having any bank account at ICICI Bank, Chhatrapur.

Ganjam district police after preliminary investigation also claimed that the account number cited by Tripathy belongs to a person of the same name, who is a resident of Chhatrapur.

Though the account holders name is same, their fathers names differ. While the Maoist leaders fathers name was Ramesh Chandra Panda, the bank account holders father name is Chhitaranjan Panda. There is a balance of only Rs 1,174 in the account, the police said.

Higher Education minister Pradeep Panigrahi also reacted sharply to Tripathy allegation that Rs 1.5 lakh was transferred from Sabyasachis account to his relatives account.

"If the allegation is proved, I am ready to resign from the council of ministers. If not, will he (Tripathy) go to jail?" Panigrahi asked. PTI AAM DKB PVI

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By India Today Web Desk: There's more than just a few reasons that the Taj Mahal is considered to be one of the 7 Wonders of the World. Apart from its historical significance and architectural grandeur, there are so many other things that make it amazing.

Forget everything else, just imagine the colour of Taj Mahal. It's a no-brainer, right? Obviously because it's made up of white marble. But this kind of marble has a unique quality. For years, we have heard stories on how the Taj Mahal looks at different times of the day--people say the colour of the monument changes in accordance with the rays of the sun. And it also has a particular colour under the light of the moon.

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As reported by The Times of India, a two-member photographer team including Gurgaon based banker Anuj Nigam and Noida based entrepreneur Nilesh Ukey has proved this through a time-lapse video of the 17th century monument. They say the Taj Mahal has a pinkish shade in the morning, golden in the evening, milky white when the moon shines, and has many other hues that show themselves depending on the time of the day, and season of the year.

Nilesh Ukey (left) and Anuj Nigam. Picture courtesy: Timestance.com

It was their passion for time-lapse photography that brought Anuj and Nilesh together about two years ago, and since then, they have made time-lapse films in Rajasthan and Lucknow that got enough praise from important people.

After several meetings with the authorities and getting permissions from the concerned departments, they were finally able to make the time-lapse film of Taj Mahal.

It took them 200 days, 35,000 photographs and an amount of Rs 8 lakh to make the film. Explaining on how they made the video, Anuj told The Times of India, "Our day would start at 4:30 in the morning, shooting the sunrise from Shivaji Park, and end in the Yamuna bank behind the Taj Mahal after sunset. It was a major task for us to track the exact angle of the full moon rising from the Yamuna bank. It required a huge amount of calculation to get the frames and timing right. We wasted our first full moon shoot as we were at the wrong place, but it did give us an idea of how to time-lapse it for the next time. Then we scouted various places to film the moon from a better angle. Since tripods are not allowed in the Taj complex, all the shots were hand-held."

When we watched the video, we couldn't take our eyes off. Hope you enjoy it as much.

To watch other time-lapse videos of the photographer duo, visit timestance.com.

Watch the full video of the Taj Mahal time-lapse here:





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By PTI: Mumbai, Jun 8 (PTI) Telecom stocks today gained up to 3.4 per cent after the inter-ministerial panel Telecom Commission backed lowering of spectrum usage charge to 3 per cent of their annual revenue from next auction.

Shares of Reliance Communications jumped 3.4 per cent to Rs 50.05 and Bharti Airtel climbed 2.73 per cent to Rs 358.70 on BSE.

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Idea Cellular rose by 1.28 per cent to Rs 106.70.

In what could be good news to mobile operators, the inter-ministerial panel Telecom Commission has backed lowering of spectrum usage charge to 3 per cent of their annual revenue.

The panel also decided that the payout for carriers in any case will not be lower than what they are currently paying at the existing rate to prevent loss of revenue to the government.

"For future auction, the Telecom Commission stood by its earlier recommendation to levy 3 per cent SUC," an official source had said.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has recommended SUC at a uniform rate of 3 per cent across the industry and gradually bringing it to 1 per cent.

The government in January 2014 decided to cap SUC at a flat 5 per cent for spectrum that was to be procured in future auctions.

At that point, telecom operators were asked to pay the weighted average of their existing SUC (on the old rate of 3-8 per cent) based on the quantum of spectrum they hold and 5 per cent if they acquire new spectrum. PTI SUM ABK

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By PTI: Raipur, Jun 8 (PTI) Two powerfulIEDs, allegedly planted by Maoists to harm security personnel, were recovered separately in Chhattisgarhs Kondagaon district, police said.

An Improvised Explosive Device (IED), weighing around 30 kg, was today unearthed by a team of District Reserve Group (DRG) from a dirt track in the dense forests under Keshkal police station limits, Kondagaon Superintendent of Police Santosh Singh told PTI.

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While the security personnel were carrying out an area domination-cum-search operation towardsBatrali and Kuemari villages road from Keshkal, they spotted the explosiveplaced in a big steel container hidden underground, the SP said.

Theexplosive was meant to harm security personnel during their operations in the region, he said, adding that the IED was immediately destroyed by the bomb disposal squad.

In another incident, a 5 kg IED was yesterday recovered from the forests under Urindabeda police station limits of Kondagaon, Singh said. PTI TKP GK KIS BAS

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Amitabh Bachchan joined filmmakers like Mahesh Bhatt and others who came out in support of the film produced by Anurag Kashyap.

By Indrajit Kundu: Superstar Amitabh Bachchan on Wednesday spoke out about the controversy surrounding upcoming Bollywood film Udta Punjab. In Kolkata to promote his upcoming film TE3N, the veteran actor reminded that one should not "kill creativity" for the sake of censorship.



KILLING CREATIVITY WILL KILL OUR SOUL

"Don't try and kill creativity. If you kill creativity, you kill the soul," Bachchan said. "I know there are rules and regulations and that's something that the government must decide. But as artists, as creative people, all I can say is don't kill creativity," he added.

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BOLLYWOOD UNITES TO SUPPORT UDTA PUNJAB

This comes on a day when the producers of Udta Punjab moved court against the Central Board of Film Certification's decision seeking a change in the title along with 89 cuts in the film. The actor joined filmmakers like Mahesh Bhatt and others who came out in support of the film produced by Anurag Kashyap, Ekta Kapoor and others.

"We have all encountered such issues, there are rules and there are provisions. One can go to the courts. But the problem is that the censor portion comes right at the time of release and it then sets you back," Bachchan said.



CERTIFICATION OVER CENSORSHIP

In a digital age where everything is accessible online, the veteran actor stressed on the need for certification rather than censorship as the final choice rests with the audience. "I hope we can devise a system where there's certification rather than censoring," he said.



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By India Today Web Desk: Anurag Kashyap has locked horns with the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) yet again. His co-production Udta Punjab is in the middle of a major storm.

ALSO READ: Anurag Kashyap vs Censor Board, one more time

ALSO READ: 5 recent instances when the CBFC became the butt of internet jokes

Kashyap called Censor Board chief Pahlaj Nihalani an 'oligarch' and a 'dictatorial man' in his tweets: "It's my fight Vs a dictatorial man sitting there operating like an oligarch in his constituency of censor board, that's my North Korea (sic)"

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CBFC chairperson Pahlaj Nihalani hasn't taken the words too kindly. In an interview to Hindustan Times Nihalani said, "I haven't met him (Anurag Kashyap) even once about Udta Punjab. We've never spoken on this matter. In the past when a film produced by him - NH 10 - was in censor trouble, I did my best to help him follow the censor guidelines. When there was objection to his title Bombay Velvet, we at the CBFC passed the title to ensure Mr Kashyap's creative urges do not get suppressed. Now when he is not getting his way with the CBFC, I'm the biggest villain in the creative world. So be it."

Nihalani went on to say, "Mr Kashyap is like a child being denied a toy. He loves to make a noise every time a film directed or produced by him is released. And since he makes a lot of movies, he also makes a lot of noise. I believe he has called me an extremely egotistical man. A lot of people feel the same about him."

Udta Punjab, directed by Abhishek Chaubey, is an attempt to highlight the drug abuse issue in Punjab. The Censor Board has asked the makers to not just remove 'Punjab' from the title, but also rid the content of any reference to the state, where the extent of the substance abuse is placed by several surveys at over 70 per cent of its 2.8 crore population.

While a tweet from Kashyap read, "There is no film more honest than UDTA PUNJAB .. And any person or party opposing it is actually GUILTY of promoting drugs", Nihalani feels it is an attempt to vilify the entire state of Punjab.

"Udta Punjab claims to mirror the truth about the whole of Punjab. According to the film, 70% of the youngsters are drug addicts. Where did they get this figure from? The film's dialogue explicitly states Punjab is banjar (barren) land and the people are kanjar (wayward, promiscuous). Tell me is this not vilifying the whole of Punjab?" asked the CBFC head.

The Udta Punjab makers might have called Udta Punjab a 'work of fiction', but Nihalani is not ready to accept that.

"What is the disclaimer worth when after claiming to be a work of fiction the film proceeds to name every major town in Punjab from Amritsar to Tarn Taran as a drug den? How is it a work of fiction when you are naming real towns from Punjab?" asked Nihalani.

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With the Udta Punjab issue turning into a full-blown battle between Anurag Kashyap and Pahlaj Nihalani, there is speculation that the film might not get a certificate before its scheduled release date, June 17.

To this, Pahlaj Nihalani said, "The CBFC has never stopped any film from being released on time. ... Let him fight it out. Then don't blame us for the delay in release. ... We suggested the cuts, which they agreed to take and promised to return after making the cuts. But, instead, Anurag Kashyap decided to go to the media. He wants to know why we haven't given him a formal letter about the cuts. It's because the film is with the revising committee. Until they come to a decision, we cannot issue a formal letter."

The film, which sees Shahid Kapoor playing the role of a rock star called Tommy Singh, also stars Alia Bhatt, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Diljit Dosanjh in pivotal roles.

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The producers of Udta Punjab have moved the Bombay High Court seeking a copy of the order of the Censor Board Review Committee report on the film.

By Vidya : Producers of Udta Punjab have moved the Bombay High Court against the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) as their film waits for a certificate from the board. The court has adjourned the hearing on the film until tomorrow.

Today, the revising committee of the CBFC demanded several changes in the film, beginning with its title even if the filmmakers apply for an 'A' certificate.

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ALSO READ: Anurag Kashyap has called me extremely egoistic. Many people feel the same about him, says Pahlaj Nihalani ALSO READ: Anurag Kashyap vs the Censor Board, one more time

The makers of film Udta Punjab today approached the Bombay high court as they were just nine days away from release of their film while there had been no communication from the film certification board. Phantom Films Pvt Limited had applied for film certification on May 10 for their latest venture Udta Punjab. According to the petition filed by their advocate Ameet Naik, the issue of film certification for their film was before the review committee but in spite of all the efforts put in, CBFC did not communicate to them about the issue.

However, after much dialogue a communication regarding an A certificate from the CBFC reached the office of Phantom Films. The letter however had an attachment stating the reasons for grant of A certificate to the film.

The Abhishek Chaubey-directed film, which is slated for a June 17 release, the CBFC has said, cannot have the word 'Punjab' in its title. In addition to that, the CBFC has also asked for the removal of any reference of Punjab in the film. It also wants names of Punjab's cities deleted and words like MLA, MLC removed.

The CBFC had first refused to give a certificate to Udta Punjab unless the changes were made. The film then went to the Censor Board Review Committee. The Review Committee stood by the CBFC's verdict: the removal of any reference to Punjab from the film and the other suggested cuts.

However the makers of the film have objected to the "suggestions" made by the CBFC and have decided to challenge this aspect now. The appeal against board's decision has to be done before the film certification appellate tribunal (FCAT) however kashyap's lawyers contended that the tribunal at present is headless so they will have to approach the Bombay high court itself for their issues to be heard.



With the Udta Punjab issue turning into a war between co-producer Anurag Kashyap and CBFC chairperson Pahlaj Nihalani, the producers have now moved the Bombay High Court seeking a copy of the order of the Censor Board Review Committee report on the film, reports PTI. Kashyap has also appealed to the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal.

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The makers of film Udta Punjab today approached the Bombay High Court as they were just nine days away from release of their film while there had been no communication from the film certification board.



Meanwhile, even as the battle continues, Kashyap had taken to Twitter to lash out at Pahlaj Nihalani and the CBFC, calling the latter an 'oligarch' and comparing the conditions in India to that in North Korea.

The tweets brought about a war of words between Kashyap and Pahlaj Nihalani, both of whom have been taking turns to speak to the media.

Nihalani, in a television interview, accused Kashyap of taking money from the Aam Aadmi Party to malign the image of Punjab. While no one is quite sure how Nihalani arrived at this conclusion, it needs to be pointed out that only yesterday, Kashyap asked all political parties to stay away from the Udta Punjab issue.

When the Gangs Of Wasseypur director's tweet "There is no film more honest than UDTA PUNJAB .. And any person or party opposing it is actually GUILTY of promoting drugs (sic)" saw AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal saying "I completely agree", the latter received a piece of Kashyap's mind.

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"Please don't colour my fight with any political affiliation because there is none. I request Congress, AAP and other political parties to stay out of my battle. It's my Rights vs the Censorship. I speak only on my behalf. It's my fight Vs a dictatorial man sitting there operating like an oligarch in his constituency of censor board, that's my North Korea. Rest of you go pick your own fights. I will fight mine," Kashyap wrote.

Kashyap's tweet was in response to Rahul Gandhi too, whose office had tweeted, "Punjab has a crippling drug problem. Censoring #UdtaPunjab will not fix it. The government must accept the reality and find solutions."

Udta Punjab is in the middle of a raging controversy thanks to its content. The film attempts to bring on screen the problem of drug abuse among the youth of Punjab. And this hasn't gone down all too well with people in the higher echelons of power, or so the developments in the case would have one believe.

--- ENDS ---

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By India Today Web Desk: In an unprecedented show of unity, prominent Hindi film directors and producers came together to put their weight behind Udta Punjab, young director Abhishek Chaubey's take on the drug menace in Punjab. The Bollywood fraternity, often accused of not standing for each other, held a press meet on Wednesday afternoon because as Mukesh Bhatt put it, what was happening to Udta Punjab was 'unprecedented'.

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ALSO READ: Anurag Kashyap moves Bombay High Court agains CBFC

ALSO READ: Anurag Kashyap called me extremely egoistic. Many people feel the same about him, says Pahlaj Nihalani



The Abhishek Chaubey-directed film is currently waiting for a certificate from the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC). Earlier today, the producers of the film moved the Bombay High Court seeking a copy of the order of the Censor Board Review Committee report on the film. Kashyap has also appealed to the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal.



Veteran filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt said, "We can't turn into a Saudi Arabia where there is opulence but no free thought in society."



Shahid Kapoor, who plays the lead role in Udta Punjab, was also present at the press conference. He said, "We all need to support the message this film is sending."

The filmmakers also spoke on Pahlaj Nihalani's comments on television today. Nihalani had accused Kashyap of taking money from the Aam Aadmi Party to portray Punjab in a negative light in Udta Punjab.



The association demanded an apology from Censor Board chief Pahlaj Nihalani for his comment.



The Association, led by president Ashoke Pandit, a BJP supporter, demanded the apology after Nihalani suggested that Kashyap might have taken money from the Aam Aadmi Party to show Punjab in a poor light through his co-production.



AAP is a major player in Punjab, which will see elections next year.



"We condemn the statement (by Nihalani). We demand an apology as soon as possible. This is not just an insult to Kashyap but to the film industry as a whole," said Pandit, also a member of the Central Board of Film Certificate (CBFC) which Nihalani heads.



Mahesh Bhatt, Mukesh Bhatt, Satish Kaushik and Sudhir Mishra represented the veteran generation while new-age directors Imtiaz Ali, Zoya Akhtar, Rahul Dholakia were there too to stand by fellow filmmakers Anurag Kashyap and Vikas Bahl, who are producers of the film, along with Ekta Kapoor of Balaji Films.



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Zoya said the film should be released as it is. The CBFC has demanded 89 cuts and a title that doesn't mention Punjab.



Mukesh Bhatt said, "I'm exposing a vicious system that is prevailing in the CBFC today. This has to be rectified ASAP. The film industry doesn't want Pahlaj Nihalani as the CBFC chief."



Filmmaker Imtiaz Ali said, "We don't know what is in the film. Anything that attacks the freedom of speaking is very frustrating and I don't think we have to tolerate it."



Udta Punjab is slated for a June 17 release.

--- ENDS ---
Former Member of Parliament Mohammed Adeeb, former General Secretary of All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat Ilyas Malik and former Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) students leader Z K Faizan have started parleys with various leaders.

By Indo-Asian News Service: Many Muslim leaders, worried about electoral marginalisation of the community, especially after the split in Muslim votes in Assam, have initiated a serious move to bring together all groups, sects and schools of thought under one platform to make the community of 160 million a strong political force.

A series of meetings are being held to forge a common political front in alliance with secular minded groups to become electorally relevant, keeping in view the forthcoming Uttar Pradesh elections next year.

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Former Member of Parliament Mohammed Adeeb, former General Secretary of All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat Ilyas Malik and former Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) students leader Z K Faizan have started parleys with various leaders.

These leaders said the recent meeting of Barelvi sect chief Maulana Tauqeer Raza with clerics of Deoband's Darul Uloom is significant.

There is already a move to bring All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) of Assam's Badruddin Ajmal, Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen of Asaduddin Owaisi and the Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid Syed Ahmed Bukhari together along with other political groups so that the Uttar Pradesh elections are fought under one banner and common programme, Adeeb told this correspondent.

Several Muslim parties like the Welfare Party and Peace Party have not emerged politically strong in Uttar Pradesh or other parts of the country.

Ilyas also claimed that the group of Muslim leaders will visit Nadwatul Uloom, Lucknow and Darul Uloom to impress upon religious leaders to lend their support to "save Muslims from political alienation".

He said the Assam Assembly results are a matter of concern, where despite comprising 35 per cent of the population, Muslims got "marginalized" as their vote got split into various political groups.

"We have witnessed the same in the parliamentary elections. In many constituencies, despite Muslims being in sizable numbers, we could not ensure victory of the candidate of our choice. This is going to happen again if we fail to form a common agenda and ensure fielding of common candidates, especially in western Uttar Pradesh where the community has reasonably good concentration," Ilyas said.

Faizan, who was once a close associate of the late senior Congress leader H.N. Bahuguna, said efforts are being made to rope in senior Uttar Pradesh minister Azam Khan, who "appears unhappy" with the Samajwadi Party and has aired his differences on many occasion, including on nomination of Amar Singh as a Rajya Sabha member.

The leaders said that Muslims have been used as vote bank by various political parties which did nothing for their economic and educational uplift. Despite efforts made by some secular parties to forge strong alliance between Congress and the AIUDF and other groups, former Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi was reluctant. The result was a rout of Congress as well as decline in the number of seats of Ajmal's party.

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Adeeb said there should be a coordination committee of all Muslim groups and organisations that should be empowered to take decisions on the selection of candidates.

It should also start talks with like-minded secular parties and groups.

Malik suggested that it would be good if Muslims and Dalits joined hands to defeat communal forces.

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: Hindu priest slaughtered in Bdesh, IS claims responsibility

From Anisur Rahman

Dhaka, Jun 7 (PTI) A 70-year-old Hindu priest was today hacked to death in Bangladesh by three suspected Islamic State jihadists who nearly severed his head, the second priest from the community to be killed this year in the Muslim-majority nation which has seen a string of brutal attacks by Islamists on minorities and secular activists.

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Ananda Gopal Ganguly was attacked at around 9:30 AM by three bike-borne men who slit his throat with sharp-edged weapons in the western Jhinaigah districts Noldanga village, Assistant Superintendent of Police Gopinath Kanjilal said, adding that suspected militants carried out the murder.

"As it appears Ganguly was killed by the militants as it matches the pattern they followed previously," Jhinaidahs police chief Altaf Hossain told PTI.

"He was an old ordinary man who was known little beyond the neighbourhood and we found no clue as well that he had enmity with anyone... the circumstances led us to point our figure to militants as we launched the investigation initially," he said.

Police said they have recovered the body and sent it for an autopsy. An investigation was launched into the incident.

The near-decapitated body of the priest was discovered by farmers at a farmland near his home.

Meanwhile, IS claimed responsibility for the killing of the Hindu priest. The terror group said it "assassinated" the priest while he was going for prayers, the SITE monitoring group quoted the terror groups Amaq news agency.

Ganguly, who was a priest at the Noldanga temple in Sadar upazila, was on his way to the temple riding a bicycle to offer prayers when the unidentified assailants struck. They first shot him and then hacked him to death to make sure that he was dead.

Launching a massive crackdown on extremists after a spate of attacks, Bangladesh police today gunned down three suspected Islamists.

The three were operatives of the outlawed Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) outfit which was targeted by Superintendent of Police Babul Aktar whose wife was brutally killed by the militants on Sunday.

There have been systematic assaults in Bangladesh in recent months specially targeting minorities, secular bloggers, intellectuals and foreigners.

On Sunday, a Christian businessman was hacked to death by unidentified machete-wielding men near a church, hours after the wife of a top anti-terror police officer was shot dead by religious extremists.

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In February, militants stabbed to death a Hindu priest at a temple in Bangladesh and shot and wounded a devotee who went to his aid. MORE PTI AR CPS NSA AKJ PMS

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: From Lalit K Jha

Washington, Jun 7 (PTI) In a significant development, the US today recognised India as a "major defence partner" which means that for defence related trade and technology transfer the country would now be treated at par with Americas closest allies.

"Noting that the US-India defence relationship can be an anchor of stability and given the increasingly strengthened cooperation in defence, the United States hereby recognises India as a Major Defence Partner," said a joint statement issued after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks with US President Barack Obama.

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According to the statement, under the Major Defence Partner recognition, the US will continue to work toward facilitating technology sharing with India to a level commensurate with that of its closest allies and partners.

Meanwhile, the White House also said that the meeting between President Obama and Prime Minister Modi resulted in progress on finalising some key defence agreements between India and the US.

"I can tell you that there was important progress on finalising agreements relating to defence logistics, sharing of maritime information, and even the movement of US aircraft carriers in the region," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters at his daily news conference.

The joint statement said, "the leaders reached an understanding under which India would receive license-free access to a wide range of dual-use technologies in conjunction with steps that India has committed to take to advance its export control objectives."

In support of Indias Make In India initiative and to support the development of robust defence industries and their integration into the global supply chain, the statement said the US will continue to facilitate the export of goods and technologies, consistent with US law, for projects, programmes and joint ventures in support of official US-India defence cooperation.

Applauding the enhanced military to military cooperation between the two countries especially in joint exercises, training and Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief, Obama and Modi expressed their desire to explore agreements which would facilitate further expansion of bilateral defence cooperation in practical ways.

Officials from two sides said India and the US have finalised of the text of the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA).

It is likely to be signed soon, a senior administration official told reporters during a conference call.

The decision was welcomed by Obama and Modi.

India and the US also finalised text of an Information Exchange Annex under the Joint Working Group on Aircraft Carrier Technology Cooperation.

Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar said India and the US have reached an understanding to finalise the Framework for the US-India Cyber Relationship in the near term. MORE PTI LKJ ASK ASK

--- ENDS ---

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AAP government has raised an alarm in the BJP camp by calling for a two-day Delhi Assembly session to discuss corruption and mismanagement in the three municipal corporations.

The Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP government has called for a two-day Delhi Assembly session to discuss corruption and mismanagement in the three civic bodies.

By Shashank Shekhar: To make a mark in the upcoming civic polls 2017, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has opened attack on the ruling BJP in three municipal corporations, with allegations of corruption and apathy.

AAP government has raised an alarm in the BJP camp by calling for a two-day Delhi Assembly session to discuss corruption and mismanagement in the three municipal corporations.

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THE CIVIC WAR

"Maximum complaints received by our MLAs are related to civic bodies. Most of the complaints are about cleanliness and sanitation, both of which fall under the MCDs. There are also problems related to corruption and misuse of funds. We want to address the problems faced by the common man in his day to-day life," a senior AAP leader said.

The session is scheduled to be held on June 9 and June 10.

Opening an attack against BJP, Chief Minsiter Arvind Kejriwal wrote on Twitter, "Delhi Assembly session next week to discuss how BJP's MCD has made whole of Delhi into a garbage bin due to its corruption n mismanagement. Del government has done commendable job in preventing dengue so far. MCD needs to improve its functioning. (sic)" BJP's mayors were quick to criticise the move and called it unconstitutional.

"The MCDs don't fall under the Delhi government's jurisdiction. Why are they holding a special session? They are just trying to politicise it for the upcoming civic polls. The Delhi government has failed to keep the streets and drains clean," leader of the House in South Corporation, Subhash Arya alleged.

Not only has AAP called for a special session but has also started nailing civic bodies at the grassroots with District Magistrates issuing notices to civic bodies over lack of cleanliness. District Magistrates issued 267 notices under CrPC Section 133 for unsatisfactory sanitary conditions.

CORNERING BJP

With these orders, it is clear that the concerned officials of the three MCDs will have to provide reasonable explanations for the lack of satisfactory cleanliness and hygienic conditions in areas under their respective jurisdictions, failing which, further legal action will be initiated.

AAP has started cornering the BJP even at the grassroots, like they did in the Assembly elections in 2015. AAP volunteers have started visiting each ward and listing their local problems. This includes illegal construction, poor health and school facilities, lack of sanitation and cleaning of drains along with corruption.

The government has notified close to 3,000 mohalla sabhas across Delhi. However, the government claims that mohalla sabhas were a part of their pre-election promise but the move assumes significance in the run-up to the 2017 municipal polls as it may help increase the party's presence in 272 wards.

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"Through mohalla sabhas, we will address public demands and grievances. It is not being done with the civic poll in mind, but yes, it will definitely make people realise that the government is concerned about their local issues and is working to resolve them," senior party leader said.

Also Read: Arvind Kejriwal attacks Khadse, calls him a traitor

--- ENDS ---
By India Today Web Desk: Divyanka Tripathi who plays the role of Ishita Bhalla in Yeh Hai Mohabbatein, is often referred to as the reigning queen of television. She recently bagged six trophies for her portrayal in the soap at the recently-held Star Parivaar Awards. Though, we have seen Divyanka in various avatars in her decade-long career, she is rarely seen wearing short clothes on screen as well as off it. In an interview with Hindustan Times, Divyanka reveals how wearing short dresses was a taboo for her in the beginning and how she started wearing them as she did not want to be called a 'behenji'.

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"The biggest struggle was wearing short dresses. In the beginning, it was a taboo for me," the actress told Hindustan Times.

"I played a simple girl in Banoo Main Teri Dulhan (2006) and after that everyone thought I am like that in real life too. It was when I entered Comedy Circus in 2013 that I actually opened up because I realised that if I don't wear short clothes, people will have this notion that Divyanka is a 'behenji' and she cannot do anything but wear conservative clothes and look sober. As an actor, I really had to break this thought," added Divyanka.



;

The actress revealed that people used to tease her for her plain jane avatar. "People indirectly cracked jokes in front of me about how they looked at me as a plain Jane. I realised that instead of expecting good acting out of me, they would just expect me in sarees and suits. I wanted to change their perception. I started wearing short clothes for the character... it was very uncomfortable for me," said the actress.

Divyanka Tripathi is paired opposite Karan Patel in Yeh Hai Mohabbatein.



#Just #GettingPosey A photo posted by Divyanka Tripathi (@divyankatripathi) on Feb 4, 2016 at 7:53pm PST

--- ENDS ---
The US has recognised India as a major defence partner which means access to technology, co-production and Make in India will become easier for New Delhi.

A new pact between defence ministries of the two countries will facilitate mutual logistic support and joint exercises.

By India Today Web Desk: The US has recognised India as a "major defence partner", a significant development which paves the way for the country to be treated on a par with America's closest allies for defence related trade and technology transfer.

"Noting that the US-India defence relationship can be an anchor of stability and given the increasingly strengthened cooperation in defence, the United States hereby recognises India as a Major Defence Partner," said a joint statement issued after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks with US President Barack Obama.

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QUICK FACTS Under the 'Major Defence Partner' recognition, the US will continue to work toward facilitating technology sharing with India to a level commensurate with that of its closest allies and partners. "Important progress on finalising agreements relating to defence logistics, sharing of maritime information, and even the movement of US aircraft carriers in the region," White House said. The joint statement said, "the leaders reached an understanding under which India would receive license-free access to a wide range of dual-use technologies in conjunction with steps that India has committed to take to advance its export control objectives." In support of India's 'Make In India' initiative, the statement said the US will continue to facilitate the export of goods and technologies, consistent with US law, for projects, programmes and joint ventures in support of official US-India defence cooperation. Applauding the enhanced military to military cooperation between the two countries especially in joint exercises, training and disaster relief, Obama and Modi expressed their desire to explore agreements which would facilitate further expansion of bilateral defence cooperation. Officials from two sides said India and the US have finalised of the text of the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA). India and the US also finalised text of an Information Exchange Annex under the Joint Working Group on Aircraft Carrier Technology Cooperation. Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar said India and the US have reached an understanding to finalise the Framework for the US-India Cyber Relationship.

Also Read:

US welcomes India's imminent entry to MTCR



Modi thanks 'friend' Obama for backing India on NSG Shoulder-to-shoulder on terror and energy, Obama backs Modi on NSG, MTCR

--- ENDS ---
Buying a laptop can be tricky. There are hundreds of different machines in the market. Solution? Cutting through all the jargons that laptop companies load on to consumers, we tell you about six laptops that are worth buying.

By Javed Anwer: A laptop nowadays is no longer as essential as it used to be. A lot of people do a lot of things, such as checking emails, on their smartphones instead of a laptop. But it is still handy to have one. After all, when it comes to doing actual work -- such as creating that sales report your boss is demanding -- you do need a laptop.

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Unfortunately buying a laptop can be tricky. There are hundreds of different machines in the market. Solution? Cutting through all the jargons that laptop companies load on to consumers, we tell you about six laptops that are worth buying.



The cheapest one

Nowadays, you can buy a laptop from Micromax or iBall at a price of Rs 10,000. But don't. The cheapest laptop that we will suggest is the Asus E202SA. Available in funky colours like blue and red, the Asus E202SA is a well-rounded laptop for its price. Although the screen size of the 11.6-inch may seem small, the quality of screen is decent. The smaller screen and weight of 1.21 kilograms also makes it portable. The Asus E202SA has the latest generation Intel Celeron processor and 2GB RAM, along with Windows 10. It's not a powerhouse, but is potent enough for tasks like web browsing, occasional movie watching and office work etc.



Also Read: Buying a laptop? Don't listen to laptop makers, read this

Something in the middle

The Lenovo IdeaPad FLEX 2-14 is old but it is still available in the market at a price of around Rs 34,000. And it is worth every penny at this price because of its brilliant 14-inch touchscreen with FullHD resolution. It is rare to find such a screen in a laptop in this price range, possibly the reason why Lenovo is yet to come out with its successor. It's too good for the price. If you are thinking of buying a laptop for around Rs 35,000 this is the one to get.



Do-it-all laptop

Here again we give nod to a Lenovo laptop, the Lenovo Yoga 500, to be precise. In its current avatar it comes with Windows 10 pre-installed on it. Again the reason for choosing is the Yoga 500 is the same: The FullHD touchscreen with IPS display. These IPS screens show much better colours, which means you will enjoy your movies and images more on this laptop. Although finding this laptop could be tricky but when you do, prepare to shell out around Rs 44,000 for it.



Best laptop

This one has to be the 13-inch MacBook Air. Just make sure that you get the latest one, with 8GB RAM. The 128GB version is value for money though if you can spare cash for the 256GB version, go for that. This is almost the perfect laptop because it is fast, runs software -- OS X -- that is clean and fuss-free, is incredibly portable, has a terrific touchpad and a very nice keyboard, and comes with battery life that is nothing sort of magical. The only issues with this laptop is its 13-inch screen which has TN panel. But the rest of the machine is so good that it is all worth it. The MacBook Air sells for around Rs 66,000.

Gaming laptop worth its price

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Gaming laptops are expensive. But some are worth their price. One of such machines is Dell's Inspiron 15 7000. The entry-level model in this series sells for around Rs 83,000. While at this price, it offers decent hardware and cool design, what makes it good value for money is its GTX 960M graphics card. This is a graphics card you will usually get in laptops that have a price of above Rs 1,00,000. But the Inspiron 15 7000, just because it's not an Alienware or a Republic of Gamer machine, makes it more affordable.

Also Read: The way you buy a laptop is all wrong. Here is the right way

Better than the best



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If the MacBook Air is an almost perfect laptop, the MacBook Pro 13 is perfect, or rather as perfect as we can get when it comes to laptops. If has everything that the MacBook Air has but with addition of a very high-resolution IPS screen. The MacBook Pro 13-inch sells for a price of around Rs 90,000. But if you are going to spend this much money, this Apple laptop is what you should get.

Also Read: Which MacBook? Read this simple guide to buy best Apple laptop



--- ENDS ---
A fact sheet on the framework for the US-India Cyber Relationship says that cooperation on cyber issues is a key component of the bilateral relationship between India and the US.

By Indo-Asian News Service: India and the US have stressed on cooperation on cyber issues, including promoting closer cooperation between their law enforcement agencies to combat cybercrime and share information on a real time on malicious cybersecurity threats. The two countries will establish appropriate mechanisms to improve such information sharing.

A fact sheet on the framework for the US-India Cyber Relationship, issued during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi here on Tuesday, says that cooperation on cyber issues is a key component of the bilateral relationship between India and the US.

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Both sides recognise the value of enhancing and further institutionalizing their broad-based cooperation on cyber issues, and in that respect, intend to complete a framework based on the following shared principles and intended forms of cooperation. Here is what the two countries are going to do.



Share information on a real time or near real time basis, when practical and consistent with existing bilateral arrangements, about malicious cyber security threats, attacks and activities, and establishing appropriate mechanisms to improve such information sharing. Develop joint mechanisms for practical cooperation to mitigate cyber threats to the security of ICT infrastructure and information contained therein consistent with their respective obligations under domestic and international law. Promote cooperation in the fields of cyber security-related research and development, cyber security standards and security testing including accreditation process, and cyber security product development, including further consultations on such issues. Elaborate and implementing practical measures that contribute to the security of ICT infrastructure on a voluntary and mutual basis. Continue to promote cooperation between law enforcement agencies to combat cyber crime including through training workshops, enhancing dialogue and processes and procedures, and setting up consultations as needed. Improve the capacity of law enforcement agencies through joint training programs, including equipping them to draft appropriate requests for electronic evidence in accordance with the respective laws and regulations of the United States and India. Undertake skill development and capacity building programs jointly in the fields of cyber security, efforts to combat cyber crime, digital forensics, and legal frameworks. Promote the applicability of international law to state conduct in cyberspace and further exploring how it applies to state conduct in cyberspace. Promote voluntary norms of responsible state behavior in peacetime, including the norms identified by the UN Group of Governmental Experts in the Field of Information and Telecommunications in the Context of International Security.

Bringing civility to wild wild world



They two countries are also committing to voluntary norms.



-- A state should not conduct or knowingly support online activity that intentionally damages critical infrastructure or otherwise impairs the use of critical infrastructure to provide services to the public.

-- A state should not conduct or knowingly support activity intended to prevent national CSIRTs from responding to cyber incidents. States should also not use CSIRTs to enable online activity that is intended to do harm.

-- A state should cooperate, in a manner consistent with its domestic law and international obligations, with requests for assistance from other States in investigating cyber crimes, collecting electronic evidence and mitigating malicious cyber activity emanating from its territory.

-- A state should not conduct or knowingly support ICT-enabled theft of intellectual property, including trade secrets or other confidential business information, with the intent of providing competitive advantages to companies or commercial sectors.

-- Cooperating mutually on telecom security related issues such as telecom equipment security standards and testing, including accreditation of entities.

-- Developing a common and shared understanding of international cyber stability, and destabilizing cyber activity.

-- Discussing and sharing strategies to promote the integrity of the supply chain to enhance user's confidence in the security of ICT products and services.

Also Read: As net use spreads, cyber crimes up 19 times over 10 years

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-- Continuing to promote dialogue on incident response best practices.

-- Facilitating joint tabletop exercises covering priority cyber security scenarios to advance specific cooperation.

-- Supporting the multistakeholder model of Internet governance.

-- Continuing our dialogue and engagement in Internet governance fora, including ICANN, IGF and other venues, and to support active participation by all stakeholders of the two countries in these fora.

-- Holding consultations and taking steps towards improving the effectiveness of transnational cyber crime cooperation.

-- Strengthening critical Internet infrastructure in India.

-- Working to ensure shared understanding of technology access policy, including dual use technologies sought to be controlled by either country, including through such mechanisms as the bilateral High Technology Cooperation Group.

The complete Framework for the US-India Cyber Relationship, is expected to be signed within 60 days.

Also Read: Modi, Obama embrace history as India, US ink defence, counter-terror pacts: Highlights

--- ENDS ---
The warnings suggest that U.S. government and law enforcement agencies are concerned that recent attacks on banks in emerging-market economies could lead to losses for big U.S. firms that rely on the so-called SWIFT fund-transfer network.

By Reuters: U.S. regulators on Tuesday told banks to review cyber-security protections against fraudulent money transfers in the wake of revelations that a hacking group used such messages to steal $81 million from the Bangladesh central bank.

The notice from the Fed and other financial regulators came two weeks after the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation privately urged banks to look for signs of possible cyber attacks. That report asked them to hunt for technical clues that they have been targeted by the same group, according to a notification seen on Tuesday by Reuters.

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The warnings suggest that U.S. government and law enforcement agencies are concerned that recent attacks on banks in emerging-market economies could lead to losses for big U.S. firms that rely on the so-called SWIFT fund-transfer network, which serves as the backbone of international finance.

Concerns about cyber threats to banks have grown since Bangladesh Bank disclosed its heist in March. Similar cases later came to light including an earlier $12 million theft from Banco del Austro in Ecuador, an attack on Vietnam's Tien Phong Bank and one on an unidentified victim in the Philippines.

Dan Guido, a former member of the security team for the U.S. Federal Reserve System, said he expects the hacker group will launch more attacks.

"There is a hacker group out there that is polished and practiced. They know when they target a bank, they get in and get out and the attack will work," said Guido, chief executive of cyber-security firm Trail of Bits.

The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council, or FFIEC, said that banks should review risk-management practices and controls over payment systems networks, including authentication, authorization, fraud detection and response management.

The group did not issue new cyber security rules, but highlighted existing guidelines. It warned banks that they could suffer financial losses from cyber attacks involving wire fraud and also be scrutinized by regulators to determine whether they are complying with security regulations.

The FFIEC's members include the U.S. central bank, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Comptroller of the Currency.



Also read: Hackers running riot, here's how you can be safe

FBI alert

The FBI's warning, which provided technical information about the recent attacks, said a "malicious cyber group" had compromised the networks of multiple foreign banks.

"The actors have exploited vulnerabilities in the internal environments of the banks and initiated unauthorized monetary transfers over an international payment messaging system," the bureau said in a May 23 alert. The report, which did not identify specific victims, asks recipients to call the FBI if they find any of the technical indicators mentioned in the bulletin or have other "related information."

An FBI spokeswoman declined to elaborate on the notification.

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Bank security experts said that the FFIEC's letter would have little impact because it was simply repeating previous recommendations.

"It's the duty of regulators to issue these kinds of statements," said Bill Nelson, chief executive of the Washington-based Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center, or FS-ISAC, which shares information on emerging cyber threats with some 7,000 members.

Shane Shook, an independent financial security consultant, said he would like to see the U.S. government require stricter controls over employees' use of bank messaging services.

--- ENDS ---
* PermaKat Eleonora Rosati received the 2022 Adepi Award

* PermaKat Eleonora Rosati listed as one of the World Intellectual Property Review's "Influential Women in IP" of 2020.

* PermaKat Eleonora Rosati listed as one of the Managing Intellectual Property magazine's "Fifty Most Influential People" of 2018.

* IPKat founder and Blogmeister Emeritus Jeremy Phillips listed as one of the Managing Intellectual Property magazine's "Fifty Most Influential People" of 2005, 2011, 2013, and 2014.

* Recommended by the European Patent Office as reading material for candidates for the European Qualifying Examinations, 2013.

* Listed as "Top Legal Blog" in The Times Online, March 2011.

2010 ABA Journal 100. * One of the only two non-US blogs listed in the Blawg100.

* Court Reporter Top Copyright Blog award winner, November 2010.

* Number 1 in the 2010 Top Copyright Blog list compiled by the Copyright Litigation Blog, July 2010.

* Selected by the United States Library of Congress for inclusion in its historic collections of Internet materials related to Legal Blawgs as of 2010.

* Top Patent Blog poll 2009: 3rd out of 50 in the "Favourite Patent Blog" poll and 2nd out of 50 in the "Most-read" poll.

Blog of the Year, 20 August 2008. * ComputerWeekly IT Law and Governance, 20 August 2008.
The three were reportedly beaten and otherwise mistreated during their extensive interrogations before being subjected to a trial in 2015 which lasted only three minutes, involved no legal representation for the defendants, and led to their conviction on charges including insulting Islamic sanctities and spreading propaganda against the system. They were initially sentenced to six years in prison each, but after an appeals process that concluded early this year their sentences were reduced to three years in prison and three-year suspended sentences.

The Rajabian brothers and their friend were back in the news on Tuesday because it had been announced that they had officially begun their sentences. The Guardian added that advocates for these prisoners are concerned about the effects that their newfound imprisonment could have on their health, especially that of Mehdi Rajabian, who reportedly began to develop muscular dystrophy while being subjected to authorities torturous interrogations.

Rajabian is in need of regular injections for his condition and there is good reason to worry that he will not receive them while serving his sentence. Iranian authorities routinely deprive prisoners of medical treatment. This is especially true of political prisoners, in whose case such deprivations are apparently used as a means of imposing extra-judicial punishment or exerting pressure on the individuals to confess wrongdoing or disavow their earlier activities.

The Guardian notes that these concerns about Mehdi Rajabian are made more serious by the fact that his imprisonment comes at a time of generally intensifying pressure on activists, artists, and prisoners of conscience. The report identifies some other political prisoners who are currently subject to mistreatment, including the deprivation of medical treatment for persons whose health is at tremendous risk as a result of long hunger strikes.

One of these individuals, Mohammad Kabudovand, was the focus of a separate report that appeared in Eurasia Review on Tuesday. It explains that his hunger strike is nearing the 30-day mark and that it has been motivated by the fact that authorities are currently engaged in efforts to arbitrarily extend his 10-year sentence on political charges, which is nearing its end. This also is a regularly repeated tactic of the Iranian judiciary and law enforcement bodies, particularly in cases where a prisoner is expected to return to activism or political activities once freed from prison.

Eurasia Review reports that Kabudovand has been repeatedly summoned to court since late last year and has had new charges added to his file each time. He initiated his hunger strike on May 8 in an effort to bring attention to his case and to psychological torture of levying charges against him one at a time over a period of months. Thirteen days of the hunger strike passed before he was hospitalized, and he was then quickly returned to his prison cell. Now his has been hospitalized once again, apparently because he is now at imminent risk of cardiac arrest.

Other prominent activists are also in the midst of life-threatening hunger strikes, and there is a good chance that their ranks will swell in the near future as the overall population of Iranian political prisoners continues to grow. Numerous reports have indicated that this is an ongoing trend in the Islamic Republic, especially in the wake of this years implementation of the nuclear agreement with the United States and five other world powers.

In what many see as a bid to reassert tight hardline control over Iranian society, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and the regime as a whole have been cracking down on a number of groups that they perceive as threats to the countrys Persian Islamic identity. These include Kurdish activists like Kabudovand, as well as religious minorities and their allies, such as the fiercely persecuted Bahai community.
The incident serves as a reminder about Irans influence in the broader Middle East, especially through terrorist networks that include such groups as Lebanese Hezbollah, the Houthi rebels fighting a civil war in Yemen, and other Shiite rebels and militants like those recently found to be operating in Bahrain. As well as being the base of the US Navys Fifth Fleet, the island nation is home to a majority Shiite population but a Sunni-dominated government. The resulting sectarian conflict has helped to make Bahrain a major battleground as Shiite Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia compete for influence.

The Bahraini arrests are sure to be the latest in a series of developments that escalate the competition and conflict between the Iranians and Saudis. In January, that conflict came to a head when Iranian mobs attacked the Saudi embassy in Tehran and the consulate in Mashhad following the execution of a Saudi Shiite cleric, whom Iranian officials portrayed as a victim of sectarian discrimination. The Saudis responded by severing diplomatic relations with Iran, and conflict between the two countries has continued to escalate both in terms of foreign proxy wars and in terms of economic conflict over oil prices and market share.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has made considerable effort to portray Irans post-nuclear-deal ascendancy as a danger to the Middle East and global security, especially in light of Iranian influence over terrorist groups operating in Bahrain and various other countries in the region. This anxiety is naturally shared by other parties, and not only by other Sunni Arab states. In fact, mutual opposition to Irans growing influence has led to some surprising potential alliances, and has also strained some longstanding partnerships.

In the first place, there have been some indications over the past several months of possible cooperation, perhaps even including arms sales, between Saudi Arabia and Israel. Even if such cooperation does not prove realistic, it is clear that the two countries are tacitly working together toward a common goal of forestalling Irans ascendance. Israel made its intentions in this regard clear on Tuesday when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commented upon Irans role in Syria while speaking to Russia media on a state visit to Moscow.

Netanyahu said that Israel would not allow Hezbollah to open a new front against the Jewish state on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights. It has been reported that Irans deployment of Hezbollah fighters to the Syrian conflict has allowed the terrorist group to carve out a potentially permanent foothold in the Golan Heights. Missile attacks have already been traded between Hezbollah and the Israeli Defense Forces in the disputed territory.

Netanyahu also added that while Israel has an overall policy of non-intervention in Syria, it is also willing to make exceptions in order to prevent Iran from using the country to launch attacks against Israel or transfer additional weapons to terrorist proxies. We dont know what will come of Syria, but in any arrangement, it cannot be an Iranian base for terrorism and aggression, Netanyahu explained.

The Times of Israel indicates that Netanyahus trip to Russia was partly intended to persuade the Russian government to help in preventing the emergence of new threats to Israel near its border with Syria. This speaks to the ways in which Irans ongoing projects of influence and domination in the region are putting strain on its partnership with other countries that have recognizably divided loyalties. Russia has been providing air support to Iranian forces in Syria, but has lately pulled back some of its support as the world community pursues a negotiated solution. This has long been regarded as a possibly outcome because of Russias increasingly cooperative relationship with Israel, which limits the lengths to which Moscow will go to support Iranian interests.
[June 07, 2016] Technavio Announces Top Three Emerging Trends Impacting the Global Online Language Learning Market Through 2020

Technavio's latest report on the global online language learning market provides an analysis on the most important trends expected to impact the market outlook from 2016-2020. Technavio defines an emerging trend as a factor that has the potential to significantly impact the market and contribute to its growth or decline. Jhansi Mary, a lead analyst from Technavio, specializing in research on education technology sector, says, "The language learning market is predominantly represented by English because of practical purposes. Although English will continue to be the backbone of the global language learning market, demand for other languages will also contribute to the market growth. Globalization of businesses and exponential growth in emerging countries has placed a few native languages such as Mandarin, French, Spanish, and Arabic, on the international map." The top three emerging trends driving the global online language learning market according to Technavio education research analysts are: Deployment of language cloud services

Outsourcing of services

Advances in technology Deployment of language cloud services The technology-aided learning environment, be it classrooms or workspaces, have facilitated smooth delivery of knowledge. The entire ecosystem of storing, managing, and accessing information is fast shifting to the cloud. The adoption of the cloud-based services for language learning is playing an important role in boosting the growth of the global online language learning market. This development is supported in line with the increased Internet access by learners globally. The speed of implementation and reduced capital expenses are the key benefits of implementing SaaS (News - Alert)-based solutions. The majority of organizations and educational institutions are shifting to SaaS LMS solutions to impart language education. For instance, Language Cloud is a Tokyo-based company dealing with language edcation. It equips teachers, administrators, and students with easy accessibility and management of notes, announcements, classes, calendars, and assignments online. Services offered include language proficiency testing, audio recording, analytics, and flashcards that are different from general LMS versions available in the market.



Outsourcing of services Outsourcing of hosting services, such as servers, has been a recent trend observed among colleges and other educational institutions. They are outsourcing these services to third parties to conduct online classes. This trend is primarily visible in emerging economies where small organizations and start-ups are not able to incur such costs. Also, as compared to the previous years there are many vendors present in the market that offer services such as organizing online classes as required by the organizations.

There are few colleges that are also outsourcing student-related services, such as organizing webinars, chat sessions, and discussion forums, when needed. This trend is not so popular in the corporate sector. Most of the large corporations have hosting services in place. The outsourcing need is observed mainly in SMBs that do not have enough capital and resources to train employees. Advances in technology Digital language learning and teaching techniques have undergone major improvements in recent times. They are constantly evolving and becoming increasingly comprehensive and user-friendly as a result of the use of disruptive technology. These advances are manifested in terms of course content format, such as video and music, collaborative tools, educational websites, and use of social media technologies that help in content accessibility, real-time tracking, and immediate feedback. For instance, Quizlet provides online language learning platform through flash cards. It helps teachers organize study sets while monitoring progress and activities of students. FluentU allows learners to learn languages through movie trailers, news, and music videos. It also tracks online movements of students; this is then used to provide a personalized learning experience for learners. "In addition, companies, such as Pearson and Macmillan, sell language learning courses bundled with other course materials and services, which can be customized as per the end-users' learning requirements. These advances will facilitate the uptake of digital language learning and teaching methods," says Jhansi. Browse Related Reports: Global E-learning Market 2016-2020

Global Digital English Language Learning Market 2015-2019

Global Corporate E-learning Market 2016-2020 Purchase these three reports for the price of one by becoming a Technavio subscriber. Subscribing to Technavio's reports allows you to download any three reports per month for the price of one. Contact [email protected] with your requirements and a link to our subscription platform. About Technavio Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. The company develops over 2000 pieces of research every year, covering more than 500 technologies across 80 countries. Technavio has about 300 analysts globally who specialize in customized consulting and business research assignments across the latest leading edge technologies. Technavio analysts employ primary as well as secondary research techniques to ascertain the size and vendor landscape in a range of markets. Analysts obtain information using a combination of bottom-up and top-down approaches, besides using in-house market modeling tools and proprietary databases. They corroborate this data with the data obtained from various market participants and stakeholders across the value chain, including vendors, service providers, distributors, re-sellers, and end-users. If you are interested in more information, please contact our media team at [email protected]. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160607005134/en/

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[June 07, 2016] Gigastone iPhone Thumb Drives Become Standard Tool for iDevice Users

LOS ANGELES, June 7, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Gigastone the Leading Global Mobile Technology Accessory Brand today announced the results of an i-FlashDrive Features Survey just completed. According to Harold Katz, Chief Marketing Officer at Gigastone, "iOS Flash Drives, alike to the full range of Gigastone i-FlashDrives, are fast becoming a standard tool in iPhone and iPad users Toolkits." Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160607/376603 Primarily, the Gigastone i-FlashDrives let iPhone and iPad users to free up much needed memory. They also deliver a portable "off the Cloud" storage solution. Keep your data in your pocket. The process is simple; Plug the Gigastone i-FlashDrive into your iPhone.





The best-in-class, no-charge bundled software does the rest.





Backup or move music, videos, photos onto the i-FlashDrive.





Plug the i-FlashDrive out and simply plug into any computer and you can access the data like a USB drive. Some more features include; Save and extend the memory of your iPhone or iPad.





Backup your contacts, photo's and Music by simply plugging in the Gigastone i-FlashDrive.





Instagram, Facebook Album, Google Drive & Dropbox Backup.





Download YouTube Videos onto the i-FlashDrive for offline viewing.





Play Music, Vides, Podcasts or iTunes Library.









Touch ID & Encryption.





iCloud, Google Drive & Dropbox access from software.







AirPlay multimedia files on device memory. Michel Hassan, Gigastone President commented, "We are getting enquiries from a myriad of sources. Our extensive range of i-FlashDrives have functionality to simply plug the unit into any phone, gadget or computer, that requires either Lightning, USB, Micro USB, Micro SD or SD Cards. Not only can our customer's backup information from their iPhones, they can also keep the data in their pocket or in a safe place. Whenever needed data can be transferred to and from the i-FlashDrive from all devices. We are currently way ahead of the pack." Gigastone continues to distribute its technology through large big-box stores such as Target and Walmart, e-Tailers like Amazon and B&H, as well as through Apple Specialists. About Gigastone Gigastone is the leading global mobile accessory brand, specializing in state-of-the-art, high-end mobile peripherals and technology. For two decades, Gigastone has been distributing technology to all the major big-box stores and e-tailers. Gigastone has leveraged its engineering, manufacturing and quality control skills to drive world-class production and deliver quality products. A uniquely positioned company, poised to continue to grow and maintain its leadership in the fast paced consumer electronics space. Gigastone currently has eight major offices around the globe; USA, Toronto, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, France, Brazil and China, with distributors in Asia, the Americas, and Europe. Notable distributors include Walmart, Costco, Target, Best Buy, Amazon, Guo Mei, JD.com, E-Mart and The Source. Gigastone continues to launch world-class mobile peripherals, constantly diversifying its product range to meet consumer demand. Customer focus is the key to ongoing Gigastone global success. Related Images image1.png image2.png image3.png image4.png 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/gigastone-iphone-thumb-drives-become-standard-tool-for-idevice-users-300281100.html SOURCE Gigastone

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Syniverse Optimizes Roaming for Djibouti Telecom

Syniverse today announced it has expanded its relationship with Djibouti Telecom through an agreement to deliver a suite of solutions for performance analysis, forecasting and budget management, and fraud protection. The agreement builds on a multiyear relationship with Djibouti's state-owned mobile operator that will strengthen Syniverse's (News - Alert) presence in East Africa and a growing national market with more than 330,000 mobile connections.

"With mobile users having more choices than ever before and with the demand for mobile service only increasing, it's critical for us to continually deliver value to our customers wherever they travel with their mobile devices," said Mohamed Assoweh Bouh, General Director, Djibouti Telecom. "Our work with Syniverse will help ensure that we deliver the highest level of customer service."

The services offered through the agreement enable Djibouti Telecom to gain visibility into and manage its end-users' experiences while protecting the network from fraud and controlling costs. Roaming Data Analysis-Visibility Services provide real-time access to roaming performance data through an easy-to-use window that aggregates all subscriber data in a single view. Forecasting and Budget Management-Optimizer automates the planning, forecasting and budget process to help make the operator's roaming interoperator tariff (IT) discount negotiations more profitable. And Roaming Fraud Protection offers Djibouti Telecom a managed service that includes an analyst team and a cloud-based application that monitors roaming data globally for suspicious behaviors 24 hours a day, seven days a week.







"No matter where today's mobile users travel, they continue to expect the same quality of experience at all times," said Nour Al Atassi, Regional Vice President and Managing Director, Middle East and Africa, Syniverse. "Syniverse will enable Djibouti Telecom to meet this demand by delivering the highest level of roaming service to its customers. We look forward to helping Djibouti Telecom to more seamlessly connect to the largest number of operators, manage IOTs and budget more accurately, and minimize the growing threat of fraud."

Syniverse's agreement with Djibouti Telecom builds on a long relationship with the operator and a string of accomplishments around the world that Syniverse unveiled in 2015. Syniverse recently announced that it contributed to major industry milestones by enabling U.S. and Japanese operators to implement the world's first transoceanic VoLTE roaming call and then by enabling South Korea's LG Uplus to launch the world's first commercial VoLTE (Voice over LTE) roaming service.

About Syniverse

Syniverse is the leading global transaction processor that connects more than 1,500 mobile service providers, enterprises, ISPs and OTTs in nearly 200 countries and territories, enabling seamless mobile communications across disparate and rapidly evolving networks, devices and applications. We deliver innovative cloud-based solutions that facilitate superior end-user experiences through always-on services and real-time engagement. For more than 25 years, Syniverse has been simplifying complexity to deliver the promise of mobility - a simple, interoperable experience, anytime, anywhere. For more information, visit www.syniverse.com, follow Syniverse on Twitter or connect with Syniverse on Facebook.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160608005232/en/
[June 08, 2016] 6WIND Turbo IPsec Software Wins VNF of the Year at Network Virtualization and SDN World Madrid

SANTA CLARA, Calif., June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- 6WIND, a high-performance networking software company, today announced 6WIND Turbo IPsec, a scalable software appliance for security and VPN solutions, won Virtual Network Function (VNF) of the Year at Network Virtualization & SDN World in Madrid, Spain last week. 6WIND Turbo IPsec is the industry's first and only high performance, hardware-agnostic IPsec software that is ready-to-use for secure connectivity solutions. It combines security, routing and firewall features to be deployed in bare metal and virtual machine configurations on Commercial-off-the-Shelf (COTS) servers. IPsec is a necessary security technology for Telco, Cloud and Enterprise Network Operators as it is used to create secure tunnels between trusted endpoints for services. Tier-1 US and European Telco Operators deployed 6WIND Turbo IPsec to secure LTE networks and high speed communication between data centers, in addition to wireline security and IPsec aggregation. Performance scales linearly with the number of cores applied to the software starting at 5 Gbps per core on x86 servers, with recent benchmarks demonstrating 150 Gbps in bare metal and virtual machine deployments. 6WIND's Turbo IPsec software displaced incumbent pupose-built IPsec Gateway solutions as it is less than 1/2 the price versus specialized hardware, scales linearly per core on demand and can virtualize VPN solutions in Network Function Virtualization (NFV) configurations. With a virtual machine configuration, customers gain increased flexibility versus hardware appliances and reduce CAPEX by combining 6WIND Turbo IPsec with additional services, such as load balancers, next-gen firewalls, and more on the same COTS server, increasing productivity and generating new revenue streams.



"Our Turbo IPsec software on COTS servers is gaining traction as an alternative to expensive hardware and we are proud for this recognition as VNF of the Year," said Eric Carmes, CEO and Founder of 6WIND. "6WIND Turbo IPsec right sizes performance at an attractive price versus specialized hardware, making network security affordable and scalable for all size networks." For more information on the 2016 Network Virtualization and SDN World awards visit: https://nvsdneurope.com/awards/

About 6WIND 6WIND's commercial software solves performance challenges for network vendors in telecom, enterprise and cloud infrastructure markets. The company's 6WINDGate packet processing software is optimized for cost-effective hardware running Linux with a choice of multicore processors to deliver a wide variety of networking and security protocols and features. Based on 6WINDGate, 6WIND Virtual Accelerator provides accelerated virtual networking infrastructure and 6WIND Turbo Router and 6WIND Turbo IPsec are software appliances for bare metal or virtual machine environments. By solving critical data plane performance challenges on multicore architectures, 6WIND delivers a cost-effective value proposition, enabling the transition to the future with Network Function Virtualization (NFV) and Software-Defined Networking (SDN). 6WIND is based near Paris, France with regional offices in China, Japan, South Korea and the United States. For more information, visit http://www.6wind.com. Company Contact:

Kelly LeBlanc

VP of Marketing for 6WIND

Phone: +1 (408) 508-6732

[email protected] Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160607/376757LOGO To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/6wind-turbo-ipsec-software-wins-vnf-of-the-year-at-network-virtualization-and-sdn-world-madrid-300281376.html SOURCE 6WIND

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[June 08, 2016] Samsung Electronics Brings Tizen Operating System to SMART Signage Portfolio

Samsung (News - Alert) Electronics Co., Ltd., will showcase the latest additions to its industry-leading digital signage and visual display solutions portfolio at the InfoComm 2016 tradeshow. Scheduled to take place June 4-10, 2016, at the Las Vegas Convention Center, InfoComm is the largest annual global conference for the professional AV industry and is expected to welcome more than 40,000 attendees from nearly 110 countries. Under the theme "Collaborate. Attract. Engage." Samsung's booth (#C-6319) will include a variety of next-generation technologies designed to promote more efficient content delivery and display management in corporate, hospitality, public, retail and at-home environments (among others). Highlighted by the integration of the Tizen operating system into many of its newest digital signage technologies, Samsung's diverse line-up will demonstrate how booth visitors can drive greater engagement, and related sales, through clear, cost-effective message presentation. "As a leading total digital signage solutions provider, we strive to discover new avenues that help our partners deliver captivating content and a differentiated experience at every stage of the customer journey," said Ron Gazzola, Vice President of Marketing, Visual Display, Samsung Electronics America. "We are excited to introduce the latest expansion of our cutting-edge visual display lineup at InfoComm 2016, and showcase how these new technologies solve prominent challenges and drive growth in today's fast-paced business environments." A Powerful, Fourth Generation Signage Platform: The Power of Tizen Beginning in 2016, Samsung's new P Series digital signage technologies will feature the enhanced fourth generation Samsung SMART Signage Platform (SSSP 4.0) powered by the Tizen operating system. With Tizen, SSSP will deliver more powerful graphic performance and seamless content playback to expand users' visual display possibilities while creating a more vivid and memorable experience for their audiences. The Tizen-powered, fourth-generation SSSP features an upgraded graphics engine to drive faster response time, interactions and loading speeds. The platform additionally enables users to manage display content more rapidly through an optional PC-less all-in-one screen. The refined SSSP 4.0 platform allows users to build and launch web-based applications by offering HTML5 support and a comprehensive toolset, including Web Simulator and Tizen Emulator. The new platform's versatility expands users' content development capabilities while reducing activation time. Comprehensive Enterprise Display Management A key component of the improved SSSP 4.0 platform, Samsung's MagicInfo Server 4.0 program enables users to manage their entire display network from any location through a centralized server. Reliable and easy to use, MagicInfo Server 4.0 integrates a dedicated Backup Player and DataLink content streaming functionalities to reduce the manual work required to share essential information.



Durable Standalone Signage

Samsung's new standalone displays (PHF and PMF Series) provide a slim, strong and simple signage solution for environments facing tight or irregular space limitations. Featuring a slim-depth design (29.9mm) and narrow bezel (6.9mm), the PHF and PMF displays are among the thinnest on the market and can accommodate a range of business settings. The Tizen-supported standalone displays are designed for uninterrupted 24/7 content delivery, and an integrated centralized infrared receiver (IR) further ensures continued performance in any environment. A host of additional design features further enable the PHF and PMF Series displays to deliver clear, brilliant content regardless of location. A non-glare frontal panel reduces natural and ambient light reflection to ensure continuous readability. The new standalone displays also are IP5x certified, validating their dust-resistant composition and ability to withstand various conditions. Industry Leading Large-Sized Outdoor Displays InfoComm attendees also will get the first look at Samsung's new large-format OHF Series outdoor displays. Billed as the industry's first large-sized outdoor signage, the OHF Series is available in a variety of sizes (46-, 55-, 75- and 85-inch models), with each boasting a slim-depth design for more impactful content delivery. The OHF Series displays are equipped with SSSP 4.0 and powered by the Tizen operating system, ensuring faster and more reliable content development and delivery. An embedded power box condenses operational components to a single system, conserving space while streamlining management. Engineered for any outdoor environment, the OHF Series displays can withstand temperatures ranging from -30-50oC without impeding content delivery. OHF Series viewers additionally benefit from external magic glass, 2,500nit brightness and a 5,000:1 contrast ratio that ensure messages can be seen clearly at any time and place. Extreme Narrow-Bezel Video Walls Optimized for a range of indoor retail, corporate and public-viewing applications, Samsung's narrow bezel UHF-E video walls combine advanced color management capabilities with the visual enhancements of large-format signage to deliver clear and consistent content. The ultra-slim design eliminates distractions and keeps viewers focused on the display's content rather than the display itself. Equipped with the same durability and color presentation components as its predecessors, the UHF-E video walls represent a sleek, stylish alternative capable of delivering uninterrupted content in any indoor setting. Fine Pixel-Pitch LED Signage Designed for corporate, control room and customer-facing environments, Samsung's indoor SMART LED displays deliver compelling content and inspire collaboration at a lower total cost of ownership. These displays feature top-tier diodes and customizable pixel pitch compositions ranging from 1.5-2.5mm, providing seamless visibility while simultaneously accommodating users' specific operational and branding needs. Combined with design elements that produce the same deep contrast, realistic picture quality and color consistency viewers expect from Samsung's latest televisions, the LED signage portfolio offers users an extra edge to stand out within often-crowded indoor environments. For more information about Samsung's SMART signage solutions, please visit samsung.com/prodisplay. About Samsung Electronics America, Inc. Headquartered in Ridgefield Park, NJ, Samsung Electronics America, Inc. (SEA), is a recognized innovation leader in consumer electronics design and technology. A wholly owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., SEA delivers a broad range of digital consumer electronics, IT and home appliance products. Samsung is the market leader for HDTVs in the U.S and America's fastest growing home appliance brands. To discover more, please visit www.samsung.com and for the latest Samsung news, please visit news.samsung.com/us and follow on Twitter (News - Alert) @SamsungNewsUS. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160608005893/en/

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Likud MK Amir Ohana arrived at the scene and said that the perpetrators of the attack were two Palestinians from the South Hebron Hills.

Several MK\s were on site or near it at the time that two suspected Palestinian terrorists killed at least three and wounded multiple others in a shooting attack Wednesday night at central Tel Aviv\s popular Sarona complex.

Likud MK Amir Ohana arrived at the scene and said that the perpetrators of the attack were two Palestinians from the South Hebron Hills.

"We need to see who sent the terrorists and to find them," Ohana told reporters on the scene.

MK Itzik Shmuly (Zionist Union) was close to the site of the attack when the shooting began. He said he was walking down Haarbaa Street when he heard gunshots.

People started running hysterically in all directions, and I saw what looked like a chase after the terrorist, but I didnt see him, he recounted. Then they took a lot of people to the parking lot to be treated for shock. I went in to try to calm people down.

Shmuly said many people were nervous because of disinformation that theres another terrorist walking around, but that he was unable to get any confirmation if that was true or not.

Opposition leader Isaac Herzog (Zionist Union) reacted to the attack, saying that the Israeli people would continue to be strong in the face of terrorism.

"Terror has never defeated us, and it will never defeat us," Herzog wrote on Twitter.

The opposition leader sent his wishes to those wounded in the shooting attack.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu landed in Israel Wednesday evening from his trip to Moscow to news of the terror attack. He headed straight to the Kirya for security consultations along with Defense Minister Avigdor Liberian and Shin Bet head Nadav Argaman.

The attack is the first shooting attack in Tel Aviv since New Years Day, when Israeli Arab Nashat Milhem opened fire at a Dizengoff bar, killing two before murdering a cab driver.

Police said the investigation is ongoing and they have no details about the identities of the attackers.
A note of thanks

On behalf of the family of CWO James Larry Phipps, I would like to extend our thanks to Harold and Colleen Van Gundy for their dedication to making the pictorial addition to the Vietnam Memorial located in Peterson Park a reality. The Van Gundys' put in countless hours of work doing research and raising money for the project and the result is outstanding. Adams Memorial did an awesome job. It is a beautiful memorial honoring the 17 young men who gave their lives in Vietnam. Thank you to all that supported this project of honor in any way.

-- Gail (Phipps) Moore, Sister of James Larry Phipps

Soup Stop thankful for 15 years

Fifteen years ago, on June 18, 2001, a soup kitchen opened its doors in Charleston when Charleston Soup Stop began serving food to the hungry in the community for the first time. Since they had no approved kitchen for cooking and serving food to the public, they began their mission by offering sandwiches, fruit and chips. This lasted for almost a full year until Bob and Therese Kincaid offered to prepare the food in the kitchen of Whats Cookin and deliver it to Soup Stop for a nominal charge. Now, fifteen years later, the cost remains the same as it was fifteen years ago. Soup Stop cannot put a price on what this generosity has meant. Without Whats Cookin, Soup Stop might not have been able to survive for 15 years.

We cannot forget the two churches that gave us space from which to serve. First Presbyterian Church was our home for 11 years. Today, we serve lunch from 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. from the Fellowship Hall at Otterbein United Methodist Church. Thanks so much to these wonderful, caring churches for their support of Soup Stop.

We have been blessed with many community volunteers who are willing to donate their time to serve food and visit with the people who come to eat. Soup Stop is an enjoyable place to eat and socialize.

Our mission has always been to serve a hot meal, in a friendly atmosphere to anyone who is hungry." With the support of this wonderful community, we have been doing this for the past 15 years and hope to celebrate another 15.

Thank you, Charleston!

For more information about Soup Stop, visit soupstop.org.
MATTOON -- This summer marks the 50th anniversary of what's now a traditional sight of gliders flying over Coles County Memorial Airport for the better part of a month.

The annual Civil Air Patrol cadet camps start at the airport on Friday and continue through July 3, giving a group of young people their first tastes of flying.

The cadets will fly gliders and hot air balloons as well as powered aircraft. The camps are a chance for experience that leads many cadets to pursue careers in aviation, said CAP Major Robert Bowden, who'll be commander at one of the camps.

"It's really a catalyst that gives people an opportunity they wouldn't normally have," Bowden said.

This year also marks the 50th anniversary of the Johnson Flight Encampment, which takes place the first two weeks of the camp sessions, and the 75th anniversary of the Civil Air Patrol nationally.

Bowden said there are recognitions planned in conjunction with the anniversaries. He said those include a banquet on June 17 that the cadets will attend and to which state and local officials have been invited.

A total of 56 cadets are scheduled to attend this year's camps, an enrollment Bowden called average for the camps' attendance. About half the cadets will be from Illinois and the rest will come from across the county, he said.

The Civil Air Patrol's cadet programs are for ages 12-21. However, Bowden said cadets have to be 14 or older to take part in the camp glider program and 16 and older to fly powered aircraft.

Camp activities will begin with powered aircraft with flights by small, single-engine planes starting on Saturday.

Usually, about a half-dozen planes are used for that part of the camps but 10 will be used this year, Bowden said. He said that's because there will be two cadets per instructor this year instead of four as in the past.

Glider flights are set to start June 18, and there are typically 25-30 flights per day, Bowden said.

Also, hot air balloon flights are scheduled for June 15-25. Bowden said they'll take place around dawn and dusk when favorable wind conditions are more likely.

More than 30 pilots and 20 support staff members will be at the camps to serve as instructors, and they'll come from throughout the Midwest, he also said.

The Johnson Flight Encampment that makes up the first two weeks of the sessions is sponsored by the Illinois CAP, Bowden said. The last week will be for the Great Lakes Regional Glider Academy, a national CAP program.

Bowden said activities are nearly the same for both camps though different students participate.

He added that he's grateful to the local airport and its officials for hosting the camps. He said their efforts go "above and beyond" and they're why we're at that airport."
CHARLESTON -- Jane Goodall became "the world's biggest experts on chimpanzees" but she started by spending time with worms and chickens.

A group of youngsters at Fox Ridge State Park on Wednesday morning heard how the famous scientist got a toy chimp as a present on her first birthday. But soon her "love for animals was more than the typical kid carrying a toy."

Park intern Helen Plevka did a first-person historic interpretation about Goodall, playing the role of the primate researcher and wildlife ambassador.

Plevka told the dozen or so children who attended the program that, as a child, Goodall once had to explain she was "cuddling" as why she had worms in her room. She also told how at times during her childhood Goodall spent time in the family chicken coop to see how the birds lay their eggs.

"That's when I learned if I wanted to learn about animals, I had to go where the animals were," she said.

Goodall was born in London in 1934, Plevka said, explaining that it was a time when college and careers in science weren't life routes open to women.

Her course changed when she met archaeologist Louis Leakey and he hired her to work in a museum. Leakey noticed "how passionate and dedicated" Goodall was and invited her to study chimps at the Olduvai Gorge nature reserve in Africa.

"I had to be right where the chimps were," Plevka said.

She said Goodall's method to studying the animals was "completely opposite" of the traditional approach of keeping a distance and not becoming personally attached to her study subjects.

She took advantage of being able to "get closer than no scientist had ever been able to," getting acquainted with the chimps by feeding them bananas and giving them names.

Her close proximity meant Goodall was able to dispel two conventional thoughts about chimps, Plevka related: that they're vegetarians and that they don't use tools.

One of the chimps Goodall regularly observed was seen eating meat and using a stick to get termites out of a hole, she said.

Plevka said Goodall also found that chimps remember their family after they go off on their own and show emotions "just like we would."

She described a kind of dance Goodall saw the chimps perform during rainfall, a sign they were "happy to be alive," but then added that "not all chimps live like that."

After 30 years in Africa, Goodall went after a "new dream" and began informing people about how the loss of habitat or living in captivity harm chimps and other animals, Plevka said.

"I wanted to speak out for animals who can't speak out for themselves," she said. "I think I made a difference. I think I helped animals have better lives."

After her presentation, Plevka led the children in a short exploration of the area around the Fox Ridge Brick Pavilion.

She told them to find an item they wanted to learn more about, as "that's what Jane Goodall's all about," and the youngsters returned with leaves, acorns and, in one case, a small frog.

Plevka said she came up with the idea for the first-person presentation after taking part in a similar program at Eastern Illinois University when she was a student there.

Portraying "someone in nature" brought that experience together with her goal of introducing kids to the park and getting them to visit regularly, she said.
U.S. Navy Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Jacob Richardson/ReleasedReporter's Notebook by Terry Moran



(NEW YORK) -- Right away, you're struck by the pace, the tempo of operations. This is a ship at war, in the thick of battle.



"This is the most intense deployment I've ever been on," says Cmdr. Jim McDonald, chief of ordnance, or "weapons boss," and a 27-year Navy veteran. "It's been non-stop."



Since Dec. 29 2015, the Truman, a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, has played a crucial role in the campaign against ISIS in both Syria and Iraq.



It's an awesome weapon.



Almost 20 percent of all the ordnance dropped on ISIS this year has come off of this ship.



Aircraft from the Truman have dropped more precision-guided munitions -- "smart bombs" -- during this deployment than any carrier in any deployment in U.S. history.



Most of that deployment was in the Persian Gulf, with planes from the Truman pounding ISIS positions, from Ramadi and Fallujah in Iraq to the ISIS "capital" of Raqqa in Syria.



But last week, the Truman arrived in the Mediterranean, not far off the coast of Syria.



"It's a demonstration of our capabilities -- we can go anywhere in the world, and we don't need permission," Rear Admiral Bret Batchelder, commander of the carrier strike group, tells me. "And we're making a difference here."



Batchelder flies combat missions off the ship. Weekly.



"It helps me understand what our pilots are going through," he says modestly, but his hell-for-leather grin gives away his fighter pilot's heart.



The men and women of the Truman who drop all those bombs on ISIS seem to believe in this particular mission: to help degrade and destroy ISIS.



"I'm grateful my country lets me do this, go up there and take it to them," Lt. Kallie Billings says, adding that ISIS's attitudes about women are an extra motivation.



Her message to ISIS? "I'm here!"



She is an electronic warfare specialist, blinding, silencing, confusing ISIS communications from 20,000 feet.



"Whatever they're using -- it's mine," she boasts.



The pilots and warfighters on the Truman may have the glamour jobs.



But this is a ship with 5,000 sailors on board.



And when you spend some time seeing their work up close -- from the bridge to the hangar to the galleys to the berths below -- you get a sense of the enormous effort that goes into every single sortie, every single attack launched from this ship.



And every single sailor plays a role.



Way down below decks, in the maintenance administration offices of one of the air squadrons, airman Ali Alsayagh works.



Born and raised in Baghad, Alsayagh served as a translator with the U.S. Army from 2003 until 2009. So did his father.



But then -- their lives in danger -- the two men and their families fled to Iraq.



Alsayagh moved to Virginia, under a special visa program enacted by Congress to help Iraqis, like Alsayagh, who helped American forces.



He and his wife started a family and have three kids now. Alsayagh recently became an American citizen.



Then, last year, he decided to join the Navy.



"I wanted to serve my country," Alsayagh says.



So here he is, on the USS Harry S. Truman, taking the fight to ISIS.



Like all those on board -- an American serving his country.

Copyright  2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Writer and wine columnist John Schreiner is Canada's most prolific author of books on wine.
When youre tuned into the growing seasons, you have a good idea what to expect each week at the farmers markets. Spring helps us shake off the last of winters chill with cool temperature-loving asparagus, arugula, rhubarb, kale, beets, carrots, spinach, dill and cilantro. By early summer, warm sunny days with their cool nights help produce mustard greens, cucumbers, radishes, cabbage, cauliflower, beans, strawberries and a variety of herbs (parsley, oregano, chives and mints).

For the past several years, summer has also heralded the arrival of the Davis family from Wisconsin, and their Grade B pure maple syrup has become an anticipated market delight. As in past years, you can find the Davis Family Sugar Shack booth at area markets during the first week in July.

Dennie Davis still hand taps his sugar maple trees to extract the sap that makes their pure maple syrup, and the enterprise is definitely a family affair. Daviss wife Linda handles the business side of things by sending invoices, shipping online orders and keeping the website (davisfamilysugarshack.com) and their Facebook page (facebook.com/davisfamilysugarshack) current.

Their grown children also help out with the syrup production.

Son Levi and his girlfriend, daughter Anna and her fiance, and daughter Mikayla, who just moved home from Salt Lake City, bottled more than 3,000 bottles of syrup in one day, Linda Davis said.

Prices for the syrup are on the website, and the family feels strongly about making their syrup (harvested from trees that have never been treated with pesticides or chemicals) as affordable as it is delicious. They havent raised prices in more than five years.

Dennie Davis is in Colorado for the first two weeks of June, and Linda Davis will be joining her husband at the Lincoln farmers markets in early July.

Look for the Davis Family Sugar Shack at the following Lincoln-area farmers markets:

* Saturdays, July 2 and 9, Haymarket (8 a.m.-noon)

* Tuesday, July 5, F Street Market (4-7 p.m.)

* Thursday, July 7, Fallbrook (4:30-7 p.m.)
Each week, the Lincoln Journal Star will bring you a list of the upcoming holidays dedicated to the foods we eat -- or need to try.

Here's the holiday fare for June 8-14:

June 8: National Jelly-Filled Doughnut Day. Just five days after celebrating Doughnut Day, we honor the jelly-filled doughnut. This delicacy originated in Germany. The worlds largest jelly doughnut -- weighing 3,739 pounds and measuring 16 feet in diameter -- was made in Utica, New York, on Jan. 21, 1993, according to research by Indiana baker Adrienne and Co. Donuts and Desserts.

June 9: National Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie Day. We all have heard that tomatoes are really a fruit, not a veggie. Rhubarb is the opposite, technically a vegetable treated like a fruit. That said, American rhubarb farmers in the early 20th century had the woody stalk legally classified as a fruit so they could take advantage of lower tax rates and less stringent interstate shipping laws, according to History.com.

June 10: National Iced Tea Day. Eighty-five percent of all tea consumed in the United States is iced, according to foodimentary.com. While iced tea in this region is distinctly unsweetened, in the South sweet tea is such a norm, that folks just call it iced tea.

June 11: National German Chocolate Cake Day. The name comes not from the country of origin, but the brand of chocolate used in this tasty dessert -- German chocolate.

June 12: National Peanut Butter Cookie Day. Peanut butter cookies are an American invention. Ever wonder why bakers use a fork to put hash marks on the cookie? No one knows for certain, other than that the original recipe published in a 1936 Pillsbury cookbook included it in the instructions. Others say that on its own, peanut butter cookie dough doesn't drop. Using the fork tines to flatten the top, makes it resemble traditional cookies.

June 13: Cupcake Lovers Day. The very first cupcakes were baked in tea cups, hence the cup in its name, according to foodimentary.com. The worlds largest cupcake was created at Georgetown Cupcake on Nov. 11, 2011. It weighed 2,594 pounds and measured 56 inches in diameter and 36 inches tall, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

June 14: National Strawberry Shortcake Day. Shortcake can be adorned with just about any fruit or topping, but strawberries are the most popular. Shortcake is typically made with flour, sugar, baking powder or soda, salt, butter, milk or cream, and sometimes eggs. Years ago, the recipes called for pie crust in rounds or broken-up pieces as opposed to shortcake, according to foodimentary.com.
Some believe that soon after Tuesday's final presidential primaries the FBI will interview Hillary Clinton about her handling of emails while she was secretary of state. What comes next is the subject of much speculation.

One of the better speculators is Bradley Blakeman, who served as a member of President George W. Bush's White House staff.

We spoke in the "green room" at Fox News before our separate interviews. The following is culled from our conversation.

Blakeman says the FBI has deliberately waited to interview Hillary Clinton until after the primaries because the bureau did not want to interfere with the nominating process. He thinks the FBI is "likely" to recommend to the Department of Justice whether or not she should be indicted for violating what she says are agency rules and what others call the law between now and the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, which begins July 25.

If she is indicted before the convention, Blakeman says, it will give the party an opportunity to make changes in the rules that could result in an alternate nominee.

Here is the intriguing part about Blakeman's scenario: "If a grand jury is empaneled, or if she were to be indicted before the convention, the Democrats would have to let her go." If an indictment were to come after the convention, he says, it presents a different problem because each state needs to certify their ballots before November. If an indictment occurs after the states have certified their ballots, it would be nearly impossible to replace Hillary Clinton with another candidate.

Here's where things might get even more interesting. In states where ballots have been certified, the party would have to go to court to ask that Clinton's name be replaced. "They also have another problem," says Blakeman. "Once the convention ends, how do they reconvene to substitute Hillary? They have no rules for that."

What if a court denies a ballot change? Blakeman says the Supreme Court would almost certainly have to decide. That might look to many like a replay of the 2000 election in which the court certified Florida's vote count, awarding the state's electoral votes -- and the election -- to George W. Bush.

But what if the court -- with its one vacancy -- divides 4-4? In that case, the lower court ruling would prevail and if that court decided to strike Hillary Clinton's name from the ballot, a write-in would be the only option.

"Timing is not on Hillary's side," says Blakeman, who thinks "the silver lining for Hillary is that, if she were indicted, there is no doubt Obama would pardon her on January 19 as he walks out the door. She will never have to answer for her crimes."

What about any others who might be indicted, such as top aides Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills? If they are indicted, but not pardoned by the president, will they go public? It's the stuff of big book contracts.

Should any of these scenarios prove true, as Blakeman thinks they might, President Obama, unlike President Ford and his pardon of Richard Nixon, will never have to face the voters and be held accountable for his action.

In this unpredictable election season, any one -- or all -- of these scenarios are possibilities, including the ultimate scenario: the delegates turning to Vice President Joe Biden to save them from Hillary and defeat in November.
Sometime relatively early Tuesday night  as soon as the first delegate allocations are determined  Hillary Clinton will pass the finish line and emerge as the more-official Democratic presidential nominee. She needs only about 25 delegates, and given the partys proportional allocation rules, shell get those even if the polls are wrong and she gets clobbered everywhere.

It isnt the first or the last time shes won or will win the 2016 nomination. Im pretty sure she wrapped it up back last January, when Sen. Elizabeth Warren  the last serious threat  finally made it clear she wasnt running. For those squeamish (perhaps with good reason) about declaring a contest over before the voters have spoken, one could argue that she clinched in Iowa because the state should have been a good one for Bernie Sanders. Or in South Carolina, where she showed that black Democrats would overwhelmingly support her.

Or on Super Tuesday on March 1, when she took an overwhelming delegate lead. Or at the very least, on March 15, when she won big in Florida and Ohio and narrowly in three other states, proving her nationwide strength and making it virtually impossible for Sanders to recover in the delegate count.

Clinton has one jump remaining to make it official: the formal vote at the Democratic convention.

This hasnt been a closely contested fight. After winning big in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands over the weekend, Clinton now leads by about 800 delegates. Yes, that includes superdelegates who have committed to her. It should: Whether one approves of that system or not, they are real, and they overwhelmingly support Clinton.

Shell probably extend that lead on Tuesday. Even if she loses narrowly in California, where the polls give her a small lead, shell gain more by winning a lopsided victory in New Jersey (and in Washington D.C. next Tuesday, the final event) than Sanders will elsewhere. And then shell extend it further when most of the remaining neutral superdelegates declare for her soon after.

Yes, technically Sanders could persuade the supers to switch, but theres no reason to expect that to happen. Clinton will have won far more votes and far more pledged delegates. And while Sanders continues to do a bit better than she does in head-to-head polls against Donald Trump, I suspect that virtually every super sincerely believes Clinton will be the stronger general-election candidate.

Sanders can talk about taking his fight to the convention in Philadelphia in July, but all this means in practical terms is that his convention speech will be about himself instead of an endorsement of Clinton. Clinton has already turned toward the general election, and that will be even easier after Tuesday. Shell also almost certainly receive endorsements from Barack Obama and Joe Biden, along with a White House visit, soon after the primaries are over.

Sanders says he will fight on anyway. But we can discount that. All candidates claim they are in it until the very end until, well, they arent.

The incentives pushing candidates to drop out once they have no chance of winning the nomination are much weaker for protest candidates, and thats what Sanders has been. He doesnt have to worry about the party holding anything against him in a future run, since there probably wont be a future run for the 74-year-old socialist. He doesnt have to worry, as Clinton did in 2008, about being humiliated when his superdelegates desert him, because he has hardly any to begin with.

My guess all along has been that Sanders will prove to be a team player, and that he will either formally drop out after the primaries are over, or at least wind down his campaign and emphasize attacks on Trump before losing in Philadelphia. But it wont matter if he keeps on fighting. After Clinton clinches the delegate count and with the primaries over, the news media will properly treat Clinton as the nominee, and Sanders isnt going to capture very much attention.
The departure of about 35 Nebraska Army National Guard soldiers to Afghanistan last week is a reminder that after more than 14 years American military personnel are still in harms way.

The soldiers of Company G, 2-104th General Support Aviation Battalion, based out of Lincoln, left on a mission centered on medical evacuation.

Underscoring the danger that still is ever-present in Afghanistan was the death last week of David Gilkey, a photographer for National Public Radio, and Zabihullah Tamanna, his Afghan interpreter, when the Humvee in which they were riding was hit by rocket propelled grenades.

There are still about 9,800 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, and about 26,000 Pentagon contractors, the Washington Post reported.

Twenty-eight U.S. military personnel were killed in Afghanistan last year, according to Military Times.

Fighting in Afghanistan has intensified since international combat troops pulled out at the close of 2014. The United Nations says that 3,545 Afghan civilians were killed last year.

The Taliban is focusing most of its efforts in southern Afghanistan. A favorite tactic is to storm a checkpoint to cut off the main road to a remote village. The Taliban then plant roadside bombs and try to starve out the villagers.

The Afghan government and U.S. military forces are hoping that the Talibans progress will be blunted by the loss of a key Taliban leader. Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed last month by a drone strike in Pakistan.

Although President Barack Obama had hoped to withdraw all U.S. troops by the end of his second term in office, he agreed last year to leave office with at least 5,500 troops still stationed in the country.

The administration planned to withdraw several thousand more troops in coming months , but on Friday a group of retired generals and senior diplomats on Friday urged President Barack Obama not to follow through on those plans, contending that if Afghanistan reverts to the chaos of the 1990s, millions of refugees would flee, worsening the challenges that are facing Europe.

Thats the situation that will confront that the National Guard members from Lincoln during their deployment.

I volunteered for this one, Medevac helicopter pilot Kristopher Schaaf said. We are a tight-knit group.

This isnt the first overseas deployment for Schaaf, who has two daughters aged 6 and 4. He also served in Kosovo and Iraq.

Opinions sometimes differ in how effective U.S. policy has been in keeping America safe.

But there is no doubt that the nations security depends on the bravery and commitment of U.S. troops like Schaaf. Were sure we speak for all Nebraskans when we voice the hope that all the Nebraska Guard members deployed last week come back safely.
It appears that we have a couple choices this November when we vote for the next President of these United States. In the Republican Party, we have a billionaire bully with the manners of a street thug and on the Democratic side, we have a pathological liar whose biggest accomplishment is having married a man that became President of the United States. Of course, I'm leaving out crazy Bernie Sanders, who is an admitted socialist that is beating Hillary Clinton in many states. With the way things are going this year, he has a slim chance of winning the Democratic nomination unless Hillary gets indicted for the numerous offenses of which I believe she is guilty.

Now, what is really more sad is any one of these would be an improvement over what we presently have. You have to ask yourself, how did we get to this point?

Basically, the Republicans got here by promising to build a wall, take care of the immigration problem and make America great again by creating more jobs than we've got people to fill them. The Democrats got here by doing what they always do, promise minorities everything they could ever want for free, which always turns out to be a lie, and by promising to tax the rich into oblivion, which also always turns out to be a lie.

These are our options this November 8. Now, go out there with the enthusiasm unknown to man and vote.

Wes Hager, Lincoln
We need to commend the senators, which included Republicans, Democrats and Independents that stood up to Governor Pete Ricketts and told him they serve the people, not his wishes ("Ricketts chided for partisanship," May 31)! Gov. Ricketts, you need to learn from Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders that the people dont want partisan politics and want a voice in who they elect. People want elected officials to do the right thing and take care of Nebraska and not be bullied by political pressures and platform politics. The legislature is nonpartisan and should uphold the constitution and support the people, not obey Gov. Ricketts' wishes. Thank you senators. You are the peoples heroes!
Jane Kleeb is going bold again.

Her bid to enter the Nebraska Democratic Party's leadership circle and work to broaden the party's appeal, and make space for the progressive voices of Nebraskans who support the agenda of Bernie Sanders has upset the apple cart.

And challenged the status quo.

That's familiar territory for the founder and leader of Bold Nebraska and its successful anti-oil pipeline crew.

Kleeb has joined hands with Democratic State Chairman Vince Powers to form a unity team of candidates for the four top leadership positions in the party.

Election of that team would displace three party leaders, retain Powers as state chairman and perhaps pave the way for Kleeb to seek the party chairmanship two years from now.

Ten days before Democrats meet in Kearney at the party's state convention to choose their party leaders, Facebook is on fire.

"Stop these unfair attacks on Jane," Powers implored in response to postings from some angry Democrats.

"She had the votes to be (elected) chair. How about giving some thought as to why Jane thought the party would be stronger if I continued as chair?"

Let's ask Jane Kleeb.

"We needed a team with the skills to build the party and elect Democrats statewide again," she said. "I want to be a strong progressive voice who is at the table in decision-making meetings, but I don't think I was ready to be chair.

"I know I need to learn the inner workings of the party before I would lead it. In two years, I may run for state chair."

Some established party heavyweights will be on the losing side in Kearney if Kleeb prevails -- and the odds would appear to favor her.

She introduced and endorsed Sanders when he addressed an overflow crowd on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus two days before Nebraska's Democratic presidential caucus in March.

Sanders defeated Hillary Clinton in that caucus, winning 57 percent of the vote. Those results will be reflected in Kearney, with Sanders delegates in position to dominate the party convention.

"We want to bring the grassroots energy that has fueled the Bernie campaign into the Nebraska Democratic Party," Kleeb said. "We need Democrats on the progressive left along with those in the moderate spectrum. We need both to win."

The leadership slate that Powers and Kleeb agreed to would retain Powers as state chairman, move Kleeb into the post of vice chairwoman and elect former state Sen. Steve Lathrop as national committeeman and party fundraiser Andy Holland as national committeewoman.

That would displace Maureen Monahan as vice chairwoman and bump Ron Kaminski and Patricia Zieg from national committee posts.

"Can someone remove these knives out of my back?" Kaminski asked on Facebook.

Replacing Kaminski, an Omaha Laborers Union official, would have the effect of removing organized labor from a party leadership position, and that's an uneasy decision for some Democrats.

And then there is Chuck Hassebrook.

Hassebrook, the 2014 Democratic gubernatorial nominee and a stalwart Democrat, announced his candidacy for state party chairman after Powers had signaled he would not seek re-election.

When Kleeb changed Powers' mind at a meeting in Lincoln, Hassebrook criticized "backroom deals" and said he's staying in the race, setting the stage for a battle in Kearney.

Hassebrook supported Clinton in the Nebraska caucus, as did Kaminski and Zieg, both of whom have superdelegate votes to cast at the Democratic National Convention. Monahan weighed in for Sanders a day before the unity slate was publicly announced.

Besieged on Facebook, Powers posted an explanation as to why he changed his mind.

"Of all the party officers and candidates, myself included, only Jane Kleeb has a direct connection to the new progressive voters who have flocked to the (party)," Powers wrote.

"There is now an opportunity that did not exist prior to Jane walking into my office for the (party) to accomplish even more."

Kleeb said she has watched the party struggle to compete in statewide elections. There have been no victories since Sen. Ben Nelson won re-election in 2006. Democrats have lost eight straight gubernatorial and U.S. Senate races.

"We need to move our party forward," Kleeb said.

"It's going to be difficult," she said. "We are going to have hard conversations in the party."

Holland has demonstrated the skills to raise money and Lathrop has successfully recruited six legislative candidates during this election cycle, Kleeb said. They would be valuable additions to the leadership team, she said.

"These four positions represent Nebraska at the Democratic national committee," she noted. "We want to walk in and say here's our plan and make the case for national support."

Bold Nebraska's long effort to prevent TransCanada from building its proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline across Nebraska was a high-profile success in terms of grassroots organizing, marketing and sheer determination. And it also showed Kleeb something.

"Every farmer and rancher who was a Republican knew I was a progressive Democrat and that we disagreed on issues like abortion and gun rights," she said, "but we do have common ground."

"We defied all odds with Keystone," she said.

"Now, we want to punch above our weight in the Democratic Party."
Faced with divisive turmoil within the Democratic Party in response to the formation of what was billed as a unity slate of candidates for top leadership positions, State Chairman Vince Powers withdrew Wednesday as a candidate for re-election.

His announcement followed a decision by former state Sen. Steve Lathrop to withdraw as a candidate for national committeeman, removing half of the unity team from contention.

Powers said he hopes Bold Nebraska founder and leader Jane Kleeb now will consider a bid to lead the party and that party fundraiser Andy Holland will remain a candidate for national committeewoman.

"I am encouraged by the leadership and grit Jane Fleming Kleeb has shown (and) she has my support and respect," Powers said.

Kleeb said she plans to announce her plans on Friday.

"(Holland is) by far the best fundraiser this party has had in memory, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars these last few years for our ongoing voter registration efforts and for the Nebraska Democratic Party," Powers said.

"I strongly encourage my fellow Democrats to stand with both of these strong women," he said. "Do not allow the voices that prefer to criticize and divide to overpower those of you who actually do the work to build the party."

Kleeb had proposed creating a unity team during a meeting with Powers when she asked him to reconsider his earlier decision not to seek re-election this year and instead head a slate that would include her as a candidate for vice chairwoman.

The unity slate would have ousted three party leaders and moved Powers into contention with 2014 gubernatorial nominee Chuck Hassebrook for the chairmanship.

Party leaders will be elected at the Democratic state convention in Kearney later this month.

"I have been disappointed that our concept to bring together outstanding Democrats committed to doing the work of the party has been portrayed as divisive," Powers said Wednesday. "As they say, anyone can tear down a barn, but it takes a carpenter to build one."

Earlier, Lathrop withdrew as a candidate for national committeeman, citing concerns expressed by "friends in the labor movement" who want union leader Ron Kaminski to retain that party post.

Kaminski is an Omaha Laborers Union official.

"It is important to keep labor engaged in the Democratic Party," Lathrop said during a telephone interview.

Kaminski still will face an opponent at the Democratic state convention.

Bud Pettigrew of Valentine, who has extensive ties within the party, has pledged to "make a significant impact on fundraising" if he is elected to the party post.

The contest will unfold with TransCanada's proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline in the background.

Kleeb led Bold Nebraska's grassroots battle to scuttle the pipeline and prevent it from being built across the state, and she will be an influential figure at the convention.

Kaminski and his union strongly supported construction of the pipeline.

Kleeb endorsed Bernie Sanders at a Lincoln appearance two days before he won Nebraska's Democratic presidential caucus in March. Kaminski pledged his superdelegate vote to Hillary Clinton before the caucus.

Caucus results will be reflected at the state convention with a majority of delegates identified as Sanders supporters.

"Over the last two years," Lathrop said, "I have been a volunteer for the Democratic Party, raising money, supporting the party and recruiting legislative candidates without holding a party office.

"I can still do all those things," he said.
KENOSHA COUNTY  The placement of a Racine County sex offender in Kenosha County has once again been put on hold  this time by the Wisconsin Court of Appeals at the request of Kenosha County.

Just hours after Racine County Circuit Judge Allen Pat Torhorst on May 31 denied the countys request to stay his decision allowing Michael L. McGee to live in a home in the Town of Wheatland, the Court of Appeals issued a decision granting the countys request for a stay of Torhorsts order.

The State of Wisconsin has until June 15 to respond to Kenosha County and the court, and make its case as to why McGee should be allowed to live at 32200 Geneva Road (Highway 50), about 5 miles southeast of Burlingtons southern city limits.

As McGee and the state Department of Health Services await the courts decision, another obstacle stands in the way of McGees placement at the three-bedroom home.

According to Dan Ruth, the public information officer with the Kenosha County Sheriffs Department, the property was recently red-tagged as unfit for use by the Town of Wheatland due to a lack of permits for improvements allegedly made to the property since 2012.

Wheatland did have the property red-tagged just based on sworn statements provided by neighbors that, at least in their estimation, there was work done at the property that likely would have required a permit and inspection, said attorney Todd Terry, who is representing the Town of Wheatland in its efforts to keep McGee out of the western Kenosha County community.

Past arguments

McGee, 53, was convicted in November 1987 in Racine County Circuit Court of second-degree sexual assault and burglary. During a Racine burglary, he raped a 26-year-old woman, authorities said.

In his May 26 decision, Torhorst said he believed McGee would be harmed if the judge halted his order, saying state law allowed McGee to be placed in Wheatland.

State officials placed McGee at the Wheatland address after it could not find suitable housing in Racine County, drawing the ire of neighbors and officials in Kenosha County.

Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth was so troubled by the situation that he sent an email to all 72 sheriffs in the state bemoaning the decision to place McGee in Kenosha County, arguing that it circumvents state law.

I also believe all sheriffs and chiefs of police need to unite to prevent DHS from placing these sex offenders in counties outside of where they offended, Beth states at one point in the email.

Nowhere to go?

McGee is one of many sex offenders who have remained behind bars after they are granted release because officials struggle to find suitable housing.

McGee, who was declared a sexually violent person, is on supervised release and will be under house arrest for the next year. He had been slated to be released from Sand Ridge Secure Treatment Center in Mauston on May 31.

The Town of Wheatland house is about 100 feet from a home in which a couple and their 1-year-old boy live. McGee in 1992 was accused of molesting a 10-year-old child relative, but because the case was dismissed, he is not considered a serious child sex offender, officials have said.
MOUNT PLEASANT  Like many residents with homes along the lakefront, John Koetz has watched the edge of the bluff slowly creep closer to his home.

Koetz has lost about 60 feet of bluff over the past two years, putting his Sheridan Road home about 50 feet from the edge. He was one of more than 150 residents from throughout the region at a community meeting Tuesday for property owners affected by severe erosion.

It really does need a community solution, said Koetz, a former Racine Unified School Board member. The one-by-one strategy is going to lead to more erosion than less.

It was clear solutions could be costly and time-consuming, though local officials said they are trying to expedite work. During the meeting at the Mount Pleasant Village Hall, 8811 Campus Drive, a group of federal, state and local officials waded through myriad issues, from why erosion is happening to temporary procedures.

The meeting was organized in response to erosion that has threatened an estimated 20 homes in Mount Pleasant, 10 in Caledonia and many others up and down the Wisconsin shoreline.

Lake Michigan has risen 4 feet over the past three years, causing high wave action to erode the base of the bluffs. Residents can look at putting heavy material like rock at the bottom of the bluff, regrading the bluff slope or widening the beach, officials said.

Long-term, short-term fixes

The state Department of Natural Resources allows residents to place temporary material without a permit, but homeowners must make a request in writing noting where and how the material will be placed and what type of materials will be used.

Its a first step in a process of finding a longer-term solution, said Martye Griffin, the DNRs statewide waterway science and policy leader.

What we want to make sure is the final endgame is something thats going to be in the publics interest, Griffin told the audience.

Whatever fixes can be done will likely come at a high cost for residents. Koetz asked if officials would look at tax-incentive districts, financing to homeowners, tax deductions or other options to alleviate costs.

We are looking at all options, Mount Pleasant Village President Jerry Garski said.

Officials also warned the lake could continue to rise, saying it has reached higher levels in the past.

Several residents called for the state and Gov. Scott Walker to get more involved. Walker has not issued an executive order regarding the erosion, but has directed staff to provide support in the area, said Pat OConnor, director of the Bureau of Response and Recovery for Wisconsin Emergency Management.

Koetz said he was glad public officials heard the collective voice of residents as they look for answers.

If we dont get something done in the next year, were going to be looking down into the water, Koetz said. Its a real imminent concern for everybody.
RACINE COUNTY  Local Republicans are lining up behind House Speaker Paul Ryan as he battles a primary challenge.

Ryans re-election campaign announced Tuesday that the speaker had secured endorsements from all 16 Republican state lawmakers who represent portions of Ryans 1st Congressional District. The speaker is being challenged in the Republican primary by Paul Nehlen, a businessman from Delavan who is running his first campaign.

Nehlen says hes not surprised that Wisconsins Republican establishment has lined up to support the status quo. Nehlen says the endorsement of voters is what matters.

The primary will be held Aug. 9.

Ryan, of Janesville, has lived in the district his entire life and has been in office for 18 years. He argues that voters know him, his record and his priorities.

That feeling was echoed by those endorsing him. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, said Ryan is the same humble, smart, caring person that I met when he was first running for office in 1998.

Nehlen is bringing up issues that no one I know thinks Paul Ryan is out of touch on, or that hes married to the special interests or all the other lies that hes bringing up, Vos said.

The 1st District includes all of Racine and Kenosha counties, almost all of Walworth County and portions of Rock, Waukesha and Milwaukee counties. Legislators representing Racine County endorsing Ryan include Vos; state Rep. Thomas Weatherston, R-Caledonia; state Rep. David Craig, R-Big Bend; state Sen. Mary Lazich, R-New Berlin; and state Sen. Van Wanggaard, R-Racine.
MADISON  A Republican lawmaker incensed that a Milwaukee police chase ended in one of the suburban counties in her district promised Tuesday to push for state funding cuts to the city unless Mayor Tom Barrett gets tougher on crime.

Rep. Janel Brandtjen of Menomonee Falls represents parts of Washington and Waukesha counties, two of the most conservative areas of the state. Her remarks drew rebukes from both parties. Rep. Mandela Barnes, a Milwaukee Democrat, accused her of "Donald Trump style fear mongering." Even fellow Republican Robin Vos, the Assembly speaker, called for "less rhetoric."

Brandtjen issued a news release Tuesday complaining about how residents in her district spent last Thursday morning in fear for their lives as police searched for five teens who had carjacked a woman's Honda Civic at gunpoint in Milwaukee on Wednesday afternoon.

Police spotted the teens shortly after midnight on Thursday morning and chased them into Washington County. The teens abandoned the car after it got a flat tire and fled on foot. Officers spent hours searching for them in the dark before finally capturing them without incident, according to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel report.

Brandtjen said in her release that homeowners were held hostage in their own homes and "families were forced to unlock their gun cabinets and instruct their loved ones to shoot to kill. The violence and crime that has plagued Milwaukee for decades has now begun to spill over into Milwaukee's suburbs. I lay the responsibility for this growing and out of control problem at the door of the Mayor's office."

She went on to say that she'll openly advocate for funding cuts to Milwaukee unless Barrett dramatically cuts crime in the city. She called on the mayor to fill vacant police positions, arrest car thieves, demand repeat offenders go to prison and stand up to judges who let repeat offenders off easy.

"I will no longer sit by while you destroy Milwaukee and its flourishing suburbs," she said. "I cannot justify financing your failed policies in Milwaukee until you take public safety seriously."

She did not offer any actual accounts of anyone being taken hostage, arming themselves or telling loved ones to shoot to kill in the news release. Pressed in a phone interview, she said people in the neighborhood told her SWAT teams came to their homes and told them to stay inside. She said the neighbors told her that they were texting each about shooting to kill if they found an intruder in their house.

Barrett is a Democrat who ran unsuccessfully for governor twice against Republican Scott Walker. His spokeswoman didn't immediately return a message.

Barnes, who is black, issued a statement entitled "Donald Trump Style Fear Mongering by GOP Legislator" He said in a telephone interview that the release carries a racial undertone and is trying to play on fears of minorities.

"It's a lot of dog-whistle rhetoric," Barnes said.

Brandjten is white. She made no mention of race in her release. Asked for reaction to Barnes' statement, she replied that bullets don't notice skin color.

"I'm asking for change so we can keep everybody safe," she said.

Brandtjen is a freshman legislator and doesn't sit on the Legislature's budget-writing committee. Vos said in an email to The Associated Press that situations like the chase require "less rhetoric and more realistic solutions." He called for a constructive dialogue on how to put criminals behind bars faster.
House Speaker Paul Ryan said Tuesday that Donald Trump made the "textbook definition of a racist comment" in saying an American-born judge isn't qualified to preside over a case because of his Mexican heritage.

"I regret those comments he made. Claiming a person can't do their job because of their race is sort of like the textbook definition of a racist comment," Ryan said at a news conference. "I think that should be absolutely disavowed. It's absolutely unacceptable."

Ryan's comments highlight acute GOP divisions around Trump's candidacy, as Republicans squirm over what may be the billionaire's most incendiary stance to date  the claim that U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel can't preside over his case fairly because the judge is of Mexican heritage and Trump wants to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico.

The flap comes as Republicans are struggling to close ranks behind Trump, and complicates those efforts. Ryan endorsed Trump only last week after a lengthy delay, just before the judge controversy lit up, and affirmed that stance anew Tuesday even while he was unstinting in his criticism of Trump's comments on the judge. "But do I believe Hillary Clinton is the answer? No, I do not," he said.

"I believe that we have more common ground on the policy issues of the day, and we have more likelihood of getting our policies enacted with him than we do with her," Ryan said. "But I do absolutely disavow those comments, I think they're wrong, I think they're wrongheaded, and the thinking behind it is something I don't even personally relate to."

Democrats immediately ridiculed Ryan for denouncing Trump's comments as racist yet continuing to back his candidacy.

"Paul Ryan continues to endorse someone who spews racist rhetoric  the 'textbook definition' of a coward more concerned with partisan politics than the good of the country," said Meredith Kelly, spokeswoman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Curiel, who is presiding over a case alleging that Trump University fleeced students, was born in Indiana to parents who came from Mexico in the 1940s. Trump has been questioned repeatedly about his stance that the judge's ethnicity makes him unqualified to preside over his case, but has refused to retract his comments, and may not be any likelier to do so in response to Ryan's complaints.

Ryan made his comments at an event in a low-income neighborhood of Washington, D.C., where he was unveiling new proposals to fight poverty, the first piece in a six-plank governing agenda by the House GOP.

But instead of discussing his poverty proposals he was forced to deal with numerous questions on Trump, illustrating anew Trump's tendency to create troublesome distractions for members of his own party. The flap over the judge is proving particularly problematic and leading Republicans have taken turns denouncing Trump's comments.

While some others have sought to avoid calling Trump or his comments out-and-out racist, Ryan leveled the charge matter-of-factly while still attempting to steer the conversation back to his agenda.

"I'm going to defend our ideas, I'm going to defend our majority, and I think our likelihood of getting these ideas into law are far more likely if we are unified as a party," Ryan said. "And so I see it as my job as speaker of the House to help keep our party unified. I think if we go into the fall as a divided party, we are going to lose, and that's why I am going to be focused on these ideas and these solutions and not attempt to defend the indefensible."

The poverty proposal, unveiled at the House of Help City of Hope, an alcohol and drug treatment program in the Anacostia neighborhood of Washington, would make changes to welfare, food and housing aid, among other programs, to increase work requirements, make the aid more efficient and allow states to make more decisions about how it is distributed.

Ryan and several House committee chairmen met the organization's founder, Shirley Holloway, and later praised her for working with addicted individuals and helping lift them out of poverty. Ryan contrasted that approach with treating the symptoms of poverty through welfare programs.

"They are not isolating the poor, they are elevating the poor," Ryan said

Ryan won't immediately translate most of these ideas into legislation since his major points wouldn't be enacted under President Barack Obama. But the idea is to set the stage for the future if a Republican should become president.
Hillary Clinton Outlines

Plan to Abolish The 2A

By AWR Hawkins. June 5th, 2016

During the June 5 airing of This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Hillary Clinton outlined her plan to abolish the Second Amendment.

Hillary Clinton first disavowed that she is seeking to abolish the Second Amendment then went on to list five Second Amendment-crippling gun controls she plans to implement if elected in November.

Clinton said:

I'm going to continue to speak out for comprehensive background checks, closing the "gun show loophole," closing the "online loophole," closing the so-called "Charleston loophole," reversing the bill that Senator Sanders voted for and I voted against, giving immunity from liability to gun makers and sellers. .....

Her proposals would be so restrictive and dangerous as to effectively be destroying the Second Amendment - probably the ultimate goal. We already see situations in states like New Jersey and California, where obstacles placed in the way of legitimate gun ownership make people's rights all but null and void. At the very least, 2A supporters should do everything possible with their votes to elect public servants who support rights in general... be careful who you vote for.

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Agitating leaders go on relay fast

Madhesi and Janajati parties affiliated to the Sanghiya Gathabandhan, also known as the federal alliance, began a relay hunger strike on Tuesday after changing the form of their agitation.
Always pushed around

It seems the political parties, both ruling and agitating, see the Nepali people as just stepping stones to power
Amber Heard was arrested for 'domestic violence' in 2009

Actress Amber Heard, who claims she was the victim of domestic violence by estranged husband Johnny Depp, was reportedly arrested on the same charge against her former girlfriend Tasya Van Ree in 2009, it has emerged.
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Amid speculations that the parties are preparing to relax provisions to grant amnesty to perpetrators of insurgency-era crimes as per the nine-point agreement, the chief legal advisor to the government has assured that there would be no amnesty for serious rights violations.
Banner to show support for LGBT community

US Ambassador to Nepal Alaina B. Teplitz and the US Embassy community on Wednesday hung rainbow banners in Kathmandu to show their support for the LGBT community during Pride Month 2016 and celebrate the great diversity of the American people.
Cabinet approves Veep Puns China visit

The government, on Wednesday, approved Vice President Nanda Bahadur Puns official visit to the Peoples Republic of China.
Anil Giri is a reporter covering diplomacy, international relations and national politics for The Kathmandu Post. Giri has been working as a journalist for a decade-and-a-half, contributing to numerous national and international media outlets.
Daily Star editor gets bail in 10 cases

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Papua New Guinea police open fire on student protest

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Rs 1b released to install solar lights in 96 municipalities

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Senior UK officials arrive

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Success story at BNP: 30 endangered gharials bred

The Bardiya National Park (BNP) has witnessed a successful breeding of over 30 critically endangered gharials (Gavialis gangeticus) in captivity after 34 years.
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Water scarcity causes exodus in Doti village

Water scarcity in a remote village of Doti district has led many of his inhabitants to migrate over the last four decades.
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Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton differ sharply in many of their ideas about what the U.S. should look like, and what sets them most apart is foreign policy, especially their stances on alliances.



The November election has now officially shaped up as a race between the real-estate tycoon and the former secretary of state, as Clinton has this week reached the "magic number" of delegates necessary to win the Democratic ticket and became the first female presumptive presidential nominee of a major U.S. party.



Trump clinched the Republican nomination last month.



One of the biggest differences in their foreign policy is the ways they look at alliances. Trump views alliances as a cumbersome burden sucking up taxpayer dollars, while Clinton praises them as a "source of strength" that makes the U.S. safer.



South Korea is watching the election more closely than ever due to its potential impact on the alliance with the U.S., a big departure from past elections, when no candidates questioned the value of the alliance with Seoul, and a focus in Korea policy was mostly on how to deal with North Korea.



Trump has long argued that the U.S. should no longer be the "policeman of the world," expressing deeply negative views of U.S. security commitments overseas and claiming it makes no sense for the U.S. to help defend such wealthy allies as Japan, South Korea and Saudi Arabia in exchange for little.



He says allies should pay 100 percent of cost of stationing American troops, or the U.S. should be prepared to end their protection. He even suggested allowing South Korea and Japan to develop their own nuclear weapons for self-defense so as to reduce U.S. security burdens.



That stance reflects Trump's "America First" policy that calls for putting U.S. interests ahead of anything else. Trump and aides have repeatedly emphasized the businessman is an excellent negotiator and is ready to use the skill to regain American interests lost under Democratic administrations.



About 28,500 American troops are stationed in South Korea to deter North Korean aggression, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. Many agree that the troop presence is also in line with U.S. interests in a region marked by China's rise.



South Korea currently pays about half the costs, about US$900 million a year, to help finance the troop presence, and U.S. officials, including U.S. Forces Korea Commander Vincent Brooks, said it would cost more to keep those troops in the U.S.



On the other hand, a Clinton presidency is expected to bring no major changes to the alliance.



In a major foreign policy speech last week, the former top American diplomat emphasized that the U.S. is stronger and safer thanks to the "power of allies." She also said that alliances are a "source of strength."



Referring to Trump's call for allies to pay up for American defense support, Clinton said that allies should pay their fair shares, and many of them have already increased their spending.



"The real debate here is whether we keep those alliances strong or cut them off," she said, meaning that a Trump presidency would mean an end to the alliances.



Policy on North Korea is another point of difference between Trump and Clinton.



Trump has surprised many by saying he would hold talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, a remark seen as aimed at underscoring he's good at negotiations. But the idea has drawn strong criticism that such a meeting would end up bolstering the North's dictator.



Trump has also stressed the importance of China's role in reining in the North, saying he would use U.S. economic leverage over China to make Beijing use more of its influence over Pyongyang.



Clinton has blasted Trump over his willingness to hold talks with the North's leader, saying he has a "bizarre fascination with dictators." She is expected to continue the current administration's policy of pressuring the communist nation.



Jake Sullivan, head of the Clinton campaign's foreign policy team, said last month that sharply increasing pressure on the North would be the only way to get the communist regime to authentic negotiations over its nuclear program.



Sullivan, considered the No. 1 candidate for national security adviser under a Clinton presidency, also said the North will be a top priority for the next president, and Clinton will deal with the problem in a similar way she dealt with Iran's nuclear program.



Trump is also expected to seek renegotiation of the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement that has been in effect since 2012. Walid Phares, a top foreign policy adviser for Trump, said in an interview with Yonhap that Trump wants to go back to "ground zero" with regard to the trade deal.



Clinton does not dispute existing free trade deals, but expressed negative views of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), a 12-nation free trade pact awaiting legislative approval, even though TPP is one of President Barack Obama's foreign policy legacies. (Yonhap)




Kendallville, IN (46755)

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Cloudy. Periods of light rain early. High around 55F. Winds NW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 80%..

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ORLAND  A Hare Krishna monk walked across Steuben and LaGrange counties this week on a journey that will take him to the Pacific Ocean.

Bhaktimarga Swami, also known as The Walking Monk, passed through northeast Indiana Monday and Tuesday, walking west toward San Francisco. He started in New York City earlier this year.

Swami is walking from coast to coast because he wants people to think about slowing down.

Im just trying to get people to reconsider a simpler life, the Canadian monk said while stopped in Orland Monday. The body is more leg than anything else. Besides, walking is a good workout. Its therapy and its spiritual. And you get a chance to talk to the nice folks along the way.

Swami said walking gives him time to think and unplug from the modern world. His message to the people he meets is to slow down a bit, spend a little less time with modern devices, such as smartphones and computers, and a little more time engaging with others around them.

The orange-clad monk, who often flashes a smile and is quick to laugh, has become known for his walks. He has crossed his native Canada four times on foot. He walked across Ireland and Fiji.

This is his first attempt at walking across America.

The 64-year-old monk wears a traditional orange robe and a simple pair of sandals. He travels about 20 miles a day, resting in campgrounds. Along the way, he often stops to admire the landscape.

Part of the Hare Krishna belief is that god is manifested in the elements  the trees, the wind, the clouds  and the monk pauses often to notice each.

Swami walks back roads and smaller state highways on his way west to avoid heavy traffic and large vehicles. He also hopes to meet people.

I think what walking does is it brings out neighborliness in people. It brings people out to talk to each other, Swami explained.

While passing through Orland, he caught the eye of a group of teenagers looking to find a bite to eat. The group approached the monk and spent five minutes talking.

I consider myself a very spiritual person and just wanted to see what he had to say, and see if it was anything to add to my spiritual growth, said 18-year-old Dillon Carter, a Fort Wayne native who was in Orland to meet friends.

Carter admitted he was unaware of the Hare Krishna movement, also known as the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, prior to meeting Swami.

It was nice to talk to him and know that somebody is trying to better peoples consciousness, Carter said.

A native of Toronto, Swami was born into a practicing Catholic family but decided to join the Hare Krishna movement when he was 20. Hes been a monk for more than 40 years.

I didnt leave Christianity, just added something to it, he said.

While the religion is only a few generations old, it has roots in India. It arrived in the United States in the 1960s, but is largely unknown in the Midwest.

Were kind of new in this part of the world. Were a little more established in the bigger cities. Were even stronger with the Hindu community, Swami explained.

He said Krishnas believe in one god and have a sacred text that is kept in India. He said they also believe in the transmigration of the soul, are vegetarians and believe in animal rights. They avoid gambling and alcohol. As a monk, he said, he leads a celibate life.

So far, this trip has been uneventful, and Swami said hes been treated well along the way.

Thats not always been the case. Several times on other walks, people have called the police to report a man in orange clothing

They think Ive escaped from prison, he said.

His plans are to travel as far as the middle of Nebraska by end of this summer, where he will stop and return home to Canada. Hell resume his walk at that same spot in Nebraska next spring and continue west, with the hope of reaching San Francisco by fall 2017.

Along the way, people will stop to speak with Swami. Some may offer him food, water or donations.

Some may even offer to give him a ride.

I really appreciate the offer, but Ive got to walk the whole county. I cant cheat, he said.
Bound for the Tomah VA recently, I took an alternate route to avoid some road construction and, yes, to enjoy the beautiful drive through Fort McCoy on Hwy. 21. The drive took a little longer than I expected and I had to hustle from the parking lot into the outpatient building. I checked in just before my appointment time and before I could find a magazine, my name was called.

Thats not unusual; in more than a decade of receiving primary health care from VA, both at Tomah and the La Crosse clinic, I can count on one hand the number of times Ive waited more than a few minutes to be seen after checking in.

Prescriptions arrive promptly by mail, personnel are courteous and helpful, my records follow me electronically throughout the system, VA reminds me when its time for the annual physical or follow-up specialty appointments such as dermatology. And when I needed an urgent procedure that VA couldnt provide, VA arranged it through Mayo.

Why would I want to change VA? I dont. And neither do a lot of other veterans.

Yes, VA has had some well-publicized problems, which are being addressed. But some politicians, including Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Oshkosh, are using the problems to advance their idea to privatize VA.

Writing in the June issue of The American Legion Magazine, Joseph J. Frank, a past national commander, said, Too often, veterans criticism of VA has been misinterpreted as condemnation. And our calls for change and reform within the system have been erroneously translated into a perceived demand for its transfer to the private sector.

Frank, who returned from Vietnam in 1968 paralyzed from the chest down, credits VA with helping him rebuild his life. He added, VA health care is more than medicine. Its a network of people  providers and patients alike  who care about veterans in ways non-VA medical practioners cant be expected to understand, let alone provide. Why would we ever want to take this benefit ... and hand it off to private providers whose quality probably ranks lower and cannot fully understand our needs and the services available to meet them?

A study in 2015 by the Rand Corp. under the Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act of 2014 concluded that, while performance varied widely across the systems 1,300 facilities, on balance, VA care was as good, or better, than the private sector provides.

Still, a Commission on Care set up by the act to offer reforms for VA is considering a recommendation from some in the commission for privatizing VA. The commission is seeded with members who would benefit from privatization, according to Washington Monthly, including four executives of major medical centers and two representing organizations connected to the Koch brothers.

Earlier this year, the following veterans groups sent a letter to the care commission opposing privatization: Disabled American Veterans, Veterans of Foreign Wars, American Legion, Paralyzed Veterans of American, Military Order of the Purple Heart, AMVETS, Vietnam Veterans of American and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. The letter said: We are confident that any objective, unbiased analysis of all the relevant data and evidence about the VA health care system compared to private sector health care will demonstrate the benefits of maintaining and strengthening a dedicated veterans health care system.

The Rand report listed many possibilities for VA improvement, most of which require more money, given the escalating numbers of veterans who need specialized care.

VAs 2017 budget is $182.3 billion, including $78.7 billion in discretionary funding, largely for health care and $103.6 billion for mandatory benefit programs such as disability compensation and pensions.

The funding, according to VA, Will allow VA to operate the largest integrated health care system in the country, serving approximately 9 million veterans enrolled to receive care; the 10th largest life insurance provider, covering both active duty service members and enrolled veterans; a compensation and pension benefits program serving over 5 million veterans and survivors; an education assistance program serving 1.1 million students; a home mortgage program with a portfolio of over 2 million active loans guaranteed by VA; and the largest national cemetery system, one which leads the nation as a high-performing organization, projected to inter 132,093 veterans and family members in 2017.

Aside from my personal satisfaction with VA care, I like seeing the consequences of war so clearly defined, a bleak reminder of what costs we must be prepared to pay when we send our men and women into battle.
A new one-of-a-kind park specifically designed for the physically challenged and to honor veterans was dedicated during a Memorial Day ceremony. As part of the dedication, the park at Mosey Landing was turned over to the town of Onalaska to become one of the towns public parks.

The North American Squirrel Association was instrumental in creating the Brice Prairie park. The park enhances the groups mission of organizing outdoor activities such as fishing and boating for the physically challenged.

According to Tony Christnovich, ex-officio member of the organizations board of directors and spokesman for the project, the park is completely accessible by wheelchair and others experiencing mobility issues.

Its the only park in Wisconsin thats equipped exclusively for the physically challenged, Christnovich told the Onalaska Town Board at its May 24 special meeting. Obviously, others can use it, too.

The park amenities include a pavilion with handicap-accessible picnic tables and a grill. The park complements other improvements made at the boat landing in the past, which include a handicap-accessible fishing dock.

Many of the disabled the association assists with outdoor activities are veterans, and since a number of the donations were made to the park in memory of veterans, the park was also designed to honor those who served in the countrys military.

Strong supporters of the project, Ray Mosey and his family donated the parcel of land adjacent to the boat landing on Lake Onalaska.

We are proud to provide the land for the park, said Mosey, who served in the Marines in WWII. Its mind-boggling what a group of volunteers have done. This day is indeed what small town America is all about.

At the dedication ceremony, Mosey spoke of the sacrifice his older brother Merlin made while serving in WWII. The elder Mosey was stationed at Pearl Harbor at the beginning of the war. A Bronze Star and Purple Heart recipient, the U.S. Marine sergeant died on the beaches of Taipei when he was 23 years old.

Along with individual volunteers, the costs of the nearly $100,000 project was reduced to about two-thirds through in-kind contributions and products provided at cost by a number of local businesses and public agencies.

Boy Scouts joined representatives from each branch of the military in performing a flag raising ceremony with the flags flying at half-mast to honor the fallen.

Planning for the park project started about four or five years ago, with groundbreaking taking place this past fall.
Luther (7-3) built a lead in its Division 6 first-round game at third-seeded Markesan on Friday and held on to beat the Hornets 26-14 for their first playoff win since becoming a member of the WIAA.
The recently concluded Minnesota legislative session opened the door to wonderful new opportunities for Minnesotas district public school teachers, students and families.

Assuming that Gov. Mark Dayton signs the almost 600-page supplementary appropriations bill, $500,000 will be available for district public school teachers who want to help start a new public school based on their best ideas.

For more than two years, a broad coalition  including local union presidents in Lakeville, Minneapolis and St. Paul, the Minnesota Business Partnership, a local research and advocacy group called Education Evolving, a Minnesota State Teacher of the Year and the Center for School Change, where I work  has supported this. The coalition encouraged legislators to help create what are being called teacher-governed or teacher-led public schools.

More information about the idea is available at http://bit.ly/1XwfTMH. Descriptions of teacher-led schools are at http://www.teacherpowered.org.

Rep. Roz Peterson, R-Lakeville, was chief author of the legislation in the Minnesota House. After the legislative session ended, she told me that she is thrilled that these funds were included in the final bill.

This gives teachers the power and autonomy to use their best ideas, she said. I hope that many districts take advantage of this. I hope it helps transform our schools into the 21st century.

Curt Johnson, an Education Evolving board member, believes, In a legislative session that may be remembered mostly for what it did not do, there was actually bipartisan agreement to test the proposition that modest funding would enable groups of teachers to take more responsibility for schools. Last fall Education Evolving hosted a national conference that more than 200 district and charter educators from across the country attended to discuss this idea, described in one of my columns: http://bit.ly/1TDU9vC.

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For about 20 years, Congress has provided funds to help educators, parents and community members start new chartered public schools. Meanwhile, many district educators felt that some federal and state legislation gave them more dictates and less respect.

The new Minnesota legislation reverses this. It acknowledges that many district educators also have great ideas. The legislation provides planning and start-up funds for new district options. Part of progress in public schools involves giving educators the respect and opportunity to create new options. Based on preliminary inquiries with national experts, it appears that Minnesota is the first state to offer substantial planning or implementation grants for teacher-governed schools.

Carol McFarlane, a former state legislator and former school board member, helped legislators and Education Evolving write this years legislation. The legislation provides up to $50,000 in planning grants and up to $100,000 in implementation for two years, on a first-come, first-served basis. A local school board and the local teachers union must approve all applications.

Typically modest, McFarlane praised the hard work of many people. She noted strong support from Minnesota Senate Education Committee Chair Sen. Chuck Wiger, DFL-Maplewood, and Minnesota House Education Finance Committee Chair Rep. Jenifer Loon, R-Eden Prairie, along with Rep. Peterson. McFarlane is excited that district schools have a chance to implement a teacher-governed school.

Over the summer, educators might consider what kind of school they could create if they had the power to use current school funding in different ways.

McFarlane rightly concluded these funds open the door for district educators to not only think about, but also create public schools they think would be most helpful for students.
A Black River Falls man was injured Sunday evening in a motorcycle crash in Houston County, Minn.

Craig T. Slusher, 28, was westbound on state Highway 76 near Holty Ridge Drive shortly after 5:30 p.m. when he lost control of his Kawasaki motorcycle and struck a guardrail, according to the Minnesota State Patrol.

Slusher was thrown over the guardrail and suffered injuries that were not believed to be life-threatening, the authorities said.

He was transported by ambulance to a nearby hospital. The Caledonia Police Department and Houston County Sheriffs Office assisted at the scene.
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A citation for the man who brought methamphetamine paraphernalia to a Black River Falls City Council meeting has been dismissed.

City Attorney Lisa Hirschman said she dismissed the ordinance violation because she didnt want to discourage the public from reporting drug activity.

Brady J. Palmer, 42, put a bag with a glass pipe and gem baggies into Police Chief Scot Eisenhauers lap at the end of the police departments March report to the citys Committee of the Whole, saying the items werent his and that he cant turn in paraphernalia he finds without police believing he is a meth user.

I talked with Brady about more appropriate ways to deal with the reports that he wants to make. He obviously does not have a great relationship with the police department, and I dont want to discourage people from reporting those types of instances, Hirschman said of the citations dismissal in May.

He did violate the law in that way. However, I didnt feel prosecution was necessary given the circumstances  I dont think that the police did the wrong thing  I think it was necessary to act that way so that we could shine the light, maybe, on the way to approach these things. I think it had the best possible resolution.

Palmer told meeting attendees he picked up the items across the street and in the 11th Street area, but Eisenhauer said he saw Palmer hours before the meeting and that the BRF resident wouldnt come to the station to discuss his concerns.

Eisenhauer said in March that police issued the citation because of Palmers behavior earlier in the afternoon on that day, at the council meeting and his failure to cooperate.

Palmer pleaded not guilty in April, and Hirschman discussed the case with Eisenhauer before Palmers April 26 pre-trial conference, where the two discussed ways to report drug activity, Hirschman said.

Eisenhauer said he supports Hirschmans decision to dismiss.

The whole reason for citations is to correct peoples behavior, he said. We certainly dont have it out for (Brady), but we want him to do things in a proper way.

Eisenhauer had concerns in March that Palmer may have been on a stimulant because of his behavior the afternoon of the meeting, but Palmer repeatedly maintained he does not use drugs.
Two Jackson County men recently were charged after authorities uncovered evidence of making and distributing methamphetamine at their homes.

Roger F. Turner, 65, and Kenneth M. Reinart, 51, both of Black River Falls, each face several felony drug charges after a search of their residences in mid-May, according to the criminal complaints filed in Jackson County Circuit Court.

Authorities believe Turner made meth at his town of Albion home and then gave it to Reinart to distribute and sell, according to the Jackson County Sheriffs Department and the criminal complaints.

Both men were arrested after detectives received information that Turner may be manufacturing meth and other narcotics at his residence in May and authorities the next day executed the search warrants.

Members of the National Guard first entered Turners Thomas Road residence to check air levels and photograph the chemicals inside. Other items were discovered, including smoking devices, crystalline-material filled baggies, syringes and over-the counter medications associated with meth production, according to the criminal complaints.

Authorities also searched Reinarts town of Brockway home on Jackson Avenue about the same time and recovered a variety of drug paraphernalia, meth and marijuana, according to the criminal complaints.

Turner said during questioning that he wasnt manufacturing meth and authorities wouldnt discover dangerous materials during a search, and another man reported he hadnt seen Turner make meth but did observe him making a substance with morphine at the house. Turner, however, said in a later interview that he tried to make some but it didnt work out, according to the criminal complaints.

Reinart initially denied selling meth for Turner or using meth but later said he mostly smoked or shared the couple grams a week he had and stated authorities likely found weed, pills, methamphetamine and maybe heroin during the search of his home, according to the criminal complaints.

Turner is charged with manufacturing meth, manufacturing schedule II narcotics, felon in possession of a firearm, maintaining a drug trafficking place and possession of drug paraphernalia, all but one of which are felonies.

Reinart is charged with possession of meth, two counts of possession of narcotic drugs, felony bail jumping, maintaining a drug trafficking place, resisting an officer, possession of a controlled substance, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia, five of which are felonies.

Turner was scheduled for an adjourned initial appearance this past Monday. He previously was released on a $10,000 signature bond. Reinart also was scheduled to appear last Monday and has been released on a $3,000 cash bond.
Mohamed A. Abdullahi, 21, Grand Rapids, Mich., was fined $200.50 for speeding on freeway (11-15 mph).

Daniel P. Adler, 24, La Crosse, was fined $10 for operating motor vehicle w/o proof of insurance.

Adewale N. Agboola, 27, St. Paul, Minn., was fined $200.50 for speeding on freeway (11-15 mph).

Jaclyn H. Allinson, 32, Melrose, was fined $175.30 for exceeding speed zones, etc. (11-15 mph).

Joshua J. Antoni, 36, Onalaska, was fined $10 for operating motor vehicle w/o proof of insurance.

Michelle A. Amendariz, 36, Black River Falls, was fined $263.50 for retail theft.

Beyza Bajraktari, 24, Kenosha, was fined $10 for vehicle passenger fail to wear seat belt.

Michael R. Bantz, 61, Victoria, Minn., was fined $200.50 for speeding on freeway (11-15 mph).

Matthew S. Barber, 19, Eau Claire, was fined $263.50 for underage drinking-possess-17-20 (1st).

Billi C. Bartz, 41, Kenosha, was fined $10 for operating motor vehicle w/o proof of insurance.

Lori A. Bauer, 45, Durand, was fined $263.50 for illegal crossing of divided highway, $200.50 for operating a motor vehicle w/o insurance, $187.90 for inattentive driving and $263.50 for hit and run-property adjacent to highway.

Waverly K. Bird, 21, Hixton, was fined $389.50 for criminal damage to property-forfeiture.

Verna J. Blackdeer, 57, Onalaska, was fined $200.50 for operating a motor vehicle w/o insurance.

Richard L. Bork, 44, Black River Falls, was fined $10 for vehicle operator fail/wear seat belt.

Grant A. Briggs, 26, Black River Falls, was fined $175.30 for exceeding speed zones, etc. (11-15 mph).

Alexandra J. Brown, 23, Green Bay, was fined $276.10 for speeding on freeway (20-24 mph).

Darren J. Brown, 21, Bolingbrook, Ill., was fined $250.90 for speeding on freeway (16-19 mph).

Travis P. Bruneau, 26, Whitehall, was fined $200.50 for exceeding speed zones, etc. (16-19 mph).

Garrett P. Buck, 23, Lake, Ill., was fined $590 for reckless driving-endanger safety.

Sandra E. Bue, 31, Alma Center, was fined $10 for vehicle operator fail/wear seat belt.

Clarence E. Bunker, 33, Eau Claire, was fined $263.50 for possession of drug paraphernalia.

Meltonya Burt, 42, Milwaukee, was fined $276.10 for speeding on freeway (20-24 mph).

John E. Burzynshi, 56, Thorp, was fined $175.30 for speeding in 55-mph zone (11-15 mph).

Charles C. Butterfield, 44, Black River Falls, was fined $2,072 for OWI (3rd).

Karen Chen, 26, Chicago, was fined $200.50 for speeding on freeway (11-15 mph).

Kathryn A. Christenson, 40, Hixton, was fined $175.30 for fail/stop at stop sign.

Amber M. Christesen, 36, Black River Falls, was fined $10 for vehicle operator fail/wear seat belt.

Christopher J. Clark, 46, Harvey, Ill., was fined $200.50 for speeding on freeway (11-15 mph).

Wesley A. Cloud, 31, Black River Falls, was fined $263.50 for disorderly conduct-county/municipality.

Matthew A. Conradson, 34, Arcadia, was fined $263.50 for possession of drug paraphernalia.

Daniel J. Considine, 70, Portage, was fined $271.50 for fail/change lane-passing stop emerg. veh.

Dan Costlin, 22, University Place, Wash., was fined $200.50 for speeding on freeway (11-15 mph).

Robert c. Couillard, 28, Milwaukee, was fined $169 for speeding on freeway (1-10 mph).

William W. Criste, 21, Holmen, was fined $10 for operating motor vehicle w/o proof of insurance.

Steve A. Cruz, 30, Hixton, was fined $10 for vehicle operator fail/wear seat belt and $10 for vehicle operator fail/wear seat belt.

Carsen J. Curran, 19, Menomonie, was fined $263.50 for underage drinking-possess-17-20 (1st).

Karena L. Custodio, 37, Black River Falls, was fined $200.50 for possess open intoxicants in MV-passenger.

Michelle R. De Cora, 56, La Crosse, was fined $10 for operating motor vehicle w/o proof of insurance.

Ricardo C. De Leon, 54, Madison, was fined $515.50 for speeding on freeway (35+ mph).

Adam J. Decorah, 23, Black River Falls, was fined $200.50 for operating while revoked (forfeiture 1st).

Christopher C. Decorah, 46, Merrillan, was fined $200.50 for operating while revoked (forfeiture 1st).

Vasile B. Deminenco, 20, Brooklyn Park, Minn., was fined $200.50 for speeding on freeway (11-15 mph).

Jose O. Diaz, 33, Milwaukee, was fined $200.50 for operate w/o valid license (1st).

Kimberley A. Dolph, 40, Nekoosa, was fined $213.10 for unreasonable and imprudent speed and $10 for operating motor vehicle w/o proof of insurance.

Richard J. Doran, 41, Black River Falls, was fined $175.30 for speeding on city highway (1-10 mph).

Elizabeth Duenas Iglesias, 37, Milwaukee, was fined $200.50 for operate w/o valid license (1st) and $200.50 for speeding on freeway (11-15 mph).

Byron D. Elkins, 32, Muskego, was fined $169 for improperly operate ATV or UTV on public property.

Alison M. Elmore, 24, Alcester, S.D., was fined $200.50 for speeding on freeway (11-15 mph).

Bradley F. Elpers, 46, Evansville, Ind., was fined $225.70 for speeding in 55-mph zone (20-24 mph).

Karmon J. Everson, 60, Blair, was fined $175.30 for non-registration of vehicle-auto less than 10,000 pounds.

Heredith T. Figueras, 40, Hoffman Estates, Ill., was fined $276.10 for speeding on freeway (20-24 mph).

Scott K. Fisher, 42, Black River Falls, was fined $10 for vehicle operator fail/wear seat belt.

Jon M. Fisher, 45, Eden Prairie, Minn., was fined $200.50 for speeding on freeway (11-15 mph).

Kegan C. Fogleson, 20, Black River Falls, was fined $200.50 for operating while revoked (forfeiture 1st).

Jason R. Fogo, 32, Reedsburg, was fined $10 for vehicle operator fail/wear seat belt.

Jacob A. Foster, 24, Richfield, Minn., was fined $200.50 for speeding on freeway (1-10 mph).

Tanner L. Frye, 20, Whitehall, was fined $10 for operating motor vehicle w/o proof of insurance.

David M. Garlick, 26, Loves Park, Ill., was fined $200.50 for speeding on freeway (11-15 mph).

Teresa M. Geneman, 50, Weyerhaeuser, was fined $175.30 for fail/yield right/way from stop sign.

Keelan A. Gilbertson, 25, Black River Falls, was fined $200.50 for operating while suspended (5th).

Lilith S. Greengrass, 18, Black River Falls, was fined $263.50 for underage drinking-possess-17-20 (1st).

Jaz H. J. Greyhair, 24, Black River Falls, was fined $263.50 for retail theft.

Elizabeth P. Hardy, 33, Sherman Oaks, Calif., was fined $250.90 for speeding on freeway (16-19 mph).

Alex A. Harnish, 19, Menomonie, was fined $263.50 for underage drinking-possess-17-20 (1st).

Isaiah M. Hart, 27, Black River Falls, was fined $10 for vehicle operator fail/wear seat belt.

Janice M. Hawkins, 49, Machesney Park, Ill., was fined $200.50 for speeding on freeway (11-15 mph).

Lyndsi N. Hayden, 30, Merrillan, was fined $263.50 for retail theft.

Tifney R. Haynes, 45, Silver Lake, was fined $200.50 for speeding on freeway (11-15 mph).

Samantha M. Heikkinen, 20, Blaine, Minn., was fined $250.90 for speeding on freeway (16-19 mph).

Gene R. Heiman, 54, Evansville, was fined $10 for vehicle operator fail/wear seat belt.

Rosemarie Hendricks, 64, Superior, was fined $10 for vehicle operator fail/wear seat belt.
The Black River Falls FFA chapter held its annual awards banquet on May 20 where it doled out honors and awards.

The social kicked things off with an opportunity for people to mingle, view FFA scrapbooks and bid on silent auction items. Then the more than 60 people in attendance enjoyed a meal before getting the awards banquet under way.

After welcomes from chapter president Amber Gilbertson and BRF School District Superintendent Shelly Severson, former BRF FFA member and reporter for Dairy Star magazine Cassie Olson gave a speech with visuals on how her FFA experiences helped shape her personally.

The chapters judging teams were recognized. Ciara Koboski, Amanda Mareck, Jacob Markhardt and Madelin Clark competed in the veterinary science regional career development event at UW-River Falls.

Those competing in leadership contests were recognized, including the FFA quiz bowl by Nolan Bucek, Alex Hentsch, Kaitlyn Johnson, Danielle McNulty, Asia Rave, Mason Schultz and Ruth Wise. Parliamentary procedure participants were Benett Bucek, Gilbertson, Zach Johnson, Markhardt and Clark and FFA discussion meet participant was Markhardt, who took first at district, first at sectionals and will be competing at the state contests in June.

The FFA Alumni presented each member that participated at the speaking contest with a special gift. Members whose first year participating is this year were given a new FFA jacket. Those who have participated for more than one year received an item of clothing from the FFA catalog.

Fundraiser awards were given to those members that either sold more than $150 in cheese and sausage or worked more than half of our concession events. They were April Breedlove, Benett Bucek, Nolan Bucek, Myranda Dalbec, Jenna Eversum, Alex Hentsch, Camie Hentsch, Brittany Hill, Kaitlyn Johnson, Zach Johnson, Koboski, James Leisgang, Marecek, Jacob Markhardt (top salesperson), Danielle McNulty, Madelin Olstad, Mason Schultz, Jeremiah Spaude, Luke Spaude, Anna West, Ruth Wise and Haley Wood.

Proficiency Awards were given to FFA members with outstanding Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE) projects. The members apply for recognition in one of two areas of entrepreneurship or placement. Entrepreneurship involves ownership of a project and placement is when the student works for an individual or business. Koboski and Maracek were the recipients for agri-science research, Zach Johnson for aquaculture placement, Hentsch for dairy placement, Jacob Markhardt for horticulture placement, Breedlove for poultry placement, Dalbec for sheep entrepreneurship, Bailey Johnson for small animal production and care placement, Hill for swine entrepreneurship and Benett Bucek for swine placement.

Star awards were presented to the FFA members demonstrating outstanding leadership, involvement and SAE projects. The Star Discovery Degree went to Nolan Bucek, Star Greenhand to Breedlove, Chapter Star in Agriscience was Koboski, Chapter Star Farmer was Dalbec and the Chapter Star in Placement was Jacob Markhardt.

Scholastic Achievement Awards were presented to Alex Hentsch (middle school), Madelin Clark (freshman), Caleb Marecek (sophomore), Jacob Markhardt (junior), and Ciara Koboski (senior).

The Black River Falls FFA Alumni sponsored two different scholarship areas. The Clifford Cal Fisher Scholarship for graduating seniors went to Koboski and Marecek. Maracek will be attending UW-River Falls for animal science and Koboski will be attending Mid-State Technical College for civil engineering. The Dale Hart Scholarship for students currently attending post-secondary education went to Evan Markhardt. He is attending the UW-River Falls and majoring in ag business management.

WWIS radio received the Appreciation Award for outstanding service to the FFA chapter. The Honorary FFA Degree was presented to Brad and Annette Markhardt for their work with FFA members.

The 2015-2016 BRF FFA officer team was recognized for their year of service. The 2016-17 officer team was installed and include president Jacob Markhardt, vice president Bailey Johnson, secretary Brittany Hill, reporter Madlin Clark as reporter, treasurer Benett Bucek, sentinel Caleb Marecek and historian Nolan Bucek.
A top Veterans Affairs official testified before a congressional hearing last week that the agency was to blame for problems linked to the deaths of at least two patients at the Tomah VA Medical Center.

Sloan Gibson, deputy secretary of Veterans Affairs, said clear and inexcusable lack of leadership allowed the deaths to occur and outlined steps taken to reform the facility and reduce the reliance on opioid painkillers.

I own those problems, those failures, Gibson said. We had ample opportunity over a number of years to fix this  and we failed to get it done.

His statements came after the conclusion of a Senate investigation that blamed systemic failures by the Veterans Administration and governmental watchdog agencies for allowing the deaths of at least two veterans.

The 359-page report by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs that said failures across the executive branch allowed problems of over-medication and abuse of authority to fester in the facility for at least nine years despite attempts of patients and employees to contact law enforcement and the VAs Inspector General.

The VA has been under fire since January 2015, when a report by the nonprofit Center for Investigative Reporting detailed high levels of opioid prescription at the Tomah VA and a pervasive culture of intimidation and retaliation against employees who spoke out.

Two top officials from Tomah  Director Mario DeSanctis and medical Chief of Staff Dr. David Houlihan  were removed in the wake of that report, as were at least two other care providers.

In 2014, the VAs Office of Inspector General concluded a three-year investigation that identified troubling levels of opioid prescriptions but found no criminal wrongdoing. The OIG did not release the report until its existence was revealed by the media.

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., who chairs the committee, said the inspector generals office lost its way under the leadership of Richard Griffin, who stepped down in 2015 and that new Inspector General Michael Missal needs to clean house.

I believe these tragedies could have been prevented if the Inspector General had done its job, Johnson said. The office of the Inspector General under Richard Griffin was loyal to the VA instead of to the finest among us and the American public.

Tuesdays report, the result of a 16-month investigation by the committee, said employees at the hospital had referred to Houlihan since at least 2004 as Candy Man because of his copious prescriptions for opioid painkillers and that the Drug Enforcement Administration has been investigating potential drug diversion for seven years with no public results.

Among the other revelations in the report:

In the months before his death at the hospital, Jason Simcakoski called multiple law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, which denied any record of contact.

The former chief of the Tomah VA police knew the facility had a reputation as a big pill box when he took over in 2009 but didnt investigate the allegations.

The VA did not fully investigate past allegations of misconduct against Houlihan when he was hired and later promoted to chief of staff.

An OIG agent reported that Houlihan and another practitioner appeared to be under the influence of drugs when he interviewed them; the OIG suggested that DeSanctis consider drug testing his staff but there was no follow up.

While handling of the Tomah scandal has been a point of contention in Johnsons re-election campaign against former Sen. Russ Feingold, Johnson focused his criticism on the VA and denied politicizing the issue.

Ive done nothing political here, he told reporters before the hearing.

The committees minority members released a supplemental report that largely echoed that sentiment.

Fixing the problems at the VA isnt a partisan issue, said Sen. Tom Carper, the committees ranking Democrat. Its a shared responsibility among Congress, the Administration, and the VAs leadership.

Johnson, a proponent of privatizing the VA health system, said he believes veterans today are receiving better care at Tomah than they did under Houlihan but said problems are inherent in a government-run system.

Its rare that people get held accountable, he said.

Gibson later disagreed, saying the VA is unmatched in its ability to provide care to more than 8.7 million veterans.

No healthcare operation in America or perhaps in the world does the things VA does, he said. What other organization in America can bring that scope and that scale to bear on care for veterans?

Gibson outlined other reforms undertaken in Tomah.

Under interim director Victoria Brahm, the number of veterans receiving opioids has dropped by nearly a quarter, to just over 9 percent, below the national rate of about 13 percent, Gibson said.

Shes finding options, he said. Other than just a bag of pills.

Marvin Simcakoski, the father of a Marine veteran who died from a toxic combination of medications while at the hospital in 2014, said hes encouraged by efforts to reform the VA.

I can tell these guys are sincere, he said after the hearing. And I think were going in the right direction.
Sometimes its just fun to share some of the letters I get. Keep in mind when I say letters, I dont mean the kind my mom would write to me in longhand, but other more modern letters  emails, Tweets, Facebook comments and, of course, the very rare handwritten letters I get. Here is a sampling.

This first letter is from the article I did on marijuana.

DEAR DR. Z: As an ER nurse for many years, I have seen more adverse health issues from legal medications.

For example, it is totally disgusting to pull a used, chewed up fentanyl patch from the mouth of a nearly dead patient. And dont get me started on cigarettes and alcohol  how much do we spend on these perfectly legal items!

The legal system is totally arbitrary. First thing I plan to do when I retire is bake some special brownies.  TM

DEAR TM: Yes, the system is arbitrary. As of now, 24 states have legalized medical cannabis. And if you think theyre all the so-called more liberal blue states you are wrong. Red states such as Georgia and Arizona have done so, too.

Is there a risk with legalizing it? Of course. But then again, we do allow the risk of alcohol, dont we?

The Centers for Disease Control estimates there are nearly 90,000 deaths related to booze each year in the U.S., with an estimated cost of $250 billion. And there are an estimated 25,000 annual deaths from the legal genie in the bottle, opioids.

As I said in my article, how many people die from marijuana? If we kept statistics on this, which we dont, I bet its not as many as booze and pills.

This next letter was from my article on how doctors choose to die  often with less intervention, less chemotherapy, fewer tubes and drains. Most health-care professionals choose comfort and hospice over too much intervention and treatment.

DEAR DOC: Most of us do not fear dying as much as we fear the torture that precedes it. The horror stories about lack of care by hospital personnel is appalling.  SH

DEAR SH: Yes, there are hospitals where the care is abysmal, but in my experience these are the exception. Most try to do a good job, attend to a patients needs and help them.

The problem is the system. So many nurses and health care folks complain that they have to spend too much time documenting and not enough time with the patient. We need to use electronic health care records the right way  to improve patient care and not stand in the way of it. That means a smart allocation of time.

Now, as for suffering, many who are dying do not get the opioids they need. I have had patients dying in pain saying they dont want a narcotic because theyre afraid theyll become addicted. And this is when the outlook is dismal. This is where opioids have a definite place.

And the final letter is from a radio listener  it made me smile.

DR. Z: I just wanted to commend you on your syndicated column that I read in our Tuesday newspaper, the Spokesman (Wash.) Review  for your freshness, honesty and forthrightness.

Normally, I hold little esteem for the media gurus, pop psychologists and medicine men who proffer their brand or spiel  Dr. Oz, Dr. Phil, Dr. Drew, Dr. Who, Dr. You.

I dunno, maybe its your name, and that I like your demeanor when I have seen you on the tube (rare), maybe its the Z, as in Zorro, or Zorba the Greek.

I dont have the same affinity for your compatriot, Dr. Oz, partly because Im originally from Kansas and the name Oz sticks in my craw, plus I think Dr. Oz comes across as a charlatan at times. I mean, in his focus on women and weight-loss issues  come on, eat green bananas to help lose weight?!

I like what you said about the paradoxical unhealthy lifestyles of the medical community  Im a survivor of that scene, and its true.

One thing thats stuck with me over the years is something I learned in a nutrition class back in the early 80s: One of the most important things we can do to eat healthy is to eat a variety of foods.

I dont hear that emphasized enough. I was raised by ex-farm family parents, so we always ate whatever was given to us and we grew up liking most all foods, especially vegetables and fruits.

Somethings changed in our society, but Ill spare you my further rant on that.

One last parting comment: I suspect theres becoming an overuse of the referencing of research and recent studies in articles and books  well-meaning and important to validate making pronouncements or educated opinions on subject matter. The skeptical doubting part of me starts perking up my ears, though, when data numbers become profuse and at the hint of uncertainty of what the research really stated  who done it and has it been verified in a consummate way?

Miguel de Unamuno, the Spanish philosopher/poet, made a remark to the effect that science is a cemetery of ideas. He was not anti-science, just a profound instigator of independent thinking.

Of course, this is paraphrased, translated from Spanish to English and taken out of context, like his statement, Consciousness is a disease. In any case, my take is that he meant that the truth is not absolute and ever-evolving.

Anyway, keep up the good work, and thanks for being a man I can respect without hesitation. Best wishes.  PS, M.D.

DEAR PS: Now thats some letter. Stay well.
WAUWATOSA  In most courtrooms, the story of a defendants terrible childhood  what types of abuse or neglect may have prompted him or her to commit crimes  is often told at the very end of the court process when a judge decides which sentence to impose.

Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Mary Triggiano, a leader in Wisconsins trauma-informed care movement, wants to know that story at the start. Deciding the disposition of a case takes a lot more courage, she said, once you understand a persons story and history.

Trauma-informed care is not a program. Its not a project. It is a philosophy and a way of being, Triggiano said during a recent interview. Its not just about pretty walls or different colors.  Its how you interact with somebody.

This approach, which is being promoted by the state of Wisconsin across multiple systems, was on display during a Family Drug Treatment Court session in Triggianos courtroom in March.

On this day, two dozen people, including case managers, other social service providers, advocates and attorneys, gather to discuss each defendant. Participants in this court are working to regain custody of their children lost because of substance abuse.

Rebecca Foley, coordinator of the drug court, is there along with Tom Miller, an attorney for the participants. There are also representatives from the Milwaukee County District Attorneys Office and the Department of Corrections probation and parole department, as well as a guardian ad litem representing the interests of the children.

During the first half of the four-hour court session, the group discusses each participants progress toward sobriety, including their latest drug tests and attendance at counseling sessions.

Miller explains the differing roles. Recovery support coordinators are there to help clients, trying to look for the positive in a sometimes very negative situation. A case managers job is holding their feet to the fire.

Foley says for most participants, the program lasts 12 to 18 months, but some spend up to three years in the court so long as they continue to make progress.

Support, tough love in drug court

After two hours, Triggiano herds the women and men of varying ages, ethnicities and economic situations into the courtroom. Observers are allowed into the courtroom only after agreeing to keep confidential the identities of the participants, who are required to be honest about often uncomfortable aspects of their lives.

The session begins with a new participant sitting in a chair in front of Triggiano. The judge says, We want to help you along, support you and get your children back into your care. Triggiano tells her she will have a team around to help.

The judge instructs the woman to return to court every Friday, cooperate with random urine tests and attend an alcoholism support group twice a week. The woman agrees.

The next participant is praised for attending group therapy sessions but chided for missing some individual sessions. She has been clean for five months, prompting a round of applause from the courtroom. Each participant sitting before Triggiano has one or more people standing behind or to the side for support.

Another woman wants to move up a level in the program with fewer responsibilities and more freedom. She is frustrated that she has not been able to reunite with her son.

A lot of you, your children or child has been removed, Triggiano tells the group. You want to go 100 miles per hour. What we try to do here is slow you down to take care of yourselves. If you dont do that  none of that is going to happen.

Another woman is visibly angry. She limps to the chair, frowning. She says her social worker is not around. Aint nobody helping me out. My daughters in a foster home and she wants to kill herself, the woman says forcefully to Triggiano. I feel like Im telling my life story and nothings happened.

Everyones moving up levels, she continues. It feels like Im not going anywhere.

It is a tone of voice that might spell trouble for a defendant standing before a judge. Triggiano appears unfazed.

Waiting until the woman is done talking, the judge reveals that she has been holding an application for her to move up in the program. She congratulates the participant for holding us accountable, adding, Youre speaking your truth.

Later on, a male participant tells Triggiano of his relapse. She responds: Whats the routine? Get back on track. Process it, and move on.

The session ends with a graduation: a woman who was facing years in prison is instead fully reunited with her daughter. The program has helped her get clean and become trained as a welder. In her graduation speech, there are hints that the womans childhood was far from ideal. She says she has forgiven her mother, who is sitting close by. She says she has overcome guilt and shame.

Her advice to the other participants: Stick with it.

No more business as usual

Speaking to hundreds of child welfare and court officials gathered in September in the Wisconsin Dells, Triggiano told them they should consider trauma in everything they do.

We as practitioners need to understand how childhood experiences, including neglect and traumatic stress, change the biology of the brain and thereby the health of the child and the adults they become, she said. Armed with this knowledge, we cannot continue doing business as usual because business as usual is simply not working in our system.

Robyn Ellis agrees. Ellis, who endured an abusive and neglectful childhood and domestic abuse as an adult, turned to drugs and alcohol to escape her trauma. In 2013, she lost custody of her daughter, Gaeliona. The love and support she found in Triggianos courtroom, Ellis said, helped her kick her addictions and regain custody of her 5-year-old in 2014.

During her 18 months in the program, Ellis came to view the officials as role models and supporters. That made her more receptive to their suggestions for change, she said.

Going into that situation, I thought automatically I was going to be judged, Ellis said. (But) everyone wanted the best for me.

In an interview, Triggiano is asked how she knows trauma-informed care works.

Are we specifically measuring it? No. Do I believe it has added value and helped us come to positive outcomes? Yes.
Ashley Furniture Industries has agreed to pay $1.75 million in penalties and improve workplace safety as part of a settlement with the U.S. Department of Labor.

Both Ashley and the the Labor Department announced the agreement Wednesday. Ashley had been fined more than $2.2 million for workplace safety violations discovered during Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspections and investigations into the company going back more than a year.

One of the inspections, in January 2015, found workers at the Arcadia plant experienced more than 1,000 work-related injuries in the previous 3 years that were severe enough to have required medical treatment beyond first aid or resulted in death, lost work hours, restricted work or a job transfer. Ashley officials had disputed the findings, stating the company has a long history of commitment to employee safety.

According to the Labor Department announcement, the agreement resolves all pending OSHA citations at four of the companys plants in Wisconsin and Mississippi. Ashley agrees to retain a vice president for safety, and include employee and management involvement in the implementation of a machine safety program.

With this settlement, Ashley Furniture is taking important steps to change its culture, invest in its employees, and work with OSHA to make significant changes to protect the safety and health of workers, U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez said.

Ashley is to implement safety measures and will submit annual status reports to OSHA during the two-year term of the agreement. To resolve all citations, the company will correct its violations and will pay penalties of $1.75 million.

Ashley officials called the agreement a voluntary effort with OSHA that reflects the companys commitment to the health and safety of its employees. The company said it has spent over $67 million in the past five years on modern manufacturing equipment and safety initiatives.

Through the settlement process, we worked cooperatively with OSHA and built a productive relationship, the statement said. The results of this voluntary agreement go beyond simple compliance with the OSHA standards and include tools to proactively correct issues and create a model safety system.

Ashley is headquartered in Arcadia, employs about 22,000 workers at 30 locations across the U.S. and is the nations largest furniture manufacturer. With more than $4 billion in annual revenue, the company is listed by Forbes Magazine as the 105th largest private company in America.
Dairyland Power Cooperative has announced plans to purchase 98 megawatts of electricity from a wind farm to be built near Platteville, Wis., nearly tripling the La Crosse-based utilitys wind capacity.

Construction of the Quilt Block wind farm is expected to begin next year pending regulatory approval. The 49 turbines are expected to begin generation by the end of 2017.

Dairyland CEO Barbara Nick announced the purchase agreement Wednesday at the cooperatives 75th annual meeting in La Crosse.

This is a significant addition to our renewables portfolio, Nick told the gathering of more than 460 member delegates, employees and guests.

According to RENEW Wisconsin, the wind farm, to be owned and operated by EDP Renewables North America, would be the states fourth largest and would increase Wisconsins wind generation capacity by about 15 percent.

The clean energy advocacy group praised Dairyland and EDP for designing a locally-supported project, which will be Wisconsins first utility-scale wind farm built since 2011. According to the group, EDP will generate nearly $400,000 a year in revenue for Lafayette County and the town of Seymour.

We congratulate and applaud Dairyland Power Cooperative and EDP Renewables for this major clean energy venture that will bring a multitude of benefits to southwest Wisconsin and Dairyland Power members throughout the state, said RENEWs executive director Tyler Huebner. Dairyland is making the most of the opportunity at hand to lock in the benefits of low-cost clean energy for its member cooperatives.

Part of the worlds third-largest wind energy company, EDP North America is headquartered in Houston and has more than 4,000 megawatts of wind capacity installed in a dozen states. This will be the companys first project in Wisconsin.

The purchase agreement will bring wind energy from about 4.5 percent of Dairylands capacity to more than 12.6 percent. Thats a big step toward the goal of 18 percent by 2025.

Nick also said Dairyland is exploring a partnership in a new natural gas generator. Details of that agreement are not expected until later this year.

The addition of wind and natural gas resources are the keys to Dairylands preferred power supply plan, which aims to reduce its reliance on coal from nearly 70 percent to about 52 percent.

Even as the utility seeks to restrict the federal governments efforts to regulate greenhouse gasses, Dairylands plan calls for a more diverse energy portfolio.

We must plan for a carbon-constrained future, regardless of legislative or regulatory actions, Nick said. Our commitment to the environment is the guiding principle of our preferred plan.

Last week Dairyland celebrated the groundbreaking of the first of 12 solar gardens with a combined 19 megawatts of direct current renewable capacity.

Wednesdays announcement came as Dairyland released its annual report showing a 6 percent decline in power sales in 2015, which was attributed to a mild winter and a long-term trend of declining electricity use as a result of high-efficiency lighting and appliances.

Dairylands net margins were up more than 16 percent to $26.7 million on total operating revenues of $418 million.

The board approved a 2016 budget with a less than 2 percent annual increase in its wholesale rates.

Founded in 1941, Dairyland now serves 42 municipal and co-operative utilities with about 600,000 customers in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois.

Old nukes, new nukes

Dairyland also announced the transfer of its license for the La Crosse Boiling Water Reactor plant in Genoa to a company specializing in nuclear waste disposal.

La CrosseSolutions, a subsidiary of EnergySolutions LLC, has assumed responsibility for decommissioning the 50-megawatt plant, which shut down in 1987. The reactor vessel was sent to a South Carolina disposal site in 2007, while the spent fuel rods were removed in 2012 and put in dry casks that remain on the site.

A federal trial is expected to begin later this year as part of Dairylands efforts to recoup the cost of storing the waste from the federal government, which was supposed to take possession of it in 1998 but has yet to open a repository.

Its expected to take two to three years to dismantle the rest of the plant. Dairyland has about $94.7 million in its nuclear decommissioning trust fund.

Co-op members adopted a resolution supporting changes in state and federal regulations that would make it easier to build a nuclear plant. Wisconsin lawmakers earlier this year eliminated a 33-year moratorium on construction of new plants, though no plans have been announced.

Construction of U.S. nuclear power plants came to a virtual halt after a partial meltdown at Three Mile Island in 1979. There are currently four reactors under construction in Georgia and South Carolina, while a second unit at the Watts Bar plant in Spring City, Tenn., scheduled to go online this summer will be the nations first new reactor in 20 years.

Nick said Dairyland has no interest in building another nuclear plant, as it is too small to support the capital costs and regulatory burden.

But she indicated it could be feasible for a larger producer to build a plant and sell electricity.

I think nuclear definitely has a place in the resource mix, she said. Public opinion is anyones guess.
Consultant Erin Healy is challenging the Coulee Region to shoot for the moon to end homelessness, with down-to-earth collaboration to harness the resources of governmental, social service, religious and other agencies already engaged in the quest.

You have substantive experts here on homelessness, Healy told about 100 people, including mostly members of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, as well as representatives of community and governmental agencies, at St. Rose Convent in La Crosse Tuesday.

I am here to provide catalytic space for innovation to happen to staunch the bleeding of human and financial capital that homelessness causes, said Healy, who has been involved in efforts to eliminate hunger for a decade and was one of the key players in the 100,000 Homes Project that secured housing for 105,580 formerly homeless people across the country between 2010 and 2014.

Falling into homelessness has a corrosive physical and mental effect that is rapid, said Healy, whose private consulting firm is in Brooklyn, N.Y.

She cited people who obtained housing through the 100,000 Homes Project as examples of literally the rebirth of a human being when people thought they never would make it.

One was Ed, a chronic alcoholic who looked like death warmed over in a picture taken when project staffers first found him on the streets of Los Angeles. Within a year after obtaining housing and supportive services, he was a new man, healthy, smiling and willing to help others.

Another was Laura, who was addicted and homeless in Times Square in New York. After being provided with housing and support services, she became a concessions manager at a movie theater in Times Square, Healy said.

Healys visit, with the working title A La Crosse Collaboration to END Homelessness, is being sponsored by Gundersen Health Systems new Population Health and Strategy Department. Gundersen established the department in part on the philosophy that safe, secure housing is essential to the health of families and, by extension, the communitys overall health.

She outlined four guiding principles intended to foster unprecedented collaboration among agencies instead of parallel efforts that she said often perpetuate the problem rather than solving it:

Housing first: The quest to provide housing for people who need it most, such as those who are chronic alcoholics or are beset with mental health problems, helps provide the stability for them to be able to address those other issues.

People get better when they have housing, Healy said.

Prevention and rapid re-housing  When someone encounters unforeseen circumstances such as a car repair cost that affects their ability to pay rent or the loss of a job, he or she may need assistance to bridge the cost or a job connection to prevent housing loss or restore housing.

Coordinated entry : This involves providing a single path to housing and services, which Healy said Couleecap does an excellent job of doing, so that services arent duplicated, increasing costs for all agencies.

We need to know peoples names to coordinate services so someone isnt going to five agencies, she said.

Know your data: The project will conjoin names, needs, statistics and other information to be able to measure progress and assess where improvements are needed.

Human nature sometimes impedes efforts to defeat homelessness, Healy said.

We dont like paying somebodys rent in this country, even if it costs five times as much to provide services when someone is homeless, she said.

Solving peoples homelessness by getting them into housing is three to four times cheaper, she said, citing a Los Angeles study as an example.

The study found that physical and mental health care, treating substance abuse, police department contact and other costs totaled $63,000 a year per homeless person in public funds, compared with just $16,000 a year for services to someone living in supportive housing, she said.

Generally, people with high needs make up a small percentage of people who are homeless, usually 10 to 20 percent, but their needs are so great that they take up 80 percent of the resources, she said.

Assessing needs and addressing the most severe cases at the outset will reduce that burden, both saving money and allowing more services for others.

Handling some issues, such as chronic alcoholism, often requires novel approaches, Healy said.

She pointed to a Seattle Housing First program nicknamed wet housing that provided apartments for alcoholics even when they continued drinking, unlike most programs that demand sobriety first.

Lifting the requirement helped attract participants who simply didnt want to abide by that rule, she said. It also debunks the myth that people want to be homeless, when they actually are trying to maintain a semblance of freedom.

The result, as chronicled in the Journal of the American Medical Association, was that the program saved $2 million in public costs for things such as health care and public services during its first two years.

The solution for individuals is a solution for public sector dollars, she said, making it a both-sides-of-the-aisle issue about wasting money.

Whats more, the support services to the tenants also helped them cut back on their drinking, Healy said, adding, If I was living on a bench, Id probably be drinking, too.

Cities involved in the 100,000 Homes Project, including New Orleans, Nashville, Phoenix and more than 100 others, were able to double accommodations for homeless people by reshuffling existing resources, not creating new funding, she said.

Healy is meeting almost nonstop with public, private and nonprofit officials, agencies and organizations during her five-day visit, including the La Crosse County Board on Monday night and City Council on Tuesday night.

During a meeting with Mayor Tim Kabat and police, parks and planning officials Tuesday, she stressed the fact that it is cheaper to provide housing than services, despite challenges.

Kabat expressed dismay at the lack of state support to address homelessness compared with Minnesota, as the Wisconsin State Journal is chronicling this week. Although state officials say they provide tens of millions in support, the WSJ quotes the Wisconsin Coalition Against Homelessness, local officials and providers as disputing that, saying little is targeted at needs.

The Badger States direct funding to meet homeless needs is about $3.3 million, they say, compared with the Gopher States $44.3 million.

There is no help coming from Madison at all. Its very, very frustrating on the local level, Kabat said.

He expressed relief that others have been able to make inroads on existing resources, adding, Were not going to have a lot of new resources.

Sandy Brekke, director of the St. Clare Health Mission in La Crosse and one of the driving forces, along with Gundersen and the FSPAs, behind Healys appearances, said, It takes changing the culture. The trend is definitely toward philanthropy away from charity, helping vs. harming.

To that end, the campaign will endeavor to enlist businesses and foundations for funding assistance.

Healy is a taskmaster, often challenging cities to set firm goals with a target of accomplishing them within 100 days.

New Orleans rose to the occasion, she said, meeting goals and setting new ones. It ended veteran homelessness in January 2015, aims to halt family homelessness by Thanksgiving, erase chronic homelessness by 2017 and eliminate youth homelessness by 2019, she said.

When Kabat voiced the citys goal of finding housing for 80 homeless vets in the city, Healy said it very well could be done by Thanksgiving  and certainly by Christmas.

After huddling with the various stakeholders again today, Healy will present the issue during a public meeting from 9 to 11 a.m. Thursday at St. Rose Convent at 701 Market St. She will spend Thursday afternoon compiling recommendations and present them to leaders Friday.

In working with communities, she said, I push them with high enough goals so they have a pit in their stomach. If you dont have a pit in your stomach, you dont have a high enough goal.

The time pressure  the urgency  releases innovation, she said.
TOWN OF ARCADIA -- The Mississippi Valley Conservancy Linked to the Land tour of the Schultz Farm, a whippoorwill hike and a land owner easement discussion will be offered Saturday, June 18, at N23277 Kukowski Lane in the town of Arcadia.

Self-guided hikes with maps provided will be available from 4 to 7 p.m., while the Prairie Enthusiast prairie tour with Jim Rogalla will be offered from 5:30 to 7 p.m.

The land owner easement discussion with the MVCs Conservation Director, Abbie Church, will run from 7 to 8 p.m.

The evening will conclude with a bonfire and a whippoorwill walk/listen from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m.

For questions or to RSVP, email kfrise@mississippivalleyconservancy.org or call 784-3606, ext. 6.
GARNAVILLO, Iowa  A public forum has been held for Clayton County residents to discuss the proposed expansion of a silica sand mine.

The Telegraph Herald reports that residents gathered at the forum hosted by the Say No For Now group on Monday to talk about a potential zoning change that would allow Pattison Sand Co. to expand its underground silica sand mining operations. Silica sand is used by oil and gas drillers for hydraulic fracturing.

A five-member committee is reviewing the request to change 746 acres from agricultural to heavy industrial use and is expected to present its findings to Clayton County supervisors.

Daryl Bruxvoort, a Say No for Now committee member, said his organization doesnt oppose Pattison Sands operations, but does oppose a zoning change because more public input is needed.

We want the county to address the issue of the county plan, Bruxvoort said. It needs to better reflect the will of the people of this county. Before this, Pattison was allowed to expand with practically no regulations.

One person at the forum expressed environmental concerns about the potential expansion.

These companies are about profit and not about taking care of the environment, said Harry Walk. What is stopping Pattison?

Angela Sessions, public relations representative for Pattison Sand, told those in attendance that concerns about the expansion are unfounded, and that many of those concerns are addressed by the company on a daily basis.

Gary Bowden, vice chairman of the Clayton County Board of Supervisors, said the board has not set a date to consider the zoning change.
I got to my office at Virginia Tech a bit before 9 a.m. on April 16, 2007, and set about my day as most professors do, prepping for class, commenting on student papers and answering emails. I took a call from home that said there was a news flash about gunshots on the campus. Then a colleague knocked on my door and said something big was happening a few buildings away. From that moment, things picked up speed.

As I searched the web for information, I began to hear sirens, endless sirens. Everyone was told to stay in locked offices. Two long hours later, we were allowed to walk directly to the parking lot, and everyone peeled away from campus. By then, it had become clear that an awful, violent event had occurred. But as the details trickled in  33 dead, including the shooter and a student in my Caribbean literature class  I felt new levels of intensity followed by abject stillness, numbness and despair.

A week after the shooting, I met with that class to talk about the student who was killed. My mother cooked a Caribbean meal of fried plantains, black-eyed peas and rice, and a beef stew with a vegetarian alternative, all chased down with ginger beer (the nearest thing to a Caribbean soft drink that we could get on short notice in Blacksburg).

In all my years of writing for stage and page and classroom, I had never felt so dumbstruck. Yet I was called upon to account in words for what happened in our midst to a class of equally dumbstruck and disbelieving students who wanted, needed to hear something from me as their teacher. Breaking bread with them and eating my mothers Caribbean meal was a start, and we talked about the dead and about the funny habits of the student whose usual spot at the desk near the door remained vacant. We put a plate on her desk with some ginger beer, and we used her first name in the present tense as if shed breeze into the class at any moment and take her place.

A memorial on the main field of the campus bears the name of each victim on Virginia Techs famous Hokie stone arranged in an oval. There was an early campaign to include the shooters name in the middle  symbolically in the middle of the pain he had caused  but the grief was too much and left no room for such a high degree of compassion. Even I found it hard to argue for the shooter, despite my training as a psychiatric nurse and my conviction that his illness rather than any evil drove him to commit mass murder.

That day at Virginia Tech led to years of sadness and hours of talk about gun violence. I swore with my colleagues to honor the dead in any way I could. I wrote poetry about the shootings while steering clear of any sensational news outlets that would sully the memory of the place and the dignity of the lives lost.

I figured I thought so much about the shootings because I still worked where they took place. I thought that distance would help me to move on with less grieving punctuating my waking life and my dreams too. When I left Virginia Tech for UCLA last year, I tried to put the slaughter behind me.

Los Angeles is mad, busy, rude and riveting. Cars form relationships with each other on the highways. Gun violence peppers the news, and gangs sow grief citywide. UCLA feels roped off from all that, a fortified paradise in the city, but last week, when I heard that the campus was on lockdown because of gun violence, simultaneously I thought, Not again, and, Of course, again.

I was at home, dressed and ready to leave for the office. I opened a text that told me to switch on the news, and right away, two other messages arrived, both asking whether I was OK and noting that gun violence seemed to follow me. Alerts sent to the UCLA community advised everyone not on campus to stay away and those already on campus to lock themselves behind closed doors and wait. I was safe, but worried. I did not switch on the news, but I imagined the panic in the air and the sense of living in a militarized zone and those sirens overlapping and loud.

I found myself thinking that the university, a place of learning, should be hallowed ground, exempt from the rages and readiness of gun violence as a response to disappointment, hopelessness or psychosis. But, of course, it isnt. I hoped for guns to disappear from the equation of anger and its expression as deadly violence. But of course they wont. I wished that some goodwill or just exasperation  enough is enough  would radiate from the deadly incident and alter how our society operates with conflict. But I fear it wont.

After so many shootings  not just at universities and high schools and elementary schools, but everywhere across the country  I have developed a post-atrocity routine: I feel sad for the victims, deplore the ease with which guns can be obtained and consider Americas blighted history of violence. These acts of reflection and understanding do nothing to turn back the clock and restore the dead to health, but they force me to forgive the perpetrators and honor the victims. I console the living; I mourn the dead. I walk the city and campus as they did only yesterday while they breathed and prospered.
A $10,000 campaign donation from Donald Trump came with no expectations related to his embattled Trump University, Gov. Scott Walker said Wednesday.

"No," Walker told the Cap Times when asked whether Trump had ever spoken with him about Trump University or the possibility of Wisconsin residents launching complaints against the program. "No. Really, other than offering his support when he supported me in the past, I had no other conversations."

Trump gave Walker's gubernatorial campaign $10,000  the maximum allowed under Wisconsin's campaign finance law  on June 23, 2014. Four months later, a federal court allowed a class action lawsuit against Trump's for-profit education company to expand from three states to a nationwide class of all students who had purchased live event seminars from the program since Jan. 1, 2007.

A representative from Zeldes Haeggquist & Eck, LLP, co-counsel on the lawsuits against Trump University, confirmed to the Cap Times that about a dozen class members in the lawsuit are from Wisconsin.

Months later, Walker proposed entirely eliminating the state board charged with overseeing for-profit schools in Wisconsin in his two-year state budget.

The proposal, issued in February 2015, was ultimately removed from the budget and reintroduced as a separate bill, which died in committee.

Under Walkers plan, complaints against for-profit schools would have been handled by the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.

The proposal would have also eliminated a student protection fund, which serves to help students and others affected by abuses by or the sudden closure of a for-profit institution.

The liberal group One Wisconsin Now raised questions about the timing of that proposal in relation to the ongoing Trump University investigation and Trump's donation to Walker.

"Donald Trump gives Scott Walker the maximum contribution for his re-election campaign and Scott Walker turns around and out of the blue seeks to make it harder for the state to provide oversight of the for-profit college racket," said OWN executive director Scot Ross. "And Scott Walker did this right after Wisconsin victims of Trump University were granted standing in the class action lawsuit. Knowing what happened in Florida and Texas to stop investigations of Trump's scam operation and with Scott Walker's own documented penchant to reward campaign donors, this raises serious questions about how this sleazy deal materialized."

But it's unclear whether the Educational Approval Board would have had the authority to oversee any complaints from Wisconsin students who enrolled in the Trump real estate seminar program, even before the governor's proposal was introduced.

The range of schools overseen by the EAB includes heavily advertised colleges like University of Phoenix, Globe University, DeVry University and Rasmussen College, along with smaller, owner-operated institutions like taxidermy, welding, massage therapy, yoga instructor and truck driving schools.

But because Trump University wasn't a degree-granting program or even a "university," it likely wouldn't have fallen under the board's purview, said EAB director David Dies.

"We were never approached or aware of any Wisconsin student signing up for any of the offerings. So we never really probed as to whether or not it needed approval," Dies said.

Dies suggested checking with DATCP, which handles consumer complaints, or the Department of Safety and Professional Services, which oversees the state's Real Estate Examining Board.

A DATCP spokesman said the agency has not received any complaints about Trump University and suggested checking with the EAB. A DSPS spokesman said he would look into the question.

As the Trump University case continues to garner more national attention, questions have been raised about state attorneys general who dropped probes into the operation in close proximity to receiving substantial donations from the real estate mogul.

Walkers relationship with Trump is complex. He has said he will support and vote for the Republican nominee regardless of who it is, but his enthusiasm for Trump has been lukewarm at best.

Trump has said Walker once came to his office and gave him a plaque to thank him for contributing to his re-election efforts. In 2012, Trump donated $15,000 to the Wisconsin Club for Growth, a conservative group that worked to support Walker in the recall election against him.

He also floated Walker as a potential vice presidential pick, an idea Walker called breathtaking given Trumps criticisms of the governors record throughout the presidential race.

When Walker ended his own presidential bid, he called on his fellow Republican candidates to follow suit and make way for a positive alternative to Trump.

On Wednesday, he said he will continue to call Trump out for his comments accusing Indiana-born U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel of being biased against him in the Trump University case because of his "Mexican heritage."

"Right now Im focused on calling out, as I have the last couple days, the fact that I believe what he said about the judge is wrong, not as a Republican, not as a political person, but I think it's just wrong as an American," Walker told reporters Wednesday when asked whether he still supports Trump.

He said Trump needs to make it "abundantly clear to the American people" that he does not embrace judgments against people's race, ethnicity, sex or religious beliefs, and it's "particularly important between now and the convention that he does that."
DAMASCUS, Syria  President Bashar Assad vowed Tuesday his troops would liberate every inch of Syria, just like they recaptured the ancient town of Palmyra from the Islamic State group, in a speech that reflected his renewed confidence as the military pressed on toward Raqqa, the extremists self-styled capital.

His remarks in parliament came as his opponents, backed by Turkey and Saudi Arabia, are struggling for survival and his troops have almost encircled rebel-held neighborhoods of Aleppo, Syrias largest city.

Saying the military situation was much better than it was months ago, Assad told the lawmakers that Aleppo will be the graveyard where the hopes and dreams of the butcher Erdogan will be buried.

The reference was to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, one of the staunchest supporters of the rebels fighting to topple Assad. Erdogan has allowed safe passage from his country for fighters and weapons over the border into Syria.

Assad also described Erdogan as a thug and a fascist in the speech, which was frequently interrupted by applause.

When Assad walked into the chamber to speak, the legislators had stood and chanted, Our soul, our blood we sacrifice for you, Bashar!

The civil war, now in its sixth year, has turned in Assads favor ever since Russia began a bombing campaign in September, helping Syrian troops recapture wide areas from insurgents.

The biggest victory came in March, when government forces evicted the Islamic State group from Palmyra, a desert town in central Syria world famous for its majestic Roman-era ruins.

The way we liberated Palmyra, and before that many areas, we will liberate every last bit of Syria from their hands. We have no choice but to be victorious, Assad said to a furious applause.

Our war on terrorism will continue not because we like war. They imposed the war on us, he added, reiterating his often-used line of blaming foreign countries for the conflict. The shedding of blood will not end until we uproot terrorism, wherever it is.

Erdogan denies he is aiding the Islamic State, although he does support other rebels fighting to oust Assad. The U.S. supports the predominantly Kurdish, U.S.-backed Syria Democratic Forces fighting IS.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner dismissed the speech as vintage Assad.

There were no surprises in what he said, unfortunately, Toner told reporters in Washington. Assad should recognize his role in the carnage in Syria and pledge to step aside so that a political transition could take place, he said.

The Islamic State group also is under siege in neighboring Iraq, as government forces there surround the western city of Fallujah, which has been held by the extremists for more than two years.

The speech was Assads first to Syrias newly elected parliament and his first public remarks since January. He also thanked China for using its veto at the U.N. Security Council months after the crisis began to prevent the imposition of sanctions on Syria as well as Russia, Iran and Lebanons Hezbollah group  three key allies who have played a critical role in boosting Assads forces.

He blamed the opposition for the failure of three rounds of indirect peace talks in Geneva this year, blasting his opponents as traitors for foreign countries who have become mats for the feet of their masters.

The opposition demands that Assad play no part in any transitional or future political establishment in Syria.

Assad spoke as a two-pronged advance is underway to capture key urban strongholds of the Islamic State group and its de facto capital of Raqqa. The Syrian army, backed by Russian airpower, is moving from the southwest, while the Syria Democratic Forces are pushing from the north and west. The SDF are closing in on the IS stronghold of Manbij, 72 miles to the northwest of Raqqa.
Wisconsin Open Records Law has long held that the public interest in disclosure  the right of the people of Wisconsin to know what their government is doing  is a strong presumption for every record.  Dane County Judge Amy Smith.

Gov. Scott Walker is really good at sending sunshine our way.

If only he cared about allowing sunshine to brighten the workings of his government  our government, actually.

On March 11  the eve of Sunshine Week, which celebrates openness in government  the governor announced a variety of reforms aimed at openness.

Heres his statement: Today, we are thrilled to highlight some of the great initiatives we have put in place to ensure public access to government across all state agencies. We continue to look for ways to better serve the people of Wisconsin. By implementing these new initiatives, our citizens will have access to government services and processes far beyond what any previous administration has offered.

But Walker wasnt interested in being open about his plans to change the Wisconsin Idea  the long-held public service mission of the University of Wisconsin  and replace it with wording about meeting the states workforce needs.

When those changes came to light, the governor called it a drafting error.

But, it wasnt a drafting error.

We know that now because, on the eve of the Memorial Day holiday, Judge Smith ordered Walker to turn over 82 pages of documents that he had withheld related to the deliberations that went into his plans to change the Wisconsin Idea as part of his budget initiatives.

So much for a drafting error  and so much for sunshine.

The laws of Wisconsin  our state statutes  are quite clear on the topic of openness:

In recognition of the fact that a representative government is dependent upon an informed electorate, it is declared to be the public policy of this state that all persons are entitled to the greatest possible information regarding the affairs of government and the official acts of those officers and employees who represent them.

The governor had argued that he shouldnt have to turn over the records because they were part of his deliberative process.

But Judge Smith countered that theres no such exemption  and creating one would be in contravention of the letter and the spirit of Wisconsins Open Records Law.

Republicans tried to decimate that law on their way out of the Capitol for the July 4 weekend last summer. And, you can bet youll be hearing more about creating an exemption for a deliberative process in the future.

Walkers Sunshine Week declaration pointed out that his office has released more than 6,090,000 pages of records and received 841 public records requests, compared to only 360 public records requests received by Governor Doyles office at the same point in his term. With a records request increase of 230 percent over the previous administration and over six million pages of records released, Governor Walkers office leads the way on transparent and open government.

While a little sunshine goes a long way, governor, a lot of sunshine leads to truth and accountability in government. We remain concerned that some lawmakers havent given up on plans to put a huge loophole in Wisconsin open records law.

As Judge Smith wrote in her opinion: Wisconsin places great importance on the role of open records disclosure informing the people of Wisconsin on the affairs of government. That policy directly informs, and gives great weight to, the public interest component of the balance test.

When the law is followed, the public wins.
After the 1968 presidential election, the Republican party swallowed the George Wallace vote.

Forty-eight years later, those voters puked up the partys presidential nominee.

Thats my explanation for Donald Trump, for what its worth.

As an opinion writer, I guess Ive been lucky for the last six months. My evolving duties at the Tomah Journal, combined with opinion-writer burnout, have kept me silent as Trump barnstormed his way to his partys presidential nomination. My only paper trail is a January email exchange in which I assured a worried reader that Trump would face-plant in Iowa (he did) and that it would terminate his candidacy (it didnt). Theres nothing in the Tomah Journal or anywhere else that records what I steadfastly believed from July 16, 2015, to shortly after sunset May 3, 2016: Trump would not be the Republican nominee for president.

What happened? The presidential primary process is proof that with a little bit of luck and inept, divided opposition, a minority faction of a major political party can beat the odds and impose a nominee (see McGovern, George; Democrats, 1972). Most people who voted for George Wallaces segregationist third-party campaign in 1968 are dead, but their political progeny live under those red caps that read, Make America Great Again. The slogan implies a timeline that says America reached its pinnacle, coincidentally or not, before women and racial minorities were granted equal citizenship and a Mexican could be appointed a federal judge with the authority to pass judgment on a white man in a fraud case.

Just under 13 million like-minded Republican voters  roughly 50 million fewer than hell need to get elected in November  allowed Trump to thread the needle and win the 1,238 delegates he needs to preside over his partys convention next month. There was nothing inevitable about this. Trump got lucky that Marco Rubio didnt scrape together another 2,200 caucus votes to pass Trump for second place in Iowa, or that neither Rubio, Ted Cruz nor John Kasich emerged as Trumps main challenger prior to the March 1 or March 15 primaries.

More important was the ineptitude of Trumps opponents, who spent more time attacking each other than the frontrunner. The idea that Trump has Teflon coating is a myth; the stop Trump forces landed a vicious haymaker against the frontrunner in the Wisconsin primary. After that? They let a wounded Trump win six uncontested primaries in the northeast on the assumption everything would get fixed in Indiana. Does Trump still prevail against unified and competent opposition. Maybe, but well never know.

Perhaps the political intelligentsia should have seen this coming, considering how it almost happened in 2012. Republicans clearly werent enthused about nominating Mitt Romney and waded through a jackass-of-the-month sideshow  Michelle Bachmann, Rick Perry, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum  before settling on a normal human being as the nominee. In 2016, the opposite happened  the Bachmann/Perry/Cain/Gingrich/Santorum faction united around Trump, and the Romney faction splintered.

Theres still a possibility that Trump wont get nominated. Six weeks remain until the Republican convention, and Trump could shatter the outrage meter and force Republicans to rig the convention to save themselves. Or Trump could find himself 15 points behind Hillary Clinton, quit the race and blame it on the media. But regardless of how the 2016 election turns out, it will be remembered for Republican voters who prefer America the way it was 50, 70 or 100 years ago and found their voice through an unprecedented celebrity candidate. The George Wallace vote, now firmly anchored within the Republican party, never went away.

Steve Rundio is editor of Tomah Newspapers.
When word came through the grapevine about the Routes of Sculpture Italian Sculpture Contest, Kaya Cameron, a boarding student at Youth Initiative High School, knew she wanted to enter.

The call was for designs that would adorn the wall of the Hospital of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery in Massa, Tuscany, Italy. The contest winners would be invited for a two-week residency in Italy, where they would learn how to sculpt their designs in Carrara marble.

Cameron came up with a design, entitled The Heart of the World, and worked with her art teacher at the Youth Initiative High School, Martha Buche, to make it into an embossed relief sculpture.

Kaya is a senior and it took a lot of focus and commitment for her to decide to add an extra task in the final semester, Buche said. She is brave that way!

A few weeks after sending the embossing in the mail, the news arrived that Camerons design was one of the two winners. The announcement at school inspired loud cheering from the student body. Cameron was elated. I was just so happy!

This is only the beginning of the story. Now its time to prepare to go to Italy in September. Not only is Cameron invited for the two-week stay, but all members of her senior class. The group is now starting a crowdfunding campaign to cover air travel.
First came withering hoots of laughter when the honchos of George Mason University named their law school the Antonin Scalia School Of Law  or ASSOL, for short. It was an honor Scalia mightve merited, but very embarrassing for the university.

Even though administrators quickly changed the name to the Scalia Law School, their embarrassment turned into shame. It turns out theyd sold the naming rights to none other than Charles Koch, a multibillionaire right-wing extremist.

For years, Koch and other moneyed corporatists have quietly pumped millions into pseudo-academic centers on college campuses to promote their laissez-faire ideology, including a handful at George Mason itself.

But here was Virginias largest public university letting the infamous Koch brother and another un-named right-winger give $30 million in exchange for branding George Masons law school  one of the universitys core academic institutions  with Scalias name.

Students and faculty rebelled at the idea that

the integrity of their university, supposedly a center of enlightenment and erudition, was to be identified with a judge notorious for veering into racist and homophobic rants, and for being the Supreme Courts most obsequious servant of plutocratic corporate rule.

Rebellion turned to fury when it came out that the donation also required school officials to commit taxpayer money to finance 12 new professorships and two new centers to promote the Koch brothers fantasies of free-market plutocracy.

The universitys president calls this perfidious transaction a simple naming gift. But who is he to put the name of the peoples law school up for sale? And why was it sold in a secret, no-bid process?

Koch wasnt making a gift. He was buying a public asset  including the universitys integrity.
I came across this item in the History section of the Stoughton Courier Hub It first ran in the December 25, 1896 issue, 110 years earlier. Farmers do not approve of the new scheme of having their mail delivered, and will send a petition to Washington against it; they think its too expensive, and it deprives them of an excuse for going into town.

That got me thinking about our rural mail delivery on the farm when I was young. I never gave it a second thought back then. I guess I thought mail had always been delivered to farms and people living in the country.

Thanks to that history lesson in the Stoughton Courier Hub, I learned something new. I decided to look up rural mail delivery on the Internet and find out more about it. RFD started in October 1896 as an experiment. It became an official service of the U.S. Post Office in 1902. Prior to that, people living in rural areas went to the local post office to pick up their mail or paid to have it delivered by a private carrier. Remember, back in those days you didnt just jump in your car and head for town. It was a major trip by horse and buggy over dirt roads.

Some farmers welcomed the new mail service, but others liked going to town to pick it up. It became a social gathering around the pot-bellied stove at the general store, and I suspect many cups of coffee were consumed as they visited, swapped stories, and caught up on the local news.

Many post offices were operated out of the local general store. General stores also opposed Rural Free Delivery because most farmers bought goods from them when they stopped to pick up their mail.

That all happened long before I was born and I doubt if many people can remember not having rural mail delivery.

Our farm was on RFD 2 or RR 2. I knew RR 2 meant Rural Route 2, but I never realized RFD meant Rural Free Delivery.

I remember mail delivery as being an important part of our day on the farm. Our rural carrier on Westby Route 2 was Howard Crume, Jr. You could set your watch by his arrival on most days. Around 9:00, six days a week, his car came down our side road with a cloud of dust billowing out behind him, and pulled up to our mailbox. I always wondered how he could drive sitting on the wrong side of the car. For those not familiar with rural delivery, the mailboxes are located on the passenger side of the road.

Back when real letters, not e-mail messages, arrived in your mailbox, the mailman brought you news from distant relatives and friends.The only real letters we receive these days come from Alice Sherpe Parish in Arizona. We also received our newspaper each day and the Sunday edition arrived on Saturday. In winter, the mailman had a rough time getting through the drifted rural roads, but somehow the mail always arrived, although not by 9:00 when the roads were bad. Outside of a major blizzard when nothing was moving, Howard Crume, Jr. always came through.

When David and I were in Vietnam, he went out of his way to let our folks know a letter had arrived from us. If he saw one of them outside, hed stop and hand-deliver it and ask how we were doing. Other times, when he knew they had been waiting for news, hed honk his horn to let them know hed left a letter from us in the mailbox. The red flag in the upright position signaled outgoing mail to the carrier and a honk from him signaled incoming to the folks.

Mail Call was an important event, as anyone who spent time in military service knows. You looked forward to those letters and news from home. Evelyn Wang Schye, my mothers cousin, was wonderful about writing. Evelyn and her three brothers were all in the army during World War II. She understood the importance of Mail Call.

When a package arrived with food, you always shared it with your friends. When I received a package from home, the guy handing out the mail, would announce for all to hear, Looks like Doc Sherpe received a package of chocolate chip cookies. You had to grab fast, or they might all disappear before you got any. Needless to say, the C-ration cookies didnt compare to Mas chocolate chip cookies, even if they were a bit hard after close to a month in the mail.

If you received a letter,you headed off to a quiet spot where you could sit and read the news from home in private. Mail call kept us in touch with the world outside the insane, brutal one we were living in and experiencing.

One more important thing about rural delivery.You werent just a number if you lived in the country. In a rural community, the people in the post office knew the people they delivered mail to. One time, my cousin Sandys young daughter,Krissy,sent a letter to my folks. It was addressed to Uncle Hans, Westby, Wisconsin. No last name, No RR address,or zip code. It still arrived in our mail box. In a rural community, the postal people knew Uncle Hans was most likely Hans Sherpe because people close to the family knew Sandy always called him Uncle Hans. They knew where relatives lived too, because they picked up mail from us addressed to them. There was no return address on the letter, but there was a Manhattan, Kansas postmark. Lou, Sandy, and their family lived in Manhattan at the time. The Westby Post Office put the sender and receiver together and delivered the letter!

When we lived in Madison, we couldnt get a letter delivered if it had a wrong house number and everything else was correct. By the way, there were only five houses on our street and we were the only Sherpe. What a difference from the personal service we received from our rural delivery on the farm. In all fairness, I know the man who delivered our mail in Madison would have delivered it to us if the post office had given it to him instead of returning it to the sender.Times have changed.

The rural carrier was, and still is, an important link to the world beyond farms and homes in the country. Some farmers in the Westby area and other areas may not have approved of the rural delivery service over 100 years ago when it first began, but Im willing to bet they still found excuses to get into town and join the guys swapping stories and drinking coffee at the local general store or diner!
Car bomb attack targeting police kills 11  ISTANBUL  A car bomb hit a police vehicle in Istanbul during the morning rush hour on Tuesday, killing 11 people and wounding 36, the fourth bombing to hit the city this year. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Turkey has seen a recent increase in violence linked to Kurdish rebels or to the Islamic State group which has found recruits and established cells in the country.

8 ex-military figures to face trial over killings  GUATEMALA CITY  Eight former members of Guatemalas military were detained and will go on trial on charges of forced disappearances and crimes against humanity dating to killings in the countrys 36-year civil war, authorities said Tuesday. The killings are related to more than 565 human remains found in mass graves in western Guatemala, and the victims are believed to have been killed by soldiers under the command of the suspects.

UN rights chief decries abuse against men fleeing Fallujah  GENEVA  The U.N. human rights chief says there are extremely distressing, credible reports that Iraqis fleeing Fallujah are facing physical abuse and even summary executions as they escape the city held by Islamic State militants. Zeid Raad al-Hussein on Tuesday cited witness accounts that armed groups backing Iraqi security forces have detained some men and teenage boys leaving Fallujah with force that at times degenerates into abuse.

Rights group: Republic of Congo troops killed 18 in CAR  DAKAR, Senegal  Republic of Congo soldiers killed at least 18 people, including women and children, while serving as African Union and United Nations peacekeepers in Central African Republic between December 2013 and June 2015, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday. The group urged the Republic of Congo to investigate and bring the soldiers to justice.

Medical aid group urges better HIV treatment in West Africa  DAKAR, Senegal  Doctors Without Borders says governments need to improve access to HIV treatment in West and Central Africa, where critical medicines reach fewer than one-third of those in need. The group praised a global goal to curb the HIV epidemic by 2020 by providing life-saving treatment to 30 million people but said countries in regions with a lower prevalence of HIV are being overlooked.

Malawi sees surge in attacks on albinos  LILONGWE, Malawi  At least 18 people with albinism have been killed in Malawi in a steep upsurge in killings since November 2014, and five others have been abducted and remain missing, according to a new Amnesty International report released Tuesday. They are targeted for their body parts, which are sold to be used in potions made by witch doctors who claim they bring wealth and good luck. The toll is likely much higher because many killings in rural areas are never reported.

Greek unions protest against ads sexist image of nurses  ATHENS, Greece  Greek nursing unions are calling for a state health body to withdraw a video promoting blood donation, saying it presents nurses as adult film actresses. The advert uses the slogan Now you too can be a hero and shows nurses with red high heels, miniskirts and visible cleavage drooling over a doctor who has just revived a patient. It ends with a man saving lives by donating blood.
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Hillary Clinton may now have the Democratic nomination on lock, but Bernie Sanders appears to have won the Silver Lake Farmers Market by a landslide. Sanders made a stop there this afternoon and the locals, who had been feeling the Bern for some time now, collectively lost their sh*t. It all started, like so many great L.A. stories do, on Sunset Boulevard. See for yourself:

Kate Linthicum, for the record, is the L.A. Times' campaign reporter, and she owned the tweet-coverage, with the perfect mix of Silver Lake snark and real-time updates for everyone trying to get there in time.

Next stop on Bernie Sanders' last-minute swing through LA: Sunset Junction and the Silver Lake farmer's market. Get your kale on, Senator.  Kate Linthicum (@katelinthicum) June 8, 2016

Bernie Sanders at Intelligentsia Coffee in Silver Lake. "Free health care!" A guy shouts "Want anything to drink?" pic.twitter.com/9R5K6TXuzl  Kate Linthicum (@katelinthicum) June 8, 2016

These local "hipsters" rocked the vote for the Bern.

Five Silver Lake hipsters who voted for Bernie Sanders and just met Bernie Sanders. pic.twitter.com/kZqDfZswvd  Kate Linthicum (@katelinthicum) June 8, 2016

Apparently it was the band Sex Stains:

Hi, that's the band Sex Stains.  DT (@sheilatakeabao) June 8, 2016

It appears that the Senator then made his way down Sunset Boulevard with a growing crowd in tow. People lined the streets, quickly transforming into what one reporter called "essentially a small impromptu rally."

A long tail is developing as Sanders walks along greeting people pic.twitter.com/BTE7g9GXXa  Nicky Woolf (@NickyWoolf) June 8, 2016

"Run, RUN!! He's at the ginger beer place." Woman at silver lake farmers market calling a friend  Liz Goodwin (@lizcgoodwin) June 8, 2016

"Kick her ass, Bernie!" man shouts from a storefront as Bernie Sanders walks by. "Go vegan everybody" a woman sitting at a cafe shouts.  Kate Linthicum (@katelinthicum) June 8, 2016

"We voted for Bernie and all of a sudden he came and joined

us for lunch," -- Victory Mori, 47 pic.twitter.com/X6W5lkygTl  Kate Linthicum (@katelinthicum) June 8, 2016

Only in Silver Lake.

The girl on the left, one @xxexegesis, just got a hug from Bernie Sanders in Silver Lake. pic.twitter.com/bc3eCiSlb7  Kate Linthicum (@katelinthicum) June 8, 2016

People lining the streets to shake hands with Bernie Sanders in Silver Lake. This woman was crying. pic.twitter.com/ZIAYZc85Pv  Kate Linthicum (@katelinthicum) June 8, 2016

"Tell him to come into the market," one woman says. "We have cashew cheese, and vegetables."  Kate Linthicum (@katelinthicum) June 8, 2016

FWIW, I've sampled the cashew cheese from that very stand, and it's not awful.

Current life status: running out of my apartment to try to chase down Bernie Sanders at the Silverlake farmer's market  Charlie Guese (@cguese) June 8, 2016

Run, Charlie, run.

Bernie Sanders is now campaigning outside of a Silver Lake bounce house. Many of the kids seem to know his name. pic.twitter.com/IKWd0jC0jl  Kate Linthicum (@katelinthicum) June 8, 2016

Bernie passes bouncy castle in silver lake farmers market..."I saw Bernie sanders!!" A little kid yells from inside castle  Liz Goodwin (@lizcgoodwin) June 8, 2016

Only time will tell if 2016 spawns a rise of "Bernie" as a hipster baby name.

"How cute he's at the farmer's market." After meeting Bernie Sanders, Brittney Gadara, 27, says she's gonna go vote. pic.twitter.com/5fz3ztwWir  Kate Linthicum (@katelinthicum) June 8, 2016

Brittney's vote is in the bag. Mission, accomplished.

Apparently half the people I know happened across Bernie Sanders at the Silverlake Farmer's Market this afternoon.  paperhaus (@paperhaus) June 8, 2016

Someday, this farmers market visit will be like Woodstock. Maybe you weren't really there, but you'll certainly tell your kids that you were.

Full disclosure: I live in Silver Lake and this is my local market.
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Despite the dire numbers from the California primary, Berners packed an airplane hangar in Santa Monica to hear what some thought might be the final speech from Senator Bernie Sanders' campaign as a presidential candidate. However, the Vermont senator pledged to continue his fightall the way to the Democratic convention in late July.At the Santa Monica Municipal Airport, almost three hours after the polls closed in the California primary, Sanders finally took to the stage to and thanked the crowd "for being a part of the political revolution."

For a while, it almost sounded like Sanders was on his way to making a concession speech, laying out a larger goal of shaping and changing the future of the country, and "not [allowing] right-wing Republicans to control our government," adding it was "especially true with Donald Trump as the Republican candidate." The rhetoric was much less pointed and combative, which some say was the undoing of his upstart campaign.

"The American people will never support a candidate whose major theme is bigotry," he said of Trump. "We will not allow Donald Trump to become President of the United States. But we understand that our mission is more than just defeating Trump. It is transforming our country."

Although Hillary Clinton claimed the Democratic nomination earlier in the evening after winning the New Jersey and New Mexico primaries, Sanders then said, "Next Tuesday we continue the fight in the last primary in Washington, D.C."

"And then we take our fight for social, economic, racial, and environmental justice to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania," where the Democratic convention will be held on July 25, he said. "I am pretty good in arithmetic and I know that the fight in front of us is a very steep fight."

You can watch Sanders' speech here:
On 7 June the World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled in favour of Panama in its complaint against Colombia's use of high import tariffs on textiles, clothes, and shoes to tackle alleged money laundering.

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Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump are running for president facing historically negative views from voters.

Larry Sabato of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia said Americans always complain about their presidential candidates.

Its in the American character, he said.

But this year is different. Both candidates have more voters viewing them unfavorably than favorably, according to a CBS/New York Times survey. CBS said the negatives for both candidates in its March survey were the highest of any presidential race since 1984.

David Redlawst is a political scientist at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

Democrats are strongly negative on Trump and Republicans strongly negative on Clinton, he said. And the folks in the middle are more negative than positive, with the edge to Trump on negativity.

The two likely nominees, however, have five months to Election Day on November 8 to change voters negative views.

Clinton Seeking Sanders Voters

Clinton needs to win over supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders. In April, about 25 percent of Sanders supporters said that they wont vote for Clinton.

Trump, a New York businessman, has faced tough criticism from Republican leaders. The two top Republican congressional leaders said this week that they considered Trumps statements that a judge with Mexican heritage couldnt judge him fairly to be racist. But they said they still support Trump.

Howard Dean is a former Democratic governor of Vermont who ran for his partys presidential nomination in 2004. Billy Tauzin served 25 years as a U.S. congressman  15 as a Democrat and the last 10 as a Republican. Dean supports Clinton for president and Tauzin supports Trump.

Dean agrees that both candidates have high negatives. But he said that the possibility of Trump becoming president will scare people enough to vote for Clinton. She is a former secretary of state, U.S. senator and first lady.

Tauzin said that Trump has a chance to win because voters are angry with politicians from both parties. Trump is running as a successful businessman, not a politician. What he needs to do, Tauzin said, is hire smart people and offer specifics on how he will make America great again.

Norm Ornstein is the political and government expert at the American Enterprise Institute.

He is not sure that Trump will listen to those who tell him to get on script, and stop attacking anybody who criticizes him.

I have no doubt that people are whispering into his ear and telling him, You cant say that  just as the pundits have been saying all along, Ornstein said.

But every time he said something outrageous, he continued marching through the primaries and eliminated the large Republican field before Hillary Clinton won enough delegates to beat Bernie Sanders.

Ornstein said it would be easier for Clinton to change the views of voters with negative views of her than it will be for Trump to win over his critics.

Clinton, the first woman presidential nominee from a major party, reached out to Bernie Sanders and his supporters in declaring victory Tuesday night. She won four of the six state primaries Tuesday, including the big states of California and New Jersey.

Eight years ago, Clinton noted she was in the same position as Sanders  losing out to then Democratic Senator Barack Obama for the partys nomination.

Now, I know it never feels good to put your heart into a cause or a candidate you believe in  and to come up short, Clinton said. I know that feeling well. But as we look ahead to the battle that awaits, lets remember all that unites us.

After winning all five Republican primaries Tuesday night, Trump read from a teleprompter, something he rarely does. It was a more serious speech than has been his custom.

I understand the responsibility of carrying the mantle, and I will never, ever let you down, Trump said. Too much work, too many people, blood, sweat and tears. Never going to let you down. I will make you proud of your party and our movement.

Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, said 2016 will be a unique year in American politics.

Weve never had a woman nominee from any major-party, Sabato said. Weve never had a former first lady run. And goodness knows, weve never had a Donald Trump.

Bruce Alpert reported on this story for VOA Learning English. Hai Do was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section or share your views on our Facebook Page.

_____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

complain  v. to say you dont like something

character  n. the way someone thinks, feels, and behaves

unfavorable, favorable  adj. to view someone poorly, while favorable means to view someone in a good way

survey  n. an activity in which many people are asked a question or a series of questions in order to gather information about what most people do or think about something

negative  n. harmful or bad

heritage  n. the traditions, achievements, beliefs, etc., that are part of the history of a group or nation

script  n. something that is written down for a person to read

whisper  v. to talk softly

pundits  n. people who are considered experts in a field such as politics

teleprompter: n. a machine that helps someone who is speaking to an audience or on television by showing the words that need to be said

mantle  n. the position of someone who has responsibility or authority


Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to the U.S. Congress Wednesday calling for closer ties between the two countries, especially in fighting terrorism.

Modi called the United States an indispensable partner.

Modi thanked House Speaker Paul Ryan for the invitation to speak for the first time at the U.S. Capitol, which he called a temple of democracy.

Modi noted that India is the worlds largest democracy, committed to freedom, democracy and equality.

Our independence was ignited by the same idealism that fueled your struggle for freedom.

He told Congress that his nation and the U.S. have overcome the hesitations of history.

Modi spoke about new problems around the world presented by terrorism. He thanked the Congress for taking action against extremist groups.

The fight against terrorism has to be fought at many levels. And, the traditional tools of military intelligence or diplomacy alone would not be able to win this fight.

Speaking of trade, Modi said that India now trades more with the U.S. than any other country, and called for continuing close economic and defense ties. And he noted the two countries cultural ties, including the millions of Americans who practice yoga.

More Americans bend for yoga than to throw a curve ball, he said.

Modi is the fifth Indian leader to address Congress since 1985. It is his fourth visit to Washington since getting elected in 2014. He was previously banned from entering the United States after religious riots broke out in the Indian state he governed.

Modi was criticized for not doing enough to stop the religious violence.

On Tuesday, the Indian leader met with President Obama.

A key priority for both of us is how to promote economic prosperity and opportunity, and poverty alleviation for our people, Obama said.

Obama and Modi discussed security issues and ways to limit the spread of nuclear weapons.

The two leaders said they are committed to signing the Paris climate change agreement this year. But they did not set a signing date, as some had hoped. Obama thanked Modi for his commitment to renewable energy technologies.

Human rights groups urged Obama to use Modis visit to raise issues related to slavery and human trafficking in India. The U.S. State Department's 2015 Trafficking in Persons report found that India's main trafficking problem is forced labor.

India has the most modern-day slaves in the world, according to the 2016 Global Slavery Index. The survey estimates more than 18 million people in India are trapped in debt bondage, forced into marriage, sold to brothels or born into servitude.

Amy Sobel of Human Rights First said Modis visit is an opportunity for Obama to bring up global efforts to fight modern slavery. She said the two leaders should keep the U.S.-India relationship grounded in respect for human dignity and fundamental rights.

Im Bryan Lynn.

Bryan Lynn adapted this story for Learning English. Additional information came from the Associated Press and Reuters. was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

indispensable  adj. absolutely needed

manifest  v. to appear of happen

proposition  n. statement to be proven or explained

hesitation  n. a pause or delay

alleviate  v. to make less severe

renewable energy  n. energy from a source that is not depleted when used

bondage  n. the state of being a slave

brothel  n. a place where people pay to have sex

servitude  n. the state of being a slave

dignity  n. being worthy of honor or respect
Paul Pack

C-H sports editor

LEXINGTON, Neb. 

Just around noon on Sunday a yellow Ford hotrod was spotted running the stop sign at Taft and 13th street in Lexington, right in front of an LPD officer.

The officer didnt issue a ticket, or give chase.

In fact a smile and a wave was exchanged with the driver.

This was repeated 380 more times as the annual Nebraska Rod and Custom Association Tour Nebraska rumbled through Lexington.

The estimated seven million dollars worth of automobiles were on the final leg of their 660-mile, two-day journey through central Nebraska.

The NRCA varies the route each year, but was impressed with their stop in Lexington.

The stop in Lexington was wonderful, from the food served at the Dawson County fairgrounds to the excellent work of the police department getting us in and out, Lin Hoskins, tour director, said.

The number of entries established a new record for central Nebraska, Hoskins added.

We had 381 entries this year, which for central Nebraska is a record, compared to 324 last time we did this route, Hoskins said. We average about 425 when we start near Lincoln or Omaha.

Hoskins is a hands-on director, leading the first half of cars in his cherry red 1962 Chevy Impala. Group two is led by his close friend Dan Snow in his blue 1964 Impala.

Next year will be our 25th anniversary, so we will think of something pretty special for it, Hoskins added.

The tour, which the NRCA will start planning soon, requires entered vehicles to be at least 35 years old.

We are seeing a younger crowd get into the muscle and classic car collecting, and its great to have them along for the journey, Hoskins said. We old timers like having them around, and its great to see the passion passed along down the line.

Each entry must pay a $40 fee, and entrants must be a current member of the NRCA, a $15 investment per year.

The money raised goes to a scholarship fund for high school students looking to study in the automotive field in college.

We have had an NRCA student work on the winning Riddler car, and another on a top 10 SEMA show car, Hoskins said.

Hoskins again praised the LPD, the volunteers and Mike Lonowski and Amanda Farrell at Black Diamond Auto for their hard work in organizing the Lexington stop.

Local mechanic Ryan McFadden was impressed as he walked among the 381 cars at the fairgrounds.

There are some very rare and expensive cars here, and its great to see them out being driven, as they are meant to be. McFadden said.

McFadden runs McFaddens Speed Shop on north Adams which does service on modern cars, but is a go-to stop for work on classics, muscle cars and hotrods in the area.

With lunch over, and cars lined up, the LPD again took to the duty of getting the cars safely out of Lexington.

The tour headed south to Elwood and east before heading north again to end up at the car museum in Kearney for one last gathering.

Until next year that is.
For almost 30 years, Hellmans five and dime store was an indispensable part of downtown Lexington.

Hellmans had just about anything anyone could need, from sewing materials to school supplies. The store was easy to spot thanks to its large sign, right across the street from fellow Lexington staple Barmore Drug Store.

The beloved store made a particularly strong impression on those who grew up in the community. Perhaps Curt Bennett, the owner of Sign Pro, put it best when he recalled Hellmans five and dime in a 2012 profile the Clipper-Herald did on his life in Lexington.

Hellmans was filled with glass cases with bulk candy, Bennett remembered. The second story was all toys. It was a kids wonderland.

Harry Hellman was born in 1917 in Kansas. After graduating from Fairbury High School in 1935, he worked for Hesteds Variety Stores for 20 years, along with two years of military service during World War Two.

Hellmans work for Hesteds took him to several communities across Nebraska, with a stop in Laramie, Wyo. as well. Ultimately, he had the opportunity to purchase his own store in Lexington in 1956.

Hellmans daughter Mary Hellman-Cone said her father worked closely with his brothers, who owned a similar store in Kearney. They were able to order things in larger quantities to get a better deal, she said.

Harry ran the store until his retirement in 1981. His son Dennis took over for a few more years after that.

When the family decided to close the store and sell the building, they opted to donate Hellmans distinctive sign to the Dawson County Historical Museum.

In 2015, the Hellman family reached out to the museum, but they were disappointed when the sign could not be located. Museum Director Crystal Werger searched the museum and some of the outbuildings that are used for storage and couldnt find it.

This set the family as well as museum staff to work to find out just what exactly happened to that sign.

We assumed theyd find it at the museum, because its just so big, said Ruth Hellman, Harrys daughter-in-law.

Mary said the sign might look small in photos, but was probably around eight feet tall. When it was up on the building, it looked to be about one-story tall or so, she said.

The Hellman family has receipts from Martin Electric and B & M Service dated June 20, 1985, showing that the sign was removed from its downtown perch and hauled to the Dawson County Historical Museum.

However, Werger said she spoke with Genice Jordening, who worked at the museum at the time. Jordening reported that she remembered the day the sign came in, and remembered museum officials looking at it, but she never assessed it. It was never assigned a number and put into the museums system, Werger said.

I was excited to speak with Genice, but it was disappointing at the same time, Werger said. It was never really in our collection. They must have said it was too big, or it couldnt be accepted for whatever reason.

Id hate to think that the sign was just thrown away, she continued. I hope its in a barn or a shed somewhere.

The Hellman family contacted people who were involved with moving the sign, including Bob Martin and Larry Smith, but no one could recall what happened to it after it was taken to the museum.

Another man who may have been involved with transporting the sign, Bill Ladwig with B & M Service, passed away in 2008.

The Hellman family is interested in hearing from anyone who may have any information on what happened to the sign, or its current whereabouts. If you have such information, contact Ruth Hellman at (303)870-7817 or D.Hellman@comcast.net, or contact the Clipper-Herald at (308)324-5511 or email Ben.Schwartz@lexch.com.

Harry Hellman died in Lexington in 2008 at the age of 90. His legacy in the community is much larger than a sign of course. Mary said her father was a master merchandizer and a very good man. He instilled a strong work ethic in his kids as well as the young people who worked for him at the store.

He was genuinely kind and caring, and generous almost to a fault. He did a lot of things we werent aware of until after he died, she continued. Im very proud of my dad.

Mary said it was clear from conversations with her father and the receipts from June 20, 1985, that it was his intention to donate the sign to the museum. She was happy to learn that the sign at least made it there.

If they couldnt take it, or it didnt meet their standards, or whatever the reason, thats okay, she said. Wed just like to know what happened to it.

Whether or not the sign is located, Harry Hellmans name and impact on Lexington will live on so long as there are people like Curt Bennett who remember the magic of visiting the five and dime in downtown Lexington.

From the 2012 profile:

When Curt was a kid, a common phrase around the Bennett household was, Hellmans, of course.

That phrase was in response to the question of where something was purchased.

Hellmans, of course.
Chinese chip maker Allwinner recently unveiled a platform for low-cost all-in-one virtual reality headsets called the Allwinner H8vr. While the company admits that its low-cost, low-power solution might not be able to handle heavy-duty VR games, it should be good enough for 360-degree video experiences and did I mention its cheap?

Geekbuying is now selling one of the first headset to use the Allwinner H8vr system-on-a-module. The V3 all-in-one headset costs just $130, although you may be able to get one for as little as $100 if you order by June 15th and request a discount code.

Unlike some cheap VR headsets, the V3 isnt just a holder for a smartphone. This headset has its own processor, memory, storage, and display, which means you dont have to insert and eject your phone or worry about lining up the display properly.

Its not nearly as powerful as an Oculus Rift or HTC Vive, but unlike those headsets, the V3 doesnt need to be plugged into a computer to function. And its substantially cheaper than some other Android-powered, all-in-one solutions.

That said, the V3 isnt the cheapest all-in-one weve seen. That honor would go to the $80 Eny EVR01. But that model has a lower-resolution display, a smaller battery, and less RAM than the V3.

Heres a run-down of the V3 specs:

5.5 inch, 1920 x 1080 pixel display with 100 degree field-of view and 43mm lens diameter

Adjustable headband

Allwinner H8 ARM Cortex-A7 octa-core processor

PowerVR SGX544 graphics

2GB RAM

16GB eMMC storage + microSD card reader

4,000 mAh battery (up to 3.5 hours of video playback)

802.11n WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0

9-axis gyroscrope

3.5mm headphone jack

USB and micro USB ports

Ive been wondering for a while if theres a future for this type of all-in-one headset if the hardware costs as much as a normal phone + headset. But it turns out I might have been asking the wrong question, because it looks like some models will be priced competitively with devices like the $99 Samsung Gear VR which is really little more than a holder for a Samsung smartphone.

At this price point, its not hard to imagine that some people will invest in all-in-one headsets as an alternative to a Google Cardboard-style device that relies on your phone. Products like the V3 could be more convenient, and they conveniently have a hardware buttons and touchpads on the side of the headset to help you navigate through Googles Android operating system.

But they may still be a step in the wrong direction: Google is preparing to launch a series of guidelines for hardware that the company deems compatible with its upcoming Daydream VR platform, and I suspect the inexpensive Allwinner H8vr platform may not make the cut. And that would mean that if Googles platform takes off and attracts third-party apps and experiences, you may not be able to use them on devices like the V3.

Still, priced at $130 or less, it might be a tempting device just for watching 360-degree YouTube videos or normal HD movies on a virtual movie theater-sized display. Its a lot cheaper than buying an 80 inch TV for you home.
Congratulations India, you have just signed up to waste another week to debate free speech or the lack of it. Yes, waste. Because its shocking to find people repeatedly shocked over the fact that free speech in this country is restricted.

Over the past few months, we have riled over why a student cannot have the freedom to speak his mind in a university campus, we have criticized governments and politicians over their arrogance and insensitivity, we have questioned why comedians cannot poke serious fun at celebrities, we have wondered why Indians lack the ability to laugh at themselves and finally today we are amazed (again) at how movies are censored by a dictatorial man operating like an oligarch in his constituency of censor board.

We have pointed fingers at everything and everyone, except the Constitution, where the actual problem lies. To be specific, please stop reading this and go through Article 19(2) of the Constitution right away.

Unless, that is drastically amended, absolute free speech will not exist in India, no matter who or which political party is in power. It seems as if we are getting stuck at defining the problem again and again without making the effort to find where the real solution lies. And the depressing part is that this five step process of shock, outrage, disgust, blame and apathy over free speech will not stop.

Its almost become fashionable to crib and blame politicians and government officials for obstructing a simple fundamental right such as free speech and expression but its also stupid not to invoke the Constitution from where law enforcement authorities or governments get their power from. It wont be an exaggeration to say that Indians have started loving to get offended over the fact that someone got offended because somebody else offended that someone.

Take the current case of Udta Punjab. That it has raised another hue and cry over free speech is great, but no one can deny that the real purpose of the movie was to generate awareness over the widespread drug abuse in Punjab. Therefore, the focus of debate around Udta Punjab should be on solving the drug abuse problem in Punjab, not just free speech or censorship.

And lets not make the same mistake as we do when we outrage over restricted free speech. Sure, it is important to realize that there is a problem that exists but it is doubly crucial to look for answers.

In that context, several politicians from the opposition over the past few months have blamed the current SAD-BJP government in Punjab over the mess the state is in. But what alternatives have they proposed? Take Rahul Gandhis statements on the issue. He has repeatedly spoken about how the government has failed to accept the reality and suggested that if Congress comes into power they will take action against the people responsible for drug abuse and eradicate the problem within months.

Or consider Kejriwals stance on this. He has accused the Punjab Government over fabricating data on drug addicts while failing to take deterrent steps to control drug abuse. He has also promised that once voted to power, AAP will not spare any drug lord and curb the supply chain of drugs currently patronized by politicians.

The difference in the public policy choice between the two is hard to find unless Kejriwal proposes a Lokpal for drug abuse. But even with the change in government next year, what are the odds of Congress or AAP severely denting the drug mafia? Less than zero. Because the answer does not lie in more prohibition but in decriminalization of drugs.

It has worked world over, it is being experimented in different countries and the results are there for all to see. The drug-policy reform can only come through its legalization and not a cursory ban on them. Many countries have realized this the hard way that the war on drugs just cannot be won. There will always be more people to put into prisons with little or no impact on availability of illegal drugs.

No one is advocating that India should legalize each and every drug but a start needs to be made with a well-laid out regulation for mild use and medicinal purposes. But for that it has to be understood that drug addiction is not a law and order problem (unless there is violence) but a problem which can be solved with the help of health professionals and dedicated prevention policies.

If a similar strategy is not taken up by AAP or Congress, the situation in Punjab will not significantly improve and we will soon have a sequel to Udta Punjab, only to be threatened again by the dictatorial man in the Censor Board.

But in a country where selling and buying alcohol is prohibited in some states, we are a long way away from even legalizing a substance such as cannabis. Therefore, it seems as if the five step process of shock, outrage, disgust, blame and apathy will take over. Just as it did in the case of free speech in India.

Why not we all just all raise a toast for hypocrisy and then drown in it?
In deference to the current avatar of censor board chief, Anurag Kashyap should call his latest film Udta Pahlaj.

This will immediately serve two purposes: One, since the censor board chief wants Kashyap to remove the reference to Punjab from his film, it will help him get it passed without further problems. And two, it will become an ode to Pahlaj Nihalani's hypocrisy.

Nihalani's touching concern for the youth of Punjab flies in the face of his own past. At the peak of his career, Nihalani was known for rolling out third-rate, raunchy cinema laced with foreplay masquerading as lyrics and songs that gave the impression the actors were dying to make out. In some of his famous films like Aankhen and Andaaz, the camera rarely strayed from the heaving bust and swaying derriere of the heroine, creating the impression that the women in his cinema were made for just one thing.

Having made a living by giving the young generation of his age such sanskari cinema, Udta Pahlaj has suddenly become conscious of the impact of a film on the rampant drug addiction in Punjab on today's youth.

He has asked the producers of Udta Punjab to remove references to the state not just in the title but also the entire film. Apart from that he has suggested 89 cuts as a pre-condition for the board's certificate.

So, if Nihalani has his way, the film would become just an Udta (Pigeon, Plane, Peacock, take your pick) and turn into a story of some imaginary land, strictly not Punjab, where the characters wear turbans, speak Punjabi and pump some unmentionable stuff into their veins. Maybe, after the cuts, the film will not remain about drugs at all, as if it has just returned from a rehab, and will become an unending montage of ecstatic characters injecting lassi in their blood. Udti Lassi, perhaps!

Nihalani is obviously behaving like an ostrich. Drugs have become an inseparable part of the Punjabi lifestyle. As pointed out by Firstpost, the stereotype of Punjab being a land of gabru (strong and brave) men and vivacious women has been completed replaced by the spectre of amlisdrug addictsand widows. Today's Punjab is an ugly replica of the world imagined by Danny Boyle in Trainspotting, where the youth are desperate for just one last 'hit.'

A recent study by Dr Ravinder Sandhu of Guru Nanak Dev University put the incidence of dope-related crimes in Punjab at nine times the national average. Between 1999 and 2008, such crimes registered a staggering 245 percent increase. Punjab became the state with the highest number of narcotics-related crimes, surpassing Mizoram which earlier held this dubious distinction.

Another study by the department of Social Security Development of Women and Children found that 67 percent households in Punjab have at least one person addicted to drugs. Yet another study by the Narcotics Bureau discovered that nearly 40 percent men in Punjab are hooked to drugs.

This is the reality that Nihalani wants to hide. It was high time somebody told Nihalani that the first step to solving a problem is acknowledging its presence. Ignore it, hide it or brush it aside and it will surface on a bigger magnitude.

Punjab needs help to deal with the drug menace. For governmentsboth state and Centralto act fast and decisively, the country needs to first understand the extent of the drug problem in Punjab. Udta Punjab, is one such attempt to jolt the sleeping authorities out of their stupor.

But Nihalani seems to be flying around in some sycophancy-induced frenzy. He has bought the line that his political benefactors and their allies stand to lose if drugs become a major issue in Punjab's upcoming Assembly polls. Since the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP alliance has failed to curb the menace, seal the border, cut-off supply lines and break the cartel of drug-peddlers, Udta Punjab, the state's ruling elite fears, will name and shame them to their mortification in the polls.

Nihalani doesn't have his feet on the ground. Drugs have already become the defining issue of the state elections. In every corner of the state, people are keen to vote only for those who would check the menace, set up rehab centres and bring Punjab back on its feet.

Udta Punjab or not, the SAD-BJP alliance is set to be grounded. Udta Pahlaj better get his ears to the ground.
One question that is frequently associated with Prime Minister Narendra Modis US visits and his camaraderie with President Barack Obama is this: Have Modis visits (Modi has visited the US four times and met Obama seven times) resulted in any tangible benefits to the Indian economy in the form of investments?

Experts to whom Firstpost spoke say Modi's visits have indeed been bringing investment into the country.

The USIBC had promised an investment of $41 billion in September 2014. Of this, $28 billion have already been invested in India, said USIBC Chairman John Chambers during his address at the USIBC CEO round-table in Washington on Tuesday. "This sum is huge and positive," says Neelam Deo, director at Mumbai-based foreign policy think tank Gateway House.

Harsh Goenka, chairman, RPG Enterprises was 'delighted' to hear about USIBCs additional commitment of $45 billion to India. "Modi is a man in a hurry and India Inc is indeed privileged to have someone like him with a vision and sense of purpose, for making India a global hub for manufacturing. India presents a haven of opportunity to the world."

Goenka said that India had many positives to make it a preferred destination for investors, primarily that the country presents a market of over a billion people, stable financial markets, a skilled workforce and investor-friendly policies. That Jeff Bezos would be investing an additional $3 billion in India taking Amazons total India investment to $5 billion, is proof that India is a 'preferred' destination for investors, Goenka pointed out.

Ikea has already invested 1.5 billion ($1.7 billion) in India, China's largest commercial real estate developer, Wanda has announced investments worth $10 billion in the country and Japan's SoftBank is betting big on the India growth story, upping its investment of $2 billion to $10 billion in the near future. "Thats the confidence and trust of the largest Fortune 500 companies, said Goenka.

Usually, say experts, with regard to foreign policy announcements, the norm is to make billion dollar announcements in public, while only a small percentage of it gets invested. However, if going by what the USIBC chairman has said, a substantial amount of what has been promised has been invested in India. A lot of this would have gone into the IT sector, as that is our largest export sector. Considering that industrial output in India has been declining in the past 15 months, exports have also been falling, this investment from the US means a lot to the country, experts pointed out.

What is bureaucracy doing?

Modis role is of a chief salesman for the country  to promote the country and to encourage investment in India. It is the job of the bureaucracy to follow up on his visits and work on the formalities to help the flow of investments into the country, experts added.

However, the bureaucracy is not as quick as the prime minister in getting investors interested in India with regard to their follow-ups, said analysts, adding that the establishment is more focused on the US and it would be interesting to know if it is equally interested in driving investment from less attractive destinations such as Central Asia or Iran, for instance.

The visit of Modi to the US at this juncture with a few months left for Obamas tenure to finish, should be seen as being done far more for consolidating and strengthening what has been achieved in his previous visits, said Nandan Unnikrishnan, vice-president and fellow, Observer Research Foundation.

Although a few reforms have been stuck on account of political party compulsions and many more have to be brought about to bring an avalanche of investment into the country, there has been a 'small' tweak in investment policies that has led to foreign investment into the country, said Unnikrishnan.

The much-debated GST and land reform bill are in a state of limbo. However, these are not hidden from the public eye and investors across the world know about it, said Deo. The government is serious about GST and the land reform bill, but it is political parties that are stalling it. Investors know about that, she said.

Going by newspaper reports, the government is working on GST and the land reform bill. Unnikrishnan said that FDI would only be a small fraction of the overall investments into business and what is of importance is to assure sentiment and comfort to Indian investors and industry, he said

Indias foreign direct investment went up to 42 percent since the government assumed office in May 2014, Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said to PTI. She said while FDI dipped 16 percent globally, India continued to remain an attractive destination for foreign investors.

There are areas where marriages of convenience can take place between India and US.

Manufacturing for instance.

This cant be done at the old steam engine-pace, pointed out Unnikrishnan. With robotics and advanced technology being the order of the day in the manufacturing industry, India needs to catch up with the rest of the world for which foreign investments in this sector would help, he pointed out.

Promoting India

Modi has done a lot to promote India, say experts and it has raised the image of India abroad. Unnikrishnan said that it would be unfair to compare Manmohan Singh and Modi simply because Singh was an elderly statesman who did not have the energy due to age and illnesses. It is best to look back on Modis achievements after the tenure of his government. That would be a good time to pit his achievements with those of Manmohan, said Deo.
This should come as a bolt from the blue for prime minister Narendra Modi. His dream project of the Rs 98,000 crore bullet train has been blocked by BJP-ruled Maharashtra citing huge revenue losses.

According to a report in The Indian Express, the state government is not keen on the project because the Mumbai station as proposed by the Japanese consultants will result in a revenue loss of Rs 10,000 crore. The proposal is to build the station under ground at the Bandra Kurla Complex, says the report.

The reason for the revenue loss is that such a station will render huge tracts of land at the complex not fit for further development. And the railways needs only 0.9 ha of the 28 ha land available at the complex, the report has said.

With the new roadblock, the plan to run the first bullet train in India by 2023 is unlikely to work.

Railway minister Suresh Prabhu had earlier said the first bullet train will run in India in 2023. "In 2023, the first bullet train will run in India. We have already discussed the phases of bullet train project," Prabhu had told PTI.

Earlier last month, a high-level delegation led by NITI Ayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya had met Japanese officials in Tokyo to finalise key issues relating to the Rs 98,000 crore Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail project.

That was the second meeting of the joint committee set up to execute the bullet train project.

During the meeting, the committee was to finalise the schedule of the project, terms related to the appointment of general consultant and procurement conditions.

Besides Panagariya, the Indian delegation comprised A K Mital, Chairman Railway Board, Shaktikanta Das, Secretary Department of Economic Affairs, S Jaishankar, Foreign Secretary, and Ramesh Abhishek, Secretary, Department of Industry Policy and Promotion.

The flagship project is being financed by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which is providing a soft loan of about Rs 79,380 crore, amounting to 81 percent of the total project cost.

Since the loan negotiation and finalisation of loan agreement will take some time, the government had requested for a proper schedule of project implementation to achieve timely completion.

With PTI
Indian banks now have close to Rs 6,00,000 crore bad loans. As a point of comparison, thats the total asset size of a big lender like Bank of India.

The clean-up exercise of bank balance sheets forced by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan is causing truckloads of skeletons to tumble out of the closet.

To be precise, the total Gross Non Performing Assets (GNPAs) of banks stood at Rs 5,94,929 crores as at end March 2016, marking a substantial jump of about Rs 200,000 crore in just one quarter (at the end of December 2016 quarter, the total GNPAs stood at about Rs 4,00,000 crore.) Over 90 per cent of this is on the books of public-sector banks (PSBs).

To understand how big the problem is, one needs to see this against the total loans lent by the banking system. At March-end, this figure stood at 8.20 per cent. Remember, this is only the stock of NPAs. There is an equally large stock of restructured loans on the books of banks. A significant chunk of restructured loans have turned bad in the recent months. More could come if economic recovery doesnt happen quickly.

Even within the loans that are considered standard (where repayments happen promptly), there is a disturbing trend. That is the rise of Special Mention Accounts-2 (SMA-2), where the repayments are overdue for 60 days. This is an issue Firstpost flagged last year in this article. A loan is tagged an NPA if interest repayments do not take place in 90 days. The SMA slabs were brought in by the RBI to detect early signs of stress in the banking system.

The rise in the SMA-2 means that there are more good loans that are waiting to turn bad if support doesnt come from economic recovery. If one looks at the total stressed assets in the banking industry (bad loans plus restructured assets), it will constitute mid-double digit percentage figure in relation to the total bank loans. Getting an accurate figure is difficult since there is no estimate of the exact amount of restructured loans in the banking system. But, one can say that the stressed assets are so bad that they can translate into significant capital implications for the government that owns majority of these lenders. Under the norms, banks need to set aside a higher portion of money against the loans that are turning bad. This figure can go up to 100 per cent depending upon how bad is the bad asset.

How has the NPA story evolved?

In just three months, banks have reported an additional Rs 2 lakh crore bad loans. The intriguing question is how come banks did not disclose these hidden NPAs all these years and why are they doing it all of a sudden? The answer lies in the March, 2017 target the RBI has given to banks to clean up their balance sheets (to disclose the entire stock of bad loans). This also shows the tendency of the banking system to hide bad loans and show a healthier-than-real balance sheet to the investor.

One of the turning points in Indian banks NPA story is governor Rajans drive to dig out the dirt from bank balance sheets. If left unattended, the NPAs possess the potential to drive the Indian economy to a bottomless chasm at some point. No central bank governor or finance minister has ever addressed the problem of hidden, rotten, bad loans in the banking system. Everyone  both the banker and the borrower firm  benefited from the deal and continuously engaged in ever-greening of loans. But, the rot was running so deep that it could turned fatal to the entire body at some stage  sooner or later.

Banks merrily pushed loans to the restructured loan basket at the first sign of trouble and retained them as standard assets. Cronies thrived in these technical adjustments since they were still eligible to borrow even more from the same banks or other bank unless tagged as defaulters. It was Rajan who insisted that banks shouldnt postpone todays problem to tomorrow and worsen it.

The RBI withdrew regulatory forbearance on restructured loans, making it mandatory for banks to make provisions on restructured loans at par with bad loans and forcing them to set aside 15 percent of the loan amount as provisions if they chose to go for fresh restructuring. Earlier, banks used to conveniently push many stressed loans, especially in the infrastructure segment, to the restructured loan category to prevent them from slipping into the NPA category.

Rajan also insisted banks recognise stress in their portfolio early and classify them into special mention accounts (SMAs) depending on the period of repayment delay. Banks were asked to form Joint Lenders Forum and address the problem as a group. In effect, the RBI forced banks to have a clear roadmap to clean up their balance sheets. He set a deadline of March 2017 for banks to clean up their books.

What next?

The NPAs are coming out in truckloads. This scenario is likely to lead to a crisis situation in the banking sector, especially public sector banks (PSBs), if these banks fail to find sufficient capital to refill their coffers.

Banking sector analysts are still working out the capital implications for PSBs on account of this additional chunk of bad loans. It will run in to trillions of rupees if one includes the money needed to provide for bad loans, meet the Basel-III capital norms and fund their credit expansion plans. It is unlikely that these banks will draw big investor-interest even if they hit the market with bond issues, thanks to their fractured balance sheets. So capital is the biggest challenge. Since the government owns 70 percent of the industry, the Narendra Modi government cannot escape the responsibility.

There is a host of factors that led to such NPA accumulation on the books of PSBs. These include careless lending practices, government intervention in PSBs operations leading to some forms of directed lending and obligation to fund social sector schemes and devote significant portion of the staff's working hours on such schemes. Of all this, the biggest reason is the lack of autonomy in operations.

Most PSBs are like feudal kingdoms, where the chairmen are treated like kings, who in turn is subservient to the bosses in government. Often, quantity turns the yardstick in business rather than quality. The current plight of state-run banks convincingly proves that nationalization of state-run banks have failed to create a healthy banking system, though it has helped to create a banking system for the masses. Without efficiency, no bank can survive in the long-term.

The short message is this: It is high time the government rethinks its privatization strategy as far as state-run banks are concerned and let them freely compete in the market.
Tires of Continental on display at an exhibition in Shanghai, April 25, 2015. [Photo/IC]

Auto supplier Continental AG aims to double its China sales from last year's 4.5 billion euros ($5.1 billion) to 10 billion euros by 2020, its China head said on Monday.

"China is transforming into an innovative country. As the largest auto market in the world, China's auto industry is moving from volume to value," said Ralf Cramer, member of the executive board of Continental, and president & CEO of Continental China.

He said with its broad product portfolio, Continental brings to vehicles innovative technologies, which will sustain the company's double-digit growth in China over the next few years.

Cramer said the company also plans to raise Asia's share of its global business from 20 percent in 2015 to 30 percent in 2020.

"Continental is very likely to double its China sales by 2020, and it is reasonable for it to set that goal in Asia by 2020," said Zhang Yu, managing director of Automotive Foresight Co.

Zhang said international suppliers Continental and Robert Bosch GmbH are currently the top two players in China. They are equipped with mature technologies used for new-energy vehicles, intelligent car and vehicle networking, which represent the future of the auto industry. Local suppliers have yet to master those technologies.

Continental's global sales in 2015 were 39.2 billion euros, of which China accounted for about 11 percent.

The company has yet to release details of its sales so far this year, but Cramer said the China market achieved "double-digit" growth in the first quarter.

On Monday, the company announced it will establish a new research and development center in Chongqing, its latest move to boost development resources for the western China market.

The new location will host system requirement engineering, software development, electrical, mechanical engineering and test capabilities for the auto electronics applications, new-energy vehicle and industry business sectors.

The company said the Chongqing R&D center will make room for 400 developers till 2020 and have 1,000 employees by 2025. It is expected to be available for use in early 2018.

He said the auto industry has been developing rapidly in western China and more automakers are increasing their production capacity and R&D capabilities in this area.

"Continental's investment in the Chongqing R&D center follows our strategyin the market for the market, to be close to customers and satisfy the fast growing demand from the Chinese market," Cramer said at a news conference during the 2016 Global Automotive Forum in Chongqing.
Mumbai: Tata Group entities, including Tata Sons, Jaguar Land Rover and TCS, will provide a funding of 5.6 million pounds (around Rs 56 crore) to the Royal Society's University Research Fellowships (URF) scheme in the UK.

The funding will establish nine new Tata University Research Fellows in the Physical Sciences and Engineering over the next ten years, with the first Royal Society Tata University Research Fellows due to be appointed in October 2016, a statement by the Tata Group said.

"The Tata partnership with the Royal Society is part of a global university collaboration programme by Tata companies for strategic outreach to academia across the world," it said.

"I am confident that the Royal Society Tata University Research Fellows (URF) will make an impactful difference by contributing solutions to some of the most pressing challenges the world faces," Tata Sons Chairman Cyrus P Mistry said.

He said the Tata Group has a 'rich heritage' of collaboration with world-renowned academic institutions, including in the United Kingdom and the partnership with the Royal Society is in keeping with that tradition.

Royal Society President Venki Ramakrishnan said the support from Tata companies will help extend the URF scheme "so that more young scientists and engineers will have an opportunity to access the excellent support and career development this programme provides".
WASHINGTON India has agreed to work toward joining the Paris Agreement on climate change this year, India and the United States said on Tuesday, giving a jolt of momentum to the international fight to curb global warming.

At a time of heightened tensions in Asia over China's assertive pursuit of territory, the two countries also pledged to expand military cooperation and outlined principles for cooperation on cyber issues.

President Barack Obama welcomed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the White House for their seventh meeting since Modi took office in 2014, underscoring the warm relationship between the two leaders and the world's largest democracies. Modi is to address the U.S. Congress on Wednesday.

"We discussed how we can, as quickly as possible, bring the Paris Agreement into force," Obama told reporters during talks in the Oval Office.

India's potential entrance into the agreement this year would help accelerate its enactment, perhaps years ahead of schedule. India is the worlds third largest greenhouse gas emitter after China and the United States.

Obama and Modi are both committed to fighting climate change, which is a legacy issue for Obama, who leaves office in January.

The two countries also welcomed preparations that could lead to the building of six nuclear reactors in India by U.S.-based Westinghouse. The United States, in a joint statement with India, said it now recognises India as a "Major Defence Partner" and would work on technology sharing.

The text of an agreement allowing the countries' militaries to use each other's land, air and naval bases would also be signed soon, a U.S. official said.

Tensions between the United States and Pakistan as well as regional concerns about China served as a backdrop for the agreement on increased security cooperation.

The joint statement said India and the U.S. Export-Import Bank were working to complete a financing package for the project to build six Westinghouse 1000 nuclear reactors, the culmination of some 10 years of work to resolve civil nuclear issues. The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd. and Westinghouse had confirmed engineering and site design work would begin immediately.

Westinghouse and the Nuclear Power Corporation of India would work toward finalising the contract by June 2017, a year later than Westinghouse's chief executive, Daniel Roderick, said he hoped for in an interview with Reuters in late March.

CLIMATE CHANGE PROGRESS

The two sides agreed to work together on an "ambitious" amendment to an international pact known as the Montreal Protocol to reduce hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, a particularly potent greenhouse gas.

The two countries said India would take steps to join the Paris agreement this year.

"India and the United States recognise the urgency of climate change and share the goal of enabling entry into force of the Paris Agreement as early as possible," their joint statement said.

"The United States reaffirms its commitment to join the agreement as soon as possible this year. India similarly has begun its processes to work toward this shared objective."

The agreement, forged in 2015, will take effect when at least 55 countries representing 55 percent of global emissions ratify it. By late last month 17 small countries had ratified it, according to the United Nations, and many others including the United States and China have pledged to do so in 2016.

Environmental groups had hoped Modi would say that India was ready to ratify the agreement during his Washington trip to cross that 55 percent threshold.

With India now on board, a growing chorus of countries are seeking to bring the Paris Agreement into full effect as soon as possible," said Andrew Steer, president of the World Resources Institute, in a statement.

(Additional reporting by Valerie Volcivici and Timothy Gardner; Editing by Leslie Adler)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
WASHINGTON Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday that his country's India's planned purchase of six nuclear reactors from Toshiba Corp's (6502.T) Westinghouse Electric would mark a mark new era in nuclear and scientific cooperation with the United States.

"In the field of nuclear energy, we are purchasing six nuclear reactors from Westinghouse, which will mark a new era in our nuclear and scientific cooperation," Modi told an event organised by the U.S. India Business Council during a visit to Washington.





(Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Editing by Leslie Adler)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Thiruvananthapuram: The Congress said on Wednesday that it had agreed to pay the outstanding dues of Rs 2.8 crore to a contractor who built the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Development Studies.

The move came after the contractor sent a legal notice to Congress president Sonia Gandhi and on Wednesday approached a lower court here with a petition.

The court has asked that notices be served on Gandhi, former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, state Congress president VM Sudheeran and leader of the opposition, Ramesh Chennithala.

Despite several requests by Heather Constructions, the Congress reportedly had not made the payment.

"We will settle the outstanding dues at the earliest. There was some confusion on the amount. But now everything will be settled amicably at the earliest," Chennithala told the media.

The Congress is expected to settle the case through an out of court settlement at the earliest to avoid any embarrassment to Sonia Gandhi and the party's state leadership.

The research centre was inaugurated by Sonia Gandhi in 2013. The Congress-led coalition was voted out in Kerala in elections held in May.
Kohima: Naga Hoho, the apex tribal body in Nagaland, on Wednesday urged the central government to repeal the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act 1958 (AFSPA) from the North East region "at the earliest".

Naga Hoho Media Cell expressed anguish over, what it termed as, the "callous" attitude of the Centre towards repeal of the AFSPA from the North East in general and Naga areas in particular despite repeated appeals by Naga civil societies and human rights activists.

"In return, the successive governments irrespective of political parties in Delhi always decide to remain a mute spectator ever since the enactment of the draconian laws," a release issued by Naga Hoho Media Cell said in Kohima.

Pointing out that "there is a peaceful atmosphere in Naga areas as of now", the apex body said, any policy that harms the atmosphere of trust and confidence "would be dear to all stakeholders".

It said both the Union government and the Naga people have agreed to a settlement for respecting the wishes of the people for sharing sovereign power and to establish a lasting relationship between the government and the Nagas.

"We make this statement in the background that, there is an ongoing political negotiation and peace process between the government of India and the Naga people which can be testified by the signing of Framework Agreement signed on 3 August, 2015," the statement said.

The Hoho maintained that the Naga people were taken by surprise with the RSS reportedly declaring its support for extension and continuation of AFSPA in the North East and Jammu and Kashmir.

The Naga's struggle for self determination cannot be equated with "terrorism" with the Union government recognising the uniqueness of Naga political history and the universal principle that sovereignty lies with the people in a democracy, the Hoho said.
The Delhi police on 3 June arrested five people, including two members of the personal staff of doctors from the Indraprastha Apollo hospital, one of India's premier private hospitals, accused of being involved in a kidney racket, as reported by The Economic Times.

The kidney racket kingpin, Rajkumar Rao, was arrested in Kolkata on Tuesday, reported the NDTV. The 40-year-old man is suspected of having run similar rackets in Nepal, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.

The Delhi police also arrested three donors on Tuesday who claimed to have been lured to sell their kidneys for some Rs 3 lakh ($4,500).

"We have arrested three donors, including a woman. This takes the total number of people arrested to eight," New Delhi deputy commissioner MS Randhawa said on Tuesday. According to the latest reports, another person was arrested on Wednesday.

The Apollo hospital denied any role in the scam, saying it has been a "victim of a well-orchestrated operation to cheat patients and the hospital." According to a Business Line report, fake identification documents were used to dupe the hospital, passing off the victims as relatives of the recipients, which the Indian law permits.

Apollo hospital admitted to have unknowingly removed organs from victims and assured to help the police in the investigation of the racket.

According to NDTV, 10 doctors from the Apollo hospital's internal assessment committee for transplant surgeries, will be questioned.

Family members of two of the arrested have alleged that senior hospital staff may have been involved in the illegal organ trade, reported The Indian Express. The two doctors' assistants have also been accused of conjuring elaborate fake documentation and getting donors for the patients who were willing to pay.

"Such a racket cannot run without the knowledge of the higher authorities, alleged father of one of the accused.

Here is an all you need to know about the practice of kidney donation in India and the issue of organ and tissue donation snowballing into profit-making rackets.

Organ donation, specifically kidney donation in black markets is fuelled by a chronic shortage of organs available for transplant. The practice of illegal kidney donation and procurement remains rampant particularly because of the high number of Indians suffering from diabetes and other kidney related diseases, according to AFP.

According to the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act, 2011, organs can either be retrieved from cadavers or from brain-dead patients with the family's consent, or may be donated by living donors. Now, living donors can be categorically divided into three types: Near relatives like parents, siblings or spouses; others who can donate for affection and attachment or for a special reason, but not for financial considerations; and swap donors where near relative donors are swapped between patients whose own family members are incompatible.

Th process of organ donation involves procurement of an extensive set of documents including an affidavit. The documents are then screened by a committee.

In November 2015, a national registry for organs and tissue donations  currently limited to hospitals in Delhi and NCR  was launched to make the process transparent. Patients are needed to register and then would be given an organ depending on availability regardless of their financial or social status, as reported by The Indian Express.

In December 2015, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare JP Nadda had highlighted the problem in Parliament. "There is a huge gap between the demand and supply of human organs for transplantation.... The government accords a very high priority for increasing donation of cadaver organs to bridge the gap between demand and supply and save the lives of a large number of persons suffering from end-stage organ failure," he had said, as reported by The Economic Times.

Medical experts believe that cadaver donations can make a difference. According to them, brain-dead patients need to be looked at as a source for the much required organs. Only the reluctance of family members of brain-dead patients to donate organs has hindered the process.

According to the data provided by the Indian Transplant Registry, a non-government effort supported by the Indian Society of Organ Transplantation, of the 21,395 kidney transplants that have happened in the country since 1971, only 783 came from cadaver donors, in the face of an annual requirement of kidneys that ranges between 1-2 lakh, reported The Indian Express.



This lag between demand and supply, exposes poor unassuming victims to exploitation by the racketeers. Kidneys donated for pittance by the poor are then transplanted into patients nationally and internationally for large sums.

The Apollo incident also raises concerns regarding involvement of reputed private healthcare institutions in such rackets.
Patna: Amid mounting pressure with regard to alleged irregularities in the 10+2 toppers' scandal, Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) Chairman Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh resigned from his post on Wednesday.

"We have received the resignation letter of Board Chairman Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh," state Education Minister Ashok Choudhary told PTI.

Earlier in the day, the department issued a show-cause notice to the BSEB Chairman as to why he should not be removed from the post for the irregularities committed in plus 2 examination results.

Singh was asked to give his reply within 24 hours to the department, Chaudhary said.

It may be noted that the probe team had questioned Singh for five hours on Tuesday.

Besides, a team of state police and CID visited the Board on Tuesday and perused the results of the Intermediate examination. The team also took away Singh's computer, laptop and smartphone with it.

The state government had taken strong objection to Singh's decision to constitute a four member committee headed by a retired high court judge to probe the alleged irregularities in evaluation of marks in this year's 10+2 examination. The government had on 6 May dissolved the committee.

Meanwhile, Senior Superintendent of Police, Patna Manu Maharaaj, said that four persons have been detained by the police in the case lodged by the education department against seven persons on late Monday night.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had on 6 June directed the Education department to lodge an FIR in connection with the case.

The CM ordered that the entire matter be probed by police and stern action initiated against those found guilty.

"No one will be spared and action would be taken after fixing responsibility in the matter," Kumar had said.

Centre Superintendent of G A Inter School, Hajipur Shail Kumari and a clerk of the college besides Centre Superintendent of Rajendra Balak High School, Patna, Visheshwar Yadav and another person have been detained for interrogation in this connection, SSP Manu Maharaaj who is heading the SIT said. He said notices have been sent to the four toppers for interrogation.

A SIT team had yesterday raided the residence of Bacha Rai, the principal of Vishun Rai College, and his father Rajdeo Rai who is the Secretary of the college.

The team had collected documents from the college and Bacha Rai's residence.

Police had on late Monday night lodged an FIR that named seven persons as accused--management of Vishun Rai College, Hajipur, Centre Superintendent of GA Inter College, Hajipur where the exam was conducted, Centre Superintendent of Balak High School, Rajendra Nagar, Patna where copies were evaluated and marks alloted, the DSP said.

Besides, Intermediate Arts topper Ruby Rai, science toppers Shalini Rai, Saurav Shreshth and Rahul Kumar have also been included in the FIR.

The scandal surfaced after a video featuring Ruby Rai and Saurabh Shreshth went viral in which both the students of Vishun Rai College were seen giving "ridiculous" answers to questions from their subjects.
New Delhi: Delhi police is likely to seek full life term for five convicts for gangraping a 52-year-old Danish woman at knife point near the New Delhi railway station two years ago in a city court on Thursday.

Additional Sessions Judge Ramesh Kumar II, who on 6 June had convicted the five men, is scheduled to hear the arguments on the quantum of sentence to be awarded to the convicts on Thursday.

Under the new law, the offence of gang rape entails a minimum jail term of 20 years and a maximum of imprisonment till remainder of natural life.

Special Public Prosecutor Atul Shrivastava said the crime was committed in a "barbaric and inhuman" manner and he would demand the maximum punishment for the convicts, that is imprisonment till the remainder of natural life.

"The manner in which this act has been committed is barbaric and inhuman and, despite mercy by the woman, she was not let off for about five hours. She was beaten while committing rape and the weapon of offence was also used in commission of crime," he said.

Legal aid counsel Dinesh Sharma, who represented all the convicts, said he would seek leniency for his clients and file an appeal against the judgement before the Delhi High Court.

The court has convicted Mahender alias Ganja (27), Mohd Raja (23), Raju (24), Arjun (22) and Raju Chakka (23) for the offences under sections 376 (D) (gang rape), 395 (dacoity), 366(kidnapping), 342 (wrongful confinement), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 34 (common intention) of IPC.

The sixth accused, 56-year-old Shyam Lal had died in February this year and proceedings against him were abated.

Three other accused in the case are juveniles and inquiry against them is in progress before the Juvenile Justice Board.

According to the prosecution, the five men, all vagabonds, had robbed and gangraped the Danish tourist at knife-point on the night of January 14, 2014, after leading her to a secluded spot close to the Divisional Railway Officers' Club near the railway station.

The victim had arrived in Delhi on 1 January, 2014, and stayed for a couple of days before leaving for Agra. After visiting several places, she returned to Delhi on 13 January, 2014, and stayed in a hotel in Paharganj near the station.

On the next day when she was returning to her hotel, she lost her way and had asked one of the accused for directions when the men waylaid and gangraped her.

During the trial, the accused had claimed innocence.
New Delhi: JNU students led by union president Kanhaiya Kumar on Wednesday staged a protest outside UGC office demanding that reservation to OBC candidates be granted during appointments at Associate Professor level.

The students claimed that UGC had recently said 27 per OBC reservation is applicable only at the level of Assistant Professor and demanded that the reservation be implemented at Professor and Associate Professor level as well.

However, the University Grants Commission (UGC) had on Tuesday clarified that there has been no change in reservation policy for teachers in universities.

The protesting students submitted a memorandum to UGC officials demanding that the OBC reservation be implemented at both professor and associate professor level, in promotions and the number of national fellowships for OBCs be increased.

In a recent letter to Registrar of Universities, the UGC said that there has been no change in the reservation policy in faculty positions in central universities.

In the letter, UGC had said that in teaching positions reservation for SCs in 15 per cent, STs 7.5 percent is applicable at all three levels- Assistant Professor, Associate Professor and Professor.

The letter added that in case of OBCs, 27 percent reservation is applicable only at the level of Assistant Professor only
Over the years, we've had leaders mouthing off ridiculous statements on a number of issues. Case in point, is this.

Sadhvi Prachi, a VHP leader, is no different. On Tuesday, Prachi who is known not to shy away from controversies, said that she is working on getting rid of Muslims from the country. "Now that we have achieved the mission of making a Congress-free India, it is time to make India, Muslim-free. We are working on that," she said in Roorkee, where at least 32 people were injured last week in a clash between two communities, over the forcible evacuation of a scrap dealer's shop.

She became a near-household name after she called for the boycotting of the Khans  Aamir, Salman and Shah Rukh  while suggesting that their films were spreading a culture of violence and advised youngsters not to idolise them. Prachi went ahead and urged the Bajrangis to tear posters of Khans' films and "burn them in the fire of Holi".

Earlier, she also voiced her views on 'love jihad' (a phenomenon where men want to desperately defend women's honour by not letting them choose their mates). "The Khans have conspired and lured Hindu girls, be it Sangeeta Bijlani (with whom Salman Khan is rumoured to have an affair in the past), Malaika Arora (wife of Salman's brother Arbaaz), Reena Dutt (Aamir's former wife) or Kiran Rao (Aamir's wife now). Why do they always find Hindu girls," Prachi told a TV channel.

It doesn't stop here.

Mahatma Gandhi has always been in vogue. In March 2015, Prachi, naturally, took potshots at Gandhi, calling him a "British agent", and his contribution towards independence was "negligible". At a Hindu Dharam Sammelan in Ghaziabad, Prachi said, "It was only due to sole effort of Bhagat Singh, Chandra Shekhar Azad, Ram Prashad Bismil and Subhash Chandra Bose that India was freed from the clutches of Britishers," adding that Bismil was hanged, while Gandhi was busy with his 'Charkha' and spinning cotton.

August last year, Sadhvi Prachi courted controversy yet again when she claimed that there were terrorists in the Parliament. "It is a big misfortune that in the Indian Parliament, we have one-two terrorists sitting there," she said.

Prachi attacked her favourite targets, the Khans, in December last year, again. She alleged that actors Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan, along with SP leader Azam Khan, were "tarnishing the image of the country" by claiming that intolerance was prevailing in the nation.

Like the examples mentioned above, Prachi has been a firebrand when it comes to protecting and preserving India from so-called 'anti-national' elements. But what about India being safeguarded from Sadhvi Prachi's asinine remarks? Sadly, there's no remedy there.

With inputs from PTI
Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday sought factual details from Maharashtra government on exact number of persons who migrated to Mumbai and neighbouring districts from drought-hit areas of the state and what steps it has taken to help and rehabilitate such 'drought refugees'.

A division bench of justices VM Kanade and MS Sonak directed the government to submit the details on 10 June.

The direction was given during hearing of a public interest litigation taken up by HC suo moto in April this year following media reports on the plight of drought refugees who had migrated from Nanded to Mumbai and had no access to food, drinking water and shelter.

Government pleader Abhinandan Vagyani informed the court on Wednesday that shelter and other facilities have been provided to some drought refugees.

But the court sought to know the exact number of persons migrated and what steps the government has taken.

The state government had earlier said that it does not know the exact number of people who have migrated to Mumbai and adjoining areas from the drought-affected districts.
Mathura: Thousands of trees were destroyed, many charred, in the violence that erupted last week following exchange of fire between police and squatters at Jawahar Bagh in Mathura.

Uttar Pradesh horticulture department officials said the number of trees burnt or destroyed could be more than 5,000, mostly fruit-bearing varieties.

Environmentalists in Mathura have demanded firm action against the culprits responsible for loss of the green cover.

Braj Bachao Samiti members said the state horticulture department that owns the 260-acre bagh should have acted against the encroachers but chose to ignore damage to the ecology.

However, the officials of the department said they had lodged many complaints with the police and informed the senior district officials repeatedly.

The trees lost were full grown and years of hard work had greened the whole Jawahar Bagh, an official said. "Clearly the loss is irreparable and will take years to restore the green cover."

At a time when the whole Braj area is being denuded of green cover due to urbanisation, loss of thousands of trees is a huge ecological threat, environment activist Shravan Kumar Singh said.

In May, Bharatiya Janata Party MP Hema Malini had publicly admonished a gram pradhan for felling of trees at Banshi Vat and in Maant area.

However, the pradhan hit back blaming the actor-politician for using foul words leading to his hospitalisation.

"The loss of greenery all over the state and river Yamuna are matters of serious concern and government agencies should wake up to remedy the imbalance," Hema Malini told IANS.
Muzaffarnagar: Setting an example of communal harmony, more than 60 Hindu inmates of the district jail in Muzaffarnagar are keeping 'roza', the dawn-to-dusk fast during Ramzan, along with 1,150 Muslim inmates.

The holy month of Ramzan commenced on Tuesday.

On the first day of the Ramzan, 65 Hindu inmates kept fast with 1,150 Muslim inmates in Muzaffarnagar, said Satish Tripathi, jailor of the district jail.

Special arrangements have been made for the inmates to perform prayers and enjoy their pre-dawn 'sehri' meal and evening meals known as 'iftars'.

Food items like seasonal fruits, dates, 500 gram milk and various other snacks are being made available to them, he said.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed the interim bail plea of Sukhdev Singh Namdhari  one of the accused in the killing of businessman Ponty Chadha and his brother Hardeep Chadha.

Dismissing the plea for interim bail, the apex court vacation bench, comprising Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose and Justice Amitava Roy, asked: "Why interim bail was granted (to him) from time to time? It was granted, extended and finally it was rejected (by the high court)."

Refusing to interfere with the high court's order rejecting his plea for bail, the apex court bench observed: "When you moved the high court for bail, the trial court granted you interim bail."

Namdhari is a co-accused in the killing of Ponty Chadha and his brother Hardeep Chadha allegedly in a shootout in Chattarpur in November, 2012. Both Ponty and Hardeep reportedly had a dispute over property.

Namdhari was the head of Uttarakhand minorities panel when the incident took place. Later he was sacked from the panel.

"Does anything remain to be said in favour or against you," asked the bench unimpressed by the submission made by Namdhari's counsel who said "I am only seeking an interim bail".

"Are we in a system governed by the rule of law," wondered Justice Roy as Namdhari's counsel made efforts to persuade the court to grant interim bail.

The counsel drew blank as he sought some liberty, when the bench observed: "You are creating your own liberties. Why you need liberty from us?"
Last month, the Government of India announced that it was cancelling the Rs 1,800 crore deal with Whitehead Alenia Sistemi Subacquei (WASS). The reason: WASS is a subsidiary of Finmeccanica, the company which is said to have bribed Indian officials and politicians in order to procure an order for helicopters.

This is because Indian laws clearly make a criminal of both the bribe giver and the bribe taker. Since the courts in Italy have established that Finmeccanica has given a bribe, it has been blacklisted. As a corollary, so goes the legal argument, its subsidiary has also been blacklisted. WASS thus lost a business, worth Rs 1,800 crore.

That has resulted in a big setback to the plans the Navy had chalked out for deployment of these torpedos for its newly acquired submarines. Till the time a new vendor is identified, and deliveries made, the Navy will have submarines without firepower. A terrible state for any defence establishment to be in.

This is precisely what happened even with the Bofors deal. It was in April 1987 that Swedish Radio alleged that Bofors paid kickbacks to people from a number of countries, including top Swedish and Indian politicians and key defence officials to seal the deal. These revelations were picked up by the Indian media. Finally, the government blacklisted Bofors from doing any business in India.

The situation became farcical. Even worrisome. Bofors had already supplied the howitzers. But as it was blacklisted, it could not supply the shells. It took many years before the government could identify another company to supply them. The order wasnt small. The Army needs around 15,000  18,000 rounds annually. Each round is expected to cost between $300-400. Thus Bofors lost a huge chunk of annual business.

In both cases, the bribe giver was penalised, but the bribe taker wasnt. The legislators moved fast to blacklist and severely penalise the foreign arms supplier. But they allowed the wheels of justice to move terribly slowly where the bribe takers were concerned. And this is despite the fact that many of the alleged bribe takers were bound by an oath to office  that they would not accept bribes, and remain true to the laws of this country.

In any other law-abiding country, the government would have allowed the bribe giver to turn approver. It would have granted him immunity in order to catch all the bribe takers who had violated their oath to office. Coupled with circumstantial evidence, the testimony would result in quick conviction of the guilty. Thus defence preparedness would seldom get compromised, And almost all of those who stole from taxpayers (all bribes are eventually paid for by taxpayers) would be brought to book.

But the Indian government has not done this with any of its defence deals. It is almost as if the government does not want to bring to book any of the bribe takers. This is true of both the previous government and the present one too.

It is in light of this reluctance that the penalising and blacklisting of tainted defence suppliers and their subsidiaries begins to acquire a totally new meaning. It is as if the government is penalizing them for allowing the details of the bribe to become public in their respective countries. The Bofors scam had its roots in Sweden. And the Finmeccanica scam had its roots in Italy. In both the countries, investigations there, not in India, revealed that bribes had been paid.

The penalty and the blacklisting could thus be interpreted as a warning:You broke the omerta. You allowed the details of pay-offs to emerge. You could not keep this secret the way India has till now. Therefore, we do not trust you. Hence, we will no longer do business with you,  is what the acts of the government seem to suggest.

The Government of India needs to set this image right.

In fact, in none of the major defence scams (see table) has a culprit been nailed. Yes, there has been finger pointing. Yes, cases have been registered. And yes, some have been sent to judicial custody, and even granted bail. But they have not been convicted.

Take the Finmeccanica case, as an example. That bribes were indeed paid in the Finmeccanica deal was clearly established by an Italian court in October 2014. Bruno Spagnolini, who served as CEO of AgustaWestland, the helicopter manufacturing division of Finmeccanica, was charged with false bookkeeping (and participation in bribery). The Italian court sentenced him to two years in prison. The court documents pointed to several Indian bribe takers.

The middleman for the arms deal was Christian Michel. His lawyer offered to help India with information if it agreed to give Michel approver status and immunity. The offer was shot down. Yes, it did interrogate SP Tyagi, former IAF chief. But then, there is no clinching testimony, which can only come from a court approved whistleblower, or an approver.

Eventually, only the bribe givers will be penalised. Bribe takers in defence are seldom convicted. Nobody is made approver.

In India, this is not merely a case of bribe giving, or bribe taking. By cancelling defence deals which have taken years to prepare, and which are critical to the safety and security of the country, Indian investigators and legislators are actually weakening India. By aborting defence plans  the shells in the Bofors case, and the torpedos in the Finmeccanica case, it is the defence of India that is at stake.

India desperately needs a comprehensive policy on the way bribes should be dealt with. The present system stinks.
Ghoramara, one of the fertile islands of Sundarban delta in the South of West Bengal in Bay of Bengal, is ready to be gulped by the raging sea sooner than predicted. Two decades ago, the land inhabited by 40,000 people has shrunk and it can now shelter only 3,500 now. The high tides everyday swallow portions of their land from all sides of the island and take them deep into the sea. The inhabitants of the vanishing land run inward on the island for temporary safety so that they can again rebuild their washed away huts after water recedes. Most of them have moved out for fear of being drowned, but those left behind are waiting for help to cross the sea.

Those who have money can cross the sea. Those who dont, wait like us to get drowned. Even if we get to the mainland, we remain refugees with no homes, no identity and no community. We are simply losing the battle, explains Rabiul Saha, an island dweller who has been constantly rebuilding his hut every time a high wave washes it away. We shift inward but nothing can hold the fury of the river." Rabiuls mud house is a few meters away from the enhanced mud embankment and bamboo barricade built to check the rising water.

Sahas 13-year-old daughter Rabiya, is a Std VII student who dropped out as there were no teachers at the Hathkhola Pratham Prathamik Bidyalaya centrally located on the island. Now the pucca building and its first floor serve as shelter for runaway residents when high waves reach shore and tear the mud-and-bamboo fence.

The sea level is rising as never before and frequent cyclones and storms are increasingly eroding inhabited lands. Residents have nowhere to go except quietly sneak into mainland taking the first ferryboat and look for alternate place of shelters. And nowhere in the country is the impact of sea level rise so blatant. Most of the people from Ghoramara are destined to live as climate refugees in India without even being acknowledged as one.

Sundarbans, the large collage of mangrove islands, home to the Royal Bengal Tiger and several rare and endangered animals, is the real face of climate change hitting the country. Many of these islands are disappearing, slowly swallowed by the deep sea and the rising tides. Thousands of inhabitants who live in the Sundarbans have lost their homes in recent decades. In the delta where saltwater from the Bay of Bengal mixes with freshwater from three of India's major rivers  the Ganges, the Brahmaputra and Meghna  water from the distributary Muri Gonga rises and falls dramatically drowning one third of the land that keeps disappearing and reappearing every day.

Twenty-one years ago, Sumit Pramaniks family had shifted from Lohachura, another nearby island that has been completely gulped by the sea now. Sumit was born in Ghoramara. He is studying engineering 250 kms away from his home in West Bengals Murshidabad district but each time he leaves home for his hostel, he looks back one last time specially to see the mound in the water of Murigonga River, the distributary of Hoogly (Ganges) where his home is. This is to reassure himself that it will not be washed away before he returned.

Sumit returned in May 2016 for his semester break and the fear of a cyclone cycle gripped him as usual. The high tide water had entered the village and destroyed crops, broken the bamboo fence and washed away portions of many of the mud houses that had been recently rebuilt at Mandirtola, Kheya Ghat. This isnt unusual. But this has become too frequent to rebuild homes easily on the island.

The once-a-day ferry run by the government that came in with supplies to Kheya Ghat could not reach the banks because of severe turbulence in the region with high silt in the river delta. The island remained water-locked from all sides for the whole of last week.

People wait for the high tide in this region so that the ferries can float and come. But with high tides come the gush of water that washes away our land every time. The best way to keep a track is through the Hindu calendar. During days of full moon and no moon, the water rises high and recedes equally low making it severely difficult for us to cross over to the mainland, explains Sumit.

Sumits father Arun Pramanik is the panchayat committee member. They are influential people in the village. They run the ferry business and provide supplies to the island. Arun says that his main job now was to create awareness about the vanishing land. In fact we are ready to move away. But cannot leave the community people behind. Where would all of us go? Arun asks. This is man-made; the rivers have never been in such a rage. It never took away my fathers lands. I believed at least I would live all my life here but now something is terribly wrong and the river is in great hurry, he adds.

They are here; Indias own set of climate migrants. No one in the islands knows about climate change and the worldwide impact it has. Some have heard of Baisbika Usnata, ie global warming but do not know how have they contributed to the increase in temperature leading to rise in sea levels that is eating away their lands.

Ghoramara had been building and rebuilding for the past many years. Since Lohachura went into the womb of river Murigonga, 5,000 families like the Pramaniks moved to Ghoramara in 1995. Now again their worlds seem to be taking the same turn.

Debendra Tarek is 80 years old. His younger family members are moving away one by one to be homeless and wander the mainland in West Bengal. Debendra is old and does not want to leave his home. A farmer, he still sows the yearly rice in the leftover paddy fields in the village. He proudly shows the Dudedhswar variety of saline resistant rice that was introduced decades ago for the islanders of the saline rich soil. Our crops would get destroyed by one flash flood. The new variety of rice withstood the salt and tasted better. But now situation has changed. There are no farmers left and paddy gets washed away completely during floods."

In the last three decades, the island has lost 7.6 square kilometers of land. Now it exists in just 3.3 square kilometers. Those who had shifted had found shelter in the nearby Sagar islands about 25 kms away in the sea. People were ferried in boats on several dreadful mornings after the floods to the barren settlement. Kamalpur, 3 Number Colony, in Sagar islands thus became home to many of the climate-affected migrants from Ghoramara and Lohachura islands. Known as the Ghoramara refugee colony, people have again returned to rebuilding their lives. Fishermen have turned carpenters, boatmen cart pullers! Muntaz Sheikh and his wife Zarina bibi had fled the island with nothing in a turbulent boat to find shelter at the Sagar islands a decade ago. They were fishermen but the thought of fishing now scares Zarina. Her neighbor Ratan Maity drives a handcart. We had nothing there and we have nothing here. There I caught fishes but now we live far away from shore. So I pull a cart nowm explains Ratan, who like Muntaz and Zarina, lost his home and all his possessions to the frequent floods. Only we lived, the water did not take us away," says Zarina raising her hand in gratitude towards the sky.

Yet, Sagar islands, known for Ganga Sagar, one of the prime pilgrimages of the Hindu community, has grown equally vulnerable with the rising water levels.

Sea levels in the Sundarbans delta are rising fast; well above the global average. Several small inhabited islands have been completely submerged in the past few decades and Ghoramara is amongst the most vulnerable ones, explains Dr Sugata Hajra, director of the School of Oceanographic Studies at Jadavpur University. He is studying the process though satellite mapping data of the region.

Hazra explains that more than 80 sq. kms  little less than half the size of Kolkata  has submerged in the past three decades in the Sundarbans delta. The causes are complex and besides the natural fury, it can be attributed to human behaviour. "The predictions for Ghoramara had been there for the last two decades. But it has grown severe. And one of the most important factors is man-made climate change. This makes not just Ghoramara, but the nearby mainland and cities equally susceptible, he adds.
New Delhi: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has written to seven states asking them to take quick

measures on the issue of attacks on African nationals both in terms of police action and prosecution, underlining that such individual acts reflect on the nation.

Swaraj had on Tuesday written a letter to the chief ministers of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Goa, where there is large presence of African students, asking them to take quick action in such cases, Secretary, Economic Relations, Amar Sinha said, adding the attacks have been condemned at the highest level.

"Our EAM (Swaraj) is very proactively engaging with all the ambassadors. She has met students also. Only yesterday she has written to several chief ministers to sensitise them that these are individual acts but they reflect on the nation.

"There is a need to take quick measures in terms of police action and follow up in terms of prosecution when such incidents take place," he said.

The Secretary was asked whether the attacks will cast a shadow over the upcoming visit of President Pranab Mukherjee to three African countries of Ghana, Ivory Coast and Namibia from 12 June.

"We have engaged with the African students here very very closely. We are also setting up a monitoring mechanism so that after the first two days of the incident, we don't lose the sight of it. African ambassdors are satisfied with the action taken by the Indian government," he said.

We don't feel this will cast a shadow over the relations between India and the African countries, Sinha said.

"Our relationship is built on a much solid foundation. These governments and their authorities understand that this is not driven by state policies. State policy is just the opposite.

"So they will not hold the President or highest office bearers of the country resposible for the acts that are very criminal in nature," he said.

Terming the attacks as unfortunate, Sinha said such incidents also arise from cultural differences.

"It is unfortunate that at times, African students or visitors get targetted in India...which perhaps also arises from some cultural differences that is what we are trying to explain and missions are also trying to reach out to their communities here to sensitise them about general behaviour and what is expected to be done," he said.

Sinha also said a lot of "soft measures" are being taken to popularise African traditional activities with the mainstream society in India.

Several incidents of violence against African nationals were recently reported from various states following which the diplomats of the African countries concerned conveyed their concerns to the Indian authorities.

Condemning the attacks, the President had said: "We shall have to create appropriate awareness in the minds of our youngsters who may not know the history, age old relations (between India and Africa)".

"We cannot allow these (relations with Africa) to be jeopardised in anyway and create a bad precedent which is not the ethos, which is not part of the core values of our civilisation," he had said.
Wearing a black combat vest over a white T-shirt with automatic weapons adoring the background wall, the young Hizbul Mujahideen Commander, Burhan Muzaffar Wani, once again rattled the security grid in Jammu and Kashmir with his latest video in which he warns of attacks on police and media if they dont fall in line.

In the six-minute video, the Hizb Commander urges the youth to join his outfit and help in the profiling of police officers of their respective areas. The video has, in fact, surfaced days after the series of lethal attacks carried out by militants on police and army in Srinagar and Anantnag.

I appeal to those youth who want to join us to collect complete details of cops of their respective areas; of their role towards militancy and handover the details to us. We will also recruit them at the right opportunity, Wani says in the video.

Speaking in Urdu, Wani warns police not to participate in anti-militancy operations and to stop harassing the local youth.

If you (police) care about your life, remain inside police stations, dont put barricades on roads and stop harassing youth. Those who will do this will be responsible for their life, he says.

Seemingly modelled on Al-Qaeda videos, Wani boldly suggests that the police stop siding with India and join the fight against them. I want to tell police that you are our brothers and our real enemy is India but you fail to understand that India makes us fight among ourselves. Train your guns on Indian Army and help in our freedom movement. It doesnt make any difference to India whether a militant or a cop dies. They are pitting us against each other.

The Hizb commander appeals to people of Kashmir to fight the forces and extends help to them. If any policeman, army or anybody supporting the Indian cause tries to enter any home at any place in any corner of Kashmir, kick them out. Every Kashmiri has our support, Inshallah. And pelt stones to quell army when they come to your areas because this land belongs to us.

Kashmir has witnessed a surge in the militant attacks since last month when three cops of Jammu and Kashmir Police were shot dead by militants from point-blank range in Srinagar on May 23. Two other cops were killed in the same fashion in south Kashmirs Anantnag district by militants who were caught on camera fleeing from the spot on 4 June. A day earlier, on 3 June, three Border Security Forces (BSF) personnel were killed and seven others were wounded when militants attacked an army convoy on Srinagar-Jammu Highway in Bijbehara town of Anantnag district.

Burhans militant outfit, Hizbul Mujahideen, claimed responsibility for all the attacks. The same outfit has carried several other attacks in south Kashmir where it mostly operates.

After the deadly attacks, a high-level security meeting was held in south Kashmirs Khanabal to devise strategy to ensure safe elections. The meeting, attended by DGP K Rajendra, General officer Commanding of Armys 15 Corps, Lt. General Satish Dua and other police and army officials, decided to provide a multi-layer security cover for Anantnag bypolls.

South Kashmirs Anantnag is going for bypolls on 22 June. The seat was left vacant after the death of former chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, on 27 June. The current CM, Mehbooba Mufti is contesting from Anantnag constituency.

What has surprised many in valley is Wanis attack on the media for following the line of New Delhi and branding them as terrorists instead of militants.

At last I need to warn media because it follows the tone of India. I want to tell media that if we are terrorist we can destroy your networks. But if you want to recognise who the real terrorists are, consult the history and Kashmir and decide if we or Indian army are terrorists, he says.

Meanwhile, Burhan refuted the reports of carrying attacks on the upcoming Amarnath Yatra but warned attacks on proposed Sainik Colonies and separate KP townships. We arent planning to carry out any attacks on Amarnath pilgrims who will be here to perform their religious rites, he says.

In the past, Burhan has managed to galvanise huge support for his group through similar videos posted on social media. In many areas, people risk their lives by engaging with forces during gun-battles to help militants flee. The tech-savvy and flamboyant nature of Burhan has made him popular among youth. He also managed to inspire some cops to join his group. It needs to be seen whether the latest video makes any impact on police and youth to join him.
New York: You'll soon see four new names on the periodic table of the elements, including three that honor Moscow, Japan and Tennessee.

The names are among four recommended Wednesday by an international scientific group. The fourth is named for a Russian scientist.

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, which rules on chemical element names, presented its proposal for public review. The names had been submitted by the element discoverers.

The four elements, known now by their numbers, completed the seventh row of the periodic table when the chemistry organization verified their discoveries in December 2015.

Tennessee is the second US state to be recognised with an element; California was the first. Element names can come from places, mythology, names of scientists or traits of the element. Other examples: americium, einsteinium and titanium.

Joining more familiar element names such as hydrogen, carbon and lead are:

 moscovium (mah-SKOH'-vee-um), symbol Mc, for element 115, and tennessine (TEH'-neh-seen), symbol Ts, for element 117. The discovery team is from the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.

 nihonium (nee-HOH'-nee-um), symbol Nh, for element 113. The element was discovered in Japan, and Nihon is one way to say the country's name in Japanese. It's the first element to be discovered in an Asian country.

 oganesson (OH'-gah-NEH'-sun), symbol Og, for element 118. The name honors Russian physicist Yuri Oganessian.

The public comment period will end 8 November.
Buddhists call it the Bodhi  the tree of enlightenment. The peepal tree, one among the two fig varieties native to Indian subcontinent, plays an important part in our culture and religions. It is considered sacred by Hindus, Jains and Buddhists. It is believed that peepal, which finds mention in the Vedas, resembles the permanence of human soul. It offers shade but no food and is the tree most favoured by wandering hermits after renunciation. Monks take recourse to its shade after selling off their Ferraris and the way things are shaping up, even the scion of India's most famous political dynasty may soon seek the peepal's shield to escape the vagaries of public life.

As the Congress party threatens to implode in spectacular fashion, Rahul Gandhi, it appears, is in desperate need for some enlightenment.

In a way, the Congress has never been in such a predicament in its 129-year-old history. Electoral wins and losses are part of the natural cycle of any political party, but this crisis goes much deeper. Throughout its existence, the Congress has always had a monolithic structure in place where power flows from top. Post Independence, the Nehru-Gandhi family had been the unquestionable commander with party leaders at all levels being subservient to it and paying unadulterated obeisance.

The system was bereft of inner-party democracy, of course, but it worked perfectly well so long as the font of power remained single and importantly, that source always kept up its end of the bargain  which is to wield power and lead.

It is not possible for a party to survive for over a century and not face dissent. Congress has faced many revolts in the past. Powerful personalities who felt suffocated in the structure parted ways to either float their own parties or join political rivals. Sharad Pawar broke ranks and formed the NCP. In the east, Mamata Banerjee severed ties and floated the Trinamool Congress.

Grappling with the recent rebellion which saw dissidents deserting the party in five states, the Congress on Tuesday claimed that it is nothing new and it won't have any impact.

"In the past, stalwarts like HN Bahuguna, VC Shukla and Arjun Singh  all groomed by the Congress  left, but could not weaken the party," said BK Hariprasad, the party's general secretary in-charge of Chhattisgarh while referring to the walking out of Ajit Jogi.

Factually, the Congress leader can't be faulted. The grand old party has always managed to get over monumental setbacks such as assassinations of incumbent Prime Ministers and still survive as the mainstream national party. It did so because the First Family, even when not actively involved in power, was the veritable adhesive that bound vested interests and fragile egos. The Gandhis were the glue not because they claimed to be so, but because the party rank and file believed it to be so.

The importance of this cannot be overstated. Even during PV Narasimha Rao stint as the PM and Sitaram Kesri's tenure as the party president, the halo around the family never diminished.

It has now. And that is why this is no ordinary crisis.

On the one hand, party members know that Congress as it was known for over a century may cease to survive if the Gandhis were to relinquish leadership, on the other hand, circumstances have shown the future leader to be so ineffective that even if he were to take over, the inevitable will happen anyway. This has led to the existential dilemma that the Congress is suffering from right now and is being manifested with leaders from different states leaving the ship with a common refrain  the High Command is insular.

As Economic Times points out quoting a leader from Maharashtra where veteran Congressman Gurudas Kamat recently "retired" from politics, the state unit is adrift as vice-president Rahul Gandhi is 'detached' and not ready to take tough decisions. "When you don't even respond to a letter written by someone who has given more than 40 years to the party, what message are you sending to the grassroots?"

As MPs defect or threaten to defect to rival parties in North East, considered its last bastion, and middle-to-senior leaders in Chattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra appear disgruntled, the disillusionment is setting in with the High Command, specifically, Rahul Gandhi's style of functioning.

Virtually repeating the charge which Assam leader Himanta Biswa Sarma had leveled before walking over to BJP and help ensure its maiden government in the state, many leaders from Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Mumbai are expressing their displeasure with the way Rahul and his personal advisors unilaterally appoint PCC chiefs in many states, brushing aside views of senior leaders. "There is a growing impression in the party that Rahulji does not feel at home with senior Congress leaders and that he is comfortable more with rank outsiders or lightweights," a party insider told ET.

The reaction from 10 Janpath has been telling.

For a leader who claims to be "travelling the length and breadth of the country" to restore its health, Rahul is apparently planning to set up an "advisory council" to deliberate on key policy issues which will constitute senior leaders such as P Chidambaram, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Sushil Kumar Shinde and will be led by Sonia Gandhi while he gets elevated to the party president's post.

Translated, it basically means that while he will hold the party's highest post, Rahul will outsource his responsibilities to the "advisory committee" which no doubt will honorably shoulder the burden should Congress suffer more reverses.

A true leader will have taken up this opportunity to thoroughly recast the party, initiate structural reforms and impose his unquestionable authority but we are talking of a gentleman who considers power as poison. The calm shadow of the peepal tree awaits.
Mumbai: The Congress in Maharashtra on Wednesday voiced strong protest against the government's decision to rename the Rajiv Gandhi Jeevdayi Arogya Yojana (RGJAY) after the great social reformer Mahatma Jyotiba Phule.

State Congress President Ashok Chavan said the plans to abruptly change the name of RGJAY was indicative of "low-level politics" and attempts to rake up a controversy by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena government.

"Government schemes must be named after big leaders like Mahatma Phule and we have no reservations. But we strongly object to the manner in which an existing scheme which has been named after a national leader being renamed," Chavan told media persons.

Instead of changing the name of a scheme named after late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, why could the state government not launch a separate new programme and dedicate it to Mahatma Phule, Chavan wondered.

He said Rajiv Gandhi was not only a Congress leader, but also a national leader who was martyred in a terror attack.

"It does not behove the state government to play politics with the name of a leader who sacrificed his life for the country in this manner," Chavan said.

He rejected Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis' assertions that the scheme named after Mahatma Phule was a new one to be launched from October this year.

"Schemes are modified and changed over the years... By making some minor changes or giving it an extension, you cannot claim it is a new scheme and even change its name, as is being done," Chavan said.

"Instead of being a game-changer, this government is only a name-changer," Chavan said sarcastically, referring to the manner in which the Indira Awas Yojana was re-christened as Prime Minister Awas Yojana.

Chavan said a delegation of Congress leaders would soon meet Fadnavis and ask him to reconsider the decision.
Normally, an FIR filed by a contractor from Kerala against Congress president Sonia Gandhi would have just been considered a frivolous act. But this particular case is exceptional. It hit the headlines for three reasons:

First, because the contractor also filed a Rs 50 lakh recovery civil suit against Sonia Gandhi.

Second, the case was filed because of default of payment by the state's Congress outfit  which had commissioned construction work to the contractor on a property owned by the party.

Third, the money owed to the contractor, Heather Constructions, was meant for the payment of the building of the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Development Studies. The petitioner sought clearance of dues of Rs 2.8 crore in the construction of the institute at Neyyar.

Quoting "party insiders", News18 said in a report that, "dues were not cleared because of an intra-party feud in the Kerala unit of the Congress...Now, KPCC says it has no money for the project which was cleared by former state unit president Ramesh Chennithala during his tenure. But the current KPCC chief says the party does not have the money and there is no need for the institute."

What Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) chief has said is very significant, that his "party does not have money". Nothing could be more interesting than that  a party which ruled Kerala only till about a fortnight ago is practically saying that it thought that a contractor was supposed to build a building for it for free  as entitlement of the ruling party. If one were to take his statement on face value, one would wonder how did the mighty Congress suddenly go bankrupt, unable to pay for a project which was close to the heart of its central high command.

The other connotation of his reported statement is even more significant  that Congress no longer needed the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Development Studies. The question is that why the existence of this institute, named after a leading light of the Nehru-Gandhi family, has now become worthless for the party? That too when this institute was inaugurated by no less a person than Sonia Gandhi in October 2015.

In a legal notice to Sonia Gandhi, Managing Partner of Heather Constructions, Rajeev refers to a series of agreements signed between November 2012 to April 2013 and adds "the property in which building constructed was purchased through sale deed No.798/10 of Ottashekheramangalam sub registrar office in favour of Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee of Indian National Congress headed by Smt Sonia Gandhi represented by its state President Ramesh Chennithala." News18 published a copy of that notice.

Other leaders named in the legal notice included Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Development Studies Chairman Ramesh Chennithala, former Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy and Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president VM Sudheeran.

Sensing that this could cause huge embarrassment to Sonia and the Congress party, Chennithala said on CNN-News18 that the case had to be settled out of court.

Incidentally, the construction company decided to pursue a legal course against the Congress president and other party leaders after Congress was ousted out of power in the state. The ruling CPM in Kerala dismissed any speculation around its role in the FIR.

That should be a reason for worry for the Grand Old Party. The Nehru-Gandhi family is already on the adverse side of public perception in the National Herald and AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam, and can ill afford another controversy, that too around the non-payment of legitimate dues.

Loss of power at the Centre  with numbers reduced to a humiliating count of 44, losing state after state, implosion in various state units, senior leaders deserting the party states across the nation  Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Tripura, and so on  after raising a banner of revolt against the attitude of the central leadership, particularly Rahul Gandhi has not bode well for the party.

In last few days, former Chief Minister Ajit Jogi in Chhatisgarh left the party, former union minister Gurdas Kamat left the party and in Tripura, six Congress MLAs left Congress to join the Trinamool Congress. In Manipur, the Congress party is facing internal dissension. The biennial Rajya Sabha polls on June 11 could further expose chinks in Congress' armour.

Few days earlier in an interview to Firstpost, Congress MP Satyavrat Chaturvedi had dwelt at length at what plagues the party. He said, "The process of accountability has weakened in the organisation. That is affecting the party. As a result of this, we have lost direction. We have drifted away from the path that we should have taken....Congress was always identified as an organisation that championed the weaker and underprivileged sections of society,"

"In the last few years, this identity has been broken (khandit hui hai). Congress image, as it is perceived to be now, is that of an elite class party. Dalits have gone away from us. The minorities which were with us since independence chose to move away; workers, farmers were the classes which were inseparable from us. But that is not so any longer, all these classes represented our core," Chaturvedi said.

The Congress has too many problems to resolve to halt its disintegration. But the party at large is still caught in the old debate  whether it's time for Rahul Gandhi to succeed his mother and elevate himself to Congress president's post.
New Delhi: Condemning VHP leader Sadhvi Prachi's "Muslim-free India" remark, CPI on Wednesday accused right-wing outfits of creating "communally-charged atmosphere" eying Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls and asked the Centre to take action against those making such "provocative" statements.

"They are creating such a situation. . .they think hatred can be spread against a particular community to polarise people on communal line," CPI national secretary D Raja said.

Raja said it is all happening because UP is going to polls in 2017. "They want communally charged up atmosphere ahead of the polls," he said.

He urged people and "particularly those from UP" to see into the "sinister designs" of Sangh Parivar behind such statements and "not fall prey" to the same.

"The Union Home Ministry must also take action against those who are making such atrocious and provocative statements," the Parliamentarian said.

VHP leader Prachi had on Tuesday said that it is time to make India "free of Muslims".

Known for courting controversies, she had claimed the mission of a "Congress-free India" has already been "accomplished" and it is now time to "rid the country of Muslims".
New Delhi: Indicating further trouble for the Congress in Uttarakhand, the simmering rift between state party chief Kishore Upadhyay and Chief Minister Harish Rawat came out in the open with the former on Wednesday asking Rawat to respect "ministers, MLAs and district leaders" and meet them regularly.

"The Chief Minister should respect and give time to each and every party worker. Every Congress karyakarta (worker) should be respected," Upadhyay told IANS.

He said: "When President's Rule was imposed in the state, every Congress worker took to the streets to protest against this. Now that the government has been restored, the Chief Minister should at least meet his workers and respect their sentiments.

"The Chief Minister should give time and meet the district presidents, his ministers and the MLAs," he added.

Upadhyay had earlier said that Congress in the state would "meet the same fate as the UPA government" if the "rulers of the state" ignore the party workers.

Meanwhile, at the Congress party headquarters, a senior Congress leader sought to downplay the reported conflict between Rawat and the pradesh Congress chief. "It is a fight between Harish Rawat and the state Congress president and High Command has nothing to do with it."

Congress is facing similar dissension in other states too. Former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi floated a new party two days ago.

Six Congress legislators on Tuesday joined the Trinamool Congress in Tripura, pushing the until now main opposition party in the state assembly to third spot.

In another setback to the Congress, former union minister and five-time MP from Mumbai Gurudas Kamat announced he was quitting the party and the political arena.

In the northeastern state of Meghalaya too, there is strong resentment among the Congress MLAs over continuation of Mukul Sangma as chief minister.
New Delhi: The Congress on Wednesday asserted that the RSS and BJP hate the Constitution as it has kept their "idea of Hindu Rashtra at bay".

"Modi ji says he wants a Congress-mukt Bharat but what he really means is that he wants a constitution-mukt Bharat. Constitution guarantees that India will be a secular, democratic republic and it has kept the idea of a Hindu rashtra at bay for almost seven decades," K Raju, Chairman of the Scheduled Castes Department of the Congress party, told a press conference.

Raju noted that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have a visceral hatred of the Congress Party's ideology which was subsequently enshrined in India's Constitution.

Taking pot shots at RSS ideologue Ram Bahadur Rai's statement on B.R. Ambedkar, Raju said, "Rai's statements proves how regressive the BJP-RSS are to the multi-cultural integrity of India."

Rai had said that Ambedkar's only contribution in making the Constitution was that he corrected the spellings and grammatical errors of the draft.

Rai, a former General Secretary of Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the student wing of RSS, was appointed chief of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts by the Modi government recently.

Taking strong objection to Rai's comments, Congress demanded his resignation from the government funded institution.

"We will organize nation-wide protests on the issue. Modi ji must suspend Rai from the organization and BJP President Amit Shah must apologize for these remarks," Raju said, insisting BJP has always connived to snatch from Dalits their basic rights.

He also accused BJP of turning universities into caste panchayats.

"They clamped down on the Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle at IIT Madras as students from this centre were propagating the principles of rationalism, dignity and Dalit rights. Modi ji's ministers Smriti Irani and Bandaru Dattatreya forced Rohit Vemula to commit suicide," Raju said.

He also accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of following former RSS chief M.S. Golwalkar's divisive politics, "that had opposed equal rights being given to Dalits and minorities."
Mumbai: The Shiv Sena on Wednesday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi "to stop maligning India on foreign shores" with his public utterances on corruption in the country.

The Sena took strong objection to Modi's repeated statements criticising the corrupt systems in India during his foreign trips, saying this would prove counter-productive in the long run.

"The PM said publicly in Doha how India was steeped in graft, and outlined the measures he had initiated to clean up the mess. The gathering clapped and cheered him. This is nothing but maligning the country's fair image abroad," the Sena said in an editorial in its mouthpiece Saamna.

It wondered who was responsible if there was talk of corruption among the masses even two years after a Bharatiya Janata Party-led government took charge of the country.

"The (corruption) matters coming up in (BJP-ruled) Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh  can the Gandhi family be still blamed for it?" it asked.

"The PM knows better. He's the country's face and the world has faith in him. But the world may also misinterpret his statements abroad and this could directly hit our economy," the Sena cautioned.

Chiding Modi, it advised him to criticise corruption and other ills plaguing India domestically and tackle them effectively.

"Enough has been spoken about the alleged corruption of Gandhi family and Robert Vadra. Now, its time for action against them. No need to travel to Europe and America shouting about it," the editorial said.

"As a nation we are all united, and despite our political differences, we are like a big 'undivided family' and this is the image which should be presented before the whole world."

Touching on Modi's recent trip to Switzerland, it chided Modi's request seeking the names of Indians holding black money in that country's banks. This, Saamna said, was "ruining India's image abroad".

"The Swiss economy thrives on stash monies from all over the world and they will never reveal whose black money is lying there.

"Modi had assured Rs 15 lakh to each Indian by bringing back the hidden money in foreign banks. But all this must be done very discreetly," the Sena said.

Anyway, it pointed out that there was enough black money within India. "So what is being done about it?"

The Sena said India must be the only country in the world where it's a sin to eat beef, mutton, chicken, eggs, fish, garlic and onions but it is no crime if public money is stolen.
Editor's Note: This article was originally published on 6 June, 2016.

We all know about the FPTP system of Lok Sabha elections.

FPTP stands for first past the post and its the simplest form of election in the world  as simple as winning a race. There are a fixed number of candidates on the ballot; people vote for their preferred candidate and the candidate getting the highest number of votes wins. This is the easiest to understand. Easiest to vote. Easiest to count. And easiest to declare the winner.

But then there is something called the Rajya Sabha election that even Albert Einstein would have hated... probably.

This is simply because it is indirect. This is the most complex election to understand. Most complex election to vote. Most complex election to count. And most complex election to declare the winner.

So, lets leave the PhD research on the complex mechanism of Rajya Sabha elections and try to understand the basics.

But first, here's a little refresher:

Furthermore...

Also...

What we need to understand next are a few simple points:

1) Let's use the example of Uttar Pradesh to explain this. UP has 31 members in the Rajya Sabha. So after every two-year cycle, it elects a third of these 31 MPs. That makes it a cycle of 10+10+11 MPs over six years.

2) So in 2012, Uttar Pradesh elected 10 Rajya Sabha MPs, and then in 2014, it elected 10 MPs, and this year, it has to elect 11 MPs. In 2018, it will once again hold elections for 10 Rajya Sabha MPs and so on.

3) Now in Uttar Pradesh, we have 403 members of the Vidhan Sabha (these MLAs are the voters of for these 11 Rajya Sabha seats). To win a Rajya Sabha seat, a candidate should get a certain minimum number of votes. That number (quotient) is calculated using the following formula:

Quotient = Total number of votes divided by (Number of Rajya Sabha seats contested + 1)

4) So the required number of votes to win a Rajya Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh is: 403/(11+1)=34 votes.

5) Before we get down to the calculations of a Rajya Sabha election, it is important to understand that parties generally know their strength on the floor and number of seats that they can win. For example in Bihar, there were five Rajya Sabha seats on the block this year. Going by their Assembly strength, the RJD-JDU alliance could have won four and the BJP could have won just one seat. So they fielded only four and one candidates respectively. Since there were only five candidates in the fray; there was no need for actual voting and all these five candidates were elected unopposed. No problem whatsoever.

6) There would have been a problem if there were six or more candidates in the fray for these five seats. That would have forced a vote and that is when the calculations would have come into play.

7) Now, let's understand the situation in Uttar Pradesh. There are 11 seats up for grabs. If the parties had fielded only 11 candidates  understanding and respecting their actual strength on the ground  there would not have been any problem. But at the last moment, the BJP fielded an Independent candidate, which has now forced the process of voting.

8) As mentioned earlier, the UP Vidhan Sabha has 403 MLAs and in these 11 Rajya Sabha seats; the magic number is 34 votes to get elected.

9) Now, here is the catch. In the Rajya Sabha election, sitting MLAs dont get to vote for each seat. If that was to happen, then only the ruling party with a majority in Vidha Sabha would win all the seats. Rather, the members give preferences for each candidate (their first preference, second preference, third preference and so on). In the current round of elections in Uttar Pradesh, if 34 or more MLAs choose a candidate as their first choice, that candidate will get elected.

10) Now lets see the current strength of different parties in Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha to understand the calculation:

11) So, you can see that only Mayawati has fielded two candidates as per her party strength and has 12 'surplus' votes. The ruling Samajwadi Party can get six of its candidates 'clear' with the first preference votes and is just nine short of getting its seventh candidate elected. With the RLD pitching its eight MLAs and one Independent MLA, they are sure to get all of the seven SP candidates through.

12) Now the BJP can get just one candidate through purely on the strength of their 41 sitting MLAs. They had seven surplus votes and they fielded another candidate as Independent. This has created trouble for the Congress candidate Kapil Sibal who is five short of the magic number.

13) So the BJP-supported candidate is 27 short of the required number while Sibal is just five short of the required number. From a distance, it looks as though Sibals task is easy. It should be. It could be. But will it be? Thats the million dollar question. Sibals hopes hinge totally on Mayawati. If she decides to support him with her 12 'surplus' voters, he can breathe easy. Unfortunately for him, the BSP has not yet made any such announcement.

14) Now even if the BSP made an announcement, there is no guarantee that those 12 'surplus' MLAs could vote for Sibal. The reason is that in the Rajya Sabha elections  despite being an open election (which means the voters have to 'show' which candidate they have voted for)  the anti-defection law does not apply. Therefore, even if an MLA violates party whip, he or she will not lose membership of the House.

15) This is what opens the floor for what we know as 'cross-voting'. But before that, let's first understand where the Congress candidate stands vis-a-vis the 'extra' BJP candidate? We know that technically speaking, the BJP-supported Independent is short of 27 votes and the Congress candidate is short of five votes. If you look at the table of all 'surplus' votes in the House (after shifting eight RLD and one Independent MLA to the SP kitty), we have precisely 27 MLAs left. Even if just five of these 'surplus' MLAs vote first preference to Sibal, then he should win.

16) Looks easy enough. But its easier said than done. Why exactly does Sibal  just five votes short of the magic number  look nervous while the BJP-supported candidate  who is 27 short  looks confident? There is something wrong here, right? What exactly are we missing?

17) Well, the answer lies in point number 14. Even though this is an open election, the anti-defection law doesnt apply here. So while Sibal is looking at Mayawati or other 'surplus' MLAs to come up with five more votes, his hopes rest on the fact that he has 29 Congress MLAs with him. But, are they really with him? Thats the important question. There have been reports that many of the sitting Congress, BSP and even SP MLAs are looking forward to contesting the next Assembly election on a BJP ticket. If party president Amit Shah promises them that ticket, they are more than willing to ditch their own party and vote for the BJP candidate in these Rajya Sabha elections.

18) So keeping this 'future equation' in mind, the base figure for Sibal could be a lot lower than current Congress strength of 29 MLAs. The vulnerable Congress MLAs open for 'poaching' brings the realistic tally of 'surplus' votes to almost 60. Now, the BJP has to manage only around 27 such votes by simply promising them a party ticket in the 2017 Assembly election.

19) The nomination papers of BJP-supported Independent candidate Preeti Mahapatra give a glimpse of what is in store. Her papers were signed not only by 16 BJP MLAs but also by some MLAs of the SP, BSP, AD and NCP. The Indian Express reported that while supporting Mahapatra in the election, the BJP top brass is also 'checking the loyalty' of those legislators of other political parties who reportedly are seeking BJP tickets for the 2017 Assembly polls. A senior BJP leader was reported saying If these MLAs do not vote in favour of the BJP-supported candidate, they will not be considered for the party (ticket).

20) And this is when we are only talking about the first preference votes. What if even after 'cross-voting', neither Sibal nor Mahapatra manage to get 34 first preference votes? What if Sibal gets only four of the remaining 27 surplus votes and gets struck at a total of 33 votes  just one vote short  and Mahapatra gets the remaining 23 votes, remaining four votes short of the required numbers? Then the contest become much more complicated as the second preference votes will be counted.

Now if you really wish to understand how the second preference votes are counted; I can assure you it is so complicated that it almost feels like doing a PhD in statistics. Those who really wish to do this PhD, are advised to check out this post on Quora.

In short, I can tell you that if it goes into the counting of second preference votes, Sibal stands a better chance as the SP/BSP might ask its MLAs to write Sibals name as the second preference. And that would be a strong number of second preference votes. So for the BJP to upset Sibals chances, the only straightforward option is to 'manage' 27 votes in the first preference itself. Their candidate says she already has support of total 16 MLAs (seven 'surplus' BJP MLAs and nine other MLAs).

Going by her numbers, the BJP needs to 'manage' 18 MLAs more at the 'first preference' stage itself. Will they come from the Congress? Or SP? Or BSP?

Nobody knows.

Or maybe Mayawati will bulldoze everything else by supporting Sibal upfront. It seems unlikely at the moment and if she wished to, she would have done so by now. Besides, there is always a 'caged parrot', which might have some magical effect on her while taking a decision to openly support the Congress candidate.

It aint over till its over. But till then, its all about Antaratma Ki Awaaz. Anything is possible.

The author is an international election observer and founder of CVoter.

He tweets @YRDeshmukh and you can check out his #IndiaTracker polls on www.cvoterindia.com
Washington: The Sikh-American community's "compassion and forgiveness" in the aftermath of the 2012 Gurudwara shooting incident in Wisconsin in which six people were killed has been a "lesson", US House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan told Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday.

Ryan, who is a representative from Wisconsin's First District, received Prime Minister Modi at Capitol Hill here and offered his condolences for the shooting incident four years ago that shook the Indian-Americans, especially the Sikh community.

"Following shooting incident in Gurudwara in my constituency, the Sikh community's compassion and forgiveness has been a lesson," Ryan was quoted as telling Prime Minister Modi by spokesperson of Ministry of External Affairs, Vikas Swarup, in a tweet.

Six people were killed and four others injured when 40-year-old Wade Michael Page, a white supremacist and US Army veteran, opened indiscriminate firing in a Gurudwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, on 5 August, 2012.
Khirdeh: For the first time in more than two years, Awash al-Aboud looked out at her village in northern Syria wearing a fearless grin instead of the black veil imposed by the Islamic State group.

The elderly woman was among hundreds of residents who returned this week to villages recaptured by the Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-Arab alliance advancing on the jihadist stronghold of Manbij.

"For the past two and a half years, I felt like I was living among the dead because of the terror that IS imposed on us," she said.

Wearing an indigo-coloured robe, Aboud told AFP that she fled her village of Khirdeh, located between Manbij and the Euphrates river, along with other residents as SDF fighters approached last week.

Standing amid a gaggle of young children, she said that when IS controlled her village she had been forced to wear the black, full-face veil prescribed by its ultra-conservative form of Islamic law.

"Today, a new life has started for us. We're so glad to be done with Daesh," she said, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

An AFP journalist travelled to several villages where the SDF, backed by US-led coalition air strikes, has expelled IS.

Arab fighters from the Kurdish-Arab alliance chatted with residents and strolled between buildings, some damaged by US-led coalition strikes or IS's infamous car bombs.

'Being safe is enough'

Abu Mohammad, 35, from the farming town of Abu Qulqul, said life under IS rule was so expensive that some residents were tempted to join the jihadists.

"They used to tell us that whoever wants to live well must join our ranks, but I refused. I preferred to starve than to join them and oppress my brothers," he said.

His wife, wearing a bright headscarf and carrying a toddler on her back, held up her arm and began to ululate  a sign of celebration and joy.

"Just being safe is enough," she said.

On the outskirts of the village, a suntanned man in a long robe and green vest took his flock of sheep out to the nearby plains.

Architect Khalaf al-Moussa, from nearby Qana al-Tahtani, said IS had imposed a system of fines and punishments during its rule over his hometown, also east of Manbij.

"We couldn't roll up our trouser legs while we were farming our land  every time we did, they would fine us 1,000 Syrian pounds ($2)," he said, standing in front of a modest fruit orchard.

"If someone tried to criticise their behaviour, they would sew his mouth shut for a while, or they would cut his head off and hang him up for everyone to see," Moussa added.

'Burned our books'

People arrested by the jihadists were not seen again.

The villagers were so terrified that their friends and family would report them to IS that "you couldn't trust your brother, your father, or your neighbour because of how afraid you were," Moussa said.

In many of the towns and cities it holds, IS has seized control of public institutions in a bid to project an image of a functioning, corruption-free utopia.

But that was not the case in Qana al-Tahtani.

"We used to ask them to provide electricity for us, and they would answer, 'Did the Prophet Mohammad have electricity?'" Moussa said.

"And I used to say to myself, 'Did the Prophet have all of these weapons to terrorise people?'"

Rada al-Sayyad, 18, said that IS jihadists had stopped him from going to school when they overran his village of Tal Aras east of Manbij two years ago.

"They burned all of our schoolbooks and they banned studying. They started forcing us to take religious courses that taught us that Kurds, teachers, and other religious scholars are all infidels," he said.

IS has been dealt several major blows at the hands of a powerful Kurdish militia  the People's Protection Units (YPG)  whose fighters make up the majority of the SDF.

In areas under its control, IS has enforced its own religious education coupled with military training.

But now, Sayyad said, he can return to school and a life without IS.

"Things are relatively okay. We'll go back to school soon  back to our way of life before Daesh entered our hometown."
Since we are known as the rape capital of the world, I guess ugly and unspeakable anecdotes on the subject in other countries would be of consuming interest.

Brock Turner, aged 20, was a former Stanford University swimmer who was accused of raping a woman. He should have got 14 years for the assault but the judge was obviously in a genial mood and gave him only six months in jail.

This is the relatively tame part of the story.

A letter written by Brock's father to the judge before sentencing was recently made public. Brocks daddy wrote that its a bit much to send his son to prison for "20 minutes of action" and shouldnt he let him go.

Say what?

Sexual violence on campus in a whole new parental perspective. Perhaps in future, rapists can grade their victims when they are asking for leniency in their sentencing. 'She was a C minus, Your Honour, I don't deserve more than a slap on my wrist.'

Talk about us being challenged for this dubious throne but there you are! Hot from Santa Clara in California comes a new high in absurdity.

This has shocked Americans and is running as the biggest story of the day. Today, as a nation goes up in arms it wont be that shocking for us because whenever we have a rape, we have Mummy and Daddy and all the people they know roped in to save the guy. We even have politicians who are avuncular in their support and says things like boys will be boys and also, if that fails, blame different cuisines for the hormonal gush.

You pick up a paper in India and it is got a nappy rash of rape stories. Every morning. Babies, little children, pre-teens, women, we dont care about age. And we never get told what happened to those venal people who were accused or caught with their pants down. Where do they go...home?

Somebody posted a story on Tuesday on FB about an old man who married a nine-year-old and she died on her wedding night. You cannot even vomit but your mind is full of hideous visions that wont go away as much as it is full of grief for that child.

Who are these people who attack children and when are we going to stop it? It has come to such a pass that our synapses have shut down. It is like part of the scenery. Man rapes 10-year-old...oh oh have a cracker.

You land at the airport and after being grumpily allowed in by Immigration you take a cab and the sign says, 'We will take women without worry. The car in front of me says, Women are safe in my taxi. The cab ahead of him has a larger sign which says, This taxi respects women.

And therein lies the problem. The taxi might but what about the driver? There are just too many incidents occurring in the land for it to be a passing phase.

Somewhere the wheels have come off and the system is outraged but not pro-active in saving these victims and those to come.

Are we also going to end up like this father in Santa Clara who measures punishment by the length of the time taken to have sexual pleasure? So blase, so worldly, so proud of sonny boy, go on son, knock yourself out, its only a girl. We are already into the advanced stages of indifference to paedophilia because we dont even recognise it.

You dont believe me and you think I am exaggerating. Pick up todays paper or go to a website...okay fine do it tomorrow because tomorrow hasnt happened.

The rape will have...mores the pity.
JERUSALEM At least nine people were wounded on Wednesday in a shooting incident in central Tel Aviv and one person was in critical condition, with Israeli police describing the shooting as an apparent attack aimed against Israelis.

The incident occurred in an area of trendy cafes and restaurants very close to the central military headquarters and Defence Ministry compound.

The attack was the first following in lull after almost daily street attacks by Palestinians against Israelis which began in October and lasted several months.

(Writing by Ori Lewis; Editing by Toby Chopra)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
College Station, Texas: The last known living 9/11 search dog has died in a Houston suburb at age 16.

Bretagne (BRIHT'-nee), a golden retriever, was euthanized Monday at a veterinary clinic in the Houston suburb of Cypress, according to a statement from the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service.

Bretagne was 2 years old when she and her handler, Denise Corliss, were part of the Texas Task Force 1 sent to the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan after the terrorist attack brought down the buildings on 11 September, 2001. They spent 10 days at the scene searching rubble for human remains.

About two-dozen first responders lined the sidewalk leading to the veterinarian's office and saluted Bretagne as she walked by for the final time Monday, The Houston Chronicle reported. An American flag was draped over her body as she was carried out of the facility.

Bretagne retired from active duty at age 9. At 15, she was taken by Corliss to the 9/11 memorial and participated in an interview with Tom Brokaw of NBC News. Corliss told NBC's Today that in recent weeks Bretagne began experiencing kidney failure and slowing down.

Bretagne was nominated for a Hero Dog Award from the American Humane Association in 2014. An online biography posted by the organization says that Bretagne served as an ambassador for search and rescue dogs in retirement, often visiting elementary schools.

Bretagne and Corliss met with former President George HW Bush at his presidential library late last year.

A post on the Texas Task Force 1 Facebook page remembers "the valiant effort and dedication to finding a victim trapped in a destroyed building that Bretagne showed us on a regular basis."
WASHINGTON A Chinese fighter jet carried out an "unsafe" intercept of a U.S. spy plane in international airspace over the East China Sea, two U.S. defence officials said on Tuesday.

The intercept involved a Chinese J-10 fighter plane and a U.S. Air Force RC-135 reconnaissance plane, the officials said.

The officials, who requested anonymity, said the air crew deemed the encounter to be "unsafe" because of the "high rate of speed" at which the Chinese jet was travelling.

In May, the Pentagon said that two Chinese fighter jets flew within 50 feet (15 meters) of a U.S. EP-3 aircraft over the South China Sea.

The Pentagon determined that the May incident violated an agreement the two governments signed last year.

Earlier this week, Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States would consider any Chinese establishment of an air defence zone over the South China Sea to be a "provocative and destabilising act."

U.S. officials have expressed concern that an international court ruling expected in coming weeks on a case brought by the Philippines against China over its South China Sea claims could prompt Beijing to declare an air defence identification zone, or ADIZ, as it did over the East China Sea in 2013.

China has claimed most of the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims.

Washington has accused Beijing of militarising the South China Sea after creating artificial islands. Beijing, in turn, has criticized increased U.S. naval patrols and exercises in Asia.

During a conference in Singapore last week, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said the U.S. approach to the Asia-Pacific remained "one of commitment, strength and inclusion", but he warned China against provocative behaviour in the South China Sea.

(Reporting by Idrees Ali; Editing by James Dalgleish and David Gregorio)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
WASHINGTON U.S. presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump kicked off a fierce general election battle, with Democrats accusing Trump of erratic behavior and the Republican threatening to bring up old Clinton scandals.

Clinton, the former secretary of state, made history when she became the first woman to lead a major political party in its quest to capture the U.S. presidency. Big primary election wins on Tuesday in California and elsewhere catapulted her to victory over Democratic opponent Bernie Sanders.

If elected on Nov. 8, the 68-year-old would return the Clinton family to the White House 16 years after her husband, Bill Clinton, completed two terms as president.

All signs point toward a negative campaign for five months as Clinton accuses Trump of being temperamentally unfit to serve and the New York billionaire charges Clinton has a dark past with shades of corruption and a weak record as President Barack Obama's first-term secretary of state.

The Clinton campaign drew on critical comments from Republicans themselves to portray the 69-year-old Trump as not fit for the Oval Office after the real estate developer repeatedly accused a Mexican-American judge of showing bias against him because of his ethnic heritage.

"The most effective thing to do with Donald Trump is just to get his words out there and let him speak for himself," Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook told CNN on Wednesday.

Mook charged Trump with a history of "erratic behavior," the same language leveled by the Obama campaign in its defeat of Republican nominee John McCain in 2008.

Trump, smarting from criticism from fellow Republicans about his attacks on U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, gave a carefully crafted primary race victory speech on Tuesday night laying out his plan of attack.

To keep him from straying off message, he used a Teleprompter and avoided his typical stream-of-consciousness delivery.

Trump said money given to the Clinton Foundation charity from foreign donors has earned the Clintons millions of dollars and had a corrupting influence when Hillary Clinton was secretary of state and used a private email server to conduct official business.

"Hillary Clinton turned the State Department into her private hedge fund - the Russians, the Saudis, the Chinese - all gave money to Bill and Hillary and got favorable treatment in return. It's a sad day in America when foreign governments with deep pockets have more influence in our own country than our great citizens," Trump said.

He said he would give a speech next week discussing all of the things that have taken place with the Clintons.

CLINTON LEADS

A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday showed Clinton leading Trump by 10 percentage points nationally, little changed from a week earlier.

Both Clinton and Trump have work to do to unite their parties behind them but the Democrat appeared to face the easier path with Sanders, a leftist U.S. senator from Vermont, nearly out of options to challenge her.

Trump has an uphill battle, with many party leaders still opposed to him. U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan described Trump's remarks about the judge as a "textbook definition of a racist comment" but said he would still support him.

Ryan met behind closed-doors on Wednesday with House Republicans. An aide said Ryan "discussed with his members the thinking behind his endorsement (of Trump) and how to move forward and reiterated he had confidence Trump would support the House Republican agenda.

Republicans complain that Trump still engages in petty battles with former rivals and is way behind in building a fund-raising organization. Trump is to meet on Thursday in New York with top fund-raisers of the Republican National Committee, a party official said.

"We like parts of Donald Trump's message but he does need to act more presidential and he does need to transition to a general election approach," U.S. Senator Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, told CNN.

"He is the one who keeps bringing up grievances against those who ran against him. He needs to unite the party and he needs to unite the country," she said.

Clinton edged Sanders out in a rough-and-tumble battle that stretched over four months and 50 states. She won support, especially among older voters, with a more pragmatic campaign focused on building on the policies of her fellow Democrat, Obama.

Democratic Party elites are lined up squarely behind Clinton, including most likely Obama, who may endorse her as early as this week. Pressure will mount on Sanders to exit graciously and throw his support to Clinton.

Obama congratulated Clinton on her nomination win in a phone call and will meet Sanders on Thursday at the senator's request.

The Associated Press called the race in California for Clinton early on Wednesday. Clinton won 56 percent to Sanders' 43 percent, avoiding what would have been an embarrassing loss for her in America's most populous state.

The California win came on the heels of a decisive win in New Jersey and narrower victories in New Mexico and South Dakota in Tuesday's nominating contests. Sanders won Montana and North Dakota.

(Additional reporting by Susan Heavey, Doina Chiacu and Richard Cowan in Washington; Editing by Alistair Bell)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
WASHINGTON U.S. presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump kicked off a fierce general election battle, with Democrats accusing Trump of erratic behaviour and the Republican threatening to bring up old Clinton scandals.

Clinton, the former secretary of state, made history when she became the first woman to lead a major political party in its quest to capture the U.S. presidency. Big primary election wins on Tuesday in California and elsewhere catapulted her to victory over Democratic opponent Bernie Sanders.

If elected on Nov. 8, the 68-year-old former U.S. senator from New York would return the Clinton family to the White House 16 years after her husband, Bill Clinton, completed two terms as president.

All signs point toward a negative campaign as Clinton accused Trump of being temperamentally unfit to serve and the New York businessman charged that Clinton had a dark past and a weak record as President Barack Obama's first-term secretary of state.

The Clinton campaign drew on critical comments from Republicans themselves to portray the 69-year-old Trump as not fit for the Oval Office after the real estate developer repeatedly accused a Mexican-American judge of showing bias against him because of his ethnic heritage.

"The most effective thing to do with Donald Trump is just to get his words out there and let him speak for himself," Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook told CNN on Wednesday.

Mook charged Trump with a history of "erratic behaviour," the same language levelled by the Obama campaign in its defeat of Republican nominee John McCain in 2008.

Trump gave a carefully crafted primary race victory speech on Tuesday laying out his own plan of attack. To keep from straying off message, he used a Teleprompter and avoided his typical stream-of-consciousness delivery.

Trump said money given to the Clinton Foundation charity from foreign donors had earned the Clintons millions of dollars and had a corrupting influence when Clinton was secretary of state.

"Hillary Clinton turned the State Department into her private hedge fund - the Russians, the Saudis, the Chinese - all gave money to Bill and Hillary and got favourable treatment in return. It's a sad day in America when foreign governments with deep pockets have more influence in our own country than our great citizens," Trump said.

He said he would give a speech next week discussing all of the things that have taken place with the Clintons.

CLINTON LEADS

A Reuters/Ipsos poll on Tuesday showed Clinton leading Trump by 10 percentage points nationally, little changed from a week earlier.

Both Clinton and Trump must unite their parties but the Democrat appeared to face the easier path with Sanders, a leftist U.S. senator from Vermont, nearly out of options to challenge her.

Trump has an uphill battle, with many party leaders still opposed to him. U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan described Trump's remarks about the judge as a "textbook definition of a racist comment," but said he would still support him.

Trump said on Wednesday he was "disappointed and surprised" by charges of racism from Republicans.

"I had just won more votes than anyone in the history of the party," he told Time. "But you know, they have to say what they have to say. I'm a big boy. They have to say what they have to say."

Ryan met behind closed doors on Wednesday with House Republicans. An aide said Ryan "discussed with his members the thinking behind his endorsement (of Trump) and how to move forward and reiterated he had confidence Trump would support the House Republican agenda.

"I'd say the general attitude is, 'Good. Now let's just move on,'" said U.S. Representative Chris Collins of New York, a Trump supporter. "The irony here and the frustration was that he's not racist."

Others said Trump needed to stop engaging in petty battles with former rivals and build a fundraising organization. Trump will meet on Thursday in New York with top fundraisers of the Republican National Committee, a party official said.

Hopes flickered among some anti-Trump Republicans that there will be a revolt against him when delegates convene to nominate him formally in Cleveland from July 18 to 21.

Representative Morgan Griffith, a Virginia Republican, said that was unlikely but that Trump needed to improve as a candidate.

"Don't step into the cow pie," Griffith said. "He can't afford to be stepping into any more controversies like that."

Clinton edged Sanders out in a rough-and-tumble battle that stretched over four months and 50 states. She won support, especially among older voters, with a more pragmatic campaign focused on building on the policies of fellow Democrat Obama.

Democratic Party elites are lined up squarely behind Clinton, including most likely Obama, who may endorse her as early as this week. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters that Obama would not endorse until after he meets with Sanders on Thursday.

Obama and Sanders have spoken three times in the past month, Earnest said. The president's eventual endorsement would put pressure on Sanders to exit graciously and throw his support to Clinton. Sanders is also due to meet with Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid.

Obama also has congratulated Clinton on her nomination win. Clinton won California by 56 percent to Sanders' 43 percent, avoiding what would have been an embarrassing loss for her in America's most populous state.

(Additional reporting by Susan Heavey, Doina Chiacu, Emily Stephenson, David Morgan, Roberta Rampton and Richard Cowan in Washington; Editing by Alistair Bell and Peter Cooney)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
London: The curtain has risen on Harry Potter's latest adventure  and JK Rowling is urging fans not to ruin the magic by letting its secrets out.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has had its first preview at London's Palace Theatre, with audience members given buttons urging them to #keepthesecret.

In a recorded message, Rowling encouraged theatergoers to "let audiences enjoy Cursed Child with all the surprises that we've built into the story."

Rowling has long striven to spare fans spoilers for her immensely popular saga. When the final book in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, was released in 2007, the author pleaded with readers not to give away the secret of whether Harry lived or died.

Cursed Child  staged as two plays  picks up the story 19 years after the climax of the final novel. Its characters include the adult Harry and his younger son, Albus Severus Potter, a student at Hogwarts school.

A synopsis says Harry is now an overworked civil servant in the Ministry of Magic, while his son is struggling "with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted."

The Daily Telegraph said on Wednesday that audience members were "in raptures" after Tuesday's performance, the first night of almost eight weeks of previews.

Rowling has long insisted there will be no new Harry Potter novels, so excitement about the new stage story is stratospherically high.

Rowling worked on the story for the drama, which has a script by Jack Thorne, a stage and screen writer whose work includes the stage adaptation of Swedish vampire story Let the Right One In. It's directed by John Tiffany, who helmed the Tony Award-winning musical Once.

The cast includes Swaziland-born actress Noma Dumezweni as Harry's brainy friend Hermione, a role played in the movies by Emma Watson.

Rowling has said she is disappointed by those who have criticised the casting of a black actress. She said Hermione's race was never specified in the books, and told The Observer that "Hermione can be a black woman with my absolute blessing and enthusiasm."

The plays officially open on 30 July, and the script will be published the next day.
Cairo: A bomb threat forced an EgyptAir aircraft en route to Beijing from Cairo to make an emergency

landing in Uzbekistan on Wednesday, Egyptian officials said, the latest in a series of deadly or damaging air travel incidents involving Egypt.

The plane, an Airbus A-330-220, landed at the airport in the town of Urgench, about 840 kilometres west of the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, three hours after it took off from Cairo at around 11:30 pm on Tuesday.

All 135 passengers and crew on board were evacuated and the aircraft was being searched, the officials said. They had no word on whether a bomb or any other suspicious object was found on board.

According to the Egyptian officials, an anonymous caller telephoned security agents at the Cairo airport to say a bomb was on board the flight.

The agents immediately contacted the aircraft and ordered it to land at the nearest airport, they said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media.

In Russia, the news agency RIA Novosti quoted an unnamed official with Uzbekistan Airways as saying the airport has been closed following the EgyptAir plane's emergency landing.

The incident came nearly three weeks after an EgyptAir flight crashed in the Mediterranean Sea as it was approaching the Egyptian coast while en route to Cairo from Paris.

All 66 people on board were killed and the search for the plane's flight and data recorders - the so called black boxes - is still underway.

Egyptian officials say the Paris-Cairo plane was most likely downed by an act of terror.

Last October, a Russian airliner crashed in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula shortly after taking off from the Egyptian resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh, killing all 224 people on board.

A local affiliate of the extremist Islamic State group claimed responsibility for downing the aircraft just hours after the crash.

In November, Russia said an explosive device brought down the aircraft.

The Russian airliner's crash has decimated Egypt's already battered tourism industry. While the cause of the May 19 EgyptAir crash remains unknown, it has associated Egypt with another air disaster that further dented the once lucrative industry.
Melbourne: Five Indian-origin people, including two women, are among the 200 candidates contesting for next month's General Elections in Australia.

In the House of Representatives all 150 seats will be contested, as well as the 76 Senate seats  the first time this has happened in an early election since 1987.

The Indian-origin candidates in the fray include two women of Indian background, 51-year-old Australian Sikh Alex Bhathal representing the Greens Party and 43-year-old Fiji Indian Lisa Singh of Labor Party.

Shashi Bhatti, who migrated from India in 1989 and Chris Gambian, an Australian born to Indian parents from Bangalore, are also contesting the elections from Labor Party.

39-year-old Mohit Kumar is the only India-born who is contesting the elections from Liberal party. He is a Faridabad resident who migrated to Australia in 1994 as an international student.

Kumar said it was his consistent hardwork that paid off for him to win the party ticket.

It was imperative for Indians to join the high offices of the country and to be a part of policy making, he said.

"True multiculturalism does not come from lip service or attending Indian events. It also comes from having a fair representation at all the levels including government, parliament, business and other areas," Kumar said.

Gambian said, while there was a low representation of Indians in the Australian politics more Indian background people should become its part.

"I joined the Labor party when I was 16-years-old and I thought it was a party of social justice and fairness," Gambian said adding that his key to win the party was getting involved in party works and believing party policies.

On 8 May, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had announced that Australia will hold elections on 2 July, barely eight months after he ousted his predecessor Tony Abbott, promising to revive the sluggish economy.
The United States and India: Enduring Global Partners in the 21st Century

1) The Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi and the President of the United States of America Barack Obama met today in the White House during an official working visit of Prime Minister Modi to the United States. Marking their third major bilateral summit, the leaders reviewed the deepening strategic partnership between the United States and India that is rooted in shared values of freedom, democracy, universal human rights, tolerance and pluralism, equal opportunities for all citizens, and rule of law. They pledged to pursue new opportunities to bolster economic growth and sustainable development, promote peace and security at home and around the world, strengthen inclusive, democratic governance and respect for universal human rights, and provide global leadership on issues of shared interest.

2) The leaders welcomed the significant progress made in bilateral relations between India and the United States during their tenure, in accordance with the roadmaps set out in the Joint Statements issued during Prime Minister Modis visit to the United States in September 2014 and President Obamas visit to India in January 2015. The leaders affirmed the increasing convergence in their strategic perspectives and emphasised the need to remain closely invested in each others security and prosperity.

Advancing US-India Global Leadership on Climate and Clean Energy

3) The steps that the two Governments have taken in the last two years through the US-India Contact Group, including by addressing the nuclear liability issue, inter alia, through Indias ratification of the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage, have laid a strong foundation for a long-term partnership between US and Indian companies for building nuclear power plants in India. Culminating a decade of partnership on civil nuclear issues, the leaders welcomed the start of preparatory work on site in India for six AP 1000 reactors to be built by Westinghouse and noted the intention of India and the US Export-Import Bank to work together toward a competitive financing package for the project. Once completed, the project would be among the largest of its kind, fulfilling the promise of the US-India civil nuclear agreement and demonstrating a shared commitment to meet Indias growing energy needs while reducing reliance on fossil fuels. Both sides welcomed the announcement by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd, and Westinghouse that engineering and site design work will begin immediately and the two sides will work toward finalising the contractual arrangements by June 2017.

4) The United States and India share common climate and clean energy interests and are close partners in the fight against climate change. Leadership from both countries helped galvanise global action to combat climate change and culminated in the historic Paris Agreement reached last December. Both countries are committed to working together and with others to promote full implementation of the Paris Agreement to address the urgent threats posed by climate change. India and the United States recognise the urgency of climate change and share the goal of enabling entry into force of the Paris Agreement as early as possible. The United States reaffirms its commitment to join the Agreement as soon as possible this year. India similarly has begun its processes to work toward this shared objective. The leaders reiterated their commitment to pursue low greenhouse gas emission development strategies in the pre-2020 period and to develop long-term low greenhouse gas emission development strategies. In addition, the two countries resolved to work to adopt an HFC amendment in 2016 with increased financial support from donor countries to the Multilateral Fund to help developing countries with implementation, and an ambitious phasedown schedule, under the Montreal Protocol pursuant to the Dubai Pathway. The leaders resolved to work together at the upcoming International Civil Aviation Organisation Assembly to reach a successful outcome to address greenhouse gas emissions from international aviation. Further, the two countries will pursue under the leadership of the G20 strong outcomes to promote improved heavy-duty vehicle standards and efficiency in accordance with their national priorities and capabilities.

5) The leaders welcomed the signing of an MOU to Enhance Cooperation on Energy Security, Clean Energy and Climate Change, and an MOU on Cooperation in Gas Hydrates.

6) Reflecting Prime Minister Modis call to embrace wildlife conservation as a development imperative, the leaders welcomed the signing of an MOU to enhance cooperation on Wildlife Conservation and Combating Wildlife Trafficking.

Clean Energy Finance

7) The United States supports the Government of Indias ambitious national goals to install 175 GW of renewable power which includes 100 GW from solar power.

8) The United States welcomes the launch of the International Solar Alliance (ISA), recognises the critical role it can play in the development and deployment of solar power, and intends pursuing membership in the ISA. To this end, and to strengthen ISA together, the United States and India will jointly launch the third Initiative of the ISA which will focus on off-grid solar for energy access at the Founding Conference of ISA in September, 2016 in India. The United States also remains committed, with other developed countries, to the goal of jointly mobilising $100 billion per year by 2020 to address the needs of developing countries in the context of meaningful mitigation and adaptation action.

9) The United States is committed to bring to bear its technical capacity, resources and private sector, and is jointly launching with India new efforts, to spur greater investment in Indias renewable energy sector, including efforts that can serve as a model for other ISA Member Countries. In particular, the United States and India today are announcing: the creation of a $20 million US-India Clean Energy Finance (USICEF) initiative, equally supported by the United States and India, which is expected to mobilise up to $400 million to provide clean and renewable electricity to up to 1 million households by 2020; a commitment to establish the US-India Clean Energy Hub as the coordinating mechanism to focus United States Government efforts that, in partnership with leading Indian financial institutions, will increase renewable energy investment in India; a $40 million US-India Catalytic Solar Finance Program, equally supported by the United States and India, that, by providing needed liquidity to smaller-scale renewable energy investments, particularly in poorer, rural villages that are not connected to the grid, could mobilise up to $1 billion of projects; the expansion of handholding support to Indian utilities that are scaling up rooftop solar and continuation of successful cooperation with USAID on Greening the Grid.

10) The United States and India also remain committed to the goals of Mission Innovation, which they jointly launched during COP-21 in Paris to double their respective clean energy research and development (R&D) investment in five years. Toward this end, the two leaders reaffirmed their commitment to cooperate on research and development, including through the announcement of an upcoming $30 million public-private research effort in smart grid and grid storage.

Strengthening Global Nonproliferation

11) The President thanked the Prime Minister for his substantive contribution to and active participation in 2016 Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, D.C., and welcomed his offer to host a Summit on Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Terrorism in 2018. The United States and India will work together to combat the threat of terrorists accessing and using chemical, biological, nuclear and radiological materials.

12) Recalling their shared commitment to preventing proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery, the leaders looked forward to Indias imminent entry into the Missile Technology Control Regime. President Obama welcomed Indias application to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), and re-affirmed that India is ready for membership. The United States called on NSG Participating Governments to support Indias application when it comes up at the NSG Plenary later this month. The United States also re-affirmed its support for Indias early membership of the Australia Group and Wassenaar Arrangement.

Securing the Domains: Land, Maritime, Air, Space, and Cyber

13) The leaders applauded the completion of a roadmap for cooperation under the 2015 US-India Joint Strategic Vision for the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean Region, which will serve as a guide for collaboration in the years to come. They resolved that the United States and India should look to each other as priority partners in the Asia-Pacific and the Indian Ocean region.

14) They welcomed the inaugural meeting of the Maritime Security Dialogue. Owing to mutual interest in maritime security and maritime domain awareness, the leaders welcomed the conclusion of a technical arrangement for sharing of maritime White Shipping information.

15) The leaders affirmed their support for US-India cooperation in promoting maritime security. They reiterated the importance they attach to ensuring freedom of navigation and overflight and exploitation of resources as per international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and settlement of territorial disputes by peaceful means.

16) The leaders applauded the enhanced military to military cooperation between the two countries especially in joint exercises, training and Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HA/DR). They expressed their desire to explore agreements which would facilitate further expansion of bilateral defence cooperation in practical ways. In this regard, they welcomed the finalisation of the text of the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA).

17) Noting that the US-India defence relationship can be an anchor of stability, and given the increasingly strengthened cooperation in defence, the United States hereby recognises India as a Major Defence Partner. As such:

- The United States will continue to work toward facilitating technology sharing with India to a level commensurate with that of its closest allies and partners. The leaders reached an understanding under which India would receive license-free access to a wide range of dual-use technologies in conjunction with steps that India has committed to take to advance its export control objectives.

- In support of Indias Make In India initiative, and to support the development of robust defence industries and their integration into the global supply chain, the United States will continue to facilitate the export of goods and technologies, consistent with US law, for projects, programs and joint ventures in support of official US-India defence cooperation.

18) The leaders also committed to enhance cooperation in support of the Government of Indias Make In India Initiative and expand the co-production and co-development of technologies under the Defence Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI). They welcomed the establishment of new DTTI working groups to include agreed items covering Naval Systems, Air Systems, and other Weapons Systems. The leaders announced the finalisation of the text of an Information Exchange Annex under the Joint Working Group on Aircraft Carrier Technology Cooperation.

19) President Obama thanked Prime Minister Modi for his governments support for the Defence POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) missions in India, including a recovery mission that resulted in the recent repatriation of remains of the United States Service Members missing since the Second World War. The leaders announced their commitment to future DPAA missions.

20) As space faring nations, India and the United States acknowledge that outer space should be an ever expanding frontier of human endeavour, and look forward to deepening their cooperation on earth observation, Mars exploration, space education and manned space flight. The leaders welcomed the progress toward establishment of an ISRO-NASA Heliophysics Working Group as well as toward finalisation of a Memorandum of Understanding for exchange of earth observation satellite data.

21) The leaders emphasised that cyberspace enables economic growth and development, and reaffirmed their commitment to an open, interoperable, secure, and reliable Internet, underpinned by the multistakeholder model of Internet governance. They committed to deepen cooperation on cybersecurity and welcomed the understanding reached to finalise the Framework for the US-India Cyber Relationship in the near term. They committed to enhance cyber collaboration on critical infrastructure, cybercrime, and malicious cyber activity by state and non-state actors, capacity building, and cybersecurity research and development, and to continue discussions on all aspects of trade in technology and related services, including market access. They have committed to continue dialogue and engagement in Internet governance fora, including in ICANN, IGF and other venues, and to support active participation by all stakeholders of the two countries in these fora. The leaders committed to promote stability in cyberspace based on the applicability of international law including the United Nations Charter, the promotion of voluntary norms of responsible state behavior during peacetime, and the development and implementation of practical confidence building measures between states.

22) In this context, they affirmed their commitment to the voluntary norms that no country should conduct or knowingly support online activity that intentionally damages critical infrastructure or otherwise impairs the use of it to provide services to the public; that no country should conduct or knowingly support activity intended to prevent national computer security incident response teams from responding to cyber incidents, or use its own teams to enable online activity that is intended to do harm; that every country should cooperate, consistent with its domestic law and international obligations, with requests for assistance from other states in mitigating malicious cyber activity emanating from its territory; and that no country should conduct or knowingly support ICT-enabled theft of intellectual property, including trade secrets or other confidential business information, with the intent of providing competitive advantages to its companies or commercial sectors.

Standing Together Against Terrorism and Violent Extremism

23) The leaders acknowledged the continued threat posed to human civilisation by terrorism and condemn the recent terrorist incidents from Paris to Pathankot, from Brussels to Kabul. They resolved to redouble their efforts, bilaterally and with other like-minded countries, to bring to justice the perpetrators of terrorism anywhere in the world and the infrastructure that supports them.

24) Building on the January 2015 US-India Joint Statement commitment to make the US-India partnership a defining counterterrorism relationship for the 21st Century, as well as the September 2015 US-India Joint Declaration on Combatting Terrorism, the leaders announced further steps to deepen collaboration against the full spectrum of terrorist threats.

25) The leaders committed to strengthen cooperation against terrorist threats from extremist groups, such as Al-Qaeda, Daesh/ISIL, Jaish-e Mohammad, Lashkar-e-Taiba, D-Company and their affiliates, including through deepened collaboration on UN terrorist designations. In this context, they directed their officials to identify specific new areas of collaboration at the next meeting of USIndia Counterterrorism Joint Working Group.

26) Recognising an important milestone in the US-India counterterrorism partnership, the leaders applauded the finalisation of an arrangement to facilitate the sharing of terrorist screening information. They also called for Pakistan to bring the perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai and 2016 Pathankot terrorist attacks to justice.

27) The leaders affirmed their support for a UN Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism that advances and strengthens the framework for global cooperation and reinforces that no cause or grievance justifies terrorism.

Bolstering Economic and Trade Ties

28) The leaders highlighted the strong and expanding economic relationship between the United States and India and committed to support sustainable, inclusive, and robust economic growth, and common efforts to stimulate consumer demand, job creation, skill development and innovation in their respective countries.

29) In order to substantially increase bilateral trade, they pledged to explore new opportunities to break down barriers to the movement of goods and services, and support deeper integration into global supply chains, thereby creating jobs and generating prosperity in both economies. They look forward to the second annual Strategic and Commercial Dialogue in India later this year to identify concrete steps in this regard. They also commended the increased engagement on trade and investment issues under the Trade Policy Forum (TPF) and encouraged substantive results for the next TPF later this year. They welcomed the engagement of US private sector companies in Indias Smart City program.

30) The leaders applauded the strong bonds of friendship between the 1.5 billion peoples of India and the United States that have provided a solid foundation for a flourishing bilateral partnership, noting that two-way travel for tourism, business, and education has seen unprecedented growth, including more than one million travelers from India to the United States in 2015, and similar number from the United States to India.The leaders resolved to facilitate greater movement of professionals, investors and business travelers, students, and exchange visitors between their countries to enhance people-to-people contact as well as their economic and technological partnership. To this end, they welcomed the signing of an MOU for Development of an International Expedited Traveller Initiative (also known as the Global Entry Program) and resolved to complete within the next three months the procedures for Indias entry into the Global Entry Program.

31) The leaders recognised the fruitful exchanges in August 2015 and June 2016 on the elements required in both countries to pursue a US-India Totalisation Agreement and resolved to continue discussions later this year.

32) Recognising the importance of fostering an enabling environment for innovation and empowering entrepreneurs, the United States welcomes Indias hosting of the 2017 Global Entrepreneurship Summit.

33) The leaders welcomed the enhanced engagement on intellectual property rights under the High Level Working Group on Intellectual Property and reaffirmed their commitment to use this dialogue to continue to make concrete progress on IPR issues by working to enhance bilateral cooperation among the drivers of innovation and creativity in both countries.

34) The United States welcomes Indias interest in joining the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, as India is a dynamic part of the Asian economy.

Expanding Cooperation: Science & Technology and Health

35) The leaders affirmed their nations mutual support in exploring the most fundamental principles of science as embodied in the arrangement reached to cooperate on building a Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) in India in the near future and welcomed the formation of the India-US Joint Oversight Group to facilitate agency coordination of funding and oversight of the project.

36) The leaders look forward to Indias participation at the September 2016 Our Ocean Conference in Washington, D.C. as well as holding of the first India-US Oceans Dialogue later this year, to strengthen cooperation in marine science, ocean energy, managing and protecting ocean biodiversity, marine pollution, and sustainable use of ocean resources.

37) The leaders reaffirmed their commitment to the Global Health Security Agenda and the timely implementation of its objectives. The Prime Minister noted India's role on the Steering Group and its leadership in the areas of anti-microbial resistance and immunisation. The President noted the United States commitment to support, undergo, and share a Joint External Evaluation in collaboration with the World Health Organisation.

38) The leaders recognised the global threat posed by multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and committed to continue collaboration in the area of tuberculosis and to share respective best practices.

39) The leaders noted the growing threat of non-communicable diseases and the urgent need to address the risk factors by, inter alia, promoting healthy lifestyles, controlling sugar and salt intake, promoting physical activity especially among children and youth and strengthening efforts to curb tobacco use. The leaders also reiterated the importance of holistic approaches to health and wellness, and of promoting the potential benefits of holistic approaches by synergising modern and traditional systems of medicine, including Yoga.

40) The leaders strongly endorsed expansion of the India-US Vaccine Action Program, which is fostering public-private research partnerships focused on the development and evaluation of vaccines to prevent tuberculosis, dengue, chikungunya and other globally important infectious diseases.

Global Leadership

41) The leaders reaffirmed their resolve to continue working together as well as with the wider international community to augment the capacity of the United Nations to more effectively address the global development and security challenges. With the historic adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in September 2015, and recognising its universality, the leaders reaffirmed their commitment to implement this ambitious agenda domestically and internationally and work in a collaborative partnership for the effective achievement of Sustainable Development Goals.

42) The leaders reaffirmed their support for a reformed UN Security Council with India as a permanent member. Both sides committed to ensuring that the Security Council continues to play an effective role in maintaining international peace and security as envisioned in the UN Charter. The leaders are committed to continued engagement on Security Council reform in the UN Intergovernmental Negotiations (IGN) on Security Council Reform.

43) The leaders welcomed the successful convening of the Leaders Summit on UN Peacekeeping and committed to deepening engagement on UN peacekeeping capacity-building efforts in third countries, through co-organising the first UN Peacekeeping Course for African Partners in New Delhi later this year for participants from ten countries in Africa. The leaders also reiterated their support for ongoing reform efforts to strengthen UN peacekeeping operations.

44) Building on their respective bilateral engagements with Africa, such as the US-Africa Leaders Summit and India-Africa Forum Summit, the leaders reflected that the United States and India share a common interest in working with partners in Africa to promote prosperity and security across the continent. The leaders welcomed trilateral cooperation with African partners, including in areas such as agriculture, health, energy, women's empowerment and sanitation under the Statement of Guiding Principles on Triangular Cooperation for Global Development. They looked forward to opportunities to deepen the US-India global development cooperation in Africa, as well as in Asia and beyond.

Building People-to-People Ties

45) Both sides committed to open additional consulates in each others country. India will be opening a new consulate in Seattle and the United States will open a new consulate at a mutually agreed location in India.

46) The leaders announced that the United States and India will be Travel and Tourism Partner Countries for 2017, and committed to facilitate visas for each others nationals.

47) Reflecting on the strong educational and cultural bonds between the two countries, the leaders welcomed the growing number of Indian students studying in the United States, which increased by 29 percent to nearly 133,000 students in 2014-2015, and looked forward to increased opportunities for American students to study in India. The leaders also appreciated their governments joint efforts through the Fulbright-Kalam Climate Fellowship to develop a cohort of climate scientists to confront the shared challenge of global climate change.

48) Recognising its mutual goal of strengthening greater people-to-people ties, the leaders intend to renew efforts to intensify dialogue to address issues affecting the citizens of both countries that arise due to differences in the approaches of legal systems, including issues relating to cross-country marriage, divorce and child custody.

49) Prime Minister Modi welcomed the United States repatriation of antiquities to India. The leaders also committed to redouble their efforts to combat the theft and trafficking of cultural objects.

50) Prime Minister Modi thanked President Obama for his gracious invitation and warmth of hospitality. He extended an invitation for President Obama to visit India at his convenience.
Abu Dhabi: US Secretary of State and former presidential candidate John Kerry declared on Wednesday that Hillary Clinton "will make a terrific president."

Speaking on a flight from Beijing to Abu Dhabi, Washington's top diplomat told reporters: "As a father of two daughters, I'm proud."

Kerry was Clinton's successor at the State Department after she left to prepare her bid to become the Democratic presidential nominee.

And he has some idea what she is up against, having himself tried and failed to win the White House for the party in the 2004 campaign.

On Tuesday, Clinton all but guaranteed herself the nomination with victories in the Democrats' last major primary races, including California.

Her opponent, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, has yet to concede but appears to have no practical way to beat her convention delegate count.

President Barack Obama has congratulated Hillary and now Kerry, who has been reluctant to intervene in the campaign, has lent his support.

"I have great respect for the election process which is why I didn't say anything until people had voted last night," he said.

"But that said, I believe that she is in tune with and in touch with major issues... I think she's a great candidate. The American people will decide."

Kerry said he was particularly pleased that Clinton is the first woman chosen as a major party nominee, dubbing this "a truly historic moment."
Lahore, Pakistan: A Pakistani woman was arrested on Wednesday after dousing her daughter with kerosene and burning her alive, allegedly because the girl had defied her family to marry a man she was in love with, police said.

Police official Sheikh Hammad said the killing took place in the eastern city of Lahore, the country's cultural hub, and that the mother was arrested the same day.

The suspect, Parveen Rafiq, has confessed to tying up her 18-year-old daughter Zeenat Rafiq to a cot after which, with the help of her son, Ahmar Rafiq, she poured the oil on the girl and set her ablaze, Hammad said.

Nearly 1,000 women are killed each year in so-called "honor killings" in Pakistan for allegedly violating conservative norms on love and marriage.

A schoolteacher, Maria Bibi, was assaulted and set on fire last week for refusing to marry a man twice her age. Before she died, she managed to give a statement to the police, testifying that five attackers had broken into her home, dragged her out to an open area, beat her and set her ablaze.

The prime suspect in the case  the father of the man she refused to marry  and the other four are all in custody.

A month earlier, police arrested 13 members of a local tribal council who allegedly strangled a girl and set her on fire for helping a friend elope. The charred body of 17-year-old Ambreen Riasat was found in a burned van.

The daughter killed in Lahore, Zeenat Rafiq, had gotten married last month before a court magistrate to a motorcycle mechanic, Hasan Khan, said Hammad.

Three days ago, he said, the girl's mother and an uncle visited her to try to persuade her to return home and have the marriage ceremony repeated in a traditional family function, instead of being labelled her whole life as someone who had "eloped."

Khan, her husband, told the local Geo News TV station that his bride had feared the worst.

"Don't let me go, they will kill me," Khan recounted his wife telling him.
If you have been following the news, chances are that you would've come across the Stanford University rape case featuring 'promising' swimmer Brock Turner, who was sentenced to a mere six months in jail after sexually assaulting an unconscious and intoxicated woman in January 2015.

If you haven't, here are the key details to bring you up to speed.

On 18 January, 2015, just before 1 am, two cyclists saw Turner on top of a woman near a dumpster, who appeared unconscious, reported SFBay. The report added that the bicyclists had to pin Turner to the ground to stop him from escaping.

Later, the woman, a 23-year-old, told investigators that she drank about four shots of whiskey before going to a 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.

It turned out that Turner had a blood-alcohol level that was twice the legal limit, according to the San Jose Mercury News. And hers was thrice the limit, besides having no recollection of the assault.

What made the case popular were two letters: The first one, that clocks a whopping 7,244 words, written by the victim (who has chosen to stay anonymous) and published in full (on 4 June) by Buzzfeed, who read it aloud to Turner, after she was angry with the "gentle" sentence awarded to him. The harrowing letter provides an exhaustive account of the sexual assault that happened in January last year and her coming to terms with it.

"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 had written.

The letter, which went viral, has been shared widely on social media, sparking outrage both online and offline due to the gravity of the assualt and the pointed questions she faced in court by Turner's lawyer.

Turner initially faced up to 14 years in state prison, after a jury convicted him of sexually penetrating an intoxicated and unconscious person with a foreign object. Prosecutors reportedly asked the judge to sentence him to six years in California prison. Meanwhile, probation officers recommended a lighter penalty of six months in county jail.

Judge Aaron Perksy referring the attacker's age and lack of criminal history, factored in the decision of awarding six months in county jail and said that he wouldn't be a "danger to others". The much-reduced sentence was decided keeping in mind only Turner's future  that he was a star swimmer who could have made it to the Olympics. Turner will be registered as a sex-offender for his whole life and complete a sex offender management program.

The second letter that did the rounds on 5 June was written by Turner's father protesting his son's sentence, calling what he did a "20 minutes of action", and that he paid a "steep price" for it. Naturally, outrage was multiplied manifold: the letter reeked of what's popularly known as white privilege, male privilege, misogyny and rape culture. The letter or statement was posted to Twitter by Michele Dauber, a law professor and sociologist at Stanford, who was part of the committee that was organising a recall challenge to Judge Persky. On Tuesday, a Change.org petition came into being, asking for the removal of Judge Persky from the bench for decision in Brock Turner rape case. As of 10.30 pm on Tuesday, it had 328,192 signatures.

The internet spun into action. A Twitter user Ali Ozeri, 'fixed' Turner's dad's letter. It received more than 12,000 retweets and 15,000 likes.

This case, like every other case of sexual assault and rape, tries to shatter myths that surround it: That alcohol isn't the cause of rape, neither are outlandish causes such as jeans or mannequins. That the culture of victim blaming exists everywhere  Turner's friend chalked it to "political correctness" before being careful not to blame the victim. That a woman's sexual history is relevant to her rape/sexual assault; The Cut listed it as a reason why more women don't report their rapes. That people still support the accused if he is male, white and an "achiever"  even as it has been taken down, a Facebook page insisting that Trump would fix things for Turner with a "well-deserved" pardon. That rape and sexual assault need to be taken seriously.
Washington: India will soon open another consulate in Seattle to cater to the needs of large number of Indian-Americans living in the northwestern part of the US.

"We hope to open a new Indian consulate in Seattle," Indian Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar said after the conclusion of the talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Barack Obama at the White House.

This was reflected in a joint statement issued after Modi-Obama talks.

"Both sides committed to open additional consulates in each other's country. India will be opening a new consulate in Seattle and the US will open a new consulate at a mutually agreed location in India," the joint statement said.

In the joint statement the two countries also announced a series of measures to encourage people-to-people contacts.

Modi and Obama announced that the United States and India will be Travel and Tourism Partner Countries for 2017, and committed to facilitate visas for each other's nationals.

According to a senior administration official the US plans to increase its number of people to issue visas at its diplomatic missions in India.

Reflecting on the strong educational and cultural bonds between the two countries, Modi and Obama welcomed the growing number of Indian students studying in the US which increased by 29 per cent to nearly 1,33,000 students in 2014-2015.

They also look forward to increased opportunities for American students to study in India. They also appreciated their governments' joint efforts through the Fulbright-Kalam Climate Fellowship to develop a cohort of climate scientists to confront the shared challenge of global climate change.

Recognizing its mutual goal of strengthening greater people-to-people ties, the two leaders intend to renew efforts to intensify dialogue to address issues affecting the citizens of both countries that arise due to differences in the approaches of legal systems, including issues relating to cross-country marriage, divorce and child custody, the joint statement said.

The US Embassy and Consulates in India issued more than 76,000 student visas in Fiscal Year 2015. Indian students accounted for the second-largest group of foreign students in the United States in the 2014-2015 school year, with the number of students from India in the US increasing by over 29 per cent to a record high of nearly 1,33,000. Through the Passport to India program, the US government encourages American students to study in India. At the same time, more than a million Americans traveled to India in 2015.

"The announcement that the US and India will be Travel and Tourism Partners in 2017 aims to develop joint efforts and programs to grow these people-to-people and economic linkages. Similarly, the implementation of the Global Entry Program will facilitate travel between the two countries," the White House said in a fact sheet.
Washington: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Congress Wednesday that his nation and the US have overcome "the hesitations of history" and called for ever-stronger economic and defense ties between the two countries.

"Let us work together to convert shared ideals into practical cooperation," Modi said in a speech that lauded both nations' common democratic principles and hailed two heroes of nonviolence, India's Mahatma Gandhi and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

"In advancing this relationship, both nations stand to gain in great measure," he said.

Modi's address followed years of being shunned in the US because of religious violence in his home state. Underscoring the turnabout, it came a day after a White House meeting with President Barack Obama and preceded a lunch Modi will have in the Capitol with congressional leaders and a reception hosted by the House and Senate foreign affairs committees.

"Today, our relationship has overcome the hesitations of history," he said. "Comfort, candour and convergence define our conversations."

Modi drew laughter from the lawmakers crowding the House chamber for the joint meeting of Congress with a tongue-in-cheek description of the rough and tumble politics of the US.

"I am informed that the working of the US Congress is harmonious. I am also told that you are well-known for your bipartisanship," he said. "Well, you are not alone."

When Modi evoked US-India cooperation on climate change, Democrats rose in applause, but most Republicans stayed seated.

He also emphasised the common cultural ties between the two nations.

Modi cited estimates that "more Americans bend for yoga than to throw a curve ball." And he described the achievements of Indian-Americans, saying they are among the US' best business executives, scientists, "even spelling bee champions."

When Modi applauded the sacrifices of soldiers from "the land of the free and the home of the brave" in the service of liberty, he clapped his hands above his head, prompting a standing ovation.

Modi said his nation's 1.25 billion people made India an "ideal partner" for US businesses. He said his goals include strengthening his country's rural economy, bringing electricity to all of the country's households and improving transportation systems, all achieved "with a light carbon footprint."

Citing the rising threat from the Islamic State and other extremist groups, he said, "We have both lost civilians and soldiers in combatting it. The need of the hour is for us to deepen our security cooperation."

At his meeting with Obama, the two leaders consolidated strong bilateral ties but fell short of major outcomes.

India, the world's third-largest carbon emitter among nations, said it would strive to formally join a global climate deal this year  as the US and China have said they will do  but it gave no ironclad commitment.

There was also some progress on a landmark civilian nuclear agreement between the US and India that was reached in 2008. The two governments said that U.S.-based Westinghouse Electric Co is preparing to build six nuclear reactors in India, but it has yet to finalise a contract.

Though the two countries' ties are growing stronger, there's also a sense in Congress that the relationship has yet to deliver on its promise and some lawmakers have criticised the Modi government's record on religious tolerance and combating human trafficking and slavery.

Modi is the fifth Indian leader to make a speech to Congress since 1985. The last was by his predecessor, Manmohan Singh, in 2005.

Coincidentally, it was that year that Modi was denied a visa to visit the U.S. over suspicions about his possible role in religious riots that killed more than 1,000 Muslims in the western state of Gujarat, where he was then the top official.

American officials largely avoided contact with Modi until he became prime minister in the 2014. Since then, he has visited the US four times.

His tenure has seen an improvement in the bilateral relationship, particularly in defense. While India resists the notion of becoming a US ally, the two militaries conduct more drills with each other than with any other nation. They share concern over China's rise and over freedom of navigation in the Asia-Pacific region.

Modi is also seen as a pro-business leader. There's been some easing of foreign investment restrictions, and trade has grown at a fair clip in recent years, but lawmakers have complained about continuing bureaucratic hurdles and investment limits and over the halting pace of liberalisation in India.
Washington: Ushering in a new era of collaboration in the cybersphere, India and the US will sign a framework for the bilateral cyber relationship between the two countries within the next two months.

The announcement in this regard was made in a joint statement after the White House meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Barack Obama.

During the meeting the two leaders emphasized that cyberspace enables economic growth and development, and reaffirmed their commitment to an open, interoperable, secure, and reliable Internet, underpinned by the multi stakeholder model of Internet governance.

"They committed to deepen cooperation on cybersecurity and welcomed the understanding reached to finalize the Framework for the US-India Cyber Relationship in the near term," the joint statement said.

A fact sheet issued by the White House said the framework would be signed within 60 days.

During the meeting Modi and Obama committed to enhance cyber collaboration on critical infrastructure, cybercrime, and malicious cyber activity by state and non-state actors, capacity building, and cybersecurity research and development, and to continue discussions on all aspects of trade in technology and related services, including market access.

They have committed to continue dialogue and engagement in Internet governance fora, including in ICANN, IGF and other venues, and to support active participation by all stakeholders of the two countries in these fora.

Obama and Modi committed to promote stability in cyberspace based on the applicability of international law including the United Nations Charter, the promotion of voluntary norms of responsible state behaviour during peacetime, and the development and implementation of practical confidence building measures between states.

According to the White House fact sheet, cooperation on cyber issues is a key component of the bilateral relationship between India and the United States.

The two countries have a strategic cyber relationship that reflects their shared values, common vision, and shared principles for cyberspace.

Both sides recognize the value of enhancing and further institutionalizing their broad-based cooperation on cyber issues, and in that respect, intend to complete a framework based on the following shared principles and intended forms of cooperation, it said.

The fact sheet said the two countries committed to voluntary norms under which a state should not conduct or knowingly support online activity that intentionally damages critical infrastructure or otherwise impairs the use of critical infrastructure to provide services to the public.

"A state should not conduct or knowingly support activity intended to prevent national Computer Security Incident Response Teams (CSIRTs) from responding to cyber incidents.

States should also not use CSIRTs to enable online activity that is intended to do harm," the fact sheet said. The two countries agreed that a state should cooperate, in a manner consistent with its domestic law and international obligations, with requests for assistance from other States in investigating cyber crimes, collecting electronic evidence and mitigating malicious cyber activity emanating from its territory.

They also agreed that a state should not conduct or knowingly support ICT-enabled theft of intellectual property, including trade secrets or other confidential business information, with the intent of providing competitive advantages to companies or commercial sectors.

Shared principles for the US-India cyber relationship include, a commitment to an open, interoperable, secure, and reliable cyberspace environment; a commitment to promote the Internet as an engine for innovation, economic growth, and trade and commerce; and a commitment to promote the free flow of information.

It also includes a commitment to promote cooperation between and among the private sector and government authorities on cybercrime and cybersecurity; a recognition of the importance of bilateral and international cooperation for combating cyber threats and promoting cybersecurity; and a commitment to respect cultural and linguistic diversity.
London: A UK court on Tuesday dropped a case of "sexual grooming" against an Indian-origin British journalist and columnist Hasan Suroor for lack of evidence and declared him not guilty.

Suroor, who was arrested by British Transport Police (BTP) last November after an anti-paedophile sting operation in London, is now planning to sue the vigilante group, Unknown TV, behind the sting for damages.

"Following a further review of the case there is now no longer a realistic prospect of conviction," the UK's Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) told Blackfriars Crown Court in a written submission on Tuesday.

The judge ruled that he had decided to return an "unequivocal verdict of not guilty".

A written order declaring Suroor innocent is to be issued on 24 June along with a ruling on his application for his legal costs to be reimbursed.

Suroor's lawyer Paul Mason said: "The robust stand we took has paid off."

The CPS is yet to officially comment on the case.

Suroor had been caught on camera as he was confronted by members of Unknown TV, organisers of the sting operation who alleged he was waiting for a 14-year-old girl.

A member of the anti-paedophile vigilante group had allegedly posed as a 14-year-old and allegedly solicited Suroor on social media.

Groups such as Unknown TV pose as minors on dating and social networking sites in an attempt to catch adult men who solicit sex with minors.
Islamabad: India's recent test-firing of an anti-ballistic missile system may give it a "false sense" of security but could lead to "unexpected complications", Pakistan's Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz has warned.

Expressing serious concern over the 15 May successful test-firing of indigenously developed supersonic interceptor missile capable of destroying any incoming ballistic missile from a test range off Odisha coast, Aziz said such actions are contrary to India's policy of a friendly neighbourhood.

The criticism came in Tuesday's Senate meeting, the Express Tribune reported on Wednesday. "Massive conventional nuclear and missile development programmes pursued by India are now leading to nuclearisation of the Indian Ocean," Aziz said in government's response to the Senate.

"The development of an anti-ballistic missile system (ABM) may give India a false sense of security, leading to unexpected complications. Such actions are also contrary to the policy of a peaceful and friendly neighbourhood, which our prime minister (Nawaz Sharif) has repeatedly espoused," he said.

Pakistan has serious concerns over these developments and will take "all necessary measures to augment its defence capabilities", Aziz said. Senator Javed Abbasi of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) said the "balance of power has been disturbed in South Asia the way it was disturbed following India's nuclear tests in 1998."

"I'm not aware of our military's response, but I suggest that the security establishment take note of the Indian interceptor missile test and devise a strategy accordingly," he said.

"The (interceptor missile) test has increased military threats from India," said Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed of opposition Pakistan Muslim League Quaid-e-Azam (PMLQ). Referring to the upcoming meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) in Seoul, Mushahid said ground was being prepared for India's elevation to the NSG.

"This is our diplomatic failure. The Indians are encircling us from all sides. Even our immediate neighbours, like Afghanistan and Iran, have gone to India. It's a result of our failed diplomacy and traditionally passive foreign policy," he added.

Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Senator Farhatullah Babar blamed flawed security policies for the foreign policy debacle. "Isn't it a reality that we protected non-state actors to further our security agenda? Our age-old policy of harbouring non-state actors is taking toll on us," he said.

Chairman of the Senate Raza Rabbani said a clear strategy must be devised to respond to the situation created by India's missile test.
Tokyo: Japanese banks that lost some 1.8 billion yen ($16.5 million) when fake overseas cards were

used at convenience store ATMs are scrambling to combat such fraud.

Seven Bank, which operates ATMs in the 7-Eleven convenience store chain, halved its withdrawal limit to 50,000 yen from 100,000 yen for customers using non-Japanese cards.

E-net, a joint-banking service whose members include national and regional banks, reduced its withdrawal limit to 40,000 yen from the previous 2,00,000 yen for non-Japanese cards.

The illegal withdrawals were made using fake cards of a South African bank in just a few hours on May 15 at more than 1,000 ATMs in 17 prefectures (states), according to Japanese media reports.

Police have arrested three suspects so far, one in Tokyo and two in Aichi prefecture in central Japan. In the latest development, police found a manual with detailed instructions on how to use fake cards to withdraw money from ATMs, national broadcaster NHK reported yesterday.

Masatoshi Ogihara, a Seven Bank spokesman, said the bank is strengthening monitoring and cooperation with police but declined to provide specifics for security reasons.

China Union Pay cardholders used to be able to withdraw up to 2,00,000 yen at Seven Bank, Ogihara said, but are also now limited to 50,000 yen.

Money was also taken at Japan Post Bank ATMs. Hayato Kayanuma, a spokesman for the postal bank, said it is working on plans to deal with the fraud but has not lowered the withdrawal limit. He added that the plans would not affect cards issued in Japan.
LIMA Former investment banker Pedro Pablo Kuczynski had a wafer-thin lead on Tuesday over rival Keiko Fujimori in the latest tally from Peru's presidential race, with tens of thousands of votes from abroad and in remote jungle villages still to be counted.

The results in Peru's tightest election in at least 50 years gave Kuczynski a 0.34 percentage point edge over Fujimori, the daughter of a jailed former president.

Ballots from Peruvians living in the United States and Europe were still trickling in would likely decide the election. A partial count suggested they would favour Kuczynski, a 77-year-old former prime minister who worked for years on Wall Street.

The margin between the two business-friendly candidates widened to 57,000 votes in the latest update by Peru's electoral office, ONPE, two days after polls closed.

Preliminary results on Sunday and quick counts of sample ballots by reputable polling firms had put Fujimori, the daughter of jailed ex-President Alberto Fujimori, behind Kuczynski by about one percentage point.

"We're optimistic," Kuczynski told reporters as he headed to a country club in Lima's financial district to work out.

With the race so close, Fujimori, who has largely been out of the public eye since Sunday, does not plan to accept possible defeat until 100 percent of the votes are counted, a person close to the candidate said on condition of anonymity.

TV images showed Fujimori smiling and waving from a car on Tuesday.

With 97 percent of the ballots counted two days after the election, Kuczynski won 50.17 percent of valid votes compared with Fujimori's 49.83 percent, according to ONPE.

More ballots than that - 98.7 percent - had been processed, but about 1.7 percent of them were being questioned due to lack of clarity and would be settled by local electoral panels.

"We have to be very cautious," said Mariano Cucho, the head of ONPE, in broadcast comments. He said a full ballot count will probably not be finished until the weekend.

Ballots, mostly from Peruvians living in the United States and Europe, were still arriving, according to ONPE. A count of about 80 percent of U.S. votes showed Kuczynski with an eight-point lead over Fujimori, and a partial count of votes from Europe showed Kuczynski had a bigger advantage.

Market reaction has been muted, as both candidates would continue the country's free-market economic model in the mineral-rich Andean nation.

A week ago, Fujimori had been the favourite to win. But Kuczynski caught up with her in final opinion polls as Peruvians weighed the legacy of her father, who was convicted of corruption and human rights abuse, and scandals involving her own close advisers.

Some Peruvians credit the elder Fujimori with defeating violent Shining Path guerillas and building rural schools during his decade-long rule.

Kuczynski has promised to invest in infrastructure projects and lower sales taxes to revive economic growth that has slowed with tumbling mineral prices.

(Additional reporting by Caroline Stauffer; Editing by Leslie Adler and Tom Brown)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Washington: Prime Minister Narendra Modi Tuesday discussed the challenges posed by extremism with US President Barack Obama and the two leaders underlined the need to ensure the participation of civil society and minority communities to address the issue, officials said.

The Prime Minister and the President had a very extensive and thoughtful conversation about the rise of extremism and the need for all countries to work together to address this challenge, a senior administration official said.

The two leaders also underlined the need to ensure that the civil society and the minority communities are fully participating in addressing the issue, the official said.

However, there was no specific discussion on human rights issues and religious freedom on India, officials said.

"No, I do not believe the subject came up today in the discussions," Indian Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar said.

Meanwhile, Tom Lantos, Human Rights Commission held a hearing to examine the current state of human rights in India, challenges to fundamental freedom and opportunities for advancement.

Testifying before the Commission, several experts expressed their concern over the human rights condition in India.

In a related development, a bipartisan group of 18 House members  led by Representatives Trent Franks and Betty McCollum wrote to the House Speaker Paul Ryan urging him to prioritize religious freedom in India during his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, especially in light of ongoing

violence and harassment against religious minorities, including Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, and Sikhs.

Modi is scheduled to address a joint session of the US Congress today.

"We respectfully request that during your meetings with the Prime Minister, the 'shared value' of the fundamental right of religious freedom will be a priority in your conversation.

"Religious minority communities have endured ongoing violence and harassment for decades in India, and continue to live in a climate where known perpetrators commit violence with impunity," the Members of Congress wrote.

"It is in the best interest of the US and India to reaffirm religious freedom as a shared value in this growing partnership, and ensure that conversation concerning justice and accountability for such horrific acts of violence continues," the letter said.

In the letter, the lawmakers cite several specific examples of violent attacks that have killed or displaced

religious minorities.

Human rights groups in India have investigated and traced these attacks to specific groups, but a current climate of impunity exists in India around such attacks and many victims never receive justice, they said.

"As we consider the shared values of the US and India, due attention to the fundamental human right of religious freedom is of the utmost importance," Franks said.

"Religious minority communities in India have endured incidents of harassment, discrimination, intimidation and violent attacks for decades, often with little hope for justice.

"It is my sincere hope that every person in India will experience true freedom of faith, regardless of religion," he said.

"The important relationship between India and the US is based on our shared democratic values. Religious minorities in India deserve the freedom to live out their faith without fear," McCollum said.

The Congressmen who signed on the letter were Chris Smith, Juan Vargas, Andre Carson, Keith Ellison, Patrick Meehan, Keith Rothfus, Randy Weber, Dan Kildee, Mike Honda, John Conyers Jr, John Garamendi, Robert Aderholt, Anna Eshoo, Joe Pitts, Barbara Lee, and David Valadao.
Washington: Observing that the world needs a new engine of growth, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said India is poised to contribute as the new engine of global growth and asserted that a larger Indian economy has "multiple benefits" for the world.

"This is the time when the world needs new engine of growth. It would be nice if the new engines are democratic engines," Modi said in his address to the American business community at the annual gala of the US India Business Council (USIBC).

"Today India is poised to contribute as a new engine of global growth. A larger Indian economy has multiple benefits for the world," the Prime Minister said as he listed out the achievements of his government in economic reforms and liberalisation of policies.

As a result, India has now emerged as the one of the fastest growing economies of the world and urged the American businesses to come and invest in India, set up efficient manufacturing units.

"India is much more than a market," he said, adding that it is a "reliable partner", as he listed out the key features of a resurgent Indian economy that is geared to become "driver of global economy".

The Prime Minister said that a larger Indian economy has multiple benefits for the world.

The Prime Minister said as India marches ahead on the path of development, it needs to learn from the America experience, in particular its entrepreneurship, technological advancement and products which ranges from drugs to drones.

"Indeed, to me America is not just has a great past, but it is a country with an exciting future," the Prime Minister said.

Modi exuded confidence that Indo-US partnership would benefit both the countries.

Modi said his government has taken decisive steps to curb corruption.

"We would continue to have disciplined and prudent macroeconomic policies," he told the US corporate leadership.

"We would continue to improve the investment climate and ease of doing business," the Prime Minister said, adding his government wants to make India a destination which not only welcomes businesses but also it is easier to do business.

Modi urged developed countries to open their market.

"We see this as a win-win situation," he said.

He assured the US corporate world to make its taxation system transparent.

India, he said would continue to open up the defence sector.

"We are exploring a simpler and transparent licensing system. The purchase of six nuclear reactors from Westinghouse which would mark a new era in the field nuclear energy in India," the PM said.

Clean Ganga campaign is on the verge of taking off. It is a high priority of the Modi government, he said, adding that his aim is to restore Ganga to its pristine glory.

"We have begun our journey to transform India," he said, adding that this would transform the world and other countries also.

Earlier, Vikas Swarup, spokes person of the ministry of external affairs, tweeted that USIBC has indicated that its members are on track to invest $45 billion more in India.

A statement tweeted by Swarup cited USIBC chairman John Chambers as saying that 20 percent of its members have invested $28 billion in India in less than two years.

Over the next 2-3 years, this momentum is likely to increase as 20 percent more members are likely to make investments in the country, he said. This, he says, means that the investment will be an additional $45 billion, which is a conservative estimate.

"Given Prime Minister Modi's tracj recors towards implementing Digital India and key economic reforms, we are optimistic that this number will be dramatically exceeded, perhaps even doubled," Chambers was quoted as saying in the tweeted statement.

$45 billion! John Chambers of Cisco tells PM that USIBC members are on track to invest $45 billion in India pic.twitter.com/r1hDoNNBNy  Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) June 7, 2016

With PTI
Washington: Prime Minister Narendra Modis meeting on Tuesday with President Obama began on a propitious note as members of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), agreed to admit India, in a triumph for the prime minister.

A deadline for members of the 34-nation group to object to India's admission had expired on Monday without any raising objections. Strong US backing set India up nicely for membership as rival China does not belong to this elite club of 34 countries that control trade in missile and space technology.

This will give India access to high-end missile technology from across the world and will allow India to purchase top-of-the-line missile systems.The MTCR will also pave the way for India to sell its supersonic BrahMoscruise missiles, which it developed jointly with Russia to third countries. Its a feather in Modis cap, that the development will make India a significant arms exporter for the first time.

"I want to thank my close friend President Obama. We discussed a range of issues. I also thank the US Congress for inviting me," Modi said at the joint press conference after his working lunch at the White House.

The Obama administration has strongly backed India's membership into MTCR and three other export control regimes  the Australia Group, Nuclear Suppliers Group and the Wassenaar Arrangement.

Rome had earlier objected to admitting India into the missile control group because of its spat with India over an Italian marine.

However, Salvatore Girone, who was held in custody at the Italian embassy in New Delhi for four years over the killing of two Indian fishermen in an anti-piracy operation in 2012, was recently allowed to return to Italy. With the matter now resolved, Italy did not object within a 10-day deadline after the group's chair, the Netherlands, wrote to members suggesting India be welcomed.

With the coveted MTCR membership in the bag, India and the US are now expected to fast-track their discussions on the sale of Predator drones to the Indian military. The Predator can fly 770 miles  less than half the range of an F-16. But that's far enough to make the drone a valuable surveillance asset  and armed with two laser-guided AGM-114 Hellfire missiles, the Predator can destroy, as well as seek.
Washington: Prime Minister Narendra Modis substantive address to the joint meeting of the US Congress on Wednesday hit all the right notes and drew thunderous applause from US lawmakers who appeared receptive to his message.

In a not-so-veiled reference to Pakistan, Modi said that while terrorism has spread across the world, it is "incubated in Indias neighborhood."

"Not just in Afghanistan, but elsewhere in South Asia, and globally, terrorism remains the biggest threat," said Modi. "In the territory stretching from west of Indias border to Africa, it may go by different names, from Lashkar-e-Taiba, to Taliban to ISIS."

"But its philosophy is common: of hate, murder and violence. Although its shadow is spreading across the world, it is incubated in Indias neighbourhood."

Modi urged the US Congress to send a clear message to those who "preach and practice" terrorism for political gains.

"Refusing to reward them is the first step towards holding them accountable for their actions," said Modi taking aim at generous US aid to Pakistan.

Members of the US House of Representatives recently threatened to block $450 million in aid to Islamabad unless it does more to fight the Haqqani network, which lawmakers see as a major threat to US forces in Afghanistan.

Modi said that the need of the hour was to isolate those who sponsor terrorists and not distinguish between "good" and "bad" terrorists as terrorism was not just a threat in Afghanistan but elsewhere in South Asia and globally.

Modi closed his remarks with an optimistic view of ties between India and the US, which he called an "indispensable partner."

"Today, our relationship has overcome the hesitations of history. Comfort, candour and convergence define our conversation through the cycle of elections and transitions of administrations the intensity of our engagement has only grown. And, in this exciting journey, the US Congress has acted as its compass," acknowledged Modi.

The Prime Minister said the two countries relationship is "primed for a momentous future. The complaints of the past are behind us, and the foundations of the future are firmly in place."
Islamabad: Pakistan on Wednesday asked NSG member states to be "objective and non-discriminatory" while deciding on expanding the grouping's membership, as Islamabad stepped up diplomatic efforts to raise support for its inclusion in the elite 48-nation bloc, whose membership India is also eyeing.

The Pakistan Foreign Office (FO) said in a statement that Additional Foreign Secretary (UN and Economic Coordination) Tasnim Aslam held a briefing session for the NSG countries' diplomatic missions here ahead of NSG plenary session this month in Vienna.

It said that the briefing was part of the ongoing diplomatic efforts for mobilising support for Pakistan's membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

"The Additional Secretary highlighted the factors which placed Pakistan's application for NSG membership on solid grounds, including Pakistan's technical experience, capability and well-established commitment to non-proliferation and nuclear safety and security," it said.

"While urging NSG countries to adopt objective and non-discriminatory criteria for the membership of non-NPT states, she cautioned against any country specific exemptions which would negatively impact strategic stability in South Asia," according to the statement.

It did not give exact number of envoys who attended the briefing but said that "a large number of ambassadors and other senior level representatives" were present.

The meeting seems to be part of efforts to stop India gaining membership of the group after the US supported it during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's current visit there.

Earlier, Advisor to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs, Sartaj Aziz, told the Senate on Tuesday that Pakistan was making efforts for "non-discriminatory approach" for NSG membership and these efforts would pay off.

It is believed that Pakistan has support of China which has assured that it would not support India's membership until Pakistan was also given the same treatment. Last month Pakistan formally applied for the NSG membership.
Islamabad: Upset over India's "aggressive" foreign policy moves, especially in the wake of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent visits to Afghanistan, Iran, the UAE and Qatar, Pakistani senators have asked the government to immediately "rectify its diplomatic failings".

The senators highlighted the recent visits of Modi to various countries which were considered to be friends of Pakistan, including Saudi Arabia, and expressed concern over India's growing relations with these Islamic Republic countries, it was reported on Wednesday.

The concern of the Senators comes as Modi is on the fourth leg of a five-nation visit that took him to the Afghanistan, Qatar, Switzerland, US and Mexico.

Replying to a discussion on an adjournment motion moved by Pakistan Muslim League (PML)-N's Javed Abbasi on the "recent test of an intercept missile by India contributing to an unhealthy arms race in the region", Advisor to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz on Tuesday asserted that Pakistan would take all possible measures to augment its defence capabilities.

"Pakistan is not oblivious to its defence requirements and upgrading its capabilities through suitable technologies without entering into an arms race," he said, adding that "our efforts for peace and friendship must not be interpreted as our weakness. We are fully capable to defend our people and territory."

Aziz said the country's scientists and experts were monitoring and evaluating the strategic threats that Indian nuclear doctrine posed to national security. He said that despite limited resources, Pakistan had developed a robust nuclear deterrent system.

The advisor said Pakistan was planning to highlight the "dangerous implications" of India's plan to nuclearise the Indian Ocean at all the relevant international forums. He said Pakistan was also considering the option of moving a resolution in the UN General Assembly, seeking to declare the Indian Ocean as nuclear-free.
Islamabad: Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Asif caused outrage after he called portly female opposition lawmaker Shireen Mazari a "tractor trolley" in the National Assembly on Wednesday, evoking strong criticism on social media.

Targeting the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf leader, who was interrupting him loudly throughout his explanation on load-shedding on Ramadan, an exasperated Asif pointed towards her and said: Someone make this tractor trolley keep quiet.

The minister did not stop there, but also commented on her "manly voice".

It will be better if you first transform your masculine voice into a more feminine one, Asif told Mazari.

When Mazari, who comes from the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, stood up in protest and demanded an apology, an unrepentant Asif said: "I am not going to apologise, they can do whatever they want."

Mazari later tweeted, Told Asif if he had any "sharm or haya" he would know how to deal with women but he was besharam and behaya! Luckily my voice louder than his."

Told Kh Asif if he had any "sharm or haya" he wld know how to deal with women but he was besharam & behaya! Luckily my voice louder than his  Shireen Mazari (@ShireenMazari1) June 8, 2016

The PTI leader also said the party will not keep quiet.

An ill-mannered person is governments minister. Khawaja Asif lacks morals and ethics, she added.

Condemning Asif's remarks, PTI spokesman Naeemul Haq said: "Khawaja Asif should be hung upside down for his vulgarity and misbehaviour, and should be beaten with a shoe 25 times in the morning and 25 times in the evening."

Not only did Asifs comments create chaos in the Assembly, but people from across the country took to Twitter to disapprove of his behaviour.

"Khawaja Asif such a disgusting person taking out frustration of rigging? He doesn't deserve to be in NA should apologize on floor," tweeted Sania Khan.

Another tweeter account handled by some Fahim Maqsoon called Asif a "joker" and said "Asif has no manners at all. We don't know what sort of things he says to his wife & mother!"
Washington: Treating Pathankot attack at par with 26/11, President Barack Obama on Wednesday sent out a clear message to Pakistan, asking it to punish its perpetrators amid the US vow to stand with India against terror threats from Pakistan-based groups like JeM, LeT and Dawood "company".

"They (Obama and Modi) called for Pakistan to bring the perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai and 2016 Pathankot terrorist attacks to justice," a joint statement issued after the Obama-Modi meeting at the White House said.

During the meeting, Modi and Obama acknowledged the continued threat posed to human civilisation by terrorism and condemned the recent terrorist incidents from Paris to Pathankot, from Brussels to Kabul, the statement said.

"They resolved to redouble their efforts, bilaterally and with other like-minded countries, to bring to justice the perpetrators of terrorism anywhere in the world and the infrastructure that supports them," the statement said. During the meeting, Obama and Modi committed to strengthen cooperation against terrorist threats from extremist groups, such as "al-Qaeda, Daesh/ISIL, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, D Company and their affiliates, including through deepened collaboration on UN terrorist designations."

"In this context, they directed their officials to identify specific new areas of collaboration at the next meeting of USIndia Counter-terrorism Joint Working Group," the statement said.

"Recognising an important milestone in the US-India counter-terrorism partnership, the leaders applauded the finalisation of an arrangement to facilitate the sharing of terrorist screening information," it said.

Modi and Obama also affirmed their support for a UN Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism that advances and strengthens the framework for global cooperation and reinforces that no cause or grievance justifies terrorism, the statement said.
Dhaka: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday promised to intensify a nationwide anti-terror clampdown, a day after a Hindu priest was hacked to death by Islamic State jihadists in Bangladesh which has seen a series of brutal attacks by Islamists on minorities and secular activists.

"If they (militants) think they could turn Bangladesh upside down, they are wrong . . . they will be exposed to justice in the soil of Bangladesh and their patrons will also not be spared," Hasina said in Parliament. She said the security forces would continue to track down the militants anywhere in the country and they would be exposed to justice even if it takes years or decades.

Hasina's comments came after three operatives of the outlawed Jamaat ul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) were killed in two predawn security raids early Tuesday in Dhaka and north-western Rajshahi while another member of the outfit was killed overnight at Shibganj sub-district in north west Bogra.

"We raided the village in Shibganj after midnight yesterday on a secret tip . . . they (JMB men) opened fire and hurled bombs sensing our presence at the scene forcing us to retaliate when Jausar (slain militant) was killed," said a police officer in Bogra.

A senior police officer familiar with the crackdowns said two of the slain JMB operatives were being looked for attack on a Shiite Mosque last year in Bogra and "one of them was killed early this morning in Shibganj while the other was killed yesterday in Dhaka's Kalshi area."

The intensified anti-terror clampdown call comes as the country witnesses a wave of deadly attacks on secular activists and minorities by militants.

A 70-year-old Hindu priest became the second person from the community to be killed by three suspected Islamic State jihadists this year in the country. The priest was hacked to death by motorcycle-borne men in western Jhenaidah on Tuesday.

The suspected Islamists on Sunday hacked to death a Christian grocer in northwestern Natore and on the same day stabbed and then shot dead wife of a senior police officer who carried out a series of anti-militant operations in Chittagong.

Replying to a question by a lawmaker, Hasina had said the militants had previously carried out their attacks on mosques, temples, pagodas and university teachers and now they made the family member of a police officer their victim.

"They (killers) should not forget that they also have families, who can also be affected by their actions . . . I would request the family members of those who are carrying out the killings, to make them understand it," Hasina had said.
SYDNEY Police in Papua New Guinea have opened fire on university students who were planning to march from their campus to parliament to demand Prime Minister Peter O'Neill face corruption allegations, a provincial governor said on Wednesday.

A major aid agency, which declined to be named as its report was preliminary, said it had information from the university clinic that at least 15 students were wounded, with four killed.

A Port Moresby General Hospital said 10 students had been admitted. "They are in a difficult situation," the admissions officer told Reuters.

Thousands of students at the University of Papua New Guinea in the capital of Port Moresby have been protesting and boycotting classes for weeks amid growing political unrest in the Pacific island nation.

The governor of Oro Province Gary Juffa, a critic of the O'Neill government, said on Twitter that he had spoken directly with students at the protest.

"Informed that several were shot," Juffa said, adding that the incident started with an argument between a metropolitan police superintendent and a student.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation quoted a student, Gerald Peni, saying police fired shots directly into the crowd when students would not let them arrest the president of the student council.

Papua New Guinea's opposition made a fourth unsuccessful attempt this week to unseat O'Neill's government via a no confidence bid, gaining some support from members of the leader's own party.

(Reporting by Jane Wardell, Colin Packham and Jonathan Barrett; Editing by Michael Perry)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
London: Britain's government on Wednesday rushed to extend the voter registration deadline for the upcoming European Union referendum after a website crash raised concerns that people would be denied a chance to vote.

Prime Minister David Cameron urged people to keep trying to register for the 23 June vote on whether or not to stay in the 28-nation bloc. A last-minute rush before the midnight deadline Tuesday stymied the efforts of many wishing to take part, leaving many furious at the technological glitch.

The government said it would extend the deadline to Thursday, but the move is expected to require emergency legislation.

The decision comes after a drive on social media to persuade young people to register. Young people are seen as being largely in favor of remaining in the European Union  and those campaigning for Britain to leave immediately accused the government of trying to skew the result.

Bernard Jenkin  a leading Leave campaigner  argued the government was acting on the "cusp of legality." He said that there needs to be enough time to challenge the new entrants.

"We are not a banana republic," he said. "We shouldn't be making up the rules for our elections as we go along. This is a shambles."

However, the Electoral Commission urged the government to act.

"No one should miss out on voting in this historic referendum because of the problem with the government's registration website last night," said Alex Robertson, director of communications at the commission.
Aleppo: Syrian government air strikes on rebel-held neighbourhoods of Aleppo killed at least 15 civilians on Wednesday, a monitor said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 10 of the dead came in raids just outside the Al-Bayan hospital in the Shaar neighbourhood.

Two children were among four people killed in strikes on the Al-Marja district using barrel bombs  crude explosive devices packed with shrapnel and usually dropped from helicopters, the Observatory said.

One person was killed in a strike on the Al-Maadi neighbourhood.

Rescue workers  known as the White Helmets  gave a higher toll of 23 dead.

Al-Bayan hospital said a member of its staff had been wounded in the strikes and that the building had been evacuated.

An AFP photographer said the hospital entrance had been damaged but the rest of the building was intact.

Aleppo was once Syria's commercial powerhouse, but it has been a battleground since 2012 when rebels seized the east of the city confining the army to the west.

Since then, the rebels have repeatedly pounded government-held areas with rocket and mortar fire, while the army has hit rebel neighbourhoods with air strikes

A truce brokered by Russia and the United States in February has been persistently violated in and around Aleppo.
Back in college, a couple of friends and I had scrambled into an autorickshaw and were travelling from IIT-Delhi to Vasant Vihar. For those of you who are familiar with Delhi, you'd know that the stretch is a tricky, shady one. Soon, a bunch of four boys on two motorcycles started to follow us. They asked for our names, sang dirty songs and tried to ram into the auto to scare us. The driver was quick to dismiss this is as an everyday story.

"Rehne do madam, chale jayenge (Let it be, they will leave)," he said.

Except they didn't. Worried, we called the police, and when we started to report the number plate, the boys left. And yet, 12 hours later, there was the police at my doorstep at 2 am, with raised eyebrows. I was "questioned" for two hours, and then many follow up calls were made for "safety" over the next two days. I was living in a conservative South Indian colony at the time, and this interrogation was met with a lot of speculation. "What did she do?" was the most common question.

All I did was report a case of eve-teasing to the police, and yet I had to face the brunt of it. This is probably why when I read the letter that the Stanford victim read aloud to her attacker in court, I sobbed. I can tell you that I was not the only person to have sobbed in frustration, and this is no isolated case.

Victim-blaming is rampant in India as it is anywhere in the world.

But let's keep our emotions aside on this case, as hard as it may be. There are some crucial questions to be asked, and very scary deductions to be made. The story of the Standford rape case is as follows: Two Swedish PhD students found Brock Turner on top of an unconscious girl behind a dumpster on the Stanford campus on 18 January, 2015 and reported him to the police. After changing his stance multiple times, Guardian reported that he finally settled on blaming the "party culture" of "drinking".

"I wish I had the ability to go back in time and never pick up a drink that night.. At this point in my life, I never want to have a drop of alcohol again. I never want to attend a social gathering that involves alcohol or any situation where people make decisions based on the substances they have consumed. I never want to experience being in a position where it will have a negative impact on my life or someone elses ever again."



If we compare Turner's statement with that of the girl's, it will be amply clear that she talks about the abuse, about the mental trauma, about consent  all of which are valid feelings to feel.

Turner, on the other hand, is quick to push the blame on alcohol, and it's all done so inconspicuously that it's easy for it to escape our notice.

This ability for us to be forgiving of the male in question, while raising our doubts on the woman (her letter gives insight on the multiple questions she was asked by the police about her drinking habits and her sex life) is most evident in the coverage of the case.

Take this Washington Post article for example. A recent Facebook post pointed out that they initially used a bright, vibrant picture of Turner as reference, even though he may take many years to be bright and vibrant again.

They have since taken it down, replacing the image with a mugshot, but if you do a quick Google search on the case, you will notice that very few people have used his mug shot from the night of the assault. Either his yearbook image, or a booking image, which has him wearing a suit, has been used. This has been credited to the fact that his mugshot was not released for a long time.

You may think this is not a big deal, but it is. This is where the apologising begins  "It was just this one time" "Poor thing, one night of drinking has cost him his life" "He was going to be a swimming champion, I feel so bad"  but why should you? He was found on top of an unconscious girl behind a dumpster, and tried to run when caught.

Here's a grim reality: This could have been any of us. We've all been in a place where we've had too much to drink, too soon.

What about the girl's future? How much media space have we dedicated to the abuse survivor? Apart from CNN, whose TV host Ashleigh Banfield used 20 minutes of airtime to read the survivor's statement, word-for-word, there is probably no other instance.

Since then, Turner, who could have been put into jail for 14 years as per the law, was sentenced to six months in county jail and probation, on 2 June. The reasoning given was that a long sentence would have a severe impact on Turner, a swimming champion and potential Olympian.

There is less moral culpability attached to the defendant who is intoxicated, said judge Aaron Persky, according to this Quartz article.

This case also poses important questions like why was there a gap in the release of Turner's mugshot? Would this have been the same if the assaulter in question was not a white male?

Would Turner's father, who said, the sentence was a "steep price to pay for 20 minutes of action feel the same way if he was a father to an abuse survivor?

The Washington Post piece spends much space talking about Turner's life and ambitions as a swimmer and very little about the case in question. They use sentences such as, "Turners future was once bright" or "Although Turners blood-alcohol content was twice the legal driving limit, he testified that he remembered what happened that night. The woman, whose BAC was more than three times the limit, did not."

If you look at the above image of Turner from his yearbook, even you would feel like he's your typical mama's boy and swimmer, with no inclination of abuse. This is the basis of wrongful biases, and as the media we cannot be biased in a sensitive case like this. Take a hard look at Turner's mugshot on the right. That is the boy who assaulted the girl behind a dumpster.

Beyond the judgment and law, there is no grey in this matter. Only blacks and whites. There is an assaulter, and an assault survivor.

The former warrants blame, the latter warrants support. It's really that simple.
CHICAGO U.S. lawmakers are investigating whether U.S. Environmental Protection Agency staff influenced the World Health Organization's review of glyphosate and its finding that the herbicide probably causes cancer, according to a letter sent to the agency on Tuesday.

The letter from the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space and Technology is part of an ongoing investigation into the agency after the EPA posted and withdrew an internal report that said glyphosate was not cancer causing.

One question that lawmakers are trying to answer, according to legislative sources, is whether EPA staff allowed personal bias to colour the agency's scientific review of glyphosate, the chemical in Monsanto Co's (MON.N) Roundup herbicide.

Some EPA staff participated in both the U.S. review and the WHO review. While the committee's line of investigation was not clear, lawmakers cited the contradictory findings of the two reviews.

Those reviews were by the EPA's cancer assessment review committee or CARC and the WHO's cancer arm, the International Agency for Research on Cancer or IARC.

Given the apparent contradictions of the CARC and IARC findings for glyphosate ..., the committee has concerns about the integrity" of the WHO review, the role of EPA officials in that review and their influence on the outcome of the EPA study, the committee's letter to the EPA seen by Reuters said.

According to the letter, lawmakers want congressional staff to interview four top EPA officials who were involved in one or both reviews of glyphosate.

An EPA spokeswoman said Tuesday the agency had received the letter, was reviewing it and would respond.

In an earlier letter EPA sent to the committee, the agency said that publishing the cancer assessment review committee's report was an accident and that the cancer review was still ongoing.

The EPA said it was "currently reviewing our standard operating procedures for the release of documents to avoid the inadvertent release of pre-decisional information in the future."

The congressional committee began its investigation into the EPA last month after the report by the EPA's cancer assessment review committee became briefly public.

The report found that glyphosate was "not likely" to be carcinogenic to humans. It also appeared to dispute the IARC report and questioned its analysis.

The WHO's IARC last year classified glyphosate as "probably carcinogenic to humans."

The House's Agriculture Committee previously said it too was examining the agency's review of glyphosate and atrazine, another chemical used in agricultural herbicides.

The Agriculture Committee also wanted to know what steps still needed to be taken to finalise and issue the glyphosate report, which it had expected in July 2015.

(Reporting By P.J. Huffstutter; Editing by Steve Orlofsky and Cynthia Osterman)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Washington: A bipartisan group of 18 American lawmakers has written to House Speaker Paul Ryan, asking him to raise the issue of religious freedom in India during his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"Religious minority communities  including Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, and Sikhs  have endured ongoing violence and harassment for decades in India, and continue to live in a climate where known perpetrators commit violence with impunity," the members of the Congress, led by Trent Franks and Betty McCollum, wrote.

"We respectfully request that during your meetings with the Prime Minister, the 'shared value' of the fundamental right of religious freedom will be a priority in your conversation," they said ahead of the Ryan-Modi meeting.

"It is in the best interest of the US and India toreaffirm religious freedom as a shared value in this growing partnership and ensure that conversation concerning justice and accountability for such horrific acts of violence continues," the letter said.

In the letter, the lawmakers cite several specific examples of violent attacks that have killed or displaced religious minorities.

Human rights groups in India have investigated and traced these attacks to specific groups, but a current climate of impunity exists in India around such attacks and many victims never receive justice, they said.

"As we consider the shared values of the US and India, due attention to the fundamental human right of religious freedom is of the utmost importance," Franks said.

"Religious minority communities in India have endured incidents of harassment, discrimination, intimidation and violent attacks for decades, often with little hope for justice.

"It is my sincere hope that every person in India will experience true freedom of faith, regardless of religion," he said.

"The important relationship between India and the US is based on our shared democratic values. Religious minorities in India  Muslims, Christians, Buddhists and Sikhs  deserve the freedom to live out their faith without fear," McCollum said.

The Congressmen who signed the letter were Chris Smith, Juan Vargas, Andre Carson, Keith Ellison, Patrick Meehan, Keith Rothfus, Randy Weber, Dan Kildee, Mike Honda, John Conyers Jr, John Garamendi, Robert Aderholt, Anna Eshoo, Joe Pitts, Barbara Lee and David Valadao.

Modi is scheduled to address a joint session of the US Congress on Wednesday.
Protea Hotels today announced the signing of agreements for the development of its first hotel in Botswana, the ninth country in Africa in which the brand will have a presence. First established in South Africa, Protea Hotels has expanded over recent years into Zambia, Nigeria, Namibia, Malawi, Uganda, Tanzania and Ghana.

"This latest development reflects our ongoing commitment to doing business in Africa, and to providing the sort of quality accommodation and facilities that the market in Africa is calling for," says Alex Kyriakidis, President and Managing Director, Middle East and Africa for Marriott International. Marriott International, the parent company of Protea Hotels, plans to open over 93 hotels  equating to 19,000 additional rooms  in the Middle East & Africa region between now and 2025. This year alone, 17 new hotels will be opened in the region, adding close to 3,000 new rooms. As regards Africa more specifically, 10 new hotels are scheduled to open during 2016, bringing an additional 1,623 rooms to the market.

"Characterised by prudent economic management and political stability, Botswana is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, and is classified by the World Bank as an upper-middle income state. With this sort of economic success and the positive outlook for the country, we certainly see strong value in this venture in Botswana."

Protea's new property, scheduled to open in early 2018, will be located in the capital, Gaborone. It is strategically positioned in the new Central Business District of the city where there are a number of recently-developed corporate head offices, government offices and various retail facilities. The hotel's site was carefully selected for its visibility and accessibility; a prominent location near two of the city's main roads.

The hotel will offer 160 rooms of various sizes and types, and will also feature substantial conference, meeting and event facilities. The large ballroom, designed for versatile use, can be converted into four meeting rooms, giving the hotel the ability to host up to eight meetings at any time  four in the ballroom and four in the other meeting rooms that are planned. Other facilities include a business centre, bar, restaurant, fitness centre and outdoor pool.

Kyriakidis highlights the strength of the Protea Hotels brand within the sub-Saharan region, commenting that: "Protea Hotels enjoys a strong reputation as a leader in the hotel industry, and we are very confident that this new development will create a positive impact. The Hotel represents a significant investment in the local economy and, in addition to offering new hospitality facilities, it will be appreciated because of the new employment opportunities to be created for local citizens."

Guests staying at this Protea Hotel, as well as at all Protea Hotels throughout Africa, are able to earn Marriott Rewards points that can be redeemed at Marriott International properties around the world. Members can also redeem points for frequent flyer miles, cruises, car rentals, merchandise and more. To enrol in this leading hotel rewards programme, guests should visit MarriottRewards.com.

About Marriott International

Marriott International, Inc. (NASDAQ: MAR) is based in Bethesda, Maryland, USA, and encompasses a portfolio of more than 8,100 properties under 30 leading brands spanning 139 countries and territories. Marriott operates and franchises hotels and licenses vacation ownership resorts all around the world. The company offers Marriott Bonvoy, its highly awarded travel program. For more information, please visit our website, and for the latest company news, visit Marriott News Center. In addition, connect with us on Facebook and @MarriottIntl on Twitter and Instagram.

Deema Kingsmill-Moore

Director of Public Relations - Middle East & Africa Continent

+971 4 440 7737

Marriott
A man has been hailed a hero after he forced his way into a burning building in Sydney's west on Wednesday and rescued the elderly woman who lived there.

Robert Gorcan was driving along Alice Street in Auburn at around 9am when he noticed flames and black smoke rising from a single-storey house.

Robert Gorcan pulled an elderly woman from her burning home on Wednesday. Credit:Seven News

He stopped and ran towards the home to see if anyone was inside when he heard the 92-year-old woman who lived there shouting for help.

"I heard a lady saying that she was in the kitchen, an older lady," Mr Gorcan told Seven News.
Rio de Janeiro: The family of Australian man Rye Hunt missing in Rio de Janeiro said they are "disgusted" that Brazilian media sent them photos of an unidentified body by text message, asking if it was that of Mr Hunt.

Brazilian police are investigating the discovery of a body on a beach on Wednesday morning, and will carry out DNA tests to determine whether it is that of the missing traveller.

The 25-year-old Tasmanian vanished in Rio on May 21 after a night out in the city's party district, where he and travel companion Mitchell Sheppard allegedly took what they believed to be MDMA, the main ingredient in ecstasy.
WASHINGTON  India has agreed to work toward joining the Paris Agreement on climate change this year, India and the United States said on Tuesday, giving a jolt of momentum to the international fight to curb global warming.

At a time of heightened tensions in Asia over China's assertive pursuit of territory, the two countries also pledged to expand military cooperation and outlined principles for cooperation on cyber issues.

President Barack Obama welcomed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the White House for their seventh meeting since Modi took office in 2014, underscoring the warm relationship between the two leaders and the world's largest democracies. Modi is to address the U.S. Congress on Wednesday.

"We discussed how we can, as quickly as possible, bring the Paris Agreement into force," Obama told reporters during talks in the Oval Office.

India's potential entrance into the agreement this year would help accelerate its enactment, perhaps years ahead of schedule. India is the world's third largest greenhouse gas emitter after China and the United States.

Obama and Modi are both committed to fighting climate change, which is a legacy issue for Obama, who leaves office in January.

The two countries also welcomed preparations that could lead to the building of six nuclear reactors in India by U.S.-based Westinghouse. The United States, in a joint statement with India, said it now recognizes India as a "Major Defense Partner" and would work on technology sharing.

The text of an agreement allowing the countries' militaries to use each other's land, air and naval bases would also be signed soon, a U.S. official said.

Tensions between the United States and Pakistan as well as regional concerns about China served as a backdrop for the agreement on increased security cooperation.

The joint statement said India and the U.S. Export-Import Bank were working to complete a financing package for the project to build six Westinghouse 1000 nuclear reactors, the culmination of some 10 years of work to resolve civil nuclear issues. The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd. and Westinghouse had confirmed engineering and site design work would begin immediately.

Westinghouse and the Nuclear Power Corporation of India would work toward finalizing the contract by June 2017, a year later than Westinghouse's chief executive, Daniel Roderick, said he hoped for in an interview with Reuters in late March.

CLIMATE CHANGE PROGRESS

The two sides agreed to work together on an "ambitious" amendment to an international pact known as the Montreal Protocol to reduce hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, a particularly potent greenhouse gas.

The two countries said India would take steps to join the Paris agreement this year.

"India and the United States recognize the urgency of climate change and share the goal of enabling entry into force of the Paris Agreement as early as possible," their joint statement said.

"The United States reaffirms its commitment to join the agreement as soon as possible this year. India similarly has begun its processes to work toward this shared objective."

The agreement, forged in 2015, will take effect when at least 55 countries representing 55 percent of global emissions ratify it. By late last month 17 small countries had ratified it, according to the United Nations, and many others including the United States and China have pledged to do so in 2016.

Environmental groups had hoped Modi would say that India was ready to ratify the agreement during his Washington trip to cross that 55 percent threshold.

"With India now on board, a growing chorus of countries are seeking to bring the Paris Agreement into full effect as soon as possible," said Andrew Steer, president of the World Resources Institute, in a statement.
Batches of eyeliner are being recalled over fears the product may cause eye infections.

The Arbonne "It's a Fine Line" liquid eyeliner, imported from the United Kingdom, was found to have high levels of bacteria that could lead to unpleasant conditions including conjunctivitis and blepharitis.

The Arbonne "It's a Fine Line" liquid eyeliner has been found to have high levels of bacteria. Credit:Getty

Conjunctivitis causes red, itchy, watery eyes and leads to discharges from the eyes.

The infection commonly affects young children.
A suicide bomber detonated a car bomb outside a police headquarters near Turkey's border with Syria, killing four people, including a pregnant police officer, Turkish officials said.

As many as 30 people were injured due to the explosion Wednesday in the town of Midyat in the Kurdish majority southeast Mardin province.



Reinforcements from the security forces were being sent to the area.



Clashes with militants



Clashes reportedly broke out between Turkish forces and Kurdistan Workers Party militants as the attack took place.



Turkish Interior Ministry officials say authorities have strong evidence the PKK carried out Tuesday's attack in Istanbul and the Wednesday bombing in Mardin.



There has been no claim of responsibility for Tuesdays explosion that left 11 people dead.

PKK has been targeting Turkish police and military since July in its struggle for autonomy in Turkey's southeast.



An estimated 500 Turkish security personnel have been killed while fighting with the Kurdish rebels, according to the military, which claims to have killed up to 4,900 PKK militants in Turkey and northern Iraq.

PKK has been targeting Turkish police and military in its struggle for autonomy in Turkey's southeast.

Prime minister Yildirim spoke after visiting those injured in an attack in Istanbul that occurred just a day before, killing 11 people, including seven officers, and wounding 36 others during the morning rush hour.
Many people in California say this primary was unlike anything they have experienced in the past.

"With my family there's been a lot of confusion with deciding who to vote for, but there's also been a lot of frustration," said first-time voter Monica Burgos.

VOA has been following the Burgos family since December. Because of their conservative views on issues such as abortion and gay marriage, family members registered as Republicans. They had picked former Republican candidate John Kasich, but their candidate dropped out; Donald Trump is the only Republican left in the race.

"I was very confused because I didn't know that it could come to this," said Maria Elena Burgos, a Mexican-American.

She and her husband, Salvadoran-American Rene Burgos, have voted in every election since they became U.S. citizens. This presidential election has been the toughest.

"It's very clear which candidate we don't want," said Rene Burgos.

They do not want Trump as president.

Making choices

"You don't have a lot of good choices so you really, really have to analyze which of the candidates at least will offer a better option because it has been really difficult," Maria Elena Burgos said.

She decided to vote for Kasich anyway, since his name is still on the ballot. Her daughter, Monica, decided to vote for Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders, even though she is a registered Republican. Other immigrants chose other options.

"I left it blank," said Vietnamese American Le Khac Ly. He, too, had a difficult decision.

"I registered as a Republican. I don't like the candidates. I agree we need to be conservative but not that kind of conservative," said Ly, who disagrees with Trump's anti-immigrant sentiment.

Similar to many older generation Vietnamese-Americans, Ly has voted for Republicans in the past. But when it comes to immigration, he said, those with talent or who are seeking a better life  similar to many Vietnamese refugees  should have an opportunity to live in the U.S. "You can't close the door to everybody from the world."

The younger generation of Vietnamese-Americans lean more Democrat, including Hugh Tra who is a Bernie Sanders supporter. But he said if Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are the only options in the general election this fall, he will vote for Clinton.

"I will vote and support her for president. Although I do not agree with her on all of her platforms, the alternative of having Donald Trump in the White House is worrisome. He has taken his campaign in a direction that is dividing America," Tra said.

But Indian-American Vishnu Vallatharasn said Trump's views on immigration are fair.

"My parents were both legal immigrants when they came here, and they both worked really hard to gain that legal citizenship. They went through the legal process. They did everything the right way and now they have all the rights of a legal citizen," Vallatharasn said. "I don't believe anyone who comes here illegally should have the same rights."

Looking to the fall

Maria Elena and Rene Burgos are still not certain how they will vote in the general election.

"We don't like her in many ways, but I would probably still go with Hillary," said Maria Elena Burgos.

But Rene Burgos said there is still time for Trump to prove that he is a good candidate.

"There is always a chance, because he's not a politician by career so he has a lot of learn," he said. "You know it's very easy to say I'll build a wall or make America great, but how is he going to do this? He has to show what is his plan."

They say they'll have a few months before November to watch each candidate closely and decide how to cast the next ballot.
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Human rights group Amnesty International has accused Malawi of a systematic failure in policing, following the abductions and killings of several albino men, women and children in recent months. Its believed their body parts are used in traditional rituals and medicines. VOA's Henry Ridgwell reports.
A Hong Kong court yesterday acquitted teen pro-democracy leader Joshua Wong of obstructing police at a protest two years ago against Chinas tightening hold on the city.

Wong tweeted that he and three others were found not guilty. Its the first verdict in a number of court trials Wong is facing.

The 19-year-old activist captured world headlines when he led pro-democracy street protests in late 2014 against Beijings decision to restrict elections in Hong Kong, a semiautonomous Chinese region.

The obstruction charges, which carried a maximum two-year sentence, stemmed from a separate protest months earlier in which Wong and the others set fire to an oversized cardboard prop representing a white paper policy document issued by Chinas communist leaders.

The result of this trial is already proof that its just a political prosecution, Wong tweeted after the verdict.

The document angered many in Hong Kong because it asserted Beijing has comprehensive authority over Hong Kong. It also said that many Hong Kongers had a lopsided view of the one country, two systems principle that outlines the former British colonys relationship with Beijing.

Prosecutors said police officers moved in to try to douse the flames with bottles of water but were blocked by Wong and another student protest leader, Nathan Law, according to local media reports. However, the defense team argued that they were pushed from behind by the crowd and couldnt hear police, the reports said.

Two other activists who appeared alongside Law and Wong were also cleared.

Wong is also accused in a separate trial of inciting student demonstrators to storm a courtyard at Hong Kong government headquarters in September 2014, leading to a standoff between thousands of supporters and police, who responded with tear gas. The verdict in that case is expected at the end of the month.

He also faces trial on contempt charges for allegedly blocking police trying to clear a protest zone in Hong Kongs Mong Kok district in November 2014. AP
Prosecutors in northern China have indicted 74 people for murder and other charges related to scams in which the deaths were staged to look like mining accidents in order to win compensation from mine owners.

The Inner Mongolia regional prosecutors office said on its microblog yesterday that the defendants were charged in the city of Bayannur over the murder of 17 people in six provinces and regions.

Along with the homicide, the suspects were charged with fraud, extortion, embezzlement and attempting to conceal a crime, the office said.

Further details were not given, although similar cases have been reported within Chinas coal industry that has long operated under lax enforcement. Mine owners anxious to avoid government scrutiny were often quick to pay off the families of dead workers, along with regulators and the media.

China has since sought to impose better safety standards on the industry, closing many smaller operations and seeking to raise prices by reducing oversupply. AP
TWIN FALLS  The airport advisory board may consider including a business representative in its membership.

Chris Talkington, City Council liaison to the board, said during the meeting Tuesday he intends to come forward with a suggested bylaw change.

The recommendation would also go forward to the city and the county for consideration.

The recommendation was prompted by business owners who were frustrated with the placement of a taxilane  a portion of an aircraft parking area  for the new FedEx air cargo facility.

I think its time for the airport board to consider designating one of their members to come either from an airport business employer, or the employee, Talkington said.

The item may come back before the board in August, because the advisory board will not have a July meeting.

Precision Aviation owner Mark Doerr said the city was proposing building a taxilane close to a parcel of property hes leased since 2012. Doerr planned to build another hangar on the parcel, and proposed a relocated design for the taxilane. The item was tabled after a lengthy discussion.

Airport Manager Bill Carberry said the Federal Aviation Administration recommends a preliminary design be completed with the publics involvement at future meetings. Everything at this point is conceptual, he said.

Carberry also highlighted the airports budget priorities for the upcoming 2017 fiscal year, which include a $2.8 million reconstruction of Taxiway A, replacement of a 1996 fire truck, and forward-funding of a connector taxiway. The board also approved moving forward with funding the $90,000 preliminary design for the FedEx and future expansion taxilane.

Reconstruction of the eastern half of Taxiway A is planned for summer or fall of 2017, and may disrupt all aircraft, with closures and alternate routes.

It could take two to three months, Carberry said.

The local match for the $4 million projects is about 6.3 percent, paid for by passenger fees.
TWIN FALLS  Craft brewers from across the United States and Mexico will be in the Magic Valley later this month to learn about barley production.

The Idaho Barley Commission and Great Western Malting Co. are teaming up to offer a barley short course and home brewer competition June 20-21.

The event is a good way to promote Idaho barley, said Mike OToole, president of Great Western Malting Co. The Gem State, he added, is a consistent growing area with reliable and high-quality crops.

Participants will be primarily craft brewers. Theyre trying to get a good indication of what to expect in the barley (industry), he said, and the challenges its facing.

Its only the second time the event has been held since its inaugural year in 2014. We do plan on making it every other year, though, OToole said. It depends on how much interest we have.

The events first day will be in the Magic Valley  specifically, the Burley, Rupert and Twin Falls areas.

Participants will learn about the 2016 crop, contrasting winter and spring barley.

Its important to the customer to know they can get sustainably produced barley, said Kelly Olson, administrator for the Idaho Barley Commission.

The group will also visit the University of Idahos Kimberly Research and Extension Center to learn about topics such as barley production techniques, irrigation practices and reducing the potential for crop disease.

The first day will conclude with a home brewer competition at 5:30 p.m. Monday, June 20. It will be judged by brewers at Von Scheidt Brewing Co. in Twin Falls.

One June 21, craft brewers will participate in a short course on barley production practices, trends and the malting process.

Theyll tour the Great Western Malting Co. plant in Pocatello, which is undergoing an expansion to more than double its processing capacity to serve the growing craft brewing industry.

So far, those whove signed up for the two-day event are either craft brewers or are affiliated with the barley industry. Plus, a team of six craft brewers from Mexico are coming for the event.

They just wanted to learn more about the process that you could use to produce those raw materials used in brewing, Olson said. Its an educational process for them.

The event was first held in 2014, but there wasnt one last year. Thats because a record rainfall in August 2014 wreaked havoc for barley producers.

Its not too late to sign up for this years event, up until a week before it happens. Olson said more participants are welcome. We could really accommodate more.
LEWISTON | A joint effort between the Idaho Department of Fish and Game and the Nez Perce Tribe will produce a second wave of chinook salmon fishing on parts of the Clearwater River.

Starting Friday, a four-day season will open for summer chinook between the Camas Prairie Railroad Bridge at Lewiston and the Cherrylane Bridge, 21 miles upstream. The fishery will target summer chinook on their way to the state's hatchery on Walton Creek near Powell. Because none of the chinook have been marked by having their adipose fins removed, anglers will be allowed to keep one clipped or unclipped fish per day.

Starting June 18, any other section of the Clearwater River that remains open to fin-clipped hatchery spring chinook fishing, will also be open to unclipped summer chinook seven days a week, with a total bag limit of one chinook per day. However, since the summer chinook are not bound for the South Fork of the Clearwater, anglers there won't be allowed to keep unclipped fish. The fishery will not include the North Fork of the Clearwater or the main Clearwater River between Cherrylane and Orofino, which have already closed to spring chinook fishing. Nor would it include any sections that may close between now and June 18.

Both the tribe and the state are in the midst of an effort to restore summer chinook to the Clearwater Basin. It started in 2011, with the release of 200,000 summer chinook smolts from the South Fork of the Salmon River in the South Fork of the Clearwater River. The release location has since been moved to the state's satellite hatchery on the Lochsa River at Powell.

The run forecast calls for about 2,000 of the Clearwater-bound summer chinook to return at least as far as Bonneville Dam, enough for a small fishery. By the time the fish reach Idaho and the number needed for hatchery breeding is accounted for, state and tribal fisheries biologists expect a surplus of about 1,000 fish that will produce a harvest share of 500 for both tribal and sport anglers.

"We both thought it would provide a benefit to both our fisheries," said Joe DuPont, regional fisheries manager for Fish and Game.

"We are excited about putting back a fish with a run timing and a spawn timing that was here before the Lewiston Dam," said Becky Johnson, production manager for Nez Perce Tribal Fisheries.

DuPont said adding summer chinook can diversify the fishery and increase the chance of good fishing even if one of the runs isn't doing well in a particular year.

"It's nice to have multiple runs coming in because sometimes one can provide a lot of benefit when the other doesn't," he said.

But the new fishery will come with complications. For example, DuPont said the section between Lewiston and Cherrylane can reopen because nearly all the spring chinook will have passed through by the opener on June 10. The same is not true for the section between Cherrylane and the Orofino Bridge. Spring chinook bound for Dworshak and Clearwater hatcheries stack up in that section and wait to enter the hatchery. If it were to reopen, anglers would likely catch many more spring chinook than summer chinook.
TWIN FALLS | Several crashes at the Perrine Bridge closed both southbound lanes into Twin Falls at about 5:30 Tuesday.

One crash occurred north of the bridge in Jerome County and the other on the south side of the canyon. Traffic is still heavy, according to scanner chatter.
JEROME  The new Jerome County Jail is going to open its doors to inmates in about a month.

Most of the actual construction was done in late May, although contractors are still finishing up a few small things, said Sheriff Doug McFall.

The big outstanding piece is the backup generator, which needs to be in place before the city will issue an occupancy permit.

McFall said he had originally planned to put in a used generator he got from the Clearwater County Sheriffs Office. However, once it got here and was being installed, they found coolant in the oil and it would have taken too long to have it rebuilt, so they ordered another one.

The new generator, McFall said, will be shipped on June 16, and it will take a week or two to get it up and running. McFall said he expects to move inmates to the new jail in early July.

The 135-bed facility, which was built with an $11.2 million bond county voters passed in May 2013, has much more space than the county needs. Tuesday, there were about 30 inmates in the old jail, which McFall said is lower than usual  it usually ranges from about 40 to 80.

McFall said he has been talking to other counties about the possibility of boarding inmates but doesnt have any commitments yet. However, the state of Idaho does plan to pay to house inmates in Jerome.

Theyll take as many beds as we have available, he said.

As of Tuesday, the state had 413 inmates boarded in county jails out of 7,668 in the system, Department of Correction spokesman Jeff Ray said. The state used to have some inmates boarded out of state too, but brought them all back to Idaho a couple of months ago because of a declining prison population. Ray said IDOC dont have any plans to send inmates out of state in the near future.

The state pays counties $45 per bed per night. McFall expects to house 30 to 35 state inmates, which he estimates after expenses will work out to a windfall to the county of about a third of a million per year.

Typically, they send us the lowest-risk inmates because they dont want inmates causing problems in local jails, McFall said.

The money will go into the countys general fund, McFall said, and it will be up to the commissioners to decide what to do with it. A few ideas have been discussed, including using it to pay down the bond faster, putting it into a savings account for future expansion at the jail and using it toward general fund expenses, Board of County Commissioners Chairman Charlie Howell said.
BOISE | Being convicted of even some minor crimes can result in a lifetime of collateral consequences, experts say, including trouble finding jobs and housing.

Statutory consequences for a crime are the punishments that are spelled out in the law: Incarceration, fines, court-ordered community service and the like, U.S. Attorney Wendy Olson told the crowd at a conference on criminal justice reform in Boise on Monday. Collateral consequences are all the additional punishments that happen along the way, like facing social stigma or having to change careers because of a criminal record.

"... As a society, we really have to think through which collateral consequences should flow from a crime," Olson told the group gathered at Concordia University School of Law. "We all have an interest in getting those people back and invested in our society."

Federal law outlines about 1,200 collateral consequences associated with a criminal conviction, said Samuel Rubin, the executive director of the Federal Defender Services of Idaho. That's in addition to roughly 50,000 state laws detailing collateral consequences.

For immigrants, the consequences can go much deeper, said Maria Andrade, a Boise immigration attorney. That's because even minor crimes can trigger the permanent removal of someone from the U.S., forcing someone with a conviction to leave their family and jobs and return to a place that they may not have been for years, Andrade said.

Often, defendants may not understand the collateral consequences of pleading guilty to a crime, Rubin said. Good defense attorneys will often try to explain the potential impact to their clients, but with thousands of possible consequences it's impossible for someone to know them all, he said.

Idaho Department of Correction Director Kevin Kempf said community groups and churches can take steps to lessen some of the impact, helping people with past convictions to find housing, jobs and other support.

But University of California-Davis School of Law professor Jack Chin said more needs to be done to stop collateral consequences from putting society at risk.

"It really is a public safety question because there are large numbers of people who can't be employed in the economy," Chin said, referencing employers who often ask if an applicant has any felony convictions. "The real solution has to come at the legislative level."
TWIN FALLS | The Twin Falls City Council approved two contracts Monday for this year's road paving work.

Emery, Inc., of Filer, was the only bidder on the $548,600 contract for the chip sealing work, and Morgan Pavement Maintenance, of Clearfield, Utah, the lower of two bidders, is getting the $260,003.84 contract for slurry sealing.

Now that the bids have been awarded, work will start within the next 30 days, city spokesman Joshua Palmer said. The majority of chip sealing will be on streets between Addison Avenue and Falls Avenue, east of Washington Street North, and between Filer Avenue West and Falls Avenue West, west of Washington Street. Several other roads in need will also be chip-sealed. Most of the slurry sealing will be done east of Washington Street, between Addison and Falls, although Sparks Street, between Filer and Falls and past I.B. Perrine Elementary, will also be slurry sealed.

Palmer said the city is divided into zones, with a different zone targeted for roadwork each year. This makes it easier to do any needed utility work at the same time and reduces the impact on drivers because most of the construction is being done in one concentrated area rather than being spread out all over the city, Palmer said.
ROGERSON  Twin Falls County authorities are working to identify the remains of a human skeleton found in the South Hills on Monday.

A hiker found the skeleton in a very non-traveled area off Langford Flats and passed the GPS coordinates off to the sheriffs office, Lt. Perry Barnhill said.

It was kind of a fluke that he found it, Barnhill said Wednesday. He was just at the right place at the right time and happened to look in the right direction.

Coroner Gene Turley said the bones were pretty amazingly intact and didnt look like they had been scattered by animals. There were some remnants of clothing still on the bones, but no identification in the pockets and nothing that would help identify the person.

But Turley said while he cant speculate publicly, authorities have an idea of who the skeleton might have been, and the teeth could provide the answer.

This person had very unique dentistry, Turley said. Well ask the family who their missing loved ones dentist was, and if the dentist can provide dental records, were pretty sure we can identify the skeleton.

If those dental records dont provide the match theyre looking for, the next step would be trying to do DNA testing, Turley said.

Sheriffs deputies went Monday night to the scene where the hiker found the bones and returned Tuesday with personnel from the coroners office, Barnhill said. The area where the bones were found was lush with lots of pine trees and a nearby creek.

We handled it like a normal crime scene, Barnhill said. We secured the area and then looked for evidence.

The scene was photographed and documented Tuesday before the bones were taken back to the coroners office.

Turley said he doesnt expect foul play was involved in the death if the remains are those of the person they believe they are. But a bone inventory could reveal more information.

With the bone inventory, well take the skeleton bone-by-bone from one table to another to build that skeleton and see what bones are present and what bones are missing, Turley said.

During that inventory, the coroners office will likely enlist the help of Jim Woods, an anthropology professor at the College of Southern Idaho. Theyll study each bone to look for suspicious markings, and if foul play is suspected, the skeleton will be taken to Boise for a more thorough investigation.

Turley said the last time he can remember skeletal remains being found in the county was around the mid-90s.
BOISE  The Meadow Gold Dairy plant in Boise is voluntarily recalling Meadow Gold brand Old Style Whipping Cream and Meadow Gold DairyPure brand Whipping Cream and Half and Half because of insufficient pasteurization.

It is possible that pathogens present in raw milk, including Salmonella, Campylobacter, Listeria and E. coli, may have survived and, if ingested, could cause serious or life threatening issues. Meadow Gold Dairy has received no reports of illnesses related to the affected product to date and is removing the product from the market.

Consumers should be concerned only with products carrying certain Universal Product Codes and plant code 16-05. No other Meadow Gold Dairy products are affected by this recall.

The recall involves approximately 10,000 units of the affected products, which were distributed in Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming and Utah through numerous retail outlets and food service settings.

Consumer who bought these products should discard them and return the empty package to the place of purchase for a full refund or exchange. Call Meadow Gold at (800) 587-2259 for more information.
HAZELTON  Authorities are blaming high winds and a dust storm for the eight-vehicle crash Monday night on eastbound Interstate 84 that killed one person, sent multiple people to local hospitals, and left dozens of drivers stranded on the interstate overnight.

The crash, reported just after 8:30 p.m. at milepost 191 near the Hazelton/Eden exit, involved four passenger cars and four commercial vehicles, Idaho State Police said. It was caused when high winds and thunderstorms created dust that resulted in zero visibility.

ISP confirmed Tuesday morning that one person died, but it was unknown how many others were injured. No names of people involved in the crash were released Tuesday.

Many drivers reported being stuck in their cars until 4:30 a.m.

At 5:30 a.m., all but one westbound lane was still closed as troopers cleared and investigated the crash, an ISP sergeant said. All lanes in both directions finally re-opened when crews left the scene about 6:15 Tuesday morning, nearly 10 hours after it was first reported.

Details about the crash were slow to emerge Tuesday morning as troopers from the day shift replaced those from the night shift who were on scene, the sergeant said.

About 9:30 a.m., troopers were inspecting some of the commercial vehicles at an off-site location, the sergeant said. And while traffic was flowing normally in both directions Tuesday morning, the left eastbound lane was expected to be closed at some point Tuesday to allow the contents of a crashed tanker to be offloaded to a functioning tanker.

Just about the time of the crash, a weather sensor in the area recorded a wind gust of 34 mph, said Brian Neudorff, a meteorologist at KMVT.

The gusts during the storm, between 30 and 40 mph, were caused by outflow, he said  air coming out ahead of a storm.

Storms can pick up dust in farm fields, causing zero-visibility for motorists.

You see the wall (of dust), but depending on how high it is, you dont know when or how bad it will hit you, Neudorff said.
JEROME  A farm worker likely lost his right eye Tuesday in a freak accident in Jerome County.

A severe windstorm Monday night rolled an irrigation wheel line in a field near 800 East and 450 South, twisting and kinking the large hose that connects the line to the riser.

The next day, irrigator Evaristo Cruz-Salazar, not realizing the hose was kinked, turned the water on at the riser. As Cruz-Salazar, 26, was leaning over, the riser blew apart, sending the three-quarter-inch steel crank handle of the valve opener into his right eye, said Capt. Jack Johnson of the Jerome County Sheriffs Office.

It was just a fluke, Johnson said.

Cruz-Salazar was with two other workers, who notified authorities.

Responders used a handheld grinder to cut the handle from the heavy valve opener so that the man could be taken to a hospital, Johnson said.

The crank handle was still lodged about three inches deep in his eye socket when Cruz-Salazar was flown to a hospital in Salt Lake City, Johnson said. His condition is unknown.
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 over-promised and under-delivered. 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 short 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 wasnt Republican enough. They warned the party faithful that I hadnt 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 crisisinstead 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. Trumps 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 Ive said all along, this movement is bigger than party or ideology, or even, dare I say, Trump himself. However, Im 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 shouldnt 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 peoples 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 that Mr. Trump 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 Partys 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 weve 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 that he intends to win.

As Republicans, lets not lose sight of our shared mission to change the direction of our country. Thats 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.
A new poll out this week shows that fewer than half of Idahoans support Donald Trump, a remarkable figure considering a Democrat hasnt carried the state since Lyndon Johnson in 1964.

Ted Cruz won Idahos primary in March, but to date it appears the state is lagging to coalesce around Trump, now the GOPs presumptive nominee. Its the same story on the national stage, were this week partly leaders condemned Trump for questioning the impartiality of an Indiana-born judge of Mexican heritage presiding over a case involving Trump University.

Idahos GOP is right to resist Trump, a candidate certainly not representative of Idaho values.

At Idahos GOP convention last week, there was little outright excitement over the partys presumable presidential nominee. Instead of lauding Trumps platform (which, by the way, is still largely unfocused to many voters, other than all that talk about winning), party leaders focused on what dangers might befall us if Hillary Clinton were to win the White House. Clinton would almost certainly appoint liberal judges to the Supreme Court, for instance; Trump would likely appoint conservatives.

With 47 percent of Idahos voters registered as Republicans (Democrats account for less than 10 percent), pundits are predicting another GOP win in Idaho this fall. Remember, though, that 41 percent of the states voters are unaffiliated. In this weeks poll, conducted by Dan Jones and Associates, and presented by Idaho Politics Weekly, 18 percent of voters are still undecided in a Trump-Clinton matchup.

Trump has landed endorsements from nearly all of the states top GOP leaders, and their reasoning for supporting him echoes the tone of the convention: We dont necessarily care for Trump, but we cant stomach a Democrat in the White House.

In short, Idahos GOP isnt entirely on the Trump Train, but its firmly in the #NeverHillary camp.

Still, were troubled by the partys focus at the convention on social issues  namely transgender people and the bathrooms they use  at the expense of serious talk about traditional GOP platform issues, like the economy.

The officially designated themes at this years convention were Faith, Family, Freedom and Firearms. Jobs, Individual Liberties and Unobtrusive Government would have been more fitting.

The party voted to change the state Constitution to allow the use of the Bible in public schools  a notion vetoed this year by Republican Gov. C.L. Butch Otter. The party also voted down a resolution brought by Twin Falls County GOP Chairman Steve Millington to denounce bigotry, racism and xenophobia everywhere.

Who in their right mind votes against condemning racism?

A party in a tenuous relationship with its nominee, Donald Trump.
Elderly man carries on 1,000-year old dragon boat craft 2016-06-08 11:19 By (chinadaily.com.cn)

Ding Fushun, 68, is one of the local craftsmen who make bows for the dragon boats, in Daoxian, Central China's Hunan province. Ding cuts down tree trunks to make the dragon boat bows. The diameter of the trunk should be more than 30 centimeters. [Photo/IC]

The people of Daoxian, in central China's Hunan province, have been rowing dragon boats for 1,000 years. And the craft of carving their bows has been passed down through generations.

Ding Fushun, 68, is one of the local craftsmen who make bows for the dragon boats. He started learning the craft at the age of 16 and has sculptured nearly 80 dragon boat bows in over several decades.

The dragon boat bows in Daoxian boast special characteristics. There are four types of shapes, including the heads of a dragon, tiger, phoenix and kirin, all in bright colors and with bold, exaggerated designs.

A grand ceremony is held after a dragon boat bow's completion. The boat is then tested on the water.

Every year, people in Daoxian celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival on May 5 on the lunar calendar with a dragon boat race  as is the case in other areas of China. Hundreds of boats are seen flying on the rivers, with gongs and drums sounding across the skies and tens of thousands of spectators cheering loudly.

The Daozhou Dragon Boat Race was listed as a provincial intangible cultural heritage event in 2006.
Clinton and Totalitarian America

Wake up Americans! America is being destroyed from within as we adopt communist Sal Alinskys Rules for Radicals from his book which he dedicated to Lucifer (Satan). His rules transforms America from a Constitutional Republic to a Socialist/Communist country. Obama quotes him often. Hillary Clinton did her thesis on Alinsky. If elected, Clinton will complete the transformation of America to totalitarianism.

The several levels of control to create a socialist/communist state are as follows:

Health care: Control health care and you control the people! Obamacare is doing that! The federal government will soon control all health care.

Poverty: Increase the number of people who depend on government. Poor people are easier to control and will vote their welfare checks.

Debt: Increase the national debt to an unsustainable level. Spend money to implement the welfare state. This increases taxes and produces more poverty.

Gun control: Create a police state by removing the ability of citizens to defend themselves from the federal government.

Welfare: Take control of every aspect of our lives. The Communist-controlled United Nations Agenda 21 to control everyone is being implemented by the EPA and other agencies.

Education: Federal government takes control of what children learn in school. Common Core comes down from the United Nations. State and local control is gradually eliminated.

Religion: Remove faith in God and Christian beliefs like the Ten Commandments from schools and government institutions.

Class warfare: Divide the people into classes. Rich versus poor, black versus white, men versus women, etc.

Other Communist/Socialist goals are to: Destroy our Christian culture by allowing migrants who will not assimilate and want to impose their culture on American; destroy the morality of the nation; promote trade agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership that destroys our jobs, economy and our independence; promote a constitutional convention to destroy our rights and limitations on government.

Please help stop Americas destruction!

Adrian Arp

Filer
The Cuban secret police made at least 724 politically motivated arrests in May, according to the Cuban Commission on Human Rights and Reconciliation. It was the lowest monthly count since last July, when there were 674, but at best it was only a slight interruption to the torrid rate of repression in Cuba since the rapprochement with President Barack Obama and the United States, and all the "good" that has brought.

The May census brought the total for the year to 6,075 -- or 70 percent of the 8,616 recorded in all of 2015.

Since December 2014, when Obama and dictator Raul Castro struck their deal, there have been some 15,000 arrests, although it's likely the actual count is much higher.

"Thus, despite the Obama Administration's engagement with the Castro dictatorship and increased travel to the island, repression on the island is exponentially rising," wrote Capitol Hill Cubans. "Why? Because the Castro regime keeps getting a pass for its repressive acts."

For details on each arrest in May, go here.
The UN which released a report on June 2 holding all armed groups in Yemen responsible for child deaths and injuries with the Saudi-led coalition held responsible for 60% of the 510 killed and 667 injured last year has backtracked from blacklisting the coalition pending a joint review.

UN Secretary General Spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the coalition will be removed from the reports annex pending the conclusion of the review, while Saudi Ambassador to the UN Abdallah al-Mouallimi said the move was irreversible and unconditional arguing that the coalition was wrongly placed on the list. We know that this removal is final he said, claiming that the coalition was being vindicated.

Releasing the report last week, Ban Ki-moon stated that grave violations against children increased dramatically as a result of the escalating conflict but Mouallimi said backlisting the coalition force was counterproductive for the purposes of the peace negotiations on Yemen.

Talks are ongoing between the Houthis and the Yemeni government in Kuwait.

The Shura Council criticized the UN report for relying on unofficial sources and failure to implement resolutions in Yemen against the Houthis. It hailed the efforts of the coalition forces.

Ambassador Mouallimi said the coalition forces are playing a positive role in their efforts to reinstate Hadi as Yemens legitimate president. He conceded however that there were some collateral damages from time to time without going into details. He stressed that he was deeply disappointed by the report while lamenting about the wildly exaggerated figures that need to be corrected because the coalition forces were using the most up-to-date equipment in precision targeting.

Yemen has been in turmoil for the past years before the Houthi Movement offensive began from the north. The rebel group took over the capital Sanaa and held President Hadi and other senior officials captive. Hadi resigned as president while under captivity. After he escaped and fled to Saudi Arabia he backtracked on his resignation.
French President Francois Hollande has urged Saad Hariri, leader of the Mustaqbal Movement, to support the candidacy of MP Michel Aoun of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) for the presidency instead of Marada chief MP Suleiman Franjieh, currently backed by Hariri, according to sources from the March 14 camp.

Aoun is supported by the rival March 8 coalition and March 14 sources claimed that Hollande has advised Hariri to visit Aoun at his residence in Rabeih because the solution to the internal crisis can only come from Aouns side.

The proposal was reportedly made during Hariris visit to France at the end of last month.

Lebanon has been without a President since May 2014 following the end of President Michel Suleimans term and 40 attempts by the parliament to appoint a successor have failed due to political divisions that led to systematic boycotts of sessions resulting in the lack of quorums.

Franjiehs chances to be elected as president are dwindling according to MP Walid Jumblat. He spoke of a new presidential candidate that he declined to identify but stressed that he could be supporting Aoun if it is in Lebanons interest. He added that reconciliation between Aoun and Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea, an ally of Hariri in the March 14 camp who withdrew his own candidacy in favor of Aoun, cannot be set aside.

At the beginning of the month, interior minister Nouahd Mashnouq said Franjiehs nomination was spearheaded by Saudi Arabia. He said his partys vetoes that blocked Aoun from the presidency have been withdrawn raising hopes ahead of the next electoral session.

Hariri is expected to react to the statements during the Iftar banquets organized by the party and a party official said the political bureau will assure that Mashnouqs statements do not reflect Hariris point of view.
A bomb attack targeted early Tuesday a police vehicle in the Vezneciler neighborhood of Istanbul killing seven police officers and four civilians and injuring 36 others.

We will continue our fight against terror until the end without getting tired because the acts of these terrorist groups are against humanity, President Erdogan stated as he was leaving the hospital where the victims of the attack are being treated.

A bemused Erdogan questioned why security officers working to provide security, safety to life and properties are being attacked by terrorists. This is unforgivable he said while foreign minister Melvut Cavusoglu said they are cold-heartedly exploding bombs on a Ramadan day with reference to the holy Islamic fasting month.

No group has claimed the attack yet and the detonation is believed to have been triggered with a remote controlled device. The bomb is said to have been left in a car. Anadolu news agency reported that gunshots followed shortly after the explosion. Exams at the nearby Istanbul University building were cancelled.

Major cities in Turkey have suffered bomb and suicide attacks over the past few months and they are claimed by either the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) or the Islamic State group. Ankara is fighting both groups and has intensified its military operations against them.

Due to the increasing number of attacks, there are reports that the countrys Supreme Council for Radio and Television issued a temporary ban on covering certain details of attacks such as ongoing investigations, footage of victims and police discussion transcripts among others in a bid to maintain public order, protect territorial integrity and prevent crime.
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi sacked the chief of the Iraqi National Intelligence Service Zuhair al-Gharbawi and replaced him with Mustafa Kadhimi in an unexplained decision.

The head of the state media was also relieved off his duties. Abadi also fired six chief executives of six state-owned banks and a statement from his office explained that new bank directors will be appointed to reactivate the banking sector and the national strategy that aims to create jobs and provide loans to industrial, housing and commercial projects.

All the sacked officials were appointed by former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Prime Minister Abadi has been trying to introduce economic and political reforms but his efforts have been stalled at the parliament due to political differences amid growing pressure from Moqtada al-Sadrs supporters for change.

On Tuesday, hundreds of Iraqis gathered in Baghdads Tahrir Square in the late evening, urging the containment of corruption and the formation of a technocrat government in the country.

The reasons behind Gharbawis sacking are still unclear, but may be linked to the failure of the commanders leading the offensive on Fallujah to reach an agreement on a battlefield strategy against the Islamic State group after recapturing the southern end of the city.

The forces have been progressing slowly in their efforts to liberate the city held by the Islamic State since the beginning of its campaign for an Islamic caliphate.
President Bashar al-Assad addressed the Syrian parliament on Tuesday vowing that the war against terrorism will be carried on until it is uprooted and that they will liberate every inch of the country like they have done in Palmrya.

He boasted that the heavily contested Aleppo divided between government forces, rebels and extremists will be the grave where the dreams and hopes of that killer are buried in reference to his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan who strongly calls for his resignation.

The President was speaking at the maiden meeting of the parliament elected in April in elections held only in government-controlled areas. The ruling Baath Party holds a majority in the assembly as it continues its dominance that began under Hafez al-Assads rule; Bashar al-Assad father.

Speaking about the fight against rebel and extremist groups, Assad linked the future of the country to the outcome of the more than five-year old war saying, our only option is victory, otherwise Syria will not continue.

There are fears that Kurds, who are playing an important role in battling militants of the Islamic State group and al-Nusra Front, under the banner of the armed YPG could push for an independent Kurdish state because they have already established their authority over wide parts of the country. Erdogan who calls for the departure of Assad and strongly supports the Syrian armed opposition groups is against Kurds having an independent state as he considers them as terrorist and a threat to Turkey.

Since September, the Syrian president has been enjoying the support of Russian forces and they have helped recover territories lost to opposing groups. Moscow has reduced its presence in the country but on Monday it stated that its air forces would provide the most active support to Syrian government troops so as not to let Aleppo and the surrounding area be controlled by rebels.

Assad dismissed reports of differences, struggles and divisions among his forces and allies before thanking Russia, Iran, China and Hezbollah for their support.
Israels new defense minister Avigdor Lieberman visited the Northern Command of the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) which oversees its borders with Lebanon and Syria on Tuesday but officials declined to comment on whether he toured any of them or both.

At the end of his visit, Lieberman described the area as always sensitive but in good and secure hands. The defense minister whose return to the government raised eyebrows in several quarters warned against any threats from the other side of the border saying in any case, I would not advise anyone to try and test us.

Following the briefings by IDF Chief of Staff, Lt.-Gen. Gadi Eisenkot and other senior commanders in the area, Lieberman said he is impressed by the readiness, the plans, and preparations of the troops. He said their presence in the area is geared towards safeguarding the quiet on the northern border  and I hope that everyone understands that well, including our neighbors.

Meanwhile Lebanon began establishing watchtowers on its side of the border in May. The towers located in an area classified as a demilitarized zone by UN Resolution 1701 at the end of the 2006 war does not pose a threat to the Jewish state and the residents near the area according to the IDF. The zone can be used for observation but weapons cannot be placed there. While the Lebanese Army is not considered a hostile adversary there have been a number of occasions when soldiers opened fire on Israeli troops.

In naother development, the Lebanese news agency reported that a spying device camouflaged as a rock was discovered in Barouk Mount and has been dismantled by the military. The device was connected to a camouflaged speaker, in addition to 3 monitoring packs, a communique by the Lebanese army indicated.
Parasitic worm diseases are among the most prevalent ailments in the developing world, with documented transmission in 78 countries, according to WHO. About 150,000 people die of complications every year from these parasitic infections.

The two major categories of parasitic worms are the Schistosoma worms and the soil-transmitted helminths. The Schistosoma parasites reproduce in freshwater snails and can penetrate the skin of people who swim in contaminated lakes or rivers or who walk in muddy fields. The helminth worms, such as roundworm, whipworm and hookworm, are mainly found in soil. These worms may produce small eggs in the body that can be transmitted to others through ingestion of human feces in soil or water supplies.

Low-cost treatments

Both diseases are easily treated with low-cost drugs that have relatively few side effects, Lo said. Schistosomiasis is typically treated with praziquantel, which costs about 21 cents a pill and can reduce egg production by 98 percent, he said. The helminths can be readily treated with albendazole, which costs about 3 cents a pill and can reduce the number of worm eggs by as much as 95 percent.

In the past 15 years, there has been a significant reduction in the global prevalence of these infections and greater access to medication, with 15 to 45 percent of those who need it getting treatment, according to WHO. Yet these diseases remain a persistent problem in many parts of the world, including Africa, South America and South Asia.

In February, WHO issued a press release urging further expansion of treatment where the disease is most endemic, with a goal of reaching 75 percent coverage in preschool- and school-age children by 2020. However, the WHO guidelines were written a decade ago and have not been updated to reach this goal.

These worms cause an array of health effects from anemia, malnutrition and growth stunting to infertility, cancer of the urinary tract and liver cirrhosis.

The guidelines were based on the best judgment of experts at the time, but I think theres fairly broad agreement that its time to revisit these in view of new data, analyses and priorities, Andrews said.

He and his colleagues decided to take a systematic look at how best to control these infections, using a variety of models to examine prevalence and transmission patterns across Africa, as well as a cost-effectiveness model to determine what made the most economic sense.

They found that it would be most cost-effective to treat Schistosoma worm infections annually when prevalence among children was as low as 5 percent  well below WHOs current threshold of 50 percent prevalence. In the case of helminth infections, they found it would be economically worthwhile to treat school-age children when prevalence was 20 percent  the same level currently recommended by WHO.

Their analysis also shows that it would be feasible to include preschool-age children and adults in the treatment program, as both age groups may experience the disabling symptoms of parasitic infection but have not been traditionally included in these treatment programs. Moreover, adults can easily reinfect children through fecal contamination in the household environment, Lo said.

Finally, the researchers found that it would save money to treat the two diseases at the same time, rather than as separate programs because most of the cost is involved in delivering the treatment, not in the pills themselves.

It makes sense to work together to treat multiple diseases when they are in a single setting, Lo said. If you have health-care workers who go into a village to do one treatment, they will have go back to the village for a different treatment, and the second visit costs just as much.

If these proposed recommendations for sub-Saharan Africa were followed, it would require a sixfold increase in treatment for Schistosoma infections  from about 120 million to more than 750 million doses annually  and a doubling of the number of doses for helminth infections from 335 million to nearly 660 million a year, the researchers estimate.

Question of affordability

The scientists did not calculate the cost of the total proposed program, and its unclear whether current funders would be willing to increase their support. These programs are currently funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, local ministries of health and various nonprofits, as well as pharmaceutical companies that donate the drugs.

In scaling up treatment, it would also be important to be mindful of the potential for drug resistance, although the proposed guidelines meet the best practices for avoiding the emergence of resistance, Lo said. He said resistance with these drugs has been documented in animals, though not in human populations.

The other Stanford co-author of the paper is Eran Bendavid, MD, assistant professor of medicine. Researchers in Switzerland, Canada and the Ivory Coast also contributed to the study.

The research was funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Mount Sinai Hospital-University Health Network AMO Innovation Fund and the Stanford University Medical Scholars Program.
Sudan and South Sudan have resumed over the weekend discussions on the demarcation of the border and security aimed at easing tensions between the two countries, Juba officials said.

South Sudans ministers of foreign affairs, defense, interior and petroleum met with their Sudanese counterparts in Khartoum for the first time since the formation of the national unity government in Juba.

According to South Sudan Foreign minister Deng Alor, the oil and demarcation issues would top the agenda of the meeting.

Upon his arrival at the Khartoum International Airport Deng Alor confirmed the willingness of the new Juba government to fully normalize relations with Sudan.

There are some difficulties in our relations and that is why we are here to solve them, Alor said.

I delivered a message from our President Salva Kiir to President Omar al-Bashir, calling for fast resolution of the bilateral issues.

The Souths independence in 2011 left a raft of issues unresolved, including the status of the Khartoum-occupied border district of Abyei, which had been supposed to hold a plebiscite on its future, and the payments Juba should make for the use of an oil export pipeline through Sudan.

Intense fighting between the two countries along the disputed oil-rich border broke out in 2012, prompting the UN Security Council to order them to resume talks and resolve their outstanding issues within the year.

In September 2012, Sudan and South Sudan signed multiple cooperation agreements on trade, security, oil and citizenship rights, among others, but their common border remained closed until January this year when it was reopened, but closed again in March after intense accusations by both sides over rebel support.
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Posted on: June 09, 2016



Guru Poornima Special Offering

(Daily Episode)



Part - 1



In 2006, eager to start a service which will help everyone to connect with Bhagawan's teachings on a daily basis, Radio Sai began 'Sai Inspires'. All who subscribed to this service, received an email from us which had a concise message of Baba accompanied with His image. This daily offering was received well, and soon the subscriptions grew. Today nearly 100,000 people from all corners of the world wait for this message to help them tide over their day with peace and ease. The power inherent in these discourse capsules is indeed tremendous. How much we benefit from it and how best we harness this energy depends purely on how seriously we ruminate over these words and how sincerely we put our learning into action. To help us in this noble and elevating exercise, Prof. G. Venkataraman has taken time out to elaborate on these messages. His reflections will not only give us a deeper understanding into what the Lord is communicating to us but also give us tips to translate them into our daily practical life with more ease. The best way to value the Master is to master His values. As we prepare to celebrate Guru Poornima (July 19), when we pay our respects and obeisance to the Divine Master, let us work to offer Him the tribute that the Lord loves the most from us - to make our lives His message, to make His love and wisdom shine in us. To aid us in this endeavour we have this series where Prof. Venkataraman for the next 26 days will share his insights on select Sai Inspires messages. We hope this will help us to understand His teachings better and bolster our determination to walk on the sacred path.



Sai Inspires Message

What is Awareness Really?

There is a Divinity, higher than humanity that is behind and beneath all mans activities. However, man is not aware of it and he fails to benefit by that awareness. His first task is to cognise this source of joy and peace. That Divinity is like the thread in which the flowers are strung; we see only the garland; we do not cognise the string that holds the flowers together and makes a garland out of a heap of blossoms. Mankind is strung together by this inherent Divinity.



REFLECTIONS

People usually think that spirituality and the real world we live in are totally unrelated. As a result, we also keep God out of our normal lives, unless of course we run into a terrible problem when we desperately begin calling upon God to save us, to protect us, etc. All this is the result of a huge disconnect between humans and the Divine, concerning which Swami has spoken often; yet, few take any notice of it. In the above quote, Swami is explaining to us not only where we are going wrong but also why we are doing so. Let us try to absorb slowly and carefully, what the Lord is teaching us with so much patience and love.

Swami has often told us: In this Universe, there is only God and nothing but God. We wonder: How can that be? I see around me a sea of devotees from all parts of the world. Then there is this magnificent Sai Kulwant Hall in which we all are seated. And oh yes, over there we see Swami who is God; that is granted. But how can the mikes before Swami, the wonderful lights, the pillars, the various decorations, etc., all be God? They are objects and entities, made up of metal, concrete, glass, etc. These material objects are man-made; how can they all be God? There is something here that I am totally missing! We sure are.

The difficulty I just described is an old issue and does have a solution. In fact, Swami has Himself given us a clue regarding how it must be sorted out. Swamis clue starts with an old Vedantic story which goes like this. There is a man in a village who opens the door of a hut and goes inside. It is rather dark in there and far in the corner the man sees something lying coiled up. Shouting snake, snake, the man runs out closing the door. The people in the village hear the cry, pick up a lamp, arm themselves with big sticks, and cautiously enter the hut. In a far corner they too see this coiled object. Inch by inch they move forward, holding their huge sticks up and ready to bring it down heavily, were the snake to move and come towards them. But nothing like that happens; and when they go close enough they find that what they thought was a snake was nothing but a rope.

Vedanta now makes the following observation: There was always only a rope. It was there before the man went in. It was there when the villagers went in to kill the snake that was supposed to be hiding there. It was also there when they held up the lamp close to it. Now if there was only a rope all along, where did the snake come from? Swami says that the snake was purely a product of the imagination of the villager who first went in. The image of this illusory snake then got superposed on the rope that was really there after which, instead of seeing a rope the man began to see only a snake. And when he reported that there was a snake in there, all the others believed him, till they held up the lamp. The moment they did so, the snake disappeared and they saw the rope that was always there. What had happened was that the light of the lamp destroyed the illusion born in the mind of one confused and frightened individual, which many others also believed in. So the issue was cleared up by the light of the lamp.

That story, says Swami, captures the essence of the problem humans face today. Although God is immanent in every single atom in the Universe, we who are used to looking at things merely from a superficial and material point of view, total miss the immanent God. I can fill volumes amplifying that remark but I shall not; instead, I shall just mention just a few points.

Let us start with the power inherent in the inert atom. Are you aware that it took only about 5 grams of uranium 235 to be converted entirely into energy to wipe out Hiroshima? We can talk about E = mc2 and all that till the cows come home, but the fact is, as Krishna clearly explains, that power or energy inherent in the atom actually comes from God.

Next, consider the wonderful things humans do which no other living beings can. Just look at the smart phone and the internet, two inventions that came within the last 20 years or so; and how much the world has changed due to them! True, humans invented them and other such wonderful gadgets. But where did humans get the intelligence for making such stunning inventions? From God, as Krishna has declared. However, do humans give God credit for that? Hardly ever. Instead, driven by ego, most inventors feel great about how clever they are and so on. This goes on all the time, with man always pushing God to back-burner, completely forgetting the Divine Grace he has received, that has enabled him to come to the forefront. Instead, he imagines that he alone is the greatest of them all. If you think about it you would quickly realise that it is ego and body-consciousness that cause all such delusion.

In short, forgetting God and His power that is immanent in everything there is, man superposes his own perceptions on what his senses enable him to see and detect; thereafter, the substratum that is God is forgotten and this superposition alone is seen as reality. All this is in no way different from the ignorant villager superposing the image of a snake that is non-existent on a rope that alone existed. In short, without a lamp that can illumine and clear up delusions, where spirituality is concerned, even a Nobel Prize winner can be as ignorant as a simple villager.

This is not to trash the relevance and importance of worldly recognition of achievement, etc. Those are necessary both for encouraging good work and as a sign of civilised behaviour. At the same time, that does not mean one should totally forget the immanent Divine power that enabled the achievements. That is why Swami says:

There is a Divinity, higher than humanity that is behind and beneath all mans activities.

Swami adds:

However, man is not aware of it and he fails to benefit by that awareness.

That is the real point. If man fails to recognise that God hiding behind everything from the atom to the Cosmos animates the Universe, he also fails to get the benefits that come from seeing God everywhere.

Bhagawan Himself has hinted what these benefits would be. Consider His remark:

Mans first task is to cognise this source of joy and peace.

There it is. Once one recognises that Divinity is behind everything in the Universe, one would also learn to be in equilibrium with the immanent God and thereby experience joy and peace. For example, every time an evolved soul sees a beautiful thing, he immediately begins to resonate with God who is the source of beauty, rather than merely admiring the object he is seeing. Swami quotes Saint Purandaradasa who, after seeing a beautiful peacock did not merely admire the beauty of the bird but exclaimed, Who is the one who created such a beautiful bird? That question directly connected the saint with God, filling him with greater joy than the thought of the bird alone could have given.

Let us go back to snakes for a moment, I mean real snakes! All of us are afraid of snakes; who is not? But just consider this. You and I move with the help of legs. What about snakes? They do not have any legs and yet they can move so fast! Have you ever wondered about that? Hows that possible? The first person to think seriously about it from a scientific point of view was, to my knowledge, Prof. de Gennes of France, who described it in terms of what he called 'Reptation'. OK, snakes move around through reptation; but who gave snakes that kind of unusual power? God!

Swami also reminds us that way back, rishis who withdrew to the forest to engage in penance and meditation were hardly ever bothered by snakes, scorpions, lions, etc., although the forests were full of them. How come? Because these rishis radiated nothing but Pure Love; and responding to this Pure Love of the rishis, the God immanent in these wild creatures, made the creatures simply move away  that is how rishis stayed safe and the wild creatures for their part were not bothered by evolved humans. In other words, the Divine Love in the rishis was able to directly commune with the in-built Divine Love in snakes and it is this invisible Love to Love interaction that kept the rishis safe, allowing tranquillity to prevail.

There is the lesson for us. Just imagine how much peace and harmony there would be in the world today, if each of us saw only God in other beings! We would then radiate love and that love, coming as it does from the Heart would instantly dispel whatever evil thoughts might be in the other person. Responding to the Divine Love it receives, momentarily at least, the evil person would return the love with a smile perhaps. You know, if one builds upon this, one can really work wonders. In this context, please also recall what Swami has said about the purpose of Creation. He says: I separated Myself from Myself in order to love Myself! Hopefully, all that I have said so far, makes that statement easier to understand.

Dear reader, take a few minutes off, and try to spend the next, say half an hour seeing God in everything around you. You would immediately see what a difference that makes. Magnify that difference and imagine now how the world would be if people in millions feel that way. Would there not be less of conflict and more of peace and harmony in the world? How much would it cost? Not a penny; only a lot of ego. Maybe we regard ego as worth more than even money! Should we be so deluded, to the point of denying peace that would otherwise be available so easily? Think about it.

Thank you. Sairam.

Other Episodes

Radio Sai Team


UN member-states agreed on Wednesday to fast-track their response to end the AIDS pandemic by 2030 despite a last-minute bid by Russia to dilute efforts to focus on drug users and gay men.

A political declaration was adopted by the 193-nation General Assembly that stressed the need to help intravenous drug users, sex workers, gay men, transgender people and prisoners who are at high risk of contracting HIV.

The HIV epidemic has been in decline over the past decade, but there are still 36.7 million people worldwide living with HIV/AIDS, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told delegates that "AIDS is far from over," and that the world had an opportunity over the next five years to "radically change the trajectory of the epidemic."

Ban appealed for treatment and services "without discrimination" to all people living with HIV. He singled out "young people, migrants, women and girls, sex workers, men who have sex with men, people who inject drugs, transgender people and prisoners."

The political declaration builds on a previous UN AIDS plan approved five years ago by placing more emphasis on those most vulnerable to HIV infection.

It sets out three targets to be reached by 2020: reducing new HIV infections, reducing mortality rates and eliminating HIV-related discrimination.

Russian amendments fail

Russia late Tuesday demanded changes to the new focus by adding references to national legislation in provisions that mention gay men, drug users and prisoners, diplomats and civil society groups said.

The amendments were rejected over fears that these would allow Russia, Iran and other countries that criminalize homosexuality to deny anti-retroviral treatment and other services to gay men.

Russia has also balked at harm-reduction treatment such as syringe and needle programs, even though the majority of HIV infections in that country are linked to drug injections.

Russian senior health official Dilyara Ravilova-Borovik told the gathering that while more must be done to end HIV/AIDS, governments have a "sovereign right" to decide on their public health strategy.

The three-day meeting opened with a call to action from Nelson Mandela's grandson, Ndaba, whose father Makgatho died of AIDS in 2005. Makgatho was the late South African president's last surviving son.

Ndaba Mandela urged the leaders of 35 countries that deny entry visas to people living with HIVincluding Russia and Singaporeto "end travel restrictions now."

"Bigotry and fear do nothing but spread the virus," he said.

In the lead-up to the conference, Russia, 51 Muslim countries, Cameroon and Tanzania blocked 22 LGBT groups from receiving accreditation to the conference.

After the United States and the European Union protested the exclusion, 16 groups were included in delegations from other governments and non-governmental groups.

Explore further Cultural sensitivities obstacle at UN AIDS conference

 2016 AFP
Alicia Llorente

Alicia Llorente is the project leader for the project "Microvesicles as a Source of Prostate Cancer Biomarkers". Alicia works as a project group leader at the Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Institute for Cancer Research at Oslo University Hospital. Her general research interest is Biomedicine.In particular she studies the biology and clinical applications of exosomes, nanovesicles released by cells to the extracellular environment, in cancer.

What was the main aim of your project?

The primary objective of the project was to validate the use of specific exosomal proteins as non-invasive biomarkers for prostate cancer.

Why did you apply to the call for optimization projects from BIOTEK2021?

We found our preliminary results very exciting and wanted to validate them. We thought this call was perfect for that. It would have been difficult to get funding from more general calls such as FRIPRO.

What have you achieved so far?

We are very satisfied with the results of the project. The project has definitely moved closer to commercialization. We have demonstrated proof-of-principle for the diagnostic potential of several exosomal proteins in urine, as well as demonstrated feasibility of transferring the markers to an immune-based platform.

What was the biggest challenge and how did you handle it?

The main challenge was a delay in hiring a scientist to work on the project. This caused a delay in the spending of the budget. We solved the challenge by asking NFR to transfer the funding to the following year.

What have you learned during the project?

We have definitely learnt a lot during the project. We have more experience in handling patient samples and about collaboration with medical doctors. We have also seen that mass spectrometry is a method that is rapidly been developed, and that several actors are working to introduce this technique in clinical practice. The project has also increased Inven2's experience with pre-commercial development of diagnostic projects and requirements of industry players.

Is there anything you would have done differently?

There are always things that could have been done differently but, as I said above, I am satisfied with the results. Based on this project we have written a follow-up project using our previous experience from the optimaliserings-program.

Tell us about the collaboration with the TTO?

The collaboration with our partner Inven2 has worked very well. We have had several meeting to discuss the project, and they have followed the project very closely.

What have you gained personally from managing an optimization project?

This was my first experience with this type of project, and I have learnt a lot from managing the project. It was interesting to see the differences between this commercially-oriented project compared to other more research-oriented project that I have had. I liked the seminars organized by NFR where other projects were presented.

Do you have any advice to other researchers who are considering applying for optimisation funding?

Just do it! You will see your research from a different perspective. You will have the possibility to test your idea and built on it! But beaware that this type of programs may be more rigid than other programs such as FRIPRO.

What is coming up next?

The project has led to a successful application for follow-up proof-of-concept studies for definition of a prototype product and definition/verification of primary clinical utility.
A new study reports on the results of a randomized clinical trial that looked at whether the antidepressant citalopram would enhance complicated grief treatment psychotherapy, and if citalopram would be efficacious without it in an article published online by JAMA Psychiatry.

Complicated grief occurs in about 7 percent of bereaved individuals and it is characterized by persistent maladaptive thoughts, dysfunctional behaviors and poorly regulated emotions that interfere with the ability to adapt to loss. Co-occurring depressive symptoms are common but complicated grief is clearly differentiated from major depression.

M. Katherine Shear, M.D., of the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, and coauthors included in their trial 395 bereaved adults who met the criteria for complicated grief from academic medical centers in Boston, New York, Pittsburgh and San Diego.

They were divided into groups prescribed citalopram (n=101), placebo (n=99), complicated grief treatment with citalopram (n=99) or complicated grief treatment with placebo (n=96). The majority of study participants were women (78%) and they were white (82%).

The authors report that psychotherapy with complicated grief treatment appears to be efficacious and that the addition of citalopram did not significantly improve outcome. However, co-occurring depressive symptoms decreased more when citalopram was added to complicated grief treatment psychotherapy.

"In summary, CG [complicated grief] is a serious, prevalent, and frequently chronic and debilitating condition that needs to be recognized and treated. Complicated grief treatment [CGT] is the first-line treatment. Our results support the use of antidepressants in conjunction with CGT for relief of co-occurring depressive symptoms. When CGT is unavailable, CGT-informed supportive clinical management with or without antidepressants may be a helpful approach," the study concludes.

Explore further Clinical trial examined treatment for complicated grief in older individuals
Myocardial Infarction or Heart Attack. Credit: Blausen Medical Communications/Wikipedia/CC-A 3.0

Jianyi "Jay" Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., brought his biomedical engineering expertise to the University of Alabama at Birmingham to fix hearts.

His dreamand the dream of other heart experts at major research universities around the worldis creating new tissue that can replace or protect damaged muscle after a heart attack.

Zhang already took a major step toward that goal when he and colleagues protected pigs from post-heart attack heart failure. As described in his 2014 Cell Stem Cell paper, the researchers placed a mat of fibrin over the area where muscle had died and injected three types of cardiovascular cells underneath the mat. This is somewhat akin to starting new lawn by scattering grass seeds beneath a protective layer of hay. The fibrin helped some of the injected cells survive and grow, and they in turn protected the heart from further damage.

While Zhang's colleague at the University of Paris Descartes, Philippe Menasche, M.D., Ph.D., is currently testing this approach on five patients, Zhang is launching a new effort in biomedical engineering to improve heart repair, supported by a new $3 million grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the NIH.

Instead of injecting individual cells and hoping they take seed, Zhang plans to robotically build and grow a mat of heart tissue made from individual cells, using a custom 3-D printer. Surgeons will then place this custom mat of living cells over the dead, infarcted tissue of the heart, somewhat akin to starting a new lawn by laying sod.

"We will make our own printer, using machinery experts, robotic experts and computer science experts," said Zhang, who last fall became the new leader of UAB Biomedical Engineering, a joint department of the UAB School of Medicine and School of Engineering. "A robotic arm will pick up cells of various types from petri dishes and place them onto fine needles that are a few microns apart. The growing cells fuse after three to seven days, and the shape is based on the needles."

"Then we can lift off the tissue," Zhang said. "It is scaffold-less tissue engineering. I already have two Ph.D. students on the project."

The piece of engineered tissue will be "printed-to-order" to match the size and shape of the dead tissue in the heart, as measured by MRI. The prevascularized heart tissue could be quite large, up to 2 by 4 centimeters in area and 5 millimeters thick (about 0.8 by 1.6 by 0.2 inches). All the work must be done under sterile conditions in a culture medium that provides the oxygen and nutrients to keep the cells alive.

This UAB myocardial tissue patch, done in collaboration with Menasche, Duke University and the University of Wisconsin, will need to be tested in a pig model before it can move to human trials. "We want to take it to clinical practice in seven years," Zhang said. "That's why I came to UAB."

UAB's clinical and research expertise in heart electrophysiology will be vital, Zhang says, because the patch could cause heart arrhythmias, or uneven beating, if it interferes with the careful timing of the electrophysiological wave that directs each smooth contraction of the pumping heart. Engineers and clinicians would need to learn how to build the 3-D tissue to avoid any complications.

As Zhang expands UAB capacity in tissue engineering, he is also bringing experts to the UAB campus for the annual, NIH-sponsored Cardiovascular Tissue Engineering Workshop that he leads.

In 2015, before Zhang came to UAB, the Zhang-led group of physicians and scientists met at Stanford University, and a perspective piece on the five central challenges to realizing heart repair, "Distilling complexity to advance cardiac tissue engineering," was published June 8, 2016 in the journal Science Translational Medicine. Besides Zhang, authors include researchers from the University of Minnesota, Duke University, Harvard Medical School, Stanford University, the University of Paris Descartes, the University of Washington, the University of Toronto, Georg-August University Gottingen and Columbia University.

The workshop met at UAB last March for the 2016 meeting, and will again meet at UAB in 2017.

Details of the research

After a heart attack, the heart muscle cells around the edge of the infarcted scar of the left ventricle, the most powerful pump chamber of the heart, get overstretched. Weeks, months or years later this can cause an enlargement of the heart called post-infarction left ventricle remodeling. This leads to heart failure.

Groundwork for producing the engineered tissue meant to prevent remodeling relies on research progress with stem cells, cells that have the ability to differentiate into different types of cells. The 2014 Cell Stem Cell paper, for example, used a combination of three types of cardiovascular cells derived from human induced pluripotent stem cellscardiomyocytes, endothelial cells and smooth muscle cells. The fibrin patch was also engineered to release insulin-like growth factor.

The cardiomyocytes were able to integrate into the heart and generate organized muscle structure, while the endothelial and smooth muscle cells contributed to heart blood vessels. Pigs getting this trilineage cell transplant had significant improvements in left ventricular function, myocardial metabolism and density of arterioles that branch out from a heart artery. The transplant also reduced infarct size, ventricular wall stress and apoptosis, or programmed cell death. Furthermore, the treatment did not produce arrhythmias.

For the clinical test with human patients in Paris, Menasche is using trilineage cells derived from human embryonic stem cells.

Explore further New method for producing heart cells may hold the key to treating heart failure
Immunohistochemistry for alpha-synuclein showing positive staining (brown) of an intraneural Lewy-body in the Substantia nigra in Parkinson's disease. Credit: Wikipedia

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have uncovered a major reason why the Parkinson's-related protein alpha-synuclein, a major constituent of the Lewy bodies that are the pathological hallmark of Parkinson's disease (PD), is toxic to neurons in the brain. The finding has the potential to lead to new therapies that could slow or stop progression of the devastating illness. The new research appears online today in Science Translational Medicine.

PD is a degenerative neurological disease characterized by tremor, slowness, and gait and balance difficulties that affects about 1 million people in the United States. The symptoms are caused by the degeneration and loss of neurons in the brain, particularly those crucial for the initiation and coordination of movement.

"It's really exciting that we have found a mechanism we can target to create new treatments for this devastating disease," said lead investigator J. Timothy Greenamyre, M.D., Ph.D., Love Family Professor of Neurology in Pitt's School of Medicine and director of the Pittsburgh Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases (PIND).

PIND's goal is an integrated, interdisciplinary approach to the study of neurodegenerative diseases and their mechanisms, with the aim of transforming cutting-edge science into novel therapies and diagnostics that directly benefit individuals affected by neurodegenerative diseases.

"With four different PIND investigators working together, the new study highlights the power of this collaborative approach," Dr. Greenamyre added.

Current treatments for PD can reduce symptoms, but they do not slow the inevitable worsening of the disease. To slow or halt illness progression, scientists must first determine why and how the neurons are dying.

Degenerating neurons contain large clumps of a protein called alpha-synuclein. People whose cells make too much alpha-synuclein or make a mutated form of the protein are at high risk of developing PD because of the protein's toxicity, researchers found. Scientists also demonstrated that the accumulation of alpha-synuclein in PD is toxic because it disrupts the normal functioning of mitochondriathe tiny powerhouses responsible for generating a cell's energy.

In the new study, Dr. Greenamyre and his teamled by coauthors Roberto Di Maio, Ph.D., and Paul Barrett, Ph.D., both of PINDused a well-established rodent model of PD to show exactly how alpha-synuclein disrupts mitochondrial function. They found that by attaching to a mitochondrial protein called TOM20, alpha-synuclein prevented the mitochondria from functioning optimally, which resulted in the production of less energy and more damaging cellular waste.

Ultimately, this interaction between alpha-synuclein and TOM20 leads to neurodegeneration, Dr. Greenamyre explained.

The researchers then confirmed their animal findings in brain tissue from people with PD.

"The effects of alpha-synuclein on mitochondria are like making a perfectly good coal-fueled power plant extremely inefficient, so it not only fails to make enough electricity, but also creates too much toxic pollution," said Dr. Greenamyre.

Using cell cultures, the research team also found two ways to prevent the toxicity caused by alpha-synuclein: gene therapy that forced the neurons to make more TOM20 protein protected them from the alpha-synuclein; and a protein that was able to prevent alpha-synuclein from sticking to TOM20 prevented alpha-synuclein's harmful effects on mitochondria.

While more research is needed to determine whether these approaches could help PD patients, Dr. Greenamyre is optimistic that one or both may ultimately make it into human clinical trials in an effort to slow or halt the otherwise inevitable progression of PD.

Explore further Gene therapy prevents Parkinson's disease in animal model

More information: "a-Synuclein binds to TOM20 and inhibits mitochondrial protein import in Parkinson's disease," Journal information: Science Translational Medicine "a-Synuclein binds to TOM20 and inhibits mitochondrial protein import in Parkinson's disease," DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aaf1435
Credit: flickr commons

If you are suspected of a crime, you might be better off if you lie about an alibi in the first place and subsequently admit that you were in the company of an adulterous lover: it is even more credible than if you state this salacious alibi immediately. Legal psychologist Ricardo Nieuwkamp discovered this during his research on alibis. He carried out his project at Maastricht University with funding from the Open Competition of NWO.

An alibi is the claim of a suspect that he or she could not have committed the alleged crime because they were somewhere else at the time of the incident. In Nieuwkamp's study, the combination of a salacious alibi and changing alibi or sticking to the original one was investigated. Results from previous research had revealed that a salacious alibi is more credible and that as soon as the suspect changes an alibi, this is always associated with a decrease in credibility.

The current study revealed that a change in alibi can lead to more plausibility if there is an explanation for this. For example: the suspect lies about his original alibi because he is ashamed of staying with his lover, but comes clean later by admitting to the true circumstances.

Mistake or deliberate lie...

Nieuwkamp selected 150 participants (including 37 men) between the ages of 18 and 74 years, who were all given a fictitious crime story. The 'suspect' either told the true alibi immediately, or first told a false alibi and only told the true alibi during the next hearing. Half of the participants in the experiment were presented with a salacious alibi as the 'true' alibi, and the other half was presented with a non-salacious alibi. Finally, the participants also were given the reason why the suspect had initially stated a false alibi: it was either a mistake or a deliberate lie.

Nieuwkamp: 'We asked participants to determine the credibility of that alibi and compared the scores between the different groups. The result was that the credibility increased if the suspect changed his original alibi into a stay at a hotel with his lover. Better yet: if the suspect immediately stated that he was with his lover, this alibi was considered to be less credible than if first lied about. That effect was stronger than when the first alibi was false due to "a mistake".'

And all things considered, this is a new discovery: not every change in the alibi has a negative effect on its credibility, as had previously been assumed.

Explore further New internet routing method allows users to avoid sending data through undesired countries
People in slavery in Georgia

By Messenger Staff

According to a report published by Walk Free Foundation, 20 900 people in Georgia live as slaves. The organization has conducted research for the issue in 167 countries.According to the document, with the exception of Georgia and Moldova, responses to modern slavery within this region are still in their infancy.Georgia and Moldova were the only countries to score above 50 percent for a government response, with Georgia ranking number 18 in the world on its government responses to modern slavery (a BB rating) and Moldova at number 36 (also a BB rating).The Walk Free Foundation said half of the countries in this region have conducted modern slavery awareness-raising activities since 2010.These campaigns were only conducted systematically in two countries. In Georgia, awareness-raising media was broadcast between 2012 and 2014. In Armenia, an anti-trafficking hotline has regularly been promoted since 2007.All countries except Turkmenistan operated some form of public reporting mechanism. All countries except Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan have carried out anti-trafficking training for front-line police officers.The report said Russia was the only country in the region to adequately criminalise child prostitution.Where laws exist, punishments vary: for example, trafficking can be punished by a temporary disqualification from positions of authority in Georgia, and child prostitution can be punished by community service in Kazakhstan. While all countries except Russia and Belarus allowed victims to participate in the legal process, only Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan recognised in legislation that survivors of slavery are not criminals for crimes committed under the control of perpetrators, the survey said.The report also said official complicity in modern slavery cases was found in all regional countries except Georgia. For instance, in Moldova, the head of a human rights organisation was arrested for subjecting children to forced begging.Georgia is still on its way to providing improvements in this regard.Modern slavery still exists in Georgia, and one can see many children begging in the country.The relevant bodies and NGOs say many of the children are allegedly subject to permanent pressure and abuse.Steps are being taken. However, this is a complex issue, needing the involvements of a range of structures and bodies and also requires time and good financing.The process, due to a lack of finances and similar problems, might be slow in Georgia, as in many cases victims of slavery require adequate care and shelter that the country is unable to provide at this time.
The News in Brief

PM comments on Rustavi 2



I would not like to see Rustavi 2 changed and give an excuse to for anybody to speculate on political inference in the media, especially in the pre-electoral season, Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili has told reporters.



According to him, the issue of ownership of the network is still being discussed in court. This is a civil process and the government has no right to interfere with it. I, as the PM, cannot have any caprice towards a private TV Company, Kvirikashvili said.



But he says he categorically condemns the insults that the Director-General of Rustavi 2, Nika Gvaramia, recently unleashed towards state institutions. (IPN)







Appeals Court postpones Rustavi 2 hearing, CEO expects worst-case scenario



On Tuesday the appeals court postponed the hearing of Rustavi 2 case for Friday, June 3, and its CEO fears the same day the court will issue its decision in favor of the former owner, who, they believe, will strip the Georgias main opposition channel its independence.



The Tbilisi City Court in November decided the litigation in favor of Khibar Khalvashi, its former owner, who claims that back in 2006 he was forced to cede Rustavi 2 to the Saakashvili regime. If the Appeals Court upholds the decision, Rustavi 2 current management will challenge it at the Supreme Court.



Nika Gvaramia, Rustavi 2's Director general, was expelled from the court on Tuesday by the judge for contempt of court. He claims the judges are under pressure by the authorities, namely by Thea Tsulukiani, the Minister of Justice.



Gvaramia appealed to the President, Speaker of Parliament and Public Defender.



Wake up, friends, here unprecedented injustice is going on wake up and fulfill your constitutional responsibilities! Gvaramia said. (df watch)







Coalition for an Independent and Transparent Judiciary Reacts to the Delay of the Third Wave Judicial Reform



The third reading of the Third Wave Judicial Reform bill was on the agenda of the May 25-27 plenary sessions at the Parliament of Georgia. However, once again, Parliament delayed consideration of the draft's amendments.



Parliamentary considerations of the Third Wave drafts have been taking place for about eight months. Committee readings started in SeptemberOctober 2015. Afterwards the process was delayed for several months. In February 2016, considerations were resumed and on May 6 the Legal Committee adopted the package at the third reading. However, since then the bill has not been voted for at a plenary session.



The delay of eight months and negotiations over the contents of the bill, which were taking place behind the closed doors, have significantly damaged the legislative process. The contents and quality of the package have also been affected. The reasons for postponing the third reading are unclear.



The Coalition thinks that the Third Wave bill has been significantly revised. The revisions have damaged certain positive and progressive initiatives. Despite this assessment, the Coalition believes that that the legislative process has to be completed and several improvements proposed in the bill have to be enforced due to their critical importance to the court system.



The Coalition considers the final version of the Third Wave bill insufficient and inadequate for addressing challenges existing in the court system. It believes that the timely adoption of the Third Wave amendments will create a basis for more fundamental changes.



The future reform shall address the following issues: the operation of the High Council of Justice and its decision making procedures, judicial appointments and promotions, and judicial disciplinary liability. The work of the recently introduced institutions (e.g. a three-year probationary period) or the institutions which are about to be enacted (including the Inspector and Management Department) have to be carefully examined.



The Coalition addresses the initiators of the Third Wave drafts and political factions in Parliament with a demand to consider the crisis existing in the court system and take timely steps towards the fundamental reform of the justice system. In order to achieve this objective the Third Wave amendments have to be adopted and enacted on time. This will create a platform for future reform which will be more inclusive and open for substantive discussions.



The Coalition continues to work on the judicial reform agenda and stands ready to provide detailed legislative drafts in this process. (IDFI)




@PatriciaMazzei

State Sen. Rene Garcia can't say yet if he will vote for Donald Trump, his Republican Party's presumptive nominee for president.

"The jury's still out for me," Garcia told the Miami Herald on Wednesday.

Late Tuesday, the Hialeah Republican issued a statement blasting Trump's comments on the federal judge handling the Trump University case as "blatantly racist."

"The Republican Party is much bigger than that," Garcia said. "Much more inclusive."

Hialeah is a heavily Cuban American -- and heavily Republican -- city. South Florida has been a cradle of Republican skepticism, with Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado and two members of Congress, Reps. Carlos Curbelo and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, saying they don't plan to vote for him.

Garcia is the second Miami-area Republican state senator on the fence about Trump. His longtime colleague and fellow Cuban American Anitere Flores told the Herald last month that she's waiting to see how Trump campaigns in the general election.

Even during the interview, Garcia seemed to struggle with the Trump question. "He's the nominee of the party right now," said Garcia, an early supporter of Marco Rubio for president.

"I'm waiting to see the tenor of his conversation and the tenor of his debate and if he evolves as a candidate," Garcia concluded on Trump. "I don't think that these racial undertones belong anywhere in politics, Republican or Democratic. I really believe it in my core."

Photo credit: Scott Keeler, Tampa Bay Times
Attorney General Pam Bondi's political difficulties deepened Wednesday when a Massachusetts lawyer filed three separate formal complaints, claiming that her acceptance of a $25,000 check from Donald Trump violate the state ethics code, the election laws and the Florida Bar's rules of professional conduct for attorneys.

All three complaints cite Bondi's solicitation of the donation at a time when her office was reviewing one or more consumer complaints against Trump University, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee's now-defunct real estate academy.

The complaints were filed by J. Whitfield Larrabee III, a Brookline, Mass. lawyer whose web site describes him as "a trial lawyer working to hold powerful corporations and wealthy insurance companies accountable to ordinary people."

Larrabee's ethics complaint does not accuse Bondi of violating a specific statute. It says the complaint "is for ethical violations related to her solicitation of campaign contributions from Donald Trump and her acceptance of a $25,000 campaign contribution from a Trump-related charitable foundation at a time when her office was considering joining an investigation of the New York attorney general of Trump University and related entities."

Larrabee's elections complaint charged that Bondi "aided and abetted Trump and the foundation in committing tax fraud by (using) tax-exempt charitable funds for unlawful political purposes." Bondi's office has said she returned the $25,000 in March of this year after discovering that the charity was prohibited from making political contributions to her political committee, but the committee's accountant said Trump sent a $25,000 personal check.

"This complaint is based on information culled from reliable and published reports, including reports of the Associated Press," Larrabee wrote in his Bar complaint.
@JeremySWallace

Hoping to capitalize on Louisianas budget woes, Florida Gov. Rick Scott is planning a trade mission to that state next week to try to convince businesses there to move to the Sunshine State.

His visit comes after Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, called the Republican-led Legislature back for a special session on Monday to reduce tax breaks and raise other revenues to plug a $600 million budget shortfall. Already this year, Louisiana has raised it sales taxes and increased taxes on cigarettes and alcohol and reduced other tax exemptions for various businesses.

As Governor Edwards continues to rally behind tax increases and bad business policies, we stand ready to help Louisiana companies grow and create jobs in Florida, Scott said in announcing his trade mission. Florida has added over one million new jobs and our job growth rate is growing almost 60 percent faster than the national average. Many Louisianans already vacation in Florida, and they will save more of their money by moving their businesses to our state.

Scotts office said he will visit New Orleans and Baton Rouge but did not say which companies he is targeting while in those cities.

Tweaking other governors - primarily Democrats - and trying to lure businesses in those states is nothing new for Scott, a Republican first elected in 2010. Last month he took a similar trip to California and traded jabs with that states governor Jerry Brown. And Scotts made other trips to Connecticut, New York, Kentucky and Pennsylvania in recent years.

When Scott arrives in Louisiana, he'll find a political situation that might look a little familiar. The Times-Picayune reports that the Legislature let their regular session expire on Monday without passing a state construction budget and it will have to be finished in the special session. That brought complaints from lawmakers there about the growing distrust between the House and Senate. Last year, the Florida Legislature failed to pass a state budget by the end of its regular session, which forced them to meet in special session amid similar tension between the House and Senate.
@PatriciaMazzei

Miami Democrat Joe Garcia warned voters that presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump could be as dangerous to the U.S. as the late President Hugo Chavez was for Venezuela.

Garcia told Miami-based El Venezolano TV, a small local publication, that "Trump is a reality, folks."

"If there's anyone who knows the importance of the vote it's Venezuelans, who have experienced the tragedy of seeing a demagogue get into power," Garcia said. "For Venezuelans, this isn't theoretical... They don't see this as right and left. They see very clear similarities" to Chavez, he implied.

Garcia, a former congressman, urged voters in Florida's 26th district, which stretches from Westchester to Key West, to volunteer for or donate to political campaigns for candidates (left unsaid: like himself) who denounce Trump.

"We've lived through what it's like to lose a democracy," said Garcia, whose parents were born in Cuba. "We should all participate, because democracy has results."

It's not surprising for a Democrat in a district with a large number of Venezuelan immigrants to deride Trump as Chavez-like. But it is unusual to hear U.S. politicians compare any popularly elected (or in this case, soon-to-be nominated) U.S. leaders to authoritarian rules from other countries.

Before Trump, Garcia said he would have "bet his life" that Republicans nominated former Gov. Jeb Bush. He disagreed with Bush when he was governor, Garcia said, but "he always kept his eye on the Hispanic community."

Garcia is coming off a strong couple of weeks. Polls -- including from his primary rival's campaign -- showed him leading opponent Annette Taddeo. Taddeo fired her top campaign staff shortly after that.
Don't be looking for Republican state Sen. Rene Garcia of Hialeah at Donald Trump's big rally in Tampa on Saturday. Garcia issued a statement Wednesday denouncing Trump for his "blatantly racist remarks" about U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel. Garcia's full statement follows:

"I am deeply concerned about Mr. Trumps comments towards Judge Gonzalo Curiel. Judge Curiel is an honorable American, who has served his state and his country with dignity and respect. The point at issue with Mr. Trumps words transcend party politics; the structure embedded in our Constitution calls on the judiciary to interpret the laws in good faith with its people, it is critical that the independence and standing of the American judiciary be preserved and protected from the dangers of racism, bigotry, and demagoguery.

"These demeaning words seek to divide the country among racial lines, and that is simply contrary to the American values that have made our country great. It is shameful that Mr. Trump is using his public profile to force pressure on a reputable member of the federal judiciary to affect the outcome of a private civil matter. Republican or Democrat, black or white, we must stand in solidarity and denounce these blatantly racist remarks."

Garcia, 41, is currently unopposed in his campaign for re-election to the Florida Senate.
@PatriciaMazzei

Juan Cuba, the executive director of the Miami-Dade County Democratic Party who backed Bernie Sanders for president, said Wednesday that Sanders should concede the nomination to rival Hillary Clinton.

"Bernie ran a great campaign that has given Democrats courage to run on progressive platforms and tugged the national conversation to the left," Cuba wrote in a public Facebook post. "But there is no longer a path to a nomination. He should have conceded last night after losing California and New Jersey. He has lost pledged delegates and the popular vote (even if you include estimates for low turnout caucus states)."

Clinton clinched the nomination late Monday, after the Associated Press canvassed delegates and revealed she had reached a majority. Sanders lost four of six primaries Tuesday, including California. The only remaining primary is in the District of Columbia next Tuesday.

The senator returned home to Vermont on Wednesday and will meet with President Obama on Thursday.
A long way from Tinder, the entrancingly strange black comedy The Lobster imagines single life not as an array of swipe-right options, but rather as a quest for a mate for life on a serious deadline, to prevent being turned into a member of a nonhuman species.

Allow me to explain. In the world of The Lobster, singlehood is illegal. The unmarried have 45 days to find a mate on the grounds of a large, beige hotel, or else become transformed into the animal of their choice and fend for themselves in the nearby woods. As with nearly everything filling in the contours of co-writer and director Yorgos Lanthimos first English-language feature  he has made four films in his native Greece  this insane dystopian premise is tapped into place at the outset, and you believe it. Best known in the U.S. for his Oscar-nominated Dogtooth, Lanthimos has long asserted himself as a master of tone management. As a stage director and a filmmaker, hes steeped in not just deadpan absurdism, but the general, perplexing absurdity of love and family in the realm of totalitarian excess.

At the hotel check-in counter, we meet David, played with perfect, dodgy timidity by Colin Farrell. The man has arrived at the hotel accompanied by Bob, a dog, formerly his brother. Davids politely grilled by the desk clerk. Gay or straight? A pause. David wonders if theres a bisexual option. No, hes told. This option is no longer available, due to various operational problems.

We come to learn the rules and regulations of this place along with David, and his fellow singles played by Ben Whishaw and John C. Reilly. David informs the management that hes chosen the lobster as his next incarnation. Thick of neck and droopy of mustache, David is a man who may have been born beaten down, or may have been beaten down by whatever world this world has become. But change is possible; once he meets his match, a similarly shortsighted woman played by Rachel Weisz, who also narrates the film, this empty vessel finds meaning and purpose and something like love.

Lest I make The Lobster sound conventionally upbeat and life-affirming, it should be noted that Lanthimos eccentric marvel of a film is all of a piece with its makers earlier work. The performance style is one of vaguely robotic minimalism, as if the characters had learned a common language phonetically, without quite grasping the meaning or the feeling of what they say. There are short, sharp shocks of heinous violence, as when Reillys character is nailed for a transgression and subjected to brief but painful torture involving his hand and a hot toaster.

Much of The Lobster takes place in the woods, charting Davids escape from the hotel into the realm of a militant group known as the Loners, led by Lea Deader Than Deadpan Seydoux. In the wild David meets the Weisz character, and while the rhythm of the storytelling in these later sequences can get a little pokey, Lanthimos takes the story to a tantalizing, ambiguous conclusion.

Everyones excellent in The Lobster, and the suffocatingly bland settings brake just short of monumental claustrophobia. Cinematographer Thimios Bakatakis shot much of the film in County Kerry, Ireland, on what appears to have been a string of relentlessly gray, windy days. The classically driven score, heavy on the Shostakovich and Stravinsky, becomes one with the images. Seeing it a second time, I wasnt sure if the increasingly narrow focus of Lanthimos dark fairy tale worked, entirely. Im still not sure. Yet everything within the film connects to neighboring elements, performance to performance to cryptic absurdity (the opening is one of the strangest of the year) to surprisingly heartfelt acknowledgment of the power of love. Whether things work out or not.
A Stevensville man was sentenced on Tuesday for his fourth DUI, a felony, in Missoula County District Court.

Judge Robert Dusty Deschamps ordered Jamie Zygmond, 41, to serve 13 months in the custody of the Department of Corrections and to pay a $1,000 fine under the terms of a plea agreement.

According to the affidavit in the case, on the evening of May 2, 2015, a sheriffs deputy responded to a report of a male passed out in a white truck stopped in the middle of Miller Creek Road.

The deputy met with a U.S. Forest Service law enforcement officer who said he had stopped the truck after observing the driver, later identified as Zygmond, ride the brakes and swerve to the right on several occasions.

The deputy reported that Zygmond admitted he had been parked in the roadway and said he had been thinking about things. The deputy reported that Zygmonds eyes were red and glossy, his speech was slurred, his breath smelled like alcohol and he admitted to consuming drinks.

The deputy wrote that Zygmond suggested that the officer should take him to jail immediately because he had f--d up.

Zygmond failed field sobriety tests and registered a .245 blood alcohol content on the Intoxilizer. The legal BAC limit in Montana is .08.

He has previous convictions for DUI from 2002, 2009 and 2010.

As part of his sentence, Sygmond was ordered to pay $2,000 to the Substance Abuse Professional program. He will be committed to a substance abuse program and any time left on his sentence after that six-month program is complete will be suspended
POLSON  Michael Batista, the director of the Montana Department of Corrections, likes the story, even if it wasnt the reaction he was looking for.

Batista was discussing with a Montana sheriff the efforts to better re-assimilate convicted criminals back into society once their prison sentences have been served with a goal of not having them re-offend, when the sheriff stopped him.

Listen, Mike, I love ya, Batista said the lawman told him. But we catch em. We dont clean em.

Of the criminals they catch, up to 97 percent are released back into the general population after serving their sentences, Batista told the Native American Issues Subcommittee of the U.S. Attorney Generals Advisory Committee on Tuesday.

The real key to lowering the rate (of recidivism) is how good we get at re-entry, Batista told U.S. attorneys from 25 districts that include Indian Country, and Acting Associate Attorney General Bill Baer.

The subcommittee, which is chaired by Montana U.S. Attorney Michael Cotter, is meeting in Missoula on Tuesday and Wednesday, but spent most of Tuesday on the Flathead Indian Reservation. The panel is focusing on re-entry in Indian Country.

The goal is to keep people from returning to life in a cell.

When a person is released from prison, the first 90 days are critical, said Landee Holloway, felony probation and parole re-entry officer for the Montana Department of Corrections.

They face a long list of issues that must be dealt with the day they hit the streets, she added: housing, employment, transportation. Do they need mental health services? Chemical or alcohol dependency treatment?

Imagine being down for 15 to 25 years, Holloway said. What will be there when you come back?

***

Here on the Flathead Reservation, re-entry into the community starts at entry into the justice system, Ann Sherwood told the subcommittee.

Sherwood, managing attorney for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Defenders Office, said the tribes employ a holistic approach to re-entry, not to mention a lawyer whose title is re-entry attorney.

That person, Ryan Anderson, begins advocating for tribal members at the sentencing level, Sherwood said.

If theyre entering into a plea agreement, they need to know all the consequences, not just that its 10 years with five suspended, she said.

Sentences can come with other conditions, and consequences can go so far as to having their data entered with Child Protective Services, and they may face custody issues once theyre released.

Custody issues come up frequently, Anderson said, and its often the biggest issue on their mind, not their jail sentence.

***

Almost all said housing is critical to successful re-entry.

It might be the most important link to re-entry, Batista said.

Its not that theyre on the streets, its that theyre on somebodys couch, Sherwood said. Its difficult to try and stay sober if you have to be with others who are drinking.

Housing is the No. 1 issue, Holloway said. We hear that over and over and over again. If you cant get up, shower, and know where youre going to go that night, its hard.

Batista also recommended that re-entry efforts begin before re-entry, with prison in-reach programs that get to know offenders before they move back into communities.

We have tribal elders who visit and act as mentors to some Native American offenders, he said. We need more of that.

He also encouraged agencies to engage with church groups to assist with re-entry programs.

Folks in the faith community really step up in Montana, Batista said. They seem to rally people like no other.

***

In an earlier session at Kwa Taq Nuk Resort, the subcommittee heard about ways that can help keep Native Americans from offending in the first place.

Salish Kootenai College President Sandra Boham said support of cultural and native language programs goes a long way.

I cant give a test to show how it improves their math skills, Boham said, but it happens. Having a strong interest in their culture and identity impacts their academics. The stronger their cultural identity, the stronger they are in resisting bad choices.

Boham told of the 30-year gap in fluent speakers of the Salish language on the Flathead Reservation, and its cause.

The boarding school era, when the federal government tried to force Indians to assimilate into white society, robbed Native Americans of their culture and language, she said. With increased efforts to teach the Salish language, young people now go home and teach their parents, who didnt have it. It strengthens those ties.

Its bigger than just learning the language, Boham said.
Beau Donaldson, who was sent to prison after being convicted of a 2010 rape, has been released on parole in Bozeman.

In early 2013, Missoula County District Court Judge Karen Townsend sentenced Donaldson to 30 years in prison with 20 years suspended after he pleaded guilty to sexual intercourse without consent. Donaldson, a former University of Montana running back, graduated in 2008 from Big Sky High School, where he set 10 school records in football and was the teams most valuable player as a senior.

In April, the Montana Board of Pardons and Parole approved Donaldsons release pending his completion of the prerelease program in Billings. A year before, the board denied Donaldsons parole, instead allowing him to attend a boot camp program at the Treasure State Correctional Facility followed by a Great Falls-based aftercare program, before he went on to the Billings Pre-Release Center.

When he was approved for parole in the spring, Donaldson was required to develop and submit a plan that included details on where he would be living after his release. When they granted parole, the board also said Donaldson must receive regular chemical dependency and sex offender counseling.

Donaldson was released Wednesday and is now reporting to Bozeman Probation and Parole.

Donaldsons rape conviction was one of the court cases covered in the book Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town released last spring by author Jon Krakauer.
This falls Montana Legislature matchups are taking shape following early election results on Tuesday.

Tom France, D-Missoula, will face off against state Rep. Dan Salomon, R-Ronan, in the general election this fall for the Senate District 47 seat. SD 47 encompasses Missoula and Lake counties.

France is the senior director of Western Wildlife Conservation Northern Rockies Regional Center in Missoula. He beat Democratic opponent Joey Jayne, of Arlee, 68 percent to 31 percent.

Salomon has termed out of his House District 93 position. GOP challenger Robert Bridges of Missoula previously announced that he was withdrawing his candidacy.

SD 47 state Sen. Cliff Larsen, D-Missoula, termed out of his seat.

***

The Senate District 7 race was packed, with a three-pronged Democrat primary and two Republicans. SD 7 covers Missoula, Mineral, Sanders and Flathead counties.

Democrat Mark Sheets, of Thompson Falls, will face incumbent state Sen. Jennifer Fielder, R-Thompson Falls, this fall.

Fielder is vying for a second term. She has become a vocal supporter of transferring federal land management to the state. Fielder is also the vice-chair of the state Republican Party.

In early results, Fielder led GOP opponent Glenn Ferren of St. Regis 63 percent to 36 percent.

Retallick slipped past Democrats Mark Sheets of Thompson Falls and Terry Caldwell of Paradise to move forward this fall. Retallick, Sheets and Caldwell received 39 percent, 37 percent and 23 percent, respectively, of the early results.

***

Democrat Melissa Hartman of Whitefish will face state Rep. Keith Regier, R-Kalispell, this fall for the Senate District 3 seat, which represents Flathead County.

They're gunning for a seat that will be left vacant by state Sen. Bruce Tutvedt, R-Kalispell, who is termed out.

Regier has reached his term limit in House District 4. He is the Republican House Majority leader.

Regier was ahead of Don Kaltschmidt, R-Whitefish, 54 percent to 45 percent in early results.

Kaltschmidt owns Don K Chevrolet Chrysler Subaru in Whitefish.

***

Libby Republicans Bill Clark and Steve Gunderson seek to replace term-limited Jerry Bennett as their partys candidate in House District 1. With just one of five precincts reporting Gunderson leads 70 percent to 29 percent. The winner will appear on the November ballot against Democrat Steve Haarstick of Troy.

***

Shortly before midnight Tuesday, Derek Skees overtook Jean Barragan for the Republican nomination for House District 11 in Flathead County, with Skees up 50 percent to 49 percent in preliminary results. The seat is currently held by Republican Albert Olszewski, who is running for Senate District 6. Democrat Eileen Bach Bech of Kalispell is running unopposed for her partys nomination in the race.

***

In House District 13, Debra Achatz holds an early 77 percent to 22 percent lead over Gerald Cuvillier in the Democrat primary, with just three of eight precincts reporting partial results. Both candidates are from Trout Creek. The winner will face incumbent Republican Bob Brown of Thompson Falls in this falls general election.

***

Democrat Bryan Foster of St. Regis will take on Republican Denley Loge of St. Regis in November for House District 14. Loge led Charles Woolley of Plains in early results by a margin of 63 percent to 36 percent.

***

Larry Dunham, Mike Hopkins and Randy Vannoy are in a three-way race for the Republican nomination for House District 92 left open when incumbent Republican David Doc Moore filed to run for House District 100. Hopkins leads in early voting with 42 percent, followed by Dunham with 32 percent and Vannoy with 24 percent. Addrien Marx from Seeley Lake is the only Democrat in the House District 92 race.

***

Shane Morigeau is off to an early 81 percent to 18 percent lead over Curtis Bridges in the Democrat primary for House District 95. Republican Cyndi Kenck is the only candidate in her party that filed for the race. Incumbent Democrat Nancy Wilson is not running for another term.

***

House District 97 incumbent Republican Brad Tschida of Missoula will see a challenger in either Patrick Thomas Maloney or Nick Davis in the fall. Maloney was winning the primary 54 percent to 45 percent.

***

Democrat incumbent Willis Curdy was ahead of his House District 98 primary opponent Michael Bowles with 71 percent to Bowles 28 percent. The winner of the primary will be on the November ballot against Republican Michael Ellsworth, who lost a race for a seat on the Missoula City Council in 2015.

***

With only partial results in, Marilyn Ryan had a commanding lead in the Democrat primary for House District 99, with 82 percent of the vote over Greg Strandbergs 17 percent. The winner will be up against Republican Susan Cundiff in the fall. Democrat incumbent Tom Steenberg did not file for another term.

Check missoulian.com for complete election results.
HAMILTON  A North Dakota man was arrested on four felony counts of criminal endangerment after taking a high-speed lap through Stevensville and then accelerating to speeds topping 120 mph on U.S. Highway 93.

Eric Allen Burruss, 34, of Dickinson, North Dakota, appeared Monday before Ravalli County Justice Jim Bailey on the felony charges and six misdemeanor counts.

Burruss was arrested June 3 after a Montana Highway Patrol trooper saw his black Dodge truck accelerate rapidly in Stevensville and then proceed to take a high-speed lap around town, according to a charging affidavit.

The trooper first spotted the vehicle at about 2 a.m.

When the trooper activated his emergency lights in an attempt to pull the truck over, it sped up and drove through a stop sign as it headed north toward the Stevensville Cutoff Road.

At this point, Burruss truck was emitting clouds of smoke, which obscured the vision of other drivers, the affidavit said. Burruss passed a semi-truck at high speed, which forced that vehicle off the road.

As he continued to accelerate toward Highway 93, Burruss continued to pass other vehicles along the way. Burruss then suddenly made an abrupt U-turn in the middle of Highway 93. He crossed all the lanes of traffic in the process.

When Burruss accelerated back toward the Stevensville Cutoff Road, the trooper clocked him at 123 mph in a 65 mph zone.

He turned onto the Stevensville Cutoff Road without signaling and then hit speeds in excess of 100 mph while driving back toward Stevensville.

Burruss then lost control of his vehicle on a corner and fish-tailed before coming to a stop sideways in the middle of the road, blocking both lanes of travel. He then drove through the grass and off a two-foot ledge leading into the nursing home parking lot before beginning to flee again.

At one point, he slowed down, and a man named Alonzo Miller jumped out of the moving truck.

Burruss then accelerated up to speeds in excess of 100 mph on Highway 93 before making another U-turn. He turned back on the Stevensville Cutoff Road and hit speeds exceeding 110 mph as he was coming into Stevensville.

He sped through town, turned east on Logan and then lost control of his vehicle again at Pine Hollow Road. The truck went off the road and hit a fence.

Once again, Burruss sped off. Now driving on Pine Hollow Road, he forced a sheriffs vehicle off the roadway before he eventually made it back to Stevensville where he abandoned his truck and fled on foot.

Burruss was not immediately located.

A Highway Patrol trooper spoke with Miller, who said that he had demanded to be let out of the truck because he was afraid for his life. Miller told the trooper that he had threatened Burruss with bodily injury before finally being allowed to bail out of the moving vehicle.

Later that morning, Burruss called in to report that his truck had been stolen.

In a subsequent interview, Burruss told the Stevensville police chief that he was driving the truck during the pursuit and his truck wasnt actually stolen, the affidavit said.

Burruss was also charged with misdemeanor counts of fleeing from a peace officer, reckless driving, speeding, failure to stop at a traffic signal, improper passing and stop sign violation.

Bailey set bail at $50,000.
A bomb threat was discovered in a Sentinel High School bathroom Tuesday, but school officials say there is "no credible threat."

Principal Ted Fuller said a student received a photo of the bomb threat  graffiti in a men's bathroom at the high school  via social media on Tuesday. The student then alerted a teacher, who brought it to school administration.

"It made an anonymous, non-specific threat of a school bombing and identified June 8," Fuller said. "It did not name a specific school or a specific time, but given that it was discovered here at Sentinel, we took precautions on campus."

At the time it was discovered, at about 1:30 or 2 p.m., Fuller said there was approximately one hour left in the school day. Administration contacted the Missoula Police Department and the two worked together to "determine an action plan which was after the students dismissed." There was no evacuation or lockdown.

"It was close enough to the end of the day that we made the decision to dismiss as normal," Fuller said.

Once the school day ended, Sentinel's exterior doors were locked and MPD and University of Montana Police did a sweep of the building, searching classrooms and countertops for any suspicious objects or devices. They found nothing, Fuller said. There are cameras in Sentinel, but not in the restrooms. School officials do not know when the threat was posted on the wall.

The school sent a message to all Sentinel staff and families, notifying them of the incident.

The building will remain locked Tuesday night, he said, with additional security personnel in the building and patrolling the exterior throughout the night. Fuller said school will be held as planned on Wednesday, operating on the regular end-of-semester schedule: 7:50 a.m.-12:05 p.m. There will be increased police presence on campus Wednesday as a precaution.

"As is the case with these kinds of things, we take it seriously and follow protocol, but as far as school tomorrow (Wednesday), it's business as usual," Fuller said.

Fuller said the school has not put out a specific call for information on the incident.

"For us, it's going to be a tricky one, unless someone comes forward with information, and if somebody does, we would obviously investigate it," he said.
Challenger Dave Strohmaier has what appears to be an insurmountable lead over Stacy Rye early Wednesday in the Democratic primary race for Missoula County Commissioner.

In a battle of veteran city councilors from Missoula, Strohmaier has 10,129 votes to Ryes 9,317  a lead of 52 percent to 47 percent. The winner will take on Todd James Geery of Milltown, who ran unopposed on the Republican primary ticket.

Were cautiously optimistic, Strohmaier said earlier Tuesday night after most absentee ballots were counted. The last round was promising. I think we gained a few votes over the first margin we had.

Rye was appointed to the commissioners seat last September to replace retiring Bill Carey. She joined Jean Curtiss and Cola Rowley to make it the first all-woman board of commissioners in Missoula County since 1994 and only the second one in state history.

Curtiss endorsed Strohmaier and publicly criticized Rye for creating a toxic work environment on the commission. Rowley also contributed to Strohmaiers campaign, and he polled support from the likes of Montana Conservation Voters, others in the conservation community, as well as state auditor Monica Lindeen.

Among Ryes supporters were Missoula Mayor John Engen, county clerk and treasurer Tyler Gernant and former state senate minority leader Carol Williams.

Rye said she was proud of her campaign.

We could have been dragged down into the muck, and I just would not go there, she said. We just ran as positive a race with the support of people that Ive worked with near and far and have worked on a variety of causes for a long time. To have their support in this race meant a lot to me.

Strohmaier and Rye served together on the city council from 2006 to 2012.

It was a tough campaign because in some respects Stacy and I have operated in similar circles over the years, Strohmaier said. I think both of us probably have friends and colleagues who were definitely conflicted in trying to come to some resolution in trying to figure out whos the best person for the county at this point in time.

Strohmaier, a professional historian with Historical Research Associates, was an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. House seat in 2012 and for seat in the Montana House of Representatives two years ago.

Rye left her position as community relations manager at United Way of Missoula County to take on the commissioners job last fall. She focused her campaign on a more open, transparent and inclusive county government, developing partnerships with the city of Missoula and the private sector, early childhood education and housing.

Strohmaier listed his top priorities as land stewardship and conservation; planning; public safety, and social justice.

He attributed his successful campaign to a lot of hard work with volunteer support making voter contacts, whether thats knocking on door or calling folks on the phone.

Weve only been in the race for three months, Strohmaier added. We started with no money, no organization in the month of March , and weve come a long way.

***

In Flathead County, incumbent Pam Holmquist commanded 54 percent of the first 7,045 Republican ballots, leading challenger Tim Harmon by about 600 votes. Holmquist has chaired the commission since the death of Jim Dupont in 2012. Harmon, 54, has been maintenance supervisor at the Flathead County Fairgrounds and is running for office for the first time.

Incumbent Scott Adler cruised to an easy win over James Cressler in the Granite County Republican race for county commissioner. Adler had nearly 80 percent of the votes and led 536-98 with four precincts reporting.

Jerry Bennett held a sizeable lead over four other candidates in the Lincoln County commissioner race, a non-partisan affair. Bennetts 794 votes represented 57 percent of the 1,364 cast in the first wave of results. The top two move on to November and the race for second was much closer. Jim Hammons had 180 votes and Larry Dolezal 164 with three of 14 precincts reporting. Rhoda Cargill had 127 votes and Tony Brown polled 99.

The Lincoln County race was to replace Greg Larson, who was appointed to the commission in 2014 after Ron Downey stepped aside for health reasons. Larson chose not to run for a second term.

Only absentee ballots had been counted in the Sanders County commission race as of press time. Glen E. Magera led Kevin Kerr and Judy Wooley in the non-partisan affair.
Two major western Montana agricultural retailers have decided to merge into one business.

The producer boards of CHS Mountain West Co-op, based in Missoula, and CHS Kalispell have agreed that consolidating their operations would be in the best long-term interest of customers and their communities, according to Mountain West board chair Brien Weber of Corvallis.

Our combined size and scope will enhance our leverage with chemical manufacturers and strengthen our risk management of market positions, among other advantages, he said. Together, well be able to reach efficiencies for (customers) that we could not achieve individually.

Mountain West operates the Valley Grocery in Alberton, the Ranch and Home Store on Reserve Street in Missoula and a 24-hour fuel pump and feed store in Drummond. CHS Kalispell operates a feed store, a country store and a discount store in the Flathead Valley.

Pending the appropriate due diligence, the two business will begin operating as CHS Mountain West Co-op on Sept. 1 of this year. The boards have appointed Chuck Thompson as general manager and Mark Lalum as assistant general manager for the new business.

CHS Kalispell board chairman Doug Manning said customers should expect a smooth transition with little day-to-day change.

Both of our businesses are financially strong, and coming together will allow us to put the appropriate level of resources into programs and services that help our customers grow their operations, he said.

Both business serve farmers and ranchers in 10 counties in Montana from the Canadian border to Idaho. They are part of CHS Inc., a global agribusiness owned collectively by farmers, ranchers and cooperatives across the country. The company supplies energy, crop nutrients, animal feed and food ingredients. It also operates petroleum refineries and pipelines, and sells oil and gas products under the Cenex brand name. The company also provides services such as grain marketing and financial risk management.

Agriculture is the largest industry in Montana, generating more than $4 billion for all services and products every year.
We are three eighth-graders from the Missoula International School. This school has helped us realize our impact on the natural world. We have also been able to study lots of sciences and the water. Recently, we have become even more aware of how our use of water can affect many lives.

Clean water is one of the most important things in the world. We didnt realize how important it was until we took our eighth-grade trip to La Paz, Mexico. When we were there, we were not allowed to drink any of the water from the sink. We couldnt drink it, brush our teeth or take very long showers, because we were in a desert. We all take water for granted, use more then we need, leave it running while we brush our teeth, or anything. Going to Mexico really had a positive impact on our lives, we have been taking shorter showers, and overall using less water in general.

On your own you can reduce your water use by taking shorter showers, turning off water when you are not using it and not wasting lots of water on your lawn. Use only the amount of water that you need. Remember, every drop adds up. If you want to learn about how you can get involved with taking care of clean water you can go to http://clarkfork.org/ to learn helping the Clark Fork Coalition at upcoming cleanup events and what you can do on your own.

Take the time to help our watershed and in return you can continue to drink sanitary and safe drinking water. Please take action and help benefit yourself and the rest of the Missoula community.

Help protect our watershed, thank you!

Ms. Gebo's eighth-grade class,

Missoula International School,

Missoula
The presidential election races thus far have demonstrated that huge numbers of voters across the nation are fed up with establishment politicians, both Republican and Democrat. Massive support has shifted from lock-step, old party candidates to unconventional alternatives, Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. The differences between these two are enormous, however  successful entrepreneur vs. socialist politician.

The race for governor of Montana can be similarly contrasted across party lines. Gov. Steve Bullock (attorney) is an establishment Democrat coming from a professional political background. Greg Gianforte (electrical engineer) is a successful entrepreneur coming from a computer science, software solutions-oriented background. Bullock has focused on politics and spending taxpayer money, while Gianforte has profited in the free enterprise system, providing economic business solutions.

To me, the choice for governor is very clear. I support Greg Gianforte. Montana leadership must provide successful solutions as the state is impacted by the extreme financial challenges lying ahead.

Dan Negethon,

Colstrip
On May 6, the Missoulian ran an article about a Cuban refugee couple. Maie Lee Jones, the wife, was quoted saying the following: Although education, housing and health-care are free, incomes are unbelievably low. The engineers, doctors and other professionals earn like $25-$30 a month in Cuba. We cant support even ourselves. We want a better future and for that we came here.

That future is provided by our U.S. Constitution. Our businesses, our private property and our lives are to be protected by the government. Amendment IV takes care of that along with the nine other amendments called the Bill of Rights. Charles Thomson, one of our founding fathers, said, We have a free market economic system where the most productive are rewarded and not punished for their efforts with unbearable taxes and fines. When the quantity of tax depends on the caprice of those powerful in government what encouragement is there to labor and to save.  The founding fathers opposed any form of socialism in which the government can rob its people of their initiative and keep them poor and needy.

Our Constitution limits the power of the executive branch, but during the last 60 years, at least, our presidents have usurped some power of the Congress, which is the power of the people. In my opinion, the last eight years has revealed a rapid growth in executive over-reach. We people have the authority to oppose such over-reach as Obamacare. The First Amendment grants the power to petition the government for a redress of our grievances.

The Power under the Constitution will always be in the People, proclaimed George Washington. He had great confidence in us. It has always been said that it is up to the people to keep our very good form of government, our democratic republic.

Jeanette Zentgraf,

Lolo
BUTTE - A 32-year-old man suspected in a Helena burglary is facing drug charges after he and a female companion were found flagging down cars on Interstate 15 near Butte early Wednesday.

Calvin Veigel of Helena was charged with felony criminal possession of dangerous drugs and misdemeanor criminal possession of drug paraphernalia at his initial appearance before Butte justice court Judge Ben Pezdark on Wednesday morning.

Veigel is being held on $20,000 bond at the Butte-Silver Bow Detention Center. A hearing was set for July 7.

A police report states Veigel and Alexa Olaso, 30, of Box Elder were flagging down vehicles on the Interstate 15 near the Feeley exit shortly before midnight Tuesday. The two appeared confused, paranoid and may have been under the influence of a drug.

Butte-Silver Bow Undersheriff George Skuletich said Veigel and Olaso reported seeing a red vehicle with somebody in the trunk, which was not found.

Police had earlier received an attempt to locate from Helena law enforcement for a gray Chrysler 300 sedan with Lewis and Clark County plates and registered to Veigel, who may be heading to Butte.

Skuletich said the car, which police had not located as of Wednesday morning, was wanted in connection with a burglary in Helena. He added that Veigel and Olaso may have driven the Chrysler to Butte on I-15 and then up to the Highlands, where they possibly got lost and abandoned it.

Veigel was allegedly found with a pipe and a clear plastic bag with 4.3 grams of white crystal substance that tested for methamphetamine. At his court appearance Wednesday, he appeared distraught and was crying. Veigel told the judge he was homeless.
ARLEE  Arrest warrants are being issued after the body of a teenager missing since February was found in a camper here late last week.

Lake County Sheriff Don Bell says 18-year-old Richard Warner was beaten to death.

No missing person report had been filed, Bell said, but family members told investigators they had not seen or heard from Warner since February.

The sheriffs office was notified on the afternoon of June 2 that a body had been discovered in a camper on Coombs Lane near Arlee. Coombs Lane is approximately a mile southeast of Arlee, off U.S. Highway 93.

Warner had been living in the camper with two relatives, according to Bell.

His body was transported to the Montana State Crime Lab in Missoula.

Meantime, detectives and deputies determined the deceased was likely Warner, Detectives traveled to Wallace, Idaho, to speak with the relatives who had been living in the camper with him.

The relatives have been interviewed, and as a result of those interviews it was determined that Richard Warner was beaten to death sometime in mid-late February and his body concealed in the camper, Bell said.
HELENA  Montana voters boosted Donald Trump's lock on the Republican presidential nomination Tuesday, as Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock and his GOP rival, Bozeman businessman Greg Gianforte, easily defeated token opponents in their primary elections.

Trump's win in Montana gives him 27 delegates, padding his bid for the Republican nomination on a night in which delegate-rich states such as California and New Jersey also went to the polls.

Trump shored up his support in Montana with a campaign stop in Billings less than two weeks before the election. Supporter Kendra Daniel of Billings said she was eager to vote for her candidate because he says a lot of things that people are thinking.

"I know there's a lot of controversy around him over the election this year, but I'm excited to get out there and vote for him," she said.

Some voters expressed disappointment with the options on both sides of the ballot in the presidential race. Natalie Clark of East Helena said she doesn't like Trump's attitude or how demeaning he is of some people, but she voted for him anyway.

"Everyone else was out of the running, weren't they?" she said.

State Republican leaders, while not quick to warm up to the bombastic Trump, urged the GOP faithful to back him as a better candidate than Hillary Clinton, who secured enough delegates on Monday to become the presumptive Democratic nominee.

The Montana primary contest between Clinton and Bernie Sanders also was being decided Tuesday.

Bullock and Gianforte have been looking past the primaries for months in anticipation of their matchup in November's election, which will also include Libertarian candidate Ted Dunlap.

The defeated gubernatorial candidates, Democrat Bill McChesney and Republican Terry Nelson, filed to run just days before the deadline to do so, and they had not raised any significant funds or spent much time campaigning.

But their presence allowed Bullock and Gianforte to increase their fundraising. Under state law, candidates who don't have primary opponents must return the contributions earmarked for that election and both Bullock and Gianforte have been amassing campaign funds in anticipation of a tough general election campaign.

The election also decided or confirmed the party nominees for U.S. House, four statewide offices, three Public Service Commission spots and a slate of legislative seats. Three of the seven state Supreme Court positions are also up for election, though only one is contested.

The real primary contests were being fought in the state House and Senate, both of which are controlled by Republicans. An ongoing ideological split between moderate and conservative factions of the Republican Party has resulted in several incumbents being challenged that could determine the direction of the Legislature.

Democrats also have several contested legislative primaries. But Montana Democratic Party Chairwoman Nancy Keenan said those races weren't as acrimonious as the Republican elections.

The bigger issue will be uniting Sanders and Clinton supporters to defeat Trump in November, she said.
HELENA  Control over Montana's Legislature was at stake as voters on Tuesday decided election battles between Republican conservatives and moderates, with about a dozen high-profile races that could determine which faction will steer the state Legislature in 2017.

Both sides were awaiting results late Tuesday. Some counties, including Cascade County, were not planning to report tallies to the Secretary of State's Office until all their ballots were counted  which meant a long night of waiting for some candidates and their supporters.

Republicans currently hold majorities in the House and Senate, but the outcome of the primary could decide if GOP hardliners will control the agenda at the Capitol when the Legislature reconvenes in January. Republicans have an 18-seat advantage over Democrats in the House and an eight-seat advantage in the Senate.

While Democrats were unlikely to win enough seats to wrest control of either chamber, key victories by GOP moderates could allow them to exert more influence in debates over infrastructure funding and other contentious issues.

In the last two legislative sessions, conservatives have been angered by moderate Republicans forming voting blocs with Democratic lawmakers to advance or stop key bills.

Because some districts lean strongly Republican, the winner in the primary could well decide who will eventually hold the seat.

"In these head-to-head competitions in some districts, between the more moderate and conservative branches of the Republican Party, the outcomes one way or the other will determine what happens in the Legislature next year, in terms of policy outcomes," said Jeremy Johnson, a political scientist at Carroll College.

Republicans acknowledge the primary is nothing less than a battle for the party's heart and soul, between ideological purists who seek to adhere to the party platform and moderates more willing to find middle ground with Democrats.

Republicans are facing off in 10 Senate races and 26 House races for the right to represent the party in the November general election.

Negative mailers turned some contests ugly. Independent political committees poured money into some races, with much of that money benefiting moderates. Some of the races have generated complaints with the Commissioner of Political Practices.

"In a democracy, this is how voters express their priorities," said Sandy Welch, the deputy treasurer for Montanans for Responsible Leadership, which spent about $33,000 supporting moderate candidates.

***

Among the contested races between conservative incumbents and moderate challengers late Tuesday:

 In Sidney, Joel Krautter failed in his bid to unseat Rep. Scott Staffanson, whose vote against last year's infrastructure bill became a key campaign issue

 In Billings, Rep. Daniel Zolnikov was leading challenger John Bedford in early returns.

 Sen. Jennifer Fielder was leading Glen Ferren in her bid to continue representing a swath of northwestern Montana.

 In Bozeman, Rep. Art Wittich, who was seeking re-election after a jury in April found that he took illegal corporate campaign money in 2010, was behind Bruce Grubbs, one of two challengers.

Democrats have primary contests of their own, but none have generated the same kind of heat as some GOP matchups. Only 14 matchups in the House and Senate feature Democrats going head to head.
Voters in six states cast ballots in presidential primary contests Tuesday, but many were looking ahead to the general election.

Democratic and Republican voters told The Associated Press they have long been weighing and comparing candidates with an eye toward who could come out on top in November.

Elections in New Jersey, California, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota and South Dakota featured a contest between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. Sanders is urging superdelegates to drop their support for Clinton, arguing he is a stronger candidate to take on Donald Trump.

Clinton reached the 2,383 delegates needed to become the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Monday, according to an AP tally.

On the Republican side, Trump has had the nomination locked up for weeks.

Here are some voters' thoughts:

___

In San Diego, 82-year-old Harry Backer strolled past cyclists, skateboarders and kayakers on the way to vote for Clinton. The retired teacher, who also worked in construction, said America needs a level-headed, grounded woman with world experience.

"I'm left of Bernie Sanders, but I know that she's the candidate that can possibly get something done," Backer said.

He also wanted to be part of history in making Clinton the first woman to top the ticket of a major U.S. political party.

___

Izabela Biel voted for Trump in Closter, New Jersey, an upscale suburb across the Hudson River from Manhattan. Biel said Trump's success as a businessman symbolizes the American dream for her.

Biel came to the U.S. from Poland about 25 years ago, and she offered that even though he isn't the perfect candidate, she prefers him to the Democratic candidates who "want to make everybody equal."

"I grew up in communism," said Biel, 46. "I've lived it, and I absolutely know that it's proven that it doesn't work. You can't make everybody equal. That just doesn't exist in the real world."

___

In Albuquerque, New Mexico, 72-year-old retiree Thomas Ocken biked to the University of New Mexico to vote for Sanders. Ocken said didn't think it mattered after news of Clinton's delegate count, but he wanted to cast a ballot anyway.

"I think Democratic Socialism is much more fair. I'm not afraid of socialism," Ocken said. "I don't think he'll win. At least he'll put more pressure on Hillary."

___

Paul Westendorf, a 53-year-old Sioux Falls, South Dakota, resident who works in financial services, voted for Trump, though he wished he had other viable options. He said it was more about "finding what I dislike the least."

"It's hard to get a read on what he really stands for, and I think that some of that is intentional," Westendorf said.

Westendorf is strongly anti-abortion, and he said he's uncomfortable because he doesn't have a good sense of Trump's true stance on that issue. But he said Trump can surround himself with competent people and build a great team.

___

In Montana, Sanders supporter Sonya Goes Ahead held out hope that he could still get the delegates needed before the primary.

"The other candidates are not very truthful. They are in it for money," said Goes Ahead, who grew up on Montana's Crow Reservation and is studying education at Montana State University in Billings.

Sanders was the first presidential candidate to campaign in Montana, in early May, when he also met privately with American Indian leaders from the state's reservations

"He wants to help communities, help bring jobs to the reservation," the 24-year-old Goes Ahead said. "There's not many jobs in my home  just the schools."

___

In Helena, Montana, decorative painter Carmela Linguista had no hesitation about whom she was voting for: "Hillary, Hillary, Hillary."

"Hillary has pretty much devoted her life to the needs of women and children," Linguista said. "I think her forte is on the world stage."

She also pulled few punches about Trump.

"The man is insane. He's a danger," she said. "He's not presidential material."

---

Claudia Scott, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, voted for Trump  who is "very brash" at times but speaks the truth.

"He's saying to America what people don't want to say out loud, but the way the feel," she said after casting her vote at a middle school.

One of the issues she agrees most with Trump on is immigration, she said.

"I hope he doesn't change his stand on the way that he feels," Scott said.

___

Steve Mays, 60, a warehouse worker from Bismarck, North Dakota, said he was supporting Clinton.

"I think she will be the same as the old Clinton, Bill  and that's good," he said. "The economy was good when he was president and he knew how to balance a budget."

Mays said it makes no difference to him that she would be the first woman president.

"She's got experience and I trust her," he said. "It doesn't bother me at all whether someone is male or female or black or white," he said.

___

In Kearney, New Jersey, a blue-collar community, Antonio Cunha voted for Sanders, saying the candidate focuses on issues important to regular people.

"I like the idea of helping people afford college, whether it's totally free or not," said Cunha, 32, who works for a civil engineering firm. "Back in the day everybody got around with a high school education, but now I can see how much more people make in their careers if they have college degrees. And everybody's saddled with that debt, so that would be a big help."

___

Contributing to this report were: Associated Press writers Wayne Parry in Atlantic City, New Jersey; David Porter in Closter, New Jersey; Bruce Shipkowski in Toms River, New Jersey; Ellen Knickmeyer in Sonoma, California; Mary Hudetz and Russell Contreras in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Julie Watson in San Diego; Dirk Lammers in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, James MacPherson in Bismarck, North Dakota; Matthew Brown in Billings, Montana; and Matt Volz in Helena, Montana.
Yi Gang (C), vice governor of the People's Bank of China, attends a press conference during the eighth round of China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogues and the seventh round of China-US High-Level Consultation on People-to-People Exchange, in Beijing, June 7, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

BEIJING - China will grant the United States a quota of 250 billion yuan ($38 billion) under the country's Renminbi Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (RQFII) program, an official with the central bank said Tuesday.

"China values the cooperation with the US, and both sides will jointly promote renminbi businesses in North America," Yi Gang, vice governor of the People's Bank of China, told press at the China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogues on Tuesday.

The RQFII mechanism was launched in December 2011 to widen investment channels for overseas renminbi funds on the Chinese mainland, allowing those that qualify to invest in China's securities market within a permitted quota. It aims partly to increase the international use of renminbi.

Yi said China was considering appointing qualified foreign institutions as settlement institutions and bond underwriters, and is simplifying the approval procedures for its RQFII program.

The new quota will expand the mechanism by about 50 percent. The combined RQFII quota stood at 501.77 billion yuan at the end of last month.

By the end of May, China had approved RQFII quotas to 165 institutions from 10 countries and regions.

Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang told a news briefing Tuesday that China and the US welcomed continuous cooperation between financial platforms and both sides would strive to connect their financial markets and products.

Financial regulators from both countries are willing to enhance cooperation in information sharing and cross-border law enforcement, Wang said.

The vice premier added that the two sides had agreed to promote exchanges to address money laundering, the financing of terrorism and counterfeit bank notes.

The two sides reiterated that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) should increase quotas, the voting power and maximum financial commitment, for emerging markets and developing nations.
Molly Jacobs and Gracie Jacobs (identical twins), Montgomery natives, will be traveling to Abilene, Texas June 4-11 to compete in the Texas High School Rodeo Association State Finals.The state finals rodeo is an annual, week-long event where high school students across Texas and surrounding states come and compete for numerous awards, scholarships and the opportunity to represent Texas at the National High School Finals Rodeo held each July.Contestants compete in rodeos throughout the year in one of 10 regions across the state. At the last rodeo of regional level competition, the top 10 competitors in each event are announced. These contestants are then given the opportunity to represent their region on the state level at the THSRA state finals.Jacobs and Jacobs will be juniors and live on the family ranch outside Montgomery with their parents, Tyler and Amy Jacobs. THSRA Region 9 members will be competing on the state level in the reined cowhorse. They qualified for the finals and they know firsthand the time, dedication and talent it takes to be a competitor. This is their first year to compete and both qualified for the state finals last November in Stephenville, Texas.Rodeo performances as well as other events held throughout the week are open to the public each morning and afternoon. Shuttle services will be offered on the Taylor County Expo Center grounds, and tickets will be sold at the gates. Schedule updates will be posted to the THSRA Facebook and Twitter pages regularly throughout the week.The Texas High School Rodeo Association is a 501-C non-profit organization, which is the largest, most prestigious state high school rodeo association in the nation. THSRA sponsors over 125 rodeos per year throughout 10 regions across Texas. The rodeo year begins in August and concludes with the Texas High School Finals Rodeo in June. It is here, at the largest rodeo in the state of Texas, where The Elite Compete featuring the top cowboys and cowgirls from each Region. They compete for numerous awards, scholarships as well as the coveted honor of representing the state at the National High School Finals Rodeo held each July in Wyoming. For additional information visit www.thsra.org or contact Holly DeLuane at [email protected]
Police reports

ARRESTED, CHARGED

Alana Eisenberg, 23, of Butte was charged with felony criminal possession of methamphetamine and misdemeanor criminal possession of drug paraphernalia at an initial appearance Wednesday in Butte justice court.

Police say they assisted probation and parole in a search of a residence on the 600 block of South Montana Street on Tuesday. She was found with syringes, plastic bags, a metal spoon and 4 grams of meth. She was being held at the county jail on $5,500 bond. A hearing is slated for July 7.
A 32-year-old man suspected in a Helena burglary is facing drug charges after he and a female companion were found flagging down cars on Interstate 15 near Butte early Wednesday.

Calvin Veigel of Helena was charged with felony criminal possession of dangerous drugs and misdemeanor criminal possession of drug paraphernalia at his initial appearance before Butte justice court Judge Ben Pezdark on Wednesday morning.

Veigel is being held on $20,000 bond at the Butte-Silver Bow Detention Center. A hearing was set for July 7.

A police report states Veigel and Alexa Olaso, 30, of Box Elder were flagging down vehicles on the Interstate 15 near the Feely exit shortly before midnight Tuesday. The two appeared confused, paranoid and may have been under the influence of a drug.

Butte-Silver Bow Undersheriff George Skuletich said Veigel and Olaso reported seeing a red vehicle with somebody in the trunk, which was not found.

Police had earlier received an attempt to locate from Helena law enforcement for a gray Chrysler 300 sedan with Lewis and Clark County plates and registered to Veigel, who may be heading to Butte.

Skuletich said the car, which police had not located as of Wednesday morning, was wanted in connection with a burglary in Helena. He added that Veigel and Olaso may have driven the Chrysler to Butte on I-15 and then up to the Highlands, where they possibly got lost and abandoned it.

Veigel was allegedly found with a pipe and a clear plastic bag with 4.3 grams of white crystal substance that tested for methamphetamine. At his court appearance Wednesday, he appeared distraught and was crying. Veigel told the judge he was homeless.

Olaso is being held at the county jail on an investigative hold.
Butte-Silver Bow County voters passed a bond issue Tuesday night to build a pool and lazy river.

With all precincts reporting, there were 6,755 votes in favor of the $7.2 million bond  or 59 percent  and 4,618 votes against, or 40 percent. The measure also included tax levies to pay for up to $350,000 a year for operations and maintenance.

"I think people really wanted to see something that sets Butte apart," said former county Chief Executive Don Peoples Sr., a supporter of the plan.

He and current Chief Executive Matt Vincent also credited a nonprofit citizens group called Friends of Stodden Park for promoting the plan.

Vincent and his administrative team spent months doing the groundwork for a pool proposal, holding numerous public meetings and doing surveys to get feedback.

"We talked to the public and we adjusted our proposal to meet the concerns we were hearing," Vincent said.

If it holds up and passes, construction on the pool could start later this year but most of the work likely would be done next year.

Parks Director J.P. Gallagher has said it was conceivable the water park could be opened in late summer 2017, but a more likely scenario was opening in late May 2018. Plans are to have it open for 95 days a season starting a few days before Memorial Day and closing a few days after Labor Day.

Butte has been without an outdoor public pool since the old one at Stodden Park was shut down in 2006 because of recurring maintenance problems.

The vote came nearly five years after voters narrowly rejected a $7.5 million bond issue to pay for a new pool and lazy river. That was done during a mail-in ballot election held in September 2011 and the measure failed by 170 votes  5,158 against and 4,988 in favor.

Under this proposal, $7.2 million in construction costs and up to $350,000 in annual maintenance costs would be funded with higher property taxes. Another $1.5 million in public and private funds will be pay for the frills  a meandering lazy river, two twisting, turning water slides and play features.

The owners of Butte-based Town Pump got the extra fundraising started by pledging $500,000 toward the project if another $1 million could be raised through other sources. County officials pledged $500,000 from a trust fund and the rest has been raised through other private partners.
Cecilia Holzer Thormahlen, 96, was born Feb. 4, 1920, and peacefully took Gods hands on June 5, 2016.

She was the daughter of Valentine and Genieve Holzer, raised on a farm in Strasburg, North Dakota. Her work ethic and resourcefulness were from there also.

On Nov. 13, 1940, Cecil married Walter Thormahlen. They started a large family in Bridger, Montana, before relocating to Anaconda in 1952, where Walter worked for the Smelter. Walter died of cancer at the age of 50 on Oct. 1, 1952. The large, young family of six boys and two girls were now Cecils to raise alone.

Cecil worked at the St. Anns Hospital in housekeeping. She raised her family in the Mount Haggin Homes, cooked from scratch, baked everything, hauled laundry and nurtured her family. Cecil lived independently there until 95 years young. She was always strong, stood tall, never drove a car, had her hair styled weekly and never missed Mass. Her strong faith carried her through life.

Cecil loved and enjoyed her family with passion. When the 17 grandchildren and 38 great-grandchildren came along, no one was ever happier or prouder than Cecil. She took pride in attending and participating in all of the kids activities and special events in their lives. She traveled to North Dakota yearly to check up on her siblings  Mom was the oldest of 12. She loved to bowl and play cards. With little education no one could have taught her family more. Grandma T walked the walk

This blessed lady will be missed so very much by sons, Jerry and Donnell Thormahlen, Jim and the late Jennifer Thormahlen, Ken and Ginny Thormahlen, Don and Joyce Thormahlen, Dave Thormahlen, Rick Thormahlen and Marilyn; daughters, Judy and Jim Maloughney and Gene and Linda Cofer; 17 grandchildren and 38 great-grandchildren who know Cecil as Grandma T. Also surviving are brother, John and Millie Holzer along with sisters, Mary Ann Deichert, Ann Bosworth and Emma Holzer; sisters-in-law, Helen Holzer and Shirley Thormahlen and brother-in-law, George Thormahlen. She is also survived by very special nieces and nephews from around the country. She loved you all. Thank you Mom, Grandma T, Great-Grandma T for all of your strength, support and most of all your love. We will think of you every day with smiles on our faces knowing you are with Daddy, Grandma and Grandpa and all of your loved ones gone before you. God be with you Mom, until we meet again.

Visitation will be at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, June 9, at Longfellow Finnegan Riddle followed by the Rosary at 6:30 p.m. Funeral Mass will be celebrated at 10:30 a.m. Friday, June 10, at Holy Family Catholic Church, 217 W. Pennsylvania Ave., with visitation at 9:30 a.m.

Longfellow Finnegan Riddle Funeral & Cremation Service is entrusted with Cecils funeral arrangements. You may pay your condolences at www.longfellowfinneganriddle.com or go to www.mtstandard.com.
DEER LODGE  A Deer Lodge woman on Tuesday received a three-year deferred sentence for embezzlement, a $5,000 fine, multiple other conditions and must pay $560 in court fees.

Laura Nicole Simpson, former treasurer for the Montana State Counseling Association, previously pleaded guilty to diverting $55,492 from the association to her personal account to pay for student loans, Costco and Safeway purchases, clothing and vacations.

I sincerely apologize to the organization, community, school and my family and take full responsibility for my actions, she said Tuesday in Deer Lodge district court.

Simpsons attorney Lance Jasper and prosecutor Kenneth Varns from the Attorney Generals office presented a plea agreement with recommended sentencing to Judge Ray Dayton saying that before the embezzlement Simpson lived a law-abiding life.

Jasper said Simpson has repaid all of the money, and the sentence would allow her opportunity to have the charge removed from her record upon completion of the sentence. If she fails, the court could sentence her to the maximum of 10 years and up to $50,000 fine.

She has been doing all in her power to make amends and has taken accountability for her actions, Jasper said. She will have to live with the shadow of this over her life in the community, career and family.

Dayton said he felt the plea agreement was too light. As a teacher, counselor and officer in the organization, this wasnt just one embezzlement. He asked: How many times did it occur to get $55,000 from the organization?

I do not want to send a message to the community that if you embezzle money and then pay it back before sentencing that you will get a light sentence and can go into a bar and have a drink and that its no big deal, Dayton said.

He did not consider Simpson a high risk to the community but wanted to bolster the punitive nature of the sentence by adding a $5,000 fine. Because the fine would substantially change the plea agreement, Simpson and her attorney conferred and upon returning to the courtroom she accepted the Judges fine rather than withdrawing her guilty plea and going to trial.

Simpson was a freshman English teacher at Powell County High School, but in May the school board voted not to renew her contract. School Superintendent Rick Duncan previously said none of the charges affected the high school.
DEER LODGE  A Deer Lodge woman on Tuesday received a three-year deferred sentence for embezzlement, a $5,000 fine, multiple other conditions and must pay $560 in court fees.

Laura Nicole Simpson, former treasurer for the Montana State Counseling Association, previously pleaded guilty to diverting $55,492 from the association to her personal account to pay for student loans, Costco and Safeway purchases, clothing and vacations.

I sincerely apologize to the organization, community, school and my family and take full responsibility for my actions, she said Tuesday in Deer Lodge district court.

Simpsons attorney Lance Jasper and prosecutor Kenneth Varns from the Attorney Generals office presented a plea agreement with recommended sentencing to Judge Ray Dayton saying that before the embezzlement Simpson lived a law-abiding life.

Jasper said Simpson has repaid all of the money, and the sentence would allow her opportunity to have the charge removed from her record upon completion of the sentence. If she fails, the court could sentence her to the maximum of 10 years and up to $50,000 fine.

She has been doing all in her power to make amends and has taken accountability for her actions, Jasper said. She will have to live with the shadow of this over her life in the community, career and family.

Dayton said he felt the plea agreement was too light. As a teacher, counselor and officer in the organization, this wasnt just one embezzlement. He asked: How many times did it occur to get $55,000 from the organization?

I do not want to send a message to the community that if you embezzle money and then pay it back before sentencing that you will get a light sentence and can go into a bar and have a drink and that its no big deal, Dayton said.

He did not consider Simpson a high risk to the community but wanted to bolster the punitive nature of the sentence by adding a $5,000 fine. Because the fine would substantially change the plea agreement, Simpson and her attorney conferred and upon returning to the courtroom she accepted the Judges fine rather than withdrawing her guilty plea and going to trial.

Simpson was a freshman English teacher at Powell County High School, but in May the school board voted not to renew her contract. School Superintendent Rick Duncan previously said none of the charges affected the high school.
Wednesday, June 8

MINE DISASTER COMMEMORATION

Ninety-nine years ago, on June 8, 1917, the greatest loss of life in hard-rock mining history happened in Butte, Montana, when 168 men died in the Granite Mountain-Speculator fire. Church bells in Butte will ring at noon to commemorate this disaster. Also, the mine whistle from the Orphan Girl mine, recently restored by the World Museum of Mining, will also blow to honor all Butte miners. Memorial bricks can be ordered by calling 406-494-3841.
LONDON -- Misery loves company, so refugees from America's 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 Party's 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 today's chaos; proposing that taxpayers should be permitted to opt out of paying for Britain's army; advocating that Britain leave NATO and unilaterally scrap its nuclear deterrent; blaming NATO, meaning the United States, for Vladimir Putin's war against Ukraine; calling the terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah "friends"; appearing with and funding Holocaust deniers and other anti-Semites; criticizing China's 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 "Who's 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. Corbyn's 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. Paul's Cathedral service commemorating the Royal Air Force's 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 England's industrial north. In the other half, which the publisher of the Left Book Club wanted to omit from the club's edition, Orwell decried the socialist movement's "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 fisherman's cap, Corbyn is a reactionary dressed as a revolutionary whose slogan could be "Onward to 1945!" Nostalgic for Labour's 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 America's Sandernistas and Trumpkins.

George Will's email address is georgewill@washpost.com.

(c) 2016, Washington Post Writers Group
Some criminals are sent to jail for selling drugs, theft or myriad other intentional acts of lawbreaking. Many of them are driven to commit these crimes in no small part by addiction or mental illness, and often both. Many are good candidates for treatment programs and support services designed to keep them from re-offending.

And then there are the criminals whose violent acts cause the kind of harm that can never be healed. They are murderers, rapists and child predators. They present a clear danger to the community, and they belong behind bars.

Lance Matthew Ring, 33, is the latter kind of criminal. An admitted child rapist, he should have been in jail instead of at large in the community. Yet for some inexplicable reason, this Lolo resident was released after posting a mere $100,000 in bonds.

He was released while awaiting sentencing for raping a 6-year-old girl, knowing that he would soon be going to prison with a recommended sentence of 25 years in prison, with 15 years suspended, as arranged per a plea agreement.

He remained on release despite the fact that District Court Judge Karen Townsend was informed that Ring had likely violated a condition of his release by continuing to have contact with minors. In fact, prosecutors had alleged that Ring violated his pretrial conditions - and requested that his release be revoked - no fewer than four times in the past year. Townsend herself warned Ring that additional violations would land him back in custody; she apparently did not follow through on that promise.

Within weeks of his release, Ring was arrested again and charged with raping a woman in a parking lot.

This infuriating failure of the justice system is only the most recent example of a judge treating a dangerous sexual offender with alarming laxity.

Just last month, District Court Judge James Manley of Lake County declined to sentence a child molester to any prison time at all. This despite the fact that Vayeeleng Moua, who was convicted by a jury of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl, held a position of trust as a former Missoula County Youth Court officer, and violated that trust in the worst possible way when he committed a felony sexual assault on a minor.

Yet Manley felt such a crime doesnt warrant a single day in prison.

Nothing I do to punish Mr. Moua will be as much as he will punish himself, Manley said by way of explaining his decision to give Moua a six-year deferral, a sentence lower even than the mandatory minimum for his crime.

This editorial board is well aware that the local jail is overcrowded and the state prison system crammed with people who really should be in some sort of treatment program, getting the help they need to overcome their problems and a second chance to become productive citizens.

Prison should be a measure of last resort, the place where we keep people who cannot be trusted to remain safe in the community. The kind of people who have badly hurt other people. And especially those who prey on children; such predators have notoriously high rates of re-offending and pose a direct threat to public safety.

Our judges should have no qualms about sending such people to jail to ensure they are kept far away from future potential victims. No second chances. Treatment? Maybe  in prison.

How utterly frustrating and discouraging it must be for our detectives, officers and prosecutors to have to keep processing the same offenders for the same crimes. How frightening it should be for the public, to know that violent sex offenders are still allowed to move about freely in our community.

How utterly unjust to the victims that these judges allow their rapists to go unpunished.

Perhaps its time for residents of western Montana to speak up for the victims of these horrific crimes, and in defense of public safety, and demand that our judges quit allowing child molesters and rapists to go free.

-- The Missoulian
Rivers running clear and deep can help us find mental clarity and spiritual depth when we need it most. That was certainly the case for Norman Maclean, who found in the Blackfoot River a powerful metaphor for grace and transience. The beautiful Blackfoot helped Maclean write about the death of his younger brother. Over the years that story of land, water, and family has become part of the fabric of our culture and helped define who we are as Montanans.

On the 40th anniversary of the publication of Macleans A River Runs Through It, the Montana Association of Christians (MAC) is pleased to announce our support for the Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Project, a legislative proposal to protect the headwaters of the Blackfoot and Clearwater Rivers.

MAC represents eight denominations, several hundred churches, and more than 130,000 parishioners across the state of Montana. Together, we seek to bring the voice of the Gospel to bear upon those places where peace and justice are absent, speaking up for those who are denied a voice and working for the dignity of all people and the care of all creation. After careful consideration, weve decided to support the Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Project because we believe it is a balanced, thoughtful, and inclusive approach to future management of American public lands and waters in a beloved corner of Montana.

Montanas wildlands and wildlife have their origins in the works of the Creator, but we all have the responsibility to steward them for future generations. This stewardship is especially important for landscapes with a particular spiritual resonance for Montanans, and Macleans Blackfoot is just such a place.

The landscape-wide proposal offered by the BCSP is the result of more than a decade of collaboration among Pyramid Mountain Lumber, the Seeley Lake Driftriders Snowmobile Club, commercial outfitters, hunters and anglers, and conservation groups, including the Montana Wilderness Association and The Wilderness Society. Their proposal combines forest restoration, recreation and conservation. It has already resulted in 138 forest jobs and $19 million in federal investment for forest restoration around Seeley Lake and Ovando.

The conservation and recreation facets of its proposal would include 83,000 acres in the Bob Marshall, Scapegoat and Mission Mountain Wilderness Areas and creating new opportunities for snowmobiling and other recreation between Seeley Lake and Ovando.

These aspects require legislative action. MAC urges Montanas congressional delegation to act on these parts of the BCSP proposal and carry them through Congress to the presidents desk.

MAC has long affirmed that the scripture calls on all of us to care for Creation  and we embrace this calling as one of the key values of our organization. MAC believes that thriving public lands are essential for our spiritual health and the well being of our economy. We further believe that all people can contribute to the protection and restoration of Montanas environment as caretakers of Gods earth through initiatives such as the Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Project.

-- This opinion is signed by MAC President, Rev. Valerie Webster of All Saints Episcopal Church in Big Sky; President Elect (2017), Rev. Dave Andersen of Aldersgate United Methodist Church in Butte; MAC Past President (2015), Rev. Peter Erickson of Our Saviors Lutheran Church in Columbia Falls.
HELENA  Money means a lot in politics, but it didn't guarantee results in Tuesday's Montana primary.

While many who outspent their opponents won, several high-profile legislative races broke the other way. And candidates who provided most of their money themselves generally did not fare well.

More than $503,000 was spent in contested legislative primaries statewide. Republicans put down an average of $5,416 compared to Democrats' $2,703, a reflection of tension between moderate and conservative wings of the GOP. There were 36 contested Republican primaries.

The last finance report filed before the primary was June 1. After May 19, candidates who received contributions of more than $200 were also required to report that within 48 hours. That means money spent in the two days before the primary might not be accounted for yet. In some races large sums of money, including $3,450 to one candidate, came in just days before the election

The most money spent in a contested primary  $39,994.99  was deployed in Senate District 10, which lies just south of Great Falls.

Republican State Rep. Steve Fitzpatrick, who is jumping from HD 20 to SD 10, dropped $20,617.78 to J.C. Kantorowiczs $19,377.21 and it paid off, with him getting 70 percent of the vote to Kantorowicz's 29 percent.

Fitzpatrick and Kantorowicz are in the middle of a bitter fight within the Cascade County Republican Party. Earlier this year Kantorowicz was recorded as saying a bullet could handle his opponent, the more moderate Fitzpatrick.

Fitzpatrick, who spent $1,750 more than his opponent, raised $25,000 and received a significant amount of money from political action committees  $2,850 from 18 PACs representing the insurance, health care and natural resources industries. All but four of the PACs are based in Montana and most donations were reported as received in 2015 or early 2016.

He also received $1,843.26 in last-minute contributions made between May 22-28.

Kantorowicz brought in $23,250, with $12,000 coming from himself  $3,000 in January, another $3,000 in April and a final $6,000 in May.

Of the nearly $20,000 he spent, roughly $7,000 went to billboards.

Senate District 15

Money in Senate District 15, where nearly $33,800 was spent in a three-way contested primary on the Republican side, had less sway.

Just one candidate, Hertha Lund, reported expenditures of $22,758.45, more than double the next highest spender, but had just 29 percent of the vote Tuesday night, with seven fully reported precincts and 14 partial out of 30.

The district includes Lewistown and the area north and stretches east to White Sulphur Springs.

Her opponent Ryan Osmundson, who is jumping from HD 30 and has campaigned on lowering taxes, spent just $8,346.16, but led with 56 percent.

Lund is an attorney who works in Bozeman and lives on a ranch near Lennup. She reported bringing in $27,746, more than double Osmundson, who reported $10,845.

Of that total, Lund loaned her campaign $5,000, with half of that coming in May. Her husband also chipped in $250. She also received $100 from two ag-related PACs, and reported getting help from the Montana Republican Legislative Campaign Committee in the form of $35 for an hours worth of strategic planning.

Of Osmundson $10,845 in contributions, $570 came from five PACs that represent energy companies, electricians, hospitals, agriculture and realtors. He also spent $1,270 of his own money on signs and loaned his campaign $200

On the day before the primary, Osmundson took advantage of new campaign finance rules that allow for higher donations. He reported getting nearly $2,000 on June 6, with four of the eight donors giving one-time contributions over the old limits of $170 per election. That includes Ray Thompson of Kalispell, founder of Semitool, who chipped in $530, and $500 from Daniel Zolnikov, who is running to keep his seat in HD 45 in Billings. Thompson or his wife also gave money in two other contested Republican primaries where conservatives attempted to hold off moderate challengers, with $530 going to State Sen. Jennifer Fielder, R-Thompson Falls, who is running to keep her seat in SD 7, and another $530 to Casey Lee Brock, a Republican from Glendive who is running for SD 18.

The third Republican in the race, Harry Klock, brought in just $4,065, and received 13 percent of the vote.

Senate District 3

A little over $30,000 was spent by candidates in the contested Republican primary for Senate District 3, which includes Whitefish and stretches to the west.

Republican Don K. Kaltschmidt spent $21,544, or almost half of the amount of what the Chevrolet, Chrysler and Subaru dealership loaned his campaign, which was $10,000, but could only manage to get 45 percent of the vote. He received no money from PACs and raised a total of $32,167. By 11 p.m. with all nine precincts partially reported, Regier held a 174-vote lead, 990-816.

His primary opponent, Keith Regier, who is jumping from HD 4 to SD 3, spent just $9,278.99 but captured 54 percent of votes casted. He reported raising less than a third of Kaltschmidts total, at $11,359.

Of Regiers totals, $2,500 came in the form of a loan he gave his campaign. Regier also got a significant amount of money  $1,260  from PACs, many tied to natural resource industries. He brought in $1,800 in last-minute donations to Kaltschmidt $660.

House District 45

Republican Daniel Zolnikov spent $17,753.56 holding on to his HD 45 seat in Billings. Primary challenger John Bedford spent $10,300. Zolnikov had 62 percent of the vote to Bedfords 37 percent with two of two precincts partially reported.

Bedford spent almost all the money he brought in, $10,300.43 of $10,880.

Though he lost, Bedford had more support from PACs, with $7,987.50 from law enforcement, natural resources and agriculture, credit union, contractors committees to Zolnikovs $340. He also loaned himself $1,675.

Senate District 40

The candidate who spent the most  by far  in SD 40 lost handily. This district includes parts of Helena and stretches west and north.

In a three-way Republican primary, Drew Turiano, who got just 24 percent of the vote, spent $17,433.05, though in this case it was from the $18,558 that he loaned his campaign. That amount was the total amount of contributions Turiano, a real estate investor whose main platform is railing against amnesty and illegal immigrants, received.

Challenger Terry Gauthier won 68 percent of the vote. He brought in $14,303 but didnt spend much, only $5,650.62.

He had the support of PACs, with $780 coming from natural resources, energy and contractors PACs. Gauthier also loaned himself a significant amount, $5,000, or about a third of what he received in contributions.

A third republican, Carl Garcia didnt raise or spend more than $350, and received 7 percent of the vote. Four precincts were fully reported and nine partially out 16.

House District 83

The most money thrown around on the Democratic side was in HD 83, where Kim Abbott outspent and beat Quinlan OConnor, 55 percent to 44 percent, in a race where $23,382.10 was spent. Five of five precincts were partially reported.

Abbott reported $14,159.87 in expenditures the primary. OConnor spent less than half of what Abbott did, $9,222.23.

Abbott brought in $22,686.56, including a loan of $1,048.56 to herself. She got support the Pfizer PAC of New York to the tune of $170 and from the Montana Rural Voters Action fund for $72.18 of training.

OConnor had $14,230 in contributions. He spent $211.47 of his own money and loaned himself $295. He also got support from one PAC, United Transportation Union PAC based in Montana for $170.
Civil #: 16-001146

Special Execution

Bank Of America, N.A.,

VS.

Charles W. Larue; Parties In Possession; Tamara H. Larue A/K/A Tamara H. Niles; Discover Bank; Columbus Junction State Bank, ET AL.

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 12 in Block 1 of J. and A. Miller's Addition to West Liberty, in Muscatine County, Iowa

Property Address: 312 E. 3rd St., West Liberty, IA 52761

The described property will be offered for sale at public auction for cash only as follows:

Sale Date: 08/02/2016

Sale Time: 9:30 am

Place of Sale: Muscatine County Jail Lobby, 400 Walnut Street, Muscatine

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: $70,480.03

Costs: $3,238.40

Accruing Costs: Plus

Interest: $7,770.18

Sheriffs Fees: Pending

Date: 06/01/2016

Halley Ryherd

1401 50th St., Ste. 100

West Des Moines, IA 50266

(515)223-7325

C.J. Ryan

Muscatine County Sheriff

Melissa Hurlbut

Civil Deputy
MUSCATINE, Iowa Before sending children off to one of three locations, laughter and excitement filled the air during Calvary Churchs last day of their Vacation Bible School.

The bible school was titled VBX, Vacation Bible Extreme, and was held for three days, starting on Monday and ending Wednesday.

A traditional bible school can last as long as a week, but Calvary senior pastor Dan Schoepf said theyve changed from tradition.

We wanted to make this more active, Schoepf said. So we reduced the number of days and increased the hours to get kids off-campus.

The off-campus setting was one of three locations that Calvary Church sent their VBX children off to Langwood Education Center, Wildcat Den State Park and Deep Lakes Park.

Outreach pastor Bruce Martin said VBX also encouraged parents to attend with their children.

"We asked kids to bring their parents to build stronger relationships between kids and parents," Martin said.

Scott and Kale Wiebel were one of the father-son duos that were at VBX.

Kale, 9, said his favorite part was canoeing because water filled the boast and they had to carry it back to shore.

Kale also learned more about the Bible from this experience.

I learned different stories about Peter and how he walked on water, Kale said.

Before they left for their destinations, the children hula-hooped, practiced their putting and received a lesson from lead pastor Ty Thomas.

Thomas spoke of forgiveness and what being a Christian means.

The thing we as Christians should be known for is our compassion and our mercy, Thomas said.
MUSCATINE, Iowa The Muscatine City Council will hold a special meeting Thursday, June 23, with a tentative agenda to discuss proposed code changes, receive updates from the city attorney, and hold two closed sessions.

Mayor Diana Broderson provided the Journal with the information after City Administrator Gregg Mandsager sent an email to the city council and mayor regarding the schedule of events for the month.

"My biggest thing is transparency in local government and I want to make sure people are aware of what their council is trying to do," Broderson said.

She said the special meeting was called because Mandsager will be on vacation for the next two weeks, but he wanted to be present for the meeting.

The Council voted unanimously at the April 21 meeting to direct the city attorney to draft changes to the city code. Councilman Tom Spread made the motion, which included direction to hold an in-depth session that the city attorney should attend after the code changes had been drafted.

The draft amendments the city attorney was directed to write included changing the appointing authority for all boards and commissions to the city council, and changing the "appointment and removal authority for the Fire Chief and Police Chief to the City Administrator, subject to the approval of the City Council."

Those appointing authorities currently are held by the mayor.

The mayor said she will not support the changes, because she fears they will remove the system's checks and balances.

"I don't think it's in the people of Muscatine's interest in any way, you have to have checks and balances. One part of government makes appointments, and one approves. Any time you put everything in one basket you run the risk of bias," Broderson said.
MUSCATINE, IowaFrom lawn beautification to hosting riders, contests and volunteer opportunities abound for Muscatine residents as the town prepares for more than 15,000 visitors during RAGBRAI.

Muscatine was selected as the last stop on the 2016 Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa this spring. Riders from across the country and the world will dip their tires in the Mississippi River along the Muscatine riverfront.

The final public information meeting regarding RAGBRAI was held Tuesday evening, and Muscatine residents attended to learn more about the riders' time in Muscatine.

"This is a good chance for us to show off our community, we know it's a lot of work and we are asking for your support," said Greg Jenkins, President and CEO of the Greater Muscatine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GMCCI).

Janet Morrow, Director of Membership and Marketing at GMCCI and the RAGBRAI project lead, said riders can be expected from around 8 a.m.-3 p.m. on July 30, and some riders may stay longer in the day.

Many riders will also be in town Friday, July 22, to drop off support vehicles, and Morrow said the around 1,000 visitors will most likely leave by noon on Saturday, July 23.

Ky Cochran, Director of the Muscatine Convention and Visitors Bureau, said that volunteers can help on the day of RAGBRAI or beforehand as greeters, providing information to riders about Muscatine or helping the town prepare.

"If you do want to be outside, we need cheery people to be greeters as the riders come into town," Cochran said.

Two beautification contests will also be held, and residents can enter in either the contest for best yard for those who live along the RAGBRAI route or the bike art contest, where anyone can decorate a bike for the Chamber to place around town.

The kids art contest is also still open, and entries will be taken until June 13.

Residents can also host riders from July 29-30, or when they visit town July 22.

"What we're looking for is repeat visitors, so 15,000 people are going to visit and our goal is to wow their socks off," Morrow said.

Information for all the contests and volunteer opportunities as well as a map for the event can be found at www.ragbraimuscatine.com.
MUSCATINE, Iowa  Officials of the Miss Muscatine Scholarship Program says its the generosity of the Muscatine community that allows it to operate a dual program  Miss Muscatine and Miss Pearl City  and their Outstanding Teen counterparts.

In addition to Miss Muscatine, Kaylee Jones, of Muscatine, the Miss Muscatine Scholarship Program is represented in competition in Davenport this week by:

Miss Pearl City, Jessica Baker, 23, of Coralville. Jessica, a graduate of Western Illinois University, Macomb, is competing on the platform, Making Miracles Happen  For the Kids.

Miss Muscatine Outstanding Teen, Sophia Aguirre, 17, of North Liberty, a student at Clear Creek Amana High School. Her platform is Remember Me: Attacking Alzheimers Disease.

Miss Pearl City Outstanding Teen, Julia Baker, 17, of Coralville, a student at Iowa City West High School. Her platform is Overcoming Learning Disorders: My Battle with Dyslexia.

Jessica and Julia are sisters.

This is the 50th year of the Miss Muscatine Scholarship Program.

Because there were a sufficient number of candidates in the Miss Muscatine pageant according to guidelines of the Miss America organization, contestants were limited to those who live, work full-time or attend school full-time in Muscatine County. Miss Pearl City contestants can be from outside Muscatine County.

Kindra Platt, co-executive director of the Miss Muscatine and Muscatine Outstanding Teen programs, said more than $50,000 in scholarship money has been given out through the Miss Muscatine Scholarship Program because of the support of the community.

Its been a Muscatine tradition since 1965, and we hope to continue to see the program grow, she said in an email.
WAPELLO, Iowa  Louisa County may be forced to spend more on public health employees salaries and to provide better water at the Louisa County Complex.

Supervisor Chris Ball updated the rest of the board Tuesday on the salary increases during his report on meetings he had attended during the past week. Ball, who represents the supervisors on the Louisa County Board of Health, said the raises had been approved by the Board of Health during an emergency meeting earlier that morning.

According to Ball, the raises, which will add almost $3,400 per month to the public health departments payroll, were triggered by a Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) grant that was awarded several months ago.

The grant is helping to improve the countys public health services by increasing staff training and education. Eventually, local public health officials have indicated the county could be officially accredited through PHAB.

Ball pointed out that could be an important step for local public health.

We dont have a county hospital, he reminded the other supervisors.

However, one part of the accreditation process involved salary reviews and bringing salaries in line with other similar agencies and organizations.

We were underpaying our nurses and administrator, Ball reported, explaining the BOH had used county comparisons and data from a variety of sources, including Paul Gruefe, Louisa Countys human resources consultant, to settle on the increases.

A table that Ball distributed showed six of the departments nine employees would receive increases ranging from 2.1 per cent to 26 per cent effective Aug. 1. The actual hourly increase for each of the public health staff that was approved for a raise (with the current amount in parenthesis) would be: administrator Patti Sallee, $39.96 ($32.96); office manager Heidi Pallister, $21.73 ($17.43); clerk Brandy Blow, $16.47 ($13.07); and nurses Roxanne Smith, $27.69 ($24.69); Leah McElhinney, $26 ($24); Robin Grimm, $24.78 ($24.28).

The increases surprised the rest of the board.

This doesnt fit in the budget. Its above the budget, supervisor chair Paula Buckman said.

She also pointed out the increases would substantially boost annual salaries for the public health workers, creating a situation where some of that departments support staff could be earning as much as the head of other county departments.

Ball acknowledged the jump was controversial, but said the public health workers had earned the increases through their additional training, certifications and extra work they had assumed. He also indicated the issue had developed quickly because of the PHAB grant; and in Sallees case, she had not taken a salary increase in three years.

However, he did concede there had been a rush to approve the increases.

I wish I would have had more time, he said, adding the BOH still had made a good argument for the raises.

Supervisor Randy Griffin was not as confident.

I wish you would have voted against it or abstained, he said.

Since the BOH controls its own budget, the supervisors agreed there likely was little they could do to change the raises, but informally decided to contact county attorney Adam Parsons for an opinion.

Meanwhile, the board agreed to move forward on installing a new water system at the County Complex. It accepted a $7,772 estimate from Brockhouse Well & Pump, Muscatine, to install the system and will seek additional bids for filters, softeners and a building addition. Those could add another $39,400 to the project.
Washington County Extension is reaching out to the farming youth of southeast Iowa by starting a young farmer peer group at 5:30 p.m. June 23 at the Iowa Research Farm in Crawfordsville, Iowa.

According to Washington County Extension administrative assistant Nancy Adrian, she said the event will be good for young farmers to connect and meet with other Iowa farmers.

The point of the meeting is to get young farmers to network, Adrian said. Its halfway for educational purposes and halfway for social purposes.

The meeting will host farmers who are in the beginning of their farming careers from southeast Iowa. Adrian said the meeting is focused more for farmers in their first ten years of farming, but farmers of all ages can attend.

This event is funded by the recent grant Iowa State University Extension recently received from a USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture grant.

There will be a light meal at 5:30, after which there will be a presentation from Sarah Hamm, who will speak about the USDA EQUIP program.

Adrian said this will be a very educational part of the meeting.

A lot of farmers arent aware of what the EQUIP program could bring them, Adrian said. This will be a great opportunity for the new farmers to learn about the program.

Other parts of the itinerary include a presentation from Ryan Drolletti who will speak about the financial side of farming.

Drolletti said he wants to help the farmers as much as he can.

We need to be concerned about our young farmers, Drolletti said. We need to make sure they are informed and help them any way we can. Its helping young farmers see why finances are important and seeing the bigger picture.

Drolletti said he plans to talk about how to deal with bankers and how to manage financial problems such as debt to asset ratio.

Once Hamm and Drolletti speak, Adrian said the presentation will be flexible for the attendees needs.

The group will focus the program, Adrian said. Whether they want to know about livestock (or anything else), the program will shape to their questions.
Noam Chomsky, a noted American intellectual, was once asked if our form of government has to be overthrown or is there a way of doing it by reform? His response is applicable to our current political situation.

His response was "if you ever got to that point where a reformist candidate had a chance, you've already won. The main thing is to develop the kind of mass support which would make a revolution meaningful. At that point, some crook will come along and say "I'm your leader. I'll do it for you.'"
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 []
OneDayOnly is known for offering great daily deals, and has enjoyed strong growth using this strategy.

OneDayOnly spokesperson Sharine de Rooij told MyBroadband that the company has grown exponentially over the last few years, with consistent triple-digit year-on-year growth.

Besides an expansive growth in our customer base, customers are ordering more often and we see an increase in average basket value, said de Rooij.

Technology products remain a core focus of the company, but it is expanding into other areas which are gaining popularity.

We started six years ago with a focus on gadgets and tech products, and this category remains a strong performer. However, house, kitchen, and apparel are catching up rapidly, said de Rooij.

She said OneDayOnlys future strategy is simple: continue offering the best deals in South Africa.

More on OneDayOnly

OneDayOnly is already 6 years old

OneDayOnly and Hetzner join forces
Vodacom is the largest telecommunications company in South Africa, with 34.1 million customers and the largest mobile network.

Vodacoms voice network covers nearly the whole of the country, while its broadband network offers a population coverage of 98.3%.

The company also has a strong presence in many other African countries  Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, and Lesotho.

Vodacom is one of SAs biggest success stories, but that does not mean the company did not make mistakes along the way.

Here are some of Vodacoms biggest blunders over the last 22 years of operation.

Vodacom lost billions by buying Gateway Communications

Vodacom bought Gateway Communications in December 2008 for $675 million as part of its African expansion plans.

Things did not work out, and Vodacom had to take an impairment charge of R3.2 billion on the unit after traffic volumes fell.

In June 2012, Vodacom entered into an agreement to sell certain investments, supplier agreements, and assets of a Gateway unit  Carrier Services  to PCCW Global for $26.4 million.

Vodacom selling its stake in iBurst meant it lost out on valuable spectrum

Vodacom owned a 24.9% shareholding in iBurst/WBS, which gave the company access to iBursts 1,800MHz and 2.6GHz spectrum.

Vodacom had a choice to increase its iBurst stake, or sell its shares and apply for new spectrum through Icasa. Vodacom put its trust in Icasas spectrum process, and sold its stake in iBurst.

Icasas spectrum plans never materialised, and Vodacom lost its shareholding  and access to spectrum.

Vodacom made many poor investment decisions, and also handled these investments poorly

Vodacom made multiple investment in South African companies over the years, but many of these investments failed. Some examples include Gogga, Zoopy, Vodacom Gated Services, The Grid, and Gateway.

Some of the companies which Vodacom invested in accused the operator of not providing the support promised, and reneging on its side of the partnership.

Vodacoms plan to combat Mxit through its IM platform Meep was a massive failure

In 2007, Vodacom launched Meep  a real-time, presence-based Instant Messaging service. This was supposed to compete against the dominant player at the time, Mxit.

Vodacom said that Meep offered a transparency in terms of pricing where Meepots are the official currency of the Meep world  sold in bundles.

Meep never gained traction, and was shut down without much fanfare.

Vodacoms social platforms The Grid and Heroes of Echo never lived up to the hype

In 2007, Vodacom launched The GRID  a location-based mobile social network that allowed users to chat to friends, see where they were on a map, and share photos or videos with them.

It never lived up to the hype, and Vodacom closed The Grid on 1 December 2012.

Vodacoms Legends of Echo  a location-based multiplayer social game for mobile phones  did even worse.

It never gained any support, and was quietly discontinued by Vodacom not long after its launch.

Vodacom experienced a country-wide network outage, but decided to say little through its official channels

On 30 June 2011, Vodacom experienced its worst-ever network downtime, caused by multiple transmission failures and subsequent network congestion in some areas.

Vodacoms official communication about the downtime was poor, and saw Vodacom CEO Pieter Uys resort to Twitter to inform people what was happening, and what they were doing to resolve the problems.

Vodacom double-billed its customers in the beginning of 2016, right when people started to run out of money

On 1 January 2016, many Vodacom subscribers took to social media to complain that they had been double-billed by Vodacom.

Vodacom refunded these subscribers a few days later, and offered them free data to make up for the mess.

More on Vodacom

How much Vodacom subscribers really pay for a call

Vodacoms broadband network covers nearly all South Africans

Massive increase in Vodacom data traffic
President urges the US to boost policy coordination at G20

President Xi Jinping meets with US Secretary of State John Kerry. FENG YONGBIN / CHINA DAILY

President Xi Jinping said on Tuesday that he expects to exchange views on key issues with his United States counterpart Barack Obama during the G20 summit in China in September.

Xi also called on the US to strengthen macroeconomic policy coordination with China to inject confidence and new impetus into the world economy during the summit in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province.

He made the appeal at a meeting with the US delegation to the annual China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Beijing, which ended on Tuesday.

At the two-day event  the highest-level formal dialogue between the world's top two economies  more than 100 agreements and deals were signed in strategic areas and more than 60 in economic sectors.

Xi urged the two governments to ensure these achievements produce quick results to benefit the two peoples.

He said there are many things that China and the US can work together on, and both nations should do more for the good of Sino-US cooperation.

The president added that the two countries could enhance cooperation in areas including trade, clean energy and environmental protection.

"In terms of the disagreements that exist between China and the US, the key is to respect each other's core interests and important concerns," Xi said, adding that the two nations should control their disputes constructively.
Mombasa born rapper Ralph Sanda Masai aka Cannibal aka Shattah is ready to serve Kenyans on a political capacity.

Having gone quiet musically, the Mdude hitmaker wants to be an MCA in Mtopanga Ward, Kisauni constituency.

Speaking to Nairobi News, the rapper revealed his political aspirations as well as what he has been up to with his life and his music career.

Tell a little bit about yourself?  I was born and raised in the Coastal parts of Kenya. I have traveled a little bit because of my education which started in Mombasa then Nairobi and also South Africa.

I attended Valentine primary school and later joined Sacred Hearts for my secondary education in Mombasa before joining University of Nairobi (Undergraduate in Business Management) and later traveled to South Africa for further studies.

I am the first born in a family of four boys.

For how long have you been in the music industry?  I have been in the music industry for more than 20 years now. When we were starting our parents discouraged us because they thought music was for thugs, and because a lot of people (musicians) had perished because of diseases. But they later came to accept it after they saw the changes.

In 1999, in one of my first songs, I did a love song with a colleague called Sweet Brenda which ended up doing well and we got nominated for a Kisima Awards.

Is it true that you are eyeing a political seat?  Yes, come 2017 I will be vying for a seat as an MCA in Mtopanga Ward, Kisauni constituency. We are the young people who can help bring change in our society. At the moment I have not yet decided which party I will be with.

Tell us about your family and how has fatherhood changed you?  I have two lovely daughters, one is four years old and the other is 15 months. I am in the process of making it official, but you know nowadays marriage is (the couple) being introduced to each others parents. As a musician I wouldnt like to keep my family affairs out of the public, I try to keep them private.

I can say fatherhood has changed me a lot, I have learned how to be responsible but Im still learning, every day you learn something.

What is your most embarrassing moment?  One day I was performing with another artist and he ended up stepping on my Mic and everything went silent. It was embarrassing because it showed we had no professionalism. How can someone who is a professional step in a Mic?

What is your advice to the young people who look up to you?  Take your youth very seriously, dont play around because time waits for no one. Being a youth is the time you build yourself, your parents wont be there for you all the time. Keep asking yourself what if, what if.
Louis Otieno used to sneak into the apartment of Ms Careen Chepchumba after bribing guards, a family friend told a Kibera court on Tuesday.

Mr Paul Nganga, a close friend of Ms Chepchumbas family, told the inquest that Louis Otieno and the deceased were in a relationship.

He said that the university student who was found murdered in her house four years ago, told him the relationship drained her emotionally and financially.

She had come to borrow money when she opened up to me what she was going through. She informed me that she was in relationship with one Louis Otieno, a famous person, Mr Nganga said.

She was killed a day after a meeting to get her out of debt. The meeting resolved that Careen should return to her parents house and sell her household items to pay some of the debts. She also requested to be assisted to end her relationship with Louis, he said.

Mr Nganga, a business consultant, said that the former television news anchor would sneak into her apartment after bribing guards.

She told me Mr Otieno would sneak into her apartment after bribing guards. Her father was concerned of her daughters relationship with Louis that one day he asked me if he knew of a young man to introduce to her so as to get her mind from Louis, Mr Nganga testified.

Nganga recounted that Careen went to his office in October 2011. He said she looked frail and had lost a lot of weight.

He said that she asked him for Sh200,000, claiming she wanted to go to South Africa for treatment. He told the court she told him about wanting to get medical attention for an addiction to prescription drugs.

Nganga said that weeks before Careen died, she sent him a message saying she was sorry and did not know where to turn. Nganga told the court that he called her for a meeting as he found this alarming.

A second witness, Mr Edward Bitok, uncle to Ms Chepchumba, testified that she borrowed Sh800,000 from him saying she had a printing business to finance that never was.

Additional Reporting by Nairobi News


On Monday, the rest of the country held mostly peaceful Anti-IEBC demos, but the story was very different in Kisumu.

Raila Odinga enjoys his most support in the lakeside city, and that explains the raw passion exhibited by demonstrators. Two supermarkets had their windows shattered with stones, and there was a reported looting of gas cylinders. Many people were shot by the police and about 2 lost their lives.

Kisumu residents rarely shown intent to hold peaceful political demonstrations, and the victims end up being businessmen and investors. That paints a very bad image for a town hoping to attract investments, and one Gordon Opiyo has written this open letter on Facebook.

**************************************

Enyewe Sisi Wajaluo tunachezewa sana. Johnston Muthama ana threaten that the bloody riots will be increased to twice a week. Moses Wetangula is breathing fire that Kenya will burn if President Uhuru refuses to break the law to start some dialogue that has no constitutional basis.

However, as they spew hate Machakos based investors are sleeping easy. Machakos youth are assured of secure jobs tomorrow- not even a single stone was thrown in Machakos. Moses Wetangula is secretly talking to investors to relocate to Bungoma. Since 2008- Bungoma town has greatly harvested from the mega flight of Capital from Kisumu.

In fact, just taking a stroll through Kisumu town at night will give you an indication that the once vibrant town is on a decline. Even the prostitutes that once filled places like Octopus, Fanana and Nasalica area have taken off. Many of them have followed the money to towns like Kakamega, Kisii, Bungoma and Eldoret.

Before Muthama and Wetangula speak out- at least let them have Kambas and Luhyias destroy property and investment in Machakos and Bungoma. Let them have their youth lie in poorly funded hospitals with gunshot wounds.

Otherwise, hii ita kuwa kuchezewa game mbaya.
Every time we have violence or hooligan behavior in Cords Anti-IEBC rallies, Cord supporters always know where to point fingers.

When it was Nairobi, Moses Kuria was a perfect scapegoat for the unlawful activities. The narrative was that he had ferried youth from Kiambu to come cause havoc and make Cord look bad.

The story was the same on Monday, when property was destroyed. Robert Alai led a battalion of Cord bloggers in pointing the blame to the government.

From Jubilee Militias, to Mungiki to plain clothes police officers. They blamed everyone for the damage at Naivas and Tumaini, but Cord hooligans.



At some point, they settled on this interesting theory explaining how it started.



There was even a video to support this theory of supermarket workers with pangas.



On Facebook, Alai captioned it, Ask the Police who gave this #JubileeMilitia pangas and helmets? Who organised them? We know that the militia exist and it is to be used to cause destructions in Kisumu so as to justify the extra-judicial killings. Have you ever seen such demonstrators who are organised and speaking in Swahili in Kisumu?

From the video, we can see what looks like stones or glass pieces on the tarmac, leading the conclusion that this was mostly recorded after the damage.

It would be more logical to conclude that those men were supermarket workers who were out to protect their source of income. They all have matching brown shirts (probably staff uniform), and can be seen walking back into the supermarket. Some had brand new machetes (stocked in most supermarkets).

It would make sense for Alai and other Cord bloggers to once in a while condemn hooliganism among their midst, instead of pointing blame elsewhere when things are quite obvious.

My view. Whats yours?


CINCINNATI  The Cincinnati Zoo plans to reopen its gorilla exhibit Tuesday with a higher, reinforced barrier installed after a young boy got into the exhibit and was dragged by a 400-pound gorilla, which was then shot and killed.

The exhibit's reopening comes a day after Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters said he would not bring charges against the boy's mother, who was tending to another child when her 3-year-old "just scampered off" as children sometimes do.

Deters said he was glad for the improvements to the exhibit.

The barrier, which had passed repeated inspections by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, will now be 42 inches high  a half-foot taller than before  with solid wood beams at the top and bottom, plus knotted rope netting at the bottom, zoo spokeswoman Michelle Curley said.

The boy apparently climbed over the previous barrier May 28, made his way through some bushes and fell about 15 feet into a shallow moat. A special response team shot the agitated, 17-year-old gorilla to protect the boy, who was treated for scrapes.

The killing of the gorilla, a male named Harambe, set off a torrent of criticism online. Some commenters vilified the zoo for shooting the animal, while others blamed the mother for not watching her child more closely.

In a statement, the family said Deters' decision not to seek charges "is one more step in allowing us to put this tragic episode behind us."

Deters said he has been a bit surprised by the reaction to the gorilla's death. He said the zoo suffered a great loss, "but it's still an animal. It does not equate human life, and they felt that this boy's life was in jeopardy, and they made the painful choice to do what they did."

The zoo's actions will be reviewed separately by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. An animal protection group has urged that the zoo be fined.

The zoo says its 10 remaining gorillas are doing well. Two are 20-year-old females that were grouped with Harambe. The others are a family group of eight, led by a silverback named Jomo.
LOS ANGELES  Democrats seeking to unseat several Republican members of Congress from California linked the incumbents to Donald Trump on Wednesday, hoping to tap discontent with the presumptive GOP presidential nominee in districts with large numbers of Democrats and Latinos.

Republican incumbents Jeff Denham and David Valadao in the Central Valley and Steve Knight in the Los Angeles area coasted through Tuesdays open primary, in which the top two vote-getters advance to a November runoff. Despite their first-place finishes, Democrats made clear that they will try to make an issue of Trumps comments on Mexicans and immigrants.

Donald Trump seems to have a vendetta against Mexicans, and thats what we are here in the Valley, said Democrat Emilio Huerta, a Bakersfield attorney and son of labor icon Dolores Huerta, who was locked in a close contest for second to advance to a runoff against Valadao in a district that includes parts of Bakersfield and about 20 farming towns.

Valadao, who crushed his Democratic opponents in 2012 and 2014, won nearly 60 percent of the vote in Tuesdays primary even though his party lags Democrats by 16 points in voter registration. Huerta trailed fellow Democrat Daniel Parra, a Fowler city councilman, by fewer than 500 votes out of 50,000 ballots for second place.

Valadao said his Democratic district, which is about 70 percent Latino, has a history of electing Republicans, including him, and that he could run a successful campaign independent of the presidential race. Valadao said he was undecided on whether to vote for Trump himself.

The thing that has to be remembered here is that weve always been able to run a race no matter whos at the top of the ticket, Valadao said Wednesday. I would say Mitt Romney had some issues too with self-deportations. Ive always been able to outperform. ... Were going to do our job running our campaign, making sure voters know I am.

Thad Kousser, a political science professor at University of California, San Diego, said Denham and Knight will be tempting targets for Democrats because, while finishing first, they collected less than 50 percent of the vote.

This puts a spotlight on whos a truly vulnerable Republican in a Trump year, Kousser said. This is the blood in the water thats going to attract the sharks of national Democratic funding groups.
Napa has been fortunate to have a string of effective advocates in the state Assembly, most recently with former Supervisor Bill Dodd, who is now seeking an open State Senate seat. Voters in Napa County have an opportunity to continue that run of solid representation by electing Winters Mayor Cecilia Aguiar-Curry to replace Dodd in this Novembers election.
A man was arrested on Monday for allegedly sending threatening messages, including photos of him with a loaded firearm, to his ex-girlfriend, Napa police said.

German Morales, 35, of Long Beach had been reportedly sending the criminal threats to his ex-girlfriend for the last month, police said. Police said that Morales threatened to shoot police officers if they attempted to stop him from carrying out his threats to harm her.

Morales, who had been staying at a hotel in Vallejo, was located in his vehicle on Interstate 80 and was stopped in the area of Fairgrounds Drive and Gateway Drive by Vallejo Police. A stolen, loaded firearm was located in the passenger compartment of his vehicle, police said.

Morales was detained and arrested by Napa Police on suspicion of making criminal threats, carrying a loaded concealed stolen firearm in a vehicle, and on an out-of-state felony warrant. He was booked at the Napa County jail.

The Napa Police ask that anyone with any information related to this case contact Det. Garrett Smith at gsmith@cityofnapa.org or 707-257-9375.
Pacific Union College, Napa Valleys only four-year college, will host its 125th commencement exercises Friday through Sunday, June 12. The class of 2016 is second largest graduating class in 10 years.

The college, which is affiliated with the Adventist Church, will award 413 associate, bachelor, and masters degrees to 393 graduates, 53 of whom are from Napa County. The largest departmental groups are the department of nursing and health sciences (178), communication (29) business administration (28), biology (22) and exercise science (20).

Students and family members are all welcome to attend the ceremonies, which are located on the college campus at the Pacific Union College Church and Commencement Grove in Angwin.

A reception for graduates, parents, and faculty, hosted by college president Heather J. Knight, will take place at 5:30 on Saturday in the colleges Dining Commons.

Laffit Cortes, senior pastor of the Miami Temple Seventh-day Adventist Church and previous Pacific Union College Campus Chaplain, will speak at the Consecration Service on Friday at 8 p.m.

The Baccalaureate service begins at 11:15 a.m. on Saturday. Hyveth Williams, professor and director of homiletics at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary at Andrews University, will provide the address at the service.

Interim Chief Patient Care Services Officer for UC Davis Medical Center, Toby Marsh will address students at the Nursing Graduate Recognition Service on Saturday at 4 p.m.

The commencement service begins at 9 a.m. Sunday. Rep. Mike Thompson will give the commencement address.

The commencement service will be livestreamed via the PUC website at puc.edu.

Full details of the commencement weekend and schedule are available at puc.edu/graduation.

For more information, call the PUC office of public relations at (707) 965-6303.
Republican Charlie Schaupp took a slight lead Tuesday night, with two Democrats battling for second, in a 4th District Assembly race that saw local residents deluged with campaign mailers from independent expenditure committees.

The lone Republican candidate, Schaupp led with 31.3 percent of the vote in early results. Among the Democrats, vying for second place to go to the November runoff, Winters Mayor Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, after trailing in early returns, was moving ahead of Davis Mayor Dan Wolk, 27.5 percent to 25.1 percent.

Yolo County Supervisor Don Saylor had 14.5 percent and physician Elmer Mark Kropp had 1.7 percent, with 52.4 percent of precincts reporting as of 10:05 p.m. Tuesday.

The top two candidates will face off in a November runoff regardless of political party under Californias open primary law. The 4th District includes all of Napa County.

Our sense going in is that this is a Democratic seat, but its not so solidly Democratic that youd expect two Democrats to make it through, Wolk said after earlier returns were released. Going in, our thinking was that it wouldnt be different this time; we felt Charlie would make the top two and the key was to be the top Democrat.

Independent expenditure committees  essentially super-PACs  pumped some $2.1 million into the campaigns. That translated to a deluge of mailers that the candidates under state law couldnt shape or control. Aguiar-Curry was the main beneficiary, with independent expenditure committees spending about $2 million to support her.

Some residents received at least 18 Aguiar-Curry mailers in the few weeks leading up to the election, sometimes more than one on a single day. Some women received in the mail a cloth potholder emblazoned with the words Cecilia Democrat Assembly.

Schaupp, who was not yet declaring himself safely into the runoff, predicted a tough campaign whether he faces Aguiar-Curry or Wolk  but expected Aguiar-Currys deeper funding from outside sources to be the more formidable hurdle.

The pro-Republican PACs, the lobbyists in Sacramento that would normally support Republicans, are going hard behind Cecilia, which is money theyre not going to want to abandon, he said. Nevertheless I think that people will get sick of these PACs telling them how to vote.

The final two weeks brought negative campaign mailers from independent expenditure committees backing both Wolk and Aguiar-Curry.

Amid all of this, the candidates came to Napa on April 28 for a forum.

Aguiar-Curry called for broadband Internet in rural areas to increase information accessibility. Wolk and Saylor favored enacting an oil severance tax in California. Kropp said a local, celebratory event such as the Olympics is doing in Brazil could boost local infrastructure construction.

Schaupp brought a conservative voice to the proceeding. When talking about prison reforms, the former Marine stressed a return to American ethics and said kids wanting to join a tough gang should join the U.S. Marine Corps.

Register reporter Howard Yune contributed to this report.
Calistogans Jason Correia and Ron Golden each brought bites for a thousand people to the June 3 Napa Valley Barrel Auction held at Robert Mondavi Winery.

St. Helena chef John McConnell brought 1,200 servings of his king salmon in a spiced lemon broth with basil and cucumbers all grown at the Clif Family ranch in Pope Valley.

All three ran out of food  as did many of the other 37 restaurateurs and food purveyors who served the 2,000 people who attended the event.

Calistoga Inn chef Jason Correia said it took the better part of a day to prepare the 1,000 bites of hummus with ratatouille and feta cheese on top. He said Calistoga Inns owners, Rosie Dunsford and her son, councilman Michael Dunsford, have been in the Napa Valley for a long time and theyre involved in so many things.

They just naturally participate, he said. They are connected and this is what they do. Additionally, attending and serving 2,000 people is a good presence for the restaurant.

McConnell is the chef for Clif Family Winery. It took him and his staff three days to prepare the 1,200 bites, because the salmon had to be cured. He estimated preparation was seven to eight man hours.

Were here to promote our winery, celebrate in a fun way and raise money for Auction Napa Valley, he said.

Ron Golden, co-owner of three Calistoga restaurants with Mark Young, was serving sausage and pepper sloppy joes to all comers. Why? Because we believe in the Auction Napa Valley and the charities it supports and its always an exciting time to see our local vintners and fellow restaurateurs, Golden said.

The Napa Valley Barrel Auction opened at 11 a.m. and a couple of hours later, it was warm, if not hot, under the white tents on the Robert Mondavi grounds.

Calistoga restaurateur Gayle Keller said she was just trying to stay a little bit cool. She and her husband, Alex Dierkhising, have attended every Auction Napa Valley since it began in 1981, either as participants or donors. They opened their first Calistoga restaurant in 1976 and currently own both All Seasons Bistro, established 32 years ago, and Hydro Grill, which opened 10 years ago.

Keller said their attendance at Auction Napa Valley began because we were in the process of assembling a big wine list for our first endeavor, the Silverado Restaurant. She said they were determined to buy the first releases from various wineries, so they would not leave the Napa Valley.

One of their purchases from one of the first Auction Napa Valley events was a 5-liter bottle of 1969 Chappellet Cabernet Sauvignon, which sold for $8,000. Keller said when they opened the Silverado Restaurant they started getting aggressive about our wine list. By 1982, we were one of the first recipients of the Wine Spectators Grand Award for our wine cellar. We were only one of two rural restaurants (to win the award), everything else was in the urban area.

Today, Keller said, they participate in the event as a way to see whats out there and support people the way theyve supported us all these years.

On Saturday afternoon, at Meadowood Napa Valley, shortly before the live auction began, Cyril Chappellet said $8,000 was the highest price paid for a bottle of wine for about 15 years. "It's still in the box, still at the winery," Chappellet said. After Alex Dierkhising bought it, he turned around and gave it to my dad and said, 'Leave it where it belongs, I'll call for it,'" Chappellet said. Is it still good? It should be, Chappellet said, as the winery has opened some 750s from 1969, their second vintage, and they were "staggering."

Despite the temperatures outside, where there were some 100 vintners pouring current release wines, inside the To Kalon Cellar, the temperature was a cool 55 degrees. It was there that 100 vintners, including Tim Mondavi, were pouring barrel samples and selling their red wines.

He marveled at the 50 years of Robert Mondavi Winery and nearly 100 years for the Mondavi family. "Even though our family isn't here, I'm still very proud of all the great things we accomplished and we created to help bring California along," Mondavi said. He added that 2015 is his 42nd vintage and added, "I'm delighted to have our own Continuum to carry on at the very highest level."

Continuum is the name of the winery 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. That red, rocky volcanic soil gives wines a verve and personality that I think are fabulous."

The top barrel lots included Melka Wines, $62,100, and Shafer Vineyards, $60,050.

Winemaker Ted Edwards said Freemark Abbey has been involved in Auction Napa Valley since it began in 1981. My favorite memory was in the early days when it just got started, he said. Chuck Carpy was chairman the first two years and I worked closely with him to help launch Auction Napa Valley. From then, we participated through the years.

Initially, he brought the winerys chardonnay to pour but now brings a cabernet sauvignon. Thats how the wineries have evolved, he said.

Incidentally, he said Freemark Abbey will have its grand reopening at its Highway 29 location on Saturday, July 9.

Today is the best day of the year, said Michael Beaulac, winemaker and general manager at Pine Ridge Winery. Its a lot of fun seeing your friends, having great wine and raising money for a great cause, he said. His best memory: We used to do the dinner Friday night. Youd walk in with a big bottle, a 3-liter bottle, sit down and it was all about having fun.

Vintner Alan Viader said his mother has been involved in ANV for as long as I can remember. He added he loves the energy and the excitement that the barrel auction brings with its festival-type atmosphere.

Additionally, Viader said, the auction is such a good time, everyone smiling from ear to ear. Its great youre helping so many people. As a winemaker, he said hes tasting everyone elses 2014 cabernets. Its good to see the '14s are showing strong. Its going to be a nice vintage, he added.

Since its founding in 1981, Auction Napa Valley 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.
What a week, Dear Readers! The bustle of the wine auction, a spurting fire hydrant that a friend captured on her cellphone, and construction on Spring Street and at Grandview (yes, I know it has a new name, but I still havent gotten accustomed to it so Ill just stick with the old one, thank you). The Highway 29 roadwork south of town mercifully took last week off, and Supervisor Diane Dillon indicates that it could be complete as early as the end of August. Thats just a goal, but its exciting to know that the end is in sight.

***

My warmest welcome to the Rev. Amy Zuniga, the next rector for Grace Episcopal Church, replacing the retired Father William Mac McIlmoyl. Shell take the reins in mid-September. In August shell be moving to St. Helena from Hollister along with her husband, Vince, and their children, Jacob, 8, Lucas, 5, and Isabel (Izzy), whos going on 2. Welcome to St. Helena, Amy.

***

Dont miss your chance to enjoy a meal at Brasswood and Dine and Donate to We Care Animal Rescue on Sunday, June 12. A portion of the restaurants proceeds for the day will support the animals at We Care. Patio dining is available, and (appropriate given the cause) all furry friends are welcome. For reservations call 302-5101. Brasswood is up at Cairdean at 3111 St. Helena Highway North, at the old Cement Works/outlets property. Its run by some of the savviest people in the St. Helena food scene, such as Marcus Marquez, formerly of Goose & Gander, and Jennifer Bohr and David Nuno, formerly of Tra Vigne.

***

A doff of the cap to Lucy Donaldson of St. Helena, a winner of The Deutsch Family Scholarship Program, which rewards the academic excellence of the children of those employed by Deutsch Family Wine & Spirits (the employee being her father, Wayne Donaldson). Lucy is majoring in architectural engineering (sounds like an elegant synthesis of science and math, doesnt it?) at Cal Poly State University. The award is based on her academic performance, school and community activities, work experience, and a recommendation.

***

Another Donaldson daughter making good: Kiren Donaldson earned her way onto Bucknell Universitys deans list for the spring semester, reserved for students with a GPA of 3.5 or higher. Bucknell is in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.

***

Dont stop clapping yet. Hadley Bickford of St. Helena just graduated from Iowa State University with a bachelors degree in animal science. The warmest of congratulations, Hadley, and the best of luck in your career.

***

One last round of applause for St. Helenas Alison Greer, whose academic performance at the University of Southern California got her initiated into The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, a prestigious honor society. So lusty huzzahs to Lucy, Kiren, Hadley and Alison.

***

A little bird tells me that Antonia Allegra attended the June 1 meeting of the St. Helena Kiwanis Club to discuss 60 years of the food evolution in Napa Valley  from home meals to three stars. My source tells me shes also talking about the challenges faced by todays food writers (of which she is one) and opportunities in the culinary world. Toni started the School for American Chefs at Beringer, helped launch the CIA at Greystone, started three local magazines, and founded the Symposium for Professional Food Writers and the Symposium for Professional Wine Writers. Im told she lives in a tree house here in town 

***

Bruce Macumber toured East Africa, and he has the pictures that prove it. Hell present a slideshow of his adventures at 3 p.m. Wednesday, June 22, at Rianda House. The gorillas of Rwanda, the historic churches of Ethiopia, the urban wonders of Nairobi  Bruce saw it all. RSVP to 963-8555.

***

Ive taken some heat for saying it before, but Im feeling feisty today so Ill repeat it: If you refuse to participate in the civic decision-making process, you forfeit the right to complain about it later. The citys search for applicants for various boards and committees has been extended to June 17. Heres your chance to get appointed to the Planning Commission, Sustainability Committee, Active Transportation Committee, Library Board of Trustees, Parks and Recreation Commission, Tree Committee or Multicultural Committee. Contact City Clerk Cindy Black at 967-2792 or cblack@cityofsthelena.org.
Kellie Pickler has long been an avid supporter of the United States troops. Today, Pickler took her love for our countrys heroes to new heights.

According to the US Army Golden Knights Facebook page, Pickler joined the Armys Parachute Team for a jump earlier today in Fort Knox, Kentucky. While the Facebook page only has still shots of the adventure at this point, the Golden Knights have shared that CMT, home of Picklers reality show, will have a full video of her skydive in the near future.

Kellie Dawn Pickler is an American country music artist and television personality. Today she made a tandem parachute jump with the U.S. Army Parachute Team known as the Golden Knights at Ft. Knox, Kentucky. Looks like she had a great time, tell us what you think. Sgt. 1st Class Jon Ewald and Jimmy Hackett captured the entire jump for your viewing. You can see the entire jump later on CMT. 

Way to go, Kellie! We cant wait to watch you take the leap with the Golden Knights!
The NATO Secretary General, Mr. Jens Stoltenberg will travel to The Hague on Thursday, 9 June 2016.

During his visit the Secretary General will meet with Prime Minister, Mr. Mark Rutte, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Bert Koenders and the Minister of Defence, Ms. Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert.

Media Advisory

14:30 Secretary General joint press conference with the Dutch Prime Minister

The press conference will be streamed live on the NATO website.

Still and video imagery will be available on the NATO website after the event.

Follow us on Twitter (@NATOPress and @jensstoltenberg)
The NATO Secretary General, Mr. Jens Stoltenberg will be meeting the President of the European Council, Mr. Donald Tusk and the President of the European Commission, Mr. Jean-Claude Juncker today in Brussels.

There will be no media opportunity.

Still imagery of the meeting will be available on the NATO website after the event.

Follow us on Twitter (@NATOPress and @jensstoltenberg)
(As delivered)

President Margvelashvili, warmly welcome to NATO headquarters. Its great to see you again, we have met before but its always a pleasure to receive you here at NATO headquarters. Because Georgia is such a highly valued partner for NATO and our partnership is strong and its getting stronger.

Georgia contributes substantially to Euro-Atlantic security.

Georgian troops have been standing shoulder to shoulder with NATO for many years.

Playing an outstanding role in our operations.

Georgia is currently the third-largest contributor to our Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan.

And I thank you so much for that and I also thank the Georgian people for Georgias strong contribution to NATO operations and missions.

Georgia has also carried out impressive defence reforms.

And you have put in place a more mature democracy.

So Georgia has moved closer to NATO.

And we are committed to helping you to do so.

Over the past two years, we have put in place a Substantial NATO-Georgia package of support to strengthen Georgias defence capabilities.

And implementation is well on track.

I was very impressed by the implementation of the substantial NATO-Georgia package when I visited Georgia last year.

Our Joint Training and Evaluation Centre in Tbilisi is up and running.

Joint exercises have also started. And I think its great to see that Georgian troops, NATO troops and troops of partner nations are exercising together in Georgia. Thats good for us, and its good for Georgia. And it a strong expression of the strong support in NATO for Georgia and for our partnership.

And around 30 NATO experts are in Georgia, helping your ongoing defence reforms, with more contributions to come.

So NATO is committed to continue helping you boost your security and carry out your reforms.

And at the Warsaw Summit next month, we will further strengthen our package of support for Georgia.

A clear demonstration of our strong political and practical support for your country.

During our meeting we also discussed today Georgias progress in consolidating its democratic institutions.

This includes the preparations for parliamentary elections later this year.

And ongoing efforts to strengthen rule of law and the independence of the judiciary.

I welcome the continuing reform efforts in all these areas.

They are of great importance.

So, Mr. President, once again welcome. Georgia and NATO are moving closer and I welcome that we are able to enhance our partnership.

We will continue to support you.

And I look forward to meet you in Warsaw in just a few weeks.

So once again, welcome.

Questions and answers

Moderator: Thank you very much. Were going to start with the Georgian Public Broadcaster.

Q: Georgian Public Broadcaster, Mr. Secretary General you mentioned about the political support and need of political support for Georgia which will, we will receive in Warsaw during the Summit but still we want to know more about this issue. Georgia calls on NATO to deliver on membership promises and in December when we read the statements there is written that membership action plan is an integral part of this process so well be somehow this statement change in Warsaw and if not and if not this wording will be much stronger, many thinking Georgias (inaudible) it will be a wrong signal to Moscow. And President you also, can you tell us more about expectations.

Jens Stoltenberg: First of all I think its important to welcome the progress we are making in our partnership in our cooperation with Georgia and Georgia is making a lot of progress. We have implemented substantial package. We have the training center in place. We have 13 NATO trainers, advisors in place in Georgia and we have seen several different exercises with the NATO and the NATO allied countries exercising together with Georgian troops. And Georgia is implementing reforms, modernizing its armed forces and enhancing and enforcing (sic) its democratic institutions.

All of this is of great importance partly because it is important in itself, I think its good for Georgia but its also good because it moves Georgia forward on the path towards membership and towards Euro-Atlantic integration. Second we have stated that Georgia has all the practical tools in place already. With the NATO Georgia Commission, with the substantial package and with the partnership and the cooperation we are developing together with Georgia. We stated at our Foreign Ministerial meeting last December that MAP continues to be an integral part of this process.

And its too early for me of course to pre-judge exactly what Heads of States and government will decide but I think the idea of saying that Georgia has all the practical tools continue to implement and to deliver on the practical support for Georgia as weve seen now over several years but also being focused on the importance of MAP is an approach which gathers broad support in the Alliance. And I think its important to understand that even without MAP theres a lot of things we can do. To have more NATO in Georgia but also more Georgia in NATO is good for Georgia, its good for NATO and thats exactly what we are doing and that is of great importance both for Georgia and for NATO.

Q: And signal to Russia? [ Reporter away from microphone]

Jens Stoltenberg: Well the signal to everyone to the whole international community is that NATO strongly supports the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of Georgia and we do that by both provide a lot of practical support. I think theres hardly any other (inaudible) nation of NATO that receives more practical support than Georgia with the substantial package, with the training center, with the exercises, with advisors from NATO being present in Georgia. But also of course strong political support and this will be reiterated at our Summit in Warsaw.

Georgia will participate in four different meetings at the Summit, a meeting of Heads of States and government and the (inaudible) support from it. There will be a meeting of the NATO Georgia Commission at the Summit at the level of Foreign Ministers. There will also be meetings for the Defense Ministers. So Georgia will be present at the Summit at both the Heads of State level, the Foreign Minister level and the Defense Minister level, so and there will be a NATO Georgia Commission meeting. All of this will be a great expression of our strong support to Georgia and thats a very clear signal to anyone.

Giorgi Margvelashvili: Well let me repeat what just Secretary General said is that I do expect that after Warsaw Summit we will have more tools and more resources for increasing our our defensibility as well as increasing our cooperation formats that will further the reforms in armed forces and will increase our capacities. This is on the practical side.

On the on the political side we, I believe from Warsaw we will hear firm support of my countrys independence of its sovereignty as well as firm support of my countrys democratic development and faithfulness to the values that we all agree upon and thats why the (inaudible) was created and thats why Georgia wants to be in the Alliance. Including the very important four formats which we discussed today with Secretary General we will have possibility to hear firm statements on this issues on these issues in various formats. So of course NATO is an alliance of independent countries who decide independently and have their priorities I believe that working on the Summit with each individual country will further Georgias role and further Georgias importance and we will come out of the Summit stronger, more integrated and more and more defensible.

Moderator: We have time just for one more question. Well go to Rustavi 2.

Q: Secretary General you just mentioned about that, the little things we have to do. About Black Sea Region Security project is it possible to involve Georgia in this project and will you discuss this issue in the Warsaw Summit, thanks.

Jens Stoltenberg: The Black Sea is a Sea and a region which has attracted more attention also from NATO and NATO allies over the last couple of years. Not least because of the increased Russian presence with the illegal annexation and of Crimea and with significant Russian military buildup in Crimea. And NATO allies are now discussing how we can increase our presence in the Black Sea and multi-national presence with more naval ships and more military presence. No decision has been yet taken.

We have increased our presence in the region as part of what we call the assurance measures but we are now looking into whether we can have a more persistent NATO military presence in the region and we will consider a more regular multi-national NATO presence in the Black Sea. I also discussed the situation in the Black Sea with the President during our meeting and of course Georgia also being a literal country to the Black Sea is concerned about the situation and for me this just underlines the importance of NATO working with Georgia to modernize and to and to strengthen the defense capacities of of Georgia being a country which is much very much affected by the security situation in the Black Sea.

Moderator: Im afraid thats all we have time for. Thank you very much.

Giorgi Margvelashvili: Thank you.

Jens Stoltenberg: Thank you.
India fines Google for $113 million

Biden says Russia would make 'serious mistake' if it deploys tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine

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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

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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

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Putin's spokesman says building wall on Russian-EU borders is nonsense

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YEREVAN.  Frantisek Masopust, Executive Director of the Chamber of Trade and Industry for CIS Countries (CIS Chamber) of the Czech Republic, is hopeful that Czech Airlines will soon resume its flights to Yerevan, the capital city of Armenia. He told this to reporters during Wednesdays Armenian-Czech business forum in Yerevan.

Masopust, however, noted that this matter is not within their domain, and the matter is that Czech Airlines is not large and it has its limitations. But he expressed the hope that there will be a change on this matter this summer.

Garegin Melkonyan, the First Deputy Minister of Economy of Armenia, likewise expressed the hope that Czech Airlines will resume flights to Yerevan.

There is full readiness of the Armenian side, said Melkonyan. The matter here is the calculations of the business processes of Czech Airlines. We hope to hear one day that Czech Airlines has resumed flights to Yerevan.

Czech Airlines had stopped its flights to the capital city of Armenia in October 2014.
YEREVAN. - The external turnover between Armenia and the Czech Republic is low, there being no noticeable positive tendency either.

The President of the Czech Republic, Milos Zeman, who is on a working visit to Armenia, said the aforementioned at the Armenian-Czech business forum Wednesday.

I have brought a large group of successful Czech businessmen with me to Armenia. Why is the turnover of goods low? What can we suggest? On the one hand, traditional goods  Czech beer, excellent glass and Czech off-roaders, which are the best. I am trying to separate the goods from the investments, the President noted.

According to Zeman, both countries have new ideas and programs, which they plan to implement jointly, this specifically concerning those areas of industry which are new and large-scale.

Milos Zeman also referred to the dissatisfaction of the export banks regarding the lack of confidence to the partners. This relates to all the countries. Id like to conclude with the quote of a famous Czech businessman: Dont say its impossible, say its impossible for me.I am sure this will be possible for you.
YEREVAN. - President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan received on Wednesday the heads of Security Council delegations of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) member-states and the organizations Secretary-General Nikolay Bordyuzha. The guests attended the meeting of the Committee of CSTO Security Council Secretaries in Yerevan.

The President welcomed the guests, stressing that as a country chairing the CSTO, Armenia attaches great importance to the aforementioned meeting, which creates good bases for the meeting of the CSTO Collective Security Council to be held in Yerevan in October.

Sarsgyan also underscored the importance of the CSTO Collective Security Strategy adoption, which is among the priorities of the Armenian chairmanship in CSTO. The Armenian President expressed satisfaction with the fact that a number of issues directly linked with the implementation of those priorities were included in the agenda of the meeting of the Committee of CSTO Security Council Secretaries.

For his part, CSTO Secretary-General Nikolay Bordyuzha briefed the President on the results of the Committee meeting held in Yerevan, including the signed documents, noting that it was held in a constructive climate and proved to be productive.

Bordyuzha especially singled out the additional measures to develop the CSTO member-states collective security systems in the area of fight against international terrorism and extremism, as well as the steps aimed at regulating the efforts exerted in that fight.

President Sargsyan wished good luck to the Committee of CSTO Security Council Secretaries in implementing their further activities.
YEREVAN. - On behalf of Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, state reception was held in honor of the Czech Republic President Milos Zeman at the Presidential Palace Wednesday.

According to the ritual, during the state dinner the presidents of both countries made mutual toasts, during which they referred to the results of the Czech Republic President's official visit to Armenia, prospects for the development of interstate relations, issues on the Armenian-Czech bilateral agenda concerning the most diverse areas, the historical links of both peoples, as well as the role of the Armenian community of the Czech Republic in the enhancement of friendship between the two countries and peoples.

''It is a well-know fact that the stable and long-term interstate relations are based on mutual respect and friendship traditions between the peoples, which are acquired also through the development and enhancement of humanitarian, cultural and educational ties.

In this context, I am pleased to mention the resumption of teaching Armenological subjects at Charles University. I am sure that this will allow the Czech youth to get in touch with the Armenian culture, as well as to better learn about the Armenian people and their traditions.

As the renowned pedagogue and humanist Jan Amos Komensky put it, ''School is the smithy of humanity.'' The Armenian people very well realize the depth of these words, since they have not once risked their lives during our centuries-old history to save the valuable manuscripts in order to teach and develop the coming generations by them.

I hope that the Armenian students will also soon have an opportunity to deal with the Czech language.

The wish to study the Czech language and culture is due to the fact that Armenia knows and loves the sons of the Czech people - Hasek, Kafka, Dvorak, Smetana and others - whose immortal works continue to admire and educate new generations of humanity. And it is not surprising that the Czech Republic, and especially Prague, have always been the favorite tourist destinations for Armenians,'' President Sargsyan said in his toast.

In the mutual toast, President Milos Zeman drank to the happy future of Armenia, noting that he would like to reflect on what unites Armenia and the Czech Republic.

''Today after the lunch, a young Czech journalist, who has enough life experience, asked me where the limit of genocide ends. I responded to him: ''My young friend, I am giving [just] one example: During the World War 6 million Jews were killed at concentration camps, gas chambers, etc. in Europe, but several thousands, or possibly several dozens and thousands survived. And you want to say that this is not a genocide, since several thousands have survived? This is also the case with the Armenian Genocide. Certain people say that some people survived, and [therefore] this is not a genocide. Absolute nonsense!'' I'd like to say that we are united by a fate, since my people would have been doomed to genocide if the Nazi Germany had won during the World War,'' the Czech President said, stressing that those who deny that Genocide are exactly those who deny the Holocaust.

President Zeman also noted that the people who deny this are simply cowards. ''Mr President, I have never been an amiable political figure. They are merely cowards. They speak about human rights; for some people the most important right is to protest in front of the government. Protests have been staged against me and other figures as well, and this is normal. But this is not the most important right. The most important human right is the right to live. And all those who deny that right have no right to speak about other human rights. I'd like to drink to the right to life,'' Milos Zeman said.
When Ramadan Assi 07MPH took a post in early 2013 as the country director in Turkey for International Medical Corps, he was charged with fostering a program to support Iraqi and Afghan refugees in the northern part of the country. There were also a few hundred thousand Syrian refugees clustered along the Turkey-Syrian border, but their numbers didn't warrant a lot of his attention.

Today Assi finds himself smack in the middle of the largest refugee crisis since World War II. Some 2.5 million Syrians have surged into Turkey to escape the bloody war at home, and more stream across the border every day.

International Medical Corps, under Assi's leadership, has rapidly expanded its health care programs and support for the most vulnerable populations, including women and children, to address not only the sheer numbers of people pouring in but also their particular needs. That means in addition to providing medical care and vocational training and connecting refugees to legal services and education, International Medical Corps is also helping address the mental health needs of this traumatized population.

"The Syrian disaster is unique in its complexity and tragedy. All the refugees have been through untold suffering." Ramadan Assi 07MPH

"The Syrian disaster is unique in its complexity and tragedy," says Assi. "All of the refugees have been through untold suffering. Unless they meet with trained psychologists, many of these people will never be at peace with themselves."

He tells of an exhausted, emaciated family of five he saw teetering on the steps to an International Medical Corps multiservice center in Gaziantep. The young family had lived in a besieged displaced persons camp near Damascus for three years before paying smugglers to get them first into southern Turkey and then to Istanbul. They had little more than the clothes on their backs when they finally made their way to Gaziantep.

Despite the agony of leaving his home and his life, of watching his wife and children go hungry, and of facing an uncertain future, the burden that most haunted the man was the guilt of having to leave his disabled mother behind in Syria. "It was very clear looking into his watery eyes that this man was broken," says Assi.

While making sure the refugees' immediate needs are met, Assi never takes his eyes off the long-term goal, which is restoring self-reliance. International Medical Corps runs seven multi-service centers within Turkey, serving tens of thousands of refugees. Syrian refugees can go there to access medical care, take classes to learn new skills, or just socialize with other refugees. Thousands of refugees have taken courses to learn Turkish, English, and Arabic in the hopes of being able to find a job. Women take classes in knitting, sewing, hair styling, and the like.

Assi tells of a young woman who fled Aleppo with her husband and six-month-old baby in April 2014. She has learned to speak Turkish and is training to become a hair stylist at the Gaziantep center. She's hopeful that, with her newfound skills, she'll be able to get a job and help her husband support their baby.

For Assi, a father of three, the hardest part of the job is dealing with the children. He remembers 11-year-old Abdulla, who had to leave school to work as a server in a restaurant to support his disabled father, his mother, and young brother and sister. He confided that he used to be the best in his class and that he missed school terribly before he collapsed crying.

More than 80% of the Syrian refugee children do not attend school, many because they need to work. "Abdulla is not an individual story," says Assi. "He spoke on behalf of hundreds of thousands of Syrian kids. This has been going on for five years now, and it's creating a lost generation. This is the future of Syria."

Assi's background makes him particularly empathetic to the refugees. He grew up in a farming family in Israeli-occupied territory in Palestine. "I had a rather harsh childhood," says Assi. "Going to school in a system that was administered by a foreign occupation army and growing up under military occupation was a struggle. I never felt at home in my own land. I know this experience has led me to the work I do now."

After a brief stint in banking, Assi discovered public health while working with CARE International in Palestine. He never looked back. In his 20s, he became the operation manager with CARE for Darfur Emergency Response Operations during the crisis. "I was heading an operation where we were feeding a half million refugees spread over a space the size of Texas every month," he says. "That year changed everything about me and how I think about life."

Assi came to Rollins School of Public Health straight from Darfur on a USAID presidential scholarhship. "I went from managing one of most complicated projects on earth at that time to studying statistics and taking exams," he says. "At Rollins, I was able to be enrolled in an elite program in global health leadership, and I earned a graduate certificate in human rights from the university."

Assi went on to a career that included posts with Qatar Charity, World Health Organization, International Medical Corps, and CARE International. He has lived and worked in many of the world's most complex humanitarian emergency settings, including Haiti, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen.

Despite everything he's seen, he never forgets the reason he's there. "These refugees are just normal families," says Assi. "They are not an invading army. They are people who want the best for their families, for their children. They are just like you and me."
Amedeo Modigliani's Jeanne Hebuterne (au foulard). [Photo provided to China Daily]

The love between Italian painter Amedeo Modigliani and his French lover and muse Jeanne Hebuterne is all about devotion and tragedy.

Despite a 14-year age gap, they were together for three years during which Hebuterne modeled for Modigliani's many portraits, mothered his daughter, and committed suicide  while heavily pregnant  one day after his death.

Jeanne Hebuterne with Scarf, a portrait to be auctioned in London on June 21, pays tribute to the poignant relationship.

In the painting, Hebuterne is portrayed in the signature female form featuring geometric simplification and elongated neck that distinguishes Modigliani's output. The usual almond vacant eyes in Modigliani's other female portraits are replaced in this piece with a piercing blue pair.

The painting has been in a private collection since 1986 and is expected to fetch more than $40 million, according to a news release of its auctioneer, Sotheby's.

The painting will appear in an evening sale of impressionism and modern art. There is also a Picasso portrait of his lover Fernande Olivier, titled Femme Assise (sitting woman).

The current auction record for Modigliani is Reclining Nude which was sold to Chinese collector couple Liu Yiqian and Wang Wei for $170 million, at Christie's New York sale last November.

Related:

Classical Chinese paintings stand out at Beijing auction
21:30





He wrote on his Facebook wall, "Hi everybody. Im sad to announce that after talking to my doctors, and receiving the results of my last medical revision, I wont be able to play at Wimbledon this year.





As you can all imagine, its a very tough decision, but the injury I suffered at Roland Garros needs time to heal. Unfortunately, I wont be able to join in the pre-tournament event The Boodles at Stokepark that I attended in previous years.





Thank you all for your support, especially my fans. Your kind messages mean so much to me."

Rafael Nadal has pulled out of this year's Wimbledon. The 30-year-old was forced to withdraw from the French Open in round three because of a wrist injury and subsequently pulled out of Wimbledon warm-up tournament Queen's.
BENGALURU: About seven months ago, Facebook had launched its latest application, Notify. The app allowed its users to access some of the popular news publishers. But in a recent announcement made, by the social media giant, it was publicized that this application would be shut down, as reported by The Times of India Tech. All the notify users have been informed with a notification alert about the same. It was also mentioned in the alert that some features and parts of Notify will be transitioned into the organizations other product.

The application was launched in November 2015 with the purpose of keeping the users on top of the latest news update. The users were given access to a list of some of the popular news publishers from where they can subscribe to their favorite publishers. The users would then receive push notifications from these publishers every time a news piece was published by them. Custom alerts for specific sub-topics could also be set up by the users.

The app was launched as a competition to the Twitter's Moments app. Though the reasons behind the closure of the app was not cleared by Facebook but the company told TechCrunch website that the functions of this app will be integrated with other Facebook products like the Messenger app. "Since launching Notify, we've learned a lot about how to make notifications as timely and relevant as possible and we heard from people using the app that Notify helped them stay informed about things they cared about throughout the day," said the company. "With more than 900 million people using Messenger each month, we think there is a great opportunity for publishers to reach even more people interested in real-time updates from their favorite sources."

Facebooks Messenger app has been highly successful with 900 million monthly active users in April this year. The firm has been trying to make its Messenger app more feature-rich to bring additional users to the platform. Featured like games, gifs, and expanding stickers etc. has already been added by the organization in their Messenger app and with Notifys functions to be integrated in Messenger, an increase in users count can be expected.

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Relationship advice from a gender-changing fish that mates for life

A 3-inch, monogamous hermaphrodite proves the saying theres plenty more fish in the sea isnt always the case.

For the tiny fish found in the coral reefs off Panama, a lifelong relationship with its partner doesnt come without some give and take. In fact, the faithful pair owe their evolutionary success to trading male and female roles: According to an April 2016 University of Florida study in the journal of Behavioral Ecology, the fish switch genders at least 20 times each day.

This reproductive strategy allows individuals to fertilize about as many eggs as they produce, giving the neon-blue fish a reproductive edge. Its mating habits may, at first, seem complex and unusual, but University of Florida scientist Mary Hart said the loyal chalk bass offers humans in relationships this simple wisdom: You get what you give.

Mary Hart off the coast of Panama, where she observed the mating habits of chalk bass."Our study indicates that animals in long-term partnerships are paying attention to whether their partner is contributing to the relationship fairly  something many humans may identify with from their own long-term relationships, said Hart, lead author and an adjunct professor in UFs biology department.

In fact, the duo motivate one another to contribute eggs to the relationship because if one partner lacks eggs, the other will simply match whatever it produces. The only way for a partner to convince its mate to produce more eggs, is to pick up the slack and generate more itself, Hart said.

Florida Museum ornithologist Andrew Kratter turned his attention to fish when he joined his wife, Mary Hart, in Panama for a 6-month study of hermaphrodite fish. Florida Museum of Natural History photo by Kristen Grace.Hart worked with her husband of 10 years, co-author Andrew Kratter, an ornithologist with the Florida Museum of Natural History on the UF campus, to study the ocean-dwelling partners. For six months, the scientists observed the short-lived chalk bass, Serranus tortugarum, while scuba diving off the coast of Panama.

To the scientists surprise, all of the original chalk bass couples marked for the study remained together throughout the duration, until one or both of them disappeared from the study site. With only 3 to 5 percent of animals known to live monogamously, this is a rare find  one of the first for a fish living in a high-density social group, Kratter said.

I found it fascinating that fish with a rather unconventional reproductive strategy would end up being the ones who have these long-lasting relationships, he said. They live in large social groups with plenty of opportunities to change partners, so you wouldnt necessarily expect this level of partner fidelity.

The new research lays the groundwork for integrative studies that investigate the behavioral and neurological mechanisms that govern partnerships in the wild.

Scientists have long studied cooperative behavior in animals, like primates that groom each other or vampire bats that regurgitate food for relatives in need of a blood meal. But it has remained a point of debate among scientists whether or not these animals are paying attention to the amount of resources being exchanged. For the chalk bass, matching reproductive chores helps partners succeed, even when there are opportunities to mate with other fish, Hart said.

We initially expected individuals with partners that were producing less eggs would be more likely to switch partners over timetrading up, so to speak, she said. Instead we found that partners matched egg production and remained in primary partnerships for the long term.

For their entire adult lives, the fish mating partners come together for two hours each day before dusk in their refuge area, or spawning territory. They chase away other fish and begin with a half-hour foreplay ritual of nipping and hovering around each other, an activity Kratter says helps strengthen the partners bond. Eventually it becomes apparent which fish is going to take on the female role for the first of many spawning rounds.

Finding a new mate every evening is time-consuming and risky for a fish that only lives for about a year. Having a safe partner may help ensure that individuals get to fertilize a similar number of eggs as they produce, rather than risk ending up with a partner with fewer eggs, Hart said.

The chalk bass, however, is not opposed to the occasional fling.

If one partner has more eggs than the other, it may share the extra with other couples. Hart said this infrequent option, which happened only 20 percent of the time in the study group, may add stability to the system of simultaneous hermaphroditism paired with monogamy.

But the fish always returns to its mate at the end of the day.

Beavers, otters and wolves are a few species that travel life in pairs. If a wolf is widowed, though, its instincts kick in and the wolf will quickly replace its former mate. Life for a chalk bass after losing its partner may be more difficult. Since adults are all paired, it seems likely that finding a new mate would be difficult for a lone fish. Hart said further investigation is needed to say for sure.

Scientists are only beginning to understand how mutually beneficial relationships among animals are maintained, much as humans in general still strive to determine what makes long-term relationships last.

Hart and Kratter said delving into what drives the bond between monogamous animals has had an impact on their marriage.

I think the get what you give in egg resources exchanged within pairs result, along with the potential for both positive and negative feedback within partnerships were very insightful to both of us, Hart said. Not even one of the original pairs that I observed switched mates while its partner was still alive. That strong matching between partners and the investment into the partnership was surprising.
What is chronic pain and why is it hard to treat?

Robert Caudle, a professor in UFs Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, discusses the elusive nature of unrelieved pain, which contributes more to human suffering than any disease.

A recent study by the National Institutes of Health found that more than one in three people in the United States have experienced pain of some sort in the previous three months. Of these, approximately 50 million suffer from chronic or severe pain.

To put these numbers in perspective, 21 million people have been diagnosed with diabetes, 14 million have cancer (this is all types of cancer combined) and 28 million have been diagnosed with heart disease in the U.S. In this light, the number of pain sufferers is stunning and indicates that it is a major epidemic.

But unlike treatments for diabetes, cancer and heart disease, therapies for pain have not really improved for hundreds of years. Our main therapies are non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like ibuprofen or aspirin, which are just modern versions of chewing on willow bark; and opioids, which are derivatives of opium.

In 2012 259 million prescriptions for opioids were filled in the United States. It is not clear how many of these prescriptions were for chronic pain. And indeed, new CDC guidelines on the use of opioids to treat noncancer chronic pain caution physicians to consider the risks and benefits of using opioids when prescribing them to patients.

The fact is, however, that opioids are used to treat chronic pain not because they are the ideal treatment, but because for some patients, despite their drawbacks, they are the most effective treatment available at the moment.

The problem, as I see it, is this: we are not investing enough in researching and teaching what causes pain and how to treat it.

Pain can have a purpose

I study the processes that trigger and maintain chronic pain. One of the first things I teach my students is that pain is a biological process that is critical for life. Pain protects our bodies from injury and by reminding us that tissue is damaged and needs to be protected it also aids in repairing the injuries we do acquire.

This is graphically illustrated by individuals who are congenitally incapable of feeling pain. People with these conditions typically succumb to infections or organ failure at a young age due to multiple injuries that go unattended. Because they cannot feel pain, they never learn to avoid hazards, or how to protect still-healing injuries.

For the most part, physicians and scientists are not particularly concerned with pain from everyday bumps, bruises and cuts. This type of acute pain typically does not require treatment or can be treated with over-the-counter medication. It will resolve itself when the tissue heals.

What concerns those of us who treat and study pain, however, is chronic pain. This type of pain  that can last for weeks, months or even years  serves no useful purpose for survival and is actually detrimental to our health.

There isnt one type of chronic pain.

In many cases chronic pain persists after an injury has healed. This happens relatively often with wounded veterans, car accident victims and others who have suffered violent trauma.

Chronic pain from arthritis is telling the person about the damage in their body. In this respect it is similar to acute pain and, presumably, if the body healed the pain would subside. But, at the moment, there is no treatment or intervention to induce that healing so the pain becomes the most troubling aspect of the disease.

Chronic pain can also arise from conditions, like fibromyalgia, which have an unknown cause. These conditions are often misdiagnosed and the pain they produce may be dismissed by health care professionals as psychological or as drug-seeking behavior.

How do we experience pain?

The human pain experience can be divided into three dimensions: what pain researchers call the sensory-discriminative, the affective-motivational and the cognitive-evaluative. In acute pain there is a balance between each of these dimensions that allows us to accurately evaluate the pain and the threat it may pose to our survival. In chronic pain these dimensions are disrupted.

The sensory-discriminative dimension refers to the actual detection, location and intensity of the pain. This dimension is the result of a direct nerve pathway from the body to the spinal cord and up into the brains cortex. This is how we are aware of the location on our bodies of a potential injury and how much damage may be associated with the injury.

Knowing where it hurts is only part of experiencing pain. Is your injury life-threatening? Do you need to run away or fight back? This is where the affective-emotional dimension comes in. It arises from the pain circuitry interacting with the limbic system (the emotional centers of the brain). This adds an emotional flavor to the incoming pain signal and is part of the fight-or-flight response. This pathway evokes the anger or fear associated with the possibility of physical harm. It also provokes learning so that in the future we avoid the circumstances leading to the injury.

The third dimension, the cognitive-evaluative, is the conscious interpretation of the pain signal, combined with other sensory information. This dimension draws on the different aspects of pain processing allowing us to determine the location and potential severity of an injury and to come up with survival strategies based on all available information.

When it always hurts

The pain sensory system is designed for survival. If a pain signal persists, the default programming is that the threat to survival remains an urgent concern. Thus, the goal of the pain system is to get you out of harms way by ramping up the intensity and unpleasantness of the pain signal.

To increase the urgency of the pain signal, the sensory-discriminative dimension of pain becomes less distinct, leading to a more diffuse, less localized, pain. This pathway also amplifies the pain signal by rewiring spinal cord circuits that carry the signal to the brain, making the pain feel more intense.

If there is a threat to survival, the increasing intensity and unpleasantness of pain serves a purpose. But if the pain signal persists from, lets say, arthritis or an old injury, the increased intensity and unpleasantness is unwarranted. This is what we define as chronic pain.

In chronic pain, as compared to acute pain, the affective-motivational dimension becomes dominant, leading to psychological consequences. Thus suffering and depression are much worse for chronic pain patients than it would be for an individual with an equivalent acute injury.

The multifaceted nature of pain is why opioids are often the most effective agents for both moderate to severe acute and chronic pain.

Opioids act at all levels of the pain neural circuitry. They suppress incoming pain signals from the peripheral nerves in the body, but importantly for chronic pain patients, they also inhibit the amplification of the signals in the spinal cord and improve the emotional state of the patient.

Unfortunately, patients rapidly develop tolerance to opioids, which significantly reduces their effectiveness for chronic therapy. Because of this as well as their addictive nature, potential for abuse and overdose, and side effects such as constipation, opioids are less than ideal agents for treating chronic pain. It is critical that we find alternatives. But thats easier said than done.

Funding for pain research lags

In 2015 the National Institutes of Health spent US$854 million on pain research, compared to more than $6 billion for cancer. It is no wonder that pain patients muddle through with what amounts to centuries-old therapies.

The competition for funding for pain researchers is intense. In fact, many of my friends and colleagues, all highly experienced midcareer scientists, are leaving research because they cannot sustain the funding necessary to make any significant progress in finding treatments for pain. I, myself, spend up to 30 hours per week preparing and writing research proposals for funding agencies. Yet, less than one in 10 of these proposals are funded. The dearth of funding is also discouraging young scientists from doing pain research. With tenure at major universities becoming more and more difficult to attain, they can little afford to spend all of their time writing research proposals that do not get funded.

In addition, many medical and dental programs in the United States devote as little as one hour in their curriculum to teaching pain mechanisms and pain management. Thus, most of our health professionals are poorly prepared to diagnose and treat chronic pain, which contributes to both the under treatment of pain and the abuse of opioids.

Unrelieved pain contributes more to human suffering than any other disease. It is time to invest in research to find safe effective therapies and on training health care providers to appropriately diagnose and treat pain.

This article first appeared in The Conversation on June 2, 2016.
Pakistan is lobbying "effectively and pro-actively" in all member countries of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) over India's efforts to join the 48-member exclusive club, Pakistan's top foreign affairs advisor has said. The advisor to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs, Sartaj Aziz, told the Senate that Pakistan's "efforts towards non-discriminatory approach will pay off". His comments come amid India's growing push to join the NSG club, backed by the US and Switzerland. Aziz was responding to concerns expressed by Pakistani senators over the growing collusion between India and the US and apprehension that the NSG member states would positively consider Indias request to join it. India as well as Pakistan have both applied for membership to the NSG, which would allow both countries to join nuclear commerce. Pakistan Muslim League-Q Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed, chairman of the Senate defence committee, said NSG member states would be considering New Delhis request to join the group. Alleging that Pakistans diplomacy had "failed", Sayed said that if India became a member of the NSG it would be able to block Pakistans entry into the group. We have alienated Iran and Afghanistan and the two countries are now improving their economic ties with India, he said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has recently visited Afghanistan and Iran, which are immediate neighbours to Pakistan. This is our diplomatic failure. The Indians are encircling us from all sides. Even our immediate neighbours, like Afghanistan and Iran, have gone to India. Its a result of our failed diplomacy and traditionally passive foreign policy, Sayed added. Besides efforts to counter Indian designs through military means, he called for cohesion within the country, saying that India should not be in a position to take advantage of the situation inside Pakistan. Aziz asserted that the countrys scientists and experts were monitoring and evaluating the strategic threats that Indian nuclear doctrine posed to national security. He said that despite limited resources, Pakistan had developed a robust nuclear deterrent system. The advisor said Pakistan was planning to highlight the "dangerous implications" of Indias plan to nuclearise the Indian Ocean. Pakistan was also considering the option of moving a resolution in the UN General Assembly, seeking to declare the Indian Ocean nuclear-free, he said. --IANS ahm/rn/mr ( 384 Words) 2016-06-08-17:20:06 (IANS)
Upset over India's "aggressive" foreign policy moves, especially in the wake of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent visits to Afghanistan, Iran, the UAE and Qatar, Pakistani senators have asked the government to immediately "rectify its diplomatic failings". The senators highlighted the recent visits of Modi to various countries which were considered to be friends of Pakistan, including Saudi Arabia, and expressed concern over India's growing relations with these Islamic Republic countries, it was reported on Wednesday. The concern of the Senators comes as Modi is on the fourth leg of a five-nation visit that took him to the Afghanistan, Qatar, Switzerland, US and Mexico. Replying to a discussion on an adjournment motion moved by Pakistan Muslim League (PML)-N's Javed Abbasi on the "recent test of an intercept missile by India contributing to an unhealthy arms race in the region", Advisor to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz on Tuesday asserted that Pakistan would take all possible measures to augment its defence capabilities. "Pakistan is not oblivious to its defence requirements and upgrading its capabilities through suitable technologies without entering into an arms race," he said, adding that "our efforts for peace and friendship must not be interpreted as our weakness. We are fully capable to defend our people and territory". Aziz said the country's scientists and experts were monitoring and evaluating the strategic threats that Indian nuclear doctrine posed to national security. He said that despite limited resources, Pakistan had developed a robust nuclear deterrent system. The advisor said Pakistan was planning to highlight the "dangerous implications" of India's plan to nuclearise the Indian Ocean at all the relevant international forums. He said Pakistan was also considering the option of moving a resolution in the UN General Assembly, seeking to declare the Indian Ocean as nuclear-free. --IANS ahm/rn/vm ( 316 Words) 2016-06-08-17:40:04 (IANS)
A meeting of the Council of Ministers held on Wednesday endorsed the vice president's trip to China that begins on Friday, Minister for Industry Som Prasad Pande said.

The vice president will be leading a delegation comprising high-ranking officials from the Vice President's Office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Xinhua news agency reported.

The vice president is also expected to hold meetings with some Chinese officials on the sidelines of the expo in Kunming which will begin on Sunday.

This will be the first overseas visit of the vice president since he assumed office on December 31, last year.

--IANS ask/ksk/dg

( 149 Words)

2016-06-08-18:50:07 (IANS)
Japanese automobile major Nissan will roll out X-Trail Hybrid, India's first fully hybrid sport utility vehicle, by the end of the current financial year, its India operations head said on Wednesday. Aiming at 5 per cent market share by 2020, up from less than two percent at present, the carmaker will be introducing its best technology in India which, Nissan hopes, will improve the brand building. X-Trail Hybrid, globally popular especially in the United States, will be CBU (completely built unit) and will be imported from Japan, said Guillaume Sicard, president, Nissan India operations. Powered by petrol and electric engines, the vehicle is currently undergoing testing in India. It will give a mileage of over 20 km per litre. He declined to reveal the price but said it would be significant. He was talking to reporters here while launching redi-GO, an entry-level car from Datsun. "Over the next five to 10 years, Nissan will evolve into a global brand and in India you will see more and more international success from Nissan," he said. Nissan, a global leader in manufacturing electric cars, wants government to extend subsidy for electric cars, at least in the initial stage, in view of the high cost of battery. He also underlined the need for better infrastructure for battery recharge. Nissan, which sold 40,000 cars last year in India, expects the numbers to be more this year. "Our vision is to reach five percent market share by 2020, which is 250,000 cars," said Sicard. The company has plans to bring one new model in the market every year. Currently, Nissan and Datsun have three models each. It expects redi-Go, India's first urban cross, will redefine the entry-level segment. With a starting price of Rs.2.40 lakh, it is available in five variants. He said while keeping the price low, no compromise was made on safety, style and features. The Japanese carmaker plans to come out with new changes on the same platform every six to nine months. The entry-level segment accounts for 25 per cent of the car market. This is estimated to be a bit less than one million cars. "The segment is stable and not growing because there is only one dominant manufacturer with 75 per cent share," he said. Sicard believes manufacturers can generate more demand in the segment if they increase the quality on offer and come out with good alternative. He said Nissan, which invested Rs.61 billion in India during the last five years, would continue to make investments in the country and in its plant at Chennai in Tamil Nadu. The plant has a capacity 480,000 and the company is currently utilising 80 per cent for all its brands and exports. It hopes to reach full capacity in the next one or two years. Nissan exports more than 100,000 cars from India and it is one of the largest car exporters. --IANS ms/tsb/dg ( 496 Words) 2016-06-08-17:52:04 (IANS)
Central Africa Republic will restart diamond exports three years after its stones were found to be funding armed groups in an inter-religious conflict and placed under embargo, the mines minister said on Monday.Central African Republic descended into chaos in March 2013 when predominantly Muslim Seleka rebels seized power, triggering reprisals by "anti-balaka" Christian militias who drove tens of thousands of Muslims from the south.Having held successful elections aimed at drawing a line under the violence, new President Faustin-Archange Touadera is seeking to revive the shattered economy.Mines Minister Leopold Mboli Fatrane said on state-owned radio that the partial lifting of the export ban would initially apply to the southern region of Berberati."Very quickly we'll be working on other zones. As you know, we must follow certain conditions imposed by the Kimberley Process," he said. "We must separate the so-called 'blood diamonds' from those that aren't."The Kimberley Process, which implemented the export ban, is a grouping of producer countries, consumer nations, industry representatives and civil society organisations formed to prevent the sale of diamonds from funding conflicts.Last year, it agreed to allow the government to resume rough diamond exports on the condition that it implemented a programme to ensure the traceability of its stones.In September, a U.N. panel of experts said the illicit trade in diamonds was still funding major players in Central African Republic's conflict and increasingly involved neighbouring countries such as Cameroon and Chad."As you know, today security has returned to Berberati. The government is today able to ensure traceability there," Mboli Fatrane said.According to Kimberley Process data, Central African Republic officially exported 371,917 carats of diamonds, worth over $62 million, in 2012, the year before the ban was put in place.The first diamonds to be shipped from the country following the resumption of exports comprise 3,703 carats of stocks that must be examined and approved by the government's diamond inspection office.REUTERS VS AKC AS1747 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0440-772039.Xml
All India Congress Committee has sent one of its secretary and in-charge of the state Bhupen Bora to take stock of the continuous desertion from Congress in Tripura, like other states including Northeast. Bora held a meeting with remaining party leaders of Congress at night and reviewed the stock of the situation. According to report, role of AICC was severely criticised in the meeting in presence of Bora and many of them have expressed annoyance over electoral understanding with CPI(M) in West Bengal. The last nail in the coffin of state Congress has been cast when six MLAs switched over to Trinamool Congress and one has resigned from the assembly and joined in ruling CPI(M). Only two of the remaining three legislators have attended the meeting of Bora. The congress workers expressed serious resentment over the role of AICC in preventing the erosion of party following adjustment in Bengal with the CPI(M). They also raised voice against incumbent Chief Minister of Pudducherry V Nrayanswami that he did not pay due attention in expansion of party during his tenure. "Nrayanswami had visited Tripura often for a pleasure trip and never made any attempt to address the grievances of MLAs and leaders. AICC doesn't have any role to mobilise common congressmen against misrule of leftists since 2011. It appears that AICC played a big role to win left front government in 2013 election. The AICC leaders supported left front government and appreciated all its corrupt practices by the Central government while advised state leaders to fight against CPI(M) that affected congress severely," said a senior congress leader. However, Bora claimed that joining of six congress MLAs to Trinamool have no impact in congress because all those MLAs proved to be unaccepted by the people of Tripura in past elections. "No party could shine with these elements. Mamata Banerjee will realise it later. Trinamool Congress is based in West Bengalmwith most localised agenda, which will fit to other parts and since it is a single woman party, it doesn't have any future in Indian politics," Bora said. He reaffirmed that Congress is the only alternative party in Tripura. UNI BB AKM SDR 1130 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0213-774796.Xml
Uttar Pradesh police were shocked after they recovered an US made rocket launcher from the Jawahar Bagh area here. "We have recovered a launcher which is made in USA. We will see the details first. It is under our custody," Mathura SSP Bablu Kumar said here today. In the aftermath of the Mathura violence, forensic teams and bomb disposal squads have recovered a US-made rocket launcher from Jawahar Bagh during search operations yesterday.The weapon was found during the search of 280 acres of government land, which was encroached by Swadheen Bharat Vidhik Satyagrahi outfit. The US rocket launcher have imprint of : JEFFERSONOH 1044047 for which the police was probing. Though the SSP refused that preliminary investigation has not giving any indications that the Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi were linked with naxalite groups so far. Twenty nine people, including two police officers, were killed during clash between members of Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi and police on June 2 in the Jawahar Bagh. Clashes broke out in the city when police tried to evict illegal occupants from Jawahar Bagh on Allahabad High Court orders. SP (City) Mukul Dwivedi and SHO (Farah) Santosh Yadav were among the deceased in the violence. The rioters were heavily armed with automatic weapons and grenades. Police also recovered around 57 country-made weapons and rifles. Besides 7 bags of explosives, including one kg of white powder, 5 kg each of yellow and black powder and one broken electronic circuit plate was recovered from the Jawahar Bagh along with 1 kg of iron chips. Yesterday, Uttar Pradesh ordered judicial probe into the violence. The probe will be conducted by retired judge of Allahabad High Court Imtiaz Murtaza and the inquiry committee has been asked to submit its report within two months. Meanwhile UP BJP spokesperson Vijay Bahadur Pathak ridiculed the setting up of a judicial commission in the Mathura violence. " How can a judicial commission probe into such incident where US made rocket launchers and huge quantity of explosives have been recovered. It seems that the satyagrahis had some international link and the real facts could only come out if a national probe agency is being involved ," he claimed. Mr Pathak charged the Akhilesh Yadav government of just trying to provide a safe passage to the culprits by ordering first a probe by the divisional commissioner and now by a retired judge of the High court. "Everyone is sure now that a small security personnel even it could be a homeguard ,would be held responsible for the Mathura violence like the earlier Muzaffarnagar riots in which the judicial commission had blamed an inspector of the intelligence outfit for the one month long communal riots in which 68 people lost their lives and 50,000 rendered homeless," he said. He said in the past too, the SP government had set up judicial probes like in Muzaffarnagar riots, Yadav Singh corruption and now in Mathura violence just to save the skin of the politicians,who had been giving patronage to the criminals.UNI MB CJ ADG 1255 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0196-774876.Xml
With an initiative to help farmers in availing the finance against receivable due from Farm Fresh Foods Limited (FFL), the public sector lender State Bank of India (SBI) today signed a MoU with the company. The new product is an innovative offering that uses corporate's ecosystem data to digitally enable lending solutions to customers.Farmers' past performance data with the associated anchor company will be used to assess eligibility and enable loan sanction. A proprietary digital tool has been developed by SBI to facilitate this centralized electronic sanctioning, said the statement. Rajnish Kumar MD ,National Banking Group, SBI said, "We are pioneering the combined potential of the rural economy,disruptive digital innovation, and leveraging the strength of corporate partnerships. The Government is also taking many steps for reviving the farm sector - New crop insurance scheme, promotion of irrigation facilities, KisanSuvidha app, electronic Mandi portal among others.''This solution, unlike traditional agri-lending products moves away from lending based on the farmers' assets, land holding and financial history. Instead it uses proprietary historical performance data and information from public domain to assess farmer's eligibility and credit worthiness to sanction the loan."The product is truly pioneering as it provides credit to farmers to make investments in modern agricultural technologies like mechanization, irrigation resulting in higher productivity and subsequently higher farm income." he added.SBI is looking to strengthen the 'Farm-to-Fork' program and increase agricultural lending through corporate partnerships. The affiliation and comfort from the anchor corporate will increase the risk mitigation for loans given to various stakeholders. It plans to expand its product suite across sectors to offer customized solutions to the corporate players and their associated farmers and vendors.The bank has also signed MoUs with NIF Private Limited (Namaste Dairy), PepsiCo India Holdings, Siddhivinayak Agri Processing and Origo Commodities for ecosystem financing in the agri-value chain of the corporates.In recent times, the bank has been working with corporates to develop risk mitigated, value chain financing solutions that can cater to all stakeholders - starting from the farmer to the distribution channel partners. Today, the bank has taken yet another giant leap in this space with the launch of a new product for financing farmers against receivables of corporate, SBI added further.UNI RN ASH 1651 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0311-775437.Xml
Director (Technical) NRL SR Medhi, in presence of senior officials of the Company, flagged off the consignment, an NRL release said here today.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had dedicated NRL's Wax Plant to the Nation on February 5 last.

The 50,000 Metric Tonnes (MT) Wax Plant commissioned in March 2015 at a cost of Rs 676 crores is the country's largest wax producing unit with indigenous technology developed by IIP Dehradun, EIL and NRL.

Since commissioning of the Wax plant, NRL has emerged as the largest manufacturer and marketer of wax in the country with a market share of more than 52 per cent.

Leveraging on the inherent properties of wax rich crude oil from the oil fields of Assam, the plant is designed to produce superior quality paraffin and microcrystalline wax and is a worthy manifestation of the 'Make in India' campaign of the Government of India.

Till now, a major part of the country's annual demand for Paraffin Wax along with the entire demand for Microcrystalline Wax was being met through imports. NRL's Wax plant has minimized the supply deficit in the domestic market substantially, thus reducing imports.

The utility of Paraffin Wax lies in making candles, tarpaulin sheets, food grade wrappers and in PVC pipe manufacturing industries while Microcrystalline Wax finds widespread application in the manufacture of tyres, rubber products, paints and polishes, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics.UNI SG KK AN1822

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The recent attacks on African nationals residing in India will not a cast a shadow over President Pranab Mukherjee's three-nation visit to Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire and Namibia, said a senior official of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Wednesday. Briefing media ahead of the June 12 to June 18 state visit of the President, Secretary (ER) Amar Sinha said, "The recent attacks on African nationals residing in various parts of India has been condemned at the highest level. In fact, one of the first issues dealt with by External Affairs Minister (Mrs.) Sushma Swaraj after she recovered from a recent illness, was to meet with the envoys/ambassadors of the African nations to brief them on the steps being taken by the Indian government to sensitize the state governments about the issue, and as to what steps they had been asked to take to prevent such incidents in the future." Mr. Sinha revealed that MEA officials had visited Rajpur Khurd in the capital where the attacks on Africans happened to assuage the angered feelings of the latter and to sensitize them about the steps being taken by the administration to prevent such incidents in the future. "Our EAM (External Affairs Minister) has been very proactively engaging with the African ambassadors. She met the students also. We were dispatched to the village Rajpur Khurd. I went there along with MOS (Minister of State), to meet the villagers and sensitize them," he said. He said, "Only yesterday, she has written to several chief ministers, where we have large presence of African students to sensitize them and the state administration that these are actions of individuals but it reflects on the nation. And, there is a need to take quick measures and actions in terms of both the police actions and the follow up in terms of prosecution if such incidents happen." When pressed to elaborate on the issue, Mr. Sinha further revealed that the Ministry of External Affairs has Joint Secretary in charge of states, who also has the responsibility to brief and keep chief secretaries and police chiefs/commissioners of states informed about issues, including police cases related to foreign nationals from time-to-time. He said that a monitoring mechanism has been put in place to ensure that such incidents are not repeated, and added that this mechanism will have a meeting at the Minister of State level every quarter to review all steps being taken, and any changes that need to be made. "Since we have engaged with the African HOMs (Heads of Missions) here very closely and we have kept them informed. We are also setting up a monitoring mechanism so that we don't lose sight of any incident. So, they are quite satisfied with the reaction of the Government of India. They have separately met the Delhi police commissioner and the entire department. So, we really don't feel that this will cast a shadow on our relationship," he said. Joint Secretary in charge of East and South Africa Dr. Meena Malhotra specifically informed that the state governments of Karnataka (Bengaluru), Maharashtra (Mumbai and Pune), Tamil Nadu (Chennai), Goa and Andhra Pradesh and Telangana (Hyderabad) have been sensitized about issues related to African nationals. Mr. Sinha said that the African envoys have expressed satisfaction over the government's initiatives. "Our relationships are much on a solid foundation and we have a great historical perspective. And these governments and their authorities understand that this is not something which is being driven by the state policy. It is unfortunate that at times African students get targeted, which perhaps according to us also arises from some cultural differences. That is what we are trying to explain. And the mission is also us trying to reach out to their own communities here, to sensitize them in terms of the general behavior," he added. During his state visit to Ghana from June 12 to 14, where he is going at the invitation of the President of Ghana, Mr. John Dramani Mahama, President Mukherjee will be accompanied by a Minister of State, four Members of the Parliament, senior officials, business and a media delegation. Mr. Sinha said President Mukherjee will be received on his arrival in Ghana capital Accra by Vice President Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur and will be given a traditional Ghanian welcome. Thereafter, he said the President will have a one-to-one meeting with President Mahama followed by delegation-level talks. A number of agreements are under process for signing, including the setting up of a Joint Commission between India and Ghana and a renewal of an existing cultural exchange programme. President Mukherjee, Mr. Sinha said, would also be delivering an address at the Joint Business Forum and at the University of Ghana, and would also interact with the Indian community at a reception organized by the Indian High Commissioner in his honour. President Mukherjee, he said, will unveil a statue of Mahatma Gandhi gifted by the Indian Council of Cultural Relations and also plant a sapling at the Flag Staff House (Ghanaian Presidential Complex), an iconic building built with the Indian assistance through a Line of Credit. President will also visit the India-Ghana Kofi Annan Centre of ICT Excellence in Accra, set up with modest Indian assistance of USD 2.86 million. He will also pay tribute at the memorial of Ghana's former president Kwame Nkrumah. The senior MEA official further revealed that bilateral trade and investments between India and Ghana have been steadily growing. He said that India's cumulative investments in Ghana till date have exceeded USD 1 billion and bilateral trade crossed the USD 3 billion mark in 2015-16. The focus of bilateral trade was on gold, pharmaceuticals, plastics, textiles, steel rice and wheat, he said, adding that a key feature of the ties was the developmental partnership worth around half-a-billion dollars. President Mahama, he said, will also host a state banquet in honour of President Mukherjee and the accompanying delegation. Mr. Sinha said that after completing his two-day visit to Ghana, President Mukherjee will pay an official visit to the Republic of Cote d'Ivoire from the afternoon of June 14 to 15 at the invitation of President Alassane Ouattara. This will be the first ever high-level visit from India to the Republic of Cote d'Ivoire since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, he said. Mr. Sinha said that India and Cote d'Ivoire enjoy warm and friendly relations, sharing common values of democracy, development and secularism. He added that bilateral relations are marked by mutual respect and understanding. India and Cote d'Ivoire bilateral trade grew from USD 344.99 million in 2010-11 to USD 841.85 million in 2014-15. India, with in the rubric of South-South Cooperation, has extended lines of credit amounting to USD 156.3 million to the Government of Cote d'Ivoire for developmental projects in diverse fields such as public transportation, rural electrification, rice self-sufficiency, cashew nut processing, vegetable oil processing, coconut fibre processing, fisheries processing etc. and Mahatma Gandhi IT and Bio-technology Park. During his stay in Cote d'Ivoire, the president will have a one-to-one meeting with President Ouattara followed by delegation level talks. President Mukherjee would be conferred the National Order of the Republic of Cote d'Ivoire, the highest Order of the country and would also be handed over the Key to the city of Abidjan. The agreement regarding opening of EXIM Bank Representative/Regional in Abidjan would be handed over in presence of both presidents. President Mukherjee would also address a Joint Business Forum and also interact with the Indian community before emplaning for Namibia on June 15. Insofar as the visit to Namibia is concerned, Mr. Sinha said that an Indian Head of State is visiting that country after 21 years, and added that Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was the last Indian Head of Government to visit Namibia. (ANI)
West Garo Hills district Deputy Commissioner Pravin Bakshi said 46 UALA led by their Chairman Novembirth Marak and its commander-in-chief Singbirth Marak alias Norrok Momin will lay down arms before Chief Minister Mukul Sangma.

UALA was formed in February 2013 by Norrok, a former action commander of now disbanded A'chik National Volunteers Council (Breakaway). In October 2013, Novembirth, who was general secretary of Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA), had joined the outfit to be elevated to the rank of self-styled chairman of the outfit.

The outfit involved in kidnapping, extortion and killing has several pending criminal cases against its cadres. The stand of the government on the issue is that all criminal cases will be followed up as per FIRs and non-heinous cases will be withdrawn with the approval of the courts.UNI RRK PS 1955

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Criticising Samajwadi Party Government, Uttar Pradesh BJP president Keshav Prasad Maurya said today that government opted to go for a judicial probe into the Mathura incident as they wanted to protect the real culprits. "The judicial probe into the Jawahar Bagh incident of Mathura is unacceptable to us. Government's intention is not clear. Like Muzaffarnagar incident, SP government does not want the truth to come out," Keshav Prasad said in a statement issued here. Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav had ordered a judicial probe into the Mathura incident in which cache of arms and ammunition were recovered from Jawahar Bagh. Twenty nine people, including two police officers, were killed in the gunbattle. Judicial probe would be carried out by retired High Court Judge Imtiyaz Murtza. Government has rescinded its earlier decision of probe by Commissioner, Aligarh division. Mr Prasad alleged that under the garb of probe by retired High Court Judge, the SP government had protected people behind Muzaffarnagar riots. "The state government wants to replicate the same formula in Mathura which is unacceptable to BJP," he said an added "if government is serious about getting to the bottom of Mathura incident it should go for CBI probe". "Government should either order probe by a sitting High Court Judge or hand over the probe to CBI. Then only real faces behind the crime will be exposed," he alleged.UNI MB PS SB 1954 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0421-776188.Xml
The Bombay High Court today dismissed a petition filed by Goa BJP vice-president Anil Hoble against the order of National Green Tribunal directing the demolition of his illegal structures, along the Panaji-Ribandar causeway. A division bench of Justices A V Mohla and A S Gadkari dismissed his petition of illegal structure, including a bar and restaurant.The NGT while ordering the demolition held that Mr Hoble had violated various provisions of the environmental law and also directed him to pay a fine of 20 lakh for destroying mangroves and doing illegalland filling in violation of environment laws. After the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on December 15 last year dismissing Mr Hoble's review petition against the order directing the demolition of his illegal structures, the leader moved the Bombay High Court and obtained an ex-parte stay.Mr Hoble had also filed two petitions before the Supreme Court which also came to be dismissed as withdrawn after which he filed the review petition before the NGT claiming that his Bar & Restaurant existed since 1960.Mr Hoble's River Lounge Bar & Restaurant was inaugurated on April 1 2014 by the then Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar despite the structures housing the Bar & Restaurant being illegal.UNI AKM SW SB2330 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0169-776162.Xml
Japanese research institute Riken has sent its proposal to the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) -- the highest authority in the field -- which is expected to announce the official name for the new element by the end of the year, EFE news reported.

'Nihonium' alludes to 'Nihon', the Japanese name for the Asian island nation, officials said.

In December, the Zurich-based organisation conceded the credit for the discovery of the synthetic element to Riken, granting it the right to give it an official name.

Up until now, element number 113 has been labelled with the provisional name 'uruntrio'.

The new synthetic element has 113 protons in its nucleus, and was identified by a team headed by Japanese scientist Kosuke Morita, from the University of Kyushu.

Synthetic elements are not found in nature and are artificially produced through experiments which have created 24 such elements including plutonium, although all are unstable, according to Riken, which announced its discovery in December 2015.

The claim to element 113 was earlier disputed, with a joint US-Russia research team also alleging authorship, in a claim now debunked.

--IANS ksk/dg

( 218 Words)

2016-06-08-17:56:03 (IANS)
Hillary Clinton has reached the number of delegates needed to capture the Democratic US presidential nomination, according to tallies by two US media outlets, as she and rival Bernie Sanders face off today in contests in six states.A former senator and US secretary of state, Clinton would be the first woman to ever be the presidential candidate of a major political party in the country's history.But Sanders has vowed to keep up the fight in what has been a long and increasingly antagonistic Democratic primary race.Sanders, a US senator from Vermont who calls himself a democratic socialist, has commanded huge crowds spilling out of parks and stadiums, galvanizing younger voters with his promises to address economic inequality.But Clinton has continued to edge out Sanders, particularly among older voters with longer ties to the Democratic party. Her less lofty promises focus on improving upon the policies of her fellow Democrat and former boss, President Barack Obama.'RUSH TO JUDGMENT'After the Associated Press and NBC on Monday night said Clinton had clinched the number of delegates needed to win her party's nomination, a Sanders campaign spokesman castigated what he said was the media's "rush to judgment."Under Democratic National Committee (DNC) rules, most delegates to the party's July 25-28 convention are awarded by popular votes in state-by-state elections.But the delegate count also includes "superdelegates" - party leaders and elected senators, members of Congress and governors - who can change their mind at any time.For that reason, the DNC has echoed the Sanders campaign, saying the superdelegates should not be counted until they actually vote at the Philadelphia convention.But that has not deterred the news media. The AP and NBC reported that Clinton reached the 2,383 delegates needed to become the presumptive Democratic nominee with a decisive weekend victory in Puerto Rico, a US territory, and a burst of last-minute support from superdelegates."According to the news, we are on the brink of a historic, historic, unprecedented moment," Clinton told a rally in Long Beach, California, shortly after the AP report."But we still have work to do, don't we? We have six elections tomorrow and we're going to fight hard for every single vote, especially right here in California."But Michael Briggs, Sanders' spokesman, dismissed the AP and NBC tallies."Our job from now until the convention is to convince those superdelegates that Bernie is by far the strongest candidate against Donald Trump," he said.Today, voters will go to the polls in California, New Jersey, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and New Mexico hold nominating contests.But the outcome in California, the last and largest state to vote, could help shape whether Clinton will gain traction in her efforts to unify the party behind her.If Sanders, who was trailing in polls in California until recently, roars back to take the state, he may have little incentive to exit the race despite increasing pressure from party luminaries to stand down.Clinton spent yesterday working to turn out Hispanic and African-American voters - demographic groups that have provided a pillar of support for her during the nominating process.She spent the day in Southern California, first in the heavily Latino city of Lynwood, then later in central Los Angeles, speaking before throngs of black supporters.Sanders, meanwhile, campaigned in the San Francisco Bay Area.Sanders' supporters have become increasingly resistant to Clinton in recent months, with fewer than half saying they would vote for her if she becomes the party's nominee, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll in May.Last month, 41 per cent of Sanders' supporters said they would vote for the former secretary of state if she runs against Trump in the Nov. 8 general election. That was down from 50 per cent in April, and 52 percent in March.Those who have decided not to support Clinton are split on what to do if Sanders quits the race. Some may cross party lines and vote for Trump, but many others appear to be interested in a third-party candidate. Some 27 per cent of Sanders' supporters said in May that they would vote for neither candidate or another alternative.One Sanders supporter, Andrew Swetland, 31, an accountant from Long Beach, told Reuters he would not vote for Clinton if she heads the Democratic ticket."We're tired of all the things the establishment in the party is trying to force on us," he said, adding that he would support the Green Party's Jill Stein instead.The Reuters/Ipsos poll included 2,919 Sanders supporters during the month of May and has a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of 2 percentage points.REUTERS AKC RAI1543 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0432-773487.Xml
Prime Minister David Cameron accused those campaigning for Britain to leave the European Union of lying, saying today he had been struck while watching the news on TV by their incorrect claims.Britons vote in a referendum on June 23 on whether to remain in the 28-member bloc, a momentous decision for the economy, trade, politics, defence and migration in the UK and beyond.A recent spate of polls has suggested that the "Leave" campaign may be gaining momentum.Cameron, who is leading the "Remain" campaign, convened an unexpected news conference at short notice during which he tried to move the focus away from immigration, his opponents' most potent line of attack which dominated the debate last week.He stressed the strong backing his side has received from a wide range of bodies like the International Monetary Fund, the Bank of England and the World Trade Organisation, and accused Leave campaigners of telling multiple "untruths"."It is irresponsible. It is wrong. It is time that the Leave campaign was called out on the nonsense that they are peddling," said Cameron, appearing on a rooftop terrace with sweeping views of the London skyline and the Houses of Parliament."I was watching the news last night and it just came over to me so clearly that there is such a contrast between the weight of independent expert opinion ... and a series of assertions from the Leave campaign that just simply aren't right."Cameron cited recent warnings on the economic impact of an EU exit made by Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen, Hitachi's chief executive and the head of the WTO.His last-minute decision to hold the news conference signalled a break from what has so far been a carefully choreographed campaign.That shift prompted claims from some parts of the media and the Leave campaign that Cameron has been rattled by the narrowing polls."The In campaign is in a blind panic," said Vote Leave spokesman Douglas Carswell, a lawmaker from the anti-EU UK Independence Party.Asked by a reporter whether he was worried he was losing, Cameron said: "Not at all. What I'm worried about, what I'm concerned about, is that people are being told things that aren't correct."Cameron had previously held back from criticising the main figures in the official Leave campaign, many of whom are senior members of his Conservative Party, including former London mayor Boris Johnson and Justice Secretary Michael Gove.But today, he cited several arguments made by Johnson, Gove and others and dismissed them."It's so important to say to people: 'don't take a decision to leave the EU and damage our economy on the basis of clearly false information that you're being given,'" he said. REUTERS AKC PR1912 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0432-774213.Xml
The European Union executive proposed today making EU development aid and trade ties with African and other poor countries conditional on their cooperation in curbing migration to Europe."Those countries who ... work with us will get certain treatment," an EU official said of the package of measures put forward by the European Commission. "Those who don't want to or are incapable will get different treatment and that will be translated via our development, trade policies."A deal with Turkey, much criticised by human rights groups, has cut the arrivals in Greece to a trickle after some 1.3 million reached Europe last year. But people smugglers have become more active again in recent weeks on the even more dangerous Mediterranean routes from North Africa to Italy.Last year, much of the irregular migration to Europe was by Syrians, Iraqis and others fleeing war or conflict in the Middle East. But EU leaders are concerned about a long-term prospect of massive migration from Africa, the world's poorest continent."We must find solutions, sustainable solutions. We cannot tolerate the loss of human lives at this scale and we must do everything we can to stop it," the Commission's deputy head, Frans Timmermans, said in a statement.The plan envisages spending 9 billion dollar in development aid and other assistance over the next five years.Some of that money has already been pledged but Brussels now wants to add more funds and make disbursements under deals it would seal with each country individually to ensure the recipients keep a lid on migration in exchange for EU money.First in line to agree the so-called "compacts" on aid-for-migration are Jordan and Lebanon, major hosts like Turkey for Syrian refugees. The Commission also said it wants to work towards similar agreements in Africa, with Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Mali and Ethiopia. REUTERS AKC VN1922 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0432-774242.Xml
The parties to over a year of civil war in Yemen have agreed to release all child prisoners they are holding, UN envoy to peace talks in Kuwait Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said on his official Twitter account today."The unconditional release of children was agreed, and the mechanics of the release of detainees in the coming days was addressed," Ould Cheikh Ahmed wrote.The Iran-allied Houthi group and Yemen's Saudi-backed government in exile are trying to reach a peace agreement in negotiations aimed at ending the war that has killed at least 6,200 people and caused a humanitarian crisis in the Arabian Peninsula's poorest country.There was no immediate comment from either side's peace delegation in Kuwait on the UN envoy's announcement.It is clear how many child prisoners are being held, but Yemeni political sources say that the Houthis and the government submitted in late May a list of almost 7,000 names of prisoners they say are being held by the other side.Human Rights Watch said this month that both sides in the conflict were deploying child soldiers and UNICEF reported that 900 children have been killed and 1,300 wounded during the conflict in 2015.The UN has struggled to encourage a prisoner release in Yemen coinciding with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which began today, and over a month of negotiations have produced few concrete results. REUTERS VS SB1611 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0440-771549.Xml
British paedophile Richard Huckle was sentenced to life in prison by a London court today for abusing 23 Malaysian and Cambodian babies and children over almost a decade.Huckle, 30, stood in the dock at London's Old Bailey court with his hands clasped together as if in prayer as he was told he would have to serve at least 23 years behind bars for his crimes against victims aged six months to 11 years."It is very rare indeed that a judge has to sentence sexual offending by one person on such a scale as this," judge Peter Rook said.As Huckle was led away after the sentencing, a woman sitting in the public gallery shouted: "a thousand deaths is too good for you".Huckle had pleaded guilty to 71 offences and was found with over 20,000 indecent images of children on his computer and camera when he was arrested at Gatwick Airport in 2014.He is one of the most prolific child sex abusers known to have operated in Malaysia, where the authorities have been criticized for failing to tackle sex crimes properly against children.The sentencing was leading news bulletins in Malaysia today.Huckle abused his victims over a period of nine years between March 2006 and December 2014. All the crimes took place in Malaysia, apart from the first incident which involved the abuse of a two-year-old child during a visit to Cambodia."Relentlessly, you preyed upon the very young - pre-pubescent vulnerable children from a minority ethnic community into which you ingratiated yourself," the judge told him."This was a prolonged campaign of rape of the children from a small community."The judge said one of the most aggravating features of the case was that Huckle targeted and groomed impoverished children and their families, seeking to impress them with his relative wealth and status as a Westerner."Your offending behaviour became entrenched in your everyday life," he added. "Your life revolved around your sexual activities with young children. Your distorted beliefs in respect of children are deep-seated. Your self-delusion knows no bounds."Huckle boasted of his crimes online and had written a 60-page manual advising other paedophiles on how to abuse children.The judge said this was a "truly evil document proselytising paedophilia" and that Huckle had intended this to become a commercial enterprise. REUTERS VS NS1652 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0440-771860.Xml
India and the United States on Tuesday held bilateral talks on a wide range of issues, including measures to bolster economic and trade ties between both the countries. In a joint statement issued after the third major bilateral summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Barack Obama, the leaders highlighted the strong and expanding economic relationship between the United States and India and committed to support sustainable, inclusive, and robust economic growth, and common efforts to stimulate consumer demand, job creation, skill development and innovation in their respective countries. In order to substantially increase bilateral trade, they pledged to explore new opportunities to break down barriers to the movement of goods and services, and support deeper integration into global supply chains, thereby creating jobs and generating prosperity in both economies. Both sides said that they would look forward to the second annual Strategic and Commercial Dialogue in India later this year to identify concrete steps in this regard. They also commended the increased engagement on trade and investment issues under the Trade Policy Forum (TPF) and encouraged substantive results for the next TPF later this year. They welcomed the engagement of U.S. private sector companies in India's Smart City program. The leaders applauded the strong bonds of friendship between the 1.5 billion peoples of India and the United States that have provided a solid foundation for a flourishing bilateral partnership, noting that two-way travel for tourism, business, and education has seen unprecedented growth, including more than one million travelers from India to the United States in 2015, and similar number from the United States to India. The leaders resolved to facilitate greater movement of professionals, investors and business travelers, students, and exchange visitors between their countries to enhance people-to-people contact as well as their economic and technological partnership. To this end, they welcomed the signing of an MOU for Development of an International Expedited Traveler Initiative (also known as the Global Entry Program) and resolved to complete within the next three months the procedures for India's entry into the Global Entry Program. The leaders recognized the fruitful exchanges in August 2015 and June 2016 on the elements required in both countries to pursue a U.S.-India Totalization Agreement and resolved to continue discussions later this year. Recognizing the importance of fostering an enabling environment for innovation and empowering entrepreneurs, the United States welcomes India's hosting of the 2017 Global Entrepreneurship Summit. The leaders welcomed the enhanced engagement on intellectual property rights under the High Level Working Group on Intellectual Property and reaffirmed their commitment to use this dialogue to continue to make concrete progress on IPR issues by working to enhance bilateral cooperation among the drivers of innovation and creativity in both countries. The United States also welcomed India's interest in joining the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, as India is a dynamic part of the Asian economy. (ANI)
French police questioned the Roman Catholic cardinal-archbishop of Lyon today for over 10 hours in an inquiry into the activities of a paedophile priest in the early 1990s and why they were not reported to the civil authorities, lawyers said.Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, 65, who has denied covering up the activities of Father Bernard Preynat, was questioned as a witness by officers of the child and family protection brigade at a police station in the central city."He's been dragged in the mud for numerous months and he wanted to respond," Barbarin's lawyer Jean-Felix Luciani told journalists after the cardinal emerged from questioning.Several victims of alleged paedophile abuse have filed complaints against the prelate, who holds the honorific title of Primate of the Gauls, for failing to report the incidents to the justice authorities and leaving the accused priest in place.Preynat was placed under judicial investigation in January for alleged sexual abuse of Catholic boy scouts in 1991 and released on bail. His lawyer said he had admitted the facts of "sexual abuse on minors under 15 years old by a person in a position of authority" to an investigating magistrate.While Barbarin has denied any wrongdoing, he acknowledged "errors in the management and appointment of some priests" in a statement issued in April.Prosecutors are likely to decide this month whether there are grounds to seek a formal criminal investigation or not. Barbarin's lawyer said he was optimistic the case would be dropped.Barbarin had a private audience with Pope Francis in Rome last month and the pontiff said afterwards in an interview with the Catholic newspaper La Croix that it would make no sense for the cardinal to resign."We will see after the trial is over. But now, it would be declaring oneself guilty," the pope said."According to the information at my disposal, Cardinal Barbarin took the appropriate measures, he took things in hand. He is brave, creative, a missionary," Francis was quoted as saying, adding: "We must wait now to see where the civil legal procedures leads."A papal decree issued on Sunday said bishops found "negligent" when dealing with cases of sexual abuse will be investigated and could be removed from office. The order backed up Francis's declaration of "zero tolerance" for anyone in the church who absuses children. REUTERS RSD SB2339 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0435-776537.Xml
BEIJING, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Optimists of China-U.S. ties were given another shot of confidence as an annual strategic and economic dialogue wrapped Tuesday.

Along with the seventh China-U.S. High-Level Consultation on People-to-People Exchange, the dialogue showed the world that bilateral relations were not all doom and gloom.

In recent years, China and the United States have been working to enhance their strategic trust, which is integral to building a "new type of major power relationship."

From record bilateral trade volume to heightened cooperation in areas including climate change, the Internet, the armed forces and law enforcement, the spectrum of China-U.S. relations has expanded, to the benefit of both sides.

If anything can be drawn from these improvements, it is that both sides are adhering to the principles of avoiding conflict and confrontation, and valuing mutual respect and win-win cooperation.

This year is important for both countries as the United States is holding presidential elections and China is to host the G20 summit.

Standing at a crucial juncture for bilateral relations, the two sides should put things in perspective, instead of reacting to shortsighted whims.

It is vital for the people of both countries to believe that friendship and cooperation between the two sides are irrevocable.

The fact that five million people traveled between the two nations in 2015, an increase of some 16 percent from the year before, indicates that burgeoning people-to-people exchanges are a good foundation for lasting friendly relations.

As the world's largest economies, there are good reasons for China and the United States to further their communication and coordination.

In addition to continued cooperation in fields including anti-terrorism and nonproliferation, the two sides should strengthen coordination on their macroeconomic polices, jointly work toward positive outcomes at the G20 Hangzhou summit, and agree upon a reciprocal bilateral investment treaty.

Meanwhile, the two nations must address their differences and handle sensitive issues appropriately.

China-U.S. ties are complicated. Just days ago, at the 15th Shangri-La Dialogue held in Singapore, delegates from the two nations exchanged barbs over the South China Sea.

True, there are still issues disturbing China and U.S. relations. However, if these differences are magnified, confidence in the future of bilateral relations will be undermined.

Only by constantly augmenting the areas of cooperation and pursuing consensus can China-U.S. ties move in a positive direction.

According to its 13th Five-Year Plan, China is eying an average annual growth rate of no less than 6.5 percent over the 2016 to 2020 period, as it pushed to build a "moderately prosperous society."

The period presents huge opportunities for cooperation not only for the U.S. but also for other countries across the globe.
BEIJING, June 7 (Xinhua) -- China welcomes U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter's visit this year, according to an outcome list of the annual China-U.S. high-level dialogue.

"Defense Secretary Carter is expecting the China tour," said the document issued as the eighth China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) concluded here Tuesday.

The Chinese and U.S. militaries agreed to hold a joint exercise focusing on humanitarian rescue and disaster relief in China this year. The Chinese side will take part in the RIMPAC-2016 joint exercise, the document said.

On the situation on the Korean Peninsula, the two sides called on all parties concerned to make joint efforts and take necessary actions to create conditions for the resumption of the Six-Party Talks at an early date.
CANNES, France, June 7 (Xinhua) -- The booming Chinese music industry is attracting more and more international professionals from the sector, as crowds of about 100 people here attended the "Meet the Chinese" operation.

The first event of its kind, "Meet the Chinese" was a meeting allowing Chinese businesses to meet partners from other countries. It was held last Saturday during the 50th MIDEM conference (Marche International du Disque et de l'Edition Musicale).

Dozens of Chinese businesses and Chinese professionals were present at MIDEM and it was the first time that a private business, China's Alibaba Music Group, had its own stand. After a brief presentation by its CEO Gao Xiaosong, French minister for culture Audrey Azoulay also hailed the latest advances in the Chinese music scene.

The Chinese music industry joined together its two great assets: its size and its openness. This was highlighted by Vlad Davuadov, the director of a Russian music company Ikon Management, who came to "Meet the Chinese" in search of Chinese partners to create collaborations between Chinese and Russian musicians.

Parisian company Music Makers & Performers, which specializes in music for video games, also came to meet Chinese professionals, saying they were aiming to sell their music and perform at concerts in China.

Independent British musician Richard Navarro hoped to "find good partners to promote (his) music in China," while Kim Cameron came especially from the United States to develop a collaboration with China.

Among the key Chinese participants of this 2016 MIDEM conference was Edmund Qi from 2muse Net Broadcasting & Technology in Shanghai. This being the seventh year in a row he participated, he met around 10 professionals during the "Meet the Chinese" speed-meeting.

He told Xinhua his attendance at MIDEM had resulted in concrete advances in his atmospheric music work.

According to him, "Chinese professionals would gain from this experience a better understanding and respect of the codes of the international industry, making them to better able take part in development in the industry."

Tammy Zhao, the MIDEM representative in China, said "in the last few years, more attention has been paid to the participants from the Chinese music industry and the Chinese presence at MIDEM."

The MIDEM event, which ran from June 3 to 6 in Cannes, is the world's biggest gathering of businesses working in the music industry.
DAMASCUS, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Syrian President Bashar al-Assad pledged on Tuesday to continue the war on terrorist groups until fully eradicating them, noting that any political process that don't share the same goal is "meaningless."

Addressing the People Assembly, Assad said the war on Syria was imposed by external powers in coordination and cooperation with the opposition forces on ground.

"I can assure you that our war against terror is ongoing, not because we love war, but because they have imposed war on us, but the bloodletting will not stop until we eradicate terrorism from its roots wherever located and whatever mask it was under," the president said, as his administration has been engaged in fighting ultra-radical groups, including the Islamic State (IS) group and the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front in several areas across the country.

Still, the president didn't shun aside the efforts for a political settlement in the country.

"This doesn't mean we don't believe in the political process, because we will continue to work for the political process no matter how small its chances of achievements are, emanating from a desire on the public and government levels to bring the bloodshed to a close and salvage the homeland," he said.

He stressed that "but any political process, which doesn't start, continue, and end with ending the terrorism, would be meaningless and pointless." Enditem
COPENHAGEN, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Danish company Danfoss will help China improve its energy efficiency capabilities so the country can achieve its carbon emissions target by 2030, Danfoss CEO Niels B. Christiansen told Xinhua in an interview at the ongoing Global Green Growth Forum (3GF) summit here.

According to Christiansen, urban energy efficiency is key to reducing 38 percent of the world emissions by 2050 and to keep the global rising temperature within the 2 to 3-degree-Celsius target.

"In relation to China, this means we'd like to provide district heating solutions for northern China and district cooling solutions for southern China," Christiansen said.

"We'd also like to apply similar engineering solutions as we did for the Shanghai Tower to China's other tens of thousands of skyscrapers, new and old, in order to reduce the cost of running such buildings. As a result, we can improve overall economic and environmental benefits for building operators and local communities," he added.

Shanghai Tower, one of the world's tallest buildings at 632 meters, is full of Danfoss technologies, with around 6,700 control valves automatically securing precise control and the right balancing of the water flow in the kilometer-long pipes.

"In detail, we'd like to realize all our core business in energy efficiency for buildings, water treatment, district energy, efficient industries as well as food infrastructure," Christiansen explained.

The Bitten and Mads Clausen Foundation, which owns the Danfoss Group, announced on Monday at the 3GF annual conference it would provide nine million Danish kroner (1.37 million U.S. dollars) in new funding to support the United Nations Environment Programme's (UNEP) district energy in cities initiative under the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All) Partnership and its Global Energy Efficiency Accelerator Platform.

According to Christiansen, the new funds, spread over three years, will create a team of district energy experts to support the UN's initiative in scaling-up, retrofitting, and developing district energy projects.

The team will assist up to 31 cities that have been chosen as part of an extensive consultation process to determine municipalities of high district heating or cooling potential. The first chosen 31 cities are initially planned in China, India, and Serbia, according to Christiansen.

The initiative, he said was "designed to help cities develop state-of-the-art district energy solutions. This is a very important step in delivering on the Paris Agreement and UN's Sustainable Development Goals," Christiansen said in a press release.

"The new funding from the foundation will help boost implementation and enable countries and cities to deliver on their commitments," he added.

Talking about food waste, which was another hot topic at the 3GF conference, Christiansen said the world could not afford to lose 30 percent of food during food production.

"If we cannot change this situation, we can hardly achieve the UN's ambitious Sustainable Development Goals," he said.

He noted Danfoss had been providing China with energy efficiency refrigerators since the 1950s.

"We'd like to continue working with Chinese refrigerator makers to improve food producing efficiency, cooling, storage, transportation and supermarket solutions," he said. Enditem
UNITED NATIONS, June 7, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Slovakia's Minister of Foreign Affairs Miroslav Lajcak speaks to journalists after an informal dialogues for the position of the next Secretary-General, at the United Nations headquarters in New York, June 7, 2016. The United Nations on Tuesday kicked off a second round of public audition with another two new candidates for the position of next UN secretary-general. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

UNITED NATIONS, June 7 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations on Tuesday kicked off a second round of public audition with another two new candidates for the position of next UN secretary-general.

The two candidates are Slovakia's Minister of Foreign Affairs Miroslav Lajcak and Argentina's Minister of Foreign Affairs Susana Malcorra.

They are expected to present themselves in front of representatives of UN member states and answer questions publicly from the representatives as well as from the civil society, which will be broadcast through website.

Lajcak was European Union special representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2007 to 2009. He also once served as Slovak ambassador to Japan from 1994 to 1998.

Malcorra was chef de cabinet to the UN executive office, appointed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in 2012, prior to her current post. She also served as UN under-secretary-general for Department of Field Support which is responsible for delivering logistical support to UN peacekeeping missions worldwide.

From April 12-14, nine UN secretary-general candidates have gone through the public audition of this kind.

The nine candidates are: Montenegro's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Igor Luksic, Director-General of UNESCO Irina Bokova, former Prime Minister of Portugal Antonio Guterres, former Slovenian President Danilo Turk, former Croatian Foreign Minister Vesna Pusic, former Moldovan Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration Natalia Gherman, Administrator of UN Development Program Helen Clark, former Foreign Minister of Macedonia Srgjan Kerim, former Foreign Minister of Serbia Vuk Jeremic.

Under the UN Charter, the UN secretary-general shall be appointed by the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council. In practice, the 15-member Security Council and its five permanent members will make the final choice and send a single candidate to the General Assembly for approval.

Ban is going to conclude his term at the end of 2016. The council's decision to select the top leader of the world organization shall come late this year.
BEIJING, June 7, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (C) meets with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (2nd L) and Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew (3rd L), who are here to attend the eighth round of China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogues and the seventh round of China-U.S. High-Level Consultation on People-to-People Exchange, in Beijing, capital of China, June 7, 2016. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei)

BEIJING, June 7 (Xinhua) -- China is willing to maintain high-level interaction with the United States to promote the sustainable, healthy and stable development of bilateral ties, Premier Li Keqiang said on Tuesday.

China and the United States should jointly strive to deepen mutual trust and expand cooperation, Li said when meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, who attended the eighth round of China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogues and the seventh round of China-U.S. High-Level Consultation on People-to-People Exchange in Beijing.

Noting that the two sides' common interests "far outweigh" their differences, Li said the two countries should manage differences in a constructive manner.

Last year, two-way trade and investment volumes both hit historic high, and China has for the first time become the biggest trade partner of the United States.

China is willing to deepen economic and trade cooperation with the United States, according to Li.

Describing frictions in bilateral cooperation as normal, the premier said the two sides should focus on the big picture and mainstream.

He expressed the hope that the United States will honor its commitment stipulated in the protocol on China's accession into the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Li also reiterated that China's currency renminbi has no grounds to depreciate continuously, and China does not intend to stimulate exports via a "currency war" or "trade war."

China, he said, is capable of maintaining the renminbi exchange rate at a reasonable and balanced level.

When asked about industrial overcapacity, the premier said many countries face similar problems, and the fundamental reason lies in the feeble world economy recovery, sluggish international trade growth and declining market demand.

China stands firm to address industrial overcapacity according to the rules of the market economy, Li said.

Kerry and Lew hailed the outcomes of the high-level dialogues, saying the mechanism contributes to deeper U.S.-China cooperation.

As the world's two biggest economic entities, more communication and cooperation between the United Stated and China will exert a major influence on the global economy, they said.

The two U.S. officials also said their country is willing to speed up negotiations on a bilateral investment treaty and closely cooperate with China under the G20 framework.

Related:

China welcomes U.S. Defense Secretary's visit this year

BEIJING, June 7 (Xinhua) -- China welcomes U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter's visit this year, according to an outcome list of the annual China-U.S. high-level dialogue.

"Defense Secretary Carter is expecting the China tour," said the document issued as the eighth China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) concluded here Tuesday. Full story

China, U.S. ready to further cooperate under G20 framework: official

BEIJING, June 7 (Xinhua) -- China and the United States agreed to closely cooperate under the G20 framework to boost the world economy, a senior Chinese official said Tuesday.
RABAT, June 7 (Xinhua) -- The Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) called Tuesday on the international community to take urgent actions to save the Syrian city of Aleppo from "deliberate and mass destruction."

ISESCO deemed in a statement what happens in Aleppo as "a humanitarian, environmental and architectural disaster" that is unprecedented in the world's contemporary history, even during two world wars.

It also called on countries worldwide, human rights organizations, religious and cultural institutions, as well as intellectual and media elites to condemn the parties involved in the destruction, and to join the efforts to end the war that targets this historic city.

Aleppo was selected in 2006 as capital of Islamic culture for the diversity of its historical monuments, as well as its rich and diverse cultural and scientific heritage, the statement noted. Enditem
TIRANA, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama Tuesday held talks with visiting Chinese State Councilor Yang Jing, with both sides pledging to advance bilateral cooperation.

Yang noted the relationship between the two countries had been making progress in recent years.

China respects the Albanian people's choice of development path that suited Albanian conditions, and understands Albania's efforts to join the European integration process, said Yang.

Together with Albania, China would like to implement a series of important consensuses reached by leaders of both sides, and make earnest efforts in building up political trust, added Yang.

Yang expressed China's willingness to work with Albania to make the "Belt and Road" initiative match with Albania's national development strategies and to boost both sides' practical cooperation both bilaterally and within the China-Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC) cooperation framework.

Rama said there was great potential in practical cooperation with China and Albania was willing to work with China to enhance the economy, trade, tourism, and cultural exchange and cooperation. Rama welcomed China to invest in Albania in such areas as infrastructure projects.

On Monday, Yang met with Albanian Deputy Prime Minister Niko Peleshi and attended the signing ceremony of an agreement on bilateral economic and technological cooperation.
BRUSSELS, June 7, 2016 (Xinhua) -- File photo taken on May 3, 2002 shows Zabihullah Tamana picking up a rock to cover a metal object in case people may step on it, in Paghman, Afghanistan. David Gilkey of U.S. National Public Radio (NPR) and his translator Zabihullah Tamana were killed as militants attacked an Afghan army convoy in the southern Helmand province on June 5, 2016. Zabihullah Tamana, 38, served as photojournalist for Xinhua News Agency Kabul bureau from 2003 to 2010.(Xinhua/Gong Bing)

KABUL, June 7 (Xinhua) -- "Oh, Zabi, you have gone forever and left us alone here," said a crying mourner in the graveyard Shuhada-e-Salehen in the eastern edge of Kabul city Tuesday afternoon.

It was the funeral for Afghan veteran journalist Zabihullah Tamana, 38, known as "Zabi" among his friends and relatives.

He was killed together with David Gilkey, the photographer of U.S.-based National Public Radio in Afghanistan's troubled southern Helmand Province by a Taliban ambush on Sunday afternoon when they were travelling with an Afghan army convoy.

His funeral was held in a downtown mosque in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, shortly after his body was shifted back to his apartment. Hundreds of mourners came to the ceremony.

"Zabi was a sample of morals, a friend with decency, a relative with honesty and a good father and the only breadwinner of the family," one of his relatives muttered.

"Zabi was part of a crew in Helmand to report security and military activities, living condition and human rights situation there for the rest of the world," another mourner said while paying tribute to late Zabi at his grave.

Most mourners at the ceremony were too sad to share their names and feelings. But Zabi's eldest son Mohammad Mustafa was strong and brave to face the journalists and express his feelings.

"It was Friday morning that my father kissed me and promised to bring some toys from a mission he is going for," Mustafa, 10, told Xinhua on Tuesday.

With a bachelor degree from the Faculty of Law and Political Science, Kabul University, Zabi joined Xinhua News Agency Kabul Bureau in 2002, first as an interpreter of Farsi, Pashto and English, then a photojournalist between 2003 and 2010.

After leaving Xinhua, the ambitious man launched a private business, which continued for a couple of years, but he abandoned it due to worsened security situation and returned to media as a freelancer in 2014.

Zabi was a father of three children ranging from 3 to 10 years old, and also the breadwinner of a six-member family, including his wife and mother.

"Although we did not suggest him to go to the problematic Helmand, Zabi insisted on doing so last Friday for his career. Before leaving, he told us this would be the last mission to Helmand and he would be back home on Tuesday," Zabi's brother-in-law, Mohammad Yusuf told Xinhua, whispering "unfortunately it was his coffin that returned home on Tuesday, which was buried here on the same day."

Wiping away his tears, the saddened Yusuf said softly: "Zabi was a symbol of humanity, morality and he had never created problems with family members and relatives, and that is why it is difficult to forget such a man."

The brutal murder of Zabi and his colleague has withdrawn condemnation from home and abroad.

Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani has condemned the murder of Afghan journalist Zabihullah Tamana and American photographer David Gilkey in strongest term.

"History will remember the two journalists as fighters for freedom of information and expression. And those who committed the heinous crime will be remembered as forces of hatred," the president lamented in a statement.

"By indiscriminately targeting journalists, the Taliban show their increased atrocity against harmless civilians. Tamana and Gilkey, who were on the front line to report about the truth, themselves became victims of Taliban brutality," President Ghani said in the statement released by his office.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has also denounced targeting the journalists and killing Zabi and his American colleague in Helmand on Sunday.

Joining the condemnation, the NATO-led Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan also slashed the attack on the two journalists as a coward action.

"We have the utmost respect for their work as well as those others that endure the hardships that come with reporting from conflict zones," Resolute Support Commander John W. Nicholson said in a statement released here.

Afghans involved in social media expressed their grief over Zabi's sudden death and paid tribute to him by posting comments on their Facebook accounts.

Zabi's murder took place a day before Ramadan, the holy Muslim month during which adult Muslims neither eat nor drink from dawn to dusk.

"Usually in past years during the holy month of Ramadan we had Iftar party (break fasting party) with Zabi at least once during the month, but we have lost the chance forever with Zabi's murder," Zabi's old friend Abdul Shah told Xinhua.

Some of Xinhua's journalists who had worked with Zabi in the past decade also recalled his professionalism and personality, expressing sympathies and condolences to his family.

Xue Yongxing, the then president of Xinhua Asia-Pacific Regional Bureau in 2002, called Zabi a good friend, a good colleague and a capable photojournalist, wishing him to rest in peace.

Mi Ligong, the then chief correspondent of Xinhua Kabul Bureau who brought Zabi into the Xinhua team in 2002, said he was shocked when learning about his death on Monday morning.

In an article memorizing Zabi, Mi said Zabi's first impression to him was a handsome and energetic young guy and then a capable and helpful reporter.

Wen Xinnian, who also worked with Zabi in Xinhua Kabul Bureau in 2002, felt deeply sad about Zabi's decease.

Wen said he has maintained close contact with Zabi over the years, and they just chatted via Facebook only several days ago.

"Buddy, where can I see you again if I ever returned to Kabul," he wrote as the title of his short article in remembrance of Zabi.




BEIJING, June 7, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi (5th R) and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (5th L) co-chair the Strategic Dialogue of the eighth round of China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogues in Beijing, capital of China, June 7, 2016. (Xinhua/Ma Zhancheng)

BEIJING, June 7 (Xinhua) -- China and the United States concluded their annual high-level dialogue and yielded a wide range of partnership initiatives on Tuesday, demonstrating their strong will for broadening cooperation and managing differences.

Senior officials from ministries including foreign affairs, trade and finance attended the eighth China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogues and seventh China-U.S. High-Level Consultation on People-to-People Exchange on Monday and Tuesday in Beijing.

China and the United States aired differences on some issues and sought common ground on others. Macro economic policy, industrial overcapacity, a bilateral investment treaty, climate change, China-U.S. interaction in the Asia-Pacific and global issues were all on the agenda.

Both sides agreed to speed up negotiations on a bilateral investment treaty. China would grant the United States a quota of 250 billion yuan (38 billion U.S. dollars) under the country's Renminbi Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor program.

The constructive discussions helped foster mutual trust and build a new type of major-country relationship agreed on by President Xi Jinping and President Barack Obama in 2013.

The relationship between the world's largest developing country and largest developed country exceeds the bilateral level and bears global significance.

China and the United States contributed to the breakthroughs in negotiating the historic Paris agreement on climate change and have maintained effective communication and coordination in the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, the Iranian nuclear issue, and Syria crisis.

However, it is natural for both countries to have differences as well as common interests. As President Xi said, what is important is to refrain from taking differences as excuses for confrontation. The maturity of the bilateral relationship is mirrored in the capability of managing the differences.

China and the United States won't see eye to eye on everything, but this does not stop them from cooperating in many fields, as the annual meetings have shown. What both countries should do is to look from a strategic and long-term perspective and avoid distraction to overall relations caused by a single or temporary incident.

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BEIJING, June 7, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Wang Qishan (2nd R, back), secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), chairs a consultation meeting in Beijing, capital of China, June 1, 2016. Wang Qishan chaired two separate consultation meetings in Beijing and Liaoning to solicit opinions from officials for the formulation of a new intra-party liability regulation. (Xinhua/Ma Zhancheng)

SHENYANG, June 7 (Xinhua) -- The Communist Party of China's (CPC) graft watchdog has solicited opinions from officials for the formulation of a new intra-party liability regulation.

Wang Qishan, secretary of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), chaired two separate consultation meetings in Beijing and Shenyang, the CCDI said in a statement on Tuesday, without specifying when the meetings took place.

Formulating the regulation will release a strong signal that the CPC is serious about holding officials accountable for dereliction of duty, Wang said at the meetings.

The regulation should focus particularly on senior officials so as to spur them to shoulder more responsibility, he said.
BRUSSELS, June 7 (Xinhua) -- A number of yoga federations, teachers and schools in Belgium are coming together to organize the second edition of International Yoga Day events across the country on June 19 and 21, the Indian Embassy here announced on Tuesday.

The biggest gathering will once again take place in Brussels' Bois de la Cambre park on June 19, which last year saw 5,000 people participate in a mass yoga session.

Commemorative T-shirts featuring the famous blue Belgian smurfs will be sold to raise funds for UNICEF programs in India and around the world.

In addition, special yoga sessions will be held at the European Parliament, led by Art of Living Foundation creator Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, and at the European Commission on June 21.

Sizable events will also take place in Antwerp, Ghent, Leuven, Radhadesh Ardennes, and for the first time, in Liege.

"These events marking International Yoga Day are a manifestation of our strong will and undeterred unity to combat the global evil forces through the message of love and, above all, serenity contained in yoga," Manjeev Singh Puri, Ambassador of India to Belgium, Luxembourg and European Union, said at a press conference announcing the celebrations.

June 21 was designated the International Day of Yoga by the United Nations General Assembly in December 2014. The resolution was piloted by India and co-sponsored by a record of 177 member states of the UN, including China and Belgium. Enditem
HANGZHOU, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Thirty-two people in east China's Zhejiang Province have been sentenced to up to 13 years in prison for trafficking endangered animals.

They were found guilty of trafficking 100 million yuan's (15.2 million U.S. dollars) worth of wildlife, including pangolins, bear claws and salamanders, in 10 provinces and cities, announced the Yongjia County People's Court on Tuesday.

At a court hearing, a main culprit surnamed Kan was given a prison term of 13 years and fined 130,000 yuan. Four were sentenced to over 10 years in prison and Kan's wife was given six years in prison.

The rest were sentenced to suspended prison terms of between four months and three years.

More than 10 of the defendants are owners of restaurants and clubs who bought the animal parts and processed them as food, the court said.

Local police uncovered the case last year as they seized more than 1,500 wild animals in a raid.

Pangolins, which are under second-class state protection in China, are often smuggled because their meat is considered a delicacy and their scales are believed to be effective in treating skin and other diseases.

Under China's Criminal Law, those who illegally catch, kill, buy or sell endangered wild animals on the state's protection list may face more than 10 years in prison plus fines.
Combo photos show U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan(L) speaking at a news conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C., the United States on Nov. 5, 2015, and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaking to motorcyclists participating in Rolling Thunder parade in Washington D.C., the United States on May 29, 2016. U.S. Republican House SpeakerPaul Ryan announced on Thursday that he would vote for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in November. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu)

WASHINGTON, June 7 (Xinhua) -- U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan on Tuesday doubled down on his criticism of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, calling his comments on a judge because of his ethnic background "textbook racism."

"I regret those comments that he made," said Ryan here at a press conference. "Claiming a person can't do their job because of their race is sort of like the textbook definition of racist comments. ... I think that should be absolutely disavowed."

Over the past week, Trump repeatedly accused U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, the Indiana-born jurist overseeing a civil fraud suit in California involving Trump University, of being unfit for the case because he was of "Mexican heritage."

Trump implied that Curiel, the Hispanic-American judge, was biased against him because of Trump's proclamation that he would build a wall along the border between America and Mexico to halt illegal immigration.

Trump expanded his argument on Sunday, suggesting to several U.S. cable news hosts that a Muslim judge might also not be fit to rule without bias in the case because of his previous call for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States.

Other Republican leaders, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, had already denounced Trump's attacks of Curiel.

Ryan's denunciation came at a time as he and Trump were still in the middle of rapprochement after a chaotic and divisive primary season, during which Ryan repeatedly scolded Trump for his incendiary remarks.

After almost month-long reservation about Trump's nomination status, Ryan announced on Thursday in a newspaper column, not a joint press conference with Trump as other GOP supporters had done before, that he now was ready to vote for Trump in the fall.

However, Ryan's struggle to distance himself away from Trump was all but highlighted less than 24 hours after his embrace of the New York billionaire developer.

"The comment about the judge the other day just was out of left field for my mind," said Ryan in an interview with local media on Friday. "It's reasoning I don't relate to. I completely disagree with the thinking behind that."

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BISHKEK, June 7 (Xinhua) -- The optimization and adaptation of CIS to modern realities was the main topic of Tuesday's meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in Bishkek, Kyrgyz Prime Minister said on Tuesday.

"The meeting was held in a very constructive way. The attention was given to a wide range of cooperation in the framework of the CIS, including in the fields of economy, industry, energy, innovation and public health." Sooronbai Zheenbekov told a news briefing after the meeting.

According to Kyrgyz government press service, over a third of documents of the agenda are aimed at further broadening and deepening humanitarian cooperation.

"The Protocol is adopted between the states-participants of the Treaty on the free trade zone, conceptual documents are approved in the field of tackling cancer and pancreatic diabetes," said the Kyrgyz Prime Minister.

Zheenbekov noted that during the meeting the sides reaffirmed the need to preserve the CIS as a regional intergovernmental organization, reached a common understanding on the "relieving" of the agenda of the Council of Heads of State and the Council of Heads of Government, made proposals on some issues of work of the CIS bodies and the CIS Executive Committee, as well as developed on making inventory of the legal framework of the CIS.

"I am confident that the results of the meeting of the CIS Heads of Government Council will become a good basis for a constructive exchange of views on the most pressing and urgent issues of further cooperation between our countries," said the Kyrgyz Prime Minister.

Zheenbekov believed that the CIS Heads of State Council Summit scheduled in September in Bishkek, where the statement of Heads of State on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the CIS will be adopted.

Meanwhile, chairman of the CIS Executive Committee, Sergei Lebedev, said that, 16 documents have been signed following the meeting, aimed at increasing the level of integration within the CIS.

A protocol decision is adopted on the elaboration of proposals aimed at improving the activity of the executive bodies of the CIS, and increase the efficiency of the organization, Lebedev added.

"These proposals will be submitted for consideration of the Council of the CIS Heads of State, which is held on September 16 this year in Bishkek," he said.

Lebedev also said that the next meeting of Council of CIS Heads of Government will be held on October 28, 2016 in Minsk, Belarus.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Karim Massimov, Moldova's Pavel Filip, Belarus' Andrei Kobyakov, Tajikistan's Kohir Rasulzoda, as well as Deputy Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Yaqub Eyyubov, First Deputy Prime Minister of Uzbekistan Rustam Azimov, Vice-Prime Minister of Armenia Vache Gabrielyan, Deputy Cabinet of Ministers of Turkmenistan Satlyk Satlykov took part in the meeting.

The CIS Council of Heads of Government, established on December 21, 1991, is the second major body in the CIS after the CIS Council of Heads of State, and consists of the prime ministers of all member states, coordinates the CIS member states' cooperation in economic, social and other areas of their common interests, and adopts corresponding decisions through consensus.

The CIS Council of Heads of Government convenes twice a year, normally in winter and autumn. Special meetings are summoned on the initiative of the government of a member state. Enditem
KHARTOUM, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Water shortage, fluctuation of electricity supply and fuel scarcity joined together to spoil the joy of the residents of the Sudanese capital Khartoum with Ramadan Month, which comes this year in heated atmospheres.

Despite promises by Khartoum State's Water Corporation of "a summer free of power cuts," yet most of the areas of Khartoum are suffering from water shortage.

Citizens of Al-Azhary town, one of the biggest neighborhoods of the capital Khartoum, complained about water shortage which increased their suffering during the month of Ramadan.

"There is no water at all for more than five days. Most of the citizens in the neighborhood resort to purchasing water," Al-Tigani Adam, a local resident told Xinhua.

"Water is very important, particularly in Ramadan. This is a real suffering and the concerned authorities must intervene to find quick solutions," he added.

Members of Khartoum State's Legislative Council lashed out at the state's Ministries of Infrastructure and Water Corporation, accusing them of failure to fulfill their promises.

The water crisis coincides with a fluctuation in the electric power supply, particularly during daylight hours. It increases the suffering of Khartoum's population, especially under the high temperatures which on Tuesday registered 47 degree Celsius.

Late last May the Sudanese Ministry of Electricity and Water Resources promised to stop programmed power cuts by advent of current June.

Earlier, the Sudanese electricity ministry said it faced a five-percent deficit of power supply during peak hours, and that generated electricity by Sudan's biggest dam, Merowe Dam, was insufficient for consumption by the capital Khartoum alone, even if it operated at the maximum capacity of 1,250 megawatts.

Last August Sudan adopted a plan to increase hydro and thermal electricity generation with the aim to add 3,155 megawatts of electricity by 2020 to bridge the gap in electricity supply.

In December last year, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) warned that Sudan could face an electricity production problem if it does not establish alternative projects which take into account decreased rainfall and increased consumption.

Access to electricity is available to 35 percent of Sudan's population whilst over 25 million people have not yet been connected to the national electricity grid, according to the UNDP.

In addition to the water and electricity crises, the Sudanese capital has also been witnessing a fuel crisis for the past four days, where hundreds of cars crowded at the gas stations.

Official comment on the fuel crisis are not yet available from the concerned authorities.

However, a source close to the Sudanese energy ministry told Xinhua Tuesday that the authorities believed that it was better to change the distribution system of the fuel shares during the night instead of during the day due to the high temperatures.

Sudan has lost two third of its oil production following the separation of South Sudan in 2011. Enditem
Municipal workers clean the damages caused to a hotel and the road by a bomb in the Vezneciler district of Istanbul on June 7, 2016. / AFP PHOTO / OZAN KOSE

ANKARA, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Turkish leaders on Tuesday condemned the latest bombing attack in Istanbul that killed 11 and injured more, and vowed to continue the country's fight against terrorism.

Turkey will "never ever make concessions in struggle against terror," Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said in a statement.

He noted that innocent civilians were targeted at the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan, denouncing it as inhumane.

Seven police officers and four civilians were killed and 36 others injured in the morning rush hour, when a parked car exploded as a police shuttle bus passed by in the neighborhood of Vezneciler in Istanbul's Fatih district.

"We will continue our struggle until the end of these terror incidents," Deputy Prime Minister Tugrul Turkes said, referring to government's ongoing security operations against outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in southeast Turkey.

Meanwhile, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the security forces have cleaned the southeastern cities off PKK militants and would continue operations.

Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu said that Turkey's national solidarity would overcome terrorism "despite the clumsiness of the current government."

Co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), Selahattin Demirtas, also slammed the government for incompetency in clashes between the Turkish security forces and the PKK militants.

One of Demirtas's posts on Twitter accused the government of "creating the conditions for attacks." He also blasted the authorities for lacking effective method, such as using brutal force.

Demirtas called on the prime minister and political leaders at the parliament to convene and discuss how to end this problem.

The security situation in Turkey has deteriorated in recent months, with Istanbul, capital Ankara and other places rocked by a number of bombing attacks.

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LAGOS, June 7 (Xinhua) -- The coordinator of attacks on the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Chevron oil and gas facilities in southern Nigeria's Delta State has been arrested, the country's navy said Tuesday.

The suspected kingpin and others allegedly involved in the act of vandalism and criminal activities were apprehended on June 2, the navy Commander in charge of Delta, Commodore Raimi Mohammed, told a news conference in Warri city.

Mohammed described the arrest as a major breakthrough. "We have recovered some Impoverished Explosive Devices (IED) for blowing up and vandalizing pipelines."

The commander said the suspect was deeply involved in pipeline vandalism and crude oil theft, saying that his arrest came after several weeks of trailing and arrest of some of his foot-soldiers.

Mohammed said the navy had also apprehended another suspect identified as Michael John, who allegedly murdered three soldiers in Jones creek and one soldier and a policeman in Batan community.

Mohammed assured that the navy would continue to protect the nation's territorial waterways.

There have been a resurgence in militant attacks in the oil-rich southern region in the last few weeks, with strikes on pipelines and oil facilities.

A group that calls itself the Niger Delta Avengers has claimed responsibility for most of them. Enditem
ASTANA, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Visiting Chinese State Councilor and Defense Minister Chang Wanquan held here Tuesday a meeting with his Kazakh counterpart Imangali Tasmagambetov.

During the meeting, the Chinese defense chief thanked Kazakhstan for its elaborate preparations and thoughtful arrangements for the meeting of defense ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) as well as for the third international festival of military bands of SCO member states "Peace Horn".

He said that under the guidance of the leaders of China and Kazakhstan, relations between the Chinese and Kazakh militaries developed steadily and achieved practical achievements.

The Chinese military is willing to deepen cooperation with the Kazakh side in border defense, personnel training and joint exercise in a bid to promote the all-round development of the military ties between China and Kazakhstan, he said.

For his part, the Kazakh defense minister Tasmagambetov sent his warm congratulations to the upcoming 95th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, saying that Kazakhstan highly values the development of military ties between the two countries and is willing to continue to deepen the exchange and cooperation of the two sides in all fields, including military technologies.

Chinese Ambassador to Kazakhstan Zhang Hanhui, China's Western Theater Command vice-commander and chief of staff Rong Guiqing and Kazakh vice-defense minister Talgat Mukhtarov attended the meeting.
Refugees wait to cross the border between Greece and Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) in Idomeni, Greece, March 1, 2016. (Xinhua/Marios Lolos)

STRASBOURG, June 7 (Xinhua) -- The Members of European Parliament (MEPs) gathered for a plenary session here Tuesday to debate on the "New Migration Partnership Framework" proposed by Brussels and based on reinforced cooperation with third countries.

The new migration plan of the EU has met with support in principle w

ithin the ranks of the traditional parties of both the right and left wings.

First Vice President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans pleaded the utilization of EU funds in order to promote private investment in the countries of origin of migrants, in particular in Africa, within the framework of a partnership.

"The business mode of the people smugglers between Turkey and Greece was broken thanks to the agreement with Turkey. People are no longer dying in the Aegean," affirmed the high European functionary.

"But if we closed one door, another opens in the South Mediterranean," he added. "We, which is to say the European Commission and the member states, must work more with countries of origin and transit nations," he pleaded.

The plan - which would be a "partnership," principally with Africa - establishes new financing to "reach a total of 8 billion euros (9 billion U.S. dollars) within 5 years," specified Timmermans.

Although a large majority of MEPs defended the principle of welcome and of solidarity towards the refugees, as well as the need for a policy of openness, at the extreme right of the political spectrum and among euroskeptics, however, numerous voices were raised in favor of a strict closure of borders, as has frequently been the case in recent months in the Strasbourg hemicycle.

During a debate later on Tuesday afternoon, the MEPs debated with European Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos over two other proposals connected to migration: an examination of the "blue card" system regulating the admissions conditions for highly qualified immigrants, as well as a new action plan for integration.
KIGALI, June 7 (Xinhua) -- An advance team from the African Union (AU) Commission is expected in Kigali this week to finalize the program and other logistics for the AU Summit due in Kigali next month, Rwanda's Foreign minister Louise Mushikiwabo said Tuesday.

She was briefing journalists about the preparations for the 27th AU Summit scheduled for July 10-18.

"We are expecting more than 3,000 guests. Final touches are being put on different facilities around the city," said Mushikiwabo.

Mushikiwabo said a lot of activities in terms of arrangement are still ongoing, but most of the work will be completed by July.

The meeting will be hosted at the Kigali Convention center.

About 50 Heads of state, hundreds of senior government officials from across the continent, and heads of diplomatic missions are expected to attend.

Also on the agenda will be the elections of the new African Union chairperson, the deputy chairperson and several commissioners.

The summit will also see the launch of the African passport aimed to promote free movement of people.

Africa, Mushikiwabo said, would not realize valuable trade links without facilitating seamless movement of people, goods and services -- the reason Rwanda has spearheaded the visa-free Africa concept.

The minister noted that in issuing visa on arrival, Rwanda is doing what it believes is the right thing to do for integration. Enditem
KIGALI, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Burundian refugees who were expelled from Rwanda last month were living in the country illegally, Foreign minister Louise Mushikiwabo said Tuesday.

In May, about 1,500 Burundians were expelled from Rwanda.

Speaking at a press conference in Kigali, Mushikiwabo described expelling illegal Burundian immigrants as "a small issue" which was magnified due to the current security and political situation in their home country.

There was a huge number of Burundians from bordering constituencies, who were in Rwanda illegally, according to the minister.

"It was hard to understand if they were here as refugees or just working in Rwanda. Such people had unidentified status in Rwanda. With such cases, along might come other security-related challenges," Mushikiwabo said.

The number of Burundian refugees in Rwanda has increased to more than 70,000, with close to 50,000 living in Mahama camp in eastern Rwanda.

Mushikiwabo said if any of those who were expelled left their property in Rwanda, relevant authorities will discuss and find ways through which Rwanda can transfer the properties to Burundi. Enditem
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, June 7, 2016 (Xinhua) -- A California primary voter casts his ballot at a polling station at South San Francisco City Hall, California, the United States on June 7, 2016. (Xinhua/Yang Lei)

WASHINGTON, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Democratic voters in six U.S. states went to polling stations and caucuses on Tuesday as the grueling nomination race was all but over.

Though the coast-to-coast primaries and caucuses in New Jersey, Montana, New Mexico, South Dakota, North Dakota and California offered 694 pledged delegates up for grab, the significance of this round of contests had already been watered down after the Associated Press reported on Monday night that Hillary Clinton reached number of delegates required to notch the Democratic nomination.

According to AP's latest delegate count, besides her 1,812 pledged delegates won in previous primaries and caucuses, Clinton had also garnered support of 571 superdelegates, party leaders who are free to choose any candidate to support at the national convention in July.

Clinton's rival Bernie Sanders immediately demurred, calling the AP report "unfortunate."

"It is unfortunate that the media, in a rush to judgement, are ignoring the Democratic National Committee's clear statement that it is wrong to count the votes of superdelegates before they actually vote at the convention this summer," said Sanders' campaign in a statement.

"Our job from now until the convention is to convince those superdelegates that Bernie is by far the strongest candidate against Donald Trump," said the statement.

Sanders, lagging Clinton by 291 pledged delegates and 523 superdelegates respectively, was still eying a highly narrow path to nomination.

One vital part of Sanders' strategies to peel superdelegates off Clinton was his performance in California, where 475 pledged delegates were up for grab.

Recent polls showed that Clinton and Sanders were in dead heat in the most populous state in the United States.

Even if Sanders won the state, it would still be impossible for him to catch up with Clinton in delegate count, since all Democratic nomination races allocate pledged delegates proportionally.

However, it could justify his continued stay in the race beyond the primary season into the Democratic national convention in July.

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UNITED NATIONS, June 7 (Xinhua) -- The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reiterated on Tuesday the need for full humanitarian access in the war-torn Syria as only a partial approval for overland transport of the second instalment of aid to Darayao has been received.

"The UN is reverting to the government to request full access, in order to be able to send the full convoy with all the food that had been in the plan for June," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said at a daily news briefing here.

"The convoys are very finely calibrated in terms of the kind of relief that was on them, and the second part of the convoy primarily consists of food," he said.

The written request submitted to the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on June 5 included a plan for airlifts -- not airdrops -- as a last resort, to Daraya, Douma and Moadamiyeh in rural Damascus Governorate, and Al-Waer in Homs Governorate, he said.

"That request would only come into play if, for whatever reason, the UN could not get land access," the spokesman added.

Last week, the United Nations continued with its efforts to get humanitarian aid to people in besieged and hard-to-reach areas in Syria. 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.

In late May, 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
UNITED NATIONS, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Eight out of ten 18-year-olds believe young people are in danger of being sexually abused or taken advantage of online, and more than five out of 10 think friends participate in risky behaviours while using the internet, said a new study by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Tuesday.

The report, "Perils and Possibilities: Growing Up Online," is based on an international opinion poll of more than 10,000 18-year-olds from 25 countries, and it revealed young people's perspectives on the risks they face growing up in an increasingly connected world.

"The internet and mobile phones have revolutionized young people's access to information, but the poll findings show just how real the risk of online abuse is for girls and boys," said UNICEF's associate director of child protection, Cornelius Williams.

"Globally, one in three internet users is a child. Today's findings provide important insights from young people themselves," Williams said. "UNICEF aims to amplify adolescents' voices to help address online violence, exploitation and abuse, and make sure that children can take full advantage of the benefits the internet and mobile phones offer."

The new report found that adolescents appear confident with their own ability to stay safe, with nearly 90 percent of interviewees believing they can avoid online dangers.

Approximately six out of 10 said meeting new people online is either somewhat or very important to them, but only 36 percent strongly believe they can tell when people are lying about who they are online.

More than two-thirds of girls, 67 percent strongly agree they would be worried if they received sexual comments or requests over the internet, this compares to 47 percent of boys. When online threats do occur, more adolescents turn to friends than parents or teachers, but less than half strongly agree they know how to help a friend facing an online risk.

According to the new report, other findings included:

-- Two-thirds of 18-year-olds in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean believe children and adolescents are in danger of being sexually abused or taken advantage of online. This compares to 33 percent polled in the Middle East and North Africa.

-- Two-thirds of interviewees in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean either believe strongly, or somewhat, that friends put themselves at risk online, compared to 33 percent in the United States and United Kingdom.

-- Eighteen-year-olds in the United States and United Kingdom are most confident they can avoid online dangers with 94 percent strongly or somewhat agreeing they can protect themselves on social media. In the Middle East and North Africa only 41 percent strongly agree and an additional 37 percent agree somewhat.

-- Adolescents in Sub-Saharan Africa appear to value meeting new people online most, with 79 percent saying it is either very or somewhat important. In the United States and United Kingdom 63 percent say it is not very, or not at all important to meet new people online.

-- In Central European countries, 63 per cent of interviewees strongly agree they would tell a friend if they felt threatened online, compared to 46 percent who would tell their parent. Only 9 percent would tell a teacher.

To engage children and adolescents in ending violence online, UNICEF is launching #ReplyforAll, which is part of its global End Violence Against Children initiative. #ReplyforAll puts adolescents' front and centre as messengers and advocates to keep themselves safe online.

Children and adolescents will be asked to give their advice on the best ways to respond to online violence or risks and to raise awareness among friends through social media. This work has been supported by the WePROTECT Global Alliance, which is dedicated to ending the sexual exploitation of children online through national and global action.

UNICEF, together with the WePROTECT Global Alliance, is calling on national governments to establish coordinated responses between criminal justice systems including law enforcement, and child welfare, education, health and the Information Communication Technology (ICT) sectors, as well as civil society, to better protect children from online sexual abuse and exploitation.

"When young people, governments, families, the ICT sector and communities work together, we are more likely to find the best ways to respond to online sexual abuse and exploitation, and send a strong message that confronting and ending violence against children online -- indeed anywhere -- is all of our business," said Williams. Enditem
KHARTOUM, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Sudanese government on Tuesday said it would not review the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur (DDPD), official SUNA news agency reported.

"The DDPD will not be reviewed and its items are not subject to reopening of negotiation," the report quoted Amin Hassan Omer, head of Sudan's Darfur peace follow-up office, as saying.

Omer slammed on calls of reviewing DDPD, noting that it has become part of the country's constitution, and any amendment should get parliament approval by two thirds of the members.

On Monday, leader of the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) Minni Arko Minnawi called for reviewing the DDPD.

Late last month, Qatar's mediator consulted in Doha with the leader of the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), Jibril Ibrahim, as well as Minni Minnawi regarding joining the Darfur peace deal.

The rebel JEM, SLM/Abdul-Wahid Mohamed Nur faction as well as the SLM/Minni Minnawi faction all rejected the DDPD, claiming it did not meet the demands of Darfur's population.

The rebel JEM and SLM have previously asked Qatar to play a more prominent role with respect to mediation with the Sudanese government.

They wanted the Sudanese government to join the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel on Sudan, led by Thabo Mbeki, to bridge the differences between rivals.

However, the government rejected the armed groups' proposal.

The DDPD was finally signed as a Darfur peace document in July 2011 in Qatar's capital city, Doha, between the Sudanese government and the Liberation and Justice Movement, led by Tijani Sese, following an entire year of negotiations. Enditem
UNITED NATIONS, June 7 (Xinhua) -- The increasing insecurity is constraining the access of humanitarian organizations to thousands of civilians in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), humanitarian organizations warned on Tuesday in a joint statement.

"Eleven aid workers have been abducted in North Kivu so far in 2016, and 31 in 2015, which is five times more than the previous year," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said at a daily news briefing here.

Aid agencies are particularly alarmed by the impact that this growing insecurity could have on some 1.6 million vulnerable people who need humanitarian assistance in North Kivu province, including 780,000 displaced people, the spokesman said. "Eighty percent of them are women and children."

Three Congolese employees of international charity Save the Children who were kidnapped in eastern DRC on March 3 were released five days later, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.

The three were reportedly abducted on March 3 by armed men in Lubero territory in the eastern part of North Kivu province.

In March 2015, two employees of a non-governmental organization were held hostage for 48 hours by unidentified kidnappers in Rutshuru territory (south of North Kivu province) before being rescued by security forces.

The eastern part of DRC has been plagued for two decades by chronic instability caused by local and foreign armed groups who have perpetrated ethnic violence while fighting for mineral resources. Enditem
UNITED NATIONS, June 7 (Xinhua) -- The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said that tens of thousands of people have fled their homes in south-east Niger following attacks by Boko Haram insurgents, a UN spokesman told reporters here Tuesday.

The insurgents have launched a string of raids on the town of Bosso in the troubled Diffa region since Friday, media reported.

"The (UN) agency said that the attacks occurred on 3, 5 and 6 June and that the situation in the town of Bosso is unclear," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said at a daily news briefing here.

An estimated 50,000 people fled the attack on Friday, reports said.

Meanwhile, at least 30 soldiers from Niger and two from Nigeria were killed on Friday in the wake of Boko Haram's attack on the two neighboring countries' border near the city of Bosso, reports said.

"UNHCR is working with the authorities and partners on a coordinated response to the displacement," the spokesman said. "The agency also said it has not been working directly in Bosso since February 2015 but operates through local implementing partners to deliver help."

It added that insecurity and lack of access have long hampered humanitarian operations in parts of the Diffa region, he said. "UNHCR said that additional support from the donor community is urgently required."

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. Enditem
BRATISLAVA, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Slovak Interior Minister Robert Kalinak will retain his post, as only 58 MPs out of 138 present voted for his ouster in the Parliament on late Tuesday, according to the report by local news wire TASR.

His dismissal requested opposition parties Freedom and Solidarity and Ordinary People due to his alleged involvement in the Basternak tax case.

The case revolves around a Bratislava apartment complex called Five Star Residence, which was built by a company owned by entrepreneur Marian Kocner. Firm of another entrepreneur Ladislav Basternak allegedly purchased seven flats for 12 million euros (13.6 million U.S. dollars) and subsequently applied for and received an excessive VAT tax allowance worth 2 million euros.

The Slovak Cabinet rejects the idea of dismissing Kalinak from his post.

"I regret that in such a short period after the Cabinet was set up there's so much hatred and aversion towards the Government. We didn't expect to have the 100 days that are traditionally at one's disposal, but we also didn't expect to be so unreasonably attacked during our preparations for Slovakia's Presidency of the Council of the EU," announced Prime Minister Robert Fico in his speech.

Fico emphasised that Kalinak is the longest-serving interior minister in Slovakia's modern history and evaluated the Opposition's move as a misuse of a case in favour of a political struggle.

"The case is being properly investigated. The minister isn't superior to investigators, nor can he intervene in an investigation. Let's stop this nonsensical spectacle. Let's talk about what we're going to do if Britain decides to leave the EU," stressed Fico. Enditem
LONDON, June 7 (Xinhua) -- The result of the UK referendum on continued membership of the European Union (EU) is highly uncertain and there will be instability in the financial markets in the run-up to the vote on June 23, according to BlackRock, an investment management corporation, on Tuesday.

"The outcome of the UK Brexit referendum looks highly uncertain, and we expect far-reaching market implications in the short term," said Richard Turnill, global chief investment strategist of BlackRock, in a briefing note.

Turnill said that BlackRock now rated the EU referendum as a "major risk for global markets," and that if the UK voted to leave it would result in global risk assets being vulnerable.

Statistics on Monday from Sporting Index, a UK betting firm, showed an increase in bets on a Brexit over the weekend and Turnill said that betting markets now imply a 27 percent chance of the UK quitting the EU.

If there was a Brexit vote then UK and other European assets would bear the brunt, and sterling could "drop significantly," said Turnill.

UK equities, especially small- and mid-cap stocks would decline, under this scenario, and BlackRock advised that UK investors should consider putting in hedges against a Brexit outcome.

"Peripheral European assets and the global financials and materials equity sectors would be particularly exposed, our stress-test analysis shows. Political risk could also rise amid uncertainty over the succession to British prime minister David Cameron. Safe-haven investments would benefit, we believe," said Turnill.

A leave vote would be likely to shock global markets, and risk assets - including stocks and credit - would suffer in the resulting risk-off environment, as concerns about political instability and a reversing globalization trend would lead to higher risk premiums.

However, if the UK voted to remain in the EU then BlackRock forecast a rally in sterling and a boost for risk assets. Enditem
WASHINGTON, June 7 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussed climate change, nuclear energy and economic cooperation during a meeting at the White House on Tuesday.

"We discussed how we can as quickly as possible bring the Paris agreement into place, how we can make sure that climate financing that's necessary for India to be able to embark on its bold vision for solar energy and clean energy that Prime Minister Modi has laid out can be accomplished," Obama told reporters after the meeting.

In a statement issued later by the White House, the U.S. reaffirms its commitment to join the climate change pact reached in Paris as soon as possible this year. India similarly has begun its processes to work toward this shared goal.

"The United States and India recognize the urgency of the threat of climate change and are therefore committed to bringing the Paris Agreement into force as quickly as possible," said the statement.

In a separate statement, the two leaders welcomed the start of preparatory work on site in India for six nuclear reactors to be built by American company Westinghouse.

Once completed, the project would be among the largest of its kind, fulfilling the promise of the U.S.-India civil nuclear agreement, according to the statement.

Obama said he and Modi also discussed areas where the two countries can cooperate more effectively in order to promote jobs, investment, trade and greater opportunities for young people in the two countries.

Noting that India is a country with 800 million people under the age of 35, Modi said the two countries can work together to bring forward India's talents for the benefit of innovation.

Modi arrived in the United States on Monday for a three-day official visit. He is scheduled to deliver a speech to the U.S. Congress on Wednesday. Enditem
by Dragana Paulsen

OSLO, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Fewer asylum applicants than the budgeted 25,000 are expected to come to Norway this year, but it is still important to keep up with preparedness, the country's immigration officials and aid workers said on Tuesday.

Hakon Fenstad, deputy communications director of the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI), said the current estimate of asylum seekers is from 5,000 to 50,000 with a budget for 25,000 people, but the immigration agency would probably give even smaller number when it announces its next prognosis on June 15, according to daily newspaper VG.

The UDI did not give a precise number of how many asylum seekers are expected this year, but other parts of the country's asylum branch suggested that there might be less than 10,000 asylum seekers this year, the report said.

UDI figures show that a total of 1,407 asylum seekers have come to Norway so far this year, which is significantly fewer than the 3,444 people who applied for asylum during the first five months last year.

Last week there were just 70 people that sought asylum in Norway, while the total number in May was 195.

According to Fenstad, this is the smallest number of applicants in the last 19 years. In 1997, there were 102 asylum seekers in May and 601 people in the first five months.

UDI's director general Frode Forfang believed that the asylum numbers in Norway would be lower than last year, when a total of 31,145 asylum seekers came to the Nordic country.

There are many refugees who have arrived in Europe and have still not been registered, Forfang told VG, adding that although it is difficult to predict how the challenging situation regarding borders controls would develop, it seems that there will be significantly fewer asylum seekers than last year.

UDI officials have said that there was considerable uncertainty about the number of asylum seekers this year as several countries have launched a number of measures to stem the growing influx in Europe, including border controls.

Marit Berger Rosland, state secretary for the minister of immigration and integration, also confirmed to VG that the new prognosis will be lower than 25,000 people that the government prepared its budget for, but preparedness for refugee influx is still needed.

"The picture is however unpredictable and we see that there are more refugees that are arriving in Italy. We need to prepare us for many scenarios," she said. "I remind you that we also cancelled reception places in spring last year due to the low refugee influx. In autumn, however, we experienced record flow in just a few weeks."

Pal Nesse, a senior advisor at the Norwegian Refugee Council, said that it is important to keep up with preparedness because the situation in Europe is very uncertain. According to him, Norway should participate in a common European action to distribute refugees among the countries.

Mads Harlem, head of policy and international law at the Norwegian Red Cross, told VG that it is only a matter of time when the refugee situation in Greece explodes, but the problem would not be so big if asylum applications are processed in different countries, including Norway.
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi (L) delivers remarks to reporters after meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama (R) in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, U.S. June 7, 2016. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

WASHINGTON, June 7 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussed climate change, nuclear energy and economic cooperation during a meeting at the White House on Tuesday.

"We discussed how we can as quickly as possible bring the Paris agreement into place, how we can make sure that climate financing that's necessary for India to be able to embark on its bold vision for solar energy and clean energy that Prime Minister Modi has laid out can be accomplished," Obama told reporters after the meeting.

In a statement issued later by the White House, the U.S. reaffirms its commitment to join the climate change pact reached in Paris as soon as possible this year. India similarly has begun its processes to work toward this shared goal.

"The United States and India recognize the urgency of the threat of climate change and are therefore committed to bringing the Paris Agreement into force as quickly as possible," said the statement.

In a separate statement, the two leaders welcomed the start of preparatory work on site in India for six nuclear reactors to be built by American company Westinghouse.

Once completed, the project would be among the largest of its kind, fulfilling the promise of the U.S.-India civil nuclear agreement, according to the statement.

Obama said he and Modi also discussed areas where the two countries can cooperate more effectively in order to promote jobs, investment, trade and greater opportunities for young people in the two countries.

Noting that India is a country with 800 million people under the age of 35, Modi said the two countries can work together to bring forward India's talents for the benefit of innovation.

Modi arrived in the United States on Monday for a three-day official visit. He is scheduled to deliver a speech to the U.S. Congress on Wednesday.
Harvard University President Drew Faust (L) speaks at the inaugural ceremony of the Ruth Mulan Chu Chao Center in Harvard Business School in Boston, Massachusetts, the United States, June 6, 2016. (Xinhua/Li Changxiang)

CAMBRIDGE, the United States, June 6 (Xinhua) -- Harvard Business School (HBS) inaugurated on Monday the Ruth Mulan Chu Chao Center, the first ever building named after a Chinese American on Harvard campus in the Ivy League school's 380-year history.

Built with a donation of 40 million U.S. dollars from the Dr. James Si-Cheng Chao family foundation back in 2012, the center honors the memory of Chao's late wife and recognizes her life-long dedication to education and female empowerment.

"We gather to celebrate a woman who understood the importance of education, and celebrate a family elevated by her commitment, and themselves," Harvard University President Drew Faust told a grand dedication ceremony that attracted heavyweight guests including U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker.

The three-story, 90,000-square-feet (some 8,300 square meters) center was designed mainly for the training of corporate executives at HBS. It features gathering spaces, academic classrooms and dining facilities, all open to the school's Executive Education participants and students in the MBA and Doctoral Programs.

With Monday's launch, the Chao Center, also the first on HBS campus ever named after a woman, joins other school facilities bearing the names of prominent donors, such as the Chase Building, the Bloomberg Center and the Baker Library.

Braving the early summer sun, Dr. Chao, a shipping industry magnate and philanthropist from New York who is now in his late 80s, sat through the outdoor ceremony along with his five daughters, among whom the eldest, Elaine Chao, was the 24th U.S. Secretary of Labor from 2001 to 2009 and the first Asian American woman to hold a cabinet position in history.

"When my parents relocated in America, a key element that helped them to not only survive but thrive was their education," said Elaine Chao. "That is why they devoted so much of their philanthropy to helping others access education."

And the Chaos had a very close connection with Harvard, as four of the six daughters in the family including Elaine attended HBS.

"Four daughters honoring their mother, four daughters went to Harvard Business School. To mark this moment reminded ourselves that only 50 years ago it was the first time that we admitted women into the Harvard Business School," said Nitin Nohria, the HBS dean.

Besides the Chao Center, the Chao family donation also includes 5 million dollars for a fellowship fund to provide financial assistance to students of Chinese heritage.

In an early interview with Xinhua, Dr. Chao said he hoped that the fellowship could help qualified Chinese students who couldn't afford the tuition to have a chance to study in a top university like Harvard, and that those beneficiaries could help promote U.S.-China relations in the future.

According to a Chao family statement, the five living presidents of the United States, from Jimmy Carter to Barack Obama, all sent in congratulatory messages for the Chao Center's inauguration.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (R) meets with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (L) andTreasury Secretary Jacob Lew, who are here to attend the eighth round of China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogues and the seventh round of China-U.S. High-Level Consultation on People-to-People Exchange, in Beijing, capital of China, June 7, 2016. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei)

WASHINGTON, June 7 (Xinhua) -- The annual high-level China-U.S. dialogue is such an important venue for promoting cooperation and managing differences that it is likely to continue under the next U.S. government, U.S. experts said Tuesday.

The eighth round of Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED), the last under the Obama administration, concluded on Tuesday in Beijing with fruitful results.

"High-level dialogue is essential to the Sino-American relationship, even if there are territorial issues that are causing tension," Dan Mahaffee, vice president and director of policy at the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, told Xinhua.

He was referring to the South China Sea issue, which has strained the China-U.S. ties recently due to their differences. Despite the controversy, the two sides nevertheless agreed to continue cooperation on other varied areas to deal with regional and global challenges together.

Indeed, China and the U.S. over the past seven years have achieved a lot of tangible results through cooperation on such important issues as climate change, Iranian nuclear deal, denuclearization of Korean Peninsula, and fighting Ebola.

Mahaffee said that though the two sides remain apart over the South China Sea issue at this year's dialogue, they more likely tried to insure that disagreement did not derail cooperation in other areas.

"Cooperation is still required in many other areas (than the South China Sea), and the dialogue is helpful to reject the notion that the U.S. and China are doomed to fall into a Cold War-style, zero-sum balance of power," Mahaffee said.

Aiming to break the historic curse of great power rivalry that a rising power is doomed to clash with an existing one, China has been advocating for building a new model of major-country relationship with the U.S. free of conflict and confrontation, through mutual respect and win-win cooperation.

Commenting on the past seven rounds of S&ED, Timothy R. Heath, a senior research analyst at the RAND Corporation, said that this year's dialogue showed that both China and the U.S. recognize the importance of ensuring a stable, cooperative relationship.

"Despite differences, both countries can contribute to international peace and stability through cooperation on concerns," Heath told Xinhua.

Holding the annual high-level dialogue is important for stabilizing the relationship, promoting cooperation, and frankly addressing differences, he added.

"Although the dialogue may not resolve all differences, they provide an important venue for officials to manage tensions," Heath said.

Due to the importance of the annual dialogue, this mechanism is likely to continue, Heath said.

"Prospects for world peace and economic prosperity depend in no small part on a stable, peaceful U.S.-China relationship. The next U.S. President is likely to find the dialogue mechanism a useful venue for furthering the relationship accordingly," he said.

His view was echoed by Mahaffee, who predicted that whoever may be elected the next U.S. president, he or she will probably continue the dialogue mechanism.

"Given that there will be a wide range of issues beyond the South China Sea that will also be unresolved after this dialogue... it will be up to the next U.S. administration to inherit these unresolved issues, and continuing the dialogue will be necessary to address these and other issues," Mahaffee said.

Other experts advised that the annual dialogue mechanism needs to be reformed in the future to make it more effective.

Dougals Paal, vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told Xinhua that the current mechanism is a little "bloated" as it involves about 500 officials from various government agencies on the two sides.

"The S&ED needs to be reformulated to meet the priorities of China and the next U.S. Administration," Paal said.
CARACAS, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Venezuela's new food distribution program is a stopgap measure to quickly allay shortages, a top official said Tuesday.

The scheme is an "emergency policy," Communication and Information Minister Luis Marcano told reporters at a press conference.

In a bid to fight the scarcity of basic goods by setting up an alternative to traditional distribution networks, Venezuela's government created Local Supply and Production Committees (CLAP) that make monthly deliveries of staple items to their districts.

But the scheme is not the definitive solution to persistent shortages, acknowledged Marcano.

"The CLAP is an emergency policy, it's not intended as the structural solution to the problem of shortages," said Marcano, adding a ton of food distributed via the CLAP yields five times more than when distributed via traditional channels.

"We have a distorted and corrupted distribution system (and) that has distorted the country's economy," added Marcano.

The government hopes to attend to some 20 percent of the population through the initial phase of the CLAP system.

Marcano blamed price speculation for causing shortages, but admitted that economic "mistakes made" by the government in recent years, and the politicization of sectors linked to supply and distribution were also to blame.

Falling oil prices in recent years have plunged the oil exporting country into a deep economic crisis aggravated by a political power struggle between the ruling socialist party and conservative opposition groups.

"Three or four years ago we received an average of 3 billion to 3.5 billion U.S. dollars in monthly oil earnings," said Marcano. "Today those earnings have shrunk to 100 million dollars a month."

Still, the government's plan to get the economy back on track has made some headway, enabling officials to reach accords with the export and agricultural sectors, which will begin to show results in the coming months, said the minister.
A file photo shows biologist Mu-ming Poo. (Courtesy of UC Berkeley)

SAN FRANCISCO, June 7 (Xinhua) -- University of California, Berkeley, biologist Mu-ming Poo has been awarded the 2016 Gruber Neuroscience Prize for work showing how the brain's circuitry changes in response to life experiences.

Announcing the recipient of the prestigious prize on Tuesday, the Gruber Foundation said Poo has greatly advanced the field of neuroscience through his seminal discoveries regarding the molecular and cell mechanisms underlying synaptic plasticity, the ability of neurons to change their connections.

"His research approach has been exceptionally broad," said the foundation based in Yale University. "In addition to his groundbreaking discoveries regarding synaptic plasticity, he has made important contributions in several other research areas, including neuronal polarization, the maturation of the neuromuscular junction, the molecular and cell mechanisms underlying axon guidance, and the neurotrophic regulation of synaptic functions."

The prize, which comes with a 500,000 U.S. dollars cash award, has been given annually since 2004 to scientists "whose groundbreaking work provides new models that inspire and enable fundamental shifts in knowledge and culture."

"I am deeply honored and pleased by the award," Poo was quoted by UC Berkeley News as writing in an email from Shanghai, eastern China, where he is the founding director of the Institute of Neuroscience (ION) at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shanghai, which has been a major player in boosting the quality of neuroscience research in China since its establishment in 1999.

At UC Berkeley, Poo is the Paul Licht Distinguished Professor in Biology Emeritus.

He was born in eastern Chinese city of Nanjing in 1948 and came to UC Berkeley in 2000 after having been on the faculties of UC Irvine, UC San Diego and Yale and Columbia universities.

"While remaining at Berkeley, he took the lead in building the Institute of Neuroscience into an exceptional institution," said UC Berkeley colleague Marla Feller, a professor of molecular and cell biology.

Poo combined physics and biology early in his career to study the movement of cell-membrane proteins. This led to an interest in events at the synapse, the junction between two neurons, and then synapse formation and plasticity, the process by which the junctions change with nerve activity.

According to Feller, Poo has contributed to at least five fields within neuroscience, many of which have to do with the various stages of development during which neurons are wired together to form circuits. "His experiments are characterized by innovative and very often ingenious approaches to study some of the most important questions in cellular neuroscience."

"Through his innovative and ingenious experiments, Mu-ming Poo has greatly advanced knowledge of mechanisms of brain plasticity - the ability to form new connections or change the strength of existing ones driven by our experiences of the world - in nerve cells," said neuroscientist and 2015 Gruber prize-winner Carla Shatz of Stanford University in a statement. "He has enhanced our understanding of how synapses, the special junctions between nerve cells so crucial for all brain functions, are reinforced or weakened by neural activity."

"My work on synaptic plasticity over the years, much of which was done at Berkeley, have provided the rationale and the approach in using physiological and physical stimulation in the treatment of brain disorders," Poo wrote in the email. "In particular, we have shown how precise timing of electrical stimulation of a specific neural pathway is critical in altering the efficiency of synaptic transmission in neural circuits."

"With increasing understanding of specific neural circuit defects underlying various brain disorders, synaptic plasticity-based and circuit-specific stimulation approaches may become an attractive therapeutic approach in treating brain diseases, especially during the early phase of the disease onset."

The award will be presented to Poo in San Diego, California, on November 13 at the 46th annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience (SfN), a gathering of hundreds of researchers from more than 80 countries.
by Juan Manuel Nieves

BUENOS AIRES, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Argentina needs to improve the productivity of its manufacturing industry, as it did in the agro-industry, to become globally competitive, analyst Jorge Castro said.

To enter into the global market. the first step "is to deepen the specialization in agrifood," Castro, the director of the Buenos Aires-based Strategic Planning Institute, said in an interview with Xinhua.

As one of the world's three leading producers and exporters of agrifoods, "Argentina must deliberately emphasize its specialization as a leading agrifood producer" amid increasing demand the demand for these products, Castro said.

Next, said the analyst, the South American country must "attract large-scale investment from transnational companies and funnel it towards developing infrastructure, modernizing and boosting the productivity of the manufacturing industry, which in Argentina is extremely low."

The third step would be to better train the work force, "with large-scale investment in education."

Argentina is the world's third-largest exporter of soybeans, leading exporter of soybean meal and soybean oil, and second-largest exporter of biodiesel derived from soybean oil.

On Argentina's heavy reliance on agricultural exports, the Castro believed it should not be considered as a structural economic weakness.

"In the capitalist world of the 21st century, there are no competitive advantages that don't spring from comparative advantages, above all in the world of raw materials," he said.

"Argentina, in terms of comparative advantages, has the best conditions of the global system," he added.

Thanks to technological advances in its agrifood sector in the past two decades, Argentina "has succeeded in converting these unique comparative advantages into competitive advantages at a global level, comparable only to the United States' capacity to increase production," he said.

Argentina boasts one of the most fertile and extensive regions of flat grassland, known as the Humid Pampa, and to that, Argentina adds seaports less than 250 km away, noted Castro.

In addition to its natural and geographical wealth, said Castro, Argentina has fostered a technological revolution in the past 20 years, particularly to exploit genetically modified seeds, and has innovated a system to farm land without the need for plowing.

All of that has made Argentina a leading agricultural exporter.

And to replicate the success in its industrial sector, the challenge for Argentina, said Castro, is to increase its productivity and as a result its exports.

"In today's world, not everybody can export if they want to, only those who have a sufficiently high level of productivity to compete can export."

The question, he said, is "when and how will Argentina's manufacturing industry achieve the levels of productivity that agricultural production reached in the past 20 years."

Argentina's trade balance in industrial production showed a deficit of more than 32 billion U.S. dollars last year, meaning its "industrial production is largely oriented to the domestic market," Castro said.

"The reason it doesn't export is its extremely low level of productivity, with the exception of the automotive sector, which is totally transnational and directs more than 80 percent of its exports to a single market: Brazil," said Castro.

To spur its industrial sector, said Castro, Argentina needs to first substantially invest in the country's infrastructure, "especially in the country's economically and socially depressed zones, which are the north and northwest."

Secondly, it must keep in mind that "the investment priority is in improving Argentina's human capital, that is investing in education with a specific goal: to increase the qualification of the labor force."

Finally, said the analyst, the government must continue to increase investment in technological innovation, "with an emphasis ... on research in high technology for industrial production."
SEOUL, June 8 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's military on Wednesday returned a Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) fishing boat back to the north after the boat crossed the inter-Korean maritime border, Yonhap news agency reported.

The DPRK vessel was found in eastern waters 21 km south of the Northern Limit Line (NLL) at about 3:40 a.m. local time, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) cited by Yonhap.

After an inspection, the South Korean military returned the DPRK fishing boat to the north at about 7:10 a.m. as DPRK sailors didn't have intention to defect to South Korea.

The boat seemed to go off the right course mistakenly near the NLL, which Pyongyang has never accepted as a sea boundary as it was drawn by U.S.-led forces after the Korean War ended in 1953.

On May 27, a DPRK patrol boat and a fishing boat crossed the NLL in western waters and returned back to the north after warning shots from the South Korean military.
SYDNEY, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Australian egg farmers on Wednesday are warning the nation is facing a two-month egg shortage as they come to terms with new regulations that are compounding seasonally low production.

Australia's egg consumption is growing at almost four percent annually as consumers switch proteins due to higher beef prices and scientific evidence on the health benefits of egg consumption.

That consumption increase however has been coming mostly from the 'free-range' variety of eggs, which are going into a period of seasonably low production due to winter, particularly in southern areas of Australia such as Sydney and Melbourne, Egg Farmers Australia spokesman John Crawford told Xinhua on Wednesday.

But Australian regulations passed in March that require 'free-range' producers to increase their production space to one chicken per square meter, or 10,000 chickens per hectare and allow hens to be regularly let outside is compounding the problem, Crawford said.

Supply shortages have mainly been caused from a lack of investment into new farms and hatcheries over the past three years as negotiations about what the definition of what 'free range' legally meant were ongoing. The accompanying regulations for minimum hatchery specifications are due to be finalized imminently.

"16.5 to 17 million eggs are consumed each day (in Australia), so a five percent drop (in production) will be noticed," Crawford said, adding the outlook isn't as dire as local media reports are suggesting.

Local egg producers have modified existing facilities to meet the expected new requirements, however new hatcheries are required to keep up with demand.

Fairfax Media reported Australian supermarket shelves are now bare of both varieties as consumers are forced to purchase cage produced eggs.

But as the southern areas being to warm up into spring, 'free-range' production should return back to normal levels, ending the drop in production and flow on affects to supply, Crawford said.
JAKARTA, June 8 (Xinhua) -- As many as eighteen houses and one church were damaged in North Maluku province after a powerful quake of 6.4 Richter scale struck off eastern Indonesia earlier Wednesday, official of disaster agency said here.

The damages took place in Batang Dua sub-district, the nearest area with the quake epicenter, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman of national disaster management agency told Xinhua via phone.

Four out of the 18 houses were severely damaged, Mr. Sutopo added.

A shallow and powerful-quake measuring 6.4 Richter scale jolted at 02 : 15 a.m. Jakarta time Wednesday (1915 GMT Tuesday), but it was not potential for tsunami and did not leave casualty, official of the meteorology and geophysics agency told Xinhua by phone.

The epicenter of the quake was at 124 km northwest Ternate of North Maluku province and the depth at 58 km under sea bed, the official said.

The USGS reported that the quake was at 6.5 magnitude.
MELBOURNE, June 8 (Xinhua) -- A landmark, 20-year study by Australian researchers has found that regular exercise in middle age can prevent cognitive decline later in life.

The study, undertaken by the University of Melbourne, tracked 387 Australian women from the Women's Healthy Ageing Project aged between 45 and 55 from 1992.

The women's hormone levels, cholesterol, height, weight, blood pressure and Body Mass Index (BMI) were recorded 11 times throughout the two decades.

The women also took part in an Episodic Verbal Memory Test where they were given a list of 10 words and attempted to recall them half an hour later.

Those participants who had normal blood pressure, good cholesterol and engaged in frequent physical activity demonstrated a much better ability to remember the words, the study found.

Author of the research, which was published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, Professor Cassandra Szoeke said the nature of cognitive decline meant such a lengthy examination was required.

"The evolution of cognitive decline is slow and steady, so we needed to study people over a long period of time. We used a verbal test because that's one of the first things to decline when you develop Alzheimer's Disease," Szoeke said on Wednesday.

"The message from our study is very simple. Do more physical activity, it doesn't matter what, just move more and more often. It helps your heart, your body ... and now we know it can help your brain."

Szoeke said it is essential to start exercise as soon as possible.

"We expected it was the healthy habits later in life that would make a difference but we were surprised to find that the effect of exercise was cumulative. So every one of those 20 years mattered," she said.

"If you don't start at 40, you could miss one or two decades of improvement to your cognition because every bit helps. That said, even when you're 50 you can make up for lost time." Enditem
SEOUL, June 8 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's unification ministry in charge of inter-Korean affairs on Wednesday expressed deep worry about a report that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) had restarted plutonium reprocessing activities at its main nuclear complex.

Unification Ministry spokesman Jeong Joon Hee told a press briefing that it was well-known for the DPRK to have pursued various reprocessing activities to secure additional plutonium, noting that South Korea has been closely monitoring relevant situations with a serious concern.

Jeong added that close cooperation between South Korea and the United States has been maintained in regards to the matter.

His comments came after reports that Pyongyang had restarted production of plutonium fuel citing an unidentified senior U.S. State Department official.

According to the official, the DPRK took spent fuel in the past from the 5-megawatt reactor at Yongbyon to take it to the reprocessing facility. The same activities are happening in Yongbyon, a city some 100 km northeast of its capital Pyongyang.

Pyongyang shut down the graphite-moderated reactor at Yongbyon in 2007 in accordance with agreements reached at the six-party talks, exploding the cooling tower in June the next year.

The DPRK, however, declared the resumption of the 5-megawatt reactor operations in April 2013, right after adopting the so-called simultaneous developments in economy and nuclear weapons.

The disarmament-for-aid talks to dismantle the DPRK's nuclear program, which involve South Korea, the DPRK, China, the United States, Russia and Japan, have been halted since late 2008.
SYDNEY, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Papua New Guinea (PNG) police have reportedly opened fire on university students who have been in a month-long protest against the prime minister's handling of the economy and ongoing clouds about corruption.

Papua New Guinea's parliament has been told four people have been killed and seven injured after police opened fire on the crowd of students, Australia's national broadcaster reported on Wednesday. Other media reports are suggesting as many as 15 students could be injured.

It's believed the students were attempting to march from their university campus to the PNG parliament. However, they were prevented by police.

Local PNG media reported the police said the march was deemed illegal as it did not get the necessary approval to proceed.

The PNG parliament, which is due to hear motion for a fourth vote of no-confidence against current Prime Minister Peter O'Neill has been adjourned until Tuesday next week due to the unrest.

Xinhua's request for comment to PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill and Police Commissioner Gari Baki were not immediately returned.

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has called for both sides to de-escalate the tensions and to "respect the peaceful and lawful right to protest."

"We will be monitoring the situation closely," Bishop told reporters in Brisbane on Wednesday, adding she will be in contact with her PNG counterpart Rimbink Pato once details of the unrest are confirmed by Australian officials on the ground.

Governor of Oro Province Gary Juffa, a critic of O'Neill, posted to social media the "issue started with an argument between a metropolitan police superintendent and a student".
Screenshot of a Twitter post about Brock Turner by Henry K. Lee, a crime reporter from Fox 2 News.

LOS ANGELES, May 8 (Xinhua) -- Widespread public outrage has erupted over a California judge's ruling to give former Stanford University swimmer a six-month jail sentence for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman, CNN reported.



Critics say the decision has been far too lenient. Prosecutors had asked for a six-year prison term for the January 2015 assault.



Brock Turner, 20, was convicted in March of the intent to commit rape of an intoxicated/unconscious person, penetration of an intoxicated person and penetration of an unconscious person.



Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky said Thursday that Turner's age and lack of criminal history made him feel that imposing a six-month jail sentence with probation was appropriate.



"A prison sentence would have a severe impact on him," Persky said. "I think he will not be a danger to others."



Meanwhile, by Tuesday morning, more than 191,000 people had signed a Change.org petition to recall Persky, a possibility in California, where judges are elected.



"Judge Persky failed to see that the fact that Brock Turner is a white male star athlete at a prestigious university does not entitle him to leniency," the petition read. "He also failed to send the message that sexual assault is against the law regardless of social class, race, gender or other factors. Please help rectify this travesty to justice."

Stanford University released a statement Monday deflecting criticism of its handling of the case. The school did "everything within its power to assure that justice was served in this case," the statement said.
PHNOM PENH, June 8 (Xinhua) -- The United States and Cambodia militaries have been conducting humanitarian assistance events and military to military subject matter expert exchanges from June 6 to 18 in southwestern Cambodia's Kampot province, the U.S. Embassy said in a statement on Wednesday.

Approximately 80 members of the U.S. military and their Cambodian counterparts, along with service members from Australia, Vietnam and Thailand, will work together in partnership with local non-governmental organizations to provide humanitarian assistance to residents in the province, the statement said.

The exercise is part of Pacific Angel 2016, it said, adding that the Pacific Angel is a joint and combined humanitarian assistance mission conducted in various countries throughout the Indo-Asia-Pacific region with the active participation and leadership of the U.S. Air Force.

Pacific Angel includes general health, dental, optometry, pediatrics, physical therapy and engineering programs as well as various humanitarian aid and disaster relief subject matter expert exchanges.

"The mission enhances participating nations' humanitarian assistance and disaster relief capabilities while providing needed services to people throughout the region," the statement said.

In Cambodia, multinational engineers will work on reconstruction projects for four local schools and two health centers in the city of Kampot and multinational medical service providers will conduct health service outreach in two districts in the province.

The subject matter expert exchanges between the two militaries will focus on public health emergencies and humanitarian aid and disaster response, it said.

This is the fourth Pacific Angel event conducted in Cambodia.
Hillary Clinton (Xinhua file photo)

WASHINGTON, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Hillary Clinton on Tuesday was projected to win the New Jersey Democratic primary, one day after she secured enough superdelegates to become the Democratic presumptive presidential nominee in the 2016 U.S. election.

Clinton's expected win in New Jersey, first projected by Fox News, had previously been regarded by U.S. mainstream media as a victory that would formally hand her the party nomination.

However, the significance of the victory was watered down after the Associated Press (AP) reported Monday night that Clinton reached the number of delegates required to notch the Democratic nomination.

According to AP's latest delegate count, besides the 1,812 pledged delegates she won in previous primaries and caucuses, Clinton had also garnered the support of 571 superdelegates, party leaders who are free to support any candidate at the national convention in July.

Democratic voters in five other U.S. states, including Montana, New Mexico, South Dakota, North Dakota and California, also went to polling stations and caucuses on Tuesday as the grueling nomination race was all but over.

The focus is now on the result of California Democratic primary which is expected to come out later on Tuesday. 475 pledged delegates were up for grab in this primary.

Defying some U.S. media reports which say that Clinton looks set to land the Democratic nomination, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is relying on a strong performance in California to persuade superdelegates to change their allegiance at the July national convention.

Meanwhile, presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump won an easy victory in New Jersey.

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Image taken on May 11, 2016, of an employee storing a backup sample of soy seeds, in the Soy Gathering, Conditioning and Marketing Plant of the agricultural cooperative "Argentine Federated Farmers" (AFA, for its acronym in Spanish), which processes and collects around 120,000 tons of soy per year, in Maciel city, north of Rosario, Santa Fe province, 400km away from Buenos Aires, Argentina. (Xinhua/Martin Zabala)

BEIJING, June 8 (Xinhua) -- China's export growth in yuan-denominated terms slowed to 1.2 percent year on year in May from 4.1 percent in April, customs data showed Wednesday.

Imports grew 5.1 percent, significantly rebounding from a 5.7-percent decline in April, according to figures from the General Administration of Customs (GAC).

Trade surplus last month was 324.8 billion yuan (about 50 billion U.S. dollars), up from April's 298 billion yuan.

Foreign trade increased 2.8 percent year on year to about 2 trillion yuan in May and for the first five months combined slipped 3.2 percent to nearly 9.2 trillion yuan.
NANNING, June 8, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Photo taken on May 19, 2016 shows containers are conveyed at Qinzhou port in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. China's exports in yuan-denominated terms rose 1.2 percent and imports grew 5.1 percent year on year in May, customs data showed Wednesday. (Xinhua/Lu Bo'an)

BEIJING, June 8 (Xinhua) -- China's export growth in yuan-denominated terms slowed to 1.2 percent year on year in May from 4.1 percent in April, customs data showed Wednesday.

Imports grew 5.1 percent, significantly rebounding from a 5.7-percent decline in April, according to figures from the General Administration of Customs (GAC).

Trade surplus last month was 324.8 billion yuan (about 50 billion U.S. dollars), up from April's 298 billion yuan.

Foreign trade increased 2.8 percent year on year to about 2 trillion yuan in May, while for the first five months combined slipped 3.2 percent to nearly 9.2 trillion yuan, recovering from a 4.8-percent decline for the January-April period.

In the five months, exports dropped 1.8 percent year on year and imports went down 5 percent, leading to a trade surplus of 1.4 trillion yuan.

A leading index for export outlook dropped by 0.7 points to 33.1 points in May, signaling growing pressure on export growth in the third quarter of 2016, said a GAC statement.

Trade with the European Union, China's largest trading partner, climbed 2 percent year on year in the first five months.

Trade with the United States and ASEAN, China's second- and third-largest trading partners, declined 5.2 percent and 1.6 percent, respectively.

Trade with Japan, China's fifth largest trading partner, edged down 0.3 percent.

The GAC said imports of iron ore, crude oil and product oil "notably recovered" in the five months -- up 9.1 percent, 16.5 percent and 4.5 percent, respectively.

However, automobile imports fell 12.8 percent. Plastics and steel imports also posted declines.
An aerial photo taken on Sept. 25, 2015 from a seaplane of Hainan Maritime Safety Administration shows cruise vessel Haixun 1103 heading to the Yacheng 13-1 drilling rig during a patrol insouth China Sea. (Xinhua/Zhao Yingquan)

by Xu Haijing

CANBERRA, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Construction activities in the South China Sea is an exercise of sovereignty by China on the territories it had laid claim on and China has the right to do so, Greg Austin, professor at University of New South Wales Canberra, said in a recent interview with Xinhua.

As the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague is about to issue its ruling on a case brought by the Philippines on South China Sea disputes, Austin pointed out that there is no room for the Permanent Court to make a new law.

"All the court will be doing is restating what we all know to be existing customary international law, or the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)," he said.

The South China Sea issue clearly involves two very separate issues, one is the sovereignty dispute around the Nansha Islands and one is the maritime rights dispute which is covered by UNCLOS, which China is a signatory to.

The two issues are "very dangerous combination," said the professor.

"There are no easy solutions by the international laws when the combinations of the two disputes exists. While the Philippines are quite within its rights to use UNCLOS, that will not answer any questions of territorial sovereignty and the Permanent Court will make no judgment and can make no judgment on territorial sovereignty."

He said the court "will not and can not jeopardize China's interests", because the court can not find anything contrary to the international law, and it can not create new international law.

"We have UNCLOS, we have the customary international law. They won't change at the ruling of the court. It existed before the court, it will exist after the court."

"All the court is going to say is what the law is. So it will not be like deciding a line is drawn here or a line is drawn there. It will really be a restatement of what we all know here an explicable international law."

Looking back history, Austin, who has been studying Chinese diplomacy for 30 years, said China made claims on the Nansha Islands a long time ago.

"I support China's assertion to its sovereignty claims," he said.

China has been building airfield in the South China Sea. But China was not the first to do it. Vietnam and the Philippines all have military airfields on the Nansha Islands.

It is because China had built an airfield that is much more superior than the others that it drew more attention.

Unfortunately, China's move in the South China Sea came alongside with U.S. strategy of pivot or rebalance to Asia.

"I think it is fair to say it is not a good combination of geopolitics. We do have a problem. It's a time for all countries to reduce tension."

"I'm in favor of whatever can be done to reduce tension," he said.

Despite the great difference between China and the United States on the South China Sea issue, Austin believed there will be no confrontation between the two countries.

"The level of cooperative collaboration between the U.S. and China is almost galactic whereas this South China Sea dispute is a really small localized dispute. The future of East Asia and the Pacific is a continuation and deepening of this almost galactic cooperation, trade, exchange and investment. We have to find a way to ensure the smaller dispute in the South China Sea does not spoil the bigger picture."

Austin said China has shown in the past great flexibility in its diplomacy, which is also needed in solving the South China Sea dispute.

"We saw recently the return of Philippine fishermen to the Scaborough Shoal (Huangyan Dao) after the election of the new Philippine president. Clearly, China is taking a softer line to the new Philippine president."

Austin said he expected in two to three years' time, the South China Sea issue will not be as a hot issue as it is today.

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BANGKOK, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Thailand is hailed by the World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday as the first country in Asia to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis.

Thai Ministry of Public Health said the rate of HIV transmission from pregnant mothers to their newborns in Thailand declined from 10.3 percent in 2003 to 1.91 percent in 2015, a figure that was validated to meet WHO's criteria for elimination - mother-to-child transmission rates of less than 2 percent and fewer than 50 new infections in 100,000 births.

The announcement marks the first time with one of Asia's most HIV-ravaged societies to eradicate mother-to-child transmission of the diseases. In 2014, an estimated 450,000 people were living with HIV in Thailand.

Describing the elimination as a "remarkable achievement," the WHO said Thailand had "demonstrated to the world that HIV can be defeated."

The achievement comes from Thailand's strong prenatal care from large cities all the way to the poorest villages. Nearly all pregnant Thai women are screened for HIV, 95 percent of those who test positive are treated to prevent transmission to their babies and almost 100 percent of babies born to HIV-positive mothers are given antiretroviral drugs.

HIV is passed from mother to child either in the womb or during labor, delivery or breastfeeding, and if untreated, there is a 15-45 percent chance of the baby inheriting HIV from its mother.

When treatment is given in the form of antiretroviral medicine crucial stages, that chance is reduced to 1 percent.

Daniel Kertesz, WHO representative to Thailand, said: "Thailand is one of only a few countries that have broadened universal healthcare to include migrant women, making prevention of mother-to-child transmission affordable for everyone."

There are hundreds of thousands of migrant women from neighboring countries working in Thailand. A Thai government report in 2010 found that migrant women were two to three times more likely to be infected with HIV in the country.

Cuba was the first country to receive the validation last year. Along with Thailand, Belarus eliminated the mother-to-child spread of HIV and syphilis, Armenia did for HIV and Moldova did for syphilis.
A soldier walks past a wreckage of a car in Donetsk, Ukraine, on May 22, 2015. (Xinhua/Alexander Ermochenko/File Photo)

KIEV, June 7 (Xinhua) -- At least two people were killed and 13 others wounded in the confrontation between government troops and independence-seeking insurgents in eastern Ukraine in the past day, officials from the conflicting parties said Tuesday.

The government military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said that one Ukrainian army serviceman was killed and nine others wounded during the combat with rebels in the past 24 hours.

"The enemy frequently used the mortars -- over the past day they fired 150 mortar shells at our positions. There were no calm sectors along the frontline," Lysenko told reporters during a media briefing.

Meanwhile, a senior insurgent commander Eduard Basurin said that one pro-independence fighter was killed and two others were injured in the clashes with the government army in the last 24 hours.

Besides, two civilians living in the insurgent-controlled Donetsk were wounded during the shelling on the city's outskirts, Basurin added.

The upsurge in fighting, which started in mid-May after more than half-year of a relative lull, marked a new wave of escalation of the 26-month-old conflict in eastern Ukraine, which has killed more than 9,300 people so far.

Ukrainian analysts believe that a lack of consensus between the confronting sides regarding holding local elections in the rebel-controlled areas is the main factor behind the escalation.
Russian President Vladimir Putin met with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Moscow, Russia, June 7, 2016. (Kremlin Photo)

MOSCOW, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Russia and Israel will work to build a free trade zone between the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and Israel, said Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday.

The statement came after Putin's meeting with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with a focus on furthering bilateral trade and economic relationship. It is Netanyahu's third visit since September of 2015.

"Recently at an EAEU summit in Astana (capital of Kazakhstan), we talked about it (the free trade zone with Israel), and substantive negotiations on this subject will be launched this year," Putin said as quoted by a Kremlin transcript.

The free trade zone would inject the impetus into bilateral business relations, he said.

Recalling the cooperation in high-tech sectors and at sub-regional level, Putin noted there are "good prospects" for agriculture cooperation as "Israeli producers can substantially boost their presence in the Russian market."

According to Netanyahu, his meeting with Putin was very productive and covered an extensive range of topics. Several bilateral deals were inked in the spheres of energy, agriculture, and customs, he added.

The two leaders agreed that there are possibilities for the two countries to cooperate in the energy sector.

"Israel has advanced technology (in terms of energy). It will be helpful if we cooperate and make use of the appropriate technologies that we have," Putin said.

Netanyahu added that he encouraged Russian energy companies to participate in all kinds of energy projects in Israel.

Meanwhile, Putin and Netanyahu stressed the importance to maintain close people-to-people communications and strengthen cultural cooperation such as education and tourism.

The two leaders also discussed the joint fight against international terrorism and the situation in the Middle East, as Putin vowed that Russia would contribute to settling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The high-level meeting coincides with the 25th anniversary of the restoration of Russia-Israel diplomatic relations, and both leaders expressed the hope that bilateral cooperation will be enriched with new initiatives on a solid foundation of trust and understanding.

According to another Kremlin statement released earlier, Tuesday's meeting largely focused on the progress of further implementing the agreements reached during Netanyahu's last visit on April 21.

"The main purpose of the visit of Prime Minister of Israel is to strengthen economic and trade partnership," Elena Suponina, expert at the Russian International Affairs Council, told Xinhua.

"Among other things, it is also a signal to Washington, as the relations of Israel with which have worsened during the presidency of Barack Obama, that Israel may choose other players instead of the U.S. as partners in a number of issues," Suponina said.
by Osama Radi, Emad Drimly, Saud Abu Ramadan

RAMALLAH, June 8 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinians are focusing their bet on the progress of France initiative for holding an international conference for peace in the Middle East, although the road to achieve the target is not paved with flowers, according to analysts and observers.

Paris hosted an international ministerial meeting Last Friday, attended by the foreign ministers of 25 countries, including four Arab countries, which debated the revival of the stalled peace process between Israel and the Palestinians.

The Palestinians hope that the French initiative would lead to crystallizing an international coalition to sponsor the peace process and push it forward in line with international resolutions and conventions. However, they also realize that the French initiative would face some challenges.

Nabil Amro, a prominent Palestinian diplomat, said that those who believe that Paris meeting is meaningless "will be naive, and at the same time, those who believe that they can expect a lot more from this meeting will be naive too," adding that Paris meeting was successful for the Europeans.

"However, one of the major obstacles for a higher expectation is the American insistence to keep monopolizing the peace process in the Middle East and another obstacle is the clear Israeli rejection to accept and deal with the French initiative," said Amro.

Furthermore, he mentioned the Palestinian internal division, which may also obstruct implementing the French Initiative. He said, "this division between Gaza and the West Bank weakens Palestinian position to challenge Israel and oblige it to resume the peace process."

Amro also spoke about other regional obstacles, mainly the wars in the nearby countries, especially in Syria, but said that these obstacles can be overcome in pursuing for international arrangements in the region.

Following the ministerial meeting in Paris, the Palestinian Presidency announced in an official statement that President Mahmoud Abbas received a phone call from France Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault and agreed that France would send envoy Pierre Vimont for peace in the region very soon.

"Ayrault reiterated to Abbas that France will keep its contacts with the international parties until September and will be discussing with all of them an evaluation of Paris meeting and what they had agreed upon and what is needed for the coming stage," according to the statement.

The foreign ministers who joined in the Paris meeting agreed in the final statement that the two-state solution is the only way to achieve peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

However, George Jackman, chairman of the Palestinian Institution for Democratic Studies, told Xinhua that the statement "was weak and dim due to a clear American pressure practiced on the meeting to ease any sharpness of the statement against Israel."

"Paris statement hasn't clearly specified time schedules for the resumption of the peace talks with Israel and didn't clearly state anything related to the ongoing conflict and also hasn't tackled issues related to the file of Palestinian refugees and their right of return," said Jackman.

He said that due to the absence of Germany, Britain and Russia in the Paris meeting, the opportunities of success for the French peace initiative are still unclear.

Earlier this week, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad el-Malki unveiled that France is planning to form a working committee to prepare for holding the international peace conference by the end of the year, which would decide the framework of the time schedule and the nature of the talks with Israel.

Khalil Shahin, a Ramallah-based political analyst, told Xinhua that "so far, the Palestinians have no alternative plan to the French initiative, but only to get back to the negotiations with better conditions that may come out from the French initiative and the international sponsorship of the peace process."
BEIJING, June 8, 2016 (Xinhua) -- File photo taken on Jan. 31, 2011 shows an EgyptAir plane taking off from the airport of Cairo, Egypt. An EgyptAir plane en route from Cairo to Beijing made an emergency landing in Uzbekistan due to a bomb threat. All the 118 passengers and 17 crew members aboard have been safely evacuated, local media quoted the Uzbekistan Airways as saying. (Xinhua/Cai Yang)

TASHKENT, June 8 (Xinhua) -- All the 118 passengers and 17 crew members aboard an EgyptAir plane en route from Cairo to Beijing have been safely evacuated after the aircraft made an emergency landing in Uzbekistan on Wednesday due to a bomb threat, local media quoted the Uzbekistan Airways as saying.
YANGON, June 8 (Xinhua) -- The Muse Central Economic Zone of Myanmar, which is located near its border with China in eastern Myanmar, will be completed in the fiscal year 2017-18, official media reported Wednesday.

The zone is set up on about 120 hectares of land on the river's edge near Muse township in northern Shan State. It is being implemented in cooperation with the Shan State government and New Starlight Company.

The project is undertaken with a fund of over 51 million U.S. dollars.

Local authorities approved plans for the Muse Central Economic Zone in early 2013 to boost cross-border trade at the most important crossing between Myanmar and China.

The zone will include trade zones, condominiums, high-profile branch offices, a finished jade products market, 300 high standard houses , three hotels, super markets, police stations, fire stations and one ethnic village.

At present, 80 percent of the infrastructural construction has been completed.

Over 80 percent of Myanmar's trade via road transportation to China is conducted through Muse trade point.
TEHRAN, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Defense ministers of Iran, Russia and Syria will convene in Tehran on Thursday to explore the ways for further defense cooperation, semi-official Mehr news agency reported on Wednesday.

Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu and Syrian Defense Minister Fahd Jassem al-Freij will attend the trilateral meeting at the official invitation of their Iranian counterpart Brig. Gen. Hossein Dehqan.

The meeting is aimed at exchanging views on the latest regional developments and the ways to strengthen the fight against terrorism, according to the report.

The Islamic republic, along with Russia, have emerged as the major allies of the Syrian government in its struggle against the militant groups who are seeking the overthrow of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government.

Since 2011, when the Syrian civil war began, more than 250,000 Syrians have been killed and millions of the Syrians have been displaced from their homes.
ANKARA, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Erdogan approved a bill which will lift lawmakers' immunity from prosecution, the press center of Presidential office said on Wednesday.

The Turkish president approved the amendment on Turkish Constitution about the first paragraph of Article 89 and the A part of the second paragraph of the Article 104, the statement said.

The Turkish parliament approved the controversial constitutional amendment which would lift immunity of dozens of lawmakers against being prosecuted on May 20, and sent it to President Erdogan.

The constitutional amendment goes into force after the approval of the president, all 600 waiting files of summaries of proceedings will be returned to the Prime Minister's Office within 15 days in order to be sent to the judicial authorities.

The ruling party and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) aims to lift the immunities of Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) lawmakers.

"No legal commission of the AKP, no judge or prosecutor under the AKP's command can try us," HDP co-leader Selahattin Demirtas earlier said at a party convention in April.

The HDP, the third largest party in the national assembly, currently holds 59 seats and is accused by the government of being a political wing of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party.
BEIJING, June 8, 2016 (Xinhua) -- File photo taken on Jan. 31, 2011 shows an EgyptAir plane taking off from the airport of Cairo, Egypt. An EgyptAir plane en route from Cairo to Beijing made an emergency landing in Uzbekistan due to a bomb threat. All the 118 passengers and 17 crew members aboard have been safely evacuated, local media quoted the Uzbekistan Airways as saying. (Xinhua/Cai Yang)

TASHKENT, June 8 (Xinhua) -- A bomb threat on an EgyptAir flight from Cairo to Beijing was proved to be a hoax and the flight will continue after an emergency landing in Uzbekistan on Wednesday.

No explosives were found after all the 118 passengers and 17 crew members were evacuated for a search, announced the Uzbekistan Airways.

EgyptAir has been troubled with security concerns and hoaxes since one of its flights crashed into the Mediterranean on May 19.
LOS ANGELES, June 8, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Residents wait in line to cast their votes during the presidential primary election at Santa Monica City Hall in Santa Monica, California, the United States, on June 7, 2016. (Xinhua/Zhao Hanrong)

WASHINGTON, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Tuesday appealed to rival Bernie Sanders' supporters for party unity after declaring herself the first woman to be nominated by a major U.S. political party.

"Let there be no mistake: Senator Sanders, his campaign and the vigorous debate that we've had about how to raise income, reduce inequality, increase upward mobility, have been very good for the Democratic Party and for America," said Clinton at a rally in New York.

"It never feels good to put our heart into a cause or a candidate you believe in and come up short. I know that feeling well," said Clinton in an attempt to connect with Sanders' supporters using her loss in 2008 primary race to Barack Obama.

"But as we look ahead to the battle that awaits, let's remember all that unites us," she added.

Clinton hit the 2,383-delegate threshold to clinch the nomination on Monday night according to a survey by the Associated Press which showed that Clinton had garnered enough support of superdelegates to claim the party nomination.

On Tuesday night, Clinton further expanded her lead over Sanders in delegate count, notching victories in New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota, three of the six states voting Tuesday.

Clinton also unleashed harsh criticism against presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump for his past incendiary remarks against women, Muslims and immigrants and took specific aim at his latest comments about a Hispanic-American judge because of his ethnic background.

"The stakes in this election are high and the choice is clear. Donald Trump is temperamentally unfit to be president and commander-in-chief," said Clinton.

Over the past week, Trump repeatedly accused U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, the Indiana-born jurist overseeing a civil fraud suit in California involving Trump University, of being unfit for the case because he was of "Mexican heritage."

Trump implied that Curiel, the Hispanic-American judge, was biased against him because of Trump's proclamation that he would build a wall along the border between America and Mexico to halt illegal immigration.

Trump expanded his argument on Sunday, suggesting to several U.S. cable news hosts that a Muslim judge are also unlikely to rule without bias in the case because of his previous call for a temporary ban on Muslim entering the United States.

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WASHINGTON, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Monday reached the number of delegates required to notch the Democratic nomination, according to the Associated Press's latest delegate count. Full story

News Analysis: Deepening split within Democratic Party could pose problems to Hillary Clinton's presidential run

WASHINGTON, May 19 (Xinhua) -- A deepening split within the U.S. Democratic Party amid front-runner Hillary Clinton's ongoing battle with rival Bernie Sanders could be problematic for Clinton in her race to the White House.
BRASILIA, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's Prosecutor General Rodrigo Janot has asked the Supreme Court (STF) to authorize the arrest of the Senate President Renan Calheiros and other senior politicians, Brazilian newspaper O Globo reported on Tuesday.

Besides Calheiros, Janot also called for the arrest former Brazilian President Jose Sarney (1985-1990), the suspended president of the Chamber of Deputies, Eduardo Cunha, and Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB) President Romero Juca.

Janot's decision comes after the release of a recording in which some PMDB leaders can be heard discussing how to obstruct Operation Car Wash, a probe into the corruption scandal involving the state-controlled oil company Petrobras.

This recording was provided by Sergio Machado, a former president of Transpetro, a subsidiary of Petrobras.

In Machado's declarations to the judicial authorities, he admitted having paid 70 million reais (20 million U.S. dollars) to the PMDB leadership.

Janot's confession will now be analyzed by Justice Teori Zavascki, the STF's rapporteur on Operation Car Wash. In the case of Sarney, given his advanced age of 86, Janot said he should be placed under house arrest with an ankle monitor.
BEIJING, June 8 (Xinhua) -- The Supreme People's Court (SPC) will rehear a two-decades-old rape and murder case, in which a man was found guilty and executed, over concerns that the evidence presented was insufficient.

The decision to launch a retrial was made on Monday by the SPC, and the family of the convict, Nie Shubin, were informed Wednesday.

Nie, from Hebei Province, was convicted and executed in 1995 for the rape and murder of a woman in Hebei's capital, Shijiazhuang. In 2005, another man confessed to the crime.

In December 2014, the SPC, following an application from Hebei Higher People's Court, assigned the higher court of Shandong Province to review the case.

A five-member panel at the Shandong court carried out the review and found that the evidence presented in the original trial did not identify Nie as the perpetrator beyond all doubt, and the trial and investigation were both peppered with major inconsistences.

Thus, the panel concluded that the evidence was questionable and suggested the case be reheard.

The SPC statement said the panel, during its review, had examined the case files, listened to the defendant's lawyer and consulted forensic scientists over the autopsy report.

The panel also visited Hebei several times to gather opinions from both sides of the case and assigned qualified institutions to carry out necessary investigative work.

The SPC agreed with the Shandong court's suggestion.

It said in the statement that a retrial panel will be established to hear the case and that any developments will be made public.

Nie's case has been compared to a 1996 case in Inner Mongolia, where a teenager named Huugjilt was executed for the rape and murder of a woman the same year. A self-confessed serial rapist and killer later admitted to the crime while in police custody in 2005.

In December 2014, Huugjilt's conviction was officially quashed by Inner Mongolia Autonomous Regional Higher People's Court.
HAVANA, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Havana on Tuesday was officially inaugurated as one of the world's seven wonder cities by the Swiss foundation New7Wonders.

In steady rain, a monument and memorial plaque were unveiled at the entrance of Havana Bay in recognition of the city's efforts to preserve its historical sites.

The Caribbean city has experienced a tourist boom over the past two years, and the new status is widely expected to add steam to the trend.

Havana, the largest Cuban city known for its old architecture and beach scenes, was named a wonder city in 2014 out of a global poll arranged by New7Wonders.

"The Cuban people, the expats, lovers of this city and tourists who love Cuba and Havana are those who voted very strongly," Bernard Weber, president and founder of the Swiss organization, told Xinhua.

The other six cities are La Paz (Bolivia), Doha (Qatar), Durban (South Africa), Beirut (Lebanon), Vigan (the Philippines) and Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia).

"We knew and had a deep conviction that the city is wonderful, but for other people to see it that way and reach consensus to consider it as such is really very important," said Eusebio Leal, a historian of the city.

Leal, who leads the architectural and patrimonial conservation of the city's Old Town, said the award was a recognition of those who have worked hard to revitalize Havana's center.

The competition began in 2011, and after seven selections, the panel of New7Wonders experts announced the verdict in December 2014.

The Swiss foundation said it took into consideration cities that best represent the achievements and aspirations of the global urban society, have potential for sustainable growth and to leave a historical legacy in the future.
TOKYO, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Japan's e-commerce behemoth Rakuten Inc. will close its online stores in Britain, Spain and Austria by the end of August, the company said Wednesday.

Rakuten said it will continue to offer its e-services in its growth markets of Germany and France, but through its consolidation plans will axe around 100 employees from the three countries where it will cease operations.

This year, amid increasing global competition in the e-commerce business, Rakuten also pulled out of markets in both Malaysia and Indonesia this spring.

Regarding its European maneuvers, Rakuten said that while certain operations will continue in Europe, such as its streaming video, messaging services and sales of e-books, the growth potential in Britain, Spain and Austria and costs involved, in comparison to the size of the business were inordinate.
GUANGZHOU, June 8 (Xinhua) -- There are now 2,060 endangered Chinese white dolphins living near an estuary of the Pearl River, marine authorities said Wednesday.

A Chinese white dolphin monitoring expedition in 2015 found that the population had increased from the 1,500 recorded in 2011, said He Shaoqing, deputy chief of Guangdong provincial maritime and fishery bureau.

The bureau issued a release on Wednesday on the marine environment of the province for 2015, which coincided with World Oceans Day.

He said the dolphin monitoring team had recorded 378 dolphin groups totalling 2,416, 2,060 were Chinese white dolphins.

Chinese white dolphins, which are a first-class protected animal, are found along a few coastal areas in the country.

The dolphins have a low reproduction rate and high habitat requirements. Female dolphins only give birth every three years, and the calves have only a 20 percent chance of survival, according to experts.

He said the ocean water quality near the coast of Guangdong Province is "basically good" but he warned excessive pollutants from five drainage rivers, of 12 in total, have been detected.

"Pollution control is still challenging," he said.
BEIJING, June 8 (Xinhua )-- The Japanese are swallowing the bitter fruit of what the government has sown in its relations with the United States, as shown by the increased public anger over wrongdoings by personnel related to the U.S. forces stationed on the island of Okinawa.

After a staff member of the U.S. forces was arrested last month for involvement in the death of a young Japanese woman, local resentment against U.S. forces was fanned up again by the alleged drunken driving on late June 4 of a female U.S. officer, which led to the injury of two people, one seriously.

Moreover, the latest incident took place during a month of mourning from May 27 to June 24 announced by the U.S. station forces, banning its personnel to drink and stay overnight off base, among other discipline intensification measures.

Police arrested Aimee Mejia, 21, assigned to Kadena base in Okinawa, after she drove the wrong way on a freeway and smashed head-on into two vehicles. The alcoholic level in her blood was reportedly six times the legal maximum.

The incident led to a U.S. Navy ban on drinking and restriction on off-base activity for its personnel in Japan.

Crimes and wrongdoings by U.S. military personnel in Japan, especially on Okinawa, which hosts three quarters of U.S. bases in the country, have long been cited among reasons for Japan to get rid of U.S. military presence, while amounting to a sensitive and significant factor in Japan-U.S. relations.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has expressed regret over the latest incident, one day after Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida lodged a protest with U.S. Ambassador Caroline Kennedy, who pledged a full assistance to related investigations.

However, as regards the two incidents, apologetic gentleness in the U.S. response to protests from the Japanese side, analysts believe, is only part of a dual play with Tokyo to quell as early as possible the consequent public anger to avert harming the Japan-U.S. alliance.

By the alliance, Tokyo seeks from Washington a security guarantee and support for the normalization of Japan as military power, while Washington tries to turn Japan into a forward base in its intended control over the Asia-Pacific region, as well as a contributor to its "Asia-Pacific rebalance" strategy.

However, humbleness from the U.S. side cannot cover up the long-rooted U.S. dominance in the alliance, provided for by the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement that took effect in 1960.

The U.S. forces enjoy more justice privileges in Japan than in other defeated countries with which the United States has similar agreements, such as Germany and Iraq.

The inferiority of Japan in its alliance with the United States is seen by analysts as a result of its own strategic choice, which has made itself a subordinate unworthy of an equal partnership, as well as nothing but a "tool" in the eyes of the United States. This may explain the U.S. practice of condoning Japan's wrong conception of history on the one hand, while caring little for harms it has done to Japan on the other.
URUMQI, June 8 (Xinhua) -- The railway port of Horgos in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, which borders Kazakhstan, was officially opened Tuesday, local authorities said Wednesday.

With financial backing of 1.9 billion yuan (289 million U.S. dollars), the first stage of construction on the 90,000-square-meter port station has been completed, said Bai Yongfeng, director of the port station.

Horgos railway port began a restricted-operating period in 2012, now that it is fully open, the port expects a surge in cargo flow.

From December 2012, when a cross-border railway between China and Kazakhstan via Horgos opened, until April 2016, the import and export trade volume via the railway port of Horgos totaled 4 billion U.S. dollars.

A passenger train route from Horgos to Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang, had transported 200,000 passengers as of May 2016 since it opened at the end of 2013.

The increased cargo and passenger flow through Horgos will play a positive role in trade relations between China and Central Asia, West Asia, and Europe, according to Bai.
ANKARA, June 8 (Xinhua) -- A car bomb attack by Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) militants hit a police headquarter in southeastern Turkish province of Mardin on Wednesday, Dogan News reported.

The explosion occurred in front of the police headquarter in Midyat town of Mardin at around 11 a.m. local time (GMT+3), the police building were seriously damaged.

Police forces clashed with PKK militants shortly after the explosion. Many ambulances and reinforcement soldiers from security forces were sent to the scene immediately.
BEIJING -- China on Wednesday again urged the Philippines to stop its arbitral proceedings and return to the right track of settling relevant disputes in the South China Sea through bilateral negotiation with China.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei made the comment at a routine press briefing.

The Foreign Ministry on Wednesday issued a statement saying that disputes between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea should be settled through bilateral negotiation.

Hong said that by unilaterally initiating the arbitration in 2013, the Philippines had turned its back on the possibility of solving the issue through negotiation, leading to a dramatic deterioration of relations between China and the Philippines.

China and the Philippines have reached consensus on settling maritime disputes through bilateral negotiation in a number of bilateral documents, but the two countries have never engaged in any negotiation on the subject-matters of the arbitration, said Hong.

By unilaterally initiating the arbitration, the Philippines has violated its agreement with China as well as its own solemn commitment in the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC), he said.

This is an abuse of the dispute settlement procedures of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and is against international law, including UNCLOS, he added.

The door of China-Philippines bilateral negotiation is always open, he said. "China will remain committed to settling through negotiation the relevant disputes with the Philippines in the South China Sea on the basis of respecting historical facts and in accordance with international law."

"China urges the Philippines to immediately cease its wrongful conduct of pushing forward the arbitral proceedings, and return to the right path of settling the relevant disputes in the South China Sea through bilateral negotiation with China," Hong said.
BEIJING, June 8 (Xinhua) -- With regard to the latest political turmoil in Latin American countries, observers have pointed their fingers at the United States, saying Washington has a hand in it but in a more disguised way than ever.

"Monroeism is not dead, but has transformed into neo-Monroeism which appears to be more concealing," said Guo Cunhai, a researcher of the Institute of Latin America at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

"The United States has never ceased its endeavor to disturb the development process of Latin American countries," he said.

Over the weekend, Venezuelans marched en masse in Caracas to protest the interference of the United States and the Washington-based Organization of American States (OAS) in the internal affairs of Venezuela.

Last week, OAS Secretary-General Luis Almagro called to invoke the organization's Democratic Charter to suspend Venezuela from the organization for alleged human rights violations and lack of democracy of the government.

"Venezuela is a free and sovereign country. And after 17 years of revolution we are freer, more independent, and more sovereign than ever. We are particularly careful as a people of sovereignty and independence, with the ability to solve our problems," said Eduardo Pinate, a leader of the demonstration.

The protests coincided with a special declaration of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) expressing solidarity with Venezuela.

During its seventh summit in Havana on Saturday, the ACS urged Venezuela's opposition to hold dialogue in order to ease the growing tension.

Guo believes the crisis in Venezuela has its inner causes but the shadow of the United States is omnipresent.

The United States has been allegedly sponsoring the Venezuelan opposition and encouraging local media to zoom in negative reports on the ruling party.

Maduro accused the opposition of promoting violence and seeking a coup with the help of the United States.

The Venezuelan government claimed that the United States even schemed an assassination attempt on opposition leaders so as to impute the crime to the government during the 2013 general elections.

In Brazil, the United States took a more canny way. Rostislav Ishchenko, president of Russia's Center for Systems Analysis and Forecasting, said Washington is a main force behind the impeachment of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff as it has long resented the policies of Rousseff and her predecessor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

In Bolivia, President Evo Morales suffered his first direct electoral defeat in a decade in power this February when voters narrowly rejected a constitutional amendment that would have let him run again in 2019.

Morales has accused the opposition and the U.S. Embassy in Bolivia of standing behind the ploy of discrediting him by attacking his private life.

The United States has a long history of trying to dominate Latin America as shown in its attempts to overthrow Cuba's revolutionary regime in 1961 and the invasion of Grenada in 1983 and Panama in 1989.

Even though U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told the OAS in 2013 that his country was opting to abandon the long-prevailing Monroe Doctrine in a major policy shift, analysts believe that the United States is continuing to meddle in the affairs of Latin America under the banners of social progress, democratic management and alleviating poverty.

The fifth U.S. President James Monroe established the Monroe Doctrine in 1823 with an aim to keep European colonial powers out of the region. However, the tenet has later been invoked by various U.S. presidents to exert dominance in the region.
XI'AN, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Tourism and organic farming will be piloted in limited areas of Sanjiangyuan, "Asia's water tower," following the inauguration of the administrative office for the country's first national park.

The administrative bureau for Sanjiangyuan National Park was launched Tuesday in Xining, capital of northwest China's Qinghai Province.

It will take five years for the 123,000 square kilometer park to be elevated to national-park level from its current as Sanjiangyuan Nature Reserve, which was established in 2000.

Sanjiangyuan in southwest China's Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is home to the headwaters of the Yangtze, Yellow and Lancang (Mekong) rivers.

Over the past decade, the reserve has received 9 billion yuan (1.37 million U.S. dollars) of government funding to rehabilitate its fragile eco-system. Around 700,000 herdsmen and farmers have received compensation for loss of earnings due to the ongoing ecological protection efforts.

"Over the years, ecological degrading has been basically curbed, which has helped conserve some 8 billion cubic meters of water and increased grass land by 30 percent," said Li.

However, there are still problems ranging from overlapping authority, weak law enforcement, lack of public awareness and a conflict between ecological protection and people's need for higher incomes, he said.

Li said the administration bureau would develop tourism, organic farming and stockbreeding in certain areas to create employment opportunities.

To this end, test schemes will be carried out in four counties in Golog and Yushu prefectures as well as Hol Xil, covering a total of 123,000 square km, or 30 percent of the reserve.

The bureau will also test new management methods such as charity work, a grassland compensation mechanism and volunteering.
HANOI, June 8 (Xinhua) -- The World Bank (WB) on Wednesday maintained its forecast for Vietnam's average economic growth of 6.3 percent during the 2016-2018 period, unchanged compared to its earlier forecast in January 2016.

In the latest update of WB's Global Economic Prospects, Vietnam's economic growth during 2016-2018 period is based on all categories of demand buoyed by strong foreign direct investment, growing exports of manufactures, and solid labor markets.

Among the large developing ASEAN economies, Vietnam and the Philippines have the strongest growth prospects, said a press release by WB Vietnam on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, in late 2015, Vietnam's National Assembly targeted the country's economic growth to be 6.7 percent in 2016.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc last Friday said his country's economic growth is expected to hit around 6.8 percent in 2017.

In the report, the WB is downgrading its 2016 global growth forecast to 2.4 percent from the 2.9 percent pace projected in January. The move is due to sluggish growth in advanced economies, stubbornly low commodity prices, weak global trade, and diminishing capital flows.
ANKARA, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Turkish warplanes on Tuesday conducted air operations against Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) targets in southeastern Turkish province of Diyarbakir and northern Iraq, Turkish General Staff stated on Wednesday.

The Turkish jets hit the PKK positions in rural place of lice town in Diyarbakir and Qandil region of northern Iraq, according the statement from General staff.

The Chief Army also stated that 22 PKK militants were killed in the air attacks to PKK targets in northern Iraq on June 5.

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.

Over 500 members of the security forces have since lost their lives, while over 4,000 PKK militants were killed, according to official statements.
JALALABAD, Afghanistan, June 8 (Xinhua) -- A bomb attack rocked near a local radio office in Jalalabad city, capital of Afghanistan's eastern province of Nangarhar on Wednesday, leaving no casualties, sources and witnesses said.

"Two hand grenades were hurled on a building where a local radio and a media compound are located but the blasts caused no loss of lives or property," a security source told Xinhua, adding the security guards also fired several warning shots after the blasts.

The security forces have launched a massive manhunt in the area to nab the culprits, the official said anonymously, adding "the security forces launched an investigation into the incident."

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet.

Media workers and reporters have frequently come under attack in the militancy-hit country. On Sunday, a U.S. photographer and his Afghan translator were killed after militants fired on an Afghan army convoy in southern Helmand province.

The Taliban-led insurgency has been rampant since early April when the militant group launched its annual rebel offensive in different areas of the country.

The Taliban urged civilians to stay away from official gatherings, military convoys and centers regarded as the legitimate targets by militants besides warning people not to support the government.
SOCHI, May 31, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli (L) and his Russian counterpart Arkady Dvorkovich shake hands during the 13th meeting of the China-Russia Energy Cooperation Committee in Russia's Black Sea resort of Sochi, May 30, 2016. (Xinhua/Wang Ye)

BEIJING, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli's recent four-nation tour harvested a broader consensus on the Silk Road Economic Belt initiative as his counterparts and other country leaders hailed the initiative a great opportunity for regional cooperation and home development.

Zhang's nine-day visit started on May 30 in Sochi, Russia, and ended on Tuesday in Yerevan, Armenia, with meetings and talks in Azerbaijan and Georgia.

China's Silk Road Economic Belt initiative was a main topic for discussion during Zhang's visit.

When attending the second China-Russia small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with Zhang in Sochi, Russian Vice Premier Arkady Dvorkovich encouraged enterprises from both countries to take the opportunities that arise from efforts to integrate China's Silk Road Economic Belt initiative with the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union to seek new economic growth points in areas of energy, aviation, telecommunications, ship building, high-speed trains, transportation, agriculture and cooperation with neighboring regions.

He promised that Russia will work harder to lift barriers in such fields as policy access, intellectual property protection and taxation to help companies seize the chances.

Russia and China signed a joint declaration on May 8, 2015 on the integration of the development projects of the Eurasian Economic Union and China's Silk Road Economic Belt.

During his meeting with Zhang on May 31, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said his country is ready to give full play to its geographic location so as to actively participate in the construction of the Silk Road Economic Belt.

Aliyev welcomed more Chinese investment and underlined the great cooperation potential between China and Azerbaijan, particularly in such fields as energy, transport, trade of agricultural products, high-technology and tourism.

The Silk Road Economic Belt initiated by China is of great significance to Georgia, President Giorgi Margvelashvili said on Friday with pride in his country's geographic advantage and rich resources.

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, and welcomes more Chinese investment, the president said.

Georgia's national strategy to turn itself into a logistic and transport hub coincides with China's bid to build the Silk Road Economic Belt, Zhang said in the meeting with the president.

Zhang's visit to Georgia also push forward negotiations for a free trade agreement (FTA) between Chin and Georgia, with the third round of talks scheduled for July in Tbilisi.

During his last stop in Yerevan, Zhang said China and Armenia need to work together to promote the construction of the Silk Road Economic Belt, better integrate each other's development strategies and expand areas of common interests.

President Serzh Sargsyan echoed Zhang's remarks, promising to actively participate in the construction of the Silk Road Economic Belt and give more favorable conditions to investors.

Closer cooperation with China on copper smelting, chemical industry, transportation infrastructure, trade on agricultural products, tourism and education should be promoted, Sargsyan added.

The initiative of the "Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road" was put forward by the Chinese government in 2013 with an aim to build a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient Silk Road routes.

Related:

China, Russia vow to seek stronger energy, SMEs cooperation

SOCHI, Russia, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli and his Russian counterpart Arkady Dvorkovich agreed here on Monday to enhance cooperation on energy and between small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The agreement came as the two vice prime ministers co-chaired the 13th meeting of the China-Russia Energy Cooperation Committee and attended the second China-Russia SEMs Forum in Russia's Black Sea resort of Sochi. Full Story

Chinese vice premier calls for further synergizing development strategies with Armenia

YEREVAN, Armenia, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli on Monday held talks respectively with the Armenian president and prime minister, calling on the two countries to further synergize development strategies to upscale their substantial cooperation.
An aerial photo taken on Sept. 25, 2015 from a seaplane of Hainan Maritime Safety Administration shows the Yacheng 13-1 drilling rig during a patrol in south China Sea.(Xinhua/Zhao Yingquan)

MANILA, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Philippine experts on Wednesday urged incoming President Rodrigo Duterte to start bilateral talks with China earlier, saying the new administration need not wait for the decision of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague before talking to China.

"You don't have to finish that arbitration. Nobody even knows when it will be finished," Alberto Encomienda, former secretary-general of Maritime and Ocean Affairs Center at Department of Foreign Affairs, told Xinhua.

He added that the Philippines could even withdraw the case.

For her part, Aileen Baviera, professor at the University of the Philippines, said bilateral talks with China "can be an avenue for resuming the confidence-building process" between the two countries.

"Bilateral talks can also assure China that there is no intention to use arbitration and everything else to harm China's security interests," said Baviera.

Duterte, who will be sworn into office on June 30, has said he would wait for the final decision of the court, but said that he will pursue bilateral talks with China if current efforts do not progress. He even said that he might seek possible joint exploration in the South China Sea.

Relations between China and the Philippines worsened during President Benigno Aquino's six-year rule over the South China Sea dispute.

The Philippines unilaterally initiated an arbitration case against China in January 2013 over the issue with the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague.

The Chinese foreign ministry on Wednesday issued a statement saying China adheres to the solemn position of non-acceptance of and non-participation in the arbitration, and will stay committed to settling the relevant disputes with the Philippines in the South China Sea through bilateral negotiation.

Related:

Commentary: Door always open for China-Philippines dialogue
BEIJING, June 8 (Xinhua) -- A 3 billion yuan (457 million U.S. dollars) government bond issued by the Ministry of Finance (MOF) was listed to be traded on the London Stock Exchange on Wednesday, the MOF said in a statement.

The yuan-denominated sovereign bond, issued in London late last month, was the first of its kind outside China. It will mature in three years and has a 3.28-percent coupon rate.

The successful issuance of the bond showed that global investors were confident about China's economy and boosted the development of the offshore yuan market, the MOF statement quoted Vice Finance Minister Shi Yaobin as saying.

China and Britain have seen closer financial cooperation, especially in promoting the global use of the yuan, in recent years.

The UK was the first Western country to issue yuan-denominated sovereign bonds and the first major developed country to include the yuan into its foreign exchange reserves.

China's central bank issued 5 billion yuan of RMB-denominated notes in London last year, the first offshore issuance of such debts outside China.
MOSUL, Iraq, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi security forces repelled Islamic State (IS) militant attacks against military posts in villages south of the IS-held city of Mosul, a military spokesperson said.

Mosul is the capital of Iraq's northern province of Nineveh. The attacks left at least 45 IS militants killed, said the spokesperson.

Dozens of IS militants, including suicide bombers and cars laden with bombs, attacked Iraqi army posts Tuesday in a cluster of villages near the militant-seized town of Qayyara, 50 km south of Mosul.

However, security forces and allied paramilitary Sunni tribal units repelled the IS attacks, said Brigadier General Firas Sabri, spokesperson of Liberation of Nineveh Operations Command.

"Our troops, backed by the U.S.-led coalition aircraft and heavy artillery shelling, battled the terrorists' attack following several hours of fierce clashes," Sabri told Xinhua.

The clashes resumed at dawn on Wednesday when the IS attacked military posts near the village of al-Naser in northeast Qayyara, with troops once more repelling the attacks, Sabri added.

The clashes resulted in the death of at least 45 IS militants, including three suicide bombers, the destruction of two cars laden with bombs as well as three IS vehicles carrying heavy machine guns, Sabri said, adding that five soldiers were also wounded during the clashes.

IS militants frequently attack security forces sent from Baghdad to the Makhmour military base beside the semi-autonomous northern region of Kurdistan in order to chase away IS militants from Mosul, 400 km north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.

The latest IS attacks targeted villages freed on March 24 by Iraqi forces and Kurdish security forces, known as the Peshmerga, during the first phase of a major offensive, recapturing several villages previously controlled by the IS in southern Mosul.

According to Iraqi officials, the operation to free Mosul and other IS-controlled sections in the province of Nineveh was undertaken by the Iraqi army, the Peshmerga, and the U.S.-led coalition, with the participation of paramilitary units comprised of local volunteers, including Sunni Arab tribesmen.
ANKARA, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Two police officers were killed and many others wounded in a car bomb attack that hit the police headquarter of Midyat district in southeastern province of Mardin on Wednesday morning, Hurriyet News reported.

Many ambulances and security reinforcements were sent to the scene after the attack.

The bomb-laden car was detonated as it was passing through the security barriers at the entrance of the headquarters. Some nearby buildings were also damaged in the blast.

On June 7, Istanbul was hit by a car bomb attack, which targeted a police vehicle in Istanbul's Vezneciler neighborhood, killing 11 people.
Photo taken on June 7, 2015 shows an information and communication technology (ICT) village sprawling on 200 hectares of land at Bole Lemi area in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia. (Xinhua/Michael Tewelde)

ADDIS ABABA, June 8 (Xinhua) -- The African Union (AU) has commended China for the overall development support China provides to Africa in general, and to capacity building of the continent in information and communication technology (ICT) sector in particular.

Erastus Mwencha, Deputy Chairperson of the AU Commission, has called for more cooperation with China on ICT development in Africa.

Mwencha made the remarks Monday during an event organized in connection with the Huawei "Seeds for the Future" program at the headquarters of the pan-African bloc in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa.

Huawei and AU signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in January 2015 for cooperation between the two sides in the area of ICT and capacity building for the African continent.

In the implementation of the MoU, under its initiative dubbed "Seeds for the Future" Huawei has been organizing training and experience sharing visits for African experts in China.

In line with the Huawei "Seeds for the Future" program, the first batch of 20 African experts have attended the training in December 2015 in China, which was accompanied by a site visit aimed to familiarize the African experts with the latest information and communications technologies at Huawei China.

In the latest move, the 2nd Batch "Seeds for the Future", which includes 10 ICT experts from AU, is going to China on June 10 for two-week training and visit sessions in Shenzhen and Beijing.

Hailing the ongoing collaboration between China and Africa in different areas including the ICT infrastructure, Mwencha has called for more cooperation towards capacity development of Africa in the ICT sector.

He stated that the two sides have been cooperating in development programs under the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).

A trainee works at the China-Kenya Solid State Lighting Technology Transfer Center in an industrial park in Machakos county, Kenya, April 24, 2015. (Xinhua/Sun Ruibo)

"We do have very strong cooperation between Africa and China under FOCAC. We have signed agreement to pursue certain programs; one of them has got to do with infrastructure which we are talking about today, on industrialization, but also fighting poverty," he noted.

Speaking on the occasion, Cheng Ning, Counselor of Cooperation and Exchange at the Chinese Mission to AU, said China would continue its cooperation with the AU Commission and its member states towards realizing common dreams of development and prosperity.

"You have this dream of Africa; you also have this bright future; and in China, we have also Chinese dream. Hand in hand between Chinese dream and African dream, we will make our bright futures," he said.

He stated that China would further strengthen its cooperation with Africa in capacity building by providing more and more training opportunities to experts on the continent.

Elham Ibrahim, AU Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy, has commended China in her part and said, "I want to thank the government of China and Huawei for implementing our MoU. It is one of the most important elements of our MoU to build the capacity; and the ICT area is very important area."

Huawei, a leading global ICT solutions provider, has been implementing its "Seeds for the Future" program in different parts of the world, in which Huawei leverages its world-leading ICT technologies to cultivate ICT professionals and thus drive knowledge transformation for the development of local ICT industry.

Speaking during the event at AU, Stone Shi, CEO Huawei Technology Ethiopia, stated that people are now living in a super connected world and human lives are getting smarter and smarter due to advancements in the ICT industry.

The CEO expressed Huawei's readiness and willingness to partner with Africans to share experiences and best practices in the industry.

With years of experience with Africa ICT industry coupled with the Company's extensive industrial global network, "Huawei is well positioned to share the best practice, and the latest ICT solutions; we are ready and willing to share our experience."

According to the CEO, participants of the training will stay in Shenzhen and work with the Huawei team in the Chinese Headquarters, learning about Huawei's international culture, strategy and values, and receive technical training from some of the finest professionals in the industry.
ANKARA, June 8, 2016 (Xinhua) -- People gather around the damaged police building of Midyat district in southeastern province of Mardin, Turkey, June 8, 2016. One police officer and two civilians were killed and around 30 wounded in a car bomb attack at police headquarters of Midyat district in southeastern province of Mardin on Wednesday, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said. (Xinhua/Mert Macit)

ANKARA, June 8 (Xinhua) -- One police officer and two civilians were killed and around 30 wounded in a car bomb attack at police headquarters of Midyat district in southeastern province of Mardin on Wednesday, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said.

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) was behind the attack, Yildirim added.

Many ambulances and security reinforcements were sent to the scene after the attack.

The bomb-laden car, which arrived in Midyat from southeastern province of Batman carrying 500 km of explosives, sought to enter the headquarters, but was stopped by the police. The car exploded when police opened fire, Dogan News Agency reported.

Some nearby buildings were also damaged in the blast.

It was the second car bomb attack in two days in Turkey. On Tuesday, seven police and four civilians were killed in a bomb attack in central Istanbul.
MACAO, June 8, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Du Qinglin, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, addresses the opening ceremony of the fourth Annual Conference of Taihu World Cultural Forum, in Macao, south China, June 8, 2016. (Xinhua/Cheong Kam Ka)

MACAO, June 8 (Xinhua) -- The new philosophy of equality, tolerance, communication and learning from each other tells the fundamental trend of human civilization, a Chinese senior political advisor said on the fourth conference of the Taihu World Cultural Forum held here Wednesday.

Du Qinglin, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, told the conference that building a community of common destiny for all mankind is a global cause which should be supported by all cultures across the world.

This year's annual conference will see over 1,000 delegates from more than 40 countries and regions discuss topics ranging from international relations to ecology and culture.

The forum is a non-governmental organization founded in China to promote development of the Chinese culture and cross-culture communications between China and other countries. The previous three conferences were held in Su Zhou in 2011, Hang Zhou in 2013, and Shanghai in 2014 respectively.
BANGKOK, June 8, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Medical workers treat injured people from a speedboats' crash in Phuket, south Thailand, June 8, 2016. Two speedboats on Wednesday crashed in the sea of Phuket in south Thailand, killing two and injuring 26 tourists, Spring News reported.The crash took place at around 2 p.m. local time when the two boats were both heading from Phuket to the Mu Koh Phi Phi islands in stormy weather. The passengers were mainly Chinese and South Koreans. (Xinhua)

BANGKOK, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Two speedboats on Wednesday crashed in the sea of Phuket in south Thailand, killing two and injuring 26 tourists, Spring News reported.

The crash took place at around 2 p.m. local time when the two boats were both heading from Phuket to the Mu Koh Phi Phi islands in stormy weather. The passengers were mainly Chinese and South Koreans.

Police said that the Chollakij speedboat carrying 36 passengers and the Hongfah 333 carrying 26 collided near diving hotspot Moo Snakha Rocks amid rough waves.

Local media said that two tourists including one man and one woman were killed, 26 others were injured and sent to hospital.

Phuket is one of the southern provinces in Thailand. It consists of the island of Phuket, the so-called "pearl of Andaman Sea" as well as the country's largest island, and other 32 smaller islands off its coast. It lies off the west coast of Thailand in the Andaman Sea.

Details and cause of the accident are still under investigation.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei (Source: fmprc.gov.cn)

BEIJING, June 8 (Xinhua) -- China and the European Union (EU) will hold their sixth round of high-level strategic dialogue in Brussels on June 10, said a Foreign Ministry spokesperson on Wednesday.

State Councilor Yang Jiechi will co-chair the dialogue with EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Vice President of the European Commission Federica Mogherini at the EU headquarters in Brussels. Yang will also meet European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, spokesperson Hong Lei told a regular press briefing.

Yang and Mogherini will discuss the 18th China-EU leaders' meeting in Beijing scheduled for later this year, discuss global governance and international and regional hot issues, to boost communication and coordination between China and the European Union in international affairs, Hong noted.

China is a comprehensive strategic partner of the European Union, Hong said. "China has always supported efforts by the EU to deal with inside and outside challenges, and extended hope that it would remain united, strong and prosperous."
An aerial photo taken on Sept. 25, 2015 from a seaplane of Hainan Maritime Safety Administration shows cruise vessel Haixun 1103 heading to the Yacheng 13-1 drilling rig during a patrol insouth China Sea. (Xinhua/Zhao Yingquan)

JAKARTA, June 8 (Xinhua) -- The arbitration unilaterally initiated by the Philippines regarding the South China Sea issue is unlawful, wrote Xie Feng, the Chinese ambassador to Indonesia, in an article published on the Indonesia's largest English newspaper the Jakarta Post Wednesday.

Despite the Philippines packaged its appeal and asked the arbitral tribunal to rule the legal status of some of China's islands and reefs, the compulsory arbitration in essence deals with the sovereignty dispute which does not fall within the interpretation and application of UN convention on the sea of law (UNCLOS), Xie stated in the article titled "The dangerous arbitration of Beijing-Manila dispute".

The Philippines' abuse of compulsory procedures will undermine the international rule of law and regional peace, as it may set a precedent that any disputes, whether concerning territorial sovereignty or maritime delimitation, could be submitted for arbitration in the future, warned the Chinese ambassador, adding that the declarations excluding compulsory arbitration made by over 30 countries will also be rendered meaningless.

The case will also lead countries outside the region to take advantage of the Philippines to further heat up the tension by increasing military presence and pushing forward the "rebalancing" strategy, according to Xie.

"What is at state is the solidarity, cooperation, stability and prosperity that Asian countries have enjoyed for over 20 years, " he pointed out.

China will neither accept nor recognize the arbitration imposed by the Philippines unilaterally and illegally and the ruling will in no way change the history and fact that China has sovereignty over the South China Sea islands and their adjacent waters, concluded Xie Feng.

Related:

Chinese Society of the Law of the Sea issues statement on South China Sea arbitration initiated by the Philippines

BEIJING, June 2 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese Society of the Law of the Sea has issued a statement on the South China Sea arbitration initiated by the Philippines. Following is the English version of the statement: Full story

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

Old map shows the Philippines' claim over South China Sea islands groundless

NEW YORK, May 29 (Xinhua) -- An old map published in 1899 by geographer J. Martin Miller shows that islands in the South China Sea have never been Philippine territory, Zeng Yingjing, the owner of the map, has told Xinhua.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (R) and his Palestinian counterpart Riyad al-Maliki enter a hall before a meeting in Moscow on June 8, 2016. (Xinhua/AFP Photo)

RAMALLAH, June 8 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinians are focusing their bet on the progress of France initiative for holding an international conference for peace in the Middle East, although the road to achieve the target is not paved with flowers, according to analysts and observers.

Paris hosted an international ministerial meeting Last Friday, attended by the foreign ministers of 25 countries, including four Arab countries, which debated the revival of the stalled peace process between Israel and the Palestinians.

The Palestinians hope that the French initiative would lead to crystallizing an international coalition to sponsor the peace process and push it forward in line with international resolutions and conventions. However, they also realize that the French initiative would face some challenges.

Nabil Amro, a prominent Palestinian diplomat, said that those who believe that Paris meeting is meaningless "will be naive, and at the same time, those who believe that they can expect a lot more from this meeting will be naive too," adding that Paris meeting was successful for the Europeans.

"However, one of the major obstacles for a higher expectation is the American insistence to keep monopolizing the peace process in the Middle East and another obstacle is the clear Israeli rejection to accept and deal with the French initiative," said Amro.

Palestinian men pray in front of the Dome of the Rock, at the compound known to Muslims as Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as The Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City during the holy month of Ramadan, June 7, 2016. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

Furthermore, he mentioned the Palestinian internal division, which may also obstruct implementing the French Initiative. He said, "this division between Gaza and the West Bank weakens Palestinian position to challenge Israel and oblige it to resume the peace process."

Amro also spoke about other regional obstacles, mainly the wars in the nearby countries, especially in Syria, but said that these obstacles can be overcome in pursuing for international arrangements in the region.

Following the ministerial meeting in Paris, the Palestinian Presidency announced in an official statement that President Mahmoud Abbas received a phone call from France Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault and agreed that France would send envoy Pierre Vimont for peace in the region very soon.

"Ayrault reiterated to Abbas that France will keep its contacts with the international parties until September and will be discussing with all of them an evaluation of Paris meeting and what they had agreed upon and what is needed for the coming stage," according to the statement.

The foreign ministers who joined in the Paris meeting agreed in the final statement that the two-state solution is the only way to achieve peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

However, George Jackman, chairman of the Palestinian Institution for Democratic Studies, told Xinhua that the statement "was weak and dim due to a clear American pressure practiced on the meeting to ease any sharpness of the statement against Israel."

"Paris statement hasn't clearly specified time schedules for the resumption of the peace talks with Israel and didn't clearly state anything related to the ongoing conflict and also hasn't tackled issues related to the file of Palestinian refugees and their right of return," said Jackman.

He said that due to the absence of Germany, Britain and Russia in the Paris meeting, the opportunities of success for the French peace initiative are still unclear.

Earlier this week, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad el-Malki unveiled that France is planning to form a working committee to prepare for holding the international peace conference by the end of the year, which would decide the framework of the time schedule and the nature of the talks with Israel.
One police officer and two civilians were killed and 30 others wounded in a car bomb attack in Turkey's Mardin province on June 8. (Xinhua Photo)

ANKARA, June 8 (Xinhua) -- One police officer and two civilians were killed and around 30 wounded in a car bomb attack at police headquarters of Midyat district in southeastern province of Mardin on Wednesday, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said.

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) was behind the attack, Yildirim added.

Many ambulances and security reinforcements were sent to the scene after the attack.

The bomb-laden car, which arrived in Midyat from southeastern province of Batman carrying 500 km of explosives, sought to enter the headquarters, but was stopped by the police. The car exploded when police opened fire, Dogan News Agency reported.

Some nearby buildings were also damaged in the blast.
COLOMBO, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Tourist arrival from China to Sri Lanka increased 31.5 percent in May, as China remained as second largest source of tourists to Sri Lanka, latest data released here on Wednesday showed.

The number of Chinese tourists to Sri Lanka increased 31.5 percent to 16,004 in May, which contributes to the rise of total tourist arrival to 125,044, up 10.1 percent compared to the same period last year, data released by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) showed.

In the first five months of this year, 846,229 tourists visited the island, compared to the 714,584 people visited in the corresponding period of 2015, recording an increase of 18.4 percent.

India kept the position of largest market with 34,259 visitors, a 7.9 percent growth from the previous year. 26,826 people visited from Western Europe, registering a 9.5 percent increase in arrivals during the month.

It is reported that nearly 1.8 million tourists arrived in Sri Lanka last year contributing 2.98 billion U.S. dollars of earnings to government revenues, while Sri Lanka government hopes to attract at least 3 million tourists by the end of this year, and it has set a target of 4 million by 2020.

The island nation's tourism industry has seen an upward trend since the end of the civil war in May, 2009. Last year, Sri Lanka was able to attract 200,000 Chinese tourists. The government maintained that cooperation between China and Sri Lanka had witnessed "a very big development".
NANNING, June 8, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Photo taken on May 19, 2016 shows the Qinzhou port in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. China's exports in yuan-denominated terms rose 1.2 percent and imports grew 5.1 percent year on year in May, customs data showed Wednesday. (Xinhua/Lu Bo'an)

BEIJING, June 8 (Xinhua) -- China's export growth in yuan-denominated terms slowed to 1.2 percent year on year in May from 4.1 percent in April, customs data showed Wednesday.

Imports grew 5.1 percent, significantly rebounding from a 5.7-percent decline in April, the first positive reading since late 2014, according to figures from the General Administration of Customs (GAC).

Trade surplus last month was 324.8 billion yuan (about 50 billion U.S. dollars), up from April's 298 billion yuan.

Foreign trade increased 2.8 percent year on year to about 2 trillion yuan in May, while for the first five-months combined it slipped 3.2 percent to nearly 9.2 trillion yuan, recovering from a 4.8-percent decline for the January-April period.

In the five months, exports dropped 1.8 percent year on year and imports went down 5 percent, leading to a trade surplus of 1.4 trillion yuan, said a GAC statement.

Trade with the European Union, China's largest trading partner, climbed 2 percent year on year in the first five months.

Trade with the United States and ASEAN, China's second- and third-largest trading partners, declined 5.2 percent and 1.6 percent.

Trade with Japan, China's fifth largest trading partner, edged down 0.3 percent.

The GAC said imports of iron ore, crude oil and product oil "notably recovered" in the five months -- up 9.1 percent, 16.5 percent and 4.5 percent, respectively.

"We believe this is the result of accelerating infrastructure investment growth, evidenced by a strong construction sector PMI reading in May," said HSBC economist Jing Li in a research note.

"Looking ahead, imports are likely to improve further on the back of planned infrastructure investment for the rest of the year," she said.

Japanese securities brokerage Nomura said China's domestic demand may be more resilient than expected.

Tom Orlik, Bloomberg's chief Asia economist, believes China's import story has been more about prices than volume.

According to him, sharply falling commodity prices pushed headline imports into contraction in 2014 and 2015. In 2016, more resilient prices are supporting a return to growth.

"In volume terms, China's commodity imports have remained on a more or less unbroken upward trend," said Orlik.

Despite improvements on the import side, exports slowed in yuan terms in May and declined 4.1 percent in U.S. dollar terms.

Orlik said China was already the world's top exporter, which means limited room to grow.

China's exporters were also hit by weak global demand, rising domestic wages and a stronger yuan, said Orlik, adding that lackluster external demand was providing little support for growth.

A leading index for export outlook dropped by 0.7 points to 33.1 points in May, signaling growing pressure on export growth in the third quarter of 2016, said the GAC.

Policy makers seemed well aware of these challenges.

Last month, the State Council released a guideline on improving export performance, pledging to provide export firms with more financing support, better export tax refunds and simplified customs procedures.

China's foreign trade dropped 7 percent in 2015, failing to deliver the annual target of "around-6-percent" growth. Exports fell 1.8 percent and imports plummeted 13.2 percent.

If there is no material improvement in external demand, the HSBC research note predicted, China's overall 2016 exports will remain in contraction.

"To this end, more growth supportive policies are still highly warranted," it said.
BRUSSELS, June 8 (Xinhua) -- The Belgian city of Mechelen, about 30 km north of Brussels, is home to some 130 nationalities. As one of Belgium's most international cities, the local government puts learning Dutch as a key priority for migrants' integration.

In a recent interview with Xinhua, Mechelen mayor Bart Somers said more than half of the children under the age of 12 have foreign roots and one out of three newborns in the city has a migrant background.

According to him, in Mechelen, refugee integration begins from day one. Refugees stay at the local shelter regardless of whether or not a decision from the state on their asylum is still pending.

As Mechelen belongs to the Flemish region of Belgium, Somers said refugees can begin Dutch lessons within the first weeks of their stay so that, if they are granted asylum, they have already made progress and do not have to start the integration process from scratch.

In Mechelen, language training is mandatory and free of charge for state-recognized refugees. For those at the shelter whose asylum procedure is still ongoing, classes are optional.

"We are happy to see that most people at the shelter take Dutch lessons. Our main strength is that we always aim for the combination of Dutch lesson with employment in a common language," said Somers.

Refugees have different options to combine work and language study, based on their individual situations. They can have part-time work and part-time Dutch lessons, or work full-time and follow evening classes in Dutch, or have full-time work and interact and communicate in Dutch with colleagues at the workplace.

"We always look for the track that best fits the refugee in question," said Somers, noting that for instance, a young single man is most likely able to combine full-time employment with evening classes, but for a family with small children this is much more difficult.

"Taking the individual situation into account usually provides the best chance for success," he said.

Jobs in both Dutch and English are available in the city, but there are also jobs in other languages such as Arabic, he said.

"When people work in a language other than Dutch this is always done in conjunction with Dutch lessons. We believe that the knowledge of our Dutch language is indispensable to participate in society," he said.

"People who do not want to work here without valid reasons for doing so, will receive no payment. We invest heavily in people and give them many opportunities, but we also expect them to grab them," said the mayor.

Somers said the fund for arranging language lessons or job-hunting help was partly from the northern Belgian region of Flanders, but also largely from local resources.

"Our new initiatives, we even took before there was extra funding from the Flemish government. Simply because we felt they were important. Integration of refugees, to help jobs, fight poverty ... these are all things we strongly invest in. We believe that a strong investment in the short term results in advantages in the long term," he said.

Somers said local governments had an important role to play in directing the integration process as they are the authorities the most affected by the refugee issue and can cooperate with other stakeholders to address this phenomenon.

He said the authorities higher up should particularly support the local government and give them the opportunities to do the work described above.
HANOI, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam is speeding up efforts to search for the British tourist who went missing while climbing Fansipan Mountain in Vietnam's northern Lao Cai Province since June 4.

According to Nguyen Duy Thinh, Deputy Director of Hoang Lien National Park in Lao Cai, the Department of Rescue and Relief under Ministry of Defense has sent sniffer dogs to the park to search for the missing tourist, reported Lao Cai's official online newspaper on Wednesday.

Aiden Shaw Webb and his girlfriend from Britain arrived in Lao Cai's Sa Pa town on June 2. In the early morning of June 3, Webb went climbing while his girlfriend stayed at the hotel. He started the journey in Sin Chai hamlet and followed the direction of the cable car system to Fansipan Summit.

During his journey, Webb and his girlfriend maintained contact via phone, said the report, who told his girl friend that he had sustained injuries to arms and legs. Contact between Webb and his girlfriend was lost at 6 a.m. local time on June 4.

After receiving information of the missing tourist, Sa Pa authorities have sent rescue teams to the area to search for the missing British tourist.

The path to the 3,143-meter Fansipan Summit, the highest peak in Vietnam, is said to be very dangerous.
Hillary Clinton at the Hillary for New York Primary Night Party in April, 2016. (Photo by Louise Wateridge/Pacific Press)

LOS ANGELES, June 8 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton led in Tuesday's party primary in California with 56 percent of the votes, according to results released after over 92 precincts partially reported as of early Wednesday morning.

Her rival Bernie Sanders got 43 percent and vowed to continue his campaign.

The California primary results further consolidated Clinton's chance to be the first female presidential nominee of a major party in U.S. history.

However, Sanders told his supporters that he will not drop out of the race but will continue fighting for every vote and every delegate.

The 74-year-old Vermont senator told a full house of supporters in Santa Monica on Tuesday that he will continue to fight hard to win the primary in Washington, D.C. next Tuesday, which will be the last primary.

"And then we take our fight for social, economic, racial and environmental justice to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania," he said, in reference to the Democratic National Convention, where Sanders pins his hope to turn the tide by gaining more superdelegates' support.

Sanders has insisted throughout the campaign that he would stick to his presidential bid all the way to the convention, even if Clinton becomes the presumptive nominee.

As results rolled in after the voting ended at 8 p.m. local time (0300 GMT Wednesday), Clinton's percentage of votes dropped from about 63 percent at the beginning to 56 percent.

Simon Hu, an 18-year-old first-time Chinese-American voter, told Xinhua that he would vote for Clinton as it is not easy to have a female presidential candidate. "It will be a historic moment if Clinton can win," he said.

Clinton on Tuesday wrote on her Twitter account: "To every little girl who dreams big: yes, you can be anything you want -- even president. Tonight is for you."

Though there are American media reports that according to a survey of superdelegates, Clinton had already earned the required number of delegates to claim the Democratic nomination, Sanders insisted that Clinton "will be dependent on superdelegates who do not vote until July 25 (at the party convention) and who can change their minds between now and then."

On the Republican side, with Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio dropping out, Donald Trump became the presumptive nominee. Trump got more than 75 percent of the votes in Tuesday's primary.

Also on Tuesday, California voters cast ballots for statewide and local offices, as well as one ballot initiative.

A record 17.9 million people have registered to vote in delegate-heavy California. It may take several days to have an accurate assessment of voter turnout.
HONG KONG, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Hong Kong's Secretary for Food and Health Ko Wing-man said on Wednesday that live poultry trade will resume on Thursday.

Ko told the media that all of the 3360 samples taken from all local poultry farms as well as the 270 samples from Cheung Sha Wan wholesale poultry market tested negative for H7N9 bird flu virus. The government decided to resume live poultry trade on Thursday after assessing the risks.

Ninety out of the some 130 live poultry retail points in Hong Kong were checked by the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department and have passed the hygiene inspection, Ko said, adding the department will continue to check the remaining ones.

Hong Kong has suspended live poultry trade and all live poultry from the wholesale market were culled after a fecal sample taken from a Tuen Mun retail market tested positive for H7N9 virus last week.

Ko said, the origin of the virus is still under investigation.
KATHMANDU, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Vice President of Nepal, Nanda Bahadur Pun, will attend the 4th China-South Asia Expo and the 24th Kunming Import and Export Commodities Fair to be held in Kunming of China's Southern Yunnan Province from June 12 to 17, a government minister said on Wednesday.

A meeting of the Council of Ministers held on Wednesday endorsed the vice president's trip to China that begins on Friday, Minister for Industry Som Prasad Pande told media here in Kathmandu.

The vice president will be leading a delegation comprising high-ranking officials from the Vice President Office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The vice president is also expected to hold meetings with some Chinese officials on the sidelines of the expo in Kunming.

This will be the first overseas visit of the vice president since he assumed office on Dec. 31 last year.
PHNOM PENH, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Men Sam On said on Wednesday that the China-proposed "One Belt One Road" initiative has been importantly contributing to Cambodia's economic development.

She made the remarks during a meeting here with Sha Hailin, a member of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China Shanghai Municipal Committee and president of the Shanghai Chinese Overseas Friendship Association.

"The China-proposed 'One Belt One Road' initiative will benefit not only Cambodia, but also countries in the region," said Men Sam On, who is also the Minister of National Assembly-Senate Relations and Inspection.

She said that the Chinese-invested Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone (SSEZ), which saw the 100th factory open on Tuesday, was a testament to the fruitful cooperation between China and Cambodia under the initiative.

SSEZ is situated in the coastal province of Preah Sihanouk in southwestern Cambodia.

Men Sam On added that Cambodia was very pleased to see good relations and cooperation between the two countries in all fields, particularly in economics, trade, tourism, investment, infrastructure development and energy.

For his part, Sha Hailin said that his visit to Cambodia aimed to further promote bilateral ties and cooperation between China and Cambodia, especially in economics, trade, investment and tourism.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei (Source: fmprc.gov.cn)

BEIJING, June 8 (Xinhua) -- China on Wednesday again urged the Philippines to stop its arbitral proceedings and return to the right track of settling relevant disputes in the South China Sea through bilateral negotiation with China.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei made the comment at a routine press briefing.

The Foreign Ministry on Wednesday issued a statement saying that disputes between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea should be settled through bilateral negotiation.

Hong said that by unilaterally initiating the arbitration in 2013, the Philippines had turned its back on the possibility of solving the issue through negotiation, leading to a dramatic deterioration of relations between China and the Philippines.

China and the Philippines have reached consensus on settling maritime disputes through bilateral negotiation in a number of bilateral documents, but the two countries have never engaged in any negotiation on the subject-matters of the arbitration, said Hong.

By unilaterally initiating the arbitration, the Philippines has violated its agreement with China as well as its own solemn commitment in the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC), he said.

This is an abuse of the dispute settlement procedures of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and is against international law, including UNCLOS, he added.

The door of China-Philippines bilateral negotiation is always open, he said. "China will remain committed to settling through negotiation the relevant disputes with the Philippines in the South China Sea on the basis of respecting historical facts and in accordance with international law."

"China urges the Philippines to immediately cease its wrongful conduct of pushing forward the arbitral proceedings, and return to the right path of settling the relevant disputes in the South China Sea through bilateral negotiation with China," Hong said.

Related:

The Minutes of the Meeting Between Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin and US Media Delegation on the South China Sea Issue

Editor's note: On 19 May 2016, Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin met with a US media delegation that consisted of Jonathan Broder, senior writer for Newsweek, Cristi Kempf, Associate Managing Editor of Chicago Tribune, and Jon Healey, Deputy Editorial Page Editor of Los Angeles Times.

Vice Minister Liu Zhenmin spoke about the history of the South China Sea issue and the background of the Philippines' unilateral initiation of the South China Sea arbitration. He also answered questions about the US "Freedom of Navigation Program" in the South China Sea, how China would respond to the arbitration "award", and how the South China Sea issue would affect the China-US relations. Full Story

China Voice: South China Sea arbitration lacks legal basis

BEIJING, June 6 (Xinhua) -- There is a Chinese saying that goes like "the villain brings suit against his victim before he himself is prosecuted."
BAMAKO, June 8 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) on Tuesday honoured Chinese peacekeeper Shen Liangliang who died in a terrorist attack on May 31 at a UN mission camp in Gao, northern Mali.

"We are here to pay final homage to a UN peacekeeper, who had come to restore peace and stability in Mali. This soldier is First Sergeant Shen Liangliang from the Chinese contingent of MINUSMA. A soldier who was killed on May 31 by people who neither believe in any law or faith, during a terrorist attack at a MINUSMA camp in Gao," Mahamat Saleh Annadif, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of MINUSMA said during the memorial ceremony held at the UN mission's headquarters.

"I want to appreciate the courage and commitment of First Sergeant Shen Liangliang and all his Chinese armed brothers. I appeal to them to continue doing the same despite working in a very difficult security environment," Annadif added.

He said China, just like other countries contributing to MINUSMA, is in Mali "to restore peace and stability."

At this very sad moment, "my thoughts go to China which is a friendly country to Africa and Mali, and more particularly to the family of First Sergeant Shen Liangliang as well as to his Chinese armed brothers," the MINUSMA boss continued.

He said Malian authorities "will not spare any effort" to bring the terrorists before a court of law.

"They should know that they will not go unpunished when they commit these kinds of despicable crimes against peacekeeping soldiers," he affirmed.

Annadif said "MINUSMA is determined to continue with its mission for the benefit of Malians" and it will take "all necessary measures to achieve its mandate, including protection of peacekeepers."
FALLUJAH, Iraq, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi security forces on Wednesday pushed farther into the besieged city of Fallujah and seized part of a district in the city after fierce clashes with Islamic State (IS) militants, a military statement and a security source said.

"The counterterrorism forces have recaptured al-Shuhada district in south of Fallujah and raised the Iraqi flag over some buildings, as the troops' advance is continuing in the district," the statement said without elaboration.

A security source told Xinhua that the troops made a new progress in the morning when dozens of Humvees and armored vehicles entered part of al-Shuhada district in southern Fallujah, some 50 km west of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, amid fierce clashes with IS militants and air strikes of U.S.-led coalition aircraft.

The troops raised the Iraqi flags on some houses scattered on southern part of the district while artillery, mortar rounds and rockets were pounding deep into the district to clear the way for the troops to achieve further advance, the source said on condition of anonymity.

The latest advance came four days after the troops made another progress when they pushed into the adjacent district of al-Nuaimia and captured part of it.

The troops' push 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, Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasoul, spokesman for the Joint Military Command, said that about 50,000 to 70,000 civilians are expected to remain in Fallujah.

Early in the month, 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 toward Baghdad after seizing most of Anbar province.

Iraq has been witnessing a wave of violence since the IS controlled parts of Iraq's northern and western regions in June 2014.
KIGALI, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Rwanda has announced plans to connect at least 70 percent of rural households to electricity by 2017, according to the ministry of infrastructure.

Rwanda rural electrification currently stands at 22 percent.

James Musoni, Rwanda's minister of infrastructure told reporters on Wednesday that work is ongoing to meet the Rwandan government's target of electrifying 70 percent of rural homes by next year.

"The government ambition towards energy policy is for every Rwandan citizen to have affordable, reliable electricity and in a sustainable way," he said.

Musoni who was visiting Birembo Power-Substation in Kinyinya Sector, Gasabo district in the outskirts of Capital Kigali to assess the construction works' progress, noted that Rwanda has put in place strategies to promote energy sector by diversifying of energy sources such as methane, hydro electric power, geothermal, peat and solar energy, among others.

The central African country has embarked on plans to rehabilitate power transmission lines and substations across the country in order to achieve the 70 percent rural electrification target.

According to Jean Bosco Mugiraneza, chief executive of Rwanda Energy Group, the government has initiated a public- private partnership program to boost energy production in the country.

"Rwanda energy production capacity was quadrupled over the past eight years. The energy production capacity is about 200mw, up from 50mw in 2008," he said.

Mugiraneza expressed his confidence that the goal can be reached through a mix of hydro, methane gas, geothermal, peat and solar energy.

He highlighted projects such as Nyabarongo station (28 MW), Kivuwatt methane project (25 MW), Gishoma peat plant (15 MW) and the Giggawatt solar power plant (8.5 MW) as energy sources that will help the country to light up rural homes.

The country also wants to increase its generation capacity from the current 155MW to 563MW by 2017.

In addition, 80 MW will come from Rusumu hydroelectric project, 147 MW from Rusizi III hydro project while power will also be imported through regional cooperation such as 400 MW from Ethiopia, and 30 MW from Kenya.

According to the ministry of infrastructure, Rwanda plans to begin exporting renewable energy to regional countries by 2021.
PHNOM PENH, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Multiple animal species on Cambodia's Eastern Plains are on a dramatic decline, including large mammals, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) said in a statement on Wednesday.

"Camera traps and other scientific research show a big loss of wild animals over the last years," the statement said.

"The reasons for this alarming development are uncontrolled economic growth, poaching, extraction of goods, free road access and less control of illegal weapon use inside protected areas and a low number of rangers patrolling the protected areas," it said.

The Eastern Plains cover most of Mondulkiri province and parts of its neighbouring provinces.

"We are still facing immense problems to combat biodiversity loss and enhance conservation of wildlife," said Moul Phath, Easter Plains Landscape manager of WWF-Cambodia in Mondulkiri.

"Spatial planning is the key to harmonize development and conservation."

Law enforcement and training of rangers and officials are a key element to the protection of the landscape's value, he said, adding that community members need to patrol together with park rangers, police and WWF to reduce illegal wildlife trade.
BEIJING, June 8 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese government will build a health and medical data platform across the country to better meet the growing demand for health and medical services.

The decision was made at this week's State Council executive meeting on Wednesday, chaired by Premier Li Keqiang.

"Enhancing the development of medical big data is a pressing task now. It is also an important project for public welfare, in the context of the growing need for health and medical services," Li said. "This goes hand in hand with the development of the country's new economy."

He mentioned that the big data platform is developing quite rapidly in the medical industry in some parts of China, referring to his recent trip to China's Guizhou Province.

Beijing plans to make medical and health data application part of the country's national big data strategy. The countrywide personal health information platform will be better connected with provincial and lower-level platforms.

Also, more efforts will be made to build a health information platform at different levels as well as to collect medical data, which will require efforts from multiple departments. Public medical information needs to be better applied to improve the government's management of major public health issues.

Internet Plus will play a bigger role in making medical consultation more convenient. Also, more efforts will be made toward national portability of medical insurance schemes and direct expense settlement at the provincial level. The government will work together with social capital to make better use of premium medical resources via Internet Plus.

It is stressed that new guidelines will be carried out under the premise of personal information protection and Internet security. The country will need a more comprehensive regulation and legislation in personal information and data protection.

Premier Li urged all related departments to work with the National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC) to further improve data protection.

Li promised that more emphasis would be placed on the portability of medical information and medical insurance in this year's government work report.

"The platform will drive the growth of the sector, better meeting the health needs of our people," he said.

When meeting the press in March after the National People's Congress (NPC) session, Li said the government is determined to speed up national portability of medical insurance schemes this year, and plans to achieve the direct settlement of hospitalization expenses by retired elderly people in places away from their hometowns within two years, so as to ease the concerns of citizens.

The Wednesday meeting also decided that the government will provide basic medical services for all people living under the poverty line in rural China by 2020, in addition to China's national goal of poverty alleviation by 2020.

According to statistics from the NHFPC, by the end of 2015, about 42 percent of China's poverty-stricken population owed their plight to diseases.

The Chinese government's upcoming efforts are aimed at guaranteeing and improving medical services for the poverty-stricken population in rural China, enhancing medical system building and providing accurate medical treatment for those poverty-stricken people.

By 2020, people living under the national poverty line will be able to receive treatment before payment. Enhanced efforts will also be made in controlling chronic, contagious and regional diseases. All of these efforts taken together will make poverty induced by critical diseases a thing of the past.

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Xinhua Insight: Health investigation to address challenges to China's poorest

NANCHANG, May 23 (Xinhua) -- A nationwide health investigation of poor people in China is under way, and the results are expected to lead to new policies to aid the country's sickest and poorest citizens.

Statistics show there were 12.56 million households living in poverty directly due to unaffordable medical bills as of 2013, accounting for 42.4 percent of the total poor on record. Full Story

China policy bank to lend more for poverty relief

BEIJING, May 21 (Xinhua) -- The Agricultural Development Bank of China (ADBC) will lend 3 trillion yuan (about 458 billion U.S. dollars) to support the country's poverty relief efforts from now to 2020.
Image taken on Sept. 1, 2015, shows operators placing a wheel in a dumper machine of the Chinese brand Sanyi at "La Enriqueta" camp, pioneer for the construction of the Nestor Kirchner dam, 150km from El Calafate city, Santa Cruz province, 2777km from Buenos Aires city, capital of Argentina. (Xinhua/Martin Zabala)

by Juan Manuel Nieves

BUENOS AIRES, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Argentina needs to improve the productivity of its manufacturing industry, as it did in the agro-industry, to become globally competitive, analyst Jorge Castro said.

To enter into the global market. the first step "is to deepen the specialization in agrifood," Castro, the director of the Buenos Aires-based Strategic Planning Institute, said in an interview with Xinhua.

As one of the world's three leading producers and exporters of agrifoods, "Argentina must deliberately emphasize its specialization as a leading agrifood producer" amid increasing demand the demand for these products, Castro said.

Next, said the analyst, the South American country must "attract large-scale investment from transnational companies and funnel it towards developing infrastructure, modernizing and boosting the productivity of the manufacturing industry, which in Argentina is extremely low."

The third step would be to better train the work force, "with large-scale investment in education."

Image taken on May 12, 2016 shows an employee walking in front of the storage tanks of soybean oil of the company Renova, in the city of Timbues, Santa Fe Province, Argentina. (Xinhua/Martin Zabala)

Argentina is the world's third-largest exporter of soybeans, leading exporter of soybean meal and soybean oil, and second-largest exporter of biodiesel derived from soybean oil.

On Argentina's heavy reliance on agricultural exports, the Castro believed it should not be considered as a structural economic weakness.

"In the capitalist world of the 21st century, there are no competitive advantages that don't spring from comparative advantages, above all in the world of raw materials," he said.

"Argentina, in terms of comparative advantages, has the best conditions of the global system," he added.

Thanks to technological advances in its agrifood sector in the past two decades, Argentina "has succeeded in converting these unique comparative advantages into competitive advantages at a global level, comparable only to the United States' capacity to increase production," he said.

Argentina boasts one of the most fertile and extensive regions of flat grassland, known as the Humid Pampa, and to that, Argentina adds seaports less than 250 km away, noted Castro.

In addition to its natural and geographical wealth, said Castro, Argentina has fostered a technological revolution in the past 20 years, particularly to exploit genetically modified seeds, and has innovated a system to farm land without the need for plowing.

All of that has made Argentina a leading agricultural exporter.

And to replicate the success in its industrial sector, the challenge for Argentina, said Castro, is to increase its productivity and as a result its exports.

"In today's world, not everybody can export if they want to, only those who have a sufficiently high level of productivity to compete can export."

The question, he said, is "when and how will Argentina's manufacturing industry achieve the levels of productivity that agricultural production reached in the past 20 years."

Image taken on June 24, 2015 shows Gabriel Molina, the winemaker in charge of Premium wines of Trivento Winery, reviewing the barrels, in Maipu city, Mendoza province, Argentina. (Xinhua/Martin Zabala)

Argentina's trade balance in industrial production showed a deficit of more than 32 billion U.S. dollars last year, meaning its "industrial production is largely oriented to the domestic market," Castro said.

"The reason it doesn't export is its extremely low level of productivity, with the exception of the automotive sector, which is totally transnational and directs more than 80 percent of its exports to a single market: Brazil," said Castro.

To spur its industrial sector, said Castro, Argentina needs to first substantially invest in the country's infrastructure, "especially in the country's economically and socially depressed zones, which are the north and northwest."

Secondly, it must keep in mind that "the investment priority is in improving Argentina's human capital, that is investing in education with a specific goal: to increase the qualification of the labor force."

Finally, said the analyst, the government must continue to increase investment in technological innovation, "with an emphasis ... on research in high technology for industrial production."
TEHRAN, June 8 (Xinhua) -- A senior Iranian military official hailed the missile achievements of the Islamic republic, saying it is among the top five countries possessing precision missiles, Iran's Tasnim news agency reported on Wednesday.

It is Iran's capabilities in the industry that frighten the enemies, Iran's former defense minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi told Tasnim.

Iran's missile capabilities have also proved to be a deterrent power in several Israeli wars against the Gaza enclave and Lebanon, he was quoted as saying.

The missile power has further paved the way for progress in space projects, Vahidi said, adding that "without missile power, we could never put a satellite into orbit."

The U.S. slams Iran's missile program as a threat to regional and international peace. The White House offers a "new arrangement" with Iran for resolving issues pertaining to its missile program.

Iran has been claiming that its military doctrine is defensive. Vahidi also noted that the country's defense capabilities would never be subject to negotiations with the powers.
GENEVA, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Limited vaccine supplies, poor sanitation, inadequate disease surveillance systems and everyday cross-border interaction could turn the yellow fever outbreak in Angola and beyond into a larger crisis, if immediate community-based action is not taken, an international body warned Wednesday.

Concerned by the ongoing spread of the disease in the region, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said in a statement that it is calling for an immediate scale-up in response.

"We are extremely concerned about the further spread of this outbreak, particularly to countries bordering Angola, such as Namibia and Zambia," said Adinoyi Adeiza, IFRC's health coordinator for Africa, adding that "Non-immunized people traveling across these countries could pose a significant risk."

The outbreak was first detected in Angola in late December 2015. According to the World Health Organization, close to 2,900 suspected cases have since been reported in all 18 provinces, with 325 deaths.

"Vaccinations are the first and best line of defence, however, given the limited supply of yellow fever vaccine globally, we need to prioritize community engagement as a vital tool to prevent the further spread of the disease," said Nafo-Traore, director of IFRC's Africa regional office, was cited as saying. Enditem
TIKRIT, Iraq, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Militants from the Islamic State (IS) group on Wednesday carried out attacks on Iraqi security forces and seized some military positions in Iraq's northern central province of Salahudin, a provincial security source said.

Dozens of IS militants managed to take several military positions after fierce clashes with the security forces in the abandoned fertilizer plant, some 20 km north of Baiji town, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, the extremist militants attacked the military positions in the presidential palaces of the former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in Makhoul mountain, some 15 km northeast of Baiji, and also seized some positions, the source said.

Later in the day, reinforcement troops and allied paramilitary Shiite militias known as Hashd Shaabi carried out counter attacks under the cover of Iraqi warplanes and helicopter gunships to regain the military positions from IS militants, the source said, adding that heavy clashes are underway at the scenes.

The source said that one report about casualties among security forces said that five security members were killed and 27 others wounded, but there were no immediate reports about casualties among IS militants.

Salahudin is a predominantly Sunni Arab province and has witnessed a major offensive during the past months by Iraqi security forces and Hashd Shaabi units, who managed to regain control of key towns in the province from IS militants, including the provincial capital city of Tikrit itself, which is located some 170 km north of Baghdad.

Iraq is currently witnessing a wave of violence since the IS controlled parts of Iraq's northern and western regions in June 2014.
JOHANNESBURG, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Ratings agency Fitch on Wednesday affirmed South Africa's investment-grade credit status, pushing the rand to rise to its firmest in just over a month.

Fitch said in a statement that it has affirmed South Africa's Long-Term Foreign and Local-Currency Issuer Default Ratings at 'BBB-' and 'BBB', respectively.

"The 'BBB-' rating reflects low GDP growth, significant fiscal and external deficits, and high debt levels, which are balanced by strong policy institutions, deep local capital markets and a favourable government debt structure," Fitch said.

Political risk has increased since the previous ratings review in December 2015, although it is not out of line with 'BBB' peers, the agency said.

The dismissal of two finance ministers in a week in December, and subsequent tensions between the new finance minister Pravin Gordhan and other parts of the government have raised questions about the government's commitment to sustained fiscal consolidation and prudent governance of state-owned enterprises, Fitch said.

It said President Jacob Zuma has become increasingly embattled following the Constitutional Court ruling that he should repay some public funds used to refurbish his Nkandla residence and the Gauteng high court's ruling that the previous suspension of a 2009 corruption case against Zuma was irrational.

By noon on Wednesday, the rand had gained 1.16 percent to 14.7295 per dollar, its firmest since May 4.

On Friday, Standard & Poor Global rating also maintained South Africa's investment grade BBB-rating, strengthening the rand and helping boost investor's confidence.

The latest developments are contrary to wide expectations that South Africa's rating would be downgraded to junk status.
NAIROBI, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Kenya is set to host a China Trade Week Expo from June 29 to July 1, which is expected to draw hundreds of Chinese companies, the organizer said on Wednesday.

David Wang, managing director of the organizer MIE Events, told a media briefing in Nairobi that over 400 Chinese companies will showcase their products from diverse sectors such as construction, energy, furniture and electronics during the expo.

"Over the three-day event we are expecting over 20,000 visitors from the East Africa region to attend the function," Wang said.

"We are targeting to conclude business deals worth over 60 million U.S. dollars to be signed between the Chinese and the East African business community," he said.

China is now one of the largest trading partners and source of foreign direct investment into Kenya.

Wang said that Chinese investors were seeking to increase Sino-Africa commercial ties through establishing joint ventures in Africa.

"These will provide Africans with employment opportunities especially in the manufacturing sector," he said.

He said trade opportunities between China and Africa were often hindered due to the long distances. "But the expo will provide an opportunity for East African traders to meet many Chinese producers within a short period of time," he said.
Picture taken on June 6, 2016 shows sidewalk posters of candidates of local elections in Rome, the capital of Italy.(Xinhua/Jin Yu)

by Marzia De Giuli

ROME, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Sunday's local elections in Italy ended with all major cities set to have run-off votes between the first and the second best contenders on June 19, which Prime Minister Matteo Renzi admitted was a sign of "problems" for his center-left Democratic Party (PD).

No candidates in Rome, Milan, Bologna, Naples and Turin won more than 50 percent in the first round of the vote to elect mayors and municipal councils in 1,342 cities and towns across the country.

Over 13 million Italians were eligible to vote, and turnout was around 62 percent, a lower figure compared to more than 67 percent registered in the previous local elections in 2011, yet high enough to send a worrying signal to PD.

In capital city Rome, the ballot will be between PD, whose candidate Roberto Giachetti won less than 25 percent, and the anti-establishment Five-Star Movement (M5S), whose candidate Virginia Raggi, a 37-year-old lawyer, got over 35 percent.

"The M5S has a very concrete possibility of taking control of Rome, a city with centuries of history, and the capital of a country currently ruled by the moderate left," Fabio Martini, political analyst with Turin-based La Stampa newspaper and a frequent television commentator, told Xinhua.

The grassroots M5S, which is currently the second largest political force in parliament, has not run for elections in most Italian municipalities because it aims at conquering strongholds with a symbolic value in Italy's politics, Martini noted.

In 2014, for example, the M5S took power in Livorno, a city with a solid leftist tradition, he added.

Rome has been under special administration since former mayor Ignazio Marino, a member of the PD, resigned at the end of last year amid accusations of expense irregularities. The Italian capital in recent times has been at the center of a series of corruption and mismanagement scandals, which involved dozens of mainstream politicians and fueled support for the M5S.

The M5S, founded in 2009 by comedian-turned-activist Beppe Grillo, is fighting against privileges for mainstream politicians and other favored categories, Martini explained to Xinhua. For example, one of its flagship battles is for the abolition of public funding to parties, and the M5S takes pride in giving back part of the money received from the state.

Meanwhile, in Italy's second largest city and business capital Milan, Giuseppe Sala, the former head of Milan Expo 2015, whose candidacy was launched and supported by Renzi, was at a close distance with his center-right rival Stefano Parisi.

"The center-right can also be competitive when it presents a united front and nominates credible candidates, such as it happened in Milan. In this case, triple-pole Italy -- PD, M5S, and the center-right -- becomes polarized again," Martini went on saying.

"PD is suffering" was a frequent comment in the headlines and among analysts after the vote. They pointed out the disaffection of citizens faced with continuous scandals affecting mainstream parties, including the PD in Rome and other major cities of Italy.

Renzi, whose government has just recently entered its third year in office, in a press conference held at the headquarters of the PD in Rome on Monday, admitted he was "not satisfied" about the voting results.

He said the worst result for the PD was Naples, where outgoing mayor Luigi de Magistris, an independent left-winger, took close to 43 percent of the vote.

"We are not happy ... the PD has problems that we have to face," Renzi told journalists.

"We can and must do better, which I hope will lead us to be the strongest possible in the run-off," the prime minister added.

Yet, Renzi also underlined his candidates were above 40 percent in most cities. For this reason, he stressed, Sunday's elections cannot be considered as a debacle of PD, but as a sign of the "electoral freedom of citizens" who have started choosing the candidates who are the ablest to persuade them, no matter their political affiliations.

According to media and observers, the overall poor result of the PD can now reverberate at a national level and test the popularity and stability of Renzi ahead of a key upcoming referendum scheduled for October on a constitutional reform introduced by his government to overhaul Italy's political machinery.

Citizens who have cast their "protest vote" in Sunday's local elections "will not be able to vote anything but yes in the referendum," said a confident Renzi, who has repeatedly made it clear over the past months that he would resign if the reform failed to be confirmed in the referendum.
NAIROBI, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Six African countries from the Great Lakes region which hosts 3.4 million displaced people have resolved to embrace local integration as a solution to displacement.

Government delegations from Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda and Zambia met in the Kenyan capital Nairobi to share experience on ways to promote local integration as a solution for displaced people.

"One durable solution to addressing protracted displacement is local integration in communities and countries of asylum," said a joint statement issued on Wednesday at the end of the workshop.

In the Great Lakes Region of Africa, the number of displaced people is rising and some people have remained displaced for close to 20 years. .

During the meeting, World Bank Kenya Country Director, Diarietou Gaye, said the Great Lakes region has some of the most advanced examples of inclusive approaches to displaced people in the world.

Said Djinnit, Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for the Great Lakes region, emphasized the importance of addressing root causes of displacement and finding durable solutions to this problem.

Djinnit called on the regional governments and all partners to take a serious look at finding more regional, innovative and durable solutions to displacement in the Great Lakes region.

During the meeting, the six governments recognized that local integration can yield many benefits for refugees, internally displaced persons and the host countries, however they equally noted the legal, political and financial challenges in implementing local integration in practice.
MOSCOW, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Moscow defends seeking a settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the basis of the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday.

The result should be the two states, Palestine and Israel, living in peace and security with each other and with all their neighbors, Lavrov said at a joint press conference after talks with his Palestinian counterpart Riyad al-Maliki.

The Arab Peace Initiative, advanced by Saudi Arabia and endorsed by the Arab League in 2002, calls for normalizing relations with Israel in exchange for its withdrawal from all territories occupied in 1967 and the recognition of the state of Palestine on the west bank of the Jordan River with the capital in Eastern Jerusalem.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly mentioned the Arab Peace Initiative as a generally accepted basis for further efforts to reach a settlement during his talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, Lavrov said.

Noting that it did not need any amendments, the top Russian diplomat said the initiative was an integral one, which contains the whole complex of relations between Israel and the Arab states.

Lavrov also said Moscow supports the efforts of the Middle East Quartet, namely the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia, as the main legitimate mechanism for mediating the peace process, while welcoming the recent Paris conference with a view to reversing the current rising tension and contributing to opening up direct talks between Israelis and Palestinians.

An international conference, held on Friday in Paris in a bid to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, ended with a reaffirmation that a "negotiated two-state solution is the only way to achieve a lasting peace," according to its official final communique.

Neither Israeli nor Palestinian representatives were invited to the conference. Enditem
A member of the Iraqi government forces monitors the front line near the village of al-Azraqiyah, northwest of the city of Fallujah, on June 5, 2016, during an operation to regain control of the area from the Islamic State (IS) group. (AFP photo)

FALLUJAH, Iraq, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi security forces on Wednesday pushed farther into the besieged city of Fallujah and seized part of a district in the city after fierce clashes with Islamic State (IS) militants, a military statement and a security source said.

"The counterterrorism forces have recaptured al-Shuhada district in south of Fallujah and raised the Iraqi flag over some buildings, as the troops' advance is continuing in the district," the statement said without elaboration.

A security source told Xinhua that the troops made a new progress in the morning when dozens of Humvees and armored vehicles entered part of al-Shuhada district in southern Fallujah, some 50 km west of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, amid fierce clashes with IS militants and air strikes of U.S.-led coalition aircraft.

The troops raised the Iraqi flags on some houses scattered on southern part of the district while artillery, mortar rounds and rockets were pounding deep into the district to clear the way for the troops to achieve further advance, the source said on condition of anonymity.

The latest advance came four days after the troops made another progress when they pushed into the adjacent district of al-Nuaimia and captured part of it.

Displaced Iraqi families, who fled their homes in and around Fallujah due to fighting between Iraqi government forces and the Islamic State (IS) group, head to receive food rations and other emergency supplies at a camp run by the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) in the town of Amriyat al-Fallujah, 50 kilometres (30 miles) southwest of Baghdad, on June 6, 2016. (AFP photo)

The troops' push 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, Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasoul, spokesman for the Joint Military Command, said that about 50,000 to 70,000 civilians are expected to remain in Fallujah.

Early in the month, 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 toward Baghdad after seizing most of Anbar province.

Iraq has been witnessing a wave of violence since the IS controlled parts of Iraq's northern and western regions in June 2014.
BERLIN, June 8 (Xinhua) -- A possible exit of Britain from the European Union (EU) unsettled German companies as most of them were uncertain about the effects of Brexit on their business, a survey found on Wednesday.

Britain is scheduled to hold a referendum on June 23 on its EU membership.

According to a survey by the Federation of German Industries (BDI) and Deloitte, 64 percent of German firms said they were not able to assess the effects of Brexit on their business, 30 percent of firms expected the effects to be negative.

"The uncertainty of German companies on future business relationships with the United Kingdom is tangible," said BDI Director General Markus Kerber in a statement.

The poll said 71 percent of the surveyed German companies expected financial market uncertainty to increase should Britain leaves the EU, while 60 percent expected a rising capital market and exchange rate volatility.

Nearly half of companies foresaw that foreign direct investment would be diverted to the European continent, and 43 percent expected tariffs for German exporters to increase.

"Almost half of the companies concerned greater complexity and rising costs," said Alexander Boersch, chief economist at Deloitte.

Britain is the fifth biggest trading partner for Germany. Currently, some 2,500 German companies have subsidiaries in the country.

An earlier survey found that 61 percent of German companies running business in Britain would scale back their investment if British voters were to choose "Leave" in June 23 ballot. Enditem
JERUSALEM, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian attackers from East Jerusalem will not be buried in their villages but where the Israeli police would determine, in order to battle "incitement to violence," the Israeli police said on Wednesday.

According to the new decision by Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan, set to be implemented by the Israeli police, the burial of bodies of East Jerusalem attackers who were killed following attacks against Israelis will be take place in Muslim cemeteries determined by the Israeli police, police spokeswoman Luba Samri told Xinhua.

The decision comes after a funeral of a Palestinian attacker, Alaa Abu Jamal, in the East Jerusalem Palestinian village of Jabel Mukaber in late May, in which around 200 Palestinians shouted slogans praising Abu Jamal and "inciting" against Israel.

According to the Israeli police's protocol, bodies of East Jerusalem attackers are returned at night, and funerals are limited to a time period of an hour and the attendance of thirty family members.

Attorney Mohammad Mahmoud, representing two families of attackers from East Jerusalem, appealed Wednesday's decision to the Supreme Court, the Hebrew-based Ynet news website reported.

In late May, following Abu-Jamal's funeral, Erdan ordered police to stop returning the bodies of Palestinian assailants from East Jerusalem, two weeks after Israel backtracked on the controversial measure.

The Israeli police still holds on up to 17 bodies of Palestinian attackers, 11 of them from East Jerusalem. While bodies of attackers from the West Bank are usually returned to their families within a short time by the military, but the police had stalled their return.

A wave of violence between Israelis and Palestinians started in October, claiming the lives of 28 Israelis, killed in stabbing, shooting and car-ramming attacks by Palestinians, and 205 Palestinians, some of whom were killed after allegedly trying to or carrying out attacks.

Israel claims the wave of violence is the result of the Palestinian Authority's incitement to violence, whereas the Palestinians charge it is the result of 49 years of Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza Strip territories, where they wish to establish a state.

Israel annexed East Jerusalem, home to 300,000 Palestinians, in 1981, in a move not recognized by the international community. Therefore the Israeli police is the force in charge of East Jerusalem.

Israeli authorities have deployed and are seeking to deploy further measures to deter future attacks, among them the demolition of houses of Palestinian attackers, and pondering relocating families of attackers to different parts of the West Bank or to the Gaza Strip, to the objection of Israeli human rights groups and the Palestinians. Enditem
BEIJING, June 7, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi (5th R) and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (5th L) co-chair the Strategic Dialogue of the eighth round of China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogues in Beijing, capital of China, June 7, 2016. (Xinhua/Ma Zhancheng)

BEIJING, June 8 (Xinhua) -- The high-level talk between China and the United States that concluded on Tuesday demonstrates that the world's two largest economies can cooperate when they are capable, and directly address their differences when they can not.

The candid and constructive discussions over the past two days, in the eighth round of China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED), have yielded concrete results that will benefit both.

The United States gained easier and cheaper access to China's financial market, with China offering the United States a 250-billion-yuan (38 billion U.S. dollars) quota to buy Chinese stocks and bonds. That makes the United States Chinese mainland's second-largest eligible offshore investor after Hong Kong.

Both sides also agreed to designate one Chinese and one U.S. bank as clearing banks in the United States for settling yuan transactions. That will speed up the pace of making the United States a major trading hub for the yuan.

As U.S. Business tycoon Michael Bloomberg said, it is a highly encouraging development that will benefit businesses in both nations.

It shows that although China tightly regulates its financial market, it is moving to open up more to U.S. investors. In the foreseeable future, the financial flow between the two countries will be easier and at lower cost and that will eventually benefit the two economies.

Also, without gaining a foothold in the United States, the world's most important financial capital, the yuan's internationalization is merely empty talk. The new move could help the yuan's going global.

On issues where the two sides are yet to reach consensus such as the Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT), both showed will and wisdom to move the agenda forward during the annual dialogue.

China will release its third negative list to the United States in mid-June. It is fair to expect the new list will be a pragmatic one that will narrow the differences between the two sides.

Both China and United States have benefited enormously from opening up to and integrating with each other and the world economy. Both have an enormous stake in each other's economic success.

Dialogue has enhanced mutual understanding between China and the United States, demonstrating that common interests can be expanded and disagreement can be managed.

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China urges more steps to reduce Sino-U.S. trade, investment barriers

BEIJING, June 7 (Xinhua) -- China urged the United States to do more to reduce the barriers impeding bilateral trade and investment, a senior official said Monday.

Investment, together with trade, is a priority for Sino-U.S.cooperation and the two countries should strive to reduce barriers and expand common interests, Zhang Xiangchen, deputy international trade representative with the Ministry of Commerce (MOC), said at a press briefing on the sidelines of the ongoing Eighth Round of China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogues (S&ED). Full story

U.S. hails annual high-level China-U.S. dialogue as effective, important mechanism

WASHINGTON, June 3 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. government hailed Friday the annual high-level China-U.S. strategic and economic dialogue as an effective and important mechanism to address a wide range of important issues.
Chinese students play traditional musical instruments during a performance in Fontainebleau, outside Paris, France, Feb. 10, 2014. (Xinhua/Chen Xiaowei)

CANNES, France, June 8 (Xinhua) -- The booming Chinese music industry is attracting more and more international professionals from the sector, as crowds of about 100 people here attended the "Meet the Chinese" operation.

The first event of its kind, "Meet the Chinese" was a meeting allowing Chinese businesses to meet partners from other countries. It was held last Saturday during the 50th MIDEM conference (Marche International du Disque et de l'Edition Musicale).

Dozens of Chinese businesses and Chinese professionals were present at MIDEM and it was the first time that a private business, China's Alibaba Music Group, had its own stand. After a brief presentation by its CEO Gao Xiaosong, French minister for culture Audrey Azoulay also hailed the latest advances in the Chinese music scene.

The Chinese music industry joined together its two great assets: its size and its openness. This was highlighted by Vlad Davuadov, the director of a Russian music company Ikon Management, who came to "Meet the Chinese" in search of Chinese partners to create collaborations between Chinese and Russian musicians.

Parisian company Music Makers & Performers, which specializes in music for video games, also came to meet Chinese professionals, saying they were aiming to sell their music and perform at concerts in China.

Independent British musician Richard Navarro hoped to "find good partners to promote (his) music in China," while Kim Cameron came especially from the United States to develop a collaboration with China.

Among the key Chinese participants of this 2016 MIDEM conference was Edmund Qi from 2muse Net Broadcasting & Technology in Shanghai. This being the seventh year in a row he participated, he met around 10 professionals during the "Meet the Chinese" speed-meeting.

He told Xinhua his attendance at MIDEM had resulted in concrete advances in his atmospheric music work.

According to him, "Chinese professionals would gain from this experience a better understanding and respect of the codes of the international industry, making them to better able take part in development in the industry."

Tammy Zhao, the MIDEM representative in China, said "in the last few years, more attention has been paid to the participants from the Chinese music industry and the Chinese presence at MIDEM."

The MIDEM event, which ran from June 3 to 6 in Cannes, is the world's biggest gathering of businesses working in the music industry.
STRASBOURG, June 8 (Xinhua) -- The European Parliament (EP) adopted a resolution on Wednesday calling on the member states of the European Union (EU) to "investigate, insuring full transparency, the allegations that there were secret prisons on their territory in which people were held under the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) program."

Faced with the "apathy shown by member states and EU institutions" regarding "the multiple fundamental rights violations and torture", which took place during CIA rendition operations held on European soil between 2001 and 2006, members of European Parliament (MEPs) called on EU member states and its high institutions the bring those responsible and their accomplices to justice.

This resolution follows another parliamentary resolution from Feb. 11, 2015, concerning the worrying report from the U.S. Senate, made public in December 2014, accusing the CIA to have made recourse to torture within the fight against terrorism that followed the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, including within EU countries.

The CIA had been required to put an end to this program in 2006 after it was revealed in the press.

In this non-binding text, adopted by 329 votes in favor, 299 against and 49 abstentions, the European Parliament deplores that, more than a year after the publication of this study, no one responsible had been brought to justice.

The MEPs also fear that "undue classification of documents" leads to "de facto impunity for perpetrators of human rights violations."

They ask that additional investigations be organized within the EU member states identified as being partners in the CIA detention and interrogation program, such as Lithuania, Poland, Italy and the United Kingdom.

The European Commission and the European Council must give an account to the Parliament of the results of the investigations and the related legal cases within the member states before the end of June 2016, insist the MEPs.

The EP also deplores, in this resolution, that the Guantanamo Bay detention center is still open despite the fact that U.S. President Barack Obama committed himself to its closure during his campaign for 2012 reelection. This military prison situated on the island of Cuba had been opened after the Sept. 11 attacks by then U.S. president George W. Bush. Enditem
BEIJING, June 8 (Xinhua) -- China is highly concerned by Indian trade remedy measures against Chinese steel products, the Ministry of Commerce said on Wednesday.

The Indian government has launched an anti-dumping investigation into hot-rolled steel coils imported from China. It is the fourth such probe against China this year, according to a statement on the ministry's website.

Excess steel production capacity is a global challenge. Countries should unite to face up to it, rather than abuse trade remedy measures, the statement said, adding that China and India should "properly handle trade frictions."

The ministry said it hoped the Indian government could conduct a fair and transparent investigation in line with World Trade Organization rules, and refrain from trade remedy measures. Enditem
MOSCOW, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday signed a decree awarding the Order of Friendship to United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

The decoration was awarded to Ban for "special merits in strengthening peace, friendship, cooperation and mutual understanding between peoples," the officially published decree said.

Ban first took office as the UN chief on Jan. 1, 2007, and he was re-elected for another five-year term in office starting from Jan. 1, 2012.

The order, set up in 1994, is meant to reward Russian citizens and foreign nationals for outstanding accomplishments in strengthening peace and cooperation with Russia, as well as for charity activities.

Among those awarded are Prince Michael of Kent, Oscar Niemeyer, the architect of the Brazilian capital, and former President of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge. Enditem
NICOSIA, June 8 (Xinhua) -- The leaders of the estranged Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities are to meet twice a week in a bid to speed up the pace of UN- brokered negotiations for a Cyprus solution, the United Nations said on Wednesday.

"The two leaders decided to start meeting twice a week, beginning on June 17, working to resolve the remaining outstanding issues in an agreed structured manner," a joint statement issued on their behalf by the UN said.

Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci met for the first time on Wednesday after a diplomatic faux pas in Istanbul on May 23 at the World Humanitarian Summit.

Anastasiades canceled meetings with both Akinci and Espen Barth Eide, the UN Secretary-General's special adviser on Cyprus, after Ban Ki-moon received Akinci in Istanbul under circumstances that implied recognition of a breakaway state in the occupied part of the eastern Mediterranean island.

However, Anastasiades indicated Wednesday after the Istanbul slip had been forgotten.

"We had a creative meeting today ... In general we should all acknowledge that no problems must be generated by either side that would put in doubt, undermine, or in any way jeopardize the existing situation," Anastasiades said following the meeting.

He added there was hope to resolve the four-decade- long Cyprus problem by the end of 2016 provided there was the will and intensified negotiations created more convergences on outstanding issues.

"We decided to get personally involved to a greater extend and meet twice a week under a specific agenda so as to have a more intensive consultation on outstanding issues in a bid to achieve the desired convergences," said Anastasiades.

Anastasiades and Akinci began talks in May 2015 and have achieved a large measure of agreement. However, they still have not touched upon issues that would involve Turkey, which occupied part of Cyprus in 1974 in reaction to a coup by the military rulers of Greece at the time.

These include withdrawing an estimated 45,000 Turkish soldiers and rescinding guarantee rights dated since Cyprus' independence in 1960.

Akinci said that as of June 17 the two leaders would start discussing the powers of a central federal state and those of the "two constituent states".

"We don't seek a confederation but there will be neither a unitary state, because no such a state will be set up in Cyprus. It will be a united, unified state, a federal Cyprus," said Akinci in reference to claims by Greek opposition politicians that he is seeking a two-state solution.

The leader of the governing DISY party, Averof Neophytou, told state radio in a late night interview on Tuesday that the two leaders had until March 2017 at the latest to conclude an agreement.

He said after that he expected a protracted campaign to start for the presidential elections in February 2018, making the effort for a solution very difficult. Enditem
File photo taken on August 19, 2012 shows a turtle swimming in the sea in Volcano Krakatau, Indonesia. (Xinhua/Jiang Fan)

UNITED NATIONS, June 8 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday called on the international community to step up efforts on a global scale to protect the health of oceans.

"Healthy oceans are critical to sustaining life on Earth," Ban said in a message to mark World Oceans Day, which falls on June 8.

The secretary-general said, healthy oceans "regulate the climate and provide a wide range of services, including natural resources, nutritious food and jobs that benefit billions of people."

In order to protect the health of our oceans, it is crucial for us to know their current state, and understand the impact that human activities and climate change are having on them, he said.

In December 2015, the UN General Assembly welcomed the First Global Integrated Marine Assessment, a truly global scientific evaluation of the state of the world's oceans, he noted. "We now know that although the oceans are seemingly endless, their capacity to withstand human activities is limited, particularly as they also cope with the threats posed by climate change."

"Urgent action on a global scale is needed to alleviate the world's oceans from the many pressures they face, and to protect them from future dangers that may tip them beyond the limits of their carrying capacity," he said.

Filipino fishermen mark World Ocean Day with a protest on Manila Bay near the Philippine Senate on June 8, 2015. More than 200 fishermen onboard 40 fishing boats sailed to the senate to call on senators to pass a law that would mandate greater protection of coastlines from environmental threats. AFP PHOTO / Jay DIRECTO

Last year, in adopting the landmark 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, UN member states underscored that healthy and productive oceans will play a crucial role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, he said. "Healthy oceans will also play an essential role in climate change adaptation and mitigation, as we strive to implement the Paris Agreement."

"On this World Oceans Day, let us all commit to protecting our oceans and using their gifts peacefully, equitably and sustainably for generations to come. Healthy oceans are essential for a healthy planet and a healthy future for all," Ban added.

Echoing Ban's remarks, Irina Bokova, the director-general of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), said that 2016 is the year when the world starts to implement the promises made in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on climate change.

"UNESCO's message on World Oceans Day is clear -- the ocean is essential to moving forward," she said.

Bokova highlighted that despite the increasing impacts of human activities on the marine environment, the ocean remains an important driver in eradicating the greatest global challenge facing the world today: extreme poverty.

"The ocean is an integral part of our planet, and an absolutely essential component of human lives, livelihoods and the environment that sustains us," she said. "From fisheries and tourism to transportation and climate regulation, the ocean is key to implementing the new global agenda."

Especially for developing countries, coasts and the ocean provide multiple economic opportunities to ensure that no one will be left behind in the pursuit of a more equitable, sustainable development, the senior UN official said.

"Our message is that a healthy ocean is a healthy planet, and a healthy planet is absolutely vital for the well-being of generations to come. Whether in eradicating poverty or regulating the climate, the bottom line is that the ocean matters," Bokova said.

"World Oceans Day is our opportunity -- as decision-makers, industry, civil society, science, and you and me -- to tip the balance and move from agreement to meaningful action," she added.

Japanese Nettle Jellyfish are seen at Singapore's Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) S.E.A. Aquarium, June 7, 2016. Singapore's Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) S.E.A. Aquarium announced Tuesday that activities will be held from June 17 to 26 as part of the global celebration of World Oceans Day. (Xinhua/Then Chih Wey)

World Oceans Day is a global day of ocean celebration and collaboration for a better future. This year's theme is "Healthy Oceans, Healthy Planet" and individuals and organizations across the planet are taking action for prevention of plastic pollution in our ocean.

World Oceans Day has grown tremendously each year since the Ocean Project started coordinating it in 2002. With hundreds of partners involved, and the United Nations officially recognized June 8 as World Oceans Day in 2008.

At UN Headquarters in New York, an event on "Voyaging to a Sustainable Planet: A Talk Story Uniting Leadership on Oceans" will be held on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the UN's Ocean Agenda.

On Wednesday evening, a reception will be held at the UN General Assembly hall, where the winners of this year's World Oceans Day Oceanic Photo Competition will be announced. That event will also feature several musical performances.

The Empire State Building in New York will be lit in the evening in white, blue and purple, representing the different layers of the ocean. White at the top represents the most shallow, sunlit waters and also the polar ice cap.

Blue represents the slightly deeper ocean waters, and purple is for even deeper waters. The unlit portions, or black, represent those parts of the ocean where the sun does not reach.
BEIJING, June 8 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Wednesday issued a statement on settling disputes between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea through bilateral negotiation. Following is the full text of the statement:

Statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China on Settling Disputes Between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea Through Bilateral Negotiation

(8 June 2016)

China and the Philippines are neighbors facing each other across the sea, and the two peoples have enjoyed friendship over generations. Before the Philippines' unilateral initiation of the South China Sea arbitration on 22 January 2013, the overall situation in the South China Sea had remained stable despite certain disputes between China and the Philippines therein. Thanks to China's efforts, China and the Philippines carried out friendly consultations on, among others, establishing dialogue mechanisms and engaging in practical cooperation and joint development, and have achieved positive outcomes in this regard. However, ever since its initiation of the arbitration, the Philippines has unilaterally closed the door of settling the South China Sea issue with China through negotiation, and has, while turning its back on the bilateral consensus regarding managing differences, taken a series of provocative moves that infringed upon China's legitimate rights and interests. This has led to dramatic deterioration of China-Philippines relations as well as of peace and stability in the South China Sea. China is firmly opposed to the Philippines' unilateral actions. China adheres to the solemn position of non-acceptance of and non-participation in the arbitration, and will stay committed to settling the relevant disputes with the Philippines in the South China Sea through bilateral negotiation.

I. It is the common agreement and commitment of China and the Philippines to settle their relevant disputes in the South China Sea through negotiation

China has all along stood for peacefully settling territorial and maritime delimitation disputes through negotiation with States directly concerned on the basis of respecting historical facts and in accordance with international law. On issues concerning territorial sovereignty and maritime delimitation, China never accepts any recourse to third party settlement, or any means of dispute settlement that is imposed on it. Territorial sovereignty issues are not subject to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). With regard to maritime delimitation disputes, China made, pursuant to Article 298 of UNCLOS, an optional exceptions declaration in 2006, excluding disputes concerning, among others, maritime delimitation from the UNCLOS third party dispute settlement procedures.

It is not only the Chinese government's consistent policy, but also a clear agreement reached between China and the Philippines, to settle their relevant disputes in the South China Sea through negotiation.

The 10 August 1995 Joint Statement between the People's Republic of China and the Republic of the Philippines concerning Consultations on the South China Sea and on Other Areas of Cooperation states that "[d]isputes shall be settled in a peaceful and friendly manner through consultations on the basis of equity and mutual respect", and that "a gradual and progressive process of cooperation shall be adopted with a view to eventually negotiating a settlement of the bilateral disputes." Afterwards, China and the Philippines reaffirmed the consensus on settling the South China Sea issue through bilateral negotiation and consultation in a number of bilateral documents, such as the 23 March 1999 Joint Statement of the China-Philippines Experts' Group Meeting on Confidence-Building Measures and the 16 May 2000 Joint Statement between the Government of the People's Republic of China and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines on the Framework of Bilateral Cooperation in the Twenty-First Century.

On 4 November 2002, China and the ten ASEAN Member States signed the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC), in which the Parties concerned solemnly "undertake to resolve their territorial and jurisdictional disputes by peaceful means, without resorting to the threat or use of force, through friendly consultations and negotiations by sovereign States directly concerned, in accordance with universally recognized principles of international law, including the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea".

Afterwards, China and the Philippines reaffirmed this solemn commitment they had made in the DOC in a number of bilateral documents, such as the 3 September 2004 Joint Press Statement between the Government of the People' s Republic of China and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the 1 September 2011 Joint Statement between the People's Republic of China and the Republic of the Philippines.

II. China and the Philippines have never conducted any negotiation on the subject-matters of the arbitration initiated by the Philippines

According to the Philippines, China and the Philippines have engaged in a number of exchanges of views since 1995 on the subject-matters of the arbitration initiated by the Philippines but the disputes have remained unsettled, and the Philippines has good reasons to believe that it is meaningless to continue the negotiations and it therefore has the right to initiate the arbitration. The fact, rather to the contrary, is that the two States have by far never engaged in any negotiation on the subject-matters of the arbitration.

China and the Philippines have held multiple rounds of consultations on the proper management of disputes at sea, but have by far had no negotiation designed to settle the relevant disputes in the South China Sea. China has on a number of occasions proposed with the Philippines the establishment of a China-Philippines regular consultation mechanism on maritime issues; however, to date, there has never been any response from the Philippine side. On 1 September 2011, the two countries issued the Joint Statement between the People's Republic of China and the Republic of Philippines, reiterating the commitment to settling the disputes in the South China Sea through negotiation. Thereafter, China, for many times, proposed restart of the China-Philippines consultation mechanism for confidence-building measures, but this proposal has once again fallen on deaf ears. It is completely groundless for the Philippines to claim that it is meaningless to continue the negotiations, and that the Philippine side has had to initiate the arbitration.

III. The Philippines ' unilateral initiation of arbitration goes against the bilateral agreement on settling the disputes through negotiation and violates the provisions of UNCLOS

The South China Sea arbitration was unilaterally initiated by the Philippines. In doing so, the Philippines has turned its back on the agreement reached and repeatedly reaffirmed by China and the Philippines on settling the relevant disputes in the South China Sea through negotiation and violated its own solemn commitment in the DOC. This is a violation of the principle of Pacta sunt servanda and an abuse of the UNCLOS dispute settlement procedures. It goes against international law, including UNCLOS.

First, by unilaterally initiating the arbitration, the Philippines has violated its agreement with China to settle the relevant disputes through bilateral negotiation. In relevant bilateral documents and the DOC, China and the Philippines have agreed to settle through negotiation their disputes in the South China Sea and reaffirmed this agreement many times. The above bilateral documents between China and the Philippines and relevant provisions in the DOC are mutually reinforcing and constitute a binding agreement, by which both sides have chosen to settle the relevant disputes through negotiation. The Philippines' breach of its own solemn commitment is a deliberate act of bad faith.

Second, by unilaterally initiating the arbitration, the Philippines has violated the right, as provided for in UNCLOS, of a State Party to UNCLOS to choose the means of dispute settlement of its own will. Article 280 of Part XV of UNCLOS stipulates that: "Nothing in this Part impairs the right of any States Parties to agree at any time to settle a dispute between them concerning the interpretation or application of this Convention by any peaceful means of their own choice." Article 281 of UNCLOS provides that: "If the States Parties which are parties to a dispute concerning the interpretation or application of this Convention have agreed to seek settlement of the dispute by a peaceful means of their own choice, the procedures provided for in this Part apply only where no settlement has been reached by recourse to such means and the agreement between the parties does not exclude any further procedure". Given that China and the Philippines have made an unequivocal choice to settle the relevant disputes through negotiation, and have excluded third party settlement procedures, including arbitration, the third party dispute settlement procedures stipulated by Part XV of UNCLOS is thus non-applicable in this regard.

Third, by unilaterally initiating the arbitration, the Philippines has breached Article 283 of UNCLOS regarding the duty of exchange of views. The Philippines deliberately misrepresents certain consultations with China on maritime affairs and cooperation, all of a general nature, as negotiations over the subject-matters of the arbitration, and uses this as an excuse to claim that bilateral negotiations have been exhausted. This is despite the fact that the two States have never engaged in any negotiation on those subject-matters. Such claim made by the Philippines is fundamentally contrary to facts, and must have been made with ulterior motives.

IV. China will adhere to the position of settling the relevant disputes with the Philippines in the South China Sea through negotiation

China is a major force for upholding peace and stability in the South China Sea. China is a staunch supporter of the purposes and principles of the UN Charter. It is committed to upholding and promoting international rule of law and shall always respect and act in accordance with international law. While firmly safeguarding its territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea, China adheres to the position of settling disputes through negotiation and consultation and managing differences through relevant rules and mechanisms. China endeavors to achieve win-win outcomes through mutually beneficial cooperation, and is committed to making the South China Sea a sea of peace, cooperation and friendship.

On issues concerning territory and maritime delimitation, China does not accept any means of dispute settlement imposed on it; nor does China accept any recourse to third party settlement. The door of China-Philippines bilateral negotiation is always open. China will remain committed to settling through negotiation the relevant disputes with the Philippines in the South China Sea on the basis of respecting historical facts and in accordance with international law. China urges the Philippines to immediately cease its wrongful conduct of pushing forward the arbitral proceedings, and return to the right path of settling the relevant disputes in the South China Sea through bilateral negotiation with China.
Editor's note: On 19 May 2016, Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin met with a US media delegation that consisted of Jonathan Broder, senior writer for Newsweek, Cristi Kempf, Associate Managing Editor of Chicago Tribune, and Jon Healey, Deputy Editorial Page Editor of Los Angeles Times.

Vice Minister Liu Zhenmin spoke about the history of the South China Sea issue and the background of the Philippines' unilateral initiation of the South China Sea arbitration. He also answered questions about the US "Freedom of Navigation Program" in the South China Sea, how China would respond to the arbitration "award", and how the South China Sea issue would affect the China-US relations.

The edited record of the conversation is as follows:

Liu Zhenmin: First of all, on behalf of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I welcome you, friends from the US media, and I wish to thank the China-United States Exchange Foundation for arranging this meeting. This afternoon we will talk about the South China Sea issue.

In the Foreign Ministry, I'm responsible for Asian, boundary and ocean affairs, and treaty and law. Much of my time has been spent on the South China Sea issue this year, a frequent topic at meetings between me and friends from ASEAN and other countries outside the South China Sea region, like the United States.

Many media reports about the South China Sea issue do not actually reflect the mainstream views of the international community. Some foreign media, especially Western media, blame China for the current situation in the South China Sea. This is a misunderstanding that shows insufficient knowledge of the Western media about the realities in the South China Sea and Southeast Asia.

Over the past few months, through my discussions with friends from ASEAN countries and outside this region, and my own reflection on the matter, I observed that Southeast Asian countries never really enjoyed peace from the Age of Discovery to colonial times, to WWII and then to the end of the Cold War. This time span can be further divided into two phases. The entire Southeast Asia, except Thailand, was colonized by Western powers before WWII and then occupied by Japan during WWII, and countries in this region obtained independence only by the end of WWII. In the following 20-plus years, they were heavily affected by the Cold War. The US fought a long war in Vietnam, Cambodia suffered foreign invasion and domestic conflict, the US built military bases in the Philippines, and the former Soviet Union also kept strong military presence in the unified Vietnam.

Enormous changes took place in Southeast Asia after the end of the Cold War. The US and the former Soviet Union withdrew troops, and the conflict in Cambodia came to an end. Since then, Southeast Asia has enjoyed 26 years of peace, making possible stability and prosperity and enabling the China-ASEAN relations to grow. China resumed diplomatic relationship with Indonesia and established that with Singapore in 1990, and with Brunei in 1991, thus having diplomatic relations with all Southeast Asian countries. China and ASEAN also developed a dialogue partnership, of which we are to celebrate the 25th anniversary this year. Over this past 25 years, China has become the largest trading partner of ASEAN and many of its members, and ASEAN is now China's third largest trading partner, next only to the EU and the US. Two-way trade has exceeded US$400 billion. In the meantime, China became Asia's biggest and the world's second biggest economy in 2010.

These development achievements may have invited jealousy. The US launched its "Asia-Pacific rebalancing" in 2010, and the six years afterwards have seen profound impacts in Southeast Asia. As far as the South China Sea issue is concerned, the "Asia-Pacific rebalancing" emboldened certain ASEAN countries, a typical example being the Philippines' provocation of the Huangyan Dao Incident in 2012 and its unilateral initiation of the South China Sea arbitration in January 2013.

There is much attention these days in the western media coverage about China's construction on the islands and reefs. But China only started such construction at the end of 2013, the timing of which indicates that China was forced to react, given the changes in regional situation. Some media reports have been blaming China's construction on the islands and reefs for the rising tension in the South China Sea. We do not agree because China was actually the last one to carry out such construction, after the Philippines and other claimants. And a major difference here is that the other claimants' construction has been on Chinese islands and reefs that they illegally occupied, whereas China's construction is on its own islands and reefs. It is wrong of the US and Western media to name China the source of rising tension in the South China Sea.

As the largest coastal country of the South China Sea and the world's biggest trading nation in goods, China has a high stake in the South China Sea which is a crucial trading route. The peace, stability and freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea is critical to China. As a matter of fact, China cares about the peace and stability in the South China Sea more than all other countries, the US included. No one should doubt this. Even for its own sake, China is firmly committed to upholding regional peace and will take action against possible threats if necessary.

This is my opening remarks, and I'm ready to answer your questions.

1. Newsweek: China has dispatched military vessels and aircraft in response to the "Freedom of Navigation Program" implemented by the US in the South China Sea. How does China view the potential conflicts that may ensue?

Liu Zhenmin: We respect the freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea of all countries including the United States under international law. But the recent actions by our American friends seem to have gone beyond the scope of "freedom of navigation and overflight" entitled by international law.

According to international law including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), countries enjoy two types of freedom of navigation and overflight: first, in territorial sea and airspace, a country must meet the standard of "innocent passage" or obtain the approval of the coastal states and pay due regard to their sovereignty, security and dignity; second, in areas beyond territorial sea, a country enjoys the freedom of navigation and overflight but it also needs to pay due respect to the sovereignty, security and dignity of other countries concerned.

It has been 37 years since the US launched its "Freedom of Navigation Program". The US knows China's positions and policies concerned. The US should be aware that its freedom of navigation and overflight is only in certain areas of the South China Sea, and it should be careful not to intrude into the territorial sea and airspace of China and surrounding countries.

As I said, China needs a peaceful and stable South China Sea and has no intention for frictions with US military vessels and aircraft. But the US should refrain from making provocations. We certainly don't want another air collision like the one on 1 April, 2001. The world is changing and the China-US relations are deepening, the US should be more friendly toward China. You may still remember the meeting between President Xi Jinping and President Obama at the Annenberg Estate in 2013. The theme of that meeting was to build a new model of major-country relationship between China and the United States. A consideration behind this concept proposed by President Xi is to avoid the "Thucydides trap". China won't become another Soviet Union. There are three elements in this new model of major-country relationship between China and the US - non-conflict and non-confrontation, mutual respect, and win-win cooperation. The Amercian friends quite recognize the first and third elements, but are somehow reluctant on the second. We respect the US, and naturally we hope the US respect China as well.

Development is the common aspiration of the 1.3 billion Chinese people. Three years into the buidling of major-country relationship, bilateral ties between China and the US are getting closer, trade and investment growing steadily, and cooperation yielding win-win results.. The interests of the two countries are closely interconnected, and the two countries have win-win cooperation on global issues such as climate change and the Iranian nuclear issue. The Asia-Pacific is actually the only area where China and the United States have different views, but even here the difference is not large. China respects the US presence in the Asia-Pacific and hopes the US will also respect China's increasing role in this region. In sum, China is confident in the future of China-US relations.

2. Newsweek: Does China have a red line on the South China Sea issue? If yes, what is it?

Liu Zhenmin: My answer is both yes and no. We have made it known to the US about our red lines on a number of issues. For instance, we have asked the US not to support "Taiwan independence" and to support the cross-Strait reunification. On the South China Sea issue, we have asked the US not to take sides or support its so-called ally against China. A major problem now in Southeast Asia or the entire East Asia is America's military alliance. If there is a red line, it is that we don't want the United States to infringe upon China's sovereignty and security. On these two matters, there is no room for China to compromise or make any concession. We, the Chinese, fought for decades to change China from a semi-colonial and semi-feudal country into an independent country with national sovereignty and security. President Xi Jinping said to President Obama that the Pacific Ocean is vast enough for two big countries as China and the US. Our two countries can have sound cooperation in the Asia-Pacific, the Pacific and beyond. There is no need for the US to make provocations near the shore of China.

3. The Guardian: What's China's attitude toward the award of the South China Sea arbitration unilaterally initiated by the Philippines? What do you think of the jurisdiction of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS)?

Liu Zhenmin: The first thing people should know is that the arbitral tribunal established at the request of the Philippines is not an international court or a permanent court of arbitration, but a temporary arbitral tribunal comprising five arbitrators designated by Mr. Shunji Yanai, former president of the ITLOS. The Philippines claimed that the arbitration it initiated on January 22, 2013 was not to settle any specific disputes, but to ask the arbitral tribunal to judge on questions about the interpretation and application of the Convention. China does not accept or participate in the arbitration, and the arbitral tribunal has lent a ready ear only to the Philippines. I think the award will probably be in the Philippines' favor.

China doesn't see the arbitration as a move of good will. It is intended to legalize the Philippines' illegal claims and negate China's rights in the South China Sea. The Chinese government released the Position Paper of the Government of the People's Republic of China on the Matter of Jurisdiction in the South China Sea Arbitration Initiated by the Republic of the Philippines on 7 December 2014, which gives a full explanation about China's position. Our position is clear: the arbitral tribunal has no jurisdiction over the subject matter. In fact, in a number of bilateral agreements, China and the Philippines agreed to settle the South China Sea disputes through negotiation and consultation, and both countries have signed the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea ("DOC") along with other ASEAN countries in 2002. The Article 4 of the DOC stipulates that disputes in the South China Sea should be settled by directly concerned states peacefully through negotiation and consultation. As to maritime delimitation, the Chinese government issued in 2006 a declaration under Article 298 of UNCLOS to exclude maritime delimitation from UNCLOS compulsory dispute settlement procedures.

China recognizes the dispute settlement procedures provided by UNCLOS, but the Philippines' initiation of arbitration and the arbitral tribunal's establishment of jurisdiction are obviously against the Convention. The South China Sea arbitration unilaterally initiated by the Philippines is nothing but a political scheme for one party to insult the other and will be recorded as an infamous case in the history of international law. The Philippines has acknowledged the existence of disputes with China. But the arbitration it initiated is, as the Philippines claimed, not intended to settle the disputes. Then why should China participate in it and comply with the so-called "award"? We can expect propaganda by countries like the Philippines and the US about the award having binding power for China. China will make clear its position of not recognizing or accepting the award and will justify why the award has no binding power.

China will stay committed to settling the South China Sea disputes with the Philippines through negotiation and consultation, and we hope the next Philippine administration will adopt new thinking on the issue. Arbitration is not the way out and will give no benefits to the Philippines, but only doing harm to China-Philippines relations. Meanwhile, we don't see any gains for the US from the arbitration case. We don't understand why the US has been so active in backing the arbitration behind the scene. As time goes by, I believe the plot will eventually come to light. In sum, the arbitration initiated by the Philippines is dishonest and not based on good will. China will not accept or participate in it, let alone to recognize the so-called "award".

4. NBC: If the difference between China and the US over the South China Sea issue cannot be resolved, will that affect their interactions in other fields?

Liu Zhenmin: As a matter of fact, China and the US don't have major clash of interests in the South China Sea, and neither wants frictions. The US has made an issue of the "freedom of navigation and overflight" recently to echo with the arbitration unilaterally initiated by the Philippines, and it has been helping the Philippines build up military capacity. Nonetheless, we believe the US government is well aware of its interests in the South China Sea. It hopes to use the South China Sea issue as an excuse to restore military presence in the Asia-Pacific. The US has actually achieved this goal already, and has no need to enter into military conflict with any country in the Southeast Asia. What matters now is that the US government should recognize that time is changing, and there are far more benefits for China and US and China and Southeast Asian countries to cooperate rather than going to war. China doesn't want a war, and we will oppose the US if it initiates any conflict in East Asia. And certainly, if events such as the Vietnam War or the war on the Korean Peninsula happen again, China will have to defend itself.

But we think such things will not happen. Some reports on the situation in Southeast Asia by media from countries in this region, the US and the West are not balanced. The joint military exercises and patrols by the US and relevant countries cannot besiege China, not possible 30 years ago and much less today. No one can stand in the way of China's development. I would like to share with you some basic facts. In its fastest growth, the Chinese economy contributed as much as 50% to the world economic growth, and 30% even today. The US economy also contributes a big share in the growth of the world economy. Thus no one wants to see frictions between China and the US, because slowing down of the Chinese and US economies is bound to affect the global economy. I don't know whether in the United States there are people who want war in East Asia. But no country in this region, from Northeast to Southeast Asia, including the Philippines, wants to have a war. We hope the US government and military can join East Asian countries in cherishing peace and stability in the region.

Frankly speaking, there are different voices within the US about the Asia-Pacific, and its domestic politics is less predictable recent days. This worries us and we hope consensus could be reached inside the US to work with China on the new type of major-country relationship that features "non-conflict and non-confrontation, mutual respect, and win-win cooperation". This will lead to sound interactions in the Asia-Pacific and serve the interests of China, the US and the region at large.

5. Chicago Tribune: When the Arbitral Tribunal makes the final award, will China accept and recognize it? What does China think of the future trend of the South China Sea situation?

Liu Zhenmin: China will not implement the award, nor will the "award" change anything. There is no agency entitled to act as the international "police" and "award" depends on countries for recognition and implementation. This is the essence of international law, which needs the respect from sovereign nations.

From procedure to substance, the arbitration initiated by the Philippines doesn't comply with international law including the UNCLOS. Even after the tribunal makes its award, the South China Sea issue will still exist and the US will not be able to settle it. It has neither the capability nor the authority to do so. At the end of the day, the South China Sea issue has to be settled by China and ASEAN countries through negotiation and consultation.

The US is being nosy to intervene in the arbitration. China and ASEAN have their own channel to solve the South China Sea issue, i.e. the DOC signed by China and ASEAN countries in 2002, and a consultation mechanism set up for its implementation. In addition, after many years of negotiation, China and Vietnam finalized the maritime delimitation in Beibu Gulf in 2001, followed by another 10 years of negotiation that led to an agreement signed in 2011 on the basic principles of solving maritime issues. The negotiation between China and Vietnam is still ongoing, covering maritime delimitation and cooperation in areas of low sensitivity. China has similar communication mechanisms with Malaysia and Brunei.

In fact, before the Philippines' unilateral initiation of the arbitration, China and the Philippines had many dialogue mechanisms and confidence-building measures. At the time of the previous Philippine administration, China, the Philippines and Vietnam even signed an agreement on maritime seismic research cooperation in some areas of the South China Sea. Such cooperation discontinued due to the change of administration in the Philippines. This shows that China and the Philippines have the basis for settling the South China Sea disputes through negotiation and consultation, and this basis is in keeping with international law including the UNCLOS. Arbitration is not the basis for seeking settlement. The attitude of the new Philippine administration is important for whether China and the Philippines can cooperate on the South China Sea. If a right position is adopted, I believe cooperation can continue.

There are still many maritime disputes unsettled in this world, and the South China Sea issue is not the only one. China and ASEAN countries should be fully aware of the complexity and long-term nature of the South China Sea issue, and have confidence and patience for negotiation and consultation. Pending the final settlement, China and ASEAN countries should actively carry out practical cooperation on the sea, uphold peace and stability in the South China Sea through cooperation, and make sure that freedom of navigation and overflight is not affected. We also hope that countries outside this region, including the US, will move toward the same goal with China and ASEAN countries and support closer regional cooperation, not the other way round.

(Source: http://www.fmprc.gov.cn)
By Cui Tiankai

The differences between China and the U.S. over the South China Sea issue have become a matter of concern and even anxiety. But some of the perceptions in the U.S. and elsewhere about Chinas policy and intentions in the area are misplaced. A pressing task is to understand the facts and Chinas intentions correctly so as to avoid real danger and consequences as a result of misinterpretation and miscalculation.

The issues in the South China Sea revolve around territorial and maritime jurisdiction. China believes it is doing nothing more than maintaining and defending legitimate territorial claims and maritime rights. Reclamation and construction works have taken place on islands and reefs that have long been under Chinas control, and many of the facilities are for civilian purposes and public good, such as navigation and rescue services, emergency relief, scientific research, and environmental protection. There are limited defense facilities, but they do not represent a militarization of the area. We believe that recent statements and military deployments by the U.S. have had the effect of escalating tension in the region and, if not curbed, risk the very militarization we all wish to avoid.

Some people have called on China to abide by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and to agree to international arbitration, which was initiated by the Philippines. But these same people are denying Chinas rights under the convention. Our view is that the convention does not cover sovereignty and territorial issues -- yet the very subject of the arbitration is territorial sovereignty. China will therefore neither participate nor accept the arbitration, for we maintain that the tribunal has no jurisdiction in this realm. Besides, it is ironic that the U.S. seeks to use against us a United Nations convention that it itself has refused to ratify.

The concept of freedom of navigation is frequently used to justify actions by the U.S. in the South China Sea. This is an additional irony. The U.S. has used freedom-of-navigation operations to challenge the very concept as it was defined by the convention, believing treaty provisions would restrict its navys ability to move freely around the world.

Worst of all, Chinas policy on the South China Sea has been grossly misperceived as a strategic move to challenge U.S. dominance in the Asia-Pacific region and the world. Some people even go so far as to raise the idea of a so-called Asian version of the Monroe Doctrine. However, China believes that the concept of sphere of influence is out-of-date in the 21st century. China consistently strives for regional cooperation, and we respect Americas traditional presence and legitimate interests in the Asia-Pacific region. The reality is not that China is trying to drive anyone out, but that there are attempts to deny Chinas legitimate and expanding interests in its own region.

Indeed, China has long called for peaceful and direct negotiations with relevant claimant states to manage and eventually resolve the South China Sea disputes. This remains unchanged -- just as we remain open to working to forge a code of conduct for the region with the 10 ASEAN countries.

China-U.S. relations are too important for us to allow them to be hijacked by the South China Sea issue. We may have major differences, but we also share important interests, including maintaining regional peace and stability, supporting freedom of navigation and overflight in accordance with international law, and resolving disputes through peaceful negotiations and diplomatic dialogue. The region should not become a competing ground for China and the U.S. In fact, we have significant potential for cooperation in this region and beyond. Witness our coast guards, which patrolled jointly to enforce the fishery rules in the western Pacific.

The good news is that leaders in China and the United States have demonstrated the political will to manage our differences and keep them under control. We continue to talk. We on the Chinese side are ready to work in a constructive manner -- and we are hopeful that the U.S. will demonstrate the same spirit.

(Source: bloomberg.com)

The article was originally published on Bloomberg website on June 1.
State closes case in Cedros Murder Trial

Jason Hosten, 38, of Cedros would today be told of the options he has as he would be first called upon to stand before Justice Carla Brown-Antoine in the San Fernando High Court. The State closed its case yesterday with the recall of Inspector Wendell Flavini for Hostens attorney Rekha Ramjit, to re-cross examine him.

Hosten is on trial for the January 20, 2004 murder of Krysta Lackpatsingh, 23, who at the time was the Probation Officer at the Point Fortin Magistrates court. He is charged that at about 3 pm on the day in question, he stabbed Lackpatsingh to death inside her Limefield Road, Cedros home. Hosten lived in close proximity to the victim at Bamboo Village.

The State is contending that Hosten grabbed a knife from the kitchen and stabbed the woman about 21 times. He then proceeded upstairs and took $1,500 in cash from a black purse. Yesterday, before Senior State Attorney Shabaana Shah closed the prosecutions case, she recalled Inspector Wendell Flavini to the witness stand for Hostens attorney Rekha Ramjit to cross-examine him. As an accused who is facing a criminal charge, Hosten is afforded three options.

He can go into the witness box and testify in his defence and call witnesses if he so wishes. He can remain in the dock and call witnesses on his own behalf or he can remain in the dock and neither testify nor call witnesses
Man jailed for hiding from robbers

Terron Travis Williams made the comments on Monday when he appeared before Senior Magistrate Rajendra Rambachan in the Princes Town First Magistrates Court.

The magistrate later sentenced him to two years hard labour in jail.

Williams of Fort George, Indian Walk in Moruga, pleaded guilty to the charge of breaking and entering into a place with intent to commit an arrestable offence namely to steal. PC Jackman laid the charge.

The court heard that on Friday last at about 3 pm, Nicholas Henry secured his market stall at Craignish Village, Princes Town and went away.

He returned the following day at about 4. 30 pm and observed a man inside the businessplace. Officers of the Princes Town CID were contacted and PCs Jackman and Mathura responded and arrested the man, who was later identified as Williams. Attorney and police officer Ramdath Phillip prosecuted.

In his defence before the magistrate on Monday, Williams said that his head was bad meaning he was intoxicated. He added that he was in the vicinity of the business place where two men wanted to rob him.

As such he went inside the market stall to hide from the men.
Gunplay at Grand Bazaar

The gunman escaped in a vehicle.

Police sources said that the shot man and teen are suspects in the murder of soldier Jerry Leacock, who was killed in Wallerfield last month. According to reports, the gunman lured both the teen and man to Grand Bazaar on the pretence that he was interested in purchasing a gold chain from Laventille man. During the meeting near the exit area of the Mall.

An argument ensued during which the gunman fired shots at the teenager and the man, who both ran into the yard of a house not far from the mall. Officers of the Northern Division led by ACP Surujdeen Persad and including Snr Supt Simboonath Rajkumar, Sgt Vetus Hernande, PC Williams and others responded and the area was cordoned off.

Officers carried out a search for the gunman but instead found the teenager suffering from a gunshot wound to the back and the 32-year-old man who was also nursing gunshot injuries. Both were taken to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex in Mt Hope where they were treated and remain warded under police guard.

It is expected that if both victims recover, upon their discharge from hospital, they would be handed over to officers investigating the murder of soldier Leacock.
Rio Claro labourer feared drowned

His girlfriend Naomi Mitchell, 17, with whom he was with at the time, remains warded at Sangre Grande Area Hospital, police reported.

Life guards on the beach front located off Cham Road, Mayaro rescued her but were unable to rescue Marin.

Marins worried brother McKendell, 30, explained that based on information from villagers, strong currents pulled his brother under the water where he disappeared.

The incident occurred shortly after 9 am. Though he was at Cocoyea Village at the time of the disappearance, McKendell noted that the teenager was experiencing difficulties while in the water and Marin went in to save her.

He helped up to a certain point to get her to safety although lifeguards actually pulled her out of the waters. But the strong currents pulled him under. He went in to save her and I know he could handle himself (swim well) , McKendell said. Marin of Navet Village, Rio Claro worked as a construction labourer and was in Mayaro visiting his girlfriend who lives at Cham Road. Marin left the familys Rio Claro home on Sunday night.
2 in court for murder

Felixs attorney enquired about witnesses in the murder inquiry and was told that it was yet to be submitted to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, but when this is done, all issues relating to disclosure will be dealt with by the state prosecutor appointed in the matter.

Superville, 24, of Diego Martin, was found in an open yard at Big Yard after residents heard a volley of gunshots in the area at about 11.30 am the day in question.

Both accused men were remanded into custody as a charge of murder is non-bailable.

They will return to court on July 5.
Fashion wins

The event titled Fashion Constellations was the highlight of UTTs Fashion Week. At the ceremony, Fashion Management students of the Caribbean Academy of Fashion and Design (CAFD) were awarded prizes based on their final project: the ability to style and produce an editorial- calibre photo shoot geared toward a high-powered fashion magazine.

The students were judged by an independent panel of fashion management professionals based on how well the themes of their photo shoots transcended through their use of imagery, to reach their desired market.

Prizes for first and second place awardees included a commemorative trophy and cash, in part sponsorship by Newsday.

Newsdays acting CEO, Maria Cooper, says that the true key to building a thriving and informed fashion industry locally is through proper management.

People tend to focus strictly on the design aspect [Fashion managers] really are in the background but without them the industry will not survive, Cooper says of the Newsdays commitment to add to our local pool of fashion managers.

Theyre the people who keep the business side functioning effectively  marketing, brand identity, accounting. Cooper points out that at CAFD, most students apply for courses of study in fashion design, but fashion management is equally, if not more, important.

Through sponsorship of the Fashion Management Award, she believes more awareness can be raised as to the invaluable input fashion managers make to a budding industry like ours.

Its not as glamorous as fashion design but if were really serious about building a fashion industry, theres a real need [for fashion management], even more important than the design aspect. Winner and first-runner up of UTTs Fashion Management Award 2016, Gerard Perry and Rebecca Aird, respectively, were judged to produce the most outstanding editorial works.

Perrys baptism in fashion began ten years ago  in his late 30s  under retraining for fabric design.

Alanna Harlay, now a recent BFA graduate at CAFD, taught him surface treatment in a fabric design module under the retraining programme. In that moment, he was hypnotised.

The ability to take a blank canvas and transform it to a work of wearable art  I thank her for allowing me to wander down that batik road. Over the years, he has provided surface fabric treatment products in both the local fashion and carnival industries, working with the likes of MacFarlane and Junior Queens of Carnival. He is no newcomer, and believes traditional and indigenous techniques and materials must be part of the future of our local fashion industry.

Airds interest in fashion bloomed at the age of eight. Her grandfather taught her to sew, and her creative mind busted with ideas that she craved to bring to life.

Around that time, I found an interest in make-up and started teaching myself. I remember always saying that I wanted to be an entrepreneur so that I wont have to subject myself to just one idea or field, she says of her motivation.

Pursuing a career in fashion seemed like a viable option, allowing her to express her creativity openly.

Both Perry and Aird explored notions of identity and the inner struggles that may be asserted through differing states of society in their final project editorials.

Perrys, entitled Boudoir Chic, tells a story of a Caribbean belle on a cosmopolitan island seeking a source of empowerment in facing the daily challenges the zeitgeist currently brings her way (the economic recession). In the editorial, the belle can be seen channelling her inner Bohemian spirit for strength and guidance, eventually coming to the realisation that she possesses inherent power to combat these negative forces all along.

It is a real story of the spirit of the strong Caribbean woman, Perry explains of his editorials concept, with underlying themes of rebellion, adventure, and unorthodox and free-spirit manifestations, much akin to my personal inherent driving forces. Perry says Boudoir Chic represents the importance and impact of the fashion resources that are indigenously available. It reveals the full marketing potential of Caribbean fashion products to be a serious contender in the highly competitive fashion market. Airds shoot, Tomboyish, tells of the struggles a gender-fluid lesbian endured before accepting her true self  an emotional journey of inner happiness. Her concept revolves around a young girl whose mother outfitted her in the prettiest of garments from a young age, but who never felt comfortable in what she wore. Eventually, the editorials character starts caring less about societys expectations and norms, and starts owning her masculine side, which she expresses through her wear.

I wanted whoever that saw my pictures to actually feel the girls grief and how uncomfortable she felt in what society said was right for her to wear, Aird says of her editorials message. She has strong views about equality, and while she doesnt label herself an activist, she believes better LGBTQ (lesbian, gay bisexual transgenders or questioning) representation in media can lead to less bigotry and oppression of basic rights.

My project represents more than just fighting for equality, but also fighting for people to be more open-minded. Both recipients note the extra- hard work they put into their editorials. Gerard mentions that he put together a copacetic team that was able to achieve just the right look he was eager for  but not before much scheduling and curating of unique pieces. Rebecca shot her editorial twice; the first time she was displeased with its outcome and felt the story could be told with more pathos. Her second shoot was pulled off mere days before her deadline, but she is thankful that she was able to provide her own make-up services and have friends model and snap the photos, a true labour of love.

With top prizes to prove their chops in fashion management, Perry and Aird hope to use their academic skills to help shape the future of TTs fashion market.

Aird says she hopes to help fill the gap where fashion managers are lacking here in TT, and use her creative ideas and business acumen to help designers growth, as well as her own professional and entrepreneurial growth. She wishes to add to our nations development in any small way, knowing that everything starts at home.

But most importantly, she wants to speak to our humanity through her work. I hope that my creative ideas could impact and change peoples lives so when they see my work, they could feel some form of emotion  from happiness, to sadness, to shock, to maybe even all at once. Perry says his goal is to use what he has learned through fashion management to play a substantial role in uniting all sides of our fashion industry  not on a me page but a we page. He was fortunate enough to be part of a stakeholder consultation, held for the development of a strategic plan forward, facilitated by Fashion TT and the Fashion Industry Development Committee (FIDC).

He hopes to continue liaising with these local bodies and be instrumentally involved in stakeholder interactions, whether it be in the social responsibilities, assisting in shaping industry cohesion, intelligence and governance process, [or] expanding the global value chain network. His focus is on creating sustainable and competitive advantages through diversification in areas such as product quality, branding, and the breadth of product offerings.

He acknowledges that many areas of fashion management are deficient locally and need immediate attention, and in time, he hopes to assist in bringing TT to the forefront of the Caribbean fashion industry.
PURE MISCHIEF

Speaking at a press conference at the Ministrys office in Port-of- Spain, Garcia promised swift action against those responsible for placing the fake hand grenade near the primary school. The reason we called this media conference is to let those with deranged minds know that anyone with intentions of making such threats will be dealt with. There are things in place to ensure the moment anyone tries any action like that, they will be dealt with. I want to give this guarantee to all our parents, students, teachers and other members of staff that our schools will be safe and we will do everything to ensure the safety of all those who operate within. Minister Garcia also noted that persons found making threats could be charged under the Anti-Terrorism Act.

Asked why schools have come under threat recently, Minister Garcia said that schools were easy targets and could be easily disrupted by persons because of the large number of persons within these institutions.

Garcia said his Ministry has been very proactive in efforts to ensure the safety of all schools in the country.

The Minister said the safety of staff and students remain a top priority and assured parents and teachers that classes at Point Fortin RC will resume classes today.

He also praised the schools Crisis Management Team for the quick and smooth evacuation. Minister in the Ministry of Education Dr Lovell Francis, speaking on the bomb threat at UWIs Faculty of Social Sciences said, the faculty and surrounding buildings were searched by authorities but no such device was located.

The evacuation of that faculty and surrounding buildings including the library and food court was ordered. The fire services, the Police Service bomb squad were called in and searched the premises and no incendiary device was located in any building there. I am pleased to report the campus Occupational Health and Safety Committee has assured all checks were done and no such device was located. UWI ON HIGH ALERT The University was put on high alert yesterday, after an anonymous caller said there was a bomb planted on the campus and it would explode while classes were in session at the Faculty of Social Sciences. A release by UWIs Marketing and Communications department stated UWIs Estate Police were contacted.

Officers evacuated all persons in adjacent buildings from the Management Studies faculty and the Faculty of Humanities and Education, including the Alma Jordan Library, the Student Activities Centre, Food Court, Learning Resource Centre and other nearby buildings.

Staff at the Social Sciences and Humanities Faculties were sent home.

Fire officers, along with the TTPS bomb unit and the campus Occupational Health, Safety and Environmental Unit were also contacted. Officers checked the area for any explosive devices, but they did not find anything. Within hours, emergency services gave the all clear to the faculties and told them they would be able to resume their daily duties.

Mass emails were sent from the campus to students informing and updating them on the progress of the situation, however students were still confused as to whether there was a bomb scare in the first place. First I got an email about the bomb scare, then I got an email saying that everything was cleared up, said one student, When I got into school I didnt see any security, not even by the front gate. In my mind I was wondering if this threat was really real, because I did not see any Police officers or anything. Newsday understands that an investigation has been launched, to determine who made the call to the University.

FEAR AT SCHOOL Also, for the second time in as many weeks, officers of the Explosive Detection and Disposal Unit of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service had to swing into action following the discovery of an object resembling a hand grenade yesterday morning near a river a short distance from the Point Fortin RC Primary School.

National Security Minister Edmund Dillon later in the day said that tests revealed the grenade was in fact a cigarette lighter in the shape of a grenade. When the discovery was made, it led to mass chaos outside the main entrance of the primary school as news spread throughout the community of, a grenade behind the school. Scores of parents showed up to collect their young ones while those who arrived later were immediately turned away. Acting on instructions from fire and police officers, the building was immediately evacuated.

According to police, at 7.30 am, Trevlon Moses, an employee of the Point Fortin Borough Corporation was brush cutting grass along Reyes Road off Techier Link Road, when he saw what looked like a hand grenade in the grass 500 meters to the back of the school. A report was made and Cpl Seurattan and PC McNish were first responders and later were joined by officers of the bomb detection unit.

Following investigations, teachers were advised to evacuate the building and send the children home.

A parent told Newsday she panicked when she got a call to come and pick her child up as there was a grenade outside the school. ASP Jackman also visited the scene. Cpl Seurattan in continuing investigations.

The country has been gripped by a series of bomb threats made via Whatsapp voice recordings and telephoned threats, within the past month, to malls and schools. Apart from causing panic and affecting businesses, these hoaxes have wasted the time of police, firemen and the bomb detection and disposal unit.

Last week a real hand grenade was found in the mangrove in Carli Bay, Couva by police who were on patrol.

(ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SHANE SUPERVILLE)
Kamla: Say why you dipped into HS Fund

At a media conference at Piarco International Airport on Sunday, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley confirmed a newspaper report that government had withdrawn $2.5 Billion from the HSF but said there was nothing to worry about as the withdrawal was planned since last year as the nation was earning far less revenue due to fluctuating oil prices.

Yesterday, world oil prices reached its highest in eight months with West Texas Intermediary (whose price TT oil is traded on the world market), trading at over US$50 a barrel.

(See Page 18A) Addressing a UNC Monday Night Forum at Naparima Boys College in San Fernando, Persad- Bissessar told a packed auditorium that the Fund was created during the Basdeo Panday administration as an interim Revenue Stabilisation Fund and is not a bran tub to dip into and pick up goodies to fight an election. So by stealth, we discover...

wake up one morning, two point five billion dollars gone! What is that for? Is it that things are much worse than they are really telling us, she asked. Why do you need to raid the HSF? What is the rationale for dipping into the HSF? Is it to pay the backpay that is due at the end of June? Tell us. We had a plan how we were going to pay the monies, the outstanding back pay to workers in this country. We worked that out for monies to come in from several sources, TGU, the IPOs...

Minister tell us what you have done with the money that would have come in from all these other sources, that you are still going to borrow 2.5 billion dollars, she said. Persad-Bissessar continued: You know what, I really would not want to believe it but I would put nothing past this Rowley government, I believe that they are pulling that money out in order to fund the election campaign, the Local Government election campaign, and so they must tell us that is not so. She pointed out that no previous government, including the Patrick Manning administration had ever withdrawn funds from the HSF, and promised that a re-elected Peoples Partnership government would reimburse into the fund all monies withdrawn by the Rowley government.

She also called on Rowley to table in Parliament necessary legislation to split the Fund into two, which he promised during last years budget debate. In a fiery address, Persad-Bissessar took Minister in the Ministry of the Attorney General Stuart Young to task for his statements about the San Fernando to Point Fortin Highway saying Young, whom she dubbed a Junior Minister of Everything, had supplied Parliament with erroneous figures about the highways expenditure and completion date.

She said that on April 1, Young told Parliament that over $5B was spent but only 49 percent of the construction was completed.

However, she said that on June 1, Nidco deputy chairman Stephen Gardiner told a Public Accounts (Enterprises) Committee of Parliament that $3.7B was spent and 61 percent of the project completed.
Prison officer on $80,000 bail

Ramlochan who was charged on Monday, four days after keys to the west wing of the Remand Section of the city prisons went missing, stood before Chief Magistrate Marcia Ayers-Caesar, just before midday yesterday.

The 26-year-old Prison officer who is a father of two children, aged three and four, stood silently in the prisoners docks in the Eighth Court, as the charge was read out to him. It is alleged that on June 2, at the prison, while performing his duties Ramlochan misbehaved himself as a member of the TT Prison Service by wilfully refusing or deliberately refusing to return keys to the cells, after he removed them without lawful authority, when it was discovered they were in his possession.

Ramlocan of OBrien Trace, Biche, was not called on to plead to the indictably laid charge and has no criminal record.

He has four years in the Prison Service and there were no objections to bail being granted. Chief Magistrate Ayers-Caesar ordered that $80,000 bail with a surety, must be approved by a Clerk of the Peace III and Ramlochan must surrender his TT Passport and report to the Biche Police Station on Mondays and Thursdays, between the hours of 6 am to 6 pm.

Ramlochan who will be suspended from the prison service pending the outcome of his case, will return to court on July 1. He was charged by Inspector Desmond Wilson of the Port-of- Spain Criminal Investigations Department.

He was represented by attorney Devesh Narine, who held for attorney Jai Narine.

Ramlochans arrest followed investigations by police and prison officers after it was ascertained that keys to the west wing of the jail went missing. The keys were later found in a house in St Helena.
Boy in court for poisoning granny

Instead, the boy appeared yesterday before a Justice of the Peace (JP) who adjourned the case to today. The virtual complainant  the accused boys grandmother  was not in court yesterday for the brief hearing.

However the boys mother and another female relative were seen together as a policewoman escorted the minor to the courthouse.

Newsday learnt that the boy was released into the care of his mother to today when the matter will be called before a magistrate.

He has been charged with lacing poison in a meal of macaroni, cheese and egg which he fed to his 58-yearold grandmother at their Rio Claro home on the weekend.

The woman had to be treated at a health facility.

PC Durant Neaves of the Rio Claro Police Station charged the boy, a Form One Secondary school pupil, with administering a toxic substance to endanger life.
200,000 squatters in Trinidad

The problem, Francis yesterday told a parliamentary Joint Select Committee (JSC) with responsibility for Land and Physical Infrastructure, was compounded by the previous board of directors giving certificates of comforts (COC) to squatters, some of whom the current board may have to relocate.

To make matters worse, he said, the LSA does not having the authority to demolish squatters structures or take them to court and it has not been getting the cooperation of the Office of the Commissioner of State Lands and regional corporations, which have the authority to take these types of action.

LSA Chief Executive Officer Hazar Hosein said that since 2013, approximately 4,000 notices of brand new illegal structures built on State lands, were sent to the Commissioner of State Lands, on a weekly basis. This is in addition to regular meetings where the issue was raised continuously with no action being taken. These notices were also sent to regional corporations, he said.

Asked how many were dealt with, Hosein said, I cant count any of them. We have not been informed of any action being taken against them. The LSA has begun to send the notices electronically, he said.

On the issue of COCs, Francis said that prior to 2010, the LSA gave no COC to squatters in scientific reserves, forest reserves and on river banks.

What happened since 2010 to 2015, he said, the outgoing LSA board took a decision - it is on record - to give squatters COC as long as they live on State lands. This was regardless, he said, of whether they lived on river banks, scientific reserves or recreation grounds. That policy, he said, has put the new board at a great disadvantage as it now has to find accommodation for squatters given COCs.

We cannot now withdraw it (COC). It is already in their possession, he said. The mandate of the LSA, which falls under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, Hosein explained, is regularisation of squatters according to the State Land Regularisation Tenure Act 1998. Regularisation involves tenure and infrastructure improvement.

He said that 251 sites in Trinidad were listed in the act, and three in Tobago. The LSA is responsible for the sites in Trinidad.

The total of over 55,000 families or over 200,000 persons found to be squatting, was based on a survey done between 2009 to 2012, he said noting that, Since then numbers have grown over the years. Squatters in the 251 sites, he said, had until October 27, 2000 to apply for regularisation and about 23,000 squatters applied. Their applications were being processed.
No platform for educated young women

She was speaking yesterday at the Rotary Clubs headquarters at Fitzblackman Drive in Woodbrook.

I love having this opportunity to speak to people like myself who have done really well and who are at the top of the fields to understand that there is a growing community of professionals that are coming up and needs assistance and support to become just as good as the ones who are already at the top, she continued.

It is already hard to be accepted but the young educated group of men and women cannot find a platform to express themselves, and a platform to grow. Welch is a doctor and dancer who recently started a foundation to empower and inspire women, called dianaTon.

Speaking as a young professional still growing and inspiring others in her field, she said there are limited avenues for intelligent conversation with young people, who still do not remain accessible and appreciated by society.

She said it has become very difficult in recent time in Trinidad and Tobago to become successful, and over the years it has become worse. It is just getting worse as time goes by. I know a lot of people who I have gone to school with and are no longer here and the reason they are no longer here is that it is too difficult to be an intelligent, educated, all-rounded, positive young man or woman in Trinidad and Tobago, she said.
Kamla sends Ramadan greetings

In her Ramadan message to the nation, Persad- Bissessar observed, The holy month of Ramadan comes at a time when the Muslim community stands to provide leadership by example in a time of challenge and uncertainty.

She said this month marks the period of 30 days of sacrifice, fasting, prayer, charity and renewal and is a special gift to Muslims worldwide as a result of Almighty Allahs great love for the Holy Prophet of Islam and is an opportunity for Muslims to harness the great benefits that this month contains.

Stating that in this country circumstances face us that challenge our very resilience and our resolve as a people, families and a united population, Persad-Bissessar said, In these times of challenge, we are reminded of the ultimate power that resides in Almighty God and in our religious faith, in whatever way and form we worship.

She concluded, The Muslim community will stand at the forefront in the coming days by reminding us of the depth of sacrifice, the strength of faith and the power of community that really are among the core pillars of any great nation
Khan: No HSF funding for elections

Khan said, All election campaigns are party matters. Whatever money we have to expend on the local government election campaign will be resourced from the PNM. He explained this was so because the party is the entity that fights the election and not the Government. Khan said Finance Minister Colm Imbert is on record as stating the money was withdrawn for budgetary support. He added that the population is well aware that when Imbert presented the 2016 Budget last October, there was an income forecast and an expenditure.

It is obvious that based on very low oil prices, especially in the first six months of the fiscal year, the income forecast...we are not meeting it. Khan added, Obviously if we want to maintain some expenditure level similar to what was forecasted in the Budget, budgetary support will be required and we plan to meet that deficit from both prudent borrowing, a greater level of tax collection compliance and obviously some prudent use of the HSF.
PM congratulates Chastanet

In a signed letter to Chastanet, Rowley said he wished to reaffirm the Governments committment to further strengthen the bonds of friendship, that have traditionally existed between our two countries. The Prime Minister told Chastanet that he looked forward to working with him, towards the pursuit of our bilateral and regional interests. Noting the victory of Chastanets United Workers Party in St Lucias general elections on June 6, Rowley told Chastanet,  The keenly contested elections is testimony to the vibrant democracy which exists in St Lucia and exhibits the faith that the people have placed in you and in the vision which you have enunciated for your country. The Prime Minister wished Chastanet success as he embarked on his inaugural term in office and was confident that Chastanet would, lead St Lucia on the path to further growth, development and prosperity. Chastanets victory meant that former Prime Minister Kenny Anthonys quest for consecutive five-year terms in office was thwarted. Chastanets party won the June 6 general election, after claiming 11 of the 17 constituency seats. The Saint Lucia Labour Party (SLP) only managed to win six constituency seats. Chastanet is a former tourism minister
Imbert shows contempt for HSF

During his contribution to debate in the Senate on the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Property (Amendment) Bill, 2015, Mark digressed to condemn Imbert on his answer to that question earlier in the sitting.

Stating , you have to bring legislation here one day, Mark declared, Any future withdrawal from the peoples national savings must have parliamentary approval. Opposition senators thumped their desks as Mark claimed Imbert was showing, contempt towards the people and acting like the HSF was his personal account. Senate President Christine Kangaloo then advised Mark, Just get back to what you are debating and forget about those extra comments that you are making. Returning to the bill, Mark was cautioned by Kangaloo about imputing improper motive when he hinted that a government senator was involved in corruption in Tobago where the award of contracts was concerned.

As he declared there would be no autonomy for Tobago until there is proper accountability of activities taking place under the Tobago House of Assembly (THA), Mark vowed to bring the evidence of what he was speaking about by way of a substantive motion.

He claimed what was happening in Tobago would make, any entity in Trinidad look like childs play. Mark also questioned if Government had a particular contractor in mind to handle the restoration of the Red House.

Mark, who was Speaker of the House of Representatives in the last Parliament, asked if this was why restoration of the Red House was taken away from the Parliament and placed under the Office of the Prime Minister.

Asking how many contracts were issued by the ruling Peoples National Movement (PNM) since last Septembers general election, Mark claimed the Soca on the Seas cruise was designed to benefit the leader of the Carnival band Yuma. He alleged that person was the son of a top PNM financier.

While the Opposition supported the bill, Mark reiterated its objection to the idea of a review board to provide oversight to the procurement regulator.

He declared the Opposition was prepared to support the board, once it had the same independence and autonomy as the regulator.
Small backs procurement Bill

However, while expressing support for the Bill, Small said he took umbrage with the arrogance displayed by certain State enterprises about not reporting to Parliament and its joint select committees (JSCs). Small, who is the chairman of one of those JSCs, suggested that parliamentary committees have the power of sanction to deal with such entities.

Using himself as an example, he said it was wrong for any State agency to personally question the integrity of any parliamentarian.

Stating that public procurement is a huge slice of the economic activity in this country, Small said 128 State-controlled entities spend over $15 billion annually in this regard.

He said there must be proper oversight of these activities and agreed with Finance Minister Colm Imbert about the need for a review board to serve as a safeguard with respect to the procurement regulator.

He said the current economic circumstances have many people in TT living on the edge, and reiterated his view that no one has to date been charged or imprisoned with respect to corruption.
Procurement law captures Invaders Bay

Imbert was speaking as he piloted procurement reform law in the Senate. The legislation is designed to amend sections of a law passed in 2015 which remains largely unproclaimed.

There will be no giveaways of State lands or irregularities in the disposal of State lands, Imbert said. We think this is very important. Imbert further said, What we will capture are the lands like the lands at Invaders Bay that do not fall under existing legislation. The minister said the amendment also aimed to tighten the suspension process in relation to procurement proceedings by stipulating that a contract may move forward once a determination is made.

(Though it will be open to the regulator to quash the procurement.) Imbert also said it was felt that a regulator trading with the Government should be sufficient grounds for dismissal.

We felt that was sufficient to fire them, the minister said.
Pastor Dottin a temporary Senator

Dottin, a Seventh Day Adventist pastor, was appointed to act in the place of Independent Paul Richards who is ill. The appointment came at a time of scrutiny on Presidents House, given Carmonas 15-day delay in assenting a controversial law enacted last month as well as questions over two of his recent appointees of temporary Independents.

Dottin is known for outspoken and sometimes eyebrow-raising remarks. In 2013, he said assassins from Latin American countries had joined forces with the local mafia to create schizophrenic monsters out to kill and maim local citizens.

Also appointed as a temporary Independent yesterday was Albert Sydney.

The Senate paid tribute to Clive Spencer who served as an Independent Senator from November 1966 to October 1970 and who died on June 2, at the age of 79. He was a former President General of the Seamen and Waterfront Workers Trade Union (SWWTU); President of the TT Labour Congress; chairman of the committee on the establishment of Workers Bank; and a member of the committee which established National Awards. Spencer was also, at various stages, CEO and chairman of the Port Authority, where he served from 1992 to 2011. He received a Chaconia Medal Silver in 1970.

Government Senate Whip Franklin Khan said Spencer was 30 upon being appointed as an Independent Senator. While the trend now is to appoint young senators, in the 1960s that was not the case, Khan said. He said Spencer was a rare example of a labour official moving to management.

He said Spencer was not very wellknown in the national community and that he did not know him personally.
Afghan with intent to commit terrorism in North America caught at U.S.-Mexico border

(NationalSecurity.news) In what is likely to further inflame the national debate over immigration laws during an already heated presidential election which features one candidate who wants to dramatically boost border security, reports last week noted that an Afghan national with terrorism in mind was caught at the U.S-Mexico border last fall as he was being smuggled into the country.

As reported by Fox News and the Washington Times, the Afghan national was involved with a smuggling network that has managed to infiltrate illegal immigrants from the Middle Easts terrorism hotbeds straight to the United States doorstep.

First reported by the Times, immigration officials acknowledged that at least a dozen Middle Eastern men have been smuggled into the Western Hemisphere by a network based in Brazil that connected them with Mexican human smuggling rings, who eventually led them to the U.S. border.

Those who were smuggled include Pakistanis, Palestinians and the Afghan man who Department of Homeland Security officials said had family ties to the Taliban and was involved in a plot to conduct an attack in the U.S. and/or Canada. Though he is currently in custody, the Times withheld his name at the request of federal law enforcement officials.

Some of those handled by the smuggling network were caught before they reached the U.S. but others have made it into at least the U.S. The Afghan was part of a group of six from special-interest countries, the Times noted.

Fox News reported further:

The Afghan nationals alleged terror ties were not initially flagged in a terror database  and as a result, not initially reported  when the incident first came to light last November, according to Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., who obtained Homeland Security documents on the incident. It was only later that U.S. officials discovered his associations.

Hunter told Fox News on Friday that the database disconnect represents a monumental failure.

We dont know whos coming into the U.S. and what theyre bringing with them, he said. It is as bad as it seems.

The Times noted that the group of six was led by a pair of Mexican nationals employed by the network who crawled under the border fence in Arizona late last year and got as far as 15 miles inside the U.S. before they were detected by border surveillance, according to documents Hunter has seen.

Its disturbing, in so many ways, said Joe Kasper, Hunters chief of staff, the Times reported. The interdiction of this group  validates once again that the southern border is wide open to more than people looking to enter the U.S. illegally strictly for purposes of looking for work, as the administration wants us to believe.

Whats worse, federal databases werent even synced and Border Patrol had no idea who they were arresting and the group was not considered a problem because none of them were considered a priority under the presidents enforcement protocol, he added. Thats a major problem on its own, and it calls for DHS to figure out the problem  and fast.

While this one group was apprehended, Hunter said it is safe to assume that others have gotten in.

The American people would have had no clue on this if we didnt get these documents from Homeland Security, Hunter said.

More:

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U.S., Ukraine and Turkey named as Russias main enemies, says poll

Russian citizens have named the United States, Ukraine and Turkey as the countrys greatest enemies, according to a poll by the independent Levada Center, the Vedomosti newspaper reported Thursday.

(Article by Anastasia Bazenkova, republished from //www.themoscowtimes.com/article/571219.html)

The United States topped the list of countries, being named as hostile by 72 percent of respondents, followed by Ukraine with 48 percent of respondents. It is the highest level ever recorded for the Ukraine, which was seen as an enemy by only 37 percent of those surveyed in 2015.

Turkey was seen as an enemy by 29 percent of Russian respondents, a dramatic shift for the country, which was considered hostile by only 1 percent of Russian respondents in 2015.

Relations between Moscow and Kiev have been considered bad by Russians since 2014, Levada Center Deputy Director Alexei Grazhdankin said. Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in March 2014.

There are more and more Russians who see Ukraine as an enemy. As long as the conflict is not solved, it affects Russias world image. That has an impact on the lives of ordinary Russians, such as the weakening of the ruble, the inability to travel abroad, Grazhdankin told Vedomosti.

Ties between Russia and Turkey have deteriorated considerably since the downing of a Russian SU-24 by Turkey on Nov. 24, 2015. The incident caused outrage in Russia and was followed by a package of economic sanctions imposed on Turkey by the Kremlin.

If tensions [between Ankara and Moscow] are not resolved, Russians attitude toward the country will deteriorate further, Grazhdankin said, Vedomosti reported.

Belarus, Kazakhstan and China were named as Russias closest allies, with half of all respondents believing Belarus to have a friendly attitude toward Russia. Kazakhstan and China were named by 39 and 34 percent respectively, according to the poll.

Ten percent of the respondents also mentioned Syria among Russias allies this year, compared to only 2 percent in 2015. The change is likely connected to Russias role providing assistance to the countrys army at the request of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The poll also showed a fall in the number of Russians in favor of becoming part of the European Union. Only 24 percent of respondents wanted Russia to join the organization, down from 53 percent in August 2009.

Grazhdankin said that the results of the poll depended heavily on the foreign policy of other countries: If ties [with other countries] become less tense, the number of Russians viewing them negatively will decrease, just as weve seen this year with Britain, France and Germany.

Political analyst Dmitry Oreshkin noted that Russians attitude to other countries are greatly affected by what is shown on television as many citizens have never traveled abroad, Vedomosti reported.

The survey was conducted May 20-23 throughout 48 Russian regions. Data was compiled from personal interviews. The statistical margin of error does not exceed 4.1 percent.

Read more at: //www.themoscowtimes.com/article/571219.html

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Smt Nirmala Sitharaman briefs women journalists on the two year achievements of the Government

New Delhi, Wed, 08 Jun 2016 NI Wire

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The first ever All India Women Journalists Workshop with participation from nearly 250 journalists concludes successfully Women journalists are agents of social change- Smt Maneka Gandhi

Over 250 journalists from 30 States/UTs across the country, representing 120 media organizations came together on a single platform at the first ever 'All India Women Journalists' Workshop' organized by the Ministry of Women and Child Development in association with Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting in New Delhi yesterday. The workshop was inaugurated by the Minister of Women and Child Development, Smt Maneka Sanjay Gandhi. Women journalists from print, electronic and online media across the country including small and regional media organizations participated in the conference.

Addressing the journalists, Smt Maneka Gandhi said that we are all aware of the power and reach of the media and its ability act as agent of change. There is a need to empower the journalists with correct and timely information since journalists are a big social multiplier and can become agents of social change. She requested the journalists to act as a two-way communication channel, i.e. bring the voice from the grassroots to the government and vice versa.

Smt Maneka Gandhi made a comprehensive presentation on the issues taken up by the WCD Ministry in the last two years. She explained how for the first time the Ministry has been examining the issue of safety of women in a holistic manner, i.e. from saving the girls from gender biased sex selection to constructing shelter homes for widows. Similarly, the Ministry has been looking at care and protection of children in a comprehensive manner. In both cases a large number of interventions have been taken by the Ministry, she explained.

While making the presentation, Smt Gandhi highlighted the numerous firstsof the Ministry of Women and Child Development including Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme, setting up of One Stop Centres for women in distress, Mahila e-Haat, panic button on mobiles, guidelines for matrimonial websites, 33% reservation for women in police force, gender champion scheme, unique initiative with railways for missing children, comprehensive adoption reforms, junk food guidelines and many more such initiatives.

The Minister also explained in detail the major initiatives and the success achieved in them over the last two years in these schemes/initiatives like Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, Adoption Reforms and CARINGS Portal, foster care, New initiatives in ICDS, One Stop Centres etc.

Smt Maneka Gandhi encouraged the journalists to give feedback and suggestion on all issues concerning women and children. The journalists brought to her notice cases and problems related to adoption, child nutrition, womens safety, sexual harassment at the workplace and the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao programme and gave suggestions for the womens policy.

Minister of State for Commerce & Industry, Smt Nirmala Sitharaman made a presentation in the second half, covering the achievements and new initiatives of the government during the last two years. The women journalists highlighted various issues affecting the common man, during their interaction with the Commerce Minister.

Secretary, WCD Ms Leena Nair briefed the journalists about the history of the WCD Ministry, the scope of work of the Ministry and some of the key initiatives taken up recently.

An exhibition was also organized outside the venue showcasing the live monitoring system of Childline- Child Helpline 1098, and district level initiatives of Beti Bachao Beti Padhao.

Source: PIB

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India-US Joint Statement during the visit of Prime Minister to USA

USA, Wed, 08 Jun 2016 NI Wire

India-US Joint Statement during the visit of Prime Minister to USA (The United States and India: Enduring Global Partners in the 21st Century)

1. The Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi and the President of the United States of America Barack Obama met yesterday in the White House during an official working visit of Prime Minister Modi to the United States. Marking their third major bilateral summit, the leaders reviewed the deepening strategic partnership between the United States and India that is rooted in shared values of freedom, democracy, universal human rights, tolerance and pluralism, equal opportunities for all citizens, and rule of law. They pledged to pursue new opportunities to bolster economic growth and sustainable development, promote peace and security at home and around the world, strengthen inclusive, democratic governance and respect for universal human rights, and provide global leadership on issues of shared interest.

2. The leaders welcomed the significant progress made in bilateral relations between India and the United States during their tenure, in accordance with the roadmaps set out in the Joint Statements issued during Prime Minister Modis visit to the United States in September 2014 and President Obamas visit to India in January 2015. The leaders affirmed the increasing convergence in their strategic perspectives and emphasized the need to remain closely invested in each others security and prosperity.

Advancing U.S.-India Global Leadership on Climate and Clean Energy

3. The steps that the two Governments have taken in the last two years through the U.S.-India Contact Group, including by addressing the nuclear liability issue, inter alia, through Indias ratification of the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage, have laid a strong foundation for a long-term partnership between U.S. and Indian companies for building nuclear power plants in India. Culminating a decade of partnership on civil nuclear issues, the leaders welcomed the start of preparatory work on site in India for six AP 1000 reactors to be built by Westinghouse and noted the intention of India and the U.S. Export-Import Bank to work together toward a competitive financing package for the project. Once completed, the project would be among the largest of its kind, fulfilling the promise of the U.S.-India civil nuclear agreement and demonstrating a shared commitment to meet Indias growing energy needs while reducing reliance on fossil fuels. Both sides welcomed the announcement by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd, and Westinghouse that engineering and site design work will begin immediately and the two sides will work toward finalizing the contractual arrangements by June 2017.

4. The United States and India share common climate and clean energy interests and are close partners in the fight against climate change. Leadership from both countries helped galvanize global action to combat climate change and culminated in the historic Paris Agreement reached last December. Both countries are committed to working together and with others to promote full implementation of the Paris Agreement to address the urgent threats posed by climate change. India and the United States recognize the urgency of climate change and share the goal of enabling entry into force of the Paris Agreement as early as possible. The United States reaffirms its commitment to join the Agreement as soon as possible this year. India similarly has begun its processes to work toward this shared objective. The leaders reiterated their commitment to pursue low greenhouse gas emission development strategies in the pre-2020 period and to develop long-term low greenhouse gas emission development strategies. In addition, the two countries resolved to work to adopt an HFC amendment in 2016 with increased financial support from donor countries to the Multilateral Fund to help developing countries with implementation, and an ambitious phasedown schedule, under the Montreal Protocol pursuant to the Dubai Pathway. The leaders resolved to work together at the upcoming International Civil Aviation Organization Assembly to reach a successful outcome to address greenhouse gas emissions from international aviation. Further, the two countries will pursue under the leadership of the G20 strong outcomes to promote improved heavy-duty vehicle standards and efficiency in accordance with their national priorities and capabilities.

5. The leaders welcomed the signing of an MOU to Enhance Cooperation on Energy Security, Clean Energy and Climate Change, and an MOU on Cooperation in Gas Hydrates.

6. Reflecting Prime Minister Modis call to embrace wildlife conservation as a development imperative, the leaders welcomed the signing of an MOU to enhance cooperation on Wildlife Conservation and Combating Wildlife Trafficking.

Clean Energy Finance

7. The United States supports the Government of Indias ambitious national goals to install 175 GW of renewable power which includes 100 GW from solar power.

8. The United States welcomes the launch of the International Solar Alliance (ISA), recognizes the critical role it can play in the development and deployment of solar power, and intends pursuing membership in the ISA. To this end, and to strengthen ISA together, the United States and India will jointly launch the third Initiative of the ISA which will focus on off-grid solar for energy access at the Founding Conference of ISA in September, 2016 in India. The United States also remains committed, with other developed countries, to the goal of jointly mobilizing $100 billion per year by 2020 to address the needs of developing countries in the context of meaningful mitigation and adaptation action.

9. The United States is committed to bring to bear its technical capacity, resources and private sector, and is jointly launching with India new efforts, to spur greater investment in Indias renewable energy sector, including efforts that can serve as a model for other ISA Member Countries. In particular, the United States and India today are announcing: the creation of a $20 million U.S. - India Clean Energy Finance (USICEF) initiative, equally supported by the United States and India, which is expected to mobilize up to $400 million to provide clean and renewable electricity to up to 1 million households by 2020; a commitment to establish the U.S.-India Clean Energy Hub as the coordinating mechanism to focus United States Government efforts that, in partnership with leading Indian financial institutions, will increase renewable energy investment in India; a $40 million U.S.-India Catalytic Solar Finance Program, equally supported by the United States and India, that, by providing needed liquidity to smaller-scale renewable energy investments, particularly in poorer, rural villages that are not connected to the grid, could mobilize up to $1 billion of projects; the expansion of handholding support to Indian utilities that are scaling up rooftop solar and continuation of successful cooperation with USAID on "Greening the Grid.

10. The United States and India also remain committed to the goals of Mission Innovation, which they jointly launched during COP-21 in Paris to double their respective clean energy research and development (R&D) investment in five years. Toward this end, the two leaders reaffirmed their commitment to cooperate on research and development, including through the announcement of an upcoming $30 million public-private research effort in smart grid and grid storage.

Strengthening Global Nonproliferation

11. The President thanked the Prime Minister for his substantive contribution to and active participation in 2016 Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, D.C., and welcomed his offer to host a Summit on Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Terrorism in 2018. The United States and India will work together to combat the threat of terrorists accessing and using chemical, biological, nuclear and radiological materials.

12. Recalling their shared commitment to preventing proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery, the leaders looked forward to Indias imminent entry into the Missile Technology Control Regime. President Obama welcomed Indias application to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), and re-affirmed that India is ready for membership. The United States called on NSG Participating Governments to support Indias application when it comes up at the NSG Plenary later this month. The United States also re-affirmed its support for Indias early membership of the Australia Group and Wassenaar Arrangement.

Securing the Domains: Land, Maritime, Air, Space, and Cyber

13. The leaders applauded the completion of a roadmap for cooperation under the 2015 U.S.-India Joint Strategic Vision for the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean Region, which will serve as a guide for collaboration in the years to come. They resolved that the United States and India should look to each other as priority partners in the Asia Pacific and the Indian Ocean region.

14. They welcomed the inaugural meeting of the Maritime Security Dialogue. Owing to mutual interest in maritime security and maritime domain awareness, the leaders welcomed the conclusion of a technical arrangement for sharing of maritime "White Shipping information.

15. The leaders affirmed their support for U.S.-India cooperation in promoting maritime security. They reiterated the importance they attach to ensuring freedom of navigation and overflight and exploitation of resources as per international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and settlement of territorial disputes by peaceful means.

16. The leaders applauded the enhanced military to military cooperation between the two countries especially in joint exercises, training and Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HA/DR). They expressed their desire to explore agreements which would facilitate further expansion of bilateral defense cooperation in practical ways. In this regard, they welcomed the finalization of the text of the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA).

17. Noting that the U.S.-India defense relationship can be an anchor of stability, and given the increasingly strengthened cooperation in defense, the United States hereby recognizes India as a Major Defense Partner. As such:

o The United States will continue to work toward facilitating technology sharing with India to a level commensurate with that of its closest allies and partners. The leaders reached an understanding under which India would receive license-free access to a wide range of dual-use technologies in conjunction with steps that India has committed to take to advance its export control objectives.

o In support of Indias Make In India initiative, and to support the development of robust defense industries and their integration into the global supply chain, the United States will continue to facilitate the export of goods and technologies, consistent with U.S. law, for projects, programs and joint ventures in support of official U.S.-India defense cooperation.

18. The leaders also committed to enhance cooperation in support of the Government of Indias Make in India Initiative and expand the co-production and co-development of technologies under the Defense Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI). They welcomed the establishment of new DTTI working groups to include agreed items covering Naval Systems, Air Systems, and other Weapons Systems. The leaders announced the finalization of the text of an Information Exchange Annex under the Joint Working Group on Aircraft Carrier Technology Cooperation.

19. President Obama thanked Prime Minister Modi for his governments support for the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) missions in India, including a recovery mission that resulted in the recent repatriation of remains of the United States Service Members missing since the Second World War. The leaders announced their commitment to future DPAA missions.

20. As space faring nations, India and the United States acknowledge that outer space should be an ever expanding frontier of human endeavour, and look forward to deepening their cooperation on earth observation, Mars exploration, space education and manned space flight. The leaders welcomed the progress toward establishment of an ISRO-NASA Heliophysics Working Group as well as toward finalization of a Memorandum of Understanding for exchange of earth observation satellite data.

21. The leaders emphasized that cyberspace enables economic growth and development, and reaffirmed their commitment to an open, interoperable, secure, and reliable Internet, underpinned by the multistakeholder model of Internet governance. They committed to deepen cooperation on cybersecurity and welcomed the understanding reached to finalize the Framework for the U.S.-India Cyber Relationship in the near term. They committed to enhance cyber collaboration on critical infrastructure, cybercrime, and malicious cyber activity by state and non-state actors, capacity building, and cybersecurity research and development, and to continue discussions on all aspects of trade in technology and related services, including market access. They have committed to continue dialogue and engagement in Internet governance fora, including in ICANN, IGF and other venues, and to support active participation by all stakeholders of the two countries in these fora. The leaders committed to promote stability in cyberspace based on the applicability of international law including the United Nations Charter, the promotion of voluntary norms of responsible state behavior during peacetime, and the development and implementation of practical confidence building measures between states.

22. In this context, they affirmed their commitment to the voluntary norms that no country should conduct or knowingly support online activity that intentionally damages critical infrastructure or otherwise impairs the use of it to provide services to the public; that no country should conduct or knowingly support activity intended to prevent national computer security incident response teams from responding to cyber incidents, or use its own teams to enable online activity that is intended to do harm; that every country should cooperate, consistent with its domestic law and international obligations, with requests for assistance from other states in mitigating malicious cyber activity emanating from its territory; and that no country should conduct or knowingly support ICT-enabled theft of intellectual property, including trade secrets or other confidential business information, with the intent of providing competitive advantages to its companies or commercial sectors.

Standing Together Against Terrorism and Violent Extremism

23. The leaders acknowledged the continued threat posed to human civilization by terrorism and condemn the recent terrorist incidents from Paris to Pathankot, from Brussels to Kabul. They resolved to redouble their efforts, bilaterally and with other like-minded countries, to bring to justice the perpetrators of terrorism anywhere in the world and the infrastructure that supports them.

24. Building on the January 2015 U.S.-India Joint Statement commitment to make the U.S.-India partnership a defining counterterrorism relationship for the 21st Century, as well as the September 2015 U.S.-India Joint Declaration on Combatting Terrorism, the leaders announced further steps to deepen collaboration against the full spectrum of terrorist threats.

25. The leaders committed to strengthen cooperation against terrorist threats from extremist groups, such as Al-Qaida, Daesh/ISIL, Jaish-e Mohammad, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, D Company and their affiliates, including through deepened collaboration on UN terrorist designations. In this context, they directed their officials to identify specific new areas of collaboration at the next meeting of U.S.India Counterterrorism Joint Working Group.

26. Recognizing an important milestone in the U.S.-India counterterrorism partnership, the leaders applauded the finalization of an arrangement to facilitate the sharing of terrorist screening information. They also called for Pakistan to bring the perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai and 2016 Pathankot terrorist attacks to justice.

27. The leaders affirmed their support for a UN Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism that advances and strengthens the framework for global cooperation and reinforces that no cause or grievance justifies terrorism.

Bolstering Economic and Trade Ties

28. The leaders highlighted the strong and expanding economic relationship between the United States and India and committed to support sustainable, inclusive, and robust economic growth, and common efforts to stimulate consumer demand, job creation, skill development and innovation in their respective countries.

29. In order to substantially increase bilateral trade, they pledged to explore new opportunities to break down barriers to the movement of goods and services, and support deeper integration into global supply chains, thereby creating jobs and generating prosperity in both economies. They look forward to the second annual Strategic and Commercial Dialogue in India later this year to identify concrete steps in this regard. They also commended the increased engagement on trade and investment issues under the Trade Policy Forum (TPF) and encouraged substantive results for the next TPF later this year. They welcomed the engagement of U.S. private sector companies in Indias Smart City program.

30. The leaders applauded the strong bonds of friendship between the 1.5 billion peoples of India and the United States that have provided a solid foundation for a flourishing bilateral partnership, noting that two-way travel for tourism, business, and education has seen unprecedented growth, including more than one million travelers from India to the United States in 2015, and similar number from the United States to India.The leaders resolved to facilitate greater movement of professionals, investors and business travelers, students, and exchange visitors between their countries to enhance people-to-people contact as well as their economic and technological partnership. To this end, they welcomed the signing of an MOU for Development of an International Expedited Traveler Initiative (also known as the Global Entry Program) and resolved to complete within the next three months the procedures for Indias entry into the Global Entry Program.

31. The leaders recognized the fruitful exchanges in August 2015 and June 2016 on the elements required in both countries to pursue a U.S.-India Totalization Agreement and resolved to continue discussions later this year.

32. Recognizing the importance of fostering an enabling environment for innovation and empowering entrepreneurs, the United States welcomes Indias hosting of the 2017 Global Entrepreneurship Summit.

33. The leaders welcomed the enhanced engagement on intellectual property rights under the High Level Working Group on Intellectual Property and reaffirmed their commitment to use this dialogue to continue to make concrete progress on IPR issues by working to enhance bilateral cooperation among the drivers of innovation and creativity in both countries.

34. The United States welcomes Indias interest in joining the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, as India is a dynamic part of the Asian economy.

Expanding Cooperation: Science & Technology and Health

35. The leaders affirmed their nations mutual support in exploring the most fundamental principles of science as embodied in the arrangement reached to cooperate on building a Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) in India in the near future and welcomed the formation of the India-U.S. Joint Oversight Group to facilitate agency coordination of funding and oversight of the project.

36. The leaders look forward to Indias participation at the September 2016 Our Ocean Conference in Washington, D.C. as well as holding of the first India-U.S. Oceans Dialogue later this year, to strengthen cooperation in marine science, ocean energy, managing and protecting ocean biodiversity, marine pollution, and sustainable use of ocean resources.

37. The leaders reaffirmed their commitment to the Global Health Security Agenda and the timely implementation of its objectives. The Prime Minister noted India's role on the Steering Group and its leadership in the areas of anti-microbial resistance and immunization. The President noted the United States commitment to support, undergo, and share a Joint External Evaluation in collaboration with the World Health Organization.

38. The leaders recognized the global threat posed by multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and committed to continue collaboration in the area of tuberculosis and to share respective best practices.

39. The leaders noted the growing threat of non-communicable diseases and the urgent need to address the risk factors by, inter alia, promoting healthy lifestyles, controlling sugar and salt intake, promoting physical activity especially among children and youth and strengthening efforts to curb tobacco use. The leaders also reiterated the importance of holistic approaches to health and wellness, and of promoting the potential benefits of holistic approaches by synergizing modern and traditional systems of medicine, including Yoga.

40. The leaders strongly endorsed expansion of the Indo-U.S. Vaccine Action Program, which is fostering public-private research partnerships focused on the development and evaluation of vaccines to prevent tuberculosis, dengue, chikungunya and other globally important infectious diseases.

Global Leadership

41. The leaders reaffirmed their resolve to continue working together as well as with the wider international community to augment the capacity of the United Nations to more effectively address the global development and security challenges. With the historic adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in September 2015, and recognizing its universality, the leaders reaffirmed their commitment to implement this ambitious agenda domestically and internationally and work in a collaborative partnership for the effective achievement of Sustainable Development Goals.

42. The leaders reaffirmed their support for a reformed UN Security Council with India as a permanent member. Both sides committed to ensuring that the Security Council continues to play an effective role in maintaining international peace and security as envisioned in the UN Charter. The leaders are committed to continued engagement on Security Council reform in the UN Intergovernmental Negotiations (IGN) on Security Council Reform.

43. The leaders welcomed the successful convening of the Leaders Summit on UN Peacekeeping and committed to deepening engagement on UN peacekeeping capacity-building efforts in third countries, through co-organizing the first UN Peacekeeping Course for African Partners in New Delhi later this year for participants from ten countries in Africa. The leaders also reiterated their support for ongoing reform efforts to strengthen UN peacekeeping operations.

44. Building on their respective bilateral engagements with Africa, such as the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit and India-Africa Forum Summit, the leaders reflected that the United States and India share a common interest in working with partners in Africa to promote prosperity and security across the continent. The leaders welcomed trilateral cooperation with African partners, including in areas such as agriculture, health, energy, women's empowerment and sanitation under the Statement of Guiding Principles on Triangular Cooperation for Global Development. They looked forward to opportunities to deepen the U.S. - India global develop pment cooperation in Africa, as well as in Asia and beyond.

Building People-to-People Ties

45. Both sides committed to open additional consulates in each others country. India will be opening a new consulate in Seattle and the United States will open a new consulate at a mutually agreed location in India.

46. The leaders announced that the United States and India will be Travel and Tourism Partner Countries for 2017, and committed to facilitate visas for each others nationals.

47. Reflecting on the strong educational and cultural bonds between the two countries, the leaders welcomed the growing number of Indian students studying in the United States, which increased by 29 percent to nearly 133,000 students in 2014-2015, and looked forward to increased opportunities for American students to study in India. The leaders also appreciated their governments joint efforts through the Fulbright-Kalam Climate Fellowship to develop a cohort of climate scientists to confront the shared challenge of global climate change.

48. Recognizing its mutual goal of strengthening greater people-to-people ties, the leaders intend to renew efforts to intensify dialogue to address issues affecting the citizens of both countries that arise due to differences in the approaches of legal systems, including issues relating to cross-country marriage, divorce and child custody.

49. Prime Minister Modi welcomed the United States repatriation of antiquities to India. The leaders also committed to redouble their efforts to combat the theft and trafficking of cultural objects.

50. Prime Minister Modi thanked President Obama for his gracious invitation and warmth of hospitality. He extended an invitation for President Obama to visit India at his convenience.

Source: PIB
Hindi Movie 7 Hours To Go

New Delhi, Wed, 08 Jun 2016 NI Wire

Gear Up For The Hostage Tale With 7 Hours To Go!

Amidst the big budgeted movies releasing this month, we've some small budgeted and lesser known films too. However, we can't overlook them as many less known films have created huge success in the recent times.

The film in talks here is 7 Hours To Go - an investigative thriller that is fast paced and full of unexpected twists and turns to grip in the audience. Though the film is not known to all, it is going steady with marketing process.

However, we haven't yet heard of the team promoting the film on any platform. Meanwhile, we've gathered some information about the film which will help you decide whether it would be an interesting watch or not.

Cast: The film stars actress Sandeepa Dhar, Shiv Pandit, Natasa Stankovic and Varun Badola in lead roles. It is to note that Sandeepa Dhar had made her Bollywood debut with the Rajshri romantic tale, Isi Life Mein. She was then seen playing a cameo in Dabangg 2 and the Tiger Shroff and Kriti Sanon starrer Heropanti. On the other hand, Shiv Pandit had made his screen debut in 2011 with the critically & commercially successful Hindi film 'Shaitan'.

Plot: The film is a swift paced investigative thriller set in Mumbai, present day. it is said to be inspired by true events and revolves around a hostage crisis and what happens in 7 hours after that incident. It narrates the story of a man, played by Shiv Pandit, who lands in Mumbai with the hope of finding some work but unfortunately ends up being an eyewitness to a murder. He then takes up seven hostages and has just seven hours to figure out the anonymity behind the crime. By the looks of the film, it appears that Sandeepa is essaying the role of a cop.

Production: The film is written and directed by Saurabh Verma, who had made his directorial debut with Mickey Virus which even marked the debut of the famous TV host Manish Paul and Bigg Boss fame Eli Avram. 7 Hours To Go is part of the three film deal Saurabh has signed with Krian Media production house.

Trailer and Release: The trailer of the film has put up a decent show. As for the release, it is expected to release on June 24. But gossip wines suggest that the film might be pre-poned and would rather release on June 17.

It would be interesting to see if Saurabh would stand lucky for the second time and prove his directorial skills to one and all!

7 Hours To Go (2016) Movie Trailer Released SHIV PANDIT NATASA STANKOVIC
WASHINGTON, June 8, 2016  Public and private skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) should soon be able to provide more and better telemedical services after the Senate gave final congressional approval to the Rural Health Care Connectivity Act.

The legislation, sponsored by Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., amends the federal Communications Act to permit those facilities to apply for support from the FCC-managed Universal Service Fund (USF). A USF program, the Rural Health Care Program (RHCP), provides funding for telecommunications and broadband services used to provide health care in rural communities. The Communications Act specifies which types of health care providers are eligible to receive RHCP support, and SNFs are currently not included.

Thune, the chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, applauded the passage of his bill, which was included in a conference report on the Toxic Substances Control Act. His committee passed the Rural Health Care Connectivity Act in November, and Tuesday night the full Senate approved the conference report by voice vote. The conference report now heads to President Obama, who is expected to sign it.

Closing the gap between the health care our rural communities are receiving and the care they deserve has been a priority of mine, and having this bill signed into law would mean that gap gets even smaller, said Thune. We should be doing all we can to make it easier for health care professionals to connect with rural patients and provide greater support and improved services to those who need them the most. This bill would put these professionals, like those who work for skilled nursing facilities around the country, in a much better position to do so.

Did you know Agri-Pulse subscribers get our Daily Harvest email and Daybreak audio Monday through Friday mornings, a 16-page newsletter on Wednesdays, and access to premium content on our ag and rural policy website? Sign up for your four-week free trial Agri-Pulse subscription.





When the Federal Communications Commission updated the RHCP and created the Healthcare Connect Fund in 2012, it proposed implementing a pilot program to examine funding SNFs. In January 2014, the FCC deferred implementation of the pilot program, claiming it needed additional statutory authority to allow SNFs to be eligible.

In a news release, Thune noted that groups such as the Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society, headquartered in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, would benefit from his legislation. The society known as Good Sam, currently operates hundreds of SNFs nationwide, most of which are in rural communities. Through internet-based connections to its national headquarters, Good Sam allows rural patients to remotely connect with hospitals and physicians. The Rural Health Care Connectivity Act would help organizations like Good Sam provide better-quality care for rural areas throughout the country.

We commend Sen. Thune and the support of other congressional leaders for the long-awaited passage of the Rural Health Care Connectivity Act of 2015, said David J. Horazdovsky, president and CEO of Good Sam. Enactment of this bill will offer much-needed assistance to residents of Good Samaritan and other skilled nursing care centers in a variety of locations in South Dakota and in other rural areas of the country.

#30

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WHY ANDREW JACKSON IS BEING TARGETED FOR REMOVAL FROM THE $20 BILL





By Garland Favorito

June 8, 2016

NewsWithViews.com

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 Americas $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 Jacksons 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.

Jacksons forces included state militias, U.S. Army regulars, Jean Lafiites 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 Jacksons 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.



The Big Lies

Despite Andrew Jacksons amazing accomplishments as a U.S. President and a U.S. Major General, some historians and journalists with an anti-American agenda have focused on propagating a stream of distortions that have maligned Jackson and duped many Americans. The essentially false negative publicity has helped justify the sudden anti-American political attempt to remove Jackson from the face of the U.S. $20 bill. Three outright lies have been propagated about Jackson and psychologically programmed into unsuspecting Americans:

Lie#1: Andrew Jackson passed a law that forcibly removed Native American Indians from their land.

An American president cannot pass laws. Only Congress can. Congress passed an act in 1830 that allowed the U.S. President to negotiate treaties with Native American Indian tribes to compensate them for relocation to areas west of the Mississippi River. Jacksons administration negotiated well over 50 treaties under the new law. Most major tribes representing about 60,000 Native American Indians signed the treaties and received millions of dollars to resettle. Jackson supported the act for national security reasons because the British had agitated tribal warriors to attack settlers. Both Jackson and some tribes like the Choctaws believed if Indians and settlers were separated by the Mississippi River they could all live in peace and freedom.



Lie#2: President Jackson caused the deaths of roughly 10,000 Native American Indians in the Trail of Tears tragedy when he forced about 100,000 of them to be removed from their land.

The federally forced relocation of Cherokees that caused at least half of the Trail of Tears deaths occurred in 1838-1839 under Martin Van Buren after Jackson was no longer president.

Most federally initiated relocations under the Jackson administration were voluntary and based on compensated agreements negotiated by treaties previously mentioned. However, the Choctaws and Creeks contracted diseases like cholera during their compensated relocation and suffered about a 15% casualty rate.

One federally forced, relocation of Seminoles was initiated during the Jackson administration after the Seminoles did not honor the Treaty of Moultrie Creek. This resulted in the second Seminole War that was carried out primarily under Martin Van Buren.

Georgia initiated a separate forced relocation of Cherokees during Jacksons administration. The Cherokees attempted to remain on their land and received a favorable U.S. Supreme Court ruling from Chief Justice John Marshall. Jackson chose not to create conflict between federal forces and the states over the ruling since the U.S. Constitution did not empower the national government to coerce states over the issue of who can be a resident.

The Jackson administration could reasonably be considered as partially responsible for some of the losses described above but not in the way his role in the Trail of Tears has been portrayed. Jackson made many alliances with Native American tribes when he defeated the British in the 1815 Battle of New Orleans and when he fought Creek warriors in 1814. He even adopted a Creek boy named Lyncoya as his son after he was orphaned in a battle with Creek warriors.

Lie#3: Andrew Jackson was crazy.

Andrew Jackson accomplished economic feats that have not been matched by any American President since. A president whose administration payed off the national debt and operated the last true balanced budget could not possibly be crazy. A general who commanded Americas most amazing victory outside of the Revolutionary war itself cannot be crazy.

Why Jackson was Targeted

Secretary Lew supposedly considered removing Alexander Hamilton from the $10 bill first. Hamilton led one of charges that resulted in the surrender by Cornwallis forces to George Washingtons troops at Yorktown. Hamiltonian principles of government are far more supportive of Marxism and Fascism than the contrary Jeffersonian principles adopted by Andrew Jackson. Hamiltonian principles include a strong aristocratic national government, central banking, protectionist tariffs and incurring debt for infrastructure. Hamiltons principles died two deaths at the ballot box in the Federalist and Whig Parties before being crammed down the throats of Americans at gunpoint by the newly formed Republican Party in the 1860s.

Jackson followed Jeffersonian principles of limited national government, localized state banks, free trade and a balanced budget. Jeffersonian principles formed the foundation of the American government for about 72 of its first 80 years existence including both Jackson terms. These American principles are the antithesis of a Marxist or Fascist government. As America is continually forced more toward Marxist concepts of neutered sovereignty and Fascist concepts of infinite war, Jackson has no place on American currency and that is why Lew, the Obama administration and other Marxists want him removed from the $20 bill.

If Lew was actually concerned about American humanity he could have made other choices to remove presidents from the $5 and $50 dollar bills. Lew could have chosen to remove Abraham Lincoln who invaded Virginia with 14,000 troops on May 24, 1861, the morning after the people of Virginia voted to secede. Lincolns invasion initiated the first major casualties of a 4 year war and led to the deaths of roughly 678,000 Americans, more than American deaths in all other wars combined. Lincolns Union Army even made direct attacks on American civilians at many American cities including Vicksburg, Fredericksburg, Petersburg, Charleston and Atlanta.

Lew could have also chosen to remove U.S. Grant from the $50 bill since his administration was riddled with corruption. Worse yet, he was one of the generals, along with Sherman and Sheridan, who was responsible for many of those 678,000 American deaths. Grants army directly and continually attacked American civilians in 1864 for weeks when it indiscriminately fired shells from a huge canon called the Dictator directly into the civilian population in the downtown city of Petersburg.

But these Presidents were not targeted to be removed because they carried out the policies that todays elite American Marxists and Fascists love so much. Those Presidents would never be targeted for removal from the face of American currency in lieu of Jackson.

The Classic Marxist Race and Gender Card

To help justify the removal of Andrew Jackson from the face of the $20 bill, elitists played the classic Marxist race and gender cards. To gain support from women and minorities, only women were considered and Harriett Tubman was selected to replace Jackson. Harriett Tubman certainly deserves to be honored for her place in history but not by removing the most fiscally sound President in American history and the most distinguished American General other than George Washington himself. It is especially ironic that Treasury Secretary Jack Lew would attempt to remove Jackson from the $20 bill even though he could never achieve the fiscal accomplishments of Andrew Jackson much less his statesman and military accomplishments.

Jacksons slated removal is not a rotation as claimed but it is a permanent accomplishment by the Obama administration. Lew has proven that critics who may have unfairly criticized the Obama administration as Marxist were right all along. But President Obama has played both sides of the Marxist and Fascist coin. If you dont believe that the Obama administration is also rooted in fascism consider this fact about the alleged peace candidate who was going to save us from the war and destruction caused by George W. Bush. It is a fact that the Barrack Obama administration has already been at war longer than any presidential administration in American history. Is it any wonder why Americans are turning to independents such as Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders in droves as well as third parties such as the Libertarian, Green and Constitution Parties?

 2016 Garland Favorito  All Rights Reserved
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In an effort to encourage the development of innovative Internet of Things solutions, Nokia (News - Alert) is again this year staging its Open Innovation Challenge. The top three winning entries will receive a collective 100,000 euros, membership to Nokias Innovation Accelerator Program, the ability to incubate their ideas within Nokia, and access to Nokias other ample resources.





"The Nokia Open Innovation Challenge 2016 is looking for the next best ideas for connecting people and things, explains Marc Rouanne, chief innovation and operating officer for Nokia, this year also announced $350 million in funding for investments in IoT companies. For innovators and start ups, it is a great opportunity to tap Nokia's global presence and meet venture firms to see how we can work together to build tomorrow's technologies that will help save lives, improve our environment and make our lives better."

Connected automotive, digital health, industry 4.0, public safety, security, smart cities, and utilities are the areas of focus for the challenge, which marks its fourth year in existence.

As noted in the second quarter cover story of IoT Evolution magazine by Ken Briodagh, a recent Gartner report indicates that in 2016 smart cities will use 1.6 billion connected devices, which is a 39 percent increase over 2015. That represents deployments across health care, public services, smart commercial buildings, smart homes, transportation, utilities, and other categories.

Now is the time to work together to build the use cases, wrote Briodagh. We need to learn the lessons that will provide the best practice guidebooks for implantation of smart infrastructure all over the world before a crisis of resources becomes an unassailable boondoggle, with municipalities raving uphill, begging for governments to throw more money at problems that need better efficiency, not blind spending.

This years Nokia Open Innovation Challenge kicked off earlier this week. The submission deadline is Aug. 15. Heres a link for more information.

The collection of entrants will be narrowed down to 15 teams, which will be invited to a two-day workshop with Nokia this October in Paris, after which final judging will take place and awards will be distributed.

Edited by Peter Bernstein
CVN-78, CVN-79, CVN-80, and CVN-81 are the first four ships in the Navys new Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) class of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers (CVNs).

CVN-78 was procured in FY2008. The Navys proposed FY2017 budget estimates the ships procurement cost at $12,887.0 million (i.e., about $12.9 billion) in then-year dollars. The ship is scheduled for delivery to the Navy in late August or early September 2016.

CVN-79 was procured in FY2013. The Navys proposed FY2017 budget estimates the ships procurement cost at $11,398.0 million (i.e., about $11.4 billion) in then-year dollars. The ship is scheduled for delivery to the Navy in June 2022.

CVN-80 is scheduled to be procured in FY2018. The Navys proposed FY2017 budget estimates the ships procurement cost at $12,900.0 million (i.e., $12.9 billion) in then-year dollars.

The Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) class carrier design is the successor to the Nimitz-class carrier design. The Ford-class design uses the basic Nimitz-class hull form but incorporates several improvements, including features permitting the ship to generate 33% more aircraft sorties per day, more electrical power for supporting ship systems, and features permitting the ship to be operated by several hundred fewer sailors than a Nimitz-class ship, reducing 50-year life-cycle operating and support costs for each ship by about $4 billion compared to the Nimitz-class design, the Navy estimates. Navy plans call for procuring at least four Ford-class carriersCVN-78, CVN-79, CVN-80, and CVN-81.

The Ford carrier has

2.5 times electrical generation capacity over the Nimitz-class

Manpower reduction of 500 billets

The new carrier class was redesigned from the keel to the mast of the island house. Among the improvements:

New reactor and propulsion plants

Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS), an improvement over steam catapult system

New island

All electric ship

Major space rearrangement

Flight deck extensions

Advanced arresting gear

Among the new technologies in the Ford-class are:

Dual Band Radar: Enables a smaller island structure on the deck of the carrier, facilitating the ships increased sortie generation rate

Multifunction radar and volume search radar: integrates two radars operating on different frequency bands

EMALS: Replaces steam catapult. Uses electrically generated, moving magnetic field to propel aircraft to launch speed.

Weapons Elevator: Elevators use moving electromagnetic fields instead of cabling, which allows elevator shaft to use horizontal doors to close off magazines. This Reduces manning and maintenance costs.

Cargo Elevators: Cargo elevators will replace cargo conveyers allowing faster transport of palletized materials while eliminating the wasted time of unloading pallets and moving cans vice pallets of materials throughout the ship. Elevators are located so material is delivered directly to point of use locations like the Galley from the storage areas so cross ship transport is eliminated.

SOURCES  Congressional research service, newport news shipbuilding
President Barack Obama took time to meet the Thunderbirds pilot who crashed Thursday.

The pilot, Major Alex Turner, safely ejected and is in good condition.

The crash happened in Colorado following the team's flyover at the Air Force Academy graduation ceremony. Lt. Andy Caputi, 30, ejected from his plane and landed safely on the grounds of the Niagara Falls Air Force Base. Fortunately, no one was injured in the crash.

A Navy Blue Angels plane also crashed Thursday during a practice flight before an air show in Smyrna, Tenn., killing its pilot.

Two months ago, when the squadron arrived at the Smoky Mountain Air Show in Alcoa, Tennessee, Kuss told a reporter from WATE-TV that he remembered looking up at the Blue Angels as a little boy.

The Thunderbirds had just finished their performance at the commencement, screaming overhead just as the graduating officers tossed their white hats skyward. "I don't know", he said.

The rest of the air show is set to go on, he said. "I ran outside. Three or four degrees to the left and that jet would have hit our house". The Air Force's Air Combat Command said on Twitter that no one was hurt on the ground and there was no hazard to the public.

Besides the Thunderbirds, the air show will feature the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and the U.S. Navy F-18F Super Hornet. He narrated every Blue Angel performance previous year at the team's inaugural appearance at the OC Air Show. The vaunted aerial demonstration team has been performing air demonstrations since 1947.
China's said on Wednesday it welcomed a proposal by the incoming Philippine government for bilateral talks on the disputed South China Sea.

"We of course would be very concerned about a Chinese declaration of an ADIZ", a United States defence official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

While it is unclear where the South China Sea ADIZ would land, experts contend it will likely be part of the entirety of a region circled by what China calls the "nine-dash line", a line China claims marks the nation's maritime borders.

"The Philippines" attempt to define Taiping Island as a "reef' exposes that the goal of its arbitration case is to try to negate China's sovereignty and related rights over the Spratly Islands", China's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said.

Tensions have run high between Washington and Beijing over a reclamation project in the South China Sea, where China has built artificial islands.

The US has been wading into the dispute, pressing its naval ships and aircraft to assert the "freedom of navigation" in the disputed region. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims.

The DFA noted that the G7's consistent and firm position on the South China Sea dispute reflects the support of the worldwide community for the Philippines' arbitration case against China. "However, the two still have many common interests", the paper said.

"If the Philippines sincerely wish to come back to the track of dialogue and negotiations we welcome that", Wang told reporters in the Canadian capital Ottawa.

Combined with consultations on the conduct of parties in the South China Sea, the platforms enable states to exchange views, manage differences and enhance cooperation, Ma explained. "China never says go away or we will do this, China never locks weapons radar on global FONOPs (freedom of navigation operations) by jets", he said.

"A pressing task is to understand the facts and China's intentions correctly so as to avoid real danger and consequences as a result of misinterpretation and miscalculation", said Mr Cui, adding that China is merely maintaining and defending its legitimate territorial claims and maritime rights.

Cui expressed his biggest worry that China's policy on the South China Sea has been grossly misperceived as a strategic move to challenge USA dominance in the Asia-Pacific region and the world.

On Tuesday, the Pentagon chief left the U.S. for Singapore where he will attend an Asian security summit amid growing tensions over the South China Sea.

China's investment in the U.S. in the first quarter of this year is expected to be more than double that of the first quarter of last year, according to the National Committee on United States-China Relations, based in NY.

In contrast with Aquino, Duterte has said he is willing to engage China in bilateral talks on the issue.
Two British men were remanded in custody charged with immigration offences after the rescue off Dymchurch.

A report by the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration published in January this year covering February to July 2015 assessed that there was "no systematic collection of information about any aspect of general maritime" and compliance by captains with legal requirements to report who they had on board was "poor".

They were rescued late Saturday night after an operation that included a search-and-rescue helicopter and lifeboats dispatched from several English ports.

"My biggest fear is that the same kind of tragedies we see in Greece or Italy will repeat in the Channel".

It comes as it was revealed that Britain's Border Force has only three patrol boats to protect the UK's coastline.

The MP said his letter asked for Mrs May to offer reassurances that Border Force staff and the necessary equipment were "flexible enough" to be moved to areas such as Immingham and North Killingholme if deemed necessary.

Eighteen turned out to be Albanian, while two had British passports, and were likely to be working with a people smuggling gang, said Bernard Barron, of the Calais coastguard.

The UK coastguard said it was called just before midnight on Saturday.

It's sparked concerns about the security of the British coastline - and whether people traffickers have found a new route into Europe.

Patry said it is possible that migrants will die trying to cross the Channel, adding that helicopters and ships are among the means authorities uses to try to identify the boats in order to keep migrants safe.

"I am pretty sure our security is good".

The rhib (rigid-hulled inflatable boat), with 20 people on board - 18 Albanians and two Brits - was found at 2am and the matter was handed over to Home Office Immigration Enforcement.

Mr Vickers said he was responding also to Border Force staff who contacted him and said they were "fully-stretched".

Some 17 suspected Albanian migrants were detained Tuesday, May 24, after a boat arrived at Chichester Marina on the south coast.

Only during a European referendum campaign could the rescue of two small boats containing 35 Albanians off the coast of Kent over a bank holiday weekend be inflated into a major new migrant invasion force heading for Britain.

They have been detained while the UK Home Office considers their cases.
Leaves are falling, the air is crisp and deer season is right around the corner. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love this time of year. Becoming involved in hunting a few years ago gave me yet another reason why I look forward to fall.
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The United States and the European Union Tuesday pondered over future strategies to see how they can both further help Tunisia face up economic and security challenges dogging its nascent democracy.

A forum organized by the Atlantic Council Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East was chosen as a platform for discussions.

The topic, A New Transatlantic Strategy for a Democratic Tunisia focused on future economic, and security assistance as well as futuristic support to Tunisias weak democracy.

Experts sitting at the panel discussion indicated that both the U.S. and the EU should have Tunisia as a priority.

Amy Hawthorne, expert and coauthor of a report named after the topic, reportedly argued that Tunisia needed not money to overcome its existing challenging but should rather top both the U.S. and EUs agenda.

Another expert and coauthor of the report, Karim Mezran, pointed at the democratic challenges plaguing the North African country as he warned of collapse of democratic parties in the country while Islamist parties, mainly the Ennahdha are soaring. He urged the U.S. and the EU to support democratic parties because there are many enemies of democracy in Tunisia, huffpostmaghreb.com reports.

Andrea Gamba, an officer at the International Monetary Fund on the other hand pointed at the inexistence of appropriate economic model in the wake of the 2011 revolution. The country needed structural reforms instead of macroeconomic assistance policies endorsed by the EU, the IMF officer said.

The EU, even though it is determined to lift Tunisia out of its economic standoff, is greatly resolved to help the North African country overcome its security instability, Nick Westcott; Director of EUs Middle East and North Africa policy said.

The EU diplomat further argued that the European bloc and the U.S. can do better in assisting Tunisia to secure its territory.
Morocco, a beacon of moderate Islam, is about to open a new Foundation for African Ulemas (Islamic clerics/scholars) during this month of Ramadan, according to press reports.

Dubbed Mohammed VI Foundation for African Ulemas, this new academic institution, based in the city of Fez, will enhance further the special religious and cultural ties existing between Morocco and African countries.

This new Foundation has been set up within the frame of Moroccos religious training program for imams and sustained efforts to counter Islamic radicalization. It is the best tool to fight Isis and dangerous lunatics preaching extremist ideas.

The Foundation also comes after King Mohammed VI launched in March 2015 a leading Institute that provides training to hundreds of imams of various nationalities, including some from Africa and Europe.

The center teaches Imams the precepts of a tolerant and non-violent form of Islam based on Maliki rite and teach them how to fight extremism and religious radicalization through sound argumentation and dialogue.

According to some experts, the Mohammed VI Institute for Imams Training combined with the new Foundation will certainly help thwart the perversion of Islam and prevent the use of religion as an excuse for barbarism, regression and terrorism.

Morocco has been providing, for many years if not for centuries, training to foreign Islamic scholars and imams, mainly from sub-Saharan Africa, in order to disseminate an Islam of the middle path doctrine, a vision of religion based on tolerance, intercultural dialogue and respect of other faiths.
The general is a whole different ball game for Clinton. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Most weeks, New York Magazine writer-at-large Frank Rich speaks with contributor Alex Carp about the biggest stories in politics and culture. This week: Hillary Clintons historic moment, potential Republican defectors, and Dick Morriss return.

Hillary Clinton has clinched the Democratic nomination for president, the first woman to be a major-party nominee in U.S. history. How will her election campaign be different from her march through the primaries?

Lets pause for a moment and reflect on the headline here: Hillary Clinton is the first woman to secure the presidential nomination of a major political party. That is an honest-to-God historic achievement. And she got there even though she is (as she herself puts it) not a natural politician. The question now: Can she become more of a natural politician as she steps into a cage match with an attention-commanding bully who doesnt even speak the same political language she does? Clintons hallmarks as a candidate  civility, substance, caution, a strong work ethic, and a proclivity for fudging or hiding her actual views on tough issues  are the antitheses of Trumps. He is crude, unprepared, reckless, and lazy, and full of strong (if often self-contradictory) stands on every issue. They represent two different American cultures even more than they do two different parties or ideologies.

Last week, in a foreign policy speech that was less about policy and more about Trump, Clinton at last showed signs that she gets it. Her dismissive, borderline-funny belittling of Trump was overdue. The more she does of this, the better. She has to get under his skin daily. She needs more surrogates like Meryl Streep, who, at a Central Park gala for the Public Theater on Monday, painted her face orange and strapped herself in a faux belly to savage Trump at the lowest burlesque level. After all, weve learned that angry, self-righteous sermons against Trump only backfire and make him stronger: Just look at how little of an impact months of spittle-filled op-ed pieces from the left, center, and right have had on his rise. Humorous ridicule of his persona  if executed by those with more skill than, say, Marco Rubio  rattles him.

Clinton is also going to need a message of her own that is more commanding than her thousand bullet points in a thousand position papers. She cannot be Bernie Sanders, and she sounds phony when she tries to emulate his populism. But she is going to have to speak to the anger out there, and she is going to need Sanderss voters, especially the young ones, to turn up as they did for Barack Obamas two victories. In this, her greatest ally will not be Sanders (assuming he stops pouting and folds his tent), or her husband, or her running mate, even should her vice-presidential pick come from the Sanders-Warren wing of the party. (Really, does anyone ever vote for a veep?) No, her most important ally by far is Obama himself. He is brilliant at skewering Trump (remember that White House Correspondents Dinner?) and matchless at rousing the Democratic base. The single most significant difference between Hillarys primary campaign and her campaign in the general election will be the active, impassioned involvement of the president, upstaging Trump in every news cycle as Clinton has often failed to do, and giving Trump hell every day.

Surveying the damage that Trump is doing to the GOP by his racist vilification of the Judge Gonzalo Curiel, Lindsey Graham noted that if any of his colleagues were looking for an off-ramp from his partys Trump bandwagon, this is probably it. Are we close to seeing pockets of explicit Republican support for Hillary?

I doubt well see much more than tiny pockets of Clinton support among the powers that be in the GOP. It has been astonishing to watch one Republican leader after another call out Trumps racism this week and yet say they still support him because they hate Hillary more. Keep in mind that these are some of the same so-called leaders  typified by Paul Ryan  who were in a tizzy months ago when Trump didnt immediately disavow David Duke and the Ku Klux Klan. They are the same leaders who had to wait several days to see which way the political winds were blowing before they called for the Confederate flag to come down in the aftermath of the Charleston church massacre. You have to wonder: Do Ryan, Mitch McConnell, Reince Priebus, et al, have even a single testicle among them? It doesnt seem that way. McConnells cowardly strategy for criticizing Trump, for instance, was to demand that he get on message. What the hell does that mean? Trump is on message: Its the nativist, birther message that the GOP has embraced throughout the Obama era, and that John McCain (who also continues to endorse Trump) legitimized by putting Sarah Palin on his ticket eight years ago. Trumps misogyny is also consistent with a party whose favored Establishment candidate this year, Rubio, opposed abortions for victims of rape and incest. It may be only a matter of days before Trump declares that his idea of an impartial judge is Aaron Persky, who presided over the Brock Turner rape case.

But we are beginning to see a few signs of panic, if not courage, among GOP elites this week. They are starting to remember history. The Republican Party lost African-American voters in seeming perpetuity from the moment it nominated an opponent of the Civil Rights Act, Barry Goldwater, for the presidency in 1964. In the 1990s, the GOP lost California  once Ronald Reagans secure domain  after the Republican governor Pete Wilson unleashed the forces of bigotry on Hispanics by campaigning for Proposition 187, a punitive strike against undocumented immigrants. Its finally beginning to dawn on the party elites that, yes, Trump could drive away Americas fastest-growing demographic group for as many decades as Goldwater drove away black people. Trump could turn red states blue just as Wilson did in California.

What are the party factotums going to do about it? Endorsements of Clinton arent happening. Bill Kristols farcical effort to launch a third-party candidacy around a right-wing blogger named David French was aborted by the would-be nominee before it began. And so we are starting to hear some whispers  mainly on The Wall Street Journal editorial page  that maybe there will be a contested convention after all. Certainly there are ways that the party can connive to steal the nomination from Trump  though such a conspiracy is still hobbled by the lack of an alternative candidate, by the prospect of Trumps promised riots, and by the aforementioned lack of balls among Republican leaders. But in an election cycle when anything can happen, and anything has, we cant rule out fireworks in Cleveland just yet.

Gabe Sherman reported Monday that Clinton friend turned critic Dick Morris is in talks to join the Trump campaign. Morris is perhaps best known for incorrect political forecasts and questionable ethics  a perfect fit?

To put it mildly! Writing in Slate four years ago, Dave Weigel said, no single human made as many wrong, botched, bogus, and stupid predictions about the 2012 election as Dick Morris. Among other things, he predicted that Mitt Romney would win 325 Electoral College votes. (Actual tally: 206.) Only last week, Morris had been hired by Trumps favored publication of record, the National Enquirer, to cover the 2016 race. Whether there or in the Trump campaign, Morris will be doing the same thing: spewing dirt as spitefully as he can about the Clintons. Much of it may be no more credible than his electoral prognostications.

Let us also remember that, along with his sorry track record as an analyst, Morriss resume also includes the 1996 revelation (in the Star, not the Enquirer) that he enjoyed toe-sucking escapades with a Washington prostitute. At the very least, this credential puts him on the short list for Trumps secretary of Health and Human Services.
Bernie Sanderss holdouts lean to the right. Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images

The Bernie Sanders campaign began less as an attempt to capture the nomination than as an effort to gain leverage over Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party. It will continue in that role, probably until the Democratic convention, and possibly through the election in November. And Sanders does have some leverage: His supporters trust Clinton far less than hers trust Sanders. A significant chunk of his base tells pollsters it wont vote for Clinton over Trump, leaving the polls precariously close. The trouble is that his leverage might not work quite the way he hopes.

Sanders surely wants to force Clinton and the rest of the party to move further left, and can now dangle his supporters before her as the prize for cooperating (or the punishment for failing to do so). This makes intuitive sense, because Sanders has run well to the left of Clinton, or any Democratic nominee in modern history, and outperformed almost everybodys expectations. But the connection between Sanderss ideology and his performance is far less clear than it might seem, or some of his enthusiasts might hope.

The political scientists Christopher Achen and Larry Bartels argued in a New York Times op-ed last month that Sanderss supporters are actually somewhat more conservative than Hillary Clintons. Two other political scientists challenged their conclusions, and Achen and Bartels vigorously defended them. The dispute is fairly technical, but it is fair to conclude that Sanderss supporters are at best slightly more liberal than Clintons overall.

Of course, from the standpoint of Sanderss leverage, what matters isnt whether his overall supporters are more liberal. What matters is the leanings of the subset of his supporters who arent already planning to vote for Clinton over Trump. (She doesnt need to worry much about the Sanders supporters who have already decided to back her in November.) NBC News combined four weeks worth of polls to find an extra-large sample of these pro-Sanders holdouts (2,297, to be exact). It found that their ideology is more moderate than the ideology of Clintons supporters:

Voters who would support Sanders, but not Clinton, over Trump, overwhelmingly identify as moderate. Many more of them identify as conservative than liberal, and far fewer of them identify as liberal than the Clinton supporters who identify as liberal. All this data suggests that, if Clinton does need to reposition herself ideologically to lock down the Bernie vote, she would move to the right, not the left.

Of course, in reality, the Sanders vote is not really all that ideological. As I argued a month ago, Sanders has tapped into a good-government tradition that has run through a century of progressive politics, and animated campaigns by figures like Adlai Stevenson, Eugene McCarthy, George McGovern, Jimmy Carter, Gary Hart, Jerry Brown, Howard Dean, and Barack Obama. Sanders has the image of an authentic, independent, non-corporate conviction candidate that contrasts perfectly against Clintons scandal-tainted persona. Hes attracted an enthusiastic far-left vote, which has amplified its beliefs disproportionately through social media and other activism. His campaign has probably given that wing more cohesion and voice in progressive politics going forward. But there arent that many socialists out there, and that isnt who Clinton needs to win over.
Richard Matt and David Sweat

Last year, two convicted murderers pulled off a brazen escape from Clinton Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison in the town of Dannemora, in upstate New York. Richard Matt and David Sweat plotted the breakout for months. On the night of June 5, a little after 11 p.m., they climbed through holes they had cut  over months, with tools smuggled in by a prison guard  in the cell walls. They snaked through tunnels and between walls and through a steam pipe, which took them underneath the prison. They popped out of a manhole in the village.

The entire escape took less than an hour. Shawshank aint got shit on me, Sweat would later say. The manhunt for the men lasted three weeks. Matt was shot and killed by a customs agent on June 26. Sweat had a few more days of freedom until state police tracked him down on June 28. He refused to follow orders and was shot and wounded. He survived and is now in solitary confinement. He pleaded guilty to charges stemming from his escape in November. He must pay about $80,000 in restitution (the manhunt cost New York State about $23 million in police overtime alone) and got a few extra years tacked on to his prison term, though he was already serving life without the possibility of parole.

The manhole that took Sweat and Matt to freedom. Photo: New York State Police

Now, on the anniversary of Matt and Sweats flight, the New York State Office of the Inspector General released a report detailing exactly how the two killers managed to plan and execute such an elaborate plot. The report details a perfect storm of sorts: Matt and Sweats tenacious scheming; vital assistance from two corrections officers, Joyce Mitchell, who was enamored with the men and brought the tools they needed into the prison, and Gene Palmer, who delivered tool-filled meat to the inmates; and egregious breaches in security protocol and willful negligence on part of prison staff and guards. Matt and especially Sweat may have been clever and slick, but they had plenty of help from lax and lazy guards.

The investigation outlines how these two killers hatched the scheme, and relies on interviews with corrections officers, inmates, and the key cast of characters, including Sweat, who paints himself as the true mastermind of the breakout. The report also offers a litany of security and protocol recommendations. A spokesperson for New York State Department of Corrections said the department has put in place a number of reforms at Clinton, including installing new cameras and security gates, and retraining and disciplining staff to help ensure this incident is never repeated.

And now here are some of the wackiest, most intriguing things we learned from the monster report.

A bromance is born.

David Sweat was sentenced to life in prison in 2002, at age 23, for shooting and killing a police officer. Matt, a career criminal, got 25 years to life in 2008 for the heinous murder of his former employer. Matt kidnapped, tortured, and killed the 76-year-old man, chopping up his body with a hacksaw.

The two men first got to know each other in 2010, when they both scored cells in the honor block, coveted housing for inmates who displayed good behavior (no disciplinary infractions in nine months) and participated in prison programs. Matt was kicked out of the honor block in 2011, but Sweat sent him treats, including rolled tobacco, while Matt was in exile. (Sweat affectionately called him Hacksaw.) The two shared a work station in the tailor shop when their tenure there overlapped. According to the report, the two were reunited in the honor block in cells next to each other from August 2013 to September 2014, and again in January 2015  which they lobbied for so they could plan their getaway.

But their bond was forged over a passion for the arts. Matt, who had already begun to dabble, helped Sweat take up painting as a hobby. Sweat told investigators that he admired Matts paintings, including one depicting a dog in which you could see every hair  [it] was absolutely beautiful.

Anyone whos anyone wants an original Matt or Sweat.

A Sweat painting found in the woods near Palmers home. Photo: New York State Police

Matts artwork, especially, had some serious value around the prison. But many in the jail received paintings from Sweat and Matt, and the inmates knew exactly what they were doing. Sweat told investigators: When we do  paintings, we give it to you exceptionally cheap because we know that at some point were going to be in a bind, or we might need help with something.

Palmer, in particular, was their No. 1 collector and received at least a dozen paintings and drawings from Matt. Palmer would smuggle the artwork out without incident, and also bring in art supplies or photographs so Matt could use them to paint. Sure enough, Palmer developed a close relationship with the men, especially Matt, which bestowed upon them certain privileges that ended up facilitating the mens escape. For example, Palmer would escort them to and from their cells without frisking them, and would let them bypass the metal detectors, which makes it pretty easy to smuggle six hacksaws to ones prison cell. Which Matt did.

Joyce Mitchell, described by colleagues as inmate lover, was enamored with the men  and was the key to their escape.

Sweat and Matt couldnt have pulled off their getaway without corrections officer Joyce Mitchell, who had a reputation for getting a little too close to inmates. Colleagues and supervisors had called out Mitchell for her chumminess beginning in 2012. Mitchell admitted this to investigators, saying she tried to build a rapport with prisoners.

The tailor shop where Mitchell grew close to Sweat and Matt. Photo: New York State Police

Despite numerous red flags, Mitchell ended up in charge of the tailor shop where Sweat and Matt eventually worked. She often distributed baked goods to the inmates, and one inmate testified he observed Mitchell giving Matt cookies, cakes  meals that were prepared, like venison, sauce, biscuits.

Sweat and Matt both cultivated a relationship with Mitchell, who told investigators that their attention made her feel good. Other corrections officers and inmates noticed that, while she laughed and flirted around the shop, she focused her attentions on Sweat and Matt.

The relationship with Sweat developed first, according to witnesses. In late 2014, prison administration received an anonymous letter  though it didnt mention specific names  that tipped supervisors off to a potential relationship between Sweat and Mitchell. Mitchell denied the allegations, as did Sweat, but administrators ended up removing Sweat from his coveted post in the tailor shop.

Mitchell did not face any consequences and stayed in charge of the tailor shop, but inmate testimony says she was distraught over Sweats departure. An inmate told investigators, per the report:

She really had a crush on Sweat. Theres no question about that. A serious crush. According to another inmate assigned to the shop at the time, When Sweat got fired, Mitchell cried [and] wanted to have a drink when she got home [and] was mad [and] hard on everybody for a week.Yet another inmate stated he overheard Mitchell tell Matt, Hurry up and get Dave back here, Im horny as fuck.

Light from a sewing machine, probably pilfered from the tailor shop (above) and part of the reading glasses Mitchell bought the men. Photo: New York State Police

Matt stepped in and won over Mitchells affections  she told investigators his attentions made her feel special  and eventually started asking for a little contraband here and there. He asked for reading glasses with lights so he and Sweat could paint at night; both were found in the tunnels and were probably used in the escape, according to the report. He also asked for food and cayenne pepper, which the inmates planned to use to throw dogs off their scent.

Sweat and Matt started planning their escape in earnest in January 2015.

Sweat considered a few plans for breaking out, but ultimately decided that going out the prison tunnels was the most feasible option. For this they needed tools, so Matt got to work on Mitchell. Sweat, who still wasnt in that shop, passed notes to Mitchell through Matt. Matt told Sweat:

Shes fucking nuts, shell bring us whatever we want, just tell me what you need and Ill get her to bring it in.

Mitchell delivered the first tools, six hacksaw blades, in February 2015. She brought them into the jail, undetected. Matt taped them to his body and smuggled them to his cell. He did not pass through a metal detector, probably because Palmer escorted him back.

The tools the inmates used. Photo: New York State Police

The two cut through the rear walls of their cells in about three weeks during prison recreation time. Sweat started exploring the tunnels and soon realized theyd need more tools. Mitchell then provided two chisels, two concrete drill bits, and a punch in late April or early May 2015. She hid the tools inside two pounds of ground hamburger meat, and instructed Palmer to deliver the meat to the inmates. Palmer apparently didnt know what was inside, but he shouldnt have been delivering raw meat to inmates in any case. Mitchell used this tactic at least one other time to get the men tools.

Mitchell had a pretty easy time getting the tools into the prison.

Mitchell didnt so much sneak the tools in as walk right into the prison. Guards were supposed to search her bag before she came to work each day, but they never did.

Dummies work!

Who could know? Photo: New York State Police

Sweat explored the tunnels every night once they made the prison-wall holes. He waited until after the night check at 11 p.m., and then deployed a dummy fashioned out of a sweatshirt and prison pants. As the report notes: the dummy lacked any material resembling human flesh, which, as noted, officers conducting rounds are required to observe.

In fact, Sweat climbed out of his cell a total of 85 times. If only one of more than 400 required checks was properly performed during the time Sweat was out of his cell, the report notes, the escape would have been instantly foiled.

Oh, and about that hole  and those tools.

Not easy to find, at all. Photo: New York State Police

The report says corrections officers rarely did thorough searches of inmates cells. Sweats cell was never searched, according to records. Matts cell was searched in March 2015. Unbelievably, the guards were unable to find the 18-inch-by-14- inch hole in the rear wall. As the report wisely notes: a proper cell search would have found the breach and thwarted the escape.

Theres no better time than escaping from prison to make lots of Shawshank references  or even call on it for tips.

The first time Matt and Sweat explored the tunnels together they couldnt help but reference the movie. According to Sweat, We were laughing and joking about how Andy did it in 20 years; I think we might be able to do it in 10.

Sweat called on the movie again when he was trying to figure out a way through the steam pipes.

At first, Sweat considered breaking a hole in the pipe by striking it with the sledge hammer and chisels or punch. Here he again recalled The Shawshank Redemption, specifically the scene in which the protagonist hit [the sewer pipe] with the rock, and he broke the pipe to climb into the shit tube to get out. However, when Sweat tested this technique on the steam pipe, he immediately knew it was a mistake. As he recalled: So I tapped it with the sledgehammer. Man, you could hear that fucking thing go all the way down to the power house, all the way the other way, and come all the way back. It was really loud, it echoed the whole way. I said, I cant do that, its way too loud, and I wasnt even hitting it, it was just tap, tap, and that was too loud. Sweat concluded, therefore, he had no choice but to cut holes in the steam pipe with hacksaw blades.

And Sweat summed up his entire escape: Shawshank aint got shit on me.

Maybe we should all try the prison-escape workout.

Sweat told investigators he was probably about the best physical shape I been in and lost about 30 pounds climbing through the tunnels and hacksawing through pipes. He even made Matt lose some weight; Sweat was apparently nervous that his co-conspirator was a little too chunky to fit through the escape route. Sweat apparently asked Matt to measure himself, and carried a tape measure with him to compare his waistline with the openings in the tunnels to make sure fatso could fit. According to the report, a tape measure with National Guard printed on its case was recovered from the tunnels after the escape. It likely came from the tailor shop.

Sweat broke out once before.

The hole in the steam pipe. Photo: OGS

Sweat broke through the steam pipe in the early morning hours of June 5. He climbed through the pipe into the tunnel, which led him to two manholes. The first led into a yard in a power plant, but Sweat decided that opening was too risky. He hacksawed the chain on another manhole, which led him out to a street intersection, outside the prison walls. I actually had my head out into freedom, Sweat told investigators, but he had made a promise to Matt, and I wanted to stick to my word.

Matt and Sweat tried to make a memorable exit.

Matts farewell note. Photo: New York State Police

The convicts decided to go with their tried-and-true dummy method to avoid detection on the night they escaped. They put their plan into motion after the 11 p.m. rounds on June 5. Then they said their good-byes:

Matt left two handwritten notes in his cell. One, on a note pad left on a table, stated, You left me no choice but to grow old & die in here. I had to do something. A second note, written on a wall calendar illustrated with reproductions of his own artwork, read, Time to Go Kid! with the date 6-5-15.

Matts second note. Photo: New York State Police

Sweat affixed notes along the escape route, which he says Matt also wrote. The note that said Have a Nice Day with an offensive image, Sweat says, was given to him by another inmate a few days before.

Notes in the escape route. Photo: New York State Police

Bloopers!

Sweat went first but had to pull Matt, who was apparently a bit claustrophobic, forward with a bedsheet. When he got through the opening in the pipe, Sweat told investigators, his pants came halfway down and I said, Oh, Matt, I didnt know you cared.

What to pack for your prison escape.

The two carried a guitar soft case filled with extra clothes, 20 packs of peanuts, 40 granola bars, and 12 sticks of pepperoni. Sweat believed the guitar case would throw people off. If somebody sees a guitar case, theyre not thinking you escaped  theyre going to think you came back from playing in a band or  hanging out with your friends  

Apparently it worked, though.

Sweat and Matt almost got caught. They slithered out of the manhole and saw a car, with its headlights on, approaching. Matt apparently panicked and ran into a nearby backyard. What the fuck are you doing, man? Where are you going? Sweat yelled after him.
Photo: Susan Watts/NY Daily News via Getty Images

And so it begins: Norman Seabrook, the influential head of the New York City corrections officers union was arrested Wednesday morning on federal fraud charges, reports the New York Times. Seabrooks arrest is tied to the expansive FBI corruption investigation into the NYPD and the de Blasio administration.

FBI agents busted Seabroook, whos led the 9,000-plus-member Correction Officers Benevolent Association for 21 years, at 6 a.m. today at his Bronx home. Another defendant, hedge-fund manager Murray Huberfeld, was also arrested in connection with this case. Seabrook is accused of steering $20 million from the corrections unions pension fund into Huberfelds Platinum Partners firm. Huberfeld allegedly returned the favor by giving Seabrook as much as $150,000 in kickbacks, according to the New York Daily News. Both men are formally charged with honest wire fraud and conspiracy to commit honest wire fraud.

Another person  identified by sources as Jona Rechnitz, a businessman whos also at the center of one of the inquiries into de Blasios fundraising  has already pleaded guilty to charges in connection with the case, and is cooperating with authorities in exchange for leniency. According to the criminal complaint, Rechnitz, who was cozy with Seabrook and other high-ranking NYPD officials, introduced the two men in late 2013, after Seabrook had complained that he got no financial perks from his work investing the unions retirement funds. (Its time Norman Seabrook got paid, he allegedly told Rechnitz.) Rechnitz acted as the go-between to deliver the alleged bribes from Huberfeld, including buying a Ferragamo bag  Seabrooks favorite luxury goods store, according to the complaint  and stuffing it with $60,000 in cash to deliver to the union chief.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara formally announced the charges Wednesday afternoon, calling it a straightforward and explicit bribery scheme. Bharara, for his part, seems to be getting used to this, saying hes running out of adjectives to describe corruption in New York. And he probably just made a few people feel a little sweaty around the collar this afternoon:

.@PreetBharara may have a new version of Stay Tuned. He said, "You should expect to see me again pic.twitter.com/6xVXLz8tK8  Joseph Spector (@GannettAlbany) June 8, 2016

"No institution in New York State is immune from corruption, and we intend to show that," Preet Bharara says. Smiles and exits stage.  Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) June 8, 2016

So what does this have to do with one of the many investigations into de Blasios fundraising? This probe into Seabrooks and Huberfelds activities is separate and began about two years ago, but Rechnitz figures into both. Rechnitz had come under scrutiny for allegedly giving gifts and vacations to some NYPD officials in exchange for police escorts and other favors. Rechnitz also raised money for de Blasios controversial (and now shuttered) nonprofit, Campaign for One New York. The FBI is reportedly investigating to see if Rechnitz also managed to buy some clout at City Hall with his contributions. Per the Times:

The criminal complaint charging the two men strongly suggests that a witness who is cooperating with the government in the case, Jona S. Rechnitz, could also serve as an important witness in at least one of the fund-raising inquiries centered on the mayor.

While that may not sound great for City Hall, Mayor de Blasio condemned Seabrook in unequivocal terms Wednesday, calling the allegations disgusting. It means he took money that was meant for his workers retirements and put it in his own pocket, he said. Seabrook has been suspended from his post, according to the mayors office.

De Blasio separated himself from Seabrook as much as possible, saying their relationship had been fraught, indicating the two men had clashed recently over Rikers reform initiatives. The mayor also tried to distance himself from Rechnitz. I wish I never met the guy, de Blasio said. If we had any inkling that this was the kind of human being he was, we never would have gone near him.

This post has been updated to reflect new details from Bhararas press conference and Mayor de Blasios comments.
Rage against the dying of the Bern. Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images

The night Hillary Clinton won the New York primary, the Sanders campaign sent two radically different messages about how it planned to proceed. In an interview with the Associated Press, senior Sanders adviser Tad Devine said the campaign would sit back and assess where we are after the five northeastern primaries on April 26. At roughly the same time, the senators campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, told MSNBC that there would be nothing to assess until the superdelegates cast their official votes at the convention.

Were going to go to the convention, Weaver told Steve Kornacki. It is extremely unlikely that either candidate will have the requisite number of pledged delegates  so it is going to be an election determined by the superdelegates.

Weaver won that argument. Bernie Sanders lost four of five states on April 26, but continued campaigning aggressively, nonetheless, arguing that a win in California  combined with his superior performance in head-to-head polls with Donald Trump  would convince superdelegates to throw the election to him in Philadelphia.

Now, with Clinton set to clinch a majority of pledged delegates when the final six states cast their primary ballots Tuesday night, the Devine-Weaver divide is resurfacing  and their boss doesnt seem to know whose side hes on.

On Monday night, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Sanders campaign is divided between the Sandernistas  longtime Bernie backers from his time in Vermont and Congress who want to rage against the dying of the light  and those with broader ties to the Democratic Party, who believe Sanderss agenda would be best served by uniting the party against Trump. Devine, who advised Democratic nominees Al Gore and John Kerry, speaks for the latter.

What will happen hopefully when the voting is done, our two campaigns will begin to talk once more to one another and figure out where the common ground is, Devine told the Journal on Monday night.

Weaver, who has worked as a Sanders operative since the mid-80s, told the paper a different story.

The plan is as the senator has described it: to go forward after Tuesday and keep the campaign going to the convention and make the case to superdelegates that Sen. Sanders is the best chance that Democrats have to beat Trump, Weaver said. The trajectory is the same regardless of the outcome in California.

In most of his recent statements, Sanders sounds more like his campaign manager. On Monday night in Los Angeles, Sanders told supporters that a win in California would give him enormous momentum with superdelegates going into the convention. But earlier in the day, he struck a more Devine note  asked about whether he would endorse Clinton before the convention, Sanders replied, Let me just talk to you after the primary here in California where we hope to win. Lets assess where we are after tomorrow before we make statements based on speculation.

For Weaver, theres no cause for such assessments. Nothing hinges on the outcome in California. But his candidate sounds less certain. And not without reason. There are a lot of powerful voices whispering into his other ear.

Over the weekend, Sanders and President Obama spoke for over 30 minutes, according to CBS News. While the content of the conversation is unknown, the president has argued that Tuesdays results will be decisive  and has indicated that he intends to endorse Clinton well ahead of the July convention.

Meanwhile, Sanderss sole backer in the U.S. Senate, Oregon Democrat Jeff Merkley, has called on Sanders to drop out once Clinton secures a majority of pledged delegates. The Vermont senators Clinton-backing colleagues  along with virtually every other elected Democrat  obviously agree.

If Sanders was looking for a way to sustain his campaign past a loss in California, the Associated Presss decision to declare Clinton the primarys winner on Monday night may provide one justification. In an interview with CNN on Tuesday, Weaver argued that the APs call  which was based on a revised count of Clintons advantage among superdelegates  was suppressing voter turnout in six states across the country.

But the Vermont senator has something to lose in defying the will of the Democratic Party. Should Democrats recapture the Senate, Sanders is in line to become chair of the Budget Committee  a powerful post, especially when held by a politician with a national following and first-rate donor list. If the democratic socialist opts for political revolution over party unity, however, his colleagues could ostensibly deny him that position.

Plus, Sanderss superdelegate strategy works a lot better as a rationale for giving Democrats in California a chance to make their preferences known than it does as a means of actually winning the nomination. Barring an FBI indictment or medical catastrophe, Democratic elites are not going to overturn the will of their voters to give the partys nod to a man who has been a Democrat for a little over a year.

But Bernie Sanders isnt known for being terribly sensitive to political pressure. And at least one voice in his campaign is telling him to go down swinging. Well know very soon how loudly all the other voices speak.
Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

In the imaginations of the more optimistic Bernie Sanders supporters, June 7 was supposed to be the day when the Democratic Party was taken by emotional, if not mathematical, storm as he swept California convincingly and built the kind of late momentum that would impress superdelegates, should Hillary Clintons campaign somehow fall apart before the convention in Philadelphia. Thats not how it all turned out.

Instead, Clinton began the evening with a decisive (63-37) win in New Jersey and declared victory in the overall presidential nominating contest after demonstrating that the odds of Sanders eliminating her lead in pledged delegates had dropped to approximately zero. She then picked up narrow but symbolically significant wins in New Mexico and South Dakota, while losing (as expected) North Dakota and Montana. And the chimera of a big Sanders win in California faded as early mail-ballot results showed Clinton leading by a surprisingly big margin, enough to withstand a late surge fueled by Bernies young legions who registered and voted late. With more than 90 percent of votes counted, Clinton leads Sanders by a comfortable margin of more than a dozen points

Speaking to a loud and defiant Santa Monica crowd a few hours after Clinton claimed the nomination in Brooklyn, Sanders refused to concede the state or the nomination, and vowed to fight on to next weeks final primary in D.C.(where he is sure to lose big), and then to the convention. But he did not criticize Hillary Clinton or specifically pledge to contest her nomination (as distinguished from the platform or future nominating process rules) past the end of the primaries. Some observers are interpreting his remarks as the first stage of an inevitable concession by way of letting his young supporters down slowly. But fretful HRC supporters will be troubled by a new Politico story attributing the intermittent bitterness of the Sanders campaign toward Clinton to the Vermont senator himself.

If, as appears likely, Clinton hangs on to her California lead, she will have avoided a late primary slump in the Golden State that could have cast a pall on the convention and on her general-election prospects. Instead, given Donald Trumps sudden new problems, shes not only the putative Democratic nominee, but could soon sport a recovered lead in general-election polls even if Bernies supporters are slow to reconcile themselves to her nomination. So she can probably afford to give them the time and space to get out of denial, to grieve and then recover.
Hillary Clinton would have won California even if the wire services hadnt called the nomination for her. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

At the very time that Clinton supporters and many other Trump-fearing Democrats are hoping to extinguish the Bern, a new source of angst has arisen: the timing of the Associated Presss announcement on Monday that its interviews with superdelegates indicated Clinton had enough total delegates to clinch the nomination. Heres the APs own description of the backlash:

When the mainstream media calls the polls, calls the election, because theyre already planning to do it to suppress the vote in California, we will fight on, Nina Turner, a former Ohio state senator and one of Sanders top surrogates, said at a Monday night campaign rally. Morgan Reed, a rafting guide from Mendicino, California, attended the rally and said it was unseemly for the media to call the race for Clinton so close to the start of voting in California, warning that it amounted to disenfranchising the vote.

A conservative blog sought to pour gasoline on this fire by alleging active collusion between the Clinton campaign and the wire service. For a Sanders campaign already used to hearing from the candidate himself that the nominating process is rigged and that many of Clintons primary wins are tainted, this is a dangerous allegation that is assuming mythological proportions.

But any careful analysis of how and why Clinton outperformed her poll numbers (four separate late polls showed her winning by two points, not the double-digit lead she currently holds) indicates the very opposite of the theory of a pro-Clinton late-voter surge (or, more precisely, the discouragement of late would-be Sanders voters). Heres Harry Enten of FiveThirtyEight:

Clinton built a tremendous lead in the state from early mail-in votes, and she never relinquished it. Just after midnight, Clinton was up by 26 percentage points with over a million votes counted. By the time all the early vote was in, she was able to take that advantage up to about 400,000. That margin stayed remarkably consistent as more and more of the in-person vote was tabulated. In other words, Sanders fought Clinton to a draw among voters who cast their ballot at the polls yesterday, but the damage had been done by early voters, who tend to be older and more traditional party loyalists.

Perhaps this is one source of heart-Bern for Sanders supporters that will subside as political life in California returns to normal.
Photo: Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/AFP/Getty Images

Against the wishes of his party  and most of his campaign staff  Donald Trump ordered his surrogates to intensify their attacks on federal judge Gonzalo Curiel on Monday afternoon. Trump had spent most of the past week defending his claim that Curiels Mexican heritage prevents him from fairly adjudicating the class-action lawsuits brought against Trump University. House Speaker Paul Ryan, along with most other literate humans, found Trumps comments to be unambiguously racist. Republicans who were reluctant to use the R-word found them problematic, or, at the very least, unproductive. As hes wont to do, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell voiced his partys consensus in stark, unsubtle terms, telling Trump Tuesday to get on message.

Late Tuesday afternoon, the mogul agreed to do so. In a (ghost-) written statement, Trump explained that he wouldnt have had any problem with the judges Mexican heritage if it werent for his many unfair and mistaken rulings against him. But, even though his comments were misconstrued and not at all racist, he does not intend to comment on this matter any further.

Re: Trump statement. If this is true, why did Trump feel that a Muslim judge might not treat him fairly either? pic.twitter.com/fgFYAcdEwf  Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) June 7, 2016

So, the GOP nominee should soon be back on the high road he was taking before the Trump University case crept into the headlines  accusing Bill Clinton of rape and Crooked Hillary of murdering Vince Foster.
Photo: John Moore/Getty Images

Donald Trump lies so prolifically, and in such a transparent manner, that its easy to get dulled by those lies. They come in unrelenting waves, almost every day, and by the time the media have fully unpacked lie No. 4,538, the presumptive GOP presidential candidate is a thousand lies ahead. But campaign observers should resist the tendency to get jaded: Some of Trumps lies really are quite impressive, even by the admittedly low standards of honesty during presidential campaigns, and should be appreciated for their audacity and for the way they gleefully rip at the fabric of reality and then stitch it sloppily back together in a more Trump-aggrandizing pattern.

A truly vintage example popped up in Tuesdays BuzzFeed article detailing Trumps attempts to raise money from, and forge potential business relationships with, Muammar Qaddafi, Libyas late, brutal former dictator. The relationship between the two has been a source of curiosity given Trumps flip-flopping on the American co-led NATO military effort against Qaddafis regime that led to his death in 2011  at some points, Trump has said he supported that intervention; at others, he has described it as a mistake and used it as a cudgel to strike at Hillary Clinton.

In the story, reporters Daniel Wagner and Aram Roston explain that, prior to his 2009 visit to the United Nations General Assembly, Qaddafi and his entourage were seeking a place to set up the large, North Africanstyle tent that Qaddafi liked to sleep under when he traveled. As anyone who has attempted to set up a giant North Africanstyle tent in New York City can attest, it can be a hassle. But Qaddafi eventually got hooked up with Trump and his 230-acre estate in the wealthy suburb of Bedford in Westchester County, Seven Springs.

In exchange for some cash  and, evidence strongly suggests, in an attempt to bring himself closer to Qaddafi, who had access to funds and business connections Trump openly coveted  Trump allowed his estate to be partially taken over by a throng of 20 members of Qaddafis entourage, five staffers from Libyas American PR firm, and five Secret Service agents (standard practice when a foreign leader is visiting). For two weeks leading up to Qaddafis arrival, the visitors did their thing: The tent was erected. Toilets were retrofitted to make them more Libyan, since pressured hoses  are used instead of toilet paper in Libya. A fuzzy white lamb was procured from Queens to be sacrificed upon Qaddafis arrival, as one does. Mutassim Qaddafi, one of Qaddafis sons, was there.

Unfortunately for this rental agreement, the tent was visible over the estates walls and from the air, attracting the attention of news crews. Soon thereafter  perhaps as a result of oversensitive NIMBYs who for whatever reason didnt want a Libyan dictator sleeping under a tent down the street from them  the town of Bedford issued a stop-work order, based on a local ordinance against building temporary structures without a permit. That was it: The Libyans and their friends packed up and went home (the lambs fate is unknown). After they departed, Trump called Qaddafis PR firm to ask for a meeting with the dictator about business opportunities in the nation.

Trump tells a very different story about what happened, Wagner and Roston explain in their article:

At first, the Trump Organization publicly denied that it knew who the renter was. Yet later, Trump took credit for shutting the site down, saying he had asked the Libyans to leave. Trump said he was proud that Qaddafi never got to visit the site, especially after Libya paid Trump a lot of money for one night. Speaking to Fox News in 2011, Trump said: I dont want to use the word screwed, but I screwed him. Thats what we should be doing. Yet sources pointed out that representatives of the Libyan government occupied the estate for two weeks before Bedford kicked them out. Trump also appears to have exaggerated his income from the deal, suggesting in an interview that he received well over $200,000. Libyas representatives paid Trump $150,000 under the lease, according to Herbert, who signed the document. Later, when Trump asked to meet with Qaddafi, he demanded an additional $50,000 for the tent-related troubles, Herbert said, but Qaddafis representatives refused to pay extra.

To review: Trump eagerly invites a dictator onto his own property in exchange for some of that dictators cash and a chance at future business access, allowing the dictators people to effectively take over part of his property and spend two weeks setting up shop. The town finds out and says, Nope, scuppering the deal. Then Trump takes credit for driving the dictator away.

Its fun, just as a thought exercise, to imagine what would have to be true for this story line to make any sense. For example, this chain of events could be part of the plot of a gonzo comedy in which a moguls incompetent cousin invites a dictator and his entourage to that moguls estate without his knowledge, perhaps expecting the mogul to be away on business. Imagine a shot of Trump pulling up to Seven Springs, home early from his trip, and noticing the tent peeking over the wall. Trump bursts into his mansion, which is packed with unfamiliar Libyans who look up quizzically at him: What the hell is this? Who are you people? Get out of my house! The condemned lamb pads up to Trump and affectionately nuzzles his leg. And get this lamb out of here!

Back in the real world, this is just another glimpse at Trumps constant lying, yes, but also at what appears to be a deeply psychological need to explain just about every single situation, no matter how bad it looks for him, in the context of A Total Trump Triumph, regardless of the logical contortions required. As they almost certainly dont say in Libya, a lie like the one Trump told about his relationship with Qaddafi requires some real chutzpah.
Photo: SuperStock/This content is subject to copyright.

Turn on TV late in the evening and what are they trying to sell you? asks Popular Science. Coffee without caffeine  beverages to put lead in your eyelids  mattresses for spinal bliss. Poke around in a drugstore and what do you find? Sleeping pills, earplugs, black-velvet blindfolds  even lullaby records and how-to-sleep books. Obviously the strains of modern living have a lot of us worried about getting a good nights sleep.

Obviously. Its a message you read about so often that the news articles start to blur together: People today are sleeping fewer hours than those happy slumberers of decades past, and you can blame your stress and your smartphone for it. But that passage above was printed in Popular Science in 1957, suggesting that for nearly 60 years Americans have been worried about the notion of a modern sleeplessness epidemic. And there is data to back this worry up: For instance, more than one-third of Americans dont sleep enough, according to a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report earlier this year  which is bad news, because studies have linked too little sleep with weight gain, diabetes, and heart disease, among other troubling consequences. Other headlines encourage the reader to contrast the sad state of sleep in America today with the snooze habits of the past  according to National Sleep Foundation data, 20 percent of people surveyed in 2009 said they slept fewer than six hours; compare that to the 12 percent who reported the same in the 1990s. Centuries ago, claims a CNN.com article on the NSF data, people routinely slept eight to nine hours a day.

Did they, though? Some fascinating and comprehensive new reviews of the scientific literature are questioning this idea. In 2012, for instance, a team of Australian researchers analyzed the results of 38 studies from around the globe, encompassing research conducted from the 1960s to the 2000s. That systematic review found that in most of these countries, the average amount of sleep citizens got per night increased in that time period. Meanwhile, this data set suggested that the number of people getting fewer than six hours of sleep per night had declined in many of the countries studied over the past four decades (though the authors say they found inconsistent results for the U.S. specifically). This turns the current concept of an increasingly sleep-deprived society on its head, the authors write in Sleep Medicine Reviews, and also challenges the notion that the penetration of personal technology into daily living, especially over the last 3 decades, has harmed our sleep patterns.

Its a conclusion that stands in direct contrast to those CDC and NSF studies, something that, as Quartz recently noted, may be explained by the subtle but distinct differences in the questions the researchers asked their study participants. Take the question as the CDC phrased it: On average, how many hours of sleep do you get in a day? As Quartz explains:

[A]nswers to such a question are likely to suffer from both conscious and unconscious biases, which may make people give a different answer than reality. Sleeping less, for instance, is associated with being more productive and some may consider it fashionable to say they sleep less. Some studies have also shown that people underestimate how much they actually sleepespecially those who suffer from insomnia.

Ask people how much sleep they tend to get, in other words, and their answers may not be as accurate as scientists would like them to be; this is a problem not just with the sleep literature, by the way, but with any kind of study that relies on self-reports. That 2012 systematic review, on the other hand, relied on time-use surveys  though these come with their own caveat, in that these respondents may be reporting the number of hours they spent in bed, which, as too many of us know from experience, may not be the same thing as time spent in blissful slumber.

To try and cut through some of this confusion, Shawn Youngstedt of Arizona State University and his colleagues recently analyzed 257 studies on objective sleep duration  that is, research conducted in the control-freak-friendly setting of a sleep laboratory. As a sleep researcher, I hear this message over and over, and I was skeptical about it  that weve become a sleep-deprived society, Youngstedt told Science of Us. Their results will appear in the August edition of the journal Sleep Medicine Reviews, under the title Has adult sleep duration declined over the last 50+ years?  and according to their data, the answer to that question appears to be no. In 1960, healthy adults slept, on average, about seven hours a night; the same was apparently true for the average healthy adult in 2013.

This is not to say that sleep deprivation isnt a major health issue for many people, because, clearly, it is. For one, research has identified a racial disparity in the amount of sleep Americans get, in that black people tend to sleep worse than white people. And Youngstedts review of the literature isnt perfect, either: Sleeping in a lab, accompanied by electrodes and weird machines monitoring your slumber, is likely not a very relaxing or natural-feeling experience. Sleep  perhaps especially quality of sleep  turns out to be a tricky thing to track. But to Youngstedt, the concern over our supposed sleep crisis today might actually be the result of improvements in the scientific study of sleep  a field that has really only been around since the 1970s, he said. I think part of it is were intimately more aware about sleep than we were 30, 40, 50 years ago, Youngstedt said. And so theres a lot more concern about [it]. The same percentage of the population are shift workers now as 40, 50 years ago  its just that now we know that shift work is extremely hazardous. And apnea, too  no one had any idea what apnea was 40, 50 years ago.

Also of note: Seven, not eight, turns out to be the number many sleep scientists are now arguing is the optimal number of hours to sleep, and some recent research is showing that too much sleep  especially nine hours or more  is not great for your health, either. Interestingly, seven is also about the amount of time that hunter-gatherer groups in Bolivia, Tanzania, and South Africa slept each night on average, according to one study published last fall. These are people, in other words, who do not have smartphones and Netflix to keep them awake all night, and yet they tend to get about as much sleep as people in Western nations. As neuroscientist Jerome Siegal, who led the study, told Science magazine, Before we tell people they need more sleep, we need to make sure this is true.
Photo: Neilson Barnard/Getty Images

Since it was revealed last month that Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel was funding lawsuits against Gawker Media  in particular a multimillion-dollar suit filed by the pro wrestler Hulk Hogan  details about his day-to-day involvement have been scant. Did Hogan know who was behind the suit? Had the two ever talked? As it turns out: Nope! According to Forbes, the idea that Thiel is a shadowy puppet master isnt as hyperbolic as it sounds.

Forbess Ryan Mac and Matt Drange report that Thiel was never in direct contact with Charles Harder, the lawyer suing Gawker on behalf of Hogan and other clients. Someone cold-called Harder on Thiels behalf.

It gets weirder. According to multiple sources familiar with Harders arrangement, he never had any direct contact with Thiel. And, these sources claim, Harder didnt even know who was funding the litigation until FORBES broke the news in May. What he surely did know: The checks cleared. And there was presumably more where that came from, if he could find more cases.

In addition to the Hogan case, and cases involving writer Ashley Terrill and purported email inventor Shiva Ayyadurai, Harders firm has also worked on cases involving Gawkers unpaid interns, and a case brought by Meanith Huon, who leveled claims against Gawker Media blog Jezebel. Huon stated in open court that he was getting support from Hulk Hogans lawyers in California.

In addition to the legal complications, Forbes reports that at least one Silicon Valley billionaire has quietly pursued the concept of a Gawker buyout by indirectly reaching out to former staffers.
Counterfeit cigarettes up 300% claims study commissioned by manufacturers

A report conducted by KPMG for major tobacco manufacturers claims there was a 300% rise in counterfeit cigarette volumes in the UK last year.

It said the overall volume of illegal cigarettes  both contraband and counterfeit  rose by 6% to reach 6.7 billion cigarettes, almost one in six smoked in the UK.

KPMG said that if the total black market volume had been consumed legally tax revenue of 2.8 billion (2.2 billion) would have been raised.

Marlboro producer Phillip Morris said it feared a new EU tobacco products directive would increase demand for cheaper illegal tobacco even further.

The directive banned pack sizes smaller than 20 cigarettes and 30g of rolling tobacco from May 20 this year, though retailers have a year to sell existing stocks through.

The company claims the move will force smokers to buy bigger, more expensive packs, making illegal sources of supply more attractive.

Paul Adeleke, corporate affairs director at Philip Morris said: This illegal activity not only comes with a financial cost, but it fosters criminality in local communities.

The KMPG report was commissioned by Phillip Morris, British American Tobacco, Imperial Tobacco and Japan Tobacco International.
Hmm.. the diverse casting going on for this show has me intrigued for season 2 despite my boo Wentworth leaving. As long as they don't have a flop ass villain like Vandal was again I'll keep watching

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I wonder if this is what Naya (Rivera) got cast in

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God I hope not. She's like 1/8th black. The CW has a hard time casting black actresses it seems.

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um. stop girl. her mom is a black puerto rican

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I would LOVE it if it were her but I HIGHLY doubt it. She loves being a Cali girl way to much to be spending majority of her time in Canada.

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idk, i was just wondering bc of her tweet and also ryan tweeting that he misses naya and josey sooooo much lmao it might just b wishful thinking

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Did she delete a tweet? Cause im not seeing anything on her timeline about a new job or anything to allude to her getting cast in anything.

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she was on youtube watching vixen vids and tweeted this girl about her commentary on a vixen trailer and then put a winky emoji at the end which made me think mb she was alluding to something

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interesting

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I saw some speculation this may happen and I'm not surprised, they probably want to replace Kendra. I am kind of surprised they would give the role to another actress though. As far as I know in the comics there was one one Vixen (unlike The Flash or even the Green Arrow).

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Aren't Kendra and Carter gone anyway?



Falk posted on instagram a big long note in response to people asking if he was going to be on the show in S2, and although he said he doesn't know anything yet, it was worded so so SO much like a "thank you for everything, it's been such a pleasure, goodbye" that I can only assume the answer is really no.

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the worst part of this show is the time travel, it just makes no goddamn sense. I have to basically turn off my brain when I watch. I was hoping that future seasons wouldn't involve time travel

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It really doesn't. But I feel that way about Doctor Who sometimes as well, so I really try not to think about it too hard.

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oooh i totally called this like a couple weeks ago in another post but i assumed with Damien getting cancelled that Megalyn would be free? good on her for booking lots of film projects

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I don't know why they didn't try to sign her sooner until waiting so long till they couldn't have her so they say "screw you, we're moving on anyway"

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Oh, was Damien cancelled? I didn't watch it past the first episode. I guess it's not worth catching up on now?

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I'd live for an Old Vixen/Constantine pairing; make it happen.

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Enough with different people taking up these mantles! I love me a good legacy character but I at least want time with one version of the legacy before moving on so quickly to a new one.

Enough with different people taking up these mantles! I love me a good legacy character but I at least want time with one version of the legacy before moving on so quickly to a new one.

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*sigh* better be black.

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As long as I get to see Megalyn's Vixen again, I'm cool. Also she better be a WOC.

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Surprised they didn't lock Megalyn down, or that they won't wait for her to be available tbh after making such an effort to have her live action self appear.



BUT i'll wait with baited breath tbh for more news.

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this show has kind of become the dumping ground for DC cameos in the Flarrow verse with no real direction or purpose. I know Kiesberg thinks its cool and "why not?" that they can add as many characters from the comics they grew up reading but its not really awesome if you dont have a plan or purpose. Did Sara even know Laurel died?

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ummmmm...i guess??? bring constantine for season 2 now!

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same, whenever I drink and try to talk to people about this stuff they always just give me the side eye or don't wanna talk about it but I'm like "what if we're sims! what about all the different universes! what's your moon sign?!"

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HAHAHA r u me? it's even better because i'm like this tiny asian with a doll face and every white man is like oh hello sweet girl and i'm like DO YOU KNOW ANY GHOST STORIES? WHAT IF OUR EARTH IS JUST ONE ATOM IN SOMEONE ELSE'S BODY

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yes lmao I love talking about that shit, I need more friends like this

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quantum queen

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lol can someone pls explain what string theory is...?

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so say you have a long piece of yarn with two knots at either end. both knots symbolizes a point in time. Knot 1 is 1920 and at the other end of the yarn is Knot 2, which is 2016. It's basically a time line. So, lets say you wanted to time travel, you think you'd have to travel down that string back to 1920, right?



Well, imagine if you just balled up that string in your hand. The knots are closer together, right? You could basically jump from one knot to the next? They're so close, that maybe they're happening at the same time. Maybe that's a way to travel back in time.



That's string theory. I'm sure there's a lot more to it, tho.



Edited at 2016-06-08 02:12 am (UTC)

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thank you for replying!!! these answers make me wanna look more into it.

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holy shit ive had a billion ppl explain string theory to me before and the way you just said it finally made complete sense to me. I only half got the concept, at best, every other time.

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Whoa

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My understanding is as such:



Picture the movement of a ribbon. Then think of several ribbons. When you picture that, the ribbons are bound to touch/run into each other at certain times, right?



So the theory is that things like deja vu exist because energy, which manifests in people, places, things, events, etc. is like those ribbons (or, rather, strings) and when the movement causes certain strings to pass/touch one another as it inevitably, that is why that is occurring.





Edited at 2016-06-08 02:28 am (UTC)

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"I think people, in general, are plebeians that are brainwashed by the type of media that they expose themselves to"



She's not wrong about that one.

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Yeah, except she thinks we've been brainwashed into not believing in nonsense like "alternative history" and aliens lmao.

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exactly lol

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She's also said everyone is born bisexual and then conditioned to be straight or gay. Not sure if she has informed herself since she's said that.

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tbh if you don't believe in aliens you're an idiot

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mte

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didn't ontd push this narrative that megan fox was like a genius or something before

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Ok, lol



I've had something happen like 2 or 3 times where I've had a dream about someone I haven't spoken to in years and then about a week later they'll either call or I'll run into them somewhere.

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shes so fucking weird, i love it and i love when she has things to promote

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lol ok

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No but my mom and maternal grandma do (psychic dreams, feeling weird presences/energy, etc.). It's interesting because I don't believe in ghosts but I believe my mom and grandma, if that makes any sense lol. I also don't mess with our Chinese superstitions just in case~

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I have dreams that come true exactly like I dreamed or the basic premise.



One time I dreamed I saw a van swerve into a ditch in my rearview; a couple of years later it happened (everyone was okay).



A couple of years ago I dreamed that my friend/crush at the time was in a car accident and was in the hospital. A couple of weeks later the bus he was on to visit his gf in MI rolled over in a field in Ohio and he was nearly crushed by another passenger. He scrambled out and then helped others, so no hospital, but still.



Then I once had a dream about a college lecture down to the professor, other students, layout of the room, where I was sitting, what we were discussing, etc and then a year or so later it happened. It was more than dejavu. Scared the shit out of me.

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I have dreams like that all the time, only I don't remember them until they happen irl.

The very worst was me dreaming of my organic chem lab test. I was furious with my brain for not remembering everything so I could get an A.

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I've had that happen to me before as well. When I was younger, I had a dream about my younger cousin sleeping over and she was talking to me about some thing and then accidentally said 'shit' and immediately apologized (she was like 10 or so at the time and we never cursed in front of each other, lol). The next night, my cousin slept over and she was having the exact same conversation that we had in the dream (cursing and all) and it really freaked me the fuck out. I told her that I dreamt about this happening the night before and I was so weirded out that I got goosebumps all over.



I know people don't like to believe in psychics and what not, but having experience makes me think that it's totally possible.

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Same, but nothing big like yours though. One time it was a word for word conversation I was having with someone. I just brush it off, but it sometimes creeps me out. #creepypost

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this kind of stuff happens to soooo many people, I find it fascinating

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So she's basically her character in "This is 40" IRL.

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Yeah they let her put a lot of her personality into it

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She's so weird and I always halfway think she's trolling.

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I'm glad I don't have psychic dreams - I dreamed this morning that there was a rat in my bed and I woke up freakin the fuck out.

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omg i'd rather have that than wake up crying from zombies getting me sis

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I had a really realistic zombie dream the other night it was scary!

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omg what were they thinking?

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please, elaborate [2]

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archaeology......can't be explained by science? quantitative analysis is actually really important and vital to the discipline lol

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antiques too. science has no answer for that table you found in that dusty shop

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That's why you call in Jennifer Love Hewitt. Her breasts can tell when a ghost is gonna haunt you

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Back in mid-April, when Iran was desperate to start exporting the millions of barrels it was pumping each day out of the ground, it found it had an unexpected problem: not only did it not have enough spare tankers, but few if any shipping companies were willing to move the cargo.

There were two key reasons for this.

 The first hurdle was residual U.S. restrictions on Tehran which are still in place and prohibit any trade in dollars or the involvement of U.S. firms including banks - a major hurdle for the oil and tanker trades, which are priced in dollars. As a result, by mid-April only eight foreign tankers, carrying a total of around 8 million barrels of oil had shipped Iranian crude to European destinations since sanctions were lifted in January. That equates to only around 10 days' worth of sales at the levels of pre-2012, when European buyers were purchasing as much as 800,000 barrels per day (bpd) from the OPEC producer. Michele White, general counsel with Intertanko, an association which represents the majority of the world's tanker fleet, said: "We have witnessed a reluctance by our members generally to return to Iranian trade given the prohibition on use of the U.S. financial system - essentially no U.S. dollars."

 The second and far bigger problem, were implicit Saudi Arabian threats for shippers not to transact with Iran or risk losing Saudi business. "Its seen as an unknown risk, said one shipbroker. No one wants to disrupt their relationship with the Saudis." Iran admitted as much. A senior Iranian government official, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, acknowledged his country was finding it difficult to hire foreign tankers. "We are working on the problems. There are various issues involved, financial, banking and even insurance. It has improved a little bit since the lifting of sanctions but we still face serious problems." Asked if this and the need to modernize some of the domestic fleet were holding back exports, he said: "Of course it does."

As Reuters said at the time, Iran's problems may not be resolved any time soon, adding that two other sources with other leading oil tanker operators echoed the above concerns and said they were not doing Iran deals at the moment.

Fast forward a little over a month later, and somehow all the issues have been resolved.

According to an update from Reuters, more than 25 European and Asian-owned supertankers are shipping Iranian oil, allowing Tehran to ramp up exports much faster than analysts had expected following the lifting of sanctions in January. As noted above, "Iran was struggling as recently as April to find partners to ship its oil, but after an agreement on a temporary insurance fix more than a third of Iran's crude shipments are now being handled by foreign vessels."

It appears that, whether with or without outside pressure, Saudi Arabia relented.

"Charterers are buying cargo from Iran and the rest of the world is OK with that," said Odysseus Valatsas, chartering manager at Dynacom Tankers Management. Greek owner Dynacom has fixed three of its supertankers to carry Iranian crude.

And while some international ship-owners still remain reluctant to handle Iranian oil, due mainly to some U.S. restrictions on Tehran, increasingly more are discovering the necessary loopholes to buy Iran's discounted oil and ship it onward to their end destinations, pocketing a profit spread in the process. Related: An Oil Price Rebound Is Not Enough For The Bakken

Reuters data shows that at least 26 foreign tankers with capacity to carry more than 25 million barrels of light and heavy crude oil, as well as fuel oil, have either loaded crude or fuel oil in the last two weeks or are about load at Iran's Kharg Island and Bandar Mahshahr terminals. The resumption of international shipping of Iranian oil has been made possible by an increase in interim, limited, insurance cover by "P&I clubs" - maritime mutual associations that provide "protection and indemnity" insurance to shippers.

Among the main reasons for the stalled shipping was that the International Group of P&I Clubs, which represents the world's top 13 ship insurers, increased the amount covered by so-called "fall-back" shipping insurance from 70 million to 100 million euros ($113.36 million) in April. "In the first days after lifting sanctions only Iranian ships were loaded in the country, mainly due to several problems in finding insurance/reinsurance," said Luigi Bruzzone of ship broker Banchero Costa.

And yet, despite a world glutted with oil, the discounted Iranian product led to a prompt resolution: "The strong interest of the market in these trades pushed all the stakeholders to solve all the problems ... and almost all P&I Clubs have granted their insurance."

Some further details on the insurance roadblock from Reuters:

The "fall-back" cover is designed to offset any shortfall in payments from U.S. reinsurers, who are still not allowed to deal with Iran. "We are not surprised to see the increase in Iranian cargoes given the progress made by the P&I clubs and obviously the increase in Iranian production," said Brian Gallagher, head of investor relations at leading Belgian tanker owner Euronav, which itself is not involved in Iran yet.

"We're interested in such trade ... (but) it will still take time for Iran to be fully integrated as there remain restrictions around dollar denominated transactions." Indeed, while the partial lifting of sanctions means foreign tankers can now transport Iranian oil, risks remain because large accidents might not be fully covered. As a result, insurers say many first-tier oil shippers, many of them publicly listed such as Euronav, Teekay Group or Frontline, still shy away from carrying Iranian oil.



If the fall-back cover is exhausted in an incident, Andrew Bardot, executive officer at the International Group of P&I Clubs, said that costs like "collision and cargo liabilities, will not be covered, and will remain with the ship-owner". A single Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) supertanker costs around $90 million, and the costs of a large oil spill can reach into the billions of dollars.

"The limitations of the 'fall-back' cover - together with other continuing restrictions, for example those relating to the U.S. dollar and use of the U.S. financial system - however have discouraged a number of ship-owners, and in particular the large shipping groups, from resuming trade with Iran in which they were previously engaged," said Bardot.

So with the logistical hurdles resolved, and with international vessels supporting Iran's own tanker fleet, traders said that its oil exports was now close to pre-sanction levels of around 2.5 million barrels per day (bpd). "Iran has ramped up harder and faster than expected," Citi analysts said.

This means that the disrupted supply from the wildfires in Canada, and the outages from militant attacks in Nigeria, would be promptly replaced with Iran oil. This would put further pressure on Canada and Nigeria to restore full output over fears of losing long-standing customers to Iran.

Iran's oil exports were between 2.1 and 2.3 million bpd in April and May, up from 1.3 million bpd a year ago, when Iran was shut out of the European market and dependent on limited shipments to Asian buyers. Asia is the main destination for crude shipped by foreign vessels, with India, China and Japan the biggest takers, but at least four international tankers are also heading for Europe. Related: Why Did Natural Gas Prices Just Rise 25% In Two Weeks?

India, in particular, is taking a lead role as its demand soars and refiners such as Essar Oil, Reliance Energy, Hindustan Petroleum Corp, and Bharat Petroleum Corp enjoy good ties with Iran. The non-Iranian companies currently chartered to carry its oil include Chinese state controlled shipper China Shipping Development, PetroVietnam and Japan's Idemitsu Kosan.

Greek, Turkish and Seychelles-owned tankers are also shipping Iranian crude.

As a reminder, the key catalyst for the recent ramp in crude was Goldman turning bullish on oil due to near-term supply disruptions, which at least in the case of Canada are promptly getting resolved.

(Click to enlarge)



As such, it would not be at all surprising that with the world back to an oversupplied market, anywhere to the tune of 1-1.5 mmb/d, once the peak summer driving season ends, and as all the excess oil still scrambles to find a home, that we will see a rerun of the summer of 2015, when oil flat lined at $60 until mid-July, at which point it proceed to promptly crumble. That, as regular readers will recall, is also Morgan Stanley's thesis: namely that the summer of 2016 is merely a rerun of last year, and the price action will follow suit.

By Zerohedge

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
The Niger Delta Avengers on Wednesday rejected an offer by the government for negotiations to halt attacks on oil and gas infrastructure and said that it had blown up a Chevron well in response.

The countrys oil minister had made an overture to the group on Tuesday, but the Avengers rejected the offer in a tweet stating, We're not negotiating with any committee."

"If the Fed Govt. is discussing with any group they're doing that on their own."



Related: South Africas Platinum Production Halted By Unions

The group then said it had blown up Chevron well RMP 20.

The unrest in the region is causing concern in the market, as refineries in India and the United States are moving away from Nigerian oil amid concerns about delivery.

U.S refineries on the east coast, which had been purchasing oil from the country, are looking elsewhere, and violence has also meant that the country has not seen the results of the uptick in Brent crude prices, which ironically have been driven in part by the situation in Nigeria.

Four major crude export gradesQua Iboe, Bonny Light, Brass River and Forcadosare now under force majeure. Exxons is Qua Iboe, and this is said to be a mechanical failure, but the rest are confirmed as the direct result of militant attacks.



Related: China Hikes Domestic Oil Prices on Crude Rebound

In late May, the Avengers also shrugged off a government peace talk offer, saying they would settle for nothing less than a sovereign state. They dont want pipeline contracts. They dont want a piece of the corruption pie as their comrades before them won in a 2009 amnesty deal.

Experts do not see an end to crisis in Nigeria. Elizabeth Donnelly of Chatham house in England noted that the nature of the militancy in Nigeria suggests it is here to stay for the foreseeable future.

By Lincoln Brown for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
The story on major labour issues in South Africas platinum sector took a deadly turn this week, leading to the first mine shutdown of the year.

That came at the Zondereinde platinum mine in Limpopo province, with operator Northam Platinum being forced to halt underground production after a clash between two rival mineworkers unions.

Details are still sparse, but reports suggest the problems started when a member of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) was murdered Sunday in the town of Northam, near the mine. The victim was reportedly an employee of Zondereinde. Related: Why Did Natural Gas Prices Just Rise 25% In Two Weeks?

NUM members apparently blamed workers from the rival Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) for the death. This resulted in a confrontation between the two unions on a road near the mine Monday. During that standoff, an AMCU member was also killed in an apparent retaliation. Bringing the situation to a boil-over that prompted Northam Platinum to temporarily suspend operations at the mine for fear of further violence.

As Northam Chief Executive Officer Paul Dunne told local radio Tuesday: We have halted underground operations for the moment until we are sure that full calm returns. We have a very significant police presence on the mine.

As of right now, theres no word on the underlying cause of the disputes. Although theres been a lot of bad blood the last few years between the NMU and the AMCU  with the latter union growing rapidly, and taking members from the NMU, which was formerly South Africas largest mineworkers group. Related: Aviation Giants To Ramp Up Biofuels Usage

Whatever the case, its notable that labour issues are now having a concrete impact on production. With the Zondereinde mine producing some 300,000 ounces of platinum yearly  equivalent to over 5 percent of global production.

It looks as if this stoppage should be relatively short-lived. But the potential remains for a greater flare-up of labour problems here, and a more protracted shutdown. Watch for further news on developments at Northam.

Heres to stopping the violence,

By Dave Forest

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
What isnt deteriorating in Wisconsin? You cant argue our universities have improved. You certainly cant argue our roads have either, yet both are critical to our state. Both are suffering great harm. On top of it, a new report says jobs numbers are still lagging the nation.



Now comes word that Gov. Scott Walkers transportation secretary thinks the consequence of his boss policies is the "continued deterioration" of 90 percent of our states roads. Thats a rather stunning statement. Let me repeat it.

The governors own transportation secretary thinks 90 percent of our roads will "continue" to deteriorate  this despite the excessive borrowing in the budget for roads the last time. The Wisconsin State Journal broke the story, with the lede, "Wisconsin Transportation Secretary Mark Gottlieb said his forthcoming budget request to Gov. Scott Walker will not propose major tax or fee increases  a move Gottlieb acknowledged would delay road expansion work and upkeep of all but the states most-traveled highways."

Great.

Gottlieb said the budget, if passed as requested, would prioritize bridges and U.S. interstates and highways, but put everything else on the back burner. "That non-backbone system, which is about 90 percent of the state highway system, is going to continue to deteriorate in condition," Gottlieb said.

At some point, this imperils safety. At some point, this imperils the economy. Rural areas, in particular, are getting shafted.

So, let me get this straight: The governor doesnt want us to ride trains or streetcars ("choo-choos" in talk radio parlance), but hes not giving us decent roadways, either? Great, should we walk? The story said the delays could include those in the Milwaukee area, such as rebuilding of the Zoo Interchange and expanding I-94 south of Milwaukee. Please dont tell me were going to have to endure any more of that headache-inducing, endless Zoo Interchange mess. Come to think of it, has anyone looked into why thats taking so long?

We went through this in the last budget, remember? Walker wouldnt budge, so more debt was the answer. How much more can our roadways take? Theyre already ranked among the nations worst. Thats a disgrace. At Walkers supposed request, Gottliebs budget is "revenue neutral," meaning hes not asking for additional revenue this time. Translation: Walker doesnt want the bad press of asking for more money, and he wants to dump the mess into the legislatures laps so they can take the heat.

Its almost like you can read the thought bubble over the governors head. Aforementioned thought bubble: "I can never raise taxes, ever, and to heck with the consequences. Heck, its got me this far."

Well, actually he just comes out and says it. He will never raise taxes, ever. This creates a headline that has worked for him with the public. Its simple and memorable. Its advanced him politically since he was Milwaukee County executive and so hes sticking with what works. The problem is, when it comes to roads, the governor wont raise gas taxes or registration fees and has offered no strong plan for an alternative. Thus, in the words of his own transportation secretary, our roadways will continue to deteriorate.

This seems to not concern our governor. After all, he gets the headline, and the transportation budget mess will be tossed into the legislatures lap to deal with while the governor cuts off the legislatures options but lets members of his own party take the heat. I suspect some are very unhappy about this but too loyal to say it.

Part of the problem: More fuel-efficient cars reduce revenues needed to replenish the transportation fund. Heck, when I put this debate on social media, I received more creative proposals from my Facebook commenters than Ive heard coming from the governor. Some proposed creating car registration fee increases that are scaled to the value of peoples cars. Makes some sense to me. Yes, I am not a fan of taxes going up, either; however, unsafe roadways are worse. You get what you pay for, and deferred maintenance (sound familiar) has worse consequences down the road.

Despite all the negative rhetoric about government, there are some things we expect government to do. Maintaining our roads is one of them. One of my Facebook readers trashed me for not solving the problem myself. Im not the governor. Isnt that what we elected him to do?

I respect governing that is pragmatic and about solving problems, not designed to create gimmicky headlines that make one politician look good while causing consequences that, now, appear to be impacting public safety. Only the public can fix this by not falling for it anymore.

And, yes, the university analogy fits. I expect our leaders to present visionary reform plans if they are going to allow our universities to flounder and regress and our roads to "deteriorate." Just punting the problem for the headline is not leadership.

In this case, I feel sorry for the Republicans in the legislature. Walker appears poised to toss the transportation budget problem in the legislatures lap while indicating he wont support the needed fixes. We could also argue, I suppose, that transportation spending should be reduced through greater efficiency. Isnt that the rhetoric on UW? How come some budgets are sacrosanct? If you think theres nowhere to cut in the transportation budget, you didnt watch those videos they shelled out money for on roundabouts. And, yes, Jim Doyle was wrong to raid the transportation fund, but Doyle isnt governor anymore.

I respect leaders who make tough decision in the publics interest even if theyre not in their own. Walker is not that kind of leader, sadly, not on roads or UW.

Other Republicans are starting to notice this. Conservative George Mitchell wrote a fine piece calling out Walker for his irresponsibility on roads for Right Wisconsin, Charlie Sykes website. And on universities, Republican lawmaker Alberta Darling penned a column for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel so laudatory of UW-Milwaukees research mission the other day that I almost thought a professor wrote it. When I saw Darlings byline on the piece, I almost fell off my chair (in a good way). It was extremely refreshing to not be the only non-liberal publicly saying this now. Well, one of them anyway ...

Bravo to her. Darling praised UWMs research mission, noting that its one of only two research universities in the state and in the top two percent of research universities in the country. She also praised UWMs contributions to the local economy. In so doing, she effectively broke with Walker (and some in the legislature) on the issue by exposing the facile and misleading rhetoric the governor has used as rationale for his massive funding cuts. She never used his name. She didnt have to do so. The contrast was obvious.

Walker implies professors are lazy, says they need to work more and are overpaid, and acts like research has no value and professors do absolutely nothing outside of class. He might deny this, but thats what his rhetoric adds up to, in full. And that doesnt mean I think there was nowhere to cut in the UW budget  but not this much, this fast, with a freeze on tuition revenue and without thoughtful planning, while being pushed with misleading or false rhetoric.

In reality, professors are hired at research universities like UWM to  shocker here  research (in part). They are, thus, being trashed (using misleading numbers, no less) for doing what they were hired to do and for doing what many of them excel at doing, often bringing in grant money besides. I find this despicable. Alberta Darling just threw Walker under the bus. Did anyone else notice? Lets see if the funding follows.

It would be nice if other conservatives joined Darling and Mitchells example: speaking out against policies deleterious (like these on roads and universities) to the states interest and future. It would be wonderful if someone like former Gov. Tommy Thompson  a booster of the UW who recognizes its importance to the states economy  would write the next column in Darlings wake. It would be wonderful if some Democrats with a stake in the citys future  Tom Barrett, Gwen Moore  would speak out about UWM and stop being completely AWOL on the issue.

Come to think of it, it would be wonderful if Thompson  a fan of trains, a fan of decent roads, a fan of visionary governing and actually solving problems through innovation  would pen a column on the transportation budget and offer some big ideas since Walker wont.

Come to think of it, I wish Tommy Thompson was still governor. Who cares how old he is. Run, Tommy, run. Because Im not sure how much more of this our state can take. Theres a tipping point, you know.
At a social gathering recently I was asked why I was so hard on the public employee unions and said hardly a word about the private sector unions. Had I had the May 31 edition of the Wall Street Journal in hand, I would have given them the AP article:

A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced the former head of the nations largest public pension fund to 4 1/2 years in prison in a case in which the pension fund CEO acknowledged accepting more than $200,000 in bribes and trying to steer investments to help an associate.

The very existence of public employee unions with their mandatory dues requirements used primarily for political purposes commands corruption absolutely. (For today we will leave aside the fact that such mandatory dues payments violates a persons First Amendment rights  including the right to not associate politically with others.) The recent incident involving Federico Buenrostros, the former chairman of CalPERS (Californian Public Employees Retirement System) and the indictment of former board member Alfred Villalobos (now deceased due to suicide) was just the most recent evidence of such corruption. A July 21, 2014 article by Randy Diamond in Pensions & Investments noted:

Former CalPERS CEO Federico R. Buenrostros guilty plea earlier this month revealed new details and disclosures in the corruption scandal that engulfed the nations largest defined benefit plan. Sources say his admissions could result in expanded criminal charges for his co-defendant, former CalPERS board member Alfred Villalobos, from whom Mr. Buenrostro admitted he accepted $200,000 in cash bribes. Mr. Villalobos became a placement agent once he left the board of the California Public Employees Retirement System, Sacramento. The federal charges against both men were narrowly focused and did not address the bribes. Another possibility, the sources said, is that federal prosecutors could seek indictments against two former CalPERS board members, Kurato Shimada and Charles Valdes. They also could enlist former board members and former clients of Mr. Villalobos to testify against him. Mr. Buenrostro in his July 11 statement in federal court said two unnamed board members received valuable casino chips before voting to approve a contract with a pharmacy benefits administrator. Sources said he was referring to Messrs. Shimada and Valdes.

The corruption investigation resulting in Mr. Buenrostro indictment and conviction spanned over a decade, involved countless officers and employees of CalPERS, and millions of dollars paid in fees to so-called placement officers and could not have dragged on this long and with this limited of criminal prosecution without the tacit consent of the public employees unions whose members are the singular beneficiaries of CalPERS and whose political muscle is instrumental in determining the directors managing CalPERS. They are also instrumental in the decidedly political use of CalPERS investments to reward the left and punish the right.

There have been at least five people implicated in this CalPERS scandal  all were directors or past directors of the CalPERS fund  several for well over twenty-five years. They scratched each others backs for decades.

So lets go over this again. In the normal course of private sector business, workers banded together in unions to bargain collectively with management regarding benefits (wages, benefits, and working conditions). There was a perceived balance  withholding of labor vs. withholding of benefit increases. There were other balances; labor leaders needed to satisfy their members to retain their positions. Management needed to satisfy their shareholders to retain their positions. Labor needed to ensure that benefit demands did not destroy the business by creating undue financial burdens. Management needed to ensure that business growth would absorb the benefit demands. These latter two issues became even more relevant when unions (or their pension trusts) became major shareholders in the business through ESOPs and/or union pension plans. On the whole the system worked with the exception of sporadic violence during labor disputes.

But the whole system of balance goes out the window with public employee unions. There is the assembly of workers in a union but there is no management. Rather the unions bargain with elected or appointed public officials. Because the public employee unions spend so much of their mandatory dues on politics in states without a public employees right to work law (e.g. Washington, Oregon, California, etc.) they have become the predominant political funding source for Democrats who command virtually every statewide public office along with the city and county offices in the major urban areas. (A combination of teachers unions, the SEIU and the AFSCME provide the overwhelming majority of political contributions for Democrat candidates and add to that by paying for polling, candidate recruitment, issues research and advocacy, get out the vote programs, voting analysis and a myriad of other programs that assist Democrat candidates. In contrast candidates other than Democrats have to use campaign contribution to fund the same programs and information.) The end result is that the unions are bargaining with the very people whose campaigns they paid for. Management is not responsible to a shareholder group  like taxpayers  rather they are responsible to the people who fund their campaigns  the public employees unions.

But that is just the beginning. The government is not a profit driven enterprise. It is not even a sales or service driven enterprise. It is an enterprise that is funded annually by compulsory taxes levied at the point of confiscation and backed by the reality of criminal prosecution and imprisonment. The amounts collected have nothing to do with the number or quality of services consumed  in fact, quite the opposite  those who consume the most services are likely to be the same people who pay the least in taxes while those who consume the least services are likely to be those who pay the most in taxes. As a result there is no incentive to limit or reduce costs  i.e. public employee wages and benefits. If the increase in benefits exceeds the amount of available revenue, the government simply increases taxes and fees to the level necessary to fund the increases.

As an added bonus increases in wages and benefits for public employees result in increased dues for the public employees unions and, therefore, increased funds available for campaign activities for Democrats.

It is not a difficult trick to increase taxes on the minority of people who pay the majority of taxes. In doing so government avoids the unpleasant task of asking those who receive the benefits to contribute more in taxes. Oregons distinctively uber left demonstrated that in 2010 with Measures 66 and 67 and they are working on it again with the new Initiative 28  all were/are backed by the public employee unions. It is this warped view of responsibility coupled with the fact that they are using other peoples money that promote the spectacular growth in the number of and benefits for public employees over the past several decades.

Which brings us back to the corruption inherent in the administration of such things as the public employees retirement systems. You might think that of any activity to be guarded by the public employees unions and the elected and appointed Democrat officials it would be the retirement funds for public employees. Well you would be wrong and nowhere more so than in Oregon. Virtually all states with public employees pension plans utilize a defined benefit rather than a defined contribution plan. A defined benefit plan obligates the government to pay a fixed formula pension (usually based on longevity and pay grade) regardless of how much is contributed or the investment earnings of those contributions. (A defined contribution plan obligates the entity to pay a fixed amount into a fund and the payments from that fund to employees are based on the performance of the investments of those payments  much like an Individual Retirement Account.) The point being that regardless of the performance of the public employee retirement system pension funds and regardless of the performance of the individuals charged with administering the fund, the government remains obligated to pay a minimum fixed amount.

So, if as in the CalPERS scandal somewhere between $14M and $50M in fees were paid to the miscreants by the other miscreants, no problem. The state remains obligated to pay defined benefits and the taxpayers will foot the bill. Likewise, if CalPERS decides to invest in some politically correct entity (green energy, solar energy, the home for one-legged chorus girls, etc.) which provides less than a market return, no problem. The state remains obligated to pay. If CalPERS decides to hire 2,000 people when only 1,000 are needed, no problem. The state remains obligated to pay. If the public employees unions are instrumental in determining who is appointed to the board because they have funded the campaigns of the Democrats who make those decisions, and those appointees fail in the fiduciary duties, no problem. The state remains obligated to pay.

Without a system of checks and balances, accountability is impossible. Without accountability incompetence and waste permeate a system. Without accountability, greed and corruption permeate a system.

Welcome to government dominated by the public employee unions.
In this Fourth Republican Constitution, it should be made clear that the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) was established under Articles 86 and 87 of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana as part of the executive; with the NDPC Act, 1994 (Act 479) providing the core legal framework for the establishment of the Commission and the performance of its functions.



In accordance with the provision under Article 87 of the Constitution, the core mandate of the Commission is to advise the President on development planning policy and strategy and, at the request of the President or Parliament, or on its own initiative, perform five main functions; which includes studying and making strategic analyses of macro-economic and structural reform options; making proposals for the development of multi-year rolling plans taking into consideration the resource potential and comparative advantage of the different districts of Ghana etc.



The Commission has three technical divisions in the area of development policy, plan coordination, monitoring and evaluation and a fourth division responsible for administration.



Furthermore, Chapter Six of the 1992 Constitution operationalizes Articles 34 to 41 by pigeonholing state policy in terms of Economic Objectives, Social Objectives, Educational Objectives, Cultural Objectives and International Relations.



Imperatively, Article 34 says the directive principles of State Policy shall guide all citizens, Parliament, President, Judiciary, Council of State, Cabinet, Political Parties and other bodies in applying or interpreting the constitution and in making any policy decision for the establishment of a just and free society.



After reading all of these, the obvious question that will arise shall be, why are political parties not presenting manifestoes on how they hope to work closely with the National Development Planning Commission this goal through a National Manifesto?



Well, many of us know that manifestos are drafted in election year, with the view of capturing the imagination of voters. Disappointingly, Political Parties have over the years used this long document; which is sometimes about 300 pages as a decoy in winning political power; at times, voters never get the opportunity to even glance through the document until elections are over and beyond.



Similarly, after the victory in the elections, the party which gets the mandate from the electorate to rule for a term, normally of four years, forgets to put into practice what it promised before the elections. Some connoisseurs have even suggested that if Political Party manifestos were earnestly meant to be implemented, Ghana would have become paradise on earth.



The current state of not placing any obligation on the political party which eventually wins power for failing to implement the manifesto it promised has reduced election manifestos to a mere rhetoric of political parties to hoodwink the unsuspecting electorate.



We must demand that all political parties present a platform on how they intend to implement plans of the National Development Planning Commission and Chapter six of the 1992 Constitution, so that this becomes constitutionally and legally binding on the political party which shall emerge victorious after the election.



In other words, what is now looked upon as a mere moral responsibility must be tied to the Constitution to ensure that no party takes any voter for granted.



This will also ensure that new governments do not truncate projects initiated by their predecessors as provided in Article 35 (7 & 8) of the constitution where it states inter-alia, As far as practicable, a government shall continue and execute projects and programmes commenced by the previous Governments.



Some have advanced a specious argument that it is alright to promise anything since the electorates themselves understand that such promises cannot be fulfilled. Well, this seemingly fair argument, rather seeks to reinforce the perception that political parties are good at making lofty promises; only to amass wealth thereafter with impunity and without regret, once the election is over.



It is true that some parties have managed to implement at least a fraction of the plans they promised in their election manifestos. However, observers are apprehensive that the zeal with which manifestoes are propagated prior to elections is entirely different as compared with its implementation in power.



It is interesting to note that in the 2008 Manifesto of the NDC, the party promised inter alia to separate the Attorney Generals Department from the Ministry of Justice, establish a pre-school training college in each of the ten regions, provide every Ghanaian with a job from which they can earn their livelihoods and, not to introduce any new taxes.



Similarly, in the 2000 Manifesto of the NPP, they promised to replace slums with high-rise buildings, cut rice importation by 30%, make Ghana a leading agro-based industrial country in Africa by growing what we eat, eating what we can and can what we cannot, introduce a Farmers' and Fisherfolks Security Trust to cater for them in their times of need and in their old age. Can anyone say that the NDC and NPP were able to fulfill these promises? Certainly not!



And here again, how can we take such highly alluring promises like Dumsor shall be a thing of the past, We shall transform lives, We shall reduce fuel drastically, We shall eradicate unemployment, and We shall root out corruption, while in fact and indeed, they are growing, or more precisely, have reached alarming proportions? It is very obvious that many party manifestoes are filled with lies, mediocrity and populist appeal.



Due to the high unemployment rate in Ghana, many political parties have shifted their message to job creation. Our journalists should ask the politicians the most critical question on how they intend to create jobs. Will it be the NDC pot-hole filling jobs, the NPPs cocoa spraying jobs or the PPPs Groupe Nduom practicality? Who is thinking about graduate unemployment?



It is instructive to note that the promise by the Progressive Peoples Party (PPP) to provide quality education for every Ghanaian child, standardize school facilities from kindergarten to Senior High School with libraries, toilets, classrooms, kitchen, housing for teachers, playground, etc; and ensure free and compulsory education in public schools from kindergarten to Senior High School including computer training by deploying an Education Police to enforce the compulsory aspect of the policy perfectly fits into an objective which is specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and constitutionally relevant.



The ostensibly divine principle that if the party in power fails to implement its manifesto, it is up to the electorates to vote it out of office in the next elections may not help our development, because we live in a country where a vast majority of voters allow themselves to be carried away by the passing and material temptations thrown at them due to the economic insecurity, ignorance and illiteracy.



Sadly, majority of voters remain the same old folks, who easily become victims to the worldly freebies like bags of rice, saucepans, IPADs, cars, roofing sheets, mobile phones, flat screen TVs, fertilizers and cash from political parties.



It is quite possible, of course, that some voters generally lack the dissective faculties to assess the relative merits and demerits hidden in political party manifestos. Such voters are likely to succumb to fiscal allurements; and this sort of intellectual deprivation is likely to land the entire country in troubled waters.



Considering the fact that a vast majority of our population are uneducated, we have an uphill task to educate them on a war footing to ruin the evil effects of this anathema and to ensure that we elect only those deserving and qualified to rule this country.



It needs to be emphasized that the mere expression of a mans feelings on a vital matter, so important to the democratic functioning of our governments, should not be misconstrued, as a downright disregard for the verdict of the majority of the people as expressed through the ballot. On the contrary, the views reflect the deep misery of many silent observers at the abyss between the promise and action in its fulfillment thereafter, once the ritual of elections is over.



We should not allow any party in power to put forth lame excuses, like, the plans in the election manifesto could not be implemented because they inherited an empty coffers, juju men use dwarfs to affect the currency, the picture is different when you are outside, and a thousand other impediments.



This growing menace of presenting a rosy picture in a manifesto and tempting the electorates with a cozy life must be checked to ensure that there is some semblance of respect, honesty, probity and accountability in public life.



It is rewarding for political parties to be realistic and pragmatic in presenting their manifestos and promise only what they can implement in accordance with Chapter 6 of the Constitution. Ghanaians should endeavour to vote for a political party with the wherewithal and capability to improve their standard of living and not just a party they think could win an election.



As the countdown to election 2016 begins, all Progressives look forward to the dawning of good judgment so that our country shall earn a fair name, as one free from all sorts of vices in elections and become a real beacon of hope.

Source: Paa Kow Ackon /Director of Communication, PPP/ email: [email protected]









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Despite the imposition of an avalanche of taxes on Ghanaians, which is crippling many businesses in the country, some of the state institutions appear unperturbed over the development, and continue to impose more taxes all in their efforts to maximize revenue.



The Government, in her desire to rake in more revenue, passed a new Energy Sector Levies Act (Act 899) in December 2015, under a certificate of urgency. The implementation of the new law took effect from January, this year. The Act provides for the harmonization of major energy sector levies and taxes.



Government had argued that, the levies were intended to mobilize revenues to service government debts, especially in the road and power sectors. The implementation led to increment in petroleum products on the domestic market, even though the world market price of the commodity was stable at the time.



Electricity tariffs were also increased as a result of the law. Apart from the aforementioned Act, many other taxes have been introduced with the industry suffering most from their implementations.



The Chamber of Mines is already reporting that, its members spent a whopping $314 million on power for their operations last year. The huge amount represents 20% of the mining revenue within the same period.



Just a couple of days ago, the Finance Minister, Seth Terkper, attempted to impose taxes on pension allowances, but the reaction from the party leaders, including the Deputy General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Koku Anyidoho, forced the Finance Ministry to backtrack.



In a statement, the Ministry denied that the widely publicized reports that pension allowances were going to be taxed, accusing the media of misreporting what the minister actually said. But as the dust is about to settle, the Ghana Airport Company has also joined the fray by imposing new taxes on importers who use the facility.



In a letter dated May 11, 16 and signed by Joyce S.N. Dodoo (Mrs), Ag. Director, Communication Services, with reference number GACL/CDS/COPS/16/16, some of the privileges they (importers) enjoy, which cushion them from the high taxes they pay have been removed.



The letter reads: Approval has been given for you to reduce the current cargo storage charges from eight days to four days with effect from June 1, 2016.



You are advised to give adequate notice to the affected clearing agents or other representatives of the new charges, prior to implementation. Kindly appraise the office of Ag. Director, Communication Services of any meeting or correspondence with the clearing agents.



The letter was copied to the Managing Director, Director, Legal Services, Director of Finance and Internal Auditor. Some of the importers and clearing agents who spoke to The Chronicle argued that the new taxes are going to collapse their business unless they pass on the new charges to the consumers of their products.



According to them they are already overburdened with taxes and for the Ghana Airport Company to reduce the free storage of their products from the mandatory eight days to just four shows that they are not concerned about their plight and that of the final consumer of the products they import. The Chronicle understands that a similar policy is already in place at the sea ports.







Source: The Chronicle









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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As part of its mandate, the Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice) plays a key role in advising its member countries on critical rice production and marketing issues. For example, the rice crisis in 2008 in Africa was clearly predicted by AfricaRice and its member countries were alerted in 2007 through the Council of Ministers, which is AfricaRice's highest oversight body. As a result, many African rice-producing countries have developed and are implementing national rice development strategies under the Coalition for African Rice Development (CARD) framework to reduce their dependence on imported rice.

AfricaRice wishes to caution its member countries that it has recently received credible information on plans by Thailand to export 11.4 million tons of government stockpiled rice in May and June 2016. Though it would seem unrealistic to export 11.4 million tons in just two months, this is really a sword of Damocles hanging over the head of Africa's rice sector, as African countries might be used again as a dumping ground if care is not taken.

Recently newspapers from West African countries have reported that "sub-standard" quality rice is being imported, particularly from Asian countries since African markets are considered as "not too demanding" regarding quality aspects. Poor quality imported rice has been tracked in parts of West Africa. In Senegal, the National Police recently seized 22,690 tons corresponding to a value of six billion FCFA (US$10.3 million) of Indian broken rice, unsuitable for human consumption.

AfricaRice wishes, therefore, to draw the attention of decision-makers in Africa, including the Council of Ministers of AfricaRice and all its development partners, to implications of such massive rice export within a short period to Africa for the three key drivers of Africa's rice sector indicated below.

World market: The rice price in the world market is currently increasing and is estimated to be at a rate of about 1% and 2% in February and March 2016, respectively (OSIRIZ, 2016). If we assume that the rate will continue to increase over 2%, Thailand will indeed gain a lot of money while Africa's trade balance will be adversely affected. This would lead to price effects that could undermine efforts that are being made to support the sustainable and increased production of locally produced rice in quantity and quality. Public health: Some of the stockpiled rice intended for export might have been stored for a long time using chemicals, which could have adverse effects on consumers. Though consumers will tend to save from the low price of imported rice, they will need to spend more money in remedying their health. Rice self-sufficiency ambitions of African governments: The dumping of massive quantities of rice in Africa's rice market will discourage production and sale of local rice. It will certainly be counter-productive to the rice self-sufficiency goal of African countries. In effect, Africa's farmers, processors as well as all the other actors of the rice value chain will, as usual, face the problem of competiveness in terms of permanent availability and low price of imported rice on markets, which can lead to demotivation since their revenue will decrease. This will in turn lead to decreased production of quality rice in the long run especially if business continues as usual.

At this point AfricaRice wishes to provide the following policy advices:

Standards for rice quality: For public health reasons, there is urgent need to ensure imported rice meets desired quality standards. African governments need to adopt non-tariff measures based on standard quality rice imported from any country, and ensure effective quality control at the borders. Tracking of imported rice in Africa's market: Government agencies and rice importers, and farmers need to closely track movements of imported rice in Africa's rice market. Moreover, if African governments can certify the physical and nutritional quality of the imported rice, then they should start the implementation of rice bulk purchase and storage programs, as two important policy instruments at the regional level (as indicated in a paper by AfricaRice Director General Dr Harold Roy-Macauley), to facilitate the imports of rice with the involvement of partners from the public and private sectors, for a better management of these imports. Policy measures which enhance rice value chain competiveness: Rice produced locally is competitive in quality and price, hence appealing to local consumers. AfricaRice pioneering work on "willingness to pay" (WTP) for rice is providing evidence that domestic rice is preferred over imported rice of equivalent quality. The implementation by governments of policies that encourage market competitiveness of the commodity should be intensified. Four main policies that could be advanced are as follows: (i) Increase investment in climate-resilient irrigation systems to boost productivity and reduce unsustainable rainfed rice area expansion; (ii) Increase investments in processing and marketing systems to bring local rice of good quality to urban consumers; (iii) Avoid high external tariffs and (iv) Bring rice science to the forefront of Africa's policy debate.

Within the context of the mandate given to it by its constituency, AfricaRice reiterates its commitment to consolidating partnerships with African governments to boost the Africa's rice sector, in general, and achieve rice self- sufficiency in countries, in particular.

Explore further Adding microbial xylanase to diets containing rice bran increases energy value for pigs

More information: Increasing rice production in Africa to enhance food security. Africa Policy Review. africapolicyreview.com/analysi  hance-food-security/ Increasing rice production in Africa to enhance food security.

Provided by Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice)
The sex life of the biggest bird to have ever roamed the planet has been revealed - and it's more akin to a goose than an emu.

The mighty mihirung Dromornis stirtoni, an extraordinary kind of fowl, was most likely a family oriented bird that mated for life, the females brooded the eggs, and both sexes aggressively defended nests and shared parental care.

Unlike most of the large flightless birds that survive today, which are ratites and include the emu, the male mihirungs were larger than the females.

"It was probably the largest bird ever to have lived. With an average weight of 480kg, it was more than ten times the weight of an emu," Mr Handley says.

An international team of scientists, led by researchers at Flinders University, have unlocked the sex secrets of the mihirungs from bone fragments.

Published in the highly regarded Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, the discovery of evidence in the bones of egg-laying was the key to distinguishing the gender and breeding characteristics that establish the mihirung as a breed apart from most other fowl.

Flinders University researcher Warren Handley says the largest of these Australian flightless giants, Stirton's mihirung, stood some three metres tall and could weigh more than half a tonne.

Mr Handley says the mihirung had little to fear.

"With their formidable height and huge size, especially of males that may have exceeded 600kg, they were capable of protecting the growing chicks from predators, such as the dog-sized ancestral thylacines and marsupial lions that were around at the time."

The largest of all mihirungs roamed Australia about eight million years ago. The bones in the study were those of individuals which died in their dozens around a shrinking waterhole in the Northern Territory along with many marsupials, including sheep-to-cow sized herbivores and their predators, distant relatives of the marsupial lion.

The remnant bones, although fractured and fragmented by the ravages of time, remain awe-inspiring, according to the researchers.

Initially, two size groups among the bones led the researchers to consider whether they were looking at two species, but the discovery of medullary bone, a specialist type of tissue found only in the hollow bones of female birds before they lay eggs, enabled them to identify the smaller bones as female.

Sections of the bones were then sent to South Africa for preparation by histologist Professor Chinsamy-Turan, and microscopy revealed the tell-tale medullary bone. She said "It was quite a surprise to find that four of the birds in our sample had medullary bone. This discovery was a real scoop since we now could say with certainty that these were egg-laying female mihirungs."

Scientists have long wondered about the sexual behaviour in extinct groups of birds, and the new evidence provided by the bones shows that mihirungs were sexually dimorphic, with females being smaller than males.

The bones, which are held at the Museum of Central Australia in Alice Springs, were originally collected from Alcoota in the Northern Territory. The NT Government recently announced $4 million of funding for further development of the extraordinarily rich fossil site.

"This study provides a spectacular example of how the integration of multidisciplinary techniques and collaboration can reveal details of the biology of long extinct animals from their fragmented osseous remains," says Dr Trevor Worthy, palaeontologist and Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Biological Science at Flinders University.

Explore further Researcher discovers ancestor of biggest bird ever

More information: Warren D. Handley et al, Sexual dimorphism in the late Miocene mihirung(Aves: Dromornithidae) from the Alcoota Local Fauna of central Australia, Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology (2016). Journal information: Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology Warren D. Handley et al, Sexual dimorphism in the late Miocene mihirung(Aves: Dromornithidae) from the Alcoota Local Fauna of central Australia,(2016). DOI: 10.1080/02724634.2016.1180298
A black hole devouring a star. Credit: NASA

A physical body might be able to cross a wormhole in spite of the extreme tidal forces, suggests a new study by Rubiera-Garcia, of Instituto de Astrofisica e Ciencias do Espaco (IA), and his team. This result, published on April 28 in the journal Classical and Quantum Gravity, is supported by the fact that the interactions between different parts of the body that hold it together are preserved. The team was invited by the journal editors to write an insight article that was published online today.

In their previous work, the authors arrived at theoretical descriptions of black holes without a singularity, the bizarre and infinitesimally small point where space and time ends abruptly. What they found at the centre of a black hole, and without actually being in search of one, was a spherical and finite sized wormhole structure.

Diego Rubiera-Garcia, of IA and Faculdade de Ciencias da Universidade de Lisboa, commented on how the team solved the singularity problem: "What we did was to reconsider a fundamental question on the relation between the gravity and the underlying structure of space-time. In practical terms, we dropped one assumption that holds in general relativity, but there is no a priori reason for it to hold in extensions of this theory."

Presented with this wormhole structure of finite size, where space and time continue past and beyond the black hole and into another part of the universe, the authors then inquired about the fate of a physical object venturing into it. They asked if a chair, a scientist, or a spacecraft would withstand the intense gravitational field and retain physical unity through the journey, and also to what extent that body would be damaged.

In their study, a physical body approaching a black hole is analysed as an aggregation of points interconnected by physical or chemical interactions holding it together.

"Each particle of the observer follows a geodesic line determined by the gravitational field. Each geodesic feels a slightly different gravitational force, but the interactions among the constituents of the body could nonetheless sustain the body," Rubiera-Garcia said.

General relativity theory predicts that a body approaching a black hole will be crushed along one direction and stretched along another. As the wormhole radius is finite, the authors demonstrate that the body will be crushed to the size of the wormhole. Instead of converging to an infinitesimal separation, the so-called singularity, geodesic lines will still be separated by a distance greater than zero.

In their work, the authors show that the time spent by a light ray in a round trip between two parts of the body is always finite. Thus, different parts of the body will still establish physical or chemical interactions and, consequently, cause and effect still apply all the way across the throat of the wormhole.

We can then imagine that finite forces, no matter how strong they would have to be, could compensate for the impact of the gravitational field near and inside the wormhole on a physical body traversing it. At least, according to these study, the passage to another region of the universe might be feasible.

Francisco Lobo, of IA and Faculdade de Ciencias da Universidade de Lisboa, leader of the Cosmology group at IA, said, "The authors' insights into the concepts of space-time singularities and curvature divergences are representative of the fundamental theoretical research carried out at the IA, going beyond Einstein's General Relativity. This research will also probably be important to understanding these difficult concepts for the fate of the universe in a plethora of cosmological models."

Explore further The golden anniversary of black-hole singularity

More information: Gonzalo J Olmo et al. Impact of curvature divergences on physical observers in a wormhole spacetime with horizons, Classical and Quantum Gravity (2016). Gonzalo J Olmo et al. Impact of curvature divergences on physical observers in a wormhole spacetime with horizons,(2016). DOI: 10.1088/0264-9381/33/11/115007 Gonzalo J. Olmo et al. Geodesic completeness in a wormhole spacetime with horizons, Physical Review D (2015). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.92.044047 Journal information: Physical Review D

Provided by Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences
Credit: Rhino Neal

Why is Milton Keynes one of the most successful cities in the U.K., and Dundee one of the least? What gives Leeds its economic edge over Liverpool? How did London survive the 1990s recession, going from boom to bust and boom again? Researchers are asking these questions and many more in the largest ever analysis of what makes cities thrive.

Arguably, everything about Milton Keynes is deliberate: its site, its transport, its housing, its business sectors, its jobs. From the moment of its 'birth' in 1967 as one of the country's 'new towns', Milton Keynes was planned as a whole. Over the past three decades, it has out-smarted every other city in the U.K. in terms of its annual average growth rate of output and employment.

Meanwhile, most of Britain's old industrial cities  Newcastle, Sheffield, Birmingham, Glasgow and Liverpool among them  underwent a dramatic slippage in growth from the beginning of the 1980s to the late 1990s. Although their decline has slowed, they still lag behind the national average in terms of economic growth.

Not so London. After years of relative decline, it has experienced a turnaround since the early 1990s, thanks to its flourishing financial sector and rapidly expanding business services. It even weathered the recent recession better than almost all other parts of the U.K.. It has become one of the fastest growing parts of country, and is predicted to pull further ahead of the rest of the country in the next decade.

This story of a 'great divergence' opening up between cities is being played out all across the U.K., as well as elsewhere in the industrialised world. In the USA, for instance, the downturn in the fortunes of Detroit and Cleveland stand in stark contrast to boom cities like San Francisco and Boston. Recent efforts in the U.K. to rebalance the economy have included the 'Northern Powerhouse' investment to boost Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield and Newcastle.

"Cities have always had upturns and downturns. But for the first time in human history more than half of the world's population lives in cities and so now more than ever it's important to understand what it is that makes a city flourish," says Professor Ron Martin, from Cambridge's Department of Geography. "Adaptability and resilience may be today's buzzwords but this is the way that cities  and those making policies that affect cities  need to think to keep them working well."

Martin leads a major research project aimed at understanding transitions through boom, bust and austerity for U.K. cities, and the lessons that can be learned from the past 50 years of economic history that might help cities prepare for the decades ahead.

It will be the largest ever analysis of the post-industrial fortunes of the U.K.'s cities. It builds on work that Martin and his team carried out for the U.K. Government Office for Science (GoS) Foresight Project on the Future of Cities  the brainchild of Government Chief Scientific Adviser, Professor Sir Mark Walport.

"Cities matter to the U.K.," explains the GoS Future of Cities project. "They are the concentrations of the U.K.'s population, trade, commerce, cultural and social life. They are also the sites where most of the U.K.'s future growth, both population and economic, is forecast to occur. The U.K.'s future is now closely linked to that of its cities."

The fastest growing cities over the past three decades have been those in the south of the country, linked with a downturn in manufacturing in the north and an increase in service industries in the south.

"Manufacturing still happens of course, and is still important to the economy of many of our cities," says Martin. "But the number of people working in manufacturing has fallen over the past 30 years because of increasing efficiency and productivity, and the rise of foreign competitors."

The team's study for the Foresight Project looked at 63 cities across the U.K.. One finding was that the fastest growing cities over the past three decades were the new towns like Milton Keynes that had been deliberately planned and developed through post-war public policy. "In these cases, everything to do with a new settlement could be thought about holistically  an argument perhaps for focusing on expanded cities in the future."

But what about old industrialised cities? "There's a huge infrastructure in these cities and a lot of talent," says Martin. "We found that whereas some cities are experiencing a worsening of economic inequalities and failures, others have managed to reinvent themselves by growing new sectors  electronics, pharmaceuticals, finance, business support services. Those cities that hadn't managed to diversify, reorientate and adapt their employment sectors fared less well."

Martin cites Cambridge as an exemplar of diversification: "Cambridge is interesting because it is often held up as a high-tech cluster but in fact you can identify around 14 specialisms, with life sciences currently moving into pole position. The key is to keep branching into new areas."

He adds: "This shouldn't really come as a surprise. It's a bit like buying stocks and shares  you wouldn't put all your money in one company because you risk losing everything. The same goes here  you need a diverse economic structure to withstand shocks to the system."

Before this study, however, the data simply wasn't available to draw this conclusion. Martin's team worked with Cambridge Econometrics, business management consultants, who are specialists in building up city-level datasets from local data.

Now, with funding from the Economic and Social Research Council, the team has increased to include researchers at the Universities of Southampton, Newcastle and Aston, and the dataset they are building is the largest of its kind ever constructed for the U.K.: the growth, employment and economic structure of 75 cities, for four decades from 1971, with hopes eventually to look back to the mid-19th century. Ten cities have been chosen for an in-depth analysis of firm dynamics, local governance and public policy.

"Cities have come to dominate how we think and talk about economies, particularly as they navigate the turbulent and uncertain context of austerity and economic reform," says Martin. "There is little doubt that cities face an unprecedented and intense set of economic, social and environmental challenges. Our research as part of the Future of Cities project provided the first quantitative evidence that different cities demonstrate very different capacities to cope with and respond to challenges, and that these lead to diverse economic outcomes."

It's timely, he adds, to be considering what makes a city thrive, given the ongoing discussions by government on the business case for devolving central policy decisions and budgets to regions.

"In this context, while fiscal devolution is desirable, differences between cities could assume greater significance," says Martin. "If cities and regions take more control of the purse strings, they will need to know where best to invest resources to help them thrive. This research programme is ambitious but we are confident that we will be able to identify at least some of the keys to city economic success and how to maintain that success over time."
It was here before anyone made a map and called this corner of it the Pacific Northwest.

"To me," said David McCloskey, waving an aging hand toward tidelands formed millenniums ago, "it's an energy field."

McCloskey, a retired sociology and ecology professor who has spent a lifetime exploring the region's mountain ranges and waterways, was standing here near the southernmost stretch of Puget Sound. He was trying to explain not just the view in front of him, but all of Cascadia, an elusive realm he helped conceive decades ago that stretches from Northern California to the coast of British Columbia, and deep into the imagination.

The idea of a separate land in the top corner of the country rose and faded over the years, a blend of science, environmentalism and a fuzzy sense of otherness that served as a counterpoint to the ceaseless commercial growth of Seattle, its once-quieter capital. Some called it New Age hokum. Others said it represented a true "Ecotopia," maybe even a last redoubt against the worst effects of climate change.

Yet now, as the region booms with newcomers drawn to its technology economy, Cascadia's distinctiveness has become both indisputably clear and darkly complicated. Its very existence is threatened with what scientists say is a strong likelihood that, sooner or later, it will be faced with the largest earthquake ever recorded in the United States.

On Tuesday, as many as 20,000 people across Washington, Oregon, California and Idaho, mainly federal employees, began a four-day exercise called "Cascadia Rising" - a trial run at responding to a massive magnitude-9.0 quake on the Cascadia Subduction Zone off the northwest coast near here, and the tsunami that would inevitably accompany it.

Scientists have established that the fault in the Cascadia zone caused a megaquake in 1700, before the region's written history, and they say one day - maybe next week, maybe next century - it will cause another. The death toll could reach 10,000 and leave much of the region without power, clean water or essential services.

Forty years ago, when McCloskey began teaching at Seattle University, plate tectonics were just beginning to be understood. Now the Juan de Fuca plate, just off the coast, has become a rising geologic star - or perhaps a sinking one. Seismologists say the plate is slowly creeping beneath the North American plate, creating the dynamic about which scientists are now so concerned.

Awareness of the potential threat peaked recently with a Pulitzer Prize-winning article in the New Yorker magazine, published last year, that described a worst-case scenario in vivid detail.

The increased attention has made clear that, while the Northwest may feel like a haven from much of the country's other environmental woes - it could be a comfortable destination for people fleeing hotter, drier parts of the West as a result of climate change, for example - it is on very shaky ground.

"It's earthquake season every single day of the year," said Kenneth Murphy, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Northwest operations.

Rebekah Paci-Green, who was born and raised in the Seattle suburbs, said that after the New Yorker article was published, "I had ... friends writing me and saying 'Is this really a good idea for you to live there?"

Paci-Green, 41, understands the risks as well as anyone. She is the director of the Resilience Institute at Western Washington University in Bellingham and the lead author of a document that outlines the scenario on which emergency workers base the exercise. She called it "a pretty extreme look at a pretty extreme event."

Odds are high that whatever megaquake does strike will not have such severe consequences as the worst predictions, Paci-Green said.

A megaquake will not be "Hollywood-style catastrophic in the Puget Sound," she said, though she is careful to add: "It's really important for emergency managers to be planning for a worst-case scenario."

For those wondering whether Cascadia means an ideal place to live, or a potential disaster zone, she says: "You have to have risk and benefit in focus at the same time."

That aligns very much with what McCloskey says.

While he is unhappy that, for some people, Cascadia has suddenly become shorthand for death and destruction, McCloskey welcomes having more people recognize the power of the "energy field" of Cascadia.

"This is part of the long process of getting grounded here in the ongoing life of the wider, deeper place," he wrote in an email.

That picked up on a point he made back at Nisqually Reach, where he had traveled as part of a research trip to better understand the glacial forces that shaped the region.

"It's always about getting grounded in the backyard, where you are, all the way up to the planet and back," he said. "The integral life of the place as a whole on all of these levels, in depth, unfolding through time, including culture, that's what we're after. That's what gives us a new story."

Last year, McCloskey, who is 69, fulfilled a longtime goal to complete a detailed map of the region he loves.

Titled "Cascadia, A Great Green Land" and drafted with the help of a private mapping company, it employs sophisticated cartographic technologies that document features ranging from the Juan de Fuca plate to the ice fields that helped form the mountains and sound and the evergreens that still blanket much of it.

He has also helped create an annual Cascadia Day. Working with the group Cascadia Now, which was formed to carry on his vision, McCloskey chose May 18 for the day of celebration because that is the date Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980. The group calls it "a visceral reminder of the dynamism of our region."

The main event in Seattle, which included food and bands playing deep into the night, was held in an out-of-the-way warehouse in the shadow of Interstate 5, just south of downtown. As traffic roared overhead, Andrew Nichols and Tanner Colvin sipped craft beer while they sold patches, flags and other memorabilia bearing the Cascadia flag - blue, white and green stripes behind a single Douglas fir tree.

Colvin, 24, is from Montana, "the eastern fringe" of Cascadia, as he put it.

"I have a fascination with regionality," he said, "with a sense of community beyond borders."

Nichols, 26, agreed.

"It transcends petty differences like gender or race or politics," he said. "It's a culture that is bred out of the environment we grew up in, but everyone who wants to call it home can call it home."

But what about the Big One, the megaquake. How did that fit into the vision?

"Nature is spectacular and magnificent here," Nichols said, "but it can also turn on you."

Colvin leaned in.

"And I'm cool with that," he said. "We're basically unified by what can destroy us."

Explore further Tohoku grim reminder of potential for Pacific Northwest megaquake

2016 Los Angeles Times

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Twitter can be an engaging communication tool for building a learning community according to research just published in the International Journal of Social Media and Interactive Learning Environments. Scott Warren of the College of Information, at the University of North Texas, in Denton, USA, explains how the merits of the microblogging platform have been little discussed as an educational tool despite its widespread use and familiarity as a social networking platform.

"Research on the use of specific tools and reports of curriculum or instruction designed to leverage them remains weak," Warren explains. He describes how an instructor has developed a course using Twitter as an important means of academic communication and support for a nascent learning community. "The study found that designing a course to include Twitter for out-of-class discourse fostered desired communicative actions for learning while also allowing the instructor to help foster student-initiated community," Warren adds.

Warren points out that there is a lot of work in the research literature that describes the pros and cons of online social networking and social media tools in the business and marketing context, but there has been only limited research into the role such tools might play in education. However, given the near ubiquity of mobile devices such as smart phones and tablet computers, there is an urgency in finding out how these tools might benefit learners and improve the educational process. Twitter, Warren suggests, has not been adopted widely so far by educators although academics in Europe, North America and elsewhere have reported some successes. It is commonly used to augment conventional blogs, online forums and learning management systems and has been used as a peer-to-peer support tool by educators and learners.

Warren points out that the hashtag system, familiar to regular Twitter users can be used as a tool for organizing information while Twitter lists can be utilized to build communities. Twitter's searchable archive has obvious merits for retrieving old posts while its direct messaging (DM) system allows private communication. He adds that the 140-character limit on a Twitter update afforded users, enforces brevity in communication which can accelerate discussion by limiting expansive comments somewhat in normal use. Twitter as an educational communication tool is not perfect, but then no tool is.

"Communication is at the heart of teaching and learning andtoday's social media tools can be employed validly and robustly to support educational experiences for today's students," Warren concludes.

Explore further Twitter marks 10th birthday searching for followers, profits

More information: Scott J. Warren. The Twitter academic: supporting learning communications in 140 characters or less, International Journal of Social Media and Interactive Learning Environments (2016). Scott J. Warren. The Twitter academic: supporting learning communications in 140 characters or less,(2016). DOI: 10.1504/IJSMILE.2016.075052
Point of Sale Technology For Hospitality Abounds At #NRAshow

POS technology for hospitality.

The National Restaurant Association Show kicked off in Chicago this weekend. I went and was impressed. Gleaming rows of chrome kitchen equipment, some increasingly high tech, endless offerings of food samples from vendors all over the world and, of course,

Revel was there in a beautiful booth about the size of Rhode Island, showing their hospitality product. CRO (Chief Revenue Officer) Bobby Marhamat gave me a demo of a new white label mobile app that could be customized as needed.



NCR Silver and Aloha were exhibiting, displaying a rather cool tablet stand with a magnetic base and a nicely sized, pay-at-table device by Miura. (see image).

Must see to appreciate!! Oh, it keeps a tight log of all the in and out activity. The APG Cash Drawer booth had a couple new things on display. I was wowed by a cash drawer that counts the money in the till. Bob Daugs demonstrated a model that not only sensed the difference in change  a quarter or nickel in and out, but individual bills as well!Oh, it keeps a tight log of all the in and out activity.

Another cash drawer model contained ultra violet light to disinfect bills. The inventor, Michael R. Golden, was there and offered to analyze how germ infested a bill I had in my pocket was. He demonstrated the drawer (it works in a flash) and my Abraham Lincoln came out sanitized and smelling fresh. Its not hard to envision being in the midst of a flu epidemic (as we are every couple of years) and then its absolutely the kind of thing Id want to have in my high volume QSR, school lunch room cafeteria, hospital cafeteria, and senior living center cafeteria. Any high volume place with a population that is susceptible to infection. Find five minutes in your day at the show to check this out! Another cash drawer model contained ultra violet light to disinfect bills. The inventor, Michael R. Golden, was there and offered to analyze how germ infested a bill I had in my pocket was. He demonstrated the drawer (it works in a flash) and my Abraham Lincoln came out sanitized and smelling fresh. Its not hard to envision being in the midst of a flu epidemic (as we are every couple of years) and then itsthe kind of thing Id want to have in my high volume QSR, school lunch room cafeteria, hospital cafeteria, and senior living center cafeteria. Any high volume place with a population that is susceptible to infection.

Alex Barrotti, founder and CEO of TouchBistro demonstrated some nifty features of his colorful and intuitive app.

The Future POS booth had some classy equipment on display. I also met with Lance Bell of POS Partners at the booth, theyre a hospitality VAR (value added reseller) who recently made an acquisition and has expanded operations to 14 states.

A plethora of loyalty and reward programs were present- and I get the sense that this is a slowly emerging area for many businesses. Similarly, a couple dozen companies were present to offer social media, menu publishing, employee scheduling the acquisition of customer data services to restaurants. (Side note  I can only hope that the use of email marketing and text marketing will not be over done. I already actively dump any organization that emails me more than once a month. Business owners should offer the customer a choice of how often he wants to be emailed, and not run their business by pulling the trigger on an email campaign every time there is a slow week of sales. R e s p e c t for the customer!)

EMV pay-at-the-table? An informal survey of 20 POS companies found only a few that were actually offering EMV pay-at-table software presently (more on this in tomorrows column).

After spending time in the technology section, I moved on to some of the other vendors 

After spending time in the technology section, I moved on to some of the other vendors  Prop & Peller pretzels were delicious and I hope they come to a bar near me soon (image). Eisenberg hot dogs were a taste treat  gourmet, black angus beef is used (image).

, as was a automatic donut maker by A machine to wrap individual pieces of sushi was intriguing (see image), as was a automatic donut maker by Lil Orbits . Captivating to watch and a great way to be sure you take in enough calories.
Assyrians Are the Forgotten Players in Mideast Carnage

Displaced Assyrians, who had fled their hometowns due to Islamic State Group (ISIL) attacks, take part in a prayer at the Ibrahim-al Khalil Melkite Greek Catholic church in Damascus on March 1, 2015. ( LOUAI BESHARA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES) They are the original people of Mesopotamia's cradle of civilization, the indigenous people of ancient Sumer and Babylon, and they've been around for at least 5,000 years. From their heartland on the Nineveh Plains and the Upper Tigris in what is now the transboundary region of Syria, Turkey, Iran and Iraq, their empires waxed and waned down through the centuries from the Caucasus Mountains to Cyprus and Egypt and deep into the Arabian Peninsula. The Assyrians were among the world's first peoples to adopt Christianity, and they still speak varieties of Aramaic, the language of Christ and his apostles. They survived a series of genocidal anti-Christian frenzies during the Ottoman Empire's final convulsions a century ago, and again in the 1930s. They survived the persecutions and ethnic cleansings waged against them by Iraq's Saddam Hussein and by the Iranian Khomeinists. But their survival now, as a distinct people, looks bleak. There were perhaps 1.5 million Assyrians holding out in the region at the close of the 20th century. Two years ago, Minority Rights Group International reckoned their numbers in Iraq had dwindled to maybe 350,000 people. There are slightly fewer -- estimates are wildly conflicting -- in Syria. With Syria's ongoing destruction, mainly at the hands of Syrian President Bashar Assad and his Russian and Iranian allies, and with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) carrying out its bloody jihad in Iraq from Mosul to Fallujah and the outskirts of Baghdad, the Assyrians are again wandering the roads of the Middle East. They're huddled in makeshift displaced-persons camps or fleeing as United Nations' refugees to the four corners of the Earth. But they are not without hope. The cause of an Assyrian homeland has gained a great deal of traction lately: not an independent country, but a separate province, in a federated and decentralized Iraq. "An autonomous region. A safe haven. That's what the people want. A homeland. We want to be able to protect ourselves," Juliana Taimoorazy, the founding president of the Chicago-based Iraqi Christian Relief Council, told me the other day. The idea is not as implausible as it sounds. The Assyrian predicament has been overshadowed by the suffering of the Yazidis, a similarly ancient non-Muslim minority in the region. Targeted for genocide and enslavement by ISIL in the autumn months of 2014, hundreds of thousands of Yazidis were forced to flee an ISIL advance in the Yazidis' Shingal Range homeland in Iraqi Kurdistan. The encirclement of hundreds of unarmed Yazidis on Mount Sinjar captured the world's attention and finally shamed the NATO countries into mounting an air-power campaign to curb ISIL's depredations -- a coalition effort that first involved a half-dozen Canadian CF-18s and now includes the Canadian Special Operations Regiment in a "train, advise and assist" mission, mostly with the Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga. The western support won by the Kurdish Regional Government in Iraq, and by the KRG's tentative allies among the Kurdish YPG guerrillas of Rojava in Northern Syria, has been a mixed blessing for the Assyrians. The secularist KRG goes out of its way to insist that it embraces the Assyrian minority, but Assyrians are wary and mistrustful. Iraqi Kurds have turned on them before, and as recently as 2011 anti-Assyrian riots broke out in the predominantly Kurdish city of Duhok, incited by a Kurdish political party affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. "At any moment, some mullah can declare a fatwa against us," Taimooorazy said. With Syria and Iraq having degenerated into hellholes of jihadism, mass murder and unceasing sectarian war, the Assyrians' allegiances of convenience have sometimes left outsiders perplexed about whose "side" the they're on. The Assyrians sided with the Kurds against Saddam Hussein from the 1980s to the 2003 Anglo-American invasion. "We hoped the Americans would help us regain our land, the way the Zionists did," Taimoorazy said, "but that didn't happen." As a result, a lot of Assyrians cooled to the Americans. At the same time, while Israel is seen as a pariah in much of the Arab world, many Assyrians see Israel as a "model," Taimoorazy said. In Syria, meanwhile, Assyrian church leaders and their flocks tended to oppose the uprising against Bashar Assad for fear of what might follow and doubts about the NATO countries' willingness to intervene to protect them against jihadists. But other Assyrians have formed militias in alliance with Kurdish and Arab guerrillas to fight both ISIL and Assad's regular troops. Still, the crux of the Assyrian dilemma in the region's turmoils is fairly straightforward, Taimoorazy said. "We don't trust the Arabs, and we don't trust the Kurds." Taimoorazy insisted that Assyrians are not demanding an independent state of their own. "We don't want Iraq to fall apart. We want Iraq to stay together." An Assyrian province in a more decentralized Iraq would be an uphill battle because it would have to come at least partly at the expense of the KRG, in areas it now controls. But it would also offer a refuge to Yazidis and minority Turkomans and Shabaks. But then again, there are now powerful Sunni Arabs in Iraq who are also contemplating a constitutional breakout from Baghdad's control. Owing to the Shiite-dominated government giving every appearance of being hopelessly mired in brutal sectarianism and runaway corruption -- and not least because of the growing influence of Iran's Khomeinists in semi-official militias as vicious as ISIL, as well as in Iraq's official security apparatus -- a move is underway to establish a semi-autonomous Sunni region in Iraq. About one-third of Iraqis are Sunni. "But the Assyrians are not just a religious group," Taimoorazy said. "We are an ethnic minority, and we are losing our language and our culture. The world has to begin to see the Assyrian people not just as Christians, but as a distinct people. And we are being wiped out."
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A little more than 11 percent of New York states students missed 15 days or more of school during the 2013-2014, which is better than the national average of 13 percent.

Washington, D.C. had the highest rate of what is defined as chronic absenteeism at 31.5 percent, according to an Associated Press analysis of U.S. Department of Education statistics. The lowest statewide rate was Florida at 4.5 percent.

The large city with the worst absenteeism rate was Detroit, where nearly 58 percent of students were chronically absent.

Education officials have long said that one of the most important predictors of whether students will be successful, is whether they are in school. The AP report quoted Bob Balfanz, who is director of the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University, in its report.

If youre not there, you dont learn, and then you fall behind. You dont pass your classes. You dont get the credits in high school and thats what leads to dropping out, Balfanz said.

School districts locally have attempted to address absenteeism problems.

Fort Edward stepped up enforcement this school year to cut down on unexcused absences. School officials said they cross-referenced attendance with academic achievement and found that students who were not regularly attending struggle to maintain grades and earn credit, according to the districts website.

The increased focus on attendance seemed to work. There were nearly 200 tenth-grade students with unexcused absences from Sept. 1 2014-Feb. 8, 2015 and only 37 during the same time period during the 2015-2016 school year, according to district data.

Last year, Hudson Falls held a day long attendance workshop and brought in a national speaker to address their problem. About 13 percent of the school districts students missed at least 10 percent of the school days during the 2014-15 school year through May.

Among the strategies the district is using include reaching out to parents to find out why students are missing school and rewarding excellent attendance.

Among the reasons for missing school cited during that workshop were student frustration at doing poorly in class, anxiety caused by bullying and challenges at home. Sometimes parents do not understand the importance of the early grades, as more learning is taking place earlier, including in kindergarten.

***

In another story that also deals with students being absent, the AP on Wednesday reported that 99 schools in the state missed out on being labeled as Reward Schools because fewer than 95 percent of the students in grades three through eight took the Common Core math and English tests last year. Schools that had high opt-out rates are not able to receive the designation, which allows schools to apply for grants.
U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Willsboro, is 2-1 for political action in the national Republican congressional primary season, so far, with the outcome of a fourth race too close to call.

U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson, R-NC, handily won a Republican primary on Tuesday, according to news reports.

Stefanik, through her E-PAC political action committee, contributed $2,000 to Hudson's campaign.

Justin Fareed, who is seeking an open seat in Santa Barbara, Calif., was leading the Republican field for a spot on the November ballot, as of late Tuesday, but the race was still too close to call, according to news reports.

Stefanik, through E-PAC, contributed $2,000 to Fareed's campaign.

In previous primary races, Stefanik, through E-PAC, contributed:

$3,000 to the campaign of Erin Houchin, who lost a Republican congressional primary in Indiana in May.

$2,000 to the campaign of Rep. Martha McSally, who won a three-way primary in March.

Next up -- June 28 in New York, where Stefanik, through E-PAC, has contributed $2,000 to John Faso, one of two Republican primary candidates in the 19th District and $1,000 to Steve Wells, one of three Republican primary candidates in the 22nd District.
Clarence P. Braley, 49, of Oak Street, pleaded guilty to felony criminal mischief for slashing eight tires on two vehicles after a dispute with neighbors on Feb. 16.

At least one of the victims witnessed the incident, and when they went to his apartment to confront him, he displayed a large knife from inside the home, police said. That led to charges of criminal possession of a weapon and menacing, which were dismissed as part of a plea deal.
A Schuylerville woman was jailed Monday for allegedly selling prescription drugs in southern Washington County, police said.

Mary K. Hunter, 31, was charged with two felony counts each of criminal sale of a controlled substance and criminal possession of a controlled substance for allegedly selling prescription painkillers, according to State Police.

She was also found to be in possession of heroin when arrested, leading to a misdemeanor count of criminal possession of a controlled substance, police said.

Hunter pleaded not guilty Tuesday during an arraignment on an indictment filed in Washington County Court. Washington County Judge Kelly McKeighan sent her to Washington County Jail for lack of bail.
LAKE LUZERNE  As the larger road bikes of Americade converge on Lake George for the rallys 34th year, smaller, lighter motorcycles are making the ride up to the Painted Pony Ranch in Lake Luzerne for the first-ever DirtDaze Adventure Bike Rally.

The event runs through Saturday, and while it is separate from the Americade rally, it is being organized by Americade staff.

Christian Dutcher, an Americade and DirtDaze organizer, said the rally is meant to be a sister event to the longstanding Lake George rally.

He said for years he saw the smaller, less powerful, more maneuverable adventure bikes, which are designed for both road and off-road riding, showing up at Americade, where there were no events specifically for them.

(DirtDaze) fills a very specific niche, Dutcher said. Every year we see a number of adventure bikes show up, but we havent been addressing their needs.

Plans for the rally began three years ago, according to Dutcher, but finding a place with trails and space for camping and construction of obstacle courses was a challenge. Organizers eventually found Painted Pony Ranch, which was willing to rent the land to them for the event.

The site includes three obstacle courses, a motorcycle merchandise expo, with KTM Motorcycles being one of the larger vendors, camping and dining facilities. There are also opportunities for riders to take guided and unguided rides.

Organizers have worked to bring guest speakers and instructors to the event, including world champion freestyle motorcyclist Chris Teach McNeil and Jimmy and Heather Lewis, who run one of the top off-road riding schools, which is based in Nevada.

Heather said the thing they try to impart onto their students is a sense of awareness on the bike. She said they try to get them away from just getting on the bike and riding.

We try to get them to think about what they are doing on the bike, she said.

Learning to ride on a dirt surface, Jimmy and Heather said, makes better riders of people who have only ever known pavement.

Jimmy Lewis said with the lack of traction a motorcycle has on dirt, riders are forced to focus on their balance and riding fundamentals.

You learn the full range of your motorcycle, Jimmy Lewis said.

Dutcher said he has been pleased with the turnout so far and expects the numbers to grow as the week progresses. Bringing this type of event to this group of riders has been a rewarding experience for everyone involved, he said.

The people who are here are like kids on their playground, Dutcher said.

Dale Murray of New Brunswick, Canada, said his wife found the event online.

He said what the event schedule offered was what really drew him in and made him make the trip.

They just kept adding stuff and it just looked like fun, Murray said.

Murray said he got into adventure bike riding as a way to get back into motorcycles.

I used to ride motorcross when I was much younger and I just wanted to get back to that kind of riding, he said.

Dutcher said organizers hope to continue the event next year, and Jimmy said he feels there is a lot of promise. He said the location and the riding are perfect and, as long as there are no surprises, DirtDaze should only grow.

If everything goes as planned, it will just grow organically, he said.

Both Jimmy and Heather said they would consider returning to the event in the future.

More information on the DirtDaze Adventure Bike Rally, including a schedule of events, can be found at dirtdazerally.com.
SARATOGA SPRINGS  John Hendrickson, Governor Andrew Cuomos Advisor to the New York Racing Association Board of Directors, resigned his post on Tuesday, bringing immediate reaction from The Concerned Citizens for Saratoga Racing.

His resignation leaves a significant void, said Maureen Lewi, Chair of the Concerned Citizens, in a release. John is one of only a few notable figures who speaks the truth despite any personal consequences. He is one of the most vocal advocates for Saratoga and our states thoroughbred racing industry. He has certainly not been shy about publicly stating his differences with NYRA, the administration or anyone else.

Hendricksons resignation comes a couple of weeks after Gov. Cuomo circulated a plan to retain public control of NYRA and to unilaterally transfer funds designated for the racing industry into the states general fund.

Cuomo installed a reorganization board to run NYRA in 2012, when it was facing bankruptcy and had other difficulties. As part of Cuomos plan, NYRA was supposed to take over as a private, not-for-profit owner in 2015, but the reorganizations board was extended until 2016. NYRA submitted its own privatization plan in April.

Concerned Citizens for Saratoga Racing announced its objection to the governors plan because, the group said, it would give the governor more control of the board and also place a cap on video lottery money dedicated to the tracks.

Hendrickson has vehemently expressed his feeling that any capping of VLT money is unsatisfactory. He noted that NYRA turned over $1 billion worth of land to New York State in return for specified VLT revenue percentages from the machines at Aqueduct Racetrack. He has said the VLT funds are mortgage payments on the land that was re-deeded and that the state should not break this contract.

The Concerned Citizens for Saratoga Racing supports bipartisan legislation now pending in the Assembly and Senate that would not cap VLT funds and also provide both public and private representation on the NYRA board.
FORT EDWARD  Three municipalities argued Wednesday to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a Queensbury resident who claims that the town of Queensbury improperly budgets for Crandall Public Library, a lawsuit that seeks a refund of the taxes he has paid to the library.

John Salvador Jr. filed the lawsuit in 2014, arguing that the Queensbury Town Board has illegally failed to include the librarys tax levy to town residents in its annual budgets, although a line item exists in the budget. The lawsuit also names the town of Moreau, which is part of the library taxing district, as well as Warren County and Saratoga County.

Leah Everhart, counsel for Queensbury, argued before state Supreme Court Justice Stan Pritzker that whether the town puts the library budget in the town budget is academic and has no impact on the taxpayer whether it is listed or not.

The town does not play any part in the creation of the library budget, Everhart pointed out.

Its not a town expenditure. Its not a town cost, she said.

Salvadors lawyer, Sheila Galvin, said the town is violating state law and has disenfranchised residents. The town of Moreau does include the library budget in its budget, she and Salvador pointed out. By not including the information in Queensburys budget, voters are not privy to it beforehand, she said.

Youve got a pig in the poke and it is difficult to come up with a final number, Galvin said.

Pritzker reserved decision after hearing more than an hour of arguments. Lawyers for Warren County and the town of Moreau were present, and joined in the town of Queensburys motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

Residents of Queensbury, Moreau and Glens Falls are part of the district whose residents fund the library. The librarys annual budget is up for vote each November.

The lawsuit does not name Crandall Public Library, and Salvador says the library itself has done nothing improper. He pointed out the town removed the line item for the library from its 2015 budget, after he sued in August 2014.

Salvador is seeking the refund of taxes he paid to the library, but not refunds for other taxpayers.

If his lawsuit succeeds and his money is ordered to be refunded, however, that would likely open the door for others to seek their money back.

The case has been pending in Supreme Court in Warren County, and was recently assigned to Pritzker, who presides in Washington County.
Let them check.

Thats the message U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., is sending to his fellow legislators through a push to allow New York summer camps and other child-serving groups access to a federal sex offender database.

The senator said in a conference call with reporters Wednesday that these organizations want to perform thorough sex offender background checks on prospective employees and volunteers. But currently, they can access only New Yorks limited state database or pay higher rates for private background checks.

This critical information that is being withheld could allow sex offenders to work with children, he said.

Schumer is reintroducing a bill, originally introduced in 2013, to mend what he called a serious flaw in the federal law by requiring the U.S. attorney general to establish a process to run checks that use both states and the FBIs sex offender databases.

Access to the FBIs national list would provide New York camps and other groups that serve children with broader records for cheaper costs, Schumer said.

He cited 2010 data that showed that more than 40 percent of people with criminal records applying to volunteer had committed crimes outside of the state they were applying in  meaning they would not be flagged by a state background check alone.

That should send a chill down the spine of any parent  and any employer, he said.

The bill  called the Child Protection Improvements and Electronic Life and Safety Security Systems Act of 2015  places the responsibility for notifying organizations about background check results in authorities hands. The groups would pay for the checks.

Schumer said his bill stems from an issue that both sides can agree on  that is, the protection of our children.

Rachael Hartford, a spokeswoman for Schumer, said he hopes the bill will be passed this congressional session with broad support on both sides of the aisle.

The bill has Republican and Democratic co-sponsors, support from children-focused not-for-profits and religious institutions as well, Schumer said.

Max Yurenda, director of Double H Ranch camp in Lake Luzerne for children with life-threatening illnesses, said the camp is very interested in looking into the bill.

Because more and more people want to volunteer for the camp  That line item for Double H continues to grow each year, Yurenda said of background checks.

If there was a way to reduce those costs while maintaining the volunteer interest, I see that as a positive thing for any camp organization, he said.

According to the state Department of Criminal Justice Service data that Schumer cited Wednesday, almost 900 registered sex offenders were living in the region as of June 6  234 in Warren County, 273 in Washington County and 372 in Saratoga County.
SALEM  The Archibald Street Bridge is causing flooding problems after all, the draft of a flood study says.

Washington County supervisors discussed the draft at a recent Public Works committee meeting, although they will not take action until the study is done and the Salem Town Board has weighed in.

The study offers a nuanced determination: The much-maligned bridge is making flooding worse, but removing it would only reduce flooding by 1 foot to 1 1/2 feet.

There is no way to address a large flood situation in Salem, Public Works Superintendent Steve Haskins said. The study found the best thing we can hope for is to address a medium flood.

Every possible mitigation effort cant help reduce major floods, he said.

Still, the study made it clear the county should either remove the bridge or build an expensive box culvert next to it.

The cost of removing the bridge has been estimated at $50,000, Haskins said.

The box culvert, which would be 20 feet long and 5 feet tall, would cost $250,000 to $350,000, he said.

The same result would be achieved if you did either one of those, he said.

The county has an Empire State Development grant, which could be used to remove the bridge. Supervisors would have to ask permission to use the money for a box culvert instead. Theres $160,000 for the bridge in that grant, so the county would have to cover the rest of the cost if supervisors decided to build the culvert.

The study also said just removing the bridge would not be enough. The abutments attached to the bridge must go if it is removed. For that, too, the supervisors would need to ask permission if they want to use the grant.

Budget Officer and Hebron Supervisor Brian Campbell said he was leaning toward building the box culvert, even though that would cost more.

It costs a little more money, he said. You get down to a safety issue without the bridge.

Hampton Supervisor Dave OBrien noted that either option didnt offer a lot of help. The study said the result would create limited flood-reduction for nearby businesses.

Salem Supervisor Seth Pitts pushed for more actions, beyond the culvert or bridge removal.

Its a multitude of things. Its a bridge, its widening the channel, its taking out the mess thats been made downstream, he said, referring to large rocks, silt and sediment.

The Town Board will vote on a recommendation for the county after the study is done, which could be next month.

Were not going to decide until we hear from Salem, Campbell said.

Pitts said he would do more than just vote on action items in the final study. He plans to seek out input from all sides.

Im going to talk to as many people as I can, he said.

The bridge over White Creek was built by the county in 2006. The area flooded badly after Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee in 2011.
Inventory needs to be managed and managed well, or you are going to get in recurring trouble, and lose your credibility and hard-earned conversions, whether 

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Because of the nature of the competition in the global sugar industry, most sugar-producing countries (over 100 countries in the world produce sugar) have a policy, regulatory and legal framework for the industry, to provide incentives for and protect local producers, the former trade minister wrote in an article titled: "The Komenda Sugar Factory; A bitter or sweet investment decision?"

Currently, Ghana has no sugar policy or legislation which may pose very serious challenges for the survival of the Komenda Sugar Factory," he noted.

The revamped factory has come under intense public debate following conflicting comments by government officials over the status of the project since news broke that it has been shut down for maintenance.

The minority in parliament questioned the viability of the project, suggesting it was inaugurated in a rush.

They also raised the issue of availability of sugarcane and the quality of the Pra River, which most sugarcane farmers use to irrigate their farms.

Alan Cash quoted data from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) which put the production sugarcane in Ghana in the last five years (2010-2014) at 147,400 metric tonnes, which is 77600 short of what the factory needs.

The Komenda Sugar Factory requires an annual input of 225,000 metric tonnes of sugarcane to operate at optimal capacity. He continued: Currently, since all the sugarcane produced annually consumed, one can conclude that the total output of sugarcane required to be produced in 2016/2017 crop year should be about 372,400 metric tonnes (147,400mt +22500mt) to satisfy both current consumption and raw material required for the factory.
Deputy General Secretary of the Public Utility Workers Union (PUWU), Michael Nyantakyi, said on Accra based Joy FM that the attack has been intense following a confirmation of the anomalies by the Public Utility Regulation Commission.

The people come direct to the office, they talk, they abuse the staff and there are two instances like that, he said.

Nyantakyi said in the Kade area, they [community members] chased our people, some with even machete and then recently at Adjei Kojo in Ashaiman, our people where physically assaulted.

According to him, people make direct references to PURCs statement which said consumers of electricity are being overbilled.

But Jantuah said PURC workers have also come under similar attacks but have taken it in their stride.

Do they know how unsafe we are as a regulator? There were times customers besieged our offices to attack us - some even went to the point of abusing staff and tearing off their shirts because they had issues.

Ive myself been attacked on countless occasion by customers. If theyre indeed talking about dissatisfaction then its not the directive that has caused this dissatisfaction  the dissatisfaction has come about because of the astronomical bills people were complaining about.

Were aware of the confrontations that were bound to come with it. At the time that they were fighting for an increase in tariffs, we gave them against all odds; they should learn to bear with the confrontations in the same manner.

At a press conference on Monday, General Secretary of PUWU, Mr Ato Kwamena Bondzi-Quaye gave PURC a seven-day ultimatum to retract its directive to the ECG to suspend the use of the new billing software.

However, Jantuah said that will not hold water, saying it will remain in force.
In an exclusive interview, Prof Quarm told Pulse.com.gh that his book was targeted because of his political affiliation with the opposition New Patriotic Party.

He expressed surprise that after the books approval five years ago, the issue was just emerging.

[Those who were criticising the book] should have consulted me for an explanation but they didntI showed my supporting documents showing my book was approved in 2011. Apart from that I am a professional teacher and I will not make such a mistakeSo where from all this if it is not politics.

The author beat the incumbent Member of Parliament for Manso Nkwanta, Grace Addo in the NPP primaries to become the partys parliamentary candidate for Manso Nkwanta constituency in the Ashanti Region in the November 2016 polls.

The natural science book for primary one pupils sparked controversy and intense public debate about the kind of books prescribed for schools in the country.

Critics, led by the vice president of IMANI Ghana, Kofi Bentil, argued that the book should have rather described the head as containing the brain, which was used for thinking.

However, supporters believed that the description was apt as that was a reflection of what happens in the environment school children were exposed to and that the concept of thinking would be gradually introduced as they moved to higher classes.

Although it was initially denied that the book had been approved, a letter from November 2011 revealed that the book had been approved as supplementary materials for the teaching and learning of Natural Science at the Lower Primary and Colleges of Education.
The union after noting with concern, the incessant of profane lyricsin songs, releaseda statement signed by President of the Union, Bice Osei Kuffour, otherwise known as Obour, which urged musicians to put together lyrics which can have positive impact on the listener.

This current trend is particularly disturbing considering the fact that these songs are played without any radio edits on primetime radio and given wide currency on social media.In that regard, the Union is calling on musicians and song writers in Ghana to desist from writing songs with profane lyrics. As much as the Union appreciates the creative liberties of song writers to freely express themselves, it is essential that artistes appreciate the impact of their songs on the public especially in an era where technology has made it relatively easier for songs to be heard, portions of the statement read.

The union further called on the National Media Commission (NMC) to check such songs which are sometimes played on air during primetime It also asked media houses to do well to ensure that such practises are discouraged.

Ohemaa Mercy believes that musicians can express themselves perfectly in clean lyrics. She highlighted the need for them to stop the use of profane content saying, will be of significant help to society as a whole.
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The Shark Tank style business pitch competition which launched last year during Global Entrepreneurship Week will feature several Ghanaian start-up and growth stage companies vying for the 10,000GHS valued business services including Digital Marketing and Advertising, Public Relations, Business Consulting, and Radio Air Time from event partners RDM, CREATE Ghana, Pulse.com.gh, and STARR FM.

Participants will also receive expert advice from the distinguished panel of investors including Richard Darkey (former Bank of America Merrill Lynch), Grace Darkwa (Oasis Capital) and Charles Boatin (Adenia Partners) as well as access to GAIN and TKC Africas international investor network.

We are excited to continue to host Elevate Ghana which has evolved into a meaningful platform for entrepreneurs and investors to interact. We have seen that it is creating a space for the broader entrepreneurship community (including business advisors and aspiring entrepreneurs) to convene, ultimately facilitating access to both the financial and human capital required to accelerate the development of small and growing businesses in Ghana, says Taiwo Ajayi, founder of Create Ghana, a business consulting firm.

At TKC Africa our slogan is 'Knowledge is the currency of the Future' and we look forward to providing participants with the necessary know-how to unleash and secure their future as entrepreneurs, adds Hannah Acquah, principal at TKC Africa

Asoriba, a church management web and mobile app emerged as winners at the maiden Elevate Ghana and received media and business services and have since gone on to win Seedstars Africa in Casablanca, Morocco, featured on CNN and accepted to the TechStars Barclays Accelerator in Cape Town.
Even as its economy slows, China remains the world's factory, churning out billions of dollars every year of goods. The government, though, wants to change this which could be a huge opportunity for countries like Ethiopia and Africa as a whole.

As China transitions its economy from manufacturing to services, 85 million jobs will be up for grabs as a lot of that industrial production looks for a new home. Ethiopia, for its part, is aggressively positioning itself as a destination for some of that Chinese manufacturing.

Ethiopia, and Africa in general, may be a tough sale for manufacturers who are always looking to keep costs as low as possible. Compared to regions like Southeast Asia, where most of the outbound Chinese manufacturing is going, Ethiopia's infrastructure is less developed, its work force is less educated and its supply chain networks are not as a robust.

But none of Ethiopia's challenges seems to discourage Helen Hai. Helen is the exuberant CEO of the Made in Africa Initiative and former vice president of the Chinese shoe-making giant Huajian. Back in 2011 she set up the company's first factory in Addis Ababa where today 4,000 workers produce 7,500 pairs of shoes for famous brands like Guess, 9West and many others.

Helen believes the success of Huajian in Ethiopia is just the beginning. She points to the country's ability to attract Chinese auto manufacturers and other heavy industry as evidence that not just Ethiopia but Africa in general is well-positioned to pick up some of that industrial production that is now leaving China.

Helen joined Eric & Cobus to discuss the future of industrial production in Africa and why she thinks "Made in China" could one day become "Made in Africa."
The management of the bank confirmed the sack in a statement, saying it was to ensure efficiency in its drive for optimal performance.

The statement, signed by the banks managing director, Charles Kie said the sack is in furtherance of a market repositioning exercise designed to strengthen the banks business across all markets where it operates. Our focus is to improve the quality of service to our customers as well as our operational efficiency.

At the same time, based on our repositioning plan, we had to disengage some staff, while ensuring that, in line with industry standards, they are treated fairly, the statement added.
According to the Cinematography act 26, every audio visual material that is to be shown to the general public needs to pass through the classification board for the preview before we can give it the go ahead. But about a week to the premiere, we tried as much as possible to let them bring the film but they did not So I sent a letter to Silverbird that they dont have to show the film or they will suffer the consequences, he said on Hitz FMs Daybreak Hitz, Wednesday.

But Umar Krupe, producer of the movie has indicated that it was not deliberate on his part not to submit the movie to the board. According to him, preparation towards the premier of his movie came with so much pressure that it escaped him.

The Censorship Board came over to stop the premiere which was a big loss for me. But I understand it was my fault because I didnt do the right thing. Its not like I didnt want to do the right thing. There was too much pressure on my head because Im the sole owner of the movie. I forgot to do it, he said on the same platform.

Touching on the extent to which the halting of the premiere has affected him, Krupe expressed that not only has it affected him financially but image-wise. He believes he disappointed his fans for the inability to show the movie as arranged.
In abroad there are thousands of people disembarking at the airports, a single plan carries about five hundred passengers at a time and every five minutes an airplane lands, if these whites want to search passengers individually, then it will take them a whole day to search people from one airplane. So they handpick and search some of the passengers and that is not based on prior information but its done at random, he told Accra-based Kasapa FM.So Allotey upon reaching Heathrow and was questioned by the security personnel on duty, a member of the NPP who was present realizing that hes been left to go through the checkpoint while Allotey was held up, he waited at the arrival section and watched as all the passengers on the BA flight from Ghana walked off. After three hours of not seeing any sign of Allotey, he concluded that he had been arrested, but it wasnt an arrest he was asked harmless questions and was allowed to go later. He went off to America. The NPP man thought Allotey was coming to the UK and so hours after not seeing him there, he concluded that hed been arrested not knowing that hed gone to the USA, Hon. Namoale added.
Counsel for Charles Antwi Mr. Francis Xavier Sosu who disclosed some highlights of the report to journalists in Accra said he per the report, Charles Antwi had been cured of his mental ailment.

I am reliably informed that the final report shows that he has been cured, he said.

Charles Antwi was sentenced to 10-years in prison in July 2015 after confessing that he had wanted to kill President Mahama at his church. The jail term was subsequently quashed after the judge in a certiorari order ruled that Antwi, who has been declared mentally unstable after medical examination, should be taken to the Psychiatric Hospital for treatment. Antwi was therefore placed in the custody of the BNI to enable him to undergo treatment at the Accra Psychiatric Hospital.

The move was to prevent any attempt by Antwi to escape from the hospital, since he had a record of having escaped a number of times from a mental treatment facility in the Brong Ahafo Region.
A statement from the police, signed by SP Cephas Arthur, Director of Public Affairs, said preliminary investigation suggests that the syndicates seem to have laid hands on the soft copy of the Authoritys sticker, which they are using to print their fake ones, making them look true-to-type.

The suspects have been granted bail, pending further investigations.

The police has subsequently cautioned the public to desist from dealing with unauthorized people for certification.

Below is the full statement:

The Police has arrested 28 fake Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority [DVLA] Certificate and Sticker dealers in an operation mounted in Accra and Tema around the Authoritys premises. Among the 28 are seven females and 21 males, whose ages range from 21 to 31 years. Items ranging from printers, photocopy machines, trimming machines, computers, DVLA roadworthiness certificates and stickers, mobile phones and other office equipment were retrieved by the Police.

The suspects, who operate from containers, are suspected to be behind the recent proliferation of seeming genuine DVLA roadworthiness stickers in use of late.

It was observed that, lately many of the vehicle whose roadworthiness certificate are due for renewal do not go to the designated outlets to renew them, yet they are spotted operating with the said document. Investigations revealed that these stickers are procured from other sources apart from the approved ones.

Preliminary investigation points to the fact that, these illegal DVLA roadworthiness certificate dealers seem to have laid hands on the soft copy of the Authoritys sticker, which they are using to print their fake ones, making them look true-to-type.

The suspects have been cautioned and granted bail, pending further investigation, and necessary action. It must be noted that the activities of these criminals are causing the State to lose revenue, and also resulting in fatalities of our roads as some defective vehicles are unduly cleared.

The public, especially motorists, are advised to go to only DVLA Private Test garages for the testing of their vehicles and certification. Meanwhile all fake dealers should be uncovered and reported to the nearest Police Station for the necessary action.
"As she is the first woman to occupy this position, the challenge of her election is obvious. I have no doubt that, just as she has acquitted herself creditably in her leadership of Liberia, she will discharge this responsibility effectively, a statement issued by Nana Addo, on Tuesday, said.

With her set objective being the realization of Vision 2020, which envisions a secure and socially cohesive West Africa, I urge her to use the opportunity to hasten the process of democratic consolidation and West African integration. This will impact positively on the lives of the 350 million people who live in West Africa, as it will, amongst others, allow for the free movement of people, goods and services across borders, thereby assisting in the transformation of West Africas economies, creating jobs for its peoples, and providing decent lives for its populations in conditions of freedom and respect for human rights and the rule of law.

Congratulations to her once again, and best wishes and Gods blessings for her success in this new role.

She will replace the President of Senegal, Macky Sall whose tenure has come to an end.

President Sall replaced Ghanas President, John Mahama in 2015.
According to President Mahama, the project is one of governments initiatives to create opportunity for sustainable entrepreneurial employment for young people.

He made the comments at the 2nd African Mobile and ICT Expo (MOBEX 2016) in Accra.

One of governments initiatives and infrastructural investment that would create opportunity for sustainable opportunity and entrepreneurial employment for 10,000 of our young people in the digital eco system is the development of the BPO center near the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange, he said.

Its almost finished and we would be commissioning it very soon. The facility with the capacity of close to 10,000 direct and indirect jobs would be made available at affordable rates for start-ups and emerging ICT companies that are able and willing to carry out digital operations the president added.

The $8.3 million project started in 2011 and it is financed by the World Bank and the Rockefeller Foundation.

The center is a collection of 12 old warehouses of the Public Works Department (PWD) which have been renovated into world class office buildings with each of the buildings occupying a space of 735 square meters, making a total of 8,820 square meters.

President Mahama also added that other innovations are being developed to boost the innovation of the digital system.

The Ministry of communication is also developing a number of innovations including the M-Labs, I-hubs, Accra Business Processing Outsourcing Center (BPO), the Kumasi Business Incubator, The regional innovation centers and the ICT Park in Tema to boost the innovation digital system, he said.

Touching on the telecom sector, the president said significant gains have been made, citing periods where people had to climb trees to get good reception and queue to use a community telephone boot.

At that time the technology was different, you had voice separate, data separate and video separate, and we hadnt reached the era of convergence yet, it started to happen much later.

The only place you could make external calls was the High Street and you have to go very early and go and queue and then you give the number of the person you want to call.

So they will call the person, they had about four or five boots at the time, so when your name is mentioned, you will go to one of the boots to make the callif you had a fixed telephone number and you want to make an external call, you booked it and you were told the call will come between Wednesday and Thursday so what does that mean?

So Wednesday and Thursday you must sit at home and not go anywhere just because youve have to call outside? Today our children dont remember this, you just whip out your mobile phone and call anywhere in the world.

He added that Ghana now stands tall in the field of ICT and telecom markets with 33 million subscriptions.
The Disc Jockey opens up for the first time since AKA went on an explosive tell-all Twitter rant last week. The rapper had lashed out at Zinhle after he discovered she had pictures of himself and his mum in her house.

I am happier now than when I was with him but he gave me a beautiful child, she said, also admitting their breakup had a negative effect on her but maintained that she is much better now.

All break ups do that for you. You start cutting you hair, riding bikes.I am definitely stable and happy, she said.

The duo had a messy break up late last year over claims that AKA had cheated on Zinhle with media personality, Bonang Matheba.

Recall that AKA took to Twitter today, May 27, 2016 in an epic rant to dish on what's really going on between him and Zinhle.

ALSO READ: Bonang Matheba SA media celebrity responds to cheating allegations

According to AKA, Zinhle had to stop all the pettiness as he has never shaded nor provoked her regardless of all the stunts she has pulled.
TMZ reports, the ex-couple whose relationship has beencharacterized by friendliness had an amicable settlement.

After the divorce settlement, Wiz Khalifa and Amber Rose partied together at a strip club in Los Angeles on Monday, June 6, 2016.

Too much fun with my Ex hubby last night & no we didn't celebrate our divorce we celebrated our love 4 each other cuz that never goes away , Amber Rose tweeted.

Amber Rose, filled for a divorce from Wiz Khalifa after 14 months of marriage in September 2014, on the grounds that he had cheated on her.
According to reports, Henrietta who is Kosokos third wife was said to have slumped at home and was rushed to the hospital where she was pronounced dead.

Unknown to many Henrietta Kosoko who was also an actress in the Yoruba movie industry was Jide Kosokos third wife to have died. Naturally a fact like this would definitely raise eyebrows especially in a society like ours that believes in the supernatural and also in the forces of evil and good.

ALSO READ: Jide Kosoko says Nollywood can be a billion Naira industry

24 hours after the death of Henrietta Kosoko, accusations have started coming out that Jide Kosoko has a hand in the death of his third wife. Former journalist and social media celeb Kemi Olunloyo had this to say about the situation.

She took to Facebook on June 7, 2016 writing The light skin bleaching Nollywood actor. This makes it three wives dead. He is now technically a black widower. He should be investigated for ritualism and the occult world. Something I hear is very prevalent in Nollywood.

Now when Jide Kosoko had found that his wife had passed away this is what he told Encomium Magazine. Iyawo Keta; se awon aye oni maka fun mi? ( This is the third wife l have lost; wont people be counting, keeping records?) he said.

From the get go Jide Kosoko knew how Henrietta Kosokos death will be perceived in public. On blogs and and on sites people are already insinuating that something fishy is going on in the household of Jide Kosoko. There are now rumours that his first two wives died in mysterious circumstances.

These sort of accusations are not strange to popular Yoruba movie actors. When popular Yoruba comic actor Baba Suwe (Babatunde Omidina) lost his wife in 2009 it was whispered in some quarters that he was behind her demise.

Strangely it seems that whenever a popular Yoruba actor loses his wife, he is the cause of her death. No one seems to take into consideration the health of the women before they passed.

ALSO READ: Henrietta Kosoko involved in car crash

Its been reported that Henrietta Kosoko had diabetes before passing way. Somehow this fact has been overlooked by conspiracy theorists. This type of warped thinking is a reflection of our society. A lot of people in Nigeria dont see death as a natural occurrence. To them death is a result of evil forces in action.
Some claimed to have seen the error of their secular ways and publicly turned to God for solace while others continue to pursue God.

From Nigerias bad boy, Lynxxx to eccentric media personality, Charly Boy, we clearly were not expecting this.

Below are five brief stories of celebrities who claim to have found God.

1. Lynxxx

Nigerias bad boy, Lynxxx has been the centre of controversy in recent times due to Instagram posts which hint that he is on a spiritual path.

Lynxxx has spoken on everything from premarital sex to plastic surgery leaving many wondering what led him to change his bad boy image.

The music star recently opened up on his new found spirituality during a recent appearance on Frankly Speaking With Jola Sotubo.

"Ive played enough in my life, Ive enjoyed enough in my life, Ive done the wrong things enough in my life so its time to really focus on the things that matter, things that will grow you and prosper you rather than things that will eventually bring you down, he said.

The Jollof Music act has released a new song, titled 'Serve you' which mirrors his new path and his determination to serve God.

2. Patience Ozokwor

This year Nollywood actress, Patience Ozokwor told the media how God spoke to her to be a voice for him all over the world.

According to her, the Lord revealed to her, how she will be a voice for him all over the world, how peoples attention will be channeled from her image on Nollywood to the gospel during a fasting period.

According to her, one of the things God warned her on, was her dressing and appearance. She said that putting on makeup, wearing jewelry and putting on trouser as a lady is wrong she could have gone to hell, if she died in December 31, 2015 despite the preaching shes been doing, just because of her appearance.

3. Charly Boy

From a man who dresses like a woman, says he has a female personality and has a snake for a pet, it was a really strange day when Charly Boy disclosed he has met christ.

The eccentric personality revealed he had an encounter with our Lord Jesus Christ. In Charly Boys testimony he said that he following this encounter with Jesus Christ he had stopped some of his past antics which a lot of people deemed controversial.

Lets hope Charly Boy did meet Jesus and is not playing with fire.

4. Majid Michel

On Monday, May 30, 2016 Ghanaian actor Majid Michel shared a photo on Instagram that got everyone talking.

The movie star revealed he found God after believing for a long time that he doesnt exist.

According to him, his gazing at the sky brought about his new faith in Christ.

He said, Lord God i have never spoken to you. But now i want to say...how do you do? You see God, they told me you didn't exist and like a fool i believed all this. Last night from standing outside, i saw your sky and i figured right then they had told me a lie. Had i taken time to see the things you made i'd have known they weren't calling a spade a spade. I wonder God if you'll take my hand. Somehow i feel that u'd understand. Funny i had to come to this hellish place before i had time to see your face. Well i guess there isn't much more to say but I'm sure glad God i met you today. Like the zero hour will soon be here but I'm not afraid since i know you are near . The signal... well...God I'll have to go. i like you lots i want you to know. Looks like this will be a horrible fight who knows, i may come to your house tonight. Though i wasn't friendly to you before i wonder God if U'll wait at your door. Look...I'm crying... i'm shedding tears i'll have to go now God, goodbye.... Strange...now, since i met you, I'm not afraid to die . #LEADERSHIP.

5. Toyin Aimakhu

On November 30, the actress revealed that she had rededicated her life to Christ.

I just want people to see christ in me, I don't even care if they know my name as long as they get to know my GOD, she said.
Guthrie made this known through an announcement she made on her blog.

She said, The thought of getting to add to our family now is beyond every hope, dream and prayer I have ever had,

It is not simply double the joy  it is joy multiplied infinitely."

The television host, who is married to political consultant, Michael Feldman, welcomed their first child, Vale, in August 2014.

The couple got married in March 2014, at a wedding held in Tucson, Arizona.
Welcome to the Pulse Community! We will now be sending you a daily newsletter on news, entertainment and more. Also join us across all of our other channels - we love to be connected! Welcome to the Pulse Community! We will now be sending you a daily newsletter on news, entertainment and more. Also join us across all of our other channels - we love to be connected!
I once had a conversation with an upcoming stylist who wanted to provide me services. He seemed to talk a good game and toward the end of our discussion, I asked him when I could expect a mood board from him and he had no idea what I was talking about. Lets just say I ended up styling myself.

As far as fashion goes in Nigeria, the most common job titles are fashion designer, fashion consultant, fashion brand consultant and of course fashion stylists but of all of these job titles, that of a fashion stylist is the most misunderstood.

ALSO READ: Why are Nigerian fashion designers so over-priced?

First, lets get the definition of a stylist straight. A stylist is a person who takes the burden of figuring out what to wear and how to wear it off a client and helps them out with the entire process from brainstorming to walking out the door.

In addition, you cannot be a stylist without possessing an in depth knowledge and good eye for fashion and diverse styles. But it doesnt end there. More importantly, you must be a good listener and have a great understanding of the human anatomy.

Being a stylist isnt about looking good on a daily basis. The fact that you get compliments when you step out in clothes does not mean you can style someone else.

In a recent conversation I had with a reputable PR agent, I discovered that she represented only one stylist in all of Lagos. When I asked why, she explained that a lot of proclaimed stylists dont seem to understand what the job entails and she couldnt represent mediocrity.

The major issue with most Instagram stylists is what I like to call the overnight success syndrome, which plagues most millennials. The idea that instead of putting in time and effort into doing something that you absolutely love, you find someone doing something that appears glamorous and puts them in the spotlight and you immediately aspire to have their lives and think you will be celebrated just as they are by the next week.

Dear Instagram stylists, life does not work that way. Most glamorous jobs on the outside are actually annoying, frustrating and dirty most times behind-the -scenes.

You can ask the likes of Zed Eye, one of the foremost celebrated stylists in Nigeria, as well as Dimeji Alara, Veronica Odeka, Jane Michael Ekanem and Rhoda Ebun and they will all tell you how they had to put up with so much before they became the successes they are today. In fact, they still put up with things like client excesses and difficult fashion designers till today.

On the other hand, you can also tell an untrained stylist by their lack of knowledge of the business aspect of styling. Yes, styling is mostly creative work but it also very much about getting paid, honey!

This is Naija, where the economy is not smiling at all. If you want to be a volunteer stylist, cool, God is your muscle. But if you want to work and eat and hopefully flex in this economy, you must have contracts in place that will secure your money because we all know Nigerians love free things and we can be funny.

Although there are some Nigerians who simply dont seem to appreciate good service and look down on good stylists or treat them like trash, untrained stylists are mostly the reason why styling as a profession is still largely seen as a joke in Nigeria.

So whats the way forward, first off, make sure you are willing to be a servant, not slave biko! Understand that styling is a lot of service and putting up with crap. Next up, have a great knowledge of fashion and style, beyond what you like for your personal wardrobe.

Also, because styling is artistic, theres no specific master plan or blueprint but do your research on what it entails and if you can, start out with learning from an already established stylist, maybe through an internship. Going further, have a good knowledge of fashion designers home and abroad and network with them. And if they loan you a piece from their collection, please return it in mint condition.
I was this young, fresh and very pretty girl that most of the senior girls scrambled to become my school mothers. They feted me and made sure I was pampered to no end. I was everyone's favourite girl and at the end of the scramble, I ended up with the head girl, . I quickly become her favourite and slept in her bed, ate with her, had my bath with her and she practically mothered me.

Then one night, she introduced me into the world of lesbianism. While I slept, I felt hands over my naked and supple body. I had not taken off my clothes while going to bed but I woke up to find that I was naked and Senior Tara had her hands all over me, while kissing me deeply in my mouth. I was both shocked and confused but uncannily, I was enjoying the sensation she was creating in me.

Needless to say, it became a daily routine and as time went on, she would invite some of her close friends and together, they would abuse me to no end. I could not tell anyone what I was going through, not even my older sister who was also in the school.

I lived that life till Senior Tara passed out of the school and handed me over to the new head girl who continued the abuse. Tara would also come visiting and we picked up where we stopped. All through my secondary school and university days, I so much enjoyed making love with fellow girls that I hated even the sight of men.

I did try one or two relationships but none worked for me because of my orientation. I have lived all my life as a lesbian but now, things are about to change but I do not know how to go about it.

My parents want me to get married to the son of their friend, , who was born and brought up in England. Dre's parents had vowed that he was not going to marry a white woman and chose me due to the friendship that exist between our families.

Dre is a very nice guy, loving, easy going and would be a very good husband for the right woman but I doubt if that woman is me. We have dated on and off with no sex because every time he brings that up, I recoil and dread being touched by a man.

Now, my problem is: should I go ahead and marry Dre or just live my life as a lesbian? It will kill my parents if they ever get to know that their last daughter is a lesbian, though.

Tessy."
According to Us Magazine, Alexandria ran her SUV off a 200-foot cliff, which led to the death of her sister, Anastasia.

Alexandria, who now faces a charge of second degree murder, was arrested when she was suspected to be attempting to run from her hotel.

An eyewitness named Lawrence Lau, told KHON2 that he saw the sisters fighting and pulling at each others hair shortly before the vehicle ran off the cliff.

He said, I saw a pair of hands jerking the head, pulling the hair,

There were hands pulling her head down like this, and her head was jerking.
It was gathered that Violet who is the class teacher of the nursery two pupil, defiled the toddler after school hours on Thursday, June 2, by dipping her fingers into the girl's private parts.

Trouble however, brewed for the teacher when the girl's mother noticed some blood stains on her pants when she got home and when asked what happened to her, the child explained how aunty Violet had put her fingers in her private parts.

The girl's mother, Evelyn, narrated how she discovered the sordid act:

After my daughter returned from school Thursday last week, I found blood stains on her pants when I wanted to bath her. I was surprised because she is still too young to start menstruating.

When I asked her what happened, she refused to speak at first because her teacher had threatened her not to.

Later, she opened up when I told her that anyone who lies would go to hell. She then said it was her Aunty that inserted her fingers inside her bum-bum in class. We reported the case at Iyana-Isashi Police Station."

The young victim, when asked by the police, also explained what happened:

My aunty in school raised my uniform up and put her fingers inside my bum-bum in the class, while others were sleeping. She asked me not to tell my mother or anybody.

The victim, according to the report, was taken to Bisimol Hospital at Graceland Estate, where it was confirmed that her hymen was broken.

She was also taken to the Mirabel Centre at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital where the same result was returned, prompting the arrest of the suspect teacher.
Ouma who lived in Migori county, a city in Western Kenya, was shocked to find out that his wife was going round distributing herself to other men and decided to drink a poisonous substance at his Opea village home in Karungu, Nyatike sub-county, after accusing the wife of being unfaithful.

He allegedly left behind a written note in which he mentioned the names of the nine men he suspected to be sleeping with his wife.

Before committing suicide, he beat his wife mercilessly after she had denied the claims of infidelity.
It describing the elimination as a remarkable achievement, as Thailand had demonstrated to the world that HIV can be defeated.

It said the figure was validated to meet WHO criteria for elimination of mother-to-child transmission rates of less than 2 per cent and fewer than 50 new infections in 100,000 births.

Daniel Kertesz, WHO Representative to Thailand, said the announcement marked the first time with one of Asia's most HIV-ravaged societies to eradicate mother-to-child transmission of the diseases. In 2014, an estimated 450,000 people were living with HIV in Thailand.

"The achievement came from Thailand's strong prenatal care from large cities all the way to the poorest villages.

"Nearly all pregnant Thai women are screened for HIV, 95 per cent of those who test positive are treated to prevent transmission to their babies.

"Almost 100 per cent of babies born to HIV-positive mothers are given antiretroviral drugs, he said.

Kertesz said HIV is passed from mother to child either in the womb or during labor, delivery or breastfeeding, and if untreated, there is a 15-45 per cent chance of the baby inheriting HIV from its mother.

"When treatment is given in the form of antiretroviral medicine crucial stages, that chance is reduced to 1 percent.

"Thailand is one of only a few countries that have broadened universal healthcare to include migrant women, making prevention of mother-to-child transmission affordable for everyone, he said.

There are hundreds of thousands of migrant women from neighbouring countries working in Thailand.

Cuba was the first country to receive the validation last year.
The governor tendered the apology at the stakeholders forum the state government convened in Ibadan on its education reform initiative, saying his administration had no intention of selling public schools.

Ajimobi admitted that his administration erred in requesting for a non-refundable fee of N250,000 from interested parties, placing advertorial for expression of interest without consultation and for not holding a pre-meeting session with stakeholders.

``I admit all the lapses that occurred in the presentation of the education initiative to the public. We made three mistakes which I admit.

``No man is perfect but we dont have any intention of selling or returning schools to its former owners. I apologise to all stakeholders because the buck stops on my table.

``We appeal to all stakeholders, particularly the labour unions and Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) to embrace dialogue, he said.

The governor said that the deteriorating state of education in the state much be reversed, adding that all stakeholders must support governments initiative.

The governor called on stakeholders to submit their recommendations in form of a proposal to the Ministry of Education on or before June 30.

The Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, and Olubadan of Ibadanland , Oba Saliu Adetunji, in their separate remarks, commended government for the initiative, saying the standard of education must be uplifted.

Oba Samuel Adegbola, the Eleruwa of Eruwa, on his part, urged government to ensure the people were properly informed on the new initiative.

Similarly, Alhaji Kunle Sanni, the Chairman, Muslim Community of Oyo State, said that the forum ought to have been organised before the advertorial for expression of interest was placed in the newspapers.

Rev. J.A Ajetunmobi, the Bishop of Ibadan South Anglican Communion, urged government to ensure that the levy it introduced was used in developing the schools.

He also reiterated the call for the return of mission schools to the former owners.

Prof. Moji Oyebola, a Lecturer in the Faculty of Education, University of Ibadan, urged government to ensure that teachers and other workers in the state were promptly and adequately paid their salaries.

She also stressed the need for regular inspection of schools and incentives for workers to promote maximum productivity.

The News Agency of Nigeria(NAN) reports that the government presentation was done by the Head of Service, Mr Soji Eniade, and Mrs Ronke Makanjuola, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.

NAN reports that the state government had listed five models of reform, citing them as Management Services, Professional Services, Support Services, Government Purchasing Programme and Infrastructure Services.
He also said investments in agriculture will help create jobs for the youth and keep them away from crime.

Ogbeh also praised the Ooni of Ife for doing his best to ensure that youths in his domain have jobs.

In his response, Aregbesola said Our government has identified agriculture as a key economic sector capable of turning around the general well-being of Nigerians.

We are fully ready to embark on full plantation of two million cashew trees every year for the next four years in order to maximize the embedded potential in the non-oil sectors.

He also added that It is regrettable that we found ourselves in this economic mess due to misapplication of priority and mismanagement of our commonwealth, but nevertheless, no stone would be left unturned by the current government to ensure that the country regained her lost glory in all sectors.

We will also build processing factory to process cashew which would be harvested in order to add value to them and to increase money to be generated from the crop.
They shot sporadically and everyone scampered for safety. They burgled soft drinks shops and loaded them onto two vehicles they seized from security operatives and fled, a fleeing resident told Daily Trust.

The attack has been confirmed by Police Public Relation Officer in the state, ASP Toyin Gbadegesin.

No human casualty was recorded. But three security men were injured while two others got missing. Its difficult to ascertain the security personnel involved because theres no mobile network in the area, he said.
According to a report by ThisDay Newspaper, the food items, which were donated by the Dangote's Foundation for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) in Abuja, were turned down by the Minister with no reason.

It was further reported that all pleas to make Bello realise the main essence of the gesture fell on deaf ears as the minister, who was said to be in a meeting at the time of delivery, gave directives for the items to be returned.

ALSO READ:

However, the Special Adviser to the FCT Minister on Media, Abubakar Sani, has denied the allegations saying nothing of such happened.

Sani denied the report that the FCT Administration (FCTA) rejected the purported gift from Dangote Foundation to the IDPs saying FCTA is not aware of any donations and therefore, not in the position to neither reject nor accept the said gift items. I asked who saw the said gifts and the answer was no one did.

The Dangote Foundation, allegedly took the gift to the FCT as part of its mandate to give especially in the holy month of Ramadan for the indigent and the vulnerable in the society.
The government in an application filed by its lawyer, Oladipo Okpeseyi (SAN), stated that security operatives found some weapons in Dasuki's house, but the whereabouts of the larger cache is yet to be identified.

Okpeseyi, in the government's application, also sort an order to protect the identity of the prosecution witnesses.

The government in its application, said The defendant (Dasuki), while serving as the NSA, imported into the country a large cache of highly sophisticated arms and ammunition, most of which have not been accounted for.

Upon the search of the defendants residence, some of these arms and ammunition were recovered, while the whereabouts of others is not known till date.

A huge volume of these highly sophisticated arms and ammunition is feared to be in the possession of persons, who are sympathetic to the defendant.

The defendant was the immediate past National Security Adviser, a retired senior military officer and crowned prince of Sokoto Caliphate, who undoubtedly, commands large followership throughout the length and breadth of Nigeria and, who may be aggrieved by this trial.

The fears of highly probable attack on them (the witnesses) expressed above, has completely eroded the confidence of the prosecution witnesses to testify in this case. The grounds mentioned above constitute special circumstances, hence this application.

Dasukis counsel, Joseph Daudu (SAN) has also dismissed the application, describing it as unfounded.

undefinedfor his arrest and detention without trial.
This is contained in a statement issued on Tuesday in Abuja by Mr Ikechukwu Ani, Head, Press and Public Relations of the commission.

It said that the exercise, which began on June 6, witnessed orderliness, peaceful conduct and large turnout of applicants in most of the centres.

``The exercise driven by the commission in collaboration with the Nigerian Police Force entered day two today.

``Officers of the Federal Character Commission are in all the 36 states of the federation and the FCT to monitor the exercise.

The statement said that the Inspector -General of Police, Mr Solomon Arase, deployed commissioners of police to the various centres to join the commission in the screening.

It said that Mr Mike Okiro, National Coordinator of the exercise and Chairman of the commission commended the screening in most of the states describing it as very impressive.He noted that excellent arrangement had been put in place by the commission to make the exercise stress-free for the applicants.

Okiro said the commission would ensure that the exercise was not devalued at any point.

He said that the structure put in place would produce only the best for the Nation.

Meanwhile, the Deputy Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Police Affairs, Rep. Emmanuel Udende, has commended the commission for a well-coordinated exercise.

He said the exercise had brought a positive innovation in personnel recruitment, especially in the management of large number of applicants.

Similarly, Dr Nte Mbam, Commissioner, Federal Character Commission in Charge of Ebonyi, praised the commission for the arrangement.

He advised other agencies intending to go into recruitment to borrow a leaf from the on-going exercise.

Mbam commended the Synergy between the commission and the Ebonyi Police Command.
He said So, when I came back, I bought food to eat. As I was eating, about six Hausa boys came to ask me if I am a Muslim or a Christian, but I did not answer them.

They asked why I was not fasting, then, I told them that I am not a Muslim. Before I know it, one of them slapped me. As I stood up, the rest came and surrounded me and started attacking me with knives.

Reports say the Kaduna state Governor, Nasir El-Rufai has visited the victim in the hospital.

El-Rufai also ordered security agencies in the state to fish out the culprits.

An Igbo woman, Bridget Agbaheme was reportedly beheaded by hoodlums in Kano state for over an alleged blasphemy against Islam.

President Muhammadu Buhari condemned the killing of the Igbo market woman, saying it is sad and regrettable.
Capt. Eli Lazarus, spokesman of the Brigade, told newsmen that the spate of killings by cultists was alarming.

He said that recent killings by cultists and cult related activities had posed serious security threat to safety of residents and businesses in the state.

In the past few days, cult clashes were recorded with several deaths including our personnel who were part of the team that responded to distress calls in the area.

Preliminary investigation revealed that these barbaric and condemnable acts were clashes of dominance between Icelanders and other cult groups.

This is seemingly motivated by the quest for economic advantage suspected to be connected to oil theft and illegal bunkering.

The viciousness and bestiality displayed by these cultists in killing their rivals have no place in any civilised society, and as such, they must never be allowed to go unpunished.

The cultists are hereby warned to surrender their arms and turn away from their evil ways as any such attacks on any community will be met with full military action, he said.

Lazarus said that anyone caught belonging to cult group would be dealt with in accordance with the law.

He said that youths must be guided to prevent self destruction, adding that parents should closely watch their children and wards to prevent them being wrongly influenced by peer groups.

The army spokesman urged residents to remain calm and go about their lawful activities as security agencies would continue to work assiduously to protect lives and properties in the state.

Additionally, information leading to the arrest of the perpetrators of these heinous crime and their patrons is solicited from the general public.
Sen. Chris Ngige, Minister of Labour and Employment, gave the warning in Geneva while addressing newsmen on the sideline of the on-going 105th session of the International Labour Conference (ILC).

``The Federal Government gave the licences to the banks to operate and if its directives are not adhered to the licences will be withdrawn if the need arises,`` he said.

Ngige was reacting to a statement by the Director General of the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association, Mr Segun Oshinowo, who was quoted as saying that it was the inalienable right of an employer to determine the optimal staff level it requires to sustain its operations.

``We know what to do. After all the banks have the licences given by the government. We know what to do. They need to comply.

``Financial institutions need to negotiate. We want them to maintain the status quo. As far as I am the minister of labour I will protect the interest of workers the Minister said.

He said NECA was protecting the interest of the organised private sector and it has a right to air its opinion.

``They are the sections that protect private investors. They are the employers body and the people I am talking to are also employers. The banks boards, the banks chairmen and the banks managing directors, the minister said.

He said that the unions were also cautioned when necessary and that he had directed the union not to picket the banks because of the retrenchment issue.

He said that any bank worker removed from work had about 10 members of family to cater for and the government would not want more people in the unemployment market.

He said that employers, government and the union must negotiate before any retrenchment.

`` If you are going to lay off there is a way to declare redundancy, there is a process. Section 20 of the labour Act says it. You must call the unions and discuss with them. You don't just treat them as slaves in their own country, Ngige said.
This is to the Gen. public we're not negotiating with any Committee. If Fed Govt is discussing with any group they're doing that on their own, NDA said.

Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr Ibe Kachikwu revealed on Monday, June 6, that President Muhammadu Buhari had called for a ceasefire in the Niger Delta to give room for dialogue.

The President is interested in dialogue and has mandated the military to halt actions for about two weeks to ensure a team that will be led by the NSA, dialogues with the militants to ensure peace in the region, Kachikwu said according to Vanguard.

This is coming as more oil companies in the Niger Delta have reviewed their operations, following continued bombing of their facilities in Delta and Bayelsa states, he added.
For today, June 8, 2016

THE GUARDIAN NEWSPAPER

Weve changed the narratives of culture administrationThe fear about what becomes the outcome of the summit began to manifest during the first plenary session that featured Prof. Wole Soyinka as keynote speaker. One of the commentators had expressed the hope that the first national summit on culture and tourism put together by the Information and Culture Ministry to project the countrys vast endowment in creative and tourism industry and map out strategies for their turnaround would not become another jamboree. READ MORE

PDP prays for Buhari as caretaker committee takes overThe Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday conducted special prayers for the good health of President Muhammadu Buhari, pleading with God Almighty to grant him speedy recovery. READ MORE___________________________

THE NATION NEWSPAPER

CCT frowns at delay by Sarakis lawyersThe Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) has frowned at what it described as the delay tactics being employed by lawyers to Senate President Bukola Saraki in his on-going trial for false asset declaration. READ MORE

Alleged $40m fraud: Court remands Jonathans cousin, wifeJustice Nnamdi Dimgba of the Federal High Court, Abuja has remanded Robert Azibaola, a cousin to former President Goodluck Jonathan, in Kuje prison, Abuja. READ MORE

Senate seeks proper prosecution of Kano killing culpritsThe Senate has condemned the killing of Mrs. Bridget Agbahime in Kano State, even as it urged the Federal Government to ensure that the perpetrators were properly prosecuted in line with the laws of the country. READ MORE___________________________

PUNCH NEWSPAPER

Sheriff group kicks as PDP BoT endorses MakarfiThe ousted National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, has rejected Tuesdays handover of the party secretariat to the Ahmed Makarfi-led Caretaker Committee. READ MORE

Militancy: Osinbajo meets Niger Delta govs, service chiefsDespite the Federal Governments decision to de-escalate (reduce) military operations in the Niger Delta communities, military personnel will still remain on the regions waterways. READ MORE

N23bn bribe: EFCC arrests two ex-ministers, PDP chiefsThe Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Monday and Tuesday arrested key leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party in the North-East states of Borno, Adamawa, Yobe and Gombe. READ MORE___________________________

BUSINESS DAY NEWSPAPER

FGs N293bn allocation fails to damp Nigeria water crisesThe billions of naira allocated for water resources at Federal and State Government levels has failed to make meaningful impact as majority of Nigerians and businesses continue to spend scarce resources to generate their own water supplies. Between 2012 and 2016, a total of N293.1 billion was budgeted for water resources at the federal level, READ MORE

Investors reduce equities wager as uncertainty over FX policy weighsStock traders on Customs Street have further cut their bets on equities as they wait on the apex bank to make good its promise of a clear announcement around a more flexible foreign exchange (FX) policy. Some investors on Monday routed sell mandates to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), which bulged the supply side atREAD MORE
The NSCDC Commandant in Borno, Mr Ibrahim Abdullahi, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Maiduguri, that the incident occurred on the 1st of June this year.

Abdullahi said that the woman, aged 30 (name withheld), allegedly killed her baby by throwing it into the pit in the camp after she gave birth.

"Immediately she committed the atrocity, she left the camp. Our attention was drawn to the dastardly act after three days when the corpse started smelling in the pit.

"We conducted our investigation and were able to trace her through a man named Gulumba , the person that brought her to the camp.

"The case had since been referred to the Borno police command for further prosecution and interrogation.
The meeting, which also had the National Chairman of All Progressives Congress, APC, John Oyegun in attendance, held in Owerri on Monday, June 7, 2016.

The governors and the APC chairman alongside leaders of Ohaneze Ndi-Igbo led by its President-General, Chief Gary Igariway discussed on the allegedly beheaded Igbo woman in Kano State as well the issue of herdsmen and the unity of the country.

ALSO READ: Buhari condemns beheading of Igbo woman in Kano

At the meeting, Governor El Rufai reportedly said that the Northern governors totally condemn the alleged murder of the Igbo woman in Kano, stressing that the matter should be treated as a case of murder and those responsible be brought to face justice.

In his words, "We will not accept a situation where people, either Christians or Muslims, hide under the umbrella of religion to commit crime. If someone had insulted God, the person should be left for God to take care of. I have advised the Kano governor to publicly deal with the people involved to serve as a deterrent to others."

He commended Ohaneze Ndigbo for choosing the path of peace and unity, saying that people are now using religion as a tool to divide and even defraud people.

On his part, the Bauchi State Governor, Alhaji Abubakar said the killing of the woman in Kano was an evil act, pointing out that he had liaised with the Kano governor and he assured that arrests had been made and those responsible will face the full weight of the law.

The President-General of Ohaneze, Chief Igariway, expressed satisfaction with the Kano State governor's approach to the murder case.

Igariway, however, cautioned religious leaders and influential leaders in the North and South East against inciting statements from leaders.
Vanguard reports that Osinbajo asked the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammad and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Babachir David Lawal to say prayers for the sick.

The sick ministers were identified as Minister of Women Affairs, Mrs Aisha Alhassan, who is recuperating in US after a surgery, Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, who is down with back pain and Minister of State for Environment, Ibrahim Jibril.

Members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) also came together to hold a prayer session for Buharis recovery.

The President left Nigeria on Monday, June 6, 2016, to get medical attention for a persistent ear infection.

The Commonwealth Medical Association criticised the President over his trip to London to treat an ear infection.
Osinbajo also assured journalists that the final plan will be rolled out as soon as various stakeholders approve it.

He said But it is for such a time as this that the visionary leaders of Niger, Cameroon, Chad and Nigeria established the Lake Chad Basin Commission in 1964.

Those pioneers expected that working together as brothers in the commission, the ecological, commercial and social lives of the Lake Chad basin stood a much better chance of survival. They expected, even then, that there would be challenges, but they knew that the most daunting challenges are conquered by men and not spirits.

And they trusted in the creativity and hard work and the unbending will of their descendants to preserve the legacy that they left behind. That legacy is facing the most important threat today.

The question is whether the twin challenges  the humanitarian and the ecological  will defeat the will, creativity and patriotism of this generation of leaders of the Lake Chad commission.

If this were to happen, then in a few short years, the commission would probably, only exist on paper. God forbid, Osinbajo said.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo also said the Federal Government withheld the names of persons from whom looted assets were recovered in order not to compromise ongoing investigations.
The House also directed the Committee to ascertain the revenue accrued to the companies and their level of compliance with the privatisation agreements.

This followed a motion by Rep. Muktar Dandutse (Katsina-APC), which was unanimously adopted by members through a voice vote.

He lamented that the DISCOs particularly charged arbitrary bills, not minding whether there was outage or not.

The lawmaker said there had not been new investments by DISCOs and GENCOs.

He added that ``transformers, fallen electricity poles, prepaid metres and other basic infrastructure are still being replaced or provided by states, local governments, communities and individuals.

``Customers are being charged flat rates, which is unjustifiable in this austere period, a situation that is causing untold hardships to the people.

``Unqualified personnel are being allowed to handle electrical infrastructure which increases the risks of electrocution and damages toexisting infrastructure.''

Dandutse added that the unwholesome practices were retarding the overall progress and development of the country.

He said that the money spent on such infrastructure by communities and individuals could have been used to service other needs.
Udoma said this after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting which held today, Wednesday, June 8, 2016.

The minister also said the government was sure that the countrys economy will pick up because of the plans they put in place.

Udoma said I will give you an indication of some of those things in the plan. For agriculture for instance, we plan to be self sufficient in rice within a certain number of years, in wheat within a certain number of years.

Indeed the Vice-President has just set up a task force headed by the governor of Kebbi State to realise that. So we are implementing the plan one by one.

Adding that We have a plan to move this country up 20 places in the ease of doing business, we are working on that.

We want to stimulate the private sector because we know that even the spending by government alone will not be sufficient, we also need to have policies that will encourage the private sector.

undefinedfor the recovery of three sick ministers and President Buhari during the Federal Executive Council meeting.

Ecobank Nigeria recently sacked more than 1040 employees.
We wish to advice El-Rufai that he doesn't need to crush ants or spill the blood of Senator Shehu Sani and others to realize his political ambitions. El-Rufai is not appeased with his suspension of Sen Sani from his pocketed state APC he has now resorted to threats of crushing and marching, a statement released by Sanis Special Adviser on Politics and Ideology, Suleiman Ahmed read.

Our attention has been drawn to a hate speech and threat to life made by Governor Nasiru El-Rufai against distinguished Senator Shehu Sani in the governor's circus christened as Town Hall meeting in Giwa Local Government on 4th June 2016.

We could have easily dismissed or ignore this statement as tantrums of an accidental governor high on weekend marijuana, but we decided not to take things for granted in view of the petite governors mean and vicious history and his allergy to criticism.

We view his unguarded and provocative utterances as nothing but a hate speech and a direct threat to the life of Senator Sani and others whom the governor perceive as his enemies. We hold Governor Nasiru El-Rufai personally responsible for any harm done on Senator Sani.

El-Rufai is a desperate and drunken power maniac. He is a Lilliputian despot whose heart and liver cannot take or stand criticism. He is a man angry with his height and frame. He is a man desperate to outshine PMB and all out to crush human beings he calls ants on his way. El-Rufai claimed he wants to make Kaduna great again but he actually wants to make it grave again, proven by his lethal threats against his perceived opponents, the statement added.

Sani had earlier also attacked El-Rufai for plotting to take over from President Muhammadu Buhari and said that he gave up his governorship ambition because Buhari favoured El-Rufai for the position.

The senator seems to think hes making sense in his attacks against El-Rufai, but his statements actually come off as the lamentations of a bitter person whose affections have been spurned.

In one of his many statements against the governor, Sani tastelessly said that El-Rufais blockos is still in the oppositionPeoples Democratic Party (PDP). Blockos is gutter slang for penis and the fact that an honourable senator could sign off on the use of such a word shows that the concept of leadership in Nigeria needs to be urgently redefined.

To make matters worse for Sani, El-Rufai hasnt replied any of his rants. In fact, the governor paid Sani a visitthree days after the offensive statement was sent out to commiserate with him on his mothers death.

El-Rufai has shown that hes a better man than Sani, and with the plans he has on ground, he is gearing up to be Kadunas best governor ever. This obviously doesnt sit well with Sani who wants the governorship for himself and knows that El-Rufai would be hard to beat.

The honourable senator claims that hes attacking El-Rufai for Kadunas benefit, but in actual fact, his attacks stem out of his own insecurities and misgivings.
The commission, in its daily bulletin, quoted INEC Chairman Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, disclosing this during the the second quarterly consultative meeting with the Chairmen and Secretaries of registered political parties.

Yakubu, who said that the applications were being processed, assured political parties that the commission remains committed to the opening up of the democratic space in line with the electoral law and guidelines.

He also disclosed that commission would take further administrative action against its staff found culpable in the alleged involvement of subversion of 2015 General Elections through cash inducement.

``We will not hesitate to interdict staff where prima facie cases have been established against them by EFCC and immediately terminate the appointments of those indicte.''

He said that INEC legal team and the police had successfully secured the conviction of 42 election offenders in the Minjibir Constituency, Kano state, by-election in spite of its severe constraints.

``This is the highest number of convictions in a single case ever achieved by the Commission.

Yakubu said that the commission would welcome suggestions from political parties in areas of amendment considered important for inclusion in the comprehensive proposal for the amendment of the Electoral Act.

He urged political parties to intensify voter mobilization ahead of the Edo and Ondo governorship elections.

We urge political parties to intensify your voter mobilization effort in order to galvanize the electorate to the polling units. The Commission will continue to intensify efforts towards voter education.

He expressed INECs desire to see greater participation of the marginalized and under-represented groups in the electoral process, adding that political parties have the biggest role to play in that regard.

``As we all know, political parties offer the only platform for contest to public office under our Constitution.

``Women, Youths and People With Disabilities are noticeable more by their under-representation in elective offices.

On the deployment of ICT in the electoral process, Yakubu assured that all avenues necessary were being explored to address the challenges arising from the functionality of the Smart Card Reader.

He further said that the Commission had designed a portal from which all registered voters could confirm and verify their registration online ahead of elections.
It was learnt that the Non Academic Staff Union of Universities NASU said that the Federal High court has granted the prayers of the NASU, as such declaring the appointment of Salami invalid.

It will be recalled that the Senate of the OAU, on Monday, June 6th, 2016 announced the appointment of the professor of Ecology and Environmental Studies Ayo Salami, as the new Vice Chancellor of the institution, after a brief meeting of members of the governing council.

Controversies have trailed the appointment of the new VC, since an alleged anointment by the outgoing Vice Chancellor Professor Bamitale Omole in April.

Earlier on Tuesday, report of disruption and total shut down of activities on the OAU campus was learnt, where NASU members were alleged to have been hunting staff, especially the members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities ASUU.

NASU has however vowed to continue in their protest and assured that any of it members won't go on strike, but stay to fight the illegal appointment.

The NASU Chairman Comrade Odewunmi stated :

No man can come from Abuja and , if things keep going this way by ending of June we may go on strike because we will resist this ."

He added that only two of the 6 shortlisted candidates were taken to Abuja for approval.
This appointment has been greeted with some protest from the non-teaching staff of the university, including Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and Non Academic Staff Union (NASU).

The workers yesterday embarked on protest against the choice of Prof. Salami.

The protesters alleged that Salami was sponsored to replace Prof. Bamitale Omole to cover his deeds in office."

ALSO READ:

The workers alleged that Prof. Omole mismanaged money belonging to the university.

The situation degenerated to a stage where the workers reportedly chased their colleagues out of their offices and even locked some of them in.
Professor Abel Idowu Olayinka, the Vice Chancellor, who shared this news, said he senate will also try to tackle other problems affecting the premier tertiary institution

The VC, speaking at a meeting convened by the university to discuss the problems besetting the institution, said that the school suffers from inadequate while also stressing that the National Assembly told him recently that federal allocation to the school might not improve as a result of paucity of money in the country.

ALSO READ:

He lamented the state of the school saying that he felt bad that the school lacks necessary facilities that could enhance sound academic activities.

He also disclosed that there is no way the institution could mobilize its students for National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, this year saying that the earliest the session could be brought to a close this year is December.

Olayinka who decried the various abuses, maligning and threats by the students to his person, said, I have forgiven them all.

The stakeholders, mostly parents of the institutions and management of the institution also identified underfunding of the educational sector and lack of discipline among the students as the main causes of the perennial crises that have rocked the University during the over three hours meeting.

ALSO READ: University of Ibadan to adopt 5 secondary schools in the state

Majority of the parents who spoke at the meeting condemned the students for their recent violent protest that forced their school authority to close down the school.
Bongo has sought to diversify the oil producer's economy and boost public investment, but some of his programmes have been hampered by the slump in commodities prices and he has faced opposition from many quarters.

Some critics say Bongo is ineligible to run, arguing he was adopted and born in a different country. After he was declared winner in 2009, opposition supporters clashed with security forces. His supporters say the allegations about his nationality are spurious.

Guy Nzouba Ndama, a former parliament speaker, and Casimir Oye Mba, who has served as prime minister, have both announced they will run for the presidency, as well as Jean Ping, a one-time head of the commission of the African Union.

Bongo's father ruled the country from 1967 until his death in 2009 when his son took over.
Authorities in the central African country have been cracking down on critics and the opposition against a backdrop of tension and violence sparked by Nkurunziza's decision to run for a third term last year.

Last Friday, police shot and wounded a student and a taxi driver during a protest by schoolchildren against the arrest of their colleagues a day earlier.

Prosecution of the other five students, aged between 18 and 21, would proceed "normally".

In another incident last month, more than 300 students of a school in the capital's Ruziba neighbourhood were sent home after being accused of defacing Nkurunziza's image.

Violence broke out in Burundi last year after Nkurunziza announced he would seek re-election for a third term.

Opponents accused him of violating the constitution, which they said limited him to two five-year terms. The government cited a court ruling which they said cleared him to stand again, and Nkurunziza subsequently won re-election last July.
Tanzania's main opposition parties have called for nationwide rallies to protest against the government's decision to ban live televised parliamentary debates.

The parties have described that move, along with the suspension of seven opposition lawmakers from parliament, as undemocratic.

George Kyando, a police official, told Reuters they had been forced to use teargas to break up the crowd "after we received intelligence reports suggesting that there was a likelihood of an outbreak of violence".

In a statement police also said they had received intelligence reports that the opposition planned to use the public rallies to call for the launch of a campaign of civil disorder in the east African country.

The leader of one opposition party said on Twitter the reasons given by the police for banning the rallies were baseless.

"When we air our views in parliament we are thrown out. Outside parliament, our rallies are banned," Zitto Kabwe, leader of the opposition ACT Wazalendo party, tweeted.
The explosion in the town of Midyat destroyed the facade of a five-storey block, damaged other buildings, and sent a plume of thick black smoke rising over the area. Hospital sources said police and civilians were among the wounded.

Clashes broke out between security forces and Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in Midyat as the attack took place, security sources said.

The town is in Mardin, a province bordering Syria and part of Turkey's largely Kurdish southeast, where the PKK has waged a three-decade insurgency for Kurdish autonomy. Violence has spiralled since a ceasefire collapsed almost a year ago.

The groups do not deny links. The PKK founded the YPG as a Syrian organisation a decade ago and both are inspired by Abdullah Ocalan, who led the PKK from inception and lived in Syria shortly before his capture in 1999.

Ambulances rushed to the scene of the blast and reinforcements from the security forces were being sent to the area from around Mardin province, security sources said.

"My nation should know that the state of the Turkish Republic is strong. It is one and united no matter what the terrorist organisation does," Yildirim said in Istanbul, after visiting those wounded in the previous day's attack.

"Whether they carry out suicide bombings in our cities, whatever methods they use, they can never tire this nation and can never pull us back from this honorable fight."

There has been no claim of responsibility for Tuesday's attack in Istanbul, in which a car bomb ripped through a police bus during the morning rush hour. But Kurdish militants have staged similar attacks on the security forces, including in Istanbul and the capital Ankara.

Security concerns were already hitting tourism and investor confidence in Turkey. Wars in neighbouring Syria and Iraq have fostered a home-grown Islamic State network blamed for a series of suicide bombings, while Kurdish militants have increasingly struck beyond their usual targets in the southeast.

Yildirim said six police and five civilians were among the dead from Tuesday's attack, which he said had targeted riot police units responsible for security at the nearby Istanbul University as they changed shifts.

Two police officers and one civilian were killed in Midyat, he said.
Medhane Yehdego Mered, nicknamed "the General", had been heard on intercepted telephone calls boasting about cramming more people onto rickety boats than other traffickers, prosecutors said.

The 35-year-old was arrested in Sudan on May 24, Italian and British officials said, on charges of human trafficking and abetting illegal immigration and faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted.

Magistrates may eventually also accuse him of homicide as their investigation continues, judicial sources said. There was no immediate comment from any lawyer representing him.

It is the first time a suspected trafficking kingpin has been tracked down in Africa, where many of the smuggling networks are based, and brought to face justice in Italy since Europe's immigration crisis started almost three years ago.

MONEY TRANSFERS

Mered is suspected of working with an Ethiopian, Ghermay Ermias, who is still at large, prosecutors said. Between them, they are accused of raking in huge sums by bringing migrants from Libya to Italy across the Mediterranean.

Italy has jurisdiction over the case because it was the first point of arrival of most of the migrants. It is also leading the investigation into the sinking of a vessel off the southern Italian island of Lampedusa in 2013 that killed 359.

Britain's National Crime Agency (NCA) said it had helped track Mered to Sudan and held him responsible for the Lampedusa tragedy. An NCA statement said he was known as "The General" because he had styled himself on the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Palermo senior police official Renato Cortese called Mered "the head of the situation room of a vast operation" of traffickers and was often heard in tapped phone conversations arranging money transfers between various European countries.

Sicilian prosecutor Calogero Ferrara told Reuters last year and Mered and Ermias were opportunistic, purchasing kidnapped migrants from other criminals in Africa. By his calculations, each boat trip of 600 people made the smugglers between $800,000 and $1 million before costs..

The smuggling networks have mostly eluded international law enforcement agencies because they are based on anonymous cells spread across many countries.

Italy has been on the frontline of the immigration crisis. About 170,000 migrants reached Italy by sea in 2014 and 153,800 in 2015, the International Organization for Migration says. So far this year, more than 40,000 migrants have arrived.
Akal Takht Jathedar calls for Panthic unity, seeks release of Bandi Sikhs, warns against conversions

We are following the footsteps of Lord Vishwakarma to overhaul entire system in Punjab : says CM
CARSON CITY  Hundreds of sex offenders previously categorized as low risk in Nevada will now be subject to public disclosure and new reporting requirements when a decade-old law finally takes effect July 1.

CARSON CITY  Hundreds of sex offenders previously categorized as low risk in Nevada will now be subject to public disclosure and new reporting requirements when a decade-old law finally takes effect July 1.

The Department of Public Safety on Friday announced it will implement Assembly Bill 579, a law passed by the Legislature in 2007 to comply with the federal Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act but put on hold during years of litigation.

In January, the Nevada Supreme Court denied a petition sought by 24 unnamed, previously convicted sex offenders to block the law, allowing the state to move forward.

Previously, people convicted of sex crimes were assessed by specially trained mental health professionals and rated on their risk of re-offending. Thousands of offenders who were deemed low risk, or Tier 1, were not subject to community notification.

That changes next month, with limited exceptions.

Everyone goes on the website, said Dave Gibson, spokesman for the Department of Public Safety.

State Sen. Tick Segerblom, D-Las Vegas, said the public notification will be tragic for thousands of otherwise law-abiding Nevadans.

Many may have pleaded guilty to a crime decades ago, he noted.

Now all of a sudden theyre going to have their photo on the internet, Segerblom said. People who are well established in their communities, with children and grandchildren, whove led otherwise exemplary lives.

Alina Shell, an attorney for the 24 unidentified offenders in the original suit, said they plan to file an amended complaint next week in state District Court to address other unlitigated constitutional issues with the way the law is written and enforced.

One issue is that there is no way to address errors, Shell said in an email. If you think you dont belong on the registry or have served the requisite time, you have to hire a lawyer to file an action. That isnt a workable system.

Under the new law, tier levels are based on a conviction and age of the victim. Because the law is retroactive to 1956, many offenders already deemed by a judge to be no threat to the community will have to register and have their names, photos and addresses available for public scrutiny.

The new rating system has three tiers, with one being the lowest and three the highest. A fourth tier under the old law is eliminated.

Nevada has about 6,500 active registered sex offenders, Gibson said.

Under the old system, 1,923 were considered Tier 1, or low-risk offenders. That number declines to 1,646 under the new assessment. Tier 1 offenders are required to register for 15 years and appear annually in person at a local law enforcement agency to update and verify their information.

The number of Tier 2 offenders goes from 2,648 to 1,790. They must report every six months for 25 years.

Tier 3 offenders jump to 3,014 from 239 under the old classification system, and are required to report in person every 90 days.

Only 62, or 1 percent of the total, are not required to register, the agency said.

Critics argue the law does not take into consideration the age of the offender or circumstances. A bill to try to fix some of the problems was passed by the 2015 Legislature but vetoed by Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval because it also eliminated a requirement that certain offenders stay at least 500 feet away from schools, parks and other places frequented by children.

Segerblom said Nevada, like other states, was pressured to pass the law in 2007 under threat of losing federal grant money.

Whats happened, other states have since passed much less egregious laws and they still get federal funding, he said.

Contact Sandra Chereb at schereb@reviewjournal.com. Find @SandraChereb on Twitter.
A 44-year-old Davenport with two federal drug convictions to his record is once again charged by federal authorities with trafficking drugs in the Quad-Cities.

Curtis Lee Dale, 3602 May Lane, is charged with two federal counts claiming he trafficked in cocaine, crack cocaine and heroin.

The first count claims that between March and June of this year he conspired to manufacture, distribute and possess with the intent to distribute cocaine, cocaine base and heroin.

Count two claims that on June 2 Dale possessed with the intent to distribute more than 500 grams of cocaine, more than 28 grams of cocaine base, or crack cocaine, and several ounces of heroin.

Dale came under the scrutiny of Drug Enforcement Administration agents in May after a confidential source told investigators that Dale had offered to sell the source an eight ball of crack cocaine for $200. An eight ball is an eighth of an ounce that contains about 3.5 grams of crack.

Federal agents then began following Dale from his home to a local storage facility. They also kept surveillance on him when he traveled to Woodridge, Ill., and back to the Quad-Cities on June 1. Woodridge is a western suburb of Chicago. Once back in Davenport, Dale went to the storage facility.

On June 1, a Rock Island Police Department K-9, Jago, was used to detect drugs in two of the storage facility units.

Dale was arrested Thursday in Davenport. Agents found heroin on him at that time.

According to the federal affidavit filed in connection with the current case, in 1997, Dale was involved in a federal drug trafficking investigation during which he was found to be in possession of one kilogram, or 2.2 pounds, of cocaine and a handgun. He was sentenced to 19 years in prison. He was released in 2009 and placed on supervised release until 2020.

In February 2012, Illinois State Police stopped Dales vehicle while he was traveling to the Quad-Cities from Chicago. He was found to be in possession of marijuana and cocaine. He was returned to federal prison and served another two years and three months.

Dale is being held in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service pending a detention hearing on Tuesday in U.S. District Court, Davenport.
CEDAR RAPIDS  It appears the third time will be a charm for Monica Vernon.

After suffering back-to-back defeats in 2014, the former Cedar Rapids business owner has scored a win in Iowas U.S. House 1st District primary. Shortly after 10 p.m., with nearly half of precincts reporting, former Iowa House Speaker Pat Murphy called Vernon to concede, according to his campaign manager.

Murphy promised to support her and other Democrats to ensure we raise the minimum wage, end trade deals that hurt our workers and protect Social Security and Medicare and retire incumbent Republican Rep. Rod Blum of Dubuque.

At that point, Vernon had built up a 70 percent to 29 percent lead over Murphy of Dubuque with more than two-fifths of precincts, according to unofficial results from the Iowa Secretary of State.

Despite incumbency, Blum is considered vulnerable because Democrats have a voter registration advantage of nearly 26,000 in the 20-county 1st District that stretches from Marshalltown in central Iowa to Minnesota and the Mississippi River, and includes Cedar Rapids, Waterloo, Cedar Falls and Dubuque.

Another indication of the odds he faces is that President Barack Obama carried the district by margins of 14 and 18 percentage points in 2008 and 2012, respectively.

That led former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jack Hatch, who chose Vernon as his running mate in 2014, predicted the 1st District race will be over by September because of the strength of her campaign.

Shes a tireless campaigner, Hatch said as he and others watched results come in at Vernons victory party.

Voters are hungry to tell politicians their frustrations and what they need and Monica is someone they can connect with, he said.

The 1st District primary was something of a rematch. In 2014, Murphy topped Vernon and three other Democrats who were vying for the nomination to succeed Democratic Rep. Bruce Braley. He captured 35.6 percent of the vote to Vernons 22.9 percent in the field that include two other Linn County candidates.

Murphy lost to Blum in the open-seat general election 49.9 percent to 47.6 percent.

Despite the primary election loss, Vernon never stopped running. In the 2014 general election, she ran with Hatch. They lost to Gov. Terry Branstad and Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds.

Undeterred, Vernon entered the 2016 primary even before Blum took office in January 2014.
SIOUX CITY, Iowa  U.S. Rep. Steve King scored an easy victory Tuesday night over his Republican challenger Rick Bertrand.

The Associated Press called the 4th District race for King at 9:57 p.m. With 10 percent reporting, King held a commanding 63 percent to 37 percent lead in the sprawling district, which covers 39 counties in Northwest and North central Iowa.

This was the first primary challenge of King since he was first elected to Congress in 2002. The outspoken conservative also hasn't faced a close general election in the district, where Republicans hold a significant voter registration advantage over Democrats.

Bertrand, a two-term state senator and businessman from Sioux City, entered the race in March, later than any of the other candidates in the Iowa congressional districts. He argued that King, after seven terms, was still a largely ineffective incumbent who concentrated too much on the hot button immigration issue and took little representing his home district.

One of the main reasons Bertrand challenged the incumbent was because King caused a stir 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, in order to defend an industry that is so important to the state.

King countered that powerful interests  including Bruce Rastetter, a major agribusiness and Republican donor, and GOP strategist Nick Ryan  were out to find a Republican to oust him in the June primary.

Bertrand said he would have the vigor to knock off King, a 14-year incumbent, and the resources too. However, his campaign stops didn't typically draw large crowds and some observers said he should have aired tougher rhetoric against King.

Bertrand had expectations of large fundraising. King brought in $110,193 from April 1 to May 18, compared to $52,727 for Bertrand during the same Federal Election Commission filing period. After spending, Bertrand's campaign had $34,473 cash on hand at the end of the reporting period, compared to King's $217,704 ending cash balance.

Other groups also spent on behalf of Bertrand, including advertisements produced by American Future Fund Political Action and Iowa Progress Project.

Both men defined them as conservatives. King piled up endorsements of the state's top elected heavyweights, essentially all notable Republicans except Gov. Terry Branstad. U.S. Sens. Charles Grassley and Joni Ernst, Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds and Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey were in the King camp.

The two candidates participated once in a public debate, on Friday in Sioux City, where Bertrand again leveled the charge that King was ineffective.

"I am going there to run a specific agenda that is outlined by Iowans. Right now, we have a congressman who believes he is untouchable," Bertrand said.

For his part, King asked voters to stick with him: "Why would you go for an unknown quantity when you have a proven commodity?"
With less than a month to go before Davenport is supposed to roll out new public bus routes and a day before the City Council was to take its final vote on the matter, tension boiled over Tuesday when Alderman Ray Ambrose and Mayor Frank Klipsch argued over how the city is handling the issue.

Ambrose met with Klipsch, Interim City Administrator Corri Spiegel, Finance Director Brandon Wright and Aldermen Bill Boom and Kerri Tompkins in one of their regular Tuesday briefings. When the conversation turned to CitiBus, Ambrose complained about "confusion" and "misinformation" as the city tries to educate the public about changes to the transit system.

"The whole transit thing has been talked about for six months," Ambrose said. "A few weeks out, there are still a lot of areas that are not solidified, especially the routes."

Klipsch said that "education is a big part" of the rollout.

"We keep repeating the education part, and we're not doing a very good job," Ambrose said. "Every time we take a step forward, it's wrong."

Ambrose cited concerns about CitiBus management and said the overhaul has been "dumped in his lap," referring to Wright, the city's finance director who is overseeing the project.

"A lot who ride the buses have spoken out, and not one has been positive," Ambrose, who represents the 4th Ward, said.

Davenport contracts with First Transit Inc. of Cincinnati to operate CitiBus. After 13 years, the contract is set to expire in September with no renewals, though Klipsch told aldermen Tuesday that "concerns" with the operator are the reason the city may look elsewhere.

A request for proposals is set to go out this summer.

CitiBus management has experienced turnover recently. Kurt Scheible was manager from September 2014 until this April. Since he left, four managers have tried to fill the post, each lasting from a few days to no more than two weeks.

On Tuesday, the city's website no longer listed a contact name for transit manager on its CitiBus page.

The transit manager works for First Transit and is not a city employee.

Ambrose said he has heard from constituents who try to contact CitiBus and "no one is answering calls."

Ambrose also pointed out mistakes in a rider guide map that was recently distributed.

Wright clarified that the Handicapped Development Center on Hickory Grove Road was misidentified as a stop along the proposed Route 9, and times on another route were mislabeled "a.m." when they should be "p.m."

"A lot of people's lives are going to be incredibly affected by the change," Ambrose said after the briefing. "I don't think the process is going as well as staff says."

Ambrose was the only alderman who voted against the changes after former Mayor Bill Gluba tried to veto the project.

"I can't believe the process hasn't been smoother," Ambrose said. "It's been the opposite."

Klipsch rebuffed Ambrose's concerns following the briefing, saying he is "one of 10 aldermen" and adding that Ambrose's colleagues do not share his view.

During the briefings, Wright said CitiBus drivers rode the proposed new routes on Sunday and, in answer to Alderman Mike Matson, 7th Ward, said there were no concerns.
On the same day that Hillary Clinton went over the top for the Democratic presidential nomination, Iowa voters went to the polls.

Not that anybody noticed. Perhaps as many Iowans watched Clinton's victory speech  and televised remarks by Donald Trump  than voted in the primary.

In a state that's accustomed to being center stage for presidential politics, one of the consequences of a primary without that top of the ticket attraction is low ratings.

Call it a summer swoon.

Just 7.2 percent of registered voters cast ballots in Scott County on Tuesday. Statewide, turnout wasn't much better. Preliminary figures from the Iowa Secretary of State's office said just 9.75 percent of registered voters cast ballots.

Such is the way for Iowa's primary. Over the past eight election cycles, only three have seen double-digit turnouts in Scott County. And even then, the best was just 12.36 percent of registered voters in 2006.

There were competitive primaries for governor and Congress that year.

With so much attention being paid to the presidential race this year  and the fact that it's still going on  state and local races appear to be begging for attention more than usual.

"The reality is people are not inundated with the material or TV ads or newspaper ads that are in a presidential race," Scott County Auditor Roxanna Moritz said.

Iowa's primaries also are not open to independents, who are historically resistant to changing their registration to take part.

Some local politicians were surprised at the paltry interest, particularly given 13 candidates were running for the county board. "I thought that would drive up turnout," Rep. Jim Lykam, D-Davenport, said.

There also were five candidates running for county sheriff, an open seat this year with the pending retirement of Sheriff Dennis Conard.

Still, Lykam and others say they aren't worried this will mean a lower voter turnout in the fall.

Going back to 2002, low primary turnout was followed by big interest in the general election. The 2008 election is the best example. That June, just 3,000 primary voters went to the polls, 2.58 percent of registered voters. Five months later, almost 87,000 people voted in the general election, or about 72 percent of registered voters.
The Iowa Board of Medicine has taken recent actions against two physicians who formerly practiced in the Quad-Cities.

Dr. Richard Blunk, 39, was a practicing pediatrician with Genesis Health System, Davenport. Dr. David Marcowitz, 51, was a family practice physician in an East Moline clinic owned by Trinity, now named UnityPoint Health Trinity.

Blunk was charged with engaging in sexual relations with the mother of one of his patients in 2012, as well as a coworker, who also was a mother of a patient, in 2014-15.

Under the terms of the June 3 settlement, Blunk was cited, warned, and ordered to pay a $5,000 civil penalty. He is also on probation for five years.

Blunk voluntarily and successfully completed a sexual misconduct evaluation and residential treatment program. Program officials supported Blunk's ability to continue practicing medicine, with appropriate restrictions, according to documents released to the public by the state board.

Marcowitz agreed on June 3 not to practice medicine in any state. He attempted to meet the requirements of state orders from both Iowa and Illinois, but his ability to do so successfully has been compromised by recent serious health issues, the board reported.

Marcowitz moved to Chariton, Iowa. In Illinois, he was charged with prescribing multiple controlled substances to a patient in Moline from 2008-11. Marcowitz "did not property assess and/or monitor the patient for drug abuse or dependence," the citation reads. Yet, he was informed that the patient and his pregnant girlfriend were injecting the drugs and that the patient also was selling the controlled substances to local drug users, at least three of whom died, the state board reported.

Marcowitz also was charged with providing phentermine, a weight-loss drug, to one of his office staff without first establishing an appropriate physician-patient relationship.

He later was cited by the Iowa board for failing to disclose the Illinois disciplinary actions on renewal of his Iowa medical license. His Iowa license was suspended indefinitely in 2015.
ROCK ISLAND  Albert Clash, 88, of Rock Island, passed away Friday, June 3, 2016, at Trinity Rock Island. Funeral services will be 9 a.m. Saturday, June 11, at Wheelan-Pressly Funeral Home, 3030 7th Ave., Rock Island. Visitation will be 5-7 p.m. Friday at Wheelan-Pressly Funeral Home.

Burial will be at Chippiannock Cemetery, Rock Island. Memorials may be made to the family.

Albert was born Dec. 12, 1927, in Shelby, Mississippi, to Henry Clash and Sylvia (Simpson) Clash. He married Curlee Juanita Jones in 1955 in Peoria; she died April 14, 1977. He was preceded in death by his wife, mother, one brother and four sisters.

While growing up, he worked on the railroads. After working at International Harvester for 25 years, he retired in 1980.

He loved the blues and was the rhythm guitar player for B.B. King during his early years in Mississippi and Memphis, Tennessee. During retirement, he enjoyed restoring classic cars from the '50s. He loved traveling and each highway always had a story that came along with it.

He is survived by his children, Danny and Laurette Clash, (Altadena, California), Henry Clash, Ronald Clash, Lola Lambert and Robert Bausal, all of Rock Island, Joy Cherry, of Atlanta; his sister Sylvania Shaw, his significant other, Dora Holland (35 years); six grandchildren; six great-grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews.

Online condolences may be left for Albert's family at www.wheelanpressly.com.
LOS ANGELES | Already the presumptive Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton pressed for victory in California and five other states Tuesday, while Bernie Sanders hoped a strong showing would raise doubts about her historic achievement and spur superdelegates to rally around him instead.

The Democratic race was coming to an end amid new turmoil in the Republican Party. GOP leaders recoiled at Donald Trump's comments about a Hispanic judge, with one senator even pulling his endorsement of the presumptive GOP nominee. Trump insisted his words had been "misconstrued" as an attack on people of Mexican heritage.

Clinton secured the 2,383 delegates she needed for the nomination on the eve of Tuesday's voting, according to an Associated Press tally. Her total is comprised of pledged delegates won in primaries and caucuses, as well as superdelegates  the party officials and officeholders who can back a candidate of their choosing.

"We are at the brink of a historic, historic unprecedented moment," she said during a rally in California on Monday.

Both Democratic candidates campaigned vigorously in California, each eager to capture the primary's biggest prize. If the primary turned out to be close, the results might not be known Tuesday night; more than half of Californians vote by mail, and the deadline for returned ballots isn't until Friday, as long as they are postmarked by Election Day.

Clinton, a former New York senator, was favored in the night's other big contest in neighboring New Jersey, where vote counting was underway as polls closed. Elections were also being held in Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota and South Dakota.

Clinton was waiting until most of the voting was complete before fully reveling in becoming the first woman nominated by a major U.S. political party. She was to address supporters at a victory party in Brooklyn, where her campaign planned to run a gauzy video highlighting the achievements of women who helped clear a path.

Still, she was wasting no time moving toward the general election. Her campaign announced that she would make stops next week in Ohio and Pennsylvania, states that will be pivotal in November.

Sanders hoped a victory would help in his so-far-unsuccessful bid to get Clinton superdelegates to switch their support. Asked on NBC whether he was continuing that effort, he said, "We are. We're on the phone right now."

The superdelegates who were counted in Clinton's total told the AP they were unequivocally supporting her.

Trump, after vanquishing his last opponents about a month ago, has continued to make controversial statements, frustrating party leaders.

The latest cause for GOP concern was his insistence that a judge handling a legal case involving the businessman was being unfair in his rulings. Trump has said U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel can't be impartial because the jurist's parents were born in Mexico and Trump wants to build a wall along the border.

Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk, who is locked in a close re-election fight, became the first lawmaker to pull his endorsement of Trump. House Speaker Paul Ryan said the businessman's assertion was the "textbook definition of a racist comment" but he would continue to support Trump.

Trump released a statement saying he does "not feel one's heritage makes them incapable of being impartial." But he still questioned whether he was receiving fair treatment in the case involving the now-defunct Trump University.

If some Republicans harbored hopes of edging Trump off the Republican ticket at the party convention, that was likely to be dashed in Tuesday's uncontested GOP primaries. Trump should end the night with enough delegates who are required by party rules to vote for him, whatever their personal views.

His shaky support among Republicans stands in stark contrast to the Democratic leaders mobilizing behind Clinton.

The former secretary of state, first lady and senator secured support Tuesday from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who represents a California district. And Clinton will soon have help on the campaign trail from President Barack Obama. Her 2008 foe is to endorse her as early as this week, a move meant to signal to Sanders and his supporters that it's time to unify behind her.

Obama and Sanders spoke by phone Sunday. While the content of the call is unknown, Sanders' campaign has appeared to slightly soften its rhetoric since the call.

Dianne Feinstein of California said Sanders and Clinton should "march on to a general election together," and any Sanders plan to keep fighting until the Democratic National Convention "is going to make that much more difficult."

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said that for Sanders "I think the math is unforgiving."

Sanders' achievements have been remarkable for a candidate who was unknown to most Americans before the campaign. He has drawn massive crowds to rallies around the country and built a fundraising juggernaut based largely on small donations online. The Vermont senator has been particularly popular with young voters, an important piece of the Democratic coalition.

Still, Clinton's victory has been broadly decisive. She leads Sanders by more than 3 million cast votes, by 291 pledged delegates and by 523 superdelegates. She won 29 caucuses and primaries in states and U.S. territories to his 21 victories.

Heading into Tuesday's voting, Clinton had 1,812 pledged delegates and the support of 571 of the 714 superdelegates, according to the AP count. The AP surveyed the superdelegates repeatedly in the past seven months.
PIERRE | Newcomer Neal Tapio and former Rep. Stace Nelson took the first steps in their quest to set a more conservative tone in the Legislature when they won Republican Senate nominations in South Dakotas primary elections Tuesday.

Tapio defeated Rep. Roger Solum for the Republican nomination to the Watertown-area Senate seat. Solums defeat means Codington County will have three new legislators come January after the retirements by Sen. Ried Holien and Rep. Lee Schoenbeck.

Nelson, from Fulton, defeated recent college graduate Caleb Finck from Tripp for the Republican nomination to the Senate seat that Republican Bill Van Gerpen of Tyndall chose to not defend.

Nelson during his prior time in the House of Representatives had to be disciplined by being moved to the front row of the 70-desk chamber and saw a special rule adopted because of his frequent speeches on resolutions.

Nelson ran for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate in 2014 in a five-way race won by former Gov. Mike Rounds.

Gov. Dennis Daugaard supported the campaigns of Finck and Solum. The nominations of Nelson and Tapio in strongly Republican legislative districts point to a changing balance in the Senates relationship with the Republican governor.

The governor also backed Sen. Larry Tidemann, of Brookings, who defeated challenger Doug Post, of Volga, for the Republican nomination there.

Early partial results in five Senate Republican primaries in the Rapid City area showed Daugaard-backed candidates winning in some and losing in some. The final counts showed Daugaards slate winning three of the five.

Term-limited Rep. Lance Russell of Hot Springs took down Sen. Bruce Rampelberg, of Rapid City, in their Senate Republican primary.

Meanwhile term-limited Rep. Jacqueline Sly, of Rapid City, received a trouncing by Sen. Phil Jensen, of Rapid City.

Russell and Jensen voted against the sales-tax increase that the governor proposed and the Legislature approved for raising teacher salaries and providing more property-tax relief. Rampelberg and Sly voted for the plan, with Sly deep in the fight in the House.

Daugaard backed Sly and Rampelberg in their campaigns.

Rep. Jeff Partridge of Rapid City held a one-vote lead at one point and eventually beat Janette McIntyre, of Rapid City, in their dogfight for the Republican nomination for a Senate seat. Partridge supported the tax increase and had the governors support in his campaign.

Sen. Alan Solano, of Rapid City, whom Daugaard appointed to a vacancy, solidly defeated challenger Richard Kriebel, of Rapid City, for a Republican Senate nomination.

Sen. Terri Haverly, of Rapid City, held onto a thin edge over Tina Mulally, of Rapid City, for a Republican Senate nomination.

Solano and Haverly voted for the tax increase and had Daugaards backing.

Sen. Deb Peters, of Hartford, who supported the tax increase, eventually pulled away from and defeated former Rep. Lora Hubbel of Sioux Falls in their Senate Republican primary. Hubbel challenged Daugaard in the 2014 Republican primary for governor.

Nelson meanwhile saw another of his supporters win a chance to serve in the Legislature with the victory by Drew Dennert of Aberdeen for a House Republican nomination.

In another House Republican primary race, Sen. Bill Shorma appeared to have lost, placing third in a three-candidate contest for two nominations. Shorma, from Dakota Dunes, was appointed last year to a Senate vacancy.

In the process, the governor passed over Republican Rep. Jim Bolin, of Canton. Term-limited, Bolin is running for the Senate. Rather than face Bolin in a Republican primary, Shorma ran for the House.

Shorma could seek a recount under state law. He lost by 45 votes to Kevin Jensen, of Canton. Placing first in the three-candidate primary was Rep. David Anderson, of Hudson. Jensen also ran in 2014, placing third, and was passed over for the Senate vacancy that went to Shorma.

Daugaard filled two Senate vacancies in 2015 that resulted from the resignations of Senate Republican leader Tim Rave of Baltic and Senate Republican assistant leader Dan Lederman of Dakota Dunes. The Rave vacancy went to Scott Fiegen of Dell Rapids.

Fiegen didnt run this year, opening the way for one of the governors Republican legislative opponents, Rep. Kris Langer, of Dell Rapids, to become the Senate Republican nominee this year.

The unrest in the Senate became visible on the first day of the 2016 legislative session when four Republicans voted against Sen. Gary Cammack, R-Union Center, as the chambers new president pro tem.

Senate Republicans in a private caucus had selected Cammack and Jim White, of Huron, over Ried Holien, of Watertown, and Brock Greenfield, of Clark, for two Senate leadership vacancies triggered by the Rave and Lederman resignations. The previous president pro tem, Corey Brown, of Gettysburg, slid over to become Senate Republican leader.

Brown is term-limited and wont be returning for the 2017 legislative session, opening the way for a new round of internal maneuvering among Senate Republicans for their leadership posts.

The attempts under way Bolin and Langer to move to the Senate are potentially two more defeats for the governor in the changing balance of the Senates relationship with him.
Voters swept Rapid City School Board candidate Ron Riherd to victory on Tuesday night, ousting incumbent Dave Davis as representative of Area 3. Meanwhile, Amy Policky won in a landslide, securing the Area 6 School Board seat with more than 60 percent of the vote.

Of the 3,444 people who voted in the Area 3 School Board race, 1,560  45 percent  cast ballots for Riherd. Thomas Udager came in second with 971 votes, while Davis trailed close behind with 913.

Speaking over the phone on Tuesday evening, Riherd, 68, said he was pleased with the results of the election, and is looking forward to getting to work.

I think we have to get the board back to where were more of a team than what they have been, Riherd said. The direction has to be geared towards students. There are many challenges, and hopefully Ill be up for the challenge. I feel like I am, and well just have to go from there.

Policky, 47, secured an even steeper victory, raking in 1,871 of the 2,995 votes cast, or 62 percent, in the Area 6 race. Phelps came in second with 695 votes, while Sterling got 429.

Im really happy, Policky said from home on Tuesday night.

As a freshly minted representative on the school board, Policky said she would like to create a long-term strategic plan and begin to change the conversation in the district to focus more on student achievement.

We can become a leader in this area in education and be a magnet for community and economic development, she said.

Davis, 62, served a single, three-year term in the Area 3 School Board seat, during which he worked to raise wages for South Dakotas teachers as a member of Gov. Dennis Daugaards Blue Ribbon Task Force.

Obviously the people have spoken, Davis said after learning he had been beaten by Riherd. All I can say is congratulations to Ron. He had the message that people wanted to vote for.

Davis has received criticism in recent weeks for his part in crafting a new pay structure for the districts educators, some of whom believe the new is plan is unfair to veteran teachers. Knowing that likely had an impact on the election results, Davis nonetheless said he would not change a thing about his approach to teacher pay.

I think the direction that was brought forward is the right direction for the school, the community and the teachers themselves, Davis said. But change is hard.

Udager, 81, offered his congratulations to Riherd, and commended Davis for his service.

You just have to admire anybody that will put in the time and effort the way he did," Udager said.

Sterling, 64, similarly wished Policky well, and said he would like to see his victorious opponent get the school district away from the trend of mediocrity that its headed toward.

Phelps declined to comment.
Voters in six states cast ballots in presidential primary contests Tuesday, but many were clearly looking ahead to the general election.

Voters in Democratic and Republican primaries told The Associated Press they have long been weighing and comparing candidates of both parties with an eye toward who would make the best general election candidate in November.

Tuesday's elections in New Jersey, California, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota and South Dakota featured a contest between Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state, and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is urging superdelegates to drop their support for Clinton, arguing he is a stronger candidate to take on Donald Trump.

Clinton reached the 2,383 delegates needed to become the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Monday, according to an AP tally. Her total is comprised of pledged delegates won in primaries and caucuses and superdelegates, the party officials and officeholders who can back a candidate of their choosing.

On the Republican side, Trump has had the nomination locked up for weeks.

Here are some voters' thoughts:

In San Diego, 82-year-old Harry Backer strolled past cyclists, skateboarders and kayakers on the way to vote for Clinton. The retired teacher, who also worked in construction, said America needs a level-headed, grounded woman with world experience.

"I'm left of Bernie Sanders, but I know that she's the candidate that can possibly get something done," Backer said.

He also wanted to be part of history in making Clinton the first woman to top the ticket of a major U.S. political party.

Izabela Biel voted for Trump in Closter, New Jersey, an upscale suburb across the Hudson River from Manhattan. Biel said Trump's success as a businessman symbolizes the American dream for her.

Biel came to the U.S. from Poland about 25 years ago, and she offered that even though he isn't the perfect candidate, she prefers him to the Democratic candidates who "want to make everybody equal."

"I grew up in communism," said Biel, 46. "I've lived it, and I absolutely know that it's proven that it doesn't work. You can't make everybody equal. That just doesn't exist in the real world."

In Albuquerque, New Mexico, Lucy Demir voted for Sanders.

"I like him because he's really honest," said Demir, 37. "I think he's really direct, and I appreciate how he really is trying to stay on his side of the street. I actually think some of his ideals are kind of like utopic and he's probably not going to achieve them, but I like his character."

Bob Burhenn, 82, a retired Sioux Falls businessman, said he voted for Clinton because it's time to put a woman in the nation's highest office.

"Men have been in charge long enough," Burhenn said. "And they're smarter than us, anyway."

Burhenn said he was once a Republican but changed party affiliations within the last 15 years. He said he was a big supporter of Bill Clinton's presidency.

Paul Westendorf, a 53-year-old Sioux Falls resident who works in financial services, voted for Trump, though he wished he had other viable options. He said it was more about "finding what I dislike the least."

"It's hard to get a read on what he really stands for, and I think that some of that is intentional," Westendorf said.

Westendorf is strongly anti-abortion, and he said he's uncomfortable because he doesn't have a good sense of Trump's true stance on that issue. But he said Trump has the capability to surround himself with competent people and he hopes Trump can pull them together to build a great team.

In Montana, Sanders supporter Sonya Goes Ahead held out hope that he could still get the delegates needed before the primary.

"The other candidates are not very truthful. They are in it for money," said Goes Ahead, who grew up on Montana's Crow Reservation and is studying education at Montana State University in Billings.

Sanders was the first presidential candidate to campaign in Montana, in early May, when he also met privately with American Indian leaders from the state's reservations

"He wants to help communities, help bring jobs to the reservation," the 24-year-old Goes Ahead said. "There's not many jobs in my home  just the schools."

In Helena, Montana, decorative painter Carmela Linguista had no hesitation about whom she was voting for: "Hillary, Hillary, Hillary."

"Hillary has pretty much devoted her life to the needs of women and children," Linguista said. "I think her forte is on the world stage."

She also pulled few punches about Trump.

"The man is insane. He's a danger," she said. "He's not presidential material."

Claudia Scott, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, voted for Trump  a candidate she said may be "very brash" at times but speaks the truth.

"He's saying to America what people don't want to say out loud, but the way the feel," she said after casting her vote at a middle school.

One of the issues she agrees most with Trump on is immigration, she said.

"I hope he doesn't change his stand on the way that he feels," Scott said.

Steve Mays, 60, a warehouse worker from Bismarck, North Dakota, said he was supporting Clinton.

"I think she will be the same as the old Clinton, Bill  and that's good," he said. "The economy was good when he was president and he knew how to balance a budget."

Mays said it makes no difference to him that she would be the first woman president.

"She's got experience and I trust her," he said. "It doesn't bother me at all whether someone is male or female or black or white," he said.

In Kearney, New Jersey, a blue-collar community, Antonio Cunha voted for Sanders, saying the candidate focuses on issues important to regular people.

"I like the idea of helping people afford college, whether it's totally free or not," said Cunha, 32, who works for a civil engineering firm. "Back in the day everybody got around with a high school education, but now I can see how much more people make in their careers if they have college degrees. And everybody's saddled with that debt, so that would be a big help."
SIOUX FALLS | Todd Albertson of Custer started his South Dakota Highway Patrol career a dozen years ago. Hes built a reputation for promoting good driving habits among youth, going the extra mile in community leadership and earned state and national honors for highway safety training efforts.

On Tuesday, his hiring anniversary, he gained another award  South Dakota State Trooper of the Year.

Sponsored by AAA South Dakota, the award is presented to an officer who demonstrates exceptional service to citizens and communities.

Highway Patrol Superintendent Col. Craig Price commended Albertson for being a shining example of how troopers should perform.
Phil Jensen soundly defeated Jacqueline Sly and Lance Russell toppled Bruce Rampelberg in a pair of rare incumbent vs. incumbent legislative primaries Tuesday.

The Legislatures passage earlier this year of a statewide sales-tax increase was a key issue in both races. Jensen and Russell voted against the increase, and Sly and Rampelberg voted for it. The legislation, which was the product of a task force led by Sly, is intended to raise teacher pay across the state.

Sly was term-limited after eight years in the House and was trying to stay in the Legislature by taking Jensens Senate seat. But Jensen racked up 61 percent of the votes in the Republican primary, compared to 39 percent for Sly. The unofficial vote count was was 2,053 to 1,336.

Final results were not available until about 10 p.m. Tuesday, and the Journal was not able to reach Jensen. Sly said Jensen was probably able to turn out more of his supporters than she was.

Her leadership on the sales-tax increase probably cost her some votes, Sly said, but she expressed no regret.

I would do it again, she said.

Jensen will go on to face Democrat Haven Stuck, of Rapid City, in the Nov. 8 general election in District 33, which swoops around from areas west of Rapid City to include a slice of Meade County and part of North Rapid.

Russell, of Hot Springs, was also term-limited in the House and succeeded in his bid to oust Rampelberg, of Rapid City, from the Senate. Russell won their Republican primary with 59 percent and 2,396 votes, compared to 41 percent and 1,651 votes for Rampelberg.

They are in District 30, which encompasses much of southwestern South Dakota and includes land in Custer, Fall River and Pennington Counties.

The Journal was not able to reach Rampelberg on Tuesday night. Russell said school-funding reform passed this year by the Legislature in conjunction with the sales-tax increase is punishing small schools in District 30, and Russell pegged that as a key issue among voters. He said the school in Oelrichs recently cut several teaching positions because the district exceeded the number of teachers that the new legislation says it should have, based on its student count.

Russell said his opposition to the legislation that created that situation, and Rampelbergs support of it, drew the attention of some voters.

I think when that happened, it became crystal clear that rural school districts are on the chopping block, Russell said.

Russell will go on to face Democrat Karla LaRive, of Hot Springs, in the general election.

Following are results from Tuesdays other Black Hills-area legislative primaries.

District 28 (Butte, Corson, Dewey, Harding, Perkins, Ziebach counties)

Former legislator Ryan Maher, of Isabel, had the endorsement of term-limited Sen. Betty Olson and ran with it, racking up 86 percent of the votes in his District 28 Republican Senate primary race against Steven Ritch of Belle Fourche, who received 14 percent.

The vote tally in the massive district, which includes much of northwest South Dakota, was 2,307 to 368.

The landslide primary win amounts to a final victory for Maher, because no Democrats, independents or other candidates are running in the November general election. Maher previously served eight years in the Senate, first as a Democrat from 2007 through 2010 and then as a Republican from 2011 through 2014.

District 28B (Butte, Harding, Perkins)

In a special split House district, Rep. Sam Marty, of Prairie City, retained his seat with a Republican primary win against Karen Wagner of Belle Fourche.

The results showed Marty with 68 percent and 1,531 votes, and Wagner with 32 percent and 732 votes.

With no Democrats, independents or other candidates running, Marty has no opponent for the general election.

District 30 (Custer, Fall River, Pennington)

With the districts two members of the state House  Republicans Lance Russell of Hot Springs and Mike Verchio of Hill City  both term-limited, a tight scramble ensued for the open seats and a recount of Tuesdays results appears possible.

It appeared late Tuesday night that Tim Goodwin and Julie Frye-Mueller, both, of Rapid City, won the two nominations in the five-way Republican House primary in District 30.

Goodwin had 22 percent and 1,508 votes, and Frye-Mueller had 21 percent and 1,460 votes.

Right on their heels was Richard Mounce, of Rapid City, with 21 percent and 1,445 votes, followed by Travis Lasseter, New Underwood, with 18 percent and 1,230 votes; and Marilyn Oakes, Keystone, 18 percent and 1,207 votes.

The two winners of the Republican primary will move on to the general election to face Democrats Sandy Arseneault, of Custer, and Kristine Ina Winter, of Hot Springs. The top two vote-getters in that race will win the districts two House seats.

District 31 (Lawrence County)

Incumbent Rep. Timothy Johns, of Lead, retained his seat and Deadwood Mayor Chuck Turbiville won a return to the Legislature in place of the term-limited Rep. Fred Romkema, R-Spearfish.

Johns and Turbiville were the top two finishers in District 31s Republican House primary, which was a de facto general election because no Democrats, independents or other candidates are running for the districts two House seats.

Johns finished first with 1,789 votes, or 41 percent, followed by Turbiville with 1,558 votes, or 36 percent. The losing candidate was Michael Weyrich, of Whitewood, with 1,000 votes, or 23 percent.

Turbiville previously served eight years in the House from 2005 through 2012.

District 32 Senate (Pennington)

Sen. Alan Solano won a decisive victory over challenger Richard Kriebel in a Republican Senate primary matchup of Rapid City residents.

Solano garnered 1,495 votes, or 62 percent, compared to Kriebels 919 votes, or 38 percent.

Solano will move on to face David Hubbard, a Rapid City Democrat, in the Nov. 8 general election. The winner of the general election matchup will earn the Senate seat from District 32, which includes parts of central and southern Rapid City.

District 32 House (Pennington)

In District 32s three-way Republican House primary, incumbent Rep. Kristin Conzet and Sean McPherson won their partys two nominations for the districts two House seats.

McPherson was the top finisher with 36 percent and 1,372 votes, followed by Conzet with 33 percent and 1,245 votes. Craig Ericks lost with 30 percent and 1,147 votes. All three are from Rapid City.

Conzet and McPherson will advance to face Democrats Nik Aberle and Susan Kelts, both of Rapid City, in the general election. The top two finishers in that race will win the districts two House seats.

District 33 (Meade, Pennington)

David Johnson and Taffy Howard won the two Republican nominations for the state House in District 33, an irregular-shaped district that includes areas west of Rapid City, part of North Rapid and a slice of Meade County.

Johnson was the top vote-getter in the three-way race with 44 percent and 2,235 votes, followed by Howard with 35 percent and 1,791 votes. Third-place finisher Mike Buckingham, with 21 percent and 1,098 votes, will not advance to the general election. All three candidates are from Rapid City.

Johnson and Howard will face Democrats Jim Hadd, of Rapid City, and Ethan Marsland, of Black Hawk, in the Nov. 8 general election. The top two finishers in that election will win the districts two House seats, which are open because incumbent Rep. Jacqueline Sly is term-limited and incumbent Rep. Scott Craig is not seeking re-election.

District 34 (Pennington)

Rep. Jeff Partridge beat Janette McIntyre in their Republican Senate primary.

Partridge finished with 54 percent and 1,742 votes, compared to McIntyres 46 percent and 1,496 votes.

The two were vying for the seat being vacated by the term-limited Sen. Craig Tieszen, R-Rapid City, who is running for the House.

Partridge will face Democrat Jay Shultz, of Rapid City, in the general election. District 34 includes much of western and part of central Rapid City.

District 35 (Pennington)

Sen. Terri Haverly won re-election to her seat by fending off a Republican primary challenge from Tina Mulally. Both candidates are from Rapid City.

Haverly won 55 percent and 912 votes, and Mulally received 45 percent support and 746 votes.

There are no Democrats, independents or others running for the seat, so Haverly will be uncontested in the Nov. 8 general election. The district includes much of eastern Rapid City and Rapid Valley.
PIERRE  South Dakota customers of Montana-Dakota Utilities Co. have been paying higher prices for natural gas and electricity since January while the company waited for state regulators to finish considering rate increases submitted last June.

Now customers will see refund credits on their bills in the next few months as result of rate deals. The state Public Utilities Commission approved settlements Tuesday that let the company charge more but not as much as the company requested.

PUC staff negotiated with the company on the compromises.

Natural gas for residential customers will cost 3.16 percent more, or $1.49 per month on average than was charged a year ago, before the interim price hikes took effect in January.

The companys chief executive, Nicole Kivisto, called it a fair settlement.

MDU originally filed for a 3.1 percent increase overall, including 4.6 percent more for residential gas service.

For electricity, the company sought a 19.2 percent increase. MDUs last rate case happened in 1985. The settlement approved Tuesday gives MDU a 9.9 percent increase instead.

Kivisto said the settlement means residential electricity customers will see a $4.44 average monthly increase, or approximately 5 percent.

MDUs electricity rates are very competitive, she said.

The company has about 8,600 electricity customers and about 57,500 natural gas customers in South Dakota.

Kivisto said the company generally agreed, with some specific exemptions, that it wouldnt pursue further rate increases for three years as part of the settlements.

Several of the commissioners praised MDU for avoiding rate increases on electricity for such a long time.

I say to all of you, we look forward to seeing you again in 2047, PUC Chairman Chris Nelson said.

Commissioner Kristie Fiegen said the passage of 31 years since the last price increase for electricity speaks volumes about MDUs efforts to hold rates low for customers.

And the results are remarkable, Fiegen said. The staff really fought hard for rate-payers and I appreciate that.
Authorities are searching for two men suspected of setting fire Sunday evening to the business sign of Rapid Citys Imperial Restaurant.

The suspects, two white males, are facing first-degree vandalism and reckless burning charges for burning the restaurant sign and the bushes beneath it, said Rapid City Police Department spokesman Brendyn Medina.

One man was 6 feet tall, heavyset, with red hair and a short beard, and wearing a lime-green shirt and shorts. The other man had a bigger build, blond hair, and wore sunglasses, a blue shirt and tan pants.

A witness told police she saw the men emerge from the bushes and quickly start walking east on East North Street around 7:30 p.m.

The Imperials co-owner, Emily Liu, said a customer about to enter the restaurant saw the fire, called 911, then alerted Liu.

If the person hadn't alerted us, it might have been a disaster, a bigger fire, Liu said in a phone interview Tuesday.

Restaurant owners estimate fire damage at $2,000, Medina said.

Anyone with information about the fire should contact Detective Jason LaHaie at 394-4134. Anonymous tips also can be sent by texting "RCPD" and the information to 847411.
Gov. Pete Ricketts seems to want state senators in Nebraska to act more like members of Congress, who expend more time and energy on political games than lawmaking.

That's a really bad idea.

About four out of five Americans disapprove of the way that Congress is handling its job, according to the most recent Gallup poll.

Nebraska's Legislature stands in sharp contrast to the dysfunctional legislative body in Washington, where the public good is all but forgotten.

In Lincoln state senators debate honestly, openly, vote their convictions and formulate effective government policy. Congress ought to emulate Nebraska, not the other way around.

President George Washington warned of the danger of party politics as he left office in 1796, stating, "The common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it."

Nebraskans heeded that advice in 1934 when they voted that candidates for the Legislature should appear on the ballot without party identification.

But Gov. Ricketts said at the GOP state convention that he wants Republican members of the Legislature to vote lock-step in accordance with his wishes and the party platform.

The pressure could not have been more obvious. He called senators out by name. And some Republicans members found themselves targeted by robocalls, mailing and radio ads from organizations with shadowy sources of funding.

The tactic was a page ripped from a playbook that has been circulated for years by the likes of Grover Norquist. And what does Norquist want? "We are trying to change the tones in the state capitals  and turn them toward bitter nastiness and partisanship," Norquist told the Denver Post in 2003.

If Ricketts and Nebraska's party bosses get their way, GOP senators might as well check their brains in at the door when walk into the unicameral chamber. They can just watch their cell phones for a message on how Ricketts and the bosses want them to vote.

It's encouraging that a small bipartisan band of state legislators, including Republicans, Democrats, a Libertarian and an independent, took issue with Rickett's strong-arm tactics, objecting in a letter: "Our nonpartisan unicameral Legislature has lasted for 80 years and, barring the will of the people for a new legislative experiment, we will not surrender our non-partisan and constitutional duties.

"We support the Nebraska constitution and not any particular political party."

Somewhere, surely, President George Washington is cheering for them. We hope Nebraskans are too
Bulgaria withdraws extradition request for alleged leader of Russian gang  report

MOSCOW, June 7 (RAPSI)  Bulgaria has withdrawn a request for extradition of Aslan Gagiyev, an alleged leader of Russia's organized-crime syndicate charged with organization of multiple murders, from Austria, Kommersant newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Therefore, the case on extradition of Gagiyev to Bulgaria has been closed, Christina Salzborn, a representative for the Regional Criminal Court of Vienna, told the newspaper. Earlier, Gagiyev was charged by Bulgarian authorities with documents forgery in absentia.

Austria is yet to review Russian extradition request for the second time. In the summer of 2015 extradition request was granted by the Austrian court, but later it was appealed by Gagiyev.

Russian investigators claim that Georgian-born Aslan Gagiyevs gang has been operating since 2004 and includes over 50 members.

According to Kommersant, members of the gang committed more than 60 counts of murder in Moscow and North Ossetia.

Eighteen members of the gang have already received long prison terms; two of them have been sentenced to life. Currently, 14 members are in detention, 8 members are on the international wanted list.

Gagiyev who was arrested in Austria in January 2015 faces life sentence in Russia. On March 3, the Austrian court released him on bail of EUR 100 because hearing of extradition cases against him ran over time.
Eccentric artist Pavlensky to pay $15,000 for setting fire to FSB headquarters door

MOSCOW, June 8 (RAPSI)  The Meshchansky District Court of Moscow had imposed a 500,000 ruble ($7,600) fine on performance artist Pyotr Pavlensky for setting fire to the Moscow headquarters of the Federal Security Service (FSB), and ruled in favor of this security agency, which sought 481 thousand rubles ($7,400 in the framework of a civil lawsuit.

The court imposed on Pavlensky a fine of 1.5 million rubles ($23,000); however, taking into account his detention during pretrial investigation, this amount was reduced to 500,000 rubles ($7,600). The artist was set free in the courtroom.

Additionally, Pavlensky was sentenced to pay a 480,000 rubles ($7,400) compensation to FSB for the damaged door of its Moscow headquarter.

The artist told a crowd of journalists gathering to report about the proceedings, that he was disinterested in the results of the lawsuit.

Eccentric artist Pavlensky was arrested on November 9, 2015, along with several other people who claim to be journalists that were invited to the artists performance. The next day Pavlensky was detained under a court decision.

Initially Pavlensky was accused of vandalism but later investigators reclassified charges against him to destruction of cultural heritage sites.

Pavlensky is known for a number of controversial performances.

In July 2012, he sewed up his mouth and stood at the Kazan Cathedral with a poster in support of Pussy Riot.

In May 2013, Pavlensky lay down on the ground in front of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly naked with barbed wire around his body.

In November 2013, also naked, Pavlensky nailed his scrotum to the Red Square pavement near the Lenin Mausoleum.

In October 2014, he staged an eccentric stunt on the roof of the Serbsky Mental Institution in Moscow by cutting off one of his earlobes.

In February 2015, Pavlensky and his accomplices burned car tyres, waved Ukrainian flags and banged sheet metal with sticks in a show of solidarity with the anti-government protesters in Ukraine. The performance was held near the Church of the Savior on Blood in St. Petersburg.
Corvallis High Schools Media Arts Program begins this fall.

Superintendent Tim Johnson said the program is starting after a long discussion.

Having a dynamic media arts program that is similar to the afterschool MAPS program is an idea that has been batted around for approximately two years, Johnson said. The first month I was on the job, July 2014, I met with Peter Rosten, founder of the MAPS program. We talked about the MAPS program and I was an instant supporter.

Johnson said that when he was a teacher, he ran a similar program called Capture 20.20.

I was hopeful that when the opportunity came around in Corvallis we could implement a dynamic media arts program for our high school students, Johnson said.

The tight budget at Corvallis schools put a hold on the project for a while.

Corvallis high school teacher Maureen Powell, who ran a very successful photography program for many years, is retiring this year, Johnson said. Because of the success of the MAPS program in Corvallis years ago and with the open photography position, we saw an opportunity to morph the photography program into a MAPS-like program.

The school hired former MAPS instructor Christian Ackerman as the part-time Media Arts teacher.

Mr. Ackerman will provide that nexus of experience and history back into Corvallis High School, Johnson said. We are thrilled that this worked out.

In a press release, Ackerman said he is, going solo as a high school media teacher at Corvallis High School.

I want to call my classes Corvallis Creative Media, Ackerman said. We will have professional guest speakers from Hollywood and from the multimedia world come and inspire on a monthly basis. Well make movies, documentaries, mini-docs, featurettes, music videos, commercials, public service announcements and much more. Its going to rock. I love this stuff with a passion.

Ackerman is the former film instructor of MAPS Media Institute and an award-winning filmmaker of FastCoast Productions.

Being an independent filmmaker with success of distribution with my films on Amazon and Netflix; Ill bring my knowledge, passion and experience into my classroom, Ackerman said.
Kathmandu, Nepal: A cabinet meeting held on Wednesday has made various decisions. The meeting held at Prime Ministers official residence has approved Vice-President Nanda Bahadur Puns China visit.

Vice President Pun is going to visit China on June 10-16 at the invitation of his Chinese counterpart.

Likewise, the meeting has decided t transfer Gajendra Thakur, Secretary at the Ministry of Science and Technology to the Ministry of Irrigation and Anup Upadhyay, Secretary at the Ministry of Irrigation to the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Similarly, the meeting has also decided to provide Rs 1.66 million to Sindhu Upreti, injured in peoples movement of 2006, for treatment.

Likewise, the meeting has also decided to send the new Money Laundering Rules to the Bills Committee of the Cabinet.
Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuab

Kathmandu, Nepal: Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba has accused the government of misusing the tax collected from the people and foreign donation received in the name of quake survivors by distributing it through NGOs.

Speaking at a program organized in Kathmandu to honor Mt Everest climbers on Wednesday, three times Prime Minister Deuba also accused the Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli for selling false dreams to the people.

Selling of false dreams could not move the country towards the path of development, Deuba said.

During the function, he also underlined the need of early local body elections to implement the constitution.

Local body election is must in the country to implement the constitution but the government has no capacity to hold the local election by forging consensus with the political parties, Nepali Congress President Deuba said.
Prime Minister KP Oli

KATHMANDU, June 8: Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Wednesday sent an appeal to the international community for bringing investment in Nepal as the country has set foot on an investment-friendly environment.

PM Oli made such an appeal during a meeting with the representatives of the foreign donor agencies at his office in Singha Durbar.

The UK Foreign Ministry's Secretary, Sir Simon Macdonald, and Department for International Development (DFID) Secretary, Mark Lowcock, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office representatives met separately with the PM.

The PM and British secretaries held talks on further consolidating the mutual relations between the two countries coinciding with the occasion of the bicentenary of establishment of diplomatic ties.

The British secretaries also inquired about the implementation phase of Nepal's Constitution whereas OHCHR representative broached the subject of Bhutanese refugees and Nepal's economic stride forward.

The PM urged the British secretaries to have no qualms over investing in Nepal as an investment-friendly environment has been established, PM's Foreign Affairs Advisor, Gopal Khanal, told the journalists.

The British secretaries expressed their happiness at seeing Nepal embark on a path of economic progress after the promulgation of the new constitution, and held comprehensive talks on ways to draw British investment in bigger projects in particular and secure such investments.

According to PM's Foreign Advisor Khanal, PM responded to the British concern over constitution's implementation confirming to them that Nepal's is currently in constitution implementation phase, and that all problems have been sorted out. He added that remaining issues would be dealt with through dialogue and consensus.

DFID Secretary, Mark Lowcock, said that cordial talks were held with the PM on Nepal's modern development and bilateral support.

The UNHCR delegation focused on playing crucial role on resolving the problems faced by the Bhutanese refugees and Nepal's economic development.

In a briefing to journalists following the meeting, UNHCR representative, Craig Sanders, said that talks were held on Nepal's contemporary situation and Bhutanese refugees. RSS
Indian Express - June 7, 2016

Written by Christophe Jaffrelot

In early May, The Indian Express reported that references to Jawaharlal Nehru have been deleted from the new social science textbook for Class VIII. There was no longer any mention of who Indiaas first prime minister was.

The rewriting of history textbooks is an old priority of the Hindu nationalist movement. In the 1970s, former Jana Sangh members in the Janata Party and the Morarji Desai government had asked for changes in text books. In May 1977, Desai was presented a memorandum that sought the withdrawal of four history books a of which three were intended for use in teaching a from public circulation. The books in question were Medieval India by Romila Thapar, Modern India by Bipan Chandra, Freedom Struggle by A. Tripathi, Barun De and Bipan Chandra, and Communalism and the Writing of Indian History by Romila Thapar, Harbans Mukhia and Bipan Chandra. The memorandum criticised these works above all for not condemning forcefully enough certain Muslim rulers a including Aurangzeb a and emphasising that freedom struggle leaders such as Bala Gangadhar Tilak and Aurobindo were partly responsible for the antagonism between Hindus and Muslims. The RSS campaigned separately for the withdrawal of these textbooks (Organiser, July 23, 1978). The attempt failed because sections within the Janata Party opposed the demands in the memorandum.

However, the BJP succeeded in changing parts of textbooks in the state they formed a government in the 1990s. After BJP leader Keshubhai Patel took over as chief minister in 1995, the Gujarat State Board of School Textbooks published a Class IX social studies textbook in which Muslims, Christians and Parsis were presented as aforeignersa . It was also written that ain most of the states, the Hindus are a minority and the Muslims, Christians and Sikhs are in a majoritya . A Class VIII social studies textbook also included a highly derogatory description of Christian priests: aThe accumulation of power and wealth in the hands of the priests resulted in a perversion of the religion. Some of the priests became pleasure-loving and badly behaved.a

In the early 2000s, another social science textbook for Class X described Adolf Hitler in the following terms: aHitler lent dignity and prestige to the German government within a short time by establishing a strong administrative set up. He created the vast state of Greater Germany. He adopted the policy of opposition towards the Jewish people and advocated the supremacy of the German race. He adopted a new economic policy and brought prosperity to Germany. He began efforts for the eradication of unemployment. He started constructing public buildings, providing irrigation facilities, building railways, roads and production of war materials. He made untiring efforts to make Germany self-reliant within one decade. Hitler discarded the Treaty of Versailles by calling it just aa piece of papera and stopped paying the war penalty. He instilled the spirit of adventure in the common people, but in doing so it led to extreme nationalism and caused the Second World War.a Sylvie Guichard in The Construction of History and Nationalism in India points out that the textbook was withdrawn after the general consul of Israel visited Gujarat in October 2005.

However, most of the states where textbooks were rewritten have concentrated on Indian history. There is a clear distinction between abada and agooda Muslims in these textbooks. Aurangzeb, who re-imposed the jiziya over non-Muslims belonged to the first category, whereas Akbar, who had abolished the jiziya and who was known for his syncretic religion, Din-i-Ilahi, belonged to the latter. But even this view of history is changing.

Following the renaming of Aurangzeb Road after A.P.J. Abdul Kalam in 2015, Minister of State for External Affairs V. K. Singh recently suggested that another street of New Delhi should be renamed Maharana Pratap Singh Road, after the Sisodia ruler of Mewar, who was defeated by Akbaras forces in 1576 at the Battle of Haldighati. This idea has been supported by BJP chief minister of Haryana, Rajya Sabha member Subramanian Swamy and the BJPas national spokesperson, Shaina Chudasama. Chudasama tweeted: #Akbar Road should be renamed to Maharana#Pratap Marg. Imagine #Hitler Road in #Israel! No country honours its oppressors like we do!!.

What is at stake in history is an idea of the nation and a definition of citizenship. Earlier this month, Rajasthanas school education minister, Vasudev Devnani, explained that the government was re-designing textbooks to ensure that ano Kanhaiya Kumar was born in the statea . He also said that he wanted the curriculum to have a three-pronged effect: Teach the child about the aveera and aveeranganaa of Rajasthan; make the child proud of Indian culture; and, create an ideal citizen and a patriot. For these reasons, the youth of Rajasthan may not be told how Nehru built a and then let develop a the main institutions of the aworldas largest democracya , ranging from the Supreme Court to the Election Commission. He may not even know that Nehruas cabinet included some of the most virulent critiques of the Congress, including Babasaheb Ambedkar and Syama Prasad Mookerjee, the founder of the Jana Sangh. These men had been made Union ministers in order to represent different streams of the nation in the government. This decision, inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, was an exercise in nation-building a the nation as it was conceived then.

The writer is senior research fellow at CERI-Sciences Po/ CNRS, Paris, professor of Indian politics and sociology at Kingas India Institute, London, and non-resident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
The First Praful Bidwai Memorial Award

New Delhi, June 8: The Praful Bidwai Memorial Award has been set up to commemorate the life and work of one of Indiaas most outstanding journalists as well as accomplished author, committed activist and public intellectual, so that his legacy would inspire others.

Bidwai, as is well known was an extremely successful columnist, whose articles on a range of subjects appeared regularly in newspapers and journals in India and globally for over two decades. He was also an internationally recognized and awarded author, a much valued Fellow of the Transnational Institute, Amsterdam, and his last book, aThe Phoenix Momenta, which was published posthumously in November 2014, was a magisterial look at the role of Left parties in India. A compilation of his selected writings on nuclear energy and nuclear disarmament has just been brought out by the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP), India, of which he was a founding member.

The first Praful Bidwai Memorial Award ceremony will be held at Delhias Constitution Club, New Delhi, on June 23, 2016, which marks his first death anniversary. The informally constituted Praful Bidwai Memorial Committee set up by his friends shortly after his death last year is anchoring this annual event.
Bill Self talks Kansas' scrimmage with Illinois, more on media day

What did Bill Self think about his teams scrimmage against Illinois? Check out what Kansas head coach had to say about that, and more.
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June 8, 2016

Sixth Circuit on the drug war, immigrant crime, ineffective assistance, jury nullification, Alexander Hamilton and a circuit split all in seven pages

Long-time readers likely realize I do not cover federal circuit court rulings in this space nearly as much as I did in the early days after Blakely and Booker, largely because many of the federal sentencing issues that now occupy circuit have become of late much more settled (or, at times, just much more borring). But a great little new Sixth Circuit panel ruling today in Lee v. US, No. 14-5369 (6th Cir. June 8, 2016) (available here), reminded me of why I still make a regular habit of, and can sometime be greatly rewarded by, taking the time to see what the circuit courts are saying in criminal appeals. As the title of this post highlights, there is a lot of "there there" in the short panel opinion in Lee, and I hope these snippets (with some cites omitted) will encourage everyone to check out the full opinion:

The case against him was very strong. A government witness was prepared to testify that he had purchased ecstasy from Lee on a number of occasions, dozens of pills were discovered during a lawful search of Lees home, and Lee himself admitted not only that he had possessed ecstasy, but also that he had distributed the drug to his friends. In light of this, Lees trial attorney advised him to plead guilty in exchange for a lighter sentence. Heres the wrinkle: even though he has lived in the United States for decades, Lee, unlike his parents, never became an American citizen, and though he did eventually plead guilty, he did so only after his lawyer assured him that he would not be subject to deportation  removal, in the argot of contemporary immigration law. This advice was wrong: possession of ecstasy with intent to distribute is an aggravated felony, rendering Lee deportable. Lee understandably does not want to be deported, and he filed a motion to vacate his conviction and sentence under 28 U.S.C.  2255, contending that he received ineffective assistance of counsel.... [T]he district courts conclusion that the evidence of guilt was overwhelming is not clearly erroneous, and deportation would have followed just as readily from a jury conviction as from a guilty plea. Thus, aside from the off chance of jury nullification or the like, Lee stood to gain nothing from going to trial but more prison time. On the other hand, for those such as Lee who have made this country their home for decades, deportation is a very severe consequence, the equivalent of banishment or exile, as the Supreme Court memorably put it. As a factual matter, we do not doubt Lees contention that many defendants in his position, had they received accurate advice from counsel, would have decided to risk a longer prison sentence in order to take their chances at trial, slim though they were. But would such a decision be rational? Several courts, including this circuit, have said no: being denied the chance to throw a Hail Mary at trial does not by itself amount to prejudice.... Others have reached the opposite conclusion.... We have no ability, of course, as a panel, to change camps. A nd in that sense, this is a straightforward case. In Pilla we held that no rational defendant charged with a deportable offense and facing overwhelming evidence of guilt would proceed to trial rather than take a plea deal with a shorter prison sentence. Lee finds himself in precisely this position, and he must therefore lose. But given the growing circuit split (which, as best we can tell, has gone unacknowledged), we think it worthwhile to explain why we are convinced that our approach is the right one and to set out the role that we believe deportation consequences should play in evaluating prejudice under Strickland. We begin, however, by giving the other side its due. As the Seventh Circuit noted in DeBartolo, strong evidence of guilt does not strip a defendant of his right to a jury trial, nor does it guarantee a guilty verdict. The second point is especially true for defendants such as Lee, since it is well documented that many jurors are willing to acquit those charged with a first-time, non-violent drug offense, despite evidence of guilt. See id. (quoting Lawrence D. Bobo & Victor Thompson, Racialized Mass Incarceration: Poverty, Prejudice, and Punishment, in Doing Race: 21 Essays for the 21st Century 343 (Hazel R. Markus & Paula Moya eds., 2010)). This possibility, at least according to many of this nations founders, is not a defect, but a feature of the jury system. See, e.g., 2 John Adams, The Works of John Adams 25455 (1850) (It is not only [the jurors] right, but his duty . . . to find the verdict according to his own best understanding, judgment, and conscience, though in direct opposition to the direction of the court. (Diary Entry, February 12, 1771)). Indeed, the unreviewable power of juries to acquit, despite strong evidence of guilt, was perhaps the central reason why the right to a jury trial in criminal cases was enshrined in the Constitution. See Rachel E. Barkow, Criminal Trials, in The Heritage Guide to the Constitution 340, 34041 (David F. Forte & Matthew Spalding, eds. 2nd ed. 2014). For the framers and ratifiers, the memory of how King George III had prevented colonial juries from nullifying unpopular English laws by expand[ing] the jurisdiction of nonjury courts was still fresh. Id. at 340. And one of the grievances listed in the Declaration of Independence was that the King had depriv[ed] us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury. Declaration of Independence para. 20 (U.S. 1776). It is thus not surprising that nearly all commentators active during the time of the founding favored the inclusion in the new Constitution of the right to a jury trial. See, e.g., The Federalist No. 83, at 43233 (Alexander Hamilton) (The Gideon ed., George W. Carey & James McClellan eds., Liberty Fund 2001) (The friends and adversaries of the plan of the convention, if they agree in nothing else, concur at least in the value they set upon the trial by jury.).

June 8, 2016 at 12:25 PM | Permalink

Comments

"But our duty is neither to prosecute nor to pardon; it is simply to say 'what the law is.' Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137,

177 (1803)."

OUCH !

I encountered an evil , rogue tyrant (ERT) who managed to be appointed to a trial court ; who consistently refused to follow the rule of law , including Marbury's what the law is .

It would be nice to know the ratio of Undercover LEO's:Users/Dealers .

Kindly , Nemo Me Impune Lacessit

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Over the course of the last six months, we've heard a lot about what politicians think of the homeless who live on San Francisco's streets. What we haven't heard so much of, on the other hand, is what those experiencing homelessness think of their elected officials. Well, Vice took the time to ask a few people living on the streets how they'd be voting in today's election, and while unfortunately the questions were limited to the national election and didn't address local politics, the results are still fascinating.

The publication spoke with six different people representing a wide range of backgrounds. There's 51-year-old Christine Saulsbury, a San Francisco native who became homeless after being evicted from her home; 60-year-old Megan Sue Belafonte, who has been homeless since she lost her home six months ago to foreclosure; 39-year-old Allier Rodriguez, who works but can't afford to live in SF and therefor stays in a shelter. These people and others shared with the publication and eloquently spoke of the challenges they face.

In response to a question asking who 58-year-old Linda Jones, a former social worker and current sex worker, believed would best be able to help the homeless, she made her support for Clinton clear. "Hillary," she noted. "Democrats, one of their platforms has always been to help the homeless."

Thirty-nine year old Daniel Aldrich, on the other hand, is a Sanders man. "Even though Sanders may have some different viewpoints than I do, he is trying to reach across the social Grand Canyon in this city," observed Aldrich. "There is no middle class in this city, and there's no bridge in the social gap in this city."

"It's like we're moving toward a caste system," he added. "Sanders would be a representative for homeless people. We're a nation of exiles."

Rodriguez also backs Sanders, noting that he thinks "Sanders will be more for the low-income [people] than Hillary. Hillary seems more mainstream, meaning that if [the] mainstream doesn't think it's cool to help the homeless, then that's what she'll side with."

Galandrahon Shambhala, 29, is backing no one. "Trump, Clinton, Sanders it's the same thing," he told Vice. "You can't vote for anyone to bring you the salvation you want."

While that may be true, elected city officials do have a say on how the roughly $241 million a year the city spends to combat homelessness is spent  you can bet those living on the streets are paying attention.

Related: Are You Going To Vote Today? Here's What You Need To Know.
In a move that surprised many, on Tuesday San Francisco's Board of Supervisors approved legislation that hit amateur hotelier platforms in their soft and tender parts  and even SF's Airbnb-friendly Mayor is powerless to stop its enforcement.

Though companies like Airbnb, VRBO, and the like are notoriously non-transparent regarding data on their hosts, it's estimated that over a fifth of the revenue Airbnb makes in San Francisco come from listings that violate SF law. The company, itself, admitted in early April that around 20 percent of its SF properties were posted by people who were listing multiple units, which is against SF laws.

But though the company vowed to crack down on scofflaws, that wasn't enough for Supervisors David Campos and Aaron Peskin, who a few weeks after Airbnb's admission proposed legislation fining the company as much as $1000 per day for every rental unit that had not been registered with the city, as has been required for the past year.

As the legislation gathered support earlier this month, word from the Mayor Ed Lee's office seemed to suggest that he might veto the law. Lee, who has opposed attempts to regulate Airbnb and others in its industry in the past, "will consider the legislation when it reaches his desk," a mayoral spokesperson said, but warned that "Its important to remember that voters rejected this and other short-term rental restrictions just last year."

As it turns out, Lee won't have to consider anything, though! On Tuesday the full Board of Supes unanimously passed the legislation, 10-0. It was "a somewhat surprising move," 48 Hills reported, with even "Scott Wiener - who has always sided with Airbnb in the past" voting in favor after asking for an amendment calling for SF's Office of Short-Term Rental Enforcement to make it easier for hosts to register. (Supe Mark Farrell recused himself from the vote, the Ex reports, "citing business interests he has with the short-term rental industry.")

With 10 votes in favor of the legislation, it has a veto-proof majority, and can't be blocked by Lee. But that didn't stop his spokesperson from crankily telling SFist that "The mayor continues to be concerned about how this new law will stand up to a legal challenge, however, he supports streamlining the process to make it easier for hosts to register and comply with the law."

According to Airbnb's own records, in early April there were 9,500 listings for short-term rentals in SF, listed by 7,046 unique hosts. At that same time, there were only 1,647 registration applications from all users of short-term rental platforms, making as many as 75 percent of Airbnb's SF listings in violation of this new law.

According to a SF Budget Analyst's report from May of last year, between 925 and 1,960 of SF's residential units are kept vacant by owners who instead rent them out full time on Airbnb. In fact, SocketSite reports, "an estimated 26.1 percent of listings for un-hosted stays appear to have been rented for more than 90 nights a year, with a median of 180 nights, which violates the Citys 90-night cap."

So you can see why Airbnb might be freaking out, as this law means fines that SocketSite believes "could theoretically total over $5 million a day." Given that Business Insider reported in December that the company isn't "yet turning a profit," any move to cut their business must be very upsetting for them!

And upset they were in a statement sent following the vote:

An estimated 1,200 San Franciscans avoided foreclosure or eviction by hosting on Airbnb, and this legally-questionable proposal puts their housing at risk without offering any real solutions to fix the complex process. The board acknowledged that the registration system is broken and, in order to help people to be able to stay in their homes, The City needs to fix it. We hope the board will act to fix this broken registration system, and we are considering all options to stand up for our community and keep fighting for real reform.

The office of SF's City Attorney, however, doesn't seem worried about these "options." Despite a letter sent to the city by tech lobbying group CALinnovates that claims that the law would violate the Communications Decency Act, which seeks to protect platforms that host online content, Deputy City Attorney Jon Givner says that This ordinance does not regulate the content of any posted information on the website of a hosting platform."

"Rather, it regulates the business activities of the hosting platforms. It extends the type of information they must collect in order to engage in booking services and doesnt regulate the content of the website.

According to the Ex, the new law requires "short-term rental websites to post registration numbers on listings or email the number and name of the host to the Office of Short-Term Rentals." If the agents with the city see rentals that appear not to be registered on platforms like Airbnb, "the listing services would be required to respond with details about those properties within one business day or face fines," the Chron reports, with the fine revenue going toward SF's affordable housing efforts. The new law also requires that the Office of Short-Term Rentals provide quarterly reports on its enforcement.

The legislation will take effect, reports the Ex, in about 30 days, so if you're an as-yet unregistered hoist, better get cracking.

Related: Study: Airbnb Makes Over A Fifth Of Its SF Revenue From Illegal Units

Airbnb Reveals 20% Of SF Listings Are By Hosts Listing Multiple Homes, Vows Crackdown
In these Troubled San Francisco Times, there is a lot of talk about who was here when, and what that does (or doesn't) mean. In an effort to both assist newcomers and take long-time residents down memory lane, we present to you Ask a San Francisco Native, a column penned by SF native and longtime SFist contributor Rain Jokinen, which is inspired by a similar one on our sister site Gothamist, and is intended to put to rest all those questions only a native of this city can answer. Send yours here!



Dear Rain,

I'm so confused by Fisherman's Wharf! Everyone I know makes fun of it for its tourist shops and shitty restaurants (Hooters! Bubba Gumps!). But isn't the Buena Vista there, and doesn't the entire area have some sort of historic relevance? I thought San Franciscans love history! So what's the deal, is the Wharf a place all the cool people despise, or is there more to it?

Thanks,

Wharf Wary

Dear WW,

I'm going to make a confession: I love Fisherman's Wharf!

Well, perhaps I should clarify that: I love a lot of Fisherman's Wharf.

You are correct that there are tons of tourist shops down there, all selling the same t-shirts and plastic crap from China. And there are also a lot of shitty chain restaurants, including Applebee's and Bubba Gump's; (the Hooters shut down a couple years back).

But I have really fond childhood memories of venturing down to Fisherman's Wharf and Ghirardelli Square every summer when my grandmother would come to town. I was too young back then to have any Irish coffees at the Buena Vista, (I've made up for it since then with plenty of adult visits), but we did have dinner at the Magic Pan restaurant, which had amazing views of the Bay, or we'd buy crabs from the rows of vendors that are working out there at the end of Taylor street. (For a while, it really was the best place to buy fresh crab.)

You are also correct in saying there's a lot of San Francisco history to be found in the Wharf. But I'm not just talking about hearkening back to when it actually was a huge working wharf; I'm talking about being able to see a bit of mid-century modern San Francisco, an era that is surprisingly unpreserved elsewhere in town. I mean, why would any city decide to tear this down and replace it with a Marriott??

At least we still have Fisherman's Grotto no. 9, which has been there in some form since 1935. Parts of it haven't changed since the 1960s. The downstairs restaurant (called the Venetian Coffee Shop) has booths that look like gondolas.

And the upstairs dining room has one of the best old bars in town, with swiveling blue leather chairs and bar stools, a fish tank, and a fireplace. I've also never seen the bar area crowded, which to me is a good thing. (And the drinks are stiff and relatively cheap.)

Sabella and La Torre is another great old school restaurant on Taylor Street, with some amazing murals, and menus that talk. (Well, you have to provide the voice, but the menu does feature a cartoon fish waiter with an animated mouth.)

The Franciscan, which was built in the 1950's (and remodeled recently) is just a drop dead gorgeous building. Photos of movie stars that have probably never been near the place line the stairway leading into it, and the 20-foot windows provide cinematic views of the Bay, (barring any fog, of course).

As you may have noticed, I haven't really talked about the food at any of these restaurants. At one time, Fisherman's Wharf was simply the best place in the City to eat fresh seafood. That's no longer the case. Yes, much of the cuisine offered there is overpriced and mediocre. But sometimes that doesn't matter if it means you can dine in an atmosphere that feels like you've stepped back in time, to an era where tourists wore dresses and suits, and not "Property of Alcatraz" sweatshirts.

The area is also home to Musee Mechanique, the new Gold Dust Lounge, sea lions, and a Keane Eyes gallery. But, it's true, Fisherman's Wharf is filled with SO many tourists, SO many crappy stores, and a growing number of generic restaurants and buildings that it really is easy to just completely overlook the beautiful and downright cool places that still exist down there.

I love the area so much I'm going to dress up like my grandmother would have in the 1950's and go have dinner at Scoma's tonight. If I wake up with this picture of Albert Scoma (R.I.P) tattooed on my back the next morning, I can call the evening a success.

Plenty of "in the know" San Francisco travel guides will continue to list Fisherman's Wharf as a place to AVOID when visiting the City. And I heartily agree. I'd love the tourists to stop going there, so we locals can take it back.

Rain Jokinen was born and raised in San Francisco and, miraculously, still calls the city home. Her future plans include becoming a millionaire, buying a condo complex, and then tearing it down to replace it with a dive bar. You can ask this native San Franciscan your questions here.
Were you one of the roughly 185,000 people that, according to the SF Department of Elections, voted in San Francisco yesterday? If so, when you entered the voting booth you were presented with a host of state and local propositions that could potentially have a huge impact on everything from police accountability to affordable housing. Let's take a look at the results.

Proposition A  Public Health and Safety Bond (Passed)

Passing with just shy of 80 percent of the vote, local measure A means San Francisco will issue $350 million in general obligation bonds with the multifaceted goal of making seismic improvements to both SFFD buildings and homeless service centers, and building an ambulance deployment center. This measure easily cleared the two-thirds majority of votes threshold it needed to pass.

Proposition B  Park, Recreation and Open Space Fund (Passed)

San Franciscans loves their parks, and despite recent apparent missteps, it appears they also love the Recreation and Parks Department. Local measure B, which give Rec and Parks "each year a minimum baseline amount from the General Fund," passed with 60 percent of the vote and means more money for the department. The Chron informs us that the measure amounts to a $3 million increase, per year over the next ten years, on top of Rec and Parks' current $64 million budget.

Proposition C  Affordable Housing Requirements (Passed)

Prop C was a local measure designed to "increase affordable housing requirements for private developers of new market-rate housing projects of 25 or more units." With the current requirement at 12 percent, the passing of the measure with over 67 percent of the vote means the amount of affordable housing developers will be forced to build into their units has more than doubled. What's more, the measure removes the requirement from the City Charter and places it in the control of the SF Board of Supervisors  meaning they can now pass ordinances to adjust the percent of affordable housing required in future developments. The measure was written by Supervisors Aaron Peskin and Jane Kim, and according to the Chronicle ups the 25 percent number to 33 percent if the affordable units are built at a separate location.

Proposition D  Office of Citizen Complaints Investigations (Passed)

With numerous high-profile police shootings in the city's rear-view mirror, the overwhelming passage of local measure D with 80 percent of the vote is perhaps not a huge surprise. The proposition requires that "the Office of Citizen Complaints investigate any incident occurring within the City in which a San Francisco police officer fires a gun killing or physically injuring someone," and was the work of Supervisor Malia Cohen. The Chronicle observes that prior to the passage of this measure, a complaint had to be filed for there to be an investigation. The police union came out in support of this measure.

Proposition E  Paid Sick Leave (Passed)

This local measure brings San Francisco's paid sick leave policy in line with state policy, "without reducing the Paid Sick Leave Ordinances coverage." The passage of E expands the legal uses of paid sick leave for San Francisco employees  it passed with 78 percent of the vote.

Proposition 50  Suspension of Legislators (Passed)

This state measure passed with almost 84 percent of the vote, and allows the state legislature to suspend fellow members  without pay or benefits.

Proposition AA  San Francisco Bay Clean Water, Pollution Prevention and Habitat Restoration Program (Passed)

The passage of this district measure allows for a parcel tax of $12 per year, with the goal of funding protections for the San Francisco Bay in the form of "reducing trash, pollution and harmful toxins, improving water quality, restoring habitat for fish, birds and wildlife, protecting communities from floods, and increasing shoreline public access." Twenty-five million is expected to be raised annually over the course of the next 20 years.

Related: How Are San Francisco's Homeless Voting Today?
Crews currently working to clear I-80 eb TI exit. Expect delays on bridge. pic.twitter.com/hyn3fri7ax  CHP San Francisco (@CHPSanFrancisco) June 7, 2016

Yesterday's theft of a SFFD ambulance and subsequent police chase and crash has investigators scratching their heads as to just how, exactly, the thief managed to drive off with the vehicle.

In conversation with ABC 7, a spokesperson with SFFD explained that starting those things up isn't a simple as turning the key. "You have to push a button, use your foot on a brake, and move the key into the drive position in order to put the transmission into a functioning drive position," SFFD's Jonathan Baxter explained to the channel. "So that's a lot of feature for somebody off the street to know."

Apparently the ambulances are set up in a certain way that makes them difficult to steal  even if left running there is no clearly marked way to put them into drive. "So this is a very rare occurrence first of all, this doesn't happen every day," San Francisco police Officer Carlos Manfredi explained to ABC 7.

And yet.

It all started yesterday when two paramedics responding to an emergency call left their ambulance parked outside of the Ambassador Hotel at 55 Mason Street. They went inside to treat a patient, but when they returned outside at roughly 8:00 a.m. the ride was gone.

Police quickly tracked the stolen ambulance using a tracking feature in the ride, the Chronicle reports, and were soon in hot pursuit across the Bay Bridge. Attempting to take a quick exit at Treasure Island, the woman driving the ride crashed it  she reportedly climbed out around 8:10 as it was bursting into flames.

It is not clear at this time if the doors to the ambulance were locked, or if it was left running, but as the driver's side window was broken investigators think the thief may have smashed the window to gain entrance to the car (or it could have just broken in the crash).

The $225,000 ambulance was severely damaged by the crash and fire. The woman, taken into custody, was not seriously injured.

Previously: Stolen Ambulance Wrecks, Catches Fire On Treasure Island Following Police Chase
Voters in Wisconsin may be surprised to learn they havent had an incumbent U.S. senator in Washington during the six years Republican Sen. Ron Johnson has been in office.

And they dont have to take my word for it.

Thats actually a boast made by Johnsons campaign organization in a recent memo attempting to draw a distinction between Johnsons lack of accomplishments in Washington and the far more substantive record of his Democratic opponent, former Sen. Russ Feingold.

Bernie Sanders. Donald Trump. Ted Cruz, reads the memo reported in The New York Times. They all have one thing in common: They are all considered outsiders. And so is Ron Johnson. Ron continues to be the outsider in this raceand Senator Feingold is still essentially the three-term incumbent.

It has to be the first time in election history a sitting United States senator has ever publicly denied being an incumbent senator representing the interests of the voters in his state.

But the memo also is surprisingly truthful. Johnson really hasnt represented Wisconsin for the past six years. The only interests hes represented in Washington are his own as a wealthy right-wing businessman.

The little-known Johnson upset three-term incumbent Feingold in the tea party backlash election of 2010. It was the midterm protest by right-wing voters livid over the election of the nations first African American president.

And that was pretty much the last many Wisconsin voters heard of Johnson. Six years later, Johnson remains relatively unknown in his own state like many of the other extremist Republican senators elected that year.

Who Is Ron Johnson?

Morning Consult, a national polling operation, recently reported Johnson and eight other Republican senators up for re-election this year are among the least-known members of the United States Senate in their own states.

When voters in those states were asked whether they approved or disapproved of the jobs those senators were doing, roughly 30% said they didnt know enough about their senators to form an opinion.

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Thats why Johnson, along with Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk, Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey and North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr, are considered among the incumbents most likely to be defeated and flip control of the U.S. Senate to Democrats.

The fact that so many Wisconsin voters know so little about Johnson is surprising in a state so polarized by recalls and the divisive, extreme policies of Gov. Scott Walker that voter participation and intensity are among the highest in the nation.

Yet in the most recent statewide Marquette Law School poll on the Senate race, less than a third, 32%, had a favorable impression of Johnson and a nearly equal percentage, 31%, had an unfavorable impression. The greatest percentage, 36%, didnt know enough about Johnson to respond.

That bizarre Johnson memo denying hes an incumbent senator is part of a phony cover story Republicans use to explain Donald Trump winning their partys presidential nomination: This is the Year of the Outsider.

But Trump didnt win the presumptive nomination because hes an outsider. Trump won the nomination by openly feeding upon the racial and religious bigotry that establishment Republicans themselves intentionally welcomed into their party to gain votes from uneducated whites opposed to civil rights.

Party leaders just tried to be less obvious in their racist appeals to avoid alienating anyone who wasnt an uneducated white male bigot. But Trump had no such qualms about openly courting white supremacists. I love the poorly educated! Trump crowed.

The 12th of Never has come early as Republicans now scamper to support their vile candidate like rats running the wrong way to board a sinking ship. House Speaker Paul Ryans public show of withholding support from an unqualified, unprincipled nominee lasted less than a month.

Johnson continued reinventing the English language, announcing he supports the reprehensible Trump, but that he doesnt endorse him. Its Johnsons version of Alices Restaurant, where you can get anything you want.

The problem with Johnsons fraudulent claim about being a Washington outsider, of course, is that outsiders dont get anything done. But then as an anti-government right-wing extremist, Johnson actually takes pride in not doing anything during his six years in office to ease economic suffering in Wisconsin.

Johnson has consistently voted against job creation, unemployment benefits for people thrown out of work and food assistance for hungry families.

One of Johnsons few independent actions as a U.S. senator was to file a lawsuit to try to deny the benefits of Obamacare to his own office staff. A Republican-appointed federal judge quickly threw out the lawsuit, noting the absurdity of Johnsons claim he was somehow harmed by his employees receiving a government benefit.

Johnson is so eager not to be an incumbent senator, Wisconsin should do its part and end Johnsons six-year Senate vacancy. Re-electing Feingold would once again give Wisconsin two U.S. senators serving their constituents like all the other states have.
 Expand Photo by Doug Seymour

The title of Nineteen Thirteens new album, Music for Time Travel, is all about how sound recording can become a bridge between eras. For starters, the duos Janet Schiff explains that she feels like time traveling when I hook my cello [crafted in 1913] to the new technology of looping, delays and distortion.

Clinching the concept, however, is the albums lone cover. Nineteen Thirteens rendition of George Gershwins Summertime is based on a 1961 home recording of the cellists grandmother, Marguerite Schiff a well-known Milwaukee organist in those days. Nineteen Thirteens other half, percussionist Victor DeLorenzo, explains: I thought, What if we took Margys recording and built a song around it? I transferred the tape into Pro Tools and we began building an arrangement. The final version includes contributions by a pair of guest musicians, Rob Wassermans deeply reverberant bass and a jaw-dropping vocal by Monia that turns the muggy melody into material for a Southern gothic.

Most of Time Travels tracks are instrumentals, and most of those were originally composed and recorded for a dance concert by Cooperative Performance Milwaukee, A Womans Place, which depicts an insane asylum for women in 19th-century Wisconsin. Perhaps the productions theme endowed those pieces with a pensiveness and tension sustained by long-drawn notes on cello and percussion rattling like tin cups on barred windows. Nineteen Thirteen might have a future in soundtracks for scary movies.

However, Time Travel includes many moods. Bye Bye is a happily whimsical tip of the hat to David Bowie while A Joyous Return suggests a lost 70s track by Bowies collaborator, Brian Eno.

Originally a trio, Nineteen Thirteen has performed for more than a year as a duo featuring DeLorenzo, a founding member of The Violent Femmes, and the Wisconsin Conservatory-trained Schiff. Guest stars are added as the occasion demands. We get along so well and its easy to travel, Schiff says of the logistics. We can fit my cello and Victors drums in my VW.

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Nineteen Thirteen opens for the Avett Brothers, Friday, June 10 at 8 p.m. at the BMO Harris Pavilion.
Woody Allen finally decided to see the world after decades of focusing on a certain borough of New York City. Never fear: The Manhattan vacuum has been filled by a new generation of filmmakers who set their lenses on the Big Apples intelligentsia. Among them, director Rebecca Miller, whose latest, Maggies Plan, centers around the romantic tangles of 30-something academics at The New School and Columbia.

Greta Gerwig stars as Maggie, a career counselor for art majors (an amusing notion) who might benefit from some relationship counseling. Obsessed with her own emotional hygiene, she fears committing to a man but wants a child desperately. Maggie resolves to buy sperm from an old college friend who abandoned mathematics for making artisanal pickles. But she encounters a handsome, frustrated ficto-critical anthropologist, John (Ethan Hawke). Pretty soon hes showing her his novel in progress. Pretty soon they fall in lovebut there is the glacial obstacle of Johns wife Georgette (Julianne Moore), an intimidating tenured professor who thinks with the precision of a sharpened scalpel and speaks in clipped trans-Northern European accents.

Similarities with Allens oeuvre abound. Maggies Plan is accompanied by old-time music (albeit from 1960s Jamaica, not 1920s New Orleans) and is constructed from a sequence of conversations. The discussions occur on the wintry Manhattan streets, on park benches and hallways of The New School, or in the designer condos and bohemian flats of its characters. Hawke gives a granular, nuanced performance as an intellectual of working-class origins who finds himself bonded to two quite different women. Moore is memorably high-strung while Gerwig is believably quotidian as the girl from Wisconsin who wants to bring order to the unruly illogic of human emotions. All of them, even the terrifying Georgette, are sympathetic in their flaws.

The trios emotional entanglement is the engine driving the plot, but the film is at least as interesting (and funny) for investigating the narcissism of artists and academics and gently spoofing their pretensions. Maggies Plan is a witty, low-key comedy of manners in a milieu Woody Allen thoroughly investigated in the late 20th century. But along with contemporary references, the story differs from Annie Hall or Manhattan by placing Maggie as the center of gravity. The romantic-sexual-intellectual landscape is shown from a womans point of view, a perspective Allen can be forgiven for not having.

Maggies Plan

Greta Gerwig

Ethan Hawke

Directed by Rebecca Miller

Rated R
Youd be forgiven if you have given up following the many twists and turns in the John Doe investigations into Gov. Scott Walkers alleged links to conservative groups and mega-donors. But youd be wise to continue paying attention.

As it stands now, the Wisconsin Supreme Court shut down the John Doe investigation, declared that candidates have a First Amendment right to coordinate with allegedly independent dark-money groups such as the Wisconsin Club for Growth and fired the special prosecutor who was leading the investigation. Then, the court decided to hold onto the sealed documents gathered in the case to preserve the John Doe investigations secrecy.

After Special Prosecutor Francis Schmitz was fired, the three district attorneys involved in the John Doe casesMilwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm, Iowa County District Attorney Larry Nelson and Dane County Attorney Ismael Ozanneasked to step in so that they could appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The DAs received that permission and have filed their appeal, arguing that two Wisconsin Supreme Court justicesMichael Gableman and David Prossershould have recused themselves because they benefitted from campaign spending by those under investigation. However, as many as four members of the state Supreme Court benefitted from right-wing groups spending, totaling more than $10 million.

In addition, the DAs say that the justices ruling on campaign finance coordination was wrong, since Wisconsin law at the time of Walkers actions prohibited such coordination. Walkers Republican allies in the Legislature passed a law legalizing much of his conduct, so now candidates can coordinate in secret on phony issue ads that are campaign ads in disguise.

But while were waiting to hear if the U.S. Supreme Court will take the prosecutors case, other John Doe-related cases are making their way through the court systemand theyre worth your attention.

Lisa Graves, executive director of the Madison-based Center for Media and Democracy, said the John Doe investigations and the attempts to shut them down in the courts show just how corrupt Wisconsin has become.

I personally think that there is manifest evidence of corruption at the highest levels of government here in more than one branch of government, Graves told the Shepherd. I think many people in Wisconsin know that theres corruption and are deeply concerned about it and rightly so.

Cindy Archers Case Tossed

At the end of May, U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman dismissed the case brought by longtime Walker aide Cindy Archer, who sued Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm and four members of his office. Archer argued that they violated her rights when they requested a search warrant of her Madison home to seize articles related to her work for Walker in Milwaukee County. She said her house was raided because Chisholm wanted to retaliate against her for her alliance with Walker and her support of the union-busting Act 10.

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Archer received immunity, was never charged with a crime and she said shell appeal the decision dismissing her case.

Matt Rothschild, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, said that Archers suit actually hurt the John Doe foes more than it helped them.

This decision blows Cindy Archers case out of the water, Rothschild said. It destroys the allegation that the investigation was improper and it exposes more information about Walker coordinating with Wisconsin Club for Growth, which, as Adelman points out, the statutes in Wisconsin said was illegal. By bringing this lawsuit forward Archer has brought into evidence more facts that show Walker was skating on really thin legal advice.

In her original complaint, Archer made wild allegations about the conduct of those who searched her home. When Archer opened the door, her complaint reads, officers and others flooded in, throwing the warrant at her without giving her an opportunity to read it. Their guns were drawn, and Archer believed they would shoot her two dogs, who were barking at the intruders.

But when the DAs released the audio of the search, they directly refuted Archers allegations. She then edited them out of her revised complaint.

That said, Adelman found that the search warrant was properly served, it wasnt overly broad, the judge who signed the warrant was neutral and unbiased, no misconduct transpired during the raid and that Archers rights were not violated.

Adelman also wrote that the prosecutors were entitled to immunity from prosecution while theyre doing their job investigating public corruption. The first John Doe investigation into Walkers affairs resulted in convictions of six Walker aides and political allies, Adelman noted.

Allowing those under investigation to file suit against prosecutors could intimidate the prosecutors into dropping a case, Adelman wrote.

Adelman wrote that subjects of the investigation Archer was complaining aboutthat would be Archer, Walker and their right-wing allieshad significant resources and were willing to bring numerous lawsuits in an attempt to shut the investigation down. It is not an overstatement to say that the opponents of the investigation made it very difficult for the defendants to proceed. Besieging public officials with lawsuits is precisely the kind of activity that can inhibit if not intimidate an official and cause her to refrain from taking action which, however justified, might engender more lawsuits.

Evidence of Bid-Rigging?

Adelman also lays out the prosecutors reasons for searching Archers home and in doing so shines more light on Walkers conduct as Milwaukee County executive.

According to the September 2011 search warrant, the prosecutors state that they were looking for evidence related to two county contract bidsone for a county lease at the Reuss Federal Plaza in Downtown Milwaukee, another to privatize custodial services at the Courthouse.

In both cases, documents and emails indicate Archer was among the Walker aides who sent confidential information to John Hiller, Walkers campaign treasurer, who had business ties to two bidders. The office lease ultimately wasnt given to Hillers client, the Boerke Company, but the housekeeping contract was awarded to Mid American Building Services, which was connected to Hiller.

Hiller, a commercial real estate agent who also had a consulting business, made more than $110,000 from the companies involved in these deals, according to the September 2011 search warrant. Interestingly, principals of both Boerke Company and Mid American were on the Friends of Scott Walker campaign finance committee and both made donations to his campaign, the search warrant alleges.

Chisholm didnt charge anyone in these cases, but Adelman wrote that doesnt mean a crime wasnt committed by those leaking confidential information about the bids. Wisconsin law does not require that a dishonest advantage actually be obtained, only that a public employee act with intent to obtain a dishonest advantage.

In other words, Chisholm could have charged Archer but didnt.

Wisconsin Court Withholds Documents from DAs

In addition, in what can be considered a rebuke of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Adelman said he would hang on to the documents in the Archer case, since he couldnt guarantee that the prosecutors could access the documents if they were filed in the Wisconsin court.

Adelman pointed out the Wisconsin justices refused to allow a private law firm which sought to represent Chisholm, Nelson and Ozanne in their U.S. Supreme Court appeal to review the documents. The DAs are representing themselves pro bono. In addition, the state Supreme Court refused to grant them access to the documents by allowing them to intervene in the larger John Doe casetwice.

Adelman said he has no choice but to keep the documents in the Archer case to ensure that Chisholm and his team could access them if or when the case is appealed.

The [Wisconsin Supreme] court has not actually agreed to allow the parties in the present case access to the materials, stating only that the documents might potentially be released, and the court has not set forth any procedure by which the parties could seek access to the materials, Adelman wrote. Based on the courts unwillingness to address the issue of access to documents in any meaningful way, it is entirely possible that once the defendants turn over the materials, they could permanently lose the chance to access them for use in this litigation.

In a separate John Doe case, in 2014 conservative U.S. District Judge Rudolph Randa had ordered all of the documents destroyeda virtually unprecedented decision that was quickly reversed by an appeals court.

CMDs Graves, an attorney, said Randas order to destroy evidence and the Wisconsin courts decision to deny the prosecutors access to documents was extraordinary.

These groups [fighting the John Doe] have been gunning to destroy the evidence from the get-go, Graves said. And the extraordinary intervention by this Wisconsin Supreme Court in trying to restrict the rights of the prosecutors to appeal by restricting their ability to confer with counsel, or even to be paid, is exceptional. I certainly think the decision by Adelman is the correct one.
[UPDATE: The Mental Health Board's finance committee will hear public testimony on the Behavioral Health Division budget at its next meeting, which will be held at 1:30 p.m. on June 16, at the Milwaukee County Mental Health Complex, 9455 Watertown Plank Road, conference room 1045.]

When the Milwaukee County Mental Health Board was formed by state legislation in 2014, it was spun as a way to put appointed behavioral health professionals in charge of the countys mental health and substance abuse services as the county moved to a community-based system.

But those professionals and the public seem to have limited impact on Milwaukee Countys Behavioral Health Divisions (BHD) budget.

In its first budget cycle, for the 2015 budget, the board wasnt allowed to offer any amendments to the budget crafted by the Chris Abele administration.

In the boards second budget cycle, just two amendments were offered up for the 2016 budget. The board ultimately rejected money set aside for a staff member to provide them with independent information by a single vote. Another amendment to fund round-the-clock crisis centers on the North Side and South Side passed. But Abele partially vetoed that amendment so that the services would be provided on the North Side only.

Now, the board is working its way through the 2017 budget. But board membersand interested members of the communitysay they are still grappling with the process.

Mary Neubauer, who represents the Milwaukee Mental Health Task Force on the board, said she doesnt have enough information about the details of the budget.

Its ridiculous, Neubauer told the Shepherd. I continue to be frustrated with the budget. We were told it would be different in 2016.

A Different Process

The Mental Health Board follows a unique budget process. It receives a recommended budget from the Abele administration for the Behavioral Health Division, adds amendments, and sends the final budget to Abele. Its property tax levy, according to state law, must remain between $53 million and $65 million. Its current property tax levy is $59 million and its overall budget is $188 million.

Abele can change anything in the boards budget and the board apparently cannot veto any of his edits. Abele then includes the BHD budget in the overall county budget. The Board of Supervisors cannot change the BHDs budget through amendments.

This year, the board attempted to include more public input in its proposed budget. But that outreach has had mixed results.

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In March, the public was allowed to provide input on the 2017 budget. But there was no 2017 budget for community members to comment ona subject of frustration during the meeting. Instead, much of the testimony was from residents of the Uncas Park neighborhood, who raised concerns about the countys group home there, and requests to make the board more engaged with the community.

The public had a secondand finalopportunity to speak on the budget at the May 26 Mental Health Board finance committee meeting.

But the Abele administration released its overview of the 2017 budget just 28 hours before the hearing. Whats more, that overview contained little information for the publicand board membersto respond to.

Randy Oleszak, fiscal administrator for BHD, reported that BHD was facing a $2.7 million deficit in the coming year, since Abele did not want the board to raise property taxes. The news of the deficit seemed surprising, since previous budget updates indicated that there would be a surplus going into 2017.

Abeles Health and Human Services Director Hector Colon makes his formal budget presentation to the finance committee on June 16. It goes to the full board for approval on June 23.

But Neubauer and fellow board member Brenda Wesley said they had been told conflicting information about how to craft budget amendments. In addition, the board lacks a staff member, making it difficult for volunteer board members to draft an amendment, identify the cost of the amendment and how it would impact the county tax levy, they said.

We are making huge decisions that impact the community, Wesley said. But how do we make an informed decision when we dont have anyone providing us with independent information?

Neubauer and Wesley said they would like to provide more money for community services, which is the overall goal of the board. They said additional funds were needed for substance abuse treatment, mobile crisis units, 24-7 staffing of North Side and South Side crisis centers, and the Warmline, a non-crisis support line for individuals needing help with a mental health issue. They said adding a policy research analyst for the board was essential. They also want another public hearing on the 2017 budget.

They also questioned the contract awarded to Matt Talbot Recovery Services for the Uncas Avenue group home, saying the board didnt have adequate information when it was up for a vote, as well as the $430,000 no-bid contract awarded in April to Kane Communications for PR and employee engagement.

Neubauer and Wesley said Kane Communications didnt reach out to the communityespecially communities of colorto let them know about the May 26 budget hearing. It was sparsely attended and just 12 individuals spoke.

There really are no efforts to have a socially or culturally intelligent conversations at all, Wesley said of the public outreach. Were looking at providing major services to a community that is largely of color.

Kane Communications Kimberly Kane didnt respond to the Shepherds request to comment for this article.

[UPDATE: Regarding her community outreach efforts to notify the public of opportunities to speak out about the budget, Kane emailed: "All MHB notices are sent out via E-Notify, noticed in the Daily Reporter, posted on the MHB web page, in the glass meeting notice case downtown in the Courthouse first floor corridor, and in the glass case in the lobby/security area of BHD."]

Duncan Shrout, the new Mental Health Board chair, told the Shepherd the board could do a better job of involving the public in the budget process, but that will have to wait for the 2018 budget cycle.

We are at the end of the public process, Shrout said.

He said the board should make the community more aware of the opportunities to comment on the budget.

While a number of people spoke [at the May 26 public meeting], it seemed to me that most of the suggestions or recommendations were not about the budget, Shrout said.

That said, the public testimony seems to be having an impact. Shrout said hed support an amendment to provide the board with an independent policy researcher, as well as additional funds to increase payments to substance abuse treatment providersa suggestion made at the May 26 hearing by Amy Lindner, president and CEO of Meta House, which operates treatment centers for women struggling with addiction. Milwaukee County hasnt raised its rates paid to these providers in more than a decade, Lindner testified.
Wisconsin Brewing Co. in Verona has another addition to its growing roster of beers it is producing for other brewing companies and this one is a big hitter from a small Midwestern city.

WBC officials announced Tuesday that it will begin brewing Dorthy's New World Lager, the flagship beer from Toppling Goliath Brewing Co. in Decorah, Iowa. Topping Goliath, known for it Pseudosue, an American pale ale, is considered one of the top beer makers in the country, is rapidly expanding its distribution and is about to break ground on a $10 million expansion project.

In 2015, the company signed an agreement with Brew Hub, a contract brewing company in Lakeland, Florida, but the agreement with Wisconsin Brewing Co. will further add to the Toppling Goliath's production capabilities.

Weve had a relationship with Wisconsin Brewing for some time; weve shared a few beers together and really hit it off, said Clark Lewey, Toppling Goliath's president and founder. Theyve built a state-of-the-art facility and their quality control is phenomenal. We felt the best way to expand our distribution into Wisconsin was to brew in Wisconsin.

Toppling Goliath was founded by Lewey and his wife, Barb, in 2009 after they experimented with home brewing in their garage. That led to the creation of a nano brewery where they brewed three times a day on a half-barrel system. They later added a used 10 barrel brewhouse but now have a four-vessel, 30-barrel system, and a high-tech packaging line but still have struggled to keep up with demand. The expansion project will add a 100 barrel brewing system and could be ready to begin brewing in 2017, according to published reports.

Working with our sister-state, Clark and the team at Toppling Goliath will leverage opportunities for both breweries, Carl Nolen, president and CEO of Wisconsin Brewing Company, said. As we look to the future, were considering cross promoting new beers especially made for beer lovers in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa. Were really proud to be working with Toppling Goliath and looking forward to many new projects together.

The addition of Toppling Goliath beefs up of the production at WBC, founded in 2013 in a 21,000 square-foot state-of-the-art facility in the Verona Commerce Park. In 2015, the brewery, with an 80 barrel brewhouse, produced about 13,000 barrels of beer but that number is to surely grow with the company's own brews and with contracts with what is now three other brewing companies.

In April, Small Town Brewery of Wauconda, Illinois, announced it had contracted with WBC to be the exclusive brewer for a 10.7 percent alcohol-by-volume version of Not Your Father's Root Beer. The beer will ultimately be available on draft in restaurants and bars across the country and in limited edition 22-ounce bomber bottles. In October, WBC announced a deal to brew Old Tankard Ale on contract for San Antonio-based Pabst Brewing Co. Under the terms of that agreement, WBC is brewing the ale to be sold initially in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota and Michigan, before rolling out to more states in the future.
Chads caddish ways continued on The Bachelorette Monday night.

In addition to ripping Evans shirt, he squared off with JoJo and questioned her motives in giving Evan a rose after a chaotic day at the house (and a comedy club).

He steamed through several talks and told cameras no one would ever pick Evan.

That riled the other bachelors and gave Evan, the erectile dysfunction specialist, a moment of smug satisfaction.

Daniel, the previous man most likely to be hated, told Chad he needed to cool the attitude, particularly since he was beginning to look like Hitler or Trump and that made him bad by association.

Back in the dating pool, James got to learn how to swing dance with JoJo and got a bit of alone time. In a vintage car, he confessed he was a goofy-looking kid with very little confidence in himself. She boosted his ego and offered him a rose.

Back at the house, Evan pulled host Chris Harrison aside and told him a number of bachelors felt threatened by Chad and his steroidal behavior.

Chris said he took those claims serious and talked privately with Evan, encouraging him to diffuse the situation.

He went back in the house and Mondays episode ended.

On Tuesdays, the drama continued and Chad (who looked like he was wearing some kind of hair extensions) bullied the rest, making them fearful to even talk to the hot-headed body builder. While they appeared to enjoy a pool party, the tension escalated.

It lasted so long, The Bachelorette managed to squeeze two hours out of Chads short fuse. When JoJo took Alex and Chad on an outdoor date, Alex opened up, told him the truth and she sent Chad packing (at 8:58, no less). He steamed and stomped around like a serial killer.

He scared the guys back at the house, too, and hinted that he wasnt going to go away quietly.

Meanwhile, it looks like Jordan Rodgers is the man to beat. The two had pretty good chemistry (come on, she jumped on him) and seemed to be more affectionate than any of the others.

The future? Weve got to wait two weeks to find out where the supervillain of The Bachelorette winds up.
SIOUX CITY | Perry Antonopoulos not only greets his customers by name, the Harvey's restaurant owner can often guess what regulars want to eat before they place an order.

"People like certain things that are familiar to them," he said. "If you can cook consistent, made-to-order comfort food, you will always have a nice business."

This has been Antonopoulos' philosophy ever since he and his wife Janet purchased the popular Riverside restaurant, at 5307 Military Road, in May 1988.

"It was always my dream to open my own restaurant," said Antonopoulos, a native of Greece. "When (former owner) Harvey Beavers told me he was putting the restaurant up for sale, we jumped at the chance to buy it."

Not only did the couple buy the restaurant, they also kept its name, menu and much of its staff.

"I worked for Harvey for two years and have worked for Perry ever since," said Tammy Beavers, a waitress and Beavers' cousin. "Perry is the one who has kept the restaurant going after all that time."

The restaurant's menu has changed very little in more than 28 years. The most popular meals continue to be Harvey's hamburger (made with hand-patted, fresh ground beef and topped with American cheese) and the hot beef special (sliced beef served on white bread with mashed potatoes smothered with a homemade gravy).

Longtime customer David Barngrover said he's a fan of Antonopoulos' soups while his wife loves the restaurant's classic breakfast special -- two eggs, hash brown potatoes, toast and choice of meat.

"My wife is particular about how she likes her eggs but Perry makes it right every time," Barngrover said. "Nothing is ever pre-made in his kitchen."

That includes the made-to-order pancakes which are larger than any of the restaurant's plates as well as the menu items which reflect Antonopoulos' heritage.

"We are famous for our gyros," Antonopoulos said of the Greek dish made from meat cooked in a vertical rotisserie. "People can't get enough of it."

Antonopoulos said the majority of his Greek-inspired dishes are sold at Greek to Me, a 5714 Sunnybrook Drive eatery he purchased a few years ago.

"Greek to Me is when you can get all types of Greek comfort foods," he said. "At Harvey's, we serve all types of foods."

That's the formula Antonopoulos has had since day one.

"It isn't easy keeping a small, locally-owned restaurant going but we do," he said. "What makes this restaurant going is the people. Our customers and staff make Harvey's such a nice place."

Watching diners enjoy their meals during a busy lunch rush, Antonopoulos smiled.

"There's something very comfortable about a neighborhood restaurant," he said. "I've always looked at Harvey's as being the pride of Riverside and I'm hoping that will remain the case for many years to come."
LE MARS, Iowa | Gary Horton won the District 5 Republican race Tuesday for the Plymouth County Board of Supervisors.

Horton received 1,131, or about 61 percent, of 1,856 total votes. Republican Dan Smith received 724, or about 39 percent. There was one write-in vote.

District 5, on the western border of Le Mars, includes the cities of Akron, Brunsville, Merrill, Struble and Westfield.

"I'm really looking forward to serving the citizens of Plymouth County," Horton said Tuesday night.

Horton succeeds incumbent District 5 supervisor Jim Henrich, who chose not to seek re-election this year.

The 57-year-old Akron resident defeated Smith, 62, of Merrill, a contractor with Hamilton Smith Construction, who served 15 years on the Le Mars School Board and eight years on the Merrill City Council.

Horton, who is the Akron city administrator, said he will retire from his current position in October.

As a Plymouth County supervisor, Horton wants to focus on economic development and cost-sharing opportunities between the county and cities.

"I think those are a couple of the key things I'm going to want to look at," Horton said. "It will take a while to soak up everything as far as operations work at that county level."
ELK POINT, South Dakota | Michael Dailey, of Jefferson, secured his spot on the Republican ticket in the race for a spot on the Union County, South Dakota, county commission Tuesday, winning the nomination by an 18-percent margin.

The 54-year-old farmer won 89 of the 151 votes cast Tuesday, or about 59 percent. His opponent, 45-year-old business developer Steven Nelson, of Elk Point, received 41 percent of the vote.

Dailey will move on to challenge Democratic incumbent Doyle Karpen, of Jefferson, in the Nov. 8 election to represent Union County's District 2.

"Theres a lot of unhappy people in the county here about the way things have been going ... and I decided that I was going to jump into it and do the best I can," Dailey said Tuesday. I am thrilled about winning the primary and am going to carry it right on through to the general election."

In Union County's District 4 race, Kevin Joffer, R-Elk Point, ran unopposed. Also running unopposed were Republicans Myron Hertel, of Elk Point, for county treasurer; Jerry Miller, of Burbank, for state's attorney; and Jim Christenson, of McCook Lake, for county coroner.
SIOUX CITY | Brushing aside a challenge from a fellow Republican for the first time in his 14-year career, U.S. Rep. Steve King romped to a victory over state Sen. Rick Bertrand Tuesday night.

With 93 percent of precincts in the sprawling 4th District reporting, King led 65 percent to 35 percent. Republicans hold a significant voter registration advantage over Democrats in the district.

Bertrand, of Sioux City, framed the race on King's effectiveness and likability.

King, of Kiron, said he liked the way voters responded Tuesday.

"It feels good. The first thought, it is that gratitude to the people of the 4th District," King said in an interview from Washington, D.C., where he spent election night after casting his own vote in Odebolt early Tuesday morning.

King, who was first elected to the U.S. House in 2002, won in both rural and urban areas in the 39-county district in northwest and north-central Iowa.

In populous Woodbury County, King received 3,385 votes for 56 percent, while Bertrand got 2,620 votes. Bertrand represents Sioux City in the state Senate and is also a businessman and commercial developer.

In Sioux County, the state's most Republican county, King took 70 percent of the vote. King also won Story County, where the county seat, Ames, is home to Iowa State University.

In May, soon after Bertrand entered the race, King told the Journal the long-shot challenge would prove to "be viewed as a big waste of time and money."

He doubled down on that thought Tuesday, saying, "The resources and time could have been used for good rather than division."

Bertrand did not return repeated calls to the Journal Tuesday night.

Bertrand, who became the first Republican in 30 years to win a state Senate district in Sioux City in 2010, entered the 4th District race in late March, later than any of the other candidates in the Iowa congressional districts.

One reason Bertrand sought the Republican congressional primary battle was because King caused a stir 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, in order to defend an industry that is so important to the state.

King countered that powerful interests -- including Bruce Rastetter, a major agribusiness and Republican donor, and GOP strategist Nick Ryan -- were out to find a Republican to oust him in the June primary.

Bertrand said he would have the vigor and resources to knock off the veteran King. However, his campaign stops didn't typically draw large crowds, and some observers said he should have aired tougher rhetoric against King.

Bertrand had expectations of large fundraising. King brought in $110,193 from April 1 to May 18, compared to $52,727 for Bertrand during the same Federal Election Commission filing period. After spending, Bertrand's campaign had $34,473 cash on hand at the end of the reporting period, compared to King's $217,704 ending cash balance.

Other groups also spent on behalf of Bertrand, including advertisements produced by American Future Fund Political Action and Iowa Progress Project.

King after his win noted that he didn't run any campaign ads on television, radio or other media.

"We just let my work speak for itself," he said.

Both men defined them as conservatives. King piled up endorsements of the state's top elected heavyweights, essentially all notable Republicans except Gov. Terry Branstad. U.S. Sens. Charles Grassley and Joni Ernst, Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds and Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey were in the King camp.

The two candidates participated once in a public debate, on Friday in Sioux City, where Bertrand again leveled the charge that King was ineffective.

"I am going there to run a specific agenda that is outlined by Iowans. Right now, we have a congressman who believes he is untouchable," Bertrand said.
SIOUX CITY | Brushing aside a challenge from a fellow Republican for the first time in his 14-year career, U.S. Rep. Steve King romped to a victory over state Sen. Rick Bertrand Tuesday night.

With 93 percent of precincts in the sprawling 4th District reporting, King led 65 percent to 35 percent. Republicans hold a significant voter registration advantage over Democrats in the district.

Bertrand, of Sioux City, framed the race on King's effectiveness and likability.

King, of Kiron, said he liked the way voters responded Tuesday.

"It feels good. The first thought, it is that gratitude to the people of the 4th District," King said in an interview from Washington, D.C., where he spent election night after casting his own vote in Odebolt early Tuesday morning.

King, who was first elected to the U.S. House in 2002, won in both rural and urban areas in the 39-county district in northwest and north-central Iowa.

In populous Woodbury County, King received 3,385 votes for 56 percent, while Bertrand got 2,620 votes. Bertrand represents Sioux City in the state Senate and is also a businessman and commercial developer.

In Sioux County, the state's most Republican county, King took 70 percent of the vote. King also won Story County, where the county seat, Ames, is home to Iowa State University.

In May, soon after Bertrand entered the race, King told the Journal the long-shot challenge would prove to "be viewed as a big waste of time and money."

He doubled down on that thought Tuesday, saying, "The resources and time could have been used for good rather than division."

Bertrand did not return repeated calls to the Journal Tuesday night.

Bertrand, who became the first Republican in 30 years to win a state Senate district in Sioux City in 2010, entered the 4th District race in late March, later than any of the other candidates in the Iowa congressional districts.

One reason Bertrand sought the Republican congressional primary battle was because King caused a stir 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, in order to defend an industry that is so important to the state.

King countered that powerful interests -- including Bruce Rastetter, a major agribusiness and Republican donor, and GOP strategist Nick Ryan -- were out to find a Republican to oust him in the June primary.

Bertrand said he would have the vigor and resources to knock off the veteran King. However, his campaign stops didn't typically draw large crowds, and some observers said he should have aired tougher rhetoric against King.

Bertrand had expectations of large fundraising. King brought in $110,193 from April 1 to May 18, compared to $52,727 for Bertrand during the same Federal Election Commission filing period. After spending, Bertrand's campaign had $34,473 cash on hand at the end of the reporting period, compared to King's $217,704 ending cash balance.

Other groups also spent on behalf of Bertrand, including advertisements produced by American Future Fund Political Action and Iowa Progress Project.

King after his win noted that he didn't run any campaign ads on television, radio or other media.

"We just let my work speak for itself," he said.

Both men defined them as conservatives. King piled up endorsements of the state's top elected heavyweights, essentially all notable Republicans except Gov. Terry Branstad. U.S. Sens. Charles Grassley and Joni Ernst, Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds and Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey were in the King camp.

The two candidates participated once in a public debate, on Friday in Sioux City, where Bertrand again leveled the charge that King was ineffective.
LAWTON, Iowa | The Lawton City Council on Tuesday voted unanimously to terminate city clerk Douglas Furlich, who was charged last week with trying to set up a sexual encounter with an underage boy.

City attorney Glenn Metcalf said no interim clerk was appointed, and council members will cover office duties until Furlich's replacement is hired.

Furlich, 61, was arrested Thursday in South Sioux City on a charge of sexual assault through use of an electronic communication device after attempting to meet what he believed was a 15-year-old boy for sex.

On Tuesday, Judge Kurt Rager bound Furlich over to Dakota County District Court and set his arraignment for July 20. Rager also continued Furlich's $250,000 bond.

According to court documents, Furlich posted an ad titled "Looking for a younger guy" on Craigslist under the "casual encounters" section.

Pretending to be a minor, Nebraska State Patrol officers contacted Furlich through the ad via text messages. In the text conversations, Furlich discussed meeting who he thought was a 15-year-old for sex, and described in detail his preferences.

According to court documents, Furlich came to Crystal Cove Park in South Sioux City Thursday after texting the officer posing as the minor that he was picking up condoms.

Furlich was approached by authorities, and admitted he was conversing with the undercover officer, but said he did not think the meeting would actually result in sex.
SIOUX CITY | With no incumbents running in one district, it was a given that the Woodbury County Board of Supervisors would have one new member next year.

Voters on Tuesday ensured that there will be at least two new board members after Democrats chose Marty Pottebaum over incumbent Mark Monson. Pottebaum unseated Monson, who was seeking a fourth four-year term representing District 3, by winning 60 percent of the vote for the 1,291-855 final margin.

In a Republican race for a Woodbury County supervisor post, Sioux City Councilman Keith Radig defeated former councilman John Fitch. And, a GOP race for a third seat on the board is headed for a special nominating convention after none of the seven candidates Tuesday exceeded the 35 percent threshold required under state law.

Pottebaum, a retired Sioux City police officer and former Sioux City city councilman, said Democrats he spoke to during his campaign seemed to believe Monson lacked the leadership to continue on the board.

"A lot of them were just upset with Mark," Pottebaum said.

Pottebaum had challenged Monson because the supervisor has often sided with the board's two Republican members rather than the other two Democrats on the board in the past two years.

Monson said he is proud of his accomplishments on the board.

"I'm pleased with what I've don in the last 12 years, and I've changed county government. We've gone in a new direction, which was needed," Monson said.

The win gives Pottebaum a potentially unopposed path to a fourth four-year term on the board. There were no candidates on the Republican side of the ballot, though the party could still nominate someone to run in the November general election.

In the Republican primary for the District 1 seat, Radig received 54 percent of the vote to defeat Fitch 2,811-2,339. Radig will face Democratic incumbent Jackie Smith, who was unopposed and is seeking her third four-year term.

"I think a lot of it has to do with my name recognition and hard work, my work on the council," Radig said of his win.

He said he'll focus on his vision for Woodbury County as he tries to unseat Smith.

"I'm going to bring forward my own vision, and I'll focus on that," Radig said.

In the District 5 Republican primary, Gary Niles, of rural Sioux City, received the most votes of the seven candidates seeking the nomination, gaining 23 percent of the total with 1,157 votes. Rocky De Witt, of Lawton, had the second-highest vote total at 1,070, or 21 percent.

Totals for the other five candidates were Tom Verzani, Lawton, 983 votes, 19 percent; Brian McNaughton, Lawton, 808, 16 percent; Correctionville mayor Nathan Heilman, 431, 8 percent; John Van Eldik, rural Sioux City, 295, 5 percent; and Bruce Hokel, rural Sioux City, 234, 4 percent.

Woodbury County Republican Party Chairman Kevin Alons said a convention to choose the nominee would likely be in about two weeks.

The winner will meet Democrat Bruce Garbe, who was unopposed Tuesday.

The District 5 seat is currently held by Democrat Larry Clausen, who is retiring after 34 years on the board.
ELK POINT, S.D. | A Republican state House race in southeast South Dakota appeared headed Tuesday night for a possible recount.

In unofficial results, incumbent Rep. David Anderson of Hudson claimed one of two GOP spots in House District 16 on the November general election ballot. The second place finisher was still up in the air, with Bill Shorma, of Dakota Dunes, and Kevin Jensen, of Canton, separated by just 35 votes.

The district includes all of Union County and part of Lincoln County. With all precincts reporting, Anderson led with 1,116 votes, or 40.5 percent. Jensen was second with 874 votes, or just over 30 percent, while Shorma had 839 votes, or 29 percent.

Anderson and the eventual second place finisher will advance to face Democratic candidates Ted Curry, of Elk Point, and Ann Tornberg, of Beresford. Curry and Tornberg were unopposed in Tuesday's primary.

Anderson carried his home county of Lincoln with nearly 50 percent of its votes, while Shorma claimed the most votes in his home county of Union with nearly 42 percent.

In South Dakota House District 18, which covers Yankton County, Democrats David Allen and Peter Rossiter, both of Yankton, advanced to the November election.

Allen gathered 692 votes, or 42.64 percent, while Rossiter received 605 votes, or 37.28 percent. Christopher Svarstad, also of Yankton, finished third with 326 votes, or 20.09 percent.

No Republican candidates filed in District 18. The two incumbents, Reps. Jean Hunhoff and Mike Stevens, both Democrats from Yankton, did not run for re-election.

In South Dakota, voters elect two state representatives and one state senator from each of the 35 legislative districts.

Other races in the general election in those areas include Democrat Chad Skiles, of Canton, and Republican Jim Bolin, of Canton, for Senate District 16. Senate District 17 will be between Democrat Shane Merrill, of Parker, and incumbent Rep. Arthur Rusch, R-Vermillion.

Senate District 18 features Democrat Craig Kennedy, of Yankton. Incumbent Sen. Bernie Hunhoff, D-Yankton, is not running for re-election.
SIOUX CITY | U.S. Rep. Steve King fended off a fellow Republican challenger in a congressional primary Tuesday, amassing 65 percent of the vote and carrying each of the district's 39 counties.

King handily won over GOP challenger Rick Bertrand, even in Woodbury County, where Bertrand represents a state senate district and is a Sioux City businessman and commercial developer.

King's dominance was so distinct that he took 70 percent or more of the vote in 13 counties in Northwest and North Central Iowa, with a high of 79.6 percent in Harrison County, and no less than 60 percent of the vote in only six counties.

But some political observers suggest the 35 percent of the vote the little-known Bertrand captured, after an abbreviated 82-day campaign, is a sign of King's weakness in the district, where registered Republican voters outnumber Democrats.

"Bertrand didnt run a very good or well-financed campaign," Pat Rynard, a former Democratic campaign staffer, wrote in his Starting Line political blog. "If an ambitious Republican had more time and better fundraising connections, they could put together a serious challenge to King in the future."

In his blog post, Rynard credited Craig Robinson, a former political director of the state Republican Party, and the founder and contributor to the Iowa Republican blog, for the observation that King's margin of victory showed a sign of vulnerability for the seven-term incumbent.

Rynard and Robinson appeared on a Des Moines TV station Tuesday night where, Robinson, according to Rynard, said that "by not completely blowing Bertrand out (like a 80-20 victory), it demonstrated there was real frustration with King in the district, especially in Sioux City, the largest population center."

Bradley Best, a political science professor at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, which is part of the 4th District, said there was "enough movement in Tuesday's primary electorate to cause King to reassess the position he's taken on a key position or two."

"I think we've seen the prelude to a more concerted challenge for the Republican nomination in the Fourth District," Best said in a text Wednesday.

King received 28,872 votes Tuesday, while Bertrand took 15,719 votes, a difference of13,153.

In Sioux County, Iowa's most Republican county, he won 70 percent, while in neighboring Plymouth he totaled 57.8 percent.

Bertrand performed best in Cherokee County, where he took 47.1 percent.

The Sioux City Republican framed the race on King's effectiveness and likability over the years since he first was elected in 2002.

King said voters rejected Bertrand's message. After the race was called Tuesday night, the Kiron Republican doubled down on his prediction that Bertrand's challenge would prove to "be viewed as a big waste of time and money."

"The resources and time could have been used for good rather than division," King told the Journal in an interview from Washington.

For the second straight day, Bertrand did not return repeated calls to the Journal Wednesday.

Bertrand, who became the first Republican in 30 years to win a state Senate district in Sioux City in 2010, entered the 4th District race in late March, later than any of the other candidates in the Iowa congressional districts.
Hulse is doing what she believes to be right. If you want to call her something, call her an example to landowners whose property is along the route of Navigator's proposed CO2 pipeline. She wants others like her to know they're not powerless.
DES MOINES | Patty Judge, a former lieutenant governor and state ag secretary, won a four-way Democratic primary election Tuesday, giving her the right to challenge longtime Republican incumbent Chuck Grassley for one of Iowas seats in the U.S. Senate.

I am the Judge that Chuck Grassley cant ignore, Judge said in her victory speech late Tuesday in Des Moines.

Judge, a retired farmer from Albia, won what amounted to a two-way primary race, edging state legislator Rob Hogg while attorney Tom Fiegen and veterans advocate Bob Krause lagged far behind.

The Associated Press called the race for Judge late Tuesday evening.

At 11 p.m., with 87 percent of precincts reporting, Judge had 47 percent of the vote to Hoggs 38 percent, according to official results on the Iowa Secretary of States website.

Fiegen and Krause both were at 7 percent.

Using her name recognition advantage as a former lieutenant governor, state secretary of agriculture and state senator, Judge earned her partys nomination and the right to face Grassley, a six-term incumbent, in Iowas 2016 U.S. Senate race this fall.

Hes been in Washington way too long, Judge said. Its time for government to start working for us. Tonight we took the first step in making government work again.

Judge, 72, performed well in Iowas rural counties, while Hogg, 49, a 14-year veteran of the Iowa Legislature and a current state senator, was strongest in the urban areas.

Shortly after she entered the race in March, Judge was endorsed by the Democratic Partys national committee that works to elect Democrats to the U.S. Senate. She also was the primarys best fundraiser: she raised nearly $370,000 in roughly 2 months, while Hogg raised just more than $250,000 over the course of 10 months.

Together, we are going to win in November. And now its time to party, Judge said.

Hogg ran an active, grassroots campaign, traveling across the state to hold dozens of meetings. He was endorsed by the states largest labor groups.

Im proud of the campaign we ran. We had a lot of grassroots enthusiasm and we ran a race focused on Iowans, Hogg said Tuesday night. Obviously were disappointed because we came a little short.

Hogg said he supports Judge wholeheartedly in the general election, and said he believes Congress needs new leaders.

We badly need Congress to work again, Hogg said. I look forward to voting for Patty Judge (in November).

Grassley has been re-elected by Iowans five times, never by fewer than 30 percentage points and each time garnering at least 60 percent of the vote.

But Democrats believe Grassley is vulnerable this year, largely because of two issues: Grassleys stand with Senate Republican leadership to not hold confirmation hearings on President Barack Obamas nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court vacancy, and the potential down-ballot impact of presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump.

In a statement issued Tuesday night, Grassley campaign manager Robert Haus suggested Judge failed to garner widespread support from Iowa Democrats, particularly those interested in labor, environmental and agricultural issues.

Members of these key constituencies voted against Patty Judge for clear reasons, and she will need to spend considerable time and resources to try to win back the support of those that remain hostile to her candidacy, Haus said in the statement, adding, Iowans know what she did when she had control in Iowa. They shudder at what she'll do if she's sent to Washington, D.C.
Real estate has always been one of Americas most lively industries. Every year, some two million licensed agents and 86,000 brokerage firms work day and night to move billions of dollars worth of commercial and residential properties. Bearing that in mind, its not difficult to imagine why so many young professionals flock to join the industry.

But it takes a lot of hard work and meticulous organization in order to achieve success in real estate. Thats something Tyler Smith, founder and CEO of industry game-changer SkySlope, found out the hard way.

When I was 19, my friend and I decided to buy a house, he says. We had no expectations of what home buying should look like. We found a house, made an offer, and get this: our Realtor advised us to forgo a warranty and a home inspection to save some money.

In hindsight, that was some pretty awful advice. Immediately after closing on the deal, Smiths new hot water heater broke down and ended up costing more in repairs than it would have taken to purchase a home inspection and a home warranty.

The awful experience convinced Smith that if his Realtor could offer that sort of customer service and still make a huge chunk of change, anyone could make it in the real estate industry.

Real estate seemed like a no brainer, he says. I figured I could do it better, and it seemed pretty easy.

That being said, the industry was a bit harder to crack than Smith has initially hoped.

I laugh now because getting into real estate turned out to be harder than I thought, he says. But eventually, I figured out how to leverage business by building relationships. Customer service turned out to be the gift that keeps on giving; give white glove service to people, and they cant help but refer you. I built my entire business on this principal.

The business Smith refers to is SkySlope  a rapidly growing B2B software as a service (SaaS) platform that helps real estate agents and brokerages effectively manage their transactions online.

Real Estate Broker Software

Since its inception in 2010, SkySlope has grown by leaps and bounds. The companys business has more than doubled in size over the last 12 months, and now helps to manage the transactions for some of Americas largest brokerages. Century 21, Keller Williams and Alain Pinel have all fallen head-over-heels for SkySlopes ever-expanding pool of offerings.

That being said, SkySlope wasnt built in a day  and it took Smith quite a while in order to assemble the perfect team to address the industry concerns that had plagued his own time selling real estate.

As a Realtor, I needed my business to be accessible to my team and at my fingertips, no matter where I was, he says. Plus, giant paper files are cumbersome and archaic.

In my search to be super-efficient, I literally tried every application on the market. To be honest, I spent a lot of money, and in the end, none of them were robust enough. Similar to my outlook on getting into real estate, I figured I could create a platform that could handle transaction management and I could do it better than what was being offered.

SkySlopes team of cutting-edge developers were able to achieve those goals in record time. But from there, Smith said he was surprised to find just how challenging it would be to ensure that his new, game-changing software actually took off.

I laugh now because I had no idea the amount of work and people power it would take to produce, sell, onboard and support a product like SkySlope, Smith says.

But once Smith and his small team were able to build a bit of momentum, the ball started rolling fast.

Fast-forward a couple of years, and SkySlope is now home to 70 employees. Based in sunny Sacramento, the company has already established poll position as the real estate industrys leading SaaS provider  and its not hard to see why.

We are a service that helps brokerages bring value to their agents, Smith says. By streamlining, digitizing and storing transactions, we allow agents to spend their time on their clients and prospecting, which in turn helps brokerage be more successful.

That service has already proven invaluable to small, independent brokerages in helping them to establish unbeatable levels of customer service. In turn, small business owners are drastically improving their competitiveness over the real estate industrys global giants.

Small brokers have to show that they are on the leading edge of the industry, Smith says. Providing services like transaction management software and transaction coordination help the boutique brokerages compete with the big corporate brokerages.

See Also: ADP Introduces Instant TIPS to Manage Small Business Gratuities

Yes, there is a cost associated with these services, but thats the cost of doing business. Small brokers may be hands-on, but are they helping their agents be more efficient and effective? If small brokers are providing value, then they will have loyal agents and they will be prosperous.

At the end of the day, its this notion of providing great value that drives Smith and his ambitions for SkySlope. After all, the real estate industry is ever-changing  and the SkySlope CEO is well aware that his companys services must continue to evolve, too.

Currently, SkySlope is working on streamlining our product and making it more intuitive. Once we tackle that, we want to start building full automation into the software, Smith says. I want SkySlope to be the Tesla of real estate software  fully automated, extremely accurate, luxurious and accessible.

According to Smith, full automation is undeniably where the industry is heading. And by simplifying procedures for bustling brokerages, real estate experts will be able to free up their time in order to offer more support to hard-working agents on the ground.

I love real estate, and I loved being a Realtor. I dont want to see the industry collapse under the weight of technology, Smith says. We have to leverage the technology that is rendering real estate less valuable, pivot, and implement value in a different way.

I think agents who are providing phenomenal, over the top customer service are going to thrive.
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
Graduation ceremonies for the county's seven public high schools were held June 2-4 at the Charles County Public Schools Convocation Center. La Plata High School staff and Board of Education members handed out 326 diplomas to the second largest Charles County Public Schools senior class in a graduation ceremony held June 4. La Plata's Class of 2016 earned more than $9 million in scholarship offers. Pictured are La Plata graduates Cole Baucom, left, and James Barton, right.

LA PLATA, Md.

(June 7, 2016)Seniors from La Plata High School graduated on Saturday, June 4 in a ceremony that hosted the second largest Class of 2016 for Charles County Public Schools. A total of 326 graduates walked across the stage at the Charles County Public Schools Convocation Center.The ceremony was filled with laughter and moments of remembrance as student class leaders reflected upon their high school careers and celebrated their futures to come.La Plata High School senior class president Kristopher Lukas is salutatorian of the Class of 2016 and brought greetings to graduates and guests. He plans to attend the University of North Caroline at Chapel Hill to study biomedical sciences.Lukas reminded his peers to remember those who helped them reach this point in their lives. "It is important not to forget anyone who got us to this point. We are like a symphony in a way... and the grand masterpiece is before you today. We each have our own part... us as the players and the faculty as our conductors. We have crossed over to the path of success," Lukas said.Class valedictorian T.C. Martin, who told his peers for years that a longtime goal of his was to lead his class as the top student achiever, gave a heartfelt speech to his fellow graduates. "Let us support each other in whatever it is we decide to do. As we reflect on the past four years at La Plata High School, we know we are a class that helps one another succeed. We push each to do better, to be better," Martin said.Martin is attending Yale University in the fall and plans to major in Spanish and modern middle east studies.This was the first high school graduation for La Plata Principal Douglass Dolan. In comments to his senior class, Dolan thanked the Class of 2016 for their commitment to academics and school spirit."Thank you for making my first year at La Plata a success. When I looked up the definition of warrior I found it as a person who shows great rigor or courage. This class embodies those ideals in the best way possible. And I might add the characteristic of perseverance too," Dolan said.La Plata's Class of 2016 earned more than $9 million in scholarship offers with additional offers to come. The La Plata ceremony marked the sixth high school graduation ceremony hosted by Charles County Public Schools at the Convocation Center June 2-4.Photos from all graduation ceremonies will be posted on the school system website this week at http://www.ccboe.com/graduation2016.php.
At the May 10 bill signing, Senate President Mike Miller, Gov. Larry Hogan and House Speaker Michael Busch. (Photo: Governor's Office)

COLUMBIA, Md.

(June 7, 2016)With the media's typical focus on controversy and drama, a big story at the end of May was that Gov. Larry Hogan vetoed five bills for policy reasons, sometimes with harsh language.The really big news is how many bills Hogan signed (621) and the unusually large number (84) he allowed to become law without his signature. Some of those signed and unsigned bills had run into fierce opposition by Republican legislators. A few certainly violated Hogan's own governing principlesespecially his opposition to new mandated spending and increased business regulation.While Democrats in the legislature would love to portray Hogan as a conservative Republican obstructionist, he has actually given them little to justify their grousing.Hogan did veto about 122 pieces of duplicate legislationa common practice for bills that were the same as ones he signed and passed by the opposite chamber of the legislature. (Many pieces of legislation are "crossfiled"the same bill is introduced in the House and Senate to allow a parallel process of committee hearing and votes to occur, increasing the likelihood of passage since both chambers have ample time to consider them.)Here's the scorecard.The 188 legislators introduced 2,817 bills, hundreds of them duplicates. Of those, 834 bills passed both houses and were sent to Hogan for his approval, including more than130 duplicates. This means the legislature rejected 70% of the bills introduced.Of the 30% it passed, Hogan vetoed seven, less than 1%. This is not complicated arithmetic. Legislators have even complained at the administration's lack of involvement and testimony on many bills. But that hasn't prevented them from passing them, and it doesn't mean the governor won't go along with them once they pass.Here are some pieces of legislation that became law, despite Hogan's governing principles and opposition by a majority of Republican lawmakers.Hogan signed the Freedom to Vote Act, HB 1007 , requiring most state agencies to set up electronic voter registration for clients, including welfare and food stamp recipients. Sponsored by virtually every Democrat in the House, who favor as many people voting as possible, the bill was opposed by most Republican delegates, though it got a unanimous vote in the Senate.Hogan also signed a bill increasing the number of early voting sites, HB 1008 , which many Republicans view as a waste of money and a move that favors Democrats. Most GOP delegates opposed the bill; again, GOP senators went along.Republicans in both houses sought to amend the Equal Pay for Equal Work Act, HB1003 , claiming it could have a serious impact on some small businesses. Among the problems they saw with the bill was that there was no limitation on how far back a worker could claim wage discrimination.The bill allows workers to talk about their pay without retribution by the employer. Discrimination in pay based on race or gender was already illegal, but the bill added new coverage for the transgendered.Almost every Republican legislator voted against the equal pay legislation, after losing battles on amendments in both houses. Hogan signed it May 19.In an another business related bill, Maryland Small Business Retirement Savings Program and Trust, SB1007 HB1378 , sets up state-run retirement accounts for small businesses. There was some opposition by House Republicans, unanimous support in the Senate, and Hogan signed the bill May 10. He also signed the Contraception Equity Act, SB848 HB1005 , banning insurance copayments for contraceptive prescriptions and devices. There was some Republican opposition in both Houses.Then there was the College Affordability Act, SB676 HB1014 . Making college more affordable and reducing student debt seems like something everyone can support, but this bill were certain veto-baitbecause not only did these bills increase tax credits for student debt, but they mandated state contributions of $250 per student into college savings plans, costing up to $10 million a year, by 2020. Hogan has sought to reduce mandated state spending without much success, and he has opposed new spending mandates since they tie the governor's hands in controlling the budget.Again, most Republicans in the House and Senate opposed the College Affordability Act after failing to reduce its costs. Yet, Hogan let the bills become law without his signature.These and the other bills had veto-proof majorities; they got enough Democratic votes when they passed to override any Hogan veto, if he did so.These are just a few examples of a number of bills Hogan signed or allowed to become law that violated his own priorities or were opposed by substantial numbers of Republican legislators.The seven bills Hogan chose to reject passed by similar super majorities, enough to override a veto. Even though his vetoes might get overridden, as all of them have been so far, the Republican governor picks his fights carefully.But when he chooses to fight legislation, he does so with rhetorical guns blazing.In the case of the proposed Maryland Transit Administration Oversight and Planning Board (HB1010), Hogan said its provisions "represent a sophomoric attack on sound transportation policy by creating an unprecedented imposition of a politically-driven board to second-guess the authority of an executive branch agency."There are already three advisory boards for the agency which runs mass transit, commuter buses and the MARC trains. On top of everything, it "requires the administration to produce several reports and surveys at a cost of $7.3 million in fiscal 2017 alone. These funds would surely be better used to provide transit service to Maryland residents instead of supporting an unnecessary bureaucracy."On his veto of Clean Energy Jobs (SB921) requiring more use of renewable sources such as solar, Hogan reasoning was simple: "This legislation is a tax increase that will be levied on every single electricity ratepayer in Maryland." Sponsors emphasized that it would only cost $1 to $1.50 per month for most households, but the impact on businesses small and large was much greater.Overall, Hogan has been very, very selective on the legislation he chooses to veto. Based on his own overarching goals to reduce taxes, business regulations and mandated spending, he could have vetoed a lot more bills this year. But he didn't.Hogan gets no credit from Democrats for signing things they support; they feel they're entitled. Some Republicans give him no credit for a smooth budget process with no new taxes; they fault him not cutting more taxes or more of the budget.Hogan clearly hopes the electorate will appreciate his efforts to steer a middle course with the Democrat-dominated legislature.
21-year-old Jamual Toye of Silver Hill Court in Forestville. (Arrest photo via PGPD)

UPPER MARLBORO, Md.

(June 8, 2016)A school resource officer is credited with spotting the suspect wanted for a recent homicide in Temple Hills. The suspect, 21-year-old Jamual Toye of Silver Hill Court in Forestville, was walking toward a shopping center around 8:00 am Tuesday in the 7000 block of Allentown Road. The Prince George's Co. Police Dept. Homicide Unit had a warrant for Toye for the fatal shooting of 24-year-old Timothy Turner on Allentown Road on May 16th.The school resource officer, Corporal Myron Young, was in his cruiser when he first saw Toye. He immediately called for backup officers while keeping an eye on the suspect. Moments later, Toye boarded a Metrobus. Corporal Young and additional officers followed the bus for about a mile before pulling it over. Corporal Young and a second officer boarded the bus. Toye threw a drink at Corporal Young and managed to jump off the bus. Toye ran a short distance and tossed a gun before being taken into custody by another officer in the 3400 block of Brinkley Road.Toye is charged with first and second degree murder. Preliminarily, the motive for the fatal shooting appears to be a drug-related robbery. He's in custody of the Department of Corrections on a no-bond status.Anyone with information is asked to call the Homicide Unit at 301-772-4925. Callers wishing to remain anonymous may call Crime Solvers at 1-866-411-TIPS (8477), text "PGPD plus your message" to CRIMES (274637) on your cell phone or go to www.pgcrimesolvers.com and submit a tip online.
Debra L. Pence, Tourism and Special Events chief. (Photo: Chas. Co. Gov.)

Pictured: Commissioner Amanda M. Stewart, M.Ed. (District 3); Commissioner Ken Robinson (District 1); Commissioner Bobby Rucci (District 4); Cathy Thompson, Planning and Growth Management; Commissioner President Peter F. Murphy; and Commissioner Debra M. Davis, Esq. (District 2). (Photo: Chas. Co. Gov.)

Charles County Administrator Michael D. Mallinoff, Esq., ICMA-CM announced the appointment of Debra L. Pence as chief of Tourism and Special Events. As of July 1, 2016, the Office of Tourism will move under the direction of the Department of Recreation, Parks, and Tourism. Pence will begin her employment with Charles County Government on Monday, June 20.As chief of Tourism and Special Events, Pence will be responsible for implementing marketing programs designed to increase the economic impact of tourism in Charles County. She will promote county tourism events and sites, facilitate special events designed to attract visitors, and maintain contact with area attractions and tourist/visitor services.Pence has more than 28 years of experience in special events, outreach programs, and park/museum operations. Most recently, Pence worked as director of the Museum Division at St. Mary's County Government for 12 years. She managed two fully operating, accredited park/museum sites and several county-owned auxiliary historic sites. As director, she increased attendance at these sites from 18,300 visits in 2003 to 58,000 in 2014 through enhanced capital improvements, marketing, exhibits, events, educational programming, and community partnerships. She also served as the executive director for Havre de Grace Decoy Museum from 2001 to 2004, and the Pennyroyal Area Museum from 1988 to 2001."I look forward to having Ms. Pence join our team. Her strategic planning and historic preservation experience is a valuable bonus as we move forward with historic property improvements to increase Charles County's tourism opportunities," said Director of Community Services Eileen Minnick."I am excited to join the newly formed Department of Recreation, Parks and Tourism. The divisions have great reputations for their commitment of service to the community and advancement of county facilities and attractions. It is my goal to unite and promote the county parks and recreation attractions and help to merge them with local business, and state and national park initiatives," said Pence.Pence has a master's degree in museum education from George Washington University in Washington, District of Columbia, and a bachelor's degree in recreation/environmental education from Frostburg State University in Frostburg, Maryland.Are you between the ages of six and 15, and interested in learning how to fish? The Charles County Parks Division is hosting a free fishing class at Gilbert Run Park (13140 Charles Street, Charlotte Hall) on Thursday, June 23 from 9:45 a.m. to noon.This is a great opportunity for children to learn the basics of fishing and have fun. Prior fishing experience is not needed. Bait and tackle will be provided.Pre-registration is required and class size is limited. To register, call the Gilbert Run Park office at 301-932-1083. Citizens with special needs may contact the Maryland Relay Service at 711, or Relay Service TDD: 800-735-2258.On Tuesday, June 7, the Commissioners recognized Charles County's Community Planning Program Manager Cathy Thompson for receiving Preservation Maryland's 2016 Gearhart Professional Service Award. Thompson is recognized for her leading efforts in preserving and enhancing Charles County's history.
When the Democratic Party holds its annual national convention next month, Palm Beach Countys LGBT community will be well represented.

Rand Hoch, founder and president of the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council, is a member of the DNCs platform committee. Hoch spoke to SFGN Monday morning, via telephone, about his duties on the committee.

Its an impressive process going on, said Hoch, a retired judge.

When asked how the platform committee intended to reach out to supporters of Bernie Sanders, the Vermont Independent, Hoch said it requires patience and understanding.

Its listening to their concerns, Hoch said. We as Democrats have a lot more in common than we have differences. Bernie Sanders has brought a lot of new people into the party. How we integrate those new ideas with the partys platform is what our committee will have to work on.

Hoch said that while important, the platform committee is second to the rules committee in terms of power. Former U.S. Congressman Barney Frank, a gay man, is co-chair of the DNC rules committee.

According to Hoch, Floridas delegation to the convention contains 29 delegates who identify as LGBT. Deidre Newton, a lesbian and state committeewoman for the Palm Beach County Democratic Party, is joining Hoch in Philadelphia. The Democratic National Convention is July 25-28.

Hoch said currently there is a lot of drafting of party documents. He expected the final crunch of the party platform to occur during an October meeting in Orlando.

This will be Hochs seventh Democratic National Convention. His first time was in 1976 when the party nominated Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter, who went on to become the 39th President of the U.S.
Check out this week's latest news from around the world!

National  Texas schools urged to defy transgender directive

(WO) The fight over bathroom rights for transgender students escalated in Texas on May 31 as the states lieutenant governor urged schools to defy the Obama administration while parents of transgender children accused Republican leaders of stoking intolerance and making their kids targets for bullying.

Few states are as publicly and persistently pushing back on transgender rights as Texas. Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick pledged at a press conference to support for schools that refuse to let transgender students use the bathrooms of their choice. Texas is leading an 11-state lawsuit that accuses the federal government of turning schools into laboratories for a massive social experiment.

Transgender students deserve the rights of anyone else. It does not mean they get to use the girls room if theyre a boy, Patrick said.

Parents of transgender students said Patricks comments are provoking hostilities in school hallways. Like many other Republicans across the country, Patrick says the privacy and safety of students are put at risk by letting transgender people use the bathroom that matches their gender identity.

You, specifically you, are endangering my childs life, said Ann Elder, mother of a 10-year-old transgender child near Houston. You have now told everyone in the state of Texas it is OK to harass my child.

Transgender-rights advocates say claims of bathroom rights posing a public safety risk are malicious and false. They say that 18 states and scores of cities have experienced no significant public safety problems linked to their existing laws allowing transgender people to use the bathrooms of their choice.

Patrick, a former conservative talk radio host, suggested that the Texas Legislature will take up school bathroom access in 2017. He has also asked Paxton to determine whether the Fort Worth school district  the sixth-largest in Texas  is breaking state education law with privacy rules that opponents say keeps conversations between transgender students and school officials from their parents.

International  Russian crime gangs find homosexuals to be easy blackmail targets

A St. Petersburg economist, one of their latest victims, said several men burst into the apartment where he was meeting his date. Claiming that his date was under age, they threatened to call the police and to release a video they had secretly filmed unless he paid up.

The gay rights group Vykhod, or Coming Out, said they registered 12 such attacks in St. Petersburg in 2015 and at least six more gay men have come to them so far this year. LGBT activists believe the real number is far higher and say the attacks have increased in the past two years.

Since homosexuality finds little acceptance in Russian society, many gays keep their sexual orientation hidden from their families, friends and co-workers. This makes them easy extortion targets for criminals.

Vykhod spokeswoman Nika Yuryeva said most of the recent attacks have followed the same pattern as the one seen by the St. Petersburg economist.

Alexander Loza, a legal adviser at Positive Dialogue, an organization that provides consulting services for gays, particularly those living with the HIV virus, has heard similar stories.

"Many gay people in Russia lead a double life, unwilling to disclose their sexual orientation to their family or at work," Loza said. "In the case of such setup dates, they are afraid to disclose their status, to be accused of pedophilia, and therefore they are afraid to appeal to the police."

For prominent television journalist Anton Krasovsky, coming out ended his career in Russia. He was fired after he came out on the air in 2013 and has been unable to find a job in television since.

Krasovsky said it will be a long time before gays in Russia feel protected enough to speak publicly about their sexual orientation.

Politics  Bernie Sanders and Wilson Cruz hit up WeHo drag brunch

Democratic presidential nominee Bernie Sanders made the rounds in L.A.'s West Hollywood neighborhood Sunday, stopping at popular drag brunch haunt Hamburger Mary's to shake hands and meet voters.

Accompanying Sanders was actor Wilson Cruz who took to Facebook Sunday morning to alert fans to the Vermont senator's visit.

"GOOD MORNING WEHO!" Cruz wrote. "Senator Sanders is in town and has asked me to take a walk with him. We'll be on Santa Monica Blvd in front of City Hall at 1130 AM and we'll be visiting some brunch spots! Come out and say hi!"

Cruz, 42, who is best known for his work on the 1990's TV series "My So Called Life" and "Party of Five" as well as the films "Nixon" and "Party Monster," has turned his attentions largely to LGBT activism in recent years. In 2012, he joined the staff of GLAAD as National Spokesperson and Strategic Giving Officer.

The Sanders campaign has focused largely on delegate-heavy California in recent weeks where he is neck and neck in the polls with frontrunner Hillary Clinton.

Health  Bob the drag queen encourages people to take PrEP

The most recent winner of RuPauls Drag Race, Bob the Drag Queen, is urging people to take PrEP, the anti-HIV medicine, according to PinkNews.

PrEP, or Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis drug Truvada, if taken daily, can reduce peoples chances of being infected with HIV by up to 99 percent.

Bob, in the latest HIV Beats video by the #endHIV campaign, says: Oh hey! Prepare yourself! There is a once a day pill called PrEP  its been shown to lower the risk of getting HIV by more than 90%.

Any doctor can prescribe PrEP, but not all doctors know about PrEP, she said. You can find a PrEP friendly doctor in your neighborhood by heading to getprep.greaterthan.org.

Though the drug is endorsed by the World Health Organisation and is available to at-risk gay men in a number of countries, last week NHS England ruled out a large scale roll-out for PrEP, instead funding a further two-yea trial at early implementer sites.

I never imagined I would be alive to see the day when a pill was created that could actually prevent HIV, said Stephen Fry, actor and TV host.

Fry was upset with NHS Englands decision to not commission HIV-preventing PrEP drugs: It is remarkable and thrilling to witness so tremendous an achievement, but deeply frustrating in equal measure to discover that our national health service has pointedly refused to provide it to people at significant risk of infection from HIV.

Politics  Drag Queen to run for Alabama governor

Ambrosia Starling, the drag queen from Alabama known for butting heads with anti-LGBT State Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, may end up running against Moore for Alabama Governor, Towleroad reports.

Starling, who is sticking to her drag name to protect her family, is seriously considering running for governor if Moore decides to participate in the 2018 race, as he is expected to do.

Moore was recently suspended from his Supreme Court post due to his defiance of the ruling on gay marriage, singling out professed transvestite Starling as leading the effort to remove him from the bench, even though it was a joint effort involving many people, according to the Huffington Post.

Hes going to run again for governor, Starling said, noting that he will use the controversy over marriage equality and the activism it has inspired to gain support among conservatives. Be very sure and understand this. I told the group at [a] rally, Its very possible Im handing Roy Moore the governorship on a silver platter.

If Starling does run, she will run as an independent and in drag  and will legally change her name to her drag name in order to protect her family.

Starling wants to straighten out the circus of politics, adding: If it takes a drag queen to get everyone to face the front, same direction, and listening, Ill do that.

Starling will spend the time before the race taking on the fight in Alabama that has turned to bathroom bills, which has involved legislators such as Rep. Will Ainsworth attacking transgender students.

International  British fundamentalist schools are teaching children being gay is unnatural, it has been claimed

According to Pink News, some Christian fundamentalist schools in Britain are teaching students that homosexuals are unnatural and that girls need to be submissive to men.

An investigation by the Independent spoke to former students who have exposed the schools for not preparing children for life.

Students are forced to teach themselves in order to get closer to God. The textbooks the school provided taught them that creationism was fact, women were beneath men and that homosexuality was wrong.

The definition of homosexuality in one textbook read, having unnatural sexual feelings towards one of the same sex. Homosexual activity is another of mans corruptions of Gods plan.

Children work in booths specially designed to prevent interaction with peers, and they also allegedly receive little guidance from teachers.

Former pupils report that this leaves children, especially those with disabilities, unequipped to deal with modern life.

Upon completion of the school, children are not given any formal qualifications other than a Christian certificate, hurting their chances of pursuing higher education.

No one outside of the schools knows about what happens inside them, thats why theyve been able to go on like this for so long, a former pupil reported.

The fundamentalist schools, known formally as Accelerated Christian Education schools (Ace), developed in the southern United States before expanding to other countries around the worl. Between 20 and 60 students are believed to attend each one, and more than 1,000 children worldwide are believed to currently be enrolled in one.

Health  50 men on PrEP give blood to protest FDAs policy on blood donation

50 HIV-negative men who all take PrEP, an HIV-preventative drug, came together and each donated a tube of their blood to the ongoing sculpture Blood Mirror by queer artist Jordan Eagles.

The 50 tubes of equal a pint of blood, and the donation Is a form of protest against the FDAs policy that requires that men who have sex with other men to be celibate for a year before donating blood, the Huffington Post reports.

It doesnt matter if you are gay, straight, male, female, young, old, or where in the world you were born, Eagles said. This is both an equality and a science issue, that affects us all on so many levels. We have the ability to save lives and do whats right.

Eagles blood mirror is a massive seven-foot-tall structure that allows viewers to see themselves reflected in the preserved blood of the men who have contributed to its formation.

[The policy is] bad science and it is prejudice, activist Leo Herrera said in a statement. The belief that gay men are inherently prone to disease is the equivalent to racial phrenology, striking at the fragile ability to view ourselves as healthy and clean.

On World Blood Donor Day, June 14 2006, the blood of these 50 men will be projected on NYC High Lines 14th street passage as part of a #BloodEquality event. Visitors will be able to take their pictures against the projection and show their support when it comes to donation equality for men who have sex with men.

National  leader of Honduras gay community abducted and murdered

A leader in Honduras' gay community has been buried several days after he was kidnapped and killed in the city of San Pedro Sula.

Rene Martinez, 39, was a city employee working in anti-violence outreach programs and a rising member of the National Party.

The attorney general's office said in a statement that his body showed signs of having been strangled. No motive for his murder was given.

Martinez's family said in a statement that assailants kidnapped him on Wednesday after he arrived home, forcing him into a vehicle. Family members alerted police but his body was found two days later in another neighborhood. He was buried on Saturday.

In a statement Friday, the U.S. Embassy in Honduras condemned his murder and called for a thorough investigation.

Joani Garcia, director of the National Forum on AIDS, called Martinez "one of the main defenders of lesbians, gays, transsexuals and intransexuals in the country."
Astronaut Jeff Williams works inside the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module. Credit: NASA. NASA

The hatch to BEAM was opened up again today for the second day of outfitting the expandable module to determine its habitability and durability.

BEAM, or the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, is set to demonstrate the overall performance and capability of expandable habitats for the next two years. The crew is predicted to enter BEAM between 12 and 14 times during its stay.

Three Expedition 46-47 crew members are winding down a six-month mission at the International Space Station. Commander Tim Kopra, veteran cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and first-time British astronaut Tim Peake are packing their Soyuz TMA-19M spacecraft before they undock June 18 for the 3.5 hour ride back to Earth.

The station will raise its orbit Wednesday morning to support the undocking as well as the arrival of the next crew on July 9. New Expedition 48-49 crew members Anatoly Ivanishin, Kate Rubins and Takuya Onishi will launch July 7 aboard a new Soyuz MS-01 spacecraft for a two-day trip to their new home in space.

Inside the space station, the astronauts explored how future crews will communicate and perform as they travel farther out in space. Saliva samples were collected and stowed so scientists can analyze them to understand how microgravity affects a crew members immune system. The crew also photographed Earths landmarks and studied the vibrations the station experiences during vehicle dockings, spacewalks and crew exercise.

On-Orbit Status Report

Autonomous Mission Operations (AMO) Run 2: Following the successful completion of the first AMO experiment run last week, today the crew executed the second of three crew initiated experiment runs by using onboard AMO software to complete the autonomous deactivation and activation of an EXPRESS Rack (ER) 7 at Lab P2. The AMO investigation tests advanced software and operational concepts to determine how crew members on the ISS can automate spacecraft systems with less involvement from the ground support staff.

Multi-Omics: The crew collected saliva samples and inserted them into a Box Module in Minus Eighty-degree Freezer for ISS (MELFI). The Multi-Omics analysis of human microbial-metabolic cross-talk in the space ecosystem evaluates the impacts of space environment and prebiotics on astronauts immune function by combining the data obtained from the measurements of changes in the gut microbiological composition, metabolites profiles, and the immune system.

Columbus Endcone Space Acceleration Measurement System (SAMS) Sensor Removal and Relocation: The crew removed the SAMS Sensor Enclosure (SE) and the SAMS Adapter from Columbus Starboard Endcone and re-routed the SAMS cable from ER 3 to the European Physiology Module (EPM). SAMS is an ongoing study of the small forces (vibrations and accelerations) on the ISS resulting from the operation of hardware, crew activities, docking and maneuvering. Results generalize the types of vibrations affecting vibration-sensitive experiments. Investigators seek to better understand the vibration environment on the ISS.

Bigelow Expandable Aerospace Module (BEAM) Sensor Installation: The Crew successfully completed Day 1 of BEAM sensor suite installation (impact and temperature sensors) as well as a tap test and photo documentation of the sensor and cable configuration. Sensor installation will continue tomorrow.

Urine Processor Assembly (UPA): The UPA was shut down today due to erratic conductivity of the urine distillate. High conductivity levels caused the UPA to reprocess for an extended period of time as the Wastewater Storage Assembly Tank (WSTA) was approaching full. The process run was terminated and the Waste and Hygiene Compartment (WHC) has been configured to internal EDV. To expedite continued use of the UPA, the current concentration cycle will be ended early and both the Advanced Recycle Filter Tank Assembly (ARFTA) and the WSTA contents will be drained. WHC will then be configured back to UPA to attempt a clean process cycle.

Mobile Servicing System (MSS) Operations: Overnight, Robotics Ground Controllers powered up the Mobile Servicing System (MSS) and maneuvered the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS) and Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (SPDM) Arm 2 for rotating the Enhanced On-Orbit Replaceable Unit (ORU) / Tool Platform (EOTP) to its nominal stow position to stow the SPDM on Mobile Base System (MBS) Power Data Grapple Fixture 2 (PDGF2). Before grasping the EOTP drive fixture, checkouts of the Orbit Replaceable Unit (ORU) Tool Changeout Mechanism 2 (OTCM2) mechanisms (gripper, advancer, umbilical, torquer) were performed to assess potential impacts of the high loads event on Friday when trying to extract the P12B-A Remote Power Control Module (RPCM). Each mechanism passed the test and data is being reviewed by engineering teams.

Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) Stowage Frame Installation Part 3: The crew continued assembly and installation of the JEM Stowage Frame. Once fully installed, the frame will increase JEM stowage capability by 12 Cargo Transfer Bag Equivalents (CTBE).

On-Board Training (OBT) Cygnus Departure: In preparation for OA-6 unberth and release planned for next Tuesday, June 14, the crew reviewed required departure steps.

Todays Planned Activities

All activities were completed unless otherwise noted.

MO- saliva sampling

MO- placement of samples into ?ELFI

MO- equipment stow

MO- questionnaire fill out

On MCC GO ??? ?2 absorption cartridge regeneration (start)

KORREKTSIA. Registration of food, liquids (medicaments) acceptance r/g 2448

Daily planning conference (S-band)

Acoustic Dosimeters Setup  Day 1

Synchronize RS photo cameras with on-board time / r/g 1594

Fold ARED

JEMAL  depress

BEAM  remove hatch cover and ingress

Air sampling with ??-1? sampler during ingress into BEAM module r/g 2442

T2  monthly inspection

JAXA  install frame for cargo stowage

BEAM  install handrails in the module

Recharge Samsung tablet in Soyuz ?? ?719  start

BIOCARD. Experiment ops r/g 1907

BIOCARD. Experimetn assist / r/g 1907

BEAM  install sensors and internal cables  part A

Preparation of items to be returned and disposed of in Soyuz ?? ?719 r/g 2374, 2446

On MCC GO ISS oxygen repress from the 1st section of ???? Progress

Recharge Samsung tablets in Soyuz ?? ?720  start

JAXA  install stop for cargo stowage frame

SOZh maintenance

On MCC GO ISS oxygen repress from the 1st section of ???? Progress

WHC  replace urine receptacle and filter-insert

Recharge Samsung tablet in Soyuz ?? ?719  term

Photo and video imagery of life at the ISS / r/g 2000

JEMAL  check completion of depress

Preventive maintenance program (CMS)  T2 treadmill

BEAM  install sensors and internal cables  part ?

Recharge Samsung tablets in Soyuz ?? ?720  term

IDENTIFIKATSIA. Copy ???-? measurement results to a laptop r/g 1589

JEMAL  confirm end of ventilation in JEM

WRS  water fill from EDV for processing

COL-SSD- read instruction

Closeout ops and egress BEAM, close Node 3 Aft hatch

Tighten QD bolts between DC1 and Progress ??? ?431

KORREKTSIA. Registration of food, liquids (medicaments) acceptance r/g 2448

AMO2  deactivate ER7

Put ARED into working position

Stowage operations prior to undock of Soyuz ?? ?719 r/g 2374, 2446

AMO2  status check

Old data removal from RSE-Med laptop/ r/g 2463

WRS water sample analysis

Tighten QD bolts between SM aggregate compartment ?? and Progress ? ??? ?432

ASTROPI. Preparation for connection to ISS LAN

Dust filter cartridge R&R in SM

COL  relocate cargo from the kit to a vacant place

COL. Retrieve and reposition the sensor

URAGAN. Observation and imagery with ?? ??? equipment / r/g 2462

Relocate cargo into COL-STBD_ENDCONE AFT-DECK zone

VIZIR. Experiment run with ????? equipment r/g 2461

AMO2  activate ER7

INTERACTION-2. Experiment run / r/g 2460

TOCA  data entry

WRS  water fill from EDV for processing [Deferred]

TOCA  WWB replacement

Preventive maintenance program-sprint exercises-at crew convenience

AMO2  status check

OBT  Cygnus undock procedure review

IMS update

HRF- equipment install

On MCC GO ??? ?2 absorption cartridge regeneration (term)

KORREKTSIA. Registration of food, liquids (medicaments) acceptance r/g 2448

Completed Task List Items

None

Ground Activities

All activities were completed unless otherwise noted.

BEAM operations

Nominal ground commanding

Three-Day Look Ahead:

Wednesday, 06/08: BEAM sensor install Parts C,D, COL VCR removal & SSD install, Sokol Suit leak check, surface sample collection

Thursday, 06/09: JEM stowage frame install/consolidation, ACDU remote controller install, MSL sample exchange

Friday, 06/10: Cygnus RoBOT OBT, ER5 locker removal/IPEHG install, CQ deck cleaning, SkinB

QUICK ISS Status  Environmental Control Group:

Component  Status

Elektron  On

Vozdukh  Manual

[???] 1  SM Air Conditioner System (SKV1)  On

[???] 2  SM Air Conditioner System (SKV2)  Off

Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) Lab  Standby

Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) Node 3  Operate

Major Constituent Analyzer (MCA) Lab  Idle

Major Constituent Analyzer (MCA) Node 3  Operate

Oxygen Generation Assembly (OGA)  Process

Urine Processing Assembly (UPA)  Shutdown

Trace Contaminant Control System (TCCS) Lab  Off

Trace Contaminant Control System (TCCS) Node 3  Full Up
Sample Return Robot NASA

Twenty-one robotics teams are returning to Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) for a fifth year to compete in NASAs $1.5 million Sample Return Robot Challenge.

The autonomous robotic competition will take place in two stages, with Level 1 from June 7-11 and Level 2 from Sept. 3-7. The event, part of NASAs Centennial Challenges prize program, is managed by WPI and hosted on its campus in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Teams must demonstrate an autonomous robot that can locate, collect and return geologic samples on natural terrain without human control and within a specified time. Levels 1 and 2 vary in allotted time and sample complexity. Teams must successfully complete Level 1 objectives to be eligible for Level 2.

The objective of the challenge is to encourage innovations in autonomous navigation and robotic manipulation technologies. These innovations may enhance NASAs space exploration capabilities and could have applications on Earth, continuing the nations leadership in robotic technology.

For the past five years, we have witnessed a steady maturation of autonomous technology from the teams in this competition, said Monsi Roman, program manager for Centennial Challenges at NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Significant advances in this challenge will not only aid NASAs exploration of deep space, it will transform robotic capabilities on Earth.

The teams come from diverse backgrounds, including university and high school students, small businesses, families and citizen inventors.

Returning teams competing in Level 1 in June are:

Army of Angry Robots of Silicon Valley, California

Gather of Alexandria, Virginia

MAXed OUT of San Jose, California

Middleman of Dunedin, Florida

Mind and Iron of Needham, Massachusetts

National Autonomous University of Mexico City, Mexico

Oregon State University of Corvallis

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Rock Raiders of Troy, New York

RoboRetrievers of Tampa, Florida

Sirius of South Hadley, Massachusetts

Smart Move of Clearwater, Florida

Smart Tools of Gurnee, Illinois

The Retrievers of Schenectady, New York

New teams competing in Level 1 are:

39e of Providence, Rhode Island

Alabama Astrobotics of Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Team AL of Canada

PSU Robo Crew of Plattsburgh, New York

Spark of Worcester, Massachusetts

Svechdt of Claremont, New Hampshire

This years teams will compete for a share of the $1.5 million prize purse, $1.39 million of which is still up for grabs.

In 2013, NASA awarded $5,000 for Level 1 completion to Team Survey of Los Angeles, and to the West Virginia University Mountaineers of Morgantown in 2014. In 2015, WVU was awarded $100,000 for points earned in Level 2. Both teams are eligible to begin the 2016 competition at Level 2 in September.

WPIs partnership with NASA continues to spur innovation through these exciting competitions, and we are thrilled to be hosting both of the Sample Return Robot Challenges this year, said WPI President Laurie Leshin, who previously served as a senior leader in NASAs science and human space flight programs. These programs celebrate our collective work in advancing critical fields such as space exploration, robotics and scientific research.

The Sample Return Robot Challenge is managed by NASAs Centennial Challenges program, part of NASAs Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD). Through such challenges, STMD gathers the best and brightest minds in academia, industry and government to drive innovation and enable solutions in important technology focus areas.

A live video feed of the Level 1 competition will be available at: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-msfc

For more information about the Sample Return Robot Challenge, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/robot

For information about WPI, official challenge rules and schedule of events, visit http://challenge.wpi.edu
"There are a lot of superstitions and they differ from one region to another. The bottom line is the fact that albinos look different. They think we have poor sight in the day and good sight at night. They think that albinos are special human beings in Cameroon and lucky, [they think] that going to bed with an albino girl will make you happy," Stephane told Sputnik.

The news that some parts of Africa have seen an increase in albino deaths has come as no surprise to Stephane, who had to leave Cameroon in 2007, after his life was threatened. Stephane had spent majority of his life in Cameroon and recalls his childhood as being a happy time, however he always knew he was different.

"When I was a child, I had a normal childhood until my classmates started to touch my skin or ask me where I was from as they thought I put white talcum powder on my skin. I began to know that I was different and my parents began to help me."

Human rights groups in Malawi call on the government to act on the increase in the number of albino killed for their body parts @RobertAlai  Dr Andrew Suleh MD (@andrewsuleh) June 8, 2016

However, escaping the traditional beliefs of his culture was much harder. People believe that albinos are special and so they are hunted down for their body parts, as society thinks they harbor some kind of magical power.

"In the south-west part of Cameroon, they think there lives Epasamoto, who is half-man [half-stone]. The community thinks that when the mountain erupts he is angry and to stop his anger they think they need to sacrifice albinos. Officially, no government will admit that these things happen. Looking at magical potions, the people who want to win elections and who make laws or are in charge of enforcing the law are involved in these actions [the killing of albinos]," Stephane told Sputnik.

Stephane recently returned to Cameroon to visit a witch doctor and question him on why he wanted to kill albinos and what was behind the terrible practice.

"It was significant meeting with the witch doctor and it was important to let people know what was happening. I was happy but I was angry because of what he was saying. I am an albino and I was shocked by what he said, but I could not be emotional as I was questioning [him] as a journalist," Stephane said.

@Lafond66 they think bones of people with albinism contain gold and that sex with a person with albinism can cure HIV.  Brian (@Lafond66) June 7, 2016

However, there have been some changes that will hopefully protect albinos from being abused, abducted and killed. Stephane believes the solution is education. When an albino is educated and has a good job they have a better chance of being respected in the community.

"When an albino has a good social position he/she is not marginalized as people take them for what they are and do not think of them as an albino. If we push them to go to school and get educated it will be hard for them to be marginalized, Stephane said.

"If he is a doctor it will be very difficult to marginalize him. But if we only talk about it instead of doing practical things this will not happen. That is why we are doing more practical things to send them to school and to give them an education."
Because of these factors, "I expect that Obama won't move," he said regarding the likelihood on concluding an agreement for Ukraine to build the replacement rocket engines for the United States.

University of Copenhagen History Professor Matthew Dal Santo agreed that Ukraines military industrial sector was in no state to meet the challenge of building new highly complex and reliable engines for rocket boosters.

"There is no doubt that Ukraines weapons industry has collapsed as a result of the breach in relations with Russia," Dal Santo stated.

Any effort by the US and Ukrainian governments to implement such an agreement would have little practical consequence and could only serve to further strain the relations of both countries with Moscow needlessly, Dal Santo warned.

"Closer cooperation between the United States and Ukraine would only confirm in Russian eyes that Ukraine was on the path to becoming a US satellite and that NATO membership is still Washington's ultimate goal for Kiev."
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The plane made an emergency landing after Cairo airport authorities received an anonymous tip about a bomb on board the airliner, according to the Al-Wasat newspaper citing EgyptAir sources.

Uzbekistan's flag carrier Uzbekistan Airways confirmed Wednesday that an Egyptian plane had landed in Urgench due to a bomb threat.

"On the morning of June 8, information was received about a possible explosive device on board an -330-220 airliner belonging to an Egyptian air carrier and heading from Cairo to Beijing. Seventeen crew members and 118 passengers were on board the plane," the Uzbek carrier's press service said.
This comes a week after Taliban militants carried out two separate attacks on civilian transport in Afghanistan

The first incident occurred on May 30 in Kunduz province where the Taliban gunmen removed about 200 people from buses and mistreated the passengers trying to reveal whether somebody of them had connections to the government or security forces. Most people were released but 12 people were killed by the militants. The fate of eight more people remains unknown.
TASHKENT (Sputnik)  The airport in the Uzbek city of Urgench has resumed its work after suspending all flights due to the emergency landing of an EgyptAir plane following a bomb tip, a spokesman for the airport said Wednesday.

"The Urgench airport is open," the spokesman told RIA Novosti.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The president announced his decision following a mass terror attack in the city of Aktobe which killed seven people.

"[I order] to declare June 9 a national mourning day in the Republic of Kazakhstan in light of the terror attack in the city of Aktobe that claimed the lives of the military and civilians," the presidents executive order said.
The ministry further said that the Chinese military pilots always act on the basis of laws and regulations and are always governing their professional activities as they are responsible.

The US continues to maintain close intelligence activities that seriously undermine China's security at sea. This is the cause of the problem. We call on the US to stop such actions and prevent the future occurrence of any similar incidents, Hong Lei said during a briefing, commenting on the CNN media reports.

He stressed that China has a right to self-defense. The official representative of the Foreign Ministry of China declined to comment on the incident and refused to give details of when it happened.

This was the second incident in the last month. In mid-May, it was reported that the two Chinese fighters intercepted the US reconnaissance plane over international waters of the East China Sea. The incident caused a row between Beijing and Washington.

The Pentagon said that the incident was dangerous, but the Chinese Foreign Ministry denied it, saying that the Chinese fighter kept at a safe distance.
In what can easily be called India's biggest free medicine extravaganza, the annual two-day fish distribution camp has kicked off in the southern state of Telangana.

The government has made extensive arrangements for the event, during which a live Murrel fish is slipped into the patients' throat.

What is known as "Fish Prasadam", the cure was the brainchild of Bathini Goud's family, which has been carrying out the tradition for several decades. The family claims the treatment cures asthma, bronchitis and other respiratory illness.
Talking about the US stance on South China Sea dispute, Kashin said that so far the US cannot directly put pressure on China, as it is limited by the fact that the United States itself has not yet ratified the UNCLOS.

The United States, however, has many allies that have ratified the Convention. The main argument put forward by outside powers to justify its involvement in the issue is their interest in securing the freedom of navigation.

But, as the expert points out, at least at this stage, China fully recognizes the freedom of trade shipping in its exclusive economic zone.

It also recognizes the right of passage of warships. At the same time, the Chinese interpretation of UNCLOS imposes restrictions on foreign military activities in China's exclusive economic zone, including reconnaissance, exercises, etc.

Thus, the inclusion of foreign ships and aircraft radar, electronic intelligence assets and deploying antennas towed sonar, etc. result in backlash from China.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Putin is set to meet with Lukashenko later in the day during his visit to Minsk.

"As for the gas issues, there are certainly some questions that are likely to be touched upon during the bilateral meeting [of the leaders]," Peskov said.
EDINBURGH (Sputnik), Mark Hirst  The former trade ministers comments came after EU Commissioner Phil Hogan told Sputnik in May that the anti-Moscow sanctions had been very damaging for Europe, costing the European economy billions of euros in lost income.

We would like to see normalization of trade with Russia. Unfortunately, even before sanctions it was a very difficult market to sell into because of customs bureaucracy and other factors. Once sanctions were introduced, we just gave up. If we could find an assured route into the Russian market, we would be very pleased to make another effort since I am sure there is good potential for our product there, Wilson said.

Wilson, who was appointed UK Business Ambassador in 2012 by the UK Government, is currently Chairman of Harris Tweed Hebrides, a world-renowned exporter of Tweed fabric garments and products, and despite backing continued Britain's EU membership, told Sputnik he would welcome fresh efforts to bring about an end to sanctions against Russia imposed over the Ukrainian crisis.
The project is more than just a group of new transportation corridors linking China with Europe. In fact, the New Silk Road is a new model of economic partnership in Eurasia.

The initiative includes several transit corridors from western China to Europe which can be divided into three groups  the Northern Route, Sea Route, and the Southern Route.

The Northern Route is considered the most promising among the others. It would go via Kazakhstan and Russia. The Sea Route would include transit routes via Kazakhstan as well as ports of the Caspian Sea for transit to Turkey. The Southern Route would bypass Russia via Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran and Pakistan with an access to the Indian Ocean.
The Polish government which seeks to prevent the direct supply of Russian gas to Germany is the most severe opponent of the pipeline's construction.However, according to Handelsblatt, Warsaw is opposing the project not because of its personal interests, but is rather following Washington's instructions.

The aim of this strategy is to support the US fracking industry and create favorable conditions for the United States to export large volumes of shale gas to Europe. However, Washington's plans could come true only if the Nord Stream-2 is never implemented.

"Thanks to its fracking technology the United States can produce large volumes of shale gas and export them to Europe by sea. Of course, the US export plans could be realized only if the Nord Stream-2 is never built," the newspaper wrote.
MINSK (Sputnik)  Novak added that the price of $177 per 1,000 cu m for gas deliveries to Ukraine in the second quarter "is absolutely comfortable" and reflects the current market situation.

"Our key argument is that the existing contract until 2019 fully stipulates all contractual commitments between the two companies," Novak told reporters in Minsk.

"It has been our strong standpoint from the very beginning that no changes in the contract can be made until the end of 2019," Novak stressed.
Al Bayda (Libya) (Sputnik)  A total of 400 million Russia-printed Libyan dinars ($292 million) has already been delivered to the eastern Bayda airport from Moscow.

"The Central Bank made a deal with Russia's largest printing house to print four billion Libyan dinars, which will be delivered in [separate] parties," Ehemer said, abstaining from naming the printing house.

It has been reported that local banks are short of cash as entrepreneurs took their savings worth 24 billion dinars out of the country.
MINSK (Sputnik)  After in 2014 Moscow imposed embargo on EU agricultural production in response to Brussels' anti-Russian sanctions, Russian foodstuff watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor enhanced control over imports from Belarus, as numerous illicit supplies from the EU disguised as Belarusian production were stopped at the Russian border.

"If our Belarusian partners take certain steps required to meet the interests, primarily, of their own domestic agricultural producers, they will be able to export even more products to the Russian market. It is necessary to use the current situation in order to boost production, including for the needs of the Russian market," Putin said, as he spoke at the Third Forum of Russian and Belarusian Regions in Minsk.

"If we do not do this today, and instead allow products under sanctions to reach the Russian market, Belarusian producers will find it more difficult to make progress on the Russian market. Meanwhile, we want to get apples, meat, milk and other products of Belarusian origin rather than those that transit Belarusian territory," Putin added.
Residents of the Swiss village Oberwil-Lieli in the canton of Aargau have refused to accept ten refugees who were supposed to get temporary housing in the area and are even ready to pay 262,000 euros as compensation.

"We think that the local assistance [in the countries where refugees come from] would be much more effective. What's important is that in this case no one would have to pay smugglers to get into a dangerous boat, and no one would have any problem with returning home, when peace is restored. And every franc invested at the local level would have a much greater value. So it is a kind of a protest against the totally inappropriate migration policy of the Swiss government," the mayor of the village told Sputnik.
Its a short window of opportunity after all those years under the Bush-Obama continuum where Washington was obsessed with MENA (Middle East/Northern Africa), a.k.a. the Greater Middle East. Now South America is back in a starring role in the geopolitical (soft) war theatre. Getting rid of Dilma, Lula, the Workers Party, by all means available, is only the start.

It all comes back to the same, defining 21st century war; NATO against the BRICS; the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO); and ultimately the Russia-China strategic partnership. Smashing the B in BRICS carries with it the bonus of smashing Mercosur (the South American common market); Unasur (the political Union of South American Nations); ALBA (the Bolivarian Alliance); and South American integration as a whole, compounded with integration with key emerging Global South players such as Iran.

The ongoing destabilization of Syraq fits the Empire of Chaos; when theres no regional integration, the only other possibility is balkanization. And yet Russia graphically demonstrated to Beltway planners they cannot win a war in Syria while Iran demonstrated after the nuclear deal that it wont become a Washington vassal. So the Empire of Chaos might as well secure its own backyard.

A new geopolitical framework had to be part of the package. Thats where the concept of North America fits in, backed by the Council on Foreign Relations and devised mostly by former Iraq surge superstar David Petraeus and former World Bank honcho Bob Zoellick, now with Goldman Sachs. Call it a mini whos who of Exceptionalistan.

You won't see it enounced in public, but the Petraeus/Zoellick concept of North America presupposes regime changing and gobbling up Venezuela. The Caribbean is seen as a Mare Nostrum, an American lake. North America is in fact a strategic offensive.

It implies controlling the massive oil and water wealth of the Orinoco and the Amazonas, something that would forever guarantee Exceptionalistans preeminence south of the border.

The Caribbean is already a done deal; after all Washington controls CAFTA. South America is a tougher nut to crack, roughly polarized by whats left of ALBA and the US-driven Pacific Alliance. With Brazil falling to a neoliberal restoration, its over as a promoter of regional integration. Mercosur would eventually be absorbed into the Pacific Alliance  especially with a man like Serra as Brazils top diplomat. So, politically, South America must be annulled at all costs.

Whats left for South America would be its aggregation  as marginal players, part of the US-driven Pacific Alliance  to those NATO on trade deals, the TPP and TTIP. The pivot to Asia  of which TPP is the trade arm  is the Obama doctrines push for containment of China, not only in Asia but also across Asia-Pacific. Thus its natural that China (Brazils number one trade partner) should also be contained in the hegemons backyard, South America.

From the Atlantic to the Pacific, and beyond

Its never enough to stress the geo-economic importance of South America. The only way South America can be fully integrated to the multipolar world is by opening up to the Pacific, boosting its strategic connection with Asia, especially China. Thats where the Chinese push to invest in a massive high-speed rail project uniting the Brazilian Atlantic coast with Peru in the Pacific fits in. Thats South American interconnectivity in a nutshell. If Brazil is politically annulled, none of this will ever happen.
But the biggest turnaround is Germany. The country is to increase its military budget for the first time in 25 years. The years of decline are over, said German defence minister Ursula von der Leyen, with boastful delight.

Currently, the average military spend among Europes NATO members is around 1.4 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). At Washingtons urging, the alliance is targeting for a 2 per cent spend of GDP. That will result in manifold the $100 billion extra that has already manifested.

And which country do you think will reap the financial rewards of this extravagance? Why the United States, of course. When NATO members splurge on warplanes, warships, tanks and missile systems, it will be American Pentagon corporations like Lockheed Martin and Raytheon that stand most to gain from the business bonanza.

Poland, for example, wants the US-made Aegis missile system on its territory just like Romania recently installed at a cost of $800 million. Estonia wants US-made Patriot missiles on its territory, as well as Abrams tanks and more F-16 fighter jets. Washington does not give out these weapons systems for free. Its hard-nosed capitalist profit-making behind all the lofty American talk about defending allies.

And no doubt European government ministers who facilitate the American deals will, nod and wink, get a plum job on retirement with a weapons company or at some lucrative pro-NATO think tank.

This reversal in European military spending is great news for the US military-industrial complex and the American economy generally. As the Financial Times points out, since the end of the Cold War between the US and former Soviet Union, there has been a protracted decline in NATO budgets allocated by European states. Understandably too. If the threat of war wanes, then naturally governments will find more socially productive ways to invest money.
Speaking for both countries at a news conference, Steven Wilson, a deputy director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), rejected Sweden's claims of an alien invasion in the Baltic waters.

According to him, the American lobsters could not thrive in the Baltic and therefore were unable to endanger the local species. Wilson also overruled Sweden's fears of a full-blown invasion as unsubstantiated, describing the trend as "single lobsters escaping."

In March, Sweden asked the European Union to ban the import of live American lobsters, under the pretext of possible contamination of its native species. In recent years, over 30 American lobsters have been discovered off Sweden's west coast, the Swedish government said. Remarkably, Norway has already imposed a lobster ban.
"HDZ will initiative a procedure for a motion of no confidence against Prime Minister Tihomir Oreskovic. We have seen there is a situation which is not good, because the government is dysfunctional. The most important thing is relations between the parliament majority and the Prime Minister," Karamarko said at the press conference.

According to him, the decision to make such a move was reached on the party president's meeting.
In an interview with Die Welt European Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration Affairs Dimitris Avramopoulos said that the money would be used to strengthen borders and to finance migrant absorption programs away from Europe.

The European Commission offered "comprehensive and sustainable" partnerships with seven African countries  Tunisia, Mali, Senegal, Niger, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Libya, as well as Jordan and Lebanon where the Commission hopes that its private-public Migration Partnership program will help reduce the numbers of people trying to migrate to Europe.

During the November 2015 EU-Africa summit in Malta European Commission President Jean-Claude Junker and leaders of the EU countries established a 1.8 billion fund to tackle the migrant crisis in Africa. The participating African leaders then complained that the sum was not enough and Junker agreed with them.
BAKU (Sputnik)  The Armenian forces have violated the truce in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh 15 times during the last 24 hours, Azerbaijans Defense Ministry said Wednesday.

"According to the defense ministry, the Armenian armed units using heavy machine guns violated the ceasefire 15 times along different parts of the contact line during last 24 hours," the ministry said.
With the money available, I would not exclude high flying drones someday, invisible to human eye. These would be permanently circling above the 150 kilometers of the border, he explained.

Pevkur said that the Russian side had been informed about Estonias current border reinforcement efforts.

We have informed them of this work. Its important that they know that crossing the border will be recorded via video or sensors, Hanno Pevkur emphasized, adding that overall we have normal cooperation with Russian border guards.

In April, Norwegian authorities decided to erect a gated fence at the only checkpoint on the border with Russia in a bid to prevent a new wave of migrants crossing in.

Earlier, Latvia started building a 92-km fence on the border with Russia in what Interior Ministry officials said is an attempt to check the number of illegal migrants flowing into the country.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  In early May, the regional council of the northern Veneto region became first to adopt a resolution, initiated by Valdegamberi, urging the national government to condemn the EU policy against the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea and work toward lifting of sanctions against Russia. This week the councils of Liguria and Lombardy regions were to vote on similar resolutions, but on Tuesday the voting procedures in both councils were postponed due to technical reasons until June 29 and July 4 respectively.

Italian people don't share the EU decision [on imposing sanctions on Russia] and Italian government must be able to stop this completely wrong policy. I'm expecting that not only other regions approve the same resolution but this strong pressure could be able to force the national government to change its foreign policy, Valdegamberi claimed.
Following on from weeks of speculation about the vote, which was narrowly won by independent Alexander Van der Bellen, the court's spokesperson confirmed via Twitter that it had received a complaint from FPO leader Heinz-Christian Strache.

"(The) challenge by Heinz-Christian Strache of the presidential run-off vote has arrived at the Constitutional Court," the tweet read.

Spox for #Austria's constitutional court confirms far-right Freedom Party has appealed presidential election result. https://t.co/2imGYVBVkS  Nina Lamparski (@ninaism) June 8, 2016

The May presidential election was one of Austria's tightest, with Van der Bellen defeating FPO candidate Norbert Hofer by less than one percentage point, with the difference thought to be about 31,000 votes.
This reality differs greatly from the popular horror image that is conjured up by Western politicians and commentators, Kristian Gerner, professor emeritus of history at Lund University, told the newspaper Svenska Dagbladet

"They [the Russians] speak out sincerely. They feel aggrieved. The Russian military leadership, the political leadership and the Russian commentators cannot accept that after the break-up of the Soviet Union Russia ceased to be a superpower. This reality has been the frame of reference for interpretation of NATO's expansion as a threat," he said.

Kristian Gerner called the Russian approach "irrational," yet stressed how important it was to have an understanding of it. Gerner also stressed that Russia, albeit "highly militarized," in reality poses no threat to the Baltic states.

His opinion is mirrored by Sven Hirdman, Sweden's former ambassador to Moscow (from 1994 to 2004), a renowned opponent of Sweden's NATO membership. According to Hirdman, the West has not done enough to understand the Russian perspective of today's escalation.

"There is an emotional factor present. We all feel that Russia ended up on the losing side of the Cold War, although they should not have lost it," said Hirdman.
The report said that the senior al Qaeda member, Abdel Rahman al Nashiri, believed to have masterminded of the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, was threatened with an electric drill. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged 9/11 mastermind and al-Qaeda's "travel agent," Abu Zubaydah, were both alleged to have been waterboarded.

The intelligence tactics used by the CIA, according to the committee report, went beyond the tactics authorized by the White House and Bush's administration. The report stated:

"The waterboarding technique was physically harmful, inducing convulsions and vomiting. Abu Zubaydah, for example, became 'completely unresponsive, with bubbles rising through his open, full mouth'. Internal CIA records describe the waterboarding of Sheikh Mohammed as evolving into a 'series of near drownings.' "

Fajon said:

"The US Senate's report not only exposed the extent of these crimes but also clearly shows that torture is ineffective in the prevention and prosecution of terrorist attacks. There can never be any justification for torture under international law and we must show we are serious about this by ensuring that those responsible are held to account."

"We have been calling for almost ten years for serious action on this. EU member states must realize this issue is not going to disappear. Whereas the US Senate report had real consequences in the United States, EU governments have not even completed a thorough investigation into the allegations, let alone taken action against the perpetrators.

"We need to have a full investigation so that we can find out the full level of involvement from EU member states to end this shameful chapter in our history and ensure it can never happen again," Fajon said.
"They wanted that story  and they just published it."

The fake story of the three lads ending up in Syria was published on multiple tabloid websites over the course of the day and ran on television news broadcasts in Britain.

Meanwhile Alex McCormick, the second of the three pranksters, admitted to Sputnik that when he spoke to the media outlets that had spotted the pictures  they continued with the prank and re-told journalists the fake story of how they ended up in Syria.

It went a bit like this: "The last club closed at 7:30 a.m. so we just powered through to our 9:00 a.m. boat trip and ended up blagging our way onto the wrong boat," Ellis told the London tabloid, Mirror Online.

"Everyone was foreign and it was pretty much half way out from the island when we asked 'how come we're so far away from land?' "

So Far Away From Syria, More Like  And The Truth

"They didn't doubt it  I thought the story was so unbelievable that it wouldn't be believed. It was so obviously a prank, we were surprised they bought it," McCormick told Sputnik.

"We're not stupid people," McCormick is keen to express.

"Okay we're pranksters but we have our heads screwed on. We were chilling and talking about world affairs, politics and the media."

"I admit, we had fun doing it but we didn't think it would go viral. My point is that people shouldn't be looking at this  they should be looking at what's really going on in the world, not three guys who say they got drunk and ended up in Syria. I didn't expect it to go as big as it has."

McCormick claims he's a "deeply political person," and is "fed up with people just being obsessed with 'The Only Way is Essex' and 'Keeping up with the Kardashians.' "
I watched the #Brexit debates incredibly closely over the last few evenings & I've now made my decision. #InOrOut   Kevin Pietersen (@KP24) June 4, 2016

The main reason for this could be down to the fact that the campaign group for Bremain and Brexit have failed to fully address many of the key issues that will impact the public.

Both groups have focused on immigration and trade; however these are only just a few of the key areas that must be addressed. Most voters still do not know why it's important to stay in the EU and why it would be beneficial to leave.

Watching ITV debate in a social club in the Midlands. Middle-class, middle-aged, Middle England. Farage going down very, very well.  Jeremy Cliffe (@JeremyCliffe) June 7, 2016

The truth for many voters is that they have not really given the EU referendum much thought. The Government may have been thinking about this for the last 12 months, but for the public, this issue has only just surfaced in their minds in recent weeks and days.

David Cameron and Nigel Farage faced a grilling during a live #EUref debate on ITV last nighthttps://t.co/I85IweIQKj  Press Association (@PA) June 8, 2016

One voter believes that people are still confused and this is because many of the issues have yet to be addressed.

"I still don't know who to vote for and this is a key concern for me, it makes a difference. I will definitely be watching the TV debates in order to understand the key points for each campaign and this I believe will help me in deciding who to vote for," a voter told Sputnik.

When you asses the US elections there are huge differences between how they campaign and the way the British politicians canvas for votes. In the US, both the Republic and Democratic parties go all out to win the hearts of the nation and sway them to vote in their favor.

Mainstream TVs big role in shifting the EU undecideds as referendum campaign moves to primetime https://t.co/yq5WYcFO5M  YouGov (@YouGov) June 7, 2016

But the end is neigh and the time is fast approaching when people must make up their minds on which box to mark with a cross, this is making voters nervous and these nerves are increasing as June 23 approaches. This coupled with all the information from the TV debates is leaving voters feeling slightly overwhelmed.

The move by the EU campaigns to have a primetime TV slot represents a key moment in this debate as it will surely influence those who are undecided.
The operation to fit the head of a living human being the body of a recently deceased person, will be performed as part of Project HEAVEN (HEad Anatomosis VENture) and is expected to last about 36 hours.

Dr. Canavero of the Turin Advanced Neuromodulation Group in Italy recently presented the results of his experiments on rats conducted in South Korea, which proved that spinal cord fusion is really possible.

Canaveros idea has caused controversial reaction among specialists, as some are convinced that the technology is disputable, but still vital and requires huge investments, while others believe it to be totally unsustainable.

In an interview with Sputnik Dr. Canavero said that inability to reconnect a severed spinal cord had always been a major problem, but experiments with rats using technology to be employed during operations on humans resulted in rats with re-fused spinal cords able to move again.

What is really important here is that the fused spinal cords functioned again, which means that the door is now open to perform such operations also on humans, he emphasized.


MOSCOW (Sputnik)  On Tuesday, 130 people were evacuated from the center and 30 people, including refugees and rescue workers, were injured as a result of the blaze.

Police are questioning six men who had been living at the center amid an investigation into a case of arson, The Local reported, citing police sources.
PARIS (Sputnik)  Earlier in the day, dozens of protesters gathered opposite El Khomris home in Paris, chanting slogans condemning the reform, originally proposed by the labor minister. Police later dispersed the protesters.

"The president strongly condemned these actions. We live in a democratic state, and everyone has the right to assemble and express their opinions, but such actions cross the line  they constitute an unacceptable act of violence," Le Foll told reporters.

The labor bill has given a rise to multiple protests across France in the past months. Among the reforms proposed by Prime Minister Manuel Valls government are highly unpopular attempts to increase daily working hours and simplify firing procedures.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The resolution, passed by 329 votes to 299, urges EU countries to "investigate, insuring full transparency, the allegations that there were secret prisons on their territory in which people were held under the CIA programme," as quoted in a European Parliament press release.

In February, the European Parliament passed a resolution to start investigations into the use of torture by the CIA after a so-called torture report by the US Senate Intelligence Committee was released in late 2014.

Wednesday's resolution follows up on the state of the investigation. The European Parliament seeks to find those complicit in CIA torture perpetrated in the European Union, as well as working to end the "undue classification of documents" that leads to impunity for the perpetrators of CIA human rights violations, according to the latest statement.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  On Tuesday, the registration page for the referendum on the UK government's website stopped allowing voters to submit their details around one and a half hours before the deadline.

"The Government must come forward with emergency legislation or a Statutory Instrument to change the legislation to allow the registration to continue for 24 hours," Farron said in his article published in The Huffington Post. "These people were not late to register; they were within the time limit at their democratic right is now at risk of being snatched from them. No true democrat can defend this."
ANKARA (Sputnik)  The results of a preliminary investigation point out at Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) involvement in a bomb attack in Istanbul that killed 11 people, Turkish presidency spokesman said Wednesday.

"All evidence gathered so far point at the PKK as the organizer of the attack," Ibrahim Kalin said at a news briefing.

The explosion took place at 8:40 a.m. local time (05:40 GMT) on Tuesday when a police vehicle passed close to a roadside bomb in the central Istanbul district of Beyazit.
Some of the training has even taken place at a College of Policing office in Durham, England, the charity says.

British Training of Saudi Officials 'Scandalous'

The revelation has once again sparked outrage and called into question the UK's close relationship with Saudi Arabia, with Reprieve spokesperson Maya Foa describing the arrangement as "scandalous."

"It is scandalous that British police are training Saudi Arabian officers in techniques which they privately admit could lead to people being arrested, tortured and sentenced to death."

More than 1/3 of College of Policing income is from overseas work with countries like Saudi Arabia https://t.co/8vrFoE35pX via @UKParliament  Rebecca Roberts (@reberrama) June 6, 2016

"The training Britain delivered included hi-tech skills that could easily have been used to target pro-democracy activists in Saudi Arabia. Let's not forget that while this was going on, teenage protestors like Ali al-Ribh, Abdullah al-Zaher, Ali al-Nimr, and Dawood al-Marhoon were rounded up and sentenced to death."

Reprieve also took aim at the UK Foreign Office (FCO), accusing minister David Lidington of 'passing the buck' when questioned on the matter in the House of Commons.

While Lidington said the issue of UK police training Saudi officials was "clearly a matter that the Home Office leads on," he refused to denounce the arrangement.

"The FCO has to explain how on earth helping execute juvenile protesters makes anyone safer in Saudi Arabia or the UK," Foa said.

The UK government has been placed under increasing pressure to review its close ties with Saudi Arabia, following a series of high profile incidents involving the Gulf Kingdom.

Riyadh attracted widespread condemnation for executing 47 people in a single day in January, with the country accused of gross human rights abuses.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The 65-member committee will be given one year to investigate the European Commission's and the EU member states' conduct in applying tax evasion and money laundering laws before presenting a report to the European Parliament, according to the statement.

"The European Parliament agreed to set up an inquiry committee into the 'Panama Papers' revelations, of detailed information on offshore companies and their ultimate beneficiaries, in a vote on Wednesday," the Parliament said in a press release.
The new arrivals will be relatives of those who had earlier been granted asylum in Germany, including all spouses, children and parents of underage children who had come to the country on their own.

Meanwhile, the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees has dismissed as untrue reports that the planned family reunions would result in a four-fold increase in the number of Syrian refugees living in the country.

With pertinent amendments made to the countrys existing asylum laws, relatives of migrants who have already found safe haven in Germany will arrive by stages which will help ease the pressure migration has caused to the Federal Republic.
The government says more than a million people registered to vote in the last week, with 500,000 alone looking to register on the final day.

Decision Welcomed

The decision to extend the deadline will be welcomed by lawmakers and the general public alike, with a number of MPs calling on the government to extend the registration period.

Voter turnout is expected to be a key factor in the referendum, with opinion polls suggesting the vote will be very close.

Lol a Brexit lot scream STICH UP at the extended voter registration hours. Same people that want democracy back in the UK.  Kit Caless (@KitCaless) June 8, 2016

Some pollsters have suggested that a high voter turnout could favor those hoping to remain part of the EU.

According to officials, voter turnout is expected to be around 80 percent for the referendum, much higher than the 66 percent seen during last year's general election.

Hey Brits and commonwealth citizens living in UK, voter registration for EU ref has been extended, still open today: https://t.co/bYQaHXyywk  Maha (@MahaRafiAtal) June 8, 2016

The UK's Electoral Commission welcomed the decision to extend the deadline.

"No one should miss out on voting in this historic referendum because of the problem with the Government's registration website," Alex Robertson, the Commission's director of Communications said.

"We are urging everyone who is not already registered to vote to take this last chance to do so before the end of Thursday [June 9]."
TALLINN (Sputnik)  Dragoon Ride II, a part of the Saber Strike US military drills, sees the participation of around 1,500 US soldiers, along with Stryker armored combat vehicles, howitzers and support vehicles, marching from Germany along two routes through the Czech Republic, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, to Estonia.

It has been reported that military equipment will keep arriving in Estonia until late Thursday. The troops will make four stops across Estonia to meet the residents and demonstrate military equipment.

Conducted annually since 2010, Saber Strike is a US-Europe set of cooperative military training drills held between May 27 and June 21 in multiple locations throughout Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Participating nations this year include the three Baltic states, as well as Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Slovenia, the United Kingdom and the United States.
NEW SURVEY IN 10 EU COUNTRIES: Euroskepticism Beyond Brexit https://t.co/7ILgzQnmL2 pic.twitter.com/7CM4x5FaLL  PewResearch Global (@pewglobal) June 8, 2016

At the same time, favorable vs unfavorable views of the EU are pretty much 50/50 across Europe (or at least within a margin of error). Psephologist Professor John Curtis told Sputnik that this might not be as nonsensical as it seems:

"These things are not entirely illogical, one of the reasons for concern about the possibility of a UK exit is really  if the UK leaves, who might be next? We know that there are some other EU countries where there is pressure on whether or not the country should stay inside the European Union, or certainly discontent about the EU, and there's concern therefore that that might be fueled further as a result of the UK deciding to leave."

Europeans overwhelmingly agree that UK departure would hurt the EU https://t.co/AyDFwQG0md pic.twitter.com/ESBbjERiKz  Pew Research Center (@pewresearch) June 8, 2016

Another finding in the Pew research seemed to suggest that opposition to the EU tended to correlate with right-wing political leanings. This was especially so in the UK, with those on the right being 31 percentage points more likely than those on the left to have a negative view of the EU. Professor Curtis believes that this was most likely fueled by concerns over immigration:

"The issue that above all has fueled concern about the European Union in the UK is immigration and attitudes that are unsympathetic to immigrants tend to be more common on the right.

"Bear in mind however, that anti-immigrant sentiment is something which is also high amongst working class people  those with little in the way of educational qualifications  so the social profile of those who are anti-European Union is in part a social profile that you might otherwise expect to see in a social democratic party," Professor Curtis told Sputnik.

The survey was conducted starting from April 4 until May 12, and covered 10,491 respondents from Poland, Hungary, Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, France and Greece.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  According to Stoltenberg, the Kosovo Force (KFOR), which is a NATO-led international peacekeeping force in Kosovo, will continue its mission to preserve secure environment in the republic as long as it is necessary.

The press service said, citing Stoltenberg, that NATO welcomed the development of political institutions in Kosovo's capital of Pristina, though stressed the importance of further reforms and reconciliation dialogue with Serbia.

In 1998, an armed conflict broke out between Kosovo Albanian independence supporters and Yugoslavia, as the militias were seeking independence of Kosovo and Metohija. The following year, NATO intervened in the conflict without the UN approval, and started bombing Yugoslavia.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  In March, Brussels and Ankara agreed on a deal under which Turkey pledged to take back all undocumented migrants who arrive in the European Union through its territory in exchange for Syrian refugees accommodated in Turkey, on a one-for-one basis in return for a visa-free regime for Turkish nationals.

"The European Union should not demand Turkey to ease fight against terrorism. Our allies from the EU should be with us. EU-Turkey negotiations on anti-terrorism laws and readmission agreement continue and we are expecting steps from the EU on the Schengen matter in the coming days," Kalin said during a press briefing in Ankara.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  Later this month, NATO is expected to make its decision on granting Montenegro full membership in the 28 defense nation alliance.

"Out of Warsaw we are expecting a very clear signal of the integration process of Georgia and membership integration process, and also clear signals about the practical ways how to strengthen our cooperation and partnership," Georgian Minister of Foreign Affairs Mikheil Janelidze said at an Atlantic Council event on NATO enlargement.

Ukrainian Member of Parliament, Hanna Hopko expressed Ukraines support for Montenegros membership, and requested members of the alliance to "be more pragmatic in supporting new members new potential candidates to become members of the NATO community."
BRUSSELS (Sputnik)  In 2008, Georgia applied for membership in NATO. Since then a NATO commission has monitored Tbilisi's progress in matching the standards of the bloc. Georgia's membership of the alliance is expected to be addressed at the NATO June summit in Warsaw.

"I think its important to understand that even without MAP [Membership Action Plan] theres a lot of things we can do. To have more NATO in Georgia but also more Georgia in NATO is good for Georgia, its good for NATO and thats exactly what we are doing and that is of great importance both for Georgia and for NATO," Stoltenberg said, answering a question about the prospects of Georgia's ascension to NATO.
According to Clarner, the open-door policy of German Chancellor Angela Merkel is one of the reasons why so many refugees decide to take the dangerous path to Europe.

"In principle, each state that unconditionally accepts these and other refugees is responsible for the fact that new refugees take a boat and drown in the Mediterranean Sea. It is necessary to pay attention to the assistance at the local level to prevent this disaster," the politician stated.

At the same time, Martin Uebelhart, member of the civil movement for refugees in the village, is convinced that many local residents do not agree with Glarner's position. Commenting on the recent referendum, Uebelhart said he was disappointed with the results, but stressed that the village was divided.

"It was, of course, a big disappointment for us, but the decision was made with a narrow majority of just 54 votes from a total of 1,100 votes. The result could have been different. The village is divided and this can be seen clearly. The decision will be in force this year, but next year it should be made again. So we don't give up," Uebelhart said in an interview with Sputnik.

The activist sharply criticized Glarner's position, saying that many organizations already provide assistance in the war-torn regions but people are still forced to leave their homes.

"They leave their homeland, it is a fact. And it is part of the humane tradition  to help in such cases and unite efforts. The problem is, if we don't take these ten, they will have to be taken by other municipalities. We believe that it is contrary to the idea of a community of solidarity, which Switzerland actually is," Uebelhart said.
"The country that is being suspected of not seeking peace, but war, can't be considered a partner. This is the message between the lines," the politician told Sputnik.

In Gehrcke's opinion, such a position is destructive as Russia plays an important role in European peace and safety.

"Anyone who wants security can seek it only with Russia. Besides, in my opinion, Russia is a partner and an important guarantor of stability in Europe. I want the Parliament to pursue a constructive policy towards Russia. The Cold War is long over," the politician said.

Gehrcke's party has repeatedly called on the German government to improve relations with Russia, but so far the progress is very slow.

"One of our demands to the Federal Government is the following: Don't make Russia our enemy! But the federal government is doing a lot of things that Russia sees as a provocation. Neither the Russians, nor the Germans want war. Therefore, we need a different policy," the politician concluded.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  Asked to address reports indicating the majority of Montenegrins oppose joining the military alliance, Durisic stated the information in the reports "are completely wrong."

"We are actually doing very regular polls of public opinion and the latest one showed there is a great difference between those who are for the Montenegrins' NATO membership and those who are against," Durisic stated at an Atlantic Council event on NATO enlargement.

She further noted that there is a margin of "more than ten percent" between those who support NATO membership and those who oppose it.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  Since the Manbij offensive began on May 31, the Syrian Arab Coalition has freed 344 square kilometers from Daesh control. The statement noted that the US coalition has conducted more than 105 airstrikes in support of the operation.

"The Syrian Arab Coalition supported by [US] Coalition air power have destroyed 108 Daesh fighting positions, 31 Daesh vehicles, 17 Daesh heavy-weapons, two Daesh weapon caches, and one Daesh vehicle borne improvised explosive device," CJTF-OIR stated.

The Syrian Arab Coalition is an umbrella group of Sunni Arab ground forces tasked by the United States with fighting the Daesh in Syria. It is one component of the allied Syrian Democratic Forces, which includes Kurdish, Assyrian and Turkmen fighters.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Tensions between Ankara and the Kurds escalated in July 2015 when a ceasefire between Turkey and the PKK collapsed because of a series of terror attacks allegedly committed by PKK members.

"Our security forces have killed 7,600 [PKK] terrorists both within the country and beyond its borders since July 20. The separatist terrorist organization has sustained the largest defeat in its history," Erdogan said Tuesday, as quoted by the Turkish NTV broadcaster.

Ankara has imposed several round-the-clock curfews in Kurdish-populated towns, preventing civilians from fleeing the regions where the military operations are taking place.
"An aircraft of Russian airline parachuted UN humanitarian aid, food packages and grain, of 18.3 tonnes in total weight, to Deir ez-Zor besieged by IS [Daesh] terrorists," the statement said.

Deir ez-Zor, a major Syrian eastern city with population of over 200,000 people, has been besieged by al-Nusra Front and Daesh, extremist groups outlawed in Russia, since March 2014.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The Iraqi Army and Shiite militias, backed by US airstrikes, launched the offensive to retake Fallujah on May 22.

#ISIL terrorists continue to use innocent civilians as human shields in #Falluja and threatening to execute anyone leaving the city.  Brett McGurk (@brett_mcgurk) June 7, 2016

He added that pressure on the positions of IS militants in the region would be strengthened.

Fallujah, located some 42 miles west of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, is one of the largest cities in the Anbar province. The IS, outlawed in many countries including Russia and the United States, has been in control of the city since 2014.
"Militants from al-Nusra Front terrorist group and Ahrar ash-Sham armed group conducted mortar attack against Aleppo's districts of Meydan and al-Muhafaza," the spokesman said.

Syria has been mired in civil war since March 2011, with government forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad fighting numerous opposition factions and extremist groups, such as al-Nusra Front, which is prohibited in a number of countries, including Russia.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Maliki is in Russia for a June 7-8 official visit. According to Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, the main focus of the ministerial meeting will be the issue of the Palestinian-Israeli peace process after the Middle East peace forum in Paris on June 3.

"This meeting is an opportunity for Mr. Lavrov and myself to discuss what we feel and think about the French initiative, what are the prospects of such meeting, what could we expect and how we can work in order to see positive results coming up," Maliki said ahead of the meeting.

The French capital hosted last week an international conference aimed at the resumption of the stalled Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. The conference's participants assessed the situation that involved possible risks for the Israeli-Palestinian concept.
The Arab Peace Initiative for resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian crisis is not up for negotiations or alterations, Israel must either accept it or come up with a new proposal, the foreign minister stressed in an interview with Sputnik.

Malikis comments came after Israels Jerusalem Affairs Minister Zeev Elkin said that the country was interested in rapprochement with the neighbors in the region, but was not ready to implement all the requirements stipulated in the Arab Peace Initiative as some of them cannot be accepted.

"Either Mr. Elkin will take the Arab peace initiative as it is or he needs to offer something else but the Arab Peace Initiative is not for negotiations and is not for alteration and is not for Israeli politician here and there to give his opinion about it. It is an integral offer, either Israel takes it or you leave it," Maliki said.

The Arab Peace Initiative, also known as the Saudi Initiative, is a 10-sentence proposal for an end to the ArabIsraeli conflict that was endorsed by the Arab League in 2002. The initiative offers Israel normalization of relations with the Arab world in return for withdrawal from land occupied in 1967, the recognition of a Palestinian state with its capital in East Jerusalem and a fair solution to the issue of Palestinian refugees.

According to the minister, Palestine considers the approach of direct negotiations with Israel useless and wishes to create an international format to resolve the Middle East crisis, similar to the format used to resolve the Iranian nuclear issue.

"For us, the idea is to forget a direct negotiations that has been proven useless and to move towards a multilateral approach inspired by 5+1 Iran talks, to create a small committee, a group out of 28+2 that will lead the negotiations and will help the parties to overcome differences," Maliki said.

Last week, Paris hosted an international conference of some 28 delegations aimed at the resumption of the stalled Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. The conference's participants assessed the situation that involved possible risks for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Palestinians seek diplomatic recognition for their independent state on the territories of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, which is partially occupied by Israel, and the Gaza Strip. Israel has been building settlements on the occupied territories despite objection from the United Nations.
"Quickly right after he [Liberman] was appointed, he started to be flexible in his approach and himself talked about the Arab Peace Initiative. We have to be cautious and not issue stereotype statements. We are currently refraining from doing so and waiting to judge based on his actions. May be, he will surprise all of us and show new Liberman," Maliki said.

Liberman has previously made controversial statements regarding Palestine. For instance, he has repeatedly called Abbas a political and diplomatic "terrorist," accusing the Palestinian leader of not being able or willing to resolve the ongoing conflict.

The Arab Peace Initiative is a 10-sentence proposal for an end to the Arab-Israeli conflict that was endorsed by the Arab League in 2002. The initiative offers Israel normalization of relations with the Arab world in return for withdrawal from the land occupied in 1967, the recognition of a Palestinian state with its capital in East Jerusalem and a fair solution to the issue of Palestinian refugees.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Last week, Paris hosted an international conference of 28 delegations aimed at the resumption of the stalled Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. The conference's participants assessed the situation that involved possible risks for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"We are always ready to reengage with our initiative to the Security Council if we see or believe that the French Initiative is not taking the momentum and is not leading towards the type of results we are expecting," the minister said.
FALLUJAH (Sputnik)  According to the statement, counterterror troops took control over Shuhada-2 neighborhood. Earlier they liberated the Nuaimiya neighborhood also in the south of the city.

The governmental forces control the suburbs of Fallujah with mainly industrial buildings.

The Iraqi army and militias, backed by US airstrikes, launched the offensive to retake Fallujah on May 22. The city has been under the control of Daesh militant group since 2014. The group is outlawed in Russia and the United States.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  In Syria, the coalition carried out two airstrikes near the terrorist groups de facto capital of Raqqa, destroying a crane and front-end loader. Near Manbij, the coalition struck five Daesh units, destroying three vehicles and a bridge, CENTCOM pointed out.

"In Syria, coalition military forces conducted ten strikes using bomber, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft against ISIL [Islamic State] targets," the release stated on Wednesday. "Additionally in Iraq, coalition military forces conducted 15 strikes coordinated with and in support of the government of Iraq using rocket artillery and fighter and remotely piloted aircraft against ISIL targets."

In Iraq, the coalition carried out 15 airstrikes in eight cities, destroying Daesh vehicles, artillery and tactical units, as well as a modular oil refinery.
He further said that the militants also seek to gain control over the border with Turkey, to cut supply lines of the opposition factions, warring with Daesh in Aleppo.

That way it will be easier to enter Aleppo, to establish control over there and proclaim it as the capital instead of Raqqa, Heidu said.

Despite a truce declared in Syria, Aleppo and surrounding areas remains the site of fierce fighting between the Islamists on one hand and Kurds and the Syrian Army on the other.

Last week, the advent of the Syrian Army operations in Raqqa was first reported by the Lebanese newspaper al-Akhbar.

According to the army troops they were already there for a few days in the village Asriyan in the neighboring province of Hama, preparing for an offensive.

Some units of the Syrian Army moved by approximately 10 kilometers and are now advancing towards the city of Tabqa, which has a vital military airfield. In February and March, the Syrian Army made an attempt to carry out an attack on Raqqa.

After a series of clashes with militants the attack was suspended and the Syrian Army began its offensive on Palmyra.

The Syrian government has had no presence in Raqqa since August 2014. Liberating the city, where some believe Daesh leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is living, has long been seen as key to crippling the terrorist organization.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov and Egyptian Ambassador to Russia Mohamed Badri met for talks earlier in the day.

"During the conversation, the parties exchanged views on topical regional issues, focusing on the necessity of the soonest political settlement of the Syrian crisis in accordance with UN Security Council resolutions 2254 and 2268," the statement said.

Bogdanov and Badri also talked about the Palestinian peace process, including the Arab peace initiative, and discussed the practical issues of the Russia-Egypt bilateral relations.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Extremist leaflets, oath of loyalty to the Daesh, as well as maps of several public institutions were found when the suspect was searched, Mosaique FM reported.

It has been reported that one of the suspect's sons was killed in Syria while the other fights as a terrorist in Libya.

Last June, Daesh gunmen killed 38 people at the Tunisian resort in the same province.
Afghanistan is in a state of political and social turmoil, fighting the continuing Taliban insurgency, while other extremist groups, such as Daesh, outlawed in many states worldwide including Russia, have expanded their activities in the country.

In late May, the Afghanistan National Security Council, chaired by President Ashraf Ghani, adopted a strategy to counter Daesh extremists, granting special powers to the country's security forces.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  As the Syrian Army is getting closer to Raqqa backed by the Russian air force, Daesh terrorists are trying to take control of Aleppo.

"The shelling is indiscriminate, targeting not only positions of government forces, but also residential areas. Some 23 civilians were killed and 47 wounded in these attacks," the ministry said in a daily bulletin posted on its website.

He further said that the militants also seek to gain control over the border with Turkey, to cut supply lines of the opposition factions, warring with Daesh in Aleppo.
"Raytheon Company and Aerojet Rocketdyne have entered into a new Strategic Sourcing Agreement (SSA)," the release stated on Tuesday. "Aerojet Rocketdyne will act as a principal and long-term supplier of its legacy portfolio of propulsion systems and energetics products for key weapons programs."

The agreement is an important step forward in collaboration between industry partners and the US government to achieve the objectives of Better Buying Power, Raytheon Missile Systems President Taylor Lawrence explained in the release.
The war game, titled Anaconda-16, will take place in Poland ahead of next months NATO summit in Warsaw, where officials are expected to approve permanent troops to be stationed in the country and throughout eastern Europe, to combat what they consistently refer to 'Russian aggression.'

The 10-day military exercise calls for the participation of some 31,000 NATO troops and thousands of military vehicles, in what will be the single largest movement of foreign forces inside of Poland since World War II, rehashing painful memories for many Russians.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  Northrop Grumman would support the further development of integrated missile defense capabilities and support wargame command and control procedures, operational concepts and information technology (IT) services, the Defense Department noted.

"Northrop Grumman Space and Mission Systems Corporation [of] Colorado Springs, Colorado, is being awarded a modification to [a] previously awarded contract [worth] $600 million," the announcement stated on Tuesday.

The work would be carried out at US Air Force bases in the states of Colorado, Alabama, Hawaii, Virginia, New Mexico, Alaska, Florida and California, the Defense Department added.
BRUSSELS (Sputnik)  NATO has been reinforcing its military presence in Europe, particularly in Eastern European states, since the outbreak of the Ukrainian crisis, citing Russia's alleged interference in that conflict as justification for the move. Moscow has repeatedly denied the accusations, calling NATO's military buildup near Russia's borders provocative.

"NATO does not represent any threat whatsoever against Russia, but, of course, we have an obligation to defend our members against any attacks <> so, in light of the Russian aggression against Ukraine, we have to react to that situation and we have to deploy more resources to Romania, to Bulgaria, to Poland that are all at the border of Russia. I regret to say, but thats how it is," Rasmussen said.
IRKUTSK (Sputnik)  Rosoboronexport is responsible for over 85 percent of Russian arms and military technology export, according to the Rostec state technologies corporation.

Last years Rosoboronexport arms sales deals also amounted to around $13 billion.

"This year we plan to sell arms and weapons worth more than $13 billion," Chemezov told RIA Novosti.
IRKUTSK (Sputnik) The Su-30SM are produced by Irkutsk's aircraft manufacturer under the contact with the Russian Defense Ministry. The Su-30SM has been supplied to the Aerospace Forces since 2012, to the Naval Aviation since 2014.

The Su-30SM is a 4++ generation fighter jet, developed by Russia's Sukhoi Aviation Holding Company.

"Currently, Irkutsk's aircraft manufacturer [Irkut Corporation] constructed and supplied to the Russian Aerospace Forces and the Naval Aviation of the Russian Navy 61 Su-30SM fighters," Yamanov told RIA Novosti.
The Sukhoi Su-30SM Flanker-H, manufactured by the Irkutsk Aviation Plant, is considered to be a 4+ generation fighter jet. It is outfitted with phased-array radar, thrust vectoring engines and canard panels, as well as advanced high-precision air-to-air and air-to-surface weapons.

The aircraft performed its maiden flight in 2012 and received its baptism of fire in Syria. Initially, the Su-30SM escorted other attack planes as a precaution after Turkey shot a Russian bomber out of Syrian skies. The Su-30SMs were later assigned to bombing missions.

"The multi-role Su-30SM can be deployed in counter-air strikes, counter-land and counter-sea missions. It can conduct electronic counter-countermeasures and early warning tasks. The aircraft also acts as a command-and-control platform within a fleet of combat aircraft performing joint missions," the Airforce Technology website explained.

Fifty-six Su-30SMs are in service with the Russian Air Force and they are expected to receive 30 more aircraft based on the Su-30MK by 2018.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) The Russian Defense Ministry said Wednesday it would be "strange" if the UK navy failed to notice Russia's Stary Oskol submarine as it slowly travelled toward the Black Sea Fleet.

Earlier in the day, it was reported that that a Russian submarine had been "intercepted" as it was expected to pass the strait of Dover, thanks to joint UK-NATO efforts.

"The Russian Defense Ministry is surprised that joint UK-NATO efforts were required to discover a submarine traveling in a surfaced position at slow speed, accompanied by a tugboat. It would have been strange if the Royal Navy together with its NATO allies failed to notice the submarine, particularly considering the fact that our sailors have been greeted  according to an old tradition  by passing merchant vessels from different countries in the Barents, Norwegian and North seas over the past days," the ministry said in a statement.
"Strike group aircraft launched 68 combat sorties and delivered 52 precision guided munitions to targets in Iraq and Syria to dislocate ISIL [Daesh] leadership, target fighters, and degrade the terrorist group's finance generating capacity," the release stated.

The US-led coalition of more than 60 nations has been carrying out airstrikes against the Daesh in Syria and Iraq since summer 2014.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The Takhion and Orlan-10 drones are designed to carry out remote surveying and can work to adjust fire or survey damages, as well as function as a connection repeater.

"Rosoboronexport will strengthen Russia's position on the international unmanned aircraft system (UAS) market by promoting new complexes. These include the Takhion and the Granat-4," Rosoboronexport said in a statement.

Russia has long been in the catch-up development phase in the manufacture of drones, Rosoboronexport's deputy chief executive, Sergei Goreslavsky, said.
LONDON (Sputnik)  According to media reports , the UK Royal Navy on Tuesday detected Russian Kilo-class submarine Stary Oskol in the North Sea. The submarine is being escorted by UK Royal Navy frigate HMS Kent and is expected to pass the Strait of Dover later on Wednesday, according to reports.

The Russian Defense Ministry said earlier in the day it would be "strange" if the UK navy failed to notice Russia's submarine as it slowly traveled up-top toward its Black Sea Fleet base, accompanied by a tugboat.

"HMG vociferous over Rus sub's routine passage on high seas: 'Project Fear' at work. Enough room for all to navigate," the embassy wrote on its official Twitter.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  The guided-missile destroyer USS Porter has docked in the Bulgarian port of Varna for a scheduled port visit in an effort to strengthen ties between sailors of the United States and Bulgaria, the US Navy said in a press release on Wednesday.

"Port visits like this one afford sailors from both Bulgaria and the United States the opportunity to strengthen our bonds, both personally and professionally, as we work toward mutual goals," Porter commanding officer Cmdr. Andria Slough said in the release.

The US destroyer Porter entered the Black Sea on Monday for a series of drills with allies and forces of partner nations in what the United States called a routine deployment.
Commenting on the situation, a representative of the Navy underscored that the deployment of the aircraft carriers is not a response to any challenge.

"Usually, 50 percent of the US warships are on the sea. This is why the recent deployment of six of the total nine aircraft carriers is a routine practice. This is the strategy the US has used for a long time  maintaining naval presence across the world," Konstantin Sivkov, head of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems, told Svobodnaya Pressa.

The deployment of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower to the Mediterranean Sea is bad news for Daesh terrorists. It will expand the US Air Force wing in the region to 120 planes.

As for the deployment of US flattops to the South China Sea, the move would increase tensions between Washington and Beijing, Sivkov said.

"US aircraft carriers are a powerful force. An aircraft carrier never operates in standalone mode. A US carrier group usually comprises one-two submarines and six-eight warships. In addition, the aircraft carrier has several dozens of jets. Such a force can spark tensions in any area of the world ocean," Maj. Gen. Vladimir Romanenko said.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  Earlier this week it was reported that US Navy deploys the biggest number of aircraft carrier strike groups at the same time.

"The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group (IKE CSG) entered the Mediterranean Sea and the US 6th Fleet area of operations today in support of US national security interests in Europe," the release stated on Wednesday.

In addition to the Dwight Eisenhower aircraft carrier, the strike group includes its air wing, guided-missile cruisers San Jacinto and Monterey and a destroyer squadron with associated guided-missile destroyers Roosevelt, Mason, Nitze and Stout.
KUBINKA (Sputnik)  The ceremony of handing over the tank took place on the territory of the museum, where it was exhibited for over 30 years.

"This is a very special and important moment for me and all Israeli nationals. We celebrate the 25th anniversary of restoration of our diplomatic relations This tank will become a symbol of heroism of our soldiers, as well as the symbol of friendship between Israel and Russia," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the ceremony.

According to Netanyahu, families of those soldiers who died in the First Lebanon War, having driven this tank, still had no possibility to visit their graves, and now they would "have an opportunity to touch the memory of their relatives".
On Wednesday, Boeing announced that they will begin delivering AH-6i Little Bird light attack and reconnaissance helicopters to Saudi Arabia by the end of the month, as the aircraft begin to come off the production line in Mesa, Arizona by the end of this week.

The contract faced uncertainty late last week when the United Nations included Saudi Arabia on a blacklist as part of their annual report on Children and Armed Conflict (CAAC), for their role in indiscriminate bombings of schools and hospitals in Yemen.
"I could think of no greater gift to Russia and no greater strategic vulnerability for the United States in the Euro-Atlantic area than that course of action," Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia and Eurasia Michael Carpenter said on Tuesday.

The presumptive Republican nominee for US president, Donald Trump, has proposed the United States rethink its role in NATO, where it pays for the overwhelming majority of the alliances collective defense. Trump further suggested that the 70-year-old alliance is "obsolete" and does not help US security.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  On Tuesday, Cameron held an hour-long TV debate on the issue of Brexit with the UKIP leader Nigel Farage, who called for London's exit from the 28-nation bloc.

"I would say the right thing to do to fight for a great Britain inside the European Union and don't take the Nigel Farage little England option," Cameron said during the Tuesday debate.
Also consider this: the event will take place in Poland, one of the key advocates of a much tougher stance on Moscow. Ideally, Polish leadership wants to see a permanent NATO base on its territory. Not every alliance member is happy about it. Germany has steadily opposed creating permanent deployments in Eastern Europe.

"Poland is the key country that helps the US to pursue its interests in the region," the Vzglyad newspaper noted.

The Warsaw summit, according to Fenenko, could go one of two ways.

"The first scenario will see NATO trying to revise the Founding Act. Poland already did it in December 2015. The second option is that the bloc will not do it openly, but will instead adopt decisions that will de facto modify the act," he explained.

The North Atlantic Alliance is either trying to present Russia with a fait accompli or to force Moscow to reach compromise that will open the doors for NATO's deployments in Eastern Europe and the Baltic region, he added.
The fact that sanctions will not be prolonged automatically does not mean they will not be prolonged at all, Alexei Panin, head of the Moscow office of the consulting company Urus Advisory, said.

"Political discussions themselves are non-binding. Those leaders who want normal relations with Moscow may oppose the automatic prolongation of sanctions and start discussions. But the sanctions will be extended anyway," he told Sputnik Radio.

He noted that the EU policy requires country members follow the lead of the leading European nations.

"This is one of the difficulties for the foreign policy of European countries. On the other hand, they are between the hammer and the anvil. Sanctions are damaging their economies. But should they oppose the united stance of Brussels? Or should they block separate decisions?" the analyst said.

If sanctions are not prolonged at the initial level their extension would require the unanimous decision of all the 28 EU members. If any of the states say "no," then the sanctions would be lifted.

"Under the current EU policy it would be nonsense," Panin said.

At the same time, the analyst suggested that the initiatives of some European regions to lift anti-Russian sanctions may have an effect on Brussels.

"Actually, this signals that EUs stance toward Russia may soon start to change. Most of European leaders see that sanctions havent helped resolve the Ukrainian crisis. There have been calls to impose sanctions against Ukraine for violating the Minsk agreements. At least, it would be a constructive step," the analyst concluded.
Kiev has been conducting a military operation against Donbass independence supporters since spring 2014, when they refused to recognize the new coup-imposed Ukrainian government and declared sovereignty.

The Minsk deal on Ukraine's reconciliation was struck in February 2015 by Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France and later signed by Kiev and the Donbass self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. Both warring parties have repeatedly accused each other of violating the truce despite agreeing to the ceasefire deal.

The Minsk peace agreements should be implemented at the same time as decentralization reforms in Ukraine, Anders Fogh Rasmussen told Sputnik.

"I think these probably should be done in parallel," Rasmussen said. "Decentralization of Ukraine is very important, but at the same time, security in the East is also very important and the end goal of course is that that the Ukrainians should have full control of the border between Russia and Ukraine, and they don't today."

"So it is understandable that Ukrainian politicians are a bit reluctant to move forward here," he added.

Rasmussen Says to Promote Ukraine's Interests, Convey Messages From Europe to Kiev

"I had a meeting with the president and his officials and finally we agreed that I could serve as an adviser, who is not part of his cabinet or his joint staff or anything, Im just an adviser, an external adviser, so to speak," Rasmussen said.

"So, of course, from now on, I will on a regular basis visit Kiev, as well as other European capitals, because I consider my job not only to promote Ukrainian interest but also to get messages from European leaders to the Ukrainian side," he added. "I will also pick up important messages when I visit Western capitals and I will bring these messages to the Ukrainians attention."
For comparison: relations between US President Barack Obama and Netanyahu have been marred by enmity and dislike, particularly after Washington made every effort to ink a nuclear agreement with Iran.

This is not to say that Russia and Israel see eye to eye on every issue. After all, Moscow played a major role in convincing Tehran to constrain its nuclear program. Yet both countries appear to be willing to look for working solutions and leveraging the relationship.

"For Tel Aviv, relations with Moscow provide a means of influencing the behavior of Syria and Iran, Russia's regional partners," Daragh McDowell, principal Europe and Central Asia analyst at risk consultancy firm Verisk Maplecroft, told Newsweek.

"For Russia, developing ties with Israel is an important part of its overall effort to gain and maintain an enduring strategic foothold in the Middle East while also reducing US influence in the region," he added.

Xavier Colas raised a similar point in an opinion piece for El Mundo. Ties between Russia and Israel have intensified at a time when Washington's presence and power in the Middle East are less pronounced that a decade ago. Moreover, US foreign policy could change when a new president moves into the White House next year.

"In this new context, Moscow could be a key player [in the region] and Israel knows it," he noted.

Nevertheless, Israel's special relationship with the US will most likely remain largely unaffected. "Netanyahu's not defecting, but what we see here is a bid to maneuver independently to promote Israel's interests," Reuters quoted Zvi Magen, a former Israeli ambassador to Russia, as saying.

Netanyahu's previous visit to Russia took place on April 21.
The big question in case of 'Brexit' is what the EU will do with the former British parliamentary seats that become vacant. Should they be distributed equally among the remaining members? Should they be allotted for potential new members? Or should they be left completely empty?

Regardless of the referendum's outcome Aland's Autonomy Policy Committee has been pressuring the government in Helsinki to enable necessary legislation for Aland to a take part in the European elections in 2019.

"Indeed, we have already discussed this with the local government. We have decided to immediately challenge Finland's central government if Brexit becomes a fact," local council Katrin Sjogren told newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  In April, it was reported that North Korea could be producing more plutonium for nuclear weapons.

"Indeed, this continues to cause concern. All countries that advocate the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula are particularly concerned and continue to work hard with the North Korean side," Peskov told reporters, commenting on recent US statements that North Korea had resumed the production of plutonium at its nuclear center in Yongbyon.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  On June 3, France hosted an international conference on establishing a strategy to resume Palestinian-Israeli peace talks. The event was not attended by Israeli and Palestinian representatives.

"The conference communique said that the next conference will take place in September. If it is the same as a year ago on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, a conference for the sake of a conference, then it will be a step backwardThe aim of the conference was not the start of talks, but providing for a consensus with regard to the start of the talks. The Israelis and Palestinians did not need to take part in the conference. An international support group must work out the overall principles of reaching peace between Palestine and Israel," Maliki said in an interview with Russia's Rossiya-24 news channel.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Last week, Paris hosted an international conference of 28 delegations aimed at the resumption of the stalled Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. The conference's participants assessed the situation that involved possible risks for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Representatives of neither Israel nor Paris were present at the event.

"We will also receive very soon French special envoy Pierre Vimont and he also will inform us about the discussions and will elaborate on what are the prospects of France on how to continue, plus we will be speaking to all Arabs who attended the meeting to comprehend all the details," Maliki said on Wednesday.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  On June 3, France hosted an international conference on establishing a strategy to resume Palestinian-Israeli peace talks. The event was not attended by Israeli and Palestinian representatives.

"We pay particular attention to restoring intra-Palestinian unity. Russia welcomes the efforts made by Qatar, we welcome Egypt's readiness to resume its role in these efforts. We are ready to make a contribution as well. We have hosted various Palestinian groups in the past and are ready to hold another round of such intra-Palestinian dialogue at this point," Lavrov said at a joint press conference with his Palestinian counterpart Riyad al-Maliki.

Moscow does not believe there is a need to amend the Arab Peace Initiative on the Arab-Israeli issue, Lavrov said.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Color revolutions occurred in Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine and resulted in the overthrow of the countries' governments in 2003, 2005 and 2014 respectively.

"Taking advantage of our liberal government policies and laws, someone wanted to test the resolve of our government. I am stating that we will always take the harshest measures to suppress extremists and terrorists. The state has all the necessary means for that. We all know that the so-called color revolutions employ various techniques and start with contrived rallies, killings and the desire to seize power. These signs have appeared here," Nazarbayev said in a press statement published on the presidential website.

Countries that have undergone color revolutions do not have a functioning state, are unstable, poor and dangerous, as well as being a hotbed of extremism, Nazarbayev added, stressing that terrorism poses a threat to Kazakhstan that will be addressed with additional security measures that will later be evaluated and analyzed.
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BRUSSELS (Sputnik)  Brussels and Tbilisi signed the EU-Georgia Association Agreement in June 2014. It has been ratified by the parliaments of Georgia and the 28 EU member states.

"As you know, last December the European Commission confirmed that Georgia had achieved all the required benchmarks for a positive final decision, which I trust will be forthcoming soon. The Commission's proposal to grant Georgian citizens visa-free travel to the Schengen area is currently being discussed by the Council and the European Parliament," he said after a meeting with Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili.

In December 2015, the European Commission gave a positive assessment confirming that Georgia met all the necessary criteria in line with the Visa Liberalization Action Plan.
Robin Von Swank

Scottish actress Rose Leslie once said, The honeymoon phase always ends, for everyone. It's a bleak reality that hovers silently around every couple but the sharp witted newlywed comedians, Natasha Leggero and Moshe Kasher, are on a quest to defy the limits of the honeymoon phase by embarking on a whirlwind stand-up tour of America's greatest destinations. Their Honeymoon Tour, which they both headline, started off in Honolulu, Hawaii on May 22 and will finish up in Austin, Texas on June 17. The couple will be gracing Albuquerque with a performance at the National Hispanic Cultural Center (1701 Fourth Street SW) on June 14. Between all their just married sex and travel adventures, they took some time to speak with the Alibi over the phone about their new endeavors, dating in the comedy scene and chasing that first-time feeling.

Alibi: Congratulations on doing the marriage thing! For this Honeymoon Tour you said that you wanted to go to destination spots. Why Albuquerque? You know that New Mexico is in the US right?

Leggero: Well, honestly I asked for Santa Fe, but...

Oh no! Gross.

Kasher: No, no, that is not true. We asked for Albuquerque because we love Albuquerque, and it does help that [it] has venues of appropriate size. We feel that [Albuquerque] is surrounded by natural beauty.

Leggero: Also it's close to Santa Fe.

Santa Fe is the posh, old, rich, turquoise-wearing white ladies and Albuquerque is all the cool folks.

Kasher: Oh, well thats what we like. We dont want turquoise-wearing white ladies. We want the cool people.We want people willing to riot during a Trump rally.

So I have to ask the typical Albuquerque question: Red chile or green chile?

Leggero: I've never had either.

Kasher: But I would say red.

When I first started trying to do comedy, the other female comedians told me not to date other comics. Was there an exception to the rule with you two? How did you know it wouldn't mess with your career?

Kasher: Well, I went to the great counsel of the lady comics in the city of Meereen and I brought great bowls of frankincense and cinnamon and they deigned to allow it. Everybodys hornyisnt that truly the human origin story, we were all horny so we traveled across the Bering Strait to try to fuck each other?

Leggero: I think that dating other comics is fun when you're a comedian because they understand your schedule and your jokes and your dark side ... we're like-minded in that way.

Kasher: Yeah, its like the old saying goes: There's no pussy like show pussy.

I was doing extensive research and looking at your Wiki pages and in the personal life section for both of you, all it says is that you're married to each other. Is it true that once you get married your personal life dies?

Kasher: Oh no ...

Leggero: That makes me think we just need to accomplish more.

Kasher: I actually have a lot of secrets. A lot of stuff thats very personal that Natasha doesnt know about but I cant really go into it right now if you know what I'm saying.

Moshe, a few years ago you wrote your autobiography, Kasher in the Rye. What compelled you to write it? You're not that old. What if other exciting things happen to you in the future? Are you going to have to write another book?

Kasher: Yeah that's called: Stack. That. Money. That's my plan where I make an untold fortune through the publishing industry which is on fire right now.

Is it weird to write a book about yourself? Did you feel a little vain or biased?

Kasher: Not really. I'm a genius so why would I feel vain? But speaking of Santa Fe, I once met George R.R. Martin at a comic con and I told him I was writing a book and he laughed and said, What are you, seven?  So anyway, thats why we're doing our show in Albuquerque instead of Santa Fe, to avoid another awkward interaction with George R.R. Martin. I compacted a lot of life into my first 15 yearsa book-worthy amount of life I would say, and now ... I bet itll take me more than 15 years to compile enough memories to make a compelling second book. But I'm working on it.

Natasha, I started watching your new show, Another Period on Comedy Central, and I love it. Was there any weird research that you had to do to get ready for that? Was it easy for you to play that character because of your comedy persona?

Leggero: The character is easy, the research is hard. Well not hard but  involved. We went to Newport, R.I. and did a lot of research. A lot of the stuff is real. I think in the third episode there's a beauty pageant and its between a human, a baby and a cabbage and  it [illustrates] the idea ... [that] to judge beauty [is] very gauche but to judge lettuce [is] cool.

What was your first time on stage like?

Leggero: My first time was still the best performance I've ever had, and I've been trying to recapture that magic for about 15 years. But also I remember my hairdresser had given me half of a Xanax so ... I think why mine was so great was because I couldn't believe they were laughingI wasn't expecting it at allI was kind of doing it as an exercise and the audience was  laughing at everything I said so I was just basking in the laughter each time it came and it just felt like waves rolling over me, although that was probably the Xanax.

Kasher: Yeah comedy feels like your limbs are heavy and you just want to sleep, but like you know, comedy.

Leggero: It's never felt that good again. I should get a prescription for Xanax.
Back in March 2015 European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told Germany's Welt am Sonntag newspaper that the EU needs its own army to address a wide range of security issues.

He bemoaned the fact that "Europe's image has suffered dramatically and also in terms of foreign policy, we don't seem to be taken entirely seriously," the Guardian reported on March 8, 2015.

In May 2015 Juncker called once again for the EU bloc to build its own army.

"A bunch of chickens looks like a combat formation compared to the foreign and security policy of the European Union," Juncker told a Brussels forum as quoted by the Daily Mail.

"I always call for a European army as a long-term project. It is not something you can build from scratch tomorrow morning," he underscored.

Although Juncker's idea prompted a lively debate it did not receive much praise from the European observers. Since then "EU army" concept has been seemingly swept under the rug.

However, in early May 2016 Chancellor Merkel's government's draft proposals on the creation of a joint European command headquarters leaked to the British media, triggering outrage among Brexiteers and Euroskeptics.

"Recent 'revelations' in the British media focused on plans to create an EU military headquarters, and stoked fears of further overreach into one of the most sensitive areas of national sovereignty  defense," Sophia Besch writes.
In addition, Riyadh, according to the analyst, "must understand that a cold spell with the US, opposite stance on low oil prices that affect the Saudi economy, as well as the kingdom's wish to cooperate with Russia on arms deliveries  all of this is unacceptable for US elites."

Saudi Arabia's shady dealings with terrorism do not seem to be on this list. After all, US intelligence services have been aware of Riyadh sponsoring terrorists for a long time, he added.

Alex Beinstein, a Republican Candidate for Colorado's 3rd Congressional District, called the oil kingdom "the true devil with respect to Islamic terror."

The Saudi "government itself was supporting Bin Laden until he was killed in 2011," he told Radio Sputnik, citing Seymour M. Hersh's reporting on the issue. "There are numerous intelligence reports that something like $700 million flowed out of the country in the year 2014 to groups like al-Qaeda, [al-Nusra Front and Daesh], etc."

Beinstein maintained that the US should add Saudi Arabia to the list of countries designated as state sponsors of terrorism. He also suggested that all assets and property that Saudi officials with links to terrorism have in the US should be frozen.
ANKARA (Sputnik)  On June 1, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow expected apologies from Turkey and compensations for the downed Su-24 aircraft. He stressed that no steps had been made in that direction yet.

"Russia has been our neighbor for a thousand years. We are willing to develop relations with it, which does not necessarily mean agreeing on many issues. As for the current problems with Russia, Turkey is, of course, right, but we are ready to solve them," Simsek said, as quoted by the NTV channel.

He added that Turkish policy regarding Russia was "rational and pragmatic."
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The two officials discussed ways of cooperation within the so called Middle East Quartet as well as other negotiation mechanisms.

"We are convinced that all interested parties should make efforts to fix the situation," Lavrov said at a meeting with his Palestinian counterpart Riyad Maliki, stressing Russia's commitment to the two-state solution.
So far, we have every reason to believe that Kiev representatives, the Kiev government, mostly rely on actively and creatively manipulating their partners from Germany and France in the framework of the Normandy Format, and the US representatives in the framework of the direct contacts between Kiev and Washington," Karasin said.

The deputy minister noted, however, that Moscow welcomes the US and EU willingness to enhance cooperation with Kiev on the implementation of the Minsk deal.

We hope, nonetheless, that we will be able to move forward, on the precondition that Kiev feels responsible for actively participating in this process [deal implementation] and for establishing a dialogue with Donetsk and Lugansk representatives, Karasin added.

Kiev launched a military operation in Ukraines southeast in April 2014, after local residents refused to recognize the new Ukrainian authorities, which came to power as a result of a coup.
"For the alliance this is inconvenient: while Brussels has stressed that it intends to somehow restore the dialogue with Moscow, in Poland there is a war being played," the magazine stressed.

Although some countries like Germany try to convince Poland to take a more moderate stance, the new Polish government "strictly adheres to its anti-Russian course." Many fear that Poland might "politically poison" the NATO summit in Warsaw in July.

"Warsaw is acting intentionally provocative. Thus, it invited Georgia and Ukraine to take part in the Anaconda-16 exercise. Both would like to be part of NATO, but the alliance has rejected this idea for years, "not to irritate" Russia. But for the Poles, it doesn't matter. Warsaw has declared the NATO-Russia Founding Act, the basic agreement with Moscow, obsolete", the magazine wrote.

The first multinational operations within the framework of Anaconda 2016 Military Exercises, launched by NATO countries started in Poland on June, 6.

The drills will last until June 17. The exercises involve 31,000 troops from 24 NATO countries. A total of 3,000 military vehicles, 105 aircraft and 12 naval vessels are taking part in the maneuvers.
Earlier, deliveries were planned to be completed in 2017, but both sides seem to have decided to speed things up.

The S-300 is extremely significant for Tehran. The potent defensive surface-to-air missile (SAM) system serves as a "major guarantee that no one will attack Iran, be it Israel, NATO or Saudi Arabia," the publication noted.

It is the latter that worries Iran, not the former. "An assault launched by Israel or any other Western power seemed almost inevitable in, say, 2013, but after anti-Iranian sanctions were lifted last winter this appears to be an unlikely scenario," the media outlet explained.
Hjlund argued that the very parlance politicians and mainstream media use in respect to immigration is confusing and misleading. By dressing bounty hunters up as "refugees," opinion makers try to invoke compassion in public opinion. According to Hjlund, refugees and economic migrants are worlds apart.

"The very word 'refugee' conceals the fact that we have to deal with a permanent migration, not with a temporary refugee crisis. The term refugees' calls on our help and compassion, whereas 'migrants' is a more sober term for people seeking better living conditions," Hjlund wrote.

According to Hjlund, Denmark is moving towards an economic, social, humanitarian and cultural catastrophe  and yet has not even started to use the correct terminology to set the political and moral perception of the crisis straight. Everyone would love to help refugees, but no sensible person would support illegal immigration, he argued.

"With the stream of migrants marketed as a refugee crisis, we continue to help the wrong and betray the weak. The right kind of refugee is still in camps across the Middle East. It is not refugees, but migrants from a multitude of countries including Syria that end up in Europe as a burden on national budgets and local communities," Hjlund wrote.

Inefficiency through incompetence
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Earlier in the day, Czech President Milos Zeman said he would ask his countrys parliament to adopt a resolution recognizing the killings of Armenians in 1915 by the Turks as genocide.

The Republic of Slovenia fully respects Armenias efforts to achieve genocide recognition, because massacres, death marches, and unbearable living conditions have fatally marked Armenians identity and historical and cultural heritage, the spokesperson said, adding that Slovenia deeply regrets the tragic events of 100 years ago.

Moreover, Turkey and Armenia should join forces to address the mass killings of Armenians in 1915, that would help to prevent the repeat of such atrocities in the future, a spokesperson for the Slovenian Foreign Ministry told Sputnik Wednesday.
He even went so far as to assume that the Russians and the Americans "could force their way in and end up in a more direct confrontation."

However, "it is also plausible that the Russians and Americans are now coordinating their approach," the journalist remarked, adding that this in itself bares risks, most notably for Washington, that could "jeopardize" trust among the rebels if there are suspicions that it cooperates with government forces.

Still, according to US Department of Defense spokesperson Peter Cook, the United States and Russia are not coordinating ground operations against Daesh in Syria.

"In terms of direct coordination of activities on the ground that is not happening," Cook stressed, explaining that the countries' joint memorandum of understanding allows the sides to ensure the safety of their aircraft operating in Syria.

Geoff Dyer and Rebecca Collard of the Financial Times echoed Wallis' concerns Tuesday.

"Although US officials play down the possibility, the Syrian government's drive into Raqqa could lead to a situation where the SDF and the Syrian regime are conducting simultaneous offensives to try and capture the [Daesh] stronghold," they noted, suggesting that the situation may aggravate further tensions between Moscow and Washington.

Dyer and Collard stressed that the SAA success "could have a significant impact on the broader war in Syria," swinging the balance in President Bashar al-Assad's favor. It is especially remarkable in the context of the SAA's recent victory in Palmyra.

The West has long been in denial of the fact that the SAA is a credible force in fighting against Daesh. The Syrian Armed Force's successful achievements on the ground have repeatedly proven this.
Almost half of those interviewed, 48 percent, said they thought the European Union was likely to remove the restrictions from Russia.

The United States, the European Union and some of their allies have imposed several rounds of sanctions targeting key sectors of the Russian economy, as well as a number of individuals and entities, over Crimeas reunification with Russia and accusations of Moscow's alleged interference in the Ukrainian conflict.
During the vote, 302 French senators voted in favor of the resolution, while 16 voted against the initiative.

The resolution proposed by the opposition calls on the French government to protest extension of EU sanctions against Moscow. Although the resolution is not legally binding, the document will be sent to the French government for consideration.

Earlier, the French National Assembly, the lower house of the parliament, voted in favor of the resolution calling for lifting of anti-Russian sanctions.
"The Vice President spoke to Prime Minister of Turkey Binali Yildirim today to express condolences for the terrorist attacks in Istanbul and Midyat," the release stated.

During the call, the officials also agreed to continue counterterrorism cooperation and reaffirmed support for an agreement to reunify Cyprus, according to the release.
"Canada has supported the Pacific Alliance since its inception, as well as its collaborative approach to promoting trade and investment," Freeland said on Wednesday. "Canadas close and growing ties with the Pacific Alliance form the foundation for a long-term partnership that builds on our progressive trade agenda."

The Pacific Alliance joins Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru  nations that accounted for $46.2 billion in two-way merchandise trade with Canada in 2015, or about 70 percent of Canadas trade with all of Latin American nations, the release noted.
Brian is joined by by Kevin Akin, the state secretary of the California Peace & Freedom Party; and by Dennis Bernstein, co-host of the Flashpoints radio show on KPFA Pacifica in Berkeley. Becker is also joined by Jane Cutter, the editor of LiberationNews.org website; and Gloria La Riva, who yesterday won the 2016 presidential nomination of California's Peace and Freedom Party.

Investigative reporter Dennis Bernstein reveals the extent of widespread voter fraud and irregularities that took place in California, and the entire panel takes up the prospects for Bernie Sanders and his supporters after Hillary Clinton's big victory in California and elsewhere. What was the impact of all the mainstream media announcing that Clinton had clinched the nomination on the eve of the primary  even though that announcement was based on a poll rather than an actual vote of the delegates?
In her recent article, "Democrats Work With Big Tobacco and Big Pharma to Choke the Vaping Industry," at the American Media Institute (and at the NY Observer), journalist Monica Showalter offers an answer. She details the "strange bedfellows against vaping," citing both Big Tobacco's support of the crippling new FDA regulations, along with massive donations given by Big Pharma to big name Democrats in the U.S. Senate, just as those politicians came out in favor of restrictions on vaping. The Big Pharma companies include those which control the multi-billion dollar smoking-cessation nicotine industry that produces products such as nicotine gums, patches and, yes, inhalers!

Adler, the co-author of a study titled "Baptists, Bootleggers and E-Cigarettes", joins us to explain the strange coalition, and the powerful history of the "Baptist and Bootleggers" political/economic theory, where seemingly opposing groups, such as bootleggers and religious opponents of alcohol, worked together to keep Prohibition going as long as possible in the U.S. in the early part of the 20th century.

A similarly fascinating and powerful (and bizarre) political and financial coalition seems to be at work here, as Adler explains, to blunt the nascent and life-saving e-cigarette industry, despite recent studies showing, for example, "that when restrictions are imposed upon electronic cigarettes that either make them harder to get or make them more expensive, teen smoking rates go up. The idea that we could adopt policies in the name of public health that increase teen smoking rates should really be frightening."

Also, what should be similarly frightening to Democrats and others who claim to be against smoking, according to Adler, is that the Big Tobacco companies have been very supportive of the onerous FDA regulations no being applied to vaping products. Those are costly new rules that Big Tobacco can afford to comply with, but Mom and Pop vaping shops, currently leading the industry in the U.S., simply cannot. "The major tobacco companies asked [for] and supported the FDA's proposals to regulate e-cigarettes," Adler tells me. "Indeed, Phillip Morris is largely credited with helping to write the statute under which these regulations were adopted." Finally, we end another very busy BradCast today with our latest very busy Green News Report!

You can find Brad's previous editions here.

And tune in to Radio Sputnik one hour a day, five days a week.
IRKUTSK (Russia), (Sputnik)  Earlier in the day, Medvedev visited Irkutsk Aviation Plant within the framework of presentation ceremony of Russia's new advanced MC-21 aircraft.

"You have gained a really good momentum and it is crucial that we can not lose it, because it always results in loss of skills and just because we should rearm our army," Medvedev said, during his visit to Irkutsk Aviation Plant.

Medvedev also thanked everyone involved in construction and maintenance of advanced aircraft, adding that Russian planes successfully cope with different challenges, including such complicated as anti-terrorist aerial campaign in Syria.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  On January 1, 2007, Ban Ki-moon took office and became the eighth secretary-general of the United Nations. In June 2011, Ban was reelected and will continue to serve as the UN chief until December 31, 2016.

"To award Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations Secretary-General, a national of the Republic of Korea, with the Order of Friendship for his special role in strengthening peace, friendship, cooperation and mutual understanding between nations," the decree, published on the official Russian internet portal for legal information, read.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The Proton-M is the largest carrier rocket in Russia's fleet of space launch vehicles. The rocket has lifted dozens of Russian-made and foreign satellites into orbit since it was first commissioned into service in 2001.

"The launch of the Proton-M carrier rocket with the US spacecraft Intelsat DLA2 has been postponed due to technical issues to June 9, 2016. The scheduled launch time  10:10 Moscow time [07:10 GMT]," the statement said.

The Intelsat DLA2 was manufactured by the US-based Space Systems Loral (SSL) company.
A large quadcopter capable of carrying a human passenger along with a small backpack, the UAV follows a flightpath set by the user, and its propellers fold up so that the craft can fit inside a single parking spot.

"The whole world never had something like this before," said Shang Hsiao, EHang co-founder, according to the Associated Press.

Now the drone is ready for test flights in the United States. Working with the Nevada Institute for Autonomous Systems (NIAS), EHang will test the vehicle in the deserts of the American West.
Hillary Clinton tends to fare better in states with closed primaries, where only registered Democrats can vote, while Bernie Sanders performs better in states with open primaries where independents can vote. This issue came to a head recently during the New York primary, where Sanders commented that three million independent voters in the state of New York "lost their right to vote in the Democratic or Republican primary. Thats wrong."

Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz has said she is "absolutely" supportive of closed primaries, remarking that the "partys nominee should be chosen by someone registered with that party," and that Democrats, "should not have independents or Republicans playing games." Wasserman was the target of a petition initiated by activist-website RootsAction.org calling for her removal as head of the DNC for attempting to minimize competition for her candidate, Hillary Clinton." The petition received over 40,000 signatures and RootsAction co-founder Norman Sunday said, "Wasserman Schultz has become a key operative and symbol of aversion to democracy at the top of the Democratic Party. Her removal as chair of the national party is necessary, though certainly insufficient, to shift the momentum in a positive direction."
International Business Times (IBT) senior editor David Sirota said Monday that the State Department informed him of the delay to release emails exchanged between Clinton's State Department office and a TPP-related US trade representative. Earlier this year the State Department had promised to fulfill IBT's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request in April.

According to Sirota, Clinton emails regarding TPP will not be available until late November 2016, after the presidential election. The journalist stressed that IBT's request was aimed at disclosing exactly how involved Clinton was in shepherding, or possibly drafting, the international deregulated-trade deal while serving as US State Secretary, and that it was essential to make the contents of the emails public prior to the election.

A US State Department representative abruptly told Sirota that "the search process has been completed andthe information located from that search isbeing prepared for the review process," postponing the FOIA request completion date to November 31, 2016.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  Pilots managed to eject safely after two F-16 fighter jets crashed near Jefferson County in the US state of Georgia, South Carolina Air National Guard said in a press release on Wednesday.

"The pilots of each of the single-seat aircraft ejected safely after a mid-air collision while performing routine night-flying operations," the release stated.
"Norris Geyser Basin is the hottest and most changeable thermal area in Yellowstone," according to the YNP website.

On Saturday, a 13-year-old boy had to be airlifted from the park to the Salt Lake City hospital after he fell into a pool near the Castle Geyser in the Upper Geyser Basin and was badly burned.

Directly below the surface and in areas where there are thermal features, there can be a lip over the top of the feature that hides boiling hot water below it," park spokeswoman Charissa Reid said in a statement after Saturdays incident. "So its very dangerous to walk off the boardwalk in the thermal areas. Not only is it illegal, but its also unsafe. In addition to that, it can damage the thermal features and encourage others to walk off trail by leaving foot prints in the geyserites as well, so it is illegal and we do enforce that regulation pretty strongly in the park."

The boy is recovering, but suffered extreme burns to one of his limbs. His father was also burnt while rescuing the child.
The caller also reported that there had been an aggressive alligator around the ramp throughout the week. Police responded to the scene, but did not find a body or the animal.

Early on Sunday evening, police were called again about something large floating in the water and being circled by an alligator, but when police arrived they again could not find the object or the alligator.

A medical examiner will determine whether the death was the result of a an attack by the gator.

Exactly one week before the discovery in Lakeland, a body was found being devoured by two alligators at the edge of the Everglades. The gators were not harmed during that incident, though police officers stood with assault rifles in case the large reptiles moved in on divers while they recovered the corpse.

The Davie Police Department do not suspect the alligators of killing that person, and are currently treating it as a homicide investigation. The police have still not determined the identity, or even the gender, of the body  which they say appears to have been in the water for at least a few days.
On Tuesday, the White House warned that it would veto a new defense spending bill because of a provision that would prevent the transfer of Guantanamo prisoners to the continental United States.

"The Administration strongly objects to several provisions of the bill that relate to the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba," reads the statement. "As the Administration has said many times before, the continued operation of the facility weakens our national security by draining resources, damaging our relationships with key allies and partners, and emboldening violent extremists.
Radio Sputniks Loud & Clear speaks with investigative reporter Dennis Bernstein, California state secretary of the California Peace & Freedom Party, Kevin Aikan, Jane Cutter, editor of LiberationNews.org, and Gloria La Riva, who yesterday won the 2016 presidential nomination for the Peace and Freedom Party in California. The California primary was discussed, along with what lies ahead for Sanders, and whether his supporters will lend their vote to the Clinton campaign.





Host Brian Becker mentioned that Clinton has framed her primary win as a victory for women. In her Tuesday night speech she evoked the names of Shirley Chisolm, Rosa Parks, Delores Huerta and other female progressive political figures.

"Hillary Clinton is a neoliberal, war mongering war criminal and a not so crypto-racist who will throw womens reproductive rights under the bus to get ahead." Cutter asserted. "She is not my sister and she is no kind of feminist icon in my eyes and in the eyes of countless other feminists."
The team stayed on the islands for two weeks and covered an area of over 1,000 square miles. Radiation readings were then compared to measurements from Majuro Atoll, an island far enough away to be used as a control. Measurements were also taken in Central Park, in New York City, New York, as an additional control.

"Central Park and the Majuro Atoll experience 13 and 9 millirems of radiation per year, respectively," the study said. "Enewetak had the lowest radiation levels, at 7.6 mrem/y, which makes sense, since the island has had extensive cleanup efforts. Rongelap has higher levels at 19.8 mrem/y, and Bikini Atoll has the most radiation of the islands studied, with a mean of 184 mrem/y."
The real culprit, Vincent Smothers, who is currently incarcerated for unrelated murders, gave a 26-page affidavit in March 2015, claiming responsibility for the murders, saying that not only was Sanford not involved, but that he he didnt even know who he was. "I had never met, spoken with, or even heard of Davontae Sanford or anyone connected to him," Smothers affidavit read. "Davontae Sanford is being wrongly incarcerated for a crime that I know he did not commit."

Another report showed that a deputy chief that investigated the case contradicted sworn testimony that claimed Sanford drew a detailed diagram of the crime scene.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Earlier in the day, a group of students tried to march through the center of country's capital of Port Moresby, protesting against government and corruption in Papua New Guinea.

According to the ABC broadcaster, police officers tried to detain the head of student council, but after they failed they started shooting in the crowd of students.

The broadcaster added that police had not commented the deadly incident yet.
An insider to India's elite group of strategists told Sputnik that on the sidelines of the G-20 summit slated for September this year, the US could mediate between India and China for a quid pro quo arrangement wherein India could agree to not to oppose China's entry into the MTCR in exchange of support for NSG membership. India is in a strong position to exert pressure on the US to broker such an agreement as the long pending India-US Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) is yet to be officially signed upon. The two sides have so far only agreed upon the text of LEMOA.

US welcomes India's imminent entry to Missile Technology control regime (MTCR) (NSG next? India-US work together on mission NSG) @IndiaToday  GAURAV C SAWANT (@gauravcsawant) June 7, 2016

Rajiv Nayan says, "Even if China is not part of MTCR, it will continue to manufacture and export weapons. But, joining the MTCR will be of greater advantage for China as it will have a role in policy making. Policies which are reference points for rules of technology and export."

In February this year, the China Daily quoted Shi Wen, Chief drone designer at the China Academy of Aerospace Aerodynamics, who said that China has so far exported military drones to more than 10 countries. Now, China is aiming higher because it estimates that by 2020, the global market of military drones could reach $10 billion.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is being praised at home for his foreign policy skills.

Leverage in action: India secured MTCR membership after Italywhich was blocking its admissionsecured bail for its marine accused of murder  Brahma Chellaney (@Chellaney) June 8, 2016

Yet another diplomatic brownie point for India as we become the 35th member of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR). #ModiInUS  Rao Inderjit Singh (@Rao_InderjitS) June 8, 2016

Rajiv Nayan of the Institute of Defense Studies and Analysis says, "Despite tall claims by US, it never supports India in developing nuclear and ballistic weapons. It continues to ban transfer of ballistic technology to India. Nonetheless, India has developed on its own almost all MTCR listed weapons. We have all the capabilities, while we remain committed to non-proliferation. Finally, the world has accepted this."
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  On Sunday, Switzerland became the first country to hold a referendum on Universal Basic Income (UBI) with 77 percent of voters rejecting the proposal of introducing an unconditional monthly income for citizens of $2,500.

If Provinces want to introduce basic income pilot projects, we could help them by sharing our data, Mathieu Filion said.

In the end of May, at its national convention in Winnipeg, the Liberal Party of Canada, the oldest federal political party in Canada and the countrys ruling party, passed a resolution in favor of a guaranteed basic income.
Tony Alagna won the Pepsi North America Cup three years ago with Captaintreacherous and the New Jersey-based trainer is back again this year hoping to advance three horses to the lucrative June 18 final.

Alagnas Highlandbeachycove and Racing Hill are in the first of two nine-horse North America Cup eliminations for three-year-old male pacers Saturday (June 11) at Mohawk Racetrack. The two will start on opposite ends of the gate, with Highlandbeachycove and driver Scott Zeron starting from Post 1 and Racing Hill and driver Brett Miller staring from Post 9. American Passport, Alagnas remaining entry, will start from Post 8 in the second elim, with Zeron at the lines.

The top five finishers from each elimination advance to the $1 million final.

Racing Hill and American Passport both won divisions of the International Stallion and Bluegrass stakes last year at Lexingtons Red Mile. Both horses have raced twice this year without a win, but Alagna is pleased with the way the two colts are heading to the North America Cup eliminations.

American Passport went off stride while battling for the lead in the stretch in his seasonal debut at the Meadowlands on May 21, but rebounded to finish second by a half-length to the Casie Coleman-trained Betting Line in 1:50.1 in a division of the Somebeachsomewhere Stakes last Saturday at Mohawk.

We thought we had him in good shape going into his first start and it looked like he was going to go a good mile, he just needed a little bit more fine-tuning before the Somebeachsomewhere, Alagna said. We worked on a couple things, took his hopples in a little bit, and he trained back good and we expected him to be back on his game in Canada. And he was very good. He was back to his old self.

American Passport is owned by Brittany Farms, Riverview Racing, Alagna Racing, and Jodi Siamis. He is a son of American Ideal and is out of the mare Star Of The Show. He sold for $29,000 under the name Rose Run Rascal at the 2014 Standardbred Horse Sale. His mother is a half-sister to both Ideal Treasure  who is the dam of Canadian Horse of the Year State Treasurer  and stakes-winner Ideal Matters. The family also includes world champion Hit Parade.

For his career, American Passport has won three of 13 races and earned $212,534.

Hes an extremely high speed horse, Alagna said. Hes showed that he can sprint as hard as anything. Its just a matter of keeping him strong and healthy. I think hell take care of the rest.

Racing Hill, a homebred colt for owner Tom Hill, heads to his North America Cup elimination with two second-place finishes this season. He finished second by three-quarters of one length to War N Munn in a conditioned race at Mohawk last Saturday despite a :25.4 final quarter-mile, and finished second by a nose to Major War in 1:49.2 in his seasonal debut in a conditioned race at the Meadowlands.

He was very good up there, Alagna said about last weeks effort. We just needed a nice start over the track to make sure we were ready for (this) week. All systems are go. Last year he was a good-sized horse, but hes even bigger and more muscular this year. I think hes got a big shot, too.

Racing Hill, a son of Roll With Joe out of the mare Chasing Ideals, has won five of 12 career races and earned $140,926.

Highlandbeachycove was unbeaten in his first two races this year, but finished ninth in his division of the Somebeachsomewhere Stakes last weekend. Alagna said the horse scoped sick following the race.

He was loaded with mucous, everything down deep coming from his lungs, Alagna said. He didnt get the best trip, but he still shouldnt have gotten tired like he did. Hes a much better horse than that.

Were going to treat him and put him back in and give him a shot. He jogged back good, never missed a meal, had no temperature or anything like that. He just scoped bad. Hopefully well get him cleaned up.

Highlandbeachycove has won three of eight lifetime starts and earned $40,388. He is owned by Alagna Racing, Eagles Soar Partners, Joe Sbrocco, and Alan Alber. The colt, a son of Somebeachsomewhere out of the mare Rockn Highland, sold for $100,000 at the 2014 Lexington Selected Sale. His dam is a half-sister to millionaire Armbro Animate as well as Artistic Vision, the mother of 2010 U.S. Horse of the Year Rock N Roll Heaven and $2-million-earner Clear Vision.

Saturdays card at Mohawk also features two eliminations for the Fan Hanover Stakes for two-year-old female pacers and three eliminations for the Roses Are Red Stakes for older female pacers. To view an overview of all of the other stakes eliminations that will be featured on Friday and Saturday at Mohawk, click here.

The NA Cup eliminations have been carded as Race 5 and Race 7 on Mohawks 12-dash Saturday program. Each elimination will carry a purse of $50,000. The program will kick off with a 7:30 p.m. first-race post time.

Trot Magazine released its 2016 Pepsi North America Cup Spring Book earlier this year. To view Trot's spring book, click here.

To view the harness racing entries for Saturday at Mohawk, click the following link: Saturday Entries  Mohawk Racetrack.

For a free, printable program for Mohawks Saturday card (courtesy of TrackIT), click here.

The fields for the North America Cup elimination appear below.

Elimination 1

(Post  Horse  Listed Driver)

1  Highlandbeachycove  Scott Zeron

2  Check Six  Yannick Gingras

3  Control The Moment  Randy Waples

4  Lyons Snyder  Sylvain Filion

5  Beast Mode  Sylvain Filion

6  Betting Line  David Miller

7  Im Some Graduate  John Campbell

8  Ideal Rocky  Corey Callahan

9  Racing Hill  Brett Miller

Elimination 2

(Post  Horse  Listed Driver)

1  Nocturnal Bluechip  Paul MacDonell

2  Boston Red Rocks  Tim Tetrick

3  Brookdale Sonny  Mike Saftic

4  Nvestment Bluechip  Jody Jamieson

5  Michaels Victory  Sylvain Filion

6  Big Top Hanover  Yannick Gingras

7  Manhattan Beach  Yannick Gingras

8  American Passport  Scott Zeron

9  Magnum J  Doug McNair

This story courtesy of Harness Racing Communications, a division of the U.S. Trotting Association. For more information, visit www.ustrotting.com. Photo courtesy New Image Media.
The Longview City Council will hold its regularly scheduled meeting Thursday.

Council members will discuss:

 Renewing the city's membership with the Cowlitz-Wahkiakum Council of Governments, a regional planning agency

 Continuing an agreement with Kelso for reciprocal library borrowing.

 Designating delegates for the Association of Washington Cities conference June 23.

 Requesting that an unused $1,400 for the Southwest Washington Regional Airport to be returned to the city.

 Setting a public hearing to amend the Six-Year Transportation Improvement Program to reflect additional projects.

 Allowing Lucky Dog Juice Co. as a new vendor at Lake Sacajawea Park in the summer.

The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. at Longview City Hall.
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In a country known for the widespread use of military unmanned aircraft, the Afghan government on Wednesday moved to restrict the use of camera drones by media companies. The Interior Ministry announced the policy, citing national security. "The Interior Ministry, with all respect it has to media, respectfully announces to all national and international media that they should not use such cameras that have broad coverage and can create problems for security institutions," the ministry said in a statement.

Afghanistan's National Security Council issued the order, the statement said. The restrictions will not apply to the whole country, but only to sensitive areas like government and military facilities, according to an official at the Ministry of Information and Culture who spoke on condition of anonymity. The official cited a recent incident in which a local TV news company flew a small drone over the presidential palace in Kabul while covering a large protest.

Many other countries have enacted similar restrictions as they grapple with how to regulate the expanding use of commercial and private remote-controlled aircraft. Still, the news raised some eyebrows in a country rife with unmanned U.S. military aircraft. "How about you banning killer drones instead?" wrote one Afghan user on Twitter.

Since the American-led military campaign began in Afghanistan in 2001, foreign militaries have used hundreds of unmanned aircraft to conduct surveillance and air strikes. Nearly 15 years after a drone first fired missiles in combat, the U.S. military programme has expanded far beyond specific strikes to become an everyday part of the war machine. Unmanned aircraft now log up to eight times as many flight hours as the few remaining manned aircraft in Afghanistan. Earlier this year, the Afghan military received its first surveillance drones, which have been deployed in restive Helmand province.

Reuters
tech2 News Staff

Sprightly is a nifty little application for owners of small businesses or social media managers. The application allows you to use photos in your gallery, and quickly churn out fliers, greeting cards, catalogs, price lists or coupons. The interface is very streamlined, and it is possible to quickly create any of these kinds of content in four to six steps.

The application is designed to allow owners of small and micro sized businesses to create professional looking social content, without having to hire a graphic designer. The application features a number of templates with the contemporary flat styling. Only a smartphone is needed to create the content. There were a number of false starts before the team came up with a simple three-step solution to a real world problem. After one of the templates are picked, users can edit the text and customize the pictures. After that, the images generated can be shared via WhatsApp, Facebook, e-mail, other communication platforms, or saved to gallery, or printed directly from the phone.

The application was developed by a mobile-only team in Hyderabad working under Microsoft Garage program, an initiative that rapidly converts disruptive new ideas into finished products.

Microsoft Garage has been coming up with a number of free applications catering to small and micro businesses, including Kaizala and Connections. Other Microsoft Garage products include the productivity boosting Hub keyboard and Fetch! for identifying dog breeds.

Sprightly is available on Android and iOS.
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Uber must hand over documents to a New York judge probing whether private investigators hired by the ride-hailing company fraudulently sought information about its opponents in an antitrust case, according to a court ruling on Tuesday.

US District Judge Jed Rakoff is seeking to determine whether Uber instructed an investigator to lie in order to elicit information about Spencer Meyer, lead plaintiff in the antitrust lawsuit, and his attorney.

The suit, filed in December, alleges that Uber chief executive Travis Kalanick engaged in a price-fixing scheme with Uber drivers. The proposed class action names Kalanick and not the ride-hailing company, though Uber is seeking to intervene in the lawsuit.

In one instance, an investigator hired by Uber allegedly called Meyer's attorney's professional colleagues and "falsely stated that he was compiling a profile of up-and-coming labor lawyers in the United States," Rakoff wrote.

When confronted about the investigator's calls, attorneys for Kalanick initially denied that the company was involved with them, according to court documents.

In court filings, Kalanick's attorneys eventually acknowledged hiring an investigator from a company called Ergo to dig up information about Meyer.

However, Uber denied in a court filing that it knew the investigator had lied or concealed his identity.

An Uber spokesman declined to comment on Tuesday.

The lawsuit alleges that "Uber has a simple but illegal business plan: to fix prices among competitors and take a cut of the profits."

It argues that drivers conspired with Kalanick to charge fares set by Uber's algorithm, with an understanding that other Uber drivers would do the same, even if they might do better setting more competitive prices on their own.

In his order of Tuesday, Rakoff said he wanted evidence backing Uber's assertions that it did not know about the misrepresentations.

"An Ergo investigator hired by Uber in connection with this case made false representations in order to gain access to information about plaintiff and his counsel, thus raising a serious risk of perverting the process of justice before this Court," Rakoff wrote in his order.

The judge has authorized the plaintiff's request to conduct a probe, which involves Uber turning over communications and documents pertaining to the investigative work performed by Ergo for review by the court.

Neither Ergo nor Andrew Schmidt, the plaintiff's attorney who was a target of Ergo's investigation, could be reached for comment on Tuesday evening.

Uber had appealed to the judge to reconsider, saying the requested documents were privileged, but Rakoff rejected that appeal on Tuesday.

"The Court finds that plaintiff has provided an entirely 'reasonable basis' to suspect the perpetration of a fraud and to suspect that Uber communications furthered such a fraud," Rakoff wrote.

Kalanick's attorneys earlier in the year asked the judge to dismiss the case, arguing that under the specific language of its passenger agreement, riders waive the right to bring class-actions against the company.

Rakoff denied that request in March.

The case in US District Court, Southern District of New York, is Spencer Meyer vs Travis Kalanick, 15-09796.

Reuters
Clinton hails a milestone as she clinches Democratic nomination

Hillary Clinton declared herself the Democratic Party nominee for U.S. president on Tuesday, embracing her role in history as the first woman to lead a major party in a race for the White House. The former first lady, U.S. senator and secretary of state celebrated her victory in the nominating race over rival Bernie Sanders at a raucous event with supporters in Brooklyn, New York, where Clinton placed her achievement in the context of the long history of the women's rights movement. "Thanks to you, we have reached a milestone," Clinton said in a speech. "We all owe so much to who came before." Clinton, 68, spoke shortly after beating Sanders in New Jersey's nominating contest, expanding her lead in the delegates needed to clinch the nomination and setting up a five-month general election campaign against presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump in the Nov. 8 election. New Jersey was one of six states holding contests on Tuesday, including California, the big prize where Clinton was still at risk of an embarrassing loss to Sanders as she heads into the campaign against Trump. With about one-third of the votes counted in California, Clinton held a wide 20-percentage-point lead over Sanders, but news networks said the race was still too close to call. In her speech, Clinton appealed to Sanders supporters to join her and said the Democratic Party had been bolstered by his campaign for eradicating income inequality, which has commanded huge crowds and galvanized younger voters. Clinton edged Sanders out, especially among older voters, with a more pragmatic campaign focused on building on the policies of her fellow Democrat, President Barack Obama. But Sanders showed no interest in ending his upstart candidacy, telling cheering supporters in California that he would go on campaigning through next Tuesday's primary in the District of Columbia and carry his political crusade - although not necessarily his campaign - to the convention in July. "We are going to fight hard to win the primary in Washington DC," he said. "And then we take our fight for social, economic, racial and environmental justice to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania." The White House issued a statement saying Obama had called both Clinton and Sanders. It said he congratulated her on securing the delegates necessary to clinch the nomination and would meet Sanders on Thursday at Sanders' request. -- Reuters
'Birth registration rate stands at 87 per cent'



LGRD and Cooperatives Minister Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain said birth registration rate in the country stands at 87 per cent.

"Less than three percent have been registered within 45 days of birth of children and the trend of delayed birth registration should be reduced," he said this on Wednesday while speaking at a workshop at the Mukti Hall of Bidyut Bhaban here.

Birth and Death Registration Project of Local Government and UNICEF jointly organized the workshop titled "Increasing birth registration within 45 days of birth and its use to combat early marriage."

Secretary of Cabinet Division (coordination and reform) NM Ziaur Alam and UNICEF Country Director to Bangladesh Edouard Beigbeder, among others, addressed the workshop with Local Government Division secretary Abdul Malek in the chair.

Mosharraf said birth registration rate of children must be increased within 45 days of their birth to check early marriage and access of child workers to job markets. The government has made mandatory for receiving 17 types of public service and death registration for four public services, he added.

Other speakers said Bangladesh must launch massive awareness campaign to increase birth registration rate to free the country from the curse of early marriage.

According to a report of UNICEF, the rates are still high as 66 percent of girls are married before the age of 18 and over one third of girls are married before the age of 15.




No future for refugees

Hakan Ataman :

Following the deal struck between the European Union and Turkey, Greece began deporting refugees and migrants to Turkey on April 4, 2016. A second group was expelled a few days later. Although Greece has postponed the next batch of deportations until an unknown date, Turkey has already taken a number of measures in anticipation of deportations from EU countries, including the preparation of three harbors for readmissions in Kusadasi (Aydin), Gulluk (Mugla) and Dikili (Izmir), in the Aegean region.

In accordance with the EU-Turkey agreement, Turkey changed its Temporary Protection Regulation. Prior to this amendment, any Syrian under the temporary protection regime, who left Turkey after registration, would not be entitled to re-apply for this status. Now, temporary protection is granted to all Syrian refugees who are returned to Turkey from Greece. This provision does not cover non-Europeans and non-Syrians, including Afghans, Iraqis and Iranians.

However, the refugees deported from the Greek islands of Lesbos and Chios thus far were primarily of Pakistani and Afghan origin. Others were from Bangladesh, Iraq, Iran, India, Sri Lanka, Congo, Somalia and the Ivory Coast. Only a small number were Syrians. Following a simple health examination, the Turkish government sent them to the deportation center in Kirklareli, in the Thrace district, on the same day.

EU-Turkey deal undermines international protection of refugees

The EU and Turkey claim that the new agreement aims to provide "safe", "legal" and "regular" migration for refugees and migrants. However, the deal has attracted heavy criticism from NGOs and activists, who believe that the process undermines the international protection of refugees, not just in Europe, but also around the world. Most critics are concerned about the lack of protection and practical difficulties encountered by refugees living or arriving in Turkey. The central question is whether Turkey can be considered a safe country.

In fact, it cannot be considered as such - neither for refugees and migrants nor for its own citizens. The latest edition of the Bertelsmann Transformation Index, BTI 2016, is very clear about this: Turkey "has left its path of democratization under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.  Recently regarded as a positive example of transformation in part due to its prospects of EU membership, the tendency in recent years toward the concentration of ever-greater powers in government hands, to the detriment of regime-critical media and civil society, has threatened freedom and democracy."

Refugees in Turkey face particular challenges in urban areas

Refugees and migrants face particular challenges regarding basic rights and livelihood support in Turkey. As of the beginning of April 2016, the number of Syrian refugees in Turkey was around 3.5 million. The majority of them live in urban areas, including cities without refugee camps, such as Istanbul, Izmir and Bursa.

Turkey's efforts to ensure the rights of refugees living in urban area are particularly inadequate. There, refugees do not fully exercise their right to access health, education, housing and the job market. Furthermore, urban areas are affected by a range of problems concerning security conditions and specific needs and risks such as child protection and Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV).

To begin with, unregistered refugees and irregular migrants - both Syrians and non-Syrians - are not entitled to access any public services in Turkey except emergency health services provided by public hospitals.

Access to adequate housing is another big problem in metropolitan cities. The high rents charged there mean that many refugees are faced with eviction when their savings run out, or forced to live in poor conditions without privacy or hygiene.

When it comes to employment, the legal situation of refugees is improving but the actual situation is slow to follow suit. The Turkish government recently adopted a new regulation on work permits for refugees, with the result that there are now fewer legal restrictions stopping refugees from accessing the labor market. However, the process of obtaining work permits is very slow and difficult due to many bureaucratic obstacles and fees. Permits are also limited by quotas and restricted to certain industries. Therefore, most refugees are in irregular employment or work in the informal sector.

Child labor remains another huge problem. Human Rights Watch and UNICEF have reported that over 400,000 Syrian refugee children living in Turkey do not attend school.

International protection system for refugees must be revised

To sum up, there are no adequate national structures for the provision of services to refugees in Turkey. Local social programs and community-based organizations lack the capacity to meet refugees' needs, while the support provided by United Nations agencies, other development and humanitarian partners and the private sector is also limited.

On several occasions, the European Court of Human Rights has found that the conditions in Turkish deportation and detention centers for migrants and refugees amount to degrading treatment in violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights prohibiting inhuman or degrading treatment.

There is no future for most refugees in Turkey. Without effective rights-based policies, issuing laws, regulations and agreements about refugees is of no practical consequence for refugees living in the country. While the international community must provide Turkey with financial assistance in this process, financial assistance alone will not solve the problem. The international community must call upon Turkey to seek solutions based on human rights. However, to suggest or expect this might well be naive or even irrelevant given that the international protection system for refugees is collapsing on a global scale. The Syria crisis - the worst crisis of its kind since Rwanda - is an important opportunity for the international community to begin reflecting on and taking the necessary steps to change its protection system.

(Hakan Ataman is Psychosocial Support Project Coordinator for Refugees at the Helsinki Citizens' Assembly - Turkey. This article is part of the "Migration & Transformation" series supported by the German Bertelsmann Foundation).


Declaring a historic victory, Hillary turns fire on Trump in her White House bid

Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton waves as she stands onstage with her husband former President Bill Clinton (L) and her daughter Chelsea A after speaking during her California primary night rally held in the Brooklyn borough of Ne

Reuters, Santa Monica, Calif :Hillary Clinton celebrated her triumph as the first woman to lead a major party in a race for the White House, scoring big wins in California and New Jersey to cement her grip on the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination.The former first lady, U.S. senator and secretary of state spoke to supporters at a raucous event in Brooklyn, New York, and placed her achievement in the context of the women's rights movement."Thanks to you, we have reached a milestone," Clinton said in a speech. "We all owe so much to who came before." Clinton appealed to supporters of party rival Bernie Sanders. She said Democrats had been bolstered by his campaign for eradicating income inequality, which has commanded huge crowds and galvanized younger voters. Not yet ready to concede, Sanders vowed to fight on.Clinton also harshly attacked Donald Trump, her presumptive Republican rival in the Nov. 8 presidential election, for using divisive rhetoric that belittled women, Muslims and immigrants. She took specific aim at his condemnation of an Indiana-born judge of Mexican heritage."The stakes in this election are high and the choice is clear. Donald Trump is temperamentally unfit to be president and commander in chief," Clinton said."When Donald Trump says a distinguished judge born in Indiana can't do his job because of his Mexican heritage, or he mocks a reporter with disabilities, or calls women pigs, it goes against everything we stand for," she said. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday showed Clinton leading Trump by 10 percentage points nationally as they launch their general election battle, little changed from a week earlier.Clinton edged Sanders out in a rough-and-tumble battle that stretched over four months and 50 states. She won support, especially among older voters, with a more pragmatic campaign focused on building on the policies of her fellow Democrat, President Barack Obama. Obama called both Clinton and Sanders on Tuesday. The White House said he congratulated her on securing the delegates necessary to clinch the nomination and would meet Sanders on Thursday at Sanders' request.The Associated Press called the race in California for Clinton early on Wednesday. Clinton won 56 percent to Sanders' 43 percent, avoiding what would have been an embarrassing loss in America's most populous state. The California win came on the heels of a decisive win in New Jersey and narrower victories in New Mexico and South Dakota in Tuesday's nominating contests. Sanders won Montana and North Dakota.A defeat in California would have reinforced doubts about Clinton's candidacy. Now, she can turn her attention to healing her fractured party and drawing in Sanders' passionate supporters.Clinton's credentials for office have not been a serious issue, but a scandal stemming from her use of a private email account while at the State Department hangs over her head as she enters the general election campaign.Clinton, 68, will also be running against the current of this election season, one that has favoured outsiders like Trump and Sanders. In Trump, 69, she has an unpredictable opponent who shreds the standard campaign rule book on an almost daily basis. For his part, Sanders, 74, seems to have few options left.Democratic Party elites are lined up squarely behind Clinton, including most likely Obama, who may endorse his former secretary of state as early as this week. Pressure will mount on Sanders to exit graciously and throw his support to Clinton.Eight years ago in June 2008, Clinton did exactly that when she ended her bitter primary fight with Obama. At the time, it appeared unclear whether Obama would be able to garner the support of Clinton's most ardent backers, but that election drew the highest voter turnout in generations.At a rally in Santa Monica on Tuesday, Sanders showed no interest in ending his upstart candidacy, telling cheering supporters he would go on campaigning through next Tuesday's primary in the District of Columbia and carry his political mission - although not necessarily his campaign - to the party convention in Philadelphia next month. "We are going to fight hard to win the primary in Washington, D.C.," he said. "And then we take our fight for social, economic, racial and environmental justice to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania."Prominent Democrats say that unifying the party now is the highest priority, and that if Sanders maintains his challenge to Clinton through the July 25-28 convention, Trump will benefit."We have our work cut out for us," said U.S. Representative Alan Lowenthal, a Democrat from Long Beach, California. "My overriding fear is that we get divided, and Donald Trump could win the election."Even if Sanders does concede, his supporters may not go quietly. Several told Reuters in recent days that they would have trouble supporting Clinton in a matchup against Trump, saying they either would not vote or would support a third-party candidate. "People right now are talking if Bernie doesn't get the nomination, they are deregistering as Democrats," said Susan Hartley, 71, a lawyer from Northern California, who was part of the noisy throng of thousands at a Sanders rally in an aircraft hangar in Santa Monica. "People are really upset."
US warns banks of hacking threat linked to Swift system

US regulators have warned banks about potential cyber attacks linked to the interbank messaging system.

The statement came two weeks after the Federal Bureau of Investigations sent a notice cautioning US banks after the hacking of Bangladesh's central bank.

The FBI message warned of a "malicious cyber group" that had already targeted foreign banks.

In February, hackers stole $81m (56m) from Bangladesh's account with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The hackers used the Bangladesh central bank's Swift credentials to transfer money to accounts in the Philippines. Swift is the system banks use to exchange messages and transfer requests. The hackers attempted to steal nearly $1bn, but several of their requests were rejected because of irregularities. The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) - a group of US banking regulators- issued a statement encouraging banks to check their Swift connections.

The council said that following recent attacks banks should "actively manage the risks associated with interbank messaging and wholesale payment networks".

It warned that unauthorised transactions may subject the originating bank to losses and compliance breaches.

Failures in both the Bangladesh central bank system and the Swift system have been blamed for the February hacking. The FBI sent its warning to US banks on 23 May, telling them to pay particular attention to potentially fraudulent international transfer requests.

"The actors have exploited vulnerabilities in the internal environments of the banks and initiated unauthorised monetary transfers over an international payment messaging system," the alert said.

The Bureau said it would not comment on these alerts, but a spokesman added: "The FBI routinely advises private industry of various cyber threat indicators observed during the course of our investigations.

This data is provided in order to help systems administrators guard against the actions of persistent cyber criminals."
Teacher, student hacked to death

Separate attacks by miscreants in Tangail, Dinajpur

Staff Reporter :

A retired school teacher and a college student were hacked to death and slaughtered by unidentified assailants in Tangail and Dinajpur early Wednesday. They have been identified as Abu Sayeed Nuru and Riad respectively.

The retired primary school teacher was hacked to death by unidentified miscreants at Beltoil of Ajgana union in Mirzapur upazila of the district on Wednesday.

The deceased was identified as Abu Sayeed Nuru, 70, former teacher of a Government Primary School.

Police and witnesses sources said Nuru slept at his house alone on Tuesday night as his wife went to her brother's house. Miscreants entered house sometime in the night and hacked dead.

On Wednesday morning, the victim's wife found the blood-strained body of Nuru when she came to house early.

Hearing screaming for help, local people rushed in and informed the police Sub-inspector of Mirzapur Police Station Md Mosharraf Hossain said, on information, a team of police

went to the spot and recovered the body.

Later, the body was sent to Tangail Medical College Hospital morgue.

Meanwhile, a college student identified as Riad was slaughtered at Hajipara village in Bochaganj

upazila of Dinajpur district at about 4 am, said Habibul Haque, OC of Bochaganj PS.

At least five injury marks were found in the body, the police official said. The incident might

have linked to love affair matter, the OC said.The body was sent to the Dinajpur

Medical College and Hospital, he said.
Crackdown launched on target killers: Home Minister

Amid the growing target killings at different parts of the country, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal on Wednesday said the members of law enforcement agencies have started combing operations to tackle it and track down the perpetrators.

"All necessary steps have been taken to check target killings. We're conducting combing operations wherever it is needed. We're doing it at suspected places silently," he told reporters on Wednesday.The home minister came up with the disclosure while talking to reporters after attending an iftar party at Coast Guard Headquarters.

The minister said the government will be able to successfully control the target killings as the intelligence agencies have started working on it so that preventive masseurs can be taken before any such incident occurs.

Replying to a question, he said a quarter is carrying the target killings in a bid to destabilise the country, make embarrass the government and foil the execution of convicted war criminals.

About the murder of police officer Babul Akter's wife in Chittagong, Asaduzzaman said they are utterly surprised by the incident. "We'll arrest the killers, no matter who they are."

Unidentified miscreants gunned down Mahmuda Khanam, 33, wife of police super Babul Akhter, at Chittagong city's GEC intersection on Sunday.

Asked whether the police force has got demoralised following the incident, the minister said, "They're not dispirited. They've taken it as a challenge instead and promised to track down the killers."
Bid to lay siege on Pak HC foiled

Demonstrators belonging to various socio-political organisations were being stopped by the police from moving into Pak Embassy at Gulshan-2 on Wednesday protesting Pakistan stance on trial of war criminals.

bdnews24.com :Police have foiled attempts by several organisations trying to encircle and cut off the Pakistan's high commission in Dhaka.Hundreds joined the processions that tried to move into Gulshan-2 on Wednesday morning to lay siege to the high commission. The protest against 'Pakistani conspiracy' was organised by Bangladesh Workers Party, Sramik League, Bangladesh Chhatra League along with other political and social organisations.The protesters after being stopped from entering the diplomatic zone held a meeting at the intersection in Gulshan. Workers Party activists gathered at Notun Bazar intersection and held a rally outside Vatara Police Station where they torched the Pakistani flag. MP Rahmat Ullah, president of metropolitan Awami League's north unit, who spoke at the Gulshan-2 gathering , said: "The killings in Bangladesh are part of a conspiracy by Pakistan's spy agency ISI and Israel's Mossad." Other speakers said Pakistan has also 'challenged Bangladesh's sovereignty' by supporting the cause of the 1971 war criminals, some of whom have been executed recently.
One held over SP's wife murder in Ctg

Staff Reporter :

Police in a night-long drive detained a man from Hathazari upazila of Chittagong on Wednesday morning for his alleged involvement with the killing of Mahmuda Khanam Mitu, wife of Superintendent of Police Babul Akter, in Chittagong.

The detained man was identified as Abu Naser alias Gunnu, 43, son of Mofazzal Hossain from Hazaribagh upazila of the district. He was a former member of Islami Chhatra Shibir, said Devdas Bhattacharya, Additional Commissioner of Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP).

The police official also claimed he did not take part in the killing mission, the police official said.

He also said that Naser might have stayed at GEC intersection area during the gruesome killing.

"Naser spent several years in the Middle East. He is accused in a kidnapping case with Sitakunda police. CID has also pressed charges against him in that case," Bhattacharya said.

He said Naser has been working as a caretaker of a shrine at Hathazari to stay below the police radar.

"We will be clear about his involvement with the sensational murder after interrogation under police custody," he said.

So far, Abu Naser will be produced in the local court with 10-day remand appeal, the ADC said.

Earlier on Sunday, Mitu was stabbed and shot in the head by three men near her home in the port city while going to the GEC Intersection to drop her 6-year-old son at a bus stop for school.
Indian HC officials meet slain priest`s family

Police fail to nab anyone

Indian embassy officials consoling the family of murdered priest (inset) in Jhenaidah.

Staff Reporter :Two officials of Indian High Commission on Wednesday met the family members of Hindu priest Anando Gopal Ganguli who was hacked to death by the militants in the country's northwestern district of Jhenaidah on Tuesday.Within six hours of the killing, monitoring group SITE Intelligence, reported that Middle East-based Islamic State has claimed the murder.The Indian delegation, comprising First Secretary [Political and Information] Rajesh Wikhi and First Secretary [Consular] Ramakanta Gupta visited the killing spot at Mohishavagar area of Sonakhali village under Jhenaidah Sadar Upazila around 11:00am. They talked to the family members of slain priest during their visit. Family members of slain priest, including wife Shefali Ganguli, daughters Meena Ganguli and Archana Ganguli, broke down in tears when two Indian High Commission officials met them.Rajesh Wikhi and Ramakanta Gupta asked them to keep patience and assured them to stay with the bereaved family members. Besides, the administrative and police officials assured them to treat the matter with high importance.Superintendent of Police in Jhenaidah Altaf Hossain, Assistant Superintendent of Police Gopinath Kanjilal, Officer-in-Charge of Sadar Police Station Hasan Hafizur Rahman, Central Vice-President of Hindu Buddhist Christian Oikya Parishad Kanok Kanti Das, among others, were present at that time.Ananda Gopal Ganguli, 69, was chopped and slaughtered to death by miscreants while he was heading to a temple for worship on Tuesday morning. The assailants slit the elderly man's throat. The police however could not yet nab anyone in connection with the priest murder though 36 hours have elapsed in the meantime. A case was filed with the Sadar Police Station in this connection, but police refused to divulge more information about the incident. Jhenaidah SP Altaf Hossain said: "The police are conducting operation to nab the killers. Hope, they will be netted soon.""We suspect that it could be a militant attack. The victim was attacked on Tuesday morning by three men, who came on a motorcycle. Ganguly was on his bicycle, when the assailants first hit him on his head with a stick before slaughtering him," ASP [Sadar Circle] Gopinath Kanjilal said.A Buddhist monk was killed inside a monastery in the hill tract district of Bandarban earlier on May 14. In January, homeopath physician Samir Ali was knifed to death by miscreants inside his chamber in Jhenaidah. The local Christian community claimed then that Ali preached Christianity after his conversion and that's why the militants killed him. The IS reportedly claimed responsibility for the killing.Three days ago, a 60-year-old Christian man in the northern district of Natore was hacked to death inside his shop in a Christian neighbourhood. IS has reportedly claimed the killing.In the northern district of Panchagarh, a head priest of a temple was hacked to death. Three assailants on a motorcycle armed with guns and sharp weapons took part in the killing in February this year.A Liberation War veteran, who had converted into Christianity, was killed after three men hacked him with sharp weapons before fleeing on a motorcycle in the northern district of Kurigram on March 22.In April this year, a Hindu tailor, who had been in jail in a case of hurting religious sensitivities, was murdered in Tangail in a similar way- three assailants using sharp weapons. Besides, two people were injured when shots were fired and bombs were hurled at a temple in the northern district in Dinajpur on December 10 last year.Apart from above incidents, the miscreants conducted several other attacks in different parts of the country in the last one and half year.
5 killers joined in mission

Jhenaidah Correspondent :Five assailants participated in the Harinakundu Clinic owner Nazrul Islam killing incident. The miscreants were wearing lungi and mask, but no shirt at the time of killing mission. Four of them were holding fire arms and the other a Ramda (big sword). The information about the killers was detailed from lone witness Abdullah who was with Nazrul then.As per the statement of Abdullah, he along with Nazrul was returning to his village home at Tiordah in Alamdanga upazila of Chuadangadistrict from his business spot at Harinakundu. The miscreants who were staying with the arms, opened shots on him when he was driving his motorbike at about 3.00 PM. Both of them fell down from the bike and the killers killed Nazrul by hacking.Family sources of the deceased said, Nazrul's brother Akteruzzaman filed a case with Alamdanga police station accussing six persons of his village. The police till Wednesday afternoon could not arrest any one of the killers from Sunday afternoon. Nazrul Islam was running a clinic titled Anwara Clinic at Harinakundu upazila Sadar and he had another clinic at Sarojgaj Bazer under Chuadanga Sadar upazila.Alamdanaga police station officer in charge said, Sub-Inspector Mohammad Russsel of the police station was investigating the murder case. The special branch of police (SB) said, there was a number of abduction cases against Nazrul. He had a close connection with the terrorist groups in the locality.
Efforts on to hunt down killers: PM

UNB, Dhaka :

Pointing the finger at the BNP-Jamaat clique for all the recent planned secret killings in the country, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday said the intelligence and law enforcement agencies are out there to track down the culprits.

"The government is not sitting idleour stance about it is very tough ...we're doing whatever is needed all from intelligence agencies to law enforcement agencies are very much active," she said.

The Prime Minister said this while responding to a question at a press conference at her official residence Ganobahban arranged to inform the media about the outcomes of her recent three visits to Bulgaria, Japan and Saudi Arabia. She said law enforcement agencies have already arrested the culprits involved in some of the recent secret killings, and the others will surely be caged. "We're capturing those committing such incidentswe' re taking appropriate measurers. Such incidents will never be tolerated, and there's no room for committing such crimes in Bangladesh," she said. The Prime Minister said the process and style of staging all the recent secret killings are all the same, and it proves that the roots of these incidents are in one place.

Hasina mentioned that the reason behind the secret killings of soft targets are just to create a wave tension at the global stage to depict

Bangladesh negatively and a create panic among the mass people.

"Those who tried to destroy the image of Bangladesh and block its march forward are behind this.this is the blueprint of those who never want Bangladesh," she said. The Prime Minister asserted that there is no way to spare these militants and the government will put them on trial. "Militants are militants, they won't get our mercy; I can assure you that." Hasina said those who kill people in the name of Islam they never believe in the real Islam. "Islam is the religion of peace; Allah is the sole authority for the last judgementthey're violating the directives of almighty Allah. It's very regretful the Muslim Ummah is being undermined in the world for a handful of people."

The Prime Minister urged all to help the law enforcement agencies to capture these culprits and inform them regarding their whereabouts. Responding to a question regarding involving the BNP-Jamaat in the secret killings is to save the real culprits, the Prime Minister said her government never talks rubbish. "You need to keep in mind that I' m the head of the government. Surely, I have the information when I talk about. I cannot share all the information for the sake of inquiry."

Replying to another question about increased number of killings in the recently held UP elections, she said there is nothing new in killings during elections in the country. She mentioned about the elections of 1986, 1988, 1991, 1996 and 2001, and 2003 UP elections. "Were those elections were too much peaceful. Yes, what happened this time is surely not acceptable to us, and this was unexpectedand we'll take appropriate measurers to avoid such incidents in the future."

In response to another query regarding the recent unwarranted interfere of Pakistan in the internal matter of Bangladesh, the Prime Minister said, "I never believe in snapping all sorts of relations with another country."

"Pakistan is telling what they want to say. But with this it becomes clear that these people (Razakars) never want Bangladesh, they are the agents of Pakistan, they were involved in the mass killing of Pakistani occupational forcesthe role of Pakistan proves this it becomes clearer to people," she said adding that the diplomatic relation is there and it will remain.
Pre-purchase property inspection is a relatively new thing in the United Kingdom. Its not something that most people have heard about, but it has become increasingly popular over the last few years with the rise in property prices and increased demand for high quality homes.

What are the benefits of pre-purchase building inspection? What can you expect to find out when you pay someone else to inspect your home before you buy it? And what should you look for during an inspection?

Many people want to know if theyre buying a house thats been well maintained or if its had any serious problems. If youve found a place on the market that seems attractive, but then discover some issues after moving in, you may not be as excited about buying it as you thought you were.

Its important to do your due diligence when looking at properties. A lot goes into making a property appealing to potential buyers, from the landscaping to the flooring to the kitchen appliances. The same applies when inspecting a property  there are many things that need checking over to make sure everything is running smoothly.

Here are some of the benefits of performing a pre-purchase inspection:

You get to see exactly what will happen to your money

When you go shopping for a new car, youll probably be shown several different models. You might even be shown one that looks like a great value, but doesnt fit around all of the extra features that you want. When it comes time to actually buy the vehicle, however, you wont have seen how your money will be spent on it once you drive it off the showroom floor.

Likewise, when you shop for a new home, you dont really know what youre getting yourself into until you move in. In order to get a feel for whether the home youre considering is what you want, you normally have to spend quite a bit of time inside it. This allows you to learn more about everything that youre going to be spending your hard-earned cash on.

A pre-purchase building inspection gives you much the same kind of experience without having to spend thousands of dollars. Since youre paying for the service, you can expect to see exactly what youre paying for, instead of just seeing a vague idea of what you might end up with.

You find out about potential major repairs

Some buildings are very expensive to maintain, which means that owners often neglect them for the sake of saving money. While youre paying for a building inspection, youre also paying for a professional who knows how to spot signs of trouble and repair work that needs doing.

If you notice that a particular area of your new home needs fixing right away, you can call in an expert to take care of it quickly. If you find that theres something wrong with your boiler, you wont have to wait weeks for a plumber to come over and fix it. Instead, youll have access to a solution immediately.

You can save hundreds of pounds by finding out about potential problems early on

One of the biggest expenses when you first buy a home is the cost of moving in. Many people dont realize this until its too late. Buying a home involves not only paying for the actual house, but also for moving costs, furniture, and other items that have to be moved along with the home.

Having a good idea ahead of time of what youre likely to encounter can help you avoid these kinds of costs. If you know youll need to replace the plumbing system, for example, youll be able to put together a budget for the expense and plan accordingly.

You can protect your investment by finding out if the homes been well cared for

While there are plenty of people who think that houses always look better when theyre newly built, youd be surprised at how well maintained older residences can still look nice. Sometimes, though, those homes need some additional maintenance to keep them looking their best.

This could involve repairs that arent so noticeable or small improvements that you wouldnt consider otherwise. Even worse, some houses have fallen into disrepair without anyone noticing. This is why having a professional perform a building inspection prior to purchasing a home is such a big benefit.

Not only will it give you insight into the state of the property, but it will also give you peace of mind knowing youre not getting taken advantage of. As long as youre aware of the potential pitfalls, youll have less reason to worry about the state of your new home.

You can use information gathered during a building inspection to negotiate a lower price

If youre worried about buying a home because you suspect that it may need extensive renovation work, you may already have a rough idea of how much work youll need to do to bring it up to scratch. That knowledge can come in handy if you decide to buy the home.

You can use all of the details that you gather during a building inspection to present a realistic picture of what the home is worth to prospective buyers. If a potential buyer thinks that the home is worth more than what you paid for it, you can try negotiating a lower price.

You can sell your home faster and for more money

If you decide to list your home on the market soon after buying it, youll need to price it accurately in order to attract buyers. But if youve already done a thorough building inspection, youll know exactly what work is needed and what the current market conditions are.

In other words, youll be able to make a more accurate estimate of the amount of money youve invested in the home and how much its worth. If you find that youre selling your house for close to its full market value, you can use this information to convince the potential buyer that your home is worth the asking price.

Even if youre planning to stay in the home for a while before you decide to sell, the fact that you did a thorough building inspection will give you more confidence when listing it. Prospective buyers will know exactly what theyre paying for.

Your home will hold its value longer

As mentioned earlier, the value of a home depends heavily upon the condition of the building itself. If your home is in bad shape, potential buyers wont be interested in buying it. On the other hand, if youve performed a thorough building inspection and know what sort of repairs are necessary, you can offer your prospective buyer a compelling reason to invest in your property.

When you buy a home, youre essentially agreeing to have it inspected periodically to ensure that it stays in top shape. Not only does this allow you to avoid expensive repairs down the road, but it can also increase the value of your home.

You can make smart decisions about property investments

Buying real estate isnt as simple as just driving a couple of minutes to pick up a house. There are lots of considerations involved, ranging from location to cost. The same is true when youre investing in property.

If you find a house that meets all of your requirements, youll want to make sure that you have a solid understanding of where it stands with regards to the rest of the market. If you havent spent enough time researching the area, you could inadvertently end up with a bad deal.

There are lots of resources available online that can help you determine the overall level of competition in your area. They can also help you figure out if there are any properties that meet your requirements that you didnt know about.

If you own rental property, you can use the information to identify tenants who might cause damage

If you own rental property and youve noticed that certain tenants consistently cause damage, you can use the results of a building inspection to identify them. You can then contact them directly to let them know that youre watching them closely and that you dont appreciate the problem theyre causing.

They might start taking better care of their homes, which would be good news for everyone. It could also be the case that youll find out that theyre responsible for previous damages that werent caught during a previous visit.

You can make smarter decisions about hiring contractors

If youve hired contractors to build or repair your home, you might want to ask them for references. However, unless you perform a thorough building inspection, you might not know exactly what to look for.

For instance, maybe you only checked the roof for leaks or the walls for cracks. You might not have looked underneath the foundation for anything that could cause a future issue. By performing a building inspection, you can ensure that you hire reputable contractors who will be trustworthy with your money.

You can avoid purchasing a home thats in poor condition

Of course, the main benefit of structural inspections perth is that it helps you avoid purchasing a home thats in poor condition. Before you make the decision to buy a home, you should do whatever you can to find out about the state of the building.

You can also ask your realtor about what sorts of inspections are typically recommended. Some agents say that its standard practice to check the heating system, the roof, the electrical wiring, and the floors. Others will tell you that they recommend that you check the entire structure.

Either way, if you choose to hire an inspector, youll find out exactly what needs to be fixed and how much it will cost to do so.

As a result, it can be concluded that a pre-purchase building inspection is highly important for the buyers because it provides transparency regarding the current conditions of the structure. Additionally, the building owner is made aware of any upgrades or repairs that are required, which could lead to a fair deal throughout the purchasing and selling process.
President Joe Biden has decided to ban Russian oil imports, toughening the toll on Russia's economy in retaliation for its invasion of Ukraine. The United States generally imports about 100,000 barrels a day from Russia, only about 5% of Russia's crude oil exports, according to Rystad Energy. Last year, roughly 8% of U.S. imports of oil and petroleum products came from Russia. Gas prices have been rising for weeks due to the conflict and in anticipation of potential sanctions on the Russian energy sector. The U.S. national average for a gallon of gasoline soared 45 cents a gallon in the past week and topped $4.06 on Monday, according to auto club AAA. Should the US ban Russian oil imports over Ukraine war?

You voted:
The sextoy market is growing quite rapidly in India right now.

Although it is not a big trend, it is a hot topic on the internet as it is secretly expanding its market.

In this article, we will focus on sextoy and introduce recommended sextoy for Indian beginners of sextoy by gender.

India, the birthplace of the Kama Sutra, is very strict about sex.

Also, premarital sex is basically not allowed. Therefore, there are many people who are sexually restricted.

But what happens when you continue to be sexually restricted?

Frustration may build up and you may end up taking your sexual stress out on your partner.

If you are able to adopt sextoy in a timely manner, you can get rid of those problems.

I want to have more exciting sex than Im having now.

I want more variation in masturbation

I want to get even stronger pleasure than I do on my own.

If you have any of these problems, please stay with me until the end.

What is sex toys for Indian?

Sextoy, as the name implies, is a toy used during sex and masturbation.

It is a generic term for vibrators, Egg-vibrators, Electric massagers, dildo, handcuffs and condoms.

They are used to make regular sex more exciting or to make masturbation more pleasurable.

Because sextoy is very stimulating, it can help you to get rid of the problems and frustrations of being in a rut of sex with your partner for a long time, or if you are unhappy with the lack of pleasure in sex with your partner.

The ability to satisfy your desires with movement, texture, and size, which cannot be done by a normal human being, can help you to be satisfied with sex and, as a result, improve your relationship with your partner.

It is also said to help improve sexual dysfunction (inability to get an erection or ejaculate) and difficulty in feeling during sex (insensitivity), which is attracting more attention than in the past.

In recent years, the demand for sextoy has increased due to the spread of smartphones and the Internet and the increasing number of people using online shopping.

Even those who are concerned about the appearance of sextoy (and find it difficult to purchase) can now easily obtain it by using mail order.

In the case of online shopping, most of the stores have taken steps to ensure that the contents of the products delivered to you are not revealed, so you can purchase them without your family members knowing.

Until a while ago, you had to go to the store where the adult goods were sold to buy them, so it was quite a hurdle to overcome.

Also, many people may have an image that sextoy is somehow embarrassing to own.

But nowadays, some of them are so stylish and cute that you cant believe they are sextoy at a glance.

More and more people are using them for travel and outdoor use because they are not too bulky and are suitable for carrying around.

Sextoy situation in India

Before introducing the recommended sextoy for Indians, lets talk about one of the sextoy situations in India in recent years.

In India, due to the high concentration of population, the following six cities have particularly high sales of sextoy in India.

Mumbai

Kolkata

Bangalore

Delhi

Chennai

Hyderabad

These cities account for roughly 70 percent of sextoy sales in India.

In the future, the percentage of sextoy use will gradually increase in other cities in India as well.

If you never talk about sextoy publicly, that girl in your neighborhood might be a sextoy user too.

If you are interested in sextoy, you dont have to suppress your desire for it.

What are Sextoys for beginner?

Among all sextoys, sextoy for beginners are vibrators, dildo, masturbators, Sex Lubricants, and condoms.

Sex Lubricants and condoms, which are familiar to people who have had sex, are also a great beginners sextoy.

I will explain the details of each toy later, but there are many sextoy products that are painful to use and can only be used after some anal expansion.

I assume that the Indian readers of this article are people who have not had much experience with sextoy.

If such people use professional sextoy suddenly, they are at risk of injury or trauma.

Therefore, to introduce sextoy, you need to start with a beginners version and gradually become familiar with it.

Advantages of using sextoy for Indians

There are three advantages of using sextoy for Indians

You can masturbate in a wide variety of ways.

Can have stimulating sex

Can develop new sexual zones

If you try to masturbate with your own fingers or hands, it tends to be a pattern.

However, with sextoy, you can easily masturbate in a variety of ways.

You will definitely be fascinated by the attraction of new stimulation.

Also, your daily sex life will be more exciting than ever.

There are many things in sextoy that are visually stimulating and give you a strong and intense feeling of pleasure.

This allows you to see your partners promiscuity in a way that you wouldnt normally see it.

When you are in a relationship, sex with your partner may become a pattern, but it can also eliminate these problems.

It can also lead to the development of new sexual zones (which is the training of sexual stimulation to allow you to feel orgasms).

For more information on the development of new sexual zones, see the following articles

[Women's Erogenous Zone]How to find and develop, 7 hidden sexual zones !![In India] In this issue, we will dissect the female erogenous zone! ..." Many of you may be like that. Men, in particular, shou...

Thus, the use of sextoy can only be a good thing for the men and women of India.

Sextoy for beginner men in India

So, lets continue with the recommended goods for Indian sextoy beginners.

For ease of understanding, we will introduce them by gender. Lets start with the men!

The following five goods are recommended for novice Indian sextoy men

Masturbator

Cock rings

Love Doll

Sex Lubricants

Toys for the prostate

Lets check each one in detail.

Masturbator

The masturbator is a sextoy for men that elaborately reproduces a womans vagina, mouth, and anus, and is one of the most popular sextoy products.

It is used by men to masturbate, and it is popular because it provides stronger stimulation and pleasure more easily than using hands.

Most are made of good quality silicone, and their softness is something that cannot be achieved with ones own hands.

They can provide stronger pleasure than a real womans vagina, so be careful not to overuse them. (You wont be able to have an orgasm in a womans vagina anymore.)

Again Male masturbators are a wonderful toy. I do not need any favourite timing, bothersome bargaining. You do not have to worry too much.

Revolutionize your masturbation time! ! !

Made in Japan is a wonderful kinky toy.#sextoysindia #SexToyIndia #Japanhttps://t.co/4k70QGzoTP pic.twitter.com/tRVdxTKPpa   SEXToys India PR  (@SextoysIndia) November 12, 2018

Some of them are disposable, while others can be washed and used over and over again, so its fun to buy a few to use depending on your mood.

If you want to know more about masturbator, please click here

Really pleasant male masturbation and how to do it Are you in a rut with your daily masturbation routine? I'm going to show you five ways men masturbate that you might ...

[For Beginners] How to choose and use a male masturbator without fail Gentlemen.Have you ever used a masturbator? The person who sees this article is probably the one who has not experien...

Cock Ring

A cock ring is literally a ring-shaped sextoy that is worn on a mans penis.

It maintains an erection by binding the penis with a ring of rubber and blocking blood flow.

It is sometimes used as an accessory to be worn on the penis, and may be made of metal or plastic as well as rubber.

In some cases, cock rings have parts or vibrators attached to them that stimulate the vagina, so they kill two birds with one stone, giving a woman pleasure while maintaining an erection.

Cock rings are also sometimes used to treat erectile dysfunction.

It can help with erectile dysfunction, where the penis doesnt get hard when you get an erection or doesnt last long when you try to insert it.

Men who are prone to breakage or who are unsure of the hardness and size of their erections can use a cock ring to increase the size of their penis and maintain an erection for a longer period of time.

Cock rings vary in price from around RS700 to over RS2000 with a vibrator function.

Some of them do not fit your penis, so you should check the size of the cock ring before you buy.

You should know the size of your partners or your own penis when it is erect.

[Penis enlargement] What is a cock ring? Types and usage Cock rings can make your penis bigger and harder. It also makes sex with women more fulfilling and increases your sat...

Love Doll

Love dolls, also known as Dutchwives, are dolls with the appearance of a woman who can experience simulated sex.

There are dolls that look like a woman, but they have no face and only have their breasts and lower torso cut off, and some dolls are so realistic that they can actually be mistaken for real women.

Some expensive dolls can cost more than 1 million yen, and the quality of the doll is easily influenced by the price.

The higher the price, the higher the quality of the doll will be, the closer it will be to the real woman, and the cheaper the doll will be, the less elaborate it will be, making it look like a real doll! Something is wrong! That is also true.

You cant go wrong if you choose a balance between price and taste.

There are stores that allow you to make custom-made love dolls, so you can create a girl of your choice.

You can make a girl of your choice. You can start with inexpensive love dolls at first, and once you get used to it, you can try custom-made love dolls.

If you want to know more about Love doll, please click here

Thorough explanation of the charm of sex dolls! Have you ever heard of sex dolls that are used primarily for pseudo-sex purposes? It is a doll that is quite close to...

Sex lubricants

Sex lubricants are used as a substitute for lubricating fluid during sex or as a lubricant for men to use masturbator rules.

It is not uncommon for women to have difficulty getting wet, depending on their physical condition, or to have difficulty getting wet due to their constitution.

Forcing the penis into the vagina at such times can cause painful intercourse.

There are various types of Sex Lubricants, some with a warming effect, some with a cooling effect, and some with a scent.

Changing the Sex Lubricant used during play is recommended as a good sex accent.

If you want to learn more about Sex Lubricants, click here.

What is sex lubricant?Explain the difference and usage of each ingredient The word "sex toy" may seem like a hurdle to overcome, but lotion is actually one of the most familiar sex toys. Many...

Toys for the Prostate

Another sextoy for men is prostate toys.

The most famous prostate toys include Enemagra, which was originally a prostate massager developed by an American urologist to treat an enlarged prostate line.

Modern prostate toys are imitations of Enemagra that have spread as sextoy for men.

Many people think of prostate toys as being used by gay men, but in fact they are often used by straight men.

What is the prostate?

The prostate is an organ found only in men. It is a walnut-sized organ located deep in the pelvis, just below the bladder, and its primary role is to protect and nourish sperm.

You cannot touch the prostate gland from outside the body, but you can touch it by inserting a finger or sextoy through the anus.

By inserting a finger or sextoy through the anus and touching the prostate and developing it, you can feel intense orgasms.

Orgasms felt in the prostate are mainly dry orgasms, which are orgasms that do not involve ejaculation. (You can also feel orgasms with ejaculation through prostate stimulation.)

The prostate is called the male G-spot, and dry orgasms can be much more intense than ejaculation.

Therefore, men who are able to develop a prostate can become addicted to the pleasure.

sextoy for beinner women in India

The following are the recommended goods for Indian women who are new to sextoy.

The following three are recommended for use by women who are new to sextoy.

Vibrator.

Dildo

Electric Masserger

Lets check out what each one is in detail.

If you want to check out womens toys, click here.

[BEST25]Sex Toys for Women in IndiaThat Can Help You Have an Orgasm There are many women who pretend to feel orgasm during sex. But don't worry, you don't have to pretend to feel orgasm...

Vibrators

A vibrator is a sextoy that vibrates with an Egg-Vibrator to provide stimulation and is often referred to simply as a vibrator.

Some vibrate as well as rotate, and there are many variations of sextoy.

It is quite a popular sextoy, and is well recognized by people who do not know much about sextoy.

Its usage is similar to that of a massager, but it is more compact and easier to carry than a massager, and many of them look as cute as a lipstick or a macaroon, so they are popular among women.

For a while, a famous influencer on twitter said, This is good! You may have heard of the topic of this article by introducing the recommended vibrators.

Vibrators are great for women to use on their own, but they are also recommended for men who have difficulty satisfying women with sex.

Since it is powered by electricity, it is far less tiring than moving your hands by yourself.

This makes it easier to satisfy a woman with sex because you can caress her for longer than usual.

Vibrators are mainly used on the female side, but they can also be used on men.

When used on men, they are used to attack the nipples and glans, and in both cases it is recommended to wear a condom for hygiene reasons.

Introducing how to use the vibrator, its purpose, and how to choose it! Vibrator uses the vibrations caused by the rotation of the motor to provide stimulation. It is one or two of the most...

Dildo

A dildo is a model sextoy made to mimic a male penis.

It can be made of silicone, elastomer (think of it as a material similar to PVC), metal or glass.

A dildo can be used by a man for his female partner during sex, or by a woman for masturbation to get pleasure from it.

They are mainly inserted into women, but some can be used in the male anus as well.

It is sometimes used synonymously with vibrators, but the vibrator is not the same thing as a vibrating device.

A model of a penis that does not vibrate is a dildo.

Some of them have suction cups that can be attached to the floor or wall so that you can enjoy realistic masturbation without using your hands.

For fun, there is a dildo made in the shape of your partners penis.

This one is also popular as a gift, and if youve been together for a long time and are having trouble finding a gift for your partner, you might want to pick one.

To learn more about dildo, please click here.

What is Dildo: Orgasms with Dildos for Men and Women A dildo is a model of a male organ that is used by women for masturbation and by men to stimulate the prostate gland. Th...

Electric Masserger

A Electric Masserger is a hand-held electric massager, also known as a handheld massager, and can usually be purchased at electronics stores.

It was originally designed to relieve stiff shoulders and back pain, so the hurdle of buying one in a physical store is quite low.

Many people may have seen or used it in some form or another, as it is often installed in leisure hotels.

Such a massager is highly recommended for beginners because it is easy for women to get pleasure from it when they use it during masturbation.

It is larger than Egg-Vibrator and vibrations are stronger than those of Egg-Vibrators and vibrators, so even just hitting the clitoris can give you a great deal of pleasure.

For those women who have never had an orgasm during sex with their man, the massager may be a good way to get a feel for what it feels like to have an orgasm.

It looks and feels like an electric massager, so you wont have to feel awkward if your roommate finds out.

If you are in a rut of having sex with your partner, if you want to feel an orgasm through masturbation, or if you are thinking of using a sextoy, why dont you try it from a simple massager?

To learn more about Electric Masserger, click here.

What is a massager? Introducing types, selection methods, and usage Originally, the Magic-wand vibrator and the massage machine were sold as a home massage machine used for the back and th...

How to choose a sextoy for Indian

Now that weve covered the different types of sextoy, heres how to choose one.

Especially if you are trying sextoy for the first time, pay attention to the following three points:  Does the size fit you (the partner)?

Does the size fit you (your partner)?

Is the environment able to produce sound without problems?

Price range

First of all, the choice of size is quite important.

Most sextoy are used against or inserted into the genitals, but the genitals are very delicate organs for both men and women.

For this reason, using an inappropriate size may cause damage.

Secondly, the environment should be able to produce sound without problems.

Some sextoys not only wear, but also rotate and vibrate. Its easier to get pleasure from something that moves than something that doesnt, but the fact that it moves means that the internal rotors make some noise.

If you live in a house with thin walls or if you have roommates, you may not be able to concentrate because of the noise, so it is best to choose one that is silent or has a low noise level.

Especially in India, where many people live with their families, it is very important that you dont have to worry about sound when you use it.

Finally, there is the price range.

The price range of sextoy ranges widely, from around RS500 at the cheapest to RS10,000 or more at the highest.

Its good to consider how much money you can afford and how much you want to buy.

Do you want your family to not find out about sextoy?

I live with my family and want to use sextoy without them finding out! If you are a man, you should buy a camouflage sextoy that does not look like a sextoy at first glance.

For men, there are many masturbators that do not look like a sextoy, and for women, there are vibrators that only look like cosmetics.

If you choose such a type, youll be safe in case your family members find out.

How to buy sextoys in India

The best way to purchase sextoy is through online shopping.

For more information on how to purchase sextoy, please see the article below.

Sextoy is one of them.

Therefore, you can easily get sextoy in India by using online shopping.

SexToysINDIA is a long established and stable sextoy store and you can have sextoy delivered to any place in India.

They also offer cash on delivery, so those who are worried about shopping with a credit card do not have to worry.

Of course, the latest security is in place, so your information will not be taken out when you use your credit card.

To begin with, many people may be concerned about whether they are legally allowed to purchase sextoy.

ikmAs it turns out, its not illegal.

Right now, it is not open to the public because the Indian adult market is still in the development stage, but it will gradually spread from now on.

Take advantage of sextoy and open the door to new pleasures and culture.

Cautions for Indians using sextoy

When using sextoy, keep the following three things in mind

Keep sex toys clean

Watch out for electrical leakage

Beware of the heat generated by the body while using a sex toy

As I mentioned earlier, many sextoy products are used for the delicate zone.

Therefore, it is most important to keep the sextoy itself clean. It is very important to keep the sextoy itself clean, because if a slight scratch is created by friction, bacteria can enter and breed there.

It is safe to wear a condom when using the masturbator, just in case.

In addition, many sextoy devices are powered by a power source, so if they are not waterproof, there is a possibility of electric shock or malfunction due to wetness.

Some may even develop heat during continuous use. If the fever becomes too much, you may get burned, so be careful.

If you get a fever during use, stop driving the sextoy immediately and refrain from using it.

You will enjoy sex more if you keep it safe and use it correctly.

Summary

What did you think?

In this article, we have introduced the recommended sextoy for the beginners of sextoy in India.

The sextoy market is growing rapidly in India and it will continue to grow steadily in the future.

As India is a rather closed-minded country, it can be difficult to be open about ones sexual habits and values.

However, being faithful to ones desires by properly dissolving ones sexual desire is very effective for ones physical and mental health.

If this is your first time to learn about sextoy, or if you are interested in using sextoy, why not give it a try?

Indian Sextoys for ur best! will introduce you to sextoy and other trivia about sextoy, sexuality, and sexuality for men and women.

I want to read more! If you think its a great idea, please bookmark it.
Marilyn Halstead Reporter Marilyn Halstead is a reporter covering Williamson County. Follow Marilyn Halstead Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today

After two trips in opposite directions in two weeks celebrating two graduations, its nice to be home. But wherever we go, we find good food.

The first trip was to Interlochen, Michigan, for my nephew Gabes graduation from Interlochen Academy for the Arts on May 28.

My sister and I drove to Chicago the first day and stayed in the Westin Lombard Yorktown Center. We ordered sandwiches from the late night room service menu, with berries for dessert. The sandwiches were good, but the berries were amazing! They sent us a few extra berries, which seemed like a quart of fresh strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries.

On Monday, we headed for Michigan. Interlochen is about a 30-minute drive from Traverse City. Although we cooked and ate many meals in at our rented home, we visited some favorite restaurants in the area, too.

A trip to Interlochen would not be complete without breakfast at Dilberts. The restaurant was highly recommended by a local resident, and the recommendation was accurate. Dilberts specialty is Stuffed Hash Browns. Imagine a nest of hash browns that holds your favorite omelet fillings. Thats stuffed hash browns. I prefer my hash brown unstuffed, which they also serve, along with eggs, bacon, sausage, ham, pancakes, toast, etc.

A friend suggested we meet for lunch at Traverse City Food Trucks. The food truck lot is located in front of Little Fleet at 448 Front St. Little Fleet is a full-service bar. The food truck lot has eight trucks, all independently owned and operated, that are parked there throughout the summer.

On our first trip, I tried the daily bowl from Daily Blend. It was very good, healthy and very similar to what I eat at home. The bowl had brown rice, black beans, avocado, cilantro, tomatoes and DB sauce. (It comes with cheese, olives and sour cream that I opted to leave out.) My sister and our friend ate barbecue, homemade potato chips and roasted asparagus. It was very tasty!

After one trip to Little Fleet, we were hooked and had to take the rest of the family for lunch on our way out of town. This time, I tried barbecue and asparagus. After the second lunch at Little Fleet, it was time to head for Illinois.

I was home three days, then left for Natalia, Texas, with my father for our second high school graduation celebration. My cousin and her husband, Angie and Dustin Headlee, threw a family party Texas style.

They cooked ribs on Friday. Lunch on Saturday was chicken and steak fajitas with salsa, pico de gallo, rice and beans. Dustin smoked brisket for dinner after graduation, and fed more than 40. Those who lived nearby brought side dishes, and my aunt made rolls, divinity and fudge. We were pampered all weekend.

We started our two-day trip to Southern Illinois, after a stop at Whataburger in Lytle, Texas. According to its website, the first Whataburger opened in 1950 in Corpus Christi, and offered a burger so big it took two hands to hold it.

Whataburger surprised me. They serve a really good hamburger. These arent your run-of-the-mill fast food burgers. First, the burger is large, and the meat and bun are the same size. (Who does that these days?) Maybe they should follow the armadillo and migrate to Illinois!
CARBONDALE  A Carbondale Community High School student and four Carbondale Middle School students received awards in May at the annual Illinois History Day competition in Springfield, according to a news release from the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency.

Gabriela Benyas, Maya Benyas, Kylee Korando and Ray Shang of Carbondale Middle School will advance to National History Day competition for their junior group performance Barbed Wire: A Twisted Legacy.

National History Day will be from June 12 through 16 in College Park, Maryland. The release said more than 70 Illinois students qualified for the national competition.

Roushy Chadhari of CCHS received the Elijah Lovejoy Award, sponsored by Illinois Press Association, for Elijah Lovejoy: Exploration of Slavery, Encounter with Mobs, and the Exchange of Inspiration that Followed His Death. The award is given to the project or paper that best uses Illinois newspapers as a source material or deals with an aspect of Illinois newspaper history.

About 1,200 students competed in Illinois History Day. They qualified for the state event by taking part in regional history fairs.

The students displayed their creativity and knowledge of history by producing documentaries, building websites, creating original performances, writing research papers and designing exhibits.
Longtime Pinckneyville business McDaniel's Furniture is celebrating the opening of its Serta mattress-only gallery Friday, June 17.

The ribbon-cutting for the Serta Gallery will be at 1 p.m. that day and the open house will run from noon to 8 p.m.

The opening of the new gallery means the store will only carry that brand of mattress.

The family-owned enterprise, at 5565 Illinois 154 in Pinckneyville, has been in business since 1950.

 Stephanie Esters
The Genealogical Society of Southern Illinois will have a special guest this weekend at its regular meeting at John A. Logan College.

Helen Lind of the Williamson County Historical Society will speak to the society about graves at Crab Orchard Lake before the lake was built, says society chair Dorothy Rudoni.

Rudoni said this meeting is open to the public at 2 p.m. in the JALC Library. She is very excited to have Lind speak at the meeting.

She has a reputation for being the one to go to for any information about Williamson County, she said. She has published several books on cemeteries in Williamson County.

Lind is also a charter member of the Frankfort Area Genealogical Society in West Frankfort and continues to serve on its board. The Society has also read abandoned sites. She has been reading grave markers since the 1970s. She has recorded her headstone readings in about a dozen books kept at the Societys museum in Marion.

Rudoni said Lind will also be on-hand to answer general questions about genealogy.

As for Crab Orchard, The Southern Illinoisan previously reported there are 38 known cemeteries there, some ranging from one grave to about 250 graves. Neil Vincent, visitor services manager for Crab Orchard national Wildlife Refuge said in December there are more than 1,300 grave sites, some legible headstones, a lot that are not legible.

The oldest grave at Crab Orchard goes back to the 1830s, and it was for a 5-year-old boy, Vincent said.

Those who can be buried there must be former owners of land now owned by the refuge. They must be immediate family of people already buried there, or possess a legally-binding document to one of the burial plots.
SPRINGFIELD  Gov. Bruce Rauner has criticized House Democrats again over canceling a session day while there's no budget.

But the Republican told reporters Wednesday calling lawmakers into special session would be a waste because House Speaker Michael Madigan says he doesn't want to act on legislation.

The General Assembly adjourned its spring session last week without a budget for the second consecutive year. Chicago Democrat Madigan said the House would meet each Wednesday but he canceled the first meeting.

Rauner promoted legislation in the House funding human services for the past year and other state government work through December. He says an alternative $700 million plan to bail out human services doesn't go far enough.

That prompted a statement from Madigan that Rauner preferred buying office supplies to "life-saving" services.
JOHNSTON CITY  Children needing a meal and activities now that school has let out for the summer are in luck.

The Johnston City Free Will Baptist Church is providing free lunches to children younger than 18 through July 29, according to Pastor Keith Fletcher.

The program kicked off Monday and Fletcher said the church has had more than 70 children each day.

He said the church is reimbursed through the Illinois Summer Meals program, which is funded by the United States Department of Agriculture, administered by the Illinois State Board of Education.

The church receives other funding for activities from other churches and businesses in the community.

Lunch starts at 11:30 a.m. and lasts usually an hour, depending on the program, Fletcher said. Different organizations throughout the community host different activities for the children, he said.

He said the program has grown in the past seven years. It started with about 20 children during the week and now that the church provides transportation for the children, Fletcher said it has grown quite a bit.

The main thing is that there is a need in the community for these meals, he said.

More than 60 percent of the students in Johnston City qualify for free or reduced lunch during the school year. In the summer months, those resources arent available for the families who may need it, Fletcher said.

This allows those children to have at least one good meal a day as if they were going to school, he said. Plus the activities also give them one good reason to get out the house.
Lost in the debate over a central tenet of Governor Rauners so-called turnaround agendaspecifically his call to eliminate prevailing wage standardsis who would be hurt by his proposal.

Turns out, military veterans are one of the groups that would be most impacted.

Recent research from VoteVets.org has shown that military veterans work in the skilled construction trades at substantially higher rates than non-veterans. And, that much more-so in states like Illinois that have strong prevailing wage laws, which function as a minimum wage for skilled construction work.

The research notes that if efforts to weaken or repeal these standards across the country are successful, it would have a devastating effect on the job prospects and economic security of returning veteranscosting them $3 billion in wages per year, driving tens of thousands of veterans out of the industry, and thousands into poverty. Prior research has already established that because prevailing wage standards result in more efficient worksites and more local hiring, a change in the policy would produce no project cost savings for taxpayers, but would actually produce a more sluggish economy because wed have fewer workers with money to spend in their communities and more taxpayer-funded construction contracts awarded to out of state firms.

As a new generation of veterans returns home from Iraq and Afghanistan in search of civilian employment, the US Department of Labor predicts construction to be one of our fastest growing industries. Presidential candidates in both political parties have echoed this sentiment, calling our outdated infrastructure as third world, and promising to prioritize these investments.

The military has worked to seize this opportunity. Through USMAP (The US Military Apprenticeship Program), the military now produces more than twenty percent of all skilled trade apprenticeships in the country. In other words, many new veterans arent just coming home with top-level leadership, project management and problem solving skills, but with the hands on training they need to build our schools, hospitals, bridges, and other public facilities---efficiently and safely.

Together with other programs, like the Joining Forces initiative, the net effect of these efforts is that the alarmingly high unemployment numbers amongst Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are finally starting to trend in the other direction.

Unfortunately, Governor Raunerand leaders in at least eleven other states that have tried to weaken or eliminate their state prevailing wage laws in the last two yearsare trying to take us backwards.

One neednt look any further than states that have already experimented with repeal of their prevailing wage laws to understand what happens if they succeed.

First, taxpayers dont save any money on public works. Whatever savings are produced from paying workers less are re-directed into higher fuel and materials costs, more spending on food stamps and Medicaid for construction workers earning poverty wages, and higher profits for the well-connected contractors who are funding the campaigns of the politicians who do their bidding on this issue.

Fortunately for Illinois veterans, a bi-partisan majority of the legislature has thus far rejected Rauners misguided proposal. But veterans in other stateslike Wisconsin, Indiana and West Virginiahavent been so lucky.

Its an election year, and veterans are going to be looking to see which candidates have had our back. Its clear that those advocating prevailing wage repeala pay cut that disproportionately effects those who have put their lives on the line in defense of our countrydo not.
A Denmark man has been named the National Forest Landowners Associations 2016 Landowner of the Year.

Johney L. Haralson, who has been a member of the Forest Landowners Association since 1994, was recognized at the associations annual meeting in Orlando, Florida for his deep passion for forestry and for sharing results with others of sustainability and good forestry practices.

Haralson currently serves on the board of directors of the NFLA and on the Forest Landowners Foundation Board. He has been a self-employed State Farm agent for more than 40 years.

Haralson purchased his first tract of forest land, encompassing 185 acres, in 1988. He went on to purchase his second tract in 1990, his third tract in 1995 and four more tracts, most of which join the original, since then. All are planted in either loblolly or longleaf pines, which he uses as examples of sustainability and good management, according to the NFLA. As a certified prescribed fire manager, Haralson has done all of his own burning since 1997.

The NFLA notes that he has conducted many workshops and youth organization sponsorships, including South Carolina Teachers Tours with the South Carolina Forestry Commission. In addition, Haralson has sponsored FFA youth forestry classes and has held seminars on prescribed burning, herbaceous chemical results and proper thinning.

Among his many honors and awards, Haralson has been recognized by the Bamberg County Soil and Water Conservation District for sustainability and conservation and was named Master Tree Farmer of the Year by Clemson University, South Carolina Tree Farmer of the Year and Southern Regional Tree Farmer of the Year. In addition, he was recognized by the Arbor Day Foundation with the Good Steward Award, and the South Carolina House of Representatives presented him with a resolution for Tree Farm Stewardship.

Haralson also served as state chairman of the South Carolina Tree Farm Committee. Currently, he is vice chairman of the Bamberg County Soil and Water Conservation District, an executive committee member of the South Carolina Association of Conservation Districts and district director of the Edisto Savannah Watershed, which encompasses 13 counties in the Lowcountry of South Carolina.

Haralson and his wife, the former Roxie Varn, have two children.
We live in time of extraordinary challenge.

Russia imposes a growing threat to its neighbors, including some members of NATO, and makes no apologies for its aggression. Only last month, two Russian fighter jets flew within 30 feet of the USS Donald Cook in an act of arrogant provocation.

This month, China scrambled three fighter planes and sent out three warships when a U.S. naval vessel came within about 12 miles of an artificial island China had constructed. Again, an act of extraordinary belligerence.

Then theres ISIS, North Koreas nuclear ambitions, international financial crises, our own massive federal deficits and the looming collapse of Social Security and Medicare, and skyrocketing health care costs to provide just a partial list of the challenges we face as a nation.

Whats President Barack Obamas priority? Is it to restore Americas standing in a world where were held increasingly in contempt, or to rebuild a weakened military that has sunk to a profound level of unpreparedness? Is it to foster federal economic policies to put people back to work or reduce taxes on families having a rough time making ends meet?

It should be. Instead, the president of the worlds most powerful nation is too preoccupied with the signs on Americas bathroom doors to see the real signs of a world in distress. After almost eight years of trampling states authority on marriage, the administration is expanding its war to basic biology. And North Carolina is Ground Zero.

After the state enacted the Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act (HB 2) saying that only males may use mens restrooms, locker rooms and shower facilities, and women may only use womens  something so obvious from human biology and intuitive decency that its shocking were even discussing it  Obama and his army of political ideologues are suing the state to give grown men access to womens restrooms (and vice versa) under the guise of anti-discrimination.

First, a group of CEOs and a handful of entertainers waxed indignant at the Tar Heel States common-sense actions. They got nowhere: state leaders told the business bullies to back down, and in essence they did. North Carolinas economy is in great shape, and the corporate executives who protested  themselves the willing victims of LGBT activist bullying  have gone strangely quiet.

In fact, North Carolina has been ranked third-best state for business in the annual survey of CEOs conducted by Chief Executive Magazine, second in ALECs 2016 Rich States, Poor States, and it was just ranked No. 1 in the nation by Site Selection Magazine for the second year in a row.

The LGBT bullies and their allies in the media have remained furious that finally someone took a stand against them. So now the Obama administrations departments of education and justice are both threatening North Carolina in particularly offensive and authoritarian ways. They are arguing that the gender-specific bathroom law violates everything from the 1964 Civil Rights Act to Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendments. The Justice Departments Civil Rights Division insists that requiring people to use the restroom based on their biological gender is sex discrimination. And it is threatening to withhold federal aid to North Carolinas educational system unless they get their way.

Attorney General Loretta Lynchs suit is particularly absurd. HB 2 is not discriminatory, as her radical interpretation of the law suggests  its a defense of the privacy that men and women expect (and deserve) in a facility where intimate hygiene and disrobing take place.

But in addition to this, the Obama administrations potty politics show contempt for both the Constitution of the United States, and even the very nature of our system of federalism.

Can anyone honestly say that men who feel like women have a civil right to use the ladies room? Can anyone coherently argue that schools must be compelled to open up single-sex locker rooms to both sexes? And can anyone, with a straight face, argue that keeping boys and girls separate in school showers promotes violence against women?

As David French asked, Is there a single person who believes that the Congress that passed Title VII (in 1964) believed that it was doing away with the distinction between male and female  making it completely dependent on individual preference  and thus granting men access to women and girls in bathrooms, lockers and showers? No more than a founding father wrote a right to same-sex marriage or abortion in the shadows of the U.S. Constitution!

This is merely another example of the left forcing its agenda on the people through the legal system, since, as even House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi acknowledges, these are victories liberals cannot get legislatively.

The federal government, under Obamas auspices, is exercising coercive power that undermines the whole nature of representative self-government. Thankfully, though, North Carolina is fighting back with a lawsuit. Officials in 11 other states have joined together in a separate lawsuit challenging the administrations school bathroom and locker room directive. There is a growing recognition that this isnt merely an attack on North Carolina  but on the entire nation.

America is a republic, not a tyranny. Our judicial system is designed to uphold, not reinterpret, the Constitution. Public officeholders are servants of, not dictators to, the people.

The president and his appointees might fail to grasp this; thankfully, there are still some leaders who do.

As the world careens from one precipice to the next, Obama cannot stop obsessing over his determination to fundamentally transform the historic and accurate understanding of human sexuality always upheld in morality, law and custom. Americans should ponder this question: If the White House can dictate the policies of the bathrooms of America, is anything beyond its reach?
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Azerbaijan and Germany are actively cooperating in energy and engineering, said Sigmar Gabriel, German vice-chancellor, economy and energy minister, Trend special correspondent reported.

Gabriel made the statement at the opening of the Azerbaijan-Germany business forum in Berlin June 7.

"Our companies are mainly working in the areas of energy and engineering," he said. "We offer Azerbaijan strong partnership. We hope that the forum will contribute to the cooperation."



"We would like Azerbaijan to become a WTO member," he said, adding that Azerbaijan is a country favorable for investments.

The Azerbaijan-Germany trade turnover exceeded $350 million in January-April 2016.

Gabriel also said that Germany supports the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

"Germany's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who is also the OSCE chairperson-in-office, is making every effort to resolve this issue," he said. "We pin high hopes on the meeting held between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan in Vienna in May and we want the negotiations on settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to continue."

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
Turkmenistan, which ranks fourth in the world on biggest gas reserves, is interested in the different routes of its gas export, including the TAPI gas pipeline project, which is being implemented, as well as in the western direction - the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline, Matthew Bryza, former US assistant secretary for South Caucasus and former US ambassador to Azerbaijan, told Trend June 7.

Bryza, who was the US ambassador to Azerbaijan from February 2011 to January 2012, said that Turkmenistan needs both projects.

Bryza added that gas can be exported via the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline from the western area of the country and via the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline from the eastern area.

The best route for delivering Turkmen gas to Europe would be a 300-kilometer long gas pipeline running through the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijani coasts by further connecting it to the Southern Gas Corridor gas pipeline system.

Azerbaijan has expressed readiness to provide its territory, transit opportunities and infrastructure for realization of the project.

Bryza stressed that the TAPI pipeline route with a capacity of pumping 33 billion cubic meters a year is stretching through unsafe Afghanistan, as well as through conflicting Pakistan and India, which creates certain political risks.

Bryza said that Turkmenistan wants to have a variety of ways to sell its gas, but to be less dependent on Russia in this regard.

Bryza added that Turkmenistan hopes that the US will support TAPI and then the project will be successfully implemented.
/By Azernews/

By Laman Ismayilova

The 217th anniversary of great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin was widely celebrated in Baku on June 6, Azertac reported.

A solemn commemoration event organized by the Sabail District Executive power, Public Association of Solidarity of the Peoples of Azerbaijan "Sodruzhestvo together with the Russian embassy in Baku and the representative office of Rossotrudnichestvo brought together Pushkin's admirers at.

Addressing the event organized in front of the monument to the legendary poet, "Sodruzhestvo Chairman Tatyana Karimova said that in 2010 the United Nations declared June 6 as International Russian Language Day.

Russia's ambassador to Azerbaijan Vladimir Dorokhin, in turn, read a poem by national poet Seyid Azim Shirvani, written for the occasion of the unveiling the monument of A. Pushkin in Moscow in 1880.

Then, the kindergarten "Nord" as well as students of Baku schools red the poems and showed scenes based on the works of the poet.

The deputy head of Sabail District Executive power, Eldar Agayev, reminded that the bronze monument of poet, installed in Baku on October 12 in 200, is a gift from the Russian government.

Pushkin was a Russian poet, playwright, and novelist of the Romantic era who is considered by many to be the greatest Russian poet and the founder of modern Russian literature.

Pushkin was born into Russian nobility in Moscow. His matrilineal great-grandfather was Abraham Petrovich Hannibal, Afro-Russian nobleman and general, who was brought over as a slave from what is now Cameroon.

A.Pushkin published his first poem at the age of fifteen. He wrote about 130 poems between 1814 and 1817, while still at Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum.

However, A.Pushkin gradually became committed to social reform and emerged as a spokesman for literary radicals which led to his transfer from the capital.

Pushkin's two years at Mikhailovskoye (18241826) were extremely rich in poetic output. At this period, he composed many poetic dramas set to music as well as humorous tale in verse entitled Count Nulin. In addition, he wrote the first three chapters of Eugene Onegin, and composed the tragedy Boris Godunov. A legendary poet died at age 37 after being forced into a duel.

Azerbaijani poet Mirza Fatali Akhundov was one of the first who responded to the death of the poet. "Eastern poem on the death of Pushkin" is an elegy of Azerbaijani author Mirza Fatali Akhundov, composed in 1837 in Persian.

The works of Pushkin were translated into Azerbaijani language by such great Azerbaijani poets and writers as Mammad Said Ordubadi, Mammad Rahim, Mikayil Mushfig, Suleyman Rustamov and others.




Armenian armed forces have 15 times violated the ceasefire with Azerbaijan on the line of contact over the past 24 hours, said the message of Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry June 8.

Armenian armed forces stationed in Barekamavan village of Armenia's Noyemberyan district opened fire at the Azerbaijani positions located in Qaymaqli village of the Qazakh district.

Armenian armed forces stationed in the nameless heights of Armenia's Krasnoselsk district opened fire at the Azerbaijani positions located in the nameless heights of the Gadabay district.

Further on, Azerbaijani positions were shelled from the nameless heights in Goranboy and Khojavand districts.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
Throughout its history, Azerbaijan has played an important role in bridging East and West through connecting Central Asia with Anatolia, the Black Sea and beyond. Situated on the west coast of the Caspian Sea and at the feet of the Caucasus Mountains, the country has been a pivotal point in the connection of civilizations since ancient times, welcoming merchants from across land and sea, said in an article of Fuad Isgandarov, the Head of Mission of Azerbaijan to the EU, Ambassador to Belgium and Luxembourg, posted on the website of Diplomat magazine.

"Traditional east-west corridor is now reinforced by huge energy infrastructure projects initiated by Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan as an enabler and contributor to the European energy security is investing on new pipelines and sophisticated interconnections across the region pledging to bring billions of cubic meters of natural gas volumes through Southern Gas Corridor", the author says.

According to him, this multibillion dollar project has been inspired by successfully realized regional oil and gas pipelines such as Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan and Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum, backbones of long-term diversification strategy of Azerbaijan.

"The long-term perspectives of contribution of Azerbaijan to the development of east-west corridor cannot be entirely attributed to trans-regional oil and gas infrastructure projects. Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway project which is to be operational by the end of this year is widely acknowledged as an inherent component of revived Silk Road initiative. This railroad will join the ranks of the region's most critical infrastructures once China's Silk Belt concept comes to the fruition", Isgandarov says.

The author notes, that the geostrategic location has become a more valuable asset for modern Azerbaijan positioning the country as a vital centre for the exchange not only of goods and merchandise, but of ideas, customs, religions and cultures. Azerbaijan, a predominantly Shiite Muslim country, is also home to several other ethnic and religious groups, including ancient Zoroastrian, Christian, and Jewish communities.

"Respect and tolerance for national minorities has played a vital role in the development of the country from antiquity to the days of the Silk Road to modernity. Today multiculturalism, religious tolerance is more than a state policy in Azerbaijan; it is a reflection of the mood of the society", the ambassador notes.

Azerbaijan's multi-vector cooperation transcends neighboring countries and it is underpinned by the realization of far-reaching common objectives. Therefore, Azerbaijan attaches critical importance to fostering Euro-Atlantic relations, Isgandarov notes.

"Today practical role assumed by Azerbaijan in addressing common pressing challenges in Europe and beyond positions the country as a crucial partner in the region. It should be emphasized that unlike others Azerbaijan has never been a burdensome partner or a troublemaker in its relations with the European Union.

Quite the reverse, its engagement and partnership with the EU aimed at contributing to the realization of the latter's strategic objectives. These objectives are not limited to securing future alternative gas volumes through Southern Gas Corridor but fighting against growing threats, such as radicalization, religious extremism which can be easily translated into deadly acts perceived as crimes against humanity", said in the article.

Azerbaijan with its vibrant multicultural society is ready to work with its European partners through exchange of its centuries-long experience in tackling imminent challenges, the author says.

"New geopolitical developments and complexities in the EU neighborhood will shape its future relations with Azerbaijan. It is due to these circumstances the EU and Azerbaijan have decided to upgrade their bilateral contractual relations which will reflect the strategic spirit of long-term engagement.

The EU-Azerbaijan cooperation is not only bound to the critical infrastructure related projects. The success of Southern Gas Corridor will create more interdependency in the relations. This interdependency is capable to manifest itself in deepening political dialogue and further opening trade perspectives", noted in the article.

Unfortunately, ongoing occupation of the territories of the Azerbaijan by Armenia keeps posing threat the peace and prosperity in the region. The persistent presence of Armenian armed forces in occupied Nagorno-Karabakh and 7 adjacent regions despite the relevant UN Security Council Resolutions demanding unconditional and immediate withdrawal of occupying forces from these territories is a source of instability and frequent outbreaks of deadly military confrontations along the line of contact, Isgandarov says.

"The recent provocative acts by Armenian armed forces in April 1 sparked tensions in the frontlines and triggered adequate military response of Azerbaijan. Though ceasefire deal has always been fragile so far, this time the conflict has experienced an unprecedented confrontation", the ambassador notes.

As reasons for what is happening the author sees the successful meetings of the Azerbaijani leadership with foreign partners. "Azerbaijan hosted second meeting of Advisory Council on Southern Gas Corridor in 29 February which was attended by EU vice-president Maros Sefcovic and joined by EU High Representative Federica Mogherini. Both vice-presidents in Baku reconfirmed the EU's full political support and solidarity in timely realization of this project. Azerbaijan and its European partners set date to hold a groundbreaking ceremony of Trans-Adriatic Pipeline, a downstream component of Southern Gas Corridor in May. High Representative also retains the tone and emphasis of the EU's clear position on explicit support of territorial integrity, independence and sovereignty of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

In the beginning of April President of the Republic of Azerbaijan paid a visit to the US and held fruitful meetings with US leadership in Washington where the latter expressed support to the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and also hailed Azerbaijan as a crucial partner addressing key challenges in the region", said in the article.

"Feeling more abandoned and isolated in the region with an attempt to sabotage these developments Armenia launched unprecedented military provocations along the frontline. It was unprecedented because military operations directly targeted civilians living in the frontline areas as well as critical regional infrastructure projects", the author says.

According to Isgandarov, one fact should not be dismissed - "Azerbaijan's counter military operations did not take place in Armenia-Azerbaijan border. Azerbaijan armed forces fought in the occupied districts surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh region".
The OSCE monitoring held June 8 along the contact line between the Azerbaijani and Armenian troops has passed without incidents, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry told Trend June 8.

The monitoring was held under the mandate of the OSCE chairperson-in-office personal representative on the contact line to the east of the Kuropatkino village of Azerbaijan's Khojavand district, the ministry said.

On the Azerbaijani side, the monitoring was carried out by the field assistant of the OSCE chairperson-in-office personal representative Hristo Hristov and Peter Svedberg.

On the territories occupied and controlled by Armenian armed forces, the monitoring was carried out by the field assistants of the OSCE chairperson-in-office personal representative Simon Tiller and Jiri Aberle.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently holding peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented the UN Security Council's four resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.
/By Azernews/

By Rashid Shirinov

When the tensions again rose in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict after remaining a frozen for more than two decades, the international community realized the necessity of increasing efforts to resolve the conflict.

Lack of successful mediation efforts and frequent ceasefire violations, the April clashes threatened to reignite a military conflict between the countries and destabilize the South Caucasus region. This could also disrupt huge energy and transport projects running through and from the region, since Azerbaijan is a significant player and initiator of the projects of the global and regional importance.

Many observers urged the mediating OSCE Minsk Group to take strong steps to achieve peace in the region, expecting Germany, the current OSCE chair, to contribute productively to the de-escalation of the dramatic situation in the conflict region. The deeper involvement of Germany, the most powerful country in the EU, would be welcomed by many.

The German chairmanship earlier voiced commitment to working towards solving the protracted conflicts in the OSCE region, including the long-standing Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which is source of threat for security in the South Caucasus region.

OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Foreign Minister of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier asserted that Germany favors the intensification of the negotiations under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Then, Steinmeier's statement was met in Azerbaijan with great interest as the country is waiting for some progress in this regard for a long time.

However, the Germans have not come with a sort of peace plan proposal. Only recently, German Ambassador to Armenia Matthias Kiesler said that Germany submitted a draft budget to the OSCE for the formation of trust mechanisms in the area of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, without disclosing any detail.

Germany's OSCE chairmanship supports the OSCE Minsk Group's efforts to create mechanisms of investigating the incidents in the area of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the German Mission to the OSCE told Trend June 7 commenting on the envoys statement.

The Mission further added that Germanys OSCE chairmanship fully supports the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs' activity, as well as the work on expanding the team of the OSCE Personal Representative, Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk.

While the OSCE Minsk Group acted as the only mediator in resolution of the conflict, it failed to make any move to achieve a breakthrough in the peace process. What is more important in this point is how strong the efforts of the MG will be to bring the sides together, and most importantly pressure on the aggressor Armenia to be constructive in talks.

Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a lengthy war that ended with the signing of a fragile ceasefire in 1994. Since the war, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

Armenia ignores four UN Security Council resolutions on immediate withdrawal from the occupied territory of Azerbaijan, thus keeping tension high in the region.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev's visit to Germany was aimed at not just active promoting the economic cooperation issues, in which Azerbaijan has never had any problems.

One of the important results of the visit to Berlin was that President Aliyev at one of the most important political venues in Europe once again highlighted the most important sore points of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, reminded of Yerevan's crimes and made it clear that Baku's position on the conflict settlement remains unchanged.

By the way, there was a striking difference between Azerbaijani and Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan's visit to Germany. Sargsyan went to Germany in early April to complain that Azerbaijan has successfully repelled the attack and liberated part of its own territory from Armenia's occupation forces. He didn't get any support, however. Angela Merkel said that she plans to discuss the issue during President Aliyev's visit in June.

That is, the German chancellor made it clear she isn't going to believe Armenia and is waiting to hear the point of view of the victim country and not the instigator.

President Ilham Aliyev said at the joint press conference with Merkel in Berlin that the resolution of the conflict must be based on implementation of international law norms and UN Security Council resolutions, which demand immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Armenian Armed Forces from the territories of Azerbaijan.

Unfortunately, said the president, the sanctions have not been imposed on Armenia for brutal violation of international law, policy of ethnic cleansing and occupation of almost 20 percent of a sovereign state's territory.

Recent development in the region shows that in the land of conflict the ceasefire is not stable, it is fragile, and the status quo is not acceptable, said Ilham Aliyev.

This became the key and the most important message for Europe - following the April counter-offensive by Azerbaijani troops in response to the Armenian aggression, no one can vouch for the stability in this region crucial for the world in general and the EU in particular.

In this context, the countries interested in the region (of course, Germany is one of them) must do everything to force Armenia to peace. And the sanctions against Armenia's occupational regime - is not the last of arguments for the compulsion.

In general, recently, there is a clear feeling that Germany will take some steps in parallel with other mediators' steps to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. At the joint press conference with Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev, Merkel said that Russia, of course, plays decisive role in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

"We will use our contacts to support the Russian government, as the American, the French, as the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group to resolve the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh," she added.

Since the beginning of the military escalation in the region in April 2016, Berlin was offering its options for settlement, and now the country says that as the chairman of the OSCE, it is ready to use a variety of mechanisms for the establishment of confidence-building measures between the parties of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. From this point of view, Azerbaijan is in the most advantageous position, considering the current prospects of the development of relations with Germany.
Latest on the bomb attack on police station in Turkey's Mardin province:

14:33 (UTC+04:00) Turkey's Prime Minister Binali Yildirim has said the explosion in the country's Mardin province is a terrorist attack and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) terrorist group stands behind it, reports the TRT Haber news channel.

The prime minister noted that the death toll as a result of the terrorist attack has reached three.

Turkey will continue to fight terrorism despite anything, added Yildirim.

---

13:48 (UTC+04:00) Two people were killed and 20 wounded in the explosion, according to the preliminary information, reports the TRT Haber news channel.

A nearby building was also damaged.

The wounded have been taken to the nearest hospitals.

Turkish authorities have not yet commented on the incident.
Emirates Green Building Council (EmiratesGBC), an independent forum aimed at conserving the environment by strengthening and promoting green building practices, is set for a bigger global role with its co-founder, board member and treasurer, Habiba Al Marashi being appointed to the membership committee of the World Green Building Council (WorldGBC), a network of national green building councils in more than 100 countries.



EmiratesGBC is the worlds eighth Green Building Council and has been a member of WorldGBC since its inception in 2006.



It is also a member of the WorldGBC Established GBC Network, which was founded to link all the different GBCs across the world to share best practices and initiate global projects that help to strengthen energy and water use efficiency in the building sector and support environmental stewardship.



Saeed Al Abbar, the chairman of EmiratesGBC, already serves as a board director of WorldGBC since 2015, taking on the mantle from Adnan Sharafi, former chairman, who had been on the role from 2013 to 2015.



Dr Sadek Owainati, co-founder of EmiratesGBC, had earlier represented the organisation on the WorldGBC Membership Committee.



Over the years, it has played an instrumental role in supporting WorldGBC to set up the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) GBC Network to drive sustained dialogue and action that promote built environment sustainability across the region.



Welcoming the appointment, Al Abbar said: "Al Marashi is a leader in shaping a sustainable environment in the Arab world and her appointment to this important committee in the WorldGBC highlights the strong role that EmiratesGBC plays in leading the dialogue and tangible action to promote sustainable built environments globally."



"With two key positions in the WorldGBC, we present the advances that the UAE and the Mena region have accomplished in promoting green building practices. Our significant achievements in promoting a culture of sustainable built environments serve as an inspiration and referral point for several other GBCs, he added.



On her global role, Al Marashi said: "It was indeed a great honour to represent our nation at the WorldGBC. It presents the opportunity to work with committed green building experts across the world and to share our learnings and experiences."



"It is important more than ever before to focus our energies on promoting sustainable development, accelerate initiatives to boost energy and water efficiency, and reduce the global carbon footprint," she noted.



With the building sector being the main source of greenhouse gas emission, taking concerted action at a global level is imperative. We are confident that our participation in WorldGBCs deliberations will help us all to achieve the green vision of the leadership of our beloved country, she added.-TradeArabia News Service
UAE-based Gulf Craft, a leading manufacturer of luxury yachts and leisure boats, recently welcomed 10 maritime regulators from across the GCC to one of its award-winning shipyards.



The visitors were given a tour of the facility, and had an opportunity to witness the superyacht and yacht production process in action while meeting the skilled professionals behind the creation of the companys innovative vessels, said a statement from the company.



The visitors were also given the opportunity to meet with Gulf Crafts chairman, Mohammed Hussein Al Shaali, it added.



The guests included representatives from the UAEs Federal Transport Authority (FTA), the UAE classification society  Tasneef, and as well as maritime regulators from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Oman, it said.



Gulf Craft has been stepping forward to not only lend its expertise towards the development of the UAE Yacht Code, which sets the standards for the production of private yachts 24 m in length and above in the country, but also towards the creation of the GCC Yacht Code, demonstrating the builders position as an authority on best practice, said a statement.



Having recently been recognised as the Best Asian Motor Yacht Builder at the prestigious Asia Boating Awards, and honoured with the Quality and Value Award at the internationally acclaimed World Superyacht Awards, the company continues to put the UAE and the GCC on the map for the timeless design and powerful engineering of world-class luxury yachts and leisure boats, it added.  TradeArabia News Service
Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL), a major shipping company, and oil producer Iranian Offshore Oil Co (IOOC) have reached preliminary deals with South Korean shipyards for orders worth around $2.4 billion, a report said.



The agreements are part of Iran's efforts to make a comeback in global shipping after the lifting of international sanctions earlier this year, a source was quoted as saying in the Wall Street Journal report.



The source added that the yards are making slots available to the Iranians starting in 2018 and 2019, and the Iranians are trying to make the 20 per cent down payments through oil state-to-state deals to finalise the orders.



If the oil deals work out with the South Korean government, Seoul can then give the necessary guarantees for the down payment to the yards, said the report.



A second source noted that options for down payments are being discussed and the orders are expected to be completed by the end of summer.
Hillary Clinton celebrated her triumph as the first woman to lead a major party in a race for the White House, scoring big wins in California and New Jersey to cement her grip on the 2016 Democratic Party presidential nomination.



The former first lady, U.S. senator and secretary of state spoke to supporters at a raucous event in Brooklyn, New York, and placed her achievement in the context of the long history of the women's rights movement.



"Thanks to you, we have reached a milestone," Clinton said in a speech. "We all owe so much to who came before."



Clinton, 68, appealed to supporters of party rival Bernie Sanders, 74, to join her campaign. She said Democrats had been bolstered by his campaign for eradicating income inequality, which has commanded huge crowds and galvanized younger voters. Not yet ready to concede, Sanders vowed to fight on.



Clinton also harshly attacked Donald Trump, 69, her presumptive Republican rival in the Nov. 8 presidential election, for using divisive rhetoric that belittled women, Muslims and immigrants. She took specific aim at his condemnation of an Indiana-born judge of Mexican heritage.



"The stakes in this election are high and the choice is clear. Donald Trump is temperamentally unfit to be president and commander-in-chief," Clinton said.



"When Donald Trump says a distinguished judge born in Indiana can't do his job because of his Mexican heritage, or he mocks a reporter with disabilities, or calls women pigs, it goes against everything we stand for," she said.



A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday showed Clinton leading Trump by 10 percentage points nationally as they launch their general election battle, little changed from a week earlier.



OBAMA, SANDERS TO MEET



Clinton edged Sanders out in a rough-and-tumble battle that stretched over four months and 50 states. She won support, especially among older voters, with a more pragmatic campaign focused on building on the policies of her fellow Democrat, President Barack Obama.



Obama called both Clinton and Sanders on Tuesday. The White House said he congratulated her on securing the delegates necessary to clinch the nomination and would meet Sanders on Thursday at Sanders' request.



CNN and NBC projected Clinton would win in California. With about two-thirds of the votes counted, Clinton led Sanders 56 percent to 43 percent, avoiding what would have been an embarrassing loss in America's most populous state. The California win came on the heels of a decisive win in New Jersey and narrower victories in New Mexico and South Dakota in Tuesday's nominating contests. Sanders won Montana and North Dakota.



A defeat in California would have reinforced doubts about Clinton's candidacy. Now, she can turn her attention to healing her fractured party and drawing in Sanders' passionate supporters.



Clinton's credentials for office have not been a serious issue, but a scandal stemming from her use of a private email account while at the State Department hangs over her head as she enters the general election campaign.



She will also be running against the current of this election season, one that has favored outsiders like Trump and Sanders. In Trump, she has an unpredictable opponent who shreds the standard campaign rule book on an almost daily basis.



FEW OPTIONS



For his part, Sanders seems to have few options left.



Democratic Party elites are lined up squarely behind Clinton, including most likely Obama, who may endorse his former secretary of state as early as this week. Pressure will mount on Sanders to exit graciously and throw his support to Clinton.



Eight years ago in June 2008, Clinton did exactly that when she ended her bitter primary fight with Obama. At the time, it appeared unclear whether Obama would be able to garner the support of Clinton's most ardent backers, but that election drew the highest voter turnout in generations.



At a rally in Santa Monica on Tuesday, Sanders showed no interest in ending his upstart candidacy, telling cheering supporters he would go on campaigning through next Tuesday's primary in the District of Columbia and carry his political mission - although not necessarily his campaign - to the party convention in Philadelphia next month.



"We are going to fight hard to win the primary in Washington, D.C.," he said. "And then we take our fight for social, economic, racial and environmental justice to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania."



Prominent Democrats say that unifying the party now is the highest priority, and that if Sanders maintains his challenge to Clinton through the party's July 25-28 convention, Trump will benefit.



"We have our work cut out for us," said Representative Alan Lowenthal, a Democrat from Long Beach, California, who was one of the few Democrats in the House of Representatives to remain neutral in the race. "My overriding fear is that we get divided, and Donald Trump could win the election."



Even if Sanders does concede to Clinton, his supporters may not go quietly. Several told Reuters in recent days that they would have trouble supporting Clinton in a matchup against Trump, saying they either would not vote or would support a third-party candidate.



"People right now are talking if Bernie doesn't get the nomination, they are deregistering as Democrats," said Susan Hartley, 71, a lawyer from Northern California, who was part of the noisy throng of thousands at a Sanders rally in an aircraft hangar in Santa Monica. "People are really upset."  Reuters
Multinational technology firm Avaya, which specialises in solutions to help companies enhance their interactions with customers has released a new set of solutions which map customer journeys.

The solutions are touted to give companies the freedom and flexibility to create, innovate and optimise their customer experience. This will generate customer loyalty, retention, share of wallet and repeat business, said Avaya.

The solutions include:

 Avaya Oceana: An extensible, software-based solution for true multi-touch customer engagement built on the Avaya Breeze Platform. Delivers attribute-based matching, 360 degree context management, visual workflow automation for customer journey mapping and support for voice and digital channels including text chat (automated and assisted), SMS, web, social, voice, video, co-browsing.

 Avaya Oceanalytics: A modular and extensible analytics and reporting platform that provides a single, comprehensive view of customer events across all sources, including Avaya and non-Avaya systems and ease to add any other data sources as needed. Breaks the silos from traditional analytic tools with the flexible collection, processing and analysis of data across all real-time and historical systems to provide the rich, visualization of data, and support to feed into any existing modern visualization tool such as Infobuild, Microstrategy Oracle, SAP and Tableleau.

 Avaya Oceana Workspaces: New roles-based desktops that give agents and supervisors one workspace for all customer touch points including chat (automated bot and assisted), email, SMS, social, voice, video and co-browse. It provides a visualisation of the customer journey and one-click access to common tasks.

 Avaya Vantage: An all-glass, touch screen desktop device with optional handset specifically developed to customize for vertical applications. Built for high-quality audio with hands-free Bluetooth capabilities.

 Avaya Client SDK: A single client Software Development Kit (SDK) on which to build all clients and desktops for virtually any customer facing or employee role; exists as a standalone client or embedded into user or business applications such as Salesforce, SAP, etc. Both Oceana Workspaces and Avaya Vantage were built on the common client SDK.

Avaya also unveiled new networking security and mobility enhancements which feature:

 Hyper-segmentation: Avaya Networking enables new levels of network segmentation and isolation. Segmentation creates containment capabilities that limit the extent to which a hacker can access any other part of the network. Avaya offers end-to-end hyper segmentation that can support hundreds or thousands of segments.

 WLAN: A next generation Wireless LAN solution that supports the latest 802.11ac Wave 2 industry standard. Delivers greater performance and predictability (up to 3.47Gbps of bandwidth) to mobile users.

Gary Barnett, senior vice president and general manager of Avaya Engagement Solutions, commented: Customer engagement technology of the past has been restricted to the domain within the contact centre; however, the customer journey goes well beyond that. With todays announcements, we demonstrate Avayas ability to collect information and unleash its potential through our latest innovations and networking technologies to guide and nurture the customer journey. The contact centre of the future will create amazing experiences for both customers and the agents using the technology. This is what Avaya is delivering.

The initial phase of Avaya Oceanalytics offering Collector Snap-ins for Avaya Elite, Experience Portal and Avaya Aura Contact Center and Proactive Contact will be available in Q3 2016 globally and Avaya Oceana will be available in Early Q4 2016 globally. TradeArabia News Service
Dubai developer Nakheel has teamed up with Dubais Dar Al Ber Society to bring a Ramadan donation scheme to Ibn Battuta Mall.



The company has set up giant boxes at Ibn Battutas China and Tunisia Courts to encourage visitors to donate unwanted books, shoes, clothes and money during the holy month.



First to take part in the event were Omar Khoory, the director of Nakheel Malls and Hisham Al Zahrani, deputy director of Dar Al Ber Societys Social Service Sector, who donated books at the launch this week.



On the initiative, Khoory said: "Ramadan is a time for giving. We are proud to bring this initiative to our flagship mall, and hope our tenants and customers will join us in helping those less fortunate than ourselves."



Al Zahrani said: "We are delighted to work with Nakheel and Ibn Battuta Mall on this initiative, which supports our own mission of helping people in need through humanitarian assistance."



Collected items will be distributed to people in need across the UAE, he added.-TradeArabia News Service
Carbon emissions from cars in the Chinese city of Chengdu could be underestimated by more than half under conventional testing methods, according to the preliminary results of a study released on Wednesday.



The findings from the study in the central city were supported by a research arm of China's top planning body using data from Uber and taxi firms.



It found that standard laboratory estimates of carbon emissions from cars were off by about 6,500 metric tonnes per day, or about 59 per cent.



The study aims to pave the way for more targeted carbon emissions policies in China.



"In the (the Chinese government's most recent) 13th five-year plan, every region and city has the target, but the question is how you meet those targets and how do you verify the target has been met?" said An Feng, head of the Innovation Center for Energy and Transportation, a think-tank that led the study.



"You cannot manage if you can't measure it."



Vehicles emissions have previously been far more difficult to measure than fixed sources of pollution such as factories and power plants.



Using data from ride-hailing services and taxis would be better than current laboratory testing arrangements in preventing manipulation by local governments and automakers, An told Reuters in an interview prior to the summit.



To expand from ride hailing and taxis to all cars, the Chinese government would need to find an arrangement with automakers to gather data from private cars, although while also addressing privacy and security concerns, he said.



An said he envisions the study expanding around China so that cities, and eventually even companies, can be ranked by carbon emissions.



Systems and policies could then be tailored to this data, such as taxing companies or even products based on the amount of carbon they create. - Reuters
Royal Dutch Shell has resumed purchases of Iranian crude, becoming the second major oil firm after Total to restart trade with Tehran after the lifting of sanctions, trading sources said and ship tracking data showed.



Iran has been trying to claw back its market share since international sanctions were lifted in January and regaining a major buyer such as Shell will further aid its cause.



Shell declined to comment.



According to shipping data, Shell fixed Suezmax tanker Delta Hellas to bring 130,000 tonnes of Iranian crude from Kharg Island on July 8 to continental Europe.



Trading sources said the cargo would unload in Rotterdam.



Shell repaid its outstanding debt to Iran from pre-sanction times earlier this year.



Besides Total, European purchases of Iranian crude have gone to refineries in Spain, Greece and Italy since the sanctions were lifted in January this year.



Tehran's re-entry to the oil market has heightened tensions with arch-rival Saudi Arabia and attempts by OPEC to concoct a strategy to boost oil prices have been scuppered as a result.



Iran has resisted Saudi Arabia's calls for output caps as Riyadh is itself aggressively expanding its buyer list ahead of an IPO for its state firm.



A production freeze deal collapsed in April when Tehran skipped a key meeting in Qatar that included non-Opec members. Opec delegates also failed to agree on a plan during their June meeting.



Major oil producers including Venezuela and Nigeria have been hit hard by a steep fall and protracted weakness in global oil prices.



Iran's crude exports are now close to pre-sanctions levels of around 2.5 million barrels per day. - Reuters
Saudi Arabia plans to spend billions of riyals on technical training and other initiatives to boost the number of its citizens in private sector jobs, an economic reform plan released on Monday showed.



The world's top oil exporter has been pushing labour reforms for years aimed at reducing the burden of employment on the state, but Monday's plans spelled out new details of how this might be achieved in a range of economic sectors.



The National Transformation Plan (NTP), announced by government ministers late on Monday, is part of the Vision 2030 reform scheme launched in April by Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to prepare for a future with lower oil revenue.



It aimed to increase the number of private-sector jobs by 450,000 by 2020 and to reduce public-sector salaries as a proportion of the state budget to 40 percent from 45 percent by the same date. Unemployment among Saudis is targeted to fall to 9 percent from 11.6 percent in the next five years.



"The average public sector employee is paid about 70 percent more than the private sector average. This wage gap is one of the highest in the world and goes a long way to explaining why so few Saudis are employed in the private sector," said James Reeve, deputy chief economist at Samba Financial Group in London.



Previous labour reforms have focused on pushing companies to hire more Saudis instead of expatriates, with some effort also devoted to technical training schemes and other social tools to prompt young people to look for non-government jobs.



The new reforms aim to increase enrolment in technical and vocational training colleges to 950,000 students a year from 104,000 now, spending SR1.5 billion (about $400 million) to increase capacity, the NTP document showed.



The government will also spend 1.7 billion riyals on technical training facilities in schools and says it will target improvements in maths and science exam grades by 2020.



At the same time, the Civil Service Ministry has targets to decrease its payroll and spending on employee benefits by 20 percent by 2020, and to ensure that only 1 percent of new jobs by that date are in government service instead of 5 percent now.



Those reforms also carry a price tag. Restructuring civil service jobs will cost 52 million riyals by 2020 and a programme to encourage government employees to become private sector entrepreneurs will cost 35 million riyals, the plan said.



WAGE GAP



Previous labour reform efforts have stumbled on social obstacles, such as the comparatively high benefits, wages, job security and social status associated with state employment and the lower cost to companies of hiring expatriates.



In the NTP, the Labour and Social Affairs Ministry has a target of reducing the cost of hiring a Saudi compared to a foreigner from being four times more expensive to only 2.8 times more expensive. Recent reforms have imposed some fees on companies that hire expatriates.



It will also aim for half of all Saudis to want a private sector job by 2020, but it provided no details on how this might be achieved.



Meanwhile, proposed reforms in other sectors aimed at boosting the private sector are also intended to create jobs for Saudis. New opportunities in mining are supposed to lead to an extra 25,000 jobs, while investment in tourism is aimed at raising hiring by 400,000 people in the private sector.



The government will also spend 117 million riyals on training more nurses and 720 million riyals on training doctors and other health practitioners to move more Saudis into public sector jobs now dominated by foreigners.



The reforms aim to increase the number of women as a proportion of the work force to 28 percent from 23 percent, and to quadruple the number of women in senior civil service roles to 5 percent, the plan said.



However, it gave few details on how this might be achieved. One figure it did give - with no further explanation - was a spending target of 2.78 billion riyals to improve transport options for working women.



Saudi Arabia is the only country where women are forbidden from driving and that figure shows how its strict social rules are obstructing key economic goals.  Reuters
Fiscal constraints are one of the major barriers to progress in the Mena nuclear power sector, a report said, adding that it could account for only three per cent of Middle East electricity generating capacity by 2040.



In the face of rising electricity demand, nuclear power should enable Mena states to diversify their sources of energy and reduce their carbon footprint, but the outlook is mixed, according to the Apicorp Energy Research June 2016 from Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation (Apicorp).



While the six GCC countries have nuclear projects under way, planned or proposed, raising power generation capacity by 39GW, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait have cancelled proposed nuclear projects in the wake of the Fukushima disaster.



Sustained increases in electricity demand in tandem with continuing demographic growth have prompted a number of Mena states to consider alternative sources of power generation, including nuclear. For countries in the GCC, nuclear power would free up more oil and gas for export, while net energy-importing countries like Egypt and Jordan would be able to secure long-term energy and reduce their import bills.



Yet at present, nuclear power facilities with capacity of just 5.6GWareunder construction. Only a further 6.4GW are likely to come online by 2030. The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that by2040, the regions nuclear industry will account for only3 per cent of electricity generation, with oil and gas accounting for 70 per cent.



Several factors make the nuclear option attractive. Nuclear plants emit considerably less greenhouse gases compared with fossil fuel-fired capacity and help countries reduce their carbon footprint. Cost competitiveness has improved in recent decades, allowing nuclear technology to become a serious component of energy diversification strategies. Nuclear also advances human capital and promotes employment in the energy sector.



But development of the nuclear sector to a level at which it competes with oil and natural gas will be both complex and expensive. Countries with ambitions to build nuclear power plants will need to find funding, attract human capital and put in place clear and stable regulatory frameworks.



Governments will need to prove to the global community that their nuclear programmes are peaceful and ensure public acceptance of their programmes. Public acceptance in the region is generally higher than that in Europe, and in the UAE, this helped support the implementation of its programme.



The political ramifications of a nuclear industry in the region also need to be addressed. Following the lifting of Iranian sanctions, there were concerns on how countries in the region would pursue their individual programmes and proposals were made to use the next decade to agree on region-wide restraints. These include banning the separation of plutonium from spent fuel, limiting the level of uranium enrichment, and placing enrichment plants under multinational control.



Nuclear can be cost competitive



Nuclear projects require substantial upfront capital but exhibit lower operational and fuel costs over their lifetime- typically 50 years. Upfront capital costs range from $3 billion-$6 billion/GW of installed capacity, more than double the cost of equivalent coal- or gas-fired plants. Investment decisions are therefore heavily dependent on the availability of finance and government support.



Nuclear can be competitive against other sources of base load power. The levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) for nuclear increases at higher discount rates, given nuclear is capital intensive. At a discount rate of 3 per cent, nuclear is more competitive than coal and gas. At 7 per cent, nuclear remains competitive. Only at 10 per cent does nuclear become less attractive.



While nuclear is often seen as a source of long-term power supply, this is contingent on the ability of project owners to secure large stocks of uranium. Currently, only four countries in Mena have proven uranium reserves. But, at an average price of $69/kg this year, production in the region remains uneconomical. Therefore, countries considering nuclear will have to rely on uranium supplied largely from outside the region.



UAE leads GCC diversification drive



The UAE nuclear programme has been dubbed a model for nuclear newcomers. Cooperation with international bodies like the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was extensive while the country built up its programme. The UAE established a Nuclear Energy Program Implementation Organization, which set up the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC).



Abu Dhabi even agreed to forgo domestic enrichment, obtaining its nuclear fuel from reliable and responsible international suppliers and returning radioactive waste.



The UAE is the only GCC state with nuclear plants under construction. At the heart of the countrys nuclear strategy is the construction of the Barakah nuclear power plant. Korea Electric Power Corporation is building four 1.4GWpower plants at a cost of $20 billion, with another $20 billion allocated for the operation of the plants during their 60-year lifetime. The construction of the first and second reactors is complete and the third is under way. The first of the four plants is scheduled to begin operations in July 2017, with an additional reactor coming online each year until 2020.



ENEC expects the four nuclear reactors when on-line will meet up to a quarter of the UAEs power demand. Over the coming decades, the UAE hopes to add a further 14.4GWof nuclear capacity, but no firm plans have yet been announced.



Saudi Arabia planned big



Economic growth, a rising population and sustained periods of low energy prices have driven high power-demand growth in Saudi Arabia. Despite recent increases in energy prices and efforts to improve energy efficiency, the country still needs an additional 34GWof generationcapacityby2020 (123GW).



The recent announcement of the Saudi 2030 Vision revised down these plans. The new plan is to install 3GWof nuclear by2030, 1.5GW in the eastern region and 1.5GW in the western region. These plans have not been officially announced and much obscurity surrounds the body that will implement the programme, with indications that KACARE will be dissolved and a new entity will take over the countrys new renewable and nuclear programme.  TradeArabia News Service
The UAE and Saudi Arabia both ranked top among the top 10 in the Global Retail Development Index (GRDI) published by A T Kearney, an international management consulting firm.



The UAE, placed seventh, remains an attractive and relatively low-risk market for retailers, with highest sales per capita in the region, while Saudi Arabia was placed eighth despite drop in GDP due to low oil prices, said the report titled Global Retail Expansion at a Crossroads.



Mall activity remains strong in the UAE



The year 2015 saw Mall of the Emirates open its 36,000-sq-m extension and Majid Al Futtaims latest shopping mall City Centre Meaisem was completed, alongside phase two of City Walk.



Plans for the second half of the year (H2) 2016 remain equally ambitious with numerous additions to the retail landscape expected, such as My City Centre Al Barsha and The Pointe Mall at Palm Jumeirah. Notable investments from international retailers include the opening of the first Apple store in the Middle East in Dubai - and the largest Apple store in the world at an estimated 10,000 sq ft.



While Saudi Arabias GDP fell 15 per cent in 2015, retail sales continued to grow. Saudi Arabia is already a popular destination for multinationals and tourists from the region. H&M has the most regional stores in Saudi Arabia, and Majid Al Futtaim will quadruple its store count in Saudi Arabia to 300 in the next five years.



Arabian Centers, the kingdoms largest owner and operator of malls opened the Yasmin Mall in Jeddah and plans to develop 12 additional malls including Mall of Arabia in Riyadh. Recent policy changes which allow single-brand retailers 100 per cent foreign ownership in retail and wholesale look set to push Saudis position as an international hub for distributing, selling and re-exporting products.



The 2016 GRDI marks the 15th annual edition of the report. During the past 15 years, developing markets have seen tremendous growth both in terms of population, which has grown 21 per cent to 6.2 billion, and in terms of retail sales, which have increased 350 percent in developing countries and now represent more than half of total global retail sales.



The GRDI ranks the top 30 developing countries for retail investment worldwide (see chart below). The Index analyzes 25 macroeconomic and retail-specific variables to help retailers devise successful global strategies to identify emerging market investment opportunities. The study is unique in that it not only identifies the markets that are most attractive today, but also those that offer future potential.



Shamail Siddiqi, principal at A T Kearney Middle East said: Despite a challenging year for the region with falling oil prices, and a tourism slowdown, several countries in the Middle East have remained strong retail destinations for retailers and consumers alike, with absolute sales continuing to grow. The UAE and Saudi Arabia are leading the way across the region and its promising to see both countries ranked top 10 among leading global players such as China and India who topped this years index.



Mena market



The Mena region retail market has generally fared well in this years index, with two of the large Gulf economies ranked among the top 10 most attractive retail markets in the world, and Egypt (#30) opening up as an opportunity for retail investments.



Despite challenges in the United Arab Emirates (#7), where tourism has slowed and the market is reaching maturity, and Saudi Arabia (#8), which is reeling from depressed oil prices, absolute retail sales still grew over the past year.



With the expected stabilization of Egypt in the medium term, the market offers access to a large and still relatively fragmented retail market. Many strong local retail champions have moderate expansion plans in the region, but foreign players are becoming a little more reticent about adding stores.  TradeArabia News Service
A leaking oil well adjacent to Midwest School has been repaired, according to state and local officials, who are preparing to collect a third round of air quality samples to identify pollutants detected at the K-12 institution.

Officials stopped short of saying the source of the leak had been identified, however. Pressure levels in the underlying oil reservoir will need to subside before the source can be confirmed.

Those developments came on the 12th day of the search for the cause of an unidentified odor that closed Midwest School last month, when air quality samples identified abnormal levels of carbon dioxide and volatile organic compounds.

Some parents have voiced concern over the situation, expressing worry that the leak could be responsible for a spate of unexplained illnesses.

Upward fluid migration was found in one plugged well immediately adjacent to the school, said Mark Watson, the state oil and gas supervisor. Crews used what is known as a cement squeeze  adding additional cement to the wells protective casing  to halt the migration. The fluids were most likely carbon dioxide and water, Watson said.

Theyve got it properly plugged to what the regulations would be today, he said.

The task of finding the elusive leak has been complicated by the long history of oil production in the Salt Creek field, which rings the community of Midwest.

Oil was first discovered there in the 1890s and drilling accelerated in the early part of the 20th century. Many of the early wells were plugged with rudimentary items like wooden fence posts. Poor documentation clouds the situation further. Some well sites remain unidentified, though state officials contend most have now been documented.

State records show 120 permanently abandoned wells in the 640-acre section surrounding the Midwest School.

In recent years, carbon dioxide has been used to stimulate production in Salt Creek, coaxing stubborn crude from the fields remaining reservoirs. When Anadarko Petroleum first began carbon injections, around 2005, it prompted geysers at unknown well locations, where the plugging was suspect, state officials and industry representatives said.

FDL Energy, the fields current operator, said most well locations have been identified but conceded there were rare instances where previously unknown wells have been found.

The company has not implemented any carbon injections near Midwest nor embarked on any new phases of development since purchasing the field from Anadarko last year, said Justin Westmoreland, FDL health and safety director.

FDL crews continue to probe wells within a half-mile radius of the school for a potential leak, he said.

This is our companys number one priority right now, Westmoreland said, noting that the majority of FDLs technical staff in Casper and Dallas, where the firm is headquartered, are devoting their time to solving the issue.

At the same time, FDL and the state Department of Environmental Quality are readying a third round of air quality samples at the school to help identify the volatile organic compounds detected there.

Volatile organic compounds are a collection of sometimes toxic pollutants, but two previous rounds of sampling were unable to identify the exact type of chemicals present.

Results from the third, 24-hour sample, will be shipped to a laboratory to help identify the pollutants present, said Audrey Gray, public health preparedness manager at the Casper-Natrona County Health Department. State, local and company officials are meeting with their federal counterparts Wednesday to discuss the testing protocol, she said.

Efforts are increasingly focused on the school, the only site where air quality monitors have detected abnormal readings, Gray said. Tests conducted by FDL at residents homes did not reveal any concerning evidence.

Some residents told the Star-Tribune last week that they had been suffering from a series of unexplained illnesses, including hives, headaches and a lack of appetite.

Once the air quality results are gathered, public health officials will compare the symptoms reported by residents with known side effects of the chemicals detected, Gray said.

No residents have reported feeling sick to the county health department, she said.
Wyoming Medical Center laid off 58 workers Tuesday, compounding the woes of a state already suffering from increasing unemployment and a stagnant energy sector.

The job cuts are expected to save the Casper hospital $7.2 million, or 3.4 percent of the hospitals forecast total expenses this year of $213.3 million.

They come amid a downturn in the local economy, a drop in the number of patients with private insurance and increased competition from the citys two private hospitals.

In addition to the layoffs, the hospital will leave another 57 positions vacant, CEO Vickie Diamond said. And the hospital reduced hours of 11 employees by anywhere from four to 12 hours a week. Combined, the job cuts and vacant positions amount to 9 percent of the hospitals workforce.

Wyomings unemployment rate rose to 5.5 percent in April. Natrona County posted the states second-highest jobless rate, at 7.5 percent.

Officials at the states second-largest hospital announced the layoffs during a noon news conference.

They blamed the problem on more patients but less money for services. Payments are shifting from private insurance to an increased number of Medicare, Medicaid and patients with no insurance. They also said Caspers two private hospitals, Mountain View Regional Hospital and Summit Medical Center, are leaving them with patients on Medicare and Medicaid or no insurance.

The layoffs would have been less severe, hospital officials said, had the Legislature expanded Medicaid.

It is the largest layoff in at least a decade at the 105-year-old hospital. Diamond, the CEO, hopes the cuts will stem the need for more layoffs in coming years. Hospital officials said they do not know when the economy will improve.

No programs that affect patients are being cut.

Were taking early action because we want to remain very strong financially, Diamond said. What you will see from Wyoming Medical Center in the future is that we will continue to maintain cost efficiencies, and we will continue to grow our business to continue to service the patients in Wyoming.

Job losses

The job reductions affected 30 departments at the hospital  from finance and radiology to quality management and central sterilization. No nurses who take care of patients at their bedsides were laid off.

Workers who lost their jobs were informed Tuesday morning, except for employees of the hospital-run daycare, which is closing later this summer. They were given 30 days of pay and benefits. If they agree to the terms of a severance agreement, they will receive another 30 days of pay and benefits, counseling and career transition services.

Wyoming Medical Centers daycare, Next Generation Learning Center, will close Aug. 30. Last year, Wyoming Medical Center subsidized the daycare by about $300,000. About 55 families used the service. The 17 daycare employees, who are among the 58 employees laid off, have been offered an extra compensation package if they agree to work through the closing date.

The hospital worked with labor attorneys to determine which employees to lay off, Diamond said. They looked at a number of factors including tenure, performance evaluations from October, disciplinary actions and licensing and education. Tenure worked in an employees favor. Employees with special skills that the hospital couldnt do without were also saved.

The 217-bed center had 1,125 employees before the layoffs, according to its website. Even after the cuts, it remains Caspers second-largest employer, said WMC Board Chairman John Masterson.

The hospital had a higher-than-average staffing level before the layoffs, Diamond said.

Our new staffing levels put us at the national benchmark of similar hospitals in size and scope, she said.

Medicaid expansion

In 2014, the hospital saw over 37,000 emergency room visits, according to tax documents that the Wyoming Medical Center, a nonprofit, submitted to the Internal Revenue Service.

That number will likely increase since the ER cannot turn away people unable to pay. The number of patients without health insurance is expected to rise, as layoffs have increased in Wyomings oil, gas, coal and uranium industries.

Hospitals throughout the state provide over $100 million a year in uncompensated care.

In January, such care was expected to cost the Wyoming Medical Center $53 million in this fiscal year, Diamond told the Star-Tribune at the time. But on Tuesday, Wiginton, the CFO, said the costs will had increased and would be $55 million by the end of June, the close of the hospitals fiscal year.

In addition to treating patients from Casper, the hospital offers specialized services that many Wyoming rural hospitals lack. Wyoming Medical Center draws patients from large swaths of the northern and central parts of the state.

In each of the past four years, the Wyoming Legislature had rejected expanding Medicaid to some 20,000 low-income adults. Diamond and other state hospital officials have argued that expansion is critical to their bottom lines. Many of the people who show up in the emergency room would be Medicaid patients if the state adopted one of the key components of the Affordable Care Act.

Each member of Natrona Countys all-Republican legislative delegation has voted against expansion  including Sen. Charlie Scott, the powerful chairman of the Senate Labor, Health and Social Services Committee. That committee has reviewed the states plan for expansion three of the four times its been before the Legislature. With Scott chairing the committee  and arguing against Medicaid on the Senate floor  lawmakers have resisted plans for expansion proposed by Gov. Matt Mead, also a Republican, and the Wyoming Department of Health.

If lawmakers had approved expansion, it would have added at least $2 million to the hospitals bottom line, WMC officials said.

The layoffs would have been less severe had the Legislature expanded Medicaid, said Wiginton, the CFO.

Any additional reimbursement would improve our financial status, she said.

Executives and addition

Diamond, the CEO, earned $668,594 in 2014, according to the IRS tax forms. That included $520,175 in base compensation, retirement benefits and other perks.

The hospital pays for her memberships to the Casper Country Club, Casper Petroleum Club and Rotary.

Management  everyone from managers, directors, vice presidents and other executives  had mandatory furloughs of up to 12 days, reflecting a 2 percent overall reduction in salaries. Previously, managers could receive financial incentives for meeting goals. Those were cut. The hospital hasnt filled open positions in leadership. Four leaders were laid off Tuesday, Diamond said.

In 2014, the medical center opened a new 100,000-square-foot, 48-bed tower to the tune of $43 million. The McMurry Tower has a new mother-baby unit, surgical center and redesigned food and nutrition services department. The addition was paid for through a $20 million revenue bond, hospital savings and private donations.

Diamond said payments for the new construction are on schedule. The addition was needed. The hospital had to offer new services to be competitive in the medical market, she said.

This is not volumes that are causing this, she said. This is payer mix.
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK  Rangers suspended their attempts on Wednesday to recover the body of a man who wandered from a designated boardwalk and fell into an acidic hot spring at Yellowstone National Park.

Colin Nathaniel Scott, 23, of Portland, Oregon, slipped and fell into a spring Tuesday afternoon in the Norris Geyser Basin, according to a news release from the park.

Scott and his sister had walked about 225 yards from the boardwalk when the incident occurred near Pork Chop Geyser, according to the release. His sister reported the accident to rangers.

Rangers began efforts to recover Scotts body on Wednesday, but later terminated their search, said Yellowstone spokeswoman Charissa Reid.

They were able to recover a few personal effects, Reid said. There were no remains left to recover.

Park officials offered condolences to Scotts family and reminded visitors to stay safe.

We extend our sympathy to the Scott family, said Superintendent Dan Wenk. This tragic event must remind all of us to follow the regulations and stay on boardwalks when visiting Yellowstones geyser basins.

Norris Geyser Basin is one of the hottest and most volatile areas in Yellowstone. The area was open to the public Wednesday, but park officials asked visitors to expect temporary closures during the investigation.

The death follows several high-profile incidents at the rugged park where tourists went off designated pathways onto unique landmarks, sometimes leading to injuries, or got too close to wildlife.

The safety of park personnel was a top concern during the search in Norris Geyser Basin, officials said. It is a popular attraction in the nations first national park, which received a record 4.1 million visitors last year. Water temperatures there can reach 199 degrees, the boiling point for water at the parks high elevation.

Signs warn visitors to keep to boardwalks and trails in thermal areas, which feature boiling pools, geysers that can blast hundreds of feet into the air and toxic gases.

The crust that makes up the ground in parts of Yellowstone is formed when minerals underground are dissolved by the high-temperature water, then redeposited on or near the surface.

Its very fragile rock and can be thin as a skiff of ice, Reid said.

Since 1890, there have been 22 deaths in the park that were a direct result of thermal burns from the hot springs, Reid said.

Most of the deaths have been accidents, although at least two people had been trying to swim in a hot spring, according to park historian Lee Whittlesey, author of the book Death in Yellowstone.

Other recent tourist incidents at Yellowstone include a 13-year-old boy who was burned days ago when his father, who had been carrying him, slipped into a different hot spring.

In May, a Canadian film crew was accused of leaving an established boardwalk and stepping into a geothermal area where they snapped photos and took video of themselves.

Also last month, another Canadian man loaded a bison calf into his SUV because he thought it was cold. The calf later had to be euthanized because it could not be reunited with its herd.
THERMOPOLIS  A Thermopolis man convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol in a 2014 crash that left one person dead and injured two others has been sentenced to serve at least six years in prison.

Cody Shinost was sentenced to six to eight years in prison after being found guilty of aggravated homicide. He was also given a suspended sentence of four to six years for causing serious bodily injury.

Shinost is accused of drunken driving in the crash that killed Madisen Price and injured Delanie Price and Dylan Balstad.

Shinost told the court at his sentencing that he's made positive life changes since the incident.

The judge acknowledged his efforts, but said it didn't mitigate the seriousness of the crime.
Wyoming Medical Center officials gathered at Caspers City Hall three years ago to lobby against plans for a privately owned third hospital.

Summit Medical Center, they insisted, would siphon away the regions most lucrative patients, leaving WMC with a higher percentage of the poor, sick and uninsured. Such a scenario, they argued, could result in cuts at the citys largest hospital. They also warned of reductions in essential medical services like emergency care.

On Tuesday, Wyoming Medical Center laid off 58 workers. And while officials there said services were not being cut, they cited competition from Summit, as well as the privately owned Mountain View Regional Hospital, among the reasons for the reductions.

WMC officials maintain Mountain View Hospital and Summit Medical Center take healthy patients with the best insurance, skewing the health care market so Wyoming Medical Center is tasked with treating patients who tend to be more costly  the uninsured, people who rely on government coverage and patients with the most complicated health care issues.

Right now, 71 percent of our patient population, the payer sources do not pay us what our costs are, said Wyoming Medical Center CFO Yvonne Wiginton. Thats a dynamic in the health care industry that is very common. But that is the challenge that Wyoming Medical Center is faced with.

Dennis Jack, Summits CEO, said he was sorry WMC is having operations trouble. He expected the hospital to blame his facility but said Summit wasnt responsible.

We have not been busy enough to offset the loss in revenue that theyre reporting, he said. Its not from us.

Jack said Summit, which opened 13 months ago and provides a variety of medical services and surgical care, is still ramping up. It hasnt signed contracts with every insurance company yet and is still scrambling for patients.

Mountain View Regional Hospital opened in 2008 on Caspers east side. The physician-owned facility provides surgical and other specialty care. A spokeswoman from the hospital did not return a message from the Star-Tribune.
PHOENIX  Southwest Airlines launched its annual fare sale Tuesday for late summer and fall travel, with prices on some routes lower than theyve been in the past few years.

The popular three-day sale, which covers travel between Aug. 23 and Dec. 14, features one-way fares of $49, $79, $99 and $129, depending on the destination. That compares with $49, $99, $129 and $149 in Southwests fall sales the past three years.

The biggest fine print: The sale fares are only good for nonstop travel on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. Travel to Nevada, Florida and international destinations are limited to Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Travelers can combine sale fares with regular fares to make a round trip purchase.

From Tucson, the special fares are available starting at $49 one-way for nonstop travel to San Diego and Los Angeles International Airport, and to Chicago Midway, starting at $129. Southwest is one of the largest passenger carriers at Tucson International Airport.

Heres a look at some of the sale fares out of Phoenix, one of Southwests largest markets with the carrier offering more than 170 daily non-stop flights:

$49: Los Angeles, Las Vegas, San Diego

$79: Denver, San Francisco, Oakland

$99: Dallas, Salt Lake City, Boise, Seattle

$129: Chicago, Nashville, St. Louis, Milwaukee

Tickets must be purchased by Thursday, June 9. Southwests website and reservations centers are often overwhelmed as word of the sale spreads. Last years sale was particularly frustrating for travelers trying to book tickets.
Chef Adrian Castillo wants every dish that leaves his kitchen to be as appealing to the eye as it is to the palate.

Castillo, chef at the recently opened Elviras Restaurant in Downtown Tucson, prides himself on presenting a beautiful plate.

One of the most important things that I learned coming through the industry is that plating is all about your imagination. I will go for height and color, he said. This last weekend I did a fish dish with purple potatoes and bright red morrita (chili pepper) sauce and a nice tall bed of spinach for the fish to lay on.

When I was young I used to be into graffiti, and I was into bright colors and different designs. Thats how I look at my plating, like a blank canvas where you can express yourself and take what you have and make something beautiful, he said.

Castillo learned the importance of plating at his first professional cooking job. He was enrolled in cooking classes at the Art Institute of Tucson when he took a job as a dishwasher at Lodge on the Desert. He parlayed the dishwashing job into a position as a line cook for then-Lodge head chef Ryan Clark, who now leads the kitchen at the award-winning PY Steakhouse at Casino del Sol Resort.

Its almost like art when you are plating, Castillo said. The one thing I took from day one is try to always be artistic when plating food. I can make a really basic dish look elegant when I plate it. I think thats my thing, plating and making things look pretty and elevating things.

Though Castillo is running his own kitchen now, he is still learning  this time from owner and chef Ruben Monroy, who opened the downtown Elviras in April, a fraternal twin to the popular Tubac establishment of the same name. The downtown location showcases many of the same recipes, but Monroy and Castillo are collaborating on new fusion recipes with Asian and French influences.

Hes a very talented chef so he has a lot of input into my recipes, Castillo said of Monroy. Hes a great mentor.

What about cooking do you most enjoy?

I get the biggest joy out of seeing somebody enjoy the food. Everything I do, I try to make it with my passion, my art. When Im happy you can see it in the food. Its an extension of how I feel as a person. Every plate is an extension of me. When you see someone enjoy it, it is almost like a rush or a high I dont get anywhere else. But at the same time lets say someone doesnt like it, it kind of destroys me a little bit.

What advice would you give to someone who enjoys feeding people?

I tell my young cooks, the guys who are coming up, to cook with your heart. If you cook with your heart, it will show. It doesnt matter what it is  it could be something as simple as a hamburger or a mole with 30 ingredients  if you are cooking with your heart and its not just about a paycheck, it will reflect in your food. Your attitude, the way you feel, it reflects in the dishes. I honestly believe thats the key when it comes to this business. You have to have passion. Its a tough, tough business, but if you have passion and joy for the food, it never gets stale; its never like work.

What is one skill essential for every cook?

Resilience is the biggest thing a cook should have. A lot of times its hard for them to be in a kitchen six, seven days a week and not be around their families. If you dont have that passion, youre not going to make it. Before learning how to saute, before learning how to grill, you have to have that certain attitude. Its hard. At its most difficult, it can break people. Ive seen it. Resilience is key when it comes to this business.
City Briefs

EXPECT DECISION MONDAY. County Attorney Hilzinger returned yesterday from Phoenix, where he represented the state in the case of the appeal of Joe L. Wiley, Thomas Johns and Ramon Salazar from the decision of the Pima superior court denying the men liberty on bail under the charge of murdering Mrs. Josephine Bates. Samuel Pattee represented the men at the supreme court hearing and Mr. Hilzinger was assisted by John H. Campbell of Tucson, and Attorney Baker of Phoenix. The attorneys expect a decision on the appeal not later than Monday.

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LICENSE TO WED. A marriage license was issued yesterday by Clerk of the Superior Court Elrod to Juan Delgado and Maria Cosella.

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WAS WELL "TOASTED" A Mexican was picked up by officers yesterday in an alley off South Meyer street. He appeared to have met the tiger and come off much the worse for the combat. He was still in a drunken stupor yesterday afternoon and could not supply a name. The only statement officers were able to obtain from him was that they, referring to his companions of the night before, "toasted him." One of the man's eyes was closed and his memory was blurred.

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TO PROSECUTE VAN LIDTH. County Attorney Hilzinger yesterday filed an information against Charles G. Can Lidth, charging him with violating the state prohibition law by bringing liquor into the state for the purpose of selling it. It is understood that the basis of the complaint is an admission made in the federal court here recently, at the time that he entered a plea of guilty to the charge of bringing liquor into the state without the proper label that he brought the liquor into the state to sell it.

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ANDERSON ARRAIGNMENT TODAY. Jack Anderson, Waler Pearce and R. O. Naylor, charged with violating the prohibition law by bringing liquor into the state, will be arraigned before Justice Comstock this afternoon. Pearce is at liberty under bond. A charge of bringing liquor into the state without having it properly labeled is pending against Anderson and Pearce before the federal grand jury.

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OVERJOYOUS FATHER. Officer Sullivan of the police force yesterday morning arrested a drunken man who gave the name of Francisco Miranda. When taken into custody, Miranda was trying to get into the Blue Front store by the rear door, having mistaken it for the San Augustine hotel, nearby, where he was stopping. He came to the city from San Xavier to present his infant son for the christening ceremony and apparently had imbibed too much joy-water. He was fined $20 for being drunk.

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WILLIAMS ACQUITTED. A verdict of acquittal was returned by the jury in the case of John Williams, Yuma negro, charged with selling liquor to Indians. The jury was sent out Tuesday afternoon and did not arrive at a verdict until Wednesday noon. The principal witnesses against Williams were two Yuma Indians, who testified that Williams had sold them liquor. W. J. Chappell, charged with introducing liquor into the state without the proper labels, entered a plea of guilty yesterday.

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CITED FOR SPEEDING W. C. Abbot, 1035 North Fifth avenue, was cited to appear in police court today, on a charge of speeding, by Traffic Officer Arnold yesterday evening. He was charged with speeding on Congress street.

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CALWELL GIVES BOND A colored lady friend of J. S. Calwell, who was arrested yesterday afternoon by Officer Mills on a charge of petit larceny, provided the necessary $25 to bail him out yesterday evening. Calwell was alleged to have taken several shirts from a store on South Meyer street, but protested his innocence of the charge.
Supervisor Ally Miller has presented a bill to news agencies looking into whether a staffer who recently resigned was involved in the creation of a short-lived and dubious news site.

Miller took to Facebook recently to complain about the thousands of pages of public records she reviewed personally, and now wants the media to pay for them. The Arizona Daily Star is among the news agencies that are seeking the emails about the creation of the Arizona Daily Herald.

On Wednesday, the Star received a $1,171.80 bill for the 3,348 pages of e-mails Miller says she reviewed. The Tucson Sentinel received a similar bill.

Miller is "late to the party" when it comes to trying to intimidate reporters by proposing outrageous fees for public documents, says Dan Barr, a First Amendment attorney in Phoenix.

Under Arizona law, the emails should be provided in their original format electronically  which should significantly reduce the cost of the public records, he notes.

Barr also questions why Miller is involved in reviewing the emails rather than having it done by county staff trained in public records law who don't have a personal interest in what information is released.

"They are public records, not Ally Miller's records," Barr said.

Miller has denied that she or the former staffer, Timothy DesJarlais, have any connections to a man claiming to be Jim Falken, who identified himself as editor-in-chief of the Arizona Daily Herald. That person claimed to be a journalist and asked Miller's political challengers about her road plan. The site was taken down and the person claiming to be Falken has gone silent.

The Star and other news organizations have requested records from Miller in an attempt to report the issue.

The issue is reportedly being investigated by the sheriff and county attorney's office.
The Arizona Medical Association is calling for an independent investigation into the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Phoenix.

A resolution passed by the associations House of Delegates on Saturday says the departures of six Phoenix medical school leaders, as well as recent accreditation issues, are reasons for serious concerns about medical education in the state.

The group is asking the Arizona Board of Regents to initiate an investigation into any U of A organizational impediments or policies that contributed to the departures of the well-respected and quality team that was in place.

The association's resolution says it is a public statement of "no confidence" in the executive leadership at the UA and in the health sciences leadership and its operations of the Phoenix medical school.

Dr. Joe G.N. Skip Garcia, senior vice president of health sciences at the UA in Tucson, said on Tuesday that university leaders remain committed to the Phoenix medical school and that the departures that occurred are not unusual in academia.

We remain focused on building a world-class medical school in Phoenix that offers the best training environment for students, is leading new discoveries in scientific research and is providing the highest quality patient care, he said in a prepared statement.

In a news release, the 4,000-member association of Arizona physicians said problems at the Phoenix medical school could have a negative effect on the UAs first and largest medical school campus in Tucson.

UA College of Medicine-Phoenix Dean Stuart Flynn recently announced his departure from the position hes held since 2008. Hell be founding dean of a medical school jointly operated by Texas Christian University and the University of North Texas Health Science Center. Flynn was not immediately available for comment Tuesday.

Five other senior-level deans from the Phoenix medical school recently handed in their resignations, UA officials confirmed Tuesday  four are following Flynn and a fifth is going to a bigger job at Case Western Reserve University.

Garcia in his statement said leaders in academia often bring their own people with them when they move jobs. He also said the fact that leaders at the medical school are being recruited for other jobs speaks to the schools success.

But the association called the departures a significant loss for the medical school and to the state of Arizona.

The Phoenix medical school has also had accreditation issues. Last year, the Liaison Committee on Medical Education wrote a letter to the school saying changes would be needed in order to secure full accreditation.

Among other things, the accrediting body expressed concern about a recent academic affiliation between Phoenix-based Banner Health and the UA that was created when Banner merged with the Tucson-based UA Health Network.

The Phoenix medical school has since been granted provisional accreditation this year, which puts it on pace for full accreditation in early 2018, UA officials say.

The Phoenix-based Arizona Medical Association wants the Arizona Board of Regents to take corrective action based on an investigation, to ensure long-term excellence in medical education at the U of A College of Medicine Phoenix and Tucson.

Arizona Board of Regents Chair Jay Heiler issued a statement Tuesday saying that the regents appreciate the long-standing involvement of the Arizona Medical Association in medical education in the state. He said the Board of Regents looks forward to hearing about the resolution.

Meanwhile, the board, (UA) President (Ann Weaver) Hart and her executive teams consideration of the present structure and operating challenges at the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix continues, and will continue in earnest at the boards meeting this week in Flagstaff, his statement says.

Developing and sustaining a world-class medical education enterprise in Phoenix remains the boards priority, and the voice and views of the medical association are important in the community as we move in that direction, it adds.

In his statement, Garcia says he acted quickly to demonstrate the universitys commitment to ensuring continued success of the Phoenix medical school. He appointed Dr. Kenneth Ramos as interim dean.

The UA is investing nearly $250 million in expanded capital facilities on the Phoenix Biomedical Campus and planned academic enhancement fund expenditures in College of Medicine-Phoenix academic programs, his statement says.

I respectfully suggest that all of these facts point to a UA leadership team that is fully engaged in the success of the College of Medicine-Phoenix.

The UA College of Medicine-Phoenix admitted its inaugural class of first-year medical students in August 2007.

The UAs College of Medicine-Tucson opened in 1967 and has classes of 115 per year. The UAs College of Medicine-Phoenix has class sizes of 80 students per year.
Tucsons youngest entrepreneurs will have the opportunity to bring their ideas to life this fall.

The Tucson Hispanic Chamber Foundation along with the University of Arizonas Eller College of Management and the Tucson Unified School District have partnered to launch the Young Entrepreneurs Academy.

The program takes students between 11 and 18 years old through the process of launching a business or social movement over the course of a school year.

Students will brainstorm business ideas, write business plans, pitch to investors for startup funding, register their companies with governmental agencies and ultimately launch their own business or social movement.

There will also be an opportunity to compete for college scholarships in regional and national business pitch competitions.

The UA Eller College of Management will support the program with state-of-the-art classroom space while TUSD will award $850 in scholarship funding to offset the $949 tuition to 24 candidates, allowing students in need to attend.

An information session for middle- and high-schoolers as well as parents and educators will be held from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. June 14 at the Eller College of Management, 1130 E. Helen St., Rooms 208 and 208A.

For more information, visit www.tucsonhispanicchamber.org/young-entrepreneurs-academy.html

In addition to seeking student participants, the program is inviting successful business executives and local entrepreneurs from a variety of industries to serve as mentors or guest lecturers.

Large and small businesses can also sign up to serve as field trip hosts.
PHOENIX  An Arizona jury on Wednesday convicted a founder of the Minuteman border-watch group of molesting one young girl, but it acquitted him of engaging in sexual conduct with another.

Christopher Allen Simcox was found guilty on charges that he molested a 5-year-old girl and showed her pornography. He was acquitted of the more serious charges that he engaged in sexual conduct with a 6-year-old girl.

A molestation conviction carries a sentence of 10 to 24 years in prison. Simcox, 55, is scheduled to be sentenced on July 5.

Prosecutors alleged that Simcox molested the younger girl and engaged in sexual conduct with the older girl during an 11-month period ending in May 2013.

In closing arguments, a prosecutor scoffed at Simcox's claim that the girls were pressured by adults to bring the allegations. Simcox, who isn't a lawyer but nonetheless represented himself at trial, told jurors that he didn't abuse the girls.

His arrest in 2013 came after his career as an advocate for tougher immigration policies had fizzled.

The Minuteman movement stepped into the spotlight in 2005 when illegal immigration heated up as a national political issue. Minuteman volunteers fanned out along the nation's southern border to watch for illegal crossings and report them to federal agents.

The movement splintered after Simcox and another co-founder parted ways and headed up separate groups.

Simcox, who once served as publisher of the Tombstone Tumbleweed newspaper, went on to briefly enter Arizona's 2010 U.S. Senate primary against incumbent John McCain but dropped out of the race. His name didn't appear on the ballot.

More than a decade ago, Simcox was sentenced to two years of probation for misdemeanor convictions in federal court for carrying a concealed handgun at the Coronado National Memorial near the Arizona-Mexico border in January 2003.

Earlier in the sex abuse case, Simcox drew the ire of prosecutors and victim representatives when he insisted that he should be allowed to personally question the girls while they take the witness stand.

Prosecutors argued that letting Simcox question the girls would cause them emotional distress.

In the end, Simcox got an attorney advising him to pose the questions.
Help India!

By Dr Kouser Fathima for TwoCircles.net,

Ramadan is the month of fasting and piety for Muslims all over the world. All Muslims irrespective of nationality, race and gender fast in this month from dawn to dusk and try to spend maximum time in worship. Apart from fasting, charity is an important aspect of Ramadan where in the Muslims are required to give Zakat (mandatory charity) corresponding to 2.5% of ones saving and it is given by every Muslim who meets the necessary criteria to the poor and needy brethren.

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In countries like Saudi Arabia, Libya , Malaysia ,Pakistan , Yemen & Sudan Zakat is collected by state where as contribution by Muslims elsewhere is voluntary based on Islamic teachings and fear of God . In 2012 Islamic analyst estimated annual Zakat spending exceeding US$200 billion per year but ironically huge section of the Muslim population is in bad financial condition facing poverty. This shows that the concept of Zakat has failed to address the issue and help the needy Muslims. Reasons can be many ranging from lack of proper guidance to improper distribution of zakat.

In India it is common to see poor Muslims in groups roaming on streets knocking on doors in Muslim areas asking for zakat. If one notices it is the same group every year coming back with similar problems. Many people do give them zakat money but fail to keep a tab on how the amount is spent. There is no guarantee that the amount is utilised in an efficient way. Sadly the expected results are not achieved even though Muslims do give generously in this month.

The real needy seldom go out and ask, and very few Muslims bother to reach out to them. Many needy students are forced to discontinue their studies due to lack of financial aids , many patients suffering from various ailments are unable to afford medicines and treatments , many unemployed youth and people facing financial problems. Sadly most of these people hesitate to ask for help and hence zakat fails to reach them.

The need is to be more organized, mosques should coordinate between the zakat donors and needy so that the aid reaches the right persons. The zakat donors should also make efforts to identify the real needy and for that they need to go an extra mile rather than just giving away money as a formality at their doors. The worst practice followed by some Muslims who accumulate people outside their houses and literally throw clothes at them needs to be abandoned.

The idea of zakat will remain defeated if it is not properly implemented. The aim is to bridge the gap between the rich and poor in the community, a concept very noble and unique of Islam. Unfortunately we are failing to follow the spirit of zakat.

(The author is a Bengaluru based writer. She can be reached at twitter @drkf_18)


Help India!

By IndScribe

Why Yadavas are made villains so easily and why it is so common to talk about Yadav-raj or use words like Yadav-gardi?

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Arent there other castes, members belonging to different religions and groups, who are powerful and indulge in lawlessness!

On Facebook and social media, people easily dismiss SP or RJD rule as Yadav-waad and post blatantly casteist, anti-Yadav posts.

There must be some reason! After all, why it happens that just three-four Yadavas in an office or appointment of 10% Yadavas [as per their representation] raises issues of Yadav-waad.

Thats the caste which changed status quo, snatched power from Upper Castes in entire North IndiaUP & Bihar. The Upper Castes are out of power since 1989 in UP-Bihar.

If you see it in this context, you will realise, why Yadav is the villain. Muslims were already out of power structure. The powerful Brahmin-Kshatriya-Bania and Kayastha leaders are no longer holding the reins.

But they still dominate mainstream media. Some of our intellectual friends would say, Yadav to waise hi dabang jaati rahi hai. Yes, they would say it and you cant expect anything better.

Casteism blinds us to such an extent that when all 185 persons belonging to Upper Castes are appointed in a single institution in UP, it never leads to the charge of casteism.

Your personal feelings about SP, RJD apart, they have been a power, and have changed power equilibrium in North India. Hence, they will be villains.

This is the main reason Lalu Yadav is hated by the influential section of media. And also, why it becomes Jungle-Raj so easily in UP or Bihar, but Gujjar agitations in Haryana, Patidar movement in Gujarat or Vyapam killings MP will never make it Jungle Raj.


1,000-year-old agricultural practice, China's solution to sustainable farming Updated: 2016-06-07 16:21 By Wu Yan in Qingtian county, Zhejiang province(chinadaily.com.cn)

Jose Graziano da Silva (Second from left), Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, poses with farmers in Longxian village, Qingtian county, East China's Zhejiang province, on Sunday. He visited the symbiotic rice-fish aquaculture system, a farming practice of raising fish in rice paddies that has been preserved by local farmers for over 1,000 years. [Photo by Wu Yan/China Daily]

More than a thousand years old practice of raising fish in rice paddies by Chinese farmers not only preserves environment, but also benefits local community, said Jose Graziano da Silva, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, in Qingtian county, in East China's Zhejiang province, on Sunday.

Marking his first visit to an Asian site listed as Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems in the mountainous area of East China's Zhejiang province, Da Silva praised China's work in protecting agricultural heritage and developing sustainable production.

The site has preserved more than 1,000 years old farming practice in which farmers raise fish in rice paddies. The unique symbiotic rice-fish aquaculture system sees rice plants providing fish shelter from the sun and predators such as egrets, while fish fertilize the rice and eat the larvae and weeds that harm rice.

In what Da Silva called a "win-win combination", more rice and fish are produced in less land than if they were farmed separately, while less fertilizers and pesticides are used and less cost and labor are invested in the farming.

The green and healthy rice and fish attract tourists from neighboring cities; this provides farmers a chance to earn extra money by running restaurants for visitors when they are not busy on the farm.

Praising the practice, Da Silva said: "Not only environment is preserved and used in a sustainable way, but also it generates benefits for the local community."

He said the system is "a good example of how we can use our natural resources without depleting and destroying them".

The symbiotic rice-fish aquaculture system was listed by the FAO among the first five Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems in 2005. So far, China tops the world by having 11 out of 36 agricultural heritage systems.

The FAO-initiated program aims to better acknowledge years of knowledge and management experience of nature and environment sustainability proven by generations of farmers worldwide, and use the information to address challenges that modern agriculture faces today, especially to revive sustainable agriculture.

"To inherit and carry forward farming culture is very important today when traditional agriculture has been transformed into a modern one," said Niu Dun, China's permanent representative to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and former vice-minister at the Ministry of Agriculture.

In a communique issued at the 2016 G20 Agricultural Ministers Meeting, which concluded recently in Xi'an, further developing Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems were recognized as a suitable way for preserving good farm practices and promoting sustainable agriculture.
Former senior provincial legislator under criminal investigation Updated: 2016-06-07 20:16 (Xinhua)

BEIJING -- Prosecutors launched a criminal investigation into Wang Yang, a former senior legislator in northeast China's Liaoning Province, following allegations of bribery, the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) announced Tuesday.

The SPP said that Wang, who was formerly the deputy director of the Standing Committee of Liaoning Provincial People's Congress, is subject to compulsory measures, a legal term that can cover arrest, detention, summons, bail pending trial, or residential surveillance.

Earlier this month, Wang was expelled from the Communist Party of China (CPC) and removed from public office for violating the Party's code of conduct, the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) ruled after an internal investigation.
Mediators help judges to tackle domestic cases Updated: 2016-06-08 02:07 By Cao Yin(China Daily)

Beijing banker Zheng Hong has taken on a new role at a court in Beijing as a mediator in family disputes.

She has been working at Dongcheng District People's Court since the start of June helping judges to deal with domestic cases including divorce, child custody and property inheritance.

Her new role is part of plans to reform hearings into such cases that were put forward by China's top court in May.

The court where Zheng works is one of 118 nationwide taking part in a two-year pilot program to offer free mediation services, partly to reduce the burden on the legal system.

In addition to offering mediators, participating courts will provide social workers and psychologists, enabling potential litigants to solve conflicts without necessarily resorting to the courtroom.

The number of mediators working at Dongcheng District People's Court and the 117 others taking part in the pilot program is not known, and the numbers are likely to change as the program takes shape.

According to the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the national divorce rate has risen rapidly since 2002, with 3.64 million couples ending their marriages in 2014. Most of those getting divorced were born in the 1980s and 1990s.

Zheng, 46, said her role is to mediate between couples embroiled in domestic conflicts before their cases come before the courts.

"If my mediation contributes to alleviating family disputes and results in people deciding not to resort to the courts, this will be more harmonious for the family members and should also reduce the burden on legal resources," she said.

"Many domestic cases result from people acting on impulse, especially divorces. We should provide them with a period in which they can calm down."

Zhao Qing, chief judge at the Dongcheng court's family dispute tribunal, said a 66-item plan was put into operation after the Supreme People's Court called for the reforms.

Residents with mediation experience, such as seniors working on community committees, and people with knowledge of the law and psychology are being selected as mediators, Zhao said. Training will be offered.

Under the plan, family disputes will initially be handled by mediators within three days of being registered with a court.

Potential litigants will be allowed to choose the mediators they want to work with  in line with their needs. The mediation process should last a maximum of three months.

"We did some mediation in the past," Zhao said. "But with divorce cases booming, we need to send more work to mediators and hope they can play a bigger role in family litigation.

"We judges will be free to spend more time studying legal problems in cases and dealing with marriages in which couples' conflicts cannot be mediated, such as those involving domestic violence."

While the pilot program is just starting in many areas, courts in Fujian province have relied on mediation for some time in connection with family disputes.

For example, Sanming Intermediate People's Court has used mediation in many cases involving young people and domestic disputes since last year. It also provides psychologists.

Guo Jie, a judge at that court, said, "The combination is inevitable, as many divorces involve children and child-raising disputes."

Last year, the court heard 1,001 divorce cases that involved minors. These comprised 68.2 percent of the total number of divorce cases heard by the court in 2015, Guo said.

"Psychologists can also help children to cope with their parents' divorces, and they offer psychological tests for adults," she said, adding that about 80 psychologists now support family case hearings in the city's courts.

Guo said the move toward increased mediation in such disputes and less time spent in courts stems from the experience in countries such as the United States.
Chinese FM statement on settling disputes between China, the Philippines in South China Sea through bilateral negotiation Updated: 2016-06-08 09:52 By ZHANG YUNBI(chinadaily.com.cn)

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement on Wednesday regarding settling disputes between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea through bilateral negotiation. The following is the full text:

China and the Philippines are neighbors facing each other across the sea, and the two peoples have enjoyed friendship over generations. Before the Philippines' unilateral initiation of the South China Sea arbitration on 22 January 2013, the overall situation in the South China Sea had remained stable despite certain disputes between China and the Philippines therein. Thanks to China's efforts, China and the Philippines carried out friendly consultations on, among others, establishing dialogue mechanisms and engaging in practical cooperation and joint development, and have achieved positive outcomes in this regard. However, ever since its initiation of the arbitration, the Philippines has unilaterally closed the door of settling the South China Sea issue with China through negotiation, and has, while turning its back on the bilateral consensus regarding managing differences, taken a series of provocative moves that infringed upon China's legitimate rights and interests. This has led to dramatic deterioration of China-Philippines relations as well as of peace and stability in the South China Sea. China is firmly opposed to the Philippines' unilateral actions. China adheres to the solemn position of non-acceptance of and non-participation in the arbitration, and will stay committed to settling the relevant disputes with the Philippines in the South China Sea through bilateral negotiation.

I. It is the common agreement and commitment of China and the Philippines to settle their relevant disputes in the South China Sea through negotiation

China has all along stood for peacefully settling territorial and maritime delimitation disputes through negotiation with States directly concerned on the basis of respecting historical facts and in accordance with international law. On issues concerning territorial sovereignty and maritime delimitation, China never accepts any recourse to third party settlement, or any means of dispute settlement that is imposed on it. Territorial sovereignty issues are not subject to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). With regard to maritime delimitation disputes, China made, pursuant to Article 298 of UNCLOS, an optional exceptions declaration in 2006, excluding disputes concerning, among others, maritime delimitation from the UNCLOS third party dispute settlement procedures.

It is not only the Chinese government's consistent policy, but also a clear agreement reached between China and the Philippines, to settle their relevant disputes in the South China Sea through negotiation.

The 10 August 1995 Joint Statement between the People's Republic of China and the Republic of the Philippines concerning Consultations on the South China Sea and on Other Areas of Cooperation states that "[d]isputes shall be settled in a peaceful and friendly manner through consultations on the basis of equity and mutual respect", and that "a gradual and progressive process of cooperation shall be adopted with a view to eventually negotiating a settlement of the bilateral disputes." Afterwards, China and the Philippines reaffirmed the consensus on settling the South China Sea issue through bilateral negotiation and consultation in a number of bilateral documents, such as the 23 March 1999 Joint Statement of the China-Philippines Experts' Group Meeting on Confidence-Building Measures and the 16 May 2000 Joint Statement between the Government of the People's Republic of China and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines on the Framework of Bilateral Cooperation in the Twenty-First Century.

On 4 November 2002, China and the ten ASEAN Member States signed the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC), in which the Parties concerned solemnly "undertake to resolve their territorial and jurisdictional disputes by peaceful means, without resorting to the threat or use of force, through friendly consultations and negotiations by sovereign States directly concerned, in accordance with universally recognized principles of international law, including the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea".

Afterwards, China and the Philippines reaffirmed this solemn commitment they had made in the DOC in a number of bilateral documents, such as the 3 September 2004 Joint Press Statement between the Government of the People's Republic of China and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the 1 September 2011 Joint Statement between the People's Republic of China and the Republic of the Philippines.

II. China and the Philippines have never conducted any negotiation on the subject-matters of the arbitration initiated by the Philippines

According to the Philippines, China and the Philippines have engaged in a number of exchanges of views since 1995 on the subject-matters of the arbitration initiated by the Philippines but the disputes have remained unsettled, and the Philippines has good reasons to believe that it is meaningless to continue the negotiations and it therefore has the right to initiate the arbitration. The fact, rather to the contrary, is that the two States have by far never engaged in any negotiation on the subject-matters of the arbitration.

China and the Philippines have held multiple rounds of consultations on the proper management of disputes at sea, but have by far had no negotiation designed to settle the relevant disputes in the South China Sea. China has on a number of occasions proposed with the Philippines the establishment of a China-Philippines regular consultation mechanism on maritime issues; however, to date, there has never been any response from the Philippine side. On 1 September 2011, the two countries issued the Joint Statement between the People's Republic of China and the Republic of Philippines, reiterating the commitment to settling the disputes in the South China Sea through negotiation. Thereafter, China, for many times, proposed restart of the China-Philippines consultation mechanism for confidence-building measures, but this proposal has once again fallen on deaf ears. It is completely groundless for the Philippines to claim that it is meaningless to continue the negotiations, and that the Philippine side has had to initiate the arbitration.
Classical Chinese paintings stand out at Beijing auction Updated: 2016-06-07 09:12 By Lin Qi(chinadaily.com.cn)

The painting by Song Dynasty court painter Xia Gui portrays a poetic snowy scene of late autumn and early winter, in southern China. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Rare classical paintings dated to Song (960-1279), Yuan (1271-1368) and Ming (1368-1644) dynasties stood out at a Beijing auction by scooping up huge prices.

An ink painting album of 10 landscapes by early Ming painter Yun Shouping was sold for 81.6 million yuan ($12.4 million). He produced the paintings as a tribute to earlier master painters who greatly influenced him in techniques and styles.

Chinese retailer Suning Commerce Group made two big purchases in the sale staged by Beijing Poly International Auction on Sunday night.

A bamboo painting of Wu Zhen, one of the Four Masters of the Yuan Dynasty, fetched 77.6 million yuan. The work is considered a fine example of China's literati painting.

It used to be a collection of famed connoisseur Zhang Congyu. It was later acquired by antique dealer C.T. Loo who exported it abroad, and then transferred to the New York-based Chinese collector Chi-Chien Wang.

A landscape of court painter Xia Gui, hailed among the Four Masters of the Southern Song Dynasty, sold 27 million yuan. It portrays a poetic snowy scene of late autumn and early winter, in southern China.

Another big transaction of the auction was an album of 12 landscapes by Wang Hui, a master of late Ming and early Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. It went for 33 million yuan, and Wang executed the pictures in his 70s, copying previous works of precedent painters.
Buddhism-themed ink painting fetches $10m Updated: 2016-06-07 09:12 By Lin Qi(chinadaily.com.cn)

The Buddhism-themed ink painting by Zhang Daqian [Photo provided to China Daily]

A Buddhism-themed ink painting of master Zhang Daqian, which was among dozens of his copies of Dunhuang murals, fetched 63.8 million yuan ($9.7 million) at a Beijing auction on Saturday night.

The painting portrays a Dakini goddess in Tibetan Buddhism which literally translates as "sky goer" in Tibetan, and features a heavy coloring scheme. It was hammered by Beijing Poly International Auction during its major spring sales.

A devout Buddhist, Zhang lined the subject matters in this painting with expensive gold powders.

Zhang arrived at the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang, Gansu province, in 1941 with a team of assistants. During their stay for two and a half years, Zhang copied many murals inside the caves. He later exhibited these copies in Chengdu, helping publicizing the excellence of Dunhuang art.

The sold painting came from the collection of a Taiwan collector. It was believed to be transported to Taiwan along with other of Zhang's copies and art collection, when he was aboard a plane heading for the island in 1949.
China, US help boost African healthcare Updated: 2016-06-08 08:11 By Wang Xiaodong and Shanjuan(China Daily USA)

China and the United States will increase their cooperation in health assistance to Africa, including helping to build the first disease control and prevention center on the continent, according to a top Chinese public health official.

"Public health is one area in which China, the United States and Africa can reach cooperation agreements most easily, because it is in everyone's interest," said Liang Xiaofeng, deputy director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

China, the US and other international parties worked well together, with excellent results, on Ebola prevention and control in West Africa in the past two years, paving the way for future cooperation, Liang said.

An African CDC headquarters will be built in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, he said. Five additional national CDCs will be built in other countries, including Egypt, Kenya and Zambia, to help the continent to fight infectious diseases, he said.

The Ebola epidemic began in early 2014 and ended late last year, striking mostly West Africa, but cases were found as far as the US and Europe. More than 10,000 people died in Africa.

Liang said China will help mostly with building the infrastructure. It will also cooperate with the US in establishing the infectious diseases report system for the CDC, he said.

China will send public health experts to the center to work and help ensure its normal operation. China has provided $2 million and the US $10 million in assistance to the CDC, he said.

The timetable for building an African CDC has not yet been established, Liang said, and many obstacles still must be worked out.

China and the US are also cooperating on some other African projects, for example on Ebola prevention and control in Sierra Leone, he said.

The project involves testing the blood and body fluids of Ebola survivors, he said.

Other African projects involving Chinese and US cooperation are being discussed, such as one promoting hepatitis B vaccination of newborns in Sierra Leone, he said.

"China and the United States, as large countries, have responsibilities to provide health assistance to poorer countries," he said. "Ebola has proved no countries can be exempt from the threats of infectious diseases, and international cooperation is necessary for their control and prevention."

"China is lagging behind the US in public health," he said. "Through cooperation we can also borrow good experiences from the US."

China has rich experience in infectious disease control and prevention, and Africa, as a continent with a large number of developing countries, resembles China much more than the US, and China's experiences and assistance may be more useful to Africa in fighting infectious diseases, Liang said.

Contact the writers at wangxiaodong@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily USA 06/08/2016 page8-9)
Swiss tunnel shows rest of Europe the way Updated: 2016-06-07 07:57 By Fu Jing(China Daily)

Swiss Federal President Johann Schneider- Ammann, right, speaks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, left, on the opening day of the Gotthard rail tunnel, at the fairground Rynaecht at the northern portal in Erstfeld, Switzerland. [Photo/Agencies]

Switzerland inspired its European neighbors on Wednesday by announcing the completion of the world's longest traffic tunnel, linking north and south Europe.

Landlocked Switzerland is expected to gain tremendous benefits from the multibillion euro Gotthard Base Tunnel through the heart of the Swiss Alps, which will be used by freight and passenger trains to travel to and from Italy later this year.

The tunnel, which is over 57 kilometers long, cost more than $12 billion and took 17 years to complete. Leading European political figures such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande, preoccupied with the continuing headaches of terrorism, the refugee influx and economic stagnation, took time out to celebrate the engineering miracle with Swiss leaders that day.

In Europe, transforming such an engineering feat from a grand vision idea into reality is not easy, as various constraints, ranging from complicated environmental impact assessments to the conflicting interests of different parties and laborious approval procedures have to be overcome.

Even smaller projects face hurdles.

In 2010, the local authority in Stutgartt, Germany, decided to invest about 6 billion euros ($6.78 billion) to revive its main train station area into a business hub, but the plan failed to go ahead when more than half the local population voted against it in a referendum.
Xi eyes key exchanges with Obama President urges US to boost policy coordination at G20 Updated: 2016-06-08 11:52 By Hu Yongqi, An Baijie in Beijing and Chen Weihua in Washington(China Daily USA)

President Xi Jinping meets with US Secretary of State John Kerry. Feng Yongbin / China Daily

President Xi Jinping said on Tuesday that he expects to exchange views on key issues with his United States counterpart Barack Obama during the G20 summit in China in September.

Xi also called on the US to strengthen macroeconomic-policy coordination with China to inject confidence and a new impetus into the world economy during the summit in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province.

He made the appeal at a meeting with the US delegation to the annual China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Beijing, which ended on Tuesday.

At the two-day event - the highest-level formal dialogue between the world's top two economies - more than 100 agreements and deals were signed in strategic areas and more than 60 in economic sectors.

Xi urged the two governments to ensure the achievements produce quick results to benefit the two peoples.

He said that there are many things that China and the US can work together on, and both nations should do more for the good of Sino-US cooperation.

The president added that the two countries could enhance cooperation in areas including trade, clean energy and environmental protection.

"In terms of the disagreements that exist between China and the US, the key is to respect each other's core interests and important concerns," Xi said, adding that the two nations should control their disputes constructively.

Premier Li Keqiang, who also met with US representatives, said China is willing to promote a continuous, healthy and stable bilateral relationship with the US by strengthening strategic mutual trust, expanding channels for cooperation, promoting people-to-people exchanges and managing differences constructively.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said that this round of the dialogue is the last one for the Obama administration, and it has special significance.

"The US-China relationship is absolutely vital - it may well be the most consequential bilateral relationship for nations in the world," Kerry said. He said that the strategic and economic dialogue is an essential mechanism for both countries to manage differences and expand cooperation.

"This was a difficult year to get big outcomes, but still there were some good outcomes," said David Dollar, a senior fellow at the John L. Thornton China Center of the Brookings Institution.

He said that the expanded quotas for US investors to bring offshore yuan into China for investment are positive, as was the decision to move ahead with yuan-clearing in the US.

"China's commitment to bring a revised negative-list proposal on a Bilateral Investment Treaty next week is positive, and it will be interesting to see if it is a good offer that can jump-start those talks," said Dollar, a US Treasury Department economic and financial emissary to China from 2009 to 2013.

"The language of the press releases stressed opportunities for cooperation, and that was gratifying," said Ted Carpenter, a senior fellow of defense and foreign policy at the Cato Institute.

Carpenter believes that there should be more meaningful discussion of the South Sea issue. "Those are diplomatically delicate matters, but the disagreements aren't going to go away simply because the two sides prefer to avoid a candid discussion," he said.

He also believes that there should be more attention to the vital bilateral trade relationship. "Given the worrisome political trends in the US, one would have thought that both sides would have wanted to assign high priority to that issue in this session of the S&ED," said Carpenter, clearly referring to the strong anti-trade rhetoric on the US presidential campaigns.

Zhiqun Zhu, associate professor of political science and international relations, and John D. MacArthur, chair of East Asia politics at Bucknell University in the US, said that the dialogue contributes to the growing maturity of the relationship and sets the basic tone for cooperation.

Contact the writer at anbaijie@chinadaily.com.cn
Agreement aims to boost heart attack care Updated: 2016-06-08 11:52 By By Paul Welitzkin in New York(China Daily USA)

Heart associations team up to improve aid to victims in China

Heart attacks in China killed 3.7 people per 100,000 in 2001, and the number of deaths increased to 15.8 per 100,000 in 2011. To lower that death rate, the American Heart Association and the Chinese Society of Cardiology announced that they will develop an emergency medical system and a hospital-based program to improve the care for heart attack victims in the country.

The announcement, made on Monday, came amid high-level talks between the two countries during the US-China High-Level Consultation on People-to-People Exchange in Beijing. It also comes a year after an agreement between the Chinese government and the American Heart Association (AHA) to advance cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training and cardiovascular science in China.

Heart disease, which can lead to heart attack and a stroke, is becoming a major health concern in China and the rest of the developing world, according to Dr Sidney Smith, professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina and a former president of the AHA.

"Heart attacks accounted for 3.7 deaths per 100,000 people in China in 2001," he told China Daily in an interview from Beijing. "That increased to 15.8 deaths per 100,000 in 2011."

More than 2 million Chinese suffer a stroke every year, noted Smith. The World Health Organization (WHO) said about 230 million in China suffer from cardiovascular disease. The WHO also said cardiovascular events like a heart attack are predicted to increase by 50 percent between 2010 and 2030 based on population aging and growth in China.

Smith said this agreement will enable China to learn about the best practices in the US that played an important role in reducing deaths from cardiovascular disease by 39 percent during a 10-year period starting in 2001.

Smith said China will learn that when cardiac arrest occurs, seconds count and immediate use of CPR can double or triple a victim's chance of survival.

"We believe this agreement will enable over 100 million Chinese to learn how to perform CPR," said Smith. "This agreement is filled with many opportunities for China to learn about best practices when it comes to not only treating heart disease but also in preventing it," he added.

The AHA and China's cardiology society will implement a system of quality-care improvements for heart attack victims.

Hospital networks and emergency-medical systems in Tianjin, Suzhou, Beijing and Shanghai will be part of the initial collaborative that will collect, share and report back on data regarding intervention designs, new and revised protocols, and implementation strategies.

paulwelitzkin@chinadailyusa.com

)
China and US successfully wrap up 8th S&ED, look back at ties Updated: 2016-06-09 02:14 (Xinhua)

BEIJING -- The eighth China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) concluded Tuesday with fruitful results. Despite ups and downs in bilateral ties, the two countries have tried to seek common ground through such dialogues and promoted the establishment of a new model of major power relations.

Here is what Ma Xiaolin, an observer based in Beijing, has said of the development of China-US relations throughout the eight years.

-- As the world's biggest developed country and the biggest developing country, the United States and China respectively have witnessed a unique course of interactions between them: Competition and cooperation have existed side by side, conflicts often ended with compromises from both sides, and both stuck to their own opinions while effectively navigating risks and crises.

-- In today's world of multi-polarizing and power-reshuffling, the handling of China-US relations will go beyond various existing theoretical frameworks of international relations, and even break the general pattern of the distribution and transfer of power.

-- Despite the significant advance in economic aggregate, military power and global standing, China remains a developing country which is learning how to behave like a rising star. It has neither the capability to replace the United States, nor the desire to be the "world police." That's why China has repeatedly stressed that it sticks to maintaining the existing structure of international relations and global security order, and is also pleased to see the United States playing its role in the Asia Pacific. Such self-positioning and recognition between the two sides are key factors that maintain the stability of bilateral ties.

-- The United States has said it welcomes China's peaceful rise while repeatedly stressing its own role of world leader. Meanwhile, China has tried to adapt to the existing global governance system while proposing to improve the global political and economic order. Such interdependency and compromise have increased China's engagement in international affairs and given it greater say and influence.

-- On the South China Sea issue, despite military presence from both sides, China and the United States have effectively managed crises and avoided -- as some observers predicted -- any military confrontation. This proves that the two sides stick to the strategic bottom line and safeguard maritime safety, which shows stable and mature bilateral ties.

-- The United States has attempted to call upon its Asian allies to confront China on the South China Sea issue, but those countries were caught in a dilemma: They rely on the safety net provided by the United States, while also needing economic cooperation with China. The situation made them hesitate to act against China, thus eliminating on a large scale any pressure from the United States.

-- A "new normal" has been formed in China-US relations: seeking harmony in differences, sometimes quarreling but never starting wars, gaining mutual understanding in stalemates and broadening consensus in divergences. This will long exist in the development path of China-US ties.
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HA NOI  The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) will, in June, inspect the Viet Nam Chemical Group (Vinachem) and Ninh Binh Fertiliser Plant, a member company of Vinachem.

Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh made this announcement at the ministrys online meeting on June 6 in Ha Noi.

The Ninh Binh Nitrogenous Fertiliser Plant has faced numerous difficulties in technology with regard to production of nitrogenous fertiliser from coal and consumption of fertilisers, according to the ministry.

Therefore, the minister asked the ministrys Chemical Department and Vinachem to review the efficiency of the Ninh Binh and Ha Bac nitrogenous fertiliser plants to understand the production and business of nitrogenous fertiliser and chemical plants nationwide with an eye on the future, vietnamplus.vn reported.

Tuan Anh said the Ninh Binh fertiliser plant has completed the planned investment but until now has not made a final decision on its investment activities. That has affected the production and business plans of Vinachem. So, the ministrys inspectors together with the department should conduct an early inspection of the Ninh Binh nitrogenous plant.

Thereafter, the ministry will conduct an orientation on the development of the Ninh Binh fertiliser plant as well as other nitrogenous fertiliser plants in future based on the findings of the inspection at the plant and Vinachem.

For stability on the local market, Tuan Anh said the department and Vinachem must work with the Market Watch Department in its fight against smuggling and trade fraud for fertiliser and chemical products.

The Chemical Department should also work with the Science and Technology Department to promote building of standards on inspections and granting of investment licences for fertiliser projects, he said.

The Ninh Binh nitrogenous fertiliser plant could soon shut down due to its huge losses, according to the Viet Nam Chemical Group (Vinachem).

In June 1, Chu Van Tuan, Vinachem deputy general director, said the group could stop operations of the Ninh Binh nitrogenous fertiliser plant because disadvantageous weather conditions have affected agricultural production which led to lower demand for fertilisers, including nitrogenous fertilisers.

In addition, farmers in the north mainly use phosphate fertilisers so nitrogenous fertiliser consumption has faced numerous difficulties, he said. In 2015, two Ninh Binh and Bac Giang nitrogenous fertiliser plants had an inventory of 180,000 tonnes and 70,000 tonnes of fertiliser, respectively, reported tienphong.vn.

To deal with that situation, Vinachem directed the two plants to restructure production and business to suit the demand of the local market and production ability in them, so that the two plants could each have an inventory of 20,000 tonnes to 30,000 tonnes of fertiliser, Tuan said.

The plants construction was kicked off in May 2008 in Ninh Binhs Khanh Phu industrial zone and came into operation in 2012, 42 months after construction began.

In the nearly four years since then, the plant has been continuously operating at a deficit, accumulating altogether over VND2 trillion (US$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.

Vu Van Nhan, general director of Ninh Binh nitrogenous fertiliser plant, said the plant was forced to call a temporary halt to its operations in late March, but Vinachem decided against opening the plants gates again. The company temporarily laid off 400 of its 1,100 workers, paying the monthly unemployment allowance of VND3.1 million to each worker.

By May 25, the plant had 19,200 tonnes of fertiliser in stock, he said. In June 1, the management met workers to discuss resumption of operations. The plant was expected to resume operations a week later.

However, Nhan said after restarting, the plant still faced many difficulties, including lack of workers, as some of them had moved to other businesses, and higher accumulated losses. According to the plants report, its accumulated losses reached VND1.99 trillion in 2015.

The plant suffered huge losses because nitrogenous fertiliser price dropped on the world market when faced with a situation of excess supply, Tuan said. Also, since the plant was a new business it did not have experience in marketing activities and sold fertilisers at prices lower than those of Chinese fertiliser products. That selling price was lower than the production cost.

Thereafter, Vinachem proposed 11 plans for the plant to the government and the Ministry of Industry and Trade, including one of closure. If the Ninh Binh fertiliser plant closes, it would have to spend VND1 trillion per year towards repaying its debts.  VNS

 VNS
Bo Xuan Hiep

ONG THAP  Catfish breeders, processors and exporters in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta are under pressure to meet the stricter standards on food hygiene and safety under new US regulations.

Truong inh Hoe, general secretary of the Viet Nam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), has told exporters to work closely with consultants and Vietnamese agencies to meet US inspections on catfish exports.

The US is the leading export market for Vietnamese catfish.

Exporters of catfish and other Siluriformes fish have been struggling with the US Department of Agricultures (USDA) Final Rule, which took effect in March to regulate locally raised and imported Siluriformes fish.

Under the rule, an 18-month transitional implementation period is applied to both domestic and international catfish producers.

Vo Hung Dung, deputy chairman and general secretary of the Viet Nam Pangasius Association, said the rule could cause enterprises to lose the US catfish market, which accounts for more than 20 per cent of Vietnamese catfish exports.

The challenge for enterprises is significant as the new inspections are viewed by industry insiders in Viet Nam as a way of limiting catfish exports.

Nguyen Ngo Vi Tam, CEO of Vinh Hoan Corporation, one of the leading exporters of catfish to the US, said Vinh Hoan was one of a handful of pioneering local companies that applied an integrated production chain, ranging from breeding, farming, processing and export.

Only three Vietnamese catfish companies export to the US, with Vinh Hoan accounting for 45 per cent of the market share, according to Tam.

The company owns more than 450 hectares of breeding ponds and can manage 60 per cent of raw material needs for processing and exporting. It has 6,000 workers that meet labour law requirements.

Our standards ensure food safety and traceability without causing an adverse impact on the environment, Tam said.

The companys catfish export turnover totalled US$112 million in the first five months of the year, up nearly 10 per cent over the same period last year.

Last month, the company reached a record-high turnover with export valued at $28.5 million, a rise of 48 per cent over the same period last year.

In 2014, Vinh Hoan received BAP (Best Aquaculture Practices) Certification from GAA (Global Aquaculture Alliance) for its entire production chain.

To better prepare for US inspections and other trade barriers, the company this year plans to enhance marketing and improve sales staff in an aim to seek new export markets.

The company has maintained high market shares from between 20 and 30 per cent in traditional markets like the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, Canada and Australia.

In the first five months of the year, the company achieved positive export growth in China and Japan.

We aim to increase the supply directly to large supermarkets instead of traditional import and distribution channels in importing countries, Tam said.

However, although many processors and exporters now have their own farms and invest in advanced technologies, it is still difficult to meet all the standards and requirements imposed by importers, according to VASEP.

Import standards

Exporters face a wide variety of requirements.

For example, for the US retail market, the common standard is ACC (Aquaculture Certification Council) while the retail market of the EU requires Global GAP and ASC (Aquaculture Stewardship Council).

In a related issue, the National Agro-Forestry-Fisheries Quality Assurance Department (NAFIQAD) has asked Siluriformes fish processors and exporters to tighten management of raw materials, especially chemical and antibiotic content.

The order follows a warning by the US agency FSIS regarding two batches of catfish from two Vietnamese exporters.

The US Senate recently decided to scrap the US Department of Agricultures new catfish inspection programme because critics had argued it was wasteful and unnecessary.

However, the Senate decision still needs the House of Representativesapproval and President Barack Obamas signature to take effect.

Tam of Vinh Hoan Corporation said: I think this is good news, and it promotes free trade in the US market. But exporters and breeders should try to continue to improve food hygiene and safety standards of aquatic products to improve export quality.

Regarding the warning from the US on two catfish batches sent by two Vietnamese exporters, Tam said the Government should tighten supervision of the quality of catfish exports to ensure a good reputation for Vietnamese exports.

Dr. Nguyen Viet Thang, chairman of the Viet Nam Pangasius Association, said the US warning had its benefits.

I cannot confirm whether the repeal of the catfish inspection programme will be a good thing for us, he said.

The biggest problem now is the anti-dumping duty imposed by the US on Vietnamese catfish, according to Thang.

Though the new regulations could pose problems for exporters, it is also beneficial in that it can force breeders and exporters to improve the quality of the exports.

Experts say that Vietnamese exporters, instead of lowering prices, should focus on producing clean fish to prevent further anti-dumping duties.

Total export value of Vietnamese tra fish to the US had a year-on-year increase of 7.2 per cent to US$115.1 million, according to VASEP.

Viet Nams catfish exports are estimated to reach $1.5 billion this year, down 5 per cent from last year.

The anti-dumping tax, the US catfish inspection programme and competition with white-flesh fish have been blamed for the decline in catfish exports, according to VASEP.

Catfish is popular in the US, with the market dominated by local producers mostly from southern states such as Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana and Alabama.

In recent years, US catfish producers have faced pressure from cheaper imported Asian fish.  VNS
Deputy Prime Minister Vuong inh Hue delivers speech at an international seminar held in HCM City yesterday.  Photo bizlive.vn

HCM CITY  The Government aims to have one million businesses by 2020, up from the current 500,000, and will offer assistance in the early stage of startups, Deputy Prime Minister Vuong inh Hue said at an international seminar held in HCM City yesterday.

I heard that building a stock exchange for startups would take up to five years, but I want to do that in two to three years, if possible, he said.

Hue said that HCM City could be a pioneer in helping the Government attract private funds for investment and building a framework to develop a stock exchange dedicated to startups.

More than 250 delegates, including Government officials, policymakers, representatives of local and foreign financial organisations, and economic experts gathered at the seminar in HCM City to discuss capital markets for startups.

Startups have developed strongly amid the young generation in the country, said Vu Viet Ngoan, chairman of the National Financial Supervisory Commission.

Startup companies with innovative and groundbreaking technologies are an important factor contributing to the transformation of the countrys economic growth, he said.

The Government has introduced new initiatives to support a startup ecosystem in Viet Nam, which would create a legal framework for startups to realize innovative ideas, he said.

In countries that are considered startup nations, such as Israel, the US, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and others, there is always a good ecosystem for startups, he said.

Hue said that international experience shows that a good start-up ecosystem must consist of four factors: a favourable legal framework, innovative startups, active participation of investors and investment funds, and conditions and institutions to support startup activities.

"Viet Nam is in the early stages of establishing a startup ecosystem, and the biggest challenge is fundraising in the incubation as well as the acceleration period," he said.

Thach Le Anh, CEO of Viet Nam Silicon Valley project initiated by the Ministry of Science and Technology, said that traditional capital raising channels were relatives and family, venture capital funds, banks, stock exchanges and State and non-governmental funds.

But with banks banned from losing depositors savings, startups, which involve risks, found it more difficult to get bank loans, especially in the seed funding stage, she said.

Non-traditional channels to raise capital such as the Angle Investor and Business Accelerator are popular in some countries but not well-developed in Viet Nam.

In general, Viet Nam lacks seed-fund investors who typically make investments ranging from US$10,000 to $500,000, while most startups in Viet Nam are still at this stage.

Stock exchange for startups

At the conference, international experts exchanged ideas on developing capital markets for startups.

For instance, Jeong Eun Bo, vice chairman of the Financial Services Commission of Korea, said that to develop a capital market for startups, the Korean Government began crowdfunding and launched both venture capital funds and a stock exchange dedicated to startups called KONEX in 2013.

After crowdfunding was introduced last January in South Korea, 43 startup companies raised $5.7 million through eight online intermediaries approved by Financial Services Commission, said Taehyun NOH, director general of the KONEX Market.

Delegates said the Korean governments co-investment in private venture capital funds and tax exemptions on selling shares had encouraged mergers and acquisitions. This helped create liquidity for investors and venture capital funds.

According to Anh in all countries with a developed startup ecosystem, governments participate both as policymakers and fund investors.

If Viet Nam wants to focus on developing startups as an economic leverage, the Government must begin direct investment to stimulate growth in numbers and quality, especially in the early stages. This will encourage the private sector to follow suit.

Setting up a trading platform exclusively for startups will open up more funding opportunities, link buyers and sellers, and create a channel for investors to withdraw their investments, especially small angel investors.  VNS
A view of land assigned to the Steel project in Quang Ngai Province.  Photo nhandan.com.vn

HA NOI  Authorities of the central Quang Ngai Province proposed shutting down the Guang Lian Dung Quat steel project, after inspecting project operations.

On June 6, the provincial Peoples Committee announced its conclusions from its inspection of the use and management of land assigned to the steel project, as well as from it reveiw of the process of developing the project, which has acquired total capital of US$4.5 billion.

The committee said all conditions to propose ending project operations had been met. It also said the stop order should go into effect this month, noting it had forwarded its proposal to the ministries and the central administration to gain the approval of the government, Tien phong newspaper reported.

At present, Guang Lian has not agreed to the proposal and has officially refuted the conclusions of the public inspection.

According to the investment agency, the Guang Lian Dung Quat steel project received an investment license in 2006. The project is located in Dung Quat Economic Zone, Quang Ngai Province, and received initial investment capital of $556 million from the Tycoons Group of Taiwan.

After many adjustments in scale and design capacity, in 2008 Tycoons cooperated with E-United Company from Taiwan to increase the projects capital to $4.5 billion and the annual capacity to 7 million tonnes of steel - 5 million tonnes higher than its initial capacity.

To create favourable conditions for the project, the management board of the Dung Quat Economic Zone cleared the site, providing 337ha of land.

In July 2015, Guang Lian notified provincial authorities it could not secure funding for the project, stalling operations from mid-2014 to date. By September 2014, the investor had given $42 million to the project and provincial authorities had advanced the company VN175 billion for the clearance of project land.

The Peoples Committee held many meetings to discuss ending the project, before proposing a revocation of the provided land and liquidation of project assets to avoid wasting the land.

The proposal was made by Quang Ngai authorities after the investor held onto the land for a decade and had little investment capital to contribute to the projects development.  VNS
COPENHAGEN  Viet Nam has proposed establishing a mechanism for investment promotion and enhancing co-operation between the State and private sector to boost green growth across the world.

The proposal was submitted by Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Tran Hong Ha, leading the Vietnamese delegation at the two-day Global Green Growth Forum (3GF) 2016 Summit, which ended yesterday in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Ha also suggested the forum should issue detailed instructions on setting up green growth projects and seeking investment sources for city administration and the business community of member states, in compliance with international standards for financial institutions.

Sharing information related to co-ordination mechanisms under the 3GF framework and experience with running green growth projects should be encouraged, he said.

In his speech, Ha stressed that Viet Nam was committed to being an active member of the forum, working with other member States to execute initiatives chosen by the forum, and providing favourable conditions for Vietnamese ministries and businesses to join the forum.

The Vietnamese delegation attending the forum this year includes representatives of the ministries of Foreign Affairs, Planning and Investment, and Construction; the Viet Nam Chamber Commerce; and several representatives of businesses working in the recycled energy sector.

At the invitation of the prime minister of Denmark, the 3GF 2016 Summit engaged some 250 leaders from governments, corporations, international organisations and civil societies from around the world.

3GF was initiated by the Danish government in 2011 in collaboration with the Republic of Korea and Mexico. The aim of the 3GF Summit is to provide a forum to accompany and accelerate delivery of a sub-set of the Sustainable Development Goals through transformational public-private partnerships.

Discussions at the 3GF 2016 Summit, themed A call to action, demonstrated how 3GFs partnerships are crucial in the delivery of solutions for a greener future. Sessions focused on cities as drivers of green growth, the importance of establishing the right framework for promoting sustainable lifestyles, making sustainable production and consumption a reality, and financing the green transformation. The topics addressed during the summit cover cities, energy, water and food, as well as land use, the circular economy and other elements related to sustainable value chains. VNS
STRASBOURG  More than 10,000 people have died crossing the Mediterranean to Europe since 2014, the UN said on Tuesday, as the EU unveiled fresh plans to stem the migrant flow from Africa.

Following a rash of deadly shipwrecks in recent weeks which claimed the lives of hundreds of people, the UN refugee agency said the number of deaths at sea had risen sharply this year, with a record 2,814 people drowning since January.

And over the past few days, the overall number who have died since the start of 2014 has reached 10,085, the UNHCR said on Tuesday.

With Europe in the grip of its worst migrant crisis since World War II, the rising death toll has prompted urgent efforts to tackle the problem, with Brussels seeking ways to clamp down on the Africa route from after a deal with Ankara in March slashed numbers trying to cross from Turkey.

"We cannot tolerate the loss of life on this scale, we need to do everything to stop it," European Commission vice-president Frans Timmermans said as he unveiled the plans.

The new proposal involves using EU funds to promote private investment of up to 60 billion euros in key countries of origin for migrants, namely Ethiopia, Niger, Nigeria, Mali and Senegal, as well as Jordan and Lebanon, Timmermans said.

Eight billion euros of EU funds are available to support migration deals with external countries, many of which were first mooted at a crisis summit of European and African nations in Malta last year.

The Commission also wants to speed up readmission deals with African countries and with Pakistan and Afghanistan to make it easier to send back migrants who do not win refugee status.

"There will be consequences for those that refuse to cooperate," Dutchman Timmermans told the European Parliament alongside EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.

The European Commission was later to unveil a plan for a "blue card" system for skilled migrants to come to Europe legally.

The aim is to reduce the incentive for people to try to smuggle themselves into the continent illegally on flimsy boats and put their lives at risk.

"If we ever want to compete with the US Green Card, we need an EU Blue Card that deserves the same merit," Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said.

Breaking down the figures, the UN said a total of 3,771 had died at sea in 2015 and 3,500 the year earlier, plus this years deaths.

Appalling number of deaths

"Youve now had since the start of 2014 - when this phenomenon of rising numbers across the Mediterranean happened - 10,000 deaths," UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards said.

"This is clearly an appalling number of deaths that have occurred in the Mediterranean, just on Europes borders just in the past couple of years," Edwards said.

More than one million migrants and refugees made the journey to Europe in 2015, the majority fleeing war in Syria and the Middle East, and a further 204,000 have come since January, the UNHCR says.

The vast majority have died on crossings between Libya and Italy, as a controversial March deal between the EU and Turkey designed to halt the flow of largely Syrian migrants using the popular Aegean route has led to a sharp drop in arrivals.

The EUs top court meanwhile ruled that countries cannot imprison illegal migrants just for crossing borders in the Schengen passport-free area, in a new blow to efforts to crack down on the crisis.

The ruling came in the case of a Ghanaian woman, Selina Affum, who was jailed by French police at the Channel Tunnel while on a bus from Belgium to Britain using someone elses passport.

The Schengen passport-free area of 26 European countries has come under severe pressure from the migration crisis, with many countries bringing back border controls that were dismantled a decade ago.  AFP
Tran Viet Thai, PhD from the Viet Nam Diplomatic Academy spoke to the newspaper Nong Thon Ngay Nay (Countryside Today) about the situation in the East Sea following the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore last week.

The 15th Shangri-La Dialogue: Asia Security Summit in Singapore ended on June 5th after a three day meeting. In your opinion, what were the most important points discussed at the dialogue?

The 15th Shangri-La Dialogue this year took place in a complicated context with more acute challenges arising from four main issues. They are the East Sea dispute; missile tests in North Korea; the fight against IS; and acute non-traditional challenges - on immigration and climate change.

How do you evaluate the discussion on the East Sea in the Shangri-La Dialogue?

The discussion on the East Sea this year took place at the time when China is stepping up its sea patrols in the area and constructing military bases on small islands. In addition, China has issued several declarations that it does not recognise the verdict to be handed down by the UN Arbitration Court on Chinas dispute with the Philippines.

What I should mention here is that the Sino-US dispute around the East Sea issue this year was not as acute as at last years dialogue. In my opinion, China had adopted an active policy and prepared well for the event. Many delegates attending the dialogue were surprised at the modest and courteous attitude adopted by the Chinese delegation at the meeting, particularly Admiral Sun Jianguo, the deputy chief of the Joint Staff Department of Chinas Central Military Commission and head of the Chinese delegation.

In your opinion, what was the most notable success achieved at the Shangri-La 15th?

In my opinion, the most notable success of the Shangri-La 15th was the consensus reached by all participants on important topics raised at the three day meeting.

In his address, Nguyen Chi Vinh, Colonel General and Deputy Minister of Defense who was the head of the Vietnamese delegation sent a very strong and clear message from Viet Nam concerning the East Sea issue. He laid stress on the importance that all nations should co-operate in settling any disputes and preventing conflicts that may arise in the East Sea.

Viet Nams message conformed to the norms of international law while China was trying to avoid talking about international law.

How do you respond to Washingtons message presented at the Shangri-La Dialogue?

In his address, US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter said Chinas 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.

In his address, Secretary Carter twice repeated the principled security network, do you think the repetition is a reflection of Washingtons tough stand against China?

I dont think that was the key message the US wants to convey to Beijing. The key purpose was to build a security network basing on common principles  that is collective security.

Carter called on all countries in the Asia-Pacific region to join efforts to build a security network based on the principles of bilateral and multi-lateral relationships.

In your opinion, how will Shangri - La 15th affect the situation in the East Sea?

I think the situation in the East Sea will be more complicated than it was before the Shangri- La Dialogue. Prior to this event, the G7 Conference also issued a statement on the East Sea. This is evidence that the East Sea issue has become a global issue. At Shangri-La 15th, France asked countries to conduct joint patrols and show their respect for the international courts jurisdiction.

Also at Shangri-La 15, Defense Ministers from the USA, the UK, France, Canada and India called on China to respect international law and practice.

The East Sea is not only an issue of national and maritime safety but other issues relating to international law. Thats why it is time for ASEAN to seize the opportunity and take control of the situation._VNS
National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan receives the World Bank (WB)s Vice President for East Asia and the Pacific, Victoria Kwakwa yesterday.  VNA/VNS Photo

HA NOI  National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan has asked for the World Banks support in policy consultations and called for further funding to help stabilise Viet Nams economy.

The NA leader made the call yesterday at a Ha Noi reception for the World Bank (WB)s Vice President for East Asia and the Pacific, Victoria Kwakwa, who was previously the WBs Country Director for Viet Nam.

The WB has backed Viet Nam in building a roadmap to phase out preferential loans from the International Development Association (IDA) in order to protect and improve the countrys achievements, Ngan noted, adding that the National Assembly as the highest organ of state power is monitoring the efficient use of loans, especially IDA funding.

She hailed the Viet Nam 2035 Report  a joint undertaking by experts from Viet Nam and the WB Viet Nam, saying it puts forth long-term orientations to help Viet Nam become an industrialised nation and promote comprehensive reforms of the countrys market economy.

The Vietnamese official congratulated her guest on her new position as the WBs Vice President for East Asia and the Pacific and voiced confidence in her continued assistance for national strategic development programmes in regional countries, including Viet Nam.

Ngan also shared with her guest Viet Nams socio-economic development strategy for 2016-20, highlighting the priority being given to stabilising the macro-economy, strengthening the implementation of strategic breakthroughs and restructuring the economy together with renewing the growth model.

Viet Nam still faces a host of difficulties in international integration and economic development, especially in dealing with the critical impacts of climate change and rising sea levels, according to Ngan.

Kwakwa praised the efficient cooperation between the World Bank and Viet Nam in the past years and hoped that the National Assembly leader would help promote the relations. VNS
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc receives the special advisor to the Japan-Viet Nam Friendship Parliamentary Alliance, Tsutomu Takebe, in Ha Noi. Photo chinhphu.vn

HA NOI  Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc yesterday said he was pleased to see the development of the strategic partnership between Japan and Viet Nam while receiving the special advisor to the Japan-Viet Nam Friendship Parliamentary Alliance, Tsutomu Takebe, in Ha Noi.

Prime Minister Phuc hailed the continuous efforts made by Takebe towards the two nations relationship in various fields, especially trade co-operation and human resources training.

He also spoke highly of the Japan-Viet Nam Cultural Festival, which is ongoing in Viet Nam, adding that the event would further promote the understanding of the two peoples.

Praising the establishment of the Viet Nam-Japan University in Viet Nam and Takebes contributions to the initiative, he affirmed that Viet Nam would create favourable conditions for the university to start operating this September.

He said he expected that Japan would support Viet Nam in its national development, especially in terms of infrastructure, agricultural production and climate change adaptation.

Takebe said he was doing his utmost to further develop the strong partnership between the two countries and informed the PM about upcoming visits of some Japanese co-operatives to Viet Nam next month to interview their potential trainees.  VNS
Deputy Prime Minister Vuong inh Hue hosted a reception in Ha Noi yesterday for a delegation from the Communist Party of Russia led by Leonid Kalashnikov, who is also First Deputy Chairman of the Russian State Duma Committee on International Affairs. Photo chinhphu.vn

HA NOI  Deputy Prime Minister Vuong inh Hue hosted a reception in Ha Noi yesterday for a delegation from the Communist Party of Russia led by Leonid Kalashnikov, who is also First Deputy Chairman of the Russian State Duma Committee on International Affairs.

The host thanked the Communist Party of Russia for its efforts to boost the comprehensive strategic partnership between Vietnam and Russia over the past many years.

He informed his guest about the outcomes of the 12th National Party Congress and major orientations to the countrys development.

Hue said Viet nam would continue pursuing its policy of independence, self-reliance, peace, multilateralisation and diversification of ties, extending mutually-beneficial partnerships with countries worldwide, adding that the Party, State and Government of Viet Nam always treasure and prioritise the development of the comprehensive strategic partnership with Russia.

Once the signed agreement between Vietnam and the Customs Alliance of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan takes effect, Vietnam and Russia should further increase trade as Vietnam is an important gateway to ASEAN markets, he suggested.

Kalashnikov, for his part, said Russia valued the development of the comprehensive strategic partnership with Vietnam, considering the country a top partner in Southeast Asia. VNS

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Illustrative Image

The law allows for firing workers under certain circumstances. These are the dos and donts

According to current labor regulations, enterprises can implement labour cuts in the following cases:

1. Change in structure and technology, which impacts jobs or leads to the risk of two or more employees losing their jobs. The enterprise is entitled to retrench the employees - in other words, to lay them off - provided it is still unable to find new positions for them after formulating and implementing employment plans.

Change in structure and technology includes change in organisational structure, change in products or product structure and change in processes, technology, machinery, manufacturing equipment and trading.

2. Due to economic reasons, many employees are at risk of losing their jobs and are forced to resign. Enterprises must develop and implement plans in accordance with the provisions of the law. Economic reasons are defined as a crisis or recession, implementation of State policy in restructuring the economy or implementation of international commitments.

Obligations of enterprises

Enterprises must prepare employment plans that include the following:

o List and number of the employees who will remain employed and those to be retrained in order to keep their jobs.

o List and number of employees to be retired.

o List and number of employees to be transferred to part-time work and of those to be dismissed.

o Calculation of financial resources to ensure implementation of the plan.

Preparation of the employment plan requires the participation of organisations representing local labor unions.

Employment plans, prepared in strict accordance with legal procedures, will play a very important role in resolving disputes between the employees and the employers. Courts will base their decisions on the employment plans to identify violations of labour regulations by enterprises implementing labour cuts.

Employees who have lost their jobs after one years consecutive work or longer, must be given severance pay.

Enterprises can only cut the number of employees by two or more after discussing it with the representatives of the local labor union and filing a written notice with provincial labour authorities 30 days prior to the termination.

The written notice to the provincial labour authority should include the following:

o Name and address of the enterprise and legal representatives of the enterprise;

o Total number of employees and number to be retrenched;

o Reasons and date of retrenchment;

o Expected expenses to pay for the severance allowance.

Within seven working days of the labor contract termination, both parties must pay the full amounts owed. Under special circumstances, the term may be extended for up to 30 days. Enterprises should implement the procedure of social insurance reductions and completing the social insurance books for the employees.  PLF LAW FIRM
HCM City  HCM Citys new administration has ordered a careful review of the city master plan and amend everything that is impracticable to ensure peoples lives are not affected by bad planning.

The Party Committee and Peoples Committee have instructed all relevant departments to assess all approved projects and make changes or cancel those that are infeasible or face financial problems.

They have been instructed to focus on master plans for green spaces and parks, public works, roadwork, and technical infrastructure.

Most of these works were approved a long time ago, but without their financial sources or deadlines identified,the Sai Gon Giai Phong (Liberated Sai Gon) newspaper quoted Nguyen Thanh Toan, deputy director of the city Planning and Architecture Department, as saying.

Relevant authorities would also evaluate financial sources to consider the feasibility of projects, he said.

A project might be adjusted or even cancelled to suit the current situation.

Many of the projects in the master plan have remained unfinished for dozens of years because of weak investors.

The Governments desire is to make a master plan that would create better living conditions with full technical and social infrastructure for the public, Toan said.

To safeguard the rights of people living in zoned areas, he sought support policies from central and local authorities.

If the rights of people living in [these] areas match those of others outside, there will be no more complaints.

The Planning and Architecture Department will send staff to work with local district authorities and all works will be finished by the end of July.

All projects with detailed, 1/2000 master plans that have stalled for over five years and with 1/500 plans for over three years would be reviewed, he said.

The review is also mandated by the Urban Master Planning Law, which says master plans must be reviewed to ensure they are appropriate for the contemporary situation.

The department plans to invite investors for 10 zoned areas along the Sai Gon River.  VNS
HCM City has sought complete autonomy over its educational system, listing several things it wants to do at a meeting with Minister for Education and Training Phung Xuan Nha yesterday. Photo thanhnien.vn

HCM CITY  HCM City has sought complete autonomy over its educational system, listing several things it wants to do at a meeting with Minister for Education and Training Phung Xuan Nha yesterday.

The director of the citys Department of Training and Investment, Le Hong Son, said the ministry should allow the city to create its own curricula and textbooks based on the national curriculum and appropriate for the citys development.

State-run colleges and vocational schools should be made autonomous so that they can make decisions related to their curriculum, import of advanced training programmes from other countries, and tuition fees and enrollment targets, he said.

Son asked for a merger of vocational education management agencies, which are now managed by two departments: education and training and labour, invalids and social affairs.

The Ministry of Education and Training should issue directives to school teachers to work at community education centres in HCM City, Son said.

HCM Citys proposal to ensure a minimum space of two square metres for each student at the general education level should be seriously considered by the education ministry, he said.

The city wants the legal framework to manage foreign-owned schools and overseas study consulting centres to be strengthened.

The rising population has led to an increase in enrolment in the citys schools, with authorities reporting an a increase of 65,000 students a year, rising to 85,000 last year.

Nearly 3,000 new classrooms are needed now.

inh La Thang, Secretary of the HCM City Party Committee, told the meeting that if the system succeeds in HCM City, a large city with a population of 13 million, it would also be successful in other places.

HCM Citys education system must be in the vanguard of the integration process, the Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper quoted him as saying.

"The country is integrating and its education system must adapt to the norms and laws of the market economy," he said.

Private tuitions, private lessons must be eliminated.

Though they do not offer private tuitions, international schools have trained talented students. Despite high tuition fees, these international schools manage big enrollments.

Nguyen Thanh Phong, Chairman of the city Peoples Committee, said planning for development of the education system must factor in global integration and infrastructure should be of international standard.

Education minister Nha said loopholes in the educational system were the major reason for the problems it faces.

HCM City should draft a master plan for its education system with all the problems it faces for until 2020, he said.

We have supported the plan to relocate HCM Citys universities to suburban districts, the minister added.  VNS
HA NOI  Calculating the cost and choosing the investors and contractors for BOT projects must be transparent, Deputy Prime Minister Trinh inh Dung said yesterday.

Speaking at a meeting to review transport investment in the form of build-operate-transfer (BOT) and build-transfer (BT), the deputy PM said that defining exactly the cost of BOT and BT projects will have the support of the people.

The deputy PM also said the public had recently expressed concern over the shortcomings of BOT and BT projects, such as high tolls and unplanned toll stations on national highways.

Transport Minister Truong Quang Nghia reported at the meeting that between 2011 and 2015, VN186 trillion (US$8.33 billion) was mobilized in private investment, accounting for 42 per cent of total investment in 62 BOT and BT transport infrastructure projects.

So far, 26 projects with a total investment of VN74.8 trillion (US$3.35 billion) have been put into operation and another 36 with an investment of VN111.8 trillion ($5 billion) have been completed, Nghia told the meeting.

The operation of infastructure transport projects has brought meaningful economic value, meeting the increasing transport demand, contributing to reduction of traffic congestion and accidents as well as promoting regional economic delopment," said the minister.

According to the minister, the World Economic Forum (WEF) ranked the efficiency and quality of Viet Nams transportation infrastructure in 2014 in 74th place among 138 countries, compared to 90 in 2012 and 103 in 2010.

Many who spoke at the meeting said that invesmnent in transport infrastructure projects in the form of Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) was more complicated than traditional investment forms, requiring that all three sides benefit - State, investors and road users.

According to the ministry, one of the biggest concerns of BOT and BT projects was the quality of the works, which is the responsibility of the investors and projectors. Recently, several projects have been found to be of poor quality once they were put into operation.

The ministry has penalised investors on those projects by halting their fees or asked them to pay themselves to fix their construction mistakes.

Such was the case with the National Highway 1 in Vinh City of Central Nghe An Province and Ha Tinh City.

The Ministry of Transport explained to participants of the meeting that the current rate of tolls was in compliance with that set by the Ministry of Finance.

The ministries of Finance and Transport have proposed an increase in tolls but they will seek opinions from other ministries and localities.

At present, there are 88 toll tax stations on national highways, 74 of which are managed by the Transport Ministry and the rest under the control of local Peoples Committees.

Tran inh Thien, director of the Viet Nam Economic Institute, said: the cost of BOT projects in Viet Nam was higher than in other countries, resulting in higher tolls and public dissatisfaction.

Thien suggested that the State should help investors by allowing them to collect tolls for a longer period so as to reduce toll rates.

Nguyen Ngoc Bao, vice head of the Central Economic Committee, told the meeting that the State management in the field has exposed some shortcomings, such as lack of a master plan for BOT projects for specific region.

Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyen Nhat said the State Budget has met 11 per cent of the demand and thus the PPP investment model was a necessary solution.

However, its implementation faces many hurdles, such as lack of a legal framework, long-term domestic credit and policies for access to foreign capital.

The Transport Minister suggested that the Government carry out some PPP transport infrastructure projects on a trial basis to help formulate policies and mechanism for this investment model. -- VNS
Europe NV, which is developing a three-wheeled flying car, said it would launch the vehicle in India in two to three years and people in the country can reserve a vehicle from the limited edition now.
DECORAH  Eric Sovern, president of the Decorah Volunteer Firefighters Association, told the Decorah City Council this week a proposed policy forbidding overtime pay for the departments three full-time engineers would delay firefighters response time.

Sovern was among about 24 members of the fire department attending the council meeting Monday. He cited a recent memo from City Manager Chad Bird to Fire Chief Mike Ashbacher stating his responsibility to curb all overtime pay except in emergency situations.

The memo said when its not possible to avoid overtime or go over the budget for relief drivers, the drivers shift should go unstaffed and the Decorah dispatch center will answer incoming calls to the Fire Department.

Volunteer firefighters also would be dispatched by the dispatch center as needed, Bird said.

Any employee failing to follow the above outlined criteria will be subject to disciplinary action up to and including termination, the memo stated.

But Sovern said that does not take into account what actually occurs when the fire department is called to an emergency. The department consists of volunteers in addition to three, full-time paid engineers who work individual 24- hour shifts, maintain the equipment, drive and operate Engine 1 and page the volunteer firefighters to the station when needed.

As a volunteer department, firefighters are naturally delayed in their ability to get to the station, but the fire department still has had response times as low as four minutes from the page for fires and other emergencies within the city, according to Sovern.

Should the page come when the station is unstaffed, we will still do our jobs as we always do, but our response time will be delayed further. Unlocking the doors, finding the address and plotting a route, opening the garage doors and starting trucks  these things seem like they wouldnt take much time. And they dont  any one of them. As an aggregate, however, we will be adding precious minutes to our response, he said.

So far this year, the departments overtime has been $925, and that was largely due to one of the drivers being off work for seven weeks due to an injury, Sovern said.

Bird said there had been multiple instances when overtime was paid and not all were related to an employee being off of work.

Mayor Don Arendt said the issue will be discussed during a council personnel committee meeting following the councils June 20 meeting.
WAVERLY  A state error in counting Black Hawk County results led to incorrect numbers being reported in the Democratic primary race for Iowa House District 63.

Though still unofficial, numbers from the Iowa Secretary of States Office Wednesday look better for Waverly Democrat Teresa Meyer. She leads primary opponent Eric Stromberg of Waverly by 38 votes.

Numbers reported Tuesday night showed Stromberg ahead by 16 votes. House District 63 includes all of Bremer County and northeastern Black Hawk County.

The updated tally makes Mayers margin of victory 3.5 percentage points in the low-turnout race. Meyer has 539 votes to Strombergs 501. Matthew Glen Evans, who dropped out of the race, garnered 29 votes.

But the race is close enough 69 outstanding absentee ballots in the district could still sway the election if they all come in and are postmarked June 6 or earlier.

Both Meyer and Stromberg hesitated to declare victory.

Whatever happens, Im going to continue my work to win in the general election, hopefully, Meyer said Wednesday. But I just want to thank the community for the vote. Its a high honor, and the vote is more valuable than gold itself.

Stromberg said hes still deciding whether the final figures will warrant a recount or if he will concede.

Obviously, were pretty disappointed, Stromberg said. He said he make a decision soon.

Both candidates encouraged supporters to vote early.

Stromberg focused his efforts on Bremer County. According to unofficial results there he led with 478 votes, or 51.3 percent, to Meyers 432 votes, or 46.4 percent.

Meyer led in the seven precincts in Black Hawk County, earning 107 votes to Strombergs 23.

In this district  its not just Waverly  our district is all rural and my roots are in rural Iowa, and I know the concerns of the people in Iowa because I have been actively door-knocking since my last election, Meyer said.

Should she win, Meyer, 57, a registered nurse, will have a rematch with 2014 general election opponent Rep. Sandy Salmon, R-Janesville. Salmon is in her second term.

Stromberg, 42, a substitute teacher, is making his first bid for office.

According to the Secretary of States Office, there was a problem with how the its system was reading data from Black Hawk County. The problem was in formatting, rather than in tabulating.

The error was discovered Wednesday morning during routine verification.

The results will remain unofficial until county canvasses are conducted next week. The Secretary of States Office must certify results by July 5.
SIOUX CITY -- Brushing aside a challenge from a fellow Republican for the first time in his 14-year career, U.S. Rep. Steve King romped to a victory over state Sen. Rick Bertrand Tuesday night.

With 93 percent of precincts in the sprawling 4th District reporting, King led 65 percent to 35 percent. Republicans hold a significant voter registration advantage over Democrats in the district.

Bertrand, of Sioux City, framed the race on King's effectiveness and likability.

King, of Kiron, said he liked the way voters responded Tuesday.

"It feels good. The first thought, it is that gratitude to the people of the 4th District," King said in an interview from Washington, D.C., where he spent election night after casting his own vote in Odebolt early Tuesday morning.

King, who was first elected to the U.S. House in 2002, won in both rural and urban areas in the 39-county district in northwest and north-central Iowa.

In populous Woodbury County, King received 3,385 votes for 56 percent, while Bertrand got 2,620 votes. Bertrand represents Sioux City in the state Senate and is also a businessman and commercial developer.

In Sioux County, the state's most Republican county, King took 70 percent of the vote. King also won Story County, where the county seat, Ames, is home to Iowa State University.

In May, soon after Bertrand entered the race, King told the Journal the long-shot challenge would prove to "be viewed as a big waste of time and money."

He doubled down on that thought Tuesday, saying, "The resources and time could have been used for good rather than division."

Bertrand did not return repeated calls to the Journal Tuesday night.

Bertrand, who became the first Republican in 30 years to win a state Senate district in Sioux City in 2010, entered the 4th District race in late March, later than any of the other candidates in the Iowa congressional districts.

One reason Bertrand sought the Republican congressional primary battle was because King caused a stir 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, in order to defend an industry that is so important to the state.

King countered that powerful interests -- including Bruce Rastetter, a major agribusiness and Republican donor, and GOP strategist Nick Ryan -- were out to find a Republican to oust him in the June primary.

Bertrand said he would have the vigor and resources to knock off the veteran King. However, his campaign stops didn't typically draw large crowds, and some observers said he should have aired tougher rhetoric against King.

Bertrand had expectations of large fundraising. King brought in $110,193 from April 1 to May 18, compared to $52,727 for Bertrand during the same Federal Election Commission filing period. After spending, Bertrand's campaign had $34,473 cash on hand at the end of the reporting period, compared to King's $217,704 ending cash balance.

Other groups also spent on behalf of Bertrand, including advertisements produced by American Future Fund Political Action and Iowa Progress Project.

King after his win noted that he didn't run any campaign ads on television, radio or other media.

"We just let my work speak for itself," he said.

Both men defined them as conservatives. King piled up endorsements of the state's top elected heavyweights, essentially all notable Republicans except Gov. Terry Branstad. U.S. Sens. Charles Grassley and Joni Ernst, Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds and Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey were in the King camp.

The two candidates participated once in a public debate, on Friday in Sioux City, where Bertrand again leveled the charge that King was ineffective.

"I am going there to run a specific agenda that is outlined by Iowans. Right now, we have a congressman who believes he is untouchable," Bertrand said.

David Young

Meanwhile, former Iowa National Guard soldier Jim Mowrer has won the Democratic nomination in Iowa's 3rd Congressional District and will face Republican David Young.

Mowrer won the primary election Tuesday over Desmund Adams and Mike Sherzan in a district that stretches from Des Moines to Council Bluffs.

Mowrer, of Des Moines, served in the National Guard in Iraq and later worked in the Pentagon. He received the Democratic nomination in the 4th District in 2014 but lost to Republican Steve King.

The three Democrats seeking the nomination agreed on most issues, and the campaign largely focused on who was the best candidate to run against Young, a longtime aide to Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley who is seeking a second term.

Republicans hold a registration edge in the district, but the general election is expected to be competitive.
DES MOINES  Patty Judge, a former lieutenant governor and state ag secretary, won a four-way Democratic primary election Tuesday, giving her the right to challenge longtime Republican incumbent Chuck Grassley for one of Iowas seats in the U.S. Senate.

I am the Judge that Chuck Grassley cant ignore, Judge said in her victory speech late Tuesday in Des Moines.

Judge, 72, a retired farmer from Albia, edged state legislator Rob Hogg, while attorney Tom Fiegen and veterans advocate Bob Krause lagged far behind.

With all precincts reporting, Judge secured roughly 47 percent of more than 95,000 votes cast to Hoggs 38 percent, according to official results on the Iowa Secretary of States website.

Fiegen and Krause both were at 7 percent.

Using her name recognition advantage as a former lieutenant governor, state secretary of agriculture and state senator, Judge earned her partys nomination and the right to face Grassley, 82, a six-term incumbent, in Iowas 2016 U.S. Senate race this fall.

Hes been in Washington way too long, Judge said. Its time for government to start working for us. Tonight we took the first step in making government work again.

Judge performed well in Iowas rural counties, while Hogg, 49, a 14-year veteran of the Legislature and a current state senator, was strongest in the urban areas.

Shortly after she entered the race in March, Judge was endorsed by the Democratic Partys national committee that works to elect Democrats to the U.S. Senate. She also was the primarys best fundraiser: she raised nearly $370,000 in roughly 2 months, while Hogg raised just more than $250,000 over the course of 10 months.

Together, we are going to win in November. And now its time to party, Judge said.

Hogg ran an active grassroots campaign, traveling across the state to hold dozens of meetings. He was endorsed by the states largest labor groups.

Fiegen and Krause offered themselves as candidates rich in ideas to bolster the sagging middle class, but challenged in the campaign financing needed to wage an effective statewide campaign. Instead, they relied heavily on social media to carry their messages to rank-and-file Democrats and independents.

Grassley has been re-elected by Iowans five times, never by fewer than 30 percentage points and each time garnering at least 60 percent of the vote.

But Democrats believe Grassley is vulnerable this year, largely because of two issues: Grassleys stand with Senate Republican leadership to not hold confirmation hearings on President Barack Obamas nominee to fill the U.S. Supreme Court vacancy, and the potential down-ballot impact of presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump.

In a statement issued Tuesday night, Grassley campaign manager Robert Haus suggested Judge failed to garner widespread support from Iowa Democrats, particularly those interested in labor, environmental and agricultural issues.

Members of these key constituencies voted against Patty Judge for clear reasons, and she will need to spend considerable time and resources to try to win back the support of those that remain hostile to her candidacy, Haus said, adding, Iowans know what she did when she had control in Iowa. They shudder at what shell do if shes sent to Washington, D.C.

EARLIER STORY

DES MOINES --- Democrats Patty Judge of Albia and Rob Hogg of Cedar Rapids are locked in a tight primary-election battle Tuesday to land their partys nomination and the right to face six-term Republican Chuck Grassley in Iowas 2016 U.S. Senate race this fall.

Using her name recognition advantage as a former lieutenant governor, state secretary of agriculture and state senator, Judge emerged as the frontrunner Tuesday night, forging a lead in the early balloting of Democratic primary voters.

Des Moines television station WHO-TV projected Judge as the races winner shortly after 9 p.m.

Judge, 72, was performing well in Iowas rural counties, while Hogg, 49, a 14-year veteran of the Iowa Legislature and a current state senator, was strongest in the urban areas.

Trailing the early leaders were attorney Tom Fiegen of Clarence and veterans advocate Bob Krause of Fairfield.

Shortly after she entered the race in March, Judge was endorsed by the Democratic Partys national committee that works to elect Democrats to the U.S. Senate. She also was the primarys best fundraiser: she raised nearly $370,000 in roughly 2 1/2 months, while Hogg raised just more than $250,000 over the course of 10 months.

Hogg ran an active, grassroots campaign, traveling across the state to hold dozens of meetings. He was endorsed by the states largest labor groups.

Fiegen and Krause offered themselves as candidates rich in ideas to bolster the suffering and sagging middle class, but challenged in the campaign financing needed to wage an effective statewide campaign. Instead, they instead relied heavily on social media to carry their messages to rank-and-file Democrats and independents.

Grassley has been re-elected by Iowans five times, never by fewer than 30 percentage points and each time garnering at least 60 percent of the vote.

But Democrats believe Grassley is vulnerable this year, largely because of two issues: Grassleys stand with Senate Republican leadership to not hold confirmation hearings on President Barack Obamas nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court vacancy, and the potential down-ballot impact of presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump.
WATERLOO  A retired Cedar Valley Catholic Schools employee has become the first candidate to fill the empty Ward 1 City Council seat.

Margaret Klein, 66, of 4102 Aspen Court, said she will run in the July 12 special election for the seat vacated when David Jones resigned in April.

Waterloo is a great place to live and work, said Klein. I am excited for the opportunity to serve the residents of Ward 1 on the City Council and make our community even better.

Klein retired after serving in a variety of positions at Cedar Valley Catholic Schools, but remains active in her church by serving on parish councils. She is currently vice president of the CVCS board of education.

Klein, who attended St. Johns Grade School, Columbus High School and the University of Northern Iowa, is making her first bid for elected public office, running on a platform to improve public safety, fiscal responsibility and government efficiency.

I have a genuine desire to participate in helping the city of Waterloo become a better community, she said. A lifetime of experience in pitching in to keep things moving forward, of pinching pennies to keep the family, the parish and the school afloat, put me in a unique position to help.

Klein said she is fully aware the current council is deadlocked in a 3-3 tie on many issues.

Both sides of the council are going to work hard this special election to get a fourth vote for their side, she said. Im not going to be the fourth vote. Im going to be an independent vote for Ward 1. I look forward to working with all members of the council to move Waterloo forward.

If elected, Klein would become the only woman on the City Council.

One of the best parts about Waterloo is our diversity, but thats something that is lacking on our City Council, she said. As a mother and grandmother I know I can bring a much-needed fresh perspective to whats become a male-dominated council.

Klein and her husband, Max, will celebrate their 47th wedding anniversary in August. They have seven grown children, including six who remain in the Cedar Valley, and 22 grandchildren.
WATERLOO  Turnout among both Democrats and Republicans was down compared to two years ago in Black Hawk County, according to preliminary primary election results.

Though Republicans had no contested races, Democrats had contests up and down the ticket.

The Democrats participation rate was 12 percent, compared to 14 percent in 2014. About 3,711 Democrats voted out of 31,669 registered Democrats in the county. The figures are also lower than the statewide Democratic participation rate of 15.9 percent.

Republicans had 863 voters in Black Hawk County of a registered 22,273. Their turnout was a mere 4 percent compared with 20 percent in 2014 when there were contests for both U.S. House and Senate. Statewide GOP turnout was 14.2 percent.

University of Northern Iowa political science department head Donna Hoffman chalked up the lower turnout among Democrats in Black Hawk County in part to the more hotly contested U.S. House 1st District primary race two years ago, where five candidates, including one from Waterloo, vied for the partys nomination.

Hoffman added, There may be some fatigue factor given that the state of play at the national level is sucking up a lot of energy and a lot of oxygen as well.

While fewer Democrats turned out, their voting patterns fell in line with the rest of the state.

Black Hawk County voters gave the edge to the Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Patty Judge and to the Democratic 1st District nominee Monica Vernon.

Judge received 2,022 votes to her next closest contender Rob Hoggs 1,080 votes, according to unofficial results from Black Hawk County. Democratic U.S. Senate contenders Bob Krause and Tom Fiegen received 305 votes and 205 votes, respectively. There were three write-in votes.

Vernon received 2,589 votes, or 71.3 percent, to primary opponent Pat Murphys 1,037 votes.

Both Judge and Vernon outperformed their statewide figures in Black Hawk County, and both won by large margins. Judge had a nine-point advantage and Vernon had a nearly 35-point margin.

Hoffman noted the task now for the candidates  both of whom have experience running at their respective levels  would be to pivot from their primary election strategies to the general election.

Today my question is how each of those three Democrats places themselves in terms of the national picture versus the state picture. Will they try to tie their opponents to the top of the ticket, or will they really try to focus more on local issues or state issues? Hoffman said, mentioning also Democratic 3rd District candidate Jim Mowrer.

She said she expects presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton will be back in the state to support the partys nominees and to seek Iowas six electoral votes. Hoffman said she stopped predicting the actions of the Republican presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump.

Judge will face incumbent U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, in the general election. Grassley received 805 votes in the Republican primary in Black Hawk County. There were 16 write-in votes. He was unopposed.

Vernon will face U.S. Rep. Rod Blum of Dubuque in the general election. Blum, who was also unopposed, received 778 votes in Black Hawk County. There were 11 write-in votes.

Democrats also had contested races in Iowa House District 63 that covers the northeastern part of the county and House District 72 that includes two precincts in southern Black Hawk County. There was also a five-way Democratic contest for three county supervisor seats.
CEDAR RAPIDS  Monica Vernon won in her second try at the Democratic nomination in Iowas 1st Congressional District and the chance to face Republican Rep. Rod Blum.

The former Cedar Rapids City Council member won the primary election against former state Rep. Pat Murphy of Dubuque, who beat Vernon in 2014 before losing to Blum, also of Dubuque.

Murphy called Vernon shortly after 10 p.m. to concede and offer his support.

With all precincts reporting, Vernon had 21,197 votes, or 68 percent, to Murphys 10,093, or 32 percent.

Vernon said the victory was built on her previous campaigns.

We made a lot of friends in 2014, she said. We kept those friends and then we met their friends and their friends friends. We built coalitions wherever we could whether it was small business owners, whether its labor unions, you know, all kinds of people.

I love it when people believe in me, Vernon said.

The general election campaign will be fought on very familiar issues, Vernon said.

In a lot of ways, were going to be talking about the same things, Vernon said. The economy and jobs are so keys, and whether we invest in people and how we invest in them.

She faulted Tea Party Republicans like Congressman Rod Blum (who) continue to fuel the obstruction and dysfunction in Congress.

In 2014, Murphy topped Vernon and three other Democrats vying for the 1st District nomination to succeed Democratic Rep. Bruce Braley. Murphy lost to Blum in the open-seat general election 49.9 percent to 47.6 percent.

Despite the primary election loss, Vernon never stopped running. In the 2014 general election, she ran with Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jack Hatch. They lost to Gov. Terry Branstad and Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds.

Undeterred, Vernon entered the 2016 primary even before Blum took office in January 2014.

Im a problem-solver, and I can see he will be a problem, she said at the time.

Although Vernon and Murphy agreed on core Democratic issues, their race was contentious. Calling himself a lifelong Democrat, Murphy questioned Vernons commitment to the party because she was a Republican until 2009.

Vernon, who called herself a lifelong progressive, challenged Murphys commitment to the Democratic Partys pro-choice principles, pointing out that he helped start a Dubuque County pro-life organization and in the past has received a 100 percent rating from Iowa Right to Life.

She also questioned Murphys trustworthiness, asking why the people who know him the best trust him the least. Legislators who served with Murphy have endorsed her and labor unions that endorsed him in the past are backing her.

Vernon also has raised five times as much in campaign funds as Murphy.

According to her May 18 Federal Election Commission report, Vernon raised $1,402,326 to Murphys $238,990. She outspent Murphy $981,439 to $194,030.

Blum is considered vulnerable because Democrats have a voter registration advantage of nearly 26,000 in the 20-county 1st District that stretches from Marshalltown to the Minnesota border and the Mississippi River, and includes Cedar Rapids, Waterloo, Cedar Falls and Dubuque.

President Barack Obama carried the district by margins of 14 and 18 percentage points in 2008 and 2012, respectively.
TAMA  Nathan Wrage, a rural Gladbrook resident, won the Democratic nomination in Iowas House District 72 on Tuesday, according to unofficial results.

House District 72 includes all of Tama County, two townships in southern Black Hawk County and southwestern Marshall County.

Wrage won with 871 votes, or 77 percent of the vote, against first-time candidate John Anderson, according to unofficial results. Anderson received 267 votes, or 23 percent.

Wrage, 52, said Tuesday night he was pleased with the results.

I guess Ill chalk it up to a lot of hard work, door knocking, and Ive had some dedicated volunteers to help me along the way, and hopefully the message that Ive been putting out will continue to convince voters, as I go on toward November, Wrage said.

He said hell continue the work of meeting voters and expand his outreach to independent voters as he looks toward the general election.

Wrage, who works at Deco Tool Supply Co. in Waterloo, is making his second attempt to hold the office in the district that has a slight GOP advantage. He previously ran for the seat in 2012 when it was open.

He will face incumbent Iowa Rep. Dean Fisher, R-Garwin, who ran unopposed in the primary. Fisher is in his second term.
WATERLOO  A scared-looking deer sporting cuts and scrapes washed up along the cement banks of the Cedar River just after 1 p.m. Wednesday.

A call to the Waterloo Fire Rescue yielded four fire rescuers, who showed up around 3 p.m. with a 10-foot pole. They redirected the young doe downstream to calmer waters and presumed safety.

I was prepared to go in and get him until the fire department showed up, said Eric Christensen of Waterloo, sporting a life jacket he ran home to get.

Christensen spotted the deer on his way back from the Waterloo Public Library some time after 1 p.m. He had previously seen a group congregate along the Fifth Street Bridge around 11 a.m., but assumed the deer would get to safety.

The fire department arrived around that time but was unable to locate the deer. They were called back after 2 p.m. by Christensen and his wife, Alissa.

Were animal advocates for sure, she said. We couldnt stand to see an animal there suffering.

Pat Treloar, chief of fire services, said rescuers couldnt collar the deer as they might a dog because it might wound or kill the animal. Treloar said the best chance was to reroute the deer down river.

We needed to get him help. I didnt want to see him starve or drown, Christensen said.
WATERLOO  Iowa summers usually mean two things: warm weather and storms. Standing water and muggy air create the perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes, said Tom ORourke, director of the Black Hawk County Health Department.

Disease-carrying mosquitoes can spread West Nile virus and other potentially harmful diseases  like the Zika virus. But West Nile remains the greater of those evils.

We want to emphasize that Zika is a health threat for some, ORourke said at a press conference Wednesday. And even though the number of cases are lower in Iowa, there is a concern.  And I want to further emphasize that there is still a greater concern with West Nile virus that has been here for some time. That, in and of itself, warrants mosquito protection.

Zika is transmitted by Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes. About 20 percent of people infected with the virus become ill. The most common symptoms are fever, rash, joint pain or conjunctivitis (pink or red eyes), muscle pain and headache. The illness is usually mild, but in rare circumstances can require hospitalization.

There is a possible link between Zika infection in pregnant women and birth defects, including microcephaly in newborns  smaller heads that lead to learning disabilities and vision and hearing problems.

Those infected with Zika often are asymptomatic, which ORourke said can lead to unintentional transmission through sexual contact, blood transfusions or in utero.

There have been seven confirmed cases of Zika in Iowa, with the first in February and the most recent occurring on June 3.

All cases were travel related to the Caribbean, Central America and South America, according to the Iowa Department of Public Health. Those areas are within the Center for Disease Controls travel advisory list. That list can be found on the travelers health website at wwwnc.cdc.gov

Zika-carrying mosquitoes are not found in Iowa. ORourke said there is a potential risk for Iowa mosquitoes biting a Zika-infected person and transmitting the disease that way, but its unlikely given the small number of confirmed cases.

The health department monitors Northeast Iowa mosquitoes for potential diseases and has been doing so since the threat of the West Nile virus was at its peak.

We had a number of resources then that have since diminished as a result of diminished concern, ORourke said. He said the current program will make due with its limited resources. He said he isnt aware of any congressional plans for increased allocations.

Eric Heinen, the county health departments environmental health officer, said traps at the Hartman Reserve Nature Center in Cedar Falls help monitor mosquito populations. He said West Nile is a greater threat than Zika.

West Nile is here in Iowa and has been for years, Heinen said.

Still, a new mosquito trap at Hartman is geared toward catching daytime biters, like the Zika-carrying mosquito.

Standing water and grass clippings draw daytime biters into a Gravid trap. The traps fan sucks the mosquitoes in where they are then collected in a cup and sent to Iowa State University for testing.

ORourke recommends mosquito protection procedures such as wearing long sleeves and pants, insect repellent containing DEET and eliminating standing water.

ORourke said he wouldnt necessarily advise against traveling to the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, but did add one caveat.

Carefully consider the possibility of watching it on TV, he said.
Product Camp Iowa

JIM VOLGARINO

WATERLOO  John Tudor (Mission to Build) and Trace Steffen (HowFactory) are to be commended for taking on the huge task of creating a first-ever-in-Iowa business event typically found only in a large metropolitan area, not Cedar Falls.

The idea for Camp Product Iowa grew from discussions the two had after attending a similar event in St. Louis with both agreeing the Cedar Valley business community deserved such an event.

So they went to work, pulling together speakers, presenters and sponsors in just more than 90 days to get this annual event up and running. Including the support people and those presenting, the event drew more than 140 people to downtown Cedar Falls on Friday. Four separate venues were used to host an incredible array of subjects businesses of all sizes could find relevant and interesting.

And what a beautiful day it turned out to be so participants could enjoy the downtown ambiance while walking between sessions.! Thanks guys for your hard work in pulling this unique event together so fast. As one out-of-state presenter quipped while strolling down Main Street, What a great place to have something like this! A great place indeed.

Ruuds departure

HAROLD TUCHEL

WATERLOO  I have relatives going to the University of Northern Iowa. I am deeply upset President William Ruuds contract was not renewed. Ruud has produced stability and progress an UNI.

We do not need someones favorite political pick at UNI. Do not send us some hack; just renew Dr. Ruuds contract.

Thanks to Isle

BRIAN E. DELAGARDELLE

Gilbertville public works director, mayor and City Council

GILBERTVILLE  We would like to thank the Isle Casino Hotel Waterloo and the board of The Black Hawk County Gaming Association for generously approving the Gilbertville Public Works Department grant application.

The $85,000 grant helped build our new public works building on Fenton Road. We are now able to store most city vehicles and equipment inside.

Teacher retires

AUDREY KIMBALL

WATERLOO  Born and raised in Waterloo, I attended Kittrell Elementary, West Junior High, Hoover Junior High and graduated from West High. My husband and I met at West High and continued to live in Waterloo where our five children attended Irving Elementary, West Intermediate (Middle) School, Central Middle School and all graduated from West High. I volunteered in the schools throughout their school careers.

Im excited a new generation of Kimballs will start kindergarten at Kittrell in the fall. I started teaching at Central Middle School in 1993. Central quickly became my second home. I never had any desire to move to another building. Central has always had a family feel to it. Ive seen and been part of a plethora of changes in the Waterloo School District, some easy, some hard, some solicited, some not.

The change Im making now (retirement) is one Im looking forward to, but I will miss Central, its students, its families and my colleagues. Its been a wonderful place to learn, live and grow. Thank you Waterloo and Central Middle School.
By West Kentucky Star Staff Jun. 07, 2016 | 01:29 PM | GRAVES COUNTY, KY

Six people were injured in a four-vehicle crash in Graves County Monday afternoon.

According to the Graves County Sheriff's Office, the collision happened around 1:50 pm on KY 131. Deputies said 71-year-old Michael Palmer, of Kirksey, was northbound on KY 131 when he stopped to turn left onto the Purchase Parkway southbound on-ramp. Police said Palmer was waiting for southbound traffic to clear so he could make a left turn.

A pickup truck, driven by 27-year-old Christopher Fowler, of Wingo, had stopped behind Palmers car to wait for him to turn. A car, driven by 22-year-old Tristin Dunaway, of Boaz, collided with the rear of Fowler's truck. Dunaways car ran underneath Fowler's truck, and the truck flipped onto its roof.

Fowlers truck was pushed into Palmers car as Palmer began his left turn. After striking Fowler's truck, Dunaways car spun into the southbound lane of KY 131 and was struck by another car, driven by 22-year-old Chelsea Martin, of Paducah.

Dunaway and two passengers in her vehicle, 18-year-old William Burgie and one-year-old Izabella Burgie, were transported to Jackson Purchase Medical Center for treatment of minor injuries.

Martin, Fowler and a passenger in his vehicle, 27-year-old Bradley Sphinx of Wingo, were also transported to Jackson Purchase Medical Center for treatment of minor injuries.

Palmer was not injured in the collision.
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If youre looking to try out an online casino, there are several things that will help you make a decision. Heres what you should look for when choosing an online casino

 Are they regulated? A lot of the larger ones have licenses issued by the authorities in their respective regions, so its worth checking this first.

 Do they offer games from different software providers? Some casinos just use one software provider and limit your selection. This is fine if you like playing those types of games but you may want to check other casinos as well.

 What does their payout percentage look like? The payout rate refers to how much money you can expect to win after every bet. A high payout rate means youll be able to play more often without having to worry about losing all your money. Its also important to know the minimum and maximum bets allowed on each game. If youre going to play roulette, for example, then you probably dont want a casino with a minimum bet of less than $2.50 or even lower than that.

The players used to play the game slot online in the land based casinos in the past time. But now with time after the invention of the online casinos players play the game slot online. Online platform provide the players with the convenience in playing and even better winning. Even after keeping a good percentage of the profits, they distribute good funds to players.

 How many games do they offer? There are lots of different types of games to choose from. Roulette, blackjack and poker are some of the most popular options, but you might find slots, video pokers, video bingo and others as well. You can usually filter these games down to only show the ones that interest you best, so make sure that your list isnt too long!

 Is there a bonus offer? Many online casinos offer free bonuses as part of their welcome package  which includes new players being awarded 100% up to $10 instantly, for example. These offers are great but not everyone has access to them all the time (and some require you to deposit real money). If youd prefer to avoid paying a fee, some casinos offer no-deposit bonuses where you can get a certain amount of funds before you need to put any actual money into the account. These are usually offered alongside welcome bonuses, so make sure you read both parts of the terms and conditions carefully before signing up.

 Does it offer live dealer games? Live dealers are much preferred by many over regular virtual versions, so it pays to check this option out too. Most online casinos now offer live dealer games in addition to their regular offerings, allowing you to experience the thrill of the real thing without needing to leave home.

Now that youve got an idea of what to look for when choosing an online casino, heres some tips for making the right choice

It really comes down to personal preference. No two people are exactly alike, so everyone has an opinion on what they like and dislike about each casino. That said, here are some things to consider in order to narrow down your choices

 Popularity. Check out reviews, forums and Facebook pages to see what other people think of the casino. Also, ask around at work or friends houses who they would recommend to you. You could always take a look at the casinos website too, to see what kind of information they provide about themselves.

 Reputation. Find out what the general public thinks about the casino. Check out any customer reviews on sites like Trustpilot, Amazon and Google Play to find out more. As far as gaming goes, you can also check out the Better Business Bureau to see whether there have been any complaints against the casino.

 Security. Make sure the casino uses SSL encryption to secure its transactions, meaning that your private data stays safe during transactions. Other than that, look for security seals on the site itself and verify that theyre legitimate. You can also check out the casinos privacy policy to see how they handle confidential information.

 Payment methods. Its good to have multiple payment options available, especially if you plan to play frequently. Its also nice to find a casino that accepts cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. If youre worried about safety, you can always opt for a credit card or PayPal instead.

With all those criteria in mind, heres our top picks

Betway:

Betway is a relatively new UK casino offering online gambling to residents of the United Kingdom and European Union. They offer hundreds of games across both land based and digital platforms, with plenty of top software providers like Net Entertainment, Microgaming and Yggdrasil Gaming Network. With a generous welcome offer that gives players 100% up to 100, you really cant go wrong with Betway.

Coral Casino:

Coral Casino is operated by the same company that runs the famous Caribbean casino, Grand Reef. Like many casinos, Coral Casino offers a wide variety of games, including plenty of video slots and table games. New players can benefit from a huge 100% match bonus up to 1000, while existing customers enjoy 25% cash back on deposits made within 48 hours of opening an account.

Ladbrokes Casino:

Ladbrokes Casino is owned by the same company as the famous bookmaker that started life in 1921. With more than 500 games from leading software providers such as Amaya, NetEnt and Microgaming, you wont be disappointed by the quality of the games here. New players get a 200% match bonus up to 500, while existing customers can claim 35% cashback on their first three deposits.

Paddy Power Casino:

Paddy Power is another Irish-owned casino that operates throughout Europe. Not only does Paddy Power Casino offer traditional casino games like blackjack, roulette and slots, but it also provides a full range of sports betting, including football, tennis, boxing and horse racing. New players can receive a massive 100% match bonus up to 200, while existing customers can claim 35% cashback on their first three deposits.

William Hill Casino:

William Hill Casino is one of the biggest names in the industry, operating in Europe, Asia and North America. Founded in 1984, this online casino has more than 400 games to choose from, including slots and table games, with a wide array of software providers like WagerLogic, Big Time Gaming and Rival.

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If youre interested in trying out an online casino but arent quite ready to commit to one, why not try out one of the many no deposit casinos weve reviewed? You can test drive various casinos completely risk-free, so you can feel confident about your choice before you make a single penny deposit.
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Canl Bahis siteleri sektoru son derece onu ack ve farkl ozelliklere sahip bir sektordur. Elbette bahis secenekleri arasnda yuksek kazanc getiren alan kuskusuz canl bahistir. Peki, canl bahis nedir?

Canl Bahis Nedir?

Canl bahis adndan da anlaslacag gibi devam eden musabakaya bahis yapmaktr. Bu bahis musabaka devam ederken de yaplabilir olmasdr. Basta futbol olmak uzere voleybol, tenis, hentbol, basketbol, buz hokeyi ve masa tenisi gibi spor organizasyonlarna canl bahisler yaplabilmektedir. Canl bahis siteleri bu oyunlarn hepsine yuksek oranlara bahis yapmanza imkan tanr. En fazla tercih edilen futbol canl bahisleri diger alanlara gore daha fazla on plandadr. Siteden siteye degisen sartlar ve uygulama esaslar soz konusu olsa da kurallar sabittir.

Canl bahisi populer klan ve heyecan katan en onemli ozellikle musabakann basladg ana dek bahis yapabilmedir. Canl bahis icerisinde yer alan secenekler kazanma sansnz da dogrudan arttrmaktadr. Ilk korneri kim kullanr, ilk tac, gol, sar kart, krmz kart gibi futbol musabakas icerisinde olabilecek hemen hemen her seye bahis yaplabilmektedir. Normal bahisegore de son derece yuksek oranda olmas avantajl yonlerini ortaya koymaktadr. Nitekim dogru secenek ksa surede kazancl ckmanza etki edecektir.

Strateji ve dogru analizle 90 dakika gibi bir surede anaparanzkatlayabilirsiniz. Tabi bunu basarabilmek icin mutlaka musabakaya dair ayrntlar iyi degerlendirmek gerekir. Soz konusu musabakann detaylarn inceleyip, cezal, sakat oyuncu veya performans dusen takm oyunu gibi detaylar bilmek canl bahiste kazanc belirleyen onemli unsurdur. Guvenilir Canl bahis hem heyecanl zaman gecirmeyi hem de musabakalar takip ederken para kazanmay saglamaktadr.

Canl Bahis Nasl Oynanr?

Bahislerinizi guvenilir sitelerden gerceklestirdiginiz zaman herhangi bir sekilde para cekme de sorun yasamazsnz. Guvenilir bahis siteleri tespit edip sonrasnda da uyelik islemlerini tamamlamanz gerekmektedir. Belirlenen uyelik sartlarn yerine getirip hesabnza da paray aktardktan sonra bahis islemlerini sorunsuz yapabilirsiniz. Peki, canl bahis nasl oynanr?

Oncelikle bahis konusunda mutlaka dogru site arastrmas yapmalsnz. Yapacagnz arastrma neticesinde buldugunuz site uzerinden canl bahisislemlerini gerceklestirebilirsiniz. Bunun icin uye olup, hesaba para atp, canl bahis bolumune girmelisiniz. Sonrasnda dahil olmak istediginiz musabakann saatini ogrenip, gerekli analizleri yapmalsnz. Tahminlerinizi belirledikten sonra karsnza ckacak olan bahis sayfasndan istediginiz hamleyi yapmalsnz. Bahis tutarn belirledikten sonra musabaka baslayacaktr.

Canl bahis diger normal bahis esaslarna gore farkllklar icermektedir. Bunlardan en onemlisi musabakann gidisatna gore islem yapabilir olmaktr.Ayrca musabakann 2. Yarsna gore hamle yapp ayr bir bahisin soz konusu olmas da ciddi avantajdr. Dogru hamle ile sizde istediginiz bahisi yapp kazanc elde edebilirsiniz. Nitekim canl olarak yapacagnz bahis icin mac oncesi raporlara gore hareket etmek onemlidir. Cunku takmlarn durumlarn analiz etmek tahmin gucunu arttracaktr. Misal tamnn en iyi oyuncusu sakat ya da kart cezals ise takmn performansnda dusus yasanacaktr. Buna ek olarak takmn deplasman performans ile evinde ki performans ayr olacaktr. Burada da takmn musabakay nerede yaptgna bakmak gerekir. Bu ayrntlar da iyice analiz ettikten sonra bahsinizi yapp kazanmann keyfini yasayabilirsiniz.

Canl Bahis Siteleri

Son derece yuksek getiriye sahip bahis sektoru uzun zamandr faaliyet gostermektedir. Cok ciddi rakamlarn soz konusu oldugu bu sektor zamanla sanal ortamlara donusmustur. Elbette guvenli ve bir o kadar da avantajl olan bu siteler cok yonlu frsatlar sunmaktadrlar. Canl iddaa siteleri gerek yeni uyelere gerekse de hali hazrdaki uyelerine bolca bonus frsatlar vermektedir. Yatracagnz tutara gore belirlenen bonuslar site icerisinde rahat hareket etmenizi de saglayacaktr.

Canl bahis sitelerini kullanmadan once mutlaka guvenli olup olmadgna goz atmalsnz. Zira baz kullanclar guvenli olmayan sitelerden yaptklar islemlerden dolay magdur olmaktadrlar. Nitekim guvenli ve sorunsuz hizmet sunan yurt ds site tercih etmek en dogru secenektir. Sektorde uzun yllar faaliyet gosteren siteleri tercih edebilirsiniz. Bu alanda yer alan yabanc siteler musteri memnuniyetine onem vermektedir. Oncelik site kullanclarn sorunsuz sekilde bahislerini yapabilir olmasn saglamaktr. Bahis sitelerinde amac hem daha fazla kullancya hizmet vermek hem de sektorde emin admlarla ilerlemek onceliklidir. Dogru site tercihi ile sizde canl bahislerinizi sorun yasamadan gerceklestirebilirsiniz. Sizler icin hazrlams oldugumuz canl bahis siteleri listesi su sekildedir;

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Sralams oldugumuz bu siteler sektorde basarl islere imza atms sitelerdedir. Canl bahis konusunda beklentileri karslayacak olan bu siteler sizlere kolaylk sunmaktadrlar. Bol bonuslu secenekle de sizlere farkl bahis yonlerini sunacaklardr. Sistemsel etki icerisinde her zaman etkin sonuc alabilmek icin surekli olarak faaliyet icerisindedirler.

Canl Bahis Taktikleri

Bahis sektorunun en fazla dikkat edilmesi gereken hususu dogru taktik ve dogru tahmindir. Elbette dogru tahmini yapabilmek icin analizi cok iyi yapmak gerekir. Canl bahis taktikleri arasnda ilk sra analiz gelmektedir. Analiz yapamadgnz zaman basarl tahminlerde bulunmanz pek de mumkun degildir. Cunku bahiste onemli olan konu musabakann analizini cok iyi yaplmas gerektigidir. Canl bahisin ozelliklerini iyi bilmek ve nasl bir hamle yapacagnz bilmek gerekir. Ozellikle riskli maclarda yaplacak degerlendirmeler cok daha onemlidir.

Canl bahis yapacaklarn takip edecegi degerler takmlarn durumlar ile alakal olmaldr. Performans uzerine kurulu bahis sisteminde takm degerlendirmesine iyi bakmak gerekir. Iki takmn son 5 macta nasl bir sonuc ortaya koyduguna bakarak hareket etmek onemlidir. Ayrca hangi takm evinde daha iyi performans sergiliyor diye de ayrca bakmak gerekir.

Analizlerle alakal puan durumlarna da goz atmak cok onemlidir. Puan degerlendirmesinde oncelikle takmlarn ihtiyaclar ile dogru orantl hareket etmek gerekir. Cunku olusturulan performans takmn da durumunu ortaya koymaktadr. Nitekim istenilen sonucu elde edebilmek icin tum ayrntlar bilmek gerekir. Takm ici duzenden tutunda da takmn son durumuna kadar her ayrnt onemlidir. Iki takmn birbirleri arasnda ki sonuclar da incelemek gerekir. Burada dikkat edilecek detaylarn basnda maclarda kac gol oldugu ve gollerin hangi dakikalarda atldgdr. Cekismeli gecen musabakalarda bazen goller ilk yarda daha fazla olurken baz maclarda da ikinci yarda daha cok gol olmustur. Iki takm arasnda ki maclarda gollerin cogunlugu ilk yarda geliyorsa buna gore bahis yapabilirsiniz.

Canl Bahis Siteleri Bonuslar ve Kampanyalar

Bahis yapanlar veya yapmay dusununler sitelerin sunmus olduklar frsatlar merak etmektedirler. Cunku siteler daha fazla kullancya erismek icin her donem kampanyalar duzenleyerek kullanc odakl hamleler yapmaktadrlar. Canl bahis bonuslar ve kampanyalar oldukca populer olup, siteler bu konuda adeta birbirleri ile yarsmaktadrlar. Birbirinden farkl ozelliklere sahip olan kampanyalar size frsatlar sunmaktadr. Daha cok kazanma ihtimalinizi arttran bu bonuslar daha cesur olmanza da dogrudan etki edecektir. Nitekim bonuslar sitelerin cekiciligini ve avantajlarn arttrmaktadr. En cok kazandran canl bahis siteleri bedava bonuslar ve kampanyalar icin http://www.milano2018.com/canli-bahis-siteleri-2022/ linkinden yardm alabilirsiniz.

Hos geldin bonusu ile baslayan ve sonrasnda para yatrdkca bonus veren cok sayda site bulunmaktadr. Canl bahis bonusu veren siteler yeni uyelere sunduklar frsatlar farkl kampanyalarla mevcut uyelerine de sunmaktadrlar. Hali hazrda siteyi kullananlarn da bonus frsatlarndan yararlanmalar icin donemsel kampanyalar olusturmaktadrlar. Boylece baska sitelere gidisler olmayacag gibi site de daha keyifli zaman gecirmek mumkun klnmaktadr. Bu tur eklentiler yapan sitelerde musteri memnuniyeti daha fazladr.

Bahis siteleri ozellik ve uygulama bakmndan farkllklar bunyelerinde bulundurmaktadrlar. Verilen bonuslarn olusturulmas ve kullanclar aktarlmasnda yatrlan para miktarlar belirleyici olmaktadr. 1.000 TL yatran bir kullanc yuzde 20 bonus frsat olan bir kampanyadan 200 TL bonus kazanabilmektedir. Yatracag tutar 10.000 TL oldugunda bu bonustutar 2.000 TL olabilmektedir. Gerceklesen ve uygulanan esaslar tamamen donemsel olarak yaplan kampanyalarla alakaldr. Iyi Canl bahis siteleri bonuslar ve kampanyalar icin sitelerin vermis oldugu oranlar takip edebilirsiniz.

Canl Bahis Siteleri Para Yatrma

Online Canl bahis yapacaklarn merak ettigi konulardan bir digeri de para yatrma islemleridir. Oldukca onemli olan bu konuda hata yapmamak cok onemlidir. Canl bahis sitelerine para yatrma islemi sanlann aksine son derece basittir. Oldukca basit ve uygulama esas dogru etki olusturan bu yapda sizde islemi rahatca tamamlayabilirsiniz. Para yatrma konusunda su yolu izleyebilirsiniz.

Guvendiginiz ve herhangi bir sekilde aklnzda soru isareti kalmayan bahis sitesine uye olmanz gerekmektedir. Uyelik islemini sorunsuz sekilde tamamladktan sonra para yatrma islemine gecebilirsiniz.

Kullanacagnz siteye uye olduktan sonra karsnza kullanc ad ve sifresini gireceginiz yer gelecektir. Buraya giris yaptktan sonra site icerisine islemlere devam edebilirsiniz.

Sitede yer alan para yatrma sekmesine tklayp sonrasnda karsnza gelen sayfay inceleyebilirsiniz. Para yatrma bolumunde yer alan ksma ne kadar para yatracagnz yazp devam tusuna basmalsnz.

Yatrmak istediginiz tutar girip sonrasnda da devam tusuna bastktan sonra karsnza kart bilgilerinizi gireceginiz sayfa gelecektir. Kredi kart kullanarak para gondermek isteyenlerin tercih ettigi bu sayfa tum bilgiler girilip islem onaylanmaldr.

Canl bahis sitelerine para yatrma islemini gerceklestirmek icin hesaba havale secenegini de kullanabilirsiniz. Site icerisinde musteri hizmetleri ile iletisime gecerek banka hesap numaralarn ogrenebilirsiniz. Belirtilen IBAN numarasna istediginiz tutar havale edebilirsiniz. Havale ederken acklama ksmna yazlacak bilgilere dikkat etmelisiniz.

Kredi kart veya banka havalesi ile gerceklesen para yatrma islemi sonucunda site hesabnzdan bakiyenize bakabilirsiniz. Bakiyenize gore dilediginiz sekilde bahislerinizi gerceklestirebilirsiniz.

Canl Bahis Siteleri Para Cekme

Canl bahiste dogru hamleler ve dogru tahminler sonucunda kazandgnz bedeli geri almak isteyebilirsiniz. Kazanclarnz istediginiz banka hesabnza cekebilmek icin uymanz gereken kurallar soz konusudur. Oncelikle bahis sitelerinden para cekebilmeniz icin uye olurken dogru bilgi paylasmnda bulunmanz gerektigidir. Cunku canl bahis sitelerinden para cekme islemi icin kullanc hesab ile talep edilen banka hesap bilgilerinin ortusmesi gerekir. Yani uye olurken verilen bilgi ile banka hesab kime ait ise o bilgiler ayn olmaldr. Bu uygulama sitenin hem kullancsn hem de kendisini guvene alma politikasdr. Ayrca frsatclarn onune gecerek yeni bir uye olusumunun da onune gecmek amac gutmektedir. Uye olan kisi farkl para cekilme talebi verilen hesap farkl oldugunda para cekme islemi gerceklesmeyecektir.

Bahisleriniz sonucunda kazanc elde edebilir ve bu kazancnz da hakknz olarak almak isteyebilirsiniz. Burada son derece basit uygulama soz konusu olurken siteler aras farkl gorunumler soz konusu olabilir. Fakat yine de tum sitelerde uyenin site icerisinde para cekme bolumune girmesi yeterlidir. Burada cekilecek olan tutarn belirlenmesi ve hesap numarasnn girilmesi ile birlikte islem onay gerekecektir. Para cekme taleplerinde sizden gerekli bilgiler istenmekte ve havale islemi istenilen bilgiler esliginde yurutulmektedir. Dogru bilgi paylasmak sorunsuz para cekebilmeniz en onemli kuraldr. Istenilen bilgiler girildikten sonra site sorumlular gerekli kontrolleri yapp herhangi bir sorun yoksa ksa surede hesabnza gerekli paray aktaracaklardr.

Canl Bahis Sitelerinden Para Cekmek Icin Istenen Belgeler

Bahis sitelerine uye olduktan sonra baz kullanclar para cekme taleplerinin karslanmadg konusunda sikayetlerde bulunmuslardr. Bu sikayetlersektorde uzun zamandr bulunan guvenilir bahis siteleri de yer almaktadr. Fakat sikayetlerin dayanaklarna bakldgnda ise islerin tamamen farkl oldugu gorulmektedir. Yasanan bu durum kullanclarn hatal bilgi girmesi ve uyelik bilgileri ile banka bilgilerinin uyusmamas ile dogru orantldr. Birde canl bahis para cekmek icin istenen belgeler eksik ya da hatal olarak sunulmus olabilir. Ortaya ckan karsklar neticesinde para cekme talebinde bulunan kisi istedigini alamadg icin sikayetci olmaktadr. Oysa ki istenilen bilgiler dogru ve istenilen evraklar eksiksiz sunulsa para cekme islemi sorunsuz olacak.

Sitelerin para cekme konusunda dikkatli hareket etmesi hilelerin ve illegal faaliyetlerin onune gecmek adnadr. Cunku baz kullanclar farkl bilgiler vererek ikinci hesap acabilmektedirler. Bazen de bilincsizce hatal bilgi girilebilmektedir. Hatal islemlerin cozumu konusunda islem yaptgnz sitenin musteri temsilcileri ile gorusebilirsiniz. Talepleriniz dogrultusunda para cekme islemlerinde ki sorunlar giderilecektir. Canl bahis para cekmek icin istenen belgeler listesi su sekildedir;

Kullanc bilgileri ile banka bilgilerini karslastrmak icin kimlik fotokopisi

Banka hesap bilgileri

Ikametgah ve kisiye ait herhangi bir fatura.

Kacak Iddaa

Turkiyede dogrudan bahis yapmak icin resmi kanallar kullanlabilmektedir. Fakat tercih edilen ve oran olarak cok daha fazla frsatlar sunan kacar iddaasiteleri bulunmaktadr. Bu siteler kanunlara aykr sekilde yaplmakta olup, yasal bir dayanag yoktur. Elbette bu sitelerin kurulus merkezi Turkiye olmayp, ds ulkelerdedir ve faaliyetler belirlenen siteler uzerinden yaplmaktadr. Kacak Iddaa oldukca riskli olup, cok dikkatli olunmas gerekir.

Kacak Bahis

Kanunlar cercevesinde istediginiz gibi bahis yapamayabilirsiniz. Bahis yapabilmek icin ya kanuni olarak sorun olmayan ulke dsnda ki kumarhanelere gitmeniz veya kacak bahis sitelerinden islem yapabilirsiniz. Zira bu durum tehlikeli olsa da cok sayda site guvenli sekilde bu alanda hizmet vermektedir. Kacak bahiste oldukca fazla secenek bulunurken yuksek oranda kazanc sunuyor olmas da ragbeti arttryor.

Illegal Bahis

Bahisin bircok alanda yasak oldugu Turkiyede bu alanda cok sayda yabanc merkezli siteler hizmet vermektedir. Illegal bahis sektorunde faaliyet gosteren siteler guvenli hizmet anlays ile kullanclarna frsatlar sunmaktadr. Yurt ds merkezli bu siteler sorunsuz sekilde hizmetlerini surdururken bulunduklar ulkelerde kanunlara uygun sekildedir. Elbette faaliyet noktasnda bulunduklar ulkelerde sorun teskil etmese de Turkiyede faaliyet gostermeleri kanunin yasaklanmstr.

Yasads Bahis

Gerek olusturulan etkenler gerekse de ortaya konulan riskler yasads bahis de oldukca tehlikelidir. Kanunlarn mudahil olduklar bu alanlar da hem kullanclar hem de populer bahis yaptranlar tum riskleri goze almaktadrlar. Fakat yasaklardan uzak sekilde guvenli hizmet sunan siteler de bulunmaktadr. Takipler neticesinde kapatlan sitelerin muhakkak alternatifleri kurularak yollarna devam etmektedirler.

Canl Iddaa Siteleri Nelerdir?

Dunya genelinde kabul gormus cok sayda guvenli hizmet veren populer bahis siteleri bulunmaktadr. Elbette bu siteler dunyann bircok ulkesinde faaliyet gosterse de Turkiyede yasaktr. Sektorde yer alan cok sayda legal iddaa siteleri bulunmaktadr. Herhangi bir kanunsuzlugun olmadg bu sitelerden hzl ve guvenli islem yaplabilmektedir. Tabi bu sitelerde uygulanan oranlar yasal olmayan sitelere gore daha dusuktur. Illegal sitelerin tercih edilme sebeplerinin en onemli etkeni de olusturulan oranlardr. Peki, Iddaa siteleri nelerdir? Faaliyetleri ve uygulama esaslar nelerdir?

Turkiyede faaliyet gosteren yasal iddaa siteleri listesi su sekildedir;

Iddaa

Bilyoner

Tuttur

Birebin

Oley

Nesine

Misli

Iddaa

2004 ylnda hizmet vermeye baslayan Iddaa Spor toto tarafndan kurulmus olup, ilk etapta bayilik seklinde calsmaya baslamstr. Elbette zamanla gelisen teknolojiye ayak uydurarak internet uzerinde de populer bahis severlerin hizmetine sunulmustur. Kuruldugu donemde devletin resmi kurumu olarak faaliyet gosterirken gelinen yeni donemde ozellestirilmistir.

Bilyoner

Turkiyede faaliyetine 2006 ylnda baslayan Bilyoner ilk ozel yasal bahis sitesi olma ozelligine sahiptir. Guvenilir bahis siteleri Turkiyede bunlardr. Ksa surede populer olan site halen faaliyetlerini sorunsuz sekilde surdurmektedir.

Tuttur

Ksa surede adndan bahsettirmeyi basaran Tuttur 2009 ylnda faaliyetlere baslamstr. Guvenilir bahis siteleri arasnda yerini almstr. Gunumuze dek bircok alanda populer bahis yapanlara frsatlar sunarken avantajlar ile de begeni toplamstr.

Birebin

Kullanc odakl calsmalar surdurse de 2011 ylnda sektore giren Birebindiger sitelere gore daha az ragbet gormektedir. Bahis oynamak ise bu sitede oldukca kolaydr. Elbette farkl yaklasmlara sahip olmasndan dolay ilerleyen sureclerde adndan sklkla bahsettirecek gibi gorunuyor.

Oley

2009 ylnda Dogus yayn gruplarnn istiraki olarak kurulmus olup yasal olarak herhangi bir sorunu olmayan sitelerdendir. Bahis siteleri arasnda hzl cks yapms bir sitedir. Oley yapms oldugu yenilikler ile kullanclarn da dikkatini ksa surede cekmeyi basarmstr.

Nesine

Birbirini takip eden surecte Nesine de yine 2006 ylnda hizmet vermeye baslamstr. Yasal bahis siteleri arasnda yerini almay basaran firma ksa surede sevilen ve ragbet goren bir site olmustur.

Misli

2009 ylnda sektore cok hzl giris yapan Misli cok sayda reklam filmi ile on plana ckmay basarmstr. Internet uzerinden hem yasal hem de sorunsuz hizmet veren bahis sitelerinden bir tanesi olmustur.

Canl Bahis Siteleri Kayt ve Uyelik Islemleri

Her zaman populerligini koruyan ve surekli gelisim gosteren canl bahis gun gectikce daha da gucleniyor. Bahis oynamak icin ise sitelere uye olunmas gerekir. Yuksek getirisi ve begeni toplayan faaliyetleri ile cok sayda site bu alanda faaliyet gostermektedir. Elbette sorunsuz sekilde uye olmanz ve faaliyetler gostermeniz de oldukca kolaydr. Canl bahis siteleri kayt ve uyelik islemleri dakikalar icerisinde gerceklestirilecek yapya sahiptir.

Uye olacagnz siteyi belirledikten sonra siteye girmeniz gerekmektedir. Girdiginiz sitenin ana sayfasnda uye ol ya da kayt ol bolumu bulunacaktr. Siteler arasnda degiskenlik gosteren bu alanda temel unsurlar bulunmaktadr. Elbette farkllklar olsa da temelinde benzer bilgiler uye olmak isteyen kisilerden talep edilmektedir.

Uye ol bolumune tkladktan sonra karsnza uyelik bilgi formu ckacaktr. Bu formda sizin kim oldugunuzu ogrenmek ve sitenin guvenligini saglamak adna islemler yaplmaktadr. Uyelik formunda yer alan ad soyad bolumunu eksiksiz ve dogru sekilde doldurmalsnz. Sizden bu formda istenen bilgilerin tamamn girmeniz istenecektir. Istenen bilgiler mutlaka dogru ve eksiksiz sekilde olmaldr. Eksik veya hatal bilgi uyelik islemlerinde sorun teskil edebilir. Yine de yanls bilgi girisine ragmen uyelik islemleri tamamlanabilir. Fakat boyle bir yol izleyenler sonrasnda buyuk skntlarla karslasabilirler. Bu skntlarn basnda da para cekme islemlerinde yasanan sorunlardr.

Uyelik islemleri dikkatli ve ozenle doldurulmas gereken yapdadr. Canl bahis siteleri kayt ve uyelik islemleri gerceklestirilirken verilen bilgiler site yonetimi tarafndan muhafaza edilmektedir. Herhangi bir sekilde 3. Sahslarla paylaslmas gibi bir durum soz konusu degildir. Bu faaliyetleri surduren sitelerin guven unsurlar arasnda bu nokta onceliklidir.

Bahis sitelerine uye olurken hatal bilgi paylasmnda bulunmak size faydadan cok zarar verecektir. Diyelim ki bilgileri hatal girdiniz ve uyelik onayland. Uyelik tamamlandktan sonra siteye para yatrdnz ve kazanc elde ettiniz. Kazancnz sonrasnda hesabnza almak istediginizde karsnza banka bilgileri bolumu gelecektir. Para cekme talebi gerceklestikten sonra site uyelik bilgileri ile banka hesap bilgileri ortusmez ise paranz alamazsnz. Boyle bir durumla karslasmamak adna bu hususa ayrca dikkat etmelisiniz.
Jun 8, 2016 | By Kira

Well soon be entering the second half of 2016, and if youre still-unfulfilled New Years resolution happened to be buy a new 3D printer, well, youd better get on it.

But, as we know all-too-well from reporting on the dozens of new 3D printers that hit the market every few months, selecting and buying the best desktop 3D printer is never a one-size-fits-all process. Thats because there is no best 3D printerno matter how highly reviewed or how many awards a particular model has picked up, every 3D printer comes with its own pros and cons depending on how it will be used.

If you want to buy a 3D printer but dont know where to start, or maybe youve been eyeing a few models online but cant bring yourself to hit checkout, weve assembled a 2016 3D Printer Buyers Guide to help clear through some of the clutter and help you decide which model, technology, build size, and price point is best for you.

Tips for choosing your 3D printer

Before starting, its important to know what features and properties are most important for your making needs. A schoolteacher wanting to introduce their classroom to the principles of STEM will probably prioritize safety, plugnplay, and low-cost, whereas a mechanical engineer needing custom 3D printed prototypes will look for higher resolution, speed, and even multi-material capabilities.

For this reason, weve divided the list into a few broad categories, and included key technical specs. The list will also focus on 3D printers below $5,000. Below are some of the most important things to consider:

3D Printer Technology: The majority of consumer 3D printers can be divided into two main categories: FDM (fused deposition modeling, also known as FFF) technology, and SLA (sterelithography). With FDM, plastic filament is heated and passed through an extruder, which deposits it layer by layer into a 3D shape that hardens as it cools. FDM technology is generally quite affordable, and allows for a range of materials (well talk more about that later).

SLA 3D printing involves focusing a light source (UV lamp or laser) into a vat of photopolymer resin. The light hardens the resin into precise, predetermined patterns, building up the 3D object. Though not as common as FDM (due mainly to its higher cost, maintenance and post-processing needs), SLA has the advantage of creating much more precise and professionally finished 3D printed objects, and is therefore becoming more sought after for prototyping and end-use needs. In our 2016 3D Printer Buyers Guide, the SLA 3D printers are in a separate category at the end.

Build Volume: Most desktop 3D printers are quite limited in their size, but for household projects, this usually isnt a problem. Some models, such as the Rostock MAX, are prized for their larger build volume. Keep in mind, however, that it is also quite common to 3D print multiple small parts of a design and assemble or glue them together afterwards.

3D Printing Materials: FMD 3D printers most commonly use PLA or ABS filaments. PLA is biodegradable and generally quite affordable, but it can be brittle and break easily. On the flipside, ABS is more flexible, yet requires a heated bed to print. Other FDM-friendly materials include nylon, bronze and copper composites, wood-based filaments, and more, most of which are available in a wide variety of colors. Keep in mind that some 3D printer companies require users to buy their proprietary filaments, which can drive up costs.

For SLA resins, color choices are more limited, and they can be more expensive, but for some designers, the smoother, higher-resolution finish is worth it.

Speed and Resolution: Consumer 3D printers are notorious for being slow. The majority range from around 50-100mm/s, but as the technology advances, so too will the speed. At the same time, many 3D printers are capable of achieving quite high resolutions, from 200 down to as little as 20 (keep in mind that the lower the actual number, the higher and better the resolution will be). Some 3D printer models give users the option of increasing the speed by producing thicker layers, thereby reducing the resolution. The acceptable trade-off between speed and resolution will entirely depend on your needs as a maker, so keep that in mind when choosing your 3D printer.

Others: Multiple extruders, heated beds, closed frames, USB or WiFi, DIY KitsThere is so much more to take into consideration before you buy a 3D printer. Do you want to print in multiple colors or materials? Then youll need a dual-extruder model. 3D printing with ABS or other specialty materials often requires a heated and/or enclosed print bed, both for consistency and safety. For classrooms or shared workspaces, WiFi connectivity can be considered a bonus, but USB remains the standard. And then there are the questions of software (open source or proprietary?), add-ons, and the option of buying a DIY Kit so you can build and customize the 3D printer yourself.

Read on to see some of the top 3D printer picks for 2016:

Category 1: Budget/Entry-Level 3D Printers ($300-$800)

1. M3D Micro 3D printer ($349)

Tech: FDM

Materials: ABS, PLA, Nylon

Build Volume: 116 x 109 x 113 mm

Max Resolution: 50 microns

Open Source: No

Connectivity: USB

Best for: Beginners, Educators

The first 3D printer on our list is the M3D Micro, which also made it to our Cheapest 3D Printers of 2016 roundup for one obvious reason: excellent value for money. This Kickstarter success story offers a relatively small build volume, but good quality resolution for simple prints, making it ideal for beginners, educators, or anyone looking to get their first taste of desktop 3D printing. It has received some negative comments regarding its software and slow build-times, but overall, its a great entry-level choice.

One final bonus is how good it looksthe colorful, cube-shaped frame is sleek, playful, and would look great in a classroom or workspace.

Tech: FDM

Materials: PLA Jr. (proprietary XYZPrinting filament)

Build Volume: 150 x 150 x 150 mm

Max Resolution: 100 microns

Open Source: No

Connectivity: USB, SD or Wifi

Best for: Beginners, Educators

Taiwans XYZPrinting is the leading manufacturing of desktop 3D printers worldwide thanks in large part to their line of affordable, plugnplay da Vinci 3D printer models, which are primarily targeted at the education market.

Marketed as the #1 3D printer for homes and schools, the da Vinci Jr. 1.0w (the w stands for WiFi; a USB-only da Vinci Jr. is available for just $349) was built for ease-of-use, featuring auto-leveling and Z-offset calibration via touch-screen LCD. It also has a closed door for classroom safety, is lightweight and eco-friendly, and offers a 12-month warranty. Like the M3D, it doesnt score very high for resolution, but if used for simple models that shouldnt be a problem.

3. RepRap Prusa i3 3D Printer ($369)

Tech: FDM

Materials: ABS, PLA

Build Volume: 200 x 200 x 180 mm

Max Resolution: 50 microns

Open Source: Hardware and Software

Connectivity: USB

Best for: Beginner-to-intermediate, makers, designers, engineers

The Prusa is one of the most popular 3D printers in the RepRap universe. First and foremost, buyers must know that this is a DIY Kit, meaning theyll have to assemble the parts themselves. That being said, building your own 3D printer is a great way to get to know each part and how it works, and the Prusa i3 is known for being relatively easy to assemble and calibrate. It also comes with a huge support community, so beginners shouldnt be intimidated.

For more advanced users, another relatively budget option is the recently-released $699 Prusa i3 MK2, which boasts a 31% larger build volume of 250 x 210 x 200 mm, a new HeatBed MK42 print bed, 40% faster printing speeds, and other key improvements.

4. PrintrBot Play 1505 3D Printer ($399)

Tech: FDM

Materials: PLA/Flexible filament (ABS available with heated bed upgrade)

Build Volume: 100 x 100 x 130 mm

Max Resolution: 50 microns

Open Source: No

Connectivity: USB or SD card

Best for: Beginners, Educators

The PrintrBot Play, available in both pre-assembled or kit form, is one of the few desktop 3D printers that offers an all-metal steel frame, which is lightweight yet extraordinarily sturdy. Its 50 micron resolution is remarkablenot only when compared to other 3D printers in the same category, but even when compared to much more expensive ones.

What it lacks in build volume and software (third-party software is required), the PrintrBot play makes up for in resolution, speed, ease-of-use, and of course, affordability. Proving its worth to educators, this budget 3D printer recently received the Best for Schools award in Make: Magazines 2016 Buyers Guide.

It is, of course, also worth mentioning the extremely popular PrintrBot Metal Simple, which for just $599 offers the same sturdy metal frame, heated-bed upgrade, and 50 micron resolution. For an extra $200, users receive a larger build volume (150 x 150 x 150), auto-leveling, and an even higher degree of reliability. The PrintrBot Metal Simple comes assembled and is fully portable.

5. UP! Mini 3D Printer ($599)

Tech: FDM

Materials: ABS, PLA

Build Volume: 120 x 120 x 120 mm

Max Resolution: 200 microns

Open Source: No

Connectivity: USB or SD card

Best for: Beginner-to-intermediate makers

The plugnplay UP! Mini by Beijing TierTime Technologies offers an enclosed print area, ensuring consistency for heated prints. It is also known for reliability and relatively high quality all-around. Though it has received poor reviews for its lack of customer service and support community, the UP! Minis ease-of-use arguably balances that out. The UP! Mini 2 is currently available for pre-sale at the same cost as the original.

6. ROBO R1 +Plus 3D Printer ($799)

Tech: FDM

Materials: ABS, PLA, exotic & flexible filaments

Build Volume: 254 x 228 x 203 mm

Max Resolution: 100 microns

Open Source: Hardware

Connectivity: SD card

Best for: Beginners, Educators

ROBO 3D, another Kickstarter success story, has built-up quite a loyal fan-following with its plugnplay ROBO R1 +Plus, an upgraded model with an improved linear motion system, excellent ease-of-use, automatic calibration, and a metal hot-end that allows users to experiment with more specialty materials such as ABS, carbon fiber PLA, wood PLA, and more. The 3D printer comes with a 6-month part-replacement warranty and 24/7 customer support.

Perhaps one of its greatest advantages for entry-level users its is expanded build volumeat 254 x 228 x 203mm, it is the largest 3D printer on our entry-level list. Another key point for buyers? ROBO 3D sells through popular retailers, including Amazon, Best Buy, and Staples, making it accessible to a wide range of consumers.

Category 2: Enthusiast/Mid-Range 3D Printers ($800-$2,000)

7. DeezMaker Bukito 3D Printer ($849)

Tech: FDM

Materials: PLA, PET

Build Volume: 125 x 150 x 125 mm

Max Resolution: 50 microns

Open Source: Hardware & Software

Connectivity: USB or SD card

Best for: Beginner-to-intermediate; users who require portability

More grabngo than plugnplay, the Bukito 3D printer offers two main selling points: professional-quality 3D prints and total portability in a ruggedly built, 6.2lb package. It can also achieve 3D print speeds of 200mm/s if youre willing to forgo some of that resolution in favor of truly rapid prototypes.

Whether you are a traveling professional, an adventurer in need of custom parts on-the-go, or just want a reliable, high-quality 3D printer at a reasonable price, the DeezMaker Bukito is a solid bet. A DIY kit is also available for $799.

Tech: FDM

Materials: PLA (proprietary Dremel filament)

Build Volume: 230 x 150 x 140 mm

Max Resolution: 100 microns

Open Source: no

Connectivity: USB, SD card

Best for: Beginners, Educators

This plugnplay 3D printer is widely available from commercial retailers, including Amazon, Lowes, and Home Depot, and is primarily targeted at educators, families, and beginners (Dremel has in fact been making a major push for 3D printing and STEM education via its Idea Builder series and Dremel Dreams classroom system).

Though it doesnt provide the highest print quality, it is known for its excellent ease-of-use, relatively large build volume, professional customer support, and user-friendly features such as onboard controls, an enclosed print bed, and 12-month warranty. At $999 (plus the cost of proprietary filament), its not the cheapest educational 3D printer, but it is accessible and reliable.

Dremel also recently released the upgraded 3D40 2.0, which is WiFi enabled, comes with its own smartphone app, and has a 30% larger build volume. It currently retails for roughly $1,300.

9. Rostock MAX v2 Delta 3D Printer Kit ($999)

Tech: FDM

Materials: ABS, PLA, Specialty/Exotics

Build Volume: 224 x 224 x 375 mm

Max Resolution: 20 microns

Open Source: Hardware and Software

Connectivity: USB

Best for: Intermediate-to-Professional makers

The Rostock MAX Delta 3D printer (DIY Kit) by SeeMeCNC is something of a cult favorite amongst 3D printing enthusiasts. Offering the largest build volume of any sub-$1000 3D printer, the Rostock MAX can 3D print objects up to 280mm in diameter and 375 mm in height (thats a print volume of over 1300 cubic inches). But size isnt everything. This incredibly well-designed machine (assembled from laser-cut and injection molded parts) can reach resolutions as low as 20 microns and speeds of 60mm/s, and its hot-end platform allows for material versatility.

Its not exactly a beginner kit, but for experienced 3D print enthusiasts it is a go-to. It also earned Make: Magazines Best Value 2016 award.

Tech: FDM

Materials: ABS, PLA, Specialty/Exotics

Build Volume: 225 x 145 x 150 mm

Max Resolution: 100 microns

Open Source: Hardware and Software

Connectivity: USB or SD Card

Best for: Intermediate-to-Professional makers

The Flashforge Creator Pro is a no-nonsense 3D printing workhorse: its sturdy, all-metal frame houses dual extruders and a heated, enclosed print bed that can handle PLA, ABS, and a range of specialty materials. Its structure has been compared to the popular MakerBot Replicator (well get to that one later), yet Flashforges model is less than half the price. Though better for intermediate users, ambitious beginners can also benefit from Flashforges large and engaged support community.

11. LulzBot Mini 3D Printer ($1,250)

Tech: FDM

Materials: ABS, PLA, PVA, Nylon, PETG, HIPS + specialty/exotics

Build Volume: 152 x 152 x 158 mm

Max Resolution: 50 microns

Open Source: Hardware and Software

Connectivity: USB

Best for: Beginner-to-Intermediate makers, Educators

Aleph Objects does not mess around when it comes to powerful (if not pretty) desktop 3D printers. The smallest in the LulzBot family, the LulzBot Mini, is no exception. Where to begin? Its capable of extruding a whole range of specialty materials, including bronze, copper, polycarbonate, conductive PLA and ABS, Alloy 910 and much more (though keep in mind the open-frame could leave users exposed to burns.) The LulzBot Mini can also reach a maximum resolution of 50 microns, offers auto-leveling, and, because it is entirely open source (Libre innovation is a cornerstone of Alephs philosophy), there is plenty of room for customization and upgrading.

With just a small learning curve, users can rely on the Lulzbot Mini to offer consistent 3D printed prototypes, educational models, tools, toys and trinkets. It may be considered a tad expensive for such a small machine, but depending on your needs, that may not be a deal-breaker.

12. CEL Robox 3D Printer ($1,399)

Tech: FDM

Materials: ABS, PLA, HIPS, PETG, Nylon

Build Volume: 210 x 150 x 100 mm

Max Resolution: 20 microns

Open Source: No

Connectivity: USB

Best for: All levels

UK-based CELs Robox 3D printer is small but mighty, and it looks good to boot. Though the build volume is smaller than most other 3D printers in this price range, the Robox comes with a host of exciting features, including a heated build plate, extremely fast set-up, auto-leveling, decent software, and now, a dual-material printing head for multi-material or multi-color 3D prints.

Though using Roboxs propriety filament ecosystem is recommended, its not absolutely required. The main benefits are a simplified loading and unloading system, as well as a filament recognition software function that loads the cartridges exact details and can, for example, catch filament errors before they ruin your print.

13. BEETHEFIRST 3D Printer ($1,699)

Tech: FDM

Materials: PLA (Proprietary BEEVERYCREATIVE filament)

Build Volume: 190 x 135 x 125 mm

Max Resolution: 50 microns

Open Source: Software

Connectivity: USB

Best for: Intermediate-to-professional product designers in need of portability

Created by Portuguese innovators BEEVERYCREATIVE, the BEETHEFIRSTs sleek and attractive exterior houses an award-winning and highly coveted FDM machine that is used by professional architects, product designers and artists who dont want to waste time calibrating and messing with settings. In fact, BEEVERYCREATIVE claims to be the most user-friendly professional 3D printing experience, able to 3D print for more than 5000 hours without re-calibrating. Its also fully portable, and comes with its own transportable briefcase, the BEEPACK, which really makes you want to bring it with you wherever you go.

Cons to consider: no heated build platform, proprietary filament required, and a smaller-than-average build volume. For consumers, it may seem expensive, but for a professional, plugnplay experience, some would argue it pays for itself. The BEETHEFIRST+, which features a new extruder, is currently only available in Europe.

14. Makergear M2 3D Printer ($1,825)

Tech: FDM

Materials: ABS, PLA

Build Volume: 254 x 203 x 203 mm

Max Resolution: 25 microns

Open Source: Hardware and Software

Connectivity: USB or Ethernet cable

Best for: Intermediate-to-Professional makers

Makergears M Series 3D printers were built on the philosophy that better parts make better 3D printers. Having experimented with a plywood frame on the M1, the developers switched to a black powder coated rigid steel frame for the M2, paired with CNC machined aluminum components and plastic parts that were 3D printed in-house on production M2 machines. The result? An extremely sturdy and precise machine that truly holds its own without constant tweaking and maintenance.

Though not a beginner 3D printer to set-up, once calibrated, the M2 consistently produces professional-quality 3D prints. The included platform heater allows users to 3D print with ABS, and theres plenty of room for upgrades and customization.

All-around, this is one of the most highly reviewed sub-$2000 3D printers for consumers who want to get serious about 3D printing.

15. Zortrax M200 3D Printer ($1,900)

Tech: FDM

Materials: ABS, HIPS, ULTRAT (Zortrax ecosystem recommended but not required)

Build Volume: 200 x 200 x 185 mm

Max Resolution: 90 microns

Open Source: No

Connectivity: USB or SD Card

Best for: Intermediate-to-Professionals, Educators, Designers

There would be no way to write this guide without including the Zortrax M200. It is praised for its plug-n-play ease-of-use, reliability (it boasts an extremely low fail rate), and ability to 3D print high-temperature materials with a high level of detail. Sold to hobbyists, educators, graduate students, engineers, prosumers and professional designers, the Zortrax M200 is an industry standby and priced just below $2,000, its still considered a very reasonable investment.

Two things to consider: Poland-based Zortrax sells its own ecosystem of filaments (Z-ABS, Z-GLASS and Z-HIPS) and it is not open source, meaning theres not as much freedom as with other machines. That being said, the M200 has made its way into the 3D printing hall of fame, and its not going anywhere anytime soon.

Category 3: Enthusiast-to-Prosumer Premium 3D Printers ($2,000+)

Tech: FDM

Materials: ABS, PLA, HIPs, Nylon, PVA, Flex, Specialty/Exotic

Build Volume: 280 x 280 x 250 mm

Max Resolution: 50 microns

Open Source: Hardware and Software

Connectivity: SD Card

Best for: Ambitious beginners, enthusiasts, professional makers

As we enter the $2,000+ category of 3D printers, the overall quality and reliability jumps quite a bit. From this point on, if youre willing to spend the money, youre sure to get an amazing 3D printer for a wide variety of projects. Well start with the Lulzbot Taz 6, Aleph Objects follow-up to the award winning Taz 5.

Described as the single best out of the box experience of any 3D printer for home-users, the re-engineered, self-replicating and built-to-last Taz 6 is suitable for ambitious beginners to professional makers. In addition to major improvements, such as self-leveling, self-cleaning, and a fully-integrated power supply, the fully open-source Taz 6 also features community-driven improvements, such as improved firmware, more reliable components, support for new filament materials and an extended warranty.

Speaking of materials, the Taz 6 can handle a huge range of 3D printing filaments, from PLA and ABS to nylon, polycarbonate, wood and metal composites, and just about any other specialty material on the market. Dual extruder tool head upgrades are available for multi-material 3D printing, and the larger-than-average build size can accommodate a variety of projects.

The Lulzbot Taz 5 is still considered one of the absolute best 3D printers in its class, and, though its only been on the market for a few months, the Taz 6 doesnt fall far from the tree.

17. MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D Printer ($2,500)

Tech: FDM

Materials: ABS

Build Volume: 250 x 160 x 150 mm

Max Resolution: 90 microns

Open Source: No

Connectivity: USB or SD card

Best for: Intermediate-to-Professional Experimentors

For better or for worse, MakerBot is considered the company that made 3D printing a household term. While the companys flagship desktop 3D printer, the Replicator 5th Gen, has gotten mixed reviews, its newer experimental model, the Replicator 2X could be an interesting option for those who are committed to the MakerBot brand, and are looking to make more professionally-oriented designs.

The main difference between the two is that the 2X comes with a dual-extruder and is optimized for ABS 3D printing. Both the Replicator 5th Gen and 2X have comparable print quality, build volumes, and are sold for the same price. Again, which one is better comes down to what you plan on using it for.

18. Ultimaker 2+ 3D Printer ($2,500)

Tech: FDM

Materials: ABS, PLA, CPE

Build Volume: 223 x 223 x 225 mm

Max Resolution: 20 microns

Open Source: Hardware and Software

Connectivity: USB or SD card

Best for: All levels

Rounding out our quartet of the consumer 3D printer hall-of-famers is Ultimaker, with their new-and-improved Ultimaker 2+. While the original Ultimaker 2 was already an award-winning model, the 2+ boasts significant improvements, including interchangeable nozzles, a geared feeder, and optimized airflow, which, taken together, enable faster and easier 3D printing across a wide range of 3D printing projects and needs.

Theres very little to critique about this well-built, open-source, community-loved machine, except for its price tag, which isnt exactly entry-level. Still, the Ultimaker 2+ is truly hard to beat when it comes to the best 3D printers available in 2016.

Rounding out the Ultimaker family of top-notch consumer 3D printers is the Ultimaker 2 Extended+ (build volume: 223 x 223 x 305mm, retailing at $3,030) and the Ultimaker Original+ (only $995), which is an excellent bargain option for users familiar with DIY 3D printer kits.

19. BCN3D Sigma 3D Printer ($2,500)

Tech: FDM

Materials: ABS, HIPs PLA, PVA

Build Volume: 210 x 297 x 210 mm

Max Resolution: 50 microns

Open Source: Hardware and Software

Connectivity: USB or SD Card

Best for: Intermediate-to-professional makers

The BCN3D Sigmas key selling point is its IDEX system, which stands for Independent Dual Extruder. This novel system allows users to combine multiple materials or colors, and to 3D print complex shapes without geometric limitations. Targeted at professional designers, the Sigma also offers reliably high print quality, a heated bed for material versatility, and is fully open source.

20. DeltaWASP 20 40 3D Printer ($2,799)

Tech: FDM

Materials: ABS, PLA, Nylon, Specialty/Exotic

Build Volume: 200 x 200 x 400 mm

Max Resolution: 50 microns

Open Source: Hardware and Software

Connectivity: SD Card

Best for: Intermediate-to-professional makers

Italian innovator Massimo Moretti founded the Worlds Advanced Saving Project, or WASP, with the vision of manufacturing reliable, high-quality 3D printers that encourage sustainable development. From the worlds largest Delta 3D printer, capable of building sustainable housing, to state-of-the-art ceramic 3D printing labs, WASP is at the forefront of truly useful 3D printing innovation.

While the DeltaWASP 20 40 cannot 3D print houses, its 400 mm tall build space is significantly larger than most at-home machines. As a prosumer-level 3D printer, it can also 3D print a wide range of materials thanks to its heated and enclosed build plate. It has been reviewed as easy-to-use, reliable, and all-around quite professional.

Finally, although the 300mm/s build speed may already seem quite fast, WASP has also released the DeltaWASP 20 40 Turbo, which can reach the insane maximum speed of 600mm/s.

Category 4: SLA / DLP Resin 3D printers

Tech: SLA

Materials: Resin

Build Volume: 128 x 128 x 200 mm

Max Resolution: 25 microns

Open Source: No

Connectivity: USB

Best for: Educators, Enthusiasts

Within the category of SLA/DLP 3D printers, even the budget options may seem like an investment. This is because the technology and materials for resin-based 3D printing are more advanced and more expensive overallbut for users who absolutely prize smooth, detailed, professional finishes, it could be worth taking the plunge.

Well start with the most affordable SLA 3D printer on the market, XYZPrintings Nobel 1.0. Designed for educators, tinkerers and intermediate makers, the Nobel can create highly detailed, complex 3D printed objects with relatively little set up. The main set backs are the price (both of the 3D printer and its consumables) and slow printing time, but if youve never tried SLA 3D printing, this is probably the best entry-level option before committing to any larger or higher-end models.

Tech: DLP

Materials: Resin

Build Volume: 104 x 75 x 203 mm

Max Resolution: 30 microns

Open Source: Hardware & Software

Connectivity: USB

Best for: Professional jewelers, enthusiasts

A step up in terms of both price and quality, the B9 Creator is a favorite in the 3D printing community. Rather than a UV laser, the B9 uses a digital light projector (DLP) to cure and harden the resin. Though an assembled version is available for $4,595, many users have commented that going for the DIY kit is worth it, since, although it does take time, it allows them to set it up to their exact specifications, therefore resulting in more tailored and high-quality 3D prints.

It is also important to note that the max build volume of the machine is 107 x 75 x 203 mm when printing at 70 micron x/y pixels setting, however if you want a higher resolution, say 30 microns, the build volume goes down to 57.6 x 32.4 x 203 mm. Ideal for jewelry, replicas, or other finely-detailed prints. Third party resin is available, or B9 sells its own brand in either Black, Emerald, Cherry, Red, or Yellow.

23. Formlabs Form 2 3D Printer ($3,499)

Tech: SLA

Materials: Resin (proprietary Formlabs resin recommended but not required)

Build Volume: 145 x 145 x 175 mm

Max Resolution: 25 microns

Open Source: No

Connectivity: USB, WiFi or Ethernet

Best for: Professional designers, engineers, product designers, medical industry

Back in 2012, Formlabs introduced the first-ever desktop resin 3D printer, the Form 1. Three generations later, the Form 2 has been hailed as the most advanced desktop SLA 3D printer yet. A bigger build volume, 50% more powerful laser, an automatic resin-feed system, touchscreen display, WiFi-connectivity, and several other features enhance both the user experience and finished product. From 3D jewelry designers to dental professionals, the Form 2 is an industry go-to.

As far as materials go, Formlabs does offer a library of its own proprietary resins, including Clear, Tough, White, Grey, Black, Flexible and Castable to cover most bases. The main benefit of using Formlabs resins is that they come in a specially designed tank that slots right into the back of the machine. The integrated resin system can detect the resin levels and automatically fill it as required, meaning less work for you. The downside, of course, is higher running costs. Third party resins can be used as long as you are willing to manually fill the tanks yourself.

There are many other 3D printers on the market that could have made it to this list, but the ones mentioned above are a great place to start for anyone who is considering buying a 3D printer.

Have you bought a 3D printer in 2016? Are there any you would add--or remove--from our roundup? Let us know in the comments, on Facebook, or on Twitter.

You can also check out some of our other 3D printer roundups, including:

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V van de dronker wrote at 6/30/2016 8:01:00 PM:What about wanhao i3. Super be value for moneyWavePro wrote at 6/16/2016 10:29:43 PM:Where is the Upplus, the PP3dplus that is commonly use at school (in France) and that is very friendly to use !! Very quick printer, can be used by everybody and understood by everybody even kids and make nive printing ?? A little sad about thisFeign wrote at 6/8/2016 8:06:45 PM:No love for the NewMatter MOD-t? Their firmware and software was buggy at launch, but they've vastly improved both of these as well as adding full support for Cura rather than funneling all the slicing through their web store. 50% of the problems with the MOD-t get fixed by simply putting blue tape on the print bed anyway, even back when the software was buggy.




Jun 8, 2016 | By Faith

Documentation takes many different forms. From television programs, books and magazines articles right through to the reimagining of items and environments from times long past, cultural history still stands as a topic to unite people - and 3D printing is helping to this the world over.

As with all such essential practices, technology continues to support the different ways in which we encounter history. Consuming facts and recorded visuals certainly counts for a lot  but what could deliver more impact that actually touching a physical relic of something that might otherwise no longer exist?

Rekrei is an organization that uses a process called photogrammetry to produce digital 3D models of cultural artifacts from crowd-sourced photographs. A simple concept  but the implications, discussions and projects that such a process has brought about are extensively complex. Worlds away from the ancient environments in which they first existed, an Assyrian lion carved from limestone (in around 860 BC) perches on the plinth of a gallery in New York. A first-century Nirgul tablet and a statue of a priest from the ancient Persian city of Hatra are displayed a few metres away in the same space (Museum of Art and Design). Visitors stare across at them from all angles, studying them from all sides and considering their story, their history, and the cultural relevance of them being there on that day.

Of course, after a little while, you realise that these figurative models are not the ancient relics that their story explains: they are 3D printed replicas, and after reading the plaque next to them, you learn that the originals no longer exist. In February 2015, Islamic State militants stormed the Mosul Museum in Iraq and destroyed statues and artifacts on display there  some of which dated back to around 800 BC. But the solution to the heartbreak that this caused two Ph.D. students - Chance Coughenour and Matthew Vincent (based in France and Spain)  was the development of Rekrei, as a crowdsourced project aiming to preserve the memory of this lost heritage.

Although its a concept that has been around for hundreds of years (and mimics the process of our own eyes), photogrammery has only recently been automated by computers. Contributors to the project submit images of the relics which were damaged or destroyed in last years raid on the Mosul Museum (in particular), and a small but dedicated group of online volunteers sort the images to create of 3D rendered stitching from all of the visual information. The boys at Rekrei believe that this process could be used across the world to document all kinds of culturally historical artifacts  and although the 3D printed replicas could never replace the lost originals, its certainly an opportunity for their stories to live on.

Discussion about ownership and creative responsibility is something that Iranian-born artist Morehsin Allahyari explores within her 3D prints  which take a similar path in terms of recreating lost artifacts. The conversation about culture is changed when certain power structures  like US tech companies or other Western bodies - look to claim a holding on cultures other to their own. Yet the most powerful message from Rekrei project is the new-found accessibility to and coverage of cultural discourse that these 3D prints inspire. In a future-forward world of virtual objects and histories, it could be the only way of holding on to our past.

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Jun 8, 2016 | By Alec

The 3D printing market is continually growing in value and attracting a lot of attention, but not always from the right kind of people. Last Sunday, in the early hours of the morning, two robbers crashed into the Airwolf 3D warehouse in Costa Mesa, Southern California. Once inside, they stole a total of thirteen Axiom 3D printers, together worth over $60,000. Worst of all, the 3D printers were ready to be shipped to local schools, where they were intended to be used in a summer program designed to get kids interested in STEM.

Airwolf 3D, of course, is a successful 3D printer manufacturer that is known for supporting community events in Southern California. For Christmas 2014, they organized a 3D Print-a-Thon for prosthetic hands. Perhaps their growing reputation caught the eye of the criminals in question, who acted at the worst possible time. The thirteen 3D printers were ready to be shipped from the warehouse when the criminals broke in at approximately 6:00 AM on Sunday. Fortunately, no Airwolf 3D employees were hurt during the break-in.

While many robberies are done out of convenience, Airwolf 3D believes that this was a carefully organized and planned robbery. As footage from their surveillance system reveals (below), the suspects pulled up in a champagne-colored Ford Econoline van. Stopping briefly, they knew exactly where they had to be. Throwing the vehicle in reverse, they rammed into the door to gain access to the warehouse.

The security system further revealed two suspects, who are believed to be a man and a woman. The woman wore all black and had her face covered. The man, who drove, was seen jumping out of the van briefly, before climbing back in again. He wore a green camouflage battle dress, and what is believed to be a bulletproof vest. The vehicle used during the robbery sustained some damage on its rear bumper, and Airwolf 3Ds security team is currently working with local police to analyze the vans license number and hopefully establish the suspects identities.

Our chief concern is for the safety of our employees. Were thankful no one was injured and weve taken actions to ensure their continued safety and the security of our facility, said Eva Wolf, co- founder and CEO of Airwolf 3D.

She further argued that the worst part of this burglary is that the 3D printers were ready to be used in schools as part of a 3D printing school program designed to get kids excited about technology. It has set us back a couple days, but the Airwolf family has pulled together to make sure these 3D printers get to the students who were meant to have them, she added.

But these 3D printers are worth nothing without being sold, and thats where the 3D printing community can play an important role in solving this crime. If you happen to come across an unauthorized sale of Airwolf 3D printers in Southern California or surrounding regions, the Airwolf team asks you to check the 3D printers serial number. If it matches any of these serial numbers listed on the Airwolf 3D website here, please contact them immediately.

Of course, also be sure to take a look at the video above. If you happen to have any info about the suspects or the vehicle they drove, please contact Airwolf 3D or the local authorities. Airwolf 3D can be contacted by emailing to info@airwolf3D.com or by calling them at (949) 478-2933. You can also leave anonymous tips here: Submit anonymous tip about Orange County 3D printer robbery.

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Jeremy Harding at the London Review of Books:

A stand-off in Sudan in 1898 between the British and the French was attended by a prodigious rattling of sabres in London and Paris. The two armies in the field never came to blows, but France lost face at Fashoda and a tide of Anglophobia engulfed the Parisian press. It lasted through the Boer wars and beyond. Le Petit Journal, a scurrilous right-wing Republican daily, which rounded on Dreyfus, then Zola, took up the cudgels on behalf of oppressed Afrikaners. Among the sins it couldnt forgive the British was the deadpan expression of Joseph Chamberlain, secretary of state for the colonies, when he toured the battlefields of South Africa. The paper had a point: the Boers fought  and lost  one of the first modern anti-imperialist struggles in Africa. Britains concentration camps in South Africa gave the world a glimpse of wars to come.
Your guide to the tastiest foodie happenings going down this week. Bon appetit!







Tawla Opens Thursday



Valencia Street is getting even more delicious with tonight's opening of Tawla, a new Eastern Mediterranean spot that will focus on the home cooked foods of the region: Greece, Turkey, the Levant, and Iran. There will be a myriad of mezzes and large format dishes to shareleg of lamb here we come! // Opendaily,5:30pm-10pm, 206 Valencia St. (Mission), tawlasf.com









El Buen Comer Opens for Lunch

Long time La Cocina participant Isabel Caudillo will launch lunch service at her eagerly awaited El Buen Comer today. There will be a slew of homemade Mexican dishes such as albondigas, chicken smothered in mole sauce, chilaquiles, and more to warm you up during this chilly week. Yum! // 3435 Mission St. (Bernal Heights), elbuencomersf.com









Anya Fernald Book Signing at Omnivore

Meat goddess and founder of Belcampo Meat Co. Anya Fernald will be signing copies of her new book Home Cooked at Omnivore Books tonight. The new cookbook is a recipe collection and how-to guide for preparing basic ingredients that can be used to make easy weeknight meals. // Wednesday, June 8th, 6:30-7:30pm, 3885 Cesar Chavez St. (Noe Valley), omnivorebooks.com/events.html





Wise Sons Joins Sunday Marin Farmers Market

Wise Sons is expanding their empire all the way across the GGB. Look for the Jewish deli every Sunday at the Marin Farmers Market. In addition to bagels, there'll be a host of other delicious Jewish treats to take home such as Rye, Challah, and smoked salmon. // Sundays, 8am  1pm, 10 Ave of the Flags (San Rafael), agriculturalinstitute.org


Share Purchase Plan Closes Oversubscribed

Perth, June 8, 2016 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Strategic Elements Limited ( ASX:SOR ) is pleased to announce that the Company's Share Purchase Plan (SPP) closed yesterday.



Shareholders strongly supported the SPP with over $8,600,000 in applications received.



The Company recognises the strong demand from shareholders and will accept a total of $6,400,000 according to the terms of the SPP.



Application funds rejected or scaled back will be sent via cheque after the 10th of June.



The Company will start processing applications and shareholders will be advised of their holdings after the 10th of June by Security Transfer Registrars.



The SPP timetable is set out below.



Date & Details:



04 May 2016: Record Date 5pm (WST).

The date of which the Company determines Eligible Shareholders.



05 May 2016: Announcement Date



10 May 2016: Dispatch of Plan



10 May 2016: Opening Date.

The date on which the Plan opens.



7 Jun 2016*: Closing Date. The date on which the Plan closes.

Applications and payments must be received by 5pm (WST).



10 Jun 2016*: Allotment Date and Dispatch Date.

The date Shares under the Plan are allotted and any scale back.



15 Jun 2016*: Share Trading Date.

The date on which it is expected that Shares under the Plan will commence trading on the ASX.



*These dates are indicative only and may change at the discretion of the Directors (subject to the requirements of all applicable law).





About Strategic Elements Ltd





Strategic Elements (ASX:SOR) shares are listed on the Australian Stock Exchange under the code SOR. The Company is registered under the Pooled Development Program run by the Australian Federal Government to encourage investment into SMEs. To assist Pooled Development Funds to invest and raise capital, the Federal Government enables most shareholders in a Pooled Development Fund to make capital gains and receive dividends tax-free.
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Lobo hoops: Bigger, stronger Johnson vows to be more ...

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WASHINGTON  The White House issued its second veto threat against a massive annual defense bill Tuesday, naming a long list of provisions that administration officials said would tie President Barack Obamas hands on crucial national security matters.

The White Houses Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued its official assessment of the Senate version of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2017, a giant piece of legislation that establishes policy on issues from military pay to aircraft purchases to the battle against the Islamic State.

The bill attempts to micromanage [the Defense Department] by impeding the Departments ability to respond to changing circumstances, directing overly prescriptive organizational changes, preventing the closure of Guantanamo, and limiting U.S. engagement with Cuba, and includes provisions that set an arbitrary limit on the size of the Presidents National Security Council staff, OMB said in its assessment of the bill.

The administration threatened last month to veto the House version of the bill, citing lawmakers steps to boost defense funding despite budget caps. Obama vetoed the original version of last years bill, only his fifth veto since he took office in 2009. He later signed an amended version.

Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, opened debate of the bill on the Senate floor Monday by saying its effort to reorganize the Pentagon bureaucracy would increase innovation and streamline management of complex security issues. Among other steps, the legislation would do away with a senior office overseeing defense procurement, which some lawmakers see as ineffective.

The OMB singled out 65 provisions as objectionable, starting with the steps that would impede Obamas effort to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, in part by linking resettlement of detainees overseas to State Department travel warnings about those countries. Obama has transferred 158 detainees out of the prison on the island of Cuba since taking office, and he hopes that moving dozens more this year would make it easier to deliver on his long-standing goal of shuttering the prison. The House bill also includes measures to restrict the administrations ability to resettle inmates overseas.

The White House also objects to measures in both the House and Senate bills that would cap the number of staff on the presidents National Security Council. The Senate bill limits the number to 150, compared with 100 sought by the House, excluding wholly . . . administrative employees.

The NSC has grown exponentially, doubling from 100 under Bill Clinton to 200 under George W. Bush. Obamas national security staff numbers about 400, a total that even National Security Adviser Susan E. Rice has said is probably too big. The size has been sharply criticized by Republicans and by some of Obamas former Cabinet secretaries, with the NSC being accused of micromanaging policy and usurping functions of the State and Defense Departments.

Rice has cut the staff by 12 percent over the past 18 months, according to the veto statement, which called the Senate cuts arbitrary and liable to inhibit the presidents ability to carry out his national security and foreign policy agenda in an increasingly complicated world.

In addition to forcing deeper cuts, the House bill said that any increase in the NSC staff above 100, including employees detailed from other agencies, would trigger a provision requiring congressional confirmation of the presidents national security adviser.

The White House also rejected a provision in the Senate bill that restricts military-to-military interactions with Cuba unless the defense secretary certifies that Havana has stopped human rights abuses and persecution of dissidents and members of faith-based organizations. It also requires Cuba to end all demands for the return of Guantanamo. There is a similar provision in the House bill.

Existing cooperation with Cuba on counter-narcotics, humanitarian relief and other matters has increased since diplomatic relations were reestablished last year. The proposed restriction, which also apparently would end monthly meetings between the U.S. commander of the Guantanamo base and his Cuban counterpart, would hamper pragmatic, expert-level coordination between the two governments on issues that benefit the United States, the administration said,.

At the core of disagreement over recent defense legislation has been the overall level of military spending. While the Senate version of the bill does not take the same approach as the House bill, which would allocate wartime funding to the base budget, McCain is now backing an amendment that would boost defense spending beyond budget caps.

This years defense budget is more than $150 billion less than fiscal year 2011, McCain said on the Senate floor this week. And despite periodic relief from the budget caps that imposed these cuts . . . each of our military services remains underfunded, undersized, and unready to meet current and future threats.
WASHINGTON  The U.S. Senate on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved Sen. Tom Udalls bill to make sweeping changes to the nations chemical regulations.

The chamber used an informal voice vote to approve the New Mexico Democrats legislation, which is now headed to President Barack Obamas desk. The bill would give the Environmental Protection Agency new powers to test 85,000 chemicals currently in use. It also gives the EPA authority to review the approximately 750-1,500 new chemicals that emerge annually before they go on the market.

At least one senator  Republican Rand Paul of Kentucky  objected to the bill but overall Senate support was near-unanimous.

The Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act would update the 40-year-old Toxic Substances Control Act; it also marks a rare bipartisan consensus on major legislation in the Congress. The Udall bill, co-sponsored by Republican Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana, has already passed the House by a landslide and Obama is expected to sign it.

Lautenberg, a former Democratic senator from New Jersey, died in 2013 after working years for reform of the nations chemical laws. Udall picked up the legislative baton from Lautenberg upon his death. In a Journal interview, Udall called the legislation among the most important of his career.

This is a major accomplishment, he said. Most people believe if you go into the grocery store or hardware store you are buying a product that has been tested by somebody to be safe. That is not true and this bill will make it true.

The bill (text is here) would require the Environmental Protection Agency to make its assessments about chemical safety based only on measures of risk to public health and the environment, not economics. The bill also would scrap the existing laws least burdensome requirement for regulating a chemical, which has long prevented a ban on asbestos.

The legislation would help offset the EPAs costs by raising $25 million annually through fees imposed on the chemical industry.

The real job for the EPA is only beginning, Udall said in a Senate floor speech before the vote. Implementing this law is going to be extremely important.

Along the way, the bill had its detractors. On Tuesday Paul said it amounted to a sweeping federal takeover of chemical regulation.

I cant in good conscience vote to make the federal EPA stronger, he said.

Scott Faber of the The Environmental Working Group said the bill may not provide EPA with the resources or clear legal authority the agency needs to quickly review and, if needed, ban dangerous chemicals linked to cancer and other serious health problems.

Dr. Richard Denison, lead senior scientist for the Environmental Defense Fund, said the bill is better than the status quo.

While not perfect, the Lautenberg Act fixes the biggest problems with our current lawby requiring safety reviews for chemicals in use , mandating greater scrutiny of new chemicals before they can be sold, removing the barriers that prevented EPA from banning asbestos and other harmful chemicals, enhancing transparency, and much more, Denison said. We look forward to seeing the president sign this landmark reform, so we can begin the process of restoring confidence in our chemical safety system.

Andy Igrejas, the Director of Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families, which had opposed earlier versions of the legislation, said improvements were made that preserve the ability of states to take action on many of the worst chemicals in the near future, including toxic flame retardants.
Hillary Clinton won New Mexicos Democratic presidential primary Tuesday, fending off a spirited challenge from Bernie Sanders and keeping a Clinton hot streak in the state alive.

On the final Super Tuesday primary of a frenzied election cycle, Clinton added New Mexico  and a majority of its 43 delegates  to her win column, while also tallying victories in most of the other states.

The election day results brought into sharper focus an apparent general election showdown between Clinton and Republican Donald Trump, who did not face active opposition in winning New Mexicos GOP primary.

Clinton was declared the winner of New Mexicos Democratic primary by The Associated Press shortly before 9 p.m., having maintained a solid  if not overwhelming  lead over primary foe Sanders since the first vote counts were released Tuesday evening.

Unofficial results had Clinton winning roughly 51.5 percent of the ballots cast in New Mexico, with more than 211,000 Democratic voters having cast votes in the race.

Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, D-N.M., a Hillary Clinton supporter, described Clintons victory in New Mexico as a clear, concise victory that I think people are really rallying around.

It is time to really focus on party unity, Lujan Grisham added.

Sanders, who attracted thousands of supporters to three New Mexico campaign rallies before Tuesdays primary election, was trying to spring an upset in the state.

But there was disappointment at Sanders campaign headquarters near the University of New Mexico, where Sanders supporters turned off the television displaying results and slowly trickled out after the race was called in Clintons favor.

Hannah Elhard, the state director of Sanders campaign in New Mexico, said its important for Sanders to continue his push into the Democratic convention next month to keep his voters, who include young people less likely to vote, enthused.

If Democrats want to have a party in the future, they need these new voices, added Gwenyth Lewis, a volunteer for the Sanders campaign.

New Mexicos closed primary system and high percentage of Hispanic voters helped Clinton, but Sanders appeared to benefit from an anti-establishment mood among many voters and ate into a 14 percentage point lead among likely Democratic voters that Clinton held in a Journal Poll conducted in late February.

Longtime New Mexico political analyst Brian Sanderoff said Clinton held a steady and consistent lead over Sanders throughout election night, though margins were tight in some counties.

Sanders actually outpaced Clinton in Bernalillo County, overcoming a deficit in absentee and early voting via an edge in Election Day ballots. He received 38,247 votes to Clintons 36,937 votes, according to unofficial results.

Meanwhile, Trump, as expected, was named the winner of New Mexicos GOP primary shortly after polls closed at 7 p.m. There were five other Republican candidates on the ballot, but all of them had previously suspended their campaigns. Trump received more than 70 percent of the ballots cast by GOP voters in New Mexico.

In all, primary election turnout among registered Democratic and Republican voters appeared to be on track to surpass turnout levels from the states most recent presidential primary elections, in 2008 and 2012, with more than 312,000 voters casting ballots in the parties respective presidential contests, based on unofficial results.

Even with the heavy turnout, there appeared to be no major voting problems on Election Day, with most lines moving quickly and only a few minor glitches reported.

Across the state, its going very, very smoothly, said Ken Ortiz, chief of staff for Secretary of State Brad Winters office.

While voting Tuesday, Jan Parr of Rio Rancho said she took time to cast a ballot because the election is extremely important and things need to be fixed.

But she lamented the large number of unopposed races, saying, Any choice for voters is a good thing, but 90 percent of the ballot was people running unopposed.

New Mexico was part of a final wave of six states holding Tuesday primary elections or caucuses  California, New Jersey, North Dakota, Montana and South Dakota were the others.

Though it wouldnt be official until the Democratic National Convention in July, Clinton would be the first woman to claim a major political partys presidential nomination.

Clinton did not hold any campaign rallies in New Mexico before Tuesdays election, but her husband, former President Bill Clinton, stumped on her behalf in Santa Fe, Albuquerque and Las Cruces. Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper and U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, also made recent trips to the state to rally support for Clinton.

Neither Clinton has ever lost in New Mexico. Hillary Clinton narrowly won New Mexicos 2008 Democratic nominating contest, though she ultimately lost that years race to Barack Obama. Going further back, Bill Clinton carried New Mexico in both the 1992 and 1996 general elections.

Meanwhile, there were 270,384 registered New Mexico voters who could not participate in Tuesdays primary election because they either declined to state a party affiliation or are registered with a minor political party. Those voters would be eligible to vote in the November general election.

Journal staff writer Ryan Boetel and Rick Nathanson contributed to this report.
The majority of Santa Fes governing body is out of town this week, prompting Wednesdays City Council meeting and several public hearings to be postponed until later in the month.

Mayor Javier Gonzales and City Councilor Peter Ives are actually be out of the country  in Beijing, China, to attend separate events.

According to a city press release, Gonzales will be a part of a White House delegation of 20 U.S. cities who will meet with Chinese leaders to address climate change. Ives is representing Santa Fe at a meeting of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Creative Cities Network.

Meanwhile, Mayor Pro Tem Signe Lindell and City Councilor Joseph Maestas are traveling to Washington D.C. for separate events. Lindell is attending a White House reception to honor LGBT community leaders, while Maestas is participating in an event hosted by the Brennan Center for Justice, Demos, and the Leadership Conference on Human Rights titled Money in Politics: A Barrier to a 21st Century Civil Rights Agenda?

City Councilor Chris Rivera will also be on the East Coast, in Cambridge, Mass., to attend a program for senior executives in state and local government at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

As a result of their absence, five public hearings scheduled for Wednesday will be postponed until June 23.

Two of the public hearings involve requests to consume alcohol at venues that dont hold a liquor license.

Manitou Galleries on Canyon Road is asking for waivers for four separate events. The waivers are required because the gallery is within 300 feet of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis Assisi.

The other request would modify an ordinance that would allow Hutton Broadcasting to sell and consume beer and wine at a Sunset Party on the top level of the Sandoval parking garage in celebration of the 20th anniversary of radio station KBAC.

Another public hearing is on the mayors proposal to create a Native American Arts and Crafts District and establish regulations for the sale of Native American-made wares. The public will also have the opportunity to chime in on an ordinance that if approved would repeal a municipal capital outlay gross receipt tax. The public will also have the opportunity to give input on a proposed loan agreement that would provide Santa Fe with $918,000 loan from the New Mexico Finance Authority, the money to be used for acquiring fire protection equipment.
A burglary call at a southeast home ended with two suspects in custody after a chase across town Tuesday evening, according to a spokesman for the Albuquerque Police Department.

Officer Mike Schroeder said around 5:40 p.m. police were called to a residential burglary on the 400 block of Jefferson SE. While on their way to the scene, officers spotted a vehicle matching the description given by the victim and requested air support.

Officers attempted to initiate a traffic stop, Schroeder said. The passenger of the vehicle gave a vulgar hand sign to the officers, then the vehicle departed in a high rate of speed, endangering the public.

The air support helicopter tracked the vehicle as it drove recklessly to Interstate 40, Schroeder said. He said the offender took the exit to Route 66 Casino off I-40 then turned east and headed back toward Albuquerque.

The vehicle came to a stop west of Atrisco Vista Blvd NW, on the frontage road, Schroeder said. Officers successfully took the driver into custody after a short foot pursuit. The passenger was also taken into custody.

He did not identify either of the people who were arrested.
The race to fill a key swing-vote on the Bernalillo County Commission is incredibly close.

All three Democrats seeking the nomination for the South Valley-based seat are within a few percentage points of each other.

At one point tonight, Steven Michael Quezada was at 35 percent, Adrian Pedroza had 33 percent and Robert G. Chavez had 32 percent, according to partial election returns. That was with more than half of the votes counted.

The race has been dominated by debate over the massive Santolina development plan on the West Side.

A political action committee backed by the Santolina development team campaigned against Pedroza, and in favor of Chavez and Quezada.

Pedroza, who works at a nonprofit group, opposes Santolina and describes it as sprawl development.

Quezada, an actor and member of the Board of Education, voted against Santolina as a member of the school board, but has left open the possibility of supporting it in the future as a way to ensure well-planned growth.

Chavez, a retired police sergeant and business owner, said he would consider the proposal the way a judge would, based only on the evidence before him.

Incumbent Art De La Cruz, a Democrat, cannot run this year because of term limits.

The winner will face Republican Patricia Paiz this fall, though the district is heavily Democratic.

In other county races:

 Raul Torrez, a former prosecutor, won the Democratic nomination for district attorney over Edmund Perea, a lawyer and former police officer.

Torrez had an enormous financial advantage. He raised about $354,000 in contributions on his own, and he also had the backing of a political action committee funded by a $107,000 donation from George Soros, the Democratic billionaire.

Perea reported about $92,000 in contributions.

 Incumbent Treasurer Manny Ortiz is in serious danger of losing his re-election bid.

Nancy Bearce, a neighborhood leader who used to work for the state, led the four-person race with about 40 percent of the vote, according to partial election returns.

She was followed by fellow Democrats Christopher Sanchez at 24 percent, former Treasurer Patrick Padilla at 19 percent and Ortiz at 18 percent.

On the Republican side, Kim Hillard led Christopher Mario Romero.

 For county clerk, Linda Stover, former director of the New Mexico Rural Rehabilitation Corp., had a lead over fellow Democrat Roman Montoya, the deputy county clerk.
Gary Johnson, the former New Mexico governor, recently won the Libertarian Party nomination for president with former Massachusetts governor Bill Weld as his vice president.

Johnson is an impassioned proponent of the partys small government message, and he told the crowd he thinks most people are Libertarians but dont know it. At a news conference, he made a play for tea party voters, saying what started out as a fiscal, small-government movement was captured by Republicans, especially social conservatives. He says his party is the real home for such voters. Johnson eschews some of the wackier Libertarian positions  e.g. he favors drivers licenses and the Civil Rights Act (!).

Johnson espouses the small-government, laissez faire views of the party, vowing to cut government and reduce taxes. They do not believe government should limit marriage to heterosexuals or prohibit abortion. He also, to the consternation of many Republicans who might otherwise support him, has adopted the neo-isolationist stance most in his party hold.

However, as Richard Epstein and others argue, a strong national defense and projection of U.S. power to secure commerce and ensure a more stable world are in no way incompatible with the Libertarian philosophy. Epstein wrote:

Libertarian theory has always permitted the use and threat of force, including deadly force if need be, to defend ones self, ones property, and ones friends.  Correctly stated, a theory of limited government means only that state power should be directed exclusively to a few legitimate ends. The wise state husbands its resources to guard against aggression, not to divert its energies by imposing minimum wage laws or agricultural price supports on productive market activities. Quite simply, there are no proper means to pursue these illegitimate ends. 

There is nothing in libertarian theory that justifies dithering at home as conditions abroad get worse by the day.

A nation that believes in the primacy of liberty has to defend it at home and abroad, and do so over the long haul, without imposing artificial deadlines on its military commitments. Our enemies place no such limits on their efforts to kill and uproot innocent people. Our limited airstrikes have shown that force can make a positive difference. Only a fresh willingness to confess error about the presidents decision to remove ground troops from Iraq and keep all American forces out of Syria can reverse the present downhill trend. Containment is wishful thinking, not a stable option. Sadly, where the Islamic State goes, there we must ferret them out.

Johnson so far offers no sign he is inclined toward Epsteins view. Perhaps he will evolve over the campaign.

At any rate, Johnson and Weld have more executive governing experience than the two major candidates. They currently draw 10 percent in many national polls. Both major parties will attempt to ignore them, but the media  reeling from Donald Trumps exploitation of their thirst for ratings in the primary season  should think carefully about how to cover Johnson-Weld.

These rules seem to comport with fairness and the obligation to educate the voters:

1. Johnson-Weld should be included in all major polling, especially since 15 percent in national polls is required to get into the presidential debates.

2. In figuring out how to balance air time, the media rightly complains Hillary Clinton is not available nearly as much as Trump. That excuse, however, does not wash with Johnson-Weld, who should be interviewed on a regular basis.

3. In treating Johnson-Weld as normal candidates the media should press for positions on key issues. What do they plan to do about the Islamic State? If they cannot get a flat tax, what sort of tax reform do they favor? If they disband the Education Department, should federal funding for schools disappear? What drugs would they legalize? In other words, treating them as serious candidates requires serious questions.

4. They owe the voters an exploration of the governors records, past positions, successes and failures. Were they successful as governors? How would that translate into national policies?

5. The media should look at Libertarian voters. Who are they? Are they all, or mostly, white, young males?

6. The media should allow Johnson-Weld to make their case against both major party candidates. Johnson has called Trumps immigration policy racist. Is that justified? Why is Clinton, in their minds, not acceptable as president? Johnson will make arguments the two candidates will not make against one another (e.g. on free trade). The media then should be obliged to ask Trump and Clinton to respond.

In sum, this is an election like no other we have seen in generations. The major parties are splintered. A nonpolitician, nonconservative won the GOP nomination. The least the media can do is not prejudge the result nor prevent two perfectly qualified, accomplished governors from making their case to the voters.
Its not over until the votes are cast  or is it?

Even before the polls in six states opened for Tuesdays primary elections, the Associated Press had declared Hillary Clinton the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee based on its polling of superdelegates. NBC News, CNN and other media outlets followed suit.

And so the message to voters in New Mexico, California, New Jersey, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota, especially Bernie Sanders supporters, was why even bother to vote? The media message: The math makes it a done deal, ballots cast essentially wont count for much so stay home.

According to the AP count as of Monday night, Clinton overall had the needed 2,383 delegates to Sanders 1,569  though it was all based on predictive polling, not actual ballots cast. Superdelegates in theory still have plenty of time to make their final choice.

The Clinton campaign (wink wink) says it would have preferred APs announcement come after voters were at least headed out to vote on Tuesday, while the early call sent the Sanders camp into an indignant tailspin as it decried the rush to judgment and cited the Democratic National Committees statement superdelegates shouldnt be counted before they actually vote at the partys convention that starts July 25.

The move prompted FAIR.org, a national media watchdog group, to call the premature crowning of Clinton the presumptive nominee a disservice to democracy and noted the timing raises concerns of voter suppression, intentional or not.

National Nurses United Executive Director RoseAnn DeMoro issued a statement urging members to vote for Sanders: Dont let the cynical manipulation by the corporate media silence your voices. This is a movement, not a coronation, and every vote matters.

This was an unwarranted call by the AP and other media outlets  and a step backward. In recent times, the news media has responsibly withheld exit polls that would declare winners until after the polls close. In this case, the polls in six states had not even opened.

The heart of the American political system  as flawed as some may think it is at times  is for registered American voters to exercise their right to vote and have it count. Given the level of voter apathy in this country, this early call was exactly the wrong call for democracy.

This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.
Voters ousted Public Regulation Commissioner Karen Montoya, Bernalillo County Treasurer Manny Ortiz and Democratic state Rep. Idalia Lechuga-Tena in Tuesdays primary election, while eight other incumbent state legislators fended off their challengers.

Raul Torrez, a former prosecutor, won the Democratic nomination for district attorney in Bernalillo County over Edmund Perea, a lawyer and former police officer, with a campaign that boasted high-octane contributions.

Montoya, who was seeking a second term on the utility regulatory panel, lost the Democratic nomination for Albuquerques District 1 to Cynthia Hall, a former PRC lawyer, according to a projection by Albuquerque pollster Brian Sanderoff.

Hall had the backing of conservationists who claimed Montoya was too cozy with utility giant Public Service Company of New Mexico. Montoya countered that Halls policies would drive up utility bills.

In the wings in the PRC race is former Democratic state Rep. Bob Perls of Corrales, who plans to file as an independent.

Hall told the Journal that she stressed to voters the utility panels quasi-judicial role and the need to steer clear of politics and focus on issues such as implementing in a meaningful way the states renewable energy law.

In New Mexicos largest county, voters threw out the incumbent treasurer, Ortiz, and opted for a newcomer to Bernalillo County government, Nancy Bearce, a La Mesa neighborhood leader with a background in state government.

Bearce, a Democrat, will face Republican Kim Hillard this fall.

Ortizs defeat comes after he faced intense criticism over the countys investment strategy and the County Commission unanimously adopted a vote of no confidence in his work. Two other Democrats with ties to the office, former Treasurer Patrick Padilla and Christopher Sanchez, the offices accounting manager, also sought the nomination.

Democrats voted in large numbers for a total outsider, said Sanderoff, president of Research & Polling Inc. It demonstrated that the voters were paying attention to some of the controversy that had occurred within the office and chose to make a major statement and demand change.

Other Bernalillo County races

 Breaking Bad actor Steven Michael Quezada won an incredibly close race for the Democratic nomination in a key County Commission district, according to unofficial election returns. He took about 36 percent of the vote in a three-way campaign.

I was honored to be in this, he said late Tuesday. Im very blessed to have pulled this off, if tomorrow thats the way it ends up.

Adrian Pedroza and Robert G. Chavez trailed Quezada by just a few percentage points.

The race has been dominated by debate over the massive Santolina development plan on the West Side.

A political action committee backed by the Santolina development team campaigned against Pedroza, and in favor of Chavez and Quezada.

But Quezada said Tuesday that he hasnt made up his mind on the proposal.

Well have to figure it out, he said. Im willing to listen to both sides.

Incumbent Art De La Cruz, a Democrat, cannot run this year because of term limits.

Quezada will face Republican Patricia Paiz this fall in the heavily Democratic district.

 In the district attorneys race, Torrez had an enormous financial advantage. He raised about $354,000 in contributions on his own, and he had the backing of a political action committee funded by a $107,000 donation from George Soros, the Democratic billionaire.

Perea reported about $92,000 in contributions.

Torrez ran a strong race, he had lots of endorsements of political bigwigs, and he had a tremendous campaign fundraising advantage, Sanderoff said.

He will face Republican Simon Kubiak, a DWI lawyer and criminal defense attorney, in the general election.

Incumbent Kari Brandenburg, who has held the office for 16 years, decided against running this year.

 For county clerk, Linda Stover, former director of the New Mexico Rural Rehabilitation Corp., defeated fellow Democrat Roman Montoya, the deputy county clerk. She will face Republican Maryellen Ortega-Saenz.

3rd Congressional District

Voters in northern New Mexicos 3rd Congressional District chose retired police officer Michael Romero of Taos as the Republican nominee to take on Democratic U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan in the general election.

Romero easily defeated Michael Lucero of Jemez Springs, a Los Alamos National Laboratory worker and rancher.

Legislative Races

 Lechuga-Tena, who was appointed to the House last year by the Bernalillo County Commission, was defeated by Debra Sarinana in a three-way contest in House District 21 that also featured Amanda KinKaid. Sarinana will have no GOP opponent in November.

 Sen. John Sapien, D-Corrales, beat Democratic opponent Jodilynn Ortiz in Senate District 9 and faces Republican Diego Espinoza in the general election.

In the following races, theres no Republican opponent in November:

 Rep. Christine Trujillo, D-Albuquerque, defeated former state official Chris Berkheimer in House District 25.

 Rep. Nick Salazar, D-Ohkay Owingeh, the states longest-serving legislator, with 44 years in the House, defeated Rio Arriba County Commissioner Barney Trujillo in House District 40.

 Sen. George Munoz, D-Gallup, defeated Felisha Adams and Jordon Johnson in Senate District 4.

 Rep. Doreen Wonda Johnson, D-Gallup, beat Kevin Mitchell in House District 5.

 Sen. Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, a 20-year House veteran appointed to a Senate vacancy in 2014, defeated former Sen. Shannon Robinson in Senate District 17.

 Sen. Benny Shendo, D-Jemez Pueblo, beat former state Rep. Sandra Jeff of Crownpoint in Senate District 22.

 In the Las Cruces area, Democratic freshman Rep. Bealquin Bill Gomez defeated Paul Maxwell and Raymundo Lara in House District 34.
WASHINGTON  Hillary Clinton wins the Democratic presidential primary in California, delivering a devastating blow to rival Bernie Sanders. The Vermont senator had pinned his hopes of a comeback on a strong finish in California, but the loss in the nations largest state is all but certain to hasten the end of his White House campaign.

Clinton had 56% of the vote, according to the Los Angeles Times, with almost 95% of the votes counted as of early Wednesday morning. More than 1.4 million voted for Sanders and 1.8 million for Clinton, according to the unofficial tally.

In a historic first, California voters Tuesday sent two Democrats, both minority women, to a November runoff for the states open U.S. Senate seat.

The matchup between state Attorney General Kamala Harris and 10-term Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez marks the first time since voters started electing senators a century ago that Republicans will be absent from Californias general election ballot for the Senate. The outcome reaffirms the GOPs diminished stature in the nations most populous state.

The two were among 34 candidates seeking the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Barbara Boxer, a liberal favorite first elected a generation ago, in 1992.

Under California election rules, only two candidates  the top vote-getters  advance to the November election.

Harris had a wide lead in unofficial returns and in a forceful showing was ahead in all but a handful of the states 58 counties. Sanchez, from Orange County, had a secure hold on second place.

The stakes are high. The eyes of the country are on us, and I know we are prepared to do ourselves and our state and our fellow Californians proud, Harris told cheering supporters at a celebration rally.

She warned that voters in the upcoming campaign would hear a lot of that rhetoric that tries to divide us, that is trying to tell us that somehow, we should start pointing fingers at who all among us is to blame, instead of understanding that instead, we should be embracing and wrapping our arms around each other, understanding we are all in this together.

Earlier in the day, Sanchez hinted they she planned to attack Harris record.

Hopefully well see what Miss Harris stands for, I havent really gotten an indication of that yet, Sanchez said of the coming runoff. I know where I stand on issues, Ive got 20 years of votes.

With 3.7 million votes tallied, Harris had about 1.5 million votes, or 40 percent. Sanchez was at 17 percent, with about 640,000 votes.

Harris performed strongly in the San Francisco Bay Area, her stronghold, but was also leading in strongly Hispanic Los Angeles County and was about tied with Sanchez in the congresswomans home county, Orange.

Republican candidates were lagging in single digits. Duf Sundheim, a Silicon Valley lawyer and a former chairman of the California Republican Party, was leading a cluster of Republicans trailing the two Democrats.

In a year when millions of voters embraced outsider candidates in the presidential contest, California Senate voters appeared impressed with the two Democrats deep experience.

Hoai Le, a 62-year-old mechanic from Santa Ana, said he was backing Sanchez because of her two decades in Congress.

Shes been there for a while. She knows how the system works, said Le, an independent, after casting his ballot at a community center. She can do a lot better than the new guy.

Jeanette Wright of San Francisco, a 47-year-old executive assistant with the state, said she was impressed with Harris, a career prosecutor.

Shes a strong woman. Shes been around. She knows whats going on with San Francisco. She knows whats going on with the community, Wright, a Democrat, said of the attorney general.

If elected this fall, Harris, the daughter of immigrants from India and Jamaica, would set historical marks. She would become the first Indian woman to hold a Senate seat and the second black woman elected to the Senate. Illinois Sen. Carol Moseley Braun was elected in 1992 and served one term.

Sanchez, if elected, could become one of the first Latinas to hold a U.S. Senate seat. Catherine Cortez Masto, who is also Hispanic, is the Democratic candidate for outgoing Sen. Harry Reids seat in Nevada.

California once was a reliable Republican state in presidential elections. But the party has seen its numbers erode for years, and it now accounts for a meager 27 percent of registered voters.

Democrats control every statewide office and both chambers of the Legislature, while holding a registration edge of nearly 2.8 million voters.

With 12 Republicans on the ballot  and none widely known to voters  the GOP vote was splintered Tuesday, undercutting the partys chances of advancing a candidate to November.

As fellow Democrats, Harris and Sanchez hold similar positions on many issues, including abortion rights and immigration reform.

Harris, 51, a career prosecutor, has played up winning a big settlement with banks accused of improper mortgage foreclosures and her work to defend the states landmark climate change law.

Sanchez, 56, has stressed her national security credentials built up during two decades in Washington.
SILVER CITY, N.M.  Western New Mexico University is hosting a three-day symposium on the Gila Wilderness.

The symposium beginning Wednesday will feature three days of lectures and panel sessions by recognized authors and academics touching on subjects such as nature, conservation and history.

The wilderness is part of New Mexicos Gila National Forest in western New Mexico. It is the largest designated wilderness area in the state.

The symposium also will touch upon the water and resources of the wilderness.
Gabriel and Kimberly Amador are firing up another pizza oven in Albuquerque.

The couple will open a second location of Amore Neapolitan Pizzeria to the public on Monday, bringing their traditionally crafted pies to Country Club Plaza.

The couple opened the first Amore in Nob Hill in 2013, but have since closed that site to focus on their location at Green Jeans Farmery, the shipping container community of mostly food- and drink-related businesses near Interstate 40 and Carlisle.

It seems like it was a great time for us to do this. Green Jeans is constantly busy; we have had a great reception, Gabriel Amador said.

So much so that customers began asking Amore to add another more typical, sit-down restaurant. They obliged.

The Country Club Plaza version boasts a dining room that can seat 92 and a patio to accommodate another 30. It will serve local beer and Italian wine.

This one will be a little more upscale than our original Nob Hill location was, Amador said.

Formally called Amore Neapolitan Pizzeria and Vino, it will have an expanded menu. On top of the Neapolitan style pizzas  cooked for just 60-90 seconds in a specially crafted oven  the restaurant will introduce some new dishes, like fried calzones, croquettes and even some blue corn calamari.

Like we always do, (well do) some traditional stuff but put a little bit of a New Mexican twist on it, Amador said.

Amore joins existing Country Club Plaza tenants like Five Star Burgers and Draft Station. A new 35 North Coffee is already under construction and should open next month, according to Jay Rembe, the man behind the growing mixed-use development between Old Town and Downtown.

Rembe said there are additional commercial tenants currently evaluating spaces at the development. Hes specifically seeking the perfect yoga or Pilates studio and a gourmet dessert business to help add value to the overall master plan.

Amore already has some neighbors lined up; about 14 of the 23 apartment units in its building have been leased, Rembe said in an email to the Journal.

Country Club Plazas final phase calls for a 50,000-square-foot luxury apartment building.

It will finally create the village, with our own private main street with every building communicating with the other, said Rembe, who has worked with Insight Construction, Mullen Heller Architecture and Sandia Laboratory Federal Credit Union on the project.

Amore will celebrate the new location, 1710 Central SW, with reservation-only events June 10 and 11 with special guests, including Roberto Caporuscio, president of the Associazione Pizzaiuoli Napoletani. Call 554-1967 for more details.

Starting June 13, it will be open to the public daily.
PHOENIX  Arizona doctors are calling for an investigation into the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix following the departure of a long-serving dean and several top officials.

After eight years as the colleges dean, Stuart Flynn resigned in April to lead a new Fort Worth, Texas, medical school created by Texas Christian University and the University of North Texas Health Science Center. Several senior leaders of the Phoenix school recently announced their plans to join him there.

The Arizona Medical Association has asked the state Board of Regents, which oversees public universities, to examine the events and issues that led to the departures of the senior leadership team and investigate any organizational impediments that contributed to the exodus of senior officials at the college.

The associations voting body passed the resolution, which not only requests an investigation but states that the group has no confidence in UAs leadership and oversight of the Phoenix medical school. The group sent the resolution to Regents President Eileen Klein and asked that the board take corrective action to make sure the schools operations and education thrive.

Regents Chair Jay Heiler said in a statement that the board wants to hear more from the medical association about its concerns.

Offering jobs to former colleagues is normal in academic medicine and a compliment to the talents of the people who work here, Dr. Joe Skip Garcia, UA senior vice president of health sciences, said in a statement.

Garcia, who oversees the UAs medical campuses in Phoenix and Tucson, said he was surprised about the call for an investigation and will look into the concerns of medical school stakeholders.

Interim Dean Dr. Kenneth Ramos said he has already promoted people to fill the positions of two senior leaders who accepted jobs in Fort Worth and said leadership changes will come before classes start in July.

We can use the summer months to regroup, Ramos said. One of the things we are doing pretty well is messaging, making sure all stakeholders are aware of the changes.
LONGMONT, Colo.  A beetle that kills a popular Colorado landscaping tree has spread outside Boulder for the first time, attacking a tree in nearby Longmont.

State and local forestry officials said Wednesday the emerald ash borer was found in an ash tree on private property.

Longmont officials said they would step up treatment of ash trees on city property and advised homeowners to have their trees checked.

The Emerald Ash Borer Information Network says the beetle has killed hundreds of millions of trees since it was detected in North America in 2002. Its been found in 26 states and two Canadian provinces.

It was detected in Boulder in 2013. Until now, it hadnt been found anywhere else in the state.

Officials said they didnt know how the beetle got to Longmont.
PHOENIX  An Arizona jury on Wednesday convicted a founder of the Minuteman border-watch group of molesting one young girl, but it acquitted him of engaging in sexual conduct with another.

Christopher Allen Simcox was found guilty on charges that he molested a 5-year-old girl and showed her pornography. He escaped a mandatory life sentence when the jury acquitted him on charges that he engaged in sexual conduct with a 6-year-old girl.

A molestation conviction carries a sentence of 10 to 24 years in prison. Simcox, who was convicted on two molestation counts, is scheduled to be sentenced on July 5.

An attorney who assisted him at trial said Simcox, 55, will still likely spend the rest of his life in prison, given Arizonas tough sentencing guidelines.

In closing arguments, a prosecutor scoffed at Simcoxs claim that the girls were pressured by adults to bring the allegations.

Simcox, who isnt a lawyer but nonetheless represented himself at trial, told jurors that he didnt abuse the girls.

His case was also noteworthy for Simcoxs insistence that he should be allowed to personally question the girls on the witness stand.

Prosecutors argued that letting Simcox question the girls would cause them emotional distress. In the end, Simcox got an attorney to pose the questions.

County Attorney Bill Montgomery, whose office prosecuted Simcox, said in a statement that he commended the victims for having the courage to come forward.

Kerrie Droban, the lawyer who served as Simcoxs adviser, said she was unsure whether Simcox would appeal the verdict.

The jury listened attentively, Droban said. They gave him a fair trial.

Simcoxs arrest in 2013 came after his career as an advocate for tougher immigration policies had fizzled.

The Minuteman movement stepped into the spotlight in 2005 when illegal immigration heated up as a national political issue. Minuteman volunteers fanned out along the nations southern border to watch for illegal crossings and report them to federal agents.

The movement splintered after Simcox and another co-founder parted ways and headed up separate groups.

Simcox, who once served as publisher of the Tombstone Tumbleweed newspaper, went on to briefly enter Arizonas 2010 U.S. Senate primary against incumbent John McCain but dropped out of the race. His name didnt appear on the ballot.

More than a decade ago, Simcox was sentenced to two years of probation for misdemeanor convictions in federal court for carrying a concealed handgun at the Coronado National Memorial near the Arizona-Mexico border in January 2003.
New Mexico State University is moving its satellite location in Albuquerque from the Pinetree Corporate Center on Indian School to a smaller space on CNMs Montoya campus.

New Mexico State, which moved to the site in 2009, is expected to vacate the 40,000-square-foot space by August and the owner, Gemini Rosemont, is now looking for a new tenant, perhaps another education provider.

NMSUs Albuquerque Center is scaling back its local footprint to a smaller location at Central New Mexico Community Colleges Montoya campus in the Northeast Heights, according to a spokesman. The new location is 11,717 square feet, he said.

NMSU originally had a vision for expanding what was offered at the Albuquerque Center and utilizing that entire space, but that never transpired, said Justin Bannister, a spokesman for the university.

The move, which will not impact the number of Albuquerque employees or students served annually, not only allows the institution to save money on rent but provides opportunities to collaborate with CNM.

The Albuquerque Center has 20 employees. It serves about 70 social work students and three dozen students in its online public health degree program per year, plus walk-in student traffic to take proctored exams.

NMSU only offers programs in Albuquerque that are not available from the University of New Mexico and CNM. Students can obtain masters degrees in social work and public health and doctoral degrees in educational leadership and early childhood education.

The five-building office complex at 4501 Indian School NE, built between 1975 and 1980, was one of the marquee properties of Gemini Rosemonts predecessor company, BGK Group, during the 1990s. Pinetree is something of a higher-education hub with tenants such as New Mexico State, National American University and Webster University.

The property is being marketed by Scott Whitefield of Colliers International New Mexico.
Detectives are still searching for a suspect after a teenage boy was shot in the back of the head in a Northwest Albuquerque apartment last month, according to a spokesman for the Albuquerque Police Department.

The victim, Julian Romero, 17, was alert and talking after being shot, and his doctors said the wound was probably not life-threatening, according to a police report.

His mother, Rosemary Romero, said he is still recovering.

Romeros friends told police that on May 23, they were in an apartment on the 200 block of Delamar Loop NW. They said they didnt see the shooting, but they heard it. When officers arrived a friend was putting pressure on Romeros head and the suspected shooter had fled.

Officer Tanner Tixier said detectives dont know if the shooting was accidental or intentional.
WASHINGTON  The latest developments in the 2016 campaign for the presidency. All times EDT:

5:17 p.m.

Hillary Clinton is opening her general election campaign against Donald Trump by accusing him of behaving like a demagogue. She likens his attacks on judges, the media, his opponents and their families to dark moments in world history.

In a telephone interview with The Associated Press, Clinton says: Its classic behavior by a demagogue. Weve seen it many, many places and times in the world, and thats why I think its so dangerous.

The presumptive Democratic nominee declared victory in her race against Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders on Tuesday, a day after reaching the number of delegates needed to claim the nomination.

In the interview, she seemed to wonder whether Trumps candidacy was little more than an elaborate political stunt.

She says, I dont know if this is just, you know, political gamesmanship that he thinks plays to the lowest common denominator, but whatever the reason for it is, its wrong and it should not be tolerated by anybody.

___

5:05 p.m.

Donald Trump has finished the presidential primary season with an exclamation point.

Some Republicans in Congress might be uneasy about their partys new standard-bearer. But with no one else left in the race, Republican voters have given him five overwhelming victories Tuesday, enabling the billionaire businessman to sweep all 303 delegates that were up for grabs.

Trump now has 1,542 delegates, including 1,447 who are required by party rules to vote for him at the convention. It takes 1,237 delegates to win the Republican nomination for president.

___

3:35 p.m.

The White House says President Barack Obama is holding off on endorsing Hillary Clinton for president until after he meets with Bernie Sanders.

Obama plans to sit down with Sanders in the Oval Office on Thursday at 11:15 a.m. EDT. The call comes after Obama called Sanders and Clinton on Tuesday evening after voting wrapped up in some of the final primary contests.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest says Sanders has earned the right to make his own decision about the course of his campaign. He says Obama is respectful of that because of the way Sanders has inspired millions of Americans during the primary.

Earnest says Obama will congratulate Sanders during the meeting. He says the two will discuss how to further advocate for issues like fighting economic inequality and countering the influence of special interests in politics.

___

2:45 p.m.

Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley is equating Donald Trumps comments about a U.S.-born judge of Mexican heritage with Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayors description of herself as a wise Latina.

Republicans have widely criticized the presumptive GOP presidential nominees claim that U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel cant preside fairly over a case involving Trump University because the judge is of Mexican heritage and Trump wants to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico.

Grassley, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told reporters Wednesday the public shouldnt have any more trouble with what Trump said than with Sotomayors remarks.

In a 2001 speech, Sotomayor, then a judge on the appeals court, spoke of ethnicity and gender affecting judicial decisions, saying: I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasnt lived that life.

Grassley said, I dont hear any criticism of that sort of comment by a justice of the Supreme Court.

At her confirmation hearing for the Supreme Court in 2009, Sotomayor denied racial bias and said the remark was a rhetorical device gone awry.

Grassley has come under criticism for blocking confirmation hearings for President Barack Obamas nominee to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court, insisting that the decision rests with the next president.

___

12:58 p.m.

Vice President Joe Biden says its up to Bernie Sanders to decide when to end his increasingly futile campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Asked Wednesday if it was time for the Vermont senator to halt his effort, Biden said: Oh, let him make that decision. Give him time.

Asked how much time Sanders should have to make that decision, Biden said, Im being graceful.

Biden answered a reporters questions as he left the House chamber after an address to Congress by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Hillary Clinton has won enough support from elected delegates and superdelegates  Democratic lawmakers and party leaders who can back whomever theyd like  to capture the nomination at the partys national convention next month. She won contests in four of six states Tuesday, as the race for the Democratic nomination all but drew to a close.

Sanders has come under growing pressure from Democrats to drop his bid so the party can unite against the presumptive Republican nominee, Donald Trump.

___

11:33 a.m.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada will meet Thursday with Bernie Sanders. The meeting comes amid growing calls from Senate Democrats for the Vermont senator to end his presidential candidacy and unite behind Hillary Clinton.

Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida said Wednesday that Sanders should stand down. Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania said Democrats must come together and unify. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire said Hillary Clintons nomination was historic and she would like to see Sanders wind down his candidacy sooner rather than later.

Other Senate Democrats were still trying to give Sanders space to do things on his own terms. Reid himself has stopped short thus far of saying Sanders should drop out, although he said last week that sometimes you just have to give up.

___

11:20 a.m.

One of Donald Trumps first supporters in the House says that Speaker Paul Ryan has reaffirmed his support for the presumptive Republican presidential candidate in a closed-door meeting with fellow GOP lawmakers.

New York Rep. Chris Collins says that Ryan opened Wednesdays session by telling lawmakers that he remains comfortable backing Trump. Collins said there was no controversy in the room over the comments, but no applause, either.

It was Ryans first meeting with House Republicans since endorsing Trump last week after initially withholding his support.

It also came a day after Ryan called Trumps assertion that an American-born judge of Mexican descent couldnt handle a Trump lawsuit fairly the textbook definition of a racist comment. But Ryan said he would continue supporting Trump.

Trumps comments prompted many congressional Republicans to chastise him.

A Ryan aide said the speaker described his thinking behind his Trump endorsement to his colleagues and told them he would continue criticizing the billionaire when needed. The aide said Ryans remarks were greeted by applause.

The aide spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the private remarks.

Associated Press writer Alan Fram in Washington

___

10:55 a.m.

Bernie Sanders presidential campaign is downsizing as it reaches the final primary next week in Washington, D.C.

About half of the staff is being laid off with most of the jobs involving field staff and advance aides. Thats according to two people familiar with the plans.

The people spoke on condition of anonymity because they werent authorized to speak publicly about the layoffs. Campaign officials declined comment.

Sanders had previously reduced his staff and redeployed most of his team to California ahead of Tuesdays primary.

Hillary Clinton has secured enough pledged delegates and superdelegates combined to secure the Democratic nomination.

Clinton defeated Sanders in California, New Jersey and two other states Tuesday.

The cuts represent a winding down of Sanders campaign at the end of the primary calendar and as he shifts to influence the partys platform at the Democratic convention.

Associated Press writer Ken Thomas in Los Angeles

___

10:30 a.m.

Donald Trumps media relationship with Joe Scarborough has gone from friendly to a full-on feud.

The MSNBC Morning Joe host, a former Republican congressman, on Wednesday ripped into Trump for acting like a bush-league loser and a bigot, and said he wouldnt support his candidacy.

Dont use Hillary Clinton as a threat against me, Scarborough said, looking into the camera. Dont use Hillary Clinton as an excuse, as a blank check to say racist things about people born in Indiana. No, Donald, you dont get to play in that way. Im not scared of you.

Trump was a regular Morning Joe guest during the first few months of his campaign, and Scarborough boasted about taking his campaign seriously when others didnt. Critics wondered if the relationship was too friendly.

Trump responded with a tweet on Wednesday: Nobody is watching @Morning_Joe anymore. Gone off the deep end  bad ratings.

Morning Joe was up 63 percent in viewers in May compared to May 2015, according to the Nielsen company.

___

6:13 a.m.

Hillary Clinton crowned a precedent-shattering quest for the Democratic presidential nomination with a strong victory in delegate-rich California.

For Clinton, it was the fourth victory in half a dozen contests Tuesday. Although she had already garnered enough delegates to assume the mantle of leadership for the party at its convention in Philadelphia next month, the electoral triumphs gave her even greater momentum heading into the fall general election campaign against real estate mogul Donald Trump, whos set to be named the Republican standardbearer at the GOP convention in Cleveland.

Clintons rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders, pledged anew late Tuesday to continue the fight all the way to the Philadelphia convention. But at the same time, he acknowledged that overcoming Clinton at this juncture would be a very, very steep fight.

3:25 a.m.

Donald Trump is tightening his grip on the Republican nomination for president, winning at least 297 delegates in Tuesdays primaries  the last five contests of the primary season.

Six delegates in California are still left to be allocated because of incomplete results in individual congressional districts.

With no one else left in the race, Trump easily won all five Republican primaries Tuesday.

He has 1,536 delegates. It takes 1,237 delegates to win the Republican nomination for president.
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The Internal Revenue Service has ruled that fines issued by the brokerage industrys self-regulatory body, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA, are not tax deductible.

The IRS Office of Chief Counsel issued a memorandum last Friday citing a number of legal cases to back up the opinion, including Guardian Industries Corp. v. Commissioner.

The IRS noted that Section 1.16 2 - 21(a) of the Income Tax Regulations provides that no deduction shall be allowed under section 162(a) for any fine or similar penalty paid to: (1) The government of the United States, a State, a territory or possession of the United States, the District of Columbia, or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico; (2) the government of a foreign country; or (3) a political subdivision of, or corporation or other entity serving as an agency or instrumentality of, any of the above.

The Guardian Industries case involved a test for the meaning of the terms agency and instrumentality, and the IRS Chief Counsel memorandum used the test to determine that a self-regulatory organization such as FINRA qualified as such an agency.

It noted that the securities industry is generally regulated by a combination of direct regulation by the Securities and Exchange Commission and industry self-regulation with SEC oversight.

Congress adopted this oversight framework to prevent excessive government involvement in market operations, which could hinder competition and market innovation, said the IRS. Also, Congress concluded that self-regulation with federal oversight would be more efficient and less costly to taxpayers. Under this system, privately funded nongovernmental entities, commonly referred to as self - regulatory organizations (SRO), such as national securities exchanges and associations, perform much of the day-to-day oversight of the securities markets and broker-dealers under their jurisdiction. SROs are primarily responsible for establishing standards under which members conduct business; monitoring how that business is conducted; and bringing disciplinary actions against members for violating applicable federal statutes, SEC rules, and SRO rules.

The IRS pointed out that the SEC oversees SROs such as FINRA to ensure they carry out their regulatory responsibilities. The IRS Chief Counsel memorandum rejected the arguments used to justify why FINRA fines should be considered tax-deductible. Although there is no case law squarely on point, the Guardian Industries test has been established as binding precedent in the Tax Court, and in non-tax cases the quasi-governmental role of SROs for securities law purposes is well-established
(This feature is part of the " Through Airmen's Eyes " series. These stories focus on individual Airmen, highlighting their Air Force story.)A 22nd Operations Support Squadron officer at McConnell Air Force Base is training her dog, Valco, to help boost the morale of military members, veterans and their families.Capt. Carmella Burruss, the 22nd OSS deputy chief of wing intelligence, has been training Valco, a 19-month-old Labrador-poodle mix, for six months to become a certified therapy dog.Valco has already completed a basic obedience course, and is now working on his advanced obedience course. Hes on track to earn his official accreditation through Therapy Dog International.The upbringing of Valco has been a family affair. Burruss' father, a former Army special operations forces deputy commander, raised Valco for about a year while Carmella was deployed.Valco is named after a special operations K-9 and is carrying on that legacy of service. The original Valco was killed in combat in Iraq in 2005 while assigned to a unit that Burruss' father helped found in the 1970s."I think Cara's decision to train him and use him as a therapy dog is a wonderful tribute to his namesake," said retired Lt. Col. Lewis Burruss. "SOF working dogs, such as Valco's namesake, have been responsible for saving scores of lives. By naming other dogs after these K-9 heroes, we pay tribute to those K-9s killed in the line of duty."Carmella is following in her father's military service footsteps and her dog Valco will likely do the same by helping military members. Once certified, the goal is for Valco to work in Veterans Affairs hospitals and base medical facilities, helping people with anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder."People who are struggling with emotional problems can benefit a lot from having a therapy animal come visit them," Carmella said. "A therapy dog helps improve healing. Being around animals helps lower your blood pressure, reduces stress and anxiety and brings everybody's moods up."Carmella stepped up to serve her country after 9/11 because she felt her nation needed her. That self-sacrifice as a leader and wingman is the same reason she continues to serve her country and help veterans in need, her father said."That concept of service -- it's an extension of the reason I wanted to join the military," Carmella said. "While we are here working the current Air Force mission, we can give back to those that have given so much. If we can make one person smile, it's worth it."Communication is important to the success of any military mission and it's just as important with a dog and handler partnership."It's a relationship and a conversation -- he needs to trust me when I give him a command," she said. "It's a team mentality. He looks to me sometimes for confidence, and I look to him to just be the big sweetheart that he is."This trust is very important, especially because a portion of Valco's training involves learning how to deal with unfamiliar situations. Having confidence in his handler allows him to be graceful around people on crutches, be able to handle the noise of someone dropping a walker and being able to properly approach wheelchair-bound individuals.Carmella has big plans for Valco's future. She hopes to eventually certify Valco as a search and rescue dog to help in disaster zones, and for him to spend time in nursing homes, rehabilitation facilities and working with young children."He can also be a reading therapy dog for children who have trouble reading," Carmella said. "(Children) can sit down and read to the dog and it boosts their confidence because they can connect with the animal and it's not another person making them nervous."Carmella hopes the team will continue to help as many people as they can while spreading the word about the importance of therapy dogs and how they can boost morale within the veteran community."There's no way I'm not smiling when I walk around with him and see other people smile, it's infectious," she said. "Being able to just look over at him, and he'll just wag his goofy tail you think, 'none of this is really that bad, because I get to love this dog right now.'"
Wright-Patterson research psychologist wins award for innovative training

A research psychologist from the 711th Human Performance Wing here was presented with the 2015 Harold Brown Award by Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James during a ceremony here June 6.



Dr. Lisa Tripp, who works in the Airman Systems Directorate's Continuous Learning Branch, received the award for her efforts in creating innovative and cost-saving training methods and platforms for the Air Force intelligence community.



"Being presented this award by the secretary of the Air Force and the United States Air Force chief scientist is the highlight of my career," Tripp said. "This award represents a momentous achievement not just for myself, but for my team -- a team dedicated to the mission of providing state-of-the-art research and development in the area of training for the Airman."



In her nomination package, Lt. Col. John Matuszak, her branch chief at the time, stated: "Tripp has been a leader and key player in enabling the U.S. Air Force to support innovative C4ISR (command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) training techniques through research, invention and innovation. Her expertise and leadership have been crucial in developing new training methods and technologies to support the Intelligence community with more effective training methodologies and capabilities."



The Harold Brown Award, the highest award given by the Air Force to a scientist or engineer, recognizes significant achievement in research and development that led to or demonstrated promise of a substantial improvement in operational effectiveness for the Air Force.



"Unlike the fighter community, which has been using simulators for decades for mission rehearsal and training, the only comparable training for the intelligence community was on the job," Tripp said. "That means, the first time an analyst was likely to support an Airman in contact situation or combat search and rescue was on the job."



Tripp went on to explain that after collecting data and interacting with operators in the intelligence arena, her team uncovered an area where they could improve training.



"We put together a team of program managers, training researchers, engineers, and domain subject matter experts to work together," she said. "The result is the Distributed Common Ground System weapons system trainer, a successful collaborative effort across major commands including Air Force Materiel Command and Air Combat Command to develop the first of its kind trainer for the Air Force intelligence community."



Matuszak also praised Tripp's contributions and discussed the specific impact she made to not just training, but the economic impact of her efforts as well.



"Through her expertise, intelligence analysts' knowledge and experience with a variety of mission scenarios will be drastically increased while decreasing the amount of time required altering mission sets and training scenarios," he said. "This is expected to save thousands of man-hours and dollars annually."



The award is named after a physicist who served as secretary of the Air Force from 1965 to 1969 and secretary of defense from 1977 to 1981.



The winner of the award receives a brass medallion embedded with a distinctive Lucite block, and a certificate signed by the Air Force secretary and chief of staff. Tripp's name will also be engraved on a plaque permanently displayed near the secretarys office in the Pentagon.



"I am honored to have the opportunity to work for a service so committed to ensuring their research and development focuses not only on the technology, but on the Airman," Tripp said.
The U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School is accepting graduate applications through July 31 for the Air Force Institute of Technology in-residence engineering Ph.D. program.The primary purpose of the program is to ensure the TPS curriculum and research programs reflect the state-of-the-art education in aeronautical science and to create a cadre of officers who combine current flight test experience with a high level of theoretical knowledge.The TPS Ph.D. program is open to all active-duty Air Force officers who meet the eligibility criteria; interested officers should also contact their Air Force Personnel Center core assignment team and obtain a release to compete prior to submitting an application.For eligibility and application instructions, search the keyword "graduate" on the myPers website For more information about Air Force personnel programs, go to the myPers website . Individuals who do not have a myPers account can request one by following the instructions on the Air Force Retirees Services website
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.
Wheels up: Hill shop improves F-35 tire change process

For years, the wheel shop at Hill Air Force Base has disassembled, inspected, repaired, built, and delivered reliable tires and wheels for F-16 Fighting Falcons. That reliability and 24-hour turnaround service will remain intact as the base's operational mission transitions to the F-35A Lightning II.



Three active-duty Airmen and an air reserve technician work in the 388th Maintenance Squadron's wheel and tire shop, providing wheels for aircraft.



"We have been building tires for the F-16 for decades, which means that the tools and processes used to accomplish this task are proven," said Tech. Sgt. Astolfo Mercado Cruz, the shop's NCO in charge. "For the F-35, things are getting started, so we have to use our hands-on knowledge and experience to ensure the process is streamlined and efficient."



The F-35 tire change process has become more efficient thanks to an innovation devised by the shop's Airmen.



In conjunction with the first F-35s arriving to Hill AFB last year, the wheel shop received a new tire changing machine -- a hydraulic tool used to separate tires from rims -- for exclusive use with the F-35. Although the new tool is adequate, the shop's Airmen immediately recognized inefficiencies.



Four workers are required to lift an F-35 wheel onto the new machine, while only one worker is needed to roll a wheel into the shop's legacy tire changing machine and another to operate the tool. Additionally, the new machine employs a hand-operated pump as opposed to the automatic pump used on the legacy machine.



Drawing on years of experience changing F-16 tires, the shop's Airmen felt they could make the process of changing F-35 tires better if the legacy tire changing machine could be used. After studying the legacy machine, it was determined the tool would work with F-35 wheels if its bead breaker -- a compressing component which actually pushes on the tire, separating it from its rim via hydraulic pressure -- could be adapted for use.



After coming up with a solution, they provided their design modification proposal to the 388th MXS's metals technology shop. There, Airmen fabricated a ring-shaped compressing component and the braces necessary for adapting it to the legacy tire changing machine.



"Using the legacy machine means that we can load the F-35 tires by rolling them on instead of lifting them on as we have to do on the newer, manual machine," Mercado Cruz said. "This saves a lot of time because only two personnel are involved, not four. By using the automated process, it takes half the time, which allows us to provide assets to the warfighter a lot quicker."



Aircraft engineers recently verified the modified bead breaker for use on the legacy tire changing machine and joint technical data is being updated so that the setup can be used on all F-35 variants, benefiting not only Hills F-35s but those throughout the Defense Department as well as international partners.



This success will continue, according to Mercado Cruz, who noted that other tool modifications are in the works.



"The innovations keep on coming," he said. "As more F-35s arrive, we'll continue looking for ways to do things better."
AF program increases access to behavioral health care

Nearly half of people with a treatable behavioral health disorder do not seek help from behavioral health professionals, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. However, 80 percent of this population does visit a primary care manager at least once a year. An Air Force program seeks to bridge this gap by providing behavioral health care in a primary care setting.



The Behavioral Health Optimization Program (BHOP) integrates behavioral health personnel into primary care clinics to provide the right care, at the right time, in the right place. Beneficiaries with behavioral health concerns can seek care directly through their primary care manager.



Issues such as compounding stress can lead to depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, or general anxiety disorders. Often times, problems resulting in adverse mental health effects can be addressed by primary care providers through the support of behavioral health services.



We are there to address the concerns that would have otherwise been brought to the primary care manager, said Maj. Elizabeth Najera, the chief of the program, overseen by the Air Force Medical Operations Agency.



For instance, when a patient suffering severe headaches sees a primary care manager, it is determined whether the patient needs to be referred to neurology or requires additional examination from primary care. BHOP visits function in the same manner and patients are screened to help identify the right level of care.



According to Najera, only 1 out of 10 patients seen requires referral to specialty care. Mild depression, anxiety or grief may not require specialty mental health services. While specialty care is beneficial when that is the appropriate level of care, it may not be necessary for a normal process like bereavement. Even if a patient visit warrants a specialty care referral, time required for specialty care is reduced by BHOP intervention.



BHOP is an excellent first step in seeking care if (someone has) any behavioral health concerns with either a medical or lifestyle component, Najera said. Everyone can consider at least one BHOP encounter appropriate, while not everyone may require a second visit.



BHOP consultations typically do not require more than four visits. A BHOP appointment lasts about 25 minutes and patients leave with some form of same-day intervention. Patients are triaged to ensure they get the appropriate resources and providers determine what level of care is needed.



BHOP helps to address a wide range of health related behaviors which can worsen medical conditions, including diabetes, chronic pain, sleep problems, and hypertension.



Another benefit of BHOP is the ease of use. Half of all scheduled visits are same-day appointments. BHOP seeks to address a large patient volume with same-day care. According to Najera, the goal is to address patient needs as they arise rather than having patients wait.



(A BHOP visit) is considered a primary care appointment and there is no difference in how it is treated in a patients electronic health record, Najera said.



BHOP offers two types of services and patients will either see Internal Behavioral Health Consultants (IBHCs) or Behavioral Health Care Facilitators (BHCFs). IBHCs include both psychologists and social workers who provide focused assessments and recommendations to help primary care providers with decisions about patients behavioral health concerns. BHCFs are nurses who work directly with patients who have been prescribed psychotropic medications by their primary care provider for depression, anxiety or PTSD.



The goal of BHOP is to help patients and providers reach desired and realistic behavioral health outcomes. This includes improving quality of life or returning to a level of functioning closer to a patients goal. Some patients may walk away learning to manage chronic conditions, while having improved day-to-day functioning.



In a 2015 survey of 631 patients, almost 90 percent reported being very or extremely satisfied with the BHOP experience and over 95 percent stated they would probably or definitely recommend BHOP to a friend or family member.



Patients who received care through BHOP were asked if they would have sought behavioral health services if BHOP had not been available. Of those surveyed, 30 percent reported they would not have sought any care if not for BHOP.



Those with behavioral health concerns are encouraged to speak to their primary care provider. BHOP emphasizes that seeking help is a sign of strength and prevention is key. For those in need of behavioral health care, seeking care could help prevent a negative life impact.



Any individuals experiencing escalated behavioral health issues including thoughts of harming themselves should go to the nearest hospital emergency room and seek help immediately.



BHOP is available at 72 of the 76 Air Force military treatment facilities. The program is open to all military beneficiaries and walk-ins are accepted. BHOP does not require a referral. To schedule a BHOP appointment, beneficiaries are advised to call the appointment line.
Minot B-52s begin Baltops 16 flying ops

A B-52H Stratofortress aircrew from Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, conducted their first flying training mission in support of the multinational exercise Baltops 16 on June 7 from Royal Air Force Fairford.



Baltops is an ongoing cooperative training effort to promote security in the Baltic region with participants from about 17 nations. The training exercise allows participants to demonstrate their own unique roles in contributing to regional and global stability and to train for deployments in support of multinational contingency operations.



There is a lot going on in this exercise, said Lt. Col. Mike Maginness, the 23rd Expeditionary Bomb Squadron commander. We will be all over the region working with many multinational partners, doing everything from cruise missile training and sea mining, to targeting pod work with the joint terminal attack controllers. Its a great opportunity for our crews to integrate across the entire spectrum of capabilities that the B-52 has, as well as train with our allies.



Baltops provides an opportunity for NATO partner nations to engage in realistic maritime training to build experience, teamwork and strengthen interoperability.



In todays world, we will very rarely go at any fight alone, Maginness said. We have staunch allies throughout the region; our traditional NATO partners have been with us for the last 70 years. It is important to train how we fight, and this a tremendous opportunity to do so, while demonstrating United States commitment in the region.



Air Force officials also stated that another important feature of this deployment to RAF Fairford is the ability to take an operating location, which typically isnt active, and stand up an active workplace and start pushing operations in a short amount of time.



This is what we would do in a real-world situation so practicing it and knowing that we have that capability just makes us a more effective force, Maginness said.



During the first B-52 mission, the aircrew integrated with allies and practiced overcoming language barriers to execute the mission. Participants varied from Swedish airborne warning and control system controllers, to NATO Navy vessels and U.S. F-16 Fighting Falcons in an air interdiction and force employment exercise.



This was a great beginning to a complex and comprehensive exercise, said Capt. Patrick Clements, a 23rd EBS flight commander. We just went out and had a fighter intercept exercise involving other players -- not just in the air. Later on this week were going to ramp up and push our allies as well as ourselves during a Navy and Air Force mining exercise.



During sorties, the strategic bombers are scheduled to conduct training flights with ground and naval forces around the region to showcase their capability to project airpower anywhere and anytime. This is the third year Air Force Global Strike Command has participated in this exercise as part of their deployment to the European area of responsibility.



For 10 days, the aircrew will fly more missions in support of exercises Baltops 16 and Saber Strike 16. In addition, the B-52 will make appearances in several air shows throughout countries such as Germany, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.
Sena and BJP involved in a tug over and use unparliamentary language against each other.

Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut has taken a jibe at BJP by saying that they his party is fighting against Nizams father. Raut made these remarks against the saffron party in a programme held at Aurangabad. On the other hand, BJP gave a befitting reply to Rauts remarks and said that Sena is behaving like a Aurangzeb and it should go for self-introspection. Even though the Shiv Sena is an alliance partner of the BJP government in Maharashtra the party often attacks its partner over various issues. Sena has expressed its unhappiness over the big brother attitude of the BJP after its victory in the assembly polls in Maharashtra. The tug of war between both the parties is likely to intensify ahead of the 2017 Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation election. The two are trying to edge out each other in the state, and often indulge in public spats.

In an indirect reference to former revenue minister Eknath Khadse who had resigned from BJP, Sanjay Raut said, Those who have fought against Sena have bitten to dust. Such type of leaders are either shown the door from the party or have to face imprisonment like Chhagan Bhujbal. Shiv Sena is the leading party in Maharashtra today and it will win 180 seats if polls are held in the state today.

Raut also attacked the Modi government which had promised to bring achche din for people. He said, Good days are not visible in Maharashtra. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is only interested in foreign trips and not bothered about the nations development. He doesnt have any time to take stock of the drought situation prevailing in Marathwada. He should visit the region for knowing about the hardships faced by people due to scarcity of water.

BJP MLA Ram Kadam retaliated and said, Those who are calling us Nizam are behaving like Aurangzeb and they should first self-introspect. Sena leaders should realise that they are using the red beacon vehicles in the state and centre.

It is necessary that both the parties should amicably resolve all issues for the proper functioning of the government. Sena has been behaving irresponsibly. Instead they should work for the welfare of people. With an eye on the 2017 Brihanmumbai Municipal corporation election Sena is trying to project that it performing better than us, added Kadam.

Shiv Sena has often complained about the BJP for sidelining it on various important functions. This time too BJP had failed to invite Sena leaders on the occasion of inauguration of the newly constructed overhead ticket counter at Kandivali and escalator at Bandra Terminus. Sena MP Arvind Sawant hurled black flags when Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu had presided over the function via video conferencing.
Top filmmakers attended a press conference to say that they stand with producer Anurag Kashyaps Udta Punjab, and made a strong pitch for freedom of speech, attacking Censor Board chief Pahlaj Nihalani, who has ordered 89 cuts in the film. Actually ahead of elections in Punjab, BJP is in no mood to expose drugs scenario in that state. Nihalani is BJPs pet and to please his political masters, he has taken adequate steps by cutting the movie at length.

Earlier, Rahul Gandhi made a statement that 7 out of 10 youth are drug addicts which resulted in a heated argument from Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), which is ruling party of the state. Rahul also proposed the youth to come and join hands with Congress and make a foray into politics for the betterment of the country. This evidently does not seem to be possible, at least, at the moment, but this can definitely pull seats for AAP. There are various allegations on Punjab government for breeding terror and drug trafficking. Variety of incidences, which takes place in the state, is due to youth, heading towards wrong direction.

There was also a hash tag post #DrugsMafiaMajithia, on twitter by AAP supporters against Punjabs Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia. Daring Majithia to put him behind the bars, AAP national spokesperson Sanjay Singh commented that he continues to stick to his statement that AAP will put Majithia behind the bars if voted to power as he is related to drug business in Punjab. Due to various issues and terror attack, drugs, flesh trading, arms, Badal government has lost its credibility and AAP could get strong foothold in the state. Meanwhile, Majithia has filed defamation plea against Sanjay Singh in Ludhiana court claiming that without any proof he has been defamed as drug trader by Sanjay Singh. Majithia had said that not he but Sanjay Singh will be put behind the bars for defaming him. Anyway, after these allegation sagas no one went to jail or no one was actually exposed.

Murder, robbery, rape and even teasing incidents are common crimes occurring in the state; Rahul Gandhi has hit the nail. We can see how Punjab has lost the battle against drug addiction even before it has begun, a study by All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, has indicated. It will take more than 10 years for the state government to provide even a single episode of treatment to addicts if it continues with the current strategies, the survey by the institutes National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre says, painting a grim picture of the days ahead. A single episode of treatment is a standard course of treatment ranging from a minimum of four-to-six weeks to six months where the patient is given opioid substitution treatment (OST) that involves medication like methadone or buprenorphine to help him wean away from drugs. The study pointed out that Punjab does not have OST for the patients as a widely available therapy on a long-term basis. There is a huge gap in the availability of treatment services for opioid dependent individuals despite significant demand. OST is the most evidence-based treatment modality, which has been endorsed by United Nations and World Health Organisation as well as the Indian Psychiatric Society. In Punjab, less than 10% of patients have received OST ever, stated in the study.

The survey, commissioned by the Union ministry of social justice and empowerment in August 2015, has in fact ridiculed the approach by the Punjab government, saying that it is only focused on rehabilitation centres. At a time, when the nexus between terrorists and drug smugglers in Pakistan has come under a harsh spotlight after the Pathankot airbase attack, a new study by AIIMS has found that opioids worth Rs 7,500 crore are consumed in Punjab every year. Of these, heroins share is a massive Rs. 6,500 crore. This is a shocking disclosure given that almost all the heroin that comes to Punjab is through the Pakistan border, pumped in by smugglers allegedly aided by ISI. It is this smuggler network that the terrorists who attacked the Pathankot airbase are believed to have used.

Based on the previous studies, Punjabs opioid dependents are four times more than the global average. In effect, not only are the drug smugglers being used to push jihadis into India, they are also creating an army of heroin addicts in Punjab. The study has found that 0.84% (around 2.3 lakh) of the entire states population is opioid dependent. It takes into account both opium derivatives as well as artificial substances that have the same effect as opiates on the nervous system.

The survey reveals that opioid-dependent people are spending approximately Rs. 20 crore daily on these drugs. On an average a heroin-dependent individual spends about Rs. 1,400 per day. The study  Punjab opioid dependence survey: Estimation of the size of opioid dependent population in Punjab  was presented to Punjab health minister Surjit Kumar Jyani on January 6 but no action has been taken even today. The study was conducted between February and April 2015. Data was collected from 3,620 opioid dependents from 10 districts. Among the men aged between 18 and 35 years, four in 100 are opioid dependent; while 15 in 100 could be opioid users.

Drug smuggling cannot occur without the guard of police and politicians. Police protection cannot be assured without unspoken approval of politicians in power. Successive Punjab governments have turned a blind eye to drug smuggling because of the money that it brings and keeps the youth engaged so that they will never ask for their rights, Punjab youth either flee abroad or they are addicted to drugs, only 10% of youth are living on values in India.

Badal Government could have taken strict action against the police. Saninder Singh, the Gurdaspur SP against whom there are enough evidence of collaborating with the terrorists, would be good enough for starters. People would be watching what Badal government is doing. Drugs and terror are inseparably tied in Punjab. By censoring the movie fact cannot be hidden, rather they are creating curiosity among people by attracting attention through ongoing controversy.

(Any suggestions, comments or dispute with regards to this article send us on feedback@afternoonvoice.com)
Hillary Clinton celebrated her triumph as the first woman to lead a major party in a race for the White House, scoring big wins in California and New Jersey to cement her grip on the 2016 Democratic Party presidential nomination.



The former first lady, US senator and secretary of state spoke to supporters at a raucous event in Brooklyn, New York, and placed her achievement in the context of the long history of the womens rights movement.

Thanks to you, we have reached a milestone, Clinton said in a speech. We all owe so much to who came before.

Clinton, 68, appealed to supporters of party rival Bernie Sanders, 74, to join her campaign. She said Democrats had been bolstered by his campaign for eradicating income inequality, which has commanded huge crowds and galvanized younger voters. Not yet ready to concede, Sanders vowed to fight on.

Clinton also harshly attacked Donald Trump , 69, her presumptive Republican rival in the November 8 presidential election, for using divisive rhetoric that belittled women, Muslims and immigrants. She took specific aim at his condemnation of an Indiana-born judge of Mexican heritage.

The stakes in this election are high and the choice is clear. Donald Trump is temperamentally unfit to be president and commander-in-chief, Clinton said.

When Donald Trump says a distinguished judge born in Indiana cant do his job because of his Mexican heritage, or he mocks a reporter with disabilities, or calls women pigs, it goes against everything we stand for, she said.
In another blow to the Congress party, a Kerala based construction firm has filed an FIR against the party president Sonia Gandhi, naming her as the prime accused.



In a major embarrassment to the grand old party, M/S Heather Constructions has named the Congress supremo in a case for non-payment of dues. The firm, which filed the complained on Wednesday, was hired to build the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Development Studies in Thiruvananthpuram.

The other leaders who have been named in the legal notice include Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Development Studies Chairman Ramesh Chennithala, former Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy and Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president VM Sudheeran.

The managing partner of the company has claimed that his company was given a contract for constructing the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Development Studies, which was later retracted. The then state unit president Ramesh Chennithala cleared the project during his tenure and the Congress president had inaugurated the institute in October 2005. However, the construction firm alleged that the current KPCC chief has denied settling the dues citing fund shortage and has said there is no need for the institute any more.

Sonia Gandhi had inaugurated the institute in October 2005. The Congress chief had asked the KPCC to settle the dues after the company sent a legal notice. The company, however, claims that it did not receive any money following which an FIR was filed.

Reacting to the news, Congress spokesman RS Surjewala later said, Contractor had filed a civil suit, the issue has been sorted out. Within 24 hours, all parties will sit together and settle the issue.

Defending Congress chief, Surjewala added, Neither any criminality is involved nor any default of payment has taken place. They had constructed one at a cost of about Rs 20 crores, a small payment of Rs 2 crores is pending.

The development comes days after the Congress was ousted from power in Kerala after the recently concluded assembly elections in the state.
RTI activist and whistleblower Javanthraj Parasmal was allegedly hacked to death with sickles by a gang at Periamet, Chennai.



Javanthraj Parasmal (59) had highlighted many illegal constructions in Sowcarpet. He was in possession of vigilance department files, Housing and Urban Development GOs and Madras High Court demolition orders.

Parasmal was reportedly intercepted by a group of men on bikes and an auto at about 10:30 am. One of the residents has told the daily that they heard a scream for help and saw men with sickles flee the scene. Parasmal was lying in a pool of blood and only once the group of men left, did the residents dare to come out to help the victim. However, the doctors at a private hospital declared Parasmal to be dead.

The spot was just 1.5 km away from the police commissioners office. Parasmal would often enter court halls and newspaper offices with his petitions. Armed with RTI replies that sought to nail lethargic or conniving officials, he would urge journalists like me to write against them.

They are all corrupt. You should expose them, he would urge us. He would provide affidavits presented by the officials in court and their RTI replies, highlighting the contradictions. In the last two years, at least three buildings were sealed following his intervention.

His own building in Sowcarpet was sealed in 2014 in what he termed a vindictive act.
Uttar Pradesh police were shocked after they recovered an US made rocket launcher from the Jawahar Bagh area.



We have recovered a launcher which is made in USA. We will see the details first. It is under our custody, Mathura SSP Bablu Kumar said.

In the aftermath of the Mathura violence, forensic teams and bomb disposal squads have recovered a US-made rocket launcher from Jawahar Bagh during search operations yesterday.The weapon was found during the search of 280 acres of government land, which was encroached by Swadheen Bharat Vidhik Satyagrahi outfit.

The rioters were heavily armed with automatic weapons and grenades. Police also recovered several country-made weapons and rifles.

On Tuesday, Uttar Pradesh ordered judicial probe into the violence. The probe will be conducted by a retired judge of Allahabad High Court and the inquiry committee has been asked to submit its report within two months.

Meanwhile, bowing to Opposition demand, Uttar Pradesh government yesterday ordered judicial probe into last weeks violence.

The probe will be conducted by a retired judge of Allahabad High Court Imtiyaz Murtaza and the inquiry committee has been asked to submit its report within two months.

Mathura SP Mukul Dwivedi and SHO Santosh Kumar Yadav were killed in the clash between the police and encroachers that broke out in the city on June 2 when police tried to evict illegal occupants, believed to be of Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi from Jawahar Bagh on Allahabad High Court orders.
On Wednesday, April 13th, I attended an educational forum for professionals put on by the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH). The title of the forum was Autism in the Somali Community and Vaccine Hesitancy. The stated purpose was: This session will provide the latest information on autism spectrum disorder (ASD) by a national childhood development expert and updates on immunization data relevant to Minnesota Somali children.

Background: MMR uptake in the Minnesota Somali community has been steadily dropping over the past few years, so MDH has been devising ways to persuade Somalis to give their children the MMR vaccine  rather than respecting the Somalis faith, their intelligence, their life experiences, and their personal health choices.

The purpose of the forum was innocently framed as simply providing information about autism and vaccine hesitancy, but having attended several MDH informational forums in the past, I knew better. For example, during a small measles outbreak in 2011, MDH held an informational forum where people could learn from the experts. The forum presented very little information about autism, except that they did not know what causes it. But every expert on the panel emphatically stated that autism is NOT caused by vaccines. These experts included a Somali autism mom with no vaccine research experience, a man they referred to as a doctor, but whom has never had a license to practice medicine in the US, and various MDH spokespeople. During the forum, MDH set up a free mobile vaccine clinic (stocked with 600 doses of the MMR vaccine) as if they believed the Somalis would fall for the propaganda and immediately jump in line to roll up their sleeves. There were exactly ZERO takers, by the way.

The Somalis who attended felt betrayed by the doctors and health officials they put their trust in. They witnessed the immediate and dramatic health decline of their beautiful children after a round of vaccines. Only then did they do their own research and soon realized that doctors were not providing the facts about serious side effects of vaccines, nor about the complete lack of accountability that exists when vaccine injuries occur. They now know that while the measles may be deadly to malnourished children in third-world countries; it is mostly a benign childhood disease that was killing very few people in the US long before a vaccine for it was developed. To quote one Somali parent: Who cares about the measles? Measles is temporary, but autism is forever.

As you can see from their power point, MDH has been working since 2008 to dispel the Somali parents fears of vaccine-induced autism. Since all of their efforts have failed, they are now enlisting the aid of Somali health professionals to help them coerce the Somali parents who have thoughtfully (and legally) chosen to avoid the MMR vaccine.

Heres an overview of some of the forum speakers:

Maggie Diebel of the MDH gave a brief introduction, during which she stated Engaging with the community is absolutely critical, and went on to say that MDH has hired two more Somali staff to conduct training in the community on autism and vaccine-preventable diseases. She also made the claim that MDH tracks immunization records to ensure people are protected from dangerous diseases.

The tactic of using leading terminology (like the term immunization instead of the actual act of vaccination, and claiming diseases are vaccine-preventable) grossly oversimplifies the issue  as if to say that vaccinated automatically equals immune or protected from dangerous diseases.

Side note: During the aforementioned small measles outbreak in 2011, up to 38% of the people who got the measles had been vaccinated for it, but MDH rarely makes a point of telling people that.

Ms. Diebel also said We are obligated to do what we can to improve vaccination rates.

What she didnt say: Anything to acknowledge the truth of what Somali parents have been telling the world for years: Their previously healthy children regressed into autism after vaccination. She said nothing about the well-known side effects of vaccines, including brain damage and death, nor that the US government has compensated many families for vaccine injuries resulting in autism. She did not say that MDH is obligated to protect Minnesotans from vaccine injuries, even though vaccine injuries are just as devastating to the health of Minnesotans as any communicable disease.



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Date: 28 May, 2016.

Place: Hamilton, State of Ohio, United States.

On 28 May, an unusual event took place in small city of Hamilton, located in the State of Ohio, United States. According to a report published on UFO specialised website MUFON.com, a group of reddish, orange lights were seen hovering above the town by an anonymous witness.

I was driving down the road with my girlfriend on Interstate 75 in Cincinnati Ohio by Hamilton exit when I first notice the reddish-orange lights which I thought was a building, this person affirmed on the report. However, when he got closer to the objects, he could appreciate that they were too high and were in the shape of two spheres, which later turned into something that looked like a triangle shape.

After some minutes, while approximating to the unknown craft, the witness realised that it begin to turn and lights became one. Then, it changed its behaviour and started to ascend for a short distance and finally disappeared without a trace.

The unnamed observer affirmed having been serving in the Military Forces for 12 years, so he can assure that no military craft or civilian seemed like this object.

Draw your own conclusions

For further information: http://mufoncms.com/cgi-bin/report_handler.pl?req=view_long_desc&id=76746&rnd=

Long Description of Sighting Report

I was driving down the road with my girlfriend on Interstate 75 in Cincinnati Ohio by Hamilton exit when I first notice the reddish-orange lights which I thought was a building at first but as we got closer I realize it was much too high the lights were in the shape of two spheres what the craft giving off a glare that look like a triangle shape Premier League got off on the exit nearest to craft so so we can get closer but as we turned around the craft begin to turn and light's become one then the object ascended for a short distance then seemed to disappear Without a Trace I tried explaining the incident but there seemed to be no explanation I served in the military 12 years and no military craft and civilian seen a similar object once out at sea which mood very rapidly at different angles
WASHINGTON, June 7, 2016 - EPA officials will have the chance to hear directly from stakeholders at a one-day hearing in Kansas City, Missouri, Thursday on the future of the Renewable Fuel Standard.

According to a draft schedule obtained by Agri-Pulse, EPA will hear from almost 140 witnesses. Many are among the usual suspects in the RFS debate like Renewable Fuels Association CEO Bob Dinneen, who will testify in one of the first panels. In a statement to Agri-Pulse, Dinneen raised concerns about the RFS that could very well make an appearance in his testimony.

Dinneen said EPAs proposed volume requirements for 2017 are an improvement over those set in the agencys final rule for 2014-2016. However, he said the plan still violates the law by inappropriately applying the general waiver provision to conventional renewable fuels, and suggesting there is an inadequate supply (of ethanol) to meet the 15 billion-gallon statutory requirement.

EPA may only grant a general waiver based on inadequate supply if the biofuels industry lacks the capability to produce the required volume of renewable fuel. Clearly that is not the case today, he added.

Last month, the EPA proposed a Renewable Volume Obligation (RVO) of 18.8 billion gallons for 2017 with the potential for 14.8 billion gallons from traditional corn ethanol. The figures set by Congress in the 2007 law establishing the RFS called for 24 billion total gallons to be blended into the gasoline supply with a potential 15 billion gallons of corn ethanol.

Other familiar figures expected to testify include Chip Bowling, president of the National Corn Growers Association, and Emily Skor, the new CEO of Growth Energy, as well as representatives from the National Biodiesel Board and the American Coalition for Ethanol. Numerous state commodity group leaders will also be testifying, likely pushing for an increase that would allow for the statutory 15 billion gallon corn ethanol RVO.

NCGA will cite an increased investment in infrastructure in an apparent effort to continue to debunk the waiver argument.

Over the past year, farmers, the ethanol industry, and USDA have invested more than $200 million in new ethanol pumps and fuel infrastructure, Bowling said in a statement to Agri-Pulse. Todays consumer has more access to affordable, renewable fuel choices than ever before. The fact is, the industry has responded, and were going to hold EPA accountable.

The National Biodiesel Board also plans to weigh in and shared their prepared testimony with Agri-Pulse.

Biodiesel is the most successful Advanced Biofuel in the nation, and plants like mine can do so much more with the right policy signals, NBB Chairman Ron Marr, biodiesel manager at Minnesota Soybean Processors, said in testimony to be delivered at the hearing. We stand ready to expand our production with new jobs and economic impact. By the EPAs own analysis, biodiesel reduces greenhouse gas emissions by at least 57 percent. So if our nation is serious about cutting emissions in the transportation sector, this proposal needs to be strengthened to truly capture biodiesels potential while putting more Americans to work in the clean energy sector.

And Anne Steckel, NBBs vice president of federal affairs, plans to note that changing the way we power our vehicles requires bold, aggressive action, and the RFS is the most effective policy we have for accomplishing that.

The RFS is not a status quo policy. It was designed to drive investment and innovation by providing stability and incentives for the development of clean alternative fuels. But this proposal falls short of that goal.

One of the more colorful statements may come from Kansas farmer and former NCGA President Ken McCauley, who said he was reminded of a 1982 song by the rock band White Snake called Here I Go Again when preparing to testify. The song begins:

I don't know where I'm goin'

But I sure know where I've been

Hanging on the promises in songs of yesterday

 Here I go again.

McCauley plans to take EPA to task for breaking promises. Heres an excerpt:

The uncertainty created by EPAs confounding decisions on the RVO levels for conventional levels make it difficult to know where the ethanol industry is going. We know where weve been and we are truly hanging onto the promises in the RFS that gave us needed market access for ethanol to be sold in a market controlled by the oil industry.

I really dont know why I keep hanging on to promises of yesterday. Even though the RVO levels for ethanol are set in a law called the Renewable Fuels Standard, EPA continues to break those promises by undermining that law.

I went to Washington to support the RFS back when it was created and I know EPAs authority for adjusting the RVO was to be used in case of a short corn crop. Believe me, we do not have a short corn crop.

It is a fact that farmers are producing more than enough corn. The extremely low corn price reflects that fact.

It is a fact that Kansas net farm income today is lower than it was in the mid-1980s, back when White Snake was playing on the radio, and farms were going bankrupt. Farmers invested and helped build the ethanol industry to provide an additional market for corn, to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and yes, to help the environment. We would have a more robust market for ethanol and for corn today, if EPA would stop lowering the ethanol levels in the RFS Law.

While the pro-RFS argument will be well represented, many opponents of the RFS will also be on hand. In particular, witnesses from the American Petroleum Institute and the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers will be some of the first speakers of the day. A spokesman for API did not respond to requests for comment, but the organization is on the record requesting RVOs at 9.7 percent of total gasoline demand. Based on Energy Information Administration 2017 projections of 9.31 million barrels of motor gasoline consumption per day, 9.7 percent of demand would equate to about 13.8 billion gallons.

As for AFPM, Geoff Moody, the groups senior director of government relations, plans to ask for reduced volumes.

While the group supports EPAs plan to set volumes under the statutory requirements, the fact is that the proposal still does not recognize market realities, including significant consumer demand for ethanol-free gasoline, Moody said in a statement to Agri-Pulse. He added that EPA should waive the volumes further to allow consumers to have a meaningful choice at the gas pump.

#30

For more news, go to: www.Agri-Pulse.com
Network Airline Management (NAM) has signed a long term contract with TAAG Angola Airlines to provide a weekly Boeing 747-400F flight from Liege, Belgium, to the capital of Angola, Luanda.

The factory-built nose-loader freighter will carry up to 120 tonnes of oil related and general cargo and will also provide export capacity from Angola back to Europe with on forwarding connections worldwide.

NAM said that trucking connections from all over Europe into the Liege hub are also offered as part of the agreement as well as interlining facilities from North America, Asia and the Indian sub-continent.

With the capacity to carry oversize cargo and pieces up to 20 m in length the intention is "to develop the service to twice weekly in the near future".

NAM operates a fleet of B747F and MD-11F aircraft and has over thirty offices across the globe which will help to assist the commercial development for TAAG, the national airline of Angola.

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June 8, 2016

Three American congressmen, all staunchly opposed to the Iran nuclear deal, have been denied their bid to visit Tehran to inspect the countrys nuclear sites, a job that is typically reserved for individuals with expertise in the area.

Republican Reps. Frank LoBiondo of New Jersey, Mike Pompeo of Kansas and Lee Zeldin of New York had requested the visas at Irans interest section of the Pakistani Embassy in Washington in February. The United States cut off diplomatic ties with Iran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution when Iranian students stormed the US Embassy and took more than 50 Americans hostage for 444 days.

Irans Foreign Ministry responded to the request June 7 with an open letter. The letter called the congressmen's request a publicity stunt" and said, Bearn [sic] in mind that as members of the US Congress you are not a global authority.

Regarding the congressmen's request to visit the Parchin military site and the Fordow and Arak nuclear sites, the Foreign Ministry letter said the International Atomic Energy Organization is the sole body competent for monitoring the implementation of the nuclear deal.

The congressmen had also requested a meeting with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Mohsen Fakhrizadeh-Mahabadi, who was incorrectly referred to as the head of Irans nuclear program in the congressmens letter. Fakhrizadeh-Mahabadi is a member of Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and a physics professor at Imam Hussein University who has been referred to as the father of Irans nuclear-weaponization program by the Western press. The head of Irans Atomic Energy Organization is Ali Akbar Salehi.

The Foreign Ministry also took the congressmen to task for their support of legislation that bars people ordinarily exempt from US visa waiver laws from entering the United States without a visa if they have visited Iran. Surely it is ironic that you believe that going to Iran would radicalize and turn citizens of all other countries into potential security risks for the United States; but you still seek to visit Iran and believe that such a visit will have no such radicalizing effect on you, the letter said.

The Foreign Ministry letter said that tens of thousands of tourists, academics, investors, students and businesspeople from around the world  including many Americans"  have visited Iran "without any delay or complication but have done so in the appropriate respectful manner. The letter added, We doubt that any self-respecting country would grant a visa under such circumstances.

The congressmen had also asked for a briefing from the IRGC about the 10 American sailors who had crossed into Iranian waters in January and had been apprehended and then released. The legislators also had several other requests: a briefing on Irans past and future missile tests; to speak with American citizen Siamak Namazi, who has been held in Iran since October; and to discuss the case of former FBI agent Robert Levinson, who reportedly went missing in Iran in 2007.

The last time an American official sent a public letter to Iran was in March, when Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., warned Iranian officials that any nuclear deal with President Barack Obama could be modified by a future American president. The letter, which was signed by 46 other Senate Republicans, was tweeted to Zarif both in English and Persian. Zarif tweeted back to Cotton with his own letter, saying that Cotton had difficulty understanding his own constitution as it pertains to presidential powers.
June 8, 2016

Five thousand meals were prepared for a multicultural food, music and art fair held June 4 at the Bascula Club in Tel Aviv. The event was organized by Israeli Children, an organization working to legalize the status of children of foreign workers in Israel. The food stalls attested to the countries of origin of the immigrants, including the Philippines, Sudan (mostly Darfur), South Sudan, Eritrea, India and Colombia.

The Eritrean stall offered injera, a type of flat sour bread, along with assorted other dishes. The Colombian kitchen served frijoles, a black bean dish, and empanadas made with corn flour. An especially long line stretched from the Philippine stall, which offered tofu-filled steamed rolls. The atmosphere was lively with stalls selling ethnic arts, craft workshops and traditional music and dance performances, including a childrens chorus.

The thousands of meals were soon devoured by a crowd of Israelis who surprised the organizers by their large turnout. They came to celebrate the ethnic diversity that now characterizes Tel Aviv, rather than doing what residents usually do, which is to ignore the diversity at best or rage about it at worst.

Behind the Colombian stall stood Evelin Diaz, along with her mother and aunt. Diaz arrived in Israel at the age of eight in 2003. The event surprised me, she told Al-Monitor. I was really excited. I met a ton of people who came to support [us], and its very different from what we usually experience.

An example of what she might expect to experience, she said, happened when she posted a request on Facebook to borrow hot plates for the event. I tried to formulate the request gently so there wouldnt be hurtful remarks, she said. But of course, there were many responses hoping that I would be raped by Sudanese. Indeed, the fun, colorful and delicious event concealed a difficult reality.

Even in the best cases, the rare cases where these children receive legal status, they continue to suffer, said Rotem Ilan, founder of Israeli Children and director of the Immigration and Status Unit at the Association for Civil Rights in Israel. Recently two girls who were born in Israel to foreign workers from Nigeria, girls who have permanent status, went to a scouts activity. On the way, they were accosted with Go back to Africa. If we thought that the end was getting children legal status, its not. Theres still a long road ahead.

The event was essentially organized to bring Israelis closer to the community of foreign workers, including some asylum seekers. Their children are in an even worse situation, as Israel does not recognize them at all, depriving them of any civil status.

By means of multicultural food and international culture, we wanted to create a direct encounter between Israelis and foreigners, which mostly just doesnt happen, Ilan said. According to her, public sentiment toward anyone considered foreign is so aggressive and intolerant that even the lucky few who receive legal status in Israel, usually as residents, find it hard to lead a normal life.

Diaz related that the apartment she currently lives in is her 17th since arriving in Israel 13 years ago. The lack of belonging is so constant, she said. There are struggles to avoid deportation and to escape the immigration police, [moving from] apartment to apartment, especially after they deported my sister. The fear was so tangible then, it made it hard to feel we belonged.

Some 6,000 children without legal status live in Israel, according to estimates by Israeli Children and other associations and based on the number of foreigners receiving medical care. The state comptroller has admitted that there is no official count. The vast majority are the children of asylum seekers who illegally entered Israel and from whom Israel insists on withholding civil status. This practice stands in contrast to the approach of many Western nations that feel a sense of global responsibility for the children of the world, many of whom have lost their homes and citizenship due to recent wars. Although these children are entitled to free education and medical care in Israel, they have no other rights.

Following a government resolution in 2010, in a one-time decree, 700 children with parents residing illegally in Israel who had entered the country legally as foreign workers, tourists or volunteers received a legal status subject to strict criteria. This exceptional measure granted their families temporary legal status. Diaz was among these children, and in 2012, she received permanent residency. It is thanks to that resolution that her mother and six-year-old brother were able to gain temporary residency in Israel. Her older sister, now 27, was deported to Colombia seven years ago.

According to Ilan, the children of asylum seekers who entered Israel illegally are sometimes sent to detention facilities with their parents, against international conventions. The Population, Immigration and Border Authority told Al-Monitor, The detention of minors with their parents is not routine and occurs rarely, when it is unavoidable. Families who stay illegally in Israel are asked many times to leave independently. Whoever doesnt respect the laws of the nation risks his and his familys detention. In cases where there is no adult who could take responsibility for a minor, you cant expect that we would leave the minor on his own.

Since the 2010 resolution, a new generation of children of foreign workers has emerged that has no status at all. The problem is that theres no path to citizenship in Israel, said Ilan. Not for parents and not for children. Thats unusual compared to the regulations of the European Union. A foreign worker could work as a home health aide for 20 years here, and his children are born here and are Israelis in every respect. When the Israeli the worker cares for dies, he and his children would have absolutely no rights, just like a worker who arrived here today.

The Population, Immigration and Border Authority responded, Three different resolutions were made, in 2005, 2006 and 2010, to deal with the status of children of illegal migrants. The claim that there is no path to settle their status is incorrect and misleading. Like in Western nations, the decisions were meant to solve the issue on a one-time basis and not permanently. Whoever hasnt gained legal status apparently didnt meet the criteria, or the children were born after the decision, and they continued to make their own [way].

I hope they don't deport the children we are fighting for, said Diaz simply. As someone who was like that, its hard to see them. Its also hard to see those whose fathers are sent to the Holot detention center. Some of them have lived here from a very early age. A very large part were born here, and its a terrible feeling.
June 8, 2016

Is the international community about to help Libya fix itself and gain stability or will it repeat the same errors of judgment and commit more mistakes than it did five years ago? Those mistakes helped make Libya become more chaotic, more ungovernable and more destabilizing to its immediate and regional neighbors.

On June 7, Britain circulated a draft resolution at the United Nations to authorize European naval forces to intercept ships suspected of smuggling arms to the Islamic State (IS) in Libya. This appears to be counter to what was agreed to in a May 16 Vienna meeting in which major powers promised to help Libyas Government of National Accord (GNA) arm itself to confront IS. However, the latest draft resolution aims to tighten the noose around IS while calling for the easing of the arms embargo against the GNA.

After the May ministerial meeting, the United States, Russia, Italy, Germany and Libyas neighboring countries, along with at least three regional organizations including the Arab League, European Union and the United Nations, agreed to lend further support to Libyas fragile government and to translate this political support into on-the-ground material assistance.

However, careful reading of the meetings adopted final communique reveals that the international community is about to blunder again in the North African country, probably repeating some of its worst mistakes committed five years ago. In February 2011, leading world powers, including France and the United Kingdom, rushed to help what they called the Libyan revolution to topple Moammar Gadhafi, only to send the country into chaos and lawlessness. They supplied arms and training to rebel forces without any real concern about where such weapons could end up and who was being trained.

The communique highlights two issues of critical importance: the partial lifting of the United Nations arms embargo imposed on Libya in March 2011, and the granting of some legitimacy to the recently created Presidential Guard. This legitimacy can be granted by recognizing the Presidential Guard as legitimate militia-free, disciplined armed forces under the state control as claimed by the GNA, which created it just a few days before presenting the guard as such in Vienna.

Without any rigorous checking or proper mechanisms in place, those who met in Vienna declared their support for the Presidential Guard, stressing their readiness to respond to the Libyan governments requests for training and equipping the Presidential Guard and vetted forces from throughout Libya.

Such a step will only complicate the military and political situation in Libya and push the various parties into further conflict, since neither side accepts the other as a legitimate legal army under government control. Gen. Khalifa Hifter does not recognize the newly created Presidential Guard as a legal Libyan army worth arming and training, and vice versa.

Which armed group is legitimately called a Libyan army is a big issue in Libya, since such categorization mean legal status and the ability to train and purchase arms openly. The Libyan Armed Forces, under the leadership of Hifter, was recognized as such by the only elected legislature in the country, namely the Tobruk-based parliament. Over the last two years, the Libyan Armed Forces has been battling terror groups, including IS and Ansar al-Sharia, in Benghazi. It finally liberated much of the embattled city earlier this year, enabling locals to return to their homes and businesses.

Before the GNA was created, Libyas internationally recognized government repeatedly asked for the lifting of the arms embargo to enable the government to buy arms in legal manners  but to no avail. Recognizing the GNA as a legitimate government of Libya should not mean anything before it includes the armed forces. Hifter does not accept the GNA as a legal government in Libya because it did not gain the confidence of the parliament, as required by the Libyan Political Agreement that was brokered by the UN and signed in December.

Arming any group that declares loyalty to the GNA  even if recognized by the international community as such  does not make it legitimate in the eyes of major players on the ground, including Hifter and Tripolis Revolutionary Brigades, for instance. The Presidential Guard is composed of armed militias of mixed loyalties drawing mainly on the city-state of Misratas armed and powerful militias. Whether or not the Presidential Guard has fought IS does not mean it should be seen as the focal point for a future Libyan army, since many of its members are implicated in abuses and crimes including the mass murder of civilians. Attempts to integrate them and other militias into a state-controlled armed forces have so far failed, and ordinary Libyans see them as an illegal militia.

Seeking training for such militias just because they declared loyalty to the GNA does not make them an army, nor will it lead to discipline and professionalism required in any professional state army. Previous attempts to train such individuals proved to be useless despite the millions of dollars wasted on such programs. Individuals loyal to certain militias, which protect them, will find it difficult to accept being integrated into a legal and accountable state body in which they can be held responsible for their actions.

It is only a matter of time before the UN votes to partially lift the arms embargo on the newly created Presidential Guard. This will automatically lead to renewed conflict because Hifter and his forces  which include a large number of Libyas former professional army  will consider that to be against them despite the success they have scored against terror groups in Benghazi.

The West, and particularly European Union countries, want the GNA to at least curb, if not stop, the flow of immigrants from Libya to the southern EU shores. To do that, they have promised at the ministerial meeting in Vienna to train Libyas coast guard. But, again, training the so-called Libyan coast guard is no more than old militias being recycled through the GNA to convince major powers that they are indeed under state command.

In 2011, the West rushed to help destroy the former regime in the tribally divided country without any workable plan to restabilize the country afterward, the result of which has been chaos and conflicts across Libya ever since. The West invested heavily  at least politically  in the so-called Libyan revolution, naively believing that once Gadhafi was toppled, the Libyans would be able to sit together and reconcile their differences and move forward. This time, the West is about to repeat its errors by recognizing old militias as a new army, giving it legitimacy and recognition.
June 8, 2016

Following its creation in 2001, Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) singled out corruption, poverty and restrictions on liberties as the three main areas of its political battle. Using the initials of the Turkish words, it even coined a slogan  Fighting the 3Y  which became one of its most popular ones. Today, 14 years on, the AKP is wary of even uttering the expression fighting corruption. Most recently, an anti-corruption commission, created by the AKP itself, was tossed into the dustbin of history by the new government of Prime Minister Binali Yildirim.

In a bitter irony, the move came against the backdrop of a deepening US probe into the dealings of Reza Zarrab, an Iranian-Turkish businessman accused of violating sanctions on Iran with the help of Turkish politicians and bureaucrats. Zarrab was a central figure in a huge bribery and graft scandal in December 2013, which Ankara quickly covered up through a massive purge in the police and the judiciary.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the AKPs founder and omnipotent leader, has spoken volumes about stamping out corruption. In the early years of his political career, he would even show his wedding ring as his only valuable possession, i.e., as his proof of integrity. Shortly after coming to power in 2002, the AKP moved to make good on its promises, sending a number of former ministers, including an ex-premier, to the Supreme Court to answer charges of graft. In its party program, the AKP pledged to wage a most intensive struggle against corruption and nepotism, make sure that full transparency and accountability prevail in every area of public life, pass legislation to prevent the pollution of politics and oblige all elected officials to periodically reveal their wealth.

Any discussion on whether todays Turkey is the one painted above seems luxurious. Lets simply recall post-election reports by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which highlight a lack of transparency in campaign financing and practices overshadowing the fairness of elections. Lets also consider how Turkey has fared on the Corruption Perceptions Index of Transparency International; ranking 65th in 2002, the country climbed to 53rd place in 2013 before plunging to 66th place in 2015.

During its 14 years in power, the AKP has made dozens of amendments to the Public Procurement Law, the latest of which parliament passed last week. Thanks to those amendments, countless public procurements have become exempt from the control of the Public Procurement Authority, created in 2000 to curb corruption and nepotism in the public sector. Now, public tenders that remain under its control are the exception.

In a further blow on oversight, the reports of the Court of Accounts, the top public auditor that  by law  works on behalf of parliament, are no longer submitted to parliament itself, meaning the legislatures means of reviewing and checking public spending is now largely limited.

The list of how accountability has been flouted is long, but the attitude of the new government, which took office May 29, says it all. While presenting his governments program in parliament, Yildirim went down in history as a prime minister who did not mention fighting corruption even once, though he did utter the word transparency three times. But it did not end there.

In December, the previous government, led by Ahmet Davutoglu, had created an anti-corruption body, chaired by a deputy prime minister and called the Commission on Increasing Transparency and Enhancing the Fight against Corruption. A month later, Davutoglu unveiled a transparency package aimed at tackling corruption. Erdogan, however, slammed the package with a memorable objection. Referring to a proposal that required party officials to reveal their wealth, he said, If it goes on like this, you cant find anyone to chair even [the partys] provincial and district branches. So, the proposed measures went down the drain. Once in office, the Yildirim government quickly issued a circular dismantling Davutoglus anti-corruption commission.

In short, Turkey now has an unprecedented government that does not pledge to fight corruption, not even as lip service.

Last week, the Turkish branch of Transparency International offered a grim assessment of Ankaras anti-corruption record in the past six years. It noted only limited progress on only six out of 28 measures outlined in a 2010 action plan, which, it said, was followed by a second one in April without any public discussion. The new plan, the statement said, is basically a list of what has not been done in the past six years, and seems to have been penned only because fighting corruption is one of the European Unions conditions for a visa-free travel regime for Turkey. It remains unclear whether the new government is committed to the plan, it added.

Speaking to Al-Monitor, the head of the group, lawyer Oya Ozarslan, said they kept in close contact with the relevant authorities, but failed to ensure transparency on how the government worked on the 2010 action plan.

No one had any idea of what was going on. Certain commissions were set up, but there was no coordination between them, and no information was available on what proposals had been made or what steps had been taken or what has been said [at the meetings]. Despite all our nagging, everything transpired in the world of mystery, she said.

For Ozarslan, fighting corruption seems to be no longer an area of real effort for the government. Corruption has to be punished in line with the law, but as weve seen various times, this is no longer the case in Turkey. The charges of December 2013 were the first major example, she added.

According to Ozarslan, AKP-linked officials enjoy bureaucratic immunity against accountability. For instance, you never hear about investigations or media reports of corruption concerning AKP-held municipalities  while virtually all opposition-held municipalities, which make one-third of the total, have faced such accusations, she said.

Another big problem is the deteriorating state of judicial independence, Ozarslan said. Indeed, the alarm of tightening government control of the judiciary grew further last month when the heads of three top-level courts accompanied Erdogan on a trip to his home province, which saw them pluck tea together.

Fighting corruption requires a strong, independent and impartial judiciary in which everyone trusts. Similarly, the media has to be functioning. Today, corruption has become a no-no word in the mainstream media, Ozarslan said.

The current state of affairs calls for an all-out mobilization against corruption, she stressed, warning of a long-term social erosion. The money that is being lost is  money from everyones pockets. If we want a clean, decent administration, we all need to fight corruption, Ozarslan said. Today you cant offer people neither a good nor a bad example because corruption trials have become impossible in Turkey. This in turn legitimizes the notion that [the corrupt] get away with it anyway.
June 8, 2016

With a nuclear power plant project underway and a new gas pipeline on the table, Turkey and Russia were moving toward a strategic partnership in the energy realm when things changed abruptly in November after Turkey shot down a Russian warplane at the Syrian border.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was furious. He vowed that Russia would never forget the downing of the jet and the killing of the ejected pilot, that Turkey would regret its action and would not get away with a few economic sanctions and a tomato ban.

Following Putins threats, Moscow curbed Turkish fruit and vegetable imports, put restrictions on the activities of Turkish business people in Russia and cut the tourist flow to Turkey, leading to a 68% drop in the number of Russian vacationers in the first four months of the year.

Turkey, for its part, slowed down energy projects with Russia. The construction of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant almost ground to a halt, and a major gas pipeline project, to which Moscow attached much importance, was put on ice. The planned Turkish Stream conduit was to carry 63 billion cubic meters of Russian gas to Europe via Turkey per year.

Gokhan Yardim, the former head of Turkeys state-run gas company BOTAS, told Al-Monitor that Russia is under pressure to put in place an alternative gas route to Europe since its transit agreement with Ukraine is scheduled to expire in 2019.

One option for Russia was the South Stream pipeline, which was to run to Bulgaria through the Black Sea and from there on to Europe. The project, however, failed to win the green light from the European Union. In a surprise move in late 2014, Putin proposed an alternative  Turkish Stream  during a visit to Ankara. According to senior Russian officials, the project was to become operational in late 2017.

In January 2015, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak advised European clients to buy gas from Turkish Stream, reminding them that the transit agreement with Ukraine would expire in 2019. Similarly, Gazprom chief Alexey Miller said time was running out and urged interested European buyers to hurry up with arrangements to take gas from the Turkish border.

The Russian enthusiasm to replace Ukraine with Turkey was obvious, but the plane shooting snagged the project. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan denied initial reports that Moscow was the one to suspend the project, asserting it was Ankaras decision.

Soon, however, the showdown in bilateral ties began to hurt both the Turkish and Russian economies, much to the discontent of both countries peoples. Turkey suffered major losses in tourism and exports, while Russia faced the risk of losing a strategic partner in giant energy projects. With Russia under pressure to secure an alternative to the Ukrainian route, the clock was not ticking in its favor.

Thats where the might of diplomacy came into play. The old dictum of no permanent friends and enemies in international affairs appeared to be at work on May 28, when Putin conveyed a softer message to Turkey during a visit to neighboring Greece. Stressing that Russia never thought of going to war with Turkey, he said, I hope we never come to that point. But what is done is done. Not only was our plane shot down, but our pilot was killed, which is a war crime under international law. We have received some explanations, but an apology has never come. We want to improve our relations, and we were not the ones to spoil this relationship. Words are not enough; action is needed. We are in contact with Turkey, and we expect certain fundamental steps. But there have been none so far.

Responding to Putins remarks, Erdogan also used a softer tone, though he claimed to be unaware of what Moscow expects. Speaking ahead of a trip to Africa last week, he said, I have difficulties in understanding what first step is expected from us. We are not a country sitting in the defendants chair. We are not the ones who want to ruin relations with Russia either. Its really thought-provoking that our relations have come to this point or that he [Putin] is sacrificing a great country like Turkey over one pilots mistake, though our ties with Mr. Putin had reached a truly different level as two good friends. We need to make efforts to improve relations with Russia anew. I hope that this problem will be overcome as soon as possible, and that Turkey and Russia will continue to move forward as they did over the past decade.

According to Turkish journalist Nerdun Hacioglu, a veteran Moscow correspondent for Hurriyet, Putins remarks in Athens constituted "a wink at Ankara," which he explained with the following factors: the departure of Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, whom Russia held responsible for the plane shooting, and his replacement by Binali Yildirim, who was quick to express a desire to mend fences with Russia, the negative economic impact of Turkish entrepreneurs leaving the Russian market and Moscows desire to salvage mega projects such as the Akkuyu nuclear power plant and the Turkish Stream pipeline.

It should not come as a surprise if the Turkish Stream project is taken off the shelf in the near future. The fact that Putin delivered his message from Athens makes it even more meaningful, given that Russia and Greece have reached their own agreement on gas deliveries to Europe. Yet to bring the gas to Greece, a conduit needs to be built via Turkey.
June 7, 2016

A photographer for Agence France-Presse posted photos of US special forces soldiers fighting alongside the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) near Raqqa wearing the Kurdish armys patch on their uniforms on May 27. The YPG is considered a terror organization in Turkey, but not by the United States and its allies. US support for the YPG in its fight against the Islamic State (IS) has been a point of growing tension between the United States and Turkey. As more photos and videos started circulating on social media, the public reaction in Turkey snowballed as well.

There were two main approaches to the photos in the mainstream media. Those critical of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) used the opportunity to question the wisdom of AKP policies in Syria and toward the United States, and pro-AKP groups focused on harsh Turkish reactions and continued bashing the United States further. Several prominent commentators expressed disapproval of the AKP for not taking a clear stand against the United States.

Most pundits, including former Chief of General Staff Gen. Ilker Basbug, argued that failed Turkish policies in Syria are the reason behind Kurdish-US cooperation.

Opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu asked the AKP government to face the hypocrisy that they are the ones allowing the US forces to use Incirlik Air Base in Turkey to transport supplies for the YPG. He said it is not the patches that should worry the Turkish government, but the extent of the Kurdish military alliance with the United States. Soon enough, Turkish TV news programs were debating heated questions such as Is the United States an ally or an enemy?

Although US-Kurdish cooperation against IS has been in the news for months now, the photos generated much anger. Immediately, the United States provided an official explanation, stating the use of the insignia was unauthorized and inappropriate, yet in Turkey several media outlets still shared the news that the US soldiers had not removed their patches.

Why are these patches and images so charged with meaning? Their importance goes beyond just spontaneous outbursts of anger. There is a strong undercurrent of resentment and anger, particularly among Islamist and ultranationalist groups.

Although no prominent members of Muslim organizations would signal overt support for IS, their resentment toward the United States has grown loud and clear after these photos. Ibrahim Sediyani, a journalist and prominent writer, was the lone voice of dissent among those contacted by Al-Monitor. Sediyani said, The YPG is not attacking Turkey, and the United States and others have repeatedly told Turkey they do not consider the YPG a terror organization and will continue to support the YPG in its battle against IS. So what is the big deal about the patches, which is just a standard procedure in the field?

Other pundits would not agree. Murat Ozer, chairman of the nongovernmental organization Imkander, told Al-Monitor, Remember the photo of knocking down Saddam Husseins statute with its face wrapped with the US flag? That photo remains in the minds of Iraqis not as the liberation of Iraq from dictatorship, but as a sign of the US invasion of Iraq. Similarly, the US soldiers with [Kurdistan Workers Party] PKK insignia will be in the collective memory of Turks. From here on, regardless of who is in control of the government in Turkey, Turks will question their place in NATO and the legitimacy of US presence on the bases. Those photos are a turning point in signaling how NATO became [useless]. Turkey has lost 50,000 people in the war against the PKK, and no political party can accept cooperation with the United States after this.

Then there was the view from the international Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, known for its independent approach to politics. Its media bureau chief Mahmut Kar told Al-Monitor, The establishment of a caliphate, as the regime crumbles in Syria, had a good chance. To prevent this, the United States supported the IS invasion of Mosul, and also the securing of northern Syria for the YPG. Turkey, Iraq and Iran do not wish to see a caliphate in Syria, because neither Russia nor the United States wants this. This is the crux of the situation in Syria. Now, if we look at Turkey, we see that beyond all the colorful rhetoric, Turkey has no viable policy or power in Syria and merely follows the lead of the United States. So why such a fuss about the photos? It is for the domestic audiences: to keep the struggle against the PKK and the YPG alive.

An expert on Middle East and global jihadi movements, Mete Sohtaoglu, emphasized that the release of the photos is a signal to Turkey. They are perceived as a moment of betrayal of an ally. This will push Turkey toward Russia, Sohtaoglu told Al-Monitor.

Ahmet Ay, a researcher and writer, expressed a similar perspective to Al-Monitor. He said, Since 2012, Turkey is able to produce its own policies. We no longer owe money to the IMF. Turkey has switched from a yes, sir to a no, man policy toward NATO, and this is worrisome for the United States. There have been several attempts to curtail Turkeys growth, including US support to IS and the YPG. I believe the release of these photos was sanctioned by the United States, not accidental. It was to send a message to Turkey given the current struggle Turkey is having with its own Kurdish population. Now that Turkey will no longer serve as the US outpost, the United States is utilizing the YPG.

Ridvan Kaya, the chairman of the nongovernmental organization Ozgur-Der and a columnist for Haksoz, approached the issue from a slightly different perspective, asking why the United States and the YPG were fighting in Raqqa rather than Aleppo or Idlib where residents were dying rapidly. The real issue is not the patches, but the joint operations. The YPG representing the generic nationalist movement could score some points. However, where would these operations put them against the Arabs in the region? The photos are a message to honor the YPG as a collaborator. Imperialistic powers always utilize such theatrical moments. And, of course, it aims to push Turkey into a corner and to decrease its bargaining powers, Kaya told Al-Monitor.

Hilmi Demir, a professor of theology from Hittite University who specializes in Salafi movements, told Al-Monitor that US plans could backfire. US policy to focus exclusively on IS to bring stability to the region is misguided. Sunni Arabs and Turkmens are excluded from the fight against IS, and those photos of US soldiers with YPG patches were a disappointment to these groups as well as to the Turks. Alienating these groups, which have been struggling against IS on their own, would only generate further chaos in the region. Demir provided a poignant example to highlight the difference in approaches, saying, Just observe the bias in the news about foreign fighters joining IS and the YPG. This double standard plays into the hands of IS. In addition, it could contribute to further radicalization of Salafi movements, which are spreading all over the Muslim world. These photos declare that the United States has chosen the YPG as the main actor in the fight against IS. This choice could mean ultranationalist Turkish youths as well as pious Muslim youth groups may look on IS more favorably.

Anti-Kurdish and anti-American sentiments are growing stronger in Turkey, making it all the more difficult for Erdogan to implement the widely expected change in his failed Syria policy and a possible peace process with the Kurds. In the meantime, those photos will be used to recruit new members for IS and other Salafi groups in the region.
An Alabama man hoping to prove he has what it takes to earn the title of "American Ninja Warrior" will be featured during tonight's episode of the NBC reality competition.

Montgomery native Casey Suchocki will attempt to conquer the competition's challenging obstacle course during the airing of the Atlanta, Ga., qualifying rounds tonight in hopes of moving on to the show's final stages in Las Vegas.

Suchocki, who is currently a senior at the University of Alabama majoring in Civil and Construction Engineering, said he first considered trying out for the show after seeing the original Japanese competition, called "Sasuke," on television.

"I saw the Japanese version on TV, and after seeing it, I always wanted to do it, but with it being in Japan, it would have been hard to make it out there," said Suchocki.

Luckily for Suchocki, "American Ninja Warrior" was developed as a "Sasuke" spin-off, and the 24-year-old was able to pursue his interests without needing to travel out of the country.

On "American Ninja Warrior," hundreds of athletes attempt to make it through regional qualifying trials and four stages of a grueling obstacle course in hopes of achieving "total victory." Currently, only two competitors, Isaac Caldiero and Geoff Britten, have managed to complete all of the courses.

In 2014, Suchocki got his first chance to visit the "American Ninja Warrior" course as a walk on during the Denver, Co., qualifying round after waiting years to meet the age eligibility requirements of the show.



"When I finally was able to compete, I did the walk on in Denver," said Suchocki. "When I met all those guys and they were all like family, I was definitely hooked. I knew it was something I wanted to do."



Suchocki's first run at the course came in 2015, when the former Robert E. Lee High School athlete took on stage 1 in Orlando, Fla. While Suchocki fell at the fourth obstacle, the failure only amplified his "American Ninja Warrior" aspirations.



With the help of his grandfather, Suchocki has since built a practice course in his backyard that includes replicas of many of the "American Ninja Warrior" obstacles, including the floating doors, cliffhanger, salmon ladder, unstable bridge and more.



"I've been working on everything having to do with grip strength since that's my weakness," said Suchocki. "I'm only as strong as the weakest part of my body."



While Suchocki prepares daily for the challenges of the obstacle course, he said the environment of the competition is often the biggest distraction contestants face on the show.



"Anytime you're in an atmosphere surrounded by cameras, it always overwhelming," said Suchocki. "Sometimes you get a little sidetracked by everything else going on around you. So you have to really stay focused on what you're there for."



Regardless of how he performs this year, Suchocki said he plans to continue competing on "American Ninja Warrior" as long as he can.



"It's one of those things I'll probably do as long as they let me come back," said Suchocki. "It's a passion I have, and I'm always going to do it."

The Atlanta qualifying rounds of "American Ninja Warrior" will air at 7 p.m. tonight on NBC.
Quentin McDaniel.jpg

Quentin McDaniel was shot to death in Birmingham on June 7, 2016.

(Facebook/Ivana Hrynkiw | ihrynkiw@al.com)

A 26-year-old Birmingham man died Tuesday night after he was shot in the head in the city's Kingston community.

The Jefferson County Coroner's Office today identified the victim as Quentin McDaniel. The shooting happened at 7:50 p.m. in the 800 block of 45th Street North.

South Precinct officers were dispatched to the scene on a report of someone shot. When they arrived, they found McDaniel inside his vehicle suffering from a gunshot wound to the head. Birmingham Fire and Rescue transported McDaniel to UAB Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 8:17 p.m.

Witnesses told police McDaniel was driving down the street when an unidentified black male began to shoot at his car. The vehicle crashed into a tree after being shot, and the suspect fled the scene on foot.

"It is very unlikely this incident is a random shooting,'' said Birmingham police spokesman Lt. Sean Edwards. "The shooter knew his target."

McDaniel was the father of two small children. Court records show he was arrested one month ago by Jefferson County sheriff's deputies as part of an investigation into complaints of drug activity at a service station on the corner of Brewster Road and Old Springville Road.

In a deposition, deputies said McDaniel had been identified as a probable "drug dealer" and when they encountered him that day and patted him down, they recovered a bag of "Molly," from his shorts pocket and a digital scale containing heroin residue. Deputies also retrieved from the car a .45-caliber pistol and two to three boxes of ammunition for a shotgun.

He was charged with felony drug possession and possession of paraphernalia. He was released from jail 10 days later, and was set to be in court next month. Court records don't show any previous convictions for McDaniel.

Anyone with information on the slaying is asked to call Birmingham police at 205-254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777.
A U.S. Army officer, who was found guilty in a court martial at Fort Rucker last month in the 2014 attempted sexual abuse of a child, has been sentenced to 10 months confinement at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., according to an Army press release.

Lt Col Christopher Wood, 46, also was ordered dismissed from the Army as part of his sentence, according to the Army statement. He was sentenced during a three-day hearing that began Friday and ended Tuesday.

Wood was found guilty of attempted sexual abuse of a child on May 15. A dismissal is the Officer equivalent of a punitive discharge from the military, according to the statement. He will forfeit all pay and benefits and be required to register as a sex offender.

Wood, was arrested while moving to Maxwell Air Force Base in July 2014. He was reassigned to Fort Rucker after his arrest for the duration of the investigation and trial.

Wood had faced the potential to serve up to 15 years confinement.

Wood was first arrested in July 2014 after he called and texted a girl who he thought was 15 years old, according to Alabama court records. He stated during the conversations that he wanted to have sex with the girl, according to court records.

A meeting was arranged between Wood and the girl at a Dollar General store in Clayhatchee, according to the court records. When Wood arrived on a gold Harley Davidson motorcycle he was arrested by the Internet Crimes Against Children task force made up of federal, state and local law enforcement.

The state charges in Dale County against Wood for solicitation and travelling to an underage child were dismissed, according to court records. The prosecution was turned over to the Army.
A Birmingham woman was sentenced Wednesday to serve five years on probation and ordered to pay $70,000 restitution to an elderly Virginia resident with dementia who had been the victim of a Jamaican lottery scam.

Rosamund Latham, 50, also was ordered to serve eight months on home detention by Chief U.S. District Court Judge Karon O. Bowdre.

Besides the restitution, Bowdre also ordered Latham to forfeit another $70,000. She asked that if the government collects any of that money, that they give it to the victim for the restitution owed.

Latham pleaded guilty in January to one count of mail fraud.

At Wednesday's hearing Latham apologized to the family or families she hurt. "It really does bother me ... I fully intend to work at compensating those individuals," she said.

Latham also apologized to the postal inspector for not stopping her involvement in the lottery scam after a warning. "I should have taken it more serious and I did not," she said.

Latham's attorney, Brett Wadsworth, had recommended home detention, while Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathryn McHugh sought an eight-month prison sentence.

Bowdre said she considered the fact that Latham did not have a prior criminal history and a health issue in imposing the non-prison sentence. The judge also said Latham did not conceive the plan and did not mislead the victim.

But Latham did facilitate the carrying out of that scam, Bowdre said.

U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance issued a statement after the sentencing.

"This defendant chose to collaborate over the Internet with people she did not know and was persuaded to help criminals steal thousands of dollars from a dementia victim as part of an illegal lottery scheme," Vance said. "Although federal law enforcement informed her that she was involved in an illegal Jamaican lottery scam, she chose to pursue the online get-rich-quick scheme."

"Now, although she had no prior criminal record, she is a convicted felon who must pay $70,000 in restitution to the victim, forfeit $70,000 to the government as proceeds of illegal activity, and be on federal probation for the next five years," Vance stated.

According to Latham's plea agreement postal inspectors on Jan. 3, 2013 obtained a cease-and-desist order against Latham for using the mail "to aid others in running a Jamaican lottery scam." She was ordered to stop working with unidentified individuals who sent money in the mail, claiming that a person has won the lottery, but has to send money to claim their winnings, according to the plea deal.

Latham said she would stop it, but on July 7, 2013 Latham opened a new post office box and by October 2013 Latham continued the scheme by receiving two checks - one for $40,000 and the other $30,000 - from a Virginia resident, only identified by the initials D.T.

D.T was 87 years old and suffering from dementia at the time, according to the plea deal.

Latham deposited the two checks and then transferred the money into her two separate personal checking accounts, at Regions and Wells Fargo banks, keeping a portion for herself and transferring a portion to the unidentified lottery scammers, according to court records.

Latham did this before the checks were labeled counterfeit or fictitious.

The plea agreement states Latham has a bachelor's of science degree in education, a master's degree, and worked as an educator from 1988 to 2000. She also worked as a financial institution from 2001 to 2011 in various capacities, including customer service and documentation specialist. "Latham is familiar with bank practices as a result of her previous employment," the plea deal noted.
Kingston shooting

One man was shot in Kingston tonight. (Ivana Hrynkiw | ihrynkiw@al.com)

One person has died after a shooting tonight in northeast Birmingham.

Sgt. John Green with Birmingham police said that one man was shot while driving through the Kingston neighborhood. He was shot in the back of the head.

After the victim was shot, he crashed his vehicle into a tree, Green said.

The shooting happened in the 800 block of 45th Street North.

The victim died at UAB Hospital, Lt. Sean Edwards confirmed. While the victim has not been identified, police said he was in his late 20s.

Green said there are no suspects at this time, but the investigation is ongoing.
Tony Michael Canterberry Photos.jpg

Tony Michael Canterberry

(Blount County, Tenn. Jail, Jefferson County Jail, Hoover City Jail)

An identity theft suspect who taunted investigators by claiming he had superior intellect and was too smart to be caught is now in custody.

Tony Michael Canterberry, 32, was arrested last week near a trailer park in Tennessee, Jefferson County sheriff's officials announced today. Canterberry, of Homewood, has been sought by Alabama lawmen since March when investigators said the customer service representative for a tax software company stole one man's identity and threatened to steal a client's identity.

Canterberry, who has a criminal history, emailed and berated a client and threatened to steal his identity, said Chief Deputy Randy Christian. Authorities charged him with identity theft but he repeatedly refused meet with investigators and even has questioned their ability to find him.

"He says his superior intelligence will keep us from catching him,'' Christian said in March. "That has to be a good sign for us."

Christian provided this account of what happened: On March 19, the sheriff's office Investigators received an email from a victim in another state that indicated he had received direct threats to steal his identity from a man who lived in Jefferson County. The victim included copies of correspondence between himself and the suspect.

The victim told lawmen he had contacted customer service for a large tax preparation software company in an effort to resolve an issue with his income tax return. The customer service representative was rude and insulting, and the victim said he was offended by the behavior. The victim ended the call.

The next day, the victim received an email from the customer service representative that berated him and indicated he should consider showing proper respect "especially when it concerns an issue as vital as your identity". The victim considered the email to be threatening, and contacted the company directly. He was told that the customer service representative worked for a contractor and would be fired because of this.

The next day, the victim received a second email from the suspect. That email indicated that the suspect only used his position as a customer service representative to "obtain necessary data to pursue my actual career." The suspect went on to describe the actions he had taken to avoid discovery and how he planned to destroy the victim's identity.

Sheriff's investigators found who they thought was the suspect and found that he, too, had been a victim of identity theft. Canterberry, they said, stole that man's identity to get his job as a customer service representative. The man who had claimed to be him while corresponding with the initial victim had stolen his identity to obtain work as a customer service representative.

Once they identified the suspect as Canterberry, detectives reached out to him by email and asked that he call them or come talk to them about this case. He has refused to do so, instead commenting about how intelligent he is and how he would not be captured. He also emailed AL.com multiple times claiming the stories about him were untrue and requesting to give his side of the story, but he never followed through or provided telephone contact information. At one point, in April, he was believed to be in the Dothan area.

Jefferson County investigators secured four felony warrants charging Canterberry with identity theft. Canterberry was convicted of third-degree burglary, a felony, in 2008. He was sentenced to 46 months in prison, court records show. Authorities said he also has previous charges of illegal possession of a credit card and theft.

Canterberry was arrested in Tennessee on June 2, Christian said. Deputies with the Blount County, Tenn. Sheriff's Office were dispatched to a trailer park to investigate a suspicious vehicle in the area. They found the vehicle at a nearby antique mall, and a computer check of the vehicle's tag indicated the car was likely driven by Canterberry.

He gave deputies a fake name when they initially made contact with him, but investigators eventually identified him as Canterberry. He is charged in Tennessee with possession of drugs, identity theft, theft of property and possession of drug paraphernalia. Christian said Canterberry will remain in Tennessee to face those charges, and then will be extradited to Alabama. His charges in Jefferson County carry a $340,000 bond.

"Drugs apparently overcame his superior intellect and another genius has been captured,'' Christian said. "Maybe he can use his time incarcerated to figure out he is smart enough to be a giver to society rather than a taker. That is the goal."
Al Jazeera asks Rousseff what went wrong amid the impeachment trial as the president denies any and all wrongdoing.

Brasilia, Brazil  Exiled to the Palacio do Alvorada  the official presidential residence  until the end of her impeachment trial, suspended President Dilma Rousseff seems remarkably relaxed.

Greeting us with a broad smile, she was much more approachable than I expected given the tough image she usually portrayed throughout her presidency  before she was forced to abandon the Presidential Palace last month.

The modern palace, designed by Brazils iconic architect Oscar Niemeyer, is exquisite  but enormous. Rousseff lives alone with her 90-year-old mother. I suggest she has too much space.

No, I live upstairs in a much smaller section, one of more human proportions, she laughs.

Such a conversation would have been extremely unlikely just a few months ago. Rousseff rarely gave interviews  much less at home. But then she was not on the verge of being impeached. Now she wants the world to know her side of the story.



Brazils suspended president Dilma Rousseffs impeachment begins

I have to say that the situation is not an easy one. But when you believe that justice is on your side, that gives you strength to withstand all the odds, she says. I am a victim of injustice.

During our long conversation, it became clear her reputation for being a strong woman is not unfounded.

Her softness disappears when asked about widespread criticism that she destroyed Brazils economy; that she knew or should have known about massive corruption in her government; that she was stubborn and refused to take advice when things started going seriously wrong in her coalition.

She dismisses all of it, which is what struck me most: Rousseffs refusal to publicly admit any responsibility for what has gone wrong in Brazil during her five-and-a-half year presidency.

In fact, asked what she would do differently if she is cleared in her impeachment trial, the only mistake she concedes was having chosen the wrong people to form a coalition. (Rousseffs Vice President Michel Temer  who betrayed her  is now sitting at her desk at the Presidential Palace as interim president).

Rousseff is right about a great many things, including the need for political reform in Brazil, where there are already 29 political parties. She is also right about the fact that her adversaries want her out for political reasons, rather than because she borrowed from public banks to fill a budget deficit  as all the presidents before her have done.

But as one of Dilma Rousseffs closest political allies  who preferred not to be named  told me, she may be her own worst enemy.

She does not have the humility, the ability or the desire to build bridges with those whom she considers wrong, or worse yet, her adversaries. She has alienated even many of her supporters. People dont trust that she can change.

Rousseff told me she thinks she can still beat impeachment by convincing six senators to change their minds and vote against her removal when the time comes, especially in light of the seemingly endless corruption scandals plaguing the Interim government.

That is not something impossible, she says.

But the question is, can Rousseff really convince the Senate and Brazilians to give her another chance? Will she ask the Brazilian people for forgiveness, as some insiders suggest she must?

Dilma thinks she has done nothing wrong. She is willing to fight till the end and go down in history as a political martyr, as the victim of treachery, says Leila Gebrim, a supporter who grew up in Brasilia.

As I left the Palace, Rousseff quoted a revealing gaucho (Brazilian cowboy) proverb:

One can never be too tired to fight  declared the sheep, as it was being surrounded by 40 wild wolves.
The story of a young boy who grew up, was tortured and went to Afghanistan to fight.

In Chronicle of a caged journalist, Egyptian war correspondent Yehia Ghanem tells the stories of those hes met while covering wars in Afghanistan, Bosnia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

As I stood in that cage in an Egyptian courtroom, memories of a childhood friend kept returning to me. I shall call him by his initials, KL.

We lived next door to one another in our middle-class, tree-lined Cairo neighbourhood, where wed play hide-and-seek behind the brick walls that had been erected in front of the apartment buildings during the 1967 war with Israel.

With his fair hair and blue eyes, KL resembled a mythological Nordic god. And in a country where such features were a rarity, people, young and old, were drawn to KL. But it wasnt just his appearance that attracted them: Polite and meek, he was well-liked, and I was proud to consider him a friend.

We attended the same schools from grammar to high school, parting only at college when he began to study commerce and I focused on journalism. We were in different faculties of the same university so would frequently bump into one another on campus.

Then, suddenly, a year before graduation, KL disappeared. For days, he didnt turn up for class. Nobody had seen him in the streets. After a while, we asked his brothers where he was, and they told us their suspicions: that hed been picked up by one of the many intelligence bodies in Egypt.

It was shortly after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat and just attending the mosque could be enough to get you apprehended. KLs crime: simply being too punctual in his prayers.

Almost three years passed. Our lives moved on; I graduated, did a year of public service and became a radio journalist, but I never forgot KL. I talked often about him with friends. Others whod been arrested spoke of the brutalities theyd experienced inside. We knew the same must be happening to him.

Then KL was released. But he was a different person. He had been subjected to the most horrific torture, the details of which he never discussed with us. Although still polite and outwardly calm, KL had been reborn into an entirely different ideology.

His firm conviction that social and political change  something as basic as the freedom of expression we all craved  could be achieved through peaceful means was gone. He still wanted that change, however. But now he believed that violence was the way to attain it.

I remember one conversation as we stood on the street, talking and exchanging ideas. Peaceful means are meaningless, he told me. That wasnt the KL I knew, but all peaceful avenues seemed blocked to him now.

It was hard to be surprised by the shift in him. For three years, hed experienced nothing but violence and oppression himself.

He completed university and graduated. But then, a year after he was released, KL disappeared  again. It was 1984, and the Soviet war in Afghanistan had been raging for five years. Foreign fighters, the majority of whom were Arab, had been shoring up the ranks of the mujahideen, and KL had joined them.

We heard stories about his activities there from other mujahideen who returned to visit their families. But what we heard was unbelievable: He had become a leading figure, not only as a fighter but as a planner.

More than a decade later, I too was in Afghanistan, covering the war between the Taliban and Northern Alliance. I wanted to find my old friend, who was still in the country  a foreign fighter aligned with the Taliban.

Eventually, I learned that he had became so important that it would be impossible to meet him for reasons of security.

For a little over two years, I reported first on the Taliban and then on the Northern Alliance, covering the war from both sides. Sometimes I was on the frontlines, sometimes interviewing prisoners of war or senior officials. Sometimes I ended up in a Taliban cell myself. But I always felt protected and suspected that on occasions, my old friend had been the one responsible for getting me out of there.

I still feel indebted to him, even though I havent seen him since the 1980s.

He had graduated from Egypts notorious prison system as someone who had internalised the violence perpetrated against him. There were tens of thousands of others just like him; once innocent young men who had been painfully and brutally broken down, only to be re-moulded as what the world might call terrorists. They were human beings to be hunted.

I would meet many, many others just like KL as I covered wars throughout the world  from Afghanistan to Bosnia to the Democratic Republic of Congo: young men embroiled in conflict and trapped in cages, both physical and mental.
Mozambique Channel, Madagascar  Driven by the collapse of local fisheries, increasing weather extremes and poverty, as well as the opportunity to earn money by selling shark fins and sea cucumbers to the Chinese market, the fishermen of southwest Madagascar have been leaving their homes in increasing numbers and migrating greater distances to places where they can still find productive fishing grounds.

In the year 2015, natural disasters displaced nearly 19.2 million people, more than twice the number who became refugees due to conflicts and wars.

An increasing number of people are forced from their homes by environmental change  drought, cyclones, rising sea levels and collapsing natural environments that can no longer sustain them. By 2050 they will number anything from 50 million to 200 million because of global climate change.

The fishermen travel to the most remote parts of Madagascars west coast. Often living far offshore on tiny islands in the Mozambique Channel, they eke out a living in places with no potable water or food and no access to hospitals or schools.

READ MORE: The endangered lifeline of Madagascars sharks

Even in these remote seas, industrial, big-scale fishing undermines the marine ecosystem. And although they have fished in the waters for generations, the fishermen of Madagascar have no formal claim to the seas they depend on for a livelihood. The establishment of protected marine areas further close off vital fishing grounds to them.

Blue Ventures, a marine conservation NGO, and the traditional fishermen are working with the Madagascar government to create a network of community-managed marine areas. By giving traditional fishermen management rights over their fisheries and protecting them from over-exploitation by outsiders, they hope to restore the fisheries.
Harrison Akins is the Ibn Khaldun Chair Research Fellow at American University's School of International Service and assisted Professor Akbar Ahmed on his study, The Thistle and the Drone: How America's War on Terror Became a Global War on Tribal Islam.

This article is the thirteenth in a series by Ambassador Akbar Ahmed, a former Pakistani high commissioner to the UK, exploring how a litany of volatile centre/periphery conflicts with deep historical roots were interpreted after 9/11 in the new global paradigm of anti-terrorism  with profound and often violent consequences. Incorporating in-depth case studies from Asia, Africa and the Middle East, Ambassador Ahmed will ultimately argue that the inability for Muslim and non-Muslim states alike to either incorporate minority groups into a liberal and tolerant society or resolve the centre vs periphery conflict is emblematic of a systemic failure of the modern state  a breakdown which, more often than not, leads to widespread violence and destruction. The violence generated from these conflicts will become the focus, in the remainder of the 21st century, of all those dealing with issues of national integration, law and order, human rights and justice.

Under the baking sun of Sinai early last month, a group of Eritrean refugees with little food or water had been stranded at the border between Egypt and Israel for over a week, attempting to cross the border. They huddled together beneath the feeble shade of a sheet of plastic that they held aloft.

While Israel barred entry for all but three in this group, an action which provoked an outcry from the human rights community, the more fundamental question lies with the underlying cause for their exodus.

Eritrea, divided between Christian Tigrinyans in the central highlands and a number of Muslim tribes in the lowlands on the periphery, is consistently regarded as one of the most repressive states in the world. Under President Isaias Afewerki, a Tigrinyan who has been in power since Eritrean independence from Ethiopia in the early 1990s, the country has become a highly militarised, one party state with severe restrictions over the press, speech, and even movement, particularly in the wake of the bloody border war with Ethiopia from 1998 to 2000.

Political opposition and journalists are frequently jailed for voicing dissent, with four journalists recently dying in prison after years of incarceration. The practice of religion is severely restricted for both Muslims and Christians. Since 2002, indefinite military conscription or national service has become mandatory for both men and women between the ages of 18 and 50. Deserters or those suspected of opposition to the government are imprisoned under harsh conditions and subject to torture and forced labour. Those who successfully escape leave their family behind to face punishment in their stead.

Legal advisor comments on

Israels deportation of African migrants

Eastern Sudan around Kassala, lying near Eritreas western border, has been the destination for the majority of Eritrean refugees since the 1960s, especially the Muslim Beni Amer tribe of the western lowlands who share kinship links across the border and have formed a large segment of the refugee population. 70,000 Eritrean refugees remain in Sudan with more arriving each month. In recent decades many have found their way into Egypt where they attempt to reach either Israel or Europe, with many either falling victim to human trafficking among the Sinai Bedouin or finding themselves struggling to survive in an unwelcoming host country.

To more fully understand the impulse of the Eritrean government towards militarism and the cause for Eritreans flight abroad, we must look to its history as a region involved in a thirty year war for independence, one of the longest conflicts on the African continent.

Struggling for autonomy

The region of present-day Eritrea, lying at the mouth of the Red Sea, has been a strategic piece of coastline for millennia, having been variously ruled by the historical Aksum Empire, the Ottomans, and local sultanates. Its modern borders with a diverse ethnic population were not established until Italian colonisation in the late 19th century through a treaty with the Ethiopian Emperor Menelik II. Italy called Eritrea, Colonia Primogenita, or first colony, and sought to create a more industrialised colony as a base of operations for further colonial expansion in the Horn of Africa, particularly Italys brutal occupation of Ethiopia in the 1930s which resulted in the deaths of 760,000 people.

Eritrea, emerging from British occupation of the Italian colony after World War II, became an autonomous unit in a federation with Ethiopia in 1952 as a result of a UN resolution. Many Muslim leaders opposed this federation with a Christian-dominated country and unsuccessfully advocated for independence.

The Ethiopian government under Emperor Haile Selassie began to undermine Eritrean autonomy in 1956 by temporarily suspending its elected assembly. Eritrean political parties were proscribed with many leaders jailed or forced into exile. Amharic, the language of the Ethiopian centre, was established as the sole official language. On November 14, 1962, the federation of Ethiopia and Eritrea was officially dissolved with Eritrea becoming Ethiopias 14th province.

Violence between Eritrea and the Ethiopian centre was, however, first sparked prior to this, in 1961, by Hamid Idris Awate, a tribal leader from the Beni Amir tribe, when he clashed with Ethiopian police as they began rounding up potential troublemakers. Hamid Idris had been a notorious raider since a blood feud was sparked over a cattle theft involving a rival tribe in 1942. In these acts of resistance, Hamid Idris garnered the support, largely due to tribal connections, of the Eritrean Independence Movement (ELM) in Cairo, consisting of Muslim leaders in exile, although Hamid Idris would die the following year.

The organisation which formed from Hamid Idris initial resistance was called the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF). The Beni Amir dominated its ranks relying on the ELM for financial and arms support and tribal links for growing its ranks. The Beni Amir and its supporters resisted participation from other ethnic and religious groups such as the Christian Tigrinyans in the highlands.

African migrants tortured in Sinai

The ELFs numbers grew as Ethiopian reprisals increasingly took the form of civilian persecution and attacks. In the early 1970s, the Ethiopian air force began systematically bombing villages in western Eritrea, and moving the army into ELF areas, burning villages and executing or detaining anyone suspected of collaborating with the rebel group. During the 1970s, as many as one million Eritreans were displaced, roughly one-third of the entire population. Many began to flee into eastern Sudan.

A life of war

Communism took hold in Ethiopia when military officers under Mengistu Haile Mariam supplanted Haile Selassie in 1974 and established the government of the Derg, meaning committee. Mengistu decided on a policy of total military defeat for Eritrea and continued the attacks against the civilian population. In 1975, the Ethiopian military began a new campaign, razing and burning villages thought to be giving aid or shelter to the guerilla forces, bombing villages, and destroying food crops and livestock. The 1975 massacre at Umm Hajer in western Eritrea, in which the entire village was destroyed, drove nearly 40,000 refugees into Sudan in one week.

The Ethiopian military campaigns not only affected the Muslim population but also the Christian Tigrinyan population who had increasingly been seeking to join the resistance movement. In 1970, the predominantly Christian Eritrean Peoples Liberation Front (EPLF) was formed under the leadership of Isaias Afewerki as a breakaway organisation from the ELF after conflicts with the ELFs Muslim leadership. In 1972, a civil war which lasted two years broke out between the EPLF and the ELF simultaneous to fighting against the Ethiopian military. The EPLF slowly came to dominate the war.

In 1980, the EPLF launched another attack on the ELF and drove its ranks into eastern Sudan in 1981, where many of the Beni Amer and other refugees remain today. The EPLF now assumed hegemony over the Eritrean fight for independence. It was finally able to achieve de facto independence in 1991 and de jure independence in 1993 through mobilising practically the entire adult population of Eritrea for its fighting force. The EPLF re-named itself the Peoples Front for Democracy and Justice and formed the new Eritrean government, with Afewerki as its head of state. After 30 years of armed struggle, 65,000 Eritrean fighters and 40,000 civilians had been killed.

The transition from a guerilla movement to a functioning modern democracy would eventually be stalled by leaders more familiar with the field of battle than the halls of government, with the refugee crisis continuing to linger after independence.

For Eritrea, a country that has known so few years of peace over the past fifty years, dialogue with its neighbours and development for its people, rather than further confrontation and military build-up, is needed more than ever. President Afewerki should work to grant his people the promises of freedom in a modern democracy that they struggled so hard and so long to achieve. By addressing the plight of his people at home, Afewerki will not only help to solve the refugee crisis but make his country stronger and more legitimate both in the eyes of the international community and in the eyes of Eritreans.

Professor Akbar Ahmed is Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University in Washington, DC and the former Pakistani High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.

Harrison Akins is the Ibn Khaldun Chair Research Fellow at American Universitys School of International Service and is assisting Professor Ahmed on Ahmeds forthcoming study, The Thistle and the Drone: How Americas War on Terror Became a Global War on Tribal Islam, to be published by Brookings Press in January 2013.
The absence of democratic pluralism in most Arab societies came at a high price in 1967 as it does today.

If time truly clarifies the full meaning of past events, then we have much to digest this week as we mark the 49th anniversary of the June 1967 Arab-Israeli War in the midst of warfare, suffering, and state fragmentation across many Arab countries.

In retrospect, the consequences of that terrible defeat would mark a historical turning point in modern Arab history, in several realms.

June 1967 provided important but largely still unlearned lessons about nationalism, populism, emotionalism, governance, Arabism, Zionism, and sustainable, citizen-based state-building. Three particular ones stand out in my mind.





The June Wars profound military failure and political incompetence buried the 1960s myth of pan-Arab military power in the service of Arab nationalism.

In response to the humiliation of that defeat, the years immediately following it ushered in perhaps the single greatest constraint to genuine, sustained Arab national development in the past century: military officers quickly took full control of Arab governments, and turned the management of statehood into family affairs that were cemented by multiple security services and expanding circles of corrupt crony capitalist beneficiaries.

Brutal legacies

Syria, Iraq, and Libya were the first states soon after 1967 to succumb to the rule of military officers-turned-strongmen presidents for life  Hafez al-Assad, Saddam Hussein, Muammar Gaddafi  and their shattered lands today attest shamefully to their brutal legacies.

READ MORE: The Six-Day War, 48 years on

Egypts military rule from 1952 transformed in the 1970s into a darker free-market version of its own weak socialist traditions.

The attempts by a handful of military officers to atone for the shocking 1967 defeat ushered in far greater problems that have shattered entire societies. by

Yemen, Sudan, Djibouti, Mauritania, Algeria, and other Arab states soon copied this doomed model: former Arab nationalist developmental states which by the 1980s had turned into family-run security states whose citizens had become mere consumers without any meaningful political rights.

During the 1990s post-Cold War and oil boom eras, economic growth fell behind population growth rates, and most governments could not continue funding national developmental efforts.

In all non-oil-producing states, a small super-rich class spirited away tens of billions of dollars of public funds, while tens of millions of their countrymen and women steadily saw their life conditions stagnate and their childrens life prospects dim for ever  until they erupted in rebellion in 2011.

The attempts by a handful of military officers to atone for the shocking 1967 defeat ushered in far greater problems that have shattered entire societies.

Poverty, corruption, abuse of power, over-militarisation, citizen alienation, economic polarisation, and emigration of their finest young minds doomed once promising countries such as Iraq, Sudan, Libya, Yemen, Algeria, and Syria to stagnation, poverty, and todays violence, fragmentation and exports of refugees and terrorists.

Arabs defeating themselves

Israels military defeat of the Arabs in 1967 was followed by some Arabs defeating themselves politically.

We lost that war because we never properly harnessed our natural, human, economic and strategic resources to set our Arab region on a path of sustained and equitable development.

Governance did not centre on enhancing the capabilities, rights and well-being of the citizenry, but rather sought to perpetuate the incumbency and enrichment of a small circle of people who had seized power.

The second significant lesson from the 1967 war was the importance of political power and national advancement being anchored in populist participation.

This lesson is partly evident in the burst of development of the Palestinian national movement after 1967, when it was clear than pan-Arab action would not restore Palestinian rights. This movement has not achieved its main goals, to be sure; but it has registered some meaningful gains.

READ MORE: Egypts pharaoh illusion

Its determined political activism rescued the cause of Palestine from the oblivion it was headed for in the early 1960s. Its promotion of Arab popular support for the just cause of Palestine across the Arab region harnessed Arab government support as well.

It tapped into global support for Palestinian rights, in national manifestations and in global forums.

Clear global demand

Perhaps most importantly, it showed how a largely unified political movement based on consultative, participatory decision-making within Palestinian national institutions could make the historic transition from hardline militarism and absolutist political demands to a more reasonable set of compromises that would allow Palestinian rights to be restored alongside the state of Israel whose secure existence was a clear global demand.

That was the noteworthy road travelled from the 1967 defeat to the Saudi Arabian-shepherded Arab Peace Plan of 2002 that remains central today to diplomatic efforts by American, French, UN and other global leaders to find a just and permanent resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Most of all, however, the third key lesson we should recall from the 1967 defeat is about the very high price we pay for the absence of democratic pluralism in most Arab societies.

We lost that war because we were militarily and diplomatically unprepared, but those conditions were due to our being delinquent in our own governance.

Modern historys verdict is unambiguous: societies that tap the dynamism and protect the rights of their own citizens will achieve national wellbeing more often than those that subjugate citizens and stifle their will.

Rami G Khouri is a senior public policy fellow at the Issam Fares Institute at the American University of Beirut and a non-resident senior fellow at Harward University Kennedy School.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
If Hollywood wants to turn to Rumi, may Rumis blessings be on Hollywood.

Hamid Dabashi is the Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University.

Imagine Leonardo DiCaprio, say as Jordan Belfort in Martin Scorseses The Wolf of Wall Street (2013). Now imagine him as Rumi. Yes, Rumi: the Muslim mystic poet of the 13th century.

Now imagine Robert Downey Jr, say as Tony Stark/Iron Man in Jon Favreaus Iron Man (2008). Now imagine him as Shams-e Tabrizi. Thats right: the mysterious mystic centre of Rumis deepest and most moving affections, the very inspiration behind his monumental collection of lyrical poetry.

Believe it or not, this is not a mere flight of fantasy but the combined intention of a major Hollywood scriptwriter and a producer who have evidently come together to make a biopic on the Muslim mystic, scholar, thinker, and poet Mawlana Jalal al-Din Rumi: the author of two monumental masterpieces of Persian poetry, the Mathnavi and the Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi, the founder of the Mevlevi Order, whose Mausoleum in Konya is the pilgrimage destination of millions of his devotees from around the globe.





An Oscar-winning screenwriter, we read in the news,has agreed to work on a biopic about the 13th-century poet Jalaluddin al-Rumi. David Franzoni, who wrote the script for the 2000 blockbuster Gladiator, and Stephen Joel Brown, a producer on the Rumi film, said they wanted to challenge the stereotypical portrayal of Muslim characters in western cinema by charting the life of the great Sufi scholar.

From Muslim mystic to New Age guru

Why not, was my first reaction to the news. Rumi is so big, so magnificent, so majestic a river that anyone can come closer and fill a bucketful with his grace and go about his business.

READ MORE: When Muslims ruled the civilised world

Rumi is, of course, no stranger to New Age mysticism and has been quite successfully made available in English by such cavalier translators as Coleman Barks and Deepak Chopra.

Though quite distant from their original Persians, these English translations indeed read very well, create an engaging emotive universe, and successfully draw global attention to a poet otherwise entirely alien to them.

When there is no rose, to borrow a metaphor from Rumi himself, what choices do people have but to remember it from a drop of rosewater!

If you read the original Persian or are otherwise familiar with Rumi through the scholarship of the hard-working but quiet Orientalists such as R A Nicholson and A J Arberry, you may roll your eyes at some of these translations.

But given Rumis own predilection towards a playful soul he might have smilingly approved of his poetry being taken for a ride into English with such lovely disloyalty.

When there is no rose, to borrow a metaphor from Rumi himself, what choices do people have but to remember it from a drop of rosewater! by

You cannot really be stubbornly dogmatic about the persona and the poetry of a man who danced with words as he took all dogmas for a lovely bathing under a cascade of forgiving love. Can you?

Imagining Rumi

Be that as it may, the new biopic this report promises is going to venture into a whole different domain: how to imagine and visualise Rumi, the world he lived, the divinity he experienced, the focal points of his love and affection, the universe that he thought engulfed his life and afterlife?

Muslims who know and love Rumi, especially those who are born and raised in his original Persian poetry, will and could never be satisfied with any rendition of him  Hollywood or otherwise.

The reason for that is very simple. They have been imagining him in their own mind for generations and lifetimes, and the slightest variation from that imagining will lead them the wrong way.

READ MORE: Once upon a time in the cosmopolitan east

The incurable banality of Hollywood for casting famous actors of European descent in leading roles of non-European characters did not of course begin with the idea of having Leonardo DiCaprio play Rumi or Robert Downey Jr Shams-e Tabrizi.

Just take a look at a picture of a blackface Laurence Olivier as Othello or Mahdi of Khartoum, or even more recently of Christian Bale as Moses in Ridley Scotts Exodus!

The challenge that Hollywood and its scriptwriters and producers face, however, is much more serious than who will portray Rumi.

As a titanic figure in Muslim moral and intellectual history, Rumi was the product of a moment when the Mongol invasion was bringing the Abbasid and Seljuqid empires to a crushing end to build an even more enormous and opulent empire on their ruins.

Rumi was the single most towering moral intellect at the crosscurrent of that world-historic moment. His universe of imagination, the God he praised, the heavens he fathomed, the Persian poetry he perfected to the pitch of that divine presence are all at fundamental odds with the fragmentary attention span of a world in which Hollywood has turned its attention to Rumi.

As a poet, a mystic, and a prophetic soul, Rumi does not belong to anyone, and anyone can enter his presence and hope to receive the gift of his grace.

If Hollywood wants to turn to Rumi, may Rumis blessings be on Hollywood. But before Leonardo DiCaprio of Hollywood or Salman Khan of Bollywood is invited to play Rumi, the scriptwriter and producer are well advised quietly to whisper this piece of a ghazal that I as a mere pilgrim to Rumis grace translate for them from the original. I promise it will do them good:

Oh Muslims what am I to do

For I no longer know myself?

I am neither a Christian nor a Jew,

Neither a Zoroastrian, nor indeed a Muslim!

I am neither from the East nor from the West,

Neither from the sea nor from the land 

Neither from the dust nor from the wind,

Neither from water nor from fire 

Neither from this nor from the world to come,

Neither from Paradise nor from Hell,

Neither from Adam nor from Eve,

Nor indeed from the Garden of Eden 

I dwell in Noplace, my sign is Signless.

I have neither a soul nor a body,

For I come from the very Soul of all souls.

Hamid Dabashi is Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University in New York.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
ISIL is well-known for its use of child soldiers, but the Shia militias fighting against ISIL use minors too.

Anbar, Iraq  The child soldier posed for the camera, holding a machine-gun and wearing black clothes and army boots. He refused to give his name or his age, but it was obvious from his appearance  his facial hair barely grown  that he was only a teenager. The boy fights along with Hashd Al Ameriat  a shia militia.

The child soldier was fighting against Daesh (ISIL, also known as ISIS) in Amiriyat al-Fallujah, a city 40 kilometres west of Baghdad, where fierce battles have been taking place between Daesh, the Iraqi Army, and the Popular Mobilisation Forces  militias allied with the Iraqi government.

On May 14, ISIL suicide bombers attacked the centre of Amiriyat al-Fallujah, killing ten soldiers and militiamen. ISIL is well-known for its use of child soldiers, and its Cubs of the Caliphate brigade has been filmed undergoing military training exercises and even taking part in executions.

READ MORE: Will Fallujah put an end to ISIL in Iraq?

I fought alongside my brothers to liberate Tikrit and Baiji, and other areas in Salahuddin province, and I will continue fighting with them as long as it takes to claim back all the land from ISIL. by Karrar, fighter from Diyala

Iraq has a long history of training underage fighters. Under Saddam Husseins rule, boys of 12 to 17 known as Saddams lion cubs would attend month-long training during summer breaks.

The Iraqi army restricts the age of its recruits to between 18 and 35, a policy that rights groups say is enforced. But there is no law governing the Popular Mobilisation Forces.

In December, the United Nations documented hundreds of cases of children recruited in Iraq and used to take part in hostilities. The reported emergence of ISILs youth wings, with training centres in Iraq and Syria, is extremely worrisome, as is the alleged association of children with Popular Mobilisation Forces.

The United Nations Childrens Fund called for urgent measures to be taken by the Iraqi government to protect children, including criminalising the recruitment of children.

The ban on child recruitment is found in Protocols I and II of the Geneva Conventions, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and other international agreements. The Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) considers conscripting or enlisting children a war crime, whether it takes place in international or local armed conflicts.

A woman named Qetu Haji said several members of her family, who are members of the Yazidi religious minority, were captured by Daesh while trying to escape the groups advance in Sinjar. She was told by a relative that her son had been killed and her daughter-in-law enslaved.

Two of her grandsons, aged 12 and 15, were reportedly put in a Daesh military training camp. It is almost two years now, and I dont know what happened to my grandsons, said Qetu Haji.

Other minors join ISILs ranks willingly. Abu Muhannad, who lives in Fallujah, said that after a siege on his city by the Iraqi army and allied militias, his 17-year-old son Muhannad told him that he cant understand why the army of his country is bombing its own people.

Muhannad left the house that night, never to return, and his father suspects he joined an ISIL training camp.

Ten months since his disappearance, the family still has no information on his whereabouts. They take our children, and leave us in agony of what happened to our boys, said Abu Muhannad. Yet ISIL is not the only group in Iraq that recruits children as soldiers.

So do Iraqi Shia militias aligned with the Iraqi government. While it is not clear whether or not these boys were forced to join the militias, those who spoke to Al Jazeera said many join these militias of their own volition, desiring revenge against ISIL.

Fifteen-year-old Karrar, who refused to give his last name, said he joined the Asaib Ahl al-Haq militia, which is fighting with the Popular Mobilization Forces, to help liberate my people who are being killed by ISIL.

I fought alongside my brothers to liberate Tikrit and Baiji, and other areas in Salahuddin province, and I will continue fighting with them as long as it takes to claim back all the land from Daesh, said Karrar, who is from Diyala, east of Baghdad. When asked about his young age, he replied: My age doesnt matter. I am a fighter and I will remain a fighter until Allah grants us victory or martyrdom.





Th large number of orphans in Iraq is also driving the use of child soldiers. A report released by UNICEF in September 2015 estimated that more than four million Iraqi children have lost at least one parent, and Iraq lacks enough orphanages to host the large number of children who have lost both parents.

In October 2014, the Iraqi Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs announced that it runs just 22 orphanages across the country, and that these houses are not capable at all of accommodating all those who have lost a parent or both parents.

The increasing numbers of orphans in the country with the lack of proper care will put them at the mercy of armed militias, said Abir al-Shammari, who runs the Right to Humanity organisation, a Basra-based NGO that operates mainly in southern Iraq. Al-Shammari is critical of the Iraqi government for not funding more orphanages to care for the children.





The Iraqi government has failed to halt militias recruitment of children. Hawker Jetto, a sociologist and a human rights activist based in Erbil who works in a public aid organisation that deals with human rights in Iraq, argues that Iraq is clearly violating the Geneva conventions, by neglecting the increasing number of children-soldiers who are recruited by militias affiliated with the government.

Jetto criticises the Iraqi government for not putting the Popular Mobilisation Forces under the supervision of an official committee, to stop any abuses against children.

Both the Iraqi Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Interior refused to comment on militia recruitment of children, and declined to give estimates of the number of children fighting in the conflict.

Jetto believes that the government might be as well considered as complicit in the violation of childrens rights with militia leaders.

If the government does not act fast to stop child abuse in the conflict, it must be held accountable.
Civilians who escaped ISIL stronghold near Baghdad tell UN there may be thousands more inside the besieged city.

The United Nations has significantly revised the number of civilians believed to still be inside the besieged Iraqi town of Fallujah, a stronghold of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, or ISIS), to up to 90,000  compared with a previous estimate of 50,000.

The offensive by the Iraqi army, backed by Shia militias, to dislodge ISIL from Fallujah began on May 23, but the city has been under a de facto siege for about six months.

In a telephone interview with the Reuters news agency in Baghdad, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq Lise Grande said on Wednesday that civilians could face a harrowing situation in the city 50km west of the Iraqi capital.

We have underestimated how many civilians are in Fallujah, Grande said.

People who are coming out are giving us the strong impression that we could be talking about maybe 80,000 to 90,000 civilians that are inside.

Thousands of civilians are caught in the crossfire in and around Fallujah, close to the capital Baghdad, as government forces and allied militias are trying to recapture the city.

READ MORE: Will Fallujah put an end to ISIL in Iraq?

Grande said that more than 20,000 people have managed to flee the city in extremely difficult conditions, having walked for days and faced ISIL fire to reach government-held areas.

A number of them unfortunately didnt make it. We know that more than 10 people have drowned when they tried to cross the river, she said, also reporting cases where families lost their children while fleeing.

People fleeing Fallujah have been using anything that floats to help them get across the Euphrates, which is about 250 to 300 metres wide at the crossing point in farmland just south of the city.

Fleeing Fallujah

The UNs upward revision came a day after an international aid group told Al Jazeera that civilians fleeing the city of Fallujah had been shot at by ISIL fighters holed up in the besieged city.

Nasr Muflahi, country director of the Norwegian Refugee Council, confirmed several such incidents based on testimonies from civilians who were directly targeted by ISIL gunmen on Sunday.

Also on Tuesday, the UN human rights chief said there were extremely distressing, credible reports that Iraqis fleeing the fighting in Fallujah were facing extreme abuse, and even death, at the hands of Shia armed groups allied with the government troops.

Zeid Raad al-Hussein, citing witness testimonies, said on Tuesday that allegations of abuse included reports of multiple executions of men and boys, who were trying to escape the ISIL-held city.

Eyewitnesses have described how armed groups operating in support of the Iraqi security forces are detaining the males for security screening, Zeid said.

[This] in some cases degenerates into physical violations and other forms of abuse, apparently in order to elicit forced confessions.
Media outlet picks up four awards and two commendations at the 2016 annual ceremony held in London.

Al Jazeera English has won the Best Website award at the annual Online Media Awards ceremony held in London, along with three other awards and two commendations.

The awards hosted on Tuesday evening by marketing company The Drum were judged by a panel of journalists, PR professionals and media personalities.

Other organisations nominated for awards included Britains Channel 4, The Guardian, the BBC, and ITV.

Al Jazeeras senior editor for digital video, Yasir Khan, beat ten other nominees to win Online Editor of the Year, while Al Jazeeras Alaa Batayneh won the award for Most Effective Media Tool.

Batayneh developed the Al Jazeera Newsroom Toolbox, a collection of seven bespoke applications designed to help editors to deliver content faster and more efficiently.

A multimedia essay titled Banished: Why menstruation can mean exile in Nepal picked up the gong for Best Use of Photography.

Our job as journalists has been the same for decades  to respect our audiences by telling them good stories in the most compelling ways possible. And without a doubt, it will remain the same, Khan said after his win.

The companys acting managing director, Giles Trendle, said he was delighted with the sweep of awards.

The competition was tough and we were up against the very best in the business, so its a great honour to receive such industry recognition for the quality of our content and the talent of our teams, he said.

Woah. Al Jazeera English just won website of the year at the @OM_Awards. As you can see, we're happy. pic.twitter.com/3CUZ9iZXQD  Barry Malone (@malonebarry) June 7, 2016

Dedication and tenacity

Imad Musa, manager of online at aljazeera.com, said the awards were an outcome of his journalists dedication and tenacity.

When we set out to do things, we are not looking to either lead or follow what others are doing  we just follow our instincts to find and tell stories that are worth telling, he said.

In addition to the awards, Al Jazeera received a commendation in the Best Commentary/Blogging category for online editor Barry Malones piece on why the channel stopped using the word migrants to describe the refugees attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea.

Since its launch in 2006, Al Jazeera English has picked up accolades and praise for its coverage of issues perceived to be neglected by other organisations.
Eritrean Medhane Yehdego Mered, accused of organising a trafficking route through Africa, is flown to Rome from Sudan.

An Eritrean dubbed the general, suspected of controlling a people-smuggling network responsible for shipping thousands of people to Europe, has been extradited to Italy.

Medhane Yehdego Mered, 35, was flown to Rome on Monday night from Sudan, where he was arrested two weeks ago.

Last year, authorities identified Mered as a prime suspect along with Ethiopian-born Ermias Ghermay, who remains at large, in the transport of refugees and migrants from sub-Saharan Africa via lawless Libya and across the Mediterranean to Europe.





Authorities on Wednesday said he is one of four principal traffickers identified during their investigation.

The suspect facing justice is a character without scruples and without any respect for human life; an individual who occupies a key role in the operational centre of a criminal network that moves millions of euros, Renato Cortese, a chief investigator for Italys national police force, told a news conference in Palermo.

Rescues of people undertaking the dangerous journey to Europe continued in the Mediterranean on Wednesday.

An Italian coastguard ship delivered 223 people to the Sicilian port of Pozzallo, including arrivals from Eritrea, Somalia and Sudan.

The route from Libya is separate from the influx of Syrians and other asylum seekers via Turkey to Greece over the past year.

Even as we speak, the migrant arrivals are continuing. Even as we speak, this network of Mered is still operating its traffickers, Cortese said. But having detained a subject who surely had a role of protagonist, we are aware of having delivered a blow to this organisation.

WATCH: Borderless  Undercover with the People Smugglers

So far this year, nearly 48,000 people saved at sea in smugglers boats have been brought to Italy, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said on Wednesday, compared with 51,000 the same time last year.

More than 2,800 lives have been lost, most on the route to Italy, with the vast majority disappearing at sea, according to the International Organisation for Migration.

Prosecutor Maurizio Scalia said Mered is not only being investigated for aiding undocumented migration dating from 2012, but also on possible charges related to banking fraud for the transfer of funds to pay for the people smuggling.

This is a demonstration of how little these organisations and their bosses respect human life, the lives of all those desperate people who for various reasons attempt to reach Italy and Europe in the hope of a better life, said Palermo chief prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi.

Tapped telephone conversations indicated that Mered paid Libyan officials $45,000 on one occasion to get a group of refugees out of prison.

Scalia said Mered claimed to be the most powerful in the group, calling himself general and claiming to have the same style as the former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, surrounding himself with trusted allies.

In the wiretapped calls, Mered indicated that he was going to move to Sweden to join his wife as soon as he could arrange the proper documents. He also talked about building a house in Eritrea and making investments in Dubai.

Italy has arrested dozens of smuggling suspects, typically people who captain the rickety boats and maintain order on the crowded decks.
Progressive candidate pledges to continue his campaign into July despite Hillary Clinton claiming victory.

Bernie Sanders has vowed to stay in the Democratic partys presidential nomination race despite his rival Hillary Clintons declaration of victory.

The US senator for Vermont promised supporters gathered in California on Tuesday night that he would continue campaigning for next weeks primary in Washington DC, and on to the Democratic Partys national convention in July.

Clinton declared victory after picking up primary wins in New Jersey, South Dakota, and New Mexico, just a day after an Associated Press count  including unpledged superdelegates  called the race in her favour. She also won in California, the largest state in the United States.

Sanders won contests in Montana and North Dakota.

Sanders campaign calls out AP for declaring Clinton win

We are going to fight hard to win the primary in Washington DC and then we take our fight for social, economic, racial and environmental justice to Philadelphia, Sanders said, referring to the city where Democrats will gather for their party convention on July 25.

The fight in front of us is a very, very steep fight, but we will continue to fight for every vote and every delegate.

Political revolution

Sanders has gone from a candidate once considered an outsider by sections of the US media to one who has gone toe-to-toe with Clinton.

All of you know that when we began this campaign just over a year ago, we were considered to be a fringe campaign. But over the last year, I think that has changed just a little bit, he said.

The current AP tally of pledged delegates puts Clinton ahead with 1,926 to 1,615 for Sanders.

When superdelegates are taken into account, Clinton has 2,497 delegates to 1,663 for Sanders  enough to secure her the nomination.

Sanders has built his campaign on a promise of tackling economic inequality, which he says is caused by large corporations and greedy billionaires, as well as a political class that has done nothing to redress it.

We will break up the major banks on Wall Street and we will join the rest of the industrialised world and guarantee healthcare, he said, thanking his supporters for being part of a political revolution.

We will tell the billionaire class and Corporate America that they will start paying their fair share.

Hillary Clinton claims Democratic nomination victory

Sanders also promised that he would not allow the presumptive Republican nominee, Donald Trump, to become president, condemning his bigotry against Mexicans, Muslims, and African-Americans.

From the very beginning Bernie Sanders has said hes in this to run a political revolution, and he wants to get his message out at the convention. He wants the superdelegates to think about who can beat Donald Trump, political science professor Peter Mathews told Al Jazeera.

US President Barack Obama congratulated Clinton on securing the nomination, and is set to meet Sanders at the White House on Thursday.
Clinton has won three million more votes than her rival Bernie Sanders and is well ahead in the pledged delegate count.

Voters in six American states cast ballots on Tuesday in the final major primaries of the 2016 White House race, after media reported that Hillary Clinton secured enough delegates to win the Democratic nomination.

The results are expected to see Clinton declare victory as the first woman in history to secure the presidential nomination of a major US party, putting her on course for a showdown with New York billionaire Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, in Novembers election.

Her challenger Bernie Sanders has so far ignored media reports that she has clinched the magic number of delegates. The self-declared democratic socialist is chasing a win in the countrys largest state California, and insisting the nominee will not be chosen until the party convention in July.

US election: AP says Clinton wins Democratic nomination

Voting was underway in six states  California, New Jersey, New Mexico, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota. New Jersey and the Dakotas will be the first polls to close at 8:00pm Eastern time (0000 GMT Wednesday).

It remained unclear what effect the reports that Clinton had passed the milestone of 2,383 delegates on Monday would have on those casting ballots.

Mired in scandal

Im a Bernie Sanders guy all the way, said 21-year-old student Saul Gomez, voting in Los Angeles. Honestly he seems a lot more genuine to me, he said. Hes consistent, and I dig that.

Clinton  the 68-year-old former first lady, New York senator and for four years President Barack Obamas top diplomat  is scheduled to deliver a speech in Brooklyn late on Tuesday in perhaps the pinnacle of her political career to date.

It marks a dramatic resurgence for the woman often described as the most experienced US presidential candidate in generations, but who remains mired in scandal about her emails and perceptions of dishonesty  leaving her with unpopularity ratings surpassed only by the controversial Trump.

Her stiff campaigning style saw her lose to Obama in their 2008 nomination battle and has drawn stark contrast to the crowds of thousands of young people that 74-year-old Sanders has energised nationwide.

Clinton has refrained from getting too carried away by the US network tallies showing her capturing the nomination, urging her supporters to still come out and vote.

We are on the brink of a historic, historic, unprecedented moment, she said in Long Beach, California. But we still have work to do, dont we?

On Tuesday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi  who was the first woman Speaker of the House of Representatives and is a California superdelegate this year  formally endorsed Clinton.

Tight Clinton-Sanders race

While polls predict a tight Clinton-Sanders race in California, a loss there would not prove fatal for her. Clinton has won three million more votes than Sanders and is well ahead in the pledged delegate count.

Her campaign manager said they would celebrate on Tuesday night and then focus on unifying the party in a bid to defeat Trump.

It will be time for the party to start to come together and make sure that we rally behind our nominee, Robby Mook told CNN.

Senator Sanders and his campaign have achieved incredible things. Theyve brought so many people into the process  these people will be so important to winning the general election, Mook said.

Meanwhile Trump has come under hostile fire from fellow Republicans for making belligerent attacks on a judge presiding over a case against one of his business interests. Trump called him biased because he is of Mexican descent.

Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan on Tuesday called Trumps remarks indefensible and the textbook definition of a racist comment, but still urged the party to unite for November.

I think if we go into the fall as a divided party, we are doomed to lose, Ryan said.
Three people killed and several others wounded in bomb attack on police building in Midyat near Syrian border.

Three people have been killed and several others wounded in a car bomb attack on a police station in the countrys southeastern province of Mardin.

Hospital sources said more than 20 people, including police officers and civilians, were wounded in Wednesdays attack in the town of Midyat, a region where government forces are battling Kurdish separatists.

In televised comments, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said: One police officer and two citizens have been confirmed dead so far.

According to images posted on Twitter, glass from blown-out windows littered the streets and plumes of black smoke could be seen rising from the building.

Turkey has been hit by a series of similar attacks in recent months.

Rebels of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, have targeted police and military personnel since July, when a fragile peace process between the rebels and the government collapsed.

Al Jazeeras Hashem Ahelbarra, reporting from Gaziantep, said there has been an increase in attacks since the Turkish army launched operations against PKK fighters in the area.

In May, three people were killed in a car bombing by Kurdish rebels against a gendarmerie station in Midyat and, in April, a soldier was killed and six others wounded in a car bomb attack against their outpost in Mardin.

Wednesdays attack comes a day after a car bomb hit a police vehicle in Istanbul, killing 11 people during the morning rush hour.

No one has so far claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) has also been blamed for a series of deadly bombings in Turkey, which is part of the US-led coalition bombing its positions.
Troops sent across border to tackle Boko Haram in Niger after group invades Bosso town, forcing 50,000 to flee.

About 2,000 troops from Chad have arrived in Niger, where Boko Haram fighters have inflicted losses and displaced tens of thousands in the countrys southeast, the Reuters news agency has reported.

Citing two unnamed military sources, Reuters said Chadian troops had arrived in the neighbouring country on Tuesday and were advancing on Bosso, a town near Lake Chad that has been the scene of clashes in recent days.

The attacks on Bosso, a military garrison near the border with Nigeria, began on Friday.

At least 32 soldiers, including two from neighbouring Nigeria, were killed, authorities said on Saturday. A total of 55 fighters belonging to Boko Haram were also killed and many others injured.

On Wednesday, UN refugee agency UNHCRs Louise Donovan told Al Jazeera that more than 17,000 people had arrived in the town of Diffa after the fierce fighting in Bosso. There were 2,600 children among the displaced.

The UN says up to 50,000 people have fled the town, most of whom are now living in the open and in precarious conditions.

While Boko Haram is said to have retaken Bosso on Sunday night, it is unclear who is now in charge of the town.

Humanitarian groups said civilians were living in extremely vulnerable conditions.

The medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF), said in a statement on Wednesday that the majority of newly displaced people had been displaced previously.

Bosso and surrounding areas were supposed to be a sanctuary, Elmounzer Ag Jiddou, MSFs head of mission in Niger, said.

A lot of people are heading in different directions. Some are in the middle of nowhere and it is very difficult to assist them. Together with the different actors and the government, we need to see how to facilitate access and organise help.

READ MORE: One million children forced from school by Boko Haram war

Martin Ewi, a researcher on counterterrorism at the Institute of Security Studies in Pretoria, South Africa, told Al Jazeera that Boko Haram were evidently searching for a city from which they could launch their attacks.

He described Niger as the new frontline of the war.

Chad and Niger started joint army operations against Boko Haram early last year.

Chads involvement in combating the groups violent campaign, which affects the whole Lake Chad region where Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad meet, was decisive in taking back control of territory controlled by Boko Haram.
UN investigation reports a litany of crimes committed in Eritrea since 1991, including enslavement, rape and murder.

Eritreas government is guilty of committing crimes against humanity since independence a quarter-century ago with up to 400,000 people enslaved, the UN said on Wednesday.





The crimes committed since 1991 include imprisonment, enforced disappearance, extrajudicial killings, and rape and murder, said the United Nations Commission of Inquiry (COI) on human rights.

The forced labour of military conscripts is also a major problem in the country, the UN said.

We think that there are 300,000 to 400,000 people who have been enslaved, chief UN investigator Mike Smith told journalists in Geneva.

The government also operates a shoot-to-kill policy to stop people fleeing the country, according to evidence collected by the UN inquiry.

About 5,000 Eritreans risk their lives each month to flee the nation where forcible army conscription can last decades.

Very few Eritreans are ever released from their military service obligations, Smith said.

Eritreas Minister of Information Yemane Meskel denounced the UNs findings on Twitter.

COI admits it is not a judicial body.Its wild accusations do not meet fundamental standards of accuracy, objectivity, neutrality & legality  Yemane G. Meskel (@hawelti) June 8, 2016

For a 3-person panel to overstep its mandate,to arrogate to itself draconian powers(& indict a proud people) is simply untenable/ unheard of  Yemane G. Meskel (@hawelti) June 8, 2016

One witness said that Air Force conscripts were made to work in a plantation that belonged to the Air Force chief. The conscripts were not paid and were sent to detention facilities if they refused to work.

These acts were perpetrated to terrify and control the civilian population, while crushing opposition, the Commission of Inquiry said.

There is no genuine prospect of the Eritrean judicial system holding perpetrators to account in a fair and transparent manner, Smith said.

The Commission of Inquiry recommended that the international community and the International Criminal Court get involved.

Crimes against humanity have been committed in a widespread and systematic manner in Eritrean detention facilities, military training camps and other locations across the country over the past 25 years, the UN commission said.

Particular individuals, including officials at the highest levels of state, the ruling party  the Peoples Front for Democracy and Justice  and commanding officers bear responsibility for crimes against humanity, it said.

The 1991 split between Ethiopia and Eritrea followed a three-decade independence war, which saw Eritrean rebels battling far better-equipped Ethiopian troops backed first by Washington and then by the Soviet Union.

The country ranks below North Korea as the worst in the world for press freedom, according to Reporters Without Borders.

With an annual per capita gross national income of $480, Eritrea is one of the worlds poorest nations, according to the World Bank.
Hospital among three sites targeted in attacks that killed at least 20 as fighting intensifies in the northern city.

At least 20 people have been killed in air strikes in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, a monitoring group has said.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said on Wednesday that at least 10 people were killed in strikes targeting the Bayan hospital in a rebel-held part of Aleppo city.

Nine newborns were removed from their incubators after the aerial assault that also damaged equipment, according to the Independent Doctors Association in Syria, which runs the hospital.

There are only a handful of functioning incubators left in Aleppo, Dr Hatem, director of the hospital, said.

Our ability to provide even the most basic protections to our most vulnerable is disappearing. Every world leader must imagine that one of these newborns were their own son or daughter.

Whatever they would do to protect their own children they need to afford the same protection for ours.

In al-Marjeh neighbourhood, at least four people, including two children, were killed when government helicopters dropped barrel bombs.

One more person was killed in an air strike in the nearby neighbourhoud of al-Moadi, the SOHR added.

Zouhir al-Shimale, a local journalist, told Al Jazeera that the hospital is located on a very busy street.

WATCH: Is there still a political way out of Syrias crisis?

There is a vegetable market on that street. It is a very busy area. At least four barrel bombs were dropped by government helicopters. So far the death toll we have received is 10, with another 30 people injured.

In addition to that, air strikes have targeted al-Salhin neighbourhood, one person has been killed and several others have been injured. In al-Rashdin neighborhoud, an air strike left one woman killed, al-Shimale said.

Distressed and paralysed

At least 17 medical facilities have been attacked in the past two months, according to independent reports, and there are now only seven hospitals left functioning in Aleppo.

After a week of intense attacks that have left dozens of civilians killed, Aleppo is now facing its first taste of siege, said Dr Osama Abo al Ezz, a surgeon from the Syrian American Medical Society working in Aleppo.

We are distressed and paralysed. Yet international demands for civilian protection are not being backed up by any tangible action.

Elsewhere in Aleppo province, the SOHR reported that Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) fighters have retreated from several villages as heavy clashes continue between the group and the predominantly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

The SDF, a US-backed coalition of Kurdish and Arab fighters, is headed by the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units.

Last week, the SDF launched an offensive to capture the town of Manbij, a suspected supply route for ISIL to smuggle weapons in from Turkey.

Separately, the observatory said last week that the US had air-dropped weapons to rebel fighters in Aleppo province, who have been battling ISIL.

Aleppans options are running out, said Dr Samah Bassas, CEO of the Syria Relief Network.

The bombs we are used to. But if we are to be held under siege, hunger and disease will quickly take hold. Even more death is inevitable. The Russian and Syrian planes attacking us every day must be stopped.

Syrias conflict started with mostly unarmed demonstrations against President Bashar al-Assad in March 2011.

It has since escalated into a full-on civil war that has killed at least 270,000 people, according to the observatory.
All 118 passengers and 17 crew evacuated from aircraft in Uzbekistan after false bomb threat, Egyptian officials say.

An EgyptAir passenger plane has made an emergency landing in Uzbekistan after receiving a call claiming that a bomb was on board, two Egyptian aviation officials have said.

They said it was a false bomb threat and that all 118 passengers and 17 crew on flight MS955 from Cairo to Beijing were safely evacuated from the aircraft.

No explosives were found, they added.

The plane is preparing to resume its journey. It was a hoax, thank God, the Associated Press news agency said quoting one of the officials.

Uzbekistan Airways said in a statement posted on its website that the plane successfully landed in the western city of Urgench.

Currently, the plane is in a safe zone. Crew members and passengers have been evacuated. Designated officials are examining and checking the aircraft, it said.

Is it still safe to fly?

EgyptAir has received a number of bomb threats since flight MS804 crashed in the Mediterranean with 66 people on board on May 19.

Authorities are still investigating that crash.

ISIL has been waging a deadly uprising against Egyptian security forces and last October claimed the bombing of a Russian airliner flying home holidaymakers from the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
Frontrunner wins California and three other states to become the first female presidential nominee of a major US party.

Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton has laid claim to the partys presidential nomination after a series of victories in primaries.

Clinton won resoundingly with 56 percent of votes in California, the largest state in the US and a key target of her opponent, Bernie Sanders.

Clinton also took the states of New Mexico, South Dakota, and New Jersey on Tuesday evening before declaring victory over Sanders for the Democratic Party nomination. Sanders won North Dakota and Montana states.

Serving US President Barack Obama called Clinton to congratulate her on securing enough delegates to clinch the nomination.

Thanks to you, weve reached a milestone, she said at a rally in New York, before taking aim at her likely Republican competitor, Donald Trump.

Clinton told supporters in New York that Trump was temperamentally unfit to be president, citing Trumps attacks on a federal judge, reporters and women.

He wants to win by stoking fear and rubbing salt in wounds and reminding us daily just how great he is, Clinton said.

Well, we believe we should lift each other up, not tear each other down.

Sanders has vowed to continue his campaign to next weeks primary in Washington DC and further to the convention held in Philadelphia on July 25.

The fight in front of us is a very, very steep fight but we will continue to fight for every vote and every delegate, he told a rally in Santa Monica, California.

Bernie Sanders vows to stay in Democrat nomination race

Clinton declaration of victory comes a day after the Associated Press announced she was the presumptive Democratic nominee based on a count of elected pledged delegates and unelected superdelegates.

The Sanders campaign rejected that announcement as premature and said it would continue to campaign in California.

In an interview with NBC News, Sanders expressed concern that the news of Clintons victory came the night before the largest primary and that it was based on what he described as anonymous commitments from superdelegates, who vote at the Democratic convention in late July.

They got on the phone, as I understand it, and started hounding superdelegates to tell them in an anonymous way who they were voting for, he said.

The night before the largest primary, biggest primary in the whole process, they make this announcement.

So I was really disappointed in what The AP did.

Sanders is set to meet Obama at the White House on Thursday, the Reuters news agency reported.
Israeli NGO announces approval of building permits for 82 new homes in illegal Jewish settlement near Shuafat area.

Israeli authorities have approved building permits for 82 new homes in the illegal settlement of Ramat Shlomo, a neighbourhood near Shuafat in occupied East Jerusalem, an Israeli NGO has said.

On Monday, June 6, the Jerusalem Local Planning and Building Committee approved two building permits for 82 housing units in Ramat Shlomo, Ir Amim, a group that opposes settlement construction, said in a statement on Tuesday.

The settlement, which already houses more than 15,000 Israeli Jews, lies in close proximity to the Palestinian neighbourhood of Shuafat.

The 82 units in two buildings are part of a larger scheme for expansion announced in 2010 to build an additional 1,600 new settler homes in the neighbourhood.

READ MORE: Israel pushes forth with settlement plans

In October 2014, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the construction of 1,000 new homes as part of the plans.

The plans have previously raised tensions with the United States, which has repeatedly criticised the ventures to expand the settlement.

The 2010 announcement came as US Vice President Joe Biden was visiting the country, provoking fierce US opposition and souring relations with Washington for months.

Settlements are considered illegal under international law and are a major sticking point for peace efforts between Israel and the Palestinians.

Last week in Paris, representatives from 28 countries, the Arab League, the European Union and the United Nations met to discuss ways of restarting Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts.





The participants agreed that the status quo is unsustainable and voiced alarm at the situation on the ground, citing continuing acts of violence and settlement building.

This is Israels response to the Paris peace summit, Palestine Liberation Organisation secretary general Saeb Erekat said in a statement regarding the expansion plans.

He said the approvals serve as yet another reminder to the international community to hold Israel liable for the crimes it continues to commit against the land and people of Palestine.

Since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, Israel has built more than a dozen Jewish-only neighbourhoods housing approximately 200,000 Israelis in East Jerusalem which it annexed following the war.

It claims East Jerusalem as part of its undivided capital Jerusalem. Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state.

In a wave of violence since October, the Israeli army has killed at least 206 Palestinians, including protesters, bystanders and alleged attackers, while 33 Israelis have been killed in stabbing and shooting incidents.
Israeli police say at least five people injured besides the dead in attack by two Palestinian men in Sarona Market.

Four Israelis have been killed and several others injured in a shooting near Israels defence ministry and main army headquarters in Tel Aviv, police say.

The incident happened on Wednesday night at the Sarona Market, an area with restaurants and cafes.

At least five others were injured in the shooting and taken to the nearby Ichilov Hospital.

Reacting to the attack, Israel has suspended entry permits for 83,000 Palestinians during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.

Israeli police initially said that there was only one attacker, but Meirav Lapidot, a spokesperson, later said two attackers had been captured after carrying out what appeared to be a terrorist attack.

One of the shooters was taken in for questioning, and the other, who was injured, was taken to hospital.

Attackers in disguise

Police said the attackers were two Palestinians from the same family from the town of Yatta, south of the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank.

Haaretz newspaper reported that the attackers were disguised as ultra-Orthodox Jews.

Since October 2015, increased tensions in the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel have boiled over into violence.

In the first half year of 2016, Palestinian attacks have killed 32 Israelis and two visiting US citizens. Israeli forces have shot dead at least 196 Palestinians.

Tensions over Jewish access to a volatile and contested Jerusalem holy site, revered by Muslims as Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) and Jews as Temple Mount, have fuelled the violence.

In a similar attack in Tel Aviv five months ago, a Palestinian with Israeli citizenship killed two people on a main shopping street and the driver of a taxi he used to flee the scene.

The assailant was killed a week later in a shootout with police at a hideout in his home village in northern Israel.

Ramadan permits halted

The announcement of the suspension of entry permits for thousands of Palestinians during Ramadan was announced on Thursday morning.

All permits for Ramadan, especially permits for family visits from Judea and Samaria to Israel, are frozen, said a statement from COGAT, the unit which manages civilian affairs in the occupied West Bank.

It said that 83,000 Palestinians would be affected, adding that 200 residents of the Gaza Strip who had received permits to visit relatives during Ramadan would also have access frozen.
Turkish police detain four suspects after attack on police bus kills 11 people in central Istanbul.

Four suspects have been detained for questioning in connection to a bomb attack that targeted a police vehicle near the main tourist district in central Istanbul, killing 11 and injuring 36 people.

The four were arrested hours after Tuesdays attack and were being held at Istanbuls main police headquarters, Turkish state media reported.

Speaking at the scene of the blast in the Beyazit district, Istanbul Governor Vasip Sahin said a bomb placed inside a car detonated as the police bus passed by, killing seven members of the police force as well as four civilians.

Reports said the explosion took place near the Vezneciler metro station, which is within walking distance of some of the citys main tourist sites, including the Suleymaniye Mosque.

The White House condemned the attack as a horrific act and confirmed that the US stands together with Turkey as the two countries confront challenges in the region.

Al Jazeeras Emre Rende, reporting from Istanbul, said the bus was targeted by a remotely detonated car bomb before a second blast, believed to have been caused by a gas canister.

The attack happened close to the Grand Bazaar so it might have been done to keep tourists away, he added.

Pictures showed the bomb had turned the police vehicle into mangled wreckage and that nearby shops had their front windows smashed out by the force of the blast.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday that the countrys fight against armed groups would continue to the end. Speaking to reporters after visiting some of the injured in a hospital near the site of the blast, Erdogan said the attack was unforgivable.

The bombing came during the first days of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month, a time marked by dawn-to-dusk fasting and intense prayer.

Istanbul had already been hit by two bombings this year, including in tourist areas.

Both attacks were blamed on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group, and a pair of attacks in Ankara that were claimed by Kurdish separatists and killed dozens.

The two attacks in Ankara were claimed by the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK)  a splinter group of the better-known outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

The attacks have had a dire effect on the tourism industry heading into the key summer season.

Some 1.75 million foreigners came to Turkey in April, down more than 28 percent on April 2015, the tourism ministry said in its latest release.
Commander of Yemen government forces that defeated al-Qaeda in the southern city of Mukalla speaks to Al Jazeera.

In April, Major-General Faraj Salmeen Al-Bahsini led thousands of army troops and local fighters in a major offensive to clear the city of Mukalla, the capital of Yemens south-eastern province of Hadramout, from al-Qaeda fighters.

With air support from the Saudi-led coalition currently bombing Yemen, Al-Bahsini recaptured the city and neighbouring regions in less than 24 hours.

Al-Bahsini spoke to Al Jazeera from his office in what is known locally as Mukallas Green Zone.

READ MORE: Yemen: The truth behind al-Qaedas takeover of Mukalla

Al Jazeera: In April the Saudi-led coalition talked about killing 800 al-Qaeda fighters during the offensive you led on Mukalla. Is this number accurate?

Al-Bahsini: I think we might have killed more than this number. This is because several of al-Qaedas military camps in Wadi Al-Mouhmeden, in Al-Adwas, that host a big number of fighters were destroyed first by the coalitions warplanes and then by [our] forces on the ground. None of the al-Qaeda fighters was able to flee these camps.



Army forces that swept into Al-Adwas camp found many bodies scattered on the ground, under the rubble and inside trenches. Also, the coalitions navy which sealed off Hadramouts coast a week before the operation killed hundreds of fighters who were fleeing the city on boats and vessels bound for the Horn of Africa.

Al Jazeera: How many soldiers took part in the operation against al-Qaeda in Mukalla? Who trained and armed them?

Al-Bahsini: This operation is unique. It had been in the making for six months by military experts from the coalition and Hadramout. The Saudi-led coalition trained the forces, paid them and provided them with arms and equipment. Those army forces were from Hadramout. The number of soldiers was 20,000 plus several thousand allied resistance fighters.

The operation included assaulting al-Qaeda on three tracks: The airport, Dhabah oil terminal and the city of Mukalla. Al-Qaeda planted landmines around these three areas. With Dhabah oil terminal, where almost three million oil barrels are stored, we used special commandos who attacked al-Qaeda from the sea and defused the mines.

Al Jazeera: Did any American soldiers take part in the operation?

Al-Bahsini: From my capacity as the commander of the second region, I can say for sure that not a single American or western soldier participated in the operation. I have never met any of them and no American troops are currently on the ground in Hadramout. The Americans might exchange intelligence information with the coalition.









Al Jazeera: What about the twin suicide bombings that claimed the lives of many soldiers and recruits in Mukalla in mid-May. How do you explain these attacks?

Al-Bahsini: After the liberation of Mukalla, another mission followed which included promoting stability, the quick deployment of forces around key facilities, blocking the citys entrances and increasing checkpoints as to prevent any [al-Qaeda and ISIL] elements from sneaking into the city to undermine security by carrying out terrorist attacks.

The plan was executed remarkably. But  as you know  al-Qaeda had spent a year in Mukalla during which it looted huge financial sources. Following the victory, there could still have been some elements who remained in the city to carry out suicide attacks.

Al Jazeera: What did you do to protect your forces from similar attacks in the future?

Al-Bahsini: We have banned vulnerable gatherings and ordered soldiers to stay in their protected camps.

Al Jazeera: And what have you done to stop fighters from carrying out further attacks?

Al-Bahsini: After assessing these attacks, we first injected more forces to new checkpoints and deployed forces outside the city to be able to hunt down terrorist elements before they reach the city.

Secondly, we stepped up security and intelligence efforts. This process was very fruitful. Within a short period of time we gathered huge intelligence information that enabled us to take pre-emptive action. We have raided terrorists hiding places and captured many of them, including senior figures in Sheher, Ghayal Bawazer and on the outskirts of Mukalla.

Al Jazeera: The little-known ISIL branch in Yemen has claimed responsibility for the attacks. How do you assess the strength of ISIL in Hadramout?

Al-Bahsini: ISIL and al-Qaeda are two sides of the same coin. We think that ISIL is more brutal than al-Qaeda. We have killed and arrested some terrorists in Wadi Sar and the continuing investigation would sieve ISIL from al-Qaeda. These elements are predominantly supported by Ali Abdullah Saleh [former president of Yemen]. Saleh personally incited them to head to Hadramout to receive heavy arms from the army forces loyal to him in the city.









Al Jazeera: You and other army generals loyal to Hadis government usually blame the former President Ali Abdullah Saleh for the expansion of al-Qaeda in Yemen. Do you have concrete evidence that gives credence to your claims?

Al-Bahsini: Yes, we have evidence. We have found a large number of IDs of dead and captured al-Qaeda and ISIL elements showing they were actually soldiers at the Central Security Forces and the Republican Guard.

Al Jazeera: Is al-Qaeda still powerful and able to recapture cities? How do you assess al-Qaedas strength following the military operations in the south? What is the approximate number of al-Qaeda fighters in Mukalla?

Al-Bahsini: Al-Qaeda has suffered fatal blows in Hadramout after the precise air strikes by the coalitions warplanes on their key positions, gatherings, ammunition depots and centres-of-command rooms.

These air strikes forced them to flee to Baydha, Shabwa, Hajjar [in Hadramout], Marfaa [in Hadramout] and other areas. A large number of them were killed in the operation. We have no accurate number of al-Qaeda fighters who are still hiding in Mukalla. We have arrested from 220 to 230 al-Qaeda fighters, including some leading figures like Mohammed Saleh Al-Gharabi. We have not been able to catch other leaders like Qasim Al-Raymi and Khalid Batarfi.

Al Jazeera: What is the condition of the oil companies in Hadramout? Are they secure? When do you think companies will begin exporting oil?

Al-Bahsini: Hadramout is a unique case. When the coastal areas fell to al-Qaeda and the state of forces in the interior was dubious, local people around oil companies, including Hadramout Tribal Alliance, filled in the vacuum and protected the oil companies.

The oil companies managers say that all the companies major machines remain untouched. Only a few cars were stolen. We took charge of security when we sent trained forces to replace the tribesmen. The companies are in safe hands and Dhabah oil terminal has been cleared of landmines. The companies are waiting for our reports about the security situation there to begin pumping oil.
           2005     ..        
Walk down your average street in this country, and you'll find it easier to take out a loan than buy a coffee. With 22,000 payday lending locations in the U.S., Starbucks would have to grow three times in size to compete. Since the 1990s, annual loan volume has bloated to an estimated $27 billion. That's a lot of coffee.

Despite their growth, payday lenders are obviously controversial. Perceived as unfair and even predatory, payday lenders have been targeted by regulators, consumer advocates and lawmakers who object to their pricing, which leaves borrowers in a debt spiral. However, most payday lenders act legally. And the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's small-dollar loan proposal may not be the solution.

So what alternative to further regulation will make small-dollar lending safer while ensuring consumers can still get loans? My suggestion: Fintech firms and incumbents should collaborate on using alternative data sources to qualify more borrowers for bank-issued small-dollar loans. This collaboration would provide fair short-term loans to individuals, and would force payday lenders to become more competitive in their pricing.

The average payday loan borrower is largely misunderstood. Assumptions about those who need a small-dollar loan do not always hold.

It is too simple to describe payday borrowers as foolish for the financial choices they make. In some cases, they opt for a payday loan because they can't get a bank loan, and need an alternative. They didn't qualify for a bank loan because they fall outside the standard credit definitions. Structural problems in how creditworthiness is determined can disadvantage people from building good credit. The payday lender is the last resort.

Data from the Pew Charitable Trusts shows that payday loan borrowers are not necessarily chancers. They're responsible people who just fall outside credit structures. They're likely to be divorced, for example. But that shouldn't be a barrier to building good credit. They're also likely to come from ethnic minorities  again, not a barrier.

And the borrower can't necessarily be blamed for the consequences of taking out a payday loan. Virtually no payday lender demands a credit history. That might look appealing for individual clients, but due to the steep repayment rates (annual APRs average 391%) clients are almost certain to get into cycles of defaulting and reborrowing.

Creditworthiness measures the extent to which a financial provider can trust clients to repay the money it lends out. This is the broad objective of credit-scoring methods such as FICO. Credit criteria include payments on previous or existing loans, level of outstanding debt, and whether borrowers have met other commitments such as bills, among other factors.

These credit quality factors exclude not just people in developed markets, but many billions of people in emerging markets face the same problem. The global unbanked (2 billion) in emerging markets, and those living in poverty in industrialized nations (12% of the entire U.S. population) are already excluded from accessing financial services, and risk falling into cycles of bad credit. With little or no credit history, they cannot advance finances to build good credit history. And so the cycle goes on.

But there are more groundbreaking ways to assess creditworthiness. Fintech companies that lend to both businesses and individuals increasingly use alternative data sources and machine learning to gauge the likelihood that a borrower will repay.

For unbanked people in emerging markets, machine learning facilitates accurate measures of trustworthiness based on alternative data sources. Lending platforms can analyze smartphone data to assess risk using algorithms which extract data, providing a holistic picture of a person's riskiness. For example, if users wait until the evening to make phone calls, when rates are cheaper, they are more likely to be considered lower-risk borrowers. The U.S. startup inVenture, also operating in Kenya, provides loans using this kind of risk-analysis model. Other measures in its social data risk model include social media use and online behavior to score borrowers.

Social data used as part of the assessment include: Do applicants have reliable contacts, do they abide by acceptable measures and standards of social behavior, or are they erratic? Actually, machine learning can relay whether a potential borrower uses gambling sites; such users who do not delay paying debts and do not gamble excessively are more likely to be considered creditworthy. All of these measures can go into creating a composite picture of trustworthiness that enables fintech to lend to a greater range of businesses and people.

That said, regulation of any new credit-scoring model is still necessary, and that includes data security measures. Privacy is a concern, which is why proper regulation of the industry is required to ensure data management does not become problematic. Also, in terms of making sure the social data actually amounts to usable information, humans must always be involved to execute the final credit decision. Advanced analytics and machine learning build a picture of credit history, but often it requires human analytical skills to capture key learnings and insights from alternative data sources.

Banks collaborating with fintech in credit-scoring underserved customers has other advantages. Fintech lenders have leaner infrastructures than banks, and so spend much less on credit scoring, billing and overall compliance than traditional players do.

In the long run, competition will become collaboration, resulting in a more competitive and fairer alternative to payday loans.

Toby Triebel is the chief executive officer and co-founder of Spotcap, an online lender for small and medium-sized businesses. He can be contacted on Twitter @tjtriebel.
WASHINGTON  Federal regulators issued a statement Tuesday reminding banks how they can protect themselves from cyberattacks.

"In light of recent cyber attacks," financial institutions should "actively manage the risks associated with interbank messaging and wholesale payment networks," the Federal Financial Institutions Examinations Council said.

The document, which lists a series of critical steps banks should take to protect themselves and consumers, comes after revelations that the payments messaging system Swift had been used by hackers in an attempt to retrieve close to $1 billion from Bangladesh's central bank in February. More banks were later identified as targets of hackers through the Swift network.

This has already led some large and regional banks, like JPMorgan and First Horizon, to assess their vulnerabilities through the network.

In its statement, the FFIEC highlighted "specific risk mitigation techniques related to cyber attacks exploiting vulnerabilities and unauthorized entry through trusted client terminals running messaging and payment networks."

Financial institutions should take the following measures, the FFIEC said:

Conduct ongoing information security risk assessments



Perform security monitoring, prevention, and risk mitigation



Protect against unauthorized access



Implement and test controls around critical systems regularly



Manage business continuity risk



Enhance information security awareness and training programs



Participate in industry information-sharing forums

The FFIEC's letter was issued on behalf of its members  representatives of the Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the National Credit Union Administration, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the State Liaison Committee.
A longtime California bank regulator and executive has joined the board at Hanmi Financial in Los Angeles.

Thomas Williams started June 1, the $4.3 billion-asset holding company said in a press release Tuesday.

Williams was a senior vice president and chief risk officer at the $7.6 billion-asset BofI Federal Bank in San Diego, where he oversaw all risk-related functions including regulatory affairs and compliance for four years before he retired in June 2015, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Williams started his career as an examiner with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in 1985. Ten years later he joined the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, where he was the lead supervisor of Wells Fargo and served on the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision's credit risk modeling task force.

Starting in 2001, Williams worked for six years as the director of regulatory relations at Silicon Valley Bank in Santa Clara, Calif., and later served as executive director of commercial credit review at Capital One Financial for two years.

"His expertise and creativity in enabling innovative yet sound banking activities will be invaluable to Hanmi," its chairman, Joseph Rho, said in the release.

Hanmi last November made an unsolicited offer to merge with BBCN Bancorp in Los Angeles, but BBCN in December agreed to buy Wilshire Bancorp for $1 billion.


The original leader of Capital One Financial's philanthropic arm has decided to move on.

Carolyn Berkowitz stepped down as president of that Capital One Foundation in McLean, Va., in late April to pursue other opportunities, the company confirmed Wednesday. She was succeeded by Catherine Foca, who had been the foundation's vice president for programs and operations for the past seven years.

Berkowitz, in an interview with the Washington Business Journal, said it was "time for change" after a leading the foundation for a decade. Berkowitz, who will remain with the company as an adviser through October, described the parting as "amicable."

Berkowitz joined Capital One as vice president of community affairs in 2005, developing the $371 billion-asset company's grant funding, volunteerism and community relations. She was named the foundation's president when it was established two years later. In that capacity, she led a nationwide team of 35 associates in developing and executing on a 10-year, $450 million philanthropy strategy, according to her LinkedIn profile.

"Carolyn has made tremendous contributions to the work of the Capital One Foundation throughout her tenure as president, providing strategy and guidance that has helped to further Capital One's mission and enhance our ability to impact local communities," Richard Woods, Capital One's senior vice president of corporate affairs, said in a statement.


Bret Stephens at the Wall Street Journal really, really doesn't like Donald Trump.

In an interview with CNN's serial plagiarist Fareed Zakaria, Stephens said it is his goal to "make sure he [Trump] is the biggest loser in presidential history" and that "[i]t's important that Donald Trump and what he represents  this kind of ethnic quote 'conservatism' or populism  be so decisively rebuked that the Republican party, the Republican voters learn their lesson that they cannot nominate a man so manifestly unqualified to be president in any way, shape, or form."

In his latest piece, Stephens attempts to convince his readers that conservatives have some form of derangement syndrome over Mexico, and that, in fact, "Americans are blessed to have Mexico as our neighbor." Given his background, we might expect Stephens to be less than objective toward Mexico. Stephens was raised in the centerpiece of Mexican corruption itself, Mexico City, where his father was a senior executive in a chemical company.

Stephens claims that "Mexico is a functioning democracy whose voters tend to favor pro-business conservatives, not a North American version of Libya, exporting jihad and boat people to its neighbors."

Well, I suspect that a geography lesson is in order for the WSJ's boy wonder. Mexico has a long and largely undefended land border with the country into which its illegal emigrants want to immigrate. So why would they pile onto boats? Perhaps if the Rio Grande were the width of the Mediterranean, naval transportation would be necessary, but until that biblical flood arrives, Mexicans can just walk across the border, or have a light, refreshing swim. Let's call the Mexican illegals "land people" instead.

As for jihad, another teachable moment is required. Mexicans aren't Muslims, but they do export an equally threatening revolutionary philosophy called the "La Raza" movement  one that a certain judge presiding over the Trump University class action lawsuit is potentially implicated in, giving a textbook example of bringing the administration of justice into disrepute.

The most overtly ridiculous claim by Stephens goes as follows:

Somebody ought to explain this to Republican voters, whose brains, like pickles in brine, have marinated too long in anti-Mexican nonsense. Elements of that nonsense: Mexico is a failed state: Mexico's struggles with drug cartels  whose existence is almost entirely a function of America's appetite for dope  are serious and well known. So are its deep-seated institutional weaknesses, especially the police forces that collude with the cartels and terrorize rural areas. Then again, Mexico's 2014 homicide rate of about 16 murders per 100,000 means that it is about as dangerous as Philadelphia (15.9) and considerably safer than Miami (19.2) or Atlanta (20.5). Are these "failed cities" that you don't dare visit and that should be walled off from the rest of America?

Just imagine if the homicide rate were the only indicator we needed in order to assess whether or not a state was failed. Is this what passes for Pulitzer Prize-winning journalism nowadays? Of course, the Pulitzer is a just an echo chamber for anti-conservative writers who need a gold star on their assignment from other liberals in order to feel special.

But let's pretend the homicide rate for a nation is a proxy for its failed status. Then Mexico would indeed be a failed state. Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, and the Central African Republic are widely acknowledged failed states, all of which have far lower  not higher  homicide rates than Mexico.

A more meaningful assessment of a nation's failed status, however, comes from looking at its institutions and freedoms.

Mexico is in the "warning" category of being a failed state, according to the Fund for Peace. The United States is most certainly not.

Reporters Without Borders gives Mexico one of the lowest press freedom indices on the planet, ranked 149th out of 180, below Pakistan and Burma, and even below actual failed states such as South Sudan and the Central African Republic.

On its corruption perceptions index, Transparency International ranks Mexico in 95th place (i.e., very corrupt) behind, and in company with a range of other cesspools.

No serious freedom index ranks Mexico as "free." The best that can be said is that it is partly free, and very close to a hybrid authoritarian regime. The World Bank's governance indicators assign Mexico an abysmal rating.

The whole world knows that Mexico is close to a failed state  except liberals at the Wall Street Journal, whose brains have "marinated too long in [pro]-Mexican nonsense."
The popular TV comedy Seinfeld was so successful partly because of the writers, who created implausible, yet entirely believable situations for the show's quirky characters. One memorable scene placed George Costanza at a pizzeria counter. Wanting to ingratiate himself with the server, he ostentatiously dropped a bill into the tip jar. But just then, the server turned away, and the tip went unnoticed. It seemed almost understandable for the bumbling, weasely Costanza to reach into the jar to retrieve the tip. It was both funny and pathetic when he was caught doing it. George only wanted his generosity to be acknowledged.

Many good deeds and kind gestures come with some element of self-interest, even if its just a small thing  the need to be recognized and appreciated for those deeds.

Of course, real selflessness does exist.

We see it through the millions of dollars Americans anonymously contribute to various charities. Its reflected by the emergency personnel who risk their lives to rescue victims of accidents and fires, by the police officers who protect our communities, and by our soldiers who sacrifice their lives to protect their fellow warriors and to safeguard our way of life.

We saw an exceptional example of selflessness by one particular naval aviator in the mid-1960s. From late 1967 to 1973, Senator John McCain, then a lieutenant commander in the navy, was held captive by the North Vietnamese and tortured on a regular basis. Soon after his capture, the North Vietnamese offered to release him after learning that his father had been appointed commander-in-chief, Pacific command. Because his release would have been unfair to those captured before him, McCain declined the offer of freedom.

Actor and patriot Gary Sinise has spent most of his adult life tirelessly advocating for men like McCain and for all those who have served our country. His selflessness should be an inspiration to us all. Other humanitarians devote their entire lives to helping others.

Still, pure altruism is a rare thing. Many seemingly generous deeds are lessened by self-serving undercurrents. Worse, some are born entirely from selfish motives. While many would argue that good deeds stand alone, that the motives behind them are unimportant, theres a crucial distinction between those who give selflessly and those whose generosity is tied to personal gain. One is heroic; the other is exploitive and conniving.

On January 28, Donald Trump skipped the Republican primary debate in Des Moines and instead held a rally to benefit military veterans. With the fanfare of a major telethon, he boasted that he had raised $6 million for veterans groups, including a $1-million personal contribution. Like George Costanza, Trump clearly understands that theres no personal benefit to anonymous charity.

In late May, The Washington Post began looking into the claims Trump made that night. Reporters learned that only a fraction of the monies committed had been received, and there was no record of a $1-million contribution from Trumps personal account. That check wasnt issued until May 24  after the Post began its inquiry. Other large donations also began arriving at various veterans organizations, only after the scrutiny began.

Trump was livid at the suggestion of impropriety. He said the long delay was necessary because the recipient organizations had to be screened  even though he announced during the rally that that had been done.

No one knows whats in a mans heart, but we know that, unlike Gary Sinise, Trump has not always been so appreciative of our veterans. Both in 1991 and 1994, Trump formally complained about disabled veterans who were supporting themselves as street vendors on Fifth Avenue. In one letter, Trump argued that their presence was allowing the worlds finest and most luxurious shopping districts to be turned into an outdoor flea market.

Then, early on in his campaign, Trump infuriated veterans and military members by demeaning Senator McCains POW status: [h]es a war hero because he was captured[.]  I like people who werent captured. Trumps hyper-inflated ego would not allow him to apologize to veterans, but he knew he needs their votes. The veterans event both rehabilitated his image and diverted attention away from his petty boycott of the debate.

So now Trump has established himself as a champion for veterans. His personal $1-million contribution will go a long way to help them, and at roughly 0.01 percent of his net worth, it was a small price to pay for a new image.

The writer is a military veteran, retired from the U.S. Secret Service as a senior special agent. His political commentaries are widely published online and in print, and he is a regular contributor to renewamerica.com.
Mitch waffled, while Newt called Sonia a racist.

You may remember when appeals court justice Sonia Sotomayor delivered a controversial speech in 2001.

In 2009, the New York Times remembered:

In her speech, Judge Sotomayor questioned the famous notion  often invoked by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her retired Supreme Court colleague, Sandra Day OConnor  that a wise old man and a wise old woman would reach the same conclusion when deciding cases. I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasnt lived that life, said Judge Sotomayor, who is now considered to be near the top of President Obamas list of potential Supreme Court nominees. Her remarks, at the annual Judge Mario G. Olmos Law and Cultural Diversity Lecture at the University of California, Berkeley, were not the only instance in which she has publicly described her view of judging in terms that could provoke sharp questioning in a confirmation hearing.

The Times May 14, 2998 article, written by Charlie Savage and entitled A Judges View of Judging Is on the Record, also stated:

Judge Sotomayor has given several speeches about the importance of diversity. But her 2001 remarks at Berkeley, which were published by the Berkeley La Raza Law Journal, went further, asserting that judges identities will affect legal outcomes. Whether born from experience or inherent physiological or cultural differences, she said, for jurists who are women and nonwhite, our gender and national origins may and will make a difference in our judging.

As Sotomayors confirmation hearing approached, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnells office released this statement on May 26, 2009:

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following statement Tuesday regarding the Presidents announcement of his intent to nominate Judge Sonia Sotomayor to fill the upcoming vacancy on the Supreme Court:



Senate Republicans will treat Judge Sotomayor fairly. But we will thoroughly examine her record to ensure she understands that the role of a jurist in our democracy is to apply the law even-handedly, despite their own feelings or personal or political preferences.



Our Democratic colleagues have often remarked that the Senate is not a rubber stamp. Accordingly, we trust they will ensure there is adequate time to prepare for this nomination, and a full and fair opportunity to question the nominee and debate her qualifications.

Boilerplate stuff.

And what did former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich have to say about Sotomayors nomination?

Not so boilerplate stuff.

ABC News reported, on May 27, 2009:

Just a day after President Obama announced he was nominating appellate court judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, the battle over her confirmation has begun with former House speaker Newt Gingrich branding her a racist and saying she should withdraw. The accusations are aimed at comments Sotomayor made during a 2001 lecture at the University of California-Berkeley. Referring to former Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's saying that a wise old man and wise old woman will reach the same conclusion in deciding cases, Sotomayor said, I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life. On Wednesday afternoon, Gingrich wrote on Twitter: Imagine a judicial nominee said 'my experience as a white man makes me better than a Latina woman' new racism is no better than old racism.

Efforts to locate a 2009 press release concerning Judge Sotomayor released from the office of then simply congressman Paul Ryan of the 1st District of Wisconsin met with negative results.

And still do.
The editorial page editor of the Detroit Free Press, the largest newspaper in Michigan and the largest city newspaper owned by Gannett, has called for the murder of Michigan GOP state legislators for the crime of voting to fund charter schools. Mollie Hemingway of The Federalist has the shocking details:

[Monday] Michigans Republican legislators voted to bail out Detroits abysmally run schools with $617 million in taxpayer funding. The same bill also fought efforts to constrain charter school choices in Detroit. Prior to the vote, Stephen Henderson wrote on his editorial page: We really ought to round up the lawmakers who took money to protect and perpetuate the failing charter-school experiment in Detroit, sew them into burlap sacks with rabid animals, and toss them into the Straits of Mackinac. After noting that charter school advocates support charter schools, he doubled down on the violent rhetoric: It is every bit deserving of an old-school retributive response. A sack. An animal. A lake. No lover of actual democracy could weep at that outcome. If there were any doubt about his call for life-ending violence, he tweeted out the editorial with these comments:

GOP House harlots deserve worse than hanging for selling out #detroit kids on #DPS bills. https://t.co/zbPajL81qq  Stephen Henderson (@SHendersonFreep) June 3, 2016

There is no question that Detroits public schools are failing. Hemingway cites some of the recent evidence:

Detroits public schools are failing academically and nearly insolvent, the New York Times wrote in January. The Detroit News wrote in March that the statewide opinion of K-12 education is downright ugly. That poll showed residents didnt think throwing money at public-union-controlled schools was the answer, with 63 percent saying it takes more than money to improve education.

But defending the unions that benefit from these failing schools is apparently worthy of violent rhetoric.

Henderson, challenged on Twitter, is not backing down, but rather defending his violent rhetoric:

.@EdWhelanEPPC get your head out of those Rand books, and join the world of lit where hyperbole, especially historical hyperbole, lives.  Stephen Henderson (@SHendersonFreep) June 7, 2016

.@seanmdav @freep column covered it in a hyperbolic, historical example. Oh ... right, your rag stripped out context in its "criticism"Lol.  Stephen Henderson (@SHendersonFreep) June 7, 2016

.@EdWhelanEPPC @freep not hiding. Right here in front of you. Just not moved by your "outrage," and not apologizing bcuz I'm not sorry.  Stephen Henderson (@SHendersonFreep) June 7, 2016

In my opinion, Henderson has crossed a serious line. Gannett should fire him immediately. Pulitzer never acknowledges its errors and so cant be expected to revoke his prize. After all, they awarded a Pulitzer to Walter Duranty, the New York Times Moscow correspondent who collaborated with the Stalinist regime in covering up the deliberately induced famine in Ukraine and other crimes.
The far-left media are excusing the behavior of San Jose rioters, instead blaming the violence on Trump and rally attendees. Some journalists have gone so far as to encourage the attacks.

In the wake of the outrage over the violent protesters' behavior, online leftist publications churned out a flurry of articles that stank of damage control. But unlike of the apologia they exhibited during the Baltimore and Ferguson riots, the authors of these pieces went a step farther than merely excusing the mob attacks in San Jose. They endorsed them.

On the night of the protests, Emmett Rensin, a deputy editor at Vox, tweeted, "Advice: If Trump comes to your town, start a riot."

Rensin was temporarily suspended from his position for the tweet. But this did not stop him from engaging in a two-hour rant on Twitter the following day, attempting to further justify physical attacks against Trump supporters.

Meanwhile, writers at other far-left outlets were given passes for their support of the violence. On June 3, Salon author Chauncey Devega published an article openly condoning the protesters' actions:

In a functioning democracy, political violence should almost always be condemned. However, we must not forget that Donald Trump and his supporters are on the wrong side of history.

In March, Salon published a series of opinion pieces in a similar vein, exalting Trump protesters as heroes and blaming any violence they engaged in on Trump's own rhetoric.

Excusing otherwise unacceptable behavior, so long as it comes from the "right" people, is a new favorite tactic of the regressive left. However, in blaming the behavior of a violent mob on the very people it targeted, authors like Emmett Rensin have taken their invective mentality to a new low. Though this double standard has yet to make its way to large news networks like CNN and MSNBC, it nonetheless reflects a troubling shift in the tone of mainstream regressive rhetoric.

The message here is clear: violence is bad, unless it's against somebody the left personally disagrees with. Judging by the reaction of Salon's readership, many people are troubled by what they're seeing. However, even some individuals in the comments section of Chauncey Devega's article applauded the rioters. One individual had this to say:

The protestors are doing what they can to protect this country from the next Hitler. I see no issue with their behavior.

This is far from the first time leftists have invoked the name of Hitler in order to justify their own brand of oppressive political violence. Unfortunately, the irony of such logic continues to elude regressives, who have proven time and again that they are incapable of self-examination. Perhaps Trump's next proposal should be to build a giant mirror.
I'd like to think that saying "I told ya so" to Obamacare cheerleaders who painted such a rosy picture of life under the ACA would get tiresome after a while.

Actually, I savor saying it every single time.

Critics of the president's health insurance proposal repeatedly pointed out that the rules for businesses encouraged companies to move full time workers to part time status in order to avoid paying for their insurance. Now, a new report from Goldman Sachs confirms what everyone knew would happen.

Washington Examiner:

Obamacare is forcing hundreds of thousands of people into part-time work, according to a new analysis from the bank Goldman Sachs. In a research note sent out Wednesday, bank economist Alec Phillips concluded that "the evidence suggests that the [Affordable Care Act] has at least modestly elevated involuntary part-time employment." He wrote that a "few hundred thousand" workers may have had their hours cut or been forced to take part-time jobs because of the law. Goldman Sachs' analysis is the latest conduct on the contentious topic of the healthcare law and part-time work, and its findings largely back up what other studies have revealed, Phillips wrote. The bank weighed in on the question after involuntary part-time work rose sharply in recent months. Obamacare is thought to incentivize part-time work through several means. One is that employers with more than 50 full-time workers face penalties if they do not provide health insurance coverage, giving them a reason to cut hours or avoid hiring new workers if they are near the 50 employee level. Goldman Sachs reviewed the industries with the most workers without health care coverage working for firms with at least 50 employees, such as bars, restaurants, and retail stores. Those industries, the analysis found, have higher numbers of workers working part-time involuntarily. In other sectors with greater health care coverage, the relationship wasn't as strong. As a share of the total 6.4 million people forced into part-time work, a few hundred thousand is not that many, Phillips noted. But that number could help explain why involuntary part-time work is still as elevated as it is this late in the jobs recovery.

One aspect of Obamacare that has yet to be measured is how many workers who pay for part of their health insurance have seen increased contributions over the past few years. All insurance, whether employer group plans or individual business plans have seen big increases since Obamacare was rolled out. It is likely that people who make a monthly contribution - especially for dependents - have seen their paycheck shrink.

As insurance becomes more expensive, more employers will take the route of forcing employees into part time positions. Today, it's a few hundred thousand workers who are involuntarily working part time.

What will it be like in 5 years?
The University and College Union in England is banning straight white males from its equality conferences in order to create "safe spaces" for members.

That the union is oblivious to its unequal policy for attending an equality conference is uproariously funny. But it gets better.

Daily Mail:

The equality conference of the University and College Union said that members must declare their protected characteristic  whether they are gay, disabled, female or from an ethnic minority  when applying to attend.= Activists say that it means representatives who do not qualify cannot participate in all of the discussions  even though they have been elected by their union branch.

I've got a hangnail. Is that a "protected characteristic"?

They would be barred from break-out sessions that organisers claim are a safe space for those with the protected characteristics to talk openly about their situations. There are four sections of the conference  for women, LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) people, ethnic minorities and those with disabilities. Though there were also some joint sessions last year, for break-out discussions reps must have the relevant characteristic. That means reps would be barred from debates on areas they were not affected by, and a straight, white man who was not disabled would be unable to attend any. Yesterday critics branded the policy ridiculous  arguing that people from all walks of life can be dedicated to the cause of equality. Emma-Jane Phillips, who sits on the UCU equality committee, said: Equality reps are passionate about equality regardless of their own situation. To infer that someone does not understand someones situation just because you dont tick a box is insulting. The Northumbria University lecturer said it meant some reps would have to lie about having a protected characteristic to be able to attend  something she said they would be unwilling to do. She told Times Higher Education magazine: It is ridiculous that people who regard equality as their life cant attend our equality conference. The issue was raised at UCUs congress, held in Liverpool last week, when a motion was proposed to give equality reps the automatic right to attend conferences without having to self-identify. However, it was defeated  the only motion not to pass during the summits opening day.

I'm surprised obestity isn't a protected characteristic. The "fat revolution" is gaining steam, and we'll be adding them to the list of "protected" minorities soon  unless they become a majority first. If that happens, can we persecute them, too?

These supposedly learned scholars and lecturers are so full of their own hubris that they can't see how ignorant they are. Of all the fallacies in modern leftism, this one is the idea that "equality of outcome" is a desirable goal, and not "equality of opportunity." They believe that the way to achieve equal outcomes is to put everyone in their little boxes and protect people from the ravages of straight white males, who can't possibly understand what it's like to be gay, or handicapped, or a member of a racial minority. So, like Jews under Hitler, straight white males must be singled out and denied their humanity because of all the supposed advantages they have.

Just like what Hitler thought about the rich, dirty Jews.

To melt into a pile of goo when a straight white male enters the room is something you have to convince yourself is necessary. No human being is that weak and helpless. If we were, we never would have survived this long. The combination of leftist brainwashing and a desire to get attention invariably leads to a desperate insanity that makes forming an unequal policy for an equality conference possible.
The list of Republican politicians rushing to condemn the remarks of Donald Trump about Judge Curiels alleged bias against him is long and growing. Trump has touched the third rail of American politics, ethnicity, and framed what is actually a good case for bias and conflict of interest in a careless, shorthand way.

Trump promised to be a non-politician, and he is proving the point. Nobody schooled in the least in the sensitivities of modern-day ethnic politics would have said the judge cant be fair because he is a Mexican. Not just wrong on facts, because the judge was born in Indiana, but wrong on logical and political grounds.

The two senior party officials, the leaders of the House and Senate, both condemned him: Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell made that case explicitly in an interview on Fox Business Network Tuesday. "Well, he uttered a series of outrageous and unacceptable statements over the last week, and I addressed them at various points during the week. I think the less said about all that the better. What he ought to be working on is unifying the party and getting ready to try to defeat Hillary Clinton in the fall," said McConnell. House speaker Paul Ryan echoed those sentiments during a press conference in Washington Tuesday morning. Ryan's aides expressed frustration that questions about Trump distracted from Ryan's press availability unveiling a new GOP anti-poverty project. But Ryan, in response to those questions, said Trump's comments on U.S. district court judge Gonzalo Curiel was "the textbook definition of a racist" attack. But, he added, "I believe we are far better offwith his candidacy than Hillary Clinton's candidacy."

Republican Illinois senator Mark Kirk has revoked his endorsement:

Republican Sen. Mark Kirk said Tuesday that Donald Trump "does not have the temperament" to hold the job of president, saying he "cannot and will not support" the presumptive GOP presidential nominee.

An Iowa state legislator has quit the GOP, employing his own version of careless rhetoric:

Iowa state senator David Johnson became the first elected official to leave the Republican party over Donald Trump on Tuesday, likening the presumptive nominees campaign to the rise of Adolf Hitler.

Trump has come as close as he ever has to making an apology:

It is unfortunate that my comments have been misconstrued as a categorical attack against people of Mexican heritage. I am friends with and employ thousands of people of Mexican and Hispanic descent. The American justice system relies on fair and impartial judges. All judges should be held to that standard. I do not feel that ones heritage makes them incapable of being impartial, but based on the rulings that I have received in the Trump University civil case, I feel justified in questioning whether I am receiving a fair trial.

No question about it, Trump has enraged the media and the GOP establishment. But is that really new? True, the Republican Party was coalescing around him, and that process has halted for now. But with his statement and the emergence of evidence supporting the contention that Judge Curiel has a conflict of interest via his lifetime membership in a group boycotting the businesses of Donald Trump while judging a case involving one of those businesses, Trump can move forward.

Trump has increased his unpopularity. The only question is whether his unpopularity will eclipse that of Hillary Clinton. Steve McCann is correct: this election is like no other in American history, with the winner being chosen as the lesser of two evils.
Located halfway between Hamburg and Frankfurt, near to the Harz mountains, the town of Gottingen is best known for its university which was founded in 1734 and gradually became one of the most renowned and the most visited university of Europe. The University of Gottingen has produced well-known historical figures, philosophers, mathematicians and scientists in various disciplines, including 47 Nobel laureates who had either studied or worked here. John von Neumann, Werner Heisenberg, Enrico Fermi, Carl Friedrich Gauss, Bernhard Riemann, David Hilbert, and J. Robert Oppenheimer, to name a few, were all students at the University of Gottingen. Famous physicists Max Planck, Neils Bohr, and Max Born taught here.

Understandably, Gottingen became officially a 'University town' with nearly one-third of its current population either students or faculty and staff employed by the university. And like most university towns, Gottingen has developed its own quaint traditions. One of them involves the bronze statue at a fountain in front of the old town hall.

Photo credit: AKA 64/Panoramio

The statue of the Goose Girl or Ganseliesel was erected in 1901 after the old fountain, which was falling apart, was pulled down. The statue depicts a young girl carrying three geese in her arms. Although Wikipedia maintains that the Ganseliesel fountain does not have any particular connection to the history of the town, it cant be a mere coincidence that the author of the famous fairy tale Goose Girl, based on which the statue was created, were the Brothers Grimm who were also an alumni of the University.

In any case, soon after the statue and fountain was erected, a tradition developed. Every student who acquires a doctorate degree at the University of Gottingen are drawn in handcarts from the Great Hall to the Ganseliesel fountain, where they are required to climb the fountain and kiss the statue of the goose girl. Bouquets of flowers are also offered. Originally, all newly enrolled students got the chance to kiss the statue but the tradition changed over time. Now only doctorates are allowed to do so.

Officially, the practice is forbidden but not enforced. In fact, both the city of Gottingen and the university advertise themselves with pictures of PhD graduates kissing the girl.

Unfortunately, due to vandalism the original statue created by the sculptor Paul Nisse was removed and is now kept at the towns museum. What you see now at the fountain is a copy.

Photo credit: Daniel Schwen/Wikimedia

Photo credit: shop.goettinger-tageblatt.de

Photo credit: shop.goettinger-tageblatt.de

Photo credit: Tony Cheng/Flickr

Photo credit: Tony Cheng/Flickr

Photo credit: Daniel Schwen/Wikimedia

Sources: Wikipedia / www.uni-goettingen.de
A month and a half ago, the British consulting company Ovum revealed the results of its latest study suggesting that the global app market will be worth around $80 billion by 2020, almost 60% more than it is worth today. If you were of the thinking that this was a bold prediction, then the latest report from analyst firm App Annie, has the 2020 figure even higher. According to its latest forecast, the global app market will be worth $102 billion in 2020, which is almost twice as much as it is worth today. As the company explains, while the mature economies such as the U.S., Japan, and Europe currently account for over two-thirds of the app-related revenue on the planet, that situation is going to change in the next couple of years. By then, App Annie expects that emerging markets like India, Brazil, and Argentina will represent at least 40% of global app revenue and their growth potential is precisely the reason how App Annies $102 billion forecast came to be.

However, emerging markets arent the only reason the analyst firm believes the app market will explode in the very near future. Namely, as App Annie reveals, developers are investing more resources into universally appealing apps related to health, education, and similar purposes and as affordable and capable smartphones are hitting the market, this will pave the way for new audiences who cant spend a lot on apps, but are still willing to spend something. Basically, what App Annie is saying is that smartphone apps will soon stop being convenient tools and will start becoming essential to how we all live our lives. While the figure stated is far higher than where the market currently stands, this is something that is certainly not out of the realm of possibilities and especially when taking into consideration how much the global app market has grown in the previous eight years.

Its worth noting that this is the second time this year that App Annie forecasted the global app market doubling its value by 2020. In February, the company gave an almost identical prediction, stating that four years from now, the said market will record gross revenue in the amount of $101 billion.
A little over a month after it gained third party import support which let its users import contacts from third party mail clients, the Google Contacts web app today gained another new feature through which it will henceforth display verified business information in a contact directly from Google Maps. The business information it will display will include name of businesses, their addresses, profile images, running hours as well as link to their websites. Users of the web app will also find a shortcut through which they will be able to open a business listing on Google Maps.

The business information imported from Google Maps will not replace a users description of a business but will appear as a separate field at the bottom of a contact. This way, users will be able to cross check their information with verified ones on Google Maps and will be also be able to gain more information about businesses they are dealing with. The feature has been rolled out today and will be available to all users in the next three days. The Google Contacts web app was launched last year with a view to enable users to manage their contacts in a more cohesive way. The web app aimed to do away with duplicate contacts, update existing contacts automatically and let users see meetings and e-mails listed besides contact details, and the new integration with Google Maps to bring in detailed business information seems to be another step in that direction.

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Back in March of last year, Google launched the preview of Google Contacts whose initial purpose was to import details of every contact and business with whom you interacted frequently. The preview was, and still is, available for web users of Gmail and thanks to a number of upgrades and addition of new features, is more user friendly and informative that it was at the time of launch. Back in December, Google made its Contacts app available in the Play Store for a brief period before taking it down, but a number of Android users noticed the app containing streamlined contact editing layout as well as some bug fixes. It is not known if the app was an offshoot of Google Contacts web preview, but if it was, then it might be possible for the app to be released again with the final version of Android N releasing later this year with new Nexus devices.
Google has quite a few applications on Android, but they also have a presence on the iOS ecosystem and have released one app so far that is only available on that particular platform, known as the Gboard keyboard. While Google does plan to take the features of Gboard and add them into the Android ecosystem at some point, they unfortunately arent available just yet. Google has just released another new app for iOS today called Motion Stills, which so far has no mention of coming to Android, leaving people to wonder if Google will make the features available to Android users.

Motion Stills is essentially an app that allows you to record video with your device and then turn those videos into still photos with various animated parts. The app is meant to take advantage of the Live Photos features which is available on iOS, but the ability to create these little animated GIF images with a still background would no doubt make Android users happy. Although Google hasnt mentioned anything about whether or not they will launch an Android version of the app, they havent stated that they would not be doing such a thing, so there is always the possibility that they do have plans to make this functionality available on the Android platform, especially when considering that Google does wish to bring this feature to the Google Photos app depending on the feedback they get from the community of users. Having said this, its also possible that they only plan to launch the feature withing Google Photos on iOS, so it could go either way for now.

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The way that Motion Stills works is by stabilizing videos and then transforming those videos into GIF images using photo bursts, resulting in the examples that are posted below. Google states that no internet connection is needed to create these motion still images and that everything works right on the device, and since theyre fairly short animations, they can be shared pretty easily within messages and on social media just like regular GIF images you would find via the web. Hopefully Google will end up implementing this on Android devices in some form, but until then Android users will simply have to wait patiently and admire how well the technology works.
Last week, Nest co-founder and CEO, Tony Fadell decided to call it quits with Nest and left the company. After numerous reports surfacing on the issues inside Nest, it wasnt a huge surprise to see him leaving the company. After all, the company was in trouble. The demanding culture that Fadell had built inside Nest was getting a lot of outside attention, and even Dropcams CEO Greg Duffy came out and said that he regretted selling the company to Nest. While we do know that Tony Fadell is out as CEO at Nest, which he said he made the decision last year, whats the real reason for Fadell leaving the company?

To put it in a nutshell, its due to the struggle that Nest had once Alphabet was formed and Nest became its own company and not a company under the Google umbrella. Meaning that Fadell was forced to make money and grow Nest, instead of just being the visionary CEO and spending time on innovation. His decision was ultimately to walk away from the company he founded and ran for eight years.

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If we go back to 2014, when Nest was bought by Google, the main reason that Nest opted to sell to Google was the promise that they would have a long runway to grow within Google. They were supposedly going to be modeled after YouTube, which took around a decade to actually pay off for Google. Many saw this purchase as Google investing in hardware to take on Apple, who they continually battle to be the most valuable company in the world. The acquisition had gone well, but where things began to break down was when Nest bought Dropcam in June of 2014. Nest CEO, Tony Fadells management style didnt mesh well with Dropcam CEO, Greg Duffys approach. Duffy left the company in January, about six months after the acquisition.

The next bump in the road was when Alphabet was formed in 2015. While under Google, Nest was able to float and didnt have the need to make money as quickly as they do under Alphabet. Under the Alphabet umbrella, Nest needed to be tightly constrained and was also asked to demonstrate financial discipline. This meant that Fadells role changed pretty quickly. This also meant that Nests focus went from growth to financials. Sources at Nest say that the pressure is what likely led to the slow pace of new products at Nest.

What led Fadell to leave Nest was the changing in priorities. Currently, theres no rumors going around about Alphabet looking to sell Nest, nor put it back under Googles wing. But we cant rule that out. Especially after they sold Motorola so quickly after buying them.
Lenovos Tech World conference is just a couple of days away, set to take place on June 9th which is this Thursday, and there are more than a few things that we can likely expect to see from the company during their event. There are a handful of devices that are rumored to be there, one of which has been confirmed by Lenovo to receive an official unveiling. The Project Tango consumer smartphone will be announced and showcased to the public for the first time, but its also quite likely that well end up getting to see the new generation Motorola device that is replacing the Moto X this year, as well as the rumored modular accessories.

While its hard to say at this point if Lenovo will have a major device focus at Tech World, its possible that the highlight of the conference could be the Project Tango smartphone. Project Tango technology is a big deal, and up until now it hasnt really been marketed towards consumers. While just about anyone could buy the Project Tango tablet when it went on sale through the Google Store, it was quite the hefty price making it less of a possibility that anyone other than developers would pick it up. Considering this, Project Tango aimed at the consumer market is huge, as Lenovo, partnered together with Google, feels that the consumer world is ready to get their hands on this type of technology that, has the potential to really do some groundbreaking stuff in the world of mobile devices.

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Initially the Project Tango smartphone was revealed back during CES 2016, which happened in the beginning of this year back in January. While some slides were shown off that gave the public a glimpse at the overall design of the upcoming handset, the front of the phone was not pictured, and no specific details were really mentioned about the device, other than the fact that it should be under $500 and the screen size would be under 6.5-inches. While there hasnt been any more talk or speculation on the cost, the Project Tango smartphone was just recently rumored to be coming with a 6.4-inch Quad-HD display, and that it would be called the Lenovo PHAB2 Pro. While this rumor cant be confirmed, the screen size of 6.4-inches is under the 6.5-inches that Lenovo said could be expected of the device when it launched later in the year. In just a couple of short days, well finally get the chance to see it in complete detail, and should learn all there is to know about the specifications and hardware, as well as get a picture of the full design and learn about availability and official cost.

Interestingly enough, a rumored image leaked of the Lenovo Project Tango smartphone just this morning, but it does look a little bit different from the image above which Lenovo themselves put out during the announcement of the Project Tango smartphone earlier this year. Having said that, this could mean a few different things. Its possible that Lenovo may have changed the design of the phone in between the time they released the image from the initial announcement and the time the image below rumored to be of the device has leaked. Its also entirely possible that the rumored image is just that, a rumor or a mockup, and that the design of the phone above is what consumers should expect. Another possibility is that Lenovo could have more than one model of the Project Tango smartphone available, and that we may learn about this device at Tech World later on this week.

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Aside from Project Tango, Tech World also has the potential to showcase the new line of Moto X devices which are rumored to be getting renamed to the Moto Z line, which is thought to include the Moto Z, the Moto Z Play, and the Moto Z DROID edition which would end up being a Verizon Wireless exclusive as all other DROID devices have been. While there has been no confirmation from Lenovo on whether or not the Moto Z family of devices would show up at the conference, it seems like a perfect time to introduce the phone to the public. Lenovo has already shown off the new Moto G4 family of devices, so the Moto Z family would be a good followup, and considering all of the leaks recently, it would make sense for them to be close to an unveiling. In regards to the Moto Z, we could end up learning about the pricing and availability of the phone alongside the hardware specifications, and since there has been no official details on U.S. pricing or availability for the Moto G4, Lenovo may end up deciding to talk about this at Tech World this week as well.

If we do end up seeing the Moto Z lineup this week, then well almost certainly end up getting to see the rumored MotoMods as theyre currently being referred to. The MotoMods are supposed to be Lenvos take on the modularity of the smartphone. Instead of having removable bottom-mounted attachments like with LGs G5, the MotoMods are snap-on case-like accessories which fit to the back of the phone like any other snap-on case, but they have the added functionality to enhance the use of the device. Already there have been a few different MotoMod cases pictured and detailed, which include a JBL Speaker, a Hasselblad Camera, and one with a Pico Projector attached. In addition to the MotoMods which will supposedly add a little bit of modularity and extra functionality to the Moto Z line, there have been other MotoMods leaked as well which appear to be more like a traditional replacement back, similar to what weve seen from Motorola in the past with the previous Moto X phones, providing what look like real wood backs, leather backs, and more. While there have only been three rumored MotoMods so far aside from the leaked mods which simply look like replaceable backs, there is always a chance that we could end up seeing more snap-on accessories come to market from various partners of Lenovo.

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While Project Tango and the new Moto Z line are certainly going to be exciting to see if they make their appearances, Lenovo is set to showcase a completely different type of technology at Tech World this week. As of just this morning it was revealed that the company is expected to unveil next-gen virtual reality and augmented reality hardware, as they have been confirmed to be partnering with a company called Movidius, a chipmaker who Lenovo will be using to power their hardware. Lenovo is expected to launch a dedicated mobile virtual reality product in the second half of this year, but they may also be launching more than one piece of hardware which is powered by the Movidius chip, confirmed by Movidius to be a chip called the Myriad 2 Vision Processing Unit. The chip is low powered, and it was designed by Movidius specifically for tasks like head tracking, gesture recognition, and fusing multiple video streams together for an interactive VR experience. There is much detail beyond this currently, but it was stated that more information regarding the Myriad 2 VPU and Lenovos VR and AR products which are to be powered by the chip would be unveiled at the upcoming Tech World conference this week. While most of the speculated hardware is just that, speculation, Tech World is already shaping up to be an exciting event that could reveal some cool tech from Lenovo.
Zopo is one of many China-based smartphone manufacturing companies weve talked about in the last couple of months. This company made an appearance at this years Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona back in February, where the company showcased a test unit of their all-new flagship, the Zopo Speed 8. This smartphone has since been announced, and is now available for pre-order from a number of sources. Weve reviewed the Speed 8s predecessor, the Speed 7, and will get our hands on the Speed 8 soon enough. That being said, the company has released some new info recently, so lets see whats that about, shall we.

The company has announced that they will launch three new smartphones in the next 30 days. All of these devices will be mid-rangers, though Zopo says they will offer premium features, such as very capable batteries, fingerprint scanner, HD displays, metal finishing, good cameras, etc. These phones will also be quite affordable, says the company, and will be part of the companys Color series of smartphones. The three devices will be called Zopo Color C3, Color F2 and Color F5, and thats pretty much all the info that weve received thus far. Zopo has, however, attached an image along with this e-mail, and it seems like theyre teasing the design of the upcoming Color-branded devices. If you take a look at the provided image, you will notice that the back of Zopos upcoming devices resembles the Speed 8s design, though the Color devices will be less rounded it seems. The fingerprint scanner is quite noticeable here, and so is the dual-LED, dual tone flash. These devices will sport a metal frame, and the loudspeaker will be placed on the very bottom. Now, we dont know if this will be the case with all three devices, were basing these comments on the provided image, of course.

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So, what specs can we expect here? Well, considering Zopo mentioned HD displays, you can expect to see 720p (1280 x 720) HD panels on these phones, and the camera on the back will probably host a 13-megapixel sensor. Android 6.0 Marshmallow might ship out of the box on Zopos Color devices, though well have to wait for more info in order to be sure. Either way, stay tuned, well report back soon.
(ANSA) - San Ferdinando, June 8 - A Carabinieri police officer shot dead a migrant who stabbed him at a tent camp in the southern Italian town of San Ferdinando, ANSA sources said on Wednesday. The officer had intervened with a colleague to break up a fight between two non-EU migrants at the camp, which in winter hosts thousands of seasonal workers engaged in orange picking in Calabria. One of the two migrants pulled out a knife and injured the officer, prompting the officer to shoot, sources said. The Carabiniere was said to have sustained at least three stab wounds, to an eye and an arm. The dead migrant was said to have come from Mali. The initial fight reportedly started after an attempt to steal from the migrant who then turned on police.


Morocco suffers from severe jail overcrowding Almost 75,000 detainees in 77 institutes; 1,925 women

(ANSAmed) - RABAT, JUNE 8 - The Moroccan Prison Observatory (OMP) has released a report warning of the severity of overcrowding in Moroccan jails. With 13,378 new detainees arriving in the facilities between 2009 and 2014, the total number of people in detention in the country has risen to 74,941. There are currently 77 penitentiaries in the country, all of which are on the verge of collapse. Such as the Oukacha prison in Casablanca, the largest penitentiary in the kingdom, which holds some 8,000 detainees compared with a capacity of 5,800. Cells are reportedly 20 square meters with 8 cots each, in which up to 30 detainees stay. The OMP has said that the increase in the prison population is due to most frequent use of preventative incarceration as a way to reduce criminal activity. Interior ministry data show that, between 2011 and 2012, the number of those in prison as a preventative measure surpassed 78,000 detainees on average per year. In 2014, this number accounted for 42.5% of total detainees. There are 1,925 women in prison, 4 of whom have ben sentenced to death. The OMP, which studies the prison population and the conditions in which detainees are held, said that 84 of the female detainees have children with them. The report documented humiliation and discrimination within prisons and a total lack of psychological support, and the directors of the NGO say that prison officials are not sufficiently trained to respect even the most basic of human rights. (ANSAmed).




EU parliament approves EUR 500-mln loan to Tunisia To cut debt, protect democracy; in addition to 2.9 bln from IMF

(ANSAmed) - BRUSSELS, JUNE 8 - A 500-million euro loan to Tunisia with facilitated conditions was approved by the European parliament on Wednesday to help the country reduce its foreign debt and consolidate democratic mechanisms. To access the credit, Tunisia will have to sign a Memorandum of Intents with the European Commission, pledging to bring in structural reform and to implement healthy management of public finances. Tunisia will also have to ensure respect for democratic mechanisms, Rule of Law and human rights under EU supervision.



Once these conditions are met, Tunisia will be able to use the loan for two and a half years. The EU loan to Tunisia will be in addition to the 2.9 billion euros allocated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The resolution was approved with 561 votes in favor, 76 against and 42 abstentions. The EU had previously granted 300 million euros in financial aid in 2014. In August 2015, the Tunisian government asked the EU to contribute 500 million euros to a second, integrative aid and loan program from the IMF. Following a vote by the European parliament in 2016, the EU also granted Tunisia a temporary additional quota for duty-free olive oil imports. (ANSAmed).




(ANSAmed) - CAIRO, JUNE 8 - A source from the Egyptian interior ministry who spoke on condition of anonymity told the daily Al Youm 7 that the country's tourist sites were safe and under 24-hour surveillance. The source underscored the high level of security, saying that a terrorist attack on the Temple of Luxor had been prevented in recent months and that there were 197 surveillance cameras for the pyramids. The Islamic State (ISIS) on Wednesday posted a video online in which it threatens to attack the pyramids in Giza, just outside the Egyptian capital. (ANSAmed).


BEIRUT - The Islamic State (ISIS) has in its most recent video threatened to destroy the pyramids in Egypt.



The video shows the blowing up of the Babylonian temple of Nabu, in Iraq, which was over 2,500 years old. The images were circulated by Vocativ. The final scenes of the video show the Giza pyramid near the Egyptian capital, while a jihadist pledges to destroy ''ancient sites built by the infidels''.

The Temple of Nobu, dedicated to the Babylonian god of wisdom, was located near Nimrud, an ancient city on the Nineveh plain about thirty kilometers south of Mosul, where ISIS members engaged in destruction using bulldozers last year.

Over the past two years, ISIS has destroyed ancient monuments in the territory under its control in Iraq and Syria, including Palmyra, justifying is actions by saying that the works are from the pre-Islamic period and are idolatrous. Several cases of ISIS members smuggling archaeological finds out of the country and selling them on the international black market have been reported.

A source from the Egyptian interior ministry who spoke on condition of anonymity told the daily Al Youm 7 that the country's tourist sites were safe and under 24-hour surveillance. The source underscored the high level of security, saying that a terrorist attack on the Temple of Luxor had been prevented in recent months and that there were 197 surveillance cameras for the pyramids.
BERLIN - Up to a half-million new migrants are expected in Germany over the next year for family reunification with Syrian migrants, said German daily Suddeutsche Zeitung on Wednesday, citing Germany's federal office for refugees and immigration (BAMF). The majority are wives and children of male migrants who have already arrived in Germany or parents of unaccompanied minors.



The estimate is based on arrivals through the end of 2015, when 428,000 Syrians entered the country. German officials estimated an average of one family member for each refugee, taking into account that in many cases entire or partial nuclear families had already arrived together.



That brings the estimate for expected new migrant arrivals to 500,000, a number that is, however, lower than initial estimates.



In the first five months of 2016 just over 72,000 Syrians have arrived in Germany.
PALERMO - One of the most important bosses of the criminal organisations involved in human trafficking, Mered Yehdego Medhane, 35, of Eritrea, extradited to Italy from Sudan on Tuesday night, ANSA sources said.



Medhane is accused of being the head of one of the most prominent criminal groups operating in Central Africa and Libya.



An investigation conducted in Palermo led to Medhane's arrest in Sudan on May 24, but news of the arrest was made public only following his extradition to Italy on Tuesday night.



Medhane's arrest and extradition are the result of wide-ranging international cooperation.



Given the role Medhane held in the criminal organisation, the search for him continued even after the arrest of several members of the group.



The Palermo prosecutor's office led the search in cooperation with Italian State Police and the support of other European countries.



The British National Crime Agency (NCA), thanks to its wide network of international relationships, managed to develop strategic and operative relations with Sudanese authorities in relation to the investigation.



Agents from the NCA's Project Invigor taskforce against people-smuggling located Medhane at an address in the El Diem neighborhood in Khartoum, where he was arrested by Sudanese authorities.



The arrest was made possible through intensive international cooperation coordinated by the Palermo prosecutor's office, which was the judicial authority that issued the first arrest warrant against the human trafficker. After the decision by Sudanese authorities to extradite Medhane, he was transported to Italy where he is currently under arrest. He is now awaiting a trial for the crimes he is accused of and for which an indictment has already been issued.
CAIRO - UN envoy Martin Kobler called for the national unity agreement to be approved by all parties in Libya including the sensitive issue of the armed forces, in order to fight against the Islamic State (ISIS).

His comments were made during an interview with Sky News Arabiya.

He noted that the UN, the Arab League and the African Union were all calling for unity among Libyans and that the political accord of Skhirat (Morocco) calls in Article 8 for the role of Supreme Commander of the Libyan Army to be held by Fayez Al-Sarraj, as head of the Presidential Council.

He also announced the intention to call for a meeting with the speaker of the Tobruk-based House of Representatives, Akila Saleh, and Sarraj, but did not mention a specific date. The Tobruk-based parliamentary body has not yet passed a confidence vote on the UN-backed government.

In the meantime, Misrata militias fighting Daesh claimed that they have got very close to Sirte, the jihadists' stronghold, and have got control of various areas surrounding the city-
Libya 'not Turkey on migrants issue', says Italian FM 'Accords only with safe states; EU would not accept lagers'

(ANSAmed) - ROME, JUNE 8 - Italy's foreign minister, Paolo Gentiloni, said Wednesday at a joint parliamentary defence and foreign affairs committee meeting that a similar agreement to the one brought in with Turkey could not be agreed with Libya. ''The pre-condition of the accord with Turkey was that an agreement was being made with a state that is considered by the EU as a safe state. There is a mechanism of economic support decided by the European Union to Turkey, and the keeping of migrants'' by Ankara, he said, as well as ''the moving of some migrants from Greece to Turkey. For the moment the agreement is holding up.'' ''However,'' he stressed, ''we cannot do with Libya what was done with Turkey at the EU level. We must not thin that we will tomorrow morning see Libyan motorboats deployed to stop migrants. Let's not confuse Libya with Turkey. We cannot make lagers in in Libya that in any case would not be able to handle the keeping'' on its soil of thousands of migrants. Gentiloni added that a Libyan delegation would soon be in Italy to discuss immigration. ''We were something of pioneers in relations with Tripoli and there are several bilateral meetings here as well. There is discussion on resumption of flights, humanitarian aid is being sent and a technical delegation from the Libyan interior ministry is on its way to Italy to discuss immigration.'' Six months after the Rome conference and 70 days after Fayez Al-Sarraj was designated prime minister in Tripoli, he continued, ''we can say that progress continues to be made on the ground'' for consolidation, but these are ''small steps''. He added that the presence in the country of the Islamic State (ISIS) had been reduced and that ''it would be important to bring in an agreement with the forces under General (Khalifa, Ed.) Haftar that must be based on the recognition of the government by the general and the role that he can play. We must not give the solution - it has to be Libyans to come up with it.''(ANSAmed)
Syria: Russian and Iranian ministers to meet on Thursday In Tehran; 'no platform for launch against Israel', Netanyahu

(ANSAmed) - TEHRAN/MOSCOW, JUNE 8 - Russian, Iranian and Syrian defense ministers will be meeting on Thursday to take stock of the ''latest regional developments'' and discuss ''strategies to strengthen and extend the battle against terrorism'', reported the Mehr news agency on Wednesday.



Iranian defense minister Hossein Dehgahn promoted the summit alongside his Russian (Sergey Shoygu) and Syrian (Fahd Jassem al-Freij) counterparts.



Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has meanwhile discussed the situation in Syria and other regional issues that affect the national security of the two countries with Russian president Vladimir Putin in Moscow, according to a statement issued by Netanyahu's office.



The statement said that the two leaders had discussed the ''continuing coordination between the armies of the region, which is working very well''. Israeli will not interfere in the Syrian issue but will do everything in its power to prevent attacks from that side, Netanyahu said in speaking to local Jewish community leaders in Moscow. ''We will work so that Syria does not become a launchpad for attacks against Israel. Not for Syrian forces or Iranian, Hezbollah or Islamic ones,'' he stressed. (ANSAmed)
A climate-predicting tool will soon help Asia-Pacific economies mitigate the effects of extreme weather.

Asia-Pacific economies have been suffering from extreme temperatures since late 2015 to the early months of this year. In Papua New Guinea, 2.7 million people are affected by drought, a quarter of whom face critical food shortage. Last year, Viet Nam reportedly experienced the worst drought in nearly a century. The government said that the Mekong River, which supplies irrigation to the economys rice bowl in the south, was at its lowest level since 1926. Affected by drought, Malaysia's vegetable exports have fallen, causing prices to soar in its neighboring economies.





The Asia-Pacific region usually bears the brunt of the effects of a changing climate, which is why climate predictions resulting from a collaboration between APEC economies are an important breakthrough, especially for vulnerable economies. Called the Multi-Model Ensemble (MME), this tool forecasts temperature and rainfall patterns for up to three months. This advance notice will allow governments, industries, and communities to plan for and mitigate against the effects of extreme weather and climate events.

The forecasts proved extremely important as we experienced the 2015-2016 El Nino event, says Neil Plummer from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. The forecasts provide the international community with a highly valuable resource for climate adaptation and risk management. The APEC Climate Center (APCC) develops these forecasts using data gathered from 17 agencies and research organizations.





A decade of collaboration



Led by the APCC, the tool is a product of a ten-year collaboration between meteorologists and climate change scientists from the APEC member-economies. The center draws expertise from many of the regions most technically advanced weather and climate organizations, including the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, the Japan Meteorological Administration, the Meteorological Service of Canada, and the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

According to Dr Jin Ho Yoo, APCC Climate Prediction Team leader, the center facilitated an exchange of seasonal climate information and prediction technologies with the overall goal of reducing the impact of climate-related disasters.

The Asia-Pacific region includes many economies that are highly vulnerable to climate change, says Dr Yoo. Responding to climate change is not simply a matter of building new infrastructure. It is more important to make society more resilient to the effects of short-term climate fluctuations, such as drought and flooding.

According to Dr Yoo, climate prediction, and seasonal forecasting can act as an early warning system of these fluctuations and prepare economies for climate events that could impact their populations.

Its vital that the Asia-Pacific has a proper mechanism for producing and sharing long-range forecasting information and techniques, he says. Besides this tools forecasting, the climate center undertakes multiple research projects that aim to improve the quality of climate information and make that data more usable to multiple government agencies.

Through the platform provided by the center, we maximize the utility of our collective knowledge on climate systems, adds Dr Yoo.



Forecasts to help vulnerable economies



Dr Quang Nguyen of the Viet Nam National Centre for Hydrometeorological Forecasts (NCHM) said that the MME forecasts also provide timely precautions against extreme events, one of the regions most destructive forces.



The quality of the one-month MME forecast is very good, and that is hugely important, not only in Viet Nam but also in the Philippines and Chinese Taipei, says Dr Nguyen. We are some of the most vulnerable economies in the world.

Besides disaster preparation, the tool also provides critical support to food security. Viet Nams Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development also uses the MME forecast to advise farmers on the optimal moments to plant and transplant ricea critical service for one of the worlds five biggest rice producers.

Predicting for managing risks



Its a win-win form of collaboration, says Mr Plummer. If the outputs from our Australian model line up with the climate centers forecasts, then that usually increases confidence in the forecasts.

According to Mr Plummer, the ability to provide accurate long-range forecasts is of critical interest to stakeholders in Australia and, in particular, farmers and state and federal government agencies that manage agriculture and water management.

These agencies can better prepare and take early action on the basis of these forecasts, he suggests.



Increasing Pacific economies resilience

Established in 2015 through the APECs Policy Partnership on Science, Technology, and Innovation, the APEC Climate Center is also enhancing long-range forecasting across the Pacific Ocean through a collaboration with the Republic of Korea in a project called Climate Prediction Services.

Set to run for two years, the project will develop region-specific methodologies by taking MME data and techniques and adapting them to the unique geographic features of the Pacific. The ultimate objective is to contribute to community resilience and domestic development planning. This complements other initiatives undertaken by, for example, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States.

Pacific Islands are highly vulnerable to climate extremes, says Mr Plummer. As a consequence of the recent El Nino, several countries in the western Pacific experienced drought while others further east experienced higher than normal rainfall.

With the help of this collaboration, better seasonal forecasting could significantly improve these economies ability to manage the effects of climate variability and change.

The APEC Climate Center works with the following agencies on the MME project: Bureau of Meteorology (Australia); Meteorological Service of Canada (Canada); Beijing Climate Center (China); Central Weather Bureau (Chinese Taipei); Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici (Italy); Japan Meteorological Agency (Japan); Korea Meteorological Administration (Korea); Pusan National University (Korea); Hydrometeorological Center of Russia (Russia); Main Geophysical Observatory (Russia); Met Office (United Kingdom); Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies (United States of America); International Research Institute for Climate and Society (United States of America); National Aeronautics and Space Administration (United States of America); and National Center for Environmental Prediction (United States of America).

Photo source





For more information:

Ma. Lizbeth Barona-Edra | [email protected]


The Congress will now run between 31 January - 1 February 2017.

The previously announced dates clashed with USThanksgiving celebrations and the organisers selected new dates to enable its US partners and delegates to attend more fully and to ensure the global space industry is comprehensively represented at the Congress.


Le CBD, cette molecule active du cannabis a aujourdhui le vent en poupe. Et cela est en grande partie du au fait quil permet...
YEREVAN, JUNE 8, ARMENPRESS. In accordance with the arrangement reached with the authorities of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, the OSCE Mission conducted a planned monitoring of the line of contact between the armed forces of Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan, in the eastern direction of Kuropatkino settlement of the NKR Martuni region on June 8.

From the positions of the NKR Defense Army, the monitoring was conducted by Field Assistant of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Jiri Aberle (Czech Republic) and Personal Assistant to the Personal Representative of the CiO Simon Tiller (Great Britain).

From the opposite side of the Line of Contact, the monitoring was conducted by Field Assistant of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Khristo Khristov (Bulgaria) and staff member of the Office Peter Svedberg (Sweden).

The monitoring passed in accordance with the agreed schedule.

No violation of the cease-fire regime was registered.

From the Nagorno Karabakhi side, the monitoring mission was accompanied by representatives of the NKR Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Defense.
YEREVAN, JUNE 8, ARMENPRESS. Czech media conducted an opinion poll among parliamentarians. It revealed that over 90% of the respondents supported Armenian Genocide recognition, editor-in-chief of the European orer.eu monthly Hakob Asatryan told Armenpress.

MPs representing both ruling party and opposition took part in the poll. They told that what happened in 1915 is genocide. There are 1 or two MPs that are also members of the European Parliament and have thoroughly pro-Turkish stance. For years they have opposed the recognition of the Armenian Genocide, but now both the political atmosphere and the public opinion are favorable for that. I do not rule out the recognition of the Armenian Genocide may become inevitable, Hakob Asatryan told.

Hakob Asatryan also informed that one of the MPs has proposed President Zeman to open an exhibition dedicated to the Armenian Genocide at the Presidential Residence.

He stated that the Armenian community must make extra efforts to foster the recognition procedure. According to Asatryan, the Turkish lobby is quite active in the Czech Republic, reminding that President of the Czech Chamber of Deputies Jan Hamacek has rather close ties with the Turks.

I believe there will be progress, considering the strong public reaction, the support of the President and other political forces, Hakob Asatryan said.
All the latest Ashbourne news. Ashbourne is an historic market town in Derbyshire. Situated on the southern edge of the Peak District, it is known as the 'Gateway to Dovedale' and the 'Gateway to the Peak District'. Ashbourne is famous for the annual Royal Shrovetide Football Match, which has been played since at least 1667, although its origins may date back centuries earlier. Ashbourne became a Fairtrade town in March 2005. The popular Tissington Trail, which follows the route of the former Ashbourne to Buxton railway, starts on the edge of town. Keep up to date with the latest news from the town by signing up for our newsletter.
Fr Leo Kyaw Win is the spiritual director of the Taunggyi Seminary, one of the biggest in the country. AsiaNews met him in Rome, where he is attending a refresher course. Son of converts, he works at the seminary and for the poor. He sees the first signs of change since the end of the military dictatorship. Now we have more authorisations to celebrate our holidays in public, he said.

Rome (AsiaNews)  Before Aung San Suu Kyis election victory, "whenever we wanted to celebrate a religious festival, we had to ask the government, who never gave us the permit. Now things are different: we are freer to commemorate our solemnities in public, said Fr Leo Kyaw Win, spiritual director at Taunggyi seminary (eastern Myanmar).

Fr Win met with AsiaNews in Rome, where he is taking a refresher course. During the conversation he spoke about the life of the Church in Myanmar and how it is benefitting from the political change that took place on 30 March when the National League for Democracy (NLD) took office, replacing the outgoing military-backed government.

"I come from Nyanung Gon parish, in the Archdiocese of Yangon, said the clergyman who was born on 9 November 1973. I was ordained a priest on 9 February 2008. My grandparents were Buddhists and animists, but my parents became Catholics. My father changed religion when he realised that the spirits my grandfather believed in did not protect him. My grandfather drowned in a river as he was returning from a ritual sacrifice."

Taunggyi Seminar and life of the Church

After years as a parish priest and a study trip to the Philippines, Fr Win was appointed spiritual director at the Major Seminary in Taunggyi, one of the biggest in the country. "I have to follow the seminarians in their path. I talk to them once a month. They tell me about their difficulties and I guide them."

"Seminarians range in age between 23 to 35 years, Fr Win said. Currently, there are 59. The Taunggyi seminary is home to the Institute of Spirituality, which every seminarian of the country must attend for at least a year. The Institute of Philosophy, where they study two years, is located instead in Pyin Oo Lwin, whilst the seminary in Yangon offers theological studies." Together, these three seminaries have more than 350 seminarians.

In addition to studying, a seminarians life is punctuated by pastoral work. Every weekend they travel to the parishes to teach catechism to children. In the diocese, life is difficult for people, especially for the Catholic minority, the priest noted.

People are very poor and sometimes they have nothing to eat, not to mention their limited education. We have various NGOs and religious congregations that work for the people together with Caritas, bringing food and medicine."

Under the military junta, the Church could not directly help people, but now we have more freedom, he explained.

Although small (700,000 or 1 per cent of the population), the Catholic Church is growing at a steady pace. "In my diocese, we baptise at least 100 people a year, Fr Win said.

New hopes and the education issue

For the clergyman, the first signs of change appeared soon after the military lost the election. "Before public gatherings were not allowed, not even those for religious purposes. Now we have more authorisations to celebrate our holidays, although religious freedom still suffers some limitations. For example, if you are a Christian you cannot find a good job with the State.

We also need to be very cautious and careful not to offend the majority Buddhist or other religions. But things are changing. We have a Christian vice president and we are tasting democracy for the first time, he added.

In the past, under the government of the Union Solidarity and Development Party, the juntas political wing, the Church could not engage in many activities, especially education. In the 1960s, the military seized schools run by the Church and religious congregations.

For years, the government would not allow the seminary to expand even though it was too small for all the seminarians, Fr Win explained. Once, when we built a new wing, the military seized it right away. Hopefully, in the coming months the new government will start to return Church assets. That would be a huge step forward for peace and prosperity in Myanmar."
by Fady Noun

Antioch wants to postpone the meeting due to disagreements with Jerusalem. The Bulgarian and Georgian Churches might boycott it. Contentious issues include marriage, relations between the Orthodox Church and the contemporary world, and relations with other Christian confessions. Bartolomeo 1st is making an effort towards unity.

Beirut (AsiaNews/OLJ)  The Pan-Orthodox council in Crete is compromised. It was set to take place from 18 to 27 June with all 14 patriarchates and Orthodox Churches present. Now, less than two weeks before the start, the Patriarchate of Antioch called for its postponement, arguing that it is contrary to the Orthodox conciliar tradition because of the failure to find an acceptable solution to the jurisdictional conflict that opposes it to Jerusalem over Qatar Orthodox".

The Church of Antioch has broken with Jerusalem Patriarchate, after the latter appointed a bishop in Qatar, which is not within its jurisdiction.

"If the Council convenes whilst two apostolic churches are not in communion with each other, this means that the participation in the synodical sessions is possible without taking part in the Holy Eucharist, which deprives the Council of its ecclesiological character and grants it an administrative quality, contradictory to the steadfast Orthodox synodical tradition, said a statement issued by Secretariat of the Antiochian Holy Synod. This requires an atmosphere of love and brotherhood in Christ and a show of unity of the Orthodox Church that is missing. We know that the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew 1st had proposed that such a secondary issue be taken up at the end of the great council.

The statement goes on to note that "the Antiochian flock, after knowing the agenda of the Council and its documents, expressed its great deception that the Council does not deal with the challenges facing the believers, especially the challenges of the youth, nor with the challenges of the Orthodox Church in this time and presenting a common witness in the world of today".

Finally, the Patriarchate of Antioch regrets the fact that the issue of Church Calendar and unifying the date of celebrating Easter has been removed from the agenda despite its importance to the Orthodox flock of the Antiochian See, [which is] awaiting from the universal Orthodox Church a pastoral position in this respect.

Bulgaria too

The Patriarchate of Antioch is not alone in demanding the postponement of the great council. The Bulgarian Church has also asked that the council be postponed for organisational reasons as well as persistent disagreements on the texts to be voted upon. In light of this, the Church will consider a boycott.

This historic event  the first since the schism of 1054 and in the making for more than fifty years  cannot go ahead in the absence of one of the autocephalous churches.

Since last Friday (3 June), the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church - which alone represents half of Orthodoxy with 150 million members  has been pushing for an emergency meeting of all the Churches on 10 June at the latest to defuse the crisis, but time is in short supply to deal with this challenge.

In fact, confirmed at the Synaxis of Chambery in January, the "holy and great" council owes much to the tenacity of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew 1st.

Orthodox renewal

According to the La Croix newspaper, "if the issues on the agenda are far from settling the divisions accumulated over the centuries, Bartholomew is not making this event into an end in itself, but the start of a long process for Orthodox renewal. This is why he has deliberately limited the discussion to the texts on the agenda, even if this means initially accepting a minimalist consensus."

"What counts finally is meeting to send the world a signal of unity," said a source close to the patriarchate. In addition to the conflict between Antioch to Jerusalem, the most intransigent Churches (Bulgaria, Georgia) refuse to follow Bartholomew along this path. At present, the main points of disagreement relate to marriage, relations between the Orthodox Church and the contemporary world and relations with other Christian denominations. For the most conservatives, the term ecumenism is tantamount to heresy.

It is important to note that after doubts were cast about its presence at the council, Moscow softened its position after the meeting between Patriarch Kirill and Pope Francis in Cuba last February.
by Joseph Masilamany

The men were working on a tug boat and were kidnapped April 1 off Borneo. The kidnappers had asked for 4 million euro ransom. Seven foreign nationals still in the hands of the jihadist group, which operates in the southern Philippines.

Kuala Lumpur (AsiaNews) - Four Malaysian sailors were released a few hours ago by Abu Sayyaf, an Islamist terrorist group operating in the southern Philippines. The men, from the State of Sarawak (Borneo) were kidnapped on April 1 last off the coast of Pulau Ligitan (in Sabah) as they were returning from a trip to the Philippines. The sailors, who were working on a tug, were conducted to the city of Sandakan.

According to reports from the island of Jolo, an Abu Sayyaf stronghold, the hostages' release came after several phases of negotiations, carried out jointly by Malaysia and the Philippines. The kidnappers had repeatedly demanded a ransom of 18 million ringgit (almost 4 million euro). At the moment it is not known whether this sum has been paid.

With such a dynamic, May 2 last 10 Indonesian sailors kidnapped by jihadists were released.

Abu Sayyaf is the smallest group in number but the most dangerous and bloodthirsty among Muslim movements fighting for independence in the southern Philippines, the only Asian nation with a large Christian Catholic majority. The terrorists' activities are concentrated in Basilan and Jolo. The jihadists are responsible for the beheading of the Canadian John Ridsdel, which took place on 26 April. According to some sources, the group could be the same group that released the former PIME missionary Rolando Del Torchio.

Currently, 7 foreign nationals are still in the hands of Abu Sayyaf: Four Indonesians, a Canadian, a Norwegian and a Dutchman.
by Mathias Hariyadi

The 85-year-old religious served as abbot at the Rawaseneng monastery, in Central Java, for 28 years. He translated the breviary from Latin to Indonesian, composed numerous Gregorian chants, and wrote various books on spirituality. He had ties with Italy and the Trappist community in Vitorchiano.

Jakarta (AsiaNews)  The first Indonesian-born Trappist abbot, Fr Francis "Frans" Harjawijata, has died at the age of 85. For 28 years, he headed the St Mary monastery in Rawaseneng, Temanggung district (Central Java).

Within the Church, he is known for playing a prominent role in the development of Christianity in the country. He translated the breviary from Latin into Indonesian and composed various Gregorian chants.

Father Francis was born in 1931. After entering the Trappist order, he did his novitiate in Tilburg, Netherlands. Sent to Italy, he studied philosophy and theology.

Upon his return to his homeland, he joined St Marys Monastery. Founded by Dutch priest Dom Bavo van der Ham in 1953, the monastery was twinned with Koningshoeven Monastery in the Netherlands (until 1945 Indonesia was a Dutch colony). The apostolic vicar of Batavia (Jakartas colonial name) Mgr Antonio van Velsen SJ was behind the new monastery.

The monastery became a priory in 1958, and an independent abbey in 1978. That year, Fr Francis Harjawijata became the first Indonesian-born abbot. He served for 28 years until 2006.

During this period, Fr Francis founded a female convent linked to the abbey in Mount Merbabu, Salatigaa district (Central Java). Given his experience in Italy, he also sent monks from his monastery to the Vitorchiano Monastery (Italy) in 1979 for further training. By 1985, 11 Indonesian religious spent time in Italy.

In addition to translating several sacred texts and composed chants that are still performed in Indonesian churches, Fr Francis Harjawijata also wrote several books on spirituality, which have been read by religious, nuns and priests all over the country for decades.

Currently, the Monastery in Rawaseneng has 35 monks.
by Kamran Chaudhry

Free courses are part of a project launched in 2014. Since then, at least 175 students have completed the six-month programme, which is offered in five locations in the citys slums. Education means helping female leaders to think about the development of the community."

Lahore (AsiaNews)  "My knees were shaking when the catechist called me to read for the first time during the Mass in the church of St Anthony. At first, I was reluctant, but then I felt more confident after talking in front of people, said Sumera Perwaiz, a 20-year-old woman, who spoke to AsiaNews about her first public speech.

The young woman took free courses at Caritas in Lahore, and learnt to read and write. The Catholic charity has been using the Bible as a literacy tool for young women since 2014 in cooperation with the Pakistan Bible Society, a Protestant organisation that translates, publishes and distributes Bibles. Since its inception, some 175 young women and girls have learnt to read and write even though they have never attended school.

About 42 per cent of Pakistans 184 million are illiterate, this according to the Education for All 2015 National Review Study Report: Pakistan, a report prepared by the Pakistani Ministry of Education for UNESCO.

The study shows that there are major differences in literacy between the countryside (where 62 per cent of the population lives) and Pakistans cities. Gender also plays a role. At the national level, two out of three women over 15 cannot read or write and 35 per cent of girls do not go to school. About 6.7 million children have no access to education, mostly girls (62 per cent).

Perwaiz knows this first hand. "My father is very strict and against womens education, she said. He would tell me that it corrupts our minds.

For this reason, she and two other sisters were not allowed to learn. By contrast, her two brothers went to school, but they quit in Grade 9 and 10. Now they are sanitation workers.

As a woman, Perwaiz was destined for housework, until she heard about the literacy classes offered by the Church of Mother Teresa in Charagh Park, a Lahore slum. At that point, she enrolled and learnt to read.

Komal Masihs story is similar. She too owes a lot to the Catholic charity. She was forced to leave school at seven, when she was in Grade 2, after her father was injured in an accident. "We could no longer bear school costs, she explained with regret. However, I have always wanted to study."

Together with 35 other girls, she is now taking afternoon courses after her work as a domestic in four homes. The free two-hour lessons allowed her to learn the grammar of Urdu, Pakistans national language, as well as the basics of mathematics.

Caritas offers the courses in five different locations in some of the citys slums. Local parishes provide the location, plus 30 per cent of the cost, including teachers salaries and educational material.

"We need to motivate poor Christians about education, said Fr Joseph Louis, a former executive secretary at Caritas Lahore. Many families, even in big cities like Lahore, do not educate their daughters. It is important to use the church pulpit to raise awareness."

"It is a challenge to get local Christian leaders to spend time to bring people together," the priest explained. Fortunately, some former students help teachers with young people. Courses also help female leaders to think about the development of the community."
The heads of state of India and the US have signed a broad package of agreements. Cooperation on economy, climate and energy, maritime safety and counter-terrorism. Obama has supported India's candidature in the group of nuclear powers that control atomic energy. China and Pakistan react with fury. Defenders of minorities: " Modis silence on the violence against Christians is criminal."

New Delhi (AsiaNews) - The fight against terrorism, cooperation in defense, climate, energy, trade, economy, space and maritime security; but also the US support of India's entry into the group of powers monitoring nuclear technology and material: These are the most significant aspects of the agreement signed yesterday between Barack Obama and Narendra Modi, at the end of a three-day visit by the Indian Prime Minister to the United States.

The historic agreement was hailed as one of the most important international successes for India, as it attempts to make its weight felt among the great powers, and the United States, which aims to counterbalance Chinese hegemony.

However, the visit has raised a storm of protest among the defenders of minority rights, who denounce Mods "criminal" silence with regards violence perpetrated by members of his party against Christians in India. The ever increasing friendship between the two countries has also generated resentment in China and Pakistan, Indias economic and political opponents.



This morning an editorial published in, China's State newspaper, the Global Times thundered: "India knows that its great vision of economic expansion [] cannot be achieved by bashing or containing China." And just before the same editorial stated: "Washington still hopes to use India as its right arm to counterbalance China's growth. But Washington's calculations do not work. "



The statements are indicative of the political tensions caused by the accord. The agreements signed yesterday - a package of 50 in all - mark a key step in a reorganization of the global geopolitical balance. It was the fourth face to face meeting between the two heads of state, increasingly aligned in aims and objectives.



The two leaders have formed a valuable partnership in the field of clean and renewable energy, stressing the importance of the agreement on climate change signed in Paris last year. The United States then decided to finance the construction of six nuclear reactors on Indian soil, to develop the production of energy for civilian purposes, and supported the International Solar Alliance proposed recently by Modi.



The nuclear deal is the one that sparked most criticism. Obama has given his consent to the Indian candidature for entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group in the plenary to be held later this month. The group consists of 48 countries with nuclear capability, and has the aim of curbing the proliferation of weapons technology and exchanging information. Founded in 1974 in response to the first Indian nuclear test, the assembly is now made up of countries - such as China - which are firmly opposed to the candidacy of Delhi.



The announcement of US support has also created concerns in neighboring Pakistan, a direct competitor of the Indian nuclear program. Today the Dawn, a leading Pakistani newspaper, quotes an article in the New York Times and the headline: "India does not deserve to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group".



A clear attempt to undermine the Chinese expansion ambitions in the South China Sea is present in the formula that considers India and the US "priority partners in the Asia-Pacific region." To this end, the two countries have established forms of cooperation in the maritime field, navigation and exploitation of marine resources.



On the sidelines of the package of agreements signed, some activists have asked the American president to raise the issue of the precarious living conditions of Indian workers and several episodes of exploitation that make India the country with the largest number of slaves in the world.

Finally, the Federation of Indian American Christian Organizations (Fiacona) organized a prayer vigil in front of Congress to denounce Modis silence on atrocities committed by Hindu nationalists in his party BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) against religious minorities, and especially against Christians, increasingly persecuted and victims of violence.
by Christopher Sharma

Kathmandu (AsiaNews) - The ultimatum imposed by the government on non-governmental organizations - national or foreign - that operate in the districts affected by the earthquake of April 25, 2015, expires today. More than a year after the earthquake reconstruction is still on the high seas, but the authorities have targeted the independent groups that "do not coordinate with the executive and reach the population without our consent.



The president of the District Commission for the recovery from the disaster of Gorkha, CDO Bhatta, asked the NGO to submit expense reports and emergency response plans: "After careful checks confirmed that these are not operating in areas that are a priority. The Dolakha authorities have followed suit. Both districts were at the epicenter of the quake and were almost razed to the ground. Here the local population demands "less proclamations and more rapid interventions" from the authorities.



A Commission of inquiry appointed by Kathmandu carried out a "survey" of the Organizations in the area and, of 60 structures, they received the required documents from only 15 of them. Commission coordinator, Dipendra Subedi, said: "We sent two emails to all groups to request details of the projects in progress, but 45 have not submitted the required programs".

NGOs that have not responded to the requests of the executive include major international organizations: the Red Cross, UNICEF, the "Womens" section of the United Nations and Phase Nepal. Although not openly, most bodies seem to have decided to wait and see. Raju Pradhan, representative of the German Caritas, told AsiaNews: "We still have to really understand what the government wants from us. We believe that we are doing the best we can".



According to Narayan Acharya, officer in charge of the development, the NGOs "have carried out a lot of 'software' activities, such as programs for better awareness of emergencies and for the representation of victims and survivors, but have not fielded the 'hardcore activities', which instead are more structural. We will not let them work unless there is a visible impact of their work. And anyone who moves in an arbitrary manner will be expelled from the districts. For Bhatta "these groups do not take into account the real needs. The needs of the local population are one thing, their programs are another. "



The point seems to be on the spending of billions of rupees donated by the international community after the earthquake. Sushil Gyanwali, National Chairperson of the post-earthquake reconstruction, said: "We are concerned because we want everybody's effort to produce the best possible impact. We know that many agencies are working and that huge amounts of money have been invested, but the hoped for the change in the life of the people has not occurred. That is why we need better coordination.
by Marta Allevato

Metropolitan Hilarion: "shocked" by Constantinoples refusal to hold an extraordinary preconciliar meeting to resolve the issues raised by the local churches. "The decisions of the Council shall be taken by unanimous consent and that is not possible if some Churches are missing".

Moscow (AsiaNews) - The Russian Orthodox Church has called an emergency meeting of its Synod to decide whether to participate in the pan-Orthodox council, set for mid-June in Crete, after some local Churches announced their defection, according to the head of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations, Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeev).

"We have always said that the decisions of the Council must find consensus to be promulgated - he told the Tass - we believe that consensus cannot mean the agreement of only those who are present, if others are absent. Consensus must mean the unanimous opinion of all local Orthodox Churches. If one is absent, we believe it means that there is no consensus".

The refusal of the Bulgarian Church to attend, following that of the Patriarchate of Antioch, said Hilarion, is an "alarming signal to which we must respond." "We are in an emergency situation that requires urgent solutions," he said, adding that "if these issues are not resolved, then it is better to postpone the council.

The Bulgarian Church and the Georgian Church, wants to renegotiate and amend some of the documents that the Council of Crete is set to promulgate, many of which have underwent an already arduous drafting process.

The main issues of contention are documents on the sacrament of marriage, the Orthodox Churches and the contemporary world and the relationship with other Christian denominations. These groups criticize the "ecumenical" emphasis contained in the texts and insist that Catholic and Protestant are heretics and not "Churches as defined". The Patriarchate of Antioch has expressed grievances, but more related to the failure to resolve the dispute with the Patriarchate of Jerusalem on the jurisdiction of the Orthodox of Qatar.

In light of this, the Synod of the Moscow Patriarchate had sought the convocation, for June 10, of an extraordinary pre-conciliar pan-Orthodox meeting, to evaluate the amendments drawn up by national churches on the documents to be promulgated during the Council and the possible need to postpone it.

However, Constantinople (in charge of organizing the event) has rejected this proposal. Moreover, it has emerged from the meeting of 14 heads of autocephalous Orthodox Churches, held in Chambesy, in Switzerland, last January, that Constantinople had initially tried to limit the discussion of the texts as much as possible,. "We are naturally shocked Constantinoples reaction - denounces Hilarion - it means that the Patriarchate of Constantinople has little interest in what the local Churches say ".

The pan-Orthodox council has not convened for over 1000 years and preparations have required more than 50 years. In 2014, the Orthodox spiritual leaders had decided to hold it in 2016 in St. Irene, the ancient cathedral of Constantinople, where the second ecumenical council of the undivided Church (in 553) was held "unless there are hindrances due to unforeseen circumstances."

The Turkish city, however, was "uncomfortable" for the Russian delegation, after the explosion of tensions between Moscow and Ankara over the shooting down of a Russian jet on the border with Syria. This the choice was made to hold the encounter on the Greek island of Crete, under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.
Vatican City (AsiaNews) - The words "Do whatever he tells you" that Mary addresses to the servants at the wedding at Cana are "the simple but essential recommendation of the Mother of Jesus and is the program of life of the Christian" and the mission entrusted the Church: to listen and to put God's Word into practice. The Wedding at Cana, where "Jesus binds to him his disciples with a new and definitive covenant" was the subject of the Popes general audience today, pointing out that on that occasion "the disciples of Jesus become his family and he founded the faith of the Church ".



30 thousand people were present in St Peter's Square, among whom the Pope toured at length in his jeep - inviting five children on board (pictured). Francis told them that Cana in Galilee is a sort of entrance door on which words and expressions are carved, which illumine the entire mystery of Christ and open the disciples heart to faith. " First, he is in Cana "with his disciples.

Those that Jesus has called to follow Him He has united to Himself in a community and now, as one family, they are all invited to the wedding. Beginning His public ministry at the wedding of Cana, Jesus manifests Himself as the Spouse of the People of God, announced by the prophets, and He reveals to us the profundity of the relationship that unites us to Him: it is a new Covenant of love. What is at the foundation of our faith?  An act of mercy with which Jesus has united us to Himself. And the Christian life is the answer to this love, it is like the story of two who are in love. God and man meet one another, seek one another, find one another, celebrate and love one another: precisely like the loved and beloved in the Canticle of Canticles. All the rest comes as consequence of this relationship. The Church is Jesus family in which His love is poured out; it is this love that the Church cherishes and wishes to give to all.

Understood also in the context of the Covenant, is Our Ladys observation: They have no wine (v. 3). How is it possible to celebrate the wedding and to feast if what the prophets indicated, as an element typical of the Messianic banquet, is lacking? (cf. Amos 9:13-14; Joel 2:24; Isaiah 25:6). Water is necessary to live, but wine expresses the abundance of the banquet and the joy of the celebration. It is a nuptial feast in which wine is lacking and the newlyweds are embarrassed by this. But can you imagine ending a wedding feast drinking tea? It would be an embarrassment. Wine is necessary for a celebration. In transforming the water into wine in the jars used for the rites of purification of the Jews (v. 6), Jesus carries out an eloquent sign: He transforms the Law of Moses in Gospel, bearer of joy. As John himself says elsewhere: The Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (1:17).

Marys words to the servants crown the nuptial picture: Do whatever He tells you (v. 5). Its curious: they are her last words reported by the Gospels.: they are her legacy that she gives to all of us. Today also Our Lady says to us all: Whatever He says to you  Jesus says to you , do it. It is the legacy she has left us: its beautiful! It is an expression that recalls the formula of faith used by the people of Israel at Sinai in answer to the promises of the Covenant: All that the Lord has spoken we will do! (Exodus 19:8). And indeed at Cana the servants obey. Jesus said to them, Fill the jars with water. And they filled them up to the brim. Again He said to them, Now draw some out and take it to the steward of the feast. So they took it (vv. 7-8). In these nuptials the New Covenant is truly stipulated and to the Lords servants, namely to the whole Church is entrusted the new mission: Do whatever He tells you! To serve the Lord means to listen and to put His Word into practice. It is the simple but essential recommendation of Jesus Mother and it is the Christians program of life. To draw from the jar is equivalent for each one of us to entrust ourselves to the Word of God to experience its efficacy in life. Then, together with the steward of the banquet who tasted the water that became wine, we too can exclaim: You have kept the good wine until now (v. 10). Yes, the Lord continues to keep that good wine for our salvation, just as it continues to gush from the pierced side of the Lord.

The conclusion of the account sounds like a sentence: This, the first of His signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him (v. 11). The wedding of Cana is much more than the simple account of Jesus first miracle. As a casket, He keeps the secret of His person and the purpose of His coming: the awaited Spouse begins the nuptials that are fulfilled in the Paschal Mystery. In these nuptials, Jesus unites His disciples to Himself with a new and definitive Covenant. At Cana Jesus disciples become His family and at Cana the faith of the Church was born. We are all invited to those nuptials, because the new wine is no longer lacking!
Jerome Brillantes does not know what to make of Philippines president-elect Rodrigo Duterte.

The overseas foreign worker in Vancouver likes most what he hears from Duterte.

But there are things Duterte says that frightens me and many Filipinos, he said.

Like him the millions of Filipinos and overseas foreign workers (OFWs) from the Southeast Asian nation see Duterte as both a unifying force and divisive leader as they celebrate the Philippines 118th Independence Day this week.

Most OFWs dream change and many want to return to Philippines to be with their familiesand believe Duterte can help them, Brillantes.

But many also do not like the idea of him encouraging people to criminals and take matters in their own hands.

Duterte effectively said he supports vigilantism in a nationally-televised speech last week as the nation prepared for the exit of his predecessor Beningno Aquino.

Faced with criminals who resist arrest or threaten citizens, the controversial politician suggested that it was fine for citizens to take the law into their own hands.

"If he fights, and he fights to the death, you can kill him," said the former mayor of Davao City, who was elected to the presidency in a decisive victory last month.

Ed Alcantara, head of the tourism promotions committee of the 118th Philippine Independence Day Celebration, hopes that Duterte has real plans for the Philippines.

However, he said the new president does not have concrete programmes although he did well in Davao City. If he gets good advisers then that will be good.

He also hopes Duterte will continue the good programmes of the Aquino administration and fix the areas which are failing.

Jeph Sedano, also a Filipino expatriate, believes that the main reason for Dutertes overwhelming win was because Filipinos and OFWs want to have a peaceful country.

Here in British Columbia, migrant worker groups are hoping Duterte will exert some influence in their fight for permanent resident permits on arrival in Canada and open work permits

Foreign workers who say theyve experienced abuse at the hands of employers are demanding a voice in the on-going federal governments review of the controversial temporary foreign worker program.

Among those pushing for this is Otilio Hernandez-Morales, a worker who alleges he was punched by a supervisor on a south Surrey farm. He was among those at a press conference in Vancouver last week asking federal lawmakers to impose changes that would make them feel safer.

Among the issues they want addressed is a need for permanent residency, open work permits and the abolition of a Harper policy that includes the deportation of TFWs after four years in Canada.

The promises and threats by Duterte however will not dampen celebrations planned in Vancouver and around the world, some of which began last month.

The celebrations commenced with an opening reception of the art exhibit, Harana  An Art Exhibition Serenading the Culture and Heritage of the Philippines, on 26 May 2016 at the Cityscape Community Art Space in North Vancouver.

The exhibit, featuring the artworks of Mr. Manuel Baldemor and several Vancouver-based Filipino artists, will run from 27 May to 2 July 2016. On June 3, the Philippine Opera Company held a concert entitled Harana at Vancouver Tech Auditorium. This was followed by two events on 4 June: the Pista ng Bayan Community Picnic at Memorial South Park, and the Masskara Festival Societys Independence Day Celebrations at the Polish Community Centre.

The Independence Day parade and celebrations in Surrey was held on June 5 with the theme, Kundiman at Indakan sa Surrey.

A flag-raising ceremony will be held on 10 June 2016 at the Vancouver City Hall to be led by Consul General Neil Ferrer and Acting Vancouver City Mayor Raymond Louie.

A number of Philippine Independence-related events will be held on the busiest weekend of 11-12 June 2016: flag-raising ceremonies will be conducted in the cities of Richmond, North Vancouver, New Westminster; two dinner-gala celebrations will be hosted by the FABC and UFCABC respectively; various day activities will be hosted by MVPACES in North Vancouver, VFCA/VFCSA/VFCCA in Victoria, FCAEK/East Kootenay in Cranbrook, and CONFICA in Vancouver.

Consul General Ferrer said the Consulate is honored to be part of the festivities, which are organized by various Filipino-Canadian community organizations in Metro Vancouver and other cities in British Columbia.

Ferrer also noted that this year marks an important milestonethe 60th Anniversary of the Establishment of the Philippine Consulate General in Vancouver, the very first Philippine foreign service establishment in the whole of Canada

The annual Independence Day celebrations provide the perfect opportunity for the Filipino-Canadian community to meet, get together and celebrate the Filipino way. These festivities are wonderful venues to foster camaraderie and strengthen the bonds of friendship between the Philippines and Canada. We are grateful to the various community organizations for their abiding trust and continuing cooperation, Ferrer said.

I invite everyoneFilipinos and non-Filipinos aliketo join us in celebrating this June the 118th Anniversary of Philippine Independence and the friendship between the Philippines and Canada.
Photo caption: Culture clash. (Reuters/Jonathan Ernst)

By Amy X. Wang,

Special to The Post

Fresh perspectives and big tuition payments arent the only things foreign students are bringing to American college campuses, apparently. Theres another: cheating.

The Wall Street Journal used (paywall) the Freedom of Information Act to ask 50 public universities with high foreign enrollment for a breakdown of academic integrity violations committed by international and domestic students. Most of the schools said they didnt have such specific information, but 14 of them did. Data from these institutions show higher rates of alleged cheating among foreign students compared with their domestic counterparts.

And a lot higher, at that. According to the Journals analysis of these schools records from the 2014-15 school year, there were 5.1 reports of cheating for every 100 international studentscompared with just one per every 100 domestic students. At some colleges, the rate of cheating was more than eight times higher for the former than the latter. Students from China were singled out by many faculty members interviewed, the Journal reported.

Whats going on here? One explanation is that many students from abroad simply arent familiar with US standards of academic integrity. For instance, foreign students dont always understand what plagiarism is, University of Arizona associate dean Chrissy Lieberman told the Journal. And in Chinaa country exporting a growing number of its students to school in the USthe cultural pressure to succeed in academics tends to be greater than any moral disapproval of finding shortcuts to that success. A recent study on why high school students in China cheat found many students had no qualms about hiring others to sit exams for them. They didnt feel what they were doing was wrong; they simply thought it was not a serious concern.

Amy X. Wang reports for Quartz on media, music, and the business of educationthough she also occasionally writes on architecture and a handful of other topics. Before coming to Quartz, she reported for The Atlantic, Slate, and The Economist. She holds a B.A. from Yale University, where she studied postwar literature and edited the news section of the Yale Daily News. She was born in Beijing and speaks French and Mandarin.

This piece was originally appeared in Quartz (qz.com)

See http://qz.com/699821/do-foreign-students-cheat-more/
Nihon Fest partnered with some of the companies in Vancouver to showcase Japanese Festivals.

This three-day family-focused festival helped people get connected with their culture in Vancouver.

There were four components: anime/manga, Japanese Culture, gaming and import show, from recreating famous anime scenes for the cosplay community to gaming competitions.

In the childrens section, they had their own cosplay show and a Beyblae battle. There also was a Mange me, a manga creation session in which the best ones were published in their first edition of their digital magazine.

People could also purchase comic books and manga at the comic shops or Japanese novelty items and fashion items from the Nihon Market.
Photo caption: Americans streaming north is not a new phenomenon, as Justin Kong reports.Photo Credit:theinspirationroom.com

By Justin Kong,

Special to The Post

While many Americans may be declaring their intent to immigrate to Canada if Donald Trump becomes President, this migratory trend towards the north is not a new phenomenon.

Historically, everyone from runaway slaves to draft dodgers and individuals of the LGBTQ community could be found among the different waves of American migrants coming to Canada. In more recent years, this flow has remained sizeable, with Americans being the sixth-largest source of immigrants in 2013.

Yet, Americans in Canada dont fit most popular notions of immigrants and public discussions usually portray them as invisible immigrants or expats. They also appear to perform economically better than other immigrants, and many are also taking up key positions in the fields of arts, culture, and politics.

Higher cultural-economic capital

There is some belief that this stems from the fact that American immigrants have higher cultural-economic capital than other immigrants. A sector where this is particularly apparent is within Canadas post-secondary education system.

Ongoing research on the changing landscape of academia in Canadian universities by PhD students at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Francois Lachapelle and Patrick John Burnett, has found that among Canadas U3 universities (UBC, University of Toronto and McGill University) almost 66 per cent of tenured professors in 2015 were American-trained.

Rougher approximation tests conducted by Lachapelle suggest that half (33 per cent) of these are American immigrants.

Effects on Canadian academics

Rima Wilkes, who researches immigration at UBC, suggests looking back to the 1960s to understand the phenomenon of American academics in Canadian universities.

[That was] when the Canadian university system saw a massive expansion, she explains. There werent enough Canadian-trained PhDs to fill the jobs. So it made sense to hire people from other countries [such as the U.S.] because we didnt have the skills base.

Wilkes notes that since then, however, Canadian universities have produced more and more PhD candidates. So now [even though] we have the skill base, in some cases Canadians with PhDs still dont get those [tenured] jobs.

All of this is happening in a context where academic employment in both Canada and the U.S. is becoming more precarious. With the intensification of competition and fewer tenured and economically secure academic jobs in the U.S., aspiring American academics look abroad. Canadian institutions, such as the U3, have been eager to receive them.

Louise Birdsell Bauer, who researches precarity in academia at the University of Toronto, says that the preference of hiring American-trained academics stems from institutional traditions combined with a growing inequality in prestige and training between Canadian-trained and U.S.-trained academics.

These factors, Birdsell Bauer explains, do in fact contribute to the increas[ing] academic precarity for Canadian-trained PhDs, who face intensified competition with American-trained academic immigrants for these jobs.

'Colonial inferiority complex'

Other researchers say that the preference and prevalence of American academics in Canadian universities actually speaks to broader attitudes in Canadian academia.

Thomas Kemple is an immigrant from the United States. He has been a professor at UBC for more than two decades and now serves as an executive member of the UBC Faculty Association.

In some ways, Canadian universities suffer from a kind of colonial inferiority complex where our own could never be quite as excellent as academics produced in the U.S., he says. We hear versions of this argument from deans and department heads who value degrees from certain U.S. universities over their Canadian counterparts, [and] often without checking the content and quality of the applicant.

Unlike the experiences of many immigrants who come from regions such as Asia, Africa or Latin America who are unable to turn their credentials into positive labour market performance and economic well-being, academic immigrants from the U.S. sometimes experience the reverse.

Kemple says whether or not the prevalence of American academics in Canadian universities should be an issue of concern is something to think about.

There has certainly been some discussion in recent years among faculty  but Ive never heard it among administrators  about whether an affirmative action or diversity policy should be implemented for Canadian-born or Canadian-educated applicants for university positions.

Wilkes similarly notes that she has seen some discussion around this trend stating that it is often American-born or trained scholars who are leading this [discussion].

There is some evidence to suggest that American academic immigrants in Canadian universities appear to be on the statistical upswing.

Lachapelle, who continues his research at UBC, is finding that amongst the U3 and many other Canadian universities there has actually been a small, but statistically significant increase in the number of American academic immigrants in Canadian universities between 2008 and 2015.

It seems American academics will continue to come to Canada, regardless of who becomes the next president of the United States.

The writer of this article was mentored by Toronto-based journalist, Ranjit Bhaskar, through the NCM Mentoring Program.

This piece was originally appeared in New Canadian Media (newcanadianmedia.ca).

See http://newcanadianmedia.ca/item/34411-why-american-profs-stream-north
Even with 20 years M&A lawyering under his belt, Damian said contributing to critical thinking in the law is vital for all lawyers.The role excites me as it will provide an opportunity for me to make a contribution to these important areas. The position is a great privilege and I am very excited to be appointed, Damian told Australasian Lawyer.The AJCL is at the forefront of thought leadership in corporate law.So many ideas and reforms are generated through the thinking that is showcased in the journal. I think that is the hallmark of the AJCL  it really is best in class in the thought leadership stakes.Damian has published a number of corporate law books over the years, including Towns Under Siege  Developments in Australian Takeovers and Schemes, which he released last month.The journal features a range of discussions on major contemporary policy and research issues. Damian said the effect of emerging technology would likely be a focus for the journal, which is published three times, annually.Without wanting to give too much away, I think the intersection of technology and corporate law is a fascinating one and I would expect to see that as one area that receives good coverage over the next stretch, he said.
By Mark Moore, Senior Lecturer in Archaeology, University of New England

The scientific debate continues over the bones of the mysterious human-like creature Homo floresiensis  nicknamed Hobbits  with the discovery of new fossils in the So'a Basin on the island of Flores, Indonesia, dating to 700,000 years ago.

But one often-overlooked aspect is that Homo floresiensis used technology - in this case stone toolkits - to adapt to the exotic Flores environment.

Island life

Homo floresiensis and its ancestors lived on Flores from about 1 million to 50,000 years ago, camping in limestone caves and on the banks of streams and lakes amid active volcanoes. It was a tropical landscape populated by miniature elephants, giant rats and Komodo dragons.

Analysis of these new fossils supports the hypothesis that Homo floresiensis evolved from a population of large-bodied Homo erectus that were stranded on the island and subjected to the island rule. This is where selective pressures unique to islands cause large-bodied animal species to become smaller over time.

Surprisingly, we now have evidence that the founding population of Homo erectus shrunk to Hobbit size and evolved into the new species, Homo floresiensis, within 300,000 years of arriving there.

This is a dramatically short period in evolutionary terms. Yet this hominin used tools they made to adapt to the Flores environment, which in turn raises interesting questions about the technological niche characteristic of the genus Homo.

The stone tools

Making stone tools might seem like a simple process. After all, how hard can it be to bash rocks together?

But, despite what you might assume, controlling the process is not easy. It requires complex mental evaluations of geometrical configurations on the stone, and blows that are simultaneously controlled and forceful

I taught myself ancient stoneworking to better understand these tools. As such, I have found that the coarse-grained volcanic river cobbles used by the So'a Basin hominins are very resistant to stone-flaking techniques.

You have to hit a volcanic rock exceptionally hard to initiate a fracture.









Even though Homo floresiensis adults were the size of a modern human five-year-old, they were capable of removing volcanic flakes up to 12cm long.

These hominins were small but powerful. They nevertheless had an eye for easier material, and frequently collected small, high-quality flint-like pebbles during their stone forays.

The toolkits themselves were simple, comprising knife-like flakes for various cutting tasks, and the stout-edged cobble cores they were struck from which were suitable as heavy chopping tools. The edges of the flakes were sometimes trimmed, perhaps to resharpen them or modify their shape.

You can see it here in three dimensions, thanks to Michael Curry from Sketchfab.

Stone tool sites

Although hominin skeletal remains have only been found at two Flores sites  Mata Menge and Liang Bua  this simple stone toolkit has been found at multiple sites in the So'a Basin dating up to 1 million years ago

The genesis of the hominin tool-making tradition is in Africa, with stone-flaking origins some 3.3 million years ago.

Stone toolkits allowed our ancestors to hack meat from tough animal carcasses and cut it into small pieces that were more easily chewed and digested Greater access to meat was a key factor in the evolution of a bigger body size and, crucially, a larger brain.

Equipped with toolkits similar to those on Flores, populations of Homo erectus left Africa by 1.8 million years ago and quickly fanned out across Asia. They arrived in Indonesia by 1.5 million years ago

Stranded

The Homo floresiensis story began when one population of Homo erectus became stranded on Flores about 1 million years ago. There are two reasons why this was among the most significant challenges ever faced by a Homo erectus population.

First, landing on Flores from a jumping-off point on Java or Sulawesi meant that Homo erectus was leaving behind familiar mainland Asian plants and animals to confront on Flores an exotic and unfamiliar mix of Australian and Asian species.

And second, unlike Homo erectus elsewhere in Asia, the Flores colonisers were tightly constrained by the boundaries of this small (13,500 sq km) island. The environmental resources available to them were strictly limited, and moving elsewhere during times of stress was not an option.

You might think that that their stone technology was an ace in the hole in confronting these challenges. After all, the global history of Homo sapiens shows that technology is a fabulous means for squeezing the maximum amount of energy possible from the environment.

But our analyses to date show that the Flores hominins continued making simple stone tools in much the same way over their entire million-year long occupation of the island.

Shrinking

While this was sufficient for the populations survival, it was not sufficient to buffer it from the extremes of the selective pressures encountered on Flores.

Hence their skeletal anatomy and body shapes morphed and their cranial capacity dramatically decreased

Yet, paradoxically, Homo floresiensis didnt lose the capability to make stone tools. Their brains reorganised to retain the complex cognitive abilities necessary to make and use their toolkit, and the dramatic changes in body shape must have accommodated the physical requirements of forceful stone-flaking.

The hominins technological abilities had entered an evolutionary cul-de-sac: crucial to the survival of these enigmatic creatures, yet unable to be enhanced to break free from the island rule.

The Homo floresiensis story may be a lesson for all of us. There was nothing inevitable about the genus Homo using technology to conquer the planet, and technology may not always serve as a firewall between us and the powerful forces of natural selection.

Mark Moore's research was partly funded by the Australian Research Council (DP1096558)

Originally published in The Conversation.
Volkswagens made-in-India, made-for-India compact sedan has just been launched. We compare its vital stats with those of its rivals.

The Volkswagen Ameo is the latest entrant in the hotly contested sub-four-metre compact sedan space. A rival to popular cars like the Maruti Dzire, Honda Amaze, Ford Figo Aspire, Tata Zest and the Hyundai Xcent, the Ameo is the German brands first car to be tailor-made for India.



Volkswagen has introduced the Ameo with a 1.2-litre three-cylinder petrol engine  the same motor used on the Polo (not the TSI turbo-petrol), and will later add the option of a 1.5-litre diesel engine with a 7-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission.



The pricing for the Ameo ranges from Rs 5.24 to Rs 7.06 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi), and bookings can be made for Rs 11,000. However, before you head out to your nearest Volkswagen showroom, take a look at how the petrol-powered Ameos specifications compare against those of its rivals.

Dimensions

Given the inherent four-metre constraint that these cars are built on, they are closely matched in terms of length, with five of the six cars  the Ameo, Dzire, Xcent, Aspire and Zest  being 3,995mm long. The wheelbase could give a better idea of the cars' interior space, and here, the Aspire leads the pack, spanning 2,491mm between the axles. It is followed by the Zest and Ameo, sporting a near identical 2,470mm and 2,469mm. The shortest wheelbase is that of the Amaze (2,405mm).

Spanning 1,760mm, The Zest also has a clear advantage (a 100mm lead over the Xcent) in terms of width, an indication of having the broadest cabin in the segment. It is distantly followed by the Figo Aspire, Dzire, Amaze and Ameo, with the Xcent being the narrowest at 1,660mm.



The Zest also leads in terms of overall height, which is likely to mean better headroom when compared to rivals. Meanwhile, the Ameo, based on the relatively low-slung Polo hatchback, is the shortest here.



When it comes to boot space, the Xcent with its 407-litre boot, leaps ahead of most of its rivals by a fair margin. Only the Honda Amaze comes close with a 400-litre boot. The Ameos 330-litre boot is slightly bigger than that of the Dzires 316 litres, which is the smallest here.

Dimensions Volkswagen Ameo Maruti Dzire Honda Amaze Hyundai Xcent Tata Zest Ford Figo Aspire Length(mm) 3995 3995 3990 3995 3995 3995 Width(mm) 1682 1695 1689 1660 1760 1695 Height(mm) 1483 1555 1505 1520 1570 1525 Wheelbase(mm) 2469 2430 2405 2425 2470 2491 Boot Space(litres) 330 316 400 407 360 359

Engine and transmission

The Ameos 75hp, 1.2-litre petrol engine is the only three-cylinder motor in the comparison and is the least powerful motor on paper. Though the motor is the same unit powering the Polo, it has been tuned to deliver an ARAI-rated fuel efficiency of 17.83kpl over the hatchback's 16.47kpl.



Like the Ameo, all cars in this comparison are powered by 1.2-litre petrol motors. Of these, producing 90hp and 140Nm, the Tata Zests 1.2-litre turbo-petrol unit is the most powerful and torquiest, but delivering 17.57kpl, it is the least fuel efficient of the lot.



The 84.3hp Dzire on the other hand is the most frugal car in this comparison, promising an ARAI rated 20.85kpl. The Xcents engine, producing 83hp, comes in second in terms of fuel efficiency, delivering 19.1kpl. While the motors of the Amaze and Figo Aspire produce an identical 88hp, at 18.16kpl, the Aspire is marginally more efficient than the Amaze that delivers 17.8kpl.



While the manual versions of all cars get 5-speed gearboxes, the petrol variants of the Amaze, Xcent, Dzire and Ford Figo Aspire comes with automatic gearboxes as well; the Xcent and Dzire getting 4-speed automatics, the Amaze using a CVT and the Figo getting a 6-speed dual-clutch unit. However, the automatic Figo is powered by a bigger, more powerful 112hp, 1.5-litre petrol motor.

Engine and transmission Volkswagen Ameo Maruti Dzire Honda Amaze Hyundai Xcent Tata Zest Ford Figo Aspire Engine 3 cyl, 1198cc 4 cyl, 1197cc 4 cyl, 1198cc 4 cyl, 1197cc 4 cyl, 1193cc 4 cyl, 1196cc/4-cyl, 1499cc Transmission 5-speed manual 5-speed manual/ 4-speed automatic 5-speed manual/ CVT automatic 5-speed manual/ 4-speed automatic 5-speed manual 5-speed manual/ 6-speed dual-clutch automatic Power 74hp at 5400rpm 84.3hp at 6000rpm 88hp at 6000rpm/90hp at 6000rpm 83hp at 6000rpm 90hp at 5000rpm 88hp at 6300rpm/ 112hp at 6300rpm Torque 110Nm at 3750rpm 115Nm at 4000rpm 109Nm at 45000rpm 114Nm at 4000rpm 140Nm at 1500-4000rpm 112Nm at 4000rpm/ 136Nm at 4250rpm ARAI-claimed fuel efficiency 17.83kpl 20.85kpl 17.8kpl 19.1kpl 17.57kpl 18.16kpl/NA

Pricing

Given the competition in this segment, pricing plays a crucial role when deciding which of these cars to buy. Although the Dzire, Amaze, Xcent and Figo Aspire can be had with automatic gearboxes, here we will only consider prices for the manual variants.



Priced at Rs 5.24 - 7.06 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi), the Volkswagen Ameo has been positioned aggressively, and its base variant undercuts all its rivals, save for the Tata Zest and Ford Figo Aspire. Prices of the cars in this comparison have been listed below in the increasing order of prices for the base variants.

Prices Tata Zest Ford Figo Aspire Volkswagen Ameo Maruti Dzire Honda Amaze Hyundai Xcent Prices(in lakh) Rs 5.07-6.53 Rs 5.21- 7.38 lakh Rs 5.24 - 7.06 Rs 5.32-6.98 Rs 5.35-7.25 Rs 5.36-7.13

Volkswagen Ameo launch story and variant break-up

Volkswagen Ameo video review



Volkswagen Ameo review
The next classic in line for a continuation series is the XKSS, the road-going variant of the D-Type racecar.Boiled down to its core, the 1957 Jaguar XKSS is an afterthought. You see, Jaguar decided to withdraw from endurance racing at the end of 1956. This left a handful of completed and partly completed race cars at the historic Browns Lane plant. Sir William Lyons, in a moment of brilliance, proposed to get the most out of this situation by converting the remaining D-Type racers to road-legal cars. And so, the XKSS was born.25 units were more or less completed when a fire broke out at the factory, destroying nine of the cars. As such, 16 examples of the breed survived. Six decades later, Jaguar Land Rover Classic will complete production of the XKSS with nine continuation vehicles, the first being slated for delivery next spring. Exciting stuff, I know, right? The thing is, all nine Jaguar XKSS continuation vehicles are spoken for, even though customers had to pony up in excess of $1.5 million. Thats right! One. Point. Five. Million. Bucks. Jaguar managed to track the original drawings, but the problem is that drawings dont tell you how the shape was created. Tim Hannig, the director of JLR Classic, says that the company borrowed two original cars from owners and scanned the lines digitally. The bodies we are creating are quite remarkable.Each continuation car will take approximately three months to build by hand by some of the most talented and experienced automotive craftsmen in the business. Another reason why it takes so long to make an XKSS is the fact that JLR Classic has to reverse-engineer many parts, including the suspension.After the Lightweight E-Type and XKSS continuation models, what should we expect next from JLR Classic? The one-off XJ13, also known as the greatest Jaguar racecar that never was, is a fine candidate in my book.
AMG

AWD

Despite this, it's the third generation of the B-Class that will be launched first, with the A-Class to follow just a few months later.Although it's hard to judge by looking at the spy images, the fourth generation of the A-Class will have a much longer wheelbase for two very different reasons. Firstly, it should significantly improve interior space, especially when it comes to leg room. Secondly, the MFA2 platform will also spawn an A-Class sedan to battle the future BMW 1 Series sedan and the Audi A3 Sedan Other novelties consist of the enlarged rear hatch opening for better access to the luggage compartment, and a repositioning of the exterior rearview mirrors, which now sit on the doors for improved aerodynamics and better visibility in tight corners.Expect the exterior looks to be an evolution of the current Sensual Purity design language, while interior materials and design should be upgraded following a steeper curve.Engine-wise, we will probably get a motley arrangement of turbocharged four-cylinders, most of them being updated versions of the mills found in the current A-Class. A plug-in hybrid is also expected, featuring all-wheel-drive and an electric motor paired with a 2.0-liter turbocharged four.Speaking of two-liter engines, the four-cylinder in theversion will benefit once more from the F1 experience of the engineers in Brixworth to deliver over 400 hp and cement the A45's status as the most powerful hot-hatch on the planet.Only but a rumor so far, but Mercedes-Benz might completely re-engineer the MFA platform to accommodate anversion constructed around an innovative system made by either GKN Driveline or ZF.The launch date for the new A-Class W177 is far from being officially announced, but we suspect that it will happen at the 2017 Frankfurt Motor Show at the earliest or the 2018 Geneva Motor Show at the latest. There's plenty of time to get all giddy about the new Mercedes-Benz compact lineup until then.
As you can see above, one Cadillac driver got himself a rather... special example of brand image. The man describes his experience on Reddit, explaining the circumstances that led to this temporary tattoo.The man was driving his Cadillac CTS on Sunday, March 22 when he crashed, with the car being totaled. His message? A pretty straightforward one - "Cadillac airbag saved my life, made sure I remember that."It's obvious the guy was not using the recommended "9:15" hands position. In fact, he confirms that he was holding the lower extremity of the wheel with the now-branded hand and the airbag deployment launched the wheel cover towards his forearm.His CTS went through quite a situation, as the car spun out, hitting a tree and then a telephone pole. As for what caused the terrible situation, the driver explains the rear wheel assembly on the driver's side came off the car. In fact, we can even see this in one of the adjacent images.Given this, it's pretty strange how the man says he would like to drive another Cadillac - alas, the sedan was totaled in the crash and the insurance payout was below the actual price of the car. As in many other cases, the fair market value the insurance pays is not all that fair.Still, it appears we are dealing with yet another die-hard brand enthusiast here. This is just as worthy of raising an eyebrow as the Dacia employee who tattooed the low-cost brand's logo on his forearm.And just in case you want an example of such a situation that appears easier to understand, that comes from a member of the Pagani staff
The South Korean Ministry of the Environment claimed it found a defeat device on Nissan Qashqai crossovers equipped with diesel engines. At the time of the announcement, about two weeks ago, it wasn't clear whether they were referring to old models or new ones, but that's changed.Apparently, the affected engines are Euro 6 ones, so to avoid further financial damage, Nissan has been forced to stop temporarily selling the model. Until the government finishes its study and publishes the findings, the Qashqai will not bee Nissan's Cashcow, at least not in Korea.Hong Dong-kon, a director at the ministry, said it was discovered that certain emissions control systems were being shut off when the engine's temperature reached 35 Celsius, about 30 minutes after the engine began to work. "Usually, some cars turn off the emission reduction device when the temperature reaches 50 degrees Celsius, to prevent the engine from overheating. The Qashqai was the only vehicle that turned it off at 35 degrees,'' Mr. Hong said.Even if the company didn't develop a "defeat device", like Volkswagen, they could be looking at a major recall. The Korean government no doubt found NOx emissions in the real wold far exceed those promised by the manufacturer. But by how much?Nissan says that it is aware of such issues and is prepared to carry out a technical improvement to reduce NOx to a point agreed upon with the South Korea Ministry of the Environment.This kind of reminds me of the subprime credit crisis, where the banks that started it all were looking great just as everybody else was feeling the shock. Volkswagen stocks have been climbing nicely in the past few months, but everybody else seems to be suffering. Opel has repeatedly been accused of cheating, but nothing has been proven so far.Mitsubishi has publicly admitted that it has lied about the fuel consumption of its cars for several years. Believing the company won't survived, chairmen have voted to partner up with Nissan, who is soon to buy a 34% stake.
The current patriarch of Suzuki Motor Corp. is Osamu Suzuki . The 86-year-old industrialist is married to Shoko Suzuki, the granddaughter of Michio Suzuki, also known as the founding father of the fourth automaker in Japan by sales.According to a release published today, the board of directors of Suzuki Motor Corp. resolved that stepping down from his role as chief executive office is the right thing for Osamu to do. He is not leaving the company, though. Osamu will soldier on as chairman of the Japanese corporation. Another higher-up wholl be stepping down by June 29 is Osamu Honda, the executive vice president.The board of directors went even further than that, though. Suzuki Motor Corp. directors will fully waive their bonuses for 2015, while senior managing officers and managing officers will have their bonuses reduced by 50 percent. Head honcho Osamu Suzuki and corporation president Toshihiro Suzuki will see a 40 and 30 percent reduction of their monthly compensations for six months.The change of Representative Directors and reduction of compensation for management is to clarify the responsibility of the management against the improper conduct in application of driving resistance, different from regulations by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT), reads a statement from the board of directors. The corporation as yet to decide who will step up to fill the vacant positions.Osamu Suzuki joined the company in 1958. He became chief executive officer of Suzuki in 1978. Osamu is the architect that made Suzuki what it is today, an automaker specialized in low-priced cars. One of the highlight points of Osamu Suzuki is the partnership with the Government of India, thus creating Maruti Suzuki . The joint venture currently has a market share of 47 percent of the Indian passenger car market.
Henrik Fisker is the last to join the company, but he has a rightful place in VLF Automotive, as he was the founder of the Fisker brand and the designer of the Karma After the Fisker Automotive company had gone bankrupt, Bob Lutz envisioned the possibility of replacing its hybrid drivetrain with a V8 engine from the Corvette ZL1 , which comes with 638 hp and 604 lb-ft of torque.At first, Bob Maximum Lutz imagined the new model in the form of conversion kits for existing Karma models, but the project eventually developed into the Destino.The VLF Destino was first shown at the 2013 Detroit Auto Show in the form of a concept car, but production has finally begun, and the first vehicle has been delivered to the 84-year-old executive. Bob Lutz kindly posted a few pictures of the car that will join his collection.Mr. Lutz claims he is over the moon with excitement on how the Destino turned out. The executive joyfully named Maximum Bob also stated that he is really happy with color and trim, as well as proportions, which he described as spectacular. We agree on the latter, and even Fisker Karma fans can raise their thumbs to this.VLF only plans to build a few dozen Destino models a year, so this delivery is a significant milestone for the company. The sticker price for a Destino is of $229,000, and it is made in Auburn Hills, Michigan, the same place where the Henrik Fisker-designed VLF Force One has been assembled.The VLF company claims one of its famous clients includes a well-known music celebrity, and rumors point to Carlos Santana, the Detroit News reports.
EV

The choice should be obvious, right? I mean, you don't even need to go into technical details to realize that the Model S would make a more suitable police car than the tiny BMW. And then there's the aspect of design: a police officer getting off an i3 loses about 25 percent of his authority instantly, whereas the Model S looks very close to what you would expect from a police cruiser. Put a bullbar on the Tesla and it would actually make a decent police pursuit vehicle. Do the same with a BMW i3, and it'll probably feature on the "Shitty Car Mods" subreddit.But the thing is you can't really get over the technical features because they're just so very different. The Model S offers more than twice the maximum range of an i3, it is more than twice as fast to 62 mph, it has four doors that open independently in any order (you need to open the front doors on the i3 to gain access to the reversed ones in the back), and tons of extra cargo space. The BMW i3, on the other hand, has only two things going for it: its diminutive size and, most importantly, its price.The LAPD didn't say what it will be using the EVs for so we can't know if the size argument played any role, but the financial one sure did. The Germanhas a starting price of $42,000, which means that for every two Model S P90Ds (the P85D was discontinued), they could get five BMWs. Five. And that's without factoring in the fleet discount BMW must have offered, especially since the i3 isn't exactly a best seller. So when an order for 100 units for your least best-selling model , you do your best to satisfy it. Even more so when this association might even raise the model's credentials among the LA dwellers.
As some of you know, the BrandZ Top is made by market research company Millward Brown, and it ranks companies based on market value and other factors.Millward Brown researchers combine measures of brand equity based on interviews with more than two million consumers globally and use data from Bloomberg and Kantar Worldpanel.This study has been carried out in the past 11 years, and Toyota has managed to receive the first position for nine times.In this years edition, BMW made second place, followed by Mercedes-Benz. BMW s result was boosted by the launch of the all-new 7 Series last year, as well as the increased popularity of the i range, Automotive News reports.Meanwhile, its arch-rivals at Mercedes-Benz achieved a boost thanks to the new E-Class, as well as exceptional results on the Chinese market. The Stuttgart automaker achieved the highest rate of increase in value out of any brand in its category.Other automakers that made the Top 100 of the list are Honda Ford , and Nissan Tesla did not make the Top 100 list overall, but managed to enter the Top 10 of the Car category for the first time, showing how much the company has grown since last year.The other automakers that made the Top 10 list in the automotive category in 2016 are Audi Land Rover , and Porsche . The electric car manufacturer from California entered the survey last year, while Audi was included in 2014.The results for this year marked the departure of Lexus from the Top 10 by the introduction of Tesla. Porsche also entered the Top 10 this year, but it managed to get the ninth place, just ahead of Tesla Motors in value. The two brands mentioned in the previous sentence did not rank in the top 100 global brands, while Audi did not rank in the top 10 most valuable car brands in 2015.
Instead, Toyota Motor Companys North American branch will receive the Keystone Leadership in Environment Award for sharing space with animals at its factories located on the continent.In other words, Toyotas plants in North America have specially assigned areas on their properties in which the Japanese automaker has arranged habitats for various critters, including geese and ducks

Toyota did not just create some spaces where these animals would sit like at a zoo, but developed habitats for them, and hired specialized teams to take care of the creatures. Most recently, some of Toyotas habitats host butterflies, beavers, and other kinds of small animals.

The carmakers efforts did not go unnoticed, as the company was granted the Keystone Leadership in Environment Award. The distinction was given by the Wildlife Habitat Council and General Motors at the 23rd annual Keystone Policy Center awards dinner.You read that right. General Motors is working with Toyota on environmental measures. Some of you might have heard of a previous collaboration between them, which even included a dedicated factory in the USA, which the two automakers shared.Toyotas factory in Kentucky was the first to obtain certification from the Wildlife Habitat Councils Wildlife at Work, and Corporate Lands for Learning programs. The Japanese automaker started working with the WHC in 2008. Thanks to the persistence of the company, Toyota now has nine sites that host wild animals, adding up to a surface of over 1,000 acres across North America.To enter this project, sites must demonstrate programs have been active in a green direction for at least one year, as well as having a plan for future developments. The Keystone Policy Center established its Leadership Awards program in 1994. They focus on fields like environment, agriculture, public health, energy, and education. A panel of wildlife biologists and internal staff reviews every submission and then makes the final call about the winners.
Hey, @MariaSharapova... In light of recent events, we're POSITIVE you would make a great porn voice actress https://t.co/YPj9TiZWrL  RedTube Emma (@RedTube) June 8, 2016

Anyway, YouPorn wants young graphic designers to make them a car, a supercar that gives people dirty thoughts. While most people start with a blank piece of paper, this project starts off with a white Lamborghini Gallardo And that's where we find our first problem. How can we get excited about a V10 supercar that's three years old and went out of production? That being said, the Gallardo in question is the facelift model, the ultimate version, so it's like a super-MILF of supercars.After you design the graphics, "celebrity car customizer Yiannimize" will make it happen. Didn't he have one of these Lambos ? What are the chances that the YouPorn car is actually his?Anyway, the prize includes being flown to London, accommodations at a yet unknown hotel and a joyride in the car. That it?!The least they could have done is a date with a real pornstar. There are plenty of those in Britain: Sophie Dee, Hannah Harper, and Savannah Gold. Even a male star would have been okay so that you could ask him what it's like to shack up with hot girls for a living or make Big Ben jokes. But no, they give you the rare chance to sit in a Lamborghini.Will a cool YouPorn V10 car encourage people to use the website more? Probably not, but it's worth a shot, right?
ARI has been recognized as one of the Achievers 50 Most Engaged Workplaces in North America with an annual award that recognizes top employers that display leadership and innovation in engaging their workplaces.

"We are tremendously proud of this honor," said Chris Conroy, ARI's president. "Our success as an organization is due in no small part to our employees, and it is important to us to ensure that they have a voice in the organization, that they know the company is committed to their growth personally and professionally, and that we maintain a culture of open communication and collaboration."

The Achievers 50 Most Engaged Workplaces awards' panel of judges evaluated each applicant based on eight elements of employee engagement including communication; leadership; culture; rewards and recognition; professional and personal growth; accountability and performance; vision and values; and corporate social responsibility. The panel of judges included various academics and thought leaders on employee engagement, and included representation from organizations such as the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), HR Technology Conference, and HRO Today.

"Engaging employees and promoting positive workplace culture are now top priorities for business leaders in North America, and the elite companies on this list are already ahead of their peers and seeing positive effects from their programs," said David Brennan, Achievers general manager. "This award validates these companies' commitments to creating a people-first focus and recognizes how having an engaged workplace has positive impacts across the business."

The centerpiece of ARI's award winning culture is the Partners in Excellence program. Introduced in 1989, Partners in Excellence provides ARI's employees with guidance on the strategic direction of the company, while also supporting their contribution to the organization's performance and success through the measurement of key metrics. Through programs, events and our annual employee celebrations, it also provides them with the recognition and praise they deserve for a job well done.

ARI will be honored alongside other recipients of the Achievers 50 Most Engaged Workplaces Award at the awards gala on Sept. 12 in Toronto.
Zipcar donates $1 for every reservation on its branded Pride cars. Photo courtesy of Zipcar.

Zipcar is partnering with GLAAD, an LGBTQ media advocacy organization, during Pride month to help drive acceptance and equality forward for the LGBTQ community.

"Zipcar's carsharing movement has always been about building community, and we believe that should include everyone," said Kaye Ceille, Zipcars president. "We have proudly supported LGBTQ organizations and Pride events across the country since our early days. It's been a long road, and there are many miles ahead. We're excited to partner with GLAAD this year to drive equality even further."

Additionally, Zipcar will continue its annual Pride campaign, in which the company donates $1 for every reservation on its branded Pride cars. Proceeds benefit select local LGBTQ organizations where the Pride cars are located. Each Pride car is decorated with a rainbow Zipcar logo, according to the company.

"We are thrilled to partner with Zipcar to accelerate LGBTQ acceptance," said Sarah Kate Ellis, GLAAD president and chief executive officer. "When companies stand up against discrimination and injustice, it sends a clear and important message to LGBTQ people across the country that they are supported."

For more information, visit www.zipcar.com/pride.
8 June 2016 10:31 (UTC+04:00)

Armenian armed forces have 15 times violated the ceasefire with Azerbaijan on the line of contact over the past 24 hours, Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry reported on June 8.

Armenian armed forces stationed in Barekamavan village of Armenia's Noyemberyan district opened fire at the Azerbaijani positions located in Qaymaqli village of the Qazakh district.

Armenian armed forces stationed in the nameless heights of Armenia's Krasnoselsk district opened fire at the Azerbaijani positions located in the nameless heights of the Gadabay district.

Further on, Azerbaijani positions were shelled from the nameless heights in Goranboy and Khojavand districts.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

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8 June 2016 16:00 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

When the tensions again rose in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict after remaining a frozen for more than two decades, the international community realized the necessity of increasing efforts to resolve the conflict.

Lack of successful mediation efforts and frequent ceasefire violations, the April clashes threatened to reignite a military conflict between the countries and destabilize the South Caucasus region. This could also disrupt huge energy and transport projects running through and from the region, since Azerbaijan is a significant player and initiator of the projects of the global and regional importance.

Many observers urged the mediating OSCE Minsk Group to take strong steps to achieve peace in the region, expecting Germany, the current OSCE chair, to contribute productively to the de-escalation of the dramatic situation in the conflict region. The deeper involvement of Germany, the most powerful country in the EU, would be welcomed by many.

The German chairmanship earlier voiced commitment to working towards solving the protracted conflicts in the OSCE region, including the long-standing Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which is source of threat for security in the South Caucasus region.

OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Foreign Minister of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier asserted that Germany favors the intensification of the negotiations under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Then, Steinmeier's statement was met in Azerbaijan with great interest as the country is waiting for some progress in this regard for a long time.

However, the Germans have not come with a sort of peace plan proposal. Only recently, German Ambassador to Armenia Matthias Kiesler said that Germany submitted a draft budget to the OSCE for the formation of trust mechanisms in the area of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, without disclosing any detail.

Germany's OSCE chairmanship supports the OSCE Minsk Group's efforts to create mechanisms of investigating the incidents in the area of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the German Mission to the OSCE told Trend June 7 commenting on the envoys statement.

The Mission further added that Germanys OSCE chairmanship fully supports the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs' activity, as well as the work on expanding the team of the OSCE Personal Representative, Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk.

While the OSCE Minsk Group acted as the only mediator in resolution of the conflict, it failed to make any move to achieve a breakthrough in the peace process. What is more important in this point is how strong the efforts of the MG will be to bring the sides together, and most importantly pressure on the aggressor Armenia to be constructive in talks.

Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a lengthy war that ended with the signing of a fragile ceasefire in 1994. Since the war, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

Armenia ignores four UN Security Council resolutions on immediate withdrawal from the occupied territory of Azerbaijan, thus keeping tension high in the region.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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8 June 2016 17:53 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

Armenias Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant poses a serious threat not only for this country, but also the whole region and beyond.

Azerbaijani Ambassador to Russia Polad Bulbuloglu made the remark while talking to the newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets on June 7.

Reminding that the world had recently marked the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, Bulbuloglu noted that the Metsamor NPP has the reactor similar to the one the Chernobyl NPP had.

Furthermore, it is located in a zone of a high seismic risk. Due to this, following the destructive Spitak earthquake of 1989 in Armenia, the Soviet authorities planned to suspend the work of Metsamor NPP. However, in 1995, the government of Armenia initiated the resumption of the second unit of the NPP, the envoy said.

The ambassador, pointing to obvious risks, voiced surprise how calmly the neighboring countries react to this danger.

If it explodes, it will be a major disaster. First of all, Armenia itself will suffer; next -- Georgia, Iran, Turkey, and of course, Azerbaijan, Bulbuloghlu said, calling on the international community and Russia to take effective measures to assist in preventing rising threats.

Metsamor NPP began to operate in 1976. The license for the exploitation of the station will expire on September 1, 2016. Nevertheless, the Armenian government has made the decision to prolong the date of exploitation of the plant for 10 more years.

Experts are sure that in case of explosion at Metsamor the region will suffer devastating consequences for decades, perhaps centuries. This will not affect only those in the Caucasus but also can be a disaster for Europe and the Middle East.

Bulbuloglu further voiced his concern over the frequent statements of Armenian officials that their country has a dirty bomb, and irresponsible statements and threats by some military servicemen and MPs of Armenia, including the former Prime Minister.

They claim about being able to create nuclear weapons or so-called dirty bomb, the manufacture of which requires the nuclear waste. I think there is no special need to prove that these experiments also relate to the Metsamor NPP, he said adding that the NPP has already exhausted its activity as the economic mean and is used by Armenia as a radioactive weapon.

Metsamor accumulated financial liabilities of 9-9.5 billion drams ($23.3 million), but the amount rapidly increased in the past few years as a result of the ineffective management of foreign loans and credits. So, Armenia's arguments that the Metsamor NPPs activity has an economic component and is aimed at power generation are nothing more than twaddle.



Radioactive waste is used to create chemical weapons. Therefore, Armenia will never agree to close the NPP, even if the world community requires this, the Azerbaijani National Nuclear Research Center announced earlier.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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8 June 2016 15:43 (UTC+04:00)

The OSCE monitoring held on June 8 along the contact line between the Azerbaijani and Armenian troops has passed without incidents, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry reported on June 8.

The monitoring was held under the mandate of the OSCE chairperson-in-office personal representative on the contact line to the east of the Kuropatkino village of Azerbaijan's Khojavand district, the ministry said.

On the Azerbaijani side, the monitoring was carried out by the field assistant of the OSCE chairperson-in-office personal representative Hristo Hristov and Peter Svedberg.

On the territories occupied and controlled by Armenian armed forces, the monitoring was carried out by the field assistants of the OSCE chairperson-in-office personal representative Simon Tiller and Jiri Aberle.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently holding peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented the UN Security Council's four resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.

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8 June 2016 17:00 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

Armenian media reports urge that Germany has presented to the OSCE the draft budget for the formation of trust mechanisms in the zone of Karabakh conflict.

This statement was made by the Ambassador of Germany to Armenia, Matthias Kiesler, Sputnik-Armenia reported.

Kiesler claimed that Germany has invested public funds for the formation of mechanisms on investigation of border incidents in the Karabakh conflict zone. The Ambassador expressed hope that all OSCE members will adopt the draft budget. However, he did not mention the certain amount of the investment.

Azerbaijan did not assent for the introduction of any mechanisms on the contact line. It is clear that without the concert of Azerbaijan no mechanisms on its internationally recognized lands can be set up.

Initially, Armenian side reported that Azerbaijan expressed its consent on the issue in the recent Vienna meeting of two sides. Later, Yerevan itself refuted this statement.

Regarding this contradictory statement Ilgar Velizade, the Azerbaijani political analyst said that the information that Germany, a chairman country of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), provided a plan to develop mechanisms of trust in Karabakh to other member countries, at least comes as a surprise.

The analyst stressed that Nagorno-Karabakh and its adjacent territories around it belong to Azerbaijan, and neither the Chairman of the OSCE, nor the UN Secretary General nor anyone else can implement any projects there without the consent of Azerbaijan.

The office of the Federal Chancellor must be aware that before discussing any projects in the conflict zone, they must understand that this area is within the exclusive sovereignty of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Although, seeing last actions of the Bundestag, that decided to recognize the "Armenian genocide", I am not sure that Berlin adequately evaluates the current state of the region's realities, Velizade said.

He noted that if the statement of Matthias Kiesler about investment of German public funds is confirmed, then the country officials will soon need to make excuses about the wasted funds. Of course, Germany can dispose its own funds, but I think that if this money would be intended to address the issues of refugees, that would be more appropriate, Velizade concluded.

Azerbaijan and Armenia for over two decades have been locked in conflict, which emerged over Armenian territorial claims. Since the 1990s war, Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions. The UN Security Council has adopted four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal, but they have not been enforced to this day.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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8 June 2016 17:57 (UTC+04:00)

Only Armenia and Azerbaijan are the parties to the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, said Hikmat Hajiyev, spokesman for Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry.

He was commenting on statements by officials of some countries to attract illegal regime established in Azerbaijan's occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region to the negotiating process.

"As noted in the OSCE documents, Azerbaijani and Armenian communities of the Nagorno-Karabakh region are the interested parties in the conflict," Hajiyev told Trend, adding that they have equal rights.

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

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8 June 2016 10:19 (UTC+04:00)

Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev met with Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany Angela Merkel in Berlin on June 7, Azertac reported.

Chancellor Merkel stressed the importance of visits of President Aliyev to Germany and her meetings with the head of state at various events in terms of strengthening the bilateral ties.

The Chancellor said Azerbaijan had a significant geographical position. Touching upon the global economic crisis and sharp fall in oil prices, Merkel said the German government applauded the economic reforms carried out by the government of Azerbaijan in order to overcome this crisis and its measures to improve the living standard of people.

President Aliyev spoke about the economic measures implemented in Azerbaijan and said serious steps were taken to reduce the dependence of economy on oil, develop the non-oil sector, diversify economy, and increase economic opportunities.

The head of state touched upon the work done to reduce poverty and improve people`s well-being. President Aliyev underscored the significance of the Azerbaijani-German Economic Forum held as part of his visit to Berlin, saying this event contributed to expanding economic cooperation between the two countries.

Azerbaijan's role in ensuring the energy security of Europe was emphasized during the meeting. The contribution of the Southern Gas Corridor to the regional cooperation as well as to the expansion of the Azerbaijani-EU economic cooperation was stressed. The positive steps taken by the Azerbaijani government to ensure human rights and develop democratization process in the country were highlighted.

They broadly discussed the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. President Aliyev highlighted the recent events and current situation on the line of contact, and also spoke of the current state and prospects of the negotiations to settle the dispute.

They exchanged views over Germany`s role as the OSCE chair in the settlement of the conflict within the Minsk Group.

Later, the president and the chancellor gave a press conference.

President Aliyev completed his working visit to Germany on the same day. A guard of honor was lined up for the head of state at Berlin Tegel Airport.

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8 June 2016 10:41 (UTC+04:00)

By Laman Ismayilova

Vice-President of the International Academy of Engineering, President of Azerbaijan Engineering Academy Academician Arif Pashayev has been awarded Gold Medal of Honor and Diploma by the International Academy of Engineering, Azertac reported.

Mr. Pashayev was honored for his special role in the work of the academy and contributions to strengthening international relations.

Mr. Pashayev is a renowned scientist, teacher, doctor of physical and mathematical sciences, professor and academician. He is a recipient of a number of high awards including the Shohret (Glory) and Sharaf (Honor) orders for his scientific achievements.

Arif Pashayev comes from a prominent family. He is a son of one of the eminent writers of Azerbaijan, literary critic and educator Mirjalal Pashayev. He obtained his higher education from the Odessa Electrical Engineering Institute of Communications. He began his career and scientific activity at the Baku State University. Later he continued to work at the Institute of Physics and Institute of State Rare Metals of the Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences.

Throughout his career, Arif Pashayev did scientific researches, made inventions and was engaged as a designer in their application in production. The scientist made valuable achievements by constantly expanding the areas for his scientific studies. The results achieved were published in the scientific publications of some foreign countries.

He was awarded an Azerbaijan State prize in 1991 for his contribution to the development of physics. The renowned scientist is an author of over 400 scientific articles, over 30 books and monographs and over 60 inventions. The major part of Arif Pashayev`s life is associated with development of the national aviation.

The contribution to aviation of Arif Pashaeyev, who has headed the National Aviation Academy since 1996, was great. Under his leadership, the qualified personnel is being trained for the national aviation.

Azerbaijan Engineering Academy headed by Arif Pashayev was active enough in many areas of engineering participating in many giant and small projects with its important discoveries.

The Engineering Academy has had big contribution in transport projects such as TANAP, connecting South Caucasus Pipeline in Azerbaijan with multiple pipelines in the European Union and Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway project, which aims to become a major connector for Eurasia.

The academys scientists and engineers have also succeeded in petrochemical technologies, developing corrosion inhibitors to protect metal in layer waters of oil wells containing hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide.

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8 June 2016 11:49 (UTC+04:00)

By Laman Ismayilova

The European Union hopes to soon sign a new strategic partnership agreement with Azerbaijan, head of the EU delegation in Azerbaijan, Malena Mard told Trend.

She said that the process is underway for obtaining an appropriate mandate from the EU Council.

After the mandate is received, it will be possible to begin negotiations with the Azerbaijani side, she noted. As you know, we have already held two meetings in this regard. We hope it will be possible to start negotiations in the near future."

Baku has recently announced that the sides finalized joint consultations on the scope of Strategic Partnership Agreement, voicing hope that the EU will come up with an official mandate to launch negotiations soon.

Documents on Azerbaijan's strategic partnership with 8 European Union member states had already been signed and adopted.

Mard went on to add that Azerbaijan and the EU need a new legal framework.

"As you know, the current partnership agreement between Azerbaijan and the EU was signed in the 1990s. This is a very old agreement and the agenda between Azerbaijan and the EU has changed drastically since then. Now we have established a deeper cooperation with Azerbaijan, and the legal framework should conform to this cooperation."

Azerbaijan has become a country of direct priority to the EUs strategy in its wider neighborhood since the last enlargement of the European Union in 2007. Although over the past year, the bilateral relations between the two sides saw tense period, still Azerbaijan affects Europes interests, mainly in a regional energy strategy.

The cooperation of Azerbaijan with the European Union is very unique due to the already existing relations and good economic opportunities. The EU and Azerbaijan could cover the areas where they have overlapping interests, particularly energy trade. In geostrategic terms, Azerbaijan is set to see its importance due to the perspective role to act as a bridge between Europe and Asia.

Currently, the bilateral relations between the EU and Azerbaijan are regulated on the basis of the partnership and cooperation agreement, which was signed in 1996 and came into force in 1999.

The new agreement will envisage bringing Azerbaijan's legislation and procedures closer to the most important international and trade standards of the EU. This process is meant to improve the access of Azerbaijani products to the EU markets.

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8 June 2016 13:42 (UTC+04:00)

By Amina Nazarli

Recurrent natural disasters on the Earth, as well as the expansion of human activities lead to an intensification of the natural and man-made emergencies.

For the past twenty years Azerbaijan realizes large-scale projects of national and international importance. Thereby, public authorities engaged in protection of population and infrastructure and planning preventive measures to anticipate emergencies, should have a single scientific-practical approach and comprehensive assessment of the damage caused by natural phenomena and possible risks.

In this regard President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree on publication of Atlas of Azerbaijans Emergency Situations earlier in March.

Academician Ramiz Mammadov, Director of the Geography Institute named after academician H. Aliyev of ANAS, executive secretary of the editorial board of the atlas noted that intensive work on the atlas is underway currently.

He said that a road map, as part of the development of the atlas, has been drawn up, stressing that work on development of the atlas will last for 2-2.5 years.

The need for publication of the atlas is due to the fact that in recent years climate change, in particular warming, the frequency and range of variability of abnormal natural phenomena increases, which, in turn, provoke very dangerous emergencies in our country. Moreover, Azerbaijan is a rapidly developing country, where large international and local projects are implemented, which in some degree can lead to an increase, probability, intensity and extent of man-made disasters, he explained.

Mammadov said that all these factors are necessitating preventive measures to minimize the damage caused by emergencies. He noted that the statistics of the UN Environment Programme, according to which the damage of each country from the disaster make up 5-10 percent of its gross domestic product.

The atlas shows how to act in emergency situations and how to manage phenomena. It will contain information base of natural and man-made disasters in modern format, the academician emphasized.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli



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8 June 2016 16:25 (UTC+04:00)

By Amina Nazarli

In 11 days the word fastest race -- Formula 1 European Grand Prix -- will be held around the picturesque streets of downtown Baku.

A brand-new street circuit in Azerbaijan capital Baku will be the first Grand Prix to be held in the country.

Baku City Circuit is the second longest F1 track on the calendar, with a length slightly over six kilometers as an anti-clockwise layout. Many specialists describe this track as the most complex, entertaining and very curious, for both racers and spectators.

Hosting a major sporting event traditionally gives many economic, social and cultural benefits, along with the fact that the city enjoys a legacy of improved sporting venues.

The experience of other countries shows that the F1 race causes a lot of interest in the motor world, what entails the influx of many thousands of true racing fans. So, Formula 1 is the unique tool that can give a positive impetus to the tourism sector.

Youth and Sport Ministry Azad Rahimov told sovsport.ru about the financial plans for the Baku European Grand Prix.



He said this project is under the special control of the government, and does not have a large private investments yet.

Rahimov expressed hope that investments will return back to the country thanks to tourism.



The minister said the reason that Formula 1 in Baku is a city track brings attention of many to Baku as one of the new destinations for tourists.



We hope to reach our goal, and to return the funds that were invested in the organization of the race from tourism, he said.

The calculation is simple, according to Rahimov. The first component is 18.500 seats. On the eve of the race we will know how many tickets and at what price, sold, and in future we will understand the revenue. The second is earnings from tourism. Here we can also count. It is about 12,000-14,000 beds in Baku hotels, plus I know that tourists rent villas and apartments. And then we can talk about 15,000-16,000 tourists who will arrive in Baku. We consider the average cost of tickets, hotels, meals, transportation - thus economy boost and taxes, he said.



This year, of course, we cannot even come close to return the spent money for the event, Rahimov stressed. But next year, given that we have everything and do not need to lay so much asphalt, we will only need to collect all, he noted, voicing hope that next year the country will achieve a profit.

As for the flow of tourists, recently the countrys president has signed an order aiming at simplification of visa procedures for the tourists, who can get visas at the structural subdivisions of the foreign ministrys consular department in Azerbaijans international airports.

With a length measuring at slightly over six kilometers, the 20-corner track will be lapped 51 times, with cars reaching potential speeds of up to 340km per hour, marking the circuit out as the fastest street circuit on the existing F1 calendar.

The circuit offers a number of challenges for drivers, including an extremely narrow uphill section along the old town walls that will require pinpoint accuracy, and it has an acceleration section of almost 2.2 kilometres along the seaside promenade, which will see the cars running flat out at very high speed - something that will create an incredible show for race fans.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli



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8 June 2016 11:04 (UTC+04:00)

By Nigar Abbasova

President of Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) Jahangir Askerov has announced that Azerbaijan is interested in assembling the Ukrainian transport aircraft An-178 with a carrying capacity of up to 18 tons at own production facilities.

"On behalf of the government I am authorized to say that Azerbaijan is interested in assembling An-178 on the countrys territory," he told reporters on June 6, Interfax reported.

Askerov said that the Kyiv-based Antonov State Enterprise and Azerbaijan's Silk Way Airlines signed a contract in May 2015 to assembly 10 transport aircraft An-178 in Ukraine and ship them to the airlines.

The first two planes are to be delivered by late 2018 under the contract and eight planes will be shipped upon a mutual agreement of the parties.

"We hope that by the middle of 2018 when we receive the first plane, production facilities [for assembling An-178 in Azerbaijan] would be ready," he added.

The Ukrainian enterprise reported that Silk Way Airlines will become the first customer for the AN-178.

Antonov State Enterprise President Mikhail Gvozdev mentioned that the plans to expand cooperation under the An-178 program worked out with Azerbaijan do not stipulate the sale of An-178 technologies to the foreign partner.

This is cooperation production. The plane will be finally assembled in Azerbaijan, he said.

The Antonov AN-178 is a short-range medium-airlift military-transport aircraft. The aircraft has already fulfilled 77 landings but the trial process is still underway. The plane was produced via computer-aided design and engineering and can be used for both civilian and military purposes.

One of the most fundamental differences of the AN-178 aircraft from the previous ones in the replacement of four-engined turboprop by two-engined. Twin-jet provides much higher efficiency on a route as compared to a four turboprop-powered transport aircraft owing to almost 40 percent higher speed.

The Antonov State Enterprise is currently considered to be one of the few enterprises, running the complete development cycle of advanced aircraft  from preliminary design to construction, testing, certification, production and integrated logistic support.

Azerbaijan Airlines is a major air carrier and one of the leaders of the aviation community of CIS countries. AZAL with the newest airplane fleets, consisting of 25 airplanes, does not have a single old plane.

Silk Way Airlines is a cargo airline with its head office and flight operations at Heydar Aliyev International Airport in Baku. It operates freight services linking Europe and Asia, as well as services for government and non-governmental organizations.

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Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova

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8 June 2016 11:22 (UTC+04:00)

By Laman Ismayilova

The 217th anniversary of great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin was widely celebrated in Baku on June 6, Azertac reported.

A solemn commemoration event organized by the Sabail District Executive power, Public Association of Solidarity of the Peoples of Azerbaijan "Sodruzhestvo together with the Russian embassy in Baku and the representative office of Rossotrudnichestvo brought together Pushkin's admirers at.

Addressing the event organized in front of the monument to the legendary poet, "Sodruzhestvo Chairman Tatyana Karimova said that in 2010 the United Nations declared June 6 as International Russian Language Day.

Russia's ambassador to Azerbaijan Vladimir Dorokhin, in turn, read a poem by national poet Seyid Azim Shirvani, written for the occasion of the unveiling the monument of A. Pushkin in Moscow in 1880.

Then, the kindergarten "Nord" as well as students of Baku schools red the poems and showed scenes based on the works of the poet.

The deputy head of Sabail District Executive power, Eldar Agayev, reminded that the bronze monument of poet, installed in Baku on October 12 in 200, is a gift from the Russian government.

Pushkin was a Russian poet, playwright, and novelist of the Romantic era who is considered by many to be the greatest Russian poet and the founder of modern Russian literature.

Pushkin was born into Russian nobility in Moscow. His matrilineal great-grandfather was Abraham Petrovich Hannibal, Afro-Russian nobleman and general, who was brought over as a slave from what is now Cameroon.

A.Pushkin published his first poem at the age of fifteen. He wrote about 130 poems between 1814 and 1817, while still at Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum.

However, A.Pushkin gradually became committed to social reform and emerged as a spokesman for literary radicals which led to his transfer from the capital.

Pushkin's two years at Mikhailovskoye (18241826) were extremely rich in poetic output. At this period, he composed many poetic dramas set to music as well as humorous tale in verse entitled Count Nulin. In addition, he wrote the first three chapters of Eugene Onegin, and composed the tragedy Boris Godunov. A legendary poet died at age 37 after being forced into a duel.

Azerbaijani poet Mirza Fatali Akhundov was one of the first who responded to the death of the poet. "Eastern poem on the death of Pushkin" is an elegy of Azerbaijani author Mirza Fatali Akhundov, composed in 1837 in Persian.

The works of Pushkin were translated into Azerbaijani language by such great Azerbaijani poets and writers as Mammad Said Ordubadi, Mammad Rahim, Mikayil Mushfig, Suleyman Rustamov and others.

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

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8 June 2016 10:27 (UTC+04:00)

By Laman Ismayilova

J.E.F Experiment Jazz Trio will represent Azerbaijan at Kavkaz Jazz 2016 festival in Georgia on June 8-11, Trend Life reported.

Azerbaijani band will give a concert on June 9 and their performance will be broadcasted on the First Georgian TV channel.

J.E.F Experiment Jazz Trio was founded on April 15, 2016. Before that time, each member of the team tried out in different styles and directions of music, which allowed to successfully unite the result in one new project!

Kavkaz Jazz  is a non-commercial youth jazz festival, in which young musicians from different countries take part. It's is a unique project and differs from other jazz festivals by being also educational. First Kavkaz Jazz festival was held in 2010. The festival got high points from public and media.

The Mission of the festival is to encourage exchanges of experience between jazz musicians from Caucasus region and to give the jazz audience the opportunity to listen to new jazz talent of Caucasus.

The festival, organized by NGO Art Bridge, with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Monument Protection of Georgia and Tbilisi City Hall will be attended by musicians from Azerbaijan, the United States, Iran, Turkey, and other countries.

The festival stipulates a joint training program of famous American jazz saxophonist and teacher Jamie Ebersolda as well as a two-week educational program of the Tbilisi State Conservatory, scheduled for June 1-14.

Teachers of University of Loisville (USA) - musicians Michael Trace (saxophone) and Craig Wagner (guitar) will head the training.

In addition, round tables planned with the participation of music experts from Georgia, Azerbaijan, the United States and others.

Gala concert of the Jazz Festival will be held on June 11 at the fortress Rabati.

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

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8 June 2016 17:10 (UTC+04:00)

By Laman Ismayilova

Azerbaijans famous artist Nigar Narimanbayova was awarded at the 10th International Fine Art Festival "Traditions & Contemporaneity held in Moscow in May 2016.

Narimanbayova, who has become a favorite artist of many art lovers, presented works from the new series of "Love Toys", Trend Life reported.

The artist's works "Puppet", "Obscure Object of Desire", "Cage", "The harlequin and the Ballerina were presented by the French Stella Art International Association in the Festival.

"I'm very pleased that President of the Association Stella Kalinina speaks enthusiastically about the success that my paintings have gained in Moscow, the artist said. The participants voiced their sympathy and attraction while sharing their impressions from my paintings.

Such attention was certainly expected, as the artist's paintings have been already displayed in the best exhibition halls of Europe, and this time the Russian art lovers had a change to saw them.

"Me and my colleagues received a special prize and honorary diploma of international jury "Jury's Applause" ", she added.

The jury members included famous French designer Pierre Cardin, President of the Russian Academy of Arts, people's artist of the USSR Zurab Tsereteli and others. Noteworthy, the chairman of jury was People's Artist of the USSR, Azerbaijan and Russia, the vice-president of the Russian Academy of Arts, Tahir Salahov.

Nigar Narimanbayova, who lives and works in Paris and Baku, was graduated from Azerbaijan State Art School after Azim Azimzade and All-Union State Institute of Cinematography after Gerasimov in Moscow. She has participated in a number of national and international art exhibitions in France, Germany, Austria, and Azerbaijan.

Narimanbayova is a member of the Union of Artists of Azerbaijan and the International Association of Art. Her paintings are displayed in the exhibition halls of the Azerbaijani Ministry of Culture and Tourism, National Museum of Art of Azerbaijan as well as in private collections.

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

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8 June 2016 16:23 (UTC+04:00)

By Fatma Babayeva

Oil prices broke the new record since the beginning of 2016 when cost of a barrel dipped to $27. Brent prices hit above $51 a barrel on June 7-8.

Price of Brent crude contracts surged to $51.02 on June 7, which was up by 0.93 percent compared to a day before.

Cost of August futures of Brent Crude rose by 0.06 percent to $51.47 per barrel in London ICE on June 8 while the price of July futures of WTI crude in New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) increased by 0.2 percent to $50.46 per barrel on the same day.

In the meantime, price of the Azeri LT CIF produced at the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli block of oil and gas fields reached to $50.72 per barrel on June 7, which was $0.75 more compared to the price of the previous day.

OPEC oil basket's price also experienced a surge by hitting $46 per barrel on June 6.

Some energy experts previously suggested that the global oil market is rebalancing. However, it is not clear whether the oil glut problem is finally finding its solution or it is a false signal caused by the supply disruptions in some oil producing countries like Nigeria, Canada, Venezuela and Libya, as well as, slowdown in U.S. shale production.

The drive towards balancing the market hinges on rising demand growth and the reduced supply from non-OPEC producers not least in the North America, head of the commodity strategy at Saxo Bank Ole Hansen told Trend on June 6.

The Vienna meeting of OPEC came and went without the usual disagreements that the global oil market has grown used to, said Hansen.

Head of the commodity strategy noted that OPEC produced an estimated 33.2 million barrels per day during April, some 1.7 million more than last year.

Talks prior to the meeting on a new production ceiling failed to materialize. Nevertheless, as the market already well on the way to balance, the need for new initiatives at this meeting was unnecessary, added the expert.

Instead, the new Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih embark on a highly successful public relations exercise, Hansen said, adding that this helped to win over several under pressure producers looking for new initiatives to boost the price even further.

With the re-balancing process well underway, courtesy of mostly involuntary supply disruptions and slowing production from high cost producers outside OPEC, this was not the time to rock the boat, emphasized the expert.

The Saudis can rightfully claim that "the pump and dump strategy" has been successful in the sense that market shares have been restored, said Hansen, adding that billion dollars worth of capex reductions from oil majors across the world will help support the price of oil return to a higher, longer-term and more sustainable level over the coming years.

However, before the market gets that far, the overhang of more than one billion barrels of global supplies and the expected resumption of supply from Canada and Nigeria will make it difficult for oil prices to rally much further in the short term, he said.

Increased hedging activity from high cost shale producers in the U.S. does indicate that an oil price rally much above $50 could be counterproductive towards the efforts of creating balance in the market, added Hansen.

Speaking about Iran, Hansen said, the country has a long-term target of producing 4.6 million barrels per day compared to 3.5 million barrels per day in April and just 2.8 million barrels during the years of sanctions.

Such a statement of Iran could have at previous meetings triggered threats of like-for-like increases from Saudi Arabia, but not this time around, he said by stressing out that Al-Khalid even promised not to shock the oil markets. This is probably in the knowledge that the new found unity could break as fast as it emerged if the price of oil reverts to lower levels, he said.

In the short term, both WTI and Brent crude maintain the established trading range between $45 and $50, according to Hansen, which leaves the risk in the short-term skewed to the downside with stabilizing production in the U.S. and the return of oil from the mentioned supply disruptions risk triggering reductions in speculative bets held by hedge funds and other speculative traders.

However, the World Bank (WB) is not positive about the future of the oil prices for the current year. The bank expects a decline on oil prices in the market in 2016.

Nevertheless, this plunge will be replaced by the rise in 2017, according to the banks latest global economic prospects report.

The average oil price for the current year was forecasted by the WB at $41 per barrel. In January, this figure was projected to amount to $51.

In addition, the banks expects oil prices to make up $50 per barrel in 2017.

The banks report also states that low and volatile oil prices have a negative impact on investments and drilling operations, particularly in the U.S. despite the efforts of the industry to reduce expenses and increase efficiency.

Oil production of non-OPEC countries is expected to decrease by almost 0.8 million barrels a day, mainly in the U.S., noted the banks analysts referring to the IEA data.

Yet, with the notable exception of Canada and Russia, oil output of the most petroleum producing countries is forecasted to experience some reduction by the banks experts.

All this should result in equilibrium price, read the report. However, the banks analysts does not exclude that market developments may disprove their forecasts.

They stressed out that the main risk factor for their forecast - which could cause oil prices grow - is the contingency of the agreement on the production freezing by the major oil producers.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) forecasts in its recent short-term energy outlook that Brent oil prices will average $43 a barrel in 2016 and $52 a barrel in 2017.

These figures are respectively $3 a barrel and $1 a barrel higher than forecast in last month's outlook.

WTI oil prices are forecast by EIA to be slightly lower than Brent in 2016 and to be the same as Brent in 2017.

The agencys estimates show that Brent oil spot prices averaged $47 a barrel in May, a $5 a barrel increase from April.

The U.S. oil production is forecast by EIA to average 8.6 million barrels per day in 2016 and 8.2 million barrels per day in 2017.

In 2015, the U.S. oil production averaged 9.4 million barrels per day, according to the EIA's outlook.

EIA underlined that the country's oil production for May 2016 averaged 8.7 million barrels per day, which is more than 0.2 million barrels per day below the April 2016 level, and approximately one million barrels per day below the 9.7 million barrels per day level reached in April 2015.

In the background of the forecasted decline in global oil supplies, Saudi Arabia also said during the OPECs Vienna meeting that they are not going to flood the market with oil.

On June 6, Saudi Arabia approved the plan on new economic reforms which aimed to reduce the countrys reliance on oil revenues. Saudis will keep the same level of the crude production at 12.5 million barrels a day until 2020, according to the given plan.

Earlier, Saudi Arabias state oil company cut oil prices for Europe on June 5, as with the surging oil exports from Iran heat up the competition on the global market.

In response, Iranian side accused its neighbors of taking away its customers by offering cheaper oil.

Iran strives to bring its oil production and export to the pre-sanctions levels by the end of this summer in the longest, which is respectively 4 million and 2.2 million barrels per day.

Current oil output of Iran equals to 3.82 million barrels per day.

The developments in the global oil market always make it hard to forecast the future prices. It will be interesting to wait and see what price the future will bring.

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Fatma Babayeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Fatma_Babayeva

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8 June 2016 14:17 (UTC+04:00)

By Fatma Babayeva

Turkmenistan, which holds the worlds fourth largest gas reserves, is interested in diversifying its gas export routes, namely through the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project that is being implemented in the eastern direction and the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline (TPC) project envisaged in the western direction.

Matthew Bryza, former U.S. assistant secretary for South Caucasus and former U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan, announced about this while talking to Trend.

Bryza noted that Turkmenistan needs both projects.

The best route for delivering Turkmen gas to Europe would be a 300-kilometer long gas pipeline running through the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijani coasts by further connecting it to the Southern Gas Corridor gas pipeline system.

Previously, Azerbaijan has expressed its readiness to provide its territory, transit opportunities and infrastructure for realization of the project.

Bryza stressed that the TAPI pipeline route with the capacity of pumping 33 billion cubic meters a year is stretching through unsafe Afghanistan, as well as, through conflicting Pakistan and India, which creates certain political risks.

Bryza mentioned that Turkmenistan wants to have a variety of ways to sell its gas, but to be less dependent on Russia in this regard.

Ashgabat hopes that the U.S. will support TAPI and then the project will be successfully implemented, added the former ambassador.

Azerbaijans Energy Minister Natig Aliyev earlier suggested two options for transporting Turkmen gas via the Caspian Sea. The first one was the construction of the TCP. The second option was linking the platforms with subsea pipelines in the sea.

The minister also highlighted that several issues remain unsolved by the Turkmen side, as the country is willing only to sell its gas on their border with the Caspian Sea.

Aliyev also added that Azerbaijan creates opportunities for other countries to export their gas to Europe and can make additional investments in new infrastructures however the country needs a guarantee from other side.

Upon realization, the Trans-Caspian Pipeline will be connected to the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) which is currently underway.

The SGC is included to the list of priority projects for the EU. It envisages the provision of more than 10 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas from the Caspian region to Europe annually.

The pipeline network will stretch across 3,500 kilometer area from the Caspian Sea into Europe via Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey and Greece to transfer gas from Shah Deniz Phase 2 located in Azerbaijans section of the Caspian Sea to the Europe.

First gas delivery to Georgia and Turkey is targeted for late 2018. Gas deliveries to Europe are expected a year after first gas is produced in offshore Azerbaijan. After the completion of the TAP pipeline, the Azerbaijani gas will be transported to Europe roughly at the beginning of 2020.

Other gas sources can be connected to the pipeline at the later stages.

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Fatma Babayeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Fatma_Babayeva

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8 June 2016 16:00 (UTC+04:00)

The UK Shale Gas Summit 2016 (formerly E-SGOS) is a two-day planning and strategy event for the UK onshore oil and gas industry. The summit will address the role for shale gas in the new energy infrastructure and consider the latest developments, strategies and opportunities within UK unconventional exploration & production.

The summit will bring together national & local government, investors, contractors, operators and new entrants from the 14th onshore licensing round with service and solution providers. This years conference will examine key developments across policy, planning, strategy, public engagement and environmental impacts, with a focus upon moving from initial exploration to exploratory drilling.

Specific attention will be afforded to discussion of government strategy moving forward, the status of the planning system, the path to exploratory drilling, supporting the future supply chain, tiers of public engagement, baseline monitoring, health & safety regulation and achieving commercial-scale shale gas extraction. Workshops considering strategies for optimizing the shale process, reducing operational costs and the latest technological developments will run alongside the conference.

A break-out exhibition showcasing the latest products and services from across the shale gas industry will also take place over the course of the two days.

The UK Shale Gas Summit is delighted to be hosting the event with sponsors Schlumberger, Tesla Exploration and Rain for Rent International UK.

Speakers will include:

Bryan Payne, Head of Energy Productivity Team, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

Professor Michael Bradshaw, Professor Global Energy, Warwick Business School

Professor Mike Stephenson, Chief Scientist, British Geological Survey

Tim Gibbs, Divisional Manager Policy and Development Services, Halton Borough Council

Chris Hughes, Commercial Director, Nutech Energy Alliance

Dr Neil Thorpe, Lecturer in Transport Studies, Newcastle University

Jason Nisse, Partner, Newgate Communications

Tim Gregory, Corporate Director, Place, Nottinghamshire County Council

Tony Almond, Oil & Gas Policy, Health and Safety Executive

Lorraine Allanson, Friends of Ryedale Gas Exploration

More speakers to follow!

For more information, visit the event website www.esgos.eu or contact the team on +44 (0) 151 230 2105

For Production and Marketing Enquiries: [email protected]

For Conference & Sponsorship Enquiries: [email protected]

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8 June 2016 13:35 (UTC+04:00)

Armenia must respond to Turkey's appeal of establishing a joint commission to investigate the 1915 events, the Turkish presidential administration told Trend on June 8.

"Instead of adopting the resolution on the so-called Armenian genocide, Germany should've exerted pressure on Armenia concerning the establishment of a joint commission with Turkey," the administration added.

"Turkey opened all its archives to investigate the 1915 events," said the administration sadding that if Armenia has its archives, it must open them too.

The Turkish presidential administration stated that the fact that Armenia does not agree to establish a joint commission to investigate the 1915 events testifies that there was no "Armenian genocide".

Armenia and the Armenian lobby claim that Turkey's predecessor, the Ottoman Empire allegedly carried out "genocide" against the Armenians living in Anatolia in 1915. Turkey in turn has always denied "the genocide" took place. While strengthening the efforts to promote the "genocide" in the world, Armenians have achieved its recognition by the parliaments of some countries.

The German parliament adopted a resolution recognizing the 1915 events as "genocide of Armenians" June 2.

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8 June 2016 14:34 (UTC+04:00)

Latest on the bomb attack on police station in Turkey's Mardin province:

14:33 (UTC+04:00) Turkey's Prime Minister Binali Yildirim has said the explosion in the country's Mardin province is a terrorist attack and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) terrorist group stands behind it, reports the TRT Haber news channel.

The prime minister noted that the death toll as a result of the terrorist attack has reached three.

Turkey will continue to fight terrorism despite anything, added Yildirim.

13:48 (UTC+04:00) Two people were killed and 20 wounded in the explosion, according to the preliminary information, reports the TRT Haber news channel.

A nearby building was also damaged.

The wounded have been taken to the nearest hospitals.

Turkish authorities have not yet commented on the incident.

13:34

A car bomb exploded at a police station in the Turkish south-eastern province of Mardin, the Sabah newspaper reported June 8.

Reportedly, there are casualties, but their number has not been specified.

Firefighters and ambulance cars have arrived at the scene, the newspaper reported.

According to the preliminary reports, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) terrorist group carried out the attack.

A large-scale operation against the PKK began in the province following the incident, read the newspaper.

The car bomb explosion in Mardin province comes in the wake of a major blast in Turkey's Istanbul.

A police car was blown up in Istanbul June 7. Twelve people were killed and 35 were injured as a result of the explosion.

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8 June 2016 17:10 (UTC+04:00)

By Fatma Babayeva

Business circles of Iran seek to build productive relations with Turkmenistan, Iranian Minister of Roads and Urban Development Abbas Akhoundi said at a meeting with Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, the Turkmen government reported on June 7.

Berdimuhamedov noted that Turkmenistan always cherished good relations with its close neighbors and henceforth, will strengthen fruitful dialogue in every possible way for the benefit of Turkmen and Iranian population, who are connected with cultural and historical commonality.

During the meeting, the sides spoke in favor of enhancing relations in trade, fuel and energy sectors, as well as, in scientific and technical areas.

Particular attention was paid to transportation, road construction and development of urban infrastructure.

Iran's proposals on cooperation with Turkmenistan in the sphere of marine and aerial communications were also presented at the meeting.

Moreover, implementation of joint projects was discussed.

The Iranian minister underlined that the policy pursued by Turkmenistan on the comprehensive modernization of the transportation sector promotes establishment of logistics infrastructure for the realization of international initiatives.

The role of the Iran-Turkmenistan-Kazakhstan railway  which was designed to serve to the intensification of trade and economic ties in the Eurasian space  was also highlighted during the meeting.

The given railway route - Uzen-Gyzylgaya-Bereket-Etrek-Gorgan was commissioned in December, 2014. This railway is designed to facilitate the optimization of cargo traffic throughout the Eurasia continent.

Iran and Turkmenistan, the two Caspian littoral states enjoy considerable potential to expand effective bilateral partnership in various fields.

Turkmenistan is the largest supplier of natural gas to the Islamic Republic. Turkmenistan also plans to increase its electricity imports to Iran.

Iran and Turkmenistan have agreed in February to increase the value of bilateral trade to $60 billion over the next decade.

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Fatma Babayeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Fatma_Babayeva

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8 June 2016 16:36 (UTC+04:00)

By Nigar Abbasova

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev referred recent developments occurred in the Aktobe city to as signs of color revolution.

We all are aware of the fact that the so-called color revolutions have different methods and originate from the rallies, murders and efforts to seize power. The signs have also occurred in our country, TASS quoted Nazarbayev as saying.

The president added that certain forces have decided to challenge the state power exploiting the liberality of the state politics and laws of the country. Nazarbayev underlined that the country will take tough measures to suppress extremists and terrorists.

The president stated that criminals that committed certain offences in the Aktobe city located in the Western part of Kazakhstan were receiving instructions from abroad. In accordance with the information that we possess, the terror act was organized by the adherents of the radical pseudo religious sects which were taking instructions from abroad.

Nazarbayev has urged the citizens to suppress any calls on the commitment of coercive and illegal actions. The citizens understandingly accepted the counter-terrorism measures taken by the law enforcement bodies in all regions of the country. Currently there is no reason for concern. However, Im urging the citizens to be vigilant, and decidedly suppress all calls for illegal actions as well as render assistance to low enforcement bodies of the country, he said.

The president underlined that problems like terrorism and extremism pose a threat not only to the security of the country but also to the entire world.

Groups of gunmen attacked two arms shops and milirary base in the northwestern Kazakh city of Aktobe on June 5, 2016. A total of 13 criminals were killed in an anti-terrorist operation.

Following violent attacks in Aktobe, the local authorities have announced a yellow alert for at least 40 days which indicates a raised level of threat countrywide, apart from Aktobe where the threat level is red and where Special Forces continue counter-terrorism operations. The authorities of the country are advising increased vigilance, particularly in public places and on public transport. The situation in Aktobe is under personal control of the countrys President Nursultan Nazarvayev.

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Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova

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8 June 2016 17:30 (UTC+04:00)

By NigarAbbasova

The growth rate of Turkmenistan's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2016-2018 is expected to stand at the level of 5 percent, according to the June 2016 Global Economic Prospects of the World Bank.

The GDP growth rate of the country in January-May 2016 exceeded the level of 6 percent. The survey further reads that the GDP growth rate in the country amounted to 6.5 percent in 2015.

The country seeks to achieve the diversification of national economy and has already taken steps for the promotion of such industries as textile, petrochemicals and building materials.

Turkmenistan which is currently engaged in increase of the export volume of locally-manufactured products headed for the diversification of the national economy in January 2015.

GDP in Turkmenistan slowed to 6.5 percent in 2015 compared to 10.3 percent in 2014 due to declining natural gas export and lower public investment. Russia bought just 4 billion cubic meters of gas in 2015 compared to 40 billion cubic meters in 2008. The county stopped importing gas from Turkmenistan in 2016.

Being the forth in the world for the volume of natural gas reserves, the country is considering the European market as one of the most promising areas of gas supply. With its abundant reserves in the energy resources the country plays a key role in the energy market of the Caspian region.

GDP annual growth rate in Turkmenistan amounted to 5.95 percent from 1994 until 2015, reaching an all time high of 16.50 percent in 1999 and a bottom line figures law of 17.30 percent in 1994.

Turkmenistans exports also include cotton, polymers, textiles and vegetable products. The countrys two largest crops are cotton, most of which is produced for export, and wheat, which is domestically consumed.

The top export destinations of Turkmenistan are China, Turkey, Italy, the UK and Germany. The top import origins are Turkey, Russia, China, Ukraine and Kazakhstan.

The Governments National Socio-Economic Development Program for 20112030 and the National Rural Development Program are focused on the sustainable economic growth while preserving economic independence, modernizing the countrys infrastructure, and promoting foreign direct investment.

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Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova

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8 June 2016 18:04 (UTC+04:00)

By Fatma Babayeva

The implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Irans nuclear program still requires close attention of all concerned parties at this stage.

The statement was made by Yukiya Amano, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to the Board of Governors of the organization on June 6.

Amano noted that the process is in its initial stages. Within the next few months and years, continuation of the firm commitment of all parties is necessary for the stable implementation of the JCPOA.

The nuclear deal is still fragile, and more efforts are needed to make the deal sustainable, he said earlier.

Following the meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors, the Islamic Republic has asked the organization to be more protective of the country's secret information.

"The notice was given since we are approaching the time for implementation of an important part of the Additional Protocol, based on which after six months a preliminary announcement should be presented by Iran," said Tehran's Ambassador to the IAEA Reza Najafi, IRNA reported on June 8.

Under the Additional Protocol to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, the IAEA is granted expanded rights of access to information and sites. By enabling the IAEA to obtain a much fuller picture of states' nuclear programs, plans, nuclear material holdings and trade, the Additional Protocol helps to provide much greater assurance on the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in those states.

Earlier in May, Amano confirmed Irans fulfillment of its commitments under the nuclear agreement. He stated that Iran had not pursued the construction of the existing Arak heavy water research reactor and had not enriched uranium above low levels

The IAEA is inspecting Iran's commitment to the JCPOA of the last year.

In addition to the deal, Iran has decided to voluntarily observe the Additional Protocol as a trust-building move.

Iran and the world powers concluded a historical deal on the resolution of long-simmering problem on Irans nuclear program in Mid-2015.

The negotiations held since 2006 resulted in the adoption of JCPOA which limits Iran's capacity to manufacture a nuclear weapon in exchange for relief from certain economic and financial sanctions previously imposed on Iran by the UN Security Council, the U.S. and the EU.

According to this agreement, Iran agreed to eliminate its stockpile of medium-enriched uranium enriched, cut its stockpile of low-enriched uranium by 98%, reduce the number of its gas centrifuges by about two-thirds for 13 years and for the next 15 years, Iran will only enrich uranium up to 3.67%.

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Fatma Babayeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Fatma_Babayeva
8 June 2016 18:57 (UTC+04:00)

The growth of Iran's GDP is projected at 4.7 percent in 2018, a World Bank report forecasted.



In its June 2016 Global Economic Prospects report, the World Bank (WB) has suggested that Iran's GDP would stand at 4.9 in 2017 and 4.4 in 2016.



In the Islamic Republic of Iran, the combination of low oil prices and uncertainty surrounding the timeline for the lifting of sanctions slowed growth significantly, the report suggested.



According to the report, growth in the Middle East and North Africa was an estimated 2.6 percent in 2015, slightly down from 2.9 percent in 2014 and broadly in line with January estimates.



The report further added that the easing of sanctions has opened Iran to international trade and investment.



In April 2016, Iran's crude oil production was 3.6 million barrels per day (mbd), 25 percent higher than average monthly production in 2015, and already at the upper end of the 0.5-0.7 mbd increase estimated last October for the post-sanctions period.



The post-sanctions era also holds strong promise for the Iranian financial services, mineral and metals, and manufacturing industries.



To the extent that higher Iranian oil production marginally reduces global oil prices, the impact of the country's reintegration into the global economy is likely to be negative for other oil producing countries, including those in the Middle East, the report said.



The impacts of the Islamic Republic of Iran's reintegration into the global economy through trade channels are more challenging to assess, but exports from the European Union to the Islamic Republic of Iran, for instance, stand to approximately double if they rebound to the levels seen prior to the tightening of sanctions in 2012.



Meanwhile the report highlighted that countries neighboring Iran may benefit from increased trade links and travel.



The report was published June 8 on the World Bank's official website.

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A Largo mobile home park is living up to its name.

Firefighters began a voluntary evacuation of the Mariner's Cover Mobile Home Park in Largo Tuesday morning.

Mariner's Cover Mobile Home Park in Largo under voluntary evacuation

Police, firefighters went door-to-door, assisting stranded residents



30 people evacuated in total

Largo Police were able to assist Largo Fire Rescue as they went door-to-door in Mariners Cove, located off of 58th Ave, just south of Ulmerton Road, helping stranded residents.

Police drove an emergency response vehicle capable of driving through high levels of water, while firefighters braved the rising waters and brought people to the vehicle.

In some of the deeper areas, water appeared to exceed three-and-a-half-feet in depth.



The Largo Fire Department reports 30 people were evacuated with assistance. There were no injuries.

Several people are sheltering in place (staying with friends or neighbors), others left the areas to find their own accommodations, and about 20 people are taking advantage of a shelter that was set up.

The shelter is at the Ross Norton Complex, 14265 MLK Avenue, in Clearwater.

Duke energy has shut down power to the affected area. Pinellas animal control responded to offer assistance to residents with animals. Sunstar EMS personnel were also on scene to assist residents. PSTA assisted with transport to the shelter.
Human remains have been found in a 9-foot gator captured Tuesday night by a contract trapper with Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), confirm Lakeland Police.

Its believed to be the same gator that was seen with a mans body Tuesday afternoon. The mans identity is still unknown at this time.



Alligator reported near man's body on shore of lake

Cause of man's death undetermined

Body may have been in water at least a day, police say



The man's body was found on the shore of a Lakeland lake with an alligator near the body, fire officials said.

A person called 911 to report seeing the body off Lake Hunter Drive.

Caller: Hurry up. I got a dead boy over here at the lake."

Dispatcher: Alright.

Caller: Looks like an alligator is trying to pull him down under.

Dispatcher: Alright stay on the phone with me.

It's not clear how the man died or whether alligators attacked him at all before he died. Lakeland Police have not identified the man, who police say may have been in the lake for a day or more, police say.

"The first officer spotted that gator with what appeared to be a gator with a body in its mouth turning and thrashing in the water," Lakeland Police Public Information Officer Gary Gross said.

Police say the body is with the medical examiner and an autopsy was conducted Wednesday.
A race that was canceled in 1959 following the rise of communism in Cuba is now being brought back.

Havana Race, an annual tradition for the St. Petersburg Yacht Club since 1930, is returning in 2017

Race was canceled in 1959 following the rise of communism in Cuba

In 1954, a then 16-year-old Bill Ballard sailed to Cuba.

"I sailed on a 39-foot yawl owned by George Pearson called Celia and we had a romping good race, Ballard said.

Hes referring to the Havana Race, an annual tradition for the St. Petersburg Yacht Club since 1930.

"I will always remember coming in under Morro Castle at the finish of the race with the moonlight and that tropical wind blowing, Ballard said.

The race was canceled in 1959 following the rise of communism in Cuba, but is now being brought back more than 50 years later thanks to the improved relationship between the U.S. and Cuba.

The Havana Race is back on for 2017.

"Its the tradition, first of all, and second of all its the competition and I am hoping we will have a great field, St. Petersburg Yacht Club Commodore Richard Winning said. We will have a great race and I believe its starting a whole new era again."

Winnings father competed in the race and Winning said it has been one of his goals to bring it back. He worked with the commodore at the Hemmingway International Yacht Club to make it happen.

Winning expects 40-70 boats to sail next March. Boats from all across the world, including Cuba, are invited to compete.

"We actually have grandsons of some of the former sailors that raced in this race putting together crews for their boat to make this happen next year, Winning said.

Ballard said he hopes to compete next year. He said while hes not 16 anymore, he knows the Morro castle, the moon and that tropical breeze will still be there to greet him.


Dennis Valesco, 78, always had a love of sailing.

The veteran sailor fell overboard north of Tarpon Springs on Sunday

Coast Guard searched Sunday and into Monday but their efforts were temporarily called off due to the bad weather

Search officially called off Wednesday, meanwhile, volunteers will continue their efforts



He lives on the beach, said his grandson, Johnny Piazza. Every morning he goes out swimming two to three miles.



According to Piazza, Valesco and his 82-year-old friend headed out Saturday on a 32-foot sail boat, for what was supposed to be a five day trip down the coast. But sometime around 3:30 a.m. on Sunday, Valesco fell overboard in the vicinity of Anclote Key.



What we would assume is that he stood up to fix a rigging or go to the bathroom and lost his footing, Piazza said.



By the time Valescos friend realized what had happened, Valesco was nowhere in sight. A short while later, the Coast Guard was contacted and the search began.



Family and friends have been volunteering with the rescue efforts as well, covering hundreds of miles in their own boats and even by plane.



But, those efforts were stalled Monday when Tropical Storm Colin came through the area.



When the storm was hitting, we really couldnt physically do anything. It was really rough on everybody, Piazza said. Emotionally, youre just sitting there feeling hopeless.



The Coast Guard resumed its search by Tuesday but by late Wednesday afternoon, called off its search again.



Throughout this case, the family and friends of Dennis have been an exceptional source of information and cooperation, our deepest condolences goes out to all of them," said Capt. Gregory Case, Commander Coast Guard Sector St. Petersburg. "Suspending a search and rescue case is one of the hardest decisions to make in the Coast Guard. The decision to suspend is not taken lightly and is based on a multitude of factors from the case."



Still, Piazza said volunteers will continue their efforts. They are searching along the coast from Hudson, as far north as Cedar Key in Levy County.



We have a lot of hope and faith, said Piazza. Thats the only thing keeping us going right now.



Valescos family is offering a $10,000 reward to whoever finds him.



The Coast Guard is also asking anyone with information that may be helpful to contact the St. Petersburg command center at (727) 824-7506.
Dunedin High Schools class of 2016 is seeing double and triple.

Of the 300 students who walked across the stage at Ruth Eckerd Hall on Wednesday, there are five sets of twins and one set of triplets.

5 sets of twins, one set of triplets graduated Wednesday

Many, including the triplets, will be pursuing their higher education together

Triplets Briana, Erika and Angela Dean said they do everything together.

"We get ready together, we share a bathroom, a car, a dog together, the triplets said in unison. They are also all going to college together next year at Santa Fe College in Gainesville.

The Dean triplets are best friends with identical twins Catherine and Christina Lovera.

"We call ourselves 'full house,' Catherine Lovera said.

According to the Lovera sisters, being a twin made the graduation ceremony a little less nerve-wracking.

"You dont get nervous because you have someone to be around, Catherine said.

Like right now, we are going to walk on stage and shes right behind me, Christina said.

Catherine and Christina will also be going to college together at St. Petersburg College.

Student Government President John Andrade thanked his twin brother during his speech at graduation.

Shout out to my twin brother right over there, Andrade joked.

Salutatorian James Gray is also a twin. He said he and his fraternal twin sister, Nellie, are very different and arent as close as some of the other twins.

"I feel like it doesnt so much matter when youre not identical, James said. We are in the same grade, but other than that, theres like nothing really special there."

While some of the multiples are sticking together after high school, others are taking more individual paths. James is going to Florida State University while Nellie plans on attending Eckerd College in the fall.
Health officials reported Tuesday that five more people across the country tested positive for the Zika virus after traveling abroad.

Rain from Colin could create breeding grounds for mosquitoes

Officials are asking folks to dump out containers of standing water found in their yards

Two species in particular carry a number of human diseases, including Zika

For fear of Zika spreading here in the Southern U.S., mosquito control officials are asking for the publics help to minimize the disease  by going into their backyards.

With a weekend full of rain, Orange County Mosquito Control says residents need to dump out any stagnant pools of water.

These mosquitoes that are associated with Zika virus, Dengue Fever and Chickungunya only breed in artificial containers that are found near your yard and around your house, said Kelly Deutsch, the acting manager of Orange County Mosquito Control.

Those mosquito species are commonly referred to as the yellow fever mosquito (Aedes aegypti) and the Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus). The species lay their eggs in residential areas. They tend to feed during the day, and prefer humans to any other kind of animal.

The easiest way to control the mosquitoes that are associated with Zika and Dengue fever and Chickungunya virus is to remove their habitat, Deutsch said.

Possible problem areas in the yard could be bird baths, drains, buckets, wheel barrows old tires or flower pots. These containers can become homes for hundreds of larvae.

All Central Florida counties are also stepping up spraying to help stop the growth of mosquitos.

Also worth noting  Aedes albopictus is one of the 16 mosquito species that have been identified as carrying heartworm in the United States. Heartworm can be a deadly disease for dogs.

Zika cases in Florida

County Number of Cases

(all travel related) Alachua 4 Brevard 3

Broward 19

Clay 2

Collier 2

Escambia 1 Hillsborough 4

Lee 5

Martin 1 Miami-Dade 51

Orange 10

Osceola 6

Palm Beach 8

Pasco 1

Pinellas 4

Polk 3

Santa Rosa 1 Seminole 4

St. Johns 2

Volusia 2 Total cases not involving pregnant women 133 Cases involving pregnant women regardless of symptoms* 38

*-Counties of pregnant women will not be shared

In February, health officials in Dallas confirmed that a case of the Zika virus had been acquired through sexual transmission, making it the first active transmission of the virus in the United States. A second case of Zika that had been transmitted sexually was confirmed in Polk County. A locally-transmitted case has been confirmed in Puerto Rico.

Officials say the primary concern is that a mosquito may bite an infected person, thus becoming infected itself, and then spread the virus that way.

The virus has a suspected link to birth defects in newborns, primarily microcephaly, where the newborn's head is smaller than expected.
Beach erosion from then-Tropical Storm Colin may have damaged some sea turtle nests along the Space Coast.

Sea turtle eggs exposed after Colin causes beach erosion

Wildlife officials investigating nest damage on Florida beaches

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is looking into damage to sea turtle nests after high water from the storm flooded many nests from northwest Florida to the southwest Gulf Coast.

At least one nest just north of the Doubletree Melbourne Beach on State Road A1A, in Melbourne, had eggs exposed from beach erosion. It's unknown whether the eggs will survive.

The FWC will be coordinating with official volunteers called FWC Marine Turtle Permit Holders on affected beaches to determine the level of impact on sea turtle nests. Damaged nests will be remarked.

Anyone who finds an exposed nest is encouraged to cover it up with sand as best they can, but otherwise do not disturb the eggs. If you see nesting females or hatchlings in distress, call the FWCs Wildlife Alert Hotline at 1-888-404-FWCC (3922).


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Southeast Texans can see, touch and fly in a part of American history on Saturday at the Jack Brooks Regional Airport as the Commemorative Air Force presents at least two classic World War II-era planes including a B-17G bomber dubbed "Texas Raiders."

Tour admission is $10 for adults, $5 for children up to 12 years old or $20 for a family of up to five members.

The one-day barnstorm is from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Jerry Ware Terminal, 5000 Jerry Ware Drive.

The "Texas Raiders" was built by Douglas Aircraft Corp. in Long Beach, Calif., in 1944 and delivered to the U.S. Army Air Forces in July 1945, and was turned over to the U.S. Navy for aerial observation work.

The Commemorative Air Force acquired the B-17G for $50,000 and was assigned to its Gulf Coast wing in 1972. The CAF has invested more than $500,000 on at least two refurbishments to meet Federal Aviation Administration flying requirements.

People may book 20-minute rides on the bomber for $475 per person by contacting the CAF at (855) FLY-A-B17, which is (855) 359-2217, or B17TexasRaiders.org.

Another aircraft in the show, a T-6 trainer dubbed "Texan Ace in the Hole" is available at $225 per ride.

Boeing Aircraft Corp. developed the four-engine in the mid-1930s and more than 12,000 were built up to 1945 when World War II ended. More than 8,000 were lost in combat or in training accidents.

A B-17 crew typically consisted of nine or 10 men. A loss of 8,000 B17s amounts to about 80,000 men, killed, wounded or captured during the war.

Eleven of the bombers are still considered airworthy and several more are in static displays at air museums.

The "Texas Raiders" is hangared at the David Wayne Hools Memorial Airport in Tomball.

Weather might factor into the air show.

The National Weather Service predicts a 40-percent chance of showers or thunderstorms for Saturday. Afternoon activity is more likely if there is morning cloud cover, the weather service said.

DWallach@BeaumontEnterprise.com

Twitter.com/dwallach
Police received a call Tuesday shortly after 7 p.m. about a boy found at the bottom of a Days Inn hotel on 11th street in Beaumont. The boy was unresponsive after being pulled out of the pool. EMS transported the boy to Baptist hospital and was later airlifted to Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston. There are no current updates on the boy's conditions.
The contract employer of the man killed last year at Total Petrochemicals' Port Arthur refinery has been dismissed from lawsuits brought by the man's family, though the company faces a federal fine.

Kinder Morgan was released from the suit last month at the request of attorneys of separate claims brought by Thomas Counts' widow and his mother.

Their suits against Total are ongoing, and a separate but related lawsuit between Total and Kinder Morgan over who was responsible for repairing a crane that was down when Counts died has entered settlement negotiations, according to court records.

Counts, a 57-year-old Georgia native, drowned in near-boiling wastewater on Labor Day weekend 2015, when the bulldozer he was operating near the refinery's petroleum coke pit slipped down an embankment, according to the suit filed in Jefferson County by Counts' widow.

An overhead crane rather than a bulldozer typically handled that work, but the crane was out of service for more than nine months, according to a lawsuit Total filed against Kinder Morgan prior to Counts' death.

In that suit, Total blamed Kinder Morgan for failing to maintain the crane before it broke in November 2014. Total also said in the civil suit filed in Harris County district court that efforts to fix the machine stalled while the parties quarrelled over who would pay the $5.9 million repair bill.

Kinder Morgan, which filed its response to the suit 12 days before Counts died, categorically denied Total's account of what led to the crane breaking and disputed who was liable for its maintenance and repair.

The companies in a joint motion April 11 told the court they were discussing a settlement.

Total, in trying to block Counts' widow from deposing the crane company tasked with repairs, said the broken machine "cannot be regarded as a proximate cause or substantial cause of the incident," but allowed that it could have made the fatal accident "possible."

"The fact that the overhead crane was not in service at most allowed for the existence of a condition that made the incident possible because under its contract Kinder Morgan implemented the back-up plan at times when the crane was inoperative," the May 31 filing says.

Attorneys representing Counts' widow and Counts' mother earlier in May recommended that Kinder Morgan be released from the suit. District Judge Kent Walston granted the dismissal May 26.

Jill Pierce, who is representing Counts' mother, said only a surviving spouse or an heir has a claim against an employer for a death caused by "gross negligence," meaning her client could not sue on those grounds. Counts' mother can sue Total as a third party in a "wrongful death" suit, Pierce said.

Although Counts' widow may have a claim against the employer for gross negligence, she too requested Kinder Morgan be dismissed. Her attorney, Clay Dugas, could not be reached for comment.

Kinder Morgan was dismissed without prejudice, meaning legal action can be brought against the company in the future.

Meanwhile, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited both companies for at least one "serious" violation.

The full public reports cannot yet be released under Freedom of Information Act laws because the matters remain open, a FOIA clerk for the agency said.

Serious violations are found when a workplace hazard can cause an accident that would "most likely" result in death or serious harm unless the employer did not know about the violation, according to OSHA.

OSHA initially levied two serious violations and a $14,000 fine against Kinder Morgan. One of the violations and half the fine amount have been waived, according to OSHA.

The company paid the $7,000 fine March 11*, according to a receipt provided by Kinder Morgan.

OSHA fined Total $14,000 and accused them of two serious violations. The refinery is contesting those findings, which means that investigative report cannot be released, the FOIA clerk said.

*Update: The story previously said Kinder Morgan had not yet paid the fine, according to an OSHA database. A receipt Kinder Morgan provided Wednesday, which lists the correct inspection number, shows that the company has paid the fine.

EBesson@BeaumontEnterprise.com Twitter.com/EricBesson_news
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One Australian Wild Card participant made a Texas-sized splash in the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series competitions' first stop in Graford, Texas on Saturday when she upset the odds and finished in first place over two other divers including Texan Cesilie Carlton.

RELATED: 'America's queen of cliff diving' is winning world championships and is a native of San Antonio

Red Bull wild card diver Rhiannan Iffland, 24, finished just 10 points ahead of the competition. With only four weeks of preparation afforded to her since officials confirmed her participation in the event, she said she went "to the gym a lot to improve (her) fitness and fine-tune (her) technique."

The Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series is slated to make eight more stops across the globe before its conclusion. The competition, which features more than 30 divers from around the world began in 2009 and has been an annual event since.

While Iffland won the competition, Carlton, the only Texas-native participating, was the first wild card to win a competition since the tournament's inception.

RELATED: Shark kills Australian diver in second deadly attack in days

Divers will travel to Copenhagen, Denmark for the next competition.

Click through the slideshow above to see photos from the diving tournaments' Texas stop.

MMedina@mySA.com

Twitter:@MariahMedinaaa
A Texas teen's extended family is asking the public for help to "Save Sarah," a 17-year-old girl whose parents sent her off to an East Texas boarding facility to "pray the gay away" after she took her girlfriend to prom.

Joey Jordan, a University of Texas at San Antonio student, put together a GoFundMe page that has raised more than $39,000 that will go toward legal expenses incurred in the fight to rescue the teen from the facility.

RELATED: Central Texas student's 'Some people are gay. Get over it.' t-shirt too 'disruptive,' school says

While many have given without apprehension, others have expressed doubt in the story. Jordan updated the page to answer questions regarding where the funding would be going, who will be representing the family in the legal battle and why the teen is not legally allowed to leave the facility at her own will.

"Although 17-year olds are considered adults for certain purposes in Texas, state law permits parents to force their children to stay in a residential boarding facility until their 18th birthday," Jordan wrote on the page. "Additionally, the facility is in an extremely rural area. When Sarah attempted to walk out of the facility shortly after being placed there, staff quickly apprehended her and returned her to the facility, and she was punished for her escape attempt. When close friends of Sarah drove up to the facility in an attempt to free her, local law enforcement threatened to arrest them."

RELATED: Report: Texas pastor says Whole Foods 'did nothing wrong,' drops lawsuit over gay slur on cake

The Austin-area teen has not been identified by last name to avoid any unwanted publicity or scrutiny, but many have validated the claims of the GoFundMe page indicating that they have first hand knowledge of the situation, or their children go to school with the teen.

According to the GoFundMe page, Sarah will be forced to stay at the facility for an entire year. The boarding school, however, does not allow electronic communication visitors.

"So instead of being surrounded by friends and extended family who love and support Sarah for who she is, she'll be isolated in a place where the fact that she is gay is treated as a sin and an illness," Jordan wrote. "Instead of preparing for college and competing in the state debate tournament, she'll be doing forced labor every day and enduring Bible-based 'therapy' for her 'disease.'"

RELATED: Christian rock star Trey Pearson comes out as gay

Jordan said all left over funds will go toward a college fund for the teen who is also a member of the National Honor Society, top 10 percent of her class, cross country team and debate team.

The CHA Law Group representing the teen and her family confirmed the statements on the GoFundMe page on Wednesday.

"I can't comment on pending litigation, other than to authenticate that to the best of my knowledge, the background information on the GoFundMe shared by Sarah's cousin is truthful," Sarah's lawyer Christine Andresen said.

MMedina@mySA.com

Twitter:@MariahMedinaaa
More than two decades ago, Hillary Clinton proposed an ambitious healthcare reform bill that aimed to completely reshape the U.S. healthcare system. However, her plan and its big theories failed with leading politicians imploring her to forgo her comprehensive plan, according to The New York Times.

In 1993, Hillary Clinton met with Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich about her healthcare reform bill. With an extensive knowledge of healthcare reform, Mr. Gingrich told Hillary Clinton she wouldn't be able to pass her plan, and she should instead focus on small reforms each year. Mr. Gingrich told The New York Times, "It will fall of its own weight ... She listened to us carefully and promptly went off and did whatever she wanted to." Sticking to her plan, Ms. Clinton presented a 1,342 healthcare reform proposal which included a universal healthcare system.

Her proposal was met with fierce opposition from conservatives and healthcare industry leaders alike. The proposal failed, never receiving a floor vote in the House or Senate. The following year, Republicans won a majority in the House and Mr. Gingrich became the speaker in 1995.

Elected into the U.S. Senate in 2000, Hillary Clinton exercised caution and bipartisanship, working with Republicans rather than against them. Her eye is now set on the presidency, and Hillary Clinton is using her past to form her healthcare reform plan.

Rather than completely dismantling the Affordable Care Act, Hillary Clinton wants to build upon President Obama's healthcare law. She supports the addition of a public option and also wants to allow some working Americans to buy into Medicare. Her former congressional liasion told The New York Times, "What she (Clinton) doesn't believe at this moment in time is that we can or should just start all over again."

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A study published in BMJ found U.S. white male physicians earn as much as 35 percent more than black male physicians, according to Medscape Multispecialty.

Boston-based Harvard Medical School researchers accounted for medical specialty, experience and number of hours worked in their study. They analyzed data from two surveys which included 12,843 white male, 518 black male, 3,880 white female and 342 black female physicians. Researchers did not include household income or income from investments in their study, solely focusing on income from services rendered.

Here are five things to know:

1. The data showed white physicians' adjusted median annual income was $253,042, amounting to $64,812 more than black male physicians who had an adjusted medical annual income of $188,230.

2. White female physicians had adjusted median annual income of $163,234, marginally more than black female physicians ($152,784).

3. "Medscape Physician Compensation" recently found male physicians earned, on average, $324,000, while female physicians earned $242,000.

4. This study differs from previous studies as those studies analyzed income data from nearly two decades before, Harvard researchers stated.

5. Researchers noted further studies should explore whether bargaining power in salary negotiations, employer discrimination or differences in clinical revenue may attribute to the income discrepancy.

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A Pasadena Public Health Department report found the drug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria from duendoscopes infected 16 patients at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena, from January 2013 to August 2015, according to a Los Angeles Times report.

Here are six key notes:

1. Eleven of the 16 patients died. However, health officials said only one death certificate listed the bacteria spread by the duendoscopes as the cause.

2. Last year, the hospital confirmed the bacteria infected three patients. The hospital also informed Olympus, the scope maker, of at least three deaths in 2015.

3. The city department investigation found 16 total infection cases linked to procedures involving the Olympus duendoscope.

4. The city health officials found "visible residues in the machines used to clean the scopes," according to the L.A. Times.

5. The health officials found no additional cases of infection since starting their investigation last August.

6. The hospital has started notifying all patients treated with duendoscopes since January 2013 regarding potential infections.
RIP Medical Debt, a nonprofit based in Rye, N.Y., has set a goal to eliminate at least $1 billion in medical debt for the nation's poorest patients. Although that sounds daunting, company cofounder Craig Antico told STAT it's more manageable than it appears.

Medical debt is sold very cheap because it is difficult to collect on. Mr. Antico told STAT a dollar of debt can be bought for less than a cent. "It only takes $14.45 million to abolish $1 billion in debt," he said.

Mr. Antico and Jerry Ashton, RIP Medical Debt cofounder, previously worked in the debt collection industry. However, after talking to protestors from the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York, they decided to change their focus to forgiving debt rather than collecting on it.

Mr. Antico and Mr. Ashton initially bought debt with their own money, but their company now accepts donations to buy and forgive debt.

RIP Medical Debt forgives debt only for those with an annual income that is less than twice the federal poverty level. The company is currently raising funds to pay the debts of veterans and has plans to target other groups for debt forgiveness in the future.

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Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey and Trinitas Regional Medical Center in Elizabeth, N.J., have teamed up to implement a value-based treatment model for patients with congestive heart failure, reports NJ.com.

Trinitas has also agreed to drop out of a lawsuit a group of New Jersey hospitals brought against the insurer last year for excluding the hospitals from its OMNIA network. Some hospitals named in the lawsuit argue Horizon's decision to rank the facilities in Tier 2 rather than Tier 1 hurts their reputation and their business.

"The concerns we had over OMNIA are offset by the benefits this new collaboration will bring to the greater Elizabeth community," Trinitas spokesperson Doug Harris said in an official statement.

The Episodes of Care for Heart Failure program will begin this year, according to the report.
Vancouver Island Health Authority in British Columbia, Canada, is in the midst of rolling out Cerner's EHR across its system, but physicians are petitioning to suspend the go-live, citing concerns regarding patient safety, according to a Times Colonist report.

In 2013, Island Health signed a 10-year, $50 million deal with Cerner to implement the EHR across the system, which includes an additional $124 million for hardware and training. The EHR went live at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital, a residential care center and another health center on March 19.

However, physicians in Nanaimo's intensive care units and emergency departments have reportedly returned to using pen and paper to submit orders, which are later entered into computers by support staff. Physicians who spoke to Times Colonist anonymously said the system is creating errors in drug orders, either canceling, overriding or changing instructions.

Other specialists at Nanaimo General are reportedly planning on also reverting to pen and paper orders, according to the report.

Physicians are circulating a petition asking Island Health to suspend further implementation until the EHR is fixed or replaced. So far, more than 100 physicians have signed the petition, according to the report.

Island Health plans to continue implementation across the system and expects to complete the go-live in the next 18 months after the system is "stabilized" at the initial three launch sites, Antoinette O'Keefe, a spokeswoman for Island Health, said in the report. "Our timeline has not changed," she said.

Island Health authorities have indicated there is no evidence the system is changing medication orders. The system has declined to suspend the rollout, according to the report. British Columbia Health MinisterTerryLake reportedly met with Island Health President Brendan Carr regarding staff and physician feedback and is confident patient safety is not at risk, according to the report.

In a statement to Times Colonist, Cerner said, "We understand this can be a difficult transition for some and we're collaborating with Island Health to optimize the physician workflow."

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Stephen Klasko, MD, president and CEO of Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health, first wrote a book about a medical student who was abducted by aliens. But it was the premise for his second book that seemed even more unlikely to his publisher.

Why does the premise of We Can Fix Healthcare Now seem less likely than extraterrestrial intervention in med school? Because it outlines a hypothetical bipartisan collaborative push to mend the healthcare industry under reality-bending circumstances.

"In fact, the original title of the book was going to be I Messed Up Healthcare: Put Your Name Here," Dr. Klasko says.

One of the things that precludes stakeholders from having frank discussions about problems with healthcare in America is individuals have a very hard time admitting fault, Dr. Klasko says. But by using a science fiction-type framework and what he calls a history of the future model, Dr. Klasko says he was able to take a hard look at the core issues plaguing healthcare as it stands today, and propose solutions to move past them.

"The first chapter is titled "2016: When Politics and Healthcare Became Fun Again," which is not what people would say about either right now," Dr. Klasko says. "If you go to anybody and say, 'What do you think healthcare is going to look like a year from now?', our sphincters tighten  we talk about Obamacare, we talk about malpractice and it's ugly. But if you say what if it was 2026 and we're looking back on what happened in 2016, 2017, or 2018, people are more agreeable."

To get the lay of the land, Dr. Klasko and his co-authors, Gregory Shea, PhD, and Michael Hoad, interviewed more than 150 sources, from the CEOs of large health systems and pharmaceutical companies, to patients and politicians. Dr. Klasko says they hoped to get a comprehensive picture of the state of healthcare and answer one very important question with the promise of anonymity  if you took yourself or your company out of the equation, what would you change about the industry right now?

Those responses helped the authors craft what they call the 12 Disruptors, which rise from the demise of the old healthcare system, Dr. Klasko says. Although the disruptors come about in the hypothetical and speculative landscape of We Can Fix Healthcare Now, they are all based on the responses and insights the authors received from industry stakeholders at every level.

Here are the 12 Disruptors outlined in We Can Fix Healthcare Now, in full:

Thou shalt look at healthcare as a team sport and develop a system that is both user-friendly and delivers value. Thou shalt take the volume incentive out of the payment system and put incentives in place that are aligned with optimal health outcomes. Thou shalt provide the right solution for the right patient at the right time and provide coordinated care across patient condition, services and time. Thou shalt select and educate physicians of the future as opposed to those of the past. Thou shalt never again be surprised that doctors (solely based on science GPA, multiple-choice tests, and memorizing organic chemistry formulas) are not more empathetic, communicative and creative. Thou shalt use technology to ensure that every surgeon can objectively prove appropriate competence and confidence to perform the requested procedure. Thou shalt learn the lessons of the now-defunct Blockbuster and move healthcare from a "come to my hospital when you are sick" to a Netflix mindset of "getting healthcare out to where the consumer is." Do not build new inpatient beds when it is clear that there will be disruptive influences that fundamentally decrease the need for expensive inpatient beds. Thou shalt never use the term "alternate healthcare" for modalities used to treat chronic diseases that are utilized by patients and providers in other countries, and in some cases, have much better results than traditional American medicine in treating said diseases. Thou shalt de-fragment the application of innovation and clinical research through super-sites. Thou shalt cease and desist constructing walls between institutions of non-interoperability that hamper the acceleration of research and innovation. Thou shalt create an integrated, interoperable, legacy electronic health record system allowing for vendor-driven, patient-centric apps such that your health information is at least as integrated as your shopping information on Amazon or your viewing information on Netflix. Thou shalt understand systems thinking and employ said models in your attempts to redesign a healthcare system that actually makes patients and communities healthier. Only then will you be able to "break" the iron triangle of access, quality and cost. Thou shalt never again be satisfied with any healthcare disparities based on race, creed, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, or planet of origin.

The authors incorporate both liberal and conservative perspectives into each of the disruptors to demonstrate how, with subtle shifts in perspective, both sides of the aisle are driving toward the same end with means that are not all that different from one another, Dr. Klasko says. All of the disruptors are achievable, he says, and being carried out to some degree somewhere in America's healthcare system today.

"Today what we're seeing are the pressures of opening up access to an inefficient, ineffective and, in some cases, failed system, then being amazed that cost hasn't decreased and quality hasn't improved," Dr. Klasko says. "These are things that could be changed that would really help solve that."

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A recent Decision Resources Group study found 43 percent of physicians struggle to keep balance between constantly evolving healthcare systems and health technologies, including EHRs and pharmaceutical websites.

That is, 43 percent of U.S. physicians surveyed agreed with the statement, "my organization is struggling to understand and meet the goals of value and quality," such as cost per patient, patient outcomes and hospital readmissions.

Here are four other key findings from the Taking the Pulse U.S. 2016 study:

1. Thirteen percent of physician respondents virtually consult with patients. However, few of them use pharma websites during the actual virtual consults.

2. Eight-two percent of physician respondents use EHRs between patient consults, but just 27 percent use pharma websites between consults. With EHR use growing, partnerships between pharmas and EHRs are crucial.

3. Eight-five percent of physician respondents say they are open to using sponsored content from pharma via online journals and healthcare professional websites.

4. DRG Analyst Kelly Pinola said in a statement that in "the current healthcare landscape, physicians are struggling to support their patients, manage multiple data streams and meet daunting new performance goals. This opens up a range of opportunities to support physicians in their daily workflow. Pharma companies have a unique opportunity during this time of change to build positive brand equity among these physicians."

DRG published the study on April 14 and 2,994 U.S. physicians participated.

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Accreditation issues and the abrupt departure of six leaders are creating a wealth of questions at the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix, and the Arizona Medical Association wants answers, according to Tucson.com.

Here are four things to know about the goings-on at the medical school.

1. Six leaders are leaving UA. In April, Dean Stuart Flynn, MD, announced he'd be departing for a position as dean at a new medical school started by Texas Christian University and University of North Texas Health Science Center, both based in Fort Worth. Five additional leaders will also be leaving the school shortly. One is taking a job at Cleveland-based CaseWestern ReserveUniversity and four are heading to Dr. Flynn's new medical school.

2. UA leadership and the Arizona Medical Association disagree on whether these changes are positive or negative. Joe G.N. "Skip" Garcia, MD, senior vice president of health sciences at Tucson-based Arizona Health Sciences Center, said leadership being recruited to other positions is a sign of the school's success. However, the Arizona Medical Association claims the leadership changes are a "significant loss for the medical school and to the state of Arizona."

3. The University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix has been facing accreditation problems as well. Last June, the Liaison Committee on Medical Education visited the medical school and cited four areas of non-compliance, two of which have to do with the "academic affiliation between Phoenix-based Banner Health and the UA that was created when Banner merged with the Tucson-based UA Health Network," according to the report. The medical school made numerous changes  including altering its contract with Banner  to comply with the LCME's standards, and it received "provisional" accreditation status from the LCME in February.

4. The Arizona Medical Association wants the Arizona Board of Regents to conduct an independent investigation. Due to these problems, the association hopes the board will take "corrective action ... to ensure long-term excellence in medical education at the U of A College of Medicine Phoenix and Tucson," according to the report.

In a statement, board of regents Chair Jay Heiler said "the board, [University of Arizona] Pesident [Ann Weaver] Hart, PhD, and her executive team's consideration of the present structure and operating challenges at the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix continues, and will continue in earnest at the board's meeting this week in Flagstaff," according to the report.
"Doc, cut the crap, we know you've been writing bad scrips," the Drug Enforcement Agency agent said. It wasn't until that point  when state police and the DEA were sitting in his primary care office  that Peter Grinspoon, MD, admitted he was hopelessly addicted to opiates.

"The windows in my office didn't open, otherwise I might have jumped out and fled," Dr. Grinspoon wrote in a recent op-ed in the Los Angeles Times. "As it were, I was charged with three felony counts of fraudulent prescribing."

Dr. Grinspoon described how, despite physicians' mission to heal patients, many struggle with serious issues of their own that have a severe impact on their health. For instance, while estimated rates of addiction among the general public to drugs and alcohol range from 8 percent to 10 percent, those rates are 10 percent to 15 percent among physicians, according to Dr. Grinspoon.

There is extensive literature that details the epidemic of physician burnout, depression and anxiety. While practicing medicine has never been a lax career, the challenges that physicians face have only increased over recent years. Physicians are more than twice as likely to commit suicide as the general population, and many physicians say they would choose a different career path if they could start over, Dr. Grinspoon writes.

The natural response for humans in distress is to search for easily accessible relief. For physicians, that is often in the form of prescription medicine. According to a 2013 study in the Journal of Addiction Medicine cited by Dr. Grinspoon, 69 percent of physicians abused prescription medicine "to relieve stress and physical or emotional pain." "Given how addictive they are, that's like trying to put out a fire by dumping gasoline on it," he wrote.

Physicians who slip into addictions rarely seek help. And while state medical boards are largely comprised of physicians and should therefore know to treat addiction as a disease, they often handle it like a crime, according to Dr. Grinspoon. In most states, including Massachusetts where Dr. Grinspoon practiced, the state medical society operates a Physician Health Service. The service works with the medical board and offers resources for physicians struggling with addiction. However, even if a physician seeks treatment voluntarily, there is no guarantee punishments will be withheld.

Ultimately, Dr. Grinspoon lost his medical license and his marriage. He served two years of supervised court probation (his three felony charges were dismissed), and he was out of work for nearly four years. Dr. Grinspoon was "dragged [and] disgraced in front of the state board where I was interrogated for hours by a hostile, aggressive attorney."

Finally, Dr. Grinspoon rebuilt his career. He has been in recovery since 2007. After he regained his medical license, he was asked to join the Physician Health Service as an associate director, and he now helps other physicians with addiction. Dr. Grinspoon cites studies that found once they get help, physicians often excel at rehab, achieving success rates of 70 percent to 80 percent  an incredibly high rate for addiction.

Physicians who slip into the clutches of addiction must be treated with compassion and care, Dr. Grinspoon says, not with sanctions and punishment. The latter describes a worst-case scenario for physicians and their patients.

"Instead of reflexively revoking or suspending licenses, state medical boards can usually ensure patient safety by keeping doctors at work under careful monitoring," he wrote. "I've seen the recovery process return better doctors to productive practice, strengthening the qualities most people want in a caregiver  humility, empathy and patience."
A Berkeley, Calif.-based physician, Lonny Shavelson, MD, is opening a practice dedicated to patients who seek life-ending medication under the End of Life Option Act. The law goes into effect Thursday, and will enable physician-assisted suicide, according to a report from The Mercury News on Dr. Shavelson's practice.

Dr. Shavelson, an emergency room physician, wrote the 1995 book, A Chosen Death: The Dying Confront Assisted Suicide, which chronicled five terminally ill people who chose to die on their own terms. He said his work on this book made him an advocate of physician-assisted suicide for those patients who, when presented with all the options, would prefer this choice, according to the report.

His practice, Bay Area End of Life Options, will first help patients experience the best-possible end of life care without medication, through hospice or palliative care programs, according to the report. To critics, Dr. Shavelson says the main goal is actually not to prescribe end-of-life drugs for patients, it's to make the palliative experience as positive as possible, according to the report.

However, Dr. Shavelson told The Mercury News, if "it's about [the patient] being 'finished,' and saying 'I don't need the next two weeks of laying here, and my family sitting by my side, and everyone just waiting. I'm done,'" he wants to provide a safe and legal option to assist them.

Read the full article here.

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For students who are interested in both law and medicine, look to Philadelphia  the University of Pennsylvania is offering a new joint MD-JD program.

The Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Pennsylvania Law School  which are just blocks apart  have partnered to create the new program.

Currently, 65 percent of medical students and 75 percent of law students graduate with other joint degrees or certificates. For example, the university's JD-MBE program enables students to earn a law degree and a Masters of Bioethics degree, while its ML program, lets students get a Masters in Law with an emphasis on health law.

The MD-JD program will begin accepting applications for the 2017-18 school year.
For years, federal officials have been trying to stamp out a pattern of fraudulent ambulance operators in Southeastern Pennsylvania.

This pattern occurs when one fraudulent ambulance operator shuts down only to have another  sometimes headed by a friend or family member  replace it.

Now, authorities appear to have found an effective strategy to help curb the problem, The Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

Since 2014, authorities haven't allowed new ambulance firms in the Philadelphia region to receive pay from Medicare, the publication notes. Additionally, all repetitive nonemergency trips  dialysis, for instance  must receive prior authorization, according to the report. Previously, ambulance companies simply had to bill Medicare and pretend they had physician certification that the rides were medically necessary.

The Philadelphia Inquirer states that the impact of the rules has been huge in the region, where federal data show Medicare's annual spending on basic ambulance services plummeted to $12.7 million last year from $55.4 million in 2010.

"We're never going to claim victory, but we think we did a good job of rooting out a lot of these fraudulent companies," Nick DiGiulio, special agent in charge of the Philadelphia regional office of HHS' Office of Inspector General, said, according to the report.

The Philadelphia Inquirer cites Pennsylvania Department of Health data, which show 83 ambulance firms  more than a quarter of the total in Southeastern Pennsylvania  have closed since 2014.

Overall, Mr. DiGiulio told the publication, after 30 criminal convictions in the last five years leading to an aggregate of 82 years in prison and restitution orders totaling $22 million, "we're not hearing as much about this fraud."

And improvement can be seen in other states as well. According to the report, in the three states where prior authorization has been required since 2014  Pennsylvania, New Jersey and South Carolina  monthly Medicare costs for scheduled, repetitive ambulance trips plunged to an average of $5.4 million last year, in aggregate, from $18.9 million the year prior.

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Michael R. Drobot, former CEO of Pacific Hospital in Long Beach, Calif., and his son are two of nine defendants that have admitted participating in a massive fraud scheme that involved physicians receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in kickbacks, according to the Department of Justice.

The defendants were charged in relation to the government's ongoing investigation into kickbacks physicians received for patient referrals for spinal surgeries performed at Pacific Hospital. Those who referred patients to Pacific Hospital were typically paid a kickback of $15,000 for each lumbar fusion surgery and $10,000 for each cervical fusion surgery.

As a result of the illegal kickbacks, thousands of referred patients underwent spinal surgeries at Pacific Hospital, leading to more the submission of more than $580 million in fraudulent bills for spinal surgeries during the last eight years of the scheme alone, according to the DOJ.

All nine defendants have agreed to cooperate with the government's ongoing investigation  dubbed "Operation Spinal Cap"  which involved dozens of surgeons, orthopedic specialists, chiropractors, marketers and other medical professionals.

Mr. Drobot, who served as CEO of Pacific Hospital until late 2013, ran the 15-year-long fraud scheme. To conceal the illegal activity, a number of physicians involved entered into agreements with a company Mr. Drobot owned, under which the physicians received as much as $100,000 per month for the right to purchase their medical practices. Other physicians had agreements to provide consulting services to Mr. Drobot's companies, but never provided the services.

California Pharmacy Management and its successor Industrial Pharmacy Management were two companies owned by Mr. Drobot that played an important role in the scheme. The companies set up and managed mini-pharmacies in physicians' offices and received a portion of the money reimbursed by insurance companies for medications that were dispensed. Mr. Drobot often agreed to increase the physicians' shares of the insurance claims in return for patient referrals to Pacific Hospital, according to the DOJ. Mr. Drobot's son admitted participating in the kickback scheme, primarily through his operation of CPM and IPM.

In addition to Mr. Drobot and his son, defendants who have been charged and pleaded guilty to their involvement in the scheme include the following:

James L. Canedo, former CFO of Pacific Hospital

Philip Sobol, MD, an orthopedic surgeon

Alan Iva, DC, a chiropractor

Paul Richard Randall, a healthcare market previously affiliated with Pacific Hospitals and Tri-City Regional Medical Center in Hawaiian Gardens, Calif.

Mitchell Cohen, MD, an orthopedic surgeon

Michael Barri, DC, a chiropractor who owned and operated Tri-Star Medical Group and Jojaso Management Company, both in Santa Ana, Calif.

Linda Martin, former marketer for Pacific Hospital

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The following is a list of standardized infection ratios  observed to expected infection rates  for catheter-associated urinary tract infections for the 50 states and Washington D.C.

SIRs that are less than one indicate the state had fewer CAUTIs than would have been predicted and SIRs greater than one indicate infection rates were higher than would have been predicted. For SIRs less than one, subtracting the SIR from one shows the percent decrease in CAUTIs from the baseline.

Here, states are listed from smallest to largest SIRs. Note, all states and Washington, D.C., have an SIR of less than one.

The Hospital Compare data was gathered from Jan. 1, 2015, through June 30, 2015, the most recent data available.

Note: States' SIRs show their individual progress in reducing CAUTIs and are not meant to compare actual CAUTI rates among states.

Wyoming  0.219

Nevada  0.377

West Virginia  0.39

Idaho  0.401

North Dakota  0.429

Ohio  0.476

Wisconsin  0.477

Colorado  0.48

Hawaii  0.483

Kansas  0.484

Illinois  0.49

Tennessee  0.49

Alabama  0.494

Minnesota  0.497

Mississippi  0.498

New Hampshire  0.498

Missouri  0.5

Kentucky  0.503

North Carolina  0.51

Texas  0.514

Washington  0.515

Arizona  0.516

Oklahoma  0.519

Florida  0.524

Vermont  0.527

Delaware  0.545

Montana  0.545

South Dakota  0.545

Oregon  0.561

Connecticut  0.563

Indiana  0.571

Virginia  0.576

Iowa  0.58

New Mexico  0.592

Maryland  0.598

South Carolina  0.606

Louisiana  0.617

Pennsylvania  0.625

Arkansas  0.626

Nebraska  0.626

Michigan  0.632

Georgia  0.633

California  0.644

New Jersey  0.658

Massachusetts  0.666

New York  0.677

Washington, D.C.  0.706

Maine  0.741

Rhode Island  0.771

Utah  0.902

Alaska  0.913

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From patient to consumer, from acute care to population health, from fee-for-service to fee-for-value  the past decade has flipped healthcare on its head. So whats next? Flipping hospitals on their heads to ensure they stay alive. Illustrative of such change is data from the MedPAC analysis, which showed inpatient volume was down by six percent from 2010 to 2013, while outpatient services have been steadily on the rise (30 percent) for the past 13 years. In Illinois for instance, a huge percentage of the states 32,000+ hospital beds routinely go empty  with an occupancy rate of less than 60%.

This doesnt imply that fewer patients need care  instead, its evidence that these patients are going elsewhere. While this is a threat for the hospital of yesterday, its an opportunity for the hospital of the future. The vast majority of hospitals need to redefine themselves from organizations that deliver care to organizations that orchestrate care. Even though hospitals are one of the core lines of lifeblood in healthcare, the way in which the majority of them operate arent appealing to patients today, nor is it sustainable to hospitals future existence.

Dont misunderstand  hospitals are the places where we see medical breakthroughs; where we find we are stronger, braver and more powerful than we think. In short, they are the places where humanity often shines at its brightest. However, our system is so broken that its turned this instrument of health and humanity into a walled citadel. To better serve the patients who are seemingly already going elsewhere, hospitals need to become a leading orchestrator of the very best care on behalf of patients.

The folks at New York-based Mount Sinai seem to get it. Last year, readers of The New York Times were treated to a Mount Sinai marketing campaign headline that read, If our beds are filled, it means weve failed. Its counterintuitive, but spot on. Mount Sinai has embraced the idea that instead of receiving care thats isolated and intermittent, patients [should] receive care thats continuous and coordinated, much of it outside of the traditional hospital setting. Its only with this shift away from a filling beds mindset, combined with a refactoring to the way in which a hospital interacts with other players in the market, that hospitals will maintain a leading role across the care continuum.

We must collectively accept and internalize these truths  and its time for hospitals to fully embrace a new set of core competencies.

First is the requirement to leverage an infrastructure of cross-continuum connectedness and total cost and quality transparency. Software alone wont get hospitals there; being part of a more connected national network is critical.

Second, hospitals need to embrace savvier consumer marketing that helps them stand out amidst emerging players in healthcare  like CVS Health and Walgreens  who understand the consumer mindset and have built their brands around convenience and ease.

Third, a new era of hospital sales must emerge, working with insurers and employers to broker deals that send the right patients through your doors only for the services you do really well.

Fourth, the successful hospitals will create a renaissance of accessibility: If you cant provide an appointment slot served up via a mobile app for every procedure type within three days, youre failing.

And fifth, hospitals should become ecosystem partners, not brick-and-mortar investors. This means eliminating anything that can be done in a primary care practice, a retail clinic, or at home, and exporting non-invasive surgery out of the hospital to more cost-effective specialized surgical centers.

To profit and thrive in this new model, hospitals must embrace value-based-reimbursement contracts for such procedures. This benefits the entire healthcare system, too  if half of the eligible surgical procedures moved from the hospital to ambulatory surgery centers, Medicare would save an additional $2.5 billion a year or $25 billion over the next 10 years.

As National Coordinator for Health IT and HHS' Acting Assistant Secretary for Health Karen DeSalvo, MD, recently reinforced in a conversation with the Wall Street Journal, patients are becoming the undisputed center of care. And as a result, the information model for healthcare is changing to meet this shift. The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology is turning its focus away from EHRs to the patient, enabling a patients data to finally be standardized, aggregated and moved when and where it matters for the patient.

This is creating a rapidly accelerating healthcare network, and the pressure is on hospitals to tap into it and not be left out. Patients, pharmacies, imaging centers and urgent care providers are embracing it  from helping patients connect with pharmacies that offer immunizations close to home, to offering smartphone apps that can be used remotely to check vital signs, to doing business with imaging centers that can more cheaply execute and share radiologic images.

In short, the network effect has finally arrived in healthcare; the question is how long it will take to arrive in hospitals. The hospital walls are indeed shrinking, but the hospital that embraces a culture of resource orchestration in lieu of resource control will be the hospital that sees the benefits of those shrinking roles  and the rewards of a growing network.

This is the hospital of the future that will help to unbreak healthcare.

Jonathan Bush is CEO and co-founder of athenahealth and author of "Where Does it Hurt?: A n Entrepreneur's Guide to Fixing Health Care."
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The farmers debate on the EU referendum last night

Chancellor George Osborne, who was in Belfast on Monday to state the views of the Remain camp

High-profile Brexit campaigner and former Northern Ireland Secretary of State Owen Paterson addresses the farmers debate on the EU referendum last night

There will be "no stability" for Northern Ireland's farmers if the UK votes to remain part of the EU, former Northern Ireland Secretary Owen Paterson has said.

But responding to the Conservative MP's comments, former National Farmers Union president Sir Peter Kendall warned a vote to leave would create "lots and lots of problems" for cross-border agribusiness.

Sir Peter said claims by the Brexit camp about cheaper food in the event of a Leave vote should be a "wake-up call to every farmer in the room".

However, Mr Paterson said the EU could not promise that farmers here would continue to receive billions in subsidies.

Sir Peter addressed hundreds of people from the farming and agri-food sector at the Eikon Exhibition Centre last night for an UFU debate by Skype, after missing his flight.

Mr Kendall, who is involved with the Farmers for In group, said Northern Ireland and the UK would "find ourselves disadvantaged" in the event of the public voting for Brexit.

"We would have to fight every battle on our own," he added.

However, outspoken EU critic Mr Paterson said the UK would remain an outside player in the EU if it voted to stay. "There is no stability in voting to remain," he added. "They will create this new country and exclude us."

The debate was held at the same site as Northern Ireland's biggest agriculture event, the Balmoral Show, on the former Maze prison site outside Lisburn.

Mr Paterson warned the EU "cannot promise" the UK and Northern Ireland would continue to receive high levels of farm subsidies after 2021.

He told farmers last night that "you will be in power" over decisions if the UK voted to leave the EU.

"We can spend the same amount of money, we would spend more money... we could decide what to do," he added.

"We would tailor that money to our local farming industry and environment."

He said a Brexit would allow farmers here to "tailor a rural policy" for the industry.

Northern Ireland received around 2.2bn from the EU in farm subsidies between 2007 and 2013. But Sir Peter slammed claims by Mr Paterson that a Brexit would give Northern Ireland and the UK the "power" to make their own decisions, saying "the UK Government has been arguing for abolition for payments".

And he said leaving the EU would be "an unravelling of 40 years" of legislation and trade.

One member of the audience asked the panel why the majority of economists had forecast the UK would be worse off outside the EU. Another asked about what would happen to farm subsidies in the event of a Brexit, to which Mr Paterson said the "structure and bones" would be constructed at Stormont.

Speaking about the border, he added that it was "not going to have barriers on it".

But Sir Peter said farming and other industries would be hit by tough border controls in the event of a Brexit.

He also criticised Mr Paterson's claims that the UK would not face harsh tariffs if it voted to leave the EU.

"It is more important to Northern Ireland than the rest of the UK," he claimed.

Mr Paterson said there were "ludicrous scare stories" that other nations would impose harsh tariffs in the event of a Brexit.

"Trade will continue. The idea they are going to spike themselves and jack up tariffs is absolutely ridiculous," he retaliated.

However, speaking generally, Sir Peter said: "I don't like the way these figures (about the EU) are being lied about".

The comments come just a day after Chancellor George Osborne warned that Northern Ireland farmers could face huge cuts to their subsidies from the EU if the public voted for a Brexit on June 23.
Total revenue for the year grew 25.7% to 599.2 million, with AO World forecasting that its launch into computing will drive sales further

AO World has moved to appoint a new chairman as losses deepen at the online electricals retailer.

Pre-tax losses rose from 2.9 million last year to 6.7 million as the firm took a hit from investment in Europe, with AO World citing "investment and trading losses incurred in Germany and start-up costs".

However, UK profits rose from 8.7 million to 13.6 million.

The company also said that Geoff Cooper, currently at Card Factory, will succeed Richard Rose as chairman. Mr Rose, who chaired the retailer for eight years, will step down at the company's AGM next month.

Total revenue for the year grew 25.7% to 599.2 million, with the firm forecasting that its launch into computing will drive sales further.

Chief executive John Roberts said: "We are growing the business as fast as we can safely, expanding in our chosen categories and countries, whilst keeping a tight grip on our culture.

"Computing is a natural extension of our current categories and there is good potential for cross-selling to our existing customer base, making it an exciting opportunity for the business."
The business is currently spread across four sites here, including its base at the Gateway Offices in the Titanic Quarter

Financial services company Citigroup could be eyeing up a major new office in Belfast, it has been claimed.

The business is currently spread across four sites here, including its base at the Gateway Offices in the Titanic Quarter.

But according to reports from CoStar News, the US financial services company is looking at new options for its Northern Ireland-based operations.

That could include the consolidation of its four offices, which may mean the business searching for a new building with 250,000 sq ft of space.

Citi employs more than 1,500 staff at its office in the Titanic Quarter. In 2014, it announced it was creating 600 jobs here as part of a 54m investment.

Just last week, during a Brexit debate at Citi, there were warnings that Belfast stood to lose the ability to be part of the attractiveness of an international financial centre if the UK voted to leave the EU.

Nicky Edwards, director of policy and public affairs for TheCityUK, explained: We very much see the city as a hub that attracts investment from around the world.

That investment might land in London, but it then spreads to the whole of the UK.
Michael Moore will be in Belfast next week to introduce his latest film Where to Invade Next.

Moore is the Oscar and Emmy-winning director of the ground-breaking and record-setting films Roger & Me, Bowling for Columbine, and Fahrenheit 9/11.

He will introduce the film at the Moviehouse on the Dublin Road on Wednesday June 15.

The movie is described as "an expansive, hilarious, and subversive comedy" in which the director "confronts the most pressing issues facing the US today and finds solutions in the most unlikely places".

Writing in the Independent Geoffrey McNab said: "Where To Invade Next makes consistently entertaining viewing and again demonstrates Moores knack of dealing with complex issues in a folksy and populist style."

Ahead of his visit to Belfast the Moore tweeted: "Heading 2 UK & Ireland 4 premiere of my film! Hope Britain'll still be in Europe by time I land! I know they'll still be in Ireland. Hahaha."

Times

Doors open: 6:15pm

Introduction by Michael Moore: 6:45pm

Screening Of Where to Invade Next: 7pm  9pm
A 46-year-old Belfast man has been handed a seven-year sentence for taking part in an assault and kidnapping

A 46-year-old Belfast man has been handed a seven-year sentence for taking part in an assault and kidnapping.

During the victim's two-hour ordeal, he was beaten with an iron bar, an attempt was made to carve the word 'paedo' on his forehead and he was hooded, bound and dumped in a derelict house in the west of the city.

Attacker Paul Creighton, from Tates Avenue in the south of the city, will spend half his sentence in prison, and the remainder on supervised licence.

Also appearing at Belfast Crown Court on charges arising from the same incident was a youth now aged 17, but who was 14 at the time.

He admitted hitting the victim with an iron bar, but was spared jail after the victim said that if he showed genuine remorse, he should be given a second chance.

The youth was given a 240-hour community service order, will be under the supervision of the Youth Justice Agency for a year and was ordered to write a letter of apology.

Sentencing the pair, Judge Gordon Kerr QC said they had subjected the man to a "sustained period of brutal violence".

The court heard the attack took place at a house in the Village area of Belfast on May 15, 2013. The victim, aged 38 at the time, had struck up a friendship with a female and the two talked and swapped numbers. The female was under 18, and the court heard there was no evidence to suggest anything untoward had occurred between the man and the teenager.

On the night of the incident, the man drove to the girl's home. He noticed a number of males in the house, prompting him to leave and call the girl, who told him it was okay for him to return. She brought him in, but a short time later a group of men armed with various weapons entered the room and began attacking him.

During the ordeal, he was threatened and repeatedly called a paedo.

The youth admitted striking the man several times with an iron bar, and Creighton admitted trying to carve the word 'paedo' on the victim's forehead with a Stanley knife. The knife was also pushed against his throat as threats were made.

The man was bound, hooded and put into the boot of his own car. Creighton then drove the vehicle to a derelict house on the Springfield Road. Before being dumped there, the victim was beaten once again.

After his attackers fled, the victim was able to untie his hands, leave the house and drive to safety. He was treated at hospital for multiple wounds and needed 16 sutures to his forehead and three to his ear.

Judge Gordon Kerr said that as a result of the incident, the man, who thought he was going to die, was left with post-traumatic stress disorder.

When the defendants were arrested, Creighton told police he was drinking on the night in question and had a "limited memory" of what occurred. But he accepted using a Stanley knife on the victim's forehead.

The youth accepted he had been present, and that he had struck the man several times with an iron bar.

During yesterday's sentencing, Judge Kerr said the attackers "degraded" the victim and that a "real attempt was made to permanently brand" his forehead.

Creighton, a father-of-two, admitted five charges, including kidnapping, wounding with intent and aggravated vehicle taking. In addition to the jail term, he was banned from driving for two years.

The youth - who also admitted five charges including kidnapping, wounding and possessing an iron bar with intent - later said he was "sickened" when he saw the knife being used on the man. He has since expressed remorse for his actions.
Democratic Unionist leader Arlene Foster has insisted she is firmly behind her party's pro-Brexit stance, dismissing rumours is she a secret Remain supporter.

Stormont's First Minister said she was puzzled as to where speculation that she would privately prefer if the UK remained in the EU had come from.

Mrs Foster was appearing before her Assembly scrutiny committee alongside Sinn Fein Deputy First Minister - and Remain advocate - Martin McGuinness.

When discussions turned to the looming referendum, committee chair Mike Nesbitt asked the First Minister to comment on the rumours.

The Ulster Unionist leader said: "I am sure you are aware that there are persistent rumours that you on a personal level are actually for Remain, so would you like to take this opportunity to squash those rumours?"

Mrs Foster responded: "I will very much take that opportunity to squash.

"I think I have given a number of interviews talking about the Leave campaign and endorsing the Leave campaign. I'm not quite sure where those rumours come from."

When Mr Nesbitt suggested some of the speculation had been aired in the press, the First Minister replied: " You are not taking the media at their word, are you?"

The DUP, Traditional Unionist Voice and Ukip are backing Brexit in Northern Ireland, while Sinn Fein, the UUP, SDLP and Alliance Party are among the advocates of Remain.

In the Assembly chamber on Tuesday, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood claimed the DUP was half-hearted in its stance.

"I know the DUP are against us remaining in the EU, but they are not really that against it, because they are not making that much of a big deal of it," he said.

On Wednesday, Mr McGuinness reiterated his support for the Remain side to members of the Executive Office committee.

"The reality is that come June 23, which is only a matter of days away, we will know one way or the other the lie of the land," he said.

"We will either be in the European Union or we won't. I certainly hope we will continue to be in the European Union because I think it is better for us.

"At the same time, whatever happens on the other side of it, we as an Executive will collectively have to deal with that."
A speech in which the new Health Minister promised to tackle hospital waiting lists has been criticised for having a "tame tone".

Criticising Michelle O'Neill during an Assembly debate yesterday, UUP health spokeswoman Jo-Anne Dobson said the situation could only be described as an "unprecedented" crisis that had "taken the breath away" of health experts in other parts of the UK.

More than 20% of the population here are currently on a waiting list and there were 376,382 people waiting for a first outpatient appointment, diagnostic test or inpatient treatment as of March 31, 2016,

During the debate there was strong cross-party support for working collaboratively with the new minister to address the growing problem.

Sinn Fein's Ms O'Neill revealed on Monday that an extra 3m allocated to addressing the waiting times crisis last November had helped approximately 80,000 patients.

However, a UUP motion called on the Health Minister to detail the precise action that she proposes to take to address the rising numbers of people stuck on hospital waiting lists.

"We desperately need to move to a sustainable model in order to allow our health service to plan for the future," Mrs Dobson told the Assembly chamber.

"We need genuine reforms, not ploys, and I look forward to working with the new minister."

She also emphasised the needed "to work collaboratively" on the issue with the minister and other parties to get the best outcome for patients.

During her maiden speech, Alliance Party MLA Paula Bradshaw said the reason the problem was worse here than elsewhere in the UK was that the health service was unreformed.

"Too many people have waited too long for action on reform to make our health service fit for purpose for the thousands of patients currently waiting for vital treatment," she added.

UUP leader Mike Nesbitt asked the Health Minister to focus on mental health during her term. "It's high time it was given the priority and resources needed," he said.

His party colleague Robbie Butler added: "Health is an issue which is far too important to get caught up in political wrangling."

Ms O'Neill said she fully understood why the motion was brought before the house.

"The issue of excessive waiting lists is totally unacceptable," the Sinn Fein MLA said.

"The June monitoring (round) isn't the solution, but it is the solution in the short-term.

"Money isn't just the issue in the long-term. I want to be working on transforming the health service."

She added that she would "not be apologetic" in bidding for additional funding as the Assembly has to deal with the "here and now".

Mrs O'Neill said she was awaiting the health review report by Professor Bengoa due to be published at the end of this month. She also welcomed that there were suggestions of politicians wanting to work together and said she was "open to suggestions."

The motion was passed.
Chancellor George Osborne appeared in in Belfast Harbour in Northern Ireland this week to meet members of the NI Stronger In campaign group

The Home Office has written to Northern Irish businesses close to the border with the Irish Republic, warning that Brexit would damage long-standing travel agreements between the two, a shadow minister has said.

Shadow Northern Ireland secretary Vernon Coaker has seen a copy of the letter from the Home Office to the Newry Chamber of Commerce and Trade, which represents more than 250 businesses in the city, highlighting the dangers of leaving the EU.

The Common Travel Area, an agreement between the UK and the Republic of Ireland which pre-dates the European Union, allows citizens to travel freely over the borders.

The Remain campaign says that the agreement would be put at risk while the Leave campaign has insisted Brexit would not affect the rules.

Speaking in the Commons, Mr Coaker said: "Both the Chancellor and the Northern Ireland Office have spelt out the consequences for the border of leaving the EU.

"I have a copy of a letter to the Newry Chamber of Commerce and Trade in which the Home Office also spells out the potential consequences for the Common Travel Area, given that an estimated 30,000 people cross the border every day.

"The letter states: If the UK left the EU these arrangements would be put at risk."

Tory frontbencher Ben Wallace, a Northern Ireland minister, said: "The Common Travel Area existed before the European Union, but you are absolutely right.

"It is totally unclear what arrangements would exist after a Brexit. That is why the best solution is to remain in the European Union, so that we can take advantage of both the single market and the free travel of people, skills and trade that we enjoyed before membership."

Earlier this week George Osborne visited Warrenpoint Port in Co Down, a stone's throw from the Irish Republic, to outline his fears for the region if there is a vote to exit the European Union.
Two men were allegedly trafficked from Lithuania to carry out shoplifting sprees in towns across Northern Ireland, the High Court has heard

Two men were allegedly trafficked from Lithuania to carry out shoplifting sprees in towns across Northern Ireland, the High Court has heard.

One of them claimed he was told either he or his family would be killed if he stopped stealing from retail parks and centres.

Details emerged as bail was granted to a 55-year-old man accused of running the racket.

Lithuanian national Edmundas Kavaliauskas, with an address at Mill Street in Gilford, Co Down, denies charges of human trafficking and threats to kill. He was arrested last month by police investigating complaints raised in October 2015.

Prosecution counsel Conor Maguire said two Lithuanian men, aged in their 20s and 50s, walked into Portadown police station to claim they had been trafficked by Kavaliauskas.

Mr Justice Colton ordered the accused to provide a 2,000 cash surety and surrender all travel documents.
Kevin McGuigan, who was murdered in the Short Strand area of east Belfast last August

Members of Republican Sinn Fein parading from Dublin's Garden of Remembrance to the GPO (General Post Office)

Members of Republican Sinn Fein parading from Dublin's Garden of Remembrance to the GPO (General Post Office)

Members of Republican Sinn Fein parading from Dublin's Garden of Remembrance to the GPO (General Post Office)

Law enforcement agencies need to be better resourced if the scourge of paramilitarism is to be successfully tackled, a major report has found.

An independent action plan on how to deal with paramilitary groups published yesterday warned that if steps were not taken by the Executive, Policing Board and the PSNI to enhance community policing, "it is unlikely that significant progress can be made towards a culture of lawfulness".

The PSNI was also urged to prioritise investment in its investigative capacity for tackling criminality linked to the groups in question.

In addition, the report recommended that the UK Government better resource the National Crime Agency and HM Revenue and Customs to ensure they can prioritise "intensive work" to tackle all organised crime linked to such groups in Northern Ireland.

The reporting panel was set up last autumn as one of the key components of the Fresh Start deal agreed between the DUP and Sinn Fein.

It was tasked with producing a report with "recommendations for a strategy to disband paramilitary groups".

The panel's report said that while it had not encountered a desire among paramilitary groups on ceasefire to return to military campaigns, some members and former members were "still engaged in violence, intimidation and other criminal activities for personal gain".

Expand Close Kevin McGuigan, who was murdered in the Short Strand area of east Belfast last August / Facebook

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Last year alone, 88 casualties of paramilitary attacks were recorded by the PSNI, and approximately 1,000 people were driven out of their homes between 2012/13 and 2014/15 by paramilitaries from within their own community.

The greatest threat to security, however, comes from dissident republican groups.

More than 40 recommendations were made in the report to help bring about an end to such violent activity.

As well as the better resourcing of law enforcement agencies, the report recommended that the UK and Irish Governments put in place a mechanism to deal with any future decommissioning of weapons.

In addition, the Department of Justice was urged to look at introducing court reforms to help speed up terrorist-related cases and mechanisms to enable the Director of Public Prosecutions to refer sentences he believes to be unduly lenient.

The report also recommended that a monitoring body be put in place and agreement on a way forward for dealing with the past be reached as soon as possible.

The panel comprised former Assembly speaker and Alliance leader Lord Alderdice, former Women's Coalition leader Monica McWilliams and solicitor John McBurney.

It held talks with a wide range of groups, including the four main church leaders, and met its deadline of completing the report by the end of May.

Their work followed the Government's publication in October of an assessment of paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland.

That report, jointly drafted by the PSNI and MI5, was commissioned following the murder in August of Kevin McGuigan, who was shot near his home in the Short Strand area of Belfast.

A political crisis was prompted by the Chief Constable's belief that members of the IRA were involved in the killing.

Among the PSNI-MI5 report's findings was that the Provisional IRA's structures, including its ruling army council, remained in existence.

It also found that UVF structures remained in place and there had been some evidence of recruitment.

The UDA, meanwhile, remained in existence but was said to have limited control over members' activities.
First Minister Arlene Foster and deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness (right) with Father Gary Donegan (left) at Stormont Castle (Press Eye)

Stormont's leaders have vowed to stand shoulder to shoulder with a north Belfast priest who has been issued with a death threat by dissident republicans.

Father Gary Donegan has been a vocal critic of the gunmen behind murders and paramilitary-style vigilante attacks in the Ardoyne community where he is parish priest.

He along with a number of other community figures, including social workers, have been told by police that threats have been made against them.

First Minister Arlene Foster and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness invited the cleric to Stormont Castle to offer their support.

Outside they made a very public demonstration of solidarity, standing either side of the priest as they condemned those behind the threats.

Mrs Foster said the dissidents used a badge of convenience for criminal acts.

"We want to stand in solidarity with him and indeed with all those who have been the subject of threats from faceless people in north Belfast," she said.

"We just wanted to say to him that we stand shoulder to shoulder with him and all of those in north Belfast."

Mr McGuinness branded the threats "despicable".

"This is about showing solidarity with someone who has made an immense contribution to our entire community and to peace-making in our community and I think it is absolutely ridiculous that people who are identified really as so-called dissident republicans have been at the heart of threatening a man who has made an incredible contribution to life in the Ardoyne area."

He added: "The last person in the world they will intimidate is Father Gary."

The priest said he was humbled by the gesture.

"I am very humbled to be standing between these two people who we know have begun this new governance and I think what they are doing here is the leadership we all ask for and we all hope for," he said.

He added: "It's not just about me but the other people (who have been threatened), people who are working with young people."

The cleric was in defiant form as he insisted he would not be intimidated.

"If I see an injustice I will speak out about it, no-one will cower me, no-one will make me bend the knee," he said.

"In fact I will be even more determined to stand up for the rights of people."
Education Minister Richard Bruton has told the tens of thousands of school pupils sitting state exams to remember there are alternative ways towards achieving rewarding careers.

Almost 60,000 students are entered for the Leaving Certificate, including the vocational programme and the Applied course and a nother 60,652 younger students will sit the Junior Cert.

Exams run until the last week in June and the Leaving results will be released on August 17.

Mr Bruton extended best wishes to the pupils facing a stressful few weeks.

"There is great value in everything that students have achieved in the classroom and in their exam preparations, and I hope that they are successful in demonstrating that over the coming weeks," he said.

The minister appealed for students not to look at the exams as the be-all and end-all.

"While recognising that these exams are important, I hope that students remember that there are many opportunities open to them following on from the Leaving Certificate," Mr Bruton said.

"As well as routes to further and higher education there are alternative pathways to rewarding careers."

Mr Bruton said the Government was focused on doubling the number of apprenticeships available by 2020.

Exams are being sat by 117,453 people at 5,000 centres around the country.

There are four million test papers being sat over the 13 days of the state exams and 4,300 examiners will correct them over the summer.

Pat Burke, chairman of the State Examinations Commission, added his best wishes.

"The State examinations represent the culmination of much hard work by students, their families and schools," he said.

"The Commission is committed to ensuring that the examinations are conducted to the highest standards in an open, and fair manner. It is our objective to enable each candidate to display his or her achievements during what can be a stressful time.

"I know that the continued support of families and the wider education community and beyond is essential at this time."
Midwives have called for renewed efforts to tackle female genital mutilation (FGM) after more than 1,200 cases were recorded across England in just three months.

This includes 11 Britons who were identified as being subject to FGM.

Between January and March there were 1,242 newly recorded cases of FGM reported across English healthcare providers, according to d ata from the Health and Social Care Information Centre.

Two percent of all new cases were girls under the age of 18.

The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) professional policy adviser Janet Fyle called on health workers to be "vigilant".

She said: "These figures show that we need renewed and focused efforts to tackle FGM. This has to be backed by a national action plan so that all sectors and all professionals see FGM as their business, and protecting girls from such abuses becomes a normal part of their practice.

"Every one of these numbers is a girl or young woman who has been subjected to abuse.

"It's shocking that 29 of the new recorded cases (2%) are girls under 18. It is even more of a concern that 11 of those were girls born in the UK.

"This is why all healthcare professionals need to be vigilant in identifying women and girls at risk. They can then provide them with support and appropriate care and referral, and collaborate in the collection of data.

"Health professionals must report all cases of known FGM in girls under eighteen to the police. It is important that regulated professionals comply with their mandatory duty and legal obligation to report FGM cases.

"These statistics help us to determine where resources are needed, and where more concerted action needs to focus. London in particular needs to make even greater efforts to tackle this issue."

A spokesman for the Local Government Association, which runs the National FGM Centre in partnership with Barnardo's, said: "While these figures show new cases of FGM recorded, the FGM Centre's pioneering pilot project is also providing a more detailed picture of how many women and girls are at risk, adding to the information on total numbers available from the NHS, so support can be better targeted going forward.

"The report states there were seven cases where FGM was undertaken in the UK. While frontline social workers in councils across the country are increasingly aware of the criminal practice of FGM, it will only be stopped permanently if all agencies, including GP practices and communities, work together to keep women and girls safe."
When Donald Trump tweeted a picture of him eating a taco bowl with the caption: I love Hispanics, it sent one politician over the edge.

In an open letter which has become legendary in Capitol Hill, a Democratic congressman called Filemon Vela from Brownsville wrote an open letter to the Republican nominee.

Mr. Trump, you're a racist and you can take your border wall and shove it up your a**.

Mr Vela, a lawyer who was elected to congess in 2013, has reportedly earned a reputation as a quiet workhorse in the southern Texas district and favours working in the shadows, as reported by Valley Central.

But his letter meant the congressman exploded into the limelight and he was suddenly juggling multiple interview requests.

Referring to Mr Trumps tweet, Mr Vela said: "There is no connection between him and people of Hispanic origin, and then these comments about the judge as the icing on the cake. I mean, who would ever say that?

Happy #CincoDeMayo! The best taco bowls are made in Trump Tower Grill. I love Hispanics! https://t.co/ufoTeQd8yA pic.twitter.com/k01Mc6CuDI  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 5, 2016

Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is ruling over the scandal of the now defunct Trump University, has been accused by the Republican of being biased and unfair against him as he is a Mexican, although he was born in Indiana.

Mr Vela wrote the open letter over several days as he was driving from Texas to Washington, during which he stopped off at the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, the site of Dr Martin Luther Kings assassination.

In Mr Trump's first recorded address for a conference of Christian Hispanics last month, the presidential candidate filmed the two-minute video against loud background noise on his private plane.

At one point, Mr Trump almost dropped the piece of paper he was reading from.

"You're going to be very happy with president Trump," he said.

Mr Vela said to MSNBC that he agreed with Mr Trump on several policies like improving care for veterans, and dealing with Mexican drug cartels and deporting criminals who entered the US illegally.

But he wanted to take the real estate mogul to task for his rhetoric about those of Mexican descent and his plan to build a wall along the US-Mexican border.

Before you dismiss me as just another 'Mexican,' let me point out that my great-great grandfather came to this country in 1857, well before your own grandfather, he wrote in the letter.

His grandchildren (my grandfather and his brothers) all served our country in World War I and World War II. His great-grandson, my father, served in the U.S. Army and, coincidentally, was one of the first 'Mexican' federal judges ever appointed to the federal bench.

I will not presume to speak on behalf of every American of Mexican descent, for every undocumented worker born in Mexico who is contributing to our country every day or, for that matter, every decent citizen in Mexico, he added.
An EgyptAir Airbus was forced to land in Uzbekistan after a bomb threat (AP)

An EgyptAir aircraft that made an emergency landing in Uzbekistan following a bomb threat has resumed its flight to Beijing, Egyptian officials said.

The officials said no bomb was found after the Airbus A-330-220 and its passengers were searched by explosives experts and the plane took off for the Chinese capital four hours after it landed in the town of Urgench, about 600 miles west of the Uzbek capital, Tashkent.

According to the officials, an anonymous caller telephoned security agents at the Cairo airport to say a bomb was on board EgyptAir Flight 955 which had 135 passengers and crew on board.

The agents immediately contacted the aircraft and ordered it to land at the nearest airport, they said.

In Russia, the news agency RIA Novosti quoted an unnamed official with Uzbekistan Airways as saying the airport in Urgench has been closed following the EgyptAir plane's emergency landing.

Later, Russia's Interfax news agency quoted Uzbekistan Airways as saying the plane was searched, no explosive devices were found and the aircraft was cleared to go.

The incident came nearly three weeks after an EgyptAir flight crashed in the Mediterranean Sea as it was approaching the Egyptian coast while en route to Cairo from Paris. All 66 people on board were killed and the search for the plane's flight and data recorders - the so-called black boxes - is still under way.

Egyptian officials say the Paris-Cairo plane was most likely downed by an act of terror.

Last October, a Russian airliner crashed in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula shortly after taking off from the Egyptian resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh, killing all 224 people on board. A local affiliate of the extremist Islamic State group claimed responsibility for downing the aircraft just hours after the crash. In November, Russia said an explosive device brought down the aircraft.

The Russian airliner's crash has decimated Egypt's already battered tourism industry. While the cause of the May 19 EgyptAir crash in the Mediterranean remains unknown, it has associated Egypt with another air disaster that further dented the once lucrative industry.

The two disasters have unsettled authorities at the Cairo airport, where false alarms or bomb threats have caused lengthy delays to flights and at least one cancellation this week.

Security has also been considerably tightened at Egypt's 20-plus airports since the Russian disaster, with passengers now subjected to roughly the same security measures in force at major international airports.
Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton speaks to supporters in the Brooklyn borough of New York (AP)

US Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders waves as he arrives on stage for the CNN Democratic Presidential Debate at the Brooklyn Navy Yard on April 14, 2016, in New York. AFP/Getty Images

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, left, gestures towards Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., at the start of a break during the CNN Democratic Presidential Primary Debate at the Brooklyn Navy Yard on Thursday, April 14, 2016 in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

George Clooney hosted two weekend fundraisers in California on behalf of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton has taken a swipe at her likely rival in the White House race, Donald Trump (AP)

With the Middle East in relentless turmoil this is no time for a novelty act novice like Donald Trump. But while we fear change, in that adolescent country across the Atlantic they crave it. Above: Hillary Clinton (file photo)

A girl watches Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speak at a rally at Hartnell College, Wednesday, May 25, 2016, in Salinas, Calif. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton reacts on stage at a United Food and Commercial Workers International Union hall, Wednesday, May 25, 2016, in Buena Park, Calif. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Hillary Clinton is on the cusp of securing the Democrats' presidential nomination (AP)

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been living in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London for more than three years

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange claims Google is directly engaged with Hillary Clintons election campaign. The editor-in-chief of the whistle blowing website has been living in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for more than three years

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange claims Google is working closely with Hillary Clintons presidential campaign to promote the Democratic presidential candidate.

Assange appeared via video link from the Ecuadorian embassy in London as part of the 'New Era of Journalism: Farewell to Mainstream international media' forum in Moscow.

He said: "Google is directly engaged with Hillary Clintons campaign" and claimed the technology giant used the US State Department on a "a quid pro quo" basis.

"Of course when she is in power she is a problem for freedom of speech. We know what she is going to do. And she made the chart for the destruction of Libya, she was involved in the process of taking the Libyan armoury and sending it to Syria."

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Assange reiterated his claims that Clinton is a "war hawk" that "seemingly" wants to start wars.

"What we have with Clinton is someone who is a hawk but who has the tools of legal interventionism, a rhetorical cover to start wars, and someone who seemingly wants to start them From WikiLeaks perspective Hillary Clinton is a problem in terms of war and peace."

Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at a rally in Los Angeles (AP) Donald Trump won the New Jersey primary on the final day of voting for Republicans (AP) Hillary Clinton speaks during the Founders Day Gala in Milwaukee (AP) NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 31: Democratic Presidential Candidate Senator Bernie Sanders speaks at a rally at St. Mary's Park in the Bronx borough March 31, 2016 in New York City. Sanders and opponent Hillary Clinton are campaigning ahead of the April 5 primary in New York. (Photo by Andrew Renneisen/Getty Images) Getty Images WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on the balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy in London Julian Assange speaking from the balcony of the Ecuadorian Embassy Julian Assange speaking from the balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy in London WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been living in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for more than three years Julian Assange, pictured here with Noam Chomsky, is confined to the Ecuadorian Embassy Police officers outside the Embassy of Ecuador, in Knightsbridge, central London, where Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is claiming asylum Julian Assange is seeking to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he faces sex allegations by two women Julian Assange has been confined to Ecuador's Embassy for almost three years / Facebook

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He also pointed out that former Google CEO Eric Schmidt is now heading the Pentagon innovation board.

"Google is heavily integrated with Washington power, at personal level and at business level. Google, which has increasing control over the distribution channels, is intensely allying itself with the US exceptionalism.

"It [Google] shows the will to use that at different levels. It will inevitably influence its audience."

The founder and editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks added: "Google is an intensely Washington, DC-aligned company. I see a Google exit from China It seems much more to do with Google's feeling that it is part of family America and that it is opposed to the Chinese."

Fortune reported last year that researchers had found that "Google search rankings could potentially decide the outcome of an election".

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"Through five experiments in two countries... biased rankings in search results can shift the opinions of undecided voters by 20% or more, sometimes even reaching as high as 80% in some demographic groups.

"If Google tweaks its algorithm to show more positive search results for a candidate, the researchers say, the searcher may form a more positive opinion of him or her."

Facebook 'squeezed'

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Assange also claimed that the US government can put pressure on social media site Facebook.

"The US apparatus can squeeze Facebook, Facebook squeezes your capital, you don't want to risk losing your capital so you start to adjust reportage as an individual, you start to adjust the things you say."

NSA '80 percent privatised'

During the video conference Assange said that the US National Security Agency is now '80 percent privatised'.

"There is a merger between the corporate organisations and state 80 percent of the National Security Agency budget is privatised. The NSA is the core of the US deep state There has been a smoothing out between the government and the corporations."

Assange has been staying at London's Ecuadorian embassy since August 2012.

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He is wanted for questioning in Sweden over a sex allegation, which he denies, but believes he will be extradited to the United States to be quizzed about the activities of WikiLeaks if he travels there.

In February a United Nations working group decided that he is being unlawfully detained. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said the Swedish and British authorities should end Assange's "deprivation of liberty" and respect his physical integrity and freedom of movement.

Melinda Taylor, part of Assange's legal team, said the UN report made clear that the WikiLeaks founder was neither a fugitive from justice, nor could he just walk out of the embassy.

She called it a "damning indictment" of the way Mr Assange has been treated.

Further reading

How might Google influence opinion?

Based on research by Dr. Robert Epstein & Ronald E. Robertson webpagefx.com examined how the tech giant might influence opinion through its search results. The findings are summarised in a series of graphics below.
Donald Trump won the New Jersey primary on the final day of voting for Republicans (AP)

Powered by a solid triumph in California, Hillary Clinton declared victory in her year-long battle for the heart of the Democratic Party, seizing her place in history and setting out on the difficult task of fusing a fractured party to confront Donald Trump.

Mrs Clinton cruised to easy victories in four of the six state contests on Tuesday. With each win she further solidified Senator Bernie Sanders's defeat and dashed his already slim chances of using the last night of state contests to refuel his flagging bid.

The victories allowed Mrs Clinton to celebrate her long-sought "milestone" - the first woman poised to lead a major political party's presidential ticket. Standing before a flag-waving crowd in Brooklyn, the former secretary of state soaked up the cheers and beamed.

"Barriers can come down. Justice and equality can win," she said. "This campaign is about making sure there are no ceilings, no limits on any of us. This is our moment to come together."

Mrs Clinton had already secured the delegates needed for the nomination before Tuesday's contests, according to an Associated Press tally. Still, Mr Sanders had hoped to use a victory in California to persuade party insiders to switch their allegiances. Mr Sanders picked up wins in Montana and North Dakota, but Mrs Clinton won substantially in California.

Mr Sanders nonetheless vowed to continue to his campaign to the last contest in the District of Columbia next Tuesday.

"The struggle continues," he said.

Mrs Clinton's victory in California assured her a majority of pledged delegates - those chosen in primaries and caucuses. That is notable because Mr Sanders has argued that his White House bid remained viable as long as he stood a chance of winning a majority of those delegates. He would have needed a landslide on Tuesday to reach that goal.

Mr Sanders is under intense pressure from top Democrats hoping to coax him gently out of the race, win over his voters and turn to the task of challenging Mr Trump.

Despite the pledge to soldier on, there were signs Mr Sanders was listening. In his typically passionate remarks, the socialist firebrand repeatedly noted "we are in this together" and argued that a tenet of his campaign was that "we will not allow right-wing Republicans to control our government."

Mr Sanders said he called Mrs Clinton to congratulate her on the victories.

The senator planned to return home to Vermont on Wednesday, before coming to Washington on Thursday for meetings and a campaign rally.

Mr Sanders is downsizing his campaign. About half the staff is being laid off with most of the jobs involving field staff and advance aides, according to two people familiar with the plans. Campaign officials declined comment.

President Barack Obama called both Mr Sanders and Mrs Clinton late on Tuesday, congratulating both on their campaigns. The White House said Mr Sanders and Mr Obama would meet on Thursday, at Mr Sanders's request, to discuss "how to build on the extraordinary work he has done to engage millions of Democratic voters, and to build on that enthusiasm."

Mrs Clinton and Mr Sanders are also expected to connect in the coming days, Mrs Clinton's spokesman said late Tuesday. Their campaign managers spoke earlier in the day, signaling that conversations were underway about the road ahead.

As the Democratic race was wrapping up, Republicans were unraveling anew. Despite handily winning Republican contests in California, New Jersey, New Mexico, South Dakota and Montana, presumptive nominee Mr Trump was in damage control mode over his race-based attacks on a Hispanic judge that had party leaders in fits. After one senator rescinded his endorsement and House Speaker Paul Ryan called the comments "racist," Mr Trump sought to calm worries with a rare, scripted victory speech.

"I understand the responsibility of carrying the mantle and I will never, ever let you down - too much work, too many people, blood, sweat and tears," Mr Trump said, reading from a teleprompter at a rally at one of his golf courses in suburban New York City. "I will make you proud of your party and our movement, and that's what it is, is a movement."

Mr Trump went on to preview what Mrs Clinton has ahead of her: He blasted her as the defender of a "rigged" political system. He promised to deliver a longer speech on the Clintons "probably Monday".

"The Clintons have turned the politics of personal enrichment into an art form for themselves. They've made hundreds of millions of dollars selling access, selling favours, selling government contracts, and I mean hundreds of millions of dollars," he said.

In her remarks, Mrs Clinton was similarly hard-edged, saying Mr Trump was "temperamentally unfit to be commander in chief".

"When he says let's make America great again, that's code for let's take America backward," she said.

Mrs Clinton now has 2,184 pledged delegates - or more than half of the 4,051 total. Mr Sanders has 1,804.

When including superdelegates, or party officials who can back any candidate, Mrs Clinton's lead is much bigger - 2,755 to Mr Sanders's 1,852.

It takes 2,383 to win. Mrs Clinton crossed that threshold Monday, according to the AP tally

Mr Sanders and some in his army of die-hard supporters expressed frustration about the survey. As he addressed supporters in Los Angeles, the crowd chanted "Media is corrupt".

Both Mrs Clinton and Mr Trump made overtures toward an energised and passionate pool of voters. Mr Trump noted he and Mr Sanders both oppose the president's Pacific Rim trade deal, and he sympathised with frustration for having "been left out in the cold by a rigged system of super delegates".

Mrs Clinton thanked the senator for driving the debate over economic mobility and income inequality and tried to show she absorbed some of his message. Mostly, she expressed empathy of a candidate who knows the bitter taste of defeat.

"It never feels good to put our heart into a cause or a candidate you believe in and come up short," she said. "I know that feeling well. But as we look ahead to the battle that awaits, let's remember all that unites us."

But for Mrs Clinton, the night was largely about marking the moment.

Her campaign produced a video to introduce her speech, chronicling women's rise in politics from the suffragettes through Mrs Clinton's concession to speech to then-Senator Barack Obama, eight years ago on Tuesday when she thanked supporters for helping her put "18 million cracks" in the "highest, hardest glass ceiling".
The important recommendations of the panel investigating paramilitary activity, which was published yesterday, echo many of the concerns expressed by this newspaper concerning the need to resource adequately the battle against dissident republicans and the remnants of loyalist terrorist organisations.

Some of the conclusions might seem all too obvious, including the observation that former paramilitaries "are still engaged in violence, intimidation and other criminal activities for personal gain".

Nevertheless, its recommendations are most welcome. While we take no pleasure in being proven right, it is refreshing to see that the authors of the report have been covering much the same ground as this newspaper.

This includes the prioritisation of investment to increase and deepen the investigative capacity of the police in this important area of their activities.

The Belfast Telegraph has called consistently for concerted and clearly joined-up action from the Stormont Executive, the PSNI and its funders - the Policing Board - to give the Chief Constable sufficient resources to tackle the paramilitary problem, which continues to disfigure our society.

The Report also recommends, and rightly so, the UK Government's need to better resource the National Crime Agency and HMRC to ensure that they too can prioritise intensive work to tackle all kinds of organised crime which is linked to paramilitary groups here.

The scale of the problem is underlined by the bare statistics set out in the report.

Around 1,000 people were driven from their homes between 2012/13 and 2014/15 by paramilitaries within their own community.

Despite the fierce opposition from republicans, the introduction of the National Crime Agency into Northern Ireland policing has been like a breath of fresh air.

This is partly because they bring their wider, national-grade experience and know- how to investigate a variety of criminal enterprises here, and - significantly - these do not all have paramilitary links.

Nevertheless, all policing strategies will inevitably be judged as successes or failures, based on their results.

However, with common sense and support from our politicians, as well as the vital provision of adequate funding, the tide might just be turning against the last vestiges of our sordid paramilitary past.

It is about time too.
Ramadan has begun! We know, because of the sightings of statements by politicians in social media. Lets review, and grade:

President Obama:

"As Muslim Americans celebrate the holy month, I am reminded that we are one American family" @POTUS on Ramadan pic.twitter.com/CPTEzR2INz  The White House (@WhiteHouse) June 5, 2016

Note, this is a twitter link to the Full statement at WhiteHouse.gov. Its an eloquent and respectful statement, and includes a clear shot at Trump. However, while I am sure that the allusion to refugees is sincere, it is burdened with the weight of Obamas foreign policy, which is forever tainted by the drone war in Pakistan & Afghanistan, failure to close Gitmo, the support of the Yemen offensive, and a general failure of opportunity with regards to the Arab Spring (see: everything written by Shadi Hamid). The shot at Trump is red meat for Muslims, which shouldnt distract us (as red meat is meant to do) from a critical stance. Grade: B.

Hillary Clinton:

As we begin Ramadan, I wish all Muslims a blessed time of reflection, family, and good health. Ramadan Mubarak. -H  Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 5, 2016

Hillarys tweet is fairly innocuous and reasonable. I appreciate that she wrote the tweet herself. Like Obamas tweet back in 2013 it doesnt really say much beyond the bland appeal to family and happy thoughts, but thats a constraint imposed by Twitter. For anyone like myself who remembers Hillarys position on the Dubai Ports World imbroglio (versus President Carter), it is hard to view Hillarys outreach to Muslims with a non-cynical eye. Hilariously, the tweet was dissected by Islamophobes as implying that Hillary may have converted to Islam, because of the use of We. For the benefit of those on the right with Sharia-paranoia and who lack an understanding of grammar, lets point out that Ramadan is an event in time, therefore all human beings regardless of religion are literally in Ramadan, right now. There are no exceptions, unless you have a TARDIS. Grade: B.

Since it clearly needs to be said explicitly, No, Hillary Clinton is not a Muslim. Donald Trump, however

Bernie Sanders:

It is time to say enough is enough. It is time to end religious bigotry.https://t.co/cxfn7DfVG9  Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) June 5, 2016

Bernie didnt have anything Ramadan-specific, but instead posted this video about ending religious bigotry and making a call for living a moral life where ideals of justice should (ahem) trump those of capitalism and greed. Its a great video and message. Not exactly a Ramadan message per se, but the timing clearly meant it to be Ramadan-related. Bernie has been doing well organically with Muslims, so he doesnt need to pander. His video is making a broader outreach to people of faith as a whole, and in that regard I like the way he didnt focus it solely on Muslims but targeted it to all faith communities. Grade: A.

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

He hasnt said anything about Ramadan, but did spare a moment to tweet something nice about Muhammad Ali. And you know what? I think its probably the most sincere thing hes tweeted yet (Bernie disagrees). Trump and Ali had a generally positive history. Whether Trump understands that Ali was Muslim or not is irrelevant; the fact that Ali had a strong opinion on Trumps Muslim ban is also irrelevant. For Trump, saying something nice takes serious effort, and theres literally zero political constituency that Trump could possibly be pandering to by saying it. Grade: A.

Its a sign of our political relevance that Ramadan does elicit a response by politicians, even if indirect. However, the passing of Muhammad Ali gives context to this political outreach. Ali was determined to not be the white mans negro and he was fearless in refusing to play that game  for example, with regards to serving in Vietnam. By refusing to fight, he epitomized jihad. We must take inspiration from Ali and resolve not to be the imperialists Muslim. Let this Ramadan, embedded in the politics of the day, refresh our resolve to put our Deen first and Dunya second, inshallah!

Ramadan mubarak to all!
Catholics are such hypocrites, says a friend. They have all these rules, they break them and then they show up for Church on Sunday.

I think carefully.

Do your parents have rules? I say.

Yes, she responds.

Do you break any of them? I ask.

Yes, she says.

Do you still show up at the dinner table? I say.

Yes, she answers.

Well, I respond. Our parents set a value system and raise us to abide by it. We go out into the world and we sometimes fall short of that. We keep growing and keep striving to become better people and stay centered around that value system. It really is not so different in the Catholic faith. We are a Catholic family that aspires towards growth, humanity and becoming better individuals.

I think I see what you mean, she says.

3 Misconceptions About Catholics:

1. Catholics are seeking perfection  Catholics are NOT seeking perfection, they are seeking redemption. The Catholic faith is built upon imperfection and forgiveness. Jesus did not seek out whole people, he sought to make people whole.

2. Catholics are hypocrites  Catholics are NOT hypocrites, they are human. Every single person falls short in their lifetime. Every individual stumbles and is humbled. People make mistakes, people will sin. The Catholic faith acknowledges the human condition and forgiveness.

3. Catholics are condemning  Catholics are NOT condemning. The Catholic church has established value-based principles that guide us as Christians. It is a unified belief that binds us and guides us in an attempt to be better individuals and be better to all individuals.



(Photo Courtesy of Pexels)

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Indonesian sailors arrive at Halim Perdanakusuma air base in Jakarta, after being freed from captivity by Abu Sayyaf Islamic militants in the southern Philippines, May 1, 2016.

Four Malaysian sailors taken hostage by Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) militants two months ago have been freed, news reports quoted Philippine and Malaysian officials as saying Wednesday.

The Malaysians who were abducted from their ship as it sailed near southern Philippine waters on April 1, were released Wednesday morning, Philippine military spokesman Maj. Filemon Tan said according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

He identified the Malaysians as brothers Wong Teck Kang, 31, and Wong Teck Chii, 29, their cousin Johnny Lau Jung Hien, 21, and Wong Hung Sing, 34, who is not related.

In Malaysia, Deputy Inspector General of Police Noor Rashid Ibrahim confirmed that the four had been released from captivity at the hands of the southern Philippine-based Islamic militant group, and told the New Straits Times newspaper that the sailors were OK.

After their release, the sailors were taken to the coast of the southern Philippine province of Sulu, where they boarded a speedboat to Sandakan, in the nearby eastern Malaysian state of Sabah, AFP quoted Tan as saying in a statement.

Information received from ground units disclosed that the freed victims arrived in Sandakan at about 6 a.m. today, Tan said, adding he could not confirm if a ransom had been paid.

Previous reports claimed that Abu Sayyaf had demanded 18 million ringgit (U.S. $4.46 million) for their release.

Reports from Jolo, in the southern Philippines, indicated that Malaysian and Filipino negotiators managed to secure their release after several rounds of negotiations.

Family member contacted

According to The Star newspaper in Malaysia, an unnamed relative of two of the sailors confirmed that all four were free.

I was told that the four of them are in good health. Their family members are now in Sandakan waiting to receive them, the relative said.

The Star reported that the four arrived in Sandakan on Wednesday morning after being released late Tuesday by Abu Sayyaf, whose leaders have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) extremist group.

The four were taken hostage from their tugboat while it sailed to Sarawak, a state that borders Sabah on the island of Borneo, from Manila. Five other crew members on the Malaysian-registered timber-hauling barge  three sailors from Myanmar and two from Indonesia  were left behind.

The April 1 hijacking occurred a week after Abu Sayyaf abducted 10 Indonesian sailors in waters of the southernmost region of the Philippines that borders Sabah. The Indonesians were released on May 1, but Indonesian officials did not comment on whether a ransom had been paid.

Abu Sayyaf: a history of executing hostages

In the case of the abduction of the four Malaysian sailors, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak ordered government agencies to step up efforts to secure their safe release. Najib personally assured family members that the sailors would return home safely.

In November, Abu Sayyaf beheaded Bernard Then, a Malaysian citizen who had been abducted from a seaside restaurant in Sabah in May 2015.

While the four Malaysian sailors were being held hostage, Abu Sayyaf beheaded Canadian hostage John Ridsdel on April 25, five hours after a ransom deadline had passed.

Ridsdel, 68, a former mining executive, was kidnapped along with countryman Robert Hall, 50, Norwegian Kjartan Sakkingstad, 56, and his Filipino girlfriend, Maritess Flor, 40, from a resort on Samal Island, in the Philippine province of Davao, in September.

Two weeks earlier, Abu Sayyaf had threatened to behead one of the captives if a ransom of 1 million ringgit (U.S. $6.2 million) for each person was not paid.

In its latest ultimatum, the group gave the Philippine and Canadian governments and families of the captives until 3 p.m. on June 13 to pay the ransoms.




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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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Kantar Media and partners will begin a pilot television audience measurement trial in Nigeria in a few months, heralding the continuation of efforts to introduce independent audience measurement in Africa, which is one of the most diverse and complex markets in the world for media measurement.

Jennie Beck

Bizcommunity.com spoke exclusively to Jennie Beck, global director of media for TNS Global and Kantar Media. Beck was in Cape Town last week to attend the Kantar Media World Audiences Summit, taking place in Africa for the first time, to discuss the latest trends in audience measurement, as well as Kantars latest research and innovation in this critical media field.

Beck gave Bizcommunity a broad understanding of what the audience measurement challenges are in Africa. There are three things dominating audience measurement in Africa, she says:

Current infrastructure in Africa and the challenges of media management. Politics. What is available.

Number one is not really an African issue, each country has infrastructure challenges, it depends on the technology available. There are some markets where there are strong and single providers of satellite services - in South Africa, DStv is a huge part of the market, so there is the opportunity to use return path data; and a bigger slice of market for data to make sense.

Some markets where the television ownership in the home is lower, television viewing is done outside of the home, so then you have to measure differently: people rather than device. This is a hugely complex continent with different challenges in different markets.

On point two, Beck says many media owners and broadcasters across several African markets, up into the Middle East, are less interested in having audience measurement than agencies and brands.

They are more resistant. Some collect their own data, some have own data, but also, an independent audience measurement system is transparent and your competitors will have access to your data and visa versa, so it will be more of an open trading environment and some broadcasters are suspicious of that, Beck explained.

But it means that those who are creating the greatest demand for independent audience measurement, are more likely to be global marketers who have nothing to plan with in African markets, and their agencies working alongside them. That is the political challenge.

Infrastructure

Beck also referred to the patchy data in Africa being a problem: not just the media data, but also population data and other demographics.

You need to represent the total population. That is what advertisers want, what agencies want. Otherwise we have no idea how to weight the data. We have to recognise the complexity and size of some of the markets in Africa.

In most countries there is some form of media survey, often a diary or an interview. In the biggest countries its quite regular, but in others its sporadic. Its expensive to run the research.

Kantar is involved in the Kantar GeoPoll, in an attempt to do something quick on the continent and plug some of the data gaps.

GeoPoll, Kantar Media, and Cuende launched Pan-African OOH, the first data product to regularly measure consumption of Out of Home mediums across Africa, on 1 June 2016. Through a cutting-edge combination of satellite imagery and mobile survey data, Pan-African OOH measures traffic patterns and reach of billboards, urban furniture, and other OOH media - allowing brands, agencies, and media owners to accurately gauge the reach and effectiveness of their OOH advertisements.

After out of home and broadcast media, Kantar will expand the research to add print on soon, so that the four main media (TV, radio, print and OOH) will be reported on together on a daily basis.

Beck says it is an exciting step: There is really no high frequency planning data in the market. It is also a way of allowing us to represent a wider population with wider data.

What is needed in Africa is fast reliable TV and radio data, particularly as radio is often the biggest impact medium in Africa, Beck points out.

Independent measurement

Television is where advertisers know TV will require independent, granular measurement, Beck adds. Which is where Kantar Media comes in.

We already do return path data in many African countries. We are looking at how you would introduce TV audience measurement in major African markets. We need to find someone else to sponsor that. What we will probably be looking at is some kind of hybrid: small TV panels in metros that can control daily output; with TV panel reporting on day after/Geopoll reporting same time, and linking the data to have a currency for the whole country.

Beck says Nigeria will get a pilot TAM (television audience measurement) study later this year, reporting into 2017 when the data will be released, although there were quite a few issues of methodology, size, test city and infrastructure still to resolve.

Because Nigeria has high TV penetration, we think we can use an in home meter, a more basic version of the People Meter. It will be able to produce TV ratings the day after. If we can do it there, then we can do it anywhere We have big global advertisers that are keen on seeing this started.

Follow the on-going conversation from the Kantar World Audiences Summit, Cape Town, on #KantarOnAir.
The digital age has seen smaller businesses compete effectively with their bigger counterparts thanks to business agility. This buzzword refers to the ability to adapt and respond to the rapid rate of change in today's business environment.

Illia Uriadnikov via 123RF

Smaller businesses have the important advantage of not having to check with their shareholders before implementing quick-turnaround changes that keep them on the cutting edge. Our understanding of what workforce agility entails is also constantly changing, as new technologies open up new possibilities. Yannick Decaux, country manager, South Africa, and sales director, sub-Saharan Africa, at Orange Business Services, explains that one aspect of business agility that is starting to transform the very fibre of how a business is set up is workforce agility.

Labour force flexibility

This drive to create labour force flexibility has helped fuel the growth of freelancing sites like Upwork, Freelancer.com or People per Hour. This is the so-called gig economy, where employees are matched to short-term work via online platforms. Millions of talented freelancers worldwide are using the internet to find work. Changing expectations for employment means employees are more willing to explore on-demand work and employers seek the benefits this flexibility provides.

The trend is informing the expectation of those entering the labour market: 74% of Freelancer.com users are Millennials (people aged between 18 and 34 years old). However, mature skills are also available - Upwork claims nearly a third of freelancers are 55 years old and above.

Decaux explains that one of the driving forces behind this trend is the ability to build a flexible career on your own terms. They have the power to prioritise personal experiences if they so choose, as well as matching their work to their passions. In addition, they are connected to a much greater pool of opportunities from around the globe. While employee benefits and guaranteed employment are absent, a large number of workers have gravitated towards structuring their careers in this fashion.

The percentages of people going into freelance work by choice are increasing all the time, as are the percentage who are finding their work online. A substantial collection of skills are being made available through these online marketplaces: architecture to CAD design, e-commerce to accountancy, creative design, writing, photography, technical skills, web design and more, according to Freelancer.com.

Increasing benefits

The range of work that can be performed by freelancers is also increasing. Fast-growing categories such as admin support, writing, and translating, have been around for some time, but one can even find doctors (Medicast) and lawyers (Axiom) online.

The benefits of the gig economy to an employer are numerous. With a few clicks, one could hire an expert with years of experience, or a relatively unskilled novice, who competes with others online on the basis of price. Another benefit is that one could have four freelance employees working on different aspects of a project and finish it in a week, where one permanent employee might have taken a month to complete the same task at the same cost to the company.

Business owners should, however, keep in mind that there are pitfalls associated with entrusting work to a new person. Your recourse may be limited if you are let down by a freelancer, especially if the individual is from a different country. One might first get a less business-critical task achieved by a freelancer and, if it is performed to satisfaction, employ that individual to something more challenging. In doing so, the business builds up a list of the best contractors to call upon when the need arises.

While the on-demand economy is bound to face strong opposition from unions, businesses might well find that some outsourced work makes the company more profitable and more agile.
I've been doing SEO in South Africa for 10 years. One of the questions I get asked a lot is, "What quick things can I do to get to the top of Google?"

The answer to this question is that you can do a lot and its easier than you might think:

You can simply ensure that your on-site SEO is adequate



Your targeted keyword is in the site title, description, H1 tag and content



All your images ALT text and your page URLs contain your keyword



Your site is getting plenty of links from automatic article directory submissions, maybe some site-wide footer links and forum/blog comments. You could even exchange links with other websites or pay for them.

The above strategy is how easy it was to rank globally for your chosen keyword back in 2009, and this strategy still seems to work just fine for most SEOs in South Africa.

Now for the bad news

In case you didnt know, those secrets dont really work anymore; certainly not in todays global SEO game. South African businesses that utilise SEO as part of their marketing strategy need to be aware that Googles algorithm is a lot more sophisticated these days and it wont be long before Google starts to pay more attention to how SEOs are optimising for the South African SERPs (Search Engine Results Page).

Certainly, the last bullet point above is not a recommended tactic today, and could get your site in deep trouble with Google.

The annual organic ranking-factors report by Search Metrics highlights approximately 50 of what are deemed to be the most influential signals currently at play, all contributing in varying amounts to how sites fair in the organic SERPs.

If you really want to outperform your peers online, chances are that youre going to need to build a medium to long-term strategy that addresses as many of these signals as possible. You will need to prove to search robots and users that your website and content really does deserve to be more visible than that of your competitors.

There is hope!

With the bad news out of the way, it is worth mentioning that there are still a number of simple, but impactful, often forgotten, SEO tactics that you can use to improve your websites overall performance and visibility. By no means are these the Holy Grail, but they will help your site to perform better and provide some valuable food for thought.

1. Optimising listings outside of the big search engines

There is no doubt that the big search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo account for a tonne of search online. As such, they are often the first and only places that online marketers look when trying to secure traffic. However, there are alternative places that SEO can factor-in and for certain industries, such as food, travel and automotive. These alternatives can have an extremely positive impact. Take for example:

Listing sites such as Carfax Used Cars, TripAdvisor, Realtor.com and Google+ Local



App Stores such as Google Play Store and iTunes



Listing Apps such as Hotels.com, AirBnB and Yelp

Many of these sites have their own internal algorithms and optimising towards them can aid the external search visibility of your own site, plus provide vast amounts of referral traffic. Furthermore, the quality signals associated with ranking prominently on large authoritative sites are capable of influencing visibility and rankings across large search engines too.

2. Leverage user generated content

User Generated Content (UGC) is a force to be reckoned with! Getting customers, consumers and users involved in your content creation is a great way to scale SEO efforts, build-out your sites Information Architecture and generate trust-building consumer-focused content.

In an environment where content is king, some of the most cost-effective and efficient ways of growing content across your brands digital assets is to incentivise others to do it for you!

How does this look in real terms?



Q&A sections on your website



Forums with relevant topics and conversations



Surveys to build data sets that can be incorporated into rich media assets



Customer feedback

Reviews are also great ways to use UGC in building brand authority and trust while contributing towards your SEO campaign. Not only do reviews provide fresh, unique content which is keyword rich, but by using schema code to mark-up reviews you will also allow Google to present your reviews and ratings as Rich Snippets and within its Knowledge Graph.

Studies have shown that Rich Snippets and Knowledge Graph content can increase click through rate (CTR) in search engines by up to 30%.

3. Using PPC to validate your keyword strategy

Within SEO campaigns you wont necessarily know how profitable a keyword will be until youve invested the time and effort to rank for it. However, this process can be expedited with paid search tests.

Say you have a very competitive keyword with 5,000 searches a month, and a much less competitive term getting 250 search a month; intuition and sheer ambition will often prompt you to invest resources into establishing your site for keyword A. However, a quick PPC test could show that keyword B produces twice the conversions as keyword A, even with such low search volume. This can then validate focusing your keyword strategy towards the lower volume, less competitive keyword in order to maximise revenue and increase conversions.

The point is that insight is incredibly valuable and should be used to help structure and sculpt an informed SEO strategy. Pay-per-click offers some great opportunities to garner this insight.

To summarise

These arent clever technical tricks that will catapult your site to the top of search, they are tactics that, for me, are often forgotten about or neglected, but represent healthy wins in terms of improved website performance and visibility.

SEO in South Africa is no longer something that can happen silently behind the scenes, using manipulative tactics  it is part of the overall marketing mix. Put users first and ask whether your SEO activities will benefit the customer. If the answer is yes, you know youre investing time appropriately.
International clothing brands may be getting a foot up against local firms, thanks to the weaker rand.

A clothing label is seen at a Zara store in Madrid. Picture: Reuters

For homegrown retailers, this is likely to result in lower prices and narrower margins. Truworths has already reported a 0.8% decline in comparable store retail sales for the six months to end-December 2015, compared with a year earlier.

About 12 international players are vying for a piece of SAs R160bn per year market.

These include Inditex, the worlds largest clothing retailer through its Zara brand, H&M and Cotton On.

Three years ago, these companies may have had a tough time due to SAs high import tariffs of as much as 45% duty on foreign goods.

But with the rand trading at some of its weakest levels against major currencies, these brands are now able to compete on price.

Truworths CEO Michael Mark said the competition in the market was heavy  "increasingly so with international retailers entering the market". In addition, he said, new affordability requirements that require documentary proof before additional credit can be offered, were putting a strain on locals.

Mark said that to remain competitive Truworths would continue to focus on its long-term understanding of the local market and its "DNA".

SA has more than 23-million square metres in shopping centre space, placing it seventh globally and ahead of countries in Europe. There is another 2-million square metres under construction or planned, according to Urban Studies, a property market research firm.

The construction of more malls comes despite the strain on consumer budgets. Those hurting the most are middle-income consumers who shop at middle-to high-end stores. With the price advantage all but gone, competition has boiled down to differentiation of the brands and what they offer.

The price of clothing at Gap and Cotton On is comparable with that at The Foschini Group, Truworths, Woolworths and Edgars.

Edgars has introduced more than 10 global brands into its stores, which compete with its own products. In an effort to drive foot traffic, SAs biggest retailer has turned to promotion and sales, but to no gain.

The Woolworths strategy has been to diversify into other markets, most notably Australia through is David Jones acquisition.

Some local firms have been little affected by the arrival of competitors. Mr Price is one of them. Research from Euromonitor International shows Pepkor Retail maintained the leading position in retail in 2015 with an 18% value share.

"Driven by the strong demand for the Pep and Ackermans brands, Pepkors position in the channel is based on its expansive distribution network.... Pepkor continues to target low-income and middle-income consumers with its low price strategy," the report said.

Fashion blogger Janet Pierce said consumers trusted the quality of foreign brands more. "There used to be that trust in local brands but somewhere along the line that changed. If a consumer was going to spend R600 on a shirt at Foschini, they would now rather do it at Zara."
The government's efforts to boost the clothing industry are beginning to bear fruit, with the sector increasing its exports.

Trade and Industry minister Rob Davies addresses a media briefing on the department's budget vote on Wednesday.Picture: GCIS

Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies told the Wear SA industry imbizo in Cape Town on Tuesday that the footwear and leather sub-sectors, in particular, were contributing almost R5bn in annual export revenue.

"I commend a significant growth in the exports of leather and leather goods, and its contribution to the reduction of the annual trade deficit," Davies said.

The clothing, textile, footwear and leather sector has been under pressure, with thousands of jobs being lost. Government interventions such as the clothing and textile competitiveness programme, which was introduced in 2010, have sought to stabilise the sector.

The industrial policy action plan has identified the textile, clothing, leather and footwear sector as "high priority" because of its labour-intensive character.

Davies said support measures by the government had resulted in the capacity expansions by manufacturers, the establishment of 28 new companies, creation of 2,200 sustainable jobs, growth in exports mainly through the leather industry and reduction of trade deficit by R1.5bn from 2013 to 2015.

Davies said that, while his department was committed to increasing its support, local manufacturers had to work harder to become more attractive so that retailers could source more products locally.

A more carefully targeted industrial financing and incentive support including stronger export credit and export credit insurance, would be crucial in improving the performance of manufacturing in general, he said.

Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers Union general secretary Andre Kriel said the support measures had boosted the clothing, textile, footwear and leather sector. "What is required now is aggressive lift-off and that is why we are focusing on improving exports. The footwear and leather sector is doing well, but clothing and textile exports are still small, so we have to do a lot more."
In what it calls a "groundbreaking agreement" with labour unions, Telkom will set aside R750m for the 2017 financial year so as to give its employees incentives, and will also place a moratorium on retrenchments over the next two years.

Telkom CEO, Sipho Maseko Picture: Martin Rhodes via Business Day

The fixed-line operator has agreed to limit the proposed outsourcing within its Openserve subsidiary, as well as its consumer and small business and corporate centre departments, to less than 1,000 people. The agreement, with 11,000 employees belonging to trade unions, will also see the introduction of performance-based remuneration for employees.

Telkom has had an adversarial relationship with labour unions for many years, as its organised employees opposed its retrenchments programmes. Since 2013, Telkom had slashed its headcount by 7,500 to 13,700 by the end of March 2016, through retrenchments, the issuing of voluntary severance packages, as well as by outsourcing of some divisions.

This has also resulted in a reduction in employee costs from R9.28bn in March 2013, to R7.91bn at the end of March 2016. But between April and May 2016, a further 1,200 employees left the company, reducing the headcount to 12,500 as of June 1.

CEO Sipho Maseko said on Tuesday the nature of the sector was changing, and the decisions related to employees had to be aligned with the group's financial framework. The relationship with labour unions had improved and there was more co-operation, he said. "We are entering a new chapter in labour relations."

As Telkom looks for new growth opportunities following the completion of its three-year turnaround plan, growth would require "us to be better at attracting and retaining customers", Maseko said.

In recent years, Telkom has focused extensively on improving its customer service, and this will form a major part of employee assessment. The agreement was signed with the South African Communications Union (Sacu) and Solidarity, and is effective from this month. The Communications Workers Union has agreed to the new partnership agreement in principle.

Solidarity deputy general secretary Marius Croucamp believes that the agreement was fair, and hoped that other companies within the telecommunications and technology sector would follow suit. "As a union, we are pleased with the manner in which this year's negotiations have panned out. Our members at Telkom have been faced with various challenges over the past few years, and we hope this agreement will herald a new era of labour relations with Telkom," Croucamp said.

However, Telkom would still finalise the current retrenchment process of about 300 employees, he said.

Sacu president Michael Hare said that to improve the relationship with the group, the union had to change its stance to a more cooperative one. Hare said he was pleased that the moratorium could be extended, as "employees need peace of mind".

Telkom's chief administration officer Ian Russell said that employees would receive a 6% annual increase in April 2017.

Telkom's share price gained 7.69% to close at R70.

Source: Business Day
Section 64 of the Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995 (as amended) regulates the procedures which must be followed in order for a strike to be protected. One of the requirements is that the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) or a relevant bargaining or statutory council must have issued a certificate stating that the dispute - which forms the basis for the strike action - remains unresolved.

Kristaps Eberlins via 123RF

What happens if there has been an unreasonably long delay between the issuing of such a certificate and the start of the strike action? Does the certificate expire or can the strike start at any time of it has been issued if the dispute remains unresolved?

Labour Court pronouncements

In the recent decision of PRASA t/a Metrorail v SATAWU and Others (C190/2016), a decision handed down by the Labour Court on 12 May 2016, the Court made two pronouncements which will have a bearing on the collective bargaining arena, particularly on the issue of the longevity of the certificate of outcome. First, the Court considered whether a strike is protected in circumstances where there has been an unreasonably long delay between the issuing of a certificate of outcome and the subsequent strike action. Secondly, as an aside, the Court considered the appropriateness (or otherwise) of approaching the Court on an urgent basis seeking interim relief to declare a strike unlawful.

During September 2014 the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU) referred a dispute of mutual interest to the CCMA. SATAWU demanded that the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA), in the Western Cape, absorb all fixed term employees into permanent positions and ensure salary parity in all departments in the region. The dispute remained unresolved. On 21 October 2014 the CCMA issued a certificate of outcome confirming this. At this juncture SATAWU could have issued a notice to commence strike action.

SATAWU and its members did not embark on strike action in 2014. Instead, there was a resumption of negotiations and dispute resolution steps between the bargaining parties. On 4 April 2016, some 18 months later, SATAWU gave notice of its intention to embark on strike action on 6 April 2016 in the Western Cape. SATAWU relied on the certificate issued by the CCMA on 21 October 2014.

PRASA regarded the planned strike action as unlawful and approached the Labour Court on an urgent basis. PRASA asked the Labour Court to declare the strike unlawful for a number of reasons, including that some of the matters forming the basis of the planned strike were still the subject of ongoing bargaining on a national level. Therefore, argued PRASA, the parties had not reached a deadlock. In addition, PRASA stated that a number of issues on which SATAWU intended to strike were not raised when the 2014 certificate 2014 had been issued.

The Court issued an interim order declaring the strike unlawful. Despite this some of SATAWU's members embarked on strike action on 13 April 2016. The strike was characterised by a number of instances of intimidation, violence and damage to property. PRASA again approach the Labour Court on an urgent basis for an order interdicting such unlawful action. The Labour Court granted PRASA such an order

On the return day of both orders, the Court was tasked with determining whether the strike was unprotected. The Court considered whether, by failing to embark upon strike action and by continuing negotiations, SATAWU could be said to have waived, estopped or abandoned their right to strike.

Court conclusion

The Court concluded that:

"[T]he inquiry should not centre on a waiver of the right to strike. Rather, it is a failure to rely on a specific certificate of outcome that is discernible in a case such as that before [the court]the right to strike is retained, but after an unreasonable delay in acting on the issuing of a certificate, a union is required to go through the procedural steps set out in section 64 of the LRA once more. This approach accords with the speedy resolution of disputes on which the LRA is premised. It is also imminently sensible: over a period of 18 months there are likely to have been charges in the collective bargaining relationship. The procedural requirements clothing strike action with protection, which include the opportunity for parties to reach a settlement agreement through the conciliation process, may produce a different outcome, given the effluxion of time."

This decision reiterates the need for a speedy resolution to disputes in terms of the LRA. Each case will be considered on its facts to determine whether there has been an unreasonable delay between the issuing of a certificate of outcome and the embarking upon strike action. This is a factual question. Should this be found to be the case then the trade union concerned may be required to again follow the steps required by the law before embarking on strike action. This case also illustrates the risk for a trade union which fails to timeously act upon a certificate of outcome and fails to re-refer the dispute in terms of section 64 of the LRA. Failure to do so may render the proposed strike action unlawful.

The Court in this case also considered the route followed by the employer in dealing with the threatened strike action. Having reference to the case of National Union of Food Beverage Wine Spirits & Allied Workers & others v Universal Product Network (Pty) Ltd: In re Universal Product Network (Pty) Ltd v National Union of Food Beverage Wine Spirits & Allied Workers & others (2016) 37 ILJ 476 (LC) to Court cautioned that approaching the court on an urgent basis, on short notice, to declare a strike unlawful on an interim basis is not always acceptable.

The Court held that it must guard against parties seeking to use it to unfairly sway the dynamics of power play essential to collective bargaining in favour of one party. The Courts should guard against litigants seeking interim relief which is better categorised as relief of a final nature. The risk is that the relief, which is of a final nature and should be argued having full regard to the facts of the matter, is granted on an interim basis by satisfying a less onerous test.

Unlawful strike action

In the strike context the declaration of unlawfulness of a strike would fall into this category, though there are appropriate exceptions (where a respondent party is not present or some other imbalance or injustice would result from the granting of a final order). In such circumstances interim relief will obtain the same result, for all practical purposes, as a final order (i.e. quell any strike action). Rather, a party seeking to approach the court should present comprehensive papers seeking final relief.

An applicant party must be slow to approach the court on an urgent basis in the absence of presenting full papers clearly setting out all material facts and issues for the Courts consideration so that a final order may be granted (or denied as the case may be). In circumstances, however, where violence, intimidation and/or damage to property permeate then nothing bares a party from seeking interim relief on short notice.

The Court's ruling pertains to the interdicting of unlawful strike action. It does not discount the appropriateness of seeking such relief in the instance where the other party or its members are misconducting themselves or otherwise engaging in unlawful conduct.
Global law firm Baker & McKenzie has announced that following a vote of its partnership, Paul Rawlinson has been elected as the next chairman of the firm.

Paul Rawlinson

Rawlinson is an intellectual property lawyer and a relationship partner for a number of the firm's significant global clients. He has been the firm's managing partner in London since 2013. He joined Baker & McKenzie in 1986 and made partner in 1996. He currently serves on the firm's Policy Committee and also led the firm's Global Intellectual Property practice group from 2004 to 2010.

Rawlinson will take up the position on 23 October, at the end of the firms annual meeting in Barcelona, Spain. He will succeed Eduardo Leite, who has been chairman of Baker & McKenzie since 2010. Until his successor is announced in September, Rawlinson will remain the managing partner in London.

The firm says he has been instrumental in developing innovative client-focused initiatives at Baker & McKenzie, including helping establish the firm's Global Services Centers in Belfast and Manila. He has vast experience working on intellectual property (IP) issues for many of the firm's major clients. He advises a range of global clients with extensive IP portfolios on strategies for protection and enforcement of their IP rights. Rawlinson is a member of several business organisations, including the International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition, Business Alliance Against Counterfeiting and Anti-Piracy, French Trade Mark & Design Association, and the International Trademark Association.
Located on the tropical North Coast of KwaZulu-Natal in an area full of cultural and adventure experiences, the Protea Hotel Hluhluwe & Safaris attracts both foreign and domestic tourists. The hotel is currently undergoing soft refurbishments to enhance its rustic bush style.

This new refurbishment will complement previous upgrades to the rooms done three years ago, explains Danny Bryer, director of sales, marketing and revenue management at Protea Hotels. This time our focus is on the public areas of the hotel - the restaurant and reception area.

The refurbishment will have no impact on the guest experience or on these facilities, which will remain open to guests throughout; the work will be completed at the end of July.

Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Game Reserve is a haven for animal-lovers looking for a safari experience in one of the hotels own open game drive vehicles. Guests can interact with elephants and cheetahs, take a trip to a reptile park, and visit the beaches and marine life of Cape Vidal and Sodwana Bay or take a boat cruise in St Lucia. Then there are also cultural activities, such as traditional Zulu dance shows and visits to cultural villages. The stay is enriched by an outdoor dinner under the African sky in the Zulu Boma.
Seedstars World, the global seed-stage startup competition for emerging markets and fast-growing startup scenes, is continuing its tour in Soweto to scout for the best startups in the Gauteng area, after a successful pre-selection event in Cape Town and Durban

The event will take place at eKasi Labs with the startups to pitch to a panel of judges. The top three startups will be invited to Johannesburg, where they will compete with the best startups of Cape Town and Durban, of which one will be crowned the most promising seed-stage startup of Seedstars World South Africa 2016. The South African competition is carried out with the support of Standard Bank, who will further support the startups on their path to success.

The startups selected to pitch in Soweto are:

 DroneSnap: DroneSnap is an online platform that provides on-demand, high quality, professional drone operators for all forms of aerial imaging.

 Riovic: This startup provides digital and P2P insurance backed by crowdfunded reinsurance.

 Bottles: Is an alcohol delivery app that delivers alcohol to your door in under 60 minutes.

 Zula Afrika: A non-traditional, technology enabled public transport service, offering commuters the convenience and flexibility that they are used to.

 Sortd: A communication-centric organiser that transforms email and instant messaging into a set of organised to-do lists.

 Masokko: An Africa-centric B2B e-marketplace driven to help small and medium enterprises in agriculture, food and beverages to sell their goods to export markets.

 Black Industrialists: An application that channels ED funds to smallholder farmers through monitoring, evaluation and reporting before access to markets.

 Pinard Aeronautique: This startup created a Pinard's P3210 helicopter, an affordable, FAA-compliant solution that folds away when not in use.

 GEM Payment Services: GEM offers a mobile payment platform to reward social action.

 UmoyAir Communications: UmoyAir provides free calls from mobile phones to any number without airtime or data.

 GoldPay: GoldPay is a financially inclusive asset-backed investment, savings and money sharing platform created on a blockchain technology.

Entrepreneur Traction will act as the local ambassador across the continent and will represent the initiative throughout the year. Other partners include local and international organisations, such as Omidyar Network, Payfast, Glocell and eKasi Labs. In addition, Seedstars World has partnered with TRECC to bring the 'Transforming Education Prize', which will award the best startup in the education space from around the world with a prize of over $50,000.

The Seedstars World event in Soweto will take place on Tuesday, 14 June from 4-9pm, tickets are free and attendees can register here.
The 13th annual Youth Jazz Festival takes place at the Artscape Theatre on 18 June 2016. This year's jazz festival sees 16 young soloists perform alongside their mentors, Amanda Tiffin, Camillo Lombard, Frank Paco, Wesley Rustin and Marc De Kock.

The five musicians spend 10 weeks working with their soloists in a mentorship programme in preparation for the concert directed by Tiffin, the head of Jazz singing at the University of Cape Towns College of Music.

Read about three of the featuring soloists, Etuk Ubong, Emma de Goede and Thembelihle Dunjana below.

Etuk Ubong

Currently a student at the University of Cape Towns South African College of Music, Etuk Ubong has travelled the world as a trumpeter and flugelhorn. His academic record includes studies in jazz and classical music at the Peter King College of Music and the MUSON School of Music in Nigeria as well as qualifications from Berklee College of Musics online programme and Trinity College. As a member of the International Trumpet Guild, Etuk represented Africa at the guilds 2015 Conference in the Unites States, before performing alongside Jamie Cullum at the London Jazz Festival later that year. His recently formed quartet has already played the Lagos Jazz Festival among other shows across the city.

Emma de Goede

Cape Town born vocalist and pianist, Emma de Goede, is currently completing her fourth and final year of studies towards a BMus Jazz Performance degree at UCTs South African College of Music. As previous member of the Pro Cantu Youth Choir (now the Cape Town Youth Choir), Emma has gone on to become a member of the UCT Jazz Voices Ensemble under the baton of Amanda Tiffin, as well as a featured soloist for the UCT Big Band. Besides her solo performances at jazz clubs around Cape Town, Emma has founded the melodic rock duo, Emerger, who won the Avid and Abbey Road International Song Contest hosted by Talenthouse, as well as the acapella group AnecNote.

Thembelihle Dunjana

Third year UCT Jazz Piano student Thembelihle dunjana was just 11 when she started playing on her five-octave Casio keyboard. She studied music in primary and high school, where she played for her schools big band. In 2012 Thembelihle got her first opportunity to perform at the Grahamstown Youth Jazz Festival, performing with the UCT Big Band and the Cape Town Jazz Quartet.
On the next Biz Takeouts Marketing & Media radio show on Thursday, 9 June 2016, from 9-10am, show host Warren Harding takes a look at the upcoming Marketing Mix, Shopper Path to Purchase 2016 event happening on 20 and 21 July at the Sunnyside Park Hotel in Johannesburg.

We chat to one of the event speakers, Amanda Cromhout, CEO of Truth, a boutique consulting business, specialising in loyalty, CRM, customer centricity and social CRM. Truth enables you to really understand and optimise the customer asset, by helping clients to understand their customers needs and potential value to their business.

Amanda joins us to tell us more about Truth, loyalty trends in South Africa, the importance of data and her talk at the Marketing Mix, Shopper Path to Purchase 2016 event covering:

 Loyalty and shopper-centric strategies  Learn how the frequent shopper and receipt model creates a far better experience for consumers

 Explore the cost efficiency of combining loyalty card data and receipt transcription

 Discover how retailer data and receipt transcription affects far meter measurement over time  How loyalty programs are leveraging big data to deliver personalised marketing

Get all the info on the upcoming event here.

Tune into Biz Takeouts every Thursday from 9am-10am live from the 2oceansVibe Radio studio in Cape Town as we discuss the topics that matter in Marketing & Media.

How to listen

Comments or questions

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A podcast of the show will be available in the Biz Takeouts special section on Biz later during the week.
People are migrating on a scale unseen before. In Africa , countries like Somalia and Libya are losing hundreds of thousands of people. People are making the perilous crossing to Europe or heading to South Africa in droves.

There are indications that climate change in Malawi will make the country poorer and its people more static. Meaduva/Flickr

It is easy to forget that it was migrations from Africa that populated the world. First, Homo erectus left about two million years ago. Then, about 100,000 years ago, Homo sapiens spread from Africa to Asia, eventually populating the most remote corners of the earth.

It is believed that many of these early mass migrations were caused by changes to climate and food supply. Could future climate change drive a similar mass migration?

There is strong evidence linking climate change to more heatwaves, heavier rainfall events, and increasing drought intensity and duration. This is clear in the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report. The report also details how these changes affect crops and food supply. Cereal crops are particularly vulnerable to heatwaves, meaning that areas suitable for production will decrease across much of Africa.

Tropical climates do not typically vary much in time and are generally quite predictable, so even todays modest climate change is enough to break temperature, drought and rainfall records. Therefore climate change poses a real threat to food security of the region, and poorer countries are generally the most vulnerable. The world is also seeing more migration than ever before. It is therefore tempting, at least in part, to blame climate change for the massive displacement of people we see today. But does it?

Climate change and migration

Research by Colin Kelley and his colleagues implicated climate change in the Syrian conflict. This led to something of a media frenzy, with speculation rife that global refugee crises driven by climate change would become the new norm.

But the research literature has not made firm conclusions about the impact of climate change on migration.

Migration takes many forms and can have many social and economic drivers. Nevertheless, it is expected that climate change will have some effect on human movement. As such the Paris agreement on climate change requested that a task force be established to tackle human displacement.

What is clear is that it is difficult to generalise when it comes to migration. So we need to dig deeper if we want to make progress in understanding these links.

Whats happened in Malawi

A Malawian case study finds a connection between migration and climate change  but it is the opposite of what we had anticipated.

Swathi Sridharan/Flickr

Our latest paper is based on 255 in-depth interviews with rural and urban focus groups in Malawi in which we tried to understand how Malawians might react to climate change. We explored rural-to-urban movements and return movements within the country.

Generally, our findings confirmed those found in previous work: individuals within populations move, rather than whole populations; and these individuals move for many complex reasons.

We tested two types of climate-driven impact: a long-term decline in harvests and a sudden acute shock to the system. Rather than climate changes forcing people into urban areas, as is believed to be the case in Syria, we found that in both cases climate change would make people less able to move.

A long-term decline in harvests would undermine livelihoods and thus decrease peoples ability to move because of a lack of resources to do so. Also, in a country like Malawi many people move to the city to sell agricultural products, firewood gathered in the forest or handicrafts. If climate change undermines the productivity of the rural environment, the rationale that currently drives some urban migration could be eroded.

Our data also noted that peoples aspirations to migrate would not generally be affected by climate change  only younger, more affluent farmers would in the event of climate change aspire to move to the city. With a climate shock, both aspiration and capability for moving would be reduced. Aspiration is reduced as urban prospects are reduced by a climate shock due to Malawis agriculture-based economy.

Our findings for Malawi indicate that climate change will make the country poorer and its people more static. This represents a demonstrable effect of climate on population flows, even though it is contrary to our original hypothesis. More affluent populations in other countries would have more capability to move in response to climate change, so it will be interesting to conduct interviews elsewhere too.

So poverty and poor harvests caused by climate change may actually reduce migration flows.

But the bigger question we should ask ourselves is whether migration is necessarily a bad thing. It may increase resilience of populations. In the long run we may even contemplate employing resources to encourage and plan migrations as part of an adaptation policy to limit the impact of future climate change.


This week, we find out what's really going on behind the selfie with Kevin Dunbar, the only student nominee in the 2016 IAB Bookmark Awards and currently lead designer at craft cider startup, Sxollie Cider.

Doing what the cool kids do, staying trendy with Snapchats greatest feature.

1. Where do you live, work and play?

Dunbar: I live in Cape Town, work in Cape Town and play wherever I can (at this stage, its mostly Cape Town). My plans include working abroad, but for now Im loving sunny South Africa.

2. Whats your claim to fame?

Dunbar: I guess the fact that I was the only student nominee in the 2016 IAB Bookmark Awards. I didnt come out victorious in the end, but I was extremely chuffed with the nomination alone. I was also a featured student in Design Times, the Young Creative Showcase and I got to represent Vega School of Brand Leadership, a division of the Independent Institute of Education (the IIE), at the 2015 Loeries.

3. Describe your career so far?

Dunbar: Its just beginning, so I wouldnt put it so much as a career, rather as an introduction into the real world. It has come with its ups and downs. The jump from studying to gainful employment is a fairly steep learning curve that comes with an adjustment period. The 9-5: not a fan; every day peak-hour traffic: not a fan; the paycheck: big fan!

The idea that I get to wake up every day and be a part of something new, while being able to grow with a brand is amazing. It is very exciting to be able to put the lesson I learned at Vega into practice.

4. Tell us a few of your favourite things?

Dunbar: A few of my favourite things are the internet, technology, design, sport, socialising, talking nonsense with friends, the outdoors, YouTube, Fifa and free parking.

5. What do you love about your industry?

Dunbar: The fact that I can spend all day online and still pass it off as work.

I get to go to work in slip slops and shorts, knowing that when I go to bed at night, someone out there is enjoying an ice-cold Sxollie that I managed to put in their hands.

6. Describe your average workday, if such a thing exists?

Dunbar: My day, like many others out there, generally starts with hitting the snooze button, coffee in the car, answering emails, procrastinating on Facebook for a bit then getting stuck into work. I meet with colleagues and discuss the days work agenda, spend the day working on various projects depending on what is urgent at the time, attend a couple meetings and wedge a few coffee breaks in the middle.

7. What are the tools of your trade?

Dunbar: The internet, lots and lots of internet, as well as the Adobe Suite and coffee.

8. Who is getting it right in your industry?

Dunbar: To be honest Im not sure what industry Im in at the moment. I studied design, I love design and I love digital, so I have an extremely close affinity to that industry and still feel very part of it, yet Im currently not working in that industry. Im working in the alcoholic/beverage industry. So with regard to that, Id say Jack Black, CBC and Bos Ice tea. Those brands have seen massive growth in the last couple years and really changed the market as independent brands. We have similar hopes for Sxollie.

9. What are you working on right now?

Dunbar: Juggling the development of the new website, along with the design of new packaging material for exports to the USA.

10. Tell us some of the buzzwords floating around in your industry at the moment, and some of the catchphrases you utter yourself?

Dunbar: Single varietal, gas regulators, couplings, line cleaner, export regulations. I catch myself talking about a dry cider, but to be honest Im not sure what that means exactly!

11. Where and when do you have your best ideas?

Dunbar: When Im just about to fall asleep. I wake up, rush to my desk, jot down the idea and try fall back asleep, fruitlessly.

12. Whats your secret talent/party trick?

Dunbar: I have recently figured out I am an extremely good eavesdropper; this can be both a blessing and a burden.

13. Are you a technophobe or a technophile?

Dunbar: Technophile, I love technology and all that it offers. I am a new age, digital kid. I am all for technology, although slightly frightened by AI.

14. What would we find if we scrolled through your phone?

Dunbar: You would not find much, as I keep my phone pass-locked. But once youre in, you would probably find a notification saying my phone battery is dying and Instagram would be open. Youd see screenshots of design as well as a lot of selfies my girlfriend has taken, with Apple Music streaming in the background.

15. What advice would you give to newbies hoping to crack into the industry?

Dunbar: This feels a bit weird as Im a newbie trying to crack the industry myself, but the message still rings true: There is no substitute for just knuckling down and getting it done. Personally, I think it is a great time to be a young creative, the skill set for creatives can be used in any industry, so find something you love and carve your career with your skill set in the industry you love.

Simple as that. Follow Sxollie Cider on Twitter for more, and interact with Dunbar via his portfolio and his Behance profile.

*Interviewed by Leigh Andrews.
BBM wants to cast a light on South Africa's lesser-known treasures, and invites the freshest everyday photographers from all around South Africa to enter the #BBMEveryday competition by sharing their awe-inspiring photographs. Each week, they can submit images of everyday South Africa to www.bbmeveryday.com , according to the weekly clues that will be revealed through the #BBMEveryday BBM channel (Pin: C0022F31B).

We currently have millions of registered BBM users in our lively South African community, sharing their lives and passions with each other every day, says Matthew Talbot, Senior Vice President - BBM. This contest opens the doors for more talented artists to let their imagination run wild and we encourage them to get creative and make their images unique, creative and memorable! We are hoping to see huge enthusiasm in South Africa."

The judges are on the lookout for photos that bring the weeks theme to life in an unusual, eye-catching way. Winners will receive great prizes including an all-expenses-paid trip for two to Zanzibar, a Cape Town weekend getaway for two, or one of five Android-powered Blackberry PRIV smartphones.

Anyone wishing to enter the BBM Everyday competition should visit www.bbmeveryday.com, download the BBM app if they are not a BBM user already, join the #BBMEveryday channel, retrieve the weekly clue and upload their images. Submissions are open.

Do you think you can win? Then get creative and submit your most expressive pictures!

For further information about the #BBMEveryday competition and Terms & Conditions, please visit: http://www.bbmeveryday.com

BlackBerry and related trademarks, names and logos are the property of BlackBerry Limited.






WASHINGTON: USA Today publisher Gannett said on Tuesday it would maintain its $864m offer for newspaper rival Tribune Publishing, saying a tie-up would be good for both companies.

In the latest comment on a bitter battle over the takeover bid, Gannett said it was not backing down despite a Tribune shareholder vote last week that narrowly backed a board of directors slate that wants to keep the group independent.

"Gannett values the 11 iconic newspapers of Tribune and has determined to keep its offer in place as it evaluates various near-term developments, including the Tribune second quarter 2016 financial results, which are expected in August," a Gannett statement said.

Gannett's bid aims to combine the national daily USA Today with its rival's big dailies including the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and Baltimore Sun, aiming for bigger scale in confronting the industry's shift to digital.

Tribune Publishing, which announced it would change its corporate name to "tronc" on June 20, has said it is pursuing its own plan to adapt to the digital landscape, and has deemed Gannett's bid too low.

It has left the door open to negotiations with Gannett, saying it would sign a confidentiality agreement to allow each side to view the other's finances.

But Gannett said on Tuesday that Tribune was placing unnecessary conditions for the financial review.

"Gannett urges Tribune to stop delaying constructive negotiations by insisting on limiting conditions in its non-disclosure agreement," the Gannett statement said, adding that it is ready to sign a "customary" non-disclosure agreement that and does not limit its options to make a direct offer to Tribune shareholders.

Tribune Publishing group was spun off the larger Tribune Co. in 2014, retaining the group's newspaper holdings, following a broader trend in the media industry.

Gannett also broke up its media conglomerate last year, splitting off its television operations into a new firm called Tegna.

Source: AFP
On 1 June 2016, the European Council authorised, on behalf of the EU, the signature and provisional application of the economic partnership agreement (EPA) between the EU and the South African Development Community (SADC) EPA Group.

The South African Development Community EPA group comprises Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland.

The signing ceremony of the SADC-EU EPA will take place in Kasane, Botswana, this week, on 10 June 2016.

The economic partnership agreements are intended to enhance regional integration and economic development in the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. They are based on the principle of asymmetrical market opening, meaning that they provide a better access to the EU market for ACP partners.

They notably offer unprecedented market opportunities for agricultural and fisheries products. EPAs replace the previous market access regime of unilateral preferences for ACP countries.
The Government of the Federal Republic of Germany has pledged another EUR 55 Million in support of African Union (AU) programmes and joint strategic initiatives after its bilateral negotiations with the African Union (AU) Commission, recently concluded.

Image by 123RF

The focus of this years commitment is largely on agricultural development through enhancement of agricultural skills. A new element of the cooperation between the AU and Germany is on the Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA). Germany made an initial pledge of EUR 5 Million in support of the ongoing CFTA preparations and negotiations.

This years commitment particularly focuses on the support to the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), which will benefit from additional EUR 29 Million from Germany. The additional contribution mainly supports agricultural technical vocational education and training (TVET) in more than 10 African countries and with a special focus on women.

In addition, the AU Commission and Germany agreed to continue to cooperate in the areas of Peace and Security, Good Governance, the Pan African University, and Geothermal Energy, pledging a total amount of EUR 21 Million.

Head of the AUC-delegation Erastus Mwencha, in his remarks presented on his behalf by Fatima Haram Acyl, commissioner for trade and industry, African Union Commission, lauded the existing bond of partnership between the Federal Republic of Germany, the African Union and Africa as a whole.

With the new commitment, overall, Germanys total support to the African Union since the inception of this bilateral cooperation in 2004 exceeds EUR 500 million.

Guenter Nooke, the German Chancellor's personal representative for Africa in the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and head of the German Delegation, stated: Our interest is that Africa can better address its security challenges and its development agenda. We want to support the African Union in making substantial progress in the political and economic integration of Africa.

Economic transformation, skills development and the creation of job opportunities are central to combat poverty and the root causes of forced migration. One central element of what we agreed with the AU Commission today is to jointly do more in the area of agriculture training and development.

The Land Policy Initiative (LPI), a joint Initiative of AU Commission, UNECA, African Development Bank, with the objective of improving land governance in Africa which is of crucial importance with regards to food security and economic development.

Germany intends to further support the African Risk Capacity (ARC). As an AU specialised agency, the ARC offers insurance against extreme weather events to AU member states and contributes to address the challenges of draught in Africa.

Another commitment was made to kickstart the African-German Youth Initiative (AGYI), promoting legal mobility and education through exchange of African and German youth.

Following the rising levels of migration and extremism, particularly among the youth, the role religion plays in radicalisation is therefore crucial. AU and Germany agreed to look into a joint initiative on inter-faith and religion, which is key for social transformation.

Acyl signed the Agreed Minutes on the Negotiations on the Development Cooperation as part of the continued annual political dialogue between the African Union and German government.
During the 11th African Congress for Women Entrepreneurs, Professor Frank Stangenberg-Haverkamp, chairman of Executive Board and Family Board of Merck KGaA, received the 'African Alliances He for She Award' for Women Empowerment.

Professor Frank Stangenberg-Haverkamp receives award

This was in recognition of Mercks efforts to empower women in the field of research and healthcare through the Merck Capacity Advancement Program and UNESCO  Merck Africa Research Summit.

The award also recognises Mercks significant contribution to empower infertile women in Africa through the Merck More than a Mother campaign.

The Merck More than a Mother campaign is a very important initiative to empower an unprivileged segment of women in Africa, Prof Frank Stangenberg-Haverkamp said upon receiving his award. Women who suffer infertility have been neglected, mistreated and discriminated because they cannot bear children, while we must also consider that 50% of infertility is caused by the male factor and yet women are solely blamed for it.

Through the Merck more than a Mother campaign we started an important project called Empowering Berna. The project seeks to help infertile women, who cannot have children anymore, start their own businesses and build their independent and happier lives, said Dr Rasha Kelej, chief social officer of Merck Healthcare.



African female researchers

The African Alliances He for She Award award also recognise the UNESCO- Merck Africa Research Summit- MARSs new initiative to empower African women researchers. The initiative is very critical for Africas future, and its social and economic development, which cannot be achieved except with the economic empowerment of women and youth.

During the same conference, the African Women Empowerment Award was granted to Samba-Penza, former president of Central African Republic and Prof Ellen Johnson-Sir leaf, president of Liberia, who was represented by Julia Duncan-Cassel Liberian minister of Gender.

During the African conference for women entrepreneurs, a high level panel of Merck More Than a Mother campaign was conducted to discuss Merck More Than a Mother objectives and intervention across Africa; and a commitment was made to kick off the campaign in each country during 2016 and 2017.
The African Freedom of Expression Exchange (AFEX), a network of freedom of expression organisations on the continent, has petitioned Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni, calling on him to make a commitment to protect and defend free speech in the face of the deteriorating freedom of expression situation and the abuse of freedom of assembly rights in Uganda.

Image by 123RF

The petition was motivated by the recent wave of attacks on the media, opposition leaders and supporters during the country's elections, in the aftermath of the electioneering period and in the context of other major national events.

The petition highlights 26 incidents of freedom of expression violations that have been perpetrated with impunity in Uganda in 2016 alone (from January to the second week of May). The violations included arbitrary arrests, physical attacks, threats and intimidations, violations of human rights online as well as repeated shutdown of internet access throughout the country.

The main perpetrators of these violations were the Ugandan police, the army and supporters of ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party who are believed to be acting on the orders of the president.

AFEX calls on the president to, among others, renew his commitment to promoting and defending free speech and to openly condemn the unjustifiable attacks on media professionals, opposition party officials and supporters and citizens who are critical of the government.

Access the full petition addressed to the president of Uganda, signed by:

Media Foundation for West Africa

Africa Freedom of Information Centre

Center for Media Studies and Peace Building

Human Rights Network for Journalists, Uganda

Journaliste en Danger

Media Institute of Southern Africa

Media Rights Agenda

National Union of Somali Journalists

West African Journalists Association

Source: This statement was originally published on africafex.org.


Got a question or tip? Contact us at bizmojoidaho@gmail.com.


Young Karen students in traditional dress Young Karen students in traditional dress

According to Saw Moe Aung, a teacher at Hpa-Pya Village in the Win Yaw area the Karen National Union (KNU) Education Department in Win Ye Township, which oversees the Win Yaw area, said that students in the area must wear traditional Karen dress on Mondays and Fridays.

Though the students wear traditional Karen dress on Mondays and Fridays Saw Moe Aung said that the teachers feel under pressure because they have not received official government permission to let students wear traditional Karen dress.

He said: When higher authorities [from the government educational department] came to inspect the schools and took photos on the days the students were wearing their traditional dress we [teachers] felt under pressure because the [government education] department did not order it [the wearing of traditional Karen dress]. It would be better if the Karen [KNU] Education Department met with the relevant government departments and released official confirmation [of these orders].

The Karen poet Saw Yaunt Thar Eh San thinks it is important that ethnic students be allowed to wear their traditional dress.

He said: By wearing your own ethnic dress, you are able to preserve your culture. Even in universities, [the students] are wearing their respective traditional ethnic dress. Wearing traditional dress is a symbol of race. [The authorities] need to make it official.

Government schools in Karen village in Win Yaw area have been wearing Karen traditional costumes on designated days since last year and other government schools in Mon and Shan villages have also been wearing their traditional costumes on designated days.

Translated by Thida Linn

Edited in English by Mark Inkey for BNI


Mon State Party Chairman Nai Htaw Mon

(Photo:MNA) Mon State Party Chairman Nai Htaw Mon(Photo:MNA)

Representatives of the Union Peace Conference  21 Century Panglong Preparatory Sub-committee (2) and top leaders of the UNFC agreed at a dinner event to meet this month in order to hold discourse, according to Nai Htaw Mon, the Chairman of New Mon State Party (NMSP), who attended the event.

The preparatory committee and sub-committees for the Union Peace Conference -21 Century Panglong Conference were founded by the Presidents Office on May 31.

The points taken from the meeting between government and DPN (Delegation for Political Negotiation) representatives are good. However, we still have many points that remain unclear. The new government group cannot state specifically regarding them yet. Therefore, we agreed to have our representatives travel and meet with the UPDJC members officially, said Nai Htaw Mon, in an interview with MNA.

Nai Mon Htaw added that the UNFC representatives would meet with UDPJC in the second or third week of June, although no specific date has been set.

The promising point is that they [UNFC members] would all cooperate and ultimately participate in this conference, said Dr. Tin Myo Win, governments Chief Negotiator and chairman of Preparatory Subcommittee [for 21 Century Panglong], at a press conference, after the meeting with DPN delegates on June 3.

The Delegation for Political Negotiation (DPN), founded by the UNFC, is comprised of 9 ethnic armed groups including Kachin Independent Organization, New Mon State Party, Karenni National Progressive Party, Shan State Progressive Party (SSPP), Taang National Liberation Army (TNLA), Lahu Democratic Union (LDU), Wa National Organization (WNO), Myanmar Nationals Democracy Alliance Army (MNDAA) and Arakan National Council (ANC).

The UNFCs 9 member groups have not signed the nationwide ceasefire agreement (NCA). Additionally, the United Wa State Army, National Democracy Alliance Army (NDAA), National Socialist Council Nagaland  Khaplang (NSCN  K) and Arakan Army are also yet to ink the NCA.

However, eight ethnic armed groups signed the NCA with the Thein Sein Government on October 15, 2015. These groups include Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA), Karen National Union (KNU), Restoration of Council Shan State (RCSS), Chin National Front and Pa Oh National Liberation Organization (PNLO).

The State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who is also the chairwoman of UPDJC, stated that the Union Peace Conference  21 Century Panglong would be held in August, and that the [preparatory] sub-committees were founded to meet with the non-NCA signatory groups in order to have them involved in the conference.


MNP central committee meeting

(Photo: MNA) MNP central committee meeting(Photo: MNA)

Candidates for the vice-chair position, left vacant by Nai Htet Lwin who now serves as minister to the Union-level Ethnic Affairs Ministry, included Nai Chit Oo, former ethnic Mon minister in the Karen State Hluttaw, and Nai Tin Aung, also known as Nai Tala Non.

The central committee members voted for Nai Tin Aung of their own free will and to ensure joint leadership of the party. I accept this decision made by the central committee, said Nai Layih Tamarh, General Secretary of the MNP, in an interview with MNA.

The Secretary added that MNPs work has stalled recently due to Nai Htet Lwins departure and the fact that the aging party leader, Nai Ngwe Thein, is based in distant Rangoon. The appointment of a new vice-chairman is hoped to jump start activities, he said.

Additionally, the partys 31-member central executive committee recently lost Nai Ye Zaw, who resigned. His position was filled by newcomer Min Zayar Oo. Former vice-chairman Nai Htet Lwin remains a member of the committee.

Despite changes, observers of Mon politics have noted the need for greater momentum among party leaders toward economic growth and social development programs in Mon State.

The MNP does not think about developing civil society organizations and a national movement. We have not seen it implement any projects yet. The party will not gain public trust if it does not implement anything and only makes rhetorical promises, said Sayardaw Ashin Thiha, a regular commentator on Mon political movements.

The MNP was originally founded in 1988 as the Mon National Democratic Front (MNDF). In 2012, it registered as the Mon Democracy Party (MDP) and then changed to the current MNP in 2014. The party has 93 central committee members, 31 central executive committee members and over 70,000 members.
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The first trap counts of the Citys mosquito abatement program are negligible, according to the City of Brandon's community services department.

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Shell Canada is donating its controversial Arctic energy exploration permits to clear the way for creating Canadas third national marine protected area.

The 30 legally questionable permits are being given to the Nature Conservancy of Canada, which in turn has handed them to the federal government.

(The region) is adjacent to where the government has already said it would like to establish a conservancy, so our hope is that it will contribute to a much larger marine conservation area in the North, said Shell Canada president Michael Crothers.

The permits cover 8,600 square kilometres north of Baffin Island at the eastern gate of the Northwest Passage. They also encompass the waters of Lancaster Sound, a particularly rich area of Baffin Bay that is home to belugas, narwhals, seals, walrus and many other Arctic animals.

Inuit who depend on the area for hunting have sought to have the area declared a marine conservation area since the mid-1980s.

This delicate ecosystem represents our natural wealth as a people, said Natan Obed of Canadas national Inuit group, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami. I am encouraged to see such momentum towards protecting these waters for future generations of Inuit.

Obed added his people expect to be consulted as the sanctuary is created.

Fisheries Minister Dominic LeBlanc told a World Oceans Day summit in Ottawa on Wednesday that the government needs to find a faster way to create marine conservation areas and promised to erase years of inaction.

But the Lancaster Sound proposal remains stalled by a debate over its borders. The federal government has outlined a smaller area that doesnt include the permits, while Inuit and environmental groups have been holding out for a much larger protected zone that does.

In April, the World Wildlife Fund filed documents in Federal Court that argued Shells permits dont even exist. The lawsuit claims the permits, purchased in the mid-1970s, were never renewed and have lapsed  a position that has found support among legal scholars.

Crothers said that lawsuit is unrelated to the companys decision.

We had initiated talks with the government and with (the Nature Conservancy of Canada) months ago. We dont think that litigation is the way to go.

David Miller, the president of the World Wildlife Fund, said the court challenge might have nudged both Shell and the government, but added, Shell has absolutely done the right thing.

If the litigation helped move it along, thats great, but thats not the point for us, said Miller.

Minutes from 2014 meetings between federal and Shell officials suggest the company was unwilling to part with the permits without compensation or without conducting at least some seismic tests.

Crothers suggested the companys thinking has changed since then.

People were talking more hypothetically, looking to get some return. But from my perspective, we saw an opportunity that was pretty special  to be part of a conservation effort.

These are lands with really special ecological significance.

Shell will receive no benefit for the donation, Crothers said.

John Lounds, president of the nature conservancy, said the donation beats waiting for the courts.

Im pleased we were able to work with Shell. They really understand the importance of Lancaster Sound.

Greenpeace Canada issued a release framing the feel-good announcement as a historic defeat for Shell and for the oil industrys Arctic ambitions more broadly.

This is their attempt to score some brownie points and exit from the scene gracefully, rather than have the permits pried from their hands by force, Arctic campaigner Alex Speers-Roesch said in a release.

The federal government is likely to resume consultations with Inuit groups on the larger boundaries now made possible, said Miller.

I see no obstacles in being able to announce this marine sanctuary in the relatively near future.

The announcement comes a week after a report from the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society found the three North American governments are falling far behind their promises to protect marine environments.

Canada, Mexico and the United States have all pledged to protect at least 10 per cent of their waters. The report said less than one per cent of oceans off the continent are in fully functioning protected areas with permanent legal status and a management plan.

Adding an expanded Lancaster Sound would double the amount of ocean Canada has protected.

 With files from Bruce Cheadle in Ottawa

 Follow Bob Weber on Twitter at @row1960
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HALIFAX  Seventy-four-year-old Marg MacPhee says caring for an adult son with Aspergers syndrome can mean moments of joy, but the time has come for the Nova Scotia government to ensure he has his own place.

The mother was one of several parents attending a government information session Tuesday night who said their worries are growing over waiting lists for housing of adults with disabilities.

MacPhee said her 43-year-old son Steven has been on a waiting list for his own home in the Halifax area for 12 years. She says shes turned down several options offered because they were too far away or in a rundown location.

She and husband Ivan said in an interview he needs a smaller place, with some support for meals  and shed like to still have close contact with a son who she says is compassionate and caring towards her.

The province needs to start working on it, she said in an interview.

We just want something in place for him before we go.

Krystal Brown, who also attended the meeting, said her 20-year-old son Chase  who has cerebral palsy  has been placed on the provincial waiting list for support and housing as well.

They told me if I wanted him to get him in 10 or 15 years, Id better get him on a list now, she said.

I dont want to be 80 years old and still looking after my son.

Brown says shed like to have her son near her home, where she can still have input in his life and visit frequently.

The province recently announced in the 2016-17 budget it will spend $3 million for new initiatives in its disability support program.

The money is to support the transition of 25 people from larger facilities to smaller homes in communities and to increase the capacity of daytime programs for adults with disabilities.

But Brown says that does little to increase the opportunities for a mother like herself, living in rural Nova Scotia and providing full-time care to an adult.

Lynn Hartwell, the deputy minister of Community Services, acknowledged during the meeting the province is struggling to keep up with the needs of families who are caring for adult children with intellectual and physical disabilities in their own houses.

There are 5,300 people supported by her department, with close to 3,000 in family support programs.

Hartwell says there is a wait list of 1,100 people who are looking to either begin receiving support from the department or transfer into a new level of housing and care.

She said in an interview there are a growing number of baby boomer parents likely to soon add their children to that waiting list as they grow too old to continue providing care.

We have a whole lot of baby boomers starting to age. Theyre not in a position to care for family members who are no longer living in the family home, she said.

Dave Kent, the president of the advocacy group People First Nova Scotia, said the province remains years behind other Canadian jurisdictions in the transitions to community-based homes and support, with more than 600 people still living in the larger facilities around the province.

The number of people in family homes who want to move into their own apartment is also too large, he said.

The government isnt doing enough. I had to wait eight years for independent living. Now I live alone with a worker coming six hours a week, he said.

In a report issued Wednesday, the provinces auditor general criticized the department for failing to evaluate whether funding levels are sufficient to sustain its programs.

Community Services needs to understand the potential future demand in order to ensure the programs offered will be sustainable, says the report.

The department says in its response to the auditor that it plans to have analyzed its future needs by September 2018.
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CALGARY  The impact of Albertas new carbon levy on the oil and gas industry was hotly debated in Calgary on Wednesday, a day after it was passed by the NDP government.

Alberta Energy Minister Marg McCuaig-Boyd, who spoke at an industry conference, insisted the province can compete with neighbouring Saskatchewan, which doesnt have a carbon tax.

Were still pretty competitive overall in Canada, said McCuaig-Boyd. Were one of the lowest (tax) jurisdictions and, I always have to remind people, we dont have a provincial sales tax.:

But Gary Leach, president of the Explorers and Producers Association of Canada, said the carbon tax could drive investment away to other provinces or the United States.

Were competing in a North American market, he said. The price for our energy exports is set outside of Alberta. We dont set the prices. So to the extent where our industry is shouldering a competitive burden that our competitors are not, that is a serious concern.

Beverly Gilbert, national commodity tax leader for law firm Borden Ladner Gervais, said theres no question that Alberta producers will face higher costs and a huge compliance burden as a result of the carbon tax.

They will be paying this non-refundable tax that people in Saskatchewan will not be paying, for instance, on things like venting and flaring, Gilbert said. That makes us less competitive.

Gilbert acknowledged, however, that the fact that Alberta has no provincial sales tax gives it a substantial advantage that producers in other provinces dont have.

The carbon levy, to take effect Jan. 1, is one element of a climate-change strategy intended to reduce Albertas carbon footprint. It is expected to bring in $3 billion in 2017-18.

Cenovus Energy (TSX:CVE) spokesman Brett Harris said his company has supported Albertas climate change initiative from the start and would like to see it extended across North America so theres a level playing field for all competitors.

We think over the long term it actually gives Alberta a potential competitive advantage because it establishes us as a world leader, especially in terms of oil-producing jurisdictions, he said.

Follow @HealingSlowly on Twitter.
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HALIFAX  They are a maligned menace of the sea  slimy blobs that float silently through the water before delivering a nasty sting to swimmers.

Jellyfish make their way to waters off the East Coast every summer, becoming a pest to people but an important food source for some turtles that travel from their breeding grounds in the Caribbean to feast exclusively on the gelatinous creatures.

Now a researcher studying the endangered leatherback sea turtle wants to know where the jellyfish go and how numerous they may be, and shes calling on citizen scientists to help out.

Bethany Nordstrom, a graduate biology student at Dalhousie University in Halifax, is asking people to record their sightings of the jellyfish this summer to gain insight into the turtles feeding habits and the predator-prey relationship between the species.

We know there are people who are out on the water all the time that see jellyfish year after year, she said Wednesday. So Im looking for anyone who spots a jellyfish or even if its washed up on the beach to report it to me, just to get a better idea of when these jellyfish are showing up and how long they persist and in what areas.

Nordstrom said scientists know quite a bit about the turtles, which are classified as endangered in Canadian waters, but very little about the lowly jellyfish. Understanding where the jellyfish go will add to knowledge about the location of the turtles critical habitats and the abundance of their food.

She said it could also provide insight into changes in the marine ecology, since they are collecting information on environmental conditions like water temperature. The unique research will serve as a baseline for future years and provide the scientific community with an understanding of broader changes in the ecosystem.

Its really important to have this baseline data just so you can keep track of species like this, she said. They have a lot of impact not only on leatherback sea turtles, but also on lots of human activities.

In particular, the turtles like to feed on the lions mane, a jellyfish with a purplish hue and very long red tentacles that can cause painful stings. They also eat clear moon jellyfish that have four small rings on top and comb jellies.

Nordstrom, who is collaborating with the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Science in Maine, said people can email her at jellyfish@dal.ca with the location, jellyfish description and date of the sighting.

She said shes already received reports of sightings, suggesting the jellyfish are showing up a bit early this year. Nordstrom will also do field work in July when she goes out with Fisheries officers to conduct groundfish surveys as well as trips in August off Cape Breton.

She said she appreciates the creatures may not be a favourite animal for study, but hopes that people will share their encounters with them.

They do deliver a bit of a sting so they can ruin a nice summer day, she said with a laugh. Anything that kind of wraps around you in the water is not pleasant!
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This article was published 08/06/2016 (2330 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada are taking action in Brandon and across Canada today as the Trudeau Liberals continue to drag their feet on fair collective bargaining.

Members will be on the front steps of the federal building on Princess Avenue at noon today with posters and flags talking with fellow members and the public to raise awareness about the state of collective bargaining under the Trudeau Liberals.

Despite promises of changing course, the union is accusing the Trudeau Liberals as being strikingly similar to the Harper Conservatives at the bargaining table, refusing to move away from the Conservative proposal to replace negotiated sick leave with a short-term disability plan.

We expect the Liberals to honour their word and adopt a contract with fair wages and benefits, Marianne Hladun, regional executive vice-president of the PSAC Prairie Region, said in a news release.

PSACs Treasury Board bargaining teams are back at the bargaining table on June 17 as negotiations drag on, and Canada Revenue Agency members are currently taking ratification votes that the bargaining team is suggesting members oppose.

Canadian Food Inspection Agency workers and Parks Canada bargaining teams are also at the table in June.

The Treasury Boards negotiators are sticking with the 0.5 per cent yearly wage increase proposal tabled by the Conservative government, even though members of Parliament and senators received a base salary hike four times that much.

The Liberal government promised public service employees a new era of respect, and this June 8 national action is a reminder for the Liberals to honour their word, the news release says.

 Submitted
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OTTAWA  The European Unions foreign policy chief says Europe welcomed Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus recent statement that Britain should remain in the 28-country bloc.

Federica Mogherini, the EUs foreign policy chief, arrived in Ottawa Wednesday night for meetings with Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion and his cabinet colleagues as British voters are poised to hold a referendum on June 23 on whether to leave the EU  whats called a Brexit.

Last month, Trudeau told the Reuters news agency that he wants to see Britain remain as part of a united Europe, where it would enjoy greater prosperity.

I noticed that Prime Minister Trudeau sent a pretty powerful message underlying that whenever regions, countries, organizations stay united, theyre stronger, Mogherini said on Parliament Hill prior to her evening meeting with Dion.

This is exactly the same message that we . . . like to hear in Europe.

Dion was meeting his European Union counterpart as the two sides push towards the final ratification of their comprehensive free trade deal. He reiterated the message that Trudeau delivered on the British referendum.

The fact is that Canada enjoys a lot, its relationship with a strong UK in a strong EU.

Dion echoed Trudeaus suggestion that it would be difficult for Britain to replicate its own version of the Canada-EU free trade deal, known as CETA.

The prime minister made the point that it took for Canada five years to negotiate it, Dion said.

Mogherini refused to speculate on what would happen to CETA if the Brexit side prevailed.

In addition to trade, Dion and Mogherini were to discuss climate change, the Arctic, the migration crisis in Europe and the ongoing security challenges in Syria and Ukraine.

The talks are part of the preparation for a larger Canada-EU leaders summit to be held this fall, which is expected to announce ratification of the trade deal.

Both parties expect the deal, which has been seven years in the making, to come into force in early 2017.

Mogherini also had meetings scheduled with several of Dions cabinet colleagues, including International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland, Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan and Immigration Minister John McCallum.
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TORONTO  Ontarios climate change action plan, which will provide billions of dollars in subsidies and incentives to businesses and homeowners, was greeted with cautious optimism Wednesday by environmentalists and businesses.

The province will spend up to $8.3 billion on a range of programs to encourage people and companies to switch to more energy-efficient heating systems, buy electric or hybrid cars, convert big trucks to natural gas, add more bio-fuel to gasoline, and help the agriculture and industrial sectors adopt low-carbon technologies.

Most of the money will come from a cap-and-trade program for industrial polluters that the Liberal government expects will raise $1.9 billion a year. All of the cap-and-trade money will go into a dedicated fund for lowering Ontarios carbon footprint.

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne speaks as she makes a climate change policy announcement at Evergreen Brickworks in Toronto, Wednesday June 8, 2016. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Mark Blinch

Two groups representing automakers said continued rebates of up to $14,000 for electric vehicles, free overnight charging for four years, and a cash-for-clunkers program to get older cars off the roads will help create consumer demand for EVs.

The rebates, combined with looking at renewable fuels, is sort of a broad-based approach to reducing emissions overall from the transportation sector, said David Adams, president of Global Automakers of Canada.

Many of the initiatives announced today will help consumers understand that electric vehicles are part of the future, of their future, said Mark Nantis of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers Association.

However, the manufacturers want more details on the cap-and-trade plan, which takes effect in January when Ontario joins a carbon market with Quebec and California.

In our industry, many of the investment decisions are upon us now, so theres many details that we have to work out in collaboration with the government, added Nantis.

The Ontario Home Builders Association said getting to net zero carbon homes by 2030 will require extensive consultations with the industry, and called for a cost-benefit analysis for consumers.

We need to make sure that the upgrades to the 2030 Building Code are worth it to the consumer, said the associations president, Joe Vaccaro.

Greenpeace said Ontario is on the right track by trying to phase out fossil fuels and by recognizing that climate change is an opportunity as well as a threat.

Lots of bad things will happen if we dont break our addiction to fossil fuels, but there are also a lot of good things  green jobs, cleaner air  that come with action on climate change, said Greenpeace Canada spokesman Keith Stewart.

The International Institute for Sustainable Development, a non-profit research group, strongly supports the plan to put cap-and-trade revenues back into actions that will help lower greenhouse gas emissions.

We hope that these provincial strategies will bolster our federal leaders efforts to develop a national action plan on climate change, including an ambitious cross-country price on carbon emissions, said Institute spokesman Amin Asadollahi.

The Pembina Institute, a clean energy think tank, said the government is grappling with the tough choices required to meet its emission reduction targets.

By providing both the ambition, and the required support to businesses and consumers, this is a good step towards our climate goals, said Pembinas Eli Angen.

Details on rebates for home retrofits will come later, but Environment and Climate Change Minister Glen Murray said no one will have to get rid of their natural gas furnace or old car until theyre ready.

Were not forcing anyone to do this, he said. We want people to avoid the carbon price in the future, and the way you do that, is to use very low or non-carbon emitting fuels and technologies in your homes and transportation systems.

Premier Kathleen Wynne said the province will invest in projects that will give families and businesses the ability to lower their carbon footprint, and their energy bills.

The Progressive Conservatives called the plan a laundry list of Liberal promises based on money the government doesnt even have yet.

I was very concerned today at the manner in which they continually dodged what this is really going to cost Ontarians, said PC environment critic Lisa Thompson.

Green Party of Ontario Leader Mike Schreiner said Ontario needed bold action on climate change 10 years ago, but hes concerned the Liberals plan favours businesses, especially big polluters who will get exemptions early on in the cap and trade plan.

One hundred of Ontarios largest polluters are getting a free pass on the cap-and-trade plan, and it looks like most of the financial benefits are going to business and not individuals, said Schreiner. So is this fair to the people of Ontario?



Follow @CPnewsboy on Twitter
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MONTREAL  A university professor from Montreal has been jailed in Irans notorious Evin prison after conducting academic research on women in the country, her niece said Wednesday.

Homa Hoodfar, 65, was arrested Monday after being interrogated by authorities, her niece Amanda Ghahremani told The Canadian Press.

Ghahremani said her aunt, who was born in Iran but has been living in Montreal for 30 years, travelled to the country in February to see family and to do anthropological work.

Homa Hoodfar, 65, is shown in this undated image provide by her family. The university professor from Montreal has been jailed in Iran's notorious Evin prison, her family said Wednesday. Hoodfar, 65, was arrested Monday after being interrogated by authorities, according to a statement published by her family.THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO *MANDATORY CREDIT*

Hoodfar, a professor at Montreals Concordia University, is an anthropologist and often studies issues surrounding feminism and the role of woman in Middle Eastern societies.

She was initially arrested in March, shortly before she was to return home, but was released on bail.

Ghahremani said after her release, authorities kept her passport, documents, computer and other personal belongings, and summoned her for several rounds of interrogations.

Hoodfar was once again summoned for interrogation on Monday but was not released.

Ghahremani said her aunt is not being allowed to see her lawyer or contact family.

We are unclear as to what the charges are, said Ghahremani, who lives in Montreal. (Hoodfar) is not an activist and she has never been political. She has never engaged in anything that could even be remotely be construed as any form of sedition or political activity in any way.

Hoodfars visit to Iran coincided with the countrys parliamentary elections at the end of February, and the first vote since the nuclear deal was signed with the United States.

At least 14 women  reportedly all reformists  won seats in the election, according to reports.

Ghahremani said her aunt wanted to take advantage of being in Iran during this time to conduct anthropological work.

She has worked on improving the condition of women across the Middle East in the Muslim context, Ghahremani said. And shes done it through a purely academic lens.

Perhaps her work on feminism and on womans issues may be an issue here, but I find it would be a misunderstanding or misinterpretation of her work, Ghahremani said.

The Canadian government says it is working with allies to help Hoodfar.

Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion said he and his parliamentary secretary for consular affairs met a member of her family.

Will do everything we can, said Dion, who did not give additional details because of privacy concerns.

The new Liberal government has said it will re-establish relations with Iran and reopen the embassy the previous Conservative government closed in Tehran 2012.

It would be easier to have an embassy in Iran, Dion said. Because its not the case, we will do everything we can and working with the like-minded countries that are in Iran.

But a senior government official not authorized to speak on the record told The Canadian Press this week that reopening the embassy is not imminent and more work needs to be done before relations can be re-established with Iran.

Hoodfars plight has harrowing echoes of the case of Zahra Kazemi, a Canadian-Iranian freelance photographer who was killed in the same prison in 2003.

Evin prison is notorious and has been for a while, Ghahremani said. Initially when she was arrested (in March) we wanted to be very respectful of the domestic Iranian judicial system  but at this point now that she has been imprisoned we have no other choice but to go public and share the truth about her work.

 With files from Mike Blanchfield in Ottawa
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CALGARY  A former RCMP officer broke down on the witness stand Wednesday at the murder trial for parents of a teen who died of starvation and complications from untreated diabetes.

Emil Radita, 59, and his wife Rodica Radita, 53, have pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the death of 15-year-old Alexandru, who weighed less than 37 pounds when he died in Calgary in 2013.

Charlene Beck was an RCMP constable who had been called a decade earlier, in October 2003, to investigate a report of possible abuse involving Alexandru at a hospital in Surrey, B.C.

She testified it was something she will never forget.

Alexandru was lying in a hospital bed, she said, but stopped as she choked back tears.

At that point of time in my career, I had never seen a child in that state. He was so skinny. He couldnt lift his head. He couldnt lift his arms, couldnt lift his legs. He was a skeleton.

He talked in very, very quiet whispers and only a few words at a time and you had to literally put your ear to his mouth to hear him.

Beck said the last time she saw Alexandru was when he was in foster care in June 2004.

Had I not been there to see it for my own eyes, I would never have believed that it was the same child. He was what I would call chubby, happy  non-stop talkative, couldnt sit down in a chair for more than two seconds at a time.

Beck said the Raditas were charged with negligence and failing to provide the necessaries of life, but the case never proceeded because Alexandru was given back to his parents. The family then moved to Alberta.

Jana Wong, a social worker at B.C. Childrens Hospital, testified she was responsible for telling the couple that their son had diabetes in December 2000.

Mrs. Radita told me that her son didnt have diabetes. She thought that he had an infection and just, with some rest and food, he would be fine, she said. I was a little bit concerned because I thought this was denial was a little bit beyond the norm.

Wong said a home-care nurse was sent to keep an eye on the family longer than was normally allowed.

She said she was aware Alexandru was readmitted to the hospital in 2003 and was severely malnourished.

I remember one of the doctors describing him as looking like a poster boy for the children for Africa when they have those big bellies because he looked so ill, she said.

Wong said she was worried after Alexandru was returned to the family and kept in contact with the social workers involved in the case.

Visits with the family were not going well, she said. They said that food was an issue and the mother was using food as power in the relationship.

A judge, who is hearing the case without a jury, has yet to decide if evidence dealing with the familys time in B.C. will be admitted.

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TORONTO  A man stalked the streets of Toronto, a 45-year-old mother of four in his sights.

He mapped her movements through her downtown neighbourhood, plotted his attack, then savagely struck one August night in 1983. When he was done, Susan Tice lay sexually assaulted, stabbed and breathing her last in her own bedroom.

Four months later, the scene played out again, this time during the Christmas rush in the heart of Yorkville  one of the citys most posh neighbourhoods. The victim, 22-year-old aspiring fashion designer Erin Gilmour, suffered the same horrific fate.

Det. Sgt. Brian Borg speaks during a press conference at police headquarters in Toronto on Monday, June 4, 2012. Borg, who once led Toronto's cold case unit, was one of the investigators who maintained the management of individual cases for years at a time. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Aaron Vincent Elkaim

Thats what detectives at the Toronto cold case unit believe happened. In both cases, they say the assailants left behind traces of his DNA, captured by police.

Seventeen years later in 2000, DNA technology enabled investigators to confirm what they suspected all along  both women were killed by the same man. It seemed a resolution was imminent now that a central DNA databank was taking shape in Canada.

But 16 years after that key clue, the cases remain cold.

For police, the lack of closure on the Tice and Gilmour murders stands as a striking example of why Canada is a particularly difficult place in which to solve cold cases.

Former Toronto police officer Dave Perry said Canadian laws governing DNA collection forbid police from entering a suspects sample in the databank at the time of arrest, in marked contrast to countries like the United States and the United Kingdom.

This omission, he fears, has allowed a killer to walk free for decades.

Hes probably done something in his life that, had we been doing this, wed have his DNA and those two murders would be solved, Perry said.

Criminologists and police officers feel there are several factors conspiring to make Canada an inhospitable environment for cold case detectives. Aside from stringent DNA privacy laws, they cite rigorous documentation standards that add layers of red tape to complex investigations, lack of financial and laboratory resources, and even a policing culture that doesnt always prioritize historic cases.

Canadas cold case investigative protocols are unclear, even opaque, in part because there is no standardized system for defining a cold case much less on how to investigate them, said Western University criminologist and former police officer Michael Arntfield.

This stands in stark contrast to other western countries, he said, which have established protocols, loosened regulations and provided the resources necessary to solve historic murders.

Arntfield believes police forces across Canada could learn much from the Toronto cold case unit.

Describing the force as the best of its kind in Canada, Arntfield said it set itself apart from its counterparts by establishing a dedicated unit with a stable core of experienced detectives.

The consistent presence of seasoned investigators means information about the case is less likely to fall through the cracks, either for the officers themselves or the families at the heart of the cases, he said.

Det. Sgt. Brian Borg, who once led Torontos cold case unit, was one of the investigators who maintained the management of individual cases for years at a time.

That focus, he said, has helped the squad solve a number of cases. But some of the ones that remain on the books are likely to haunt him well after his retirement later this year.

Borg specifically cites the 2008 death of Shawn McLean, who was gunned down seemingly at random while walking home from the shopping mall he frequented nearly every day.

Investigative efforts in that case were stymied by traditional challenges such as lack of witnesses and physical evidence, but Borg said cases are often thwarted by more systemic obstacles.

One barrier is lack of resources to accomplish forensic testing. Only Ontario and Quebec have dedicated crime labs, he said, adding the RCMP runs a handful of other facilities across the country.

Major American police services, by contrast, can occasionally afford to set up their own labs thanks to lucrative grants available to them through the U.S. Department of Justice.

Essentially, for Canadian law enforcement to do this kind of work, the resources and the money to do this basically come out of their own pockets, he said.

Borg said the DNA databank is an invaluable resource, but it falls short of its full potential due to Canadian privacy laws that dictate DNA samples are only mandatory for offenders convicted of a specific list of crimes.

A deeper pool of profiles in the databank, he said, would lead to more cold case closures and may have helped police solve the Tice and Gilmour murders among many others.

The DNA that turned up at those crime scenes has never surfaced in the national databank, leaving police unable to put a name to the profile.

Borg said taking samples at the time of arrest could eliminate the problem.

Theres no correlation between what an offender is convicted of and what they may have been found to have committed, he said, adding someone could be found guilty of a domestic assault and only then be implicated in a stranger-on-stranger sex assault.

The argument doesnt hold water for the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, which views DNA as highly sensitive personal data capable of revealing almost all facets of a persons physical and mental characteristics.

Office spokeswoman Tobi Cohen said the mere inclusion in a databank constitutes a privacy breach in theory. While acknowledging that such a databank should exist, she said the office is opposed to expanding the DNA Identification Act.

The mere suspicion of having committed a crime, which is all authorities have when they arrest somebody, does not justify the retention of DNA in a DNA databank, Cohen said in a statement.

Not only does it threaten the presumption of innocence, it also has a disproportionate impact on the privacy and civil rights of ethnic and racial minorities who tend to be overrepresented in terms of arrest and incarceration rates.

Perry, who is now a private investigator, sides with Borg, saying not only privacy laws but case management protocols make life harder for cold case investigators. He cites the example of affidavits required to get a judge to issue a search warrant on a suspect.

While a two or three-page document prepared by a single investigator suffices for a U.S. judge, Perry said an entire team of Canadian officers is often required to compile enough documents to fill multiple four-inch binders.

He called Canadas approach ridiculous, lamenting that adhering to such bureaucratic processes leaves suspects with ample time to destroy evidence or even reoffend.

The Canadian system needs to find a way to strike a balance between the privacy of those who dont commit crimes and the needs of those who work to solve them, he said.

Every time you add an hour, let alone a day, to an investigation, thats multiplied by a hundred times because youve got so many people working on it and everybodys hitting the same dead ends, Perry said. Theres got to be a simpler way.

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TORONTO  A mother who found her 17-year-old son on the street outside their home dying from a gunshot pleaded Wednesday for witnesses to come forward as the city grapples with a spike in gun violence.

Ana Pavao talked about her sons January death at a police news conference, held a day after Mayor John Tory asked the federal and provincial governments for help curbing the violence.

In the letter to federal Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale and his Ontario counterpart Yasir Naqvi, Tory linked the rise in gun violence to firearms from the United States, saying about half of illegal guns seized by police have been smuggled across the border.

Americans can set whatever gun policies they want, but that doesnt mean we have to suffer as a result, Tory said. We must act now to strengthen enforcement at the border, as the numbers suggest such action would have the greatest and most immediate impact.

Tory also asked the federal and provincial governments to discuss how they can partner with the city to provide more resources for community-engagement programs.

In the House of Commons on Wednesday, Goodale said he had reached out to Torys office and expected to hear back from him shortly.

Were prepared to work with all communities and all provincial governments on issues related to public safety and safety in the community, combating gangs and violence, Goodale said.

Thats a cause that we would all share in common and be prepared to work very hard on together.

Goodale also said Canada Border Services Agency seized more than 7,400 prohibited weapons and firearms last year.

Pavaos son, Joseph Petit, was Torontos first homicide of 2016  a year in which shootings, along with gun-related deaths and injuries, have risen sharply. To date this year, 21 people have been shot dead in Toronto, up from the nine recorded in the first five months of 2015.

Details of what happened leading up to Petits killing are hazy.

Det. Sgt. Gary Giroux said Petit was walking his dog, spoke with two young males he knew, and some sort of physical struggle ensued before he was shot.

Soon after, his mother, returning home from work, saw someone on the ground. She thought the person had fallen, and didnt immediately recognize it was her son.

I came upon my son, Pavao said. Shot in the street, I came upon my son. I called 911, and had I not been there, my son would have died alone.

When asked what she thought of all the talk about reducing gun violence, Pavao said: We want to make our city safe, we want to make our streets safer. And to do that, communities need to come forward and they need to do their part. Everybody needs to do their part.

Police are offering a $50,000 reward for information that leads to the conviction of Petits killers.

Naqvi did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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OTTAWA  The Senate voted Wednesday to allow suffering Canadians who are not near death to seek medical help to end their lives, knocking out the central pillar underpinning the federal governments proposed new law on medically assisted dying.

Senators voted 41-30 to amend Bill C-14, deleting the requirement that a persons natural death must be reasonably foreseeable.

The amendment replaces the eligibility criteria in the bill with the much more permissive criteria set out in last years landmark Supreme Court ruling, which struck down the ban on assisted dying.

Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada Jody Wilson-Raybould responds to a question during question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday, June 8, 2016. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

That sets the Senate on a potential collision course with the government.

Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould signalled earlier Wednesday that the government is unlikely to accept such an amendment.

Weve worked incredibly hard on this piece of legislation to ensure that we find the right balance and were confident that weve found the right balance between recognizing personal autonomy and protecting the vulnerable, she said outside a Liberal caucus meeting.

If we were to consider removing reasonable forseeability, that would broaden the regime, the balance that we have struck.

She added: There would need to be additional safeguards  This is an incredible and momentous change in our country and were confident what we put forward is the right choice for Canada right now. Its a first step.

In anticipation of that reaction, the amendment, proposed by Sen. Serge Joyal and passed late Wednesday night, is intended to go hand-in-hand with another amendment, to be proposed by Conservative Senate leader Claude Carignan,

Carignans amendment would impose an additional safeguard, requiring a judge to sign off on an application for assisted dying by anyone who is not close to death. It is to be debated and voted upon separately.

The near-death proviso in the bill has been widely condemned by legal and constitutional experts who maintain it renders the legislation unconstitutional and flies in the face of the Supreme Court ruling.

C-14 would allow assisted dying only for 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.

Thats more restrictive than the Supreme Courts directive that medical assistance in dying should be available to clearly consenting, competent adults with grievous and irremediable medical conditions that are causing enduring suffering that they find intolerable.

We are thrilled that the Senate has listened to reason and has done its duty  to give second thought to flawed bills adopted by the House of Commons and to uphold the rights of Canadians, said Josh Paterson, executive director of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, a plaintiff in the court case that resulted in the assisted dying ban being struck down.

We commend senators on their serious and thoughtful approach to this issue and for having the fortitude to stand up and fix this bill which would violate the charter rights of suffering Canadians.

Senators voted for Joyals amendment despite a warning from Sen. Peter Harder, the government representative in the upper house, that it largely guts the bill.

Joyal and others argued that the amendment was necessary to ensure the bill is constitutional.

I believe this bill is deeply flawed and I can not support it as it stands because, in my view, it is unconstitutional, said Sen. James Cowan, leader of independent Liberal senators.

Others cast the amendment in terms of ensuring compassion for those who are suffering intolerably.

Conservative Sen. Linda Frum said she doesnt believe that Parliament has an obligation to echo the Supreme Courts ruling word-for-word. But she added: I do believe that there are fates worse than death, such as unbearable and excruciating pain that promises to last for years on end, grievous physical and mental suffering, the loss of human dignity.

Its possible for all of these conditions to exist separately from a reasonably foreseeable death.

The amendment puts the Senate on the path towards a potential impasse with the House of Commons, which must decide whether to accept or reject any changes proposed by the upper house.

If the Commons rejects the amendment, Carignan has predicted the Senate will insist upon it.

There is no mechanism for breaking a deadlock between the two houses of Parliament.

Theoretically, the Senate could repeatedly send the bill back to the Commons with the same amendment, until one chamber or the other gives in.

The two chambers could also agree to hold a conference  a procedure to resolve an impasse that has not been used in some 70 years.

Another option would be for the Senate to refuse to pass the bill until the government refers it to the Supreme Court to test its constitutionality, Joyal said.

The Senate did that with the Harper governments initial attempt to unilaterally reform the Senate. The government eventually did refer the matter to the top court, which advised that the reforms could not be achieved without constitutional amendments supported by at least seven provinces.

An impasse between the chambers would prolong the time in which Canada is without a criminal law governing medical assistance in dying. When the top court struck down the ban on assisted dying, it gave Parliament a year, later extended by four months, to craft a new law. That deadline passed on Monday.

In the absence of a law, the procedure will be governed by the eligibility criteria spelled out by the Supreme Court, guidelines issued by medical regulators in each province and any rules set by provincial governments.

The Senate is expected to continue debating the bill and voting on other amendments into next week. Other amendments are expected to propose allowing advance requests for assisted dying for those diagnosed with competence-eroding conditions like dementia and explicit protection for the conscience rights of health care providers who refuse to provide assistance in dying.
Opinion

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Re: Brandon Sun, June 4, Knights Of D-Day.

Great article, Eva Wasney. You, the Brandon Sun editor and all others involved are to be recognized and congratulated for all the work that went into this presentation.

I have personally attended three local events where our Second World War veterans were being honoured with this prestigious medal from France for their involvement at Normandy, and the sacrifices that were endured by so many Canadians in the cause of freedom, which all began 72 years ago, on June 6, 1944.

France graciously salutes our veterans, but sadly these events have been shied by Canadas government, as not one dignitary MP, representing Canada, nor MLA of Manitoba was present at these events to recognize and pay tribute to those who gave some, and so many who gave all for Canada.

On a personal note, it is disappointing that Canadas government did not recognize an award for our Canadian army, navy and air force personnel for their contributions and sacrifices with a campaign medal. Operation Overlord was a huge and historical undertaking by Canada and their allies.

Now, it is far too late. Seventy two years too late  as very few remain.

John Fefchak CD1

(CWO ret.)

Virden
Opinion

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Quick  which Canadian prime minister said this?

I think Canadians want us to promote our trade relations worldwide, and we do that, but I dont think Canadians want us to sell out important Canadian values; our belief in democracy, freedom, human rights  They dont want us to sell that out to the almighty dollar.

If you guessed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau youd be wrong. The quote came from Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper in 2006, remarking on Canadian trade with China.

The relationship between China and Canada cooled considerably following that exchange and things remained that way, largely due to Canadas support of the Dalai Lama and its questions about human rights abuses. However, the relationship began to thaw in the aftermath of the 2008 recession as Harpers government saw a way out of the economic doldrums with increased trade.

A decade later, and theres still concern about Canada engaging in trade relationships with China, particularly because of its human rights record. Last week, the Chinese foreign minister made a surprise visit to Ottawa. Wang Yi took aim at a journalist who questioned him about his countrys record on human rights in light of the imprisonment of a Canadian missionary who many feel has been jailed on trumped-up charges.

Mr. Wang chastised the reporter, declaring her question was full of prejudice against China and arrogance, and I dont know where that is coming from. It is totally unacceptable.

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion, stood silently during the exchange. Later, Mr. Trudeau told reporters his government sent a message of dissatisfaction to the Chinese in response, reminding them of the importance of a free press.

China and Canada are supposed to be entering a golden era of bilateral relations with a new trade agreement on the horizon. China is expected to push the Canadian government to approve the Northern Gateway pipeline.

The Chinese see the Liberals are back in power, and think its going to be back to the good old days, Queens University fellow Bruce Gilley told the Globe and Mail. Gilley, an expert in Chinese politics, said the golden era will not include questions about human rights.

This is an ongoing concern in foreign relations  the issue of sovereignty. Can one country criticize another country for how it conducts its business within its borders without stepping on that countrys right to govern itself? As Chinas foreign minister has pointed out, Canada and China have different cultures and may have different views on human rights and those differences should not get in the way of doing business.

Mr. Trudeau may find hes in a bit of a bind. His mandate letter to his foreign affairs minister points to reinvigorated relations with the worlds second-largest economy, particularly with a growing trade deficit; China needs our oil, while we rely far more on its manufactured goods. But in public opinion polls Canadians have suggested they are not supportive of a trade deal and are unhappy with the current climate in China.

Does the government turn a blind eye and soldier on? It likely will.

As University of Utah law professor Amos Guiora and Maine human rights lawyer Samuel Riotte said in a 2008 Canada-United States Law Journal article, history is full of examples of countries turning a blind eye rather than taking a principled stand. That leaves it up to consular staff and cabinet ministers to work behind the scenes to influence the Chinese to make human rights changes, as they should.

Millions of Canadians dont want the Liberal government to look the other way to ongoing concerns about the treatment of human rights lawyers, the stifling of information and the continued use of torture.

Otherwise, any new trade deal could be signed in blood, rather than ink.

 Winnipeg Free Press
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Americas self-styled political revolutionary remains on the battlefield after losing the war to Hillary Clinton.

Bernie Sanders isnt ready to go.

Hes lost a majority of states in the Democratic primaries, the popular vote, elected delegates and unelected superdelegates, and has been clobbered in the biggest remaining states.

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and his wife Jane Sanders arrive at a campaign rally on Monday, June 6, 2016, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

But an electric energy rippled through his youthful crowd as he declared his intention to march on  at least to the final primary next week in Washington, D.C., then perhaps to next months Democratic convention.

Sanders is said to be feeling combative, is bitter about how hes been treated by the Democratic party and is brushing aside staffers who are insisting on the need for party unity, according to a story published by the web outlet Politico.

The struggle continues, the senator told a California crowd.

I am pretty good at arithmetic. I know that the fight in front of us is a very, very steep fight. But we will continue to fight for every vote and every delegate.

The sound of the crowd hinted at Democratic disunity.

While his supporters cheered his reference to stopping Republican Donald Trump, they cheered even longer and louder when he described his campaign as something greater than defeating Trump  its about transforming the country with a platform of more social programs and less money in politics.

They booed Clinton.

On the very night she made history as the first female presidential nominee of a major U.S. party, a Democratic audience jeered Sanders reference to receiving a gracious phone call from her.

Sanders raised his hands in a half-hearted effort to silence the boos.

His battlefield exit strategy could start taking shape Thursday.

After a brief rest at home in Vermont, Sanders meets with President Barack Obama and with the partys Senate leader in Washington. In a few days, the primaries officially end.

Sanders then has a choice to make about the convention: Will he be there to fight Clinton? Or simply to fight for his causes in the party platform and rulebook?

All he said Tuesday was that hed be fighting for his issues in Philadelphia  without specifying in which capacity.

Some of his supporters offer another possible reason for his staying put. Some suggest hed be ready to step in if Clinton got slapped with criminal charges amid the FBI investigation into her emails.

Clinton, for her part, extended an olive branch. She saluted her opponent for exciting people with a message of economic fairness and said she hoped to work with him.

She also referred to her own loss in a primary, eight years ago this week. After her last defeat in 2008, it took her a few days to withdraw and support Obama: I know it never feels good to put your heart into a cause or a candidate you believe in, and to come up short. I know that feeling well.

Clinton supporters express varying degrees of patience with him.

At a rally this week, Chris Wikler urged understanding: He can take his time to get out of the race in my view Hell do it gracefully.

Standing beside him, his mom said Sanders should step down. Deb Tellier said: He gave it a great shot. I appreciate that he really challenged her in ways that maybe she wouldnt have been challenged. But I feel like, you know, its time. Let it go, man.

The Republican nominee is working to drive a wedge into those differences.

Trump says Sanders has been felled by a crooked system, a theme eagerly echoed by Sanders supporters. Trump also reiterated his agreement with Sanders that trade deals are flawed and must be renegotiated.

And Trump reached out to those disaffected voters: We welcome you with open arms.

Polls suggest that up to one-quarter of Sanders supporters say they would support Trump. Yet the vast majority say they wouldnt. And if history is any guide, these early election surveys are to be consumed with a generous sprinkling of salt.

Similar polls conducted early in 2008 found an even larger number of Clinton supporters insisting theyd never support their rival Obama and would back Republican John McCain.

Sanders hasnt come as close to winning as she did in 2008.

But he noted that hes gone from being a supposed fringe candidate to capturing 22 primaries, 10 million votes, overwhelming support from young people, and altering the countrys political conversation.

Our vision, Sanders said, will be the future of America.
A direct flight service from Dublin to Cancun in Mexico has been announced.

The flights will begin on Monday, June 13, and will be operated by Falcon Holidays and Thompson on a weekly basis for six weeks.

The Mexican Tourism Board has reported that in 2015 the number of Irish tourists travelling to Mexico was more than 24,000, 10.6% more than the previous year.

They said that in per capita terms, Ireland is one of the European countries that sends more tourists to Mexico, even more than Germany, Holland or Italy.

They predict that the flow of tourists from Ireland to Mexico will remain high, because of "the impressive recovery of the Irish economy", along with the optimistic outlook for 2016 in both countries.
Irish farmers have weighed into the Brexit debate by urging their friends and relatives in the UK to vote to remain in the EU.

Agriculture leaders in the Republic of Ireland said the stakes are highest for their sector with food trade across the Irish Sea and into Northern Ireland worth 4.4bn a year.

The Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) said sales into the UK of half of Ireland's beef, 60% of the country's cheese, almost every mushroom and 350m of pork products are at risk from Brexit.

IFA president Joe Healy said the sector would also face added costs from tariffs, quotas and border controls and the threat that Irish foods would be pushed off UK supermarket shelves if Britain strikes better trade deals with other countries.

"With a long history of emigration to the UK to find work, all Irish farm families have family members, relatives and friends living in the UK and eligible to vote," he said.

"We are asking farm families, families in rural Ireland and across the country to communicate the concerns and risks that we are highlighting today."

The IFA warned that Brexit would bring added risks to agri-food and animal health on the island of Ireland if the UK splits from the EU.

The farmers' group said threats could increase because of the shared land border and the potential for different regulatory regimes in Ireland and the UK.

It also warned that European subsidies paid to Irish farmers under the Common Agriculture Policy would be in danger from Brexit as the UK boosts the Brussels budget by about 8bn.

Mr Healy said Ireland shares strong economic, social and cultural links with the UK which make the country "a very important partner and ally in Europe".

"Should the UK vote to leave the EU, Irish agriculture would undoubtedly suffer negative consequences, both in the short term and the longer term," he said.

"Already in 2016, we have seen a weakening of sterling against the euro, arising mainly from the uncertainty on the referendum outcome. This has reduced the competitiveness of Irish exports, with a disproportionate impact on the Irish agri-food sector."

Meanwhile the Foreign Affairs Minister, Charlie Flanagan, sat down with Government advisers in Dublin to assess threats to exports.

"From the trade union movement to the business community and across the political divide, there is a consensus that anything that might get in the way of a seamless flow of goods, services, capital and people between Ireland and Britain would be extremely unwelcome," he said.

"I saw first-hand the potential for growing even further the trade links between Ireland and every region of Britain. We want to see both of our economies continuing to flourish, to the benefit of all."
A new organisation aimed at bringing together businesses in Scotland and Ireland is set to launch today.

Founders of the Irish Business Network Scotland said it is being set up at a time when trade between the two countries has reached unprecedented levels.

The network expects to draw members from the established Irish business community in Scotland as well as firms in both countries looking to expand.

Allied Irish Bank, which has branches in Edinburgh and Glasgow, is one of the founding members and the initiative is also being supported by the Scottish and Irish governments.

Scottish external affairs minister Fiona Hyslop will speak at the launch at Edinburgh Castle along with Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Paschal Donohoe.

Ms Hyslop said: "Scottish exports to Ireland are worth around 1.125 billion while the turnover of Irish businesses here in Scotland is over 2.5 billion, supporting nearly 6,000 jobs.

"The Scottish Government is pleased to welcome the development of the Irish Business Network Scotland to provide a way for businesses wanting to expand to tap into companies with experience already located in Scotland."

Mr Donohoe said: "The establishment of the Irish Business Network is further evidence of the already close co-operation that exists between Ireland and Scotland at so many levels.

"The network will provide an opportunity to bring together businesses from the two countries for their mutual benefit. The Irish Government is especially keen to foster such links."

Founding chairman Colm Moloney said the network is aimed at encouraging businesses and entrepreneurs in both Scotland and Ireland to explore the opportunities on the other side of the water.

He said: "We want to create a network that shares ideas and information, creates opportunities for partnerships and collaborations, and taps into the experience of those people and companies that have made a success of broadening their horizons across the Irish Sea."
An Irish artist has a message for men, from women, created in response to the

Brock Turner, 20, was sentenced to six months after being found guilty of three counts of sexual assault - the Californian judge said he feared a longer sentence would have a severe impact on Turner, a champion swimmer who was destined for the Olympics (a point which was repeatedly brought up in the trial).

It has generated a huge amount of discussion over how the courts - and also society - handle sexual assault and rape, with the victims powerful statement, in particular, being widely shared.

Ask any woman and she will likely have at least one experience of the following: unwanted advances, groping by strangers, being followed home, domestic violence, catcalling, sexual harassment, stalking, sexual assault and rape. The hashtag #YesAllWomen has been used in recent years as women share these stories online.

The counter movement to that is #NotAllMen, used to argue that not all men are predators.

Ciara Kenny (who you might remember from

Read More:

We're not talking about you.

We're talking about your friend, your colleague, your brother, the one that shouts lewd remarks at women on the street for 'banter' (nice rack!)

The one that gropes strangers in nightclubs.

The one that thinks rape jokes are funny.

Maybe take him aside and have a word. Maybe tell him to cop on ("Lad, grow the f*ck up, would ya?")

Ciara Kenny/Twitter

It reads in full:

Road safety ad campaigns are aimed at and seen by all drivers, not just the irresponsible ones.

You're probably one of the good drivers ("No penalty points on this bad boi!")

Most of your mates are probably good drivers too, but some of them... some of them aren't.

Some of them drive too fast, or too carelessly, or too aggressively, making life difficult for other roads users.

If someone you knew behaved like that, you'd probably have a word. You'd probably tell them to cop on ("Lad, grow the f*ck up, would ya?")

You wouldn't complain about having to watch an ad about speeding, because while you know that it might not be very relevant to you, that doesn't mean that it's not relevant to ANYONE.

You wouldn't shout, "NOT ALL DRIVERS"

So, when people try to have a conversation about rape culture, violence against women, street harassment, or general misogyny, and you feel it's not representing you, before you valiantly jump to the defence of all the good men out there.

Maybe realise that we're not talking about you.

We're talking about your friend, your colleague, your brother, the one that shouts lewd remarks at women on the street for 'banter' (nice rack!)

The one that gropes strangers in nightclubs.

The one that thinks rape jokes are funny.

Maybe take him aside and have a word. Maybe tell him to cop on ("Lad, grow the f*ck up, would ya?")

And maybe, just maybe, you could change something.

Maybe stop shouting #NOTALLMEN and instead remember #YESALLWOMEN

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."
Let Me Tell You is a new bespoke podcast series from



Hosts Daniel McConnell and Paul Hosford take a look back at some of the most dramatic moments in recent Irish political history from the unique perspective of one of the key players involved.


A cat and her three kittens were dumped at the entrance to an animal charity over the weekend.

It comes as the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ISPCA) launches its SpayAware campaign this week to encourage pet owners to get their cats and dogs neutered or spayed

A Staff member at the ISPCA found them at the gate of the charitys National Animal Centre in Longford on Saturday morning.

They were left in an old printer box when found and they have already been named by staff as Evan, Bronte and Jasper.

Eva Ellis, ISPCA Centre Manager said: "The mother was scared and ran away leaving her two to three week old kittens alone so she had to be trapped and reunited. The stress placed on these innocent animals was totally avoidable.

"The cat and kittens are doing well at the ISPCA National Animal Centre and will be spayed/neutered when of age and re-homed when old enough."

Comedian PJ Gallagher is supporting the annual SpayAware appeal calling on all pet owners to play their part in ending Irelands toll of unwanted cats and dogs.

The Naked Camera star is highlighting the message that with thousands of unwanted cats and dogs ending up in animal shelters every year, Irelands pet overpopulation crisis is no joke.

ISPCA Chief Executive Officer, Dr Andrew Kelly said: "We are delighted that PJ has lent his support to the campaign. As a top comedian, hes the perfect choice to convey the message that pet overpopulation is no laughing matter.

"It is vital that all pet owners play their part in tackling this issue by ensuring their cats and dogs are neutered or spayed.

"This year we are also making the important point that spaying or neutering also brings many benefits for both owners and pets, including reducing the risk of certain cancers, having a positive benefit for health and lifespan and curbing unwanted sexual behaviour and marking. In most cases neutering is best and we would encourage all pet owners to get their pets neutered, but also to be guided by their vet on when it is most appropriate."
Hundreds of people had to be evacuated this morning due to a fire in Cork city.

The fire broke out at the Steak House and Seafood Restaurant on Camden Quay in the city centre at around 5.15am this morning and took three hours to bring under control.
The Minister for Health Simon Harris is being urged to bring in salaried GPs in areas which have trouble recruiting doctors.

According to new figures from HSE, there were over half a million patients either waiting for an operation, an outpatient appointment or an internal endoscopy examination.
John Gilligan is back in the Supreme Court this morning.

He is trying to prevent the Criminal Assets Bureau from selling three properties that he used to own.

In 1996 the CAB seized a house at Jessbrook Equestrian Centre in County Kildare and two houses in West Dublin.

Mr Gilligan was released from prison in 2013 after serving 17 years behind bars for drug trafficking.

Yesterday his legal team argued that the assets were taken without a trial to prove if they were the proceeds of crime.
Disgraced former politician Ivor Callely has dodged another stint in jail after finally settling a long-running debt, writes Alison ORiordan and Tom Tuite.

The ex-Fianna Fail minister has paid 1,755 he owed for more than three years to an accountancy firm but Judge Michael Coghlan said today he led a merry dance over seven court appearances to resolve the debt.

He ordered him to pay an additional 1,750 in costs arising out of the action which came close to seeing Callely being put behind bars again. Finalising the case, the judge strenuously warned he would not wait another four years for him to pay the outstanding legal fees.

Callely (58) of St Lawrence's Road, Clontarf, was jailed for five months in 2014 for using false invoices to claim expenses of 4,207.45 at Leinster House, Kildare Street between November 2007 and December 2009 while he was a member of the Seanad.

A bench warrant for his arrest was issued on May 17 by Dublin District Court in an unrelated case.

These proceedings, which ended today resulted from his failure to comply with terms of a 2013 district court judgement compelling him to pay a 1,755 debt or face jail.

The former minister of State owed the money to Galway based accountants Gallagher & Company who had previously asked the court to issue a committal order. Callely had been warned by the judge that he was facing jail and had been also ordered to give a root and branch account of his finances.

On Wednesday, Karl Moran BL for Callely told the court that the substantive debt of 1,755 had been discharged by his client to the accountancy firm.

Solicitor for Gallagher & Company, Mark Newman said it had been in part discharged but the outstanding 150 had not been paid.

This cost was a result of expenses from hiring a private investigator in April to establish the whereabouts of Callely who also spends time in Northern Ireland and also has an address at Howth Road, Killester, Dublin 3.

Judge Michael Coghlan asked both sides to address the issue of costs. Mr Moran said his client was in a difficult position regarding paying costs as 1,600 was being sought.

Judge Coghlan said this matter had a certain history which ran back to 2013 and there had been numerous appearances in court Mr Callely is under extreme financial pressure and the substantive debt has been paid and he had to get a loan to pay that off. Im asking for a maximum amount of time to discharge the costs, said Mr Moran.

The judge said he anticipated three to four weeks to bring the matter to a close but counsel for Callely said his client was anxious for the matter to be finalised. Judge Coghlan then said he would not wait another four years for the matter to be concluded.

Mr Newman said it dated back to June 2013 when an instalment order was originally made.

He reminded the court how Mr Callely had frustrated matters since then with seven court appearances to date.

Mr Moran then told the court a breakdown of costs had not been furnished to them.

My client couldnt be expected to discharge those fees until there is a breakdown, said counsel.

You appreciate the history of the matters. There have been a number of occasions that your client was in court and he was reminded that a consent order was put in place. In short a merry dance was being led, said the judge.

Judge Coghlan then said he would adjourn matters for a month as he did not want to be put in the invidious position of measuring costs.

Mr Moran said his client wished to agree the amount sought from the plaintiff and the court rose to allow both parties agree a figure for costs.

A costs figure of 1,750 was then agreed by both parties which included the outstanding amount of 150, the expense from hiring a private investigator.

My client has instructed me that he is under severe financial pressure and perhaps the court could fix an amount of time it sees fit in the circumstances, said counsel.

Mr Newman then suggested to the court that a week would be an appropriate amount of time to discharge the costs. However counsel for Mr Callely said there was no reality in his client being able to pay in that time. Judge Coghlan told counsel that the former politician does not get that latitude and made an order that the costs be paid within thirty days.

There is liberty to apply on default and the 150 by way of expenses for a private investigator is to be rolled up in those costs, said the judge.

At a previous stage, former TD and senator Callely, who claims he has needs 2,500 a month for a reasonable living, had said he had done his best to contact the creditor about the debt.

In evidence Callely had also said he has an income of 7,683 a month. He claimed he pays 4,800 a month on a lease for a commercial property in Dublin which he lets out but he explained it was difficult to find tenants able to afford the rent.

However, in April, Judge Michael Coghlan had given a formal warning that he was in contempt of court orders and was facing jail. The judge had also said earlier he was not impressed with his evidence and wanted to see proof of his income and expenditure.

Callely failed to turn up to his next hearing on May 17 and a warrant was issued for his arrest. The warrant was executed on May 25 when he met gardai by arrangement and had a doctor's note to explain why he had missed court.
A third person has been arrested by Gardai investigating the murder of Neil Fitzgerald over the weekend

The 36-year-old was found dead at Hills Lane in Tallaght, Dublin on Sunday.
Update 7.10pm: Three divers reported missing off the coast of Country Antrim have been found "safe and well" in the sea, the Coastguard said.

Earlier: A major search has been launched for three divers reported missing off the coast of the North.
Jennifer Zamparelli has revealed shes been in talks about bringing her comedy series Bridget and Eamon to the UK.

The RTE star admitted she has met with TV chiefs in England about bringing the show overseas with her co-star Bernard OShea.
A petition has been instigated by a Stanford Law professor to remove a judge who gave a six-month sentence to a young man who sexually assaulted an unconscious woman.

The professor, Michele Landis Dauber, has publically slated the sentencing saying the judge, Santa Clara County superior court Judge Aaron Persky, has effectively told women "you're on your own".

Former Stanford swimmer Brock Allen Turner, aged 20, was given a six-month sentence in county jail and three years probation after he was found guilty of sexually assaulting a 23-year-old unconscious woman on campus.

The sentencing, and comments from Mr Turners father who is quoted as saying his son was paying a steep price for 20 minutes of action out of his 20 plus years of life has led to outrage regarding the case.

#brockturner father: son not "violent" only got "20 mins of action" shouldn't have to go to prison. @thehuntinground pic.twitter.com/IFECJs687b  Michele Dauber (@mldauber) June 5, 2016

Professor Dauber, who is a family friend of the victim, is quoted in The Guardian as saying the judge bent over backwards in order to make an exception

The message to women and students is youre on your own, and the message to potential perpetrators is Ive got your back.

In a powerful 12-page victim impact statement the victim said of Mr Turner You took away my worth, my privacy, my energy, my time, my safety, my intimacy, my confidence, my own voice.

The victim said: "Alcohol is not an excuse. Is it a factor? Yes. But alcohol was not the one who stripped me, fingered me, had my head dragging against the ground, with me almost fully naked."

In sentencing the young man, who was found by two graduate students lying on top of the unconscious victim behind a dumpster, outside a fraternity party, the judge said the defendant should be treated differently than a sober defendant due to his intoxication.

The judge also said there is less moral culpability attached to the defendant who isintoxicated.

So far the petition to recall the judge from office for his dealing of the case has gathered more than 500,000 signatures.

Speaking to The Guardian on Monday, the victim said she would remain anonymous to protect her identity.

I remain anonymous, yes to protect my identity. But it is also as a statement, that all of these people are fighting for someone they dont know. Thats the beauty of it. I dont need labels, categories, to prove I am worthy of respect, to prove that I should be listened to. I am coming out to you as simply a woman wanting to be heard. Yes there is plenty more Id like to tell you about me. For now, I am everywoman.
Air strikes in rebel-held districts of the city of Aleppo have killed at least 10 people and left many others wounded, Syrian opposition activists said.

They say one of the strikes on Wednesday hit near the Bayan hospital in the Shaar neighbourhood of the contested city.
Bernie Sanders says he will continue to fight for the Democratic nomination.

Mr Sanders has thanked supporters during a speech in California where he says his supporters must continue to campaign to prevent Donald Trump from becoming president:

He said: "The American people, in my view, will never support a candidate whose major theme is bigotry, who insults Mexicans, who insults Muslims, women and African Americans.

"We will not allow Donald Trump to become president of the United States."

It comes after Sanders said he was "really disappointed" and "upset" that The Associated Press declared rival Hillary Clinton the presumptive Democratic nominee on the eve of primary elections in six states.

Mr Sanders expressed concern that the reports of Mrs Clinton's victory came the night before "the largest primary" - California - and was annoyed by the way it was done.

He said that it was based on what he described as "anonymous" commitments from superdelegates - the party insiders and Democratic officials who can vote for the candidate of their choice at the summer convention.

"They got on the phone as I understand it, and started hounding superdelegates to tell them in an anonymous way who they were voting for," he said.

"The night before the largest primary, biggest primary in the whole process, they make this announcement. So I was really disappointed in what The AP did."

The AP's delegate count is based on pledged delegates won in primaries and caucuses, as well as a survey of superdelegates. The AP only included superdelegates in its tally if they said they would unequivocally vote for Mrs Clinton or Mr Sanders at the convention.

According to the AP's count, Mrs Clinton secured the commitments of enough delegates to become the presumptive nominee on Monday night, the day before primary elections in California, New Jersey and four other states.
Brexit would be "better for black people" seeking to enter the country, Nigel Farage has claimed.

The Ukip leader made the comments in a live EU referendum grilling on ITV on Tuesday evening.

He faced hostile questions from some audience members, who accused him of "encouraging racism" and said his message had "gone against people who look non-white".

But he said leaving the European Union would be "better for black people" hoping to come to Britain, and complained that the Leave campaign was being falsely "demonised" as racist.

Mr Farage insisted freedom of movement rules were "damaging all of our communities" and that there was "strong support" for his stance among ethnic minority voters.

He played down reports suggesting migrant workers contribute more to the economy than they take out - and accused Remain supporters of focusing too much on economic impacts.

Quizzed by Piers Morgan on ITV's Good Morning Britain about the racism allegations, the Ukip leader said: "I believe in the Commonwealth. I believe our relationship with the Commonwealth is vital; I think we have been stupid to turn our backs on it in favour of EU membership.

"And what has happened, because of the huge numbers of people coming from the EU, is it is now very difficult for somebody who is qualified from India or from Africa to get into this country because we have an unlimited open door to unskilled labour from southern and eastern Europe.

"And the effect of what I am proposing, a points system - call it the Australian one, or whatever you like - actually more black people would qualify to come in under that than currently do."

Speaking from Strasbourg on Wednesday morning, he said he wanted migration to return to post-war numbers.

He said: "What I would like is us to return to post-war normality. For about 60 years, we had net migration into Britain between 30,000 and 50,000 people a year. If we return to that, it will become a non-issue."

During the debate, David Cameron insisted the UK should fight for its future inside the European Union rather than "quitting" as he claimed Leave campaigners were prepared to sacrifice people's jobs to secure their dream of Brexit.

The British Prime Minister was challenged over issues of sovereignty, with one audience member saying it was a "disgrace" that laws were made by "unelected bureaucrats" in Brussels and the Supreme Court could be overruled by European judges.

Mr Cameron acknowledged that sometimes the EU "can drive me mad, it is a bureaucracy, it is frustrating" but "walking away, quitting, would reduce our national influence, would reduce our economy, would reduce our say in the world and as a result would damage our country".
A woman in Pakistan is suspected of burning her 17-year-old daughter alive to punish her for marrying against the family's wishes.

Police said Zeenat Rafiq had been tied to a bed and drenched with kerosene before being set on fire.

Neighbours in the eastern city of Lahore came running when they heard the screams, but family members kept them from entering the house, said Nighat Bibi, who lives nearby.

The police eventually arrived and found the charred body near a staircase. They arrested the mother, Parveen, soon thereafter.

The victim's husband, Hassan Khan, told reporters the two had been "in love since our school days" but the family had rejected several marriage proposals, forcing them to elope last month.

He showed an affidavit of consent signed by his wife before a magistrate. He also showed mobile phone photos of a smiling Zeenat wearing a red dress.

Sheikh Hammad, a local police official, said Parveen confessed to killing her daughter with the help of her son Ahmar. He quoted the woman as saying, "I don't have any regrets."

Another police officer, Ibadat Nisar, said the body showed signs of beating and strangulation.

Hundreds of women are killed every year in Pakistan - often by their own family members - for violating the country's conservative norms regarding love and marriage. Sex outside of marriage is seen by conservative Pakistanis as a stain on the honour of the woman's entire family, one that can only be removed by killing her.

Last week a school teacher, Maria Bibi, was set on fire for refusing to marry a man twice her age.

A month earlier, police arrested 13 members of a local tribal council who allegedly strangled a girl and set her on fire for helping a friend elope. The charred body of 17-year-old Ambreen Riasat was found in a burned van.

Mr Khan, the husband of the woman killed in Lahore, said her mother and uncle had visited her three days ago to try to persuade her to return home and have a marriage ceremony with the family, so that she would not be branded as someone who had eloped. He recalled his wife telling him: "Don't let me go, they will kill me."
One of the world's most wanted people-smugglers has been arrested.

Mered Medhanie, dubbed "The General", is said to be the mastermind of an international smuggling network who is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of migrants in the Mediterranean.

The 35-year-old Eritrean, who earned the nickname because he styled himself on former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, was arrested in the Sudanese capital Khartoum in May before being extradited to Italy on Tuesday.

It is thought he ran an empire smuggling thousands of migrants from Africa and the Middle East into Europe by regular journeys across the Mediterranean.

Tom Dowdall, deputy director of Britain's National Crime Agency, said: "Medhanie is a prolific people-smuggler and has absolute disregard for human life.

"Although he was operating thousands of miles away, his criminal activity was impacting the UK. Medhanie no doubt thought he was beyond the reach of European justice but we were able to support the Italians by tracking him down to Sudan."

According to Italian prosecutors Medhanie was responsible for the death of 359 migrants who drowned after their boat sank off the Italian island of Lampedusa in 2013.

In an intercepted conversation he could be heard laughing about the fatal overloading of migrant ships.

In other recordings he discussed organising journeys across the Mediterranean and co-ordinating smuggling gangs.

Operation Glauco, a probe set up by the Italian authorities in the wake of the Lampedusa tragedy, was assisted by NCA officers from the UK Immigration Crime Taskforce in tracking down the kingpin to an address in the El Diem area of Khartoum.

Britain's GCHQ assisted the NCA in trawling through chatter, while the agency used its "international network" to set up a trap with Sudanese authorities. Medhanie was arrested by the Sudanese National Police on 24 May.

He is charged with being the organiser of a transnational criminal conspiracy aimed at smuggling human beings from Africa to Italy, and on to northern Europe and the UK.

Other charges include the smuggling of migrants relating to numerous arrivals of boats in Sicily, with aggravating circumstances of the number of smuggled people, inhuman treatment and risk to the life of migrants.
The British Government is "urgently" considering legislative action to allow people who register on the electoral roll on Wednesday to vote in the upcoming referendum on Britain's EU membership, David Cameron has announced.

The British Prime Minister told MPs his aim was effectively to extend the deadline for participation in the vote, which expired at midnight on Tuesday.

His comments came amid fears that thousands of people - including many younger voters - could have been denied a vote when the Government's registration website crashed in the final hours before the deadline.

In a message on Twitter, Mr Cameron said: "If you aren't registered and you want to vote in this EU referendum you should continue to register at gov.uk/register-to-vote.

If you aren't registered & you want to vote in this EU referendum you should continue to register at https://t.co/9e1gQX5vGM  David Cameron (@David_Cameron) June 8, 2016

"Huge demand caused system overload last night. Urgent discussions with Electoral Commission to try to ensure people who register can vote."

Huge demand caused system overload last night. Urgent discussions with Electoral Commission to try to ensure people who register can vote.  David Cameron (@David_Cameron) June 8, 2016

And he told the UK's House of Commons at Prime Minister's Questions: "I'm very clear that people should continue to register today. The Electoral Commission have made a statement this morning, urging the Government to consider options that would effectively extend the deadline. These should include legislative options.

"We are doing that and discussing it with the Electoral Commission today.

"We are working urgently with them to do just that, to make sure that those who register today and those who registered last night will be able to vote in the EU referendum."
Watch this police footage of the surveillance and capture of the man found guilty of trying to behead a random stranger at a Tube station after being inspired by the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby.

Somali-born Muslim Muhiddin Mire, 30, attacked 56-year-old musician Lyle Zimmerman with a rusty knife and threatened four other travellers as he ran amok through the ticket hall at Leytonstone Underground station in east London.

The whole incident was caught on shocking CCTV and mobile phone footage taken by a passer-by who bravely carried on filming even as Mire lunged at him with the blade.

One onlooker shouted out "You ain't no Muslim, bruv" after Mire claimed he was doing it for "my Syrian brothers" as police took him down with Tasers.

The court heard that minicab driver Mire had a history of mental illness and his psychosis involved the belief that he was being persecuted for his religion and stalked by MI5 and MI6.

He had images of soldier Lee Rigby and British Islamic State (IS) executioner Jihadi John on his Samsung phone, along with material linked to IS.

A jury at the Old Bailey found Mire, of Sansom Road, Leytonstone, guilty of attempted murder. He had already admitted four counts of attempted wounding and an alternative count of wounding with intent to cause Mr Zimmerman grievous bodily harm.

On December 5 last year, Mr Zimmerman had stood out from the crowd in cowboy boots and hat, carrying a mandolin in one hand and an amplifier in the other and with a guitar strapped to his back.

He was targeted by Mire as they travelled on the same train from Stratford back to Leytonstone, where the defendant lived alone on benefits.

Mire followed him off the carriage and produced a black-handled knife with a serrated edge from his pocket.

As Mr Zimmerman approached the barriers, Mire grabbed him from behind and swung him around and on to the floor.

Mire then kicked him repeatedly around the head and body as a woman nearby called out for him to stop.

As Mr Zimmerman lay defenceless on the ground, Mire crouched down and began to "saw" at his neck with the serrated blade in front of shocked passengers.

Giving evidence from behind a screen, the victim told the jury: "At the time my subjective impression was that I was being attacked by a crazy person, a mentally unwell person."

A junior doctor on his way home rushed in to help stem the blood flowing from Mr Zimmerman's neck wounds as Mire went up to street level.

He continued to threaten members of the public, swinging his blade at Polish Daniel Bielinski, who began filming events on his mobile phone.

Mire went on to lash out at Serena Valori and an unknown man before coming face to face with Russian security guard Andrius Sabaliauskas, who tried to talk to him.

But despite the efforts to calm him down, Mire tried to slash lift engineer David Pethers before police arrived with Tasers.

Mire ran at an officer and the security guard shouting: "This is for my Syrian brothers, I'm going to spill your blood," before he was finally subdued.

An onlooker called out to Mire: "You ain't no Muslim, bruv" - words which became famous in news reports and social media.

Mire, who suffered from psychotic episodes, had been referred to mental health services by his GP a month before the attack.

The court heard he had paranoid delusions that he was being followed by MI5 and MI6 and was suffering from anxiety and depression.

During that time, Mire was spotted around the estate where he lived wearing traditional Muslim clothes rather than his usual jeans and T-shirt.

Mire stared ahead with a blank expression as the jury returned its verdict after just over a day of deliberations.

The defendant, who had been flanked by several dock officers and an interpreter, was remanded in custody at Broadmoor secure psychiatric hospital.

Before adjourning for sentencing, Judge Nicholas Hilliard QC told jurors he would be highlighting the "public spiritedness" of the people who rushed in to help on the day of the attack.

He said: "It would have been very easy to continue one's journey on, but that did not happen."

Mire will be sentenced on July 27.
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The mother of a "devastated" detainee who discovered his indigenous cellmate dead at the Alexander Maconochie Centre holds fears for her son's mental health after a string of recent deaths in the tight-knit Aboriginal community, a court has heard.

Jermaine Goolagong on Wednesday asked to be released from jail to grieve with his family, seek counselling and attend the funeral of Steven Freeman, 25, who died in custody last month.

Steven Freeman was found dead at the Alexander Maconochie Centre last month. Credit:Rohan Thomson

Lawyers for Goolagong, who has several charges relating to alleged protection order breaches and traffic offences currently before court, made an application for bail when he faced the ACT Magistrates Court.

Aboriginal Legal Service defence lawyer Dean Rutherford argued there were special or exceptional circumstances, linked to Mr Freeman's death, that warranted the granting of bail.
Bikies would face two years behind bars if they repeatedly defied consorting bans under tough new laws being considered by the ACT government.

Police would also be allowed to give evidence in secret to magistrates to convince them to prevent association between certain individuals, and could avoid the courts altogether and issue their own bans, including to those without a criminal conviction, in limited circumstances.

ACT Attorney-General Simon Corbell is considering tough new anti-consorting laws, which would make it an offence for bikies to associate. Credit:Jay Cronan

The government released its proposed model for anti-consorting laws on Thursday, a move strongly suggesting it will introduce the controversial measures here in some form.

Anti-consorting laws are designed to dismantle and disrupt bikie gangs by preventing members from meeting or speaking.
Flights between Brisbane and Honiara are set to resume after Solomon Airlines temporarily grounded all services due to a dispute with the Solomon Islands government.

The Tuesday grounding was immediate, meaning ticket-holders were left stranded, including those who were due to fly from Brisbane to Honiara on Wednesday morning.

The entire Solomon Airlines fleet was grounded on Tuesday following a dispute with the Solomon Islands government.

But the airline announced the impasse had been overcome later that day, with scheduled services set to resume.

Solomon Airlines chief executive Ron Sumsum said all services, both international and domestic, had ceased.
Warren Buffett, the world's third-richest person, has offered strong praise for Jeff Bezos, the fifth-richest, saying he embodies the potential that can blossom when small business owners build their companies.

Speaking at a panel discussion in Long Island City, New York on the state of small business in America, Buffett called Bezos, the CEO of online retailer Amazon.com, a "classic example" of how business owners can succeed by focussing not just on satisfying their customers, but delighting them.

Here's what you to do tomorrow morning when you look in the mirror, according to Warren Buffett. Credit:Bloomberg

"Twenty years ago he had a very, very, very small business," but Bezos today is still "thinking about how to further delight his customer," said Buffett, who has run his Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway since 1965.

His advice to aspiring entrepreneurs: "Tomorrow morning, when you look in the mirror after you've gotten up, just write - put it in lipstick, or whatever you want, on the mirror - just put, 'Delight my customer,' " the octogenarian billionaire investor told the crowd of more than 500 assembled at the event. "Not 'Satisfy my customer,"' Buffett added. "Delight my customer."
Most mornings I swim at Coogee Beach. There at daylight my local community comes together in a sort of salutation to the sun and sea at the beach whose name comes from a local Aboriginal word for stinky seaweed.

There's the six o'clock swill of swimmers: the serious ones lead by "Dougie" at the centre of the beach, the not-quite-so-serious dads' army  a hotchpotch of nippers' fathers overseeing young surf lifesavers doing board training. Sometimes I join the stragglers in the "Coogee Cougars", but mostly I swim with a couple of friends  two laps of the bay.

That was until this week when serious storms lashed the beach destroying the eastern wall of the surf club and the seawall, closing the beach, and bringing a swell like I've never seen before, and may be unlikely to see again in my life at this beach on a bay.

The flag at the surf club flew at half mast as lifesaving volunteers came to the rescue of the ancient clubhouse, which has clung undamaged to the seacliff for over a century until Sunday.
And the boost to jobs would be even smaller. Independent Economics says employment would eventually climb by 0.17 per cent if the tax cut was funded by a tax on households, or by as little as 0.02 if it was funded by cutting government spending. That's an eventual increase of between 2400 and 20,400 jobs. By way of comparison employment has climbed by an average of 24,400 per month each over the past year. It means that after 20 to 30 years the $8 billion per year holds out the prospect of delivering an extra month's worth of employment growth.

It's not many jobs and not much growth. It's true that Shorten has spoken out in favour of company tax cuts in the past, but it is the mark of a good manager to weigh up value for money before transferring the funds.

And the $8 billion would have to come from somewhere. Some would pay for itself as companies expanded, boosting taxable income. But most would have to either come from higher income or household tax, from cuts to other government programs of a similar magnitude, or by blowing out the deficit.

The money wouldn't be free, but because the full cut in company tax wouldn't come into force until 2026-27, the government can behave in the election campaign as if most of it would be. If it acts in accordance with previous practice it will only reveal how it will fund its promises for the next four years. That's easy for company tax. The phased reduction costs less than $1 billion per year to start with. If it rises to Labor's challenge and outlines its funding plans over 10 years, its choices will look harder. If it outlines its plans beyond that, as it should given that the claimed benefits of the company tax cut won't become apparent until a decade or so beyond 2026-27, its choices look diabolical.

By not committing itself to a program that promises (small) benefits in return for an escalating cost, it is Labor that's being the most financially responsible. Even better, the benefits of its own tax measures; tighter controls on negative gearing and tougher capital gains tax rules, build over time.
Yet doubts remain about whether the sand-bagging will work. And an uneasy calm is settling over the state as authorities and residents assess how to limit such damage in future  and who should pay.

Many thanks go to those emergency service workers and volunteers, too, for putting their lives at risk to save people and property. And a round of applause for the helpers whose unprecedented efforts on Tuesday put 12,000 sand-bags in front of precariously poised properties along the storm-ravaged strip between Collaroy and Narrabeen on the northern beaches.

All our thoughts are with those who lost loved ones during this week of storm havoc. Likewise we feel for the people without enough insurance or who mistakenly thought their policies were a sure safeguard against this natural disaster.

For more than a century the warnings have been clear about the risk to waterfront homes between Collaroy and Narrabeen. Cyclical storms have wreaked havoc dozens of times: the Collaroy surf club was hit in 1913-14; major erosion threatened newly built shacks in 1920; seven of them fell into the ocean in 1944-45; new high-rise apartments were undermined in 1967; and big waves smashed properties in 1974 and 1978.

The potential for a sea wall to protect properties was raised in 1992. But for the past decade the threat of sea level rises linked to global warming has added to concerns. In 2008 the Herald reported that the state government's first detailed survey of threatened coastline showed coastal development was expected to "exacerbate risks from sea-level rise and increases in the severity and frequency of storms and coastal flooding by as early as 2050". Mid-term responses included building sea walls along urban beaches. Longer-term strategies involving "managed retreat" from the water's edge.

Little has been done. Residents who paid for the multimillion-dollar waterfront homes are angry that "surfies and greenies" opposed attempts to build a sea wall 1.1 kilometres long between Collaroy and Narrabeen in 2002. The local council has been blamed for rejecting the use of sand-bags and blocking individual attempts at sea wall construction, even though some home owners proceeded up until 2003. Other residents blame those neighbours for creating what some call "rich man's rips" that exacerbate the risk to those unprotected waterfront homes. And disputes linger over who should pay for the protection. Policy says residents must meet their cost of their own part of the wal. But action has stalled since 2014 when a sea wall became official policy.

People have remained in their beachfront homes while others bought neighbouring ones.

The newly amalgamated Northern Beaches Council says it will work with the state government to build a sea wall. Premier Mike Baird insists the residents should contribute towards construction. "There is a benefit that comes to private land so it is the right thing to do to ask for a contribution," Mr Baird says. Estimates are about $120,000 for each property owner for a short wall covering the extent of the latest damage.
People can probably muster some sympathy for politicians and officials dealing with intractable issues like decades of inappropriate development at Collaroy. However, that sympathy should disappear when a Minister asks, "How can we stop people from buying coastal property?", while another part of government sells off coastal wetland koala habitat in Port Stephens. Chris Burns Forestville As a child growing up in Collaroy in the 1970s and 80s, my parents repeatedly commented on how all the buildings along the beachfront would be washed into the sea. I do not for one minute believe that my parents knew this and home owners along the beach did not. The greed and madness of building on sand dunes should have never been allowed, obviously, but as council has allowed it, no-one but the home owners should bear the cost for consuming land which should belong to all, and should be allowed to form and reform as Mother Nature intended, for as long as can be remembered. Jennifer Ingall Leura The old North Cronulla Surf Club was washed into the ocean in 1946 despite a seawall. This was well before climate change was rarely heard of. I am a former member of the club. The clubhouse was rebuilt much further back in the park in 1950.

Ken Millar Burraneer Am I suffering Senility 101 going through my third childhood, or did I see a TV documentary recently saying Tasmania needs water? The program claimed there was no water for hydro-electric power generation and that as things got desperate, the underwater cable to Victoria's power supply broke. Was the dump on Sunday and Monday enough to start up the hydro-electric generators? If not, keep the water for agricultural uses. J-Alice Hofler Dee Why Bouquet for Scots College, brickbat for church

I congratulate Dr Lambert, the principal of Scots College, for his foresight and appreciation of the reality of life and households today ("Plea for advice over homosexual agenda", June 7) but I don't know whether to laugh or cry about the response of the Presbyterian Church to the school council's inquiry about same-sex parents seeking to enrol their children there. To label homosexuality a sin and that parents need to repent says a lot about the church's selective interpretation of the gospel. I am pretty sure there are divorcees, common law couples and single parents who have their children enrolled in the school, all things that a conservative interpretation of scripture screams of sinfulness. But no word from the church on that regard. Jonathon Rea Randwick We had the privilege of having our son at Scots for nine years, and every day he received the unconditional support of every member of staff, and most of all, Dr Lambert. Our son was not academic, sporty or religious, but the school encouraged him and helped him find his talent, which he has now developed into a successful career. Our son left Scots four years ago, but he often returns to chat to Dr Lambert, who invites him into his office with a warm handshake and listens with great pride to what he has achieved. Michele Brooks Bellevue Hill

Judy Swan (Letters, June 8) may well feel the need to praise Scots College. On the other hand, my son attended the local public high school and couldn't wait to get there every morning. He loved the school and attained a very high ATAR. The school had, and still does, a dedicated, caring staff and principal. The issue of gay students or parents never made the media because it never needed discussing. No one cared about anyone's family arrangements. Roger Clark Five Dock ICAC needs checks and balances Your editorial ("Baird's bad look on ICAC funding squeeze", June 8) draws attention to the need for regular review of ICAC's operations to ensure sufficient checks and balances. What checks and balances are now in place to ensure people are not denied due process, or to ensure that public officials like Margaret Cunneen are not pursued by ICAC over allegations having no relationship to their office? I suggest these questions are even more critical than the question of additional funding.

Mark Porter New Lambton It is essential that ICAC is given all the financial support it requires to continue investigations into all corruption because it is the only hope for the victims of all the money-making visions NSW Premier Mike Baird has in his sights. ICAC is a watchdog owned by the Australian people. It is not an overseas lapdog to be restrained, impounded and reduced to a whimper by the government. Its bark needs to remain sharp and clear. Joy Cooksey Harrington Government fee for all Is no one going to say anything about the cost of application fees to register land and property in NSW going up by 25 per cent? ("Government's in-house land agency hikes fees by 25 per cent ahead of its sale", June 7). The State Government has a hide putting up these fees before announcing it to the public. The Treasurer, Gladys Berejiklian, should be bombarded by the taxpayers for announcing the price rise in a circular and also for inflating the charge.

William Bush Cromer Aged-care vote backlash Alan Stokes draws attention to the growing clout of voters now aged 65 and over ("Young voters don't stand a chance against the oldies", June 8), a fact overlooked by both major parties as well as the Greens and independents. Nowhere in any of the policy speeches has there been reference to aged care, which is surprising given that the over-65s now make up 22 per cent of the electorate. This could be because the elderly are, by nature, resistant to change and unlikely to change their vote anyway. Or it could be that the funding aged-care formula has become so complex the parties feel it is better to let sleeping dogs lie. My retirement village holds regular seminars to explain how it works yet so great are its complexities most of us end up more baffled than ever. Garth Clarke North Sydney

Desirable electorate I'm really tired of seeing politicians in fluoro vests, dashing around marginal electorates throwing around fistfuls of dollars. I live in a blue ribbon electorate which is light on amenities. There is no bicycle track, no meeting place for the community that is not a supermarket complex and nothing for young people. I would have written to the Liberal candidate but I couldn't find the email address on his web page. I wonder how long it will be before real estate agents start using the phrase "Desirable Residence in Marginal Electorate"? Sue McKee Belrose The campaign leaflet recently deposited in my letterbox has confirmed that the Liberal Party's priorities are those of Big Business. On one side there is a lovely photo of the PM and the local member with a "gold badge" and the words "Budget 2016" emblazoned on a red ribbon above a map of Australia. All very nice, but the slogan is a disappointment. Instead of "Governing for All" or "Promoting Australia's Future", it says "Opening New Markets". The last time I checked, I was a voter, not a shareholder and I thought we live in a society not an economy.

Pauline Croxon Undercliffe What ABCC mandate? I was wondering when I might hear the Government talk about the Australian Building and Construction Commission Bill that was the trigger for the double dissolution election. I am sure they will talk about their mandate for it after the election. Denis Goodwin Dee Why Widening gap

Thanks to Matt Wade for his timely article ("The four drags we should talk about", June 8) regarding mental illness, obesity, long-term unemployment and income inequality. These issues are vital and should be front and centre as the election approaches. The gap between "the haves and the have nots" continues to widen. If only we had some politicians who would really address these issues. Vicki Barker Harrington Take a dim view Once again Peter Reith ("The new Senate must let the government get on with it", June 7) has conveniently cherrypicked history in providing us with his view of Australian politics. He bemoans what he suggests is the obstructive force of the Senate since the 1980s, pointing to Labor voting against "all significant reforms" of the Howard government. Yet he fails to make any mention of the incredibly obstructive Coalition-dominated Senate during the Rudd/Gillard Labor government. He may not have agreed with Labor's agenda or legislation but Kevin Rudd was voted in with a healthy majority. It was the Coalition that refused to accept that fact and acted to obstruct that which they did not like. If Reith believed what he wrote, he should have roundly condemned the Abbott opposition.

John Turnbull Mona Vale Count ones chickens Does an egg shortage mean that there will be a glut of chicken in the supermarket ("Shoppers scramble as eggs in short supply," June 8)? Peter Miniutti Ashbury The rise of Malcolm Turnbull: from Bottom to top role

Frank Carleton speculates that the next Malcolm Turnbull video should focus on the prime minister's school days (Letters, June 8). What better theme than the young Malcolm's performance in his school production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, when the budding thespian played the part of Bottom? Following the first video's subplot of rising from adversity, Turnbull can be portrayed as rising from Bottom to the top role in the theatre of Australian politics. Doug Walker Baulkham Hills Hopes and prayers I'm old enough to remember the last right-wing nutter to run for the US residency. In 1964 Barry Goldwater used the slogan, "In your heart you know he's right." Lyndon Johnson offered the alternative: "In your guts, you know he's nuts." Let us pray that US citizens have the same opinion of the presumptive Republican nominee. Gary Whale Yamba

Spelling it out No wonder the saying, "Nothing in fine print is good news." Insurers should spell out  or shell out. Edward Loong Milsons Point Chicken and the egg In a large supermarket last week I bought a roasted chicken and a dozen eggs, both for $7.99. As comptroller general of the shopping trolley, I was obliged to ask of these purchases, "Which comes first, the chicken or the eggs?" I Googled the answer but only after I had crossed the road.
There has never been a more exciting time to be an Australian feminist, apparently. On Monday, Malcolm Turnbull, Prime Minister and working father-of-two, declared himself down with the sisterhood.

"I would describe myself as a feminist," Turnbull beamed. "As I often say, women hold up half the sky ... I had respect for women absolutely ingrained in me at a very early age by my father  girls can do anything."

In the ensuing hours, other government ministers were put on the spot about whether they, too, were feminists (Mitch Fifield gave the equivalent of an enthusiastic "YASS KWEEN" on Radio National, Mathias Cormann a more demure "sort of" on 7.30).

It's become a modern sort of media sport, quizzing people, be they politicians or pop stars, about whether they identify as feminists. The answers make for neat soundbites and chewy grist for the online media mill. Beyonce was first uneasy with the label, then embraced it wholeheartedly, with her allegiance debated ad nauseam with each new album, lyric and outfit.
Graham Milledge, the collection manager in arachnology at the Australian Museum, said the spiders were escaping the floodwaters using a phenomenon known as ballooning. This occurs when small spiders throw out silk filaments and catch a ride on the wind to higher ground.

A resident, Ken Puccetti, took photographs showing several trees shrouded in white webs, with small black spiders clearly visible on the silk folds.

As the flood emergency continues to grip parts of Tasmania, thousands of tiny spiders have evacuated their waterlogged nests and burrows and taken refuge in the trees in the town of Westbury, near Launceston.

The spiders have thrown silk snag lines into the air to haul themselves out of the water in Westbury, Tasmania. Credit:Ken Puccetti

"People don't realise how many spiders there are out there until you see events like this," Mr Milledge said, after examining the photographs.

"These mass ballooning events are often associated with particular environmental conditions, for example the flooding that's happening in Tasmania at the moment. I would imagine the spiders are just trying to get away from the water, basically.

"What they do is they climb up to a high vantage point - up to the end of a stalk of grass for example - and then they point their abdomen to the sky and let out a silk thread. The wind captures that and acts like a parachute and carries them off."

A similar event occurred in Goulburn in the Southern Tablelands in May last year, when a resident, Ian Watson, described how his house looked as if it had been "abandoned and taken over" by the spiders.
Police have confirmed the kind of bones that have been discovered in a park in Teneriffe on Tuesday.

A crime scene was established after the discovery of a jaw bone in the park on Tuesday and on Wednesday police discovered three more bones.

They have since been identified as a human arm bone, a leg bone and another bone that is yet to be identified.

Scientific officers are working to determine the age of the bones, but it is believed they may be from colonial times or early settlement.
Noosa woman Madison Rice, pictured with boyfriend Joe Perry, died after being hit by a truck in Scotland. His stepdaughter had left for England with friend Courtney McDonald more than a year ago before meeting up with boyfriend Joe Perry, he said. The young couple was offered a job in Scotland and moved to the Isle of Skye, taking up work at Kinloch Lodge. Noosa woman Madison Rice, pictured with boyfriend Joe Perry, died after being hit by a truck in Scotland. Mr Welsh said the young woman was hitchhiking home with her boyfriend in the early hours of the morning when she was hit by a car.

Her family issued a cry for help about 9pm on Monday, launching an online fundraising campaign to find the $20,000 they were told it would cost to bring her body home. By 2pm on Wednesday, generous donors had already given $26,000. "The outpouring of support has been overwhelming for everybody," he said. Mr Welsh said the family was doing "as well as you would expect" and was just trying to get the 21-year-old's body home as soon as possible. Family members issued a statement on Wednesday, paying tribute to "bright and bubbly" Maddy, who was always there for friends and family.

"She was driven and knew what she wanted and she was going to do it. No matter what," the statement read. "She worked extremely hard to get where she wanted to go. She was living her dream of travelling and working in the UK and Scotland and loving life. "She was so in love with her boyfriend Joe and expressed this love just on Sunday night when she was talking to her mum. She said he made her very happy. "We were all very lucky to have her in our lives and unfortunately we were all hoping that this would be for much longer. We love her so much and will forevermore. "... Her mother Kerry, her step-father Alix, her father Stephen and his fiance Carol and her twin brother Harlan would like to personally extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone who has helped so much. Words cannot express enough of our gratitude."

Friends, family and co-workers flooded social media with tributes, remembering the cute girl with a big heart, taken way too soon. Suku van Staden said life at Kinloch Lodge would never be the same. "You and I will meet again when we're least expecting it," she said. "One day in some far off place I will recognise your beautiful face. "I won't say goodbye for now, for I know we will meet again and I won't cry because you have left us but I will smile because you were here!
A Gold Coast mother charged with murder after the death of her newborn son believes the infant was stillborn, a court has heard.

Jodie Renee Tarnawskyj, 37, has been in custody since October 2014 and is facing one count of murder over the death of her baby son in June of that year.

Jodie Renee Tarnawskyj was arrested in 2014 and charged with murdering her newborn son.

She appeared in Brisbane's Supreme Court on Wednesday after the court heard she had especially requested to be present for the bail hearing.

While her lawyer, John Allen QC, conceded there was a reasonable circumstantial case against his client, he said she had consistently maintained she believed the child was dead from the moment he was delivered.
Lawyers involved in the case of a police officer accused of drawing his gun on a Queensland motorist will next week inform the court how the matter is to proceed.

Senior Constable Stephen Flanagan, 45, was excused from appearing in the Brisbane Magistrates Court on Wednesday for a brief mention of two charges of common assault and deprivation of liberty.

Prosecutor Chontelle Farnsworth requested a one-week adjournment to allow both parties to "determine the course of the matter".

Flanagan is accused of drawing his firearm after a driver he suspected was speeding didn't pull over near the outback town of Longreach in May 2015.
Staff at Rockhampton Hospital's maternity unit will receive more training to improve patient safety following the death of one baby and injuries to three others last year.

The findings of an independent review into the Central Queensland ward were released on Wednesday.

One baby died and three were injured at Rockhampton Hospital in a single year. Credit:Louise Kennerley

There were 35 recommendations, including the need for increased training, improved leadership from management and increased staff-to-patient ratios during labour and birth.

They also called for an "urgent recruitment process to fill gaps in consultant obstetrician and paediatrician staffing".
Queensland detectives investigating a 30-year-old cold case have cleared two stormwater drains and will now sieve through 100 cubic metres of soil.

The search began last week at a pocket of council-owned land at Carole Park, southwest of Brisbane, following information from a "credible witness" about the disappearance of Sharron Phillips in May 1986.

Police search a drain in hopes of finding clues in the disappearance of Sharron Phillips. Credit:Glenn Hunt

The 20-year-old was last seen waiting for her boyfriend after running out of petrol and using a public phone near Wacol, not far from the search site.

Crews had rushed to clear the drains last week ahead of heavy rainfall that drenched the state's south-east at the weekend.
A young woman has been killed in a single car crash in Brisbane.

The 21-year-old died when her car crashed into a power pole in Capalaba about 3am on Thursday.

Redland Bay Road was closed at Capalaba after a fatal crash.

The outbound lanes of Redland Bay Road were closed near the intersection with Ney Road.
The shared economy is changing the nature of business and the implications are big. Without using the tired word of "disruptive", I would describe it as one of the most incredible changes to business and economy in all time.

As an accountant who has been in the industry for more than 30 years with a practice that's served Melbourne and Sydney small businesses for more than 55, my experience with small businesses is vast and varied.

Airbnb can be a great side business but not everyone knows or follows the rules. Credit:Airbnb

I've worked with hospitality companies that have started as stalls in a food market and have progressed to five separate restaurants. I've discussed business names with clients who are on the cusp of starting their own companies that then go on to be huge successes.

So I've seen a lot, but this shared economy is new even for those of us who have been around small business for a long time.
Chris Williams was intrigued: his best friend had returned from a Hawaiian holiday with tales of gay men he had met who took a "miracle" drug that stopped them getting HIV.

He now knows this was a method called PrEP: where HIV-negative people take a daily retroviral drug that significantly reduces their chances of contracting HIV during sex.

Mr Williams and his friend, Daniel MacPhail, are now experts on PrEP, as well as advocates, and founders of a national support group. And they are part of the increasing number of gay men in Melbourne using the method.

A year ago only 1 per cent of gay men used PrEP, compared with almost 6 per cent today, according to an annual snapshot of the sex lives and relationships of 2900 gay men, surveyed at Midsumma by the Victorian Aids Council.
A scaffolder working on the HBF Stadium in Mount Claremont has died in hospital - having fallen up to 20 metres.

But following the 33-year-old's death the stadium's manager, VenuesWest, confirmed Wednesday night's scheduled Culture Club gig would go ahead.

A VenuesWest spokesperson said the worker had been working on a painting program at the stadium and had fallen through the roof and onto the concourse floor.

WorkSafe said it had sent two inspectors to the site shortly after the incident was reported at 2pm on Wednesday and were due to return on Thursday morning.
Berlin: Public support for the European Union has fallen sharply in its biggest member states over the past year, a survey has found, weeks before Britons vote on whether to leave the 28-nation bloc.

Released on Tuesday, the survey of 10 large EU states by the Washington-based Pew Research Centre showed strong support for Britain to stay in the EU, with 89 per cent of Swedes, 75 per cent of Dutch and 74 per cent of Germans viewing a so-called Brexit as a bad thing.

European Union flags flying outside EU Commission headquarters in Brussels. Credit:Getty Images

But most striking was a plunge in the per centage of Europeans who view the EU favourably, a development which appears linked to the bloc's handling of the refugee crisis and the economy.
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

A former Aussie broker located in Brisbane has been convicted after admitting to defrauding a major bank.Emma Feduniw, also known as Emma Khalil, a former mortgage broker with AHL Investments (trading as Aussie), has been convicted and sentenced in the Beenleigh Magistrates Court on eight charges relating to home loan fraud.Feduniw was convicted and fined $8,500 after admitting she provided documents in support of eight loan applications submitted to Westpac knowing that they contained false or misleading information.According to ASIC, the applications contained letters which were claimed to be from the applicant's employer. However, Feduniw admitted these letters were false and often the loan applicant had never worked for the particular employer.In her sentencing, Magistrate Thacker acknowledged Feduniw had cooperated with ASIC, admitted to the offences and entered a plea of guilty at the earliest possible opportunity.However, Magistrate Thacker rejected the submission that this was a victimless crime, stating: Its not a victimless crime when one looks at the necessity to protect the system from being impacted by fraud.Aussie Home Loans has released a statement regarding the case, saying it has welcomed the conviction and termination of Feduniw.According to Aussie, Feduniws contract with Aussie was terminated in April 2014 after serious breaches of the franchises strict code of conduct and legal, credit and compliance obligations.Aussie investigated discrepancies and false documents in loan applications made by Ms Feduniw and informed the MFAA , who subsequently terminated her membership of the association, the statement said.Aussie fully cooperated with ASIC in its investigation and provided supporting documentation and other evidence to assist ASIC in its prosecution.We understand that no customers were disadvantaged financially as a result of Ms Feduniws actions.Aussie has a zero tolerance policy to any infringements and reports any terminated brokers to ASIC as part of its governance activity.
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

While continued capital growth seems like a possibility for residential real estate in Sydney and other markets across Australia, one real estate professional believes another sector of the market is set to become increasingly popular with investors.Barry Cawthorn, managing director Bawdens Industrial, believes an increased desire among investors to improve their cash flow situation combined with scepticism about how much heat is left in the residential market is set to give the industrial real estate sector a boost.People are coming back and revisiting industrial real estate now. Theyre looking for somewhere to invest but theyre concerned about the volatility in the share market and they dont want to look at residential property right now so theyre thinking about moving some money into the industrial market, Cawthorn told Australian Broker's sister publication, Your Investment Property.Were finding a lot of people right now are saying capital growth is great, but I cant eat that now and I need to improve my income.While the term industrial real estate may have investors thinking large scale factories or warehouses, Cawthorn said those switching to the sector are likely to come in at the smaller and more affordable end of things.Sydney investors are realising that a small industrial strata unit can be purchased for half the capital outlay compared to a home, he said.We know that a 5.5% net yield on a property under $400,000 is about what you can expect in the industrial market in Sydney currently. You can add capital growth of 5% - 8% a year to that and then youre seeing your total returns are over 10% per year.At the lower end youre not going to get returns of 15% a year, but you will get 10%. For somebody who may only $400,000 to spend thats attractive because youre not going to get anything like that from the residential market at the moment.Sydney's residential yields currently sit at 3.1% for houses and 4% for units, with growth unlikely in the near furture.With the economy currently growing at a sluggish rate Cawthorn said its understandable that some may be sceptical of the viability of the industrial sector now, but he said a situation of economics 101 is helping to strengthen the market.What weve seen in the last seven or eight years in Australia since the GFC is that the GDP isnt going up at all, its just going sideways. The outcome of that usually in the industrial sector is that the demand for new space stops.But since the GFC theres been no real construction for the small to medium industrial market, thats building that are less than 3,000 square metres.Because nobodys built any, theres a real lack of supply at the moment and because of that were starting to really see rent increase as well as capital growth increase, its just economics 101.
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

Peer-to-peer invoice financier, The Invoice Market (tim) has expanded its executive team with the appointment of a new head of national sales and referral partnerships.Bernie Kelly will take up the role, moving on from his previous position as managing director, international operations for PolicyLink.The CEO of tim, Angus Sedgwick said Kelly has considerable experience in invoice financing.Interestingly, he was involved in invoice discounting, now known as peer-to-peer financing as early as 2008 whilst working in South Africa and the UK, Sedgwick said.Recently he has worked with tim in a consulting capacity managing deal flow, referral partner relationships, and the transformation of tims internet presence and brand.Kelly said his main task will be to grow tims distribution and deal flow.Since commencing in March as a consultant, Ive doubled the volume of new business enquiries, which has contributed to a significant growth our invoice funding levels.But I truly believe weve just scratched the surface. As the awareness of alternative financing and demand for it continues to grow over the future years, tim will be seen as both a pioneer in this market and a reputable business domestically and internationally.
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

As the federal election nears, cries against proposed changes to negative gearing are getting louder. Property associations and pundits are banding together to warn against the Labor Partys controversial negative gearing tax reform.Property Investment Professionals Australia (PIPA) char, Ben Kingsley, has claimed Labors economic modelling underpinning its plan to limit negative gearing to new housing is dangerously misleading.Such major reform requires comprehensive and detailed modelling. Until there is real evidence to support such a policy, which industry experience tells us doesnt exist, the opposition should be very careful about changing negative gearing and capital gains tax provisions, Kingsley said.Our message is clear - $6.5 trillion worth of Australians wealth is tied up in property. Thats roughly three times that held in superannuation and equities. Dont play with this unless you know what youre doing.Echoing PIPAs concerns, the Real Estate Institute of Australia (REIA) has claimed changes to negative gearing is not the answer to housing affordability.With large increases in house prices, particularly in our two largest capital cities, there have been many claims that the current tax treatment of negative gearing and capital gains of residential property is exacerbating housing affordability issues. This is simply not the case, REIA president Neville Sanders said.Sanders believes limiting negative gearing will amplify affordability issues, not the other way around.It is supply that is the critical factor in resolving the affordability problem. Changes to current taxation arrangements as proposed will do nothing to address affordability. If anything it will exacerbate the problem.There is ample research that shows that negative gearing and the CGT discount are not driving excessive, unproductive and speculative investment in housing but instead they are adding to housing supply with currently $7 billion a year invested in new dwellings.The chief executive of national real estate network, First National, believes the answer to addressing affordability lies in tackling the deposit gap for first home buyers, not binning negative gearing.It is the upfront costs, not the actual purchase price or the size of repayments, which are the greatest barrier to first home buyers. Labors policy on negative gearing if implemented will have a negligible effect on this, Firtst National CEO Ray Ellis said.Unless house prices collapse - which Labor says will not happen  there will be no real difference for first home buyers in overcoming the deposit gap but at the same time paying higher rents whilst saving.Angus Raine, executive chairman or major real estate network, Raine & Horne, said limiting negative gearing under Labors proposed reforms will keep Australians on the rental treadmill and out of the property ladder.In reality, cutting negative gearing will have the unfortunate effect of driving up rents, making it harder for tenants to save for a deposit to help them get off the rental treadmill, Horne said.At the same time, there are plenty of young professionals with careers tied to the property and construction industries, who will potentially lose their livelihoods if the ALP wins the election and takes the axe to negative gearing.
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Get up, stand up! Stand up for gay rights!

A Caribbean dance festival springing into Dumbo on June 11 will use the music of Bob Marley to call out anti-gay attacks on the musicians home island. The organizers of New Traditions Festival 2016: Dance Your Caribbean say that they chose the piece Facing Home: Love and Redemption, to show gay members of the Caribbean community that they are welcome, and to encourage discussion of homophobia throughout the region.

We invest in everyone Caribbean, and we want and desire all people to come, said Candace Thompson, the founder of Brooklyns Dance Caribbean Collective. Part of the festival is about using present concepts, our tradition, and issues that face the community, like racial profiling, gay deaths in Jamaica and in New York, and to start conversations. We felt we could start discussion.

Two Jamaican-Canadian dancers, Christopher Walker and Kevin A. Ormsby, will present Facing Home on each day of the two-day festival. The dance uses covers and remixed tracks of Marleys music to highlight the Jamaican culture that praises Marleys songs of equality, but which also discriminates against the gay community. Jamaica is considered one of the most anti-gay countries in the world.

The festival, now in its second year, will also showcase work by Caribbean dancers and dancing companies based in New York City.

One Brooklyn dancer said that her piece will also deal with social issues, focusing on the Haitian immigration crisis of the 1980s.

Its about the Haitian boat struggle, said Jessica St. Vil. I wanted to share that story because its something thats part of the history of Haitian people in the United States  a lot of people dont know about that story and its important to share that.

St. Vil said that festival is an opportunity for people to get to know the Caribbean dance community and what it represents.

The goal is to allow artists that are doing work  choreographers  to get their work seen, said St. Vil.

A discussion with the audience will follow each performance.

New Traditions 2016: Dance Your Caribbean at Gelsey Kirkland Arts Center [29 Jay St. in Dumbo, (347) 4556357, www.dance carib beanc ollec tive.com ]. June 11 at 7:30 pm; June 12 at 6 pm. $18$50.

Reach reporter Alexandra Simon at (718) 2608310 or e-mail her at asimo n@cng local.com .
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84th Precinct

Brooklyn HeightsDUMBOBoerum HillDowntown

Unhappy ending

A pair of baddies robbed a guy after he invited them back to his Court Street apartment on June 5.

The victim told police he invited an acquaintance and her friend to hang out at his abode near State Street at 12:15 am. He put $200 on the living room table, and he and the two women went to the bedroom, according a report. In his sleeping chamber, the stranger sprayed him in the eye with an unknown substance, and both women took the cash and fled, said authorities.

One of the women realized she left her wallet with her identification inside and started banging on the apartment door with a high heel, damaging the entryway, according to a report.

Bank hold up

Police arrested a man who they say held up a Montague Street bank on June 2.

The guy entered the bank near Cadman Plaza West at 12:05 pm and approached a teller, handing him a brown bag and allegedly demanding money, hissing, Ill shoot this place up, according to a report. As the suspect was making the threat, he simulated that he had a gun, motioning to his waistband where he hid an umbrella handle, police said.

The witness then gave the suspect $2,503, authorities said, before he was arrested.

Bicycle blunder

A goon stole a guys bicycle and phone as he was walking home on Bergen Street on June 2.

Authorities said the victim was near Fourth Avenue at 11:50 am when the lout came up from behind and knocked him to the sidewalk, punching and kicking him several times. The nogoodnik then snarled, This is some gang s before fleeing with his set of wheels, iPhone, and credit cards, said a report.

The victim was taken to the hospital for cuts on his hands and knee, and bruising above his right eye.

Bump and bash

A pair of bruisers bashed a guy and stole his headphones after he accidentally bumped into them on Fulton Street on May 31.

Police said the victim was near near Boerum Place at 3:45 pm when he bumped into the two punks accidentally, and one of the jerks yelled, You think you tough?

One of the baddies then punched the victim in the right eye and snatched his white Beats headphones, which were hanging around his neck, said a report.

Rewind

Cops cuffed a guy who they say stole a 14-year-olds iPhone 6 after he accused the kid of using it to tape him on a 4 train on June 2.

The pair were both passengers on the Manhattan-bound train, and as it pulled into Borough Hall Station at 4:30 pm, the guy allegedly said, Why are you recording me? slapped the victim in the face, and snatched the phone from his hand, according to a report.

 Lauren Gill
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62nd Precinct

BensonhurstBath Beach

Drunk driver hits squad car

Police cuffed a man who they said crashed his vehicle into their patrol car in a drunken stupor on May 31.

The officers were in full uniform and driving a marked police cruiser when the guy ran a red light around 11:30 pm and smashed into the car, police reported. The driver fled, but the collision dislodged his front license plate and left it at the scene, a police report states.

The officers caught up with him and pulled him over near the intersection of W. First Street and Avenue P. He had a strong odor of alcohol coming from [his breath], watery eyes, and his speech was slurred, according to the report.

The man flailed his arms and refused to be handcuffed, but officers got him under control and brought him to the 78th Precinct station house, where he took a breathalyzer test and was found to be two times above the legal limit, according to officials.

Lowlife bandit

A violent lout pushed a woman off her bike and beat and robbed her on 66th Street on June 1, police said.

She was riding between 21st Avenue and Bay Parkway when the guy ran up and pushed her off, then started kicking her. He held her down with his hand around her neck, then reached into her bra and grabbed her wallet with $1,000 in cash in it before fleeing.

Five on one

A band of five brutes beat up and robbed a guy on Cropsey Avenue on June 3, police said.

The victim was near near Bay 26th Street just before 11 pm when the five came up on him. One of them punched him in the stomach and another hit him in the ribs with a scooter, cops said.

Then they grabbed $200 in cash, his phone, and his identification off him and fled, according to police.

Back-door man

A burglar broke into a 64th Street home on June 3, according to police.

The housebreaker got in around 9:30 am by removing a security gate on the window of the apartment between 16th and 17th avenues. They grabbed some electronics and $500 in cash, police said, then fled out the back door.

 Dennis Lynch
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Hes got an axe to grind.

A Bay Ridgite descended from Norwegian woodworkers builds one-of-a-kind guitars in his Sixth Avenue basement using a mix of old- and new-school skills. Scandinavians notched a niche in Brooklyn by building docks and boats on the boroughs waterfront in the 1800s, and the luthier  a third-generation Ridgite  inherited the artisanal touch from his forbearers, he said.

My dad was a carpenter, his dad was a carpenter who came over from Norway  all of them as far back as you can go are either craftsmen or artists, said Victor Gurbo, who fashions axes under the name Voccoli Guitars  a nod to his mothers maiden name.

But Gurbo also bucks wood-working tradition  saw jockeys typically prize flawless, new lumber for its visual appeal, but Gurbo opts for old, reclaimed wood for its superior sonic properties, he said.

Its not just environmentally friendly, it sounds better, he said, explaining that planks resonance improves as sap and resin within dry naturally over time.

Gurbo shapes the lumber, routes out space for hardware and electronics, and finishes the bodies in vintage gun-handle oil. But he is no one-man band. He learned how to assess instruments from the old hands at Gowanus guitar shop Retrofret, gearhead said.

He brings us beautiful, sad puppies, and we tell him if theyre worth saving or should be sent back to the pound, said in-store instrument historian Peter Kohman. Hes training his eye  hes the next generation of musical archaeologist.

And Gurbo tried wiring up one project and did a shockingly bad job, so now friend Salim Hasbini handles electronics, the carpenter said.

Tools of the trade: Gurbo uses his familys old, belt-driven drill press on a guitar neck. Photo by Georgine Benvenuto

My brain is not wired for that, Gurbo said. I showed Salim an early guitar, he opened it up and said, If youre gonna sell this, just let me do it from now on.

Hasbini and Gurbo met at Brooklyn College and bonded over a shared love of vintage musical gear, and their passion for the classics is ingrained in their work, they said. Hasbini wires guitars using configurations from the 1950s  a sought-after setup for tone freaks  and he even uses cloth-wrapped wires found in old-school axes, though players wont know the difference, he said.

Most people never look at the inside of their guitar, but its a fun detail for Victor and I to know its there, Hasbini said.

That hand-craftsmanship and level of detail set their guitars apart, Gurbo said. His creations run about $1,500  roughly the price of an American, factory-made git-fiddle by big names like Fender or Gibson, but far less expensive than their custom rigs, he said.

Its a different animal when you get something from me  its one-of-a-kind, he said. And if you want to get something custom by them, its $8,000$10,000.

Next up, Gurbo plans to make a special line of guitars sourced from Bay Ridge using wood he saved from a Fifth Avenue florists demolition, he said.

I havent started working on this yet, but theres gonna be a series of all-authentic Bay Ridge guitars, he said.

Voccoli Guitars (www.voccoliguitars.com)

From good stock: Gurbo used his mothers maiden because her family comes from a long line of opera singers. Photo by Georgine Benvenuto
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68th Precinct

Bay RidgeDyker Heights

Locked up

A pair of masked brutes locked up an employee and robbed a Fourth Avenue restaurant after hours on May 30, police said.

An unfortunate employee was cleaning the kitchen at the eatery near 88th Street around 3:35 am when the two stormed in. They grabbed him and threw him in a basement office before they hit a cash register for $500 and fled, according to a police report.

Parking wars

A maddened oaf sent a guy to the hospital with a broken jaw over a parking spot on 86th Street on May 27, police said.

The two got into a heated argument over a spot near Fifth Avenue around 9:45 pm. One went berserk, grabbed some brass knuckles, and hit the guy across the face.

He did not stay to claim the spot  instead he fled in his white Toyota sedan on 86th Street towards Fourth Avenue, according to police.

Grab and dash

A light-footed lout snatched a womans wallet out from under her arm on Bay Ridge Avenue on June 1, according to a police report.

She was between Third Avenue and Ridge Boulevard around 8 pm when the guy ran up from behind her, grabbed the wallet, and kept on running towards Ridge Boulevard, police said.

Lousy wake up call

An opportunistic neer-do-well took a wallet from a mans car parked on Fifth Avenue while he grabbed breakfast on June 2, according to law enforcement officials.

The guy parked his car between 72nd and 73rd streets around 9:30 am and went to eat. He told cops he may have left it unlocked when the thief struck.

 Dennis Lynch
Where lack of sanitation prevents children from completing school, UB students offer help

Teams of University at Buffalo students generated ideas on how to improve access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WaSH) facilities in India and Uganda as part of the Global Innovation Challenge. Photo: Douglas Levere

Girls will still have plenty of obstacles to grapple with, but if we can improve their access to hygiene products and services, we can help ensure dignity and independence in their lives, allowing them to move on to other pursuits. 

BUFFALO, N.Y.  A child with mobility problems cant use the bathroom in his school because it has only squat toilets. Feeling like an outsider, he stops going to school.

A menstruating teenage girl doesnt have the privacy she needs in her school bathroom, or maybe she doesnt have the products she needs to manage her menstruation, and she, too, stops attending.

Millions of school-aged children with and without disabilities and who live in low- and middle-income countries around the world grapple with this lack of access to water, sanitation and hygiene  or WaSH  facilities every day. In fact, its one of the biggest reasons why they dont receive a formal education.

Over one week in late May, teams of University at Buffalo students representing a range of fields architecture and planning, engineering, public health, chemistry, computer science, pharmacy and management  put their heads together to develop actionable ideas to help solve this problem in two countries with critical need: India and Uganda.

For the 100 million children and teens with disabilities worldwide, the lack of adequate sanitation is a primary barrier to school attendance, said Radhakrishna Dasari, a UB student whose team won the top prize in the Global Innovation Challenge, a hackathon-style event organized by UBs Community for Global Health Equity.

The challenge was all about prioritizing inclusive WaSH facilities to promote the education of all children, regardless of gender, age or ability, he said.

We collaborated with WaterAid, a leading international organization that works to increase WaSH access in dozens of low- and middle-income countries, to issue the challenge to our students, explained Pavani Ram, director of the Community for Global Health Equity.

At the start of the Global Innovation Challenge, students heard from three experts-in-residence who are part of organizations working on improving WaSH facilities for children and or providing services for children with disabilities in India and Uganda.

Our multidisciplinary teams of innovators, ranging from undergraduate students to postdoctoral fellows, were so moved by the personal stories shared by our three experts and learned tremendously from the depth of knowledge they brought to the challenge, said Ram.

The top prizes, both of which honor innovation challenge donors, went to two teams, one of which brought its complementary multidisciplinary skills to bear on the tremendous problem at hand, and the other which stretched well beyond the fields of study of its members:
The Great Bookham branch of Chandlers Building Supplies is delighted to be supporting a customers charity Benidorm or Bust challenge to raise money for the Rainbow Trust Childrens Charity.

Steve Matthews from Warm Flow Plumbing & Heating is being joined by Pete James from Swan Electrical to raise money by driving a 17-year-old Mercedes car across Europe as part of a banger rally to Benidorm under the team name Round the Benz.

Joining them are the Vauxhall Virgins made up of John Hunt and Tim Mould in an old Vauxhall Omega. Both teams are funding the trip themselves and have enlisted the support of local businesses as sponsors.

The Benidorm or Bust challenge will see the teams join 148 other cars all raising money for a wide range of charities. Leaving The British Motor Museum in Dover on 8 June, they will compete in a number of challenges while driving through Rouen and Clermont Ferrand in France and Lloret Del Mar in Spain before arriving in Benidorm on 11 June.

Mr Matthews said: Rainbow Trust does fantastic work supporting families up and down the country who have a child with a life threatening or terminal illness and we hope to raise a great amount of money for them. Were really looking forward to the challenge and would like to thank local businesses like Chandlers for sponsoring us.

Chris Vernon, branch manager at Chandlers Great Bookham, added: Were always keen to support our customers with their charity endeavours and delighted to be one of the business sponsors. Everyone at Chandlers wishes the guys the best of the luck for the trip.

The local community can visit www.virginmoneygiving.com/team/Benidormorbust to donate to the duos challenge.
Two of HOPPE UKs door hardware experts have received recognition this year from the Institute of Architectural Ironmongers (IAI).

Andy Matthews, HOPPE UKs head of sales for UK and Ireland, was awarded the IAIs most prestigious accolade  the IAI Fellowship Award  for 2016. Mr Matthews was praised for his tireless work championing the value of IAI membership, and in particular promoting the Registered Architectural Ironmonger (RegAI) qualification.

RegAI is a significant and meaningful qualification, which must be renewed every year. Registered Architectural Ironmongers are required to demonstrate the highest possible standards of education and professionalism, and must prove they are fully up-to-date with industry standards, regulations and legislation. HOPPE UK is one of the most qualified hardware manufacturers and suppliers, with five RegAIs in the company, all of whom help to improve door and window hardware specifications and add value to HOPPEs services to the market.

Mr Matthews is a professional sales manager who has worked in the architectural ironmongery industry for nearly 30 years and has been part of the HOPPE sales team for almost 10 of those. He became national chairman of the IAI in 2011 and took the organisation forward, revitalising the national AGM and receiving the Guild of Architectural Ironmongers (GAI) Award for Services to the Institute at the end of his tenure in 2013. He currently serves on the Guilds executive committee.

Karen Nelson is also one of HOPPEs RegAIs and is business development manager at HOPPE with specialist expertise in hinges. She has 15 years experience in the industry and has been with HOPPE for a year.

Ms Nelson has now also been appointed as chairman of the IAIs Midlands branch.

Although this is one of the Institutes most active and well-supported branches, Ms Nelson has strong ambitions to increase the number of qualified architectural ironmongers attending its meetings and maintaining CPD to gain RegAI status. She also intends to grow the branchs charitable fund-raising efforts. Over the last few years, IAI Midlands branch members have raised almost 1,000 to support the YETGA Theatre School.

Ms Nelson said: HOPPE provides huge support to the IAI and the GAI, and encouragement to me, Andy and others in the business who want to give something back to the industry.
Phillies are World Series bound! How to watch, plus the full schedule

The Phillies are heading to the World Series for the first time since 2009. Follow along as Philadelphia takes on the Houston Astros.
Seattle-based e-commerce company Amazon, rival to Flipkart, waited two days after its third anniversary in India to step up its investment in its fastest growing market. Amazon founder and Chief Executive Jeff Bezos announced an additional investment of $3 billion (Rs 19,952 crore) for India during an interaction with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Washington DC Tuesday night, taking its total spend to $5 billion in the market.
Veteran investment banker Ashok Wadhwa is known for spotting opportunities much before others. However, for his asset reconstruction (ARC) business, he waited for years before finally applying for a licence in March in association with New York-based J C Flower, each having 47.5 per cent holding in the proposed company. Former Citibank veteran Jerry Rao holds the remaining five per cent.
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FY16 was the year of Ashok Leyland, Tata Power and Eicher Motors, apart from oil companies. These were among the best performers in terms of profit growth among the BSE100 companies.
In a passenger-friendly move, the civil aviation ministry has proposed a cap on cancellation fees but airlines are not in favour of the move and said this could lead to fare hikes.
Carmakers have seemingly found an ideal customer base in government employees. Many of them are now looking to increase sales from this category of buyers, which could see increased spending as a result of the Seventh Pay Commissions award.
The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) has found Alkem Labs anti-diabetic drug Glimekem to be of substandard quality.This is the third time in the past one year that the CDSCO has issued an alert for this drug. The regulator had issued alerts in June and July of 2015. The company was then asked by the regulator to recall the specific batches from the market.This time, however, the company has not been asked to recall the batches. We have already revised our formulation and started marketing batches from a new formulation. The four batches (two from last year and two from May 2016) which were in the CDSCO list were from the older formulation, said a company spokesperson.The drug, which is used to treat type-2 diabetes, has been failing the dissolution test. It is used to identify rate of dissolution of the medicine in the blood stream in a standardised format.

"We had recalled the batches on the earlier instances. Currently, we have not received any formal instruction to recall the current batch (which was in the May 2016). However, we would recall it once we get a formal instruction," clarified the spokesperson.
In early 2015, was at the receiving end of an unwanted backlash. Several consumer electronic manufacturers, including Voltas and LG, had warned customers against buying their products from the e-commerce portal, saying the after-sales service would not be provided to online purchases.
Lodha Group, the country's largest property developer by sales, is aiming at net sales of at least Rs 7,500 crore this financial year, despite prolonged slowdown in the market. In FY16, their net sales were Rs 6,430 crore.
Axiata Group Berhad, Malaysias largest telecom firm and a shareholder in Idea, has made its first e-commerce investment in India in Bengaluru-based StoreKing.Axiata Group has invested $16 million (about Rs 100 crore) through its subsidiary Axiata Digital. StoreKing has a tie-up with Indian Oil to set up delivery kiosks at its petrol pumps across India and also helps Amazon reach out to customers in the hinterland.StoreKings fundraising comes a day after Amazon said it would invest an additional $3 billion (Rs 19,800 crore) in India taking its total commitment to $5 billion (Rs 33,000 crore).

"From the beginning our goal was to help thousands of small businesses in Rural India to achieve a brighter future by enabling them to use technology. We hope to benefit from Axiata's experience in extensive geography based services and we couldn't thank them enough for investing in the idea of StoreKing. " Sridhar, CEO of StoreKing in a statement.
Malaysia's IHH Healthcare, which owns Hospital Group, is close to finalising a Rs 600 crore deal to acquire Vikram Hospital, the Bengaluru-based multiple speciality hospital chain, which will help it to strengthen its presence in India, people familiar with the development said.

has a presence in Bengaluru, with its acquisition of BGS Hospital last year and Vikram would give it access to a hospital in the central business district. The acquisition, expected to close by July, would also give an exit to its Private equity investor Multiples Alternate Asset Management, a fund led by Renuka Ramnath.
Assam-based Limited (NRL), a subsidiary of Bharat Petroleum, is eyeing opportunities in the international market to sell wax from its recently commissioned wax producing plant. Today, it has exported a consignment of 60 metric tonne (MT) of wax to ROK Industries in Kenya and is set to export to Bangladesh and Germany in coming days.
Suzuki Motor Corp patriarch is stepping down as chief executive and the Japanese automobile maker promised to cut executive pay and slash 2015 bonuses, hoping to draw a line under the bruising admission of major flaws in its fuel tests.

Japan's No. 4 automaker by sales said in May it had used the wrong methods to calculate mileage for models going back to 2010, widening a mileage testing storm that had already rocked smaller rival Mitsubishi Motors Corp. Those followed accounting scandals at Olympus Corp and Toshiba Corp, prompting criticism from some investors that the Japanese government's push to introduce new corporate governance rules has failed to shake up a cozy and often secretive corporate culture.

Suzuki, who has led the company for nearly four decades, acknowledged that during the past few years it had become difficult to oversee all of the company's operations on his own.

Upon reflection, I believe that this may have contributed to the latest incident, he told reporters on Wednesday.

Suzuki, 86, will remain as chairman, but his narrower role is a recognition of responsibility for a testing error the company previously shrugged off.

The automaker used indoor tests for its cars individual parts, rather than testing vehicles on an outdoor course. It said this was done as its testing site is on a windy hill by the sea, making readings erratic. On Wednesday, it also blamed a lack of transparency in its key research unit. This latest incident occurred because of problems within the company which had continued for a long time, including an R&D division which was not transparent enough, said Toshihiro Suzuki, the chairman's eldest son. He took over from his father as president last year.

We are making these changes today to try to regain the trust of our customers, and to rebuild Team Suzuki. The company said it had yet to decide who would fill the CEO role or replace Honda, 66.

Suzuki, as chairman, will oversee the company's efforts to strengthen compliance and improve training for engineers, while reworking its mileage testing procedures to ensure they comply with regulations.

Raided by Japanese investigators last week as part of a probe over the tests, Suzuki also said it would encourage whistle-blowing.

Suzukis changed role and executive V-P Hondas retirement are effective June 29, subject to approval by shareholders at its annual general meeting, the company said. The testing scandals at Suzuki and Mitsubishi come after Volkswagen AG was first discovered last year to have cheated diesel emissions tests in the United States.

Suzuki Motor Corp admitted on May 18 that some discrepancies were found in the standard emission and fuel efficiency testing processes.

In a disclosure of its internal investigation to the Japanese ministry of land, infrastructure, transport and tourism, the firm said, As the outcome of our internal investigation, acts of injustice, such as manipulation of fuel efficiency data were not found. Meanwhile, some discrepancies were found in the automobile emission and fuel efficiency testing process between the regulation by MLIT and the actual method carried out by Suzuki and therefore Suzuki herewith reports on the issue as follows. We would like to express our deep apologies to all our customers and stakeholders on this issue.



Agencies


The Royal Society's University Research Fellowships (URF) scheme, which supports young scientists, is to receive a5.6 million boost from a group of Tata companies, including Tata Sons, Jaguar Land Rover and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).

The funding will establish nine new Tata University Research Fellows in the Physical Sciences and Engineering over the next 10 years, with the first Tata University Research Fellows due to be appointed in October 2016.
The three per cent telecom (SUC) for the forthcoming auctions will bring down the weighted average rate from the current 5.1 per cent for telecom . According to ICRA estimates, the sector will save annual revenues of Rs 150 crore for every 10 basis points (bps) fall in the usage charge. The new weighted average will be applicable to all bands of spectrum, except broadband wireless access (BWA). According to ICRA, what will reduce the rate further for Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio (RJio) and Bharat Sanchar Nigam is the inclusion of one per cent SUC rate for broadband wireless access spectrum acquired by the three in the weighted average calculation going ahead.
Uber on Tuesday applied for a licence to operate in Karnataka under the new rules governing app-based taxi aggregators, indicating that it will comply with the policies on fare capping and no-surge pricing.
Jharkhand Chief Minister on Wednesday said seven agriculture universities will be opened in Jharkhand and buildings for them are nearing completion.

Addressing a meeting in Ranchi, Das asked to set up a management under the government to run the new universities at Garhwa, Godda, Dumka, Deogarh, Ranchi, Chaibasa and Gumla districts, an official release said.

He asked to initiate recruitment process through Jharkhand Public Service Commission and said by 2017, all universities would be functioning.

Expressing concern about a very large number of farmers not yet getting soil health cards, he directed to issue them phase-wise and select ten agriculturally most important districts to complete the task.

Das said he would monitor the distribution process every three months and Vice Chancellor of Birsa Agriculture University, George John, to promote traditional agriculture. Vice Chancellor along with the agriculture director will visit Sikkim and study organic farming.

Chief Secretary Raj Bala Verma, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, Sanjay Kumar and Principal Secretary of Agriculture department N M Kulkarni were among the officials who attended the meeting.
The debate around film censorship in India metastasized on Tuesday the producers of Udta Punjab, a film based on drug abuse in the state, was asked to make 89 cuts and remove all references to the state, including in the title.
After a series of urban initiatives like providing free wi-fi in railway stations and creating a $20,000 start-up fund, software firm is now eyeing to increase its presence in rural India. Under a scheme christened Internet Saathi, the company is actively engaging rural women in the country enabling them to provide internet services to villages.

The software giant, in association with Tata Trust is providing a bicycle, mobile and tablet devices, training materials to women who are trained by these to become Internet Saathi or master trainers. These Internet Saathis, in turn reach out to people in the village helping them with web-based information apart from providing training to other women in the village to make them e-literate.
Rains reached the Kerala coast on Wednesday, a day after the India Meteorological Department (IMD) predicted southwest monsoon would hit the southern state on June 9. Even though there has been a nine-day delay in the arrival of monsoon, its not expected to make much difference on its progression over rest of the country barring a minor hold up over central India.
US President Barack Obama on Tuesday supported Indias candidature for membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) as he discussed with Prime Minister Narendra Modi ways to take bilateral ties to new heights. Modi is on a three-day visit at Obamas invitation.
Prime Minister may visit Israel early next year as both countries prepare to celebrate the 25th anniversary of establishment of full diplomatic relations, an official of the Jewish state has hinted.

"Prime Minister Modi, that we know, wants to go and visit Israel. We don't have any specific dates. I can tell you that next year, we are celebrating 25 years of full diplomatic relations. It is a major milestone and it will be celebrated with high-level visits on both sides," the spokesperson of Embassy of Israel, Ohad Horsandi said.

The two countries established full diplomatic relations on January 29, 1992.

Modi's visit, if it happens, would be the first-ever visit by an Indian Prime Minister to the Jewish state.

Horsandi also confirmed that Israeli President Reuven Rivlin proposed to visit India.

"We don't know when he (Rivlin) is going to visit. We are hoping to a find a suitable date that's good for India and for Israel because Modi is a busy man and (undertakes) lot of trips," he said.

"Our Prime Minister (Benjamin Netanyahu) is (also) very keen to visit India," Horsandi added.

The diplomat noted that recent years saw high-level bilateral visits, with President Pranab Mukherjee making a trip to Israel in 2015 and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in January this year, and (the then) Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Ya'alon coming to India for the first time last year.

Since the establishment of full diplomatic relations in 1992, he said bilateral relations have gradually grown and improved in almost every field, whether it's defence, agriculture, trade or tourism.

On the proposed regional comprehensive economic agreement between India and Israel, he said both sides understood its benefits.

Seven rounds of discussions have already taken place in this regard.

"In many ways, Indian and Israeli economies are complementary. We are hoping to have further discussions in the next few months on this (proposed agreement) to see how it can go further," Horsandi added.
After Prime Minister Narendra Modis discussion on Tuesday with US President Barack Obama in Washington, a joint statement described what it billed as their third major bilateral summit, after earlier meetings in September 2014 and January 2015.
A controversy has erupted after a Surat-based temple dressed up the idol of Lord Swaminarayan in Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) uniform with Congress terming it as very unfortunate.

The issue came to light after a picture, in which Lord Swaminarayan can be seen donning the Sangh outfit  white shirt tucked into a baggy khaki shorts with black cap and black shoes on  went viral on social media platforms last evening.

The idol is also seen holding the flag in one hand.

According to the Swami Vishwaprakashji of the temple, which is situated in Laskana area of Surat, the dress was gifted by a local devotee a few days back.

"We have a common practice of presenting the God's idol in various dresses. This uniform was given to us by a devotee. We do not have any other agenda. We did not know that it will create a controversy," Vishwaprakashji said.

Even as the temple authorities denied having any intention of endorsing the views of the right-wing organisation, Congress leader Shankersinh Vaghela said temple authorities must refrain from such activities.

"What do you want to prove by dressing up the God in khaki shorts? I pity those who have done that. Today, you have dressed the Lord in uniform, tomorrow you will dress the idol in BJP's uniform. This is very unfortunate," Vaghela said.

Gujarat BJP chief Vijay Rupani also said that it should not have been done.

"I am really surprised. If at all it was done, I don't approve of it," he said.
With Pakistan obviously in mind, Prime Minister on Wednesday said terrorism was being incubated in Indias neighbourhood and pressed for action without making any distinction against groups like Lashkar-e-Toiba, Taliban and ISIS who share the same philosophy of hate, murder and killings.

In his address to the joint sitting of US Congress here, he said terrorism has to be fought with one voice as he commended the American Parliament for sending out a clear message by refusing to reward those who preach and practice terrorism for political gains, an apparent reference to the blocking of sale of 8 F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan.

In the course of his 45-minute speech, he covered all major aspects of the growing relationship between India and the US, particularly strategic ties and civil nuclear cooperation, and emphasised that the two countries should leave constraints of the past behind as the foundations of the future are firmly in place.

India lives as one; India grows as one and India celebrates as one, Modi said. For my government, the Constitution is its real holy book. And, in that holy book, freedom of faith, speech and franchise, and equality of all citizens, regardless of background, are enshrined as fundamental rights.



His remarks came against the backdrop of the Congress- mandated US Commission for International Religious Freedoms annual report that claimed religious freedom in India was on a negative trajectory in 2015 as religious tolerance deteriorated and religious freedom violations increased.

Dressed in trademark white kurta pyjama and grey-coloured half-jacket, Modi was warmly received by the American lawmakers who interrupted his address more than 40 times to cheer him, a few times by standing. When his predecessor Manmohan Singh addressed the US Congress in 2005, his speech was applauded 33 times, according to Sanjay Baru, who was the media advisor to the then prime minister.

Underscoring that both India and the US share the vision of peace and prosperity of the world, the prime minister said globally, terrorism remains the biggest threat and it must be fought at many levels as the traditional tools of military, intelligence or diplomacy alone would not be able to win defeat it.

In the territory stretching from West of Indias border to Africa, it may go by different names, from Laskhar-e-Toiba, to Taliban to ISIS. But, its philosophy is common: Of hate, murder and violence. Although its shadow is spreading across the world, it is incubated in India's neighbourhood, he said in an apparent reference to Pakistan.

He said those who believe in humanity must come together to fight against terrorism as one and speak against this menace in one voice. I commend the members of the US Congress for sending a clear message to those who preach and practice terrorism for political gains, Modi said. "Refusing to reward them is the first step towards holding them accountable for their actions." He was clearly referring to the blocking of sale of 8 F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan by the US Congress recently.

Emphasising that terrorism must be delegitimised, he said, The need of the hour is for us to deepen our security cooperation.



He said the cooperation should be based on a policy that isolates those who harbour, support and sponsor terrorists; that does not distinguish between good and bad terrorists; and that delinks religion from terrorism. The prime minister noted that both the countries have lost civilians and soldiers in combating terrorism and highlighted how the US stood by India in the aftermath of terror attack in Mumbai in November 2008, which originated from Pakistan.



Observing that India-US relationship is primed for a momentous future, the prime minister said a strong partnership between the two countries can anchor peace, prosperity and stability from Asia to Africa and from Indian Ocean to the Pacific. It can also help ensure security of the sea lanes of commerce and freedom of navigation on seas, he said, adding India is already assuming its responsibilities in securing the Indian Ocean region.

He used the occasion to pitch apparently for the UN reform as he said, But the effectiveness of our cooperation would increase if international institutions, framed with the mind-set of the 20th century, were to reflect the realities of today.



Modi, who invoked Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, Swami Vivekananda and Atal Bihari Vajpayee in his speech, said India and the US, the world's largest and oldest democracies, had learnt a lot from each other's philosophies and practices, making them natural allies. As we deepen our partnership, there would be times when we would have differing perspectives. But, since our interests and concerns converge, the autonomy in decision-making and diversity in our perspectives can only add value to our partnership, he said. So, as we embark on a new journey, and seek new goals, let us focus not just on matters routine but transformational ideas.



He said these ideas should focus not just on creating wealth but also creating value for our societies; not just on immediate gains but also long-term benefits; not just on sharing best practices but also shaping partnerships; and not just on building a bright future for our peoples, but in being a bridge to a more united, humane and prosperous world. And, important for the success of this journey would be a need to view it with new eyes and new sensitivities. When we do this, we will realise the full promise of this extraordinary relationship.



Highlighting Indias growth of 7.6 per cent and the immense opportunities it offers, the prime minister said, in every sector of India's forward march, I see the US as an indispensable partner.



He noted that many Americans believe that a stronger and prosperous India is in the strategic interest of the US and said, Let us work together to convert shared ideals into practical cooperation. There can be no doubt that in advancing this relationship, both nations stand to gain in great measure.



As the US businesses search for new areas of economic growth, markets for their goods, a pool of skilled resources, and global locations to produce and manufacture, India could be their ideal partner, Modi said. He said transformative American technologies in India and growing investment by Indian companies in the United States both have a positive impact on the lives of the citizens of the two countries.

Talking about the commonalties, the prime minister told the American lawmakers that like in the US Congress, Indian Parliament also reflects a spirit of bipartisanship. I am informed that the working of the US Congress is harmonious. I am also told that you are well-known for your bipartisanship. Well, you are not alone. Time and again, I have also witnessed a similar spirit in the Indian Parliament, especially in our Upper House. So, as you can see, we have many shared practices, he said.

While mentioning about the ties between India and the US, Modi said the pioneers had shaped a development partnership very early on, even when the meeting ground was more limited, with the genius of Norman Borlaug bringing the Green Revolution and food security to India.

"Fast forward to today. The embrace of our partnership extends to the entirety of human endeavour-from the depths of the oceans to the vastness of the space.... Ties of commerce and investment are flourishing. We trade more with the US than with any other nation. And, the flow of goods, services and capital between us generates jobs in both our societies. As in trade, so in defence. India exercises with the United States more than we do with any other partner. Defence purchases have moved from almost zero to ten billion dollars in less than a decade. Our cooperation also secures our cities and citizens from terrorists, and protects our critical infrastructure from cyber threats. Civil Nuclear Cooperation, as I told President Obama yesterday, is a reality," Modi said.

Noting that the 21st century has brought with it great opportunities, he said it also comes with its own set of challenges.

"Inter-dependence is increasing. But, while some parts of the world are islands of growing economic prosperity; other are mired in conflicts," he added.

Talking in the context of Asia, Modi said the absence of an agreed security architecture creates uncertainty. "Threats of terror are expanding, and new challenges are emerging in cyber and outer-space. And, global institutions conceived in 20th century, seem unable to cope with new challenges or take on new responsibilities," the prime minister said.

"In this world full of multiple transitions and economic opportunities, growing uncertainties and political complexities, existing threats and new challenges, our engagement can make a difference by promoting cooperation not dominance; connectivity not isolation; respect for global commons; inclusive not exclusive mechanisms; and above all adherence to international rules and norms," he said.

He said India and the US may have been shaped by differing histories, cultures, and faiths "yet our belief in democracy for our nations and liberty for our countrymen is common. The idea that all citizens are created equal is a central pillar of the American constitution."



Modi said the founding fathers of the two countries too shared the same belief and sought individual liberty for every citizen of India. "There were many who doubted India when, as a newly independent nation, we reposed our faith in democracy. Indeed, wagers were made on our failure. But, the people of India did not waver," he said.

"Our founders created a modern nation with freedom, democracy, and equality as the essence of its soul. And, in doing so, they ensured that we continued to celebrate our age old diversity. Today, across its streets and institutions, in its villages and cities, anchored in equal respect for all faiths; and in the melody of hundreds of its languages and dialects. India lives as one; India grows as one; India celebrates as one," Modi said.

The prime minister hailed the US Congress, describing it as a "temple of democracy" from which democracies world over had learnt. "It manifests the spirit of this great nation, which in Abraham Lincoln's words, 'was conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal'," he said, adding that the opportunity to address it was "honouring the world's largest democracy and its 1.25 billion people."



Modi became the fifth Indian prime minister to address the joint sitting of US Congress. Earlier, Rajiv Gandhi had addressed it on July 13, 1985, P V Narasimha Rao on May 18, 1994, Atal Bihari Vajpayee on September 14, 2000 and Manmohan Singh on July 19, 2005.

After addressing the US Congress, a reception was hosted for Modi jointly by the Foreign Relations Committees of the House of Representatives and the Senate as well as the India Caucus.

Speaking at the reception, he said that whenever he met any Senator or Congressman, he felt the warmth that goes beyond diplomacy and saw a desire to see what the two countries can do to preserve the values for the benefit of the world. He said there was a time when there was curiosity in America about what India is. Then came the time when US started recognising India, to realise there are a lot of shared values which can build on relationship, he said. Subsequently, the time came when the two countries started thinking about how the ties can be advanced for each other. Now the two countries are stepping into an era in which they think beyond what each can get from the other to see "what we can do together for the world. Be it climate change, terrorism, poverty, healthcare, there numerous, together we can find solutions," he said.
Indias chances of getting into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) have received a huge boost after the US endorsed its membership bid on Tuesday. I indicated support to India being a part of NSG, US President Barack Obama said, even as China has opposed Indias move. The statement from Obama came at a joint address with PM Modi at the White House on Tuesday.
Ahead of Indias rolling out of anti-tax avoidance regulations, Cyprus has shown eagerness to amend the bilateral tax treaty allowing New Delhi to tax capital gains. In turn, has pitched to be taken off the blacklist or being considered a notified jurisdiction for not sharing tax information, which implies increased scrutiny for investments coming from Mediterranean island nation, which is the seventh largest foreign direct investment source for India.Cyprus is learnt to have approved, in-principle, the proposals made by the Indian side on taxing capital gains.Cyprus has sought removal from the blacklist and is ready to amend the double taxation avoidance agreement (DTAA) with India. It is very keen for that now since the general anti-avoidance rule (GAAR) is coming into play April 2017 onwards and the Mauritius treaty has already been amended, said a source.The move would plug loopholes in capital gains tax exemption for investments from Cyprus. India and Cyprus signed the DTAA in 1994 and around $8 billion has been invested into India from Cyprus between 2000 and 2015. India amended the DTAA with Mauritius in April, allowing the former to impose capital gains tax on shares.Companies routing funds into India through Mauritius from the next financial year will have to pay short-term capital gains tax at 50 per cent prevailing rate during a two-year transition period beginning April 2017. The short-term capital gains tax rate is 15 per cent at the moment. The full rate will be imposed from 2019 onwards. The concessional rate of 50 per cent would be subject to fulfilment of conditions in newly-inserted limitation of benefit (LoB), which is an expenditure of at least Rs 27 lakh in Mauritius in the previous financial year.Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia had said last month that talks were on with Cyprus to amend the treaty. If Cyprus does not renegotiate, provisions will hit the island nation, he had said.Cyprus was declared a non-cooperative jurisdiction by India in 2013 over not sharing information related to Indian account holders.It was the first tax jurisdiction to be labelled so by India, leading to a 30 per cent withholding tax on all payments made to Cyprus and greater scrutiny of Indian entities receiving funds from there requiring additional disclosures, including the source of the money.

Indian entities with investments from Cyprus also have to forego deductions on account of expenditure and allowances. The companies have raised the argument that the suspension of tax benefits has hurt investment inflow from Cyprus and the government has overridden the bilateral treaty's provisions.
Ahead of the general anti-avoidance rules (GAAR) on tax kicking in from the next financial year, many feel the government should remove the retrospective provisions in the rules.
The Centre on Wednesday warned of action against non-governmental organisations (NGOs) spending foreign contributions in unauthenticated activities like religious conversion.

This is not an issue of communal conversion. But, we go according to FCRA (Foreign Contribution Regulation Act) rules, which NGOs need to abide by. If there are violations, there has to be action. Our purpose is to ensure that money of NGOs should be spent for purposes mentioned by them," Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju told reporters in Delhi.

He was replying to a question on reports that government plans to take action against some NGOs which were allegedly involved in religious conversion.

According to reports the Home Ministry is verifying the accounts of some NGOs which were allegedly indulging in unauthenticated activities like religious conversion.

The reports suggested 18 foreign donors had been identified who help such NGOs.

According to a Home Ministry statistics, altogether Rs 13,051 crore foreign contribution was received by 17,616 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the country in 2013-14.

Rs 11,527 crore foreign funds were received by 20,497 NGOs in 2012-2013 and Rs 11,558 crore was received by 22,747 NGOs in 2011-2012.

NGOs are required to seek registration or prior permission under Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, 2010 to receive foreign contribution.
The Union environment, forests and climate change minister Prakash Javadekar on Wednesday came back to again rubbish the study conducted by governments Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology which concludes that on average Indians are losing 3.4 years of life due to exposure to particulate matter below 2.5 microns (PM2.5) and ozone pollution.
A spectre now haunts the information technology (IT) sector in Tamil Nadu, that of . The state, in a significant departure, has said the IT sector will now be covered by the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, which allows workers to form labour unions.
In the run up to the International Day of Yoga, 2016 a National Health Editors conference on Yoga for Holistic Health Recent Researches" was organized today by the Ministry of AYUSH in association with Press Information Bureau, Government of India at the National Media Centre. The event was inaugurated by the Minister of State for AYUSH (Independent Charge), Shri Shripad Yesso Naik, and seven eminent experts from diverse fields presented recent researches in the field of Yoga demonstrating its advantages in attaining holistic health. The event witnessed participation from over 125 media persons including national and regional media, both print and electronic. .

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Addressing the health editors, Shri Shripad Naik said that there are a number of research works conducted all over the World on different aspects of Yoga and its utility in the promotion of health, prevention and management of various disorders, besides improvement in the physiological functions of the body. .

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Referring to the preparations for this years Yoga Day, the Minister added that the Government has decided to take forward the momentum created last year with greater and more active participation of all sections of the society, particularly Divyangs. The main programme would be the Mass Yoga Demonstration from 7 AM to 8 AM on 21st June, 2016 by following the Common Yoga Protocol for 45 minutes. Additionally, the various Yoga Institutions are free to follow their own protocol for the remaining 15 minutes, the Minister explained. .

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Shri Shripad Naik said that momentum of last year will be carried forward with active participation of all sections of society particularly the youth. Yoga-fests, seminars, workshops, musical and cultural programmes based on Yoga, involving students from schools, colleges, universities, various youth organizations, such as, NYKS, NSS, RWAs, etc are being organized. .

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Speaking on the occasion, Secretary AYUSH, Shri Ajit M. Sharan said that arrangements are being made to organize Yoga day celebrations in every country wherever India has a diplomatic Mission. .

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Eminent Yoga researchers who made presentations on the occasion are as under-.

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1. Dr. Shirley Telles, Director, Partanjali Research Foundation on Yoga who spoke role of Yoga in Stress Management .

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2. Dr Rajvi H Mehta, a senior Iyenger Yoga Teacher. She gave a discourse on Yoga for Muscular Skeleton Disorders with special emphasis on womens health.

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3. Dr S C Manchanda, Cardiologist, spoke about the relevance of Yoga in preventing lifestyle disorders with special emphasis on cardio vascular diseases .

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Dr. Usha Kiran from AIIMS, Delhi gave a presentation on Yoga for Mental Health.

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5. Dr. H R Nagendra, Chancellor, S-VYASA University elaborated upon on Yoga for Youth.

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6. Dr. I V Basavraddi, director MDNIY gave a presentation on Traditional & scientific basis of yoga protocol .

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7. Dr. Shashi Bala Singh, Director, DRDO whose presentation revolved around science of Yoga in stressful environmental conditions .

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A live demo of various Asanas was also held alongwith questions answers session with the experts. Technical sessions were conducted by Dr. I V Basavaraddi, Director, Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga of the Ministry of Ayush. .

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The celebrations organized by the Government of India across the world to mark 1st International Day of Yoga (IDY) on 21st June, 2015 were a grand success. The event was able to portray Yoga as a symbol of rich cultural heritage of India. The Mass Yoga Demonstration at Rajpath, New Delhi was a historic event and also set two Guinness records i.e. largest yoga class at a single venue involving 35985 participants and maximum number of nationalities i.e. 84 participating in a yoga class. .

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The M/o AYUSH will also be organizing a 2-day International Conference on Yoga for Body and Beyond" at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi on 22nd & 23rd, June, 2016, in which eminent experts of Yoga from across the globe would be participating. .

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1. The Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi and the President of the United States of America Barack Obama met today in the White House during an official working visit of Prime Minister Modi to the United States. Marking their third major bilateral summit, the leaders reviewed the deepening strategic partnership between the United States and India that is rooted in shared values of freedom, democracy, universal human rights, tolerance and pluralism, equal opportunities for all citizens, and rule of law. They pledged to pursue new opportunities to bolster economic growth and sustainable development, promote peace and security at home and around the world, strengthen inclusive, democratic governance and respect for universal human rights, and provide global leadership on issues of shared interest. .

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2. The leaders welcomed the significant progress made in bilateral relations between India and the United States during their tenure, in accordance with the roadmaps set out in the Joint Statements issued during Prime Minister Modis visit to the United States in September 2014 and President Obamas visit to India in January 2015. The leaders affirmed the increasing convergence in their strategic perspectives and emphasized the need to remain closely invested in each others security and prosperity. .

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Advancing U.S.-India Global Leadership on Climate and Clean Energy.

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3. The steps that the two Governments have taken in the last two years through the U.S.-India Contact Group, including by addressing the nuclear liability issue, inter alia, through Indias ratification of the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage, have laid a strong foundation for a long-term partnership between U.S. and Indian companies for building nuclear power plants in India. Culminating a decade of partnership on civil nuclear issues, the leaders welcomed the start of preparatory work on site in India for six AP 1000 reactors to be built by Westinghouse and noted the intention of India and the U.S. Export-Import Bank to work together toward a competitive financing package for the project. Once completed, the project would be among the largest of its kind, fulfilling the promise of the U.S.-India civil nuclear agreement and demonstrating a shared commitment to meet Indias growing energy needs while reducing reliance on fossil fuels. Both sides welcomed the announcement by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd, and Westinghouse that engineering and site design work will begin immediately and the two sides will work toward finalizing the contractual arrangements by June 2017. .

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4. The United States and India share common climate and clean energy interests and are close partners in the fight against climate change. Leadership from both countries helped galvanize global action to combat climate change and culminated in the historic Paris Agreement reached last December. Both countries are committed to working together and with others to promote full implementation of the Paris Agreement to address the urgent threats posed by climate change. India and the United States recognize the urgency of climate change and share the goal of enabling entry into force of the Paris Agreement as early as possible. The United States reaffirms its commitment to join the Agreement as soon as possible this year. India similarly has begun its processes to work toward this shared objective. The leaders reiterated their commitment to pursue low greenhouse gas emission development strategies in the pre-2020 period and to develop long-term low greenhouse gas emission development strategies. In addition, the two countries resolved to work to adopt an HFC amendment in 2016 with increased financial support from donor countries to the Multilateral Fund to help developing countries with implementation, and an ambitious phasedown schedule, under the Montreal Protocol pursuant to the Dubai Pathway. The leaders resolved to work together at the upcoming International Civil Aviation Organization Assembly to reach a successful outcome to address greenhouse gas emissions from international aviation. Further, the two countries will pursue under the leadership of the G20 strong outcomes to promote improved heavy-duty vehicle standards and efficiency in accordance with their national priorities and capabilities. .

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5. The leaders welcomed the signing of an MOU to Enhance Cooperation on Energy Security, Clean Energy and Climate Change, and an MOU on Cooperation in Gas Hydrates. .

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6. Reflecting Prime Minister Modis call to embrace wildlife conservation as a development imperative, the leaders welcomed the signing of an MOU to enhance cooperation on Wildlife Conservation and Combating Wildlife Trafficking. .

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Clean Energy Finance.

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7. The United States supports the Government of Indias ambitious national goals to install 175 GW of renewable power which includes 100 GW from solar power. .

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8. The United States welcomes the launch of the International Solar Alliance (ISA), recognizes the critical role it can play in the development and deployment of solar power, and intends pursuing membership in the ISA. To this end, and to strengthen ISA together, the United States and India will jointly launch the third Initiative of the ISA which will focus on off-grid solar for energy access at the Founding Conference of ISA in September, 2016 in India. The United States also remains committed, with other developed countries, to the goal of jointly mobilizing $100 billion per year by 2020 to address the needs of developing countries in the context of meaningful mitigation and adaptation action. .

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9. The United States is committed to bring to bear its technical capacity, resources and private sector, and is jointly launching with India new efforts, to spur greater investment in Indias renewable energy sector, including efforts that can serve as a model for other ISA Member Countries. In particular, the United States and India today are announcing: the creation of a $20 million U.S. - India Clean Energy Finance (USICEF) initiative, equally supported by the United States and India, which is expected to mobilize up to $400 million to provide clean and renewable electricity to up to 1 million households by 2020; a commitment to establish the U.S.-India Clean Energy Hub as the coordinating mechanism to focus United States Government efforts that, in partnership with leading Indian financial institutions, will increase renewable energy investment in India; a $40 million U.S.-India Catalytic Solar Finance Program, equally supported by the United States and India, that, by providing needed liquidity to smaller-scale renewable energy investments, particularly in poorer, rural villages that are not connected to the grid, could mobilize up to $1 billion of projects; the expansion of handholding support to Indian utilities that are scaling up rooftop solar and continuation of successful cooperation with USAID on "Greening the Grid". .

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10. The United States and India also remain committed to the goals of Mission Innovation, which they jointly launched during COP-21 in Paris to double their respective clean energy research and development (R&D) investment in five years. Toward this end, the two leaders reaffirmed their commitment to cooperate on research and development, including through the announcement of an upcoming $30 million public-private research effort in smart grid and grid storage. .

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Strengthening Global Nonproliferation.

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11. The President thanked the Prime Minister for his substantive contribution to and active participation in 2016 Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, D.C., and welcomed his offer to host a Summit on Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Terrorism in 2018. The United States and India will work together to combat the threat of terrorists accessing and using chemical, biological, nuclear and radiological materials. .

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12. Recalling their shared commitment to preventing proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery, the leaders looked forward to Indias imminent entry into the Missile Technology Control Regime. President Obama welcomed Indias application to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), and re-affirmed that India is ready for membership. The United States called on NSG Participating Governments to support Indias application when it comes up at the NSG Plenary later this month. The United States also re-affirmed its support for Indias early membership of the Australia Group and Wassenaar Arrangement. .

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Securing the Domains: Land, Maritime, Air, Space, and Cyber.

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13. The leaders applauded the completion of a roadmap for cooperation under the 2015 U.S.-India Joint Strategic Vision for the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean Region, which will serve as a guide for collaboration in the years to come. They resolved that the United States and India should look to each other as priority partners in the Asia Pacific and the Indian Ocean region. .

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14. They welcomed the inaugural meeting of the Maritime Security Dialogue. Owing to mutual interest in maritime security and maritime domain awareness, the leaders welcomed the conclusion of a technical arrangement for sharing of maritime "White Shipping" information. .

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15. The leaders affirmed their support for U.S.-India cooperation in promoting maritime security. They reiterated the importance they attach to ensuring freedom of navigation and overflight and exploitation of resources as per international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and settlement of territorial disputes by peaceful means. .

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16. The leaders applauded the enhanced military to military cooperation between the two countries especially in joint exercises, training and Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HA/DR). They expressed their desire to explore agreements which would facilitate further expansion of bilateral defense cooperation in practical ways. In this regard, they welcomed the finalization of the text of the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA). .

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17. Noting that the U.S.-India defense relationship can be an anchor of stability, and given the increasingly strengthened cooperation in defense, the United States hereby recognizes India as a Major Defense Partner. As such: .

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o The United States will continue to work toward facilitating technology sharing with India to a level commensurate with that of its closest allies and partners. The leaders reached an understanding under which India would receive license-free access to a wide range of dual-use technologies in conjunction with steps that India has committed to take to advance its export control objectives. .

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o In support of Indias Make In India initiative, and to support the development of robust defense industries and their integration into the global supply chain, the United States will continue to facilitate the export of goods and technologies, consistent with U.S. law, for projects, programs and joint ventures in support of official U.S.-India defense cooperation. .

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18. The leaders also committed to enhance cooperation in support of the Government of Indias Make in India Initiative and expand the co-production and co-development of technologies under the Defense Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI). They welcomed the establishment of new DTTI working groups to include agreed items covering Naval Systems, Air Systems, and other Weapons Systems. The leaders announced the finalization of the text of an Information Exchange Annex under the Joint Working Group on Aircraft Carrier Technology Cooperation. .

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19. President Obama thanked Prime Minister Modi for his governments support for the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) missions in India, including a recovery mission that resulted in the recent repatriation of remains of the United States Service Members missing since the Second World War. The leaders announced their commitment to future DPAA? missions. .

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20. As space faring nations, India and the United States acknowledge that outer space should be an ever expanding frontier of human endeavour, and look forward to deepening their cooperation on earth observation, Mars exploration, space education and manned space flight. The leaders welcomed the progress toward establishment of an ISRO-NASA Heliophysics Working Group as well as toward finalization of a Memorandum of Understanding for exchange of earth observation satellite data. .

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21. The leaders emphasized that cyberspace enables economic growth and development, and reaffirmed their commitment to an open, interoperable, secure, and reliable Internet, underpinned by the multistakeholder model of Internet governance. They committed to deepen cooperation on cybersecurity and welcomed the understanding reached to finalize the Framework for the U.S.-India Cyber Relationship in the near term. They committed to enhance cyber collaboration on critical infrastructure, cybercrime, and malicious cyber activity by state and non-state actors, capacity building, and cybersecurity research and development, and to continue discussions on all aspects of trade in technology and related services, including market access. They have committed to continue dialogue and engagement in Internet governance fora, including in ICANN, IGF and other venues, and to support active participation by all stakeholders of the two countries in these fora. The leaders committed to promote stability in cyberspace based on the applicability of international law including the United Nations Charter, the promotion of voluntary norms of responsible state behavior during peacetime, and the development and implementation of practical confidence building measures between states. .

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22. In this context, they affirmed their commitment to the voluntary norms that no country should conduct or knowingly support online activity that intentionally damages critical infrastructure or otherwise impairs the use of it to provide services to the public; that no country should conduct or knowingly support activity intended to prevent national computer security incident response teams from responding to cyber incidents, or use its own teams to enable online activity that is intended to do harm; that every country should cooperate, consistent with its domestic law and international obligations, with requests for assistance from other states in mitigating malicious cyber activity emanating from its territory; and that no country should conduct or knowingly support ICT-enabled theft of intellectual property, including trade secrets or other confidential business information, with the intent of providing competitive advantages to its companies or commercial sectors. .

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Standing Together Against Terrorism and Violent Extremism .

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23. The leaders acknowledged the continued threat posed to human civilization by terrorism and condemn the recent terrorist incidents from Paris to Pathankot, from Brussels to Kabul. They resolved to redouble their efforts, bilaterally and with other like-minded countries, to bring to justice the perpetrators of terrorism anywhere in the world and the infrastructure that supports them. .

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24. Building on the January 2015 U.S.-India Joint Statement commitment to make the U.S.-India partnership a defining counterterrorism relationship for the 21st Century, as well as the September 2015 U.S.-India Joint Declaration on Combatting Terrorism, the leaders announced further steps to deepen collaboration against the full spectrum of terrorist threats. .

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25. The leaders committed to strengthen cooperation against terrorist threats from extremist groups, such as Al-Qaida, Daesh/ISIL, Jaish-e Mohammad, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, D Company and their affiliates, including through deepened collaboration on UN terrorist designations. In this context, they directed their officials to identify specific new areas of collaboration at the next meeting of U.S.India Counterterrorism Joint Working Group. .

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26. Recognizing an important milestone in the U.S.-India counterterrorism partnership, the leaders applauded the finalization of an arrangement to facilitate the sharing of terrorist screening information. They also called for Pakistan to bring the perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai and 2016 Pathankot terrorist attacks to justice. .

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27. The leaders affirmed their support for a UN Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism that advances and strengthens the framework for global cooperation and reinforces that no cause or grievance justifies terrorism. .

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Bolstering Economic and Trade Ties.

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28. The leaders highlighted the strong and expanding economic relationship between the United States and India and committed to support sustainable, inclusive, and robust economic growth, and common efforts to stimulate consumer demand, job creation, skill development and innovation in their respective countries. .

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29. In order to substantially increase bilateral trade, they pledged to explore new opportunities to break down barriers to the movement of goods and services, and support deeper integration into global supply chains, thereby creating jobs and generating prosperity in both economies. They look forward to the second annual Strategic and Commercial Dialogue in India later this year to identify concrete steps in this regard. They also commended the increased engagement on trade and investment issues under the Trade Policy Forum (TPF) and encouraged substantive results for the next TPF later this year. They welcomed the engagement of U.S. private sector companies in Indias Smart City program. .

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30. The leaders applauded the strong bonds of friendship between the 1.5 billion peoples of India and the United States that have provided a solid foundation for a flourishing bilateral partnership, noting that two-way travel for tourism, business, and education has seen unprecedented growth, including more than one million travelers from India to the United States in 2015, and similar number from the United States to India.The leaders resolved to facilitate greater movement of professionals, investors and business travelers, students, and exchange visitors between their countries to enhance people-to-people contact as well as their economic and technological partnership. To this end, they welcomed the signing of an MOU for Development of an International Expedited Traveler Initiative (also known as the Global Entry Program) and resolved to complete within the next three months the procedures for Indias entry into the Global Entry Program. .

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31. The leaders recognized the fruitful exchanges in August 2015 and June 2016 on the elements required in both countries to pursue a U.S.-India Totalization Agreement and resolved to continue discussions later this year. .

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32. Recognizing the importance of fostering an enabling environment for innovation and empowering entrepreneurs, the United States welcomes Indias hosting of the 2017 Global Entrepreneurship Summit. .

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33. The leaders welcomed the enhanced engagement on intellectual property rights under the High Level Working Group on Intellectual Property and reaffirmed their commitment to use this dialogue to continue to make concrete progress on IPR issues by working to enhance bilateral cooperation among the drivers of innovation and creativity in both countries. .

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34. The United States welcomes Indias interest in joining the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, as India is a dynamic part of the Asian economy. .

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Expanding Cooperation: Science & Technology and Health .

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35. The leaders affirmed their nations mutual support in exploring the most fundamental principles of science as embodied in the arrangement reached to cooperate on building a Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) in India in the near future and welcomed the formation of the India-U.S. Joint Oversight Group to facilitate agency coordination of funding and oversight of the project. .

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36. The leaders look forward to Indias participation at the September 2016 Our Ocean Conference in Washington, D.C. as well as holding of the first India-U.S. Oceans Dialogue later this year, to strengthen cooperation in marine science, ocean energy, managing and protecting ocean biodiversity, marine pollution, and sustainable use of ocean resources. .

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37. The leaders reaffirmed their commitment to the Global Health Security Agenda and the timely implementation of its objectives. The Prime Minister noted India's role on the Steering Group and its leadership in the areas of anti-microbial resistance and immunization. The President noted the United States commitment to support, undergo, and share a Joint External Evaluation in collaboration with the World Health Organization. .

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38. The leaders recognized the global threat posed by multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and committed to continue collaboration in the area of tuberculosis and to share respective best practices. .

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39. The leaders noted the growing threat of non-communicable diseases and the urgent need to address the risk factors by, inter alia, promoting healthy lifestyles, controlling sugar and salt intake, promoting physical activity especially among children and youth and strengthening efforts to curb tobacco use. The leaders also reiterated the importance of holistic approaches to health and wellness, and of promoting the potential benefits of holistic approaches by synergizing modern and traditional systems of medicine, including Yoga. .

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40. The leaders strongly endorsed expansion of the Indo-U.S. Vaccine Action Program, which is fostering public-private research partnerships focused on the development and evaluation of vaccines to prevent tuberculosis, dengue, chikungunya and other globally important infectious diseases. .

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Global Leadership .

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41. The leaders reaffirmed their resolve to continue working together as well as with the wider international community to augment the capacity of the United Nations to more effectively address the global development and security challenges. With the historic adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in September 2015, and recognizing its universality, the leaders reaffirmed their commitment to implement this ambitious agenda domestically and internationally and work in a collaborative partnership for the effective achievement of Sustainable Development Goals. .

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42. The leaders reaffirmed their support for a reformed UN Security Council with India as a permanent member. Both sides committed to ensuring that the Security Council continues to play an effective role in maintaining international peace and security as envisioned in the UN Charter. The leaders are committed to continued engagement on Security Council reform in the UN Intergovernmental Negotiations (IGN) on Security Council Reform. .

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43. The leaders welcomed the successful convening of the Leaders Summit on UN Peacekeeping and committed to deepening engagement on UN peacekeeping capacity-building efforts in third countries, through co-organizing the first UN Peacekeeping Course for African Partners in New Delhi later this year for participants from ten countries in Africa. The leaders also reiterated their support for ongoing reform efforts to strengthen UN peacekeeping operations. .

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44. Building on their respective bilateral engagements with Africa, such as the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit and India-Africa Forum Summit, the leaders reflected that the United States and India share a common interest in working with partners in Africa to promote prosperity and security across the continent. The leaders welcomed trilateral cooperation with African partners, including in areas such as agriculture, health, energy, women's empowerment and sanitation under the Statement of Guiding Principles on Triangular Cooperation for Global Development. They looked forward to opportunities to deepen the U.S. - India global develop pment cooperation in Africa, as well as in Asia and beyond. .

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Building People-to-People Ties .

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45. Both sides committed to open additional consulates in each others country. India will be opening a new consulate in Seattle and the United States will open a new consulate at a mutually agreed location in India. .

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46. The leaders announced that the United States and India will be Travel and Tourism Partner Countries for 2017, and committed to facilitate visas for each others nationals. .

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47. Reflecting on the strong educational and cultural bonds between the two countries, the leaders welcomed the growing number of Indian students studying in the United States, which increased by 29 percent to nearly 133,000 students in 2014-2015, and looked forward to increased opportunities for American students to study in India. The leaders also appreciated their governments joint efforts through the Fulbright-Kalam Climate Fellowship to develop a cohort of climate scientists to confront the shared challenge of global climate change. .

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48. Recognizing its mutual goal of strengthening greater people-to-people ties, the leaders intend to renew efforts to intensify dialogue to address issues affecting the citizens of both countries that arise due to differences in the approaches of legal systems, including issues relating to cross-country marriage, divorce and child custody. .

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49. Prime Minister Modi welcomed the United States repatriation of antiquities to India. The leaders also committed to redouble their efforts to combat the theft and trafficking of cultural objects. .

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50. Prime Minister Modi thanked President Obama for his gracious invitation and warmth of hospitality. He extended an invitation for President Obama to visit India at his convenience. .

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Jadavpur University, Kolkata has won the 12th National Youth Parliament Competition for Universities and Colleges conducted by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs. Thirty institutions from across the country participated in the competition. .

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Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Shri Rajiv Pratap Rudy felicitated the winners of the competition. The Running Parliamentary Shield and Trophy for 2014-15 was presented to Jadavpur University here today. .

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Merit Trophies were presented to : Dayalbagh Educational Institute, Agra, University of Kashmir, Srinagar, University of Mumbai, Mumbai, Jawaharlal Nehru Rajkeeya Mahavidyalaya, Port Blair and Assam Rajiv Gandhi University of Cooperative Management, Sivsagar, Assam. .

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National Youth Parliament Competition for Universities/Colleges is being organized since 1997-98 to promote among the younger generations the spirit of discipline, tolerance of diverse opinion, righteous expression of views and democratic virtues. The competition also acquaints the students with practice and procedures of Parliament, techniques of discussion and debate and promotes leadership qualities. .

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Speaking on the occasion, Shri Rudy stressed the need for promotion of clean politics in the country and noted that money power and those with criminal antecedents getting elected to legislatures have emerged as major threats to democracy. He urged the students to take an enlightened view of politics and contribute to promotion of clean politics. .

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AAR
Implementation of new Urban Missions viz., Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), Smart City Mission and Swachh Bharat Mission in the States of Punjab, Haryana and the Union Territory of Chandigarh will be reviewed in Chandigarh tomorrow i.e June 9,2016. .

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Shri Rajiv Gauba, Secretary (Urban Development), Government of India along with concerned Mission Directors from the Ministry of Urban Development, Chief Secretaries of Punjab and Haryana, Advisor to the Administrator of Chandigarh and concerned officials besides some Municipal Commissioners will be attending the day long review meetings to be held separately state-wise at the Secretariats of Punjab, Haryana and UT Guest House. District Collectors and other field officials will participate in the review through video-conferencing. .

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These meetings are being held as a part of State-wise review meetings being held by the Ministry of Urban Development in respective capital cities. Such reviews have so far been held in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Jaipur and Visakhapatnam. .

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20 cities in Haryana, 16 in Punjab and Chandigarh have been included in Atal Mission which is aimed at improving basic urban infrastructure relating to water supply, sewerage networks, storm water drains, urban transport and open and green spaces. For the year 2015-16 under AMRUT, an expenditure of Rs.408 cr has been approved for Haryana, Rs.710 cr for Punjab and Rs.573 cr for Chandigarh for improving basic infrastructure in mission cities. Central Government has agreed to provide an assistance of RS.219 cr for Haryana, Rs.276 cr for Chandigarh and Rs.319 cr for Punjab for the State Annual Action Plans approved for 2015-16. Action Plans for 2016-17 of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh under AMRUT will be considered for approval soon. .

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Under Smart City Mission, Ludhiana in Punjab was selected among the first batch of smart cities and the Ministry has approved Ludhianas Smart City Plan with a proposed investment of Rs.1,049 cr. Ministry of Urban Development has already released Rs.200 cr for 2015-16 for Ludhiana. .

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Faridabad in Haryana and Chandigarh have been subsequently selected among the second batch of 13 smart cities in a Fast Track Competition. .

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Under Swachh Bharat Mission, Central Assistance of Rs.56 cr has been released to Punjab, Rs.30 cr for Haryana and Rs.1.70 cr for Chandigarh. .

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Coordination Committee for Development of Chandigarh will also meet tomorrow. To be chaired by Shri Rajiv Gauba, Advisor to Administrator of Chandigarh and senior officials of the Ministry of Urban Development and Chandigarh Administration will attend this meeting. .

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AAR/June 8,2016
The Union Minister of State for AYUSH (Independent Charge), Shri Shripad Yesso Naik inaugurated the National Health Editors Conference on Yoga for Holistic Health-Recent researches, at National Media Centre here today. .

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Following is the text of the Ministers speech- .

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Dignitaries on the dais, experts of Yoga and Allied sciences, delegates and Friends from Print and Electronic Media. .

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It is indeed a matter of great pleasure that the M/o AYUSH, Govt. of India in association with the Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Govt. of India is organising a National Health Editors Conference on Yoga for Holistic Health Recent Researches" today. This programme would also serve as a Curtain Raiser" for the forthcoming events of International Day of Yoga 2016. .

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Nowadays, Yoga is popular World-wide. It has reached almost every part of the globe. People practice Yoga in some form or the other for spiritual or health purposes and to overcome some stress. I would like to place on record our gratitude to various Yoga Schools in India who have tirelessly propagated and promoted Yoga not only in India but also abroad. Multi-faceted benefits of Yoga in physical, mental, emotional, social and spiritual well-being of a person and its long term benefits to the people from all walks of life have been established by large number of inter-disciplinary researches in different fields. Today, Yoga is popular because of its therapeutic credentials as also its overall benefits. .

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Most of the modern day health problems are because of faulty life-style and Yoga is an efficacious means to overcome these disorders. The uniqueness of therapeutic benefits of Yoga is that it can work along with any other drug systems of healthcare and this enables the practitioners of other systems of medicine, including modern medicine experts to prescribe Yoga programme to the patients. .

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There are number of research works conducted all over the World on different aspects of Yoga and its utility in the promotion of health, prevention and management of various disorders, besides improvement in the physiological functions of the body. There are innumerable published research works now available to the common public as well as to the physicians of different systems and the researchers. The basic objective of this Conference is to discuss the recent researches on different aspects of Yoga. Few eminent Yoga researchers will deliver lectures on different topics. By educating Health Editors of both print and electronic media, on the subject of recent researches on Yoga, they will disseminate the health benefits of Yoga to the public in a better form and manner. Today, there would also be a comprehensive presentation by the Ministry on various programmes/activities planned for celebration of International Day of Yoga 2016 across the country and globe. .

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The celebrations organized by the Government of India across the world to mark 1st International Day of Yoga (IDY) on 21st June, 2015 were a grand success. The event was able to portray Yoga as a symbol of rich cultural heritage of India. The Mass Yoga Demonstration at Rajpath, New Delhi was a historic event and also set two Guinness records i.e. largest yoga class at a single venue involving 35985 participants and maximum number of nationalities i.e. 84 participating in a yoga class. .

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The Government of India has decided to take forward the momentum created last year with greater and more active participation of all sections of the society, particularly the youth during the current years celebrations. The main programme would be the Mass Yoga Demonstration from 7 AM to 8 AM on 21st June, 2016 by following the Common Yoga Protocol for 45 minutes and 15 minutes Institutional Protocol, if any, at the National, State, District, Block and Panchayat levels. In addition, Yoga- Fests, seminars, workshops, musical and cultural programmes based on Yoga, involving students from schools, colleges, universities, various youth organizations, such as, NYKS, NSS, RWAs, etc are also being organized. .

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The National Event of Mass Yoga Demonstration would be held at Chandigarh. However, similar events will also be held all across the nation and the globe. The event should be a peoples programme where they voluntarily come forward to participate in the Mass Yoga Demonstration by highlighting the benefits of Yoga for better physical, mental health and social harmony. .

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The State Governments have also been requested to encourage use of locally made Yoga mats and apparels, preferably with the locally available raw-material to provide employment opportunities to local artisans and small entrepreneurs. We are also making special efforts to involve differently-abled persons (Divyangs") in all the celebrations. All the Corporate Houses have also been requested through their Chambers to participate in the celebrations of International day of Yoga and also to promote use of Yoga in their office premises as a daily routine. .

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The M/o AYUSH will also be organizing a 2-day International Conference on Yoga for Body and Beyond" at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi on 22nd & 23rd, June, 2016, in which eminent experts of Yoga from across the globe would be participating .

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I am sure, after this half-day Conference, you will have fair idea about the scientific aspects of Yoga and would enlighten the society at large through your writings and articles in the coming days highlighting the scientific strength of Yoga so that more and more people adopt Yoga as a part of their lives. .

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I thank all of you who have gathered here to exchange views and promote healthcare & well-being of citizens of the Globe through Yoga. .

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on Wednesday made history as she became the first woman to clinch the presidential nomination of a major American political party by winning crucial California and three other state primaries but her Democratic rival Bernie Sanders remained defiant.

"Thanks to you, we've reached a milestone, the first time in our nation's history that a woman will be a major party's nominee," Clinton, 68, told her supporters at her campaign headquarters in Brooklyn, New York.

President Barack Obama congratulated Clinton for securing the 2,383 delegates necessary to clinch the Democratic party's presidential nomination.

However, Obama did not formally endorse Clinton - his former Secretary of State.

"Her historic campaign inspired millions and is an extension of her lifelong fight for middle-class families and children," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said.

Obama called both Clinton and Sanders to applaud them for "running inspiring campaigns that energised Democrats." The President will meet Sanders at the White House on Thursday at the Vermont senator's request, Earnest said in a statement.

Clinton, who won California, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota, now has 2,755 delegates or more than half of the 4,051 total pledged delegates while Sanders has 1,852.

However, Sanders, who won in Montana and North Dakota, refused to concede defeat to Clinton, vowing to stay in the Democratic nomination race.

"Next Tuesday we continue the fight," Sanders told a large crowd of cheering supporters gathered in Santa Monica.

"We are going to fight hard to win the primary in Washington DC, and then we take our fight for social, economic, racial and environmental justice to Philadelphia."



Sanders, 74, has been facing mounting pressure to drop out of the race amid calls for Democratic party unity.

In the November presidential elections, Clinton would face fellow New Yorker Donald Trump, from the Republican party, who she said is not fit to lead the country.

If elected in November, she would be the first ever woman President of the US.

"To every little girl who dreams big: Yes, you can be anything you want, even president. Tonight is for you," Clinton said.

"We cannot let a man who demeans women, attacks people for their race or religion, and traffics in paranoid conspiracy theories take the oath of office," she said, attacking 69-year-old Trump.
India's recent test-firing of an anti-ballistic missile system may give it a "false sense" of security but could lead to "unexpected complications", Pakistan's Advisor on Foreign Affairs has warned.

Expressing serious concern over the May 15 successful test-firing of indigenously developed supersonic interceptor missile capable of destroying any incoming ballistic missile from a test range off Odisha coast, Aziz said such actions are contrary to India's policy of a friendly neighbourhood.

The criticism came in Tuesday's Senate meeting, the Express Tribune reported on Wednesday.

"Massive conventional nuclear and missile development programmes pursued by India are now leading to nuclearisation of the Indian Ocean," Aziz said in government's response to the Senate.

"The development of an anti-ballistic missile system (ABM) may give India a false sense of security, leading to unexpected complications. Such actions are also contrary to the policy of a peaceful and friendly neighbourhood, which our prime minister (Nawaz Sharif) has repeatedly espoused," he said.

Pakistan has serious concerns over these developments and will take "all necessary measures to augment its defence capabilities", Aziz said.

Senator Javed Abbasi of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) said the "balance of power has been disturbed in South Asia the way it was disturbed following India's nuclear tests in 1998".

"I'm not aware of our military's response, but I suggest that the security establishment take note of the Indian interceptor missile test and devise a strategy accordingly," he said.

"The (interceptor missile) test has increased military threats from India," said Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed of opposition Pakistan Muslim League Quaid-e-Azam (PMLQ).

Referring to the upcoming meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) in Seoul, Mushahid said ground was being prepared for India's elevation to the NSG.

"This is our diplomatic failure. The Indians are encircling us from all sides. Even our immediate neighbours, like Afghanistan and Iran, have gone to India. It's a result of our failed diplomacy and traditionally passive foreign policy," he added.

Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Senator Farhatullah Babar blamed flawed security policies for the foreign policy debacle.

"Isn't it a reality that we protected non-state actors to further our security agenda? Our age-old policy of harbouring non-state actors is taking toll on us," he said.

Chairman of the Senate Raza Rabbani said a clear strategy must be devised to respond to the situation created by India's missile test.
Saudi Arabia is considering taxing millions of foreign residents as the kingdom seeks to reduce its reliance on oil revenue after the plunge in crude prices. The proposal was included in the country's National Transformation Plan, an ambitious multi-year programme released this week. But the tax element is only ''an initiative that will be discussed,'' Finance Minister Ibrahim al-Assaf said on Tuesday at a news conference in Jeddah. Economists said the proposal is unlikely to see the light soon because it could hamper the kingdom's ability to attract the foreign ...
After more than 50 years of existence, the Vaikunth Mehta National Institute of Co-operative (VAMNICOM) institute has managed to get the certification from National Board of Accreditation (NAB) for its post graduate diploma in course.

The Pune-based agro- institute provides for a two year Agri Business Management (PGDM-ABM) programme with a seating capacity of 120 students.
Shares of were up over 2% at Rs 764 on the Bombay Stock Exchange after the company said that its joint venture with Alstom has received an order from NTPC.
Falling prices may have brought tears to farmers but the commodity has given the dehydration units a reason to rejoice. Lower commodity prices have resulted in increased global competitiveness of dehydrated onions thereby doubling exports from the country.Dehydrated exports have gone up from 12,000 tonnes to 25,000 tonnes on a y-o-y basis during the January-May period. Industry sources said that thanks to low prices in domestic market, prices of dehydrated onions from India have dipped by $700 per tonne to about $1,800 per tonne this season." prices in local market have come under pressure due to higher production and this has enabled Indian dehydrated onion producers to offer their products at competitive rates in the international market. The prices are in our favor and business has grown over doubled in this season," said Vitthalbhai Koradiya, president, All India Dehydration Association and managing director of Maharaja Dehydration Private Limited.The industry expects to export over 50,000 tonnes in 2016. Due to high onion rates, India had exported about 30,000 tonnes dehydrated onion in 2015. Currently, in wholesale markets, onion prices are ruling at Rs 3-7 per kg which was about Rs 12-15 per kg last year at this time. Onion production has gone up to 20.3 million tonnes in 2015-16 as against 18.9 million tonnes in 2014-15.Asgar Chhatariya, managing director of Chhatariya Foods Private Limited said: "As on date prices of raw onion are in our favour and if we can maintain our prices at $1,600-2,000 per tonne than total export may touch to 50,000 tonnes by end of December this year."India mostly exports to Europe, Russia, US and small amount to African countries. Most of the export business comes during January to June and after first rain dehydration units close till November every year.Asgar Chhatariya said: "Dehydration units are preparing to shut down their units as monsoon is about to come. By end of June almost all the units will close their doors and do a business on stock they have for next few months."There are about 90 onion dehydration units in India. Of it nearly 75 units are located in Gujarat while rests are spread in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.However, while for export, onion dehydration industry is enjoying the growth, it is not expecting any revival in domestic consumption of dehydrated onion. Since last couple of years, domestic consumption of dehydrated onion has limited to around 5,000 tonnes and for this year, the industry is expecting the same.Koradiya said: "We are trying to create awareness but despite of our constant approach, domestic consumption of dehydrated onion is not increasing and limited to about 5,000 tonnes."

In India, people prefer to use fresh onion. Dehydrated onion products consumed by hotels, caterers and ready to eat food makers.
Stocks held gains at a seven-month high, as engineering companies and automakers countered declines in software exporters. Larsen & Toubro and Bharat Heavy Electricals, the nation's biggest capital goods firms, were the top performers on the S&P BSE Sensex. Hero MotoCorp rallied to its highest since December 2014, while ICICI Bank paced gains among its peers. Infosys slid for a third day. The Sensex closed little changed in Mumbai, after swinging between gains and losses at least 12 times. The gauge rallied to its highest level since October on Tuesday after the central bank said it ...
Calling for closer anti-terrorist cooperation to combat terrorism, the Chairman of the US House Committee, Edward Royce, on Wednesday said that the attackers of Pathankot terror attacks must be brought to justice, and added that if they were not being prosecuted by Islamabad, then the Court of Justice at The Hague must step in and do the needful.

Royce told ANI that it is important to send a strong message to all radical groups across the globe that all nations stand united in their opposition to terrorism.

"The attackers of the Pathankot terror attack must be brought to justice. That is the role of the community to work together to make certain that justice happens and if they are not going to be tried in Islamabad, the terrorists need to be taken to the Hague and charged with crimes against humanity. Because we must send the message that we are united in our opposition to terrorist attacks," said Royce.

"I think we need much closer anti-terrorist cooperation. We've stayed in Mumbai in the Taj, right after that attack I travelled to India to talk to authorities, about how could we create more cooperation. At the same time we were trying to put pressure on the civilian government in Pakistan explaining to them that they are next if these terrorist continue to expand and carry out these attacks and that we need their cooperation in bringing these individuals to justice," he added.

Royce further asserted that the community needs to build pressure and device new methods to break the backs of terrorist organisations.

"The international community needs to build pressure. We need to work more closely with counter terror cooperation. We need to device new methodology for being able to break the back of the Haqqani network and some of these other terrorist organisations," said Royce.
Amid the ongoing spat between the judiciary and the executive Union Minister of State for Minority Affairs on Wednesday asserted that the judiciary should function within its limits and avoid promoting a culture of increasing interference, which he said is a matter of worry.

In an exclusive interview to ETV News head Jagdeesh Chandra, Naqvi said, "Increasing interference of judicial system in legislative work is a sign of worry. It is being seen that the judicial system often rejects bills passed by Parliament. In this situation, it seems that the work which is to be done by Parliament is being done by the judiciary."

He said that this clash between the judiciary and legislature is not new.

"People have a lot of faith in the judiciary and it should respect it, and at the same time, everyone should respect their limits and work by remaining within its premises," he added.

Chief Justice of India T S Thakur has said that if there is neglect and failure on part of government agencies, the judiciary will definitely play its role.

Chief Justice Thakur said that the judiciary is not interested in interfering in the works of the others and the fact is that 85% of the citizens step to the doors of the courts only when they are disappointed by the governments.

Meanwhile, the Union Minister for Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari representing the Centre questioning the legitimacy of the judiciary intervening in the government matters, asserting that proceeding according to the Constitution will be good for both the country and the people.

Gadkari added that there is a fair chance of failure in every field but to what extent a field can be allowed to intervene with the other is still debatable.
A compliant has been filed against Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) chief VM Sudheeran and former minister Ramesh Chennithala in a local court in Thiruvananthapuram over non-payment of dues in connection with the construction of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's statue at Neyyar Dam.

Leading construction company Heather Constructions, which on Wednesday sent a legal notice in this regard, has alleged that it was given a contract for construction of Rajiv Gandhi's statue and is yet to receive dues amounting to Rs 3.5 crore.

The project was commissioned by former KPCC President Ramesh Chennithala.

Meanwhile, the Congress Party has rubbished the charges and assured to settle this matter soon.

"Neither any criminality involved nor any default of payment. Rajiv Gandhi Institute of development studies is an institute constituted under KPCC, they had constituted a research centre," Congress leader Randeep Surjewala told ANI.

"There is an ongoing dispute between engineers, who built the institute, and contractor, who executed the work. Contractor had filed a civil suit, issue is almost sorted out. Within 24 hours, all parties will sit together and settle the issue," he added.

According to reports, the Congress president had inaugurated this project in 2005. She had asked the KPCC to make necessary payment after the construction company sent a notice for non-payment of funds.

The company in the complaint claims that they have not been paid yet.
The makers of the biopic on Sufi mystic Jalaluddin Rumi, which has drawn a lot of criticism on social media for roping in Leonardo Di Caprio for the role, is on works and Oscar-winning screenwriter David Franzoni will be helming it.

'The Gladiator' writer aims to "challenge the stereotypical portrayal of Muslim characters in Hollywood," reports the Express Tribune.

Reportedly, the 69-year-old screenwriter visited Istanbul to meet Rumi experts so that the team could start shooting next year.

According to Franzoni, there are a lot of reasons to do such a movie and one of them is the popularity of Rumi in the US that needs to be spoken about.

"I think it gives him a face and a story," he added.

Other than the 'Titanic' actor as Rumi, the director and producer Stephen Joel Brown would like Robert Downey Jr to star as Shams of Tabriz.

"This is the level of casting that we're talking about," said Brown.

However, this cast has not been taken well on Twitter, which has blown up with anger and criticism against it.
After years of heavy use, marijuana can disrupt the brain's natural reward processes, according to a recent study.

The University of Texas researchers demonstrated for the first time with functional magnetic resonance imaging that long-term marijuana users had more brain activity in the mesocorticolimbic-reward system when presented with cannabis cues than with natural reward cues.

Dr Francesca Filbey, director of Cognitive Neuroscience Research in Addictive Disorders at the Center for BrainHealth, said that this study shows that marijuana disrupts the natural reward circuitry of the brain, making marijuana highly salient to those who use it heavily. In essence, these brain alterations could be a marker of transition from recreational marijuana use to problematic use.

Researchers studied 59 adult marijuana users and 70 nonusers, accounting for potential biases such as traumatic brain injury and other drug use. Study participants rated their urge to use marijuana after looking at various visual cannabis cues, such as a pipe, bong, joint or blunt, and self-selected images of preferred fruit, such as a banana, an apple, grapes or an orange.

Researchers also collected self-reports from the study participants to measure problems associated with marijuana use. On average, marijuana participants had used the drug for 12 years.

Filbey noted that they found that this disruption of the reward system correlates with the number of problems, such as family issues, individuals have because of their marijuana use. Continued marijuana use despite these problems is an indicator of marijuana dependence.

The study is published in Human Brain Mapping.
The Communist Party (NCP) on Wednesday dubbed Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah's latest assertion on the Ram temple issue as an 'evasive remark', saying he should have instead countered the statements made by the RSS, Hindu Mahasabha and other saffron outfits with regard to this matter.

NCP leader Majeed Memon said that the BJP president had been very ambiguous with his statement as he did not take a particular stand and reiterated what has been said since the past 20 years.

"He said all the communities come together and with a consensus the splendid temple could be built. This was spoken in 1993 also, which he is talking after 23 years. Or alternatively, since the matter is sub-judice before the highest court of the land, the verdict of the court should be followed. This is also not new. This has also been spoken for years. So, what did he say?" Memon told ANI.

"The statements like we will have the splendid temple come what may by the end of this year made by the RSS, Hindu Mahasabha and other saffron outfits. He should have spoken about that. He should have said that what they are saying is wrong. He did not say that. What he has said is something even I would say or anybody else would say," he added.

The BJP president, who was addressing a media briefing in Lucknow yesterday, asserted that Ram Janmabhoomi is a part of his party's election manifesto.

Shah yesterday said that a Ram Temple should be built in Ayodhya either after a consensus or through court's decision.

"We have specified it that the Ram temple should be made on the site either after a consensus or by the directions of court. This is our firm stand," he said.
Seems like Ranbir Kapoor did not take his romance rumour with Kangana Ranaut well as he snapped at it, branding it as "baseless."

According to DNA, a source close to the 'Rockstar' actor said that Ranbir "is in a state of shock over the spate of stories that have sprung out of nowhere in the last few months."

"He is upset that people are taking advantage of the fact that he doesn't issue clarifications. There is no truth in the stories of Ranbir and Kangana's affair, yet in a very systematic manner this is being spread in media," the insider added.

Reportedly, the source even said that the 'Tamashaa' actor knows "who is behind these rumours and if this continues, he is considering issuing a strong denial this time."

This romance rumour between the 'Queen' actress and the 33-year-old actor came up when, ironically, both the stars underwent turbulent relationships.

While Ranbir broke up with his longtime girlfriend Katrina Kaif, the 29-year-old actress' secret affair came out in the open after a lot of public mud-slinging.

On the work front, Ranbir is currently shooting for Anurag Basu's 'Jagga Jasoos' and will soon start gearing up for Sanjay Dutt's biopic.

On the other hand, Kangana is working up for the release of 'Rangoon' opposite Shahid Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan.
After celebs like Jon Stewart, Jimmy Fallon and Stephen Colbert, it was Meryl Streep's turn to take a shot at the guise of Donald Trump and she nailed it.

The Oscar winning actress showed up at the the Public Theatre 2016 Gala in Central Park, New York on June 6 night donning an orange face, a fat suit and a face full of fake tan to play Trump, reports News.com.au.

In a perfect timing with Hillary Clinton's primary win, the 66-year-old actress teamed up with Christine Baranski, dressed as Clinton, to perform 'Brush Up Your Shakespeare' from 'Kiss Me, Kate.'

'Brush up your Shakespeare,' traditionally sung by male gangsters in the classic musical based on 'The Taming of the Shrew,' advises men on how to woo women by reciting lines from Shakespeare.

"You'll let me know, why all the women say no," Streep sang during the annual event paying tribute to playwright William Shakespeare.

Streep issued a statement to the New York Times through a Public Theater spokeswoman on June 7 afternoon, saying, "I appreciate the interest, but this was a one-off, a once in a (last in a) lifetime appearance of this character.
Bharat Forge rose 2.56% to Rs 767.95 at 15:08 IST on BSE after the company's joint venture company signed a contract worth $ 219 million with NTPC for supply of steam generator.

The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 7 June 2016.

Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 25.24 points or 0.09% at 27,034.91

On BSE, so far 1.13 lakh shares were traded in the counter as against average daily volume of 75,769 shares in the past one quarter. The stock hit a high of Rs 773 and a low of Rs 758.50 so far during the day. The stock had hit a 52-week low of Rs 705 on 24 May 2016. The stock had hit a 52-week high of Rs 1,292.50 on 20 August 2015. The stock had underperformed the market over the past one month till 7 June 2016, falling 4.03% compared with 7.06% gains in the Sensex. The scrip also underperformed the market in past one quarter, falling 8.35% as against Sensex's 9.59% gains.

The large-cap company has equity capital of Rs 46.56 crore. Face value per share is Rs 2.

Alstom Bharat Forge Power (ABFPL), the joint venture company between GE and Bharat Forge, has signed a contract worth $219 million (about Rs 1495 crore) with NTPC. The joint venture company will supply two units of 800 megawatts (MW) ultra-supercritical steam turbine generator islands, on engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) basis, along with related civil work for the Telangana Super Thermal Power Project Phase-1 near Ramagundam, Telangana. The equipment for the project will be manufactured majorly at ABFPL's manufacturing facility at Sanand, Gujarat.

ABFPL was created to participate in the Indian market of turbines islands (steam turbines and generators, heat exchangers and all associated equipment). GE has a majority stake in this joint venture. The join venture company manufactures 300-800 MW subcritical and supercritical equipment with an annual capacity of 4000 MW.

Bharat Forge's net profit fell 19% to Rs 164.52 crore on 17.4% decline in net sales to Rs 987.07 crore in Q4 March 2016 over Q4 March 2015.

Bharat Forge is the flagship company of Kalyani Group. It is a global provider of high performance, innovative, safety & critical components and solutions to various industrial sectors including automotive, oil & gas, power, construction & mining, aerospace and rail & marine.

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Mahindra & Mahindra rose 0.49% to Rs 1,384.65 at 15:15 IST on BSE after India's weather office today, 8 June 2016, announced the onset of southwest monsoon rains in Kerala.

Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 26.98 points or 0.1% at 27,036.65.

On BSE, so far 75,000 shares were traded in the counter as against average daily volume of 1.55 lakh shares in the past two weeks. The stock rose as much as 1.38% at the day's high of Rs 1,397 so far during the day. The stock rose 0.15% at the day's low of Rs 1,380 so far during the day. The stock had hit a record high of Rs 1,441.45 on 7 August 2015. The stock had hit a 52-week low of Rs 1,092 on 12 February 2016.

Shares of Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) have risen 3.38% in the preceding three trading sessions to settle at Rs 1,377.85 yesterday, 7 June 2016, from its close of Rs 1,332.70 on 2 June 2016, on hopes of good monsoon rains. Good rains may boost demand for tractors. M&M is the largest tractor maker in India in terms of market share.

There has been delay in the onset of the monsoon rains in Kerala this year from the normal onset date which is 1 June. The arrival of the rains at the Kerala coast marks the onset of the June-September southwest monsoon season in India.

Quantitatively, monsoon season rainfall for the country as a whole is likely to be 106% of the long period average (LPA) with a model error of plus/minus 4%, the IMD said after trading hours on 2 June 2016. In its first stage forecast issued on 12 April 2016, the IMD had forecast rainfall to be 106% of the LPA with a model error of plus/minus 5%.

M&M's net profit rose 6% to Rs 583.73 crore on 14.8% growth in net sales to Rs 10666.43 crore in Q4 March 2016 over Q4 March 2015.

The Mahindra Group enjoys a leadership position in tractors, utility vehicles, information technology, financial services and vacation ownership. In addition, Mahindra enjoys a strong presence in the agribusiness, aerospace, components, consulting services, defence, energy, industrial equipment, logistics, real estate, retail, steel, commercial vehicles and two-wheeler industries.

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MOIL fell 1.01% to Rs 240.65 at 11:21 IST on BSE as the buyback price of Rs 248 per share was close to the ruling market price.

Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 19.50 points or 0.08% at 27,030.42

On BSE, so far 25,500 shares were traded in the counter as against average daily volume of 24,238 shares in the past one quarter. The stock hit a high of Rs 245.50 and a low of Rs 240.10 so far during the day. The stock had hit a record low of Rs 180.10 on 12 February 2016. The stock had hit a 52-week high of Rs 257 on 25 June 2015. The stock had underperformed the market over the past one month till 7 June 2016, rising 0.89% compared with 7.06% gains in the Sensex. The scrip, however, outperformed the market in past one quarter, gaining 22.84% as against Sensex's 9.59% gains.

The mid-cap company has equity capital of Rs 168 crore. Face value per share is Rs 10.

The stock had risen in the run up to the announcement of the details of the share buyback. The scrip had gained 9.97% in four trading sessions to settle at Rs 243.10 yesterday, 7 June 2016, from its close of Rs 221.05 on 1 June 2016.

The buyback price of Rs 248 per share represents a premium of 2.01% to the the stock's closing price of Rs 243.10 yesterday, 7 June 2016. The company announced the buyback price before market hours today, 8 June 2016. MOIL has announced buyback of 3.48 crore equity shares, representing 20.72% of the total number of equity shares in the paid-up share capital of the company at Rs 248 per share for an aggregate consideration not exceeding Rs 863.34 crore. The buyback will be through the tender offer route.

The promoter of the company intends to participate in the proposed buyback. The central government and the Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh state governments are the promoters of MOIL. The central government currently holds 71.57% stake, the Maharashtra state government holds 4.62% and the Madhya Pradesh state government owns 3.81% stake in MOIL (as per the shareholding pattern as on 31 March 2016).

MOIL's net profit declined 79.1% to Rs 21.38 crore on 29.9% growth in net sales to Rs 209.62 crore in Q4 March 2016 over Q4 March 2015.

MOIL produces and sells different grades of manganese ore. It currently operates 10 mines, six located in the Nagpur and Bhandara districts of Maharashtra and four in the Balaghat district of Madhya Pradesh.

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Held on 07 June 2016

Goenka Business & Finance that the Board of Directors of the Company at its meeting held on 07 June 2016, inter alia, have conducted the following businesses:

1. Approved Appointment of Jayrajbhai K. Selara as Chief Financial Officer of the Company.

2. The Director's acknowledged that as per the Company's Code of Conduct for prohibition of Insider Trading, the trading window for dealing in securities of the Company was accordingly closed for the purpose of declaration of Audited financial results for the Quarter ended on 31 March 2016.

3. Accepted Resignation of Suchita Kumar Agarwal from the position of Chief Financial Officer of the Company.

4. Approved shifting of registered office of the Company within State from 11, Bysack Street, Kolkata - 700 007 to 15B, Kalakar Street, Floor, Kolkata - 700 007.

5. Accepted Resignation of Sunitha Gupta from the position of Director of the Company.

6. The Board after due consideration does not approve the application of Juli Rasiklal Gadhiya for the post of Company Secretary & Compliance officer of the Company. Thereafter, with the permission of Chair, appointed Nitixa Ramanuj.

7. With the permission of Chair, the Board has appointed Urmilaben Sharadbhai Talsaniya as an Additional Director of the Company.

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At least 45 Islamic State militants were killed when they attacked military posts in Mosul city in Iraq, a military official said on Wednesday.

Dozens of IS militants attacked Iraqi army posts on Tuesday near the militant-seized town of Qayyara, Xinhua quoted the official as saying.

"Our troops, backed by the US-led coalition aircraft battled the attack following several hours of fierce clashes," another official said.

The clashes resumed at dawn on Wednesday when the IS militants attacked military posts near the village of al-Naser in the IS held city of Mosul, he said.

Five Iraqi security personnel were injured in the clashes, he said.

IS militants frequently attack security forces sent from Baghdad to the Makhmour military base beside the semi-autonomous northern region of Kurdistan in order to chase away IS militants from Mosul, 400 km north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.

--IANS

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Call it bizarre, the Himachal Pradesh administration has issued advertisements to buy cloth for two turbans - at 15 times its cost.

The General Administration Department placed advertisements on May 31 in two newspapers inviting tenders to purchase 14 metres of cloth at the rate of Rs.50 per metre for two turbans to be provided to drivers.

As per the advertisement, which went viral on social media and invoked sharp criticism, the cost of the two turbans would be Rs.700.

The authorities said the advertisement was a faux pas.

General Administration Department Additional Secretary Ashwani Sharma told IANS that it was a letter to a cloth merchant seeking quotation which "by mistake was despatched to the newspaper with other tender notices".

Blogger Santosh Chaubey wrote: "It happens only in India."

--IANS

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Actor Ajaz Khan, who has been reportedly booked by police here for sending lewd messages to a model, has pleaded innocence in the case.

An FIR for outraging a woman's modesty was reportedly registered against the former "Bigg Boss 7" contestant.

Model Aishwarya Choubey had reportedly approached Versova police on Monday and submitted her complaint on Tuesday, following which an FIR was registered against the actor.

In the complaint Choubey accused Ajaz of sending her improper messages and photograph.

"I am really saddened. I am being made into a punching bag. I met this girl at a party through an actor-friend Javed Rizvi (who was in the film "Lakeer Ka Fakeer" with me). That's it," Ajaz said.

"I have nothing more to do with her. If this is the way one gets repaid for being kind to a stranger then I would advise all actors to not even say hello to newcomers out of kindness," he added.

--IANS

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Public sector defence major (BEL) on Wednesday said it logged a profit after tax of Rs 1,809 crore in financial year 2015-16, rising from Rs 1,467 crore in 2014-15.

"We had a good financial year in 2015-16, with an impressive jump in the order book," said BEL Chairman SK Sharma.

While the company registered a turnover of Rs 7,522 crore in 2015-16 compared to Rs 6,695 crore in 2014-15, the order book value as on April 1, 2016, stood at Rs 32,022 crore, increasing from Rs 21,617 crore in 2014-15.

With an export growth of 47%, the BEL's exports rose to $85 million in the analysed year from $58 million in the last financial year.

"Highlights of 2015-16 include 12% growth in turnover, induction of Akash missile system into the Indian Air Force and Indian Army, and an excellent MoU rating for 2014-15," said Sharma.

Major order received in 2014-15 included Integrated Air Command Control System, Weapon Locating Radar from the artillery division of the army and Hand Held Thermal Imager with LRF from the Army Infantry, which is being produced in Machilipatnam unit.

Other orders include Ground-based Mobile ELINT under the electronic warfare, Integrated Communication System and improved USHUS sonar for submarines, said Sharma.

Electronic Fuze being developed with a foreign original equipment manufacturer, Armoured Engineer Reconnaissance Vehicle and electronic warfare Shakti System for P71 tank complete the order book.

Talking about executed orders in financial year 2015-16, Sharma said, "Akash weapons system, 3-D tactical control radar, Schilka upgrade and passive night vision device for the Indian Army and low-level lightweight radar to Air Force among others."

Fire control system, new generation sonars and integrated sonar suite, ship data network to navy and L Band surveillance radar for export to Myanmar are the other executed orders.

Under new products introduced in the reviewed fiscal, 3-D surveillance radar, coastal surveillance radar, 2-D air surveillance radar, software defined radio (Naval version), tactical access switch, laser warning system and gunner sight for T90 tank among others featured.
The CPI-M on Wednesday accused the BJP and "Hindutva elements" of trying to raise communal tensions over a "so-called beef consumption" issue in Uttar Pradesh.

"The killing of Mohammad Akhlaq and the attack on his family (at Dadri in Uttar Pradesh in September 2015) is now sought to be diverted to the issue of cow slaughter and beef consumption," the CPI-M said.

Utilising an alleged report of a forensic lab in Mathura that a piece of meat found, that too not in Akhlaq's house, was beef, a meeting in the village has demanded that cases be registered against the family members of Akhlaq, the Communist Party of India-Marxist said in a statement.

"A 20-day ultimatum has been given to the administration to act in the matter with the warning that failure to so do will lead to 'public anger'.

"A minister in the Modi government, Sanjeev Balyan, who was implicated in cases connected with the (earlier) Muzaffarnagar riots, has made a provocative statement demanding a probe to find out who all had consumed beef besides Akhlaq," the CPI-M statement said.

"Other BJP leaders have demanded action against Akhlaq's family members.

"All these statements are being made with the intention of stoking communal tensions and is part of the wider gameplan of the BJP to create a communal polarization in Uttar Pradesh before assembly elections next year," it said.

The CPI-M urged the Uttar Pradesh administration to file cases against Balyan and others for inciting communal hatred.

"The Uttar Pradesh government should deal firmly with all those elements who are trying to incite communal passions and provoke violence.

"There should be no laxity in prosecuting all those accused in the Akhlaq murder case."

--IANS

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The Cambodian Health Ministry on Wednesday warned of dengue fever outbreak as the annual rainy season has begun.

The country reported 1,915 dengue fever cases in the first five months of 2016, an increase of 98 per cent from only 968 cases over the same period last year, the ministry said in a statement, adding that the virus killed four children during January to May this year -- up from just one death over the same period last year, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Health Minister Mam Bunheng urged parents to have their children sleep under mosquito nets to prevent them from being bitten by mosquitoes.

He also appealed to households to fill in puddles around houses, which are sources of mosquitoes.

Dengue fever is a viral disease transmitted through the bite of an Aedes mosquito which is a day-biting mosquito. Its symptoms include sudden onset of high fever which can last from three to seven days, severe headache, muscle pain, vomiting, and rash.

The outbreak of the virus usually begins in the rainy season from May to October.

--IANS

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Hillary Clinton cemented her position as the Democratic nominee for president with emphatic wins in California, New Jersey and New Mexico primaries, even as her rival Bernie Sanders refused to back out of the presidential race, despite the widening gap in delegate count.

Her victory in the primaries comes as Clinton clinched the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, becoming the first woman in America's 240-year history to be the presumptive nominee of a major US political party.

On Tuesday, the former first lady led the party primary in California with 56 per cent of the votes, according to results released after over 92 precincts partially reported as of early Wednesday morning, Xinhua news agency reported.

"For the first time in our history, a woman will be chosen as presidential candidate for a major political party," said a victorious Clinton at a rally in Brooklyn, New York in front of her supporters.

"Thanks to you, we've reached a milestone," she said in a speech which began with clear signs of emotion by the historical moment.

Her rival and Vermont Senator Sanders got 43 per cent.

The California primary results further consolidated Clinton's chance to be the presidential nominee. Ahead of these primaries, Clinton had secured 1,812 pledged delegates and 572 superdelegates for a total of 2,384 delegates -- one more than needed for the nomination,

However, Sanders told his supporters that he will not drop out of the race but will continue fighting for every vote and every delegate.

The 74-year-old told a full house of supporters in Santa Monica on Tuesday that he will continue to fight hard to win the primary in Washington, DC next Tuesday, which will be the last primary.

"And then we take our fight for social, economic, racial and environmental justice to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania," he said, in reference to the Democratic National Convention on July 25, where Sanders pins his hope to turn the tide by gaining more superdelegates' support.

Sanders has insisted throughout the campaign that he would stick to his presidential bid all the way to the convention, even if Clinton becomes the presumptive nominee.

As results rolled in after the voting ended on Tuesday night at 8 p.m., Clinton's percentage of votes dropped from about 63 per cent at the beginning to 56 per cent.

Simon Hu, an 18-year-old first-time Chinese-American voter, told Xinhua news agency that he would vote for Clinton as it is not easy to have a female presidential candidate.

"It will be a historic moment if Clinton can win," he said.

Clinton on Tuesday wrote on her Twitter account: "To every little girl who dreams big: yes, you can be anything you want -- even president. Tonight is for you."

Though there are American media reports that according to a survey of superdelegates, Clinton had already earned the required number of delegates to claim the Democratic nomination, Sanders insisted that Clinton "will be dependent on superdelegates who do not vote until July 25 (at the party convention) and who can change their minds between now and then."

On the Republican side, with Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio dropping out, Donald Trump became the presumptive nominee. Trump got more than 75 per cent of the votes in Tuesday's primary.

Also on Tuesday, California voters cast ballots for state-wide and local offices, as well as one ballot initiative.

A record 17.9 million people have registered to vote in delegate-heavy California.

It may take several days for an accurate assessment of voter turnout.

--IANS

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Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday proclaimed herself the victor of the Democratic primaries which were held in recent months in the US as part of the electoral race for the White House.

"For the first time in our history, a woman will be chosen as presidential candidate for a major political party," said Clinton at a rally in Brooklyn, New York in front of her supporters.

"Thanks to you, we've reached a milestone," she said in a speech which began with clear signs of emotion by the historical moment.

The speech was delivered on the same day that the primaries were held in six states from New Jersey to California with her number of accumulated delegates having significantly surpassed those of her Democratic rival Senator Bernie Sanders.

The confirmation of the nomination for the presidential candidacy will be made at the Democratic convention scheduled to be held in Philadelphia between July 25 and 28.

Clinton said her victory on Tuesday is the result of "generations" who have been fighting for progressive ideas in the US and also highlighted the struggle of women.

She took the opportunity to congratulate Sanders for his "extraordinary" campaign and for his "very good" ideas that he has brought to the Democratic Party and the US.

"We know that we are stronger together," Clinton said in an attempt to close the Democratic ranks as the internal election process is coming to an end.

Clinton said she will take a few days to "absorb the history" that has been done but said there were still more important steps to "keep making history" in the country.

She delivered her speech after she already won in New Jersey and New Mexico and shortly before the close of polling stations in California, where Clinton is currently front runner.

In her speech, the Democratic candidate took the opportunity to criticise the message of division promoted by the presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, the only remaining candidate of his party.

"The choice is clear," said Clinton, and Trump "is temperamentally unfit to be President".

Clinton intensified her assault on Trump, laying out a case that his values and rhetoric are incompatible with American principles.

"He is not just trying to build a wall between America and Mexico. He is trying to wall of Americans from each other. When he says let's make America great again, that is code for let's take American backwards," she said.

She hit Trump hard for his recent attacks on a judge with Mexican ancestry along with mocking a disabled reporter and "calling women pigs".

--IANS

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Members of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Congress reportedly clashed in a parliamentary committee meeting here on Tuesday, officials said on Wednesday.

Deliberating at the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice, Trinamool Congress member Sukhendu Shekhar Roy raised issues concerning the functioning of the Election Commission (EC), especially in the context of recently held assembly polls in West Bengal, the officials said.

While Roy, a Trinamool member of the Rajya Sabha, complained against the EC's certain discretionary orders like transferring civil and police officials during electioneering, he also asked why were the elections in West Bengal held in a multi-phase manner unlike in other states.

Congress member from the Lok Sabha Abu Haseem Khan Chowdhury protested against certain remarks of Roy and hailed the role played by the EC in conducting the state polls.

The heated debate occurred in the presence of EC officials who were called to attend the Standing Committee meeting.

The 31-member panel of members from both houses of parliament and headed by Congress member E.M. Sudarsana Natchiappan is at present examining the subject, "Feasibility of Holding Simultaneous Election to House".

This meeting is being held after reference from the department of Personnel and Training, sources said.

At the meeting, the TMC member pointed out that while independence of the EC is appreciable even a constitutional body should be made to adhere to the rule of law and good precedence and should be accountable.

The Trinamool member strongly questioned as to why and how as many as 68 top police and civil officials were transferred during the period leading up to the West Bengal polls.

The panel also reportedly took cognizance of a complaint about alleged misuse of money by the AIADMK during the assembly elections in Tamil Nadu.

The Standing Committee has among other members Abhishek Manu Singhvi (Congress), Majeed Memon (Nationalist Congress Party), K.T.S. Tulsi (Nominated), Bhupender Yadav (BJP) and Bhagwant Mann (AAP).

--IANS

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Cuba and the European Union (EU) held a second round of talks on human rights here in Havana, Cuba's Foreign Ministry has said.

According to a release on Tuesday, the talks between two delegations, led by Stavros Lambrinidis, special envoy of the EU on human rights, and Pedro Nunez, general director of multilateral affairs of Cuba' s Foreign Ministry, complement the bilateral agenda after a political and cooperation agreement was reached earlier this year, Xinhua news agency reported.

The two sides exchanged views in a "respectful and constructive" manner and discussed "several issues regarding human rights as well as civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights", said the statement.

The delegations engaged in talks with a view to opening up new spaces for opinions, deepening the knowledge of each side's realities and exploring bilateral cooperation on the issues they agreed on.

"Although there are profound differences on various issues of importance, the political will exists to talk about any topic with proper respect to the sovereignty and independence of the parts," said the release.

The Cuban delegation expressed the interest to continue the talks on the matter so it contributes to a "non-discriminatory" treatment of human rights and as part of the process of building better relations between Havana and Brussels.

The first round Cuba-EU talks on human rights took place in the Belgian capital in June 2015.

--IANS

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The Philippines-based terror group Abu Sayyaf has released four abducted Malaysian sailors in the island of Borneo, officials said on Wednesday.

The four, abducted on April 1, were freed after several rounds of talks between Malaysian and Filipino negotiators on the island of Jolo, a stronghold of the terrorist group, and reached the city of Sandakan in Sabah on Wednesday morning, Efe reported.

The rebels had demanded a ransom of $4 million to free the hostages, all crew members of a tugboat, which was seized while returning to Malaysia after leaving the Philippine waters.

On May 1, the rebel group freed 10 Indonesian sailors they abducted in March in exchange for $1 million, and 10 days later released another four Indonesian sailors captured in April, for the same ransom amount.

The group, which beheaded a Canadian hostage on April 25 after the deadline for ransom expired, is still holding a Japanese, a Dutchman, a Norwegian, a Canadian and his Philippine girlfriend.

In May, the group had threatened to decapitate either Norway's Kjartan Sekkingstad or Canada's Robert Hall on June 13 if they were not paid $6 million.

--IANS

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The US is hoping to use India as its "right hand" to counterbalance China's rise, but New Delhi must understand that its vision cannot be realised by "bashing or containing" China, a leading Chinese daily said on Wednesday.

The op-ed article in Global times, against the backdrop of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's fourth visit to the US -- and his seventh meeting with President Barack Obama -- suggests that "picking one side or camp against the other is not the way India will rise".

Instead, it says, New Delhi should stick to its "founding principles: independence and non-alignment".

Modi's visit has been described as a success by most commentators, with India and the US signing key nuclear and climate deals. India is also set to become a member of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), while the US is backing its inclusion in the elite Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG0, a move that China opposes.

The article says the US interest in India is because of the "transformation of the geopolitical landscape", specifically "Washington's rebalance to the Asia-Pacific" and New Delhi's "strategic significance, economic potential and ideological commonality".

India, on the other hand, hopes that by consolidating its relationship with the US, it will "gain leverage in development and forge an international status that is worthy of its potential", the article notes.

"Modi has rivetted his interactions with the US on this simple outlook: to make India a veritable powerhouse. He was eager to boost a broader and better economic relationship with the US. He urged the signing of the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement, a landmark deal promoting logistics and defence cooperation with the US and he also expects an endorsement from the US to help India become a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the last step to solidify India's status as a nuclear powerhouse."

The article contends that the US strategy may not play out as it expects, because India is not likely to entirely toe its line.

As an example of New Delhi's assertion of independence, the article cites its "turning down (of) Washington's invitation to join a patrol in the South China Sea".

"In the process of fulfilling its ambition to be a major power, India has always employed independent and pragmatic approaches. A balance between other major powers will be its primary and optimal choice," the article notes.

"Although boasting a western-style democracy, India's culture and society differs from the West. The Indians know they cannot copy the West exactly, so they will try to find out what is best for them, including foreign relations."

"Although rivaling China in many aspects, India knows its great vision cannot be realised by bashing or containing China. Instead, they should expand cooperation, explore the potentials and build mutual trust for their own good. China is more of a help than a competitor for India. This will eventually constitute India's fundamental understanding of China."

--IANS

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This is something straight out of "Jurassic World." Banking on the increased interest of youngsters in IT-enabled exhibits, the National Council of Science Museums (NCSM) is focussing on deploying holographic and multimedia projections, 3D-rendered displays in its centres a la the Hollywood blockbuster - and also foraying into "unrepresented regions" such as the northeast, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.

"We are observing that the younger generation is more interested in IT-related exhibits. There should be much higher use of such exhibits... holographic projections, for example. The youth like them and are very friendly with such immersive displays. So some of the exhibitions will have holographic projections," A.S. Manekar, the Director General of the Kolkata-headquartered NCSM, told IANS.

For starters, the NCSM, under the Ministry of Culture, is expanding its installations of Science on A Sphere (SOS) spherical projection system created by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Set up at the Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum in Bengaluru, the SOS system presents a high-resolution video on a giant suspended globe rather than a flat screen, to enhance visualisation of global phenomena.

"It looks as if you are viewing planet earth from space. We are going to open one soon in Kolkata (at the Science City)," while another opened in New Delhi on June 7, Manekar said.

Given the wide spectrum of virtual reality activities available on the internet, can NCSM pull off the feat of drawing youngsters out to see exhibits in its science museums?

"These are challenges as well as opportunities for us. We do have some of our exhibitions online but that doesn't give you the personal feel and the joy that you get of something happening in front of you in 3D form. Our challenge is to make 3D exhibits in such a manner that people will still come physically," Manekar said.

Simultaneously, to enable the common man in northeast India explore new ideas and find solutions for everyday problems specific to the region, each of the states will get an Innovation Hub.

"By March 2017 we are supposed to complete 50 innovation hubs at a total cost of Rs 100 crore. We have opened 12 hubs and 15 are in the making. So, we have a huge task of setting up more, and basically, we are looking at the northeast for that," informed Manekar.

Acknowledging there is a potential in the northeast as in other parts of the country for people to make use of these hubs, Manekar said that the resources available to the people in northeast is "somehow not enough."

"Therefore, our aim is to provide them resources and provide them basic ideas so that they can further develop their ideas and come up with solutions to solve their daily problems. The problems faced by people in the northeast are different from those living in other parts of the country and the people themselves can solve them," he added.

"It's a facility for the students and common man to explore their ideas. If a person feels some work can be done in a better way or we can save some labour, time or money, then there is a chance for them to try out the ideas," Manekar said.

This apart, on the anvil is a large Science City in Guwahati at a cost of Rs110 crore, a planetarium in Gangtok in Sikkim, and there is a request from Mizoram for an evolution park, the official said.

(Sahana Ghosh can be contacted at sahana.g@ians.in)

--IANS

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The main event of the International Yoga Day will be organised in Chandigarh with major focus on connecting youth in the country, the AYUSH ministry said on Wednesday.

According to the ministry, a total of 30,000 people are expected to participate in the event, which was last year held at Rajpath in Delhi.

"We have decided to organise the main event of Yoga Day this time in Chandigarh. Anyone who wants to feel the euphoria of the day can visit the city," Anil Ganeriwala, Joint Secretary AYUSH ministry, said at a conference.

"This time our focus is to connect more and more youth through yoga. A two-day festival will be organised from June 10 to 12," Ganeriwala said.

Yoga is a mechanism to keep the body in good health. People are not aware how yoga can benefit in terms of preventing health complications. The yoga day will be a huge success like last year, AYUSH Secretary Ajit Saran said.

International Yoga Day is on June 21.

--IANS

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TV personality Katie Price is set to release her "revenge" book in just four months time and has promised "the truth will come out".

The former glamour model is opening up on the heartache and betrayal caused by her husband Kieran Hayler, who cheated on her with her best friend Jane Pountney in 2014, reports mirror.co.uk.

"I'm going to use my experience from what happened with Kieran cheating on me with my best friend," Price told Now magazine.

"The truth will come out. I knew Jane had changed and I knew she fancied Kieran. Why didn't I say something instead of saying how great she looked and all of that? I wish I had clocked it before," she added.

--IANS

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The Congress in Maharashtra on Wednesday voiced strong protest against the government's decision to rename the Rajiv Gandhi Jeevdayi Arogya Yojana (RGJAY) after the great social reformer Mahatma Jyotiba Phule.

State Congress President Ashok Chavan said the plans to abruptly change the name of RGJAY was indicative of "low-level politics" and attempts to rake up a controversy by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena government.

"Government schemes must be named after big leaders like Mahatma Phule and we have no reservations. But we strongly object to the manner in which an existing scheme which has been named after a national leader being renamed," Chavan told media persons.

Instead of changing the name of a scheme named after late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, why could the state government not launch a separate new programme and dedicate it to Mahatma Phule, Chavan wondered.

He said Rajiv Gandhi was not only a Congress leader, but also a national leader who was martyred in a terror attack.

"It does not behove the state government to play with the name of a leader who sacrificed his life for the country in this manner," Chavan said.

He rejected Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis' assertions that the scheme named after Mahatma Phule was a new one to be launched from October this year.

"Schemes are modified and changed over the years... By making some minor changes or giving it an extension, you cannot claim it is a new scheme and even change its name, as is being done," Chavan said.

"Instead of being a game-changer, this government is only a name-changer," Chavan said sarcastically, referring to the manner in which the Indira Awas Yojana was re-christened as Prime Minister Awas Yojana.

Chavan said a delegation of Congress leaders would soon meet Fadnavis and ask him to reconsider the decision.

--IANS

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Rome, June 8 (IANS/AKI) A man shot dead his ex-girlfriend in northeast Italy before turning the gun on himself because he could not accept the end of their relationship, reports said on Wednesday.

Manuel Venier, 36, let himself into 29-year-old Michela Baldo's apartment in the town of Spilimbergo late on Tuesday and shot her twice in the head when she returned from work, according to police.

Venier then killed himself by putting the gun to his temple and pulling the trigger, police said.

The former security guard used a Heckler&Koch pistol he held a licence for and had fitted a silencer so that Baldo's parents, who lived next door, would not hear the shots.

A friend of Venier's called police after becoming concerned by suicidal messages Venier had sent on WhatsApp, local news site IlGazzettino.it reported.

Venier and worked in a supermarket, as did Baldo, and the former couple had recently ended their three-and-a-half-year relationship.

It is estimated a woman is murdered in Italy every three days, almost always by a man, who is usually a current or former partner.

--IANS/AKI

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Rome, June 8 (IANS/AKI) A man in southern Italy allegedly strangled his estranged wife to death before shooting dead their four-year-old son and killing himself with the same pistol, police said on Wednesday.

Luigi Alfarano savagely punched his wife Federica De Luca before strangling her at the family apartment in the port city of Taranto after the couple had a furious row, according to police.

Alfarano then drove with his four-year-old son to the family's beach apartment in Pino Di Lenne, where he killed the child with a Beretta pistol and committed suicide with the same weapon.

De Luca and Alfarano's mothers called police after becoming concerned because they could not contact their children by phone.

Fifty-year-old Alfarano worked as a volunteer coordinator for a cancer charity, while his 30-year-old wife was a volley-ball referee. The couple were in the process of separating.

It is estimated a woman is murdered in Italy every three days, almost always by a man, who is usually a current or former partner.

--IANS/AKI

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi has left for Mexico for the fifth and final leg of his five-nation tour after wrapping up his visit to the US.

"After two days of a fruitful USA visit, PM @narendramodi emplanes for Mexico," the PMO tweeted on Thursday.

"Thank you again America! A successful visit ends as PM @narendramodi takes the long way home, via Mexico City," Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted.

Modi arrived in the US on Monday from Switzerland on his second bilateral visit after his visit in September 2014.

He and US President Barack Obama held bilateral talks following which a number of agreements signed, including one on US firm Westinghouse building six nuclear power plants in India.

Besdies, he also met Indian and US business leaders and addressed a joint sitting of the US Congress.

--IANS

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his address to the joint sitting of US Congress on Wednesday, praised the manifold contributions of the Indian-American community to the US.

"Connecting our two nations is also a unique and dynamic bridge of three million Indian Americans," Modi said.

"They are among your best CEOs, academics, scientists, economics, doctors, even spelling bee champions," he said eliciting standing applause from the US lawmakers.

He also mentioned the popularity of yoga and said India has not yet claimed intellectual property rights for it.

"SIRI (Siri Peterson Cavanna yoga classes) tells us that India's ancient heritage of yoga has over 30 million practitioners in the US," the Prime Minister said.

"And, we have not yet claimed intellectual property rights on yoga," he stated adding a touch of humour.

Modi is the fifth Indian Prime Minister after Rajiv Gandhi, P.V. Narasimha Rao, Atul Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh to address a joint sitting of the US Congress.
The southwest monsoon has finally set in over Kerala and Lakshadweep, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) announced on Wednesday.

K. Santhosh, director at the IMD office here, said "good rains" were expected in the coming days across Kerala.

The norm is that officials assess the data recorded at 14 weather stations in Lakshadweep, Kerala and Mangalore from May 10.

The southwest monsoon normally hits Kerala around June 1. It advances northwards, usually in surges, and covers the entire country by around July 15.

Last year, while the IMD forecast the date for the onset of the southwest

monsoon as May 30, the actual onset took place on June 5.

--IANS

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US President Barack Obama will not hold meet presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton during planned fundraising events for the party on Wednesday, the White House said.

"These fundraisers (for the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee) have been on the books for quite some time, and I don't believe most people believed that the Democratic nomination would continue to be contested into the first week in June," White House press secretary Josh Earnest said.

"So I can tell you that the president does not expect to see or meet or appear with Clinton when he's in New York tomorrow (Wednesday)," Politico quoted Earnest as saying.

Obama spoke to Clinton's rival Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders on the weekend before the former First Lady crossed the threshold of the 2,383 delegates necessary to secure the Democratic nomination.

Clinton on Tuesday proclaimed herself the victor of the Democratic primaries.

--IANS

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There are now 2,060 endangered Chinese white dolphins living near an estuary of the Pearl river, marine authorities said on Wednesday.

A Chinese white dolphin monitoring expedition in 2015 found their numbers had increased from the 1,500 recorded in 2011, Xinhua news agency quoted He Shaoqing, Deputy Chief of Guangdong Provincial Maritime and Fishery Bureau, as saying.

The bureau issued a release on Wednesday, coinciding with the World Oceans Day, on the marine environment of the province for 2015.

He said the dolphin monitoring team had recorded 378 dolphin groups totalling 2,416, and of these 2,060 were Chinese white dolphins.

Chinese white dolphins, which are a first-class protected animal, are found along a few coastal areas in the country.

The dolphins have a low reproduction rate and high habitat requirements. Female dolphins only give birth every three years, and the calves have only a 20 per cent chance of survival, according to experts.

He said the ocean water quality near the coast of Guangdong province is "basically good" but excessive pollutants from five drainage rivers, of 12 in total, have been detected.

"Pollution control is still challenging," he said.

--IANS

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The origami cranes made by US President Barack Obama, who donated them to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum during his visit to the city, will be exhibited in the museum, starting Thursday.

Along with the cranes, the museum will also display the message the US leader wrote in its guest book, a museum spokesperson told Efe news on Wednesday.

"We have known the agony of war. Let us now find the courage, together, to spread peace, and pursue a world without nuclear weapons," wrote Obama, the first sitting US president to visit Hiroshima, where Washington had dropped an atomic bomb on August 6, 1945.

During his historic visit to the city in May, the US leader presented two cranes to the museum, which explains the effects of the bomb on the city and its inhabitants, and gave another two to local students.

These figures, made by folding paper, have become a symbol of peace ever since they were popularised by Sadako Sasaki, a victim of the nuclear bombing who died at the age of 11 of leukaemia.

The US president visited Japan to attend the G7 summit, held in the Ise-Shima national park, from where he travelled to Hiroshima to pay tribute to the victims of the atomic bombing.

--IANS

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British Secretary of State for International Development Justine Greening discussed with Pakistan's Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz over phone the ways to further enhance cooperation between Britain and Pakistan.

Aziz hoped that the current positive and constructive momentum generated after third Pakistan-Britain Enhanced Strategic Dialogue in April 2016 would continue to move forward through a sustained follow-up, Radio Pakistan reported on Wednesday.

He said Pakistan would welcome British assistance in the reconstruction of areas affected by military operation against terrorists.

Greening appreciated the Pakistani government's steps to improve socio-economic conditions in the country.

She reiterated Britain's commitment to extend further development assistance particularly in the areas of health and education.

--IANS

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Pakistan is lobbying "effectively and pro-actively" in all member countries of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) over India's efforts to join the 48-member exclusive club, Pakistan's top foreign affairs advisor has said.

The advisor to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs, Sartaj Aziz, told the Senate that Pakistan's "efforts towards non-discriminatory approach will pay off".

His comments come amid India's growing push to join the NSG club, backed by the US and Switzerland.

Aziz was responding to concerns expressed by Pakistani senators over the "growing collusion between India and the US" and apprehension that the NSG member states would positively consider India's request to join it.

India as well as Pakistan have both applied for membership to the NSG, which would allow both countries to join nuclear commerce.

Pakistan Muslim League-Q Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed, chairman of the Senate defence committee, said NSG member states would be considering New Delhi's request to join the group.

Alleging that Pakistan's diplomacy had "failed", Sayed said that if India became a member of the NSG it would be able to block Pakistan's entry into the group.

"We have alienated Iran and Afghanistan and the two countries are now improving their economic ties with India," he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has recently visited Afghanistan and Iran, which are immediate neighbours to Pakistan.

"This is our diplomatic failure. The Indians are encircling us from all sides. Even our immediate neighbours, like Afghanistan and Iran, have gone to India. It's a result of our failed diplomacy and traditionally passive foreign policy," Sayed added.

Besides efforts to counter Indian designs through military means, he called for "cohesion" within the country, saying that India should not be in a position to take advantage of the situation inside Pakistan.

Aziz asserted that the country's scientists and experts were monitoring and evaluating the strategic threats that Indian nuclear doctrine posed to national security.

He said that despite limited resources, Pakistan had developed a robust nuclear deterrent system.

The advisor said Pakistan was planning to highlight the "dangerous implications" of India's plan to nuclearise the Indian Ocean.

Pakistan was also considering the option of moving a resolution in the UN General Assembly, seeking to declare the Indian Ocean nuclear-free, he said.
Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Asif caused outrage after he called portly female opposition lawmaker Shireen Mazari a "tractor trolly" in the National Assembly on Wednesday, evoking strong criticism on social media.

Targeting the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf leader, who was interrupting him loudly throughout his explanation on load-shedding on Ramadan, an exasperated Asif pointed towards her and said: "Someone make this tractor trolley keep quiet."

The minister did not stop there, but also commented on her "manly voice".

"It will be better if you first transform your masculine voice into a more feminine one," Asif told Mazari.

When Mazari, who comes from the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, stood up in protest and demanded an apology, an unrepentant Asif said: "I am not going to apologise, they can do whatever they want."

Mazari later tweeted, "Told Asif if he had any "sharm or haya" he would know how to deal with women but he was besharam and behaya! Luckily my voice louder than his."

The PTI leader also said the party will not keep quiet.

"An ill-mannered person is government's minister. Khawaja Asif lacks morals and ethics," she added.

Condemning Asif's remarks, PTI spokesman Naeemul Haq said: "Khawaja Asif should be hung upside down for his vulgarity and misbehaviour, and should be beaten with a shoe 25 times in the morning and 25 times in the evening."

Not only did Asif's comments create chaos in the Assembly, but people from across the country took to Twitter to disapprove of his behaviour.

"Khawaja Asif such a disgusting person taking out frustration of rigging? He doesn't deserve to be in NA should apologize on floor," tweeted Sania Khan.

Another tweeter account handled by some Fahim Maqsoon called Asif a "joker" and said "Asif has no manners at all. We don't know what sort of things he says to his wife & mother!"

--IANS

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An Eritrean man believed to be responsible for smuggling migrants from Africa to Europe has been extradited to Italy.

Mered Medhanie, 35, known as 'The General', was held in Sudan in May and was flown to Rome on Tuesday, BBC reported.

Britain's National Crime Agency (NCA) said he is thought to have arranged the transit of a boat from Libya that capsized near the Italian island of Lampedusa in October 2013 which killed 359 migrants.

Italian news agency Ansa said Medhanie was accused of being "the leader and organiser of one of the largest criminal groups operating between central Africa and Libya".

Prosecutors accused Medhanie of running the network alongside an Ethiopian accomplice, who is still at large.

The two men are accused of buying up kidnapped migrants from other gangs and sending those migrants on barely seaworthy ships across the Mediterranean towards Europe.

Medhanie styled himself on the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and is said to have driven around in a tank.

La Repubblica said telephone intercepts acquired by Italian investigators depict a man who, while kind and considerate when dealing with matters relating to his wife and children in Sweden, was cynical and ruthless in his work.

In the recordings, he estimates he has smuggled 7,000 or 8,000 people. In one, he is reportedly heard laughing at the overloading of migrant boats.

In 2014, the year after the Lampedusa tragedy, the number of migrant arrivals to Italy jumped to 170,000, before dropping to 153,800 last year. Close to 40,000 people have arrived in Italy so far this year.

--IANS

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Rome, June 8 (IANS/AKI) An Italian paramilitary policemen on Wednesday in southern Italy shot dead an African migrant worker who allegedly attacked him with knife.

The Carabinieri officer and a colleague were called to a sprawling tent camp in San Fernando in the province of Reggio Calabria after a fight broke out between the migrant and a co-worker.

The police officer claims he shot the migrant in self-defence after he was stabbed by him as he tried to break up the fight, which allegedly broke out over a stolen wallet.

The squalid tent camp houses hundreds upon thousands of migrant agricultural workers who work in the orange groves around the Calabrian port of Gioia Tauro.

San Ferdinando on the outskirts of the Calabrian town of Rosarno has been the scene of repeated clashes between migrants, many of whom hail from sub-Saharan Africa.

Over 1,000 Africans fled the camp in 2010 and scores were injured after two days of clashes between migrants, police and locals.

--IANS/AKI

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President Pranab Mukherjee's upcoming visit to Ghana and Ivory Coast will be the first by an Indian head of state while the presidential visit to Namibia comes after 21 years, External Affairs Ministry said on Wednesday.

"It will be the first visit to Ghana and Ivory Coast at the level of the head of state. The Namibia visit too is happening after 21 years," Ministry of External Affairs Secretary (ER) Amar Singh told reporters here.

Mukherjee's three-nation itinerary begins with the Ghana visit on June 12. He will reach Ivory Coast on June 14 afternoon. He will visit Namibia on June 15 and will be there till June 17.

"The visit is part of the outreach to Africa which kicked off with the visit of the Vice President (M. Hamid Ansari) to Morocco last week. The President has taken on the responsibility of visit to these three countries," he said.

Giving details, Sinha said the President will unveil a statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Ghana.

He said a number of agreements are slated to be signed during the visit, which may include some on visa waivers.

The President will be accompanied by a Minister of State, four Members of Parliament, senior officials and business and media delegations.

During the visit, discussions will be held on bilateral, regional and multilateral issues of mutual interest.

Mukherjee will also address a joint session of Parliament of Namibia, an India-Namibia business event, and speak at the Namibian University of Science and Technology, an official statement said.

--IANS

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A parliamentary panel looking into a bill to amend the country's debt recovery laws has sought comments and suggestions from stakeholders as well as the general public, an official statement said.

The comments/suggestions have been sought by June 22 on the Enforcement of Security Interest and Recovery of Debt Laws and Miscellaneous Provisions (Amendment) Bill, 2016, currently being scrutinised by a 30-member Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) headed by Rajya Sabha MP Bhupender Yadav, a Union Finance Ministry release said on Tuesday.

The bill seeks to amend four legislations -- Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest (Sarfaesi) Act, 2002; the Recovery of Debts due to Banks and Financial Institutions Act, 1993; the Indian Stamp Act, 1899; and the Depositories Act, 1996, to "improve ease of doing business and facilitate investment which will lead to higher economic growth and development", the statement said.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley introduced the bill in the Lok Sabha last month in a move to expedite the process of resolving the debt issues burdening creditors, particularly at a time when state-run banks are severely stressed by bad loans and have posted record losses in the last quarter on account of provisioning for the same.

The bill has been referred to the JPC, which includes 20 members from the Lok Sabha and 10 from the Rajya Sabha.

Jaitley had in the 2016-17 Budget presented in February proposed to amend the Sarfaesi Act to enable the sponsor of an asset reconstruction company (ARC) to hold up to 100 per cent stake in the ARC and permit non-institutional investors to invest in Securitisation Receipts.

The legislation proposes to give Reserve Bank of India the powers to regulate ARCs, prioritise secured creditors in repayment of debts and provide stamp duty exemption on loans assigned by banks and financial institutions to asset reconstruction firms.

Jaitley had also announced strengthening the Debt Recovery Tribunals (DRTs) and computerised processing of cases to speed up the resolution of non-performing assets (NPAs) or stressed loans.

Around 70,000 cases are pending in DRTs.

The bill empowers the tribunals to issue summonses within 30 days of an application, directing the defendant to disclose particulars of properties and assets, and also pass an interim ex parte order restraining the defendant from disposing them.

The defendant will also be expected to deposit at least 25 per cent of the debt due while filing for an appeal.

Amendments proposed with respect to Sarfaesi Act, 2002, include specific timeline for taking possession of secured assets, debenture trustees as secured creditors, as well as integration of "registration systems under different laws relating to property rights with the Central Registry so as to create a central database of security interest on property rights".

Gross NPAs of public sector banks rose from Rs.267,065 crore in March 2015 to Rs.361,731 crore in December.

As a proportion, they increased from 5.43 per cent of advances in March 2015 to 7.3 per cent as in December-end.

--IANS

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YEREVAN, JUNE 8, ARMENPRESS. In April 2016 the European Union extended final assistance of 3.75 million to enhance Armenias vocational education and training (VET) capacity. The disbursement was allocated out of 6 million (of which 5 million budget support, 1 million technical assistance), earmarked under 2012 Eastern Partnership Integration and Cooperation (EaPIC) programme. The programme aims to open up new horizons and foster job creation for youth, which will help maximize youth involvement in local development, curb labor migration to urban areas and support poverty alleviation in regions and across the country, press service of the EU delegation to Armenia informed Armenpress.

The outcomes of the assistance include reform implementation across the whole VET sector of the country, provision of equal access to quality VET education for youth with special needs, recognition of non-formal and informal learning and review of VET qualifications and lists of VET professions to meet the swiftly evolving labor market needs.

As of 2016, about 4,500 students at 17 pilot colleges in all regions of Armenia and Yerevan benefited from the EU-supported reforms and the number is envisaged to grow in the near future.

Commenting on the outcomes of the EU support in the VET sector, one of the programme beneficiaries, graduate of Yerevan regional state college N2 Tehmine Sahakyan said, The knowledge and skills I gained at the college helped me pursue higher education at Armenian State University of Economics. They largely impacted my further achievements and career. I currently work at one of Armenias top insurance companies as a marketing expert and agent. I recommend all those, who are still undecided on their further specialization to choose the VET sector as solid foundation for further career development.

Director of the National Centre for Vocational Education and Training Development Tatevik Gasparyan in turn, noted, The VET sector unlocks a range of opportunities for youth. State educational standards aimed at capacity building for the VET qualifications, educational programs and curricula are developed to meet the current labor demands.

Within the frames of the final phase of the programme, five VET colleges, specifically those located on the border, were rehabilitated and equipped, with two more upgraded with facilities for physically impaired students. Another essential outcome of the programme is the development of 3-year business plans and conduction of own market research at all regional colleges. Development of business plans has been hailed by college managers in terms of sustainable financial management of VET institutions.

The assistance programme incorporates international best practices and visions for innovation and enhancement of VET education aligning them with the local market needs.

**************

EU for education in Armenia: The EU has been actively supporting educational reforms in Armenia for the past 14 years with a clear focus on VET. Shortly after Armenia joined the European Neighbourhood Policy in 2006, the Government of Armenia and the European Commission agreed to focus 30 million of 2007 and 2009 Budget Support assistance of the European Union to Armenia on further reforms in the VET sector. The overall objective has been to support sustainable development in Armenia, by boosting the quality of VET sector to align it with the needs of the labor market.

Following the 2012 review of the ENP Progress Reports, 15 million assistance was allocated to Armenia under this programme. 6 million out of the allocation was earmarked for support in the VET sector.

The main directions of reforms as defined in the VET Reforms Programme and Action Plan of 2012-2016 adopted by the Government of Armenia in July 2012 are integration of the Republic of Armenias vocational education and training system into the European vocational education area, enhancing the VET system management efficiency, boosting reputation and prestige of VET system and development/strengthening of social partnership in the VET sector. Implementing partners of the programme are the Ministry of Education and Science, the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Finance and social partners.

In addition to VET-focused assistance, the EU has been steadily supporting development of higher education in Armenia. "Empowerment of the Tertiary Level Education of the RA for European Higher Education Area IntegrationEHEA" Twinning (2014-2016) aims to contributes to Armenias full membership in the EHEA and improve the quality of higher education to the benefit of students, graduates and employers.

Strengthening Integrity and Combating Corruption in Higher Education in Armenia project, co-funded by the EU and Council of Europe, aims to strengthen integrity and fight corruption at higher education institutions by fostering effective implementation of the Armenian Governments Anti-Corruption Action Plan 2015-2018.

Erasmus+, the new EU programme targeting Education, Training, Youth and Sport for the period 2014-2020, brings together seven existing programmes, including Tempus and Erasmus Mundus. 21 ongoing Tempus and 5 Erasmus+ Capacity Building projects with involvement of 22 Armenian universities and 31 other organizations including enterprises, ministries and non-governmental organizations. There are also 17 ongoing Erasmus Mundus projects implemented across Armenia. Overall, around 800 students and staff of Armenian universities participated in Erasmus Mundus projects and Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree Programs in the period of 2004-2014.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed the interim bail plea of Sukhdev Singh Namdhari -- one of the accused in the killing of businessman Ponty Chadha and his brother Hardeep Chadha.

Dismissing the plea for interim bail, the apex court vacation bench, comprising Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose and Justice Amitava Roy, asked: "Why interim bail was granted (to him) from time to time? It was granted, extended and finally it was rejected (by the high court)."

Refusing to interfere with the high court's order rejecting his plea for bail, the apex court bench observed: "When you moved the high court for bail, the trial court granted you interim bail."

Namdhari is a co-accused in the killing of Ponty Chadha and his brother Hardeep Chadha allegedly in a shootout in Chattarpur in November, 2012. Both Ponty and Hardeep reportedly had a dispute over property.

Namdhari was the head of Uttarakhand minorities panel when the incident took place. Later he was sacked from the panel.

"Does anything remain to be said in favour or against you," asked the bench unimpressed by the submission made by Namdhari's counsel who said "I am only seeking an interim bail".

"Are we in a system governed by the rule of law," wondered Justice Roy as Namdhari's counsel made efforts to persuade the court to grant interim bail.

The counsel drew blank as he sought some liberty, when the bench observed: "You are creating you own liberties. Why you need liberty from us?"

--IANS

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The on Wednesday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi "to stop maligning India on foreign shores" with his public utterances on corruption in the country.

The Sena took strong objection to Modi's repeated statements criticizing the corrupt systems in India during his foreign trips, saying this would prove counter-productive in the long run.

"The PM said publicly in Doha how India was steeped in graft, and outlined the measures he had initiated to clean up the mess. The gathering clapped and cheered him. This is nothing but maligning the country's fair image abroad," the Sena said in an editorial in its mouthpiece Saamana.

It wondered who was responsible if there was talk of corruption among the masses even two years after a Bharatiya Janata Party-led government took charge of the country.

"The (corruption) matters coming up in (BJP-ruled) Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh - can the Gandhi family be still blamed for it?" it asked.

"The PM knows better. He's the country's face and the world has faith in him. But the world may also misinterpret his statements abroad and this could directly hit our economy," the Sena cautioned.

Chiding Modi, it advised him to criticize corruption and other ills plaguing India domestically and tackle them effectively.

"Enough has been spoken about the alleged corruption of Gandhi family and Robert Vadra. Now, its time for action against them. No need to travel to Europe and America shouting about it," the editorial said.

"As a nation we are all united, and despite our political differences, we are like a big 'undivided family' and this is the image which should be presented before the whole world."

Touching on Modi's recent trip to Switzerland, it chided Modi's request seeking the names of Indians holding black money in that country's banks. This, Saamana said, was "ruining India's image abroad".

"The Swiss economy thrives on stash monies from all over the world and they will never reveal whose black money is lying there.

"Modi had assured Rs 15 lakh to each Indian by bringing back the hidden money in foreign banks. But all this must be done very discreetly," the Sena said.

Anyway, it pointed out that there was enough black money within India. "So what is being done about it?"

The Sena said India must be the only country in the world where it's a sin to eat beef, mutton, chicken, eggs, fish, garlic and onions but it is no crime if public money is stolen.
Beijing, June 8 (Xinhua) Strategic consideration is behind the frequent meetings between US President Barack Obama and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the latter is paying his fourth trip to the US since he took office in 2014.

For Obama, improving US-India ties will help consolidate his diplomatic legacy as seven months are left before he leaves office; for Modi, his visit is aimed at seeking new momentum for developing ties with Washington.

The White House on Tuesday reaffirmed its commitment to joining the Paris climate change pact as soon as possible this year. India similarly has begun its processes to work toward this shared goal.

"The US and India recognize the urgency of the threat of climate change and are therefore committed to bringing the Paris Agreement into force as quickly as possible," said the White House in a statement.

In a separate statement, the two leaders welcomed the start of preparatory work on site in India for six nuclear reactors to be built by American company Westinghouse.

Once completed, the project would be among the largest of its kind, fulfilling the promise of the US-India civil nuclear agreement, according to the statement.

The two countries also pledged to develop their defence relations into "an anchor of stability" and would work on technology sharing to a level commensurate with that of closest allies and partners.

The text of a logistics agreement, which will allow the countries' militaries to use each other's land, air and naval bases, would be signed soon, a US official said.

Obama said he and Modi also discussed areas where the two countries can cooperate more effectively in order to promote jobs, investment and trade, and greater opportunities for young people in the two countries.

Modi arrived in the US on Monday for a three-day official visit. This is Modi's fourth trip to the US and his seventh meeting with Obama since he became prime minister two years ago.

Such frequency of meetings between Obama and a leader who is not a formal ally is "impressive", Ashley Tellis, an India expert with the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, was quoted by Reuters as saying.

Just a few years ago, Modi was banned from entering the US soil for his role in the anti-Muslim riots that occurred in India's state of Gujarat in 2002 when he was the chief minister. Modi denies any wrongdoing.

Now, Modi was greeted by a flag-bearing military honour guard when he arrived at the entrance to the West Wing for talks with Obama.

Modi will also deliver a speech at the US Congress. The speech will be the fifth such address by an Indian premier, and the first in more than a decade.

The change in treatment Modi has received from Washington was viewed by many as the result of a warming India-US relationship, which has seen ups and downs in recent years.

What is behind the veil is strategic consideration from both Washington and New Delhi.

Washington attaches importance to India's strategic value, economic development potential and ideological advantage, said Jin Canrong, vice president of the School of International Studies at Renmin University, adding that embracing India will help consolidate the US "rebalance to the Asia-Pacific".

According to Jin, India is willing to deepen the India-US relations out of the consideration in both strategic security and economic development.

However, there is a long way for the two countries to become what Obama said "best partners" during his visit to India in 2015.

A history of colonial rule followed by decades of nonalignment has made New Delhi wary of an embrace by the US, according to a Reuters report.

"It is neither a strategic partnership nor an alliance," Nitin Gokhale, founder of Indian defense portal Bharat Shakti, was quoted by the report as saying. "It can be a long-term arrangement, but to call it a strategic partnership would be premature."

The US and India values do not fit each other completely, said Zhao Gancheng, an India expert with Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, adding that India adopts an independent foreign policy and has tried to keep neutral when dealing with major countries.

Modi is also a nationalist leader and he will not blindly follow the US, Zhao said.

--IANS

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Murugappa Group's TI Cycles of India will be commissioned in Punjab's Patiala district on Thursday, its top official said here on Wednesday.

The Rs 105 crore plant with annual production capacity of 30 lakh bicycles will be inaugurated by Punjab Finance Minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa, TI chairman M.M. Murugappan told reporters here.

Located in Sandharsi village near Rajpura in Patiala district, some 30 km from here, the environment-friendly facility will soon have a 350 KW rooftop solar plant. It will also recycle water.

Claiming a market share of 34 per cent in the country's bicycle market, he said the company's biggest unit so far will cater to the northern and eastern markets in India.

"Initially, the plant will manufacture 100,000 cycles a month. Gradually, the capacity will be enhanced to 250,000," he said.

Murugappan said the plant will help in the growth of the ancillary industry in Punjab and also provide direct and indirect employment to 3,000 persons.

According to Murugappan, his company recorded a turnover of Rs 1,488 crore and sold 45 lakh cycles last year.

India annually exports 800,000 cycles, mainly in Asian and African markets, which represent two-thirds of the total exports.

--IANS

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Two migrant workers from Uttar Pradesh have been shot and wounded in the Manipur capital, police said on Wednesday.

Ramu Patel, 34, and Surender Patel, 36, both masons, had settled down in Manipur over a year ago. They were targeted on Tuesday night.

The two were buying consumer items at Thangmeiband in Imphal when a man emerged from the dark and shot at them. "They sustained life threatening injuries. The gunman fled," a police officer said.

Gun attacks on migrant workers in Manipur have resumed after a long gap.

The earlier attacks on and quit notices to migrants halted after Manipuri students and professionals staying in other states protested that they will be at the receiving end if there were reprisals.

--IANS

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Pakistani lawmakers on Wednesday lashed out at Defence Minister Khawaja Asif after he made "unpleasant" comments about a fellow female member in the National Assembly on Wednesday.

Targeting Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf leader Shireen Mazari, Asif pointed towards her and said, "Someone make this tractor trolley keep quiet" when she and other lawmakers protested against his speech on load-shedding during Ramadan.

However, the minister did not stop there and also commented on her "manly voice".

"It will be better if you first transform your masculine voice into a more feminine one," Asif told Mazari.

Mazari later tweeted, "Told Asif if he had any "sharm or haya" he would know how to deal with women but he was besharam and behaya! Luckily my voice louder than his".

The PTI leader also said the party will not keep quiet. "An ill-mannered person is government's minister. Khawaja Asif lacks morals and ethics," she added.

Not only did Asif's comments create chaos in the Assembly, but people from across the country took to Twitter to disapprove of his behaviour.

--IANS

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Many Muslim leaders, worried about electoral marginalisation of the community, especially after the split in Muslim votes in Assam, have initiated a serious move to bring together all groups, sects and schools of thought under one platform to make the community of 160 million a strong political force.

A series of meetings are being held to forge a common political front in alliance with secular minded groups to become electorally relevant, keeping in view the forthcoming Uttar Pradesh elections next year.

Former Member of Parliament Mohammed Adeeb, former General Secretary of All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat Ilyas Malik and former Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) students leader Z.K. Faizan have started parleys with various leaders.

These leaders said the recent meeting of Barelvi sect chief Maulana Tauqeer Raza with clerics of Deoband's Darul Uloom is significant.

There is already a move to bring All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) of Assam's Badruddin Ajmal, Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen of Asaduddin Owaisi and the Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid Syed Ahmed Bukhari together along with other political groups so that the Uttar Pradesh elections are fought under one banner and common programme, Adeeb told this correspondent.

Several Muslim parties like the Welfare Party and Peace Party have not emerged politically strong in Uttar Pradesh or other parts of the country.

Ilyas also claimed that the group of Muslim leaders will visit Nadwatul Uloom, Lucknow and Darul Uloom to impress upon religious leaders to lend their support to "save Muslims from political alienation".

He said the Assam assembly results are a matter of concern, where despite comprising 35 per cent of the population, Muslims got "marginalized" as their vote got split into various political groups.

"We have witnessed the same in the parliamentary elections. In many constituencies, despite Muslims being in sizable numbers, we could not ensure victory of the candidate of our choice. This is going to happen again if we fail to form a common agenda and ensure fielding of common candidates, especially in western Uttar Pradesh where the community has reasonably good concentration," Ilyas said.

Faizan, who was once a close associate of the late senior Congress leader H.N. Bahuguna, said efforts are being made to rope in senior Uttar Pradesh minister Azam Khan, who "appears unhappy" with the Samajwadi Party and has aired his differences on many occasion, including on nomination of Amar Singh as a Rajya Sabha member.

The leaders said that Muslims have been used as vote bank by various political parties which did nothing for their economic and educational uplift. Despite efforts made by some secular parties to forge strong alliance between Congress and the AIUDF and other groups, former Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi was reluctant. The result was a rout of Congress as well as decline in the number of seats of Ajmal's party.

Adeeb said there should be a coordination committee of all Muslim groups and organisations that should be empowered to take decisions on the selection of candidates.

It should also start talks with like-minded secular parties and groups.

Malik suggested that it would be good if Muslims and Dalits joined hands to defeat communal forces.

(Sheikh Manzoor can be reached at ahmedsmanzoor@gmail.com)

--IANS

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While being online, one cannot simply hide behind the digital screens, reveals a new study, adding that an individual's browsing behaviour can help identify the person.

The findings showed that an individual's browsing behaviour can provide a unique digital signature, which can help identify the person.

"Our research suggests a person's personality traits can be deduced by their general internet usage. The study differs from other studies that have only looked at the use of social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter," said led author Ikusan R. Adeyemi, Researcher at the Universiti Teknologi in Malaysia.

In addition, an individual's level of conscientiousness could be distinguished within a 30-minute session of online browsing.

Previous research linking personality traits to computer usage has typically focused on social media.

Extroverts tend to use these platforms to enlarge their boundary of friends and influence, while introverts spend more time on social media to compensate for a probable lack of physical interaction.

However, a person's general online browsing behaviour can also reflect their choice, preference and reflexes, which is largely controlled by their unique psychological characteristics.

The study, published on Frontiers in ICT, recruited volunteers from the Universiti Teknologi and monitored their internet usage, which included factors such as the duration of the internet session, number of websites browsed and total number of requests made.

In addition, the volunteers completed a test to reveal their personality characteristics over five categories: openness to new experience, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism.

The analysis of this data, which can have many implications, revealed strong links between a person's personality and browsing behaviour.

The data may help online marketing organisations to reliably tailor their product to a specific audience.

Also, it can be used to develop an intelligent internet service that can predict and personalise a user's experience, the researchers said.

"It can also be used as a complementary way of increasing security for online identification and authentication. Law enforcement agencies can also apply our findings in the investigation of online crime cases," Adeyami noted.

--IANS

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Developing countries are going to have to find a new textbook for growth. The worldwide export boom that propelled residents of many emerging markets to higher incomes is not coming back any time soon. That's the grim lesson from the World Bank's latest downward revision to its global gross domestic product (GDP) forecasts. Domestic consumption and investing in infrastructure will have to pick up the slack.
With reference to Nitin Sethi's report, "About-turn: How govt went back on plastic ban" (June 7), it is known that Bisphenol, a component in many food-grade plastic products, is an endocrine disruptor. It is surprising the government is rethinking its views on plastic and considers the scientific data unreliable.
YEREVAN, JUNE 8, ARMENPRESS. Minister of Labor and Social Affairs of Armenia Artem Asatryan participated in the International Labor Conference on June 6-8 in Geneva. The Minister delivered a speech during which he presented the ongoing reforms on employment sector, the works aimed at improving the quality and access to the social services in Armenia.

Government of Armenia is committed to the implementation of reforms in line with the international standards to ensure social protection, equality, stable employment and dignified work for all people. In recent years a number of reforms were conducted in the fields of labor, employment and social protection. Armenias 2014-2025 Development Strategy defines the employment growth, poverty reduction, the improvement of the social protection system as a priority for countrys long-term development.

As a result of the close cooperation with the ILO, significant changes were made in the Labor Code in 2015 which aim to make the national labor code in compliance with the ILO Conventions and other international standards. I would like to highlight the role of the ILO and trilateral partners in the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development 2030 Agenda aimed at promoting inclusive economic growth, stable employment and dignified labor, Armenpress reports, the Minister said.

During the visit Minister Asatryan held meetings with a number of ILO officials. The sides discussed Dignified Labor project which was jointly developed by trilateral partners and will be presented to the ILO in the nearest future.

Minister Asatryan said the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs of Armenia and social partners are in close cooperation within the framework of G20 and the ILO Cooperation in the Youth employment projects. The sides agreed to start the implementation of the Dignified Labor project in Armenia with the ILOs support which will contribute to the reforms of employment, labor, wages and social cooperation.

ILO Director-General Guy Ryder welcomed the efforts of the Armenian Government, the ongoing reforms and the progress achieved in the field. He stressed the importance of Armenias high-level of social cooperation and expressed his willingness to cooperate with and support Armenia.








I found Surinder Sud's column, "Ease of farming with mechanisation" (June 7), interesting. The benefits that hiring out-of-farming equipment can usher in to the farming economy through training programmes and maintenance devised in association with manufacturers of various types of farm equipment are immense. Along with this, a programme to prevent waste of agricultural and horticultural output should be implemented.
Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit to the United States has proved to be productive. It underlines the renewed energy that Mr Modis government has given to the US-India relationship, which had begun to stagnate in the later years of the previous administration in New Delhi. While expectations that one of the foundational agreements on defence co-operation  the one which would allow some sharing of military bases  would be signed were belied, there was some progress on other counts. While Mr Modi was there, it was reported that India would become part of the Missile Technology Control Regime, or MTCR, which would improve the defence forces access to the latest missile systems; while this has been long on the cards, it was held up due to Italy, one of the MTCR members, objecting to Indias admission at the height of the Italian marines crisis. President Barack Obama also reiterated the US commitment to helping India join another major grouping, the Nuclear Suppliers Group or NSG. Unfortunately, China, which is a member of the NSG, also has to be on board for this to go through, and there is no sign of that happening yet.
At a recent meeting of investors in Patna, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar refused to drink a glass of neera (toddy) he was offered, saying he was full after lunch. Some participants were miffed.
At a recent press conference on the potential of rooftop solar power units, Piyush Goyal, minister of state for coal, power and renewable energy, said the government would ensure substandard material and products didn't find a place in the market.
Those looking to buy a life insurance policy can now ask agents how much commission will be paid from the premium and the agent will have to disclose this. Earlier, this was applicable only for unit-linked insurance plans (Ulips). In addition, customers can ask agents for their identity card or appointment letter to verify their authenticity. Agents will now have to inform the policyholder upfront about the chances of the policy being rejected or approved. Agents will also not be able to hide information about whether the policyholder is a smoker or non-smoker, from insurance companies as this will affect underwriting.
The Congress, under Rahul Gandhi, who will be announced the party president soon, and guided by strategist Prashant Kishor, is on the cusp of a major surgery.
Some 2,000 troops from regional military powerhouse Chad headed to neighbouring Niger today, where Boko Haram insurgents inflicted heavy losses in the town of Bosso last week, a military source said.

The "heavily armed" soldiers will "search everywhere for Boko Haram," added the source. The UN says some 50,000 people have fled Bosso after the attacks in Niger's troubled southeast.

The attacks began Friday against a military post in Bosso in Niger's Diffa region, killing 26 soldiers including two from neighbouring Nigeria.

A total of 55 insurgents from the Nigeria-based Islamist group were killed and "many" injured, according to authorities.

"An estimated 50,000 people or so fled," UN refugee agency (UNHCR) spokesman Adrian Edwards told reporters today.
Two persons were killed when their motorcycle was hit by a speeding truck near Jaavda village on Khargone-Indore road, police said today.

The victims were returning to the Nimgul village after a family member's funeral on the banks of Narmada river when the mishap took place yesterday, Additional Superintendent of Police Antarsingh Kanesh said.

Both the victims, identified as Dharmendra Revaram (35) and Totaram (50), died on the spot, he said.

The truck driver fled after the mishap leaving behind the carrier which was impounded by police.

A case has been registered in this regard at Kasrawad police station and further investigation is on.
The number of swine deaths at Biate village in Champai district along the Mizoram-Myanmar border has gone up to 3,316 in Mizoram due to Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) since early April, state animal husbandry and veterinary department officials today said.

The PRRS disease, infected through pigs and piglets imported from neighbouring Myanmar, was found to be prevalent in four districts - Champhai, Serchhip, Lunglei and Lawngtlai.

Champhai district was the worst hit where one family lost 64 pigs to the disease, which hnd hit Champhai town and its surroundings and also Bungzung, Khawzawl and Biate villages.

The AH and Veterinary department, in a statement, said the prevalence of PRRS in the four out of eight districts was confirmed by samples of dead and sick swine examined in the laboratories.

The department has instructed all veterinarians posted at different parts of the state to remain in their respective places of posting and maintain strict vigil.
Thirty-two people in east China's Zhejiang Province have been sentenced to prison terms of up to 13 years for trafficking endangered animals, including pangolins and bears, to the tune of USD 15 million.

They were found guilty of trafficking 100 million yuan's (USD 15 million) worth of wildlife, including pangolins, bears claws and salamanders, in 10 provinces and cities, the Yongjia County People's Court said yesterday.

At a court hearing, the main culprit surnamed Kan, was given a prison term of 13 years and fined 130,000 yuan.

Four were sentenced to over 10 years in prison and Kan's wife was given six years in prison.

The rest were sentenced to suspended prison terms of between four months and three years, state-run Xinhua agency reported.

More than 10 of the defendants were owners of restaurants and clubs who bought the animal parts and processed them as food, the court said.

Local police uncovered the case last year as they seized more than 1,500 wild animals in a raid.

Pangolins, which are under second-class state protection in China, are often smuggled because their meat is considered a delicacy and their scales are believed to be effective in treating skin and other diseases.

Under China's Criminal Law, those who illegally catch, kill, buy or sell endangered wild animals on the state's protection list may face over 10 years in prison plus fines.
YEREVAN, JUNE 8, ARMENPRESS. Czech President Milos Zeman says he will urge the Czech Parliament to follow the German Bundestag's example and condemn the Armenian Genocide.

I have expressed my stance over the issue of the Armenia Genocide since 2014 during Armenian Presidents visit to the Czech Republic. In case of Nazy Germanys victory, people of my country also could experience such sufferings, the history could repeat. I know that 10 EU member states have condemned the Genocide, from non-EU member states Russia and Canada did it. As a next step to this statement, I will call on the Czech Parliament to follow Germanys example and issue such a statement, the Czech President stated after the meeting with the Armenian President in Yerevan.

Czech President Milos Zeman, who is currently on an official visit in Armenia, visited the Armenian Genocide Memorial.

President Zeman paid tribute to the Armenian Genocide victims, laid a wreath at the Memorial and the Eternal Flame.

Afterwards the President toured the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute.

Milos Zeman signed the Guest Book, by writing: With deepest respects, to the memory of the Genocide victims.
Five Indian-origin people, including two women, are among the 200 candidates contesting for next months general elections in Australia.

In the House of Representatives all 150 seats will be contested, as well as the 76 Senate seats -- the first time this has happened in an early election since 1987.

The Indian-origin candidates in the fray include two women of Indian background, 51-year-old Australian SikhAlex Bhathal representing the Greens Partyand 43-year-oldFiji IndianLisa Singh of Labor Party.

Shashi Bhatti, who migrated from India in 1989 andChrisGambian, an Australianborn to Indian parents from Bangalore, are alsocontesting theelections fromLabor Party.

39-year-oldMohit Kumar is the only India-born who iscontesting the elections from Liberal party. He is a Faridabad residentwho migrated to Australia in 1994asan international student.

Kumar said it was his consistenthardwork that paid off for him to win the partyticket.

It was imperative for Indians to join the high offices of the country and to be a part of policy making, he said.

"True multiculturalism does not come from lip service orattending Indian events. It alsocomes from having a fairrepresentation at all the levels includinggovernment, parliament, business and other areas," Kumar said.

Gambian said, while there was a low representation of Indians in the Australian politics more Indian background peopleshould become its part.

"I joined the Labor party when I was 16-years-old and I thought it was a party of social justice and fairness," Gambian said adding that his key to win the party was getting involved in party works and believing party policies.

On May 8, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had announced that Australia will hold elections on July 2, barely eight months after he ousted his predecessor Tony Abbott, promising to revive the sluggish economy.
For Anil Kapoor, doing both television shows and films is a tough ask and he looks up to Aamir Khan for inspiration.

Anil has been maintaining a fine balance by doing both television show and films.

"It is a tough ride to do both TV and films. Aamir Khan has always been a leader and inspiration. He is younger than me and sometimes you learn from them," Anil told reporters here at the trailer launch of "24".

"I remember while doing 'Satyamev Jayate' he did nothing else. I have had lot of film offers including an international film but I couldn't do it as I had to shoot in July-August. We will focus on '24'," he said.

The first season of his television show "24", based on the American series of the same name, came in 2013 and now the "Mr India" actor is back with the second season.

"I work in films as well. I was committed to do two films - 'Dil Dadakane Do', 'Welcome Back'. The kind of show '24' is we need to do that kind of preparation. Writing also takes time. In the future we would take less time," he added.

For the 59-year-old star, doing "24" has been a learning experience.

"I am evolving everyday with '24' as a producer and actor. It's been a learning experience. This show is an adaptation but our dream is to make something that will travel all over the world," he added.

Anil insists, no matter what the TRP of "24" would be his passion and dedication for the show will be same.

In the show "24", Kapoor plays the role of ATS chief Jai Singh Rathore.

Kapoor, who had cast the likes of Tisca Chopra, Mandira Bedi, Shabana Azmi and Anupam Kher in the first season, will be joined by Sakshi Tanwar, Sikander Kher and Surveen Chawl in the second season.
Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan today said that he found it challenging playing an extremely simple and realistic character in the upcoming Hindi thriller film "Te3N".

"My role is very simple and that of a normal person from the middle class. I am playing my age. But being simple in front of the camera is very difficult and challenging," Bachchan told reporters here.

Director Ribhu Dasgupta had told him that he did not want extraneous behaviour in his acting.

"Sometimes when I felt it (acting) was okay, he would come and tell me to tone it down," Bachchan, 73, said.

In the entire film, the effort was to show things as real without going over the top. "The producer didn't want to shoot in sets and so we shot in real locations."



"Everything looks natural. After I saw the film it was very comforting to see something like this done," Big B said.

He praised the younger lot of actors like Irrfan Khan, Ranbir Kapoor, Deepika Padukone and Alia Bhatt for being simplicity to their acting.

"Even after 47 years in the industry I am still learning. There is a lot to learn from the young generation. Everyday is a learning experience," he said.

Produced by Sujoy Ghosh, "Te3n" also stars Nawazuddin Siddiqui in lead role and Vidya Balan in a special appearance. Big B is playing the role of an Anglo-Indian in the film.

Bachchan said having lived in Kolkata for seven-eight years during the sixties, he was aware of the life of the Anglo-Indian community in the city.
Actor Alex Russell is set to join Miles Teller and Josh Brolin in firefighter film "Granite Mountain".

Initially titled "No Exit," the film also stars Jeff Bridges, James Badge Dale and Taylor Kitsch, reported Variety.

Joseph Kosinski will direct the project, which will revolve around a group of firefighters that faced one of the deadliest wildfires in history in order to save an Arizona town.

Ken Nolan has developed the story.
Armed with a fresh war chest of USD 3 billion investments in India announced by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos yesterday, Amazon plans to channel the funds on enhancing customer and seller experience, a top executive of the company said today.

"If you look back at the last few years of Amazon in India, we have focused on offering wide selection of goods at low prices, and fast and reliable delivery. We will replicate what Amazon has been doing in the US over the past 20 years. We will focus on enhancing our customer and seller experience," Amit Agarwal, Amazon India managing director told PTI today.

The USD 3 billion investments were announced by Bezos in an event in the US yesterday, and come in addition to the American e-commerce giant's USD 2 billion infusion in 2014, taking the total investments here to over USD 5 billion.

"India is a key market for Amazon, and we will work towards continuing to reduce operating costs for sellers backed by good logistics and fulfilment capabilities," Agarwal added.

Asked about continuing with discounting policies, he said they will offer low prices for consumers, and easy returns, by focusing on lowering costs for sellers through easy shipping policies, and fulfilment by Amazon (FBA), its warehouse-based delivery model.

Amazon India has launched recent initiatives to on-board more sellers like self-service registration for quick and hassle-free registration, and Chai Cart to increase awareness among sellers on the benefits of selling online.

In the January-March quarter, Amazon India reported a 250 per cent increase in the number of sellers from the comparable quarter in 2015. The e-commerce player has over 85,000 registered sellers presently.

Currently, all e-commerce companies are in the process of complying with the recent guidelines on FDI in the sector, which stipulates that no single merchant can account for more than 25 per cent of sales in an online marketplace.

Cloudtail India at present is the largest seller on Amazon India.
Argentina's Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra has said she would remain impartial in UN dealings on the contentious issue of the Falkland Islands if she becomes the next UN secretary-general.

Considered a strong contender to become the first woman at the UN helm, Malcorra yesterday offered reassurances that her nationality will not create tension with Britain, one of the five permanent UN Security Council members.

"The secretary-general has always said he will be ready to do whatever both sides agree he should be doing," Malcorra told reporters after appearing at hearings on her candidacy.

"That will be the case of any future secretary-general no matter what the nationality."



The 61-year-old foreign minister was UN chief Ban Ki-moon's chief of staff since 2012 until her latest appointment by President Mauricio Macri in November.

Malcorra is seen as a consummate UN insider, having also worked as head of field operations at UN peacekeeping and in humanitarian affairs at the World Food Programme.

British diplomats at the United Nations have said they did not consider her country's long-standing claim to the Falklands, known in Spanish as Las Malvinas, to be an obstacle to her appointment.

Malcorra made clear in her statement that as UN chief she would keep a neutral stance on the sensitive dispute, for which Britain and Argentina went to war in 1982.

During two hours, the foreign minister answered questions from UN member-states on a range of issues from the fate of refugees to her greatest frustration working 20 years at the United Nations.

"What frustrated me the most? I think that when I knew that something could be done and for some reason got stuck, then that frustrated me," Malcorra said.

"Probably, that is the reason why I am sitting before you here," she added.

"I have the conviction that this organisation can go beyond what it has done so far."



The next secretary-general is under pressure from key powers at the United Nations to show that he or she can take the clunky, often sclerotic world body and turn it into a more effective organisation.

Malcorra is one of 11 candidates including five women who have thrown their hat in the ring to succeed Ban when he steps down on January 1.

The council is due to begin straw polls to select a nominee in July, but the process is not expected to conclude before October, when the General Assembly will be asked to endorse the council's choice.
Austria's anti-immigration Freedom Party plunged the country into uncharted political territory, on Thursday, with a legal challenge to last month's presidential election, just four weeks before the winner is due to be sworn in.

"We are not sore losers. This is about protecting the very foundations of democracy... The extent of irregularities is more than terrifying," FPOe leader Heinz-Christian Strache told a news conference.

"You don't have to be a conspiracy theorist to have a bad gut feeling about this whole election... Without these glitches and irregularities (FPOe candidate Norbert) Hofer could have become president."

Alexander Van der Bellen, an independent backed by the Greens, defeated Hofer in May 22's runoff by just 30,863 votes, narrowly preventing becoming the first European Union country with a far-right president.

Preliminary results released the evening of the vote had given a narrow lead to gun enthusiast Hofer, 54, presented as the friendly face of the FPOe but who is highly critical of Islam and the EU.

However after some 700,000 postal votes  a record number  were counted, Van der Bellen, 72, was declared the winner of the largely ceremonial but coveted presidency the next day.

The FPOe has cried foul  Strache's popular Facebook page has been inundated with conspiracy theories  and authorities are already investigating several complaints.

However, they concern postal votes being opened for counting too early and are not thought likely to change the result.

But Strache said the FPOe has documented problems in 94 of Austria's 117 constituencies, including postal votes being opened too early or "non-Austrians" or under-16s casting ballots.

The constitutional court has four weeks to decide if the incidents in the FPOe's 150-page submission stand up and if so, whether they could change the result.

This could make for a tense wait with Van der Bellen set to be sworn in on July 8.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today promised to intensify a nationwide anti-terror clampdown, a day after a Hindu priest was hacked to death by IS jihadists in Bangladesh which has seen a series of brutal attacks by Islamists on minorities and secular activists.

"If they (militants) think they could turn Bangladesh upside down, they are wrong . . . They will be exposed to justice in the soil of Bangladesh and their patrons will also not be spared," Hasina said in the parliament.

She said the security forces would continue to track down the militants anywhere in the country and they would be exposed to justice even if it takes years or decades.

Hasina comments came after three operatives of the outlawed Jamaat ul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) were killed in two predawn security raids early yesterday in Dhaka and north-western Rajshahi while another member of the outfit was killed overnight at Shibganj sub-disrict in north west Bogra.

"We raided the village in Shibganj after midnight yesterday on a secret tip . . . They (JMB men) opened fire and hurled bombs sensing our presence at the scene forcing us to retaliate when Jausar (slain militant) was killed," said a police officer in Bogra.

A senior police officer familiar with the crackdowns said two of the slain JMB operatives were being looked for attack on a Shiite Mosque last year in Bogra and "one of them was killed early this morning in Shibganj while the other was killed yesterday in Dhaka's Kalshi area."



The intensified anti-terror clampdown call comes as the country witnesses a wave of deadly attacks on secular activists and minorities by militants.

A 70-year-old Hindu priest became the second person from the community to be killed by three suspected Islamic State jihadists this year in the country. The priest was hacked to death by motorcycle-borne men in western Jhinaidah yesterday.

The suspected Islamists on Sunday hacked to death a Christian grocer in northwestern Natore and on the same day stabbed and then shot dead wife of a senior police officer who carried out a series of anti-militant operations in Chittagong.

Replying to a question by a lawmaker, Hasina had said the militants had previously carried out their attacks on mosques, temples, pagodas and university teachers and now they made the family member of a police officer their victim.

"They (killers) should not forget that they also have families, who can also be affected by their actions . . . I would request the family members of those who are carrying out the killings, to make them understand it," Hasina had said.
With the noose tightening around him, Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) Chairman Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh resigned today in connection with 10+2 toppers' scandal even as the state government overhauled the state board with new appointments.

Patna Commissioner Anand Kishore was today made Administrator of the BSEB, highly placed sources in the Education minister's office said.

Anoop Sinha replaces incumbent Harihar Nath Jha as Secretary of BSEB, Education minister Ashok Choudhary told PTI.

With evidence of irregularities in the toppers muddle following police investigation, Singh tendered his resignation.

"We have received the resignation letter of Board Chairman Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh," houdhary said.

The minister said a show-cause notice was served to Singh as to why he should not be removed from the post for the irregularities committed in +2 plus examination results.

Singh was asked to give reply within 24 hours to the department. His resignation came before the deadline ended.

Hours after resignation, police said Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh has gone underground.

A Special Investigation Team (SIT) under Patna Senior Superintendent of Police Manu Maharaj raided Singh's home.

Earlier, the SSP himself visited BSEB office and questioned some officials and checked documents.

Maharaj told reporters at BSEB office, "Prima facie, anomalies have been found in the toppers scandal."



Police action was witnessed in Vaishali district too where the controversial Bishun Rai Intermediate college from where Arts and Science toppers Ruby Ray and Saurabh Shrestha hailed from.

Separate notice was pasted at the residence of four toppers Ruby Ray, Saurabh Shrestha, Rahul Kumar and Shalini Ray asking them to present themselves before SIT.

SSP Patna, who is supervising the police action in the toppers muddle, said four persons have been detained by the police in the case lodged by the education department against seven persons on Monday night.

Bihar has drawn a bad name across the country after the scandal surfaced following a video featuring Arts topper Ruby Ray and first ranker in Science Saurabh Shreshth went viral in which both the students of Vishun Rai College were seen giving ridiculous answers to questions on their subjects.

Ruby Ray had called Political science as "Prodigal Science" which according to her teaches cooking.

Likewise, Saurabh sounded unaware of electron and proton.
A day after police began a probe into the complaint against the Dadri lynch victim's family for alleged cow slaughter and beef consumption, the groundswell opinion among Bishada villagers favoured a legal battle over street protests.

Residents also contacted other villages in a bid to garner support for a 'mahapanchyat' if an FIR was not lodged against the family of Mohammad Akhlaq, who was lynched nine months ago following rumours that his family stored and ate beef at their house.

"Other villages have been contacted and they have extended support to us. We will ensure that an FIR is lodged against Akhlaq's family. If in 20 days no FIR is lodged a maha panchyat will be held and the matter will be taken to streets," said Sanjay Rana, father of one of the accused Vishal Rana.

The members of the Muslim community living in Bishada village said there was no communal tension and their Hindu neighbours are protecting them.

"However, we should put up our case before the court to prove innocence of those accused," one of the villagers, Dharam Singh, said.

Many of the other villagers echoed his views.

"If court issues directions for lodging of FIR then police and state government will have no choice but to comply," said Nirmal Singh.

However, some called for a more aggressive stance.

"State government was acting one-sided and supporting the accused. Unless we take offensive course FIR will not be lodged against Akhlaq's family," said Surat Singh and others.

Senior Prosecution Officer Daya Shankar Ram Tripathi said "Today, the application under section 156(3) for request to lodge FIR could not be moved due to some condolence meeting for which advocates were off work."



Authorities, meanwhile, described the situation in the village today as normal.

"Situation in Bishada was normal and villagers are cooperating with the administration to prevent violence by anti-social elements," SDM Dadri R K Singh said.
YEREVAN, JUNE 8, ARMENPRESS. Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan is convinced that the traditional Armenian-Czech Republic forums will contribute not only to the further expansion of friendly and economic relations of the two states, but also will enable the Czech businessmen to reveal Armenia as a country of new opportunities.

Not many people fight for coming Armenia, but we fight for bringing investors to Armenia and will continue this fight until our roles will be changed, the President said during the Armenian-Czech Republic business forum on June 8 in Yerevan.

He said currently 20 companies with the Czech capital operate in Armenia and Armenia had the chance to cooperate with a number of Czech companies.

It is not a secret that the investments are made in case of the existence of two factors: stability and economic interest. I can surely say all prerequisites exist in Armenia in this regard. Since Armenias independence, the macroeconomic stability has been our major priority and we currently have stable macroeconomic environment due to reasonable monetary and fiscal policy, the President highlighted.

He said that in the current era of globalization the world crisis and the external negative economic factors had their impact on Armenias small economy. In these circumstances, Armenias economic growth was 3%, while all states of the region experienced economic decline, Serzh Sargsyan said. He stated that Armenia considers insufficient this rating of the economic growth and makes huge efforts to triple it.

The Armenian-Czech business forum is being held in Yerevan which is the third during 2016.

More than 100 Armenian and Czech companies are taking part in the forum.

Czech President Milos Zeman also attends the forum.
Asking the Mehbooba Mufti government to revise the "soft policy" towards separatists as it was affecting business and tourism in Kashmir, BJP today demanded that security given to separatists be withdrawn and they be put behind bars.

The party also demanded that concrete steps be taken to prevent the youths from being lured by terrorist groups.

State BJP spokesman Virender Gupta said that despite their anti-India activities, the separatists were enjoying special privileges, including security cover provided by the state government.

"The government should revise its policy towards the separatists. The government should withdraw the security given to separatists and put them behind bars under the Public Safety Act (PSA) for indulging in anti-social and anti-national activities," he said.

Expressing concern over frequent protests, violence and hoisting of Pakistani and ISIS flags in Kashmir Valley, he said, "All these incidents are taking place at the instigation of separatists."



"Recently, a separatist leader, along with his supporters, slapped a policeman who was discharging his duty in Srinagar," he claimed.

Gupta said "soft policy" towards separatists has on one hand encouraged anti-India forces and anti-social elements and on the other, demoralised security forces and the masses.

"Soft policy towards separatists is demoralising security forces who are fighting to curb militancy and sacrificing their lives. These separatists are continuously disturbing the peace by holding the Valley to ransom thereby affecting business and tourism industry," he said.

Cautioning that the situation might worsen if steps are not take, Gupta asked the PDP-BJP coalition government to take strong action against separatists.

The BJP spokesman asked the government to take concrete steps so that the youth of the Valley are not lured by the separatists and terrorist groups.
Councillors from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ruled Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) led by three mayors on Wednesday staged a protest outside Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's residence, demanding clearance of the pending dues by the Aam Aadmi Party government.

During the protest, BJP councillors raised slogans against the Government and slammed it for calling a two-day special session of Delhi Assembly to discuss the working of civic bodies, saying the move is only intended to defame the municipal corporations.

Councillors and mayors alleged that the city government has not implemented the report of Fourth Finance Commission so far following which all the BJP-controlled civic bodies are facing a fund crunch.

During the protest, the police tried to pacify councillors and three mayors, but they did not relent. Thereafter, police detained them and brought them to the nearest police station where they were released after sometime.

To express their protest against the government's decision to call the two-day special session starting on Thursday, all three MCDs - East Delhi Municipal Corporation, Delhi Municipal Corporation and South Delhi Municipal Corporation - have called a one-day joint session at Ramlila Ground on June 9.
The BJP today warned the government officials who are allegedly colluding with the opposition parties and working to tarnish the image of the PDP-BJP coalition in Jammu and Kashmir.

"No leniency will be tolerated towards the government officials who are in league with opposition parties and working with an objective to tarnish the image of the PDP-BJP alliance government," BJP MP from Poonch Jugal Kishore Sharma said during a party meeting here.

Sharma said the party was aware of the issues faced by the people of the Jammu region, which include supply of ration, water and electricity and every effort was being made to ensure that people do not suffer in scorching summers.

"As the temperature goes up in summer months, the requirement of water and electricity increases and the BJP ministers have directed the senior officials of Public Health and Engineering (PHE) and Power Development Department (PDD) to remain vigilant round the clock to provide respite to the people," Sharma said.

Party Rajya Sabha Member Shamsher Singh Manhas rejected allegation by opposition that the party ministers were enjoying the weather of Kashmir while Jammu was reeling under heat.

"Allegations by opposition that BJP ministers are enjoying in Srinagar are false because the ministers are attending the assembly session and are not there on picnic," Manhas said.

He said parties like NC, Congress and JKNPP have been misleading and provoking the people as they are unable to digest the smooth functioning of the coalition, which is providing corruption-free administration.

"The people cannot be misled by these parties, as they have tested them for decades together. The reality is that majority of the leaders of opposition have fled Jammu but entire leadership of State BJP is in winter capital," Manhas said.
If you get to buy articles like Hui Muslim hats, Tibetan bags, Kazakh carpets and colourful Qiang dresses or savour dishes like roujiamo, lamina and laghman, which region would it be?



The Silk Road, which is not a place but regarded as a journey - from the edges of the Mediterranean to the central plains of China, through high mountains and inhospitable deserts.

A new book 'The Silk Road: A Biography from Prehistory to the Present Day,' authored by Jonathan Clements, offers a chronological outline of the region's development and also provides an introduction to its languages, literature and arts.

Clements lays stress on the fascinating historical sites which feature on any visitor's itinerary besides on the writings and reactions of travellers through the centuries.

He argues that historical accounts have an inevitable bias towards civilisations that leave a footprint and the Silk Road, therefore, is a slippery historical object.

"Entire civilisations have risen and fallen on the Silk Road leaving perilously little evidence of themselves," the book, published by Speaking Tiger, says.

For thousands of years, the history of the Silk Road has been a traveller's history, of brief encounters in desert towns, snowbound passes and nameless forts. It was the conduit that first brought Buddhism, Christianity and Islam into China, and the site of much of the 'Great Game' between 19th-century empires.

Today, its central section encompasses several former Soviet republics, and the Chinese Autonomous Region of Xinjiang. The ancient trade route controversially crosses the sites of several forgotten kingdoms, buried in sand and only now revealing their secrets.

"Fully experiencing the Silk Road requires more than a fridge magnet from the gift shop - break Shaanxi bread into small chunks and cast it into your mutton soup; hear the call to prayer outside a Kashgar mosque; feel your aching calves as you struggle up the steps to a Buddhist grotto; smell the faint rasp of sand in the air, even in a modern city. And then your souvenirs will truly be keepsakes, reminding you of those memories," Clements writes.

According to the author, there is an undeniable romance to



the Silk Road.

"The sand gets everywhere, in tough scratchy grains like biscuit crumbs, and in faint dust like talcum. The black winds make everything grubby and scuffed. The glittering towers of the new cities will soon turn brown and dull. The new mosques and temples of the devout will lose their bright tiles. Life on the Silk Road is a constant, Sisyphean struggle, as it is at Dunhuang, to keep the sand at bay. Travel on it, and know that the wonders you see, and now, you yourself, are but a fragment of its rich history," he says.

Clements terms the different cuisines of the region as cheap and ever-surprising treasure troves which are not to be missed. Some of the popular dishes are roujiamo, which is a burger-like bun stuffed with tender hunks of grilled meat and green peppers; lamian or pulled noodles and laghman, which is stir-fried vegetables and mutton spattered with incongruous tomato sauce.

There are odd dishes too like the one called da pan ji which is made of a chicken run over by a tractor and presented with a saucy stew piled high with onions and peppers.

"Even odder is apke or goat's head soup, which features much of the unfortunate animal's digestive system, from its lolling tongue still in its skull, all the way down to the reamed and re-stuffed intestines, which are turned into a long, meaty sausage coiled in a simmering broth," Clements writes.
Gold ornaments, weighing 55 sovereigns, and some silver articles and electronic items were today looted from two houses at Peelamedu here.

According to police, 30 sovereigns of gold ornaments were looted from the locked house of a retired DSP, Janakiraman, who noticed the valuables missing. He was out of station and had returned only this morning.

Similarly, 25 sovereigns of gold ornaments, some silver articles and a laptop were looted from the house of a bank official, who had gone out with his family, they said.
Filmmaker Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, who is a member of the government-appointed censor board revamp committee, today said that censorship in India needed reforms and cuts in movies should be abolished.

When asked about the controversy over "Udta Punjab", Mehra said that censor board should only certify films according to age brackets, rather than running scissors.

"The idea of censoring in the country needs reforms. According to me, there should be no scissors. We have been working on it from past five months. Just last week, we completed and submitted the report to the I&B ministry. Obviously, we need to abolish the scissors," Mehra told PTI.

When asked about the criticism against censor board chief Pahlaj Nihalani, the "Bhaag Milkha Bhaag" director said individuals cannot be a problem.

"I don't know how individuals can be a problem? Censor board has many individuals but human judgment should not be there because every person has his or her opinion. So, we should not be allowed to judge, we should give a film a certificate."



Mehra said that the certification was needed to safeguard children from sex, violence and drug abuse but feels it is not right to censor anything.

"We have to safeguard our children from sex, drug abuse and vioelnce, but we cannot censor anything. We cannot tell a filmmaker, 'Make five cuts and come back'. Who are you to say that?" the director said.

The committee, headed by Shyam Benegal, also includes Tamil superstar Kamal Haasan, Goutam Ghosh and ad guru Piyush Pandey.

Mehra said none of the members were 'yes men' and that's why they were chosen for suggesting "holistic" reforms for the controversy-laden censor board.
Beijing accused Washington of "hype" today after the US said two Chinese jets conducted an unsafe intercept of one of its spy planes over the East China Sea.

The spat came soon after the world's two largest economies concluded an annual dialogue overshadowed by disagreements over maritime issues.

US Pacific Command spokesman Commander David Benham said two Chinese J-10 fighter jets flew close to an American RC-135 reconnaissance plane that was on a routine patrol.

The Pentagon downplayed the encounter and blamed it on shoddy piloting.

"One of the intercepting Chinese jets had an unsafe excessive rate of closure on the RC-135 aircraft," Benham said, without specifying exactly where the incident occurred.

"The US once again is deliberately hyping this issue," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a regular briefing today.

"The relevant Chinese military personnel have always acted professionally and in accordance with law."



He also called on the US to stop carrying out "close surveillance activity against China...To prevent similar incidents from happening again".

The East China Sea is part of the Pacific and home to small islands whose ownership is disputed by China, Japan and Taiwan.

China also claims a string of islets across the South China Sea and its military expansion in the contested waterway has sparked heightened tensions with regional neighbours and the United States.

Pentagon chief Ashton Carter attended a security summit in Singapore over the weekend, promising unspecified "actions" if China continued its buildup.

Last month the Pentagon said two Chinese jets conducted an "unsafe" intercept of a US reconnaissance plane over the South China Sea.

Still, PACOM head Admiral Harry Harris told reporters in Singapore on Saturday that such incidents were rare.

Yesterday's reported intercept came as US Secretary of State John Kerry urged China to settle its territorial rows peacefully and based on the "rule of law" on a visit to Beijing.

Beijing will not budge on its claims of ownership over a vast tranche of the South China Sea, a top official insisted Tuesday, as a key two-day annual meeting ended in the Chinese capital.
Two Chinese jets conducted an "unsafe" intercept of a US spy plane over the East China Sea, officials said, but the Pentagon downplayed the encounter and blamed it on shoddy piloting.

According to US Pacific Command spokesman Commander David Benham, two Chinese J-10 fighter jets yesterday flew close to an American RC-135 reconnaissance plane that was on a routine patrol.

"One of the intercepting Chinese jets had an unsafe excessive rate of closure on the RC-135 aircraft," Benham said, without specifying exactly where the incident occurred.

"Initial assessment is that this seems to be a case of improper airmanship, as no other provocative or unsafe maneuvers occurred."



The East China Sea is part of the Pacific and home to small islands whose ownership is disputed by China, Japan and Taiwan.

China also claims a string of islets across the South China Sea and its military expansion in the contested waterway has sparked heightened tensions with regional neighbors and the United States.

Yesterday's intercept came as US Secretary of State John Kerry visited Beijing and urged China to settle its territorial rows peacefully and based on the "rule of law."



Pentagon chief Ashton Carter attended a security summit in Singapore over the weekend, promising unspecified "actions" if China continued its buildup.

On May 17, the Pentagon said two Chinese jets conducted another "unsafe" intercept of a US reconnaissance plane over the South China Sea.

Still, PACOM head Admiral Harry Harris told reporters in Singapore on Saturday that such incidents were rare.
China has developed the world's first self-flying "passenger drone" capable of carrying a person in the air for more than 20 minutes and the revolutionary project would be tested in the US state of Nevada later this year.

The Nevada Institute for Autonomous Systems, a state nonprofit group sponsored by the Governor's Office of Economic Development, will work to help the EHang 184 test and develop its system, state-run People's Daily reported.

The institute will develop test criteria to help EHang Inc prove aircraft worthiness to the Federal Aviation Administration, the report said.

Chinese firm EHang expects to begin testing of the drone in Nevada later this year.

The drone reportedly can fly at altitudes up to 3.5 kilometre for more than 2o minutes. The firm is also working to "revolutionise the way organs are transported in the US" by ferrying them by drone.

The firm has revealed a collaboration with Lung Biotechnology PBC to develop and purchase up to 1,000 units of an evolved version of the 184, the world's first autonomous drone for humans, to automate organ transplant delivery, it said.

In another development, Chinese online retailer JD.Com has begun using drones for deliveries in the countryside of east China's Jiangsu Province.

The service around Suqian City, hometown of JD.Com's founder Liu Qiangdong, can more than halve the cost of delivery to less than 0.5 yuan (USD cents 7.6 cents) per parcel, Xiao Jun, vice president of JD.Com.

At a delivery depot in Suqian's Caoji township, two drones are capable of handling 200 parcels a day.

The drones can each carry 10 to 15 kg of weight and fly 15 to 20 km at a speed of up to 54 km per hour, said Xiao.

They can automatically load and unload goods and operate in moderate rain and wind with a speed of up to 38.5 km per hour, state-run Xinhua agency reported.

It can take a truck hours to navigate the winding mountainous roads that link delivery depots near Suqian, but a drone can make the journey in less than 20 minutes, Xiao said.

Currently, the drones transport goods between depots rather than to customers directly.

The service will be expanded to cover other rural areas in the future when authorities there lift the ban on drone flights, Xia said.
CII members in Chandigarh today met Ambassador of Luxembourg to India Sam Schreiner and Deputy Head of the Mission Laure Huberty to discuss trade ties.

"Luxembourg has best policies for trade and local businesses in terms of clearances, tax free income on intellectual property, easy commute facilities and others making it easy for any business to set shop there.

"Luxembourg is also a world leader in health technologies, green environmental technologies, bio solar water cleaning etc. India and Luxembourg can establish long lasting trade partnerships," Schreiner said.

Man Mohan Singh Kohli, former Chairman, CII Chandigarh Council & Chief Executive Officer Aroma Group said, "The economic and commercial relationship between India and Luxembourg, particularly investment relationship, has grown in recent years.

"FDI flows from Luxembourg to India between April 2000 and September 2015 are about USD 1,383.82 million, making it the 16th most important investor in India."



The delegation is also looking at establishing linkages with local businesses especially in IT/ITES, Tourism & Travel, Pharmaceuticals, Life sciences, Iron & Steel, etc, a party release said.

There are many developmental initiatives which require ownership of industry whether in education, skills, health care, water conservation, sustainability, etc, wherein companies and organisations based out of Luxembourg can partner with the local industry and offer their expertise to create boundless opportunities, it said.

Both sides will explore areas of mutual business, opportunities in IT/ITeS, Travel & Tourism, Banking & Finance, Pharmaceuticals, Life sciences, Iron and Steel, the CII release added.
YEREVAN, JUNE 8, ARMENPRESS. The President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan and the President of the Czech Republic Milos Zeman attended the opening of the Armenian-Czech Business Forum.

As Armenpress was informed from the press service of Republic of Armenia Presidents Office, Serzh Sargsyan greeted the participants and organizers of the Armenian-Czech Business Forum, which has become a traditional event, and expressed hope that the Forum will promote friendly relations of the two countries and further expansion of the economic ties as well as the discovery by the Czech businessmen of Armenia as a land of opportunities.

From the viewpoint of deepening the trade and economic relations, the President of Armenia stressed the importance of the February visit to Armenia of the Czech Minister for Industry and Trade Jan Mladek and the Business Forum organized in the framework of the visit.

The President of Armenia noted with satisfaction that today there are nearly 20 companies with Czech capital functioning in Armenia. According to Serzh Sargsyan, the citizens of Armenia have already had to some extend discovered for themselves Czech companies such as Czech Avto, Chantan, Praha, which imports Bohemian crystal glass, and others.

In his message to the participants of the Forum, Serzh Sargsyan presented in detail the favorable investment climate present in Armenia, current stage of the economy, Armenias leading role among the CIS countries in terms of economic freedom and doing business which is also registered in the rating reports of prestigious international structures. From the viewpoint of attraction foreign investments, the President of Armenia stressed in particular two factors  stability and economic interest. He underscored that with this regard Armenia possesses every prerequisite. President Sargsyan also underlined that since independence the macroeconomic stability of the country has been a priority and thanks to wise tax and budget, as well as monetary policies Armenian now has a stable macroeconomic environment.

Nowadays, it is impossible to attract foreign investments if there is no political stability and predictability. By the way, when we say political stability, unlike some countries of the region, we first of all mean democratic stability based on human rights and the rule of law which allows to keep the country free from political shocks without endangering the future of the investments. Constitutional reforms in our country are also called to serve this purpose, said the President of Armenia.

Serzh Sargsyan spoke about the comprehensive reforms carried out in Armenia and underscored that along the way the role of the European Union  one of Armenias most important partners - has been significant. With the assistance of the EU, trade regulations, food security, and intellectual property rights have been brought in compliance with the European standards. The President of Armenia assured that Armenia will continue resolutely to move forward the agenda of reformation.

Serzh Sargsyan presented also new opportunities for the development of the Armenian economy and foreign investments and favorable conditions which have appeared with the accession of our country to the Eurasian Economic Union. He underlined that Armenia has a preferential access regime to other economic areas, such as the EU, the US, Canada, Switzerland, Japan, Norway and some other countries. According to the President, thanks to the preferential trade regime offered by these countries, Armenia can export goods of the Armenian origin to these markets with considerably low or zero tariffs.

We are confident that enhancement of the high-class education and human potential are the most important guarantees of our countrys development, and we pay special attention to them. We have high-quality, educated labor force which can adapt to the requirements of modern labor markets, said the President of Armenia.

President Serzh Sargsyan thanked the President of the Czech Republic Milos Zeman for his participation at the Yerevan Business Forum and expressed confidence that thanks to diligent and efficient work, Armenia and the Czech Republic can register considerable results, defining new areas of bilateral cooperation.
The United States underestimates the long-term impact of civilian deaths on the success of military missions and is failing to implement lessons learned from 15 years in Afghanistan, according to a report released today.

While the US military is committed to avoiding civilian casualties, the report said that mistaken air strikes, misidentified target, unexploded ordinance and rogue partners have frequently led to non-combatant deaths in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and elsewhere.

The study by Open Society Foundations, a charity founded by US magnate and philanthropist George Soros, found that in Afghanistan, such deaths seriously undermined the mission and fueled the growth of the Taliban.

"Civilian harm accelerated the insurgency and undermined the US and Afghan governments," said Army combat veteran Christopher Kolenda, a study co-author.

"It was like burning a candle at both ends with a blowtorch."



The report describes several causes of civilian casualties, and is particularly critical of unplanned air strikes to support troops on the ground as being a "primary driver" of civilian harm.

In Afghanistan in 2008, for instance, air strikes accounted for 64 percent of the 828 non-combatant deaths blamed on pro-government forces, and 26 percent of those killed overall.

"Signature strikes -- when an individual or group of military-aged males is tracked over time and targeted for engaging in behavior that is deemed to be suspicious -- are a particular concern," the report states.

Additionally, the report blasts "predatory partners" the United States worked with in Afghanistan who could "operate with near impunity due to their close and highly visible relationship to the US military."



Study authors make a slew of recommendations including the implementation of "civilian protection cells" that would monitor civilian harm and communicate with commanders to improve battlefield decision making.

(Reopens FGN009)



South Asia also will face continuing challenges from political turmoil-particularly Pakistan's struggle to maintain stability-as well as violent extremism, sectarian divisions, governance shortfalls, terrorism, identity politics, mounting environmental concerns, weak health systems, gender inequality, and demographic pressures, it said.

"Geopolitically, the region's greatest hope is India's ability to use its economic and human potential to drive regional trade and development. At the same time, Afghanistan's uncertain prospects, extremism and violence in Pakistan, and the ever-present risk of war between India and Pakistan probably represent the greatest challenge to unlocking the region's potential," it said.

NIC said despite persistent problems like violent extremism and tension between its two nuclear powers, India and Pakistan, the region's global relevance is changing, as Iran opens up economically after sanctions relief and China turns its focus westward.

"India is also an increasingly important factor in the region as geopolitical forces begin to reshape its importance to Asia, and the United States and India will grow closer than ever in their history," it said.

New Delhi will be a victim of its own success as India's growing prosperity complicates its environmental challenges.

For example, providing electricity to 300 million citizens who now lack it will substantially increase India's carbon footprint and boost pollution if done with coal-or gas-fired plants, it warned.

India is projected to surpass Indonesia as having the world's largest Muslim population in 2050, raising questions about stability in the face of sectarian mistrust, it noted.

"The perceived threat of terrorism and the idea that Hindus are losing their identity in their homeland have contributed to the growing support for Hindutva," the report said.

"India's largest political party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, increasingly is leading the government to incorporate Hindutva into policy, sparking increased tension in the current sizable Muslim minority as well as with Muslim-majority Pakistan and Bangladesh," the NIC alleged.

According to NIC, India probably has the greatest potential to boost global growth because of its size and the success of its technology sector, but it would have to improve its energy, transportation and manufacturing infrastructure to sustain high rates of growth.

Infrastructure has improved in some locales but not in wide swaths of the country.

"Unlike China, India will benefit from 10 million new working-age residents per year during the coming decades, yet harnessing such a massive labor pool increase in ways that increase productivity and boost output has proven difficult," it said.
The Commerce and Industry Ministry has given approval to set up a mega leather cluster at Nellore district in Andhra Pradesh.

"Proposal for establishment of Mega Leather Cluster at Kota Mandal, Nellore district has been approved with a central government assistance of Rs 125 crore," Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in a letter to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu.

The project, sanctioned under Indian Leather Development programme, would create state of the art infrastructure for labour intensive units and is expected to generate employment for 20,000 people and leverage an investment of at least Rs 500 crore in the first phase, the ministry said in a statement.

Sitharaman requested the chief minister that due process related to award of contract be completed so that the central government release the funds to start the project as soon as possible, it added.

The sector provides employment to about 30 lakh people.

Leather and leather goods are among the 25 focus sectors under the 'Make in India' initiative of the government. The government also aims to increase the exports to USD 15 billion by 2020 from the current USD 7 billion.
With a view to provide a ready reckoner to foreign investors, the Commerce and Industry Ministry today came out with an updated compendium incorporating all policy changes effected over the last one year.

For the purposes of FDI policy in private security agencies, it has defined the terms 'private security agencies', 'private security' and 'armoured car service'.

These terms will have the same meaning as provided under Private Security Agencies (Regulation) (PSAR) Act, 2005, the 109-page compendium said.

Also, the ministry has again retained the previous UPA regime's decision allowing foreign retailers to open multi-brand stores with 51 per cent ownership in its consolidated FDI policy.

The BJP-led NDA government, which came to power in May 2014, has not made any changes to this policy. However, the BJP had opposed foreign investment in multi-brand retail sector in its election manifesto.

The new compendium, which came into effect from yesterday, mentions all existing FDI policy decisions, as also the changes made over the last one year.

These include changes in the foreign direct investment norms in over a dozen sectors including pensions, insurance, asset reconstruction company, e-commerce guidelines, single-brand retail, plantation segment and broadcasting.

The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), which is under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, is the nodal agency on FDI policy. It compiles all policies related to India's FDI regime into a single document to make it simple and easy for investors to understand.

Investors would otherwise have to go through various press notes issued by the industry department and RBI regulations to understand the policy. The government updates the policy every year.

FDI in India grew by 29 per cent to USD 40 billion in 2015-16 as against USD 30.93 billion in the previous fiscal.
Congress today demanded sacking of Ram Bahadur Rai, recently appointed chief of the government- funded Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts, who stoked a controversy by questioning B R Ambedkar's role in framing of the Constitution.

Party spokesman Ajoy Kumar also wanted BJP chief Amit Shah to apologise over the remarks of Rai, alleging that they showed the "hatred" of RSS and BJP towards the Dalits.

"Ram Bahadur Rai, RSS's ideologue, argues that Ambedkar had no role to play in drafting the Constitution, except to correct its language. Nothing can be further from the truth."



"In light of the comments made by Ram Bahadur Rai, we demand he be removed from his post at IGNCA (Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts," Kumar as also AICC SC department chief K Raju told reporters.

Raju alleged that Rai and others in RSS have demonstrated their "deep anti-Dalit attitude". He claimed that when Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants "Congress-mukt Bharat" what he really meant is that he wants a "Constitution-mukt Bharat".

"RSS and BJP hate the Constitution because it has kept Hindu Rashtra idea at bay in this country for the past seven decades and would continue to do so in times to come," Raju claimed.

Rai, who was appointed as IGNCA chairman in April, was quoted by a magazine as having told it in an interview that Ambedkar's role was limited and whatever material B N Rau, a civil servant, gave to him, Ambedkar would correct the language.

Asked if Ambedkar's role was then a myth, Rai replied, "Yes, myth hai, myth hai, myth hai (yes, it is a myth, it is a myth, it is a myth). It is part of identity politics.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh today favoured that the party "directly" take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he remained a challenge.

"He remains a challenge. We have to take him on directly. In the GSPC scam the issue is Modi and it is a Rs 20,000 crore ghapla(scam)," Ramesh told PTI.

A delegation of Gujarat Congress leaders last month met President Pranab Mukherjee and sought a judicial probe into the alleged Rs 19,760 crore scam in Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation(GSPC) when Modi was chief minister of the state.

Ramesh also said that in the last two years since Modi became prime minister there has been a "vast gap" between what was promised and delivered and what was said and done and the opposition needed to "exploit" it fully.

A known detractor of Modi, Ramesh said that while taking on the prime minister the Congress needs to understand that the party is fighting an ideological battle which is completely different.

Nothing moves within the BJP and government without the blessings and approval of the prime minister, he said.

"To think that Modi is different is not correct. All happenings in HRD, rewriting of textbooks, erosion of autonomy of IITs. These are all Modi's blessings."



"(Subramanian) Swamy's attacks has his blessings. Not a leaf moves within BJP and Government without Modi's blessings and approval", he said. Swamy had recently targeted RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan.

Incidently, Ramesh was the first Congress leader who had said in 2013, a year before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections that Modi poses both a "managerial as also an ideological challenge" for the party which was then ruling at the Centre.
Global youth tour operator Contiki Holidays is looking to increase its India market share to 10 per cent from less than 1 per cent at present, by enhancing brand awareness in the country.

"We have been in India since 1962, selling our products through our trade partners. We see huge potential in the country as recently there has been an increase in young Indian travellers.

"So, we are looking to reintroduce the brand, that caters to travellers between 18-35 years and increase our brand awareness in the country," Sam Morrah, Director of Sales and Marketing - Asia, Contiki Holidays told PTI here.

He further said the company has increased its digital presence and would continue to do so through social media as the engagement of young Indians in this medium is very high.

India, which represents less than 1 per cent of the company's total market has the potential to go up to 10 per cent, he added.

"Our biggest market is Australia and the US. India accounts for less than 1 per cent of the total global market. However, the pace of growth in young travellers presents a huge opportunity for us as the country has the potential to grow up to 10 per cent of the market," Morrah said.

Over the last six months Contiki Holidays witnessed 30 per cent growth in India and is expecting substantial increase in growth in the next 2-3 years, he said.

The company is also looking to increase its trade partners in the country.

"We are currently targeting big cities like Mumbai, Bengaluru and Delhi. However, we are looking to penetrate further to tier-II and tier-III cities with our trade partners. As our trade partners evolve, so would we," Morrah said.

Contiki Holidays offers holiday tours to over 60 countries. However, it does not have India on the list.

"India as a product has definitely been on our radar. However, we are taking our time in evaluating it as we don't want to rush. In near future, we may introduce India as a product to our audience," he added.
Condemning the "nefarious" designs of BJP and "Hindutva forces" in stoking communal passions at Dadri, CPI(M) today said the Uttar Pradesh government should deal firmly with "elements" trying to provoke violence.

It also demanded that UP police file cases against Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Sanjeev Balyan and others for inciting communal hatred over the Dadri lynching incident.

"We strongly condemn the nefarious designs of BJP and Hindutva communal forces who are once again seeking to raise communal tensions by utilising the so-called beef consumption in Bisara village in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh. The killing of Mohammad Akhlaq and the attack on his family is now sought to be diverted to the issue of cow slaughter and beef consumption," CPI(M) Politburo said in a statement.

It also alleged that the BJP and the Hindutva forces were capitalising on an alleged report of a forensic lab in Mathura that beef was found near Akhlaq's home.

"A minister in the Modi government, Sanjeev Balyan, who was implicated in cases connected with the Muzaffarnagar riots, has made a provocative statement demanding a probe to find out who all had consumed beef besides Akhlaq. Other BJP leaders have demanded that action be taken against Akhlaq's family members," the statement said.

"All these statements are being made with the intention of stoking communal tensions and is part of the wider gameplan of the BJP to create communal polarisation in Uttar Pradesh before the Assembly elections due next year," it said.

The UP government should deal firmly with all those "elements" trying to incite communal passions and provoke violence. There should be no laxity in prosecuting all those accused in the Akhlaq murder case, it added.
The CPI today tore into the NDA government's claims of corruption-free governance in the last two years, saying that by refusing probe on various issues, including the Lalit Modi case and Vyapam scam, the Centre was trying to sweep cases of wrongdoing under the carpet.

"We are challenging that (NDA's claim of corruption-free government). In the first year itself, on corruption issue, allegations came in Lalit Modi case on Union Minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje.

"Allegations are different and they being proved are different. But, it is the government which has to investigate the allegations. By refusing (a probe), they are trying to sweep corruption under the carpet," CPI general secretary S Sudhakar Reddy told reporters here.

Why is the government not ready for a probe, if there is no corruption, he asked.

On the multi-crore Vyapam scam in Madhya Pradesh, he said it was "unusual" that about 60 people, including witnesses, suspects and journalists, lost their lives in connection with this case.

B S Yeddyurappa, who had to quit as Chief Minister of Karnataka following a Lokayukta report, has now been made BJP Karnataka unit president, the CPI leader noted.

"How (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi is saying there are no allegations of corruption against his government. In the latest instance, Maharashtra Minister Khadse had to resign in a situation in which allegations of corruption cannot be answered," he said.

Alleging that the NDA government adopted anti-poor and pro-corporate policies, he charged that the previous (UPA) government unjustifiably raised the service tax to 12 per cent, but the Centre now took it to 15 per cent by imposing Swachh Bharat cess.

Corporates have been benefited to the tune of Rs 12,200 crore by reducing the tax on them from 30 per cent to 25 per cent, he claimed.

The benefit of falling crude prices has not been passed on to common people, he claimed.

"They are for corporates. It (the government) is being run by corporates," Reddy alleged.

He also charged the Centre with "intentionally delaying" extradition of businessman Vijay Mallya, who owes Rs 9,000 crore to 17 banks in India and left the country in March.

Claiming that BJP's vote percentage has come down in the five states, including Assam, where Assembly polls were held recently, which he said showed the "falling (popularity) graph of Modi".
Bihar government has paid Rs three lakh to the family of a man who died due to torture in police custody following the recommendations of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).

The solatium was paid to the family of Madan Yadav who died due to torture in custody at Barun Police Station in Aurangabad district on June 7 in 2012, a day after he was arrested for alleged links with Naxals.

"The Special Secretary, Home Department, government of Bihar, in his personal appearance before the commission, also informed that the next of kin of deceased Yadav had also withdrawn the amount of relief from his bank account," an NHRC statement said.

Also, after NHRC's intervention a case was registered against the delinquent police personnel under section 302 IPC at Police Station Barun. The SHO and five constables were suspended, it said.

The victim, Yadav, a native of district Palamu in Jharkhand, was alleged to be a 'sub-zonal commander' of banned CPI (Maoist) and was arrested on June 6 in 2012. He was brought to Barun for interrogation, the statement said.

"During the course of investigations, the commission found several loopholes in police theory behind the death of the accused.

"Based on the material of record placed before the commission after a series of notices, it held that there was overwhelming evidence against the conduct of the police which could not satisfactorily explain the reason behind the injuries to the deceased.

"This did not rule out the possibility of police torture under adverse environmental temperature amounting to violation of human rights of the victim," it said.

Reports also revealed that there were contradictions and discrepancies in the police statements about the place of Yadav's arrest, lack of medical examination after his arrest, the reason behind injuries on his body and his stomach being without food and water, etc.
Congress leader Digvijay Singh today recorded his statement with the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) here in connection with an alleged fraud case in a matter that dates back his chief ministership in Madhya Pradesh.

Singh and two others, including a former minister, are facing criminal charges like cheating and forgery.

"Digvijayji went to the EOW office with me at 11.30 am and got his statement recorded. We left the EOW office at around 2.30 pm," his lawyer Ajay Gupta told PTI.

"Digvijayji is being hounded by the BJP government in the state for raising the Vyapam scam. My client is facing false accusations. It's purely a case of witch-hunting," he said.

Last year, Singh and two others, including one of his former Cabinet colleagues, were charged by EOW with fraud and showing undue favour to a private college.

In the case, the AICC General Secretary, who was chief minister of the state from 1993 to 2003, along with his Technical Education Minister, Raja Pateria, have been accused of unlawfully reducing a penalty on RKDF College from Rs 24 lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh.

Besides the two, RKDF Chairman Sunil Kapoor has also been booked.

According to a complaint by Radhavallabh Sharda, a local journalist, Singh and Pateria waived the penalty imposed on the institute by the Education Department over some "wrongful" admissions in 2000-01 and 2001-02.

The complainant had stated the college had requested Singh to reduce the penalty to Rs 5 lakh which was slashed to Rs 2.5 lakh.

The three had been booked under IPC Sections 420 (cheating), 467 (using as genuine forged document), 120 (b) (conspiracy) and relevant sections of Prevention of Corruption Act.

Siddaramaiah said during the recent all party meeting, it



was decided to allow the legal team to take a decision depending on thedevelopments in the court.

"Nariman has kept two things in mind. The first is to succeed in the main petition which is coming up in the Supreme Court on October 18 where we are challenging the final award of the Cauvery Tribunal.

"Second is when similar situation had arisen in 2012, as a goodwill gesture we had offered release 10,000cusecs for nine days, which was accepted by the court then," he said.

The Chief Minister said government had already decided to approach theSupreme Court with a modification petition explaining itsdifficulties in implementing its order and seeking its changeand also to move the Cauvery Supervisory Committee.

Pointing out that this is not the first time that the state is complying with such orders of the Supreme Court, he recalled similar action was taken when Deve Gowda, S M Krishna and Jagadish Shettar were chief ministers.

Siddaramaiah said "this time also we had no other option and it was inevitable for us to release water and comply with the order."



Assuring farmer's protection for their standing crops and people of Bengaluru, Mandya and Mysuru on drinking water, Siddaramaiah said "we are already releasing water to crops through canals as per what has been decided in the Irrigation Consultative Committee."



He said BJP and JD(S) were trying to play politics supporting Karnataka state bandh called by pro-Kannada organisations tomorrow.
YEREVAN, JUNE 8, ARMENPRESS. At the invitation of President Serzh Sargsyan, in the evening of June 7 the President of the Czech Republic Milos Zeman arrived to the Republic of Armenia on a state visit.

As Armenpress was informed from the press service of Republic of Armenia Presidents Office, high-level Armenian-Czech negotiations took place at the Presidential Palace on June 8. After a tete-a-tete meeting of the Presidents of Armenia and the Czech Republic, the meeting continued in the extended format with the participation of the official delegations of the two countries. At the conclusion of the negotiations, Presidents Serzh Sargsyan and Milos Zeman signed a Joint Declaration on the Friendly Relations, Partnership, and Enhanced Cooperation.

The Presidents of Armenia and the Czech Republic recapped the results of the meeting in the Declaration which they made at the joint press conference for the representatives of the mass media.

In the framework of his state visit, President Milos Zeman in the morning visited also the Genocide Memorial where he laid a wreath and paid tribute to the memory of innocent victims of the Armenian Genocide. President Zeman also planted a fir tree at the Memory Park of the Tsitsernakaberd Complex, and made an inscription in the Book of Honorary Guests of the Genocide Museum-Institute.

President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan issued a statement for press following the meeting with the President of the Czech Republic Milos Zeman.

Your Excellency Mr. President,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Today we are honored to welcome the President of friendly Czech Republic and my good counterpart Mr. Milos Zeman for a state visit. This is the first visit of the president of the Czech Republic. Indeed, it will leave its footprint on the history of bilateral relations.

Today we had a fruitful discussion on a large range of bilateral, regional and international issues, like we had in Prague, during my state visit to the Czech Republic. We noted with satisfaction that we had matching viewpoints over those issues, creating an environment of mutual understanding and trust on the ways of deepening of our relations.

Only since 2014 over two dozens of high level visits have taken place. Following our last meeting the Embassy of the Czech Republic to the Republic of Armenia was established and the first resident ambassador was appointed. Inter-parliamentary relations, decentralized cooperation and collaboration in international fora have intensified. Within this context, undeniably, the continuous assistance of the Czech Republic to advance the Armenian-EU cooperation has a distinct place and we highly value it. As a result, the Czech Republic is one of our stable and reliable partners in Europe and our bilateral cooperation is at the highest level ever.

With President Zeman we thoroughly discussed bilateral economic cooperation which is one of our priorities. It is not in vein, that almost all high-level bilateral meetings are followed by business forums. Later today president Zeman and I will give a start to another business forum. Surely, we have positive developments in this field, yet there is a lot to achieve. In this respect, we discussed new opportunities derive both from Armenias membership to the EAEU and reopening of the market in Iran, our traditional partner country. At the same time, attaching importance to the bilateral economic ties, we were unanimous with President Zeman that the pillar of our relations was not merely economic interest, rather it is the common values, having led our people through history up to the 21st century.

We highly value the position of the Czech Republic concerning the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which is in line with the general stance of the EU and is in full support of the efforts of the OSCE Minsk group co-chairs. I extended my special gratitude to Mr. President and the government of the Czech Republic for this attitude. We both attached importance to the implementation of the arrangements agreed upon in Vienna in May, including the agreements on the ceasefire from 1994 and 1995, establishing monitoring and incident investigation mechanisms and adding the capacities of the team of Personal Representative of the OSCE chairperson- in- office as an anchor for the long-lasting peace in the conflict zone. Unswerving implementation of these steps is the least to be done to pave way for the constructive and, which is more important, result-oriented negotiations.

Certainly, I also informed Mr. Zeman about the possibility of new meetings with the President of Azerbaijan mediated by the Minsk Group co-chairs. And I thanked him for his offer to use the capacities of Prague, Czech Republic for the meetings. In the meantime, I surely expressed my concerns over Ilham Aliyevs recent unbalanced behavior, signs of which were apparently not visible in Vienna. Particularly with his speech at the Fourth Conference of World Azerbaijanis, where he was cynical about the Armenian state, made personal offenses against the President of the country, with whom by the way he is going to talk on certain issues, articulating thoughts that mock history, he shaped a clear perception about his inappropriateness.

I hope that this is a temporary problem; sort of machismo and it will disappear very soon as we have the commitment to get to serious work in the nearest future. Hopefully, this is not a conscious behavior intended to abort Vienna arrangements.

I expressed the satisfaction of the Armenian side about the unanimously adopted resolution on the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide by the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Czech Chamber of Deputies as well as unambiguous attitude of the Czech President on the matter. The historic resolution on recognizing the Armenian Genocide by the German Bundestag on these days comes to prove that the process of recognition is irreversible - falsifying history, denying facts and spouting intimidation cannot stop it.

We are thankful to the Czech Republic for favorable disposition to the Armenian community. The fact of transferring the Catholic Church of Holy Spirit in Prague to the parish of the Armenian Apostolic Church is a vivid example of that. It was a major event in the life of the Armenian community of the Czech Republic in terms of preserving national identity. I would also like to deeply thank cardinal Duka in this respect.

I believe that our interstate relations will continue to successfully develop, since it is based on the unselfish friendship between Czech and Armenian people, mutual understanding and the aspiration to shape a common future.

Thank you.

It is my pleasure to give the floor to my friend President Milos Zeman.

President of the Czech Republic Milos Zeman issued a statement for press following the meeting with the President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan.

Your Excellency Mr. President,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We negotiate over two aspects: political and economic. As refers to the political one, I would like to repeat my announcement that I made 2 years ago during the state visit of President Sargsyan to the Czech Republic, by which I condemned the Genocide of 1915. I did it also for the reason that my people would have become a victim of another genocide if the Nazi Germany had won.

I know that the Armenian Genocide has been condemned by 10 EU member states, as well as other non member states.

To repeat my last announcement is not enough, it will be followed by the next step: I will call on the President of the parliament to follow the example of the German parliament, so as the parliament of the Czech Republic also adopts a similar resolution.

As you may know, I recently paid a visit to Azerbaijan, and my announcement and position remain unchanged irrespective of the fact which country I visit. I have reminded the two presidents the example of the long-term conflict between Germany and France, when these two states fought each other for centuries that claimed numerous lives.

Thank to two individuals, Konrad Adenauer and Charles de Gaulle, it was possible to reach an agreement and put an end to the war.

I am convinced that President Sargsyan and President Aliyev are outstanding individuals that can assume those roles, while being honored for the comparison with Gaulle and Adenauer.

This is the reason I referred to my invitation addressed to President Sargsyan and President Aliyev to meet in a neutral zone. I want to remind that those negotiations were held in the Czech Republic during the period of 2002-2005.

As refers to economic cooperation, I have to mention that we have unused potential here. Trade turnover is on rather a low level and for that reason I came here with some important entrepreneurs led by the president of the Czech Chamber of Commerce and Industry who usually does not participate in similar visits.

We agreed with Mr. President that state guarantees are of crucial importance for investments that ensure stability in our economic relations. I would like to thank Mr. President for promising to support an unsolved contract over Mika cement. I attach great importance to this promise of the President. At the same time I am looking forward to our future meetings with the President, both in Prague and in the sidelines of the Eastern Partnership, where Armenia is a key member.

Finally, I would like to wish Mr. President and the entire Armenian people great achievements in shaping an independent state that is not a subject to external pressures and makes decisions for itself.

Thank you.
Seeking to promote budding entrepreneurs, the Commerce and Industry Ministry today held an hour-long question and answer session with start-ups.

Joint Secretary in the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) Shailendra Singh explained the procedure for registration and claiming tax benefits.

Several start-ups asked questions related with criteria of claiming tax exemption under the Start-up Action Plan of the government and functioning of Rs 10,000 crore 'funds of funds'.

"Guidelines for this (funds of funds) would be released soon. Please keep getting updated with our website," the official replied to one of the question "what is funds of funds? How does it function?".

When asked about the progress on creating annual Rs 500 crore Credit Guarantee Fund for startups promised in Startup Action Plan, he said: "Guidelines are being drafted, keep following us on twitter and web portal".

Other queries being raised by some entrepreneurs included ways of registration and certificates and timeframe for a company to exit.

Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has urged the Finance Ministry to consider raising tax holiday for start-ups to seven years from the current three years to encourage entrepreneurs.
A bomb threat forced an EgyptAir aircraft en route to Beijing from Cairo to make an emergency landing in Uzbekistan today, Egyptian officials said, the latest in a series of deadly or damaging air travel incidents involving Egypt.

The plane, an Airbus A-330-220, landed at the airport in the town of Urgench, about 840 kilometres west of the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, three hours after it took off from Cairo at around 11:30 p.M. Yesterday.

All 135 passengers and crew on board were evacuated and the aircraft was being searched, the officials said. They had no word on whether a bomb or any other suspicious object was found on board.

According to the Egyptian officials, an anonymous caller telephoned security agents at the Cairo airport to say a bomb was on board the flight. The agents immediately contacted the aircraft and ordered it to land at the nearest airport, they said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

In Russia, the agency RIA Novosti quoted an unnamed official with Uzbekistan Airways as saying the airport has been closed following the EgyptAir plane's emergency landing.

The incident came nearly three weeks after an EgyptAir flight crashed in the Mediterranean Sea as it was approaching the Egyptian coast while en route to Cairo from Paris. All 66 people on board were killed and the search for the plane's flight and data recorders - the so called black boxes - is still underway.

Egyptian officials say the Paris-Cairo plane was most likely downed by an act of terror.

Last October, a Russian airliner crashed in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula shortly after taking off from the Egyptian resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh, killing all 224 people on board. A local affiliate of the extremist Islamic State group claimed responsibility for downing the aircraft just hours after the crash. In November, Russia said an explosive device brought down the aircraft.

The Russian airliner's crash has decimated Egypt's already bettered tourism industry. While the cause of the May 19 EgyptAir crash remains unknown, it has associated Egypt with another air disaster that further dented the once lucrative industry.
A special NIA court today convicted and sentenced to prison 18 operatives of a banned North East group UNLF, including its self-styled 'chairman', on charges of perpetrating terrorist activities and waging war against the government.

The case dates back to April, 2010 when the National Investigation Agency (NIA) registered a case and conducted searches here and arrested Khundong Tomba alias Bikramjiot and Y Nabichand alias Abo alias Dilip of the group United National Liberation Front (UNLF).

"Eighteen persons have been convicted for the offences and have been sentenced to rigorous imprisonment ranging from 7-10 years by a NIA special court in Guwahati," the agency said.

It said as part of the investigation, "NIA and Assam Police arrested 20 more members of the banned terrorist organisation UNLF who were involved in terrorist conspiracy in the states of Manipur and Assam. Evidence has been brought on record by the agency to establish that the said proscribed organisation indulged in large scale extortion from government officials, recruitment of cadres, purchase of arms and ammunition, for waging war against the government."



NIA had also arrested UNLF 'chairman' Raj Kumar Meghen alias Sanayama in the case and it later filed two charge sheets in the case. Meghen has also been convicted today.

A total of 25 people were charged for their involvement in terrorist conspiracy and for waging war against the government. Out of these, seven are absconding, the agency said.
The government should extend incentives like interest subsidy to promote gems and jewellery exports that have been marred by the global slowdown, an industry body today said.

The slowdown has put at risk livelihood of over 30 lakh people employed by the sector across India, Assocham said in a statement.

"The exports are likely to remain under pressure this year as well, even though there are indications of improvement in business sentiment in the US which takes nearly half of country's diamond jewellery production," it said.

It also said while import of rough diamonds and semi-precious stones have fallen by over 11 per cent in 2015-16, the net diamond exports and semi-precious stones have declined by about 43 per cent year-on-year to USD 2.4 billion in 2015-16.

Besides, exports of jewellery have fallen by about 17 per cent to USD 11 billion in the last fiscal.

The chamber has also appealed to the government for granting industry status to the gems and jewellery sector to give a fillip to investments.

"Requirement of more export-oriented economic zones, establishment of a gold board, ensuring access to better financing, relaxation of certain taxation laws, setting up a gold tourism circuit are certain key areas to focus on which can help in reviving the sector," it added.
Sperm with shorter heads and longer tails are better at fertilising bird eggs and the "specific design" of a sperm is more important than its total length to reach the egg, according to a research published today that negates the previously-held notion.

According to the new research by the University of Sheffield in the UK, sperm with specific "looks" are selected to fertilise bird eggs, an advance which may produce clues to understanding human fertility.

The research found that fewer than one per cent of inseminated sperm reach the egg and a distinctive subset of sperm are selected inside the female for fertilisation.

"Previously it was thought that longer sperm were always more likely to reach the egg. However our study shows that the specific design of sperm is more important than total length alone," said Nicola Hemmings from the Department of Animal and Plant Sciences.

"Long tails act as propellers for sperm, but beyond a certain length they seem to become less efficient. Shorter heads are also important as they have less surface area to create drag, allowing sperm to swim faster. The tiny subset of "super swimmers" with these traits are better able to reach the egg," Hemmings said.

Examining zebra finches, scientists found that these "super swimmers" tend to have shorter heads with longer tails and are more similar to each other than other inseminated sperm.

Scientists believe that these traits help the sperm swim faster through the vagina. The bird then stores these sperm before giving them the chance to fertilise her egg.

The research is published todayin the Royal Society journal Biology Letters.

Scientists believe that a better understanding of how the shape of sperm and size influences fertilisation success in animals such as the zebra may point us in new directions for investigation in human fertility research.
An FIR has been lodged in connection with the theft of about 500 files of Bihar's animal husbandry directorate which are supposedly related to the multi-crore fodder scam.

"An unnamed FIR has been lodged for theft of 500 files of the Animal Husbandry Directorate from its office," a police official said today.

The FIR has been lodged by Section Officer Satyendra Kumar at a directive of Animal Husbandry Director on May 16 last, he said.

It would be known during the course of investigation as to which files were stolen, he said.

Unearthed in 1996, the scam pertains to syphoning of funds by non-existent companies in the name of supplying fodder. RJD president Lalu Prasad Yadav, at present out on bail granted by the Supreme Court, was convicted in the case in 2014.

Prasad, also an accused in another related case, is the chief of RJD, an ally of the ruling government in the state.

The scam pertains to fraudulent withdrawal of public money worth about Rs 950 crore from the treasuries of undivided Bihar under the head of the animal husbandry department (AHD) in 1990s.

(REOPENS CAL1)



Meanwhile, Animal Husbandry Department (AHD) Minister Awdesh Kumar Singh has denied that the missing files were connected to the fodder scam.

"The missing files are not related to the fodder scam as all the files related to that case have already been handed over to the CBI which is investigating the scam," Singh told
As many as 18 fishermen from Gujarat, who were recently released from Pakistan have sought immediate intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for saving the life of their compatriot, who has been languishing in a Pakistani jail for the last 14 months.

They have also sought intervention of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in this regard.

60-year-old Bhagvan Sarman Solanki, from Tad village in Gujarat's Gir Somnath district, was caught after his boat entered Pakistani territorial waters in April 2015.

"His condition is deteriorating every day. He is in a critical condition and requires a special medical treatment which is not available in the Pakistani jail," claimed Bharat, one of the 18 released fishermen, while speaking to PTI over phone.

"Hence, we (all the released fishermen) seek the intervention of the Prime Minister and Swaraj to bring him (Solanki) back," Bharat added.

Bharat and 17 others will reach here tonight.

"All fishermen languishing in Pakistani jails are much worried over deteriorating condition of Solanki," Bharat claimed.

Bharat also claimed that his brother Balunaran died in a Pakistan jail about one and half years ago.
Five people including a pregnant policewoman were killed in a car bombing in Kurdish majority southeastern Turkey, a day after a deadly attack hit Istanbul.

Both bombings targeted Turkish police and have been blamed on Kurdish rebels waging a decades-long insurgency against the state.

A massive plume of black smoke rose from the rubble of the police station after Wednesday's attack in the town of Midyat near the Syrian border.

A spokesman for the Turkish presidency, Ibrahim Kalin, said it was too early to attribute blame but Prime Minister Binali Yildirim blamed the "killer PKK", referring to the outlawed rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party.

"We will fight them both in urban centres and rural areas with determination," he said.

The Anatolia news agency said dead included two police officers, including a pregnant woman. At least 51 people were injured.

The car  loaded with half a tonne of explosives  drove at the Midyat police station and blew up when police opened fire to stop it, the private Dogan news agency reported.

remains on high alert after multiple attacks on its soil that have killed well over 200 people in the past year and have been blamed on, or claimed by, Kurdish rebels and Islamic State (IS) jihadists.

On Tuesday, a car bombing in the heart of Istanbul killed 11 people, including six police officers and five civilians, the latest in a spate of attacks in Turkey's largest city.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pointed the finger at Kurdish militants for that attack.

"Thousands of heroes" were ready to "defend their people and their country with their lives" against "terrorists", he said in Ankara on Wednesday.

Yildirim, along with former president Abdullah Gul and opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu attended the funeral yesterday of the slain Istanbul police officers.

Their coffins were draped with red and white Turkish flags as mourners shouted: "Damn terror" and "Martyrs never die and the homeland will never be divided."

A group of mourners staged a protest against Kilicdaroglu, who heads the secular Republican People's Party (CHP), tearing up a wreath he had laid for the victims.

"You are a killer!" they shouted.

Kilicdaroglu has been accused in some quarters of failing to give enough support to the government's Kurdish policy.

The CHP leader lashed out at what he termed a couple of "provocateurs" after the prayers and said one of them hurled a bullet at him before being detained by a plainclothes officer.
A panel headed by Finance Minister on Wednesday took stock of the progress made on operationalising India's maiden sovereign wealth fund National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), including the selection of its CEO and projects shortlisted for making initial investments.

The second Governing Council meeting of the Rs 40,000 crore NIIF also discussed the follow-up action being taken on the MoUs signed with Rusnano of Russia, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) of Abu Dhabi and Qatar Investment Authority.

"The Governing Council was apprised of the interactions that have been held with a large number of long term investors, Sovereign Wealth Funds, Pension Funds from across the globe, seeking to invest in the NIIF," a finance ministry statement said.

They also discussed the guidelines for investment of the corpus of NIIF, including the investment policy, it added.

Set up in December 2015, NIIF will act as an investment vehicle for funding commercially viable greenfield, brownfield and stalled projects.

The government is in the process of appointing a CEO for NIIF, in which it holds 49% while the rest will be held by private investors.

The Council was also apprised of the refinement in the structure of NIIF pursuant to discussions with investors.

NIIF will have various sector-specific or investor- specific close ended funds and they would issue various classes of units. Government along with other investor(s) will subscribe to the units of various funds.

"The status of projects shortlisted for initial investment by the NIIF and the selection process of Chief Executive Officer were also placed before the Council," the ministry said, adding that a NIIF website was launched on Wednesday.

This meeting was attended by Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das, Financial Services Secretary Anjuly Duggal and SBI Chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya and former Infosys director T V Mohandas Pai.
Four people including a pregnant policewoman were killed in a car bombing today in Kurdish majority southeastern Turkey, a day after a deadly attack hit mega city Istanbul.

Both bombings targeted Turkish police and have been blamed on Kurdish rebels waging a decades-long insurgency against the state.

A massive plume of black smoke rose from the rubble of the police station after today's attack in the town of Midyat near the Syrian border.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim blamed the "killer PKK", referring to the outlawed rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party.

"We will fight them both in urban centres and rural areas with determination," he vowed.

The Anatolia agency said two police officers, including a pregnant woman, and two civilians had been killed and about 30 injured.

The car -- loaded with half a tonne of explosives -- drove at the Midyat police station and blew up when police opened fire to stop it, the private Dogan agency reported.

Turkey remains on high alert after multiple attacks on its soil that have killed well over 200 people in the past year and have been blamed on, or claimed by, Kurdish rebels and Islamic State (IS) jihadists.

Yesterday, a car bombing in the heart of Istanbul killed 11 people, including six police officers and five civilians, the latest in a spate of attacks in Turkey's largest city.

There was no claim of responsibility for the Istanbul bombing but President Recep Tayyip Erdogan too suggested that Kurdish militants were behind it.

Yildirim, along with former president Abdullah Gul and opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu attended the funeral today of the slain Istanbul police officers.

Their coffins were draped with red and white Turkish flags as mourners shouted: "Damn terror" and "Martyrs never die and the homeland will never be divided."



A group of mourners staged a protest against Kilicdaroglu, who heads the secular Republican People's Party (CHP), tearing up a wreath he had laid for the victims.

"You are a killer!" they shouted.

Kilicdaroglu has been accused in some quarters of failing to give enough support to the government's Kurdish policy.

The CHP leader lashed out at what he termed a couple of "provocateurs" after the prayers and said one of them hurled a bullet at him before being detained by a plainclothes officer.
Internet search giant Google has tied up with Tata Trust to reduce the digital gender gap in rural areas of India by giving them data access.

"The digital gender gap in rural areas of India is vast. One out every ten women are familiar with internet and other data usages," head of marketing of Google India Sapna Chadha said.

She said that the programme 'Internet Saathi' aims at training women and empowering them on how to take advantage of internet and get information on education, various government schemes, weather, crop and on other matters.

Google was using the network of Tata Trust's rural network for the same.

This is the first such initiative by Google worldwide and India was selected owing to its huge population base, Chadha told reporters here today.

To a query, she said that the target was to decrease the divide by 50 per cent, for which more villages would be brought under the programme's fold.

At present, there are nine states where the programme had been rolled out and two lakh 'Internet Saathis' had been trained.

Google is providing android tablets and smartphones to women as well as data access.

Chadha said the programme was adding 500 women per week.

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Head of Innovation of Tata Trusts, Ganesh Neelam said, "We are entering West Bengal through our field strength and on the basis of learnings and experiences of working with rural communities in the state."



Google's initiative in West Bengal would roll out from the Purulia district and cover 400 villages.

Initially, 120 'Internet Saathis' would be trained, Neelam said.
With the row over film 'Udta Punjab' escalating, Information and Broadcasting ministry officials today asserted that the certification process is independent and even court verdicts have made it clear that the government does not have much role in it.

Their reaction came after co-producer Anurag Kashyap yesterday lashed out at Censor Board chief Pahlaj Nihalani over the proposed cuts in the film, calling him "oligarch" and "dictator", and dragged in I&B ministry in the controversy saying he got no help from it.

"The process is quite clear that filmmakers can approach the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT) in case they are not satisfied with the decisions of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC). Court guidelines also make it clear that in such matters it is not for the I&B ministry to take matters in its own hands," an official said when contacted.

Official sources cited a judgement in the matter Union of India vs K M Shankarappa given by a double bench of Supreme Court in November 2000, where it felt that a provision which gave the Centre powers to intervene and review matters pending before the certification board or the appellate tribunal was a travesty of rule of law.

"The apex court had in the verdict on November 28, 2000 held that section 6(1) of Cinematograph Act which granted the Centre power of review and revision over decisions of the Board or Appellate Tribunal was a travesty of the rule of law," they said.

It it very clear that a secretary or minister cannot sit in appeal or revision over decisions of FCAT, which consists of experts and decides matters quasi-judicially, they said.

Pointing to the court judgement, they added that at the highest, Government itself may apply to the tribunal for a review, if circumstances so warrant, but the government would be bound by the ultimate decision of the tribunal, they added.

Officials, however, added that the ministry is in the process of streamlining the film certification process and the first part of recommendations submitted by the Shyam Benegal committee are already being examined.

Seeking to dismiss apprehensions that the tribunal may take long to clear films, the officials referred to another film 'Raman Raghav 2', which was directed by Kashyap, and said that it came before FCAT on May 29 and an order was passed on May 31.

Officials also said that the FCAT consists of a retired



judge of High Court or a person qualified to be a judge of High Court and other experts in the field.

"In its judgement, the apex court had also held that a secretary or a minister cannot sit in appeal or revision over those decisions," an official said.

They added that the process of certification is clear and timelines are laid for various stages for the process and it should be followed.

An I&B official said that the ministry has been supportive of creative minds like film-makers and said that only a couple of years back Kashyap had been a part of India pavilion at Cannes.

The Shahid Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Diljit Dosanjh starrer movie delves into how the youth in Punjab have succumbed to drugs. Punjab goes to polls next year.

The makers of the film are said to have been asked by the Revising Committee of the Censor Board to remove all references to Punjab and to make 89 cuts.

"It's my fight Vs a dictatorial man sitting there operating like an oligarch in his constituency of censor board, that's my North Korea," Kashyap said yesterday.

Several filmmakers including Karan Johar, Mahesh Bhatt, Ram Gopal Varma and Mukesh Bhatt have come out in his support.
Deviating from an established practice, the government has returned twice to the Supreme Court collegium a recommendation made by it.

The collegium headed by Chief Justice of India T S Thakur has stood by its recommendation to appoint an additional judge to the Patna High Court, overruling the government's objections on both the occasion.

Highly-placed sources in the government said today that in November, 2013 the collegium had recommended appointing a member of the state judicial services as additional judge to the Patna High Court. But the government had then returned the file to the collegium requesting it to "reconsider" the decision. The government's move was based on an Intelligence Bureau report.

In between, as the file was pending with the government, the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act was notified on April 13, 2015.

But when the new law which sought to overturn the collegium system was struck down by the Supreme Court on October 16 last, the old system of appointing judges to the apex court and the 24 high courts made a comeback.

After the return of the collegium system, the Law Ministry decided to look into the past recommendations made by the collegium. It was then decided to return the file of the collegium recommendation back to the CJI in March, 2016, requesting it to once again reconsider its decision.

But the collegium once again reiterated its recommendation in April.

Under the present scheme of things, if the collegium reiterates its recommendation, the government has to make the appointment. But at the same time, the government is free to "sit on the file" for as long as it wants and delay the appointment as there is no stipulated timeline.

As per the draft revised memorandum of procedure -- a document which will guide future appointment of judges to the Supreme Court and the high courts -- once the Centre has rejected a recommendation it will not be bound to reconsider it even after reiteration by the collegium.

But the collegium which examined the memorandum of procedure has questioned the clause. The document has since been returned to the government by the collegium.
The Gujarat government will file a reply in the high court on Friday on a PIL challenging the appointment of P P Pandey, an accused in the Ishrat Jahan case, as the state's in-charge DGP.

This was conveyed to the Gujarat High Court by the state government today in response to the PIL filed by former top cop Julio Rebeiro.

A division bench of Chief Justice R Subhash Reddy and Justice V M Pancholi had during last hearing on May 4 asked the public prosecutor to take instruction from the state government.

In his PIL, Rebeiro has said that Pandey, who is an accused in the alleged fake encounter case of Ishrat Jahan and three others and is out on bail, could hamper the investigation and influence witnesses in the case.

Rebeiro has served as the DGP of Gujarat and Punjab, the latter during the height of insurgency, and is credited for his contribution.

The PIL has said that Pandey's authority and influence as DGP will affect witnesses many of whom are serving police officers.

Pandey was jailed after Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is investigating the case, chargesheeted him along with other police officials in the encounter case.

After being released on bail, he was taken back in the service in February last year and was made the director of Anti-Corruption Bureau. A case against him is pending in an Ahmedabad court.

On April 16, he took took over as in-charge DGP of Gujarat following unexpected transfer of incumbent P C Thakur to Delhi.

Ishrat (19), Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillay, Amjadali Akabarali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were killed in an alleged fake encounter on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004.

Gujarat Police had then claimed that the four with links to Pakistan based Lashkar-e-Taiba, had come to the city to kill then Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
Unidentified gunmen today killed the principal of University Law College in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan's troubled Balochistan province.

Barrister Amanullah Achakzai was on his way to office when he was targeted in Quetta's Spinny Road area.

"He received multiple bullets and died in the hospital where he was shifted after the attack," local police official Zahoor Khan said.

Another police official said the principal was related to governor of Balochistan province Muhammad Khan Achakzai.

No group took the responsibility of the attack.

Several lawyers arrived at the Civil Hospital after the of attack. They announced to boycott the courts hearing.

Balochistan Chief Minister Sanaullah Zehri condemned the attack and ordered an inquiry.
The Orissa High Court today took note of a PIL seeking judicial intervention to monitor the repair work of Sri Jagannath Temple which was in the for the dilapidated condition of its prayer hall 'Jagamohan'.

A division bench of the vacation court comprising Justices B K Nayak and D P Choudhry asked the counsel of the opposite parties in the PIL to take instructions from the appropriate authorities.

Arraigning the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and the state government departments, a social activist Abhisek Das had approached the HC thorugh the PIL seeking its direction for formation of a committee to monitor the repair works of Jagamohan.

Cutting across party lines, political leaders of the state have expressed concern over the condition of the Jagamohan and on the protracted delay in its repair.

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The counsel for the priest said since the married daughters belong to different families and gotra they have no rights to perform 'puja sewa', which started yesterday and will end on March 7.

He said the trial court's February 4 order should be stayed and his sisters be restrained from performing the puja.

The counsel for the petitioner said from time immemorial only male descendants of the family were entitled to the proceeds of offerings since they perform puja and other rituals in the temple.

He sought to restrain his sisters from claiming share of the collection of the offerings through 'Sewa Bari' (turn).

The petitioner further stated that in the history of the Kalkaji temple, no woman has ever performed puja.

The two sisters through their counsel Satish Sahai told the court that they have a right to perform puja and 'sewa' being the legal heirs of their father.
Filmmaker Satarupa Sanyal says history is the real hero of her short film based on the position of women in a royal household of Calcutta during British rule.

Titled 'Shovabazar Rajbarir Andarmahal', the 28-minute film portrays the journey of late Kamala Devi Bourani, who entered the Dev family, a prominent princely family of 19th century Calcutta, as a child-bride after giving up her studies.

"It is the universal tale of women as being nowhere in history with their condition and situation seldom highlighted or referred. Their history is not chronicled," Satarupta told PTI.

The script is based on Kamala Devi's memoirs available with present day researchers which depict the lives of women in those times.

About not taking any celebrity face, the director said, "I have sought to show the subject as the true hero of this film. So I have consciously avoided using any star so that the subject does not lose focus.

"I have used professional actors to portray the character of Kamala Devi and others to show how she evolved as a housewife, who played a key role in planning the rituals and customs of the centuries old Durga Puja, and how women played an important role in running the family but had no outside exposure or apparent say in the domain of men."



When asked about the reason behind choosing a short film format, Satarupa said the subject demanded it.

The topic, she said, was such that it "can't be turned into a lavishly mounted period feature film even with higher budget".

The director has extensively shot the film inside famous



Durga Dalan, Chandi Mandop, Nachghar, Natmondir.

About sourcing the materials, Satarupa said, "I have spoken to the family and got inputs from them including descendant of the family and prominent music director Raja Narayan Dev."



The filmmaker said she has also shown contrast in present and past stature of women.

"The present generation of women are far more liberated and stepping out in the professional world with some of them bagging plum jobs and I have also shown this contrasting picture.

"Their (women) stories can be summed up in writer Saratchandra Chattopadhyay's words "E Sansare jara dilo, pelo na kichhui" (those who sacrificed for the world hardly got anything)," she said.
A Hong Kong protester told today how he was kicked and punched during pro-democracy rallies in 2014 as seven police officers stood trial over the attack, which was captured on film and beamed around the world.

Civic Party activist Ken Tsang testified for the first time in the trial which began last week in the semi-autonomous Chinese city.

All seven officers have pleaded not guilty.

Video footage of the assault, filmed by local media near the city's government headquarters, shocked residents and dented their faith in the usually trusted police force.

Police have been criticised for their sometimes heavy-handed treatment of protesters during the 79 days of rallies and street blockades which brought parts of the city to a standstill.

The demonstrators were seeking fully free elections for Hong Kong's future leaders.

Tsang, 40, said he was assaulted by seven men after he was subdued by police at a rally.

He was shown video footage in which prosecution lawyers asked him to identify himself. In one clip, he was thrown to the floor before several men kicked him in a dimly-lit area.

Footage by local network TVB and broadcast at the time showed a group of men hauling a handcuffed Tsang to a dark corner in a public park, where he was beaten.

One man stood over him punching him while three others were seen repeatedly kicking him.

Defence lawyers have said they would challenge the authenticity of the videos.

One of them told the court there were inconsistencies in what Tsang had told police in his early statements, including his failure to point out the exact number of people who assaulted him.

Cheng Huan suggested Tsang had no "independent memory" of what happened and was influenced by footage that became widely available afterwards.

The seven police, including senior officers, are charged with causing grievous bodily harm to Tsang, while one is accused of common assault.

They were suspended from duty after their arrests.

Tsang himself was sentenced to five weeks in prison for assaulting and resisting officers after he splashed liquid on police on the same night he was beaten.

Pro-police supporters gathered outside court, chanting "We support our police force" while several Tsang supporters carried yellow umbrellas, a symbol of the democratic movement.

Nearly 1,000 people were arrested over the course of the protests, with student leader Joshua Wong facing a verdict later this month.

He was acquitted yesterday in another protest-related case.

The hearings come as tensions remain high in the city.
Haryana minister Ram Bilas Sharma today hit out at All-India Jat Aarakshan Sangarsh Samiti chief Yashpal Malik, alleging the Jat leader from Uttar Pradesh is using innocent people of Haryana to grind his political axe.

"Look, a person wants to fight Uttar Pradesh elections, by using innocent people of Haryana," Sharma said here attacking Malik whose outfit is spearheading the fresh phase of Jat agitation for reservation in government jobs ans educational institutions in Haryana which began on Sunday.

The influential Khaps or caste councils and prominent Jat bodies from the state this time have decided to stay out of the stir, preferring to wait and watch for the outcome of the case before the courts.

Sharma charged, "Yashpal Malik tried to disturb peace in Haryana. He doesn't present himself before Courts in Haryana but in UP he raises pro-Mayawati slogans."



"In Haryana, there are many leaders who hail from the state including the former and the present Chief Minister, there are other leaders also. So, what is the moral authority in what he (Malik) says," he said while replying to Malik's "outsider" tag.

On May 27, a sedition case was registered the Jat leader and 125 others for allegedly threatening peace and communal harmony in Haryana by instigating people to launch a fresh quota agitation.

Malik is currently in UP garnering support from the Jat community there for the stir which All-India Jat Aarakshan Sangarsh Samiti (AIJASS) has started in Haryana.

Meanwhile, a prominent Jat leader from Haryana, Hawa Singh Sangwan, said Jats were pre-dominant community in the state and therefore larger responsibility rested on their shoulders also to not take any such step which may disturb peace.

The community will continue to struggle for its rights in a peaceful manner. The reservation issue is still pending before the courts and they will wait before deciding on next course of action, Sangwan told reporters in Bhiwani.

The agitation continued on a tepid note in various parts of the state for the fourth day today.

The state remained peaceful and no untoward incident was reported from any part, officials said.

Protests were held by Jats owing allegiance to AIJASS at various places including Sonipat, Rohtak, Uchana, Hisar, among other towns.

Besides heavy deployment of state police, paramilitary personnel drawn from CRPF, ITBP and BSF have been mobilised in sensitive districts of the state.

A close vigil is being maintained across the state,



including on national highways and railway tracks which the protesters had blocked for several days during the previous phase of Jat quota agitation in February.

The Jat protesters are demanding quota under OBC category, withdrawal of cases registered against community members during the previous stir, status of martyrs for those killed and jobs for their next of kin, besides compensation for the injured.

After the Jat agitation in February, which caused a lot of death and destruction, the state government had brought laws to provide 10 per cent reservation for Jats and five other communities under a newly carved Backward Classes (C) category.

However, the High Court stayed it, acting on a public interest litigation, after which some Jat groups announced the fresh stir.
Observing that there are over 30 million practitioners of Yoga in America, Prime Minister today told members of the US Congress that India has not yet claimed IPR on Yoga.

"SIRI tells us that India's ancient heritage of Yoga has over 30 million practitioners in the US. It is estimated that more Americans bend for yoga than to throw a curve ball.

"And, no Mr Speaker (Paul Ryan), we have not yet claimed intellectual property rights on Yoga," Modi said in his address to the joint session of the Congress.

SIRI is an iPhone programme that serves as an intelligent personal assistant and knowledge navigator, using sequential inference and contextual awareness to help perform personal tasks and answer questions.

"Connecting our two nations is also a unique and dynamic bridge of three million Indian-Americans," Modi said underscoring that the people to people links are strong and there is close cultural connect between the two societies.

"Today, they are among your best CEOs; academics; astronauts; scientists; economists; doctors; even spelling bee champions. They are your strength. They are also the pride of India. They symbolise the best of both our societies," he said.

In the course of his 45-minute speech, Modi covered all major aspects of the growing relationship between India and the US, particularly strategic ties and civil nuclear cooperation, and emphasised that the two countries should leave "constraints of the past" behind as the "foundations of the future are firmly in place".

In 2014, the UN General Assembly recognised June 21 as the International Yoga Day after 177 member states supported the draft moved by India.

The first International Day of Yoga was observed world over on June 21, 2015.
At this time, the united nation of Melanesia has the burden of adapting the colonial governance system and its traditional system to something new.

No one governance structure is better. Each is suited to its environment.

The current state of dysfunction needs to be viewed as a cultural transition from one governance system to another.

MELANESIA did not start in colonial times. Melanesia precedes colonialism by thousands of years.

This takes time. For Papua New Guinea, just 40 years into statehood, it is too early to be passing judgement.

I can assure you, a new breed of leadership is being born.

This group has no memory of colonialism, even the thousand tribes culture is becoming homogenised and this new breed is being born as citizens of the world and will demand to be treated as such.

In his book The Embarrassed Colonialist, Sean Dorney tells how he was cautioned by a representative from the Australian High Commission in PNG that he (Dorney) was starting to think like a Papua New Guinean. Now, why would anyone say such a thing?

Dorney is a great man doing what he loves doing, what did he say that warranted that comment? What kind of thoughts do Melanesian people think that is different from Australians?

Was Dorney talking corruption? Big men? Wantok system? Anyway, how are the wantok system and big men different from the mafias, nepotism and cronyism that happens all over the world - even in Australia.

To understand Melanesians requires perspective and it seems Australians dread the process and even caution their people to not get into that headspace.

I ask simply, how can you help me if you have not walked in my shoes and think the thoughts I think?

If we are to mutually benefit, to make herself useful to the Melanesians, Australia will have to try hard to understand Melanesia and start treating Melanesia, and especially Papua New Guinea, with honesty and openness without that patronising colonial attitude.
India cannot rise by containing China or picking one side against the other, an op-ed article in a Chinese state-run paper Global Times said on Wednesday, taking note of the ties.

"Four visits to the US and seven meetings with President Barack Obama in two years - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has ramped up the India-US relationship to an unprecedented level. How the two countries will engage with each other has raised heated discussions," an op-ed said.

It added, "Picking one side or camp against the other is not the way India will rise. New Delhi is looking into a multi-faceted diplomacy. The well performing Indian economy will give incentives to the country to be more confident with multilateralism and to seek balanced relations."



"Although rivalling China in many aspects, India knows its great vision cannot be realised by bashing or containing China. Instead, they should expand cooperation, explore the potentials and build mutual trust for their own good. China is more of a help than a competitor for India. This will eventually constitute India's fundamental understanding of China," it said referring to Modi's current visit to the US.

With Modi's visit, New Delhi hopes there will be breakthroughs in many aspects, especially business and trade, security cooperation and nuclear issues, the article titled 'India's vision cannot be realised by containing China' said.

"The transformation of the geopolitical landscape is the major driver drawing the US and India much closer. Washington's rebalance to the Asia-Pacific makes the US realise India's strategic significance, economic potential and ideological commonality," the article noted.

"India hopes that by consolidating its relationship with the US, it could gain leverage in development and forge an status that is worthy of its potential. Modi has riveted his interactions with the US on this simple outlook to make India a veritable powerhouse. He was eager to boost a broader and better economic relationship with the US," it asserted.

"He urged the signing of the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement, a landmark deal promoting logistics and defence cooperation with the US and he also expects an endorsement from the US to help India become a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the last step to solidify India's status as a nuclear power house," the article said.

As for Washington, it is always hoping that India could serve as its right hand to counterbalance China's rise. But so far, Washington's calculations do not work well. Turning down Washington's invitation to join a patrol in the South China Sea, New Delhi has no intention to cast away its founding principles: independence and non-alignment, it said.

"In the process of fulfilling its ambition to be a major power, India has always employed independent and pragmatic approaches. A balance between other major powers will be its primary and optimal choice," the article added.
India will seek uranium from Namibia for its peaceful nuclear energy use during the visit of President Pranab Mukherjee by trying to convince the fourth largest producer of the mineral to implement a seven-year-old agreement enabling the supply.

Mukherjee will be visiting three African countries-Ghana, Ivory Coast and Namibia--starting June 12 during which a range of important bilateral, regional and international issues are expected to come up during his talks with the African leaders. It will be Mukherjee's first ever visit to these countries.

The supply of uranium to India is expected to figure during the talks Mukherjee will have with Namibian President Hage Gottfried Geingob, Secretary (ER) Amar Sinha told reporters here today.

India had signed an agreement on cooperation on the peaceful use of nuclear energry with Namibia in 2009 when the then President Hifikepunye Pohamba visited this country.

The agreement has not been able to take off as it is yet to be ratified by Namibian parliament. Besides, that country is bound by Pelindaba treaty signed by African Union which prevents supply of uranium to countries which have not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

"Namibia is the fourth largest producer of uranium but they have an African Union agreement which impeads its implementation. Namibia has not been able to break that unity or the binding commitment (known as Pelindaba treaty)," he said.

Officials said India has signed bilateral agreements with countries like Australia, Canada for uranium supply without signing NPT.

"We have raised this issue with Namibia and we would again try to impress upon them that India is a very good market for uranium and the fact is that because we had thought that this MoU would kick in quickly and has not happened we have been looking and signing agreements with other countries.

"So eventually if we meet our requirement from non-Namibian sources it would be loss to Namibian industry," Sinha said.

The Secretary said it's a win win situation for both which brings them revenue and makes available to India uranium that they have.

"I am sure the President will speak to their President... Uranium in their mines does not bring them revenue. Since 2009 India's own status in the nuclear world has changed so that should also perhaps encourage them to have a re-look," he said.

Besides the uranium supply, India will offer help in setting up their army's signals unit by extending technical expertise.

"During the visit, discussions will be held on bilateral, regional and multilateral issues of mutual interest. The President will also address a joint session of Parliament of Namibia, an India-Namibia Business Event, and Namibian University of Science and Technology," an official statement said.

Mukherjee's visit will also be first to Namibia by an Indian President in over two decades.

The visit to Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire (also called as



Ivory Coast) will be first ever by an Indian President.

The President will arrive at Ghana's capital Accra on June 12 where he will have meeting with President John Dramani Mahama. The two countries are likely to sign agreements on a Joint Commission and renewal of Cultural Exchange Programme.

The President will address a Joint Business Forum and students and faculty of University of Ghana besides having an interaction with the Indian community at a reception organised at the Indian High Commission.

He will also unveil a statue of Mahatma Gandhi gifted by the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.

In the second leg of his visit starting June 14, the President will arrive in Abidjan, largest city of Cote d'Ivoire.

India had established its Embassy in Abidjan in 1979, while Cote d'Ivoire (also called as Ivory Coast) opened its Resident Mission here in September 2004.

He will have a meeting with Republic of Cote d'Ivoire President Alassane Ouattara after which the two sides are expected to sign number of agreements to upgrade bilateral ties.

"The agreement regarding opening of EXIM Bank Representative/Regional in Abidjan would be handed over in presence of both the Presidents. The President would address a Joint Business Forum and also interact with the Indian Community," a statement said.

Giving further details, Press Secretary to the President Venu Rajamony said the President has had a long association with Africa and his recent important engagement was when he hosted African leaders who came for the third India-Africa summit in Delhi in 2015.

"The President incidentally was the person who as External Affairs Minister in 2008 initiated the first India-Africa summit. The last visit of the President to Africa was to attend memorial meeting in the honour of late Nelson Mandela when he passed away in December 2013 when he had gone with multi-party delegation which included Sonia Gandhi, Sushma Swaraj, Anand Sharma, Sitaram Yechury," he said.

"President has not been to any of the three countries before. In the past, he has travelled many times to Mauritius, Uganda, Libya, Morocco, Egypt and South Africa but these three countries he is visiting for the first time," he said.
India will soon open another consulate in Seattle to cater to the needs of large number of Indian-Americans living in the northwestern part of the US.

"We hope to open a new Indian consulate in Seattle," Indian Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar said after the conclusion of the talks between Prime Minister and US President Barack Obama at the White House.

This was reflected in a joint statement issued after Modi-Obama talks.

"Both sides committed to open additional consulates in each other's country. India will be opening a new consulate in Seattle and the US will open a new consulate at a mutually agreed location in India," the joint statement said.

In the joint statement the two countries also announced a series of measures to encourage people-to-people contacts.

Modi and Obama announced that the United States and India will be Travel and Tourism Partner Countries for 2017, and committed to facilitate visas for each other's nationals.

According to a senior administration official the US plans to increase its number of people to issue visas at its diplomatic missions in India.

Reflecting on the strong educational and cultural bonds between the two countries, Modi and Obama welcomed the growing number of Indian students studying in the US which increased by 29 per cent to nearly 1,33,000 students in 2014-2015.

They also look forward to increased opportunities for American students to study in India. They also appreciated their governments' joint efforts through the Fulbright-Kalam Climate Fellowship to develop a cohort of climate scientists to confront the shared challenge of global climate change.

Recognizing its mutual goal of strengthening greater people-to-people ties, the two leaders intend to renew efforts to intensify dialogue to address issues affecting the citizens of both countries that arise due to differences in the approaches of legal systems, including issues relating to cross-country marriage, divorce and child custody, the joint statement said.

The US Embassy and Consulates in India issued more than 76,000 student visas in Fiscal Year 2015. Indian students accounted for the second-largest group of foreign students in the United States in the 2014-2015 school year, with the number of students from India in the US increasing by over 29 per cent to a record high of nearly 1,33,000.

Through the Passport to India program, the US government encourages American students to study in India. At the same time, more than a million Americans traveled to India in 2015.

"The announcement that the US and India will be Travel and Tourism Partners in 2017 aims to develop joint efforts and programs to grow these people-to-people and economic linkages. Similarly, the implementation of the Global Entry Program will facilitate travel between the two countries," the White House said in a fact sheet.
India will soon open its sixth in Seattle to cater to the needs of large number of Indian-Americans living in the northwestern part of the US.

"We hope to open a new Indian in Seattle," Indian Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar said after the conclusion of the talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Barack Obama at the White House.

This was reflected in a joint statement issued after Modi-Obama talks.

"Both sides committed to open additional consulates in each other's country. India will be opening a new in Seattle and the US will open a new consulate at a mutually agreed location in India," the joint statement said.

Apart from its embassy in Washington, India currently has consulates in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Houston and Atlanta.

In the joint statement the two countries also announced a series of measures to encourage people-to-people contacts.

Modi and Obama announced that the US and India will be Travel and Tourism Partner Countries for 2017, and committed to facilitate visas for each other's nationals.

According to a senior administration official the US plans to increase its number of people to issue visas at its diplomatic missions in India.

Reflecting on the strong educational and cultural bonds between the two countries, Modi and Obama welcomed the growing number of Indian students studying in the US which increased by 29 per cent to nearly 1,33,000 students in 2014-2015.

They also look forward to increased opportunities for American students to study in India. They also appreciated their governments' joint efforts through the Fulbright-Kalam Climate Fellowship to develop a cohort of climate scientists to confront the shared challenge of global climate change.

Recognizing its mutual goal of strengthening greater people-to-people ties, the two leaders intend to renew efforts to intensify dialogue to address issues affecting the citizens of both countries that arise due to differences in the approaches of legal systems, including issues relating to cross-country marriage, divorce and child custody, the joint statement said.

The US Embassy and Consulates in India issued more than 76,000 student visas in FY15. Indian students accounted for the second-largest group of foreign students in the US in the 2014-2015 school year, with the number of students from India in the US increasing by over 29 per cent to a record high of nearly 1,33,000.

Through the Passport to India program, the US government encourages American students to study in India. At the same time, more than a million Americans traveled to India in 2015.

"The announcement that the US and India will be Travel and Tourism Partners in 2017 aims to develop joint efforts and programs to grow these people-to-people and economic linkages. Similarly, the implementation of the Global Entry Program will facilitate travel between the two countries," the White House said in a fact sheet.
An Indian law firm is among the 15 such companies which recently bagged the prestigious Financial Times awards after a competition that witnessed participation of over 70 global firms.

The Financial Times Innovative Lawyers Awards Asia 2016 had received 460 submissions from 72 law firms and 82 in-house legal teams from various countries, many of which were appreciated for their work in their respective sectors.

Indian law firm Nishith Desai Associates won awards in two categories -- 'Most Innovation in Finance Law (Asia Pacific Headquartered Law Firms) and 'Most Innovative Law Firm' (Asia-Pacific Headquartered Law Firms).

According to a statement issued by Nishith Desai Associates (NDA), it won the best Innovation in Finance Law award in Asia-Pacific for designing India's USD six billion National Infrastructure Innovation Fund (NIIF) for the Government which provides equity financing for infrastructure projects.

Pratibha Jain, partner and head of funds and regulatory practice, who was commended for this award, said the fund was the brainchild of the BJP-led government.

"Investment in infrastructure is one of the core elements of India's economic programme. The estimated requirement of funds in infrastructure sector during the 12th Five Year Plan period (2012-17) is over Rs 45,00,000 crores.

"There has been a slowdown in equity inflows into the infrastructure sectors over the past few years, constraining further investments in the sector. NIIF has been created with the aim to attract equity investments from both domestic and international sources for infrastructure development in commercially viable projects," Jain said.
A 39-year-old "reckless" Indian- origin banker has been ordered to hand over his remaining assets to his former wife to prevent him gambling them away.

Amit Goyal, who had worked at high-flying jobs at well- known banks in the heart of the financial district in London, got drawn into spread-betting and lost much of his fortune.

A judge had previously ordered Goyal, now believed to be living in heavy debt, to hand over his remaining assets to his 35-year-old wife Ankita Ghuman.

Justice Cobb dismissed his appealyesterdayagainst the previous court decision at the Court of Appeal in London, ruling that Goyal's "financial recklessness to the detriment of his family" meant he should be stripped of his remaining "depressingly limited" assets, 'Evening Standard' reported.

During his heyday, Goyal earned up to 300,000 pounds a year as a trader in London and spent much of it on a high-end lifestyle with his then wife.

The couple split a few years ago and had been locked in a legal battle over their finances.

At a divorce hearing last year, the court found that Goyal had been lured in by a constant circulation among the traders of information and tips about spread-bets, with strong peer pressure to participate.

"So in order not to lose face, a trader would feel he had to take part. The husband did not want to be seen as a wimp. He wanted credibility in the eyes of his peers," Judge Glenn Brasse had said then.

As part of the divorce settlement, Goyal must surrender 19,000 pounds in shares to his ex-wife, pay her 500 pounds a month in maintenance and share his pension with her.

Dismissing his appeal against the settlement, Justice Cobb said Ghuman was entitled to such financial payments.

"The husband had frittered away the matrimonial assets. Having dissipated all the wealth of the family, this husband should not have a penny more," he ruled.

Goyal plans to challenge the court ruling over sharing his pension, and claims that he does not have one.
Amidst fears of cross-voting in June 11 Rajya Sabha polls, the main opposition INLD in Haryana has apparently packed off most of its MLAs to the hill resort of Mussorie while other parties have gone into a huddle to chalk out their strategies.

The ruling BJP has nominated Union Minister Birender Singh for one of the two seats and he is assured of a comfortable win but a keen contest is expected for the second seat between media baron Subhash Chandra and INLD-supported lawyer R K Anand, who are fighting it out as Independent candidates.

Apprehending that some of its MLAs may not toe the party line, especially as BJP-backed Chandra had claimed support of at least two INLD MLAs, a dozen-odd legislators of the party were yesterday sent off to the hill station in Uttarakhand.

INLD has 19 MLAs in the 90-member house.

While its MLAs Parminder Singh Dhull and Jaswinder Singh Sandhu have denied reports that they have gone to Mussorie, the party's Haryana unit president Ashok Arora said some other legislators have gone there "for a vacation" on their own.

When asked if the move was due to fear of cross-voting by some of their MLAs, Arora said, "A few of our legislators have gone to Mussorie and will be back in Chandigarh well in time before the voting for Rajya Sabha polls on June 11. There is no fear of cross-voting. Some of our MLAs have gone there for a short vacation."



Arora said the party will be supporting R K Anand.

However, the lone BSP candidate from Haryana Tek Chand Sharma has announced his party's support to Chandra.

"My support will be for the BJP and the candidate backed by the party," said Sharma, the MLA from Prithla.

Congress, meanwhile, is yet to reveal its cards and said the future course of action for the Rajya Sabha polls will be decided at a AICC meeting on June 10.

"As of today, we have not taken any decision (whether to vote or abstain). On June 10, we will decide at the AICC meeting in Delhi," former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said.

Yesterday, Hooda and another senior leader Kuldip Bishnoi, who recently merged his HJC with Congress, had separately met Congress Vice-president Rahul Gandhi in Delhi to discuss the party's strategy for the upcoming polls.

Today, more leaders from Haryana Congress including former Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Sharma are meeting the party high command to discuss the party's strategy for the RS polls.

The entry of Subhash Chandra and R K Anand has put the Congress in a tricky situation. The party has often accused the INLD of playing second fiddle to ruling BJP and if it backs R K Anand, it will mean backing an INLD-supported candidate. If the Congress decides to abstain from the vote, it will mean letting Subhash Chandra win.

Allegations that legislators were being lured for votes have cropped up ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections in several states including a purported sting in Karnataka.

State Congress chief Ashok Tanwar had earlier said, "We



will do whatever is best in the interest of the state and our party. We have shared the state unit's feedback with our party high command. The final decision will be taken collectively".

Yesterday, state BJP legislature party held a meeting here under the leadership of party general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya to draw up the strategy for the biennial elections.

BJP, with the support of five Independents and one BSP legislator, has the support of 52 MLAs in the 90-member House. It needs 31 votes to wrest the first seat but it does not have adequate numbers to get the second candidate elected.

BJP has 47 MLAs in the Assembly, INLD 19, Congress 17 (after 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.
JD(U) today demanded the "immediate resignation" of Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts (IGNCA) chairman Ram Bahadur Rai for questioning B R Ambedkar's role in framing of the Constitution and describing it as a "myth".

The party's national general secretary Shyam Rajak, in a statement here, also sought "registration of a case" against the chief of IGNCA, a premier government-funded arts centre.

Rajak, who is also the deputy leader of the state Legislative Assembly, saw a "BJP design" behind assertions of IGNCA chief who he alleged is also a "BJP strategist."



"It is the policy of BJP to end constitutional rights given to the Dalits and the backwards and establish 'Manuvad' in the country," he alleged.

Rai, a former ABVP general secretary and now the Chairman of Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts, had said in an interview that Ambedkar merely "corrected" the language as the head of the drafting committee and the assertion that he played a key role in writing the Constitution was a "myth".

"The IGNCA Chairman's assertion that it is a myth ... Is against the Constitution and also an insult to the Dalits and backward communities," he said.

"BJP is trying to befool people by garlanding the statue of Dalit icon B R Ambedkar and lighting agarbatti (incense sticks)," alleged Rajak, a former Bihar minister and prominent Dalit leader of JD(U).

He called upon the Dalits and members of the backward class to unite and protest "BJP's design" and also appealed to Dalit leaders in NDA to "quit" the ruling coalition at the Centre over the issue.
Filmmakers Kabir Khan, Farhan Akhtar, Gauri Shinde and actress Kalki Koechlin have joined the growing number of Bollywood celebrities, who have slammed the censor board for demanding cuts in "Udta Punjab".

The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) has purportedly raised certain objections to the Shahid Kapoor-Kareena Kapoor starrer regarding references to the problem of substance abuse in Punjab, following which the movie may have to go through some changes.

The board has also demanded the removal of "Punjab" from the title of the Abhishek Chaubey-directed movie.

Khan said changing the name of a film is not logical. Citing his own example, the director said censor board had asked him to make alterations in the title of "Bajrangi Bhaijaan" and wanted him to retain either "Bajrangi" or "Bhaijaan", which he felt was ridiculous.

"Now here, they seem to say by changing 'Udta Punjab' to 'Udta Timbuktu', the film is going to change. I don't understand the logic behind this kind of decision. How is this depicting any community or state in the negative way," Khan said.

"Are we saying the drug problem does not exist?... We all know till what extent the drug problem exists in Punjab. I was shooting last year in the border areas of Punjab for 'Bajrangi Bhaijaan' and everybody was talking about it. We saw people, families who were suffering from this problem and it is a film trying to highlight and focus on it. How is it going to negatively portray people?" he added.

Akhtar criticised officials of the censor board, writing, "Power is the most dangerous addiction of all & someone in the CBFC seems to be tripping hard on Lassi in the Sky with Diamonds. #UdtaPunjab."



"English Vinglish" helmer Shinde said, "When you tear out a man's tongue, you are not proving him a liar, you're only telling the world that you fear what he might say. #UdtaPunjab."



Kalki said in the case of "Udta Punjab", censorship is trying to limit a very realistic point of view.

"I don't blame even the censor board. It's an ancient system that hasn't changed for very long time. These days there is internet people know everything. But censorship tries to limit people's point of views and specially in this case, it is limiting a very realistic point of view," Kalki told PTI.

Alia Bhatt, who also stars in the film, posted Nobel Peace Prize winner from Pakistan Malala Yousufzai's quote, which read, "We realise the importance of our voices only when we are silenced.

Comedian-actor Kapil Shrama, who hails from Punjab, said it is important to address the drug problem. He said drugs is a real pain in the state as many families have lost their youth to it.

"Those who say that there are no drugs or illegal medicines easily available in Punjab.. Don't know the real pain of Punjab.

"Families have lost their youth to easy drugs and lack of rehabs in the state.. So can't shut our eyes to this."



"After removing Punjab from #UdtaPunjab, Censor Board to remove Daro from #MohenjoDaro in all dry states like Gujarat and Bihar," filmmaker Shirish Kunder tweeted.

Earlier, Karan Johar, Mahesh Bhatt, Hansal Mehta, Sudhir Mishra, Ranvir Shorey and Ram Gopal Varma expressed their displeasure over the board's decision to censor "Udta Punjab".
Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, one of the producers of "Udta Punjab", has criticised the government, saying it was wrong to politically colour his fight with Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) over censorship issue.

"FYI I have fought the UPA more on censorship issues than the NDA. But you know what, there was no Nihalani then," the director-producer tweeted.

The "Gangs of Wasseypur" helmer slammed the alleged "paid" trolls projecting him as an agent of Congress and AAP.

"And it's pathetic that the party supported and paid trolls are trying to make me look like an agent of congress or AAP," he wrote.

Kashyap said he had been working closely with Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore before the controversy.

"Where as I have been working closely with this ministry and the MOS Mr Rathore on the censorship issues.

"And I have all our texts and messages saved so if the govt is trying to make there (sic) incompetence look good then they've picked a wrong person & stop taking out list of cuts made for television of my adult films to show as censored portions of my film to prove a non-existing point."



Upset with the censor board committee's recommendations, Kashyap had tweeted yesterday, "I always wondered what it felt like to live in North Korea. Ab to plane pakadney ki bhi zaroorat nahin."



To which Rathore had said, "Do you think you are living in North Korea? We can have a vote here, it is a democracy."



The "Udta Punjab" storm started after the board purportedly raised certain objections regarding references to Punjab and asked the makers were asked by the revising committee and to make 89 cuts.
As Hillary Clinton declared victory Tuesday in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, her successor in the U.S. Senate said she was inspired by the historical significance of the achievement.

Clinton is on track to become the first woman in U.S. history to win a political party's presidential nomination.

"The value of this moment for women and girls across the country and the entire world is immeasurable, and we will be seeing the effects of it for decades to come, because it sends a loud and clear message to the world that there is nothing a woman in this country can't do if she is willing to raise her voice and fight for it," said U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a Clinton supporter.

Gillibrand, D-N.Y., endorsed Clinton shortly after the former secretary of state entered the race in 2015. She also traveled to New Hampshire, the site of the first primary of the 2016 election, to campaign for Clinton.

Clinton claimed the Democratic nomination after winning four states on Tuesday. She scored double-digit victories in California and New Jersey and narrowly defeated her opponent, Bernie Sanders, in New Mexico and South Dakota.

She added to her pledged delegate total, which now stands at 2,184.

So far, 571 superdelegates have committed to supporting Clinton at the convention. That gives her 2,755 total delegates  more than the 2,383 she needs to win the nomination.

Sanders previously said he'll remain in the race until the Democratic convention, which will be held July 25-28 in Philadelphia.

While Sanders' status will be sorted out over the next several weeks, Gillibrand is enjoying her mentor's success.

"Hillary Clinton has been breaking down barriers her entire life and this election is no exception," she said. "American women have been waiting for this moment for a long time and we aren't going to let this opportunity go to waste. We have one more glass ceiling to break and we will do everything we can to help elect Hillary Clinton president."
A team of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) today made a presentation on proposed fourth phase of Metro before Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal whose government has given in-principle approval for the construction of the project.

"The presentation on the proposed fourth phase of Metro was made to the Delhi Chief Minister at Delhi Secretariat here.

"Some changes on the routes of metro line have been proposed by the government following some MLAs' demands. However, the CM will soon take a final decision in this regard," an official said.

In February this year, PWD Minister Satyendar Jain had said that AAP government had given in-principle approval for construction of Metro Phase IV.

DMRC has set 2021 as deadline for the phase IV expansion, which would add 75 stations to the metro network. A total of 31.47 kilometres of new lines will be underground while 64.39 km will be elevated.

During the presentation today, Delhi Transport Minister Gopal Rai, Satyendar Jain and DMRC chief Mangu Singh were present among others in the meeting.
The Kerala Catholic Bishops' Council today expressed concern about the uncertainty over the release of Father Tom Uzhunnalil, who was abducted by a terror group in Yemen, and requested the government to ensure his safe release.

KCBC, a permanent association of Catholic bishops in the state, urged both the Central and state governments to ensure safe release of the priest as early as possible.

"KCBC is very much concerned about prolonged uncertainty in the release of Father Tom Uzhunnalil. We request the Central and state governments to continue their sincere efforts to make possible his safe release from the captivity of militants in Yemen," an association release said after a two-day meeting of the Catholic bishops here.

Father Uzhunnalil, who hails from Kerala, was abducted in March this year by a terror group in conflict-hit Yemen.

He was captured from the southern Yemeni city of Aden by gunmen who killed at least 15 people at an old people's home in an attack that was condemned by Pope Francis. Minister of State for External Affairs, Gen V K Singh, had said last month in Kottayam that there was no "adverse" report about the Catholic priest.
One more person was arrested today in connection with the kidney racket being busted at Apollo Hospital here last week, taking the total number of arrests in the case to ten.

The tenth accused, Bhanu Pratap, was arrested from Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh. He was identified as one of the donors associated with the racket, a senior police official said.

Kingpin of the racket, Rajkumar Rao, who is believed to be associated with similar rackets in Nepal, Sri Lanka and Indonesia, was arrested in West Bengal yesterday. Three donors, including two women, were also arrested in the case.

Rao was under police scanner for operating similar rackets in Jalandhar, Coimbatore and Hyderabad. He was identified with the interrogation of the middlemen in the racket and teams were rushed to several states to track him down.

Police had also arrested a couple Umesh and Nilu from Kanpur, and Mamta alias Maumita, wife of one of the five accused was nabbed last week.

Umesh and Nilu told police that they had sold their kidneys for Rs 4 lakh and Rs 3 lakh respectively as they were in urgent need of money for their minor son's leg surgery. They were in contact with a tout of the racket, Satya Prakash, who was arrested along with four others as police busted the racket last week.

Maumita, wife of another tout Devashish Moulik, had led police to make the arrests in connection with the racket.

The police said that they will also question the ten doctors of Apollo Hospital's internal assessment committee for transplant surgeries.

Under the scanner for the kidney racket, Indraprastha Apollo hospital has constituted a three-member inquiry committee to study the existing system for giving approval for transplant of an organ in the hospital.

The police has short-listed the names of three senior doctors from the hospital's in-house assessment committee for verifying documents related to transplants. The doctors are likely to be questioned first as they had cleared the papers in connection with the surgeries under the scanner.

The investigators have also come across names of two senior nephrologists in connection with the racket. It is suspected that a few kidney transplants which were facilitated by the racketeers were done by the doctor concerned in Apollo Hospital.

Police has so far come across five cases of kidney transplants conducted in the city through this racket and during interrogation, the accused disclosed that about 10-15 more transplants had been done at Jalandhar and Coimbatore in the past two years.

Delhi government has also set up a five-member panel to investigate the kidney racket and asked it to submit its report within 15 days.
Chinese handset maker LeEco has requested the government to relax mandatory sourcing norms for the company as it looks to ramp up its retail presence in the country.

LeEco, which entered the Indian market in January this year, had filed an application with the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), seeking approval for opening single brand retail shops in India.

At present, 100 per cent FDI is permitted in the sector but beyond 49 per cent, FIPB permission is required.

"We have also asked the government to give us an exemption on it, on the 30 per cent (local sourcing) norm. We haven't heard from them as yet on where the status is. But we believe the application is on right now, so it's really with the government to come back to us," LeEco India Smart Electronics Business COO Atul Jain told PTI.

He added that the norms should not be applied to it as it is a "hi-tech" company and it should not be forced to comply with the local sourcing norms.

"Many of the phones can be manufactured here, many of the TVs that we will make we will bring into India can be made here but can we do them effectively the way we want, that is a question, so we will still explore that option," he said.

LeEco is the third smartphone vendor after US tech giant Apple and Chinese player Xiaomi that sought exemption from local sourcing norms for opening single-brand retail stores in the country.

While the Finance Ministry rejected the waiver of mandatory 30 per cent local sourcing for Apple, Xiaomi is believed to have withdrew its proposal.

Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, however, has said she will take up the Apple's issue with the Finance Ministry.

For single-brand product retail trading, that involve FDI beyond 51 per cent, sourcing of 30 per cent of the value of goods purchased has been mandated from the country. However, government last year said that it may relax the sourcing norms if any company's products are state-of-the-art and cutting-edge technology.

Asked if LeEco will manufacture its devices in India,



Jain answered in the affirmative.

"We are at a very advanced stage of doing it and I think in the next 2-3 months, we will be in a position to make a formal announcement. We are looking at both third-party and greenfield ventures," he said.

The company already has an R&D centre in India with close to 1,000 people.

LeEco today launched two new smartphones -- Le 2 and Le Max 2 -- priced at Rs 11,999 and Rs 22,999, respectively. It also announced the launch of its ecommerce platform LeMall in the country.

"Customers will get access to our devices and accessories as well as offers and content through LeMall, our marketplace website. LeMall is an important step in establishing our footprint in India and will serve as the primary channel for customers to engage with the brand," LeEco Head of North American Operations Brian Hui said.

Le 2, which is the successor to Le 1S, comes with a 5.5-inch display, 1.86 GHz octacore Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 processor, 3GB RAM, 32GB memory, 16MP rear and 8MP front camera and 3,000 mAh battery.

Le 2 will support all 4G bands in India and will also have Voice over LTE (VoLTE) very soon through an update.

Le Max2 is powered by 2.15 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor, 5.7-inch display, 21MP rear and 8MP front camera. The device will come in two variants -- 4GB RAM and 32GB on board memory (Rs 22,999) and 6GB RAM and 64GB on board memory (Rs 29,000).

LeEco will have its first flash sale for Le Max 2 on June 28 and for Le 2 in early July. Registration for both the models will be open on June 20 on ecommerce firm Flipkart.
Jammu and Kashmir government will soon come up with a legislation to make use of polythene in the state a cognizable offence, Legislative Council was informed today.

Minister of Law and Justice Abdul Haq today informed the Council that the Government will come up with a legislation to make use of polythene a cognizable offence.

Replying to a question of S Charanjeet Singh, the Minister said, to eradicate the menace of polythene the Forest Ministry would soon come up with a legislation to make the use of polythene a cognizable offence.

He said his ministry is assisting the Forest Ministry in the same and would soon come up with the relevant legislation.

Haq said, under 'My Village, My World' campaign, Rural Development Department has also launched a campaign against use of polythene, giving powers to block development officials to impose fine on people for using it.
In a bid to strengthen Trinamool Congress in Tripura where it has emerged as main opposition patry, its supremo Mamata Banerjee is likely to visit the state next month.

"We have given a few dates after the Ramzan month gets over. We are very much hopeful that Mamatadi will visit Tripura in July. Her visit will help us to strengthen the party organization in the state," Sudip Ray Barman who led the Congress dissidents, told PTI here.

In a setback for Congress, six dissident MLAs in Tripura yesterday joined TMC which has now become main opposition party in the Left-ruled state.

The six rebel Congress MLAs submitted a letter to Tripura Assembly Speaker Ramendra Debnath saying they are quitting the party and joining Trinamool Congress.

Burman has been elected leader of the TMC legislature group and is expected to stake claim to the post of the Leader of the Opposition.
Seeking to clear the air on a second term for Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan, Union Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha on Wednesday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will take a call on this at an appropriate time.

Rajans current term is set to end in September and there has been intense speculation about whether he would be given another term, especially when a section of the ruling party has been pitching for his ouster.

The announcement will be made at an appropriate time. Our Prime Minister and Finance Minister had said they would make the announcement as soon as they take the decision in this regard, Sinha told reporters. Sinha was in Rajkot as part of the second anniversary of the NDA government.

He termed the Prime Minister, who is currently visiting the US, as "a global statesman".

"Modi has become a global statesman now. India's prestige and identity have touched new heights under him. Today, India is among the three or four most important countries in the world. It is a matter of pride for all of us that he will address the US Congress today," said Sinha.
A 36-year-old woman, who killed her minor kids and also attempted to commit suicide, has been sentenced to life imprisonment by a Delhi court which said there was no record to show she was mentally unstable at the time of the incident.

Additional Sessions Judge Rakesh Kumar-II, while awarding the jail term to Sonali Sachdev, said though "two valuable lives have been lost", the case did not fall in the category of rarest of rare.

The court noted that the woman was being treated for severe depressive episode but said there was nothing to show she was mentally unstable at the time of the incident.

"All the defence witnesses deposed about her mental condition from the date she was admitted in Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IHBAS) but there is no record to establish that she was mentally unstable at the time of occurrence. Thus, the defence evidence led by the accused is of no help to her," it said while convicting her.

"....This court is of the considered opinion that the offence was committed by none other than Sonali Sachdev. Hence, she is held guilty for the offence under sections 302 (murder)/309 (attempt to commit suicide) of the IPC."



Police, after receiving a call in March 2010 that somebody had committed suicide, reached Sonali's Tilak Nagar house in west Delhi and found her husband Pramod and two children dead and the woman unconscious.

Pramod, who was worried about the admission of their daughter in school, committed suicide. Sonali, after finding her husband dead, also tried to end her life as well as that of her children, police said.

It said that she strangulated her kids with a pillow and tried to end her life by consuming sleeping pills, hanging herself and cutting her vains.

All of them were taken to hospital where Pramod and the two minors were declared dead while the woman underwent treatment.

During trial, she claimed innocence and led evidence in support of her defence.

She sought leniency in sentence saying she was awidow and has remained in jail from March, 2010 till July, 2012 and claimed that the case did not fall in the category of rarest of rare.

The prosecutor, however, said no leniency should be shown to the woman as she had murdered her minor son and daughter and did not care about her relation with the kids.
Former chief minister Arjun Munda today sought the intervention of Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das with regard to the decision of closure of Tata Rolls Limited (TRL), a subsidiary of Tata Steel, situated at Gamariah in adjoining Seraikela-Kharswan district.

Calling on Das here, Munda said the over five-decade-old TRL, (formerly Tata-Yodogawa Limited) was a metal fabrication and processing company headquartered at Jamshedpur, should not be closed as employees and their families would suffer.

In a press release, the senior BJP leader said the closure would adversely impact the government's move to lure investment to the mineral-rich state.

Munda, who led a delegation of the company employees, suggested to constitute a high-level team of the state government to take stock of the prevailing state of affairs of the company.

The employees apprised Munda that resentment has been prevailing among employees ever since the company decided to introduce voluntary retirement scheme to retrench employees and suspend all production activities following a meeting held on May 26, the release said.

Tayo Rolls produces primarily cast rolls, forged rolls, special castings and pig iron.

(REOPENS ERG15)



Meanwhile, Chief Minister Raghubar Das today



constituted a two-member team to probe into the closure of Jamshedpur-based Tayo Rolls Limited.

He also asked the secretary and director of the state industry department to look into it and submit a report.

The Chief Minister's decision came hours after former chief minister and senior BJP leader Arjun Munda drew his attention to the closure of the company.
The nail-biter race for Peru's presidency remained tight as the daughter of imprisoned ex-president Alberto Fujimori gained ground on her rival thanks to votes trickling in from remote rural areas and embassies abroad.

Former World Bank economist Pedro Pablo Kuczysnki's razor-thin lead over Keiko Fujimori shrank to fewer than 47,000 votes early yesterday morning before widening slightly later in the day to over 57,000. With tallies from more than 97% of polling stations counted, Kuczynski had 50.2% of the votes compared with Fujimori's 49.8%.

While two quick counts showed Kuczynski prevailing in a tight contest, still being counted are the ballots cast by 885,000 Peruvians eligible to vote abroad, the last of which are expected to arrive in Peru today.

Peruvians living abroad, the majority in the United States, turned out massively for Fujimori in the 2011 election but are expected to be more split in the support this time around.

About 1,200 handwritten tallies representing up to 360,000 votes were being disputed and were sent to a special electoral board for review, Mariano Cucho, the head of Peru's electoral authority, told RPP Radio yesterday.

Both candidates have remained largely silent while awaiting final results of what is Peru's tightest presidential race since 1962, which ended in a military coup.

"Tranquility and serenity," Kuczynski urged yesterday as he was mobbed by reporters leaving a restaurant. "We have to wait for the final verdict. We're almost there."



Regardless of who wins, half of voters are bound to be disappointed, making it harder for the next president to govern. Aides in both campaigns are jockeying for positions in an eventual alliance in congress, where Fujimori's Popular Force won a solid majority of 73 of 130 seats. Kuczynski's fledgling movement will have just 18, fewer than the country's main leftist alliance.

While Kuczynski's campaign said it is ready to work with all political groups, supporters of Fujimori expressed doubt that the wounds from the final stretch of the campaign, in which Kuczynski accused Keiko Fujimori of being the harbinger of a "narco-state," could be easily healed.

"They called us drug traffickers, thieves," said Lourdes Alcorta, a congresswoman. "It's going to be difficult for us to hug them."



If Kuczynski holds onto his lead, it would be a stunning turnaround. Fujimori topped by more than 20 points a field of 10 candidates in the first round of voting in April and consistently led Kuczynski in polls taken before Sunday's runoff.
AUBURN  In high school, Auburn native John Beer went on a field trip that ultimately changed his life.

An AP English student at Auburn High School, Beer's class visited Cayuga Community College, where American poet Brad Burdick, better known as Antler, was invited to speak.

He read some poetry to our class, and that was the first time that I ever really had the idea that people still did that kind of thing for a living, Beer said. It planted a seed, so to speak.

Beer went on to study at Princeton University, but it wasn't until after college that he began to seriously think about pursuing a career in writing.

But why poetry?

"There's a poet from the 1920s  a guy named Hart Crane  and he said that he would have been a novelist except he could never think of a good plot," Beer said. "That's my answer, too."

In the mid-1990s, Beer moved west and earned his master's at the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop. And nearly 20 years later  after working as a theater critic in Chicago, a literary assistant to poet Robert Lax in Olean, and writing for several magazines nationwide  Beer published his first poetry collection, The Waste Land and Other Poems.

The collection won the 2011 Norma Farber First Book Award from the Poetry Society of America and received many positive reviews, which encouraged him to keep writing. So, after moving to Oregon to become an English professor at Portland State University, Beer began the research for his next book.

"It started out as a kind of translation of a German novel from the 1790s called 'Lucinde' by Freidrich Schlegel," he said. "I came across the book and I was surprised I had never heard of it because it was very much ahead of its time. It really read like a 20th-century novel."

One of the most famous works of early romantic literature in Germany, "Lucinde" grabbed hold of Beer right away, and he decided to incorporate the novel into his own work.

In 2013, Beer published a chapbook, or small paperback of poems, titled "Lucinda." But, soon after, Beer realized he wasn't finished.

"It fairly quickly became its own invention," he said. "So I decided to create a book-length poem... my own idea of doing something ahead of its time."

The full-length verse novella "Lucinda" was released this spring as one poem in 11 sections. It is very much a modern poem with a shifting setting, Beer said, and aspects of drama, poetry and prose.

Tuesday, the poet will return to Cayuga County to read it.

According to Beer, whose family still lives in Auburn, his brother-in-law and Auburn City Councilor Terry Cuddy suggested he hold a poetry reading in his hometown. And since much of Beer's work was inspired in Auburn, the 46-year-old agreed.

"I would say that they are all inspired by growing up in Auburn in one way or another," he said. "I think the atmosphere of the town and the countryside have a lot to do with the meat of the poems."
Madhesis will not join Nepal's government unless their demands are fulfilled through a constitutional amendment, a senior community leader said, terming the calls for talks as "drama of dialogues".

"We cannot join the government without amendments in the constitution that was promulgated last year to accommodate our demands," Sadbhawana Party co-chairman Laxman Lal Karna said.

"Whenever we launch the protest programmes, the government re-stages the drama of dialogues, which is not acceptable to us," he added.

He said the country would not find any way out from the existing political stalemate unless the three big parties took joint initiatives for resolving the issue.

A leader of one of the major constituents of the protesting Federal Alliance, Karna said the protesting parties would not ignore talks if the big parties jointly took initiatives for a meaningful talk.

Representatives from both Nepali Congress and the ruling parties CPN-UML and UCPN-Maoist should be included for holding meaningful talks, he said.

"But, there should not be talks for the sake of talks," he said, adding that "the talks should be made meaningful and result-oriented."



Karna said that the government should meet conditions of the Federal Alliance to hold the dialogue.

The government should declare as martyrs those deceased in the Madhes protests and form an investigation commission to probe into human rights violations in the protests, he said.

He added that the alliance would continue their agitation till mid-June.

Over 50 people lost their lives during months-long agitation by the Madhesis which also saw blockade of Nepal's all trading points with India, resulting in huge shortage of essential commodities and souring Indo-Nepal ties.

Madhesis, who are mostly of Indian-origin, want the government to rewrite the Constitution so that the concept of secularism, identity-based proportional inclusive representation and federal democratic republic status to Nepal could be constitutionally ensured.
The Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry today said the Chief Justice of Madras High Court has assured it that no action would be taken against advocates following amendments to the Advocates Act, till a decision is taken on suggestions made by various bar associations.

"The Chief Justice of Madras High Court has assured the office bearers of the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry that no action will be taken against the advocates in pursuant to the amendments introduced by the High Court to Advocates Act, till a decision is taken on the suggestions from bar associations," BCTP Chairman D Selvam told reporters.

The officer bearers had met Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul yesterday and submitted a memorandum seeking reconsideration of the amendments to the Advocates Act.

According to a release from BCTP, the High Court has invited suggestions from all the bar associations on the changes to be made to the Advocates Act.They may be submitted through BCTP which will be placed before the High Court rule Committee for its reconsideration, it said.

The release said the Chairman of Bar Council of India has also requested the Chief Justice to reconsider the amendments made to the rules through discussions and also advised all the bar associations to resolve the issues by way of dialogue and not by resorting to rallies and boycott.

The bar associations have been requested to furnish their suggestions to BCTP by June 17.

The matter relates to recent amendments that were introduced by the High Court to Section 34(1)of Advocates Act against which various advocates associations took out a rally on June 6.

In a notification, the high court had said that the court has power under 14-A of Advocates Act to debar advocates who indulge in activities such as trying to influence a judge or participates in a procession inside court campus or holds placards inside the court hall, among others.

Such advocates shall be debarred from appearing before the high court or subordinate courts permanently or for such period as the court may think fit and the Registrar General shall thereupon report it to the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu, it said.
Censor board chief Pahlaj Nihalani today dismissed allegations that he was under any political pressure from the Punjab government over the release of "Udta Punjab".

The Abhishek Chaubey-directed movie is in the middle of a censorship row and while its makers are battling with the board, political parties have alleged that Nihalani acted under the direction of the state government.

One of the producers, Anurag Kashyap, has openly slammed the censor board and its chief for allegedly demanding 89 cuts in the film, besides asking them to drop the word 'Punjab' from the title and the movie.

"Absolutely not. I am not under any political pressure," Nihalani said when asked whether he acted under the pressure of Punjab government.

Taking a potshot at Kashyap, Nihalani claimed he has heard that the filmmaker had taken money from Aam Aadmi Party to show Punjab in bad light.

"I've heard Anurag Kashyap has taken money from AAP to show Punjab in bad light," Nihalani claimed.

When asked about Kashyap's remarks that he acts like a dictator, Nihalani said, "I can't comment on someone's personal opinion. It is their own choice. People are fighting over freedom of speech and expression. It's their responsibility. But a film goes to public exhibition and we act according to the rules made by the government.

When asked whether it was true that he had told the makers to drop 'Punjab' from the title, Nihalani said, "When they have put a disclaimer that the film has fictitious characters but the whole movie is on Punjab and they have taken names from Punjab... Then we have a reason and as per the guidelines we can cut. That's why we have cut."



The makers had also alleged that Nihalani purposely refused to hand them the letter, which mentioned the cuts.

Nihalani, however, said that the producers themselves did not collect the letter until today and instead went to media persons making the matter public.

"We met with the producers on Monday and told them about the cuts. They said, 'If we get cuts, will you give us the certificate?' I said, 'Of course yes'. But they did not turn up to collect the letter. They directly went to media. Today they came to collect the letter."



The producers have now moved to the Bombay high court.

It is not for the first time that Nihalani has locked horns with filmmakers over censorship issues. He has been at the center of controversy since his appointment at the beginning of the last year.

He was slammed for shortening the length of a kiss scene is James Bond movie "Spectre", making cuts Anushka Sharma's "NH10", "Aligarh" and other Bollywood and Hollywood movies.

He has been facing opposition from within the board and from Bollywood.
The population of endangered Chinese white dolphins has increased in the last five years in the country as its total number now stands at 2,060, authorities said today.

There are now 2,060 endangered Chinese white dolphins living near an estuary of the Pearl River, marine authorities said.

A Chinese white dolphin monitoring expedition in 2015 found that the population had increased from the 1,500 recorded in 2011, He Shaoqing, deputy chief of Guangdong provincial maritime and fishery bureau said.

The bureau issued a release on the marine environment of the province for 2015, which coincided with World Oceans Day.

He said the dolphin monitoring team had recorded 378 dolphin groups totalling 2,416, 2,060 were Chinese white dolphins, state-run Xinhua agency reported.

Chinese white dolphins, which are a first-class protected animal, are found along a few coastal areas in the country.

The dolphins have a low reproduction rate and high habitat requirements.

Female dolphins only give birth every three years, and the calves have only a 20 per cent chance of survival, according to experts.

He said the ocean water quality near the coast of Guangdong Province is "basically good" but he warned excessive pollutants from five drainage rivers, of 12 in total, have been detected.

"Pollution control is still challenging," he said.
Pakistan has expressed serious concern over India's recent development of an anti-ballistic missile system, saying that it may give India a false sense of security, leading to unexpected complications which are contrary to its policy of a friendly neighbourhood.

India had successfully test-fired indigenously developed supersonic interceptor missile, capable of destroying any incoming ballistic missile, from a test range off Odisha coast on May 15.

The criticism came in the meeting of Senate yesterday, the Express Tribune newspaper reported today.

Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz told the government's response to the Senate.

"Massive conventional nuclear and missile development programmes pursued by India are now leading to nuclearisation of the Indian Ocean," he said.

"The development of an anti-ballistic missile system (ABM) may give India a false sense of security, leading to unexpected complications. Such actions are also contrary to the policy of a peaceful and friendly neighbourhood, which our prime minister (Nawaz Sharif) has repeatedly espoused," Aziz said.

"Pakistan has serious concerns over these developments and will take all necessary measures to augment its defence capabilities," he said.

"The balance of power has been disturbed in South Asia the way it was disturbed following India's nuclear tests in 1998," said Senator Javed Abbasi of ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

"I'm not aware of our military's response, but I suggest that the security establishment take note of the Indian interceptor missile test and devise a strategy accordingly," he said.

"The (interceptor missile) test has increased military threats from India," said Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed of opposition Pakistan Muslim League Quaid-e-Azam (PMLQ).

Referring to an upcoming meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) in Seoul, Mushahid said ground was being paved for India's elevation to the NSG.

"This is our diplomatic failure. The Indians are encircling us from all sides. Even our immediate neighbours, like Afghanistan and Iran, have gone to India. It's a result of our failed diplomacy and traditionally passive foreign policy," he added.

Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Senator Farhatullah Babar blamed flawed security policies for the foreign policy debacle.

"Isn't it a reality that we protected non-state actors to further our security agenda? Our age-old policy of harbouring non-state actors is taking toll on us," he said.

Chairman of the Senate Raza Rabbani said a clear strategy must be devised to respond to the situation created by India's missile test.
Pakistan has failed to take concrete action to keep a lid on banned militant outfits like Hafiz Saeed-led Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad which continuously resurface under new names challenging the government's authority, a media report said today.

Under the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997, it is the job of the Interior Ministry to determine whether any group is to be banned, but it should also keep tabs on such organisations and prevent them from re-emerging, the Express Tribune reported.

However, the ministry has failed to take concrete action to restrain actions of groups beyond adding their name to a central list, the daily said



"The ministry presented a list of banned organisations to the Senate in December 2015 with 61 names on it. That list has not been updated since nor has it been made available to the public," it said.

The daily said that one of the organisations which have circumvented the government's restrictions by rebranding themselves is LeT, led by 2008 Mumbai attack mastermind Saeed, which was banned in 2002.

"The group and Saeed were able to reinvent themselves under the banner of Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and expand their operations into a vast charity network as well," the daily said.

It said despite being sanctioned by the United Nations, the government has only kept the outfit on "observation" while its chief "Saeed continues to headline events across the country delivering public speeches."



Another such entity is JeM, accused of carrying out deadly attacks in India, which was first banned on January 22, 2002, the report said.

"It did not take long for the group to resurface under the new name of Khuddam-ul-Islam. The government banned that group on November 15, 2003. However, the group has continued to operate in the shadows."



Another group surviving the ban is anti-Shiite Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), which was first banned on January 22, 2002, the report said, pointing that the outfit resurfaced as Millat-e-Islami before the government banned that iteration in November 2003.

But it did not deter the group who managed to reinvent itself as the Ahl-e-Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ), the daily said.

"Though the ASWJ was banned on February 15, 2012, it has continued to flout that ban by staging sporadic activities across the country without much fear of retribution from the state," it said.

"Poor enforcement of law is the lead cause of such issues," the daily said quoting Imtaiz Gul, the executive director of Centre for Research Security Studies (CRSS).

He added that the seventh point of the government's National Action Plan (NAP) also specifically deals with re-emergence of proscribed organisations under different names.

"These outfits don't require registration to operate and they rename themselves to avoid surveillance from security agencies," Gul said.

"We have an existing framework of law and the only thing we need is enforcement of law through consolidated efforts," he said.
A teenaged Pakistani girl was today doused in petrol and then burnt alive here allegedly by her mother and brother for marrying a man of her choice, in the latest case of so-called 'honour-killings' in the country.

Zeenat, 18, died on the spot, police said.

"We have arrested the mother of Zeenat and are looking for her brother for allegedly setting her on fire, killing her on the spot," Lahore police spokesman Nayyab Haider told PTI.

He said Zeenat's mother Parveen told the police in custody that her daughter had committed an 'unforgivable' crime by marrying a man after eloping with him.

"Although Pareveen confessed to her crime, she denied the involvement of her son in killing Zeenat," Haider said.

Zeenat reportedly fell in love with Hasan, who lived in her locality, and asked her parents to accept his marriage proposal.

However, her parents refused following which Zeenat eloped with Hasan and married him in court.

The police official further said Zeenat,a resident of thickly-populated factory area, had contacted her mother a few days ago seeking her forgiveness for marrying against the will of her family.

"Parveen told her that she and other family members had forgiven her and she should return to take the blessing of her family," he said.

Getting into the trap, Zeenat agreed to return.

"Today, when Zeenat reached her parents' house, first she was tortured by her mother and a brother and then they doused petrol on her setting her alight," he said.

Police have registered a murder case against Parveen, her son and two unidentified men.

The girl's body has been shifted to a mortuary for autopsy.

Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has taken strict notice of the incident and directed Lahore police chief Amin Wains to thoroughly investigate the matter and bring the perpetrators to justice.

Last week, police arrested five men including asuitor for torching a19-year-old school teacher in Murree, some 35 kilometres from Islamabad, for refusing to marry him.

Similarly, last month, police arrested 13 members of a local tribal council including the parents of a teenage girl for strangulating her and later torching her body in Abbottabad for marrying a man of her choice.

According to Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, around 800women were killed last year in Punjab in 'honour killings'.

The Punjab government has introduced more strict legislation for protection of women.
Police in Papua New Guinea opened fire on students protesting against the prime minister today, with witnesses saying at least four people had been shot.

Students have been locked in a month-long standoff with authorities and have been boycotting classes as they demand Prime Minister Peter O'Neill step aside over corruption allegations.

Witnesses said the clashes broke out in the capital Port Moresby as students prepared to march from the University of PNG to parliament, where O'Neill was due to face a no confidence vote. Anti-corruption campaigner Noel Anjo Kolao, who helped organise the protest, said police had set up road blocks and pointed their guns at students.

"Then they started shooting at them," he told AFP by phone, saying that he saw several students were injured.

"We have two sets of laws in Papua New Guinea, one for the prime minister and one for ordinary citizens."



PNG broadcaster EMTV said on Twitter that four people had been shot, after earlier reporting that eight students were admitted to hospital, three in critical condition.

Australia's foreign minister confirmed that students had been shot, while Washington said the police had used tear gas against the protesters. But Port Moresby Hospital's chief emergency physician Sam Yockopua denied reports in Australian media that four people had been killed.

"There were two with major injuries while the other two had minor problems. No deaths," he told the PNG Post Courier newspaper.

The hospital's emergency department told AFP it was not authorised to give details on patients. Police in Port Moresby did not have any immediate comment.

O'Neill has been wanted for questioning by anti-corruption police for two years, but has refused to comply with a warrant for his arrest.

Police are investigating whether he authorised millions of dollars in illegal payments from the government to Paraka Lawyers, one of the Pacific nation's largest law firms.

When the arrest warrant was issued in 2014, O'Neill sacked the PNG police commissioner, fired his attorney-general and suspended numerous other justice department and police officials.

He also disbanded the country's anti-corruption watchdog.

O'Neil has denied the allegations and last month published a lengthy letter responding to the students' concerns suggesting the accusations were politically motivated.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi left for Mexico today after wrapping up his three-day US visit during which he held talks with President Barack Obama and addressed a joint session of the US Congress.

Modi addressed the joint session of the US Congress and attended a reception hosted jointly by the Foreign Relations Committees of the House of Representatives and the Senate as well as the India Caucus before emplaning for Mexico for the final leg of his five-nation tour that also took him to Afghanistan, Qatar and Switzerland.

"Thank you again America! A successful visit ends as PM Narendra Modi takes the long way home, via Mexico City," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted.

"After two days of a fruitful USA visit, PM Narendra Modi emplanes for Mexico," a tweet by the Prime Minister's Office said.
A day after an explosion in a private bus in Haryana, police are questioning several persons to find out who was carrying the chemical powder which had triggered the blast.

A 6-member IB team from Delhi also reached Fatehabad district, where the incident had occurred, and collected samples.

"We are investigating the matter and for this we have formed four teams. We have been questioning several local villagers and others in a bid to find out who could have been carrying the chemical powder whose samples have been sent to Forensic Sciences Laboratory at Madhuban. The sample report is awaited," Fatehabad SP O P Narwal said today.

He said it was possible that someone was carrying the chemical powder for scaring away birds from agricultural fields by causing an explosion.

"We are trying to reach to the person who was carrying this. We are yet to identify him, but we are hopeful to trace him soon. The injured and other passengers have not been able to say how the explosion occurred," he said.

He said that an IB team from Delhi reached the spot and took some samples for analysis.

Narwal said that police had identified a few retailers who sell this chemical powder to farmers.

The explosion took place in a bus yesterday at around 11 AM near Bhuna in Fatehabad, following which panic-stricken passengers jumped out.

A couple had sustained injuries in the incident.

The explosion came two weeks after a low-intensity blast had taken place in a state-run bus near Pipli in Kurukshetra, leaving 12 passengers injured.

Narwal, however, stressed that yesterday's explosion bore no similarity to the earlier incident.

"One thing is clear that yesterday's incident bore no similarity to the Pipli bus incident," he said.

Haryana witnessed three low-intensity blasts this year excluding the one yesterday, two of which occurred in trains in Panipat.

The explosion in the bus on May 26 had occurred when the vehicle was on its way from Sonepat to Chandigarh.

On January 16, a bomb blast had taken place in a passenger train at Panipat railway station. The explosive material was planted in a compartment next to the engine but there was no casualty.

On May 13, an explosion had rocked an EMU train which had reached Panipat from Delhi and had been moved to the yard. Again, there was no casualty.

Keeping in view the series of incidents, Haryana government yesterday decided to install CCTV cameras in all State Roadways buses.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to entertain the bail plea of sacked Uttarakhand minorities panel chief Sukhdev Singh Namdhari, accused in a 2012 shootout here that killed liquor baron and his brother Hardeep, saying charges against him were "grave".

"We are not interested in entertaining the petition. The charges against you are grave," a vacation bench comprising Justices P C Ghose and Amitava Roy said.

The apex court took strong note of the fact that Namdhari earlier secured interim bail on health grounds from the trial court during the pendency of his regular bail plea in the Delhi High Court.

"It is strange, the trial court grants you interim bail when the bail petition is pending in the High Court," it said.

Namdhari, in his plea before the apex court, said he was not keeping well and hence be enlarged on bail during the pendency of trial.

In April this year, the trial court, which is currently recording prosecution evidence in the case, has cancelled the interim bail of Namdhari and sent him to jail.

The trial court, while cancelling the interim bail, had said the main complainant, Nandlal Mahto, had turned hostile in the matter and it could not be ruled out that Namdhari had threatened him or given him gratification to turn hostile.

The plea seeking cancellation of Namdhari's interim bail was filed by wife of Hardeep in the trial court.

Namdhari, the alleged main conspirator in the case, was granted interim bail on November 27 last year on medical grounds which was extended time to time.

The accused had said that he was suffering from various ailments like hepatitis C, blood pressure and heart problems apart from depression and having suicidal tendencies.

Ponty and Hardeep, who were allegedly involved in a property dispute, were killed in a shootout at a Chhattarpur farmhouse here on November 17, 2012. Subsequently, Namdhari was arrested on November 23, 2012. Later, the remaining accused were apprehended.

The trial court in July last year had framed charges under section 302 (murder) read with section 149 (offence committed by member of unlawful assembly) of the IPC against all the 21 accused, including Namdhari and his Personal Security Officer (PSO) Sachin Tyagi.
Portuguese authorities today said they had detained an intelligence services officer on suspicion of being a double agent and selling secrets to Russia.

A Lisbon court judge ruled that Frederico Carvalhao Gil, extradited following his arrest in Rome on May 21 on suspicion of handing over confidential documents to a Russian national, should be detained on suspicion of spying.

The 57-year-old is being held on suspicion of espionage, selling state secrets, corruption and money laundering.

Some of the documents he is accused of passing to a Russian handler for payment reportedly contain confidential information on European security and NATO operations. Portugal is both an EU and NATO member.

Gil's lawyer Jose Preto, in comments to Portugal's Lusa press agency, called the arrest of his client "totally illegal" and the allegations against him "absolute fiction" and "absurd."



Media reports indicated Gil is a long-serving and senior member of Portugal's SIS intelligence services, set up in 1985 just as the country prepared to join the European Union.
Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu today laid the foundation of the over Rs 470-crore gauge conversion project on Ahmedabad-Mehsana line.

The gauge conversion will result in faster connectivity between Delhi and Ahmedabad, Prabhu said after laying the foundation through video-conferencing from Rail Bhawan here.

The function was also attended by BJP veteran L K Advani who made his maiden visit to Rail Bhawan.

An allotment of Rs 100 crore has been made for gauge conversion on the 70-km Ahmedabad-Mehsana line, he said.

"Gujarat plays an important role in terms of railway traffic due to strategic location of ports like Kandla," Prabhu said, adding railways has given an increased outlay for Gujarat in the last two years.

He said the railways' target is to spend Rs 1,21,000 crore in the current fiscal which is more than annual allotments during UPA government.

He said the public transporter plans to raise more money from other sources as well as there is still a gap between the demand and services being offered.

"Keeping in mind the future requirement and the need for improvement in the current infrastructure, we are trying to get money through other sources as well," he said.

Prabhu said the demand for railway services is going to increase with more and more people choosing this medium for travelling as well as due to higher cargo demand on account of economic growth.

Advani, who is an MP from Gujarat, appreciated the advancement of technology through which one can witness the stone laying ceremony even from a far away place.

"I thank Prabhu for inviting me... I have never been to Railway Ministry before this," he said.
At least 25 persons, including police officials, sustained injuries today in a clash between the police and a group of protesters who held a demonstration outside Manipur Bhawan here against the three controversial bills passed by the north-east state assembly.

The police lathi-charged the protesters comprising mostly tribal student union members and young professionals. A police van was also damaged in the clash outside Manipur Bhawan in Sardar Patel Marg this evening.

"Our protest was against the three controversial bills passed by the state assembly in Manipur. It was a peaceful protest until we were attacked by the police. Around 20-30 protesters are injured and admitted in different hospitals," Manipur Tribal Forum Delhi's Co-convener, J Maivio said.

Police said that they had to resort to lathi-charge after the protesters tried to break police barricades set up around Manipur Bhawan.

The police also called for reinforcement, following which personnel from all police stations in Chanakyapuri and nearby sub-divisions in New Delhi district were rushed to the spot. When they failed to bring the situation under control, water cannons were used to disperse the crowd.

Several protesters and police personnel sustained injuries as scuffle broke out between them. According to a source, a police official was also attacked with a sharp-edged object in the melee.

A police jeep was also damaged in the violence, following which several protesters were detained. All injured persons were taken to hospital, a police official said.

Earlier in the day, an all-party delegation from Manipur, led by Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh, met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and apprised him about the need for presidential assent to convert three Inner Line Permit (ILP) System-related bills into acts.

The delegation conveyed to the Home Minister the necessity of getting presidential assent to the three bills which were opposed by tribal groups of the state, particularly Nagas and Kukis who mainly inhabit the hill districts of Manipur.

The three bills were passed in August last year after months of mass movement to protect the indigenous populace from the "illegal" immigrants in the state, including those from neighbouring Myanmar.

Acceding to the demand of the Joint Committee on Inner Line Permit System, the Congress government in Manipur had last year passed three bills to protect the indigenous people inhabiting the valley districts of the state.

They were: The Protection of Manipur People Bill, 2015, The Manipur Land Revenue and Land Reforms (Seventh Amendment) Bill, 2015 and The Manipur Shops and Establishments (Second Amendment) Bill, 2015.
Hundreds of protesters today tried to lay a siege to the Pakistani High Commission here, demanding its closure as they alleged that Pakistan was hatching a conspiracy against Bangladesh over the 1971 war crimes trial.

Witnesses said that police in armed gears intercepted the protesters at the entry point of the capital's diplomatic zone in Gulshan area as they moved towards the Pakistani mission.

Left-leaning Workers Party of Bangladesh, a coalition partner of the ruling Awami League, had organised the protest, which was joined by activists of Awami League student's front.

"They are trying to hatch a conspiracy... The mission must be shut down," Workers Party general secretary Fazle Hossain Badsha told the protesters at the rally.

The march was held against Pakistan awarding the 'Nishan-e Pakistan' - its highest civilian honour - to the executed war criminal and Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) chief Motiur Rahman Nizami.

Pakistan's harsh protest against the trial and execution of top 1971 war crimes convicts mostly from the fundamentalist JeI has angered Bangladesh, which has accused Pakistan of interfering in its internal affairs.

Despite a coalition partner organising the rally, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was restrained in her comments at a press meet. She said Bangladesh will not sever diplomatic ties with Pakistan because of its support to the war criminals.

"Let Pakistan say what it prefers, diplomatic relations would be there... But their statement also made it clear that the war criminals acted as the agents of Pakistan and involved with the genocide with Pakistani Army," she said.

"Now those people who still have some sympathy for Pakistan may reconsider their affection for that country," she said.

Bangladesh last month summoned Pakistan's envoy twice after Bangladesh High Commissioner in Islamabad was summoned there amid a continuing row over the execution of Nizami.

Pakistan foreign office had last month issued a statement saying Islamabad was "deeply saddened" over Nizami's execution.

The Pakistani national assembly in a simultaneous move had passed a resolution condemning the execution recalling that he was a former lawmaker and minister in the past BNP-led four-party government with Jamaat being its crucial ally.
Light to moderate rains and thunder showers lashed a few places in Uttar Pradesh, while heavy rainfall was reported from a few isolated places in eastern region of the state in the last 24 hours.

According to the MeT Department, Bikapur and Kakardharighat received 5 centimetre of rainfall each, 4 cms in Azamgarh and Gonda. Three centimetres in Basti, Bhinga, and Rajghat. Nighasan, Kalilabad and Varanasi recorded rainfall of 2 centimetres each.

Day temperatures fell appreciably in Moradabad, Varanasi, and Meerut divisions and changed little in remaining divisions of the state.

Highest maximum temperature was recorded in Etawah at 45.4 degrees Celsius, it said.

A 16-year-old boy, Nanhe Lal Nishad, was killed and his brother injured after being hit by lightning in Jafrabad area here yesterday, police said.
Syrian rebels reopened a vital supply line by capturing two villages today from the Islamic State group as it came under pressure on a range of fronts in Syria and Iraq.

IS has controlled large areas of both countries since declaring its self-styled "caliphate" in 2014 but is losing territory in the face of separate assaults.

In Syria, pro-government forces, rebels and a US-backed Arab-Kurdish alliance are all engaged in offensives to squeeze the extremists' supply lines, while Iraqi forces are advancing on the IS-held city of Fallujah.

The Damascus regime has also kept up its assaults on opposition areas, particular in second city Aleppo, where at least 15 civilians were killed today in bombing by pro-government forces that struck near a hospital.

North of the city, rebel fighters re-opened a key supply route linking their two main bastions in Aleppo province: Marea and Azaz.

In late May, IS captured several villages between the two towns, cutting off access to the Turkish border for Marea's opposition forces.

But early today, rebels backed by Islamist groups launched simultaneous attacks from both Marea and Azaz, squeezing IS jihadists out of the villages of Kafr Kalbin and Kaljibrin and reopening the road, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Director Rami Abdel Rahman said IS fighters even pulled back from towns and villages east of the supply route, including Dudyan near the border.

Government bombing meanwhile outside the Al-Bayan hospital in Aleppo's Shaar neighbourhood killed 10 people, according to Observatory.

An AFP photographer saw bodies wrapped in bloodied white bags outside the hospital, while inside, the force of the blast had knocked supplies and parts of drywall onto the floor.

Al-Bayan hospital said a staff member was wounded in the strikes and the building had been evacuated.

According to the Observatory, five other civilians -- including two children -- were killed in attacks on the Al-Marja and Al-Maadi districts.

Rescue workers known as the White Helmets gave a higher toll of 23 dead in rebel-held areas.

The Observatory later reported seven rebel fighters killed in bombardment of Aleppo's eastern Al-Sakhur neighbourhood.

IS forces had long coveted Marea and battered the town for over a year with deadly car bombs and suicide attacks.
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia today said guest teachers in government schools in the national capital who were removed in past because of transfer and postings of permanent teachers will be reappointed soon.

Sisodia, who is also the Education minister, gave this assurance to a delegation of Dilli Atithi Shikshak Sangh at which came to meet him at the Delhi Secretariat today.

"Those guest teachers who were removed because of transfer and postings of permanent teachers and have not got their reappointment would be reappointed soon. No guest teacher will lose job and they will also get experience certificate for the years they have taught," Sisodia said.

"The guest teachers would now get one day leave every month. Woman guest teachers will also be entitled to re-employment after the maternity leave," he added.

The delegation also demanded that the weightage for guest teachers in fresh teachers recruitment exam be increased from 0.75 per cent to 5 per cent per year and they must get fixed monthly salary instead of daily wages.

Sisodia assured them that there will be no partial treatment with guest teachers and their demands will be looked into.
Naga Hoho, the apex tribal body in Nagaland, on Wednesday urged the central government to repeal the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act 1958 (AFSPA) from the northeast region at the earliest.

Naga Hoho Media Cell expressed anguish over the attitude of the Centre towards repealing from the northeast in general and Naga areas in particular despite repeated appeals by Naga civil societies and human rights activists.

"In return, the successive governments irrespective of political parties in Delhi always decide to remain a mute spectator ever since the enactment of the draconian law," a release issued by Naga Hoho Media Cell said here.

Pointing out that there is a peaceful atmosphere in Naga areas as of now, the apex body said, any policy that harms the atmosphere of trust and confidence would be dear to all stakeholders.

It said both the Union government and the Naga people have agreed to a settlement for respecting the wishes of the people for sharing sovereign power and to establish a lasting relationship between the government and the Nagas.

"We make this statement in the background that, there is an ongoing political negotiation and peace process between the government of India and the Naga people which can be testified by the signing of Framework Agreement signed on August 3, 2015," the statement said.

The Hoho maintained that the Naga people were taken by surprise with the RSS reportedly declaring its support for extension and continuation of in the north east and the Jammu and Kashmir.

The Naga's struggle for self determination cannot be equated with terrorism with the Union government recognising the uniqueness of Naga political history and the universal principle that sovereignty lies with the people in a democracy, the Hoho said.
Gandak river in Bihar has established itself as the third breeding ground in the country for the critically-endangered gharials after the birth of 7-8 baby crocodiles near Valmiki Tiger Reserve on World Environment Day.

As part of a Gharial conservation programme of the Bihar forest department and Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), a team of experts have been releasing captive-bred gharials in the wild and into river Gandak after which breeding in the wild began.

"This is the first record of wild bred gharials in the river. Decades ago there used to be a good number of gharials but gradually the number depleted. Now breeding has once again begun," Samir Kumar Sinha, head of the Gharial conservation project told PTI from Patna.

He said they noticed six nests at a stretch of about 700 meters in April after which they formed a team to monitor it 24/7 along with two local villagers so that predators like jackals and raptors did not feed on the eggs.

"We are happy that on June 5 when we were celebrating the World Environment Day, 7-8 hatchlings came out from the eggs along the banks of the river after 59 days," he said.

Renowned expert on crocodiles Dr B C Choudhury said this is the third breeding population of Gharials, endemic to the Indian sub-continent, in the country after Chambal and Girwa rivers.

"The state government is committed to conserve gharials



in the Gandak river and with discovery of breeding population and nesting sites we are encouraged to strengthen our commitments further," U S Jha, Chief Wildlife Warden, Bihar, said.

A study in 2010 recorded 15 gharials in the river before the conservation project started but now a survey done by WTI in 2015 recorded a minimum of 54 gharials of which 26 were adults.

The nests were protected throughout the incubation period by WTI field team with active supports of local farmers.

Besides fending off predators and covering the nests with sand and iron mesh, they also guarded it with bamboo fences. Some of the nests had to be shifted due to floods. One such nest may contain anything between 20-40 eggs.

"We even assisted the hatchlings to come out of the nest as we removed the sand cover on the ground nest to check when they are ready to come out," Sinha said



In one of the cases, the mother gharial abandoned the eggs thinking they will sink in flood waters but were later recovered by the field staff.

Barely 3-4 days old, the babies are now about 8 inches long and feed on their own in a small pool of water near the river.

"When the monsoon comes they will be flown in the main river and will have to survive on their own in the wild," Sinha said.
AUBURN  Two officers and two staff members at Auburn Correctional Facility were honored at an awards ceremony Wednesday in Albany where the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision recognized 10 employees for their courageous actions in 2015.

Corrections officers Kenneth McFadden and Gregory Edgar both earned the Medal of Honor for their quick response to an inmate attack last year.

According to DOCCS, McFadden and Edgar were working at University Hospital in Syracuse on May 13, 2015, when inmate Warren Temple stabbed a doctor with a 10-inch-long "icepick-type weapon." McFadden allegedly jumped between the doctor and inmate, suffering five stab wounds to his head and shoulder, and Edgar was struck in the back of the hand while restraining Temple.

DOCCS noted the officers' "quick and selfless actions ... averted what could have been a 'deadly encounter.'"

In addition, Sgt. Joseph Merville and Plant Utilities Engineer Bill Kirby earned the Medal of Merit for maintaining security and saving the state thousands of dollars in damage following a fire at the prison's powerhouse.

"Because of actions like these ... we have the opportunity to honor the fine individuals whose actions make a difference in the lives of those living in the community they protect," said DOCCS Acting Commissioner Anthony J. Annucci.

The ceremony was part of "Corrections and Community Supervision Employee Week," in which the state acknowledges the work of all DOCCS employees, including those who lost their lives.

"(This) is a time when we honor those corrections officers lost in the line of duty, but also come together to recognize the men and women who are heroes on the job every day," said Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul. Through their service and sacrifice, corrections officers play such an important role in keeping our communities safe and helping offenders prepare for a successful transition back into society.
90% of road repair and maintenance work in the city has been completed and the remaining 10% will be carried out before the onset of monsoon, the (BMC) on Wednesday told the Bombay High Court.

A division bench of Justices Shantanu Kemkar and M S Karnik was hearing a suo-moto public interest litigation on the issue of rising number of potholes in the city which was leading to accidents and deaths of motorists.

On the last hearing, the court had asked the civic body to ensure that all major roads and arterial roads in the city are repaired and are potholes-free before monsoon.

BMC counsel Anil Sakhare on Wednesday submitted a compliance report to the court informing it about the work completed by the corporation.

"Road repair and maintenance work is an ongoing process. Till now 90% work is over and the remaining will be completed within the next ten days. During monsoon, the civic body will continue inspecting the roads for maintenance work," Sakhare said.

Sakhare said two helpline numbers have also been set up for citizens to call and lodge complaints and a mobile App has also been launched.

He also said that advertisements regarding this have been given in two newspapers till now, to which the court said the BMC should give more advertisements in the coming week.

"The ads should be large so that people can see it easily. Advertisements of politicians and even civic bodies are full page ads then why not these too," Justice Kemkar said.

The court has posted the petition for further hearing on June 15.
The South African government reacted angrily today to warnings by the United States and Britain about possible imminent "terrorist" attacks by Islamic extremists in the country's major cities.

Without naming the countries, a strongly-worded statement described the warnings as "alarmist" and said diplomatic action had been taken to register South Africa's "displeasure".

The US said Saturday it had received information that "terrorist groups" were planning to carry out attacks in upmarket shopping malls in South Africa during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Britain issued a similar alert two days later.

"The information provided as a basis for the latest terror alerts on South Africa has been found to be very sketchy," the government said in a statement.

"We have found the information to be dubious, unsubstantiated and provided by a 'walk-in' source based on questionable conclusions."



South Africa rejected "attempts to generate perceptions of government ineptitude, alarmist impressions and public hysteria on the basis of a questionable single source," it said.

"The South African government has demarched the affected embassies to register our displeasure," the statement added.

The US and British embassies were not immediately available for comment.

South Africa, which has a Muslim minority of around 1.5 per cent in a population of some 53 million, has so far escaped the jihadist attacks seen in several other African countries.
Funnyman Sacha Baron Cohen is set to star and produce "Mandrake the Magician" movie.

An adaptation of the classic comic strip, the film is set up at Warner Bros, said The Hollywood Reporter.

Etan Cohen, who made his directorial debut with "Get Hard," is attached to helm the film.

The project is in early development with the script still to be written.

Warners picked up the rights to the character in 2012.

Created as a newspaper comic strip by Lee Falk in 1934, Mandrake told of the adventures of an illusionist who had the power to hypnotize his foes at great speed. Mandrake also had a twin brother who used his power for evil instead of good.
Satellite images confirm the destruction of the ancient Nabu temple in Iraq, the UN said late today, after the Islamic State group claimed to have blown it up.

The UN training and research agency UNITAR said it had analysed satellite images collected on June 3 over the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud in northern Iraq.

"Compared to imagery collected 12 January 2016, we observe extensive damage to the main entrance of what is known as Nabu Temple," the agency said, providing the two sets of satellite images.

In its latest attack on a historic site under its control, IS released a video this week claiming to have blown up the 2,800-year-old temple, devoted to the Babylonian god of wisdom.

The video showed shots of an information sign at the temple followed by a massive explosion. One of the jihadists in the film also threatened to blow up the Egyptian pyramids and the Sphinx.

Nimrud, one of the jewels of the Assyrian era, was founded in the 13th century BC and lies on the Tigris River around 30 kilometres southeast of Mosul, Iraq's second city and the IS group's main hub in the country.

UNITAR said Nimrud was "included in Iraq's Tentative List of sites which are likely to be nominated for inscription on UNESCO's World Heritage List".

It remained unclear when the ancient temple had been destroyed.

The IS footage also showed bulldozers destroying the Mashki and Nergal gates at Nineveh, near Mosul.

But Christopher Jones, an expert on Neo-Assyrian Empire who runs an archeology blog, pointed out that the jihadist group had already previously released a photo essay showing the destruction of the Mashki gate, which he said had been bulldozed on April 10.

As for the Nergal gate, he said IS fighters had already chisled the face off an imposing granite Assyrian winged bull representing a lamassu, or an Assyrian protective deity, flanking the gate back in February.

"This suggests that ISIS has gone back to re-destroy artifacts that it already destroyed once, in order to get footage for new videos," he wrote on his blog today.

In the IS jihadists' extreme interpretation of Islam, statues, idols and shrines amount to recognising objects of worship other than God and must be destroyed.
Seeking to globalise compassion, Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi plans to launch a major initiative that will enlist support of other Nobel prize winners and world leaders for the cause of neglected and abused children.

'The Laureates and Leaders Initiative for Children' will be initiated by the Kailash Satyarthi Children's Foundation which aims to bring Nobel laureates from all disciplines and not just the Peace Prize winners as well as world leaders together to use their "moral authority" for children's rights and fight against child slavery and trafficking.

Satyarthi, 62, who shared the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize with Pakistani girls' rights activist Malala Yousafzai, 18, is also working on an ambitious '100 million for 100 million campaign' that will bring together 100 million youth from across the world to channelise their energy for fighting for the rights of the nearly 100 million children who are left out and are denied basic rights like education and proper healthcare.

Satyarthi said he plans to launch the '100 million for 100 million' campaign by end of this year.

"I aways believed in globalising compassion. This time I want to engage an entire generation. We should not waste the energy, enthusiasm, eagerness and the idealism of our youth," Satyarthi told PTI in an interview here.

In the city to headline the2016 Nobel Peace Prize Forum, he said the energy of the youth should be harnessed and channelised for the betterment of the 100 million young people who do not have the same opportunities to grow and learn.

"They must feel that they have some moral responsibility and obligation towards the 100 million children and youth left out," he said.

Satyarthi said he wants to launch the 100 million campaign along with 'The Laureates and Leaders Initiative' which will be a global campaign based in India.

Explaining his reasoning behind the initiative, Satyarthi said after he won the Nobel prize, he realised that while the intellectual and academic knowledge of Nobel winners in other disciplines such as chemistry, physics, literature, economics and medicine had been utilised to advance human history, their "moral authority and outreach" had "not been utilised and harnessed for children.

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In his conversations with other Nobel laureates about child slavery and education, Satyarthi felt that these Nobel winners, who had been so dedicated to their individual disciplines, can also contribute tremendously for the advancement of child rights.

"I started talking to them to join an initiative of laureates from all disciplines and not just the peace prize winners, as well as some of the world leaders like former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Former Brazilian President Luiz Lula da Silva," he added.

"I wanted to bring those forces closer for the cause of the neglected, abused and exploited children," he said adding that he is in contact with several global leaders and laureates and President of India Pranab Mukherjee would be the patron of this initiative," he said.

The Laureates and Leaders would be a new initiative and platform of moral power for the betterment of children along with the 100 million for 100 million campaign, he said.

While Laureates and Leaders will be initiated by Satyarthi's foundation with support from other individuals and institutions, the 100 million campaign would be a partnership initiative that will engage universities, youth student organisations and teachers associations to build global citizenship.

"The idea is to build this campaign to advance the value of global citizenship among young people. Nearly 100 million children are left out and are denied their basic rights, freedom, education and healthcare, Satyarthi said.

But there are 100 million young people across the world who are full of energy, enthusiasm and have tremendous idealism and hunger to prove themselves and do something for the good of the society and the world," he added.

The campaign would primarily use social media for the purpose of sensitising people, building awareness about causes, petitioning, creating demands on governments and international community and asking corporates to ensure no child labour, child slave or trafficked youth is involved in their supply and production chains.

It willalso bring citizens together to be petitioners, change makers and leaders for those 100 million children left out. Through the campaign, students, teachers and the youth can join to pressurise the government through peaceful demonstrations to prioritise children in their policies, schemes, programs and budgetary allocations, he said.

"We are also trying to build the value of non-violence and peace together with global citizenship in young people," he said.

The Forum provides an important international platform focusing on the work of the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates, as well as leading peacemakers and peacebuilders.

Over the course of the three days, Satyarthi will join leaders and experts on issues related to child slavery in conflict and commercial sexual exploitation.

The forum will also host dialogue sessions led by members of Satyarthi's organisation 'Bachpan Bachao Andolan', the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Asset India Foundation.
Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant today slammed the Railway authorities for sending invitations of rail-related events to his party MPs at the "eleventh hour" and registered his protest by wearing a black scarf at a function here.

However, Sena's ruling ally BJP taunted Sawant saying that public representatives should keep their ego aside when it comes to larger public good as "providing facilities to people was more important".

"I have noticed that whenever Railway administration organises such functions, the parliamentarians, especially from Shiv Sena, are invited at the eleventh hour. This is not acceptable...This is why I have donned a black scarf to register my protest," Sawant said.

The Shiv Sena leader was talking to PTI after attending the inauguration ceremony of a platform and booking office at the Bandra Terminus, inaugurated by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu via video conference today.

He also alleged that although the issue has been brought to the notice of Prabhu, no corrective step has been taken in this regard so far. Sawant even warned of launching a "Shiv Sena-style" protest over it.

The first-time MP said, "Nine times out of ten, we are invited at a very short notice. Railway officials have forgotten that we have other social and political commitments and we need to be informed well in advance."



Clarifying that he was not against any railway project per se, Sawant said he was opposed to the way they are being launched with a "well-thought out plan of keeping Sena representatives away" from such functions.

"I have informed Suresh Prabhu about this delay in sending out invites to Sena MPs, but as usual he has done nothing," Sawant said, adding, "If Railway officials do not stop this practice soon, then we will handle it in Shiv Sena's trademark style in the near future."



Expressing disappointment over the Sena MP's comments, Mumbai BJP president Ashish Shelar said nothing was more important than development and such incidents (protest by Sawant) could have been avoided.

Shelar said that providing facilities to people was more important than following protocol or giving respect.

"When public amenities are being inaugurated, then one should set aside personal egos and avoid such unpleasant incidents," he said.

Shelar also taunted Sawant saying that in the past, the elected representatives could be seen staging protests for development works not being done. "But now, when every week a development work is being inaugurated, for the first time one saw an elected representative protesting against it," he said.

"I had also got the invitation for the Bandra event late, still I managed to attend, albeit a bit late," Shelar added.

"Peoples' representatives should keep their personal



prestige issues aside and engage in fabulous development works Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu has done. There cannot be a bigger honour than the convenience of public," Shelar said.

He, however, added that the Railway administration should have respected the MPs and elected representatives and if that has not happened, then the officials have definitely erred.

When contacted, a senior Railway official said the public representatives concerned are generally invited as and when the announcements about such events are made.

"The announcement of today's event was made at a very short notice and immediately after getting the nod from the Railways higher-ups, we got the invitation cards printed and dispatched to all the dignitaries concerned," Mukul Jain, DRM of Mumbai Division of Western Railway, said.
Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant today criticised Railway officials for inviting his party MPs to railway-related events "at the eleventh hour" and warned of launching a "Shiv Sena-style" protest against this.

Sawant also alleged that although he has brought this matter to the notice of Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, no corrective step has been taken in this regard so far.

The Shiv Sena leader attended the inauguration ceremony of a platform and booking office at the Bandra Terminus, inaugurated by Prabhu via video conference today.

Sawant wore a black scarf to register his protest.

"I have noticed that whenever Railway administration organises such functions, the parliamentarians, especially from Shiv Sena, are invited at the eleventh hour. This is not acceptable...This is why I have donned a black scarf to register my protest," Sawant told PTI after the function.

The first-time MP said, "Nine times out of 10, we are invited at a very short notice. Railway officials have forgotten that we have other social and political commitments and we need to be informed well in advance."



Stating that he was not against any railway project per se, he said he was opposed to the way they are being launched with a "well-thought out plan of keeping Sena representatives away" from such functions.

"I have informed Suresh Prabhu about this delay in sending out invites to Sena MPs, but as usual he has done nothing," Sawant said, adding, "If Railway officials do not stop this practice soon, then we will handle it in Shiv Sena's trademark style in the near future."



When contacted, a senior Railway official said the public representatives concerned are generally invited as and when the announcements about such events are made.

"The announcement of today's event was made at a very short notice and immediately after getting the nod from the Railways higher-ups, we got the invitation cards printed and dispatched to all the dignitaries concerned," Mukul Jain, DRM of Mumbai Division of Western Railway, said.

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Meanwhile, expressing disappointment over the Sena MP's comments, Mumbai BJP president Ashish Shelar said nothing was more important than development and such remarks could have been avoided.

"I also got the invitation for the Bandra event late, but still I managed to attend, albeit a bit late," Shelar said.

"Peoples' representatives should keep their personal prestige issues aside and engage in fabulous development works Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu has done," the BJP leader said.

"There cannot be a bigger honour than the convenience of public," Shelar said.

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Shelar added that respect or protocol is not a bigger



issue than providing facilities to people.

"When public amenities are being inaugurated, then one should set aside personal egos and avoid such unpleasant incidents (protest by Sawant by way of wearing a black scarf)," he said.

Shelar also taunted Sawant saying that in the past, elected representatives could be seen staging protests for development works not being done.

"But now, when every week a development work is being inaugurated, for the first time one saw an elected representatives protesting against it," he said.

He, however, added the Railway administration should have respected the MPs and elected representatives and if that has not happened, then the officials have definitely erred.
New York-based Indian visual artist, scientist and entrepreneur Sukant Khurana in his first solo art exhibition here attempts to present a commentary on the journey of his life both in the US and in various parts of India.

Titled 'Making Via Unmaking' the show is a collection of about 60 works of art, which "are mostly mixed media, with acrylic on canvass being a dominant component, closely followed by spray paints and the use of fire."



The display, which began at the All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society on June 3, according to curator Aakshat Sinha, represents a full celebration of pain, pleasure and joy in a brutally honest way."



Khurana's art pieces, says Sinha, involves "painting and repainting, tempering and weathering of works with elements of nature and beyond."



The artworks are distinctive that they have been put out in ice and rain, molded by fire and tempered with knife and then brushed up to heal. Some works bear marks of bullet shots while some other canvases carries upto 70 layers of paint.

The Delhi-born artist, who grew up in India before moving to the US for a Ph.D. In neuroscience in 2003 says through the process of art and creative writing, he continues to explore "life's journey, previous experiences of getting stuck in futile efforts, making via unmaking, breaking free from loops, correcting mistakes, and finally finding direction and joy."



Khurana's display has been broken down into themes he has titled - 'Circling While', 'Fake Smiles' and 'Breaking Free'.

"This exhibition is meant to perturb more than please, provoke more than cater to aesthetic needs. Most of these paintings were made in the US but some in India too, with some works taking years to complete," says the artist.

"In general, my art is a response to the human condition. It not create an alternate reality or provide born-again romanticisms of escape back to family, community and cozy feelings of belonging," says Khurana.

The artist who teaches concepts of statistics, artificial



intelligence, and data visualisation, in addition to neuroscience to biologists describes his art as an "emotional reality of modern urban chaotic selfish life."



"At best a twisted mirror of reality or a simple mirror of a very twisted reality. I work to create better realities or seek better realities and my art reflects that too just as it reflects inner and outer struggles. Instead of being tied to a style, my work is a new synthesis of media and styles to capture my ongoing feelings," he says.

In the first part of the series, 'Fake Smiles' Khurana attempts to capture the fake smiles sported by "almost everybody" in a materialistic and artificial life.

In the second part, he explains ,"Path of life is rarely linear and we keep going round and round in circles till some of us momentarily break free".

The third part, 'Breaking Free' are simpler celebrations of artwork that are put into a washing machine and reworked again to represent the uncaring attitude of the isolated modern man "who keeps dying everyday."



Apart from the physical exhibition the artist says the exhibiton is planned for over 100 plus digital works on same themes. The exhibition of Khurana works which are on permanent exhibit at McGovern Center, Beijing is scheduled to go on here till June 9.
Three people were killed and six wounded in a shooting tonight near a Tel Aviv bar and restaurant complex, officials said, one of the deadliest in an eight-month wave of such attacks.

Details were still emerging, but police said there were two attackers, with one arrested and another wounded by gunfire and undergoing surgery.

A video posted on social media showed a uniformed officer firing a handgun, although his target could not be seen.

Other footage showed people running away from the area in panic.

A hospital nearby said at least three people were killed, with a total of nine having earlier been reported wounded at the Sarona Market in Israel's commercial capital.

Israeli authorities had yet to provide details on the assailants other than referring to them as "terrorists" -- often used to describe Palestinian attackers.

The market and complex of bars and restaurants is located across the street from Israel's defence ministry and main army headquarters.

The nighttime shooting led police to clear the area.

"We are talking here about a pretty serious terrorist incident," Tel Aviv police chief Chico Edri told reporters.

"Two terrorists arrived at the complex and while firing and to our regret nine people were injured to different degrees."



"Of the two terrorists, one was arrested and the other wounded by gunfire," he said.

He said "we do not know of another terrorist at large and so from our point of view people can return to their normal lives."



A medic with United Hatzalah rescuers, in an account relayed by the rescue service, said: "When I arrived at the scene I saw two young people who were suffering from gunshot wounds outside of a restaurant at the Sarona centre.

"We treated them as well as numerous other individuals who were suffering from shock."



The nationalities and other details of the victims were not yet known.

Violence since October has killed at least 207 Palestinians, 28 Israelis, two Americans, an Eritrean and a Sudanese.

Most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, according to Israeli authorities.

Others were killed in clashes or by Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip.

Shooting attacks such as the one that occurred today night have been rare, though Tel Aviv has seen two other major incidents in recent months.

In March as US Vice President Joe Biden visited, a Palestinian went on a stabbing spree along the Tel Aviv waterfront, killing an American tourist and wounding 12 people.

On January 1, an Arab Israeli killed three people in a shooting spree in Tel Aviv.
Boosting Arunachal government's plan to develop small hydropower projects to provide electricity on priority basis, the NITI Aayog has agreed that projects up to 100 MW could soon be promoted and taken up as small hydropower projects under Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE).

Aayog's CEO Amitabh Kant disclosed this during a meeting with Chief Minister Kalikho Pul in New Delhi yesterday, an official communique informed here today.

Pul had sought the support of the planning body to help develop state's untapped hydropower potential in realizing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of 24x7 power for all by 2022.

To boost development of small hydropower in the state, Pul advocated that the process of obtaining various clearances for the projects must be expedited and even made into a single window clearance system.

Pointing out the impact of basin studies on the viability of small projects on river tributaries, he observed that such studies resulted in delay in implementation of the projects despite clearances obtained from CEA and MoEF & CC.

"We have to be practical in our approach and we must strike a balance between the demands of environmental concerns and obligations of development," he said.

Pul reiterated that the projects proposed to be dropped as an outcome of Basin Study should be avoided as it may generate ill will and hamper future projects.

He quoted an example from Lohit basin area, where all surveys stand completed, though projects are yet to take off for basin studies.

Kant assured to follow up on the requests made by the



chief minister and informed that a decision on this would be arrived at soon.

The CEO agreed to have a follow up meeting on June 15 to carry forward the agenda, with the state Power Department, MNRE, Ministry of Water Resources and Ministry of Power as well as the Ministry of Environment and Forest.

The chief minister suggested various measures to revamp the hydropower sector.

He sought cooperation and engagement of people of both Assam and Arunachal to make the Subansiri project operational in couple of years, which he felt would have a demonstrative effect on other projects too.

Regarding the Subansiri project, Pul said it was important to take the people of Assam into confidence.

The project has a lot of scope for irrigation, for providing drinking water as well as for flood mitigation.

"We have to protect the interests of Assam too in these projects. And that can only be done through cooperation and consultations," he added.

The state government would identify two early maturity projects, which could be commissioned within next two to three years that would have a demonstrative effect on other projects, Pul added.
AUBURN  Proposing a 3.99 percent tuition increase and a 1.5 percent county sponsorship increase, Dan DoBell, vice president of administration for Cayuga Community College, said the school is "still the Wal-Mart of education."

"We give the best deal here," DoBell told Cayuga County legislators at Tuesday night's Government Operations Committee meeting.

Committee members passed the $29,689,073 budget by a 5-2 vote, with a county contribution of $2,941,820, although Legislators Timothy Lattimore and Andrew Dennison voted against it.

Lattimore said he'd like the county to give more money to the college, and proposed funding an additional 2 percent instead of 1.5 percent. His motion was not seconded.

Dennison seemed to think the college should get less money, stating that colleges are seeing lower enrollment numbers while still spending money on expansions.

DoBell said the last time the college asked the county for a percentage increase in funds was in 2013. The 1.5 percent increase means the county would contribute about $43,475 more than last year.

DoBell said the college will not be drawing from its fund balance either.

"We've got a balanced budget, so we're not having to delve into the piggy bank," he said.

The college's current fund balance stands at about $1.3 million, and Brian Durant, president of the college, is hoping to increase that to $2 million.

Chairman of the Committee Ryan Foley expressed concern over the nearly 4 percent tuition increase, which would make the annual rate for a full-time student $4,499.

"I've always been a big advocate of not increasing tuition too much because it's making up for college losses on the backs of students," Foley said.

DoBell said out of nine other peer colleges, four have lower tuition, though all hiked their prices by some percentage. The lowest tuition hike was 2.5 percent and the highest was 8 percent, he said.

"You know, it is an increase, but it's not a huge increase," DoBell said. "We still think we're a bargain."

In other news:

 Legislators discussed five potential taxes and fees to increase the county's revenue. Two items passed through committee including a vehicle tax, which would add $10 every other year to a passenger vehicle's registration fee. For larger and commercial vehicles, the fee would be $20 every two years. Farm equipment is exempt.

The Cayuga County Clerk's office estimated that tax would generate between $400,000 and $427,000 to the county.

"This is the only local option we have that will raise a significant amount of money," said Keith Batman, Chairman of the Legislature. Some of the other revenue options require state approval.

County Administrator Suzanne Sinclair said 39 counties in New York already collect a vehicle tax. Legislators Lattimore and Tucker Whitman opposed the motion.

Also passed as an amended motion was a county transfer tax. Currently Cayuga County collects $4 for every $1,000 on deeds. But that $4 does not stay with the county. It goes back to the state. The original proposal was to increase the fee to $6, so the county could keep $2.

Batman suggested the Legislature contact the state and ask to keep $2 out of the current $4, which would mean no tax increase. Since Batman is not on the Government Operations Committee, the motion was amended by Dennison and passed.

The other options discussed included a mortgage recording tax, a county deed tax and a mortgage tax expense. Legislator Mark Farrell said those options that do not pass through committee would be brought up at the Ways and Means Committee meeting held on June 21.

Legislators made clear that even if these revenue options pass through committee to be researched, it does not mean they will be enacted.
Sri Lanka's Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake facing a 'no confidence' motion had a brief respite today after an unusual sound system failure forced the speaker to adjourn the parliament till tomorrow.

The 'no confidence' motion was moved by the opposition alleging that Karunanayake was incapable of handling the economy, tackling the depreciating currency and raising taxes.

When the parliament met in the afternoon during the Prime Minister's question time the sudden failure of the sound system was noticed.

Speaker Karu Jayasuriya adjourned the house after the technical failure could not be rectified.

Jayasuriya announced that the parliament will meet again tomorrow.
Alleging that Rs 45 lakh was transferred to the bank account of arrested Maoist leader Sabyasachi Panda by the ruling BJD in 2014, former Union Minister Braja Kishore Tripathy today said he has already submitted documents relating to the claim to the Prime Minister's Office.

"I have submitted documents mentioning dates and amounts which were transferred to the bank account of the Maoist leader from the BJD bank account. A high level probe will prove my allegation," Tripathy told reporters on his return from Delhi.

Tripathy, who held a press conference at New Delhi yesterday where he made the allegation, today claimed he has given documentary evidence to the PMO.

Ex-BJD MP Tripathy, also a member of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's cabinet, has alleged that Rs 45 lakh was transferred to Panda's bank account during 2014 general elections.

He has claimed that on April 9, 2014, Rs 1.5 lakh was transferred from Panda's account to a BJD leader's account through cheque and alleged that the BJD had given money to get Maoist support during the elections.

Meanwhile, BJD spokesman Amar Prasad Satpathy refuted the allegations.

"BJD has never had any links with any Left Wing Extremists. We are advocating that rebels should join mainstream for which the state government is taking a number of measures in the Maoist-hit areas," Satpathy said.

Meanwhile, Maoist leader Sabyasachi Panda, who was brought to court at Parlakhemundi, denied having any bank account at ICICI Bank, Chhatrapur.

Ganjam district police after preliminary investigation also claimed that the account number cited by Tripathy belongs to a person of the same name, who is a resident of Chhatrapur.

Though the account holder's name is same, their fathers' names differ. While the Maoist leader's father's name was Ramesh Chandra Panda, the bank account holder's father name is Chhitaranjan Panda. There is a balance of only Rs 1,174 in the account, the police said.

Higher Education minister Pradeep Panigrahi also reacted sharply to Tripathy allegation that Rs 1.5 lakh was transferred from Sabyasachi's account to his relative's account.

"If the allegation is proved, I am ready to resign from the council of ministers. If not, will he (Tripathy) go to jail?" Panigrahi asked.
Afghan authorities today recovered bullet-ridden bodies of 12 security officials recently captured by the Taliban in eastern Ghazni province, while gunmen kidnapped 40 others in the country's north as the insurgency escalates.

The violence underscores Afghanistan's fragile security situation as the Taliban, who launched their annual spring offensive in April, rejected government calls this week for a ceasefire during the holy month of Ramadan.

The 12 soldiers, police and intelligence officers were captured over the past two months from different highway crossings in the insurgency-prone province of Ghazni.

"The bodies... Of our personnel captured by the enemy were discovered in Andar district this morning," Ghazni's Governor Mohammad Aman Hamim told reporters.

Separately, insurgents abducted 40 bus passengers in Kunduz today, in the second such group abduction in the northern province in less than two weeks, officials said.

Seven other passengers managed to escape when Taliban fighters stopped the bus on the highway near Kunduz city, said police spokesman Mahfuzullah Akbari.

The Taliban have so far not commented on the 12 captives and the latest abduction.

The latter came after the Taliban killed 10 bus passengers, many of them summarily executed, and kidnapped dozens of others in Kunduz last week.

The insurgents said they were targeting Afghan security officials aboard the buses.

The Taliban have stepped up attacks after announcing Haibatullah Akhundzada as their new leader on May 25, elevating a low-profile religious figure after officially confirming the death of Mullah Mansour in a US drone strike.

Observers say Akhundzada, who is seen as more of a spiritual figurehead than a military commander, will emulate Mansour in shunning peace talks and intensify attacks against the Afghan government.
Three people were killed and dozens injured in a car bombing today at a police station in southeast Turkey, a day after 11 people were killed in an attack on police in Istanbul.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim blamed the attack on the "killer PKK", referring to the outlawed rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party.

"We will fight them both in urban centres and rural areas with determination," he vowed.

Turkey remains on high alert after multiple attacks on its soil that have killed well over 200 people in the past year and have been blamed on, or claimed by, Kurdish militants and Islamic State (IS) jihadists.

Images carried by Turkish media showed a massive plume of black smoke rising from the rubble of the severely damaged police station in the town of Midyat near the Syrian border.

The windows of houses in the neighbourhood were shattered by the force of the blast.

Yildirim said one police officer and two civilians have been confirmed dead so far while 30 people were injured.

The police station blast comes a day after a bombing in the heart of Istanbul killed 11 people, including several police, the latest in a spate of attacks in Turkey's largest city.

The government today put the toll at six officers and five civilians.

There was no claim of responsibility for the Istanbul bombing but President Recep Tayyip Erdogan too suggested that Kurdish militants were behind it.

A radical splinter group of the PKK, the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), claimed responsibility for two bombings in Ankara earlier this year that killed dozens of people.

Violence flared last year between Kurdish rebels and government forces, shattering a 2013 ceasefire reached after secret talks between PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan and the Turkish state.

Turkey has been waging an intense offensive against the PKK, deploying tanks in several towns in the southeast in recent months to "cleanse" them of rebel elements.

Activists have accused the security forces of causing huge destruction and killing civilians.

But the government says the operations are essential for public safety, blaming the PKK - listed as a terror group by Ankara and its Western allies - for the damage.

Over 40,000 people have been killed since the PKK took up arms in 1984 demanding an independent state for Kurds. Since then the group has narrowed its demands to greater autonomy and cultural rights.
Tight security arrangements are being made by the state government following the two-day bandh called by the opposition Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) on June 11 and 12.

Issuing directions through video conference to Deputy Commissioners, Senior Superintendents of police and Superintendents of police about security arrangements, Chief Secretary Rajbala Verma and police chief D K Pandey asked them to deploy security personnel at sensitive places, video record the bandh days and keep vigil on railways, highways and main roads, an official release said today.

Police personnel will also be deployed near hostels and universities and be alert about demonstration spots and gatherings of the bandh supporters, the release said.

The chief secretary asked the officials to coordinate with railway divisional managers and Government Railway Force and set up camp jails and lodge people from the same group in different camp jails.

The DGP asked officials to video record incidents during the two-day bandh to identify people damaging properties, the release said.

The DGP also directed the officials to keep watch on social media to prevent rumours.
Two police officers were killed in a car bomb attack today in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast, a day after 11 people were killed in an attack on a police bus in Istanbul.

The car bomb ripped through the main police station in the town of Midyat near the Syrian border, said state-run Anatolia agency, which blamed "terrorists" in a reference to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

The explosion left two police officers dead and several other people wounded, the privately owned Dogan agency said.

Images carried by Turkish media showed a massive plume of black smoke rising from the rubble of the severely damaged police station.

The windows of houses in the neighbourhood were shattered by the force of the blast.

Ambulances and fire engines were dispatched to the scene after the powerful explosion.

The attack comes a day after a bombing in the heart of Istanbul killed 11 people including several police officers.

Istanbul governor Vasip Sahin yesterday said seven police officers were among those killed in the attack, but Turkish media today put the toll at six officers and five civilians.

There was no claim of responsibility for the Istanbul bombing but President Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggested that Kurdish militants were behind it.

Turkey remains on high security alert after multiple attacks on its soil in recent months blamed on Kurdish militants and Islamic State (IS) jihadists.

A radical splinter group of the PKK, the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), claimed responsibility for two bombings in Ankara earlier this year that killed dozens of people.

Violence flared last year between Kurdish rebels and government forces, shattering a 2013 ceasefire reached after secret talks between PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan and the Turkish state.

Turkey has waged an intense offensive against the PKK listed as a terror group by Ankara and its Western allies, with so-called "clean-up" operations in several towns in the southeast.

Over 40,000 people have been killed since the PKK took up arms in 1984 demanding an independent state for Kurds. Since then the group has narrowed its demands to greater autonomy and cultural rights.
UK today announced an extension of the voter registration deadline for the European Union referendum until midnight tomorrow after thousands of first time voters failed to register due to a technical glitch in the registration website.

UK Cabinet Office minister Matthew Hancock confirmed that the government will legislate to extend the cut-off date, which was earlier June 7.

Earlier, British Prime Minister David Cameron had exhorted voters to keep trying to register to vote in the June 23 referendum despite the official website having crashed.

The deadline for registrations was to close yesterday but many potential voters were unable to register due to an online glitch, blamed on record demand.

The UK's Electoral Commission called for legislation to extend the deadline and the UK government plans to rush through such an urgent legislation later tonight to ensure last-minute registrations yesterday and today can also be counted.

"I'm very clear that people should continue to register today. The Electoral Commission made a statement today urging the government to consider options including extending the deadline.

"We're working urgently with them to do just that and to make sure those who registered today and who registered last night will be able to vote in the EU referendum," Cameron told the House of Commons during his weekly Prime Minister's Questions.

"It's extremely welcome that so many people want to take part in this massive democratic exercise. Last night there was record demand on the registration website. This caused an overload on the system," he said.

Users had reported a page displaying the message "504 Gateway Time-out" instead of the online registration form.

"Those registrations will be captured by the system - then we have the legal question about whether captured applications can be eligible for the 23 June," Cabinet Office minister Matthew Hancock told Parliament.

In a statement, the Electoral Commission said it was "vital" that everyone who wants to vote on June 23 is able to do so.

It said: "There will be many people who wanted to register to vote last night and were not able to. The registration deadline is set out in legislation and we have said to the government this morning they should consider options for introducing legislation as soon as possible that would extend the deadline. We would support such a change."



The commission said 226,000 applications to register were received on Monday, the second highest single day's total since electronic registration was introduced in 2014.

More than 45,000 people in the space of less than an hour signed an online petition calling for the extension of the registration deadline.

Bex Hay, of petition organiser 38 Degrees, said: "The fact that 15 people per second are signing this petition proves the level of public concern at the prospect of thousands of people losing their vote unfairly."



The deadline for any new or first-time voters to register was set as June 7.

However, most voters already on the electoral rolls have been issued their official polling cards.

Those eligible to cast a vote include British or Irish citizens living in the UK who are 18 or over and citizens of Commonwealth countries who are 18 or over and who can stay in the UK.

Anyone living in the UK who registered to vote ahead of the 2015 General Election or last month's local elections in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland did not need to re-register as long as their address remained unchanged.

Levels of turnout is likely to be crucial to the outcome of the referendum, with both sides trying to mobilise their supporters and to warn people of the consequences of staying at home on the big day.
The Technology Incubation and Development of Entrepreneurship (TIDE) of the University of Hyderabad here signed incubation agreements with three start-ups today.

The TIDE-UoH is providing seed funding as a part of the incubation support. The start-ups would be entitled to use infrastructure facilities, get business incubation support and technical mentoring by the University faculty, a release from the UoH said.

The TIDE and TBI (Technology Business Incubator) are recognised incubators under the Start-up India initiative of the Government of India.

UoH Vice-Chancellor Prof Appa Rao Podile presided over the event.

Of the three start-ups, 'Neoscript Technologies' is a platform aimed at improving the consistency and efficiency in learning quality of codes by providing automated evaluation and timely feedback.

'Sapphire Technologies LLP' is a real social media firm seeking to redefine the present social networking built on the principle of radio, radar and broadcasting, while 'Aapka Painter Solutions' seeks to streamline the painting process, the release said.
The Urban Development Ministry will review the progress in implementation of its various schemes, including Smart City Mission, in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh tomorrow.

Urban Development Secretary Rajiv Gauba will take stock of implementation of new urban missions -- Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), Smart City Mission and Swachh Bharat Mission -- in a meeting in Chandigarh, an official release said.

The meeting will be held as a part of state-wise review being held by the Ministry of Urban Development.

Similar review meetings have already been held in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Jaipur and Visakhapatnam.

Twenty cities in Haryana, 16 in Punjab and Chandigarh have been included in AMRUT which is aimed at improving basic urban infrastructure relating to water supply, sewerage networks, storm water drains, urban transport and open and green spaces.

Under AMRUT, the government has approved an expenditure of Rs 408 crore for Haryana, Rs 710 crore for Punjab and Rs 573 crore for Chandigarh in 2015-16.

Under Smart City Mission, Ludhiana in Punjab has been selected in the first batch and the Ministry has approved Ludhiana's Smart City Plan with a proposed investment of Rs 1,049 crore.

The ministry has already released Rs 200 crore for 2015-16 for Ludhiana.

Faridabad in Haryana and Chandigarh have been selected in the second batch of 13 smart cities.

Under Swachh Bharat Mission, Central Assistance of Rs 56 crore has been released to Punjab, Rs 30 crore for Haryana and Rs 1.70 crore for Chandigarh, the release said.
Union IT Minister on Wednesday asked software exporters not to get "perturbed" too much by the visa issue for sending professionals into their largest market, the US, saying American cannot "survive" without their help.

"Do not be unnecessarily perturbed by the US visa issue. I don't think American can survive without our . They cannot," Prasad told a meeting organised by the industry lobby IMC.

He said concerns surrounding the visa issues have been taken up at the "highest level" and exuded confidence of finding a solution to it.

The minister elaborated that the issue of massively hiking the visa fees apart from restricting the number of IT professionals' entry into the US, has been raised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with US President Barack Obama and he himself has also discussed it with his US counterpart.

Stating that country's IT industry has clocked exports of $108 billion last fiscal, Prasad said they currently serve a majority of the Fortune 500 companies through their presence in 200 cities spanning 80 countries.

Job losses due to the shift to cheaper alternatives like India have always been a very contentious issue in the US, and the emergence of the ultra-right Donald Trump as the Republican presidential candidate has only heightened fears in the sector.

In the past as well, domestic IT companies have had to lobby hard to ensure that adequate number of IT professionals get the required visas to serve at client locations.

On the IT and cyber security, the minister said there is a string coordination between the agencies concerned to protect against the scourge of terrorism and specifically the threat posed by groups like the terror group IS which is using the cyberspace very proficiently.
AUBURN | Prison City Pub & Brewery will fulfill its five-year plan in about two.

Dawn and Marc Schulz, the owners of the Auburn brewpub, were joined there Wednesday morning by Auburn Mayor Michael Quill to announce that Prison City will open a new production facility and tasting room downtown.

The facility would serve as a year-round anchor tenant for the city's proposed Riverside Regional Public Market. Located along the Owasco River in the city's Market Street Park area, the market would also become the new home of the Auburn Farmers Market and feature a Finger Lakes culinary center and demonstration kitchen, as well as other agri-tourism initiatives.

The market is one point of the city's Downtown Revitalization Initiative proposal, which it presented to the public last week after submitting the proposal to the state for consideration of a $10 million grant.

Like the market itself, Prison City's plans for its new facility are subject to whether Auburn is named the winner of the grant competition at the end of June. Both the facility's specific location and timeline have yet to be determined for that reason, the Schulzes said.

However, they continued, the facility will be built regardless  the grant would simply see it built faster.

"This is something that we want to see happen very quickly," Marc said. "This was something that was a five-year plan for Prison City Pub & Brewery. It was not a two-year plan. So we're very excited about that."

If Auburn isn't awarded the DRI grant and plans for the regional market change, the Schulzes said they would widen their site search from the Market Street Park area to the whole city of Auburn. They'd also apply for other state grants that could help fund it, they said.

The Schulzes, who recently announced they'll open The Copper Pig barbecue restaurant in the former Daut's in June, revealed several other details of their brewing facility Wednesday. It will expand Prison City's annual production from 400 barrels to, eventually, 7,000.

"We need the capacity," Marc said. "We can't make any more beer here."

The 4,000-to-7,000-square-foot facility will also create between 22 and 25 full-time jobs, most of which will be in beer production, the Schulzes said.

Many other aspects of the facility will meet demands Prison City has encountered since opening in December 2014:

 A canning line and a bottling line, with the latter focusing on brewer Ben Maeso's acclaimed sours and barrel-aged beers. The Schulzes estimate 55 to 60 percent of Prison City's patronage is from outside Auburn, and the brewpub is often unable to accommodate their requests for take-home servings of Maeso's beer due to scarcity.

 Foeders and barrels from Finger Lakes wineries to grow Prison City's barrel-aging program.

 A pilot brewing system for home-brewers to learn how to practice their craft commercially. Prison City has been asked hundreds of times to open its current facility to home-brewers, the Schulzes said, but it's too small to host them.

 The tasting room will allow Prison City to welcome the wedding parties and other groups that it's had to turn down due to its size, the Schulzes said.

 Collaboration beers with other New York breweries in Auburn. Maeso has begun making beers with area breweries, such as Stoneyard in Brockport and Swiftwater in Rochester  but always at their locations, the Schulzes said.

 Increased production of Prison City's Auburn-themed beers, including Seward's Folly, Doubledays amber ale, Catch Me If You Can blonde ale and an upcoming strawberry beer named after Harriet Tubman. The facility will mass-produce Maeso's established beers, like the award-winning Bleek Worden Belgian pale ale, Straight Outta Locash porter and more. Meanwhile, the pub's brewing space will remain open for small batches and experiments, such as the Cocoa Puff-flavored Puff Puff Shiv brown ale.

The overall 1,650-percent production increase will also allow Prison City to fulfill requests to pour its beer at bars in New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Massachusetts and more, the Schulzes said.

Though Prison City's kegs will ship out from the city, its bottles and cans won't, the Schulzes said. That's because the focus of their new production facility, like that of their hit brewpub, will be on bringing people to Auburn.

"We're not looking to take over the world," Marc said. "We're just looking to promote the city of Auburn."
The United States has denounced a mass shooting in a nightspot in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv that left at least four people dead.

The State Department yesterday dubbed this latest in a series of assaults by alleged Palestinian extremists a "horrific terrorist attack."



"We extend our deepest condolences to the families of those killed and our hopes for a quick recovery for those wounded," spokesman Mark Toner said.

"These cowardly attacks against innocent civilians can never be justified. We are in touch with Israeli authorities to express our support."



Two men from the occupied West Bank had opened fire at patrons at sidewalk cafes across the street from Israel's military headquarters.

Israeli police later said one attacker had been arrested and the other had been wounded by gunfire and was undergoing surgery.

Since October, violence related to the Middle East conflict has killed 207 Palestinians, 28 Israelis, two Americans, an Eritrean and a Sudanese.

Most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, according to Israeli authorities.

The United States has called on both Israeli and Palestinian leaders to take "concrete steps" to restore confidence between the communities.

Washington stands firm behind the right of Israel to defend itself and condemns all attacks on Israeli civilians.

But US officials are also critical of Israel's settlement building on occupied land, arguing it undermines hopes for an eventual peace deal.
A bipartisan group of 18 American lawmakers has written to House Speaker Paul Ryan, asking him to raise the issue of religious freedom in India during his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"Religious minority communities - including Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, and Sikhs - have endured ongoing violence and harassment for decades in India, and continue to live in a climate where known perpetrators commit violence with impunity," the members of the Congress, led by Trent Franks and Betty McCollum, wrote.

"We respectfully request that during your meetings with the Prime Minister, the 'shared value' of the fundamental right of religious freedom will be a priority in your conversation," they said ahead of the Ryan-Modi meeting.

"It is in the best interest of the US and India to reaffirm religious freedom as a shared value in this growing partnership and ensure that conversation concerning justice and accountability for such horrific acts of violence continues," the letter said.

In the letter, the lawmakers cite several specific examples of violent attacks that have killed or displaced religious minorities.

Human rights groups in India have investigated and traced these attacks to specific groups, but a current climate of impunity exists in India around such attacks and many victims never receive justice, they said.

"As we consider the shared values of the US and India, due attention to the fundamental human right of religious freedom is of the utmost importance," Franks said.

"Religious minority communities in India have endured incidents of harassment, discrimination, intimidation and violent attacks for decades, often with little hope for justice.

"It is my sincere hope that every person in India will experience true freedom of faith, regardless of religion," he said.

"The important relationship between India and the US is based on our shared democratic values. Religious minorities in India - Muslims, Christians, Buddhists and Sikhs - deserve the freedom to live out their faith without fear," McCollum said.

The Congressmen who signed the letter were Chris Smith, Juan Vargas, Andre Carson, Keith Ellison, Patrick Meehan, Keith Rothfus, Randy Weber, Dan Kildee, Mike Honda, John Conyers Jr, John Garamendi, Robert Aderholt, Anna Eshoo, Joe Pitts, Barbara Lee and David Valadao.

Modi is scheduled to address a joint session of the US Congress today.

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Meanwhile, Ryan has made first of its kind arrangement for the coverage of Modi's address to the joint session of the US Congress on social media.

"Get real-time updates and video highlights from Prime Minister Modi's address by following @SpeakerRyan on Twitter," the Speakers office said, describing it as a historic address.

Congressional sources said there is a buzz on the Capitol Hill and they were expecting a large turnout from lawmakers to listen to his address.

"Throughout the day, we have been mailing offices of other Congressmen to check if they have a ticket for the address. Every Congressmen have been allocated one ticket. But it seems there is more demand for tickets," a Congressional aide said.

In a statement, the White House said US Vice President Joe Biden would attend Prime Minister Modi's address to a joint meeting of Congress at the United States Capitol.

Several Cabinet members of the Obama Administration and Supreme Court judges are also expected to be present among the audience.

Soon after his address Ryan will host a lunch for him.

Thereafter the Prime Minister would attend a reception hosted in his honor by jointly by the Senate and House Foreign Affairs Committees.

Congressman Ami Bera, the only Indian American lawmaker in the House of Representatives, would address the press afternoon after Modi's speech.
The US has recognised India as a "major defence partner", a significant move for the country to be treated on par with America's closest allies for defence related trade and technology transfer.

The two sides also finalised Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement to facilitate mutual logistic support for authorised port visits, joint exercises, joint training and HA-DR (humanitarian assistance and disaster relief).

The MoU is likely to be signed soon, a senior Obama administration official told reporters.

"Noting that the US-India defence relationship can be an anchor of stability and given the increasingly strengthened cooperation in defence, the United States hereby recognises India as a Major Defence Partner," said a joint statement issued after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks with US President Barack Obama yesterday.

According to the statement, under the 'Major Defence Partner' recognition, the US will continue to work toward facilitating technology sharing with India to a level commensurate with that of its closest allies and partners.

Meanwhile, the White House also said that the meeting between President Obama and Prime Minister Modi resulted in progress on finalising some key defence agreements between India and the US.

"I can tell you that there was important progress on finalising agreements relating to defence logistics, sharing of maritime information, and even the movement of US aircraft carriers in the region," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters at his daily conference.

The joint statement said, "the leaders reached an understanding under which India would receive license-free access to a wide range of dual-use technologies in conjunction with steps that India has committed to take to advance its export control objectives."



In support of India's 'Make In India' initiative and to support the development of robust defence industries and their integration into the global supply chain, the statement said the US will continue to facilitate the export of goods and technologies, consistent with US law, for projects, programmes and joint ventures in support of official US-India defence cooperation.

Applauding the enhanced military to military cooperation between the two countries especially in joint exercises, training and Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief, Obama and Modi expressed their desire to explore agreements which would facilitate further expansion of bilateral defence cooperation in practical ways.

India and the US also finalised text of an Information Exchange Annex to enhance data and information sharing specific to aircraft carriers technology.

Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar said India and the US have reached an understanding to finalise the Framework for the US-India Cyber Relationship.

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The two leaders also "resolved that the United States and India should look to each other as priority partners in the Asia-Pacific and the Indian Ocean region," the joint statement.

During the meeting, Obama and Modi applauded the completion of a roadmap for cooperation under the 2015 US-India Joint Strategic Vision for the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean Region, which they said will serve as a guide for collaboration in the years to come.

The US welcomes India's interest in joining the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, as India is a dynamic part of the Asian economy, the statement said.

They welcomed the enhanced engagement on intellectual property rights under the High Level Working Group on Intellectual Property.

They also reaffirmed their commitment to use this dialogue to continue to make concrete progress on IPR issues by working to enhance bilateral cooperation among the drivers of innovation and creativity in both countries.

In another important development, Obama and Modi recognised the fruitful exchanges in August 2015 and June 2016 on the elements required in both countries to pursue a US-India Totalization Agreement and resolved to continue discussions later this year.

, with several nations for the purpose of avoiding double taxation of income with respect to social security taxes.

India would host 2017 Global Entrepreneurship Summit.

Modi and Obama reaffirmed their resolve to continue working together as well as with the wider international community to augment the capacity of the United Nations to more effectively address the global development and security challenges.

With the historic adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in September 2015, and recognising its universality, they reaffirmed their commitment to implement this ambitious agenda domestically and internationally and work in a collaborative partnership for the effective achievement of Sustainable Development Goals.

Reaffirming their support for a reformed UN Security Council with India as a permanent member, the two leaders committed to ensuring that the Council continues to play an effective role in maintaining international peace and security as envisioned in the UN Charter.

"The leaders are committed to continued engagement on Security Council reform in the UN Intergovernmental Negotiations (IGN) on Security Council Reform," the joint statement said.

Obama and Modi welcomed the successful convening of the Leaders' Summit on UN Peacekeeping and committed to deepening engagement on UN peacekeeping capacity-building efforts in third countries, through co-organising the first UN Peacekeeping Course for African Partners in New Delhi later this year for participants from ten countries in Africa.

Observing that US and India share a common interest in working with partners in Africa to promote prosperity and security across the continent, Obama and Modi welcomed trilateral cooperation with African partners.

They looked forward to opportunities to deepen the U S- India global development cooperation in Africa, as well as in Asia and beyond.
The United States suggested, On Thursday, that if continues to block efforts to drop food aid to its besieged communities that Russia might want to use its own planes for the task.

Foreign capitals have asked the World Food Program to plan an air bridge to save thousands of Syrian civilians facing starvation in communities besieged by Bashar al-Assad's forces.

But Assad has refused to permit such flights and on the ground his troops block UN road convoys in some areas or to remove vital supplies from others before they reach rebel-held towns.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Russia, which with Washington is co-chair of the International Syrian Support Group, had passed on a Syrian offer to permit one convoy on Friday.

But he expressed skepticism that Assad would indeed allow unfettered humanitarian access to the town of Daraya and said that this would not be enough in any case to meet its needs.

The spokesman went on to accuse Russia of not living up to its commitment, made at a May 17 ISSG meeting in Vienna, to push Assad to support the planned UN humanitarian air drops.

"We are obviously disappointed, to put it mildly," Toner told reporters, adding that Secretary of State John Kerry had spoken to Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

"But, you know, you talk about air assets and permission, and Russia actually has air assets on the ground in and ostensibly has the permission of the Syrian government to fly."

Asked if this meant he was suggesting that Russia itself carry out the food drops, since Assad was unlikely to block his ally's flights, Toner said: "I am suggesting."

"They are on the ground with air assets in and are able to carry out these kinds of operations," he added.

Later, a senior State Department official confirmed that Washington was "throwing down a gauntlet" to see if Moscow was serious about aiding beleaguered Syrian civilians.
Veteran journalist and former Resident Editor of The Hindu in Delhi K K Katyal passed away here today after a brief illness.

Katyal, 89, came to be known as the face of Delhi Bureau of The Hindu, which had launched its Delhi edition in 1986.

Prior to joining The Hindu, Katyal had worked in The Statesman and Hindustan Times. He had a stint with United States Information Services as well.

A widely travelled journalist, Katyal had wide contacts in diplomatic and political circles. He was awarded the G K Reddy Memorial prize in 1994 by the then Prime Minister P V Narsimha Rao for his insightful columns and analytical write-ups.

Hailing from Jhang in present-day Pakistan, Katyal worked towards improving Indo-Pak ties and after his retirement in 2004 he was associated with the South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA)'s India Chapter as President.

Katyal is survived by wife Sudarshan and daughters Anita and Sugita, both journalists.

Congress President, Sonia Gandhi has condoled the death of Katyal.

Describing him as a conscientious chronicler of the Nation's evolution over decades, Gandhi said that his contributions will be remembered always.
The city residents can now lodge their complaints through social messaging application WhatsApp, after the facility was launched by Visakhapatnam Rural Police today.

DIG, Visakha Range, Ch Srikanth today launched the Rural Police WhatsApp number - 8142003339.

Srikanth expressed hope the facility would give a major boost to rural policing with regard to gathering information, especially on eve-teasing, gambling, anti-social activities, ragging, snatching, property offences, and other crimes.

He clarified the WhatsApp account is not a platform to register FIR but it's only for quick response to people facing problem anywhere in the district.

Anyone creating nuisance by misusing the number would face necessary action, police said.

Superintendent of Police (Visakha Rural) Rahul Dev Sharma will be the 'admin' for the account and it will be monitored round the clock by a group of trained policemen, they said.

"Soon after receiving complaints, policemen will alert the police officer concerned to respond to the complaint within 15 to 30 minutes. If it is cognisable offence, the police will visit the house of the complainant to register FIR," Srikanth added.
Goa will soon have a Vessel Traffic and Port Management System (VTPMS) that will keep a watch on every vessel to counter terror and smuggling activities off shore, officials said today.

The Captain of Ports department, which works for development of inland waterways and minor ports, has submitted a proposal to the state government for installation of VTPMS which is mandatory considering vulnerability of Goa's shores to terror and smuggling activity.

The VTPMS will also provide safe navigation to international vessels loaded with hazardous cargo transiting off Goa coast, a senior official from Captain of Port department said.

He said the system will help to monitor seashore and also river banks providing full proof security for the coastal state.

As per the proposal, the VTPMS will advice, monitor shipping lanes and separation scheme to enforce compliance of safe navigation regulation, assistance to coast guards and other authorities, detection of oil spill and improve overall port efficiency.

Goa has nine minor ports and several commercial jetties.

The Union government is also working on augmenting the inland waterways of the state by constructing more jetties.
The Obama administration has opposed the move of the US Senate to impose conditions on the USD 300 million aid to Pakistan, saying restrictions would "unnecessarily complicate" progress in bilateral ties and would be against America's national interest.

The White House said the Obama administration objects to Senate version of the National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA), which would make Pakistan ineligible for the Secretary of Defence's waiver authority unless he provides a certification to the congressional defence committees.

Passing the NDAA-2017, Senate Armed Services Committee last month blocked USD 300 million US military aid to Pakistan unless the Defence Secretary certifies to the Congress that Islamabad is taking demonstrable steps against the Haqqani network.

"We share the Committee's concerns regarding the threat posed to our forces and interests in Afghanistan by the Haqqani network and we continue to engage with Pakistan at the highest levels regarding the need for concerted action specifically against the group," the White House said.

The restriction imposed by the Senate would "unnecessarily complicate progress in US-Pakistan bilateral relationship on this issue and would limit the Secretary of Defence's ability to act in the US national security interest", it said.

NDAA is scheduled to come up before the Senate for voting this week. Senate version of the NDAA differed with that of the House on many issues including Pakistan.

The House version of the bill, passed last month, calls for blocking USD 450 million of the USD 900 million US aid to Pakistan in coalition support fund. The Senate version has reduced both the figures respectively to USD 300 million and USD 800 million.

However, for release of this fund, both seek certification from the Secretary of Defence that Pakistan is taking action against the Haqqani network. The White House had made similar objection to the House version of the NDAA.

NDAA-2016, which ends on September 30, makes it mandatory for the Defence Secretary to certify that Islamabad is taking action against the Haqqani network for the release of last USD 300 million of the coalition support fund to Pakistan. The Defence Secretary has not taken a decision yet.
Arizona has worked to establish an inviting business climate, and entrepreneurs have taken note. Not only did Arizona post the fourth-best gross domestic product growth rate in the U.S. in 2018, its one of the fastest-growing states in the nation, with an unemployment rate that recently fell to 4.7%. Its low tax rates, business credits, and limited regulations, along with sunny weather and a low cost of living, have made it a draw for businesses. Small business owners across the state are encouraged by these healthy indicators, ready to seize new opportunities and pursue economic growth.

The primary drawbacks of business in Arizona are difficulties accessing startup and growth capital (a problem that plagues much of the nation) and the states generally low personal income per capita. While the cost of living is moderate in Arizona, personal income is lower than the national average, meaning the average Arizonan has less disposable income to spend on small businesses goods and services. Still, neither of these factors have dampened entrepreneurs optimistic outlooks in the Grand Canyon State.

Opportunities and advantages of starting a business in Arizona

Healthy economic growth

Arizonas economy is growing on par with the nation, reaching 2.5% in 2019. While thats not a staggering growth rate, the reliability of the rate provides a level of certainty for Arizonas entrepreneurs, a benefit that other states dont necessarily enjoy. In fact, for the last decade, Arizonas economic growth rate has often been above the 2% mark  no small feat for a state enduring an economic recovery.

Real estate seems to be stable, and more people are moving to the state than leaving, said Scott Curry, president of SKC Strategies and executive vice president of business development for Pure Grips. More businesses are moving to Arizona because of the favorable business environment and the relatively low cost of living.

The ease of establishing a business in Arizona appealed to Lisa Barrington, founder and principal of Barrington Coaching, an Arizona-based strategic consulting and coaching firm.

Setting up an LLC in Arizona is easy, fast and low-cost  I have more than one, she said. Its $50 if you do it yourself.

There is a great deal of opportunity for small business owners in Arizona between the influx of consumers and the influx of businesses with which they might work with or benefit from, added Barrington. Arizona had the second-highest job growth in the U.S. from midyear 2018 to midyear 2019. There has been an influx of jobs and people due to the high cost of running a business and living in some neighboring states, particularly in California.

In fact, a seven-year study by Spectrum Location Solutions found that Arizona is the third-most attractive state for businesses leaving California. According to the study, relocation by California companies diverted more than $68 billion in capital across more than 1,500 relocations to other states  Arizona was a large beneficiary of that divestment.

Manageable taxes

Perhaps part of the reason so many relocating businesses are happy to move to the Grand Canyon State is its low and moderate taxes. The state sales tax is middle-of-the-road at 5.6%, but the flat corporate income tax of 6.968% and the five-bracket personal income tax ranging from 2.59% to 4.5% make the overall tax burden generally manageable. Similarly to most other states, additional property and sales taxes are levied from municipality to municipality and county to county, so total tax burden can vary by where in the state a business is located.

The tax rate is fairly low in Arizona, which makes it appealing to small business, said Tom Wheelwright, an Arizona CPA and author of Tax-Free Wealth (RDA Press, 2013). The Arizona Department of Revenue isnt bad to deal with, and cities often have tax incentives for opening a business in an enterprise zone.

Arizona taxes are extremely fair, added Joel McLaughlin, founder and SEO specialist at Dataflurry. You do need a business license if you are selling physical goods  to an Arizona resident.

In Arizona, this is known as a transaction privilege tax. Its similar to a state sales tax, and the appropriate license for it is obtained from the Arizona Department of Revenue. Businesses also need to register for the Arizona unemployment tax and employee withholding tax if hiring employees.

Resources to help business owners stay current on their Arizona tax obligations include an overview of taxable services and a guide to sales tax exemptions and exclusions from the Arizona Department of Revenue.

Growing labor market

Arizonas labor market is a huge plus for the small business community right now.

Labor selection in Arizona is always great, said McLaughlin. There is tons of talent to choose from.

The population and labor force continue to grow, as does employment. Arizona unemployment rates are at 4.7%, which is higher than the national average of 3.5%. Although the unemployment rate has been above the national average for more than a decade, its far below Arizonas peak of 10.4% in 2010 and moving in the right direction.

In fact, the state generated strong increases in employment in 2019, adding 72,100 jobs over the year. This translated to 2.5% growth, easily outpacing the national rate of 1.5%. Most of these job gains were in four industries: education, health services, construction, and trade, transportation and utilities.

Moreover, the higher unemployment rate has led to a competitive job market where employers can still find highly skilled, educated and qualified employees who meet the needs of their organizations.

The state is full of highly competent and educated workers that have the skill set to be an asset to companies and their growth, said William Moreland, owner of leadership development company Moreland International.

Meanwhile, the cost of living in Phoenix is affordable compared to other major metropolitan areas, which keeps labor expenses at a manageable level. According to recent Census data, more people are moving to Maricopa County and the city of Phoenix than anywhere else in the nation. In fact, with a population just under 1.63 million people, Phoenix is the fifth-largest U.S. city.

Challenges of starting a business in Arizona

Access to capital

As in many states across the U.S., it can be difficult to find startup capital in Arizona, despite its range of incubators and venture capitalist firms. Arizona entrepreneurs and professionals who spoke to Business News Daily said that although innovative ideas can find support, its not easy to distinguish oneself from the crowd.

The growth capital is hard to come by in Arizona, Curry said. Companies need to look outside of Arizona for the growth capital to take them to the next step in their journey.

In an environment where borrowing options are limited and microlending isnt well established, startups often need to meet exceptionally high standards to gain the favor of lenders.

Unfortunately, Arizona isnt known for producing high-growth, highly scalable businesses to date, Curry said. Hopefully, that is going to change in the foreseeable future. For now, Arizona startups need to execute and gain traction to be seen as viable in the market.

Low income per capita

Arizonas cost of living is moderate, but its per capita personal income is significantly lower than the national average. Thats a big concern for many in-state small businesses that rely on residents disposable income for a majority of their proceeds.

According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, Arizonas per capita personal income was $46,167  81.4% of the national average  in 2018. Even considering the cost of living, thats a negative indicator. Although per capita personal income in Arizona rose 4.3% in 2018, before adjustment for inflation, that was still below the national pace of 4.9%. Individuals lack of discretionary funds is having a negative impact on Arizonas small businesses.

People love to shop at small retailers in Arizona, but theyre not spending very much, said Brad Plothow, vice president of corporate marketing and communications at Womply. Our 2019 State of Local Retail report analyzed transactions at 52,000 small local retailers nationwide to discover sales patterns and seasonality. Turns out Arizona mom-and-pop retailers rank second nationally for foot traffic, but 49th for transaction size.

Womply also analyzed transactions at 42,000 small local restaurants nationwide and found that although there are plenty of potential customers, this often fails to translate to actual sales.

As with retail, Arizona consumers love to patronize local independent eateries, but they dont spend much, said Plothow. Arizona ranks fourth nationally for foot traffic to local restaurants, but 35th for average ticket. Even a marginal increase in spending would bump Arizona restaurants into the top 10 nationally for restaurant sales.

Looking ahead, if there is a decline in the overall U.S. economy or decrease in global growth as many are predicting, it could lead to slower gains  or even declines  in Arizonas economic landscape.

Resources for small businesses in Arizona

If youre a small business owner in Arizona looking for resources to help you move forward, here are a few organizations you might want to learn more about.

Arizona SCORE

SCOREs volunteer business professionals and expert mentors give counsel and guidance to entrepreneurs looking to start or expand their businesses. The services are free and volunteer-driven. Here are some of the main chapters in Arizona (you can see the complete list here):

The SBA offers financing and grants as well as consultations and counseling services. There are also opportunities to apply for federal government contracts through the SBA and avenues to obtain assistance after natural disasters.

Arizona Small Business Development Centers

Arizona hosts a number of development centers for small business. Each is dedicated to supporting the development and retention of small businesses, helping entrepreneurs do everything from crafting business plans to navigating the tax code. You can find your regions Small Business Development Center at the Arizona SBDC Network.

ASBA bills itself as the voice of small businesses in Arizona. It provides a host of resources for businesses with fewer than 500 employees, including education and mentoring opportunities, professional connections, and support through strategic partnerships. It also advocates for legislation and regulations that support a pro-business environment.

A program from one of Arizonas economic development organizations, SBS provides information on business licensing and statewide resources for every stage of business development and creates policies and programs that address the needs of small businesses. It places a special focus on providing support and opportunities for Arizonas small, minority- or women-owned, and disadvantaged business enterprises.

Are you an entrepreneurial organization or resource for small business owners that is not listed here? Let us know.

Adam Uzialko contributed to the reporting and writing in this article. Some source interviews were conducted for a previous version of this article.
AUBURN  For the past 15 years, Mike Murray has led local law enforcement in a race across central New York  a race to raise awareness and funds for the Special Olympics.

And this year was no different.

A retired sergeant at Auburn Correctional Facility, Murray helped organize Wednesday's Law Enforcement Torch Run in which dozens of local officers, students and athletes carried the Flame of Hope on an 18-mile journey through three counties from Elbridge to Seneca Falls.

The event started in Onondaga County where Elbridge Elementary School Principal RJ Hartwell took the torch on a mile-long run down Route 5. From the state police station and nearby Elbridge Elementary, the Flame of Hope was passed to Cayuga County, where eventually Auburn's Casey Park Elementary School students and law enforcement officials ran in the rain along Genesee Street.

"This is our second torch run, and I think it sends a great message to the community," Casey Park Principal Ronald Gorney said. "It really brings a lot of awareness to what our law enforcement does and it brings awareness to the Special Olympics as a whole ... and it's a great experience for the children too."

Murray said the fundraiser used to be a 72-mile run that stretched all the way to Canandaigua in one day. But since then, organizers decided to split the run in half so they could stop at more schools along the way.

"When we got to the end, the schools were all closed already so we decided to split it so we could stop at schools over there too," he said. "We like to use this as an anti-bullying campaign to teach students how to interact with special needs kids instead of bullying them or treating them different."

The group of around two dozen runners made three stops in Auburn  Market Street Park, Veterans Memorial Park and Genesee Elementary School  where members of the community waved American flags and cheered them on.

"This draws attention to how wonderful these programs and events are and what a great opportunity this is for people who have disabilities," Gorney said.
Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said she will take up with the Finance Ministry the issue of relaxing mandatory sourcing norms for iPhone maker Apple, which wants to set up retail stores in the country.

The Finance Ministry has rejected the waiver of mandatory 30 per cent local sourcing for Apple Inc to set up single - brand stores in India.

"We are talking about it but nothing has been reached ...if it's a closed chapter I would not say I will go and talk to them...After that decision (rejection by the Finance Ministry) has come out in public, I am willing to go and speak to the finance," she told reporters here.

The US-based giant has sought exemption on the ground that it makes state-of-the-art and cutting-edge technology products for which local sourcing is not possible.

A Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) secretary headed panel had favoured waiving the mandatory local sourcing requirement for the US-based firm.

The company sells its products through Apple-owned retail stores in countries, including China, Germany, the US, the UK and France.

It has no wholly-owned store in India and sells its products through distributors such as Redington and Ingram Micro.

At present, 100 per cent FDI is permitted in the sector.

But beyond 49 per cent, the FIPB permission is required.


Prime Minister Narendra Modi met US President Barack Obama on Wednesday on the penultimate leg of his whirlwind five-nation tour, during which he hopes to strengthen strategic partnership with Unites States in diverse areas. Among spate of issues discussed, economic growth, climate change, clean energy and defense cooperation topped the list.



Here are some of the key developments from the Prime Minister's fourth visit to the United States:

1)Financial assistance for clean energy: India and the US on Tuesday announced the setting up of two financial assistance programmes worth $60 million for supporting India's much-needed clean energy initiatives including solar power and other renewables.

"The US is committed to bring to bear its technical capacity, resources and private sector, and is jointly launching with India new efforts, to spur greater investment in India's renewable energy sector, including efforts that can serve as a model for other ISA member countries," the White House said.

2)India, US ink deal to boost defence: In a significant development, the US recognised India as a "major defence partner" which means for defence related trade and technology transfer, the country would now be treated at par with America's closest allies.

"Noting that the US-India defence relationship can be an anchor of stability and given the increasingly strengthened cooperation in defence, the United States hereby recognises India as a Major Defence Partner," said a joint statement issued after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks with US President Barack Obama.

3)Work on Nuclear Reactors: US President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed the start of preparatory work on six nuclear reactors in India, a key step in closing the first deal stemming from a US-India civil nuclear accord struck over a decade ago. Obama supported India's candidature for membership of the elite Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) as he discussed with PM Modi ways to take the bilateral ties to new heights.

4)Cyber framework accord: India and the US have also committed to deepen cooperation on cybersecurity and moving towards finalizing the Framework for the US-India Cyber Relationship in the near term. Cyber collaboration on critical infrastructure, cybercrime, and malicious cyber activity by state and non-state actors, capacity building, and cybersecurity research and development are on the cards.

5)Pakistan asked to punish Pathankot attack perpetrators: India and the United States have called for Pakistan to bring the perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai and the 2016 Pathankot terrorist attacks to justice. Acknowledging the continued threat posed to human civilisation by terrorism and condemning the recent terrorist incidents from Paris to Pathankot, from Brussels to Kabul, India and the United States resolved to redouble their efforts, bilaterally and with other like-minded countries, to bring to justice the perpetrators of terrorism anywhere in the world and the infrastructure that supports them.

(With inputs from Agencies)


A panel headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today took stock of the progress made on operationalising India's maiden sovereign wealth fund NIIF, including the selection of its CEO and projects shortlisted for making initial investments.

The second Governing Council meeting of the Rs 40,000 crore National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) also discussed the follow-up action being taken on the MoUs signed with Rusnano of Russia, ADIA of Abu Dhabi and Qatar Investment Authority.

"The Governing Council was apprised of the interactions that have been held with a large number of long term investors, Sovereign Wealth Funds, Pension Funds from across the globe, seeking to invest in the NIIF," a finance ministry statement said.

They also discussed the guidelines for investment of the corpus of NIIF, including the investment policy, it added.

Set up in December 2015, NIIF will act as an investment vehicle for funding commercially viable greenfield, brownfield and stalled projects.

The government is in the process of appointing a CEO for NIIF, in which it holds 49 per cent while the rest will be held by private investors.

The Council was also apprised of the refinement in the structure of NIIF pursuant to discussions with investors.

NIIF will have various sector-specific or investor- specific close ended funds and they would issue various classes of units. Government along with other investor(s) will subscribe to the units of various funds.

"The status of projects shortlisted for initial investment by the NIIF and the selection process of Chief Executive Officer were also placed before the Council," the ministry said, adding that a NIIF website was launched today.

This meeting was attended by Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das, Financial Services Secretary Anjuly Duggal and SBI Chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya and former Infosys director T V Mohandas Pai.
Pick up a newspaper or go online and not a day passes by without some print space and cyberspace devoted to a leading technical school or a business school blacklisting or threatening to boycott a company that has reneged on its promise made to students while hiring on campus.

Some, like the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bangalore, have chosen not to blacklist and have left it to the students and the placement process. Therefore, it is with good reason that how schools should and do respond under such situations, and what options these leave for students are issues hotly debated today.

After all, don't we all join the best technical and management schools because at the end of the programme we want to see ourselves land jobs at the best companies on the planet with job profiles we have been only dreaming of so far. Right? Well, yes and no.

The answer depends on who you are talking to. Most students feel since schools market themselves with the kind of placements they get for their students, it is their responsibility to ensure students are placed well. No, say some veterans in the education space arguing that "the entire Indian education system is somehow making its students believe that they are entitled to something".

After all, the argument goes: students have been taught business ups and downs and the importance of due diligence, therefore when it comes to their career decisions, why should they abdicate the responsibility of selecting the company to their school? "If MBA students from top institutions cannot judge the risk of a company they are joining, then what is their ability to evaluate business risks?" asks Ajit Rangnekar, former dean of the Indian School of Business.

Therefore, he told me, "why should a school boycott a company, let the student decide whether to take or not to take an offer.I would rather have a company coming to campus and no student applying for itthat is a much better lesson for a company rather than have a school blacklist the company and not allow it to visit the campus."

While Rangnekar is quite clear that these are his personal views, he however felt that schools must come down heavily if a company makes changes or deviates from its original offer, for that has nothing to do with business cycles. Therefore, his take is, if the intention of a company was genuine and if there are genuine changes in the circumstances, then these have to be accepted and schools will have to work with the students to look for other options.

In case you get a doubt on what we mean by "genuine changes in circumstances", we would mean things like delays in the expected growth capital or fund infusion that a start-up was expecting. If say, the funding is expected in July or August, but companies may be required to take a bet on it by December and many a times, these decisions are made on past experiences and certain expectations, which may or may not materialise.

Broadly, there are two recruitment models at work globally. In Europe, for instance, people go and find their jobs as the schools encourage students to plan their own careers, which is not the case in the US, which is a placement market.

However, leaders of leading business schools in India seem clear on what to expect: "If you offer a salary to a student then as a responsible company you should also plan and have at least a two to three year horizon in mind. So, if a start up hires a student and six months down the line, is not able to keep the promise, it is irresponsible," says Ranjan Banerjee, Dean, S P Jain Institute of Management & Research. So, how should a campus deal with it given that companies and campuses tend to be entities that share long term relationship and here is how he summed it up: "if the situation with a start-up is of a short term nature and it has behaved transparently then the school should take a partnership view, but if a start-up has behaved in a manner that is not transparent then there is a trust issue in that partnership and then I would look at blacklisting. So, I will take a partnership view as long as the spirit of partnership has not been violated."

There are perhaps lessons in these for companies visiting campuses and for students accepting offers. If not handled well, companies could run the risk of losing more than just suffering the downside of a business cycle. As for students, doing homework has always helped and will do them good here too.


Government has approved the expansion plan for the international airport in the national capital that would see addition of fourth runway as well as increase its passenger handling capacity.

The international aerodrome in the national capital is operated by Delhi International Airport (P) Ltd -- a public private partnership where diversified group GMR, Airports Authority of India (AAI) and Germany's Fraport are the stakeholders.

Minister of State for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma said the Delhi international airport has made a target of having the fourth runway in three years. This would increase the facility for cargo as well as for services to all domestic and international passengers, he added.

"... The government has already cleared the expansion plan," Sharma said.

He was speaking at a function organised by DIAL to felicitate its stakeholders for making the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport the world's number one airport -- in the 25-40 million passengers per annum category -- for the second consecutive year.

It has been recognised as the number one airport in this category by the Airport Council International (ACI).

GMR Group Chairman G M Rao said Delhi airport's current capacity to handle 62 million passengers per annum and 1.5 million tonnes of cargo makes it ideally suited to serve the growth of Indian aviation.

"The airport has the ability to expand to 109 million passengers per annum and 2.2 million tonnes of cargo," he added.

According to Sharma, out of the 484 airports in the country, only around 84 are being used.

"We are coming up with a regional connectivity scheme, where tier 2 and tier 3 cities will be connected by the flights where the ticket price will not be crossing more than Rs 2,500 for a one-hour flight," he noted.

In the last three months alone, the passenger growth has been almost 25 per cent.

Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju said there is a need for much more robust security system.

"We will need to have much more coordinated efforts so that we have a complete robust security system in place, I personally feel that the security of aviation is directly proportional to the security of the nation. We have to ensure that all our airports are safe," he said.

Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said a beginning was made with the public private partnership model of DIAL.

"Government has no business to be in business. We have other businesses to do...," he noted.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju also spoke.
Irish women are a lot less proud of their work achievements compared to other women globally according to survey findings released today by LinkedIn.

Nineteen percent of Irish women which is marginally ahead of UK at 18%, say that theyre proud of their work achievements compared to 26% internationally. This lags far behind countries like India (30%) Spain (38%) and USA (38%).



Furthermore, the LinkedIn study found that only 46% of Irish women were confident that they could effectively describe their work achievements if they stumbled across their dream employer compared to 56% of Irish men asked the same question.

The survey also found that almost one-in-four (23%) women stated that they would panic if they were asked on the spot to describe their achievements compared to just 12% of men.

When it comes to sharing professional achievements online, Irish women were less likely to talk about promotions than their male colleagues. Twenty percent of males surveyed would happily post about promotions online compared to 13% of females surveyed.



The findings also showed that women like to share their familys work achievements ahead of their own. Less than one-in-five (19%) feel pride in talking about their own work achievements but more than double (40%) feel pride in sharing information about their familys professional success.

This compares to only 26% of males asked how proud they were about sharing details of family success in the workplace.



Linkedin say this lack of confidence and pride in communicating professional achievements may affect career progression as 63% of those in hiring positions agree that it is important to let senior staff members know about professional achievements in order to get a pay rise or promotion.



LinkedIns Senior Director of HR for LinkedIn, EMEA Wendy Murphy says, "Being comfortable communicating the fruits of your hard work is vital if you want to climb the career ladder. Telling your work story online is of the utmost importance for career progression and advancement too, with 70% of those in hiring positions agreeing that the impression you make online is just as important as the one you make in person."



Source: www.businessworld.ie

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The Minister of State for Tourism and Sport, Patrick ODonovan, has today launched the new Failte Ireland Capital Investment Supports for Large Tourism Projects that will provide a pool of 65m in investment to develop new or boost existing, tourism experiences and attractions across Ireland.



The scheme which will run from 2016-2020 was officially launched at Failte Irelands Head Quarters in Dublin today.



The funding for the Capital Investment Supports for Large Tourism Projects is drawn from Failte Irelands overall capital fund, which is valued at 125m over the next seven years.

Under the scheme, capital grants in excess of 200k and up to a maximum of 5m will be available and the scheme is open to applications from the public, private and voluntary sectors including community groups and support for commercial projects.



Minister ODonovan commented, "This capital investment will allow us to support high impact projects around the country and will underpin our overall strategy for sustained tourism growth which benefits all the regions."

He added, "The Government is committed to job creation, rural development and tourism growth and this type of funding allows us to deliver on all three.



Source: www.businessworld.ie

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Furniture retailer IKEA Group expects to grow sales about 8-10% in its current financial year, leaving it on track to reach its target of hitting 50 billion euros in 2020, its top executive said.

"We are on that journey. That means we need to grow 8-10% annually to reach it and that is probably roughly where we'll land this year," IKEA CEO Peter Agnefjall told Reuters.

"We are well on track to realize the plans we have."

Speaking on the sidelines of a design event in the small, southern Swedish town where IKEA first set up shop, Agnefjall said trends in demand remained similar to last year, with a continued recovery in its biggest market, Europe.

In China, a key growth market for IKEA, the company was little affected by a wider economic slowdown, he added.

"There has been talk for three years that China is slowing down. We don't see those signs," he said.

The company, known for its large warehouse-like out-of-town stores and flat-packed self-assembly furniture, reported a 11.5% sales rise to 32.7 billion euros in its previous fiscal year, which runs through the end of August.

Online sales at the home furnishing giant, which last fiscal year totalled about 1 billion euros, were expected to grow around 40% this year, roughly equalling annual growth in the previous three years, Agnefjall said.

In Russia, where IKEA once expanded rapidly, investments remained on hold, he said, while the company, which plans to open its first Indian store in just over a year, in Hyderabad, was close to finalizing deals to buy land in New Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai. (Reuters)

Source: www.businessworld.ie

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June 28th will be a primary election for candidates running for Governor, Congress, U.S. Senate, legislative, county and local officials as well. In Cache County, Cory Yeates has served in Logan Seat 1 on the county council for many years but has decided not to run this year. One of two candidates hoping to be in that seat is Casey Saxton.

He currently serves as the Secretary of the Cache County Republican Party and has previously served as the Vice Chairman of the Utah Federation of College Republicans and as the President of Utah State University College Republicans.

On KVNUs For The People program on Tuesday, Saxton talked about responsible growth as an issue hed like to focus on if elected.

Envision Utah polled a lot of people in Utah and essentially asked them what they would like Utah to look like in the years ahead. I would like to do something like that on a county level where we survey, poll or focus group people and we ask them what they want Cache County to look like in 10 years, 20 years or 50 years. And use the feedback from that program as a baseline for future planning, Saxton explained.

Saxtons challenger for the seat is Karl Ward, who was a guest on For the People last week.
The Box Elder County Sheriffs office has identified the 18-year-old victim of Tuesday nights drowning near Beaver Dam. Francisco Isreal Hilera of Millville was found by crews around 9:00 p.m. and pronounced dead at the scene.

Chief Deputy Dale Ward said Hilera was floating down the canal with three other individuals when he failed to grab an overhead flume, and continued floating downstream.

The other three that were in the water reported that as he was going down the canal, it appeared that he was in distress and was having trouble, said Ward. He went under the water and they didnt see him again.

Other individuals in the group called 911 around 5:50 p.m. Emergency responders from Box Elder Countys Search and Rescue, Scuba Team and Fielding Fire Department were all dispatched to the scene. Deputies were able to divert water out of the canal but it took several hours for the depth to drop.

The initial investigation shows this was an accident and the sheriffs office is expressing their sympathies and condolences to the Hilera family.

Ward said sheriffs deputies also remind everyone to stay away from these type of irrigation canals.

It is very dangerous to be in these canals. The current is very swift, there is an undercurrent. It doesnt matter how good of a swimmer you are. It doesnt matter the physical condition you are in. You can get into a bad situation in a hurry.

The canals are also private property and can lead to criminal trespassing citations.

We aggressively pursue that. We have in the past and will continue to do so in the future. If you are caught in the canals you will likely be prosecuted for criminal trespassing.

Hileras body was transported to the Utah State Medical Examiners Office for examination and to determine the exact cause of death.

<hr /><p style=text-align: center;>will@cvradio.com
Termini Underground: Dancing as integration in Italy

Published on June 8, 2016

Story by Lidija Pisker

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Under the platforms of Rome's largest station, the hum of commuter traffic gives way to a different kind of sound. The Termini Underground dance studio helps integrate migrants into Italian society through hip-hop and breakdancing. While departing trains might shake the walls of the studio, it's the performers who shake it out on the floor.

Sinan from Kosovo, Jorge Luis from Columbia and Juru from Rwanda  three young migrants from different countries who started dancing together at a troupe in the centre of Rome.

While the story of international dancers united through their performance may sound like a fairy-tale, the three of them will tell you that nothing is further from the truth. Unhappy circumstances forced them to leave their homes in search of better lives. This led to them joining Termini Underground, an unusual dance group that gathers together young people who have migrated to Italy and helps them to integrate into Italian society.

When he was just six years old, living in small city of Prizren in the former Yugoslavia, Sinan was sold by his father to a family in Sicily. "I was forced to steal and rob. After a while, I couldnt take it anymore and decided to escape," Sinan explains.

Growing up in youth centres and monasteries in southern Italy, he found music to be a comfort, helping him escape from reality. "Dancing is my cure," he tells me while recalling his first forays into performance as a boy. "It makes me forget about bad things." As a young man he moved to Rome, where he discovered the Termini Underground dance project. Once he joined, he quickly became one of the groups best break-dancers, now known as "Angelo B-Boy".

We meet in Termini Undergrounds studio, a room located directly under the platforms of Italys biggest train station  and the second biggest in Europe  Termini Stazione. As we talk, I hear the buzz of trains above our heads, and the walls start shaking with each departing train.

The space, once owned by the railway workers union, has become a favourite haunt in the city for the more than 500 young people from across the world that have so far danced with the group.

The project was born a decade ago when dancer and choreographer Angela Cocozza decided to help the young people she often saw hanging around the Termini station. Most of them had migrated to Italy after fleeing countries destroyed by economic despair and conflict. Some were already using drugs and alcohol; others were at risk of taking up the habit. Termini Underground offered them a free place to dance and an opportunity to engage in a group activity  a fundamental step in the integration process.

28-year-old Jorge Luis from Columbia came to Italy as a young boy where an Italian family adopted him. Before becoming a member of Termini Underground, he spent his days in front of the McDonalds in Termini station  a common space for young people to mingle or kill time watching passers-by.

"I love the atmosphere at Termini Underground because, here in this room, theres a street attitude," said Jorge Luis, who for the last six years has replaced the McDonalds forecourt with this underground dance studio. A talented and hard working dancer, he now also teaches a younger generation of students to dance hip-hop. Even though he never had a chance to return to his homeland, Jorge Luis incorporates elements of South American dance into his hip-hop choreography.

Dancers from Termini Underground have performed in street shows, at festivals, on TV screens and on some of Romes most prestigious theatre stages. An Italian media outlet called last years show at Rome's Brancaccio Theatre a "spectacular performance of creativity from international youth." They are now rehearsing for a performance in Teatro Sala Umberto, another famous Roman theatre that will host them later this month.

"Im very happy because of this opportunity," said Juru from Rwanda, who, at just 24 years old, is already an experienced dancer with many performances under his belt. "Ive been on many stages thanks to Termini Underground. Im happy because the show feels like ours."

Juru escaped the massacres of the 1990s in his home country and arrived in Italy, where he holds the status of political refugee. "I learned about Termini Underground in school. Someone mentioned a place where you can dance for free and I thought  lets try it," he said. Six years later, Juru has not only developed his dancing skills tremendously but also made a lot of new friends. "This group is a part of me," he added. "Its my family."

Juru, Jorge Luis, Sinan and all the other Termini Underground performers, continue to dance for the integration of young people arriving in Italy. Anyone who wants to can join them. Just turn up the music and get out on the floor.

Story by Lidija Pisker
To those passionate souls of central New York who worship at the altar of art, to those of Irish and Jewish descent who love their cultural heritage, to book lovers of all races, creeds and backgrounds who possess druidic habits of all stripes, I need not remind you we are fast approaching the most magical intellectual day of the year: Bloomsday.

Bloomsday, of course is a celebration of the greatest novel ever written in any language: Ulysses by James Joyce. The story takes place on a single day  June 16, 1904  and chronicles the peregrinations of a solitary Jew wandering around Dublin.

He encounters modern day versions of the monsters that tormented Odysseus 4,000 years ago on his travels home to Ithaca from the Trojan War. Cyclops, Circe, Calypso and the Sirens are all here with brutal affect.

Joyce teaches us that modern life can be every bit as terrifying as the mythologies of antiquity.

But, for the faint-hearted who never read the book, let me share three reasons why the adventure should be undertaken.

First, for those of Irish descent: Irelands great gift to themselves and the world are their books and letters, and the apex of that tradition is Joyce and his little book Ulysses.

Think about it: Ireland had no great kings, statesman or scientists, but they could bloody well write. From the Book of Kells of the 8th century and their scriptoriums right through Swift, Goldsmith, Stoker, Shaw and Wilde, the literary art form was dominated by the tiny island of Ireland.

And in the 20th century alone, the greatest poet, playwright and novelist were all Irish in Yeats, Becket and Joyce respectively. We are not a people of leprechauns and green beer but a mystical people of dreams expressed in words and rhymes. We are a people like no other.

Secondly, for our Jewish brothers and sisters: Strangely, some would say about this Dublin-based tale, Joyces main character is a secular Jew, though thrice baptized to Christianity and from Hungary.

But, the novel is not about Irish/English antisemitism, although there is enough ignorant spite to condemn the whole island. No, Joyce places his Jew, Leopold Bloom, firmly in the modernist Jewish intellectual tradition of Maimonides, Spinoza and Mendelssohn, thus creating not only a distinctive Jewish portrait but also a description of a modern everyman struggling with the universal effort to balance faith and reason, tradition and capitalistic squalor.

This is a description of Jew, unique in western literature that would make Rambam proud. Joyce turns this nebbish cuckold and inconsequential Jew into a spiritual and intellectual inspiration for us all.

Finally, for those who just love a great read. Joyce writes an incredibly poignant tale of love, betrayal, guilt and sex. Blooms father commits suicide, his only son dies after 11 days and his wife is planning an assignation with a new lover for 4 that afternoon in his marital bed.

And his young atheistic friend, Stephen Daedalus, recently buried his beloved mother but is tormented by the fact that he refused her request that he pray for her soul on her deathbed. In the crescendo of the novel, we witness his mothers decomposing, ghostly corpse chasing him down in a brothel trying to strangle him.

The novel, though banal in its surface tone, has a fever pitch of emotion and pathos.

This year, Bloomsday will be celebrated at Nibsys Pub, 201 Ulster St, Syracuse, from 6 to 10:00 p.m. Thursday, June 16  of course.

This event will be hosted by the James Joyce Club, which was founded by Richard Long and Frank Murphy, two giants of the Skaneateles community, 20 years ago and is still going strong. Admission is free, and sections of the book will be read. Please join us and laugh, cry and wonder.
When William Tecumseh Sherman, the Civil War general, came to Corpus Christi in 1883 his visit caused some problems. When the town's mayor refused to roll out the welcome mat, the town's barber took his place. Photo from the Library of Congress.

William Tecumseh Sherman  Civil War general famous for his quote "War is hell"  visited Corpus Christi in 1883. Sherman was asked to travel to Corpus Christi to promote the new railroad to Laredo, the Tex-Mex. The general was in Texas inspecting military posts.

Eli Merriman, editor of the Caller, told the story. Merriman was notified of the general's visit and responsibility fell to him to get up a welcoming committee to meet the train from Laredo. Merriman didn't think it would be a problem. The town's mayor was John B. Murphy, a staunch Unionist. But Murphy refused to attend any ceremony for Sherman. "I will not go down there," Murphy told Merriman. "His march through Georgia was a disgrace to the North."

Merriman turned to Perry Doddridge, wool merchant and banker. Doddridge was an Alabama native and former Confederate, but he agreed to meet the general and drive him around the city. When the train arrived, Merriman and Doddridge, two ex-Confederates not thrilled with the assignment, were at the depot to greet the famous Union general.

Before they could get him into a carriage, a black barber in town named Will Leonard took center stage. He was dressed for the occasion, wearing a fancy coat and plum-colored top hat. He jumped on top of a baggage handcar and in a deep voice gave three rousing cheers for Sherman, one of the Union generals besides U.S. Grant whose victories not only helped win the war but to end slavery.

Will Leonard's unscripted cheering no doubt was more heartfelt than any official welcome Sherman could have received.

Trial interrupted by war

J.M. "Scotty" Jetton, a gatekeeper on King Ranch property on the Laguna Madre, was shot to death on Feb. 28, 1941. His drinking buddy, Phillip Trammell, a one-armed fence-rider, was indicted for the crime.

Sheriff's investigators found that in a gunfight Trammell was shot in the shoulder by Jetton's shotgun while Jetton was killed by two shots from Trammell's rifle. Trammell said, "He got me but I got him." What sparked the fight was never revealed.

The trial began the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Judge George Westervelt called a recess so jurors could hear President Roosevelt's day-of-infamy speech. Two walls of Jetton's cabin were reconstructed in the courtroom to show what happened. On Dec. 13, 1941, jurors found Trammell guilty of murder. He was sentenced to 99 years. The conviction was overturned on appeal, but because many of those involved were in the military overseas it was not retried for six years.

In 1947, in the second trial, the Rev. Lester Roloff arrived to protest Judge Cullen Briggs' decision to let jurors have a beer with their supper. Briggs wouldn't back down, but he told the bailiff to allow each juror only one bottle of beer.

This time, Trammell was found not guilty.

Real money

John Howland Wood, one of the first cattle kings of South Texas, founded his ranch a decade before Richard King established the more famous King Ranch. Wood's Bonnie View Ranch stretched from Copano Bay to the present town of Woodsboro.

Wood was descended from a wealthy New York family. He went to New York in 1847 to collect part of his inheritance and returned to Texas with $60,000 in gold coins packed in wooden kegs.

Soon after the Civil War, crooked horse traders passed through the Corpus Christi region buying horses at remote Mexican-American ranches. They paid for them with worthless Confederate bills. After that, people refused to accept any form of paper currency. They wanted to be paid in gold or silver; there was no question about the value of that.

After the war, when he went on cattle-buying trips, Shanghai Pierce would be accompanied by his black cowhand, Neptune Holmes, leading a pack animal loaded with bags of gold and silver. When the cattle had been classed and counted, Shanghai would dump out the money on a blanket and pay the stockmen their due.

The late Ruth Dodson told a story of her uncle, free-range cattleman Martin Culver, who owned Rancho Perdido in Live Oak County and made a fortune trailing herds to Kansas. When her mother, Mary Susanna Burris, was young she visited the Culver ranch, in 1868. A cattleman friend of Culver's put down a sack of gold coins and told her that if she could pick it up she could have it. She couldn't lift it.

In 1873, William Brittain, rector of the Church of the Good Shepherd, submitted his resignation, angry over the church's delay in paying his salary. In a letter he reminded church elders what he was owed; he knew down to the penny. He asked for 44 dollars and 37 cents and he wanted to be paid, not in greenbacks, but in "coin dollars."

In Rockport in the 1870s Morgan Line captains bought hides from the packing houses with kegs filled with silver coins, fresh from the mint in New Orleans. The money was measured by weight, rather than counted, and barrels filled with silver coins were casually stacked on the docks of the Big Wharf. Barrels packed with silver were transported around town in freight wagons like so many kegs of nails.

E.H. Caldwell, a bank clerk in Corpus Christi in the late 1870s and early 1880s, recalled that silver coins in wooden kegs were hauled around the streets by the wagonload. When he was a bookkeeper at the Doddridge & Davis Bank, silver dollars served as the currency for all transactions unless otherwise specified. Gold was used to pay customs charges.

As freight collector for the Morgan Line steamers, Caldwell said he had to carry large sums of gold and silver. "These would accumulate and I would tire from lugging them around to the point that $1,000 in silver seemed to weigh a ton."

The value of paper dollars fluctuated based on the day's market. People didn't trust them. They preferred the satisfying weight of silver or gold coins, so bright and shiny, and often carried in soft leather sacks. That was the real thing while paper currency represented the concept of money. Gold and silver coins were what people sweated for, slaved for, and sometimes killed for.

That was real money, the coin of the realm.

-----

Murphy Givens is the retired Viewpoints Editor of the Caller-Times. Email him at givens.murphy@gmail.com.
Some Texas counties show drop-off in first-day early voting numbers

Texas could be reverting to the normal low-turnout status for midterm elections this cycle after the high-excitement election of 2018.
Caller-Times file The Boy Scouts of America Troop 3 will host its 49th annual Chicken BBQ from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and again from 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday at First United Methodist Church, 900 S. Shoreline Blvd.

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WEDNESDAY

FUNDRAISER: The Taste of the Coastal Bend will be at 6 p.m. at the Congressman Solomon P. Ortiz International Center, 402 Harbor Drive. Cost: $20. Information: 361-826-9900.

SUPPORT: The Stroke & Brain Injury Support Group will meet from 9:30-11 a.m. in the fourth floor In Patient Rehab Solarium at Christus Spohn Shoreline, 600 Elizabeth St. Cost: Free. Information: 361-881-3429.

CLASS: Wilton Cake Decorating classes on fondant and gum paste with Wray Nell Mosier begin at 6 p.m. at Hobby Lobby, 5425 S. Padre Island Drive. The course consists of two four hour classes. Cost: $35. Information: 361-991-3641.

MAGIC: Aransas County Public Library will host magic tricks by John O'Bryant at 3 p.m. at 701 E. Mimosa St., Rockport. Cost: Free. Information: 361-790-0153.

THURSDAY

LUNCHEON: New Neighbors League of Corpus Christi will host its monthly luncheon at 11 a.m. at Nolan's Restaurant, 7426 S. Staples St. The speaker will be Barbara Sweeney of Habitat for Humanity. Information: ccnewneighbors@gmail.com.

QUILTING: The Coastal Bend Quilt and Needlework Guild will meet from 10 a.m. to noon at the Ethel Eyerly Senior Center, 654 Graham Road. This month's program is by Jan Matthews "History and Development of Paper Piecing." Cost: Free, guests. Information: www.corpuschristiquilters.com.

BARBECUE: The Boy Scouts of America Troop 3 will host its 49th annual Chicken BBQ from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and again from 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. at First United Methodist Church, 900 S. Shoreline Blvd. All proceeds from the event will benefit the troops from 10 to 18 years old. Cost: $9, per person. Information: 361-549-1987.

CLASS: Wilton Cake Decorating classes on flowers and cake design with Wray Nell Mosier begin at 6 p.m. at Hobby Lobby, 5425 S. Padre Island Drive. The course consists of two four hour classes. Cost: $35. Information: 361-991-3641.

ORCHESTRA: The Del Mar College Summer Orchestra Program welcomes high school string players to participate with the Corpus Christi Chamber Orchestra. Rehearsals will be 7-9 p.m. at Wolfe Recital Hall, Del Mar College East. Cost: $50, registration. Information: 361-698-1223.

OPEN HOUSE: The Waterford at Corpus Christi will host Lemonade Day and a tour of the assisted living facility at 3-5 p.m. at 5813 Esplanade Drive. Cost: Free. Information: 361-991-9600.

For more events check Caller.com/vivacc
Australian rice growers may get silver lining after storms

Is there is a silver lining to the unexpected heavy rainstorms that have wreaked havoc in Sydney and parts of New South Wales this week?

The intense storms destroyed hilltop homes that were crushed by mountainous ocean waves crashing into Sydneys suburban scenic coastline.

Yet the silver lining is that some of the rainwater will be topping up Australias irrigation water reserves that are also used by Australias rice farms at a time when Australian rice is in high international demand.

According to a new IBISWorld report, 61.5 per cent of all Australian rice industry revenue in 2015-16 came from exports.

The industry is expected to generate revenue of AUD $619 million in 2015  16. Over the past five years Australian rice industry revenue has increased by an annualised 29.5 per cent.

Australian rice heads to Japan in wake of Fukushima disaster

IBISWorld Senior Industry Analyst, Jem Anning, said Australian rice growers have received more business from Japan in the wake of the countrys 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.

Rice exports have been volatile over the past five years due to mixed demand, price movements and the reliance on water, Anning said.

However, Australian rice growers have benefitted from rising demand from Japan since 2011-12, when the Fukushima nuclear disaster occurred. Many of the paddocks near the nuclear power plants are contaminated, and soil in the path of the tsunami that caused the nuclear disaster is too salty for growing rice, notwithstanding the absence of adequately functioning irrigation systems, she stated.

Australias rice industry was ranked third in a top 20 list recently compiled by IBISWorld measuring export growth over the past five years.

It follows behind Australias export growth rates for the prefabricated wooden building manufacturing which ranked no.1, and growth in exports of bauxite mining which ranked second.
CALLER-TIMES ARCHIVE In this July 31, 2014 file photo, a suggestion box hangs on the wall at the Karnes County Residential Center. Officials in Jim Wells County a considering opening a similar facility in San Diego.

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By Beatriz Alvarado of the Caller-Times

Jim Wells County's first public move toward allowing a family detention center operate out of San Diego drew criticism from activists and opponents of privately run prisons.

A petition against the move hit the web Tuesday morning and garnered 1,290 signatures in about seven hours.

"It's been growing fast," said Mohammad Abdollahi, who is the advocacy director for the group that started the petition. He works out of the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, or RAICES, San Antonio office.

The petition  dubbed "Tell (Department of Homeland Security) NOT to Negotiate with Jim Wells County: No More Family Detention!"  was launched the morning after Jim Wells County commissioners voted to authorize County Judge Pedro "Pete" Trevino Jr. to begin negotiations with the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Serco Inc. Serco is an international contracting firm focused on the public sector with contracts in the U.K. and Europe, North America, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand, according to the company's website. Trevino set a public hearing on the issue for Thursday.

"(The opposition) is exactly why we are having the public hearing, because we understand ... the push back is probably inevitable," Trevino told Caller-Times on Tuesday. "We wanted to make sure everybody was heard."

Trevino said the opposition for the facility, which likely will provide about 200 full-time jobs for the area, isn't coming from Jim Wells County residents.

"With the county's current economy, anything helps," he said. "Some people (in Jim Wells) have been encouraging. They know we need a different kind of development."

An intergovernmental service agreement with ICE is what's being negotiated, Trevino said. If approved, Jim Wells will contract with Serco to run the facility and the county's annual revenue will depend on the value assigned to each of the center's residents per night.

"We don't know what that rate is yet," Trevino said. "We are hoping it will be the most lucrative to the county."

Alan Hill, the senior vice president for corporate communications and government relations for Serco said in an email "(the company is) currently are looking at various options," but did not specify how many.

An Austin-based nonprofit also spoke out about the possibility of having a third family detention center in Texas  the others are the Karnes County Residential Center and the South Texas Family Residential Center, near Dilley. Grass roots Leadership, which advocates against family detention, released a statement on the issue. It cites its role in last week's temporary injunction prohibiting the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services from issuing a child care license to the detention center near Dilley.

"The answer to the family detention crisis is not contracting for new detention camps, regardless of where they are or who operates them. The answer is ending the practice of locking up kids and their moms once and for all," said Bob Libal, executive director of Grassroots Leadership said in the statement. "The Obama administration has a choice  will its legacy be ending family detention or codifying the largest trend in locking up families in this country since Japanese internment."

If approved, the Jim Wells County family detention facility would operate in San Diego at 4410 E. Highway 44, the location of the La Hacienda Nursing Home. La Hacienda Nursing Home was licensed for 114 beds, according to the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services. It closed in January 2014.

Twitter: @CallerBetty
On successive Sundays the Caller-Times published guest columns representing two extreme views about the risks and merits of extracting and using oil and gas. On Sunday, May 29, we heard from Todd Staples of the Texas Oil & Gas Association, who attacked critics of fracking as purveyors of junk science. On Sunday, June 5, Luke Metzger of Environment Texas answered back with scientific sources that were not junk. But the industry Staples represents is far from the villain that Metzger described.

Can we all please agree that not all science about the dangers of extracting and using oil and gas is junk science? And can we also please agree that the rewards are worth the risk  so far as we know them via non-junky science?

Probably not all of us. Far from it. But there's a middle ground between these two extremes and most of us live there.

We all rely on oil and gas  not just as consumers, but many of us also as employers and employees. It is a large part of our livelihood, not just economically for what we pay at the pump or earn from the industry.

By livelihood we mean, literally, that without it, we can't live as we do now, and would have a tougher time surviving. It delivers our food and medicines  and indeed is an ingredient in many of those medicines. It powers the hospitals where those medicines are dispensed. Without it, the doctors who work in those hospitals would be as limited as tribal witch doctors.

And let's not kid ourselves that wind and solar power will replace it any time soon, if ever.

But at the same time, studies showing health and safety hazards caused by fracking, storing, refining and delivering petroleum can't all be dismissed as junk science. That's political science, which, while a legitimate field of study, isn't science.

Staples, a former lawmaker and agriculture commissioner, is an accomplished political scientist. Metzger is a political activist who studied political science and theater in college. They are two worthy combatants lobbying on opposite fringes.

The oil-and-gas energy-dependent majority deserves real, scientific answers to questions like what's in the frack fluid, what are its risks and does fracking cause an increase in seismic activity. Metzger cited a Yale study that identified 157 toxic chemicals in fracking. Staples cited studies concluding that nothing got into the groundwater. He also noted that the industry is heavily regulated.

It should be regulated heavily, for its sake and ours. Metzger is correct that it has polluted, pollutes and will continue to pollute. And it contributes to climate change. No amount of political science will prove otherwise.

Staples' column was headlined "Let real facts govern energy." Metzger's headline was "The science on fracking isn't junk." Both headlines are correct. We have to write the headlines to make them fit. Somewhere between those two competing messages is where the rest of us fit.

Meeting us in the middle isn't a matter of political compromise. Don't bring us the result of a negotiation. That's junk. We deserve facts.
Half of Aussies trying quinoa might not be so bad

A media release we received this week states that only 50 per cent of Australians have tried quinoa.

Although 50 per cent might seem like a small figure at first, is it really that small when considering a few factors?

1. Price

Quinoa is expensive to buy, especially when compared to rice or potato, which it is often an alternative for.

Woolworths for example sells its private label Macro Organic 500gm quinoa pack for $8.00 whilst it sells 1kg of Macro Organic white rice for $3.99.

2. Comparison with avocados

In a recent ABC Landline episode, Antony Allen, the Chief Executive Officer of The Avolution, a marketing group for Australian avocados, said only 30 per cent of people would have an avocado on toast during the year.

Considering how long avocados have been an Australian supermarket staple, quinoa might not be performing too badly.

3. Local crops

Until the past couple of years, only a small amount of Australian quinoa was grown in Tasmania.

Western Australian farmers are currently working to develop a solid quinoa industry in the State, but it is still in a formative stage.
The judgement was passed on Tuesday June 30, 2015 at the Special Criminal Court in Yaounde.

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The Special Criminal Court has declared Ngongang Yves Marie, FCFA former Chief of Post, Identification Office at the Immigration office in the Centre Region, guilty of embezzling state funds in the case pitting the State of Cameroon and the Delegation of National Security (DGSN) against him.



Yves Marie is accused of embezzling FCFA 171 million between 2011 and 2014 when he was head of the identification office. The hearing before a panel of judges led by Justice Eloundou Virginie began with the verification of the prosecution and the defence counsels.



Reading the judgement Mrs Justice Eloundou Virgine revisited the Committal Order of the Examining Magistrates Chambers January 2015, bringing the case to the Special Criminal Court. According to the Committal Order Ngongang Yves Marie former Chief of CE 13 based in the Emi Immigration building in Yaounde was accused of embezzling administrative funds which have enormous financial prejudices to the Delegation of National Security. The embezzlement was noticed following a control carried out in the identification office on January 20 to 24, 2015. The team mandated by the System CENAC first noticed that equipment worth FCFA 10, 230 had disappeared.



In the same identification, 247 forms were missing and could not be justified by the chief of post. Ngongang Yves Marie however admitted the deficit of FCFA 10 million and he reimbursed FCFA 4,790,000 on January 25, 2014. Concerning the 247 missing forms Ngongang Yves Marie recognised the disappearance of the forms and asked that he should be given some days to trace the forms. In a second investigation, it was discovered that more forms were missing. Ngongang Yves Marie received forms for identification; issued receipts but did not give identity cards. Still in this carton, it was noticed that many applicants had the same receipts, but did not have identity cards. The cost of forms for residence permits ranges from FCFA 30,000 to FCFA 700,000.



Mrs. Justice Eloundou Virginie said the court found Ngongang guilty of embezzling FCFA 171 million. While invoking mitigating circumstances, Barrister Gaetan Batindy, Counsel for Ngongang Yves Marie pleaded mitigating circumstances for Ngongang Yves Marie and prayed that he be given minimum sentence as opposed to the maximum sentence requested by the Legal Department. The court then handed down judgement. The accused was sentenced to 12 years in prison. Ngangang Yves Marie will have to pay justice fee of FCFA 5 million.

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| BY Ricki Green |

In a bid to persuade todays world leaders to take better care of our planet, Friends of the Earth Australia is asking for the global communitys help to send a climate change sceptic to space so they can shift their perspective and come back down to earth a more environmentally ethical person.

Created by The Monkeys, the #sendasceptictospace social campaign shows that when astronauts travel to space they get to view the earth from orbit. As they gaze down at the planet, they see a thin ozone layer, the effects of human impact, and they realise we are all on this earth together, and were destroying our only home.

This is called The Overview Effect. But its wasted on astronauts. Astronauts dont write our laws or create the policies that can protect our planet. Our politicians do. Despite 97 per cent * of climate scientists agreeing climate change is real, some of the worlds most influential leaders, shaping policies in countries including the USA, Australia, Canada and Russia, still dont get it.

But theres one dramatic way we can change their view.

Friends of the Earth Australia is campaigning to send one of the worst climate sceptics from down here, up there. To take action theyre crowd-funding a ticket to space for the worlds biggest climate sceptic, as voted by you, the people of earth.

To view the climate change sceptic with the highest current ranking click here

If the target goal is reached, Friends of the Earth Australia will buy the sceptic with the most votes a ticket to space to experience The Overview Effect with their own eyes. If they come back to earth with a changed perspective on the environment, its worth every cent. Especially if they act on it and improve environmental policies.

Says Cam Walker, spokesperson, Friends of the Earth: Our vision is of a world where everyones needs are met in a way that safeguards the future of our environment. #sendasceptictospace aims to give our world leaders a chance to experience a new viewpoint when it comes to the importance of protecting our earthly home.

Says Justin Drape, co-founder and chief creative officer, The Monkeys: We hope our campaign for Friends of the Earth gets people taking notice of climate change and better yet taking action. When it comes to safeguarding the environment and future of our planet, #sendasceptictospace gives power to the people to choose the most influential climate change deniers they believe need the biggest change in perspective. Lets hope they come back down to earth with a new mission to protect it.

To help us get lift off visit sendasceptictospace.com and move one step closer towards saving our home.

To view Twitter page go to: twitter.com/SceptictoSpace.

Client: Friends of the Earth Australia

Campaigns Coordinator: Cam Walker

Fundraising Coordinator: Phil Evans

Agency: The Monkeys

Executive Creative Director: Justin Drape

Executive Planning Director: Fabio Buresti

Interactive Creative Director: Morten Halvorsen

Creative Director: Paul Bruce

Senior Art Director: Barbara Humphries

Senior Copywriter: Tim Pashen

Front End Developer: Lachlan Tweedie

Tech Director: Pete Vahaviolos

Digital Design Lead: Eva Godeny

Digital Designer: Laura Ives

Designer: Lauren Elliot

Digital Planning Director: Grant Flannery

Digital Planning Director: Tyson Rose

Planning Director: Michael Hogg

Community Manager: Alexandra Gee

Editor: Matt Regan

Junior Broadcast Producer: Alex Gillespie

Digital Executive Producer: Sabrina Riedel

Senior Digital Producer: Alastair Reilly

Producer: Jo Johnston

PR: Larissa Meikle

Voice Talent: Rupert Degas

Editor: Matt Regan

Music: Marcus Loeber
| BY Ricki Green |

Australian Sunshine coast-based independent digital content agency, Cartelux has partnered with Google worldwide to produce an innovative five-part global video series.

In a first of its kind for an independent Australian agency, the Dealer Education Series provides simple explanations of complex digital advertising concepts, harnessing the power of Google data.

Created to change the advertising behaviour of local automotive dealerships, the series educates dealers through the basics of AdWords, the benefits of using video and digital, geo-targeting, the consumer journey and dynamic remarketing.

Cartelux has localised the series for 20 international markets including Australia, America, Germany, Great Britain, Mexico, Brazil, France, India, China, Japan, Latin America, Italy, Spain, Russia, Middle East, Thailand, Argentina, Indonesia, New Zealand and Belgium.

Richard Wolstenholme, global head of industry, automotive at Google Australia said the videos will help car dealers understand how to position their dealership in the digital space.

Says Wolstenholme: We know local area marketers are looking for simple ways to maximise spend away from traditional channels such as print and broadcast. Video content marketing is a tried and trusted channel for time-poor marketers, that has particular resonance with auto dealers worldwide.

Josh Williams (pictured), managing director at Cartelux says they were delighted to partner with Google on the Dealer Education Series.

Says Williams: With the global media landscape shifting beyond all recognition, automotive dealerships are looking for more effective ways to maximise their marketing budgets away from traditional media.

Given our love of creating content for the automotive vertical and our mission to create content that meets the surging needs of a video-demanding world, working with Google was a great way for us to pursue this passion in an international market.
| BY Ricki Green |

Continual innovation, increased revenue from advertising, and growth in its cloud business has helped Google reclaim from Apple the no.1 position in the 2016 BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands ranking, released today by WPP and Millward Brown.

The brand increased its value 32% to $229bn, while last years leader Apple dropped to no.2 after declining -8% in value to $228bn. Microsoft remains at no.3, growing 5% to $122bn, while Facebook (+44%, no.5) and Amazon (+59%, no.7) entered the Top 10 for the first time. The total brand value held by the Top 100 rose 3% year on year to hit $3.4 trillion.

There are three Australian brands in the Top 100 this year vs. five last year. Telstra has ranked in at #78 at US $12.8 billion, up four places from #82 last year when it entered the top 100 for the first time with US $12.7 billion  value up 1%. Commonwealth Bank is at #64 at US $16.2 billion, down 16 places from #48 in 2015 with US $20.6 billion  value down 21% and ANZ is at #77 at US $12.8 billion, down 18 places from #59 in 2015 with US $17.7 billion  value down 27%.

Woolworths and Westpac are no longer in the top 100 (in 2015 they were #87 and #84 respectively.

The BrandZ data and analysis indicates that this was a stable year for the worlds most powerful brands in the face of global financial pressures, including the economic slowdown in China. However the brands that innovated, and then showcased their innovations to consumers through the brand experience, have achieved standout growth with Google, Amazon and Facebook acting as prime examples.

Disruption was the dominant trend, with brands changing the status quo with their offerings in a number of ways, often beyond the use of digital technologies. Brands of all kinds moved to build a multi-faceted ecosystem around the consumers needs and desires, often by diversifying into new categories. Amazon built its own logistics network using independent contractors, which enabled it to offer flexible and one-hour delivery options, and started producing its own content. Facebook began hosting publishers original content to keep members active. Starbucks (+49%, no.21) moved into the ecommerce space with a tap and go app, and enhanced its cold drinks and savoury ranges and offered beer and wine to extend its relevance.

Says David Roth, CEO, EMEA and Asia, The Store WPP: The brands that thrive, regardless of sector, are those that behave like challengers and adopt disruptor models and mindsets. Theyre shaking up other categories with innovation that goes beyond new products or technologies  transforming the way a service is delivered, enhancing the consumer experience or changing a format. The power these brands already hold, combined with the strength of their platforms, is enabling them to quickly and successfully move across sectors.

Key trends highlighted in this years BrandZ Top 100 study include:

Strong brands outperform the market. Brands that appear in the BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands ranking consistently deliver a better financial performance than brands that are not included, thereby generating a superior return for shareholders. Disruption is a catalyst for value growth. The categories that increased in value were all either shaken up by challenger brands founded on a unique and meaningful proposition, such as Under Armour and Victorias Secret in the apparel category (+14%), or innovated to a high degree in response to a new trend, such as the brands in the fast food category (+11%) which successfully responded to global demand for healthier products. Innovation is the main growth driver  but it must be seen and felt by consumers. The brands that are the strongest innovators have increased their value the most over the 11 years of BrandZ Top 100 rankings. However, to have an impact on brand value, innovation must be clearly communicated and delivered through the brand experience: the brands that are perceived as innovative by consumers  which include Disney (no.19) and Pampers (no.37)  grew nine times faster than those seen as less innovative. Apparel is the fastest growing category, rising 14% to $114bn. There is an emphasis on high performance, with brands including Nike (+26%) and Under Armour (a new entry) launching specialist premium lines, incorporating technology such as heart monitors into their clothing, and integrating sportswear with free apps to provide a total consumer experience. B2B is a category of efficient businesses but inefficient brands. They are perceived as more responsible than B2C brands, better to work for, good value and stable, but not as exciting or dynamic. B2B brands are in fact highly innovative; ensuring they are credited as such requires strong and meaningful brand communication. SAP (no.22) and Adobe (a new entry at no.100) are among the B2B brands being perceived as innovative by customers. Disruption extends to the ranking itself. Close to half (46) of the brands in the 2016 Top 100 entered the ranking after it was first launched in 2006; 54 have been there since the inaugural ranking. This shows how a strong brand can sustain its value over time, but also illustrates the potential that exists for new brands to successfully shake up the status quo. Strong emotional connections are boosting local brands. With a clear understanding of their consumers needs, local brands are gaining market share at home and, with improved functionality and marketing, are also winning share in new regions. Chinas Huawei (no.50, +22%), for example, has rapidly globalised and taken market share from both Apple and Samsung. Says Doreen Wang, global head of BrandZ, Millward Brown: By stretching their brands in innovative ways and expanding into new categories, the strongest brands in the Top 100 are increasing their penetration and their relevance in peoples day-to-day lives. There is a risk in doing this, however: it blurs the lines between categories and can leave brands struggling for identity. Defining and articulating a very clear positioning and purpose will play a more crucial part than ever in building a strong, distinct brand.
Northern Arizonas longest-running craft beer tasting event returns to Fort Tuthill this weekend.

The 24th Annual Made in the Shade Beer Tasting Festival runs from 1-5 p.m. Saturday, June 11, at the Pepsi Amphitheater-Coconino County Fairgrounds. More than 100 breweries from Arizona and beyond will showcase their seasonal suds, as well as some old standbys.

The festival will include five party zones. There will also be food, live music, DJs from Hits 106 and 103.7 The Eagle, games, contests and giveaways. Guests are encouraged to dress up in their best costumes.

Tickets for drinkers range from $45-$80 and include up to 24 three ounce samples of micro-brewed and specialty craft beers with a take-home souvenir tasting mug. Tickets for designated drivers start at $15 and will include souvenir mugs for sipping non-alcoholic beverages.

Attendees must be 21. Tickets (VIP, general admission and designated driver) are available at azbeer.com/flagstaff. Anyone interested in being a volunteer can also sign up through the website or by calling Sun Sounds of Arizonas Flagstaff office at (928) 779-1775. Volunteers will get a free T-shirt, free admission to one of Made in the Shades sister festivals, water, lunch and snacks.

All proceeds will go to the not-for-profit service organization Sun Sounds of Arizona, which uses audio technology to bring current and local information to people who cannot read print due to a disability.

Flagstaff Urban Flea Market

The inaugural Flagstaff Urban Flea Market kicks off Saturday.

It is designed to connect an eclectic mix of artisans and peddlers with the public in a setting reminiscent of the popular Flagstaff Community Farmers Market, which has showcased small local farmers, bakers and other vendors for 16 years.

More than 50 vendors from Flagstaff, Prescott Valley and Phoenix have signed up to sell their wares this Saturday. Flagstaff Community Market has been actively recruiting vendors interested in selling everything from records, antiques, books and bicycles to jewelry, vintage clothing, ceramics and soaps, just to name a few.

With a booth fee of $10 plus 10 percent of the days gross sales, affordable setup offers a competitive experience for participants and buyers, who likely will notice lower price points than at consignment shops.

A portion of each week's proceeds will support a different local nonprofit. This year's partners include Grand Canyon Wildlands Council, Friends of Flagstaff's Future, Flagstaff Arts Council, Native American Business Incubator Network and Sharon Manor.

The market will be held every second Saturday of each month beginning June 11 and continuing through Oct. 8 in the City Hall parking lot, 211 W. Aspen Ave., from 9 a.m.-2 p.m.

Learn more at Flagstaffmarket.com.
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However, annual rates for units are likely to rise by about 20 per cent in 2017, and 15 per cent the following year, as a result of changes to the way the government calculates the land value for apartments.
Daniel Redman, of Forde, used to shop a lot at Supabarn in the city at lunchtimes for more gourmet items and was disappointed not to see some items stocked such as locally-produced dips. He was happy to see Canberra Milk still on the shelves.
The government is also proposing changes to the tax treatment of those receiving defined-benefit pensions (mostly retired public servants and military personnel, and those still in closed schemes), ostensibly to achieve a similar outcome. If the benchmark is the orthodox approach of taxing benefits and exempting contributions and earnings, the pre-Costello regime of taxing defined-benefit pensions in full was exactly right, and the 10 per cent tax rebate that Peter Costello introduced was entirely unjustified. So removing the rebate from defined-benefit pensions above $100,000 is very modest. What remains unclear at this point is the treatment of those defined-benefit pensioners who also have accumulated defined-contribution savings. Presumably, the $1.6 million cap (above which fund earnings are to be taxed) will be reduced through some formula about the value of the defined-benefit pension (e.g. reducing the cap to zero for those whose pensions exceed $100,000 and possibly halving the cap if the defined-benefit pension is $50,000). All a bit messy, but entirely justified.
The Coconino County Board of Supervisors has officially come down against the concept of transferring control of federal public lands to state or county governments.

The board on Tuesday unanimously approved a resolution that opposes any effort to claim, take over, litigate for or sell off federal public lands within the county except for transfers that follow processes already established by Congress.

The resolution has been months in the making, with the board first publicly discussing the idea in March.

Several supervisors said the decision was a simple one.

This is a given, Supervisor Matt Ryan said. This says we love what we have here and we want to keep it like we have it here.

About 40 percent of the lands in Coconino County are federal public lands, according to data from the U.S. Geological Survey.

Environmental groups, including the Sierra Club and the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership attended Tuesdays meeting and spoke in favor of the resolution.

Its not often Im faced with this kind of unanimous support for the things that we advocate for, said John Hamill from the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, which originally approached the county about considering such a resolution.

Supervisors in Pima County passed a similar resolution in December while cities and counties in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming have drafted documents publicly opposing land transfer efforts as well, Hamill said.

State Rep. Brenda Barton and Sen. Sylvia Allen, who head a Transfer of Federal Lands Study Committee created by Gov. Doug Ducey last year, did not return calls for comment on the move by Coconinos supervisors.

Barton as well as fellow Legislative District 6 Representative Bob Thorpe supported bills to hand states more power over management of federal lands during this years legislative session. The two co-sponsored a bill, which never received a hearing, that establishes an interstate compact to study and develop various mechanisms for transferring federally controlled public lands to the states. Thorpe also sponsored a bill that allows the state to take action if it determines a catastrophic public nuisance exists on federally managed lands. That bill died in committee.

Coconinos resolution notes the $1.1 billion economic impact of visitation to the countys public lands and recreational amenities and speaks to the immense costs of firefighting on public lands as well as the catastrophic threat that wildfire poses in the county.

What people wanted to get across is public lands are economically important to Coconino County and messing with that messes with the economy of the county, said Todd Madeksza, government relations director with the county.

The resolution also notes the multiple layers of land and mineral rights ownership, leasing and right of way in the West that make a transfer of land ownership even more infeasible.

This is one of those really important values statement about who we are and how we relate to the landscape around us, Supervisor Art Babbott said. With this resolution, the countys response to the lands transfer debate will be clear and public, he said.

Board Chair Lena Fowler brought up the intangible qualities of public lands.

This is where people find themselves, she said.
A fire burning near C.C. Cragin (Blue Ridge) Reservoir has charred 138 acres but no longer threatens any structures. There are several private residences north of the fire but the blaze has not damaged any structures and there are no evacuation orders in place.

The Reservoir Fire is 30 percent contained and crews are conducting burnout operations, said Carrie Dennett, spokesperson with Arizona State Forestry.

The human-caused fire began Monday morning on private land south of the boat ramp at the reservoir. The cause is still under investigation, Dennett said.

The Moqui Lookout Tower has been evacuated as a precautionary measure and Forest Road 751  the main forest road that leads to the reservoir  is closed to Rock Crossing Campground for public safety as firefighting equipment and personnel use the road. The campground is still open.

Four engines, three water tenders, one dozer, five crews, two helicopters and one air attack are on scene. The reservoir is closed for firefighting operations.

Meanwhile, in the Happy Jack area, the managed Jack Fire has burned approximately 9,800 acres. Crews continue to patrol and secure lines along the perimeter of the fire to protect private inholdings, power lines, and critical wildlife habitat on Pine Mountain. Personnel continue to monitor fire activity and utilize management ignitions along the perimeter of the fire in order to meet multiple objectives.
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In order to secure admissions for children of civil servants, the Centre has decided to open more schools like Delhi-based Sanskriti School in other parts of the country.

The decision in this regard has been initiated after the government observed difficulties faced by the officers, who are transferred to other locations in the middle of the year.

According to PTI reports, a draft policy issued by the department of personnel and training ( DoPT ) stated, "It is, therefore, the view of the government is that as a welfare measure the Government of India should also encourage and support opening of Sanskriti type schools in other parts of the country."

"Even though Kendriya Vidyalayas exist in several cities of the country to cater to the educational needs of wards of government employees, these do not fulfill the objectives to resolve the problems of transferable central government employees," the draft policy said.

CBSE urges schools to use NCERT books only

Establishing Sanskriti-type school in any state capital can be initiated by the state government. It is not obligatory to set up such schools in every state capital.

"Central government support would be provided only after careful examination of the justification with priority given to large metro cities where large number of officers are posted," the policy said.

Centre has sent a proposal to establish Sanskriti-type school in state capitals, including Lucknow, for which the state government has already alloted land at Chak Ganjariya.

The Centre has also signed an MOU with the state government to set up schools in Shillong, for which ten acres of land has been reserved by the Meghalaya government at Mawdinangdiang, informs the proposed policy.
The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) will be revamping ISC Science syllabus and design along the lines of CBSE. The overhaul of syllabus aims at curbing migration of students to CBSE after class 10.

According to available statistics, in 2015-2016 academic session, for every 300 students, who cleared the ISC exams, 100 chose CBSE schools for their class 12 board exams whereas in 2014, about 1,49,087 students appeared for ISC exam but 7,7018 students opted out of the board the same year. For the academic year 2016, only 72,069 candidates took the ISC exam.

After several deliberations, CISCE contemplates to introduce following changes in the syllabus:

Speaking to Hindustan Times, Gerry Arathoon, Chief Executive and Secretary of Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations said, "In order to convince students and parents that the syllabus of ISC and CBSE class 12 is the same, we have realigned our Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and Biology syllabus with that of the CBSE. We were compelled to bring about this change. It comes into effect this new academic session and the ISC exam of 2018 will be conducted in according to this changed syllabus. The question pattern too would follow the CBSE."

The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations has directed teachers to refer the NCERT text books in class, while teaching the recommended books for ISC

Instructions are also given to publishers to reduce size of the textbooks to get rid off the feeling that study time invested on ISC should be more than CBSE

The board is also preparing special study material for students which helps to crack NEET and JEE (Main)

There will be no changes in the syllabus of commerce and humanities streams and will continue with the same syllabus

The CISCE board is redesigning the syllabus for the first time. The changes will be done right from primary to class 8, which will be effective from 2017

All the schools affiliated to board will follow the new syllabus



Misconception prevails among parents and students that the CBSE syllabus prepares students better for entrance exams resulted in withdrawal of students from ISC syllabus.



Nabarun Dey, spokesperson of the Association of Schools for the Indian School Certificate said that all-India entrance exam is conducted by the CBSE following its curriculum has compelled students and parents to shift to CBSE. He also said that a proposal will be sent to HRD ministry to consider holding all India entrance exam by an independent body.
Bangalore, June 08, 2016: The Anita Borg Institute (ABI), a non-profit organization focused on the advancement of women in computing and technology, today opened the student scholarship applications (for women students) for its flagship conference in India, the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing India (GHCI) 2016.

The scholarships will be awarded to deserving female under-graduate, post-graduate and PhD students in computing and IT, to attend the GHCI 2016 conference from 7-9, December, 2016 in Bangalore. GHCI 2016 is produced by the Anita Borg Institute and presented in partnership with ACM India.

The GHCI Scholarship program aims to increase the participation of women students from science and technical backgrounds across India. At GHCI students get a chance to meet other women in technology, connect directly with innovative organizations, learn from peers and experts and get quality career advice. During GHCI 2015, 170 scholarships were awarded to women students in technology.

The student scholarships cover the expenses for attending the GHCI conference including the registration fee, meals and lodging for every scholarship recipient. Travel (by train or bus) is reimbursed up to a maximum of Rs 2,000 per student. The deadline for applying for a scholarship is 29 July, 2016.

"It is important for women to build a career identity and then work towards having a career of their choice," said Geetha Kannan, Managing Director, Anita Borg Institute India. "Our primary goal of offering these scholarships, is to give young and dynamic students the exposure that will inspire and get them excited about creating a successful career in technology. GHCI provides learning opportunities through workshops and sessions and networking with some of the best minds in the industry."

Another main attraction for students attending the conference is the Student Career Fair. It gives women students the chance to meet top recruiters from global technology companies and explore opportunities for internship and full-time jobs.

About The Grace Hopper Celebration India

The Grace Hopper Celebration India (GHCI) is the largest gathering of women technologists in the country. ABI India has been successfully organizing this annual conference since 2010. GHCI focuses on the career, research and entrepreneur interests of women in computing and technology. Presenters at the conference are leaders in their respective fields from industry, academia and government.

GHCI 2015 drew 2,258 attendees (41% growth over 2014) from 11 countries and had 450 volunteers. The key highlights of the conference are various Tracks covering topics such as Technology, Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Management, Back to Work, Early Career and more. Event participants can also look forward to the Hands on Lab, Student Career Fair, Poster Session and the Women Entrepreneur Quest.

About the Anita Borg Institute (ABI)

The Anita Borg Institute (ABI) connects, inspires and guides women in computing and organizations that view technology innovation as a strategic imperative. Founded in 1997 by computer scientist Anita Borg, our reach extends to more than 67 countries. We believe technology innovation powers the global economy, and that women are crucial to building technology the world needs. ABI is a not-for-profit 501(c) 3 charitable organization in the US and a non-profit organization registered as a section-8 Company under the Companies Act, 2013 in India.
WASHINGTON -- The White House told the hundreds of thousands of people who signed petitions demanding action after the botched March presidential preference election in Arizona that they would have to look elsewhere for help.

A We the People petition demanding a probe of alleged voter suppression in that election gathered 219,715 signatures and another, calling for a new election, got 107,321 signatures -- both well over the 100,000-signature threshold at which the White House promises a response.

But the White House this week said it would not comment on either petition in order to avoid the appearance of improper influence while other agencies look into the issues stemming from the March 22 election. The question of voter suppression is being investigated by the Justice Department and the question of whether there should be a revote is one for the state or the courts, the White House response said.

The Justice Department declined, through a spokesman, to comment on either the petitions or the progress of its investigation into the March election, which left some voters waiting for hours to cast a ballot, if they got to vote at all.

But a spokesman for Arizona Secretary of State Michele Reagan repeated the position that her office is confident it will be cleared by any Justice investigation.

We look forward to the review of the DOJ, whenever they become available, said Matt Roberts, the Reagan spokesman. He said the office is conducting its own review of the March 22 election and plans to release a report over the summer.

Not everyone is waiting on the state or the federal reviews, however. The Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law filed suit last week against Reagan, Maricopa County Recorder Helen Purcell and the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors for gross mismanagement of the election that was but one of a series of incidents, which have impeded the right to vote of the citizens of Maricopa County.

This lawsuit is important because every vote counts and every voter counts and one voter that is disenfranchised because of a bad election administration issue is one too many, said Maria Peralta, senior national coordinator with the Lawyers Committee.

Roberts said Reagans office cannot comment on pending litigation.

But elections officials have acknowledged problems with the March 22 elections that Reagan called awful, while Purcell tweeted an apology that night to voters and thanked them for sticking with us through the long hours and long lines at polling places.
Sergio Marchionne isnt the kind of guy to shy away from speaking his mind, and in a recent interview, the FCA CEO questioned Teslas business model once again, stating that electric cars arent necessarily the answer, or the future.



Just like the beginning of the 20st century, car manufacturers are experimenting with different powertrains and intriguing autonomous technology, while the electric craze is once again in full swing. Be that as it may, the 64-year-old industry captain reckons that the answer of future motoring is still out there, as he explained in an interview with Car Magazine

This industry is at a crossroads. I dont think any of us has an idea as to what the right answer is. To me, the biggest issue is the impact technology has on what we are doing. Like the formation of a driverless environment, which is a mandatory future option and not even expensive. Products will go through a cycle of becoming either technologically obsolete or technologically relevant. The car already recognizes who you are, its one of the main interfaces between the world that you are in and the world beyond. All this stuff is here to stay, it is going to be available at the speed of light, so we must act like a flash.

When asked if the classic combustion engine is on its way out, the leader of the seventh-largest automotive manufacturer responded that its relevance will decrease, but will still remain an important driver for mobility. As far as electrification goes Marchionne said it may very well be the next big thing, albeit he doesnt know how it can be a long term, profitable, business model, even though Tesla has managed to create an icon with its upmarket products:

Welcome to the world of icons! I dont make iPhones. I make cars. Why dont I make the iPhone of cars? Because if it looks and smells like Tesla, I dont know how to make that economic model work. There is nothing Tesla do that we cannot also do. We build cars, sell them and are still able to pay the bills. But Im not even sure you can recover all of your costs  let alone generate a profit  through electrification. The answer is bound to be somewhere else, and the question is whether we are doing enough to try to explore that somewhere else.

PHOTO GALLERY
Automakers (exotic or otherwise) launch new models, and wed be forgiven for assuming that meant they were now available worldwide. But sometimes it takes a while for these new vehicles to reach more far-flung markets  like Australia, for example, or South Africa.



Those are the two former British colonies where Ferrari most recently launched two of its latest models: the GTC4Lusso and 488 Spider.

The former was unveiled in Sydney for the first time in the Australasian market, marking its first appearance in the Southern Hemisphere altogether. The successor to the Ferrari FF, the new GTC4Lusso is Maranellos flagship GT model, packing a 6.3-liter V12 to drive 681 horsepower to all four wheels in a four-seat shooting-brake form. The event brought some 50 journalists to one Ferrari owners spectacular harbor-front home.

Less than two weeks prior, the Prancing Horse marque also introduced the 488 Spider in Johannesburg. The convertible version of the 488 GTB is powered by a 3.9-liter twin-turbo V8 good for 661 hp, with a retractable hardtop to open up the two-seat cockpit to the elements. The event was held at the local dealership Scuderia South Africa in Bryanston and was accompanied by a fashion show inspired by the Italian supercar.

PHOTOS
Toyota plans to get children hooked to the automotive world with a Camatte Capsule trailer, which will be displayed at the 2016 International Tokyo Toy Show.



Sitting at 3,785 mm (149 in) long, 1,500 mm (59 in) wide and 1,845 mm (73 in) tall, the Camatte Capsule is equipped with three screens that allows the little ones to visualize how the interior could look like in their own interpretation.

First, children will have to select from six color patterns and then choose and position a maximum of 8 out of 24 items from daily life, such as furniture, appliances or musical instruments. After the layout has been completed, parents can talk with their children about the space (the world) they have designed, as Toyota explains.

The name Camatte comes from a Japanese word that means caring for others and caring for cars and it was previously used by Toyota on other real size vehicles made to look like toys, such as the Camatte Sora, shown in 2012, Camatte 57s, displayed a year later, and the Camatte Hajime, which was showcased in 2015. These will join the new capsule trailer at this years Tokyo event, which will open its gates from June 9 for the Buyers days and on June 11 for the public.

PHOTO GALLERY
The Hakone Turnpike is billed as Japans version of the Nurburgring.

Its not a closed track but rather a toll road (which some consider the Nordschleife to be at any rate), snaking through the mountains near Fuji and offering panoramic vistas, sweeping curves, and smooth pavement in what could very well be the finest, most famous hillclimb route in the world.



Of course Japan makes its own share of vehicles ideally suited towards driving up and down the turnpike all day and all night. Supercars like the Acura NSX, Lexus LFA and Nissan GT-R come to mind, to say nothing of all the tuned street racers and drift cars for which the island nation has become known among automotive enthusiasts.

But if you really want to turn heads at Hakone, you want to show up in a European exotic. Something like, say, a McLaren 650S Spider, for example.

While we were in Tenerife with McLaren driving the new 570GT, another team was in Japan filming this video clip for our enjoyment. So crank the speakers, sit back, relax, and enjoy the unusual sight of a British supercar on one of Japans finest roads.

VIDEOS
Photo: Google

Now that Google has mapped nearly every drivable street in the world, it's turning its attention to off-road areas.

Or, to steal part of a phrase from the Star Trek series, 'to go where no vehicle has gone before.'

The Northern BC Tourist Association, in conjunction with Destination BC, have partnered with Google to journey beyond the road this summer, to add stunning imagery from British Columbias wild places to Google Maps.

The tourism agencies have been loaned two Google Street View Trekkers, wearable backpacks outfitted with 15 separate cameras that collect 360-degree panoramic imagery in remote outdoor locations inaccessible by car.

The trekker arrived Monday.

From June to September, teams from Destination BC, Northern BC Tourism and other regional tourism partners will hike trails, roam old-growth forests and climb majestic mountains to capture iconic B.C. destinations rich in culture and history.

With the use of this technology, people around the world will be able to virtually hike in some of the provinces vast wilderness.

Once the views are recorded, it will take several months to process and upload to Google Maps.

Destinations such as the Pyramids of Giza, the Grand Canyon and the Galapagos Islands have already been mapped.

Google has been utilizing the Trekker for three years.
Photo: Bruce Kaufman

Leroy, a five-foot-tall stuffed teddy bear, is missing.

The stuffed bear has watched over its owners Coal Harbour neighbourhood for 11 years, posing for passersby on its Vancouver patio when the weather is nice.

Its owners say its become the unofficial mascot for the neighbourhood.

"Tourists and residents would stop and point the bear out to their children, smile, and take many pictures, Leroys owner Bruce Kaufman told CTV Vancouver.

On the afternoon of June 5, tragedy struck.

Leroy was hanging out in his favourite spot on the patio, when two people swiped him.

Kaufman checked the buildings surveillance cameras and saw a man and woman carrying Leroy down a path just after 1 p.m.

The couple, who appeared to be in their 20s or 30s, are both Caucasian. The man was wearing a black tank top and blue jeans, while carrying a skateboard, while the woman was wearing a white t-shirt and dark pants.

Police are investigating the stolen bear, and plan to circulate photos of the swiped bear and the couple.

Kaufman just wants Leroy back.

No questions will be asked, he said.

Metro Vancouver appears to be experiencing a stolen-teddy pandemic. Just last month, an equally large stuffed bear named Bearamel Macchiato was stolen from Creekside Coffee Factory in Coquitlam.

There may still be hope for Leroy though  Bearamel Macchiato was returned a week after the brazen heist.

- With files from CTV Vancouver
Photo: CTV

UPDATE: 8 a.m. June 8

Central Interior Traffic Services are now confirming that last night's serious motorcycle crash on the Coquihalla was fatal.

A northbound motorcycle traveling with two other motorcycles reportedly left the highway and struck the centre median.

The motorcycle collision that occurred on the Coquihalla Highway south of the Inks Lake Interchange is being investigated as a fatal collision, says Sgt. Mike Pears.

RCMP report that the 61-year-old man on the motorcycle succumbed to his injuries following the crash Tuesday evening at 5:41 p.m.

Central Interior Traffic Services members continue to investigate this collision, adds Pears. Weather and road conditions were good at the time of the crash.

ORIGINAL: 10 p.m. June 7

A man was rushed to hospital with serious injuries following a motorcycle crash on the Coquihalla.

RCMP and BC Ambulance were dispatched to a motorcycle crash on the highway south of the Inks Lake Interchange Tuesday afternoon.

Sgt. Mike Pears said Central Interior traffic services investigators can confirm a northbound motorcycle traveling with two other motorcycles left the highway and entered the centre median.

The male rider, age 61, was unable to control the motorcycle and the motorcycle crashed in the centre median and the rider was ejected from the bike, said Pears.

The three motorcycles traveling together were also being followed by family members in a pickup.

The rider was transported by air ambulance to Royal Inland Hospital with life-threatening injuries, said Pears.

North and southbound traffic is moving in both directions at the collision scene.

The investigation will continue in attempts to determine the cause of this crash.
Photo: The Canadian Press Kalamazoo Prosecuting Attorney Jeff Getting speaks with media about a fatal crash involving several bicyclists.

Police fielded complaints that a pickup truck was being driven erratically just minutes before the vehicle slammed into a group of bicyclists in western Michigan, killing five, authorities said.

At least four more bicyclists were injured in the crash Tuesday night in Kalamazoo County's Cooper Township, including one who was in critical condition Wednesday.

The truck driver is in custody but has not been charged.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims," county prosecutor Jeffrey Getting said Tuesday night. "I can't even begin to imagine what they're going through."

The driver of the pickup, described as a 50-year-old western Michigan man, fled from the wrecked vehicle, but police caught him a short time later. State police are assisting in the ongoing investigation, Kalamazoo County Undersheriff Paul Matyas said in an email Wednesday.

"My thoughts and prayers are with the people of Kalamazoo and particularly the cyclists and their families," Gov. Rick Snyder said in a statement. "What we already know for certain is that Michiganders as a family are in mourning today as Kalamazoo struggles to understand another senseless tragedy."

Authorities began receiving calls about the blue pickup truck about 30 minutes before the crash, with people complaining "about the manner in which that vehicle was being driven," Getting said. He did not provide details of the erratic driving.

Several agencies were searching for the pickup when the first report of the crash came in just after 6:30 p.m., he said. No officers were actively pursuing the truck at the time it crashed.

The bicyclists had been riding as a group. Their names and ages were not immediately released because family members were still being notified. The group included men and women, but no children.

Two people were in serious condition at Bronson Methodist Hospital and another was in fair condition at Borgess Medical Center.

Markus Eberhard was leaving a nearby park after fishing and said he nearly was hit by the pickup. He was unable to warn the bicyclists.

"I saw a bunch of bikes hit the front of his truck and a couple of them flew," Eberhard told WOOD-TV.

Paramedics and fire crews rushed to the scene, Getting said.

He declined to answer questions about the suspect and said the man's name would not be released until his office has determined which charges he will face.

Cooper Township is south of Grand Rapids and just miles from Kalamazoo. The area still is dealing with the random fatal shootings of six people and wounding of two others in February. Jason Dalton, 45, had been picking up riders for Uber at the time of the shootings. He is charged with murder and attempted murder. His attorney told a judge Monday that Dalton is expected to plead insanity in his defence.
Photo: Contributed

By Dermod Travis

Former chief of staff to then-Premier Gordon Campbell, Martyn Brown made some refreshingly candid comments about B.C.'s political financing culture on Shaw TV's Voice of B.C. the other day.

No corporation, no industry, no union gives the level of money that they give to politicians without expecting special consideration in return, and they do get it, Brown said.

For the Liberals, the housing industry, construction industry, real estate, the liquor industry, energy industry, certainly the mining industry, big forest industry  all gave exceptional amounts of money, and they got exceptional attention.

Makes one wonder what Brown means by exceptional.

Categorizing donors isn't an exact science, but since 2005 the liquor industry has donated at least $2.1 million to the B.C. Liberal party, construction companies ($3.3 million), oil and gas ($3.8 million), mining ($5.1 million), forestry ($5.8 million) and  from framing to 'shadow flipping'  everything real estate ($12.8 million).

A grand total of $33 million, nearly half the party's total corporate haul and almost three times what the B.C. NDP has brought in from unions.

Brown went on to add, No corporation, no industry, no union gives the level of money that they give to politicians without expecting special consideration in return, and they do get it.

Here's a sampling of what special considerations might mean.

There's the Bob  Condo King  Rennie ($329,850) consideration.

The government recently moved to curb 'shadow flipping' in the real estate industry, except for one tiny exception to the new rules: flipping pre-sale condominiums is still permissible.

In 2014, Mines Minister Bill Bennett shared this nugget with Michael Smyth of the Province newspaper: "It's really insulting for anybody to suggest that because we take donations from a group of corporations like the mining industry that we're going to cut them a break. We can't be bought, OK?"

Maybe rented, though.

In February, Bennett announced a $300 million electricity bill deferral plan for six mining companies. Add up the donations from the six and it totals $2.7 million.

To get a sense of how much that sweetheart deal was written on the fly, BC Hydro had to pull its request for approval of a three-year rate increase from the B.C. Utilities Commission, opting for a one-year interim increase while it redoes its forecasts, in part because of Bennett's largesse.

Forests minister Steve Thompson took great offence last month when the NDP suggested during question period that Canfor ($754,631) and West Fraser ($907,420) benefitted from a look the other way consideration in 2014.

When the two companies got caught logging green timber and not dead and dying pine  as was stipulated in their licenses  Thompson gave the two a stern finger-wagging instead of fines of up to $6 million.

At the same time, Bennett was showering the two companies  as well as Catalyst Paper ($149,465) and Paper Excellence ($90,488)  with up to $100 million for energy conservation projects to help offset rising industrial electricity rates.

Should school boards and hospitals be so lucky.

On the Thursday afternoon before the Victoria Day long weekend, the government announced that some natural gas projects owned by Spectra Energy ($156,585) and TransCanada Corporation ($123,451) wouldn't be required to undergo provincial environmental assessments, as an end run around a recent court ruling.

Natural Gas Development Minister Rich Coleman managed to keep a straight face last month when he told Smyth, If you want to donate to a political party, you can donate to a political party. But if you think you're buying anything, you're not.

Coleman must have forgotten about that dust-up with his caucus colleagues in 2012 over his proposed boutique tax break for Pacific Western Brewing ($191,932).

He seems to have forgotten about his $10 million stocking stuffer for B.C.'s horse racing industry too, the one he announced on December 20, 2012.

Coincidentally, the Aquilini family ($1.29 million) has interests in the industry.

On one side you have the three boy scouts  Bennett, Thompson and Coleman  swearing scout's honour and on the other you have Brown calling it like it is.

As Brown said: Big corporations that give these massive amounts of money do so because they get results. They get tax relief. They get credits. It makes the government stand up and listen when they lobby and anybody who pretends otherwise is not telling the truth.

Dermod Travis is the executive director of IntegrityBC.
Photo: Getty Images

The lack of women on corporate boards has become a source of tension among shareholders at the annual meetings this week of two big-name companies.

The CEO of Dollarama was confronted with the issue head-on Wednesday, when a shareholder urged him to increase the number of women on the retailer's 10-member board of directors. The board has one woman, who joined the board in February 2015.

"We are in 2016," said Andre C. Gauthier. "I think we need to improve the presence of women on boards."

CEO Neil Rossy defended the company's inclusion of women in leadership positions in a news conference after the meeting.

In 2014, Dollarama hired Johanne Choiniere as its chief operating officer, its most recent upper management opening, Rossy said.

The next time a vacancy arises on the board of directors, a woman may be given more consideration than a man in an effort to establish greater balance, he said.

"We all think it's the right thing to do," Rossy said.

The matter is also set to come up Thursday at the annual general meeting for Restaurant Brands International, the parent company of Tim Hortons and Burger King.

In a shareholder proposal, OceanRock Investments Inc., which owns more than 13,000 common shares in the company, and the Shareholder Association for Research and Education (SHARE) are asking RBI to write a formal board diversity policy and inform shareholders how and when it intends to increase the number of women on its 10-member board of directors and in senior management positions.

"We believe RBI's all-male board is a step backwards for diversity at the company," said Fred Pinto, OceanRock Investment's chief executive, in a statement.

Before Tim Hortons and Burger King merged and became RBI in late 2014, one-quarter of the Tim Hortons board was comprised of women, according to the shareholder proposal.

RBI declined to make a recommendation on how its shareholders should vote.

Shareholders in BCE Inc. rejected a similar proposal in April. A shareholder and member of Mouvement d'education et de defense des actionnaires (MEDAC) asked the company to set targets to boost the number of women on its senior management team.

Despite rejecting the proposal, BCE said it is committed to having women fill one quarter of its board positions, responding to a call from Catalyst for Canada's FP500 companies to do so by next year. Some of Canada's big banks, telecoms and other firms have all signed on to the so-called Catalyst Accord.

Catalyst, a non-profit organization working towards greater inclusion of women in the workplace, released a report this week on how to accelerate gender diversity on Canada's corporate boards.

It recommended companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange commit to having women represent at least 30 per cent of the seats on their boards of directors over the next three to five years.

Ontario's Liberal government announced a higher target, saying it wants women to make up at least 40 per cent of all appointments to provincial boards and agencies by 2019. Premier Kathleen Wynne encouraged other businesses and corporations to do the same.
If you have just started your journey in an online casino or are looking for a new site to play,...
Iran: cement exports exceed 15Mt

ICR Newsroom By 08 June 2016

In the year March 2015-2016 Iran produced more than 60Mt of cement, resulting in 15.9Mt of exports to Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait and Qatar. Iranian cement production accounted for approximately two per cent of global production in the given year, making the country the seventh-largest cement producer in the world, slipping from fourth position in the previous year.

Iran aims to increase its production and exports to 120Mt and 32Mt, respectively, by year end 2020.

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Saudi Arabia: new power plant for ACC

ICR Newsroom By 08 June 2016

Arabian Cement Company (ACC), Saudi Arabia, has awarded MAN Diesel & Turbo a contract to build a 40MW power plant.

The plant will be equipped with two 18V48/60 TS engines and will provide power to a cement factory in Rabigh, on the Red Sea coast. The new power plant will be operated by heavy fuel oil and diesel oil.

Construction of the first phase of the plant is scheduled for 2016-17. With the completion of two additional phases, including the installation of a further four engines, the plants total capacity will reach 120MW. MAN Diesel & Turbo is responsible for the construction of the entire plant.

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South Africa: AfriSam to encourage enterprise development in Bafokeng

08 June 2016

At a ceremony held at Phokeng, North West Province, AfriSam and New Business Consulting, a 100 per cent Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) Bafokeng-owned company, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), cementing a partnership to facilitate enterprise development and creating job opportunities for the Royal Bafokeng Nation.



As part of the MoU, a number of enterprise development opportunities within the Bafokeng area have been identified and are currently being investigated. Amongst these is the establishment of containers as cement sales outlets as well as a premix bagged product manufacturing facility. The goal is to establish sustainable local enterprise development businesses that will directly benefit the Bafokeng people.



"All the projects we have identified strongly align with, and support, the strategic objectives and enterprise development goals of the Royal Bafokeng Group and should create shared value for all parties involved, including the local community," says Roshni Lawrence, strategic growth executive at AfriSam.



Cement and construction related products are a fundamental requirement for infrastructure development and broader economic growth. It is for this reason that AfriSam is proud of the positive contribution it can make to society through the products it manufactures.



AfriSam has an extensive network of cement, aggregate and readymix operations, which enables the company to play an active role in the growth and development of most regions in southern Africa. It is this very network that gives the company access to some of most remote locations in regions around the country and allows it opportunities to build relationships with communities surrounding its operations.





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Cameroon: Government hopes Mintom quarry will bring down cement prices

ICR Newsroom By 08 June 2016

The government of Cameroon has called on investors to help develop the Mintom limestone deposit, located in the countrys southeast, in the hope that this would lead to lower cement prices.

According to Business in Cameroon, the Director of the Institute of Geological and Mining Research told business leaders last week that a quarrying operation in Mintom would lead to a fall in cement prices on the order of 50 per cent.

Before 2015 Cameroon had only one cement producer, Cimenteries du Cameroun, jointly owned by the government and LafargeHolcim. Since then, Cimaf, Dangote and Turkish-owned Medcem have all set up grinding facilities in the country. Despite this, prices have changed little in five years, with a 50kg bag of cement still retailing for around XAF4800 (US$8.30).

In October 2015 Minister of Trade, Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana, accused producers of conspiring to maintain high prices, stating: "There is a game on the price of cement that the government cannot condone anymore. Obviously, you have agreed to impose on us the approved rate. We will have to review everything".

However, producers have maintained that the cost of importing clinker lies behind the relatively high price of cement in Cameroon. The government hopes that this can be addressed through the development of the Mintom deposit, which contains an estimated 540Mm3 of limestone. Earlier in the decade, an agreement was signed with Chinese firm CATIR to construct a mining and processing operation, but as yet the project has made little progress.

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Rochester, NY, United States

Rochester is a city in western New York State and is the county seat of Monroe County. Rochester is known for its annual festivals, including the Rochester International Jazz Festival, the Rochester Fringe Festival, and the Holiday Folk Fair International. Places to visit in Rochester include the George Eastman Museum, the Strong National Museum of Play, the Rochester Museum and Science Center, and the Seneca Park Zoo.

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Pigeon Forge, TN, United States

Visit the Titanic Museum in Pigeon Forge for a unique experience. This museum is dedicated to the Titanic, one of the most infamous ships in history. Tour the ship and learn about the passengers and crew who were on board. You can even see the actual artifacts recovered from the shipwreck. If you're looking for a little more excitement, head to Dollywood. This amusement park is home to roller coasters, a water park, and plenty of other rides and attractions. Plus, the park is themed around the life and music of Dolly Parton. No trip to Pigeon Forge is complete without a visit to the Great Smoky Mountains. These mountains offer a variety of activities, including hiking, fishing, and horseback riding. Plus, the natural beauty of the area is simply breathtaking.

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Jacksonville, FL, United States

Jacksonville is less than an hour's drive from the beaches of Amelia Island and St. Augustine, and a little more than two hours from Orlando. The city has a lot to offer visitors, including a riverwalk, museums, and a vibrant arts scene. Jacksonville is also home to the Jacksonville Jaguars NFL team.

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Minsk, Belarus

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Jaipur, India

Jaipur is one of the most popular tourist destinations in India. It is the capital of the state of Rajasthan and is known for its palaces, forts and temples. Some of the places to visit in Jaipur include the Amber Fort, the City Palace, the Jantar Mantar Observatory and the Hawa Mahal. Jaipur is also a great place to shop for traditional Indian handicrafts.

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Chicago, IL, United States

Chicago is a city full of culture and history. There are plenty of places to visit, such as the Willis Tower, Buckingham Fountain, and the Lincoln Park Zoo. Chicago is also home to many restaurants and bars, so there is something for everyone.

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Auckland, New Zealand

Auckland is a beautiful city located on the north island of New Zealand. There are many places to visit in Auckland, including the Sky Tower, the Auckland War Memorial Museum, and the Auckland Domain. The beaches in Auckland are also worth visiting, especially Karekare and Piha. Auckland is a great place to visit, and I highly recommend it!.

Auckland Luxury Hotels

Auckland Luxury Villas

Amsterdam, Netherlands

If you're looking for a city that's got it all, Amsterdam should be your go-to destination. From the city's lively and vibrant nightlife to its charming and quiet neighborhoods, Amsterdam has something for everyone. Be sure to check out the Anne Frank Huis, the Rijksmuseum, and the Van Gogh Museum, as these are some of the most popular attractions in the city. And if you're looking for a little bit of nature, be sure to take a walk or bike ride through Amsterdam's many parks.

Amsterdam Luxury Hotels

Berlin, Germany

There are so many great places to visit in Berlin that it can be hard to know where to start. From the iconic Brandenburg Gate to the fascinating Reichstag Building, there's something for everyone in this vibrant city. If you're looking for a bit of history, make sure to check out the Berlin Wall Memorial or the DDR Museum. And for those looking for a bit more fun, there's always the Alexanderplatz Christmas Market or the Zoologischer Garten. No matter what your interests, Berlin is a city you won't want to miss.

Berlin Luxury Hotels

Bangkok, Thailand

Bangkok is a city of contrasts with its gleaming temples and skyscrapers, chaotic markets and tranquil canals. While it's a popular tourist destination, Bangkok is a city that can be enjoyed by visitors of all ages. Some of the top places to visit in Bangkok include the Grand Palace, Wat Arun, the floating markets and the Chatuchak Weekend Market.

Bangkok Luxury Hotels

Bangkok Luxury Resorts

Bangkok Luxury Villas

Bruges, Belgium

Bruges is a city in Belgium that is worth visiting. It is full of medieval charm and there are a lot of things to see and do. Some of the places to visit include the Markt, the Belfry, and the Begijnhof.

Bruges Luxury Hotels

Brussels, Belgium

Brussels is a city in Belgium that is best known for its chocolate, waffles, and beer. But there is much more to see and do in Brussels than just indulge in the local cuisine. There are a number of interesting historical landmarks to visit, such as the Grand Place and the Atomium, as well as a variety of parks and gardens. And, of course, Brussels is also a great city to explore on foot.

Brussels Luxury Hotels

Budapest, Hungary

Budapest, Hungary's capital, is a city of thermal baths and medival, baroque and art nouveau architecture. Crowded with tourists, the city is bisected by the Danube River into the hilly Buda and the more developed and flat Pest. Among the main places of interest are the neo-Gothic Parliament, the Chain Bridge linking Buda and Pest, the Matthias Church and Fisherman's Bastion on the Buda bank, and the State Opera House and Heroes' Square on the Pest side.

Budapest Luxury Hotels

Playa del Carmen, Mexico

Home to some of the best beaches in Mexico, Playa del Carmen is a favorite tourist destination for visitors from all over the world. With its lively nightlife, gorgeous coastline and ample shopping opportunities, there's something for everyone in this tropical paradise. Don't miss the opportunity to visit some of the area's most popular attractions, such as the ancient Mayan ruins of Tulum and Coba, or the eco-friendly Turtle Beach. With its friendly people, delicious food and stunning scenery, Playa del Carmen is a place you'll never want to leave.

Playa del Carmen Luxury Hotels

Playa del Carmen Luxury Resorts

Playa del Carmen Luxury Villas

Denver, CO, United States

Denver is a great city for visitors. There are so many places to see and things to do. Some of the top places to visit include the 16th Street Mall, the Denver Botanic Gardens, the Denver Art Museum, and the Colorado State Capitol. There are also plenty of great restaurants and shops to explore. Denver is definitely a city worth visiting!.

Denver Luxury Hotels

Dublin, Ireland

Dublin is a city located in Ireland. It's a city full of culture, with plenty of places to visit. Some popular tourist spots are the Guinness Storehouse, Trinity College, and the Dublin Castle. There are also plenty of pubs and restaurants to discover.

Dublin Luxury Hotels

Dusseldorf, Germany

Dusseldorf, Germany is a city with many different places to visit. The city has a mix of old and new buildings, and a variety of activities to do. The best places to visit in Dusseldorf are the Konigsallee, the Rhine Tower, and the Oktoberfest. The Konigsallee is an open-air shopping mall that has many high-end stores. The Rhine Tower is the tallest building in the city and offers great views of Dusseldorf. The Oktoberfest is a week-long festival that celebrates German culture and food.

Dusseldorf Luxury Hotels

Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Edinburgh, Scotland is a beautiful city to visit. The architecture is very old and unique, and there are plenty of historical places to visit, like Edinburgh Castle. There are also plenty of parks and gardens, and lots of shops and restaurants.

Edinburgh Luxury Hotels

Rome, Italy

Rome is a city rich in history and filled with beautiful places to visit. Make sure to stop by the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, and the Pantheon. Also be sure to visit St. Peters Basilica and the Sistine Chapel while in Rome. If youre looking for a little more nature in your trip, head to the Villa Borghese gardens or the Janiculum Hill for some wonderful views of the city. And of course, no trip to Rome is complete without a gelato!.

Rome Luxury Hotels

Rome Luxury Villas

New York, NY, United States

There are many amazing places to visit in New York State. Some of my favorites are the Niagara Falls, the Adirondack Mountains, and the Finger Lakes. If you're looking for a city break, New York City is definitely worth a visit. There's endless things to see and do, from touring the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island to visiting world-famous museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Museum of Natural History. No matter what your interests are, you'll be able to find something to enjoy in New York State.

New York Luxury Hotels

New York Luxury Villas

London, United Kingdom

London is a city rich in history and full of amazing places to visit. Some of my favorite places are Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, and the Tower of London. There is so much to see and do in London, you could spend weeks here and never run out of things to do. If you're looking for a city full of culture and history, London is the place for you.

London Luxury Hotels

London Luxury Cottages

Madrid, Spain

Madrid is one of the most beautiful and culturally rich cities in the world. From the Royal Palace to the Prado Museum, theres plenty to see and do in Madrid. If youre looking for a little bit of nature, Madrid has plenty of parks, like the Buen Retiro Park, to relax in. And dont forget to try some of the delicious tapas and wine while youre in town.

Madrid Luxury Hotels

Memphis, TN, United States

The birthplace of rock 'n' roll, Memphis is a city rich in history and culture. From Graceland to Beale Street, there are plenty of places to visit in Memphis. Be sure to check out Sun Studio, where rock 'n' roll was born, and the National Civil Rights Museum, which tells the story of the African-American civil rights movement. Memphis is also home to some amazing food, so be sure to try some of the city's famous barbecue and soul food.

Memphis Luxury Hotels

Miami Beach, FL, United States

There is much to explore in Miami Beach, from the famous Art Deco district to the vast beaches and crystal-clear waters. Outdoor enthusiasts will love the opportunities for fishing, kayaking, and paddleboarding, while history buffs can explore the ancient burial mounds at Miami Beach. Shoppers and foodies will find plenty to keep them busy, with vibrant neighborhoods like Lincoln Road and Ocean Drive offering unique boutiques and award-winning restaurants. And of course, no trip to Miami Beach is complete without a visit to world-famous South Beach.

Miami Beach Luxury Hotels

Miami Beach Luxury Resorts

New Orleans, LA, United States

You can't visit New Orleans without trying some of the local food. Beignets, Po' Boys, and gumbo are just a few of the must-try dishes. While you're in town, be sure to check out the French Quarter, Jackson Square, and St. Louis Cathedral. If you're looking for some nightlife, Bourbon Street is the place to be. And, of course, no trip to New Orleans is complete without a visit to Mardi Gras!.

New Orleans Luxury Hotels

Milan, Italy

Milan is a city located in the Lombardy region of Italy. It is a popular tourist destination because of its historical and artistic heritage. Some of the places you should visit while in Milan are the Duomo, La Scala, and Castello Sforzesco.

Milan Luxury Hotels

Naples, Italy

Naples is one of the most beautiful and historic cities in Italy. There are countless places to visit, such as the Royal Palace, the Museum of San Martino, and the Church of Gesu Nuovo. Naples is also home to excellent shopping and dining options. Be sure to enjoy a cup of coffee at one of the city's many cafes and take a stroll through the picturesque streets.

Naples Luxury Hotels

Paris, France

Paris is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world. It's home to iconic landmarks like the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre Museum, as well as a thriving nightlife and restaurant scene. If you're looking to explore all that Paris has to offer, here are some of the top places to visit: The Eiffel Tower: This iconic landmark is a must-see in Paris. Climb to the top for stunning views of the city, or take a ride on the elevator to the bottom for a closer look at the structure. The Louvre Museum: This world-famous museum is home to some of the most famous works of art in the world, including the Mona Lisa. The Notre Dame Cathedral: This beautiful cathedral is one of the most famous landmarks in Paris. Make sure to climb to the top for some amazing views of the city. The Champs-Elysees: This famous avenue is a popular destination for shopping and dining. Be sure to wander down the street and take in all the sights and sounds. The Arc de Triomphe: This towering arch is another iconic landmark in Paris. Climb to the top for some amazing views of the city.

Paris Luxury Hotels

Paris Luxury Villas

Prague, Czech Republic

Prague is a city rich in history and culture. There are plenty of places to visit, including the Prague Castle, the Charles Bridge, and the Old Town Square. There are also plenty of restaurants and bars to enjoy, and the nightlife is vibrant. Prague is a truly unique city and a must-visit for anyone traveling to the Czech Republic.

Prague Luxury Hotels

Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

Located on the easternmost tip of the Dominican Republic, Punta Cana is known for its beautiful beaches and turquoise waters. This paradise is a favorite destination for travelers looking for a Caribbean getaway. Punta Cana is home to a wide variety of resorts and activities, from enjoying the sand and surf to golfing, spas, and shopping. Nature lovers can also explore the areas jungles, caves, and waterfalls.

Punta Cana Luxury Hotels

Punta Cana Luxury Resorts

Punta Cana Luxury Villas

Marbella, Spain

If you're looking for an idyllic and luxurious Spanish escape, look no further than Marbella. Located on the country's Costa del Sol, Marbella is home to stunning beaches, top-notch resorts, world-class golfing, and much more. A visit to Marbella is the perfect way to experience all that Spain has to offer.

Marbella Luxury Hotels

Marbella Luxury Villas

Marrakesh, Morocco

Marrakesh is a city in Morocco that is full of culture and history. There are several places to visit in Marrakesh, including the Palace of the Bahia, the Ben Youssef Madrasa, and the Saadian Tombs. The souks (markets) are also a must-see, where you can find everything from souvenirs to spices to traditional clothing. Be sure to enjoy a meal in one of the many restaurants or cafes in Marrakesh; the food is delicious and the atmosphere is always lively. Marrakesh is a wonderful city to explore and definitely worth a visit!.

Marrakesh Luxury Hotels

San Francisco, CA, United States

San Francisco is a popular tourist destination, and for good reason. There are plenty of things to see and do in this vibrant city. Here are some of the top places to visit: 1. Fisherman's Wharf: This neighborhood is home to a variety of shops and restaurants, as well as a popular pier where you can enjoy views of the bay. 2. The Golden Gate Bridge: This iconic bridge is a must-see for any visitor to San Francisco. 3. Alcatraz Island: This former federal prison is now a popular tourist attraction. It's a must-see for fans of history and crime dramas. 4. Chinatown: This colorful neighborhood is home to some of the best food in San Francisco. Be sure to check out the Dragon Gate entrance. 5. The Mission District: This trendy neighborhood is home to hip restaurants, bars, and art galleries.

San Francisco Luxury Hotels

Moscow, Russia

Moscow, Russia is a beautiful city with plenty of places to visit. Some of the most popular tourist attractions are the Kremlin, Red Square, and Saint Basil's Cathedral. Other great places to see include the Bolshoi Theatre, Gorky Park, and the Tretyakov Gallery. There are also many churches and other historical buildings to explore. Moscow is a lively city with a lot of culture and nightlife. There is something for everyone to enjoy in Moscow.

Moscow Luxury Hotels

Venice, Italy

Venice is one of the most beautiful places on earth. The city is built on a lagoon in northeast Italy and is known for its canals and gondolas. There are many places to visit in Venice, including the Grand Canal, St. Marks Square, and the Rialto Bridge. Venice is also home to many museums, including the Peggy Guggenheim Collection.

Venice Luxury Hotels

Vienna, Austria

Vienna, Austria is a city with a long and rich history. There are many places to visit in Vienna, including the Hofburg Palace, the Ringstrasse, and St. Stephen's Cathedral. Vienna is also home to some of the world's best shopping, including the Karntner Strasse and the Graben. Finally, no visit to Vienna is complete without experiencing the city's world-famous nightlife.

Vienna Luxury Hotels

Zurich, Switzerland

Zurich is a marvelous city located in the heart of Switzerland. It is a city that has something to offer for everyone. From amazing restaurants and beautiful architecture to exciting nightlife and gorgeous parks, Zurich has something for everyone. Some of the most popular places to visit in Zurich include the Bahnhofstrasse, which is the city's most famous shopping street, the Lindenhof, which is a beautiful park with amazing views of the city, and Grossmunster, which is a stunning Romanesque church. Zurich is also home to some of the best museums in the world, including the famed Museum of Art and the Swiss National Museum. With its mix of old-world charm and modern amenities, Zurich is a city that is definitely worth exploring.

Zurich Luxury Hotels

Acapulco, Mexico

If you're looking for a Mexican vacation spot with plenty of history and culture to explore, Acapulco is a great option. From the archeological wonders of the ancient city to the stunning coastal views, there's something for everyone in Acapulco. Plus, with its temperate climate, it's a great escape from colder winter weather.

Acapulco Luxury Hotels

Acapulco Luxury Resorts

Acapulco Luxury Villas

Nashville, TN, United States

One of the United States' most interesting places to visit is Nashville, Tennessee. There's plenty to see and do there, from the Grand Ole Opry to the Country Music Hall of Fame. Music is a big part of the city's history and culture, so be sure to catch a show while you're in town. Other popular attractions include the Ryman Auditorium, the Parthenon, and the Jack Daniel's Distillery. Nashville is also a great place to eat, with a wide variety of restaurants serving up everything from barbecue to Mexican food. So if you're looking for an exciting and diverse city to visit, be sure to add Nashville to your list.

Nashville Luxury Hotels

Nashville Luxury Villas

Atlanta, GA, United States

What's not to love about Atlanta? From the iconic Georgia Aquarium to the World of Coke, from the Fox Theatre to Centennial Olympic Park, Atlanta offers a wealth of destinations for tourists. Sports fans will want to check out the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium, and history buffs will enjoy the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum. Braves fans can take a tour of SunTrust Park, and shoppers will enjoy the many boutiques and malls in the city. There's also a great restaurant scene in Atlanta, and music lovers will want to check out the many venues offering live music. Whether you're looking for a fun family vacation spot or a place to explore on your own, Atlanta is a great choice!.

Atlanta Luxury Hotels

Miami, FL, United States

The Magic City is a top tourist destination for a reasonthere are endless things to do in Miami! From exploring the trendy neighborhoods and dazzling beaches to soaking up the Latin culture and nightlife, Miami is jam-packed with amazing places to visit. Here are a few of our favorites: 1. Wynwood Walls: This outdoor art exhibit is a must-see for any art lover. The colorful murals are awe-inspiring and definitely Instagram-worthy. 2. Vizcaya Museum and Gardens: This estate is dripping with luxury and opulence, from the grandiose architecture to the expansive gardens. It's the perfect place for a day of relaxation. 3. South Beach: This world-famous beach is a must-visit for any sun-seeker. The crystal-clear water and soft sand make for the perfect day-long beach getaway. 4. Little Havana: Experience Cuban culture at its best in Little Havana. From delicious food to lively music and dance, there's something for everyone in this vibrant district. 5. Art Deco District: This district is home to Miami's most iconic architecture. Take a stroll down the charming streets and admire the colorful buildings that make Miami so unique.

Miami Luxury Hotels

Miami Luxury Villas

Tokyo, Japan

Tokyo is a must-see destination in Japan. There are endless places to explore in this city - temples, shrines, gardens, and more. The Shinjuku district is a great place to start, with its neon-lit streets and myriad shops and restaurants. For a taste of traditional Japan, visit the Sensoji Temple in Asakusa or the Imperial Palace. Nature lovers will enjoy the Hamarikyu Gardens or the Hama-rikyu Teien Garden. And for a unique experience, take a trip to Mount Fuji.

Tokyo Luxury Hotels

Tokyo Luxury Villas

Buenos Aires, Argentina

There are plenty of places to visit in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Some popular tourist destinations include the obelisk, the Casa Rosada, and the Puerto Madero district. Every barrio (neighborhood) has its own unique culture and flavor. San Telmo, La Boca, and Palermo are some of the most popular barrios. There are also many parks and plazas, such as Plaza de Mayo and Plaza de la Republica, that are worth checking out.

Buenos Aires Luxury Hotels

Hamburg, Germany

One of the most popular tourist destinations in Germany is Hamburg. From the lively and colorful harbor district to the grandiose City Hall, there is plenty to see and do in Hamburg. Some of the other popular places to visit include the Reeperbahn district with its pubs and nightlife, the Planten un Blomen botanical gardens, and the architecturally stunning Rathausmarkt square.

Hamburg Luxury Hotels

Lisbon, Portugal

The capital of Portugal, Lisbon is a city of fascinating contrasts. From its coastal location, visitors can enjoy stunning ocean views, while its hilly, narrow streets are home to a maze of charming traditional homes and lively nightlife. A city of 7 hills, Lisbon is a bustling metropolis with something for everyone. Here are some of the top places to visit: The Belem Tower, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is one of Lisbons most iconic landmarks. This 16th-century fortress and lighthouse is a must-see for visitors. The Alfama district, with its winding streets and tile-roofed homes, is the oldest district in Lisbon. This is the perfect place to get lost and explore the citys history. The Lisbon Zoo is a great place to enjoy a day out with the family, with over 2,000 animals from around the world. The Christ the King statue, located atop a hill in the suburb of Almada, offers impressive views of Lisbon and the river Tagus. The Lisbon Oceanarium, located in the Parque das Nacoes district, is home to more than 12,000 marine creatures and is one of the largest aquariums in Europe.

Lisbon Luxury Hotels

Lisbon Luxury Villas

Malaga, Spain

Malaga is an attractive seaside city in southern Spain with a long history. There are many places to visit in Malaga, including the Gibralfaro Castle, the Alcazaba fortress, and the Malaga Cathedral. Malaga is also home to a variety of museums, including the Picasso Museum. The city is well known for its beaches, and there are many delightful places to relax and enjoy the sun and the sea.

Malaga Luxury Hotels

Malaga Luxury Villas

Munich, Germany

When planning a vacation to Munich, Germany, be sure to include these top places to visit: The Marienplatz is a must-see square in the city center, featuring a beautiful Glockenspiel show and the Old and New Town Halls. The Englisher Garten, Europes largest city park, is a great place for a relaxing stroll or a picnic. OlympiaPark is home to the famous 1972 Olympic Stadium as well as a huge amusement park. The Frauenkirche is a stunning church in the old town with a Glockenspiel of its own. Beer lovers will want to visit the Hofbrauhaus, the worlds most famous beer hall. For a bit of history and culture, check out the LudwigMaximilians-University and the Deutsches Museum. There is so much to see and do in Munich  these are just a few highlights!.

Munich Luxury Hotels

Granada, Spain

Granada is a city in southern Spain that is known for its Moorish architecture and history. The city is home to the Alhambra, a palace and fortress that was constructed in the late 1300s. Visitors can also enjoy the citys many churches, including the Cathedral of Granada. Granada is also a convenient base for exploring the other cities and towns in Andalusia.

Granada Luxury Hotels

Bucharest, Romania

Bucharest is a city full of history and culture. There are many places to visit, such as the Palace of Parliament, which is the world's largest civilian building. Other places to visit include the old city center, which is full of charming streets and buildings, and the Botanical Garden, which is the largest botanical garden in Romania.

Bucharest Luxury Hotels

Bologna, Italy

Bologna, Italy is a beautiful city with plenty of places to visit. Some popular tourist destinations include the Piazza Maggiore, the Tower of Asinelli, and the Sanctuary of the Madonna di San Luca. There are also plenty of museums and churches to explore, and the city is full of charming restaurants and cafes. Bologna is an excellent destination for a vacation, and there is something for everyone to enjoy in this amazing city.

Bologna Luxury Hotels

Porto, Portugal

Porto is a port city in Portugal that is well known for its wine. It's also a city with a long and rich history. There are many places to visit in Porto, including the old city center, the Dom Luis I Bridge, and the Clerigos Tower. Porto is also home to the famous Port wine caves, which are a must-visit for wine lovers.

Porto Luxury Hotels

Cologne, Germany

Cologne, located on the Rhine River in western Germany, is a city well worth visiting. The city has a long and rich history, dating back to the time of the Roman Empire. Some of the city's most popular tourist attractions include the Cologne Cathedral, Hohenzollern Bridge, and the RheinEnergieStadion. Additionally, Cologne is home to a wide variety of museums, shops, and restaurants. In fact, the city has been ranked as one of the best places to live in Germany. So, if you're looking for a great European city to visit, be sure to add Cologne to your list.

Cologne Luxury Hotels

Istanbul, Turkey

If you're looking for an exotic and affordable vacation destination, look no further than Istanbul, Turkey. Filled with historical places to visit and bargains to be found, Istanbul offers something for everyone. Be sure to visit the Hagia Sophia, Topkapi Palace, and the Blue Mosque while you're there. Don't forget to bargain for the best prices when shopping in the bazaars, and enjoy some delicious Turkish cuisine while you're at it. Istanbul is sure to leave you with a lasting impression.

Istanbul Luxury Hotels

Istanbul Luxury Villas

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Dubai is a fascinating and exotic city that offers visitors a mix of traditional Middle Eastern culture and modern, cosmopolitan life. There are plenty of places to visit in Dubai, from the towering skyscrapers of Downtown Dubai to the luxury shopping malls and luxurious hotels of the Palm Jumeirah. Don't miss a chance to experience an Arabian night out on an epic dhow cruise, or take a trip out into the Arabian Desert to see the stunning sand dunes.

Dubai Luxury Hotels

Dubai Luxury Resorts

Dubai Luxury Villas

Antwerp, Belgium

Antwerp is a city located in the Flemish region of Belgium. It is the capital of the province of Antwerp and has a population of over half a million people. Antwerp is a popular tourist destination due to its many historical buildings, museums, and art galleries. Some of the most popular places to visit in Antwerp are the Cathedral of Our Lady, the City Hall, the Rubenshuis, and the Antwerp Zoo.

Antwerp Luxury Hotels

Lyon, France

Lyon is a beautiful city in the south of France that is full of culture and places to visit. Some of the most popular places to visit in Lyon are the Basilica of Notre Dame de Fourviere, the Place Bellecour, and the Vieux Lyon. The Basilica of Notre Dame de Fourviere is a beautiful cathedral that is a must-see when visiting Lyon. The Place Bellecour is a large square in the heart of Lyon that is full of restaurants and cafes. The Vieux Lyon is a district in Lyon that is full of old buildings and is a great place to wander around and take in the sights.

Lyon Luxury Hotels

Athens, Greece

If you find yourself in Athens, there are definitely some spots you won't want to miss. The Acropolis, Parthenon, and Olympic Stadium are all essential stops, but there are plenty of others, too. If you're looking for a bit of history, the National Archaeological Museum is a must-see, while nature lovers will enjoy a visit to the botanical gardens. If you're looking to relax, take a walk along the beach in Glyfada or head to the Plaka district for a charming and picturesque setting. No matter what you're interested in, Athens has something for you.

Athens Luxury Hotels

Athens Luxury Villas

Helsinki, Finland

While in Helsinki, make sure to visit these popular tourist destinations: The Senate Square and Lutheran Cathedral The Sibelius Monument Ateneum Art Museum Market Square Helsinki Zoo.

Helsinki Luxury Hotels

Vilnius, Lithuania

The capital of Lithuania, Vilnius, is a picturesque city with a rich history. The old town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is full of charming churches, narrow streets, and pretty squares. There are also lots of museums and other places of interest to visit, including the Hill of Crosses, Gediminas Tower, and the Presidential Palace. Vilnius is a great city to explore on foot, and there are plenty of cafes, restaurants, and bars to enjoy in the evening.

Vilnius Luxury Hotels

Reykjavik, Iceland

A city of remote beauty, Reykjavik is teeming with interesting places to visit. One of the worlds most northern capitals, Reykjavik offers stunning landscapes and a wealth of cultural experiences. From the iconic Hallgrimskirkja church to the popular Golden Circle tour, theres plenty to see and do in Reykjavik. Be sure to check out the citys lively nightlife scene, too  you wont be disappointed!.

Reykjavik Luxury Hotels

Glasgow, United Kingdom

Some of the most popular places to visit in Glasgow include the Gallery of Modern Art, the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, the Riverside Museum, and the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre. There are also many wonderful parks and gardens to explore, including the Botanic Gardens and Glasgow Green. For those interested in history and architecture, there are many fascinating old buildings to see, such as the Glasgow Cathedral and the University of Glasgow. And for those looking for a lively nightlife, Glasgow has no shortage of pubs, clubs, and restaurants.

Glasgow Luxury Hotels

Los Angeles, CA, United States

As the birthplace of Hollywood and home to some of the world's most recognisable landmarks, there's no shortage of places to visit in Los Angeles. Start by exploring the city's iconic neighbourhoods like Beverly Hills and Hollywood, then venture out to attractions like the Griffith Observatory, Venice Beach and Disneyland. And don't forget to savour the city's world-famous cultural scene, with its abundance of museums, theatres and restaurants.

Los Angeles Luxury Hotels

Los Angeles Luxury Villas

San Diego, CA, United States

San Diego is a city located in California and is a major tourist destination. One of the main reasons people visit the city is for its many beaches. Coronado Beach, Mission Beach, and Pacific Beach are some of the most popular and are all within close proximity to the city center. Other attractions in San Diego include the San Diego Zoo, SeaWorld San Diego, and the USS Midway Museum. Restaurants, bars, and shopping can be found throughout the city, and world-renowned museums, like the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, are also located in San Diego.

San Diego Luxury Hotels

San Diego Luxury Resorts

San Diego Luxury Villas

Washington, DC, United States

Washington, D.C. is a city full of history and places to visit. Some popular places to visit are the Lincoln Memorial, the White House, and the Smithsonian. D.C. is also home to a number of monuments and memorials, like the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the Korean War Veterans Memorial. There are also a number of museums in D.C., like the American History Museum and the National Air and Space Museum.

Washington Luxury Hotels

Cancun, Mexico

Cancun is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Mexico. Aside from its beautiful beaches, there are plenty of places to visit and things to do in Cancun. Some of the most popular attractions include the ancient ruins of Chichen Itza, the eco-park Xcaret, and the nightclubs and bars in the resort district.

Cancun Luxury Hotels

Cancun Luxury Resorts

Cancun Luxury Villas

Virginia Beach, VA, United States

Virginia Beach is one of the top tourist destinations on the East Coast. From the Virginia Beach Boardwalk to the miles of sandy beaches, there's something for everyone to enjoy. There are also plenty of restaurants, shops, and other attractions to keep visitors busy. Some of the most popular places to visit in Virginia Beach include: The Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center : This aquarium is home to more than 20,000 animals, including sharks, dolphins, and rays. : This aquarium is home to more than 20,000 animals, including sharks, dolphins, and rays. The Virginia Beach Boardwalk: This 3.5-mile boardwalk is one of the most popular attractions in Virginia Beach. It features a wide variety of shops, restaurants, and amusements. This 3.5-mile boardwalk is one of the most popular attractions in Virginia Beach. It features a wide variety of shops, restaurants, and amusements. First Landing State Park: This park offers miles of hiking and biking trails, as well as a beachfront area for swimming and sunbathing. This park offers miles of hiking and biking trails, as well as a beachfront area for swimming and sunbathing. Cape Henry Lighthouse: This lighthouse is one of the oldest in the country and offers stunning views of the Chesapeake Bay. There are plenty of other things to do in Virginia Beach, including dolphin and whale watching tours, kayaking, and golfing. Whether you're looking for a fun family vacation or a romantic getaway, Virginia Beach is sure to please.

Virginia Beach Luxury Hotels

Virginia Beach Luxury Resorts

Beijing, China

If you're looking for an amazing cultural experience, be sure to add Beijing, China to your travel bucket list! With beautiful temples, charming hutongs (traditional alleyways), and a lively food scene, there's something for everyone in this bustling city. Plus, Beijing is home to some of the most iconic attractions in China, like the Great Wall of China and the Forbidden City. So if you're looking for an unforgettable East Asian adventure, be sure to add Beijing to your list!.

Beijing Luxury Hotels

Seoul, South Korea

Seoul is a metropolitan city that is home to over 10 million people. It is a city full of culture, history, and a vibrant nightlife. There are plenty of places to visit in Seoul, including the Gyeongbokgung Palace, Changdeokgung Palace, and N Seoul Tower. The Jeongdongne district is a must-see for anyone interested in art and culture, and the Itaewon district is a great place to go for a night on the town.

Seoul Luxury Hotels

South Lake Tahoe, CA, United States

Known for its dramatic lake and mountain scenery, South Lake Tahoe offers visitors plenty of places to visit and things to do. Some of the most popular attractions include floating down the river on a tube, hiking the trails in the summer and skiing or snowboarding the slopes in the winter. The city also has a variety of restaurants and nightlife options, as well as casinos for those looking to try their luck.

South Lake Tahoe Luxury Hotels

South Lake Tahoe Luxury Resorts

Daytona Beach, FL, United States

Daytona Beach is a city in Volusia County, Florida, United States. It is approximately 40 miles northeast of Orlando, and 85 miles southeast of Jacksonville. The city is known as "The World's Most Famous Beach." Daytona Beach is a principal city of the Fun Coast region of Florida. The Daytona Beach area is a popular tourist destination. It is well known for its beaches, sports events, and motorsports. Daytona Beach was the birthplace of NASCAR and home to its first track, Daytona International Speedway. Dayton Beach also features a large number of tourist-oriented businesses, such as motels, restaurants, and bars.

Daytona Beach Luxury Hotels

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The coastline of Rio de Janeiro is breathtaking, and the views from Christ the Redeemer and Sugar Loaf Mountain are unforgettable. Rio's world-famous beaches are the perfect place to relax and enjoy the sun and the surf. The city's rich culture and history can be experienced in its many museums and in the lively nightlife. Rio is also a great place to shop for souvenirs.

Rio de Janeiro Luxury Hotels

Rio de Janeiro Luxury Villas

Jaco, Costa Rica

Jaco is a town on the Central Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. It's about an hour drive from San Jose and is a popular spot for surfers, sunbathers, and tourists. There are a number of beaches in the area, as well as restaurants, bars, and hotels. If you're looking for a place to relax and enjoy the Costa Rican sun and beaches, Jaco is a great option.

Jaco Luxury Hotels

Oslo, Norway

Oslo, Norway is a city with plenty of places to visit. You can find the peace and tranquility of nature parks and green spaces, experience the city's vibrant nightlife, or take in the historical and cultural sights. Here are a few of the top places to visit in Oslo: The Royal Palace: Oslo's Royal Palace is the official residence of Norway's king and queen. The palace is open to the public year-round, and offers a glimpse into the lives of the royal family. Oslo's Royal Palace is the official residence of Norway's king and queen. The palace is open to the public year-round, and offers a glimpse into the lives of the royal family. Vigeland Park: Considered one of Oslo's most popular tourist destinations, Vigeland Park is home to over 200 sculptures by Gustav Vigeland. The park is a great place to spend a sunny day outdoors. Considered one of Oslo's most popular tourist destinations, Vigeland Park is home to over 200 sculptures by Gustav Vigeland. The park is a great place to spend a sunny day outdoors. The Maritime Museum: This museum is home to a variety of exhibits on Norway's maritime history. Visitors can explore everything from Viking ships to modern submarines. This museum is home to a variety of exhibits on Norway's maritime history. Visitors can explore everything from Viking ships to modern submarines. The National Gallery: The National Gallery is Norway's largest art museum, and home to a vast collection of paintings and sculptures from the country's most famous artists. The National Gallery is Norway's largest art museum, and home to a vast collection of paintings and sculptures from the country's most famous artists. Aker Brygge: Aker Brygge is a popular waterfront district in Oslo, home to a variety of bars, restaurants, and shops. The area is a great place to people watch and enjoy the view of the Oslo Fjord.

Oslo Luxury Hotels

Lima, Peru

If you're looking for a city that's bursting with culture and flavor, Lima, Peru is the place for you! This vibrant destination is home to some of the most amazing places to visit in all of South America. From ancient ruins to lush rainforests, there's something for everyone in Lima. Here are just a few of the must-see attractions in this amazing city: The Larco Museum is one of Lima's top tourist destinations. This incredible museum is home to one of the largest collections of pre-Columbian art in the world. The Historic Center of Lima is a must-see for any history lover. This vibrant area is home to some of the oldest architecture in Lima, including the iconic San Francisco Monastery. If you're looking for a little bit of jungle in the city, head to the Parque de la Reserva. This lush park is home to beautiful gardens, a zoo, and even a butterfly farm! No trip to Lima would be complete without a visit to Machu Picchu. This ancient Inca citadel is one of the most iconic sites in all of South America.

Lima Luxury Hotels

Ankara, Turkey

Ankara is the cultural and political center of Turkey. The city is home to many museums, including the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, and is a popular destination for tourists. The Citadel, the Ataturk Mausoleum, and the War of Independence Museum are all popular tourist destinations in Ankara. The city is also home to a vibrant nightlife and is a popular destination for students.

Ankara Luxury Hotels

Birmingham, United Kingdom

There are plenty of great places to visit in Birmingham, United Kingdom. Some of the most popular places to go include the Birmingham Botanical Gardens, the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, and the Black Country Living Museum. These places are all great for tourists, as they offer a variety of attractions, including beautiful gardens, interesting art, and a recreation of an old-fashioned town. Additionally, there are plenty of other great places to visit in Birmingham, such as the Jewellery Quarter and the German Christmas Market.

Birmingham Luxury Hotels

York, United Kingdom

With a rich history that spans back over 1,000 years, York is a must-visit destination in the United Kingdom. Explore the city's medieval architecture and narrow cobblestone streets, or enjoy a leisurely walk along the River Ouse. Visitors can also enjoy a variety of cultural experiences, such as the York Minster cathedral, the Jorvik Viking Centre, and the National Railway Museum. There are also plenty of shops and restaurants to enjoy in York.

York Luxury Hotels

Inverness, United Kingdom

Inverness, Scotland is a must-see destination on any traveler's list. Filled with rolling green hills, historical sites, and plenty of outdoor activities, there's something for everyone in this charming town. Start by exploring the city center, which is home to a variety of shops and restaurants. Make sure to check out the Inverness Castle, which offers commanding views of the area, and the Inverness Cathedral, a beautiful example of medieval architecture. Outside of the city center, there are plenty of other attractions to explore. The Loch Ness Monster is said to make its home in the loch here, and visitors can take boat tours to hunt for the mythical creature. If you're looking for a more active adventure, take a hike in the hills or go fishing on the loch. No matter what you choose to do, Inverness is a beautiful and welcoming town that is sure to charm you.

Inverness Luxury Hotels

Marseille, France

The Vieux Port (Old Harbor) is the oldest port in France. It is a beautiful place to visit with its sailboats, restaurants, and cafes. The Notre Dame de la Garde Basilica is also worth a visit. It offers stunning views of the city. If you're looking for a more lively atmosphere, head to the La Canebiere. It's a wide avenue with plenty of shops and restaurants.

Marseille Luxury Hotels

Marseille Luxury Villas

Honolulu, HI, United States

Honolulu is a city located on the island of Oahu in Hawaii, United States. It is the most populous city in the state of Hawaii and the county seat of the City and County of Honolulu. Honolulu is the cultural, commercial, and financial center of Hawaii. Waikiki Beach is one of the most famous beaches in the world and is located in Honolulu. Other places to visit in Honolulu include Diamond Head, the USS Arizona Memorial, and Hanauma Bay.

Honolulu Luxury Hotels

Honolulu Luxury Resorts

Honolulu Luxury Villas

Bar Harbor, ME, United States

Famous for lobster and stunning ocean views, Bar Harbor is a popular destination in Maine. There are plenty of things to do in the town and its surroundings, including hiking, biking, whale watching, and exploring Acadia National Park.

Bar Harbor Luxury Hotels

Colorado Springs, CO, United States

There are many places to visit in Colorado Springs. Garden of the Gods is a popular park with beautiful rock formations. Pike's Peak is a 14,115 foot mountain that offers great views and outdoor activities. The Broadmoor is a world-renowned resort with lovely gardens and a championship golf course. Royal Gorge Bridge is the world's highest suspension bridge and a popular tourist spot.

Colorado Springs Luxury Hotels

Fort Myers Beach, FL, United States

Just an hours drive from the Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers, Fort Myers Beach is a popular tourist spot, especially in the winter when the snowbirds migrate down. The seven-mile-long beach is known for its white sand and clear water and is a popular spot for swimming, sunbathing, fishing, and kayaking. There are also a number of restaurants and bars in the area, as well as a few stores.

Fort Myers Beach Luxury Hotels

Biloxi, MS, United States

There are plenty of places to explore in Biloxi, Mississippi  from the citys iconic Beaches to the picturesque Bay Saint Louis. Venture into the citys downtown area to check out the many shops and restaurants, or take a walk along the shoreline. No matter what you choose to do, youre sure to have a great time in Biloxi.

Biloxi Luxury Hotels

Palermo, Italy

If you're looking for a city with a rich and diverse history, Palermo is the place for you. This coastal city in Italy is teeming with medieval architecture, churches, and cathedrals. Be sure to check out the Teatro Massimo, the largest opera house in Europe, and the Palazzo dei Normanni, the seat of the Sicilian government. Don't miss out on the city's vibrant nightlife and vast array of restaurants that serve up some of the best food in the country.

Palermo Luxury Hotels

Palermo Luxury Villas

Manila, Philippines

The capital of the Philippines, Manila is a fascinating city with a rich history and a vibrant culture. There are plenty of places to visit in Manila, including the walled city of Intramuros, the Rizal Park, and the Manila Bay. The city is also home to a large number of churches, including the Manila Cathedral and the San Agustin Church. Manila is a great city to explore on foot, and there are plenty of restaurants and shops to enjoy.

Manila Luxury Hotels

Zermatt, Switzerland

Zermatt is an alpine village in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. It is famous for its ski resort, mountaineering and hiking trails. The views of the Matterhorn from Zermatt are iconic. The village is car-free, making it a cyclists' and pedestrians' paradise. There are many places to visit in Zermatt, including the village's beautiful churches, impressive museums, and great restaurants.

Zermatt Luxury Hotels

Basel, Switzerland

Basel is a city located in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine. Basel has a population of about 176,000 and is the third most populous city in Switzerland. Basel has many interesting places to visit, including the Basel Munster, the Basel Rathaus (town hall), the Basel Zoo, and the Munsterhof, the old town square. Basel also has a number of art museums, including the Kunstmuseum Basel, the Fondation Beyeler, and the Schaulager. Basel is a great city to visit, and I highly recommend it!.

Basel Luxury Hotels

Copenhagen, Denmark

There are a number of places to visit in Copenhagen, Denmark. Some of the most popular tourist destinations include Tivoli Gardens, Nyhavn, and the Rosenborg Castle Gardens. Tivoli Gardens is a beautiful amusement park that has something for everyone. It is perfect for a day of fun with family or friends. Nyhavn is a charming canal district that is popular for its brightly colored houses and lively atmosphere. Visitors can enjoy a relaxing cruise down the canal or take a seat in one of the many cafes and restaurants. The Rosenborg Castle Gardens are home to a majestic castle as well as beautifully landscaped gardens. There is plenty to see and do in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Copenhagen Luxury Hotels

Steamboat Springs, CO, United States

Steamboat Springs is located in northwestern Colorado. The town is named for the steamboats that traveled up the Yampa River in the 1800s. Today, the town is a popular tourist destination, known for its skiing, snowboarding, hiking, and rafting.

Steamboat Springs Luxury Hotels

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Abu Dhabi is the capital of the United Arab Emirates and is home to many tourist attractions. Some popular places to visit in Abu Dhabi include the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, the Ferrari World Theme Park, and the Yas Island Waterpark. There are also a number of museums and shopping malls in Abu Dhabi, making it a great destination for those looking for a mix of culture and leisure.

Abu Dhabi Luxury Hotels

Abu Dhabi Luxury Resorts

Abu Dhabi Luxury Villas

Bogota, Colombia

There's a lot to see and do in Bogota. Some of the top places to visit include the historical La Candelaria district, the cobblestone streets of Plaza de Bolivar, the Monserrate mountain, the Bogota Botanical Garden, and the Gold Museum. La Candelaria is home to many brightly-colored colonial buildings, churches, and plazas. Plaza de Bolivar is the center of Bogota and is surrounded by important landmarks like the Presidential Palace and the National Capitol. The Monserrate mountain is a popular tourist destination due to its stunning views of Bogota. The Bogota Botanical Garden is the largest in Colombia and features a wide variety of plants and trees. The Gold Museum is home to the largest collection of Pre-Columbian gold artifacts in the world.

Bogota Luxury Hotels

Cebu, Philippines

Due to its location and its rich history, there are plenty of places to visit in Cebu. Some of the most popular tourist destinations include the Cebu Taoist Temple, the Fort San Pedro, the Yap-San Diego Ancestral House, and the Magellan's Cross.

Cebu Luxury Hotels

Cebu Luxury Resorts

Lagos, Portugal

Lagos is a small town in Portugal with a population of around 22,000. It's located in the Algarve region and is a popular tourist destination. Some of the places to visit in Lagos are the beaches, the old town, and the Marina. The beaches are beautiful and there are a lot of them to choose from. The old town is a maze of narrow streets and alleyways with lots of shops and restaurants. The Marina is a great place to walk around and watch the boats.

Lagos Luxury Hotels

Medellin, Colombia

Some places to visit in Medellin, Colombia are: the Botanical Garden, the Ethnographic Museum, the Jardin Botanico, the Metropolitan Cathedral, the Park of Lights, and the San Pedro Claver Church.

Medellin Luxury Hotels

Genoa, Italy

While there are many places to visit in Genoa, one of the must-sees is the city's cathedral. Dedicated to San Lorenzo, the church features an intricate Gothic facade and a Renaissance interior. If you're looking for a place to take in some stunning views, head to the Genoa Aquarium, which is located on the promenade stretching along the city's harbor.

Genoa Luxury Hotels

Hoi An, Vietnam

Hoi An is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Vietnam. Its a bridge town thats best explored on foot. The narrow streets are a mix of Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese architecture. There are tailors, artisans, and lantern shops galore. The food is also some of the best in Vietnam. Be sure to try the local specialties, like Cao Lau and White Rose dumplings.

Hoi An Luxury Hotels

Hoi An Luxury Resorts

Baku, Azerbaijan

Baku, Azerbaijan is a city with a lot of culture and history. There are a lot of places to visit, like the Palace of the Shirvanshahs and the Maiden Tower. There are also a lot of great restaurants, like the Flame Club, which has a great atmosphere and delicious food.

Baku Luxury Hotels

San Luis Obispo, CA, United States

San Luis Obispo is a city located in the central coast of California. It's known for its natural beauty, relaxed vibe, and abundance of things to do. Some of the top places to visit in San Luis Obispo include the Madonna Inn, Hearst Castle, and the Paso Robles wine country. The city is also home to a variety of beaches, parks, and other attractions. In addition, San Luis Obispo is a great place to live, with plenty of restaurants, shops, and other amenities.

San Luis Obispo Luxury Hotels

Colombo, Sri Lanka

Colombo is the largest city and commercial capital of Sri Lanka. The city is located on the west coast of the island and is the administrative, commercial, and industrial center of Sri Lanka. Colombo is also the center of Buddhism in Sri Lanka, with numerous Buddhist temples. There are a number of places to visit in Colombo, including the Galle Face Green, the Dutch fort, the Pettah Bazaar, and the Sri Lankan National Museum.

Colombo Luxury Hotels

Yogyakarta, Indonesia

The city of Yogyakarta in Indonesia is home to some of the most stunning temples and historical landmarks in the country. The city is also a great place to enjoy traditional Javanese culture and cuisine. Some of the must-see places in Yogyakarta include the Borobudur Temple, the Prambanan Temple, and the Sultan's Palace.

Yogyakarta Luxury Hotels

Cefalu, Italy

Looking for a beautiful and historic place to visit in Italy? Look no further than Cefalu. This town is teeming with history and stunning architecture, and its location on the coast makes it the perfect place to relax and take in the stunning scenery. Don't miss the Duomo di Cefalu, a 12th century Norman church that is definitely worth a visit, or the Palazzo dei Normanni, a former royal palace.

Cefalu Luxury Hotels

San Jose, CA, United States

San Jose, California, is home to a variety of tourist destinations. Some popular places to visit include the Winchester Mystery House, the Tech Museum of Innovation, and the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum. There are also a number of lovely parks, such as Kelley Park and Plaza de Cesar Chavez, that are well worth a visit. San Jose is also home to a number of great restaurants, so be sure to check out the local cuisine. Whatever your interests, San Jose has something to offer visitors.

San Jose Luxury Hotels

Hong Kong, China

Hong Kong is one of the most popular destinations for tourists in China. There are many places to visit in Hong Kong, including the Hong Kong Disneyland Resort, Victoria Peak, and the Temple Street Night Market. Hong Kong is also a great place to shop, with many high-end malls and markets.

Hong Kong Luxury Hotels

Hong Kong Luxury Resorts

Orlando, FL, United States

Orlando is a city in the central region of Florida, in the United States. The city is the county seat of Orange County, and the center of the metropolitan area also known as Greater Orlando. Orlando is well known for its theme parks, including Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando Resort, and SeaWorld Orlando. Other tourist destinations in Orlando include the Holy Land Experience, the Orlando Science Center, and the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art. Orlando is also home to the University of Central Florida, one of the largest universities in the United States.

Orlando Luxury Hotels

Orlando Luxury Resorts

Orlando Luxury Villas

Philadelphia, PA, United States

If youre looking for a place thats rich in history and culture, Philadelphia is the place for you. The city is home to numerous iconic landmarks, including the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. Theres also a great variety of museums and other attractions to explore, such as the Philadelphia Zoo and the Please Touch Museum. And, of course, Philly is the birthplace of Americas favorite sandwich, the cheesesteak. So why not visit Americas most historic city and see for yourself what all the fuss is about?.

Philadelphia Luxury Hotels

Nice, France

France is known for its many beautiful places to visit, and Nice is no exception. With its stunning coastline and mild climate, Nice is a popular tourist destination. Some of the most popular places to visit in Nice include the Promenade des Anglais, the Castle Hill, and the Old Town. There is also a wide variety of shops and restaurants to enjoy in Nice. If you're looking for a beautiful and relaxing place to visit in France, Nice is definitely worth considering.

Nice Luxury Hotels

Nice Luxury Villas

Singapore, Singapore

Singapore is a popular tourist destination, brimming with cultural and natural attractions. From award-winning restaurants to serene gardens and pristine beaches, there is much to explore in this diverse city-state. Here are some of the top places to visit in Singapore: 1. Marina Bay: This iconic waterfront district is home to stunning architecture, world-class landmarks, and a vibrant nightlife. 2. Gardens by the Bay: These stunning gardens feature a mix of plants from around the world, as well as towering sculptures and a biodome. 3. Chinatown: This lively district is home to traditional Chinese shops and restaurants, as well as vibrant street markets. 4. Little India: This neighborhood is known for its vibrant culture and colorful temples. 5. Sentosa Island: This resort island is home to sandy beaches, lush rainforests, and a variety of entertainment options.

Singapore Luxury Hotels

Singapore Luxury Resorts

Nottingham, United Kingdom

Nottingham is a city in the East Midlands of England. It is one of the United Kingdom's major cities, with a population of over 321,000. The city is home to two universities, Queen's Medical Centre, and seven football grounds. Nottingham is known for its lace-making and bicycle manufacturing. The city has a rich history, dating back to the Bronze Age. There are plenty of places to visit in Nottingham, including the Nottingham Castle, the Sherwood Forest, and the National Ice Centre. The city also has a lively nightlife, with a variety of pubs and bars.

Nottingham Luxury Hotels

Cannes, France

Cannes is a city located in the south of France. Some of the places to visit in Cannes are the Palais des Festivals et des Congres, the Boulevard de la Croisette, and Le Suquet.

Cannes Luxury Hotels

Cannes Luxury Villas

Park City, UT, United States

Park City, Utah, offers visitors a wealth of places to visit and things to do. Main Street, with its charming shops and restaurants, is a must-see. The Park City Museum tells the town's fascinating history, and the Park City Utah Temple is a beautiful sight. For outdoor enthusiasts, there's plenty of skiing and snowboarding in the winter and hiking and mountain biking in the summer. And don't forget to visit the Olympic Park, where the 2002 Winter Olympics were held.

Park City Luxury Hotels

Park City Luxury Resorts

Port Angeles, WA, United States

If you're looking for a quaint, small town to visit in the US, Port Angeles is worth a stop. Located in the state of Washington, it's right on the Pacific coast with stunning views of the Olympic Mountains. There's plenty of things to do in the area, from hiking and fishing to whale watching and enjoying the local restaurants and breweries.

Port Angeles Luxury Hotels

Fort Lauderdale, FL, United States

If you're looking for a fun-filled Florida getaway, look no further than Fort Lauderdale! With its miles of pristine beaches, world-famous shopping and vibrant nightlife, there's something for everyone in this seaside city. Here are some of the top places to visit in Fort Lauderdale:  Las Olas Boulevard: This popular shopping and dining district is home to some of Fort Lauderdale's most upscale boutiques and restaurants.  The Beach: With its wide, sandy beaches and crystal-clear waters, Fort Lauderdale's beach is a major draw for visitors.  The Everglades: Just a short drive from Fort Lauderdale, the Everglades are home to an abundance of wildlife, including alligators, bald eagles and manatees.  The Broward Center for the Performing Arts: This world-class performing arts center is home to a variety of theater, dance and music performances. So what are you waiting for? Book your trip to Fort Lauderdale today!.

Fort Lauderdale Luxury Hotels

Fort Lauderdale Luxury Resorts

Myrtle Beach, SC, United States

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina is a popular tourist destination. There are plenty of places to visit in the area, including amusement parks, beaches, and golf courses. Myrtle Beach also has a lively nightlife, with plenty of bars and restaurants.

Myrtle Beach Luxury Hotels

Myrtle Beach Luxury Resorts

Salzburg, Austria

Salzburg is one of the most visited places in Austria. It is a city rich in history and culture. There are many places to visit, such as the Hohensalzburg Fortress, the Mirabell Palace, and the Salzburg Cathedral. There are also many hiking trails and parks to enjoy.

Salzburg Luxury Hotels

Pattaya, Thailand

Pattaya is an amazing city with plenty of places to visit and things to do. One of the most popular tourist destinations in Thailand, Pattaya offers something for everyone. There are lovely beaches, interesting temples, great shopping, and exciting nightlife. With its moderate climate and affordable prices, it's no wonder Pattaya is a favorite destination for tourists from all over the world.

Pattaya Luxury Hotels

Pattaya Luxury Resorts

Pattaya Luxury Villas

Dallas, TX, United States

Dallas is a city located in the U.S. state of Texas. It is the ninth most populous city in the United States and the third most populous city in the state of Texas. Dallas is also the main city of the fourth most populous metropolitan area in the United States. The city's prominence arose from its historical importance as a center for the oil and cotton industries, and its position as a major transportation hub for the South. Dallas is home to the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League and the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association. The city's economy is primarily based on banking, commerce, telecommunications, technology, energy, healthcare and medical research, and transportation. The city is home to the world's largest airline hub and the third largest cargo airport in the United States.

Dallas Luxury Hotels

Kolkata, India

Kolkata, also known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. The city is located on the east bank of the Hooghly River. It is the second most populous city in India, after Mumbai, and the third most populous metropolitan area in India, after Mumbai and Delhi. The city is notable for its colonial architecture, art and culture, and for its overwhelming poverty. Kolkata is home to the Indian Museum, the Calcutta Stock Exchange, the National Library of India, and the Indian Statistical Institute.

Kolkata Luxury Hotels

San Antonio, TX, United States

San Antonio is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Texas. There are plenty of places to visit in this city, from the well-known River Walk to the exquisite Spanish missions. If you're looking for a fun place to spend the day, you can't go wrong with San Antonio.

San Antonio Luxury Hotels

Seattle, WA, United States

There are many wonderful places to visit in Seattle, Washington. Some of the most popular attractions include Pike Place Market, the Seattle Space Needle, and the Museum of Pop Culture. There are also many parks and gardens, such as Volunteer Park and Seattle Chinese Garden, as well as plenty of restaurants and shops. Located on the other side of the world, Western Australia is a great place to visit for those looking for something different. Some of the most popular attractions include Rottnest Island, the Margaret River region, and Monkey Mia. There are also plenty of beautiful parks and gardens, such as Kings Park and Botanic Garden, as well as restaurants and shops.

Seattle Luxury Hotels

Liverpool, United Kingdom

Liverpool is a city located in North West England and is one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom. The city is known for its football teams Liverpool and Everton, The Beatles, and its maritime history. Liverpool is a popular tourist destination and is home to various tourist attractions including Mersey Ferry, Liverpool Cathedral, and Albert Dock.

Liverpool Luxury Hotels

Malmo, Sweden

Malmo is Sweden's third largest city with a population of over 310,000. It is located in the province of Scania on the country's southern tip. Malmo is a vibrant city with a strong arts and cultural scene. There are plenty of places to visit in Malmo, including the Malmo Castle, the Botanical Gardens, and the Turning Torso skyscraper. Malmo is also home to a large shopping district and a lively nightlife.

Malmo Luxury Hotels

Gothenburg, Sweden

Goteborg, Sweden's second largest city, is a major port on the country's west coast. It's a popular tourist destination, known for its lively nightlife, beautiful architecture and delicious seafood. Some of the city's highlights include the Liseberg amusement park, the Botanical Garden, and the charming old town district. Goteborg is also home to a large number of museums, including the Volvo Museum, the Maritime Museum and the Universeum science center.

Gothenburg Luxury Hotels

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Ljubljana is the capital city of Slovenia and is a city full of culture and history. There are many places to visit in Ljubljana, such as the castle, the old town, and the cathedral. The city is also home to many museums, art galleries, and parks. Ljubljana is a great city to explore on foot, and there are many restaurants and cafes to enjoy.

Ljubljana Luxury Hotels

Sydney, NSW, Australia

Australia is a vast country with plenty of stunning places to visit, but Sydney is undoubtedly one of the most popular tourist destinations on the continent. From the iconic Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge to the beautiful beaches and lush national parks, there's something for everyone in this lively city. There's also a thriving food and nightlife scene, so you'll never run out of things to do in Sydney.

Sydney Luxury Hotels

Sydney Luxury Villas

Melbourne, VIC, Australia

There's a lot to love about Melbourne  its lively arts and culture scene, its parks and gardens, its diverse range of restaurants and cafes, and its stunning architecture. Here are some of the best places to visit in Melbourne: - Federation Square: This iconic square is a great place to people-watch and take in the city's impressive architecture. It's also home to a number of museums and galleries, including the Australian Centre for the Moving Image and the National Gallery of Victoria. - Queen Victoria Market: This vibrant market is a must-visit for foodies and shoppers alike. It's the largest open-air market in the Southern Hemisphere, and offers a vast array of fresh produce, meat, seafood, and souvenirs. - Melbourne Cricket Ground: If you're a sports fan, be sure to check out the Melbourne Cricket Ground, which is the largest cricket stadium in the world. It's also home to the Australian Football League, and has hosted a number of major sporting events, including the Commonwealth Games and the Rugby Union World Cup. - Royal Botanic Gardens: These beautiful gardens are a great place to relax and take in some of Melbourne's natural beauty. They're home to a number of different gardens, including the Australian Garden, the Sculpture Garden, and the Japanese Garden.

Melbourne Luxury Hotels

Melbourne Luxury Villas

Vancouver, BC, Canada

The top places to visit in Vancouver are Stanley Park, Granville Island, Gastown, and Chinatown. These are all must-see attractions that offer an array of activities, scenery, and history. Stanley Park is a world-famous urban park that features greenery, beaches, gardens, and a stunning view of the North Shore Mountains. Granville Island is a vibrant neighbourhood with unique shops, restaurants, and art galleries. Gastown is the city's oldest neighbourhood and is home to charming cobblestone streets and funky boutiques. Chinatown is one of the largest and most vibrant Chinatowns in North America and offers delicious food, interesting history, and vibrant culture.

Vancouver Luxury Hotels

Toronto, ON, Canada

From the CN Tower and Hockey Hall of Fame to the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Distillery District, there are plenty of amazing places to visit in Toronto, Canada. With something for everyone, Toronto is a great city to explore. So what are you waiting for? Start planning your trip today!.

Toronto Luxury Hotels

Montreal, QC, Canada

Montreal is a vibrant city with something for everyone. There are plenty of places to visit, including the Notre Dame Basilica, the Olympic Stadium, and Mount Royal. The city is also home to a lively arts and culture scene, with theatres, art galleries, and music venues. Montreal is a great place to visit year-round, with festivals and events happening throughout the year.

Montreal Luxury Hotels

Seville, Spain

Seville is one of the most visited places in Spain for a plethora of reasons: its stunning architecture, tapas bars, flamenco and great weather. The Giralda Tower is a must-see when in Seville as is the Plaza de Espana. Andalusian culture is heavily present in the city and is best experienced by wandering the narrow streets and alleyways, popping into a lively tapas bar for a drink and some snacks or enjoying a flamenco show.

Seville Luxury Hotels

Seville Luxury Villas

Ocean City, MD, United States

Ocean City is a seaside resort town in Worcester County, Maryland, on the Atlantic coast. It is well known for its long promenade, its fishing, and its crab cuisine. There are plenty of places to visit in Ocean City, including the boardwalk, amusement rides, shopping, and restaurants. You can also visit the Assateague Island National Seashore, which is home to wild horses, or head to the nearby town of Berlin for more shopping and dining options.

Ocean City Luxury Hotels

Cambridge, MA, United States

If you're looking for a quintessential New England town to visit, Cambridge, Massachusetts is the place for you. With its elaborate architecture and Colonial history, Cambridge is a lively town with plenty of things to see and do - perfect for a weekend getaway. Some of the places you won't want to miss include the Harvard University campus, the charming and lively shops and restaurants in Harvard Square, and the leafy paths of the Cambridge Common.

Cambridge Luxury Hotels

Laguna Beach, CA, United States

Laguna Beach, California is a place known for its stunningly beautiful coastline, excellent restaurants, and art galleries. But there's more to Laguna Beach than meets the eye. Here are some of the best places to visit in Laguna Beach: Crystal Cove State Park: This state park is known for its coves, tidepools, and bluffs. It's a great place to go hiking, swimming, and snorkeling. Heisler Park: This park is a great place for a walk or a picnic. It's also home to some of the best views of the Pacific Coast. Downtown Laguna Beach: This charming downtown area is home to art galleries, boutique shops, and excellent restaurants. Aliso Beach: This beach is known for its excellent surfing and swimming conditions. It's also a great place to take a walk or enjoy a picnic.

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Hot Springs, AR, United States

In downtown Hot Springs, Arkansas, you'll find historic buildings, antique shops, and art galleries. For nature lovers, there are also plenty of places to visit, including the Garland County Arboretum, Ouachita National Forest, and Hot Springs National Park. Spa enthusiasts can enjoy a relaxing day in one of the area's hot springs. And no trip to Hot Springs is complete without a visit to the world-famous Bathhouse Row.

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Sedona, AZ, United States

There are many places to visit in Sedona, Arizona. Among the most popular are the Chapel of the Holy Cross, Bell Rock, Cathedral Rock, and Boynton Canyon. The town's unique red-rock formations and ancient ruins offer plenty of photo opportunities. Visitors can also enjoy hiking, biking, and horseback riding. Sedona is a great place to relax and take in the natural beauty of the Southwest.

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Boulder, CO, United States

Boulder, Colorado is a breathtaking city nestled in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. The city is home to stunning views, ample outdoor recreation, and a lively arts scene. Outdoor enthusiasts will love exploring the city's many trails, parks, and open spaces. History buffs will enjoy checking out the city's museums and historic sites. Culture seekers will appreciate the city's many theaters, art galleries, and restaurants. No matter what your interests, you'll find something to love in Boulder.

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Key West, FL, United States

Key West is a small island off the coast of Florida that is filled with history, charm, and fun places to visit. Its lush tropical setting and the laid-back vibe of the island make it a popular destination for those looking for a relaxing getaway. There are plenty of places to explore in Key West, from the charming historic district to the crystal-clear waters of the Florida Keys. Here are some of the top places to visit in Key West: -The Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum: This iconic museum is dedicated to the life and work of Nobel Prize-winning author Ernest Hemingway, who lived in Key West for over 20 years. -Duval Street: This lively street is the heart of Key West's nightlife and is home to many bars and restaurants. -The Southernmost Point: This landmark is located at the end of Duval Street and is the southernmost point in the continental United States. -The Key West Lighthouse: This picturesque lighthouse is a popular spot for tourists and offers stunning views of the island. -The African American Heritage House: This museum is dedicated to the history and culture of African Americans in Key West. -The Key West Butterfly and Nature Conservatory: This attraction is home to over 2,000 butterflies and a variety of other tropical plants and animals.

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Stockholm, Sweden

Stockholm, Sweden is a city with many places to visit. One place is the Vasa Museum, which is home to a ship that sunk in 1628 and was raised from the ocean floor 333 years later. The ship is preserved and on display in the museum. Another place to visit is the Royal Palace, the official residence of the Swedish monarch. The palace is open for tours, and visitors can see the royal apartments, the throne room, and the Hall of State.

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Destin, FL, United States

Looking for a place to visit in Florida? Look no further than Destin! This city is home to beautiful beaches, wonderful restaurants, and plenty of places to shop. No matter what you're looking for, you can find it in Destin. Be sure to check out the Destin Harbor and the fishing pier for amazing views and plenty of things to do. If you're looking for a place to relax, head to the beach and enjoy the sun and sand. There's something for everyone in Destin, so be sure to visit this amazing city!.

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Ashland, OR, United States

There are many places to visit in Ashland, Oregon. Some of the most popular places are the Shakespeare Festival, Lithia Park, and Mt. Ashland. The Shakespeare Festival is a great place to see some of the best plays in the world. Lithia Park is a beautiful park with a river running through it. Mt. Ashland is a great place to go skiing in the winter.

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Seaside, OR, United States

One of the most beautiful places on the Oregon Coast is Seaside. With its wide, sandy beach and majestic promenade, Seaside is a popular tourist destination. There are plenty of places to eat and shop, and the Seaside Aquarium is a must-see. Visitors can also enjoy fishing, whale watching, or just taking a leisurely stroll along the beach.

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Newport, RI, United States

Newport is a picturesque town located in southern Rhode Island that is home to some of the most visited tourist destinations in the United States. The city is known for its miles of beaches and historic mansions that line the coast. Some popular places to visit in Newport include the Cliff Walk, the Breakers Mansion, the Museum of Yachting, and the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

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Siena, Italy

Siena, Italy is a popular tourist destination, thanks to its well-preserved medieval city center. The city is famous for its art, food, and wine. Siena is located in the heart of Tuscany, making it the perfect base for exploring this beautiful region of Italy. Don't miss the Duomo (cathedral), the Piazza del Campo, and the Torre del Mangia.

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Reno, NV, United States

Home to the University of Nevada, Reno and a wide variety of cultural and natural attractions, Reno is a great place to visit. Some of the top places to see in Reno include the Nevada Museum of Art, the Fleischmann Planetarium and Science Center, and the Reno Events Center. Outdoor enthusiasts will enjoy hiking and skiing at Lake Tahoe and biking and kayaking on the Truckee River. In addition, Reno is home to a diverse array of restaurants and nightlife venues.

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Atlantic City, NJ, United States

Atlantic City is a popular East Coast tourist destination, known for its boardwalks, beaches and casinos. There are plenty of places to visit in Atlantic City, from the Boardwalk Hall and the Absecon Lighthouse to the Atlantic City Aquarium and Lucy the Elephant. For a more thrilling experience, head to one of the city's casinos, where you can try your hand at blackjack, slots, roulette and more. Atlantic City also offers a wide variety of restaurants, from seafood spots to pizza places, so you're sure to find something to your taste. And if you're looking for some nightlife action, the city has you covered there too. Atlantic City is definitely a place worth visiting!.

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Lake George, NY, United States

Looking for a place to visit in upstate New York? Look no further than the stunning Lake George. This picturesque locale is located in the heart of the Adirondacks and is known for its pristine beauty and terrific recreational opportunities. Visitors can enjoy hiking, biking, boating, fishing, and skiing, among other activities. Don't miss the chance to take in the spectacular views from the summit of Prospect Mountain or from the water's edge.

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Buffalo, NY, United States

If you're looking for a city that has it all, Buffalo is the place to be. From its vibrant downtown district to its abundance of parks and nature preserves, there's something for everyone in Buffalo. Here are some of the top places to visit in Buffalo: 1. The Buffalo Zoo - One of the top zoos in the country, the Buffalo Zoo is a must-visit for animal lovers of all ages. 2. The Albright-Knox Art Gallery - Buffalo's answer to the Louvre, the Albright-Knox is home to some of the world's most famous paintings and sculptures. 3. The Buffalo-Niagara Heritage Village - This living history museum offers a glimpse into what life was like in Buffalo in the 1800s. 4. The Buffalo River - Take a walk or bike ride along the Buffalo River, one of the city's most picturesque areas. 5. Delaware Park - This large park is home to a variety of attractions, including a zoo, a golf course, and a nature preserve.

Buffalo Luxury Hotels

Rochester, MN, United States

Rochester, Minnesota is a city with plenty of places to visit. There's the Mayo Clinic, the Apache Mall, and several other shopping areas, as well as a variety of restaurants. There are also a few parks and golf courses. For those who love the outdoors, Rochester is also close to several state parks and the Mississippi River.

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Duluth, MN, United States

If you're looking for an amazing place to visit, Duluth, Minnesota should definitely be at the top of your list. This city is home to some of the most beautiful scenery in the United States, and there are plenty of things to do here that will keep you entertained for days on end. Some of the most popular places to visit in Duluth include the Aerial Lift Bridge, the Glensheen Mansion, and Chester Creek Park. Additionally, there are a number of excellent restaurants and shopping areas in the city, so be sure to explore everything that Duluth has to offer.

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Maputo, Mozambique

Maputo is the capital of Mozambique and a city full of culture and history. There are many places to visit in Maputo, such as the Jose Eduardo dos Santos Museum, the Maputo Cathedral, and the Rua da Independencia. Maputo is also home to the Maputo Bay, which offers beautiful beaches and great seafood.

Maputo Luxury Hotels

Barcelona, Spain

Barcelona, located on the northeast coast of Spain, is a renowned tourist destination and one of the most popular cities in the world. There are plenty of places to visit in Barcelona, such as the Gothic Quarter, the Temple of Olympian Zeus, the Parc Guell, La Sagrada Familia, and more. The city is also home to a lively nightlife and some of the best restaurants in the country.

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Barcelona Luxury Villas

Split, Croatia

Split is a city on the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea. It is the second-largest city in Croatia and the largest city in Dalmatia. It has a population of over 200,000 inhabitants. The metropolitan area, which includes the City of Split and the surrounding towns, has a population of over 330,000. Split is a popular tourist destination and is the home of the Diocletian's Palace, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Other popular tourist destinations include the Riva, the Peristyle, the Cathedral of Saint Domnius, and Sustipan.

Split Luxury Hotels

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Dubrovnik, Croatia

Dubrovnik is a city on the Adriatic Sea in Croatia. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations in the Mediterranean Sea, a seaport and the administrative center of Dubrovnik-Neretva County. Dubrovnik is nicknamed "The Pearl of the Adriatic".

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Dubrovnik Luxury Villas

Byron Bay, NSW, Australia

Byron Bay is a magical place. It's no wonder that it's one of the most popular destinations in Australia. The town is set in a beautiful location, surrounded by rolling green hills and the bright blue ocean. There's plenty to do in Byron Bay, whether you're looking for a relaxing beach holiday or an adventure-filled trip. Some of the top places to visit in Byron Bay include the iconic lighthouse, the stunning beaches, and the lush rainforest. There's also a great nightlife and plenty of restaurants and cafes to enjoy. If you're looking for an amazing Australian getaway, be sure to add Byron Bay to your list!.

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Wellington, New Zealand

If you're looking for a little slice of heaven on earth, look no further than Wellington, New Zealand. With its gorgeous landscape and plethora of activities, there's something for everyone here. Whether you're a nature lover or a city slicker, Wellington has something special to offer. Top Wellington attractions include the Zealandia eco-sanctuary, the cable car up to the Botanic Gardens, and the sprawling Te Papa museum. For those who love getting out into the great outdoors, there are plenty of hiking and biking trails, as well as lovely seaside towns and villages to explore. And of course, no trip to Wellington would be complete without trying some of the delicious local cuisine  be sure to sample a traditional Maori hangi feast! So what are you waiting for? Book your flight to Wellington today and start planning your perfect holiday!.

Wellington Luxury Hotels

Saint Louis, MO, United States

If you're looking for a fun place to visit with a rich history and plenty of things to see and do, look no further than Saint Louis, Missouri. This vibrant city is home to a variety of interesting attractions, including the Gateway Arch, the Missouri Botanical Garden, and the Anheuser-Busch Brewery. There's also no shortage of restaurants and shopping options in Saint Louis. So, whether you're looking for a place to explore new cultures and cuisines or you're just looking for a place to have some fun, Saint Louis is a great option.

Saint Louis Luxury Hotels

Bloomington, IN, United States

The city of Bloomington, Indiana is home to a variety of attractions and places to visit. The Indiana University campus is a popular destination, as is the city's historic downtown district. Monroe County Courthouse
wellesley

History was made last night when Hillary Rodham Clinton 69 secured enough delegates to become the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. She is the first woman to achieve this historic milestone. Tonight caps an amazing journeya long, long journey, Clinton told supporters late last night at a rally in Brooklyn, N.Y. Clinton acknowledged the historic moment that began more than a century ago in Seneca Falls, N.Y. where the fight for womens rights first began. We all owe so much to those who came before, and tonight belongs to all of you. Clinton also mentioned her own mother, who was born on the same day that the 19th amendmentgiving women the right to votewas passed. Dorothy Rodham had been a huge supporter and advocate of Clinton studying at Wellesley as she herself was not able to attend college. Wellesley acknowledged this extraordinary achievement on social media last night. Thousands of followers liked the post on the Colleges Facebook page, and dozens commented as well. One alumna wrote, So proud to be a Wellesley alum tonight as I watch my sister make history! Another commented, Wherever you fall on the political spectrum, you have to admit that this is history in the making. I am so proud to be a Wellesley graduate....a great day for my alma mater. Others just took a moment to acknowledge the milestone: Love, love, love!!! So proud to be a small part of this historic moment. Clinton has kept close ties to her alma mater over the years. While Wellesley cannot support or endorse any political candidate, campaign, or party, we are proud of all our alumnae and their accomplishments, especially at moments when they are shattering glass ceilings.

(.ZT ---)

Meet the Wellesley grads who dont support Hillary Clinton

When it comes the election of 2016, Wellesley College is Hillary country.

Mostly, anyway.

Much has been made about the big number of young Bernie Sanders' supporters who attend Hillary Clinton's alma mater, but when it comes to the alumnae, the vast majority are supporters of Clinton, one of the revered institution's most celebrated graduates. And they very much want to be able to say that the first female president of the United States was a Wellesley graduate.

More than 3,000 graduates of the women's college descended on the campus last weekend for the annual reunion. It's three days of ritual and traditions, all designed to inspire nostalgia, emotion and ultimately donations.

And not surprisingly, this year much of the talk was about the election and "Hillary." Almost no one refers to her as Clinton. Generally speaking, Wellesley graduates call Clinton, Class of 1969, by her first name.

"I'm voting for her, and all my close friends are voting for her," said Mary Russel Oleson, Class of 1956. She arrived early for one of the most cherished Wellesley traditions: step-singing.

All the women of the college gather on the steps of the chapel to sing songs written by Wellesley women. (One is dedicated to the theory of evolution.) As the first song, "America the Beautiful," gets underway  lyrics by Katharine Lee Bates, Class of 1880  many of the attendees can be seen crying.

But Russel Oleson was surprised to learn earlier that evening that one of her classmates was not voting for Hillary.

"I just assumed that all Wellesley women would vote for her."

"Why?"

"Because she's Wellesley!"

Wellesley has many famous graduates  the first female secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, "Sleepless in Seattle" writer Nora Ephron,BlackRock co-founder and Apple board member Susan Wagner.

And yet, Clinton's image looms largest.

She figures prominently in marketing materials. At the college bookstore there is an entire table dedicated to Hillary items. Books, mugs, action figures and a coloring book grace a table right at the entrance.

Indeed, there is an ever-present undercurrent at Wellesley that whispers, occasionally screams, that one should support Hillary because she is part of the sisterhood.

Amy Yamashiro, Class of 1991, said "It would be very hard to say you don't support her here." Classmate Angie Garling added it would "feel like you are going against your tribe."

More than one alumna used the word "betrayal" when asked about those who might not vote for Hillary.

And it's not just the alumnae who support her. Her thesis adviser, Professor Alan Schechter, is campaigning on her behalf. Sgt. William Bowman of the campus police showed off a photo of himself with Hillary when she visited the campus in 1992 and said he will vote for her.

There were a number of alums who would admit they don't like her, but would support her regardless, either because they don't like Donald Trump, or because ultimately it would be good for the Wellesley brand to say it graduated the first woman president of the United States.

"I will not admit publicly that I don't like her, that I don't think she's trustworthy," said a member of the Class of 1986, who added that she will ultimately vote for Clinton over Trump. To say you don't like Hillary in front of other Wellesley alums is "like stabbing a baby in front of everyone." And even she is going to vote for her.

No surprise perhaps that finding alumnae willing to state on the record that they will not vote for Hillary was strikingly difficult. Among dozens upon dozens of attendees asked, a total of four women said they would not vote for her "under any circumstances": three lawyers and one economist, all of whom describe her as "corrupt" or "criminal." All of them added it was a lonely position to take during reunion.

Only two of them would speak to me for attribution. Both of them have an intestinal fortitude that would be useful in trench warfare.

"The Wellesley brand, I'm all about it. It has gotten me jobs," said Pia Norman Thompson, Class of 1991. But when it comes to voting for Hillary, "I can't." Does she get backlash from her friends? "They ignore me. They don't engage."

"She should be in jail," said classmate Patricia DeAngelis, the former prosecutor of Rensselaer County, New York. "As a former prosecutor, she should be indicted right now," said DeAngelis, a Republican, seemingly without any concern about upsetting her classmates.

A man once pleaded guilty to plotting to abduct DeAngelis, allegedly planning to hold her as a slave and then murder her, so facing off against aghast Wellesley women may not seem so frightening.

DeAngelis goes further than anyone else  willing to say on the record that she will vote for Trump. He wasn't her first choice for the Republican ticket, but if the other choice is Hillary, she will vote for him. She said she thinks Wellesley is similar to the country in that "a lot of people are voting for Trump, but are afraid to say it."

Speaking of Trump, the Class of 1991 was particularly curious about classmate Janna Little, married to House Speaker Paul Ryan, who announced he would vote for Trump the day before reunion started. His wife did not attend the event. Paul Ryan's office told CNBC that she would not comment for this report.

A member of the Class of '66 told me she will vote for Trump, not because she likes him, but because not voting would help Hillary.

But she spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of the backlash: "I have good memories of this place. I don't want to wreck it."

On Sunday morning, all the alums gather on College Road for the annual reunion parade. Everyone is dressed in white except for one article, a hat or a scarf, in their class color.

It's another tear-jerker as younger women watch and cheer the members of the oldest classes, who get to march first. Ladies from the Class of 1941 and 1946 ride in antique cars and wave pompoms in their class colors as the younger woman cheer.

Former Wellesley President Nan Keohane is marching with her Class of 1961. As she walks, she recounts what a Wellesley husband told her once: "I never met a woman who went to Wellesley, who ever got over it."

CNBC's Michelle Caruso-Cabrera is a member of the Wellesley Class of 1991. While reporting this story, she was not brave enough to admit to her classmates that she is reluctant to vote for Hillary Clinton. Caruso-Cabrera is undecided as to what she will do in November.

Correction: This story was revised to correct the spellings of the first names of Katharine Lee Bates and Angie Garling.
The world of chemistry has a new first: a research group at the University of Wurzburg has presented the first soluble and stable molecules containing an s-block atom in its elemental state. Normally these elements are highly reactive.

It is one of the more memorable experiments of high school chemistry lessons: when elemental sodium comes into contact with water it burns and explodes. Sodium simply isn't happy in its elemental form, making it highly reactive. This is more or less true for all of the other elements from the so-called "s-block" of the periodic table, to which sodium belongs.

A chemistry research group at the Julius-Maximilians-Universitat (JMU) of Wurzburg in Bavaria, Germany, has now, for the first time, tamed one of these "wild" s-block metals. The researchers constructed molecules that incorporate one atom of the alkaline earth metal beryllium in its elemental state. That the molecules do not immediately decompose at room temperature is thanks to stabilization by two cyclic ligands.

The breakthrough from the research team of Professor Holger Braunschweig is presented in the top-tier journal Nature Chemistry, thanks to the unexpectedly high stability of the molecules. These results from the JMU chemistry laboratories are expected to open a new era for the chemistry of the elements of this corner of the periodic table.

Promising candidates for challenging reactions

The incorporation of hydrogen and carbon monoxide into organic molecules is an example of one of the challenging chemical reactions carried out on huge scales in industry. Currently, these reactions are exclusively carried out with help from expensive heavy metals such as rhodium, palladium and platinum. For reasons of sustainability and cost, replacing these expensive catalysts with alternatives from the main group elements of the periodic table  many of which are abundant in the Earth's crust  would be a huge step forward.

This often means accessing the elemental states of these atoms in molecular systems. However, this is by no means trivial, as many of the potential candidate atoms  sodium being an extreme example  are highly reactive in their elemental states. Recent success has been made with p-block elements such as silicon, tin and boron, while this new work is the first ever example with an s-block metal, beryllium.

Developing alternatives to toxic beryllium

"The only drawback of beryllium is its toxicity", states Dr. Merle Arrowsmith, Alexander von Humboldt postdoctoral fellow in the group of Holger Braunschweig. Even more interesting would be to extend this chemistry to magnesium or calcium, elements that are both abundant and biocompatible, making them ideal as potential catalysts for important chemical reactions.

Given their success in incorporating elementary beryllium into a stable molecule, the chances are good that this could also work with other s-block metals. "Our discovery is a first step in capturing other s-block metal atoms in their elemental state, which we hope will promote reactions that usually only proceed with expensive heavy metals," says Ph.D. student Julia Schuster, who synthesised the new molecules. The research group is currently developing similar methods for other s-block metals.
Songwon and Heraeus announced that they have signed a co-operation agreement to jointly develop and market high end specialty chemicals for the electronics industry.

This new co-operation combines Songwon's strong expertise in R&D and chemical manufacturing with Heraeus' technical capabilities and high reputation in the electronics chemical industry, thereby broadening both companies' access to the global electronics market.

Highlighting the key aspects of the agreement, Dr Ralf Droste, President Heraeus New Businesses said: In a partnership it is essential for each partner to bring together their strengths, mutually benefit from one another and increase market opportunities. This co-operation achieves exactly that. As equal partners, we will combine our R&D, market and manufacturing expertise with a long term view and take our business to a whole new level.

Under the agreement, the high end specialty chemicals co-developed for the electronics and semiconductor market will be produced by Songwon and marketed by Heraeus along with its existing portfolio. By combining our strengths and offering a wide range of high-purity electronic chemicals in all requested volumes from grams to tons, we are striving to become the partner of choice for customers in the electronics sector, adds Droste.

Droste points out that Heraeus already offers numerous high end products, such as conductive polymers and printing pastes for printed electronics like touch screens. The co-operation allows Heraeus to further broaden its offerings to this industry based on Songwons know-how and world-class manufacturing facilities which are capable of producing the required quality and quantities of such high end specialty chemicals.

Being located at the heart of the Asian electronics industry with our long tradition of manufacturing high quality specialty chemicals, Songwon is perfectly positioned to contribute to the success of this exciting co-operation. explains Maurizio Butti, CEO, Songwon Industrial Group. Furthermore, Heraeus' excellent sales network and position in the market will enable us to jointly build strong partnerships with key players in the electronics industry while meeting their needs and responding quickly to new developments in this fast changing market.
Though the details surrounding this event remain scarce  such as whether he was prescribed the drug or not  we already know a lot about this potent and fast-acting painkiller.

Using data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, OpenFDA and recent news events, HealthGrove compiled important information you should know about Fentanyl.

Death and Other Adverse Reactions by Fentanyl

Even when prescribed by a doctor, some people still experience serious adverse side effects from Fentanyl. The New York Times referred to it as heroins deadly cousin, an apt description given recent trends.

Fentanyl is up to 50 times more potent than morphine and dealers cut it into other drugs to sell to unsuspecting buyers. This cheap tactic gives a stronger high and keeps addicts coming back. U.S. law enforcement officials believe that much of the supply crosses the border from labs in Mexico or via mail-orders from factories in China.

In the case of prescribed usage, from Jan. 1, 2000 to Jan. 1, 2016, Fentanyl, under any and all of its brand name derivatives, has been included in 44,284 adverse reaction reports, of which 32,389 were reported as serious, according to OpenFDA. Of those, Fentanyl was the primary suspect in 17,169 of the reports.
An employee walks out of a Jimmy John's on Sept. 24, 2014, in Chicago. The Illinois attorney general's office is suing Jimmy John's, alleging that all employees  from sandwich shop workers to delivery drivers  are required to sign a noncompete agreement as a condition of employment. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)

The Illinois Attorney General's office has filed a lawsuit against Jimmy John's, alleging the company imposes "highly restrictive non-compete agreements on its employees."

The attorney general's office alleges that all employees  from sandwich shop workers to delivery drivers  are required to sign a noncompete agreement as a condition of employment. The agreement bars them from working at another sub shop while being employed at Jimmy John's and for two years after leaving the company, the attorney general's office says.

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Specifically, the office claims that the agreement specifies that Jimmy John's employees cannot work at another company that derives at least 10 percent of its sales from selling "submarine, hero-type, deli-style, pita, and/or wrapped or rolled sandwiches" within two miles of a Jimmy John's. Jimmy John's, based in Champaign, has about 270 locations in Illinois and 2,000 nationwide.

"By locking low-wage workers into their jobs and prohibiting them from seeking better paying jobs elsewhere, the companies have no reason to increase their wages or benefits," attorney general Lisa Madigan said in a statement.

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Madigan's office says it wants all noncompete agreements at Jimmy John's to be rescinded and voided. Jimmy John's said it had stopped using such agreements in April 2015, but Madigan said it had not implemented the change or communicated the shift to its employees. Jimmy John's has been under fire for use of noncompete agreements for years, and the chain's practice has been the subject of a failed class-action lawsuit.

Jimmy John's said it was "disappointed" to learn of the lawsuit.

"The attorney general's office approached us in September 2015 to discuss concerns that it had about the use of non-compete agreements in Jimmy John's stores, and we were nothing but cooperative and transparent throughout the process," the company said in a statement. "Though the attorney general never indicated to us that any worker had ever reported a concern about the agreements, we made clear to the attorney general that we would never enforce a non-compete agreement against any hourly employee that might have signed one.

"We offered to have our CEO sign a declaration to that effect, and pointed the attorney general to an April 2015 ruling dismissing a federal claim against Jimmy John's over the use of non-compete agreements, on the grounds that those agreements were not at risk of being enforced. We also told the attorney general that the agreements had been removed from new-hire paperwork and taken out of use long before their inquiry began. When we learned that, through an administrative error, certain company stores were using outdated, pre-printed paperwork, we immediately corrected the error and voluntarily informed the attorney general. We remain committed to resuming productive discussions with the attorney general."

sbomkamp@tribpub.com

Twitter@SamWillTravel
Four decades ago, architect Dirk Lohan faced a supersized challenge: Designing McDonald's massive and customized corporate campus in Oak Brook.

Lohan developed a complex meant to evoke a peaceful, quiet environment where workers could be immersed in nature, but with a plethora of modern touches specially designed for the burger giant. The campus was part of a growing trend in the construction of corporate headquarters: Sprawling complexes in the suburbs that would be closer to where many employees already lived, while offering a serene setting.

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Now, McDonald's is near a deal to abandon its Oak Brook headquarters for a move to downtown Chicago in a bid to attract more top talent living in the city. The fast food giant is finalizing a deal to relocate to Oprah Winfrey's former Harpo Studios site in the Near West Side, sources say. The move is set to take place in 2018, 47 years after McDonald's first fled the city for the suburbs.

"I'm a little bit hurt," Lohan, who has since spent decades working in Chicago architecture, said of the proposed move. "As an architect I spent a considerable amount of time thinking about how to make people happy and how to make people better performers. We thought trees and deer are better than dirty streets in the city." Lohan currently serves as a principal at Wight & Co.

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A goose swims outside McDonald's corporate headquarters in Oak Brook. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)

McDonald's first moved to Oak Brook in 1971 from an office in the Loop, as a way to accommodate its massive expansion and put various operations in one place. Its campus was designed later that decade. At the time, McDonald's was one of a number of corporations moving out of the busy city. Now, that trend is reversing.

The decision to come back to Chicago "came as a surprise, but I'm also not totally surprised because other companies are doing the same thing," said Lohan, the grandson of famous modernist architect Mies van der Rohe. "It seems the inner city has become fashionable again."

A number of corporations have chosen to move their headquarters back from the suburbs to the city in recent years to draw in a bigger pool of talent. In Chicago, that list includes Motorola Solutions, Kraft Heinz, Mead Johnson, Gogo and Hillshire Brands. Beam Suntory and ConAgra also plan to move their headquarters to Chicago in the coming months.

Questions remain about what will happen to McDonald's current Oak Brook headquarters, with its low-slung buildings and use of local, natural materials like brick, wood and stone.

McDonald's corporate headquarters in Oak Brook on Friday, Jan. 22, 2016. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)

The customized campus features a main global headquarters building, which houses test kitchens and a full-sized McDonald's restaurant. There's also a stand-alone training center called Hamburger University, where top managers come to learn the fry cooking and supervising basics, and a Hyatt hotel referred to as the "McLodge."

Buildings, built no higher than the trees, are spread out on more than 80 acres. The main office features terraces and huge windows to allow employees to experience the outdoors.

"The buildings flank the westernmost of two artificial lakes, which provide flood control in addition to being decorative. They are connected by a long, curving footbridge that ... has the salutary effect of forcing people out into the fresh air, even if that is a rather nippy business in January," The Tribune's architecture critic Paul Gapp wrote of the campus in 1985.

"What we have here is 330,000 square feet of space devoted to what is obviously perceived as the mission (not just the necessity) of training people to excel in the sale of billions of hamburgers," Gapp wrote. "It is a serious but essentially happy, somehow very American activity, and the architecture is meant in part to reflect that."

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Lohan first started work on the Oak Brook campus in 1978 and oversaw expansions and re-designs of parts of the complex until the late 1990s.

The architect, whose designs include The Oceanarium at The Shedd Aquarium and most recently, the skyscraper at 353 N. Clark St., said it was hard to speculate about a potential buyer for McDonald's Oak Brook campus.

"Maybe somebody can be found but it's hard to envision right now," he said

Lohan said the McDonald's campus was the result of a tight collaboration with Fred Turner, the man who succeeded Ray Kroc and served as McDonald's CEO when the Oak Brook campus was built.

"Fred Turner deeply believed in doing this," Lohan said of the move to the suburbs. "He chose this land. He loved nature. It's so interesting how times change."

sbomkamp@tribpub.com

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United Airlines flight attendants picket June 8, 2016, outside United's annual shareholders meeting at Willis Tower in Chicago. Since the 2010 Continental merger, United has yet to reach unified contracts with flight attendants and mechanics. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)

At his first annual shareholder meeting as CEO of United Continental Holdings, Oscar Munoz acknowledged that six years after United and Continental officially joined in 2010, they've yet to be "successfully integrated."

But Munoz said he's committed to making the partnership happen.

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"We have no plans of unfurling," he said at the meeting at United's Willis Tower headquarters on Wednesday. "This company is going to work."

Shareholders and employees praised the company's change in tone under Munoz, who took the top job at United in September after predecessor Jeff Smisek resigned amid a federal corruption investigation. But they also questioned how the company's board let things get to the point where a turnaround was necessary and why some post-merger labor negotiations still seemed to drag.

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Munoz, a member of United's board since 2010, said the board could take some blame for things "we should have been more observant with."

He said that's why he's been spending more time on the airline's front lines, working with employees and customers, since returning to work full-time in March after a heart attack and subsequent transplant.

At the meeting, Munoz said the airline's labor issues remain a top priority.

"It is important that we win back the trust of employees first, then customers," he said.

Improving performance and reliability is next on the list, and Munoz said United is making good progress.

A video shown at the start of the meeting touted recent changes: a post-merger record for quarterly on-time performance, new international routes, a revamped international business class with sleep pods and luxury pillows, free in-flight snacks and fancier coffee.

The airline was still the worst-ranked traditional carrier in customer satisfaction on a recent J.D. Power survey and ranked in the bottom half of airlines rated in the American Customer Satisfaction Index Travel Report released earlier this year. But both surveys found United's scores had improved over the prior year.

Once United gets the nuts and bolts right, Munoz said he wants the airline that's "been in the market in a docile way" to be more disruptive and innovative.

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Among those disruptions are improving the airline's technology and adding new routes, Munoz said.

United has added nonstop international flights, including a flight between San Francisco and Hangzhou, China, offered three days a week coming in July, and daily flights to Tel Aviv, Israel.

United is canceling a flight between Houston and Lagos, Nigeria. A drop in demand for the route tied to the oil business drove United's decision, said United spokeswoman Megan McCarthy. "It just became untenable economically," Munoz said.

Some of the questions Munoz fielded Wednesday suggest there's been progress on improving relationships with employees but still work to be done.

One man said he appreciated Munoz's willingness to engage in more discussion with employees than past shareholder meetings have featured but was still frustrated by the drawn-out contract talks. Another employee said the tone of Munoz's leadership has been "so much better" than his predecessor's that he's "hopeful," but asked that as the airline rolls out perks for customers, it also tackle problems its workers are having with systems like payroll.

United has convened a payroll task force and recently negotiated deals with 52 percent of employees, Munoz said, including pilots, dispatchers and security officers. It has yet to settle on unified contracts with flight attendants and mechanics, who rallied outside Willis Tower before the meeting began.

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Sara Nelson, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants, said progress on the negotiations has been notably better than under Smisek, "but we're not there yet," she said.

"This is long overdue," Nelson said. "Flight attendants deserve recognition for all they've done to make United Airlines a success."

Another mediation session is scheduled with the airline and its flight attendants later this month.

Munoz said the airline is "very engaged" with finalizing agreements with approximately 24,000 flight attendants and 9,000 mechanics. "We've got to stop this us versus them," he said. "At the end of the day, we both have to step up and work through this."

At the shareholders meeting, the vote to elect members to the board of directors was uneventful thanks to an April agreement between United and two big investors settling a dispute over its board makeup.

The airline said three independent directors  Henry L. Meyer III, the board's nonexecutive chairman; John Walker; and Charles Yamarone  would retire and not seek re-election.

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Robert Milton, former chairman and CEO of ACE Aviation Holdings and Air Canada, was appointed to succeed Meyer as nonexecutive chairman, and three new outside directors replace those retiring: PAR managing partner Edward Shapiro, former Orbitz CEO Barney Harford, and a third board member yet to be been chosen.

The agreement settled a proxy battle with United shareholders Altimeter Capital Management and PAR Capital Management, which together own about 7 percent of the airline's stock and previously said they intended to seek six seats on a United board they deemed "ineffective" and "underqualified."

lzumbach@tribpub.com

Twitter @laurenzumbach
Rapper-turned-actor Common speaks to a group of youth at a Chicago Ideas Week event on Oct. 13. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)

Talk about an energetic homecoming.

South Side rapper-turned-actor Common will serve as honorary grand marshal of a New Orleans second line performance Saturday in Washington Park to showcase New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park, event reps announced Wednesday.

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Common is expected to give opening remarks, but not perform at the free festivities, which are scheduled for 11:30 a.m. at 57th Street and King Drive.

The event is the second in the Park Exchange series, hosted by the National Park Service and National Park Foundation to highlight the diversity of park experiences for the park service's centennial. In May, the groups held a celebration inspired by California's redwood trees in Austin, Texas.

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The Washington Park appearance adds to a busy summer for Common, who recently starred in "Barbershop: The Next Cut" and will play villain Monster T in the "Suicide Squad" film due out Aug. 5.

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Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 126 Woody introduces the gang to a homemade spork toy with self-esteem issues in "Toy Story 4." Read the review. (Pixar / AP)
The civil rights trial against Gage County and the sheriffs deputies who sent six innocent people to prison began with attorneys for the Beatrice 6 calling it "the worst miscarriage of justice in the state of Nebraska.

And youre here to right that wrong, Herb Friedman told the jury Tuesday in opening statements.

Joseph White, Ada JoAnn Taylor, Tom Winslow, James Dean, Debra Shelden and Kathy Gonzalez would spend a combined 75 years in prison for the brutal rape and murder of 68-year-old Helen Wilson in her Beatrice apartment early on Feb. 6, 1985, Scottsbluff attorney Maren Chalupka said.

Decades later, DNA cleared the six and implicated Bruce Allen Smith.

"Yet Gage County still refuses to take any responsibility for this unfathomable travesty of justice," she said.

On the other side of the aisle, attorney Jennifer Tomka, who represents Gage County, the late former Sheriff Jerry DeWitt and Deputies Burdette Searcey and Wayne Price, later would say "this is indeed a journey to justice.

Tomka urged the jury to remember what it was like in 1989. No cellphones, no satellite TV, no DNA testing to corroborate or refute what five of the six defendants confessed to. And, she noted, all six were represented by lawyers.

In November 2007, the Nebraska Supreme Court ordered DNA testing in the case over the objection of then-Gage County Attorney Dick Smith, who prosecuted the case.

White, the only one who stood trial rather than enter a plea in the case, fought for the testing after being convicted and sentenced to life in prison, and tests on evidence from the crime scene would free him.

In 2008, White, Winslow and Taylor were released after nearly two decades behind bars. The other three had completed their sentences and were pardoned by the state.

Later, the six sued the county, the sheriff and deputies for the investigation that put them there, saying it was so reckless it shocked the conscience.

In the U.S. District courtroom Tuesday, four of the six former defendants listened from court benches on one side. Dean was at work. White died while working in Alabama in 2011, but his mother was there.

On the other side sat Searcey and Price.

Attorneys for the six say Searcey, a white-haired man wearing a polo shirt in court Tuesday, was in the 1980s a man obsessed with Helen Wilsons murder. Once he developed a theory about what happened, they say, he ignored any evidence that contradicted it.

And Price, the man with a hearing aid sitting on Searcey's left, convinced three of the six they had witnessed the crime and were repressing their memories. Price was a part-time deputy and a psychologist who had seen several of the six professionally.

Both men still work as deputies for the sheriff's office.

As the second trial in the federal civil rights case got underway Tuesday -- the first ended in a mistrial -- attorneys picked up the story in late 2007, when the convictions were just starting to unravel.

The first to take the stand was Randall Ritnauer, who was Gage County attorney then. He said he assumed the DNA tests the court ordered would bolster what he believed then: The six had committed the crime. After all, five of them confessed to participating in the murder.

But the results ruled out White and Winslow, who were in prison for killing and raping Wilson. Still working from the assumption the six were guilty, Ritnauer said he got the OK to test 43 more pieces of evidence preserved from the crime scene.

Surely, he remembered thinking, with six people in Wilson's tiny apartment, there should be all sorts of DNA. But the testing pointed to a single perpetrator -- and not any of the six who had been convicted of the crime, he said.

After Whites conviction was set aside, a task force formed to find the match.

Assistant Nebraska Attorney General Corey OBrien, who led it, testified Tuesday that he initially thought they were looking for a seventh co-defendant. Within three weeks, they had matched DNA from the scene to Bruce Allen Smith, a suspect Beatrice police developed early in 1985 and later cleared -- because of a screw-up in blood testing.

They found no connection between him and the six, said Ritnauer, also a member of the task force.

He said he dropped the charge against White knowing his DNA wasnt at the scene and that witnesses who testified against him at his first trial had recanted. As a prosecutor, Ritnauer said, he was duty-bound to seek justice, not just win cases.

During opening statements in the federal retrial, Tomka defended the deputies by focusing on the role others played in what happened, from Dick Smith, the Gage County Attorney who decided to file the charges after reviewing the evidence back in the '80s, to defense attorneys who represented the six and the jury that convicted White.

The officers have nothing to do with that process, she argued.

On top of that, Tomka said, none of the five who took plea deals told anyone at the time they felt coerced or that they'd been threatened with the death penalty. Not until this lawsuit, she said.

On the other side, attorney Jeffry Patterson said six innocent kids, all but one of them in their 20s, were convicted of murdering and gang-raping a grandmother. Investigators who put them in her apartment relied on dreams, not facts, and ignored cold, hard evidence, he said.

At the end of what is expected to be a three-week civil trial, the question for the jury will be whether Deputies Searcey and Price conducted a reckless investigation, manufactured false evidence or conspired with someone who did. And, if they did, how much the Beatrice 6 should be compensated for it.
The Musicality Vocal Ensemble from Chicago's Southwest Side performs One Direction's "Night Changes" on "America's Got Talent."

There is only one direction the Musicality Vocal Ensemble from the Southwest Side is going: to the next round of "America's Got Talent."

The group, based at Curie Metropolitan High School in the Archer Heights neighborhood, earned high marks for its cover of One Direction's "Night Changes" during Tuesday's episode of the NBC competition.

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"I just thought it was really melodic and beautiful. I really loved it," judge Howie Mandel said.

Before the performance, director Michael Gibson explained that the group rehearses in a stairwell and members lean on each other like a "second family." Judge Simon Cowell said they seem like hard workers.

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All four judges agreed to send Musicality to the next round of competition.

"This is surreal. These kids work their butts off every single day. They deserve this," Gibson said.

Musicality was not the only Chicago-area act to perform well on Tuesday's episode. Yorkville tween Mason Bumba was briefly shown demonstrating his martial arts skills to advance to the next round.

"America's Got Talent" airs 7 p.m. Tuesdays. The winner, which is determined by votes from the public, will earn $1 million.
A cutout of Capt. James T. Kirk greets guests at a special Star Trek exhibit at the University of Iowa's Main Library in Iowa City, Iowa. (David Scrivner / AP)

On a fall Thursday evening in 1966, kids dodging bedtime saw something quite different on NBC: the birth of a pop culture phenomenon.

Sept. 8 marks the 50th anniversary of the debut of the original "Star Trek," which hatched a galaxy of spinoffs and knockoffs despite Jupiter-size odds. Its 1960s soundstages were cheesy and often populated by wooden actors dressed in glorified PJs. Never too popular with critics or the general public, the series ran for just three seasons  79 episodes. It required hardcore, letter-writing fans to keep the starship Enterprise active that long (and longer). And they were out there.

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What set "Star Trek" apart from other sci-fi programs was that creator Gene Roddenberry's plots were cloned to larger issues, like racism and militarism. Adding to its enduring appeal were the tension and affinity among this "space opera's" main characters, including Capt. James T. Kirk (William Shatner), his logic-driven first officer Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy played the half-Vulcan) and the feisty doctor, Leonard "Bones" McCoy (DeForest Kelley).

The golden anniversary  plus a new movie in July and TV series in 2017  makes this a banner year for all generations of "Star Trek" fans. Here's where to beam down and celebrate.

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Enterprise in Emerald City

Through Feb. 27, 2017: EMP Museum, Seattle

This pop culture museum in downtown Seattle has gone all out for the anniversary with "Star Trek: Exploring New Worlds," an exhibition that examines the impact the long-running franchise has had on everything from culture to fashion.

A Borg regeneration chamber at the "Star Trek: Exploring New Worlds" exhibit in Seattle. (Brady Harvey / EMP Museum)

The showcase, which debuted in May, includes production materials  original scripts, storyboards and drawings  as well as rare items seen in the original series, spinoffs and movies.

From the 1960s "Star Trek," you can see Kirk's command chair and the navigation console, a tricorder, a tunic sported by Spock, a dress worn by Lt. Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) and Enterprise miniatures used in filming. All told, more than 100 items.

EMP is a tech-savvy place. Among the coolest interactive stops is a transporter simulator where you can create a film that shows you being beamed to another location. Also popular: a Khan recording booth, where visitors can re-create a scene from the second movie, 1982's "The Wrath of Khan."

Selfie opps abound. So far, the museum says, the most popular pose is alongside a costume of the Gorn, a reptilian species from the original series. www.empmuseum.org/startrek

Kirk's hometown in Iowa

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June 24-25: Trek Fest, Riverside, Iowa

Roddenberry once wrote that Kirk hailed from a small town in Iowa. In 1985, tiny Riverside proclaimed itself the captain's future birthplace  reportedly with Roddenberry's OK. So began the annual festival that includes a Friday trivia contest, Saturday parade and fireworks and such small-town staples as a carnival, talent show and kickball tourney. New this year: a 5K run, costumes encouraged.

The annual Trek Fest parade in Riverside, Iowa. (Jenny Dueling / Riverside Area Community Club)

At 10 a.m. the hourlong parade proceeds to the homespun Voyage Home Riverside History Center, 361 E. First St., stocked with Enterprise models, show photos and costumes worn in various "Star Trek" episodes. Part of one room is given over to Shatner's prank visit to Riverside in 2004 for Spike TV's "Invasion Iowa," a cable show that chronicled when the actor came to town to make a fake sci-fi movie. The display includes several of Shatner's unfinished cigars. Speaking of butts, the loo in the museum's restroom is designed to mimic the Enterprise's bridge, so you are, essentially, doing your business in the captain's chair.

Nearby is a marker noting the "Future Birthplace of Captain James T. Kirk, March 22, 2228." A waggish plaque on the wall of Murphy's Bar & Grill downtown says Kirk will be conceived there. www.trekfest.com

The celebration continues in Iowa City, where University of Iowa Libraries is hosting a 50th anniversary exhibit focused on the early years of the franchise and the show's rabid fandom. On display are a program from the first "Star Trek" convention and the first "Star Trek" fanzine, as well as a section dedicated to "Star Trek" movies from the '80s. The exhibit runs through Aug. 5. www.lib.uiowa.edu/gallery

Enroll in Starfleet Academy

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Through Sept. 5 in Ottawa, Canada, and July 9 to Oct. 31 in New York, "Star Trek: The Starfleet Academy Experience."

EMS  a producer of traveling edu-tainment spectacles  is staging the immersive "Starfleet Academy Experience" at two STEM museums: the Canada Aviation and Space Museum in Ottawa (www.casmuseum.techno-science.ca/en) and the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in Manhattan (www.intrepidmuseum.org).

The Starship Enterprise model prior to renovation, in its old display case at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. (Eric Long / National Air and Space Museum)

Become a cadet going through training, and experience situations from various "Trek" incarnations  and learn some real-life science and technology in the process. Think you're savvy enough to be a Starfleet commander? You'll find out.

Interactive and tech-driven touches include trying a target game that uses phasers and holograms. www.StarfleetAcademyTour.com

Starship returns to Smithsonian

Starting July 1: National Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C.

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The as-seen-on-TV model of the starship Enterprise from the original series has been newly renovated, and the 11-by-5-foot model will be back on display July 1 in the museum's flagship building, the Boeing Milestones of Flight Hall.

The museum notes that "the fictional ship grossed 190,000 tons, and measured 947 feet long and 417 feet in diameter. The saucer-shaped hull included 11 decks, and had a crew complement of 430." A spokeswoman said the museum also plans to celebrate "Star Trek's" 50th anniversary with special programs (details not available at press time) in September. www.airandspace.si.edu

Comic-Con

July 21-24: Comic-Con International: San Diego

The upside of becoming stereotyped as a "Trek" star or bit player is earning easy money attending fan conventions.

"Like 'Star Wars,' it's like a religion," said Gary Sohmers, a fan-fest promoter who is also a pop artifact appraiser on PBS' "Antiques Roadshow." Devotees buy wholeheartedly into these events. "They save money to see the same celebs they've seen 15 times before," he said. The shows include merchandise vendors, panels and screenings.

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The San Diego event isn't "Trek"-only, but Sohmers said, "It's so big and only two hours from Hollywood. Everyone from every version of 'Star Trek' will be there."

Shatner's website states he'll be there July 23.

Bad news: Admission badges were all scooped up in less than an hour when they went on sale in February.

Mitigating news from promoter Sohmers: "There's a wide landscape of Comic-Con events across the country."

For info on "Trek"-related shows and conventions, monitor the "Events" tab at www.startrek.com.

Sulu in Sin City

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Aug. 3-7: "Star Trek Las Vegas"

This is the fan fest that focuses entirely on the "Star Trek" world, and, Sohmers said, "It's great for newbies and core groups, true believers as well as occasional fans."

Actors from the various "Star Trek" series and films will be at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino event. Biggies from the original include Shatner, Nichols, George Takei (Sulu) and Walter Koenig (Chekov). There will be appearances by bit characters in the original series who were or became celebrities in their own right; they include Elinor Donahue (Betty Anderson on "Father Knows Best"), Sally Kellerman ("Hot Lips" Houlihan in the movie version of "M*A*S*H") and Gary Lockwood ("2001: A Space Odyssey").

Shatner will be there Aug. 4, according to his website.

Photos? Autographs? Remember: These actors don't do that for free. Sohmers said to expect a sliding scale at such meet-and-greet events. The "Star Trek Las Vegas" website indicates a $30-$150 range per signing; $40-$150 for a shared, 15-second pose for an 8-by-10-inch glossy.

This event has sold out, but the website has a page for online ticket auctions. www.creationent.com/cal/st_lasvegas.html

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Want something out of this world? Here's your chance to go gravity-free with Sulu. On Aug. 4, Takei will take part in an off-site "Zero-G Experience" on a modified Boeing 727 for 20 passengers over Vegas airspace. It comes with a lofty price tag: $6,500. www.gozerog.com

Trek to the Big Apple

Sept, 2-4: "Star Trek: Mission New York"

Interactive exhibits, exclusive merchandise, panels and screenings are on tap at this event, held in the Javits Center. Basic per-day tickets, three-day passes and VIP passes are still available. Shatner, Koenig and many more are scheduled to appear. www.startrekmissions.com

John Bordsen is a freelance writer.

Chicago's "Star Trek" ties

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The city lays claim to several "Star Trek" connections  and not just the Sept. 9-11 fan fest at the Westin O'Hare Hotel in Rosemont (tickets available; www.creationent.com/cal/stchi.htm).

Walter Koenig  Chekov on the original "Star Trek"  was raised in New York but was born in Chicago in 1936.

"Trek" actress Nichelle Nichols was born in 1932 in south suburban Robbins (her father, Samuel, was mayor) and raised in Chicago. Before playing Uhura, one of the groundbreaking roles for African-American women on TV, she honed her theatrical skills in Chicago in Oscar Brown Jr.'s "Kicks and Co.," a 1961 musical that made fun of Playboy magazine. Though the show flopped, Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner was impressed enough to book her at the Chicago Playboy Club. That led to roles in "Carmen Jones" in Chicago, "Porgy and Bess" in New York and  eventually  "Star Trek."

The late Grace Lee Whitney  Janice Rand, an aide to Kirk  got her theatrical chops in Chicago opening for Billie Holiday and Buddy Rich. She was a member of the all-girl Sweet Sue and Her Society Syncopators band in the famous Chicago-driven comedy "Some Like It Hot."

The late Chicago-born actor Mark Lenard played Spock's father, Sarek, on the 1960s series. He also was the first Romulan viewers ever saw. Lenard appeared in "Star Trek" films and spinoffs into the 1990s.

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The Quincy "L" station, seen in this artist's rendering, will undergo renovations, including the addition of elevators for the disabled, CTA President Dorval Carter said June 8, 2016. (CTA / Handout)

In 1897, William McKinley was in the White House, aviator Amelia Earhart was a baby and the Quincy "L" station was built in Chicago's downtown.

Some 119 years later, the stop at Quincy and Wells streets in Chicago's Loop is still one of the busiest stations on the CTA system, located near the financial district and Willis Tower, with 2.2 million rides annually on the Brown, Orange, Pink and Purple lines. It's also one of the most attractive, with pressed metal wreaths and polished wood in the stationhouse, a ticket agent booth replicated in the 1980s based on original 1897 plans and old-time posters on the platform.

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But even the best-preserved among us need the occasional makeover. So on Wednesday, the CTA board approved a contract for station renovations, which will include adding two elevators to make the station accessible to customers with disabilities.

The $18.2 million renovation also will include stair replacement, painting and lighting improvements, but it will preserve the appearance of the station, according to the CTA. The board awarded an $11.7 million contract to Park Ridge-based Ragnar Benson Construction LLC, which has done previous work for the CTA. That includes the Loop track renewal project in 2012, which replaced more than 2 miles of elevated rail and track components downtown, said CTA spokesman Jeffrey Tolman.

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The Quincy CTA station at Quincy and Wells streets in Chicago's Loop, seen here in December 2014, will undergo renovations as the agency continues to preserve and restore several historic CTA locations. (Phil Velasquez / Chicago Tribune)

The rest of the Quincy project will be handled in-house, Tolman said. The station, which is expected to remain open during construction, was last renovated in 1988.

"It's a very busy station for us, and I think it will be a tremendous improvement to our customers and particularly to our disabled customers," CTA President Dorval Carter told reporters after the meeting. Work on the station is expected to begin later this year, though no date was immediately available.

The CTA is also looking to better preserve its historic cars and equipment through a Heritage Fleet program announced last week. The fleet consists of a selection of retired railcars and buses, including two 1923 orange-and-brown 4000-series railcars, along with buses from the 1960s with their original markings.

The program will set guidelines for future preservation, maintenance and repair of the vehicles, with funding from revenue generated by the CTA's online gift store and private charters of the vehicles. The agency also plans to show off the historic vehicles at city events and activities.

After Wednesday's meeting, Carter also noted that the state of Illinois' continued budget impasse means that the agency still is not receiving its annual $28 million subsidy for reduced and free fares. Such fares are provided for students, senior citizens, members of the military and people with disabilities.

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"It's not having an immediate impact on service or anything like that," Carter said. He said the agency's budget is big enough to deal with the delay in funding.

But he noted it is a growing cost for the CTA, and he is looking forward to the continuing commitment from the state.

The CTA also announced that it had received its first perfect score in its triennial review from the Federal Transit Administration, the oversight agency for transit systems. The FTA reviewed 17 areas, including safety, finance, maintenance and public input.

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The FTA looked at nearly 600 transit agencies between 2013 and 2016 and found an average of eight deficiencies in each, CTA spokesman Brian Steele said. An FTA representative was not immediately available for comment.

"It is very rare, especially for a transit agency of this size, to get a perfect score," Carter said in a statement. He said the score is a testament to the attention paid by CTA employees to federal regulations.

The Quincy CTA station at Quincy and Wells streets in Chicago's Loop, seen here December 2014, will undergo renovations soon as the agency continues to preserve and restore several historic CTA locations. (Phil Velasquez / Chicago Tribune)

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Fourth-graders at Agassiz Elementary School in Chicagos Lakeview neighborhood play hockey in physical education class on June 7, 2016. Chicago Public Schools has gotten at least four PE waivers over the years. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)

From the White House to local school districts, public officials and educators have extolled the benefits of physical activity, and Illinois has been at the forefront in requiring physical education daily for students.

But the talk hasn't always matched the practice in public schools, according to physical education data released for the first time by the Illinois State Board of Education.

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Nearly 1,200 schools throughout Illinois have been shaving physical education days from class schedules, often saying they don't have the staff or facilities to offer the courses daily, as a decades-old state law requires, and no one is sanctioning them anyway.

That number is conservative because not all districts reported the way the state requested  Chicago Public Schools, for example, generally tracks minutes of PE, not days. And some districts didn't report at all about the frequency of physical education classes.

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Still, the new snapshot of physical education is illuminating, revealing that PE cuts showed up more often in elementary schools, with younger children often getting two or three days of PE per week on average rather than five. The statewide average was about four days for 2014-15.

Slightly more than 60 percent of the roughly 3,100 schools reporting said they provided PE five days per week, complying with the law. But that left almost 40 percent that did not, the data show, in part because lawmakers allowed it or the state looked the other way.

The data are now part of the annual Illinois Report Card that provides details to the public on everything from test scores to student demographics, class sizes and average teacher salaries.

The focus on PE comes at a time of intense support from the top  first lady Michelle Obama has been spearheading efforts to get kids active and eating healthy, a way to stave off obesity and get the mind and body in shape.

"A healthy, physically active student is more likely to be alert and successful in academic endeavors," the state explains on the health and wellness section of the Illinois Report Card. "Many health organizations recommend that children and adolescents participate in at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity every day in order to help prevent childhood obesity, diabetes, and heart disease."

Gov. Bruce Rauner has said he wants to lift mandates on schools, including the daily PE requirement. In some districts where PE is not a daily class, few parents are complaining and mandates force tough choices on how to spend resources, school officials said.

"We would love to offer PE to our students every day. We do believe physical activity is important for student learning," said Heather Bennett, spokeswoman for Round Lake Community Unit School District 116. But that's not the reality for the Lake County district struggling with low test scores and other challenges.

For several years the district got permission from state lawmakers to reduce PE to every other day during the school week for first-through-sixth-graders, rather than every day, because of inadequate facilities. But when that so-called waiver of state law expired in 2014, the district couldn't provide daily PE for those children, citing factors ranging from lack of space to academics.

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The district notified families, which generated some negative emails in response, Bennett said. The district also kept ISBE abreast. "They are well aware we are not in compliance," she said.

The district told the state that unless the school day were longer, providing physical education every day could reduce special reading and math instruction for struggling students. The district did hire a half-dozen more physical education teachers, which increased PE time to 30 minutes, twice per week for first-through-fifth grades, and it worked with lawmakers to change the daily physical education requirement in the law.

State Rep. Sam Yingling, D-Grayslake, tried to exempt Round Lake 116 from daily PE, but the measure designed to help a lone district stalled this spring.

"Illinois is one of the few states that mandates daily PE, and this is part of a larger discussion about school mandates that is going on right now," Yingling said. "These mandates have been accumulated over decades, many unfunded, and schools are starting to run into an overpopulation and they do not have physical space for the five-day PE."

Yingling said he got pushback on the legislation from a number of lobbyists representing physical education and health interests.

Other bills have been filed to remove the daily physical education requirement, instead giving districts flexibility in offering the courses.

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The proposals worry advocates who have worked for decades to make sure kids get physical education in public schools.

Both ISBE and the Illinois Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (IAHPERD) have tracked the history of PE in Illinois, starting with 1915 legislation that required not less than one hour each week during the school year. That led to World War II-era requirements of at least 200 PE minutes weekly, and then 1957 legislation that removed the 200 minutes and changed it to daily PE, which included health education.

ISBE has said Illinois was the first state in the nation to require daily physical education for all students.

The mid-1990s, though, "started the real challenges for physical education in the state of Illinois," according to IAHPERD. That's when the state began a series of waivers and exceptions that allowed districts as well as individual students to get out of daily PE, including high school athletes and marching band members, and students in special education programs, under certain circumstances.

Deb Vogel is a retired physical education teacher active in IAHPERD and served a few years ago on a task force to update physical education standards and other changes in Illinois.

"Everybody keeps saying that we have an obesity problem, but the fact is we have a physical activity problem, which leads to obesity," Vogel said.

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Kids today aren't as active as their parents likely were, she said, with texting, gaming and watching television taking precedence over physical activity. She believes strongly in the daily PE requirement and says it's possible to meet it.

"It takes some scheduling to do it," Vogel said, "and for some districts, they might have to be more creative."

She said she's concerned that schools don't face any consequences when they don't comply with the physical education law.

ISBE monitors districts to make sure they follow state laws, but the agency has no plans to sanction districts over the PE issue, spokeswoman Laine Evans said. The agency is focusing on working with all districts to collect the PE information. "Going forward if a district fails to submit this information, more severe consequences will be considered," Evans said.

In many districts, the reduced time in PE comes in part because state lawmakers have approved hundreds of waivers in the PE law over the years.

Over a roughly 20-year period, districts requested 859 waivers from the daily PE requirement, according to state records provided to the Tribune, one of the most sought-after waivers of school laws.

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Chicago Public Schools got at least four PE waivers over the years, generally related to high school students, ISBE records show. The last waiver expired in 2014.

At that time, CPS officials set goals to increase participation in physical education at the high school level and ramp up PE in grade schools ultimately to 150 minutes a week.

Those minutes may or may not translate to five school days of PE, so the state was unable to report the average number of days of physical education per week per student for the district.

State officials said CPS would work on solving that data situation for the next reporting year.

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In Will County, Plainfield School District 202 has had at least a half-dozen PE waivers over the years, including one that extends to 2018, records show. That waiver includes providing PE to K-5 students two times a week for 35 minutes each day because of inadequate facilities. This will be the district's last request because of a law that limits such PE waivers.

School districts must hold public hearings to pursue the waivers. Plainfield schools spokesman Tom Hernandez said, "Rare is the time when parents have come to speak about that (fewer days for PE). More often, he said, "Parents want more time for AP classes, and more time for band. It all costs money."

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Arlington Heights-based School District 59 also has a waiver through 2018, allowing K-5 students to have PE every third day, for 40 minutes each class, because of inadequate facilities. Classroom teachers also provide "movement breaks" daily to kids, using materials developed by PE teachers, according to Maureen McAbee, the district's assistant superintendent for instruction.

Currently only a few dozen districts have permission from the state to reduce PE days, because waivers in many districts have expired. Those districts now must provide daily PE or run afoul of the law.

Information about the frequency of physical education classes is available at the state's Illinois Report Card website, www.illinoisreportcard.com.

drado@tribpub.com

Twitter @diane_rado
In announcing a $15 million lawsuit over his shooting two years ago by Chicago police, Dominiq Greer told reporters June 8, 2016, hed never been accused of a violent offense in his life. Moments later, he was arrested on a warrant for murder. (Phil Velasquez/Chicago Tribune) (Phil Velasquez / Chicago Tribune/Chicago Tribune)

In announcing a $15 million lawsuit over his shooting two years ago by Chicago police, Dominiq Greer told reporters Wednesday he'd never been accused of a violent offense in his life.

Moments later, he was arrested on a murder warrant.

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The bizarre turn of events unfolded shortly after Greer wrapped up a lengthy news conference in his lawyer's Loop offices. As the 25-year-old Greer left the high-rise in the 200 block of West Monroe Street to get a lift from a ride-sharing service, an unmarked police vehicle pulled up and two officers took him into custody on a warrant accusing him in a fatal shooting from just a week and a half ago.

For nearly the previous hour, Greer and his lawyer, Eugene Hollander, had taken questions in a crowded conference room about the lawsuit filed in federal court Wednesday over his being shot seven times by a police officer during a chase on the Fourth of July in 2014.

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Hollander released video from a private security camera that captured the shooting and part of the chase.

Surveillance video shows police officers shooting Dominiq Greer on July 4, 2014, in an alley in the Englewood neighborhood. (Law offices of Eugene K. Hollander) (Handout)

The two said police had no legal justification to shoot Greer because he posed no immediate threat to the officers. But Greer acknowledged that he was armed with a handgun when police first approached him and he took off running out of fear of being arrested.

During the chase, Greer said he attempted to toss the gun, but an investigation by the police oversight agency found that the gun had discharged on hitting the ground, causing one officer to open fire in reaction.

The Independent Police Review Authority, much maligned for the quality of its investigations in the fallout over the video of the fatal police shooting of Laquan McDonald, cleared the officers of wrongdoing, finding their actions reasonable and within the department's use-of-force policy.

Days after the 2014 shooting, then-police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said Greer was a suspect in a slaying and a second shooting and should not be on the street. He was not charged in those attacks, however.

"The police can do whatever they want to do," Greer told reporters Wednesday. "When they kill somebody, they right back out on the streets doing whatever they do. If the next black man kill a black man, they got to go serve time."

A Cook County judge issued the warrant for Greer's arrest May 29, two days after the slaying. In seeking the judge's approval, prosecutors alleged that officers, responding to a call of shots fired May 27 in the 5600 block of South Wabash Avenue, found Kevin Larry, 22, dead from a gunshot wound to the chest.

Witnesses told police several people lived in the abandoned house at the time and that a dice game was being played just before the shooting, according to prosecutors.

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Greer has an extensive criminal record, having compiled at least 20 arrests since 2007 but mostly for minor marijuana or trespassing charges that were later dropped, according to court records. He was convicted in 2011 of cannabis possession and pleaded guilty in 2013 to domestic battery and was sentenced to probation.

Following the police shooting in 2014, Greer was charged with unlawful use of a weapon and served seven months in jail until he was released on bail while awaiting trial, said Sally Daly, a spokeswoman for the state's attorney's office. Last August, Greer was arrested and charged with felony domestic battery, Daly said. He was in custody for two months for violation of bail, but he was again released in October. Both charges are still pending.

In the nearly two-minute black-and-white video from 2014, Greer can be seen running in an alley in the 7400 block of South Vincennes Avenue and trying to throw a handgun toward the roof of a building. He then stumbles and falls  the point at which he is shot the first time, Hollander said.

As Greer tries to get up from the ground, four uniformed officers can be seen approaching him with their weapons drawn. As Greer falls on the ground in a dark shadowy area, the one officer shoots him four more times, Hollander said.

The video contains no audio.

According to IPRA, after Greer's gun discharged, the officer reacted by opening fire himself. The officer then ordered Greer to raise his hands, but when Greer failed to do so, the officer fired again, IPRA said. He fired eight shots in all, seven of which struck Greer  in his right arm, right leg, left toe, back, chest, stomach and left arm.

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Greer said he was conscious during the entire encounter.

"I asked why is they shooting me this many times," he said. "I thought I was fixin' to die.

Dominiq Greer, right, indicates where he was shot in July 2014 during a news conference at the law offices of Eugene Hollander, left, on June 8, 2016. Greer is suing the city of Chicago and Chicago police over the police-involved shooting in the Englewood neighborhood on the Fourth of July. (Phil Velasquez / Chicago Tribune)

After the shooting, Greer was treated at Stroger Hospital for eight days, he said.

Greer, who said he had been working at one time as a custodian in a government building, indicated that he has suffered permanent physical injuries and can no longer work.

"I'm traumatized. I'm messed up," he said. "I can't do nothing no more. I just got problems."

Chicago Tribune's Jason Meisner, Liam Ford and Angela Caputo contributed.

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"He was my brother and my parent's son, we are all devastated," said Omar Salaymeh as he prepared for his younger brother Sami Salaymeh's funeral Tuesday. "There's not much else I can say, he was just the life of the party."

Sami Salaymeh was shot to death Monday around 4 a.m. in the 2400 block of South Michigan Avenue, a few weeks shy of his 28th birthday. Salaymeh was a passenger inside a vehicle with a 23-year-old woman and two other people when two attackers came up and a shooter opened fire, authorities said.

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Salaymeh was hit twice in the abdomen, and initially was in critical condition at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, police said at the time. He was pronounced dead at 4:41 a.m. Monday, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. The woman, 23, was shot in the right leg during the shooting and taken to Northwestern for treatment.

Services were scheduled for Tuesday from 5 to 8 p.m. and Wednesday from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., at Hann Funeral Home in Bridgeview. A funeral was scheduled for 1 p.m. Wednesday at The Mosque Foundation, followed by interment.

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Salaymeh, of Hanover Park, was in the Navy for three years and stationed in San Diego, Omar Salaymeh said. He had been working at a car dealership and trying to save money to move, possibly back to California.

"He loved being in a place where it was always sunny," Omar said. "He moved back to Chicago to save money and eventually move back out to California or someplace warm."

Salaymeh received a degree in music from the Los Angeles Recording School in California, and wanted to become a music producer, his brother and a friend said.

Salaymeh was very open to everything, including all types of music, and liked listening to hip hop and R&B artists such as Drake and J Cole, said his best friend, Roger Hakim, 26.

Hakim said he could not believe someone would kill Salaymeh. The two had known one another since they went to Glenbard North High School in Carol Stream.

"You hear about people getting shot in Chicago all of the time, but it doesn't really resonate with you until it happens to someone close to home," he said.

Hakim said he became very close to Salaymeh and his family, and would often go over to his house uninvited to check to see if he was there. If not, Hakim would make food and wait on the couch until Salaymeh returned, and it was the same way at his house.

"When he came back from the Navy, we would always go out and get together," he said. "We would pick him up from the airport and make a special day for him.  He had thousands of friends, and was extremely outgoing, and definitely wasn't shy about anything."

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Hakim said Salaymeh was a jokester who would say absurd things to just about anybody. Hakim let out a somber laugh.

"He would just smile from ear to ear, always."

Hakim said Omar Salaymeh called his cellphone around 9 a.m. Monday to tell him Salaymeh was dead, but he thought Omar Salaymeh was joking.

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"Omar has always been a jokester like Sami.  His whole family is funny, so I didn't I didn't believe it at first," Hakim said.

The last time Hakim spoke to Salaymeh was Sunday.

"Every weekend we would meet up for some local food at a local place, it sort of became a ritual." He said they watched the Cleveland Cavaliers play the Golden State Warriors, and can't believe that was the last time he will ever see his friend.

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"We are still trying to piece together how and why this happened," he said. "All I know is that it couldn't have happened to a more soulful, fun-loving person."

In addition to his brother Omar, Salaymeh is survived by his mother, Fatin, his father, Talab, his brother Jimmy, and sisters Dianna and Jasmin.

amyers@tribpub.com

Twitter @alexisomyers
The Black Crows involvement and potential financial responsibility related to the demolition of its neighboring building, 407 Court Street, was an issue of lengthy debate at Monday's Beatrice City Council meeting.

The discussion revolved around plans to remove the remains of the partially collapsed building at 407, and how its collapse and demolition will affect the Black Crow, which shares a wall with its condemned neighbor.

The city and the Black Crow have been working to find a path forward that satisfies all involved parties, but an agreement has yet to be reached.

Part of the problem, said City Attorney Gregory Butcher, is that with downtown buildings, when you remove an old downtown building that is either directly connected to the buildings next to it or leaning against it, the connecting buildings will have a number of issues to worry about.

The structure at 407 Court St. dates back 140 years.

The fear expressed by the Black Crow's owners is that any construction or demolition that occurs at 407 will affect the Black Crow, not only by keeping some customers away, but also by threatening the structure of the building.

There isnt anybody sitting in this council that doesnt realize the value of the Black Crow to southeast Nebraska and city of Beatrice, said Mayor Stan Wirth. What we are trying to do is come to terms with a public health and safety issue.

Butcher said a deal for the demolition at 407 Court St. with Tiemann Construction had been reached last year for $150,000, while renovation to fortify the structure of the Black Crow was estimated to be between $18,000 and $65,000.

Butcher also said thus far the city has paid about $10,000 for this project, including asbestos testing and an initial report from King Little, a structural engineering company in Lincoln.

We are in a lose-lose situation, said Ted Fairbanks, who was among the most vocal council members during the discussion. We are going to have a segment of the community that says we dumped $200,000 into this for them," referring to the Black Crow. "Then if we dont do it we will have a segment of the community that says you wouldnt spend a mere $200,000 for them.

At the end of this were being asked to make your building better, Fairbanks said to owners Kate Ratigan and Ray Arter, who participated in the discussion.

While the construction and demolition will focus on 407 Court St., it also will involve improving the Black Crows foundation, which may require replacing the restaurants facade.

Ratigan expressed interest at the meeting in acquiring the vacant 407 lot after the building has been torn down, to add an outdoor dining area to the restaurant.

Fairbanks responded that such a deal would be more appealing if the Black Crow were to put money into the project.

It would be much more palatable for me to vote for this if I knew you were putting money into repairing your building to make it whole, Fairbanks said. Then we can sell you the lot for a nominal fee.

Fairbanks proposed a $9,000 charge up front to Ratigan, after which the city would sell the lot to her for $1,000.

Ratigan contended that she shouldn't be held accountable for another owner's neglect.

Its not $200,000 for the Black Crow because George (the owner of the 407 lot) let his building fall down and I didnt know that was happening, Ratigan responded. Its not beneficial to have a dilapidated building next to your restaurant. It has damaged my facade.

The two sides discussed the matter at length at Mondays meeting, without coming to a solution that satisfied both parties.

This whole two years with this building next to us was actually damaging ourselves and the downtown area, Ratigan said. Were not doing whats best for the city.

Throughout the meeting, Mayor Wirth suggested several potential solutions. The proposal council members seemed most willing to accept would be in the spirit of compromise, Wirth said. The proposal would see the Black Crow pay $10,000 into an escrow, which is an account controlled by a third party until certain conditions are met. Once the restaurant took possession of the vacant lot, the escrow would be paid to the city.

Ratigan was less interested in putting money aside in an escrow and instead wished for the city to pay for a portion of the construction done to the Black Crow, after which the restaurant would be interested in purchasing the adjacent lot.

Neither party agreed to proposals from the other. Discussions regarding how to handle the construction and demolition at 407 Court St. will continue until the council passes a resolution on how to proceed.

The building at 407 Court St., sometimes known as the Wadsworth Building, had been deteriorating for years, but the breaking point came when the roof caved in last year, forcing the city to condemn the building, citing serious disrepair and indicating a complete collapse was possible.
Theater on the Lake at Lake Shore Drive and Fullerton Avenue in Chicago on June 8, 2016. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)

By this time next year, the city hopes theatergoers will be enjoying dinner and a show at Theater on the Lake on the city's North Side.

The plan is to open the theater, just steps from Lake Michigan near Fullerton Parkway, by Memorial Day 2017.

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On Wednesday, the Chicago Park District board, which owns the theater, sealed a 10-plus year deal with Lakefront Hospitality Group to redesign, renovate and operate the theater, event space and restaurant. The group would also have the right to operate concessions east of Lake Shore Drive between Diversey Parkway and the new green space added just south of Fullerton.

Lakefront Hospitality proposed a "historically sensitive loftlike design aesthetic" at the theater building while maintaining an open-air feeling in the original structure, according to a Park District document. The theater space would host performances, and two adjacent event spaces could be rented out for weddings and other special events, the document said, adding that the spaces would open to the lakefront terrace. The casual and fine dining restaurant, serving American fare, would be open to the public.

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When the project is completed, there will be restrooms open to the public as well as outdoor patio seating.

The theater space will be equipped with new lighting and sound systems and dressing rooms, according to a news release issued by the mayor's office in March, when officials opened the expanded lakefront park at Fullerton; the park expansion was part of a $32 million shoreline restoration project that included a replacement seawall, 6 new acres of parkland and trail enhancements to separate cyclists and pedestrians.

The Park District document stated Lakefront Hospitality was the "highest scoring applicant" of the three submitted bids.

Under the terms of the agreement, Lakefront Hospitality will invest $5.9 million to renovate the building and the Park District will receive a total of $2.8 million from the company, which includes rent payments and a share of the gross revenue generated from theater tickets as well as food, beverage and merchandise sales over 10 years, said Dana Zilinski, Park District revenue director.

Beyond the 10 years, the company could exercise five, one-year extensions under terms of the deal.

Lakefront Hospitality Group has at least 25 years of hospitality experience in Chicago, and has operated Lizzie McNeill's Irish Pub, The Gage, Salvatore's and Sully's House, the document said. Another partner founded the event management company Dillon Productions, Inc.

With a completion date of next Memorial Day, the project is now at least a year behind the schedule originally anticipated. Officials had hoped to have the renovations completed and the building operational this summer, as disclosed in a Park District document last year. In July 2015, the Park District board deferred taking action on awarding the contract to Lakefront Hospitality at a meeting without publicly offering an explanation.

The bidding process on the project restarted in December and, again, the same company was selected.

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"The Chicago Park District rebid the project to encourage greater competition," Jessica Maxey-Faulkner, a Park District spokeswoman, wrote in the email. Only two bid applications were complete and eligible for consideration last year, she said.

"We also took the opportunity to revise the bid, which ended up yielding an agreement that would be more advantageous to Chicago's taxpayers," she said.

The makeover for Theater on the Lake has been discussed for a few years. In November 2013, Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced plans to renovate the venue. "Showcasing spectacular views of Lake Michigan, Theater on the Lake is a community treasure that has entertained Chicago residents and visitors for more than six decades," Emanuel was quoted as saying in a news release at that time.

The building, built in 1920, was originally used as a convalescence center for babies with tuberculosis and other diseases before it became a USO Center during World War II, according to the news release. The building, which hosted barn dances after the war, was converted into a performance venue in 1952, according to the city.

In the past, the building has also been used as a Halloween haunted house. Recently, theatrical performances moved out of the building and into neighborhood parks as part of the mayor's Night Out in the Parks program.

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Former Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy listen to current Superintendent Eddie Johnson speak at the City Club on May 31, 2016. (Nancy Stone / Chicago Tribune)

A Cook County judge, ruling Wednesday in a lawsuit by the Chicago Tribune, ordered the Chicago Police Department to give the news organization emails from former Superintendent Garry McCarthy's account under state open records laws.

Circuit Judge Kathleen Pantle's order came after Police Department lawyers failed to appear at a hearing in the case and did not file any responses in court.

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The Tribune filed a lawsuit March 23, alleging that the department violated open records laws by failing to produce emails requested under the Freedom of Information Act. Tribune reporter Stacy St. Clair made a FOIA request to the Police Department on Jan. 5 seeking "all email sent by, received by or copied to Garry McCarthy's email account" from the month of December.

Pantle ruled that the department must produce the emails by 5 p.m. Monday.

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City Law Department spokesman Bill McCaffrey said the city plans to turn over all of the emails, but also said lawyers filed a motion to vacate the ruling, contending they were responsive to the Tribune's complaint.

"The City of Chicago has already produced approximately one-third of the roughly 4,000 pages requested by the Chicago Tribune and is continuing its efforts to review and produce the requested emails as quickly as possible," McCaffrey said. "In this case, the Tribune filed a motion for default on the mistaken belief that the City failed to file its answer in a timely manner. In fact, the City did file its answer to the complaint on time and notified the Tribune's legal representation of that fact."

McCaffrey said city attorneys did not attend the Wednesday hearing because they assumed the Tribune's motion for default would be withdrawn.

City attorneys had been in contact with Tribune lawyers after the motion was filed and pointed to a May 19 answer to the original lawsuit, in which it claimed the Police Department had not violated the FOIA law.

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This is the second time in eight days that Pantle has issued a ruling in favor of the Tribune in an open records lawsuit. Last week the judge denied a city motion to dismiss another lawsuit, ruling that Mayor Rahm Emanuel's emails, texts and other communications are not exempt from disclosure simply because they are transmitted over private devices. In that case, the Tribune is seeking emails and text messages related to city business.

The Tribune has been seeking copies of the McCarthy emails since January, when St. Clair filed the FOIA request. The Police Department failed to respond by the deadline set by law, so St. Clair followed up with repeated inquires by email and phone. The department said it was working on the request, then produced a set of emails that consisted mostly of news releases and marketing materials from only one of the former superintendent's accounts. An attorney for the Tribune then wrote to the department's general counsel March 8 about fully complying with the FOIA request. The Tribune later filed suit.

"There is absolutely no excuse for the decision by the mayor's office to ignore the Tribune's lawsuit seeking these public records," Tribune Editor Bruce Dold said in a statement. "The Tribune has been seeking these records since January. We filed suit in March. The mayor has promised a new era of transparency in government. There's no evidence of that here."

The lawsuit says the department "employed a panoply of delay tactics" to "thwart public access to the McCarthy emails, which may shed light on matters of important public concern related to the firing of the city's former Superintendent in the wake of the Laquan McDonald scandal."

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The judge also awarded the Tribune attorney's fees.

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The person who chaired Mayor Rahm Emanuel's Police Accountability Task Force said Wednesday that the mayor needs to get more public feedback before proposing Police Department changes if he wants the public to believe he's acting in good faith to address problems.

Lori Lightfoot said City Council hearings to be held on proposed police reforms don't go far enough. She held a City Hall news conference with representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union, the Chicago Urban League and other groups before delivering a letter to the mayor's office calling for more community input.

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"I think the hearings are an important step, but it's only part of the process," Lightfoot said. "Our expectation is there will be actual, meaningful engagement with the community and subject matter experts before the ordinance is drafted."

Emanuel's office released a statement Wednesday noting the task force itself held hearings and aldermen would do so in coming weeks as well. "With these important contributions from the public, the framework for the new structure will be driven by core principles that lie at the heart of the police accountability: independence, integrity, transparency and citizen participation," the statement reads in part.

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But the Emanuel administration did not agree to the broader public input Lightfoot and others called for.

Given that Emanuel picked her to head up the accountability task force, which he convened to recommend ways to fix the Police Department following the furor over the Laquan McDonald police shooting video, Lightfoot was asked why she didn't simply speak to the mayor herself rather than going public with her concerns.

"It's not just about the mayor and his staff, it's about the City Council," Lightfoot said. "It's about everybody else who's a stakeholder in this issue understanding that these groups, many of whom have been toiling in these issues for years, need a seat at the table because of the constituencies they represent. And far beyond all of us there are people out there in the community who care deeply about these issues. And there needs to be a public process announced. That hasn't happened."

Lightfoot said she last spoke to Emanuel on April 13, the day the task force released its report, which called for the city to get rid of the Independent Police Review Authority and replace it with a body the task force said should have more authority and resources. The report also focused on how racism in the department undermines its relationship with the community.

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Twitter @_johnbyrne
Possibly raising the limit on felony cases the Public Defenders' Office handles was discussed when attorneys representing the office gave their annual report to the Gage County Board of Supervisors on Wednesday.

According to the annual report, last year there were 81 new felony, 152 misdemeanor, 70 juvenile, 20 miscellaneous and 25 probation violation new cases appointed to the department.

These figures compare to averages over the previous 10 years of 65.8 felony, 177.7 misdemeanor, 67.9 juvenile, 17.4 miscellaneous, and 17.1 probation violation cases handled.

Lee Timan with the Public Defenders' Office said that under a contract, the offices staff may only be appointed to 40 pending felony cases at one time to ensure each case receives enough attention.

He added that figure can be adjusted as the office and county see fit, but a limit must be in place.

Were pretty much right on track with the average numbers, not too high or low in any category, he said. Felonies are a little higher than the average, but obviously weve had higher years.

Timan estimated the Public Defenders' Office is at its 40-cap maximum around 80 percent of the time. When the limit is reached and a new felony arrest is made, outside counsel is appointed by the court to represent the defendant.

There are other instances when outside counsel may be appointed, namely conflict of interest situations.

While how many felony cases the office handles can be adjusted in the agreement with the county, no member of the County Board suggested a change during Wednesdays meeting.

Timan said one factor adding to the amount of felony cases is that essentially any drug possession arrest, with marijuana being a key exception, is a felony, whereas many assaults and other offenses are misdemeanors.

Even domestic assault is a misdemeanor, he said. Its really the drug ones that kind of spike the numbers, just because drug use doesnt seem to be going down anywhere in the county.

In Nebraska, a first offense citation for less than an ounce of marijuana typically results in a $300 fine, though Timan said the penalty for marijuana possession differs greatly from state to state.

Here its basically for the first time, youre going to get a $300 fine, he explained. In Kansas, youre going to get up to a year in jail. Its just a difference in opinion as to the importance of marijuana. In Kansas the second time possession of marijuana is a felony charge. Here a second time gets you up to five days in jail.

Gage County Attorney Roger Harris brought up the drug court program, which gives drug offenders an opportunity to avoid serving time and overcome addiction.

While commending the program, Harris added a catch is only someone facing a felony charge can be considered for the program, so an individual facing a marijuana addition could not be considered.

People may not like that, but if the ultimate goal is to help these individuals and get back into working and supporting their family and the other consequences we have to deal with in juvenile court, its a necessary evil, Harris said.
Police say a Florida man tried to kidnap a teenage girl inside a store and that it was captured on surveillance video.

Citrus County deputies tell news outlets that 30-year-old Craig Bonello is facing charges of child abuse and kidnapping after he tried to drag the 13-year-old girl out of a Dollar General Store in Hernando on Tuesday.

Authorities say the store manager alerted an off-duty deputy outside the store and the deputy blocked Bonello's car and arrested him.

Bonello was assigned a public defender during his initial court appearance Wednesday. Attorney Edward Spaight says Bonello is a veteran with a long history of mental health issues. He says the systems in place to help people like Bonello have failed him.

HERNANDO, Fla.  Associated Press
MILWAUKEE  A former suburban Milwaukee police officer accused of killing two women and ditching their bodies in suitcases along a rural Wisconsin highway is facing extradition to Minnesota where he's charged in the death of one of the victims.

The Wisconsin case against Steven Zelich is expected to wrap up Wednesday when he enters a plea and is sentenced on two counts of hiding a corpse in Walworth County. The 54-year-old Zelich has already been sentenced to 35 years in prison in the 2012 death of 19-year-old Jenny Gamez, of Cottage Grove, Oregon.

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Details of the Wisconsin case are similar to accusations Zelich faces in the death of Laura Simonson, who was killed in Rochester, Minnesota, in 2013. Authorities say he met both women online, choked them at hotels during sexual encounters and hid their bodies in suitcases.



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Frank Mautino, shown in 2014, who has been auditor general for six months, is under federal investigation for campaign-related spending at his old legislative job. (Seth Perlman / AP)

Most residents of Illinois probably don't know much about the role of auditor general. It's a statewide post, but the person in that position is appointed by the General Assembly, not elected. Being auditor general is a day-to-day accounting and accountability job  stick with us, readers  not a flashy soapbox.

In short, the auditor serves as a crucial watchdog over state government.

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From 1992 until last fall when he retired, William Holland of Springfield served as Illinois' auditor general. Most people never saw his mug on TV or heard him speak a word. Holland earned a reputation for conducting the office in a nonpartisan, precise and thorough manner. Among his valuable moments:

In 2014, Holland blew a loud whistle on an antiviolence program thrown together during the final months of Gov. Pat Quinn's 2010 election campaign. Holland's audit raised serious questions about how $54.5 million in state money was spent, much of it with little documentation or accountability. Chicago aldermen got to choose which antiviolence neighborhood organizations would receive the grants. It was unclear in some cases how they spent it. And the gush of taxpayer money made no noticeable difference on crime rates.

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See why Illinois needs an aggressive auditor general who's above reproach?

Holland's successor is Frank Mautino, a former state lawmaker and member of House Speaker Michael Madigan's leadership team. He's from Spring Valley in north central Illinois. The House approved Mautino's appointment as auditor general 102-10. The Senate signed off 55-0.

Numerous lawmakers, Democrats and Republicans, publicly praised him the day of his selection. They might be having second thoughts. Six months in office, Mautino is under federal investigation for campaign-related spending at his old job. Mautino hasn't said much but pledged to cooperate fully.

While it's not clear what the U.S. attorney's office is looking into, the State Board of Elections months ago started asking questions about Mautino's campaign fund. Those questions were prompted by a complaint from a local resident and several citizen watchdog groups.

Mautino's campaign records showed he spent more than $200,000 at the same auto repair shop and service station during a roughly 10-year period. While it's common for lawmakers to use their campaign funds to pay for fuel and vehicle expenses, Mautino's costs seemed high. Many payments to the auto shop, Happy's Super Service in Spring Valley, were made in round numbers of more than $1,000 each.

Mautino also spent heavily at a one local restaurant owned by his family. Watchdog groups have noted other issues, including payments to Spring Valley City Bank that don't seem to make sense. Mautino's campaign fund appeared to have paid the bank for things such as parking and campaign work.

The elections board gave Mautino a July 1 deadline to amend his campaign finance reports and fix any mistakes. The board doesn't have much authority to punish candidates, other than fine them for filing inaccurate or untimely reports.

Mautino's attorneys have asked the board for an extension while the federal investigation continues. The board is scheduled to hear that request Monday.

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Hold it right there. Attorneys are always citing X to explain why they can't possibly do Y. In this case, X is merely filing corrected reports. Why shouldn't Mautino be treated like any other past candidate? If a delay is genuinely necessary and not a stalling tactic, why were Mautino's attorneys so late in requesting it?

Let us stress that Mautino has not been accused of any wrongdoing. The federal investigation could fizzle. It happens.

But Republican lawmakers and at least one Democrat want some action now. Twenty-one Republicans signed a letter June 2 urging Mautino to take an unpaid leave of absence from the auditor general's office "until the various federal and state investigations into your past financial conduct are concluded."

Freshman Sen. Laura Murphy, D-Des Plaines, also called on Mautino to take a leave of absence from his post. State Rep. Jeanne Ives, R-Wheaton, went a step further and called for his resignation.

The dual inquiries into Mautino's campaign disclosure forms from the elections board and the feds could uncover only sloppy bookkeeping  a breach that might incur state fines but nothing more.

We hesitate, however, at "only." We're talking about the auditor general, whose office's main responsibilities are auditing and bookkeeping.

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Did we mention that this is Illinois, where the auditor general ought to feast on other officials' mismanagement and public corruption?

Did we mention that Mautino has a 10-year appointment  a nice incentive to stay in the saddle?

Did we mention that a federal investigation should be no excuse for Mautino to delay fixing shortcomings in his reports that the State Board of Elections has already determined?

July 1 is a deadline that should stick.
Gage County Chief Deputy Attorney Ricky A. Schreiner has been appointed as a District Court judge in the First Judicial District Court of Nebraska.

Schreiner was appointed by Gov. Pete Ricketts in an announcement Wednesday afternoon.

Schreiner was one of two candidates submitted to the governor by the Judicial Nominating Committee for consideration after six candidates each gave a 10-minute presentation detailing why they should be considered.

Elizabeth D. Elliott of Firth was the other name submitted for consideration.

Schreiner, 53, has been the chief deputy attorney for Gage County since 2007. His work has included mental health, juvenile court, drug court and prosecution of felony and misdemeanor matters, among other areas.

Additionally, he is a member of the First Judicial Districts Through the Eyes of the Child Committee and the Down Syndrome Association for Families of Nebraska, according to a press release from the governor's office.

Schreiner previously worked in private practice at Fankhauser, Nelsen & Werts, P.C. in Nebraska City.

He served as a police officer at the Nebraska City Police Department and sheriffs deputy at the Otoe County Sheriffs Department.

Schreiner holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice Management from LaSalle University and a Juris Doctor from Creighton University School of Law.

The First Judicial District consists of Clay, Fillmore, Gage, Jefferson, Johnson, Nemaha, Nuckolls, Pawnee, Richardson, Saline and Thayer counties. The primary place of office for the judicial vacancy is in Gage County.

The district has three District Court judges and three County Court judges.

The vacancy is due to the retirement of Judge Paul Korslund, who left his position this year after more than 20 years on the bench.

Korslund became a County Court judge in 1977, and left for private practice in 1980. He returned to the court system as a District Court judge in 1998.

Korslund also served as the mayor of Beatrice for a single term from 1994-1998.
The "Most Intrepid Western Authors Posse" will visit Homestead National Monument of America during their travels through the Great Plains of Nebraska.

The authors will be at the Homestead Education Center on Saturday, June 11, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The Most Intrepid Western Authors Posse is comprised of five published, award-winning western authors who love to tell exciting tales of the Old West  some true, some with a twist. They include:

* Monty McCord, author of "Mundys Law: The Legend of Joe Mundy"

* Sherry Monahan, author of "Mrs. Earp: The Wives and Lovers of the Earp Brothers"

* Bill Markley, author of "Deadwood Dead Men"

* Kellen Cutsforth, author of "Buffalo Bill, Boozers, Brothels, and Bare-Knuckle Brawlers: An Englishman's Journal of Adventure in America"

* Chris Enss, author of "Frontier Teachers: Stories of Heroic Women of the Old West"

Their books will be for sale through the Homestead Bookstores and the authors will be available to sign them.
East Aurora will tear down the current high school stadium and build a new one. (Erika Wurst, The Beacon-News)

As part of sweeping construction in the district, East Aurora school board members have approved demolishing Roy E. Davis Field and building a new stadium.

The new stadium is set to include slightly smaller bleachers, a new concession stand and other upgrades, Craig Welter, one of the district's architects, said.

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Including fees and furnishings, the district expects the new stadium to cost more than $6.6 million. Unlike other planned construction in the district, the stadium work cannot be covered by bonds that are essentially interest-free to the district, and the district will likely cover much of the cost out of pocket. Some funding will likely come from grants and about $124,000 will come from a district bank account set aside specifically for improvements to the stadium, according to district projections.

The stadium work is part of more than $70 million in construction across the district, including renovations and an expansion at East Aurora High School and upgrades at the district's middle schools. The high school work is set to include additional classrooms, a new fine arts wing, renovations and changes to the cafeteria, changes to the school's entryway, and work on the library, locker rooms, hallways and science rooms.

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School board members are facing the prospect of closing the East Aurora High School kitchen during construction and instead either having meals for students districtwide cooked at another school or serving preplated meals to students, or a combination. At a meeting Monday, board members held off on a decision about how students would receive meals to allow time for more research. School board President Annette Johnson said she wanted to ensure students received a hot meal, and did not wind up with a cold bagged lunch because of issues getting food or because it was prepackaged.

"I am quite passionate about this because this is the one meal a day sometimes these kids get," she said.

The high school construction also calls for a renovation of the school locker rooms which, in light of a recent White House directive, has sparked debate among board members about whether to take steps to address transgender students' bathroom access. Several community members at the meeting Monday urged the school board not to change any policies regarding transgender students' access to school bathrooms. Some school board members said they likely would not take steps until the legality of the directive is sorted out, though member John Laesch also called for a gender neutral bathroom.

Including fees, furnishings and equipment, the district expects the high school renovation to come in at nearly $60.3 million, and expects to spend more than $11 million more on middle school work, according to district projections. The district is planning to cover $50 million of the work with the essentially-interest-free bonds, and draw up to $27.8 million from its reserves for the work, excluding any grants it receives for the stadium construction.

The new stadium will include 3,500-seat bleachers, Welter said, which would be slightly smaller than the 4,075-seat Roy E. Davis Field. It will have a new concession building with storage space and restrooms, lighting and is set to have a turf field.

The district is planning to replace its current track, which doesn't meet Illinois High School Association standards, with a new 8-lane track that does, Welter said.

The board could also consider additional upgrades to the lighting, bleachers, fencing and entryways at the stadium, he said, including possibly creating a plaza outside that would be "something that's very inviting to the community, and something the district can be proud of and show off when visitors come to the site."

Overall, Welter said the number of parking spaces at the site is projected to remain about the same, but the parking lot would shift.

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The original Roy E. Davis Field will be demolished, but the architects are looking to salvage the original ticket booth, Welter said.

"That's kind of the idea," he said. "Let's get it on par with the neighboring stadiums and the standards of today's high schools."

District officials have said work on the stadium could start later this summer.

sfreishtat@tribpub.com

Twitter @srfreish
AccessNebraska has taken many steps forward in the past year to improve services to 198,000 economic assistance and 235,000 Medicaid recipients, Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services CEO Courtney Phillips told a legislative oversight committee.

Phillips detailed those improvements Tuesday on call wait times, food stamp processing, recruitment and retention of employees.

Call wait times have been averaging 5 minutes or less since September. Eight days is the average it takes to process economic assistance applications. And the food stamp program has met or exceeded the processing timeline of 96 percent since February.

"Our AccessNebraska staff and others in the department who support AccessNebraska are continually working on process improvement," Phillips told the AccessNebraska Oversight Committee.

The staff begins processing daily mail at 2 a.m. so it is scanned into the system and available for viewing by 8 each morning, she said.

In April, call routing was updated and clients can get the scan date of the last document the department received and the date for the clients' next program review. Self-service information is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Clients now can apply by telephone for economic assistance and Medicaid.

Recruiting, retaining and training employees has also improved, Phillips said. The turnover rate is 3 percent to 4 percent for 2016.

In addition, some correspondence and major forms have been rewritten so they are easier to understand, she said.

Even with the improvements, the department's work isn't done, Phillips said. The program will continue to adjust to changes in the operating environment and economic conditions.

State Ombudsman Marshall Lux said the struggle that was AccessNebraska, before it began to turn around last year, looked like this: Client callers were put on hold for a half hour to an hour while their cellphones drained. They were given inconsistent information, had calls dropped after long waits, or were treated poorly in terms of customer service.

In 2012 and 2013, the Ombudsman's office got about 50 complaint calls each year. Last year, the calls dropped to six. There have been three so far this year.

The decision in 2013 to separate economic assistance and Medicaid cases was a good one, along with restoring the ability to have some in-person interviews, Lux said, and helped to turn the system around.

Lux told the oversight committee the lesson is that when a state agency considers doing something as important as making weighty changes in how people access state benefits, it needs to come to the Legislature first for input.

Mike Marvin, executive director of the Nebraska Association of Public Employees, sent a letter outlining some employee complaints.

He acknowledged application processing was getting better, but feedback from some union stewards and others showed concerns about demands put on workers to meet quotas. In some locations, employee work statistics are posted, by name.

Managers are pushing quotas rather than accuracy, one worker reported, and so teamwork has suffered and morale is low.

Another letter the oversight committee received from an employee said the staff was being micro-managed and given unrealistic expectations. People are getting promoted over others, even though they have "less seniority, poor work history and less job knowledge."

Marvin has asked for a meeting between labor and management to fix any communication issues, because the messages to workers seem to vary from location to location.

Molly McCleery, staff attorney with Nebraska Appleseed, talked to the committee about the resolution of a 2014 class action lawsuit that challenged Nebraska's slow turnaround time for processing food stamp benefit applications and renewals.

Even with the resolution, McCleery said, Appleseed appreciates the continued oversight of the committee.

Appleseed also is receiving many fewer complaint calls about AccessNebraska, she said. But it does get calls about inconsistent information given to clients about their benefits. For example, a client might be notified of a reduction in benefits, even though there's been no change in his or her household circumstances.

"Ultimately we acknowledge that the system has gotten significantly better for both workers and for clients," McCleery said. "At this point, what we are looking for and want to make sure occurs is that any improvements are sustainable, and we really see a long-term fix to some of these problems."
About 120 people attended the community discussion. The City of Elgin's Human Relations Commission sponsored a community discussion about the mural "American Nocturne" Tuesday in Elgin. (Jon Langham / The Courier-News)

Should David Powers' recently-controversial mural "American Nocturne" stay on display in Elgin or not be displayed as public art at all?

Points to that effect became the main focus of a town hall meeting Tuesday night in the Heritage Ballroom at The Centre that was attended by about 120 people.

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"It takes courage to come out at talk about issues like this among your friends and neighbors. That's what makes Elgin the city it is," Mayor David Kaptain said at the start of the meeting.

The gathering was put on by the Elgin Human Relations Commission, dubbed a "courageous community conversation" and entitled "It's Not About the Art: It's About the History."

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Bill Williamson, from left, Danise Habun, and Traci Ellis were panelists for the discussion at the Elgin Human Relations Commission's community discussion about the mural "American Nocturne" Tuesday in Elgin. (Jon Langham / The Courier-News)

Moderator and pastor Bob Whitt said the discussion would focus on "what is the root of things we are dealing with in our society and city when dealing with race."

The night featured 15 people from the audience making statements related to Powers' piece of public art, then Whitt, Kaptain, and the three panelists for the night sharing their thoughts. That panel included Elgin Human Relations Commission chairman Bill Williamson, commission member Danise Habun and attorney and U46 School Board member Traci O'Neal Ellis.

For the mural, Powers used a famous photograph of a lynching that took place in 1930 in Indiana as his source material. The mural depicts a gathering of white people who apparently are based on some of those who stood in front of the two dead, hanging black men in the photo.

While the mural was unveiled in Elgin in 2007, knowledge of the source material only became widely known to locals last month when Elgin Community College student Richard Furr posted on the "What's Happening in Elgin?" Facebook page after he and a friend figured out the source material for Powers' work.

Moderator and pastor Bob Whitt explains some of the ground rules for the community discussion Tuesday about the mural "American Nocturne." (Jon Langham / The Courier-News)

The mural had been up on a wall in a plaza off South Grove Avenue and was moved to the lobby of the Hemmens Cultural Center in the aftermath of controversy that ensued.

Powers subsequently said he "didn't want, in the end, for anyone to have the idea that I was advocating that cruelty, that murder. The idea here was talking about lynching, asking questions, the history," behind such atrocities. "You don't want to be on that wall with these monsters. Anywhere. In any town," he said.

In an August 2007 segment for the locally produced "Elgin Today," Powers said the mural was an allegory for the Great Depression, but he didn't mention its source material, nor did Powers' associate Milt Evans, who is interviewed in the same clip.

At the Tuesday session, Andrea Johnson-Williams said she felt "deceived and disrespected because this discussion didn't happen 10 years ago." Powers had the responsibility to reveal and credit his source and to start the conversation at that time, she said.

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"You can't fix it now," Johnson-Williams said.

Lenora Scruggs said that Powers could have painted jazz or blues players or other moments in black history but chose to use the lynching photo instead.

"It should have come down the next day (after the Facebook posts)," Scruggs said.

Further, Scruggs also felt that had a mural upsetting to Jewish or Latino residents been the subject of a similar controversy it would have been promptly removed.

"This (mural) hurts us as a black community," Scruggs said. "It should be hidden in someone's basement."

Civil rights activist Ernie Broadnax spoke of living most of his 81 years in Elgin and of how the city had been segregated, with no black school teachers, instructors at Elgin Community College, on the police department or involved in the city's politic.

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"I have seen a number of positive changes. We still have problems, but we must work together and look to the future. Everybody has to make their choices," Broadnax said.

Noting that he once worked a job involving explosives in which timing was of the utmost, Broadnax said, "We have time to work things out."

Local artist Fred Wimms said that it is important for people to remember the past. As there is still a long way to go when addressing racism, "people cannot forget. (Remembering) is the only way you can move into the future."

Wimms said he knows Powers and has had conversations with him. Artists like Powers can be tricksters, which is part of their art, Wimms said, and with "American Nocturne," Powers did not intend to do harm.

"Be upset, but not for the wrong reasons," Wimms said.

Echoing Broadnax, Wimms said people should take it slow and come to realize what Powers' piece means.

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Pastor Whitt said he felt the mural shouldn't stay up but that the community does need to have dialogue about race-related issues.

O'Neal Ellis said that she would take Powers at his recent word for the intention of his mural and would "make him stick with it." If you remove symbols of the ugly past, people will forget, Ellis said.

Noting a positive, Williamson said the artwork did spark a conversation.

Kaptain concluded the evening by noting that while it took almost 10 years for the mural's source material to become more widely known, the time is right now to discuss it and issues of race.

"I hope conversations like these continue," Kaptain said.

And on their way out, those in attendance were given a survey from the city to complete asking if the mural should be returned to the plaza with a placard explaining its history and meaning, be placed somewhere else with a placard, not displayed at all, or something else done with it.

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As is, the mural will be the subject of further discussion Monday at the Cultural Arts Commission meeting as that body looks at policies surrounding public art and the city's role in promoting art. That meeting is scheduled to run 7 to 8 p.m. in council chambers at City Hall, 150 Dexter Court.

mdanahey@tribpub.com
For 40 years, Ensemble Espanol has thrilled audiences with its annual "Flamenco Passion" performances. This year, more than 40 dancers, musicians and guest artists will perform in classical, traditional, contemporary and Flamenco styles, June 17-19, at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie.

A major highlight of the upcoming concerts, according to founder Dame Libby Komaiko, is the world premiere of "Iroko" by Angel Rojas and Carlos Rodriguez, artistic directors of Madrid's Nuevo Ballet Espanol.

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"This wonderful new choreography is very modern and it's fusion," Komaiko said.

"It's a potpourri of original music. The costumes are gorgeous and the lighting designer from Madrid is outstanding," Executive Director Jorge Perez added.

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Komaiko also praised Artistic Director Irma Suarez Ruiz's "El Baile de Luis Alonso," which she created in 2010. The program features a number of other pieces drawn from the company's repertoire, including Komaiko's beloved "Bolero," which she choreographed in 1993 to the music of Ravel. It has been seen by more than 1 million people around the world and was featured in two documentaries.

"We've been invited to perform in Spain so the concerts that we're having at the North Shore are the program that we'll be taking to Spain," Perez said.

"Flamenco Passion" is part of the company's 2016 American Spanish Dance & Music Festival that runs from June 8-25. It includes Spanish dance classes and flamenco master workshops at Northeastern Illinois University.

The company, based at Northeastern Illinois University, has come a long way since Dame Libby Komaiko founded it. The Evanston resident, who studied dance at the Chicago Musical College of Roosevelt University and with Gus Giordano, was introduced to Spanish dance when she went to see a concert by Jose Greco's Spanish Dance Company. "It was the most unusual and wonderful dance I had ever seen," Komaiko recalled. At the age of 18, she auditioned for the company and was accepted.

Komaiko's love of Spanish dance inspired her to create Ensemble Espanol, initially with seven dancers. Komaiko's dedication to Spanish dance earned her Spain's highest honor in 1983 and the title Dame.

"We've always had great dancers but the artistic process came first," Komaiko said. "I started choreographing two works a year."

Komaiko described the current company as "very cohesive. They work very, very well together."

Perez attributes the longevity of Ensemble Espanol to "the passion of the organization." Perez declared that he and Ruiz are "blessed with an incredible group of dancers that are giving their heart and soul to what we've established all these years. We keep raising the bar and they keep meeting the bar."

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The dance company's reach continues to expand, Perez noted. They now have four full-time dancers doing outreach in the community. During the past year, 26,000 students were served, over 50,000 audience members saw the company perform and there were over 100 programs and residencies. National touring has also increased, as have partnerships.

And honors keep pouring in. Perez recently learned that he will be included in Latino business publication Negocios Now's "2016 Who's Who in Hispanic Chicago."

Perez concluded that, "The growth that Ensemble Espanol has undertaken has a lot to do with the passion and drive of the artists and staff, and the people who are touched by the work created here in the Ensemble."

Ensemble Espanol presents 'Flamenco Passion'

When: 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 3 p.m. Sunday, June 17-19

Where: North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie, 9501 Skokie Blvd., Skokie

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Tickets: $26-$46

Information: (847) 673-6300; www.northshorecenter.org/EE40
Gov. Pete Ricketts said Tuesday he has approved new local roads and bridge standards that will provide more construction and repair flexibility, resulting in efficiency and cost-saving while protecting safety requirements.

Ricketts said the standards will "give counties and cities more flexibility so they can design solutions (that) fit the problem, do the work and stretch our dollars."

"We'll get more bang for the buck," the governor said during a Capitol news conference.

Infrastructure is a key element in Nebraska's economy, Ricketts said, and "one of the focuses of my administration."

Nebraska Department of Roads Director Kyle Schneweis described the new standards as "smart and responsible" as well as practical.

"They simply streamline design approaches," he said, providing flexibility and encouraging a culture of innovation.

The changes represent "a right-sizing of regulations," Schneweis said.

Roger Figard, chairman of the Board of Public Roads Classifications and Standards, said the changes will protect safety standards while resulting in less government and "more work" on local roads.

"It's a big win for local government," said Hall County Engineer Steve Rhiele of Grand Island.

The result will be "common-sense, practical, cost-saving decisions," he said.

As an example, Rhiele cited roads in his county that have fewer than 50 vehicles of traffic per day that should be assessed with practical standards.

Answering a few questions on other topics, Ricketts said he has not studied the details of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's dispute with Judge Gonzalo Curiel, a federal judge who is overseeing a lawsuit against Trump alleging fraud associated with the defunct Trump University.

Trump has questioned Curiel's impartiality and described the Indiana-born judge as "a Mexican."

"I hold the judiciary with respect," Ricketts said. "I am not advising Mr. Trump in his campaign."

Ricketts deflected a question about the use of restrooms at the College World Series in Omaha.

The governor said he opposes President Barack Obama's declaration that restrooms should be accessible to people based on their gender identification.

The NCAA requires its host sites to be free from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
Nebraskas Ag Department on Monday released the first draft of new guidelines intended to offer a standardized approach to locating and approving large livestock operations.

Construction of large livestock facilities can become contentious with neighbors concerned about smell, the impact on quality of life, pollution, roads and other issues. Designers of the Nebraska Livestock Siting Assessment Matrix intended it to be a science-based tool to balance farm growth with protecting neighbors and natural resources.

Its a tool that has been designed to site livestock regardless of who owns them, said Mark McHargue, a pork producer and vice president of the Nebraska Farm Bureau, who served on an advisory committee.

This was designed to be a third-party analysis of the siting process.

The matrix is only a suggested guideline. It will be up to local and county officials whether they follow it. The Nebraska Department of Agriculture will accept comments on it through July 31. The committee will review and consider submitted comments prior to final publication of the assessment matrix in August.

It could soon be put to the test, McHargue said.

Costco Wholesale Corp. is looking to build a massive chicken processing facility south of Fremont and is looking to sign up farmers to raise the poultry.

To support the facilitys need for chickens -- it would process nearly 350,000 birds daily -- the company plans to create a network of 330 barns.

Farmers could sign up to host as many as 12 barns. Each barn would house up to 43,000 chickens and produce about 300 tons of litter a year, which is used or sold for fertilizer.

Costco scrapped its first choice for the plant south of Nickerson earlier this year after the village board voted against a rezoning proposal. The decision came in the wake of local outcry against it, with opponents citing concerns about potential impact on area schools, housing and roads.

The Greater Fremont Development Council has said the plant would create 1,100 jobs and give the economy a $1.2 billion annual boost.

Nebraska legislators this year also passed a contentious measure to lift the states ban on meatpackers owning swine. Proponents of the move say itll make Nebraska more competitive with neighboring states and allow new pig farmers to enter the business without assuming the financial risks of ownership.

The Nebraska Legislature called for the creation of the matrix last year with the passage of LB106, which was only approved after removing language from the bill that would have made abiding by the siting regulations mandatory for elected county officials.

The matrix can be viewed at nda.nebraska.gov. Comments can be emailed to agr.webmaster@nebraska.gov, or sent by mail to Nebraska Department of Agriculture, Attn. Steve Roth, 301 Centennial Mall South, Fourth Floor, Lincoln, NE 68509.
Editor: Jake Liddle

As summer approaches, a notice detailing temperature standards in Shanghai workplaces and the proper payment of the high temperature allowance has been released. Effective from June 1, 2016, the notice stipulates that between the months of June and September, Shanghai companies with outdoor labor must take effective measures to maintain a workplace temperature of below 33. Employers who fail to keep suitable temperatures are legally obliged to pay a monthly high temperature allowance of RMB 200 to employees, which must be included in the sum of the total salary. In addition, while paying the allowance, companies are still required to provide employees with cool beverages.

28 regions of China have implemented measures for the summer high temperature allowance, with only the more temperate provinces of Heilongjiang, Tibet and Qinghai not providing the allowance. Each regions stipulations are different, with some calculating allowances per day and some per month. However, many laborers complain that they do not receive the allowance, despite the hot weather, which last summer reached temperatures as hot as 40C in some areas. Many companies are too concerned about costs, making them reluctant to pay out allowances, and in some cases exploit loopholes in order to avoid paying.

RELATED: Payroll and Human Resource Services

Employees have the right to file a complaint if an employer fails to pay, but rarely do in fear of repercussions. In many cases, employees arent even aware of the allowance.

The following table details the most up to date standards of allowances and relevant summer months for each participating region. Standards are set for a general benchmark of 33 indoors and 35 outdoors, unless otherwise stated.



About Us Asia Briefing Ltd. is a subsidiary of Dezan Shira & Associates. Dezan Shira is a specialist foreign direct investment practice, providing corporate establishment, business advisory, tax advisory and compliance, accounting, payroll, due diligence and financial review services to multinationals investing in China, Hong Kong, India, Vietnam, Singapore and the rest of ASEAN. For further information, please email china@dezshira.com or visit www.dezshira.com. Stay up to date with the latest business and investment trends in Asia by subscribing to our complimentary update service featuring news, commentary and regulatory insight. 

Human Resources and Payroll in China 2015

This edition of Human Resources and Payroll in China, updated for 2015, provides a firm understanding of Chinas laws and regulations related to human resources and payroll management  essential information for foreign investors looking to establish or already running a foreign-invested entity in China, local managers, and HR professionals needing to explain complex points of Chinas labor policies.

Labor Dispute Management in China

In this issue of China Briefing, we discuss how best to manage HR disputes in China. We begin by highlighting how Chinas labor arbitration process  and its legal system in general  widely differs from the West, and then detail the labor disputes that foreign entities are likely to encounter when restructuring their China business. We conclude with a special feature from Business Advisory Manager Allan Xu, who explains the risks and procedures for terminating senior management in China.

Employing Foreign Nationals in China

In this issue of China Briefing, we have set out to produce a guide to employing foreign nationals in China, from the initial step of applying for work visas, to more advanced subjects such as determining IIT liability and optimizing employee income packages for tax efficiency. Lastly, recognizing that few foreigners immigrate to China on a permanent basis, we provide an overview of methods for remitting RMB abroad.
A number of yoga federations, teachers and schools in Belgium are coming together to organize the second edition of International Yoga Day events across the country on June 19 and 21, the Indian Embassy here announced on Tuesday.

The biggest gathering will once again take place in Brussels' Bois de la Cambre park on June 19, which last year saw 5,000 people participate in a mass yoga session.

Commemorative T-shirts featuring the famous blue Belgian smurfs will be sold to raise funds for UNICEF programs in India and around the world.

In addition, special yoga sessions will be held at the European Parliament, led by Art of Living Foundation creator Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, and at the European Commission on June 21.

Sizable events will also take place in Antwerp, Ghent, Leuven, Radhadesh Ardennes, and for the first time, in Liege.

"These events marking International Yoga Day are a manifestation of our strong will and undeterred unity to combat the global evil forces through the message of love and, above all, serenity contained in yoga," Manjeev Singh Puri, Ambassador of India to Belgium, Luxembourg and European Union, said at a press conference announcing the celebrations.

June 21 was designated the International Day of Yoga by the United Nations General Assembly in December 2014. The resolution was piloted by India and co-sponsored by a record of 177 member states of the UN, including China and Belgium.
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A photo exhibition called Beautiful Iran was launched at the National Library of China in Beijing on June 6.

The exhibition, jointly organized by the Iranian national library and archives, China's national library, and Iran's Islamic Culture and Relations Organization, will run for about two weeks and is open for visitors to the library.

The exhibition, which aims to promote Iranian culture, showcases different aspects of the country's history, culture, and society using pictures.

The show is similar to an exhibition held at the Iranian national library and archives in January that introduced China to the Iranian people.
European firms in China are feeling the pinch as the country's economic growth slows, a report showed on Tuesday.

About 41 percent of the surveyed 506 European companies operating in China are now re-evaluating their China businesses and planning to cut costs, including through headcount reduction, according to the annual Business Confidence Survey released by the European Chamber and consulting firm Roland Berger.

About 47 percent of the surveyed companies said they plan to expand their operations in China, down by 39 percentage points from 2013.

However, a majority of European businesses would probably increase their investment in China in the event of market access barriers being removed, according to the report.

It said the signing of the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment is seen as integral to improving the business environment.

"European companies now need a roadmap. This will give them the confidence they need to commit more to China's future development in these economically challenging times," said European Chamber President Jorg Wuttke.

Roland Berger CEO Charles-Edouard Bouee said China's growth over the next few decades would rely on supply side transformation, greater innovation and pruning overcapacity, all of which European businesses can contribute to.
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A total of 350 vehicles are to be loaded on a cargo ship for export at a port in Lianyungang, east China's Jiangsu Province, Jan 9, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

China's export growth in yuan-denominated terms slowed to 1.2 percent year on year in May from 4.1 percent in April, customs data showed Wednesday.

Imports grew 5.1 percent, significantly rebounding from a 5.7-percent decline in April, according to figures from the General Administration of Customs (GAC).

Trade surplus last month was 324.8 billion yuan (about US$50 billion), up from April's 298 billion yuan.

Foreign trade increased 2.8 percent year on year to about 2 trillion yuan in May, while for the first five months combined slipped 3.2 percent to nearly 9.2 trillion yuan, recovering from a 4.8-percent decline for the January-April period.

In the five months, exports dropped 1.8 percent year on year and imports went down 5 percent, leading to a trade surplus of 1.4 trillion yuan.

A leading index for export outlook dropped by 0.7 points to 33.1 points in May, signaling growing pressure on export growth in the third quarter of 2016, said a GAC statement.

Trade with the European Union, China's largest trading partner, climbed 2 percent year on year in the first five months.

Trade with the United States and ASEAN, China's second- and third-largest trading partners, declined 5.2 percent and 1.6 percent, respectively.

Trade with Japan, China's fifth largest trading partner, edged down 0.3 percent.

The GAC said imports of iron ore, crude oil and product oil "notably recovered" in the five months -- up 9.1 percent, 16.5 percent and 4.5 percent, respectively.

However, automobile imports fell 12.8 percent. Plastics and steel imports also posted declines.
21 years after a 21-year-old Nie Shubin from east China's Shandong Province was convicted and executed on rape and murder charges, the Supreme Court has decided to retry the case.

File Photo of Nie Shubing. [Photo: Baidu]

According to Xinhua News Agency, the notice of the decision was handed to Nie's mother on Wednesday.

Nie was found guilty in 1995 by a local court in north China's Hebei Province, but ten years later another convict, Wang Shujin, confessed to the crime.

Wang, who was sentenced to death in March 2007, claimed that he raped and murdered a woman in a cornfield on the outskirts of Hebei's Shijiazhuang city in 1994, and said Nie was innocent.

Hebei Higher People's Court, which approved the death penalty for Nie in 1995, did not believe Wang's claim during a retrial in 2013 and so Nie's verdict still stands.

To ensure impartiality, a review into the case was later heard at Shandong Higher People's Court rather than in Hebei Province where the original crime took place.

After the review, Shandong Higher People's Court said the evidence of Nie murdering and raping woman was inadequate and advised the Supreme Court to retry the case.
NORTH PLATTE  An Iowa woman who was badly injured in a car accident in Nebraska 24 years ago has finally found the man who helped keep her alive.

Jennifer Hardie-Fehrer, now a nurse in Chariton, Iowa, has thought often about the man she calls her hero.

Hardie-Fehrer, then 12, and her sister Trisha, 23, were driving from Colorado on June 4, 1992, to see their dad in Iowa. Trisha lost control of the car on Interstate 80 near Hershey and it rolled, throwing Jennifer into the eastbound passing lane.

Chris Scaff was an emergency medical technician and firefighter who drove a truck in his spare time to pay for additional education.

"Jen was bleeding out," he said recently.

Scaff grabbed his medical kit but said he ran out of bandages as he tried to stop the girl's bleeding and had to use a blanket.

She survived, and after surgery and other treatment, she eventually went home.

It turns out she lived in Arvada, about half an hour from where he did back then. They visited several times but eventually lost touch and she remembered only his first name.

But she wanted to find him.

"I wanted to do a better job saying thank you than I was capable of at 12," she said.

She and a friend put together a Facebook post on May 30 asking for help in finding Scaff. A newspaper reporter offered to help track him down, and did.

"I didn't even know if she was still alive," said Scaff.

On Saturday, the two spoke. He moved had moved to Indiana and lives in Loganton, Pennsylvania, where he teaches fire and emergency medical services classes.

Scaff said he'd been thinking about her as the anniversary of the accident approached. She thanked him and called him her hero.

"We will never lose touch again, I promise," Hardie-Fehrer said.
Thirty-two people in east China's Zhejiang Province have been sentenced to up to 13 years in prison for trafficking endangered animals.

Thirty-two people in east China's Zhejiang Province have been sentenced to up to 13 years in prison for trafficking endangered animals, announced the Yongjia County People's Court on Tuesday. [Photo/www.legaldaily.com.cn]

They were found guilty of trafficking 100 million yuan's (15.2 million U.S. dollars) worth of wildlife, including pangolins, bear claws and salamanders, in 10 provinces and cities, announced the Yongjia County People's Court on Tuesday.

At a court hearing, a main culprit surnamed Kan was given a prison term of 13 years and fined 130,000 yuan. Four were sentenced to over 10 years in prison and Kan's wife was given six years in prison.

The rest were sentenced to suspended prison terms of between four months and three years.

More than 10 of the defendants are owners of restaurants and clubs who bought the animal parts and processed them as food, the court said.

Local police uncovered the case last year as they seized more than 1,500 wild animals in a raid.

Pangolins, which are under second-class state protection in China, are often smuggled because their meat is considered a delicacy and their scales are believed to be effective in treating skin and other diseases.

Under China's Criminal Law, those who illegally catch, kill, buy or sell endangered wild animals on the state's protection list may face more than 10 years in prison plus fines.
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Saudi-led Arab coalition has handed 52 children working as soldiers for Houthi militias to the internationally-recognized Yemeni government, Saudi Press Agency reported on Tuesday.

The handover was done in coordination with a number of international organizations, such as Red Cross and UNICEF. The kids were captured at the Saudi-Yemeni borders while carrying arms or planting mines.

The Arab coalition that has been involved in a war against Houthi since March 2015 highlighted that before the handover those who were captured were kept in shelters suitable for their age.

On Monday, the United Nations removed the coalition from child right blacklist pending a joint review by the world body and the coalition of the cases of child deaths and injuries. This was decided despite strong rejection of Saudi Arabia of such decision.

The listing reasons were mentioned in a UN report released on Thursday. According the report the coalition was responsible for 60 percent of child deaths and injuries last year, killing 510 and wounding 667. It also highlighted that the coalition carried out half of the attacks on schools and hospitals.
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China is willing to maintain high-level interaction with the United States to promote the sustainable, healthy and stable development of bilateral ties, Premier Li Keqiang said on Tuesday.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (R) meets with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (L) and Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, who are in Beijing to attend the eighth round of China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogues and the seventh round of China-U.S. High-Level Consultation on People-to-People Exchange, in Beijing, capital of China, June 7, 2016. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei)

China and the United States should jointly strive to deepen mutual trust and expand cooperation, Li said when meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, who attended the eighth round of China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogues and the seventh round of China-U.S. High-Level Consultation on People-to-People Exchange in Beijing.

Noting that the two sides' common interests "far outweigh" their differences, Li said the two countries should manage differences in a constructive manner.

Last year, two-way trade and investment volumes both hit historic high, and China has for the first time become the biggest trade partner of the United States.

China is willing to deepen economic and trade cooperation with the United States, according to Li.

Describing frictions in bilateral cooperation as normal, the premier said the two sides should focus on the big picture and mainstream.

He expressed the hope that the United States will honor its commitment stipulated in the protocol on China's accession into the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Li also reiterated that China's currency renminbi has no grounds to depreciate continuously, and China does not intend to stimulate exports via a "currency war" or "trade war."

China, he said, is capable of maintaining the renminbi exchange rate at a reasonable and balanced level.

When asked about industrial overcapacity, the premier said many countries face similar problems, and the fundamental reason lies in the feeble world economy recovery, sluggish international trade growth and declining market demand.

China stands firm to address industrial overcapacity according to the rules of the market economy, Li said.

Kerry and Lew hailed the outcomes of the high-level dialogues, saying the mechanism contributes to deeper U.S.-China cooperation.

As the world's two biggest economic entities, more communication and cooperation between the United Stated and China will exert a major influence on the global economy, they said.

The two U.S. officials also said their country is willing to speed up negotiations on a bilateral investment treaty and closely cooperate with China under the G20 framework.

Follow China.org.cn on Twitter and Facebook to join the conversation.
Tractor Supply Company in Beatrice at 3620 Airpark Road will host local animal groups during an event Saturday, June 11 to encourage pet adoptions and support families raising pets and livestock.

Local animal groups will set up at Tractor Supply as part of Purina Days, an in-store event June 8-19 that highlights pets and livestock and the tools needed to properly care for animals.

The main event on Saturday will showcase live animals, expert advice and products for raising a variety of animals, including domestic pets, as well as cattle, horses, rabbits and other livestock. The store will also host community groups and activities, including a petting zoo with Pit Llama Farm from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

"Our team members understand the commitment it takes to responsibly raise pets and livestock because we've done it, and we want to share the lessons we've learned with the community," said Tractor Supply Virginia Dorf in a press release.

Tractor Supply offers a selection of products for equine, livestock, pet and small animals, including items necessary for their health, care, growth and containment.

Contact the Beatrice Tractor Supply store at 402-223-2381 for details about Purina Days. For more information and tips on raising pets and other animals, visit TractorSupply.com/KnowHow.
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Syrian President Bashar al-Assad pledged on Tuesday to continue the war on terrorist groups until fully eradicating them, noting that any political process that don't share the same goal is "meaningless."

Addressing the People Assembly, Assad said the war on Syria was imposed by external powers in coordination and cooperation with the opposition forces on ground.

"I can assure you that our war against terror is ongoing, not because we love war, but because they have imposed war on us, but the bloodletting will not stop until we eradicate terrorism from its roots wherever located and whatever mask it was under," the president said, as his administration has been engaged in fighting ultra-radical groups, including the Islamic State (IS) group and the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front in several areas across the country.

Still, the president didn't shun aside the efforts for a political settlement in the country.

"This doesn't mean we don't believe in the political process, because we will continue to work for the political process no matter how small its chances of achievements are, emanating from a desire on the public and government levels to bring the bloodshed to a close and salvage the homeland," he said.

He stressed that "but any political process, which doesn't start, continue, and end with ending the terrorism, would be meaningless and pointless."
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The Nigerian government on Monday said it had decided to suspend operation of the military in the country's Niger Delta region to pave way for dialogue with Niger Delta Avengers, a militant group which has been claiming responsibility for attacks on various oil and gas facilities in the country's oil-rich region.

Oil minister Ibe Kachikwu told reporters in Abuja that most of members of the militant group have already been contacted, and the government hope they will sheath their sword and embrace dialogue.

"The answer to the issue will not be heating up the grounds. The federal government is committed to continue the dialogue and the president has appointed a team," the minister said, adding military operations will be suspended for a week or two for individuals in the creeks to converge for the dialogue.

Last week, the Nigerian authorities said an armada of five warships, 100 gunboats and fighter jets had been deployed to the creeks of the Niger Delta in response to continued bombing of oil and gas pipelines by the militant group.

Attacks by Niger Delta militants had become more audacious in recent weeks as it continues to cripple Nigeria's oil production in hopes of achieving its aim of establishing a sovereign nation for the Niger Delta people.

The militants had recently rejected a meeting convened by the national government in Abuja, saying they were preparing to carry out an attack which will "shock the whole world".

Kachikwu said over the last few months, Africa's largest oil producer had lost 600,000 barrels from various attacks by the militants, leading to a shortfall that brought down Nigeria's production to as low as 1.3 million barrels per day.

According to him, the Nigerian government was committed to hold talks with the militants due to the intensity of the attacks. The dialogue will be wrapped up within one week, he added.

He noted that one of the objectives of the team constituted by government to hold talks with the militants is to see to the developmental plan of the Niger Delta region.

According to the minister, the government had also extended an olive branch to the militant group.

While carrying out its vicious attacks on oil and gas installations in the Niger Delta, the militant group had forced major oil firms operating in the West African country to either declare force majeure or cut down production of crude oil in Nigeria.

The actions of the militants has caused closure of many industries because of the non-availability of diesel to power industries, Azubuike Okafor, a regional chairman of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) told Xinhua in southern city of Awka, capital of Anambra State on Tuesday.

Okafor said the development would negatively affect the efforts of the government to increase power generation in the country.
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Visiting Chinese State Councilor and Defense Minister Chang Wanquan held Tuesday a meeting with his Kazakh counterpart Imangali Tasmagambetov.

During the meeting, the Chinese defense chief thanked Kazakhstan for its elaborate preparations and thoughtful arrangements for the meeting of defense ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) as well as for the third international festival of military bands of SCO member states "Peace Horn".

He said that under the guidance of the leaders of China and Kazakhstan, relations between the Chinese and Kazakh militaries developed steadily and achieved practical achievements.

The Chinese military is willing to deepen cooperation with the Kazakh side in border defense, personnel training and joint exercise in a bid to promote the all-round development of the military ties between China and Kazakhstan, he said.

For his part, the Kazakh defense minister Tasmagambetov sent his warm congratulations to the upcoming 95th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, saying that Kazakhstan highly values the development of military ties between the two countries and is willing to continue to deepen the exchange and cooperation of the two sides in all fields, including military technologies.

Chinese Ambassador to Kazakhstan Zhang Hanhui, China's Western Theater Command vice-commander and chief of staff Rong Guiqing and Kazakh vice-defense minister Talgat Mukhtarov attended the meeting.
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The UN Department of Field Support said Tuesday that it has started a training course for 60 Kenyan military officers on the engineering capability of peacekeeping troops.

The course, dubbed Engineering Plant Operation Course, is conducted under a UN-led Triangular Partnership Project intended to equip trainees with necessary skills and knowledge on operation, maintenance and recovery of heavy engineering equipment during peace support operations.

Speaking during the launch of the training course in Nairobi Tuesday, the Triangular Partnership Project Manager, Harinder Sood, said peacekeepers across the world were facing challenges, amidst rising need for protection of civilians.

"Today's peacekeeping missions are increasingly operating in non-permissive environments; in some of the poorest, conflict prone, remote and almost inaccessible areas; in places where there is little peace to keep and no agreement to support," said Sood.

He stressed the importance of engineering work in peacekeeping operations.

"Very little can be achieved in peacekeeping without the missions being actually present, without secure and livable camps, without passable roads, without functional airstrips and helipads," he said.

Major General Robert Kibochi from the Kenya Defence Forces said the army officers receiving the training had previously been deployed to neighbouring Somalia.
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The Members of European Parliament (MEPs) gathered for a plenary session Tuesday to debate on the "New Migration Partnership Framework" proposed by Brussels and based on reinforced cooperation with third countries.

The new migration plan of the EU has met with support in principle w

ithin the ranks of the traditional parties of both the right and left wings.

First Vice President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans pleaded the utilization of EU funds in order to promote private investment in the countries of origin of migrants, in particular in Africa, within the framework of a partnership.

"The business mode of the people smugglers between Turkey and Greece was broken thanks to the agreement with Turkey. People are no longer dying in the Aegean," affirmed the high European functionary.

"But if we closed one door, another opens in the South Mediterranean," he added. "We, which is to say the European Commission and the member states, must work more with countries of origin and transit nations," he pleaded.

The plan - which would be a "partnership," principally with Africa - establishes new financing to "reach a total of 8 billion euros (9 billion U.S. dollars) within 5 years," specified Timmermans.

Although a large majority of MEPs defended the principle of welcome and of solidarity towards the refugees, as well as the need for a policy of openness, at the extreme right of the political spectrum and among euroskeptics, however, numerous voices were raised in favor of a strict closure of borders, as has frequently been the case in recent months in the Strasbourg hemicycle.

During a debate later on Tuesday afternoon, the MEPs debated with European Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos over two other proposals connected to migration: an examination of the "blue card" system regulating the admissions conditions for highly qualified immigrants, as well as a new action plan for integration.
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Philippine experts on Wednesday urged incoming President Rodrigo Duterte to start bilateral talks with China earlier, saying the new administration need not wait for the decision of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague before talking to China.

"You don't have to finish that arbitration. Nobody even knows when it will be finished," Alberto Encomienda, former secretary-general of Maritime and Ocean Affairs Center at Department of Foreign Affairs, told Xinhua.

He added that the Philippines could even withdraw the case.

For her part, Aileen Baviera, professor at the University of the Philippines, said bilateral talks with China "can be an avenue for resuming the confidence-building process" between the two countries.

"Bilateral talks can also assure China that there is no intention to use arbitration and everything else to harm China's security interests," said Baviera.

Duterte, who will be sworn into office on June 30, has said he would wait for the final decision of the court, but said that he will pursue bilateral talks with China if current efforts do not progress. He even said that he might seek possible joint exploration in the South China Sea.

Relations between China and the Philippines worsened during President Benigno Aquino's six-year rule over the South China Sea dispute.

The Philippines unilaterally initiated an arbitration case against China in January 2013 over the issue with the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague.

The Chinese foreign ministry on Wednesday issued a statement saying China adheres to the solemn position of non-acceptance of and non-participation in the arbitration, and will stay committed to settling the relevant disputes with the Philippines in the South China Sea through bilateral negotiation.
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Two speedboats on Wednesday crashed in the sea of Phuket in south Thailand, killing two and injuring 26 tourists, Spring News reported.

The crash took place at around 2 p.m. local time when the two boats were both heading from Phuket to the Mu Koh Phi Phi islands in stormy weather. The passengers were mainly Chinese and South Koreans.

Police said that the Chollakij speedboat carrying 36 passengers and the Hongfah 333 carrying 26 collided near diving hotspot Moo Snakha Rocks amid rough waves.

Local media said that two tourists including one man and one woman were killed, 26 others were injured and sent to hospital.

Phuket is one of the southern provinces in Thailand. It consists of the island of Phuket, the so-called "pearl of Andaman Sea" as well as the country's largest island, and other 32 smaller islands off its coast. It lies off the west coast of Thailand in the Andaman Sea.

Details and cause of the accident are still under investigation.
Starbucks First flagship store within a Disney Resort in Asia.[Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Nearly 110 baristas from 48 cities across China working at one coffee store is not an exaggeration. After all, the world's largest coffee chain's China unit said its store located at the new Disneytown at Shanghai Disney Resort will be its busiest location in the world.

Opening on Wednesday, the store is designed for families visiting the new Disneyland, which is estimated to have 25 million visitors a year.

Winnie Ma, a barista who is now the store manager at the Starbucks in Disneytown, was surprised to find visitors from Shanghai addressing her in her local dialect when she was receiving training at the company's stores last year in Anaheim and Orlando in the United States.
The owners of the only grocery store and morning coffee spot in Odell are asking for the publics input at a June 15 community meeting to give the store a future.

Owners Sharon and Perry Gydesen, both retired Diller-Odell Public Schools teachers, say theyre ready to retire for good, and if a new owner or a group of owners cant take over the store, theyll soon have to close the store and move on.

Nobody wants the store to close, especially me, Sharon said on Tuesday. Im here all the time and I know how important this store is to the community.

The Gydesens originally announced the store would close on June 15, but after a June 2 community meeting, they decided to remain open for at least a few more weeks.

It went really well, Sharon said of the meeting. Seven people who have owned a grocery store for 25 years in Summerfield, Kansas, came down and explained to us what they do and ideas for what we could do.

While Perry helps with the store and works as a substitute teacher from time to time, Sharon works the store full time with the help of 30-year employee Cathy Bures.

On Tuesday, the two wore blue aprons with the stores name stitched on front. Between customers purchases of candy bars, water bottles, cigarettes, bird seed and other items, they decided what items to order for the store, which they said is the biggest current challenge as the future remains unclear.

In the front window, a neon green sign reads Store for sale! in black permanent marker. On the front door is a notification about the June 15 meeting, 7 p.m., in the coffee shop portion of the store. Down the street, the Odell City Park marquee sign reads, Meeting to keep store openPlease come with ideas.

We want people to bring ideas of how they think we could go forward from here, Sharon said. We want as many people involved as want to be.

The Gydesens bought the store in December of 2006. Sharon guessed the building was constructed in 1895 and that its been a grocery store ever since.

I love this store, but I need to retire, Sharon said. I taught for 35 years before this. Theres some family things, some health things. Its just time.

Ongoing challenges include building maintenance and competing with other grocery stores, she said.

Its been a challenge having three Wal-Marts 25 miles in any direction, Sharon said, naming those in Fairbury, Beatrice and Marysville. Everybody works out of town. I certainly understand wanting to get what you need after work and wanting to go home. I appreciate the people who do come in.

Sharon said the community has always been very supportive of Odell Market.

They know how important the store is, she said. I know a lot of families cant afford everything in here. I try to be a little competitive and pass savings on to customers.

Churches and the local American Legion Auxiliary chapter buy their food from the Odell Market when they host feeds, Sharon said. Odell Market also supplies food for concession stands at youth sporting events and sells lunch specials and pie in-house every Wednesday.

Regular customers visit Odell Market in the mornings and afternoons for coffee in a space adjoined to the grocery area.

Theyre just tickled to have a place of their own, Sharon said. Its just been kind of fun.

Each morning, Sharon sets out cookies and coffee. Next to the station is a basket for donations. Sharon said if the store closes, the group wont have anywhere else to gather for coffee.

Gwen Vitosh helps operate the Rice Lodge, a venue and bed and breakfast which she said depends on Odell Market.

Without the store, were doomed, Vitosh said. When guests are here, they go down (to the market) for products all the time. If they close, well have to run to another town. Its huge.

Elderly people depend on Odell Market, others said, noting reasons such as proximity and the approachable size of the three-aisle market.

Its always a concern when you lose a business on Main Street, said State Bank of Odell employee Jim Stanosheck. It gets your attention that that kind of thing goes on in small communities.

Stanoscheck said Odell once had three grocery stores and if the last one closes, it would definitely be a negative for the community.

Its always been a key part of the community. I understand where the current owners are coming from in that theyre in that retirement age, Stanoscheck said. Its always challenging in small communities to find people to replace when owners retire or go out of business. We hope to resolve the situation.

Like the seven owners of the grocery store in Summerfield, Sharon said she and her husband have never owned the market in hopes of profit.

The store is paying its own way now, but we dont make anything, Sharon said. Nobody should get into it expecting to make money.

One word sums up the Gydesens motivation for running the market: community.

I see the need for the store in town and its something I can do for the people of the town, Sharon said. I love being here. Its just fun. It makes me feel good that I can fulfill that need.
The stand of Sichuan Changhong Electric Co Ltd at an international consumer electronics expo in Berlin, Germany. [Photo/Xinhua]

South Korean and Chinese TV manufacturers dominate the top 10 list of global LCD television shipments, while their Japanese counterparts have been kicked out of the top five for the first time.

According to statistics from market consulting institute IHS Inc, South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics Co Ltd is expected to ship 48.1 million LCD TVs globally in 2016, retaining its dominant position in the LCD business, followed by LG Electronics Inc with 28.4 million units.

The global LCD TV shipments of Chinese home appliances maker Hisense Group will reach 15 million this year, ranking third. TCL Corp and Skyworth Group are expected to ship 13.5 million and 12 million units, respectively, taking fourth and fifth place. The total shipments of the five Chinese TV brands in the top 10 will surpass 50 million units.

Japanese brands on the whole are gradually losing market shares to the rapidly growing Chinese brands. Japanese TV vendor Sony Corp is expected to ship 11.5 million units this year, being knocked out of the top five for global LCD TV shipments.

Industry sources said as Japanese TV manufacturers have stepped up their pace of transformation, their sales and market shares are gradually tapering off, and the current competition in the global LCD TV market is between South Korean and Chinese firms.

Zhang Yanbin, assistant director of All View Cloud, a Beijing-based consultancy specializing in home appliances, said: "The rise of homegrown Chinese home appliances makers has made Japanese electronics giants exit from the fierce competition, pushing the latter into business-to-business sales.

"However, South Korean enterprises, which have strong R&D capacities and advantages in the whole industrial chain, are active in technical innovation, and they have gained an upper hand compared with their Chinese rivals."

Ricky Lin, research manager of WitsView, a division of TrendForce Corp and a display market research firm, said a recent notable trend in the TV market has been the rise of Chinese internet brands. By offering affordable premium products online, these internet brands have seized much of the domestic market and upended the strategies of established TV makers.

Moreover, Chinese home appliances makers have stepped up their efforts in global market. In 2015, Skyworth acquired German TV manufacturer Metz Werke GmbH & Co for about $8 million. In May, TCL set up a joint production base in Egypt.
A worker is pictured in Shougang Jingtang United Iron & Steel Co on Aug 28, 2014. [Photo / Xinhua]

China puts great emphasis on the promotion of the non-public sector economy, which contributes approximately 60 percent to the country's GDP, 80 percent of employment, and over 50 percent of total revenue, and will make fresh efforts to boost private investment, said a report released at a news conference of the State Council Information Office on Tuesday.

Private investment registered year-on-year growth rate of 5.2 percent in the first four months of this year, about 7.5 percentage points less than in the same period of last year and 5.3 percentage points less than the overall growth rate in social investment, the report noted.

In response to the recent slowdown in the growth in private investment, the State Council, China's cabinet, sent nine ministry-level teams to conduct a 10-day field inspection in 18 provincial-level regions starting May 20, according to the report.

Sluggish demand, unfavorable policies, insufficient government support, and rising labor and financing costs, have caused many private enterprises to show little interest in making investments, said Zhang Yong, deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission, at Tuesday's meeting.

"The lack of skills is also responsible for the predicament that many entrepreneurs are in," he added.

According to the report, local governments have made several successful attempts to stimulate private investment, ranging from the promotion of the public-private partnership approach and allowing more private capital to enter the energy and infrastructure industries, to granting college students easier access to entrepreneurship.

The implementation of certain projects, however, has failed to work as expected, said Vice-Minister of Finance Liu Kun. "During the 10-day inspection, some private companies complained that quality PPP projects are basically monopolized by State-owned enterprises, and a few local governments have a bad credit record in this regard," Liu said.

To regain the confidence of private investors, Feng Fei, vice-minister of industry and information technology, stressed the need to create a climate of fair competition in which private investors can participate in the ongoing reform and mergers of SOEs.

"Governments at all levels also need to improve their service for private companies and eliminate the existing discrimination against private capital", added Feng.

Xia Guangyao, chairman of Wenzhou Jialunte Textile Finery Co in Zhejiang province, said the company has invested in a government-backed park project in the city. Projects which entail the concept of environmental protection and provide long-term benefits to local residents are of great interest to him.

"Even though privately owned enterprises have the willingness to invest, available projects are quite limited. The most important issue that needs to be addressed, which has been stated from time to time, is that they have equal treatment with State-owned enterprises when it comes to the same project. If there are more favorable conditions provided concerning financing, I think our willingness will grow accordingly," he said.
Materials manufacturer joins global initiative for energy efficiency

The Leverkusen-based materials manufacturer Covestro has set itself another ambitious sustainability goal: The company wants to halve its energy use per ton of manufactured products by 2030 relative to a baseline of 2005. Richard Northcote, Chief Sustainability Officer at Covestro, announced the undertaking on Wednesday at the Energy Efficiency Global Forum in Washington D.C., where Covestro joined the recently launched campaign 'Energy Productivity 100'(EP100).

The campaign is part of The Climate Group, an NGO with members including pioneers from the worlds of business, politics and society who are working together to lower emissions on the planet. The companies taking part in the EP100 are committed to demonstrating their roles as leaders in energy efficiency, to boost their energy productivity  in other words to increase economic output from the energy they use  and thus pave the way forward to a future of clean energy supplies. Covestro is one of the first companies to join the EP100 initiative and hopes to be seen by other businesses as a role model.

"The chemical and plastics industry contributes to resource conservation and energy efficiency with its products and solutions, but it also requires a lot of energy," said Northcote in Washington. "And that is why we can  and want to  do our part toward fulfilling the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. To reduce your own energy use by half  or to double your energy productivity  may seem impossible to some companies today. But initiatives like EP100 motivate us, and hopefully many others, to apply intelligent solutions and indeed make possible what is now considered impossible."

Sustainability is a core element of the Covestro business strategy. The company is working continuously on processes and solutions for reducing its energy use and CO2 emissions. Covestro recently announced its intention to halve its specific CO2 emissions by 2025 relative to a baseline of 2005. The company practically reached the previous target  a reduction of 40 percent relative to 2005  in 2015 already. And as far as increasing energy efficiency, Covestro had set the target of 30 percent by 2020 and achieved it in 2015.

But Covestro is not only reducing its own energy use and emissions. The company's products also are helping to save energy and use it more efficiently in many industries and areas of application, for example by making cars lighter and more economical, or through insulating buildings efficiently.
A residential building under construction is seen in Tongzhou, Aug 24, 2015.[Photo/IC]

Only 13 corporate apartments have been sold in Tongzhou in the past month, compared with 6,004 a month ago  a 99 percent drop.

As of June 5, 4,623 units were still on sale, covering more than 350,000 square meters in the Tongzhou district, a suburb in Beijing, according to data released by real estate company Centaline Property.

This change comes a month after Beijing extended its real estate restrictions in Tongzhou to cover business property and force out speculators.

Under the new policy, families without household registration in Beijing, unmarried Beijing residents who already own homes and families that own more than one home are among those no longer eligible to purchase corporate apartments in Tongzhou.

Those from outside Beijing will only be allowed to buy corporate apartments in the district if they have paid tax and social security payments in Beijing over five straight years.

The rules also stipulate that office space can only be sold to companies for business purposes.

Authorities previously introduced restrictions on residential property purchases in the district in August last year to curb speculation that sent home prices soaring.

The Tongzhou district, which is about 40 minutes' drive from the center of Beijing, was designated a subsidiary administrative center for Beijing municipality last year as part of measures to tackle overcrowding in the capital.

Xinhua contributed to this story.
Workers on a motor vehicle production line at a factory in Qinzhou, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. [Photo provided to China Daily]

BEIJING - An advanced manufacturing fund was launched in Beijing Wednesday to facilitate the modernization of manufacturing.

The fund, which was authorized by the State Council and initiated by the National Development and Reform Commission; Ministry of Finance; and Ministry of Industry and Information Technology; is a limited partnership and market-oriented institution, officials said at the founding ceremony.

The initial funding was 20 billion yuan ($3.05 billion), including 6 billion yuan from the central treasury. The rest came from investors including the State Development & Investment Corp and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

The fund will invest in the advanced manufacturing industry sector, promote modernization of traditional industry and boost high-end manufacturing.
John Slosar, chairman of Swire Group, in this file photo taken on Sept 26, 2014 in Hong Kong [Photo/IC]

China's economic development and growth strategy, with its increasing emphasis on innovation and urban growth, will create new opportunities for Swire Group in the consumer and service markets, the group's chairman John Slosar said on Tuesday.

Despite the recent economic slowdown, Slosar is still optimistic about China's growth potential.

"Looking ahead, China will continue to be a significant growth driver for the group," he said.

Laying out his vision for the company, Slosar said Swire continued to seek new investment opportunities.

"If something new and interesting presented itself that we thought we could add value to, we would love to try new things in China," he said, adding there would be new opportunities in the consumer and service markets.

Slosar made the remarks whilst attending a book launch ceremony. In celebration of the Swire group's 200th anniversary this year and the 150th anniversary of the opening of its first office in China, Swire and Shanghai Joint Publishing launched a commemorative book in Beijing.

"The Taikoo Way  Swire in China for 150 years" chronicles the business experiences of the Swire family over six generations. The story of the Swire group's 150-year history in China is a testament to the group's long-term business strategy and also reflects the many historical changes in Chinese society and China's economy.
URUMQI - The railway port of Horgos in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, which borders Kazakhstan, was officially opened Tuesday, local authorities said Wednesday.

With financial backing of 1.9 billion yuan ($289 million), the first stage of construction on the 90,000-square-meter port station has been completed, said Bai Yongfeng, director of the port station.

Horgos railway port began a restricted-operating period in 2012, now that it is fully open, the port expects a surge in cargo flow.

From December 2012, when a cross-border railway between China and Kazakhstan via Horgos opened, until April 2016, the import and export trade volume via the railway port of Horgos totaled $4 billion.

A passenger train route from Horgos to Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang, had transported 200,000 passengers as of May 2016 since it opened at the end of 2013.
A young man makes a live-streaming show of himself at his office. [Chen Zhongqiu/For China Daily]

A young and good-looking woman with a pale skin was eating a slice of pizza in a noisy restaurant and talking about what brand of mascara she was wearing.

A young man was singing cheesy pop songs in his bedroom, pausing from time to time to thank people for offering him virtual gifts and cash-filled electronic red envelopes. He pocketed 3,000 yuan ($457) in less than 30 minutes.

This is the world that exists in the popular live-streaming apps on our mobile phones.

After hearing friends talking about how popular live-streaming apps are and reading news report about how the nascent and yet booming industry has generated wealth and fame, I decided to give them a try.

After I tuned in, I found that I could hardly engage with any of the streams. I kept browsing and switching from video to video, hoping to find something interesting or meaningful. Disappointed, I found that the content was often boring, meaningless and seedy.

But what is substantial is the money-making phenomenon. Many of the hosts with millions of subscribers have turned into cyberspace stars and they could effortlessly draw hundreds of thousand viewers for a real-time night show.

Virtual gifting is one key to their success. Users of the apps could offer their favorite streamers virtual presents such as an image of a flower or a fancy Maserati, which can be converted into cash. The app companies and the site operators would get a hefty portion of the money.

The commercial effect has also drawn celebrities and star entrepreneurs to the industry. They take advantage of the apps to create celebrity-at-home appearances so that they can draw themselves closer to their fans and promote their businesses.

The fact that there are more than 200 live-streaming apps in the Chinese market shows how popular the industry is. Most of them emulated the Twitter Inc-owned Periscope. The valuations of some apps have exceeded $1 billion.

Despite the commercial success, I am still quite skeptical about live-streaming apps. Their proliferation reveals a sadder part of our life: While technology seems to shrink the world we live in, the mania for live streamers reveals how boring and lonely our urban life is.

One extreme case is that a pretty young woman drew hundred of thousands of viewers by live streaming her sleep.

The apps allow people to peek into the lives of total strangers regardless of their location and with little cost. They change our definition for privacy. They quench the thirst for a type of social interaction that would often create anxiety in the real world.

The apps have also sparked controversy for pornographic content and copyright infringement. So, the industry is already under stricter government scrutiny.

Technology can be both problem and solution. And I kept trying to think of a good use case for live-streaming apps.

It would be cool if I could randomly tune in a video and find someone live-streaming his or her travel to Antarctica or the magnificent pyramids in Egypt. I would also find it fascinating if a NASA astronaut made live broadcasts from the space.

But before any of that appears, I have already started deleting these apps. I thought they would add an interesting aspect to my life, but so far they only ended up making me feel so bored and overwhelmed.
Some interesting and touching incidents took place in and out of examination halls as the national college entrance exam unfolded on Tuesday and Wednesday, Zhao Xinying reports.

A screen shot of the Sina Weibo account for Stephen Hawking.

'Regards from the whole universe'

Physicist Stephen Hawking cheered on Chinese gaokao test takers by posting on Weibo, a major micro blog platform in China.

"As many of you prepare to take the National Higher Education Entrance Examination, I want to wish you, the next generation of scientific minds, success in your academic endeavors. This culmination of your hard work marks just the beginning of your very bright futures," he said in a post on Monday.

The post won more than 420,000 "likes" from followers, with one netizen leaving a comment saying, "It's like receiving regards from the whole universe".
Children from Atuler village in Sichuan province take a rest during their regular long trudge to school. CHEN JIE/ FOR CHINA DAILY

A local government has vowed to upgrade a precarious ladder used by 15 children from a remote village in Sichuan province who need to scale an 800-meter cliff on their way to school.

Their walks to school made headlines around the world.

The local government says it will ensure the children, aged 6 to 15, now get a stronger ladder.

The youngsters had been using the rattan ladder to travel between their home village and the boarding school they attend.

They make the journey once every two weeks and need to trudge through a mountainous area and cross rivers.

Two weeks ago, Beijing News reported that the students from Atuler village, in Liangshan Yi autonomous prefecture, often spend two hours climbing the rock face via a chain of 17 ladders that have been tied together. Some of the ladders are perpendicular and fixed to the cliff with steel bars or timbers.

On Monday morning, when the students and their parents gathered at the cliff so they could climb down the ladder, they were told by a local official that the ladder needs to be checked and strengthened.

According to the Beijing News, the students and parents took another route back to their village, a journey that took six hours.

The paper reported that they ran past landslide areas, screamed their way past snakes and walked hand-in-hand through a 50-meter dark tunnel that they illuminated with their parents' mobile phones.

They also crossed a 3-meter-wide creek, where they paused for a drink.

A child from Atuler village in Sichuan province on his regular long trudge to school. CHEN JIE/ FOR CHINA DAILY

The children reached the highway at 12:35 and spent another 20 minutes in a car from the local authority.

Lin Shucheng, Party chief of the prefecture, promised to build a steel ladder to replace the rattan one as soon as possible to ensure the safety of the villagers.

And the local government will follow that up by inviting experts to discuss other ways to solve local problems of poverty and transportation, Lin said.

Api Jiti, Party chief of Zhimo'er township, which governs Atuler village, said it is unclear which company will make the steel ladder.

Api said the students will carry on with their six-hour detour until the new ladder is installed.

"We would rather have the students spending more time on their journey that put them at risk," Api said.

"We have to ensure their absolute safety."

Jike Jinsong, an official with the Zhaojue county government, said it would cost about 60 million yuan ($9.1 million) to build a road to connect the village with two other remote villages. But the county government only has 200,000 yuan available for the project.

It would also be unrealistic to relocate the village to a more accessible site farther down the mountain because the villagers would lose access to their land and the source of their income, he said.
A robot being used in recovery operations found the body of a female on Tuesday at the site of a boating accident in the Lizhou district of Guangyuan, Sichuan province, bringing the number of confirmed dead to three.

"The woman is in a cream-colored T-shirt and black trousers. Her identity is yet to be determined," said Li Jijun, spokesman for the Lizhou District Party Committee.

The robot dived more than 65 meters in White Dragon Lake, searching the interior of the sunken boat for the missing. It also prepared ropes to lift the boat, Li said.

The pleasure boat Double Dragon was designed to carry 40 people. It had 18 people on board when it sank on Saturday. Three bodies have been recovered and 12 people remain missing. Three passengers survived.

Among the 18 were the boat's owner, Zhou Piqiang, 49; his 43-year-old wife and 4-year-old son. The 15 passengers on the boat were from six families, five of which included husbands, wives and children.

Some of the photos taken by passengers with cellphones before the sudden storm that sank the boat went viral, prompting sympathy from netizens.

A source from the Guangyuan maritime affairs bureau said that the boat's owner, Zhou, had operated boat excursions since the 1990s, and his wife was a qualified sailor.

Extreme weather may be to blame for the accident. The Guangyuan weather bureau said wind with a speed of 63 kilometers per hour lashed the lake at the time of the incident.

According to Wang Mingxing, one of the three survivors, some people were wearing life jackets at first, but they took them off later because it was too hot.

Wang grabbed a jacket when the boat started sinking.
Inflow from upper reaches of the Yangtze River so far this year has reached a 100-year high

Water behind the Three Gorges Dam in Yichang, Hubei province, will be drained to a historic low before Friday as part of a plan to minimize the risk of flooding in the Yangtze River during the coming wet season.

Zhao Yunfei, head of the Cascade Dispatching and Communication Center at China Three Gorges Corp, said on Tuesday that the depth of water at the Three Gorges Reservoir will be reduced to about 145 meters, 1 meter lower than previous years.

The water had already been reduced to about 146 meters on Sunday, from a high of 175 meters.

Inflows from the upper streams of the Yangtze hit a 100-year high in the first five months of this year, forcing dam managers to discharge more water and brace for floods, Zhao said.

The large intake is partly the result of a 20 percent increase in precipitation in river basin areas, he said.

Chen Min, an official with the Yangtze River Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters, said on Monday that the country can ensure the safety of Yangtze basin areas, despite "a large chance of flooding" in the middle and lower reaches of the country's largest river.

With the help of the Three Gorges Dam and a number of reservoirs in the upper reaches, authorities can ensure that the flood will not wreak havoc as it did in 1998, he said.

In 1998, the Yangtze saw massive flooding during more than 70 days of torrential rainfall. At least 1,800 people died in the floods, and more than 100 million were affected.

Zhao said the reservoirs in the upper reaches can help ensure that peak flows from tributaries of the Yangtze will not converge into the main stream at the same time, thereby reducing flood risks in the middle and lower reaches.

"Also, with the Three Gorges Dam, we can ensure that water is discharged at a rate that the lower reaches can cope with," he said.

If the Three Gorges Dam had been operating in 1998, the water level would have reached about 153 meters, indicating that there will be adequate capacity to cope with this year's greater risk flooding, he said.
Corrupt Party chiefs from five cities and 18 counties in Shanxi province have been held accountable over the past two years, under the nationwide anti-graft campaign.

Wang Rulin, the province's top official, commended the anti-graft efforts that have borne fruit since September 2014, in an interview with the website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, a transcript of which was published on Tuesday.

"The tendency toward corruption in Shanxi province has turned a corner, and the government is taking a tough stance on any corrupt behavior," Wang said in the interview with the top anti-graft watchdog in the country.

Communications between Party authorities and officials are crucial to preventing misconduct and nipping corruption in the bud, he said in the interview.

"Between September 2014 and April this year, 5,646 people have come clean about their violations of Party discipline, and the account for returned illicit money, such as bribes, has received more than 170 million yuan ($26 million)."

Sweeping nationwide anti-graft initiatives that began in late 2012 snared a long list of officials in the province, most of whom were in charge of distributing Shanxi's coal resources.

Seven provincial-level officials were investigated in 2014 - with about one-third of Shanxi's top decision-making body.

In addition, 45 city-level officials and a total of 15,450 officials were disciplined in Shanxi during that year.

Ling Jihua, a former State level official who was from Shanxi province, was prosecuted last month for allegedly taking bribes, illegally obtaining State secrets and abuse of power.

Along with Ling's downfall, the so-called Shanxi Gang, a cabal of corrupt officials from the province, has been broken up and is often held up as a warning for all government officials to avoid being part of "cabals and cliques".
Panda He Xing and Nan Nan play with their new toy  a dragon boat made of paper at Yunnan Wild Animal Park in Southwest China's Yunnan province on Monday, to celebrate the upcoming Dragon Boat Festival that will fall on Thursday. [Photo/chinanews.com]
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement on Wednesday regarding settling disputes between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea through bilateral negotiation. The following is the full text:

China and the Philippines are neighbors facing each other across the sea, and the two peoples have enjoyed friendship over generations. Before the Philippines' unilateral initiation of the South China Sea arbitration on 22 January 2013, the overall situation in the South China Sea had remained stable despite certain disputes between China and the Philippines therein. Thanks to China's efforts, China and the Philippines carried out friendly consultations on, among others, establishing dialogue mechanisms and engaging in practical cooperation and joint development, and have achieved positive outcomes in this regard. However, ever since its initiation of the arbitration, the Philippines has unilaterally closed the door of settling the South China Sea issue with China through negotiation, and has, while turning its back on the bilateral consensus regarding managing differences, taken a series of provocative moves that infringed upon China's legitimate rights and interests. This has led to dramatic deterioration of China-Philippines relations as well as of peace and stability in the South China Sea. China is firmly opposed to the Philippines' unilateral actions. China adheres to the solemn position of non-acceptance of and non-participation in the arbitration, and will stay committed to settling the relevant disputes with the Philippines in the South China Sea through bilateral negotiation.

I. It is the common agreement and commitment of China and the Philippines to settle their relevant disputes in the South China Sea through negotiation

China has all along stood for peacefully settling territorial and maritime delimitation disputes through negotiation with States directly concerned on the basis of respecting historical facts and in accordance with international law. On issues concerning territorial sovereignty and maritime delimitation, China never accepts any recourse to third party settlement, or any means of dispute settlement that is imposed on it. Territorial sovereignty issues are not subject to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). With regard to maritime delimitation disputes, China made, pursuant to Article 298 of UNCLOS, an optional exceptions declaration in 2006, excluding disputes concerning, among others, maritime delimitation from the UNCLOS third party dispute settlement procedures.

It is not only the Chinese government's consistent policy, but also a clear agreement reached between China and the Philippines, to settle their relevant disputes in the South China Sea through negotiation.

The 10 August 1995 Joint Statement between the People's Republic of China and the Republic of the Philippines concerning Consultations on the South China Sea and on Other Areas of Cooperation states that "[d]isputes shall be settled in a peaceful and friendly manner through consultations on the basis of equity and mutual respect", and that "a gradual and progressive process of cooperation shall be adopted with a view to eventually negotiating a settlement of the bilateral disputes." Afterwards, China and the Philippines reaffirmed the consensus on settling the South China Sea issue through bilateral negotiation and consultation in a number of bilateral documents, such as the 23 March 1999 Joint Statement of the China-Philippines Experts' Group Meeting on Confidence-Building Measures and the 16 May 2000 Joint Statement between the Government of the People's Republic of China and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines on the Framework of Bilateral Cooperation in the Twenty-First Century.

On 4 November 2002, China and the ten ASEAN Member States signed the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC), in which the Parties concerned solemnly "undertake to resolve their territorial and jurisdictional disputes by peaceful means, without resorting to the threat or use of force, through friendly consultations and negotiations by sovereign States directly concerned, in accordance with universally recognized principles of international law, including the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea".

Afterwards, China and the Philippines reaffirmed this solemn commitment they had made in the DOC in a number of bilateral documents, such as the 3 September 2004 Joint Press Statement between the Government of the People's Republic of China and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the 1 September 2011 Joint Statement between the People's Republic of China and the Republic of the Philippines.

II. China and the Philippines have never conducted any negotiation on the subject-matters of the arbitration initiated by the Philippines

According to the Philippines, China and the Philippines have engaged in a number of exchanges of views since 1995 on the subject-matters of the arbitration initiated by the Philippines but the disputes have remained unsettled, and the Philippines has good reasons to believe that it is meaningless to continue the negotiations and it therefore has the right to initiate the arbitration. The fact, rather to the contrary, is that the two States have by far never engaged in any negotiation on the subject-matters of the arbitration.

China and the Philippines have held multiple rounds of consultations on the proper management of disputes at sea, but have by far had no negotiation designed to settle the relevant disputes in the South China Sea. China has on a number of occasions proposed with the Philippines the establishment of a China-Philippines regular consultation mechanism on maritime issues; however, to date, there has never been any response from the Philippine side. On 1 September 2011, the two countries issued the Joint Statement between the People's Republic of China and the Republic of Philippines, reiterating the commitment to settling the disputes in the South China Sea through negotiation. Thereafter, China, for many times, proposed restart of the China-Philippines consultation mechanism for confidence-building measures, but this proposal has once again fallen on deaf ears. It is completely groundless for the Philippines to claim that it is meaningless to continue the negotiations, and that the Philippine side has had to initiate the arbitration.
Domestic publishers have established ties with more than 500 overseas publishers in some 70 countries, said Cui Yuying, vice-minister of the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and vice-minister of the State Council Information Office, at the 12th Working Conference of the Task Group of the China Book International held in Chengdu, Sichuan province. [Photo by Huang Zhiling/chinadaily.com.cn]

The China Book International and the China Masterwork International have been welcomed by international publishers and readers since their launch, according to deputies to the 12th Working Conference of the Task Group of the China Book International held in Chengdu, Sichuan province, from Tuesday to Wednesday.

The two programs were launched in 2006 and 2009 jointly by the State Council Information Office and the General Administration of Press and Publication, aiming at encouraging foreign publishers to translate and publish Chinese books by providing grants, with a view to helping readers abroad to learn more about China.

Domestic publishers have established ties with more than 500 overseas publishers in some 70 countries, according to Cui Yuying, vice-minister of the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and vice-minister of the State Council Information Office.

The publishers include Elsevier, Springer, Penguins Langdon, and Cambridge University Press, she said.

By the end of 2015, China Book International has signed 1,454 deals with 564 foreign publishing houses from 71 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Russia, Australia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Vietnam, Brazil, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates, covering 2,792 titles translated into 47 different languages.

The China Masterwork International has signed 95 agreements with 59 overseas publishing houses from 24 countries, for the translation of 957 titles into 15 different languages.




China has urged the Philippines to "immediately cease its wrongful conduct of pushing forward the arbitral proceedings" and "return to the right path" of settling the relevant disputes in the South China Sea, through bilateral negotiation.

In an official statement released on Wednesday, the Foreign Ministry reaffirmed Beijing's commitment to a settlement via two-way negotiations, rather than an arbitration unilaterally sought by Manila against China in 2013.

Ties between Beijing and Manila were sunk after the initiation of the arbitration. From the very start of the arbitral process, China has refused to accept or participate.

In the wake of recent comments made by various Chinese officials about the arbitration, the statement said "the door of China-Philippines bilateral negotiation is always open".

Observers and the media have increasingly called on the Philippine President-elect Rodrigo Duterte and his expected administration to quit the arbitration and return to the table for two-way negotiations.

The arbitral case is still pending. Some media and observers said the expected ruling by the arbitral tribunal would be made in a few weeks.

China will remain committed to settling through negotiation the relevant disputes "on the basis of respecting historical facts and in accordance with international law," the ministry wrote.

In the past weeks, Washington has publicly pressed Beijing to accept the ruling. That also included a call from US Defense Secretary Ash Carter on Saturday at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.

Wu Shicun, president of the National Institute for South China Sea Studies, said although it remained to be seen if the incoming Philippine administration would quit the arbitration and return to the table for talks, "it is apparent that the arbitration  from it very beginning  has led to increasing, not decreasing, number of problems between Beijing and Manila".

"Other regional countries will come to the conclusion that embarking on such an arbitration will obtain no benefit, not to mention resolving any of the existing disputes," Wu said.

Jia Duqiang, a researcher of Southeast Asian studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said as the arbitration process came to a critical moment, all parties knew clearly that "no good will serve any party if the big picture is damaged". He also said the incoming administration was re-evaluating its policies towards China.

The Foreign Ministry's statement refers to a slew of two-way agreements signed in the past few decades to show that Manila has betrayed bilateral consensus on resolving their disputes through bilateral talks.

The agreement included "The Joint Statement between the People's Republic of China and the Republic of the Philippines concerning Consultations on the South China Sea and on Other Areas of Cooperation" in 1995.

The 1995 document said "a gradual and progressive process of cooperation shall be adopted with a view to eventually negotiating a settlement of the bilateral disputes."

Manila's sought-after unilateral arbitration "is a violation of the principle of Pacta sunt servanda and an abuse of the UNCLOS dispute settlement procedures. It goes against international law, including UNCLOS," the statement read.

Refuting Manila's assertion that the two governments were engaged in a number of exchanges of views since 1995 on the subject-matters of the arbitration, the Foreign Ministry wrote: "China and the Philippines have held multiple rounds of consultations on the proper management of disputes at sea, but have by far had no negotiation designed to settle the relevant disputes in the South China Sea."
All baby formula producers that sell baby formula on the Chinese mainland must have their formulas registered with the China Food and Drug Administration, according to a CFDA regulation that will take effect on Oct 1.

An enterprise can register up to nine formulas, according to the regulation released by CFDA today.

The regulation applies to both Chinese producers and those overseas that plan to export baby formula milk powder to the Chinese mainland, according to the regulation.

The regulation shows the government's determination to keep intensifying supervision on China's dairy industry, including baby formula producers, to improve the quality of the dairy products, Teng Jiacai, deputy head of the CFDA, said.

A big problem with China's baby formula industry is that many Chinese producers have too many formulas for marketing promotion, which result in potential quality risks and can cause confusion among consumers, he said. There are 103 enterprises producing baby formula in China and they hold nearly 2,000 formulas. In some cases, an enterprise can possess dozens of formulas at the same time, but many of the formulas are not developed after serious research and development, Zhang Jing, a CFDA official in charge of food supervision, said.

In contrast, many international baby formula producers only have one formula in production, he said.
Prosecutors from the Beijing People's Procuratorate met the lawyer hired by the family of Lei Yang, a Beijing resident who died in custody last month and police officers involved in the high-profile case today, the procuratorate said.

The procuratorate said in a statement on Wednesday that prosecutors solicited opinions from the lawyer on handling the case and accepted the documents provided. It said it would carefully study the documents and ensure the investigation follows the law and regulations. The procuratorate also notified the police officers that they have been put under investigation, the statement said.

Lei, 29, died on May 7 about an hour after he was detained on suspicion of soliciting prostitution. His family demanded an investigation to assess if he had been attacked by police. Beijing People's Procuratorate announced earlier this month that five police officers involved in the case have been put under investigation.

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The differences between China and the US over the South China Sea issue have become a matter of concern and even anxiety. But some of the perceptions in the US and elsewhere about China's policy and intentions in the area are misplaced. A pressing task is to understand the facts and China's intentions correctly so as to avoid real danger and consequences as a result of misinterpretation and miscalculation.

The issues in the South China Sea revolve around territorial and maritime jurisdiction. China believes it is doing nothing more than maintaining and defending legitimate territorial claims and maritime rights. Reclamation and construction works have taken place on islands and reefs that have long been under China's control, and many of the facilities are for civilian purposes and public good, such as navigation and rescue services, emergency relief, scientific research, and environmental protection. There are limited defense facilities, but they do not represent a "militarization" of the area. We believe that recent statements and military deployments by the US have had the effect of escalating tension in the region and, if not curbed, risk the very militarization we all wish to avoid.

Some people have called on China to abide by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and to agree to international arbitration, which was initiated by the Philippines. But these same people are denying China's rights under the convention. Our view is that the convention does not cover sovereignty and territorial issues - yet the very subject of the arbitration is territorial sovereignty. China will therefore neither participate nor accept the arbitration, for we maintain that the tribunal has no jurisdiction in this realm. Besides, it is ironic that the US seeks to use against us a United Nations convention that it itself has refused to ratify.

The concept of freedom of navigation is frequently used to justify actions by the US in the South China Sea. This is an additional irony. The US has used "freedom-of-navigation" operations to challenge the very concept as it was defined by the convention, believing treaty provisions would restrict its navy's ability to move freely around the world.

Worst of all, China's policy on the South China Sea has been grossly misperceived as a strategic move to challenge US dominance in the Asia-Pacific region and the world. Some people even go so far as to raise the idea of a so-called Asian version of the Monroe Doctrine. However, China believes that the concept of sphere of influence is out-of-date in the 21st century. China consistently strives for regional cooperation, and we respect America's traditional presence and legitimate interests in the Asia-Pacific region. The reality is not that China is trying to drive anyone out, but that there are attempts to deny China's legitimate and expanding interests in its own region.

Indeed, China has long called for peaceful and direct negotiations with relevant claimant states to manage and eventually resolve the South China Sea disputes. This remains unchanged - just as we remain open to working to forge a code of conduct for the region with the 10 ASEAN countries.

China-US relations are too important for us to allow them to be hijacked by the South China Sea issue. We may have major differences, but we also share important interests, including maintaining regional peace and stability, supporting freedom of navigation and overflight in accordance with international law, and resolving disputes through peaceful negotiations and diplomatic dialogue. The region should not become a competing ground for China and the US In fact, we have significant potential for cooperation in this region and beyond. Witness our coast guards, which patrolled jointly to enforce the fishery rules in the western Pacific.

The good news is that leaders in China and the United States have demonstrated the political will to manage our differences and keep them under control. We continue to talk. We on the Chinese side are ready to work in a constructive manner - and we are hopeful that the US will demonstrate the same spirit.

The author is Chinese Ambassador to the United States.

The article was originally published on Bloomberg website on June 1.
BEIJING -- The Chinese government said on Wednesday that it will accelerate building two more national-level development zones to encourage innovation, as the country seeks to foster new engines for growth.

The government approved the establishment of the two "national innovation demonstration zones" in Fujian province and Anhui province, respectively, according to a statement released after the State Council's executive meeting on Wednesday, chaired by Premier Li Keqiang.

The decision was made after similar zones, including Beijing's Zhongguancun, and Shanghai's Zhangjiang high tech zone, have played experimental and pioneering role in the nation, and those models need to be replicated across the country, said the statement.

The government vowed to cut red tape and provide better services to those development zones, making them better serve the nation's economic rebalancing drive.

The government also announced a string of new measures to provide more medical financial aid for residents in the poverty-stricken areas.

Rural residents living in poverty would get more reimbursement when they are hospitalized, and would be covered by the critical illness insurance, according to the statement.
BEIJING -- China is drafting a law that would allow the establishment of special psychiatric institutions under the jurisdiction of law enforcement authorities, to take care of mentally ill offenders.

The draft regulation, published by the State Council on Wednesday to solicit opinions from the public, says that facilities taking in psychiatric patients institutionalized by courts should be managed and supervised in the same way as other police detention centers.

Under China's Criminal Law, offenders deemed not criminally responsible due to mental illness may be exempted from criminal penalties but should receive medical treatment supervised by his or her guardians. If necessary, the government will force them to be institutionalized.

In practice, however, institutionalization is loosely enforced due to lack of facilities and detailed protocols. Mentally ill offenders are sometimes sent to normal psychiatric hospitals. Incidents of assaults committed by such patients, fatal in some cases, have been reported from time to time.

The draft regulation clarifies the responsibilities and power of psychiatric detention facilities.

The facilities are allowed to place patients under confinement or use constraints when they may harm themselves or other people, but it should be done for medical reasons rather than as a punishment, according to the draft.

They are banned from forcing patients to work or conducting surgeries on them.

If the regulation enters law, patients will be reviewed within 30 days after the first-year term at the facilities and reviewed again every six months. If they are considered stable and harmless, the facilities will apply to the court for releasing or transferring them.

If a patient dies during detention, the court and police should be informed along with the patient's guardians. Police will investigate the cause of death, and the guardians and families can go to prosecutors if they disagree with the investigation outcome.
Nie Shubin

China's top court has decided to retry a case in which a 21-year-old man was sentenced to death and executed after a review of the case found the original conviction for rape and homicide was based on insufficient evidence.

The Supreme People's Court designated Shandong High People's Court to conduct the review of the case, and it concluded there was not enough evidence to prove Nie Shubin was guilty of the crimes.

In its report, Shandong People's High Court raised serious questions about the times involved, the tools used and the cause of death, the Supreme People's Court said in a statement released on Wednesday.

Nie, a mechanical worker in Shijiazhuang, capital of North China's Hebei province, was executed in 1995 after being convicted of raping and murdering a 38-year-old woman in the city in 1994.

However, in 2005, a man named Wang Shujin was arrested for another rape and murder, and while in detention, the then-38-year-old confessed that he had committed the crimes that cost Nie his life.

Wang was later convicted of the crimes and sentenced to death.

Wang's confession led to the Supreme People's Court's decision to review the case.

According to a statement by Shandong People's High Court, the review took a year and a half and the deadline was postponed four times, due to the complexity of the case and the fact that the trial took place many years ago.

However, the review found no evidence that Nie had been tortured to give a confession, the court said.

Zhou Guangquan, a law professor at Tsinghua University, said that the decision to retry the case shows the respect to the law, the facts and the proper implementation of procedures.

Ruan Chuansheng, a criminal lawyer who has been following the case from Shanghai, said strictly implementing judicial process and respecting evidence is the key to preventing judicial flaws and mistakes.

Wang Wanqiong, a criminal lawyer in Sichuan province, said that the retrial will be a milestone in Chinese judicial construction.

"This will be the first time that China's top court will retry a controversial case that was tried so long ago," she said.

Details of the retrial will be made public, according to the statement by the Supreme People's Court.

Contact the writers at wangxiaodong@chinadaily.com.cn
She would be the first woman to be candidate of a major party to run for presidential post

Hillary Clinton has reached the number of delegates needed to capture the Democratic US presidential nomination, according to tallies by two US media outlets, as she and rival Bernie Sanders face off on Tuesday in contests in six states.

A former senator and US secretary of state, Clinton would be the first woman to ever be the presidential candidate of a major political party in the country's history.

But Sanders has vowed to keep up the fight in what has been a long and antagonistic Democratic primary race.

Sanders, a US senator from Vermont who calls himself a Democratic socialist, has commanded huge crowds spilling out of parks and stadiums, galvanizing younger voters with his promises to address economic inequality.

'Rush to judgment'

But Clinton has continued to edge out Sanders, particularly among older voters with longer ties to the Democratic party. Her less lofty promises focus on improving upon the policies of her fellow Democrat and former boss, President Barack Obama.

After The Associated Press and NBC on Monday night said Clinton had clinched the number of delegates needed to win her party's nomination, a Sanders campaign spokesman castigated what he said was the media's "rush to judgment".

Under Democratic National Committee rules, most delegates to the party's July 25-28 convention are awarded by popular votes in state-by-state elections.

But the delegate count also includes "superdelegates" - party leaders and elected senators, members of Congress and governors - who can change their mind at any time.

For that reason, the DNC has echoed the Sanders campaign, saying the superdelegates should not be counted until they actually vote at the Philadelphia convention.

But that has not deterred the news media. The AP and NBC reported that Clinton reached the 2,383 delegates needed to become the presumptive Democratic nominee with a decisive weekend victory in Puerto Rico, a US territory, and a burst of last-minute support from superdelegates.

"We are on the brink of a historic, historic, unprecedented moment," Clinton told a rally in Long Beach, California.

"But we still have work to do, don't we? We're going to fight hard for every single vote, especially right here in California."

But Michael Briggs, Sanders' spokesman, dismissed the AP and NBC tallies.

"Our job from now until the convention is to convince those superdelegates that Bernie is by far the strongest candidate against Donald Trump," he said.

On Tuesday, voters went to the polls in California, New Jersey, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and New Mexico as the states held the last major primaries of the race.

Trump campaign 'is wasting time'

Donald Trump is wasting precious time, some Republican critics argue.

By now, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee was supposed to have stationed senior staff in battleground states, moderated his fiery message to attract new supporters and begun raking in big money.

Instead, he's spending more time right now picking fights and settling scores than delivering a message that might help draw voters.

Five long weeks since he defeated his last remaining GOP rival, Republicans fear the New York billionaire has squandered his head start. As Democrat Hillary Clinton eyes her party's nomination, Trump's campaign has been roiled by infighting, his battleground strategy is lagging.

"I am getting bad marks from certain pundits because I have a small campaign staff. But small is good, flexible, save money and number one!" Trump said on Monday.

Some Republican supporters also fear his unwillingness to budge from a flame-throwing formula targeting immigrants and Muslims that worked so well in the GOP primary.

Case in point: Trump's recent comments about the Mexican heritage of the judge presiding over a case against his now-defunct Trump University. The Republican businessman has refused to back down from his claim that the judge's ethnic background creates a conflict of interest, drawing scorn from across the GOP as well as the legal community.

Republican South Dakota Senator John Thune said on Monday "it's not a good place to be" for Republicans to have to repeatedly explain their presumptive nominee's statements. "There are I think conversations going on with the campaign, and hopefully that message is being clearly conveyed," Thune said. "But he's going to have to adapt. This is not working for him. They were inappropriate comments."

Trump also has been slow to adapt to other contours of an expansive general election. Since Texas Senator Ted Cruz dropped out of the race last month, he has spent precious little time in the states that will likely decide the election.

He has ignored Florida and Ohio, preferring to spend the bulk of the past two weeks in California - a state that hasn't supported a Republican presidential candidate in nearly three decades.

Supporters cheer as Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at a rally on Sunday in Sacramento, California. John Locher / Associated Press

(China Daily 06/08/2016 page12)
British writer Greg McKeown was in Beijing to promote his book Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Almost 80 years ago, Chinese writer Lin Yutang wrote in his book The Importance of Living, that: "The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials," a line which resonates with British writer Greg McKeown, as both of them advocate a life of focus.

McKeown is a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, a columnist for Harvard Business Review, a public speaker and the CEO of his company, which provides leadership training for companies such as Apple, Google and Facebook.

Asked to describe himself in one word, McKeown says he's an "essentialist", and all that he does is to share "essentialism", a term he coined, which he says refers to a systematic discipline for discerning what is essential in people's work and lives, and then eliminating everything that is not, so that people can focus on things that really matter.

In late May, McKeown was in Beijing to promote his book Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, which was published in 2014 in the United States, and then translated and published in China in April.

The book was the result of a question"Why is it that otherwise successful people and companies don't break through to the next level?" McKeown tells China Daily.

McKeown says the question was on his mind since he left England to study communications in the US, and also as he co-authored an earlier book Multiplier, in which he analyzed more than 150 leaders to find out how the best leaders make everyone around them smarter.

"The right focus leads to success, which leads to options and opportunities, which undermine the very thing that led to success in the first place," says McKeown.

"Success has become a catalyst for failure, because it makes people fall into 'the indisciplined pursuit of more'."

Instead of the commonly accepted wisdom that if one works hard enough, you can have it all, his philosophy of essentialism proposes that the pursuit of "less but better".

In his book, McKeown juxtaposes the mindsets of non-essentialists and essentialists through charts, encouraging people to shift their thinking from "I have to" to "I choose to", from "It's all important" to "only a few things really matter", and from "how can I fit it all in" to "what are the trade-offs?"

Using examples of successful companies and personal anecdotes, the book shows three stagesexplore, eliminate and executeto live out the essentialist way of life.

McKeown says he can't forget how seven years ago when his daughter was about to be born, he was asked to attend a meeting with a client.

"To my shame, while my wife lay in hospital with our hours-old baby, I went to the meeting," says McKeown in the book.
The Confucius Institute at Abomey-Calavi University in Benin has celebrated the Chinese Dragon Boat Festival, a traditional Chinese festival that falls on June 9 this year.

On the occasion, four mixed teams of the Confucius Institute learners competed their talent on Monday in activities such as tug of war, picking up ping-pong balls with chopsticks as well as games with prizes that attracted also people from neighboring communities.

"These events are purposed to ensure, in the Institute, the intermingling of learners from different backgrounds", Confucius Institute principal Segbo Julien said.

He explained that conditions are not met for now in Benin to celebrate the dragon boat festival in pure Chinese tradition.

Thus, games are created to familiarize students with this traditional festival, officially named Duan Wu Festival in China.

Learners at Confucius Institute are mostly from French speaking as well as English speaking countries of the West African sub-region.

The festival falls on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese lunar calendar and commemorates the death of Qu Yuan, a poet and minister from the Warring States period (475-221 BC) who committed suicide in the Miluo River in central China.

Racing of traditional longboats originated from the fishermen who raced to save the fallen statesman, and has become the centerpiece celebration of the Dragon Boat Festival nowadays. On this day, traditional Chinese food called zong zi, which is made of glutinous rice stuffed with different fillings and wrapped in bamboo, reed, or other large flat leaves, is eaten.
[Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Starting June 16, six French bands will tour in seven Chinese cities to charm Chinese audiences with their nouveau beats for this year's Fete de la Musique.

The bands include Nach, Success, Marie-Madeleine, Smokey Joe and the Kid, Last Train, Bon Voyage. They will play music that ranges from psychedelic to funk, electric to rock.

Several Chinese bands will join their tour, including electric rock band Pet Conspiracy and indie band Omnipotent Youth Society.

Fete de la Musique was launched by former French Ministry of Culture Jacque Lang in 1982. Now in its 34th year, the music festival has been to over 450 cities in about 100 countries.

This year, the festival will travel to Beijing, Shanghai, Ningbo, Wuhan, Chengdu, Shunde and Shenyang. The 10th anniversary in China will be celebrated in Wuhan in Central China's Hubei province.

The festival will last till June 21. Live performances will be on music.pptv.

For more information, click on the Fete's homepage.
Fujian Pilot Free Trade Zone is looking to innovation, March 6, 2015. [Photo/IC]

According to the accession articles China signed on its entry to the World Trade Organization, China should be granted market economy status in December this year.

The accession articles also stipulate that WTO members should abandon the surrogate country approach used in the past for anti-dumping investigations against China and any investigation should be based on product prices or production costs in China itself.

Nevertheless, since the Anti-dumping Agreement the United States and the European Union have signed is applicable to investigations against China, the surrogate country price clause contained in it is theoretically also applicable to China.

However, the agreement stipulates that the clause only applies to countries whose trade is completely or essentially monopolized.

China's current economic and trade regime is far from what it was in its planned economy era, so the agreement doesn't apply.

Furthermore, the agreement's "special condition", which stipulates that an anti-dumping investigation against a country still can use the prices from a third country if the investigated country has no reference prices or its prices are too low, also offers an excuse for some countries to continuously use the surrogate country approach.

Given that whether to grant China market economy status is more based more on their domestic political factors than legal or technical standards, it is unlikely that the US and the EU will extend China such a treatment in 2016. However, the US and the EU are obliged to stop the surrogate country practice in the anti-dumping investigations against China.

Prior to their abolition of such a practice, what China should do is keep a rational, objective and calm mind and do whatever it can do improve its market economic environment.--China Youth Daily
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."
A man is passing by the examination hall of professional titles.[Photo/IC]

Reform of the professional title system requires adjustment of the responsibility and power pattern between the government and society, which is a fundamental change of the social management system. Beijing Youth Daily commented on Tuesday:

At an executive meeting of the State Council, China's cabinet, on Wednesday, it was decided to further cancel a batch of licenses for professional titles. That brings the number of professional titles that have been abolished to 319.

It indicates the government's determination to streamline administration and delegate power to the lower levels, as well as a change in the working style of government, which has been widely praised by the public.

At the end of 2011 there were more than 1,100 profession titles granted by governments at various levels, which means that more than 780 professional titles still exist.

The reform has canceled a series of "bizarre professional titles", which few people applied for, but the professional titles of popular positions are what the reform should focus on.

Premier Li Keqiang has pointed out that too many professional titles create red tape, which restrains the public's entrepreneurship and employment, and the primary reason that the relevant authorities are unwilling to cancel them is that the licenses bring them economic benefits and even breed rent-seeking.

In many fields the licenses for professional titles have become industry chains that include selling textbooks, holding training classes, organizing tests and issuing certificates.

It's not difficult to imagine the resistance cancelling these professional titles may face, considering the huge interests they may bring.

In general, except for some specific professions that require unified standards, such as doctors, lawyers and accountants, the qualifications of the majority of professions should be decided by the market.

The government should clearly define the boundary of government and society in terms of responsibility and power, and further promote the reform.
Senior high school students play with balloons to reduce stress at No 2 High School in Hengshui, North China's Hebei province, May 22, 2016. With the three-day 2016 college entrance exam beginning on June 7, students have entered the sprint stage of their studies. [Photo/Xinhua]

This year's national college entrance exam, or gaokao, begins on Wednesday. A majority of the students who sit the exams will pass it and enter a college, and the question now is whether they will gain admittance to a top university. For higher scorers in the exams enrollment in a top university will be a major turning point in their lives. China Youth Daily commented on Tuesday:

There are a large number of high school graduates but only a limited number of top universities. Only a few among the large number of examinees will get the offer to study at leading universities.

In 2015, only about 5 percent of the 9.16 million registered examinees were enrolled at one of the prestigious higher education institutions.

Aside from the better quality education resources these top universities offer, one of the reasons for the intense competition to be enrolled is the strong alumni network, which can be of great benefit throughout life.

Employers, too, look first to graduates from the most prestigious universities.

But it should be noted, too, that the university a student attends is just one of the factors on their career path. It will not decide the fate of every student's entire life.

Students that go to non-elite universities can still find success through their own efforts.

And of course, if someone from an elite university does not fare well that will reflect badly on them.
Qin Xiaohui, 6, helps his grandfather with farm work in a field in Balie village of Dahua Yao autonomous county, South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region on July 5. Qin looks forward to the day when he is bigger and can help his grandfather more on the farm.[Photo/Xinhua]

A recent executive meeting of the State Council, China's Cabinet, laid out a series of policy measures to provide better care for needy children. Comments of some media outlets follow:

Xinhuanet.com:

Despite continuous improvements in the policies to protect children's rights and interests and improve their living conditions, some children still face safety and living problems because of physical disabilities, their families' financial situation, or lack of effective custody. Providing necessary care for these minors is the collective responsibility of the families, the government and society.

A report jointly published by the All-China Women's Federation and the National Health and Family Planning Commission last year says 3.3-4 million children under the age of 6 still live in dire poverty. The high number shows the country needs to make greater efforts to ease such children's problems. The government should classify these children into different categories and provide them with appropriate care and targeted aid so that an all-inclusive social security network for children can be woven.

The State Council meeting has taken a big step in this direction; the measures it has adopted include providing better medical insurance for physically challenged children, or those suffering from serious diseases and offering 12-year free education to physically challenged children from poor families, and creating a better living environment for needy children.

Children are the hope of a nation. To help children, especially those facing difficulties, grow up healthily is a binding responsibility of the entire society.
To the Editor:

Re "Playing Chicken in the South China Sea" (editorial, May 21):

China is exercising its legitimate rights by upholding the sovereignty of our islands in the South China Sea.

China's sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and Xisha Islands was restored after World War II, in accordance with the Cairo Declaration and the Potsdam Proclamation. But in the 1970s, certain countries started to illegally occupy some islands and reefs of the Nansha Islands.

Negotiation between states directly concerned is the only way to resolve the disputes. China has already signed border treaties through peaceful negotiations with 12 out of 14 land neighbors. The same practice should be adopted in the South China Sea.

While pursuing diplomatic resolution, China is exercising restraint. The construction activities on the islands and reefs are all for peaceful purposes and do not affect in any way freedom of navigation and overflight.

By not accepting or participating in the arbitration unilaterally initiated by the Philippines, China is acting in accordance with international law.

Regarding the incident raised in the editorial, our information indicates that Chinese military aircraft followed from a safe distance and monitored the American plane carrying out close reconnaissance in Chinese coastal waters. Our operation was completely compliant with safety and professional standards. The attempt at intimidation by American military aircraft in the South China Sea, however, was not.

The South China Sea should not be turned into a geopolitical chessboard. We hope the United States, instead of flexing muscles, could play a responsible and constructive role to promote dialogue and negotiation.

Zhu Haiquan

Washington

The writer is press counselor and spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in the United States.

The article was originally published on New York Times website on May 31.
Tibetan women dance on an outdoor stage in front of the snow mountains in the Hailuogou scenic area. The picture is among the exhibits of the ongoing photo exhibition that's touring Beijing's universities. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Glaciers. Forests. Snowcaps.

Hot springs.

These are the charms Sichuan province's Hailuogou hopes will coax college students to visit.

"College students are one of the tourism market's most-active segments," says Wang Guangzhi, deputy director of the Hailuogou scenic area's administration.

"Targeting them will enhance our recognition nationwide."

Students will also get roughly a third off Hailuogou's 92-yuan entrance fee.

[Photo provided to China Daily]

The administration is hosting a photo exhibition that will this month tour Beijing's Tsinghua University; Peking University; Beijing Forestry University; Beijing International Studies University; and Central University of Finance and Economics.

Over 100 photos portray Hailuogou's landscapes, customs and rare wildlife.

It's intended to lure people from big cities to relax in nature, organizers say.

The scenic spot's administration signed a memorandum with Beijing International Studies University on the exhibition's opening day.

It will arrange for students to engage in service learning at the site and will set up a fund for students majoring in ethnic tourism.

It has received more than 30 interns from Tsinghua since August.

[Photo provided to China Daily]

"They study biodiversity and ecology," Wang says.

The peak attraction is the 7,500-meter-high Gongga Mountainthe park's highest. It's surrounded by 45 snowcaps over 6,000 meters above sea level.

"The sun shining on the mountains' snow is breathtaking," Wang says.

Especially in winter.

Seventy-five glaciers plate Hailuogou. The longest is nearly 15 kilometers. A 6-km glacier glazes a primitive forest, creating contrasts of green and white.

Hailuogou's icefall is the country's largest at 1,100 meters wide and 1,080 meters high.

Geothermal springs steam in places hidden in ancient forests in the shadows of snowy mounts and glaciers. Visitors can soak in pools that exhale vapor amid pine boughs that heave with snow.

[Photo provided to China Daily]

But the area's allure extends beyond natural splendors to include cultural components.

Hailuogou is home to 13 ethnicities, including Tibetan and Yi people.

About 700,000 outsiders visited last year, up 20 percent from 2014.

Most drove, Wang says.

Officials expect over 1 million arrivals by the end of 2017, when the expressway connecting Ya'an to Kangding is completed.

Then this natural wonder will naturally acquire a higher place on travelers' itineraries.

Perhaps especially among young explorers.

Related:

Traditional incense production in Nyemo county, China's Tibet
All in Caravaning 2016 will run from June 18 to 20 at Beijing Exhibition Center. The annual expo serves as an important trade platform for China's caravan industry and offers information on global trends.

About 320 exhibitors from home and abroad will demonstrate products including caravans and mobile homes, accessories, extension components and campsites.

There are colorful activities for people to exchange their views about all aspects of the industry. Some domestic and overseas camper-van companies will unveil advanced technology and new caravan models. The annual China Caravan Ambassador Awards will be held for those who love to travel in their camper van.

During the expo, the China National Travel Service (HK) Group Corporation will sell its book A Guide to China's Caravanning Life, claimed to be the first guidebook of its kind in China. The corporation is planning to expand its chain campsites named "318" to 25 to 30, covering provinces such as Guizhou and Gansu along the national 318 highway. Road-tripping tourists can rent a car or camper van at one campsite and return it at another campsite.

"More and more Chinese are starting to enjoy their caravan life. As the campsites are being more well-equipped, caravanning will be a trend for Chinese travelers," says Dai Dong, sales director of Yunnan Outdoor RV Camping Tourism Development Co Ltd. The company offers customized inbound and outbound itineraries for caravan fans.

The Yunnan provincial government wants to make the province a friendly destination for road trips. It plans to build 100 RV campsites by 2018.

Related:

A wild place that wields a natural youth appeal

Past the greenest pastures
Britain's Prime Minister, David Cameron attends a press conference on the European Union Referendum, in London, Britain, June 7, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

LONDON - British Prime Minister David Cameron held an unscheduled press conference Tuesday to denounce what he described as "complete untruths" from Brexit campaigners.

He called on millions of young people to register to vote in the June 23 EU referendum before a midnight deadline, and urged Britons to back his call to stay in the European Union.

The Vote Leave group responded to Cameron's attack, saying he was in a blind panic over the referendum.

In the latest poll published Tuesday, ICM put Leave at 48 percent, against Remain's 43 percent. Other polls Tuesday put Leave ahead, but by smaller margins.

Cameron said his decision to hold the unscheduled briefing came after watching reports of related campaigns on national television programs.

In a ferocious attack, he accused the Vote Leave group of telling "complete untruths" to the British public, particularly the claim that Britain's EU rebate was at risk.

The Leave campaign is fronted by a number of senior members of his Conservative Party, including his own Justice Secretary Michael Gove and former Mayor of London Boris Johnson who now sits as an MP in the House of Commons.

Cameron said the Remain campaign was supported by credible independent experts who had warned about the consequences of Britain's exit from the EU.
Argentina's Minister of Foreign Affairs Susana Malcorra, a UN secretary-general candidate, meets with the press after UN's second round of public audition in New York on June 7, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations on Tuesday kicked off a second round of public audition with another two new candidates for the position of next UN secretary-general.

The two candidates are Slovakia's Minister of Foreign Affairs Miroslav Lajcak and Argentina's Minister of Foreign Affairs Susana Malcorra.

They are expected to present themselves in front of representatives of UN member states and answer questions publicly from the representatives as well as from the civil society, which will be broadcast through website.

Lajcak was European Union special representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2007 to 2009. He also once served as Slovak ambassador to Japan from 1994 to 1998.

Malcorra was chef de cabinet to the UN executive office, appointed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in 2012, prior to her current post. She also served as UN under-secretary-general for Department of Field Support which is responsible for delivering logistical support to UN peacekeeping missions worldwide.

From April 12-14, nine UN secretary-general candidates have gone through the public audition of this kind.

The nine candidates are: Montenegro's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Igor Luksic, Director-General of UNESCO Irina Bokova, former Prime Minister of Portugal Antonio Guterres, former Slovenian President Danilo Turk, former Croatian Foreign Minister Vesna Pusic, former Moldovan Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration Natalia Gherman, Administrator of UN Development Program Helen Clark, former Foreign Minister of Macedonia Srgjan Kerim, former Foreign Minister of Serbia Vuk Jeremic.

Under the UN Charter, the UN secretary-general shall be appointed by the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council. In practice, the 15-member Security Council and its five permanent members will make the final choice and send a single candidate to the General Assembly for approval.

Ban is going to conclude his term at the end of 2016. The council's decision to select the top leader of the world organization shall come late this year.
It's beginning to seem like a big game of chess, played with very rare and priceless ivory pieces.

On June 2, just before US Secretary of State John Kerry and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, took off for top-level bi-lateral meetings in Beijing, the federal government issued new regulations that will enact a near total ban on the domestic sale of African elephant ivory.

Just as presidents Xi Jinping and Barack Obama vowed to do back in September.

When it comes to lobbing a ball into an opponent's court, timing is everything.

Then Monday, with the US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue in full swing, Yan Xun, an official with China's State Forestry Administration, announced that Beijing will publish a timetable by the end of the year to terminate its domestic commercial trade in ivory.

Both sides had caveats. While it has been illegal for decades to import African elephant ivory for commercial use and to export raw ivory in the US, the new rule focuses largely on sales inside the US, restricting its sale across state lines.

Fish and Wildlife Service officials said, however, that once illegal ivory enters the market, it becomes nearly indistinguishable from the legal ivory used in products such as knife handles, billiard cues and furniture, so it was necessary to put more restrictions in place. The rule also prohibits the export of ivory products, with the exception of antiques.

Still, the US delegation was able to say that Obama had fulfilled his pledge to nearly ban domestic ivory sales and could challenge Xi to do the same, said US Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe.

The US rule also allows for some exceptions to the ban on interstate sales  musical instruments, pieces of furniture and firearms that have less than half a pound of ivory and so long as the ivory accounts for less than half the value and volume of the object. (Anything more than 100 years old is also exempt.)

Bewilderingly, the rule also allows for the import of sport-hunted African elephant trophies, but limits the number to two per hunter annually.

Ashe explained the logic of how that helps save elephants. Hunting brings an economic value to elephants, which can be notoriously difficult neighbors, especially for subsistence farmers trying to raise crops elephants may have an appetite for.

But if that animal has a cash value, the thinking goes, locals will try to figure out a way co-exist with rather than be rid of them.

Yan said that while China applauded the US ivory ban and looked forward to hearing how its implementation goes, "China also hopes the US will further reduce or ban the trophy hunting of elephants, as well as reduce commercial activities such as auctions of ivory and ivory products, which push up prices and trigger more elephant poaching."

Various environmental and animal rights groups are largely supportive of the new rule.

"This US ban should be the catalyst for China's own ban, be the model for nations in Asia and Africa, and finally break down the world's trade in ivory," Cristian Samper of the Wildlife Conservation Society told The Associated Press last week.

Samper told China Daily on Monday that China's announcement to issue a timetable has sent a message, and ivory markets are shutting down.

"As China, the United States and several African elephant range states unite to stop the killing, stop the demand and stop the trafficking, elephants now have a fighting chance," Samper said.

Rosalind Reeve, a senior adviser to the Franz Weber and David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation, said the announcement was a step in the right direction, but still "it's not enough".

"To stop the killing of elephants it needs to be followed by decisive action to shut down the global ivory trade at the CITES conference later this year. China and the US can play an important role in achieving this by backing proposals by countries in the African Elephant Coalition to list all elephants in CITES Appendix I, giving them the highest international protection, and to close all domestic ivory markets," Reeve told China Daily.

"Good news for elephants keeps coming," Iris Ho, program manager for wildlife at Humane Society International, told China Daily in an email. "The message is clear. Elephants are iconic animals that belong in the wild, not to churn out dispensable luxury goods to satisfy one's vanity or show off one's status. China has within its power to put a death knell to the deadly ivory trade."

One sobering thought. The population of African elephants in the wild is estimated at 470,000. If they were disappearing at the rate they were from 2010 to 2012  an average of one every 15 minutes or 91 a day  since Xi and Obama agreed to the total ivory ban last September, we would be about 23,000 elephants deeper into the end game.

Contact the writer at chrisdavis@chinadailyusa.com.
Heart attacks in China killed 3.7 people per 100,000 in 2001, and the number of deaths increased to 15.8 per 100,000 in 2011. To lower that death rate, the American Heart Association and the Chinese Society of Cardiology announced that they will develop an emergency medical system and a hospital-based program to improve the care for heart attack victims in the country.

The announcement, made on Monday, came amid high-level talks between the two countries during the US-China High-Level Consultation on People-to-People Exchange in Beijing. It also comes a year after an agreement between the Chinese government and the American Heart Association (AHA) to advance cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training and cardiovascular science in China.

Heart disease, which can lead to heart attack and a stroke, is becoming a major health concern in China and the rest of the developing world, according to Dr Sidney Smith, professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina and a former president of the AHA.

"Heart attacks accounted for 3.7 deaths per 100,000 people in China in 2001," he told China Daily in an interview from Beijing. "That increased to 15.8 deaths per 100,000 in 2011."

More than 2 million Chinese suffer a stroke every year, noted Smith. The World Health Organization (WHO) said about 230 million in China suffer from cardiovascular disease. The WHO also said cardiovascular events like a heart attack are predicted to increase by 50 percent between 2010 and 2030 based on population aging and growth in China.

Smith said this agreement will enable China to learn about the best practices in the US that played an important role in reducing deaths from cardiovascular disease by 39 percent during a 10-year period starting in 2001.

Smith said like the US, China will learn that when cardiac arrest occurs, seconds count and immediate use of CPR can double or triple a victim's chance of survival.

"We believe this agreement will enable over 100 million Chinese to learn how to perform CPR," said Smith."This agreement is filled with many opportunities for China to learn about best practices when it comes to not only treating heart disease but also in preventing it," he added.

The AHA and China's cardiology society will implement a system of quality-care improvements for heart attack victims.

Hospital networks and emergency-medical systems in Tianjin, Suzhou, Beijing and Shanghai will be part of the initial collaborative that will collect, share and report back on data regarding intervention designs, new and revised protocols, and implementation strategies for systems of care.

A public awareness campaign will educate consumers about the signs and symptoms of heart attacks and strokes and the importance of getting someone to the hospital quickly.

Contact the writer at paulwelitzkin@chinadailyusa.com.
Tax rates, strict ABC rules may be revisited in 2017 General Assembly session



Caroline Delaney leads an Americans for Prosperity sponsored tour of Muddy River Distillery, telling North Carolina lawmakers about how ABC liquor regulations make it difficult to operate in the market. (CJ photo by Kari Travis)

BELMONT Three years ago, Robbie and Caroline Delaney quit their jobs to become full-time rum distillers. But while their Muddy River Distillery has done well, the couple pays 59 percent of their revenue in state and federal liquor taxes, and must comply with a long list of strict ABC rules - causing them to wonder if their entrepreneurial move was worth the hassle.Robbie, a former construction worker who now runs his business without the support of any outside investors, said he works constantly, and adds, "I'd like to not pay [nearly] two-thirds of my revenue in taxes." He said the salary for him and his wife "comes off the last month's revenue for the whole year. We work for the government, and then we skim a little bit off the top."The Delaneys aren't the only owners of North Carolina's fledgling family-run distillery concerns to run into burdensome regulations from the state's Alcoholic Beverage Control board. But these small-scale distillers have found several advocates in the General Assembly who hope that removing unnecessary barriers to entrepreneurship can allow legal distilleries to join the state's noted craft breweries and wineries as homegrown success stories.The idea to open a distillery was first hatched in 2011 when Robbie, who had been traveling extensively for work, read an article about how Charlotte's microbreweries were growing, and about how craft distilleries were about to become popular in the area as well.He latched onto the idea and decided to build a still of his own.said Caroline, a former accountant who now handles Muddy River's business affairs. "I was like, 'You're crazy! Don't blow anything up. I have no idea how this works.' And he wanted to scale up. He thought it was fun, ... and he really fell in love with the process."Robbie experimented with recipes for a few months before the couple decided to find a different location for his still. They secured federal and state permits and began to distill rum legally on the weekends - in a 500-square-foot space inside an old mill they'd discovered on Craigslist.It was during that time that they began to realize the severity of North Carolina's alcohol regulations.Caroline said.Though securing sales through individual ABC stores is difficult, a recently passed law that enables distilleries to sell one bottle per person per year to onsite customers has made it easier for Muddy River to make money on premises, Caroline said.Prior to the law's passage, customers would come to the distillery expecting to taste some rum and buy a few bottles, Caroline said, and were surprised to find they couldn't do either.Caroline said. She said they usually gave two tours every other weekend and then would have to send their potential customers to an ABC store.Since the law's passage, the couple has sold roughly $30,000 worth of rum from their distillery's bottle shop, and has increased the number of facility tours they offer, as well. But while that spike in sales is an improvement, state liquor taxes alone have seen $10,000 cut from that revenue stream, Caroline said.And taxes aren't the only thing that continue to burden small distilleries like Muddy River. ABC rules also require that Caroline and Robbie give a full tour of the distillery to customers prior to all tastings or alcohol sales.Caroline said.Robbie added.He said customers can't hang out and enjoy a cocktail, so, for many, it's not worth coming.Additionally, Caroline and Robbie are not allowed to sell bottles of liquor on their website, a rule that keeps them from distributing their product more widely.said Rep. Jason Saine, R-Lincoln, following a May 17 Muddy River Distillery tour hosted for state legislators by Americans for Prosperity, North Carolina.He said legislators need to find a way to streamline the process for distillers.he said.While there are no official proposals for ABC rule changes under consideration at the legislature, it's an area lawmakers say they are open to revisiting during 2017's General Assembly session."We thought the odds of getting the last bill through were really slim, but it flew through," said House Majority Leader Mike Hager, R-Rutherford, of last year's bill that allowed distilleries to begin selling limited quantities of product on premises. "So I think the odds [of further deregulation] are pretty good. The last bill we ran ... was the first sales of liquor outside an ABC store since Prohibition, so that kind of kicked the door open. But we want to open it up a little bit more, now."Hager also said the legislature likely would re-evaluate state liquor taxes as part of any future ABC regulation rollback.In the meantime, while Caroline and Robbie have joked about moving their distillery to South Carolina, they plan to continue making rum in North Carolina - even if it means they keep earning only $9.79 on a bottle that sells for $23.49.Robbie said.said Robbie. But he said they have hope the law will change.Saine said.
CAIRO - An EgyptAir flight to China was forced to make an emergency landing in Uzbekistan on Wednesday after the airline received a call claiming that there was a bomb on board, two Egyptian aviation officials said.

They said the plane, which was carrying 118 passengers, had been evacuated and searched. No explosives were found, they said.

"The plane is preparing to resume its journey. It was a hoax, thank God," said one of the officials.

EgyptAir has received a number of bomb threats since one of its aircraft crashed into the Mediterranean on May 19. All have turned out to be hoaxes.
Democratic US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton stands onstage with her husband former President Bill Clinton (L) after speaking during her California primary night rally held in the Brooklyn borough of New York, US, June 7, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

WASHINGTON-- Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Tuesday appealed to rival Bernie Sanders' supporters for party unity after declaring herself the first woman to be nominated by a major US political party.

"Let there be no mistake: Senator Sanders, his campaign and the vigorous debate that we've had about how to raise income, reduce inequality, increase upward mobility, have been very good for the Democratic Party and for America," said Clinton at a rally in New York.

"It never feels good to put our heart into a cause or a candidate you believe in and come up short. I know that feeling well," said Clinton in an attempt to connect with Sanders' supporters using her loss in 2008 primary race to Barack Obama.

"But as we look ahead to the battle that awaits, let's remember all that unites us," she added.

Clinton hit the 2,383-delegate threshold to clinch the nomination on Monday night according to a survey by the Associated Press which showed that Clinton had garnered enough support of superdelegates to claim the party nomination.

On Tuesday night, Clinton further expanded her lead over Sanders in delegate count, notching victories in New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota, three of the six states voting Tuesday.

Clinton also unleashed harsh criticism against presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump for his past incendiary remarks against women, Muslims and immigrants and took specific aim at his latest comments about a Hispanic-American judge because of his ethnic background.

"The stakes in this election are high and the choice is clear. Donald Trump is temperamentally unfit to be president and commander-in-chief," said Clinton.

Over the past week, Trump repeatedly accused US District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, the Indiana-born jurist overseeing a civil fraud suit in California involving Trump University, of being unfit for the case because he was of "Mexican heritage."

Trump implied that Curiel, the Hispanic-American judge, was biased against him because of Trump's proclamation that he would build a wall along the border between America and Mexico to halt illegal immigration.

Trump expanded his argument on Sunday, suggesting to several US cable news hosts that a Muslim judge are also unlikely to rule without bias in the case because of his previous call for a temporary ban on Muslim entering the United States.
China and the United States are expected to reach agreements in a number of major health cooperation programs between the two countries during two key meetings being held in Beijing, according to China's top health authority.

The eighth round of the China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue and the seventh annual China-US High-Level Consultation on People-to-People Exchange, being held in Beijing on Monday and Tuesday, are key communication platforms between the two countries. Senior delegates, including ministerial-level government officials from the two countries, will attend.

The health cooperation agreements expected to be reached cover a wide range of areas, including health personnel exchange; fighting cancer and chronic diseases, such as breast cancer and cardiovascular diseases and health and medical research, according to documents provided by the National Health and Family Planning Commission.

In addition, the two countries will also discuss further strengthening cooperation to improve global health security, and enhance exchange and cooperation on health in Africa, and jointly support African countries to improve public health systems, according to the commission.

The following are some of the expected outcomes of the two dialogues:

1.The two sides will hold a US-China health dialogue during the China-US High-Level Consultation on People-to-People Exchange to highlight ongoing US-China health cooperation and partnerships related to people to people exchange, and explore other potential collaboration.

2. Both sides will agree to continue to implement the 100 Hospital Senior Managers Visiting Program to further promote exchange and cooperation.

3. Both sides will agree to continue to implement and expand the 1,000 Young Health Professional Exchange Program to strengthen health personnel exchange, training and joint research.

4. The Goldman Sachs and All China Women's Federation will continue to promote breast cancer and cervical cancer awareness and enhance capacity at the provincial level this year, with support from the National Health and Family Planning Commission of China and the US Department of Health and Human Services.

5. The Chinese Academy of Medical Science and the National Institutes of Health are seeking to expand areas of collaboration and one of the priorities is jointly supporting the establishment of China's National Clinical Center.

6. The United States and China will agree to continue strengthening dialogue and exchange in healthcare reform.
Hillary Clinton at the Hillary for New York Primary Night Party in April, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

LOS ANGELES -- US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton led in Tuesday's party primary in California with 56 percent of the votes, according to results released after over 92 precincts partially reported as of early Wednesday morning.

Her rival Bernie Sanders got 43 percent and vowed to continue his campaign.

The California primary results further consolidated Clinton's chance to be the first female presidential nominee of a major party in US history.

However, Sanders told his supporters that he will not drop out of the race but will continue fighting for every vote and every delegate.

The 74-year-old Vermont senator told a full house of supporters in Santa Monica on Tuesday that he will continue to fight hard to win the primary in Washington, D.C. next Tuesday, which will be the last primary.

"And then we take our fight for social, economic, racial and environmental justice to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania," he said, in reference to the Democratic National Convention, where Sanders pins his hope to turn the tide by gaining more superdelegates' support.

Sanders has insisted throughout the campaign that he would stick to his presidential bid all the way to the convention, even if Clinton becomes the presumptive nominee.

As results rolled in after the voting ended at 8 pm local time (0300 GMT Wednesday), Clinton's percentage of votes dropped from about 63 percent at the beginning to 56 percent.

Simon Hu, an 18-year-old first-time Chinese-American voter, told Xinhua that he would vote for Clinton as it is not easy to have a female presidential candidate. "It will be a historic moment if Clinton can win," he said.

Clinton on Tuesday wrote on her Twitter account: "To every little girl who dreams big: yes, you can be anything you want - even president. Tonight is for you."

Though there are American media reports that according to a survey of superdelegates, Clinton had already earned the required number of delegates to claim the Democratic nomination, Sanders insisted that Clinton "will be dependent on superdelegates who do not vote until July 25 (at the party convention) and who can change their minds between now and then."

On the Republican side, with Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio dropping out, Donald Trump became the presumptive nominee. Trump got more than 75 percent of the votes in Tuesday's primary.

Also on Tuesday, California voters cast ballots for statewide and local offices, as well as one ballot initiative.

A record 17.9 million people have registered to vote in delegate-heavy California. It may take several days to have an accurate assessment of voter turnout.
Over 400 Chinese companies are expected to participate in the second China Trade Week exhibition set for June 29- July 1 in Nairobi.

This year's event is expected to further links initially developed last year, which the organizer, MIE Group, termed as "very successful". According to David Wang, managing director of MIE Events, about $30 million in business was signed up during the previous event.

"We have noted a significant uptake by Chinese organizations to exhibit in Kenya. We have doubled the number of Chinese firms this year," he said while addressing journalists today about the upcoming event that will be held at the Kenyatta International Conference Center.

The three-day event is designed to provide Chinese companies with a unique opportunity to meet, discuss and develop trading and business partnerships with both Kenyan entrepreneurs and the region's business community across various commercial sectors.

"I believe the event offers an ideal platform for African and Chinese manufacturers to negotiate. In line with the Belt and Road initiative proposed by President Xi Jinping, exhibitions are usually the first step towards realizing an industrial takeoff," Wang said.

He explained that after forging links during exhibitions, Chinese entrepreneurs would want to establish a presence in the local market to offer after-sales services. This will generate the need to set up industrial plants to ensure they are closer to the market and adapt quickly to emerging needs.

"We strongly believe that this event will provide an opportunity for Kenyan entrepreneurs to grow strong business partnerships with their Chinese counterparts and benefit from the industrial overcapacity and a wealth of knowledge from China, while sharing Kenyan business best practices with their Chinese counterparts," Wang said.

He is optimistic that more business deals will be realized this year. Daily sourcing seminars have been held to answer queries from local entrepreneurs on how best to avoid hurdles such as middlemen and limited sourcing and how to cut down costs of traveling to China.

"We are encouraging business to business meetings by asking prospective local clients to register online. This will ensure that we pair them to the right Chinese manufacturers and also avoid going through the long queues that we witnessed last year," said Michelle Meyrick, MIE's international events director. .

More than 16,500 people attended the exhibition last year and many complained of the limited time given for the exhibition. But MIE said this year's event will increase registration points from four to 14. To beef up security, 160 personnel have been hired, while volunteers also have been sourced to ease any communication barrier between the exhibitors and visitors.

"But most of the Chinese businesspeople understand and communicate in English very well. This will not be a problem. Moreover, their requirements for distributors are refined and hence we expect more deals to be struck easily this year," Wang said.

Most of the Chinese businesses sought local distributors who had established businesses and could purchase two to three 48-foot shipping containers worth of goods. Business people coming out of Nairobi found these requirements to be prohibitive.

Hoteliers are optimistic business will be booming during trade week, as more than 500 Chinese business people will be in town.

"We have booked most rooms in the nearby hotels. They are all full," Wang said.
Beijing urges Manila not to turn its back on agreements and end arbitration case

China told the Philippines on Wednesday, the door is always open to bilateral negotiation on their maritime disputes in the South China Sea.

In an official statement, the Foreign Ministry urged Manila to stop turning its back on its agreement to settle the disputes through negotiation and end the arbitral proceedings it had initiated against China.

It said that the two peoples had enjoyed a long friendship and the overall situation in the South China Sea had remained stable despite the disputes, and reminded Manila of its commitments to settle the disputes in a peaceful and friendly manner.

From the very start of the arbitral process, China has held to its right to refuse to accept or participate in the arbitration. The Foreign Ministry statement reiterated this saying China does not accept any means of dispute settlement imposed on it.

The Foreign Ministry statement urged Manila to "return to the right path" of settling their disputes through bilateral negotiation.

It was only after the Benigno Aquino administration initiated unilateral arbitration proceedings against China in 2013 that relations between the two countries deteriorated.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei, commenting on the statement on Wednesday, said "the Philippines unilaterally seeking arbitration is based on the dispute settlement procedures of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and it goes against international law, including UNCLOS."

On Tuesday, the All China Lawyers Association said in a statement that the Arbitral Tribunal "has wantonly expanded and exceeded its power", and China's refusal to be involved in the case is "a justifiable act".
In 1824, Rep. John Randolph from Virginia addressed Congress and condemned the high protective tariff that it was poised to pass, explaining how it would inflict great economic harm on the Southern states. He reminded his fellow congressmen that the Colonies had seceded from Great Britain for tax reasons which were minor compared to what the Northern-dominated Congress was doing to the South. He warned that the South could not stay in the union under such conditions and under such abuse. Congress went ahead and passed the tariff anyway.The tariff would increase two more times (Tariff of 1828 and then the Tariff of 1832, which led to the Nullification Crisis). While campaigning for president, Abraham Lincoln promised to raise the tariff to its highest rate ever. The money would be funneled to the industries and the bankers of the North. The South would be plundered to enrich the North. Lincoln, originally a Whig (and strong supporter of Henry Clay) believed in a strong federal government, high protective tariffs, business subsidies, federal funding of internal developments (for the North, to build industry), and a strong central bank. Lincoln may have changed parties but he never changed his ideology and his view of the role of government.When Lincoln was elected, six southern states seceded. When Lincoln refused to recognize their sovereign status, initiated hostilities at Fort Sumter, and then requisitioned troops to invade those states, 5 additional southern states seceded. They knew that the government was only interested in revenue and not preserving the Union. The government simply could not lose its revenue source and would not lose it. Lincoln used powerful, misleading, and most times, blatantly false language to convince the North and Congress that his position was the right one and then assumed unprecedented power to hijack the full resources of the federal government to wage his unconstitutional war and force the Southern states back into the Union.As I have said for years now: Lincoln waging war to save the Union is like a husband beating his wife to save the marriage.By the way, 4 slave states remained in the Union and slavery continued to be protected by the US Constitution and the government of the United States.The persistent narrative that the Civil War was fought over slavery is a merely concoction to deny generations of Americans the truth of why our country endured the bloodiest and most costly of all of its wars and to divert culpability away from our very government.
(Photo : Getty Images) The European Union Chamber of Commerce in China said in an annual business confidence survey that the environment is increasingly hostile toward foreign companies.

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The European Union Chamber of Commerce, which represents more than 1,600 European companies operating in China, expressed its growing concern over the "hostile" business environment for foreign companies in the country.



Meanwhile, similar concerns were raised during the high-level trade talks between the United States and China.



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In its annual business confidence survey, the chamber reported that the business environment for foreign companies in the world's second-largest economy is becoming "increasingly hostile" and that domestic players are being unduly favored by the country's regulations.



Pessimism among European companies operating in China reached an all-time high after 70 percent of the respondents claimed that they felt significantly less welcomed in China than in the previous years.



A majority of the companies that appeared to face this issue belonged to the information technology, chemical and telecommunication sector.



"I see a sea change. Pessimism is basically far more pronounced," said Chamber President Jorg Wuttke. Alluding to China's Third Plenum reforms, he added, "What has led to this pessimism is the unfulfilled promises."



Third Plenum reforms are designed to promote free markets. However, the survey shows that only 47 percent of European businesses are planning to expand their presence in China. The figure is down from 86 percent in 2013.



The U.S. has also urged China to simplify its regulatory measures.



Speaking ahead of a high-level meeting between U.S. and Chinese business leaders, U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew stated, "Concerns about the business climate have grown in recent years, with foreign businesses confronting a more complex regulatory environment and questioning whether they are welcome in China."



Despite being one of the fastest growing sources of foreign investment for the U.S., China has only $10.2 billion worth of FDI stock in the country.



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TagsEuropean Union Chamber of Commerce, Jorg Wuttke, china, China hostile environment, Europe, China hostile business environment, US
(Photo : Getty Images) China on Tuesday pledged to cut down on 'steel overcapacity' at the closing of the annual U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue.

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Beijing promised to cut down on "steel overproduction" on Tuesday as the U.S. and China wrapped up the two-day annual Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Beijing.



The issue of China's excessive dumping of cheap steel in America and other international markets was one of the main topics of discussion at the high-profile annual bilateral summit.



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U.S Treasury Secretary Jack Lew on the opening day had chided China for allowing a glut of steel and aluminum to flood across international markets.



China's assurance to cut down on 'steel glut' comes as a huge relief for American steel companies as their profits have tumbled over the past year due to an onslaught of cheap Chinese steel imports.



On the final day of the summit, Chinese officials also promised to avoid competitive devaluation of the Yuan and shut down unprofitable "zombie enterprises."



However, the U.S and China failed to make any tangible progress on the contentious issues of the South China Sea dispute and North Korea nuclear program during the two-day summit. Instead, officials from both nations accused each other of militarizing the contested South China Sea region.



Beijing also reiterated that it will not accept the ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) on the maritime territorial dispute. The ruling by the arbitration court in the Hague, Netherlands is expected in the coming weeks.



Although both countries agreed to put more pressure on North Korea to cease its controversial nuclear weapons program, they argued over the approach



While the U.S. favored a more confrontational approach, which includes enforcing more tough economic sanctions, China prefers to revive dialogue and staunchly opposes the deployment of the THAAD missile to South Korea.



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Tagschina, US, China and US, China steel overcapacity, China steel
(Photo : Sean Rayford/Getty Images) Trump has backtracked after his comments about Mexican judge Gonzalo Curiel attracted flak.

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Republican presidential aspirant Donald Trump said in a statement earlier this week that a Mexican or a Muslim judge taking over his University case should not be permitted as judges with such races or religious affiliation will be biased. Now, the GOP presumptive nominee has said his comments were "misconstrued."



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After facing a backlash and possibly hurting his chances for a White House bid, the real estate mogul has said that his comments about federal Judge Gonzalo Curiel were misinterpreted. Trump noted that he does not believe one's heritage will make them incapable of being impartial.



Trump said it is unfortunate that his comments have been misinterpreted as a "categorical attack against people of Mexican heritage." He pointed out that he is friends with and employs thousands of Mexican and Hispanic people.



Trump explained that legal issues in a civil case are normally heard in a neutral environment. However, in his case, given that he is the nominee for the Republican Party and his campaign centers on illegal immigration, jobs, and unfair trade, he feels that he will not receive a fair trial. He ended his statement noting that he will no longer comment on the matter.



In an interview with Fox News on Monday, Trump also explained that did not directly attack Curiel. He shared, "I don't care if the judge is Mexican or not. All I want him to do is give me a fair shake," he said.



Many Republican officials had openly criticized Trump's earlier comments about Curiel.



House Speaker Paul Ryan, who recently announced that he will be supporting Trump, said that he thinks the real estate mogul's statements are wrong and that Muslim judges are unacceptable. Republican Senator Mark Kirk also said on Tuesday that Trump does not have the temperament to hold the job of a president and he will not support the New York businessman.



Meanwhile, Senator Lindsey Graham called on Republicans to re-evaluate their support for Trump noting that if he maintains his attacks on the judiciary system, he is dishonoring his supporters.



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Tagsdonald trump, Mexican judge, Muslim judge, Trump University lawsuit, fair trial, misconstrued comments, Judge Gonzalo Curiel, Presidential elections 2016
(Photo : YouTube) A screengrab of the homepage of The Pirate Bay website.

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The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) reportedly sent a formal letter to the Public Interest Registry (PIR) seeking the suspension of the domain used by popular torrent website The Pirate Bay over copyright infringement.



Backing up its demands, the RIAA provided a list of several European courts decisions against the website, which includes a Swedish court's ruling against the Pirate Bay founders. Moreover, the RIAA claimed that the torrent website is in violation of several laws, and hopes that the PIR will suspend Pirate Bay's .org domain.



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"When, as in this case, there is overwhelming evidence of infringing and abusive activity on a domain, along with court orders from several jurisdictions with well-developed copyright jurisprudence, it cannot be the 'right thing' or 'in the community interest' to hold out for those decisions to be processed before the U.S. courts before taking action," the RIAA wrote in its letter to the PIR.



While PIR has not taken any action to take out Pirate Bay's official domain, it has forwarded the letter to Pirate Bay's registrar, the Canada-based EasyDNS.



EasyDNS chief executive officer Mark Jeftovic told Torrent Freak that he does not want his company to be labeled as a haven for torrent websites. However, he added that he is committed to committing due process, and for the time being, sees no valid reason for The Pirate Bay's domain to be taken down.



EasyDNS states in its abuse policy that it only covers Internet abuses, and that it does not cover infringement issues and copyright matters. This means that for the RIAA to have The Pirate Bay's domain suspended, it would have to present a local or foreign court order that is served through Ontario Sheriff's Office.



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TagsThe Pirate Bay, TPB, Torrent, torrent website, torrent tracker, RIAA, Recording Industry Association of America, The Pirate Bay domain
(Photo : Getty Images) Uber is losing about $1 billion a year because of the intense competition it faces in China with Didi Kuaidi.

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Ride-hailing company Uber recently rolled out a host of new features and perks in an attempt to appease its drivers.



The new features that have been integrated on Uber's app include faster payment options, fines for riders who make drivers wait too long and even discounts on Uber rides.



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The latest update is part of Uber's strategy to keep its drivers' morale high amid growing negativity from the driver community. Uber is currently facing several class-action lawsuits, protests and unionization demands from its drivers.



Earlier this month, a group of 5,000 drivers in New York filed a lawsuit against Uber accusing the company of stealing wages, as previously reported.



Through the new features, which will be available later this month, Uber intends to place more power in the hands of its drivers.



One of the new features allows Uber drivers to hold an incoming rider request, especially when they are about to get done with their shift. Currently, Uber drivers are required to manually decline a rider request until they finish their trip and drop the customer to his/her destination.



As part for Uber's effort to ease up payment transactions, the company has teamed up with GoBank. Uber drivers who apply for a GoBank Uber debit card can instantly redeem payments for each fare.



In a statement posted on Uber's official blog, the company said, "We've launched a pilot in a few cities to give drivers discounts on Uber rides. Drivers who are part of this pilot get 15 percent off an uberX ride for every 10 trips you complete in a week of 50 percent off an UberBLACK ride for every 20 trips done in a week."



Many analysts believe that the new features and perks rolled out by Uber is part of the company's strategy to ease up the growing tension among its drivers.



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TagsUber, Uber Drivers, Uber features, Uber update, Uber new featuers, Uber driver features, Uber perks, Uber driver perks
(Photo : Getty Images) China has called on the Philippines to stop the ongoing international arbitration on the South China Sea.

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China has called on the Philippines to halt its international court proceedings and settle their territorial dispute in the South China Sea region through bilateral negotiations.



"China urges the Philippines to immediately cease its wrongful conduct of pushing forward the arbitral proceedings, and return to the right path of settling the relevant disputes in the South China Sea through bilateral negotiation with China," the Chinese foreign ministry said.



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Beijing would not accept any forcefully imposed settlement or mediation by a third party in the disputed matter, China's foreign ministry said. The ministry also accused the Philippines of being provocative and unceremoniously closing doors on negotiations.



The Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague, Netherlands is expected to make a ruling on the South China Sea case in the coming weeks. The judgment is expected to go against China.



The international community has called on China to accept the court's judgment. However, international pressure has had the least impact as Beijing has categorically stated that it would neither participate in court proceeding nor accept the ruling.



The Philippines' President-elect Rodrigo Duterte has said he is open to bilateral dialogue with China to solve South China Sea dispute. Experts say that Duterte's friendly gesture has created an opening to revive dialogue with China. Duterte is expected to follow a more moderate policy in regards to the South China Sea than his predecessor Benigno Aquino, whose confrontational policy was instrumental in dragging China to arbitration court last year.



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(Photo : Chris McGrath/Getty Images) Japan is planning to offer green card to skilled workers to boost its work force.

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Japan is ready to issue permanent residency status for skilled immigrants in a bid to attract skilled foreign personnel to boost its lagging economy.



The government aims to boost the labor force of the understaffed nursing care market. More workers are also needed for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics construction projects. Additionally, Japan is opening opportunities to foreign students who might also want to work in the country after their studies.



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The country's ruling Liberal Democratic Party has reportedly included these measures on their platform for the upcoming parliamentary elections in July.



A party spokesman mentioned that "grave effects are emerging because Japanese people alone are insufficient for the workforce." A "large increase in foreign workers is anticipated." Officials see this as a bright promise amid the aging and declining Japanese population.



However, the government is yet to clarify the details for impending migration of unskilled workers.



The immigration debate stemmed from the failure of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government to achieve consistent economic growth. One of the causes of Japan's inability to get over the recession is because of its declining workforce, which continues to falter after the country lost almost a million people from 2010 to 2015. Japan now has 127 million people.



Traditionally, it was difficult for students or even workers to obtain a permit to get into the country, especially those who do not have specific skills. Thanks to its geographic location, Japan has successfully warded off unwanted migrants, avoiding immigration issues that continue to plague the U.S. and Europe. The difficulty of learning the language and adjusting to its culture are two other reasons why not too many are keen on moving there.



But with the native-born population declining, Japan's only hope is in luring skilled foreign workers.



Abe's proposal to grant permanent residency for skilled foreign workers has been hailed. However, there is no specification of how fast it would be approved.



Currently, skilled workers in the field of engineering or finance must be living in Japan for at least five years before they can apply for green card.



However, business leaders have urged the prime minister to loosen immigration rules in a bid to boost the country's economy. It was also suggested that technical interns are granted green cards. Technical interns who get to work in Japan, most of whom are from neighboring countries, are bound to return to their homeland after three or five years.



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(Photo : Getty Images) The tax arrangements for billionaire Christian Candys company CPC Group have reportedly been revealed in the Panama Papers and the company accused of paying almost no UK tax on a 27million land deal.



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Nick and Christian Candy are two billionaire British property developers who can transform any property that comes into their hands into a prized real estate asset.







The brothers, each having a net worth of $1.1 billion, have been reaping millions since the mid-1990s, after they started buying homes for cheap, flipping them for a part time job, then selling them for a profit.



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The first property they developed was an apartment in Earls Court in London, which they purchased for $177,534. They sold it later on for a $72,760 profit. The candy brothers have never looked back since.



Nick and Christian now deal with the super-rich, who have more money to spare on luxury homes. In fact, the homes they're selling come equipped with concierges, health clubs, and all the other luxuries that wealthy individuals would like to possess.



Christian, however, recently got involved in the Panama Papers scandal, which revealed that his company, CPC Group, paid zero U.K. tax on a $39.3 million land deal.



The Panama Papers accused the 41-year-old of buying and selling a plot near Windsor Castle using an offshore firm.



Christian's company was set up off Guernsey in 2004 for the sake of purchasing the Parkwood Estate in Surrey in 2007. The 77-acre field was Britain's most expensive property at the time and had the planning permission to build a "stunning Palladian style" 33,000 square foot, 10-bedroom house on the said land.



However, in 2012, Christian sold the property for $39.3 million without paying a dime in taxes using an offshore company.



Until four years ago, it was totally okay not to pay U.K. tax on properties owned offshore in tax havens, and because Parkwood Estate was owned by CPC Group, Christian was not liable to pay the tax.



"It is a matter of public record that Christian Candy established the Guernsey-based company CPC Group Limited in 2004," a spokesman for the Candy brothers told The Guardian.



"The acquisition you refer to was therefore subject to the Guernsey tax regime and all appropriate taxes have been paid," the spokesman added.



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Tagsnick and christian candy, candy brothers, christian candy, Panama Papers
(Photo : Getty Images) Jack ma has purchased another winery in France.

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Jack Ma has bought the Chateau Perenne in Blaye Cotes de Bordeaux, a move that expands his wine estates in the region.



Ma, the second richest man in China and founder of retail giant Alibaba, already owns the Chateau de Sours in Bordeaux, France.



The deal to purchase the estate was completed last month for about $18 million. With this, Ma added another 64 hectares to his already expansive French portfolio. Merlot grapes are the main plants grown on the property.



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Ma's first purchase of a winery in Bordeaux earlier this year caused some buzz among the locals.



The decision of the Chateau Perenne's owner to let go of the property is due to financial reasons. Bernard Magrez, who has owned Perenne since 1997, wants to focus more on making high-end wines.



"This continues our strategy of moving our emphasis away from wines that have a consumer price of 8 and below. I am still looking to buy further classified estates within the Bordeaux region," Magrez said in an interview with Decanter.com.



Perenne's estate is also where the grapes of Gerard Depardieu's wine Confiance grow. The French actor is a long time friend of Magrez.



With Ma's purchase of the estate, he gets to own a sprawling grounds with a lovely chateau built in the 1870s where both red and white wines are produced.



However, Ma did not directly purchase the property but through buying Chateau de Sours. He bought the property in Entre deux Mers earlier this year.



Chateau de Sours is now undergoing renovation. The neighboring buildings are set to be turned into Ma's home, while Chateau de Sours will be used for business operations.



Since his purchase of the Bordeaux estate in February 2016, Ma has organized a partnership with some Chinese owners in Bordeaux to form the negociant company, Cellar Privilege.



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Born: November 2, 1930, Died: June 4, 2016

Mr. William Henry "Mr. Bill" Trankle, age 85, a resident of Washington, NC stepped over to the next and final level of his glorious LIFE on Saturday June 4, 2016 at Vidant Beaufort Hospital.A graveside funeral service will be held 10:00 a.m. Wednesday, June 8, 2016 at Eastern Carolina veterans Cemetery in Goldsboro officiated by Pastors Danny and Angela Robertson. A memorial service will be held 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at River City Christian Center also officiated by Pastors Danny and Angela. The family will receive friends following the service at River City and other times at the home.Mr. Bill was born in a log cabin in Blaine County MT on November 2, 1930, son of the late George NMN Trankle and the late Jessie Maude McDonald Trankle. He was a 1949 graduate of Flathead County High School in Kalispell, MT. Following high school he served his country in the U.S. Navy on an aircraft carrier in Korea. A sailor at heart, he enjoyed sailing on his boat "Seeker" (one who seeks after the Holy Spirit). On February 20, 1954, he married the former Helen Marie Kearly who preceded him in death on September 25, 1972. On August 15, 1981, he married the former Jeanne Ann Overman who survives. For thirty-five years Mr. Bill was a court reporter in D.C, Maryland and Delaware.He has now been greeted by his Lord and Savior with the words, "Well done, good and faithful servant". There will be a joyful reunion and celebration with the saints who have preceded him and Jesus, Himself! This celebration will be eternal.His life was dedicated to his Lord and then to his family. Surviving along with his wife Jeanne, are his children: George Trankle of Glen Burnie, MD, Jim Trankle of Shadyside, MD, Keri Shoemaker and husband, Dagwood, of Edmond, OK and Scott Nunn and wife, Shannon, of Berlin, VT; seventeen grandchildren: Jessica, Briana, Valerie, Abigail, Wesley, William, Lydia, Caitlyn, Brynn, Edyn, Sydney, Olivia, Chloe, Jordan, Devin, Remington and Sofia; two great grandchildren: Carolina and Madelyn and his beloved River City Christian Center "family"! Mr. Bill was predeceased by a brother: Donald Trankle and two sisters: Polly Mulliner and Georgina Wymer.In lieu of flowers the family kindly asks for memorial contributions to be made to River City Christian Center, 3806 River Road, Washington, NC 27889 or to Jungle Aviation & Radio Service, J.A.A.R.S, P.O. Box 248 Waxhaw, NC 28173.Online condolences may be offered to the family by visiting www.paulfuneralhome.com.His calling was to serve and he did this freely and with abundant faith. He LOVED taking care of people and the list would take pages to show those he touched with ANYTHING he had to share. He "fought the good fight, kept the faith and finished the race"! He considered his life's goal accomplished: he had provided well for us all.Our beloved Bill Trankle danced off the planet with Jesus!!!Paul Funeral Home & Crematory of Washington is honored to serve Mr. Bill's family.
(Photo : UCSC) Grant Zazula of the Yukon Paleontology Program with the skull of a Pleistocene steppe bison.

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Fossilized bison fossils uncovered from the Ice Age apparently provide new early migration clues about migration patterns of prehistoric humans in North America.



A new study from the University of California, Santa Cruz reveals an ice corridor that became open some 13,000 years back as humans followed and travelled bison populations that originated from the north to the southern region of the ice sheet.



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Scientists have long believed how these early humans utilized and traversed through an ice free corridor that is located in the Rocky Mountains, where they journeyed from Alaska and Yukon and other parts of North America, however, this remained a mystery until now.



According to coauthor of the study, and professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, Beth Shapiro from UC Santa Cruz, when this corridor opened, there are already human populations living down south from there. These populations were bison hunters and in this new study, we assume that they followed the bison as they migrated towards the north and into this corridor.



For researchers to track down this movement of the bisons during the Ice Age, they utilized radiocarbon dating and the mitochondrial DNA remnants found from the bison fossils. The team was also able to identify where the bison populations originate, either from the north or southern regions of the ice sheet. Shapiro adds how past findings reveal that these bison populations from each end of the ice sheets were also genetically distinct during the time this corridor have opened to humans.



The results suggest how the corridor's southern region became open first as southern bison populations began to migrate north some 13,400 years ago, even before the corridor became fully accessible. Scientists also determined how this southward movement of the northern bison populations, which resulted in overlapping two populations along the corridor some 13,000 years ago.



Apart from this, this corridor also provides new evidence and information from the Pleistocene Era in North America, that began 2.6 million years ago up until 11,700 years ago. Past evidence also suggests how ice sheets have fused together some 21,000 years ago which closed this corridor, showing how humans have already crossed this and have been living in the southern region.



This new study is published in the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.



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Tagsbison fossils, Ice age, bison ice age human migration, human migration north america, human migration, pleistocene era, ice age bison fossils
(Photo : Photo by Jeff Fusco/Getty Images for MTV) Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York listens to Iraq War veterans during a taping of MTV's 'Choose or Lose' on March 18, 2008 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

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Hillary Clinton made history on Tuesday after winning the Democratic nomination to represent her party in the upcoming US Presidential elections. Clinton has become the first woman in America to hold the national ticket in a leading political party. According to Clinton, her triumph is a rare achievement in the country. She described her victory as a "milestone."



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Clinton thanked her supporters for helping her achieve victory after she failed in her first attempt to win the presidential nomination in 2008.



"Tonight's victory is not about one person. It belongs to generations of women and men who struggled and sacrificed and made this moment possible," Clinton said.



NBC News reported that Clinton complimented her competitor for the Democratic nomination, Bernie Sanders, for running a good campaign. Clinton said she believed she and Sanders would make a strong team in bringing the Democratic Party together. She called for cooperation even though she and Sanders do not necessarily agree in all areas.



Clinton said if the Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump wins the elections, he would separate Americans, instead of making them stronger. She criticized Trump for his proposed immigration laws.



Clinton also criticized Trump's comments about the federal judge appointed to take over his University case. Clinton stated Americans should be encouraging each other, not dragging each other down.



Meanwhile, Donald Trump is apparently embroiled in a serious conflict with many high-ranking members of the Republican Party.



Some of these politicians have accused Trump of being a racist, even just after endorsing him to be the Republican presidential nominee, according to The Guardian.



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(Photo : Getty Images/Justin Sullivan) Yahoo is planning to hold on to its Alibaba shares.

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Struggling web company Yahoo has put 3,000 of its patents up for an auction. The company expects to generate over $1 billion in proceeds from the sale. Yahoo has hired boutique investment bank Black Stone IP LLC for this purpose. The bank specializes in patent sales.



According to the Wall Street Journal, the company has sent letters to potential patent buyers. Some of the patents date back to the inception of the company. The deadline for bids has apparently been set for sometime in mid-June. Earlier this year, Yahoo announced its intention to sell some of its patents. The company had projected the proceeds to be in the range of $1 billion to $3 billion.



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The sale of patents has been confirmed by a Yahoo spokeswoman. A statement from the company said, "This represents a unique opportunity for companies operating in the internet industry to acquire some of the most pioneering and foundational patents related to web search and advertising."



The prospects of reviving the fortunes of Yahoo is growing slimmer. Verizon Communications, the leading bidder for the company's core business, is expected to seal its bid at $3 billion. The bid is lower than previous estimates which were in the range of $4 billion to $8 billion. The negative trend in potential bids is a cause of worry for Yahoo stakeholders. Yahoo is expected to offer 500 US patents and more than 600 US pending applications as part of its core business.



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Puzzling "End of the World" crater in Siberia

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The exact cause of dozens of mysterious craters that are increasing in number and which are located in a place called "End of the World" in Siberia continues to baffle scientists.



Speculation has it the large holes could be sinkholes; meteorite craters; craters left by the explosions of underground natural gas pockets or craters caused by UFOs. The massive holes were first discovered by local residents of the frozen Yamal Peninsula in 2013.



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The Yamal Peninsula in the far north of Russia has an area of 700 kilometers and consists mostly of permafrost ground. The word Yamal in the language of the indigenous inhabitants, the Nenets, translates into "End of the World."



In 2013, however, a new crater appeared in the tundra and the Nenets reported hearing a loud explosion heard over 100 kilometers away and preceded by a glow in the sky. Since then, the crater's size has increased at least 15 times. Initially measuring about 4 meters across, it's grown to 70 meters today and has formed a lake.



The growth in the crater's depth is also remarkable. Its depth was estimated at 100 meters when it was discovered. Scientists have been unable to measure its current depth.



A Russian scientist, Dr. Vladimir Epifanov, has collected information about the dozens of new craters in the region in an effort to understand what caused them, and how they might evolve in the future.



Epivanof said although there isn't a definite explanation for the bright light in the sky in 2013 and the loud bang, he believes the craters were caused by an explosive mix of methane or other underground gases released when temperatures rise.



Other scientists agree most craters in the Siberian region might have been formed by "pingos," which are dome-shaped mounds over a core of ice that erupt under pressure from methane gas released by the thawing of permafrost.



Epivanof, however, is unsure if a pingo caused the massive 2013 crater, saying the explosion originated at such a depth it was unlikely rising temperatures had anything to do with it.



The Russian Emergencies Ministry earlier ruled out a meteorite as the crater's cause. Also improbable is the claim the crater was caused by a crashed UFO or Unidentified Flying Object.



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Tagscraters, End of the World, Yamal Peninsula, Siberia
(Photo : Reuters) The FAA has warned that the US Navy is testing a technology which would affect GPS readings of airplanes in parts of Southern California.

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The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has released a statement warning pilots that a GPS test being conducted by the military might have adverse effects on real-time GPS data. The FAA added that pilots might experience "unreliable or unavailable" signals, especially those in the West Coast.



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The GPS test, which began on Tuesday, is being conducted in Southern California. The FAA warned that specific kinds of business jets might experience inaccuracies in flight controls. The federal agency added that the test will not affect commercial airliners.



To prevent accidents from happening due to the GPS testing, air-traffic controllers will keep a steady eye on airplanes within the warning area that register any flight abnormalities. The agency also adviced pilots that if they hear radio transmissions about strange GPS signals in a specific area, they are allowed to adjust altitude or navigate around the said area just like they do when there is bad weather.



The current GPS test will be conducted in the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division located in China Lake, Calif. The testing could affect airplanes that are at least 50 feet off the ground with a radius exceeding hundreds of miles.



"This FAA flight advisory was issued in support of routine research, development, and test and evaluation efforts conducted at China Lake," the Navy said, according to USA Today. "We regularly coordinate with the FAA through a standardized national process for these types of tests, which have been conducted here for more than 25 years."



The China Lake base tests weapons and avionics used for tactical aircrafts. The facility covers 1.1 million acres.



The FAA alerts were released on Saturday. It contains specific warnings for the Embraer Phenom 300 aircraft, a type of executive jet. The FAA advised pilots of the said aircraft to avoid the testing area.



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TagsGPS, GPS tests, Global positioning system, GPS update, FAA, Federal Aviation Administration
Catholic Church excommunicates sect for devotion to 'apparition' of child Jesus 08 June, 2016 by Gregory Tomlin , |

ROME (Christian Examiner)  The Catholic Church has issued a "latae sententiae" excommunication to an Italian sect which worships an alleged apparition of the child Jesus in their town, the Catholic News Agency (CNA) has reported.

A "latae sententiae" excommunication means the sentence of the church has already been passed and no heresy trial is in order. According to the CNA report, news of the excommunication was provided to the Diocese of Sora-Cassino-Aquino Pontecorvo, where the heretical group is located, June 5.

The heretical sect  which calls itself the Universal Christian Church of the New Jerusalem  is based in the town of Gallinaro. It was there that Giuseppina Norcia claimed to have seen an apparition of Jesus as a child in 1947. She reportedly saw it again in 1974 and a chapel was built on the site the next year to commemorate the appearance.

Apparitions are sometimes "approved" by the church. The church has already approved the validity of supposed appearances of Mary in Argentina last year. In those instances, Mary's appearances were supposedly preceded by glowing rosaries.

"A wife and mother named Gladys Quiroga de Motta saw these glowing rosaries and began to pray to the Virgin Mary. The Virgin appeared to her on Sept. 25, carrying the infant Jesus and wearing a blue gown and veil. Her figure glowed with light," CNA reported.

"At various times, the Virgin Mary apparition referred the woman to several Bible verses. One month after the first appearance, the apparition gave Gladys a white rosary and said, 'Receive this Rosary from my hands and keep it forever and ever. You are obedient; I am happy because of it. Rejoice, for God is with you.'"

But the case of the Child Jesus of Gallinaro is different, the church claims. The letter of excommunication notes that the group is "committed to spreading false religious doctrines and teachings that distort the Bible and are outside the truth of the sacred text."

According to the Catholic Church, the sect encourages Catholics not to partake of the Eucharist and other sacraments, to disavow papal authority, cut ties with other priests and parishes, and to cease engaging in church discipline. It is, the church said, a cult of personality.

The Universal Christian Church of the New Jerusalem was established in October 2015. According to the Catholic Church, the sect was founded by Samuele Morcia, the son-in-law of Giuseppina Norcia, a self-proclaimed "seer." Norcia died in 2008.

Morcia now runs the small chapel dedicated to the supposed apparition, and has claimed that Norcia blessed him with the ability to receive prophetic messages from Christ before she died. Morcia also claims the village of Gallianaro is the "New Jerusalem."

The Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, the theological arm of the church, claimed in the letter that it had already examined the sect and found it guilty of a "very grave abuse" of Catholic doctrine. That abuse is tantamount to schism, Rome said, so the penalty of excommunication is automatic.
ISIS vows to destroy pyramids in Egypt 08 June, 2016 by Gregory Tomlin , |

MOSUL, Iraq (Christian Examiner)  Islamic State militants have posted another video of the terror group knocking over cultural treasures in Iraq, this time the 2,500-year-old temple of Nabu in the ancient city of Nimrud.

In the video, ISIS militants are shown leveling the temple to one of the Assyrian's highest gods with an enormous blast. Plumes of dust rise high into the air as the shockwave from the explosion reaches the camera.

But at the end of the video, images of Egypt's iconic structures  also key tourist attractions  are shown. A black-clad jihadist then promises that the terror group will eventually wipe out the structures, including the Great Pyramid and other sites created by "infidels." That presumably also includes the Sphinx.

In April, ISIS destroyed the Mashki and Adad gates at the site of the ancient city of Nineveh, but no documentary evidence of the destruction was made public until recently. That video shows bulldozers pushing over the city's mudbrick walls intricately carved with animals, palm trees and cuneiform writing.

ISIS made headlines worldwide late last year for destroying many of the ancient ruins at Palymyra in Syria. Pictures of the destruction revealed that the city's temple to Bel (the chief god) was destroyed. The militants spared the Roman amphitheater where they videotaped executions  some of them carried out by children.

The potential for an ISIS attack in Giza is real. Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper, has reported that hundreds of Egyptian soldiers have been killed in clashes with Islamic State militants in the troubled Sinai.

"Hundreds of Egyptian soldiers are believed to have been killed through the summer of 2015, although it is hard to gauge the precise figures as the militants make wildly exaggerated claims and Cairo plays down its casualty numbers," the paper said.

The latest video threat against sites deeper in Egypt may be designed more to cripple Egyptian tourism than anything else. In October, ISIS claimed responsibility for the downing of an Egyptian airliner over the Sinai. Since that incident, tourism has crashed.

Hotels in the Sinai's Red Sea resort towns, normally filled with Russian terrorists, are virtually empty. Egypt has lost an estimated $250 million in revenue. The number of British tourists dropped by 85 percent in the first two months after the airline crash.
No fake Christian refugees: UK tests asylum seekers 08 June, 2016 by Gregory Tomlin , |

LONDON (Christian Examiner)  Refugees from North Africa and the Middle East who claim to be Christian must prove they are Christian if they wish to receive asylum in Great Britain, a new report on immigration in the country claims.

According to the report, purported converts to Christianity are being subjected to "Bible trivia" questions before they can receive the all-important asylum designation. They are asked about the Ten Commandments, books of the Bible, biblical personalities and important biblical festivals such as Pentecost.

The questions, however, may not be producing the intended result.

"While the law is clear that religious persecution constitutes grounds for asylum, assessment of religion based asylum applications is complex and challenging due to the inherently internal and personal nature of religion and belief," the report says.

"This is compounded by the fact that persecution on the basis of religion or belief encompasses a wide range of human rights violations and relates to complex dynamics of communal identities, politics, conflicts and radical organizations."

For that reason, the report claims, asking "detailed factual 'Bible trivia' questions" is "too simplistic a way to judge if an individual is, for example, a genuine convert. Furthermore anecdotal evidence has shown that some people are learning as much as they can so they can be prepared for the Home Office interview."

Muslims, Hindus and people of other faiths (or no faith) also seek asylum, though it is primarily Christians who seek it based on persecution in their countries of origin.

In recent years, churches all over the United Kingdom have seen a significantly higher than normal number of people seeking religious asylum.

"We are seeing numerous cases of individuals seeking asylum in the UK due to persecution based on their religious beliefs," the report said. "And the reality is that this trend will continue. The number of individuals seeking asylum on the grounds of religious persecution is not going to diminish in the coming years."

Evaluation of the religious claims of asylum seekers, while not perfect, will presumably last for years. As Geoff Gilbert, a law professor at Essex University, said, the screenings must continue (especially when no evidence of physical abuse is involved).

"It's important that religion is not ignored as grounds [for asylum] because it's a difficult issue," GIlbert said.
Christian converts coming to Britain for asylum are being asked strange questions to assess whether they are truly running from religious persecution, according to a BBC report.

Asylum seekers are protesting the kind of questions being asked, and Britain's MPs from an informal 'International Freedom of Religion or Belief' group in the UK parliament have come in support of the refugees.

"The problem with those questions is that if you are not genuine you can learn the answers, and if you are genuine, you may not know the answers," MP Baroness Berridge, head of the parliamentary group, told BBC.

The questions ranged from, "Can you name the twelve apostles?" "When is Pentecost?" to "How many books are in the Bible?" and "Can you recite Ten Commandments?"

A new report titled 'Asylum Policy Instruction on assessing credibility and refugee status' pointed out that these kind of questions are akin to Bible trivia, and are a poor evaluation method of gauging true faith.

The report said that that the answers refugee seekers give regarding Christian tradition have to be judged with thorough understanding and knowledge of the Bible, but the "caseworkers are not qualified to assess the accuracy or relevance of answers to more than the most basic knowledge questions (another reason for not overdoing that line of questioning at interview)."

Reverend Mark Miller, who provides guidance to the Home Office about faith, said that officers could not understand why people had converted to Christianity.

"Asylum assessors should be trying to understand why it is someone has left behind the faith of their family, their faith of their upbringing, and chosen to follow another faith. The guidelines say that this is a major decision that has been made and assessors should be understanding why this decision has come about," he said.

An Iranian covert named Mohammed said that he applied for asylum in UK to flee persecution, but he was rejected after the interview.

"One question they asked me was very strange - what color was the cover of the Bible," he told the BBC. "I knew there were different colors. The one I had was red. They asked me questions I was not able to answer - for example, what are the Ten Commandments. I could not name them all from memory."

The website of the activist parliamentary group noted in a press release that the matter of conversion is a very complex subject.

"While the law is clear that religious persecution constitutes grounds for asylum, assessment of religion based asylum applications is complex and challenging due to the inherently internal and personal nature of religion and belief. This is compounded by the fact that persecution on the basis of religion or belief encompasses a wide range of human rights violations and relates to complex dynamics of communal identities, politics, conflicts and radical organisations."
The Massachusetts House of Representatives voted 116-36 to pass a bill that replaces the term "biological sex" with "gender identity" in multiple areas of the state's laws. The lawmakers also dismissed an amendment that could ban convicted sex offenders from using bathrooms for the opposite biological sex.

The bill now only requires the signature of Governor Charlie Baker for it to be implemented across the state.

The bill, H.4343, will also push for amendment of different rules to comply with reinterpretation of sex as gender identity.

The legislators rejected 36 amendments before passage of the bill. Amendment 9 would have allowed public accommodation to ban sex offenders from using bathroom not aligned with their biological sex.

Critics of the bill said that it does not respect privacy rights of a majority of population by letting biological males and females to use the restrooms of other sex.

This legislation takes rights away from 99.9 percent of the population, Rep. James Lyons of Andover told the Conservative Review. Every parent that I have spoken with including a parent of a transgender child understands that this bill eliminates long held expectation of privacy and protection for children.

"The bill allows people on a routine basis to decide if they are male or female. Your anatomy is no longer relevant. This has absolutely nothing to do with discrimination, it has everything to do with changing our society and social engineering by those on the left," Rep. James Lyons said.

Rep. John Fernandes said that no incidence of crime were recorded in the 17 states where the law is implemented to allow transgender people to use bathrooms consistent with their gender identity. Rep. Sheila Harrington also said that the assertions of the opponents of bill are based on hypothetical situations which have not happened.

Recently, executive director of American Civil Liberties Union Georgia chapter Maya Dillard Smith resigned over the organization's stance on bathroom policy, after encountering people from other sex in a public bathroom.

"I have shared my personal experience of having taken my elementary school age daughters into a women's restroom when shortly after three transgender young adults over six feet with deep voices entered," said Smith. "My children were visibly frightened, concerned about their safety and left asking lots of questions for which I, like many parents, was ill-prepared to answer."

The episode led her to be concerned about the safety of her young daughters, and launched a website titled, 'Finding Middle Ground' which urges people to openly discuss all the aspects related to this issue.
The most recent study released by the Korean World Mission Association (KWMA) found that over 27,000 Korean missionaries are ministering all over the world, setting the record for the highest number of missionaries since the group first began conducting this annual study in 2006.

The study was conducted for one month in December of 2015 through 234 mission organizations and denominations, and found that 27,205 missionaries were sent out in the year of 2015 to 171 different countries, an increase from 2014 (26,677 missionaries).

This study was released to attendees of this year's Korean World Mission Conference, which is taking place from June 6 to 10 at Azusa Pacific University. Attendees and speakers at the conference celebrated this continual increase and record high number of missionaries.

"In 1971, the first time I was in Seoul, God was telling me, 'Korea's going to be a great missionary-sending nation,'" Loren Cunningham, the founder of Youth With a Mission, said during the first night of the conference. "And since then, God has been raising you up, and today we're celebrating 27,000 missionaries being sent out all over the world. That makes you the number two mission-sending nation."

Though the number of missionaries sent in 2015 was the highest yet, the increase in the number of missionaries between 2014 and 2015 was the smallest since 2006. Every year since 2006 saw an increase of more than 1,100 missionaries, but in 2014, that number dropped to an increase of 932 missionaries, and this year, 528.

Most Korean missionaries can be found ministering in Asian countries, the study also found. In 2015, 6,430 missionaries were sent to Northeast Asian countries, and 5,575 missionaries were sent out to Southeast Asian countries.

Northeast Asia, the U.S., the Philippines, Japan, India, Thailand, Southeast Asia, Cambodia, and Russia were among the ten countries to which the most Korean missionaries were sent in 2015.

"More than 50 percent of Korean missionaries are focused in these areas," the study states referring to the top ten countries, "but this illustrates that the Korean missionary community views these countries as strategic mission fields."

Church planting (11,095 missionaries) and discipleship training (8,973 missionaries) are two types of ministries that most Korean missionaries are engaged in, while culture/sports (552 missionaries) and children/youth ministries (490 missionaries) are two with which Korean missionaries are least engaged.

"This report of Korean missionaries' main ministries can only be seen as a general outlook," the study states. "A distinctive characteristic of Korean missionaries is that one person takes on many different ministries, so they only report their primary ministries back to their respective organization's headquarters. In that sense, this number count of the types of ministries Korean missionaries are engaged in sheds light on the ministry trends of Korean missionaries."

Meanwhile, the Korean World Mission Conference takes place once every four years, and is known to be one of the largest gatherings of Korean missionaries.
When youre stuck in a Boeing 747 at 35,000 feet, how do you pass the time? If youre J. D. Greear, odds are you talk with your neighbor about God. (And if that sounds awkward, trust us: he knows.) An author, theologian, and pastor of The Summit Church of Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, Greear is one of those rare birds who is so passionate about evangelism that hell take almost any opportunity to strike up a biblical back-and-fortheven if, by his own admission, he crashes and burns as often as not.

You might think someone with that much ministerial fire tends to shoot first and aim secondthe fields are ripe for harvest, after all. In fact, Greear is actually a big fan of waiting. Whether hes helping young college students plan for their futures or writing about how churches stand to gain by losing, Greear always tempers his missionary fervor with the knowledge that Gods work often involves long periods of preparation. Its part of why he thinks the years people spend in seminary are worthwhile:

[In seminary,] you learn how to learn, and you learn how to study. And you learn specifically how to study the Bible. The best courses are going to lead you to the tools that you can then use for the rest of your life. Its rare that I am sitting down writing something, or talking with you, that I remember something one of my professors said and say it. It happens occasionally, but thats rare. What I keep with me is heres how you use a library. . . . heres how you research. That was extremely valuable to me. Plus, [seminary] gave me a framework. I learned systematic theology. I learned church history. And so I had ...

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Coptic Solidarity Announces 7th Annual Conference Highlighting Inequality Faced by Coptic Christians Contact: Lindsay Vessey, Coptic Solidarity, 801-512-1713, coptadvocacy@copticsolidarity.org



WASHINGTON, June 8, 2016 /Christian Newswire/ -- Coptic Solidarity will host its 7th Annual Conference in Washington, DC June 9-10, 2016. The conference theme is The Future of Egypt's Religious Minorities: Status of Copts after Two Revolutions.



Despite two revolutions, life for Copts as second class citizens has changed little. Discrimination against Copts permeates the everyday life of millions of people, and at times evidences itself in horrific acts of violence, such as the recent lynching of an elderly Christian woman that shamed Egypt as a whole. The plight of Copts reflects the plight of Egypt.



The Annual Conference will bring together leading experts to address the status of Copts from a wide variety of perspectives. A Policy Day will be hosted at the Reserve Officer Association in the Minuteman Ballroom on June 9th from 11:00AM  5:30PM followed by a banquet dinner at the same location. The conference will continue on June 10th at the Omni Shoreham Hotel with a program scheduled 9:00 AM  4:00PM.



Heading the speaker list will be leading Egyptian public figures Mr. Naguib Sawiris, Chief Executive Officer of Orascom Telecom Media & Technology and founder of the Free Egyptians Party and Ms. Fatima Naoot, prominent writer and poet and former independent candidate to the Egyptian parliament recently was sentenced to three years' imprisonment for comments deemed blasphemous to Islam.



Others confirmed experts in attendance include: USCIRF Commissioner Dr. Daniel I. Mark, U.S. State Department Special Advisor for Religious Minorities in the Near East and South/Central Asia Mr. Knox Thames, Co-Secretary General of the Transatlantic Parliamentary Group on Counter Terrorism Dr. Walid Phares, and President of the St. Cyril of Alexandria Orthodox Christian Society Holy Transfiguration College, Fr. Michael Sorial. Members of Congresses confirmed to speak include: Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE), Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), Rep. Joe Pitts (R-PA), Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) and Rep. Dave Trott (R-MI).



The conference is open to the public and media. Interested individuals can register for the conference at www.copticsolidarity.org/events/conferences and purchase banquet dinner tickets at www.copticsolidarity.org/2016/04/19/7th-conference-banquet.



Coptic Solidarity calls on all concerned individuals to reject the forces of regression seeking to block positive change in Egypt, and to join us supporting the vision of a free, modern and prosperous Egypt.



Coptic Solidarity is an organization seeking to help minorities, particularly the Copts, of Egypt and we support those in Egypt working for democracy, freedom, and the protection of the fundamental rights of all Egyptian citizens. For more information, contact Lindsay Vessey at 801-512-1713 or coptadvocacy@copticsolidarity.org

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Raymond Arroyo Joins Immaculate Heart Radio Elevate Conference



LOOMIS, Calif., June 8, 2016 /



Elevate, is a day-long meeting of the minds between listeners and show hosts of Immaculate Heart Radio, the West Coast's growing network of listener-supported Catholic radio stations. Immaculate Heart Radio personalities Patrick Madrid, Cy Kellett, Phil Sandoval, Chris Aubert, Terry Barber, Joe Sikorra and Ed Horodko will host town-hall style sessions throughout the day to allow attendees the opportunity to connect and talk with hosts. A meet and greet at day's end will be held along with conference exhibitor booths and informational displays.



"The goal of Elevate is to enlighten hearts and minds -- participants have shared that attending this conference helped renew their faith to live out and share the Gospel," said Sherman. The event is set for Saturday, June 25th from 9 a.m. - 6 p.m. at the Santa Clara Marriott (2700 Mission College Boulevard Santa Clara, California 95054 USA). Close to 1,000 people attended the inaugural Elevate Conference in Southern California (November 2015).



Visit



IHR Educational Broadcasting is a West Coast, USA-based radio network offering a variety of Catholic-oriented programming. The original radio broadcast signal launched in 1997 from a warehouse in Reno and has grown to 40 outlets (AMs, FMs, translators and affiliates). Additionally, they offer two Internet streaming music channels: Contemporary Christian Music and Traditional Sacred/Liturgical Music.

Share Tweet Contact: Dick Jenkins, General Manager, Immaculate Heart Radio , 916-415-6636LOOMIS, Calif., June 8, 2016 / Christian Newswire / -- Internationally known, award-winning journalist, producer, and New York Times Bestselling author, Raymond Arroyo joins Immaculate Heart Radio's Elevate Conference June 25, in Santa Clara, California. As news director and lead anchor for EWTN, Arroyo is seen in more than 200 million homes on six continents each week and heard on hundreds of AM/FM radio stations including Immaculate Heart Radio's KSFB AM 1260 which covers the San Francisco Bay Area. "Raymond Arroyo is a great friend of Immaculate Heart Radio and we're thrilled to add his global perspective to the day's dialogue, especially during his talk entitled, How Stories Can Save Our Culture and the Church," said Doug Sherman, president and founder of Immaculate Heart Radio.Elevate, is a day-long meeting of the minds between listeners and show hosts of Immaculate Heart Radio, the West Coast's growing network of listener-supported Catholic radio stations. Immaculate Heart Radio personalities Patrick Madrid, Cy Kellett, Phil Sandoval, Chris Aubert, Terry Barber, Joe Sikorra and Ed Horodko will host town-hall style sessions throughout the day to allow attendees the opportunity to connect and talk with hosts. A meet and greet at day's end will be held along with conference exhibitor booths and informational displays."The goal of Elevate is to enlighten hearts and minds -- participants have shared that attending this conference helped renew their faith to live out and share the Gospel," said Sherman. The event is set for Saturday, June 25th from 9 a.m. - 6 p.m. at the Santa Clara Marriott (2700 Mission College Boulevard Santa Clara, California 95054 USA). Close to 1,000 people attended the inaugural Elevate Conference in Southern California (November 2015).Visit www.ihradio.com/elevate for more information on tickets, being an exhibitor and event sponsorship opportunities.IHR Educational Broadcasting is a West Coast, USA-based radio network offering a variety of Catholic-oriented programming. The original radio broadcast signal launched in 1997 from a warehouse in Reno and has grown to 40 outlets (AMs, FMs, translators and affiliates). Additionally, they offer two Internet streaming music channels: Contemporary Christian Music and Traditional Sacred/Liturgical Music.
home US Atheist Reason Rally 2016 draws hugely disappointing crowd; atheists try to analyze why so few showed up

Atheists claim it was a wonderful event as they analyzed the possible reasons why this year's Reason Rally held at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C. Saturday, June 4 drew a much lesser crowd than expected.

Hemant Mehta of The Friendly Atheist wrote on his blog the next day to dispute the attendance of 15,000 to 20,000 reported by organizers to Religion News Service.

"I'd put the range at about half of that, but we'll see," wrote Mehta as he quickly added that the size of the crowd is "not 'that' big of an issue."

Nevertheless, he went on to enumerate at least six possible reasons why the recent rally failed to beat the estimated 30,000 people who participated in 2012.

Mehta's main reason was that the atheist community was not well aware that there was going to be such an event taking place. He also pointed out as his second reason, that although the event organizers tried to hype up the buzz by inviting top celebrities such as Johnny Depp, Margaret Cho, and Richard Dawkins a who were also not able to attend the event eventually a the buzz may have been misplaced.

The atheist blogger also touched on the influence of politics, pointing out that the leading presidential candidates Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, and Bernie Sanders "all claim to be religious, but I'm not worried about any of them making decisions based on the voices in their heads."

Executive Director Lyz Liddell agrees that the atheist rally is altogether a political event.

"That's the reason we're holding this in an election year. We want to see reason taking precedence over religious-driven ideology," Liddell told CNN Wire.

Liddell also pointed out that the rally in 2012 had atheist speakers who were anti-theists and anti-religion in contrast to this year's shift to secularism where some of those invited to speak were not really atheists, such as Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and Rep. Bobby Scott.

"A pluralistic, secular government is the only way to ensure that all individuals have the freedom to follow the religious path of their choice," said Gabbard, the first and only Hindu in Congress, as he explained his attendance in the secular rally.

Liddell explained about the organizers' aim. "We need to ally with people who share our goals. It's not an 'atheist vs religious people' conversation."
home World British conservative politician Steve Double regrets affair with assistant

Steve Double, a British Conservative Party politician and a Member of Parliament, had expressed his regret for having "behaved inappropriately." The statement he issued came amid rumors of him having an affair with his assistant, Sarah Bunt.

"I have behaved completely inappropriately and deeply regret the pain I have caused those closest to me," MP Steve Double said in a statement, quoted on the Mirror. "Anne and I are committed to being together and seeking to move forward in our marriage. I accept I have work to do to recover the trust and respect of those around me. I would respectfully request that people give us the time and space we need at this time."

Double, 49, did not initially elaborate on the nature of his inappropriate behavior, but his wife Anne, 52, who is his full time Senior Caseworker and Diary Secretary, said in the joint statement that even though she had been deeply hurt, "I still love my husband." They have been married for almost 30 years and she is committed to making their marriage successful.

In a report by Mail Online, Double admitted to having had an affair with 26-year-old Bunt, also married, for a short period. She is said to be currently on leave from work.

"It was Sarah and it was recent. It wasn't a one-off but it was only a few weeks," the publication quotes Double as saying. "I was truly wrong and I deeply regret what I have done and the pain it has caused to those close to me. I'm working hard to rebuild that trust and respect."

In an interview with The Telegraph, the MP said he would not have hired Bunt had he known the grief it would cause, saying, "If I could only undo what happened."

Double was a former pastor and his platform during his campaign emphasized family values. Some of his contituents expressed disappointment, with one asking him to resign, and another calling his actions a disgrace.
home US Donald Trump and racism issue: Pastor loses cool on TV

Two professionals in their respective fields with different political and social opinions -- both apparently wanting to be heard but failing to listen -- have lost their cool on television, all because of a discussion on presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump and the issue of racism.

In a discussion on CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront," a panel of four, namely: Tara Setmayer, CNN political commentator; Micheal Nutter, former mayor of Philadelphia; Pastor Darrell Scott, founder of New Spirit Revival Center; and Jason Osborne, a supporter of Trump, were discussing a comment made by the business mogul at a rally in California where he said, "Look at my African-American over here."

Burnett asked if the comment is "clumsy or racist."

Nutter said that, at minimum, it's ignorant. He thinks that it is "some very strange and disturbing behavior" and Trump is going to take down many Republicans across the country because of "this kind of bizarre behavior."

Meanwhile, Scott, who has long expressed his support for Trump, said that the comment does not bother him at all.

"I really believe that he was utilizing that as a term of endearment," he said. "He is trying to be more politically correct in using politically correct terms, and America has never been this sensitive before. I mean, this entire country is walking on eggshells, and I believe this is indicative of the social climate of this country."

He went on to say that during his lifetime, there have been different terms used for African Americans, including negros, blacks, and people of color. It's not racial, he argued; rather, it's cultural. He also said Trump was genuinely glad that the man in the rally was there.

Setmayer said this assessment is like political Stockholm Syndrome -- Stockholm Syndrome being a psychological phenomenon wherein a hostage has positive feelings toward their captor.

"My 'blank' is not a term of endearment," she said. "It's not the fact that he called him an African American, it's the fact that he felt the need to have to point him out because he was black and in the crowd and say, 'Oh, look, there's my African American," like does he own you, does he own his 'fans'? I mean this is not the first time ... "

Scott apparently could not contain himself, and he and Setmayer were speaking at the same time.

When Osborne managed to speak, he surmised that Trump's "brain got ahead of his words." Nutter, however, said that Trump is a 60+ year old man who is "still trying to figure out how to treat people decently."

Setmayer later tried to make a point that it is about people bringing up someone's ethinicity or saying racist things.

"Tara, you're trying to act like you're not aware of the racial climate in America," Scott said. "The only reason I stand out as a Trump supporter is because I'm black ... so don't try to act like we're in America but we don't understand the racial climate of this country."

"So then you're acknowledging that it's okay for Donald Trump to parade you as a political pawn because you're black?" Setmayer asked. She was asking if Scott is okay with Trump using race and with people being racial.

"You're like that," Scott said. "You find me an aberration because I'm black and I support Trump."

With sparks flying and the two arguring, Nutter was able to calmly say, "This is not about any of the four of us. Donald Trump is running for president of the United States of America. He cannot control himself. He is not ready for that job."
home World Greece slams Turkey for using Christian basilica site for Quran reading during Ramadan

Greece had expressed its disapproval of Turkey's decision to use a former Greek Orthodox Christian basilica as a place for daily Quran reading during the Ramadan, the Islalmic month of prayer and fasting.

"We condemn the announcement of the Turkish authorities about plans to read the Quran in Hagia Sophia in Istanbul on the occasion of Ramadan as regressive," reads the statement issued by the Greek Foreign Ministry, quoted on Sputnik. "The persistent and bordering with fanaticism Muslim rituals in the World Heritage Site are incomprehensible and are a manifestation of a lack of respect and a lack of connection with reality. In addition, such actions are not compatible with modern democratic and secular societies."

Hagia Sophia, located in Istanbul, was built in 537 AD as a basilica of the Greek Orthodox Christian church. It became a mosque in 1453 but was turned into a secular museum in 1935. It has been a United Nations heritage site since 1985.

The decision by Turkish authorities to use the site during Ramadan had raised speculations that President Recep Erdogan is abandoning Turkey's secular traditions. European People's Parliament MEP Elissavet Vozemberg-Vrionidi, according to The Greek Reporter, questioned if practices such as this "constitute a lack of respect for Christians around the world."

On June 4, prior to the commencement of Ramadan, Muslim worshippers reportedly gathered outside of Hagia Sophia. An imam led the crowd into prayer and is said to have called for the heritage site to be converted back to a mosque.

"The decision of Turkish authorities to schedule the Koran reading in Hagia Sophia for the next month, has virtually transformed it into a mosque for the first time in 80 years," said former Greek foreign minister Dora Bakoyannis, according to the International Business Times. "It is a provocative and incomprehensible act and shows disrespect against Orthodox Christians across the world and is not in line with Turkey's European course."

The Greek Reporter says that prayers began on June 6 and will continue until early July.
home US Hillary Clinton celebrates historic victory, immediately turns guns to Donald Trump: 'He is temperamentally unfit to be president'

Hillary Clinton celebrated her triumph as the first woman to lead a major party in a race for the White House, scoring big wins in California and New Jersey to cement her grip on the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination.

The former first lady, U.S. senator and secretary of state spoke to supporters at a raucous event in Brooklyn, New York, and placed her achievement in the context of the women's rights movement.

"Thanks to you, we have reached a milestone," Clinton said in a speech. "We all owe so much to who came before."

Clinton appealed to supporters of party rival Bernie Sanders. She said Democrats had been bolstered by his campaign for eradicating income inequality, which has commanded huge crowds and galvanized younger voters. Not yet ready to concede, Sanders vowed to fight on.

Clinton also harshly attacked Donald Trump, her presumptive Republican rival in the Nov. 8 presidential election, for using divisive rhetoric that belittled women, Muslims and immigrants. She took specific aim at his condemnation of an Indiana-born judge of Mexican heritage.

"The stakes in this election are high and the choice is clear. Donald Trump is temperamentally unfit to be president and commander in chief," Clinton said.

"When Donald Trump says a distinguished judge born in Indiana can't do his job because of his Mexican heritage, or he mocks a reporter with disabilities, or calls women pigs, it goes against everything we stand for," she said.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday showed Clinton leading Trump by 10 percentage points nationally as they launch their general election battle, little changed from a week earlier.

OBAMA, SANDERS TO MEET

Clinton edged Sanders out in a rough-and-tumble battle that stretched over four months and 50 states. She won support, especially among older voters, with a more pragmatic campaign focused on building on the policies of her fellow Democrat, President Barack Obama.

Obama called both Clinton and Sanders on Tuesday. The White House said he congratulated her on securing the delegates necessary to clinch the nomination and would meet Sanders on Thursday at Sanders' request.

The Associated Press called the race in California for Clinton early on Wednesday. Clinton won 56 percent to Sanders' 43 percent, avoiding what would have been an embarrassing loss in America's most populous state. The California win came on the heels of a decisive win in New Jersey and narrower victories in New Mexico and South Dakota in Tuesday's nominating contests. Sanders won Montana and North Dakota.

A defeat in California would have reinforced doubts about Clinton's candidacy. Now, she can turn her attention to healing her fractured party and drawing in Sanders' passionate supporters.

Clinton's credentials for office have not been a serious issue, but a scandal stemming from her use of a private email account while at the State Department hangs over her head as she enters the general election campaign.

Clinton, 68, will also be running against the current of this election season, one that has favoured outsiders like Trump and Sanders. In Trump, 69, she has an unpredictable opponent who shreds the standard campaign rule book on an almost daily basis.

FEW OPTIONS

For his part, Sanders, 74, seems to have few options left.

Democratic Party elites are lined up squarely behind Clinton, including most likely Obama, who may endorse his former secretary of state as early as this week. Pressure will mount on Sanders to exit graciously and throw his support to Clinton.

Eight years ago in June 2008, Clinton did exactly that when she ended her bitter primary fight with Obama. At the time, it appeared unclear whether Obama would be able to garner the support of Clinton's most ardent backers, but that election drew the highest voter turnout in generations.

At a rally in Santa Monica on Tuesday, Sanders showed no interest in ending his upstart candidacy, telling cheering supporters he would go on campaigning through next Tuesday's primary in the District of Columbia and carry his political mission - although not necessarily his campaign - to the party convention in Philadelphia next month.

"We are going to fight hard to win the primary in Washington, D.C.," he said. "And then we take our fight for social, economic, racial and environmental justice to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania."

Prominent Democrats say that unifying the party now is the highest priority, and that if Sanders maintains his challenge to Clinton through the July 25-28 convention, Trump will benefit.

"We have our work cut out for us," said U.S. Representative Alan Lowenthal, a Democrat from Long Beach, California. "My overriding fear is that we get divided, and Donald Trump could win the election."

Even if Sanders does concede, his supporters may not go quietly. Several told Reuters in recent days that they would have trouble supporting Clinton in a matchup against Trump, saying they either would not vote or would support a third-party candidate.

"People right now are talking if Bernie doesn't get the nomination, they are deregistering as Democrats," said Susan Hartley, 71, a lawyer from Northern California, who was part of the noisy throng of thousands at a Sanders rally in an aircraft hangar in Santa Monica. "People are really upset."
home World ISIS burns alive 19 girls for refusing to have sex with terror members

The Islamic State terror group reportedly burned to death 19 girls who had refused to sleep with its members.

"They were punished for refusing to have sex with ISIS militants," local media activist Abdullah al-Malla told the ARA News.

According to the report, the 19 girls, all Yazidis, were taken hostage and were to be used as sex slaves. When they refused to do their captors' bidding, they were placed inside an iron cage and burned alive in front of hundreds of people. It reportedly happened on June 2 in central Mosul.

"The 19 girls were burned to death, while hundreds of people were watching," said a witness. "Nobody could do anything to save them from the brutal punishment."

KRG officials, according to Human Rights Watch, estimate around 1,800 girls to still be in the hands of ISIS in Syria and Iraq while Yazidi officials' estimates are around 3,500 as of October last year.

"The abuses against Yezidi women and girls documented by Human Rights Watch, including the practice of abducting women and girls and forcibly converting them to Islam and/or forcibly marrying them to ISIS members, may be part of a genocide against Yezidis," the group's report, published in April, reads.

According to the organization, the victims they were able to talk to said they were repeatedly bought and sold and were usually raped. They were, at times, locked up in rooms for days, were humiliated, and their children beaten or taken away.

"The longer they are held by ISIS, the more horrific life becomes for Yezidi women, bought and sold, brutally raped, their children torn from them," said Skye Wheeler, women's rights emergencies researcher at Human Rights Watch.

The Yazidi region was taken over by ISIS in 2014, resulting to the displacement of as many as 400,000 people in Iraqi Kurdistan. ARA News reports that tens of thousands are still trapped in Mount Sinjar, with military sources telling of kidnappings, rape, and mass killings. Five or more mass graves have reportedly been discovered by Kurdish troops recently, where Yazidis are believed to have been summarily executed.
home US New York City launches ad campaign affirming transgender rights to use bathroom of chosen gender identity

Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York City and the NYC Commission on Human Rights launched on June 6 a citywide ad campaign affirming people's right to use bathrooms consistent with their gender identity.

"No one deserves to be denied access to bathrooms or discriminated against for being who they are. Every New Yorker has the legal right to use the bathroom consistent with their gender identity, no questions asked a and these powerful ads affirm this right," said de Blasio. "New York City has long been a leader in the fight for LGBTQ equality, and these ads are further evidence of the City's unwavering support of our diverse communities."

He further mentioned that while other cities and states are trying to push intolerance and are trying to remove people's rights to use bathrooms based on their gender identity, "we are proudly standing with our transgender and gender non-conforming New Yorkers."

The campaign includes gender identity ads emblazoned on subway cars, phone booths, and bus shelters. They will also be seen on NYC TV; social media, both in English and Spanish; as well as in ethnic and community newspapers, in Spanish, Korean, Chinese, Russian and Bengali. These feature transgender New Yorkers, and they urge people to "use the restroom consistent with who you are" as well as to "look past pink and blue." It kicks off the LGBTQ Pride Month.

"Every New Yorker has the right to use the restroom that matches their gender identity and where they feel comfortable and safe," said First Lady Chirlane McCray, Honorary Chair of the Commission on Gender Equity. "No New Yorker should have to worry about hiding their gender identity to take care of basic human needs. Others may advance hateful agendas that discriminate based on gender or gender identity, but that kind of bigotry will never be acceptable here, and we will keep fighting to root it out until no New Yorker feels discriminated against."

Among those who have participated in making the ads are Bronx residents Alisha King, full-time mom; Charlie Solidum, a health care professional; and Ky Platt, a technical theatre professional; as well as high school student and transgender rights activist Ariel Murtagh. They are trying to raise awareness to transgender rights and the legal right of people in New York to use bathrooms in accordance to their gender identity and not their biological sex.

The NYC government's press release says that equal bathroom access had been the city's policy for years, including in public schools, but thus far, there has been no reported incident of bathroom attacks.

"Safe and equal bathrooms access is essential for everyone," said Human Rights Commissioner and Chair Carmelyn P. Malalis. "And in New York City, it's the law. We created these ads to remind every New Yorker, cis and transgender alike, that the City protects your right to live and work according to your gender identity and expression, including your right to use bathrooms consistent with their gender identity."

June 2016 is Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month, as proclaimed by Pres. Barack Obama on May 1.
home World Religious instruction materials in Queensland state schools under government review

The government of Queensland, Australia is reviewing religious instruction materials being used in schools in the state following a discovery in one school that a religious curriculum seems to proselytize students into Christianity.

"We have guidelines in place for religious instruction in state schools for a reason," said Education Minister Kate Jones, as quoted by Brisbane Times. "It's concerning to me that any materials are being taught outside of those guidelines. That's why I have asked the department to review the Connect materials. If it is found these materials are outside the guidelines we will remove it from all state schools."

The decision to review the materials is in response to the move made by Windsor State School. The academic institution reviewed the syllabus of Connect, a religious education curriculum taught by faith-based groups, and found that the materials seem to be trying to influence kids into Christianity. Principal Matthew Keong decided to suspend RI lessons at the school altogether, altough he said they will consider alternatives in the future.

"Connect's lesson materials go beyond imparting knowledge of Biblical references, and extend to soliciting children to develop a personal faith in God and Jesus to become a Christian or 'Kingdom Kid'," he wrote in a letter to parents.

He further said that the teachers' manuals remind instructors that most of their audience is not yet Christian. It appears, therefore, that the program is attempting to "solicit them for a decision to become the kind of Christian prescribed in the materials."

The materials, according to the report, include teaching kids that "every single person has sinned and rejected God and deserves to be punished." The aim of one lesson plan is "to help students to understand that everyone deserves the punishment of God because we have all sinned and ignored Him," and to make sure that kids "acknowledge their own sinfulness." It also tells students to "reflect on whether they accept or reject Jesus."

The Education Department has not approved any program for religious instruction, often taught by faith-based groups and volunteers, but it allows for an hour a week for such lessons.
home Faith Secret Christian converts pretend to fast during Ramadan in fear of persecution from Muslims

A secret Christian believer in Southeast Asia from a Muslim background claims that those like him are pretending to fast during Ramadan in order to avoid suspicion and persecution.

Open Doors, a non-profit organization that works for persecuted Christians worldwide, spoke with a Christian convert to talk about Ramadan before and after his conversion.

Ramadan is when Muslim adults are expected to fast during daylight hours. The unnamed source claims he has participated in the fasting since he was 12 years old and only pretends to do so now that he has already converted.

"To do otherwise would result in suspicions and questionings," he told the organization.

He added, "Many secret believers like me dare not reveal our faith because if we are caught we will be sent to Islamic rehabilitation centres."

He's terrified of the stories he's heard about Christian converts who were brainwashed, tortured, and abused mentally until they are forced to renounce Christ. He said it is renouncing Jesus that terrifies him as he beseeched for prayers for him and other secret believers to be strengthened not to deny Jesus.

"It is only when I'm alone or with other secret believers that I can be myself. It is not easy to live such a double life," he added.

The source also shared that his reason for fasting has obviously changed after knowing Christ.

He talked about "pahala" or spiritual merits that become the aim of Muslims in order to be accepted in paradise. They would have to earn as many spiritual merits as they can to outweigh their sins. This explains why Muslims have to pray five times a day, give alms to the poor, and even convert Christians to Islam.

However, he said no matter what he did, he still worried whether he's done enough for Allah to accept him.

"But praise God I am now a Christian, and I have Christ's assurance that my sins are washed away by his blood," he said. "I don't have this nagging fear anymore. Now I fast to deepen my relationship with God and to know Christ more."
home World Swedish government evicting family to give space for Muslim migrants

The father of two teenage boys living in Lidingo, Sweden said he received a notification that he and his family are being evicted because their home will be given to migrants arriving from the Middle East.

Uffe Rustan said he received a call from the municipality telling him that their home needs to be vacated by August this year.

"I was evicted from my home over the phone. When I asked for the reason, he said that people come from other countries. He left the news and basically just said have a nice weekend,'' Rustan said, according to InfoWars.

Rustan and his sons aged 15 and 17 are living in a public housing facility offered to him by the government, along with a promise to establish a permanent housing contract in the future. The housing has a six-month lease that can be renewed.

Rustan has been staying in the unit for less than a year, and he has already renewed his lease once.

With the eviction notification, Rustan said he feels as if he is "worthless," even though he pays his taxes. His sons, both born in Lidingo, also go to school there.

"You cannot put a family on the streets for another family," he said, adding that the local residents appeared to be getting worse treatment from the government compared to migrants.

Rustan said the building he is staying in has been recently renovated, causing him and his family a lot of inconvenience, but the government has not compensated them for the trouble.

Sweden is suffering from housing shortage, which is felt particularly in the bigger cities. According to The Local, an estimated 300,000 people aged 20 to 27 have no property of their own.

The housing shortage is greatly impacted by the arrival of migrants who have fled from war-torn countries. A Swedish MP proposed that villa owners give their garages to migrants to help ease the housing shortage, a report said.
home Faith United Methodist Church regional body rejects commissioning married lesbian as deacon

Members of the Board of Ordained Ministry (BOOM) for the United Methodist Church's regional body Baltimore-Washington Conference (BWC) voted Wednesday, June 1 against commissioning Tara "T.C" Morrow, a married lesbian woman, as a deacon.

BOOM is the denomination's body tasked with the responsibility of selecting and approving applicants for ministry.

Chair of the BOOM for BWC Rev. Charles Parker stated that a candidate's sexual practice was not considered as with the case of Morrow who had failed to reach two-thirds of the vote, as reported by the UMConnection.

Nevertheless, Morrow thanked the BOOM clergy as she remains part of the staff of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture and Foundry UMC in Washington, DC.

"While I am saddened that the full clergy session did not affirm the BOOM's recommendation, I appreciate the BOOM's openness and transparency related to my candidacy," Morrow said in a statement.

"I hope such openness may be an example as the Council of Bishops moves forward with a commission to study and possibly offer revision of the parts of the United Methodist Book of Discipline related to 'human sexuality,'" she added.

The delegates for the denomination's General Conference held in Portland, Oregon last month were expected to tackle on the issue of homosexuality but voted instead to place the debate on moratorium as they agreed on a special commission to conduct a study on the subject and to recommend revisions for the church's doctrine, Book of Discipline. The delegates also referred the question of gay ordination to the Judicial Council.

As per church doctrine, it is traditionally interpreted as against allowing those in same-sex relationships to be ordained as clergy. However, the debate on homosexuality has seen regional bodies as siding to accept gay clergy as they seek to follow policies adopted by the Northern Illinois Annual Conference.

Chair of the Northern Illinois BOOM, Rev. John Bell told The Christian Post, "We discern each candidate based on their fitness for ministry. Sexual orientation and identity is not part of the evaluation by the Board of Ordained Ministry."
An elderly Hindu priest was hacked to death on Tuesday in Bangladesh, in what police suspect was the latest in a spate of attacks by Islamists on minority groups in the majority-Muslim country.

Three militants riding on a motorcycle killed Ananta Gopal Ganguly, 70, by slitting his throat when he was on his way to the temple he served in Jhenaidah district, about 100 miles west of Dhaka, police said.

"He left home this morning saying that he was going to a Hindu house to offer prayers," deputy police chief Gopinath Kanjilal told AFP.

"Later, farmers found his near-decapitated body in a rice field."

The attack bore the hallmarks of previous killings by Islamist militants.

A 60-year-old Christian grocer was hacked to death on Sunday in an attack claimed by Islamic State.

The wife of a prominent anti-terror security official was also killed on Sunday, shot dead by three suspected militants on a motorbike.

As many as 40 people have been killed over the last three years by Islamist extremists, either members of religious minorities or secularist activists. While responsibility for the killings has been claimed by Islamic State and Al-Qaeda, the government has denied that either group is active in the country, blaming home-grown extremists instead.

The government has launched a crackdown on militant groups who want to impose strict Islamic law in Bangladesh.

Hindus make up about nine per cent of Bangladesh's 160 million population of mainly Sunni Muslims.

Additional reporting by Reuters.
Charleston massacre: Church shooting suspect Dylann Roof's trial to begin November 2016

The federal death penalty trial for Dylann Roof, the white man accused of killing nine black members of Charleston's Emanuel AME Church in a racially motivated attack, will begin on November 7, a judge said on Tuesday.

US District Judge Richard Gergel set the federal proceedings ahead of a state capital punishment trial scheduled for January.

Gergel said up to 1,500 people from across South Carolina could be called as possible jurors for the federal trial.

Federal prosecutors said last month that they intended to pursue capital punishment for Roof should he be convicted of the June 17, 2015, killings during a Bible study at Emanuel AME Church.

In court, Roof's federal attorneys reiterated that he would be willing to plead guilty if capital punishment was ruled out.

"Our plea offer has not been withdrawn and will never be withdrawn," lawyer David Bruck told the hearing.

State prosecutors had signaled their plans to seek the death penalty last year, making the case a rare instance of a defendant facing the death penalty in federal and state courts at the same time.

Roof, 22, faces different charges in each. State prosecutors charged him with murder and attempted murder, while federal prosecutors charged him with 33 counts including hate crimes, obstruction of religion, and firearms offenses.

Jury selection in the state trial is due to start in early December, which could overlap with the federal proceedings. Gergel estimated on Tuesday that jury selection and the guilt and penalty phases of the federal trial could last six weeks.

"The most important thing is bringing justice to these families and this case as efficiently and as quickly as possible, still getting it done right," state prosecutor Scarlett Wilson said after the court hearing in Charleston.

Roof and more than a dozen family members of the shooting victims attended the hearing, held ahead of the first anniversary of the shooting next week.

Two days after the killing spree, the relatives of those killed at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston stood up one by one and offered the suspected murderer their forgiveness.

"You took something very precious from me, but I forgive you," Ethel Lance's daughter told Roof at his bond hearing. "It hurts me. You hurt a lot of people, but may God forgive you."

"We would like you to take this opportunity to repent," said Anthony Thompson, grandson of Myra Thompson, one of the nine victims. "Repent. Confess. Give your life to the one who matters the most, Christ, so he can change your ways no matter what happens to you and you'll be OK."

The following day Cynthia Hurd's husband, Arthur, said: "What I can say to that young man is that in time I will forgive you."

A number of remembrance events are planned in Charleston, including a Bible study and service at the church and a service at the arena where President Barack Obama gave the eulogy for the church's slain pastor.

Bernice King, daughter of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., will be the keynote speaker at an event in the city on June 18.

Additional reporting by Reuters.
China: Six-year-old daughter of imprisoned Christian lawyer is desperate for his release

The six-year-old daughter of Christian Chinese human rights lawyer Li Heping, who has been uncontactable and held in black jail since he disappeared in July 2015, is determined that she can rescue her dad.

In a moving interview with the Guardian, Li Jiamei's mother, Wang Qiaoling, said: "She's small. She misses her dad. I tell her I miss him too and that we must try to get through this together."

China has been accused of a severe crackdown on churches, most significantly in the eastern coastal province of Zhejiang, where up to 1,700 churches have been demolished or had their crosses removed since late 2013.

This has intensified over the past year and combined with an increased crackdown on human rights lawyers. More human rights defenders have been detained or are missing under two years of President Xi Jinping's leadership than in the previous two decades. Many of them worked on behalf of churches targeted by the demolition campaign.

At least 10 detainees in Zhejiang remain in so-called 'black jails', which have no legal status, and in which torture is common.

Wang, who is a devout Christian, told the Guardian that she finds comfort in her relationship with God despite her family's difficult circumstances.

"We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose," she said, quoting from Paul's letter to the Romans.

Li was arrested on July 10, 2015, and in January this year Chinese authorities disclosed that he had been imprisoned in Tianjin on subversion charges that carry a potential life sentence.

Wang, a lawyer herself, rejects the charges as a "farce".

"The entire process has been unlawful from the very start," she said.

She recalled that on the day of Li's arrest her daughter "begged her father to take her to work. And then it happened  that was the day."

When he arrived at work, with his daughter with him, Li's car was surrounded by police. He apparently refused to be taken before safely returning his daughter home.

Wang told the Guardian she initially did not realise the severity of the situation, as her husband had been detained, tortured and abducted previously due to his decade-long career in human rights.

"I thought they might just have summoned him for a chat," she said.

"I miss him so much but I have decided to miss him in a happy way," she said. "I can miss him and still be happy at the same time. I can be happy in standing up for our rights. And I can also try to make others happy. That is a choice we can make. As for having our families taken away from us, we don't have any choice about that."

Wang makes regular trips across China to meet with the spouses of other jailed attorneys for support and continues to protest their arrests. She was taken into custody herself on Monday following the latest protest.

Li Jiamei, meanwhile, has decided to follow in her father's footsteps. Wang recalls her telling a friend that when she grows up, "I want to be a human rights lawyer".
Christian convert who helped pastor Saeed Abedini in Iran 'one step from death' in Tehran prison

Nasim Naghash Zargaran, a Christian woman who assisted Pastor Saeed Abedini while he was imprisoned in Iran, is just "one step from death" and in desperate need of prayers as she languished in a prison in Tehran.

Speaking to the Baptist Press (BP), Abedini said Zargaran, 36, was one of the first people who converted to Christianity and was one of his main church leaders in Iran.

"Her punishment is just because of assisting me," Abedini said.

Zargaran was arrested in January 2013 for her involvement in an Iranian church planting ministry and her connection to Abedini, CBN News reports.

On Friday last week, she began a hunger strike to protest the denial of much needed medical treatment, according to Abedini, who learned about Zargaran's dire condition from her sister Naeemeh.

Zargaran reportedly suffers from diabetes, severe pain, and an atrial septal defect heart condition.

Abedini said he learned that Iranian prison officials took Zargaran to the hospital because she appeared to be comatose, but quickly took her back to prison against the doctor's wishes.

"(Naaemeh) told me when she went to hospital she had a chance to take some photos. She was like in a coma so she thought that her sister was dead first when she saw her," Abedini told BP. "The doctors said she should stay in hospital but the police (took) her back to prison ... two days ago."

Zargaran is serving a four-year prison sentence for "threatening national security" by church plantingthe same charge slapped on Abedini who was meted an eight-year jail sentence prior to his release in January this year.

Abedini also posted an update on Nasim's condition on his Facebook page. He says Naeemeh met with her sister Nasim, who "lost so much weight and much of her hair."

He says Naeemeh hardly recognised her sister Nasim. "In order to meet her sister, Nasim needed the help of two other prisoners who held her as she came. She cannot walk on her own any more," Abedini writes.

The pastor says Zargaran could not anymore "remember conversations for more than five minutes" since her "memory is lost."

"Throughout her hunger strike that has lasted thirteen days, she has refused any medical treatment. She simply wants to be free. The whites of her eyes have turned to yellow and her blood pressure is very low. She is in extreme pain, especially in her legs, which is like torture," Abedini writes.

"Nasim comes in and out of consciousness. Some of the guards and prison authorities push her to eat in order to shut down the news coming out about her situation, but she refuses to eat. Please pray for Nasim," Abedini urges his readers.
Church of England praises 'moral purpose' of Tory welfare policy

The Church of England moved away from a left-wing approach to benefits as it published a new paper on the welfare state and praised the "moral purpose" of the government's welfare policies.

The discussion paper endorsed by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Archbishop of York marks the latest in a long and often volatile line of Church commentary on the welfare state. But this latest intervention is softer in its criticism of the Tory government than previous papers.

Thinking afresh about welfare was published on Tuesday and focused on the "evil" of isolation in the UK. It offered a pessimistic assessment of the ability of the welfare state to tackle this problem.

"The burden on the state has become unsustainable, outstripping the willingness of the people as a whole to pay for it," said the report. "Nor is uniform state welfare always efficient or effective  it can be bureaucratic, inflexible and reduce the self-worth of those who depend upon it."

The tone is a shift away from the pre-election interjection made by John Sentamu and Justin Welby. In their book On Rock or Sand published in January 2015, the two Anglican leaders portrayed the welfare state as the fulfillment of Jesus' command to "love your neighbour".

However the report said although Christians should support the vulnerable, "none of that is an argument for giving the state any particular role in designing and delivering welfare".

The Church's report said the government's current welfare agenda was "not without moral purpose" and admitted it had failed in the past to see the "moral vision" of Margaret Thatcher's government.

"We must avoid the trap of seeing present [welfare] policy direction as motivated solely by economic concerns," it said.

However the report criticised the way the government's sanctions policy was carried out. Although it said sanctions should be used to change "iresponsible behaviour", the "crude way" they had been applied was seen as "random and punitive and failing to reflect the difficulties of life for people with few means".

However the report said it supported the government's principle that benefits should not pay more than full-time work.
David Cameron: 'Clearly ludicrous' to ban Christian Unions under extremism laws

The Prime Minister has said it is "clearly ludicrous" for a college Christian Union (CU) to be banned on the grounds of the government's counter-extremism strategy.

David Cameron was asked in Prime Minister's Questions today about a case where a CU was banned purportedly on the basis of the government's anti-terrorism legislation. The college in question has not been identified but it is believed to be the first case of a Christian group being targeted under the Prevent strategy, which was introduced last autumn to tackle extremism in universities and schools.

In response to a question by the Christian MP Fiona Bruce, Cameron told the House of Commons he had not heard of the particular case but it was "clearly ludicrous" to ban a CU as a result of Prevent.

"People need to exercise some common sense in making these judgements because it is quite clear that is not what it [Prevent] was intended for," he said.

The case in question was first reported in the Sunday Times which said the college had barred the CU from holding prayer and Bible study meetings on site as a result of Prevent.

Toni Coulton, director of Festive, a charity that supports Christians in the UK's further education and sixth-form colleges, told the Sunday Times: "Senior management were not happy to have Christians meeting for prayer and fellowship and the reason they gave was because of the Prevent initiative."

Speaking to Christian Today, Coulton said she'd heard of other colleges shutting down CUs. She cited a number of factors, including publicity about the dangers of radicalisation and worries about what Ofsted might say if it inspects on-campus religious bodies.

Prevent is a part of the government's anti-extremism strategy and places a duty on schools and colleges to report suspected incidents of radicalisation.

In 2014 the government made clear the programme was designed to tackle all aspects of the terrorist threat. It requires teachers "to take action when they observe behaviour of concern". However, although a consultation document on the strategy mentioned Islamist extremism and the extreme right, no mention was made of Christianity.
EU inspired by 'gospel values', say Irish Catholic bishops

The European Union was inspired by "gospel values", Catholic bishops in Northern Ireland told the faithful, as they warned of the consequences of Brexit.

The bishops urged Christians to "take seriously our responsibility as citizens to inform ourselves and to vote on the issue at stake". Although the statement released on Wednesday said the decision of how to vote in this month's referendum was "clearly" one "for individuals", the Church leaders went on to say that the "vision and values inspiring the European project are also gospel values".

The bishops praised the EU extensively and warned of the "profound implications" if Britain voted to leave.

"The reintroduction of border controls, for example, would not only have profound implications for trade and the economy, but also for the wider civil society, notably through the disruptive impact on the day-to-day life of those who live in border areas or cross the border frequently," said the bishops.

"The valuable work carried out to date to build new relationships across these islands must not be undermined."

The statement was released on the second day of the Irish bishops' summer meeting, but only on behalf of bishops north of the border as it is only Northern Ireland that will vote in the June 23 referendum.

They hailed the "remarkable achievement" of the EU in preventing war and bringing about the "peaceful and effective integration and co-existence between peoples of differing histories, culture and backgrounds".

The statement quoted from Pope Francis' address to the European Parliament as an indication of Catholic attitudes towards the EU.

"At the heart of this ambitious political project was confidence in man, not so much as a citizen or an economic agent, but in man, in men and women as persons endowed with transcendent dignity," Francis said in his November 2014 speech.

The bishops added: "In an ever more interdependent world, the EU provides individual member states with a valuable mechanism of international influence in terms of peace-making, development, trade negotiation and shared environmental responsibility, in support of the global common good."
Muslim refugee converts to Christianity forgive their persecutors

Christian faith has brought new hope, forgiveness and a freedom from fear to Muslim converts to Christianity living in refugee camps, according to RT.

"I've been spat on, told that I've betrayed Islam. But through what I have learned, I can forgive them," one man who was recently baptised in Hamburg, Germany, told RT.

"Since I became a Christian I fear no one," a young woman said.

Germany has accepted more than one million refugees since 2015.

There have been reports that Christian refugees are being psychologically abused, physically mistreated and denied food at Muslim-dominated camps in Germany.

Traditionally, conversion from Islam can result in a range of punishments, including expulsion from the family and "beatings and even killings against family members who convert," geopolitical analyst and consultant Rainer Rothfuss told RT.

Despite this, Muslims are converting to Christianity in increasing numbers.

More than 80 Muslim refugees from Iran and Afghanistan converted to Christianity and were baptised last month in Hamburg.

"The motive for the change of faith is the same for many: they are disappointed with Islam," Albert Babajan, the pastor who conducted the mass baptism, told German magazine Stern.

One Iranian refugee, Shima, told Stern that Islam had never brought her freedom, and she had lived under constant fear of sin.

"I've been looking all my life for peace and happiness, but in Islam, I have not found it," she said.

"To be a Christian means happiness to me."
Nigel Farage hits back at Archbishop of Canterbury over 'racism' accusation

Nigel Farage has hit back at criticism from the Archbishop of Canterbury over his suggestion that women would face predatory sex attacks from migrants if Britain chose to remain in the European Union.

The UKIP leader said Justin Welby had not actually read what he had said and insisted he had chosen his comments, in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, very carefully.

"Clearly the Archbishop read a headline in a newspaper and not what it actually said," Farage told the BBC. "What I said was what happened in Cologne on New Year's Eve and subsequent attacks were a real issue in Germany and in Sweden and could become an issue in this referendum."

He insisted: "I have said nothing out of line at all."

Farage pointed to the head of the Roman Catholic Church in Germany and said the Cardinal had used far stronger terms than him. Reinhold Marx has called for a reduction in the number of refugees in Germany because the country "can't take in all the world's needy".

Welby on Tuesday told MPs on the home affairs select committee that Farage's remarks were an "inexcusable pandering to people's worries and prejudices". He added he condemned the comments "without hesitation".

He said: "That's giving legitimisation to racism... we can't legitimise that.

"Fear is a pastoral issue  deal with it by recognising it, standing alongside and providing answers to it. What that is is accentuating fear for political gain and that is absolutely inexcusable."

But Farage insisted he had "no desire in any way to stoke up any fears". Pushed on the issue in a referendum debate on ITV on Tuesday night, Farage said Remain campaigners were "coming for him" and had wanted an excuse to attack him.

Welby was the first Archbishop of Canterbury to give evidence to a House of Commons select committee as he answered questions on migration and asylum seekers.

He insisted Britain was "not too full" and could take more migrants but we must "think very, very hard about doing it.

"You can do the right thing in such a wrong way it becomes the wrong thing," he said.

The Archbishop stood by his comments in March that it was legitimate to fear mass migration.

"We never serve ourselves well when we neglect fear," Welby told MPs. "The answer to fear is not to say it is improper to fear but to recognise it and the causes of that fear."

He added: "I fully accept there is a burden on communities. The answer to that burden is one has to provide specific extra resources to communities affected."
Nigeria: Bishops meet with President to discuss Fulani killings and Chibok girls

The President of Nigeria has met with a group of Nigerian bishops to discuss the recent killings by Fulani herdsmen and issues of security.

"We are here to offer our advice as church people from our own perspective to the president on the current national situation", Archbishop Nicholas Okoh told Anglican News following the meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari.

"We told him many things. We are all looking for solution to issues of the herdsmen, issue of vandalism, security in one way or the other because the people are asking us and we want to have explanation for the people whom we lead."

There have been regular attacks by Fulani militia and herdsmen, who are mostly Muslim, on farmers in the central states of Nigeria, who are mostly Christian. The states are where the largely Christian south meets the mainly Muslim north.

According to the Igbo Youth Movement, Fulani herdsmen have murdered more than 700 Nigerians in the last 10 months, with the government taking little action to halt the killings.

The Archbishop said that after the meeting he is hopeful that over the next year the situation would improve across the country.

"We believe that so far it's been okay because of the difficulties of the times and between now and the next one year we are looking forward to something more direct now, something that will get to the people easily," he said.

"The next one we know will be better."

The fate of the more than two hundred kidnapped schoolgirls from Chibok, who are believed to remain hostages of militant group Boko Haram, was also discussed during the meeting.

Buhari reportedly assured the bishops that their safe return remained a priority for the government.
On this day: Lindisfarne was sacked by the Vikings in 793

Lindisfarne is a peaceful island off the North East coast of England, known as the Holy Island for its long history of monasticism. But this same history saw it become the scene of horrific bloodshed as its monks were massacred in the one of the first of a terrifying wave of attacks on the British mainland by Viking raiders from across the North Sea.

On June 8, 793, they landed on Lindisfarne, site of the famous Church of St Cuthbert. It was a place of pilgrimage, rich with relics, gold and silver devotional objects and precious manuscripts. The Vikings plundered the church and its surrounding area, killed or enslaved the monks and left the island devastated.

The main source of our knowledge of the raid is Alcuin, a scholar and royal counsellor who was a prolific letter-writer. He wrote to Ethelred, King of Northumbria: "Lo, it is nearly 350 years that we and our fathers have inhabited this most lovely land, and never before has such terror appeared in Britain as we have now suffered from a pagan race, nor was it thought that such an inroad from the sea could be made.

"Behold the church of St Cuthbert spattered with the blood of the priests of God, despoiled of all its ornaments; a place more venerable than all in Britain is given as a prey to pagan peoples..."

Alcuin suggested to the king that the disaster might have been the consequence of loose living at the court: "Consider carefully, brothers, and examine diligently, lest perchance this unaccustomed and unheard-of evil was merited by some unheard-of evil practice... Consider the dress, the way of wearing the hair, the luxurious habits of the princes and people."

He refers to "fornications, adulteries and incest", and says that "for sins of this kind kings lost their kingdoms and peoples their country". He also warns against the luxurious living standards of the rulers of the kingdom, saying: "The princes' superfluity is poverty for the people."

One of the treasures that survived the raid was the famous Lindisfarne Gospels, one of the great relics of the Anglo-Saxon world, though their jeweled cover was lost or possibly looted. Perhaps the Vikings simply failed to recognise their value.

The Vikings were not mindless savages, though their attacks on Britain were to continue for more than 200 years. They established a Danish kingdom based in York and England even had a Danish king, Canute, for 18 years (from 1017-1035).

But they are best remembered for their ruthlessness and the terror they inspired. As as prayer at the time put it: "From the fury of the Northmen, good Lord, deliver us."
U.N. experts slam extremely 'irresponsible' comments by Philippine president-elect Duterte justifying the killing of journalists

Two United Nations human rights experts strongly condemned recent statements made by Philippine president-elect Rodrigo Duterte suggesting that journalists are not exempt for assassination, urging the incoming leader to immediately stop instigating deadly violence.

Speaking at a press conference in Geneva, Switzerland on Monday, UN Special Rapporteur on summary executions, Cristof Heyns, noted a statement made by Duterte during a recent press conference in Davao City, southern Philippines, where he said most journalists killed in the country have done something wrong. "You won't be killed if you don't do anything wrong," Duterte said, suggesting that the victims were partly to blame for their fate, according to a report that appeared on the website of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

"A message of this nature amounts to incitement to violence and killing, in a nation already ranked as the second-deadliest country for journalists," Heyns said. "These comments are irresponsible in the extreme, and unbecoming of any leader, let alone someone who is to assume the position of the leader of a country that calls itself democratic."

Since a people power revolt ousted the dictatorship of President Ferdinand Marcos three decades ago, 174 journalists have been murdered in the Philippines under the chaotic and corruption-plagued democratic governments that followed, according to the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

David Kaye, another U.N. independent expert, also expressed alarm at Duterte's statements.

"Justifying the killing of journalists on the basis of how they conduct their professional activities can be understood as a permissive signal to potential killers that the murder of journalists is acceptable in certain circumstances and would not be punished," he said in the statement.

"This position is even more disturbing when one considers that the Philippines is still struggling to ensure accountability to notorious cases of violence against journalists," he said.

He referred to the massacre that took place in southern province of Maguindanao in November 2009, in which the son of a political warlord and his bodyguards mowed down 58 people, including 32 journalists  making it one of the world's deadliest attacks on media workers.

Kaye also blasted Duterte's warning to journalists that he could not guarantee their safety "if you disrespect a person."

"Such provocative messages indicate to any person who is displeased by the work of a journalist or an activist, for example, that they can attack or kill them without fear of sanction," he said.

Duterte also promised to pay bounties to police and military officials for every drug lord they turn in. "I'm not saying that you kill them, but the order is dead or alive," Duterte said in a televised news conference.

Heyns said, "Talk of 'dead or alive' has no role to play in any state that claims to uphold human rights in law enforcement."

"Intentional lethal use of force may only be made when strictly unavoidable in order to protect life and not for common policing objectives," he said. "The President-elect fools no one when he says he is not calling on people to be killed."
Klee and Kandinsky at the Bauhaus

Specialist Jay Vincze looks at the highly influential period of the artists lives when they were neighbours, friends and colleagues at the Bauhaus  with a collection of works offered in our Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale on 22 June

For over 30 years Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee enjoyed one of the most fruitful and lasting friendships in modern art, working, exhibiting and living alongside one another during some of the most groundbreaking years of their careers. The pair embarked on their artistic education in Munich in the early years of the 20th century, studying at the citys academy of fine arts under the tutelage of the painter Franz von Stuck. But it was not until a decade later, in October 1911, that they would become acquainted. By this stage, the two were neighbours, living on the same street in the artists quarter of Schwabing.

Kandinsky recorded his first impressions of the young Klee in a letter to his close friend Franz Marc, explaining that there is certainly something there in his soul. Klee, meanwhile, noted in his diary: Personal acquaintance [with Kandinsky] has given me a somewhat deeper confidence in him. He is somebody and has an exceptionally fine, clear mind. They discussed Kandinskys plans to establish a new society of artists and agreed to meet more often in the future.

At this time Kandinsky left the New Artists Association of Munich, of which he had been a founding member, to establish The Blue Rider group with his friend Franz Marc. In his role as special correspondent for the Swiss periodical Die Alpen, Klee glowingly reviewed The Blue Rider exhibition in December 1911, reserving special praise for Kandinsky. Klee soon joined the group for their second exhibition in 1912, subtitled Black and White, in which he was represented by 17 drawings.

Throughout the years immediately preceding the First World War, the older artist made introductions on Klees behalf, encouraging collectors such as Arthur Jerome Eddy to purchase the young artists work. But at the outbreak of war Kandinsky was forced to fee Germany as an enemy alien. Although the pair met briefly in Switzerland in the summer of 1914, they would not reconnect again for almost eight years. By this time, their professional fortunes had dramatically changed. Klee was now a widely acclaimed painter, experiencing critical and commercial success across Europe. In 1921, he was invited by Walter Gropius to become a master at the Bauhaus in Weimar, which granted him a new degree of financial security and professional standing.

Kandinsky, on the other hand, had been absent from the German art scene for a number of years, working on the reorganisation of the cultural establishment in Russia following the Revolution. After encountering the ideological limitations of the Constructivists, who rejected his subjectivism and spiritualism, he returned to Germany where he was, once again, the subject of fierce controversy. From Berlin he sent a letter to Klee at the Bauhaus, expressing his desire to see his old friend. Just a few months later, Klee would assist Kandinsky and his wife in their move to Weimar, where Kandinsky joined the faculty of the Bauhaus. They came to know each other as colleagues and revived their tradition of exchanging small paintings and works on paper on each others birthdays and at Christmas. When the Bauhaus moved to Dessau in 1926, they became neighbours again, living side-by-side in two semi-detached masters houses on the new Bauhaus site. Here they fell into an easy routine, working and teaching, socialising together with their wives, and taking long walks in the valley of the Elbe river.

With the rise to power of the National Socialists in 1933, Germany became a dangerous place for both artists to live
Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

-- PARTY UNITY at Texas Dem convention  Clinton and Sanders camps seek to avoid another Nevada blowup, bySAENs David Rauf. Facing what was described as growing tensions that have begun to divide the party, Garry Mauro, a member of Clintons Texas leadership team, and Jacob Limon, Texas state director for the Sanders campaign, recently sent an email touting party unity to roughly 6,000 state delegates.

-- Texas Take, by me: What will Trump find when he comes to Texas? This is a prime opportunity for Democrats to make the most high-profile contrast they could ask for  at a time when many Texas Republicans still are deeply discontent with Trump as their nominee. Either way you look at it, Texas could feel like enemy territory for him. It is unclear at this point when he, or Clinton for that matter, will come back to the Lone Star State after theyre both crowned the nominees at their conventions and then charge to November. We know, from history, that it is not very often, so what happens next week while Trump is here has the potential to define the Texas landscape  for good or ill  for the foreseeable future.
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Former MTV reality star and social media celeb Tila Tequila posted a photo to Facebook on Monday in her "cowboy boots" with a caption that read: "Ain't nuthin better than riding around Texas in my cowboy boots to hunt down these damn illegals! #SendThemBack," stunning fans and critics alike.

RELATED:Tila Tequila wishes Hitler a happy birthday on Twitter

Texans quickly stormed the comments of the post noting that the porn star's shoes weren't exactly cowboy boots, and reminded her of her own ethnic background  born to Singapore immigrants to the United States. Tequila grew up in Houston.

"As a Texas native I must inform you that those are no way in hell cowboy boots ma'am," one Facebook user, Josh Rodriguez, wrote.

RELATED: Tila Tequila Booted From 'Celebrity Big Brother' Over Hitler Views (Report)

Others renounced their appreciation for the adult film star as a result of her racially insensitive post, and criticized her "uneducated" commentary on the issue of immigration.

She was in headlines earlier this year after she made a GoFundMe asking for funds to move into a new home and buy furniture.
Police found one woman dead, and a man with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head inside a west Houston motel on Tuesday.

Officers responded to a call from staff at the Palace Inn, in the 1300 block of West Sam Houston Parkway North, shortly before 4 p.m.
The suspect in a double shooting Tuesday morning that left his ex-girlfriend dead and her boyfriend wounded said "his mind went blank" after he arrived at the woman's apartment in northeast Houston.

Darrell P. Mitchell, 28, is charged with murder in the shooting that occurred about 3 a.m. at 6603 Hirsch, according to court documents. He was being held in the Harris County jail in lieu of $100,000 bail.

Mitchell is accused of fatally shooting Lakiesha Lewis, 23, and critically wounding 24-year-old Johnel Francis.

Mitchell surrendered to police Tuesday night after investigators released information about the shooting and said they wanted to speak with him about the incident.

The documents state a woman who was Lewis' best friend and knows Mitchell as Lewis' ex-boyfriend told investigators he sent her a text message Tuesday morning asking her to call him. When she called him, he told her she would have to raise his child because he had killed Lewis and her new boyfriend. He said when he knocked on Lewis' apartment door and Francis answered it, "his mind went blank and he shot and killed them," according to the documents.

Police have said the woman who spoke with Mitchell told a deputy constable during a traffic stop about their conversation. The deputy alerted police officers, who went to Lewis' apartment and found Lewis and Francis in the bathroom. They had been gunshot. Lewis died at the scene. Francis, who was shot in the head, was rushed to a nearby hospital. He was in critical condition.

Police have said Mitchell and Lewis had an on-again-off-again relationship and had recently broken up. Lewis was the mother of his three children, ages 5, 3, and 1. The children were not at the apartment at the time of the shooting.

Court records show Mitchell pleaded guilty to assault-family member after he hit Lewis in 2012. He later completed deferred adjudication in the case. Lewis was granted a protective order against Mitchell following the incident.

Read the full police documents above.
The U.S. Supreme Court may rule as soon as Thursday on a years-long legal fight over the University of Texas at Austin's use of race in admissions. It's a case that could have broad implications for affirmative action nationwide, but many experts say that's unlikely.

UT considers race as a factor for roughly 25 percent of student applicants who are not admitted under a state law that grants automatic admission up to the top 10 percent of students of a high school's graduating class.

Abigail Fisher, a white applicant from Sugar Land whose grades did not put her at the very top of her class, sued UT after she was denied admission in 2008. Fisher claims UT admitted minority students with lower grades than hers, violating the 14th Amendment in denying her admission.

The case has drawn the eyes of higher education leaders across the nation, fearful that the high court could strike a blow to affirmative action policies. The court's ruling is expected this month before its current session ends. But experts said this week a more narrow ruling from the high court is likely. Only seven justices will weigh in on the case, and the court has been reluctant to issue broad rulings after Justice Antonin Scalia died in February.

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"I wouldn't expect it to make a bold ideological ruling," said Paul Brace, a political scientist at Rice University.

The smaller makeup of the court is unique to the case and will be key to any outcome. Justice Elena Kagan, an expected would-be vote for UT, recused herself because she worked on the case as solicitor general. Because of that, when the case was argued before the high court late last year, many thought a 4-4 split is the best UT could hope for.

Without Kagan, UT could likely count on just three justices -- Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Stephen G. Breyer. Four justices -- Clarence Thomas, Antonin Scalia, Chief Justice John G. Roberts and Samuel A. Alito Jr. -- have been critics of affirmative action. With a tie vote, the UT policy could continue.

Without Scalia and Kagan, a tie is impossible. With a smaller group making the decision, a "blockbuster" ruling is unlikely, said Herman Schwartz, a professor in the Washington College of Law at American University in Washington, D.C.

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy will be the swing vote. Kennedy wrote the opinion in 2013 that sent the case back to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, asking that the panel provide a stricter test to UT's policies, which the university had to prove were necessary because race-neutral admissions policies were not working.

Though he tends to be more conservative, Kennedy has been "reluctant" to broadly condemn affirmative action in the way that the other conservatives on the court have, said Louis Michael Seidman, a professor of constitutional law at Georgetown University Law Center.

There's a good chance the court, then, will issue a ruling narrowly tailored to UT's policies -- which are quite different than most admissions policies across the nation, because of the state's top 10 percent automatic acceptance law.

"The bottom line is, I think, they're not going to want to go all the way to knock it out and I think they'll try to find some middle ground, at least for this case," Schwartz said.

Still, UT's supporters have said that even a ruling focused solely on the state flagship's policies -- which are unique, because state law requires UT to automatically admit the best high school students -- could have widespread influence nationally on other universities' consideration of race in admissions.

"There is a lot at stake here," Rachel Kleinman, an attorney with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, said last year before the court heard oral arguments in the case. "I think any ruling on affirmative action stands to change things nationally, even if it's just a chilling effect ... Any ruling that technically applies to UT will certainly have other colleges and universities scrambling to make sure they're in compliance."
GALVESTON  Galveston County commissioners Tuesday voted to kill a $13.8 million project to build a sewage treatment plant on the Bolivar Peninsula, blaming changing requirements by federal regulators.

The decision disappointed many Bolivar Peninsula residents, who say reliance on septic tanks is creating environmental hazards and polluting the Gulf of Mexico and Galveston Bay.

Commissioner Ryan Dennard, who had championed the project, said officials at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development constantly changed requirements for qualifying for the $13.8 million in federal money available to build the plant.

"It is probably the single most-important thing that needs to happen to Bolivar for both health and environmental reasons," Dennard said of the project.

Dennard nevertheless voted with other commissioners to kill the project because, he said, the hurdles were insurmountable.

"I don't believe in show votes," he said.

Dennard said the obstacle to securing federal funding was a requirement that 51 percent of the users be low-income earners. He said only about 15 percent to 20 percent of Bolivar residents were in the low-income category.

Bolivar resident Jeanie Turk said the decision was "a terrible disappointment." Turk said Bolivar community leaders had made the sewage plant a centerpiece of efforts to rebuild after Hurricane Ike ravaged the peninsula in September 2008.

"To me it's a great loss of the opportunity to have an impact, to start to clean up the environment and the bacteria that septic tanks constantly put into the ditches, and into the Gulf and into the bay," Turk said.

Dennard, who is not running for reelection in November, said he hoped that commissioners would find another way to fund the project.

Turk was doubtful that commissioners would try to save the project. "I think it's over," she said.

The project got off to a rocky start in 2012, with County Judge Mark Henry and the Texas General Land Office opposed to it.

Dennard worked hard to revive it and until recently believed that he had overcome all the objections and come up with a plan that would ensure that the project would be economically self-sustaining.
Students in a high school business class recently raised $800 for a nonprofit community program that helps young adults with autism and other mental disabilities learn to navigate life.

The 18 Incarnate Word Academy students who took the semester-long Leading with Business course created and operated a small business and donated profits to Summerhouse, a nonprofit based in Houston's Heights community.

The course is part of the private, all-girls Catholic school's Young Leaders Program, a series of four courses designed to help empower young women to lead and serve.

Leadership development

The program consists of courses on leadership development and provides students with opportunities to practice what they learn, said Sister Lauren Beck, president of the Catholic school.

"The Leading with Business (course) is part of a bigger program," she said, and it is the latest class added to the school's leadership curriculum.

The academy's leadership program is conducted in collaboration with Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and includes modules on idea generation, marketing, pricing strategies, operations, financials, cost accounting and presentation skills.

Through the program, students are required to create a formal business plan and present their idea to local Wharton alums.

It is the private school's version of television's business pitch show, "Shark Tank," Beck said.

The goal of the program, she said, is to help the students learn to think from a different perspective, as leaders and not simply as managers.

"What they learn from the (Leading with Business) course and all of the other courses in the leadership program empowers them to take risks, to learn from setbacks, to look at options, the value of working together and the value of hard work, etc.," Beck said.

Lemon Chill

Students in the school's Leading with Business class created Lemon Chill, a lemonade stand that operated during school lunch periods.

In addition to serving lemonade, Lemon Chill served a raspberry soda lemonade.

The student-run business was open for eight days in April and made $100 each day.

The lemonade stand operated twice a week selling to the school community.

Leading with Business was added to the leadership program, said Charles Kafoglis, the school's director of character and leadership, to merge character education, leadership practices and business innovation.

The course vision, he said, is for each new class to create and operate a different student-run business each year.

Some of those businesses could potentially live on and become ongoing entities, Kafoglis added.

"In leadership and business, class knowledge only goes so far," he said.

"A real-life business, with real goals (to help fund Summerhouse activities), and risks is essential in moving students from rote knowledge to inspiring possibilities.

"The business sparks their imagination in a way a class environment cannot."

Kafoglis said there is an increasing awareness among educators that character and leadership skills are needed in a competitive and globally connected world.

Shortage of leaders

"There is a shortage of leaders who understand that organizational success requires constant transformation, which is best led by those who are more than just competent but who lead with their values - in our case, faith-based values," he said.

"As an all-girls school, we have a particular mission to help meet the demand for female voices at all levels of leadership."

Hannah Tello, 18, was among the school's students who elected to take the leadership program's courses.

She helped design and build the lemonade stand, which was done during the school's Easter break with help from her father.

"We collected the wood from the city of Houston Reuse Warehouse, a warehouse where nonprofit organizations can collect recycled materials for free," Tello said.

"Once the wood was collected, we built it in two days. Then my friends and I painted it at IWA."

She also helped make the product and sell it. Students made their drink products in the mornings and sold them during lunch.

During the Leading with Business class, Tello participated in brainstorming other possible business ideas and learned key concepts about business in general.

She participated in interviewing a small business located in the Heights. Students were asked to research a business and answer questions that would help them connect real-world business concepts to class lessons.

"I interviewed one of my favorite boutiques, Emerson Rose," Tello said.

"I am thankful and appreciate that the owner of the boutique was willing to let me interview here and ask her questions about her business.

"It was very eye-opening, and I loved the experience."

Collaboration needed

Her takeaway from the class, she said, is that opening and running a business requires a lot of collaboration to be successful because of multiple ideas and innovations.

"Making the lemonade stand really opened my eyes to leadership because I was able to lead the group in taking action, stepping up to the plate and was able to create an aesthetically appealing and functional lemonade stand," Tello said.

She has since graduated from Incarnate Word Academy, and she believes the experience she gained in the school's leadership program will be useful when she attends the University of Houston-Honors College and becomes an active participant in campus organizations and class projects.

"Overall I am so thankful that I was able to take the Leading with Business class," Tello said.

"It was a unique and fun experience, and I am glad that our business was not only beneficial to my educational experiences but also to the teenagers and young adults we helped from Summerhouse."

Fun Fridays

Donna Fruge, president and founder of Summerhouse, was on hand last month for a check presentation of the leadership class' proceeds.

The funds, she said, will be used to sponsor four of the nonprofit's Fun Fridays community activities.

Every Friday of each week, Summerhouse staff take its members out in the community to participate in events, eat at local restaurants and shop at locally owned businesses.

It is part of Summerhouse's curriculum of community integration.

"Community integration is the opportunity to live, work and play in the community and be valued for one's uniqueness and abilities, like everyone else," Fruge said.

"This results in community presence and participation with others without a 'disability label.' "

Incarnate Word Academy's leadership program students didn't just start and run a business generating the $800 donation to Summerhouse.

Last spring, several of the students volunteered to weed, paint, clean and provide program support at the nonprofit.

The leadership program at Incarnate Word Academy did more than provide student's the basics of running and operating a business, Fruge said.

"Interacting, working with and getting to know the Summerhouse members gives these young people an opportunity to see them more as equals and having the same dreams, hopes and future expectations as they have in spite of their disability," she added.

For more information on Incarnate Word Academy, 609 Crawford St., go to https://incarnateword.org/ or call 713-227-3637.
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A lot has changed at John H. Reagan High School since it was established in the Heights neighborhood in 1904.

The original campus was known as "Houston Heights High School" and was located on the site of the present Milroy Park, on the corner of Yale and 12th Street, and also housed an elementary and middle school.

The building burned in 1924 and a new location was chosen on the block between Oxford and Arlington and 13th and 14th streets.

The school was named John H. Reagan High School and opened its doors in 1926.

Next year, the school, now at 413 East 13th St., will go back to its original name - Heights High School.

In May, the school board voted to rename seven schools that were named after people with ties to the Confederacy, of which Reagan was one.

Principal Connie Berger has been the principal for 10 years.

An alumna of the school, she also began her career in education there in 1984 as a teacher of psychology, history and German.

She worked at Fonville Middle School, Herrera Elementary and was hired as principal at E. A. "Squatty" Lyons Elementary in 2000 and moved to Reagan six years later.

"When I got to Reagan, it was a low-performing school," Berger said. "I took on a very challenging school, more challenging than I knew."

She assembled a team of top educators to address the low scores.

"Luckily, I was able to bring in some people I was familiar with from other places who wanted to work with me," she said.

"And that was beneficial to the entire campus. We rolled up our sleeves, and we had to dig deep to figure out why we were performing low."

The school staff evaluated all of the pieces, from level of attendance to the quality of the teachers.

"Working together as a team was very important to us," Berger said.

She discovered that the campus lacked a number of necessary systems to foster communication and keep track of students.

After initiating new methods and attacking the low-performance issues, Reagan was able to up its test scores after a year thanks to the staff's efforts.

Berger continues to maintain continual conversations with parents to solicit their ideas and input on the campus.

"I listen to the community about what they want in a neighborhood school," she said.

For a while, much of the feedback was focused on a desire for more advanced programs.

In response, Reagan became an International Baccalaureate school.

The campus had to pass an authorization process from the International Baccalaureate nonprofit educational foundation to prove that it develops the skills necessary for students to live and work in a global society.

The school was authorized for the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program last year and is one of only three schools in the district to offer this option.

"It's a lengthy process," Berger said. "We're very lucky that we moved forward with that."

The campus has also offered more advanced placement courses.

Berger credits the school's success to having a stable leadership team.

"We've been solid for nine years and that really helps," she said. "We're like a family and every student who comes onto our campus knows that we care about them."

Berger said that paying personal attention to each student is a top priority.

"At the end of the day, what matters most is teaching and learning - and discussing best teaching practices," she said. "We meet with other high schools. We learn from them and they learn from us."

Berger continued to face challenges.

The Heights has been growing more and more every year and she has to keep a close watch on demographics to make sure enrollment is at an ideal level.

There are 2,340 students on campus, up from 1,600 10 years ago.

"The growth has occurred gradually," Berger said.

"Every year, our enrollment has gotten higher and higher. Right now, I can't accept more students. I have to manage our numbers so we fit comfortably in the building."

HISD spokesman Jason Spencer said that Reagan is not the only school in the district with an increasing enrollment.

"While other urban school districts in America have seen declining enrollment over the past decade, HISD has experienced steady growth," he said.

"This is because of strong school choice options that include rigorous neighborhood high schools such as Reagan."

He added that Reagan's enrollment has grown by 500 since 2005, a 29 percent increase in a decade.

To accommodate a rising student population, the district will add Mark White Elementary School, which is slated to open in the fall in west Houston.

Spencer said that enrollment has grown in HISD, or at least remained steady, for the past decade.

"Next year's enrollment projections are similar to the current enrollment of 215,000," he said.

"Residential development, the job market and confidence in public schools all impact enrollment growth."

Spencer said that the district employs a full-time staff demographer who monitors housing and economic trends to determine future impact on neighborhood schools.

He added that the administration is seeking proposals from private firms to study the district's population trends and guide the district in redrawing school attendance zones to accommodate growth.

Since Houston Independent School District offers schools by choice, families may select any school for their children to attend.

Berger said that when students choose Reagan, she knows that her staff is on the right track.

"I'm seeing more and more of our neighborhood kids coming to Reagan," she said.

Reagan was also named as one of the nation's top 500 high schools in Newsweek in 2015.
When St. Mark Lutheran School began in 1949, it had 18 pupils, kindergarten through eighth grade.

This year, the Spring Branch-area school at 1515 Hillendahl had 350 pupils in early childhood, elementary and middle school programs (6 weeks old through eighth grade) and principal Dallas Lusk expects the student population to approach 400 for the 2016-17 school year.

"Our enrollment has increased for the last four years," Lusk said.

That's why SML has made plans to add a two-story, 45,000-square-foot building to its 18-acre campus. Construction is tentatively scheduled to begin this fall.

"We have a waiting list, so we know we would have more students if we could just add classrooms," Lusk said.

To pay for the building project, SML launched a $5 million capital campaign last November. As of early June, the school had raised $2.4 million, nearly half its goal.

"It's the largest campaign the school has ever done," Lusk said.

Once the additional building is completed, SML should be able to accommodate a total of 500 pupils, Lusk said.

In the meantime, the school has been doubling its early childhood and elementary classes.

One of the reasons demand for the school is increasing, Lusk said, is the strength of its academic programs.

Its kindergarteners, for example, have scored in the 99th percentile in standardized testing during the last nine years, Lusk said.

"Kindergarten is such an important grade, and it sets that foundation for success.

"Our teachers do a great job."

In middle school, SML offers pupils the opportunity to take high school-credit/accelerated courses in pre-algebra, algebra and Spanish.

The school also capitalizes on opportunities to pair its older pupils with some of younger ones through the Reading Buddies program.

Participating middle school pupils read to early childhood and elementary pupils.

The older ones build leadership experience, and the younger ones gain positive role models.

The buddies also sit together during chapel.

"The little ones love that," Lusk said.

He said he's confident SML pupils excel because of the full package they receive, from challenging courses and supportive faculty to extracurricular activities and opportunities to grow as leaders.

"One of the things I'm proudest of is that 12 of our students in the last 12 years (one student per year) have gone on to be the valedictorian or salutatorian in their graduating high school class," Lusk said.

"That's both in private and public schools."

This year, a SML alum Daniel Villagomez was a co-salutatorian at Westchester Academy for International Studies, a Spring Branch Independent School District school.

"These students have gone on not just to be successful, but at the top of their class," Lusk said.

St. Mark Lutheran School, located near Interstate 10 and Wirt Road, serves pupils from the Spring Branch/Memorial area, along with the Houston Heights, Timbergrove, Katy and one family from Pearland. For details, visit http://gostmark.org or call 713-468-2623.
Kids screamed. Balloons popped. A confetti cannon detonated.

And combat-veteran-turned-science-teacher Stephen Seidel blacked out in the bleachers at the high school pep rally.

"I can't be around explosions," the former infantryman testified Monday in a faltering voice. "I don't know how many flashbacks I had."

Seidel took the witness stand on the first day of trial in his federal civil case against the New Caney Independent School District in Montgomery County, saying school officials failed to provide the accommodations he needed for post-traumatic stress disorder.

A jury in U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison's court must determine if the district violated Seidel's rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act when a supervisor ordered him to attend a "Lip Dub" rally, which Seidel told jurors was a "pep rally on steroids."

He had a running agreement with the school principal that he never had to attend such events, but his department chair insisted that he did.

Since the December 2012 pep rally, he hasn't returned to work. He needs help when he leaves the house. And doctors provide him a solo waiting room for visits, he told the jury.

With the judge's approval, he testified Monday with his wife sitting just inches away and angled toward him, observing his whole body to ensure he was all right.

"I was a damn good soldier and I was a damn good teacher," he testified. "And now I can't do anything, it feels like."

Seidel's attorney, Harry Laxton Jr. told jurors in an opening statement that Seidel felt he had no choice but to attend the pep rally.

School officials contend Seidel could have ignored conflicting instructions from the department chair.

"The accommodation that Mr. Seidel was granted (by the principal) was never taken away," said Erik Nichols, the attorney representing the district, in opening remarks.

War flashback

Seidel enlisted in the Army in 2002 and deployed to South Baghdad in the early days of the Iraq War, serving as a junior enlisted specialist in a field artillery unit in the first Cavalry Division.

He was with his unit in an urban setting when a mortar blast landed behind him, throwing him into a building, according to testimony. He suffered a traumatic brain injury, and injured his back and knees. He was honorably discharged in 2005.

Not long after, a Fourth of July fireworks display triggered a flashback.

"I woke up underneath the table with my weapon out," he told the jury. "That's when I knew I needed treatment."

Seidel enrolled in college and got a degree in biology. He had his first teaching job in Cleveland, but his entry-level position was eliminated in a layoff. So he joined the science department at New Caney High School in 2011-2012.

He told Principal David Loyacano privately that loud, echoing sounds at school pep rallies might trigger his PTSD. Loyacano said that was fine and assigned Seidel to patrol the halls for stragglers whenever there was an event in the gym.

The following school year on the last day of school before winter break, the school held the "lip dub" rally for all clubs, teams and departments to celebrate school pride.

Emails went out telling all teachers to report for duty. Seidel ignored them. But his department head told him he didn't have a choice. He explained he was an exception. She insisted. This was the person, he testified, who evaluated him, gave him mandatory prep work, whom he called when he was going to be absent. He took it as an implied order.

"I went into soldier mode, I guess. My duty was to protect them at all costs," he testified.

'It's a mental condition'

The question for jurors is whether the district rescinded its obligation to an employee.

Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, mental disabilities are classified the same way as physical disabilities, said Steve Roppolo, an employment lawyer with Fisher & Phillips in Houston. The federal law covers employees with mental impairments the same as if employees were blind or had prosthetic limbs.

As more employees return from active combat duty, companies are receiving more accommodation requests to handle post-traumatic stress, such as comfort animals in the workplace or coming up with ways to avoid loud noises, Roppolo said.

One of the most common accommodations veterans ask for is help in handling loud surprising noises, said Joe Bontke, acting deputy director of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Houston. Some use guide dogs, while others take steps to avoid putting themselves into situations like pep rallies, said Bontke, who is not familiar with Seidel's case.

But accommodations are confidential and co-workers may have no idea what was worked out between a manager and a disabled employee, he said. That, in turn, can lead to a conflict if co-workers urge their colleagues to participate in situations that they specifically sought to avoid.

"It's a mental condition," Seidel's lawyer, Blaxton, explained to jurors."It's not like a limp. It's not a missing limb."

Seidel now qualifies with the Social Security Administration as 100 percent disabled. His wife is expected to take the stand Tuesday.

L.M. Sixel contributed to this report.
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Donald Trumps supporters have been accused of using social media to troll his critics, but one Texas state representative on Wednesday got a lesson in not believing everything you read online.

Rep. Poncho Nevarez, a border Democrat who supports Hillary Clinton, tweeted his daughters response to Clintons historic rise as the first woman slated to be the presidential nominee of a major American party: It wont be the last time.

What followed was a tweet, at 3 a.m. Wednesday, from @RepStevenSmith, whose Twitter bio says hes a Republican U.S. representative from Georgias 15th district. Tea Party Patriot: Constitutionalist : Partisan, it reads.

The online exchange went on for about 3 hours with Nevarez apparently not noticing the account was not real.

Did you tell your daughter that Hillary is the first felon nominated for president? Smith responded. Or, at least, thats what the Twitter troll behind the account wrote.

Last year, PolitiFact Georgia exposed the account as fake. There are, in fact, only 14 congressional districts in the Peach State, which a simple Google search confirms.

Nobody told Nevarez that, though. He responded to the troll accounts attacks on Clinton, who has not be indicted. That would be untrue. I assume a guy like you probably ate his kids so I wont you what you ask them.

Another Twitter user later alerted the Maverick County lawmaker to the hoax, to which Nevarez replied, "Those folks whoever they are just feed off this. Hopefully this fills them up for awhile so they leave folks alone."

He shouldnt feel that bad. The fake account has fooled several national journalists over the years, including CNNs Christiane Amanpour and Vox.coms Ezra Klein.
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Hollywood is under high pressure from various left-wing groups to bring its business fully in line with political correctness. After the Southern California ACLU claimed that the movie industry didnt have enough female directors, no fewer than two federal agencies launched investigations into Tinseltowns hiring practices. Blacks have threatened to boycott the Academy Awards if the Motion Picture Academy doesnt start handing out Affirmative Action Oscars. And Twitter pests are pushing studios to make Captain America gay, Princess Elsa lesbian, and James Bond female.

In response, one of Hollywoods top studios has now announced plans for a new tentpole picture scheduled for release next Kwaanzaa superhero extravaganza entitled Social Justice League of America: Age of Imaginary Problems. The blockbuster will be written and directed by Lena Dunham, who will also play the lead role of Cecily Shrillwine.

According to a studio press release, Shrillwine is a brilliant nuclear physicist who angrily quits MIT after a sexist professor evicts her from class merely because she doesnt know any math. Shrillwine retires to her private laboratory hidden on the cliffs of Mount Grievance and there begins a series of secret experiments to determine exactly how little a person can contribute to society while still complaining about being underpaid.

During the experiments, Shrillwine is bitten by a radioactive strain of chlamydia and is transformed into Im-So-Special Girl, whose superpowers enable her to take off her clothes and make every single person in America stop watching television at the same moment. Im-So-Special Girl assembles an exciting array of superhero friends, including Transformer Man-or-Possibly-Woman, Angry Blackface, Wheelchair Girl, Fabulous Dorothy Guy, and Overly-Nice-to-Animals Person. Their powers, when combined, make them almost completely unbearable.

The Social Justice League of America soon learns of the activities of the evil Microaggression Man. Though Microaggression Man is too small for the human eye to see, a single disgruntled look from him can render a young adult helpless by making him suspect hes nowhere near as terrific as his mom and dad always told him he was. And now, it turns out, Microaggression Man has developed a destructive supergun that fires judgmental thoughts able to destroy completely the self-esteem of an entire university.

The heroes of SJLA soar off to Sustainable City in their solar-powered mega-jet and arrive seven days later, just in time to stop Microaggression Man from unleashing a forbidden idea on an unsuspecting public. In a climactic battle that destroys skyscrapers, wholesome traditions, liberty, and most of the best ideas mankind ever had, the Social Justice League finally thwarts Microaggression Man by making a loud, screechy noise whenever he tries to talk and then burying him under the rubble of the First Amendment.

Studio executive Bernie Soulless told the showbiz trade paper Variety that he was delighted at the plans for the film, saying, Its way past time Hollywood caved in to every no-talent non-entity who cant come up with his own idea for a franchise and so instead wants to ruin ours. Soulless said his studio was not sure yet whether it would be more profitable to make the new Social Justice League film at an estimated budget of $100 million or simply to gather $100 million in a big pile and set it on fire, then sell tickets to watch it burn.

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Women in Online Work  program pentru femeile care isi doresc sa munceasca in companii internationale, de la biroul de acasa
With the fire alarm sounding, 8-year-old Chryssa Wahl crouched beneath the smoke spreading from the kitchen stove and crawled into a bedroom and to the window, where she threw a leg over the sill and stepped her way down a wobbling rope ladder to the ground below.

During this school field trip, the danger wasnt real. But the crawling and climbing were.

That kind of hands-on experience is what instructors at the Chautauqua Childrens Safety Education Village say make their lessons so effective.

If theyre ever in a fire in their own home then theyre going to remember what they did here, Executive Director Terri Kindberg said.

Later, Chryssas group from Jamestowns Bush Elementary School moved from the model house to an outdoor village, not unlike a movie set, with scaled-down streets and mock storefronts to practice the rules of the road behind the wheel of miniature cars.

The nonprofit in upstate New York is one of dozens of safety villages in the United States and Canada, and more are in the works, the idea being that learning by doing in a safe environment is the best defense against real danger.

Students from preschool age on up practice twisting their arms out of the grip of a stranger and making 911 calls. They demonstrate that stop, drop and roll and other lessons are sinking in.

Some kids are really scared and they dont want to go out the window, they dont want to go down the ladder, Kindberg said, but we really try to encourage them and work with them to get them to do that one time.

Patrick Carroll is trying to raise $250,000 to buy a closed school building and surrounding property to site a safety village near Albany. The Chautauqua County village is funded by donations, fundraising and a $5 per child fee after getting off the ground with a $1.7 million federal grant.

Sheriff Joseph Gerace led efforts to build the western New York village after being introduced to the concept in 1996. Since opening in 2010, the site also has given law enforcement a place to practice with remote-controlled robots and K-9 units.

The New York leaders want to see government get involved in building villages in the state and beyond. Georgias Cobb County Safety Village is a private-public venture that sits on county land, director Allison Carter said. Every second- and fourth-grader practices escaping from a burning living room at the site, which sees 24,000 students during the school year and 2,000 during the summer.

Its like when I turned 16 and my dad taught me how to change a tire, Carter said. If I hadnt gone through it, when I was 21 and stranded on the side of the road I wouldnt have known how to change a tire.

The western New York village points as a success story to a 4-year-old student who after her visit insisted that her family make an escape plan. A month later, the family used the plan to safely escape a house fire, Kindberg said.

What the program brings home to the parents, said Chryssas mother, Danni Wahl, is that reminder to have these conversations.
Tony Kanaan was not injured when struck in the hand by a piece of debris during the Indianapolis 500 and the incident was barely noticed during the historic 100th running of the race.

Yet it was a reminder of an issue that has had tragic consequences in the past. Justin Wilson was killed last August when he was struck in the head by a piece of debris during a race at Pocono.

The deaths of Wilson and Formula Ones Jules Bianchi from head injuries have created discussions on how to protect open-wheel drivers. F1 is planning further tests this month on a protective halo device, which could be implemented in time for the 2017 season.

Kanaan said Friday finding the right solution for IndyCar is complicated, but series leadership is on the right track.

What weve been doing lately is a lot of studies to see how were going to fix that, he said. Were all aware of it, I think not just in America but in Europe as well, and were trying to figure out whats the best solution for it.

Kanaan said the series has been researching several scenarios, but added that canopies arent a catch-all solution for every series.

The biggest challenge we have  F1 doesnt race in the ovals and they dont have banking  so the peripheral vision of our cars, you can put a canopy or whatever you want to do, its different than the Formula One cars, Kanaan said.

Bianchi died in July following a long battle to recover from head injuries from a collision with a crane after he went off the track in rainy conditions at the Japanese Grand Prix in October 2014. Wilson died on Aug. 23, a day after being hit in the helmet by debris from another car. Two years ago, James Hinchcliffe sustained a concussion when struck in the head by debris from another car in the inaugural Grand Prix of Indianapolis.

The halo device forms a protective structure around and above a drivers head. F1s Red Bull has proposed an alternative, a protective screen. IndyCar driver Will Power said he thinks the windscreen is more protective.

I think IndyCar are definitely looking at a windscreen, Power said. Im all for it, 100 percent. All for it. Its the last big step in safety that open-wheel cars need.

Helio Castroneves has a similar stance on these potential safety measures.

Ive seen some pictures regarding  one is a halo, the second one is the windshield, and Im in favor of it. I think this should be all part of it. All open-wheel (series) should communicate and work together because this is going to benefit everybody, Castroneves said. Weve got to work fast.

Aside from protecting other drivers, Kanaan said hes not sure much can be done about the amount of debris on the track when cars crash.

Youd have to go back in the old days and then have less wings and body parts on the cars, so you dont have many things flying when you crash, he said. Thats not going to happen.

Its a challenge to come up with ideas that protect the heads of drivers without creating additional, unintended safety issues.

Were all on the same page, Kanaan said. Its not easy to develop something like that overnight.  To say, `OK, were going to fix one problem. But what about if you roll over? What about if you talk about ventilation in the car?  It might be safer for preventing debris to come in the car, but what about the other five other issues that weve created? If you roll upside down, you catch fire, and you need to get out, how do you do it?

Kanaan expects a solution before too long  and he says it may not need to be a drastic change.

It wont be as big as people think it needs to be. They have some studies that they know exactly how and where it needs to go, Kanaan said. Were not going to look like the popemobile.

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When a 400-pound gorilla grabbed a 3-year-old boy at the Cincinnati Zoo, the sharpshooter who killed the ape wasnt from the police. Instead, the shooter was a specially trained zoo staffer on one of the many dangerous-animal emergency squads at animal parks nationwide.

The teams train at firing ranges, stash rifles and shotguns around the grounds, and rank the most hazardous species in their care. Members train in elaborate drills for situations like what unfolded in Cincinnati, when the child fell into the gorillas enclosure Saturday. The staffer who fired hasnt been publicly identified.

Its a weighty commitment for people who work among animals they might one day have to kill. But team members understand the need to do it if a human life is in danger.

We all know, every day that we go to work, that we are responsible for the safety of not only the animals in our care, but our co-workers and the visiting public, said Denise Wagner, a member of the response team at the Phoenix Zoo, where shes a senior primate keeper focused on orangutans. We take that responsibility very seriously.

The Cincinnati gorillas death has created crosscurrents of outrage over the vigilance of both the zoo and the childs mother. But it also has highlighted the unusual work of zoos emergency-response teams.

The federal Animal Welfare Act, which regulates zoos, doesnt require such teams. But many animal parks establish them as part of gaining accreditation.

The Phoenix Zoos dangerous animals response team  or DART  takes annual marksmanship tests, trains at the firing range three additional times a year, and practices loading and unloading firearms, Wagner said. The group also simulates an escape or incursion several times a year, with plastic guns and the animal played by a staffer well versed in that species behavior.

The roughly 30-member team of zookeepers and operations staffers hasnt had to respond to an actual emergency in at least 12 years, Wagner said. But members regularly serve as extra protection when a code red animal  the most dangerous species, such as big cats  is going to the veterinarian after being tranquillized.

While some DART teams encompass staffers ranging from maintenance workers to veterinarians to security staffers, the Brookfield Zoo near Chicago has its own police force trained to take down an animal.

When to shoot comes down to whether an animal is a danger to someone, whether its moving toward the zoos boundaries and whether it could be stopped by a tranquilizer, said Bill Zeigler, a senior vice president. Zoos also tell dangerous-animal teams to consider whether they can fire without hitting other people.

The Cincinnati Zoo has said tranquillizers wouldnt have worked quickly enough to end the danger to the boy, who suffered scrapes but was rescued.

Zoos say the use of lethal force is rare, and there are only a few examples over the past couple of decades of animals being shot to death. One incident came a week before the Cincinnati case in Santiago, Chile, when zookeepers shot and killed two lions after they severely mauled a man who stripped naked and entered their enclosure in an apparent suicide attempt.

The zoo director said no fast-acting tranquilizers were available to stop the lions from mauling the man.

While it is unfortunate that incidents such as this one unpredictably occur, human safety must come first, the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums said, calling such events incredibly rare.

Tranquilizers, in addition to being slow-acting, arent a guaranteed alternative to deadly force. In March, Cincinnatis team used tranquilizer darts on two polar bears that wandered from their den into a service hallway after two doors were left open. One bear required a second dart after the first one detached, according to a review by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which enforces the Animal Welfare Act.

Some animal parks, especially in cities, turn to local police.

But thats not feasible for some zoos in rural areas police cant quickly reach, such as the North Carolina Zoo, outside Asheboro. It relies instead on a roughly 15-person weapons team, said member Jennifer Ireland, a mammals curator. Qualifications include gun-loading skills and twice-annual target-shooting tests; a drill might entail pretending a lion on the loose has injured people.

Ireland manages the care of animals including polar bears and chimpanzees, which the zoo classifies as potentially deadly (gorillas are deemed only dangerous because theyre less likely to attack people). Being on the weapons team is an expectation of her job, but not an easy one.

I have relationships with these animals, and to think that I might have to go out there and shoot them someday to save someones life really kind of stinks, she said. But we all accept that.

The North Carolina Zoos team includes only senior animal-care staffers because of their knowledge of animal behavior, Ireland said.

But at the Columbus Zoo in Ohio, animal care workers could join an initial response but wouldnt be asked to shoot an animal because of the emotions involved, said Doug Warmolts, a vice president.

His zoos special response team includes about two dozen security staffers and other employees. Their arsenal features not only firearms, but also paintball guns, noisemakers and even fire extinguishers to scare an animal away.

To People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the fact that zoos feel the need for sharpshooting teams is yet more proof of how dangerous and unnatural a captive environment is for animals, said Brittany Peet, a deputy director of the animal rights groups foundation.

Zoos stress that killing an animal is a last resort.

(Jennifer Peltz reported from New York; John Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio. Associated Press writers Dan Sewell in Cincinnati and Andrew Welsh-Huggins in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this report.)

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During my first decade of practicing law in Texas, I enjoyed a good professional relationship with Texas Governor Greg Abbott. In those days, Abbott, who is my age and earned his law degree one year after me, was a young defense attorney with the Houston law firm of Butler Binion, and was opposite me in many a subrogation case. He was a great track and field athlete during college and enjoyed running. He might also be the unluckiest man on earth. On July 14, 1984, while running along a sidewalk in the upscale Houston suburb of River Oaks, a 75-foot Post Oak tree fell on him, crushing his lower spine and instantly rendering him a paraplegic. He has been in a wheelchair ever since.

Abbott sued the homeowner (prominent divorce attorney, Roy Moore) whose tree fell on him, along with a tree service company (Davey Tree Expert Company). Moore testified that he was surprised to learn that the big tree had rotted from the inside. Abbotts lawyer, Don Riddle, alleged that Moore and the tree company were negligent for failing to warn people about the dangerous tree or to take action to prevent it from falling. Basal decay in a Post Oak tree cannot be corrected by fertilization, but that is what Davey had recommended. According to news reports from 2002, Abbott won a confidential settlement of more than $10 million. Ironically, Abbott sat on the Texas Supreme Court during the years that the Court implemented significant tort reform measures in Texas.

I never forgot Abbotts experience, and today, our clients send us at least one or two of these types of insurance claims (property and bodily injury) weekly to evaluate for subrogation potential. Damage resulting from falling limbs or trees remains one of the most overlooked areas of third-party liability and subrogation. They are also the most poorly investigated. Whether the owner of a tree that has fallen is a private citizen or a municipality, subrogation professionals must be aware of available tort remedies and be prepared to properly and promptly investigate and dispatch the appropriate expert to document the condition of a fallen tree before the critical evidence reaches the chipper.

Private Owner

While the law of premises liability varies from state-to-state, the law generally is that in order to hold a property owner liable for damage caused by falling limbs or trees located on an owners property, the owner must have actual or constructive notice of the risk. This can be actual notice (e.g., they are advised by local tree company to cut it down or portions of the tree have already fallen) or constructive notice (dangerous condition is obvious and existed for such a length of time that the owner should have known). In finding negligence, courts and juries will look at a variety of factors including the amount of time the condition existed, the size of the premises, the type of condition and when a reasonable person would have discovered the condition. It would be prudent for landowners to conduct periodic inspections of trees located on their property to ensure the safety of others and surrounding property. While the early common law was generally that owners were not liable for physical harm caused to persons not on their property, even if the conditions may be highly dangerous or inconvenient to neighbors, things have evolved. Today, most owners have a duty to exercise reasonable care regarding natural conditions on their land which lies adjacent to a highway or waterway.

Public/Government Owner

Trees on public property also rot. State and local government enjoy sovereign immunity, except when waived by state law. For many municipalities, there is a duty to make periodic visual inspections of trees on public property. The inspections should be done by qualified people (e.g., certified tree inspectors). They usually have a duty to remove obvious dangers and do preventive maintenance, and may be held liable for foreseeable harm that could have been prevented. While the laws governing governmental liability for falling trees also varies, some states (e.g., Illinois) provide that a municipality does not enjoy absolute immunity from liability, but is liable only for willful and wanton conduct. This burden can be met by showing that the municipality was informed about a dangerous condition and knew that other persons had previously been damaged because of the dangerous condition.

In other jurisdictions, such as Minnesota, only conduct of a policy-making (discretionary) nature is entitled to immunity. A citys policy to trim trees along high-traffic roads before trimming trees on low-traffic roads is an example of an action that gives the city immunity. In determining where or how to trim trees along roadways, the city has to make choices based on its budget and other factors. At the same time, a city employee who negligently trims or an inspector who doesnt recognize an obviously-rotten tree that poses a hazard, may subject the municipality to liability.

Investigating Tree Damage Subrogation

Unsafe trees often give little indication of decay or instability. Rot tends to grow from the inside out, and trees can easily become unstable long before there are any visible indications of trouble. In investigating these losses, we must focus on showing that the defendant should have discovered the trees condition and the extent of the defendants duty to inspect trees for rot and other signs of interior decay. This includes both objective evidence such as warnings from neighbors or tree services, as well as more subjective evidence such as the obvious nature of the trees deterioration. Photographs of the tree should be taken and portions of it preserved for later review and use at trial.

Engage the services of an inexpensive arborist and ask him or her to document the trees condition. Warn the property owner immediately after the loss not to dispose of or move the evidence until an investigation can be conducted. Engage subrogation counsel to advise you on the burden of proof you face in the particular jurisdiction you are dealing with.

Last fall, the top of a London Plane tree fell on to a group of chess players in New Yorks Bryant Park, injuring five people, including one child, and leading to a host of subrogation opportunities. The same day, a tree fell in Charleston, South Carolina, destroying a section of a home. These are not rare or unusual instances.

When a tree falls in the woods, it does make a loud sound. When it falls in populated areas, it can be heard throughout the claims department and should be aggressively pursued for any and all subrogation potential.
Egypt said Wednesday that a French ship has picked up signals from deep under the Mediterranean Sea, presumed to be from one of the black boxes of the EgyptAir plane that crashed last month, killing all 66 passengers and crew on board.

The development raised hopes the planes flight data and cockpit voice recorders, known as the black boxes, could be retrieved and shed light on the aircrafts tragic crash.

In Cairo, the Civil Aviation Ministry cited a statement from the committee investigating the crash as saying the vessel Laplace received the signals. The French Navy confirmed the Laplace arrived on Tuesday in the search area and picked up the signals overnight.

The signals frequencies could match with the frequencies of data recorders, a French Navy spokesman told The Associated Press. The location and identification of the source of the signals have not been determined yet, he said, adding that he searches are still at an early stage. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasnt allowed to speak publicly on the issue.

Laplaces equipment picked up the signals from the seabed of the wreckage search area, assumed to be from one of the data recorders, the Egyptian statement read. It added that a second ship, John Lethbridge affiliated with the Deep Ocean Search firm, will join the search team later this week.

Locator pings emitted by flight data and cockpit voice recorders, known as the black boxes, can be picked up from deep underwater. The Laplace is equipped with three detectors made by the Alseamar company designed to detect and localize signals from the flight recorders, which are believed to be at a depth of about 3,000 meters (9,842 feet) underwater. By comparison, the wreck of the RMS Titanic is lying at a depth of about 3,800 meters (12,500 feet).

Shaker Kelada, an EgyptAir official who has led other crash investigations for the carrier, told the AP that half the job has been done now and that the next step would be to determine the black boxers exact location and extract them from the sea.

We have to find where the boxes are exactly and decide on how to pull them out, he said, adding that search teams might need to send in robots or submarines and be extremely careful  to avoid any possible damage.

Kelada said he was confident the boxes will be retrieved. He had investigated the Flash Airlines Flight 604 crash in 2004, when the aircraft hit the Red Sea shortly after takeoff from the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, killing all 148 passengers, most of them French tourists, and crew on board.

In the May 19 crash, EgyptAir Airbus A320 had been cruising normally in clear skies on a nighttime flight to from Paris to Cairo when it suddenly lurched left, then right, spinning all the way around and plummeting 38,000 feet (11,582.4 meters) into the sea, Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos has said shortly after the crash. However, the Egyptians refuted this, saying that the plane didnt swerve or lose altitude before it disappeared off radar. A distress signal was never issued, EgyptAir has said.

Since the crash, small pieces of the wreckage and human remains have been recovered while the bulk of the plane and the bodies of the passengers are believed to be deep under the sea. A Cairo forensic team has received the human remains and is carrying DNA tests to identify the victims. The search has narrowed down to a 5-kilometer (3-mile) area in the Mediterranean.

David Learmount, a consulting editor at the aviation news website Flightglobal, said the black boxes batteries can transmit signals up to 30 days after the crash. But even if the batteries expire, locating the boxes remains a possibility.

Its terribly important to find the black boxes, because if they dont find them, they will know nothing about the aircraft, he said, citing the 2009 Air France Flight 447 crash in the Atlantic Ocean, when black boxes were found two years later.

Nearly two weeks after the crash off Egypts northern coast, the cause of the tragedy still has not been determined. Egypts civil aviation minister, Sherif Fathi, has said he believes terrorism is a more likely explanation than equipment failure or some other catastrophic event.

But no hard evidence has emerged on the cause, and no militant group has claimed to have downed the jet. Earlier, leaked flight data indicated a sensor had detected smoke in a lavatory and a fault in two of the planes cockpit windows in the final moments of the flight.

In France, Sebastien Barthe, spokesman for the countrys air accident investigation agency or the BEA, told the AP that the signal picked up is specific enough  combined with the localization in the search area  to indicate that it comes from one of the data recorders of the EgyptAir flight. Some BEA investigators are on board of the Laplace.

Safety onboard Egyptian aircraft and at the countrys airports have been under close international scrutiny since a Russian airliner crashed in the Sinai Peninsula last October, killing all 224 people on board, shortly after taking off from an Egyptian resort.

That crash  claimed by the Islamic States affiliate in Sinai and blamed by Moscow on an explosive device planted on board  decimated Egypts lucrative tourism industry, which had already been battered by years of turmoil in the country.

Also Wednesday, Egyptian authorities reported that they had evacuated all passengers from the EgyptAir Flight 960 from Cairo to Bangkok scheduled late the previous night after receiving security threats of a bomb on board.

Tarek Zaki, head of security at Cairo airport, said the warning claimed an unidentified assailant had planted a bomb on the plane. A security official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said the plane and the bags were searched but no bomb was found. The threat caused a delay and eventually led to the flight being cancelled.

(Corbet reported from Paris.)

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Applying New York law, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that there was no advertising injury indemnity insurance coverage for nearly $35 million in judgments against an off-price luxury goods vendor, insured Ashley Reed Trading, Inc., for selling handbags bearing counterfeit Fendi trademarks.

The crux of the decision was that Ashley Reeds liability under the judgments was based on the sale  not the advertising  of counterfeit Fendi products. Fendi did not even allege it suffered injury because of advertising conducted by Ashley Reed. Instead, damages were awarded based on sales of counterfeit products. As a matter of common sense, the court said, there is a difference between placement of a counterfeit brand label on a handbag and the act of soliciting customers through printed advertisements or other media. Here, the Fendi brand and logo were used for product misidentification, not as an advertisement.

The decision, United States Fidelity And Guarantee Company v. Fendi North America, Inc. et al., was filed May 17, 2016 and is reported at 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 8973. It affirmed a published decision of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, reported at 43 F. Supp. 3d 271, denying insurance coverage to Ashley Reed  and depriving its judgment creditors of a money source to satisfy their judgments.

The operative facts were that Fendi, through its several companies, manufactured luxury handbags, shoulder bags, purses, wallets and other items and owned associated federally-registered trademarks. Ashley Reed sold off price branded handbags and other luxury goods in New York and elsewhere. Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corporation and its subsidiary purchased clothing and merchandise at wholesale and resold them to the public at discounted prices. Burlington regularly purchased merchandise from Ashley Reed. During the relevant time period, Ashley Reed sold counterfeit Fendi goods  fashion accessories that were not Fendi products, but which displayed Fendi trademarks and otherwise had the appearance of genuine Fendi products  to Burlington and others.

Insurer USF&G issued liability insurance policies to Ashley Reed between 2003 and 2006. The policies included coverage for advertising injury as defined by the policies. Advertising was defined in the policies as attracting the attention of others by any means for the purpose of seeking customers or supporters or increasing sales or business. The policies defined advertising injury as injury resulting from four specified offenses, including the use of anothers advertising idea in Ashley Reeds advertising, and infringement of anothers copyright, trade dress or slogan  again in Ashley Reeds advertising.

The insurance coverage dispute decided by the court arose when Fendi sued Ashley Reed for trademark counterfeiting, false designation of origin, trademark dilution and unfair competition. Fendi asked for treble damages, alleging that Ashley Reed intentionally used the Fendi trademarks with knowledge that they were counterfeit. The United States District Court entered a permanent injunction and awarded Fendi treble damages, pre judgment interest fees and costs, all of which totaled $34,650,885.91.

Separately, Fendi also sued Burlington, alleging its resale of counterfeit Fendi-branded merchandise that Burlington had purchased from Ashley Reed. Burlington, in turn, brought its own third party claims against Ashley Reed to pay damages in the sum of $248,257.14, consisting of profits from the sale of counterfeit goods it purchased from Ashley Reed, as well as attorneys fees, costs and interest.

The outcome of the case turned on whether or not Fendi complained that it suffered injury because of advertising, or whether it alleged only the sale of counterfeit goods, without more. The court concluded that the policies did not insure Ashley Reeds infliction of Fendis injuries, because as stated above, the offenses covered require the use of anothers advertising idea in Ashley Reeds advertising or infringement of anothers copyright, trade dress or slogan in such advertising, and no advertising of the counterfeit goods by Ashley Reed whatsoever was alleged or proved by Fendi or Burlington. Relief was awarded to Fendi and Burlington based not on any advertising activities by Ashley Reed, but solely on its sale of counterfeit Fendi goods.

Going further, the Court of Appeals denied insurance coverage for two more reasons. First, Ashley Reed could not have reasonably expected it would be indemnified for loss it suffered by disgorging the profits it improperly derived from selling goods it knew bore a false designation of origin. In this regard, the court cited cases standing for the well established rule that one cannot purchase insurance to indemnify it for resulting loss when it is forced to disgorge money or property it acquired wrongfully.

Second and finally, the USF&G policies issued to Ashley Reed all included a falsity exclusion, providing that there was no coverage for an advertising injury arising out of oral or written publication of material, if done by or at the direction of the insured with knowledge of its falsity. To the extent that Ashley Reeds use of the Fendi logo on its handbags might arguably have constituted advertising  which the court emphasized was not so  the falsity exclusion would be triggered because the record was clear, according the court, that Ashley Reed intentionally placed the Fendi logo on its handbags with knowledge that it would be selling goods bearing a false designation of origin.

The Court of Appeals therefore upheld the District Courts decision denying coverage.

Richard B. Wolf is a partner in the Los Angeles office of the nationwide law firm of Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP. Since 1970 Mr. Wolf has specialized in insurance coverage advice and litigation. He is a member of the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA).
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, in Texas, 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.

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 21/2-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.

(Schmall reported from Fort Worth, Texas.)

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In the last few years, hail damage lawsuits have crowded Texas courts. Using the same model employed in the Lone Star state, hail damage litigation is beginning to impact other states where large hail events have occurred, including Colorado, Oklahoma and Minnesota.

Colorado, in particular, has seen a significant uptick in insurance claims and suits relating to hail damage. One reason is that Colorado, like Texas, has favorable consumer protection laws. In fact, Colorado allows contractors to file bad faith lawsuits against insurance companies resulting from disputes on a claim, according to Steven Badger, a Dallas-based partner with Zelle LLP.

Thats similar to the situation giving rise to all the lawsuits in Florida, he explained.

Florida recognizes a formal assignment of benefits that allows insureds to assign claim benefits to the contractor. In Colorado, the contractor is considered a party with an actual remedy under the bad faith statute when the carrier doesnt fully pay for the alleged roof repairs, Badger said.

In addition, Colorado is seeing increasing use of the appraisal process, with increasing abuses during the process by certain public adjusters. professional appraisers and attorneys, Badger said.

Interestingly, we are seeing a significant influx of individuals from Florida getting involved in Colorado claims and appraisals, Badger said. For whatever reason, most of the disputed claims and appraisals that we are working on for our clients in Colorado involve individuals from Florida.

This may be due to minimal hurricane activity in Florida in recent years, as well as the fact that Texas already has a ripe market of appraisers, public adjusters and policyholder attorneys, he said; whereas Colorado does not.

Its a market where they can come in from Florida and set up shop, he said.

Badgers firm has taken an aggressive and vocal stance on behalf of the insurance industry in not only defending hail litigation, but also in responding to improper conduct by those involved in the claims and litigation process. Recently, Badger filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of a group of homeowners against a North Texas roofing contractor alleged to be involved in improper claims handling conduct.

Several of Badgers articles on the subject have been published by Claims Journal.

In one article, he offered several possible solutions to the problem in Texas. He said these same solutions can be applied in other states as well.

One idea that would be applicable anywhere is to mandate the use of Class 4 hail rated roofing products in areas of severe hail exposure. There are products out there that are more hail resistant and would not fail in small hail events, Badger said.

In fact, Underwriters Laboratories recently submitted a proposal to the International Building Code drafters, proposing a revision to the codes that would require hail rated products in areas of severe hail exposure, he explained. That proposal was voted down as a result of overwhelming opposition from roofing contractor and roofing manufacturer trade groups.

Another solution is stronger enforcement in the various states of what I call the no negotiate statutes that prohibit contractors from involving themselves in the insurance claims process, Badger said. Most states already have statutes or insurance regulations in place that prohibit such conduct, but unfortunately the conduct remains rampant.

Contractors routinely act on behalf of building owners in negotiating insurance claims. Laws in place prohibiting such conduct should be enforced.

If the barrage of hail damage lawsuits continues, there is the possibility that insurers will exclude these type of claims, Badger said.

Its something thats already happening, he said. In Hidalgo County, where there were over 10,000 lawsuits filed after the 2012 hailstorms, at least two major insurers have completely pulled out of the market. We will continue to see this market response wherever hail lawsuits are proliferating.

Badger said he wouldnt be surprised to see a Texas Hailstorm Insurance Association created, much like the windstorm insurance association.

Will it happen? It could. But Id sure like to see another solution to this crisis, and that can be achieved by restoring some balance and fairness to claims and litigation process, he said.

If we could address the problems without changing any laws or having to restrict coverage, that would be ideal, Badger stated.

Badger said that he doesnt see that happening in this current climate.

One positive trend in the right direction is that courts are beginning to take notice, he said.

There are federal judges writing opinions clearly indicating that they understand whats happening in these lawsuits and they dont like it, he explained. To bring an end to this problem without legislative action or policy form changes will require assistance from the courts, from the Texas Department of Insurance, from the State Bar of Texas and from local criminal authorities.

As a result of the articles Badger has written on the subject and his recent class action lawsuit filing, he has had numerous communications with investigators from the Texas Department of Insurance, the State Bar of Texas and a couple of local district attorneys.

They are paying attention to the complaints being filed and are beginning to take action against illegal conduct, said Badger.

Badger recommended that insurers facing an onslaught of hail damage lawsuits seeking damages that are clearly not covered should stand by their policy forms and applicable law.

They need to break the model where a public adjuster or lawyer knows that if they can get someone to sign a contract allowing them to file a lawsuit, all they have to do is file the suit and the insurance carrier will pay something regardless of merit. That model has to come to an end, explained Badger. Also, the carriers need to spend the time to root out the illegal conduct going on in some of these claims and report that bad conduct to the authorities.

These days, Badger has a team of coverage attorneys spending their days defending hail damage lawsuits.

Thats allowing me to spend all of my time in focusing on addressing the fraudulent and illegal conduct we are seeing, he said. This includes the class action we just filed against a roofing contractor for the unauthorized practice of public adjusting, reporting building owners to the authorities for fabricating replacement cost invoices and working with reputable lawyers who are bringing lawsuits against other lawyers for illegal case running.

While it may all seem negative, Badger said he is encouraged by the calls of support he has received from reputable contractors who are tired of dealing with fellow contractors that illegally waive deductibles; from experienced public adjusters tired of new entrants into their industry who have no desire to actually adjust and settle a claim, but just want to get their matters into the hands of a lawyer; and from real policyholder attorneys who are ashamed to see what is happening within their ranks.

Everyone knows there is a problem in Texas and that the problem is spreading to other states, Badger said. We just havent agreed yet on the solution to the problem.
Potter goes out on a limb to branch out

Grace Potter will co-headline LaureLive Sunday with Michael Franti.

(Plain Dealer File photo)

PREVIEW

LaureLive music festival

When:

11 a.m.-11 p.m. Saturday, June 11, and noon-10 p.m. Sunday, June 12.

Where:

Laurel School's Butler Campus, 7420 Fairmount Road, Russell Township.

Headliners:

Saturday, OAR. Sunday, Grace Potter and Michael Franti & Spearhead.

Tickets:

Single-day ticket, $65 in advance; $75 at the gate. Weekend ticket, $115 in advance; $135 at the gate. Go to

.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Two days, 40 bands on four stages on 140 acres of rolling greenery. Welcome to "LaureLive: Music with a Mission." It's being billed as the first multiday contemporary music festival in Northeast Ohio.

On the LaureLive website, Laurel School headmistress Ann V. Klotz wrote: "Laurel School has a rich tradition of empowering girls to claim their voices and a long tradition of excellence in the arts. As a school known for curricular innovation and excellence we are excited to play a major role in launching a new music festival unlike anything else in Northeast Ohio."

A prestigious all-girls college-prep private school getting into the concert business? Denny Young, president of the Elevation Group, which is collaborating with Laurel on this venture, can explain.

"This all started 18 months ago, after we [the Elevation Group] had our Cathedral Concert series at Trinity Cathedral," said Young. "We have always dabbled in music. People from Laurel asked if we could create a summer version of the winter Cathedral Concerts."

Young has a 25-year history of organizing events. He worked at Belkin Productions, putting on hundreds of concerts, then worked at IMG promoting Indy Car races around the world, including the Cleveland Grand Prix, before starting the Elevation Group in 2002. He also has a history with Laurel.

"My mom went to Laurel, my sister went to Laurel, and my wife went to Laurel. I'm very familiar with the school," he said.

The initial idea was to do an outdoor music event in the pavilion in the woods on the Butler Campus. But when Young saw the 140 acres of open fields and ponds on the campus, the vision for the event grew.

"I asked the people at Laurel if they were willing to think out of the box and expand the idea. After meeting with the board, the idea for LaureLive was unanimously approved. It would take 12 months of planning. We began booking bands last October."

Knowing Laurel's dedication to the idea of combining music with education, Young's business partner, Steve Lindecke, proposed teaching a class for the event that would provide students with hands-on experience about marketing, promotion and other aspects of large-event planning.

In addition to the big-name music lineup, which includes such artists as the nationally recognized jam band OAR, Grace Potter and Michael Franti, Young wanted to add Cleveland-area bands such as Welshly Arms, Brent Kirby, Carlos Jones and the Contemporary Youth Orchestra to the program.

In order to emphasize the all-ages, family-friendly aspects of the event, he is bringing in arts and crafts people who will do glass blowing and provide other arts instruction. There will also be an inflated Bounce House for children to play in.

Young hired the Chicago-based Red Frog Events on concessions and catering to provide everything from burgers to food from around the world. Alcohol will be served. He planned a Fitness Village where people could do yoga while at the event.

Young said that the LaureLive Butler Campus site has a capacity for 7,500 people a day and that same-day ticket purchases are welcome. Tickets will be available on-site each day.

"No one will get shut out," he said. "There is free off-site parking at Ursuline College and at West Geauga High School on Ohio 306/Chillicothe Road. We will have shuttles running all day, and we are allowing Uber drivers to come onto the site for drop-offs and pickups.

"We're planning a unique, spectacular and entertaining event that we hope will become an annual date on everyone's calendar," he said.
David Powlowski awaits his arraignment Wednesday morning in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A judge ordered a 60-year-old Fairview Park man accused of drunken driving in a crash that injured a Fairview High School student to stop driving.

Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Maureen Clancy on Wednesday prohibited David E. Powlowski from driving while the case is pending.

Clancy set a $10,000 bond with GPS monitoring. Powlowski is only allowed to leave home to attend court, and is to have no contact with the victim.

Powlowski pleaded not guilty to two counts each of aggravated vehicular assault and driving while under the influence in his first court appearance since the May 23 indictment.

His blood-alcohol level was more than .17 percent when his SUV struck the student, the indictment says. The legal threshold to drive in Ohio is below .08 percent.

Powlowski was trying to pull into a parking spot outside the high school gymnasium just around 3 p.m. April 14 when he sped up, drove over a curb and hit the student, police said. She was taken to Fairview Hospital.

Police arrested him at the scene and he was taken to the Fairview Park Police Department. He was released from jail the following day due to a health issue.

Powlowski had been free on a personal bond ever since.

Powlowski had a hard time walking in the courtroom Wednesday. He used a cane and leaned on his attorney, Gregory Gentile, for support.

He is due back in court June 17.

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Warfel in custody.JPG

Eric Warfel, 35, is taken into custody Wednesday after being found guilty of gross abuse of a corpse and other charges in Medina County Common Pleas Court. Warfel had been accused of leaving his dead daughter in a crib for more than a month.

(Evan MacDonald, cleveland.com)

MEDINA, Ohio -- The Medina man accused of leaving his 1-year-old daughter's corpse in a crib for more than a month has been found guilty of gross abuse of a corpse and other criminal charges.

Eric Warfel, 35, stood trial nearly a year after a cable company worker discovered his daughter Ember's body in her crib on July 29, 2015. Three medical examiners could not determine how she died.

Judge Christopher Collier announced the verdict Wednesday in Medina County Common Pleas Court. Warfel previously waived his right to a jury trial.

Warfel's sentencing is scheduled July 7. He faces up to six and a half years in prison, according to Ohio sentencing guidelines.

Collier ordered Warfel held without bond until the sentencing hearing. He will be in custody at the Medina County Jail.

Collier did not offer comment while announcing his verdict. The judge read each criminal charge before announcing his ruling.

Defense attorney Michael O'Shea said throughout the trial that he believed the verdict hinged on the interpretation of the language contained in the criminal statutes for the charges of gross abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence.

Investigators found no evidence Warfel altered or moved Ember's body after she died. O'Shea argued that Warfel's inaction in reporting his daughter's death did not make him guilty.

O'Shea said Wednesday he plans to appeal the verdict.

"If the conviction is upheld, Mr. Warfel will be the first person in Ohio history to be convicted of doing nothing," he said.

Medina County Prosecutor Dean Holman said he was pleased with the judge's decision.

"This case presented a complex legal issue for the court to consider," he said. "We appreciate the court's consideration of those issues. We're also appreciative of the fine work of the Medina Police Department."

The prosecutors and defense attorneys handed in their written closing arguments Friday after a trial that began more than two weeks ago. The two days of testimony saw prosecutors call 14 witnesses. Warfel's defense team called no witnesses.

The prosecutors argued Warfel's failure to report the death made it impossible to conduct a homicide investigation because decomposition made it impossible to determine the cause of death.

The prosecutors argued that Warfel told detectives that he knew an autopsy would be performed if he reported his daughter's death. He also told the detectives that he was concerned that investigators might find cocaine in his apartment and that he was worried an investigation might result in him losing custody of his 7-year-old daughter.

Ember's death and Warfel's arrest

Warfel told investigators that he found his daughter dead in her crib June 19, 2015 at the Forest Meadows Apartment Homes.

Medina Police Detective Sara Lynn testified during the trial that Warfel conducted online research on whether he was required to report her death. Warfel concluded that he did not have to because he had not committed a crime, she said.

Ember remained there until the cable worker made the grisly discovery.

Warfel was arrested later that day while he and his 7-year-old daughter were at Crocker Park in Westlake. Warfel and the 7-year-old girl were living at a Motel 6 in Middleburg Heights prior to his arrest. Investigators found cocaine in his motel room, police said.

Investigators reopened the 2013 death of Warfel's daughter Erin, who was 5 months old when she died of what the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner deemed a "sudden unexplained infant death." Holman said the investigation was handled by Cuyahoga County and that Erin's death is not relevant to Warfel's trial.

Warfel was granted full custody of Ember when he and his wife divorced in 2014. A judge said the girl's mother, Malinali Galdamez, had a history of substance abuse that made her unfit to care for Ember.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- An inmate at a Cleveland community corrections facility who escaped an off-site service facility is accused of raping a woman at gunpoint, according to court records.

Shawn Fort, 25, is in a Cuyahoga County Jail cell waiting for an arraignment hearing on rape and kidnapping charges. He also could face an escape charge as well as an 18-month prison sentence for violating his parole from an earlier case.

The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction said Tuesday that Fort went AWOL in April while on a pass from the Judge Nancy R. McDonnell Community-Based Correctional Facility.

But Fort escaped after employees of a service agency drove him from the corrections facility to their own, said Christina Deibel, a spokeswoman for Oriana House which runs the corrections facility.

Deibel would not say which service agency took Fort, where the service facility was located, what type of service it provided, or how Fort escaped.

Fort left the service facility and never returned, Deibel said. A warrant was issued for his arrest April 12.

Fort was in the final month of a six-month sentence on drug trafficking and weapons charges.

About three weeks later, police said Fort accompanied a 23-year-old woman into a home on Meyer Avenue. As she talked on her cellphone, Fort pulled a handgun, forced her to get off the phone and undress, and raped her, records say.

Detectives obtained an arrest warrant May 30 charging him with rape and kidnapping. Police in Bratenahl arrested him Thursday on drunken driving charges.

Prior to his escape, Fort had spent just five months outside of a prison or jail cell since 2011, when he was arrested for child abuse and drug trafficking. Prosecutors said Fort dipped a 1-year-old boy into scalding hot water and left him with burns. He also was also accused of dealing marijuana on the city's West Side.

Fort pleaded guilty to child endangering and drug trafficking and was sentenced to four years in prison. He was released March 2015 and placed on parole for three years.

Cleveland police arrested him in September after detectives said he offered to sell someone marijuana on West 31st Street, less than 1,000 feet from Lincoln West High School. Investigators found a loaded 9mm and 30 baggies of marijuana, according to court records.

Fort eventually pleaded guilty to drug trafficking near a school and carrying a concealed weapon. Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Michael Donnelly sentenced him to six months at the community-based correctional facility.

Staff at the facility placed Fort into a high-risk group, according to court records.

The 200-bed facility is run by Oriana House and provides treatment, job training and other services for non-violent, felony convicts the court system determines could be better served with treatment instead of prison.

The program splits sentences up into four phases, with each phase getting less restrictive. Inmates cannot leave the facility for the first 30 days, then are allowed to leave for pre-approved activities like work or school.

In the final phase, inmates are granted passes to leave the facility to make contacts in the community before they are granted a final one-week release, Deibel said

Inmates must return after the release, and once staff at the facility determines a person complied with the rules of the program during the week, the inmate is released and placed on probation.

The facility told the Adult Parole Authority May 4 that Fort had not returned to the facility and had gone AWOL, according to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. The Adult Parole Authority found Fort was a violator at large later that day.

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It's no surprise that Airbnb clinched the No. 2 spot on this year's CNBC Disruptor 50 list. The global growth of the home-sharing giant, valued at $25.5 billion, continues to impress, painting an interesting picture of the Silicon Valley unicorn's expansion: It's become much less about the U.S. market. The United States makes up just 16 percent of Airbnb's listings globally, with just two of the top 10 markets  New York City and Los Angeles. From March 2015 to March 2016, New York grew by 38 percent and Los Angeles by 32 percent, according to data from Beyond Pricing, a dynamic pricing service that helps hosts figure out how to price their listing. But that's nothing compared to what's occurring overseas. "Their expansion into Europe was spectacular," said Airbnb board member Alfred Lin, a partner at venture capital firm Sequoia Capital. "It is amazing to see this company grow up the way it has."

Hannah Simpson and Alister Shipman, from Northern Ireland, slept surrounded by a shark tank after winning a night's stay at the Aquarium de Paris in April through an Airbnb competition. Chesnot | Getty Images

Hosts in Europe collectively made nearly $3 billion in 2015, Airbnb co-founder Nathan Blecharczyk said at the Start-up Fest conference in Amsterdam in May.

In traditional vacation-rental markets  including Orlando, Vail and Aspen  the company has invested to steal market share from traditional rental sites, like Expedia -owned HomeAway and VRBO, said Beyond Pricing's co-founder and president, Ian McHenry. That investment appears to be paying off: Growth in those markets is much higher, ranging from 170 percent to 180 percent, over the same time period. Foreign markets offer more opportunity for organic growth because penetration is lower and internet adoption is rising.

Airbnb's fastest-growing cities are largely in Asia, according to Beyond Pricing data. Osaka, Beijing and Tokyo make up three of the top five fastest-growing cities for Airbnb in terms of new listings. Osaka grew an astounding 542 percent, Beijing 294 percent and Tokyo 210 percent from March 2015 to March 2016. Shanghai is Airbnb's 11th fastest-growing city  the company grew listings there 161 percent over the same time period.

Paris is the city with the most Airbnb listings, and new hosts are signing up fast: Airbnb's pool of places to stay in Paris grew 64 percent, to 71,852 listings, between March 2015 and March 2016, according to Beyond Pricing. In recognition of the city's importance, Airbnb held its annual host get-together in Paris in November, which was unfortunate timing: The event coincided with Islamic State's strikes on the city.

It is amazing to see this company grow up the way it has. Alfred Lin partner at venture capital firm Sequoia Capital

Piper Jaffray ranks penetration of the Chinese market among Airbnb's top three priorities. "Airbnb's stated goal of $10 billion in revenue by 2020 will likely come from a variety of categories  namely, vacation rentals, China and business travel," said Piper Jaffray analyst Michael Olson in a note to investors in March. In November the company raised a $1.58 billion Series E round of funding, bringing the total funding raised to $2.49 billion, resulting in its current valuation of $25.5 billion, according to PitchBook, with annual revenue at the time of funding headed to $900 million.



Intense scrutiny

Disruption at this scale  which moved Airbnb up three spots from No. 5 to No. 2 on the 2016 CNBC Disruptor 50 list  comes with equally large challenges. Airbnb continues in hypergrowth mode, while at the same time drawing intense scrutiny from regulators and opposition from incumbents. "The regulations that were written in cities around the world never really contemplated this business model," said Andreessen Horowitz partner Jeff Jordan in a phone interview as he made his way to stay at an Airbnb in Napa, California. "It is the same for many of the classically disruptive business models," he said.

Employees of online service Airbnb work in the Paris office. Martin Bureau | AFP | Getty Images

Airbnb is spending large sums of money to engage with municipalities across the globe. Like a game of whack-a-mole, as soon as the company addresses regulatory concerns in one city, another issue pops up somewhere else, Jordan said.

Airbnb has succeeded in Europe because its founders have evolved the company's mission and grown the community as the company has scaled, all while battling well-funded local competitors, Lin said. "They were head to head against Wimdu in Berlin, and there was this ground war and eventually  and smartly  they figured out how to win Europe from Berlin out," the Sequoia Capital investor said. "The hosts love them, the guests love them  I think that customer love on both the host and the guest side is very, very rare," he said.
Yi Gang on March 12, 2016 in Beijing, China. Lintao Zhang | Getty Images

China will give the United States a 250 billion yuan ($38 billion) investment quota for the first time to buy Chinese stocks, bonds and other assets, officials said on Tuesday, deepening financial ties and interdependence between the world's two largest economies. China has given such quota allocations to several countries, including the UK, France and Singapore, but this would be the biggest given to a single jurisdiction after Hong Kong. Chinese officials also repeatedly pledged in two days of talks with U.S. counterparts that they saw no need for sustained weakening of the yuan currency, which many investors fear could shock the already sluggish U.S. and global economies and roil financial markets as happened in January. The moves will allow Beijing to pursue its ambition of making the yuan a more widely used global currency, while giving U.S. investors greater access to China's domestic markets. A central bank vice governor, Yi Gang, announced the quota at the bilateral Strategic and Economic Dialogue talks in Beijing, without providing further details such as a timeframe.

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"We believe the U.S. market is very important, so we granted 250 billion yuan in RQFII quotas to the United States," he said. The Renminbi Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor program, which was set up in late 2011, allows overseas financial institutions to use offshore yuan to buy securities in mainland China, including stocks, bonds and money market investments. "The ability to do RMB transactions in the United States will be a real advantage, to small firms in particular and to large businesses that are not financial businesses," U.S. Treasury Secretary said on Tuesday. "It will make it easier, it will make it cheaper," he said. China and the United States will also each pick a qualified bank to conduct yuan clearing business in the United States, Vice Premier Wang Yang said. The new quota will significantly expand the RQFII program, under which 501.77 billion yuan had been allocated as of May.

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The quota, which financial institutions will apply to use, is the first granted to the United States.

Ivan Shi, head of research at Shanghai-based fund consultancy Z-Ben Advisors, said the move also increased the chances that global investment index compiler MSCI will include Chinese shares in its index, a decision that could come next week, as it broadens foreign access to China's stock market. "But its implementation depends on how widely the yuan is used in the U.S. and how much interest U.S. investors have toward Chinese stocks and bonds," he added. China's regulators have been pushing to expand foreign investors' access to domestic financial markets to make its markets broader and attract more capital inflows. But foreign interest has waned after a near meltdown in Chinese equity markets last year and subsequent heavy-handed official intervention to shore them up. China's cooling economy, growing debt levels and anxiety over its currency policy have also kept investors at bay.
May's soggy Chinese trade data offered the latest sign that the world's second-largest economy was still a long way off from full health. Exports in dollar-denominated terms tanked 4.1 percent on-year, more than double April's 1.8 percent fall and slightly worse than estimates for a 3.6 percent decline, Reuters said on Wednesday. Imports meanwhile edged down 0.4 percent on-year, narrower than April's 10.9 percent tumble and the 6 percent slide anticipated.

Shipping containers sit stacked at Port of Dalian, China. Getty Images

That left Beijing with a trade surplus of $49.98 billion, wider than April's $45.56 billion reading but missing Reuters' $58 billion forecast.

For the first five months of the year, annual exports were 7.3 percent lower while imports were down 10.3 percent. Market reaction was relatively muted, with mainland equities modestly lower and the Australian dollar flat around $0.7450. Softening global demand was to blame for weak exports instead of domestic factors, Julian Evans-Pritchard, China economist at Capital Economics said in a note, pointing to poor demand in many of China's key trading partners, including the U.S., the EU and Japan. "China's export growth is likely to remain subdued going forward. While we don't anticipate much more of a slowdown in global growth given that the worst is probably over for many emerging markets, we don't foresee a significant pick-up either." He attributed the better-than-expected imports figure to the ongoing recovery in global commodity prices that boosted import values. "Import growth is likely to edge up further for the remainder of this year as the fall in commodity prices during the second half of 2015 enters the base for comparison and the continued feed-through from earlier policy easing helps to prop up domestic demand."

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The FX factor

In yuan terms, May trade data painted a different picture, with exports up 1.2 percent on-year and imports 5.1 percent higher.

The divergence with dollar figures reflected the interruption of the renminbi's long-term appreciation trend against the dollar, said Thierry Apoteker, executive chairman and chief economist at TAC Economics. "China has been losing worldwide market share on manufactured products for a while... if worldwide trade in dollar terms is zero, China is at minus 4. This is no surprise because most competitors have had their currency depreciating by 20-25 percent since 2013, but the yuan has remained broadly stable, with depreciation only beginning since July 2015." Indeed, simmering uncertainty about the direction of the renminbi has been the source of shaky investor sentiment. Critics have long accused Beijing of manipulating its currency lower in order to benefit its exports, but the central bank has repeatedly denied those rumors as it attempts to let the currency become more market-oriented. On Wednesday, a People's Bank of China (PBOC) economist said the bank will allow the currency "some degrees of appreciation or depreciation" against a basket of currencies, Reuters reported. But some banks such as OCBC are still anticipating a weaker currency on the back of a looming U.S. interest rate hike, not domestic policymaking. Goldman Sachs recently shifted to an "outright negative" view on the yuan, blaming the change in sentiment on a "weak link" in the mainland's currency management strategy.

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Mixed momentum
The 401(k) plan originated from some quirks in 1970s tax law and wasn't intended to be the universal solution to funding retirement. In more than three decades of growth, however, that's what it has become. Today over 90 million Americans own more than $6.5 trillion in defined contribution plans, according to a 2015 report from Vanguard. Yet many savers still don't understand the 401(k) process. The same goes for similar plans, such as the 403(b) for nonprofit employees, 457 for public education workers, and federal government employees' Thrift Savings Plan.

Priyanka Parashar | Mint | Getty Images

The 401(k) plans, which replaced traditional defined-benefit pensions, are very different. Perhaps the biggest change is that while every employee contributes to a pension fund, 401(k) contributions are optional. With a 401(k) plan, simply electing to participate is the initial and most important move. "The first step is to get in the plan as early as you can and save as much as you can," said Rob Austin, director of retirement research for Aon Hewitt, which administers 550 large defined contribution plans covering 5.7 million participants. Today a growing number of employer-sponsored 401(k) plans automatically enroll employees. Vanguard's report found 36 percent of plans had auto enrollment, up from 27 percent in 2010. However, people can still opt out, and many do. Austin said that, overall, about 21 percent of eligible employees don't contribute.

After signing up, the next move is to contribute enough. Officials at Fidelity Investments, the largest defined-contribution administrator, overseeing more than $1 trillion in plan assets, say savers should put away 15 percent of earnings. While 15 percent is a commonly cited figure, virtually all experts say savers should, at a minimum, contribute enough to get all of their employer's matching contribution. Most plans, especially at larger employers, will match employee contributions up to a set amount, such as 3 percent of salary. "You have to max out up to at least what the company's going to match," said Kirk Jewell, a certified financial planner and founder of Global Financial Services. "That's one thing I stress: It's free money that you're potentially leaving on the table."

You have to max out up to at least what the company's going to match. ... It's free money that you're potentially leaving on the table. Kirk Jewell certified financial planner and founder of Global Financial Services

Still, Aon Hewitt has found that 23 percent of 401(k) plan participants aren't putting in enough to get all available matching dollars. Next in the process is choosing the right investments. Professional managers decide how to invest traditional pension funds. Defined-contribution plans give individual participants that responsibility. Plans may offer as choices a handful to dozens or even hundreds of mutual funds as well as managed accounts and brokerage services. Few savers themselves are comfortable with the job. Fidelity research shows 77 percent of people feel they lack time and skill to select appropriate investments.

"There are so many solutions, it can be very overwhelming to look at this long list of funds and determine where to invest," said Meghan Murphy, director of thought leadership for Fidelity. A growing number of plans default participant contributions into target-date mutual funds. These are run with an eye to a specific year of retirement. Professional managers adjust allocation of stocks, bonds and other assets, becoming more conservative as the planned retirement date approaches. Target-date funds are becoming a favorite option for employees. Vanguard reports that 29 percent of participants in 2014 invested in a single target-date fund. The company forecasts that by 2018 the number will grow to 63 percent.

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Target-date funds are not bad choices, said Jewell at Global Financial Services. Their holdings typically consist of a number of index funds, as well as other mutual funds. That means they usually have low costs and are well diversified, he added. For 401(k) savers who prefer a number of different mutual funds, Jewell said it's important to rebalance a portfolio each year or so. Rebalancing manages risk by avoiding overexposure to individual asset classes or sectors, such as large-cap stocks or international bonds. Jewell advises using the auto-rebalancing tools some plans offer, but investors can also buy and sell funds themselves to maintain desired allocation.

It's also necessary, of course, that savers actually leave funds in the plan. The plans are intended to fund retirement, not save up for education or other purposes.

However, participants can withdraw money before age 59, subject to a 10 percent penalty plus any taxes due. Some savers do this when faced with a cash crunch, while others take loans from their accounts but fail to pay them back. "The most common mistake is cashing out when changing jobs," Fidelity's Murphy said. Sometimes plan administrators will mail a check to an employee who is leaving the company.

Workers who spend the money instead of rolling into a new savings plan, such as an individual retirement account, incur penalties and taxes and also reduce the amount available to grow tax-deferred.

Experts advise avoiding early withdrawals if possible. Failing to re-invest even $10,000 from a former employer's plan can have a significant impact, especially for younger workers, Murphy said, because of the lost earnings compounded over decades.

"That is money that, if left invested over your entire career, would make a big difference," she said. "It could amount to hundreds of dollars in lost income per month in retirement."
"The stakes in this election are high, and the choice is clear: Donald Trump is temperamentally unfit to be president and commander-in-chief," she said Tuesday. "And he's not just trying to build a wall between America and Mexico, he's trying to wall off Americans from each other."

And while she championed the history of women's rights that preceded her candidacy, Clinton also lashed out likely GOP opponent Donald Trump .

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered a celebratory address a day after many outlets deemed her the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee  a first for a woman in either major party.

This domestic separation, she said, is inherent in Trump's message of taking the country back to a previous "great" period.

"When he says 'let's make America great again,' that's code for 'let's take America backwards'  back to a time when opportunity and dignity were reserved for some, not all," she said. "We, however, we want to write the next chapter in American greatness with a 21st Century prosperity that lifts everyone who has been left out and left behind, including those who may not vote for us, but deserve their chance to make a new beginning."

In contrast, Clinton said her campaign is about bringing people together  something her campaign surely hopes will happen among Democratic voters after a hard-fought primary contest against Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

"We believe that cooperation is better than conflict, unity is better than division, empowerment is better than resentment, and bridges are better than walls," Clinton said.
Where would you rather shop: a store with high prices and occasional sales or a retailer where prices are consistently low?

While reliably cheap prices might sound better on paper, businesses harnessing the former pricing strategy  rather than the latter  can be more profitable and successful with shoppers, according to new research by management professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Texas at Dallas.

The reason? It's all about regret.

There are two types of regret that consumers tend to feel with regard to shopping, said co-author Karen Zheng, an assistant professor of operations management at the MIT Sloan School of Management. One type results when you buy an item of clothing, for example, and then later see it on sale for a lower price than what you paid, she said.

"But the other regret is if you don't buy it and come back to find your size is gone," said Zheng. "You will wish you had gotten it in the first place, ... and it turns out people tend to believe certain products will be sold faster or sooner than they actually are."

Specifically, the fear that items will go out of stock can be powerful enough to make shoppers pay full price when they first see an item  and increase stores' profits by as much as 10 percent, the study found.

Of course, the strategy of keeping prices high will work better for some retailers than for others, said Zheng. Shoppers have an easier time holding out for sales when they are buying common items like T-shirts.

"Branded fashion, on the other hand, is more likely to induce the fear of future regret," she said. "My conjecture would be that for trendier items, there is a time value of wearing them, so they are more valuable at the beginning of the summer season versus at the end, for example."

Indeed, certain name brands are especially adept when it comes to urging shoppers to pay full price.
Pharmaceutical bad boy and accused fraudster Martin Shkreli will be lampooned in a satirical new musical in New York, according to a report Wednesday.

Some enchanted evening, you may raise your drug prices ...

Martin Shkreli (C), former chief executive officer of Turing Pharmaceuticals and KaloBios Pharmaceuticals, departs following a hearing at a U.S. federal court in New York City on June 6, 2016.

"Martin Shkreli's Game: How Bill Murray Joined the Wu-Tang Clan" will poke fun at Shkreli's actual, jaw-dropping $2 million purchase of a special, single-copy Wu-Tang Clan album, the New York Post reported. It also will play off of phony reports that a clause in the sale would have allowed the legendary hip-hop group to team up with Murray to steal the album back.

The show, to premiere July 19 at a Manhattan film festival, will feature a song titled "I'm Martin F****** Shkreli and You Can All Go F*** Yourselves."

One line from that profane ditty: "You wonder what I'm worth, the richest damn Albanian to walk the Earth!"



The show's lyricist, Lauren Gundrum, told the Post: "Martin's just such an interesting character."

"Shkreli buying this album is hilarious and so in character," she said.

When asked about the musical, Shkreli's high-powered criminal defense lawyer Benjamin Brafman gave a strong thumbs-down to CNBC.

"Martin and his lawyers intend to ignore this childish, absurd project," Brafman said. "We have far more serious issues to address and will not allow ourselves to be distracted."
Prior to the trial, the patients experienced 18 migraine days on average. Those that took the drug saw that number reduced by about 6.6 days, whereas patients who took the placebo only saw a reduction of 4.2 days. Amgen noted that the results are statistically significant for both groups.

In theory, Amgen's drug could help prevent migraines by inhibiting the receptors for calcitonin gene-related peptide. High levels of the molecule CGRP have been thought to be correlated with migraines.

Amgen said Wednesday that it has seen positive results for erenumab (aka AMG 334), the chronic-migraine prevention drug it has been developing with Novartis .

"Amgen and Novartis look forward to discussing these results with global regulators. We believe that together with the Phase 3 episodic data that we expect in H2, the data could potentially support both chronic and episodic indications being granted, at least by some of the global regulators," said Kristen Davis, spokeswoman for Amgen.



The results are not surprising "given the consistency in treatment effect we've seen from all the CGRP inhibitors in development," according to a Wednesday analyst note from JPMorgan published before the announcement.

"We continue to view AMG 334 as one of the more important growth drivers for Amgen over the near-to-intermediate term and recognize the commercial potential that chronic and episodic migraine present," the firm said, adding that there's intense competition.

Eli Lilly and Alder BioPharmaceuticals are also developing products in the migraine space.

In April, an analyst at Citi estimated that the drug could be a $1.5 billion opportunity for Amgen. The firm also said that the drug could provide an upside of $8 per share.

 CNBC's Meg Tirrell contributed to this report.
Billionaire Republican businessman Ken Langone blasted Donald Trump on Wednesday for calling a Mexican-American judge biased but said he still plans to support the presumptive GOP presidential nominee.

Langone, co-founder of Home Depot , said on CNBC's "Squawk Box" that Trump's statements were "disgraceful," and the real estate mogul should make a public apology.

"A lot of people said ... give [Trump] time, he'll blow up. Well, if he hasn't blown up, he came as close as he can to blowing up without blowing up," Langone said, adding Trump was "100 percent wrong" to make those "destructive" and "divisive" comments.

"Redemption is for everybody," Langone continued. "[Trump] has got to start, in my opinion, [by saying] 'You know what, I really blew that one.'"

Last week, Trump said U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel's opinion in a case against Trump University was being influenced by the judge's heritage because of the candidate's campaign rhetoric about Mexicans and illegal immigration.

Despite Trump's record of controversial statements throughout the campaign, Langone said: "This one here bothers me more than all the others put together because I can empathize here very easily ... [as] a rough-around-the-edges Italian kid going to Wall Street when it was all whiteshoe 50 years ago."



On Tuesday, House Speaker Paul Ryan denounced Trump's statements as "textbook" racism, though the Wisconsin Republican and 2012 GOP vice presidential candidate still supports Trump for president.

Bowing to pressure from fellow Republicans, Trump said Tuesday he would no longer talk about Curiel. Trump said his remarks were misconstrued as a broad attack on Mexican-Americans. Stopping short of an apology, Trump released a statement that read in part: "I do not feel that one's heritage makes them incapable of being impartial, but, based on the rulings that I have received in the Trump University civil case, I feel justified in questioning whether I am receiving a fair trial."

Langone  who first supported New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and then Ohio Gov. John Kasich in the Republican race  said he still believes Trump has the best chance to get the nation back on track, calling presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton power-hungry and self-centered.

Reiterating comments he made in May on "Squawk Box," Langone said while he'll vote for Trump, he won't be doing any fundraising for the fellow billionaire businessman.
With both oil inventories falling and natural gas running hot, Jim Cramer was taken aback by the staggering moves in energy in the past few months. Suddenly oil is trading above $50 and gas is approaching $2.50.

Do they make sense?

"Yes, even as this new level of pricing is more bullish than I thought possible, and I was a pretty lonely bull back when oil traded in the $30s," the "Mad Money" host said.

Cramer attributed the rally to the shortfalls of the big Canadian oil shutdown caused by wildfires, and a pickup in gasoline consumption from driving more. Third, the dreaded increase in oil drilling that many expected would happen when crude tipped $50 hasn't happened.

More important, are the severe supply constraints occurring in both Libya and Nigeria. Chinese production has also fallen hard, even as Chinese auto purchases have increased. Autos represent one-third of all the oil use in China.
Japanese students are first to hatch chicken egg without its shell. Source: YouTube

A video making the rounds on the internet depicts a group of Japanese students cracking an egg, dropping it into a plastic pouch, and incubating it until a baby chick emerges several days later. The video has received about 50 million views on Facebook, and other versions have popped up on YouTube and other platforms.

Though questions remain surrounding the video's authenticity, the process is possible, according to E. David Peebles, a professor of poultry science at Mississippi State University. In fact, this is not the first time such a thing has been attempted. "I remember seeing a similar kind of thing when I was in a lab North Carolina State University," Peebles told CNBC in an interview. "They had relatively limited success with it, but they did have some success." And as the The Daily Dot observes, this kind of process has been referred to in scientific literature dating back to at least 1971.

Peebles said processes like this are rare, though they could have some uses. Without the shell in the way, researchers "can more directly observe the development of the embryo. So you can put it under a microscope, or do time-lapse photography, to observe the developmental process," he said. "And you can more easily take DNA or protein samples."

An article posted on Snopes.com links to a 2014 paper in the Journal of Poultry Science describing how a "shell-less" method for growing chickens from embryos could lead to research in "transgenic chickens, embryo manipulations, tissue engineering, and basic studies in regenerative medicine." But, Peebles noted, this process is not the sort of thing one would use in commercial chicken breeding, or in raising chickens for food. And it's not easy. Namely, it's tricky to create an artificial environment sophisticated enough to replace a natural egg shell, which Peebles said is part food source, part protection, and also serves as a kind of filter for an embryonic chicken.

"What they are doing in an artificial environment is providing a protective coating that is semi-permeable so that water can be lost and gases can be exchanged," Peebles said.
Conservative radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt on Wednesday called for changing the rules of the Republican National Convention to allow the GOP to ditch Donald Trump as its presidential nominee.

On his talk show, Hewitt justified the unprecedented rule change as necessary for the Republican Party's survival, likening Trump's candidacy to a deadly disease.



"It's like ignoring stage-four cancer. You can't do it, you got to go attack it," Hewitt said. "And right now the Republican Party is facing  the plane is headed towards the mountain after the last 72 hours."



Trump has come under intense criticism over the past few days after questioning the impartiality of the Mexican-American judge overseeing Trump University lawsuits based on the judge's ethnicity.



"They ought to get together and let the convention decide," Hewitt said, but did not rule out keeping Trump as the nominee. He said that if Trump "pulls over a makeover" within the next four to five weeks, then he may remain the GOP's nominee. However, Hewitt warned that as Trump's candidacy stands now, he represents certain defeat for the party in November.

"I want to support the nominee of the party, but I think the party ought to change the nominee. Because we're going to get killed with this nominee," said Hewitt, who started his career as a ghostwriter for Richard Nixon and later served in the Reagan administration.

The proposal marks a reversal of sorts for Hewitt, who wrote in a post on his website in February that, "if Trump is the nominee I will support him." However, the two have had a number high-profile arguments, and Trump has lobbed insults at Hewitt, including calling him a "third-rate radio announcer" after an interview this September.



According to the NBC News delegate tracker, Trump has 1,541 delegates to the Republican National Convention, more than the required 1,237 to become the nominee. The convention will be held July 18-21 in Cleveland.
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Britain might be about to vote on whether to remain part of the European Union (EU), but a new survey shows that anti-European feeling has spread across the continent  and there are countries who dislike the EU more. "Euroskepticism is on the rise across Europe and that about two-thirds of both the British and the Greeks, along with significant minorities in other key nations, want some powers returned from Brussels to national governments," according to the survey by the U.S. think tank Pew Research Center on Tuesday.



Who loves the EU the most?

According to the spring 2016 "Global Attitudes Survey" of 10 EU countries, a median of just 51 percent of those surveyed held a favorable view of the EU with 47 percent having an unfavorable view of the bloc.

"A median of 42 percent in these 10 nations want more power returned to their national capitals, while only 19 percent favor giving Brussels more power and 27 percent favor the status quo," Pew Research Center, which conducted the survey among 10,491 respondents from April 4 to May 12 across 10 countries that account for 80 percent of the EU-28 population and 82 percent of the EU's gross domestic product (GDP).

Supporters wave flags at the Eurovision Song Contest. JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP/Getty Images

It wasn't all bad for the EU, the survey found that the institution's strongest backers are the Poles (72 percent) and the Hungarians (61 percent). In many other nations, however, support is tepid. Just 27 percent of the Greeks, 38 percent of the French and 47 percent of the Spanish have a favorable opinion of the EU. Notably, support for the EU was higher in the UK, the country about to hold a vote on EU membership, with 44 percent of the British viewing the EU favorably, including 53 percent of the Scottish. Despite the survey's results, public opinion polls in the U.K. remain tight between those who want to leave the EU and those that want it to remain within the 28-country political and economic bloc. A median of 70 percent in the nine EU countries  the U.K. was excluded from this question  believed it would be bad for the EU if the UK quit. Only 16 percent said it would be a good thing.

Questioning the EU
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Heineken is pouring money into Vietnam, which lags only Mexico on profitability for the Dutch beverage giant, according to the company's Asia Pacific President Frans Eusman. Heineken has identified the Southeast Asian nation as the next key driver for its growing APAC business, as it becomes more difficult to squeeze profits from Africa, the Middle East and parts of Europe. The 143-year-old brewer operates under two company names in Vietnam: APB Hanoi, which is wholly owned, and Vietnam Brewery, in which Heineken has a 60 percent stake. "We're very proud of what we've been able to create," Eusman told CNBC's "Squawk Box." "Five years ago, Heineken entered with a very small brewery when Vietnam started to open up. Now we are the number two in Vietnam."

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He said Heineken saw opportunities for growth across Asia. It spent $60 million building a brewery in Myanmar in 2015 and also operates in China, India, Cambodia, Indonesia and Malaysia, holding the country's biggest market share in half of them. The company recently signed a joint venture with Philippine beverage producer, Asia Brewery, to bring the Heineken and Tiger beer brands to the Philippines, and Eusman hinted that further deals were to come. Meanwhile, Eusman said that Myanmar was also a "fantastic opportunity." "Myanmar, in a way, resembles Vietnam maybe 10 to 25 years ago," he explained. "It has a huge young population, growing wealth, growing GDP, and more of those people have expendable income."

Cindy Ord | Getty Images for Vulture Festival
Facebook 's Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai of Google , and Apple chief Tim Cook have lost out to the boss of a consultancy firm many times smaller than their companies, when it comes to being the U.S.'s favorite CEO. Bob Bechek, worldwide managing director of management consulting firm Bain & Company, has been named the U.S.'s highest rated CEO of 2016, after receiving a 99 percent approval rating from his employees, according to Glassdoor's latest annual rankings report.

Bob Bechek, worldwide managing director of Bain & Company Courtesy of Bain & Company, Inc.

Gender balance

With calls worldwide to see more women at the top, 2016's Glassdoor survey struck a positive note for the U.S. Compared to 2015's figure of zero, four women featured on America's top 50, including In-N-Out Burger's Lynsi Snyder (17th), Staffmark's Lesa J. Francis (28th), Enterprise Holdings' Pamela M. Nicholson (31st), and Deloitte LLP's Cathy Engelbert (41st).

CEOs of Google, Facebook, Deloitte LLP, In-N-Out Burger, Bain & Company, Apple Credit: Getty Images (Getty, Bloomberg, Gamma-Rapho, WireImage) and Bain & Company

"These four women on our list are leading the way for others and providing optimism for the next generation of future women bosses," Mark Di-Toro, a Glassdoor spokesperson, told CNBC via email. With 8 percent of the 2016's ranking being held by women, this "significantly outpaces" the amount of female CEOs found on the S&P 500 list, Di-Toro added, which is currently at 4.2 percent, according to Catalyst. The results were based on employee reviews, uploaded on Glassdoor during May 2, 2015 to May 1, 2016. During the review, employees were asked to provide anonymous feedback on their employer and company, including comments on the work environment and management, and being asked whether they approve, disapprove or have no opinion of their CEO. "What we learn (from these reviews) is quite simple. A good CEO leads from the front, is dedicated to delivering the company mission, believes in transparency and invests in their people," Di-Toro added.

What about the rest of the world's CEOs?

Aside from America's most-loved chief executives, Glassdoor broadened its annual list out to the likes of Canada and some countries in Europe. In 2015, the survey included CEOs from the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Germany; but in 2016, The Netherlands and France's top 10 bosses also entered the mix.

ATB Financial's Dave Mowat was Canada's top-rated CEO for 2016, receiving an employee rating of 99 percent; while the CEO's of Apple and EY were also among the nation's top-rated, coming in 6th and 5th respectively.

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President Barack Obama called former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday to congratulate her on "securing the delegates necessary to clinch the Democratic nomination for president," according to a statement from the White House.

Obama also spoke with Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Clinton's last remaining opponent, the statement said.

"The president congratulated both candidates for running inspiring campaigns that have energized Democrats, brought a new generation of Americans into the political process, and shined a spotlight on important policy ideas aimed at making sure our economy and our politics work for everybody, not just those with wealth and power," the statement said.

The White House characterized Clinton's campaign as "an extension of her lifelong fight for middle-class families and children."

On Tuesday evening, Clinton delivered a victory speech, turning to the general election.

As for Sanders, Obama reportedly thanked the senator for "energizing millions of Americans with his commitment to issues like fighting economic inequality and special interests' influence on our politics."

Additionally, the White House said Obama will meet with Sanders on Thursday  at the senator's request.
As the worst-performing sector this year, financial stocks might make a tempting target for investors looking for value.

However, one market pro is advising caution against buying the group, which is one of only two sectors notching negative returns year to date.

Nick Colas, chief market strategist at Convergex, notes that not only have financials lagged the broader market in 2016, but they also remain the worst performer of the S&P's 10 sectors over the last 10 years, declining 29 percent during the period. Excluding real estate investment trusts, which have gained 28 percent on a price basis, the industry would be down 33 percent. Financials were off 1.4 percent year to date heading into Wednesday's trading.

Financials "face several powerful headwinds and a few crosscurrents to boot," Colas warned clients in a note that outlined six signs investors should heed before diving into the sector:

1. The financial stocks "have been dreadful investments." Of course, what happened in the past doesn't always presage the future, but if the trend is your friend, then financial stock buyers could become castaways.

Of course, what happened in the past doesn't always presage the future, but if the trend is your friend, then financial stock buyers could become castaways. 2. Regulation : The Fed will be releasing stress tests results on June 23 with the related Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review results out six days later. "In any given year, at least one institution has been singled out for deficiencies and the 2016 reviews will likely follow that precedent," Colas said. And, of course, there are the Dodd-Frank regulations and a generally hostile air in Washington toward big banks.

: The Fed will be releasing stress tests results on June 23 with the related Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review results out six days later. "In any given year, at least one institution has been singled out for deficiencies and the 2016 reviews will likely follow that precedent," Colas said. And, of course, there are the Dodd-Frank regulations and a generally hostile air in Washington toward big banks. 3. Low expected returns on capital : The average return on equity for large banks is 9 percent, but the price-to-book level averages 1.1 times, meaning investors have low expectations for growth.

: The average return on equity for large banks is 9 percent, but the price-to-book level averages 1.1 times, meaning investors have low expectations for growth. 4. Cost of capital : Colas found that financial stocks on average are 20 percent more volatile than the S&P 500 broadly (examining how the sector has traded against the index). The upshot: "Investors rightly worry that banks have a very high cost of capital ... relative to their current returns. "

: Colas found that financial stocks on average are 20 percent more volatile than the S&P 500 broadly (examining how the sector has traded against the index). The upshot: "Investors rightly worry that banks have a very high cost of capital ... relative to their current returns. " 5. Oil prices : Those looking for banks to rebound as oil prices climb out of a bear market are likely to be disappointed. Colas' team found little correlation and believe financials are "poor proxies for moves in the energy market."

: Those looking for banks to rebound as oil prices climb out of a bear market are likely to be disappointed. Colas' team found little correlation and believe financials are "poor proxies for moves in the energy market." 6. "So what else could happen?" Among other things, Colas is skeptical that a new wave of professionals will be able to turn around the performance of financials.

"The key takeaway from both this final point and the piece as a whole is that financials will likely remain a tough place to make outsized returns," Colas wrote. "Regulatory burdens are a piece of that, to be sure, and in the absence of a change in Washington that drag seems likely to continue."

The note mostly avoids the role the Fed will play with bank stocks. There's expectation that as the central bank normalizes rates, bank performance will follow. However, recent indicators are that the Fed is no hurry to raise rates, keeping bank returns in check.

"In the end, the resurrection of this group will have to come from one place, and one place alone: all those clever people who run the companies," Colas said. "There is an old saying on Wall Street that the most important assets of a bank go up and down in the elevator every day. Perhaps one day they will find the 'up" button again."
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Abhijit Bose, the CEO of Ezetap, shrugs off Apple CEO Tim Cook's recent trip to India. He isn't worried about the American smartphone behemoth moving into his mobile payments business. "I've said I'll pick up any Silicon Valley CEO at the airport and drive him anywhere they want," said Bose, whose Bangalore-based company (No. 3 CNBC Disruptor 50) is on track to handle $1 billion in transactions this year. With 900 million mobile phone users and a sophisticated biometric digital ID issued to every citizen, India is increasingly attractive to companies that provide mobile financial services. According to a recent report by GrowthPraxis, a market research firm in Bangalore, the market for mobile-enabled payments in India soared from $90 million in 2012 to $1.4 billion in 2015. Indians opened more than 200 million new bank accounts in the last two years, roughly equal to the number of households in the United States. Now 250 million Indians have access to broadband Internet.

The mobile payments market in India has taken off after years of anticipation as broadband networks, and high-speed 4G cellphone networks have become more commonplace, said Amit Goel, co-founder of GrowthPraxis and managing director of LTP, a financial technology research site. Ezetap has benefited from this explosion of connected consumers by offering an end-to-end payment system, including its own Square -like point-of-sale terminal that plugs into a smartphone. Bose said Ezetap handles an average of $2.5 million daily and 1.5 million to 2 million transactions each month, with volume growing 25 percent to 50 percent a year. He differentiates Ezetap from other players by its exclusive focus on merchants. While most competitors (including Apple) operate on the consumer side, he said Ezetap is single-minded. "Our job is to help bring merchants into the mobile internet world. "

Apple CEO Tim Cook outside a Temple in Mumbai Photo: Express Photo

Bose, an engineering graduate from Cornell University with a Harvard MBA, is part of a highly experienced team. He worked for Siebel, Oracle and Intuit before lunging into India's start-up ecosystem. Chief technology officer and co-founder Bhaktha Keshavachar spent time at Intel and Sharp. The company has raised $35 million in four rounds from investors as varied as American Express and venture capital firm Social Capital.

Bose said his team has created a flexible payments platform that will handle a broad range of transactions. "A merchant or business has to be able to handle anything a customer wants to use, regardless of who walks in with what: a mobile wallet, a credit card or a PayPal account," said Bose. "How do you create a very seamless commerce operating system  interoperable, scalable and future-proof? That's what we do." By emphasizing the ways its products can improve a merchant's processes rather than individual transactions, Ezetap has positioned itself as software-as-a-service provider. Bose said he makes money by charging a monthly fee to merchants rather than a fee per transaction.

Local market leader

Ezetap co-founders Abhijit (Bobby) Bose and Bhaktha Keshavachar Source: Ezetap

Anupam Rastogi, a principal at Nokia Growth Partners (NGP), who closely follows the Indian mobile market, said Ezetap is well positioned to benefit from India's shift toward digital transactions. Rastogi, whose firm is not an investor in Ezetap, likes the fact that the company provides everything from a point-of-sale device to workflow management tools around payments. "It's a good strategy," he said. Bose isn't worried about Tim Cook, because he believes Ezetap has a formidable lead over potential foreign competitors in the complex Indian market. The most conventional aspect is the enterprise sector. Take Amazon , for example. The largest mobile companies and insurers in India are all Ezetap customers in this category. But the broadest and potentially most lucrative market is the so-called bottom of the pyramid, what Bose calls the financial inclusion market. "It's not about how you allow a person to buy a cappuccino in a store," he said. "It's about how do you create a fully functioning bank in a village of 10 people."

You have to get in and understand the [Indian] market. If you try to replicate your business model here, it's not going to work. Abhijit "Bobby" Bose CEO of Ezetap

Ezetap has global ambitions. In fact, when the company was founded in 2011, Bose and his partners worried that the Indian market was taking off too slowly. They launched an initiative in Kenya to demonstrate the potential for their products outside their home country. "There was a roll-up opportunity in the sense the digitization and third-world problem is not just an India problem," he said. "It's an Indonesia problem. It's a Kenya problem. It's a Malaysia problem." His company provides payment services to the biggest distributor of cooking oil to restaurants in Kenya, but he concedes that Ezetap has refocused on its home market since the use of mobile payments has soared. "We've doubled down and tripled down on India," said Bose. He thinks new entrants, even Apple, will have a long learning curve. "You have to get in and understand the market," said Bose. "If you try to replicate your business model here, it's not going to work." Then there is the role of government. For example, Uber had to agree to take cash for its car-paging service in India, something they do nowhere else. Apple has had difficulty becoming a factor in the Indian market because of the high price of its iPhones. The Indian government, under pressure from competitors, rejected Apple's request to sell refurbished iPhones. The California phone maker could face an additional requirement to produce its phones in India under an Indian government policy that encourages local manufacturing. Also, Apple Pay is based on a "near field communications" or NFC chip that requires holding the device near a terminal that triggers the payment.
But look at the Sanders address a little deeper and you will find a concession hiding in there. Sanders himself does not appear ready to officially hang it up. But he does seem to be starting the process of easing his fervent supporters, many of whom loathe Clinton, back into reality.

Sanders is finished and has been for weeks now. Requiems for his campaign are already being written, including a Politico piece portraying Sanders as bitter and increasingly isolated and bent on settling scores.

Sanders on Tuesday lost by 400,000 votes in California. He lost New Jersey by more than 200,000. Clinton now has a higher percentage of pledged delegates and the overall popular vote than then-Sen. Barack Obama had at this point in 2008. She leads Sanders by nearly 4 million votes.

After making the East Coast wait until close to 2 a.m. Wednesday morning, Bernie Sanders delivered what on the surface appeared to be a news-free speech, once again vowing to continue his progressive crusade despite having no chance to win the Democratic nomination, which now firmly belongs to Hillary Clinton .

But you all know it is more than Bernie. It is all of us together.

The first person Sanders went after was not Clinton but rather presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump. "The American people in my view will never support a candidate whose major theme is bigotry," Sanders said, directly answering Trump's attempts to appeal to the Vermont senator's voters. "We will not allow Donald Trump to become president of the United States."

Then Sanders ticked off the main goals of his campaign: Combating inequality, taking on Wall Street, reforming the campaign finance system, guaranteeing universal health care and reforming the immigration system.

But Sanders then told the adoring crowd that these goals were not inextricably linked to his campaign alone. "But you all know it is more than Bernie. It is all of us together," he said. "It is what this movement is about. It is millions of people from coast to coast standing up and looking around them and knowing that we can do much, much better as a nation."

At that moment it sounded as though Sanders was about to concede. He didn't. But he did appear to be guiding the "Feel the Bern" airplane to a soft landing, one he might complete after Washington, D.C., completes the voting next Tuesday. Sanders appeared to suggest he would not even concede at that point, saying "then we take our fight for social, economic, racial and environmental justice to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania!"

But he said he would take the fight to Philadelphia, not necessarily his campaign. There is no question Sanders will fight for the most liberal platform possible and try and prevent Clinton from pivoting too hard to the center. He wants to influence the VP selection and get a prominent speaking slot.

He's likely at his maximum bargaining power now. Should Sanders choose to keep his campaign alive after the voting ends, he will begin to be marginalized by the rest of the party, including President Barack Obama, who congratulated Clinton on getting the delegates necessary to win the nomination and is close to issuing a full endorsement.

If Sanders refuses to concede after D.C. votes, he will go from powerful liberal titan to party pariah almost instantly. Sanders has little love for the party  he was an independent before the presidential race  but it's hard to imagine he wants to be remembered as a bitter dead-ender who made Clinton's race against Trump much harder by refusing to direct his supporters to the presumptive Democratic nominee in the critical weeks before the convention.

Sanders ended his address with a line reminiscent of then-Sen. Ted Kennedy's speech to the Democratic convention in 1980. Kennedy, who lost a strong primary challenge to incumbent President Jimmy Carter, exhorted his supporters saying "the work continues ... and the dream will never die."

Sanders chose "the struggle continues." But the struggle is not the campaign. And it can continue in ways that don't include denying the reality that Sanders has lost.

 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.


Uber has raised $12.5 billion at an implied valuation of $66 billion, all without having to show the world its books. But without intending to, Uber may have revealed a major weakness that may bring it back down to Earth: wider adoption of its business model. The creation of Uber in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis can be compared to an earlier disruptive innovation: the supermarket.

Exterior view of a King Kullen grocery store in Rockville Center, Long Island, New York. Circa 1940s. R. Gates | Getty Images

In 1930, in the early months of the Great Depression, Michael J. Cullen leased a vacant garage in Queens, New York, and built King Kullen, what is widely considered the first-ever supermarket and example of the "resource integration" model that has created the Uber ecosystem.

In the case of King Kullen, "the resource integration included the use of the customer to self select, pay cash and carry the groceries home. Previously, the merchant selected, gave store credit and often delivered the groceries," explained Bob Lusch, entrepreneurship chair at the University of Arizona and a member of the CNBC Disruptor 50 advisory council. The new model also led to much-needed cost savings for consumers and created much-needed new jobs. Sound familiar?

Like King Kullen, Uber is the result of "clever resource integration" on the part of its founders, serial entrepreneurs Travis Kalanick and Garret Camp. "They integrated a mostly unused stockpile of personal automobiles, a large pool of potential drivers  [and] the resources of a digital ecosystem that can be accessed on a smartphone," Lusch said.



At the time of Cullen's innovation, none of the existing big dry grocery chains, including two of Cullen's former employers, Kroger and A&P, had thought to do what he did. But its merits were clear, and the idea caught on quickly, the textbook definition of a disruptive innovation. And here is where Uber should hope the comparison ends. The King Kullen business model proved easy to replicate, and eventually the big chains did. Today, Kroger is America's largest supermarket chain, with a 16.1 percent share of the national market; King Kullen remains a small local chain.



Uber's fundamental flaw

Erkko Autio of Imperial College Business School in London and also a member of the Disruptor 50 advisory council, said, "Uber's business model is fundamentally flawed." What is fiercely guarded as one of its biggest strengths  the controversial model of making all drivers operate as independent contractors  also means Uber allows drivers to work for its competitors. "Uber does not remove drivers from the driver pool. The platform is novel and revolutionary even, but not difficult to replicate. It will get replicated," Autio said. Speaking to CNBC from last week's Code Conference, Jean Liu, the president of Chinese ride-sharing company Didi Chuxing, pulled out a smartphone to show that the Uber app is directly referencing Didi Chuxing in aggressive discount offers: "I find it quite cute because I've never seen a company put their competitor's brand on their own homepage. ... This is very strong proof to show that we have better service." Didi Chuxing recently received a $1 billion investment from Apple .

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Uber's patent protection is not in the top tier among CNBC Disruptor 50 companies, according to MCAM International, which provided CNBC with a database of patent, trademark and other intellectual property information and analysis. Uber receives a lower-tier score on defensibility of technology, MCAM found.

Uber did not respond to a request for comment by press time. Nevertheless, it should come as no surprise to see Uber atop the CNBC Disruptor 50 list in 2016. To anyone who follows Silicon Valley, it's an obvious choice as the first company that comes to mind when you think of a disruptor. Uber is in more than 450 cities across Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Australia/New Zealand and the Americas. In the United States alone, more than 450,000 drivers use the Uber app daily, according to the company.

Uber does not remove drivers from the driver pool. The platform is novel and revolutionary even, but not difficult to replicate. It will get replicated. Erkko Autio Imperial College Business School in London





Some innovation experts contend the independent contractor model remains worth much more than it could ever cost Uber. "I have no trouble believing they're here for the long term," said Andrew McAfee, a scientist with the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy. "It's brilliant that [Uber] didn't try to lock down drivers into an employment situation," he said. "A huge part of their success and growth is, all you have to do is turn on an app and you can start making money with your car  on a schedule that you the individual choose." The question, then, is what will Uber be in the long term?



Uber, Lyft? Never heard of them

A Pew Research study last month found that despite all the attention, 51 percent of the U.S. population has heard of ride-hailing apps like Uber and its closest rival, Lyft (No. 27 on this year's Disruptor 50 List) but never used them; one-third of the county hasn't even heard of them; and only 15 percent of adults told Pew they have used a ride-sharing service. (The popularity does go up as the age of adult goes down: Roughly one-quarter of 18- to 29-year-olds (28 percent) and 1-in-5 30- to 49-year-olds (19 percent) have used ride-hailing.

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick Marlene Awaad | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Is Uber destined to be just another app in a sea of sharing-economy choices used by a fraction of the population? Or will it instead retain its competitive edge and become the next company like Amazon or Xerox or GE  a company that starts with a core business model and through innovation, clever resource consolidation and smart execution becomes something much bigger and more important?

The key to Uber's long-term success may lie in how the company deploys its mountain of cash. Last week Saudi Arabia's investment fund revealed a $3.5 billion investment. "Free venture money is like doping," Autio said. "They have so much money, they can do anything. But that will not last."
U.S. stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Wednesday as U.S. crude futures reach new eight-month highs. Crude price broke above $51 for the first time since July amid supply disruptions in Nigeria.

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European stocks traded lower on Wednesday, giving up Tuesday's gains, but Asian shares edged up after the Chinese central bank said it still expected the economy to grow by 6.8 percent this year despite weak export data. Job openings and labor turnover (JOLTs) data is released on Wednesday. Lululemon posted a five percent quarterly decline in net profit on Wednesday. Meanwhile, India's prime minister continues his visit to the U.S. Narendra Modi met with President Barack Obama Tuesday and attended an event with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos who announced the company would invest another $3 billion in India.

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Nearly half of unemployed Americans have quit looking for work, and the numbers are even worse for the long-term jobless, according to a poll released Wednesday that paints a grim picture of the labor market.

Some 59 percent of those who have been out of work for two years or more say they have stopped looking, the Harris Poll of unemployed Americans showed. Overall, 43 percent of the jobless said they have given up, according to the poll released in conjunction with Express Employment Professionals, a job placement service.

"This is a tale of two economies," Express CEO Bob Funk said in a statement. "It's frightening to see this many people who could work say they have given up."

The results come just a few days after a government report showed that the unemployment rate fell to 4.7 percent in May, but the drop came primarily because of a sharp decline in the labor force participation rate. The number of people of all ages whom the government considers "not in the labor force" swelled by 664,000 to a record 94.7 million Americans, according to Labor Department data.

Job creation, after averaging more than 200,000 for much of the recovery, has slowed considerably this year. May saw just 38,000 new jobs, part of a trend in which payrolls have grown an average of 116,000 over the past three months and less than 150,000 for all of 2016.

The greatest concentration of unemployment is in the 18-29 age group, which comprises one-third of all the jobless:
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Lebanon's politics might be in a mess but the country's central bank is determined to maintain the country's financial stability, its governor told CNBC, and to make sure U.S. sanctions are implemented against the supporters of militant political group Hezbollah, Speaking to CNBC in Beirut, Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh said that his central bank was battling to maintain monetary stability amid political divisions within the country  which has not had a president for over two years  and wider unrest in the Middle East. Lebanon has also had to contend with a massive influx of 1.1 million refugees from war-torn Syria  a huge burden on a country with just 4.4 million inhabitants. "The problem is that we have a deadlock and it seems that the Lebanese political class can't solve it. Usually they rely on external intervention but obviously there is also deadlock on the level of the region and the only interest of the international community in Lebanon is that Lebanon is receiving Syrians and to make sure that those Syrians are kept in Lebanon and not thrown out," Salameh said.

No president, still

Political disunity and sectarianism in Lebanon has meant that the country has had no president for two years  and no parliamentary elections can take place without a president. The last parliament was elected in 2009 and another election is now not expected until 2017.

The next presidential election is due on June 23 yet it will be the 40th attempt to elect a (largely ceremonial) leader, one Lebanese newspaper noted. Salameh said that there had been no international help to solve the political deadlock. "The international visits we've received so far were related to the Syrian refugees. The visits we had from important world leaders were dedicated for the Syrian refugees and the Lebanese are left on their own to solve their problems," he said. "Unfortunately, structurally, we are in deadlock, that's why we cannot elect a president and that's why the coalition government has to act very prudently because it is the only constitutional institution working now. The parliament is not meeting and we don't have a president so as a central bank we have to try to cope with these vulnerabilities and try to maintain stability in the currency," Salameh warned.

Beirut, Lebanon PATRICK BAZ/AFP/Getty Images

Maintaining the Lebanese pound's value against the U.S. dollar was important as it had an impact on the flow of remittances back to the country, he said, which represented 20 percent of the country's gross domestic product and were "fundamental to the funding of the private and public sector." "The stability in monetary policy is essential and we have to implement that in an environment that is not really ideal. The instability in the region affects us as our export markets are disrupted, we have refugees other than the Syrians coming from Iraq and Palestine and the labor market in the country is witnessing competition that is negatively impacting on the Lebanese themselves," he said.

Hezbollah not helping

Despite its political woes, Lebanon has remained relatively stable considering the civil war being waged in neighboring Syria.

It is no stranger to sectarianism, however, being the focal point of a proxy war between Israel and Shia-dominated Iran, which is widely seen as the source of funding and ideological support for Hezbollah, a powerful Islamist militant and political group that was created in the mid-1980s to counter an Israeli invasion of South Lebanon. Labeled as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and Israel (which, most recently, fought a short war against Hezbollah in 2006 before a United Nations-brokered ceasefire went into effect), Hezbollah remains opposed to Israel and has called for its destruction. The European Union has proscribed its militant wing as a terrorist organization. Hezbollah is often seen as a "state within a state" in Lebanon and remains popular with the country's Shia community despite its destabilizing effect on an already disjointed political scene.
Clinton does have one fairly easy way to accomplish the move to the left. Clinton could follow the always popularly discussed but rarely used strategy of creating a "dream ticket" and choosing Sanders as her running mate.

Clinton is no stranger to the "dream ticket" scenario. In 2008, there was a lot of talk about Barack Obama choosing Clinton as his vice president in order to appeal to her own then-embittered base. That obviously didn't happen, and it didn't happen on the other side of the aisle in 2012, when Mitt Romney passed over the runner-up Rick Santorum in order to choose a candidate who didn't run in the primaries.

In fact, it is relatively rare that a presidential contender chooses the runner-up as a vice presidential selection. Since John F. Kennedy created the controversial Boston-Austin Dream Ticket with then-Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson in 1960, there has been only two other runner-ups selected to run as VPs: John Edwards in 2004, and George H.W. Bush in 1980.

Edwards ran a campaign that accentuated the positive  he spoke about his background and personal history and didn't burn many bridges by attacking John Kerry. Bush got the nod after Reagan had very unusual high-profile VP flirtation with former President Gerald Ford that failed. There have been other picks who ran and lost in the same year  notably Joe Biden who dropped out of the 2008 race right after the Iowa caucus  but Biden wasn't around long enough to harm Obama's race.

There are some advantages to selecting Sanders. Historically, the vice presidential pick was used to unite the party's differing factions. In this case, choosing Sanders would bulk up her apparently soft support from party activists. Sanders has also proven to be a strong motivator for young voters and an extremely effective fundraiser from new donors.



However, there is a basic and obvious reason to not choose a runner-up, as the campaign would have to explain away the criticisms and negative statements made by candidates against each other. In this case, because she was running an "oval office" type of campaign, Clinton was not particularly critical of Sanders. But the same can't be said for Sanders - there would be many embarrassing criticisms of Clinton that would have to be explained away. This isn't usually a personal issue - two candidates can probably get over any bad feelings for the good of their careers.

But personality is not what matters here. Republican TV ads will feature these critical comments in an attempt to damage her credibility. This tactic would play into the narrative that Donald Trump is already trying to craft around Clinton  that she chooses expediency and can't be trusted even with choosing a loyal running mate. Trump is already doing this, blasting Clinton for working with Obama despite her criticism of him during the 2008 campaign.

On the Republican side of the ledger, the issue would be magnified for Trump. More than any past candidate, Trump's criticisms of his primary opponents were vastly more negative and heavily personal attacks. But Trump's ability to defy the normal laws of politics in such matters may mean that he can get away with choosing someone like Chris Christie or Ted Cruz despite the withering criticism he laid down against them.

Under most circumstances, choosing a running mate whose own words can be used as an attack would be an unnecessary risk for the presidential contender, especially since studies have called into question whether vice presidential choices even have an impact on a presidential race. Richard Nixon, a man who ran for president or vice president five times, thought a vice presidential pick could only hurt the president.

In this case, Clinton is in a bit of pickle. While in the past, a candidate could safely ignore the complaints of the losing candidate's supporters, much as Barack Obama did when Clinton's supporters were upset in 2008, there seems to be a large group of Sanders' supporters who may not fall in line behind the party's candidate.

From the ancillary interviews, they could vote for a third party, they could vote for Trump or they could just stay home. Even with this reality, the "dream ticket" proposal may be too much of a challenge for Clinton. Sanders' comments may have been too negative, and as a socialist who has not really been tested in the primary race, he may have too much baggage for a general election. The result of this is that Clinton is likely to look for a candidate who she can hope will appeal to the economic argument of Sanders, but not take Sanders himself.

So far, there has been talk of Senators Elizabeth Warren and Sherrod Brown, both of whom can bolster her left-wing.



Dream tickets are always popular subject for campaign debates. But they are called dreams for a reason. They rarely happen in real life.
Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner has written a letter to SUNY Upstate Medical University and the SUNY administration seeking a service agreement with the City of Syracuse, saying the school benefits from City services but doesnt pay property taxes. Miner on April 7 stood at the podium at Syracuse City Hall announcing a new service agreement between the city and Syracuse University. Kent Syverud, Syracuse University chancellor, (left) also commented on the new service agreement in which the school will provide the city $7 million over the next five fiscal years. (Eric Reinhardt / BJNN file photo)

SYRACUSE, N.Y.  Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner is publicly calling on SUNY Upstate Medical University to forge an agreement with the City of Syracuse in which it would pay the city for the services it receives.

Miner has sent a letter to the leadership of Upstate Medical and the SUNY administration urging the medical school to sign such an agreement.

Upstate Medical has received the letter and will be reviewing it, Darryl Geddes, director of public and media relations at Upstate Medical University, said in an email response to a BJNN inquiry on the matter.

The nonprofit health-care and educational institution pays no taxes on its property in the City of Syracuse, which is assessed at more than $222 million, Miners office said in a news release issued Tuesday.

Upstate Medical reported a profit of $120 million in 2015 and the Upstate Foundation, Inc., its philanthropic arm, has a fund balance of $89.1 million, Miners office noted.

SUNY Upstate enjoys the benefits of expensive city services, including police and fire protection, road maintenance, and snow removal but pays nothing in taxes. This leaves the rest of Syracuse residents, some of whom live in extreme poverty, to subsidize the operations of this successful institution, Miner contended in the release.

And Miner ended the letter with the following paragraph.

I believe that the futures of the institutions we represent are inextricably entwined and I hope that you, the leaders of SUNY Upstate Medical University, its Foundation, and SUNY administration, give serious consideration to entering into a service agreement with the City of Syracuse. Fairness demands it, Miner wrote.

Miner has worked with other large nonprofits in Syracuse to enact service agreements.

Most recently, she announced a five-year agreement with Syracuse University which resulted in $4.5 million to fund the citys general services over five years and $2.5 million to support neighborhood organizations.

That agreement extended the original deal signed in 2011.

Miner had also previously announced a service agreement with Crouse Hospital, which resulted in four annual payments of $50,000 to city government.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com


So let's ignore it for a moment, and talk about cars.

Suppose you get in your car and put your mobile in the glovebox.

If you later get in my car and open the glove box, will your mobile be there?



No - it's in your car, not mine: they are separate instances of the generic class "Car", and you do not expect items to magically move between them!



But...suppose my wife an I both share a car. If she puts her mobile in the glove box of "her car" and I later look in the glove box of "my car" what will I see? Her mobile of course! Why? Because "her car" and "my car" are different references to the same actual vehicle - the same instance of the generic class "Car".



In computer terms, the two scenarios are like this:

C# Copy Code Car yourCar = new Car( " Blue" ); Car myCar = new Car( " Red" ); yourCar.GloveBox.Add(yourMobile); if (myCar.GloveBox.Contains(yourMobile)) throw new UniverseException( " How did that happen?" );

And

C# Copy Code Car myCar = new Car( " Red" ); Car herCar = myCar; herCar.GloveBox.Add(herMobile); if (myCar.GloveBox.Contains(herMobile)) Console.WriteLine( " Found it dear! You left it in the glovebox again!" );

You are doing the same thing with your class:

C# Copy Code MyPanel panel1 = new MyPanel(); MyPanel temp = panel1; temp.Controls.Remove(button1); This is because classes are what is called a Reference Type: a variable of the class doesn't contain the actual class, but a reference to it in the same way that "my car" doesn't contain the actual car, but refers to a specific vehicle.

Integers and so forth are Value Types: they do contain the actual value so when you say

C# Copy Code int i = 666 ; int j = i; j = j / 2 ; Console.WriteLine( " {0}:{1}" , i, j); you will get "666:333" - and any other result would make maths very difficult to do!

If you embed the integer in a class:

C# Copy Code public class MyClass { public int i; } ... MyClass m1 = new MyClass; m1.i = 666 ; MyClass m2 = m1; m2.i = m2.i / 2 ; Console.WriteLine( " {0}:{1}" , m1.i, m2.i); you will get "333:333" because the references m1 and m2 are "talking about" the same instance of MyClass.

Some of this may make it easier to understand: Using struct and class - what's that all about?[^] - but it gets a bit advanced from the section "It's never that easy, is it?" so you might want to stop there for the moment!

Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...



supposed to work;

multiple variables can hold copies of the pointer to the instance of a Class or Struct.



To create another instance of 'MyPanel which is "independent" of the first instance you have to ... well ... create another instance or "clone" the first instance; by clone, I mean create a new instance and copy the values of all Fields, Controls, Properties, etc. No, there's no built-in operator to do this.



What you probably want to do is to create a UserControl (they are about as light-weight as a Panel); first create a UserControl with the minimum number of Controls ... the "simplest" version ... then create another UserControl and modify it's Class definition so it inherits from your first UserControl:



1. the first Usercontrol's constructor: C# Copy Code public partial class MyCustomPanel : UserControl { public MyCustomPanelSimple() { InitializeComponent(); } } 2. the second UserControl's modified constructor: C# Copy Code public partial class MyCustomPanel2 : MyCustomPanel { public MyCustomPanel2() { InitializeComponent(); } } Assuming you've put one Button on the first (simpler) UserControl, you'll find that when you open the design-view for the second UserControl that Button appears, and is 'locked; you can't assign EventHandlers to its Events. But, the Button is ... there. You just have to do this to get access to it: C# Copy Code public MyCustomPanel2() { InitializeComponent(); TheButton = Controls[ " customPanelButton1" ] as Button; } private Button TheButton; Or, you can do an evil thing, and go make the access modifier for the Button in the first Panel (simpler) 'public: to do that you have to modify the declaration of that Button in the designer.cs file which is a very wicked thing to do ... better you should get a reference in the (lame) way shown here. In case you wonder why Microsoft made creating Form/Control inheritance so painfully awkward to implement, be assured you are not alone.



One way to avoid this awkwardness is to make your custom Controls "composite:" make the simplest one, then make another one where you drag-drop an instance of the first one onto the design surface of the second one where you add additional Controls ... and, so on. And, then you can have fun getting references to the interior Controls of your UserControls-in-UserControls.

 There is a spectrum, from "clearly desirable behaviour," to "possibly dodgy behavior that still makes some sense," to "clearly undesirable behavior." We try to make the latter into warnings or, better, errors. But stuff that is in the middle category you dont want to restrict unless there is a clear way to work around it.  Eric Lippert, May 14, 2008



C# Copy Code Hi, I call a class which in turn inherits an API class . That class calls another class which returns a value . Class1 calls Class2. Class2 inherits Class3. Class3 calls Class4 that returns a value . The input to return the value is null . However, Class3 and Class4 are wrapped in an API. So you cant edit it.So it throws an error in Class1. How do I ignore this error? Thanks





About all you can do in this case os use a try...catch block in class1 and / or class2 to catch the error, log the problem somewhere and continue from there. You can't tell the class3 or class4 to "ignore that and carry on" because the error is saying "I don't know what to do, I can't carry on". That's why it's important to find out why the error occurs - what is null, and why is it null? Fixing that is the only way to prevent the classes throwing the error in the first place!

Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...







C# Copy Code An unhandled exception of type ' System.ComponentModel.LicenseException' occurred in System.dll





We can't fix that for you - you need to speak to the authors of the API and get them to help.

Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...



Hi,

I have an Interface. I call the interface from my form as this.



C# Copy Code IExample myExample = null ; myExample.Height = 12 ;



But I get error that myExample is null.

Could I know what is the solution please?



Thanks





You set myExample to null and immediately tried to reference the Height property of that.

The NullReferenceException is the only possible thing that can happen with this code!



Tell us what you are trying to do and then we can help you in the right direction.

"Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed."

- G.K. Chesterton







So, when you try and set the (assume it's the) 'Height property of the Interface instance, it's like you are saying, in effect: "let the Height of nothing be ..."



You need to first create an instance of a Class that inherits from the Interface: C# Copy Code public interface IDimensions { int Height { set ; get ; } } public class Dimensions : IDimensions { public int Height { set ; get ; } public Dimensions( int height) { Height = height; } } public Dimensions MyDimensions = new Dimensions( 3 ); MyDimensions.Height = 12 ; If this doesn't clear things up a bit for you, let me know.

 There is a spectrum, from "clearly desirable behaviour," to "possibly dodgy behavior that still makes some sense," to "clearly undesirable behavior." We try to make the latter into warnings or, better, errors. But stuff that is in the middle category you dont want to restrict unless there is a clear way to work around it.  Eric Lippert, May 14, 2008







C# Copy Code public interface ISettings { string Color { get ; set ; } } public interface IDimensions { int Height { set ; get ; } ISettings Settings { get ; set ; } } public class Dimensions : IDimensions { public int Height { set ; get ; } public Dimensions( int height) { Height = height; } }



Thanks







C# Copy Code public interface ISettings { string Color { get ; set ; } } public interface IDimensions { Settings objSettings = new Settings(); int Height { set ; get ; } ISettings Settings { get { return objSettings; } set { } } public class Settings : ISettings { string Color { get ; set ; } } public class Dimensions : IDimensions { public int Height { set ; get ; } public Dimensions( int height) { Height = height; } }



Is this the right coding? It anyway worked for me.



Thanks





This space for rent







A helpful metaphor could be: an Interface is like the blue-print for a house; the house is not a blue-print; and, the blue-print is not a house ... it makes no sense to try and combine a blue-print with a house. Yet, we can say there is a relationship between a blue-print and the house whose construction implemented the design specified in that blue-print.



But, to really describe what is happening in C#, we need to add one more ingredient to the metaphor, the Class (or Struct) as "factory:" the Interface is a blue-print for the Class, and the Class becomes a "factory" when you use it to create new instances of the Class. The house embodies, in a way, the blue-print, but it is neither blue-print, nor the workshop and construction tools used to build it.



Interfaces are useful for many things:



1. they are a contract which Classes or Structs that inherit from the Interface must "fulfill," or implement.



1.a. they assist you in organizing your code



2. they contribute to encapsulation and separation of concerns by allowing you to "hide" certain views of object instances of the Interface by casting them to the Interface. When cast to the Interface, the only "visible" parts of the instances are those which are specified in the Interface and implemented in the Class.



That allows you to pass the Class instance object to other Classes for processing with the guarantee that you cannot change/mess-with the other (now "hidden") Fields, Properties, Methods, etc., of the Class.



So, Interfaces are a way to control what a Class exposes.



3. Interfaces, combined with generic arguments allow you to create 'Factory objects which can produce instances of Classes with varying Types (this is an advanced topic).



Keep in mind that your design of Classes, Structs, Interfaces, Enums, etc. are all ways of expressing your intent. Hopefully, you intent directly expresses your goal: how you want your program to function; how you want your user-interface to handle asynchronous events, etc.



Here's a "guess" on what I think you may be intending:



C# Copy Code public interface ISettings { string Color { get ; set ; } } public interface IDimensions { int Height { set ; get ; } } public class Settings : ISettings { string Color { get ; set ; } } At this point you have several choices; you could have your 'Dimensions Class inherit from both ISettings and IDimensions:



public class Dimensions : ISettings, IDimensions



Or, you could have it inherit from the 'Settings Class and IDimensions:



public class Dimensions : Settings, IDimensions



In the first case, 'Dimensions would now have to implement a 'Color Property as well as a 'Height Property; in the second case, 'Dimensions would automatically use the 'Height Property defined in the 'Settings Class.



Using the first example: you would then have two options to Cast an instance of the Dimension Class to an Interface "view," or "type:"



// assume you have a 'ctor that takes two parameters

Dimension myDimension = new Dimension(100, Color.AliceBlue);



ISettings myDimensionAsISettings = myDimension as ISettings;



IDimension myDimensionAsIDimension = myDimension as IDimension;



You now effectively have two "restricted views" of the Class instance 'myDimension; you can pass the 'ISettings view to some other Class to use, perhaps modify, and be assured that whatever happens cannot affect the value of the 'Height Property.



Think about your intent, your goal, and keep experimenting and studying; in my experience (as a teacher), it does take time and repeated multiple passes over what 'Interfaces are, and how they work, for it to "sink in"

 There is a spectrum, from "clearly desirable behaviour," to "possibly dodgy behavior that still makes some sense," to "clearly undesirable behavior." We try to make the latter into warnings or, better, errors. But stuff that is in the middle category you dont want to restrict unless there is a clear way to work around it.  Eric Lippert, May 14, 2008



Hai All. i am a newcomer of c# forum. i have problem with password policy implemetation in c# . i checking password character. but i have doubt in password changing days every 90 days clause in password policy . how to check whether password change required or not ?







a) at day=0, you force a refresh of all passwords by setting the 'needs to change password flag' to true, and probably just put junk in the password field to force them to use the accepted password change procedure



b) when the user changes their password, you set the 'password last changed' field to (now), and the 'needs to change password' flag to false



c) every day, you run a procedure to go through the 'database' and calculate the difference in days between (now) and the password last changed field - if that figure is '90' you set the 'needs to change password' flag to true









This eliminates a daily process and makes the policy and therefore the flag dynamic (controlled by the settings table and therefore available to be changed externally).

Never underestimate the power of human stupidity

RAH





I'd also dump the boolean "needs changing" value in favour of replacing the "last change" date with a "next change date". That way, then test is simple "is next change less than now?" and it's only one column to update when they do change it: nextChangeDueOn = CurrentDate + 90 days.

Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...



I'm using shellexecute in .NET 4.5 to run an program like notepad.

C# Copy Code Process newProcess = new Process(); newProcess.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = true ; newProcess.StartInfo.FileName = " C:\Windows\Notepad.exe" ; newProcess.Start();

How do I set this notepad.exe that it runs to be the top most window?







You can enumerate which windows a process opened. Find yours, and set the WS_EX_TOPMOST[^] style.



--edit;

*) there can be only one



If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^] Bastard Programmer from Hell



^] will show you how to make the instance of NotePad.exe the top-most Window using the 'SetForeGroundWindow API call.

 There is a spectrum, from "clearly desirable behaviour," to "possibly dodgy behavior that still makes some sense," to "clearly undesirable behavior." We try to make the latter into warnings or, better, errors. But stuff that is in the middle category you dont want to restrict unless there is a clear way to work around it.  Eric Lippert, May 14, 2008



What the suject says...



I can format the selection to bold and to italic. but when I want the text bold and italic the formation is set to regular automatically.



Thats my code:

C# Copy Code newfont = FontStyle.Bold & FontStyle.Italic; richTextBox1.SelectionFont = new Font(currentfont.FontFamily, currentfont.Size, newfont);





So if these are in Binary:

Copy Code 0011 & 1010 Will return 0010 because only the second bit has matching "1"s in the same position.

The operation you want is OR : | which returns a 1 is either corresponding bit is 1.

Copy Code 0011 | 1010 Will return 1011.

So try:

C# Copy Code newfont = FontStyle.Bold | FontStyle.Italic;

Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...









do you know how I can say that I will get the currentFontStyle without bold ?

so if the selection is bold and italic and now i just want it in italic?



i only want the code...


The Vatican City is issuing a 2 coin to mark the bicentennial anniversary of the local police force.

The Vatican City in June will celebrate the the 200th anniversary of the Vatican Guard with a commemorative 2 coin.

Honored on this coin are the members of the Corps of Gendarmerie of Vatican City, the police for Vatican City. The Vatican Guard should not to be confused with the more well known Swiss Guard, which serves as the de facto military of Vatican City.

Though the coin is a circulating denomination, the Vatican City issues few of its coins actually into circulation, and all 105,000 of these Vatican Guard coins are intended for collector sales.

Connect with Coin World:

In 1816, after the dissolution of the Napoleonic empire, Pope Pius VII founded the Papal Carabinieri Corps for the service of the Papal States. It has been renamed several times, most recently in 2002, with the current name being Corps of Gendarmerie of Vatican City.

The obverse of the coin features a singular Vatican guard in front of the Dome of St. Peters Basilica. At the top, in semi-circle is an inscription translating to police force with the 1816 and 2016 dual dates.

The name of the issuing entity and the designer name, D. LONGO, also appear.

The ringed-bimetallic coin has a copper-nickel core and copper-aluminum-nickel ring.

The coins outer ring depicts the 12 stars of the European flag. The common reverse shows a map of the European Union.

The 2 coin weighs 8.5 grams and measures 25.75 millimeters in diameter.

Each nation is allowed to issue up to two different circulating commemorative designs annually, with designs of their choosing, though few nations issue the maximum number of designs.

Joint euro programs like the 2015 coins honoring the 30th anniversary of flag of the European Union do not count toward this limit.
I am a summer term reporter at the University of Missouri. My area of study is Magazine Writing, and my hometown is Scottsboro, Alabama. You can reach me by email at acmwx7@mail.missouri.edu or on Twitter @annamapletree

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The Missourians Opinion section is a public forum for the discussion of ideas. The views presented in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Missourian or the University of Missouri. If you would like to contribute to the Opinion page with a response or an original topic of your own, visit our submission form
CPS Foundation hires Harris as first executive director

For the first time since it formed 26 years ago, the Columbia Public Schools Foundation has a paid staff member with the hiring of Katie Harris as executive director.
SHARE Jason Stout, "Shotgun, Caesar, Tempest," oil on canvas, 30-by-30-inches. From "Art of the South 2017" at the University of Memphis' Fogelman Galleries.

By Fredric Koeppel, Special to The Commercial Appeal

An exhibition titled "Art of the South 2017" implies that the Southern states of the United States of America  that is, the states of the Old Confederacy that met its demise in 1865  remain a unique place, worthy of being singled out for their culture and accomplishments, for some indefinable aura of special "Southernness." The same principle applies to the Fellowship of Southern Writers  yes, there is such an organization  asserting that writers in the South embody an exclusive sense of style, viewpoint and subject matter that differs from the rest of the country and is somehow, perhaps even mystically, coterminous with the region. Can you images an exhibition called "Art of the North" or a group named the Fellowship of Northern Writers?

So what is the intent of "Art of the South 2017," the third iteration of this juried show sponsored by NUMBER: Inc., the quarterly journal of the visual arts, launched in Memphis in 1987? The exhibition, offering 27 pieces by 20 artists, will be displayed through June 17 at the Martha and Robert Fogelman Galleries of Contemporary Art at the University of Memphis. A concurrent show is at Gallery 121 at Belmont University in Nashville. The works were chosen by Chad Alligood, assistant curator of special projects at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Ark.

I'll say first that there's not a bad piece in the bunch, though I'll also say that, inevitably in a group exhibition, some work is more interesting or compelling than others and that as a whole the show is unexpectedly conservative. Does this factor arise from the nature of the pieces submitted for perusal by the juror or from his instincts and sensibility? After all, a juried exhibition is only as strong and various as the work submitted for competition. No material on hand or on the Internet tells us how many works of art were submitted, nor  and this is a missed opportunity  is there a handout available or label information about where the artists live, their ages or where they studied. For an exhibition supposedly defined by a sense of place, it's remarkably placeless.

Not that there aren't noticeable Southern themes or motifs. Andrew Blanchard's "Dixie Totem XII and XIV" build on iconic store signs and portable church signs coupled with in one a pickup truck and in the other a muscle car. Herbert Rieth's "Battle Flag," made of various fabrics and found objects, is a takeoff on the symbolism of the now widely disputed Confederate Stars and Bars. Brooke White's breathtaking archival digital prints, "Kudzu Car" and "Sardis, MS," situate their subjects deeply in the South.

Yet most of the work in "Art of the South 2017" seems to be art that happened coincidentally to be made by an artist living in a Southern state, with Oklahoma allowed in somehow. I'm not trying to have it both ways; rather, I think that the exhibition fudges its sense of stated regionality, and if that's the case, what's the point? It's a bit disconcerting that little space here is given to work that addresses environmental issues, the changing nature of Southern cities, the decline of rural hegemony or debates about racism, sexual and gender issues and the radically shifting political landscape. I miss some funk in this show, some risk, some flash and flare. I also miss abstraction  except for Nicholas Wood's nifty little pastel and charcoal on paper, "Capsules D61 (Shadow)."

The riskiest that "Art of the South 2017" gets is with three 10-by-8-inch oil-on-board pieces that tempt us to the edge of racism and parody. Titled "Takalia the Tenured College Professor," "Ushika the Marketing Director" and "Conisha the Civil Engineer," each work depicts a young African-American making goofy, somewhat demeaning expressions while wearing underwear twisted around their heads or faces, as if it were 2 a.m. at a party that got out of hand. One gazes at these provocative portraits of a bacchanal run amok with a frisson of cultural recognition, complicity and embarrassment, and I'm glad they were included in the exhibition.

Best of Show, by the way, was awarded to Jason Stout, for his two oil-on-canvas works, "Shotgun, Caesar, Tempest" and "Nimbus, Kick, Stomp," each an energetic nexus of neon colors, pop culture references and comics-like imagery.
Justin Welch (center) talks with his attorney Kindle Nance during an appearance before Judge Louis Montesi Jr. on charges in killing of Memphis police Officer Verdell Smith and wounding three other people. (Jim Weber/The Commercial Appeal)

By Katie Fretland of The Commercial Appeal

General Sessions Judge Louis Montesi appointed a public defender Wednesday to represent the man charged with killing Memphis police Officer Verdell Smith and wounding three others in a violent series of events Saturday.

Meanwhile, court records from Illinois show Justin Welch, 21, also has a record in Cook County, Illinois, where he was charged with weapons offenses.

Welch was charged with three counts each of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon on a person in the Illinois county that includes Chicago.

In his brief court appearance Wednesday in Shelby County, Welch consulted with Assistant Public Defender Kindle Nance. The case was reset to 9 a.m. June 22 for Welch to report to court.

"We're going to let the process take its course," Assistant District Attorney Greg Gilbert said outside the courtroom.

Welch is charged in Shelby County with first-degree murder, vehicular homicide, three counts of attempted first-degree murder, theft of property over $10,000, evading arrest and reckless driving. He remains in jail without bond.

He has a prior complaint in Shelby County where a woman reported she feared for her safety.

The woman, who said they have a child together, reported he broke her window Nov. 8, 2012, when she would not unlock her door and that he stood outside telling her neighbors he would hurt her.

The victim stated "that she has also received numerous threatening messages from (Welch), whose voice she recognizes," according to a petition for order of protection.

She had a domestic incident with him previously, according to the petition.

Welch is listed in the court record as being 6 feet 3 inches tall, 185 pounds and having the alias "Chicago."

The rampage Saturday night began with the shootings of 39-year-old Joshua Walton, of Memphis, and 57-year-old Abdul Sakan, of Cordova, at Westy's Restaurant and Bar in the Pinch District.

The suspect ran south on Main and west toward Bass Pro Shops where a 21-year-old employee, Christopher Dickens, of Olive Branch, was shot and wounded. The suspect drove off in a Camaro. Randy Henderson, 43, reported the 2012 Chevrolet Camaro stolen at about 7:24 p.m. He said he left the car unlocked and running while he went inside a store in the 5300 block of Knight Arnold.

After Dickens was wounded, police pursued the vehicle. Officers tried to stop the vehicle traveling east on Poplar, according to an affidavit. A pursuit continued to Jackson and Third with the Camaro traveling south against the direction of traffic.

At B.B. King (Third Street) and Beale as officers worked to clear the area, the Camaro fatally struck Smith.

Welch lost control of the vehicle at G.E. Patterson and B.B. King, striking a tree, the affidavit states.

Smith joined the Memphis Police Department in October 1998. He is survived by his children, father and fiance.

His funeral is scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday at Hope Presbyterian Church, 8500 Walnut Grove.
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By Kayleigh Skinner of The Commercial Appeal

The Shelby County Sheriff's Office confiscated thousands of dollars and multiple drugs in a narcotics arrest Monday.

According to arrest affidavits, detectives with the Shelby County Sheriff's Narcotics Division conducted a surveillance operation on a home in the 5200 block of Newton Oak Circle.

Damien Pack, 32, left the home and drove off in a Mercedes sedan; detectives pulled him over for an expired tag and no seat belt. Detectives searched the vehicle and found 15.4 grams of THC wax sealed in packages, and about $11,000 in cash, according to an affidavit.

Kevin Brown, 37, left the home in a Honda Accord soon after Pack, and detectives conducted a traffic stop because he was not wearing a seat belt, either. Detectives found a marijuana blunt, three marijuana cigars and $800 cash in Brown's pocket, an affidavit said.

Ten minutes after Brown's arrest, detectives still watching the home saw a man come to the door and approach Contina Harris, 38. The pair entered the home and came back out five minutes later with a large bag, an affidavit said. When Harris and the man drove away, detectives stopped their van and found a Glock pistol, "$20,000 U.S. currency" and $4,500 in Harris' purse.

Detectives obtained a search warrant for the home and found 21 grams of marijuana, a scale with marijuana residue on it and two guns.

Pack gave the detectives consent to search his home in the 5800 block of Peterson Ridge Lane, where they found nearly 90 grams of opiate syrup, 5.5 grams of marijuana and a grinder, a rifle and vacuum sealer bags.

Harris and Brown each were charged with possession of a controlled substance with intent to manufacture/deliver/sell and possession of drug paraphernalia. Brown also was charged with two counts of convicted felon in possession of a handgun. Pack was charged with convicted felon in possession of a handgun and possession of a controlled substance with to manufacture/deliver/sell.

Brown and Pack already pleaded guilty to possession charges; both are due in court Wednesday morning. A court date was not immediately available for Harris.
June 7, 2016- Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland is greeted by Brian Collins, City of Memphis CFO division of finance, after the Memphis City Council voted to approve operating and capital budgets. The capital budget was passed with an amendment, and the operating budget passed with including raises for all city employees, not just fire and police. (Nikki Boertman/The Commercial Appeal)

By Ryan Poe of The Commercial Appeal

The Memphis City Council quickly approved a $666.9 million city budget Tuesday that gives all employees a pay increase of at least 1.5 percent July 1 without raising property taxes.

After reversing several changes that earned pushback from Mayor Jim Strickland's administration, the council voted unanimously to approve both the operating budget and the $88.9 million capital budget as amended. The final budget is lower than the $667 million operating budget and higher than the $85 million capital budget Strickland proposed in April.

"You gave us a budget that we can work at being brilliant at the basics," Strickland said after the vote.

Council Budget Committee chairman Edmund Ford Jr. said the council increased funding for community safety, mental health, poverty, youth and employee pay increases that will cost $1.5 million.

"And we were still under budget," he added.

Under the proposed budget, police officers were already set to get pay increases of at least 2.75 percent at a cost to the city of $3.8 million, and firefighters were getting a 2 percent raise next year at a cost of $1.9 million. The 1.5 percent raise won't apply to them.

Last year the council voted to give all city employees a 1 percent raise, except for police officers and firefighters, who received a 2 percent raise. As of April 19, MPD had 2,045 commissioned officers, down from a high of 2,452 in 2011.

Ford said the pay increase approved Tuesday could be the last time the council votes for a raise for all employees, regardless of merit.

"Employees received raises across the board, but it's important employees know the city is moving to performance-based metrics," he said.

Ford said he's working with the administration and council chairman Kemp Conrad on an ordinance, which he could present to the council in July. They're still working out the details about what metrics each division will use.

Conrad said the budget was far from perfect, and that he wanted  as council member Worth Morgan also has said  to look more closely at whether the council should be approving $1.7 million in grants to nonprofit groups, as it did this year, and whether the grants process should be defined differently.

But the budget is a solid effort, based on collaboration between the administration and council members, he added.

"There's only so much time," Conrad said. "We can't let perfect be the enemy of good."

Before the vote, council member Berlin Boyd made a motion to add back $2 million to the capital budget for police vehicle purchases. He'd previously advocated in committee for a $2.5 million cut to that budget item, claiming police had vehicles that weren't being used.

Police Director Michael Rallings said the city has 247 cars with more than 100,000 miles on their odometers, even though the national standard is 75,000 miles. Purchasing new vehicles is part of the city's current strategy for phasing out older vehicles.

Also, council member Janis Fullilove made the motion to add $1.5 million back to the Executive Division budget.

The council made the budget changes contingent on the administration updating the council about its use of funds and the police department buying no more vehicles than it retires.

Strickland said the cuts the council didn't reverse  including for Human Resources to do employee promotional testing and for Legal personnel services  would be a "challenge" to overcome, but not impossible.

"I think this sets a good stage," he said of the amended budget.

As the meeting closed out, Walter Broady  a civilian who usually closes the council meetings in prayer  shouted "Hallelujah!"

"I've never in my whole life seen the City Council come together as one," said Broady, who added that he's been coming to council 12 years.

"It was a beautiful thing, seeing City Council come together like that."
Officials say lights would be mounted under the deck of the Harahan Bridge. (Submitted photo)

By Ryan Poe of The Commercial Appeal

The City Council voted Tuesday to accept a $12 million gift for lighting on the Harahan and the Hernando-DeSoto bridges in Downtown Memphis.

The Downtown Memphis Commission gave the money to the city for lighting installation and maintenance on the bridges.

The Harahan is currently being renovated as part of the Downtown Main-to-Main Multimodal Connector project.
Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, is joined by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., right, as he speaks to reporters after the Senate voted overwhelmingly to end debate on the makeover of the widely criticized No Child Left Behind Act, setting up a final vote Wednesday, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2015. The sweeping legislation would give the states greater control over the nation's public schools but still maintain annual testing to gauge student progress. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

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By Michael Collins of The Commercial Appeal

WASHINGTON  The chairmen of two key Senate committees moved Tuesday to block a new federal rule that would make millions of Americans eligible for overtime pay.

U.S. Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Ron Johnson, R-Wis., filed legislation that would nullify the new overtime rule and prohibit the Obama administration from issuing similar changes without congressional approval.

Alexander, who chairs the Senate committee with jurisdiction over labor issues, mocked the new rule as a "time card rule," arguing it would force even midlevel managers to punch a clock as they come and go from work.

The changes will hurt people they're intended to help because employers would reduce work hours and be less likely to allow flexible work schedules, Alexander said.

"Employers are going to say, 'Don't come to work early. Don't stay late ... Work your eight hours and go home. I don't have the money to pay you overtime,'" Alexander said in a speech on the Senate floor.

The new rule, unveiled last month by the Labor Department, is set to take effect later this year. It would let full-time salaried employees qualify for overtime if they make up to $47,476 a year.

Right now, salaried workers are guaranteed overtime only if they make less than $23,660. The Obama administration estimates that doubling that threshold could boost the salaries of 4.2 million Americans, guaranteeing employees get paid fairly for the hours they work.

Johnson, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, argued the rule change is just another regulation that would increase costs to business, nonprofits and others and result in negative, unintended consequences for employees.

Alexander said colleges and universities have told him the rule change will cost them millions per year in operating costs, potentially resulting in higher student tuition.

The University of Tennessee has warned it would have to increase tuition an average of $200 per student each year and that some students could see an increase of more than $450 if the overtime changes take effect. Maryville College estimates the new overtime rule could cost its students nearly $850 a year in tuition increases.

The bill Alexander and Johnson have filed to block the rule is sponsored by 43 other senators, all Republicans. The co-sponsors include Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn.
In this April 20, 2016 photo, Rep. Jeremy Durham, R-Franklin, left, listens to a debate in the House of Representatives in Nashville, Tenn. Durham, who is the subject of a sexual harassment investigation by Tennessee's attorney general, has been exiled from the legislative office complex and Capitol for any purpose other than to perform his official duties. At right is Rep. Shelia Butt, R-Columbia. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

SHARE State Rep. Jeremy Durham awaits the start of a House Republican Caucus meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2016, in Nashville, Tenn. Durham announced that he would withdraw from the GOP caucus to avoid distractions amid a sexual harassment investigation. (AP Photo/Erik Schelzig)

By Joel Ebert And Dave Boucher, USA TODAY NETWORK  Tennessee

State election officials are set to audit and investigate the finances of embattled state Rep. Jeremy Durham, a move suggested by Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery that will involve an array of subpoenas.

Slatery is already investigating the Franklin Republican in connection to allegations of inappropriate conduct raised in a Tennessean investigation. But Drew Rawlins, executive director of the state Bureau of Ethics and Campaign finance, told the state registry of election finance board Tuesday that Slatery believes more should be done.

"We have a letter from the attorney general's office alleging that Rep. Durham moved money from his campaign account into his title company account that he has as an attorney. The statute prohibits personal use of campaign funds, so if that took place that would be prohibited by the campaign finance statutes," Rawlins said after the meeting.

"It's illegal for him to use (campaign funds) for personal purposes, so that would really be what the statute says. Not necessarily to move it, but the movement into the title company would appear to be a personal use."

After some discussion, the board voted to audit and investigate Durham's campaign finances dating back to 2014. The board will also ask for subpoenas for Durham's personal bank accounts, his campaign accounts and his business bank accounts, Rawlins said.

In an email to The Tennessean, Durham denied moving money between his campaign and his title company. He also took another shot at Slatery. Durham has continued to accuse the attorney general of conducting an inappropriate investigation.

"I've obviously never moved money between my campaign and my title company. I didn't even possess the power to do that without another company signature. The entire concept doesn't even make sense considering someone else owned half the company at the time and it wouldn't be financially beneficial to do that," Durham said in the email.

The latest developments surrounding Durham come months after he resigned from his position as majority whip, voluntarily removed himself from the House Republican Caucus and took a self-imposed, two-week hiatus from the legislature, all while several leading Republicans, including Gov. Bill Haslam and House Speaker Beth Harwell, R-Nashville, and others have called for him to resign.

More recently, Harwell moved Durham's legislative office and limited his access to staff after Slatery released a preliminary report in early April which found the lawmaker had engaged in inappropriate physical contact and potentially posed a "continuing risk to unsuspecting women."
SHARE Richard Gardner/The Commercial Appeal files June 7, 1981  Dick Clark, the 51-year-old who looks and sounds like a teenager, warmed up the crowd at MusicFest with stories from the 1950s and by dancing a jig on June 7, 1981. He then gave way to Freddie Cannon, The Shirelles and The Coasters, who kept things rocking. Jerry Lee Lewis was the headliner for the final day, which drew a crowd of 30,000. The "Good Ol' Rock 'n' Roll Show" was the featured event as the Cotton Carnival festival completed its run at the Mid-South Fairgrounds. Total attendance for the 10 days was 192,000.

June 8

25 years ago: 1991

Memphis Health Center, which provides basic medical services to more than 20,000 low-income residents through three clinics, is scheduled to lose its federal funding Sept. 1, government officials said Friday. The decision, made by the Public Health Service regional office in Atlanta and awaiting approval in Washington, would halt more than $2.5 million in annual funding for the financially ailing 21-year-old center and almost certainly force its closure. Patients would have to find care elsewhere, most likely at the two Health Department clinics nearest the center's main site at 360 Crump Blvd. Loss of funding for the center would leave South Memphis without any federally designated community health center until at least December, and possibly permanently, the officials said.

50 years ago: 1966

Twenty-one civil rights marchers, led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., trudged six miles down Highway 51 South unmolested yesterday after a brief shoving encounter with Mississippi Highway Patrolmen. The marchers, including two white men and two Negro children, walked into the shoving fray with state troopers shortly after beginning their trek at 2:50 p.m. They had driven from Memphis to the spot two miles south of Hernando where James Meredith's lonely hike toward Jackson was halted Monday by a sniper's shotgun fire. More than 600 persons crowded into the Centenary Methodist Church at Mississippi and Alston last night and were told they were needed to keep the Meredith march alive.

75 years ago: 1941

A detachment of Mississippi National Guardsmen under Adjt. Gen. Thomas Grayson swept into Panola County, Miss., last night and raided establishments at Batesville, Sardis and Indianola, confiscating liquor and slot machines.

100 years ago: 1916

Charles N. Burch, president of the Tennessee Bar Association, yesterday completed the program for the 35th annual meeting, to be held in Memphis June 29-30. Between 250 and 300 jurists and lawyers are expected to attend.

125 years ago: 1891

The sandbar out in front of the elevator and in Wolf River bay is larger and higher this season than last, showing it continues to be a growing and permanent obstruction to the upper portion of the Memphis harbor.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory

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By Frank Munger, USA TODAY NETWORK  Tennessee

OAK RIDGE  Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which played a key role in the 2010 discovery and later confirmation of a series of new super-heavy elements, has been rewarded with the naming of one of the elements "Tennessine."

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry announced the "provisional recommendation" that Element 117 be called Tennessine. Its symbol will be Ts on the periodic table. The provisional name will now undergo a public review before final approval.

The name also recognizes the contributions of the University of Tennessee and Vanderbilt University. The discovery team for three of the elements included 72 scientists from 16 institutions around the world.

The international body also announced the proposed names and symbols for Elements 113, 115 and 118.

The development of unique super-heavy elements was aided by production of source materials  such as berkelium-249  at ORNL's High Flux Isotope Reactor. The target material was synthesized at the lab's Radiochemical Engineering Development Center and then shipped to a research facility in Dubna, Russia, where the actual experiment that produced Element 117 took place a few years ago.

Jim Roberto, ORNL's director of science and technology partnerships, said the announcement was exciting, but he cautioned that's the naming of new elements to the periodic table is not yet official.

"We're kind of midway through that process now," Roberto said Wednesday.

The ORNL official said the lab was involved in experiments for three of four new elements, but was particularly tied to development of Element 117. Over an 18-month period, ORNL's produced and purified the target material (berkelium) that was used in an accelerator experiment at Russia's Joint Institute for Nuclear Research to produce the new element.

"We could not have done this experiment in the U.S.," Roberto said. "The Russians could not have done this without us. It was a wonderful collaboration."

Not only did the Oak Ridge lab produce the target material for experiments, but ORNL scientists also traveled to Russia to work with the international team on detector technologies and other aspects of the work.

Discovery of new super-heavy elements, such as Tennessine, may someday lead to development of new and important materials.

"These experiments and discoveries open new frontiers of chemistry," Roberto said in a statement.

If approved by an international council, Tennessine will be only the second element to be named for a U.S. state. Californium is the other.
June 7, 2016 - A group of Summer Service Fellowship students at Rhodes College board a local MATA bus Tuesday afternoon as part of the nine-week program. This week's activity required the group to make use of Memphis' public transportation system to visit several locations around Midtown and Downtown. During their travels, the students were to consider why these destinations were selected and how the experience relates to the idea of transportation equality. (Stan Carroll/The Commercial Appeal)

SHARE June 7, 2016 - Taylor Morris takes park in an "ice breaker" during The Summer Service Fellowship at Rhodes College. The nine-week program is an intensive summer experience that challenges the students to engage in significant community projects, either those identified by a community organization or something the participating student develops. (Stan Carroll/The Commercial Appeal) June 7, 2016 - Claira Winget (left) and Angelle Henkelmann collect a bag of quarters for their Tuesday afternoon field trip as part of Rhodes College's Summer Service Fellowship. This week's activity required the group to make use of Memphis' public transportation system, MATA. While traveling to a variety of destinations around Midtown and Downtown, the students were to consider why these locations were selected and how the experience relates to the idea of transportation equality. The fellowship provides academic credit and lasts nine weeks. (Stan Carroll/The Commercial Appeal) June 7, 2016 - Scott Garner, Director of Fellowships, Rhodes College. (Stan Carroll/The Commercial Appeal)

By Sydney Neely, sydney.neely@commercialappeal.com

Instead of going home for the summer, 16 Rhodes College students are working on community issues in Memphis such as education, health care, raising the minimum wage and literacy.

The Summer Service Fellowship program, which had more than 50 applicants, requires each student to devote 36 hours per week to community projects and four hours per week to group building. Students are paid $3,492, receive credit hours and are given free housing at Rhodes.

Sandi George Tracy, director of career services at Rhodes and co-director for the program that's been around more than a decade, said she hopes students learn more about themselves and their responsibility to any community they live in.

Michael McCanless chose the nonprofit organization Fight for $15 after growing up in Calhoun, Georgia, where he observed what low wages can do to a community.

"It got me thinking what the work available determines what your community looks like," McCanless said.

Claira Winget, who is volunteering at the Boys & Girls Club, stayed in Memphis to be part of the program instead of returning to Maryland after some encouragement from friends.

"My friends told me I needed to be in Memphis. It'll change my whole outlook on what Rhodes is and Memphis. It'll give me a different perspective," said Winget.

Students also are volunteering at Hope House, the Red Cross, Literacy Mid-South and other nonprofit organizations. The program continues through July 29.

"The students at Rhodes are just superior. They're just outstanding students," said Rev. Donald Mowery, founder of Youth Service, now called BRIDGES.

Mowery, who retired from BRIDGES in 1994, said people need to be told sometimes that we have good things as well as bad things in Memphis.

On Tuesday, students were split into groups, given $3.50 in quarters and told to ride the MATA bus to different locations around Memphis, highlighting the issue of public transportation.

The goal of the exercise was to alert students of how hard it is for people in the community who do not have access to private transportation to get health care, healthy meals, or employment.

"Be humble," said Becky Kempf, the program coordinator of Summer Service Fellowship as the students prepared to walk to the bus stop. "Observe, but don't study."

Kempf was a fellow in the program and volunteered at Girls. Inc in 2015.

"Girls Inc. was the perfect mix of feminism, empowerment and kids," Kempf said. "I loved it."
SHARE December 01, 2015 - Ann McLellan, right, a preschool teacher at Dexter Elementary School, helps Devya Salou, 5, start a program on an iPad during class. Shelby County Schools this week launched its first four-week summer school program for students who were in an SCS prekindergarten program and will be entering kindergarten in the fall. (Brad Vest/The Commercial Appeal)

By Jennifer Pignolet of The Commercial Appeal

School may be out for the summer, but 420 rising kindergarten students already at risk for falling behind their peers aren't taking the hot months off this year.

Shelby County Schools this week launched its first four-week summer school program for students who were in an SCS prekindergarten program and will be entering kindergarten in the fall.

DeAnna McClendon, director of early childhood education, said the district recruited children to be in the program.

"Some of our students may have started late in the year or may just have some additional skills that they need quite a bit of support on," McClendon said. "So those students also were asked to participate."

The all-day program started Monday and runs through June 30 at four locations across Shelby County, including a large focus in Frayser.

McClendon said the goal is to beat the "summer slide," the academic dip students may experience over the summer, particularly for those with less access to resources over the summer, like books or adults with time to help them build on skills.

"This is a way to make sure that they hang on to all those things that they did master and add just a few more things into their toolbox so they'll have a really solid foundation when they enter that kindergarten classroom," McClendon said.

The program is also a start for SCS to address concerns raised in a Vanderbilt University study released last year that showed students who attended an SCS preschool program were coming into kindergarten ahead of their peers who were just starting school, but gains were lost before third grade.

Staff evaluated the 420 students' skills at the end of the regular school year, McClendon said, and will do so again at the end of the summer program  and the district will continue to track their progress through elementary school and beyond.

"This is a way for us to start to build toward addressing what kind of opportunities  or high-quality opportunities  do we need to give our children that they might not otherwise have," McClendon said.

The $312,667 program is covered entirely by money leftover from a preschool development grant from the U.S. Department of Education, administered through the state of Tennessee. McClendon said the district hopes to include a preschool summer program in the annual budget as long as grant money is available.

All the teachers in the summer program are SCS employees, but the school district contracted with Porter-Leath  which also operates preschool programs during the school year  for use of two Head Start facilities.

Porter-Leath Development Director Rob Hughes said the organization, which previously had no summer preschool program, hopes to expand such offerings with SCS.

"Summer slide's big anywhere you go, but especially in Memphis," Hughes said. "We want these kids going into kindergarten ready Day 1."
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By Associated Press

TUPELO, Miss.  Lee County Circuit Clerk Camille Roberts says she wants to reduce the number of polling places to save money.

Roberts said the county has 38 precincts for roughly 46,000 voters. She wants to reduce that to 25 precincts.

She said DeSoto County has 39 precincts for almost 100,000 voters, and Harrison County has 58 for almost 110,000 voters.

Lee County spent about $1,300 for poll workers at each precinct during the federal primaries this year, she said.

"Having 38 precincts is eating up a lot of money," Roberts told county supervisors Monday, according to the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal.

She gave supervisors a tentative list of precincts that could be merged, which was drawn with the help of county election commissioners. Supervisors would have to approve the change.

Roberts said she also wants the county to buy newer voting machines. That could cost about $200,000 if Lee County receives a bulk discount that may be available because several other counties are also buying new machines.

Most of Lee County's 47 voting machines, which count both electronically and by paper, were bought used from Lowndes County in 2005, but the machines themselves date from 1992. Locating replacement parts for the old machines is difficult.

"We're to the point that we can't fix them anymore," she said.

The upgrades proposed by Roberts would not change the current system. Voters would mark selections on a paper ballot and then put those into a scanning machine. That would leave both paper and electronic records, which some supervisors said they want to keep.
Education secretary John King (Associated Press)

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By Ron Maxey of The Commercial Appeal

A coalition of racial justice groups, including one involved in a civil-rights complaint against DeSoto County schools, is calling for "decisive action" to end what it calls persistent racial disparities in student discipline.

The groups issued the call this week following the release of new data by the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights. The data finds that African-American students are nearly four times as likely to be suspended as white students.

Education Secretary John King said the findings, released Tuesday, show a "systemic failure" to provide equal education to all students.

"The Department of Education data shows persistent racism in our schools," Judith Browne Dianis, executive director of the Washington-based Advancement Project," said of the findings.

Advancement Project worked with a group of DeSoto County parents to file a complaint against DeSoto County Schools over the system's disciplinary policy. The complaint, filed with the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights, alleges the system disciplines African-American and handicapped students more harshly.

The school system, Mississippi's largest with more than 33,000 students in 42 schools countywide, denies the charges. It says its policy is designed to provide student safety and is applied equally. The system says it's working with investigators, and it is unclear when the investigation will be completed.

Dianis said the new data shows African-American children nationwide are "over-suspended and over-policed. Detailed data shows black children are subjected to aggressive disciplinary practices and criminalized for their behavior."

Jonathan Smith, national coordinator for the Alliance for Educational Justice, charged "there is a war on black youth through increased police presence and occupation of their schools."

Among key findings, the report released Tuesday shows 6 percent of all students nationally received one or more out-of-school suspensions during the 2013-14 school year, but the percentage was 18 percent for African-American boys and 10 percent for African-American girls.

Disparities in disciplinary practices have led to what has been dubbed a school-to-prison pipeline because it shuts many students, mostly minorities, out of the educational system and puts them on a path toward crime and imprisonment.

"Schools must end the practice of criminalizing the behavior of black and brown children," Kesi Foster, coordinator for the Urban Youth Collaborative, said. "We should divest from policing and (from) invasive and oppressive security measures, and invest in proven practices such as restorative justice ..."

The groups offered nothing more specific in terms of reforms. Advancement Project representatives have said in connection with the DeSoto case that specific disciplinary changes have to come at the local level by school officials working closely with parents.
A new survey says Tennessee is one of the least safe states in America, due in part to the state's susceptibility to natural disasters and high rate of assaults per capita. (News Sentinel/Chuck Campbell)

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Tennessee natives and transplants from elsewhere might agree that the Volunteer State seems to be one of the safest in the nation. But a new survey says otherwise, ranking Tennessee as the fifth most dangerous state in America.

WalletHub, a personal-finance website, used myriad meanings for the term "safety" and plugged those definitions into a fairly complicated, multi-category breakdown using statistics from 14 sources including the U.S. Census Bureau, the FBI, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The statistics were dispersed into five general categories: Home and Community Safety; Financial Safety; Road Safety; Workplace Safety and Safety From Natural Disasters. Home and Community Safety was weighted with 40 percent of the overall score, while the other four categories were each weighted with 15 percent of the score for a total of 100.

General categories were broken down into sub-categories such as murder, rape and suicide rates for Home and Community, and unemployment and poverty rates for Financial Safety.

Tennessee landed in the bottom half of every general category, including No. 28 for Workplace Safety, No. 33 for Financial Safety and No. 35 for Road Safety

Even worse, the state ranked No. 43 for Home and Community Safety, partly fueled by its No. 50 ranking in the subcategory of "most assaults per capita." (For what it's worth, the District of Columbia, which was included in the survey, was No. 51.)

Oddly enough, Tennessee's worst general-category ranking comes from what some might consider its greatest asset: Mother Nature. The Volunteer State ranks No. 47 for "Safety From Natural Disasters" because the state is susceptible to any number of natural events.

For instance, beautiful as they might be, the state's many lakes and rivers can flood. Tennessee also gets its share of tornados, hail and ice storms and extreme temperatures in both summer and winter. Meanwhile, earthquakes from the New Madrid Seismic Zone created West Tennessee's Reelfoot Lake in the 1800s, plus a faultline on the other side of the state creates a high risk zone for earthquakes in East Tennessee.

And even though the landlocked state isn't subject to direct hits from hurricanes, tropical storms have been known to come ashore in neighboring states and stall out over Tennessee, saturating parts of the state with rain.

Vermont was ranked the safest state in America overall in the WalletHub survey, thanks largely to its No. 1 ranking for Home and Community Safety.

Massachusetts came in at No. 2 overall and ranked No. 1 for Road Safety. New Hampshire was No. 3 (finishing in the Top 10 in every general category), Rhode Island was No. 4 (and No. 1 in Workplace Safety) and Maine was No. 5 (with Top 10 rankings in Home and Community Safety as well as Safety From Natural Disasters).

Mississippi was ranked the most dangerous state, Oklahoma was No. 49, Alaska was No. 48, New Mexico was No. 47 and Tennessee was No. 46.

Regionally, Virginia was No. 8, North Carolina ranked No. 23, Georgia was No. 32, Kentucky ranked No. 34, Florida came in at No. 38, Alabama was No. 40 and South Carolina was ranked just ahead of Tennessee.

Safest states

1. Vermont

2. Massachusetts

3. New Hampshire

4. Rhode Island

5. Maine

Most dangerous states

1. Mississippi

2. Oklahoma

3. Alaska

4. New Mexico

5. Tennessee
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The Commercial Appeal's special report "The St. George's Experiment," published Sunday, put a 21st-century face on where this city, and by extension the nation, stands regarding race relations and education.

Excellently reported by The CA's Jane Roberts, "The St. George's Experiment" tells about the first African-Americans who began at the elite St. George's prep school as preschoolers 15 years ago.

Five of the original 19 African-American students, on scholarships that totaled nearly $1 million from preschool to 12th grade, made it to graduation. Those five have been accepted to some of the top colleges on their list.

Their journey was told through the eyes of the graduates and their parents, their white schoolmates and St. George's faculty.

It was a noble endeavor and it is sad that at this point there are questions about whether the diversity is authentic. Still, we hope it is an endeavor that St. George's does not abandon, even with its "ouch" moments, where race, culture and class collide.

While painful, those collisions should open up a long-overdue conversation about how those issues are impacting this community in a host of negative ways beyond the hallways of St. George's.

That is not a knock on what St. George's is trying do, which is what education reformers and child advocates say is badly needed  exposing children to a quality education, where expectations are high from prekindergarten through high school.

Unfortunately, 62 years after the Supreme Court's ruling in Brown vs. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, the battle for quality equal education for all, no matter their ZIP code, remains elusive.

Our schools have resegregated. Many of those in the inner city are failing. Many of the children attending those schools are growing up in neighborhoods where poverty, blight and crime are part of everyday life.

It is a shame that the inequality in education has followed us into the 21st century, which demonstrably shows that, as a society, we still have a long way to go.

The St. George's initiative strives to change that educational disparity, but racism and classism made the endeavor a bumpy ride. And, as Roberts' story pointed out, many of the original 19 decided that St. George's was not for them.

They found themselves navigating an alien environment, much like the 13 African-American first-graders who integrated Memphis City Schools in 1961.

The difficulty of remedying the situation and bringing change and acceptance was illustrated when a white St. George's student stood before a student assembly and said:

"Integration is hard; learning and accepting another person's culture and reality takes time. Having the willingness to walk in another person's shoes is frightening, and forcing it down a bunch of teenagers' throats will never work," he said, adding that true integration has to happen in its own time. "Trying to make it happen with mandates, rules and money simply makes both races fight the force and hold one another in contempt."

That sounds like something out of 20th-century objections to civil rights legislation.

Those words make it important that St. George's continues the work.

The five African-American students and their parents deserve high marks for navigating the 15-year educational journey through an alien world. It is accomplishment that will serve them well as adults.
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By Fred Hiatt

WASHINGTON  Republican leaders, having fallen in behind Donald Trump, may hope they can move beyond daily questions about their presumptive nominee. In fact, their endorsements should guarantee that the questions have only begun.

Speaker Ryan, you have decided to support Trump because you believe he will support your legislative agenda. Do you also agree that anyone with a Hispanic surname should be disqualified from presiding over any cases having to do with the nominee or his businesses?

Think back eight years to the firestorm ignited by revelations that Barack Obama's pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, had said in a sermon, "God damn America." Obama, then an Illinois senator running for president, was hounded by reporters to repudiate the comment.

Today, it is the candidate who is making the incendiary comments. Don't voters in Ohio, Arizona and elsewhere have a right to know whether their leaders agree or disagree with the views of the man they have endorsed?

Senator McCain, you say you back Trump because it would be "foolish to ignore" the voters who have propelled him to the nomination. Do you also agree with the suggestion, which he recently retweeted, that Hillary Clinton is "the one who killed 4 Americans in Benghazi"?

What purpose would such questioning serve, beyond tormenting people who, it might be argued, richly deserve to be tormented?

No comment from a Republican politician is likely to chasten Trump or modify his behavior in the campaign, far less if he is elected. Indeed, one of the saddest aspects of the GOP self-abnegation parade is the politicians' delusion that a caution from them for Trump to "act more presidential" will have any impact. He got this far without them; their misgivings will not trouble him, now or later.

The questions matter, but not because they will shape Trump's behavior. His campaign is founded on an assault on the norms of democracy: judicial independence, a free press, a republic that judges every individual for his or her worth and not by religion or ethnicity or gender or disability.

Even if he loses, that assault could do grave and lasting damage  particularly if U.S. citizens and foreigners come to believe that other U.S. leaders see nothing objectionable or out of the ordinary in Trump's views.

Senator McConnell, you have endorsed Trump because Clinton would represent a "third term" for Obama. If a President Trump seeks funds to round up and deport 11 million undocumented immigrants in a mass version of the "Operation Wetback" that he admires, would you support the appropriation?

Democrats will repudiate Trump's hate speech, but their objections will be dismissed as predictable campaign give-and-take. It is only Republicans who still have an opportunity to salvage some standards  to say that, no matter their rationale for endorsing, they understand that some behavior and some rhetoric are still beyond the pale.

Chairman Priebus, you were one of the first and most enthusiastic riders on the Trump bandwagon. Tell us, please: Do you agree that the government of Mexico deliberately sends rapists across the U.S. border?

The media should not be satisfied with a generic response that an endorsement does not imply 100 percent agreement.

As ABC's George Stephanopoulos on Sunday pressed Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., for his views on Trump's wall, Trump's racist attack on a judge and other positions, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee looked increasingly miserable. "I thought this interview was going to be more about the foreign policy arena," he complained.

Sorry, senator: If you've endorsed Trump, reporters are absolutely right to ask you, and other Republican leaders, which beliefs you share and which you reject.

Senator Portman, you have praised your party's nominee for bringing new voters into the fold. Do you agree with him that vaccines cause autism?

Senator Paul, do you think that U.S. armed forces should be ordered to kill the innocent relatives of suspected terrorists overseas?

Senator Rubio, do you still believe that Trump is a "con man"?

A day after endorsing Trump, Ryan said that he disapproved of the nominee's criticism of a judge for his Mexican heritage. Oddly, since Trump's dismissal of the Indiana-born judge as a "Mexican" came well before Ryan's endorsement, the speaker acted as if it was a surprise  "out of left field," he said.

"He clearly says and does things I don't agree with," Ryan said. "And I've had to speak up on time to time when that has occurred, and I'll continue to do that if that's necessary. I hope it's not."

If Ryan and other Republican leaders do in fact speak up when it is "necessary," they could yet perform some service to their party and their nation. They might also salvage a sliver of dignity and self-respect.

Fred Hiatt is editorial page editor of The Washington Post.
Intel is providing fewer excuses to miss meetings by bringing support for its Unite technology to iPads, and later, to Chromebooks.

Unite is designed to make it easier for on-site and remote attendees to log in, securely collaborate and share whiteboards and monitors during meetings. After logging into a central hub PC -- a Windows desktop typically located in a meeting room -- attendees can share documents and video, or switch on hardware like projectors.

The Unite client software logs attendees, who may use either Mac or Windows machines, into the hub PC. Through the hub, attendees in a conference room and outside can share presentations on a large monitor or other computing devices.

The client software will now work with the iPad, and support will be added for Chromebooks in the future, said Tom Garrison, vice president in the Client Computing Group and general manager of the Business Client Platforms division at Intel.

Garrison didn't provide a timeline for when Chromebook support would be added. Intel adds new features to Unite every six months, and Chromebook support could be in one of those upgrade cycles. Chromebooks have been popular in the education market, which is where Intel is also targeting Unite.

Unite has competition in the form of Webex, Skype, GoToMeeting and other client software designed for meetings and collaboration. But the chip-maker hopes to reach a wider audience by getting its software pre-installed in PCs. It remains to be seen whether most PC buyers welcome the move, or consider the technology to be unwanted bloatware.

Internally, Intel has been using the software for more than a year. Unite helps start meetings quickly, which helps save time and money. Intel has said this year it hopes to improve productivity by 112,000 hours with Unite deployed in 2,300 meeting rooms.

Intel has also made incremental improvements to Unite. Videos can be shared between participants in meetings, which is an improvement over the ability to share only static images and Powerpoint slides. Improvements have also been made to security, scheduling and log-in features.

For Intel, Unite is an unconventional product as it doesn't necessarily highlight the chip-maker's hardware technology. One prerequisite is that the hub PC needs a Core processor with vPro technology. But the client PCs using the Unite client software have no such requirement of using Intel technology.

Over time, Intel has larger plans to tie Unite with WiGig, which the chip-maker says will be useful in meeting rooms. Intel currently sells a wireless dock with WiGig, which is faster than Wi-Fi, and it could be used to project presentations on large conference room monitors. Unite currently relies mostly on Wi-Fi technology.

Garrison said Unite will also make its way into areas like Internet of Things, which is a major area of focus for Intel as it moves beyond being just a PC company.
Cllr Anthony Boutall is a Borough Councillor for Kempston Central & East on Bedford Borough Council

The vision of more dog excrement on the pavement due to fewer bins. The prospect of fewer libraries for local communities. Recreational opportunities for the elderly and vulnerable suddenly slashed in this years budget. Youth activities for local children dropped from the list of Borough Council funding. Disabled people suffering uneven pavement surfaces in key areas that desperately need wheelchair access.



These are some of the things we have come to expect over here at the coalface in leafy Bedford Borough.



A lot of this is due to incompetence and flawed priorities. For instance, despite the knowledge of austerity and awareness of funding gaps, the Lib Dem/Labour executive in Bedford Borough has failed to develop a libraries policy in the entirety of their seven years in charge, which might have gone some way to prepare the ground for changes to keep the services afloat. This is plainly absurd.



Despite putting up Council Tax by the maximum amount permitted by government in the last council budget, Lib Dem and Labour Councillors thought it appropriate to vote to increase their own allowances. This move takes around 7,000 extra from the kitty this year alone, with the actual budget for allowances rising to 737,030, while at the same time they have slashed a similar amount of money from local charities and groups in dire need of it. That loss of funding genuinely puts the likes of Bedfords Guild House and local childrens clubs, such as those in Kempston where I am a councillor, at terminal risk.



But there is another reason for all this headwind. Despite the incompetence, inefficiency, and flawed priorities of Bedfords local government, our Lib Dem and Labour comrades across the benches do have one solitary point; we are having to manage a greater number of issues every year, with a rising population and changing demographics, equipped with increasingly less money.



Improvements in the councils ability to manage priorities can and should be made  I am firmly of the belief that my local council still has a lot of room for efficiency improvements, and it is absolutely right that we expect that from bodies funded by taxpayers up and down this country. But it is factually accurate that local authorities have seen a steeper fall in funding during the so-called period of austerity than has been the case for other departments.

From 2010-11 to 2015-16, budgetary funds available for the Department for Communities and Local Government were cut by about 50 per cent in real terms, making it the most proportionally affected department of all. Whether justified in their outcry or not, our Lib Dem and Labour friends in Bedford Borough have recourse to this essential fact  and trust me, they are not afraid to use it as an excuse for offloading responsibility as frequently as possible.



All things being equal, I dont think Conservatives should whinge about this, even if it plays well with local audiences to do so. We were elected at national level to get a grip on public finances and thats exactly what we should be doing. Even though the Conservatives are in opposition in Bedford Borough and elsewhere  and therefore have more room to score political points by railing against the councils decisions  it is probably appropriate that we supported the executives budget this year, given the financial constraints under which it was written. It is good, grown up politics to accept constraints on those making the decisions, and to work together when necessary.



But the problem is, all things are not equal, and that solitary point of less funding to meet more local demand still stands. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) counts 36 billion as the total amount saved through austerity measures under the last Conservative-Lib Dem government of 2010-2015 and, as outlined above, a sizeable proportion of that was faced by local government.



The problem is this: the 36 billion saved from austerity measures is dwarfed by the mammoth 85 billion the IFS states we gave to the EU in the form of membership fees for the same period of 2010-2015.

Even if you accept the argument that we shouldnt count the gross figure but should instead go by the net figure (i.e. the total amount given, then subtracted by that which the EU was kind enough to give back to us on their own terms and with their own branding plastered across), the amount is still 42 billion. That means that the aggregate total saved from every single austerity measure brought in by the last government was less than the amount we would have saved from not being in the EU, even if you insist on only counting our net contribution.

That figure is before you count the 1.7 billion retrospective bill we received for our economy having grown too quickly or the hundreds of millions of pounds we are donating towards preparations for the accession of Turkey, Albania, Serbia, Montenegro, and Macedonia to the EU.



This taxpayers money has gone to an institution whose accounts havent been signed off by auditors in the last two decades; an organisation which managed to lose nearly a billion dollars to fraud in just the last year, according to their own European Anti-Fraud Office.



Those of us who compose the Conservative grassroots  who go out in sunshine and rain to fight the corner for our party  are prepared to defend the argument that this stubborn deficit should be eliminated sooner rather than later. We are happy to go to doorsteps, church halls, gurdwaras, schools, and pubs to discuss the benefits of sensible financial management and to promote the cause of cutting government spending where possible to leave more room for the engine of growth that is our private sector.



We are less happy putting up with dog mess, closed libraries, dangerous pavements, and local traffic fiascos as we sacrifice to the alter of European Union membership money that could otherwise be designated to these concerns.



According to the IFS figures, outside the EU, we could have avoided all austerity measures in the last government and still had room to cut tax. Alternatively, with the same pains weve felt through exactly the same austerity measures, at least we would have seen the prize of an eliminated deficit years ago, and therefore the ability of going about actually paying down our national debt. We would have all been in it together to see the fruit of our efforts together.



None of us know what would have happened in the last parliament outside the EU, and which departments would have been given access to the money we otherwise streamed into Brussels over that period, and continue to stream every day. A great benefit of being outside the EU is that these types of decisions would be fully determined by the democratically elected government  novel as it sounds, it might just work!



There is one thing we do know; the numbers speak for themselves. As Conservatives, we should encourage greater efficiency in public spending across the board, both at local and national level.



But justifying spending less and less on local concerns is very hard to do when we are giving away that money, and much more, to an unaudited institution in a different country.



Between the choices of keeping that local library open, sorting that traffic congestion, and fixing those pavements or, on the other hand, paying membership fees to an unaccountable and unaudited institution in Brussels, I think the decision should be pretty clear to most of us. It is one of the many reasons I will be voting to leave the EU and take control.
From: Reggie@toptory.lidl.com

To: Desmond.Swayne@dfid.gov.uk

Subject: Brewers Droop

Dear Dessie,

I hope that you are now recovered from that dose of Montezumas Revenge, Delhi Belly or Tigris Tummy that meant you spent four days in the home khazi. When I phoned over the weekend ,your good lady wife seemed totally lacking in sympathy or the milk of human kindness. She held the phone up against the door of the little place of ease and I could hear your cries of anguish and the gurgling of the pipes.

I assumed it was something you caught in foreign climes, but her Ladyship said it was a consequence of a Vote Leave beer and chips party in your constituency  guest speaker IDS. Enough to give anyone the runs after listening to his spiel.

So you missed the Derby which was a super day out: Lady Mary drove me down in the Bentley and we met the Soames family in the more select enclosure. Soames himself on fine form, laying into a number of equine quitters who were singing the praises of M.Gove and Independence Day.

It will have cheered you up that the polls have your side in the lead mainly because of fears of being flooded by illegal immigrants crossing the Channel in small boats. Hysteria all round, with Sir Henry Bellingham organising the Sea Fencibles and Coast Guard to patrol the inlets of North Norfolk, just as his ancestors did two hundred years ago (when not assassinating Prime Ministers) to stop smugglers bringing in French brandy and Dutch gin. Meanwhile, Wing Commander Sir Gerald Howard MP RAFVR has mobilised a number of former crab flight sergeant UKIPpers to patrol the coast of Suffolk in tiger moths and cessnas. I hear theyve been grounded after the Yanks at Mildenhall nearly shot them down.

Mild panic in Downing Street over the latest polls  and so we have a Popular Front of DC, Harriet Harperson and that little fellah who leads whats left of the Lib Dems. Meanwhile, the Mayor of Uxbridge (aka B Johnson) and the other leader in waiting Justice Gove have been chasing after Farragos Enoch Powell impersonations, and these former reptiles are not letting facts get in the way of a good story. That minister in a swim suit who runs the army  Penny Mordred, Mandate or whatever, has taken a knock in the leadership betting after making a horlicks of herself on that chap Marrs Sunday Worship programme. The one to watch is Mrs May, who like a crocodile, spends a lot of time below the surface, and only emerges to carry off some rival who has stupidly been paddling in shallow water.

Soames has been tweeting like a goodun and has the Mayor of Uxbridge in his sights  who he has described as like a rabbit on crack. But the Mayors supporters have been leading him through the lobby and introducing him to colleagues. (Mind you, I would have thought he would have known who Matt Hancock is by now.)

I had to chortle when I heard the quitters main office had been evacuated after internal flooding. It appears that the loos above got blocked and effluent descended upon that weird pointy-head Cummings who was in the midst of an e-mail rant to various reptiles. The joke is that the plumbers sent to repair the damage were Poles. But then buggers cant be choosers, as Soames said.

If I ever get depressed about our dear old Party I only have to look across the Chamber at the funereal-like atmosphere amongst the brothers and sisters. The old Wykehamist Marxist S. Milne Esq has announced to the world that the reason Comrade Corbyn is a complete loser at PMQs is because there is a mole in his office who leaks all the questions! In fact, there is no need for D Cameron to get any advance notice and now the old Bolsheviks are starting a purge which makes Stalin look like a rational human being.

I dont know whether you saw that Franco-Canadian TV series called Louis XIV on the job otherwise called Versailles? Not much in the way of dialogue  and far too much of the explicit and your humble servant, who spent an embarrassing hour explaining to Lady Mary the story line, and who was doing what to whom. I think in future well stick to Dr Starkey and the Tudors.

Mind you, Soames and I attended a private viewing at the Museum of London  through the good officers of Tim Loughton, cultural guru and leading quitter  of all those recently discovered Roman writing tablets on the site of the Bloomberg mega tower. Lots of shampoo, and the company of the wonderful Professor Mary Beard  Corbynista and general leftie, but very sound on the Mayor of Uxbridge (knows little beyond dog latin). All those bits of writing wood were nearly two thousand years old, and showed that even in those days London was a financial centre of disreputable traders, financers with poor judgement and generally louche figures: in the words of M Bloomberg a European City. One in the eye for Loughton. Soames, Loughton, Beard and I, much cheered and refreshed, retired to a wonderful hostelry, The South Sea Bubble, for a serious contest with knife and fork.

We narrowly escaped an Urgent Question on Monday care of Brother Vaz  The Life and Times of M Ali, Boxer Extraordinaire, US National Treasure and My Part in His Success.

Soames and I have been invited to the opening of a new hostelry off the Kings Road, The Brewers Droop. Our convivial host is that former Riding Master from the Life Guards who retired early after some extra mural lessons with the female stable hands. You are invited and it should be a jolly evening  Ive cleared it with the Whips.

Yours till Polling Day,

Reggie
Peter Marshall was Commonwealth Deputy Secretary-General 1983-88 and UK Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva 1979-83. He is a former Chairman of the Royal Commonwealth Society.

In 1957, I heard Clement Attlee, the great Labour post-war Prime Minister, being asked whether we were part of Europe or not: Were semi-detached, he replied.

Lord Attlee hit the nail on the head. Just as we cannot, by reason of our history, of our geography, and of the sort of people we are and wish to remain, link ourselves with our continental neighbours in everything they want to do together, so equally we have found by bitter experience that we cannot hope to cut ourselves adrift without disaster from the affairs of our European neighbours;

It should not be beyond the capacity of several hundred million of the best educated, most richly endowed and democratic people on earth to find a satisfactory modus vivendi between this country and our EU partners. Nor is it  as is convincingly demonstrated by the deal agreed by the European Council in February. The decision adopted on that occasion offers Britain a unique position of advantage within the EU. Some people have recognised this: for example, Jane OMahony, writing for UK in a Changing Europe, says that it has the potential to transform the EU.

Consider some key points: it directly addresses key British concerns:

Flexibility : The decision is directly anglo-centric. It follows closely the pattern of the Prime Ministers letter to the President of the European Council of last November, outlining four areas of British concern: economic governance, competitiveness, sovereignty and immigration  emphasising that our concerns really boil down to one word: flexibility.

Specific recognition of different levels of participation . The preambular paragraphs of a decision or resolution are often the key to understanding the full significance of the whole. This is a case in point. They address the whole range of EU activity, including recognition of non-participation by individual member states. The EU is not a monolith.

No discrimination for not participating in the Euro . Section A on economic governance constitutes a watertight guarantee that there will be no discrimination against member states which do not form part of the Eurozone. The Brexiteers seized on the undertaking not to impede further deepening of the economic and monetary union process as evidence that we have given away our veto on further centralisation which was one of our strongest cards. What they choose to ignore is that the undertaking is a direct quid pro quo for the guarantee of non-discrimination against those not taking part. An eminently sensible bargain.

A strong declaration on driving forward the Single Market . Section B, on competitiveness, ensures the establishment of an internal market as an essential objective of the Union, and provides for close monitoring of the action to be taken in pursuit of it. This is buttressed by a separate Council declaration on Competitiveness, insisting that we need to breathe new life into the internal market. There is thus an unprecedented head of steam driving it.

The UK is not committed to further integration . The wide-ranging Section C on sovereignty starts by recognising that the UK is not committed to further integration. It notes that the limits of Union competence are governed by the principle of conferral, and the use of that competence by the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality. Together with the preambular paragraphs, it underlines the intricacy of the interrelationships between all the complex matters it addresss.

We can counter the abuse of the free movement of people . Section D, on social benefits and free movement, while inevitably upholding the principle of the free movement as one of the four pillars of the Single Market, recognises the importance of countering instances of its abuse. This is work in progress.

We have an opening to take all these issues much further . Paragraph 1 of the final Section provides that any member state may ask the President of the European Council that an issue relating to the application of this Decision be discussed in the European Council. This is no ritual statement. It is an opening, an invitation. It gives us all the flexibility we need to pursue the substance of the Decision as a whole. It is up to us to take maximum advantage of it.

All in all, there could be a strong case for holding an intergovernmental conference to drive all these issues forward, not as a codicil to treaty changes on institutional matters, but as a helpful preliminary to them. Its core would be an examination of the operation of the Lisbon Treaty, in the light of the declarations of Nice, Laeken and Berlin, and having particular regard to any evidence of European Court of Justice mission creep. The UK will hold the EU presidency during the second half of 2017. In the first half it will be held by our dynamic Commonwealth partner, Malta.

In this referendum there is much more which unites us than divides us. We all want peace and prosperity. They are, however, indivisible, above all in our twenty-first century global village. The nagging realities of international involvement may tempt us at times to think we could somehow manage better by taking back control It is an illusion. You cannot achieve peace and prosperity on your own terms and alone. You merely encourage others to seek relief in a similar way . It becomes a negative-sum game: take but degree away, untune that string, and hark! what discord follows: each thing meets in mere oppugnancy.

As Attlee said, we are semi-detached. Let us accept the fact and act accordingly.
What strange bedfellows this referendum produces. Today we had Helen Goodman, the Boadicea of Bishop Auckland and one of the few Labour MPs with the slightest idea about economics, rushing to support David Camerons campaign to keep Britain in the EU.

She pointed to the head of Hitachi, a major local employer, who wants Britain to stay in the EU, and claimed Patrick Minford, a Brexit-supporting economist, reckons British manufacturing would be mostly eliminated if we left the EU.

Miss Goodmans cracked laugh can often be heard as she pours scorn on the Tories, but today she beamed with benevolence as the Prime Minister agreed with her.

Being slower in the uptake, and less inclined to modify his views in the light of changed circumstances, Jeremy Corbyn did not take the take the chance to make common cause with the Prime Minister, but instead made superfluous attempts to sow division between Conservatives  something the Tories are far better at doing for themselves.

Mr Cameron suggested we should celebrate business and the trade unions being on the same side as far as Europe is concerned, but Mr Corbyn was having none of it, and went on ploughing alone his dreary, rancorous furrow.

And here I am trying to be so consensual, Mr Cameron remarked with a smile

Consensus suits Mr Cameron. Although at least five Tory backbenchers disagreed with him about the EU, he somehow managed to avoid sounding bitter or divisive in his replies to them. His show of good nature baffled them, for they had no idea how to get past it. Perhaps this is what we shall see in the final phase of the campaign: Cameron the centrist unifier, urging all men and women of good will to make common cause.

Liam Fox, from the Tory backbenchers, made the serious point that the referendum is not a consultation but an instruction, and any attempt by MPs to ignore the outcome would be a democratic outrage. Mr Cameron agreed that there is a clear choice.

He had earlier rejected Nigel Farages Little England  a remark that made Tom Pursglove, the staunch young Eurosceptic who recaptured Corby for the Conservatives at the general election, cry out with impotent rage. If Mr Cameron wins the referendum, his Eurosceptic backbenchers will be so angry, but what will they be able to do?
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Tinnitus, a kind of hearing impairment is affecting more teens and children today. Experts say that their exposure to loud music comes from their constant use of headphones and going to clubs and parties. Tinnitus most affects older people over the age of 50, but at this rate, the condition of persistent ringing in the ears among teens and children is becoming a public health concern.

Tinnitus is a "Growing Problem"

The study published in the journal Scientific Reports reveal that tinnitus is increasing among teens and children between 11 and 17. Nearly 30 percent of those in the study report they have been diagnosed with persistent tinnitus or constant ringing in the ears.

Lead author Larry Roberts of McMaster University in Canada sayid in a press release that tinnitus is a "growing problem." The condition of having hearing difficulties will continue to become worse if the situation is not remedied.



Tinnitus Doesn't Mean Deafness, Just Less Tolerance to Loud Noise

For their research, 170 adolescents were surveyed of their listening habits and their experiences with tinnitus. The students were also asked to have their hearing assessed in an acoustic chamber, Oregon Live reported. They found that within the last year, majority of the students have been exposed to loud music over poor listening habits and more than half have experienced tinnitus.

Upon further study of the subjects, the researchers were able to found out that those with tinnitus can hear just as well as others who don't have the condition. However, they were unable to tolerate loud noise like they used to, Mirror shared.

3 Ways to Prevent Hearing Loss

Prevention is always better than cure. Here are three ways to prevent hearing loss to stop tinnitus.

1. Stay away from noisy environments

Staying away from noisy environments including concerts, clubs, boom car shows and other events will give your ears a world of good, Better Hearing recommended. If you need to be at these places, protect yourself with equipment by wearing ear muffs or ear plugs.

2. Modulate the volume of earphones/headphones

Music is therapeutic but it will be harmful in the long run if you keep listening to it in high volumes. Make sure to keep your earphone volumes at a safe level.

3. Hearing checkups

Schedule a hearing checkup if you think you are experiencing tinnitus or other sorts of hearing problems.

See Now: What Republicans Don't Want You To Know About Obamacare
In the 1970s, Mendez was a young Uruguayan teacher with leftist leanings. In 1973, when the military seized power in her country (a few months before General Augusto Pinochet's more famous coup in Chile), Mendez fled to Argentina. She lived there in safety until that country suffered its own coup in 1976. That July, a joint Uruguayan-Argentine military commando group kidnapped her in Buenos Aires and deposited her at Automotores Orletti, a former auto repair shop that would become infamous as a torture site and paramilitary command center. There she was indeed tortured, and there, too, her torturers stole her 20-day-old baby, Simon, giving him to a policeman's family to raise.

"T he cold was terrible but the screams were worse," Sara Mendez told the BBC. "The screams of those who were being tortured were the first thing you heard and they made you shiver. That's why there was a radio blasting day and night."

Mendez was an early victim of Operation Condor, a torture and assassination program focused on the region's leftists that, from 1975 to 1986, would spread terror across Latin America's southern cone. On May 27th, an Argentine court convicted 14 military officers of crimes connected with Operation Condor, issuing prison sentences ranging from 13 to 25 years. Among those sentenced was Reynaldo Bignone, Argentina's last military dictator, now 88. (He held power from 1982 to 1983.)

Those convictions are deeply satisfying to the surviving victims and their families, to the legal teams that worked for more than a decade on the case, and to human rights organizations around the world. And yet, as just as this outcome is, it has left me with questions -- questions about the length of time between crime and conviction, and about what kinds of justice can and cannot be achieved through prosecutions alone.

Operation Condor

Operation Condor was launched by the security forces of five military dictatorships: Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Bolivia. Brazil soon joined, as did Ecuador and Peru eventually. As a Cold War anti-communist collaboration among the police, military, and intelligence services of those eight governments, Condor offered an enticing set of possibilities. The various services could not only cooperate, but pursue their enemies in tandem across national borders. Indeed, its reach stretched as far as Washington, D.C., where in 1976 its operatives assassinated former Chilean ambassador to the U.S. Orlando Letelier and his young assistant, Ronni Moffitt, both of whom then worked at the Institute for Policy Studies, a left-wing think tank.

How many people suffered grievously or died due to Operation Condor? A definitive number is by now probably beyond recovery, but records from Chile's secret police suggest that by itself Argentina's dirty war -- the name given to the Argentine junta's reign of terror, disappearances, and torture -- took the lives of 22,000 people between 1975 and 1978. Thousands more are thought to have died before that country's dictatorship ended in 1983. It's generally believed that at least another 3,000 people died under the grimmest of circumstances in Chile, while thousands more were tortured but lived. And although its story is less well known, the similar reign of terror of the Uruguayan dictatorship directly affected the lives of almost every family in the country. As Lawrence Wechsler wrote in a 1989 article in the New Yorker:

By 1980, one in every fifty Uruguayans had been detained at some point, and detention routinely involved torture; one in every five hundred had received a sentence of six years or longer under conditions of extreme difficulty; and somewhere between three hundred thousand and four hundred thousand Uruguayans went into exile. Comparable percentages for the United States would involve the emigration of thirty million people, the detention of five million, and the extended incarceration of five hundred thousand.

And what was the U.S. role in Operation Condor? Washington did not (for once) plan and organize this transnational program of assassination and torture, but its national security agencies were certainly involved, as declassified Defense Department communications indicate. In his book The Condor Years, Columbia University journalism professor John Dinges reported that the CIA provided training for Chile's secret police, computers for Condor's database, telex machines and encoders for its secret communications, and transmitters for its private, continent-wide radio communications network. Chilean Colonel Manuel Contreras, one of Condor's chief architects (who was then on the CIA payroll), met with CIA Deputy Director Vernon Walters four times. And what did the CIA get in return? Among other things, access to the results of interrogation under torture, according to Dinges. "Latin American intelligence services," he added,

considered U.S. intelligence agencies their allies and provided timely and intimate details of their repressive activities. I have obtained three documents establishing that information obtained under torture, from prisoners who later were executed and disappeared, were provided to the CIA, the FBI and the DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency). There is no question that the U.S. officials were aware of the torture.

Justice Delayed

Why did it take 40 years to bring the architects of Operation Condor to justice? A key factor: for much of that time, it was illegal in Argentina to put them on trial. In the first years of the new civilian government, the Argentine congress passed two laws that granted these men immunity from prosecution for crimes committed in the dirty war. Only in 2005 did that country's supreme court rule that those impunity laws were unconstitutional. Since then, many human rights crimes have been prosecuted. Indeed, Reynaldo Bignone, the former dictator, was already in jail when sentenced in May for his role in Operation Condor. He had been convicted in 2010 of kidnapping, torture, and murder in the years of the dirty war. As of March, Argentina's Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS) had recorded 666 convictions for participation in the crimes of that era.

But there's a question that can't help but arise: What's the point of bringing such old men to trial four decades later? How could justice delayed for that long be anything but justice denied?

One answer is that, late as they are, such trials still establish something that all the books and articles in the world can't: an official record of the terrible crimes of Operation Condor. This is a crucial step in the process of making its victims, and the nations involved, whole again. As a spokesperson for CELS told the Wall Street Journal, Forty years after Operation Condor was formally founded, and 16 years after the judicial investigation began, this trial produced valuable contributions to knowledge of the truth about the era of state terrorism and this regional criminal network.

It took four decades to get those convictions. Theoretically at least, Americans wouldn't have to wait that long to bring our own war criminals to account. I've spent the last few years of my life arguing that this country must find a way to hold accountable officials responsible for crimes in the so-called war on terror. I don't want the victims of those crimes, some of whom are still locked up, to wait another 40 years for justice.

Nor do I want the United States to continue its slide into a brave new world, in which any attack on a possible enemy anywhere or any curtailment of our own liberties is permitted as long as it makes us feel secure. It's little wonder that the presumptive Republican presidential candidate feels free to run around promising yet more torture and murder. After all, no one's been called to account for the last round. And when there is no official acknowledgement of, or accountability for, the waging of illegal war, international kidnapping operations, the indefinite detention without prospect of trial of prisoners at Guantanamo, and, of course, torture, there is no reason not to do it all over again. Indeed, according to Pew Research Center polls, Americans are now more willing to agree that torture is sometimes justified than they were in the years immediately following the 9/11 attacks.

Torture and the U.S. Prison System

In a recent piece of mine, I focused on Abu Zubaydah, a prisoner the CIA tortured horribly, falsely claiming he was a top al-Qaeda operative, knew about a connection between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda, and might even have trained some of the 9/11 pilots. In another kind of world, I wrote, Abu Zubaydah would be exhibit one in the war crimes trials of America's top leaders and its major intelligence agency. Although none of the charges against him proved true, he is still held in isolation at Guantanamo.

Then something surprising happened. I received an email message from someone I'd heard of but never met. Joseph Margulies was the lead counsel in Rasul v. Bush, the first (and unsuccessful) attempt to get the Supreme Court to allow prisoners at Guantanamo to challenge their detention in federal courts. He is also one of Abu Zubaydah's defense attorneys.

He directed me to an article of his, War Crimes in a Punitive Age, that mentioned my Abu Zubaydah essay. I'd gotten the facts of the case right, he assured me, but added, I suspect we are not in complete agreement on the issue of what justice for his client should look like. As he wrote in his piece,

There is no question that Zubaydah was the victim of war crimes. The entire CIA black site program [the Agency's Bush era secret prisons around the world] was a global conspiracy to evade and violate international and domestic law. Yet I am firmly convinced there should be no war crimes prosecutions. The call to prosecute is the Siren Song of the carceral state -- the very philosophy we need to dismantle.

In other words, one of the leading legal opponents of everything the war on terror represents is firmly opposed to the idea of prosecuting officials of the Bush administration for war crimes (though he has not the slightest doubt that they committed them). Margulies agrees that the crimes against Abu Zubaydah were all too real and grave indeed, and that society must make its judgment known. He asks, however, Why do we believe a criminal trial is the only way for society to register its moral voice?

He doubts that such trials are the best way to do so, fearing that by placing all the blame for the events of those years on a small number of criminal officials, the citizens of an (at least nominally) democratic country could be let off the hook for a responsibility they, too, should share. After all, it's unlikely the war on terror could have continued year after year without the support -- or at least the lack of interest or opposition -- of the citizenry.

Margulies, in other words, raises important questions. When people talk about bringing someone to justice they usually imagine a trial, a conviction, and perhaps most important, punishment. But he has reminded me of my own longstanding ambivalence about the equation between punishment and justice.

Even as we call for accountability for war criminals, we shouldn't forget that we live in the country that jails the largest proportion of its own population (except for the Seychelles islands), and that holds the largest number of prisoners in the world. Abuse and torture -- including rape, sexual humiliation, beatings, and prolonged exposure to extremes of heat and cold -- are routine realities of the U.S. prison system. Solitary confinement -- presently being experienced by at least 80,000 people in our prisons and immigrant detention centers -- should also be considered a potentially psychosis-inducing form of torture.

Every nation that institutionalizes torture, as the United States has done, selects specific groups of people as legitimate targets for its application. In the days of Operation Condor, Chilean torturers called their victims humanoids to distinguish them from actual human beings. Surely, though, the United States hasn't done that? Surely, there's no history of the torture of particular groups? Sadly, of course, such a history does exist, and like so many things in this country, it's all about race.

The practice of torture in the U.S. didn't start with those post-9/11 enhanced interrogation techniques, nor with the Vietnam War's Phoenix Program, nor even with the nineteenth century U.S. war in the Philippines. It began when European settlers first treated native peoples and enslaved Africans as subhuman savages. As southern farmers started importing captured Africans to augment their supply of indentured English labor, they quickly realized that there was little incentive for those slaves to work -- none but the pain of whippings, mutilations, and brandings, and the threat of yet more pain. Torture and slavery, in other words, were fused at the root. From the first arrival of black people on this continent, it has been permissible, even legal, to torture them.

And it didn't stop with emancipation. After the end of slavery, southern states began the practice of convict leasing -- arresting former slaves and then their descendants, often on trumped-up charges, and renting them out as labor to farmers and later coal mine owners who had the power and legal right to whip and abuse them as they chose.

Then there's lynching. Many people think of it as an extrajudicial death by hanging. As it was practiced in the Jim Crow South, however, it was a form of public, state-approved torture, often involving the castration or disembowelment of the living victim, sometimes followed by death by fire. Lynching thus continued the practice of treating black minds and bodies as legitimate targets of torture. So maybe we shouldn't be surprised that, of the more than two million prisoners in the United States today, 40% are black, while the U.S. population is only 13% black.

Here's the problem, then. When we say that putting George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and other top officials in their administration in prison for war crimes would be justice, we endorse a criminal justice system that is more criminal than just, and where torture is a daily occurrence.

Do we want to do to Bush, Cheney, and their accomplices essentially what they did to their victims? There is, of course, a certain appeal to the idea of someday seeing such powerful white men among the suffering, tortured millions in our prison system, or even -- like the supposed dirty bomber Jose Padilla and Abu Zubaydah -- in perpetual solitary confinement.

And yet, would this truly provide even a facsimile of justice, given that American prisons are hardly instruments of justice to begin with? Those opposed to the acts at the heart of America's never-ending war on terror were heartened when President Obama ordered the CIA black sites dismantled globally. We continue to demand the closing of Guantanamo (something that looks increasingly unlikely to happen in his presidency). How, then, can we find justice through a prison system that uses similar methods on an everyday basis here in the U.S.?

Forty Years to Go?

And then, of course, there is the question: Whom should justice truly serve?

The first answer is: the victims of the "war on terror," including those who were tortured, those detained without trial, the civilian "collateral damage" of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the "unintended" victims of drone assassinations. Then there are all those in the rest of the world who have to live with the threat of a nuclear-armed superpower that has in these years regularly refused to recognize the most basic aspects of the rule of law.

Many who work with survivors of organized repression like Operation Condor say that their primary desire is not the punishment of their oppressors but official acknowledgement of what happened to them. In his New Yorker article, Wechsler, for instance, pointed out that, for the victims of torture, accountability may not be identical to punishment at all.

People don't necessarily insist that the former torturers go to jail -- there has been enough of jail -- but they do want to see the truth established... It's a mysteriously powerful, almost magical notion, because often everybody already knows the truth -- everyone knows who the torturers were and what they did, the torturers know that everyone knows, and everyone knows that they know.

Seeing the truth established was the purpose behind South Africa's post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Torturers and murderers on both sides of the anti-apartheid struggle were offered amnesty for their crimes -- but only after they openly acknowledged those crimes. In this way, a public record of the horrors of apartheid was built, and imperfect as the process may have been, the nation was able to confront its history.

That is the kind of reckoning we need in this country. It started with the release of a summary of the Senate Intelligence Committee's report on the CIA's torture program, which brought many brutal details into the light. But that's just the beginning. We would need a full and public accounting not just of the CIA's activities, but of the doings of other military and civilian agencies and outfits, including the Joint Special Operations Command. We also would need a full-scale airing of the White House's drone assassination program, and perhaps most important of all, a full accounting of the illegal, devastating invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Justice would also require -- to the extent possible -- making whole those who had been harmed. In the case of the war on terror, this might begin by allowing torture victims to sue their torturers in federal court (as the U.N. Convention against Torture requires). With one exception, the Obama administration has until now blocked all such efforts on national security grounds. In the case of the Iraq War, justice would undoubtedly also require financial reparations to repair the infrastructure of what was once a modern, developed nation.

We're unlikely to see justice in the war on terror until that cruel and self-defeating exercise is well and truly over and the country has officially acknowledged and accounted for its crimes. Let's hope it doesn't take another 40 years.

Rebecca Gordon, a TomDispatch regular, teaches in the philosophy department at the University of San Francisco. She is the author of American Nuremberg: The U.S. Officials Who Should Stand Trial for Post-9/11 War Crimes (Hot Books). Her previous books include Mainstreaming Torture: Ethical Approaches in the Post-9/11 United States and Letters from Nicaragua.

Copyright 2016 Rebecca Gordon
Iranian Regime Denies Ahwazi Children Access To Water And Educational Supplies

By Rahim Hamid

08 June, 2016

Countercurrents.org

It has been reported by the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation (UNPO) that the Ahwazi Arab people are much more affected by poverty, deprivation and marginalization along with other minority ethnic groups in Iran. One of the reasons for this is due to the Iranian clerical regime racialist policies, which have carried out unruly practices against the Ahwazi Arabs for years that have resulted in their social, economic, and political exclusion.

The living conditions of the local Arab people in rural areas of Ahwaz are mostly devastated by the effects of long-term poverty and deprivation. The Ahwazi Arabs are in a desperate need of basic public services like roads, pavements, access to piped water, electricity, medical centers, sewage system and employment opportunities.

Karun County has one city: Karun. Since its establishment on January 23, 2013 (1392 Iranian year calendar), much more educational facilities are required.to solve educational priorities, Karun needs serious attention - with prompt action by the concerned authorities.

The Bohor village is the largest in its precinct, with an area of fifteen hectares in Soveyseh District of Karun city. It is home to 2,500 people including 600 families.

By crossing thick oil and gas pipelines near the school of the village, one could reflect on the long history of racial discrimination imposed on the Ahwazi Arabs by the Iranian central governments.

The village's only connection to the Ahwaz-Abadan road is a three-kilometer stretch that still hasnt seen the color of asphalt.

According to Khuz news agency, Arab local inhabitants were complaining at sugar cane and oil companies that are situated in close proximity to the village. Their complaints were due to the neglectfulness and indifferences they exhibited towards the Arabs by discounting socio-economic and environmental issues in the area. Arab locals claimed that these companies were just concerned with earning revenues and self-interest.

Hamid Nasseri, the Head of the Village Council has confirmed these complaints by the villagers and re-iterated proof of the claims by pointing to the dirt and dusty road in the village.

Nasseri mentioned that the allocated village development budget has been one billion Rials in the 2015 (1394 Iranian year calendar). He says, the funds raised have not been adequate for the development of the village. While sugarcane and oil companies must pass through this dusty unpaved road to communicate with their agricultural lands and oil wells, so far none of them have raised any funding to contribute for its paving and asphalting.

In Bohor village, girls are deprived of education due to the lack of schools. The largest village in Soveyseh District has only one elementary school named Shaheed Hakim, where 380 girls and boys are enrolled. Adel Nasseri, the principal of the school, has said that the school built in 1993 (1372 Iranian year calendar) has improper facilities for its students. He claims that the water in the school, like in other parts of Karun city, is completely undrinkable. For this reason, school officials have to buy filtered drinking water from outside which has the effect of increasing the overall expenses of a school which is already underfunded.

Nasseri stated, Tables and benches in the classrooms are broken and worn out. Even though the school year is coming to an end, one of the teachers still doesnt have a chair to sit on.

A private company in the village has promised to provide the required wood for making the tables and chairs. The idea was that the school could make the benches and tables on its own with the funding provided. However, the promise has yet to be honored and remains solely spoken in word.

Adel Nasseri says, Even though already the space in the classrooms is not enough for the existing pupils, an order from the Education Department decrees that one of the classes must be assigned to pre-elementary school kids, which has added to the difficulties of current students.

With the lack of tables and chairs, the students have been going through significant hardship. There are three students per one chair to sit on. The students are having difficulty taking notes and writing on the small tables. The chairs are also too hard, leaving the kids feeling uncomfortable.

Due to the dire circumstances, a number of concerned Ahwazi Arab youth have voluntarily arrived to Bohor village, rolled up their sleeves and begun building three additional classes for the elementary pupils.

Hammed Sharif, one of the Ahwazi youth volunteers team has said that after checking out the state of the village, they have noticed that students were facing a lack of educational space. For this reason, they have set out a plan for its development. The buildings in the school reminded them of a barnyard filled with animals. The interiors of the classrooms were dilapidated. The only teaching materials available were blackboards and hand drawn charts stuck on the walls. The school had only one restroom with two dirty small pitchers of water for washing; there was no soup, no towel or tissues. The place was so unsanitary that nobody used it. Often neighboring homes were allowing the students to use their own latrines.

Hammed added that some girls in the village were not able to proceed with further study due to their lack of secondary school education. But with the construction of these three classes they hoped that these girls could attend to their secondary schooling and continue learning.

He pointed out that there were 30,000 students, 1,400 teachers, 160 schools and 11,000 classrooms in Karun city, which were active with the majority of these schools being worn out. While they have pursued development for educational spaces in the deprived areas, a scarcity in resources meant that only some would be allocated enough to support spaces conducive to learning in the classrooms.

Referring to the contributions of some of the villagers to build the school, Sharif stated, For the development of educational spaces in this village, we have had talks with officials of sugarcane and oil companies but are faced with their neglect. That's why we have decided to advance the work through local donors.

It is important to mention here that schooling for girls only exists at the elementary level. Arab villagers who could not afford to send off their own daughters to other schools missed out on opportunities they were capable of. This will have the effect of perpetuating the cycle of poverty for the families involved by severely limiting their future prospects.

With 30,000 students in the city, it is considered to be a prime incubator for the emergence of new talent. To be equipped as a modern classroom, pupils in Karun need software and hardware educational facilities. However, in all villages, classrooms are ill-equipped, and in most cases look much worsethey are run down. Most schools in Karun arent conducive to learning. They simply dont have enough facilities and basic educational supplies.

Regrettably, these people sufferings are common across Ahwaz region, where deprivation is a norm rather than an exception, despite the fact that over 90 percent of the oil reserves claimed by the Iranian regime are located in the region. Many Ahwazi Arabs believe that the regimes negligence and discriminatory policies mean they are not considered as citizens; despite nominally having the same rights given to all citizens, Ahwazis seem to be denied even the right to have rights.

Rahim Hamid is an Ahwazi Arab freelance journalist based in the USA














The Case For The Green State

By William Hawes

08 June, 2016

Countercurrents.org

Critiques of the modern nation-state have been growing in recent decades, due to the abysmal failures of the capitalist, neoliberal order. In particular, conservative-libertarian arguments are tinged with isolationist and protectionist trade rhetoric, low taxes and regulations, and supply-side economics. On the other side, the mild leftism of social-democratic reforms promote endless government spending, increases in social programs and minimum wages, increases in taxes for the rich and the corporate world, and supra-national governmental organizations with endless bureaucracy and profligate waste. Neither of these models offers anything new, nor do they address the many crises that our world will inherit: they are simply band-aids for the festering wounds that our oligarchic system has created.

Green political theory offers a way out of this dialectical impasse. By viewing the world through a transpersonal and holistic lens, the truth of our industrial system can be seen for what it is: a morally bankrupt system which exploits the less fortunate in the name of private property and profit, a machine which grinds down and destroys cultural and biological diversity. The Western states are presented as shining beacons of freedom and democracy, while in reality they scheme by trade liberalization (globalization) to lord over the developing world. They bend and corrupt the ideals of universal human rights to suit their agendas, invading other nations directly or using proxy fighters/terrorists to achieve strategic objectives. Proponents of green politics transcend these baser instincts, and advocate for nonviolence, eliminating poverty, and conserving the natural world for the greater good.

Contemporary green theorists are influenced by indigenous wisdom and the sustainable practices of diverse tribal societies, as well as modern science. The roots of Green theory can be found in the scientific disciplines of conservation biology and ecology, as well as their precursors, the environmental advocates of the 19th and 20th centuries. The list is vast and includes such notables as Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, Gifford Pinchot, Aldo Leopold, Rudolph Steiner, Rachel Carson, Donella Meadows, James Lovelock, and Fritjof Capra.

Green politics is based on a few bedrock principles: one is that the moral and political community should be extended to provide for the rights of non-humans and future human generations. (1) (2) Another principle is that horizontal governance and forms of direct democracy must have a say in governing: some issues should be decided by plebiscite, even if technical details of the legislation are left to our representatives and specialists in science and engineering. Also, sustainable development practices must be enforced in any green society, even if it goes against a democratic mandate. If a hypothetical majoritarian government in power decided to exploit and destroy ecosystems under a Green constitution, that ruling party/coalition could be stripped of power.

Green political theory, or ecologism in Andrew Dobsons parlance, is a relatively new political ideology, and stands apart from liberalism, conservatism, and socialism, as Dobson explains in his book Green Political Thought. (3) Green politics does not contain the hubris of liberalism, and does not promote private property and market fundamentalism as unassailable principles. Dobson invokes Mark Sagoff, who correctly states that the liberal state does not dictate the moral goals its citizens are to achieve; it simply referees the means they use to satisfy their own preferences. (4) Of course, this adherence to moral neutrality is a cop-out: by pretending to be pluralistic and democratic, the liberal state uses the law to uphold massive inequality, structural racism, absurd consumer trends, addiction to fossil fuels, and environmental destruction.

Green theory is also distinct from conservatism, as it rejects the pessimistic and deterministic view of human weakness and original sin. Ecologically minded theorists chastises conservatives who focus on preserving the past; ecologism is interested in conserving and preserving for the future. (5)

Also, Green political theory has many precise criticisms of mainstream socialism: its anthropomorphic-centered approach towards protecting the environment, the forms of pervasive narrow-minded utilitarianism, and the apologetics on display when socialists are confronted with the environmental record of the former Soviet bloc. Further, it rejects the bias of socialists who express that eradicating poverty and redistributing money and land to the poor will be in itself enough to end environmental destruction and harmful industrial practices. (6)

Unlike liberals, conservatives, and socialists, Greens do not view nature instrumentally. Rather, many Greens respond to nature in an intrinsic, spiritual way: it is part of their ground of being, to borrow a Paul Tillich term. Many tribal societies, of course, do not even have a word to express the concept of nature, as it is completely embedded in their consciousness and way of life. Moral value towards nature is given unconditionally by those who understand ecology: this idea is central to what Arne Naess called ecosophy. Greens and political ecologists speak of the ethical relationship which should hold between human and non-human nature. (7)

If there are to be nation-states that persist long into the 21st century and beyond, they will be green states, ecologically minded states. There is no complex argument needed, as it is a matter of survival: we can collectively form nations based on sustainable development, zero-growth, run with renewable energy, with abundant food, health care, housing, and basic incomes for all, or our societies will perish, and international relations will devolve into a Hobbesian nightmare.

Civil society will have to be included in green governance to some degree: whether through referendums, public positions drawn at random, community based leadership councils, etc. Regarding environmental questions about land development, industry, and agriculture, the precautionary principle will rule: the burden of proof will fall on those who intervene in the environment to prove that there is minimal risk to ecosystems, rather than on scientists, activists, green NGOs, and the public to prove that serious and definite environmental damage will occur. Publicly funded elections must become mandatory, and also, no corporate-backed candidates should be allowed again, ever. Deliberative democracy should be encouraged, and elements of James Fishkins Deliberative Polling (8) should be included to encourage thoughtful and rational debate in the civic sphere.

Following this basic framework, along with deep and rigorous ecological education for our youth, is essential. Also, the re-education of adults who have forgotten their connection to the Earth is critically important. Unlearning the dirty tricks and propaganda that weve unconsciously internalized, and disowning the immoral and callous liberal ideology are among are most important tasks as well. Being a true progressive means making hard decisions, and seeing beyond the veil of what our industrial based consumer society has to offer. The only option our nations have going forward is to begin forming a state system based on ecology, which has the potential to radically transform our views and reorient societies towards lasting peace, egalitarian democracy, social justice, and sustainable living.



William Hawes is a writer specializing in politics and environmental issues. You can find his ebook, Planetary Vision: Essays on Freedom and Empire, here. His articles have appeared online at Global Research, Countercurrents, and Dissident Voice. You can email him at wilhawes@gmail.com

Notes:

1.) Robyn Eckersley. The Green State. MIT Press, Cambridge MA, 2004. 120-122.

2.) Mike Mills. Green Democracy: The Search for an ethical solution. Democracy and Green Political Thought: Sustainability, Rights, and Citizenship. Eds. Brian Doherty and Marius de Geus. London and New York: Routledge, 1996. 97-114.

3.) Andrew Dobson. Green Political Thought. 4th ed. New York: Routledge, 2007. 149-176.

4.) Ibid., 151.

5.) Ibid., 163.

6.) Ibid., 168.

7.) Ibid., 171.

8.) https://www.uvm.edu/~dguber/POLS234/articles/fishkin.pdf










Did Devout Muslim Muhammad Ali Ever Speak About US NATO Genocide in the Muslim Middle East?

By Jay Janson

08 June, 2016

Countercurrents.org

Ali declared murder and burn another poor nation [Vietnam] simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over. ... such evils must come to an end" For lack of world public interest in prosecuting obvious US genocidal crimes against humanity and peace, "such evils" have remained profitable. As a devout Muslim, how did Ali feel as he watched the murder and burning of millions of Muslim children.

Heavyweight Champion Muhammad Ali was our hero, not only for his performance in the ring and his infectiously happy and charming wit, but for his clear, upright, honest, compassionate and unequivocal condemnation of his nation's racist invasion, bombing and genocidal occupation war in Vietnam.

Just before his indictment for refusing the draft in March of 1967, Ali stated publicly, Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 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? No Im not going 10,000 miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over. This is the day when such evils must come to an end. I have been warned that to take such a stand would cost me millions of dollars. But I have said it once and I will say it again. The real enemy of my people is here. I will not disgrace my religion, my people or myself by becoming a tool to enslave those who are fighting for their own justice, freedom and equality. If I thought the war was going to bring freedom and equality to 22 million of my people they wouldnt have to draft me, Id join tomorrow. I have nothing to lose by standing up for my beliefs. So Ill go to jail, so what? Weve been in jail for 400 years.

Only weeks after Ali's blistering statement, Rev. Martin Luther King from the pulpit of New York's Riverside Church called his government "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world," and held all Americans (including himself) responsible for "atrocity wars and covert violence on three continents since 1945, for refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the immense profits of overseas investments these atrocity wars are meant to maintain." \King vilified in media owned by investors in wars and deserted by friends and fellow civil rights leaders, received his bullet to the head a year to the day after that sermon King had titled "Beyond Vietnam - a Time to Break Silence."

For being indicted for refusal of the draft, Ali was unlicensed to box from 1967 until 1971, when the US Supreme Court found in Ali's favor after years of appeals during which former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark assisted and became a life time admirer and friend of Ali.

We know from listening to his wife being interviewed on television, that Ali was a devout Muslim. One cannot avoid wondering if Ali ever spoke or wrote about his feelings and thoughts during all these years of patently illegal murderous use of US Armed Forces and CIA in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Libya and Syria.

- Afghanistan: Apropos Ali's " murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over," every single nation of Caucasian population, even tiny Andorra, Lichtenstein and Monaco, have taken part in an international coalition that is now in its sixteenth year of killing Afghanistan's defenders against foreign invaders and the Quisling drug lord government the USA has imposed. [see No Afghani Ever Attacked the US, UK, EU, Australia or Anywhere Else Synopis: In 1979, President Carter criminally ordered an attack upon a friendly and popular women's liberating socialist Kabul government by CIA covert funding, arming and training fundamentalist hill tribe war lords, who did not want their daughters in school. Brzezinski correctly advised it would scare the USSR into coming to the Kabul government's defense and into a trap.]

- Iraq: A non UN authorized 2003 American invasion and occupation of Iraq is awaiting eventual Nuremberg International Law prosecution not only for crimes against humanity, but genocide, by of way over a million and a half murdered Iraqis and the destruction of what was a prosperous nation. No official US source even attempts to justify the invasion now. Previous to this genocide by the US, was the period of severe sanctions that were credited with costing the lives of a half million young Iraqi children, which US Secretary of State Madeline Albright later, with Clockwork Orange horrific callousness, estimated as "worth the price" of keeping sanctions on Iraq.

- Somalia: US attack and funding of war lords friendly to US interests in military attack on a overwhelmingly popular Islamic Courts government, including using Ethiopian and Kenyan and UN proxy armed forces, have brought death through US NATO UN war and resultant starvation situations to a million and a half to two million Somalis and brought terrorist involvement to justify more war. [see Jay Janson: Merciless US NATO UN Genocide In Somalia ]

- Yemen: A neocolonial US empire took over from the British colonial Empire's century of bringing death and maiming to Yemen, and of late has employed its ally the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to mercilessly bomb. [see A Complete Year of United States Coordinated War in Yemen, Global Research ]

- Libya: US NATO destruction of a wealthy socialist democratic independent Libya, at the time, the 53rd highest UN Quality of Life indexed nation, higher than nine European countries including Russia, afterwards proven with watertight documentation to have been initiated by CNN, Aljazeera and CIA assets Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International falsifying Libyan government attacks on a non existent uprising of Libyans, in reality a CIA and its overseas branches organized well armed army of terrorists. [see Russians Calling Medvedev a "Traitor" for Not Vetoing UN NATO War on Libya in Larger Context Article's larger theme is the willingness of humanity to accept white world profitable investments in genocide until world economic power shifts from Europeans and their descendant nations overseas to the six sevenths of humanity they plunder. Article chronicles in detail the immediate before, during and after of a preposterous destruction of Libya.]



And years before all the above mentioned taking of many millions of Muslin lives, Ali, who said in 1967 that "such evils must come to an end," would have had to have known of General Westley Clark's exposing in March of 2007 of the Pentagon being informed by the Secretary of Defense of a plan to take out seven nations, Iraq, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Iran, in five years. Ali would have watched the US support its client the Shah as some twenty or more thousand Iranians were mowed down in the street. Ali would have eventually heard all about Reagan giving Saddam Hussein's Iraq 'most favorite nation status' in order to go all out to assist Saddam's eight years long bloody invasion of Revolutionary Iran at a human cost of a million Muslim lives - US spy satellites giving Saddam coordinates of Iranian positions, saving Saddam from defeat.

So what was Ali thinking and feeling about all this decades long American slaughter of millions of innocent Muslim men, women and children in their very own beloved countries, as often as not in their own homes? Your author as an archival research peoples historian encouraged by Ramsey Clark to seed a world public outcry for justice for the surviving victims of US NATO wars, wrote to Ali a few times at his published correspondence address, but received no answer. I learned that Ali's mail was understandably being handled by Ali's wife, and out of respect for Ali's illness made no further inquiries. Perhaps at some time in the future, when things within the US open up, we might learn of Ali's feelings through private papers made public.

Of major interest would be whether Ali believed that the law would eventually come down on Americans, who would then be forced to compensate and indemnify financially at the super mega vast amount that would make all investments in enslaving "those who are fighting for their own justice, freedom and equality" not only to have been unprofitable but punitive to an nth degree.

Being that the civil rights movement in America has been for such a long time now a war supporting movement in spite of the greatest civil rights leader Martin Luther King having warned in 1967 that "there will be no progress on issues of justice at home as long as we are killing the poor overseas at such an enormous expense in human and financial resources as to make such progress at home impossible," perhaps Ali's most telling quote for our time might be,

"I have said it once and I will say it again. The real enemy of my people is here - white slave masters of the darker people the world over."

Jay Janson is an archival research peoples historian activist, musician and writer; has lived and worked on all continents in 67 countries; articles on media published in China, Italy, UK, India, Sweden, Germany and the US; now resides in NYC; First effort was a series of articles on deadly cultural pollution endangering seven areas of life emanating from Western corporate owned commercial media published in Hong Kong's Window Magazine 1993; Howard Zinn lent his name to various projects of his; Global Research; Information Clearing House; Counter Currents, Kerala, India; Minority Perspective, UK; Einartysken, Sweden: Saker Vineyard, Germany; Dissident Voice; Ta Kung Pao; Uruknet; Voice of Detroit; Mathaba; Ethiopian Review; Palestine Chronicle; India Times; MalaysiaSun; China Daily; South China Morning Post; Come Home America; CubaNews; TurkishNews; HistoryNews Network; Vermont Citizen News have published his articles; 300 of which are available at: click http://www.opednews.com/author/author1723.html ; Weekly column, South China Morning Post, 1986-87; reviews for Ta Kung Bao; article China Daily, 1989. Is coordinator of the Howard Zinn co-founded King Condemned US Wars International Awareness Campaign: (King Condemned US Wars) http://kingcondemneduswars.blogspot.com/ and website historian of the Ramsey Clark co-founded Prosecute US Crimes Against Humanity Now Campaign http://prosecuteuscrimesagainsthumanitynow.blogspot.com/ featuring a country by country history of US crimes and laws pertaining.








Hunting Sharks: Unnatural Justice And Human Revenge

By Dr. Binoy Kampmark

08 June, 2016

Countercurrents.org

Every so often, when a human wades in absurd company with a majestic shark, a predictable spectacle unfolds. The shark, interest piqued, attacks human. The human can be fatally wounded, though not always. Shark is thereby hunted  this, deemed the automatic reaction of the outraged and incensed.

The shark is but one animal, incapable of understanding the false notion of a social contract it is meant to abide it. Similarly, humans assume that notions of revenge and deterrence have some role to play. You killed one of our species, and must account.

Much of this is occasioned by the traditional galeophobic tendencies that have become mandatory in countries in proximity of shark populations. In a statistical sense, being nabbed and placed on the menu of a shark is akin to 1 in 3,748,067. That is the figure arrived at from the University of Floridas Museum of Natural History. Obviously, the figure changes if you are a marine obsessive, tempting fate.

That figure, however, should also be considered along others. The chances of drowning are 1 in 1,134, far greater relative to becoming the gourmet delight of the animal in question. We never get to the what-are-the-odds part, notes Elizabeth Palermo of Live Science, because the nature of the brain is to take partial information, quickly judge whether there may be danger, and then draw quick, protective or precautionary conclusions before we objectively look at the evidence.

The shark, however, is deemed wily, much in the way western cultural commentators considered the Oriental inscrutable, outrageous and unbecoming of Western ideals. One has to be sneaky in order to be effective, adjust, adapt to the beast of the sea. Baited drum lines, goes the ABC report, have been dropped off Perths north in the hunt for a suspected five-metre shark which killed a diver.

The Sea Shepherd crew were far from impressed. Spokeswoman Natalie Banks claimed that this was a knee-jerk reaction it does not prevent these shark attacks. By killing a white shark in Falcon we are not preventing shark attacks from happening again. We need to do things like signage and medical kits at beaches right now.

Obviously, the emphasis there being on human cognisance of the obvious  though prevention has little role to play in the role of mythology, mankind and beast. The shark performs roles it has no clue of, the subject of a script which enrols the enforcers, the killers, the marauders. The beast shall be found.

Pictures of the deceased are demonstrated as sacred images. There is Ben Gerring, who died after being attacked by a shark while surfing at Falcon; and Doreen Collyer, Edith Cowan lecturer fatally wounded while diving at Mindarie. In her husbands words, Doreen was a beautiful person and everyone loved her. She was a devoted grandmother, mother and loving wife.

They have the faces, and the tears of those who lost them. The shark, on the other hand, remains the marine skulking animal, eluding authorities, posing a public menace. Authorities have deemed the shark a serious threat to public safety.

According to the premier of WA, Colin Barnett, It was estimated to be 6m long and if a shark like that stays in the vicinity it is a continuing threat. A creature in breach of the human social contract imposed upon it. If that shark stays in the area it will be presumed or judged to be a threat so we reserve that right.

Catching the creature is not proving to be an easy affair. Drum lines off Mindarie have been deployed with the purpose of eliminating sharks if they fit the appropriate description. Barnett has resisted, so far, drawing upon the bloody 2014 policy of catch-and-kill via permanent drum lines which, by his own admission, was divisive and did not prove successful. (This is understated  some 172 sharks were killed in the move, with not a single great white among the numbers.)

The shark attacks have, however, given the premier cause for concern. As Fisheries department metropolitan regional manager Tony Cappelluti explained on Monday, Weve had [the attacks] months apart but probably never several days apart. How inconsiderate of them  and their timing.

There is nothing of the Hemmingway macho about this. The political fears are far more rudimentary in their material worth. The great whites, in inflicting such fatalities, have given the state world exposure that will damage tourist numbers, something that was already affecting various WA beaches.

The response from Barnett is simple: shoot the animal in question. Shark suspected of WA attack to be shot. Forget the sharks role in the great body of the sea  it has been condemned without a jury of peers or the dictates of natural justice. It is merely being punished for its nature.

Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne. Email: bkampmark@gmail.com








Examination, Prohibition, And Puritanism: Politics Of Inquisition In The Republic of Bihar

By Mithilesh Kumar

08 June, 2016

Countercurrents.org

Arvind Das in his remarkable work The Republic of Bihar points to a Bihar Fatigue. The complain is that the perception of Bihar has been restricted to poverty, violence and general backwardness. This is partly true but what is also true is that each time the fatigue sets in there always comes an incident which makes the well-wishers and not so well-wishers of Bihar to come out in the open and have their day in the sun lamenting shrilly the incorrigibility of Bihar and the pre-determined fact that Bihar is dragging down the whole country. The recent incident has been the alleged cheating by toppers in the intermediate examination. A very draconian prohibition law is also being tom-tommed as never achieved moral heights. What is, in fact, happening is a rapid transformation of the advent of social conservatism backed by the iron-hand of an oppressive state. But this is for later.

The very corrupt nature of the education system in Bihar and rampant cheating has been a concern for quite some time now. The viral picture of parents, relatives and friends scaling the wall of an examination center to pass on chits gained international notoriety and symbolized everything that is wrong with the examination system of Bihar. The bogey of transparency has been raised repeatedly. Everyone is asking for a complete overhaul of the education and examination system and they want it in double quick time. Serious commentators, however, point out to the institutional and, more importantly, political nature of the problem. They point out to the decision of the Karpoori Thakur government to do away with the requirement of passing in English. Pass without English (PWE) became a part of lexicon. What emerged from the recent controversy regarding the alleged cheating of Bihar School Examination Control Board (BSECB) examination toppers marks a definite shift in the politics of education. The socialist shenanigan of linguistic pride has given way to chauvinist belief in neoliberal conservative merit. In all this storm and stress what is being not discussed is the legality of the whole thing and the gross violation of rights of children.

The incident came to light when a TV news channel went to take interviews of toppers Saurabh Shrestha and Ruby Rai, in science and arts respectively, and they could not answer simple questions on their subjects and what the subjects were in the first place. They became a subject of derision instantly in the full glare of media which played it out with morbid glee. Coming in the background of CBSE results and toppers from prestigious schools in Bihar the gap was obvious. While in the latter case the brilliant result of girl students was being hailed yet at the same time a girl student was being humiliated and defamed for no tangible reason other than a few questions by a journalist. The first thing to be asking is why questions of such nature were not put to the toppers of CBSE and those schools? Is it the case that their merit is taken for granted or the CBSE is free of malpractice?Take a guess.

The interview set a chain of events that is still getting the headlines. The students were called for an interview and the results of two students were cancelled. The college was derecognized and other punitive measures against bureaucrats was taken. In all this frantic activity no one thought about the legality of the whole thing and a concern towards protecting these students. How the Bihar government take action of such retribution without an enquiry is anybodys guess? A panel summoned the students without giving them a chance to put their account of examination forward. The interview happened in the full glare of TV cameras. No one asked the question as to why these were allowed inside the interview room. Allegedly they were handwriting experts to verify if the same student has taken the examination. No one asked why there was no counsellor present to protect the students from the undue pressure that was put on them. One of them threatened suicide and another one is reportedly under depression. Who takes responsibility for this? If one of the students indeed goes under depression who provides the resources for counselling and care. No one knows the nature of questions that was asked by this panel. Were they just curriculum based or there were questions about their conduct? If there was a question about their conduct why was there no help or legal recourse provided to the students? There might be more instances of blatant abuse of child rights. What this process has done is to criminalize individual students. In fact, FIR has already been filed under sections ranging from cheating to criminal conspiracy. This seems to be the part of the evolving consensus that juvenile should be treated at par with adults when it comes to heinous crimes a contention that has been questioned and critiqued both by legal experts and rights activists. If the Bihar government was serious in addressing structural problems of its education and examination system it would have done better to look inwards than making criminals out of defenseless students. The assumption that the students are at fault and hence criminal is problematic to say the least. Who is to say that it was not the incompetence of the examiner? The assumption that students cheated was drawn on the basis of a random interview, I am sure, is not legally sustainable. For heavens sake it was not a sting operation of bribe taking politicians for Rajya Sabha seats. The most surprising this is that no one, not the students, their parents or rights activists thought of moving court. This could only be attributed to a state that decided to criminalize the whole thing and came down heavily on the students crushing any resistance. I hope there is still recourse to legal action to safeguard the students.

There is a larger issue involved here and no its not Nitish Kumars dream of becoming the prime minister or forging a perpetually in construction Third Front. It is moral policing and social conservatism. We see one kind of conservatism in RSS and BJP here we witness a conservatism that results straight from the populist socialist movement in Bihar. The high moral of abstinence and probity and accountability from within an individual advocated by JP, Karpoori Thakur, Lohia and others has transmuted into an apparatus at the disposal of the government. The individual agency that the above mentioned stalwarts thought was inherent in an individual citizen has been usurped by the state. That individual agency was the basis of civil and democratic rights. A brief analysis of the prohibition implemented in Bihar can illuminate this point. The government cannot stop patting on its back saying (without any tangible proof or study) that crime against women and in general has dramatically decreased. This is a highly problematic position because it links violence against women, Dalits, poor to alcohol and not patriarchy, caste oppression or structural inequality. Ban alcohol and we solve the problem of caste, class and gender. It is the same with the examination system. The only recourse left it seems in Bihar is what JP, the ideological guru of the current rulers in Bihar, showed when he said singhasan khaali karo ki Janata aati hai. We should all gather at Gandhi Maidan with whiskey (or vodka or even water according to your choice) and boycott this prohibition because it is draconian and because its premise preserves the patriarchal and caste structures and goes against the idea of Total Revolution. Similarly, students should gherao the State Assembly asking for resignation of the representatives and occupying the schools taking the administration and the entire education system in their own hands.

Mithilesh Kumar is a PhD Candidate at Western Sydney University, Australia. His interest is in the issues of logistics, migration and labour, political philosophy and theory. He wants to work on the nature, evolution and innovation of the Indian state with respect to social and political movements in India. Email: kmithilesh@hotmail.com














The Contempt Of Courts Law Unleashes Terror, Suppresses Freedom Of Expression

And Shields Corrupt And Inefficient Judges

By Dr. P.S Sahni

08 June, 2016

Countercurrents.org

On 24 April, 2016, the Chief Justice of India lamented about the backlog of cases in the courts to be at a staggering figure of over 3 crores (30 million). His misty eyes captured in the print media said it all. The image of an emotional Chief Justice got embedded in the psyche of sensitive citizens.

The Indian constitution embodies upon every citizen the duty to develop a spirit of enquiry and reform. Moreover as members of PIL Watch Group  a non-funded, non-party organization  we are mandated to keep a check on the accountability and transparency of the judiciary. Outlined below are two cases of complaints against two sitting judges of the Delhi High Court and the response of the establishment to these complaints.

Case no. 1

On 5 January, 2014 PIL Watch Group had sent a complaint against a sitting judge of the Delhi High Court to the then Chief Justice of India; Chief Justice, Delhi High Court; President of India; and Union Minister of Law and Justice. The name of the judge is being withheld so that the debate is on the content of the complaint without inviting contempt charges. The pertinent points raised in the complaint were:

 Justice A has indulged in conduct which on the face of it is unethical and unbecoming of a sitting judge. Whether it is illegal or not requiring impeachment is a matter which can be decided only after a detailed enquiry is conducted into the matter.

 Justice As earlier residential-cum office address is well known among the lawyers and his earlier clients  as he was elevated from the bar. (The property is still owned by Justice A). Recently on a visit to the area PIL Watch Group was shocked to see that a law firm is running from this very address. The building adorns the name plates of Justice A; of his father, another well known lawyer of his time along with the name plate of a law firm. It was shocking to say the least and we wondered since when have sitting high court judges been allowed to practice law also simultaneously.

 Further research on Delhi High Court website showed that the law firm started filing cases in Delhi High Court only since 2013. Apparently the law firm moved to its present location in 2011. While the internal details of the working and functioning of the firm, its past dealings and understanding with Justice A are not known to us, the following questions beg an answer:

1. Is a law firm running from a sitting judges property not utilizing the goodwill of the judge?

2. Does not the fact that the judges name plate is still on the building further gives the impression to the prospective litigant that there is an understanding between the judge and law firm?

3. How does one compute the financial gains received by the law firm just by being in that building and using the judges name plate even if there is no other understanding?

4. If the building is rented to the law firm why is the name plate of Justice A still there? Isnt there an ulterior motive?

5. Has Justice A heard any case as a judge filed by this law firm / or its associates? Only a detailed enquiry into all the cases filed by the law firm and cases related to any of its clients filed through other advocates would be able to establish the truth of the matter.

6. If the area in which the property falls is residential use zone than is the property not being misused by Justice A?

7. Is this not directly or indirectly even more unethical than what Judge Soumitra Sen had done?

PIL Watch Group urged for a high level enquiry to be conducted urgently into the matter and appropriate action taken.

Needless to say that till date we have neither received an acknowledgement nor a reply from the authorities even after two and a half years! It is not known whether an enquiry was initiated and what action if any has been initiated against the concerned judge. Doubts also arise as to whether the complaint reached the W.P.B.!

In the aforementioned complaint detailed as case no. 1 we had not made the matter public through the print or visual media. In any case 99.99 % of the journalists are terrified of writing on such complaints as the sword of contempt law hangs over their heads. However we at PIL Watch Group made a field study of Justice As property on 6 March, 2014 and found that judges nameplate had been removed from the said house. Also the sign board of the law firm had been replaced with the signboard of an individual lawyer. Whether this is the result of the action taken on our complaint or destruction of evidence is yet to be determined. However, only the members of PIL Watch Group are aware of the developments. We have not received any communication from the authorities so far which means the 135 crore people in India would never get to know about our complaint as also what surreptitiously had been done by the judge concerned. The contempt law effectively shields the judges  both honest as well as dishonest ones  from the consequences of any wrong doing. It is said that sunlight is the best sanitizer. Why then should the shenanigans of judges be kept out of public domain simply by the threat of the contempt law? This is at the cost of suppressing the right of freedom of expression of the citizens.

Journalists in India function under the threat of contempt proceedings and hence the misconduct/misdoings of judges escape public scrutiny. Unlike judges in western countries, the Indian judges appoint themselves and also stay insulated from public gaze. The law of contempt in India functions like a de facto MISA in continuous operation without any formal announcement as far as the journalists and other public spirited citizens are concerned.

Clandestine procedure for handling complaints against judges

On 31 March, 2014 an RTI activist filed an application with the Delhi High Court asking interalia the following questions:

1. What is the in house procedure for handling complaints relating to judicial impropriety against a sitting judge of the Delhi High Court?

2. What is the procedure for handling complaints relating to judicial impropriety against a retired judge of the Delhi High Court committed during his/her tenure as a sitting judge?

3. What is the procedure for handling complaints relating to judicial impropriety against judges of Delhi Higher Judicial Service and Delhi Judicial Service?

For the next two years the Delhi High Court did not furnish the replies on the ground of this or that technicality, which anyway was found to be of no consequence by the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC). It was only in May 2016 on the orders of the CIC that the Delhi High Court sent the following reply:

1. In House procedure for handling complaints is available on the website of the Supreme Court of India.

2. No such information is available on record.

3. Complaints against Officers of Delhi Higher Judicial Services and Delhi Judicial Services may be addressed to the Honble Chief Justice of Delhi High Court.

Thus for two long years citizens were even deprived of this basic information; even as of date the website of the Delhi High Court does not contain this information. A ten-paged document on the Supreme Court website alone gives this simple but useful information. Even a net-savvy citizen would be hard put to reach this ten-paged document as the title preceding the information is Report of the Committee on In-House Procedure.

It is apparent even to a novice that there is a conscious effort by the authorities to keep the information a secret. So much for the transparency of the institution of Indian judiciary! It is just as well to add that in the Vishakha judgement (1997) dealing with the sexual harassment at workplace the court had prescribed guidelines and norms for protection of women from sexual harassment at workplace. It took the Supreme Court of India another 16 years before a system was put in place to deal with sexual harassment cases in the Supreme Court and this too needed the public spiritedness of two women lawyers to coax the court into action! Around that time the complaints of sexual harassment against two retired Supreme Court judges surfaced in the media.

Case no. 2

On 30 March, 2016 a complainant sent a communication to the Chief Justice of India elaborating on the case disposal rate of a sitting judge of the Delhi High Court. The highlights of the complaint include:

 The judge sits in court for hardly one hour a day and that too is spent on giving public lecture to the lawyers and litigants as to how administrative work keeps the judge busy.

 The judges disposal rate is the lowest.

 All matters in the judges court are simply adjourned. In the month of January 2016 the bench presided over by the judge disposed off only nine matters. Two were dismissed as withdrawn. Two matters were disposed off by a common judgement and three others by a judgement each and two more by orders. The four judgements are of ten, four, eleven and thirty-three pages. Two matters disposed of by orders are in two and three pages respectively. In the whole month only sixty-three pages were dictated.

 Performance in the month of February 2016 is only seven disposals five by judgements and two by orders, one of which pronounced in court on 18.02.2016 did not get uploaded on the website till 30.03.2016. The five judgements and one order authored in February 2016 totals only forty-eight pages.

The complainant had used the data available on the official Delhi High Court website. Ironically the complainant had only urged the Chief Justice of India to ensure that the concerned judge sits in court for the full duration of five hours i.e. from 10.30 a.m. to 1.15 p.m. and thereafter from 2.15 p.m. to 4.30 p.m.

The communication was quoted in a news item published in The Times of India dated 17 May, 2016 under the byline of Mr. Abhinav Garg  a journalist with an impeccable record of integrity, honesty and professionalism. (The name of the judge was mentioned in the news report, though we are withholding it in this article). The complainant was ostensibly forced to make the matter public as no action was taken on the complaint dated 30.03.2016 by the authorities. The publication of the disposal rate of cases of one judge of the Delhi High Court (a micro study in effect) let slip the dogs of war. The concerned journalist  moved by the image of weeping CJI over pendency of cases  had contempt proceedings initiated against him and was made to tender an unconditional apology. Ironically before filing the story the journalist had contacted the concerned judge who declined to comment. The journalist had even verified from the High Court website that the numbers cited by the complainant are accurate. Till date no lawyer in the whole country has disputed the substance of the complaint pertaining to disposal rate etc. A handful of senior advocates harped upon getting an unconditional apology from the newspaper rather than reply to the substance of the complaint. Evidently the data provided by the complainant is indisputable. Even so the Delhi High Court Bar Association passed a resolution on 18.05.2016 condemning the publication of the said article!

From the two cases detailed above certain conclusions emerge:

 If a complaint is sent to the authorities about a certain judge and the authorities do not act within a reasonable period of time (say six weeks) the complainant is inclined to make the issue public as in Case 2.

 Case 1 sends a message that when a complaint is made about a judge to the authorities, the chances are that there would be no acknowledgement or communication sent to the complainant even at the end of two and a half years.

So if the complainant goes to the media after waiting for a reasonable period of time the publication carrying the complaint would face contempt proceedings as in Case 2. The casualty in these situations is the freedom of expression. The most pertinent question is being swept under the carpet in Case 2 viz why did the authorities not take any action on the complaint for one and a half months? The normal practice adopted in a democracy is to send a complaint and wait for a reasonable period before making it public; the point of decision to go public is that the complaint is not being looked into.

Case 2 above shows that just by raising an issue of how many hours a judge spends in just one court in India or by making public the disposal rate of cases creates a storm in a teacup. We at PIL Watch Group are conducting a study into the number of hours judges are functioning in their courts. To begin with we chose the Tis Hazari District Courts, Delhi (said to be the largest court in Asia). On 25.05.2016 we conducted a survey by physically entering the court rooms in all the floors where the courts function and seeing for ourselves whether the judge is sitting in court or not. The visit was conducted between 11.40 a.m. to 2.35 p.m. (minus the lunch break from 1.30 p.m. to 2 p.m.). We chose the peak time when maximum number of judges are expected to be holding court. In about 30% of the courts visited the judges were not sitting in the court room. Would the Chief Justice of India please take note of this? Could we expect the judges in the District Courts to be holding court six hours a day minus half an hour for lunch? We feel that the case disposal rate would improve considerably if even this basic step is implemented. Why cant an exercise similar to the one conducted by us be undertaken by court-appointed commissioners along with members of civil society all over the country? The debate on over 3 crore (30 million) pending cases should not lose track of this vital reform which has to come from within the judiciary.

Finally we urge the Chief Justice of India to expunge the contempt proceedings against Mr. Abhinav Garg from the record of the Delhi High Court.

[Dr. P.S. Sahni is the Secretary of PIL Watch Group and can be contacted at: pilwatchgroup@gmail.com]










Printer Friendly Version Disseminating Zionist Fascism By Libelling Art By Vacy Vlazna 08 June, 2016

Countercurrents.org Palestinian-Australian Samah Sawabis finely crafted lyrical play, Tales of a City by the Sea, continues to be under fire from Bnai Brith Anti-Defamation Commission Chair, Dvir Abramovich since the play was added to the Victorian curriculum. His accusations against the Palestinian-Australian playwright are preposterously spurious, This is one of the most disturbing and cleverly conceived cases of unvarnished anti-Israel propaganda and delegitimisation masquerading as art, said Abramovich, who described the play as unabashedly one-sided. We welcome the review by Minister Merlino and thank him for the leadership he has taken on this issue. We told the minister that the VCE curriculum should not have been allowed to be hijacked by an Israel-bashing play whose core message and demonisation of Israelis and Jews as ugly, cold-stone murderers go against the fundamental objective of creating a safe and inclusive environment in schools. No Jewish student should be placed in the poisonous and unfair position of having to defend Israelsand by extension the Jewish religions immoral and cruel conduct in the face of the inevitable anger that will be felt by their classmates after watching the play. Victorian parents have the reasonable expectation that their children will not be exposed to any pedagogical materials that distort the truth, incite to hatred and create tension and disharmony between their friends at schools.The multicultural Victorian community will not countenance any element that plants the seeds of division in the minds of young minds and hearts. Australian Jewish News Bnai Brith Anti-Defamation Commissions honourable mission - To counter anti-Semitism we need to challenge prejudice whenever it occurs, whether it is directed at Jews or at other minorities.- is demeaned by Abramovichs bogus cries of wolf with its ironic prejudice arising from a concocted threat to Israel. Of course, one agrees with Abramovich that No Jewish student should be placed in the poisonous and unfair position of having to defend Israels immoral and cruel conduct but this is not Ms Sabawis responsibility. Surely it is up to the Israeli government to cease its immoral and cruel conduct i.e. ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide against the Palestinian people.all of which are well documented by the UN Goldstone Report on Israels Operation Cast Lead assault on Gaza; the plays setting. Given the above grave international law violations, Sabawis artistic restraint is extraordinary particularly as she has family in Gaza, who, along with all Palestinian families trapped there, have suffered the unimaginable trauma of three monstrous military assaults in six years by the worlds fourth largest nuclear military power. Remember Palestine has no airforce, no drones, no navy and in effect no army ( merely a liberation militia with homemade rockets). Speaking of rockets, Abramovichs complaint about Ms Sabawis alleged one-sidedness is picked up by Australian Jewish News journalist, Peter Kohn, The playfocuses on the relationship between a Palestinian journalist and an American doctor of Palestinian origin who visits Gaza in 2008, portraying Israel as an aggressor, without referring to Hamas rocket attacks and other provocations to Israel. Hamas rockets during the 2014 Operation Protective Edge are described by Jewish intellectual Dr Norman Finkelstein as enhanced fireworks, How could only one Israeli house have been destroyed and 11 others hit or damaged by a mega barrage of rockets? The obvious, and most plausible, answer is, most of these so-called rockets must have amounted to little more than enhanced fireworks...Hamass long-distance rockets during Pillar of Defense lacked explosives; an Israeli official dismissed them as pipes, basically. Neither Kohn nor Abramovich dare call the cynical euphemism other provocations to Israel legitimate Palestinian resistance - a right confirmed by Richard Falk, professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University and former UN Special Rapporteur to the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel, "In essence, international law grants to the Palestinian people a right to resist Israeli occupation that is reinforced by Israel's failure to withdraw from occupied Palestine as decreed back in 1967 by unanimous vote of the UN Security Council in Resolution 242 and by its own refusals to abide by the limitations imposed on an occupying power by the Geneva Conventions." The vitriolic bullying of Samah Sabawi parallels the Zionist template of quick fire accusations of antisemitism and incitement at the whiff of any criticism or truth-telling of Israeli violence and illegal occupation. This censorship ruse to silence criticism violates freedom of expression and is integral to Israels spreading fascism such as Erdans international coalition to monitor and limit criticism of Israel. Recently General Yair Golan, the deputy Chief of Staff, made the comparison between Israel and the fascism of the Weimar Republic, If there is something that frightens me about the memories of the Holocaust, it is the knowledge of the awful processes which happened in Europe in general, and in Germany in particular, 70, 80, 90 years ago, and finding traces of them here in our midst, today, in 2016. Other Israeli elite have echoed concern about Israeli fascism. Ms Sabawi is not alone. Stuart Rees recently published novel, A Lovers Country, has incurred a barrage of Zionist hate mail. Sabawi and Rees are adults who can withstand Zionist slings and arrows, however how does a British-Palestinian schoolgirl, Leanne Muhamad, cope being denied her rightful place in the final rounds of the Speak Out Challenge last week? The misnamed Speak Out Trust that buckled under Zionist pressure reinstated Leanne affirming Zionist vulnerability to international protest. Sabawis creative integrity has been very publicly slandered by Bnai Briths defamatory gambit. Abramovichs accusations have crossed the defamation line by his outrageous assertion that Ms Sabawi showed malicious intent to incite antisemitism that could impact Jewish students in the Victorian school system,  disturbing and cleverly conceived cases of unvarnished anti-Israel propaganda and delegitimisation

 Israel-bashing play whose core message and demonisation of Israelis and Jews as ugly, cold-stone murderers pedagogical materials that distort the truth, incite to hatred and create tension and disharmony

whose entire purpose is to indoctrinate them with a one-sided, blatant anti-Israel propaganda  plants the seeds of division Ms Sabawi's artistic and political principles are exemplary and she is respected for her reconciliatory stand. In I remember my name, a collection of contemporary Palestinian poetry by 3 poets, Sabawi poetry (as well as her articles and talks) promotes a remarkable forgiveness and call to a peaceful shared humanity between Palestinians and Israelis; "To the people of Israel who fear our freedom: Dont be afraid, we will liberate you too.

The day I rise from the ruins of your oppression

I promise you I will not rise alone

You too will rise with me

You will be liberated from your tyranny

And my freedom will bring your salvation I dont want to obliterate nor humiliate you

I refuse to hate you

Dont care to demonize or proselytize or theorize your intention We will be free

I will be your equal

And only then you will be mine

My other self

My fellow human being"

(Liberation Anthem)

"I will not fall for this game

Of demonizing an entire people

I will defend my enemy's rights

Because freedom is not a commodity

To be had by some and denied to others There is no 'us' and 'them'

Every death will be mourned by a grieving mother

Her tears more precious than any flag

(Against the tide) It is disappointing that after the Anti-Defamation Committee met with James Merlino, the Victorian Minister for Education capitulated and called for a review of the selection criteria for the VCE Drama Playlist. Disappointing it is, and yet not surprising when one recalls former Foreign Minister, Bob Carr hit out at what he calls the "pro-Israel lobby in Melbourne", saying it wielded "extraordinary influence" on Australia's policy during his time in Julia Gillard's cabinet. One hopes that the VCAA possesses the scrupulous independence to verify that Samah Sabawis exquisitely poetic Tales of a City by the Sea, does not harbour an iota of delegitimisation of Israel nor demonisation of Israelis and Jews as ugly, cold-stone murderers. Rather, it can only affirm Sabawi explores Palestinian identity within Palestine and in the diaspora, her play reveres the life-force of love and ultimately salutes Palestinian sumoud- heroic steadfastness, Yes, we are trapped behind a wall, but Rami, look around you. Open your eyes. See all the stories of how we survive; the trees weve replanted, the homes weve rebuilt. Inside these walls, Rami, old men still fiddle with their prayer beads. Mothers still bake maamoul on Eid. Families still gather under canopies with loaded bunches of grapes dangling above their heads, they nibble on watermelon seeds and drink maramiah tea. Women still perfect the art of matchmaking. Men still dream of freedom and democracy. Children climb on almond trees. Lovers woo in secrecy. And no matter how the conditions are adverse, over here we have learned to defy the universe! Every day inside these walls, Rami, we defy the universe! Beware! The real threat lies in the likes of Abramovich; agents of a foreign entity who, wielding extraordinary influence over craven governments globally, gnaw at democratic rights, such as freedom of expression and freedom of the press, by superseding truth with mendacious untruth. This betrayal of the democratic ideals of their host country covertly, insidiously spreads Zionist fascism worldwide. Dr. Vacy Vlazna is Coordinator of Justice for Palestine Matters and editor of a volume of Palestinian poetry, I remember my name. She was Human Rights Advisor to the GAM team in the second round of the Acheh peace talks, Helsinki, February 2005 then withdrew on principle. Vacy was convenor of Australia East Timor Association and coordinator of the East Timor Justice Lobby as well as serving in East Timor with UNAMET and UNTAET from 1999-2001.







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By Matthew Tully, The Indianapolis Star

Here's an idea that would allow a candidate for governor, either one, to show an ability to think boldly while offering the promise of big and important results. And here's the kicker: It wouldn't be hard to achieve.

The idea came to me recently while reading through a thoroughly depressing study on Indiana's tobacco use from IUPUI's Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health. The study is a sobering account of a state that outpaces most of the country in tobacco use and is paying dearly for it, both in the health of its citizens and the cost to its taxpayers.

"We are really in bad shape," said Paul Halverson, dean of the School of Public Health. "If you look at where we are in our overall health rankings and pull up the major determining factors, smoking is huge."

Huge and largely ignored by state policymakers in recent years. Essentially, you have in one corner one of the most devastating and addictive collection of products on the planet, and in the other corner a state government that seems strangely and negligently uninterested in fighting back.

Indiana, for instance, has kept tobacco taxes among the lowest in the nation while bludgeoning its already meager prevention and cessation efforts in recent years. It has not come close to matching the spending figure the Centers for Disease Control recommends, and it spends only a tiny fraction of our annual tobacco settlement check on anti-smoking programs.

And, so, we live in a state where roughly 23 percent of Hoosier adults smoke, a rate that is 36 percent higher than the national average, and where an estimated 15 percent of pregnant women smoke, which is almost 50 higher than the national average.

It's even worse within the state's Medicaid population, in which the 30 percent of pregnant women smoke. The IUPUI report calls that alarming figure "one reason why Indiana continues to bear the economic burden associated with disproportionately higher rates of infant mortality and underweight births."

Amid all this, we have a race for governor. A race that hasn't produced much in the way of big ideas as of yet. A race that could use an infusion of ambitious policy proposals.

Here's one.

Either Republican Gov. Mike Pence or Democrat John Gregg could make a push to dramatically reduce the rate of tobacco use in Indiana. Given how far the state trails so many other states, and given how little has been done to tackle this problem so far, the potential for tremendous improvement is there. This issue offers something political candidates tend to love: Low-hanging fruit.

After all, just getting Indiana to the national average would result in a tremendous improvement in public health, and a huge reduction in the state's health care costs.

"We know how to prevent this," Halverson said. "We don't need more research. We need someone with the gumption to do what we know will work."

Exactly. Relying on research that has driven success in so many other states, Halverson and others propose a few simple steps that would produce a huge payoff.

First, raise the tobacco tax. Right now, Indiana slaps a 99-cent tax on each pack of cigarettes, which is lower than 31 other states. The American Lung Association has recommended increasing that by $1 per pack, which Tobacco-Free Indiana estimates would lead to 39,000 Hoosier adults giving up their habit in just the first year. The tax increase would pump tens of millions of dollars directly into state coffers, while the reduction in smokers would help reduce massive smoking-related Medicaid costs.

Second, the state Legislature should reverse the steps it has taken in recent years to starve prevention and cessation programs. Once funded at a lackluster $35 million per year, the figure has been reduced to a meager $5 million. More funding could be pumped into effective local tobacco prevention and cessation programs, which have suffered amid state budget cuts, as well as more effective quit lines, support programs and information efforts.

Third, the state could extend the smoking ban to include all workplaces, including casinos.

By pushing all or part of this agenda, by turning to experts who know how to craft anti-smoking programs, a governor could take important steps forward on an issue that is a root cause of so many of the state's dire health problems. As Halverson noted, smoking worsens just about every other health issue.

During the last legislative session House Speaker Brian Bosma proposed a $1 per-pack increase in the cigarette tax, as part of a broader plan to address infrastructure issues. The plan died in part because so many Republicans, including the governor, had pledged to not raise taxes. This apparently even includes smart and targeted taxes proven to save taxpayer money in both the short- and long-term.

The bottom line is this: The rate of tobacco use in Indiana is a serious public health problem, one that is costing us in lives and in taxes, and it isn't being taken as seriously as it should be. That needs to change.

Pence talks often about trying to improve the health of newborns in Indiana. Well, when 15 percent of all pregnancies are impacted by smoking, I think the path toward such improvement is clear. Gregg talks a lot about taking steps that will make Indiana a more attractive place to live. Well, with so many health rankings placing our state at the bottom of the pile, here's a road forward.

"This isn't an incurable disease," Halverson said. "We know how to solve this."

We do, indeed. Now all we need is a state leader who is willing to try.

Email the writer at matthew.tully@indystar.com.
MIKE LAWRENCE / COURIER & PRESS Professional angler and TV host Jimmy Houston gives Luke Gerhardt some professional advice on putting a worm on a hook during the third annual Kids Fishing Clinic held at Expressway Chevrolet in Mount Vernon last Saturday.

SHARE MIKE LAWRENCE / COURIER & PRESS Mickie Evans helps his son Jayce Evans, 11 years-old, pulls a whopper of a fish out of the water at the third annual Kids Fishing Clinic at Expressway Chevrolet in Mount Vernon last Saturday. MIKE LAWRENCE / COURIER & PRESS Anglers of all ages try their luck at the third annual Kids Fishing Clinic at Expressway Chevrolet in Mount Vernon last Saturday. MIKE LAWRENCE / COURIER & PRESS Trophies lined up for lucky anglers at the third annual Kids Fishing Clinic held at Expressway Chevrolet in Mount Vernon last Saturday. MIKE LAWRENCE / COURIER & PRESS Libby Reese, 7, fishing from her grandmother Sherri Dartt's lap at the third annual Kids Fishing Clinic held at Expressway Chevrolet in Mount Vernon last Saturday.

By Jessie Higgins of the Courier and Press

A crowd of excited children grabbed their fishing poles and spent Saturday afternoon at the little lake behind Mount Vernon's Expressway Auto Mall.

It was Expressway's third annual fishing clinic for kids.

"A lot of kids here today caught their first fish," said Jimmy Houston, a professional angler and TV host as well as a spokesman for Expressway. "This really is a great event."

Houston encouraged the Expressway Auto Mall to host the event after seeing their lake in the back while making a personal appearance at the Mount Vernon mall.

"I said, 'You've got a nice little pond here,' " Houston said. "We should have a kids fishing day."

The event is a way for the auto mall to give back to the community, said Allison Becher, the advertising coordinator for Expressway Ford.

"It's like a customer appreciation day, but for the customers' kids," she said.

Kids that caught the largest fish won prizes, so throughout the afternoon, kids hooked their fish and hauled them up to be measured.

"I caught a 22 ounce and a 15 ounce," announced Maddox Potter as he reached into a cup for a worm to bait his hook.

His grandfather, Myrl Potter, smiled. This was their first time to the fishing clinic, and they would certainly be back, he said.

About 40 kids turned out to the mall's first clinic. Last year there were about 80. This year, nearly 140 children attended.

"You just watch, we'll get 300 to 500 kids here in four or five years," Houston said. "This just going to get bigger and better every year."
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By Richard Gootee of the Courier and Press

Gary Barnett called his almost three decades working at the Hillcrest Washington Youth Home in Evansville an "honor and a privilege."

"The great thing is that I've worked with a lot of great kids," he said, pausing to gather his emotions. "I've gotten more from them than I've gave."

Barnett retired from the facility on Friday.

"Those kids ... have gone through so much and bounced back from things that would have destroyed me. I've been blessed to work with them," he said.

Barnett was feted by juvenile court judge Brett Niemeier in the court chambers the morning of his last day. During the short ceremony, Niemeier gave his friend a plaque during a short presentation in front of court workers and other Hillcrest colleagues.

"His heart is as good as gold, but his word is just platinum  you can take it to the bank," Niemeier said. He turned to Barnett. "You're an amazing individual. You've done this for so many years, You're just an absolute treasure."

The surprise gesture from Niemeier was unwanted praise said Barnett  who protested as soon as he realized what was going on. But the 64-year-old clearly appreciate it.

Barnett actually started at Hillcrest as a student worker in 1972. He returned to the facility to become head administrator in 1988. Since then he's done everything there "but cut the grass." He said his immediate retirement plans include spending more time with the youths in his own family  his grandchildren. But he hopes to get back to helping some of the most disadvantaged children in the area again sooner rather than later.

"I have six grandkids. So I'm going to be a little more of a grandparent. But my plan in January is to apply to be a CASA," said Barnett, referring to the Court Appointed Special Advocates program that works with children in the court system. "I think they'll take me."

He said Hillcrest will "not miss a beat" without him, but he wants to ensure the community knows the importance of his former employer and facilities like it.

Hillcrest has a capacity of 45, but its census is usually around 20 to 25. Youths come to Hillcrest through the juvenile court system, for temporary housing through the Department of Child Services or for emergency shelter through initiatives like SafePlace.

"It's very, very important that places like Hillcrest, United Methodist Youth Home, and the Youth Care Center continue because we want to treat our local kids so we're not sending them 200 miles away," Barnett said. "When you take kids away from their home community, you take them away from their family and the chances of them getting back decrease. I've been a tough critic but Vanderburgh County has always done a pretty good job of taking care of their kids.

"I've seen government people and private interest come together to help kids, and I think Hillcrest has been a big piece of that."
A pickup truck shows front-end damage with a bicycle still underneath it. Police say a driver crashed into a group of bicyclists and killed multiple people June 7, 2016, north of Kalamazoo, Mich.

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By USA TODAY NETWORK, Detroit Free Press

KALAMAZOO, Mich.  Five bicyclists were killed Tuesday night and four others seriously injured after a pickup plowed into a group of bicyclists north of Kalamazoo, police said.

In the minutes before the bicyclists were hit, police were actively looking for the pickup as they had gotten three separate calls from concerned citizens that the driver was driving erratically, police said.

Police said the driver, a 50-year-old West Michigan resident, was in custody and a decision on possible charges would be likely on Thursday.

The five victims were pronounced dead at the scene, police said. Two of the people involved in the crash are being treated at Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo, said a spokeswoman, Carolyn Wyllie, who declined to disclose any more details.

Names of the driver and victims were not released as police were still notifying families late Tuesday. All were adults, who apparently were riding together northbound on North Westnedge Avenue when they were struck from behind.

"There is very little I can or will tell you about how exactly this accident happened," said Kalamazoo County Prosecutor Jeff Getting. He said not all families had been notified and he did not want facts about the scene reaching families through the news media.

"I can't even begin to imagine what they're going through," Getting said.

As calls about the erratic driving of the truck came in to, the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety, the sheriff's department and the Kalamazoo Township Police Department, officers from each agency dispatched officers to try to find the truck.

"This was a moving target," Getting said.

The crash occurred before they found the truck, Getting said; he asserted that there was no pursuit in progress at the time of the crash.

Tuesday evening, the road was shut down and clogged with dozens of emergency vehicles. Concerned neighbors looked on in horror as word of the tragedy circulated.

Markus Eberhard said he often goes fishing at the location and was walking out of a store when "someone, I don't know who, told me watch out and I jumped back. The truck went past my foot  almost hit my foot, and I looked, and before I could tell the bikers to move, it was too late. I already heard a bunch of bikes hit his front end."

Eberhard said the vehicle was a blue Chevy Silverado 2500.

The prosecutor acknowledged that the mass-casualty incident, coming 3 months after six people were killed in the Kalamazoo shootings, was hard on the community.

"I'm at a loss to describe how I feel about the impact to the community," Getting said, but he added, "I have every confidence in Kalamazoo and in Kalamazoo County and I know how the community will respond.

"I just wish we had had more of an opportunity to get our feet under us before we had to do it again."
You may have a new city councilor. Take a look at Evansville's new voting map

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Peace for future generations in our hands

Statement: 52 years of struggle for peace in Colombia

We celebrate this anniversary at a crucial point for the life of our nation, when we stand at the threshold of reaching a definitive peace agreement with the national government. After five decades and two years since war began, finally reason seems to impose itself on the belligerent moods that unlashed the tragedy.

The peasants integrating the agrarian movement in Marquetalia, in the south of the department of Colima, knowing beforehand about the huge military operation which was coming against them, wrote dozens of letters to the Congress of the Republic, the churches, political parties, companies, national and foreign personalities, calling on them to stop the decision that will condemn them to the loss of their tranquillity, their families, goods, jobs, their life.

They were asking that the Colombian government give them support, roads, credits, schools, health centres, guarantees to enable them to make politics, instead of bullets and bombs, troops and planes. They were not asking for a huge amount of money. Nor for rights that were not recognised in the Constitution and the laws. However the voice of those who called them bandits and wanted their annihilation, prevailed.

After the community general assembly it was decided that the families settled in the region would leave with the little they could take with them, in a painful exodus that was repeating itself after many years of violence. Forty-eight peasants, men and women, decided to stay there, poorly armed and alone against the world, to wait for the aggressors and fight them in an unequal resistance they swore would end up changing the face of Colombia.

The National Army occupied and raised the flag on the very place where, before being destroyed by bombs, existed the old farm of Marquetalia. However that group of men and women survived and converted themselves into an invincible guerrilla force that was spreading its influence over the whole territory of Colombia. The just cause their weapons represented have found an echo in thousands of Colombians that day after day were supporting it and joining its ranks.

The Colombian armed forces, constantly advised by the Pentagon, resolved to use every war tactic in a desperate effort to annihilate the growing struggle. Instigated by the national security doctrine inspiring its actions, and trained by Escuela de las Americas, they opted to consider as the enemy within, all those not conforming and reclaiming their rights in political and social struggle.

The conflict became the perfect excuse for the regime to persecute trade unions and the peasants, Indigenous peoples, workers, popular, social, democratic and opposition movements, sinking the country in a massive dirty war that included crimes including massacres, disappearances, torture, forced displacement, exile, judicial frame-ups, prison and terror.

Death, tears and fear haunted the country for decades, opposing the guerrilla call for a political solution to put an end to the conflict in a civilised manner. The people, including thousands of children of the nation saw their lives brought to an end or faced illness and hunger in the jungles, or died at the hand of official agents or paramilitary groups.

Bounties worth millions were offered for the heads of the rebel leaders and many of them were assassinated, always with the approval of mainstream media and those who advocated terror as the only path. Despite all that, every day young people, both males and females, were joining the guerrillas, with commitment and with good will, to replace the dead comrades, and warm their spirit in the heat of the struggle.

FARC-EP is and always has been a political organisation

It would have been more humane and cheap to talk in order to end the painful drama of the nation. But always interests and tempers were interposed to stop or sabotage. However, after half a century of horrors, the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC-EP) in Havana peace consultations stand for a Final Peace Agreement though the countrys leaders still persist in calling for more bombings and inciting the population to persist in a war with no future.

The FARC-EP, with the authority given to us by our long resistance and the fact of having survived to defend our truths, firmly believe that at this point in time the whole of Colombia should join the beautiful dream of peace and reconciliation. Never before have the government and the guerrillas been so close to the signature of a bilateral and permanent ceasefire and the end of hostilities as we are now. This means that the happy smile of future generations is in our hands.

We face the challenge and commitment to build a different country together, a country in which the wellbeing of all human beings would be above any craving for profit, in which natural and common resources would be at the service of the general development of all the people. A country in which opportunities for the disadvantaged are real. A country in which law and justice prevail.

The agreements reached so far at the Negotiations Table are the keys to a better future for Colombia. The countryside must be converted into an important economic engine. Illicit crops and the need to resort to them must be put behind us. Victims will see their rights satisfied and truth and justice will be established after the dark night of war. Full democracy must be a fact on national soil.

It is with these purposes that we have talked during five years of dialogues and the formulas to ensure we are ready. It is true that some important aspects are still to be agreed, but we dream optimistically, seeing that every day more citizens join in the effort for peace, that the two parties will soon find conciliatory positions. The final definition is to be found on the near horizon of some weeks or months. No human power can prevent that.

After 52 years of confrontation, the FARC-EP will become a legal and disarmed political movement in a country where tolerance and guarantees for the political opponent must be full. We will join our voices and efforts to all of those who dream of a just and sovereign nation, in order to be part of the unstoppable torrent that will make Colombia an example for America and the world.

We swore we will overcome  and we will overcome!

Central High Command of the National Secretariat of the FARC-EP
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Carousel To Buy Atrion To Turbocharge New Cisco Practice

Michael Novinson

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Carousel Industries plans to buy fellow Rhode Island solution provider Atrion to rapidly scale its nascent Cisco practice and become more of a one-stop shop for customers.

The Exeter, R.I.-based company -- No. 64 on the CRN 2016 Solution Provider 500 -- said that nearly three-fourths of its 6,000 customers use Cisco products, but until March were unable to procure them via Carousel. Atrion should be able to fulfill pent-up demand, as the company derives about half its $140 million of sales from Cisco and has a robust product and managed services practice around the vendor.

"This puts us in business [with Cisco] in a national way almost overnight," Jeff Gardner, Carousel's CEO, told CRN. "When we lose customers, we lose them to Cisco."

[Related: Solution Provider Atrion Networking Merges With Sister Company To Ramp Up Services Push]

Building up a Cisco practice should allow its customers to take advantage of economies of scale and reduce the number of vendors they have to deal with, Gardner said. Carousel previously carried almost every major vendor other than Cisco -- about 50 in total -- Gardner said, but wasn't authorized to service the San Jose, Calif.-based networking company until March 1.

Existing customers of Warwick, R.I.-based Atrion, No. 196 on the CRN SP 500, will benefit from Carousel's deep ties to Aruba and Avaya in the networking and unified communication spaces, respectively, Atrion CEO Tim Hebert told CRN. The combined company also hopes to accelerate investments in the fast-growing firewall, threat management and access control security spaces, he said.

Post-merger, the company will carry all three major collaboration vendors -- Avaya, Cisco and Microsoft -- making it easier to support customers looking to migrate from one to another, Hebert said.

Terms of the deal, expected to close early in the third quarter, were not disclosed. The combined company will employ more than 1,300 nationwide and deliver $525 million of sales each year.

Both Carousel and Atrion said they've focused on shifting the sales conversation from IT products to business outcomes, and find themselves speaking more with line-of-business leaders rather than the IT department. Both companies said they've seen impressive growth in their cloud and managed services practices, with Atrion also citing outsourcing as a particularly robust area.

The Atrion brand name will be retained, though its workforce will be fully integrated into Carousel in the coming months. Gardner will oversee the entire operation; Hebert will continue to serve as CEO of the Atrion side of the business in the short run, but will likely transition into more of a shared role within the organization.

The two companies have minimal customer overlap, Hebert said, with just 25 of Atrion's 350 customers also doing significant business with Carousel. Both companies specialize in clients with 250 to 10,000 seats, and are strongest in the Northeast, Hebert said, though Carousel does 65 percent of its business outside the region.

Atrion's strongest verticals are higher education, health care, business services and community banking, while Carousel is strongest in the health care and financial services spaces, according to Hebert and Gardner. Becoming part of Carousel will enable Atrion to provide better in-region support to national clients based in New England or the mid-Atlantic states, according to the companies.

The deal will build on Atrion's January 2015 merger with sister company Atrion Corp. of Flemington, N.J., which Hebert said provided the Rhode Island branch with data center and cloud expertise that the company will be able to extend into Carousel's existing client base.

Carousel's data center practice was more focused on infrastructure, Hebert said, while Atrion offers expertise in data center compute, storage and virtualization with vendors such as Cisco, HPE, NetApp and EMC.
Security News

NTT Herds Its Security Services Forces Under One Umbrella

Jimmy Sheridan

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Japanese telecommunications giant Nippon Telegraph and Telephone has launched its own specialized security solution provider to respond to a highly competitive security landscape.



The new company, NTT Security, is scheduled to debut Aug. 1. Its being weaved together from parts of NTT's subsidiaries, which include channel heavyweight Dimension Data  No. 11 on CRNs Solution Provider 500 list for 2016.



NTT Security will focus on providing a wide set of solutions in such areas as governance consulting, risk management, compliance and security system design, managed security services, threat intelligence and analytics. Its wide set of solutions are aimed to help clients respond to rapidly changing security needs and threats.

[Related: 10 Things You Don't Know About NTT Data]

According to Gary Napotnik, the vice president of marketing for security service provider Solutionary, one of the companies that will be folded into NTT Security, the new company is expected to have annual revenue of around $1 billion. It will employ 1,300 people across four regions: in the U.S., Europe, Asia-Pacific and Japan.



In a statement, Solutionary said NTT Security will combine it with the managed security services platforms of both Dimension Data and NTT Communications and NTT Communications security practice, all of which will be integrated with the security platform of the parent firms R&D arm, NTT Innovation Institute.

Solutionary CEO and co-founder Steve Idelman will serve as CEO of the U.S. region, although he will cede that role in December to the current president of Solutionary, Mike Hrabik.

"There is no doubt in my mind that the companys scale is going to give us an edge, Napotnik said in an interview with CRN. "We are taking the best and the brightest across all of our companies and we are combining all of those services together."

He said the new company will have scale that will give it an edge in a marketplace thats seeing a lot of competition and consolidation.

With the largest players in the managed security services (MSS) market pulling in between $216 million and $2 billion in annual revenue, the potential $1 billion NTT Security could may make it one of the new heavy hitters in the market, running within the ranks of providers like Optiv and SecureWorks.

Napotnik said he believes many MSS providers are consolidating to keep up with demand for security providers that offer a broader profile of technology and services.

"We are combining a large series of services across the entire security lifecycle to meet any need that our clients have," Napotnik said.

In a statement, NTT Corp. said the decision to create the new business was driven by its focus on improving its security portfolio with a wider set of "cutting-edge technologies and services" that channel partners can take to market globally, thanks to "an integrated approach to security solutions."

He said NTT will focus on growing throughout the Americas, and is aggressively hiring.

NTT Security will be based in Tokyo and be fully owned by NTT Corp. It will be headed by Jun Sawada, a senior vice president for the parent company.

We have a lot of great partners in the U.S. and they are very important for us going forward, he said.


Storage News

Hitachi Data Systems Denies Nikkei Report That It's Freezing High-End Storage Development

Joseph F. Kovar

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Hitachi Data Systems is up in arms over a report on a Japanese business site that said the vendor is exiting the high-end storage business.

Hitachi Data Systems, the U.S.-based subsidiary of Japan-based Hitachi responsible for storage sales worldwide outside of Japan, is denying the report and working with its parent company to understand how the story was published, company officials told CRN.

The interest in the story started last week, when ITpro, an online publication of Japan-based Nikkei Business Publications, published a story dated June 1. A poorly edited English translation with the same date, possibly the result of the Google translation site, was also published.

[Related: Q&A: EMC's Jeremy Burton On Dell's EMC Buy, VCE, Cisco And NetApp]

The English-language version of the story carried the headline "Hitachi business strategy briefing, new investments in high-end storage to freeze."

After internal business strategy meetings, according to the article, Hitachi included as part of its strategy "freezing the investment in the high-end model of the storage business."

At least one competitor, IBM, used the headline for competitive purposes, by tweeting it to followers.

"Hitachi business strategy briefing, new investments in high-end storage to freeze" -

/**/ /**/

An HDS spokesperson told CRN the company is by no means end-of-lifing its high-end storage business.

However, the spokesperson did say that HDS is shifting some of its R&D efforts to different parts of its business, just like other vendors in the storage business.

"It would be silly for us to exit a market where we have dominated for years," the spokesperson said. "We're still adding innovations in our hardware and software, including flash storage, analytics, and converged infrastructure."

The spokesperson said that HDS' strategy for years was to invest in high-end storage, especially in the hardware.

"Now we're moving from disk to flash, and investing in SVOS [HDS' Storage Virtualization Operating System]," the spokesperson said. "We're putting a lot more functionality and robustness into our software. We're also investing in hardware. In those areas of the market where it makes sense, we're going with commodity hardware. But at the high end, no."

HDS has been expanding its converged infrastructure business, and doing a lot with digital transformation, and in November launched its all-flash VSP line, the spokesperson said. "You'll see flash permeate throughout our entire portfolio," the spokesperson said.

Greg Knieriemen, HDS technology strategist and evangelizer, told CRN that HDS is responding to the Nikkei story with a genuine flat-out denial.

"The idea that we would give up on high-end storage is insane and crazy," Knieriemen told CRN. "There is absolutely no merit to the story. As you can imagine, the story has caused considerable concern inside HDS because it is so unfounded."

Bob Madaio, HDS' senior director of product marketing, on Tuesday wrote in a blog post thanking the competition for using the Nikkei headline because it gave HDS the opportunity to highlight its high-end storage capabilities.

Madaio said that HDS is indeed shifting its development to areas with the best promise for the future.

"If you were the executive running Hitachi and deciding where to place your bets to best service your customers in the future, would you want us spending our R&D budget on new, custom ASICs for high-end-only hardware or on flash storage innovation, software-defined versions of our systems, hyper-converged scale-out leadership and unique, value-add specialized hardware that revolutionize things like data analytics?" he wrote.

Alvin Chu, senior director of solutions at Fusionstorm, a San Francisco-based solution provider and HDS channel partner, told CRN he would be very surprised if the story were true.

"High-end storage is their bread and butter," Chu said. "I don't think they'll ever give it up. If you are one of the only guys with mainframe-compatible storage, you won't give it up."

Chu said the storage market is shrinking for hardware manufacturers. "Small and medium-sized customers are moving their apps and data to the cloud, including test-dev and production apps," he said. "Their competitors should be more worried about the shrinking market than what Nikkei says Hitachi is doing."

Market research firm IDC last week reported that the worldwide total enterprise storage market in the first quarter of 2016 fell in revenue terms by 7 percent from the first quarter of 2015. Hitachi and HDS did much better than the total market, with enterprise storage revenue falling 1.6 percent year over year, making it the second-best-performing company of the top six vendors.
Intel Unite For Businesses

Intel Wednesday unveiled new features for Intel Unite, its conferencing software that gives businesses a cost-effective way to transform existing conference rooms into connected meeting spaces.

Intel Unite, which powers secure, connected meeting spaces, is the latest addition to Intel's vPro technology and is powered by Intel Core vPro processors to promote a wireless and increasingly mobile workplace.

"I think there's a huge opportunity for the channel with Intel Unite," said Chad Constant, director of business client marketing at Intel, Santa Clara, Calif. "We need our partners' understanding of the environment. The opportunities for partners run the whole gamut, from selling this solution to installing and maintaining it."

Following are five new security and collaboration features that boost Intel Unite's capabilities.
Apple And Samsung: Rivals In The Laptop World, Too

As the CRN Test Center noted in our recent review of Samsung's new Notebook 9, it's a nice machine in part because it channels some of the best qualities of Apple's MacBook Pro, such as the terrific keyboard and touchpad. The machines also invite comparison because each has an aluminum body with rounded corners, and comes with plenty of power to get users productive.

But when it comes to some of the other specs -- and price -- there are some big differences between the Notebook 9 and MacBook Pro, which go well beyond the different operating systems (Windows 10 for the former, OSX El Capitan for the latter).

It should be mentioned that Apple rumors now circulating do suggest that an update of the MacBook Pro could be coming -- maybe as soon as next week's WWDC. But for now, here is the breakdown of how Samsung's Notebook 9 and Apple's MacBook Pro stack up.
Let's take some time during the Easter season to watch a movie that will inspire us to reflect on why we celebrate this holiday. As we approach Easter, we are once again confronted by the wonder of Christs resurrection. The knowledge that an all-powerful Savior came to earth as a man, then gave himself to be crucified, is staggering to consider. The Easter celebration is a time when we look to the promises of the gospel, recounting its message of hope, joy, mercy, and profound love. So when the Sunday services are over, and the family is relaxing after a good meal, consider revisiting these lessons in the form of a movie.

While not the most expansive of holidays, Easter still has several terrific movies and films to its name. Are you looking to witness the last trails of Jesus? Perhaps youd prefer something lighter for the children? Either way, here are the top 10 movies for Christians to watch this Easter.

Get your FREE Easter Guide here. Have encouragement delivered straight to your inbox!

The Passion of the Christ

Arguably the most famous Christian movie in existence, The Passion of the Christ captures every moment of fear, pain, and resolve surround the crucifixion of Jesus. Though controversy still dogs this violent film, Jim Caviezel delivers a stunning performance thats still acknowledged to this day. Filled with raw emotion and gruesome brutality, The Passion of the Christ is not for the faint of heart. However, those viewers who can endure its onslaught will step away with a new understanding, and a new hope, in the resurrection of Christ.

You can stream the Passion of the Christ (rent or buy) online on Amazon Prime

Risen

A more recent addition to the list of Eater movies, Risen takes a rather creative approach to the events surrounding Easter. Instead of retelling the story of Christ and his disciples, Risen follows a Roman Centurion who is charged by Pontius Pilate to investigate the disappearance of Jesus body and quell a Jewish uprising. As the search leads him across Jerusalem and into the path of Christs disciples, the truth behind the mystery proves even more fantastic than he imagined. By viewing the resurrection through the eyes of an outside, Risen brings new life to a familiar narrative.

You can stream the Risen (rent or buy) online on Amazon Prime

VeggieTales: An Easter Carol

Who can resist the hijinks of Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber, especially when Rebecca St. James joins the fun as an angel named Hope? Based on the work of Charles Dickens, An Easter Carol follows everyones favorite vegetables as they attempt to persuade the cranky Mr. Nezzer from destroying St. Barts church to make way for his new amusement park. Safe for children, and fun for adults of all ages, An Easter Carol teaches the viewers the true meaning of Easter with plenty of laughs and silly songs to boot. Christian parents couldnt ask for a better movie to share the Easter story with their kids.

You can stream the Veggie Tales: An Easter Carol online on: iTunes or Vudu

Son of God

Created by Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, Son of God is an adaption of their record-breaking miniseries The Bible. The feature film expands upon the ministry of Jesus, chronicling his life from birth to resurrection. What makes this movie so unique is that it gives audiences a panoramic view of Christs intentions. Easter is no longer simply an event which concluded Christs time on Earth, it was the moment his entire life had been building toward. With fantastic acting and beautiful scenery, Son of God is truly a miracle to behold.

You can stream the Son of God (rent or buy) online on Amazon Prime

The Greatest Story Ever Told

The name pretty much says it all. The Greatest Story Ever Told lived up to its reputation by being a project of truly biblical proportions. The cast includes veteran actors like Charlton Heston, Angela Lansbury, and Max von Sydow, who for years after was the face of Jesus. Standing at nearly 4 hours long, this movie is a serious undertaking. Still, if viewers are searching for a deep and comprehensive look into the life of Jesus, they wont find a better story.

You can stream The Greatest Story Ever Told (rent or buy) online on Amazon Prime

Ben-Hur

Whether its the classic version or its recent remake, Ben-Hur mixes the best of Biblical history with Christian storytelling. After the Jewish prince Judah Ben-Hur is betrayed by a close friend and sold into slavery, his thirst for vengeance leads him into the deadly sport of Roman chariot racing. However, behind the scenes, events are taking place which Ben-Hur doesnt truly understand. Who is this mysterious prophet with whom he keeps crossing paths? What plan has God laid out for him and his family? A great film in every aspect, Ben-Hur should not be overlooked.

You can stream Ben-Hur (rent or buy) online on Amazon Prime

Its the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown

Sometimes you just need a movie to help you smile, and who better to do that than Snoopy and the Peanuts gang? In its 12th prime-time television outing, Linus tries to convince his friends that the Easter Beagle will make a holiday appearance when he arrives on Sunday morning. Given his previous tale about the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and company are more than a little skeptical. Thankfully, everyones favorite puppy decides to step in and save the day!

You can stream It's The Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown online on Amazon Prime

The Gospel of John

Though not the most compelling Christian film in the genre, The Gospel of John nonetheless earns a place on this list for its unwavering commitment to scripture. The movie is a word-for-word reenactment of Jesus ministry with no additions or subtractions. This attention to detail is truly striking, and its impressive the cast were able to pull off such a difficult feat and deliver solid performances at the same time. Plus, former Lost fans will get a kick out of watching Henry Ian Cusick (AKA: Desmond) portray the Son of God.

You can stream The Gospel of John (but or rent) online on Amazon Prime

Easter Parade

Though it certainly falls outside the traditionally faith-filled conversation surrounding Easter, this upbeat musical is still worth a view thanks to good, old-fashioned nostalgia. Fred Astaire stars a dancer suddenly deprived of his partner when a former colleague sweeps her away for a solo career. Luckily, he finds a replacement in a lovely chorus dancer played by Judy Garland. Overflowing with color and classic songs, Easter Parade is for everyone looking to get dressed up and dance on a wonderful Easter morning.

You can stream Easter Parade (but or rent) online on Amazon Prime

The Robe

One of the oldest movies on this list, The Robe has still retained its luster over time. Richard Burton portrays a military tribune named Marcellus Gallio who wins the robe of Jesus in a dice game. Haunted by his role in the crucifixion, Gallio slowly comes to understand what Jesus was trying to accomplish with his death. After converting to Christianity, Gallio must face the scorn of his peers and the madness of his emperor, leading to a climactic ending viewers wont soon forget. Brimming with the message of Gods grace and eternal love, The Robe is an Easter movie guaranteed to touch your heart.

You can stream The Robe (but or rent) online on Amazon Prime

What is your favorite movie to watch over Easter? Share in the comments below!
In response to the EU master plan and the increased interest in the use of LNG as a fuel, RINA plans to launch the companys Gas Center of Excellence. It said that this initiative will gather together the experience from RINAs gas experts across the group including DAppolonia, CSM, RINA Services.

The EU master plan aims to develop framework conditions for the use of LNG on ships in the Mediterranean, Atlantic Ocean and Black Sea areas. This plan will lower transport costs and reducing CO2, NOx and SOx emissions, in conjunction with greening the transport corridors and using LNG as an alternative to marine bunkers, according to RINA.

The classification companys gas expertise, which covers Test, Inspection and Certification (TIC) and Consulting Engineering services including CSM, which is focused on special steel alloys, will be virtually based in Italy, Greece and Northern Europe. As the center will be virtual, RINA said it will have the flexibility to deliver services globally, thereby helping the industry address the particular needs of utilizing gas as a green fuel source. This specialist knowledge has already led to the classification of four LNG fuelled cruise vessels. And two EU projects are under development (GAINN4CORE and GAINN4MOS), which aim to support the use of LNG as fuel.

Paolo Moretti, RINAs marine general manager said, This initiative brings together the global gas expertise amalgamating the competencies from within the group. RINA Services will provide classification and inspection, particularly of vessels and offshore and onshore terminals. Experts from CSM will provide advice on materials. DAppolonia are actively providing engineering consulting around the design, construction and management of LNG terminals. Operating LNG ships and terminals demands significant training so the RINA Academy, as part of our Gas Center of Excellence, has developed both basic and advanced LNG fuel courses, in line with the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW) requirements.
**In 2015, New York City welcomed over 200 cruise ships resulting in an economic impact in the nine figure range, said Maria Torres-Springer, president and CEO of the New York City Economic Development Corporation. "In total we saw over one million passengers visit our cruise terminals in 2015," she said, adding New York was a top five port in the country.

**The 2016 Cruise Canada New England Symposium officially opened on Tuesday night with a reception at the trendy Gallow Green on 27th Street on the West Side of Manhattan. It is the 18th annual edition of the event.

**The traditional panels are long gone, with a workshop format taking place for the 2016 event, which runs over the course of three days. Cruise Canada New England board members told Cruise Industry News that the new format was a result of feedback following the Bar Harbor event in 2015.

**The workshop format sees the attendance pool split up into groups, each assigned a topic to work through a designated table.

**Not seen: top leadership from CLIA, whom have traditionally attended the event.

**Free WiFi: New York Economic Development Corporation has not only provided WiFi in the cruise terminal, but has gone out of its way to tell attendees the username and password.

**Bar Harbor is undertaking an economic impact survey in regards to cruise passenger spending for 2016.
While many universities see value in integrating cybersecurity education into computer science programs, there has been less thought about the importance of using these lessons in other curriculum such as engineering, business, or even marketing programs.

If cybersecurity is every employees issue -- not just the IT department -- how do universities prepare all students to be able to apply cybersecurity skills to their next position? Whether they are marketing associates or software engineers, what they do in the digital enterprise either directly or indirectly impacts enterprise security.

EYs Chad Holmes, principal and cybersecurity leader, talked about the importance of developing cyber talent that can hit the ground running in all industries from transportation and manufacturing to healthcare and human resources.

There is a responsibility beyond IT for organizations to be able to respond to a data breach. And while universities are taking steps toward bringing technical security components to the classroom, cybersecurity application also needs to be taughtacross all disciplines.

"When I work with universities across the spectrum, there are innovative ways that they are looking at solving this problem," said Holmes. While there are universities the world over developing advanced degrees in cybersecurity, fewer are as focused on cyber at the undergrad level, and even fewer schools in the K-12 sector are developing curriculum to drive awareness about the security risks of online behavior.

"Starts earlier," said Holmes, "with six to 12 year olds. There needs to be more discussion about how to educate kids around this area."

[ ALSO: 7 ways employers can ensure new graduates arent compromising their networks ]

What might be a formidable obstacle for the cybersecurity industry is re-branding itself as an industry that does more than search for malicious actors or deal with privacy concerns. "That brand issue is driving some of the young folks away from exploring this field," said Holmes.

Though, the brand of cybersecurity has morphed in a lot of different ways, said Holmes. "It was tracking down malicious actors and had sites that had negative malicious content, but now it is more about solving community and world problems."

I thought about Baymax and the theme song to Big Hero 6, "We could be heroes."

Anybody's got the power

They don't see it cause they don't understand

Spin around and round for hours

You and me, we got the world in our hands

If you haven't seen this Disney animation film, it's an adorable tale of Hiro, a robotics genius, who joins forces with his brother's university cohorts to fight the bad guy. These talented students in the robotics program at San Fransokyo Institute of Technology are incredibly innovative, even working on teleportation technologies, when they are called upon to track and bring down a malicious actor.

The point is, as technology evolves, so too will the risks to the digital enterprise which means that the talent must become more broad. Holmes said, "Re-branding cybersecurity means focusing on business risk as it relates to stock holder value. How does cyber help beyond just chasing malware. The industry is moving more toward global problem resolution."

Fundamentally if you are covering cyber across multiple domains, you are exploring how to address security issues at every level. "Universities that adopt cyber classes into their core curriculum whether it's business or finance are preparing students with a fundamental understanding of how security impacts business risk," Holmes said.

By way of example, Holmes talked about an area of business risk that has become more pronounced now: marketing. "Whether it's consumer products or a new product line, marketing campaigns, or publicity around a product. When teams release campaigns associated with marketing, they need to be thinking about how it will have a negative impact across the cyber landscape," he said.

Following the entire security life cycle from the early stages of learning will create a broader scope of folks who have a more focused understanding of the ways cyber impacts every aspect of the business.

In order to accomplish this goal, more academic institutions need to work in partnership with enterprises to understand the learning curves around security so that information about the threat landscape can be delivered in context.
Blockchain for entrepreneurs in the agricultural sector: challenges and opportunities - May 15, 2020 4:00 PM CEST

Blockchain for Agriculture webinar

Are you an entrepreneur in African, the Caribbean and Pacific countries and interested in blockchain? Do you want to know if and in which conditions you can leverage on blockchain to offer meaningful services to potential clients in the agricultural sector and beyond? This webinar organised by the Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation (CTA) in the framework its AgriHack and Blockchain projects, and in partnership with Blockchain Workspace in the Netherlands will discuss these questions. Apart from insights from three invited experts, experiences of an ACP entrepreneur investing in Blockchain will be shared. Other entrepreneurs from the audience may have the opportunity to briefly share their experiences as well. The session will be held in English only. With George Maina, founder of Shamba Records & Once Sync Limited (Kenya); Henk van Cann and Erwin Overstegen, both co-founder of the training firm Blockchain Workspace (bcws.io); and Ken Lohento (CTA)
Houlihan Lawrence recently cemented its roots in Greenwich through the unveiling of its new flagship office at 2 Sound View Drive.

The move signals the firms long-term commitment to the Greenwich community, according to David Haffenreffer, manager of Houlihan Lawrences Greenwich office. Though the company arrived in town just three years ago, it has quickly become the towns top-selling brokerage. He said Greenwich has become an extremely important market, and the firm wanted its presence in the town to reflect that success.

This is more than just a move, its a broader reflection of the success and permanence of Houlihan Lawrence in Greenwich, he said. After opening our doors for business just three short years ago, were now the No. 1 brokerage in town, and this move continues our path onward and upward.

This year, there was a near 40 percent increase in the number of homes sold above $3 million, with closed sale volume totaling nearly $131 million compared to $126 million in the first quarter of 2015. According to Houlihan Lawrences Q1 Market report, the market for homes in Greenwich priced between $3 million and $4 million also grew, with an 83 percent increase over the same time-frame. More impressive was the market for homes in Greenwich priced between $4 million and $5 million, which saw a 150 percent increase in the number of homes sold.

Over the span of nine months, Houlihan Lawrence embarked a multimillion-dollar renovation of the Sound View space to match the growth of Greenwichs real estate market. With a ground floor setting and close proximity to the Metro-North station, the location connects Houlihan Lawrence with the bustle of life near the bottom of Greenwich Avenue, as well as provides an option for New York City clients to easily access the location when viewing properties in Greenwich.

The project, which began with raw space, was renovated according to the needs of the firm, from better connectivity and technology to improved lighting and conference rooms. It resembles the sleek and modern aesthetic of trading floor office settings, but amplifies it with technological upgrades, chic decor and stylish touches, Haffenreffer said.

We believe (this new space) will lead to more productivity and more deals getting done by Houlihan Lawrence, he added.

Houlihan Lawrence initially came to Greenwich in August 2013 and soon became the leading real estate firm serving Greenwich, Riverside, Cos Cob and Old Greenwich. For years, the firm has served New Yorks northern suburbs, and it was only a matter of time before it equally invested in southwestern Connecticut, especially in Greenwich, according to Haffenreffer.

We are committed to giving back to the communities where we live and work, and feel our new flagship office in Greenwich is a great way to invest in the community, continuing our efforts to give back to this amazing town, he added.

Megan.Dalton@scni.com; 203-625-4411
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BRIDGEPORT  Ernie Newton had big plans to clean up Bridgeport  literally.

The ex-legislator who was jailed for corruption and is appealing an unrelated campaign finance fraud conviction, had recently turned his attention from politics to garbage.

Newton is senior vice-president of a local company that submitted a bid to manage Bridgeports dump on Asylum Street.

The company, East End Developers Inc., offered the lowest price of three contenders bidding for the job, which also included current dump manager Enviro and City Carting, according to city officials,

What kept Newton and his partners from being awarded the work was how Newton, who signed the bid documents, handled seven questions aimed at shedding light on contractors criminal history.

Newton indicated he did not have a criminal history when he checked off all the no boxes.

From what I understand, had he answered yes there wouldnt have been a problem, said John Ricci, head of the public facilities department, which includes the dump. The city attorney .... made the determination it was something that gave a reason for disqualification. I dont make that judgment.

Ricci said the city is now considering rejecting all bids and running the dump internally, though he noted the contract could be rebid.

Newton said he was advised by his attorney that the questions did not apply to his particular convictions, which were related to public office rather than running a business.

The seven questions appear geared toward business persons, specifically referring to illegal activities involving public or private contracts and subcontracts, agreements, transactions, bids, proposals and joint ventures.

If they (the city) would have called me, I would have told them, Newton said. Everybody knows Im an ex-felon. If my lawyer would have said, Ernie, mark the box yes I would have done it. Im not ashamed.

Newtons attorney, John Pinheiro, could not be reached for comment.

As the city and East End Developers figure out their next move  Newton did not rule out legal action  he and his allies are using the controversy to rally support behind stripping bidding documents of questions about criminal history.

The city several years ago eliminated questions about job candidates prior arrests, criminal charges or convictions from municipal employment applications. Newton said it is time to extend that prohibition to public contracting in Bridgeport.

Even if we dont get the (dump) contract, I want to make sure what happens to us never happens to another minority company in this city, Newton said.

Second chance

According to public documents, East End Developers was registered with the Secretary of the States office in 2011.

Moises Prieto of Milford is the president and treasurer, Newton the second-in-charge and Deborah Thomas-Sims the junior vice-president and secretary.

Also involved, Newton said, is Chris Taylor, a demolition contractor who launched a long-shot bid for mayor last year by offering voters free laptop computers, basic cable, credit cards and bikes. Taylor is also a notary public and notarized East Ends bid response.

Newton said Prieto reached out to him because East End was interested in providing jobs to felons and thought Newton would be a good ambassador.

Hes back and forth to Venezuela. He travels a lot, Newton said. So he asked me to come on.

Newtons statement that he was not trying to hide anything about his criminal record when he filled out the bid documents rings true, given the circumstances.

Newtons cases were high profile.

His 17-year legislative career ended in 2005 when he was convicted on three federal charges of taking a $5,000 bribe to push through a $100,000 state grant for Progressive Training Associations Inc., diverting $40,682 in campaign contributions to himself and others, and failing to report the money on his income tax return.

He completed his prison term in August 2010, and waged two failed political comebacks.

Newton in March, 2015 was sentenced to six months in prison for three violations of campaign finance law. He is free on appeal and, in a sign of his continued influence, was recently appointed to the Connecticut Democratic State Central Committee.

And the current administration in City Hall is certainly familiar with Newtons history. Newton, along with Ricci, City Attorney R. Christopher Meyer and others, were part of the campaign that returned ex-Mayor Joe Ganim to office last year following Ganims own corruption conviction in 2003.

As a black community leader with a criminal record, Newton was instrumental in helping to spread Ganims second-chance message in the East End and East Side neighborhoods.

Forgive and forget

Initially Ricci said the city would likely make some personnel changes within the public facilities department to run the dump internally, rather than hire an outside company.

But in a subsequent interview Wednesday, Ricci said he had spoken with Ganim and we may look to rebid the entire package. Thats another option.

Meanwhile City Councilwoman Eneida Martinez, at Newtons urging, this week submitted a proposal to extend the citys prohibition on including criminal history on job applications to municipal bidding.

Im not involved with the mess over did he (Newton) check the boxes and was he honest,?  Martinez said. My concern is, lets get rid of these boxes causing the problem.

Ganim in a brief interview said that he supports the concept.

Newton said his problems with winning the contract are particularly frustrating given Ganims successful return to City Hall.

If black people could forgive and vote for Joe Ganim, white folks should be able to forgive me, Newton said. I have a right to feed my family.
Stratford Police Department photo

A former Stratford High School math teacher was arrested Tuesday for inappropriate actions involving several students prior to his resignation from the faculty, according to Stratford police.

Gregg Gustafson, 46, of Bridgeport, was charged with tampering with a witness, criminal attempt at bribery of a witness and tampering with or fabricating evidence, according to Lt. Frank Eannotti.
New federal campus safety data reveals the University of Connecticut's 43 reported rapes in 2014 led the nation that year.

An analysis of the data by the Washington Post showed that of the 10 schools with the most reported rapes, two are in Connecticut and nine are on the East Coast. Brown University also had 43 reported rapes, while Wesleyan University, in Middletown, ranked fourth with 37 reported rapes.
BRIDGEPORT  A city under siege from drug trafficking and gang violence struck back Tuesday, with SWAT teams rounding up what police said were seven major heroin dealers in a dawn raid as part of an ongoing sting operation with the FBI and State Police.

Bridgeport Police Chief Armando Perez announced the arrests Tuesday night during a meeting of the City Councils Public Safety Committee at Blackham School in the North End.

We kicked in their doors, Perez said. We dragged them out of their houses.

All seven suspects are Bridgeport residents and were charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute heroin. They were identified by the Justice Department as: Kareem Roseboro, 41; Harry Blake, 33; Michael Bennett, 28; Jonathan Zayas, 22; Marcus Milton, 50; Glen Porter, 30, and Roy Trotter, 33.

Addresses and photos of the suspects were not provided by law enforcement.

Perez said the suspects have enriched themselves with heroin money, including one who just returned from the plush Fontainebleau hotel in Miami Beach.

We took his house, Perez said. We took all of his money. We took all of his cars.

Another 13 indictments are imminent, said Perez, who drew applause from about 75 city residents during the emotionally charged meeting. The city has been beset by crime, including the May 13 fatal shooting of 18-year-old KahLil Sloan-Diaz, a student at Harding High School.

Drugs are flowing freely, along with guns and weapons, said David Gordon, a former drug counselor for the school district who was laid off in 2011. We need solutions.

North End residents called for stepped-up police patrols and a crackdown on loitering, which they said has been allowed to go unchecked. Don Puleo, 66, told Perez he was hit with paint balls while walking his dog. When a friend recounted another incident of local teens smoking marijuana and dealing drugs, Puleo questioned the priorities of police.

If these things happen on Eames Boulevard down in Black Rock, Im sure the cops would be down there in five minutes, said Puleo, who said he did not report the paintball incident.

Police officer Nick Ortiz urged residents to help be their eyes and ears.

You need to call us and complain, Ortiz said.

City Councilwoman Michelle Lyons, who represents the North End and heads the Public Safety Committee, said the sound of gunshots and theft of UPS packages have become commonplace.

I think its increased, Lyons said.

City Council President Thomas McCarthy, who also represents the North End, said a proactive approach is needed.

The key for the council members in the North End is, we dont want this to get away from us, McCarthy said.

Perez, who was promoted by Mayor Joe Ganim to Bridgeports top cop in March, vowed to heighten the police presence.

We will do what it takes to keep you safe and keep the North End safe, Perez said.

neil.vigdor@scni.com; 203-625-4436; http://twitter.com/gettinviggy
STORY LINK GBP to USD Exchange Rate Trending Narrowly Today on 'Brexit' Uncertainty

GBP-USD within Opening Levels on Brexit and Global Growth Worries

EU Referendum Dominates Pound Sterling Exchange Rates despite Strong Industry Performance

World Bank Downgrades US and Global Economic Forecasts, US Dollar Weakens

GBP/USD Exchange Rate Forecast: Will UK GDP Estimate Distract from Brexit Worries?

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The Pound has been a soft contender against peers today, potentially on account of the rush to register to vote in the Referendum crashing the Government's site.Pound Sterling was unable to make significant gains against the US Dollar on Wednesday, despite strong ecostats regarding industrial manufacturing.Brexit concerns continued to weigh on GBP/USD, with the latest polls having seriously undermined investor confidence in the likelihood of a victory for the Remain camp.The US Dollar was weak overall, however, due to concerns over global growth thanks to the latest World Bank forecasts and disappointing Chinese trade statistics.UK industry put on a strong performance in April, greatly bettering forecasts of either stagnation or a continued decline.Manufacturing production was expected to remain flat on the month in April, after 0.1% growth in March, but instead accelerated 2.3%. Year-on-Year (YoY) production declined -1.9% in March and was expected to drop by -1.5% in April, but instead grew 0.8%.Industrial production increased 2% in April after 0.3% growth in March, beating forecasts of stagnation, while the sector expanded 1.6% YoY after a previous contraction of -0.2%.Economists were not overly impressed with the figures, however, with Capital Economics economist Paul Hollingsworth explaining that despite the upbeat tone of the ... figures, it is far too soon to proclaim that the sector is out of the woods, or shrugging off Brexit uncertainty.Dominic Bryant, economist at BNP Paribas, stated that our central expectation is that April's spike corrects in May with a sharp fall, which would still mean that for Q2 as a whole, manufacturing production growth is slightly negative.Pound Sterling barely reacted to the positive figures, however, as Brexit concerns continued to weigh on the UK asset with just two weeks to go until polling day.The World Bank has once again downgraded forecasts for GDP growth in the US and across the globe, creating a further headache for the US Federal Reserve as the next monetary policy meeting approaches.The Bank believes growth in the US economy during 2016 will be -0.5% lower than in 2015 at 1.9%, while global expansion will remain flat at 2.4% after a cut to the previous forecast of 2.9%.Also softening the US Dollar were Chinese trade figures, which showed a significantly lower-than-forecast improvement in the trade balance and a slightly higher-than-predicted decline in exports.The latest NIESR GDP estimate is due out later today and could move GBP depending upon whether the result shows a predicted acceleration or deceleration in UK economic activity.Referendum fears could eclipse the result, however.Meanwhile, US data is likely to have little impact upon the US Dollar, so market sentiment could continue to prove the sole driver of USD movement.

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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.
Opinion Wordle

The next day I woke to find myself in a WhatsApp group titled Quordle is Awesome!! A small group of three. There was no getting out of it now.
Sir John Majors bitterly expressed support for the Remain campaign prompts former lover (and Brexit supporter) Edwina Currie, the former Tory minister, to comment on their 1984 to 1988 affair

Sir John Majors bitterly expressed support for the Remain campaign prompts former lover (and Brexit supporter) Edwina Currie, the former Tory minister, to comment on their 1984 to 1988 affair.

Replying to a hostile social media message accusing her of having slept with Major, Ms Currie tweets: We didnt sleep...

But (as she wrote in a memoir) they did take baths together. Fondly she added that gentlemanly Sir John always sat with his back to the taps.

The 13th Marquess of Lothian, ex-Tory MP Michael Ancram, 70, was startled when his fragrant daughter, Lady Mary Kerr, 35, was described in a Times marriage notice as the new wife of Lady Z Adler. In fact, shed married a Mr Z. Adler. A marriage of titled sapphists looked too good to be true  and so it was! says my source.

Why no royal message of sympathy to the family of the late Muhammad Ali, who in 1976 was introduced to the Queen in Washington DC, pictured, during US bicentenary celebrations?

Foreign kings and presidents will be in Louisville, Kentucky, for Fridays obsequies, but a Buckingham Palace official tells me: Its the same day as the St Pauls service celebrating the Queens birthday. So it clashes. There was no message of sympathy.

Charles and Camillas absence from the Queens 90th birthday Patrons Lunch street event on Sunday is a talking point among courtiers.

With the lunch dogged by controversy over charging charities 150 a head to attend, poor sales, and an undisclosed fee paid to the Queens grandson Peter Phillips for organising it, Charless retreat looks like a shrewd move, says my source.

While noisy disc jockey Chris Evans, 50, struggles to establish himself as the new host of BBC2s Top Gear, predecessor Jeremy Clarkson, 56, posts on social media a three-minute video of himself attempting to put together a cardboard box. Some say its more entertaining than the new Top Gear.

While noisy disc jockey Chris Evans, 50, struggles to establish himself as the new host of BBC2s Top Gear, predecessor Jeremy Clarkson, 56, posts on social media a three-minute video of himself attempting to put together a cardboard box

John Cleese, 76, enjoys taunting former Monty Python colleague and TV travel presenter Michael Palin, 73. He says: His wife [of 50 years] Helen just told me, Hes away making another f****** boring travel programme.  I wonder if Palin harbours private doubts about Cleeses worldwide comedy tours.

GMB union chief Tim Roaches swipe at Tory Brexit campaigner Priti Patel, 44  Priti Patel, surely a contradiction in her name, he sneered  is considered ungallant. Ms Patel is too refined to ponder the abusive possibilities of Roaches appearance and name.
Though it may be a cliche to say revenge is a dish best served cold, no modern politician has taken this maxim to heart more closely than John Major.

For more than 20 years, he has brooded obsessively on the insults heaped upon him by opponents within his own party when he was Tory prime minister in succession to Margaret Thatcher in the Nineties.

In fact, Major is known to blame the disloyalty of the Conservative Right-wing, and in particular Eurosceptics opposed to his support for the 1992 Maastricht Treaty  which created the modern EU  for wrecking his entire premiership.

For more than 20 years, John Major has brooded obsessively on the insults heaped upon him by opponents within his own party when he was Tory prime minister in succession to Margaret Thatcher in the Nineties

For well over a decade after leaving office following Tony Blairs landslide election victory of 1997, Major kept his resentment largely to himself.

Only his intimate circle of friends were fully aware of his private bitterness.

Last weekend, he finally chose to share this bitterness with the world. He went on The Andrew Marr Show to launch a poisonous, apparently unprovoked, and deeply demeaning personal attack on Boris Johnson and other leading members of the Vote Leave campaign.

Major defined their tactics as deceitful, depressing, awful and verging on the squalid.

He told viewers that Michael Gove wanted to sell off the NHS, that Boris Johnson had plans to charge for health services, while Iain Duncan Smith wanted to dump the British system of social welfare. (Major has a special loathing for Mr Duncan Smith, who led the Maastricht rebels.)

The NHS is about as safe with them, he told Andrew Marr, as a pet hamster would be with a hungry python.

He reserved some of his most venomous criticisms for Boris Johnson, whom he dismissed as a mere court jester, before accusing him of disloyalty.

This was surprising as many, including me, had come to view Sir John Major with fondness, and to know that in private he can be a kind and decent person.

That is why it is so disappointing that he did not engage with Johnson, Gove and other opponents on issues of policy when he went on Marr. Major went for the man and not the ball. Instead of reasoned argument, he resorted to abuse and denigration. It may be harsh, but no former prime minister has stooped as low as Major did last weekend.

Major said Michael Gove wanted to sell off the NHS, that Boris Johnson had plans to charge for health services, while Iain Duncan Smith (right) wanted to dump the British system of social welfare

It was especially noticeable that Johnson, who was in the BBC studio at the same time, refused to descend to Majors level. On the contrary, Boris was generous and gracious, and stuck to the issues.

I am in no doubt that John Majors attack on Johnson is part of a deliberate strategy. For the Remainers know very well that they are losing ground.

Yesterday, it emerged bookmakers are cutting the odds on a referendum win for Brexit. And as was reported yesterday, three new polls all put the Vote Leave campaign ahead.

So, in increasing desperation, the Remain side is descending to rancid abuse. It is well known inside Westminster that John Major never says anything without clearing his words first with 10 Downing Street. In short, he was acting under instructions from David Cameron and George Osborne to conduct himself as an attack dog.

As someone who has often praised Major in the past, and publicly stood up for him in the face of unfair criticism, this pains me. He has done significant damage to his reputation. His remarks were cheap, and not befitting a former leader of a great political party.

So why was Major ready to risk his reputation in this way? The answer, I have learned, is that this was not a one-off attack but part of a broader strategy. For he shares with David Cameron and George Osborne a determination to reshape the Conservative Party.

He went on The Andrew Marr Show to launch a poisonous, apparently unprovoked, and deeply demeaning personal attack on Boris Johnson and other leading members of the Vote Leave campaign

I have heard it said in private conversations that they want to marginalise the traditional Conservative Right-wing.

And those who they cannot drive to the margins they want to destroy outright.

The overriding objective is the creation of a new, politically sanitised pro-European Tory Party. If that disenfranchises millions of traditional Conservative supporters, well, the attitude of Cameron and Osborne is so much the better.

In the bitter mind of John Major, it appears there is no room in such a party for opponents of the EU. This is part of the reason why he seems to want to see the destruction of Johnsons career.

But there is more personal business to be attended to. When he was prime minister, Major notoriously raged against those ministers described by him as anti-Europe bastards, who he believed were undermining his premiership.

It is no coincidence that three out of the four bastards  Michael Howard, John Redwood and Peter Lilley  are all senior members of the Vote Leave campaign. (The fourth, Michael Portillo, is no longer in politics and has instead become a TV personality.)

Even though neither Johnson nor Gove were MPs in the Nineties, Major sees them as the modern equivalents of bastards and gives the impression he wants them to be destroyed, too. So Majors unwarranted attack on Johnson, Gove and others last weekend was, in fact, unfinished business.

If it is revenge he wants, he may well get it. If Britain votes to stay in the EU in two weeks time, there will be political bloodshed at Westminster on a scale not seen for many years.

If that scenario comes to pass, then these vicious attacks will come to be seen as the start of a wave of reprisals and recriminations being plotted by Tory pro-Europeans.

I have some sympathy with John Majors view that he was let down by senior colleagues during his premiership. I also believe that he had more achievements as prime minister than his critics ever admitted.

He did, after all, eventually pass on a booming economy to his successor in Downing Street, Tony Blair. He handled the first Gulf War with aplomb.

He won the 1992 election with more votes than any other prime minister before or since.

And most important of all, the Northern Ireland peace process  which led to the end of the Troubles  began on his watch.

Yet he will surely not go down in history as a great statesman, and such successes must be measured against the failures, not least of which was his inability to secure the Tory legacy in government.

Critics are also entitled to say that Major has a nerve to come out fighting now over Europe.

After all, he was the man who, against the better judgment of Mrs Thatcher, took Britain into the ERM  a fixed exchange rate system which was a forerunner to the euro.

Major will surely not go down in history as a great statesman, and such successes must be measured against the failures, not least of which was his inability to secure the Tory legacy in government.

This led to a deep recession and the eventual national shame of Black Wednesday in September 1992, when sterling was evicted from the ERM.

Although this was a bitter humiliation for Major  one from which his premiership never truly recovered  it led, with the lower pound, to a remarkably sustained recovery in the British economy.

As an assiduous student of political history, John Major should be the first to realise that the Tory Party has always been a grand coalition between rival interests: town and country, Right and Left, North and South, traditional and modern.

No Tory leader in his or her right mind would seek to eliminate one or another faction, which is why this policy of vengeance Major appears to be pursuing is utterly mistaken.

Indeed, he is old enough to know that the task of any party grandee is to strike a balance between the rival elements of the party.

Yes, Gove and Johnson have ranged themselves against Cameron on the issue of British membership of the EU.

But, crucially, they have also made it clear that if Britain votes for Remain, they will loyally and unconditionally support Mr Cameron. This position is not merely brave, it is also patriotic.

Without Gove and Johnson, no front-rank politician would be available to express the clear views held by probably half the population, who feel deep reservations about the EU.

Without them  whatever John Major might say  these voters would effectively be unrepresented in the most senior reaches of the political class, and that would be a disaster for democracy. It would also be a disaster for Britain.




Apparently, while watching the news the previous evening, Mr Cameron had been seized by an immediate and irresistible urge to denounce the complete untruths being told by the Leave campaign

Why is David Cameron getting so rattled? At his best he can be magisterial and commanding. But his last-minute summons yesterday morning of political journalists to an unscheduled press conference, on the roof of the Savoy Hotel of all places, suggests he is becoming increasingly worried about the way the Remain campaign is going.

Apparently, while watching the news the previous evening, Mr Cameron had been seized by an immediate and irresistible urge to denounce the complete untruths being told by the Leave campaign.

Talk about pots and kettles! From predicting World War Three to economic meltdown, in recent weeks the Prime Minister has made such numerous, highly sensational assertions about Brexit that he is in no position to start hurling accusations at the other side  especially since the lies he identifies are, as we show on page 10, questions of interpretation.

As the campaign enters its final phase, the Prime Minister should be striving to raise, not lower, the tone of the debate, by making calm, sober, statesmanlike and rigorously honest contributions. The polls would indicate that Project Fear is having the opposite effect.

Steely eloquence

One of the great pleasures of the referendum is hearing voices which are too often drowned out or ignored. Yesterday, the Today programme interviewed Mike Gilbert, one of 2,200 steel workers who lost their jobs when the great works at Redcar, on Teesside, closed last autumn.

With quiet eloquence, Mr Gilbert regretted the millions of pounds we send each week to Brussels and went on: Im a believer that charity begins at home and the money could be better spent helping the UK.

On the same programme, Ray Smith, in Merthyr Tydfil, said he will be voting Out to get our country and our borders back, and because excessive immigration is crippling the NHS.

If the Leave campaign wins on June 23, it will be because of the simple common sense, and first-hand experience, of people like this, so long scorned by the fashionable metropolitan elite.

The bishops repent!

In an astonishing and highly welcome volte-face, the bishops of the Church of England have admitted they were wrong about Margaret Thatcher, and failed to see the moral vision behind her policies.

In 1985, Church leaders published their deeply hostile report, Faith in the City, which condemned Mrs Thatcher for inflicting deliberate hardship on the poor. Yet after three decades of criticism, the Church has brought itself to praise the present Governments welfare reforms, and to acknowledge their moral purpose.

There is said to be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 just people, and when a whole bench of bishops repents, joy should certainly be unconfined.

The bishops of the Church of England have admitted they were wrong about Margaret Thatcher, and failed to see the moral vision behind her policies

MPs ignore the public

Johnny Mercer, who at the last general election captured the marginal seat of Plymouth Moor View from Labour, announced at the start of the referendum campaign that he would conduct an online poll to see what his constituents thought.

On finding that almost three-quarters of respondents want to leave the EU, he proceeded to declare, bizarrely, that he will himself vote for staying in.

Meanwhile at Westminster, some MPs are now threatening, if the nation votes for Brexit, to ignore the result by refusing to pass the laws needed to bring it into effect. No wonder respect for our political class has sunk to such a low ebb.




Ms Honnery will compete in the World Body Painting Festival this year

She might only be 21, but Sydney-born make-up and body artist Tashi Honnery, has a level of international success most can only dream of.

Now based in the United States and boasting over 15,000 dedicated Instagram followers, the self-confessed 'Austra-alien in LA' took up body-painting just over two years ago.

She has since enjoyed a whirlwind career littered with achievements.

Austra-alien in LA: Despite only being 21, Tashi Honnery, originally from Mosman, has a level of international success as a body artist that most can only dream of -she has over 15,000 followers on Instagram

Whizz kid: Ms Honnery's talent has seen her work on shows at Melbourne Fashion Week, compete in the World Body Painting Festival and be published by the iconic magazine, iD

Ms Honnery's talent has seen her work on shows at Melbourne Fashion Week, compete in the World Body Painting Festival and published by iconic fashion magazine, iD.

This year she will return to Austria to compete in the World Body Painting Festival 2016.

Tashi Honnery paints onto her own skin, and that of other people.

But before you go thinking Ms Honnery's 'live art' is just another Instagram-famous makeup artist, it's worth taking a look at her portfolio.

As well as being pretty, Ms Honnery's makeup and body creations often look gruesome, colourful and terrifying in style.

Disturbingly beautiful: Tashi Honnery's portfolio contains gruestome, colourful and terrifying works, as well as creations that are simply stunning

Arty talent: Ms Honnery says that when she was in school she was criticised for doing things the 'wrong' way, which basically amounted to doing things the 'arty' way

Don't stop now: However, she didn't let this stop her, and now splits her time between the US and Australia

I have always been the person who did things the arty or weird way, which in school was the wrong way

'I have always been the person who did things the "arty" or "weird" way, which in school was the "wrong" way,' Ms Honnery tells Daily Mail Australia.

'I never let that stop me because to me it was the only way to do things,' she says.

'Queen of broken hearts,' is one caption that accompanies a gothic Instagram snap.

'Eyes wide shut #abstract', Ms Honnery writes on another stunning, alien-inspired post.

Competition winner: Tashi Honnery has already represented Australia in the World Body Painting Festival of 2014 in Austria - she will return this year

Tashi Honnery has already represented Australia in the World Body Painting Festival of 2014 in Austria, and she tells Daily Mail Australia that she finds the power of art totally transformative.

'I may not be the most technically perfect artist, and I hardly stick to the rules, but if I get one thing out of my art it's that it's good to show that sometimes the 'wrong' way is 'right' - as long as it works for you,' she says.

'It's not worth wasting your short time on this earth doing someone else's job.'

You can follow Tashi Honnery on Instagram here, and find out more about her work here.

Be yourself: She says that she tries to do her own job, rather than that of someone else

Amazing and powerful: She finds art totally transformative
Thinking about 'tying the knot' or 'getting hitched' any time soon? Firstly, never use folksy terms like that to describe the sacred union of two people.

It's a wedding, it's a marriage and nothing else.

Secondly, make sure you follow my rules below to ensure you have nothing but an upmarket wedding and one that you can be proud to talk about in best company.

Scroll down for video

William Hanson thinks that the more traditional a wedding is, the better. He believes that exposed shoulders and cleavage are a big no-no

Stag or hen parties

Even before the wedding day has arrived you could let yourself down by having anything labelled a stag or hen party.

The smarter option is to host a more intimate drinks party (two or three hours) a few nights before the wedding day itself.

Flesh

A key indicator as to the sophistication of the wedding, and the bride herself, is the amount of flesh on show. The more flesh, the more downmarket.

Exposed shoulders are a big no-no, as are heaving bosoms. The joys of the flesh are traditionally to be reserved for the wedding night and not for the enjoyment of the guests; so cleavage away please, girls.

As my friend Tom the vicar says, it is not Baywatch and no one need run down the aisle with a float.

Hats

The greater the number of hats in attendance by female guests the better (and by hats he means hats not fascinators or headpieces)

If there is to be an absence of headgear, then more is the pity.

The greater the number of hats in attendance by female guests the better. (And by hats we mean hats not fascinators or headpieces.)

Choice of hymns

William Hanson, pictured, thinks that it's better to stick to hymns that everyone will know

Consider which hymns you choose to sing. You want people to actually know them (couples who choose lesser known ones to show off their familiarity with the hymnal are tedious).

Although there are many to steer well clear of, top of the tree are, 'All Things Bright and Beautiful' (let's avoid inevitable sniggers at the line about the purple headed mountains) and 'Lord of the Dance', which is a song about the crucifixion of Jesus. Why would you want guests to sing about being whipped and stripped and hung on high?

It's a wedding, not Good Friday.

Recorded music

However nice you think it'll be for the bride to enter to some recorded music of your choice (probably Elvis Costello) akin to a Richard Curtis film, it never works and always goes wrong.

The appointed operator never quite knows when to start or stop and it causes slight awkwardness that is not needed.

Save recorded music to the first dance, if needs be.

The procession

The Americanisation of the wedding service is, in part, somewhat responsible for tacky weddings on British soil.

The Americanisation of the wedding service is, in part, somewhat responsible for tacky weddings on British soil

The procession in Britain is bride first, followed by a few bridesmaids and sometimes a page or two. In America the bride enters last.

This may work well over there, where everything is four times the size, but think practically  British churches are not huge and there's usually not much space at the front of the nave.

Having a wedding in a British church but using the American order of procession will only lead to the bridesmaids piling up at the top like traffic on a slip road.

Have them enter after the bride and then slip into a pew.

The etiquette expert says a bride and groom cake topper are also a sure sign of a downmarket wedding

Groom's shoes

One of the most solemn parts of the service is when the bride and groom kneel before the vicar to receive the nuptial blessing.

There are two elephant traps you can fall into here. Showing the congregation that you bought your 38 shoes from Next the day before by forgetting to remove the sticker from the bottom, or having had some of your friends writing something like 'Help!'

Wise vicars will insist upon checking the groom's shoes before the service to ensure the marriage service is not made a mockery of by mindless graffiti.

High heels

William says that stiletto heels should be avoided by wedding guests if the ceremony is in a church with old stone floors

It's a church. Think about it  it's a very, very old building. The floor will be slabs of stone, almost definitely with great big holes, cracks and bumps.

Stiletto heels don't stand a chance. Getting trapped in-between two flagstones that happen to be commemorating the dead is never classy.

Chair covers

How horrific can a chair be in the first place that a venue feels the need to throw a lycra chair covering over it?

How horrific can a chair be in the first place that a venue feels the need to throw a lycra chair covering over it?

Just get nice chairs!

Favours

Favours should also be avoided at a classy wedding. A sugared almond, (pictured) if you must, but nothing else

You are paying for your guests to have a meal or buffet, you do not need to bribe them further to attend your 'special day' by having what are termed 'favours' awaiting them at their place setting.

OTHER NAFF THINGS TO AVOID AT YOUR WEDDING Pre wedding photoshoots Cushions for the ring A wedding band for the groom Tie bars for the groom, best man and ushers Bride and groom figurines atop the cake Gold thrones Oversized martini glasses as centrepieces Rent-a-crowd for the reception A (white) post box at the reception for wedding cards A receiving line with more than six people Discos Advertisement

A sugared almond, if you must, but nothing else.

Another import from the USA.

Staying until the end

The acid test to how smart a wedding is will be whether the bride and groom 'go away' at the end. Very few do now, reflective of the drop in standards.

The smartest thing is for the couple to have the first dance, cut the cake and then go to change into their 'going away outfit' and then go to the honeymoon, or a hotel ahead of the honeymoon the next day.

Even if the honeymoon is to be enjoyed at a later date, this practice can still be honoured.

Staying for the length of the inevitable disco is cheap. No one likes a drunk bride.

A country house venue

Finally, think carefully about where you pick. Unless you or a relative life in a particularly photogenic or notable country house then hiring one so you can have your photos taken 'out front' is just de trop. Hire an hotel if needs be, or the village hall.
People have been sharing pictures of signs that have failed to do their job

Timing really is everything, as proved by eagle-eyed photographers who saw the irony in these situations.

Social media users have been posting hilarious pictures of signs that have failed to do their job - or oddly seem to have pre-empted the future.

One picture shows a road sign reading 'Thank you for driving carefully' in front of a car that is flipped on its side in a ditch.

One picture shows a road sign reading 'Thank you for driving carefully' in front of a car that's flipped on its side

Another shows a man eating a sandwich at Subway while reading a book which is entitled 'Fasting'

Another shows a man eating a sandwich at Subway while reading a book which is entitled 'Fasting'. Clearly, the book is not having the desired effect.

Meanwhile, a van branded 'The Republican: Where The News Hits Home' is photographed literally hitting a home.

Whoever decided to name a boat 'No Worries' surely must have considered whether they were tempting fate.

It turned out the owner did actually have quite a lot to worry about, after it was pictured sinking.

Whoever decided to name a boat 'No Worries' surely must have considered whether they were tempting fate

Verizon's slogan of 'We never stop working for you' proved to be very ironic when one company went out of business

A 'No standing at any time' sign decided that it had to follow its own rules by falling over on its side

Verizon's slogan of 'We never stop working for you' proved to be very ironic when one company went out of business.

And a 'No standing at any time' sign decided that it had to follow its own rules by falling over on its side.

A mysterious 'Invisible Spray' on sale really did appear to be invisible after the shop ran out stock.

Meanwhile, customers at one store may have thought twice about buying their fasteners - after their 'Fasteners' sign came loose.

A mysterious 'Invisible Spray' on sale really did appear to be invisible after the shop ran out stock

Customers may have thought twice about buying fasteners from one store, after their sign came loose

A coaster telling children that 'Teeth are not for biting' clearly did not do the trick

A coaster telling children that 'Teeth are not for biting' clearly did not do the trick.

Reddit user blight231 posted a photograph of the well-chewed coaster with the caption: 'Our youngest son has a taste for irony'.

In a similar vein, a product designed to stop pets from chewing also proved to not be particularly effective.

One Imgur user took a picture of the bottle featuring a number of bite marks - and a rather guilty-looking dog in the mirror.

A poster for a TV psychic's show did not end up being the best advert for his skills - after it was cancelled due to 'unforeseen circumstances'.

A product designed to stop pets from chewing also proved to not be particularly effective

A poster for a TV psychic's show did not end up being the best advert for his skills after it was cancelled due to 'unforeseen circumstances'

In a particularly awkward juxtaposition, a childhood obesity poster was put up to next to an advert for McDonald's.

Another funny photography shows the National Association of Telemarketers office with an 'Absolutely no soliciting sign' in the window. Pretty ironic, considering what they do for a living.

One man was clearly not taking the advice of his self-help book entitled 'Never Eat Alone'. He was photographed sitting by himself at a boardroom table with just a chessboard for company.

And one Reddit user posted a photograph of a sign reading: 'The tans will fade but the memories will last forever'. Unfortunately, the word 'memories' has faded as well.

In an awkward juxtaposition, a childhood obesity poster was put up to next to an advert for McDonald's

Another funny photography shows the National Association of Telemarketers office with an 'Absolutely no soliciting sign' in the window

One man was clearly not taking the advice of his self-help book entitled 'Never Eat Alone'
Four years ago, I was diagnosed with chronic anxiety. I remember the moment very clearly: the kind doctors words, my surprised reaction followed by a relieved sense of things suddenly falling into place, coming into focus.

On the one hand I was grateful that I finally had an explanation for the set of symptoms I was experiencing; on the other I felt embarrassed and, if Im honest, a little bit foolish.

Why am I telling you this? Because researchers at Cambridge University have just published a study  based on 48 different reports from around the world  showing that women (and, in particular, women under 35) are twice as likely to suffer from severe anxiety as men.

Researchers at Cambridge University have just published a study  based on 48 different reports from around the world  showing that women (and, in particular, women under 35) are twice as likely to suffer from severe anxiety as men

Reader, I am one of those women (not the ones under 35, worst luck, the other sort). Not depressed, you understand, nothing so serious.

No deep-rooted trauma, no black dog prowling the perimeters of my subconscious.

Just a permanent sense of underlying panic, a multifarious universe of nagging concerns that, periodically, coalesce into a black hole of worry into which I occasionally fall.

Clinical depression can, of course, be devastating and even fatal. But if you imagine it as the mental equivalent of catching flu, chronic anxiety is more like having a cold. Irritating, unpleasant (especially for others)  but not too debilitating. Not completely, anyway.

The reason I sought medical help was because I was experiencing some uncommon physical symptoms. Having always been a deep sleeper and a bit of a lazybones, I was finding myself waking early  around 5am  and then being unable to get back to sleep, often because my heart was racing.

I frequently felt unpleasantly dizzy, or nauseous. My muscles ached and I would sometimes get pins and needles in my hands.

More than that, though, my head was a constant whirr. I burst into tears at the oddest of things, and felt overwhelmed by the simplest of tasks. And I was tired, so tired in fact that I used to think it wouldnt be all that bad if I went to sleep and never woke up again.

I would joke with my friends that I longed for a non-fatal hospitalisation, just to buy myself a few days of rest. As it happens, my wish came true: I got peritonitis, broke my arm badly and developed pneumonia.

My immune system was on the floor. A textbook case, as it turned out. And, it now seems, one of many.

Whats really fascinating is that this condition affects almost exclusively women in the West  Europe or North America. Elsewhere in the developing world, it is virtually unheard of.

You would think it would be the opposite. After all, what do women in the West really have to worry about?

We suffer no immediate threat to our lives or those of our families; no famine, no pestilence or war, none of the terrible injustices so common in the developing world.

Surely this anxiety is just one of those invented first-world problems, such as running out of avocados or missing out on a place for your child at your chosen school?

Well, yes  and no. As the leader of this study, Olivia Remes of the Department of Public Health and Primary Care, puts it: While in the past women were more likely to stay at home and be responsible for the family, they are now more likely to hold down a job while also bringing up children.

The trouble is, women also have to look after the family and, increasingly, elderly or disabled relatives. As Ms Remes explains, the burden of all these things falls on women.

In other words, this anxiety  this constant stress that affects three million people in the UK alone  is all of our own making.

Because of the pressure on women to pursue our feminist heritage and get out to work, an intolerable strain is being placed on our psyches and turning out a generation of us who are frantic with worry.

In the under-35s, who feel this pressure even more than my generation did, the problem is especially acute. Is our sanity a fair price to pay for equality? Only time will tell.

KATE'S CHILD IS TOO YOUNG FOR A COVER GIRL Kate Moss's daughter, 13-year-old Lila Grace, has landed her first Vogue cover. Poor child. As if the odds of living a half-normal life werent already massively stacked against her. Her debut follows hot on the heels of Cindy Crawfords daughter Kaia (14), Jude Laws, Iris (15), Lily-Rose Depp (17) and, of course, Romeo Beckham (13 going on 27). Not only is it the worst kind of celebrity nepotism, it sends a corrosive message to other children that preening and pouting for the cameras is infinitely cooler than studying for maths GCSE. Which it indubitably is  but only if your parents have enough cash in the bank to ensure you never need to enter gainful employment. In my experience, such lucky children invariably lead very unfulfilled and often miserable lives. Kate Moss's daughter, 13-year-old Lila Grace, has landed her first Vogue cover (pictured) Advertisement

At first I had a lot of sympathy for Chelsea FCs former doctor, Eva Carneiro, who yesterday reached a settlement with the club and its former manager.

But when I read that she had first turned down an offer of 1.2 million to settle, I realised shes just another attention-seeking gold-digger.

That is a vast sum of money  more than enough to make reparation for any slight. Jose Mourinho can call me a daughter of a whore any day of the week if it means that kind of cash.

John Major describes the Leave campaign as squalid. This coming from the man who had an affair with Edwina Currie.

Revulsion aside, my main worry about putting human genes into pigs to create organs for transplant is this: at what point does the pig become sufficiently human to qualify for consideration under the Human Rights Act?

Is there some measure for what percentage of an organ has to be of human origin before it becomes eligible?

Might we one day see a pig at the European Court of Human Rights, demanding its right to keep its pancreas?

Nothing would surprise me.

A messy teen with nothing to wear? I'll drink to that!

If it's true that women spend six months of their lives deciding what to wear, surely 99 per cent of that time is racked up during the teenage years.

My daughter, who recently turned 13 (oh joy!), has seemingly become incapable of getting dressed without trying on every single item she owns.

Despite strong evidence to the contrary, she will then declare that she has nothing to wear, and stomp downstairs to the washing basket to reclaim yesterdays ripped jeans.

As her mother, I am naturally keen to help in any way I can. And so, after a good deal of thought, I have concluded that her problem is clearly too much choice.

Now, every item of clothing I discover on the floor is sequestered, and in order to get anything back she has to donate 20p to my favourite charity (the wine fund).

Soon, she really will have nothing to wear  but it wont bother me because Ill be permanently sozzled.

According to experts, red wine can be preserved by keeping it in the fridge. Fascinating, Im sure  although why on earth would anyone want to preserve it?

Not a shred of boorish Clarkson's wit

Intrigued to see what all the fuss was about, I tuned in to watch the second episode of Chris Evanss Top Gear, which has already lost a third of its live TV audience.

Now I see the problem. The old Top Gear was a deliciously naughty, shamelessly sexist, cheerfully bigoted affair presented by three white middle-aged men for the benefit of other white middle-aged men.

In this respect it was a fine example of public service broadcasting, uncharacteristically catering for an increasingly marginalised section of the population.

The new Top Gear has the feel of a media schmooze-fest. One senses a focus group or two has been involved, and possibly a few North London dinners (pictured Top Gear presenter Chris Evans)

The new Top Gear, by contrast, has more the feel of a media schmooze-fest. One senses a focus group or two has been involved, and possibly a few North London dinners.

Theres nothing intrinsically wrong with it  its a perfectly well-produced show. But those who routinely switched on to watch Jeremy Clarkson humiliate Richard Hammond are not the same people who enjoy watching pop stars such as Tinie Tempah and Sharleen Spiteri ponce around in expensive off-roaders.

Truth is, Clarkson, Hammond and James May were pretty rubbish presenters, but they had a certain blokeish charm. Yes, they sailed close to the wind; yes, their show was held together by insults  but it had an authenticity that endured season after season.

By contrast, everything about the new Top Gear, from the sets to the guests, is far too slick and professional.

Chris Evans and Matt LeBlanc have nothing in common except their bulging contacts books  and neither has a shred of Clarksons wit, however irritating or offensive he may have been.
We are used to seeing them in ball gowns and tuxedos, but it has been a week spent in uniform for Denmark's royal family.

Just days after Crown Princess Mary managed to look incredibly glamorous in full army camouflage, Crown Prince Frederik has also joined the party, looking dashing in a formal naval uniform.

The heir to the Danish throne, who is a Rear Admiral in the navy, was pictured dressed head to toe in formal Danish defence gear at the official unveiling of a new helicopter.

Dashing! Crown Prince Frederik looked every bit the handsome prince when he stepped out in his naval outfit in Denmark

Having a ball: The Crown Prince appeared happy, smiling and laughing as he chatted with fellow navy members and guests

Funny business! Crown Prince Frederik enjoys a laugh with other guests at the navy event in Copenhagen

Donning a navy blue button-up suit, complete with gold trimmings, an old fashioned sailor's hat and his navy medals, the Crown Prince smiled as he sat through the official proceedings.

But his appearance at the event was anything but a show, with Frederik far from a fish out of water when it comes to the navy.

In 1995 the Crown Prince began his service as a member of Denmark's elite special operations forces, the Royal Frogmen Corps, where his nickname was 'Pingo'.

On point: His Royal Highness looked very suave in his navy blue suit, complete with gold trimmings, his navy medals and a sailor's hat

In the navy! Frederik spent time with Denmark's elite naval forces in his younger years where he earned the nickname 'Pingo'

Honours: In 1995 Prince Frederik received his first navy honour as a First Lieutenant in the Reserve

Trend setter: Princess Mary looked so good in her army outfit that some have claimed she may bring camouflage back into fashion

He also completed training in both the army and air force in his younger years.

Frederik appeared happy as he chatted with pilots and mingled with guests, and even received a guided tour of the new fleet of Seahawk helicopters.

On Monday, Princess Mary caused a stir when she was pictured using a machine gun while completing drills with the Danish National Guard.

Big week: Princess Mary caused a stir on Monday when she was pictured using a machine gun while completing drills with the Danish National Guard, while her husband also donned his old navy uniform this week

Reminiscing: Navy pilots chatted and showed off their new acquisition to an intrigued Prince Frederik

Back in the swing: The guest of honour was given a guided tour through the new fleet of Seahawk navy helicopters

Experienced: In addition to his time in the navy, Crown Prince Frederik also trained with the army and air force

The usually elegant princess sparked much debate when she ditched her ball gowns for camouflage and army boots.

Tensions ran high between Today Show hosts Karl Stefanovic and Lisa Wilkinson, who disagree on whether it was appropriate for the Princess to be seen using a weapon.

Denmark reportedly spends close to AUD$6.3b (1.4% of their GDP) on defence annually.

Popular prince: Frederik was seemingly in good spirits, happily talking to media at the event

Looking smooth! A jovial Prince Frederik seemingly enjoyed his time as a special guest at the unveiling of the new navy chopper
The eldest son of Crown Princess Mary has performed some princely duties by opening a harbour in Denmark as proud dad Prince Frederik watched on.

Prince Christian, who is 10, waved as he was driven into Skovshoved Harbour on a boat on May 22.

He was there to officially open the new harbour, which is located in the small fishing village of Charlottenlund, north of Copenhagen.

Like father, like son: A young Prince Christian waves to the crowd as he rides a boat into Skovshoved harbour

Future leader: The 10-year-old cut the ribbon to officially open the harbour, north of Copenhagen, on May 22

The handsome young prince seems to inherited Mary's good sense of style, and was dressed in an outfit of green pants, a white shirt, and a blue blazer.

Dad Frederik was similarly dressed in beige pants, a blue shirt and black blazer.

The pair were met at the Mayor of the Municipality of Gentofte, Hans Toft, who assisted whilst the prince did the official opening.

Stylish: The handsome young prince looked suave in an outfit of green pants, white shirt and a blue blazer

Princely duties: The youngster seems to be taking the role of Prince in his stride, appearing confident when performing his duty of cutting the ribbon

In training: The prince is second in line to the throne after his father Crown Prince Frederik

Both Frederik and Mr Toft held the ceremonial red ribbon tight for Prince Christian as he used a large pair of silver scissors to snip through it.

The young man smiled at the event, appearing confident with his role.

A large crowd of people attended the opening, with the prince waving to them happily as he arrived.

Stepping up: It is one of the first times Prince Christian, and not his mother or father, was opening the event

Man of the people: The young Prince waved and mingled with the people who he may one day lead

This is one of the first events Prince Christian has attended where he was opening an event, rather than his mother or father.

The prince is second in line to the throne, after Frederik, and seems to be starting his training to be king early.
She uses Instagram as a platform to share her journey with followers

She says that her perspective has totally changed since getting it

When Alexandria Harbin, from Sydney, was 25, cancer couldn't be further from her 'radar'.

She spent her days working as a web designer; in the evenings she was 'always busy with my hobbies' and her weekends were filled with her friends and boyfriend of six years, Ethan.

However, an ovarian cancer diagnosis in December 2014 changed Ms Harbin's entire outlook, and even though the now-26-year-old had battled strange symptoms for six months beforehand, it still came totally from the blue.

Off radar: At age 25, cancer couldn't be further from the mind of Alexandria Harbin (pictured), from Sydney

Upsetting news: However, after she was diagnosed in December 2014, it came from the blue and changed her life completely (pictured)

Busy life: Before her cancer, Ms Harbin spent her days working as a web designer, enjoying her hobbies and spending time with her friends and boyfriend of six years, Ethan (pictured)

My feet collapsed when they told me my fertility was gone

'Cancer, especially ovarian cancer, isn't a young person's disease,' Ms Harbin tells Daily Mail Australia.

'After I found out, I went through various stages of acceptance.

'The first one was shock. It was a real challenge to get through to some form of acceptance. My feet collapsed when they told me my fertility was gone.'

However, since the initial shock, Ms Harbin started researching her cancer; staying on top of every clinical trial and finding out as much as she can.

Unfair feeling: She says cancer isn't a young person's disease - and that's why it came as such a shock - for the now 26-year-old, it took a while before she got to the stage of acceptance

On top of things: However, now she says she has got to some sort of acceptance, after the shock, and stays on top of any clinical trials published

Unusual symptoms: From a sore hip to a loss of her usually healthy appetite and intense nausea, it wasn't until Ms Harbin got so bloated she couldn't fit in any of her clothes that she knew something was wrong

'My symptoms had meant I hadn't thought it was cancer at first,' Ms Harbin says.

From a sore hip to a loss of her usually healthy appetite and nausea, the red flag didn't really come until her stomach got so bloated it couldn't fit inside any of her clothes.

I'm getting a puppy next week, which I think is a way for me to shift some of my maternal feelings

'When I look back at some of the stuff I used to think was important, I see how much my perspective has changed,' she says.

'I used to be a bit of a control freak; I had this plan which everything had to adhere to. When I got cancer, this was a total shock to my plan.

'I'm still coming to terms with what exactly my new goals are, but I know they're mainly about finding happiness in the short-term. I'm actually getting a puppy next week, which as well as being really exciting, is, I think, a way for me to shift some of my maternal feelings on to a dog.

'I'm also going to go back to work part-time in the next couple of weeks.'

Old ways: Ms Harbin says that the old her would have had a plan for absolutely everything - when she was diagnosed she re-focused her goals to think about short-term happiness

Maternal mood: Ms Harbin says she is actually getting a puppy next week, to help her to shift some of her maternal feelings towards a dog

Since undergoing chemotherapy over the past year and a bit, Ms Harbin has turned to social media a lot for support:

'I like to reach out to other sufferers on social media,' she admits.

'It can be helpful to hear people's stories. If you constantly compare your life to that of your other twenty-something friends you'll feel life is hideously unfair. If you speak to people going through the same thing as you, it makes it easier.'

Social network: Since undergoing chemotherapy over the past year and a bit, Ms Harbin has turned to social media a lot for support - she has an Instagram page on which she documents her journey

Ms Harbin has established a healthy Instagram following of family, friends and people who have never met her, but who want to follow her journey:

'It's not my style to blog,' she says.

'But Instagram helps to keep people informed and up to date with what's going on and my treatment - so I don't have to tell everyone individually every time something happens.

'I see my profile as both my voice and my ear to the outside world. So even if I'm at home in bed and can't leave the house, I can still log on and check in with my followers.'

Blog dodger: She says it's not her style to blog, but Instagram is a great way to document her experiences - she call it both her 'voice and ear' to the outside world, which she can get to even from her bedroom

And while she says that when nurses at her hospital said at first that she should go to a Look Good, Feel Better programme near home, she couldn't think of anything worse, when she actually decided to go along to one of the workshops, Ms Harbin learned a lot:

'It was a really valuable experience to meet and chat to other people with cancer; I also found out so much,' she says.

'The hospital doesn't tell you about how to look after your skin and things like that when you're there - but after I put make-up on for the first time in ages, I got tears in my eyes.

'It was like seeing the real me - the old me. It sounds superficial, but image is important to women. The Look Good Feel Good workshop really helped with my outlook.'

Advice to others: Ms Harmin's advice to other people is that they can adapt to anything - they might not know it, but they can, and she did, as is proof of her living with ovarian cancer

Ms Harmin has some advice for other people who have cancer, or other things they may struggle with:

'I think now that everyone can adapt to almost anything,' she says.

'It takes something big to prove it to yourself. And while I couldn't have got through it without incredible support from my family, friends and boyfriend, I have also learned a lot of inner strength.''

She is currently on a clinical trial for a cancer drug, and doesn't look to the distant future, like she used to all the time.

'It's a challenge - losing your independence - but you have to find that happiness in short-term things.'
A couple whose baby boy died after doctors misdiagnosed him, have pledged to introduce a law to ensure parents concern for their child are taken seriously by doctors.

Naomi and Grant Day's six-month-old son Kyran died in October 2013 because of a lack of oxygen flow to the brain, caused as a result of an obstructed bowel.

Kyran was initially diagnosed with gastroenteritis, however if doctors at Shoalhaven hospital, south of Sydney, had listened to his mother's plea to run further tests the situation could have been much different.

'I just don't want this to happen to any other child,' Mrs Day said.

Mr and Mrs Day told Seven News they now want to introduce Kyran's rule, a law that would ensure the concerns of parents are seriously considered by medical professionals to make sure it doesn't happen again.

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Six-month old Kyran died in October 2013 after being allegedly wrongly diagnosed at Shoalhaven hospital

The six-month-old boy died after his brain was starved of oxygen yet doctors at the hospital ignored the parent's pleas for further testing

The couple's push for a new law follows on from Ryan's rule, a similar law introduced in Queensland in 2013.

Kyran's parents called an ambulance to take their son to hospital on October 19, 2013 but were forced to wait up to four hours as paramedics took a 'lunch break'.

When he finally arrived at Shoalhaven Hospital Kyran was diagnosed with gastroenteritis, an infection causing vomiting, diarrhoea and loss of appetite.

But his parents' intuition told them there was something far more serious going on.

With doctors ignoring their please for further testing, the Day's sat by their son's bedside powerless to help.

The couple could only watch on over the next 30 hours as Kyran's condition deteriorated, before doctors finally realised he was suffering from an obstructed bowel and rushed him to Sydney Children's Hospital.

He died from the mismanagement and the mistreatment, the treatment that didnt happen, Mr Day said.

'The deterioration from the night before was horrific. I told my Mum... hes severely dehydrated, hes pale, theyre not doing anything.'

After being taken to Shoalhaven Hospital on October 19, 2013 Kyran was diagnosed with gastroenteritis, an infection causing vomiting, diarrhoea and loss of appetite

The couple now want to introduce Kyran's rule, a law that would ensure the concerns of parents are seriously considered by doctors and medical professionals

A devastated Mrs Day hopes that Kyran's Law will not only help their son's short life to be remembered, but will prevent other parents feeling their anguish.

He couldnt hold his own head up, his body was completely floppy,' Mrs Day said.

'I will never be able to hold my son again.
A man obsessed with achieving the perfect tan has spent more than 10,000 on illegal injections - and calls himself a human solar panel.

Karl Dinis, 33, from Cardiff, became addicted to Melanotan, a drug which stimulates the production of the tanning pigment melanin in the body, after a friend recommended it to him.

Over the past seven years he estimates he has spent more than 10,000, including 2,500 alone last year, on the injections, which he bulk buys from China.

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Karl Dinis, 33, from Cardiff, became addicted to Melanotan, a drug which stimulates the production of the tanning pigment melanin in the body, after a friend recommended it to him

The drugs come from a website, which he revealed has no contact details should he ever have a compliant about his order.

The untested synthetic drug Melanotan 2 is not approved by the UK government's Medical and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency - but tan-obsessed Karl is not concerned about the health risks.

Karl, who lives with his partner, Dru Maidment, 33, injects once a day into his leg and has admitted he feels much more confident with a tan.

The full time nanny, said: 'I started using Melanotan seven years ago and ever since I have injected every single day.

Over the past seven years he estimates he has spent over 10,000, including 2,500 alone last year, on the injections, which he bulk buys from China

Karl, who lives with his partner, Dru Maidment, 33, injects once a day into his leg and has admitted he feels much more confident with a tan

'In the first four days of using it I could already notice a difference, you only have to be in the sun for a short amount of time for it to take effect - it's like you become a solar panel!

'Over the years I have spent roughly 10,000 on the injections. They're not cheap, but they're definitely worth it.

'Having a constant tan makes me feel so much more confident in myself, the tan never fades and I always feels healthier with a glow.

The untested synthetic drug Melanotan 2 is not approved by the UK government's Medical and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency - but tan-obsessed Karl (pictured before he began his injections) is not concerned about the health risks

'Over the years I have spent roughly 10,000 on the injections. They're not cheap, but they're definitely worth it,' he said

'People ask me how dark I want to go but I don't have an answer for that, I just want to keep going.

'I'm not concerned about the health warnings, I have used it for long enough now that I think I'd know if there were going to be any long terms effects.

'I'm definitely addicted and I would only stop using them when I am either broke or dead.'

Karl's addiction to tanning started seven years ago after a friend suggested he tried the injections.

Karl's addiction to tanning started seven years ago after a friend suggested he tried the injections

After trialling the drug for a week, Karl was amazed with the results and ordered his first batch from China.

A bottle of Melanotan 2 contains ten injections that lasts the course of a month, however Karl now takes them continuously meaning he has to fork out on average 25 for a new bottle every ten days.

He added: 'I started off using sunbeds but the results were never good enough for me.

'I would always burn which would ruin my tan so I stopped using them and looked for alternative methods of tanning.

After trialling the drug for a week, Karl was amazed with the results and ordered his first batch from China

'After using Melanotan for less than a week I could already see a difference - the results were amazing.

'Ever since then I have never looked back and I inject once every day.

'I started off injecting into my stomach but it sometimes felt uncomfortable so I now inject into the top of my leg.

'There are no side effects or pain, and I always make sure I have my morning coffee at the same time.

A bottle of Melanotan 2 contains ten injections that lasts the course of a month, however Karl now takes them continuously meaning he has to fork out on average 25 for a new bottle every ten days

Melanotan is a synthetic drug that stimulates production of tanning pigment melanin but it has not been licensed for use (file photo)

'I wouldn't look at myself and say I am much darker than anyone else, I just think I look healthier with a glow.

WHAT IS MELANOTAN? NHS Choices explain on its wesbite... Melanotan increases the levels of the pigment melanin in the skin. This pigment is part of the bodys natural response to the sun, and increasing levels of melanin results in skin darkening or tanning. There are two forms available, Melanotan I and II, which are diluted in water before being injected. Melanotan is not legal. It has not undergone the stringent safety and effectiveness testing that all medicines have to undergo before they can be licensed for use. This means that the side effects of this treatment are not known. In addition to the possible side effects of Melanotan itself, there are also other potential dangers. Using non-sterile water to prepare the injections can cause serious blood infections, and sharing needles spreads blood-borne diseases such as HIV and hepatitis. Injections by untrained individuals can cause skin and tissue damage, and might result in permanent or life-threatening injury. Advertisement

'And having a tan makes me feel so much more confident!'

Karl doesn't just rely on the injections to get a tan, he also regularly uses sunbeds.

He said: 'I have used sunbeds since age of 17. I feel at home on a sunbed I love it, it is so warm and relaxing.

'It is good I can feel myself burning. I know there is going to be a colour change.'

The NHS warn against using Melanotan as it has 'not undergone the stringent safety and effectiveness testing that all medicines have to undergo before they can be licensed for use'.

Melanotan was the subject of a Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) alert in 2013 and it has also been banned by the European Union.

Suspected side effects from using the synthetic hormone include heart, blood and eye disorders.

Karl said: 'When doctors try and warn me about the dangers I'm not shocked, I have done all of the research and as far as I'm concerned I can't see that it is effecting my health in any way.

'I have been injecting for seven years now, and so far, my health is in great condition.
A National Service of Thanksgiving to mark the Queens 90th birthday on Friday will include a reading by another sprightly nonagenarian, Sir David Attenborough, and a tribute to her love of racing by commentator Clare Balding.

The service at St Pauls Cathedral is designed not just to highlight the monarchs deep faith but celebrate different aspects of her remarkable life - and even includes a hymn to represent her German ancestry.

In 1917 her grandfather, George V, issued a proclamation replacing his familys German name, Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, with the more anglicised Windsor because of anti-German feeling in the UK as a result of the First World War.

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Happy birthday, ma'am! The monarch turned 90 in April but official celebrations will take place this weekend

The service, which will be broadcast live on the BBC, is the first of three major national events to mark the Queens official birthday.

The other two are Trooping The Colour on Saturday and The Patrons Lunch, a street party for 10,000 people in The Mall to celebrate the Queens charitable work, on Sunday.

The service will start at 10am with arrivals including the new Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, making his first appearance at St Pauls, followed by the Prime Minister, David Cameron and then junior members of the Royal Family (effectively those without an HRH to their name).

As the politicians take their places, representatives of the principle world faiths will assemble under the Dome and members of the official procession move into place.

Last to arrive will be the senior royals, including Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry, shortly before the guest of honour, accompanied by her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh.

Guests of honour: The service on Friday will include a reading by another sprightly nonagenarian, Sir David Attenborough (left), as well as a tribute to her love of racing by commentator Clare Balding (right)

Long-term friends: Sir David Attenborough meets the Queen as she prepares to give her 1987 Christmas broadcast from the stables in the Royal Mews. He will be one of six speakers at St Paul's Cathedral on Friday

Unusually, a temporary rail is being installed to help the elderly couple negotiate the steep, sometimes slippery, stone steps  a rare acknowledgement of their advancing years.

They will enter the cathedral, proceeded by the Lord Mayor of London, to a traditional fanfare by the band of Her Majestys Royal Marines Portsmouth.

The opening hymn, O Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness, is a sung at Epiphany, recalling the Queens strong sense of Christian Faith and her humble devotion to Christ.

According to St Pauls a subsequent hymn, Lead Us Heavenly Father Lead Us, is set to a German tune, reminding us of the Queens ancestry.

A special mention will also be made of the fact that it is Prince Philips 95th birthday  something the gruff royal has insisted he doesnt want publically celebrated.

The final guests to arrive will be the senior royals, including Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry, shortly before the Queen and her husband, Prince Philip

The Queen celebrates her unofficial birthday in April in Windsor. A special service will take place tomorrow

The service also includes three musical  birthday gifts for the Queen, the first being the anthem, I love all beauteous things, written by Judith Weir, Master of the Queen Music, which sets a poem by Robert Bridges, Poet Laureate in the year of the monarchs birth, to music.

Legendary broadcaster Sir David Attenborough, who celebrated his 90th birthday in May, will also read a reflection on the passing years from the point of view of one born in 1926, written by Paddington Bear creator, Michael Bond, also a nonagenarian,

Finally former BBC Young Musician of the Year, Martin James Bartlett, will perform Burlesque by Arnold Bax, who was George VIs last Master of the Kings Music. The Queen also learnt to play the piano as a child.

Prayers will be read by six people, five of whom represent aspects of the Queens life and role.

Special day: The service at St Paul's Cathdedral will include three musical  birthday gifts for the Queen, the first being the anthem, I love all beauteous things, written by Judith Weir, Master of the Queen Music

As well as Clare Balding, whose family has trained some of the Queens own horses, there will be a member of her household, a trainee barrister representing the law and a member of the armed forces.

Baroness Scotland, Secretary General of the Commonwealth will offer another, while Hilda Price from Cardiff, the widow of an Anglican priest and a leading light in the Mothers Union, will offer another.

Mrs Price was born on the same day as the Queen  21 April 1926.

According to Mrs Prices daughter, Mary, her mother was given the middle name Alexandra in honour of the Queen  christened Elizabeth Alexandra Mary.

As well as Clare Balding and Sir David Attenborough, there will be a member of her household, a trainee barrister representing the law and a member of the armed forces doing readings at the service

Her Majesty meets the public in Windsor on her birthday in April ahead of official celebrations this weekend

A part-time teacher and mother of two, she has always been the most loyal Royal subject  - and has even kept a scrapbook of their occasional meetings over the years, the first time being when she was a young guide.

Mary says: In 1989 mum met the queen in Swansea when the queen was doing a walk about tour. It was on the day before their shared birthday so she held up a card that said I am 63 tomorrow too! The Queen came over to speak to her and said she hadn't met many people born on exactly the same day.

And on the Queens 80th birthday mum was invited with myself to Buckingham Palace to a beautiful three course lunch in the throne room where the Queen spoke to my mum and asked about Cardiff and the Welsh assembly, which was new at that time.
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After showing off her impeccable gun shot in her camouflage military gear, Crown Princess Mary was far from the front line when she dazzled in a vibrant purple ensemble.

On Tuesday, the Australian-born royal pulled off another sartorial coup with her husband Prince Frederik as they hosted a dinner at the stunning Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The Crown Princess of Denmark was all smiles as she stayed true to her sense of style when she wowed the crowed in a regal sleeveless dress with ruching details this week.

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Stepping out for royal duties: The Australian-born royal pulled off another sartorial coup with her husband Prince Frederik on Tuesday

Stunning: The Crown Princess of Denmark was all smiles as she stayed true to her sense of style in a vibrant purple ensemble

The Royal couple hosted a dinner at the stunning Amalienborg Palace for the advisory board of the Global Green Growth Forum

The 44-year-old Hobart-born was ethereal in a stunning outfit with a plunging neckline as she greeted guests from the Global Green Growth Forum.

Wearing a Prada maxi dress that finishes at her ankles, the stylish mother of four was glowing on the occasion as she opted for a sophisticated look in a pair of sparkling silver heels.

She sported a flawless completion with natural looking make-up and had her brunette locks gently waved as she finished the look with a gold locket necklace and an elegant pair of diamond earrings.

Ever the thrifty Royal, Princess Mary has actually been seeing sporting this elegant frock before. She wore the bright dress in 2013 when she attended the INDEX Award in Helsingr.

Stunning as always: The 44-year-old Hobart-born was ethereal in a stunning outfit with a plunging neckline as she greeted guests

Glowing on the occasion: The stylish mother of four was glowing on the occasion as she opted for a sophisticated and elegant look

Grreting the guests: The Crown Princess of Denmark wowed the crowed in a regal sleeveless dress with ruching details this week

The Royal power couple: Princess Mary and her husband Prince Frederik of Denmark hosted a dinner at the Royal Palace Amalienborg

Opting for the elegance look: Wearing a Prada dress that finishes at her ankles, the stylish mother of four was glowing on the occasion
Bear Grylls has become an object of resentment for teenagers all over the UK after he cropped up in a GCSE exam question.

The TV adventurer made an unexpected appearance in AQA's English Language paper yesterday, as students were asked questions on a newspaper article about a giant waterslide he had built at his home and the ensuing row with the local council.

'Slide' puns abounded as disgruntled students took to Twitter to heap blame on Bear - real name Edward - for their perceived failure of the paper.

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The presenter Bear Grylls has become an object of resentment for teenagers all over the UK after he cropped up in a GCSE exam question based on a newspaper article on an 80ft waterslide on his private island

Bear was forced to remove his 80ft steel slide from his private island, St Tudwal's West off the Welsh coast amid a row with planning officials. He bought the island for a reported for 95,000 in 2001

Mel wrote: 'I'm gonna go on this slide and slide into depression after that exam,' while Emma quipped: 'Hey @BearGrylls Can I use your slide when the tide is out cause I just failed.'

Teen Holly begged: 'Can @AQA please take the grade boundaries down like @BearGrylls's slide?' while Laura Davies tweeted: 'I can say goodbye to my English GCSE as quickly as you'd hit the water going down Bear Grylls' slide.'

Leyla Zihni wrote: 'Lol will be jumping off this cliff top on results day when I see my grade.'

Jasmin wrote: 'Tbh I would rather go down Bear Grylls' slide at low tide than see the results for my English GCSE,' with Ellie adding: 'My English language grade just plummeted like Bear Grylls on his slide.'

Coincidentally, Bear celebrated his 42nd birthday yesterday, and many teens picked up on it. Talishya Sherekhan wrote: 'I will remember @BearGrylls' birthday as the day that I messed up on my #aqaenglishlang exam partly bc of him lol.'

Mary Warren joked: '@BarGrylls is staring at his computer confused why 16 year olds are bashing him for his slide, he just wanted to have fun.' Bear himself replied to her tweet, simply writing: 'Ha!'

Abbie said: 'I legit wrote about my GCSEs as the thing that pushed my limits so I can at least get some mark based on sympathy.'

Some poured heavy scorn on the 42-year-old presenter; Bethany James wrote: 'Thanks for that @BearGrylls you cost me 16 marks in my exam.'

Coincidentally, Bear celebrated his 42nd birthday yesterday, and many teens picked up on it. Talishya Sherekhan wrote: 'I will remember @BearGrylls' birthday as the day that I messed up on my #aqaenglishlang'

Others simply moaned about how hard it was, with Hayley joking she had been 'pushed to her limit' and a fellow student saying that the chances of him getting an A* were 'as low as those deprivation levels from the coast.'

Many delved through the archives to unearth and retweet Bear's original tweet about the waterslide from August 2013, when he wrote: 'New slide attached at home on our island! You hit the water very fast!!!'

Bear was forced to remove his 80ft steel slide from his private island, St Tudwal's West off the Welsh coast amid a row with planning officials.
A loving mother has penned a heart-rending letter to the doctor she claims advised her to terminate her pregnancy because her daughter had Down syndrome and her 'quality of life would be horrible'.

A little over a year after the birth of her daughter Emersyn Faith, Courtney Baker from Sanford, Florida, had now 15-month-old Emmy photographed as she mailed the letter to the prenatal specialist 'who didn't want her to live' after her prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome.

Even after she refused to terminate her pregnancy, Courtney said she felt pressured by her doctor to have an abortion, but nearly two years after learning Emmy's diagnosis, the mom is bravely sharing her story.

Letting go: Courtney Baker from Sanford, Florida, had her now 15-month-old daughter Emersyn Faith (pictured) mail the emotional letter she had written to the doctor she claims told her to terminate her pregnancy

Hard times: Courtney, who is pictured her Emmy, explained in her letter that she felt pressured by her doctor to terminate her pregnancy even after she refused

Courtney asked Down syndrome advocate Parker Myles to share the powerful image of Emmy mailing the letter on her Facebook page to show that her doctor was 'so unbelievably wrong' about his suggestion.

In her letter, Courtney recalled how a friend recently told her that her prenatal special would always tell her 'he's perfect' when he looked at her sonograms.

'Once her son was born with Down syndrome, she visited that same doctor. He looked at her little boy and said, "I told you. He's perfect."' she said. 'Her story tore me apart.'

Courtney explained that while she was 'grateful' for her friend's experience, she was 'filled with such sorrow' because that was what should have happened with her doctor but didn't.

'I came to you during the most difficult time in my life. I was terrified, anxious and in complete despair,' she wrote. 'I didn't know the truth yet about my baby, and that's what I desperately needed from you. But instead of support and encouragement, you suggested we terminate our child.'

Looking back: Courtney said that her daughter is 'perfect' and wrote in her letter that she wished the doctor would have told her that during the difficult time in her life

Beautiful family: Courtney said that her older daughter's Rhyan (right), 15, and Evynn (left), 11, adore their little sister Emmy (center)

Courtney said that even when she told her doctor Emersyn's name, he asked her and her partner again if they understood how low their quality of life would be if they had a child with Down syndrome.

'From that first visit, we dreaded our appointments,' she recalled. 'The most difficult time in my life was made nearly unbearable because you never told me the truth. My child was perfect.'

Courtney noted that she is not 'angry' or 'bitter', she is just 'really sad' that her doctor wasn't filled with 'perpetual awe' over the tiny beating hearts he sees every day.

'I'm sad you were so very wrong to say a baby with Down syndrome would decrease our quality of life,' she wrote. 'And I'm heartbroken you might have said that to a mommy even today. But I'm mostly sad you'll never have the privilege of knowing my daughter, Emersyn.'

Courtney, who has two older daughters, Rhyan, 15, and Evynn, 11, went on to insist that Emersyn has added to her family's quality of life and 'touched the hearts of thousands', giving them a 'purpose and joy that is impossible to express'.

Final words: The mother-of-three noted that she is sad that the prenatal specialist who diagnosed Emmy with Down syndrome will never 'have the privilege' of knowing her

Amazing little girl: Courtney said that Emmy has given her family a 'purpose and joy that is impossible to express'

Raising awareness: Thousands of Facebook users have viewed and re-posted Courtney's letter with many leaving comments of praise for the mother-of-three or sharing similar stories about their own doctors

'My prayer is that you, too, will now see true beauty and pure love with every sonogram,' Courtney ended her letter. 'And my prayer is when you see that next baby with Down syndrome lovingly tucked in her mother's womb, you will look at that mommy and see me then tell her the truth: "Your child is absolutely perfect."'

Thousands of Facebook users have viewed and re-posted Courtney's message, with many leaving comments of praise for the mother-of-three or sharing similar stories about their own doctors.

Courtney told ABC News that she always knew she was going to write the letter to her doctor  even before Emmy was born.

After taking more than a year to write and mail the letter, Courtney said the entire process was therapeutic.

'Every action, from opening and closing the mailbox to raising the red flag, was closure for me,' she explained. 'I have no idea how the doctor might have reacted to my letter, but I do have faith that God can work any miracle and he can change any heart.'
The racy pink dress that Sophia Loren wore - and removed - on the set of 1960 movie The Millionairess is to be auctioned 56 years after the film was released.

The beautiful Italian actress stripped off the silk gown to reveal a racy corset and suspenders in a move that got British comic legend Peter Sellers hot under the collar.

In fact, Sellers developed an unhealthy obsession for Loren off-screen and even offered to leave his wife for her - although the feeling was not reciprocated.

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The racy pink dress screen that Sophia Loren wore - and removed - on the set of 1960 movie The Millionairess is to be auctioned 56 years after the film was released

The beautiful Italian actress stripped off the silk gown to reveal her sexy underwear in a move that got British comic legend Peter Sellers hot under the collar

After filming finished, the designer garments worn by the famous actress were shared out among the production team.

A young British woman who was the production secretary was given the elegant salmon day dress, a plunging silk and lace negligee and a cream day dress with matching hat.

All the items were made by the celebrated French designer Pierre Balmain and posters for the movie referred to Loren's character as 'The beautiful babe in the Balmain gowns'.

In fact, Sellers (pictured left) developed an unhealthy obsession WITH Loren (right) off-screen and even offered to leave his wife for her - although the feeling was not reciprocated

All the items were made by the celebrated French designer Pierre Balmain and posters for the movie referred to Loren's character as 'The beautiful babe in the Balmain gowns'

After filming finished, the designer garments worn by the famous actress were shared out among the production team

The unnamed woman wore the dresses to cocktail parties in her 20s and 30s before putting them away in storage.

The garments are still in good condition and the woman has decided to put them up for sale at Duke's Auctioneers of Dorchester, Dorset, where they are expected to sell for 10,000.

Antionette Richards, a vintage clothes specialist at Duke's, said: 'It is well-documented that Peter Sellers was infatuated with Sophia Loren even though he was a married man.

A young British woman who was the production secretary was given the elegant salmon day dress, a plunging silk and lace negligee (pictured) and a cream day dress with matching hat (below right)

The garments are still in wonderful condition and the woman has decided to put them up for sale at Duke's Auctioneers of Dorchester, Dorset, where they are expected to sell for 10,000 (pictured left: Haute couture expert at Dukes Antoinette Rogers)

'No doubt the scene featuring the salon pink dress played a part in his obsession.

'She played a very alluring character and it is quite easy to see how Sellers was enraptured.

'The vendor was a young lady in her early 20s at the time and was lucky enough to be given the dress after the filming.

'She wore it to cocktail parties and it must have made a great conversation piece.

'No doubt the scene featuring the salon pink dress (pictured on the bed) played a part in Sellers' obsession', said AntoInette Richards, a vintage clothes specialist at Duke's

'She has kept the items in her wardrobe for many years but has taken great care of them.

'She is a bit older now and is having a bit of a declutter and thought that now is the right time to sell them.

'These pieces would be stunning additions to anybody's costume collection.

'Not only are they beautiful examples of design and tailoring, they are also extremely important pieces of cinematic history that encapsulates the glamour of the time and the budding celebrity of Loren.

'We have been fielding tons of enquiries from fans of fashion and fans of Sophia Loren alike and we are expecting the pieces to do excellently on the day.'
Many celebrities would be wary to share what is hidden in their office, but Jessica Alba has no problem giving her fans a sneak peak into her work drawer  which is filled with everything from an adult coloring book to a giant curling iron for at-work primping sessions.

The 35-year-old founder of The Honesty Company was all smiles as she showed off her quirky everyday essentials for a new Mode.com video that was filmed at her brand's Los Angeles headquarters.

'You are going to get a sneak peek into something that no one else has seen before,' she teases at the start of the clip. 'You're going to see inside my drawers.'

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Unveiled: Jessica Alba gives fans a sneak peak of her office drawer in a new video that was filmed at The Honest Company's Los Angeles headquarters

The mother-of-two looks stylish  yet work-appropriate  in a navy blue silk dress and red cardigan, which she paired with layered gold necklaces and a a handful of delicate gold rings.

Jessica notes that she put a great deal of thought into the furniture and office necessities featured in her office, explaining that she worked with 'architects and designers to create a space that is very collaborative'.

'I wanted a clean, modern feel, but I also love the eclecticness of something old integrated. We also need function,' she says while pointing to a small chest of drawers that doubles as a chair.

'Function is big, so that is why we all have these little sort of seats so we can have impromptu meetings, but also storage.'

The 35-year-old keeps dairy-free, gluten-free chocolate and ginger tea on had for when she needs a snack

Jessica's top drawer is filled with goodies, including snacks, beauty products, and a curling iron

The Honest Company sells non-toxic household products and cosmetics, so it is unsurprising that even the craving-busting chocolate Jessica keeps in her top drawer is healthier than most.

'Chocolate is necessary,' she says as she picks up a box of Zenbunni chocolates. 'This is dairy-free and gluten-free and it's made in California  and it's super delish. I always need a little chocolate fix.'

Jessica's other desk treats include gum, almonds  which she calls a 'staple' in her life  and ginger tea.

'I dunno; I just love ginger tea,' she says. 'It makes me feel good in my soul.'

The businesswoman admits that her daughter Honor, eight, and Haven, four, use her adult coloring book more than she does

Jessica keeps hand sanitizer on hand for when her children comes to visit, as well as hydrating mist for when she needs a pick-me-up

One of Jessica's most surprising office must-haves is an adult coloring book and a pile of 'glittery' pens, however, the busy mom admits that her daughters Honor, eight, and Haven, four, have more fun with it than she does.

'Of course, I have a little adult coloring [book] though I don't use it as much as I want to,' she explains. 'My kids sure have at this thing more than I do.'

Owning a company that shills skincare products and make-up certainly has its perks as her top drawer is filled with her brand's hand and make-up wipes, beauty products, and hydrating mist, which she insists 'makes a long day go by easier'.

'Never know when you need a touch up, so I always have concealer and blush to pop the cheeks,' Jessica adds as she shows off various items from her Honest Beauty line.

And for the days when her daughters come and visit  and inevitably tear up her work space  the actress relies on hand sanitizer to clean their 'little fingers'.

Jessica says her father Mark (right) gave her a journal that says 'I'm so freaking freaked out' on the cover

Jessica also likes to have a large curling iron on hand for whenever she is having a 'date night' or needs to snap a selfie

Jessica is pictured with her husband Cash Warren (left) and her children Honor and Haven (right)

'My kids have filthy hands, and they like to put their filthy kids everywhere,' she explains.

Another one of Jessica's drawer essentials is a journal that reads 'I am so freaking freaked out' on the cover, which she admits her dad Mark gave her as a gift.

'I don't know what he is trying to tell me  that I need a journal to talk about it?' she says. 'I guess this is like therapy sort of while I am at work?'

After showing off her eyelash curler and putting some of her company's 'Magic Balm' on her cheeks and nose, she whips out her Harry Josh Curling Iron.
While most girls her age are cramming all of their earthly belongings into a tiny college dorm or starter apartment, 20-year-old Kendall Jenner has her own $1.39 million condo to spread out in  but as far as the millionaire supermodel is concerned, that's not enough.

Kendall took to her paid website and app this week to bemoan the lack of storage in her pricey Westwood condo, claiming the closet space in the sunny two-bedroom wasn't spacious enough for all of her designer clothes and accessories.

It's so bad, she added, that she has to clean out her closet once every two months, tossing unworn (and probably high-end) items to make room for new stuff.

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Out with the old, in with the new! Kendall Jenner said she doesn't have enough closet space in her condo and has to clean out her clothes every two months

The $1.39 million home, which she owns, has two bedroom and nearly 2,000 square feet

She also has a 24-hour valet, a doorman, a concierge, a heated pool, a fitness area, and wine storage

'It's hard at my condo because I don't have enough closet space,' she said in the new post. 'I also have a rack [of clothes]  it's so messy, I hate it.'

Kendall keeps the nearly-2,000-square-foot Southern California home to herself, spreading out over the open kitchen, two sunny bedrooms, dining room, and living room.

She also has views of L.A., a 24-hour valet, a doorman, a concierge, a heated pool, a fitness area, and wine storage.

It's more than most girls her age  and in fact, most adults  could ever dream of. However, it is considerably smaller than her previous home, mom Kris Jenner's six-bedroom, eight-bathroom Hidden Hills mansion.

Kendall complained that she doesn't have enough space for all of her designer clothes

Old digs: Her closet at her mom's house (pictured) was much bigger and she is clearly missing the room

She and Kylie once showed off the space to Oprah, which was lined with clothing and shoes

Though Kylie has created an enviable closet in her new house, Kendall's home is smaller

It seems, though, as she's always on the go  jetting off to New York, Paris, and Milan for fashion shows and spending much of her time in luxe five-star hotels  that she didn't want to splash out too much on a home base she'd barely see.

Still, it seems she doesn't plan to be there forever, as the 'tiny' condo can barely fit all the designer clothes and accessories that she buys and gets gifted.

To make room for them, she said, she has to toss out unworn items on a bimonthly basis, meaning anyone who has lucky timing could stumble upon Kendall's unworn dresses at a local secondhand store.

Tossing it! She's no stranger to cleaning out her closets to get rid of old stuff

She donates some of it to Goodwill and sells other pieces on eBay, donating some of the proceeds

'I clean out my closets once every two months. I'm not a hoarder!' she said. 'If I haven't worn it, then it's time to go and that's that. The piece has to be really special if I keep it.

'Whatever I don't auction for charity, I give to the Goodwill. It's a constant process to keep the clothes from taking over my place.'
Teen transgender TV star Jazz Jennings has weighed in once again on the controversial North Carolina HB2 'bathroom bill'.

The 15-year-old South Florida star of TLC reality show I Am Jazz recently sat down with Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric for an interview ahead of the release of her memoir Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen, and during their conversation, the youngster offered her thoughts on a transgender issue that has been making headlines for weeks.

'I just dont understand it at all, this whole deal about the bathroom,' the teen said of the infamous bill. 'I mean were talking about a bathroom here. Im a female. I should just use the females bathroom. Pee in peace. Get my business done, and thats the end of it.'

Making her voice heard: Transgender reality star Jazz Jennings, 15, has revealed in a new interview that she believes that she would 'be unsafe' walking into a men's bathroom

Talking it out: The teen made the statements during an interview with Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric

She added: 'Honestly I would be the one who would be unsafe if I had to walk into a mens bathroom. We are just trying to use the bathroom. This is about equal rights now.'

The recent legislation, which impacts transgender people's ability to use bathrooms of their gender identity, was signed into law in Mississippi and North Carolina among debate across the country.

It's not the first time that Jazz has approached the issue. She also took a stand over social media recently, thanking Target for inviting transgender employees and shoppers to use the bathroom that 'corresponds with their gender identity'.

Chats: Jazz also talked about the support she has received from her high school in South Florida, which she claims allows her to use the female bathroom

Bold: Transgender presenter and activist Jazz posted a picture of herself standing outside the Target women's restroom

In an Instagram post, Jazz included an image of herself walking into a bathroom in the store with a bag of purchases on her arm. 'Peeing in peace!' she wrote in the caption.

She added: 'Thank you so much @Target for allowing all people to use the bathroom of their choice! #istandwithtarget!''

In a blogpost last month Target wrote: 'In our stores, we demonstrate our commitment to an inclusive experience in many ways.

'Most relevant for the conversations currently underway, we welcome transgender team members and guests to use the restroom or fitting room facility that corresponds with their gender identity.'

Supportive: Jazz thanked the store for inviting transgender employees and shoppers to use restroom that 'corresponds with their gender identity'

Speaking out: Jazz, who was born male but lives female, is a well known transgender activist and YouTube personality

New adventures: Jazz is putting out her memoir, entitled Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen

'The kids at my high school have been super accepting,' she said. 'They treat me like any other girl and the administration supports me and I get to use the female restroom and its just awesome.'

She also added that her parents have long listened to her concerns as a trans teen and recommended to other parents of transgender children to 'come from a place of love' when it comes to parenting.

'My mom always says I chose to have a living daughter, rather than a dead son and I think thats a strong statement that parents need to take into mind,' she said.
A super variety of avocado from Florida, which is almost half as fatty and has a third fewer calories of its green cousin, has become an online sensation - and may soon be available in the UK.

The avocado, which even has its own brand and has been trademarked as the SlimCado, has caught the attention of food bloggers due its astounding health properties.

As well as being more fibrous and less creamy, the mega avocados are also impressive in size.

The SlimCado, pictured, a super variety of avocado from Florida, which is almost half as fatty and has a third fewer calories than regular varieties, has become an online sensation - and may soon be available in the UK

At their largest, they measure 13 inches long, five inches wide and weigh 3lbs, making them up to six times larger than their closest rival, the Hass.

They may sound lie a piece of genetic engineering but according to Brooks Tropicals, the company who produce the avocados, say they are a natural variant on the avocado family tree.

So it's no wonder the green giants are gaining market share in America, and now, due to a surge in demand, may soon be heading to Europe.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal this week, Brooks Tropicals, the company who produce the avocados, have been receiving requests from European suppliers.

But despite their impressive health credentials, discussion online about the super variety of avocado has highlighted one minor drawback - their taste, or lack of it.

As well as being more fibrous and less creamy, the mega avocados are also impressive in size. Information on the website of Brooks Tropicals, who produce the variety, show how to choose the perfect avocado

Some foodies have branded SlimCados 'watery, slimy and gross', while others have expressed disdain at the bland guacamole it produces

Some foodies have branded SlimCados 'watery, slimy and gross', while others have expressed disdain at the bland guacamole it produces.

Corinne Zmoos, a 22-year-old avocado lover from Boston, who has over 3,000 followers on her avo appreciation twitter feed, Avocados Anonymous, slammed the ultra healthy specimen tweeting: 'I've never felt so betrayed by a piece of food in my life.'

Equally disappointed were the editors of healthy eating website Cookinglight.com.

When Kimberly Holland, an editor on the site picked up a SlimCado by mistake, she texted her horrified reaction to the magazine's nutrition editor, Sidney Fry, and then published their text message exchange online.

'I tried the SlimCado tonight. Please let's never ever recommend it. Ever,' Ms Holland texted Ms Fry.

'Omg I hated it! Watery slimy. Gross,' replied Ms Fry.

'It ruined my sandwhich. Sogged out the bread. So gross,' Ms Fry continued.

In summery Ms Holland concluded on the site: 'Where the smaller California varieties are dense and buttery, the Slimcado was more fibrous and chewy.'

When Kimberly Holland, an editor on the site picked up a SlimCado by mistake, she texted her horrified reaction to the magazine's nutrition editor, Sidney Fry, and then published their text message exchange online

Social media user Lynn agreed posting: 'I think they are not worthy of being called an avocado. I wont get one again.'

While another consumer online, Roben Farzad, branded SlimCados 'more pointless than fat-free cheese'.

But among the critics, there are also those who are not put off by its watery texture.

One avo lover, Gr82brees, posted online saying: 'Just made Slimcado guacamole and it was pretty good. While not as tasty as a Haas, it quenched my craving.'

While another Grace said: 'I thought they were great. I just used them as a topping on my salad for one half and ate the other half with salt, pepper, and lime juice.'

SLIMCADO NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION Amount Per 1 cup, pureed (230 g) (Percentages represent proportion of daily nutritional values) Calories, 276 Total fat, 23.1g, 36% Saturated fat, 4.5g, 23% Polyunsaturated fat, 3.9g Monounsaturated fat, 12.7g Cholesterol, 0mg, 0% Sodium, 4.6mg, 0% Potassium, % Total Carbohydrate, 18.4g, 6% Dietary fibre, 12.9g, 52% Sugar, 5.6g Protein, 5.1g, 10% Advertisement
While many are overjoyed at the arrival of warmer weather, for those suffering hay fever it means months of misery as they experience streaming eyes, an itchy throat and constant sneezing.

But fear not  for simple tricks such as eating a spicy curry or brightly-coloured fruit can help.

The advice comes after Dutch experts warned driving with hay fever can cause the same effects as drinking a pint of beer or a large glass of wine.

Here, from having more sex to avoiding kiwi fruits, we reveal the best ways to manage allergies

IT'S ALL ABOUT THE HISTAMINES

Histamine is produced by the body when it thinks the immune system is under attack - and it's this that produces hay fever symptoms.

When pollen enters the body of a hay fever sufferer, it triggers the production of histamine, which then creates all those unwanted symptoms. Thats why anti-histamines can help.

(But histamines are the things in the brain which keep us alert, attentive and awake, so thats why anti-histamines can make you drowsy).

Hay fever symptoms occur when the body thinks it is under attack - even if pollen is completely harmless

THE MORE SPICES, THE BETTER

Going for the hottest curry on the menu can actually help your hay fever  or if youre making your own, go heavy on the spices.

Turmeric, an orange-yellow spice, widely used in curries and South Asian cuisine, is believed to reduce inflammation caused by the enzyme phospholipase A2, which is provoked into action by pollen in your system.

The more chilli, the better! Stock up your spice cupboard to ease sneezing and runny eyes, experts say

LOVE IS ACTUALLY A DRUG

Sex can help your hay fever!

At the point of orgasm the sympathetic nervous system constricts blood vessels across the body and an Iranian neurologist has suggested that this could help with hay fever.

What could be a more pleasant way to deal with hay fever than that? Although there may be some practical issues around timing and locations!

An Iranian neurologist has suggested sex as a remedy for hay fever, as the sympathetic nervous system constricts blood vessels across the body at the point of orgasm

IT'S VERY RARELY CAUSED BY FLOWERS

Flowers are less likely to cause hay fever. Hay fever is caused by airborne pollen particles that have blown away from the plant.

However, flower pollen is sticky and coated, which lessens its ability to become airborne. In fact, trees and grass are most likely to cause the sneezing.

But that doesnt mean flowers dont cause hay fever  some people are very allergic to specific flowers, and you can be allergic to more than one type of pollen.

Flower pollen is less likely to cause allergic reactions as it's pollen is sticky and coated, but may still cause reactions in people with specific flower allergies, experts say

EATING GREENS CAN EASE YOUR SYMPTOMS

Some foods are natural anti-histamines!

Capers, red onions and watercress contain high amounts of the natural antihistamine quercetin, which can help reduce hay fever symptoms by blocking the effects of histamines.

Combine with pineapple, as it contains bromelain, which helps the body to absorb quercetin.

AND SO CAN YOUR 5-A-DAY

The attractive, bright orange and red colours of some of our favourite fruits signal that theyre rich in beta carotene, vitamin C and a substance called bioflavonoids.

These nutrients are anti-inflammatory agents and are said to boost the immune system.

Pineapples, oranges and tomatoes are packed with Vitamin C, which fortifies your immune system against oncoming threats

THESE FOODS MAY MAKE YOUR ALLERGIES WORSE: Apples Pears Cherries Apricots Plums Peaches Peanuts Soya beans Kiwis Potatoes Carrots Celery Hazelnuts Almonds Walnuts Advertisement

BUT STEER CLEAR OF KIWIS

Oral Allergy Syndrome is the name given to allergic reactions in and around the mouth area of hay fever sufferers; such as tingling, a rash and burning sensation.

This is caused by contact with proteins in foods which are similar to proteins found in pollens that the hay fever sufferer is allergic to.

For example, birch pollen proteins are similar to those found in kiwi fruits.

When a hay fever sufferer who is allergic to birch pollen eats kiwi (amongst other foods), the body recognises the proteins as harmful and might trigger an allergic reaction.

Our bodies sometimes confuse the proteins in kiwi with the ones found in birch pollen - which is why your mouth gets itchy after eating the fruit

IT CAN LAST FOR DECADES

Hay fever lasts for years  80 per cent of children diagnosed with hay fever will still be suffering ten years later and 40 per cent of young adults will still be sneezing into their 20s.

DRIVING WITH HAY FEVER CAN BE LIKE DRIVING DRUNK

Research from the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands shows that suffering from hay fever can affect driving ability to the same degree as drinking two to three units of alcohol, the legal limit in most European countries.

You wouldn't drive after a night on the town, but would you drive with heavy hay fever? One in four UK drivers will be battling hay fever symptoms this spring

BUT - THERE ARE SOME REMEDIES

Using a simple organic drug-free allergen barrier balm can help.

In an Allergy UK survey 80 per cent of respondents said that the HayMax allergen barrier balm worked.

SUNSHINE OR COD LIVER OIL

Hay fever may be associated with a lack of vitamin D, says Dr Glenis Scadding, president of the British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

Indeed, experts are increasingly linking the rise in allergies to a lack of the vitamin, which is made when the skin comes into contact with sunlight.

Children with lower vitamin D levels were significantly more likely to have severe asthma and several other markers of allergy, according to a study published in American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

I remember the Fifties, when we took cod liver oil (which contains vitamin D), says Dr Scadding.

This stopped shortly afterwards and there was a huge rise  a quadrupling  in hay fever and allergies between the Fifties and Eighties.

Experts are increasingly linking the rise in allergies to a lack of vitamin S, which is made when the skin comes into contact with sunlight

NASAL SPRAYS

A steroid nasal spray is one of the most effective hay fever treatments, says Dr Scadding.

Look for ones containing fluticasone propionate (available over the counter), mometasone furoate or fluticasone furoate (both prescription-only), and start taking them two weeks before the pollen that affects you comes into season.

Dont be put off by the fact it contains a steroid  the dose is minuscule and usually 99.5 per cent of it wont get anywhere else in the body, adds Dr Scadding.

One of the most common mistakes people make is not using their spray every day.

Some end up needing steroid injections, which isnt a good way to manage the condition.

Professor Durham agrees its important to use the spray every day, even when you have no symptoms.

A steroid nasal spray is one of the most effective hay fever treatments, doctors say. In fact, one of the most common mistakes people make is not using their spray every day

Almost all the patients referred to me get through one bottle during the whole summer  but you should be getting through a bottle a month. Two squirts in each nostril once a day for most products, but always read the label.

Then theres technique. Professor Durham advises leaning forward and spraying into each nostril  tipping your head back means the medication will just run down your throat.

Also point the nozzle in the direction of the ear on that side of your face.

Another option is nasal air filters  clear, soft rubbery implants worn outdoors to prevent allergens from being inhaled.

IMMUNOTHERAPY

Immunotherapy can help hay fever patients when all else has failed. It usually involves having injections or tablets of the pollen youre allergic to over a period of three years (file image)

If all other treatments havent helped, you may be referred to a specialist and offered immunotherapy.

This usually involves having injections or tablets of the pollen youre allergic to over a period of three years.

Patients with grass pollen allergy tend to be given daily tablets rather than injections.

The treatment has to be prescribed by an allergy specialist and it can take a few months to get referred.

The best results are seen four months after treatment begin

In trials of patients with a confirmed sensitivity to grass pollen, 80 per cent of people will do well on immunotherapy, and have less need for other treatments such as steroid sprays and antihistamines.
One of the strangest conditions we psychologists come across causes people to want to maim themselves.

Known as body identity integrity disorder (BIID) or xenomelia, it usually involves a desire to amputate a healthy limb.

More rarely it can manifest as a desire to be paraplegic or blind. In all cases, sufferers feel their body is not complete in its current state.

They exhibit no other psychiatric condition.

Sufferers tend to keep their desire secret for fear of being judged, which is an added challenge when it comes to diagnosis.

People with body identity integrity disorder feel their body is not how it should be and the only 'cure' is to maim themselves, says psychology professor Anna Sedda

They agree it is strange and irrational, and in many cases even their partners are unaware.

They are plagued by the feeling that their body is not how it should be, suffering overwhelming distress in the process.

Partly because of this secrecy surrounding BIID, we dont know a great deal about the extent of the problem.

What we do know is that at present there is no 'cure' other than the maiming itself.

Drugs and classic psychotherapy do not eliminate the desire.

Recent research gives us reason to believe this may soon change, however.

Emerging techniques may make it possible for sufferers to remain able-bodied or keep their vision while shedding their desire to self-harm.

At present, individuals with BIID often end up seeking amputation by means of extreme and dangerous methods. The life threat often seems more bearable than the suffering.

Two surgeries were performed legally in Scotland before a decision was made to prevent any more (file photo)

There have been reports of individuals cooling a leg with ice to the point that when admitted to hospital, doctors have no choice but to amputate.

The only two known surgeries performed 'legally' were actually in Scotland in the 1990s at an NHS hospital in Falkirk.

The surgeon ended up having to defend himself in front of an ethics committee, and a decision was taken to prevent any further operations.

The upshot is that those who dont self-amputate often end up going abroad and paying surgeons to operate illegally  indeed one of the Scottish cases was a man who had flown from Germany for the operation.

The destinations of choice are said to be in Asia.

A US study from 2005 showed that of 52 sufferers recruited over a six-month period, 27 per cent attempted an amputation.

A more recent German study of 21 individuals showed that 47 per cent went abroad to get surgery. Virtually nothing is known about other countries.

We dont know how long BIID has existed, except that first reports date from 1977.

The first group study only took place in 2005 and the condition is not yet classified as a disease. Yet there has been an important shift in how it is perceived.

Where it was originally researched as a psychiatric condition, more recently it has been more of interest to neuroscience.

The neuroscientific evidence is starting to indicate that sufferers have a dysfunction in the areas of the brain related to the representation of our bodies.

At present, individuals with BIID often end up seeking amputation by means of extreme and dangerous methods. There have been reports of individuals cooling a leg with ice to the point that when admitted to hospital, doctors have no choice but to amputate (file photo)

Though the results are not yet final and the possible psychiatric components of the condition should not be ruled out, the findings are a useful step forward.

Researchers recently experimented on BIID sufferers with a neuroscientific technique called caloric vestibular stimulation.

The technique involves stimulating the vestibular receptors in the left ear using a syringe of cold water with a soft tube attached to it.

The technique is known to modify how we represent our bodies, though unfortunately it is very specific and only acts on some components of the part of the brain in question.

That may be why it was not effective in this case.

Yet there are promising alternatives that have not been tried in relation to the condition.

One is called transcranial direct current stimulation, a non-invasive technique that delivers a low-voltage electrical current to a patient through two electrodes on the scalp.

It has been used in recent years to successfully study how people represent their bodies to themselves and to modify the extent to which brain-damaged patients are conscious of their actions.

The evidence is starting to indicate that sufferers have a dysfunction in the areas of the brain related to the representation of the bodies. They also tend to keep their desire secret for fear of being judged

This suggests it might restore to BIID sufferers a balanced sense of their body that includes all their limbs.

Then there is mirror-box illusion, a technique known to alter our awareness of body actions and the extent to which they seem part of us.

It involves getting a patient to look at the reflection of a limb through a box with a mirror.

Researchers have shown this can affect a persons sense of control over their actions, as well as to reduce or even eliminate the phantom pain that some people experience after an amputation.

So while we are still working towards understanding this very difficult condition and developing a treatment, the good news is that there is reason for optimism.
Thousands of terminally-ill cancer patients could go into remission by being given two breakthrough drugs at the same time, research shows.

Trials unveiled at the world's largest cancer conference have shown that a new technique of offering two types of immunotherapy at once not just one  more than doubles the numbers of patients who benefit.

Immunotherapy has been hailed as the new era in cancer treatment and it works by teaching the body's own immune system to hunt out and attack tumours.

Thousands of terminally-ill cancer patients could go into remission by being given two breakthrough drugs at the same time, new research suggests (file photograph)

But although some patients have been effectively cured, typically only a fifth properly benefit.

Early findings of British research presented at the American Society for Clinical Oncology conference in Chicago reveal that when two types of immunotherapy were offered, half of all patients responded.

The trial by the University of Glasgow involves 77 patients with terminal lung cancer who had exhausted all other treatment options and were only expected to live for a few more months or weeks.

All were given two immunotherapy jabs, nivolumab and ipilimumab, several times a week and 47 per cent have survived for a year  and most are still alive today.

Meanwhile the early findings of a separate trial by US and Canadian researchers unveiled at the conference show that giving two types of immunotherapy at the same time may also help thousands of bowel cancer patients.

Researchers believe that the reason two drugs are so much more effective is that one accelerates the action of the other.

Lung cancer patients told they only had a few months to live were given two immunotherapy jabs several times a week. Some 47 per cent survived a year and most are still alive today (file photo)

CANCER SUFFERER RIDDLED WITH 26 TUMOURS IS 'EFFECTIVELY CURED' BY IMMUNOTHERAPY A man who had more than 26 cancer tumours in his abdomen is now free of disease thanks to immunotherapy. Mike Chettle was left unable to move properly when bowel cancer began to spread rapidly around his body. His first treatments included a complex surgery involving the bowel and several organs, followed by chemotherapy. But a year later, the cancer had spread to Mr Chettle's liver. He had more surgery and doctors then discovered 26 tumours throughout his abdomen. Despite more chemotherapy, all treatments failed and two years ago, Mr Chettle was told the cancer had spread to his bones. Cancerous spots were also still on his liver. 'It was spreading fast,' Mr Chettle said in an interview for the magazine of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (Asco). 'I was limping. I couldn't turn my neck. I was in a lot of pain.' Mr Chettle had no more treatment options and was at the point of considering end-of-life care. But then his consultant, Dr Steven Duffy, from the Bon Secours Cancer Institute of Medical Oncology at St Mary's in Richmond, Virginia, referred him to Dr Luis Diaz at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Centre in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr Diaz enrolled Mr Chettle on a study looking at a genetic abnormality called mismatch repair (MMR) deficiency. The trial examined whether this made tumours more susceptible to Keytruda (pembrolizumab), an immunotherapy drug. Within two or three months of enrolling in the trial, Mr Chettle's symptoms began to ease off. 'I was able to turn my neck again,' he said. By the time his daughter's wedding took place a few months later, he was able to walk her down the aisle. Mr Chettle, who receives the drug as a 30-minute infusion every two weeks, has now been on the trial for almost two years and has experienced a complete response to the treatment. 'I feel like I've been blessed to have good doctors who led me to where I am, to be in that trial,' he said Advertisement

So one type of immunotherapy teaches the immune system to hunt out and eradicate tumours  but most patients only respond marginally.

The other drug accelerates this process enabling the immune system to be far more effective in many more patients.

Professor Peter Johnson, Cancer Research UK's chief clinician, said the two-drug technique could help thousands of British patients.

'It's very exciting as it looks as though we can increase the power of the treatment.

'It looks as though if we can find new ways to combine different immune treatments we'll be able to treat more patients effectively, and potentially to start using them in other types of cancer, where up until now the results with single antibodies (immunotherapy drugs) haven't been so good.

'It's potentially in the thousands.

'It's still early in the research but all the results we're seeing are very positive.

Professor Jeff Evans, Director of Institute of Cancer Sciences, from the University of Glasgow, who is leading the British research said: 'Harnessing the immune system to tackle cancers is one of the most exciting areas in cancer research right now.

'Studies of this combination of nivolumab and ipilimumab report very encouraging results in lung cancer.

'This combination has been shown to be effective in shrinking tumours with manageable side-effects.'

Early findings from a trial of 44 bowel cancer patients by a team of doctors from specialist cancer centres in the US, Canada and Australia shows that giving two drugs at the same time is also far more effective than one.

The research has only been underway for six months and but already many patients have responded extremely well.

Immunotherapy is extremely expensive and typically costs 100,000 a year, four times as much as chemotherapy.

And currently just three types of immunotherapy are available on the NHS  two for skin and one for lung cancer  although many others are awaiting approval from the drugs rationing body NICE.

But combining two types of immunotherapy would potentially double the costs  so the NHS will not be able to offer this to all patients who need it.

Immunotherapy can also cause debilitating side effects including bowel ulcers and lung damage  and this is worse when two drugs are combined.

But researchers say they are increasingly learning how to control these symptoms with other drugs, to ensure patients can go about their normal routines.

Dr Alan Worsley, senior science communication officer at Cancer Research UK, said the technique could help thousands of patients go into remission.
Doctors must warn patients with pacemakers that their devices may be disrupted by anti-theft devices used in shops.

Experts say many patients are unaware that electronic anti-theft systems - also known as electronic article surveillance (EAS) systems - can pose a threat to people using cardiac devices.

Prolonged exposure to the in-store devices can cause pacing therapy to drop beats and cause implantable defibrillators (ICDs) to deliver inappropriate shocks.

While previous warnings have been issued, many patients are still unaware of the problem, doctors warned.

Pacemaker patients have been warned electronic security systems in shops could interfere with the devices

The research was presented at the Cardiostim EHRA Europace 2016 conference in Nice, France.

Some of the anti-theft devices are hidden under floors, in walls and in doors, while traditional pedestal systems in doorways are often covered by advertising sleeves.

The new study, presented by Professor Robert Stevenson, senior scientist at Greatbatch Medical in Santa Clarita, California, examined pacemakers against an array of anti-theft devices.

Traditional pedestal systems interfered with cardiac device functioning, especially when the devices were in prolonged close proximity, they found.

In particular, they raised concerns about patients standing in close to EAS pedestals and toddlers with pacemakers crawling over sub-floor systems.

Professor Stevenson added: 'Doctors must educate patients about the potential dangers of EAS systems as many have never been warned not to lean or linger in retail store entrances.

Prolonged exposure to in-store devices can cause pacemakers to drop beats and implantable defibrillators (ICDs) to deliver inappropriate shocks

'It is particularly important that patients do not sit or slouch in a chair or couch in store entry areas.

'Electronic anti-theft systems are a part of everyday life, with more than 800,000 pedestals alone installed worldwide.

'Patients are safe if they walk at a constant pace through the system.

'EAS gates that are obscured with advertising or goods for sale, or hidden in the floor with couches or chairs adjacent, are a serious concern and EAS manufacturers have a responsibility to ensure that retailers install them in such a way that they are visible and well marked.'

Co-author Dr Rod Gimbel, an electrophysiologist at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, said: 'Cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIEDs) are critical to patients' health.

'Pacemakers provide pacing support, without which there would be no heartbeat at all for a pacemaker-dependent patient.

'ICDs deliver pacing or shocks to rescue patients from potentially life-threatening arrhythmias.

'We tell patients 'Don't linger, don't lean' but that advice is hard to follow when systems are invisible.

'To make matters worse, advertising draws patients closer to the pedestals.
Taking an interest in French cuisine, films and literature sounds reasonable for someone looking to broaden their cultural horizons in middle age.

But one Italian man who briefly dated a French woman but hadn't spoken the language in decades has 'turned French' after suffering a devastating brain injury.

The 50-year-old, known only as JC, now speaks 'movie-like' French and poses as a 'caricature of a French man' - even opening his window every morning and shouting 'bonjour' to passers-by.

Baffled doctors have now diagnosed with Foreign Language Syndrome, a condition which has only ever affected about 60 people worldwide.

It is thought the rare condition was caused by damage to the part of his brain which controls language.

The Italian man, known only as JC, has adopted French language and enjoys French cuisine after suffering from a head injury, researchers at the University of Edinburgh found (file image)

'JC's French is full of inaccuracies, yet he speaks it in a fast pace with exaggerated intonation using a movie-like prosody and posing as a typical caricature of a French man,' scientists said.

But while he now speaks French to anyone who will listen, the man continues to write in Italian, researchers at the University of Edinburgh said.

'He uses French to communicate with everybody who is prepared to listen,' they said.

'He speaks French with his bewildered Italian relatives, with the consultants; he spoke French even in front of the befuddled committee deciding on his pension scheme,' the authors said.

'He claims that he cannot but speak French, he believes that he is thinking in French and he longs to watch French movies (which he never watched before), buys French food, reads French magazines and seldom French books, but he writes only in Italian,' they wrote.

They added JC did not become irritated when people do not understand his French.

He was however, found to show other behavioural abnormalities such as delusions of grandeur, sleep disturbances and unjustified euphoria.

In February, a Chinese pensioner woke from a two-week coma speaking perfect English - but not a word of her native language.

The unnamed Italian man still writes in his native language but now speaks French

Liu Jieyu, 94, had been unconscious for a fortnight after suffering a stroke, which doctors had feared she may not recover from.

When she finally awoke, the retired teacher asked in perfect English: 'Where am I? What is happening?'

Surprised doctors were left even more confused when it became clear Ms Jieyu - who used to teach English - had lost all ability to speak her native Chinese.

Medic Tao Hou, 45, said: 'I can't ever remember having a case like this before but we anticipate with proper rehabilitation and rest she should regain the ability to speak Chinese.

'We assume that the area dealing with her ability to speak Chinese has been damaged, but brain cells to have an ability to repair themselves to a certain extent we would hope to see at least some improvement.'

Elsewhere, Linda Pereira, from Atlanta, Georgia, claims to have lost her typical American accent and now speaks with an array of twangs ranging from a Scottish to Eastern European.

The mother-of-three described what she called an 'eruption' in her brain while messaging a friend on Facebook in October last year.

She has also been mistaken as being from Sweden, Germany and South Africa.

In 2014, Kath Locket from Staffordshire was shocked when she woke up sounding like an Eastern European.
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While staring at our bingo wings or gripping our love handles, many of us forlornly recall a younger age where we could eat endlessly and never gain weight.

The older we get, the fewer calories we need to power our bodies - and a new graph shows exactly how many we should eat at each stage of our lives - and how many we are actually consuming.

While the graph shows - on average - people are eating more calories than is necessary for a sedentary lifestyle, surprisingly, it reveals they are eating fewer calories than they need for an active lifestyle - particularly for women.

The graph was created by UCLA statistician Nathan Yau, who used the US Department of Health and Human Servicess recommendations for how much people should eat depending on their activity level.

He plotted the amounts in these guidelines against the average amount of calories people consume, based on data from the 2009 -12 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, publishing the results on his Flowing Data blog.

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This graph shows how many calories (vertical axis) the US Department of Health and Human Services recommends WOMEN eat at each age (horizontal axis) - depending on their activity level. Women who are sedentary (pink line) should eat around 1,800 calories a day between the ages of 25 and 30; those who do moderate exercise (orange line) should eat 2,000 calories a day from 25 to 50; while those who are very active (green line) can eat 2,400 calories a day between the ages of 20 and 30 and 2,200 a day from 30 to 60 years old. The grey part of the graph shows how many calories on average women eat as they age. Unsurprisingly, the average calorie consumption for women is above the recommended guidelines for sedentary females. However, it is much lower than the guidelines for people who do moderate and active physical activity

The average calorie consumption of MEN over the age of 25 is much higher than the recommended amount for a moderate exerciser, and much higher than is necessary for a sedentary person, the graph shows. Average calorie consumption for men is a lot higher than recommended levels when compared to women. At age 40, the average consumption for a man is 500 calories more than is necessary for a sedentary lifestyle. It is even slightly higher than the recommended amount for those who exercise moderately. It is only when men reach 60 years old that the average calorie consumption falls to below the recommended amount

Unsurprisingly, the graph reveals that the average calorie consumption for both men and women is above the recommended amount for a person who leads a sedentary life - doing no more exercise than they need to accomplish daily living.

This is particularly true for men - the average calorie consumption for a man over the age of 40 is 500 calories more than is necessary.

Men, on average are even consuming more calories than is necessary for those carrying out daily moderate exercise - the equivalent of one-and-a-half to three miles a day - when they are between the ages of 25 to 60.

Perhaps more surprising is the fact that the average calorie consumption for women is much lower than the guideline for moderate or active exercisers, who run more than three miles a day or carry out an equivalent amount of exercise.

The graph shows:

FOR WOMEN

From five to 10 years old, the Department of Health recommends sedentary girls should eat around 1,400 calories a day.

By the age of 20 they should eat 2,000 calories a day, with this falling to 1,800 between the ages of 25 and 50.

Between 50 and 80, women should eat 1,600 calories a day unless they start exercising.

Women who exercise moderately can eat around 200 calories more a day, while very active women can eat an extra 400 calories a day.

While sedentary and moderate exercisers need to eat 200 calories a day less at age 25  exercise enthusiasts dont need to lower their calories intake until the age of 30.

The average calorie consumption for women is above the recommended amount for a sedentary lifestyle, but below the recommended amount for a person who exercises moderately orwho is very active

For example at age 40, the average calorie consumption for women is 200 less than the recommended amount for an active person.

HOW MANY CALORIES DO WE NEED TO EAT IN A DAY? WOMEN who are sedentary can eat the following number of calories a day: Age 5 - 10: Around 1,400 calories Age 20 - 25: Around 2,000 calories Age 25 - 50: Around 1,800 calories Age 50 - 80: Around 1,600 calories If they start doing moderate exercise they can eat and extra 200 calories a day on top of these values. If they become very active they can eat an extra 400 calories a day. MEN who are sedentary can eat the following number of calories a day: Age 10: Around 1,400 calories Age 20 - 40: Around 2,400 calories Age 40 - 60: Around 2,200 calories As with women, men who do moderate amounts of exercise can eat an extra 200 calories a day on top of these values. And very active men can eat between 400 and 600 extra calories. Advertisement

FOR MEN

Young sedentary boys can also eat around 1,400 calories a day at 10 years old, but by the time they are 20 they can eat more calories than women.

Between the ages of 20 and 40, they need 2,400 calories every day, according to the recommendations.

Between 40 and 60 they need around 2,200 calories a day, with his falling to just over 2,000 when they are 60 to 80.

As with women, men who do moderate amounts of exercise can eat an extra 200 calories a day on top of their sedentary peers values.

And very active men can eat between 400 and 600 extra calories.

Unlike the graph for women, the average calorie consumption for men was above that required for a sedentary lifestyle.

Average consumption is 350 calories above the guideline for sedentary people for men in their 20s and 30s and 500 above the recommended amount for men in their 40s

Average consumption was even above the amount recommended for men who exercise moderately, until men reach 60 years old.

Like women, the average calorie consumption for men was well below the recommended amount for a person who leads a very active lifestyle.

For example, at 20 years old, the average calorie consumption is 400 calories fewer than the recommended amount for such a person.

Writing on his blog, Flowing Data, the graph's creator, Mr Yau, said: 'As you might expect, the average calories for males is higher than for females, but its interesting how the male calories ramp up much more at the beginning than for female calories.

'Also, the female averages after 12 years old always stay under the moderate line, whereas male averages are above the moderate line from mid 20s to late 50s.

'Im not sure if this is just noise, an artifact of underreporting, or if females really do tend to eat less relative to the estimates. So you can take that with a grain of salt. Although anecdotally that last reason seems possible.

'One things for sure: I need to move more.'

Women who are very active can eat an extra 400 calories a day than those who are sedentary. However, data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey shows the average woman is eating 400 fewer calories than is required for such an active lifestyle

'WE ARE IN THE MIDST OF AN OBESITY CRISIS - AND MOST PEOPLE ARE OVER-EATING AND UNDER-EXERCISING' Nick Mitchell, owner and founder of Ultimate Performance Personal Training told MailOnline that the graph does not show that women are under-eating. He said: 'If you look at these graphs it would appear that there is no obesity crisis. 'But we are in the midst of an obesity crisis. 'The calorie consumption is for the average person - and the coloured lines shows the Department of Health's recommendations. 'We don't know the average amount of calories each person in each exercise group is doing - so we can't really tell whether active people are eating less calories. 'And we don't know how much exercise people are doing - I suspect most people aren't active.' Nick Mitchell, owner and founder of Ultimate Performance Personal training told MailOnline he believes in general people are over-eating and under exercising rather than under eating (file photo) He said he believes in general people are overeating and under exercising rather than under eating. Last year, figures revealed that British fitness levels are among the worst in Europe. The British Heart Foundation statistics showed that 44 per cent of adults never do any moderate physical activity. About five million adults spend more than eight hours a day sitting down, and one in ten Britons admit they never walk for more than ten minutes at a time. Men are more likely to be gluttons than women. Middle aged men are the greediest of all Nick Mitchell, owner and founder of Ultimate Performance Personal Training Mr Mitchell said: 'The graph definitely suggest men are more likely to be gluttons than women. Middle aged men are the greediest of all. 'Men of that age bracket start to eat more in their 30s. Thats when they start having families, they wont be playing sport, they won't be going to the gym. 'They'll be eating the same amount, and that's when they'll get what's called a 'dad bod'. He continued: 'What you can also tell is women in their 40s are almost certainly under-eating compared with men in their 40s. 'That's probably because it gets harder and harder to lose weight as you get older. 'I am speculating that women hit a certain age and start to become more aware of their bodies. 'Too many women can drop their calories too hard at this age.' He added the graph shows people who exercise can eat slightly more calories- but exercising doesn't 'undo' the damage of a bad diet. He said: 'Exercise doesnt have anywhere near a profound effect on body fat levels versus their diet. 'The phrase "You cant out-train" a bad diet is quite true. 'If you look at the difference for a 30 year old female who is sedentary and very active, the activity means she can eat 400 calories a day. Thats not life changing  its not even a whole Big Mac. 'If you eat 400 fewer calories or go to the gym and train for an hour a day over a year this would keep you healthier and fitter - but it's mainly due to diet.' Advertisement




No one can doubt that there is an epidemic of loneliness among older people in the UK.

The most senior acute care doctor in England, Professor Keith Willett, recently warned that the issue needs to be addressed urgently.

Professor Willett told a reporter from the Guardian newspaper that doing nothing would result in hospitals being transformed into dormitories for older people with no support structure at home, the Hippocratic Post reports.

The Department of Health has assessed loneliness to be as damaging as smoking 15 cigarettes a day

There are many different reasons why loneliness is on the rise.

The UK population is ageing, with a larger proportion of over 65s and over 85s than ever before.

Close-knit communities with extended families are in decline. More than half of people over the age of 75 in the UK live on their own, (although of course, not everyone who lives alone is lonely).

A poll carried out by AgeUK found that a million people over 65 admitted they feel lonely always or often.

More than half the callers to our helpline, The Silver Line, tell us there is absolutely nobody else they can have a conversation with.

And we know that quite often, that is the real reason they visit their local surgery.

Loneliness is not trivial; it is a serious health problem. The Department of Health has assessed it to be as damaging as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, more dangerous than obesity.

It can lead to such a serious loss of self-esteem that older people lose the confidence even to step outside their own front door.

LONELINESS IS AS BAD FOR YOUR HEALTH AS ALCOHOLISM According to a study the support of family, friends and neighbours can increase your chances of living to a healthy old age by 50 per cent. But the findings, based on an analysis of more than 300,000 people, suggest social isolation is as bad for your health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day or being an alcoholic. It also does more damage to your health than not exercising  and is twice as harmful as obesity. The American scientists who made the discovery say lack of social support should be added to the short list of risk factors for an early grave. Dr Julianne Holt-Lunstad, of Brigham Young University in Utah, who led the study, said friends and family influenced health for the better by offering a calming touch or by helping people find meaning in their lives. Advertisement

They may start to lose the ability to speak fluently, because they are so out of practice.

Anxiety, depression, despair can all have their root in loneliness.

This can lead to costly drug treatments such as antidepressants which may have been unnecessary if the issue of loneliness had been tackled from the outset.

Drugs like Valium and other benzodiazapines - which are used to treat anxiety or to help people sleep - can be addictive and should not be taken for longer than 2-4 weeks.

The biggest users of benzos are the elderly. SSRIs, like Prozac, can be taken for the long term but can also have side effects and may not be tackling the root of the problem.

Social isolation is strongly correlated to poor health outcomes.

The good news is that doctors and health workers have one new weapon in their armoury  Silver Line, the free, confidential helpline open 24/7, offering information, friendship and advice to older people, which we launched in November 2013.

We have an army of Silver Line Friends, volunteers who regularly ring Silver Line callers once a week, they facilitate Silver Circles, which are regular conference calls, and write Silver Letters for people who prefer Pen Pals or are hard of hearing.

Unfortunately, too often, GPs, hospital nurses and community practitioners arent even aware that The Silver Line exists.

In the first two years more than 700,000 people called our helpline, but only a small proportion were referred by medical staff.

We hope that every surgery will display our leaflets, and act as our champion.

Volunteers at The Silver Line regularly ring callers once a week, facilitate regular conference calls, and write Silver Letters to people who prefer Pen Pals or are hard of hearing

Because we have discovered that pride, and the strong desire not to appear needy means that many of your older patients will need encouragement from you to make that first call.

For there is a stigma attached to admitting to loneliness.

People who were used to being relied upon as they brought up their own families, or holding down responsible jobs, as they grow older are often so reluctant to be a burden that they dont even admit to their families that they are lonely.

I myself know a little about this. When my husband died, our children moved out, and I downsized from our family home, I found myself very lonely  I believe loss is one of the major causes of loneliness.

I wrote about it and a very good friend responded with surprise. How could you write about something like that? Havent you got too much pride? I wasnt too proud to admit that I suddenly felt isolated, but many elderly people are.

We ask a simple question when we suspect that a caller is isolated and lonely: When is the last time you had fun?

Dame Esther Rantzen founded Childline in 1986, and more recently The Silver Line, designed to combat loneliness in elderly people

You might find that someone who seems to brush off problems in life, but is back in the surgery every fortnight for a knee ailment, might admit that they havent had fun for a very long time, or tell you that fun is just for young people.

At The Silver Line we think everyone has the right to have fun, so if you visit our helpline, the sound you will hear is laughter, as we share jokes, and memories.

And the outcomes? As one caller told our independent evaluator, When I get off the phone I feel like Ive joined the human race, and another told us Its not just a phone line, its a life line. You know somebody cares about you. And we do.

We have found an unpatronizing way to encourage proud, independent older people to contact The Silver Line.

Why not ask your patients if they are prepared to do some mystery shopping for me, make that first, free, confidential phone call at any time, maybe in the insomniac hours of three in the morning, and see if they like what they hear.

Tell them I have suggested it because we need our service to be the best it can be. And then you will feed back to us if we are getting things wrong, or right.

Or turn it round. We need volunteers to become Silver Line friends  many of whom are also older, I spoke to a brilliant Silver Line Friend who is 91, befriending a caller of 86.

So suggest they think about coming a Silver Line friend and reach out to other people who need conversation, a bit of fun in their lives.

And please, do put up Silver Line posters in your surgeries or clinics  somewhere patients can easily see them. If Silver Line is going to fulfil its potential, doctors and nurses, social workers and community health workers must be our champions. Overcoming loneliness is a challenge for all of us. We can only meet that challenge by working together.

The Silver Line Helpline number is free, confidential, open every day and night of the year, 0800 4 70 80 90. You can get more information from our website.

Dame Esther Rantzen DBE is a journalist and television presenter who founded Childline in 1986 and more recently The Silver Line, designed to combat loneliness, which she set up in 2012.

She was awarded a DBE in the 2015 New Year's Honours for services to children and older people.
Thousands of leukaemia patients will soon receive treatments finely tailored to their disease, thanks to the most detailed map of cancer genes ever completed.

The British discovery - the biggest breakthrough yet in the new drive for personalised cancer medicine - will allow doctors to pinpoint the exact treatment a patient needs.

It means that thousands of patients will be able to skip unnecessary and gruelling rounds of chemotherapy, if their genes show they are surplus to requirement.

And other patients, with more deadly forms of the disease, can be fast-tracked to aggressive and expensive treatments.

Thousands of leukaemia patients will soon receive treatments finely tailored to their disease, thanks to the most detailed map of cancer genes ever completed

Scientists at the Sanger Institute in Cambridgeshire today announced they had charted the genes of a vicious form of blood cancer, called acute myeloid leukaemia (AML).

They discovered that the disease was effectively 11 different disorders, not just one, and the different types could be matched to treatments with remarkable accuracy.

The team has already started trying to repeat the process for different types of cancer  and is already working on a similar study for breast cancer which it hopes to publish by the end of the year.

Doctors are convinced that personalised medicine is the most promising advance in cancer medicine since the invention of chemotherapy.

Last week a major study announced in the US estimated that personalised treatment would be six times better at treating cancer than a broad-brush approach - and patients would live twice as long before the cancer grew back.

But personalised medicine relies on scientists knowing how the cancer works, and which genes control which element of the disease.

The new breakthrough means that scientists can now target existing treatments with precision for the first time - and come up with new drugs to fill the gaps.

LEUKAEMIA: 'IT'S LIKE CONSTANTLY RUNNING FROM AN ASSASSIN' Anna Mamwell, 40, of Louth, Lincolnshire, underwent four rounds of chemotherapy for acute myeloid leukaemia. She is now finally in remission. At first Anna Mamwell thought she had flu. I was off work lying at home, she said. I had been suffering with a fever, I was clammy and I had a pain in my neck. Little did she know it, but the ache Mrs Mamwell was felling was caused by acute myeloid leukaemia growing in her neck bones. Anna Mamwell during and after her four rounds of chemotherapy treatment. She is now in remission It was only when the 39-year-old went to her GP surgery for a sick note, to have a second week off work, that a nurse suggested she get a blood test. Later that night in April 2015, when the blood test results came back, the married mother from Lincolnshire was rushed into hospital and given the news that would change her life. She underwent four brutal rounds of chemotherapy, each requiring a month in hospital. It was horrific, she said. Twice a day, every day, watching a bag of poison being emptied into your veins. They wipe out your bone marrow, its like bleach. Mrs Mamwell, who worked in a pharmacist before her illness, is now in remission and helping leukaemia charity Bloodwise support other patients. But, at the age of 40, Mrs Mamwell, who is wife to Lee, 48, and mother to Imogen, 9, fears for the future. Mrs Mamwell's husband, Lee, and her daughter Imogen (pictured above) fear the cancer is going to return Its like constantly running from an assassin, never quite feeling safe, always looking over your shoulder waiting for the bullet to hit, she said. This breakthrough is great news because it gives me hope for the future. It also might mean that some people wont have to go through the most severe chemo. I would like it to be different for people down the line, they might not have to go through what I went through. Advertisement

Professor Peter Campbell, who led the Sanger team, said: We expect the way patients are classified will change pretty quickly on the basis of this and other studies.

One of the most amazing things is that when the patient is sitting in front of you in the clinic we will be able to say theres a very high chance of being cured with current treatments, or youve got a very low chance of being cured with current treatments and therefore we should consider these more experimental or intensive therapies.

The project, the largest of its type ever conducted, was based on blood and bone marrow samples from 1,540 patients.

The findings of this study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine last night, revealed 5,234 different DNA mutations that affected the prognosis of patients and could be used to characterise distinct strains of the disease.

Professor Campbell said: You can take two patients who have what look like the same leukaemia under the microscope and apply treatment with exactly the same therapy, and one patient will be cured and one will relapse and die very quickly.

A cancer cell (yellow) is being attacked by white blood cells. The new discovery - the biggest breakthrough in a new drive for personalised cancer medicine - allows doctors to pinpoint the exact treatment a patient needs

Some 97 per cent of patients had at least one mutation and 86 per cent had two or more, and their genetic make-up strongly predicted the way they responded to chemotherapy.

The team hopes that the findings will quickly change the way patients are treated.

AML, which develops in the bone marrow, is a fast-growing and aggressive cancer that often requires months of intense chemotherapy.

Nearly 3,000 people are diagnosed with the disease every year, with 60 per cent dying within five years.

WHY THIS DISCOVERY IS SO IMPORTANT The breakthrough is the biggest yet in the new drive for personalised cancer medicine, and will allow doctors to pinpoint the exact treatment a patient needs. It means that thousands of patients will be able to skip unnecessary and gruelling rounds of chemotherapy, if their genes show they are surplus to requirement. And other patients, with more deadly forms of the disease, can be fast-tracked to aggressive and expensive treatments. Scientists at the Sanger Institute in Cambridgeshire last night announced they had charted the genes of a vicious form of blood cancer, called acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). They discovered that the disease was effectively 11 different disorders, not just one, and the different types could be matched to treatments with remarkable accuracy. The team has already started trying to repeat the process for different types of cancer  and is already working on a similar study for breast cancer which it hopes to publish by the end of the year. Advertisement

Standard treatment for the disease usually involves blasting the body with four or five rounds of chemotherapy, driving the disease into remission, and then replacing the bone marrow with a stem cell transplant.

The treatment is brutal - but for some patients insufficient to save their life. For other patients, however, a milder treatment might be all that is needed.

Professor Campbell, whose Sanger Institute became world-famous when it became the first to sequence the human genome in 2003, said: No one patients leukaemia is like any other patients leukaemia. Its that complexity that drives the variation we see in the clinic.

A large proportion of what will happen to a patient is written and encoded in the genetic changes that a cancer has.

Currently only a few diagnostic laboratories in the UK, including two in Oxford and York, are equipped to carry out the tests.

But Professor Campbell expects them to become routine in the near future as genetic testing is increasingly brought into NHS clinics.

The test costs roughly 250 for clinicians, but the price is expected to plummet if it becomes widely used.

Dr Michael Dunn, head of genetics at the Wellcome Trust, which funded the programme, said: This research moves beyond just sequencing genes and identifying mutations, to understanding how they can influence disease progression and a persons response to treatment.'

Dr Matt Kaiser of the Bloodwise charity, said: Survival rates for this highly aggressive type of leukaemia are still desperately low, with the best chance of a cure still involving highly toxic chemotherapy that has changed little over the past 50 years or a gruelling stem cell transplant.
Zorro, a one-year-old Siberian Husky, was out for a morning stroll last week at a wooded stretch in the Capitals upmarket Vasant Kunj, when he was grabbed and whisked away by kidnappers in a gold-coloured SUV.

While his owner says the thieves could sell the Husky, as they come with a price tag of around Rs 1 lakh when fully grown, animal rights activists have raised concerns about crime syndicates in the Capital stealing exotic dogs to use them for breeding in a highly lucrative trade.

Experts say about 20-30 imported canines are snatched every month in the city, and owners should be vigilant not just about their pets health but also their security.

Aftab Khan fears that as his dog, Zorro, hails from the snow-bound Arctic regions, it will be difficult for him to survive if he is not found in time.

An FIR was registered at Vasant Kunj police station, but police have not been able to retrieve the pet.

Only exotic breeds of dogs are targeted by organised gangs, which do a proper recce before attacking, activist Naresh Kadyan said.

Most illegal breeding centres are allegedly in the suburbs of the national capital, run through farmhouses and other large dwellings in Gurugram, Ghaziabad, Narela, Meerut, Faridabad and Rohtak.

The trade has grown manifold after authorities banned the import of dogs for breeding and other commercial activities.

It is difficult to crack such cases. There are very few evidences and witnesses. Moreover, only a few dog lovers approach police if theres a theft, said a senior police officer.

In March, a Bengaluru-based actor who also owns a kennel business imported two Korean Dosa Mastiffs worth Rs 1 crore each, which was reportedly the most expensive such deal in India.

Animal rights activists have raised concerns about crime syndicates in Delhi stealing pedigree dogs like Siberian Huskies to use them for breeding in a highly lucrative trade

Police also highlighted the issue of legality of ownership, as most people do not register their pets.

It is difficult to establish who the real owner is as usually there is no documentation. It is mandatory for all owners to register their pets with civic agencies, but barely anyone does it, leaving a large scope for the accused to escape, an officer said.

Civic bodies, which record these pets, say barely two hundred people come forward in a year. But an estimated 500 dogs are sold by pet shops and unregistered sellers in the city each month.

Last year, the figure was only around 500 and this year so far only 200 have registered. We have made the process online and this may encourage people to register their pets, said a senior South Delhi Municipal Corporation officer.

Animal activists are also urging people to boycott pet shops and instead give stray dogs a home.

The increasing demand for exotic breeds has made this an active industry where pets are treated as commodities. This leads to a cycle of exploitation of the females, in which the breeders keep getting them pregnant to produce as many pups as possible, said Poorva Joshipura, CEO of PETA India.

It is shocking that these pets are even sold on popular e-commerce sites.

She added that a number of rules have been laid down for keeping animals in captivity, but unregistered pet stores keep violating them.
The Government is set to give the green-light to begin work on its ambitious Rs 4,000 crore 'Metrino' public transport project in the national capital region.

The Metrino will transport passengers in driver-less pods suspended up to 500m high.

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Tuesday: "We have received four tenders for Metrino project to be built from Dhaula Kuan in Delhi to Manesar in Haryana, and we expect the work to begin in two months."

Gadkari was speaking to journalists on the sidelines of an event to release a joint study on road transport by TCI and IIM, Kolkata.

The Metrino will transport passengers in driver-less pods suspended 510 metres above ground on a rope-way

In its first stage, the project will connect the 70-km stretch from Dhaula Kuan in Delhi to Manesar in Haryana, to ease traffic and de-congest the national capital region.

The system, which resembles a rope-way, runs on electricity and the driverless pods stop at elevated stations - thus removing the traffic burden from already congested roads, Gadkari explained.

The capital cost of Metrino is Rs 50 crore per km compared with Rs 250 crore per km for the metro.

Under the project, fully automatic pods travel independently on an overhead network which is typically around 510 metres above ground.

A few months back, a presentation on the project was made to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Union Cabinet.

Gadkari said massive work is underway to reform the face of the highways sector and the pilot project will be one such reform.

Logistics

The minister also said that to ensure the success of the 'Make in India' initiative, the government is committed to bring down the high logistics cost.

At present, the country's logistics cost is 18 per cent, while barely 3.5 per cent of goods are transported through waterways.

"Make in India scheme will be a great success if we can bring down the high logistics cost from 18 per cent to at least 12 per cent. In China, it is 8 per cent," he pointed out.

The project will connect the 70-km stretch from Dhaula Kuan in Delhi to Manesar in Haryana, to easy traffic and de-congest the national capital region

Goods transported by water cost barely 20 paise per km, compared to Rs 1.5 a km by road and Re 1 per km by railways, he added.

Union Minister Gadkari also urged truckers to use double axle trucks to minimise pollution, besides carrying a higher quantity of goods.

He asked transporters to ensure that they only used well-trained drivers, lamenting that too many trucks were found driving in the first lane.
Patients are losing out on potentially life-saving, zero-risk blood due to the practice of "blood-pooling" at blood banks.

This is a process where small amounts of blood are taken from multiple donations, and mixed together before being tested for viral infections like HIV and Hepatitis.

The latest and safest technology available to reduce the risk of deadly viruses transmitted through blood is called Nucleic Acid testing (NAT), but hardly a hundred blood banks in India have implemented it.

Poolingis a process where small amounts of blood are taken from multiple donations, and mixed together before being tested for viral infections

At present, around 10 per cent of the blood donated is being tested by NAT - and it is being pooled.

Health experts have claimed the pooling process makes NAT less effective.

Blood banks are making good money from pooling. A NAT test, which costs Rs 300- Rs 400, is sold for Rs 4,200 - Rs 4,800 to patients. This is cheating and it reduces the effectiveness of NAT, said Sumit Bagaria, Managing Director and CEO at Hemogenomics, working on blood safety.

Doctors from central government hospitals have urged the Union Health Ministry to stop blood pooling and make the Individual Donor-Nucleic Acid Amplification Test (ID-NAT) mandatory across the country.

Health experts have attacked blood banks for making considerable sums out of pooling

Dr Kabita Chatterjee, Head of the Department of Transfusion Medicine at AIIMS, said: "It is essential that we ensure blood safety to prevent Transfusion Transmitted Infections (TTI). ID-NAT helps to detect TTIs by narrowing the time window for HIV, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, malaria and syphilis."

According to a recent study at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), tests using a small pool of six samples could detect only 33.33 per cent of tainted blood where the viral load was low.
The members of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), an international group designed to regulate the development of missiles that could carry nuclear weapons, have finally agreed to let India join the body.

The move is a victory for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and came as he met US President Barack Obama in Washington on Tuesday.

No objection

Diplomats said that a deadline for members of the 34-nation group to object to India's admission had expired on June 6.

With the admission in place, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with President Barack Obama in Washington

No members resisted India's inclusion.

They said the plenary meeting of the 35-nation grouping will take place later this year in Seoul, during which India will be formally inducted as the new entrant to the bloc.

'Only some procedural formalities remain before India becomes member of #MTCR', Roald Naess, Norwegian Ambassador to Ireland, tweeted.

Admission to the MTCR would allow India to buy high-end missile technology, making its aspiration to buy surveillance drones such as the US Predator more realistic.

India also makes a supersonic cruise missile, the BrahMos, in a joint venture with Russia.

Both countries hope to sell the technology to third-party countries. This development would make India a significant arms exporter for the first time.

Sources said India had applied for the MTCR membership last year and its application was under consideration as part of a silent procedure.

There were certain formalities to be completed before India is inducted into the bloc, added the sources.

The development comes as India is expanding its diplomatic outreach and seeking support for its entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group.

India has developed a range of missile systems including Brahmos, Agni and Prithvi missile systems.

Admission to the MTCR would allow India to buy high-end missile technology, making its aspiration to buy surveillance drones such as the US Predator (pictured) more realistic

China has been opposing India's bid, arguing that it is not a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

US President Barack Obama backed Indias NSG membership bid amid a major push to the strategic ties between the two countries, which finalised a road-map to give India the status of a close partner of the US in the defence sector.

Obama, who held talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi for over an hour, also promised to cooperate with India against terrorist threats from groups such as Pakistan-based Jaish-e Mohammad, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and the 'D' Company, the crime network headed by underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.

In this context, the two leaders directed their officials to identify specific new areas of collaboration at the next meeting of the US-India Counter-terrorism Joint Working Group, said a joint statement issued after the talks.

Significantly, the US also committed itself to equating the Pathankot attack to the 26/11 terror strike in terms of ensuring punishment to perpetrators based in Pakistan.

The two countries also decided to start work on construction of six American nuclear reactors in India, amid claims that the Liability issue has been addressed.

Obama, who held talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi for over an hour, also promised to cooperate with India against terrorist threats like the Pakistan-based Jaish-e Mohammad

Six pacts and two other documents were signed after the talks, which mainly covered issues like terrorism, clean energy, climate change, defence, regional security, cyber security, and economic ties.

Addressing the media jointly with Modi at his Oval office, Obama said it was natural for India and the US, the two biggest democracies, to deepen and broaden their partnership.

I indicated support to India being a part of NSG, Obama said, in remarks which assume significance since China is opposing such a move.

Obama underlined that India needs technology, which is critical for its progress and prosperity.

President Obama welcomed India's application to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), and re-affirmed that India is ready for membership.
Congress party veteran Gurudas Kamat, 61, has announced he is quitting politics

When party veteran Gurudas Kamat announced his intention to quit politics, the Congress decided that it had to act.

The Congresss Randeep Surjewala insisted that Kamat was an integral part of the Congress family, and the leadership would discuss his future role and responsibility.

The response from AICC has come a day after 61-year-old Kamat dropped the bombshell.

The move has come ahead of next years Mumbai civic elections, where the Congress is hoping to dislodge the Shiv Sena-BJP combine.

Asana position too hard for Yoga Day

The government has decided to abandon the difficult 'Suryanamaskar asana position for the upcoming Yoga Day event on June 21.

Moreover, chanting of Om wont be compulsory even though Yoga is incomplete without it, Ayush Minister Shripad Naik said.

There has been a controversy over this asana, with Muslim groups saying their faith does not allow such a practice.

Hindi promoted in south & N-E government offices

In a bid to promote the use of the Hindi language, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said the use of Hindi would be encouraged in government offices, and in the North-East and South of India where it is not commonly spoken.

He said the move does not aim to impose Hindi, but to inspire voluntary adoption of the language in the larger interests of administration and ease of governance.

BJP launches land-grabbing complaints service

Stepping up its campaign ahead of the 2017 Assembly polls in UP and considering the hot topic of land-grabbing in Mathura, the BJP launched an email service where people can complain about land-grabbing in the state.

The email url, kabjahatao@bjp.org, was launched to help receive complaints against encroachment.
Ordeal: Panmure Gordon analyst Peter Smedley got trapped in the company's toilets for 16 hours

Panmure Gordon analyst Peter Smedley is likely to be giving his office a wide swerve on the weekends.

Smedley, a suave-ish sort and expert on retail matters, recently made a rare Sunday visit to the brokerage firms (unmanned) building, for what he intended to be a brief stopover.

Having repaired to the lavatories on the firms trading floor shortly after 2.30pm, he found himself unable to exit after the internal door handle had fallen off.

There the poor fellow remained trapped for 16 hours, until he was discovered by a member of staff rolling in to work at 6.30am the following morning. A colleague reports: Peters been given a days holiday in loo for his pains.

In a rare public relations boost for bankers, Metro Banks Craig Donaldson has been named the UKs most popular chief executive in an anonymous poll.

The downy-cheeked Wearsider, 43  the scamp looks barely out of short trousers  is described as the sort of boss whos not afraid to get his hands dirty.

He answers to the banks president Vernon Hill, 70, a brash Yankee and avowed dog enthusiast who anointed his beloved Yorkshire terrier, Sir Duffield, the firms chief canine officer. Also a decent cove by all accounts, albeit a tad certifiable.

Cantor Fitzgerald announced the retirement of Richard Redmayne after three years as the US brokers European chairman.

Invariably described as an old-school City gent and all-round straight-shooter, the self-confessed workaholic, 77, was previously head of corporate broking at Seymour Pierce.

Despite his illustrious CV, handsome Richard, 77, is better known these days as the father of weedy-looking Oscar-winner, Eddie Redmayne.

Following Japanese bank Nomuras axing of 600-odd staff from its London operation in April, its reported that a number of family photographs, items of clothing and professional mementos were left behind in the hurry to frogmarch workers from its opulent eco-friendly offices near London Bridge.

The assorted knick-knacks are in storage awaiting collection. A cruel-sounding bunch.

Wishy-washy ex-New York mayor and financial media billionaire Michael Bloomberg, 74, describes his ideal employee: I would like to hire a person whose father was never there, whose mother was in a drug treatment program, and he had to go and work three shifts a week at McDonalds to take care of his siblings.
MERGER OFF Jacob Rothschild has abandoned plans for a 5billion merger between his investment company RIT Capital Partners and troubled Alliance Trust.

RIT had approached its Dundee-based rival about a potential tie-up.

But it has decided not to make an offer  underlining the problems facing Alliance Trust. Shares in Alliance dipped 0.7 per cent, or 3.5p to 513p while RIT fell 0.6 per cent, or 10p to 1594p.

Alliance Trust has been under pressure from activist investors who have criticised its performance and the pay packet of senior staff. Yesterday it said its turnaround plan has already started to make good progress.

STRONG SHOW Tech company Iomart saw profits rise by more than a fifth and revenues lift 16 per cent.

The AIM-listed firm reported profits of 13million in the 12 months to the end of March, up from 10.8million a year earlier, while revenues rose to 76.3million, compared to 65.8million a year ago.

The company specialises in cloud computing that helps employees based in different locations to collaborate on projects. Its strong performance was helped by acquisitions.

Shares rose 2.6 per cent, or 7p to 273.75p.

ROBOTIC SIM Vodafone will provide SIM cards for the worlds first robotic suit that will help stroke patients or those suffering spinal injuries.

The mobile phone firm will supply SIM cards to Ekso Bionics, which makes the battery-powered exoskeleton suits that can be strapped on over the patients clothing to help them move around. Voda shares fell 0.24 per cent, or 0.55p to 231.15p.

SHARE OFFER T-Mobile is offering free shares worth nearly 30 each to 10million phone customers in the US.

Those who pay monthly for their mobile phone will each get one share, worth 2955p, but can gain up to 100 more if they recommend T-Mobile.

OIL RECOVERY Oil has risen to an eight-month high as the weaker dollar and disruptions to supply push up prices.

Crude hit $51.30 a barrel  its highest level since October and well above the 12-year low of less than $28 reached early this year.

The price has been pushed up by the weak dollar, which makes commodities traded in the currency such as oil cheaper, boosting demand.

BROKER BRAKE The 1.1billion merger of Tullett Prebon and Icaps voice broking business faces delays after the competition watchdog raised concerns over their combined dominance of the oil market.

The Competition and Markets Authority said it would hold an in depth investigation into the deal unless the firms can come up with a plan to satisfy its concerns surrounding the broking of oil products.
Soft drinks bottler Coca-Cola HBC has been frothing up since an investor visit on Monday. Yesterday shares were among the top risers on the FTSE 100 (up 0.27 per cent, or 16.99 points to 6301.52) for the third day in a row, climbing 3.3 per cent, or 46p, to 1456p.

It wants to bump its margins up to 11 per cent  they were 7.5 per cent in 2015.

It also plans to deliver average annual revenue growth of 4-5 per cent  in 2015 it was 2.9 per cent  and cut operating expenses to 26-27 per cent of net sales.

Analysts at Citigroup rate the stock a buy, saying its mid-term targets for 2020 are ambitious but credible.

On a roll: Coca-cola has been frothing up since an investor visit on Monday and have ambitious expansion plans

In a note, Deutsche Bank said: With the right tailwinds, this vision might just survive and be accomplished. It has a target price of 1500p for the stock.

Real estate investment trust Workspace provides commercial property to let in London. The group has around 4,000 tenants in 4.5million square feet of space in the capital.

Shares climbed yesterday after it reported pre-tax profits for the year had increased 8.7 per cent to 391million.

Investors are set to receive a total payout of 15.1p a share after the dividend rose by 25 per cent.

Occupancy rates slipped 1.1 percentage points to 90.7 per cent but total net rental income grew more than a quarter to 74.1million.

After buying five properties, selling 11 industrial properties and undergoing three refurbishments and one redevelopment in the year, the underlying value of the groups portfolio grew 21 per cent to 1.8billion.

Workspace has also got consent for another three redevelopments and two major refurbishments in East London.

Yesterday, it towered up 3.9 per cent, or 32.5p, to 865p.

Henry Boot was another property investment company having a good day after it announced two land sales for 275 house units.

In a trading update the firm said one of the sales was ahead of schedule and that it now expected profits for the current year to be comfortably ahead of expectations.

Numis raised the stock to a buy saying the firm, with a dividend yield of 3.8 per cent, looked undervalued.

The broker said the fact that one of the land sales was for a higher total profit than previously expected indicated that housebuilders are willing to pay a good price for oven-ready land in the right location. Shares kicked up 7 per cent, or 14.3p, to 216.5p.

Infrastructure investment company 3i rallied 5.7 per cent, or 9.5p, to 176.5p after it exceeded its capital raising target of 350million, securing a total of 385million.

Around 230million will be used to fund investments in Wireless Infrastructure Group and TCR (a leader in ground support equipment in the aviation industry in Europe) which are expected to conclude in June and August respectively.

WH Smith fell back 4 per cent,, or 70p, to 1670p on a mixed trading update. While like-for-like sales in the travel side of the business grew 3 per cent in the 14 weeks to June 4, overall sales for the group were flat.

Sales in high street stores retreated 3 per cent. Analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald said the stock had been an outstanding, consistent performer over the past seven years but the latest update fell a little short of expectations.

The broker has a hold rating on the stock and a target price of 1800p.

Liberum  also with a hold rating  said new openings in the travel business and cost savings on the high street meant the business was still on track.

Croma, which provides security services including manned guarding, CCTV and fire and alarm systems, slumped yesterday on a profit warning.

Croma said an administration error meant its 2015 results had been overstated by 142,250.

The mistake had also occurred in the results for the six months to the end of December, where profits were overstated by 47,216.

The group said underlying trading is robust and turnover is likely to be above expectations, but adjusting the figures downwards to account for the mistake is going to hit this years results.

As the alarm bells rang, shares plunged 14.8 per cent, or 6.5p, to 37.5p.

Highlands Natural Res-ources yesterday announced it had acquired helium licences in Montana. Beckenham-based Highlands is an investment company focused on oil and gas assets.

Its new exploration licences, which cost around 62,500, cover 59,033 acres of Montana in the US. Highlands said numerous shows of gas have been encountered across the region though it has commissioned further investigations to confirm this.
Advertising tycoon Martin Sorrell battled a shareholder revolt as more than a third of investors voted against his pay packet, which tops 70million.

Some 34.2 per cent of investors failed to back the 71-year-olds pay deal, one of the most damaging rebellions in the firms history.

But afterwards Sorrell launched an incredible defence of his pay, which is 196 times the amount earned by the typical employee at the giant advertising firm.

Defiant: Martin Sorrell battled a shareholder revolt as more than a third of investors voted against his pay packet, which tops 70m

Sorrell, who founded the company in 1985, said: Is there something wrong with building a company from two people to 194,000 people?

'I could argue, if the average number of people in a family is three, that amounts to 600,000 people dependent for their livelihood upon WPP. If theres something wrong with that, then mea culpa. I feel very strongly about that.

MAN WHO BUILT AN EMPIRE Martin Sorrell, 71, has been at the helm of advertising giant WPP for 30 years. His is not the rags-to-riches tale of his many contemporaries on the Rich List, where his wealth is estimated as just north of 250million. Born into a respected Jewish family  his father was an electronic salesman  he attended Haberdashers Askes school before gaining an economics degree from Cambridge. Twice-married, his blonde Italian wife Cristiana is a director at the World Economics Forum and he has three highly successful sons. He lists his hobbies in Whos Who as skiing and cricket, neither of which are thought to monopolise his time.

The revolt is the latest in a string of rebellions by shareholders, which have seen bosses at BP, Weir Group, Anglo American and Shire all delivered bloody noses.

Sorrell said that he has only once sold shares in the company, following his divorce in 2010.

His remuneration, which includes a bonus of 62.8million and amounts to 52 times his 1.2million salary, makes him the highest paid boss in the FTSE 100.

For 2015 the father-of-three, who lives in a 5million property in central London with his 43-year-old Italian wife Cristiana, amassed pensions contributions of 460,000 on top of his basic salary.

He got a short-term bonus of 4.3million and netted 1.5million in lieu of dividends on shares he put off taking in 1995. Perks for Sorrell amounted to 200,000.

At the AGM, held in the Pullman Hotel near Londons St Pancras station, several big City investors opposed Sorrells remuneration.

Hans-Christoph Hirt, co-chief executive of Hermes, said it was excessive, and Euan Stirling, head of Standard Life, said: We expect that is more than would be required to recruit, retain or motivate even someone with the redoubtable talents of Mr Sorrell.

It followed guidance from advisory bodies including Local Authority Pension Fund Forum, ShareAction, PIRC and ShareSoc prior to the meeting which urged investors to oppose the pay deal.

Revolt: Some 34.2% of WPP investors failed to back the 71-year-old's pay deal, one of the most damaging rebellion's in the firm's history

It is not the first time Sorrell has received push-back from WPPs shareholders. Four years ago his pay was met with opposition, with 60 per cent voting against it  the second biggest shareholder revolt ever.

Sorrell has overseen WPPs rise to become the biggest advertising group in the world over 31 years, with Coca-Cola, Ford, HSBC and Vodafone among its clients.
It failed to provide enough guards for the 2012 London Olympics and ripped off taxpayers by charging for phantom electronic tags on criminals who were either dead or in jail.

But security giant G4S will shortly be handed the keys to the Royal Mint, making it the first private sector company to guard the official coin maker in its 1,130-year history.

From next month, the firms security officers, including ex-Gurkhas, will work at Llantrisant in South Wales, patrolling the Royal Mint and its visitor centre.

Contract: Security giant G4S will shortly be handed the keys to the Royal Mint - making it the first private sector company to guard the official coin maker in its 1,130-year history

The three-year contract, with an optional two-year extension, is worth approximately 800,000 per year  or up to 4million in total.

The Royal Mint was set up in 886 under the reign of Alfred the Great and in 1968 moved from Tower Hill in the City of London to Wales, being fully based in Llantrisant since 1980.

Employing more than 900 people, the Mint can produce nearly five billion coins a year.

G4S will take over security duties from the Ministry of Defence and the contract will come as a boost after a string of scandals in recent years such as the 2012 Olympics gaffe.

It also landed itself in hot water after it emerged it had been overcharging taxpayers for the tagging of criminals.

The worlds biggest security firm, which employs 610,000 people including 40,000 in the UK, billed the government for needless electronic monitoring. It paid back more than 110m to settle the issue.

The security giant was also reprimanded by a judge in April after running up huge parking fines and trying to use them to cut its tax bill.

Hapless: G4s failed to provide enough guards for the 2012 London Olympics meaning the army had to be brought in

The company tried to avoid 580,000 in corporation tax from December 2007 to December 2010 by claiming parking fines were a legitimate business expense.

The Royal Mint has stepped up security following the opening of its visitor centre last year.
In the deserts of northern Jordan lies the largest Syrian refugee camp in the world - a sprawling mass of cabins, home to 80,000 people.

Syrian father-of-three Mohammad Ramadan told MailOnline how he and his family believed they would only be living in the Zaatari camp for 15 days, waiting for the violence in their home country to blow over.

But as the conflict enters its sixth year the family is still living in a one-room container, which has become even more cramped since the birth of their third child in the camp.

Family: Syrian father-of-three Mohammad Ramadan told MailOnline that he had his family only expected to be in the Zaatari camp for 15 days - but three years later they are still here

Pressure:Lack of work opportunities, strained health and education services and soaring accommodation prices are the most pressing concerns

Help: According to officials from the UNHCR, the refugees living in the camp are completely aid-dependent as they are given so few opportunities for work and education

'Nobody expected this,' says 30-year-old Mohammad, one of the 4.8million Syrian refugees who have fled the country since 2011, according to the UN.

'We left with only the clothes on our backs, and a few personal belongings. We thought we would be back in 15 days.'

The family fled their house at dawn one morning in March 2013, arriving in a village close to the Jordanian border at 6am. Twelve hours later when the sun set and the road became safer, they crossed the border.

Had they been caught, they could have been killed. But exhausted, three hours later, they arrived.

Shock: Three years on, the family are still living in the one-room container which has become home

Children: The family sleeps together in a one-room container, which has become even more cramped since the birth of their third child in the camp (file picture)

Home: The family's container is almost entirely taken up by their five thin mattresses, laid out on the floor. Their only other possessions are a battered old TV set and two plastic chests of drawers

War child: An estimated 80 babies are born every week in the Zaatari camp's maternity wards

Makeshift: Mohammad and his wife welcomed their third child inside the camp - one of the 80 babies born every week in the camp's two maternity hospitals

'The Jordanian army received us. There were about 180 men, women and children with us there. We were taken to a camp, where they gave us water, biscuits and some food.'

But as the days passed it became clear the situation back home remained far too dangerous to return.

Jordan estimates that more than a million Syrian refugees - an estimated 90 per cent of whom living outside of the camps - have flooded into the kingdom, whose total population amounts to just 6.4million.

And tensions are near breaking point as the crisis exacerbates Jordan's existing economic woes.

Lack of work opportunities, education and accommodation are the most pressing concerns, as in just five years Jordan has spent an estimated 4.5billion on refugees.

'We can see European countries struggling to deal with waves of asylum seekers,' said Jordan's minister of planning and international cooperation, Imad Fakhoury, in October 2015.

'But in just one or two days, Jordan receives the number of people who have arrived in some European countries in total.'

In a recent interview King Abdullah himself warned that the country was nearing 'boiling point', as a quarter of the total state budget is spent on helping refugees.

Escape: Mohammad, his wife and children fled their home in March 2013 and travelled to the camp. They expected to stay for a few days while the violence in their home country blew over

Struggle: The refugee crisis is putting increasing pressure on the country's already strained economy. It is estimated to have taken in some one million refugees, despite only having an estimated population of 6.4m

'Sooner or later, I think, the dam is going to burst,' he said.

Today, Mohammad lives in the cramped, thin-walled container with his wife and children - Yousef, five, Ahmed, three, and Heba, one.

Their one-room cabin contains their few possessions: a bulky old television set and two plastic chests of drawers, atop of which stands a deodorant stick, some hand cream, medicine and a bottle of juice.

All around there was a feeling of insecurity. There were clashes. There was shelling. My kids were so scared. I was afraid too. Mohammad Ramadan

The family have added some personal touches, decorating surfaces with brightly-coloured cloths and hanging quotes from the Koran on the back wall.

Five foam mattresses covered in fabric lie along the edges of the room, leaving only a narrow gap near the door in order to enter and exit without stepping on someone's bed.

On the floor, what would have been a thick carpet or cool stone in a Syrian home is here a thread-bare tarpaulin sack with the logo of UNHCR, the UN refugee relief agency, laid out as a makeshift 'welcome' mat.

Just over three years ago, Mohammad's life was very different.

He lived in a five-room house in the Daraa governorate, in south-western Syria, with his parents, wife and two young children.

Though not rich, he made a living as a carpenter, often crossing the border into neighbouring Lebanon to find work as the economic situation in Syria deteriorated.

'We didn't see it coming,' he said. 'Security was strong. Social issues were okay. The economy was not that good and prices had started to go up.

'But still, it was all a surprise.'

Work: Entrepreneurial Syrians try to sell water and whatever they can get imported into the camp to sell

Refuge: Mohammad's life used to be very different. Before arriving at the Zaatari camp (pictured) he lived in a five-room house in the Daraa governorate, in south-western Syria, with his parents, wife and two children

Safety: After protests spread like wildfire across the country, demanding for Assad to step down, millions of refugees have had to flee to neighbouring countries Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon and Iraq for safety

Daraa's main city, also called Daraa, was where the fuse for the Syrian revolution was first ignited in March 2011.

'The people want to topple the regime!' A graffiti message scrawled on a school wall by 15 local boys aged between 10 and 15 in early 2011.

The boys were seized, beaten and tortured. Their fingernails pulled out by Assad's henchmen.

Their families and others took to the streets in furious protest, chanting 'God, Syria, Freedom' and accusing the Assad family of corruption - only to be met with violence and bullets from the security forces.

Protests spread like wildfire across the country, demanding for Assad to step down.

But Mohammad is cautious in talking about politics for fear of retribution on his relatives back home.

'There were also many arrests,' he says simply, describing the political clampdown which followed in the wake of the 2011 protests.

Fight: Child marriage is a serious concern in the camp. Above, some girls have launched an initiative to fight it

Violence: As the Syrian war enters its sixth year, some 470,000 people have been killed; another 1.9million have been injured; and 6.6million have been displaced

Sudden: For Mohammad, as for many others, the war in Syria came as a surprise. He told MailOnline that no one could have seen the extent of the violence coming

Mohammad kept hoping that things would quieten down. Instead, war broke out and heavy fighting reached Daraa.

'All around there was a feeling of insecurity,' he says. 'There were clashes. There was shelling. My kids were so scared. I was afraid, too, like many others.

'After that, I saw many people being killed - and that's when I decided to flee.'

But though Mohammad's face shows desperation, there are hundreds of thousands of other Syrians who would consider him lucky.

After six years of war, more than 470,000 people have been killed according to the Syrian Centre for Policy Research. Another 1.9million have been injured.

Inside Syria, 6.6million people have been displaced. Some 450,000 live under siege, many of them facing starvation.

Tens of thousands more are currently stranded near the Jordan-Syria border, desperate to be granted access to the nation.

Community: As the war continues, the Zaatari camp - now the fourth largest 'city' in Jordan - is becoming ever more permanent, as its streets and infrastructure develop

Temporary home: Each refugee family tries to make their 'container' home by adding personal touches

As the Syrian conflict shows no signs of abating, the Zaatari camp has grown from a cluster of tents to a vast network of caravans, complete with street names, schools and hospitals.

In terms of population, it is Jordan's fourth largest 'city' - its map and layout can even be accessed online.

It was here that Mohammad's youngest daughter Heba was born, one of the up to 80 babies estimated to have been born every week in the camp's two maternity hospitals.

Her two brothers Yousef and Ahmed attend a local kindergarten and spend hours playing in the dust outside with other children.

Meanwhile Mohammad is struggling to find work to provide for his growing family.

According to Gavin White, of UNHCR, the refugees living in the camp are 100 per cent aid-dependent and many fear that Zaatari will turn into a permanent settlement devoid of any opportunities.

A 2004 UNHCR study estimated that the average duration of a major refugee situation was 17 years.

'The camp is not a durable solution,' said Mr White.

Economy: For Mohammad, as for many other refugees living in the camp, the biggest challenge is to find work, in order to earn money and help support his family

Work: Within the camp, various shops have sprung up, such as this fruit and vegetable stall. But those who run them are dependent on outsiders bringing them produce - as they are only allowed to leave the camp with a special permit

Choices: According to UNHCR officials, the camp is not a 'durable solution', as refugees don't have the same 'life choices' as other people making them 100 per cent dependent on aid and NGOs

Hope: For Mohammad and his family, the only chance of leaving the camp is if a solution to the conflict back home can be found and they can be reunited with their family and friends

'You don't have the same life choices as a refugee. In this context, they don't have access to labour opportunities. They don't have opportunities for high-end skills training. High school graduates have limited choices concerning higher education.'

All that remains for Mohammad and his family is to hope for a solution to the conflict back home and be reunited with their family, friends and relatives.

The best political solution, he says wearily, is for everything 'to go back as it was'.

'Assad should go but all the rest should stay.'




Tina is a single woman who simply wants to share her husband.

The 43-year-old from Victoria has spent the past 10 years looking for a polygamous relationship  where she and her 'sister wives' would lovingly dote over the same man.

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, the divorced mother-of-one described her quest to break the taboo surrounding polygamy, risking a five-year stint behind bars in the process.

Tina, 43, has spent ten years looking for a polygamous relationship - where she would share a husband with other wives. Polygamy is illegal in Australia and carries a maximum jail term of five years

She said: 'The men I meet are mostly perverts.

'I recently had an email from a bloke telling me his wife wasn't OK with the idea of polygamy.

'But he said he was forcing her into it because he was the boss and could do what he wanted.

'If that's why they're in it, they are probably not thinking hard enough about what it all means.'

Tina grew up in a large upper-middle class family and said she was attracted to the companionship polygamy offered.

She said: 'I really miss having all those people around me.

'If my future husband isn't married yet, then I'd be happy to sit down and help him find another wife. I want a big family.

'And if he's already married I'm fine with that too  as long as he can support everybody.'

Tina is a mother of one who began looking for a polygamous partner after she divorced her ex-husband 10 years ago. She said her teenage son was fine with idea of her entering a polygamous relationship

Tina said her teenage son, who she had with her ex-husband, was fine with the idea of having multiple mums.

'The other wives need to be aware that there will be children involved.

'I've spoken to my son about what polygamy means for me and he is fine with it.

'Me and him don't have a lot of family left and I've explained to him that it would give him people he can rely on.

'And if one of the other wives got pregnant I think I'd be very happy for them. I'd take them to the hospital.'

Tina said polygamy was often tainted by its association with fundamentalist religious groups. Tom Green (back row, third from left), a Mormon from Utah, is an infamous polygamist who has seven wives and 35 children

The idea of polygamy was taboo to many, Tina said, because it was tainted by its association with religious fundamentalists.

Polygamy is illegal in most western countries, including Australia where polygamists can be jailed for as long as five years.

The most infamous polygamist is Tom Green, a Mormon who was jailed in Utah in 2004 for marrying teenagers and having sex with them.

Green had seven wives in total, one as young as 13, and fathered 35 children.

Tina said: 'I'm not going into this as a fundamentalist religious person. It's not being forced upon me.

'For me it's about family.'

Green was jailed in Utah in 2004 for marrying teenagers, one as young as 13, and having sex with them

Although Australia was full of men seeking a polygamous relationship, many were in it for the wrong reasons, Tina said.

'Largely it's men who contact me. A lot of them will ask me if I'm a lesbian or something  or if I'm interested in being part of a threesome. That's not what it's all about.

'Sometimes I'm contacted by the wife instead.

'Occasionally it feels like the woman is under pressure and this is the only way they can make their husband happy.

'I've had to politely decline those requests.'

Azad Chiawala created the world's most popular polygamy website after realising he was a polygamist as a teenager

Azad Chiawala created matchmaking website Polygamy.com to help individuals like Tina who struggled to find like-minded lovers.

A self-confessed polygamist, he said people needed to get over the idea that it was about exploiting women for a man's pleasure.

He said: 'Many forms of polygamy are already practiced in society but we just know them as one night stands, strip clubs and prostitution.

'In each case, women are exploited sexually and the man fulfills his desire without any accountability.

'If an alternative existed men would embrace it willingly. Polygamy is that option.'

Mr Chiawala said polygamy was not about exploiting women and helped men stay faithful in their relationships

Although 10 years of hunting had brought Tina no luck, she said she was confident she would one day find the perfect relationship.

She said: 'There is a healthy interest in polygamy in Australia. There are a lot of us out there.

'There's been a couple of times when I've felt like throwing the towel in. But if I give up I could miss the right person.
Dressed in a smart black suit, this is the moment a shouting former president flew down a corridor in a raucous game of chair racing.

Mohamed Nasheed, the former leader of the Maldives, was among guests enjoying Sunday night's staff party at the Hay Festival in Wales.

A video showed the animated 49-year-old yelling to go faster as he hurtled by on a swivel chair - before being knocked out of the race as another opponent smashed into him.

This is the moment Mohamed Nasheed, the former leader of the Maldives, flew down a corridor in a raucous game of chair racing

A video showed the animated 49-year-old yelling to go faster as he hurtled by on a swivel chair at the Hay festival in Wales

Footage, which emerged on social media, show Nasheed being pushed forward at quite a speed.

The laughing politician appears caught up in the excitement as he clings to the seat of the chair with both hands.

Nasheed, who was president from 2008 to 2012, gestures with his hand and yells as a rival races ahead of him.

He speeds down the green-carpeted hallway and seems about to take the lead, before another opponent clatters into the back of his chair near the finishing line.

Guy Davies, who runs Hereford's Temple Records, was one of the DJs booked into the event.

He said: 'It was the wildest gig ever.

'To see a Presidential member of the Maldives winning a chair race by a clear mile - to then be knocked from glory by a late finisher seemed like some bizarre joke, but he showed some epic dancing, proving he had a lot of stamina and style.'

The laughing politician appeared caught up in the excitement as he clung to the seat of the chair with both hands

Nasheed, who was president from 2008 to 2012, gestured with his hand and yelled as a rival racef ahead of him

Nasheed was at the festival to speak about the Arab Spring.

The father-of-two is no stranger to a stunt, and held an underwater cabinet meeting in 2009 to highlight the dangers of climate change to the Maldives.

Nasheed and his cabinet spent half an hour on the sea bed, communicating with white boards and hand signals, as they called for cuts to carbon emissions.

He became the Indian Ocean nation's first democratically elected leader in 2008, but was deposed in what he has described as a military coup.

After losing power, Mr Nasheed was jailed for 13 years on terrorism charges before he was granted temporary release from prison to fly to Britain for surgery.

The human right's lawyer, Amal Clooney, was among those to greet him at Heathrow Airport.

He sped down the green-carpeted hallway and seemed about to take the lead amid yells of 'Go on!' from the crowd
A former chief at New York's notorious Rikers Island jail complex and four of his underlings were convicted of felony charges Tuesday after authorities said they beat an inmate at the chief's behest because the man had stared him down during a search of his cell.

Former Assistant Chief for Security Eliseo Perez and the four officers were convicted of attempted gang assault and other charges in connection with the June 11, 2012, attack on inmate Jahmal Lightfoot.

Perez retired from his position in 2013. The officers  Alfred Rivera, Tobias Parker, Jose Parra and David Rodriguez  remain on modified duty Tuesday, officials said. A sixth officer, Jeffrey Richard, who prosecutors said aided in covering up the attack, was found not guilty.

Eliseo Perez, center, an assistant chief for security at the Rikers Island correctional facility, leaves Criminal Court in the Bronx borough of New York on May 25.

Prosecutors said the altercation with Lightfoot started when the officers conducted a contraband search, patting down inmates, tossing over mattresses and rifling around cells for prohibited items. They said that during the search Lightfoot locked eyes with Perez. Angered by the stare-down, Perez shouted out to a captain and five officers that Lightfoot "thinks he's tough" and should be beaten, prosecutors said.

Authorities said the guards led Lightfoot into a small cell and then pummeled him so severely he had fractured eye sockets, a broken nose and bruises that left his eyes swollen shut. Prosecutors also alleged the officers, in an effort to explain Lightfoot's injuries, filed false reports claiming Lightfoot had slashed an officer with a sharpened piece of metal.

Officer David Rodriguez (pictured at the Bronx County Supreme Court in March) was one of four officers convicted of attempted gang assault in connection with the June 11, 2012, attack on inmate Jahmal Lightfoot.

NYC Corrections Officer Tobias Parker, center, leaves Criminal Court in the Bronx borough of New York. Parker is among five New York jail employees who were convicted of attempted assault

The judge presiding over the case signed a gag order in February prohibiting lawyers in the case from commenting.

In a statement Tuesday, Norman Seabrook, president of the union that represents rank-and-file correction officers, said the verdict is unfair and unjust.

"Today's verdict is an absolute travesty and yet another example of how Correction Officers are treated differently and disrespected for doing the job they are sworn to do  protect New Yorkers," he said.

City Correction Commissioner Joseph Ponte said that he had "zero tolerance for any illegal behavior on the part of staff" and that officers convicted of felonies would be terminated. He said he's confident the correction department is taking the right step toward reforming Rikers.
A severely emaciated dog covered in open wounds and suffering from a painful skin condition had to be euthanized after her owners failed to adequately feed her for more than a month, a court has heard.

RSPCA inspectors described Tazer, believed to be a five-month-old mastiff cross, as 'the walking dead' after finding her at a Queensland home in February of last year covered in weeping ulcers and suffering from Demodetic Mange.

Tazer's owners Rodney John Bridge, 37, and Lyn Smith, 47, pleaded guilty in the Mackay Magistrates Court on Monday to breaching duty of care to an animal, according to The Daily Mercury.

A severely emaciated dog (pictured) covered in open wounds and suffering from a painful skin condition had to be euthanized after her owners failed to adequately feed her for more than a month

RSPCA inspectors found Tazer at a Queensland home last year covered in weeping ulcers and described her as 'the walking dead'

Inspectors said Tazer ate 'vigorously' after being given food.

'Previous to being an RSPCA inspector, I was a veterinary nurse for 12 years and in my whole career working for the RSPCA and also in the veterinary association I've never experienced anything like that,' Regional Inspector Natalie Aitken said.

'This is the worst case I've ever seen'.

Tazer was euthanized on advice from the veterinary surgeon as it was believed her recovery period would have been 'very lengthy and painful'.

She suffered the serious skin condition Demodetic Mange, was completely hairless and had her entire body covered in 'broken pussy swellings'.

Demodetic Mange, also known as red mange, occurs when the dog's immune system fails to keep mites under control and can leave the animal with enlarged lymph nodes, crusting skin and infection.

Tazer's owners Rodney John Bridge, 37, and Lyn Smith, 47, (pictured) pleaded guilty in the Mackay Magistrates Court on Monday

Tazer was euthanised on advice from the veterinary surgeon as it was believed her recovery period would have been 'very lengthy and painful'

The RSPCA believe Tazer was a five-month-old mastiff cross (pictured, stock image of a healthy mastiff cross)

The owner's lawyer told the court they purchased Tazer after seeing an advertisement in the newspaper and quickly noticed her itching and phoned a vet who told them she had mange.

The couple, who receive almost $500 from Centrelink each week, said they were waiting for another payment before they could treat their dog's skin condition, the court heard.

Magistrate Damien Dwyer banned the couple from having another pet for five years, but allowed them to keep the other animals they currently own.

'This is just cruel. I'm seriously thinking of sending them to prison, in fact I think I am going to send them to prison unless you can persuade me otherwise,' Magistrate Dwyer told the couple's lawyer.

The RSPCA will now return the their South Mackay home to check the condition of their other pets.

The case was adjourned and the owners are expected to sentenced later this month.
Supporters of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders are fuming that the Associated Press declared Hillary Clinton the victor in the long-fought Democratic nomination contest Monday night before voters even headed to the polls in California and New Jersey, two of the nation's most populous states.

The Bernie-backers are calling the report not just a poor news call but a deliberate effort at keeping down turnout among Sanders' band of youthful liberal supporters as just the latest part of a months-long effort to hand the nomination to former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

Former Los Angeles City Council memeber Gil Cedillo fumed about the decision on 'Democracy Now' radio program Tuesday.

'Well, its highly inappropriate for this news agency to try to announce and determine the outcome of elections that have yet to happen,' he told host Amy Goodman.

'Highly inappropriate': Sanders backers are slamming the early race call by AP which got a jump on California voters. Sanders was hoping to pull an upset in the state

'Its just wholly inappropriate. Its a form of voter suppression,' he continued, likening it to pernicious efforts to disenfranchise voters during the Jim Crow era.

'Every vote counts. Every vote should count. And its just wholly inappropriate for this agency to try to determine the outcome of an election. Its voter suppression in the most rank and raw form. Whats next? A literacy test or a poll tax? This is not something that a legitimate news agency should be involved with,' Cedillo added.

Sanders campaign is equally irate that the race would be called based on the preferences of unelected super delegates, who don't technically cast their ballots until the convention in July.

"It is unfortunate that the media, in a rush to judgment, are ignoring the Democratic National Committee's clear statement that it is wrong to count the votes of superdelegates before they actually vote at the convention this summer," said Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs.

Adding to the intrigue is an email sent out by the Clinton campaign touting the AP story Monday night.

'So this just happened,' the mass email read. 'But this primary isn't (quite) over,' the cheeky email continued. It also contained an image of Clinton.

Embedded among code and numbers that make up the URL associated with the message and the image it contained are the words 'secret-win-V2.'

The Clinton camp touted the AP story Monday night

Team Clinton also used the news to solicit cash for the campaign

Smoking gun? The pro-Trump Gateway Pundit blog pointed to the words 'secret-win' contained in the URL of Clinton's message

The URL also contains the letters 'hrc.onl,' which could simply mean that the image came from Clinton's campaign server.

The pro-Trump blogger Gateway Pundit took the URL as evidence that the Clinton camp had colluded with the AP as a way to finally topple Sanders' opposition.

'BOOM! Hillary Clinton CAUGHT COLLUDING With AP to Announce Delegate Win Before California!' read the headline of the piece.

'It looks like this was pre-planned days ago,' the blog continued.

Paul Colford, director of media relations for the wire service, called the collusion charge 'totally bogus' when asked about it by DailyMail.com.

'To imply that there was any collusion whatsoever between the Associated Press and the presidential campaign of any candidate' is false, he said. 'Absolutely no basis in fact  period,' he added.

Colford also pushed back on the charge that the news agency should have held back on its reporting.

'We are a news organization. We are not in the business  and the AP has been in the news business for the last 170 years  of sitting on news that is of interest to a lot of people,' he added.

It wasn't immediately clear why the email was coded as it had been. But there was plenty more griping from the Sanders camp simply based on the race call.

Sanders has railed for weeks about a 'rigged' system, although Clinton has managed gain an edge of more than 3 million voters while also beating him in pledged delegates who determine the winner.

Silver platter? Sanders loyalists saw the news as just the latest effort to clear the path for Clinton, and one blogger even charged 'collusion' was taking place

"When the mainstream media calls the polls, calls the election, because they're already planning to do it to suppress the vote in California, we will fight on," Nina Turner, a former Ohio state senator and top Sanders surrogates told the AP.

Morgan Reed, a California rafting guide from Mendicino, who attended a Sanders rally likened it to "disenfranchising the vote."

"It's ridiculous. California is the biggest state in the nation," she said.

Patrick Bryant of San Francisco, who also attended the Sanders' rally, said the decision was disappointing: "It's what bookies do. They call fights before they're over."
Eerie photographs show aftermath of the flooding in Latrobe where homes were inundated with water

ne woman, 75, was confirmed dead in her home in Latrobe on Tuesday

Two men are still missing and o

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Almost 4,000 residents and 800 businesses are in danger from raging flood waters as Launceston, Tasmania's second largest city, remains on high alert.

The disaster - the worst in the state since 1929 - has already claimed the life of a woman whose home was inundated, and two men are missing after being swept away by flood waters.

Less than 5mm of rainfall is forecast for Tasmania's north-east on Wednesday but emergency services warned the flood danger is still present.

There was some relief for residents as the flood peak around low-lying areas of Launceston that happened on Wednesday morning was not as high as expected. But high tide at 3.37pm is still a concern.

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Almost 4,000 residents and 800 businesses are in danger from raging flood waters as Launceston, Tasmania's second largest city, remains on high alert. Above is the Cataract Gorge in Launceston

The disaster - the worst in the state since 1929 - has already claimed the life of a woman whose home was inundated, and two men are missing after being swept away by flood waters. Pictured are people taking in the raging waters at Cataract Gorge

A building is inundated with water near the Cataract Gorge before the flood peak around low-lying areas of Launceston happened on Wednesday morning

Waters at the gorge broke banks on Wednesday morning as 3,750 homes and 795 businesses were threatened in Launceston suburb of Invermay

An aerial view of flooded South Esk River near Launceston in Tasmania on Wednesday morning when it peaked

Tops of trees are poking just above the water at South Esk River. But the Launceston Flood Authority is confident new flood levees will protect the city

The low-lying suburb of Invermay was evacuated on Tuesday and no further inundation is expected but residents have been warned to stay vigilant.

A Tasmania Police spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia 3,750 homes and 795 businesses were threatened in Invermay.

But the Launceston Flood Authority is confident new flood levees will protect the city.

'We have constructed them to a one-in-200-year flood level; the predicted level from this flood is somewhere between the one-in-50, or one-in-100,' general manager Andrew Fullard told the ABC.

Storm waters rage at Launceston as the city braced for flood peaks as more than 100 roads are closed across the state due to localised flooding and damaged bridges

A panorama of the Cataract Gorge in Launceston in Tasmania's north-west on Wednesday morning

Another photo of the South Esk River near Launceston with fog hanging overhead as the flood event continues

This eerie image of a slumped-over doll in the hallway of a flooded family home in Latrobe shows how badly the deadly floods have impacted on people in Tasmania

Toys and mud everywhere. This room will need a lot of work before the children can move back in. The bottom mattress and bed covers are soaked

The mud lines on these kitchen cupboards show how high the water rose inside this home. Most of the water has receded leaving mud behind

Excavators were used to clear driveways in Latrobe, west of Launceston, so people could get back into their homes and start cleaning up

The images show mud, water and grass spread through entire homes as the clean-up in northern Tasmania begins

The SES said the flood peak at Longford, south of Launceston, passed overnight and the levee held the floodwaters.

But Newstead - where about 50 homes have are already evacuated - is expected to be inundated again.

The SES says major flooding is occurring in the South Esk, Macquarie and Meander Rivers, with the South Esk River peaking about 10am.

More than 100 roads are closed across the state due to localised flooding and damaged bridges.

SES workers on the job assisting in clean up operations after the Mersey River floods. The floods are the worst to hit Tasmania in 90 years

Broken glass, mud-soaked hallways and doors of their hinges and on the ground. This photo shows what people will return home to after the horrific floods

Those affected by the flood have a huge job ahead of them, this photo shows a devastating reality for many following the flood of the Mersey river

Business owners have also returned to their shops to assess the damage caused by flooding. This shot was taken in Latrobe's main street and shows sandbags used to keep the water out

This bee keeper was photographed checking the condition of his bees and hives after the devastating flood in Latrobe

This cafe may still have a lot of water on the floor but appeared to escape from being coated in mud like many neighbouring homes and businesses

Police hold grave concerns for two men who went missing during floods at Ouse and Evandale, with a search set to resume at first light on Wednesday.

An 81-year-old man was swept into the rising Ouse River while feeding sheep in his backyard on Monday, while a second man, 63, is missing after his car was swept away in Evandale near Launceston on Tuesday.

His wife was plucked to safety but rescue crews and an aerial search have been unable to find her husband.

The body of Mary Kathleen Allford on Tuesday inside her home on Shale Road in Latrobe, in northern Tasmania.

Her husband was rescued by a helicopter from the roof of their house the day before.

The clean up has begun in northern Tasmania following the worst flood the island state has seen in 90 years. People returned to their homes on Tuesday to asses the damage caused by the flood water

This family returned to their home on Tuesday to see just how much work they had to do before they could move back into their property

Crushed remains of boats, like the one pictured, have been washed up on the beaches in Devonport following the super storm

Some of the boats are more damaged than others. This one was found laying in the sand snapped into pieces at some point during the wild weather

Other boats appeared to have escaped too much damage, this one was found on a pebbly beach, the boat's owners

Boat owners salvage what they can from the wreckagesof their boats which were washed ashore during the storm

Search and rescue officers had to wait until flood waters receded to go into the property so they could safely searched it.

More than 100 people were rescued by helicopter from Tasmanian floodwaters since the emergency began.

Authorities are urging people to obey road closure signs and follow previous safety messages.

People should not attempt to drive through or enter floodwaters.

Tasmania's SES director Nick Wilson said on Wednesday the flood peak went through the small town of Longford, south of Launceston, without major incident overnight, but the lower regions of Launceston needed to be alert.

'The levees are holding currently and there is no significant inundation currently being experienced at Invermay as we've speak,' he told the ABC.

This boat was washed ashore during the storm over the weekend. The super storm reaked havoc across the east coast of Australia and in Tasmania

The coastline appeared to be littered with debris washed ashore by the storm. Pieces of boats, personal belongings and drift wood litter the beach

A stand up paddle boarder explores the flooded Bells Parade area, in the state's north, after the Mersey River broke its banks

Jet skiiers jump waves as large swells roll into the Mersey River in Devonport, making the most of conditions whipped up by the freak storm

The Mersey River breaks its banks and floods several small towns cutting of road access across the coast

Volunteers in kayaks help rescue the surviving cows and bulls which were washed downstream when the Mersey River flooded

'But the North and South Esk will jointly peak at 10am so I'm urging all residents of Launceston, particularly Invermay, to be on notice and be very vigilant as we move into the morning.'

He said authorities were confident the levees would hold, but said anyone who wanted to exercise their flood evacuation plan should do so.

Mr Wilson said about 600 residents had evacuated their homes already.

Eerie images of the flood damage have emerged, including a much-loved children's doll sitting hunched over in a dark, mud-lined hallway that shows the devastating reality many Australians will face after this week's deadly floods.

The image was captured in Latrobe in Tasmania as the people who were forced from their homes by the rising water returned to assess the damage.

Other images show just how much cleaning up some families have to do.

A line of mud stretched up the walls and cupboards of a home in the town show just how high the flood water got.

Footage from rescuers on board the Westpac Rescue Helicopter in Tasmania as they searched for a woman who has since been rescued

The woman was plucked to safety near Evansdale, south of Launceston, after she was heard calling out to people in the dark. Another photo from rescuers

Historic Sherwood Hall at Bells Parade is swamped by flood waters as Tasmania experiences its worst flooding event in almost 90 years

Major flood warnings are current for five Tasmanian river systems. Above are two men helping a cow out of flood waters after the Mersey River broke banks

The photographs show a kitchen floor covered in inches of mud.

One photo shows a bedroom with children's toys and belongings spread across the floor.

Toy bins are knocked over and the mattress on the bottom bunk soaked through.

Heavy excavating machinery was used in the town to clear drive ways so people could return to their homes and begin cleaning up.

One breathtaking image shows an excavator next to flood water and other photos show people returning to their businesses.

A beekeeper checks on his hives and someone wearing a pair of black gumboots works to clean-up a business.

More images captured in Devonport, Tasmania show boats washed ashore by the devastating floods.
A man accused of being one of Europes most prolific people-smugglers faces decades behind bars after being tracked to his African bolthole by British investigators.

Mered Yehdego Medhane, 35, known as The General, is at the top of a continent-wide network which has pocketed more than 75 million from desperate refugees.

The trafficking kingpin is suspected of personally overseeing the perilous boat journeys of more than 17,000 people to Europe from the coast of Libya.

His henchmen paid off Islamic State militants as they tightened their grip on routes through the lawless region.

Doubts: Medhane, left, and the man arrested in Sudan, right. Last night authorities in Italy and London were urgently investigating claims that the wrong man had been extradited

In a major breakthrough, a man believed to be the Eritrean was arrested at a safe house in the Sudanese capital Khartoum last month after a year-long inquiry. Italian investigators linked up with the British National Crime Agency, the GCHQ listening station and officials in Sudan to catch him.

They used computer data and information from tapped mobile phones to track him down and arrest him. Police were so concerned about his influence on corrupt local officials that they did not announce his capture until he was extradited to Italy.

Last night, however, authorities in Italy and London were urgently investigating claims that the wrong man had been extradited.

Several people contacted the media to say the man paraded by officers was a 27-year-old refugee called Medhanie Tesfamariam Kidane. A friend said: Its the wrong guy. Hes not a human trafficker. Hes from my family.

Medhanie Yehdego Mered, a kingpin people smuggler, who has been arrested accused of bringing thousands of migrants and refugees to Europe

His arrest is the first time a suspected kingpin has been tracked down in Africa, where many of the smuggling networks are based,

Detectives believe Mered has hidden huge sums of money in Dubai, America and Canada and was preparing for a new life in the West with his family.

He faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison if he is convicted. The investigation into Mered began after 359 people drowned off the coast of the Italian island of Lampedusa in 2013. Prosecutor Geri Ferrara said of Mereds operation: We dont know the exact number of boats that sank because often nobody survived, but thousands of people drowned.

Mr Ferrara said there was evidence the gang tortured migrants in safe-houses in Libya. They certainly used violence and deprived the migrants of food and water.

Mereds wife Lidya Tesfu fled to Sweden as a refugee with the couples young son. Police suspect Mered was organising fake identity documents before travelling to join her. Secret phone taps caught Mered red-handed boasting about his profits and laughing about the plight of his victims.

The smugglers Tripoli-based network was responsible for the journeys of 10,000 migrants in just three months in 2014, as they charged up to 700,000 a boat.

Tom Dowdall, of the National Crime Agency, described Mered as a prolific people smuggler with an absolute disregard for human life. He added: Although he was operating thousands of miles away, his criminal activity was impacting the UK.

If he is the right man, it would be the first time a suspected kingpin has been tracked down in Africa, where many of the smuggling networks are based, and brought to face justice in Italy since Europe's immigration crisis started almost three years ago.

Italian prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi said in a statement: 'Mered is accused of being the advocate and boss of one of the most important criminal groups operating in central Africa and Libya that smuggles people first across the Sahara desert and then the Mediterranean Sea.'

Mered, nicknamed 'The General' is suspected of working with a Ethiopian national, Ghermay Ermias, who is still at large.

Between them, they have allegedly raked in huge sums by bringing migrants from Libya to Italy across the Mediterranean on overcrowded and often unseaworthy boats.

Mered was extradited from Sudan to Italy after being arrested and he will face people trafficking charges there

Sicilian prosecutor Calogero Ferrara previously said that the two controlled an operation that was 'much larger, more complex and more structured than originally imagined.'

Mr Ferrara said they were opportunistic, purchasing kidnapped migrants from other criminals in Africa.

By his calculations, each boat trip of 600 people made the smugglers between $800,000 and $1 million before costs.

The smuggling networks have mostly eluded international law enforcement agencies because they are based on anonymous cells spread across many countries.

Migrants wait at a fishing port in the Libyan city of Tripoli after being caught trying to board boats headed for Europe

Italy has been on the frontline of the immigration crisis as some 170,000 migrants reached the country by sea in 2014 and 153,800 in 2015

Italy has been on the frontline of the immigration crisis as some 170,000 migrants reached the country by sea in 2014 and 153,800 in 2015.

So far this year, more than 40,000 migrants have arrived.

More than 8,000 people are also believed to have died in the Mediterranean since the start of 2014, some off the Italian coast and others seeking to reach Greece.
A mother-of-three training for an Ironman triathlon has recalled the moment she was attacked by a shark - saying her ribs got in the way of it 'puncturing any major organs'.

Maria Korcsmaros, 52, was swimming just off the Southern California coast when the shark gripped her side and then let go.

The attack on May 29 left bite marks on some of her bones and doctors believe her physical fitness contributed to her survival.

When she was pulled from the ocean and whisked to safety, Ms Korcsmaros recalled lifeguards telling her the normally choppy water around her had become still and turned red with blood.

Maria Korcsmaros sitting up in her hospital bed as she recovers from the shark attack on May 29

Christopher Lowe, director of the Shark Lab at California State University, takes DNA samples with a swab from the mangled wetsuit Ms Korcsmaros was wearing when she was bitten by a shark

Speaking from her hospital bed at Orange County Global Medical Center in Santa Ana, she said: 'I instantly knew it was some kind of fish, and probably a big fish, like a shark.

'It felt like a big bite and then it let go. And then I was like, "OK, I've got to get out of here"'.

She added: 'When it bit down, it encountered my ribs and my pelvis and it wasn't able to puncture any major organs because of that.'

Ms Korcsmaros - who had never encountered a shark before - said she was fortunate lifeguards were in a boat nearby.

After the attack - which tore her wetsuit - she treaded water, raised her arms and hollered for help.

Lifeguards put her in the boat and made her apply pressure to her arm to stop the blood gushing from it. The shark that attacked her was not found.

She said it was hard to breathe but was awake all the way to the hospital, where she underwent surgery.

The 52-year-old, who lives in Corona in California, suffered injuries to her arm and side, including two fractured ribs.

Christopher Lowe, professor and Ralph Collier, of the Shark Research Committee, speak with Ms Korcsmaros who was attacked by a shark, as she recovers at Orange County Global Medical Center in California

Shark bites are incredibly rare. But there are more great white sharks in the waters off California thanks to protective measures and the human population has also grown, so occasional encounters can happen.

On Tuesday, Christopher Lowe, director of the shark lab at California State University, swabbed bite marks on Ms Korcsmaros' mangled wet suit to try to learn more about the shark.

Ralph Collier, of the Shark Research Committee, said the shark was likely to have been nine or ten feet long.

The mother-of-three said she hopes to return to competitive triathlon racing following a recovery

Since her attack last week, shark sightings led to Sunset Beach in the city of Huntington Beach being closed twice, last Sunday and again on Monday afternoon.

The sharks were estimated to be at least eight feet long and 150 yards from shore.

Swimmers and surfers were allowed back in the water on Tuesday morning.

For Ms Korcsmaros the wait will be slightly longer - but she is adamant the attack will not stop her competing in triathlons.

'I'll probably start with my lake swims and go from there', she explained.
Activists burned an American flag outside a Staten Island police station to protest the death of a black teenager who died last month.

The flag burning, which was filmed and posted to YouTube, was held outside the 121st Precinct station in New York City on Saturday as a tribute to 16-year-old Dayshen McKenzie, who died from an asthma attack after being chased by a rival gang.

McKenzie was running from a group of men who were allegedly armed and yelling racist jibes, but the NYPD said they would not be investigating his death as a hate crime.

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Activists burned an American flag outside a Staten Island police station to protest the death of 16-year-old black teenager Dayshen McKenzie, who died last month

'We light fire for the ancestors who have gone before us who were lynched. We light this flag for Dayshen McKenzie, who was lynched,' one woman said during the protest, which was filmed and posted on YouTube

McKenzie was running from a group of men who were allegedly armed and yelling racist jibes, but the NYPD said they would not be investigating his death as a hate crime

'We light fire for the ancestors who have gone before us who were lynched. We light this flag for Dayshen McKenzie, who was lynched,' one woman said during the protest.

The video was posted to YouTube on Tuesday by a group called Copwatch NYC CPU (Copwatch Patrol Unit), the local division of a national grassroots movement that monitors and records police activity.

While the group initially laughed as one activist struggled to light the flag, the tone turned somber after members of the group called out the names Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, and Sandra Bland, among many others.

When the flag turned into ash, one member of the group said: 'That flag does not represent us.'

A NYPD spokesman told the NY Post the protesters were within their Constitutional rights to burn the flag in public.

McKenzie, who had asthma and a heart condition, was with a group of his friends when he ran into a rival group behind the fast-food restaurant Checkers on May 27.

He reportedly forgot his asthma inhaler and died after the other group gave chase.

According to one witness Diane Fatigati, a former NYPD officer and 9/11 responder, the rival gang, she said consisted of white and Latino men, yelled 'I got a gun!' and 'I'm gonna shoot you, n*****,' the New York Daily News reported.

Fatigati, who performed CPR on McKenzie after he collapsed near her home, told the NYPost 'When you call someone n*****, you claim to have a gun and are threatening to shoot them, I would say it's a hate crime.'

One witness, Diane Fatigati, said the rival group yelled yelled 'I'm gonna shoot you, n*****'. But police said McKenzie's death was not the result of a hate crime (pictured center, McKenzie's mother Tisha Richardson)

McKenzie, who had asthma and a heart condition, was with a group of his friends when he ran into a rival group behind the fast-food restaurant Checkers on May 27. He ran, collapsed, and died from an asthma attack

Diane Fatigati (pictured) gave conflicting reports on whether the incident carried racial overtones

McKenzie's friend Harry Smith also told the Daily News, 'They were calling us n*******. I just heard a lot of racial slurs.'

But Fatigati gave conflicting reports, and police said none of the other witnesses mentioned 'any racial or biased-related comments'.

Chief of detectives Robert Boyce said while McKenzie's death was gang related, it did not appear to be the result of a hate crime.

Police said McKenzie was part of a mixed-race group that had gathered to watch a gang-related, 'pre-planned fight' between two youths.

McKenzie ran away with several others after someone claimed to have a gun, police said.

Police said the aspiring rapper, known to his friends as Poppa Jawn, was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Authorities also noted no one in the other group was targeting the teen, the Daily News reported.

'It has been determined preliminarily, that McKenzie died as a result of a pre-existing medical condition,' Boyce said. 'There is no evidence, nor do we have any witnesses, indicating that it was [an] assault.'
Critics say the new FBI headquarters should not be named after J. Edgar Hoover because of his record of infringing on civil liberties

Critics within the FBI question whether the agency's proposed new headquarters should bear the name of its first director J. Edgar Hoover.

The Federal Bureau of Investigations' crumbling Washington D.C. headquarters, dubbed the J. Edgar Hoover building, is expected to be replaced by a new campus by 2023.

Though the General Services Administration (GAS) hasn't even settled on the site for the future complex, its naming has already become the subject of debate among officials and lawmakers.

Some current and former FBI agents and officials interviewed by ABC News said they don't think Hoover's name should embellish the new structure because the some of the former FBI director's policies violated the law and constitutional rights.

One former agent said Hoover would have likely discriminated against her on account of her gender and religion.

'Hoover would have never let me become an agent because I'm a woman and Jewish,' the former agent told ABC News. 'He did a lot of things he shouldn't have done because he was given absolute power. He did a lot of hateful things. I would not like to see his name on the building.'

Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont wrote a letter to the GSA urging the agency 'not to take steps to transfer' Hoover's name onto the new headquarters.

'It would be a mistake to associate his name with the new FBI headquarters. Director Hoover routinely violated the law and infringed on the constitutional rights of American citizens by ordering investigations of individuals and groups who were not suspected of any criminal wrong doing,' Leahy wrote in the April 24 letter, according to ABC News.

The J. Edgar Hoover building, left, is named after the FBI's first director, pictured right in 1928

Military honor guards are pictured on the capital steps on the day of J. Edgar Hoover's funeral in 1972

Current FBI director James Comey has criticized his predecessor J. Edgar Hoover for ordering the surveillance of innocent Americans

Hoover was selected as director of the newly-formed FBI in 1935. At that point, he had already been director of the agency's predecessor, the Bureau of Investigation, since 1924.

He headed the FBI until his death in 1972, and oversaw the building of the agency into a modern crime-fighting organization. He also became controversial for ordering surveillance of U.S. citizens, even when they weren't suspected of a crime, including Martin Luther King Jr.

Even the current FBI director, James Comey, has criticized that decision, and said he keeps a copy of the request to monitor King on his desk as a reminder of the agency's historical missteps.

'It is a single page. The entire applications is five sentences long. It is without fact or substance and is predicated on the naked assertion that there is "communist influence in the racial situation." The reason I do those things is to ensure that we remember our mistakes and that we learn from them,' Comey said.

But Hoover's defenders point to the hard work he put into building up the bureau. Retired FBI agent Gregg Schwarz called Hoover 'unfairly demonized.'

'Anybody can look back in history and judge by today's standards and criticize everything. Everybody seems to forget all his hard, hard work.'

One current FBI agent put it even more bluntly in an interview with ABC News.

'I think that's ridiculous. He wasn't Hitler,' the agent said.
More than 30,000 non-EU immigrants a year are taking advantage of a backdoor into Britain created by Brussels, it has emerged.

The number of people benefiting from the so-called European Economic Area family permit route has rocketed by 50 per cent under David Cameron.

Last night Vote Leave said the figures showed that edicts handed down by Brussels were now allowing both EU and non-EU migrants into the UK.

The number of people benefiting from the so-called European Economic Area family permit route has rocketed by 50 per cent under David Cameron, pictured during a TV debate last night

Under British immigration rules, migrants from outside the EU need to obtain a visa for either work or family settlement.

But under the family permit route, an exception is made for those with a spouse or close relative who is an EU citizen.

These people are known as third country nationals, and since Mr Cameron was elected the UK has issued them with 140,921 permits. For 2014/15, the figure was 30,879  up by 48 per cent since 2010-2011.

It means that in effect, EU rules are also allowing non-EU migrants into the UK. Ex-Cabinet minister Iain Duncan Smith said: 'These figures expose how the Remain camp have set out to deceive UK citizens.

'It is clear as day that as our immigration plan runs out of control, the only way to get back control of our borders, and introduce a fair immigration system is to vote Leave.'

Porous borders: Last night Vote Leave said the figures showed that edicts handed down by Brussels were now allowing both EU and non-EU migrants into the UK (file image)

In a recent report, the Chief Inspector of Borders warned that migrants were bringing their families to Britain by the backdoor and the system was suffering 'significant abuse' from migrants who falsely claim they are related to a non-EU citizen in the UK.

He said: 'Our findings suggest the European citizenship route is becoming an increasingly important way into the UK for those whose origins lie outside the EEA'.

No 10 said Mr Cameron secured a commitment that, in future, non-EU nationals who marry EU nationals living in the UK will have to undergo full immigration checks.
Brussels wants to tackle the migrant crisis by inviting yet more people into the EU.

Under a European Commission plan, migrants from Africa and the Middle East will be given US-style green cards granting them work rights.

They will also be able to bring their families. The move comes on top of the million migrants who reached Europe last year and the 206,000 in the first five months of 2016.

Officials believe the offer of a right to come to Europe will curb illegal migration. Pictured, migrants walk on the railway tracks of the freight shuttle leading to the entrance of the Channel Tunnel in Calais

Officials believe the offer of a right to come to Europe will curb illegal migration. They also propose handing 6.2billion in aid to African countries in an apparent attempt to repeat a 4.7billion border deal with Turkey.

With migration dominating the referendum debate:

Europe's highest court yesterday blasted France for detaining a refugee caught with a stolen passport at the Channel Tunnel entrance;

Figures showed that more than 30,000 non-EU immigrants every year exploit a backdoor into Britain created by Brussels for accompanying families;

Border Force officials intercepted three migrants in a small boat in the Channel;

Dramatic pictures showed hundreds more rescued by a Spanish navy frigate in the Mediterranean;

UN officials said more than 10,000 people have died trying to cross to Europe since 2014;

David Cameron was attacked on live TV last night for 'allowing parts of Britain to be turned into no-go areas' by mass immigration.

European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, the mastermind of the action plan, has repeatedly said the EU needs to expand its legal routes of migration. He has said that unless Europe's leaders 'open the door' the migrants will just 'break in through the window'.

But last night, eurosceptics accused the Commission of 'insanity' over its latest plan, saying it was simply 'piling yet more fuel on to the fire'.

Mastermind: European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker

The Commission said it wanted member states to give out more work permits allowing migrants from outside the EU to move legally.

Eurocrats said a 'blue cards' system to allow highly-skilled foreign workers to live and work in the continent was currently underused and would be relaunched.

Rules will be relaxed so migrants will only need a job offer with a six-month contract instead of one year to qualify for the scheme. A website will be launched to encourage more people to move.

It will be up to EU countries to decide how many blue cards they hand out. The UK will be exempt.

But Tory MEP David Campbell-Bannerman said: 'The European Commission is piling yet more fuel on to the fire, whilst sending us the bill for the crisis in a budget postponed until after the referendum.

'These latest proposals show just how dangerous it is for our security and economy to stay in the EU. Brexit would liberate us from such insanity.' Labour MP and Vote Leave campaign chair Gisela Stuart said: 'It's a strange world, where the desire to deal with a migration crisis leads to a decision that will doubtless have the opposite effect.

'Having comprehensively failed to come up with a long-term strategy, the plan appears to be to open our borders ever wider.

'It's an unholy mess that presents serious security risks as well as all the other pressures that increased migration flows would bring.'

The Commission said it also planned to spend 6.2billion over four years on deals with countries including Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Ethiopia.

Funds would be spent on increased border control and on investment projects to increase job prospects so people are less likely to want to leave. EC vice president Frans Timmermans said: 'We propose to use a mix of positive and negative incentives to reward those third countries willing to cooperate effectively with us and to ensure that there are consequences for those who do not.'

The EU's deal with Turkey has seen a dramatic reduction in numbers crossing to the Greek islands, but there has been a surge in those attempting to get from North Africa to Italy in the past few weeks.
Nick Hurd, a junior aid minister, made the controversial claim

A minister sparked outrage last night after describing the hundreds of millions we give to corrupt Nigeria a year as an absolutely tiny amount.

Nick Hurd, a junior aid minister, told MPs that although constituents might think 250million a year was a large amount, in fact it was negligible because Nigerias economy is so large.

He admitted Britain had at times been naive about aid spending  but claimed his department was getting sharper at making sure the huge sums which go towards overseas development help national interest.

The controversial claim comes only weeks after David Cameron described Nigeria and Afghanistan as financially corrupt. The Prime Minister was caught on camera making the candid remark to the Queen.

The admission sparked fury among Tory backbenchers who are angry at Mr Camerons pledge to spend 0.7 per cent of national income on aid while public services here are being cut  and called for the two countries to be stripped of their aid money until they cleaned up their act.

Britain has given more than 1billion to Nigeria since 2010, even though the country funds its own space programme, and in 2014 alone, we gave 237million.

Yesterday Mr Hurd, junior minister at the Department for International Development (DfID), confirmed corruption was endemic in Nigeria. But he told the DfID select committee: What we do is absolutely tiny. To constituents, 250-odd million is a lot of money, but in the context of the Nigerian GDP it is small.

He added: Its not about the money, its about the influence and what we can do to help to mobilise Nigerian politicians.

Last night Peter Bone, Tory MP for Wellingborough, said: 250million is a lot of money and my constituents would be angry at the suggestion it is absolutely tiny.

The Governments policy is entirely wrong  the aid budget has gone up by billions and needs to be brought under control.

And Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg told the Sun: The Government has a duty of care with taxpayers money and it is not good enough saying we are naive. You have got to spend it properly or not at all.
Packed below deck on a Spanish Navy frigate these migrants have been plucked to safety as they made the perilous Mediterranean crossing from North Africa to Europe.

The Spanish Navy yesterday released pictures of the migrants huddled in blankets after they were the latest to be rescued attempting to get from Libya to Italy.

The Reina Sofia rescued 706 migrants just two days after joining the European Union Naval Force mission to prevent loss of life at sea.

The lucky ones: The Spanish Navy released this picture of hundreds of migrants huddled in blankets after they were the latest to be rescued attempting to get from Libya to Italy

The EU's Operation Sophia has ships including Britain's HMS Enterprise patrolling just inside international waters ready to pick up those trying to get to Europe.

Thousands of migrants are being rescued by operation every day with as many as 4,000 being rescued in a single day last month as traffickers take advantage of the warmer weather and calmer waters. These migrants are the lucky ones.

Increasingly unseaworthy and over-loaded boats have seen an increaing number capsize or sink with tragic consequences.

More than 10,000 people have died attempting to cross the Mediterranean to Europe since 2014, the United Nations refugee agency said yesterday.

Following a rash of deadly shipwrecks in recent weeks which claimed the lives of hundreds of people, the UN refugee agency said the number of deaths at sea had risen sharply this year, with a record 2,814 people drowning since January.

And over the past few days, the overall number who have died since the start of 2014 has reached 10,085, the UNHCR said.

Rescued: The Reina Sofia rescued 706 migrants just two days after joining the European Union Naval Force mission to prevent loss of life at sea. Pictured, the migrants on board the Spanish Navy ship

The UNHCR said the number of deaths had risen sharply in 2016 with 2,814 people dying since January, following a total of 3,771 in 2015 and 3,500 the year earlier.

Spokesman Adrian Edwards said: 'You've now had since the start of 2014 - when this phenomenon of rising numbers across the Mediterranean happened - 10,000 deaths. That threshold has been crossed just in the last few days,

'This is clearly an appalling number of deaths that have occurred in the Mediterranean, just on Europe's borders just in the past couple of years

'It's an extremely worrying dynamic. They're happening, they're not stopping, they need a solution to prevent further lives being lost.

According to the International Organization for Migration, 206,400 migrants have arrived in Europe since the start of the year, mainly landing in Greece and Italy.
A Chinese fighter jet carried out an 'unsafe' intercept of a U.S. reconnaissance plane in the hotly disputed waters of the South China Sea, defense sources said.

A U.S. Air Force RC-135 spy plane was intercepted on Tuesday by a Chinese J-10 fighter jet that was flying at a 'high rate of speed as it closed in'.

The Chinese aircraft was also flying at the same altitude as the U.S. plane, meaning there was the possibility of a mid-air collision, which is why the maneuver was deemed unsafe.

A RC-135 spy plane (pictured, file image) was carrying out a routine mission over the South China Sea on Tuesday when defense officials say it was intercepted by Chinese planes in an 'unsafe' manner

American officials say a Chinese J-10 fighter approached at a 'high rate of speed' and at the same altitude as the reconnaissance plane, risking a mid-air collision

It is not known whether the spy plane had to take any evasive action or at what point the J-10 broke off from its maneuver, but officials said it never got closer than 100ft to the U.S. aircraft.

American officials said the RC-135 was taking part in a routine patrol mission when the intercept happened.

The military has been carrying out frequent patrol missions in the South China Sea in recent months as allies in the region attempt to push back on China's territorial claim over the waters.

Beijing has attempted to seize the ocean territory, which is still legally defined as international waters, by building artificial islands there.

China has then declared the islands, some of which have military installations and runways constructed on top of them, as sovereign territory and has been trying to enforce a military exclusion zone around them.

However, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims and the U.S. has been helping them keep the waters open while international courts rule on the issue.

During a summit at the weekend, Ash Carter reasserted 'America's determination to, and resolve to, fly, sail, or operate wherever international law allows.'

The intercept comes just days after John Kerry met with Chinese premiere Xi Jingping and the pair pledged to develop 'mutual trust' between the two nations

Ash Carter also spoke about U.S.-Chinese relations during a summit in Singapore over the weekend, reiterating America's desire to continuing flying and sailing 'wherever international law allows'

Chinese Admiral Sun Jianguo said the issue had become 'overheated' and said China did not fear 'trouble' over its territorial disputes.

However, at a subsequent meeting with John Kerry, Chinese premiere Xi Jingping said that America and China 'need to increase mutual trust' to avoid 'strategic misjudgement'.

This is not the first time in recent weeks that Chinese aircraft have carried out an unsafe intercept on American aircraft.

Back in May, at least two J-11 tactical aircraft carried out another intercept on a U.S. EP-3 reconnaissance plane that was also deemed unsafe.

On this occasion the Chinese planes made it to within 50ft of the American craft, though Beijing denied any of its actions had been dangerous.
Four million households were overcharged an average of 72 each last year because of energy bill blunders, it is claimed.

The total amount involved could be as much as 270million.

Energy firms have laid off thousands of meter readers and rely on estimates, which can cause problems. However, a customer survey found in 36 per cent of cases the billing error was due to the wrong tariff or product details being applied to the account.

Four million households were overcharged an average of 72 each last year because of energy bill blunders

Other bill blunders include energy firms applying incorrect fees (31 per cent of cases), using the wrong meter reading (27 per cent) and inaccurate Direct Debit amounts (24 per cent) or any combination of the four.

Incredibly, half of householders waited more than a fortnight before the issue was resolved by the supplier, with nearly one in ten still waiting at the time they were surveyed by price comparison website uSwitch.

Claire Osborne, an energy expert at the firm, said: Consumers have a right to expect correct bills. Its unacceptable that customers are picking up the cost of suppliers mistakes.

Households are already trying to cope with the high cost of energy and cant afford the additional cost of simple blunders.

Accurate bills are essential if consumers stand any hope of taking control of their energy use and spend. Recent upgrades by some suppliers to billing systems have resulted in teething problems, but the figures show theres still more for the industry to do.

Claire Osborne, an energy expert at the firm, said: Consumers have a right to expect correct bills. Its unacceptable that customers are picking up the cost of suppliers mistakes

Consumers should also always provide up-to-date meter readings to avoid estimated bills, and check that the figure they provided has been used. Energy firms say that just as some customers are in credit with suppliers, so many others are in debit.

The industry and Government are championing the introduction of so-called smart meters which will provide real-time readings, doing away with estimates. But the cost of installing the equipment, which could be more than 11billion, will be passed to customers through bills.

Lawrence Slade, chief executive of the industry body Energy UK, said firms take accurate billing very seriously and the majority of problems are quickly resolved.
A married Tory MP was shamed into ending an affair with an assistant half his age just days ago after rumours began circulating about the pair.

Steve Double, 49, a former pastor, said he finished the relationship on Friday after becoming aware that an email had been sent about his trysts with Sarah Bunt, 26.

Evangelical Christian Mr Double, MP for St Austell and Newquay in Cornwall, issued a grovelling public statement, apologising for behaving 'completely inappropriately'.

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Selfie: MP Steve Double, 49, with his wife of 30 years Anne and Sarah Bunt, 26, with whom he had an affair

Rumours: Steve Double, 49, pictured left, a former pastor, said he finished the relationship on Friday after becoming aware that an email had been sent about his trysts with assistant Sarah Bunt, 26, right

He also apologised for the pain he has caused his wife of 30 years, Anne. The couple have three children.

Mr Double, who won his seat last year after emphasising his strong family values and his Christian faith, admitted having an affair with Mrs Bunt, who has been married for 18 months and who describes herself as the MP's case worker. Mrs Double, 52, is employed by her husband as his senior case worker and diary secretary.

The MP is at a tourism conference in Tel Aviv, Israel. He said he released the statement after journalists asked him about the affair with Mrs Bunt. 'We were getting [interview] requests from the local papers. I've no idea how the rumours started,' he told the Mail yesterday.

'I presume someone contacted them but it wasn't someone close to me. The affair ended on Friday. It started a few weeks ago.'

Betrayed: Anne Double smiled as she left her home in St Austell, Cornwall, yesterday

Confirming the affair with Mrs Bunt, Mr Double told the Cornish Guardian: 'It was Sarah and it was recent. It wasn't a one-off but it was only a few weeks.

'I was truly wrong and I deeply regret what I have done and the pain it has caused to those close to me. I'm working hard to rebuild that trust and respect.'

Asked whether he regretted giving Mrs Bunt, a former local newspaper reporter who lives in Newquay, the job, he told the Daily Telegraph: 'If I'd have known the grief it has caused I would not have done it [given her the job]. If I could only undo what happened.'

He added: 'Sarah is currently on leave and I will be having discussions with her in the coming days as to her position.

'I have not had that discussion with her. I told her to take a week off and we will discuss it this week.'

Mrs Double put on a defiant front as she left the couple's detached home in St Austell yesterday, smiling for photographers. Mrs Bunt cut a rather more sheepish figure, in dark glasses with her hair scraped back, as she stopped by the marital home to collect a bag.

Her husband Matt, 33, has refused to comment on the affair. Yesterday he changed his Twitter profile to a picture of a dog pulling a sad face.

Mr Double's office released a statement on Monday in response to what it called 'speculation about Steve and Anne Double and their marriage'.

Admission: The Tory MP said that his affair with Sarah Bunt, pictured outside her home today, lasted weeks

Apology: MP Steve Double has apologised to his wife Anne, together left, amid allegations he had an affair with blonde staffer Sarah Bunt, right

The MP wrote he had 'behaved completely inappropriately' but added: 'Anne and I are committed to being together and seeking to move forward in our marriage. I accept I have work to do to recover the trust and respect of those around me.'

His wife has vowed to stand by him, saying on Monday: 'I won't throw away 30 years of marriage for the sake of a few hours.'

While campaigning to become an MP last year, Mr Double wrote: 'Family has a very special place in my life... strong families are the basis of a strong society.'

Some constituents are demanding he resign. Wayne McIntosh said: 'He preached about morality and family values yet whilst his wife was working every hour he was in bed with his researcher.'

Mrs Bunt could not be reached for comment last night.
A number of eyeliner products have been recalled after they were found to contain high levels of infectious bacteria.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has pulled British brand Arbonne's 'It's a Fine Line' liquid eyeliner in black and brown from shelves around the country.

The product was found to have 'unacceptably high' levels of bacteria which can cause eye infections such as conjunctivitis and blepharitis.

UK brand Arbonne's 'It's a Fine Line' liquid eyeliner in black and brown has been recalled in Australia

Conjunctivitis is an infectious eye condition which can cause redness, irritation and discharge. It is most common in young children.

Blepharitis is a condition which causes inflammation of the eyelids and can cause itching, redness and blurred vision among other symptoms.

The concerning germs discovered in the makeup product were Staphylococcus saprophyticus, S. xylosus, and S. lentus.

The ACCC has recommended that anyone who purchased the product between the 14th April and 18th May this year stop using it immediately.

Customers can return it to their Arbonne consultant for a full refund, or contact Arbonne at LiquidEyeliner@arbonne.com or call 1800650760.
Just days before his 95th birthday, Prince Philip has been left devastated by the death of one of his closest friends and confidants.

Sir Brian McGrath, known as Philips gatekeeper, worked for the Duke of Edinburgh for almost 15 years after joining his staff as an assistant private secretary in 1982, and quickly rose to become the head of his household.

When Sir Brian decided to retire in 1995, the Duke immediately appointed him as an extra equerry and the distinguished former Army officer has been at his side almost every day since. He died on Saturday, aged 91.

Last night, Buckingham Palace confirmed that private condolences had been sent to Sir Brians family. One courtier tells me: The Duke is deeply upset about his death, as is the Queen. He was the Dukes closest friend'

Last night, Buckingham Palace confirmed that private condolences had been sent to Sir Brians family. One courtier tells me: The Duke is deeply upset about his death, as is the Queen. He was the Dukes closest friend.

Educated at Eton, Sir Brian served in the Irish Guards during World War II. Unusually for a courtier, he spent more than three decades in commerce, serving as chairman of Victoria Wine for 22 years, before joining the Royal Household.

His closeness to Philip and the Queen was emphasised by the fact that he was the only member of the household allowed to bring his beloved dog into work.

As far as the monarch is concerned, only one pack is allowed to rule the roost at Buckingham Palace  her beloved corgis.

But when Sir Brian lost his adored wife, Betty, he told Philip he might have to give up work as he needed to look after his black labrador, Robert.

Philip spoke to the Queen, who gave his friend special permission to bring the dog into the palace with him.

Often seen with the Queen at the Royal Windsor Horse Show, Sir Brian was a frequent guest at Windsor Castle, Sandringham and Balmoral.

Princess Anne has been called many things in her life, but a comedienne is unlikely to be among them.

However, that is the verdict on the Princess Royal by actress Amanda Redman.

We met once and she made me laugh so much in just five minutes, recalls the former New Tricks star, 58. Shes great at telling stories and is very witty.

Does a stand-up spot on TVs Live At The Apollo beckon for HRH?

Memorial snub to Parkinson live child

Five women featured in the thanksgiving service for former Tory chairman Lord Parkinson at St Margarets Westminster yesterday.

They were Cecil Parkinsons widow, Ann, and three daughters, Mary, who gave a tribute, Emma, who read a lesson, and Joanna. Plus, there were frequent references to Margaret Thatcher in the eulogy by her biographer Charles Moore, who said Parkinson was her trusted confidant who understood her better than anyone.

Five women featured in the thanksgiving service for former Tory chairman Lord Parkinson at St Margarets Westminster yesterday. They were Cecil Parkinsons widow, Ann (middle, in blue), and three daughters, Mary, who gave a tribute, Emma, who read a lesson, and Joanna

When Moore mentioned some difficulties in his private life that brought his career to an abrupt halt in 1983, everyone knew this was a reference to his secretary and lover Sara Keays, who gave birth to a daughter Flora that year.

Margaret Thatcher took a big risk when she brought him back into the government, said Moore.

We pray with Ann, Mary, Emma and Joanna, and all who knew and loved Cecil Parkinson, said the Rector of St Margarets, the Venerable Andrew Tremlett. But not with Sara or Flora.

The Queen has always enjoyed a rapport with animals, but Claire Foy, who plays her in the 100million series The Crown, appears to have found working with them traumatic.

Wild animals feature in scenes when the then Princess Elizabeth was in Kenya.

Claire was really terrified and breathing hard, having to be near a cheetah, a hawk and my baboons, says animal wrangler Luke Cornell.
The first preview of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was reportedly in disarray last night after a live owl apparently escaped  prompting a backstage search.

Twitter user Josh Grisetti said: '1st preview blooper! No spoilers, but... An owl just got loose in the theatre. Intermission owl hunt backstage!'

A 1,500-strong audience were the first to see the hugely anticipated play at London's Palace Theatre in the West End.

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The first preview of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was reportedly in disarray last night after a live owl apparently escaped  prompting a backstage search

Line-up: Pictured, from left to right, Director John Tiffany, Jamie Parker who plays Harry Potter, playwright Jack Thorne, Noma Dumezweni who plays Hermione Granger, actor Paul Thornley, and J.K. Rowling

Although fans were careful not to give away spoilers online they did reveal that live owls were used on social media sites.

The production, by Jack Thorne and authorised by JK Rowling, is set 19 years after the seventh and final book in the popular Hogwarts series.

It smashed records by selling 175,000 tickets in 24 hours and is tipped to be the theatrical event of the year.

Rowling warned audiences on Monday not to reveal the ending of the play to others in a video posted to her Twitter account.

She said: 'You've been amazing for years at keeping Harry Potter secrets so you didn't spoil the books for readers who came after you.

'So I'm asking you one more time to keep the secrets and let audiences enjoy Cursed Child with all the surprises that we've built into the story.'

In Harry Potter and The Cursed Child, Harry will be played by Jamie Parker (left), Poppy Miller will play his wife Ginny Weasley (right) and Sam Clemmett will play their son Albus Severus Potter, who is sent off to school

The play, which follows Harry, Hermione and Ron as grown parents sending their children off to school, opened at the Palace Theatre, London for cut-price previews last night before being unveiled in a premiere on July 30

JK Rowling took to Twitter to beg fans to 'keep the secrets' of the new Harry Potter and the Cursed Child play

The play was written in collaboration with Rowling and director John Tiffany and is the first time an official Harry Potter story has been presented on stage.

More than 30 actors will tell the story of Harry, played by Jamie Parker, as an over-worked employee at the Ministry of Magic.

It will also explore how his youngest son Albus (Sam Clemmett) deals with the burden of the Potter family legacy.

Norma Dumezweni will play and adult Hermione Granger.

In an interview with the Observer Rowling lashed out at 'a bunch of racists' who criticised the casting of a black actress for the role.

She said: 'I had a bunch of racists telling me that because Hermione 'turned white'  that is, lost colour from her face after a shock  that she must be a white woman, which I have a great deal of difficulty with.

Olivier-award-winning actress Noma Dumezweni was picked for the role of Hermione

'But I decided not to get too agitated about it and simply state quite firmly that Hermione can be a black woman with my absolute blessing and enthusiasm.'

She added that Olivier winning Dumezweni 'was the best actress for the job'.

The script for the play is already topping bestseller lists, although it will not be published until after the play's official opening on 30 July.

The lucky few who managed to secure tickets for last night's show were asked to arrive at the venue an hour early for security checks.

The request follows controversy surrounding Benedict Cumberbatch's Hamlet at the Barbican, when security staff struggled to prevent audience members from filming or photographing forcing Cumberbatch to beg fans not to record his performance.

The hugely successful Harry Potter books, about a boy wizard who attends wizard school, have sold more than 450 million copies since 1997.

The seven books have been adapted into eight films.
Bronwyn Bishop lashed out at Andrew Bolt in an angry interview on his Sky News program last night.

Andrew Bolt was grilling Ms Bishop on why she turned against Tony Abbott in the 2015 leadership spill, when the former Speaker turned the conversation around on Bolt.

'I was ready to stand my ground and face the Parliament and there were many others in the party who were prepared to do so too. That didn't happen,' she said.

'Indeed I think you knew, in fact I know you knew, the morning I resigned before I knew I was going to resign.'

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Ms Bishop, former Speaker of the House, accuses Mr Bolt of having known about her impending resignation before she did.

Tony Abbott has responded to claims that Ms Bishop turned against him and supported Malcolm Turnbull in the 2015 leadership spill, saying to Sky News:

'Bronny has been a friend of mine for years. We've obviously gone through a chilly patch lately, but once a friend, if not quite always a friend, certainly again a friend,' he said.

Mr Bolt, who was one of the loudest advocates of Bronwyn Bishop stepping down from the position of Speaker, said: 'Why did you turn against him?'

Ms Bishop answered the questions with a stony face, saying nothing of her rejection of Mr Abbott for leader of the party.

'I'm afraid that's it, Andrew. Now let's get on with it,' Ms Bishop said.

'This is the 'it', Bronwyn, you weren't hired on Sky News to cover up,' Bolt said.

Tony Abbott has responded to Ms Bishop's 'turning on him' by saying he and 'Bronny' will always be friends.

Ms Bishop last week confirmed that Mr Abbott asked her to resign to 'protect him,' however this only came after Bolt demanded that she step down of her own accord.

'At every turn I supported Tony, when it came to the question of the speakership and the helicopter, yes the helicopter was booked, I didn't ask for it, I didn't book it but I took responsibility for it,' she told Sky News.

Mr Bolt was the strongest critics of Bronwyn Bishop, especially after revelations about the 'choppergate' scandal, where she charged taxpayers $5227 for a private return helicopter flight from Melbourne to Geelong.

In his blog he wrote 'Two weeks too late but at least it's done' and 'Bishop is a figure of mockery in the media and in the public after her choppergate scandal and absurd sense of entitlement.'

Ms Bishop has suggested that she has a book on the way where 'her side' of the 2015 leadership spill will be told

Julie Bishop, Foreign Affairs Minister, also suggested that the Speaker of the House 'considers her position,' in July last year.

But a few days earlier, Bronwyn Bishop said 'Julie Bishop rang me and said I had her full support.'

In the interview with Mr Bolt, Ms Bishop also hinted at an upcoming 'tell all' book.

'Any other further stories about how things occurred, you will just have to wait for my book. But don't hold your breath waiting for it,' she said.
More than seven million people are set to lose the right to vote in the EU referendum, despite pleas for them to register ahead of last nights deadline.

Campaigners yesterday made last-ditch efforts to persuade the public to register to vote ahead of the June 23 poll on Britains EU membership.

But the final figure is expected to fall well short of the 97 per cent of voters who registered to take part in the 2014 referendum on Scottish independence.

The Electoral Commission yesterday said about 86 per cent of the electorate had registered to vote, leaving up to 7.5million who will not be able to take part

The Electoral Commission yesterday said about 86 per cent of the electorate had registered to vote, leaving up to 7.5million who will not be able to take part.

Alex Robertson, of the commission, said more than 1.6million had signed up to vote in the last month, including 226,000 who registered on Monday.

But he added: Our latest research shows there are about 7.5million people who are not registered to vote who should be  a lot of them are young people, a lot are people who have moved house.

The deadline is midnight  if you are one minute late it is no good. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn yesterday became the latest pro-Brussels campaigner to urge people to register, pointing out that young people could use their smartphones to do so. Online registration took just five minutes, but despite desperate pleas from campaigners, many were not expected to bother.

Of the 226,000 who registered on Monday, almost half are thought to have been aged under 35. Above, David Cameron and Nigel Farage made their cases to remain and to leave on ITV last night

Of the 226,000 who registered on Monday, almost half are thought to have been aged under 35.

Analysis by polling firm Ipsos Mori shows that although the young outnumber the old they are far less likely to vote.

The number of people aged 18-35 is 3.4million more than the population aged over 65.

But at last years general election, the over-65s accounted for 29 per cent of all votes cast. The under-35s accounted for just 22 per cent.

If this is replicated in the EU referendum, then older voters will outnumber the young by almost two million.
This contrasted strongly with the view taken by bishops even last year

Bishops yesterday admitted that the Church of England was wrong about Margaret Thatcher.

In a paper that amounted to a sweeping U-turn in the Church's longstanding Left-wing attitude to poverty and the welfare state, they declared that it 'failed to see the moral vision that informed Margaret Thatcher's administration'.

Their acknowledgement that the late Tory prime minister was driven by 'moral purpose' contrasted strongly with the view taken by the bishops even last year, when before the General Election they were severely critical of her legacy.

Criticised: Church leaders broke with Margaret Thatcher more than 30 years ago when in 1985 they published Faith in the City, a report which condemned her government for inflicting intentional hardship on the poor

Yesterday, in a discussion document endorsed by Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and Archbishop of York John Sentamu, the leaders of the Church backtracked on their opposition to Thatcherite principles and Tory benefit reforms.

Instead of demanding higher benefit spending and criticising the market economy  the default position of most Church leaders for more than three decades  they said that 'we should support welfare policies which create incentives for work'.

They praised the current Tory Government's attempt to make work pay better than a life on benefits, backed the new Universal Credit benefit that is designed to make that happen, and said they wanted 'political allies on both sides of Parliament'.

Support: Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby

The softening of the Church's hard line on welfare follows its intervention in the 2015 election campaign. Three months before polling day the bishops published a 'pastoral letter' which was widely seen as an invitation to the faithful to vote Labour.

Church of England leaders broke with Margaret Thatcher more than 30 years ago when in 1985 they published Faith in the City, a report which condemned her government for inflicting intentional hardship on the poor.

It called for benefit increases, heavy spending on job creation and the expansion of council housing in place of Mrs Thatcher's 'right to buy' scheme. Even last year Dr Sentamu praised Faith in the City, and in their pre-election intervention the bishops condemned Mrs Thatcher again.

They said that 'Thatcher's market revolution emphasised individualism, consumerism and the importance of the corporate sector to the extent that, far from returning to Victorian notions of social responsibility, the paradigm for all relationships became competitive individualism, consumption and the commercial contract, fragmenting social solidarity at many levels'.

Yesterday's paper, prepared by a Church official, the Reverend Dr Malcolm Brown, and endorsed by the 59 bishops and advisers of the CofE's House of Bishops, backed down over Mrs Thatcher.

It said: 'Recent welfare policies, whilst sometimes clumsily implemented or ill-communicated, are not without moral purpose.

'Just as Faith in the City failed to see the moral vision that informed Margaret Thatcher's administration, and therefore failed to engage coherently with that vision, so we must avoid the trap of seeing present policy direction as motivated solely by economic concerns.'

A senior Tory source said: 'Finally, the Church of England recognises that this Conservative Government is right to reform welfare so that work always pays.

'With record numbers of people in work, rising wages and welfare spending under control, we are delivering a system that is fair for those who use it and those who pay for it.'
Russia sent a submarine into the English Channel where it was intercepted by a Royal Navy frigate.

Vladimir Putin's Stary Oskol submarine, which is laden with missiles and torpedoes, ventured into the North Sea where it was intercepted by the anti-submarine Type 23 frigate HMS Kent.

The submarine was expected to move through the Dover Straits this morning, under the watchful eye of the Royal Navy.

Vladimir Putin's new Stary Oskol submarine (pictured left), which is laden with missiles and torpedos, ventured into the North Sea where it was intercepted by the anti-submarine Type 23 frigate HMS Kent (right) on Sunday

It is believed the submarine (far left) has been tracked by the HMS Kent since Sunday after it left its home port in Severmorsk, in Murmansk Oblast, Russia, and travelled down Britain's eastern coast

It is believed the submarine has been tracked by the HMS Kent since Sunday after it left its home port in Severmorsk, in Murmansk Oblast, Russia, and travelled down Britain's eastern coast.

It is thought the submarine, which first set sail last year and is powered with a diesel-electric engine, is heading for the Black Sea to join the rest of Russia's fleet.

HMS Kent is one of the newest of the Type 23 frigates within the Royal Navy arsenal. Built by BAE Systems on the Clyde, she was launched on 27 May 1998 by Princess Alexandra of Kent.

HMS Kent's Commanding Officer, Commander Daniel Thomas, said: 'Locating this submarine was a combined effort with Nato allies and shadowing such units is routine activity for the Royal Navy.

'We continue to escort the submarine as it conducts its passage, providing a visible presence.'

Defence Secretary Michael Fallon told The Sun: 'This shows that the Navy is maintaining a vigilant watch in international and territorial waters to keep Britain safe and protect us from potential threats.

The submarine is believed to have left Murmansk in the north of Russia before making its way towards Britain

The incident is the latest face-off between the British and Russian military following several incursions by aircraft in skies around the UK.

In April 2015 a trawler was dragged violently by its nets while fishing 18 miles off the coast of Northern Ireland, leading to suspicions they had snagged on a Russian submarine.

According to NavalTechnology.com the Stary Oskol was constructed at the Admiralty Shipyard in Saint Petersburg and first launched last year.

It features advanced stealth technology, extended combat range, the latest inertial navigation system and the potential to strike land, surface, and underwater targets.

With an underwater speed of 20k and a cruising range of 400m, the improved variant of the Kilo-class diesel-electric submarines can patrol for 45 days with 52 on-board submariners.
A real estate ad for a house on 108 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, New York describes it as a 'stately center hall colonial' with a formal dining room, but makes no mention of the mass murder that took place there in 1974.

The owner of the house that became the scene of the 'Amityville Horror' killings wants $850,000 for the property, according to the advertisement.

For that price, a potential buyer will get a five-bedroom, four-bathroom house with a 'large boat house' and a two-car garage - as well as a piece of Long Island true-crime history.

The home on 108 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, New York where six people were brutally murdered in 1974 is on sale for $850,000

Ronald DeFeo, on right, is pictured with his siblings in an undated family photo. He was sentenced to six consecutive life sentences for killing his siblings and parents in 1974

The murders that made the house famous occurred on November 13, 1974, and left killer Ronald DeFeo's mother, father, and four siblings dead. Police found them shot in their beds.

DeFeo later said voices in the house made him kill his family, and his lawyers used that claim in a failed insanity defense.

He was sentenced to six consecutive life sentences and is currently serving time at the Sullivan Correctional Facility in Fallsburg, New York, with a parole hearing scheduled for June 2017, the New York Daily News reported.

DeFeo, pictured in a mugshot, said voices in the house made him kill his family, and his lawyers used that claim in a failed insanity defense

The strange goings on inside the house inspired the 1977 book 'The Amityville Horrors', which was later adapted into the 1979 horror film starring James Brolin and Margot Kidder (pictured)

A family that moved into the house after the murders claimed they experienced paranormal activity in the house - mysterious events that included odors, inexplicable sounds, and a chilling cold that defied the warm glow of a fireplace.

Their spooky tales inspired the 1977 book 'The Amityville Horrors,' which became a film in 1979.

Broker Jerry O'Neil told the Daily News he is aware of the house's history, but that he nevertheless thinks 'it is a beautiful home.'

He said locals refer to the claims of paranormal activity in the house as the 'Amityville hoax.'
Four students have reportedly been shot dead and at least ten have been hospitalised after police in Papua New Guinea opened fire on protesters.

The shootings in Port Moresby have sparked riots and looting across the country's capital, reports say.

Papua New Guinea's parliament was informed earlier today that four students were killed in the demonstration, which was marching from the University of Papua New Guinea to parliament.

Protesters were demanding Prime Minister Peter O'Neill step aside and face corruption allegations.

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Police in Papua New Guinea opened fire on students marching on Parliament on Wednesday

At least ten students have been hospitalised and four have reportedly been killed

Graphic pictures of students covered in blood and being carried from the scene have been posted to social media.

Video footage appeared to show students running for cover amid tear gas and the sound of gun fire.

Ten students have been admitted to the Port Moresby General Hospital and four were killed, The ABC reported.

A major aid agency, which declined to be identified because it only had preliminary information, told Reuters that a clinic at the University of PNG's Waigani campus had reported at least 15 students were wounded, with four killed.

The prime minister issued a statement on the violence this afternoon in which he condemned the 'agitators' and promised a full inquiry.

He said claims that students had been killed was false, and only five had been admitted to hospital with injuries.

'The criminal elements involved in this incident will further feel the full force of the law for their involvement in what has transpired,' Mr O'Neill said.

A special services division officer from the Papua New Guinea police (left) talks through a megaphone at students attempting to march to parliament

Heavily-armed police formed a roadblock to prevent students leaving the University of Papua New Guinea

Following the shooting clashes broke out between police and bystanders outside Port Moresby General Hospital.

'Now there is a very big clash with the public and with the police just outside the Port Moresby General Hospital,' a hospital official told Reuters by telephone after a group of wounded students were taken there for treatment.

'There is also shooting going on, open gunfire.'

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has updated its travel advice for PNG and says Australians should exercise a high degree of caution.

It said there had been 'an unconfirmed number of deaths and serious injuries' and that there were reports of looting and unrest in parts of Port Moresby.

'There are also reports of unrest related to student protest in other parts of the country, including Lae,' the statement said.

Graphic pictures of students allegedly shot by PNG Police have flooded social media

Students carry an injured man who was taking part in the Port Moresby demonstration

Police fired at the students after they refused to allow the president of the student council to be arrested.

Student Gerald Peni told the ABC that the police fired directly at the crowd.

'Many of the students they fell, they got injured, we don't know how many casualties we may have at the moment,' he said.

Noel Anjo, one of the leaders of the student protest, said the violence erupted at a police roadblock.

'We were determined to go to parliament,' he said. 'Police did not like that idea and started assaulting the students, punching them, hitting them with the gun butts, before firing shots at them.'

'The students were running for cover in all directions, but I saw some people badly wounded.'

In a Facebook Post, resident Emmanuel Kare wrote that 'it's confirmed that 2 UPNG students are murdered by rogue policeman at UPNG.

'I urge all Papua New Guinea citizens whether Christians or non Christians to stand together united and pray to God for His protection and safety for the UPNG students.

'They are dying for this nation now and for the people.'

Another writer on social media, Phapol Jera Maiz, also told of students being shot dead and 'many others injured by gun shots from police in Port Moresby.

He said the students were trying to start a protest march to the parliament to disturb MPs in their sitting. He added that the university was in total chaos right now.

A photo he posted showed a man with a leg wound being tended by another student who had wrapped cloth around his injury.

Students have been boycotting classes and calling on Prime Minister Peter O'Neill to face corruption allegations

Mothers from suburbs surrounding the University of Papua New Guinea march with their hands on their heads. Witnesses said they rubbed mud over their faces and bodies as a sign of respect and mourning

University students in PNG have been boycotting classes and calling for the resignation of Mr O'Neill for several weeks.

The students are demanding Mr O'Neill comply with a nearly two-year-old arrest warrant issued by the country's anti-corruption taskforce.

Mr O'Neill is wanted for questioning in relation to allegedly fraudulent state payments to law firm Paraka Lawyers - claims he has dismissed as being of a political nature.

Opposition MPs filed a vote of no confidence in Mr O'Neill for the fourth time yesterday.

A large crowd gathered outside the Port Moresby General Hospital following the shooting

At least 10 students were admitted to the hospital after police fired at protesters. A doctor said that clashes broke out between the public and police in front of the hospital

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said if people had been shot dead it was 'a tragedy.'

'We call on all sides for calm to de-escalate the tensions and certainly call on all sides to respect the peaceful and lawful right to protest,' she told AAP on Wednesday.

Ms Bishop plans to call her PNG government counterpart when she gets more details from Australia's representatives on the ground in Port Moresby.

'There are about 70 Australian Federal Police officers in PNG spread throughout the country and our high commission will be working with the Australian AFP who are there to monitor the situation and keep me and keep the Australian government informed,' she said.

Police reportedly fired at the students after they refused to allow the president of the student council to be arrested
Police were called but both men left the scene before officers arrived

The man approaches his victim and backhands him while he isn't looking

started recording after the man started yelling on Friday night

A man has been caught on film whacking a fellow commuter in the head in a bizarre and unprovoked attack on a bus.

A passenger got out his camera phone and start recording on a bus near Sandringham Station, in Melbourne's south-east, after hearing a man yelling abuse at a younger commuter at about 6.40pm on Friday, the Herald Sun reported.

The younger commuter appears to ignore the man, who wearing a white t-shirt and black jacket, and is seen looking down as he is approached and backhanded the side of the head without warning.

A man has been caught on film whacking a fellow commuter in the head during a bizarre and unprovoked attack on a bus in Melbourne's south east on Friday

The man then flees through the open bus doors, with his young victim in hot pursuit.

Fellow commuters then cut in and tell the boy, wearing a grey beanie, to get back on the bus.

'Let it go. Hop back on the bus,' they can be heard saying in the footage obtained by The Herald Sun.

The boy, who was carrying a skateboard, appears frustrated but does not continue to chase the man.

The man then flees through the open bus doors, with his young victim in hot pursuit

The boy, who was carrying a skateboard, appears frustrated but does not continue to chase the man

A spokesperson for Victoria Police said officers attended the scene but were unable to find either person involved.

'Police patrolled the surrounding area but were still unable to locate anyone involved,' they told Daily Mail Australia.
Something odd has happened to the studio audiences in TV political debate shows. They've gone super-tonto!

Once so obliging, so placid, they have turned. Now the politicians get a right seeing-to.

Members of the public are no longer content to read a prepared question off a tremulous cue-card.

Now, polite but determined, they come back with supplementary questions, complete with figures and new lines of attack and a nicely sustained scepticism.

It's like facing a hall full of Andrew Neils.

David Cameron took a pummelling over the way he has lost control of justice and immigration. But the Prime Minister, inevitably more practised at these things, was the smoother, the sleeker, the better at modulating and varying his voice

This phenomenon happened again on ITV yesterday evening when first Nigel Farage, then David Cameron went in front of a noticeably educated crowd.

If they thought they were in for an easy ride, they were wrong. The public are concerned and clued-up. And as hot-to-trot as a toreador full of Spanish Fly.

The hour-long, quick-fire programme, presented with crisp discipline by Julie Etchingham (I almost said Julie Andrews), was tricky for both politicians.

The sheer number of questions processed was impressive, albeit a little bewildering. Miss Etchingham held a large pen in her fingers. It could have been a syringe. Bend over, boys.

Mr Farage came under prolonged attack for having allegedly raised racial harmony this week (he denied this).

Mr Cameron took a pummelling over the way he has lost control of justice and immigration.

The Prime Minister, inevitably more practised at these things, was the smoother, the sleeker, the better at modulating and varying his voice.

He does a crinkly-eyed, buttery smile to match anything from the Pillsbury Doughboy. He called one of the Eurosceptics attacking him 'sir', while inside possibly thinking of a rather stronger term.

A figure of creamy reassurance  a sort of 'leave it to me, everyone  I'm the boss around here'.

Grilled: Nigel Farage came under prolonged attack for having allegedly raised racial harmony this week (he denied this). And the Ukip leader was less prepared to soak up the criticisms, telling a woman who attacked him over the Cologne sex attacks to 'calm down there a little'

Mr Farage was less prepared to soak up the criticisms. 'Calm down there a little,' he urged a woman who attacked him over the Cologne sex attacks.

But he kept his cool and it said something for his forthright manner that after disagreeing fundamentally with a couple of his pro-EU questioners, he finished strongly with a prediction  done with a suitable note of sorrow  that the Eurozone was 'done for, the money's run out and the EU project doesn't work'.

A man called Stephen worried about British competitiveness if our wages went up.

Mr Farage said, more than once, that we should be more concerned about getting more money into working-class pockets than fretting about the growth rate.

Harry, a 40-year-old Asian man, told Mr Cameron that unchecked immigration was wrecking his family's chances.

'You rolled the dice already,' he told the PM. Mr Cameron blurted out something about not wanting to live in a Little England.

In both those cases, the politicians were left looking shifty.

As long ago as the 1960s, commentators talked about the decline of automatic respect for public figures  the end of deference.

As both Messrs Cameron and Farage discovered last night, you can no longer take the public for mugs

But the grovelling continued pretty well unchecked, at least in TV discussion shows, until recently.

Studio guests would be overwhelmed by the unfamiliar setting and after asking a question they would sit back and let the political leader yarn away.

As both Messrs Cameron and Farage discovered last night, you can no longer take the public for mugs.

A man called James, for instance, pinged in a serious question about Magna Carta, the Supreme Court and Parliament's loss of sovereignty. That's not a TV debate topic, sir. That's an Oxbridge exam question.

But my favourite question was a less antsy one from Joseph Cook who, rather mournfully, pointed out that no one who came to his shop was ever able to answer the question: 'Who is your MEP?'

Was that not rather shameful, both about our levels of engagement and also the ability of the EU to engage the millions of people it rules? Mr Cameron looked helpless.

Mr Farage was back in the green room by then but I bet he was roaring with merry agreement.
A Canberra man who was accused of carrying out a one-punch assault on New Year's Day appeared in an ACT court on Tuesday where he changed his plea to guilty.

The ABC reports that Jordan Sharma initially pleaded not guilty to a charge of inflicting grievous bodily harm and had been committed for trial in the ACT Supreme Court.

But on Tuesday he pleaded guilty to the attack and will now be sentenced next month.

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Jordan Sharma (right), 20, pleaded guilty to to a charge of inflicted grievous bodily harm

The 20-year-old handed himself into police after detectives released a sickening video of a one-punch attack on New Year's Day in Canberra pleaded guilty to the assault on Tuesday

The 20-year-old handed himself in to police after detectives released a sickening video of a one-punch attack on New Year's Day.

He went to police after the 'coward punch' attack outside a convenience store in Civic, Canberra, which left the victim with a shattered jaw.

He appeared in the ACT Magistrates Court in January and pleaded not guilty to recklessly inflicting grievous bodily harm following the attack in the early hours of January 1.

CCTV footage from the incident showed the victim, also aged in his 20s, having a tense conversation with a man before another stepped in and knocked him unconscious with a punch to his jaw.

Two men are seen on camera engaged in a heated conversation as Sharma, in a grey t-shirt and black pants, watches on with his fists clenched

The video shows Sharma lurch forward and strike the victim with a punch to the jaw

The victim, a Canberra man in his 20s, begins to fall backwards after the heavy blow as people watch

The video shows how a group of onlookers watched on as a taller man dressed in all-black squared up to a shorter male with blond hair.

When the blond man took a step forward, a third man then moved in and punched him in the side of the head, according to the shocking footage.

The victim then appeared to fall sideways and hit his head on the concrete, before another man rushed forward to support his head.

He was forced to have a titanium plate inserted into his jaw along with screws to help fix the damage, according to the Canberra Times.

The young man crashes to the ground heavily as his attacker begins to move away

The attacker and another man, dressed in black, turn to leave the scene with the victim seemingly unconscious
A 16-year-old boy has been charged over a a vicious attack on a man outside a cinema in Melbourne.

Blake Everett was left battered, bruised with seven stitches in his head after being attacked just before he entered the Hoyts theatre in Frankston, in Melbourne's south-east, on Monday night.

The 19-year-old, from Coburg, was walking with his girlfriend Alanah Parkin when a youth from a passing group asked him for a cigarette.

Mr Everett politely said he did not when another teen from the group allegedly launched a ferocious attack on him, punching him several times in the head as his partner helplessly watched on.

Blake Everett has been left battered and bruised with seven stitches to the head after being viciously attacked outside a cinema

Mr Everett said blood was dripping down his face as he put his hands up to protect himself but that did not discourage his attacker who then allegedly snatched his bag.

He asked the boy to return his bag but was met with verbal abuse before a passer-by stepped in.

The man snatched Mr Everett's bag back and handed it to him, patting the injured movie-goer on the back while holding his attacker at bay.

'I then quickly grabbed Alanah's hand and moved into the cinema collapsing to the floor as the the numb, light-headed feeling overcame me,' Mr Everett said.

Mr Everett said blood was dripping down his face as he put his hands up to protect himself but that did not discourage his attacker who then allegedly snatched his bag

Mr Everett was loaded into an ambulance and taken to hospital where he needed seven stitches to close up the large laceration on the front of his head

'It's quite bruised and sore, and I'm glad it was me and not Alanah (left) that was hurt,' Mr Everett (right) said

Staff from the cinema ran to his aid while Ms Parkin contacted an ambulance and witnesses called police.

They arrived on the scene after Mr Everett was loaded into an ambulance and taken to hospital where he needed seven stitches to close up the large laceration on the front of his head.

'It's quite bruised and sore, and I'm glad it was me and not Alanah that was hurt,' he said.

The 16-year-old was arrested and interviewed by police who said he had allegedly attacked a 44-year-old minutes before Mr Everett was assaulted.

The teenage boy has been charged with a string of offences relating to the two assaults.
A Melbourne woman's custom wedding dress worth more than $40,000 and weighing 18 kilograms has been stolen from her home.

Leanne Bartucca's dress was designed by Australia's J'Aton Couture - a popular brand favoured by high profile WAGs Rebecca Judd, Nadia Bartell and Jodi Anasta - and had the couple's initials embroidered on the train.

The off-the-shoulder dress was made with 100-year-old vintage French lace paired with leather and tulle, and Ms Bartucca wore it on her wedding day in March 2014 when she married her husband, Robert, the Herald Sun reported.

Leanne Bartucca wearing her 40,000 wedding dress designed by J'Aton Couture, which was stolen from her home

Mrs Bartucca's dress was made with 100-year-old vintage French lace paired with leather and tulle and weighed 18 kilograms

Mrs Bartucca walking down the aisle wearing the stunning dress which has now been stolen

Mrs Bartucca said she had dreams of using the fabric from it for her children's christening gowns and even framing a section of the fabric for her home

An incredible photo of Mrs Bartucca's wedding dress from above shows off the impressive train

Ms Bartucca said she was shocked and very upset about the incident.

'It's such a sentimental thing. My family and the J'Aton boys have been checking the internet daily in the hopes that we will see it for sale,' she said.

'I had dreams of using the fabric from it for my children's christening gowns and even framing a section of the fabric for our home.

'[The thieves] definitely knew what they were doing. As a former fashion buyer, I was surprised how much they knew - what they left behind was just as telling as what they took.'

Mrs Bartucca said: 'It's such a sentimental thing. My family and the J'Aton boys have been checking the internet daily in the hopes that we will see it for sale'

Melbourne woman Leanne Bartucca's dress was designed by J'Aton Couture - which is a popular brand favoured by Rebecca Judd and Jodi Anasta - and had the couple's initial embroidered on the train

Ms Bartucca (pictured with her husband, Robert) said she was shocked and very upset about the incident, saying she had hoped to use the material for her future children's christening gowns

A Victoria Police spokesman told Daily Mail Australia the theft had happened at the couple's Greenvale home last month and they were investigating.

'A valuable wedding dress and jewellery was stolen from the Dumphries Terrace property on Wednesday, May 25,' he said.

'Police are also investigating whether the burglary is linked to another burglary on the same day in the same area.'

The couple's first date was at the Melbourne Museum and this was where Robert proposed to Leanne in 2012 on their one-year anniversary during a private visit.

'Robert was sure to leave the "Precious Gems" section until last. As we passed the ring encased in glass, I took a moment to read the plaque, then read it again another three times,' Leanne told The Lane.

'The plaque read "This ring was presented to Leanne Garma by Robert Bartucca at the Melbourne Museum on August 20, 2012".'

The Bartuccas were married at the Newman Chapel in Parkville, in Melbourne's inner-city, and had their reception at Carousel at Albert Park Lake.

The Bartuccas - with Mrs Bartucca wearing the dress (pictured) - were married at the Newman Chapel in Parkville, in Melbourne's inner-city, and had their reception at Carousel at Albert Park Lake
With side mirrors littering the nature strip, wonky power poles and twisted safety barriers - it's no wonder that residents in the small suburb of Rosanna in Melbourne's north-east are convinced they live on Australia's most dangerous road.

And a new safety report commissioned by VicRoads has finally confirmed their fears, finding that Rosanna Road is operating 'at capacity' and in desperate need of a number of safety upgrades.

Of the 38,000 vehicles that pass through the clogged four-lane road each day, nearly 2,000 trucks use the route to link from the M80 highway in the west to the Eastern Freeway.

Natasha Reifschneider, president of local lobby group 'Resolve Rosanna Road' says the busy road is too narrow to share traffic with freight, cars and pedestrians.

Rosanna Road in Melbourne has been identified as one of Australia's most dangerous roads

Concerned locals from lobby group 'Resolve Rosanna Road' want immediate changes to improve safety

A safety report commissioned by VicRoads said the current barriers were 'unlikely to contain larger vehicles'

'The community has said it's dangerous for many years now ... the narrowness of the road isn't appropriate for freight and cars to share together,' Ms Reifschneider told Daily Mail Australia.

The safety assessment found that in the last five years there were 75 crashes causing injury along the road, including 15 deemed to be have caused serious injury.

Photos sent from concerned locals to the community group's Facebook page detail the frequency of power poles being hit by motorists, an all-too common experience for them.

Other photos sent to the page show trucks flipped on their side, destroyed roadside barriers and peak-hour traffic in the arterial four-lane road.

These heat maps show where the 75 crashes took place across five years (top is all crashes, bottom is serious injuries)

The president of 'Resolve Rosanna Road' said the narrow road isn't appropriate for cars and freight to share

Some sections of the road are 2.6 metres wide, whereas the average truck width is 2.5 metres (without side mirrors)

This picture shows hay covering the road after a truck crashed and spilled its load

The safety report highlights the need for significant improvement in regards to roadside hazards, safety barriers, street lighting and street width.

It noted that the current barrier in place was 'unlikely to contain larger vehicles,' and recommended retrofitting existing barriers with more effective barriers.

It also said the current lane widths were 'less than desirable.' Some sections of the road are 2.6 metres wide, whereas the average truck width is 2.5 metres (without side mirrors).

Ms Reifschneider says the report proves that something needs to be done now.

'We can't take no action and wait until a bigger picture solution is found, it needs to be immediately addressed by government so the community isn't at risk,' she told Daily Mail Australia.

'There's parents that are very concerned because the children in the community need to cross the road to get access to services like public transport and shops.'

Councillor Tom Melican of Banyule Council acknowledged that the road needed urgent upgrades.

He told The Age that the report showed VicRoads 'complete lack of long-term planning.

'If they had a solution, they would have implemented it by now,' he said.

Rosanna is a small suburb 12 kilometres north-east of Melbourne's central business district

38,000 cars pass through the linking route every day, causing huge congestion when a crash happens
An indie band have been branded rape apologists and had shows cancelled after their drummers letter of support for her childhood friend, convicted rapist Brock Turner, was released.

Leslie Rasmussen, from Oakwood-based band Good English and a childhood friend of Turner, has been slammed for the character statement she provided to the judge, in which she said that 'sweet' Turner is 'not a rapist' and blamed campus rape on 'political correctness'.

But after Rasmussen's letter was published in full online, the venues due to host the band this weekend were besieged by requests from New Yorkers to cancel the show.

Rasmussen later issued a statement on Facebook acknowledging Brocks crime - although still blaming America's drinking culture - but has continued to face a tide of outrage.

Scroll down for Rasmussen's letter in full

Members of an indie band Good English (pictured) who came out in support of convicted rapist Brock Turner have had four of their shows cancelled in Brooklyn after being branded 'rape apologists'.

The drummer from Oakwood-based band Good English, Leslie Rasmussen (left and right) childhood friend of Turner, has been slammed in particular for the character statement she provided to the judge

But after Rasmussen's (right) letter was published in full online, the venues due to host the band this weekend were besieged by requests from New Yorkers to cancel the show. Pictured: Good English

Jean Carson wrote on Facebook: 'Drop Good English. What will this one band cost your business? And a protest, in your venue? This could be VERY bad. Do the right thing -- actions have consequences.

'The consequence of drinking too much is a hangover, NOT rape. What is the consequence of a band publicly supporting a CONVICTED rapist? And what is the consequence of hosting that band in your bar?

While Caitlin Gaspar commented: 'Good English has gotta go. Since when did girl bands start supporting rapists? They are an embarrassment and offense to your line up. I look forward to seeing you've resolved the situation, aka dropped 'em.'

All-sister trio Good English have quickly become toxic and all their gigs at Brooklyn's Northside music festival have now been completely scrapped.

A sales and operations manager at one of the venues Industry City Distillery told the Gothamist: 'We have zero tolerance for the act itself, for anyone that would seek to defend that act, and certainly for the sentencing, which seems incredibly light.'

Brock Allen Turner's mugshot has been released (left). Before the high profile case gained national attention, he was portrayed as a well-dressed college athlete through his yearbook photo. Right: Brock Turner booking shot from the night of his arrest

Good English have quickly become toxic and all their gigs at Brooklyn's Northside music festival have now been completely scrapped

The band were going to play several shows affiliated with the Northside music festival in Brooklyn (pictured in 2011)

And Bar Matchless, also due to host the band at Northside, released a statement on Facebook saying: 'Good English will not be playing Matchless. We do not support victim blaming or rape apologists of any kind.'

Leading the social media campaign against the band was New Yorker Daneile Guercio.

Following the blacklisting she said: 'I'm just really happy that instead of it being about censorship or protest, it's more about having real life consequences for your actions.'

She continued: 'It's about sending a message that if you're a woman, we protect you. Especially in New York and in the music scene in Brooklyn, you can't just come here with this kind of sh**...you're coming to New York!

'People with that kind of small-town sexism have no place trying to make money off or our independent infrastructure.'

And it's not just New York where the band have been blacklisted, Rumba Cafe in Ohio announced that they would also be cancelling their show on June 17th.

GOOD ENGLISH DRUMMER LESLIE RASMUSSEN'S LETTER TO JUDGE IN FULL Advertisement

While Facebook user Katie Warner wrote to Ohio bar The Comet: ' Please cancel your upcoming performance of rape apologists The Good English. Women are not safe around women who think rape trials are a political stunt.'

But despite the onslaught of denigration thrown at Good English, Rasmussen released a follow up statement on the band's Facebook page - since deleted - where she defends her letter to the judge.

In the statement she wrties: 'I felt confident in my ability to share my straightforward opinion of him and how I knew him. I also felt compelled to share my deep concern over the misuse of alcohol that was a well-established contributor in this case.

'Beyond sharing my personal experience with Brock, I made an appeal to the judge to consider the effect that alcohol played in this tragedy.

'I felt confident in my ability to share my straightforward opinion of him and how I knew him.'

Rasmussen, 20, who claims not to drink herself, goes on to blame the American drinking culture that she says led to the incident, rather than Turner himself.

She also apologized 'for anything my statement has done to suggest that I dont feel enormous sympathy for the victim and her suffering.'

The musician added that while she doesn't 'condone, support, or sympathize with the offense or the offender' she does still believe that 'Brocks character was seriously affected by the alcohol he consumed.

And continued: I have watched friends, acquaintances and complete strangers transform before my eyes over the course of sometimes very short periods of time, into people I could barely recognize as a result of alcohol over-consumption.'

She concluded that: 'There is nothing more sad than the unnecessary, destructive and enormous toll that overuse, misuse and abuse of alcohol and drugs play in peoples lives, and I dont think my effort to point this out in confidence to a judge while commenting on Brock Turners character, as the sober person I knew him to be, was an irresponsible or reckless decision.'

But said: 'Due to the overzealous nature of social media and the lack of confidence and privacy in which my letter to the judge was held, I am now thrust into the public eye to defend my position on this matter in the court of public opinion.'

The band's official website and Facebook page have also been deleted and it is unclear if they plan to continue with the rest of their tour.

Turner, 20, was found guilty of three counts of sexual assault in March in the rape of an unconscious woman who was visiting Stanford college campus and was sentenced to just six months in county jail on Thursday.

Leslie Rasmussen
Bobby Brown broke down in tears as he revealed that his daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown was discovered lifeless in a bathtub just two days before she was set to move to Los Angeles to be closer to him.

After her mother Whitney Houston died in 2012, Bobbi Kristina grew distant from her father and other family members, he said in an interview with Robin Roberts on ABC's 20/20 that aired on Tuesday night.

But Brown said that his daughter had reached out to him in 2014 and the pair had an emotional reunion on Father's Day that year.

'That was a special day,' Brown told Roberts as he fought back tears, adding that things were going so well with his daughter that she decided to move to Los Angeles where he lived.

But on January 31 last year, Bobbi, then 21, was discovered face down in her Georgia townhouse and died six months later.

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Bobby Brown (above) broke down in tears as he revealed that his daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown was set to move to Los Angeles to be closer to him just two days before she was found lifeless in a bathtub

Brown said he and his daughter (pictured together) became estranged after Whitney Houston's death in 2012, but that they had an emotional reunion on Father's Day in 2014 after she reached out to him

'If I could get those two days back, my daughter would be here,' he said. 'All I want is those two days back.'

He added: 'I hate to say it but two days. If I had those two days back, I'd have went and got her instead of waiting for her to come to me, I'd have went and got her if I knew. She was to come out here to Los Angeles with me.'

Brown also addressed allegations of domestic violence against Houston, admitting that he did hit her once while on drugs  but insisted he is not a woman beater.

He said the couple often indulged in hard drugs together while their daughter was cared for in a separate part of the house by nannies.

I always made it a point to not let her see me or my wife in that type of situation, he said. Its hard when you are doing it every day.

Now, he claims he is free of narcotics  and hasnt done drugs for more than a decade. But he admits, he still drinks because f*** it, everyone drinks.

Brown said his relationship with Houston started after she began flirting with him at the Soul Train Music Awards in 1989.

She was bumping into me at Soul Train, he said. I was like, You keep bumping into me. And I kept doing that. And I did it like two or three times, and she kept bumping me.

He added: I asked her why, and she was like, Because I want to. And that attitude, that whole thing right there - thats the way it started.

He also shot down accusations that he was with Houston for her money, revealing her father had asked him to show him his bank balance to prove he had money.

Brown, who found fame and success from a young age with R&B group New Edition, said he actually had more money than Houston at the time of their nuptials.

I have been rich since I was 17, he said.

'I came into the marriage with money, and I left the marriage with nothing,' he added.

Brown also revealed that he stormed out of Houstons funeral because he felt his family were being disrespected by security there. He claimed he was threatened with arrest if he spoke with his daughter there.

He wiped away tears as he revealed the agony of spending six months watching Bobbi Kristina lay helpless and lifeless in a coma.

She had immediately placed on life support after being found unresponsive in January and stayed in a medically induced coma until she died at the age of 22 in July last year.

'The hardest thing I had to do in my life was to tell my daughter to let go,' Bobby told Roberts.

He then became unable to control himself, saying as tears streamed down his face: 'My baby's gone.'

'I don't wish that on my worst enemy. That is the worst pain in the world.'

Roberts also asked Brown about why he said his daughter was awake during a concert in April last year.

His wife and manager, Alicia Etheredge-Brown, and his attorney later clarified the statement to say Bobbi Kristina had been moved to a rehabilitation center and her level of awareness at that time was unknown.

But during his interview with Roberts, Brown stood by what he said.

Brown said things were going so well with his daughter (pictured together) that she decided to move to Los Angeles where he lived just days before her lifeless body was found in a bathtub

'She was definitely following me when I walked around the room, when I talked to her, when her siblings talk to her,' Brown told Roberts. 'She was definitely following us.'

'It was reassuring,' he continued. 'For me, at that time, it reassured me that she knew and she was in a hospital and something had happened. She wasn't able to tell me what happened, but she definitely was awake and aware.'

Bobbi Kristina was found in her bathtub almost three years to the day that her mother was pronounced dead after being discovered in eerily similar circumstances while staying at the Beverly Hilton for the 2012 Grammy Awards.

Bobbi Kristina was just 14 at the time of her parents divorce in 2007. Above, Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown on their wedding day in 1992

Houston was pronounced dead on the scene after being discovered in the bathtub of her suite at the hotel, with accidental drowning, heart disease and cocaine use later cited as the causes of death.

The Fulton County Medical Examiner's report for Bobbi Kristina revealed that her death was caused by 'immersion of face in water complicating mixed drug intoxication.'

Brown told Roberts that he blames family friend Nick Gordon for the deaths of his ex-wife and his daughter, although he refused to say his name.

'It's not a mystery to me,' Brown said. 'I know exactly what happened to my daughter.'

'The same thing that happened to my daughter is what happened to Whitney. There's only one person that was around both occasions, only one person who says they were there to protect them and he didn't.'

It was Gordon who found Bobbi Kristina passed out in the bathtub and in the months that followed some accused him of playing a role in her death.

Her death, on July 26, 2015, was ruled to be from lobar pneumonia and lack of oxygen, resulting in brain damage.

But in an autopsy report, the medical examiner said it could not be determined for sure exactly how she died and if it was an accident or possible murder.

Brown told Roberts that he blames family friend Nick Gordon (pictured with Bobbi Kristina in 2012) for the deaths of his ex-wife and his daughter, although he refused to say his name

Gordon's lawyers have called on Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard to publicly declare that Bobbi Kristina's death was not a murder, but so far he has refused to make this statement.

It was also Gordon who tried to resuscitate Houston after she was found unresponsive in her bath-tub just hours before she was due to attend Clive Davis' annual Grammy party.

Brown has joined a wrongful death suit against Gordon in his daughter's death. Meanwhile, Gordon denies having anything to do with the deaths and his attorneys have called the suit 'meritless'.

'He hurt his own daughter, not me,' Gordon told Dr Phil in a recent interview.

'I was the one there for her while she was going through everything, dealing with him not being there and he tries to put the blame on somebody else. It's just ridiculous.'

The Brown family believe Bobbi Kristina being manipulated by Gordon, who was rumored to be Houston's adopted son.

Bobbi Kristina was just 14 at the time of her parents divorce in 2007, and five years later, she became the sole beneficiary of her mother's multi-million fortune.

Brown revealed that the first time he saw Whitney Houston do cocaine was on their wedding day

Brown spoke about the deaths of his ex-wife and daughter in an interview with Robin Roberts (pictured) that aired on Tuesday night

Eight months after her mother's passing, Bobbi Kristina announced she was engaged to Gordon, who was raised at times during his childhood by Whitney and who many considered to be a brother-like figure to Bobbi Kristina.

The pair later claimed they had been married in early 2014, but no documents have been found to prove that they actually wed.

In the interview, Brown also opened up about his marriage to Houston - and how the first time he saw her do hard drugs was on their wedding day in 1992.

He had broken tradition by seeing his bride before the ceremony, and walked in to see his bride and found her hunched over a bureau snorting a line of cocaine.

'That was the first time I had actually saw her do drugs,' Bobby told Roberts.

Roberts also showed Bobby a photo from his wedding of him and his wife dancing and asked Bobby what he saw when he looked at the smiling couple.

'Happiness. I think we're both happy,' said Bobby.

'I was deeply in love with her and, you know, for the rest of my life I think I will have that feeling towards her because she was that one person who knew me. That one person who had no judgment.'

'She did drugs but drugs didn't do her. She knew how to handle herself,' he said of his ex-wife's drug use

'The hardest thing I had to do in my life was to tell my daughter to let go,' Bobby told Robin Roberts (right)

When asked what he thought about Whitney doing drugs on their wedding day, Brown said he did not have much concern for his future wife.

'She wasn't that. The drugs wasn't her,' he said. 'She did drugs but drugs didn't do her. She knew how to handle herself. It only made me want to love and protect her more.'

Bobby was also asked by Roberts what it was like to have many people believe for years, and even know, that it was him who introduced Whitney to the drugs that ultimately claim her life.

'It wasn't me that started her,' he insisted.

'I take my part and I take it hard for me even being a part of it. But we all have our own minds and some of us are stronger than others.'

Brown also bizarrely claimed that he once had sex with a ghost about buying a 'spooky' mansion in Georgia, insisting that he was not high at the time.

'I bought this mansion in Georgia. This was a really, really spooky place,' Brown told Roberts.
'The President congratulated Secretary Clinton for securing the delegates necessary to clinch the Democratic Nomination for President'

President Barack Obama effectively ended the Democratic race on Tuesday evening, releasing a statement that declared Hillary Clinton his party-preferred successor.

The White House said late tonight in a statement that the president called both Clinton and Sanders and congratulated them for running 'inspiring campaigns.'

'The President congratulated Secretary Clinton for securing the delegates necessary to clinch the Democratic Nomination for President,' the statement read.

Obama will meet with Sanders on Thursday at the White House at the senator's request, the president's press secretary also said.

The president called the race for Clinton after she definitively won the national popular vote in the party's primary on Tuesday evening.

Earlier Tuesday, the White House signaled that Obama could weigh in on the contentious Democratic primary as soon as the results were in from California and New Jersey.

President Barack Obama effectively ended the Democratic race on Tuesday evening, releasing a statement that declared Hillary Clinton his party-preferred successor

Hillary Clinton convincingly wrapped up the nomination Tuesday night with her pledged delegate haul in New Jersey combined with her superdelegate support.

Even if she'd suffered the humiliation of losing to Sanders in California, where she's leagues ahead of him with a third of precincts reporting, she was expected to easily pick up enough pledged delegates to put her over the top.

California awards its delegates proportionally and has the most tied to his primary - 475.

The president's spokesman had refused on Tuesday afternoon to comment one way or the other on the primaries.

'Out of respect for their role in this process were going to withhold comment until they get the opportunity to participate and well try again tomorrow, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Tuesday.

He said Obama wanted to remain 'fair and neutral' until then, but called the president an 'important validator.'

Obama had avoided jumping into the angry primary and had gotten kudos from Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders for his public neutrality.

He reportedly phoned Sanders Sunday, though the White House wouldn't confirm anything about the call or its substance.

The White House has indicated Obama is eager to jump back on the campaign trail.

Democrats are seeking the bitter primary behind them, though Sanders' camp continues to publicly make the case that unelected superdelegates don't actually cast their votes until the convention, and so the election isn't really over yet.

He delayed his speech on Tuesday evening in LA after the White House dropped a 20-ton brick on his campaign, suggesting a reassessment of priorities. He did not drop out of the race, though, and has a rally planned for Thursday in Washington, D.C.

Big news? Obama appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon in 2012, but makes his first Tonight Show appearance Thursday. The episode tapes on Wednesday but it's mysteriously being held until the next day

Bye bye Bernie: President Obama is eager to get back on the campaign trail  but was waiting until voters in New Jersey and California went to the polls to weigh in

First lady Michelle Obama also may be getting in on the campaign action soon, as well

Clinton could soon find herself finally getting the full force of the White House behind her, with first lady Michelle Obama also entering the fray.

'There are Democrats and some independents and some Republicans who deeply respect the first lad,y and I certainly wouldnt rule out that at some point she may express a preference in the election as well,' Earnest said Tuesday when asked whether Michelle Obama would join her husband in getting into the action.

The White House has been deliberately coy about when Obama would make his first foray onto the campaign himself.

'The president believes its important for the Democrats to come together at the close of the nominating process to strongly support the Democratic nominee because the stakes in the general election are very high,' Earnest said.

Asked what he meant by the end of the nominating process  which is very much in dispute  Earnest quipped, 'Im being intentionally vague.'

Voters in the District of Columbia apparently aren't getting the same consideration.

Asked about the D.C. primary on June 14, Earnest said the president encouraged residents to 'participate' and 'make their voices heard as well,' but didn't insist the president would hold off out of 'respect.'

Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon plugged the appearance Monday. Rumors were swirling that Obama would talk about Clinton as the Democratic nominee and that is why it's being put off until Thursday

On Monday, Earnest sang a similar tune. 'I don't have any news to make in terms of the timing of an endorsement, but we're going to learn more and we're going to let those voters make their voice heard before we make any additional decisions,' he said.

'After the Democratic voters and New Jersey and California weigh in tomorrow, we may have a better sense of where the race is headed,' Earnest added.

NBC News reported today that Obama had talked to Sanders over the weekend, which the Vermont senator's campaign wouldn't confirm or deny.

'I'm saying that he's spoken with the president on a number of occasions at the White House and on the telephone,' Sanders' spokesman Michael Briggs said. 'He doesn't discuss the nature of his private conversations.'

After the alleged conversation occurred, Sanders struck a slightly more conciliatory tone at his press conference Monday morning.

'Let's assess where we are after tomorrow, before we make statements based on speculation,' Sanders said.

He made a similar statement when asked about the pending endorsement.

'Again, we're speculating,' Sanders said.

Obama is set to attend a Democratic National Committee fundraiser in New York on Wednesday in Manhattan, which would make it easy to meet up with Clinton for a splashy endorsement on her home turf.

He's also expected to tape an appearance on the 'Tonight Show' with Jimmy Fallon for Thursday's show.

The show has a huge viewership among young Americans  giving Obama the chance to begin the process of bringing disgruntled Sanders supporters back into the party fold.

Hillary Clinton would have two presidents out campaigning for her: for husband Bill and President Obama

Sanders vowed on Tuesday to continue on through a 'contested convention,' even as top Democratic powerbrokers are becoming increasingly concerned that the divisive primary might continue.

'It is extremely unlikely that Secretary Clinton will have the requisite number of pledged delegates to claim victory on Tuesday night,' Sanders said Saturday.

He told reporters in LA, '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.'

Sanders is now arguing that even if Clinton wins the most pledged delegates, she won't win the nomination until unelected super delegates cast their ballots at the convention in July.

'Certainly somebody who claims a majority of pledged and super delegates has a strong case to make,' said Earnest.

Bernie Sanders was helped by Obama's decision to stay officially on the sidelines, though he has complained that the Democratic National Committee hasn't given him a fair shake

Obama wants to get back on the campaign trail to start making the case for the Democratic nominee, whoever she is

The New York Times reported that Obama is already in touch with Clinton's camp about where he could be useful for her.

Clinton's campaign spokesman, Brian Fallon, told CNN Monday the campaign would hope to make ample use of the president on the stump.

Obama spoke about the electoral landscape at a Florida fundraiser on Friday, saying, 'I want us to run scared the whole time.'

'We have to take this election seriously,' he said.

He said he spoke to his staff about how much air time Donald Trump soaks up. 'It's just constant. And celebrity and fame is such a driver in this culture that -- and everything is so contested, because people, if they want to believe something, they can go to this TV station or this website, and block everything out -- that strange things can happen in an election like this if we're not working hard, if we're not engaged, if we're not participating.'
A group of Japanese high school students have grown a chicken from an egg without a shell.

The teenagers, from Chiba in Japan, with their teacher demonstrated the method using a plastic cup and cling wrap.

And the scientific experiment works over a period of 21 days as a video posted on YouTube shows.

A group of Japanese high school students have grown a chicken from an egg without a shell. Here they are in the incubator

The method has been detailed in a research paper published in the Japanese Journal of Poultry Science.

In the video, students are seen cracking fertilised eggs into cling wrap filled with a chemical solution to aid growth suspended above the bottom of the cup.

Another solution to help development is also placed at the bottom of the cup and a plastic cover is placed on top of it before it is placed into an incubator.

Over the course of the video, viewers see a chicken's heart starting to grow on the third day and an embryo beginning to take shape on the fifth day.

The teens, from Chiba in Japan, with their teacher developed the method using a plastic cup and cling wrap

On day three, a chicken's heart starts to develop in the yolk of the egg

An embryo begins to grow on day five of the scientific experiment

As the days go on the chick grows more limbs and starts to take shape

On day 21, a full-grown chick is seen laying in the cling wrap in the plastic cup

The video then cuts to a baby chick running around on the floor to the shock of viewers

A week later, the veins of the embryo have spread through the yolk.

As more days go by the chick gains more limbs such as its feet and its beak.

In the footage filmed on Day 21, a curled-up baby bird is seen in the cling wrap.

The video then cuts to a baby chick running around on the floor.

Although the video claims it is 'the first time in history,' this is not the first time the technique has been demonstrated.

For years, scientists have been trying to find a way to gain access to baby chicks during development, not only to learn about the growth process, but also to study new regenerative medicine techniques.

In a chapter in a US biology textbook from 1993, Dr Cynthia Fisher explained how to use the technique among groups of students.

The paper describes the method for obtaining a 70 per cent hatch rate, it says.

'What is shown [in the video] is feasible although the success rate may be low,' Professor Nick Sparks, head of the Animal & Veterinary Sciences (AVS) Group at Scotland's Rural College told MailOnline.

The experiment seems genuine as the method was previously published in a scientific journal called Journal of Poultry Science which is published in Japan, Professor Ilias Kyriazakis from Newcastle University told MailOnline.
Police have searched land in an industrial estate to find the body of murder victim Sharron Phillips after a tip off from a 'credible source.'

After a week of removing soil from drains in the industrial area of Carole Park, south-west of Brisbane, police have reported that there were no skeletal remains found in the soil.

Queensland police are now in the process of hand sifting through 100 cubic metres of soil and searching for smaller fragments, a process which they say may take months.

Queensland Police have sifted through tonnes of soil after a 'credible source' suggested the whereabouts of Sharron Phillips's body

Were putting all the soil on tables and from there we wash it through. Any larger particles that remain are tested by forensic officers, police said.

Det Supt Damien Hansen said of the new information that we went on the advice that we were given and that the person who gave us advice was confident that larger bones can be found.

'The witness is adamant that the information provided to us is accurate,' he said.

More than 30 people have called Crime Stoppers with possible information about the murder, with $250,000 being offered to anyone with information that might lead to an arrest or a conviction.

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Queensland Homicide detectives along with forensic officers commenced excavation of land at Carole Park in Ipswich following information provided to police regarding the suspected murder of Sharron Phillips in 1986

Sharron Phillips was 20 years old when she vanished from Wacol, in Brisbane's southwest, in May 1986 after she called her boyfriend to pick her up.

Police began searching for the remains of Ms Phillips's body near a creek in Carole Park last Tuesday after a tip-off about the whereabouts about.

It is understood a man told police his father, a taxi driver, may be responsible for the 20-year-old's death, The Courier Mail reported.

Police said that some of the new information provided by the man was able to be verified.

The young shop assistant was last seen at about 11pm at a telephone box near the Wacol Railway Station after her car apparently ran out of fuel on nearby Ipswich Road.

She has not been seen since and is presumed dead.

Police began excavating a section of the roadway at Cobalt Street in the Ipswich suburb of Carole Park, about 19km south-west of Brisbane, on Tuesday morning after a tip-off from a 'credible witness'.

'We're looking for Sharron's remains  the information is specific that she has been buried out here,' Acting Det Supt Damien Hansen of the Homicide Group told reporters at the scene.

'The area that we are interested in is the drains that go under the roadway here.'

Det Supt Damien Hansen said the tip-off was reliable.

'The aspects of what they say have been verified in a lot of detail from previous investigations,' he said at the site on Tuesday.

'We had not spoken to this person previously ... the person has come forward because of their conscience.'

More than 100 cubic metres of soil was moved after a witness came forward with new information which has police confident of a breakthrough in the 30 year murder mystery

Queensland Police hope new information from a witness will lead them the remains of missing woman Sharron Phillips, after she disappeared from the south-west Brisbane suburb of Wacol in 1986

The cold case took a shock twist earlier this month when three of her siblings called for police to investigate their father's alibi.

Ms Phillips's father Bob, who died last year, claimed he was in NSW picking up a truck on the night - an alibi that has since been questioned by his other children.

Ms Phillips's sister Donna Anderson says for at least five years she has been trying to convince authorities to listen to her doubts.

'We all know that Dad was not honest, I'm sorry,' she told the ABC.

'We all know that Dad was violent and sadly I think there's an even darker side to him.'

Ms Anderson wants a new inquiry into the matter and for authorities to also search land near her parent's home at Riverview.

Acting Det Supt Hansen said police need lawful grounds for the investigation to progress and cannot act on someone's 'gut feeling'.

Detectives and forensic teams converged on a creek in the Ipswich suburb of Carole Park last Tuesday

Homicide detectives with assistance from forensic officers and local police organised the excavation of land following information provided to them regarding the suspected murder of Sharron Phillips in 1986

Ms Phillips, then 20, disappeared on May 8, 1986 and detectives believe she was murdered. A new witness has come forward telling public her remains are buried in the area around Cobalt Street

A large-scale excavation happened at the site last week: An inquest was held two years after Sharron Phillips's disappearance - several suspects have been brought in but nobody charged

Retired detective Bob Dallow, who investigated the case, has handed over the diaries of Mr Phillips's wife Dawn, who died in 2010, to police.

The diaries were reportedly included, unknowingly, in a pile of old books given to him by Mr Phillips and contained phrases such as 'I'm sick of telling lies' and 'keep your mouth shut'.

'We have confirmed previously that any new evidence or information provided to us that could further our investigation would be followed up and investigated accordingly,' added Supt Hansen.

An inquest was held two years after her disappearance - several people have been questioned over the cold case but no charges have ever been laid.

Sharron Phillips was 20 years old when she went missing on May 8, 1986. A man has come forward and said his father, a taxi driver, may have killed her. Police began digging a section off a roadway at Carole Park in Queensland last Tuesday as they explore new evidence

Police said a 'credible witness' came forward with information about the remains of murdered shop assistant Sharron Phillips in 1986. The informant claims her body was dumped in drains off Cobalt Street in the Ipswich suburb of Carole Park




Two brothers who worked as dealers for notorious blonde 'ice queen' Jessica Short have been jailed.

The Herald Sun reports that Matthew and Jamie Robinson were each convicted of trafficking for the drug ring that was lead by Short who boasted of 'world domination' among other things.

County Court Judge Frank Gucciardo described the pair as mid-range players that swamped the state of Victoria with ice.

Matthew and Jamie Robinson both worked for 'ice queen' Jessica Short (pictured)

Ms Short ran the lucrative drug ring with former friend Jessica Fogarty from their base in Wangaratta, but the two had a falling out in 2014.

The court heard the two brothers used a TAB wagering account to launder $56,000 in drug money through.

Both used intimidation and fear when collecting their drug debts and Judge Gucciardo said their crimes displayed a 'wanton disregard' for the community.

'(Trafficking) the drug ice is an evil and socially damaging trade which creates misery in our society,' Judge Gucciardo said.

The pair were mid-range players that helped Short's (pictured) drug ring swamp the state of Victoria with ice

Matthew Robinson, a 32-year-old father of three girls, was jailed for 12 months, while his brother Jamie, a 30-year-old father of three, was jailed for 18 months.

Both will be placed on a 12-month community correction order when they are finally released from prison.

The County Court heard previously that Short, 25, used a criminal syndicate in Melbourne to get her ice from before selling it on. She also kept detailed notes on who she sold the drugs to and how she went about laundering the money.

Short was jailed for eight years and six months in April, and must serve at least five years and six months before being eligible for parole.

Ms Fogarty had also already been sentenced to four and a half years for her part in the business.
Recent flooding in Australia has sent countless spiders fleeing to higher ground - and producing amazing scenes of massive webs entirely covering trees.

Images of trees engulfed in webs dotted with thousands of spiders have been captured at Westbury, near Launceston, Tasmania, which has been battered by the worst storms in 42 years.

The situation is an arachnophobe's nightmare.

A large white web dotted with thousands of spiders engulfs a tree in Tasmania after flooding

Here, numerous trees shrouded in spider webs and surrounded by floodwaters shows the extend of the webs

Spider expert Graham Milledge said 'ballooning' webs were not common but could be seen after events such as flooding (stock photo)

Spiders have been using a technique called ballooning - using small strings of web to catch a ride to safety on the winds, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

Graham Milledge, the collection manager in arachnology at the Australian Museum, said: 'People don't realise how many spiders there are out there until you see events like this'.

'What they do is they climb up to a high vantage point - up to the end of a stalk of grass for example - and then they point their abdomen to the sky and let out a silk thread. The wind captures that and acts like a parachute and carries them off.'

Ballooning en masse was seen with events like the present flooding, but was not common.

Mr Milledge said the small spiders were often juvenile, and mostly harmless.

They'd disperse once the flooding was over, he said.

Mr Milledge said spiders made the webs by climbing up high, pointing their abdomen towards the sky and then shooting out silk threads

The spiders were simply trying to escape the flooding in Tasmania, where scenes like this, in Cataract Gorge in Launceston, have been captured

Almost 4,000 residents and 800 businesses are in danger from raging flood waters as Launceston, Tasmania's second largest city, remains on high alert. Above is the Cataract Gorge in Launceston
Ms Spence was last seen wearing a brown head scarf, jeans and jumper

Police expressed concern for her welfare as she has a medical conditon

The teenager has not made contact with her family or friends since May 17

Tyla Spence, 16, went missing from a home in Melbourne three weeks ago

Police are desperately searching for a 16-year-old girl who has not been seen or heard from in over three weeks.

Tyla Spence disappeared from a home in Altona North, south-west of Melbourne's CBD, at about 7.45pm on May 17.

She has not made contact with her family and they are concerned for her welfare as she has a medical condition.

Tyla Spence disappeared from a home in Altona North, south-west of Melbourne's CBD, on May 17

The 16-year-old was last seen wearing a light grey and white jumper, blue jeans, thongs and a brown scarf on her head.

She is described as being around 170 centimetres tall with a thin build and long straight dark brown hair.

Ms Spence has brown eyes and an olive complexion.

Police said she is known to spend time in Yarraville and Maidstone, in Melbourne's west and north west respectively.
The hallucinogenic drug 'NBOMe' believed to have been taken by Australian Rye Hunt at a Brazil nightclub before he vanished gives some users a 'terrifying freak out' and has resulted in several deaths.

Users of the drug have recounted their terrifying experiences on online forums with warnings that people not try the drug, which is nicknamed 'Nbomb'.

Posters on pillreports.net, bluelight.org, drugs-forum.com and erowid.org described how they ended up in hospital, and list cases from around the world of people who have died taking it.

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The hallucinogenic drug 'NBOMe' believed to have been taken by Australian Rye Hunt at a Brazil nightclub before he vanished died gives some users a 'terrifying freak out' and has resulted in several deaths

The hallucinogenic drug NBOMe. also known as 'Nbomb' or 'Scissors' or 'Bugs Bunny' for the symbol stamped on it in pill form is sometiems sold to unwitting drug users as Ecstasy with nightmarish or fatal results

Rye Hunt 'NBOMe' at Raizes da Lapa nightclub (pictured) 17 days ago and is believd to have suffered a paranoid reaction similar to those reported by drug users on online forums who say it is 'terrifying'

Australian backpackers Rye Hunt, 25, and Mitch Sheppard reportedly snorted NBOMe after which nightclub owner Bruno Mouta said both men started 'to see things and they thought everyone there was staring at them, that everyone there wanted to kill them'

The extreme reaction of 25-year-old Rye Hunt (pictured, eft) with his partner Bonnie) to the drug NBOMe, which also comes in blotter form (above, right) and is 'sold' as LSD is similar to those user who wrote on drug forums that they were scared, couldn't breathe and nearly died

They warn that the drug, which comes on a blotter like LSD or in pill form like Ecstasy is sold to unwitting buyers as those drugs, but that its powerful effects can result in tragedy.

Some of the pills had a symbol which looks like blue ears or scissors, and are called , 'Scissors', 'Bugs Bunny' or 'Quackers', while others are called 'blue batman' for the bat symbol pressed into the pills. NBOME could be distinguished from the other drugs for its 'bitter' taste.

One young man who died after he and five friends were admitted to hospital after taking NBOMe in Cork, Ireland in January this year was said to have been the only one of the six to snort the drug.

Tasmanian backpacker Rye Hunt, 25, disappeared in Rio de Janeiro 17 days ago after reportedly taking what he believed was Ecstasy with his friend Mitchell Sheppard at their hostel before going out to Raizes da Lapa nightclub.

At the club, the pair snorted more of the drug and drank vodka, Brazilian police said.

Nightclub owner Bruno Mouta reported that both men started 'to see things and they thought everyone there was staring at them, that everyone there wanted to kill them.

They were really terrified, especially the one that is missing.'

Users on the drug sites report very similar reactions to taking NDOMe which the Australian Drug Foundation says 'if a large amount or a strong batch is taken' can cause 'paranoia, fear and panic, agitation and aggression, rapid heart rate, difficulty breathing, seizures and death'.

Australia Rye Hunt (pictured in Brazil after reportedly taking the drug NBOMe) may have endured what the Australian Drug Foundation says 'if a large amount is taken' causing 'paranoia, fear and panic, agitation and aggression, rapid heart rate, difficulty breathing, seizures and death'

This drug user on bluelight descriobed the fourth and last time he took NBOMe and the terrifying physical and mental consequences which made him think 'I was dying' and left his veins bruised for six months afterward

In January this year, six people including 18-year-old Alex Ryan were admitted to an Irish Hospital after taking NBOMe. Only Hunt had snorted the drug and only he died, Missing Rye Hunt (right) also reportedly snorted the drug

A drug user called Mracid wrote on bluelight in February this year that he had 'come close' to dying from NBOMe to years earlier and that taking it had been the 'worst choice of my life'.

Another man described on bluelight how after snorting the drug 'my heart started beating extremely fast so much it was painful. Soon vasoconstriction set in.

'My veins became so constricted i felt like my hands wre bruised. My extremities were iced cold. I started crying. I truly felt like I was dying. I truly thought I was going insane.'

A British man posted on drugs_forum about his intense and debilitating experience at the age of 23 taking NBome which 'started to take hold in less than a minute. The kitchen started to swirl ... my world started to become more and more chaotic.

'Within 15 minutes I started to lose the plot. Panic building and visuals intensifying. I got into the bedroom and laid down. Unbeknownst to me I would not be able to leave the bed for the next 3 hours.

Drug users who took the substance believed to have been snorted by Australian backpacker Rye Hunt (pictured) before he panicked and disappeared in Brazil reported experiences such as 'Within 15 minutes I started to lose the plot. Panic building and visuals intensifying'

Around the world drug takers have died after taking NBOME including 30-year-old American woman Renee Honaker who in 2013 took two squares of it in blotter form (above) believing it was LSD and collapsed in convulsions

Drug forums widely report the danger of the drug NBOMe like this posting of bluelight.org and warn buyers that they can be sold the drug when they believe they are purchasing Ecstasy or LSD

'I was losing my sense of self, my ego, reality as I knew and loved was being ripped to pieces. I began to think things were going drastically downhill for me. Maybe even life threatening.

Then things started to get really really nasty. The thoughts in which the loop seemed to be wrecking peoples' lives were interlaced with the thoughts that somehow I was doing something so terrible, so humiliating and disgusting that the whole world thought I was a joke and that I didn't deserve to live.

'I would say it is easily the strongest psychedelic I have done.'

Users says that while a 'psychological freak out' is not uncommon on drugs like LSD, the physical collapse makes NDOMe more dangerous.

Bonnie Cuthbert, the partner of missing Australian Rye Hunt, stands in a Brazilian street with a photo of her boyfriend who police now believe is dead

After leaving the nightclub, Rye Hunt and Mitchell Sheppard argued and and apparently paranoid Mr Hunt accused his friend of trying to kill him, and took off, booking into a hotel.

A fisherman later spotted Mr Hunt on Cotunduba, a deserted island 1km off the coast of Rio and gave him water.

Last week, fisherman reported to the Brazilian Navy a sighting of a body in clothing similar to that last worn by Mr Hunt.

The body, which was near the island of Rasa, 8km from Copacabana Beach,has not been seen since and it is believed Mr Hunt may be dead.

In January this year, six people aged 18 to 37 were taken to Cork University Hospital after taking NBOMe.

All had ingested the drug except for the youngest, Alex Ryan, who did not survive.

In November 2014, a Canberra man was rushed to Calvary Hospital after A man was rushed to the Calvary emergency department after overdosing on a substance he thought was MDMA or ecstasy, but turned out to be NBOMe.

In the same month, three men and one woman aged between 20 and 22 from Cronulla were taken to Sutheland Hospital after taking 'Ecstasy' pills .

They had taken pills with the 'scissors' logo on them and experienced powerful reactions.

Reported overseas deaths from NBOMe include the case of American woman Renee Honaker, 30, who in February 2013 took two blotter hits of what she wrongly believed to be LSD with her husband and died in the same day.

Police charged Todd Honaker with murder for supplying NBOMe, but he eventually served a year in a West Virginia prison for involuntary manslaughter.

In 2014, Indiana teenager John Joseph Romaine, was found unresponsive and with blue lips and vomit on his face after taking two blotter hits of NBOMe. He was found to have died of cardiac arrest.

Lousiana student Meghan Lopez, 21, died in April, 2013, the day after she ingested NBOMe given to her by a college classmate.

One man who described his experience on pillreports taking NDOM with the friend said he managed to control himself 'from freaking out', but that his companion 'ended up freaking out severely and running to the hospital and needed to be put into a induced coma'.
After Hillary Clinton called herself the nominee and the White House backed her up, Sen. Bernie Sanders announced at a Tuesday night rally that he was pressing on.

'Thank you, the struggle continues,' Sanders told his raucous crowd of 3,340, gathered at an airport hangar in Santa Monica.

Sanders had left his supporters waiting for over an hour as worse and worse news rolled in with the president all but endorsing Clinton through a press release.

Then on Wednesday morning, the California race was called with Clinton winning the state with 56 per cent of the vote to Sanders' 43 per cent.

Sen. Bernie Sanders told his supporters he was taking his movement to Washington, D.C., which holds a primary one week from Tuesday night, concluding the Democratic primary season

Sen. Bernie Sanders, accompanied by his wife Jane, is taking his political revolution to Washington, D.C. and then on to Philadelphia for the Democratic National Convention

At points during his brief speech Tuesday night, Bernie Sanders sounded like he was ready to throw in the towel telling the crowd the movement is 'more than Bernie, it is all of us together.'

Sen. Bernie Sanders spoke before 3,340 supporters Tuesday night from an airplane hangar in Santa Monica, hoping that he would have better news for his screaming crowd

'We are going to fight hard to win the primary in Washington, D.C.,' Bernie Sanders told his crowd of supporters Tuesday night in California, where the last Democratic primary is held

More than 3,000 people were feeling the Bern at Tuesday night's raucous rally in Santa Monica, where Bernie Sanders pledged to continue on, while Hillary Clinton all but became the Democratic nominee

At his rally Tuesday night through, the Vermont senator walked on stage and was greeted with elongated screams and applause, with many chanting that he shouldn't back down.

The crowd was also robbed of the opportunity of watching the results roll in, with signs of TV screens in their sights.

'First we will not allow right wing Republicans to control our government and that is especially true with the Republican nominee Donald Trump,' Sanders said, adding that the candidate's 'major theme is bigotry.'

He made comments that sounded like he was on the cusp of dropping out, with only a major miracle now allowing him to become the nominee.

He said things like 'real change never starts from the top on down' and that the movement 'is more than Bernie, it is all of us together.'

Hillary Clinton all but locked up the Democratic nomination tonight, winning a majority of pledged delegates and - as of yesterday - having enough superdelegate support to get over the line

But soon the senator made it known that he was doubling down, which is what his campaign aides had been saying all day.

'We are going to fight hard to win the primary in Washington, D.C.,' Sanders said.

'And then we take our fight to ... Philadelphia,' he continued, noting the site of the Democratic National Convention.

He noted how he talked to President Obama that night - 'and I look forward to work with him' - and he acknowledged that he called Clinton too and 'congratulated her on her victories tonight.'

To this he was met with boos.

He again acknowledged that to become the nominee mathematically it would be a 'very, very steep fight.'

Before Tuesday night's rally, it was business as usual for Sanders as he greeted supporters outside the San Francisco breakfast spot, the Butler and the Chef, as voters in California headed to the polls.

'I think we've got a shot,' he yelled toward reporters, who asked him about his California fate.

Early in the day, Sanders solely signaled that the movement would go on, even after last night's news  sparked by the Associated Press' revised delegate count  that Clinton had enough pledged delegates and superdelegates to be the Democratic nominee.

Today, in a sitdown with NBC's Lester Holt, Sanders said his campaign was trying to sway the minds of the superdelegates, party insiders who get to cast a vote at this summer's Democratic National Convention.

'Yeah, we are, we're on the phone right now,' Sanders replied to Holt, who asked about the campaign's strategy.

The NBC newsman followed up with asking the Vermont senator if this plan wouldn't thwart the will of the people, as Clinton has earned more pledged delegates from all of the contests she has won.

'Defying history is what this campaign is about,' Sanders said.

It was business as usual this morning for Sen. Bernie Sanders who had a quick breakfast with supporters including former Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner at San Francisco's Butler and the Chef

Outside his breakfast stop, Bernie Sanders greeted supporters and fans and hollered at the press, 'I think we've got a shot,' when asked about his fortunes in California today

Sen. Bernie Sanders has made no indication he plans to drop off - though said yesterday in a press conference that he couldn't speculate and would 'assess' the situation after today's vote totals are in

And on Tuesday, it was history that Clinton made her theme - mentioning a number of feminist milestones during her speech in Brooklyn, New York, in a building that conveniently had a glass ceiling.

'It may be hard to see tonight, but we are all standing under a glass ceiling right now.'

'This campaign is about making sure there are no ceilings, no limits on anybody,' she said.

Clinton easily picked up New Jersey, then added New Mexico and South Dakota to her pile.

Sanders won the North Dakota caucuses, while Democrats in Montana liked Sanders too.

Early returns in California made the delegate-rich prize at the end of the primaries more favorable to Clinton.

But not only did Clinton have the votes on her side on Tuesday, but the White House gave her credibility as the nominee a boost too.

'The president congratulated Secretary Clinton for securing the delegates necessary to clinch the Democratic Nomination for President. Her historic campaign inspired millions and is an extension of her lifelong fight for middle-class families and children,' it read.

The White House acknowledged Sanders' hard fought campaign too, while noting the meeting between Sanders and President Obama, specifically mentioning that the head-to-head was at the senator's request.

Sanders will fly back to Burlington, Vermont tomorrow morning.

Bernie Sanders got a little campaigning in this morning in San Francisco before jetting off to Los Angeles for a rally in Santa Monica Tuesday night

Fans of Sen. Bernie Sanders - many of whom said he should stay in the race until the convention - caught wind that he was breakfasting nearby and came out to see him

Sanders' campaign manager Jeff Weaver had previewed what eventually happened Tuesday night.

'Bernie Sanders said he's going to be in this until all the voting is done,' Weaver continued. 'We already have a rally tentatively scheduled for Sunday in Washington, D.C., so the senator will be going and campaigning down in the District of Columbia.'

'Why should the people of the District of Columbia be deprived of voting?' Weaver asked. 'It's a little ironic given they've been deprived of voting for a member of Congress.'

Democrats in Washington, D.C., are voting in a closed primary on June 14 and because the city is not a state only have a non-voting member of congress.

'So he intends to campaign in the District of Columbia and obviously, you know, we are always assessing the campaign and what's the best way to advance the campaign and secure the nomination,' Weaver said.
Actor Kerry Washington has revealed that before landing her role in TV hit Scandal she was subjected to racial stereotype casting and told she wasn't 'hood' enough.

Speaking on Variety's Actors on Actors show she explained: 'Before Scandal I was actually cast in two other pilots. Both went to series, but I was fired and recast.

'For both, it was because they wanted me to sound more 'girlfriend,' more like 'hood,' more 'urban.''

Aziz Ansari (right) explained how he would often show up to auditions but was only booked because the show was trying to cast a certain look. Left: Washington says she has been racially stereotyped for roles

Actor Kerry Washington has revealed that before landing her role in TV hit Scandal she was subjected to racial stereotype casting and told she wasn't 'hood' enough. She spoke on the Actors on Actors show along with Aziz Ansari (right)

She added that many types of stereotyping are rife in Hollywood and recalled how her a friend of hers said they were tired of 'gayface', meaning that directors wanted them to be more effeminate.

Master of None' star and executive producer Aziz Ansari also appeared on the program and agreed.

He said: 'It's interesting; like every person that's not a straight, white guy has their version of this.'

The star explained how he would often show up to auditions but was only booked because the show was trying to cast a certain look.

Ansari added that he is not alone, with many minority actors telling him that they often feel like they have not been called in for their talent but more because they tick a box.

When executive producing his own show he says he makes sure to create authentic characters.

He achieves this by allowing them to wear their own clothes and inject their own personality.

In Scandal Washington plays crisis management expert Olivia Pope who works with politicians and power brokers in Washington DC

Washington agreed and said it was not about 'waiting to be invited to the party' but going out there and making things happen.

She revealed earlier in the year that she is still kept in the dark by producer Shonda Rhimes when it comes to the big plot twists in her hit show Scandal.

In aN interview for the April issue of Adweek the 39-year-old star said that some of the shockers like last year's kidnapping storyline and Kerry's character Olivia getting an abortion earlier this season, took her by surprise.

The star explained: 'I had no idea that the abortion scene was coming until I turned the page at the table read and read it out loud with everybody else.

In Scandal Washington plays crisis management expert Olivia Pope who works with politicians and power brokers in Washington DC.

She also starring in and producing a new HBO movie titled Confirmation, about Clarence Thomas' US Supreme Court confirmation hearings.

Washington announced last month that she is expecting her second child with husband Nnamdi Asomugha, according to E! News.
Shocking footage showing a man at a university in Melbourne racially abusing a student has been captured on camera.

The incident took place at La Trobe University's Bundoora campus, with a short video showing an altercation that starts with the student who was abused filming the other man.

'I said you're an Arab useless piece of s*** and I said you're from the Middle East and I don't like you,' the man said.

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Shocking footage showing a man (pictured) at a university in Melbourne racially abusing a student has been captured on camera

'I don't like you, I don't like you.'

The man then realises he is being filmed and asks the student to stop.

He then is seen attempting to knock the phone out of his victim's hands.

The student told Daily Mail Australia he was studying with friends when the man approached them.

'Me and my mates were studying in the molecular science building when he had a go at us for being too loud, apparently,' the student said.

The incident took place at La Trobe University's Bundoora campus, with a short video showing an altercation that starts when the student filming the other man

'I couldn't believe it. I was absolutely shocked.

'La Trobe is a multicultural and diverse community. The reason I'm still shocked is because I never thought something like his would ever happen here.'

The student also said he and his friends were 'shaken up' by the incident, and said he was unsure whether the man was a student or staff member.

He added that he reported the incident to security at the university.

A spokesperson from La Trobe told Daily Mail Australia:

'We have made contact with the student and will fully investigate exactly what's happened before, during and after this video was recorded.

'You're an arab useless piece of s*** and I said you're from the Middle East and I don't like you,' the man said

'We don't yet have all the facts, but on face value we are disturbed by these offensive comments.

'We won't tolerate racism, intolerance, aggression or abusive behaviour in any form at any of our campuses.'

Other students at the university were quick to slam the racist comments, saying they had no place at the university.

'I can't believe we can't even go and get an education peacefully without being attacked,' one woman said.

'That's just disgusting,' another said.

'Did I just hear what I thought I heard? This person needs to be expelled,' another student wrote.

'La Trobe is a multicultural and diverse community. The reason I'm still shocked is because I never thought something like his would ever happen here,' the student told Daily Mail Australia
A British partygoer who said he accidentally ended up in Syria following a night out with two of his friends while on holiday in Cyprus has admitted that he made it all up.

Lewis Ellis, 25, from Manchester, claimed he ended up in the war-torn country with Alex McCormick, 19, and James Wallman, 23 after clubbing in Ayia Napa.

The trio of club reps had claimed to have boarded what they thought was a dolphin-watching boat, before saying it turned out to be a boat transfer from Ayia Napa to the Syrian port of Tartus.

But Mr Ellis, who has a YouTube channel dedicated to internet pranks, has now told friends on Facebook that he made the story up.

Hoax: British partygoers Lewis Ellis, 25, Alex McCormick, 19, and James Wallman, 23, claimed to have found themselves in war-torn Syria after getting on the wrong boat following a night out in Cyprus. But it was a hoax

Bizarre: The club reps had said they thought they were on a dolphin-watching trip but it turned out to be a boat transfer from Ayia Napa to the Syrian port of Tartus

Admission: But Mr Ellis, who has a YouTube channel dedicated to internet pranks, has now told friends on Facebook that he made the story up (pictured)

Replying to a friend on the social media site, he wrote: 'Hahaha what a prank.'

The friend replied with: 'So u didn't get on wrong boat.'

To which Mr Lewis said: 'Naaa we just made it up for fun.'

The club reps had claimed they were oblivious until about halfway through their fake 100-mile trip across the Med on Monday, at which point they said they asked each other why they were so far from land and realised they were on the wrong vessel.

The trio also said that upon landing in Tartus, which is 50 miles from the battle-scarred city of Homs, they were met by bemused military police stationed at a nearby Russian naval base, according to the Daily Mirror.

Mr Ellis, from Manchester, said: 'The last club closed at 7.30am so we just powered through to our 9am boat trip and ended up blagging our way on to the wrong boat.

'We were wearing boardshorts, hungover, looking like we were ready for a boat party.'

He told news.com.au: 'Its the most f**king ridiculous story, isnt it? We went to watch f**king dolphins and we ended up in f**king Syria.'

Mr McCormick, from Colchester, Essex, then claimed the three of them began to panic.

He added: 'After hours and hours we turned up in this place and we were like, 'What the f***, where are we?'

The three friends had claimed that at first they were told to stay on the boat, before later being driven to the Russian naval base.

Fake trip: The friends had claimed they only realised they were on the wrong boat halfway through their trip

Partying in the sun: The trio said they had been on a night out clubbing in Ayia Napa (pictured) beforehand

Unintended destination: The trio also said that upon landing in Tartus, which is 50 miles from the battle-scarred city of Homs (pictured), they were met by bemused military police stationed at a nearby Russian naval base

But today Mr Lewis revealed the story was a hoax.

Known as LostBoyLewis on his YouTube channel, the 25-year-old admits to enjoying being 'childish' and wanting to have fun.

He said: 'The idea of this channel is just being childish.

'The name Lost Boy Lewis is obviously because the Lost Boys are Peter Pan who never grew up and they always stayed young.

'It's going to be about being childish and about having as much fun as physically possible.'

Under one of his videos, he replied to a follower four months ago saying: 'I dunno how to keep in the news but I'll do something big soon and see if it gains traction.'
Hungarian lawmakers have approved a constitutional amendment granting the government extended powers, including the possibility of deploying the armed forces, in case of terror acts or threats.

Opponents fear Prime Minister Viktor Orban may use this as an attempt to tighten his grip on power.

The Hungarian Civil Liberties Union and Amnesty International argued there was no justification for the constitutional change and fear the new, possibly far-reaching rights might be misused.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban speaks at the Europa forum gathering of German broadcaster WDR at the Foreign Ministry on May 8, 2014

Under a constitutional amendment approved by parliament that comes in the wake of the Brussels terrorist attacks (an atrocity that 'should be considered as an attack on Hungary as well,' according to Orban), the government will have the right to invoke a new 'terror threat situation' if it senses an attack is imminent.

'At the Government's initiative Parliament may declare a terror threat situation for a limited period of time in case there is a terror attack or a clear and present danger of a terror attack,' the amendment stated.

Orban's ruling party, Fidesz, would be allowed to suspend existing laws and put these extra powers into practice for a period of up to 15 days.

Increased surveillance of state facilities and allowing the military to be deployed within national borders - something not usually not permitted - are two examples of what would now be permitted under the new guidelines.



The straight-talking Hungarian Prime Minister, currently serving his second term in power, has occasionally found himself at odds with mainstream European Union policy by taking a tougher stance on immigration into Europe.

Mate Szabo of the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union said the government should not need to implement these new powers to guard against terror attacks.

'The government has not been able to prove the need for such an extraordinary constitutional status quo,' Szabo said. 'It has just enabled itself to be more efficient with the new law.'
Frito-Lay has recalled thousands of packets of Rold Gold products because of the fear of contamination with peanuts, which can be fatal for allergy sufferers.

The company, which is owned by PepsiCo, said one of their flour suppliers had admitted peanut residue might have contaminated their flour.

Texas-based Frito-Lay have now recalled selected packs of Rold Gold tiny twists, Rold Gold thins, Rold Gold sticks and Rold Gold honey wheat braided twists.

Among the affected packs are Rold Gold tiny twists (left) and Rold Gold sticks (right) but only batches with the number 32 as the second and third digit of the product code

The company said these products may contain low levels of undeclared peanut residue.

Frito-Lay warned customers the affected packs could have been bought in shops and vending machines all over the United States and would 'guaranteed fresh' dates ranging from June 28, 2016 to August 23, 2016.

They said only certain batches were affected.

Customers who have bought Rold Gold thins (left) or Rold Gold honey wheat braided twists (right) with the affected batch code can get a free refund from their retailer or by calling customer relations

The affected batches had the numbers 3 and 2 as the second and third digits in a nine-digit manufacturing code printed on the packet - for example: x32xxxxxx.

Frito-Lay said it has so far received no reports of anyone becoming ill as a result of eating these snacks but was simply recalling them as a precaution.

They said customers would receive a full refund from their retailer or by contacting Frito-Lay Consumer Relations at 1-888-256-3090 or www.pretzelrecall.com.

Food suppliers globally are more aware of the danger of peanut allergy after a series of cases in which customers died after consuming products which unwittingly contained nuts.

Last month a restaurant boss in England was jailed for six years for the manslaughter of a customer.

Mohammed Zaman, 53, had used cheaper ground peanuts at his restaurants, rather than almond powder, resulting in the death of nut allergy sufferer Paul Wilson, 38, who had specifically requested a nut-free curry.
Officials tipped off about a bomb on board, but

An EgyptAir passenger jet has been forced to make an emergency landing in Uzbekistan after the airline received a call claiming that there was a bomb on board.

The Airbus A-330-220 was en route from Cairo to Beijing when it was forced to land in the town of Urgench, west Uzbekistan.

There were 118 passengers and 17 crew members on board, all of whom were safely evacuated, Egyptian aviation officials said.

The EgyptAir flight, carrying 118 passengers and 17 crew members, was en route from Cairo to Beijing when it was forced to land in the town of Urgench, Uzbekistan (file photo)

The plane has since been searched and no explosives found.

'The plane is preparing to resume its journey. It was a hoax, thank God,' said one of the officials.

According to the Egyptian officials, an anonymous caller telephoned security agents at the Cairo airport to say a bomb was on board the flight.

The agents immediately contacted the aircraft and ordered it to land at the nearest airport, they said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The plane landed at the airport in Urgench, about 600 miles west of the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, three hours after it took off from Cairo

The plane landed at the airport in Urgench, about 600 miles west of the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, three hours after it took off from Cairo at around 11:30pm local time on Tuesday.

EgyptAir has received a number of bomb threats since one of its aircraft crashed into the Mediterranean on May 19. All have turned out to be hoaxes.

The incident came nearly three weeks after an EgyptAir flight crashed in the Mediterranean Sea as it was approaching the Egyptian coast while en route to Cairo from Paris.
He is one of the newest members to join the team of staff working at the Foreign Office in London.

And now Palmerston the cat has been honing his diplomacy skills by appearing to decide to learn a new langauge.

The feline was brought into work at the Foreign Office in Whitehall in April and was given the title of 'Chief Mouser'.

Palmerston, the cat belonging to the Foreign Office in London, who appears to have been learning Japanese after being pictured next to a Japanese phrasebook

The cat also appeared to tweet a message in Japanese, which read: 'Hello, people of Japan! I wonder if there are any mice around (meow)'

But not wanting to be left behind by the rest of his colleagues, Palmerston was pictured on his own Twitter account appearing to learn Japanese.

In the tweet, the pet could be seen posing next to a book called '24 Tasks for Basic Modern Japanese' in front of a poster of Japanese women in traditional dress.

He explained on his social media account that like all good diplomats he was 'learning a new language to engage his followers.'

Palmerston then followed up in perfect Japanese: 'Hello, people of Japan! I wonder if there are any mice around (meow).'

And his charming tweet seemed to work as Japanese people took to Twitter to show their delight at Palmerston's language skills.

Palmerston, a cat joined the Foreign Office from the Battersea Dogs and Cats Home and was named after Viscount Palmerston, a former foreign secretary

One Japanese Twitter user wrote: 'There are a lot of mice in my attic LOL so Ill be waiting for you here in Japan.'

Palmerston, a cat joined the Foreign Office from the Battersea Dogs and Cats Home and was named after Viscount Palmerston, who was foreign secretary almost 200 years ago before serving twice as prime minister.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: 'Palmerston is HM Diplomatic Service's newest arrival and in the role of FCO chief mouser will assist our pest controllers in keeping down the number of mice in our King Charles Street building.

'Palmerston's domestic posting will have zero cost to the public purse as a staff kitty will be used to pay for him and all aspects of his welfare.'

The feline was brought into work at the Foreign Office in Whitehall in April and was given the title of 'Chief Mouser'

Palmerston lives yards away from Larry, David Cameron's chief cat in Downing Street.

It is hoped Palmerston will fare better than Chancellor George Osborne's previous cat, Freya, who moved into 11 Downing Street with the family in 2010.

She went missing in May 2014, turning up lost and frightened in Vauxhall a mile and a half away, before having to be taken to a vet three months later when she was knocked down by a car on Whitehall.
A pair of high school students have been caught on camera brawling on school grounds.

Footage has surfaced on social media showing the violence erupting at Caloundra High School, on Queenslands Sunshine Coast.

After exchanging words in front of a group of peers, one of the boys can be seen lunging at the other, whereupon they begin scrapping.

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The two students exchange words before the brawl erupts on school grounds

One of the boys loses his balance and sprawls onto the yard, allowing the other to connect with a sequence of brutal blows to his head.

A female teacher finally steps in before another student pulls the pair apart. It is unclear what disciplinary action has been taken against the students.

The vision was uploaded to Facebook, where it has drawn thousands of views and a range of comments.

Caloundra High last year topped the list of schools in the region where students were most likely to be suspended due to violence or verbal abuse, reports Sunshine Coast Daily.

One of the boys loses his balance and sprawls onto the yard, allowing the other to connect with a sequence of brutal blows to the face
A Pakistani teenager was burned alive by her own mother after defying her family and eloping to marry her boyfriend.

Zeenat Rafiq, 18, died after her mother and brother tied her to a cot, doused her in kerosene and set her alight in the family home in Lahore, eastern Pakistan.

Parveen Rafiq was arrested on the same day and has since confessed to killing her daughter for refusing to have a traditional wedding.

Burned alive: Zeenat Rafiq died after her mother and brother tied her up and set her on fire in the family home in Lahore, eastern Pakistan

Zeenat's 'crime' was getting married to her partner Hasan Khan, a motorcycle mechanic, before a court magistrate last month, Police official Sheikh Hammad said

Three days ago the Parveen Rafiq and an uncle visited Zeenat to try to persuade her to return home.

They asked her to have the marriage ceremony repeated in a traditional family function, instead of being labelled her whole life as someone who had 'eloped', Hammad added.

Mr Khan, her husband, told the local Geo News TV station that Zeenat had feared the worst.

'Don't let me go, they will kill me,' Khan recounted his wife telling him.

Family members comfort Hassan Khan, center, the husband of Zeenat Rafiq, at his home in Lahore, Pakistan

Defiance: Hassan Khan, shows his marriage certificate, proving that he married Zeenat in a civil ceremony, something which greatly angered her family

Fears: Mr Khan says his wife Zeenat had begged him not to let her family take her back to their house, as she feared they would kill her as punishment for eloping

Nearly 1,000 women are killed each year in so-called 'honor killings' in Pakistan for allegedly violating conservative norms on love and marriage.

Last week, a 19-year-old teacher was tortured and burned alive for refusing to marry the son of her boss - a man twice her age.

Maria Sadaqat,was attacked in the village of Upper Dewal, outside the capital Islamabad, on Monday night, and died two days later as a result of injuries.

Local residents gather outside the home of Parveen Rafiq, who has confessed to killing her daughter for refusing to have a traditional wedding

The ambulance transporting the body of Zeenat Rafiq drives to the morgue of a local hospital in Lahore

Ms Sadaqat had recently been forced to leave her teaching job at the school, after the principal had begun harassing her when she turned down the proposal from his son, who was 'twice her age'.

Before she died, she managed to give a statement to the police, testifying that five attackers had broken into her home, dragged her out to an open area, beat her and set her ablaze.

The prime suspect in the case  her former boss and the father of the man she refused to marry  and the other four are all in custody.

A month earlier, police arrested 13 members of a local tribal council who allegedly strangled a girl and set her on fire for helping a friend elope. The charred body of 17-year-old Ambreen Riasat was found in a burned van.
The three-times bankrupt former racing driver who bought BHS for 1 admitted today he made a profit out of the ailing store, but insisted he deserved it because he worked very hard for 13 months.

Dominic Chappell refused to take responsibility for the collapse of the famous department store, which was shut last week and resulted in the loss of up to 11,000 jobs.

Instead he laid the blame squarely at the feet of Sir Philip Green and remarkably painted himself as the saviour of the retailer, boasting how he had managed to keep it going for a year longer.

Delivering a withering attack on the Arcadia boss, he said Sir Philip could have saved BHS but had blocked its sale to Mike Ashley because of a personal grudge against the Sports Direct owner.

But in an extraordinary series of appearances before MPs investigating the demise of BHS, Mr Chappell was accused of threatening to kill his own chief executive in a row over a missing 1.5m.

Former BHS owner Dominic Chappell (pictured this morning), told MPs that the retailer could have been saved if Sir Philip Green had helped

Former racing driver Dominic Chappell (left) bought BHS for 1 from Sir Philip Green (right) in 2015

Former BHS chief executive Darren Topp said he had confronted Mr Chappell over the transfer of 1.5million of BHS cash into Sweden and suffered two death threats from the businessmen as a result.

He told MPs he feared for his life because Mr Chappell was ex-SAS and had a gun.

Mr Chappell allegedly told him: 'I have had enough of you telling me what to do. It's my business and I will do what I want. If you kick off about it, I'll come down there and kill you.'

Mr Topp told MPs probing the collapse of BHS today: 'I know it sounds silly, he said he was in the SAS and I knew he had a gun so I told him if you threaten me again I'll go to the police'.

Mr Chappell, appearing after Mr Topp in front of MPs in a special joint meeting of the Commons Business and Pensions Committees, was asked whether it was correct he had made a profit out of BHS after buying it from Sir Philip for 1 last year.

Former BHS chief executive Darren Topp (pictured left) alleged that Dominic Chappell had threatened to kill him after he asked about the whereabouts of 1.5million. Former BHS financial adviser Michael Hitchcock (right) described Mr Chappell as a 'mythomaniac' and a 'Premier League liar and a Sunday pub league retailer'

He replied: Yes it is, I have made a profit out of this but I also worked in the business continuously during the last 13 months.

'I also racked up considerable fees on the way through and I also personally guaranteed a grant to the tune of several millions,' he added.

Mr Chappell, who was allowed to buy BHS despite being declared bankrupt three times, said he was considering legal action against Sir Philip.

He revealed how Mr Ashley was on the brink of buying BHS but was blocked by Sir Philip, who 'went insane and started screaming and shouting he didn't want to work with Mike Ashley'.

Earlier this morning Mr Chappell was torn to pieces by BHS's own management team who described him in the parliamentary hearing as a 'Premier League liar' and a 'mythomaniac'.

During a remarkable session in Parliament today BHS bosses made these claims about owner Dominic Chappell:

He is a 'Premier League liar' but a 'Sunday pub league retailer' who had his 'fingers in the till' from 'day one' after buying BHS for a 1 from Sir Philip Green

Chappell allegedly siphoned off 7million from the 32million sale of BHS's London headquarters and sent it to his own company in the form of a loan

The former racing driver claimed he had an eye operation on the day high street giant went bust - but was actually on his yacht in the Bahamas

Chappell threatened to kill Topp after the chief executive said he would contact the police over an unexplained 1.5million sent to Sweden

BHS finance boss says he was forced to change the company's bank mandate to 'stop any chance of money flowing outside of the business'.

Chappell filled BHS's board with a list of 'associates and friends' instead of retail experts

Mr Topp said Mr Chappell's assurances on buying BHS had 'unravelled and, rather than putting money in, he had his fingers in the till'.

He accused Mr Chappell of funneling 7million raised from the sale of the store's offices to his private company, Retail Acquisitions Limited (RAL).

Explaining Mr Chappell's sale of BHS offices when he first arrived at the business, Mr Topp said: 'I think this was done on day one of the transaction and what I discovered... was that it got sold...for 32 million and 7 million went to RAL (Retail Acquisitions Limited, Chappell's company).'

Former BHS financial adviser Michael Hitchcock was even more scathing of Mr Chappell.

Asked about his first meeting with the former BHS owner, Mr Hitchcock told MPs: 'This was my first interaction with Dominic Chappell and RAL and like I think many others throughout this process, I think Im duped.

'I think the technical term is a mythomaniac. The lay person's term is he was a Premier League liar and a Sunday pub league retailer at best.

BHS SHUTS AFTER 88 YEARS BHS was forced to close last week after administrators failed to find a buyer 1928: British Home Stores is set up in a store in Brixton, south London. Nothing costs more than a shilling. 1929: Prices rise to a five shilling maximum as home furnishings are introduced. 1970: Expansion since the Second World War means the brand now has 94 UK stores and around 12,000 workers. 2000: Sir Philip Green buys British Home Stores for 200 million. It is rebranded as BHS. 2002: BHS becomes part of the Arcadia retail empire after Sir Philip pays 840 million for the clothing chain which includes Topshop, Dorothy Perkins and Burton. 2005: The shop is beginning to lose pace as it is pitched against cheaper rivals such Primark. 2014: BHS department stores start selling food with the aim for it to be about 10% cheaper on branded goods than the big four supermarkets which are already involved in a price war. 2014: BHS makes a cash loss of 21 million in the year to August 2014, compared with 19.3 million in the year earlier. 2015: Sir Philip sells BHS to Retail Acquisitions, led by former bankrupt Dominic Chappell, for 1. Work begins on a turnaround plan to try to bring it back into profitability. 2016: The store is thrown a lifeline in March when creditors back two company voluntary arrangements (CVA) designed to cut costs and prevent widespread store closures. 2016: BHS collapses into administration in April, sparking an investigation by MPs into Sir Philip and Mr Chappell. 2016: Administrators fail to find a buyer for the firm and decide to wind the company down. Attention now turns to an MPs' inquiry into its demise. Advertisement

'That's great in hindsight but at the time - because I particularly wanted to meet Darren [Topp] and meet the management team, [who] highly credible turnaround plan that certainly had legs, it needed a lot of things going right but with cash behind the business there's no reason why the business could not turn itself around.'

However the main attention will remain on the role of Sir Philip, who owned the chain for 15 years, and former bankrupt Mr Chappell, who bought the chain last year through his company Retail Acquisitions.

The pair have been roundly criticised: Sir Philip for paying a 400 million dividend to his family from the business and over his management of the pension scheme, and Mr Chappell for sucking management fees out of BHS before its collapse.

Explaining why Sir Philip was ultimately responsible for BHS's demise, Mr Chappell said: There were three main issues why this company failed.

One was this continuous battering by the pensioner regulator and Philip  their inability to negotiate and deal with us separately to Philip caused us a massive amount of problems.

'The second part of that  and this is the important part  is when we bought the company the trade, credit and insurance had been pulled already and Sir Philip made an announcement in January that he was either going to sell the company or liquidate it.

'It was a case of if we didnt buy it he would have liquidated that company for sure and Philip made a clear undertaking that he would deal with the insurers or cash collaterally back it to make sure we could go forward trading as a company.

'It caused us a lot of problems, we had to find another 30million very quickly to cover trade credit insurance.'

Mr Chappell finally apologised for his role in the demise of BHS at the end of the session, but MPs had to prise it from him.

I am very upset that there are 11,000 people directly and a number of thousand people indirectly who now have lost their jobs,' he said after more than two hours of questioning.

'It is a travesty that has happened, Im very upset that it has happened and it was avoidable,' he added, taking anothe swipe at Sir Philip.

Asked to confirm whether he was apologising for his role in the demise of BHS, he said: That is an apology.

As a majority shareholder and owner of BHS I must stand forward and say we were part of the downfall of BHS.

Before the session, Iain Wright MP, chairman of the Business committee, said: 'In these sessions, we will want to explore how Retail Acquisitions was considered to be a suitable buyer for BHS, an apparently struggling high street store which was saddled with a large pension deficit.

'We will want to untangle the nature of the advice, both formal and informal, which was provided to Arcadia and RAL as part of the sale process. We will want to probe the role of directors in this sale and to examine whether the existing regulatory regime is fit for purpose.'

Last week MPs were told that Mr Chappell was taking a 'punt' on the successful turnaround of BHS when he bought the chain.

A FAILED CAREER AS A RACING DRIVER, A BOTCHED EFFORT TO LAUNCH A MOTORSPORT EVENT, THREE BANKRUPTCIES AND THE DEMISE OF BHS Dominic Chappell (pictured) was declared bankrupt three times in less than two decades Despite attending Britain's best sporting school - Millfield, in Somerset  Dominic Chappell failed to carve out a much-sought after career as a racing driver. He brags about completing the famous Le Mans 24-hour race in 1995,1996 and 1997, but he only managed two starts in F3000 category races - a couple of rungs up from karting. After quitting his dream of becoming a Formula 1 star, he turned his attention to organising motorsport events instead. But that ambition ended in failure - his Interactive Sportscar Championship folded after just one race in 2001. Chappell, married to wife Rebecca and a father of two young children, didnt fare any better in the business world. He was first declared bankrupt at the age of 25 in 1992, according to a notice in The London Gazette, which gave his occupation as a 'car salesman'. Fast-forward 13 years and he again found himself declared insolvent over a fee dispute with estate agent Foxtons. Remarkably, he was made bankrupt a third time over a failed property development in 2009. But despite the three strikes that should have raised alarm bells when he approached Sir Philip Green to buy BHS in 2014, he was able to take control of the 90-year-old department store. Armed with little more than bravado, the egregious Mr Chappell, who had no retail experience, no credibility and no money, seized ownership of the 163-store chain. No one involved in the deal  not the highly paid lawyers, the accountants or Sir Philip himself  seems to have displayed the slightest qualm, or lifted a finger to stop him. Last week's closure of BHS and the loss of 11,000 jobs have not prevented him from living as if he were a tycoon, with trappings that include a 200,000 racing yacht and a 1 million speedboat. Dominic Chappell (pictured left in 1990 and right in 1989) was a keen racing driver after leaving school and completed the famous 24-hour Le Mans race in the 1990s but his career in motorsport was short-lived He drew a 510,000 salary and hired a helicopter that he claims to have flown himself to conduct visits to the down-at-heel stores. And it was revealed last month that he was assigned ownership of a 500,000 Spanish hideaway from his family just six months before the store collapsed. After news that BHS's administrators had failed to find a buyer, Chappell appeared to lose his temper, sending furious messages to chief executive Darren Topp calling him a 'f****** prick.' Despite his failed ventures, the 49-year-old Chappell likes to paint describe himself as a 'highly experienced entrepreneur' who claims to have achieved 'sustained growth' and 'longevity' for companies under his control, as well as being a 'consummate professional' known for his ability at 'motivating staff'. We know this is how he sees himself because they are written in documents he submitted to the US regulator for his Las Vegas purchase of a 'shell' company. In the same papers, he paints himself as an oil baron with more than 20 years experience in the industry. Responding to his outburst against BHS management staff last week, a BHS spokesman perhaps provided the best description of Chappell, branding him a 'fantasist'. Chappell, right, poses with fellow racing driver Phil Andrews ahead of testing for Le Mans in 1994 Advertisement

Its my business, Ill do what I want - Im going to kill you: Extraordinary threats BHS owner Dominic Chappell made to CEO

The former racing driver who bought BHS for 1 from Sir Philip Green was today accused of twice threatening to kill his own chief executive in a row over a missing 1.5million, MPs were told.

Darren Topp said Dominic Chappell, who has been bankrupt three times but was still allowed to take it over, was ex-SAS and had a gun so feared his life was in danger.

Mr Topp told MPs today that he had confronted Chappell over the transfer of 1.5million of BHS cash into Sweden and suffered two death threats as a result.

Former CEO Darren Topp (pictured right outside Parliament this morning) told MPs that former BHS owner Dominic Chappell (pictured left outside Parliament today) twice threatened to kill him

Chappell allegedly told him: 'I have had enough of you telling me what to do. It's my business and I will do what I want. If you kick off about it, I'll come down there and kill you.'

Mr Topp told MPs probing the collapse of BHS today: 'I know it sounds silly, he said he was in the SAS and I knew he had a gun so I told him if you threaten me again I'll go to the police'.

MPs from the Commons Business and Pensions Committees are investigating the events leading to BHS' demise.

And Chappell was torn to pieces by BHS' own management team who described him in the parliamentary hearing as a 'Premier League liar' and a 'mythomaniac'.

Mr Topp said said Mr Chappell's assurances on buying BHS had 'unravelled and, rather than putting money in, he had his fingers in the till'.

No buyer has been found for BHS who have shut their stores, putting up to 11,000 jobs at risk and with a 571million pensions black hole.

During an extraordinary session in Parliament today BHS' bosses made these claims about owner Dominic Chappell:

'I KNOW HE'S GOT A GUN': THE FULL EXCHANGE THAT LED TO BHS CEO RECEIVING TWO 'DEATH THREATS' FROM DOMINIC CHAPPELL Darren Topp (pictured at the committee this morning) claimed Dominic Chappell had twice threatened to kill him after he challenged the BHS owner over a missing 1.5million payment Former BHS chief executive Darren Topp recounted the exchange to MPs today that led to him receiving two death threats from owner Dominic Chappell. After discovering an unexplained 1.5million had been transferred to Sweden, Mr Topp explained: I rang Dominic and he knew about it straight away and I said to him: Thats theft. 'Now, if I take out all the expletives he basically said: Do not kick about this Darren, Ive had enough of you telling me what to do over the last few months, its my business, I can do what I want. "If you kick off about it Im going to come down there and kill you." He threatened to kill me again and I know it sounds silly but apparently he says he was in the helicopter squad of the SAS, I know hes got a gun, theres a little bit of me that thought And I said to him: You threaten me again Dominic and Ill call the police, which he didnt. Now, maybe I shouldnt have called him a thief but as far as Im concerned it was theft and what I said to Dominic was: That money is for the salaries of the people that work in this business, this is for the teams that work in our stores. Thats what the moneys for, not for the directors. And he said: No, youve never done an administration Darren, you do not know what its like. Therell be hell to pay and therell be costs to pay and I want to make sure I look after my home team." Advertisement

Sir Philip Green 'blocked' the sale of BHS to Mike Ashley because of a personal grudge against the Sports Direct owner

Sir Philip Green could have saved BHS and the subsequent loss of 11,000 jobs, it was claimed today.

Dominic Chappell, who bought the department store for 1 from Sir Philip last year, told MPs today that Sports Direct owner Mike Ashley was on the brink of buying BHS earlier this year.

But Sir Philip's personal grudge against Mr Ashley stopped the sale going ahead.

Mr Chappell explained how Sir Philip, who owned BHS for 15 years, 'went insane and started screaming and shouting he didn't want to work with Mike Ashley'.

Sir Philip Green (left) blocked the sale of BHS to Sports Direct owner Mike Ashley (right) because of a personal grudge, MPs heard today

It reveals how close BHS was to being saved and comes after Mr Ashley himself admitted yesterday that he had '100 per cent' wanted to buy the business.

He was himself hauled in front of a parliamentary committee yesterday to answer questions about reports of poor working conditions at his Sports Direct business.

He had to defy his PR boss Keith Bishop, who had initially attempted to prevent Mr Ashley from answering questions on BHS when he appeared before the Business select committee.

'I can't resist,' a grinning Mr Ashley said. '100 per cent I wanted to buy BHS. It's a logical fit with Sports Direct because of the extreme value that Sports Direct is known for.

'I'm not a saint, but you could have made a success of that business.'

But he refused to answer questions on Sir Philip Green's personal handling of BHS.

The former BHS boss, who MPs described last night as 'little better than a corporate crook,' will be grilled at Parliament next week over the demise of the department store.

In another swipe at Sir Philip today, Mr Chappell said it was a 'travesty' that he had allowed BHS to fail and said the demise of the store was 'avoidable'.

MPs attack Sir Philip Green as 'little better than a corporate crook' as they demand ex-BHS boss is stripped of knighthood

Furious MPs have described Sir Philip Green as 'little better than a corporate crook' as they demanded the former BHS boss is stripped of his knighthood following the store's demise.

The billionaire and current Arcadia boss has been blamed for the collapse of the department store, which has led to the loss up of around 11,000 jobs.

Last night MPs delivered highly personal attacks on Sir Philip, who they described as an 'unscrupulous chancer' and the 'unacceptable face of capitalism'.

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MPs have described Sir Philip Green (pictured) as 'little better than a corporate crook' as they demanded the former BHS boss is stripped of his knighthood following the store's demise

Administrators announced last week that the business will be wound down and all 163 shops closed and sold off after it failed to find a buyer for the bankrupt department store.

It brought to an end an 88-year trading history after intensive efforts to save the business drew a blank.

Around 8,000 permanent jobs are risk, as well as a further 3,000 not directly employed by BHS.

Business minister Anna Soubry said the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has intervened in a bid to help staff who are now unemployed after the high street chain was declared bankrupt.

The Insolvency Service has launched an investigation that could result in former BHS bosses facing boardroom bans.

The Pensions Regulator is also investigating the 571 million pensions black hole left by BHS and will publish a report on its findings.

Ms Soubry said 'any wrondoing will be taken very seriously'.

But it didn't stop angry MPs tearing into Sir Philip in the Commons last night.

SNP Treasury spokesman Roger Mullin told MPs: 'If ever there was an unacceptable face of capitalism it comes in the form of Sir Philip Green and his like.

He said BHS employees had paid into their pensions over the course of their lives but 'because of Green's failure as a business man and his naked greed, which may have been legal, they are facing both redundancy and great anxiety about their pension'.

Around 8,000 permanent jobs are risk, as well as a further 3,000 not directly employed by BHS following the department's store's collapse

He added: 'Many will be thinking Green is little better than a corporate crook'.

Tory MP David Davis called on Sir Philip to pay into the BHS pension pot to ensure his former employees do not lose out, while his colleague Richard Fuller warned of the 'collateral damage which is being done to peole's trust in business across the UK' as a result of BHS's collapse.

Shadow business minister Bill Esterson said: 'While Sir Philip's former workers contemplate redundancy with significantly reduced terms and a reduced pension, he awaits the delivery of a brand new 100million yacht.'

He described claims about activities at BHS, including alleged dividends of millions of pounds paid to Sir Philip's family, and the sale of the business for 1 to Retail Acquisitions as 'beyond belief'.

He asked Ms Soubry: 'Do you envisage a change in the law so obscene profiteering by the likes of Sir Philip Green and Retail Acquisitions are made illegal?

'Do you think, as many people do, that Sir Philip Green should be referred to the police for his actions while he owned BHS?'

He added: 'BHS, as with Comet before, is an example of wealth extraction, not wealth creation, a system that favours a very small number of people rather than the wider economy.

'The minister and her colleagues need to intervene and investigate in full what happened at BHS and make sure action is taken against the likes of Sir Philip Green, otherwise they will be complicit in allowing a system of exploitation by a few owners at the expense of the many staff and pensioners.'

Making a statement on BHS to the Commons, Ms Soubry said: 'The Department of Work and Pensions has written to major retailers asking them to consider what opportunities they may be able to offer the workers and local areas affected as the situation becomes clearer this week.

'DWP will also be monitoring the impact of redundancies locally on a continuing basis and will provide additional targeted support to any areas particularity badly affected.'

She added support will be offered to workers not just as BHS but also to staff of Austin Reed, which also collapsed last week resulting in the loss of approximately 1,000 jobs.

Goldman Sachs exposed by leaked BHS email congratulating bankrupt Dominic Chappell over the purchase of retailer

Goldman Sachs has been left red faced over a gushing email congratulating three times bankrupt Dominic Chappell over the purchase of BHS.

The email is particularly embarrassing for the investment bank because it was working for Sir Philip Green.

It was advising him on the sale of the retail chain to Chappell and had flagged concerns about Chappell's suitability.

Disgraced: BHS collapsed into administration a year after Chappell, pictured, bought it for a nominal 1

Green pushed ahead with the sale to Chappell regardless and a leaked email from last March shows once the deal had gone through star Goldman banker Anthony Gutman attempted to ingratiate himself with the disgraced businessman.

Gutman wrote: 'Congratulations on getting the deal done; you deserve it  you were consistent throughout and stuck to your word.'

BHS collapsed into administration a year after Chappell bought it for a nominal 1 through his Retail Acquisitions firm.

Embarassing: Goldman banker Anthony Gutman attempted to ingratiate himself with Chappell once the deal had gone through

MPs from the Work and Pensions and Business, Innovation and Skills select committee are probing the collapse.

Gutman had appeared before the politicians and said he had warned Paul Budge, Green's finance director, of Chappell's history of bankruptcy.

Goldman declined to comment.

Chappell is due to appear before MPs on Wednesday along with members of the Dellal family whose Allied Commercial Exporters helped finance the BHS deal.

They lent Chappell 35million. It was this loan that allowed Chappell to show he was a credible buyer of the 164-store retail chain despite having no retail experience.

Questions have also been raised over a 10million payment Green made to Retail Acquisitions four months after it bought BHS.

Reports say the payment was intended to go to BHS to tidy up outstanding payments and MPs are likely to quiz Green on it.

A spokesman for Arcadia said: 'The 10million was owed to Retail Acqusitions for monies oustanding from the deal. They were paid directly into a BHS bank account at HSBC.'

Last week about 300 head office staff were dismissed and 11,000 store staff could follow during the next two months after a last-minute rescue bid fell apart.

A raft of retailers are interested in snapping up small numbers of stores.

These include Sports Direct, Primark, Ikea, Matalan and B&M.

BHS THE LATEST IN A LONG LINE OF COLLAPSES SINCE THE CREDIT CRUNCH The financial collapse in 2008 and the surge in on-line shopping have caused carnage on the high street. Here are some of the victims: MFI (November 2008) Furniture brand MFI was one of the first major victims of the recession, blaming falling demand for big ticket goods and the downturn in the property market. The company's 111 stores were closed, with the loss of 1,450 jobs. Woolworths (January 2009) The collapse of Woolworths, one the biggest and oldest names in retail, sent shockwaves through the sector. It shut its doors for the final time in January 2009, by which time more than 800 outlets had disappeared from high streets across the country, with the loss of 27,000 jobs. Zavvi (February 2009) The music and DVD retailer Zavvi disappeared from the high street a month later. Once the country's largest independent entertainment retailer, it had 114 stores in the UK and 11 in Ireland employing 2,363 permanent workers and 1,052 temporary staff before its collapse. Borders (December 2009) The book chain closed after 12 years with the loss of 1,100 jobs. The group went into administration after internet competition put the business under heavy pressure. Habitat (June 2011) Household furnishings store Habitat collapsed into administration. Only three of its 33 stores were saved, and around 750 employees were made redundant. Peacocks (January 2012) Budget fashion chain Peacocks collapsed under a debt mountain in the biggest retail failure since Woolworths, placing 7,500 jobs in jeopardy. Some 388 of around 600 stores were saved in a deal with Edinburgh Woollen Mill Group. La Senza (January 2012) Lingerie chain La Senza called in the administrators, triggering 1,300 redundancies and the closure of more than 100 outlets. But 60 stores were bought by Arabian retail group Alshaya, saving 1,100 jobs. Game Group (March 2012) The video games retailer was hit by falling sales and a refusal by suppliers to stock the business. The group, which traded as Game and Gamestation, appointed PwC at the end of March 2012, triggering the immediate closure of 277 stores in the UK and Ireland - leaving 2,104 staff without a job. But Game was given a second chance when the brand and remaining 333 shops were bought out of administration by turnaround specialist OpCapita, saving nearly 3,200 jobs. Clinton Cards (May 2012) Nearly 3,000 full and part-time staff were left without jobs after administrators announced the closure of 350 stores. But there was some good news for the chain after Ohio-based American Greetings bought 397 stores and saved 4,500 jobs. Woolworths closed in January 2009 JJB (October 2012) The failure of the sports retail chain caused around 2,200 staff to lose their jobs after administrators were only able to secure a sale of 20 stores. More than 130 outlets were shut after KPMG failed to find a rescue buyer for the entire business. Comet (December 2012) The electrical retailer's final stores closed just before Christmas, having failed to find a buyer for any of the 235-strong estate. The collapse cost a total of 6,895 jobs. Jessops (January 2013) Jessops was the first high-profile retail casualty of 2013 after suffering from online competition and a boom in camera phones in recent years, which hit demand for digital cameras. Administrators closed all shops in the chain with the loss of 1,370 jobs. HMV (January 2013) Administrators were called in following dismal Christmas sales for the 92-year-old company, hitting 930 jobs. But the chain was rescued by restructuring specialist Hilco and bounced back, recently announcing a 2 per cent year-on-year rise in sales of music, DVDs and games, making it the second biggest in the sector with a market share of 16.9 per cent, ahead of Tesco's on 16.1 per cent. Blockbuster (January 2013) DVD and games rental firm Blockbuster collapsed amid competition from internet firms and the digital streaming of movies and games. The firm had a total of 4,190 employees. Republic (February 2013) Some 2,500 jobs were put at risk when the fashion retailer went into administration. The business was later bought by Sports Direct. Phones 4U (September 2014) Phones 4U collapsed after some mobile networks declined to renew their contracts with the retailer. Vodafone, EE and Currys and PC World later took over parts of the business but hundreds of jobs were lost. Austin Reed (May 2016) The shutters are coming down on BHS just two days after administrators for another historic high street name, Austin Reed, announced the closure of 120 stores with the loss of around 1,000 jobs. Advertisement




Man alleges passengers interrupted tirade and woman 'turned on' them too

The video maker alleges the woman aimed her remarks at foreign students

This is the shocking moment a woman launches a racist and homophobic rant on a train apparently aimed at a group of foreign students.

The footage was captured by a stunned passenger, who said he was travelling back to Brighton at around 11am yesterday after a meeting in East Croydon.

He claims the carriage was packed with foreign students on their way to the seaside resort in East Sussex when the woman began ranting without being provoked.

The video maker claims the train carriage was packed with foreign students when the woman began ranting

The video maker, who alleges that the woman may have been under the influence at the time, said she 'ripped straight into' the students.

She was later challenged by a group of females and apparently 'turned on them too'. The latter parts of the video appear to show this.

The clip, which gives no background as the how the confrontation began, starts with the woman shouting: 'Go back to your own country.'

It is not clear who she is aiming her comment at, but a man, who is not captured on video, replies: 'You don't even know what my country is so shut up.'

She then responds by suggesting he is Romanian, to which he sarcastically says 'great guess,' before later confirming that she is incorrect.

The woman then says: 'What are you then? You're nothing. Boy,' before her rant becomes increasingly intelligible.

She says: 'I give in, alright, you fancy him as well, don't you? You're gay aren't you? You're gay and you fancy him. It's cutie right, its very cutie but it's very nasty.'

The woman was later challenged by a group of females on the train and apparently 'turned on them too'

The woman's angry rant becomes increasingly foul-mouthed before the video maker decides to stop filming

A female passenger than appears to stand up for the man and says 'he's beautiful,' to which the woman then responds: 'He's not beautiful, do not encourage him.

'For f*** sake, don't encourage him the big f****** t***. God sake.'

Meanwhile the video maker films himself and stares at the camera in bewilderment.

The woman then appears to continue addressing the female passenger, and her rant becomes increasingly foul-mouthed before the video maker decides to stop filming.

The clip was later posted to LiveLeak where it accumulated more than 1,000 views in a day.

The British Transport Police confirmed no complaint had been made following the incident.

The woman is seen ranting at a passenger (left) while the video maker films himself in bewilderment (right)
The victim was found in a home in Wagga Wagga, in southern NSW

A 29-year-old man has been chargeda 16-year-old boy was stabbed to death in Wagga Wagga in southern New South Wales on Tuesday.

The boy was attacked in a home in Kooringal just before 8pm by someone he knew, according to police.

They received a 'tip off' which lead them to the accused, Bryce Cliff, by 11pm.

He was already 20kms from Wagga Wagga in a town called Big Springs and was allegedly driving a stolen car.

A 29-year-old man has been charged with the murder of a 16-year-old boy in Wagga Wagga on Tuesday

The boy knew his attacker, according to police. The 29-year-old known as Bryce Cliff was arrested hours later after a tip off

Police were still combing over the Acacia Street property in Kooringal, Wagga Wagga, on Wednesday

The 16-year-old victim knew the man who is from Victoria.

'This was not a random incident,' Acting Superintendent Andrew Spliet said.

Mr Cliff has also been charged with aggravated break-and-enter and taking and driving a conveyance without consent.

He appeared in Wagga Wagga Local Court by video link and did not apply for bail. It was later formally refused by the magistrate, Erin Kennedy.

The police have charged Mr Cliff with aggravated break-and-enter and taking and driving a conveyance without consent

The police teams arrived at the home at 8pm on Tuesday, their sirens lighting up the usually quiet street

The dead boy's classmates have been offered support from their school.

'The school has organised counselling and support to be available today and for as long as required,' a Department of Education spokesman said.

Several students have shared their grief on Facebook, saying their friend was 'gone way too soon'.

Mr Cliff is next due to face court on August 3. Police were still searching the Acacia Street property for clues on Wednesday.

the boy's body was found in a home on Acacia Street, pictured, in Kooringal, Wagga Wagga
A blind mother-of-four had allegedly been gang raped in central Pakistan after being lured into a man's home by the promise of a charity donation.

The unnamed victim had lost her eyesight in an acid attack nearly 15 years ago, had had been receiving financial assistance from her alleged attacker.

Muhammed Younus and two friends reportedly tied up the woman and her 12-year-old daughter, before raping the woman near her home in Layyah, Punjab.

The woman and her 12-year-old daughter had been lured to the attacker's home in Layyah, Punjab, by a promise of a 30 donation to the family, when they were both tied up and the mother raped (file photo)

The woman, the wife of a day labourer with four children, had been the victim of an acid attack in 2002.

Her own cousin threw the corrosive liquid in her face after she rejected his marriage proposal.

He alleged attacker, Mr Younus, lived next door and had helped the woman and her husband financially over the years.

On the day of the alleged gang rape, the victim had taken her daughter for a mecial check-up at the Tehsil Headquarters hospital in Layyah,The Express Tribune reported.

Mr Younus had promised to help with the cost, offering a Rs 3,000 (30) charity donation to the family if the woman came to his home after the hospital visit.

Once in Mr Younus's home, the woman and her daughter were held down and tied up and the mother dragged to an adjacent room.

There she was raped by Mr Younus and his two friends, the newspaper reports.
A six-year-old girl almost lost an eye after being savaged by a dog while she was helping her grandfather on his allotment.

Lacey-Marie Smith spent her sixth birthday in hospital after the vicious attack and had to undergo a two-hour operation to stitch up her forehead and right eyelid after the animal sank its teeth into her head and tried to drag her to the ground.

Her mother Sian Davis said it was a particularly vicious, unprovoked attack and is calling for the dog to be destroyed.

Lacey-Marie Smith, left and, right, with her family, almost lost an eye after being viciously attacked by a dog

The youngster spent her sixth birthday in hospital, pictured, after undergoing two-hour surgery on her face

'I am devastated,' said Ms Davis, of Matson, Gloucester.

'My daughter woke up in hospital on her sixth birthday scarred for life.

'It was a totally unprovoked attack and if it had been a little bit lower Lacey would have lost her eyesight. She should be in school celebrating her birthday with friends, not recovering from surgery.

'She's a lovely little girl and has been really brave but I think it's going to take a long time to get over this. I actually feel like killing the dog myself.'

Lacey was pottering around her grandfather David's allotment in Saintbridge, Gloucester with her father Nathan when the attack happened on Sunday.

Mr Smith beat the dog away and rushed Lacey, who was covered in blood, to hospital where she was so shocked she needed oxygen.

The dog, a collie cross, attacked her on her grandfather's allotment in Gloucester, and locked its jaws around her head, leaving a wound millimeters away from her right eye, pictured left and right

After a team of specialist surgeons assessed the damage they decided to operate.

Doctors allowed her home yesterday so she could enjoy the rest of her birthday.

Her grandfather 49, who started working on the the allotment to reduce his stress levels after he had heart surgery, said he later learned other people have had to avoid the dog.

'It's killing me to think I didn't know and I didn't get there quick enough to stop it,' he said tearfully.

'It was a really nasty attack which happened within a click of a finger.'

'It wasn't just a little cut, it went to the bone. It's horrible to think she will be scarred for life.'

Her father Nathan, right, fought off the dog and mother Sian, left, is calling for the animal to be put down

The dog-loving grandfather says he is always careful to keep his pet separate to the grandchildren because he would hate for there to be an incident, particularly in hot weather when dogs get irritable.

'I understand how much people love their dogs,' he said. 'I have an eight-and-a-half stone French Mastiff which I really, really love but if it attacked a child I would have him put to sleep, no matter how much it broke my heart to do so,

'Once they have drawn blood it shows they are that way inclined and you can't take the risk of it happening again to somebody else.
A drag act has sparked outrage after reportedly stamping on, stabbing, punching and drinking blood from a Madeleine McCann doll while telling the audience he 'knows what really happened to her'.

Incredibly, the show by Steven Irvine, performing as his gothic alter-ego Pro Vanity, was cheered by some punters at Cheerz bar in Aberdeen, but others spoke of their disgust.

One mother called it 'nasty' and said that when she complained a staff member got angry because he 'couldnt see her problem'.

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Outrage: Drag act Steven Irvine has sparked outrage after reportedly stamping, stabbing, punching and drinking blood from a Madeleine McCann doll while telling the audience he 'knows what really happened to her'

Incredibly, the show by Steven Irvine (pictured), performing as his gothic alter-ego Pro Vanity, was cheered by some punters at Cheerz bar in Aberdeen, but others spoke of their disgust

Irvine took to the stage at a gay bar clutching a doll wrapped in a black shawl miming to the song Freddy's Coming For You from the film Nightmare On Elm Street

Another witness, who asked not to be named, said: 'She kicked and punched it and stabbed it with a knife.

'For the finale it was dumped on the ground, covered in fake blood and stamped on.

'People got caught up in it for a start but the mood in the place started to change.'

According to The Sun, one audience member said: 'How could anyone think its acceptable?'

Posting about his act on social media before the event, Irvine, 22, bragged: Fake blood is my thing.'

He added: 'Did anyone ever find that missing child years ago? Come find out, be there.'

Irvine then took to the stage at a gay bar clutching a doll wrapped in a black shawl miming to the song Freddy's Coming For You from the film Nightmare On Elm Street.

He then began to stab the Madeleine doll with a knife.

Shockingly, some customers cheered throughout the performance which promised to reveal 'what really happened to Maddie'.

Shockingly, some customers cheered throughout the performance which promised to reveal 'what really happened to Maddie'. Irvine also posted about the event on Facebook

One mother called the show 'nasty' and said that when she complained a staff member got angry because he 'couldnt see her problem'. The show by Steven Irvine (left) featured a doll of missing Madeleine McCann (right)

A spokesman for Madeleine's parents Kate and Gerry - who should have celebrated their daughter's 13th birthday last month - slammed the performance.

Clarence Mitchell said: 'The offensiveness of this act speaks for itself.'

But Irvine, who also works as a waiter in Aberdeen, said: 'It's a drag show. It's supposed to cause offence.

'I've heard one negative comment but so much praise. I entertained on the night.'

Asked directly about the feelings of the McCanns, he said: 'I feel for the family.'

He added of the performance: 'It was supposed to be extreme and edgy.'
A former CIA agent is to be extradited from Portugal to Italy to serve a prison sentence for her part in the U.S. extraordinary renditions program after the Portuguese Constitutional Court rejected her final appeal.

Sabrina de Sousa said Wednesday she is waiting to be told when she will be taken to Italy, where she was convicted in absentia and has a four-year sentence to serve.

Since her October arrest in Lisbon, Portugal, on a European arrest warrant, De Sousa has lost her fight at a lower Lisbon court and her appeal of that decision to the Portuguese Supreme Court.

Convicted: Ex-CIA agent Sabrina de Sousa (pictured) says she didn't help kidnap an imam from a Milan street in 2003. She was convicted in absentia, arrested in Portugal and now faces four years in an Italian prison

Kidnapped: Cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, aka Abu Omar, says he was raped and tortured after the CIA took him to Egypt. He was released in 2007 after his imprisonment was deemed 'unfounded'

De Sousa was among 26 Americans convicted of the kidnapping of terror suspect Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, from a Milan street on February 17, 2003.

Under the rendition program, terror suspects were kidnapped on foreign soil and transferred to centers also outside the U.S., where they were interrogated and tortured.

The program was a controversial part of the anti-terrorism strategy of the U.S. administration following the attacks.

Some 54 countries, including Italy, participated in the program, according to a 2013 report by The Open Society Justice Foundation.

A 2007 resolution by the Council of Europe concluded that the renditions were illegal, as was detaining the suspects without trial.

Nasr was tried in absentia before being taken to an Egyptian prison facility where he was reportedly raped and tortured.

He was ultimately released after the Egyptian government ruled his imprisonment 'unfounded'.

De Sousa, who has dual American and Portuguese nationality, insists she wasn't involved in the abduction.

But late Tuesday The Constitutional Court said in a ruling posted on its website that her appeal was rejected.

De Sousa said in an email to the AP that she had 'no idea' when she might be sent to Italy.

Her Italian lawyer has previously said he is hopeful of obtaining clemency from Italian President Sergio Mattarella, who has granted clemency to other defendants convicted in the case.

The case, which became infamous in Italy as the 'Imam Rapito' (or 'Kidnapped Imam') affair, also implicates Italy's secret services, and has proven embarrassing to successive Italian governments.

De Sousa said that on Wednesday she sent a letter to Pope Francis through the Vatican's embassy in Lisbon, urging him to speak out against the extraordinary renditions used by the CIA after the September 11, 2001, attacks.

The pontiff already condemned the practice in a 2014 speech.

Appeal: De Sousa, who has American and Portuguese nationality and doesn't know when she will be deported, has asked Italian President Sergio Mattarella to support her case

De Sousa, who has both U.S. and Portuguese citizenship and was working in Italy under diplomatic cover, argues that she was never officially informed of the Italian court conviction and couldn't use confidential U.S. government information to defend herself.

'I was never notified nor was I allowed to defend myself because of secrecy obligations,' she wrote in the letter to the Pope.

'The absence of due process and the imposition of various versions of state secrets are obstacles that prevent the many unanswered questions about the premise and justification for Abu Omar's rendition.'

Nasr was released in 2007, after four years of imprisonment, alternately in prison and on house arrest.

He claimed that while being held, he had been beaten, raped, had his genitals electrocuted and lost the hearing in one ear.

In February 2016, the European Court of Human Rights condemned Italy and ordered the country to pay 115,000 ($127,000) in damages and expenses to Nasr and wife Nabila Ghali.

Under Portuguese legal procedure, the Constitutional Court now sends its decision back to the lower court.

That court then informs the police, who set in motion the extradition process in conjunction with Italian authorities.
A drunk woman tried to get her children to blow into a sober-driving gadget so she could start the ignition on her car.

Police in Tulsa, Oklahoma were called to the parking lot of a Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant after reports that Kayla Martin-Weliwita, 36, was fighting with her daughters.

The Tulsa World newspaper reported that Martin-Weliwita initially claimed her 13-year-old daughter was trying to run away.

Kayla Martin-Weliwita (pictured) was arrested just after midnight in the parking lot of a chicken wings restaurant after fighting with her 13-year-old daughter, who she wanted to blow into an ignition interlock device

But it later emerged that she could not start her car because it was fitted with a sober-driving system which did not allow the driver to start the ignition if they had been drinking alcohol.

She had apparently been trying to make her eldest daughter blow into the gadget.

Police in the suburb of Owasso arrived just after midnight on May 30 and arrested Martin-Weliwita.

The manager of the restaurant said she had also been asking waiters if they would blow into the device for her.

Ignition interlock devices like this one will not allow a driver to start the ignition if they are over the drink driving limit. In Oklahoma they have been made statutory for people convicted of DUI

Martin-Weliwita, who told police she had only drunk one vodka that night, has now been charged with child abuse, child neglect and public intoxication.

She remains in the county jail on a bail bond of $100,100.

Her two daughters, aged nine and 13, are being looked after by their stepfather.
British military experts are developing a more destructive and more accurate nuclear weapon, it has emerged.

The row over the renewal of Trident, the UK's nuclear deterrent programme, is expected to be the next big political battle after the EU referendum.

But the Ministry of Defence are already working on a so-called Mark 4A warhead at the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) in Aldermaston, Berkshire, it was revealed this week.

A Trident missile being fired from a British submarine. Military experts are now developing a new weapon

It is believed 85million has already been spent on developing the weapons, which would allow Britain to attack a wider range of targets in the event of a nuclear war.

Britain's fleet of four Trident ballistic missile submarines is due for renewal over the next decade and the Government want to approve the estimated 31billion needed to replace the current Vanguard fleet with the Successor-class by the end of the year.

The government is expected to table a Commons motion later this year in favour of replacing the existing fleet of Trident submarines with four new boats.

The government says they will cost 31billion, but has set up a 10billion contingency fund in the event of overruns.

The news that large amounts of money is already being spent of the programme will cause anger among Labour and SNP MPs, many of whom oppose the renewal.

Few details of the work have been revealed to Parliament but the Ministry of Defence denied the programme is secret.

Britain's fleet of four Trident ballistic missile submarines is due for renewal over the next decade

Military sources told The Times that the work currently being carried out is important to ensure the programme is able to proceed if approval is given.

Those who support Trident's renewal say it is necessary to maintain peace and deter other countries from attacking Britain. Those who oppose it say the replacement is too expensive and unnecessary.

It is thought David Cameron could use the issue to reunite his party after a bitterly-fought EU referendum campaign, which has divided the Conservatives.

Labour is divided over the issue, with leader Jeremy Corbyn having said he would never use nuclear weapons if he became Prime Minister.

The development of the new weapons is taking place alongside work to extend the life of the US's W76 warhead, The Guardian reported.

David Cameron could use the Trident issue to try to reunite his party after the EU referendum. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has said he wouldn't use nuclear weapons if he is in power

Peter Burt of the Nuclear Information Service told the newspaper: 'The Mark 4A warhead modification programme will allow Trident nuclear warheads to remain in service until the middle of this century, and plenty of money is being spent to pave the way for developing a new generation warhead which will remain in service for even longer.'
Jurors in the trial of a man accused of murdering his six-year-old daughter were today shown a video of children's cartoon character Peppa Pig.

Ben Butler allegedly attacked his daughter Ellie in a violent rage, killing her - but his lawyers have suggested that she may have died while imitating her favourite television show.

In an attempt to support the theory, defence barrister Icah Peart QC showed the jury a four-minute DVD of Peppa Pig as the character instructs her friends to 'jump up and down' and exclaims 'leapfrog everybody'.

Trial: Ben Butler is accused of killing his daughter Ellie by attacking her in a violent rage

Jurors at the Old Bailey smiled as Peppa bounced around a pretend moon and went to a 'pirate party'.

In other clips, characters play football, go on a boat trip, attend a playground and jump up and down in a muddy puddle.

Butler, 36, from Sutton, in South-West London, denies murder and child cruelty over Ellie's death in October 2013.

His partner Jennie Gray, also 36, has admitted perverting the course of justice in the wake of Ellie's death but denied child cruelty.

After viewing the video, prosecutor Ed Brown QC warned the jurors not to be swayed by 'fanciful or speculative reasoning'.

TV: Jurors in the trial were today shown a short Peppa Pig DVD to support the theory that Ellie's death may have been an accident

In his closing speech, he told them to use their 'collective common sense and experience of life'.

He said: 'Juries do not and should not engage in fanciful or speculative reasoning or entertain fanciful suggestions. That is not the task of a jury.'

He told the jurors to look at the medical evidence together with what was going on in the Butler household at the time.

Butler 'dominated' the family with 'self-centred control' and 'a temper that could break at any moment', he said.

And Ellie's injuries were so 'extreme' and 'catastrophic' that they could not have been the result of an accidental fall in her bedroom, the prosecutor said.

He said the defence had tried to use to their advantage Ellie's previous injuries while in Butler's care.

But Mr Brown said: 'They do nothing to detract from the extreme and acute injuries that killed that young girl.'

Family: Ben Butler and with his wife, Jennie Gray, and Ellie in a family photograph

During an earlier part of the trial last month, Mr Peart put the idea of an accident to pathologist Anthony Risdon while cross-examining him.

He asked: 'Have you heard of Peppa Pig?' Prof Risdon replied: 'Yes.'

On whether he watched the cartoons or heard any of the nursery rhymes, he said: 'I am a little old for that... my children are in their middle ages now.'

The lawyer went on: 'In particular I am interested in a nursery rhyme that goes as follows: Five little Peppa Pigs jumping on the bed. One jumped off and bumped her head. Mummy called the doctor and the doctor said, "Don't let Peppa Pig jump on the bed."

'Did you know Ellie was a Peppa Pig fan? It was on the DVD in her room. There are Peppa Pig artefacts around about her room.

'What I am talking about is someone jumping up and down on the bed and, as Peppa Pig does, jumps over backwards, falls down and hits her head on the concrete floor.

Prof Risdon replied: 'I have seen a large number of head injuries in children. I have never come across a scenario like that and I have never come across a short distance fall that results in a similar injury.'

Mr Brown said today: 'There is no rhyme with the five little pigs on that DVD, there is no jumping to their deaths, there is no jumping on their heads.

'Ellie was not a girl who was reckless. She was sure-footed you may think. She was not unbalanced in any way. She was an agile, normal girl.'
You never know what youll find setting sail on deep waters.

This fisherman got the surprise of his life when he stumbled upon a fellow angler braving seas 2km off the coast of South Africa on nothing but a tractor tyre.

Grant Campbell took pity on the daring seafarer - who didnt appear to be having much luck with his own fishing - so handed over a catch of his own.

Grant Campbell got the surprise of his life when he stumbled upon a fisherman (pictured) braving deep seas on nothing but a tractor tyre

Campbell, took pity on the daring seafarer so handed him over a catch of his own

2km out to sea I see this man fishing for dinner, I couldn't believe it ... Tractor tyre and a pair of flipper; the Facebook post reads.

Images show the man using a crude fishing equipment fastened onto the tyre.

I had to give him some of our fishes for his hard work!

The post has amassed over 700 shares and a range of comments on the social media site.

I guess when you hungry you hungry and will do anything to catch your next meal wrote one commenter.

Unbelievable, I hope you towed him back with you, wrote another.

The post has amassed over 700 shares and a range of comments on the social media site
He was showing signs of paranoia, anxiety and fear before he went missing

e took MDMA but now think he took

The Hobart man is believed to have been taking

Missing Australian backpacker Rye Hunt may have drowned at sea when he tried to swim back to shore from a deserted island in Rio de Janeiro, Brazilian police have claimed.

The Tasmania miner has been missing for 17 days after he was last seen leaving a Copacabana apartment following a row with his friend Mitchell Sheppard at Galeao International Airport.

Brazilian police spokeswoman Ellen Souto claimed authorities were 'well convinced' the 25-year-old tried to escape Cotunduba island but 'failed' the one kilometre trek back to Copacabana, O Globo reported.

Authorities have called off a 72-hour sea search after a fishermen spotted a body floating off Rio's coast in clothes similar to those worn by Mr Hunt when he vanished.

The sea search has become increasingly desperate as police claim the 'body starts to turn into food for marine life' as days go by after the young man was reported missing from May 21.

It's understood his personal belongings, including his clothing and laptop, have been returned to his girlfriend Bonnie Cuthbert and uncle Michael Wholohan, who are in Rio to search for him.

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Rye Hunt's family believe the Australian backpacker may have unknowingly taken a highly potent hallucinogen before he disappeared in Brazil more than a fortnight ago

Police are 'well convinced' the 25-year-old tried to escape Cotunduba island (pictured) but 'failed' the one kilometre trek back to Copacabana

The news comes after another Brazilian fisherman recalled seeing Mr Hunt who appeared to be injured and 'upset' on the island on May 22, just one day after he disappeared.

'The boy stared at my craft. He had several cuts the body. My girlfriend and I were scared because he was a strong man,' the fisherman told O Globo.

'He went down near the water and made gestures asking for water. I asked him not to jump in the sea. I grabbed a bottle of mineral water 1.5 litres and threw. He drank it all at once.

'We talked very quickly in English, asked where he was from and how he got to the island. He said he was from Australia and had swum there. I found it strange, since Cotunduba is difficult to access.'

This week, his family revealed Mr Hunt may have taken a highly potent hallucinogen before he disappeared in Brazil more than a fortnight ago.

His girlfriend and uncle now believe he may have inadvertently taken the highly potent hallucinogen NBOMe - rather than MDMA as previously thought.

'We believe Rye may have unknowingly consumed a different illicit substance while thinking he was consuming MDMA,' his family said in a statement

Mr Hunt left the airport after getting into an argument with his travelling companion Mitchell Sheppard (right)

'Reports from those around Rye in the lead up to his disappearance [described] irregular and out-of-character behaviours, such as extreme paranoia, anxiety and fear,' the family said on Tuesday.

'Based on these effects we believe Rye may have unknowingly consumed a different illicit substance while thinking he was consuming MDMA.'

'We now believe the illicit substance to be a highly potent hallucinogen and psychedelic often referred to as NBOMe.'

The intoxicating psychedelic, also referred to as New Psychoactive Substances (NPS), is a synthetic drug designed to produce a similar effect to LSD, according to the Australian Drug Foundation.

The powerful drug can be taken in the form of blotting paper, clear liquid, white powder or a pill.

The dangerous synthetic drug is known to cause side effects such as paranoia, hallucination, memory lapses, difficulty in communicating, aggression and even death.

Mr Hunt, from Hobart, was seen getting into a taxi at Galeao International Airport after an argument with his travelling companion and booked into a Copacabana apartment.

Mr Hunt has been missing since May 21 when he left Galeao International Airport in a taxi (Pictured: at airport)

His belongings were found inside an apartment Mr Hunt rented in Copacabana shortly after leaving the airport

His girlfriend Bonnie Cuthbert travelled to Rio de Janeiro in a bid to find the missing man

Mr Hunt is understood to have been 'snorting lines' before his disappearance

It's believed the two Australian backpackers had earlier taken drugs at a party in Lapa.

Dr Monica Barratt from the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at UNSW told Hack the new drug has come out of China and is linked to several recent deaths in Australia.

WHAT IS NBOMe? N-methoxybenzy or NBOMe are series of drugs that have hallucinogenic effects. There are a number of versions of NBOMe available which can cause different reactions. The hallucinogen, also known as a psychedelic' can affect all the senses and is capable of altering a person's thinking, sense of time and emotions. While some may feel happy and relaxed after taking the synthetic drug others have reported feeling confused, paranoid, panicked, agitated and prone to aggression. Advertisement

'NBOMe is a class of strong hallucinogenic substances that have been newly created in the last five years,' she said.

Dr Barratt said it should be taken in far lower doses than party drug MDMA, with the strength being difficult to determine if it has been mixed with other powers or drugs.

Mr Hunt is understood to have been 'snorting lines' before his disappearance.

Mr Hunt's family on Tuesday appealed for police and locals in Rio to continue their efforts.

'[We] determinedly continue to search for Rye,' they said.
Man sentenced to 15 years and 1,500 lashes for their deaths

Wife panicked and fled the car, and was hit by a speeding truck

Threw baby out of the window of a moving car in Manama, Bahrain

A Bahraini man murdered his four-month-old baby and caused the death of his wife after becoming convinced that the child had been possessed by an evil spirit.

The man threw the baby out of the window of his car while driving down a highway in Manama, Bahrain, at which point his wife fled the vehicle and was hit by a truck.

He was found guilty of killing the baby and causing the death of his wife, and sentenced to 15 years in jail and 1,500 lashes by a court in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

The man was convinced that his baby was posessed, and threw the baby out of the window of his car while driving down a highway in Manama, Bahrain, (pictured is a highway in the capital in 2011)

The man had reportedly become convinced that his young child had been possessed by a jinn - a spirit which Muslims believe can take over the body of a human.

He had reportedly been high on unnamed drugs when he the incident took place last year, Gulf News reports.

The unnamed man started beating his child while driving on a highway in the small Gulf state of Bahrain, and suddenly threw the baby out of the window.

His shocked wife managed to get out of the car and started running down the road to get help, but was hit by a speeding lorry and killed instantly.

The man was found guilty of killing the baby and causing the death of his wife, and sentenced to 15 years in jail and 1,500 lashes by a court in Mecca

The man continued driving until he met a police vehicle, which he flagged down from the driver's seat.

According to a police officer's statement, the man was 'mumbling incomprehensible words' and had blood on his clothes and in the car.

He was arrested after trying to flee the scene, and was allegedly began 'screaming hysterically that he had killed the jinn' when taken away by police.

The man was found guilty of the deaths of his wife and child by a court in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

A prosecutor had called for a death sentence, which was rejected by the judge.
An ISIS-inspired fanatic who tried to behead a musician in a London tube station had written a list of 'five things needed in battle'.

'Lone wolf' Muhiddin Mire attacked musician Lyle Zimmerman with a rusty knife and threatened four other travellers as he ran amok through Leytonstone Underground station in east London.

After the Somali-born Muslim was found guilty of plotting to behead Mr Zimmerman today, a picture was released of a sinister motivation list found in his home.

It contains the scrawled words 'stand firm', 'remember Allah' and 'avoid dispute'. It continues: 'Keep those 5 things, will definitely win the war against the kuffars [meaning unbelievers]'.

The whole of Mire's horrific rampage was caught on CCTV and mobile phone footage taken by a passer-by who bravely carried on filming as Mire lunged at him with the blade.

Muhiddin Mire attacked musician Lyle Zimmerman at Leytonstone tube station. The knifeman had hand-written a list of five things 'needed in battle' which was found in his home

A shocking image emerged today of Mr Zimmerman's neck after Mire 'sawwed' at it with a rusty knife

One onlooker shouted out 'You ain't no Muslim, bruv' after Mire, 30, claimed he was doing it for 'my Syrian brothers' and police took him down with Tasers.

The court heard that minicab driver Mire had a history of mental illness and his psychosis involved the belief that he was being persecuted for his religion and stalked by MI5 and MI6.

He had images of soldier Lee Rigby and British ISIS executioner Jihadi John on his Samsung phone, along with material linked to ISIS.

A jury at the Old Bailey found Mire, of Leytonstone, guilty of attempted murder. He had already admitted four counts of attempted wounding and an alternative count of wounding with intent to cause Mr Zimmerman grievous bodily harm.

Mire stared ahead with a blank expression as the jury returned its verdict after just over a day of deliberations.

The defendant, who had been flanked by several dock officers and an interpreter, was remanded in custody at Broadmoor secure psychiatric hospital.

Before adjourning for sentencing, Judge Nicholas Hilliard QC told jurors he would be highlighting the 'public spiritedness' of the people who rushed in to help on the day of the attack.

He said: 'It would have been very easy to continue one's journey on, but that did not happen.'

Footage from the scene showed the moment police attempted to Taser Mire as he ran amok in the station

On December 5 last year, Mr Zimmerman, 56, had stood out from the crowd in cowboy boots and hat, carrying a mandolin in one hand and an amplifier in the other and with a guitar strapped to his back.

He was targeted by Mire as they travelled on the same train from Stratford back to Leytonstone, where the defendant lived alone on benefits.

Mire followed him off the carriage and produced a black-handled knife with a serrated edge from his pocket.

As Mr Zimmerman approached the barriers, Mire grabbed him from behind and swung him around and on to the floor.

Mire then kicked him repeatedly around the head and body as a woman nearby called out for him to stop.

As Mr Zimmerman lay defenceless on the ground, Mire crouched down and began to 'saw' at his neck with the serrated blade in front of shocked passengers.

Giving evidence from behind a screen, the victim told the jury: 'At the time my subjective impression was that I was being attacked by a crazy person, a mentally unwell person.'

The court was shown mobile phone footage (left) from a couple who escaped the knifeman, who was later Tasered by police officers (right)

A junior doctor on his way home rushed in to help stem the blood flowing from Mr Zimmerman's neck wounds as Mire went up to street level.

He continued to threaten members of the public, swinging his blade at Polish Daniel Bielinski, who began filming events on his mobile phone.

Mire went on to lash out at Serena Valori and an unknown man before coming face to face with Russian security guard Andrius Sabaliauskas, who tried to talk to him.

But despite the efforts to calm him down, Mire tried to slash lift engineer David Pethers before police arrived with Tasers.

Mire ran at an officer and the security guard shouting: 'This is for my Syrian brothers, I'm going to spill your blood,' before he was finally subdued.

An onlooker called out to Mire: 'You ain't no Muslim, bruv' - words which became famous in news reports and social media.

Mire, who suffered from psychotic episodes, had been referred to mental health services by his GP a month before the attack.

The court heard he had paranoid delusions that he was being followed by MI5 and MI6 and was suffering from anxiety and depression.

Mire's home in Leytonstone where he planned the attack. The practicing Muslim, was born in Somalia and came to the UK as a young boy. His brother and sister also live in the UK

During that time, Mire was spotted around the estate where he lived wearing traditional Muslim clothes rather than his usual jeans and T-shirt.

Mire, who is being treated for paranoid psychosis at Broadmoor high security hospital, will be sentenced on July 27.

Met Police anti-terror commander Dean Haydon praised members of the public who filmed the attacks, attempted to stop Mire and saved his victim's life.

He said: 'I would like to focus not on the terrible actions of Mire last December but the bravery of all of those involved - the junior doctor who gave medical aid to the victim as he lay bleeding on the floor, people who attempted to intervene, people who took video footage which has aided the prosecution, and people who engaged Mire and kept his attention, restricting his movement around the station, effectively confining him until the police arrived and detained him.

'This was Londoners responding calmly and sensibly to a very dangerous individual and all should be praised.'

'I could hear the flesh ripping': Shocked witnesses told how their journey home turned into a nightmare

Mire's victim told the jury he had only patchy memories of the day he was set upon and nearly killed by the violent fanatic.

Lyle Zimmerman said in evidence: 'I remember something very shocking happening. I don't remember what it was, whether I was cut with a knife at that point or punched. I do remember being shocked.

'I started yelling for help. I remember being forced down, but I don't remember being punched or shoved. I remember being kicked in the head and I remember covering up my head and going into as much of a foetal positon as I could with my guitar on my back and covering my head and continuing to shout for help.'

'I don't remember fighting back or even defending myself from the blows. Then there is a gap in my memory when I was either stunned or unconscious.'

CCTV footage captured nearly all of the shocking incident in Leytonstone tube station last December

Footage showed Mire kneeling down next to Mr Zimmerman as he lay face down and pulling up his head before sawing at it with the knife.

Mr Zimmerman said he had no recollection of the knife cutting his throat and he caught only a 'glimpse' of his attacker.

'At the time my objective impression was that I was being attacked by a crazy person, a mentally unwell person,' he added.

'I felt I was very lucky in that a junior doctor was passing by and my medical care afterwards and I am determined not to be dramatically changed by it.'

Another passenger, Leanne Bostock, described how Mire left his victim, 'limp and lifeless' on the ground.

Junior Doctor Matt Smith came to the aid of the victim Mr Zimmerman and stayed with him even when Mire returned to the scene

She said the attack was 'relentless' and described pandemonium and an 'atmosphere of panic' in the ticket hall.

Louise McGuinness, tried to push through the barrier to stop Mire as he hacked at Mr Zimmerman's throat.

'I could hear the flesh ripping,' she said. 'I shouted: 'Stop you a***hole' but I think that annoyed him and he walked towards the barrier and pointed the knife at me and said, 'You're next.'

Salim Patel, a retired civil servant who worked at the Old Times newspaper kiosk at the station called the police, telling them: 'He's carrying a knife, get an ambulance, he's killing him.'

Daniel Bielinski yelled at others to call the police and questioned Mire before following him back into the station.

Mire could be heard telling the Polish man: 'Do you know, if you live in Syria, they bomb you If you're a Muslim you get bombed.'

Matthew Smith, a junior doctor at Homerton University Hospital, who had just finished his shift, came to Mr Zimmerman's help.

He described removing a jumper that another passenger had used to stem the flow of blood and said: 'I could see the gentleman's airway and his windpipe. I thought it was life threatening.'

As he was treating the passenger, Mire returned.

'He was behaving quite erratically, moving from side to side, waving the weapon around. He was making grunting noises occasionally,' the doctor said.

'I was really very scared, he said. I was obviously frightened for my own safety. I wanted to run away as many passengers had done but I didn't want to leave Mr Zimmerman.'

Andrius Sabaliauskas, a Russian security guard, confronted Mire at the ticket barrier. He said he heard police sirens and thought: 'If I could hold him there, they could arrest him.'

While Mire was distracted by another member of the public, Mr Sabaliauskas decided to try and 'jump' him.

Mire slashed at a number of other people as he stalked the passageways and tunnels of the station

But he said the attacker 'came at me, tried to slash me' and he was forced to use his backpack to fend him off.

'I said don't run, the police are coming, you're going to get shot, but he didn't listen,' Mr Sabaliauskas added.

As the police arrived on the scene they hit Mire with an electronic taser gun after three attempts and he collapsed.
An autopsy is being carried out today on the baby son of a police officer who died after being left in a car in New York while temperatures were hovering around 80 degrees.

Michael Fanfarillo, who was four months old, was rushed to Rome Memorial Hospital in upstate New York on Monday afternoon after his father Mark, a local cop, found him unconscious.

Chief Deputy Sheriff Jon Owens said the child had been left in his father's car for an 'extended period of time'.

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Mark Fanfarillo posted this image of his baby son Michael with his older brother after his birth in February. Heatstroke in cars is the leading cause of non-crash-related deaths involving children, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. STOCK IMAGE

Courtesy WKTV

Mr Fanfarillo, who has been with the Rome Police Department for 10 years, has not been arrested but the authorities confirmed he was responsible for his son at the time of his death.

Mr Owens told WKTV, an NBC affiliate: 'Why he left the baby in there, that's all part of the investigation.'

Owens said. 'But, yes, he was the one responsible for the baby at the time there, and he left the child in there for an extended period of time.'

Mark Fanfarillo (left) has been a police officer with Rome Police Department in New York for 10 years

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says heatstroke is the leading cause of all non-crash-related deaths involving children under 14.

Almost a third of those who died were under a year old.

Earlier this year Justin Ross Harris, 34, went on trial charged with murdering his 22-month-old son Cooper, who died after being left in a hot car for seven hours while he was at work at Home Depot in Cobb County, Georgia, in June 2014.
Home Office has confirmed all three are being held at Dover for processing

Three suspected illegal immigrants trying to reach Britain have been detained by Border Force officials after a P&O ferry crew spotted them trying to cross the English Channel in a small boat.

The three migrants, all thought to be Iranians and wearing life-jackets, were seen at around dawn this morning at 5.23am.

UK Border Force officials were alerted by HM Coastguard who scrambled a Border Force cutter to intercept the vessel, thought to be a dinghy.

Border Force officials detained three suspected illegal immigrants, thought to be Iranian, after boarding a boat in the English Channel this morning (file picture)

Home Office officials has confirmed all three have since been transported to Dover where processing of the group is underway.

It is the latest in a string of incidents where migrants have tried to cross the English Channel in inflatables and small craft.

At its shortest distance the Dover Straits are just 20.6 miles wide between France and England.

The latest incident comes just more than a week after 18 Albanians were rescued after their rigid hulled inflatable boat got into difficulties a mile off the Kent coast at Dymchurch.

Two British men rescued with them were arrested and charged with people smuggling. They are due to appear at Maidstone Crown Court later this month.

The migrants' dinghy was spotted by the crew of a passing P&O Ferry, who alerted the authorities (file picture)

Officials fear the rescue could be a worrying development in the migrant crisis and could lead to deaths this summer.

Bernard Barron, president of the Calais lifeboat said after the discovery of 18 Albanians off Dymchurch at the Bank Holiday weekend

Mr Barron said: 'It's starting to become a very similar situation to that seen in the Mediterranean and my biggest fear is that the same kind of tragedies we see in Greece or Italy will start to repeat in the Channel.'
Philippine President-elect Rodrigo Duterte has said he will not be doing interviews or engage with the media during his six-year term, because it could lead to 'criticism'.

The 71-year-old caused international outrage last week when he appeared to defend the killings of journalists if they are overly critical or corrupt.

Reporters Without Borders responded by urging local media to boycott his news conferences, which has now seen Duterte boycotting them back.

'No interview, no criticism': Rodrigo Duterte announced that he will not be doing any interviews with the media while he is President of the Philippines, as talking to journalists could lead to 'criticism'.

'I wont grant interviews. Sorry. Its really a boycott,' Duterte said during what he said would be his last interview during his presidential term, PhilStar news reported.

'If there are interviews, there will be many mistakes, there will be many criticisms. So no interview, no criticism, no wrong statements, no nothing'.

This comes after he appeared to condone killings of representatives of the media if they are 'overly critical', 'corrupt' or 'a son of a b***'.

The Philippines has been the second-deadliest country for journalists since 1990, second only to war-torn Iraq, and Duterte had been asked to comment on the many unsolved killings.

Duterte said many of those slain had died because they had been overly criticized people who couldn't tolerate personal attacks or had been paid to take sides on issues.

Duterte, 71, caused international outrage when he appeared to defend the killings of journalists if they are 'overly critical' or 'paid to take sides'

'Just because you're a journalist (doesn't mean) you're exempted from assassination if you're a son of a b****,' Duterte said.

'Your freedom of expression cannot help you if you have done something wrong with the guy.'

His comments sparked world-wide anger, with Reporters Without Borders calling his statements defamatory and unworthy of a president, asking journalists to boycott Duterte's news conferences until he issued an apology.

The Committee to Protect Journalists said Duterte's remarks 'apparently excusing extrajudicial killings threaten to make the Philippines into a killing field for journalists.'

Shawn Crispin, a CPJ senior Southeast Asia representative, urged Duterte to retract his comments and signal that he intends to protect, not target, the media.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines also condemned the remarks, saying they effectively 'declared open season' to attack the media.

'Mr. Duterte's crass pronouncement not only sullies the names and memories of all 176 of our colleagues who have been murdered since 1986, he has also, in effect, declared open season to silence the media.'

However, true to form, Duterte refused to apologize and instead dared reporters to carry out a threat of boycott in an expletive-laden rant.

'Don't threaten me, boycott! Go ahead and boycott, damn you!' Duterte said at a news conference in Davao city, where he has been mayor for 22 years.

Duterte won the May 9 presidential election on a bold promise to end crime and corruption within six months of the start of his presidency.

That vow resonated among crime-weary Filipinos, though police officials considered it campaign rhetoric that was impossible to accomplish.
An ultra-orthodox rabbi from the Jerusalem neighbourhood of Nahloat has banned girls as young as five from riding bikes, believing the popular activity can 'cause serious damage to their modesty.'

The ruling, distributed to synagogues around Nahloat, states: 'We inform parents that they are obligated to forbid their daughters from age five and up from acting in this illegitimate way.'

The rabbi added that bicycle seats caused young girls to sit in a way men found 'provocative', according to the Arutz Sheva 7 website.

Firm believers: Ultra-Orthodox Jews attend a mass anti-draft rally in Jerusalem

HAREDI JEWS: WHAT MAKES THEM UNIQUE? Haredi Jews are exempt from military service and state subsidies They are the most conservative of all strands of Judaism Men wear black suits, white shirts and hats - such as 1940s-style fedoras and large traditional Slavic fur hats - and usually have beards and sidelocks. Women dress modestly in long skirts, long sleeves, high necklines and thick stockings. Married women cover their hair with wigs, scarves or hats Advertisement

In December, ultra-orthodox rabbis requested women in the Israeli city of Bnei Brak refrain from studying at university, according to the Yeshida World News website.

They claimed institutions of higher education which teach secular subjects presented a real danger to girls and women.

Those primarily affected by these decisions are members of the ultra-orthodox Haredi branch of Judaism.

Haredi leaders have also attempted to ban the internet from their communities and have criticised smartphones for being 'non-kosher.'

Despite this, studies suggest that this attempted clampdown has had little effect, with ultra-orthodox Jews in Israel continuing to use the internet just as much as anyone else.

An Israeli Jew prays at the Wailing Wall. Israel is made up of different branches of Judaism

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Ali Qzimaj, 42, is believed to be an ethnic Albanian who fled his home in Kosovo around 20 years ago at the time of the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia

The Albanian fugitive at the centre of an international manhunt over the murder of a line dancing pensioner and his missing wife is a former asylum seeker who was living under an alias in the UK, police have revealed.

Fork lift driver Ali Qzimaj, 42, is believed to be an ethnic Albanian who fled his home in Kosovo around 20 years ago at the time of the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia.

Suffolk Police confirmed today that he had arrived in the UK as a refugee and was given a British passport after being granted asylum. He has also been using the alias Marco Costa.

Qazimaj of Tilbury, Essex, who is believed to have fled to mainland Europe is wanted for questioning over the murder of Peter Stuart, 75, who died from multiple stab wounds.

Detectives also want to quiz him about the disappearance of Sylvia Stuart, 69 who is also feared to have been murdered.

The couple who were keen line dancers were last seen on Sunday May 29 when they were filmed by a CCTV camera on a trip to Goodies farm shop at Pulham Market, Norfolk.

They were declared missing by neighbours and relatives last Friday morning.

Police found the body of Mr Stuart on Friday evening in woods just 50ft from the isolated house where he lived with his wife in Weybread near Eye, Suffolk.

Qazimaj emerged as a key suspect after his sliver Citroen C3 car was found close to the Channel ferry terminal in Dover, Kent, early on Monday.

Suffolk Police later said they 'strongly believed' that he had caught a ferry to Calais while unaccompanied just after 7pm on Saturday.

It had been feared Qazimaj may have kidnapped Mrs Stuart but this theory appears to have been dispelled.

Mrs Stuart disappeared shortly before the body of her husband was found last Friday in woodland just 50ft from the couple's isolated home in Weybread, Suffolk.

The pair were reported on missing on June 3, having last been seen by relatives at a family gathering on May 28.

Police say hopes of finding missing Sylvia Stuart (left) alive are fading. The body of her husband Peter (second from left) was found in an area of woodland on Friday evening only 50ft away from the isolated house the couple shared. The couple's son-in-law Steve Paxman (right), 61, is being questioned

Investigation: Police and forensic teams have been searching the home of Ali Qazimaj in Tilbury on Monday

Abroad? There are fears Qazimaj may have fled to France, possibly with Mrs Stuart, after police discovered his car in Athol Terrace, Dover (main). Mr Stuart's body was found near his home in Webread, Suffolk (inset)

Yesterday Suffolk Police have released CCTV of the last time the couple were seen alive. The pair are seen going into Goodies Farm Shop in Pulham Market at 10.18am on Sunday May 29.

Officers are appealing for anyone who may have seen them or who has information regarding their whereabouts from this time until June 3 to get in touch.

Detectives said today they believe Qazimaj  who is linked to the couple's son-in-law Steve Paxman, 61  has now fled the country after his car was discovered dumped in the Channel port of Dover.

TIMELINE OF THE MURDER INQUIRY Thursday, May 28: Peter and Sylvia Stuart are last seen alive by relatives at a family gathering at their home in Weybread, Suffolk. Morning of Friday, June 3: The couple are reported missing. Friday night: Mr Stuart's body is found in an area of woodland on Friday evening only 50ft away from the isolated house he shared with his wife. It later emerges he died from multiple stab wounds. Sunday morning: A 61-year-old man from Leicester is arrested on suspicion of murder on Sunday. It later emerged he is believed to be the couple's son-in-law, Steve Paxman, who remains in police custody. Early hours of Monday: A silver Citroen C3 belonging to Ali Qazimaj, 42, is discovered in a residential area in Dover. Monday morning: Suffolk Police issue an appeal, saying Qazimaj, of Tilbury, Essex, is wanted in connection with the murder investigation. Monday lunchtime: Officers reveal that Mrs Stuart could be alive and with Qazimaj - the man wanted on suspicion of stabbing her husband to death. However, they say hopes of finding the 69-year-old unharmed are fading with every passing minute. Advertisement

Suffolk Police has 'reliable information' that places Qazimaj at the Port of Dover ferry terminal at around 6.30pm on Saturday, the force said. It is strongly believed that he then boarded a passenger ferry unaccompanied to Calais in France soon after 7pm.

Officers are continuing the hunt for the fugitive.

Detective Chief Superintendent Simon Parkes said detectives were keen to find out as much information as possible about Qazimaj and appealed for help from any members of the public who knew him.

He added: 'We strongly believe that finding Ali Qazimaj will help us in locating Sylvia, who has now not been seen for nearly 10 days.

'We know that he was living in Tilbury in Essex and that he has been working in Purfleet as a forklift driver.

'We believe he is from Kosovo, that he sought asylum following the conflict and was granted this and given a British passport. We also know he has used the name Marco Costa.

'Our enquiries continue to learn more about his roots and his links within the UK and overseas.

'We urgently need anyone who knows him, who may have spent time with him over the last few weeks or before this to get in touch and tell us more about his background so that we can trace his movements.

'We are particularly keen to hear from anyone who may have seen him between Sunday May 29 and when he left the country on Saturday June 4, or anyone who can shed light on where he may have been between these times.'

Police had said on Monday there was a 'remote' possibility that Qazimaj may have taken Mrs Stuart with him, but there was 'only a glimmer of hope that she was still alive'.

Detectives have warned the public not to approach the murder suspect, who neighbours described last night as a gun-obsessed loner who has previously bragged that he could kill someone and dispose of them in a barrel.

His whereabouts were unclear as police said he could be in France or elsewhere in Europe, as he is known to speak Polish and is said to have lived in the former Yugoslavia and Prague.

Seen on CCTV: Happily browsing in a farm shop, these are the last known movements of a murdered line dancing enthusiast and his missing wife - as police reveal the prime suspect in the case has fled abroad

Suffolk Police have released CCTV of the couple entering Goodies Farm Shop on Wood Lane in Pulham Market at 10.18am on Sunday May 29

Plea for help: Officers are appealing for anyone who may have seen them or who has information regarding their whereabouts from this time until June 3 to get in touch

The pair were reported on missing on June 3 having last been seen at a family gathering on May 28

These are the last known movements of murdered line dancing enthusiast Peter Stuart and his missing wife

Detectives have also been quizzing a man from Leicester arrested on suspicion of murder on Sunday morning, who has now been named as the couple's son-in-law, Steve Paxman, who is married to their daughter, Christy, 41.

But he was released on police bail this morning. Mr Paxman is due to return to Martlesham Police Investigation Centre on August 3.

It followed a search yesterday by teams of forensic officers of the couple's 300,000 house, where weapons including shotguns and cartridges were seen being removed from the property.

The two suspects are believed to have known each other as Qazimaj dated Mr Paxman's late stepmother, Helen Paxman. More recently Qazimaj moved to Tilbury in Essex from where he vanished on the same day the elderly couple went missing.

He told a group of boys he would make them disappear. He said: "I'll stick them in a barrel and then no one would find them again" A neighbour on Qazimaj

Yesterday neighbours said the Albanian, who previously worked for Thurrock Council, had bragged that he could kill someone. One 23-year-old woman said Qazimaj had once threatened to kill a neighbour during a row and boasted that he could pick locks and 'sort people out'.

She said: 'He would say stuff like he has got people in his country and if anyone did anything to him they would be gone.'

She added: 'He told a group of boys he would make them disappear. He said: "I'll stick them in a barrel and then no one would find them again".'

The woman, who said she was pestered by Qazimaj, added: 'He used to freak me out a bit. He would come home from work late. He would knock on my door and always said he could make my partner disappear if I wanted.

'He was always talking about making people disappear, he said he had made people disappear before with barrels.'

Another woman who lives nearby said: 'He said about two years ago he could get hold of guns and could kill someone. He had an argument with someone downstairs and he said after, 'I would kill someone.' I think his dad is from Prague and his mum is from Albania. He is a weird, horrible man.'

Sylvia Stuart (left), is the missing wife of murdered pensioner Peter Stuart (right) who was stabbed to death

Mr Stuart was found in woodland around 50ft from their isolated home. Pictured, forensic officers at the scene

It has emerged a 61-year-old man from Leicester arrested on suspicion of murder on Sunday, is believed to be the couple's son-in-law, Steve Paxman. He is still in police custody (police are pictured searching his home)

Family: The couple's daughter Christy with her husband, dog breeder Steve Paxman. It has emerged he is the 61-year-old man from Leicester who was arrested on suspicion of murder on Sunday. He has now been bailed

Search: Police outside the home of Christy and Steve Paxman in Loughborough, Leicestershire, this afternoon

She claimed Mr Qazimaj had been agitated at work before he disappeared. The mother of two also said she thought firearms had been recovered from his property.

Last night a local hairdresser said Qazimaj, who is divorced and has a child with an ex-wife, had struck up a relationship with Steve Paxman's stepmother despite a 30-year age gap. She also claimed that Qazimaj, who was a regular in betting shops, had committed an offence in a betting shop in Basildon in 2009.

Suffolk Police confirmed that Qazimaj had 'a connection' with the family of Mr and Mrs Stuart.

Last night forensics officers from Norfolk and Suffolk police were seen searching the home of the Stuarts' son-in-law Steve Paxman. Two cars, including at least one 4x4 vehicle, were seized.

Yesterday a resident said she had spoken to Mr Paxman on Saturday morning. She said he had appeared 'normal' and had not discussed the fact that his missing father-in-law had been discovered dead in woodland on Friday night.

The resident said: 'It was just a perfectly normal conversation  there was no indication that he was under any stress at all. He was just so normal, he was his usual friendly self.'

Yesterday Detective Chief Superintendent Simon Parkes said: 'While hopes for Sylvia's safety are reducing with the passage of time, there remains the possibility she is still alive. We are actively working to find Ali Qazimaj and determine his movements. The man arrested yesterday is still in custody.'

A keen gambler, gun-obsessed loner and former council worker: What is known about the fugitive wanted over the murder of a Suffolk pensioner and his missing wife... as it's revealed the stepmother of the couple's son-in-law was the suspect's lover

By Sam Tonkin for MailOnline

Neighbours have described him as a gun-obsessed loner and keen gambler, but much about Ali Qazimaj's background and his links to the Stuart family remain shrouded in mystery

Neighbours have described him as a gun-obsessed loner and keen gambler, but much about Ali Qazimaj's background and his links to the Stuart family remain shrouded in mystery today.

What has been revealed is that the fork-lift truck driver was once the lover of previously arrested Steve Paxman's stepmother.

Mr Paxman, who this morning was released on bail, is the son-in-law of murdered Suffolk pensioner Peter Stuart and wife Sylvia. She is still missing but feared dead.

Qazimaj, 42, and Helen Paxman are believed to have struck up a relationship in 2005 when he was 33 and she was 69.

Mrs Paxman is said to have taken the now fugitive into her home after the pair met through her brother, who ran a car dealership.

A neighbour at the flat in Thurrock, Essex, which the pair once shared told The Times: 'Ali was sleeping rough on the benches.'

David Skipper, 85, said of Mrs Paxman and Qazimaj: 'He was here about five or six years. She fed and clothed him and she bought him a car.

'I think they started a relationship from almost the beginning.

'She told me one day that "all he ever thinks about is sex". She took to wearing trousers with him but previously she had worn short dresses.'

Mrs Paxman is thought to have died two or three years ago.

Qazimaj's whereabouts are unclear as police said he could be in France or elsewhere in Europe, as he is known to speak Polish and is said to have lived in the former Yugoslavia and Prague.

Yesterday neighbours said the Albanian, who previously worked for Thurrock Council, had bragged that he could kill someone. One 23-year-old woman said Qazimaj had once threatened to kill a neighbour during a row and boasted that he could pick locks and 'sort people out'.

She said: 'He would say stuff like he has got people in his country and if anyone did anything to him they would be gone.'

She added: 'He told a group of boys he would make them disappear. He said: "I'll stick them in a barrel and then no one would find them again".'

It is believed that Qazimaj, who is divorced and has a child with an ex-wife, used to work for Thurrock Council's cleaning services department but had taken time off after a 'meltdown'.

Forensic teams and police officers were seen at the Essex home of Qazimaj, who may have fled to France

Yesterday, one neighbour who lives close to Qazimaj's flat in Tilbury, Essex, described him as 'a weirdo'.

'His behaviour has always been very odd whenever I have seen him,' the unnamed neighbour said.

'I thought he was a drug dealer to be honest.

'I can speak Polish so he would speak to me in Polish but he never gave anything away.

'I only ever saw him on his own - I am not aware that he lived there with anyone.'

Police arrived at the property on Sunday night and sealed off the communal bins and placed an officer at the entrance to the flat.

Another neighbour said: 'He would pass my window and smile at me but then he would stand there waiting for a response.

'I found it really creepy.

'I didnt know him at all as Ive not been here very long but he gave me the creeps.'

Qazimaj is described as white, around 5ft 6ins tall, with brown eyes and dark brown greying hair. He was last seen on Friday in Essex.

His car, a silver Citroen C3, was found in a residential area of Dover at around midnight on Sunday.

The vehicle has been searched and will be forensically examined.

Teams of forensic specialists and officers with dogs were yesterday searching the couple's home
A three-year-old boy's genitals were crushed after he sat down on a moving escalator and his pants got tangled in the metal.

The tip of his penis was ripped off and the 'screaming' boy was trapped for half an hour while emergency crews dismantled the escalator to rescue him.

A fire crew rushed to the scene of the horrific incident in Western Malaysia where they found the boy trapped and crying on the floor.

A three-year-old boy's genitals were crushed after he sat down on a moving escalator and his pants got tangled

The trapped child was crying on the floor when a fire crew arrived at the scene. The horrific incident occurred at a supermarket in Malaysia

A witness pressed the emergency stop button to halt the escalator but the boy's genitals had already been crushed, leaving him screaming in agony.

Nasir Wahab, spokesman for the rescue workers, said: 'The mishap happened when they were reaching the top of the escalator.

'His pants got pulled in at the start, before the tip of his penis got caught as well.

'We used crowbars to remove the escalator panels surrounding the boy.'

The child was rushed to Taiping Hospital for emergency treatment.

His current condition is not known.

Mr Wahab added that parents should watch their children when using escalators and should never let them sit down on the moving panels.

A rescue crew worked for 30 minutes to free the trapped child as he lay screaming in agony
to confirm these rumors by posting an Instagram photo talking about her good hair after the release of the Beyonce's album

Rachel Roy reportedly fled the scene at Monday night's CFDA Awards after learning that Beyonce would be making a surprise appearance to pick up the Fashion Icon Award.

Page Six reports that Roy was caught completely off guard when Beyonce's mom and daughter, Tina Knowles and Blue Ivy, showed up halfway through the event, making it clear who would be receiving the prestigious honor that evening.

That is when the woman rumored to be 'Becky with the good hair' was caught sneaking out the back door before Beyonce took the stage.

Rumors of a past affair between Roy and Jay Z reemerged last month after the release of Beyonce's new album Lemonade.

She's out: Rachel Roy reportedly fled the CFDA Awards on Monday night after learning Beyonce would be getting the Fashion Icon Award (designer above with model Candice Huffine)

Family affair: Jay Z, Blue Ivy and Beyonce at the CFDA Awards on Monday night

Big night: Beyonce made a surprise appearance at the event and had not been a previously scheduled guest (above)

'She disappeared with her place card and never came back,' said one source.

'I dont know if it was because shes "Becky," or what?'

Another source at the event said: 'Rachel just came and left.'

Roy attended the event with American model Candice Huffine, who despite her date's decision to ditch her halfway through the evening stayed for the rest of the festivities before continuing on to the after party.

She even posed for a photo at that event with Ty Hunter - Beyonce's stylist.

A friend of Roy meanwhile claims that the designer left in a hurry because she had an early flight and wanted to get back to Los Angeles to see her children.

Beyonce was met with rapturous applause when she was announced by CFDA president Diane von Furstenberg as the winner of the Fashion Icon Award.

Taking the stage in a glittering Givenchy tuxedo and wide-brimmed hat similar to the one she wears in her Formation video, Beyonce thanked all the designers who have dressed her over the years, especially her mother Tina.

'Starting out in Destinys Child, high-end labels didnt really want to dress four black country curvy girls, and we couldnt afford designer dresses and couture,' she said.

'My mother was rejected from every showroom in New York. But like my grandmother, she used her talent and her creativity to give her children their dreams.

'My mother and my uncle, God rest his soul, made all of our first costumes, individually sewing hundreds of crystals and pearls, putting so much passion and love into every small detail.

'When I wore these clothes I felt like Khaleesi. I had an extra suit of armor. It was so much deeper than any brand name.'

She was cheered on by her entire family after she finished, including husband Jay Z who arrived with their daughter Blue Ivy for the big event.

BEYONCE CFDA SPEECH AFTER RECEIVING THE FASHION ICON AWARD

'Thank you so much, Diane, for the things you just said about me. I feel so much love and I feel so proud. As long as I can remember, fashion has been part of my life. Its effect on me actually started before I was born. Many of you guys dont know this, but my grandmother was a seamstress. My grandparents did not have enough money, they could not afford my mothers Catholic school tuition. So my grandmother sewed clothes for the priests and the nuns and made uniforms for the students in exchange for my mothers education. She then passed this gift onto my mother and taught her how to sew. 'Starting out in Destinys Child, high-end labels didnt really want to dress four black country curvy girls, and we couldnt afford designer dresses and couture. My mother was rejected from every showroom in New York. But like my grandmother, she used her talent and her creativity to give her children their dreams. My mother and my uncle, God rest his soul, made all of our first costumes, individually sewing hundreds of crystals and pearls, putting so much passion and love into every small detail. When I wore these clothes I felt like Khaleesi. I had an extra suit of armor. It was so much deeper than any brand name. 'My mother is fabulous and beautiful and shes here tonight. My mother, my grandmother, and my uncle are always with me so I cannot fail. My mother actually designed my wedding dress, my prom dress, my first CFDA Award dress, my first Grammy dress, and the list goes on and on. And this to me is the true power and potential of fashion. Its a tool for finding your own identity. It transcends style, and its a time capsule of all of our greatest milestones. So to my mother, my grandmother, my uncle, thank yall. Thank you for showing me that having presence is about far more than the clothes you wear and your physical beauty. Thank you for showing me how to take risks, work hard, and live life on my own terms. 'I want to say thank you to every designer who works tirelessly to make people think they can write their own story. Yall are fairy godmothers, magicians, sculptors, and sometimes even our therapists. I encourage you to not forget this power you have or to take it lightly. We have the opportunity to contribute to a society where any girl can look at a billboard or magazine cover and see her own reflection. Soul has no color, no shape, no form. Just like all of your work, it goes far beyond what the eye can see. You have the power to change perception, to inspire and empower, and to show people how to embrace their complications, and see the flaws, and the true beauty and strength thats inside all of us. Thank you so much for this incredible award, Ill never forget this night. God bless you all. Thank you.' Advertisement

Reports of Roy's alleged romance with Jay Z first emerged back in May 2014 after it was rumored that it was the fashion designer's affair with the rapper that was what sent Beyonce's sister Solange Knowles into a rage which ended with her physically attacking the rapper in the elevator of a New York City hotel.

Roy, who is of Indian and Dutch ancestry, got her start in fashion interning for the fashion brand Roc-a-Wear, which was owned by Jay Z and Damon Dash.

She eventually rose to the position of creative director for the brand's women's line, while also becoming a prominent member of the Manhattan social scene when she began to date Dash, who had also co-founded Roc-A-Fella Records with Jay Z.

Dash gave birth to the couple's daughter Ava in 1999 and then, almost a decade later in 2008, a second daughter Tallulah.

They were married in 2005 but divorced just five years later in 2009, and are currently involved in a contentious court battle after Roy was awarded sole custody of their daughters and granted a three-year restraining orders against Dash for herself and the two girls.

Roy launched her eponymous fashion line in 2004 and since then has launched various offshoots of her label.

Her good looks and success in the fashion world have made her a favorite of Vogue editor Anna Wintour, who often features her in the magazine and invites her every year to the magazine's Met Ball.

New pal: Roy attended the event with American model Candice Huffine, who despite her date's decision to ditch her halfway through the evening stayed for the rest of the festivities before continuing on to the after party where she took a photo with Ty Hunter (above), Beyonce's stylist

Family affair: Beyonce (left) was joined by her husband Jay Z and daughter Blue Ivy (right) on Monday

It was at an afterparty for the 2014 event that a fight broke out between herself and Solange, which then led to Jay Z being attacked by his sister-in-law.

The group were at the celebrity packed, invite-only event that is held each year at the Boom Boom Room inside the Standard Hotel when a Solange began to argue with Roy.

Solange, who posed smiling on the red carpet with Roy at the same event two years prior, looked 'a pressure cooker waiting to explode' when she walked up to Roy at the event a source told Page Six at the time.

Another source at the event said that things quickly escalated, and at one point a female guest tried to stick up for Roy before asking Solange: 'What is your problem?'

That is when Beyonce got involved according to the source, telling the woman: 'You dont get to speak to my sister that way.'

Later that night security footage of Solange leaving the event with her sister and Jay Z showed her arguing with the rapper as they got into one of the hotel's elevators.

In the video Solange is seen looking more and more incensed while yelling at her brother-in-law, who remained calm and collected.

Then, Solange can be seen lunging across the elector kicking and punching at the rapper, who quickly puts his body up against a wall while a bodyguard holds Solange back.

Throughout the entire fight Beyonce is not seen speaking once or doing anything to stop her sister from attacking her husband.

Social media: Roy appeared to confirm rumors of an affair with Jay Z by posting an Instagram photo talking about her good hair after the release of the Beyonce's album

Photographs of the three leaving the hotel show just minutes later show an annoyed Solange and smiling Beyonce get into a car while an emotionless Jay Z goes off on his own.

The infamous elevator incident has never been spoken off publicly by the three involved, though Solange did tweet just six days later: 'This might have been top 10 days ever in life.'

It was the morning after that comment from Solange that TMZ released the video, which sparked an internal investigation at the hotel to find the employee responsible for the leak.

The individual was fired just three days later.

Roy also never spoke about the fight, but 'loved the press' she got from it a source who used to be close to the designer told Page Six, which is why many believed she posted a photo to Instagram shortly after the released of Beyonce's new song Sorry.

The photo showed Roy out with a friend and the caption: 'Good hair dont care, but we will take good lighting, for selfies, or self truths, always. Live in the light #nodramaqueens.'

Roy then later denied any relationship with Jay Z after coming under attack from the Beyhive for her comment, saying: 'There is no validity to the idea that the song references me personally. There is no truth to the rumors.'
A family who were forced to cancel their holiday abroad because fellow passengers refused to let them sit together have been awarded thousands of pounds in compensation.

Carolyn and Jay Mortimore spent 2,300 for a half-term break in Tenerife with their two children Brayden, seven, and Ryley, 12 - only to be kicked off their flight because there was not enough space.

They were initially denied full compensation for their holiday last week - but EasyJet and Thomas Cook have now made a U-turn and offered them nearly twice the original cost of the getaway.

Jay Mortimore and his wife Carolyn (right) with their children Ryley, 12 (left) and Brayden, seven, and Mr Mortimore's mother, Susan Hutter, at the holiday park in Exmouth where they ended up spending the half-term holiday after their EasyJet nightmare

'Never again': The family had to watch as their EasyJet flight took off without them from Bristol airport

After the family had to watch their flight take off from Bristol airport without them, they returned to their home in Exeter, Devon to find that their beloved dog had to be put down.

Following the publicity and a massive outpouring of public sympathy, the travel giants have agreed to give the Mortimores 3,640 plus 600 worth of holiday vouchers.

Mr Mortimore, 35, said: 'It's not the holiday we wanted, but they have done us a good deal and given us back more than we paid.

'We are still angry, especially as the boys have gone through it hard this week no matter how much money they give us.

'It's all gone crazy since we shared our story. It's still rubbish what we've been through but we're trying to make the most out of it.

'Later in the year we may use the holiday vouchers to go away for a long weekend or maybe we might have a small holiday next year in Spain.'

Devastated: Brayden, who was hoping to go on his first foreign holiday, and Ryley, watch as their flight departs

The family spent their holiday in a caravan at a holiday park in Devon, just a few miles away from their home.

EasyJet had initially defended its policy of overbooking flights to limit the effect of no-shows, but later performed a U-turn.

A spokesman said: 'We protect families from any overbooking, so this situation should simply not have occurred.

'We should have been able to seat the Mortimore family together to enable them to travel and they will be fully compensated for their experience.

'EasyJet does everything it can to seat families together and has a sophisticated algorithm which seats families together more than 99 per cent of the time.

'On the rare occasion where this hasn't been possible we'll ask passengers onboard to move to accommodate families with young children. It is very rare that passengers aren't prepared to do so although this was the case on this flight.'

Thomas Cook added in a statement: 'Once we became aware we contacted them to offer our full support.

'We have reassured the family that we are taking this matter seriously, and that we have asked EasyJet to investigate why this occurred.

'We're pleased the family has accepted a full refund as well as the payment they are entitled to from EasyJet for denied boarding. As a further gesture of goodwill we have given them a voucher towards their next holiday, for which they are very grateful.'

Carolyn and Jay Mortimore, pictured with his mother Susan Hutter and their children Brayden, seven, and Ryley, 12. The family made the best of things by spending the week at a holiday park in Exmouth but it was no match for their dream holiday in Tenerife

The family had booked their first holiday for eight years last August and Mr Mortimore said his boys had been 'counting down the days' before they could jet off to the Canary Islands.

His mother, Susan Hutter, 61, had also booked a ticket to join them.

But their problems began as soon as they arrived at the check-in desk at Bristol airport last Tuesday.

They had been unable to print off their boarding passes and so had to wait 35 minutes at the desk before they were issued with them.

When they finally got them, they were only handed three because the plane was now at full capacity.

Mr Mortimore was informed he was on the reserve list if a seat became available, but his mother offered up her ticket so the family could all go together.

But more drama unfolded when the family boarded the packed flight.

As there were no spaces on the plane for two people to sit next to each other - and as children have to be sat next to an adult - the flight attendant asked if anyone would volunteer giving up their place.

But when their pleas fell on deaf ears, the Mortimore family had to trudge off the aircraft and watch the flight take off.

The fall-out left the children in tears and family out of pocket as they were at first offered just $800 (554) in compensation.

'Robbed our money': Mrs Mortimore said she 'never wanted to hear the name EasyJet again' after the debacle

Disgruntled: The Mortimore family were unable to jet off to their dream holiday to Tenerife because their flight was overbooked and other passengers then refused to give up their seat

Mr Mortimore said: 'There were all these adults on the flight and no one offered to move seats. We were asked to go out onto the steps and ended up on the tarmac of the runway for half an hour.

'The boys were shivering because it was so cold and Brayden was scared because he's never been on a plane before and didn't like the noise of the engines.'

They then watched as the plane took off without them.

Mr Mortimore added: 'EasyJet staff told us they over sell flights by 10 per cent to make sure it is fully booked, and that is a frequent problem trying to get everyone on flights when they are busy.

'They told us on Tuesday there were 33 flights and 27 of those were overbooked by 20 per cent.'

To make matters worse the family were then told their dog had been rushed to the vets and needed to be put down.

Mr Mortimore, a burly self-employed groundworker, said: 'It was probably the worst day of our lives.

'It was meant to be a much needed break. I'd been working six or seven day weeks and Carolyn had been working night shifts as a care assistant so we could pay off the holiday in February.

'But instead of being a great family experience we've all been sat at home crying because we're angry about the holiday and upset about our dog.

'When we finally got back home our boys were shattered and devastated.

'They had been counting down the days until they went on holiday for months.'

After they failed to board their flight, EasyJet offered to pay for a taxi to take the disgruntled family to Exeter airport where Thomas Cook had flights to Tenerife - but they would have to fork out for the flight and there were only three available seats.

Mrs Mortimore (pictured, right with husband Jay) said the whole family were so disappointed and she added: 'I don't ever want to hear the name easyJet again'

Another option offered to them was to fly from London Gatwick the following day but they were told the flight was fully booked and feared being left in the same situation.

In response, a spokesman for EasyJet had told MailOnline on Friday: 'We are sorry to hear of the experience that the Mortimore family had on their recent flight to Tenerife.

'Like other airlines EasyJet overbooks on some flights to fill seats which would otherwise fly vacant. EasyJet has some of the highest load factors in the industry, however we do not achieve this by overbooking in the way that traditional airlines do.

'2.6million passengers a year do not turn up for their EasyJet flights and a flight will only be overbooked after reviewing the no-show rate for the last three months.

'On average, across our flights we will only overbook by one or two passengers per flight. As a result, it is extremely rare for EasyJet to deny boarding of passengers because the flight is overbooked.
An American Olympian is searching for the gold medal he won at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics after he says it was stolen by thieves who broke into his car in Atlanta.

Joe Jacobi won a gold medal for the U.S. in the two-man canoe slalom event Spain.

He says the medal was inside a backpack that was taken from his car while he and his family were inside a restaurant on Monday evening.

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Olympic champion: Joe Jacobi's Gold Medal was stolen in northwest Atlanta Monday afternoon

Going for gold: The medal was inside a backpack that was taken from the car after it was broken into

Thieves! Someone broke into Jacobi's car Monday, while it was parked at a restaurant. The suspects got away with Jacobi's backpack, which contained his computer and his Olympic gold medal

Surveillance footage of the parking lot shows two men involved in the break-in.

Witnesses say they the men, who had shirts covering their faces, break the rear passenger-side window and take several items from the vehicle.

The thieves ending up throwing away most the stuff into a nearby dumpster, but the gold medal was missing

Many people online have asked: 'Why would he carry something so valuable? Jacobi said he understands the risk, but believes its an item and experience that should be shared.

Recovered: Thieves threw away most the stuff into a nearby dumpster, but the gold medal was missing

Efficient operation: The robbers appeared to targeting every single car in the parking lot as they went about their business

The search for gold: Jacobi's wife, Lisa, posted information online showing where the items were stolen and later dumped nearby

Golden days: Twenty-four years ago in Barcelona, Joe Jacobi, right, won the only U.S. Olympic gold medal in canoe/kayak slalom

Former champion: For the last 24 years, Olympian Joe Jacobi carried his gold medal with him at all times to share his Olympic journey with others

Thats why two decades later he has continued to carry with him.

Jacobi's wife, Lisa said, 'He takes his medal with him to share with school children and when he is doing public speaking. He believes that the medal belongs to America and not to him personally and he wants to make sure that as many people as would like have the ability to hold or wear the medal.'

The entire crime, which happened around 6:45pm Monday, was also captured by restaurant surveillance cameras. One man can be seen jumping through the broken window and then getting out of the door of Jacobi's car.

Jacobi's wife, Lisa Riblet Jacobi, says police found the thieves' getaway car and recovered some of the stolen items Tuesday but are still looking for the medal.

She tells WGCL-TV her husband takes the medal with him to share it with schoolchildren at public speaking events.

'That piece of metal doesn't define me,' Jacobi told CBS46. 'It really is an opportunity for those people to have their own Olympic gold medal moment by returning the medal, not to me but to us no questioned asked, it can be done,' Jacobi stated.

'That Olympic medal has no real monetary value on the market. I think for us it's an opportunity for them to have their own Olympic gold medal moment by doing the right thing and return the medal.'

Many people have sounded off on social media, trying to spread the word of the stolen medal. Pictures of the suspect's vehicle and the gold medal are listed below in the post by Lisa Riblet Jacobi.

As the suspect got away, Jacobi was able to snap off a photo of the rear of the car that the suspect jumped into, which was provided to Atlanta Police.
A City banker who blew nearly all his family's money on spread betting because he didn't want his colleagues to think he was a 'wimp' has been ordered to give every leftover penny to his ex-wife.

Amit Goyal, 39, was once a 'gifted and talented' banker and earned up to 300,000-a-year as a trader for Deutsche Bank and UBS in London, but is now on benefits and over 650,000 in debt.

The former high-flyer and his beauty therapist wife, Ankita Ghuman, 35, went from enjoying 'holidays and high living' on his six-figure wages to being dependent on state handouts.

The former couple Amit and Ankita married in 2003, and he worked for City banks. But by the time the couple split in 2011, he had lost at least 500,000 spread betting and his debts now stand at 650,000

The former high-flyer and his beauty therapist wife, Ankita Ghuman, 35, went from enjoying 'holidays and high living' on his six-figure wages to being dependent on state handouts

After the couple split in 2011, Mr Goyal told a divorce court that he experienced 'peer pressure' to gamble from other bankers, which had led him to 'fritter away' his family's money.

The Court of Appeal has now ruled that Mrs Ghuman should get all of the family assets, which were left 'depressingly limited' due to his 'financial recklessness'.

Mr Justice Cobb, in the Appeal Court, heard that the former couple, who both live in Canary Wharf, married in 2003.

During the whole of their marriage, Mr Goyal worked for City banks and sought to supplement the family income by spread betting.

At first he recorded gains of up to 30,000-a-year but, from 2007, began to suffer 'disastrous' losses of up to 300,000-a-year.

By the time the couple split in 2011, he had lost at least 500,000 and his debts now stand at 650,000, the court heard.

For the last five years, the ex-couple have been locked in an 'acrimonious litigation' over their divorce which has only worsened their 'parlous' financial situation.

Amit Goyal (left), 39, blew nearly all his family's money on spread betting because he didn't want his colleagues to think he was a 'wimp' and has been ordered to pay ex-wife Amkita (right), 35, all that remains

After the couple split in 2011, Mr Goyal told a divorce court that he experienced 'peer pressure' to gamble from other bankers, which had led him to 'fritter away' his family's money

Mr Justice Cobb heard that Mrs Ghuman now owes 130,000 to lawyers, and the only concrete family asset now remaining is 19,000 worth of UBS shares.

Divorce Judge Glenn Brasse, in a judgement delivered last year, slammed the husband's 'reckless and wanton' financial behaviour.

He commented: 'Mr Goyal told the court that there was a constant circulation amongst the traders of information and tips about spread bets, with a strong peer pressure to participate.

'He told the court that those who declined the invitation were laughed at as wimps.

'So in order not to lose face, a trader would feel he had to take part. The husband did not want to be seen as a wimp. He wanted credibility in the eyes of his peers.'

The Court of Appeal ruled Mrs Ghuman should get all of the family assets, left 'depressingly limited' by his 'financial recklessness'

Judge Brasse went on to order that Mr Goyal should sell the UBS shares and hand the proceeds to his ex-wife.

He was also ordered to pay her 500-a-month in maintenance and to share his pension with her.

Byron James, for the husband, told the Appeal Court that Judge Brasse had been 'grossly unfair' to Mr Goyal.

By ordering him to give the 19,000 shares to his ex he was 'depriving him of his only asset, leaving him with no resources at all with which to keep his creditors at bay.'

He also argued it was 'plainly wrong' to order maintenance payments when Mr Goyal is living on benefits and 'has no job to go to.'

But Mr Justice Cobb dismissed those arguments, saying Mr Goyal had indulged in 'financial recklessness to the detriment of his family.'

'The wife was entitled to such financial payments as the depressingly limited family assets would permit, to provide if possible for her housing.

'The husband had frittered away the matrimonial assets.

'Having dissipated all the wealth of the family, this husband should not have a penny more.'

Judge Brasse was 'right to conclude that it was unconscionable for the court to make an order other than one which would allow the wife the benefit of what little funds there were'.

The appeal judge said Mrs Ghuman had 'been left in dire straits as a consequence of the husband's actions.'

'I am of the clear opinion that this appeal enjoys no real prospect of success,' he concluded, throwing out the husband's challenge to the lump sum and maintenance orders.

He did however grant Mr Goyal permission to appeal in relation to an order that he share his pension with his ex-wife.

Mr Goyal insists that he does not in fact have a pension and that the order was wrong.
Ms Samhammer got water in her lungs after getting

The couple who survived a speedboat accident which left three people dead have told of the harrowing ordeal.

Jonathan Hillis and his girlfriend Sara Samhammer were flung from a tour boat in Thailand when it capsized returning from a Koh Samui island trip last month.

The Melbourne pair have broken their silence on the tragedy, which claimed the life of three women from Germany, Hong Kong and Britain, reportsHerald Sun.

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Jonathan Hillis and his girlfriend Sara Samhammer were flung from a tour boat in Thailand when it capsized returning from a Koh Samui island trip last month

'The boat hit me in the head and pushed me under. All I can remember was seeing water and the black of the ocean,' said Mr Hillis.

After the boat slipped near a rocky stretch of coast, Ms Samhammer got trapped underneath the vessel and was forced to breathe through an air pocket until she was free.

'People started popping up, but I couldn't see Sara. I couldn't see her for what felt like hours, but it was matter of minutes.'

With water stuck in her lungs she was struggling to breath and had be stretched to hospital.

In the wake of the accident the couple were left $10,000 out of pocket in accommodation, flights and lost belongings.

Mr Hillis urged travellers to stay cautious when travelling overseas and make sure you take full insurance for the trip.

'You just never know what's going to happen,'

MS Samhammer recovers in hospital after she got water in her lungs while getting trapped under vessel

The boat (pictured) was carrying 32 tourists and four crew members when it capsized, killing three women

Last month Ms Samhammer received a visit from the Surathani Police Chief Apichat Boonsriroj and other officials.

They also checked the welfare of 36-year-old Samantha Jane Bartlett, from Britain.

The boat was carrying 32 tourists and four crew members when it capsized.

Thai police said the Ang Thong Explorer was travelling from Mu Ko Ang Thong National Park when it hit a 'big wave'.

The Surathani Police Chief Apichat Boonsriroj and other officials visited Ms Samhammer and a 36-year-old British woman also on board around 11am on Friday to check on their welfare

Mr Hillis urged travellers to stay cautious when travelling overseas and make sure you take full insurance for the trip.

The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed that two tourists had been injured in the crash.

A spokesman told Daily Mail Australia: 'The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is providing consular assistance to two Australians injured as a result of a speed boat accident off Koh Samui, Thailand on 26 May.

'The Australian Embassy in Bangkok is working closely with Thai authorities to confirm whether any other Australians may have been involved in the incident and stand ready to provide consular assistance should this be required.'

Some reports suggested the women died after being trapped underwater and local media indicated the sea was quite rough at the time of the accident.

Those on board are believed to be a mixture of Australian, British, German, Romanian and Chinese citizens.

A British woman, a woman from Hong Kong and a Germany woman drowned, while at least seven other passengers were seriously injured

Some reports suggested the women died after being trapped underwater and local media indicated the sea was quite rough at the time of the accident
The artist-wife of Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin says a piece she did that satirizes her deer-hunting husband as a peacock standing over a disemboweled deer was a way to inject a sense of humor into their lives.

Katie Hunt made the comments Wednesday while giving a tour of her artwork on display in Shumlin's Statehouse office.

Another papier-mache piece of hers depicts her as a cow in high heels overseeing three members of the media, also depicted as cows. The 'journalists' are attentively plying the tools of their trade: a camera, a laptop and a newspaper.

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Artist Katie Hunt, the wife of Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin, stands by an art display she created in the governor's ceremonial office in Montpelier, Vermont on Wednesday

Hunt, who has been married to the Democratic governor since December, says the art is meant to be a satirical look at their lives. The above piece shows three angry cows, meant to portray members of the press, criticizing the appearance and personality of Hunt, the cow in pink heels

Hunt did the sculptures as part of her senior thesis at Mount Holyoke College. Shumlin (left) says he's proud of his wife's (right) work. The above piece shows Shumlin, depicted as a peacock, hunting a deer, a favorite past-time

A group of 4th graders from Northfield, Vermont, look at an art display by Katie Hunt, the wife of Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin, in the governor's ceremonial office in Montpelier, on Wednesday

In the other piece, members of the press portrayed as cows critique Hunt, also in the figure of a cow - one of them writing on a notepad that she is 'too young' and 'reserved'

'With lives like ours you kind of have to have a good sense of humor,' said the normally shy Hunt who tries to stay out of the limelight that shines on her husband. 'It would be pretty unhealthy for us not to be making fun of our lives here.'

Hunt, who married the Democratic governor in December, did the sculptures as part of her senior thesis at Mount Holyoke College where it was displayed for several weeks before it was moved to the Vermont Statehouse on Monday.

'It's also to let people look through a small window into my life,' she said. 'I'm not into formal introductions so I thought this would be kind of a fun way of showing who I am.'

Katie Hunt, 31, and Shumlin, 60, were married in December. Hunt has liked to remain out of the spotlight

Shumlin asked the Statehouse curator for permission to display Hunt's art in his ceremonial office. And the governor said Wednesday he's proud of his wife's work, though 'she's always pushing me to hide it in the basement so no one will see it.'

The sculpture representing Hunt includes a bright pink udder and high heels with the arms at its side giving a reproving look at the journalists.

'If you look at it carefully, it's pretty offensive and pretty ugly, just the same as the seated cows so I think they are equal in that respect,' Hunt said. 'I am making fun of myself and also making fun of them.'

She said the figures representing journalists are not meant to represent individual members of the Vermont press corps.

The sculpture of her husband as a peacock was inspired during a deer season before they were married when the governor shot a big buck on opening day. Shumlin said she felt that he was strutting around like a peacock after his success.

The artwork is separated from the public space by velvet ropes, and is getting attention.
A paralyzed shooting victim helped convict his killer from his deathbed by blinking when he was shown the gunman's mugshot.

Jermaine Hailes, 24, was yesterday found guilty of murdering Melvin Pate, 29, in a drug-related robbery shooting in Prince George County, Maryland.

Pate died a few days after being shot back in 2010 but right before his death, he was able to pick out Hailes in a photo line-up.

Melvin Pate, 29, was shot in 2010 and before he died a few days later, he was able to identify his shooter in a line-up

His wounds left him paralyzed from the chest down with the inability to speak, but police say he remained conscious enough to blink when he saw his attacker's mugshot.

Jermaine Hailes, 24, was found guilty on Tuesday of murdering Pate in the drug-related robbery shooting

'He was able to make an identification of Mr. Hales by blinking during a photo lineup that police showed him while he was in the hospital,' John Erzen, spokesman for the Prince George County State's Attorney's Office said.

Pate died two days after making the identification.

Over the past six years, Hailes' trial has been held up as the court determined whether it was possible to use Pate's identification in court.

Eventually, a judge decided to let the prosecution use Pate's identification in their case, and a jury was shown video of the moment Pate blinked in his hospital bed to identify Hailes.

'The judge ruled that Pate was competent when he gave the photo ID, and the manner it was done was legal and would be admissible,' Erzen said.

The trial marked the first time that a homicide victim's identification of their attacker was made admissible in Maryland court.

Additionally, a man who said he helped plan the robbery with Hailes identified him as the shooter.

However, the conspirator did not appear in court because he was afraid of the consequences.

'What are you afraid of?' a prosecutor asked.
Tony Blair has hit out at Jeremy Corbyn for branding him a 'war criminal' over Iraq while 'doing nothing' to stop Syrians being slaughtered.

The former Prime Minister delivered his sharpest criticism of the Labour leader yet as tension builds ahead of the Chilcot Inquiry's conclusions next month.

The report is expected to rebuke Mr Blair for the handling of the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein and its aftermath.

Veteran left-winger Mr Corbyn has suggested that Mr Blair could face trial for war crimes.

Tony Blair, right, has accused Jeremy Corbyn of 'doing nothing' while the people of Syria are barrel bombed and starved

But in an interview with Bloomberg Television, the ex-premier compared his 'politics of power' with the 'politics of protest' favoured by Mr Corbyn.

'I'm accused of being a war criminal for removing Saddam Hussein - who by the way was a war criminal - and yet Jeremy is seen as a progressive icon as we stand by and watch the people of Syria barrel-bombed, beaten and starved into submission and do nothing,' Mr Blair said.

Mr Blair pointed to Mr Corbyn's long history of protest from the back benches before he upset the odds by winning the Labour leadership last year.

The Islington North MP spearheaded the Stop the War Campaign and is still vice president of unilateralist group CND.

'There's a guy whose face is on the placard,' Mr Blair said. 'That's me: Hate that guy. You're the person in power taking difficult decisions.

'Jeremy is the guy with the placard, he's the guy holding it. One's the politics of power and the other's the politics of protest.'

But Mr Corbyn's spokesman shot back: 'What Tony Blair says is a matter for him.

'If he's suggesting Jeremy Corbyn is leading the politics of protest, that is not correct.

'Jeremy Corbyn is leading the opposition and building support against the Tory government.'

Mr Blair contrasted his 'politics of power' with Mr Corbyn's 'politics of protest' during the interview

The spokesman said Mr Corbyn would not appear alongside Mr Blair in any context during the final two weeks of the referendum campaign.

During the interview, Mr Blair made clear he believed that Britain would vote to stay in the EU in the referendum on June 23.

He said he believed the turnout would be higher that for a general election - and praised David Cameron for the way he had fought the campaign so far.

'I think he's fought the campaign you would expect from him and you'd want from him,' Mr Blair said. 'I mean there's nothing more he can do as prime minister, and he's put himself out there, he's put the arguments out there and you've got to say he's taken a strong and clear position.'

Mr Corbyn was a prominent opponent of the Iraq war from the Labour backbenchs and has regularly joined protests since becoming leader

Mr Blair also criticised Boris Johnson for backing Brexit, although he stopped short of saying that his position meant he was unfit to be PM.

'I find it hard to understand how someone who's been mayor of London can seriously think it's not going to be economically damaging if Britain leaves the European Union,' he said.

'And one of the things I find strange is when people say, look I had to agonise over this decision, I'm not quite sure but now I've come down on the side of Remain.

'This is not one of those decisions. This is a decision where you should only be for leave if you're absolutely clear. If you're not clear, don't do it.'

Mr Blair also expressed bafflement at the apparent success of Donald Trump in securing the Republican presidential nomination.

'It's not clear to me what his policies really are,' he said. 'If they are some of the things that have been talked about, obviously you couldn't agree with them.

'An actual trade war with China would be devastating for both sides so I can't believe that's what he'd actually want to do.

'If you literally say that no Muslims are going to come into America, that's not a policy we can go along with.

'I've no idea what a Trump presidency would look like. It's not clear to me what the common ground would be.'
Former Cabinet minister Liam Fox today warned David Cameron to rule out the 'democratic outrage' of pro-EU MPs refusing to fully implement a Brexit vote on June 23.

Dr Fox led a barrage of blue-on-blue fire during today's Prime Minister's Questions as party tensions continue to rise ahead of the crunch referendum in just two weeks time.

Mr Cameron has refused to debate other Tories on live television during the referendum battle but was left with no choice in the Commons as his own MPs queued up to aim blows at his campaign.

In response, The Prime Minister said the result on June 23 would be final and vowed to stay on in No 10 to implement the decision of the British people - but repeated warnings about the dangers of Brexit.

David Cameron faced a barrage of Eurosceptic questions in the Commons TV as he was pilloried by members of his own party for trying to preserve Britain's EU membership

It emerged this week pro-EU MPs were plotting a rearguard action to dilute Brexit. A large majority of MPs oppose leaving the EU and could refuse to repeal laws relating to the single market by arguing Vote Leave have no mandate for a specific alternative.

A minister anonymously told the BBC this week such a guerilla campaign was likely after a Brexit vote while Labour MP Stephen Kinnock warned there was a strong case for MPs to block changes that would damage the economy.

Dr Fox said today: 'Any attempt to short-change or distort the verdict of the British people would be a democratic outrage.'

Mr Cameron replied: 'Every vote counts the same, we have asked the British people for their opinion and we should treat their decision as an instruction to deliver.'

He added: 'I know many people would like me to be a bit more nuanced... the problem is I don't believe it - I very strongly believe we are better off if we stay in.'

John Baron, the Tory MP for Basildon, demanded Mr Cameron admit he was powerless to control immigration - the morning after the Prime Minister took a battering in last night's ITV debate.

But the PM claimed: 'I'm confused. They seem to want more immigration from outside the EU - my view is we should restrict welfare.'

He added: 'The alternative of an Australian points system, if you look at Australia, they have twice as much immigration per head as we have in the UK.'

Tory MPs lined up to challenge Mr Cameron on Brexit today including, from left today, Liam Fox, John Baron and Karl McCartney

The Prime Minister was condemned by Tory Richard Drax for 'denigrating our country', which the Brexit backer said was a 'sign - if any were needed - that you are losing the argument.'

But Mr Cameron reprised lines he used in last night's TV debate to claim: 'You have very strong views about this issue and I have very strong views about this issue too

'I don't accept for one minute that in any way supporting being a member of a reformed EU is in any way doing Britain down.

'If you love your country you don't want to act in a way that could lead to its breakup, that's what I want to see is not Nigel Farage's Little England, I want to see a Great Britain.'

Another Tory MP, Karl McCartney, told the PM the only way to avoid demands to fill the EU's budget blackhole was to vote for Brexit.

But Mr Cameron insisted the EU budget was fixed and had been cut at his urging. He insisted: 'The only person who can give up the British rebate is the British Prime Minister, and as long as I'm Prime Minister there is no prospect of that happening.

'The only black hole there would be would be in our public finances.'

Michael Gove, pictured speaking at the Vote Leave headquarters today, repeated his challenge to the PM to take him on in a prime time TV debate about the referendum

Justice Secretary Michael Gove today repeated his challenge to Mr Cameron to take him on in a live TV debate before polling day.

Mr Cameron has refused to appear against member of his own party during the campaign and last night's ITV programme with Nigel Farage is the only occasion he will even feature in the same programme as a Leave campaign rival.

Mr Gove today said: 'We believe that the best way of helping to augment the already good range of debates that have been put on by a number of organisations is to have a debate between the Prime Minister and a Vote Leave spokesman.

'There are lots of Vote Leave spokespeople who are much more eloquent than me so we will wait and see who the best person is.'

Number 10 today insisted the Prime Minister had agreed to a schedule of three TV programmes during the campaign, as well as a major TV interview due on Sunday morning.

Voters will have until TOMORROW NIGHT to register for the EU referendum after ministers bow to fury over website crash hours before deadline

The law is set to be changed to ensure tens of thousands of voters can take part in the EU referendum despite the registration website crashing.

David Cameron has urged people to keep signing up on the official site after the outage just hours before the midnight deadline caused widespread fury.

The government will bring forward emergency legislation pushing the cut-off back until tomorrow night.

The Government voter registration website crashed last night just two hours before the deadline

Anyone who wants to vote on June 23 had to have completed an application before midnight to be allowed to take part.

But around 10pm the system on Gov.UK appeared to go down for around an hour.

Despite the system failures, yesterday was a record for the number of people registering to vote in a single day, with 525,000 signing up to have their say on Brexit.

Cabinet Office minister Matt Hancock said the decision to change the law had been taken after discussions with the Electoral Commission and there was 'clear cross-party support'.

'We will legislate tomorrow to extend the voter registration deadline until tomorrow night,' Mr Hancock said.
Donald Trump's let loose his first general-election slings and arrows on Wednesday morning, but they found their mark in a morning TV host  not in opponent Hillary Clinton.

While the Democratic nominee-in-waiting was manhandling the morning news cycle with reports of her history-making primary victories, the less-conventional Republican was attacking 'Morning Joe' host Joe Scarborough.

'Nobody is watching @Morning_Joe anymore. Gone off the deep end - bad ratings. You won't believe what I am watching now!' Trump tweeted.

'You're biased,' Scarborough tweeted back at him, 'because by your own standards, you're not a real American. Your mother was a foreigner.'

Scarborough also sent a Twitter jab about his show beating CNN's 'New Day' and HLN's 'Morning Express' in the ratings.

The former Florida Republican congressman, had said minutes earlier that GOP politicians weighing whether to support Trump or repudiate his recent tough talk about a Hispanic federal judge have another option: 'Walk away' from Trump until he's willing to negotiation  just like he teaches in 'The Art of the Deal.'

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'WALK AWAY': Joe Scarborough told his 'Morning Joe' audience on Wednesday that Republican lawmakers should 'quarantine' Donald Trump as a negotiating tactic until he's prepared to tone down his rhetoric and repudiate some earlier racist comments

PIVOT? Trump lashed out at Scarborough  not Hillary Clinton  in his first attack of the general election

PUNCHING ABOVE HIS WEIGHT: Trump is known for being a pugnacious and sometimes vicious rhetorical brawler

'The third choice,' Scarborough said, shifting into the imagined voice of lawmakers and governors, 'is this: "Hey Donald, guess what, I'm not going to support you until you get your act together. You're acting like bush-league loser, youre acting like a racist, youre acting like a bigot",'

'"This is called 'Art of the Deal.' I'm taking my deal off the table, Donald",' he said, continuing to imagine what Trump's fellow GOPers might tell him.

'"Until you come to the table and get on the other side of the table and prove to me that you're not a bigot and prove to me that you you're not gonna take my party down in the ditch, you don't have my endorsement".'

Twitter was full of misinterpretations from people who believed Scarborough was personally leveling an ultimatum at Trump. The real estate tycoon retweeted one of them.

'Top RINO hack for MSNBC Joey Scarborough on the air and calling the next President Trump a racist and bigot. Shame on you,' read the tweet from user '@JoeDeFranco,' a self-described 'Sports Genius!' with fewer than 100 Twitter followers.

Scarborough continued his impression of a crafty Republican party insider, telling an imaginary Trump that 'you can't use Hillary Clinton as a gun against my head' to bring reluctant GOP officials into line.

COMEBACK: Scarborough tweeted back at Trump, saying his show is beating CNN in the morning ratings, and calling Trump 'not a real American'

'I'm taking the gun away from my head,' Scarborough had his generic Republican tell Trump. 'I'm putting it on the table and now it is in your hands on whether you are going to prove to the Republican Party and me personally that you're not a bigot.'

TACTICS: Trump has boasted that foreign policy negotiations can be won by threatening to 'walk away'  the same gambit Scarborough now says Trumps opponents in his own party should use against him

'So don't use Hillary Clinton as a threat against me. Don't use Hillary Clinton as an excuse, as your blank check to say racist things about people born in Indiana. No, Donald, you don't get to play it that way. I'm not scared of you and I'm not scared of the base because they are just as pissed off as me.'

His advice to skittish Republicans reflected the central theme of Trump's famed business negotiation book.

'Walk away. It's called "Art of the Deal." It's what Donald Trump has been preaching all of his life.'

Scarborough said many in the GOP who have flocked to Trump's banner by default 'are  I can't say the word that they are. Theyre, theyre weak. ... They need to negotiate.'

'Morning Joe' co-host Mika Brzezinski piled on, addressing House Speaker Paul Ryan's needle-threading exercise Tuesday in which he described Trump's recent statements about a Hispanic federal judge as a 'textbook definition of a racist comment'  but seemed to rationalize accepting him as the lesser of two evils.

'Paul Ryan, you can't use Hillary Clinton, either, in your pathetic, weak kind of meandering around this problem' Brzezinski exclaimed.

'You know what we have here with these Republican leaders who are like, "Can't have Hillary Clinton"?' she asked. 'Really? You hate her that much you'll take a racist. You hate her that much we're going to have eight more years of the Republicans we had who said from the get-go with Obama, we just want him to fail. You're going to have more of the same. You are more of the same.'

COME AND GET ME: Trump will have five months to pillory Hillary Clinton but chose to charge out of the gate against a TV host

MISUNDERSTOOD: Twitter erupted Wednesday with claims Scarborough was calling Trump a 'bigot,' even though he was merely proposing that elected officials make that claim

Scarborough told Trump-skeptic Republicans to 'stop running scared. You've got to stand up to Donald Trump and say, "Prove to us that you deserve our support. When you do that, then maybe we'll consider giving you our endorsement back",'

'They are running scared,' he declared, 'and Donald smells it so he can say whatever the hell he wants to say.'

They should announce 'today,' he said, that the GOP will 'quarantine the racist on that side of the campaign stage. I swear to God, it's the smart political move.'

The GOP's latest round of Trump-induced heartburn surrounds comments the candidate has made about federal judge Gonzalo Curiel, a Mexican-American who has delivered a series of stinging rulings in a class-action fraud case against a Trump-branded series of real estate seminars.
An 81-year-old Tasmanian man is feared dead after he was swept away in flood waters on Monday morning.

The search for Trevor Foster has revealed nothing but the hat he was believed to be wearing when he disappeared into the water from his Ouse property.

Mr Foster is uncle to world champion Tasmanian axeman David Foster, who has spoken out about the elderly man's disappearance.

World champion Tasmanian axeman David Foster, picture, has spoken out after his uncle Trevor was swept away in floodwater

Two men are still missing in Tasmania one of those is 81-year-old Foster who disappeared from his own property in Ouse (Tasmanian flood pictured)

The flood is the worst to hit the island state in 90-years and has already claimed a life

David Foster said his uncle's wife of 60 years saw him being swept away.

'It's very sad to finish that way in life,' he told the Nine Network.

A helicopter was used by search and rescue crews in a desperate attempt to find the man alive on Wednesday but it wasn't successful.

The team is now searching for a body, police said.

Police say time is running out for Mr Foster who was swept away on Monday, file image of the flood

'Sadly, despite our considerable efforts we must be realistic that there is little hope of finding Mr Foster alive,' said Inspector Matthew McCreadie.

Police also hold grave concerns for another man swept away by floodwater in Evandale on Tuesday morning.

A chopper and ground crews continued searching for the 63-year-old on Wednesday.

They found the van he had been driving but there was no sign of him.

A search for Mr Foster even involved a helicopter. Only the man's hat was found, the flood pictured

Police were unable to recover the van because of floodwaters.

'We do hold grave fears, and as time passes those fears worsen,' Police Commander Brett Smith said.

'However, it doesn't dampen our efforts in attempting to get a resolution.'

The floods also claimed the life of a 75-year-old woman on Monday.

A 63-year-old man is also missing. His van was found in flood water but he was not with it, file image from flooding in Launceston

Dangerous floodwaters have peaked in Launceston but the Tamar River's (pictured) high tide on Wednesday

Dangerous floodwaters have peaked in Launceston but the Tamar River's high tide on Wednesday afternoon has caused further flooding in Seaport.

Some people across the island state have been allowed to go back home and assess the damage caused by the flood but they are being urged to remain vigilant.

'It is anticipated that floodwaters will take up to a week to recede,' the SES says.

A major flood warning remains in place for the South Esk and Meander Rivers.

The flooding affected roads, bridges and homes across the state. The water pictured is racing through Cataract Gorge in Launceston

About 200 homes have been affected by the Tasmanian floods. Roads and bridges have also been damaged.

Premier Will Hodgman visited flood-affected areas in Launceston and Tasmania's northwest on Wednesday.

'We expect to make an announcement about further support very soon,' he said.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten were to visit flooded parts of Tasmania on Thursday.

It could take up to two weeks for the flood water to recede. It is dangerous to enter any floodwater




Bill O'Reilly is speaking out about Megyn Kelly in a new interview after his Fox News co-worker said she wished he had defended her more against Donald Trump's constant attacks over the past year.

'I understand where Megyns coming from; she was getting hammered by Trump supporters. But it really wasnt my place,' O'Reilly told The Hollywood Reporter.

When asked about rumors of tension between the two because of his failure to speak up, O'Reilly said: 'Oh, thats all fabricated. Shes in a totally different part of the building. The last time I saw Megyn Kelly was in Detroit in March [at the Fox News GOP debate].'

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Speaking up: Bill O'Reilly says in a new interview that it was not his place to protect Megyn Kelly from attacks by Donald Trump over the past year (pair above in 2014 at the 35 Most Powerful People in Media event)

Upset: Kelly said earlier this year that she wished her Fox News co-worker had stuck up for her when Trump dropped out of the GOP debate in Iowa (Trump and O'Reilly at a 2012 baseball game)

Kelly spoke about how she was disappointed with O'Reilly in the April issue of MORE.

'I do wish that OReilly had defended me more in his interview with Trump. I would have defended him more,' said Kelly.

I understand where Megyns coming from; she was getting hammered by Trump supporters. But it really wasnt my place. I said quite clearly on the air a number of times that what she asked was a legitimate question. And I said it off the air to Trump, too, in a call. I said, 'Hey, I would ask the same question? Not the same way, but I would have asked it.' -Bill O'Reilly on Megyn Kelly

'Honestly? People think Im fearless. But Im human. I was not looking forward to going out on that stage and dealing with Trump if he was going to attack me.

'I felt the pressure of that and the stress of that. But I also knew I would walk through that fear and I would go out there and I would handle it. I can muster up the courage in the difficult situations to get me through.'

O'Reilly said in his interview that he did support Kelly asking Trump about the comments he has made about women in the past while she was moderating the Fox News GOP debate last August.

'I said quite clearly on the air a number of times that what she asked was a legitimate question. And I said it off the air to Trump, too, in a call. I said, Hey, I would ask the same question? Not the same way, but I would have asked it,"' said O'Reilly.

'But it was not my job to intrude on the Fox News Channel hierarchy, which was handling the controversy. Why am I going to get in the middle of that?

'Roger Ailes is a genius at handling this stuff. I am not going to make his life harder by putting my big mouth in the middle of this thing. But Megyns come out of it fine, right? Big star and doing well.'

O'Reilly was then asked what he thought about Kelly's much hyped interview that aired last month across all Fox properties.

'She had to basically handle him in a way that was promoting detente. So in that confine, it was fine,' said O'Reilly.

I don't dislike the man. I had three good interviews with him. Some people said I was too rude to him, but he can talk for 10 minutes about your socks, so youve got to really jump in and say, Look, this is my question.' And I think he is sincere. I dont think hes a bad man. -Bill O'Reilly on President Obama

'For me, when I sit down, I dont care about detente with anybody. But she, because of all the history, was wise to do it that way.'

He then classified critics of the interview who called Kelly 'soft' as 'idiot writers who dont know anything.'

The O'Reilly Factor host also revealed in the interview that he is changing his mind about Sean Penn, whose movies he once said he was boycotting over the actor's politics.

This change of heart came about mostly because of his friendship with Jack Nicholson O'Reilly explained, who he is close friends with.

'I think Im revising my opinion of Sean Penn,' said O'Reilly, who then pointed out how the actor 'tried to help the people in Haiti.'

He added; 'I dont think hes a bad man. If he was in a movie that I liked, Id go see it.'

O'Reilly also said he had no issue with Penn's interview with Mexican drug lord El Chapo.

Missing him: O'Reilly also said he missed Jon Stewart and then joked that the former Daily Show host was now 'a goat herder - or something weird' (pair above in 2012)

Celeb pals: The O'Reilly Factor host also revealed in the interview that he is changing his mind about Sean Penn, whose movies he once said he was boycotting over the actor's politics, because of his friend Jack Nicholson (pair above in 2009) who is close to the actor

He also had nothing but kind words to say about Jon Stewart, though he did manage to sneak in a little dig at the former Daily Show host.

Hes a very talented guy. But now hes a goat herder - or something weird. Hes wandering the hills of New Jersey. I dont know what hes doing. -Bill O'Reilly on Jon Stewart

When asked if he missed Stewart, O'Reilly said: 'I do. Hes a very talented guy. But now hes a goat herder - or something weird.

'Hes wandering the hills of New Jersey. I dont know what hes doing.'

O'Reilly even had largely positive things to say about Obama, though he still shared a few criticisms of the current president.

'I don't dislike the man. I had three good interviews with him. Some people said I was too rude to him, but he can talk for 10 minutes about your socks, so youve got to really jump in and say, Look, this is my question,' said O'Reilly

'And I think he is sincere. I dont think hes a bad man.'

He also noted however that 'overseas is a mess' and he does not 'think Obamacare is going to last.'

Kind words: O'Reilly had positive things to say about both Sean Penn (left in May in Cannes) and President Obama (right in May in Japan)

Big win: 'Hillary Clinton has got a lot of work to do. She should be on my program, she should be on other programs trying to say to people, "Look, Im not the monster they're trying to make me out to be. This is who I really am,"' said O'Reilly

The interview gave O'Reilly a chance to talk about his thoughts about the upcoming election as well, and the battle that is set to be waged between Trump and Hillary Clinton.

Its just going to be a cage match between Trump and Hillary. The debates will tell the tale. They will be the most watched debates in the history of the country by far. It will be like the Super Bowl of politics. I didn't think that Trump could have overcome her, but to watch the negatives pile up on her doorstep; Hillary Clinton has got a lot of work to do. -O'Reilly on the upcoming election

'Hes lucky hes up against somebody whom his crew doesnt like. Hillary Clinton is not a sympathetic figure,' said O'Reilly of Trump, who has been a friend of his for years.

'Now, he may make her into one if he overdoes it. My job is to basically tell folks whats going on in real time, not project out in a speculative way.

'He established himself as a no-BS guy. So the rules of engagement are very different with a Trump-Hillary run. It has nothing to do with her gender. It has to do with a suspicion on the part of many Americans that shes not candid.'

When asked if he thought it was fair to go after Bill Clinton's past marital indiscretions, O'Reilly said: 'It depends what the context is. If Hillary Clinton is going to attack Trump and say hes misogynistic, what does she expect? Hes going to come right back at her with this, and who wouldnt?

He then added: 'If I were her, I wouldnt bother with the gender issue. Its fairly apparent shes a woman and hes a man, and her policies should be unisex, helping all Americans.

'If youre going to go after him and say hes this, that and the other thing, hes going to come back 10,000 times harder, so why bother?'

O'Reilly also said that he believes Trump has a shot of beating Clinton, and said that the debates between the two will be like the 'Super Bowl of politics.'
A car hoon was reduced to tears after his vehicle was seized on his 21st birthday and sent to be crushed.

Mitchell McCullagh, 21, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving charges related to an incident in which he lost control of his Ford truck, hit a pedestrian and then lied to police.

The incident occurred in Melbourne last December during an illegal skid meet, reported The Herald Sun.

Mitchell McCullagh, 21, appeared in court on dangerous driving charges related to an incident where he lost control of his vehicle and hit a pedestrian

McCullaghs arrest was part of a police crackdown on car hoons in the city  who would regularly attend organised meetings where they would pull dangerous driving stunts.

He appeared in Dandeong Magistrates Court alongside 20 other men who faced similar charges.

After viewing footage of the incident involving McCullagh, Magistrate Barry Schulz said this is the worst example of behaviour I have seen so far in this operation.

He said McCullagh had narrowly avoided a stint in jail and instead sentenced him to a two-year community correction order and 250 hours of community service.

McCullagh broke down in tears after the Magistrate seized his car and sent it to be crushed. It was his 21st birthday

McCullaghs car was also confiscated, with The Herald Sun reporting that police were planning to crush it to send a warning to other dangerous drivers.

In a post on Facebook before his court hearing, McCullagh said he hoped his car would not be sent to the wreckers on his birthday.

He said: Happy birthday to me. Lets hope the judge at court tomorrow takes into consideration that it is my birthday today and it wouldnt be very nice to crush a dudes car a day after his birthday.

Come home baby.
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This is the shocking moment a 700,000 terraced house in London collapsed just 30 minutes after its front began to sag dangerously during building work.

Police were forced to close off Lampmead Road in Lewisham and this morning the property, which was undergoing extensive works, fell down.

Neighbours said the sound of the house collapsing was 'like a bomb had gone off' - and some described an ear-splitting 'crunch' as it came down.

Footage from the scene shows the dramatic moment the front of the house, which had already began to buckle, suddenly slid out and collapsed, sending up a massive dust cloud. The owners, advertising executive Sajdah Haq Williams and her husband Robert, were not inside at the time.

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This is the shocking moment a terraced house collapsed just 30 minutes after its front began to sag dangerously during building work

Drama: A 700,000 terraced house in London collapsed this morning a day after police shut down the street

Dangerous: 30 minutes earlier the roof and front of the building began to sag dangerously and neighbours were evacuated

The moment: The front of the house began to buckle, with the windows, wall and roof all suddenly sliding downwards and out

Scary: Footage from the scene shows the dramatic moment the front of the house, which had already began to buckle, suddenly slid out

Taking cover: A workman hastily steps away from the collapsing house as the roof and walls crumble down

People living next door to the property, believed to be owned by Sajdah Haq Williams and her husband Robert, are thought to have been evacuated by police when the house began sagging dangerously

The owners of the property Sajdah Haq Williams (pictured left) and her husband Robert (right), who were not at home at the time

The road in south-east London was then filled with brick dust, which then flew upwards into the sky.

People living next door to the property are thought to have been evacuated by police when the house began sagging dangerously.

Residents were evacuated at around 11am, and moments later, the roof fell in.

The 94-year old who lived next door spoke of how frightened she was when she first heard the creaking noises.

Thelma Williams says she had lived in her home for 53 years and raised four children there. While builders work to make the terrace safe again after it fell down while being renovated, Mrs Williams has been taken in by kind neighbours Audrey and Bernard Wood, who have lived opposite the collapsed house for the past 60 years.

Mrs Williams, who lives with youngest daughter Hulma Williams, 63, said: 'I thought it was going to fall down on Tuesday because I heard creaking.

'I knew it and I was really scared because I was the only person there. I thought it was going to fall on me.'

The house was sold in January and has been under development since then without anyone living there

Mrs Williams, who used to work as a theatre assistant in various hospitals around south east London added: 'I think I had a lucky escape, if it had been different I would have been gone. It's upsetting, I've been here for 53 years.

'I knew the builders were working there and the first time I heard it I knew something must have gone wrong, it scared me.'

Bernard Wood, 77, a former maintenance supervisor at Lewisham Hospital,

said: 'I heard a thud on half past six on Tuesday morning, it sounded like a lorry was emptying skips.

'But after the storm with rain it put extra pressure on it.'

His wife, Audrey, 81, said: 'I told Bernard to go and get Thelma when we heard another noise at about 5.30pm on Tuesday, I knew her daughter was away and I knew Thelma was all on her own.

'So Bernard ran straight over and I told him to make sure she didn't hang about, don't let her collect anything, bring her straight out.

'He arrived at the same time as the police who were coming to get her out too. He brought her back here and she's been here ever since.'

Thelma doesn't know when she's going to be able to move back, but Bernard spoke to structural engineer yesterday (Weds) morning and she said the earliest Thelma will be able to move back is Friday.

But Audrey, who formerly worked in the architects department at Lewisham council wasn't so sure.

She said: 'It isn't important though, she can stay with us as long as it's safe. They must have been lunatics who worked on there.'

Bernard added: 'They took the main structural wall down - there was nothing there. All the weight of the tiles was just resting on the chimney breast.'

Despite the shock of the accident Audrey said at least everyone was safe.

She said: 'At my age you just learn to tell yourself that it could have been much worse and it's just lucky no one was hurt.

'I spoke to the young woman who bought the house and she told me she was insured.'

Thelma, who has more grandchildren than we could count said although she was scared she also felt lucky to have escaped unscathed.

She said: 'I've lived there so long and to hear at this stage that something has happened, it's really, really scary.

'At least I have my neighbours and Audrey and Bernard.'

Ted Ashton, a passerby, was walking to work when he spotted the carnage.

He 55-year-old said: 'The area was cordoned off and police were there, that sort of thing.

'Then obviously I saw the house on the corner leaning forwards at the top and the roof was caved in.'

The road in south-east London was then filled with brick dust, which then flew upwards into the sky

Access to the road was blocked off while engineers have been working to make the area safe and protect locals

Ken Taylor, who across the road, said the house collapsed at around 11am.

The 74 year-old told the Evening Standard: 'First of all a couple of bricks fell out then gradually the whole roof sagged outwards and some of it fell off.

'Today they were just about to start inspecting it with a cherry picker when the whole roof fell in. Maybe it was that. There was a big crunch and a big cloud of dust, it was like a bomb had gone off'.

The house was sold in January and has been under development since then without anyone living there.

The owners paid 660,000 for the property but it is thought to have been worth around 700,000 at the time of its collapse.

Describing what happened, architect Ted Aston, 55, told the Evening Standard: 'The roof of the building was leaning over the street, the corner of the road was cordoned off and they weren't letting anyone near it.

'I spoke to a police officer outside and she told me next door had been evacuated, as she understands it all of the internal walls have been removed.'

Builders could be seen today making repairs to the damaged wall and roof by replacing the bricks

Close-up photographs show the wrecked interior of the house after the collapse today

The owners paid 660,000 for the property (pictured bottom left) but it is thought to have been worth around 700,000 at the time of its collapse

The house was sold in January and has been under development since then without anyone living there

He added: 'There's been some sort of refurbishment work going on at the house. It had some hoarding up at the front to protect the public while the work was going on but then this happened.

'I've gone past the house on my way to and from work as I live locally. You could see the walls were bowing this morning and when I went back it had collapsed in on itself.

'It's such a shame. They are lovely houses - around 100 years old. A woman at the scene told me that apparently all the interior walls had been removed. I don't know how true that is but I don't know why they would do that.'

The 'clowns' working on the Victorian home that partially collapsed managed to do what the 'Germans couldn't do'in the Blitz, a neighbour said.

Stephen Kelly, 55, a stock control manager said the terrace was built at the end of the 19th century.

He said: 'It is so sad. I can't get over the fact the person who live there before had stayed there for so long and nothing happened.

'These clowns have been here for five months and have done what the German's couldn't do and have taken it down. It's so sad.'

Mr Kelly, who lives opposite the damaged home, first heard a noise before seeing the start of the building's demise on Tuesday evening.

He said: 'There was a noise - a big rumbling noise - and the roof slipped forward. It had been like that all last night and then this morning we had a cherry picker come down.

'The vibration made it happen I think. It made a bit of a noise itself.'

Mr Kelly was reading in his kitchen this afternoon (Weds) when he heard the roof crash to the ground.

He said: 'I was messing about in the kitchen, reading, when I heard a rumble and a crack. I looked through the window and I saw the roof as it is now.'
'I held him, and all those feelings rushed back,' Cherie Amoore told police after the kidnapping

New surveillance footage has emerged from inside a Pennsylvania mall of the moment a woman kidnapped a baby right in front of the child's mother and fled the center with him.

Video of the terrifying incident at King Prussia Mall earlier this year was ordered for release by a judge in the interest of informing the public.

The accused, Cherie Amoore, is seen befriending a woman outside a store and following her to the food court.

After talking for several minutes, she picks up the seven-week-old baby boy from his pram when he starts to cry and cuddles him.

However, as the mother turns to take a phone call, Amoore quickly absconds with the child.

The security footage shows Amoore walking through the mall, up a flight of stairs and out into the parking lot.

Amoore's family called police some hours later when she arrived home with a child amid reports of a kidnapping on the news.

The boy - Ahsir Simons - was later found at her home and had not been harmed.

Amoore, 32, has been charged with kidnapping of a minor, unlawful restraint, false imprisonment, interference with the custody of a child, concealment of the whereabouts of a child and other related charges, NBC News reported.

Abductor: Suspect Cherie Amoore, 32, is seen here (white top) holding the baby in her arms and talking to the child's mother, moments before she runs away with the boy inside King Prussia Mall

Brazen: As the mother (front) take a phone call and turns away, Amoore (back) is seen rushing away with the baby in her arms in the newly-released footage

Fleeing: Amoore quickly walks through the mall and up a flight of stairs, running away with the little boy

Escape: Cameras outside the mall showed Amoore exiting and walking into the parking lot

Investigators say that, after leaving the mall, Amoore took the boy to show her relatives, who later called 911

At her arraignment on Friday, Amoore's bail was set at $500,000.

According to a police affidavit, Amoore told detectives she gave birth to a boy on February 11, but the baby only lived a few hours.

She then allegedly told police: 'I don't know why I did it. I can't explain it. I held him, and all those feelings rushed back. I just wanted my baby. I felt like I was holding my son again. It felt so good. I didn't want to lose that feeling. I was crazy. I never intended to do anything like this.'

The kidnapping occurred around 5.45 p.m. on March 31.

The mother told police that she quickly realized Amoore had disappeared and chased after her, but turned back to get her other son, who was sitting at the table.

Two people sitting nearby pointed out which direction Amoore went, police say, but by then she was gone.

Charged: Amoore, 32, has been charged with kidnapping of a minor, unlawful restraint, false imprisonment, interference with the custody of a child, concealment of the whereabouts of a child and other related charges

Seven-week-old Ahsir Simons was found safe at the suspect's home hours after the kidnapping

Investigators say Amoore took little Ahsir to show him to relatives after the kidnapping, WPVI reported at the time.

But once news of the abduction was released and a description of the alleged kidnapper, family members called 911.

Surveillance footage inside the mall showed that, before the kidnapping, Amoore had also approached another woman, who helped police with the investigation.

Once the suspect was identified, police went to Amoore's home in Tredyffrin Township, Chester County.
The infamous Candyman has been found to have engaged in deceptive and misleading conduct to against a rival company.

Travers Beynon, thought of as Gold Coast's Hugh Hefner for barely-clothed women that party at his $3.7 million mansion, owns Cigarette and Gift Warehouse, which operates as Freechoice Australia.

On Wednesday, the company was found to have engaged in deceptive and misleading conduct for 'actively' poaching franchisees from rival TSG Franchise Management.

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Travers Beynon, thought of as Gold Coast's Hugh Hefner for the young women that party at his mansion, owns Cigarette and Gift Warehouse, which operates as Freechoice Australia

Beynon is pictured with naked women at his pool with a Freechoice sign at his $3.7 million Gold Coast mansion

Justice Jennifer Davies found Beynon's company had offered to 'pay out' existing contracts to persuade franchisees to terminate their business with rivals and enter new ones with Freechoice.

'In or around April 2014 Freechoice embarked on an aggressive expansion plan aimed at encouraging its competitors' franchisees to enter into franchise arrangements with Freechoice,' Justice Davies said in her judgement.

'TSG is entitled to a declaration that each of the representations constituted misleading or deceptive conduct.'

Earlier in the trial, a former employee had told the court Freechoice, under Beynon's direction, did not have 'any respect for the legal system', Herald Sun reported.

Earlier in the trial, a former employee had told the court Freechoice, under Beynon's direction, did not have 'any respect for the legal system'

Beynon owns an impressive collection of Ferraris, Lamborghinis and Rolls Royces (pictured) and regularly shares images of them surrounded by barely-clothed women to social media

Beynon became managing director of Freechoice after his modelling and AFL career

The matter will return to court next week.

Beynon became managing director of Freechoice after his modelling and AFL career.

He owns a collection of Ferraris, Lamborghinis and Rolls Royces, and regularly shares images of them surrounded by barely-clothed women to social media.

On Tuesday, Beynon successfully sued Nine Network's A Current Affair following a string of segments about his controversial lifestyle in May and June last year.

Following media reports about the win, The Candyman wrote on Instagram: 'They can't kill my dreams, so they try to assassinate my character. I refuse to back down to bulls***, so if you're going to start, you better be f***ing ready to rumble. People have been paid to lie about me, throwing me to the wolves but they didn't count on me returning, leading the pack.'

The Candyman pictured with women at his $3.7 million mansion at the Gold Coast, with Freechoice sign beside a pool

Beynon is pictured with three women in the back of a car. He often shares images of scantily-clad women to his social media pages

Beynon is pictured in a luxurious bedroom with four barely-clothed women and a dog

His lawyer Chris Nyst lodged a formal complaint in July 2015 to the Australian Communications and Media Authority over the program's portrayal of The Candyman and his family.

At the time, Beynon hit back by staging a 'mock execution' of a blonde woman with a striking resemblance to reporter Leisa Goddard during his $500,000 'party of a lifetime'.

The media watchdog on Wednesday ruled Nine Network breached the Commercial Television Code of Practice.

'The ACMA considers that these interviews which included specific allegations concerning identifiable children and a reference to the prognosis of one child by a psychologist, disclosed information about the children's family relationships, health and welfare, that was highly sensitive personal information,' according to the ACMA investigation report obtained by Daily Mail Australia.

Beynon is pictured wearing his suit in his pool at his $3.7 million Gold Coast mansion with three women

The Candyman poses with four women by the side of his pool at the mansion he often throws playboy-style parties at

Since the information was aired in multiple segments, the 'material therefore invaded the privacy of Mr Beynon's children,' ACMA ruled.

It wasn't the first time Beynon had sought legal action against his critics and won.

Last October, he successfully sued his former nanny Michelle Manthey for $25,000 in defamation damages.

She had alleged Beynon's daughters were watching as a nude photoshoot of his wife was taken.

Not a stranger to controversy, Mr Beynon was labelled 'degrading' and 'chauvinistic' with critics comparing his mansion to a zoo, in which he went out and adopted a pet pig and three peacocks.

He named the pig Chauvinistic, in which no doubt was a dig at his many critics who have used that word to describe him, including one of his ex-girlfriends.

Beynon is a former model. He turned to Freechoice Australia after an AFL career

A former model shot of Beynon. His company was on Wednesday found guilty of misleading and deceptive conduct

Beynon throws shade at the haters on Instagram, sticking his 'rude finger' up from a palatial balcony at his $3.7 million Gold Coast mansion

Beynon is pictured wearing a crown and is surrounded by six women wearing swimsuits
This was the moment motorists were forced to a standstill, stunned as they watched a reckless elderly driver go the wrong way round the roundabout, before reversing the whole way back again.

Horrified driving instructor Paul Kirkpatrick then filmed the man, believed to be in his 80s, perform a three-point turn before finally setting off in the right direction.

The silver Honda Jazz was spotted on the A332 in Windsor, Berkshire, forcing dozens of cars to come to a grinding halt.

What is he doing? A driving instructor catches an elderly man reversing around the roundabout in Windsor

Instructor Paul was giving a lesson to a 17-year-old, and ordered her to move closer to the driver to stop him going any further.

The 43-year-old said: 'I've seen some crazy things in my 17 years as a driving instructor, but this was right up there.

'The man in the car looked to be in his 80s and he just looked bewildered to be honest. He was totally lost and it could have been really dangerous.'

He said he advised the female learner, driving his Renault Megane, to inch slowly towards the Honda to stop him going any further.

He said: 'I've seen some crazy things in my 17 years as a driving instructor, but this was right up there.

'The man in the car looked to be in his 80s and he just looked bewildered to be honest. He was totally lost and it could have been really dangerous.

Instructor Paul Kirkpatrick told his student to edge towards the driver to stop them going any further

'The girl who was driving my car stayed very calm and actually closed off any space he could have moved into.

'If he had kept going round the wrong way it would have been even more dangerous for everyone nearby.

'It was as if time stood still when he very slowly reversed and made his turn. You could see the cars queuing up and waiting for it to be safe again..'

Shockingly the man then performs a three-point turn in the road before finally setting off in the right direction

The instructor added that moving towards the Honda 'was the best thing to do'.

'The thought process was that surely he wouldn't try to drive through an oncoming car, and so it proved.

'If we had just stopped dead in our tracks, he would have went even further the wrong way and ran into more traffic.

The silver Honda Jazz finally continues its journey, Thames Valley police said there's been no arrests

'The girl dealt with it very well. This is one of the routes we use to practice for the test, but hopefully nothing like this happens on the day.

'I feel a bit sorry for the elderly man driving, because he clearly shouldn't be behind the wheel. It was painful to watch.

'I would support some form of re-testing for all drivers. I appreciate cars are a life line to some older people but the safety of road users has to come first.'
Just months ago, he was cleared of domestic violence charges against his ex girlfriend.

And it appeared Sydney Roosters star Shaun Kenny-Dowall has moved on after he was seen getting cosy with Miss World Australia runner-up 2013 turned Neighbours actor Yasmin Kassim.

The 28-year-old rugby league player made an appearance as a celebrity guest at Nova's Red Room Global Tour at The Star's Marquee nightclub in Sydney on Tuesday night.

While it seemed he attended the event alone, the hunky sportsman was shortly spotted 'getting very close' to the stunning 25-year-old brunette inside the venue,The Daily Telegraph reported.

Sydney Roosters star Shaun Kenny-Dowall (left) was spotted getting cosy with Neighbours actor Yasmin Kassim at Nova's Red Room Global Tour at The Star's Marquee nightclub in Sydney on Tuesday night

Earlier this year, Kenny-Dowall was found not guilty of 11 domestic violence charges over the alleged abuse of former partner Jessica Peris (right), the daughter of Olympian and senator Nova Peris

The glamorous beauty queen and the New Zealand international had refused to have their photographs taken together on the media wall.

'It is apparently early days so they didn't want to make a fuss,' an onlooker told the newspaper.

After the event, the pair were spotted walking arm in arm through the casino before dining at the Japanese restaurant Sokyo.

Earlier this year, Kenny-Dowall was found not guilty of 11 domestic violence charges over the alleged abuse of former partner Jessica Peris, the daughter of Olympian and senator Nova Peris.

Last July, Kenny-Dowall was charged with stalking, intimidating, destroying or damaging property, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and six counts of assault, according to NSW Police.

The rugby league player appeared to have moved on after he was seen with Miss World Australia runner-up

Last July, the 28-year-old was charged with stalking, intimidating, destroying or damaging property, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and six counts of assault, according to NSW Police
Adolf Hitler's socks and ties - along with the underpants of Luftwaffe chief Hermann Goering - are set to go under the hammer at auction.

Also being offered to collectors is a length of rope used to hang war criminal Julius Streicher at Nuremberg after the war.

The collection also features the secret phial that Goering used to hide cyanide in to cheat the executioner shortly before he was to mount the scaffold.

Adolf Hitler's socks and ties (pictured) along with the underpants of Luftwaffe chief Hermann Goering - are set to go under the hammer at auction

Leather boots owned by Goering (pictured) and manuscripts by S.S. overlord Heinrich Himmler, are also among the items

Items once belonging to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler (left) and Luftwaffe chief Hermann Goering (right) are up for sale

Dresses worn by Eva Braun, leather boots also owned by Goering, Hitler's dog-tax assessment form, his personal table crockery and manuscripts by S.S. overlord Heinrich Himmler, are also among the items present at one of the biggest sales of personal artefacts relating to the Nazi hierachy ever staged.

The sale will be held on June 16 at the Hermann Historica auction house in Munich - birthplace of Nazism.

The items come from the collection of American John K. Lattimer, a multi-talented man who once ran against Olympic champion Jesse Owens.

He went on to become a surgeon who treated Allied soldiers wounded on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day and later became a professor of urology in New York. He was a passionate collector of Nazi memorabilia until his death nine years ago.

According to media reports in Germany, his 30-room mansion in New Jersey was 'bursting at the seams' with artefacts linked to history's most evil regime.

They included the whacky and the grim. X-Rays of Hitler taken after the attempt on his life on July 20 1944 will go on sale for a minimum bid of 700, Goering's silk unmentioanbles - 45ins waist - have a reserve price of a little under 400.

Also being offered to collectors is a length of rope used to hang war criminal Julius Streicher at Nuremberg after the war

The sale will be held on June 16 at the Hermann Historica auction house in Munich - birthplace of Nazism

The catalogue for the auction is only available through personal orders from the auction house itself given the 'sensitive nature' of the material, according to the sellers

The tuft of noose tied around the neck of Julius Streicher - perhaps Nazism's most squalid criminal, the man who ran the anti-Semitic paper Der Stuermer which conditioned Germans to despise the Jews - has an opening price of 400.

The catalogue for the auction is only available through personal orders from the auction house itself given the 'sensitive nature' of the material, according to the sellers.

Interested parties are told on the Hermann Historica website that they they must 'agree to comply with the legal requirements with application for your personal password' to view the material online.

It went on: 'The Hermann Historica is a prestigious, internationally renowned auction house for historic objects of all periods and countries. We are aware of the responsibility in particular for objects of German contemporary history and have always been committed to great care and prudence in dealing with them.'

The catalogue is entitled 'Hitler and the Nazi leaders - a look into the abyss of evil' and details every item for sale.

Other oddities include a piece of leather from a pocket of Hitler's trousers which allowed him to discretely carry a gun, the gavel of Robert Jackson, chief American prosecutor at the Nuremberg war crimes trials and letters from assassinated Nazi leader Reinhard Heydrich.

Wolfgang Hermann, co-owner of the auction house, said: 'This collection allows museums and collectors to acquire highly interesting pieces relating to Nazism and WW2.
Thousands of personal items belonging to Jews murdered by the Nazis in Auschwitz have been recovered, decades after being stored away and forgotten in cardboard boxes.

The 16,000 long-lost objects, which include jewellery, watches, brushes, tobacco pipes, lighters, fragments of kitchenware, buttons, Pocketknives and keys, were first discovered in 1967 by archeologists excavating the ruins of the extermination camp's gas chamber and crematorium III.

They were then put into 48 cardboard boxes and stored at the Polish Academy of Sciences in the Polish capital Warsaw, where they remained forgotten for over 50 years.

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Personal items belonging to the victims of the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau are presented at the press conference at the Auschwitz Museum in Oswiecim, Poland

But now after months of searching, staff at the former Nazi death camp have finally managed to track them down.

Auschwitz museum spokesman Pawel Sawicki told MailOnline: 'There is almost no personal information on the objects, yet the fact that they were found near the ruins of gas chamber and crematorium III indicates that they belonged to Jews murdered by the German Nazi in the gas chambers.

'These people were told that they were being resettled and they took their personal belongings with them.

'The items found were most probably things which they had in their pockets when they were entering the undressing room of the gas chamber.

'There are some Hungarian, some Hebrew and Polish inscriptions found on some of the objects.'

More than 16 thousand personal items returned to the Memorial after many months of searching

The items were first discovered in 1967 by archaeologists excavating the ruins of the extermination camps gas chamber and crematorium III

The artefacts, stored in 48 cardboard boxes, were found by Auschwitz Museum staff in a building belonging to the Polish Academy of Sciences and transferred to the museum

The 16,000 items include thermometers, medication phials, perfume flasks, shoes, jewellery, watches, brushes, pipes, lighters, crockery, buttons and keys

A box of private letters seized from prisoners upon arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenau

The remains of a diary or calendar, and a pawn from a chess set have been found among the lost possessions

Uncovered: Bottle caps which appear to be native to Poland

A personalised stamp which once belonged to one of the millions of Jews killed by the Nazis

Auschwitz was set up by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland in 1940.

The first extermination of prisoners took place in September 1941, and the camp quickly became a major site for Hitler's crazed Final Solution.

Between 1942 and late 1944, tens of thousands of Jews were delivered to the camp's horrific gas chambers from across German-occupied Europe.

Upon arrival, they were made to line up while SS monsters divided them into two groups - those who were fit for work and those who were not.

Those deemed unfit were taken straight to the gas chambers and exterminated.

At least 1.1 million prisoners died at Auschwitz, around 90 percent of them were Jewish.

Gas Chamber and Crematorium III, where the latest discoveries were originally found, was put into operation in the summer of 1943.

Gas Chamber and Crematorium III at Auschwitz-Birkenau, pictured after it was finished

The gas chamber was an underground room covered by a reinforced concrete roof and a layer of dirt.

Deadly Zyklon-B gas in the form of pellets was poured through a hole in the roof.

The bodies were then taken by lift up to the ground floor were there were five large ovens and burnt.

The building was blown up by fleeing Nazis in January 1945 just days before the Red Army liberated the camp.

Auschwitz Museum director Piotr Cywinski said: 'The objects found during the works are not only a remarkable testimony to the history of the camp and the extermination conducted by the Germans, but also a moving personal testimony of the victims.

'In most cases, these are the last personal belongings of the Jews led to death in the gas chambers upon selection at the ramp.'

Museum staff were put onto the trail of the thousands of personal belongings after viewing an old documentary about the excavations carried out in 1967.

Mr Cywinski added: 'I had considered the discovery of such a huge collection in whole after nearly half a century as unlikely as finding the treasure of the lost Galleon.

'I can only try to imagine why the lost objects were deposited in these boxes just after digging up.

Auschwitz Museum director Piotr M.A. Cywinski unveil some of the items on Wednesday

'The excavations were carried out in the summer of 1967, near the gas chambers and crematoria.

'Presumably, they were supposed to be analysed and studied, or perhaps someone even had the intention to write an extensive research paper on the subject.

'This is a unique collection in every way. Meanwhile, a few months later, there was a political turnabout in 1968 and the communist authority took a clearly anti-Semitic course.

'Perhaps, that is why they did not hurry with the implementation and closure of this project. The times then were difficult for topics related to the Holocaust.'

Now museum staff will begin the complicated task of cataloguing the collection and trying to identify who the possessions originally belonged to.

Auschwitz Museum spokesman Pawel Sawicki told MailOnline: 'It will take us a long time to research the whole collection.

'Right know we will start a process of documenting and researching the items and checking their state of preservation. Many of them will need conservation.
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This is the dramatic moment a daredevil kayaker plummeted from an 82-foot waterfall in the Amazon rainforest before eventually re-emerging after a nail-biting 10 seconds.

Pedro Oliva attempted the feat five years ago but had become overwhelmed by the staggering drop he describes as 'the green hell of the Amazon' and turned his back on it.

His decision only fuelled his determination to one day take the plunge and after psyching himself up he returned to try again.

Taking the plunge: Fearless Pedro Oliva plummeted from the 82-foot Brazilian waterfall he describes as 'the green hell of the Amazon'

No turning back: The footage shows the daredevil approaching Juruena waterfall before allowing himself to drop from a height of 82-foot

Second attempt: Pedro attempted the feat five years ago but had become overwhelmed by the staggering drop and turned his back on it

Dangerous: The boat flips forward before Pedro slams into the water. He later admitted he thought the impact had burst his eardrums

The footage shows the daredevil approaching Juruena waterfall in Mato Grosso, Brazil before fearlessly allowing himself to drop from a height of 82-foot.

The boat can be seen flipping forward before Pedro slams into the water. The kayaker later revealed that he thought the intense impact of the fall had burst his eardrums.

Pedro was then submerged for 10 seconds while support teams looked on anxiously as his empty boat floated to the surface of the water.

The sight of the kayak without Pedro in it caused alarm among the team before he was eventually spotted bobbing around in the water.

Speaking after his impressive feat of bravery, Pedro said: 'The water took me from my kayak like a doll. I did many flips. It was crazy.

'When I hit the water it felt like a kick in the chest. Everything went completely dark. In an instant I was about 10 metres (32 foot) under water and my eardrums almost burst, I felt a huge pain in the head and ears, I thought I had lost my hearing.'

Referencing his previous failed attempt, he added: 'My goal here is to face my fears. I've been chasing this a really long time. For me it's the most powerful waterfall in my life.

Now or never: Pedro's decision to turn away from the waterfall five years ago only fuelled his determination to one day take the plunge

The descent: Pedro was later submerged for 10 seconds while support teams looked on anxiously after he bravely took the plunge

In the zone: Pedro revealed that before he makes a descent he remains focused and relaxed as a sign of respect to the natural world

Journey: Pedro said the waterfall is the most powerful one he has ever encountered and that overcoming it was a personal achievement

'You can have fears in your life. Juruena for me represents this. Five years ago I saw the waterfall and it was too strong for me at that time.'

Pedro has tackled some of the fiercest rivers and waterfalls in the world and has even the 127-foot Salto Belo falls in Brazil - one of the longest kayak descents over a waterfall ever.

Before each stunt Pedro throws a plastic barrel with an integrated GPS system down the falls first to understand the water flow.

He said: 'I see how the object floating will behave in the fall and after the fall, to assist me in making the decision to jump and to learn more about the waterfalls.'

Pedro added that he also tries to remain focused and relaxed as a sign of respect to the natural world he is encountering before every descent.

The daredevil was given the opportunity to carry out the stunt to mark the release of new video game 'Uncharted 4: A Thief's End' on PlayStation.

Success: After falling from the waterfall Pedro's empty boat floated to the top of the water and the daredevil was nowhere to be seen

Relief: The sight of the kayak without Pedro caused alarm following his descent before he was later spotted bobbing around in the water

Just another day: Pedro has tackled some of the fiercest rivers and waterfalls in the world, including the 127-foot Salto Belo falls in Brazil
A man whose daughter's decomposed body was found in a crib by a cable television worker was convicted Wednesday of corpse abuse and tampering with evidence.

Investigators were unable to determine how 21-month-old Ember Warfel died last summer because her body was so badly decomposed. Prosecutors argued that her father, Eric Warfel, did not report his daughter's death because he did not want an autopsy performed.

A judge also found the 35-year-old Warfel guilty of child endangering.

Eric Warfel, whose daughter Ember Warfel's decomposed body was found in a crib by a cable television worker was convicted Wednesday of corpse abuse and tampering with evidence

Warfel, who was found competent to stand trial after pleading not guilty by reason of insanity, will be sentenced next month and faces up to six years in prison.

Ember's body was discovered last July in a Medina apartment, south of Cleveland.

Another daughter of Warfel's, a 5-month-old, died in 2013. A medical examiner ruled that case as a 'sudden unexplained infant death.'

Warfel's attorney has said Ember was born with severe medical problems. He also said Warfel's failure to report his daughter's death was not enough reason to convict him on the corpse abuse and tampering charges.

While the cause of the girl's death hasn't been determined, an autopsy did find traces of cocaine in her hair samples.

Ember's body was discovered last July in a Medina apartment, south of Cleveland

Warfel was arrested after a cable technician went into an apartment to upgrade the service and found the toddler's body in her crib. Warfel, who was divorced from the girl's mother, had full custody of the child.

He told investigators Ember died about a month earlier and he hadn't informed family members or anyone else about her death, according to a police report.
A grandmother has admitted being in charge of an American pit bull dog which killed her six-month-old baby granddaughter.

Susan Aucott, 55, was looking after Molly Mae Wotherspoon when the dog, called Bruiser, carried out the attack.

At Northampton Crown Court this morning, Ms Aucott, of Northampton, pleaded guilty to being in charge of a dangerously out of control dog which caused injury resulting in death.

Susan Aucott, picturhas admitted being in charge of a dangerously out of control dog which caused injuries that led to the death of her six-month old granddaughter Molly Mae Wotherspoon

Molly's mother Claire Riley, 23, pictured with her dog Pups, faces trial next week at Northampton Crown Court

She will be sentenced after the trial of Molly Maes mother, Claire Riley, 23, of Southfields, Northampton.

She denies being the owner of a dangerously out of control dog which caused injury, resulting in death. The trial is due to begin on Monday.

Molly Mae died on 3 October 2014 following the dog attack at her mothers then home in Daventry.

The dog attack by American pitbull Bruiser took place at a house in Daventry, Northamptonshire, pictured

She was rushed to hospital where she died from severe blood loss from head wounds. The dog was put down at the scene.

American pitbulls banned in the UK since the early 1990s under the Dangerous Dogs Act and anyone found to own one could face a 5,000 fine or six months in prison.
Casey Anthony is blasting a private investigator who accused her of paying her criminal defense lawyer, Jose Baez, with sexual favors instead of cash, saying the allegations were made up.

Anthony claims Dominic Casey, a private investigator who worked on her daughter's famous murder case, made up the accusations to sell his book about the the criminal trial over Anthonys murdered daughter Caylee.

Anthony, 30, filed documents on Monday in her legal battle with Roy Kronk - the man who discovered Caylees body - demanding that Caseys pleadings be stricken in the lawsuit.

Kronk is suing Anthony claiming that she and her lawyer blamed the young girls death on him. The suit is still pending federal court.

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Private investigator Dominic Casey previously accused Casey Anthony (pictured in court in 2011) of paying her defense lawyer, Jose Baez (left), with sexual favors instead of cash

Casey Anthony claims Dominic Casey (pictured in 2011), a private investigator who worked on her famous murder case, made up the accusations to sell more copies of his book

Dominic Casey stated in an affidavit connected to Kronks suit filed with US Bankruptcy Court in the Middle District of Florida Tampa Division: '[On] Saturday, July 26, 2008, Baez had told me that Casey (Anthony) had murdered Caylee and dumped the body somewhere and, he needed all the help he could get to find the body before anyone else did.'

Casey also claimed in the affidavit that Anthony traded sexual favors with Baez to cover her legal fees.

He claimed that Anthony would trade sexual favors with her attorney rather than paying him for his work.

Baez called the allegations false and claimed Dominic Casey was a moron.

Anthony had not responded to respond to the allegations until this week in court documents associated with Kronks suit.

She said none of the pleadings that Dominic Casey filed in the case have anything to do with Kronks claims against her.

Additionally, she said the allegations made by the investigator are irrelevant, frivolous and are nothing more than scandalous statements meant to be inflammatory and prejudicial.

Caseys statements, Anthony adds, were only made in hopes of selling more copies of his book.

Anthony has asked the court to strike down Caseys recent court filings, claiming they dont have any bearing on her case with Kronk.

Baez appeared on Fox & Friends last week and said there was absolutely no truth to claims that he and Anthony had a sexual relationship.

Baez, who hired Casey, said during his appearance: 'I took a chance on him, and unfortunately I'm paying for it today.

He shot down as many of Casey's claims as he could at the top of his appearance, saying; 'One, El Chapo did not finance Casey Anthonys defense. Two, I did not have an inappropriate relationship with Casey.

'Three, drug traffickers did not kidnap Caylee and take her to Colombia. Four, she never told me that she murdered her child and where the body was. And five, the post office is not involved in Caylee Anthony's disappearance.'

Anthony's daughter Caylee went missing in June 2008 and her skeletal remains were later found in a bag near her home in December of that year

He later said of Casey, who he claims worked for free on the case for three years; 'He'd better pray to the god of punk wannabe private eyes that some US attorney in Tampa does not see these transcripts and decides to charge him with perjury.'

Baez made that comment when noting that much of what Casey said in his affidavit is different from what he said at trial.

Anthony was found not guilty of killing her daughter Caylee in 2011 after a two-month trial that enraged the nation.

The two-year-old girl went missing in June 2008 and her skeletal remains were later found in a bag near her home in December of that year.

Dominic Casey claimed in his affidavit that on September 5, 2008, Casey Anthony was scheduled to sit down for a television interview but told Baez she did not want to do it, leading him to cancel with the network.

That is when Casey claimed Baez, who is married, told him: 'You now owe me three b*** j***.'

Later that month there was another incident Casey claims when he arrived at Baez's office and saw Anthony naked.

'This time she ran from his private office, through the conference room to the hallway,' Casey claimed in the affidavit.

Earlier this year it was revealed that Anthony was launching a new new career as a photographer and has started her own company

Daily Mail Online revealed in February that the Anthony registered a new business, Case Photography, in West Palm Beach, Florida. Images showed the amateur photographer taking pictures of buildings and street scenes with her Canon DSLR camera

'That night, I told her that she cannot allow [Baez] to continue engaging in this behavior. Casey [Anthony] told me she had not money for her defense. I reminded her that Baez had more than enough money from the network he sold the photographs to pay for her defense,' said the investigator.

'Casey [Anthony] apologized and assured me it would not happen again.'

Casey also spoke about the recovery of Caylee's body later in the affidavit, claiming that Baez had suggested the baby would likely be found in the swamp where investigators did eventually discover her body.

'Baez had already told me on Saturday, July 26, 2008, that Casey [Anthony had murdered Caylee and dumped the body somewhere,' claimed Dominic Casey.

'He also suggested to me that if I could gain access to the swamp on Suburban Drive without being seen, to do so because it could be the place that Casey had dumped Caylee's body.'

Earlier this year it was revealed that Anthony was launching a new new career as a photographer.

Daily Mail Online revealed in February that the Anthony registered a new business, Case Photography, in West Palm Beach, Florida, where at the time she was staying with a private detective more than twice her age.

Images showed the amateur photographer taking pictures of buildings and street scenes with her Canon DSLR camera.

Despite having lived as a virtual recluse since she was senstionally cleared of murdering her daughter Caylee, Anthony seemed relaxed to be spotted out and about.
Antoinette Brown, 52, died after being mauled by six dogs loose in her South Dallas neighborhood last month

A helpless woman screamed for at least 20 minutes while a pack of dogs ripped her to shreds last month, 911 calls from her terrified neighbors have revealed.

Antoinette Brown, 52, was attacked by six dogs in south Dallas, Texas, on May 2, and died from her injuries a week later.

On Tuesday, police released two 911 calls they received from her worried neighbors, who were too scared to run out and save the woman.

The calls further confuse authorities' version of events, which says cops arrived on the scene just seven minutes after the first call. The audio proved that when the second caller phoned 20 minutes later, the woman was still being attacked.

The first call was placed by neighbor Jackie Humphrey at 4.43am, who told police: 'Shes out there begging for somebody to help her. I know some dogs was out there and somebody came and ran them off. But shes still out there moaning and groaning and Im scared to go outside.'

Ms Humphrey said she could hear Brown out in the street, yelling: 'Somebody help me. Help me! Somebody, help me!'

'Im calling because theres a woman out here somewhere - I looked out there but Im kinda scared I cant find her - but now shes out there begging for somebody to help her,' Humphrey says.

'Shes been doing it - moaning and groaning - and if something happens to her I would feel bad if I didnt call yall to come out here and check it out,' Humphrey adds.

The dispatcher then reassures Ms Humphrey that help is on the way.

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On Tuesday, police released 911 calls from two neighbors the night of the attack. Brown died a week later from her injuries. Above, some of the loose dogs in the neighborhood

The Army veteran was found with more than 100 bites across her body in an empty lot (pictured), as the dogs had already fled from the scene

Neighbor Jackie Humphrey (above) was one of the two people to call 911 the night of the attack. She believes that had Dallas Animal Services listened to complaints from the neighborhood, Brown would still be alive

Another neighbor identified as 'Kenneth' frantically called the police 19 minutes after Ms Humphrey.

He said the woman was still out in the street being attacked by several dogs. That contradicts police reports which claimed they arrived on the scene at 4.50am.

'Is the female moving around?' the dispatcher asks.

'Yeah, miss, thats what Im saying is some dogs are attacking. We cant get close to her,' he replies.

'Oh, theyre attacking her right now?'

'They attacked me too,' the man says. 'Shes in the field laying down, calling for help. I cant do nothing.'

Video Courtesy KDFW

The dispatcher asks Kenneth if he can throw something at the dogs to get them off the woman, but he says he has already tried and that the dogs won't let him near her. Police arrive by the end of his phone call.

Meanwhile, Brown's daughter Matisha Ward spoke out to WFAA, saying she is grateful to the two neighbors who alerted police.

'My mama wouldnt have even made it out of that field if that lady wouldnt have called,' she said.

The family is considering filing a lawsuit against the city for $5million

The Army veteran and grandmother was found with more than 100 bites across her body in an empty lot, as the dogs had already fled from the scene, CBS Dallas reported.

Humphrey, told Fox 4 that she called 911 when she found Brown severely injured.

'One of her legs looked like a shark had taken a bite out of it,' Humphrey told Fox 4.

Humphrey said that she tried to have Dallas Animal Services capture the same dogs a year ago after she claims one killed her Chihuahua.

She explained to Fox 4 that when she called 911 about Brown's attack, police told her to call 311 about the dogs being loose.

Humphrey claims that she was told by an official that no one would come to the neighborhood for 72 hours.

'I said, 'Evidently, y'all are not communicating or something,' Humphrey told Fox 4.

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings (above) stated that Dallas Animal Services has 'to do a better job picking up stray dogs'

Other neighbors claim that the aggressive dogs would roam the neighborhood frequently after getting out through holes in fences.

Now, city officials plan to revisit the policies on loose dogs after Brown's tragic death.

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings stated that Dallas Animal Services has 'to do a better job picking up stray dogs.'

'The priority has not been high enough, obviously,' Rawlings said. 'Progress is great, but we were in a deep hole and we have a long ways to go.'

He added that when someone is injured by an animal that the city's animal services needs to be contacted as soon as it happens.

According to Fox 4, the director of animal services created a plan to hire nine more employees eight months ago and five of the positions were empty for a year.

Humphrey believes that had Dallas Animal Services listened to the complaints from the neighborhood a year ago, Brown would still be alive.

'It seems like to me they don't care,' she told Fox 4. 'They really don't care.'

The case is still under investigation and no charges have been filed.

Authorities believe that they have identified the owner of the loose dogs who attacked Brown.
A Missouri woman is in mourning after losing her husband-to-be on Saturday - the same day she was meant to marry him.

Tragedy struck after the bachelor party of 31-year-old Gabriel Spiva on Friday night in Independence, and just hours before his wedding to long-time partner, Brandilyn Spiva.

Gabriel was killed in a motorcycle accident just after midnight, after swerving to miss a car that pulled in front of him and crashing into a parked car.

'I keep asking God why he took him from me,' Brandilyn told Fox 5 News.

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Tragic: Gabriel Spiva, 31, was killed in a motorcycle accident in Independence, Missouri, early Saturday, just hours before his wedding

'It was meant to be the best day of my life and it was the worst': Brandilyn Spiva lost her groom on their wedding day after he was killed in a bike crash

Brandilyn said she received a call just after midnight on Saturday from Gabriel's mom, Doris Simpson, who told her there had been accident and that Gabriel had died.

'I was laying in bed, because I couldn't fall asleep, because I was so excited for our wedding,' Brandilyn said.

'I lost it. I just kept saying this can't be real.'

'He thought he was invincible.'

Police suspect Gabriel may have been speeding when the car pulled out in front of him.

Mrs Simpson told Fox 5: 'He was really into bikes that went fast. That's what he loved, loved to go fast. Police told us that Gabriel was on his motorcycle going very fast, a car pulled out in front of him, he had to swerve, lost control, went into a slide and hit a parked car.'

The couple had been together for the last 17 years, since high school (right) and had two children together

'I keep asking God why he took him from me,' Brandilyn Spiva told Fox 5 News of the tragedy

Gabriel was transported to hospital, but was later pronounced dead.

He and Brandilyn had been together for the last 17 years, ever since high school, and had two children together.

They had already got their marriage license, but were finally about to have their wedding.

Proceedings were meant to start at 11 a.m. Saturday.

'I wanted to be apart on our wedding night, because I wanted to do tradition,' said Brandilyn.

'My soulmate was taken from me, and now my babies don't have a daddy.'

Gabriel Spiva, 31, seen here with one of his children, was pronounced dead in hospital Saturday morning




David Cameron today hinted there could be a second Scottish independence referendum after a Brexit vote despite previously ruling out approving one.

The Prime Minister had insisted the 2014 referendum, which saw independence refused by a 10-point margin, had been a one-off.

But at Prime Minister's Questions, Mr Cameron today said he was worried about the prospect of the UK being broken up by Brexit - something which could only happen after a second referendum.

David Cameron, pictured at PMQs today, warned voters against a vote that could 'lead to the UK's break up' in remarks seen as hinting he would approve a second Scottish independence referendum after Brexit

No 10 insisted Mr Cameron's position on a second independence referendum had not changed and he was simply reflecting discussion taking place north of the border.

Answering a barrage of pro-Brexit questions from his own side, Mr Cameron said: 'I do not accept for one minute that supporting Britain being a member of a reformed European Union is in any way doing our country down.

'If you love your country, you want it to be strong in the world. If you love your country, you want opportunities for your young people.

'If you love your country, you do not want to act in a way that could lead to its break-up.'

Mr Cameron's latest statement was similar to remarks made in last night's TV debate when he said: 'Frankly, I do worry about a second Scottish referendum if we vote to leave and you dont strengthen your country by leading to its break-up.

'So Im deeply patriotic, I think this is a case for a bigger, greater Britain inside a European Union.'

SNP Westminster leader Angus Robertson welcomed the remarks, tweeting: 'PM David Cameron acknowledges impact of Scotland being taken out of EU against wishes of Scottish voters.'

Mr Cameron was praised by senior SNP figures last night after indicating there was a possibility of a second Scottish independence referendum if Britain backs Brexit

After PMQs, a No 10 source said: 'The PM's view is very clear - the Scottish people took a decision in the referendum two years ago and the PM's view that settled the issue as many people have said.

'Clearly, there are comments being made by some people in Scotland about the need for a second referendum if there is a vote to leave

'The PM is reflecting the reality of what some people are saying.'

Challenged on the power of the PM to approve or block any bid for a second referendum, the source said: 'The PM is reflecting on what some in Scotland are saying - this is not a new line.'

No 10 refused to categorically rule out allowing a second referendum - insisting it was a hypothetical question.

Voters will have until TOMORROW NIGHT to register for the EU referendum after ministers bow to fury over website crash hours before deadline

The law is set to be changed to ensure tens of thousands of voters can take part in the EU referendum despite the registration website crashing.

David Cameron has urged people to keep signing up on the official site after the outage just hours before the midnight deadline caused widespread fury.

The government will bring forward emergency legislation pushing the cut-off back until tomorrow night.

The Government voter registration website crashed last night just two hours before the deadline

Anyone who wants to vote on June 23 had to have completed an application before midnight to be allowed to take part.

But around 10pm the system on Gov.UK appeared to go down for around an hour.

Despite the system failures, yesterday was a record for the number of people registering to vote in a single day, with 525,000 signing up to have their say on Brexit.

Cabinet Office minister Matt Hancock said the decision to change the law had been taken after discussions with the Electoral Commission and there was 'clear cross-party support'.

'We will legislate tomorrow to extend the voter registration deadline until tomorrow night,' Mr Hancock said.

But senior Tory MP Bernard Jenkin, a Brexit campaigner, warned that the move could turn the ballot into a 'shambles' and open it to judicial review.

Tories drag reluctant David Cameron into a live TV blue-on-blue battle at PMQs and demand he rule out the 'democratic outrage' of pro-EU MPs ignoring a Brexit vote

Former Cabinet minister Liam Fox today warned David Cameron to rule out the 'democratic outrage' of pro-EU MPs refusing to fully implement a Brexit vote on June 23.

Dr Fox led a barrage of blue-on-blue fire during today's Prime Minister's Questions as party tensions continue to rise ahead of the crunch referendum in just two weeks time.

Mr Cameron has refused to debate other Tories on live television during the referendum battle but was left with no choice in the Commons as his own MPs queued up to aim blows at his campaign.

In response, The Prime Minister said the result on June 23 would be final and vowed to stay on in No 10 to implement the decision of the British people - but repeated warnings about the dangers of Brexit.

David Cameron faced a barrage of Eurosceptic questions in the Commons TV as he was pilloried by members of his own party for trying to preserve Britain's EU membership

It emerged this week pro-EU MPs were plotting a rearguard action to dilute Brexit. A large majority of MPs oppose leaving the EU and could refuse to repeal laws relating to the single market by arguing Vote Leave have no mandate for a specific alternative.

A minister anonymously told the BBC this week such a guerilla campaign was likely after a Brexit vote while Labour MP Stephen Kinnock warned there was a strong case for MPs to block changes that would damage the economy.

Dr Fox said today: 'Any attempt to short-change or distort the verdict of the British people would be a democratic outrage.'

Mr Cameron replied: 'Every vote counts the same, we have asked the British people for their opinion and we should treat their decision as an instruction to deliver.'
Coroner finds he died of overdose after hearing he had drugs in his system

Weeks later he was found dead at his home and police ruled out foul play

for election to be his area's MP

Rob Lane - an English teacher who ran unsuccessfully for election - died from an overdose, an inquest has found

An English teacher who died just weeks after he failed to win election as an MP had a cocktail of drugs in his system, an inquest has heard.

Rob Lane, 50, was found dead at his home in Derby after he polled 161 votes as an independent candidate for the seat of North East Derbyshire.

Both cocaine and heroin were found in his blood, as well as enough painkiller Codeine to kill him, a coroner was told.

The inquest heard police initially believed Mr Lane's death was suspicious and a criminal investigation was launched following the discovery of the body last year.

But his death has now been found to have been the result of accidental overdose and his family have said they believe he died in his sleep.

South Derbyshire Coroners Court heard that Mr Lane's friend Daniel Davenport called police at around 6pm on July 2 last year.

Detective Constable Manjit Johal said a number of injuries on his body and empty blister drug packs were found close to his body.

Derbyshire assistant coroner Louise Pinder said that, after an investigation, foul play and third party involvement were ruled out.

Professor Guy Ruttey, a Home Office pathologist who carried out the post mortem examination on Mr Lane's body, gave a cause of death as poly-drug toxicity, where more than one drug has killed someone.

Assistant coroner Louise Pinder said: 'There is a lot going on toxicology-wise but the Codeine alone could have killed Robert.

'Other illicit and prescription drugs that were found in the tests, including heroin and cocaine would have enhanced the toxic effects on him.'

Former pupils, including some from the Friesland School in Sandiacre, Derbyshire, where Mr Lane had taught since 2011, have paid tribute to him.

Mr Lane had cocaine and heroin as well as a lethal amount of painkiller Codeine in his system

Labour's Natascha Engel, who was elected as MP for North East Derbyshire, said: 'Rob was committed to changing politics and giving the people we represent a bigger and louder voice. I was so sorry to hear of his untimely death.'

Speaking after the hearing, Mr Lane's elder sister, Ginny Shirt, said: 'I am satisfied with the conclusion of Rob's inquest and the news I heard was not what I hadn't been told already by the police.

'I will remember Rob as the fantastic younger brother that he was and I get great comfort in knowing that he died peacefully and in his sleep.

'Since Rob died I had some fantastic support from people who knew Rob, former friends, colleagues and pupils to whom he brought such a huge amount of joy.

'I was overwhelmed by some of the things I heard from people and Rob was such a humble person I don't think he really knew how loved and respected he was, but his family, by his friends and, most importantly, by the pupils he taught.'
Engineering student Krystian Czekaj, 30, turned up at victim Emily Lacy's yoga classes in Birmingham and bombarded her with flowers and teddy bears before following her when she moved to London

A stalker who followed a yoga instructor from Birmingham to London to continue his disturbing two-year campaign of harassment against her has been barred from entering the capital.

Engineering student Krystian Czekaj, 30, turned up at Emily Lacy's yoga classes in Birmingham and bombarded her with flowers and teddy bears before following her to London when she moved house.

Smitten Czekaj, of Birmingham, even sent her letters declaring his love for her, invited her out for dinner and stared at her through coffee shop windows when she rejected his advances.

She said she was 'scared' by his persistent stalking and 'worried about her safety', telling a court his behaviour 'is not normal'.

He has now been banned from entering anywhere within the M25 for two years and handed an eight-week prison sentence, suspended for two years, after pleading guilty to stalking at Hammersmith Magistrates' Court.

Kunal Dave, prosecuting, told the court that the campaign of harassment began when Czekaj attended Miss Lacy's yoga class in Birmingham. She declined an invitation to be taken out for tea but he persisted and began stalking her.

Mr Dave told the court: 'This is a matter which first came before the court on May 18 when he pleaded guilty to an allegation of stalking with harassment.

'The complainant used to live in Birmingham, working as a yoga teacher, and the defendant used to work in a Costa Coffee in the Birmingham area.

'The complainant started receiving phone calls, emails and appearances by the defendant, all was unwanted contact between January 2014 and May 2016.

'This was to the extent where she actually moved away from Birmingham to London and he persuades conduct and harassment here.

'In January 2014 he started attending her yoga classes and in July he first asked her out and if she wanted to join him for some tea.

'She rejected him saying she didn't have time, but she was just being polite, she had no interest in him.

'On one occasion her friend and herself went to a coffee shop and the defendant followed her and started watching her through the window, he was just staring at them.

'She felt shocked and decided to leave. He then started sending her letters to the studio where she worked saying he loved her. She then reported him to Birmingham Police.'

The prosecutor added that Czekaj continued to bombard his victim until May this year.

He said: 'It was around February 2015 he sent a teddy bear and some flowers to the studio. She didn't want it and disposed of the items.

'He then attended the studio and she made it clear she didn't want him to contact her and he should leave the studio at once.

'In July 2015 she started receiving emails stating that he loved her and she sent the emails to the police. Since that time she believed they spoke to him and the defendant ceased contact at that point.

'Then she moved to London to carry on her career as a yoga instructor. It was in May 2016 that he then started coming to her studio where she worked and started making phone calls to the studio.

'He subsequently attended the studio as well. I submit that this is a prolonged period of stalking over two years. She has felt shock and been vulnerable, particularly by the fact he has actually travelled from Birmingham to London.'

A victim impact statement read to the court said: 'I felt scared that he had turned up at my work place. I want this to stop, I felt vulnerable by what he has done.

'In order for me to continue with my life I tried to block him out of my thoughts.

My family are worried for my safety and welfare because he will follow me. It is not normal behaviour Victim Emily Lacy

'My family are worried for my safety and welfare because he will follow me. It is not normal behaviour.

'I wish he had never contacted me or come near me ever again. I don't want to worry about this for the rest of my life.'

Rodney Coleman, in mitigation for Czekaj, said: 'There is a history here, first in Birmingham and then he makes it more serious when he comes to London and pursues the same conduct.

'I have tried to make some inquiries as to whether he understands he must not contact Miss Lacy, But I'm not sure he fully understands.

'He assures me he won't contact her if he is released. He is an intelligent person, he is studying engineering at Birmingham University.

'He says to me he wants to come to come to London to visit libraries. I submit the court should give him an opportunity not to contact her.'

But Czekaj was not jailed and was instead banned from entering London or contacting his victim.

Chairman of the Bench Henry Magrill said: 'You have pleaded guilty to charges of stalking over a two-year period of harassment and contacted her at her work.

Czekaj has now been banned from entering anywhere within the M25 for two years and handed an eight-week prison sentence, suspended for two years, after pleading guilty to stalking at Hammersmith Magistrates' Court

'Mr Coleman suggests you don't fully comprehend what you have done and why you must not do it, we are somewhat concerned by this.

'But we are going to give you a chance. But you are very much in the last chance saloon.

'If you continue to contact Miss Lacy or go to her place of work you will go to prison.

'You must not go inside the M25 to enter London for two years or you will go to prison. There are plenty of libraries in Birmingham and resources online.'

Smartly dressed in a grey suit jacket and black t-shirt, Czekaj admitted one charge of stalking, between 2014 and 2016.

The student, who was of previous good character, was sentenced to eight weeks in jail - suspended for two years - and ordered to serve a 25-day rehabilitation activity requirement plan.

No costs or compensation were ordered because of the defendant's low income.

Instead he was sentenced to one day in prison which he had already served by being on remand since his arrest in May.
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A set of identical twins are set to have pride of place to mark the Queen's official birthday.

Guardsmen Mark and Jack Bazeley, from Northampton will make history as the first identical twins to guard the senior sergeant with the colour during the ceremony at Horse Guards Parade, London.

And in a double celebration, the brothers, who joined the Coldstream Guards in January 2015, celebrate their 21st birthday just days before.

The pair look so similar that the boys say their mother Julie is the only one who can truly tell them apart.

They turned 21 today - but instead of celebrating, the boys were instead in Surrey methodically going through their important roles on Saturday where they will be in front of the Queen and millions of people watching on television at home.

Mark, left, and Jack Bazeley, right, pictured with mother Julie and brother Joseph, centre, are set to make history as the first twins to guard the colours during the Queen's official birthday parade

The twins, pictured, 21, are almost completely identical and joined the Coldstream Guards together in January 2015

The only visual difference between the pair of Liverpool fans, pictured, is that Mark, right, has a mole on his chin unlike his brother

The only way to tell the difference between Mark and Jack is that Mark has a mole on his chin, while Jack does not.

It will take the twins around four hours to make sure that their uniform is up to scratch for the ceremony, which will have to be complete the night before their 6am wake-up call on Saturday morning.

Mother Julie will be watching from the stands on Saturday afternoon, and has been bursting with pride that her sons have been trusted with the task of guarding the colours before they fall in with the Escort to the Colour.

Fittingly, the boys signed up to the Coldstream Guards at the same time and although Mrs Bazeley was initially quite worried about her boys, they explained that she could not be happier with their decision.

The brothers, ringed, are assigned to guard the senior sergeant with the colour, centre, before it is presented to the Escort for the Colour

Should the colour or sergeant, centre, come under attack during the parade, it will be up to the brothers, ringed, to defend it

Mrs Bazeley, left, centre, said she was worried when her twins joined the guards at the same time but 'could not be prouder of them'

Mark said: 'Both of us had always been interested in joining the Coldstream Guards and when I went to the recruitment centre back in Northampton, it was actually a guy from the guards that I spoke to.

'He persuaded me to join and when I told Jack that I was joining up, he said: 'Well if you're doing it, so am I'. We joined up in January 2015.

'When we told our mum that we were going into the army, she was initially quite worried about it, but then there isn't a mother in the UK that wouldn't feel that way. Since she's seen us go through training and how far we've come, she couldn't be prouder of us both.

'On the day, our role will be to guard the senior sergeant with the colour before they are presented to the Escort for the Colour. Once they are passed over to the Ensign, we will then fall in with around 70 other guardsmen that make up the Escort to the Colour.

'We will be either side of the sergeant with the colour - if it were to come under attack, it is our role to defend it.'

Jack added: 'Everyone takes a while to understand which of us is which, as we are identical.

'While we were at school, Mark thought it would be funny to lob snowballs at the teachers on a snowy day. When they thought he was up to no good, he blamed it on me and I got in trouble for it.

'But our mum can tell us apart without even having to think.

'We have always been close, the bond of twins is unlike any other relationship you will encounter - it's so unique.'

Their mother, centre, will be watching the ceremony at Horse Guards Parade from the stands while millions will watch them on television

The twins, pictured, will spend the next few days repeatedly drilling their role in the parade to make sure it goes as planned

In the lead up to the Queen's official birthday the twins will repeatedly drill their role to make sure that the parade goes without a hitch, but they said they were not concerned about putting a foot wrong.

Mark said: 'Over the next couple of days, we'll be down in Surrey finishing up the preparations for the ceremony, making sure that everything is correct for the day.

'We've gone through the parade time and time again, checking that we have it all right.

'It will take around four hours for us to make sure our uniform is all correct before the day, but it will be done the night before, as it's not something you do on the morning you parade in front of the Queen.

'Normally, it's two soldiers that accompany the sergeant, but the Coldstream Guards is a family regiment and it was great that they had two identical twins guarding the colour, especially in such a landmark year - it gives the whole ceremony that little extra panache.

'Mum was so proud when she found out we had been chosen for the role - we won't spend our birthday with her, but will have leave after the ceremonies and will see all the family for our birthday then.

'The Coldstream Guards is the best regiment and we're honoured to be guarding the colour. Showcasing what we do best is the highlight of our career to date.'.

Mrs Bazeley added: 'I was speechless when I got the call from the boys that they were going to be playing such a big role in the ceremony.

'It is such a huge achievement for them, what they are doing. I am so proud of all my sons, but for them to be doing this is just brilliant.
A mysterious young banker has been squatting in a million-dollar heritage terrace and plans to claim the foreign-owned abandoned property using outdated laws  without paying a cent.

The dilapidated eyesore on Elizabeth Street in Redfern, inner-Sydney, has been taken over by a young man, Andrew James.

The new occupant has told residents of the neighbouring Victorian filigree terraces he plans to take possession of the home under a 'squatter's law', which locals have dubbed 'legalised theft'.

Neighbours said they had received a legal letter saying he apparently plans to clean up the property and renovate it 'to attract good quality and stable tenants'.

The property's international owner, Paul Fuh, aged in his 70s, left Australia for a 'six-month' trip to China on Qantas flight QF191 in November 2007. He has not been seen at the property since.

'Andrew James' or 'Andy Robert': The man who has apparently laid claim to the abandoned Redfern terrace

The property, seen on Thursday by Daily Mail Australia, has boarded up windows, tattered paint - and a padlock on the front door

The dilapidated home (pictured) on Elizabeth Street in Redfern, inner-Sydney, has been taken over by a young banker who says he plans to take ownership over it using 'adverse possession' laws

The property's front door is adorned with a rusted padlock, which neighbours believe was put in place by the council or the police

A tree could be seen poking out of the roof of the terrace when Daily Mail Australia visited the home Thursday

A court judgment said the property 'sits toward the centre of a row of twelve or more late Victorian Filligree terraces of local historic and aesthetic significance and value, dating from about 1873, if not earlier'

When Daily Mail Australia visited the sometimes rat-infested home on Thursday, a tree could be seen growing out of the roof.

Neighbour Camille Faunt told Daily Mail Australia she had received a letter from the lawyers of the Mr James stating his intention to take possession of the home.

Ms Faunt said she had never met Mr James but confessed to having had plenty of issues with the house.

'Probably six or seven years ago, there was a rat infestation so I would come out along here... and there was rat carcasses all over you would have step over them,' she said.

'There was a balcony there and the balcony was collapsing so that was also a concern.

'There was a couple of bricks balancing on the top of the verandah and it was unsafe.'

'The council came out and cleared it out. There were apparently rat carcasses, cannabilised rat carcasses in there, overgrowth and rubbish.'

WHAT IS THE 'SQUATTER'S RIGHTS' LAW? The new occupant of the property has told neighbours he plans to claim the terrace under an arcane law known as 'adverse possession'. He has to be there for 12 years before he can make an application under Part 6A of the Real Property Act 1900, NSW, property barrister Geoffrey Moore told Daily Mail Australia. Sachs Gerace Broome lawyer Beverley Hoskinson-Green told Domain the laws were 'very, very rarely' used. She reportedly cast doubt on whether it could be successfully used in this case. She said the law is interpreted to mean adverse possession can only occur if the owner is aware and consents to Mr James staying at the property. A City of Sydney spokeswoman said, to the best of the council's knowledge, Mr Fuh had not returned from his overseas trip in 2007. Advertisement

Ms Faunt said the council had got rid of the rat problem and for years nothing else happened.

But at the end of last year, she and the neighbours had another rat infestation.

'My neighbours starting seeing rats passing between common walls. One got into my house and got up into my bedroom when I was slept. I knew this because there were rat faeces at the end of my bed,' Ms Faunt said.

'It had gnawed a hole in the back door to get out.'

Ms Faunt said she was convinced the rats had come from the abandoned house because that was the source of them before.

She said her neighbours next door to her were also concerned about how the dilapidated house would impact on their new renovations.

Ms Faunt said she and her neighbours complained again to the council about the house, hoping they would clean it out again.

She then got a letter from a law firm 'out in the bush' that claimed to be representing Mr James.

'It said: "A gentleman is taking care of this... he will address all the concerns people have about cleaning it up, renovating it et cetera, et cetera".'

Ms Faunt, who owns her home, said she was disappointed if there was a law that someone could just take possession of the house like that.

'If there is a loophole in the law that permits him to take possession of what is an abandoned house... "the law is an ass",' she said.

When Daily Mail Australia contacted the law firm which sent the letter, a receptionist said: 'Any matters regarding that - the firm would like no comment no further'.

Domain said one neighbour had reported the new occupant of the property to police for trespassing.

But the neighbour, Paul Wilton, was apparently told only the owner could make such a complaint.

Neighbour Camille Faunt told Daily Mail Australia she had received a letter from the lawyers of the banker known as Andrew James stating his intention to take possession of the home under a 'squatter's law'

All boarded up! There was no sign anyone was home when Daily Mail Australia visited the property

Paint was flaking from the window sill and the view inside was obscured by large panels of wood

The gentleman who is planning to claim the property has pledged to clean it up, neighbours said

The front door of the home on Elizabeth Street in Redfern, in Sydney's inner city

Catalogues were crammed in the letter box at the front of the Elizabeth St home

EXTRACT OF THE LETTER ANDREW JAMES SENT NEIGHBOURS 'It is Mr James' intentions to secure the property, clean it up, eliminate infestations and other pests and to repair and restore the property. In that regard work will commence in the near future. Mr James has been in contact with Sydney City Council concerning the premises. Work requiring the approval of the Council will be subject to obtaining Council approval. 'At present time Mr James is arranging for expert investigation and reports to determine what is required to make the premises secure and safe and to eliminate any infestations, unpleasant odours and risks to the public... 'Mr James intends to restore the property to a habitable condition to attract good quality and stable tenants who will not by behaviour or living standards cause a concern to neighbours'. Advertisement

'My understanding is that he hired a locksmith and went in through the front door one day and, when I confronted him, he's now saying he's taken vacant possession,' Mr Wilton told Domain.

'He told me he's planning to renovate the property, then will rent it out and, when the time comes, he'll claim it under the adverse possession law.'

In 2008, a court ordered the property be cleared out after the City of Sydney council's microbiology expert found it posed a 'serious private and public health threat... caused by the current internal circumstances of the premises, especially with rubbish, newspapers, food waste, decaying organic matter' and unchecked vegetation in the backyard.

Another neighbour, Gerard Knapp, was quoted telling Domain feared the 'extraordinary situation' could lead to 'real lawlessness', considering how many unoccupied Sydney homes are owned by overseas investors.

In New South Wales, someone must occupy a property for 12 years to claim rights from an owner under Part 6A of the Real Property Act.

'My understanding is that he hired a locksmith and went in through the front door one day and, when I confronted him, he's now saying he's taken vacant possession,' a neighbour, Paul Wilton, said

The two-bedroom property is valued between $1.1 and $1.375 million, according to data on realestate.com.au

City of Sydney health and building staff once again inspected the property last month to check the building's condition.

An independent assessment of the property's structural intergrity was also carried out and will be returned as soon as possible.

'To the best of Council's knowledge the owner has not returned from overseas,' a council spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia.

'The City has no rights to take occupation of the property.
He climbed back in but boat started taking on water and trio fell overboard

Male officer fastened boat to a lamppost with rope but ended up falling in

They set sail on a flimsy green boat and used shovels instead of paddles

Police officers went to check up on residents stuck in homes during flood

This is the hilarious moment three French police officers took part in a makeshift rescue operation during the floods - and all ended up drenched.

The bungling officers were filmed climbing into a flimsy little boat and setting sail on the flooded landscape of Chartrettes en Seine-et-Marne.

The commune is based south east of Paris and has received heavy rainfall, much like the capital city, which last week suffered the worst flooding in more than 100 years.

Bright idea: The officers head towards a lamppost before the man attempts to fasten the boat to a lamppost

I'm fine! The man nearly falls in the water and does get his hands wet but manages to regain his composure

The officers were attempting to make their way around the community to ensure no residents had become stuck inside their homes, according to The Local France.

Equipped with shovels instead of paddles, the trio began wading through the deep water while a small group of colleagues watched in anticipation.

The video shows that at first things appear to go quite well, despite the plastic boat being extremely wobbly and the officers looking slightly nervous.

They head towards a lamppost and the male officer makes a lunge for it.

He very nearly falls in the water and does get his hands wet but manages to regain his composure and pull the boat towards the side of the flooded road.

Room for another? The man finishes his job and ties the rope to the post before climbing back into the boat

Sinking ship: The weight of the man flopping inside knocks the boat off balance and it starts to take on water

The officer then sets about fastening a rope around the lamppost to keep the boat anchored before stumbling forward again and hitting the water.

Now completely soaked, the man - who stands in the waist-high water - continues with his job and attaches the rope to the post before climbing back into the boat.

The decision to do so is slightly unnecessary given that he is already drenched, and the weight of him flopping inside knocks the boat off balance.

The boat then continues to take on more and more water before flipping on its side and ejecting all three of its occupants.

The humorous video concludes with the police officers giving up on the boat and carrying it through the flooded streets and towards the first house on their round.

That sinking feeling! The water in the boat causes it to flip on its side and eject all three of its occupants
A former space shuttle commander charged with reckless murder in the deaths of two young sisters tried to flee from the scene in a passer-by's car after stopped to help at the scene.

James Halsell is also said to have been carrying a bottle of wine and a pack of sleeping pills when he fatally struck a car carrying 11-year-old Niomi Deona James and 13-year-old Jayla Latrick Parler in Huntsville, Alabama, on Monday morning.

The claim is included in a state trooper's sworn description of the wreck that led to the arrest of former astronaut and five-time shuttle rider.

Former space shuttle commander charged James Halsell (pictured left and in a mugshot right) allegedly had an empty bottle of wine and a pack of sleeping pills on him when he fatally struck a car carrying two girls aged 11 and 13 in Huntsville, Alabama

Cars pass charred ground and remnants at the scene of the fatal traffic accident in rural Tuscaloosa County, Alabama

Victims: Half-sisters Niomi James, 11, and Jayla Parler, 13, (both pictured) were killed in the accident after they were ejected from their vehicle. Their father, who was driving, and his partner were also injured

The officer wrote that Halsell appeared extremely intoxicated after a crash that killed two girls, on a four-lane highway about 2:50 a.m. Monday.

A motorist who stopped to offer aid told officers the one-time astronaut tried to take his pickup truck, appeared drunk and 'was bouncing around,' the statement said.

The description doesn't say what happened next, but Halsell was still on the scene when officers arrived.

The one-time test pilot and retired Air Force colonel told officers he had drank three glasses of wine and stayed at a hotel in Tuscaloosa, where investigators found an empty wine bottle and a package of sleeping pills, also empty.

'Halsell was under the influence of alcohol and said he didn't remember leaving the hotel. Halsell said he will have to figure out what happened in the crash because he didn't know,' the officer wrote.

Halsell is free on $150,000 bond. A woman who answered the phone at his home number Wednesday declined comment. Court records don't list a defense attorney who could speak on his behalf.

An online biography by NASA said Halsell's career with the space agency included five shuttle flights starting in 1994.

Halsell's career with NASA included five shuttle flights starting in 1994. He is seen speaking to reporters at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, about a problem with the Atlantis space shuttle in 2000

After the space shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003, Halsell helped lead NASA's return-to-flight effort. He retired in 2006 and worked for at least two aerospace companies afterward, including ATK Launch Systems, Utah, according to his NASA biography.

The police report lists him as being retired at the time of the crash.

The girls live with their mother in Houston and their father, Pernell James of Brent, was returning home from Texas with them and a woman for a summertime visit, according to Brent Mayor Dennis Stripling.

James told investigators he was driving about 65 mph on U.S. 82 when a car traveling 'at a very high rate of speed' struck his Ford Fiesta from the rear, crushing the Ford and sending it tumbling across the road, the court document states. The girls were ejected, state troopers said.

Halsell, who told officers he was headed to his native Louisiana to pick up his son, was driving a rented Chrysler 200 car and said he thought he was on Interstate 20/59, not U.S. 82, at the time of the crash, the trooper's statement said.

The trooper wrote that Halsell made nonsensical statements, adding: 'Halsell was so intoxicated he asked to see the victims' bodies.'
Villagers say they are terrified of a flock of birds of prey which keep dive-bombing young children.

Residents of pretty Stokenchurch in Buckinghamshire say red kites circling above their homes have left some youngsters afraid to go outside.

Worried parents have compared the scenes to Alfred Hitchcock's horror film The Birds after a little girl was attacked over a cupcake.

Residents of Stokenchurch in Buckinghamshire say they are being terrorised by swooping red kites

Ava Edgar-Francis was injured when one of the large birds swooped down to tried and take her cupcake

Debbie Francis says her three-year-old daughter Ava Edgar-Francis was at a birthday party when one of the birds descended and scratched her head with its talons as it reached for the cake.

Ms Francis said: 'It was horrendous, she was so upset. It just swooped in claws first.

'There was some bleeding and she had two huge claw marks on the back of her head. Now before Ava goes out she checks to see if there are any birds in the sky. There really needs to be a cull.'

Another mother, Natalie English, who was also at the party, said: 'It was scary just watching the kites hovering over us, then when the kite came in to get food and in the process hurt Ava it was terrifying.'

'When I told my daughter we were going for a picnic my daughter asked 'will the birds hurt us?' She is still scared of what she saw.'

Fellow Stokenchurch resident, Michelle Evans, added: 'My husband had a sandwich stolen from his hand, and my daughter had half a chocolate bar taken from her hand - both times close to their faces, and my daughter's hand was punctured by the claw.'

Her mother says the attack has left the youngster afraid of birds and scared to go outside

The incident, one of a number reported in the village, happened in Watlington Recreation Ground

Red kites nearly died out in Britain in the 20th century and are now a protected species. Anyone found to have killed one can face up to six months in jail.

Some in Stokenchurch blamed locals for encouraging the birds by feeding them.

Sallie Sayers said: 'This is the time of year when they will be most visible and looking for food to feed the young.

'We have taught them not to be afraid of us and that we are a food source, a dangerous message to wild animal.
A bad batch of heroin has been blamed for the death of 13 people in Sydney over the last month but the real killer could be a prescription drug, experts say.

The opioid painkiller in question is Fentanyl, the same drug which killed pop legend Prince in April, the ABC has reported.

The 13 deaths which led a New South Wales coroner to declare a war against a bad batch of heroin all had the same characteristic.

The same drug thought to have ended Prince's life could be to blame for 13 deaths in Sydney recently

The bodies of the drug users were found slumped over with syringes still on hand.

Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation president Doctor Alex Wodak said the state of the bodies suggests the death was rapid.

'That raises the question for me as to whether or not the heroin has been laced with this drug Fentanyl -the drug Prince's death has been attributed to,' Dr Wodak said.

'This has certainly happened a lot overseas and is causing a great deal of concern in the United States,' he said.

Fentanyl patches are designed to combat chronic pain and are regularly used in hospitals.

Mr Wodack told Newscorp if people were to inject straight Fentanyl or use it with other sedative drugs it would have deadly consequences.

'I think that is what we are seeing,' he said.

In 2013 the drug was responsible for the death of 51 people in NSW alone.

One of those people who died at the hands of the drug that year was Shayne Barker from Wagga Wagga in NSW.

An inquest heard Mr Barker extracted the drug from patches before injecting it into his ankle.

Shayne Barker, from Wagga Wagga, died from a Fentanyl overdose in 2013. An inquest into his death heard he used the painkiller regularly
Calvert faces expected 15 years in prison under plea deal after attack which went on for hours as he shouted: 'I'm going to kill you.'

Her mother was in court to watch Calvert plead guilty to 3am attack at his home where he slammed her against walls and floors and beat her

She posted it to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence and it became internet sensation

Amaker recorded a song from her hospital bed as she recovered from

A man who brutally beat his girlfriend leaving her hospitalized admitted to almost killing her at a court hearing today.

Jason Calvert, 34, appeared at Monroe County Court in Rochester, New York, on Wednesday morning where he pleaded guilty to second-degree attempted murder. He faces 15 years in jail.

He had been accused of strangulation, robbery, assault and resisting arrest in the November 29 incident at his home involving his 24-year-old girlfriend.

Calvert told the court on Wednesday: 'I assaulted her, I beat her with my fists. I hit her five times, I knocked her out.'

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Guilty: Jason Calvert pleaded guilty to an all-encompassing charge of attempted murder as he appeared in court in Rochester after his attack in November on Darrian Amaker

Still to be sentenced: Calvert now faces a 15-year term for his second-degree attempted murder conviction

Handcuffed: Calvert will spend as much as 15 years behind bars for his brutal attack on his then girlfriend. Her mother was in court to watch him admit the crime

Impact: Darrian Amaker recorded a song while recovering from her injuries in hospital, and later posted it to a domestic violence campaign. It became an internet sensation

Calvert appeared dazed during the court appearance where he was handcuffed and wearing an orange jumpsuit. He has been jailed since the attack on a $50,000 bond.

He also faces four years of post-release supervision and a 23-year protection order applying to Amaker.

Calvert attacked his college student girlfriend at his Rochester home on November 29 last year.

She did not attend the court appearance but her mother, Alii, did on her behalf.

The attack which led to his conviction went on for hours, the police complaint disclosed.

It began at 3am, when the couple were in the kitchen, and he hit her with his fist.

Then he slammed Amaker against the wall and floor of kitchen, the police report revealed, 'intentionally causing serious physical injury, severe facial bruising and swelling to the victim's face to the extent of both of her eyes swollen completely shut, while telling her "I'm going to kill you."'

Calvert then yelled at her to wake her up and poured water in her mouth, causing her to vomit.

She was then dragged up several flights of stairs by Calvert to his attic apartment, according to the police statement, where he continued to beat her about the face and head.

She was allegedly physically restrained during the assault and only managed to escape at 8am when her attacker fell asleep.

Calvert was arrested and arraigned on December 17 where he pled not guilty to the charges.

Crime scene: Calvert asked his girlfriend to come to his attic apartment in Rochester, NY, where he subjected her to a vicious attack

Survivor: Darrian Amaker, 24, wrote in a message posted to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence: 'I survived or escaped, whatever you want to call it, and spent four days in the hospital, eyes swollen shut, wondering why, wondering why.'

Contempt: Calvert grabbed Amaker and struck her repeatedly in the face, police documents showed

Amaker's video was viewed by millions after she posted it and a written message on Facebook.

'He had planned it out; I was supposed to die,' she wrote in the message, posted to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

'I survived or escaped, whatever you want to call it, and spent four days in the hospital, eyes swollen shut, wondering why, wondering why.'

As for what inspired her to make this video in one of her darkest hours, Amaker wrote; 'I don't generally record videos of myself but it was the only thing I wanted to do in the hospital.

'I insisted - it felt important and a small triumph to make something, salvage anything from my shipwrecked heart.'

She closed by sending a message to everyone reminding them that domestic abuse affects everyone, even if they are unaware.

'Domestic violence is not a faraway issue. It affects people you know, cheerful people, people who sing, people who love,' said Amaker.

'We the humans must be better, kinder, stronger. We the loving must not tolerate abuse. We the living must facilitate life.'

In the song, she recounts a version of the relationship and the attack.

'She found her own way in the city, she don't take no more abuse,' sings Amaker.
A woman who accidentally ran over a green tree frog with her lawn mower was left so grief-stricken that she patched up its wounds with a gauze and flew it 1,000 kilometres to hospital.

Min Tims mowed down the frog as she was cutting her grass in Mount Isa, Queensland.

The amphibian suffered a cut to its head during the accident before Ms Tims bandaged up the wound.

But not content with the treatment she gave it, she transported the frog from Mount Isa to the Frog Safe hospital in Cairns.

Woman who accidentally ran over a green tree frog (pictured) with her lawn mower was left so grief-stricken that she patched up its wounds with a gauze and flew it 1,000 kilometres to hospital

Ms Morgan's niece Felicia Morgan, from Townsville, told the Brisbane Times that she had been left 'devastated' by the accident.

She told the newspaper: 'She was devastated and asked if I could say prayers for him.

'She sent me a photo of him and then I was devastated and I knew he needed help so I told her to go to their first aid kit and get out gauze pad and wet it and put it on the wound.'

Ms Morgan then researched where to get help and discovered Frog Safe - a hospital designated for frogs - in Cairns.

The following morning the frog was transported to the airport and flown to the hospital.

President of Frog Safe Deborah Pergolotti picked up the amphibian, believed to be about two to three years old, from the airport.

She told the Brisbane Times that the frog suffered 'serious wounds' on his back and above its eye.

The frog underwent treatment at the hospital and will soon be released back into the wild.
A touching rescue mission has ended with a Texas sheriff adopting a dog he helped save after the pooch was found chained to a house in knee-deep flood waters with no way to escape.

Fort Bend County Sheriff Troy Nehls had discovered Archer, a two-year-old female Border Collie mix, tied to a front porch of a home about 30 miles southwest of Houston last Tuesday.

The dog was rescued by boat and taken to the Houston Humane Society where Nehls and his family went to visit her on Sunday.

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A touching rescue has ended with a Texas sheriff adopting a dog he helped rescue from knee-deep flood waters. Fort Bend County Sheriff Troy Nehls pictured with Archer, his wife, daughters and their two other dogs

Nehls discovered Archer, a 2-year-old female border collie mix, tied to a front porch at a home about 30 miles southwest of Houston this week, nearly submerged in murky flood waters (pictured)

Archer was rescued by boat and brought to the Houston Humane Society, covered in a greasy film from the waters, with her tail tucked between her legs, a shelter spokeswoman said

'Archer was super excited to see the man that had helped save her life! It was love at first sight for everyone,' the shelter wrote in a Facebook post following the visit.

'Archer spent all afternoon giving kisses to the whole crew! At the end, the family voted unanimously to adopt Archer and make her part of their pack!!!'

Nehls confirmed the adoption that same day on his Facebook, writing: 'I am happy to say the only water this girl will be in now is the swimming pool in my backyard!

'We picked her up today from the Houston Humane Society. Welcome to the family!'

At the time of Archer's rescue, Nehls was in a boat crewed by volunteers Richard Allen and Jeff Shimek, which was also carrying a news crew from NBC affiliate KPRC. Archer and Shimek pictured going into the water

Archer pictured following her rescue. The shelter spokeswoman said by the ring around Archer's neck, you can tell she was chained outside for some time

The Houston Humane Society shared this image following Archer's rescue and thanked KPRC's Phil Archer, Nehls, and Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office

At the time of Archer's rescue, Nehls was in a boat crewed by volunteers Richard Allen and Jeff Shimek, which was also carrying a news crew from NBC affiliate KPRC, according to Click2Houston.

As the group surveyed the flooded neighborhood, they spotted Archer who was nearly submerged in murky flood waters and was seen in footage barely being able to hold her head above the water.

In video of the rescue, Archer and Shimek are seen going into the water and untying the dog before placing her in a boat.

'This is infuriating,' Sheriff Nehls wrote on his Facebook page after finding Archer left for dead. 'These residents will get a visit from me when they return.'

The shelter said it took numerous baths to get the greasy film off Archer's coat from the nasty flood waters

Nehls shared this sweet snap of Archer sleeping next to one of his daughters with the caption: 'I think she's going to be fine'

On Facebook he confirmed that his family was adopting Archer, writing: 'I am happy to say the only water this girl will be in now is the swimming pool in my backyard... welcome to the family!'

The dog was taken to the Houston Humane Society, covered in a greasy film from the waters, with her tail tucked between her legs, spokeswoman Monica Schmidt said.

'By the ring around her neck, you can tell she was chained outside for some time,' Schmidt said.

At the time, several people expressed interest in providing a permanent home for Archer once she was given a clean bill of health and cleared for adoption.

But after the Nehls family's visit on Sunday, Archer has already found a new home.

'She's an amazing dog,' the shelter wrote on Facebook.

'It took numerous baths to get the greasy film off her coat from the nasty flood waters.

'We also cleaned off tons of flea debris and treated her for fleas.

During the floods on Tuesday, the men who rescued Archer found five more abandoned dogs in the floods on a return trip

'Unfortunately, we also found out Archer is heartworm positive because her last owners didn't bother to keep her on hw prevention.

'Her new family has already talked to their vet to set up treatment!!'

Archer's original owner has not come forward and could face animal abandonment charges.

During the floods on Tuesday, the men who rescued Archer found five more abandoned dogs in the floods on a return trip, which they rescued, according to Click2Houston.
An adorable koala has made a miracle recovery after plunging from her tree during the wild Sydney storms.

Louise the koala joey dropped from her tree into a chicken coop in a Hawks Nest backyard during wild storms which lashed the coast of NSW Monday night.

The adorable marsupial has is now being nursed back to health by animal carers after surviving the night exposed to the heavy rain and wind.

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Adorable koala has made a miracle recovery after plunging from her tree during the wild Sydney storms

Louise the koala joey dropped from her tree into a chicken coop in a Hawks Nest backyard during wild storms which lashed the coast of NSW Monday night

Louise  who is small enough to be cupped in a pair of hands  was saved by a stroke of luck after the chickens alerted home owner Louise Haynes to the stricken marsupial before she left for work.

'It was cold when I picked it up, but soon warmed up and snuggled in I am so proud to have found this baby,' Ms Haynes told ABC.

Animal rescuers tried putting the baby at the base of the tree for her mother to take her back, but the koala was unresponsive.

The quick thinking rescuers wrapped her up in a woollen pouch, then wrapped her in a blanket, sitting on a warmer set at 34 degrees Celsius.

The adorable marsupial has is now being nursed back to health by animal carers after surviving the night exposed to the heavy rain and wind

The quick thinking rescuers wrapped her up in a woollen pouch and then wrapped her in a blanket

Louise, who was named after her rescuer, is now on the mend in the safe hands of Hunter Koala Preservation Society Care

Louise, who was named after her rescuer, is now on the mend in the safe hands of Hunter Koala Preservation Society Care.

'She looks so much stronger,' said HKPRSC Volunteer Sue Swain

The tiny survivor requires feeding around the clock every three hours - even into the night.

The rescue is deemed significant because Louise is part of a small population of Hawks Nest koalas, who are critically endangered.




Now the presumptive Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton is taking the fight directly to her general election opponent, Donald Trump.

She's doing a round of interviews Wednesday afternoon as she celebrates becoming the first woman to win a major party's popular vote, even availing herself to right-leaning TV network Fox News.

Clinton will sit down this evening with Fox News' Bret Baier for roughly five minutes for his 6pm Eastern show, possibly longer, the network says.

Her campaign also launched a 'Republicans Against Trump' site that aims to draw in members of the GOP who say they won't vote for him in November.

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Hillary Clinton will do a round of interviews on Wednesday afternoon as she celebrates becoming the first woman to win a major party's popular vote. The Democratic presidential candidate is even availing herself to right-leaning TV network Fox News

Clinton is now figuratively the Democratic nominee after winning the popular vote and a majority of pledged delegates in Tuesday's contests

CELEBRATION: Clinton is now figuratively the Democratic nominee after winning the popular vote and a majority of pledged delegates in Tuesday's contests. She's seen here Tuesday night at her victory party with husband Bill, daughter Chelsea and son-in-law Mark Mezvinsky

The appearance on Fox the day after she effectively clinched her party's nomination is Clinton's first obvious move toward poaching #NeverTrump Republicans who six months ago wouldn't have been open to her candidacy but now find themselves with nowhere to call home.

A small subsection of the Republican Party says now in surveys that they would vote for Clinton in the general election, less than 10 percent in two polls taken at the end of May.

In fact, more Democrats say they're considering crossing party lines to vote for Trump than Republicans that voice support for Clinton.

Still, the former secretary of state seems to think she has an opening, having launched the Republicans Against Trump site since she locked down the Democratic nomination.

Extending an olive branch to Americans who did not support her in the primary but may cast a ballot for her in the general, she said Tuesday, 'This election is not, however, about the same old fights between Democrats and Republicans. This election is different. It really is about who we are as a nation.'

Today she's sitting down with Fox.

Any network interview with Clinton, who has not held a formal press conference in 2016, is considered a big get. A Fox News interview is an even greater rarity given the news network's political leanings.

A network that is considered hostile territory for most Democrats, Clinton seems to have found a balance with Baier. She also sat down with him in March for a town hall.

The Clinton camp rejected a Fox News debate in California that Baier wanted to moderate but that more about the candidate's disinterest in giving opponent Bernie Sanders free air time than a beef with the network.

'We're happy that she's talking to us,' Baier told his colleague Bill O'Reilly Tuesday evening on air.

With only five minutes or so to talk to Clinton, Baier will have a difficult time nailing her down on a specific issue, whether that be the FBI investigation into her emails or her plans to marginalize Sanders as he keeps trying to win the nomination.

Her campaign also launched a 'Republicans Against Trump' site that aims to draw in members of the party that say they won't vote for him

Extending an olive branch to Americans who did not support her in the primary but may cast a ballot for her in the general, Clinton said Tuesday, 'This election is not, however, about the same old fights between Democrats and Republicans. This election is different. It really is about who we are as a nation'

O'Reilly advised Baier that 'she's gonna come in with her talking points, and if you interrupt her you're gonna look like me, and you don't want to do that.'

Previewing the interview, Baier said Clinton has 'real problems and vulnerabilities.'

'Her biggest problem, perhaps... she wants to reach out to Bernie Sanders supporters and the progressive left but at the same time reach out to disaffected Republicans.'

Baier said polling over the next several days will provide a clearer picture of where Clinton stands with the general electorate.

She leads Trump by an average of just two points in polls taken since mid May.

O'Reilly predicted she'll get a bump post California.

Clinton is now figuratively the Democratic nominee after winning the popular vote and a majority of pledged delegates in Tuesday's contests.

After wins in four states, including California and New Jersey, Clinton's pledged delegate count stands at 2,184 to Sanders' 1,804.

She has a total delegate count of 2,755 when the superdelegates backing her are included. She needs a total of 2,383 votes at the convention to formally be named the party's standard bearer in the general election.

Clinton will sit down this evening with Fox News' Bret Baier for roughly five minutes for his 6pm Eastern show, possibly longer, the network says

President Barack Obama called his former secretary of state last night to congratulate her, the White House said as it declared her the Democratic nominee in a statement.

Obama also called Bernie Sanders. At Sanders' request, they'll meet Thursday at the White House.

The president's move to ink Clinton's name at the top of the Democratic ticket put Sanders in a bind. He had not yet taken the stage at his own rally in California when the White House made its announcement.

Clinton had just finished speaking to her own supporters from a site in Brooklyn. New York, near her national headquarters.

Sanders said last night that he would spend the next six weeks until the convention working over superdelegates but could be rethinking that strategy after his spectacular loss to Clinton in California Tuesday evening.

He's headed back to Vermont today and will be in Washington, D.C. on Thursday for his meeting with the president and what is likely to be his final rally of the campaign.

Washington, D.C. votes on Tuesday and Sanders has no intention of dropping out before then. His big decision will come next Wednesday when the primary schedule comes full circle.

Closing the book on their brutal battle last night, Clinton praised Sanders 'for the extraordinary campaign he has run' that 'excited millions of voters, especially young people.'

'And let there be no mistake: Senator Sanders, his campaign, and the vigorous debate that weve had about how to raise incomes, reduce inequality, increase upward mobility have been very good for the Democratic Party and for America,' she said.

She spent the rest of her speech attempting to undercut Trump's momentum.

'Donald Trump is temperamentally unfit to be president and commander-in-chief,' she said, repeating a line she's been using against him on the trail. 'And hes not just trying to build a wall between America and Mexico  hes trying to wall off Americans from each other.'

Hillary hugs Bill after speaking to her supporters from a site in Brooklyn. New York, near her national headquarters

Clinton told her backers that when Trump says, " Lets make America great again, that is code for, Lets take America backwards.

'Back to a time when opportunity and dignity were reserved for some, not all, promising his supporters an economy he cannot recreate.

'We, however, we want to write the next chapter in American greatness, with a 21st century prosperity that lifts everyone whos been left out and left behind, including those who may not vote for us but who deserve their chance to make a new beginning,' Clinton said.

Going over Trump's greatest hits in the election, Clinton said, 'He wants to win by stoking fear and rubbing salt in wounds. And reminding us daily just how great he is. Well, we believe we should lift each other up, not tear each other down.'

Clinton said her general election campaign would target the millions of Americans willing to come together and say, 'We are better than this. We wont let this happen in America.
The names of CIA personnel could have been compromised not only by hackers who may have penetrated Hillary Clinton's private computer server or the State Department system, but also by the release itself of tens of thousands of her emails, security experts say.

At least 47 of the emails Clinton turned over to the State Department contain the notation 'B3 CIA PERS/ORG,' which indicates the material referred to CIA personnel or matters related to the agency.

And because both Clinton's server and the State Department systems were vulnerable to hacking, the perpetrators could have those original emails, and now the publicly released, redacted versions showing exactly which sections refer to CIA personnel.

The names of CIA personnel could have been compromised not only by hackers who may have penetrated Hillary Clinton's private computer server or the State Department system, but also by the release itself of tens of thousands of her emails, experts say

'Start with the entirely plausible view that foreign intelligence services discovered and rifled Hillary Clinton's server,' said Stewart Baker, a Washington lawyer who spent more than three years as an assistant secretary of the Homeland Security Department and is former legal counsel for the National Security Agency.

If so, those infiltrators would have copies of all her emails with the names not flagged as being linked to the agency

Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, turned over to the State Department 55,000 emails from her private server that were sent or received when she was secretary of state.

Some contained information that has since been deemed classified, and those were redacted for public release with notations for the reason of the censorship.

In the process of publicly releasing the emails, however, classification experts seem to have inadvertently provided a key to anyone who has the originals. By redacting names associated with the CIA and using the 'B3 CIA PERS/ORG' exemption as the reason, 'Presto  the CIA names just fall off the page,' Baker said.

The CIA declined to comment.

A U.S. official said the risk of the names of CIA personnel being revealed in this way is 'theoretical and probably remains so at this time.' The official, who did not have the authority to publicly address the matter, spoke on condition of anonymity and would not elaborate.

Steven Aftergood, who directs the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy, said even if any identities were revealed, they might be the names of analysts or midlevel administrators, not undercover operatives.

'I don't think there's any particular vulnerability here,' Aftergood said.

Clinton has acknowledged that the email server, set up in the basement of her New York home, was a mistake.

But she says she never sent or received anything that was marked classified at the time of transmission. Clinton, who was secretary of state from 2009 to 2013, insists the personal server she used was never actually breached.

Clinton, seen here celebrating last night as she became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, turned over to the State Department 55,000 emails from her private server that were sent or received when she was secretary of state. At least 47 contain markings that indicate they were related to CIA

The AP discovered last year that Clinton's private server was directly connected to the internet in ways that made it more vulnerable to hackers.

A recent State Department inspector general's report indicated the server was temporarily unplugged by a Clinton aide at one point during attacks by hackers, but her campaign has said there's no evidence the server was hacked.

In each year from 2011 to 2014, the State Department's poor cybersecurity was identified by its inspector general as a 'significant deficiency' that put the department's information at risk. Another State Department inspector general report revealed that hacking attempts forced Clinton off her private email at one point in 2011.

Then in 2014, the State Department's unclassified email system was breached by hackers with links to Russia. They stole an unspecified number of emails. The hack was so deep that State's email system had to be cut off from the internet while experts worked to eliminate the infestation.

Baker points out another instance where Clinton's server might have been hacked.

A March 2, 2009, email warned against State Department officials using Blackberries. Eric Boswell, assistant secretary of state, says the 'vulnerabilities and risks associated with the use of Blackberries ... considerably outweigh their convenience.'

Nine days later, another email states that Clinton approached Boswell and says she 'gets' the risk.

The email also said: 'Her attention was drawn to the sentence that indicates we (the diplomatic security office officials) have intelligence concerning this vulnerability during her recent trip to Asia.'
The two top police officers left work several hours before authorities stormed the cafe to bring the deadly Sydney siege to an end after 17 hours, it has emerged.

NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione and his deputy Catherine Burn left the command post at around 11.30pm after hours of emergency meetings and briefings on the siege which started at 9.40am on December 15, 2014, The Daily Telegraph reported.

As the standoff stretched through the day, the pair had travelled to the State Crisis Command Centre in Redfern where they met with NSW Premier Mike Baird.

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Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione (right) and deputy Catherine Burn (left) left work hours before the deadly Sydney siege ended after a 17-hour ordeal, it has emerged

Three people seen fleeing the Lindt cafe after being held hostage by gunman Man Haron Monis in Martin Place

The two senior officers then headed to the Police Operations Centre in the city where the siege response was being managed by the tactical operations unit commanders.

Deputy commissioner Burn checked out at 10pm but was said to have remained until 11.30pm and then left with commissioner Scipione.

Premier Mike Baird and then police minister Stuart Ayres also left at 10pm and checked into city hotels, the Telegraph said.

The pair have since been told to make a statement to the Sydney siege inquest as neither of them have revealed where they were on the night of the siege as the case is before the Coroner.

According to The Daily Telegraph, the grieving families of Lindt cafe manager Tori Johnson and barrister Katrina Dawson are demanding answers from the senior officers.

Mr Johnson and Ms Dawson were two of 18 people held hostage by gunman Man Haron Monis in Sydney's Martin Place in 2014.

Police stormed the cafe at 2.13am on December 16, 2014 after Monis shot Mr Johnson dead from point-blank range.

Ms Dawson, a mother of three, died after being hit by a police bullet as they stormed inside, while Monis was also killed.

The inquest is still hearing evidence.

The families of Lindt cafe manager Tori Johnson and barrister Katrina Dawson are demanding answers

Julie Taylor (pictured) only managed to escape the cafe minutes before the siege ended after a 17 hour ordeal




William Hague has urged voters to overlook their 'parochial' concerns about immigration and vote to remain in the EU in two weeks time.

Lord Hague, the former Tory leader who ran the 2001 general election on a Eurosceptic platform, said his four years as foreign secretary convinced him of the importance of the European Union.

In a later speech, Lord Hague warned it would be 'irresponsible and potentially dangerous' to quit the trading bloc after the June 23 referendum.

Lord Hague, who has in the past expressed concerns about levels of immigration into Britain, insisted that was 'not the issue' on which people should decide how they vote.

William Hague today urged Britons to overlook 'parochial' concerns about immigration and back continued EU membership on June 23

He told the BBC: 'I think when we raise our eyes from the parochial concerns and look at those challenges over the next 20 to 30 years, that is something that has changed compared to 10 or 20 years ago.'

The former foreign secretary's claims came as Justice Secretary Michael Gove and minister Dominic Raab issued a grim warning about the dangers to national security of staying in the EU.

Lord Hague dismissed as 'total fantasy' claims made by the Leave camp about the benefits of a vote to break from Brussels.

Speaking in central London he said: 'We are entering an age in which the world is subject to greater political and economic risk than we have experienced in recent decades.

'To add to those risks at a time of uncertainty without any clear idea as to what the alternative plan might be, is irresponsible and potentially dangerous. It is not sensible to do that unless it is, for some other reason, essential to do so.'

Lord Hague echoed concerns raised by David Cameron about the prospect of Brexit triggering the break-up of the UK, saying: 'I believe the risks, to jobs and prosperity, and to the structure of the UK itself, to be considerable.'

He hit out at the claims made by former Cabinet colleague Mr Gove and the Vote Leave camp about the UK's prospects after severing ties with Brussels.

'The idea that we can leave the EU without any serious economic consequences for jobs and businesses in Britain, and somehow have more money to spend on the NHS and other services at the same time, is a total fantasy, and people need to know that before they vote,' he said.

'I'm the first to say Europe isn't perfect. I've spent my political life standing up to it. But for all its imperfections, it protects jobs and boosts our standing and power in the world.

'Let me tell you straight, as someone who's an outright Eurosceptic, leaving the European Union would be downright irresponsible.'

Vote Leave campaigners Michael Gove and Dominic Raab today issued new warnings about the security risks of staying inside the EU

Lord Hague added: 'Everything I saw of the world in my time as foreign secretary leads me to believe that there are important reasons why even those of us with critical and sceptical views of Europe should cast our votes to remain in the EU on 23 June.'

In a speech for Vote Leave, Mr Raab said: 'There is one absolutely clear-cut dividend from leaving the EU.

'That is our ability to regain control of our borders, including far stronger powers over who we can deport, and proper preventative checks at the border.

'At the moment, we cant bar anyone in possession of an EU passport or identity card unless they represent a ''genuine, present and sufficiently serious threat'' to our security.

'Even if that high threshold is met, we have to disclose the reasons to the individual barred, even if that itself could endanger national security.

Voters will have until TOMORROW NIGHT to register for the EU referendum after ministers bow to fury over website crash hours before deadline

The law is set to be changed to ensure tens of thousands of voters can take part in the EU referendum despite the registration website crashing.

David Cameron has urged people to keep signing up on the official site after the outage just hours before the midnight deadline caused widespread fury.

The government will bring forward emergency legislation pushing the cut-off back until tomorrow night.

The Government voter registration website crashed last night just two hours before the deadline

Anyone who wants to vote on June 23 had to have completed an application before midnight to be allowed to take part.

But around 10pm the system on Gov.UK appeared to go down for around an hour.

Despite the system failures, yesterday was a record for the number of people registering to vote in a single day, with 525,000 signing up to have their say on Brexit.

Cabinet Office minister Matt Hancock said the decision to change the law had been taken after discussions with the Electoral Commission and there was 'clear cross-party support'.

'We will legislate tomorrow to extend the voter registration deadline until tomorrow night,' Mr Hancock said.

But senior Tory MP Bernard Jenkin, a Brexit campaigner, warned that the move could turn the ballot into a 'shambles' and open it to judicial review.

Tories drag reluctant David Cameron into a live TV blue-on-blue battle at PMQs and demand he rule out the 'democratic outrage' of pro-EU MPs ignoring a Brexit vote

Former Cabinet minister Liam Fox today warned David Cameron to rule out the 'democratic outrage' of pro-EU MPs refusing to fully implement a Brexit vote on June 23.

Dr Fox led a barrage of blue-on-blue fire during today's Prime Minister's Questions as party tensions continue to rise ahead of the crunch referendum in just two weeks time.

Mr Cameron has refused to debate other Tories on live television during the referendum battle but was left with no choice in the Commons as his own MPs queued up to aim blows at his campaign.

In response, The Prime Minister said the result on June 23 would be final and vowed to stay on in No 10 to implement the decision of the British people - but repeated warnings about the dangers of Brexit.

David Cameron faced a barrage of Eurosceptic questions in the Commons TV as he was pilloried by members of his own party for trying to preserve Britain's EU membership

It emerged this week pro-EU MPs were plotting a rearguard action to dilute Brexit. A large majority of MPs oppose leaving the EU and could refuse to repeal laws relating to the single market by arguing Vote Leave have no mandate for a specific alternative.

A minister anonymously told the BBC this week such a guerilla campaign was likely after a Brexit vote while Labour MP Stephen Kinnock warned there was a strong case for MPs to block changes that would damage the economy.

Dr Fox said today: 'Any attempt to short-change or distort the verdict of the British people would be a democratic outrage.'

Mr Cameron replied: 'Every vote counts the same, we have asked the British people for their opinion and we should treat their decision as an instruction to deliver.'
Hundreds of men and women gathered topless on Brighton beach for the 'Free the Nipple' campaign to make the sight or breasts more normal.

Two hundred women and men paraded topless around Brighton Beach at the weekend to highlight controversial social media policies about banning female nipples.

The Sunday afternoon march started from Brighton Pier, and then headed along the East Sussex city seafront before stopping on the beach - where everybody sunbathed topless.

Hundreds of men and women staged a protest on one of Britain's most popular beaches to 'Free the Nipple' and make boobs more acceptable in society - by stripping

Two hundred women and men paraded topless around Brighton Beach at the weekend to highlight controversial social media policies about banning female nipples

The Sunday afternoon march started from Brighton Pier, and then headed along the East Sussex city seafront before stopping on the beach - where everybody sunbathed topless

The women hope to normalise the sight of normal women's breasts as usually only models and filmstars are seen topless

One member who attended the event said: 'It was lovely, I felt proud and fantastic.

'There wasn't any negativity or aggression, all we got was a lot of smiles and a lot of support and cheering.'

The event was organised by comedian Samantha Pressdee, who came to Brighton with her one-woman comedy show about nudity and sexuality.

Miss Pressdee said: 'I've been a member of the Free The Nipple campaign over the past year.

'I joined the campaign to challenge the way women's breasts were perceived.

'Breasts have been sexualised and the point of this campaign is that they don't have to sexual.'

Miss Pressdee, 33, from Walsall, is known for usually performing her acts topless and did so again in advance of a run at the Edinburgh Fringe.

Men also took part in the event, during which hundreds of people took over Brighton beach (pictured)

The event (pictured) was organised by comedian Samantha Pressdee, who came to Brighton with her one-woman comedy show about nudity and sexuality

Women pose on the seafront and in the sea to 'Free the Nipple' and make the sight of breasts more acceptable in society

She said members of the public joined the march by taking off their tops with 'Free the nipples' painted on their body.

She said: ' We had a lovely time, loads of pictures were taken.

'We ended up relaxing on the beach, some people decided to go for a swim whilst others brought out their guitars'.

Although there was one negative aspect of the event when a man and his son came across the group, he then told his son to 'cover his eyes'.

Miss Pressdee added: 'There's nothing wrong with kids seeing nudity if it's not in a sexual context'.

International Go Topless Day is the next event that has rallies in 60 cities around the world preparations are in place as the group look assemble once again for the event rally on August 28th.




In the 29 years that Kent Price has lived in the Santa Clarita Valley, north of Los Angeles, he has never once seen a bear.

That was until Monday night, anyway, when he got a call from a neighbor that a 300lb grizzly was wandering around his yard.

The bear ate all the cat food he could find and drank some water from a bird feeder, and came right up to Price's back sliding door.

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Looking for a late-night snack: The bear was captured on video sniffing around the yard in California Monday

The bear was clearly looking for a late-night snack and was captured on camera wandering around the yard in Santa Clarita Valley, north of Los Angeles, on Monday night.

Close: In the footage the bear is seen eating cat food and drinking water, before approaching the back door

The bear ate all the cat food he could find and drank some water from a bird feeder, and came right up to Price's back sliding door (pictured)

As Price explained to KTLA 5 News: 'He knocked the hummingbird feeder down to drink the water.

'I know it could have pushed in the glass door. (But) I wasn't petrified. He just seemed like he was minding his own business.'

The bear had a noticeable ear tag, meaning wildlife officials have encountered the animal before.

Other neighbors watched the bear run down the street, through some driveways, before jumping a fence and go back up the mountain ridge.

Price was first told about the bear by his neighbor, Dave Rentz, who filmed the scene and posted the video to Facebook.

'He just seemed like he was minding his own business': Kent Price has never seen a bear in the 29 years he was lived in the area
Two of Bernie Sanders' prominent supporters in Congress are urging him to get out of the race to help unify the party so it can focus on beating Republican Donald Trump.

But Sanders keeping his political 'revolution' alive, even holding an evening rally in D.C. Thursday and keeping himself in the spotlight as issue fights commence on the Democratic platform  and keeping him position in case something comes of the FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails.

'The only reason for Sanders to remain in the race is to swoop in and be the nominee if something breaks on Hillary's email scandal that renders her unable to accept the nomination,' Republican consultant Doug Heye told DailyMail.com. 'Odds on that happening are slim and - especially following his meeting with Obama - pressure on Sanders to withdraw will only increase.'

'I've always said that Bernie would do the right thing and he will,' Arizona representative Raul Grijalva, who co-chairs the House progressive caucus, told NPR Wednesday.

'And unifying this party and taking it to the general election and making sure that secretary Clinton prevails if that's how it ends up going  I think he's going to do the right thing,' the Bernie-backing lawmaker added.

'Do the right thing': Leading Sanders supporters are publicly calling on him to get out of the race

He acknowledged the psychological importance of a loss in Left Coast California, where a win would have given Sanders an important boost even as Clinton secured enough pledged delegates anyway.

'I thought that California was going to be a bastion going to the convention but it doesn't look that way,' Grijalva said.

Also waiving the white flag is Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley, Sanders' lone backer in the Senate.

'Once a candidate has won a majority of the pledged delegates and a majority of the popular vote, which Secretary Clinton has now done, we have our nominee,' Merkley told the Washington Post.

Fight on: Sanders is holding a campaign rally Thursday in advance of the June 14 D.C. primary. It's not clear how he could be the party nominee  unless Clinton gets indicted and super delegates swing his way en masse

Historic: Clinton referenced the 'glass ceiling' and pointed to her historic achievement after her victory during her victory rally in Brooklyn Tuesday

Rep. Raul Grijalva backs Sanders, but now says 'unifying the party' is the priority

Oregon senator and Sanders supporter Jeff Merkley is calling on Bernie to throw in the towel

'This is the moment when we need to start bringing parts of the party together so they can go into the convention with locked arms and go out of the convention unified into the general election.'

The pressure from his own camp comes as top party leaders also try to nudge Sanders out of the race. President Obama meets with Sanders at the White House Thursday. On Tuesday night, Obama 'congratulated Secretary Clinton for securing the delegates necessary to clinch the Democratic Nomination for President,' according to a White House statement.

'Her historic campaign inspired millions and is an extension of her lifelong fight for middle-class families and children, the White House said, as a more formal endorsement looms.

Sanders said Tuesday night after his losses in New Jersey and California, ''I am pretty good in arithmetic and I know that the fight in front of us is a very, very steep fight.'

'But we will continue to fight for every vote and every delegate we can get,' he added. In fact, there is no amount of votes he could win in D.C. that would change the race, and there hasn't been the kind of movement among super delegates between one candidate and another as occurred in 2008 when Barack Obama was gaining on Clinton.

He trails Clinton in pledged delegates, super delegates, and in the popular vote, making it harder to try to persuade unelected super delegates to support him over Clinton.

There is a unique feature of this year's race that gives Sanders another reason to hang around: an ongoing FBI investigation into Clinton's email practices. Clinton herself told ABC on Tuesday she was 'absolutely' certain nothing more would come from the investigation.

But there is still a possibility the presumptive Democratic nominee could be indicted on U.S. secrecy laws. Judicial Watch, the group suing the State Department over Clinton's emails, announced Wednesday that former State IT aide Brian Pagliano has an immunity deal with the Justice Department in connection to an ongoing investigation.

Former State Department IT staffer Brian Pagliano has an immunity deal with the feds, it was announced Wednesday

If anything should come of the investigation and Clinton is in jeopardy, Sanders wants to be in the strongest possible position.

In late May, he said it would be a 'terrible idea' if the party turned to Vice President Joe Biden in the case of an indictment.

'I think that would be a terrible, terrible idea,' Sanders told the Young Turks online news show.

'That would say to the millions of people who have supported us, that have worked with us, that would say all of your energy, all of your votes, all of your beliefs are irrelevant. We're going to bring in someone else,' Sanders added.
A fugitive suspected of the double murder of married pensioners was granted asylum in Britain using a stolen identity, the Mail can reveal.

Ali Qazimaj, who lived in the UK under the false name for up to 17 years, is at the centre of an international manhunt after Peter Stuart, 75, was found stabbed to death close to his Suffolk home.

His wife Sylvia, 69, is still missing but police admitted yesterday the chances of finding her alive were slim.

Fugitive 'Ali Qazimaj' (left) lived in the UK under the false name for up to 17 years. The real Ali Qazimaj with his wife Ardiana (right) were questioned by police

British detectives put out an Interpol alert for 42-year-old Qazimaj, who they said was from Kosovo and had been granted asylum and a UK passport following the conflict in the former Yugoslavia.

But when officers in Kosovo interviewed the only man of that name and date of birth following a dawn raid yesterday, they found him to be a gentle carpenter who has never been to the UK and speaks no English. They told the shocked father of three that they believed he was a victim of identity theft.

That means British police effectively have no idea of the true identity of the man they are hunting in connection with the savage attack.

Detectives last night admitted they knew precious little about Qazimaj and were urgently seeking more information about his background.

It also raises disturbing questions about how the suspect was able to get asylum and live in Britain for years using a stolen identity, even working for a council, while posing as another man.

Police say hopes of finding missing Sylvia Stuart (left) alive are fading. The body of her husband Peter (second from left) was found in an area of woodland on Friday evening only 50ft away from the isolated house the couple shared. The couple's son-in-law Steve Paxman (right), 61, is being questioned

Qazimaj, who police said also used the name Marco Costa, is believed to have fled across the channel after the Stuarts were reported missing to police on Friday, June 3.

Mr Stuart was later found with multiple stab wounds in woodland 50ft from their isolated home in Weybread, near Eye in Suffolk.

The real Ali Qazimaj, who lives in Pec in western Kosovo, told the Mail he was devastated when he was confronted by officers over the killing yesterday. My family contacted my brother, who is a police officer, and he called me and told me to go to the police station.

Investigation: Police and forensic teams had been searching the home of Ali Qazimaj in Tilbury on Monday

TIMELINE OF THE MURDER INQUIRY Thursday, May 28: Peter and Sylvia Stuart are last seen alive by relatives at a family gathering at their home in Weybread, Suffolk. Morning of Friday, June 3: The couple are reported missing. Friday night: Mr Stuart's body is found in an area of woodland on Friday evening only 50ft away from the isolated house he shared with his wife. It later emerges he died from multiple stab wounds. Sunday morning: A 61-year-old man from Leicester is arrested on suspicion of murder on Sunday. It later emerged he is believed to be the couple's son-in-law, Steve Paxman, who remains in police custody. Early hours of Monday: A silver Citroen C3 belonging to Ali Qazimaj, 42, is discovered in a residential area in Dover. Monday morning: Suffolk Police issue an appeal, saying Qazimaj, of Tilbury, Essex, is wanted in connection with the murder investigation. Monday lunchtime: Officers reveal that Mrs Stuart could be alive and with Qazimaj - the man wanted on suspicion of stabbing her husband to death. However, they say hopes of finding the 69-year-old unharmed are fading with every passing minute. Advertisement

When I got there they said I was wanted by Interpol about a murder in Britain. I was crying. It was a huge shock. I was so scared and stressed, I couldnt understand what they were talking about.

I said I didnt know anything about it. I have never been to Britain and I could not even if I wanted to, because I do not have a visa.

When the Mail showed the real Mr Qazimaj a picture of the murder suspect using his name, he said he had never met him.

The fake Qazimaj, a fork lift driver and former Thurrock council worker, was granted asylum in Britain in the 1990s during the Yugoslavian war and lived in the Thurrock area of Essex. He arrived in Britain sometime between 1999 and 2005, police said. His name appears on the electronic electoral roll from 2005.

A former neighbour of the suspect last night said he was prone to violent outbursts. David Skipper, 85, said he was assaulted by Qazimaj, adding: Hes a very violent chap. He is a short guy but is stocky and very strong.

He described the suspect as a gambling addict who was banned from entering a local betting shop after smashing a slot machine.

Police have launched legal proceedings to obtain a European arrest warrant for Qazimaj.

A spokesman said: We know precious little about him. He is a suspect in a murder investigation in which someone was repeatedly stabbed  we have to assume he may be dangerous. We have no way of knowing if he is armed.

Seen on CCTV: Happily browsing in a farm shop, these are the last known movements of a murdered line dancing enthusiast and his missing wife - as police reveal the prime suspect in the case has fled abroad

Suffolk Police have released CCTV of the couple entering Goodies Farm Shop on Wood Lane in Pulham Market at 10.18am on Sunday May 29

Plea for help: Officers are appealing for anyone who may have seen them or who has information regarding their whereabouts from this time until June 3 to get in touch

The pair were reported on missing on June 3 having last been seen at a family gathering on May 28

These are the last known movements of murdered line dancing enthusiast Peter Stuart and his missing wife

Sylvia Stuart (left), is the missing wife of murdered pensioner Peter Stuart (right) who was stabbed to death

Mr Stuart was found in woodland around 50ft from their isolated home. Pictured, forensic officers at the scene

It has emerged a 61-year-old man from Leicester arrested on suspicion of murder on Sunday, is believed to be the couple's son-in-law, Steve Paxman. He is still in police custody (police are pictured searching his home)

Family: The couple's daughter Christy with her husband, dog breeder Steve Paxman. It has emerged he is the 61-year-old man from Leicester who was arrested on suspicion of murder on Sunday. He has now been bailed

Search: Police outside the home of Christy and Steve Paxman in Loughborough, Leicestershire, this afternoon

A keen gambler, gun-obsessed loner and former council worker: What is known about the fugitive wanted over the murder of a Suffolk pensioner and his missing wife... as it's revealed the stepmother of the couple's son-in-law was the suspect's lover

By Sam Tonkin for MailOnline

Neighbours have described him as a gun-obsessed loner and keen gambler, but much about Ali Qazimaj's background and his links to the Stuart family remain shrouded in mystery

Neighbours have described him as a gun-obsessed loner and keen gambler, but much about Ali Qazimaj's background and his links to the Stuart family remain shrouded in mystery today.

What has been revealed is that the fork-lift truck driver was once the lover of previously arrested Steve Paxman's stepmother.

Mr Paxman, who this morning was released on bail, is the son-in-law of murdered Suffolk pensioner Peter Stuart and wife Sylvia. She is still missing but feared dead.

Qazimaj, 42, and Helen Paxman are believed to have struck up a relationship in 2005 when he was 33 and she was 69.

Mrs Paxman is said to have taken the now fugitive into her home after the pair met through her brother, who ran a car dealership.

A neighbour at the flat in Thurrock, Essex, which the pair once shared told The Times: 'Ali was sleeping rough on the benches.'

David Skipper, 85, said of Mrs Paxman and Qazimaj: 'He was here about five or six years. She fed and clothed him and she bought him a car.

'I think they started a relationship from almost the beginning.

'She told me one day that "all he ever thinks about is sex". She took to wearing trousers with him but previously she had worn short dresses.'

Mrs Paxman is thought to have died two or three years ago.

Qazimaj's whereabouts are unclear as police said he could be in France or elsewhere in Europe, as he is known to speak Polish and is said to have lived in the former Yugoslavia and Prague.

Yesterday neighbours said the Albanian, who previously worked for Thurrock Council, had bragged that he could kill someone. One 23-year-old woman said Qazimaj had once threatened to kill a neighbour during a row and boasted that he could pick locks and 'sort people out'.

She said: 'He would say stuff like he has got people in his country and if anyone did anything to him they would be gone.'

She added: 'He told a group of boys he would make them disappear. He said: "I'll stick them in a barrel and then no one would find them again".'

It is believed that Qazimaj, who is divorced and has a child with an ex-wife, used to work for Thurrock Council's cleaning services department but had taken time off after a 'meltdown'.

Forensic teams and police officers were seen at the Essex home of Qazimaj, who may have fled to France

Yesterday, one neighbour who lives close to Qazimaj's flat in Tilbury, Essex, described him as 'a weirdo'.

'His behaviour has always been very odd whenever I have seen him,' the unnamed neighbour said.

'I thought he was a drug dealer to be honest.

'I can speak Polish so he would speak to me in Polish but he never gave anything away.

'I only ever saw him on his own - I am not aware that he lived there with anyone.'

Police arrived at the property on Sunday night and sealed off the communal bins and placed an officer at the entrance to the flat.

Another neighbour said: 'He would pass my window and smile at me but then he would stand there waiting for a response.

'I found it really creepy.

'I didnt know him at all as Ive not been here very long but he gave me the creeps.'

Qazimaj is described as white, around 5ft 6ins tall, with brown eyes and dark brown greying hair. He was last seen on Friday in Essex.

His car, a silver Citroen C3, was found in a residential area of Dover at around midnight on Sunday.

The vehicle has been searched and will be forensically examined.

Teams of forensic specialists and officers with dogs were yesterday searching the couple's home
Carlton Young, 24, has been charged with felony murder after a grandmother suffered a fatal heart attack when he allegedly broke into her Maine home

A 24-year-old man has been charged with felony murder after a grandmother suffered a fatal heart attack when he allegedly broke in and attempted to burglarize her home.

Carlton L Young could face up to 30 years in prison for the death of 62-year-old Connie Loucks after he and three other people allegedly broke into her home in Wells, Maine.

Young has also been charged with felony attempt to commit a crime, and four felony counts each of burglary and theft.

Authorities said Young was part of a burglary ring that broke into houses in Southern Maine.

He allegedly went to Loucks home once when she wasn't home in March 2015, and then returned the next day to break in again, according to the Portland Press Herald.

Loucks suffered from heart disease and had a heart attack when Young and others entered her home, according to state Attorney General's Office spokesman Timothy Feeley.

Feely said the state is currently discussing the charges of Young's co-defendants' counsel and said at the moment only Young has been charged in Loucks' death.

Young has been behind bars at the York County Jail since he was arrested in March 2015. He is being held on $30,000 bail.

Connie Loucks, 62 (pictured right with her husband Brian), suffered from heart disease and had a heart attack when Young and others entered her home, state Attorney General's Office spokesman Timothy Feeley said

It was not revealed by police that Loucks' death had been ruled a homicide until Young was indicted on Tuesday by a York County grand jury.

Authorities have not said why they waited more than a year to charge Young with felony murder.

Amy Fairfield, Young's lawyer, claims he is a 'good kid' who had a 'pretty rough upbringing'.

She said Young had been struggling with the death of his mother at the time of the burglary.

Young was on a two-year probation for a felony burglary conviction at the time of his arrested.

He has also received convictions for criminal mischief, assault, carrying a concealed weapon, driving under the influence, and theft.
Retired State Pathologist Professor Jack Crane likened the murder to ethnic conflicts in Bosnia and Kosovo

The Kingsmill massacre bore all the hallmarks of a mass execution, an inquest has heard.

Retired State Pathologist Professor Jack Crane likened the 1976 murder of ten Protestant workmen by the IRA in Co Armagh to those carried out during ethnic conflicts in Bosnia and Kosovo.

He and claimed the number of bullets fired showed the gunmen intended to kill.

He said: 'It seems to me that, from a general perspective, what we have here would be in line with execution or assassination.'

A new inquest into the murder - allegedly carried out in reprisal for the earlier loyalist killings - was ordered by Northern Ireland Attorney General John Larkin QC.

Mr Larkin called for the new hearing after the Historical Enquiries Team of independent detectives found in 2011 that the IRA had been responsible and had targeted the workmen because of their religion.

Professor Crane, a former senior pathology adviser to the UN, said every victim sustained multiple injuries.

'What struck me was the very large number of bullets that were discharged into each body,' he added.

'One can only assume that was delivered in order to make sure that the individual was dead.

'Even allowing for the fact that there may have been an automatic weapon there still was a large number of bullets discharged into every body.'

Graphic and harrowing details of the extent of the injuries inflicted on the 10 textile workers were given to the court.

Their wounds were consistent with having been lined up facing the minibus and fired upon before being struck again while lying on the ground, it was revealed.

Victims' families and supporters left Belfast Coroner's Court this afternoon after hearing the shocking details

Post-mortem examinations found they were all hit in the head, trunk and limbs.

The inquest has previously heard how 18-year-old Robert Chambers, the youngest of the victims, called out for his mother as he lay bleeding to death.

He was struck at least eight times in the body and head, the court heard.

Professor Tom Marshall, who examined the teenager's body, said: 'If my interpretation is correct that he was first struck by a bullet that went through his loin fairly superficially and he fell to the ground he would still be capable of calling out for his mother.'

Willie Frazer and Colin Worton (left), whose brother was killed, attended the inquest of the Kingsmill massacre

Robert Freeburn was riddled with bullets fired from more than one high-velocity weapon. There were five bullet holes in a horizontal line across his shoulders, it emerged.

'I would have thought this pattern was in keeping with somebody spraying somebody while they were standing,' said Professor Marshall.

Walter Chapman, 35, was hit by at least 13 but possibly 17 bullets and died from wounds to his head, trunk and limbs.

Left: Karen Armstrong (a sister of John McConville one of the Kingsmill dead) attended. Right: Racquel Brush who was three years old when her father Kenneth Worton was murdered left Belfast Coroner's Court with her uncle Colin

A post-mortem report found: 'Some struck as, or after he collapsed.'

Meanwhile, 20-year-old John McConville suffered a laceration of the brain after he was shot in the head.

He was hit up to eight times elsewhere on his body, the court heard.

Professor Crane, who reviewed the Kingsmill case at the request of the coroner, said Mr McConville's death would have been rapid.

'It is my view that the initial shots were sustained while Mr McConville was standing and then when he falls to the ground he is shot again,' he said.

Brutal: The minibus carrying the textile factory workers is left peppered with bullet holes and blood stains the ground after the massacre, as detectives patrol the scene of the murders

Devastation: A window on the workers' minibus is left smashed by a bullet after the terrorists lined up their victims and executed them outside their vehicle

Judge Brian Sherrard, who is presiding over the high profile case, had earlier cautioned bereaved relatives packed into the public gallery about the distressing nature of the evidence.

Although most people stayed in court as the graphic accounts were given, many choking back tears, a number of people found it too much and stepped outside the courtroom.

The case has been adjourned until June 21.
Germany is expecting as many as half a million Syrians with family members already living in the country to apply for asylum to join their relatives.

The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees in Berlin (BAMF) said that the loved ones of refugees left behind will be entitled to claim for sanctuary.

Officials are projecting that it will average out to one family member per person already in Germany.

The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees in Berlin (BAMF) said that the loved ones of refugees left behind will be entitled to claim for sanctuary. Above, refugees arrives in western Germany last year

According to government arrival statistics around 428.000 Syrians came to Germany in 2015; in the first five months of this year, there were less than 72,000. They base the figure of 500,000 potential new arrivals on these numbers.

Prospect of a further half-a-million refugees is more ammunition for those opposed to Chancellor Angela Merkel's open-door policy towards migrants

In recent months there have been forecasts predicted a tripling or quadrupling of refugees through family member arrivals, but BAMF says this will not be the case.

Nevertheless, the prospect of a further half-a-million refugees landing in a country where the social fabric is already stretched thin and many voters have been driven into the arms of the far right is more ammunition for those opposed to Chancellor Angela Merkel's open-door policy towards migrants.

Just how much more a new wave of war refugees will cost the taxpayer, who bears the costs of absorbing refugees, has not been stated.

But the backlog in processing applications for family members is huge and could take many more months to clear.

Frank-Jurgen Weise, head of BAMF, said that around a million people had remained in Germany from the refugee waves which arrived between 2013 and 2015, 660,000 of whom were entitled to asylum.
The father-in-law of the woman who had an affair with a married MP twice her age has quit the Conservative party.

Phil Bunt canvassed for evangelical Christian Steve Double, 49, ahead of the General Election last year, when the former pastor won the seat of St Austell and Newquay in Cornwall.

Mr Bunt today branded the MP a 'hypocrite' after it emerged he had been having an affair with assistant Sarah Bunt, 26.

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Rumours: Steve Double, 49, pictured left, a former pastor, finished the relationship on Friday after becoming aware that an email had been sent about his trysts with assistant Sarah Bunt, 26, right

Selfie: MP Steve Double, 49, with his wife of 30 years Anne and Sarah Bunt, 26, with whom he had an affair

Phil Bunt said he is unable to continue in his role as the Deputy Chairman of the St Austell and Newquay Conservative Association in light of the revelations.

He said: 'I felt remaining in a position which, by its very nature, requires a good working relationship with the local MP would not be something I could do for both personal and ethical reasons.

'Mr Double has let many people down and shown himself to be hypocritical when getting elected on the basis of his stated position as a family man and Christian.'

Mr Double admitted having an affair with Mrs Bunt, who describes herself as the MP's case worker. The MP said he has no intention of standing down.

'This has got nothing to do with my job as an MP,' he said. 'This is about my personal life. I would ask people to judge me on my performance over the next four years.

'I have betrayed the trust of my wife and my family, which is the most important thing to me.'

Betrayed: Anne Double smiled as she left her home in St Austell, Cornwall, yesterday

Last night it emerged Mr Double finished the relationship with Mrs Bunt on Friday after becoming aware that an email had been sent about the trysts.

He issued a grovelling public statement, apologising for behaving 'completely inappropriately'.

He also apologised for the pain he has caused his wife of 30 years, Anne. The couple have three children. Mrs Double, 52, is employed by her husband as his senior case worker and diary secretary.

The MP is at a tourism conference in Tel Aviv, Israel. He said he released the statement after journalists asked him about the affair with Mrs Bunt. 'We were getting [interview] requests from the local papers. I've no idea how the rumours started,' he told the Mail yesterday.

'I presume someone contacted them but it wasn't someone close to me. The affair ended on Friday. It started a few weeks ago.'

Confirming the affair with Mrs Bunt, Mr Double told the Cornish Guardian: 'It was Sarah and it was recent. It wasn't a one-off but it was only a few weeks.

'I was truly wrong and I deeply regret what I have done and the pain it has caused to those close to me. I'm working hard to rebuild that trust and respect.'

Asked whether he regretted giving Mrs Bunt, a former local newspaper reporter who lives in Newquay, the job, he told the Daily Telegraph: 'If I'd have known the grief it has caused I would not have done it [given her the job]. If I could only undo what happened.'

He added: 'Sarah is currently on leave and I will be having discussions with her in the coming days as to her position.

'I have not had that discussion with her. I told her to take a week off and we will discuss it this week.'

Mrs Double put on a defiant front as she left the couple's detached home in St Austell yesterday, smiling for photographers. Mrs Bunt cut a rather more sheepish figure, in dark glasses with her hair scraped back, as she stopped by the marital home to collect a bag.

Admission: The Tory MP said that his affair with Sarah Bunt, pictured outside her home, lasted weeks

Apology: MP Steve Double has apologised to his wife Anne, together left, amid allegations he had an affair with blonde staffer Sarah Bunt, right

Her husband Matt, 33, has refused to comment on the affair. Yesterday he changed his Twitter profile to a picture of a dog pulling a sad face.

Mr Double's office released a statement on Monday in response to what it called 'speculation about Steve and Anne Double and their marriage'.

The MP wrote he had 'behaved completely inappropriately' but added: 'Anne and I are committed to being together and seeking to move forward in our marriage. I accept I have work to do to recover the trust and respect of those around me.'

His wife has vowed to stand by him, saying on Monday: 'I won't throw away 30 years of marriage for the sake of a few hours.'

While campaigning to become an MP last year, Mr Double wrote: 'Family has a very special place in my life... strong families are the basis of a strong society.'

Some constituents are demanding he resign. Wayne McIntosh said: 'He preached about morality and family values yet whilst his wife was working every hour he was in bed with his researcher.'

Mrs Bunt could not be reached for comment last night.
Advertisement

Incredible photos have captured the battle between a bald eagle and a Canada goose at a campground in British Columbia, Canada.

The pictures were taken by Lisa Bell who happened to witness the beak-off just after seven in the morning at the Spider Lake Springs Campground on Vancouver Island.

Bell grabbed her camera when she heard a kerfuffle happening at the pond nearby

Beaks at dawn: Lisa Bell captured a spectacular wildlife battle while visiting the Spider Lake Springs Campground in British Columbia

Flat out! Vancouver Island played host to clash of the titans as the American eagle took on the Canada goose

Squished goose: The goose appears to be finished, but it still had fight left in it  enough to avoid becoming the eagle's lunch

The eagle appeared to swoop down from out of nowhere with its talons ready to grip onto its prey.

The goose, meanwhile, appeared to be a little slow off the mark frantically flapping its feathers as it tried to make a run for it, or at least leave the ground.

But despite the sizable goose, the eagle pounced on top of the big bird, at one point completely standing on top of its long neck.

'It was very still, there was no more noise coming out of him,' Bell told Global News. 'But as it turns out, I think he was probably playing dead.'

Come back here! The clever goose took off, with the eagle chasing behind, and launched itself into a nearby pond, diving under the water

Splash landing! The eagle doubled back and swooped the goose once more, unsuccessfully, before flying off into a nearby tree

In a Facebook post about the 'once in a lifetime experience' Ms. Bell told fellow group members she had the glory of witnessing nature at its best and capturing it all in her lens.

After a battle on the ground, the goose eventually managed to break free of the eagle's grip and headed straight for the lake.

The goose was able to escape by diving under water and floated in the middle of the pond.

After the clash of feathers, the eagle ended up waiting in a tree for around 20 minutes before eventually flying off.

Circling: The eagle waited for another 20 minutes in a nearby tree

They call him Lucky: Bell said she noticed some claw marks on the Canada goose's back but appeared 'proud to have gotten away.'

Both Canada geese and bald eagles are migratory birds with habitats that extend across the continent, which means that it's hard to know where either of these animals were born.
British and German troops have built the longest ever amphibious bridge over a 1,100 feet of water in just half an hour as part of a NATO joint exercise in Poland today.

The group nations team effort was emphasized as Polish and US troops controlled the site and provided air support for the mammoth training drill.

Using M3 amphibious vehicles, British and German troops interlocked together to create a bridge stable enough for heavy armoured vehicles to drive through - flanked by the nations flags.

British and German troops have built the longest ever amphibious bridge over a 1,100 feet of water in just half an hour as part of a NATO joint exercise in Poland today

The group nations team effort was emphasized as Polish and US troops controlled the site and provided air support for the mammoth training drill

Using M3 amphibious vehicles, British and German troops interlocked together to create a bridge stable enough for heavy armoured vehicles to drive through - flanked by the nations flags

The Anakonda exercise, which has involved thousands of paratroopers, engineers and cavalry troops from 24 countries in north West Poland is a stark show of NATO strength to Russian President Vladimir Putin who is reportedly upping the number of military bases along the Ukrainian border.

It was reported yesterday that 750 miles due east in the Russian town of Klintzy on the northern Ukrainian border, President Putin is building a new army base, the latest in a chain of new military sites along what the Kremlin sees as its frontline in a growing confrontation with NATO.

The defence ministry has not acknowledged the deployment of troops to Klintsy, which usually serves as a stop for truck drivers travelling between Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.

The Anakonda exercise, which involved thousands of paratroopers, engineers and cavalry from 24 countries

The Western alliance, says it's responding to Russian military intervention in Ukraine is staging one of its biggest exercises in eastern Europe since the end of the Cold War

Using the M3 amphibious vehicle, the two nations were able to interlock these vehicles together to create a stable bridging platform

However, a town council official said Klintsy had been chosen as the site of a newly-formed division, and that so far about 240 soldiers had arrived. 'What's to hide? That they've come? They've arrived,' said council deputy chairman Oleg Kletny. 'They're going to be garrisoned here.'

When completed, the base will be the latest component in a build-up of forces along a line running from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south.

On the western side of the line, NATO has been rotating troops and equipment in greater numbers to members states that were part of the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact during the Cold War.

The contingent is made up of elements from 23 Amphibious Engineering Troop and Reservists from 412 Amphibious Engineering Troop

The troops have also been working with their counterparts from 130 Pioneer Battalion of the Bundeswher

The Western alliance, which says it's responding to Russian military intervention in Ukraine, was this week staging one of its biggest exercises in eastern Europe since the end of the Cold War.

The NATO contingent that played a main role today are part of a 30,000 strong month-long exercise that is made up of elements from 23 Amphibious Engineering Troop and Reservists from 412 Amphibious Engineering Troop, both of whom are based in Germany, together with 107 Field Squadron based in Birkenhead, England.
A man who was wrongly jailed for four murders at the age of 14 has been released more than eight years later after a judge overturned his convictions.

Davontae Sanford, 23, beamed with joy as he finally walked out of a prison in Michigan a free man on Wednesday.

Sanford was charged with the murder of four men at a drug den in Detroit in 2007 and was jailed the next year after he admitted to second-degree murder as part of a plea deal.

Free man: Davontae Sanford (pictured smiling as he leaves prison) was jailed for four murders at the age of 14 but was released on Wednesday after his convictions were overturned

Sanford (pictured leaving prison, center, with his brother, left, and two lawyers) was charged with the murder of four men at a drug den in Detroit in 2007 and was jailed the next year

Sanford (pictured leaving prison) was set to spend 39 years in prison, but astonishingly just 15 days after he was jailed, a hitman confessed to the murders - as well as eight other killings.

The teenager was standing outside his house - near the crime scene - in his pajamas when he was arrested in September 2007.

Sanford was sentenced to 39 years in prison, but astonishingly just 15 days after he was jailed, a hitman confessed to the murders - as well as eight other killings.

It still took eight years of campaigning for Sanford to be freed.

He refused to speak to reporters as he left prison in Ionia, Michigan, today with his brother and a lawyer before climbing into a sedan and driving back to his family home in Detroit.

Waiting for him there was his mother, Taminko Sanford, who said: 'I feel blessed.'

Sanford was 14, blind in one eye and barely able to read or write when he was charged with killing the four men at the drug den in his neighborhood in 2007.

Sanford's (left) case appeared closed and unremarkable until lawyers discovered that hitman Vincent Smothers (right) had confessed to the murders, as well as a string of other killing

Sanford (pictured leaving prison on Wednesday in a striped shirt) was 14, blind in one eye and barely able to read or write when he was charged with killing the four men at the drug den in his neighborhood in 2007

At 15, he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the middle of his trial and was sentenced to a minimum of 39 years in prison.

The case appeared closed and unremarkable until lawyers discovered that hitman Vincent Smothers had confessed to the murders, as well as a string of other killings.

The revelation prompted calls for Sanford to be freed, but prosecutors resisted at every turn until state police were asked last year to take a fresh look.

The agreement to throw out the convictions doesn't mention Smothers, with prosecutor Kym Worthy saying it is a diagram of the murder scene drawn up by police that 'seriously undermines' the original case.

She is expected to speak at a press conference tomorrow, after years of arguing the case for Sanford to remain locked up.

David Moran, Sanford's lawyer, praised prosecutors for realizing an 'injustice had been done'.

Michigan offers no financial remedy to people wrongly convicted of a crime, but Sanford can sue police over civil rights violations.

Smothers, 35, is in prison for 52 years after pleading guilty in 2010 to eight killings, not including the murders Sanford was convicted of.

He said he was regularly hired by drug dealers but said he would never have paid someone like Sanford to help.
Authorities say a Georgia police officer responded to the wrong house and shot the homeowner.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said in a news release Henry County police asked the agency to investigate the shooting Wednesday at a Stockbridge home.

The GBI said someone called 911 a little before midnight Tuesday to report hearing gunshots and a woman yelling for help.

William Powell, 63, was shot at his home by officers who responded to the wrong address. The incident happened on the 600 block of Swan Lake Road in Stockbridge, pictured right

The man was sent to hospital after he was shot in the neck Tuesday night by officers who responded to the wrong address

A preliminary review of the 911 call indicates the three officers who responded went to the wrong home, the GBI said.

The GBI said the officers were met by the homeowner, 63-year-old William Powell, who had a handgun.

Powell's wife said he had picked up his gun and gone outside after hearing commotion in his yard, WTVM reported.

One of the officers shot Powell in the neck when he didn't obey officers' commands to drop the gun.

Powell was taken to a hospital for treatment. His condition was unknown.
Amazon is set to take on the supermarket giants as it launches a new grocery service which promises to allow customers to place their order at lunch and have it delivered by dinner time.

The internet retailer, which already sells tinned and packaged groceries, will offer fruit, vegetables and meat from today as part of its Amazon Fresh service.

The move is a major assault on supermarkets  and online grocer Ocado.

Amazon Fresh will be available to customers who pay the 79 annual subscription for Amazon Prime, which offers speedy deliveries and an online TV service.

Online retail giant Amazon is expected to go head to head with high street stalwarts such as Tesco, Sainsbury's and Waitrose, Morrisons and Asda when the new scheme is announced later this week

Customers can pay an extra 6.99 a month for the food service.

It will offer 130,000 goods including brands such as Coca-Cola and Kelloggs as well as products from Morrisons, under a tie-up that was announced in February. The service will also enable customers to buy from local businesses.

Initially Amazon Fresh, which is already in some US cities, will be available in North and East London  near Amazons Bow distribution centre. But there are plans to expand.

'It will be a bloody fight,' a British retailer told the Financial Times. 'But this is a company that takes on a lot of fights.'

Customers will be able to choose one-hour delivery slots between 7am and 11pm. Those who order by 1pm will get their food by 5pm.

This latest venture will be a blow to Tesco, Sainsburys and Asda, which have all seen sales suffer in recent years as they are undercut by discount supermarkets Aldi and Lidl.

Amazon is expected to offer produce at equivalent or cheaper prices than competitors.

In documents seen by the Daily Mail, an example basket of shopping is expected to cost 58.93, compared to 67.88 for the same products at Waitrose, or 59.90 at Asda.

AmazonFresh vice president Ajay Kavan said: 'The bar in grocery retailing is exceptionally high. The supermarkets and grocers are amongst the very best retailers in the world.

'We believe that the key to the long-term success of AmazonFresh is to bring together the low prices, vast selection, fast delivery options and customer experience that Amazon customers know and love.'

He added: 'We are launching with a comprehensive offer in a limited area and will take our time to hone and improve our service based on our learnings and feedback from our customers.

Initially Amazon Fresh (pictured is a truck in California in the US), which is already in some US cities, will be available in North and East London  near Amazons Bow distribution centre. But there are plans to expand

'We will be very methodical and considered in how we roll this service out further in the UK.'

Amazon has earned cumulative profits of just 2bn in 19-years - while Tesco made 2.8bn in 2012 alone.

Experts warn than in entering the increasingly cuthtroat world of groceries - where prices have been cut by 4 per cent in two years as retail giants continue to wage price wars - the company is opening itself up to risk.

Meanwhile it was revealed today that Sainsbury's has suffered another sales fall as it remains under pressure from the supermarket price war.

Britain's second-biggest supermarket posted a 0.8 per cent decline in like-for-like sales excluding fuel for the second quarter but that was slightly better than forecasts for a 1.4 per cent drop.

Sainsbury's,chief executive Mike Coupe said: 'Market conditions remain challenging.Food price deflation continues to impact our sales and pressures on pricing mean the market will remain competitive for the foreseeable future.'

Sainsbury's recently began scrapping multi-buy promotions and has ditched its brand-match guarantee in favour of overall lower prices.

The big four supermarkets have been engaged in a fierce battle for customers in recent years, slashing prices as they struggle with waning customer loyalty and the march of discounters Aldi and Lidl.
Cops said they found 1,000 movies and photos, some of his own pupils

He was arrested at his home in Melbourne as part of a child porn sting

Sickening: Elementary school principal Ricky Sheppard was arrested on child pornography charges after police allegedly found 1,000 files of illicit material in his home in Satellite Beach, Florida

Police have uncovered a monumental stash of child pornography in an elementary school principal's home.

Ricky Sheppard, 59, was arrested last week on suspicion of possessing illicit images of children.

It has now emerged the Florida educator had a stash of 1,000 files of child pornography.

The stockpile allegedly including movies of boys being sexually abused and photographs of his own students taken from the school's brochure.

Describing the stash, officers called Sheppard 'demented'.

Astonishingly, police revealed it is not the first time Sheppard has been reprimanded for inappropriate behavior around children during his 35-year career in education.

He was promoted to the role of principal at Spessard Holland Elementary School in Satellite Beach, Florida, in July 2015 - despite being reprimanded in 1999 for inappropriate behavior around a six-year-old in his class.

He bought the boy several gifts and talked to him about having him move into a bedroom in his house, according to Florida Today.

The mother reported his behavior, prompting an investigation.

According to the letter of reprimand, Sheppard also told the child implying he wanted to take him home and that he had a room set aside for him.

After an official review, the school barred Sheppard from having any private contact with the boy.

He was also ordered not to give him any gifts or make inappropriate comments.

However, Sheppard continued to thrive professionally in the Brevard Public Schools system.

An employee since 1981, he worked for seven years as assistant principal at Stevenson Elementary before assuming the principal role at Spessard Holland.

On Friday, the school district vowed to fire Sheppard, who has been suspended and remains in custody charged with child porn possession.

He was arrested as part of a widespread police investigation into child pornography and predators.

BPS Superintendent Desmond Blackburn 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.

'I'm sickened by it. I look at this case and I find it hard to understand how anybody could be this demented,' added one of the investigators, Sheriff Wayne Ivey.

In 2015, Sheppard was promoted to principal despite a questionable track record of behaving inappropriately with at least one child
Gunmen dressed in suits have carried out a terror attack inTel Aviv leaving at least four people dead.

Around six other people were wounded in the shocking shooting incident, which took place at the Max Brenner restaurant in the centre of the Israeli city.

One person was in critical condition, with Israeli police describing the shooting as an apparent attack aimed against Israelis.

Some reports said one of the dead was a four-year-old girl, while other media outlets said she was in a critical condition.

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

The Max Brenner restaurant was packed with diners just as the gunmen began to open fire with machine guns

CCTV footage have revealed the moment customers desperately ran for their lives to escape the gunmen, who opened fire at random with machine guns

Dressed in dark suits, the two gunmen pause to reload before executing a wounded man on the ground

Two shocked members of the public embrace each other after witnessing the horrors of the attack

Got him: A male suspect was forced to the ground and stripped of his clothes by Israeli police, fearing he might be wearing explosives

Fighting for survival: Ambulance staff desperately attend to one wounded individual from the attack

At least nine other people were wounded in the shocking shooting incident, which took place in the centre of the Israeli city of Tel Aviv

Officials have confirmed that two gunmen were involved, with one attacker was captured while the other was reportedly wounded

Officials have confirmed that two gunmen were involved, with one attacker was captured while the other was reportedly wounded.

'The terrorists who carried out the attack... are cousins from the Hebron district,' police spokeswoman Luba Samri said in a statement.

Photographs from the scene have reportedly revealed the gunmen may have used homemade machine guns, known as a Carl Gustav gun.

Israeli police are understood to be looking for a third suspect, who is believed to have fled the scene.

Police said the wounded included those sitting at a coffee shop in the complex. The assailants' weapons had been retrieved by officers, they said.

Shocking: Bloody handprints mark the walls of the Max Brenner restaurant in Tel Aviv, Israel

Pictures from the scene show a gun lying discarded underneath a chair at the cafe which came under attack

The incident occurred in an area of trendy cafes and restaurants very close to the central military headquarters and Defence Ministry compound.

The attack was the first following in lull after almost daily street attacks by Palestinians against Israelis which began in October and lasted several months.

Spokeswoman Luba Samri said shooting was reported in two locations close to the popular open-air Sharona market.

Another spokeswoman, Meirav Lapidot, said initial reports showed there were 'at least two terrorists'. She said both were 'neutralised', which can mean either killed or detained.

Ms Samri said one of the attackers is being treated in hospital.

After the attacks the leader of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh took to Twitter to express his delight over the deadly shooting in Tel Aviv.

Posting from Gaza, he wrote: 'Glory and salutations to the Hebronites'. He followed the post with the victory sign emoji.

Meital Sassi told Channel 10 TV she was out with her family celebrating her son's birthday when she heard shots and 'immediately understood it was a terror attack'.

'We ran like lightning with the baby and the stroller ... I yelled at people who didn't understand what was happening to run,' she said.

Tense times: Heavy armed Israeli security forces look nervous as they stand guard on the streets in Israel

Israeli security forces and emergency personnel are seen at the site of a shooting attack at a shopping complex

The incident occurred in an area of trendy cafes and restaurants very close to the central military headquarters and Defence Ministry compound

Hospital staff have been trying to save the lives of the wounded following the deadly attack in the city

The attack has prompted the Israeli military to declare that they will revoke all permits for Palestinians to visit Israel and travel abroad during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

COGAT, an Israeli defense body, said that all 83,000 permits have been frozen for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza to visit family in Israel, attend Ramadan prayers in Jerusalem or travel abroad via Israel's Tel Aviv airport.

In addition, the military says it has frozen Israeli work permits for 204 of the attackers' relatives, and is preventing Palestinians from leaving and entering the West Bank village of Yatta, home to the attackers.

The United States called it a 'cowardly' attack, while UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Nickolay Mladenov, immediately condemned it.

'All must reject violence and say no to terror,' he said in a statement.

'Our prayers are with the families of those killed. I am also shocked to see Hamas welcome the terror attack. Leaders must stand against violence and the incitement that fuels it, not condone it.'

A medic with United Hatzalah rescuers, in an account relayed by the rescue service, said: 'When I arrived at the scene I saw two young people who were suffering from gunshot wounds outside of a restaurant at the Sarona centre.'

Investigating: Forensic scientists examine the evidence at the scene of the horrific gun attack

The attack was the first following in lull after almost daily street attacks by Palestinians against Israelis which began in October and lasted several months

One person was in critical condition, with Israeli police describing the shooting as an apparent attack aimed against Israelis

'We treated them, as well as numerous other individuals who were suffering from shock.'

The nationalities and other details of the victims were not yet known.

A spokesman for Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai quoted him as saying 'we will not be able to put a policeman on every street corner'.

'The lone assailant can appear from any corner,' he said. 'That is the reality with which we have to live.'

The city however said in a statement it was increasing security at schools and municipal buildings.

Violence since October has killed at least 207 Palestinians, 28 Israelis, two Americans, an Eritrean and a Sudanese.

Most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, according to Israeli authorities.

Others were killed in clashes or by Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip.

The violence has steadily declined in recent weeks, though attacks have continued to occur.
Kerry Roberts, 25, died after falling from a 12th floor apartment in the resort of Adeje in the early hours of Friday morning

The family of a tragic mother who plunged to her death from a balcony in Tenerife have rejected claims that her death was a suicide.

Kerry Roberts, 25, died after falling from a 12th floor apartment in the resort of Adeje in the early hours of Friday morning.

The mother-of-two had been staying there with her five-year-old daughter and ex-partner David Jones.

Spanish police are reportedly treating Kerry's death as a suicide, but her devastated family have said they do not think she would have killed herself.

Her aunt Joy Woodington, 49, said the mother-of-two was happy and can't believe she took her own life.

She said: 'Just 20 minutes before it happened she was texting her boyfriend saying how much she was looking forward to getting home.

'She had just been away with her little boy to Portugal. She was really happy.

'Although she'd had problems in the past she had turned her life around. She was such a kind-hearted person.

'Unfortunately, she didn't have any insurance, so we are doing everything we can to get her back to Bristol. We just want her home.'

Her family are now attempting to raise 5,000 needed to pay for a cremation in the Canary Islands via an online funding campaign, and have so far raised over 1,500 in one day.

Spanish media has reported that detectives watched CCTV footage showing Kerry returning to the flat.

Her former partner, 33-year-old delivery driver David Jones is thought to be helping police piece together the events leading up to the fall.

Ms Roberts is believed to have jetted to the island last month with her ex-boyfriend and their child

The tragedy struck at the high-rise holiday apartment in this block, Apartments Paraiso del Sur, in the resort of Costa Adeje

According to Mr Jones current girlfriend, Kerry had gone to Tenerife to join David, his father and a close friend to spend some quality time with her daughter Ella, five.

She said: 'They got on really well. Kerry had been allowed back into Ella's life. It was a completely innocent scenario, they were all just there to spend time with their daughter.

'Kerry was amazing. I was so amazed at how far she'd come because her last relationship had been really bad for her and she pulled herself through.'

Emergency services raced to the scene after the incident on Friday, but were unable to save Ms Roberts

The couple are believed to have been on holiday with their five-year-old daughter as well as his father and his partner at the hotel complex (pictured)

The woman, who refused to give her name, said she was '100 per cent sure' it had been a suicide.

She said: 'David was on the phone to me when he found out. There was no one else in the room at the time.

'This is why people are slamming David on Facebook - it was completely out of character for Kerry.

'I think her past just got too much for her.'

According to Mr Jones current girlfriend, Kerry had gone to Tenerife to join David, his father and a close friend to spend some quality time with her daughter Ella, five

Floral tributes have been left outside St James Church in Bristol, where Kerry Roberts attended

Kerry's devastated family and loved ones in Bristol have paid tribute to the 'gorgeous angel' and the community has been left in shock

Kerry is understood to have fallen onto a lawn below the apartments, and her body was found by a security guard at around 2am on Friday.

Paramedics were called, but were unable to save her life.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: 'We are offering assistance to the family of a British woman who has sadly died in Tenerife.'

To donate to the family's fundraising campaign, visit https://www.gofundme..com/2828tvjm
The anticipated free-for-all among Democratic factions as the party began drawing up its party platform turned into a low-key policy gab-fest as hand-picked party reps tried to minimize strife in hopes that Republicans would devolve into recriminations at their own convention meetings.

Long-forecast flash-points over Israel, a $15 minimum wage, and Wall Street reform had yet to materialize well into the first meeting of the appointed platform panel, as members from the Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders camps heaped praise on witnesses and never engaged with each other.

'What's wrong with being mellow?' former California representative Howard Berman told DailyMail.com, when asked about the low-key affair.

A Democratic source said presumed nominee Clinton wants to avoid flare-ups on the platform panel to allow Republican policy battles to appear off the rails by comparison.

No 1968: Democrats on the platform committee engaged in low-key policy seminar instead of a free-for-all

2016 Overture: Rep. Raul Grijalva says an 'overture' is being made to the Sanders camp

DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who has been Sanders' occasional nemesis, blasted Trump for saying 'shameful, racist' things  and then left the hearing early

In one sign of the surrender by the Clinton camp, Sanders-backing Rep. Raul Grijalva told DailyMail.com that the platform panel was planning an outreach package to assuage Sanders, who is refusing to quit the race for now.

'I expect that therell be an overture,' Grijalva said. He said it would be 'a genuine overture to integrate the message and the 45 percent of the delegates that are going to be pledged to Bernie at the convention, and an opportunity to validate that. So discussions have to happen,' he said.

'The whole campaign was about not just making a statement, [but] winning. As we go forward we need to validate the effort and I think the platforms important in that validation and Bernie and his delegates day in the sun at the convention is important as well.'

One reason there weren't more fireworks is the panel drawing up the platform doesn't appear to be representative of the ideological breadth of the party. Members picked by Clinton weren't far to the right of those Sanders successfully demanded get seated.

Bernie Sanders was able to pack the platform committee with supporters in a deal Clinton agreed to

'I think every member of this board is either a member of the progressive caucus or pretty close to it,' said Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) as the hearing kicked off.

Although the Sanders camp has forecast a fight over a more 'even-handed' U.S. approach to Israel and the Palestinians, Berman, a longtime lawmaker who is now an attorney and got put on the panel by Team Clinton, said he hadn't heard anything about the issue so far.

In another sign of the bid to soothe Sanders supporters, Senate minority leader Harry Reid of Nevada now wants Clinton to choose firebrand senator Elizabeth Warren as his running mate, the Huffington Post reported, citing four anonymous Senate sources. Just a few weeks ago, Reid was publicly bad-mouthing the idea because Warren would be replaced temporarily by a Republican.

One notable exception occurred when panel member Bonnie Schaefer, a philanthropist and spa owner opined, 'I really dont personally think anyone should have a gun. I mean, thats just my own philosophy. Nothing is ever solved when you have a gun in your hand except the worst possible scenario.'

The line could cause a headache for Clinton, who has expressed varied opinions on gun control over the years. The Republican National Committee took the comment and noted that Clinton in a recent interview declined to say there was a constitutional right to bear arms.

Most of the verbal fireworks came from Dr. Cornell West, a Sanders backer, who called for 'some serious law enforcement when it comes to crime on Wall Street or other high places'

The platform hearing did feature its share of tangents.

Outspoken scholar Cornell West, named in an accommodation negotiated by Sanders, repeatedly used his perch to try to prompt seminars on favorite topics. When Fawn Sharp of the Quinault Indian Nation testified, he asked, 'How do we reshape the narrative so that indigenous people are not rendered invisible?'

There is a need for us to reform our narrative about the emergence of the United States of America,' he said, pointing to 'domination, sometimes annihilation through disease as well as attack.'

West introduced himself by saying, 'I am a freedom fighter love warrior and a justice seeker.'

The platform committee got more pro-Sanders and moved left under an accommodation with the Sanders camp that resulted in Sanders getting five picks, Clinton getting six, and DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz  who is close to Clinton  getting four. Sanders stacked the committee with progressives, but many of Clinton's picks also veered left.

There were flashes of emotion. Grijalva in testimony on immigration chided GOP leaders who support Trump for 'behaving like the Vichy French.'

Wasserman Schultz blasted Donald Trump at the top of the hearing, saying he needs to be held 'accountable for all the shameful racist things he says.'

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, who pitched for including a statehood plank in the platform. There has been little movement on the issue during President Obama's seven years in office. 'Washingtonians do not enjoy the rights of all Americans,' she said.

Former Attorney General Eric Holder called for planks on criminal justice reform  an issue that might have seemed radical eight years ago that has become mainstream.

Holder noted that the issue wasn't a major part of the platform in 2008 and 2012. ' Its time for us to take this issue seriously and to make it a shared priority,' he said.
The drummer from Oakwood-based band Good English, Leslie Rasmussen (left and right) childhood friend of Turner, has been slammed in particular for the character statement she provided to the judge

A longtime friend of convicted Stanford swim team rapist Brock Turner is clarifying comments she made in a character letter to the court.

Leslie Rasmussen was asked to write a letter testifying to the person she knew growing up, but ran into controversy when the statement was published online - many construing her comments as victim blaming.

Since the statement was published, Rasmussen's rock band Good English has had four performances cancelled, with one of the venues saying they don't want to work with 'rape apologists'.

On Wednesday, Rasmussen posted a statement on her band's Facebook page, saying her comments had been misconstrued in the media and that she does not condone the actions of her longtime friend.

'Two months ago, I was asked to write a character statement for use in the sentencing phase of Brock Turners trial. Per the request of the court, I was asked to write this statement in an effort to shed light on Brocks character as I knew it to be during my childhood, adolescence and young adulthood when I interacted with him as a classmate and friend.

'I felt confident in my ability to share my straightforward opinion of him and how I knew him. I also felt compelled to share my deep concern over the misuse of alcohol that was a well-established contributor in this case. Beyond sharing my personal experience with Brock, I made an appeal to the judge to consider the effect that alcohol played in this tragedy.

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But after Rasmussen's (right) letter was published in full online, the venues due to host the band this weekend were besieged by requests from New Yorkers to cancel the show. Pictured: Good English

Second comment: 'I fully understand the outrage over Brocks sentencing and my statement. I can only say that I am committed to learning from this mistake,' she said

'I understand that this appeal has now provided an opportunity for people to misconstrue my ideas into a distortion that suggests I sympathize with sex offenses and those who commit them or that I blame the victim involved. Nothing could be farther from the truth, and I apologize for anything my statement has done to suggest that I dont feel enormous sympathy for the victim and her suffering,' Rasmussen wrote.

Rasmussen went on to speak from personal experience working in music venues and nightclubs for 10 years as a musician, and how she has seen alcohol transform people into unrecognizable versions of themselves - something that has propelled her to remain sober.

She also talks about living in a university town where every year she learns about students who have been affected 'by the tragic consequences resulting from undergraduate students' excessive enthusiasm for binge drinking'.

LESLIE RASMUSSEN TALKS ABOUT CHARACTER STATEMENT OF BROCK TURNER: Dear everyone, Two months ago, I was asked to write a character statement for use in the sentencing phase of Brock Turners trial. Per the request of the court, I was asked to write this statement in an effort to shed light on Brocks character as I knew it to be during my childhood, adolescence and young adulthood when I interacted with him as a classmate and friend. I felt confident in my ability to share my straightforward opinion of him and how I knew him. I also felt compelled to share my deep concern over the misuse of alcohol that was a well-established contributor in this case. Beyond sharing my personal experience with Brock, I made an appeal to the judge to consider the effect that alcohol played in this tragedy. I understand that this appeal has now provided an opportunity for people to misconstrue my ideas into a distortion that suggests I sympathize with sex offenses and those who commit them or that I blame the victim involved. Nothing could be farther from the truth, and I apologize for anything my statement has done to suggest that I dont feel enormous sympathy for the victim and her suffering. Brock Allen Turner's mugshot has been released (left). Before the high profile case gained national attention, he was portrayed as a well-dressed college athlete through his yearbook photo. Right: Brock Turner booking shot from the night of his arrest Perhaps I should have included in my statement the following ideas that explain my perspective on the complexities of what may have happened. As a young female musician who has spent years (since I was in fourth grade) performing as a drummer in live music venues, clubs, and bars with my two sisters, I have had the unique opportunity to observe over 10 years of public American drinking culture and the problems that invariably arise through alcohol misuse. I have watched friends, acquaintances and complete strangers transform before my eyes over the course of sometimes very short periods of time, into people I could barely recognize as a result of alcohol overconsumption. I am currently 20 years old. I have made these observations through sober eyes. I have been repeatedly reminded by my family and coached by police to hold my personal sobriety closely and seriously because of the industry I work in and the risks to my own life that I could face as a young woman playing regularly in venues across the country where alcohol is served. Additionally, I have grown up and currently reside in a university town that is affected every year by the tragic consequences resulting from undergraduate students excessive enthusiasm for binge drinking. Student arrests, violence, injuries, and sexual assaults occur with some regularity, and I have often wondered why this culture continues to thrive seemingly unquestioned and unchecked. There is nothing more sad than the unnecessary, destructive and enormous toll that overuse, misuse and abuse of alcohol and drugs play in peoples lives, and I dont think my effort to point this out in confidence to a judge while commenting on Brock Turners character, as the sober person I knew him to be, was an irresponsible or reckless decision. Unfortunately, due to the overzealous nature of social media and the lack of confidence and privacy in which my letter to the judge was held, I am now thrust into the public eye to defend my position on this matter in the court of public opinion. Now, my choices to defer college to write and play music, to finally introduce 10 years of hard work to a national audience while working consistently and intentionally on my own personal and professional integrity, has led to an uproar of judgement and hatred unleashed on me, my band and my family. I know that Brock Turner was tried and rightfully convicted of sexual assault. I realize that this crime caused enormous pain for the victim. I dont condone, support, or sympathize with the offense or the offender. I was asked by a court in California to provide a character statement as a standard and necessary part of the sentencing process. I believe that Brocks character was seriously affected by the alcohol he consumed, and I felt that the court needed to consider this issue during their sentencing deliberations. Sincerely, Leslie Rasmussen Advertisement

'There is nothing more sad than the unnecessary, destructive and enormous toll that overuse, misuse and abuse of alcohol and drugs play in peoples lives, and I dont think my effort to point this out in confidence to a judge while commenting on Brock Turners character, as the sober person I knew him to be, was an irresponsible or reckless decision.

'Unfortunately, due to the overzealous nature of social media and the lack of confidence and privacy in which my letter to the judge was held, I am now thrust into the public eye to defend my position on this matter in the court of public opinion,' she wrote.

Rasmussen goes on to say that she believes her friend Turner was 'rightfully convicted' of sexual assault and that she understands that his actions have caused 'enormous pain for the victim'.

'I dont condone, support, or sympathize with the offense or the offender... I believe that Brocks character was seriously affected by the alcohol he consumed, and I felt that the court needed to consider this issue during their sentencing deliberations,' Rasmussen writes.

Rasmussen then wrote a second post on Wednesday night, stating: 'As I said previously, as part of the sentencing process, I, and at least 39 others wrote character statements to the judge in the case.

'Although I was asked to share how I knew him, how long I have known him, his character and personality, time spent with him, activities together, and any other opinion I had on the matter, I was not there that night. I had no right to make any assumptions about the situation.

'Most importantly, I did not acknowledge strongly enough the severity of Brocks crime and the suffering and pain that his victim endured, and for that lack of acknowledgement, I am deeply sorry.

'I fully understand the outrage over Brocks sentencing and my statement. I can only say that I am committed to learning from this mistake. I am 20 years old, and it has never been more clear to me that I still have much to learn.'

In the wake of the release of Rasmussen's character statement, her indie band, Good English, has practically been blacklisted from performances.

LESLIE RASUMUSSEN PERSONAL FACEBOOK POST ABOUT BROCK TURNER 'As I said previously, as part of the sentencing process, I, and at least 39 others wrote character statements to the judge in the case. 'Although I was asked to share how I knew him, how long I have known him, his character and personality, time spent with him, activities together, and any other opinion I had on the matter, I was not there that night. I had no right to make any assumptions about the situation. 'Most importantly, I did not acknowledge strongly enough the severity of Brocks crime and the suffering and pain that his victim endured, and for that lack of acknowledgement, I am deeply sorry. 'I fully understand the outrage over Brocks sentencing and my statement. I can only say that I am committed to learning from this mistake. I am 20 years old, and it has never been more clear to me that I still have much to learn.' Advertisement

Good English have quickly become toxic and all their gigs at Brooklyn's Northside music festival have now been completely scrapped

Rasmussen was slammed for the character statement she provided to the judge, in which she said that 'sweet' Turner is 'not a rapist' and blamed campus rape on 'political correctness'.

All-sister trio Good English have quickly become toxic and all their gigs at Brooklyn's Northside music festival have now been completely scrapped.

A sales and operations manager at one of the venues Industry City Distillery told the Gothamist: 'We have zero tolerance for the act itself, for anyone that would seek to defend that act, and certainly for the sentencing, which seems incredibly light.'

And Bar Matchless, also due to host the band at Northside, released a statement on Facebook saying: 'Good English will not be playing Matchless. We do not support victim blaming or rape apologists of any kind.'

Leading the social media campaign against the band was New Yorker Daneile Guercio.

Following the blacklisting she said: 'I'm just really happy that instead of it being about censorship or protest, it's more about having real life consequences for your actions.'

She continued: 'It's about sending a message that if you're a woman, we protect you. Especially in New York and in the music scene in Brooklyn, you can't just come here with this kind of sh**...you're coming to New York!

'People with that kind of small-town sexism have no place trying to make money off or our independent infrastructure.'

And it's not just New York where the band have been blacklisted, Rumba Cafe in Ohio announced that they would also be cancelling their show on June 17th.

While Facebook user Katie Warner wrote to Ohio bar The Comet: ' Please cancel your upcoming performance of rape apologists The Good English. Women are not safe around women who think rape trials are a political stunt.'

The band's official website and Facebook page have also been deleted and it is unclear if they plan to continue with the rest of their tour.

Turner, 20, was found guilty of three counts of sexual assault in March in the rape of an unconscious woman who was visiting Stanford college campus and was sentenced to just six months in county jail on Thursday.

Elsewhere today the victim has spoken out about her decision to remain anonymous, despite an impact statement she read out in court garnering worldwide attention.

The 23-year-old said that, while the decision is in part to protect her identity, she said it is also 'a statement' about how people are willing to defend her despite not knowing her.

She wrote: 'I remain anonymous, yes to protect my identity. But it is also a statement, that all of these people are fighting for someone they don't know.

That's the beauty of it. I don't need labels, categories, to prove I am worthy of respect, to prove that I should be listened to.

I am coming out to you as simply a woman wanting to be heard. Yes there is plenty more I'd like to tell you about me. For now, I am every woman.'

Meanwhile several people who supported Turner by writing character references to Judge Persky have walked back their earlier statements after the public outcry.

Kelly Owens, a counselor at Turner's high school who wrote to Persky saying the athlete was 'undeserving' of jail time, has also walked back her earlier statement, saying she never meant to imply that he shouldn't be held responsible for his actions.

Margaret Quinn, 61, a municipal court judge, also said she has received death threats at work after referring to Turner's attack as 'an unfortunate series of events' and blamed alcohol for his behavior.

Judge Persky has also received death threats over the sentence, he claimed today, as a petition to remove him from his position gathered 400,000 signatures.

The Dailymail.com has also learned that Turner will serve just four of the six months he was due to spend in jail, and will be free by September 2.

Turner is currently being held in the low-security 3,500-bed Elmwood jail in Milpitas, California, where sources say he is being kept away from the general prison population due to his crimes.
A baby boy in Kansas shocked both his parents and hospital staff when he was born 11 days early weighing a whopping 14.4 pounds.

Moses William Hilton, who measured 22 inches long, was welcomed into the world last Thursday and is one of the biggest babies born at Hutchinson Regional Medical Center, hospital staff said.

'When they took him out, the nurse said, "It's a mini sumo wrestler." I said, "Why?" Then, they showed me him and I was like, "That is a sumo wrestler,"' his mother Gina Hilton told KAKE.

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Moses William Hilton (pictured) of Kansas was welcomed into the world last Thursday weighing a whopping 14.4 pounds and measured 22 inches long at Hutchinson Regional Medical Center

Moses is one of the biggest babies born at Hutchinson Regional Medical Center, hospital staff said

When he was born, nurses called Moses a 'mini sumo wrestler' to which his mother, Gina Hilton agreed

His mother told the station her son's birth was not easy either, as he was born early by cesarean section, and suffered low blood sugar and jaundice. His due date was June 13.

Moses' parents were expecting him to be around ten pounds since his two older sisters were born weighing nine pounds each.

'He was huge. I was carrying a 14 pound bowling ball, I guess,' the mother-of-three told KAKE.

Nurses were also left stunned after Moses' birth, noting he was about double the size for what they expect of a normal size baby.

'When you think of babies who would normally reach that 14 pound mark, they're also starting to have a lot more neurological development, so that head control and body movement, Jill White, nursing director of the birthing center at the hospital told KAKE.

Moses' parents were expecting him to be around ten pounds since his two older sisters were born weighing nine pounds each

Nurses were also left stunned after Moses' birth, noting he was about double the size for what they expect of a normal size baby

'He's a newborn. He doesn't have all that yet, so it does take a lot more to hold on to.'

Moses' grandma reportedly had to buy him new shirts since he is already in six to nine months sized clothes.

As for the low blood sugar and jaundice, Moses has recovered from both and is healthy and doing well, his mom told ABC News.

Moses is not the largest baby ever born as it is recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records that an infant was born in Canada in 1879 weighing 23.12 pounds.
A Virginia lawyer accused of stabbing his wife's ex-boss and shooting the man's wife before leaving them both for dead told a court Tuesday that he didn't remember the events due to a cocktail of 14 prescription drugs.

Andrew G. Schmuhl, 33, appeared before Fairfax County Circuit Court Tuesday on charges of aggravated malicious wounding, using a firearm and burglary in the November 2014 incident.

He told the court that he didn't deny the attacks - but that medication taken for chronic back pain, high blood pressure, persistent insomnia, incontinence and uncontrollable sweat meant he didn't remember them either, The Washington Post reported.

Amnesia: Andrew Schmuhl (left) says that a mix of 14 prescription drugs stops him remembering his alleged attack on Leo Fisher (right) and his wife in November 2014. Fisher had fired Schmuhl's wife weeks earlier

'I typically don't break into people's houses,' Schmuhl said from the witness stand as he testified in his own defense.

He added that he didn't recall invading the McLean home of Susan Duncan and Leo Fisher on November 9, 2014, and subjecting them to a three-hour torture session before being arrested wearing nothing but a diaper.

'I don't really remember wearing a diaper,' he said. 'Honestly I could have been wearing a dress and not realized it.'

In fact, he said he didn't remember any of the details that Duncan and Fisher had relayed to police after surviving the attacks: tasering Fisher, tying the couple up with zip ties, shooting Duncan in the arm and stabbing them both.

When presented with evidence that he and his wife Alecia Schmuhl, 31 - who prosecutors said was outside when the attacks occurred - had spent November 7-9, 2014, buying disposable cell phones, a taser and diapers, he said he couldn't recall that either.

Invasion: Fisher and wife Susan Duncan were found at their $1 million McLean home (pictured) with multiple stab wounds to their upper bodies in November 2014. Duncan had been shot in the arm and Fisher was tasered

Speaking on what was also their client's birthday, Schmuhl's lawyers tried to build a defense of 'involuntary intoxication' in the hope of helping Schmuhl avoid up to 108 years in prison.

It was claimed that Schmuhl was taking painkillers Fentanyl and Dilaudid for a back injury sustained while in the army, as well as Xanax for insomnia and Clomid for low testosterone.

He said that Clomid gave him a 'weird, disconnected, fuzzy feeling, on top of the confusion the other drugs were causing. It was weirdness on top of weirdness.'

But the judge ruled that his lawyers' story was too similar to an insanity defense - something they had not given enough notice for.

So when a psychiatrist from the University of Virginia stepped up to give testimony about the cocktail of drugs Schmuhl was taking, she could not talk specifically about his case.

Schmuhl said that he suffers a debilitating physical pains that began when he hurt his back doing push-ups on ice while in the Armys Judge Advocate Generals Corps in 2010; he left the army in 2012.

He did not explain how the exercise was performed or how that had led to him taking a cocktail of 14 different drugs.

However, when questioned by the prosecution he admitted remembering repairing his roof with his mother two weeks before the attacks, and playing in a kickball tournament in the summer of 2014.

Schmuhl faces two counts each of aggravated malicious wounding and abduction, plus burglary and using a firearm in a felony.

Arrested: Schmuhl and wife Alecia (left) were arrested after the three-hour ordeal. He was naked except for a diaper. His lawyers claim she was outside directing him by phone. He says he can't remember any of it

According to Duncan and Fisher, the events of November 9 began when Schmuhl rang their doorbell.

Fisher opened the door only to be hit with taser darts that felled him. He and his wife were then up with tied with zip-ties and taken to their bedroom.

It was at that point, Fisher said, that he recognized Schmuhl as the husband of Alecia Schmuhl, whom he had fired from Bean, Kinney & Korman, the law firm of which he is a partner, weeks earlier.

He made them lie on the bed while he quizzed them about the law firm and Fisher's supposed ties to a Mexican cartel and a murder-for-hire plot.

Duncan was allowed to go to the bathroom, but no returned she said she found Schmuhl on top of her husband, cutting his throat.

In May, a weeping Duncan told the court: 'I saw he had a gun in his hand. I felt the bullet. I fell down on the floor.' The man then left the bedroom, she said, according to The Washington Post.. Duncan had been grazed by the shot.

Charged: Both face two counts each of aggravated malicious wounding and abduction, plus burglary and using a firearm. Alecia (pictured) will enter a separate trial in September

But when she began crawling across the bed to reach a phone, Schmuhl jumped on her and began stabbing her repeatedly. He got off, then got back on top and began stabbing again. This repeated four times, said Duncan.

Finally she played dead and the man left the room. Duncan then pressed the home panic button and called 911, but said she saw Schmuhl was still in the $1million home, on the 900 block of Spencer Rd.

The Schmuhls were were eventually found by police in a car at a Springfield strip mall.

Andrew was found wearing only a diaper, while his bloody clothes, a taser, and a shopping list of assault items were found stashed elsewhere in the vehicle.

Police did not expect Duncan and Fisher to survive, but trauma surgeons at Inova Fairfax Hospital saved their lives.

In May, Schmuhl's lawyer argued that his actions during the three-hour attack were 'so absurd' that he was obviously unaware of what he was doing.

The prosecution argues that the attacks were partly 'about revenge' for Alecia Schmuhl's firing.

Schmuhl's lawyer claims Alecia was the 'mastermind of the attack' and had been outside the home directing her husband by cell phone.

She faces the same charges in a separate trial set for September.
Clinton logged time with five news outlets today as she took a victory lap and reflected on her win and the primary battle with Bernie Sanders

She wouldn't say whether Trump is a racist - but his comments about the Mexican judge overseeing the Trump University case were a 'racist attack'

Clinton attacked Trump for interest in 'conspiracy theories' as she mentioned his questions over Barack Obama's place of birth

She marked start of real general election campaign with interview with Associated Press in which she called Donald Trump a 'demagogue'

Hillary Clinton opened her general election campaign against Donald Trump on Wednesday by accusing him of behaving like a 'demagogue,' likening his attacks on judges, the media, his opponents and their families to dark moments in world history.

'It's classic behavior by a demagogue,' she said in an telephone interview with The Associated Press. 'We've seen it many, many places and times in the world, and that's why I think it's so dangerous.'

The presumptive Democratic nominee, who declared victory in her race against Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders on Tuesday, a day after reaching the number of delegates needed to claim the nomination, gave a round of interviews to the national press on Wednesday as she took a victory lap.

Clinton logged time with the Washington Post, AP, CBS, NBC and even Fox News.

She reflected on the historic nature of her candidacy, spoke about her lingering email scandal and explained why, in her view, she's unliked by so many people.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton greets supporters as she arrives to speak during a presidential primary election night rally, Tuesday, June 7, 2016, in New York.

On Tuesday evening Clinton became the winner of the popular vote in the Democratic primary and claimed a majority of the associated pledged delegates, leading President Barack Obama to release a late-night statement naming her the Democratic nominee.

'I was absolutely stunned by the level of excitement and the incredible enthusiasm, and the energy, and the moment. And how this meant so much to the people who had worked so hard for me in the campaign, so many people who had been, you know, really hoping for this to happen,' she told the Washington Post.

Clinton said that in that moment, her head was swimming and it was hard to 'make sense of it.'

'I was worried that if, when I went out to speak, just the emotion of the moment would be so intense that I might have trouble getting through the speech itself.'

The first woman in U.S. history to achieve such a feat, Clinton dedicated much of her election night remarks to the women's rights movement, which had its first national meeting several hours upstate from her rally in Seneca Falls, New York.

'Going out there and actually being in the midst of it, not just looking down on it like I had a few minutes before, just was an incredible moment for me, and I hope one that many other people could take a lot of joy and pride in.'

Clinton said she nearly choked up talking about her late mother, Dorothy, whose birthday would have been last Saturday.

During her victory speech Clinton observed that her mother would have really liked to have been there for her big day - when she became the 'Democratic nominee.'

'I practiced the part about my mother several times because I teared up every time I practiced it,' she said. 'And I tried to get myself so that I could be, you know, a little more used to saying it. And it still was for me personally one of the most extraordinary and meaningful public experiences Ive ever had.'

After calling on Democrats to unify around her candidacy Tuesday night, Clinton said today she had no regrets about her campaign against Bernie Sanders.

'I feel very good about the campaign we ran,' she said to AP. 'It's time that we move forward and unite the party.'

Clinton told the Washington Post that she called Sanders on Tuesday evening after declaring herself the nominee to 'congratulate him on running such an extraordinary campaign.'

'Our campaigns are talking about how we can be unified against the threat that Donald Trump poses to our future, and I want to unite the party and the country,' she said. 'So Im going to do whatever I can to make that happen.'

She did not say what she and Sanders - who is refusing to drop out of the race until the convention, or so he says - discussed specifically.

'I was very happy that we connected,' was all she would say to NBC.

As she has in the past, Clinton hinted during her interview with the Post, however, that Sanders would ultimately get behind her.

Asked whether he will be as gracious as she was when she lost to Barack Obama in 2008, Clinton said, 'I certainly hope he will be.'

'I think he and his supporters understand how much is at stake, that we need to join together to defeat Trump. And Im going to really reach out, do everything I can to persuade him,' she said.

She added, 'I will be obviously reaching out to his supporters to make that same case. Theres a lot to discuss.'

On Tuesday evening Clinton became the winner of the popular vote in the Democratic primary and claimed a majority of the associated pledged delegates, leading President Barack Obama to release a late-night statement naming her the Democratic nominee

Among the things left unsaid still are when he will drop out.

'No. We didnt -- we didnt talk -- in those specifics,' Clinton told NBC. 'We are reaching out through our campaigns, to his campaign.

The two campaigns and the Democratic National Committee are beginning the process of drafting the policy on which Democrats are to rally around in the fall election.

She wouldn't offer any hints of what kinds of concessions her campaign might be willing to give the Vermont senator in the party platform in her interview with AP.

The author of a healthcare reform bill in the 90s herself, Clinton suggested to the Washington Post that universal health care coverage and a minimum wage increase were issues they could come to an agreement on.

Clinton also said she'd be willing to have a 'discussion' about reforming the superdelegate process, though she generally likes the setup the way is now considering she won.

'We did very, very well in the process,' she said, referring to the popular vote, number of states she won, and number of pledged delegates she earned. 'But we always want to see what could be done to, you know, to make it better.'

By this afternoon, when she put herself in front of the firing squad, the intensity of her race against Sanders had already begun to fade. The target today was Trump and Clinton's bid to beat him in the fall.

The Democratic nominee in waiting seemed to wonder during the interviews whether Trump's candidacy was little more than an elaborate political stunt.

'I do not believe his views or his rhetoric will find that favorable an audience in the general electorate, because I think that -- as I said last week in San Diego -- what he's already said, both words and deeds, disqualifies him from being president,' she told CBS.

Clinton told the Washington Post that she called Sanders on Tuesday evening after declaring herself the nominee to 'congratulate him on running such an extraordinary campaign.' She did not say how Sanders - who is refusing to drop out of the race until the convention, or so he says - took the call. He's seen here on Tuesday evening with his wife Jane in Santa Monica

Talking to AP she said, 'I don't know if this is just, you know, political gamesmanship that he thinks plays to the lowest common denominator, but whatever the reason for it is, it's wrong and it should not be tolerated by anybody.'

She wouldn't say whether or not she thinks Trump is truly a racist, telling the Post, 'I dont know whats in his heart. I have no way of telling that.

'I can just say that if you look at what hes been proclaiming since he started the campaign, he has been engaging in divisive and prejudiced attacks against people.'

She brought up the Mexican judge Trump has spent two weeks dumping on and said, 'So even though I cant say whats in his heart, if you say someone cant do their job because of their heritage, that is certainly a racist attack.'

But even as she questioned the sincerity of the real estate mogul's rhetoric, Clinton said voters need to take his words seriously and called them evidence that he is untrustworthy, unqualified and unprepared for the rigors of the White House.

'He has no real answers. He has slogans. And I think he has basically run a campaign from the very first day, when he stoked fear of immigrants, calling Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals,' she told the Post.

During an interview with NBC News, she said, 'A lot of his primary opponents never took him on over issues, because they were somewhat close to what he was saying,.And when it came to the personal attacks, because they didn't have any strong issue position to contrast with him they really couldn't come back on the personal side either.'

'He can run a campaign of insults. I'm running a campaign of issues that are going to produce results for the American people,' she said.

While the two candidates have never been personally close, their political and financial circles have occasionally overlapped over the years  especially during Clinton's time as a senator from New York, Trump's home state.

Clinton and her husband, former president Bill Clinton, attended Trump's third wedding in 2005, and she said later that she thought Trump was 'always entertaining.'

But Clinton expressed surprise at what she described as the billionaire's descent into 'conspiracy theories' in recent years.

'He always had opinions which he freely expressed,' she said.

'I never really ever had any information about him engaging in bigotry and prejudice until he took up the cause of the birthers against President Obama, which is really so bizarre,' she added, with an incredulous laugh.

The presumptive Democratic nominee, who declared victory in her race against Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders on Tuesday, a day after reaching the number of delegates needed to claim the nomination, gave a round of interviews to the national press on Wednesday as she took a victory lap. She's seen here with CBS' Scott Pelley

Clinton and Democrats supporting her campaign are attempting to cast Trump as a ruthless con artist who is tricking voters in the same way he duped prospective students into enrolling into his now-defunct Trump University, a business that offered real estate seminars.

It's an argument Clinton and her aides believe will appeal not only to Democrats, but independent voters and even some Republicans worried about how Trump would manage the nation's economy and foreign affairs.

While stopping short of calling Trump a racist for his recent comments about the federal judge overseeing a class-action lawsuit against Trump University, Clinton said her rival has a 'very unfortunate and divisive tendency to attack all kind of Americans.'

While Clinton seeks to paint Trump as a dangerous huckster, he has spent the past several weeks since claiming the Republican nomination working to define her candidacy.

Trump calls Clinton by the nickname 'Crooked Hillary' and often says she belongs behind bars for her use of a private email account and server during her time as secretary of state.

'The Clintons have turned the politics of personal enrichment into an art form for themselves,' Trump said Tuesday as he won the final five GOP primary elections.

'They've made hundreds of millions of dollars selling access, selling favors, selling government contracts, and I mean hundreds of millions of dollars.'

Trump promised to deliver a speech next week focusing on 'the Clintons.' He's also tried to re-ignite past scandals that dogged Bill Clinton's administration, including his impeachment trial and the Whitewater land deal in his native Arkansas.

The first woman in U.S. history to achieve such a feat, Clinton dedicated much of her election night remarks to the women's rights movement, which had its first national meeting several hours upstate from her rally in Seneca Falls, New York

Trump has met with Ed Klein, one of Clinton's most strident critics and the author of books spreading discredited rumors about her marriage.

Another influence, GOP consultant Roger Stone, is known for peddling conspiracy theories about the Clintons.

There is speculation that political strategist Dick Morris, a former Clinton adviser turned adversary, may also join his campaign.

Clinton said she is unconcerned with all of it.

'I really don't pay a lot of attention to his efforts to attack me personally,' she said. 'I don't intend to respond to them because this is his, this is his modus operandi.'

Instead, Clinton said she is banking on voters turning to her because of her comparative policy depth, arguing that a frustrated electorate is seeking 'specific policies' more than 'catchy soundbites' and 'throwing slogans around.'

Neither candidate is well-thought of by the electorate. Each one's level of unpopularity would be outstanding for their opponent in a general election match-up if it weren't for the fact that Americans have so little respect for the other.

Clinton told the Post her problem is that she is a 'very favorite target of Republicans, and others who disagree with my positions.

'And theyve been running many millions of dollars of ads against me ever since this campaign started,' she said, dragging down her favorability scores. '

'Ive come to accept that, and I intend to do everything that I possibly can to make the case as to why I am not only prepared and experienced, but ready with the ideas that I think will produce results for the American people, provide protection for our country and lead the world and unify us.'

The presumptive Democratic nominee, who declared victory in her race against Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders on Tuesday, a day after reaching the number of delegates needed to claim the nomination, seemed to wonder during the interviews whether Trump's candidacy was little more than an elaborate political stunt

When asked Wednesday about the upcoming Summer Olympics in Brazil, she offered a lengthy assessment of the public health crisis caused by the Zika virus.

While Clinton said it was probably too late to cancel the Rio de Janeiro Games, as some public health officials have urged, she described the situation as 'deeply distressing.'

'It's really a serious public threat health and I don't know that we've heard the last word about the advice about whether people or certain kinds of people should go to Rio or not,' she said.
The 23-year-old victim in the Stanford rape case says she wants to remain anonymous as 'a statement', saying she is 'every woman' (file image)

The victim at the center of the Stanford rape case has spoken out today about her decision to remain anonymous.

While the 23-year-old admits that the move is partly to protect her identity, she also says it is 'a statement' to have thousands of people 'fighting for someone they don't even know.'

She told KTVU that while 'there is plenty more I'd like to tell you about me', for the time being she wants to remain 'every woman'.

She adds: 'That's the beauty of it. I don't need labels, categories, to prove I am worthy of respect, to prove that I should be listened to.

'I am coming out to you as simply a woman wanting to be heard.'

Brock Turner, 20, was found guilty back in March of raping the unconscious woman at a frat party at Stanford University in January 2015.

Turner was facing a possible ten year jail term for the crime, but was sentenced to just six months last week by Judge Aaron Persky because of the effect prison would have on him.

The Dailymail.com has since learned that Turner is due to be released from jail after only four months behind bars, on September 2.

He is being held at the low-security 3,500-bed Elmwood jail in Milpitas, California, where sources say he is being kept away from the general prison population due to the nature of his crimes.

Brock Turner, 20 (left and right), was convicted in March of raping the woman during a frat party at Stanford University and was sentenced to six months in jail last week, prompting an outcry

That judgement, and letters from Turner to Judge Persky in which he blames alcohol for his actions while taking little responsibility himself, has caused outrage across America.

A petition to strip Persky of his judgeship has reached more than 400,000 signatures, while Leslie Rasmussen, a childhood friend of Turner, has also suffered backlash after a statement in which she supports him was released.

Rasmussen, who plays in band Good English, has seen multiple concerts cancelled after venues said they did not want to be associated with 'rape apologists'.

Brian Banks, 30, a black athlete wrongly sentenced to six years in jail for a rape he didn't commit, added that Turner's punishment is an example of 'privilege'.

STANFORD VICTIM'S STATEMENT I remain anonymous, yes to protect my identity. But it is also a statement, that all of these people are fighting for someone they don't know. That's the beauty of it. I don't need labels, categories, to prove I am worthy of respect, to prove that I should be listened to. I am coming out to you as simply a woman wanting to be heard. Yes there is plenty more I'd like to tell you about me. For now, I am every woman. Advertisement

Meanwhile an impact statement read by the victim in court detailing the physical and psychological effect of the attack on her in excruciating detail has also attracted a lot of attention.

During Turner's sentencing she delivered the statement to him personally, saying: 'You don't know me, but you've been inside me, and that's why we're here today.'

She goes on to detail her memory of the attack itself, her shock at being told what had happened to her, and the emotional impact of being labeled a 'rape victim'.

She also dismantles many of the excuses Turner gave for his behavior, including the claim that the drinking culture at Stanford affected his actions.

She said: 'Alcohol is not an excuse. Is it a factor? Yes. But alcohol was not the one who stripped me, fingered me, had my head dragging against the ground, with me almost fully naked.

'Having too much to drink was an amateur mistake that I admit to, but it is not criminal.

'We were both drunk, the difference is I did not take off your pants and underwear, touch you inappropriately, and run away. Thats the difference.'

The victim was found unconscious and partially clothed behind these dumpsters close to a frat house at Stanford, though Turner maintains that the encounter was consensual

Elsewhere several people who supported Turner by writing character references to Judge Persky have walked back their earlier statements after the public outcry.

Kelly Owens, a counselor at Turner's high school who wrote to Persky saying the athlete was 'undeserving' of jail time, has also walked back her earlier statement, saying she never meant to imply that he shouldn't be held responsible for his actions.
His right hand poised menacingly by two lethal knives, an Albanian double killer who has lived quietly in suburbia for the past 18 years is confronted by the Daily Mail.

Our international investigation tracked Avni Metra to his Home Counties lair.

And last night the 53-year-old gangster, who gouged out the eyes of one victim, was finally in custody after we alerted Scotland Yard to his whereabouts.

Scroll down for video

His right hand poised menacingly by two lethal knives, an Albanian double killer who has lived quietly in suburbia for the past 18 years is confronted by the Daily Mail

Police had no idea where he was and made little attempt to find him even though he was on an Interpol most wanted list and had been arrested in London for wife-beating.

Metra was granted a UK passport after sneaking into Britain in 1998 falsely claiming to be a Kosovan refugee.

He has pocketed thousands of pounds in benefits while working in the black economy and being linked to prostitution rackets.

The father of four will appear in court today to face extradition proceedings.

He has been dodging a 25-year jail term that followed his conviction in his absence for two murders.

Only a month ago the Mail revealed that a one-legged Albanian double killer has been granted legal aid to fight being sent home.

Saliman Barci, 41, who similarly claimed he was a Kosovan refugee, was given a four-bed house and 2,000 a month in benefits even though he is a cocaine dealer. He also had a prosthetic limb fitted by the NHS.

Metra and Barci are believed to be among scores of Albanian murderers and violent criminals hiding out in Britain.

Hideout: Metra's home Borehamwood, Hertfordshire where the Mail tracked him to

The Metra case was revealed last month by prosecutors in Albania, a country which wants to join the European Union.

Interpol chiefs in Tirana said they had requested his arrest in 2008 after they learned he had settled in London but were told British police could not find him.

They are seeking at least six Albanian murderers living here under false identities. In April, Justice Secretary Michael Gove said about one in 20 of this countrys 10,000 foreign criminals is from Albania.

Metra fled the former communist state in 1998, a year after killing two brothers in the city of Burrel in the north of the country.

In April 1997, he ambushed a man as he crossed a bridge in the town and pummelled him to death with a machine gun.

Three months later, he and his cohorts attacked the mans brother, gouging his eyes and slicing his ears before eventually shooting him dead.

Wanted for questioning by police, Metra paid 5,000 to a criminal gang to facilitate his trip to the UK and escape justice.

On arrival in London, he claimed asylum by falsely claiming to be from Kosovo and by using a false identity.

He has been granted income support and was allocated a housing benefit-funded home in north London in 1999, when his wife and young child joined him from Albania, also posing as Kosovan refugees.

Spotted: Metra doing his shopping and the criminal being confronted by the Mail

While on welfare he worked as a labourer and had links to an Albanian prostitution racket in London. Several years later, he was granted British citizenship and a passport.

In 2010, he was arrested and later charged with domestic violence, spent several weeks in custody and, in 2011, was given a 12-month community order and a 12-month restraining order for subjecting his wife to a terrifying ordeal.

However, detectives did not realise that Metra, using the bogus name Avdul Mekra, was in fact a notorious fugitive.

He was put behind bars last night after the Mail tracked him down to a shabby flat in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire.

Despite changing his name slightly he was still using his real date of birth.

However he appeared stunned to have been traced and, after composing himself, said he couldnt remember the court case in Albania. He added: I am Kosovar. I dont know my friend. I am Kosovar.

Confronted with his real identity as a killer, he insisted he had never murdered anyone and tried to claim that in Albania everything is corruption.

He said he had never been spoken to by British police about the murders in his home country.

Yesterday afternoon he was detained by officers from Scotland Yards extradition unit as he drove through Watford.

Detective Chief Superintendent Tom Manson, of the Metropolitan Police Service, said last night: Following information passed to us by the Daily Mail the Met started a manhunt to locate Avni Metra. We are grateful to the Daily Mail for all their assistance.

Avni Metra, 53, was arrested in Watford as a result of a targeted Automatic Number Plate Recognition operation.

He was arrested on behalf of the Albanian authorities having been convicted of a double murder and sentenced in his absence.

He will appear in custody at City of Westminster Magistrates Court on Thursday.'

Proof the UK's lost its marbles (cont): Killer who gouged out his victim's eyes in his homeland was arrested for wife-beating in London while on the run... yet it took the Mail just days to find him in a Home Counties flat

The dilapidated house lowers the tone of a smart, residential road near the centre of Borehamwood, the Hertfordshire town that is home to the famous Elstree film studios and which rather fancifully styles itself as Britains Hollywood.

Tenants behind the scruffy white front door include a careworn Romanian man, a middle-aged African woman and a Pole.

However, the character we were looking for was a shadowy Albanian. We were told that he seldom spoke to the other residents, and would come and go from his privately rented digs at irregular hours in a battered, green Ford saloon.

After a painstaking investigation that had begun in the remote mountains of northern Albania and ended in this leafy corner of the Home Counties, we were closing in on a ruthless convicted double-murderer.

This is a killer so gratuitously sadistic, Albanian witnesses and prosecutors had told us, that he and his gang gouged out the eyes and cut off the ears of one victim as he writhed on the ground pleading for mercy, before riddling him with bullets.

During the mid-Nineties he is believed to have served as the henchman for a mafia-style gang that took over an isolated mountain community amid an orgy of bloodshed, plundering banks and businesses and even raping local women.

Wearing a green military greatcoat, beneath which he concealed a Kalashnikov machine-gun looted from an army weapons store, witnesses recall how he would open fire without a second thought on anyone who stood in the gangs way.

After a painstaking investigation that had begun in the remote mountains of northern Albania and ended in this leafy corner of the Home Counties, the Mail closed in on a ruthless convicted double-murderer

He should now be serving a 25-year sentence for murder handed down to him in his absence by a judge in Albanias capital, Tirana, in 2001, who branded him an enormous danger to society.

Yet the man never faced a court of law. Long before the trial commenced, he had fled Albania and sneaked into Britain under the guise of being of a poor refugee from Kosovo. He has been living here incognito for 18 years  first on the margins of London, and now among the unsuspecting commuters and pensioners in this tranquil town.

It is known that in the past he has claimed housing benefit and income support, and he is believed to have secured child benefit for his family of four children, who all live here.

When we confronted him in his Borehamwood bolthole, the bedsit door inched open to reveal a squalid room reeking of roll-up cigarettes and strong lager, an empty bottle of which stood beside the unmade bed. And glowering through the narrow gap were blank, bloodshot eyes sunk deeply into a shaven head.

Then we saw the two knives. They were both long and sharp, and they appeared to have been deliberately placed on the kitchenette worktop just inside the door.

Barking his replies to our questions in gruff, heavily accented monosyllables, he insisted his name was Avdul Mekra, and that he was among the thousands who had been forced to flee the strife-torn Kosovo city of Gjakova in 1998, as war with Serbia lurched closer. I am clean! I never killed nobody! F***ing hell, never! he exclaimed. I am not Albanian  I am Kosovar!

This was the story he had used to gull immigration officials to grant him asylum, after he paid people-traffickers 5,000 to smuggle him through Europe and across the Channel; the story that had eventually led to him securing the British passport he fished from a drawer and waved defiantly at us.

Pressed as to why impeccable sources in Albania, including his victims sister and senior judicial figures, had confirmed from photographs that he was a fugitive killer, and why his birth date record back home matches the one registered here, he spat: Everything in Albania is corruption.

Yet we have amassed incontrovertible evidence that Avdul Mekra, as he has long called himself, is in fact Avni Metra, who hails from the town of Burrel, in north Albania.

HOW WE EXPOSED ANOTHER ALBANIAN KILLER IN OUR MIDST Last month, the Mail revealed the scandal of the one-legged Albanian double killer who has been granted legal aid to fight extradition from Britain  even though he has allegedly confessed to two murders. Saliman Barci, 41, is using human rights laws in a desperate bid to avoid being sent back to his homeland, where he has been convicted in his absence of murdering two men. The murders happened in Burrel, the same northern Albanian city where Avni Metra and his gang slaughtered two brothers in 1997. Barci, who protests his innocence, has spent nearly a year in custody battling a request to be returned to Albania to serve a 25-year sentence. His taxpayer-funded extradition battle has been led by a well-known human rights barrister. But his campaign to remain in this country suffered a blow after his estranged Albanian wife told the Mail he had confessed to her on the night of the killings. According to her, the couple were smuggled into the UK in a van from Calais, posed as Kosovar refugees to gain British citizenship, and have lived rent free in a lavishly furnished four-bedroom housing association house. In total, she said, Barci has enjoyed nearly 2,000 a month in benefits while making (before his arrest) huge sums from selling cocaine in London. Advertisement

Interpol considers Metra so dangerous that he is on its most wanted list. As far back as 2008, having received information Metra was in this country, Interpol requested Britains help in tracking him down.

Interpol says that it has also urged our police to find his evil fellow gang member, Kadri Hoxha, 56, who is said to have bribed his way out of prison in Tirana after being convicted of the same two murders and receiving the same 25-year sentence.

That second killer is believed to be hiding in northern England using a false Kosovar identity. More pertinently, a relative of his in Albania told us that 15 members of his family have settled here, too.

This is just the tip of an iceberg.

The Albanian region Avni Metra is from has a population of just 60,000. But locals confidently assert that about 5,000 of them have spirited themselves into Britain posing as Kosovars. They did so because thousands of Kosovars were offered sanctuary here by the Blair government to escape the Balkan War in the Nineties.

Every one of us here has at least one relative in your country, a relative of Metras murdering accomplice told us when we visited their impoverished home town in northern Albania. He did not realise he was speaking to journalists.

There are so many in one part of East London [thought to be Barking, where the Albanian flag has been raised above the town hall on the nations independence day] that we call it Little Burrel.

So how could this incredible state of affairs have been allowed to happen? How did a monster such as Avni Metra meld so effortlessly into British society, where, it seems, he has continued to live like a small-time gangster, consorting with Albanian pimps, drinking and gambling and terrorising his own family?

The story of this Albanian murderer is a scandal in its own right, but it is also as powerful an argument as you will read for the need for Britain to regain control of our dangerously porous borders.

The bloody slayings

The town of Burrel in northern Albania became known as the countrys murder capital after no fewer than 150 people were brutally slain there in a single year in 1997.

The killing spree erupted as two rival gangs fought for control. They were named after the local families that ran them: the Kolas and the Dedas. After looting a munitions store, the gangs armed themselves with rocket-launchers, grenades and machine-guns.

Avni Metra, then a thuggish 34-year-old with a violent temper, chose to join the Kola gang. According to his estranged wife Linda Lami, who was forced into an arranged marriage with him as a naive 16-year-old, he was a psychopath and capable of anything. We tracked her down in the Home Counties this week, where she lives in a privately owned house with a new partner.

She said she is so ashamed of being married to Metra  and bearing him four children  that she admitted they had come to Britain illegally and under false pretences. She was among those who identified her husband from photos.

Locals in Burrel believe Metra committed a string of murders, but the first of the two for which he was convicted occurred in April 1997.

Enraged that an armed security guard named Kadri Xhetani stopped them robbing a flour factory in the town, he and his accomplice (the fugitive now believed to be in northern England) ambushed the mans car and gunned him down.

Detectives did not realise that Metra, using the bogus name Avdul Mekra, was in fact a notorious fugitive. Pictured: his UK passport

Three months later, in July, two Kola gang bosses were shot in the street. Believing those responsible to be members of the murdered guards family, others in the Kola gang sought vengeance.

First, they surrounded a restaurant run by the dead security guard Kadri Xhetanis father, and opened fire on the man  a much-loved local chef  as he ate breakfast. Then they forced his eldest daughter  who witnessed the shooting  to crawl home on her hands and knees. But the Kola gang members were not finished. Aware that the dead security guards older brother, Nevruz, would drive to Burrel for the chefs funeral, they then lay in wait beside a bridge leading into the town, and attacked his car.

Nevruz Xhetani was wounded, but was able to hobble into a forest beside the river.

However, in a harrowing interview given in a Tirana cafe, his younger sister Anila  who also identified the fugitive Avni Metra from his photograph  told us how the gang hunted down her brother, and Metra and his fellow gang member cut him to pieces while he was still alive, taking out his eyes and slicing off his ears.

There was almost nothing left to identify, she wept.

The flight to Britain

By 1998, a semblance of order had returned to Albania and the authorities began investigating the glut of murders in Burrel. At this point, the few Kola gang members who were still alive plotted their escape.

Locals say that Avni Metra was among the first Burrel migrants to travel here using faked Kosovo identities, and that others followed in his wake.

When townsfolk heard how easily he had passed through our borders, and how he had been given rent-free housing and free food vouchers, many more followed.

All Metra would tell us about his precise route into this country is that he came through Calais underneath a lorry. However, his wife later gave us a graphic account of her illicit 48-hour journey.

Nine months after her husbands escape, she and her baby son were driven overnight through the mountains to the city of Korce, then bribed border officials to allow them into Greece.

Using an Albanian passport, she says that they then flew to Austria and on to Belgium without being stopped. From there they were taken by car to Paris, where, unchallenged, they boarded the Eurostar for London.

As instructed, Linda dumped her passport on the train and arrived at Waterloo frightened to death and without any identity papers.

Astonishingly, however, there were no probing questions from immigration officials. No one asked for proof that she was from Kosovo.

Her husband had by now registered her under an assumed name with the Home Office, informing them she and their son would be joining him. She says this was enough for her to be welcomed into the country.

And a cushy life on benefits

For Metras wife, life in London was no less harsh than in Burrel. She claims he treated her as a slave whose only role was to cook and clean for him, and look after the three children they produced in the ensuing years (who are now in their teens).

Meanwhile, he fell in with the thriving Albanian underworld in London, disappearing without explanation from dawn till dead of night.

Among his cohorts was one of the Kola brothers from the gang back home. We have been told by sources in Albania that this man was convicted of murdering the flour factory security guards father  the restaurant owner  but released after serving half his sentence and is now in Britain, too.

For one of the many ironies of this story is that other members of the murderous gang have also claimed asylum here, on the pretext that they could fall victim to traditional Albanian revenge attacks known as blood feuds if they returned home.

Metras wife Linda says this Kola brother ran a prostitution racket here, and strongly believes her husband was in league with him.

Down the years, she heard whispers that her husband was responsible for the brutal murders of the Xhetanis  the security guard and his brother  in Burrel. But when she summoned the courage to inquire about his past, he would become violent and evasive.

Avni Metra would beat her virtually every day without provocation, she says, and threatened to kill her if she left him. In 2003, she passed her nationality test, acquired a British passport, and endured their marriage for seven more years.

Metra has been granted income support and was allocated a housing benefit-funded home in north London in 1999, when his wife and young child joined him from Albania, also posing as Kosovan refugees

Then came the episode that put an end to it  and ought to have alerted the police to Avni Metras past.

Linda recalls how her husband, who had become prone to mood-swings, began haranguing her one morning as she fed the children.

Within moments he erupted, dragging her upstairs by the hair and locking her in a toilet. Then, as the children screamed, he went downstairs to fetch a knife and told her he was about to kill her.

She believes, from the evil look on his face, that he would have done so, if her eldest son hadnt called the police.

That day, in 2010, he was arrested at which point, his fingerprints and photograph would have been taken as a matter of course. Since he was never arrested in Albania, however, there would have been no records to match them against, even if anyone had suspected his identity.

So, having been charged with false imprisonment and assault, he spent a few weeks on remand in jail without anyone knowing he was the subject of an extradition request.

Though the false imprisonment charge was dropped, the Kosovar refugee was convicted of assault in April 2011, and placed under a 12-month restraining order. He was also given a 12-month community order. He later breached the restraining order, and in November 2011 he was placed under a restraining order for a further year, and ordered to do 12 months community work.

Because of the restraining order, he was forced to stay away from his wife and children. When we confronted Avni Metra, he claimed he was working as a building labourer, but a letter on his bedside cabinet suggested he was claiming Jobseekers allowance earlier this year.

And as he rummaged in the drawers for his passport, we spotted dozens of pairs of surgical gloves  the type that burglars often use so they dont leave fingerprints. More chillingly, police sources say thin rubber gloves of this type are also often worn by professional hitmen.

Very belatedly, the police  having been alerted to his whereabouts by the Mail  this week launched a full-scale manhunt for Metra.

And yesterday afternoon, at long last, he was arrested.

Judging by the tactics used by other Albanian criminals here, he is now likely to fight tooth and nail to remain in Britain, either on the grounds that he is entitled to a family life here, or because he would not be safe if sent back to Albania.

If so, his cause will no doubt be defended by expensive lawyers. No prizes for guessing who will pay their exorbitant fees. Thats right  you, via the legal aid system.
The character we were looking for was a shadowy Albanian - Anvi Metra

The dilapidated house lowers the tone of a smart, residential road near the centre of Borehamwood, the Hertfordshire town that is home to the famous Elstree film studios and which rather fancifully styles itself as Britains Hollywood.

Tenants behind the scruffy white front door include a careworn Romanian man, a middle-aged African woman and a Pole.

However, the character we were looking for was a shadowy Albanian. We were told that he seldom spoke to the other residents, and would come and go from his privately rented digs at irregular hours in a battered, green Ford saloon.

After a painstaking investigation that had begun in the remote mountains of northern Albania and ended in this leafy corner of the Home Counties, we were closing in on a ruthless convicted double-murderer.

This is a killer so gratuitously sadistic, Albanian witnesses and prosecutors had told us, that he and his gang gouged out the eyes and cut off the ears of one victim as he writhed on the ground pleading for mercy, before riddling him with bullets.

During the mid-Nineties he is believed to have served as the henchman for a mafia-style gang that took over an isolated mountain community amid an orgy of bloodshed, plundering banks and businesses and even raping local women.

Wearing a green military greatcoat, beneath which he concealed a Kalashnikov machine-gun looted from an army weapons store, witnesses recall how he would open fire without a second thought on anyone who stood in the gangs way.

He should now be serving a 25-year sentence for murder handed down to him in his absence by a judge in Albanias capital, Tirana, in 2001, who branded him an enormous danger to society.

Yet the man never faced a court of law. Long before the trial commenced, he had fled Albania and sneaked into Britain under the guise of being of a poor refugee from Kosovo. He has been living here incognito for 18 years  first on the margins of London, and now among the unsuspecting commuters and pensioners in this tranquil town.

It is known that in the past he has claimed housing benefit and income support, and he is believed to have secured child benefit for his family of four children, who all live here.

When we confronted him in his Borehamwood bolthole, the bedsit door inched open to reveal a squalid room reeking of roll-up cigarettes and strong lager, an empty bottle of which stood beside the unmade bed. And glowering through the narrow gap were blank, bloodshot eyes sunk deeply into a shaven head.

Hideout: Metra's home Borehamwood, Hertfordshire where the Mail tracked him to

Then we saw the two knives. They were both long and sharp, and they appeared to have been deliberately placed on the kitchenette worktop just inside the door.

Barking his replies to our questions in gruff, heavily accented monosyllables, he insisted his name was Avdul Mekra, and that he was among the thousands who had been forced to flee the strife-torn Kosovo city of Gjakova in 1998, as war with Serbia lurched closer. I am clean! I never killed nobody! F***ing hell, never! he exclaimed. I am not Albanian  I am Kosovar!

This was the story he had used to gull immigration officials to grant him asylum, after he paid people-traffickers 5,000 to smuggle him through Europe and across the Channel; the story that had eventually led to him securing the British passport he fished from a drawer and waved defiantly at us.

After a painstaking investigation that had begun in the remote mountains of northern Albania and ended in this leafy corner of the Home Counties, we were closing in on a ruthless convicted double-murderer

Pressed as to why impeccable sources in Albania, including his victims sister and senior judicial figures, had confirmed from photographs that he was a fugitive killer, and why his birth date record back home matches the one registered here, he spat: Everything in Albania is corruption.

Yet we have amassed incontrovertible evidence that Avdul Mekra, as he has long called himself, is in fact Avni Metra, who hails from the town of Burrel, in north Albania.

Interpol considers Metra so dangerous that he is on its most wanted list. As far back as 2008, having received information Metra was in this country, Interpol requested Britains help in tracking him down.

Interpol says that it has also urged our police to find his evil fellow gang member, Kadri Hoxha, 56, who is said to have bribed his way out of prison in Tirana after being convicted of the same two murders and receiving the same 25-year sentence.

That second killer is believed to be hiding in northern England using a false Kosovar identity. More pertinently, a relative of his in Albania told us that 15 members of his family have settled here, too.

He should now be serving a 25-year sentence for murder handed down to him in his absence by a judge in Albanias capital, Tirana, in 2001, who branded him an enormous danger to society

This is just the tip of an iceberg.

The Albanian region Avni Metra is from has a population of just 60,000. But locals confidently assert that about 5,000 of them have spirited themselves into Britain posing as Kosovars. They did so because thousands of Kosovars were offered sanctuary here by the Blair government to escape the Balkan War in the Nineties.

Every one of us here has at least one relative in your country, a relative of Metras murdering accomplice told us when we visited their impoverished home town in northern Albania. He did not realise he was speaking to journalists.

There are so many in one part of East London [thought to be Barking, where the Albanian flag has been raised above the town hall on the nations independence day] that we call it Little Burrel.

So how could this incredible state of affairs have been allowed to happen? How did a monster such as Avni Metra meld so effortlessly into British society, where, it seems, he has continued to live like a small-time gangster, consorting with Albanian pimps, drinking and gambling and terrorising his own family?

The story of this Albanian murderer is a scandal in its own right, but it is also as powerful an argument as you will read for the need for Britain to regain control of our dangerously porous borders.

The bloody slayings

The town of Burrel in northern Albania became known as the countrys murder capital after no fewer than 150 people were brutally slain there in a single year in 1997.

The killing spree erupted as two rival gangs fought for control. They were named after the local families that ran them: the Kolas and the Dedas. After looting a munitions store, the gangs armed themselves with rocket-launchers, grenades and machine-guns.

Avni Metra, then a thuggish 34-year-old with a violent temper, chose to join the Kola gang. According to his estranged wife Linda Lami, who was forced into an arranged marriage with him as a naive 16-year-old, he was a psychopath and capable of anything. We tracked her down in the Home Counties this week, where she lives in a privately owned house with a new partner.

Spotted: Metra doing his shopping and the criminal being confronted by the Mail

She said she is so ashamed of being married to Metra  and bearing him four children  that she admitted they had come to Britain illegally and under false pretences. She was among those who identified her husband from photos.

Locals in Burrel believe Metra committed a string of murders, but the first of the two for which he was convicted occurred in April 1997.

Enraged that an armed security guard named Kadri Xhetani stopped them robbing a flour factory in the town, he and his accomplice (the fugitive now believed to be in northern England) ambushed the mans car and gunned him down.

Three months later, in July, two Kola gang bosses were shot in the street. Believing those responsible to be members of the murdered guards family, others in the Kola gang sought vengeance.

First, they surrounded a restaurant run by the dead security guard Kadri Xhetanis father, and opened fire on the man  a much-loved local chef  as he ate breakfast. Then they forced his eldest daughter  who witnessed the shooting  to crawl home on her hands and knees. But the Kola gang members were not finished. Aware that the dead security guards older brother, Nevruz, would drive to Burrel for the chefs funeral, they then lay in wait beside a bridge leading into the town, and attacked his car.

Nevruz Xhetani was wounded, but was able to hobble into a forest beside the river.

However, in a harrowing interview given in a Tirana cafe, his younger sister Anila  who also identified the fugitive Avni Metra from his photograph  told us how the gang hunted down her brother, and Metra and his fellow gang member cut him to pieces while he was still alive, taking out his eyes and slicing off his ears.

There was almost nothing left to identify, she wept.

The flight to Britain

By 1998, a semblance of order had returned to Albania and the authorities began investigating the glut of murders in Burrel. At this point, the few Kola gang members who were still alive plotted their escape.

Locals say that Avni Metra was among the first Burrel migrants to travel here using faked Kosovo identities, and that others followed in his wake.

When townsfolk heard how easily he had passed through our borders, and how he had been given rent-free housing and free food vouchers, many more followed.

All Metra would tell us about his precise route into this country is that he came through Calais underneath a lorry. However, his wife later gave us a graphic account of her illicit 48-hour journey.

Detectives did not realise that Metra, using the bogus name Avdul Mekra, was in fact a notorious fugitive. Pictured: his UK passport

Nine months after her husbands escape, she and her baby son were driven overnight through the mountains to the city of Korce, then bribed border officials to allow them into Greece.

Using an Albanian passport, she says that they then flew to Austria and on to Belgium without being stopped. From there they were taken by car to Paris, where, unchallenged, they boarded the Eurostar for London.

As instructed, Linda dumped her passport on the train and arrived at Waterloo frightened to death and without any identity papers.

Astonishingly, however, there were no probing questions from immigration officials. No one asked for proof that she was from Kosovo.

Her husband had by now registered her under an assumed name with the Home Office, informing them she and their son would be joining him. She says this was enough for her to be welcomed into the country.

And a cushy life on benefits

For Metras wife, life in London was no less harsh than in Burrel. She claims he treated her as a slave whose only role was to cook and clean for him, and look after the three children they produced in the ensuing years (who are now in their teens).

Meanwhile, he fell in with the thriving Albanian underworld in London, disappearing without explanation from dawn till dead of night.

Among his cohorts was one of the Kola brothers from the gang back home. We have been told by sources in Albania that this man was convicted of murdering the flour factory security guards father  the restaurant owner  but released after serving half his sentence and is now in Britain, too.

For one of the many ironies of this story is that other members of the murderous gang have also claimed asylum here, on the pretext that they could fall victim to traditional Albanian revenge attacks known as blood feuds if they returned home.

Metras wife Linda says this Kola brother ran a prostitution racket here, and strongly believes her husband was in league with him.

Down the years, she heard whispers that her husband was responsible for the brutal murders of the Xhetanis  the security guard and his brother  in Burrel. But when she summoned the courage to inquire about his past, he would become violent and evasive.

Avni Metra would beat her virtually every day without provocation, she says, and threatened to kill her if she left him. In 2003, she passed her nationality test, acquired a British passport, and endured their marriage for seven more years.

HOW WE EXPOSED ANOTHER ALBANIAN KILLER IN OUR MIDST Last month, the Mail revealed the scandal of the one-legged Albanian double killer who has been granted legal aid to fight extradition from Britain  even though he has allegedly confessed to two murders. Saliman Barci, 41, is using human rights laws in a desperate bid to avoid being sent back to his homeland, where he has been convicted in his absence of murdering two men. The murders happened in Burrel, the same northern Albanian city where Avni Metra and his gang slaughtered two brothers in 1997. Barci, who protests his innocence, has spent nearly a year in custody battling a request to be returned to Albania to serve a 25-year sentence. His taxpayer-funded extradition battle has been led by a well-known human rights barrister. But his campaign to remain in this country suffered a blow after his estranged Albanian wife told the Mail he had confessed to her on the night of the killings. According to her, the couple were smuggled into the UK in a van from Calais, posed as Kosovar refugees to gain British citizenship, and have lived rent free in a lavishly furnished four-bedroom housing association house. In total, she said, Barci has enjoyed nearly 2,000 a month in benefits while making (before his arrest) huge sums from selling cocaine in London. Advertisement

Then came the episode that put an end to it  and ought to have alerted the police to Avni Metras past.

Linda recalls how her husband, who had become prone to mood-swings, began haranguing her one morning as she fed the children.

Within moments he erupted, dragging her upstairs by the hair and locking her in a toilet. Then, as the children screamed, he went downstairs to fetch a knife and told her he was about to kill her.

She believes, from the evil look on his face, that he would have done so, if her eldest son hadnt called the police.

That day, in 2010, he was arrested at which point, his fingerprints and photograph would have been taken as a matter of course. Since he was never arrested in Albania, however, there would have been no records to match them against, even if anyone had suspected his identity.

So, having been charged with false imprisonment and assault, he spent a few weeks on remand in jail without anyone knowing he was the subject of an extradition request.

Though the false imprisonment charge was dropped, the Kosovar refugee was convicted of assault in April 2011, and placed under a 12-month restraining order. He was also given a 12-month community order. He later breached the restraining order, and in November 2011 he was placed under a restraining order for a further year, and ordered to do 12 months community work.

Because of the restraining order, he was forced to stay away from his wife and children. When we confronted Avni Metra, he claimed he was working as a building labourer, but a letter on his bedside cabinet suggested he was claiming Jobseekers allowance earlier this year.

And as he rummaged in the drawers for his passport, we spotted dozens of pairs of surgical gloves  the type that burglars often use so they dont leave fingerprints. More chillingly, police sources say thin rubber gloves of this type are also often worn by professional hitmen.

Very belatedly, the police  having been alerted to his whereabouts by the Mail  this week launched a full-scale manhunt for Metra.

And yesterday afternoon, at long last, he was arrested.

Judging by the tactics used by other Albanian criminals here, he is now likely to fight tooth and nail to remain in Britain, either on the grounds that he is entitled to a family life here, or because he would not be safe if sent back to Albania.

If so, his cause will no doubt be defended by expensive lawyers. No prizes for guessing who will pay their exorbitant fees. Thats right  you, via the legal aid system.
British soldiers hounded as a result of incidents in Iraq a decade ago were threatened with arrest at home and on military bases by taxpayer-funded detectives.

An inquiry sparked by a Daily Mail campaign yesterday heard how families were quizzed on their doorsteps.

And an ex-policemen working for the Iraq Historical Allegations Team turned up at a base to arrest an officer  acquitted of any wrongdoing ten years ago  with no legal power to do so.

Hundreds have been hounded over their actions in the Iraq War more than a decade ago (file image)

New evidence of the 'heavy-handed' practices by the IHAT team came to light in a Defence Select Committee inquiry into the help given to those facing legal action. It heard soldiers were facing unprecedented action and had been 'hung out to dry by the military'.

Hundreds have been hounded over their actions in the Iraq War more than a decade ago. More than 1,500 claims of wrongdoing are being investigated by IHAT as part of a 57million probe.

The Mail has campaigned to halt the relentless persecution of soldiers who are facing multiple probes into incidents from more than a decade ago.

Yesterday lawyers representing the soldiers blamed a compensation culture, taxpayer-funded legal aid and warned of more to come relating to Afghanistan.

Giving evidence, the Reverend Nicholas Mercer, a chief legal officer during the Iraq War, said soldiers were facing action 'like never before'. He added: 'Every time you moved there would either be an allegation or compensation claim'.

Mr Mercer said he had 'kicked out' some cases he described as bogus but was then quizzed by IHAT over his decisions. 'On it goes forever and ever,' he said.

Soldiers believed they were 'hung out to dry by the military' and many suffered mental health problems as a result (file image)

Solicitor Hilary Meredith said soldiers came to her 'very scared' after being contacted by IHAT. They believed they were 'hung out to dry by the military' and many suffered mental health problems as a result. She described the IHAT investigators as 'heavy-handed'. 'One person was acquitted within the military ten years ago and then was faced with arrest at the barracks gate,' said Mrs Meredith.

The men left after being questioned by a senior officer. The solicitor added: 'There was no authority to arrest.'

In another case investigators appeared at an ex-girlfriend's house and interviewed her on whether the soldier had tattoos, was abusive or talked in his sleep. Mrs Meredith said the problem was fuelled by Iraqis lodging compensation claims that are 'funded by British taxpayers'.

Another solicitor representing soldiers, Lewis Cherry, said the practices of IHAT investigators were not 'lawful'.

Johnny Mercer MP, who is leading the inquiry, said the investigation had got 'completely out of hand'. He added: 'The people who are suffering are the people who always suffer, which is the men and women of the Armed Forces.'
Britain's lack of coastal border security was laid bare last night as it was revealed the country has only a handful of boats to guard our waters  while Italy has 600.

UK Border Force has just three vessels monitoring 7,700 miles of coast despite mounting evidence of smugglers and migrants targeting small harbours and isolated beaches.

On Tuesday border guards detained three Iranians spotted drifting in an inflatable boat a few miles off Dover. All three have now claimed asylum.

Border Force officials detained three suspected illegal immigrants, thought to be Iranian, after boarding a boat in the English Channel this morning (file picture)

And figures show the size of our operational fleet is tiny compared to other European nations. Tory MP Anne Main uncovered the strength of foreign fleets for law enforcement, including immigration, weapons and drug-smuggling, after urging Home Secretary Theresa May to bolster border controls.

Border Force has five cutters, but only three are patrolling UK waters. One is tackling migrant-smuggling in the Mediterranean and another is kept in dock to save money.

Each vessel can operate for just 48 hours from their home marina near Portsmouth, limiting them to the Channel  and leaving swathes of coastline unmanned.

Comparison: Italy has 600 boats to patrol the countrys 4,700 miles of coast, Greece has 240 vessels monitoring 8,500 miles and Spain has 147 looking after 3,085 miles

But Italy has 600 boats to patrol the countrys 4,700 miles of coast, Greece has 240 vessels monitoring 8,500 miles and Spain has 147 looking after 3,085 miles.

Thousands of migrants are camped on the shores of northern Europe willing to pay people-smugglers huge sums in a desperate bid to cross the Channel.

Mrs Main, a Brexit supporter, said: Our coastline is more porous than a sieve. We are leaving ourselves vulnerable to arms, drugs, tobacco and people-smuggling.

Its frankly negligent. The British people could be forgiven for thinking it is ridiculous to expect three boats to patrol nearly 8,000 miles of coastline, when even Holland has around 16 patrolling 280 miles.

The migrants' dinghy was spotted by the crew of a passing P&O Ferry, who alerted the authorities (file picture)

This reckless disregard for border security flies in the face of the Remain campaigns ludicrous claim that we have control of our borders.

Labour MP Keith Vaz, chairman of the Commons home affairs select committee, has written to Mrs May demanding answers about the rather stark comparisons. He said: It cannot be right that an island nation should have far fewer vessels policing its borders than countries in mainland Europe.

Recent events have shown that we need more vessels to be deployed, and the Border Force should be able to request that the Royal Navy provide ships and equipment as and when required.

Labour MP Keith Vaz, chairman of the Commons home affairs select committee wrote to Home Secretary Theresa May about the issue

We are currently in a sea war with human-traffickers who have realised that the United Kingdom is vulnerable.

Chris Hobbs, a former Special Branch border control officer, said: The defence of thousands of kilometres of our coastline is in the hands of three customs cutters. We have to be prepared for similar scenes to the Med and you have to say at the moment were not really very well prepared for it at all.

Concerns were raised about border security last month after 18 Albanian migrants were rescued from a sinking dinghy off the coast of Dymchurch, Kent, and 17 Albanians were found on a catamaran in Chichester harbour, West Sussex.

Then on Tuesday three Iranians were spotted by a ferry just after 5.30am in a small inflatable boat off the coast of Dover. The Border Force can call on Navy vessels and police maritime patrol boats to help tackle illegal immigration. HM Coastguard does not have law enforcement powers to tackle people-smugglers.

The Home Office announced last month it has ordered eight rigid-hulled inflatable boats to tackle people-smuggling, but they will not be fully deployed until 2018.
When he was Tory leader, Eurosceptic William Hague had a mischievous way of livening up long car journeys.

Often, when he found himself behind a car which had the EU symbol (of yellow stars on a blue background) on its number plate, hed drive up towards its rear bumper and repeatedly flash his headlights at the driver.

Alongside this attitude of jocular abuse towards Europhiles, he would also mutter audibly about bloody Europeans and their excessive regulation whenever he went into a room to meet leaders of centre-right European parties.

ANDREW PIERCE: When he was Tory leader, William Hague (pictured in 1977) had a visceral hostility to the EU superstate which seemed to be a central pillar of this proud Yorkshiremans political life

For the fact is that a visceral hostility to the EU superstate seemed to be a central pillar of this proud Yorkshiremans political life.

Of course, famously, he first came to the public eye as a 16-year-old on the stage at the Tory party conference in 1977 when he lectured Margaret Thatcher about the evils of socialism.

Indeed, in 1997 the key reason he beat Europhile Ken Clarke to become Tory leader was because he was implacably opposed to the euro which was due to be introduced in 1999.

Consistent with this unashamedly robust Euroscepticism, shortly before the 2001 general election, Hague made a speech that was peppered with the sort of nationalistic rhetoric that hadnt been heard from a major party leader for decades.

Alongside this attitude of jocular abuse towards Europhiles, he would also mutter audibly about bloody Europeans and their excessive regulation whenever he went into a room to meet leaders of centre-right European parties

His anti-euro rallying cry in the run-up to that election was Save the Pound.

He told voters that losing sterling would mean higher taxes, adding: We risk losing the right to run our own affairs in this country. We want to work with our neighbours, we dont want to be governed by our neighbours.

Warning that a Labour victory would turn Britain into a foreign land, he said: We will be voting to decide whether our people will remain sovereign in their own country.

And when David Cameron ran for the Tory leadership in 2005, it was Hague who was instrumental in persuading him to take British Tory MEPs out of the dominant Conservative group, the European Peoples Party, at Strasbourg because its federalist views were at odds with Tory policy.

Five years later, when Cameron became PM, Hague was made foreign secretary and his patriotism was undimmed, pledging: The British retreat is over. Now the advance will begin.

But then, extraordinarily, something seemed to go wrong with the man who had shown such brilliant early promise.

Five years later, when Cameron became PM, Hague was made foreign secretary and his patriotism was undimmed, pledging: The British retreat is over. Now the advance will begin'

He appeared bored with his job and his anti-EU comments became more and more muted. Its unfair, but the enduring image of his time as foreign secretary may be when the camera captured him dazzled like a star-struck teenager posing alongside actress Angelina Jolie to publicise their rape in conflict initiative.

This, it must be said, was happening at a time when Islamist militants were cutting a swathe across Iraq as the West was paralysed by indecision on how to confront this new terrorist threat.

After such a previously distinguished career, the posturing with Jolie, other than succouring his own vanity, seemed to symbolise the emptiness he felt about politics.

And not long after, Hague lamely retired from frontline politics  picking up lucrative lecture payments, book deals and fees for newspaper articles.

Indeed, critics pointed out that William Hague (who before becoming an MP worked for the top management consultants McKinsey) made between 65,000 and 95,000 from speeches and hosting award ceremonies during the New Labour years while the country plunged into recession.

He is estimated to have amassed between 3 million and 4 million after he stood down as Tory leader.

Some Tory MPs blame the way he abandoned his long held political beliefs  particularly his antipathy towards the Brussels-run superstate  on his catastrophic general election defeat in 2001. He was broken by it, says one MP.

Others think his passion for politics evaporated in 2010 after he made a startlingly personal statement about his private life, talking about how he and his wife had been desperate for children but she had suffered a series of miscarriages.

The statement was seen as a clumsy attempt to silence the gay rumours that had plagued him all his political career.

He was never the same again, said one MP of the one-time Eurosceptic firebrand.
A teen is allegedly being held against her will at a 'pray away the gay' religious facility in Texas and her famous cousin is trying to free her.

Jeremy Jordan, who stars in CBS's 'Supergirl,' has started a social media campaign to bring attention to his cousin Sarah, 17, who he says was forced by her parents into to go to a Christian boarding facility in a remote, rural area outside of Austin, after she took her girlfriend to prom.

It's unclear when she was sent there, but proms are usually held in warmer months before school closes for the summer.

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Actor Jeremy Jordan arrives at The Paley Center For Media's 33rd Annual PaleyFest Los Angeles presentation of 'Supergirl' at the Dolby Theatre on March 13 in Hollywood. He has started a social media campaign to bring attention to his cousin Sarah's plight

Jeremy Jordan and Melissa Benoist in Supergirl. 'I can't believe beautiful, smart, incredible kids like my cousin Sarah are still being told that being gay is wrong,' Jeremy wrote on Facebook

Jordan and his family say that Sarah, who is gay, was sent to a Christian boarding facility in east Texas after she and her girlfriend went to prom together. Sarah is pictured above

'My amazing friends & fans, PLEASE help us save my sweet gay cousin Sarah whos trapped at a boarding facility in TX,' Jordan tweeted on June 4.

The Supergirl actor, who plays Winn Schott on the CBS show, further added on Facebook: 'I can't believe beautiful, smart, incredible kids like my cousin Sarah are still being told that being gay is wrong. But it's worse than that for Sarah... She's been placed at a remote boarding facility to help "pray away the gay" for a year with no communication to the outside world.

'She may not be able to see it now, but please show her how much she matters and take a stand to help us free this wonderful young woman and welcome her back to a world of love and acceptance.'

In another post he adds: 'My cousin Sarah, like any other teenager, loves a shameless selfie... Its just sometimes hers includes another girl... You can't see it, but the caption of the photo on the left reads "Merry Christmas from two kids in love." It BREAKS MY HEART this sweet young girl who's only "issue" is loving another girl has been sent to a facility for "troubled teens." News flash, folks, there's nothing wrong with her.'

Jordan wrote on Facebook of this photo: 'My cousin Sarah, like any other teenager, loves a shameless selfie... Its just sometimes hers includes another girl... You can't see it, but the caption of the photo on the left reads "Merry Christmas from two kids in love"'

Jeremy took to Facebook to post the above comments about his cousin's plight

Sarah is at a state-licensed residential facility called Heartlight Ministries.

Julie Moody, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, told the New York Daily News that she could not discuss whether the agency is investigating the situation but confirmed that the girl was at the facility.

According to the facility's website it says: 'For 25 years, weve provided a safe haven for positive change. Our residential setting offers struggling teens an atmosphere to develop healthier patterns during the most troubling times.'

It adds that it serves 56 kids, on 150 acres, with more than 40 staff members.

Heartlight in Texas. This is the facility where Jordan's cousin Sarah is being held

The heartlight boarding school's website says that it serves 56 children and has 40 member of staff

According to the GoFundMe page, Sarah's parents sent her to the 'pray away the gay' camp after she and her girlfriend went to prom together. The page describes it as 'Bible-based therapy' for her 'disease'.

'Sarahs parents, who believe that homosexuality is a sin and abnormal, sent Sarah away against her will to an East Texas Christian boarding facility for troubled teens to pray away the gay,'' says the GoFundMe page which aims to raise funds for Sarah's legal expenses.

The page has raised over $48,000 in four days, almost half of its $100,000 goal. The page says that legal bills have already totaled $20,000. Anything left over will go to Sarah's college fund.

The GoFundMe page which has been set up to pay for legal bills. Anything left over will go to Sarah's college fund

Christine Andresen, a lawyer who specializes in LGBT issues has been hired to try to free Sarah.

The New York Daily News also reported that Andresen said: 'I can't comment on pending litigation, other than to authenticate that to the best of my knowledge, the background information on the GoFundMe shared by Sarah's cousin is truthful.'

In Texas, a teen who is not yet 18 can be remanded to a residential boarding facility against their will, says the page's administrator, Joey Jordan, also a cousin of Sarah's.

Jeremy Jordan - above with Sarah at his wedding to Ashley Spencer in 2012

The page also says that Sarah tried to escape but was brought back to the facility and 'punished' and that friends tried to rescue her but were threatened with arrest by local police.

Sarah is described as an excellent student who was at the top ten percent of her class, on the debate team, and in the National Honor Society, and had been applying to colleges.

Jordan (left) and his brother Joey (right) have spearheaded the campaign to save Sarah from a Christian 'pray away the gay' camp in Texas

Sarah, whose surname was not immediately clear, is described as being cut off from her friends and family with no email, phone, or visitors allowed.
A 58-year-old woman was severely injured after her leg became trapped between the doors of a lift before it then shot up 15 floors.

The woman surnamed Zhang suffered from femoral artery bleeding in her left leg which was also fractured, reports the People's Daily Online.

The incident took place at an apartment block in Beijing's Fengtai district on June 7.

Horrifying incident: The woman was treated at a hospital in Beijing and is now currently in intensive care

Inside the old lift: Residents claim that the elevator hasn't been replaced for at least 25 years

The gap between the lift and the floor: The woman's leg was trapped and dragged up 15 floors

One resident surnamed Du was in the lift with Zhang at the time of the incident.

She said the 58-year-old was getting into the elevator and had one leg in the lift.

The doors did not close and the elevator suddenly rose up while the other leg was stuck in the cracks between the elevator and the wall.

She said: 'I finally pulled out her leg and used her dress to tie the leg and prevent excessive bleeding'.

According to reports there was a 65-foot-long trail of blood left outside the lift.

Zhang was sent to the You'anmen Hospital where she was diagnosed with femoral artery bleeding in her left leg along with a fracture.

She underwent surgery and is now in intensive care awaiting further treatment.

Another resident of the building surnamed Wang says she moved to the district in 1991 and the elevator has not been replaced since she had lived there.

Shocking: According to reports there was a 65-foot-long trail of blood left outside the lift

Residents say other people have become stuck in the lift which has become increasingly unreliable

This isn't the first time people have become stuck in the elevator.

80-year-old Wang Liu says she had been trapped in the elevator before and had to knock on the door until someone rescued her.

According to the elevator operators responsible for the property, the elevator belongs to several property units who have been in a dispute as to who needs to pay the 300,000 yuan (31,400) fee for the replacement.
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For many people, just sitting a test is terrifying enough but China takes it one step further by creating scenes such as these to send off their children for the most important test they will ever face.

The college entrance examination, dubbed by media as the 'world's toughest exam', determines the universities they will be able to attend and most of the students in the town of Maotanchang in east China's Anhui Province are aiming for prestigious schools such as Peking University, reports Huanqiu, affiliated with the People's Daily Online.

On the first day of the examinations parents bid farewell to their children from the local Maotanchang Middle School and wished them luck as they drove into the test centre by bus.

Important moment: It's become tradition for parents to wave off their children as they take buses to the college entrance examination

A big send off: Local people gather in Maotanchang to wave to the bus which takes students to the tests

Police on hand: The college entrance examination known as the Gaokao is the most important test for Chinese students

Testing times: Over nine million people will have experienced this send off before they sit their exams on June 6-8

Over nine million high school graduates are sitting the exam this year between June 6-8.

The test, also known as 'gaokao' in China, which is known for being difficult examines the students on their Chinese, maths and English along with a science or humanities subject of their choice.

If students fail the Gaokao, it will make it hard for them to get a good paying job.

Students spend hours studying for the test with some revising for 16 hours a day in extreme cases.

Because of this their parents are eager for them to do well.

Many families turn out to wave off their children as they take buses from their schools to the examination centres.

Saying goodbye has become a yearly tradition for students across the country.

The Chinese government announced that those caught cheating in the examinations would face seven years in prison and would not be eligible to take the test for another three years.

On the way! For the students it's important to do well in order to get into good colleges such as Peking University

Gathering crowds: Parents wave off their children who have gone through excruciating hours of revision to prepare for the exam

A grin and a wave: Students spend hours studying for the test with some revising for 16 hours a day in extreme cases

An emotional send off: Parents wave to their children as they embark on the exams that would define their future

In Maotanchang, thousands of students study in the town's middle school which is known as an 'exam factory' due to its success in getting students into top schools.

The colossal Maotanchang Middle School, situated in Liu'an city, Anhui Province, has around 20,000 students spread over three grades.

Around half of them are third-grade students who go through excruciating school schedule for 12 months in preparation for their three-day university examination.

Some of the students in attendance at the school have moved from across the country and paid up to 48,000 Yuan per semester (5,013) to attend the school.

The People's Daily Online reported that in recent years more than 90 per cent of the candidates from Maotanchang have been enrolled into universities while around 80 per cent of them have got into the top-level universities in China.

As such, the school is idolised by millions of parents who compete to send their children to study at Maotanchang - despite its infamous and ruthless regime.

Here we go! A police car leads the bus which carries the students heading to the test sites of the college entrance exam

Successful school: More than 90 per cent of the candidates from Maotanchang Middle School have been enrolled into universities
Many breakups are caused by parents who force their will on their children

While in Fujian, some 40 per cent of marital

Couples born in the 1980s are fuelling the rising divorce rate in China and their meddling parents become the main factor of the breakups, according to recent studies.

Around half of the married couples aged between 25 and 34 have had a divorce in northern China's Shaanxi Province.

While in south-east China's Fujian Province, nearly 40 percent of the marital dispute cases at the court are from those born in the 1980s, known locally as the 'post 80 generation'.

For better for worse? Married couples in China, born in the 1980s, are facing an upsurge in divorce (file photo)

Parents' desperation: Many of their breakups are caused by their meddling parents who force their will on the children. Pictured, a mother is looking for a suitable partner for her children in Shanghai's marriage market

The 'post 80 generation' are the first generation in China to have grown up as the only child in their family - due to a mandatory family-planning policy.

The generation, who have reached the age of marriage and parenthood, are the driving force behind the growing divorce rate, according to a study by the People's Court in Siming District of Xiamen City, Fujian Province.

Kuang Jieyu, a judge from the Xiamen court, said interference from parents is a major cause of the marital disputes for the particular generation, who have been raised as the 'little emperor' of their families, reported People's Daily Online.

Some couples split due to the failure of producing a son while others are fed up with each other's forceful parents who barge in on making household decisions for them, said judge Kuang.

It's not unheard of in China for young couples to break up shortly after they tie the knot due to pressure from their families.

A lot of the time, divorces are caused by extremely trivial matters, for example, the two sets of parents failed to agree on the size of the wedding banquet or the decoration of the wedding flat.

More than 60 per cent of the divorces among the 'post 80 generations' are due to the husbands caught being unfaithful, the study went on saying.

The report also shows that about 60 percent of divorce cases have been initiated by women, which counters with the traditional male-dominant culture of Chinese families.

A similar trend has been observed in northern China's Shaanxi Province.

According to the recently released 2016 Shaanxi Social Blue Book, about half of the married couples from the 'post 80 generation' have gone through a divorce.

On the other hand, the rates for couples born in 1970s and in 1990s are around 36 per cent and up to 7.3 per cent respectively.

Challenges ahead: The so-called 'post 80 generation' are the first generation in China to have grown up as the only child in their family. They have much to learn and tolerate in a new marriage (file photo)

Forcing their will on their children: A father is browsing information of candidates at Shanghai's marriage market for his child who most likely doesn't know his presence here

Wu Xiaoying, a supervisor at the Institute of Social of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the Shaanxi report reflected a universal phenomenon.

Wu said: '[The post 80 generation] are experiencing the initial challenges of marriage. Stress from work, family and child-raising keeps appearing.

'They are going through the teething period of marriage. People born in the 1960s and 1970s have had similar issues.'

Wu add three trends can be observed worldwide: people are getting married later and later, more and more people are staying single and divorce rate is getting higher and higher.

A Shanghai-based family solicitor, who prefers to stay anonymous, told MailOnline: 'The only children have weaker tolerance. They also reply on their parents on finance - this is one of the reason of the high divorce rate.

'Because they need parents to help pay for the flat where they get married in, the parents will naturally think they can intervene the life of their children, and this causes conflicts.

'Many modern marital disputes are caused by the overly meddling parents, especially after the couple have their baby.
Other bidders took home rare shark remains, an ancient horse skeleton, a 6-in bird and a bat skeleton, among others

Fossilized remains of a saber-toothed cat fetched $46,000  far above the estimated amount of $11,636

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Most flock to auctions for unique artwork or vintage cars, but one attendee recently walked away with a 25-foot long dinosaur.

A rare duck-billed dinosaur skeleton has been sold for an impressive $170,000 after the contents of a closed-down natural history museum were auctioned off in a once-in-a-180 million year lifetime sale.

Dating back 75 million years, this harpocrasaurus was first discovered in Montana in the US during the 1990s and has since been on display at Emmen Zoo in Holland  which named it 'Freya'.

A rare duck-billed dinosaur skeleton has been sold for an impressive $170,000 after the contents of a closed-down natural history museum were auctioned off in a once-in-a-180 million year lifetime sale. Dating back 75 million years, this harpocrasaurus was first discovered in Montana in the US during the 1990s and has since been on display at Emmen Zoo in Holland  which named it 'Freya'

WHAT WERE SOME OF THE ITEMS SOLD AND FOR HOW MUCH? The internationally-acclaimed history museum, Emmon Zoo, is moving to another location where there is no need for dinosaur exhibits and as a result, all of the artifacts were sold at Summers Place Auction in Billinghurts, West Sussex. Some of the items sold in this once-in-a-180 million year lifetime sale included: Harpocrasaurus: $170,000 Hoplophonus: $46,000 Eohippus: $36,362 Fossilized shark: $8,116 Bird Skeleton: $22,617 6-inch bird skeleton: $4,000 Brontotherium magacerops: $18,179 Palaeochiropteryx bat fossil: $10,000. Advertisement

The internationally-acclaimed history museum is moving to another location where there is no need for dinosaur exhibits and as a result, all of the artifacts were sold at Summers Place Auction in Billinghurts, West Sussex.

The main event was 'Freya' is about the same size as a Tyrannosaurus Rex, 25 feet long and 9 feet tall, but a herbivore that was once a tasty meal for the ferocious meat eater.

And since the harpocrasaurus lived 65 million to 75 million years ago, it is said to be the last living species of the dinosaurs.

Fossilized remains of a hoplophonus, or a saber-toothed cat, were also part of the sale that fetched $46,000  far above the estimated amount of $11,636.

These ancient cats lived on the planet 11,000 years ago and used their massive canine teeth to prey on elephants and rhinos.

Holophoneus was the largest toothed of the species and lived in North America between the late Eocene and early Oligocene.

Its limbs were much shorter than modern day cats and like the most famous of saber-tooth tigers, Smilodon, it had a pronounced flange on the lower jaw.

Also joining in the auction was a four-foot long skeleton of an Eohippus, a creature that evolved into the modern-day horse.

This ancient beast existed more than 50 million years ago in parts of North America and its remains were sold for $36,362.

Nicknamed dawn horse, this creature is among an extinct group of horses that flourished in North America and Europe during the Eocene Epco.

And the massive head of a large Brontotherium magacerops was purchased for $18,179.

This massive creature resembled a modern rhinoceros and roamed the plains of North America during the Late Eocene-Early Oligocene some 38 million to 30 million years ago.

It is a popular find among palaeontologist and has been known for different names, such as Megaecrops, Brontops and Titanops.

Although similar to a T.rex in size, the duck-billed dinosaur was often a tasty meal for the carnivores. The public flocked to the auction to get a glimpse at the prehistoric creature that roamed the earth 75 million years ago, but one lucky phone bidder was able to take Freya home -- after dishing out $170,000

The internationally-acclaimed history museum is moving to another location where there is no need for dinosaur exhibits and as a result, all of the artifacts were sold at Summers Place Auction in Billinghurts, West Sussex. The duck-billed dinosaur is is about the same size as a Tyrannosaurus Rex, 24 feet long and 9 feet tall

A rare fossilized shark was purchased for $8,116 and a bird skeleton lodged in a rock from the well-known Green River formation in Wyoming brought in $22,617.

Theses fossils are approximately 60 million years old and comes from the Eocene era.

Although some bidders attended to take home large prizes, others saw the beauty in smaller creatures.

A tiny fossilized bird that stood no more than six inches tall that sold for $4,000 and a Palaeochiropteryx bat fossil was taken home for almost $10,000.

Fossilized remains of a hoplophonus, or a saber-toothed cat, were also part of the sale that fetched $46,000  far above the estimated amount of $11,636. These cats lived on the planet 11,000 years ago and used their massive canine teeth to prey on elephants and rhinos

Holophoneus was the largest toothed of the species and lived in North America between the late Eocene and early Oligocene. Its limbs were much shorter than modern day cats and like the most famous of saber-tooth tigers, Smilodon, it had a pronounced flange on the lower jaw.

But 'Freya' stole the show, weighing around four tons, this massive creature roamed the earth in the Late Cretaceous period.

And although it lacked body army to protect itself against predators, it made up for it with its size.

By the age 10, these dinosaurs had likely grown to its mature length of 30 feet, according to a study by Kent University.

Also joining in the auction was a four-foot long skeleton of an Eohippus, a creature that evolved into the modern-day horse. This ancient beast existed more than 50 million years ago in parts of North America and its remains were sold for $36,362. Nicknamed dawn horse, this creature is among an extinct group of horses that flourished in North America and Europe during the Eocene Epco

The massive size would force its enemy, the Tyrannosaurus rex, to hunt juvenile duck-billed dinosaurs because they did not reach their adult size until 20 to 30 years old, reports Live Science.

'The carnivorous dinosaurs are looking at the younger herbivorous dinosaurs,' Lisa Noelle Cooper, a doctoral student at Kent State University in Ohio, told LiveScience.

'They are actually hunting the younger ones.'

Although some bidders attended to take home large prizes, others saw the beauty in smaller creatures. A tiny fossilized bird that stood no more than six inches tall and sold for $4,000

Once the Hypacrosaurus reaches that adult size, we think it's safer from predation. It's a size refuge.'

The team compared growth rate data of the creature with three predators that also lived during the Late Cretaceous period  the T.rex, Troodon formosus and the tyrannosaurs Albertosaurus.

Cooper and her colleagues investigated thin sections of long leg bones of the Hypacrosaurus.

A Palaeochiropteryx bat fossil (left) was taken home for almost $10,000. This creature is one of the oldest bats known, existing around 48 million years ago. They were tiny bats with a wingspan of 25 to 30 cm and preyed mostly on moths and caddisflies

While analyzing the remains, they counted and measured the growth rings, which revealed the specific creature in the study was about 12 years old when it died.

'Our duck-billed dinosaur grew three to five times faster than any potential predators that lived alongside it,' said Drew Lee, a postdoctoral fellow in Ohio University's College of Osteopathic Medicine who worked with Cooper on the finding.

'By the time the duck-billed dinosaur was fully grown, the tyrannosaurs were only half grown  it was a huge size difference.'

A rare fossilized shark was purchased for $8,116 and a bird skeleton lodged in a rock from the well-known Green River formation in Wyoming brought in $22,617. Theses fossils are approximately 60 million years old and comes from the Eocene era
The Taimyr crater sits hundreds of miles way from dozens of similar holes

New account reveals locals heard an explosion and saw 'clear glow' in sky

It's thought it may have been formed by explosions of underground gas

size by more than 15 times

Crater opened in 2013 and has since i

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Three years ago, a mysterious crater suddenly opened up on the Taimyr peninsula in Siberia, tearing a hole in the Earth that was an estimated 330 feet deep.

Since then, it's rapidly grown to more than 15 times its original size, increasing from 13 feet in width to roughly 230 at the last survey.

Scientists have suggested numerous natural explanations, but the appearance of the bizarre hole has prompted theories of stray missiles and even aliens  and now, one expert reveals nearby residents reported hearing an explosion, and witnessed a 'clear glow' in the sky.

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Three years ago, a crater suddenly opened up on the Taimyr peninsula in Siberia, and was an estimated 330ft deep. New information reveals locals heard an explosion, and saw a glow in the sky.

THE MAIN THEORIES SO FAR One of the more popular theories is that the giant hole was caused by a phenomenon known as a pingo. This is a subsurface accumulation of ice that has been covered by land. When the ice melts it can leave behind a gaping hole that it once filled. The other favoured theory is that the hole was caused by an explosion of methane underground. The Yamal Peninsula is rich in natural gas, and a mixture of water, salt and gas could result in an explosion. The other theory is that it was caused by a meteorite, but most experts have ruled this possibility out as the phenomenon does not resemble normal impact craters. Advertisement

The isolated Taimyr crater sits nearly 300 hundreds miles away from dozens of similar, newly-formed giant holes on Yamal peninsula, a region the locals have dubbed 'the end of the world,' according to The Siberian Times.

When it first emerged in 2013, the crater, called the Deryabinsky crevice, nearly swallowed up a group of reindeer herders.

Debris of displaced soil, sand, and ice littered an area more than half a mile wide, and researchers think it may have been caused by the explosions of methane or other underground gas.

In the year and a half that followed, it grew rapidly, and the crater is now the site of a lake, which formed as permafrost melted and the walls of the crater caved in.

Now, the leading expert to explore this remote region has revealed the previously unheard reports from witnesses in the surrounding areas.

'There is verbal information that residents of nearby villages  at a distance of 70-100 km  heard a sound like an explosion, and one of them watched a clear glow in the sky.

'It was about one month after the Chelyabinsk meteorite,' Dr Vladimir Epifanov told The Siberian Times.

Locals speculated the phenomenon may have been another exploding space object, but researchers say this is not the case.

So far, there is no confirmed explanation for the bizarre sighting.

When it first emerged in 2013, the crater, called the Deryabinsky crevice, nearly swallowed up a group of reindeer herders.

An earlier account on the appearance of the giant hole offered little help, stating, 'It is not like the work of men, but it also doesn't look like natural formation,' The Siberian Times reports.

A widely agreed upon theory suggests that the craters of Yamal were caused by climate change, as the pressure of methane gas released from thawing permafrost forced pingos to erupt.

A widely agreed upon theory suggests that the craters of Yamal were caused by climate change, as the pressure of methane gas released from thawing permafrost forced pingos to erupt.

The crater is located 27km (17 miles) from the Bovanenkovo gas field in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Region, an area better known for reindeer hunting, in the far north of Siberia. It has a diameter of 98ft (30 metres) and is the largest of three known craters in the Russian region (marked)

These structures are dome-shaped mounds that cover an ice core, and are common in Arctic and sub-arctic regions, according to leading authority Professor Vasily Bogoyavlensky.

But for the Taimyr crater, scientists believe there may be a different explanation.

Epifanov suggests the Taimyr eruption was not a direct result of climate change, as its source would have been at a depth too far below the surface.

WHAT CAUSED THE CRATER Researchers think the Taimyr crater, called the Deryabinsky crevice, may have been formed by the explosions of methane or other underground gas. It sits nearly 300 hundreds miles away from dozens of similar, newly-formed giant holes on Yamal peninsula. A widely agreed upon theory suggests that the craters of Yamal were caused by climate change, as the pressure of methane gas released from thawing permafrost forced pingos to erupt. Researchers think the Taimyr crater, called the Deryabinsky crevice, may have been formed by the explosions of methane or other underground gas. These structures are dome-shaped mounds that cover an ice core, and are common in Arctic and sub-arctic regions. But for the Taimyr crater, scientists believe there may be a different explanation. Epifanov proposes a 'normal' process of degassation, in which gas hydrates 1,640 feet underground may have degraded to release methane. This would have caused the methane to accumulate at a depth of roughly 330 feet. Advertisement

A widely agreed upon theory suggests that the craters of Yamal were caused by climate change, as the pressure of methane gas released from thawing permafrost forced pingos to erupt.

WHAT ARE GAS HYDRATES? Gas hydrates are ice-like forms of water containing gas molecules, notably methane. They exist in permafrost regions such as northern Siberia, but also under the oceans in some parts of the world. It turned out that there are gas hydrates both in the deep layer which on peninsula is several hundred metres down, and on the layer close to the surface, said Vladimir Potapov, a Fellow of the Institute of Petroleum Geology and Geophysics in Novosibirsk, before the latest expedition. There might be another factor, or factors, that could have provoked the air clap. Advertisement

Instead, he proposes a 'normal' process of degassation, in which gas hydrates 1,640 feet underground may have degraded to release methane.

This would have caused the methane to accumulate at a depth of roughly 330 feet.

It's thought that the rapidly morphing crater is even wider now than when it was last examined, and researchers say it will likely soon merge with a nearby lake when its walls collapse.

The other favoured theory is that the hole was caused by an explosion of methane underground.

The Yamal Peninsula is rich in natural gas, and a mixture of water, salt and gas could result in an explosion.

Gas hydrates are ice-like forms of water containing gas molecules, notably methane.

They exist in permafrost regions such as northern Siberia, but also under the oceans in some parts of the world.

It turned out that there are gas hydrates both in the deep layer which on peninsula is several hundred metres down, and on the layer close to the surface, said Vladimir Potapov, a Fellow of the Institute of Petroleum Geology and Geophysics in Novosibirsk, before the latest expedition.
Between 1946 and 1958, the United States conducted 67 nuclear explosive tests at the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean.

Now, researchers from Columbia University have tested the area for harmful radiation to determine that the islands can now be considered habitable  all but Bikini Atoll.

Bikini Atoll was the site of twenty-three tests during the twelve year period, including the devastating detonation of a hydrogen bomb on March 1, 1954.

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Bikini Atoll, pictured left, was the site of twenty-three tests during the twelve year period, including the devastating detonation of a hydrogen bomb on March 1, 1954. The 'Baker test' of July 25, 1946 detonated a weapon suspended beneath the moored target fleet at Bikini, shown right

THE BIKINI ATOLL H-BOMB On March 1, 1954, scientists conducted a hydrogen bomb test at Bikini Atoll. Code-named Castle Bravo, the size of the event expectations, leading to radioactive fallout. This travelled to the nearby inhabited atolls of Rongelap and Utrik, and led to the evacuation of 253 people from the two islands for medical care. While some returned to Utrik just a few months later, the inhabitants of Rongelap did not return until 1957, and they later chose to leave again. Advertisement

At the time of the tests, inhabitants of the islands were moved to other locations.

Though many of the displaced residents and their descendants wish to return to their homes, there have been no surveys of gamma radiation over the past several decades, leaving it unclear if the islands are safe to live upon.

In new efforts to update this information, researchers flew to Marshall Islands and conducted gamma ray emission surveys on three of the most severely impacted atolls  Enewetak, Rongelap, and Bikini.

They compared the findings with readings from Majuro Atoll, an island far enough away to be usefd as a control.

This location showed 13 millirems of radiation per year (mrem/y).

The readings were further compared with readings from Central Park in New York, which showed just 9 mrem/y.

For both Enewetak Atoll and Rongelap, the researchers found readings that fall within the safe zone, with 7.6 mrem/y and 19.8 mrem/y, respectively.

But for Bikini Atoll, the radiation was much higher; the atoll showed a reading of 184 mrem/y.

Though not considered to be terribly dangerous, this is higher than the minimum accepted levels agreed upon by the U.S. and Marshall Islands governments.

On March 1, 1954, scientists conducted a hydrogen bomb test at Bikini Atoll. Code-named Castle Bravo, the size of the event expectations, leading to radioactive fallout.

The researchers say that further studies will be necessary to determine the habitability of Bikini Atoll before, with consideration to exposure from food and other factors, before talks of living on the island can take place.

In April, newly declassified photos revealed a glimpse at the 1946 atomic weapon test conducted on a hundred US ships at Bikini Atoll.

One of these was the World War II veteran aircraft carrier USS Independence.

This image reveals damage to the vessel following these tests. It was sunk near the Farallon Islands on 26 January 1951 loaded with 55-gallon drums of radioactive waste

The two Bikini tests known as Operation Crossroads were carried out in the immediate aftermath of the atomic end to World War II in Japan, and signalled a new era in world history, historians involved in the study say.

The Journal of Maritime Archaeology gave over an entire issue to the collection of documents and photographs from the tests.

This era was grimly summarized in a then-classified report on the Bikini tests, which suggested that, with the coming of the 'Bomb,' it was possible to depopulate the earth, leaving only 'vestigial remnants of man's works.'

The explosion took place at the Bikini Atoll lagoon, situated in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean.

The 'Able Test' of July 1, 1946, dropped a plutonium core 'Fat Man' weapon on the target fleet moored at Bikini

Test Able was to be the first of a series of 67 tests in the atoll and the second U.S. nuclear test of over a thousand to follow.

The explosion of the fission bomb, largely identical to the weapon used in the attack on Nagasaki on 9 August 1945, occurred 158 metres above sea level and had a yield of 23kilotons.

The main aim was to test the effects of nuclear weapons on ships.

To that end, a fleet of 78 vessels, many of which had been captured during World War II, was anchored in the lagoon.

The blast sunk only five of them, leaving another 14 seriously damaged.

The wreck of the USS Independence lies nearly 30 miles off the central California coast.
In the billionaires' race to build a reusable rocket, Elon Musk might be edging ahead.

The chief executive of SpaceX revealed on Twitter that the company - which has successfully landed four rockets - is planning to relaunch one of them in the next few months.

If it goes ahead, this would make it the first relaunch of the private space company's rockets.

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The chief executive of SpaceX, Elon Musk, revealed on Twitter that the company, which has successfully landed four rockets (pictured in Hangar 39A at Cape Canaveral in Florida) is planning to relaunch one of them in the next few months. This would be the first relaunch of the private space company's rockets

THE FIRST RELAUNCH SpaceX has managed to land four rockets from space back on Earth, one on land and three on sea, with the latest successful sea landing on 28 May. The chief executive of SpaceX revealed on Twitter that the company is planning to relaunch one of them in the next few months. This move would take the firm, and the aerospace industry as a whole, another step closer towards reusable rockets becoming commonplace. Advertisement

This move would take the firm, and the aerospace industry as a whole, another step closer towards reusable rockets becoming commonplace.

This could make deep space travel cheaper, helping pave the way for a viable manned mission to Mars.

SpaceX is forging the way, with cargo contracts with Nasa as well as with the US military for satellite delivery.

Elon Musk announced the Falcon 9 rocket which launched the Thaicom 8 communications satellite is back in the hangar, with the three other first stages that have also made it safely back on the ground.

'Fourth rocket arrives in the hangar,' he said.

SpaceX has managed to land four rockets from space back on Earth, one on land and three on sea, with the latest successful sea landing on 28 May.

SpaceX has managed to land four rockets from space back on Earth, one on land and three on sea, with the latest successful sea landing on 28 May

The rocket carried a Thaicom 8 satellite (pictured on top of the Falcon 9 rocket left) 22,000 miles from the Earth. SpaceX said that the extreme heat and speed that built up as the first stage returned to Earth could have made recovering the Falcon 9 rocket (pictured on the launchpad right) difficult, but it was safely recovered

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket lifted off (pictured) from Cape Canaveral, carrying a satellite for Asia. The company plans to start offering a service to send payloads to Mars as early as 2018, with prices starting at 42 ($62) million for the Falcon 9 rocket

'Aiming for first reflight in Sept/Oct,' Musk added.

He also said the company is planning for its first relaunch of a Falcon 9 rocket in either September or October.

Reusable rockets would cut costs and waste in the space industry, which currently loses millions of dollars in jettisoned machinery after each launch.

The company plans to start offering a service to send payloads to Mars as early as 2018, with prices starting at 42 ($62) million for the Falcon 9 rocket.

Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX (pictured), announced the Falcon 9 rocket which launched the Thaicom 8 communications satellite is back in the hangar, with the three other first stages that have also made it safely back on the ground. 'Aiming for first reflight in Sept/Oct,' Musk added

Rival company, Jeff Bezo's Blue Origin, successfully completed a third launch and vertical landing of its flagship rocket New Shepard in April this year.

Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com and owner of The Washington Post newspaper, said last month Blue Origin expects to begin crewed test flights of the New Shepard next year and begin flying paying passengers as early as 2018.

Russia, Japan and the European Space Agency are also developing similar technology and are in testing stages.

SpaceX plans to launch an unmanned ship to Mars in 2018, although the Falcon Heavy rocket that will carry the company's Dragon capsule to will not have its first test flight until later in 2016. Nasa, which is aiming for a human mission to Mars in the 2030s, said it will provide technical support for SpaceX's first foray, known as Red Dragon
For some people, the sound of clattering cups and bubbling frothing machines can provide the perfect backdrop to help them get some of their best work done.

Now researchers believe they may have found out why - other people's concentration is contagious.

A study has found that the level of effort being exerted by people nearby can have an influence on the way you perform.

Scientists believe the body posture of people working nearby can influence the way you yourself work. So being surrounded by people concentrating hard on a task can help you remain focused on your own work (stock image of a woman working in a cafe pictured)

The findings could explain why some of us prefer doing work in coffee shops, surrounded by other people. These places tend to be busy places where the sound of the staff working is evident.

STRESS IS ALSO CONTAGEOUS A team of psychologists from Saint Louis University claimed that stress can be 'caught' from strangers. Their groundbreaking study showed that in some situations stress is contagious. However, they say it can also lead to heroic behaviour in some people. The team took a group of participants and asked some to perform a public speaking or mental arithmetic challenge while the others observed. The researchers measured the levels of cortisol and a stress-related salivary enzyme in the stressed speakers and the observers. They found that the stress response in the witnesses was 'proportional to that of their paired speakers and not influenced by gender'. Stress can be passed on through things like tone of voice, facial expressions, posture and even odour, the team say. Advertisement

It also suggests that if you are about to start a piece of work that requires a lot of concentration, it might be better to surround yourself with other people who are hard at it themselves.

Kobe Desender a psychologist at Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium, who led the study, thinks body posture of a person can automatically influence people nearby.

Although they are not sure exactly why it has an influence, they speculate it is to do with a more tense body posture that is adopted when someone exerts more effort.

But he said there may be other factors, such as a change in scent as people concentrate more, that could be signaling a shift in attention levels.

Writing in the journal Psychnomic Bulletin and Review, the researchers said: 'These results provide a first compelling demonstration that the exertion of effort is contagious.'

In their study, Mr Desender and his colleagues monitored 19 pairs of participants to see how similarly they performed tasks while in sight of each other and then while separated.

In the first task they each had to complete the same game using the same screen and keyboard.

Each had to press a key as quickly as possible depending on when each of their assigned coloured squares appeared on the screen.

Partner A's task became more difficult than B's during the first task, but each of them performed with the same level of effort right the way through.

When the difficulty of the task was increased (there were more erratic than equal tasks) for partner A, it caused partner B to increase their levels of concentration even though their task had not changed.

This was because partner B was influenced by A's increased concentration - even though their task remained easier.

Speaking to the online magazine Health, Mr Desender said: 'Our findings might also suggest that we will copy low effort too, so it's not as simple as 'studying together is better.

The study found that people who worked side by side exerted the same amount of effort onto their task as each other, despite whether the difficulty of each task matched or not. The researchers think this could be because the person with the harder task adopts a tense posture, which influences the other

'But working in the vicinity of highly motivated people might be wise.'

To test whether this was due to partner B copying A's response speed or seeing the difference in difficulty between their tasks, they underwent a second task in which they were separated.

However, there was no evidence of partner B being influenced by A during the second task.

So it might actually be easier to go to the library to complete that assignment, or avoid working from home.
There are many people who seek to escape the rat race of the big city by getting out into the wilderness and enjoying a bit of nature.

But new research suggests that the idea of the 'natural world' may in fact be a myth.

It finds that in reality humans have been altering the environment for several thousand years which have shaped the world's landscapes far more than we could have imagined.

Scientists examined fossil and archaeological evidence to show that many of the plants, trees and animals that thrive today are those that were favoured by our ancestors.

While many people may seek out wilderness (stock picture) to escape their daily lives, new research suggests they may not be as much of this natural resource as we would like to think. They have found that humans have been shaping and changing the world for thousands of years and few areas remain untouched by our hands

They also suggest that large scale extinctions started thousands of years ago due to overhunting or change of land use by humans as practices like farming became more common.

THE FOUR PHASES OF CHANGE According to the new research, humans have shaped the world in four major phases. The first is during the Late Pleistocene between 195,000 and 12,000 years ago as Homo sapiens began spreading around the world. The second is during the Neolithic when agriculture emerged and spread. The third is the movement of humans onto remote and isolated islands. The fourth began with the spread of trade during the Bronze Age. Advertisement

They identify four major phases when humans shaped the world around them long before the Age of Discovery that saw Europeans spread around the world from the 15th Century and is widely seen as a tipping point for human exploitation of the environment.

Instead they argue that global human expansion during the Late Pleistocene was the first of these phases, followed by the spread of agriculture in the Neolithic.

Later human colonisation of island and the emergence of early urbanised societies and trade thousands of years ago also led to fundamental changes in the environment.

The scientists, whose paper is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, say their findings suggest conservation efforts striving to return to a more 'natural state' may be unrealistic.

Instead they argue that conservation needs to be more pragmatic and accept the fact that little true 'wilderness' exists in the world anymore due to human influence.

Dr Nicole Boivin, an archaeologist at the University of Oxford, who lead the research, said: 'If we want to improve our understanding of how we manage our environment and conserve species today, maybe we have to shift our perspective, by thinking more about how we safeguard clean air and fresh water for future generations and rather less about returning planet Earth to its original condition.'

Fossil evidence shows that Homo sapiens were present in East Africa around 195,000 years ago, leaving Africa around 60,000 years ago.

The spread of agriculture (ancient Egyptian picture of farmers pictured) during the Neolithic period brought dramatic changes in the environment as land was taken over for growing crops and grazing livestock. Researchers say domesticated animals now vastly outnumber all other wild vertebrates around the world

Many people seek out nature in their leisure time (stock picture), but even wild looking landscapes have been shaped by the influence of humans over thousands of years

There is some evidence to suggest that early humans may have been altering the landscape even then by deliberately burning vegetation to help them hunt prey.

By around 12,000 years ago, our species had managed to spread to the far corners of the world including Australia, the Americas and all of Europe and Asia.

This dramatic increase in human populations has been linked to many extinctions, including the disappearance of megafauna like mammoths and woolly rhino during the last ice age.

Dr Boivin and her colleagues said the disappearance of these creatures had a dramatic impact on the structure of the ecosystems and environments.

In Africa, for example, elephants can help to control the spread of trees and maintain the open savannah landscape.

Human hunters killed off many of the large megafauna around the world at the end of the last Ice Age, which brought about massive shifts in the structure of ecosystems and seed dispersal. A drawing of human hunters stalking a Glyptodon is pictured

By killing off other large creatures elsewhere in the world, it is likely our early ancestors caused a dramatic change in the way our environment was structured.

The advent and spread of agriculture brought about a second great shift in the landscape as humans sought more land for crops and livestock.

Domesticated sheep, goats and cattle are first through to have appeared in the Near East around 10,500 years ago and arrived in Europe, Africa and South Asia within a few thousand years.

Chickens, originally domesticate din East Asia, reached Britain by the second half of the last millennium and now outnumber people by more than three to one globally.

Dr Boivin and her team say that as a result of domestication, the number of wild vertebrates left in the world is now 'vanishingly small'.

Humans travelling to islands also caused the movement of species to environments they had never previously been, bringing new threats to the native creatures living there.

Fire and deforestation, again brought by human habitation, also transformed landscapes.

Large animals like mammoths and woolly rhinos played a key role in Ice Age ecosystems before the arrival of humans is thought to have led to their disappearance

The expansion of global trade from the Bronze Age also led to a shift in crops as forests became cultivated for valuable products like olives, grapes and figs.

Around 80-85 per cent of the areas suited to agriculture were cultivated in the Near East by 3,000 years ago, according to the authors.

Plants in ancient forests in France are in fact stongly linked to those that were favourted by the Romans.

Around 50 fruits, herbs and vegetables were introduced to Britain in the Roman period alone.

Dr Boivin added: 'Cumulative archaeological data clearly demonstrates that humans are more than capable of reshaping and dramatically transforming ecosystems.

'Now the question is what kind of ecosystems we will create for the future.
Since 1932, scientists have struggled to prove the existence of dark matter.

This is the gravitational glue' that holds galaxies together and is thought to make up five sixths of the universes mass.

Now, some astrophysicists are now suggesting a disk of dark matter could be cutting through our galaxy.

They say this may be resulting in some stars becoming denser and means dark matter is even more mysterious and complex than previously thought.

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Since 1932, scientists have struggled to prove the existence of dark matter. This is the gravitational glue' that holds galaxies together and is thought to make up five sixths of the universes mass. Now, some astrophysicists are now suggesting a disk of dark matter could be cutting through our galaxy

WHAT IS DARK MATTER? Dark matter makes up roughly 27 percent of the Universe, and is invisible because it does not reflect light. It cannot be seen directly with telescopes, but astronomers know it to be out there because of the gravitational effects it has on the matter we can see. The European Space Agency says: 'Shine a torch in a completely dark room, and you will see only what the torch illuminates. 'That does not mean that the room around you does not exist. 'Similarly we know dark matter exists but have never observed it directly.' Scientists are fairly sure it exists and is crucial to the universe, but they do not know what it looks like or where to find it. Dark matter is thought to be the gravitational 'glue' that holds the galaxies together, while just five per cent the Universe consists of known material such as atoms and subatomic particles. Advertisement

Dutch astronomer Jan Oort proposed in 1932 that hidden dark matter concentrated in a disk may explain the movement of stars.

His theory fell out of favour, with many experts believing dark matter forms spherical clouds known as halos, around galaxies.

But it has been resurrected by Lisa Randal, of Harvard University.

The professor of Physics and her team have argued since 2013 that the presence of a disk of dark matter might explain why black holes radiate from the galactic centre and why dwarf galaxies orbit the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxy,Quanta Magazine explained.

The theory of a dark matter disk is controversial, with some astrophysicists arguing there is no room for dark matter when it comes to the mass of a galaxy.

But in a new paper accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal, Professor Randall an her student Eric Kramer, wrote: There is an important detail that has so far been overlooked. The disk can actually make room for itself.

If it is making its way through the midplane of the Milky Way  the central line through our galaxy  the duo argue it will gravitationally pinch other matter inwards, creating more dense stars, gas and dust at the midplane.

This effect may have lead to an overestimation of the mass of stars motions, meaning there is room for dark matter and explaining why previous research has not detected the existence of dark matter, Natalie Wolchover wrote.

We find that the data set exhibits a non-zero bulk velocity in the vertical direction as well as a displacement from the expected location at the Galactic midplane, the scientists wrote on arxiv.org.

If not properly accounted for, these features would bias the bound toward low dark disk mass.

Professor Randall and Mr Kramer not only think the presence of a thin dark disk is possible, but even probable when compared with the possibility of no dark disk.

Its hoped The European Space Agencys (ESA) Gaia satellite will shed light on mysterious dark matter as soon as next summer, by creating an inventory of stars in the Milky Way

However, Jo Bovy, an astrophysicist at the University of Toronto, said that a maximum of two per cent of dark matter could be accounted for in dark dust, with the rest probably forming halos.

Chris McKee of the University of California, Berkeley, believes that while there may we enough room for a thin disk of dark matter when it come to the mass of the Milky Way, if it were too thin, it would collapse.

It is possible that the dark matter they consider has some property that is different from ordinary matter and prevents this from happening, but I dont know what that could be, he said.

Professor Randall is investigating the potential problem, as well as whether dark matter in dust and halos may be charged under the same dark force and therefore made of the same mysterious ingredients.

Its hoped The European Space Agencys (ESA) Gaia satellite will shed light on mysterious dark matter as soon as next summer, by creating an inventory of stars in the Milky Way.

The craft is currently recording the positions and velocities of one billion stars in our galaxy.

If a disk is discovered, it will show dark matter is more complex than previously thought, because matter can only form a disk if its able to shed energy, usually by forming atoms.

The existence of dark atoms would mean dark protons and electrons could exist, interacting using a dark force borne by dark photons.

A dark disk could therefore hold a wealth of unknown, diverse particles.  an idea that has gained popularity in recent years,.
Now a new droid is in development, inspired by Star Wars' R2-D2

Research shows looking like humans is not important for companionship

Robots may often be depicted as lowly mechanical servants in sci-fi films

But experts believe they could become our friends and even provide enjoyable company.

Mr Kaname Hayashi, the 'father' of Pepper, is developing a new machine, inspired by R2-D2, the friendly and resourceful droid featured in the Star Wars films.

He believes it could provide company isolated people, such as the elderly.

Mr Kaname Hayashi said if you asked whether people like R2-D2 (pictured right) or the talking humanoid C-3PO (pictured left), 80 per cent of the people say they like the non-verbal robot

WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH R2-D2? Mr Kaname Hayashi, the 'father' of Pepper, is developing a new machine, inspired by R2-D2, the friendly and resourceful droid featured in the Star Wars films. For a long time, Japanese scientists have been trying to create eerily human-like machines with a 'presence'. But now it seems people think looks don't matter. The new robot will not be shaped like a human or even talk, designer Mr Hayashi has said. 'If you ask whether you like R2-D2 or the talking humanoid C-3PO, 80 per cent of the people say they like the non-verbal robot,' Mr Hayashi told the Financial Times. Advertisement

For a long time, Japanese scientists have been trying to create eerily human-like machines with a 'presence'.

But now it seems people think looks don't matter.

The new robot will not be shaped like a human or even talk, designer Mr Hayashi has said.

'If you ask whether you like R2-D2 or the talking humanoid C-3PO, 80 per cent of the people say they like the non-verbal robot,' Mr Hayashi told the Financial Times.

'We want to create a robot that can carry out communication on the subconscious level.'

The concept will be similar to Star Wars' R2-D2, or the BB8 droid featured in the newest film, which does not speak but still forms a relationship with humans.

He said the communication would be subconscious, instead of through talking.

The new droid is expected to hit the market in 2019.

The concept will be similar to Star Wars' R2-D2 (pictured right) which does not speak but still forms a relationship with humans, like Luke Skwalker in the films (pictured left)

Mobile carrier, Softbank, said its robot, named Pepper, will go on sale in Japan in February for 198,000 yen (1,130 or $1,900). Softbank Chief Executive Masayoshi Son is shown interacting with the robot, which is designed to read human emotion by scanning people's faces and analysing their voices

The concept will be similar to Star Wars' R2-D2, or the BB8 droid (pictured) featured in the newest film, which does not speak but still forms a relationship with humans

Like its predecessor Pepper, the robot will need to read nonverbal social cues by scanning human faces and listening for strain in voices.

In Pepper, this data is run through an algorithm to calculate a person's mental state and it learns to please them.

But Mr Hayashi said it does not need to be smart enough to deeply understand human emotions or be designed to look like a human.

Launched by Japan's biggest phone mobile carrier, Softbank, Pepper is intended to be a member of the family and the first 'affordable' humanoid, costing 198,000 yen (1,130 or $1,900).

It has flashing lights and wheels, but asks humans questions about their feelings, such as whether they are stressed, to act like a concerned friend.

By spending time with a human and learning what they like, the robot can make someone feel as if they are accepted and understood, its makers claim, even if the machine doesn't resemble a human.

Many scientists are exploring whether robots could help look after isolated people.

The potential is great for intelligent machines as the number of elderly requiring care is expected to soar in rapidly-aging Japan in coming years and companion bots, such as Sony's Aibo pet dog have already been accepted in homes.

Hiroshi Ishiguro, a renowned robot designer at Osaka University in western Japan has created Geminoid F  a realistic life-size female robot, which costs $110,000 (pictured). He thinks that robots with a human-like presence could relieve loneliness because humans will be able to build relationships with them

BUT MATHS REVEALS ROBOTS CAN NEVER HAVE FEELINGS LIKE US The prospect of robot overlords, friends and lovers has been the topic of science fiction novels for years. But according to one mathematical model of how our brains create consciousness, emotional machines will never exist. This is because computers can't handle any process that completely integrates information, so they cannot be conscious and capable of feeling, one expert claims. A mathematical framework for consciousness, developed over the last decade by Giulio Tononi at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, shows that computers cannot handle the complex processes needed to mesh pieces of information together seamlessly. This means. if consciousness is based on the integration of lots of pieces of information, computers can't be conscious and capable of experiencing emotions like humans. Advertisement

Robotics are already used to check on the elderly and monitor their health and safety, but they might also play a role in reducing feelings of loneliness and isolation.

Recently, scientists have been creating increasingly sociable machines that interact in a more human way.

They argue that these sociable droids make it easier for humans to work with machines and that a mechanical companion could improve a human's quality of life.

Hitoshi Matsubara, a roboticist at the Future University Hakodate, concedes that human company is preferable to a robot, but a robotic companion could be helpful and easy.

'We understand robots are machines. But we can create harmony between the two, robot and human, he told PopSci.

His view is shared by others such as Minoru Asada, a professor of Adaptive Machine Systems at Osaka University, who has created a baby-faced robot called Affetto.

He is interested in how people use nonverbal forms of communication to form a relationship with each other and thinks that understanding it more would lead to more 'natural' human-robot relations.

ALL ABOUT PEPPER - THE FIRST ROBOT THAT READS EMOTIONS Some scientists think that robots such as Pepper (pictured) could become our friends and relieve loneliness because they can read human emotions Tokyo-based mobile carrier Softbank has unveiled Pepper the robot, which can read human emotions. Pepper uses an 'emotional engine' and a cloud-based artificial intelligence to study gestures, expressions and human speech tones. The robot is designed to be a friend to humans. The 48 inch (121 cm) (48 inch) tall, 62lb (28 kg) white Pepper has no hair, but two large doll-like eyes and a flat-panel display stuck on its chest. The machine has gesticulating hands, but cannot be said to be realistic. Besides featuring the latest voice recognition, Pepper is loaded with more than a dozen sensors, including two touch sensors in its hands, three touch sensors on its head, and six laser sensors and three bumper sensors in its base. It also has two cameras and four microphones on its head and has Wi-Fi and ethernet networking capabilities. The robot can even dance and tell jokes. It will go on sale in February for 198,000 yen (1,130 or $1,900). Advertisement

Academics have partnered with Google in a bid to bring human-like robots closer to reality. Google developed a system, that helps computers distinguish between individual objects (pictured) and aims to improve visual recognition systems using deep learning, as well as help machines understand humans more easily

GOOGLE TEAMS UP WITH OXFORD ACADEMICS TO BRING HUMAN-LIKE ROBOTS CLOSER TO REALITY Google has teamed up with Oxford University's artificial intelligence (AI) teams to help machines better understand users, and improve visual recognition systems using deep learning. This partnership follows reports Google is also developing superfast 'quantum' chips modelled on the human brain, to make searches and software more intuitive. Google DeepMind will be working with two of Oxford's AI research teams - one to help machines better understand what humans are saying to them and another to improve image recognition systems. Advertisement

Professor Asada developed a new brain-scanning technique that lets him track the emotional bonds that form between a mother and child in real-time.

It involves placing both participants in a machine and showing them each other's facial expressions on a computer screen. He hopes to learn whether the pair's brainwaves become synchronised.

'These kinds of findings will be very helpful for us in designing a robot that can synchronise or create artificial empathy,' he said, explaining that such information could help a robot decide which actions to copy and how it should react.

If this happens, these robots may make excellent teachers or companions that can effectively show empathy.

Hiroshi Ishiguro, a renowned robot designer at Osaka University in western Japan places emphasis on looks - as well as a humanoid's intelligence.

He has created Geminoid F  a realistic life-size female robot, which cost $110,000 (68,671) to make.

She wears human clothes, has realistic-looking hair and eyelashes and moves as naturally as technology currently allows.

Dr Ishiguro is known for his detailed creations and is fascinated by 'the uncanny valley,' which is the sense of dread caused by a robot that comes close to human likeness but fails to fully achieve it, perhaps through jerky movement, or lack of eye contact.

He believes it is a matter of time before the problem is eliminated, with the help of better actuators to make movements smoother, for example.

He said: 'My goal is not just to create a humanoid but to understand the feeling of a presence. What is that? I want to understand what is a human, and what is a human likeness.'

And he thinks when this presence, or sonzai-kan is created, they can be used to relieve loneliness and become our friends.

Dr Ishiguro believes such robots could be used as a medium through which distant friends and family could communicate, or even as an extension of the self.

At the other end of the scale, Matthias Scheutz, of Tufts University Human-Robot Interaction Laboratory in Massachusetts, says human resemblance is unimportant in robots and people can develop feelings about their cars and vacuum cleaner, for example.

Experts say they have seen cases where people want to give their robotic hoover a break from work, or ask for repairs to bomb disposal bots that have saved their lives, because they feel emotionally attached to them.
Making friends with the opposite sex isn't always an easy feat for teenagers, but for boys, having a little empathy could go a long way.

Researchers in Australia examined the influence of empathy on both same and opposite-sex teenage friendships.

The study revealed that girls are more likely to become close friends with boys who show greater empathy  while empathy doesn't seem to matter to boys when selecting their female friends.

On average, boys who were high in cognitive empathy attracted 1.8 more female friendships in comparison to those with lower empathy, the researchers found. But, this trait had little influence on which girls the boys chose to nominate

HOW TO MEASURE EMPATHY The researchers measured both cognitive and affective empathy using the Basic Empathy Scale. The first type addresses a person's capacity to understand the emotions of others. This was measured using questions such as: 'When someone is feeling down I can usually understand how they feel,' and 'I can often understand how people are feeling even before they tell me.' Affective empathy is the ability to experience others' emotions. To measure this, the researchers asked questions such as: 'I get caught up in other people's feelings easily,' 'I often get swept up in my friend's feelings,' and 'After being with a friend who is sad about something, I usually feel sad.' Advertisement

Researchers at Australian Catholic University examined the friendships of 1,970 Year 10 students (at an average age of 15.7) in Queensland and New South Wales.

The team assessed both cognitive and affective empathy, tracking the participant's capacity to comprehend and experience the emotions of others.

They asked questions such as 'when someone is feeling down, I can usually understand how they feel,' and, 'after being with a friend who is sad about something, I usually feel sad.'

Then, the students were asked to nominate up to five of each their closest male and female friends in the same year at their school.

The responses revealed that girls were more likely to nominate the more empathic boys as their close friends.

On average, boys who were high in cognitive empathy attracted 1.8 more female friendships in comparison to those with lower empathy.

Similar results were found for affective empathy.

But, this trait had little influence on which girls the boys chose to nominate; the researchers found that girls with empathetic qualities 'did not attract a greater number of opposite sex friends.'

The team also found that both male and female students who were high in empathy were more likely to have supportive friends.

Along with the nominations, the students filled out a scale measuring friendship support, which prompted them to select from the following options:

'My close friend(s)...', 'give me advice,' 'helps me when I need it,' 'spends time with me when I'm lonely,' 'accepts me when I make a mistake,' 'calms me down when I'm nervous about something,' 'understands my feelings,' and 'explains things when I'm confused.'

The responses revealed that girls were more likely to nominate the more empathic boys as their close friends. The team also found that both male and female students who were high in empathy were more likely to have supportive friends

'The more friendship nominations a boy received from either boys or girls, the more they felt supported by their friends; the number of friendship nominations received by girls, in contrast, had no effect on their felt support by friends,' said Professor Joseph Ciarrochi at the Institute for Positive Psychology and Education at Australian Catholic University, who led the study.

'Regardless of the quantity of friendship nominations, empathy was linked to more supportive friendships for both males and females.'

When it came to same-sex friendships, the researchers say that teens appear to value those who are 'affectively in sync' with them overall, while only boys were found to prefer those who matched their cognitive empathy.

The findings provide insight on the traits valued in adolescent friendships, the researchers say.

When it came to same-sex friendships, the researchers say that teens appear to value those who are 'affectively in sync' with them overall, while only boys were found to prefer those who matched their cognitive empathy

'Friends are essential to positive adolescent development,' Professor Ciarrochi said.

'It's well established that in addition to providing companionship, close friendships promote the development of interpersonal skills, learning, and growth. Having friends has also been linked with lower rates of depression, and to people feeling good about themselves.'

Moving forward, they say future research could further examine the way boys and girls value both cognitive and affective empathy in same sex and opposite sex friendships.

'This research suggests it is critical to identify and teach young people the skills they need to develop supportive friendships,' Professor Ciarrochi said.
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Sometimes the journey is more incredible than the destination itself - as these jaw-dropping elevators prove.

Why would you want to take the stairs when there are thrilling rides that could zoom you though an aquarium tank in Germany, up a staggering 1,070ft cliff face in China or through the inside of the St Louis Gateway Arch?

MailOnline Travel has rounded up some of the most incredible and exhilarating lifts from around the world, where the ride to the top is as thrilling as the view.

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Bailong Elevator, Zhangjiajie, China

Not for the faint-hearted! The formidable Bailong Elevator, also known as the 'hundred dragons sky lift', is situated in Wulingyuan Scenic Area in central China

The 13million project took three years to build and has attracted a large number of tourists to the area

Zero to 1,070ft in two minutes: The structure is composed of three separate elevators, each of which can carry up to 50 people at a time

This towering structure, poetically named 'hundred dragons sky lift', is the showpiece of the scenic area in Zhangjiajie Forest Park in China, a Unesco World Heritage Site.

The incredible observation elevator, which is taller than The Shard, can transport visitors to the top of a 1,070ft-tall cliff from its base in less two minutes.

According to People's Daily Online, the 13million (120million Yuan) project claims to be the highest and heaviest outdoor elevator in the world.

To top that, it has set three Guinness World Records - the worlds tallest outdoor lift, the world's tallest double-deck sightseeing elevator and the world's fastest passenger elevator with biggest carrying capacity.

The structure is composed of three separate glass elevators, each of which can carry up to 50 people at a time.

This means, up to 1,400 tourists get to experience the stomach-churning ride which offers a sweeping views across Zhangjiajie's renowned sandstone pillars, believed by some to be the inspiration for the 'floating peaks' in the film, Avatar.

Hammetschwand Elevator, Ennetburgen, Switzerland

Vertigo-sufferers should think twice about attempting the Swiss Hammetschwand Elevator, as it is said to be the highest outdoor elevator in Europe

By suspending cabs at 500ft in the air, riders are given a fresh and breath-taking perspective across the city's lake

Vertigo-sufferers should think twice about attempting the Swiss Hammetschwand Elevator, as it is said to be the highest outdoor elevator in Europe.

The transport system was built in 1905 and since it opened has been the fastest way up to the highest viewing point over the city of Lucerne.

By suspending cabs at 500ft in the air, riders are given a fresh and breath-taking perspective across the city's lake.

St Louis Gateway Arch in Missouri

The St Louis Gateway Arch in Missouri stands 630ft-high and here tourists are able to catch a lift inside that travels to the apex of the arch

The structure houses a lift system (right) that transports visitors up and down the inside of each hollow leg of the arch to an observation deck at the top (left)

The St Louis Gateway Arch in Missouri stands 630ft-high and here tourists are able to catch a lift inside that travels to the apex of the arch.

The structure houses a lift system that transports visitors up and down the inside of each hollow leg to an observation deck at the top of the arch.

Around four million people visit the spectacular structure each year, with around a quarter making the ascent to the top.

Mercedes-Benz Museum Elevator, Stuttgart, Germany

The lifts may not be the main attractions at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, Germany - but they are definitely eye-catching

Looking like something out of a James Bond villain's lair, the futuristic pods zoom guests up the steel walls of the building

The lifts may not be the main attractions at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, Germany - but they are definitely eye-catching.

Looking like something out of a James Bond villain's lair, the futuristic pods zoom guests up the steel walls of the building.

The unusual lifts are sleek in design, and offer a tiny slither of window for visitors to peer down at the surrounding museum hall.

Skyview Elevator, Stockholm, Sweden

Designers of the world's largest spherically-shaped building, the Ericsson Globe, decided to show off its design in style - by adding glass lifts that travel up and over its large curved walls

Two elevator cabs can take guests for 30-minute rides 425ft up to the top of the building where they can enjoy views over Stockholm

Designers of the world's largest spherically-shaped building, the Ericsson Globe, decided to show off its unique design in style - by adding glass lifts that travel up and over its large curved walls.

And in-keeping with the building's entire aesthetic, the SkyView lifts are made from bubble-shaped pods.

Two elevator cabs can take guests for 30-minute rides 425ft up to the top of the building where they can enjoy views over Stockholm

AquaDom, Berlin, Germany

Standing at 82ft high and containing over one million litres of water, AquaDom inside a Radisson Blu hotel in Berlin is said to be the largest cylindrical tank in the world

Guests can ride inside the AquaDom's lift to see some of the 1,500 fish (and 97 species) up close

If you are frightened of being underwater - you may want to give this 12.8 million (9 million) aquatic attraction a miss.

Standing at 82ft high and containing over one million litres of water, AquaDom inside a Radisson Blu hotel in Berlin is said to be the largest cylindrical tank in the world.

Perhaps the most impressive part of the attraction though is that guests can take a lift that runs through the centre of the tank, giving them the perfect chance to see some of the aquarium's 1,500 fish up close.

Lacerda Elevator, Bahia, Brazil

There is no missing the Lacerda Elevator in Brazil which stands out on the Salvador skyline, thanks to its large, vertical column and Art Deco design

Still in use, visitors are able to jump inside its four historic pods for an elevated glimpse of the picturesque port

There is no missing the Lacerda Elevator in Brazil which stands out on the Salvador skyline, thanks to its large, vertical column and Art Deco design.

The towering lift was first constructed in 1873 and quickly became a popular attraction in the northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia.

Still in use, visitors are able to jump inside its four historic pods for an elevated glimpse of the picturesque port.

Santa Justa Lift, Lisboa, Portugal

This striking elevator with its Gothic architecture and lights illuminating it at night, stands tall over Portugal's hilly capital

There are a number of funiculars, or cable-operated railways, in the area, but the Santa Justa lift is the only elevator that connects the upper and lower sections of the city

This striking elevator with its Gothic architecture and lights illuminating it at night, stands tall over Portugal's hilly capital.

There are a number of funiculars, or cable-operated railways, in Lisbon, but the Santa Justa lift is the only conventional elevator that connects the upper and lower sections of the city.

The ornate, ironwork lift was originally introduced in 1905, and can take around 29 guests in each journey to the top.

Eiffel Tower lift, Paris, France

In order to reach the top level of the iconic Eiffel Tower, guests have to tackle two lifts from the ground, and the experience is not for the faint-hearted

The 984ft high monument offers breathtaking views over the city and to get to the pinnacle there is no choice but to take the lift

In order to reach the top level of the iconic Eiffel Tower, guests have to tackle two lifts from the ground, and the experience is not for the faint-hearted.

The 984ft-tall monument offers breathtaking views over the city, and thankfully for those afraid of riding in lifts, there is also the option of walking to reach the first deck.

The heights don't appear to deter many, as the tourist attraction welcomes around seven million visitors annually.

Louvre lift, Paris, France

First you see it, then you don't - a lift in Paris' Louvre has proven that subtlety in design can be just as impressive as large, lofty creations. The short elevator stretches between a spiral staircase, and disappears into the ground as it transports guests down to a lower level.

First you see it, then you don't - a lift in Paris' Louvre has proven that subtlety in design can be just as impressive as large, lofty creations.

The short elevator stretches between a spiral staircase, and disappears into the ground as it transports guests down to a lower level.

Riders have to step onto the spherical pillar, which has guard rails in place for safety.

Rockefeller Center, New York

The elevator that zooms to the top of the Rockefeller Center in New York has a glass ceiling, so visitors have a thrilling view up the 800-foot shaft as they ascend

The lift at the Rockefeller Center in New York travels at 13mph - or 1,200 feet per minute. The ride lasts 42 seconds

The observation deck at the Rockefeller Center in New York offers one of the best views of the city - and the elevator ride up there is pretty thrilling, too.

The elevator has a glass ceiling, so visitors can gaze up the 800-foot shaft as they ascend at 13mph, with multi-coloured lights illuminating the way.
Two cabin crew members were hospitalised after allegedly collapsing and falling unconscious with carbon monoxide poisoning during a flight.

The two flight attendants were on-board a Germanwings aircraft flying from Hamburg to Stuttgart when passengers reported that they looked 'unwell and had unclear, slow speech'.

The staff members had reportedly already revealed they were feeling 'increasingly unwell with headaches and a lack of energy' on a previous flight on the same aircraft, but allegedly said they felt well enough to fly after opening the doors to let in fresh air during a stop in Hamburg.

The two flight attendants were on-board a Germanwings aircraft flying from Hamburg to Stuttgart when they became unwell

According to the Aviation Herald, flight 4U-7048 was on approach to Stuttgart when the flight crew announced a medical emergency and claimed two cabin crew had become ill and were incapacitated.

The crew had already performed two other flights on the aeroplane earlier that day and the two affected stewards, who were reportedly working in the aft cabin and gallery, reported that they were feeling unwell.

A third staff member also reportedly became unwell after spending time in the back of the cabin, but recovered soon after.

The third of the three flights, which took off after crew ventilated the aircraft while on the ground in Germany, saw passengers reporting that two attendants had trouble speaking properly, wobbly walking and dropped items for no reason several times, the Herald reported.

On descent to their final stop, both crew members allegedly collapsed and fell unconscious. When they came round, both reported tingling in their limbs.

Neither of the pair were able to walk to the front of the plane after landing and one of the attendants showed a value of nine when measured for carbon monoxide poisoning by paramedics - a figure that is usually three or below.

A spokesperson from Germany's Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation told MailOnline Travel that they had been informed about the incident, which took place on May 11

Their conditions were confirmed by an emergency doctor as carbon monoxide poisoning. Both staff members had a team of paramedics who worked to lower the poisoning figures, which at worst hit as high as 13.

They were later transported to hospital and reportedly will remain on sick leave for several weeks while they recover.

The Aviation Herald reported that after the doors had been open for a while emergency services tested the cabin for carbon monoxide levels, however nothing unusual was found.

A spokesperson from Germany's Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation told MailOnline Travel that they had been informed about the incident, which took place on May 11.

He said: 'We are collecting data to determine the classification of the occurrence, that currently is being rated an incident. A final determination of serious incident or accident has not yet been done.'

Despite claims, Germanwings denies that there was a carbon monoxide issue on board.

A spokesperson for the airline told MailOnline Travel: 'There was no emergency. The aircraft landed normally. None of the flight attendants passed out, none of them lost consciousness. They felt dizzy and were treated on board.

'Nothing was found during a subsequent examination in hospital which we advised to be on the safe side.
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In Reykjavik you can drink on the street legally and if you're caught without a ticket on public transport - you're just asked to get off.

However, for those about to embark on a holiday in Europe, it's worth noting that not everywhere is so lenient with misdemeanors.

For example, if you were caught urinating in the street in Berlin, you would be fined just 20 (16) but if you committed the same crime in Rome, you could be facing charges up to 10,000 (7,746).

The heaviest monetary punishment for urinating in public is in Rome, where it could cost you up to 10,000 (7,746). But the same transgression in Berlin will cost you just 20 (16)

Voucherbox.co.uk and GoEuro.co.uk have looked at five common transgressions and compared how they're punished in 18 European cities.

And as the results reveal, the differences from place to place are startlingly different.

Reykjavik stands alone in not punishing ticket dodgers with a fine. The financial penalties in the other cities range from 23 to 1,000.

If you're caught smoking in a restricted area in Stockholm, meanwhile, or Helsinki, you'll merely be asked to move along.

Some 'offences' are perfectly legal but will land you with heavy fines in other places. In some cases, you might even end up in jail

But if you did it in Dublin, you could be fined 3,000 (2,324).

Drinking alcohol in the street is perfectly legal in several cities aside from Reykjavik, such as Berlin, Brussels and Copenhagen - but it's a punishable offence in Dublin, London and Madrid.

In fact, Madrid levies up to 600 (465) - the highest out of all the cities - for the offence.

If you're in desperate need of the bathroom, it's best to find a toilet as all 18 cities levy fines for urinating in public that range from 20 in Berlin to 10,000 in Rome.

Some also vary the fine according to where you're caught.

But the most heavily punished misdemeanor is being drunk and disorderly, which could land you in jail.

Stockholm and Reykjavik will both put you behind bars until you're sobered up while Brussels and Helsinki puts a limit on the number of hours you can stay imprisoned.
Garrett sold his mobile scanning app QR to Snapchat last year for $54million and then decided to head off on travels

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A beautiful young family has turned the internet green with envy after posting to-die-for photos of their jet-setting adventures.

Millionaire Garrett Gee, 25, his wife, Jessica, 29, and their two children, Dorothy, three, and Manilla, one, have been travelling the world for nine months.

The picture perfect Utah family have ticked much of the Pacific Ocean off their bucket list and completed a number of jaw-dropping activities along the way, such as swimming with sperm whales and watching leatherback turtles lay eggs.

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After Garrett sold mobile scanning app QR to Snapchat last year for $54million (37million), the couple from Utah, USA, banked their millions and have been living off the $45,000 they made from the sale of their belongings. Pictured: Jessica and Manilla in the Bahamas with swimming pigs

In 2015, the picture perfect family embarked on an adventure ticking much of the Pacific Ocean off their bucket list. Pictured: Garrett throwing three-year-old Dorothy who is mimicking a plane coming in to land over Maho Beach in Saint Martin

Millionaire Garrett Gee, 25, his wife, Jessica, 29, and their two children, Dorothy, three, and Manilla, one, have been travelling the world for nine months. Pictured in Antigua

Pit stops for 'The Bucket List Family' as they are known on Instagram and YouTube, where they have 93,000 followers, have included Tonga, Fiji, Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and many more.

After Garrett sold mobile scanning app QR to Snapchat last year for $54million (37million), the family sold most of their possessions and packed the rest into two backpacks.

The couple from Utah, USA, banked their millions and have been living off the $45,000 they made from the sale of their belongings, since their departure in 2015.

Originally they set off for five months, but nine months later they have no plans of returning.

Jessica said: 'We have always loved to travel but before this, our longest trip with the children was one week.

Pit stops for 'The Bucket List Family' as they are known on Instagram, where they have 93,000 followers, have included Antigua (right) Tonga, Fiji, Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, Ubud in Indonesia (left), Thailand and many more

Starfish! The family pose for a stunning photo using a drone to capture the moment of all four of them on the beach

The young family have completed a number of jaw-dropping activities along the way, such as swimming with sperm whale and watching Leatherback turtles lay eggs in Dominica (pictured)

Little Dorothy had to be rushed to hospital in Thailand when she slipped in the shower and cut open her chin. She was left with several stitches

'When my husband and I would travel before we had children we could be as adventurous or risky and frugal as we wanted.

'We could sleep on a couch, or save money by staying in a sketchy part of town.

'But travelling with our children has changed things a lot.

'At first we tried travelling with a nanny but that was too expensive for us so now we just find local nanny help whenever we need. Also, we no longer sleep on couches.

'Now, we spend the extra money to make sure we're staying at nice places in safe areas.

Jessica said that although they're spending extra money travelling with the children, it is 'totally worth it every time we arrive to a new country and explore a new place together as a family'. Pictured right at the Dhara Dhevi Chiang Mai in Thailand, and left in Providenciales, Turks And Caicos Islands

The family said 'at first we tried travelling with a nanny but that was too expensive for us so now we just find local nanny help whenever we need'

Originally the family set off for five months for a short adventure, but nine months on say they have no plans of returning. Garrett and Jessica are pictured abseiling (left) and Garrett with Dorothy in Disney World (right)

Jessica said: 'Our kids make travelling more enjoyable and more rewarding and we're grateful for these memories we're gathering together'

The family who say they have loved travelling even more than they thought they would said that 'the children are doing great so we decided to keep going'

'However, it's all totally worth it every time we arrive to a new country and explore a new place together as a family.

'Our kids make travelling more enjoyable and more rewarding and we're grateful for these memories we're gathering together.

'We really loved it even more so than we thought we would and the children were doing great so we decided to keep going.

'Now, we've been going over nine months with no end in sight.'

However, Jessica did admit travelling with kids has its own health hazards.

She added: 'The most stressful times are travel days. Our kids do really well on flights and long journeys but travel days are just difficult.

'Our travels have been filled with many highs but also some lows. It was a scary day in Thailand when our little girl Dorothy slipped in the shower and cut her chin.

'We had to rush her to the hospital for stitches. It was scary but the doctor and nurses in Thailand took great care of us and everything worked out well.'

Garrett also caught the Zika virus from a mosquito in Dominica, but Jessica insists the good times have far outnumbered the bad.

The couple, who married in 2009, have extended an open invitation to friends and family to join them along the trip

Garrett (left) caught the Zika virus from a mosquito in Dominica, but Jessica insists the good times have far outnumbered the bad. Pictured right: The family in the Bahamas

Dorothy grabs hold of her little brother's head and plants a kiss on his forehead during a visit to South Point in Antigua

The couple, who married in 2009, have extended an open invitation to friends and family to join them along the trip

Little Manilla stares at the men riding horses along the beach in front of him while visiting the stunning Turks and Caicos Islands

She said: 'There have been major highlights like the time Garrett touched the tail of a mother humpback whale while swimming in the waters of Tonga.

'Or the 10 days we spent living on a sailboat in beautiful Bora Bora. We just left Dominica where we swam with sperm whales and watched great leather back turtles lay their eggs.'

The couple, who married in 2009, have extended an open invitation to friends and family to join them along the trip.

Jessica added: 'We plan a lot of our travels and activities around lessons we hope for our children to learn.

'Travelling to different cultures all around the world is a wonderful way to develop kind hearts, a love for the planet, and open minds towards all people from all different backgrounds.

'There have also been countless moments of simple love and goodness. Times like late night hot tub sessions as a family just chatting and laughing.

'Perhaps above everything, the greatest blessing of these travels has been the unique amount of quality time we're spending together as a family.'

Speaking about before their travels, Jessica said: 'We have always loved to travel but before this, our longest trip with the children was one week'

The beautiful young family has turned the internet green with envy after posting to-die-for photos of their jet-setting adventures
With so much to see and so little time, tourists need to be smart and organised when they visit a city such as London or New York.

For every must-see attraction, every destination has a list of landmarks, museums or areas that are a waste of time.

While there may be some disagreement, Reddit users have offered their wisdom while revealing the world's most overrated tourist attractions - naming places such as New Yorks Times Square as a 'cesspool', Londons M&M World as expensive and Sydneys Bondi Beach as a tourist trap.

Times Square, New York

Visitors to New York's Times Square complained of mascots who ask tourists to pay for photos

Reddit users complained about the 'terrible' mascots who try to charge visitors for photos

With Times Square crowded with tourists, locals say it's a nightmare to pass through on their commute

Thanks to its bright lights and annual New Years Eve celebration, Times Square is a magnet for visitors from around the world.

But visitors who leave less than impressed are put off by the mob of people, including pushy touts dressed as Elmo, Iron Man or Minnie Mouse.

One Reddit user wrote: Times Square is cool for all of 30 seconds until you realize how crowded it is and how obnoxious everybody there is.

Theres just a bunch of chain stores and people in creepy a** discount costumes selling pictures, and theres not much else to do.

The user added: I suggest going to Times Square at midnight though. They show animations from artists in the city on every screen  as part of the Times Square Art project.

Another user added: Its a cesspool and the mascots are terrible, but I have to agree that late at night the sheer brightness, spectacle and scale of it is pretty impressive.

Bondi Beach, Sydney

Sydney's most famous beach is a popular place to play in the waves or relax in the golden sand

Thousands of holidaymakers flock to Sydneys most famous beach to play in the waves or work on their tan.

Locals say that takes the shine off of it.

One user wrote: I havent travelled much but in Sydney Bondi Beach is a very okay beach, and it is always SUPER crowded in the summer. Its way less fun to swim there compared to a beach where you have room to enjoy yourself.

Another wrote: Im pretty sure it only exists to serve as a tourist magnet.

M&M's World, London

The M&M's World in London's Leicester Square was the first in Europe when it opened five years ago

Europes first M&M's World opened in Londons Leicester Square in 2011 after locations were opened in the US, including Times Square.

Tourists seem to love it, and that leaves Londoners puzzled.

A Redditor wrote: Every single tourist has a bag from there, they dont even sell the unusual flavours of M&M, just the usual UK packets of peanut and solid chocolate. I just dont understand it.

Another user added: I was literally there just a few days ago with someone who had come to tour London. We hadnt decided to go in there, but we were just passing through Leicester Square and saw it and went in.

It was packed. And everything was stupidly expensive. I also cant understand why anyone would want M&M merchandise, makes no sense whatsoever.

Mona Lisa, Paris

A Reddit user was taken to task after writing that the Mona Lisa was 'a tiny alright looking painting'

The Reddit user complained that the Mona Lisa, a masterpiece on display at the Louvre, is overrated

On display in the Louvre, the Mona Lisa is hailed as a masterpiece, but it failed to bring a smile to the faces of some tourists who had to wade through a mob of holidaymakers just to see it.

A tiny alright looking painting that you have seen a thousand times that you are a few feet away from, wrote one user.

But others took that user to task.

One wrote: Alright, I'll be the one to defend it. It is an undisputed masterpiece. It is worth looking at. It is not the greatest painting ever that will change your life (which is what a lot of people might expect given its reputation).

Hollywood, California

Like Times Square, visitors to the Walk of Fame in Hollywood are approached by touts dressed in costumes

Its famed for its famous hillside sign and celebrities, but tourists moan about the high prices and dirty streets.

One user wrote: Its a dirty tourist trap IMO. Theres a few good bars and music venues but if youre not into the scene you wont like it.

And youll pay out the a** to stay there and youre far from the beach, the mountains, Disneyland, basically all the good stuff nearby.

A fellow user wrote: Hollywood is disgusting. Hollywood Boulevard is like some crazy dark alley way filled with hustlers trying to scam people out of money, drug addicts and transients.

Madame Tussauds, London

Waxworks museum Madame Tussauds in London features a likeness of US President Barack Obama

Visitors will queue for a long time to enter this attraction, but some Redditors said it wasnt worth it.

One wrote: Youre in a city filled to the brim with history and culture and free museums, but youd rather wait in line for hours and pay a fortune to go see a mannequin of Justin Bieber?

Another Redditor complained about the quality of the waxworks, adding: Ugh, we went to London with my mothers friend and her daughter for Thanksgiving, and everyone wanted to go to Madame Tussauds, so we did.

It wasnt crowded, and we had gotten a deal for like half off tickets, yet I still felt ripped off just by being there.

I mean, Obama didnt even look like him.

Manneken Pis, Brussels

A crowd gathers around the Manneken Pis statue - a bronze sculpture of a boy urinating - in Brussels

Reddit users revealed they were disappointed with the bronze sculpture of a boy urinating into a fountain basin.

Despite the crowd that gathers in front of it, you can blink and miss it, apparently.

A Redditor wrote: Its, just as expected, a funny looking fountain and nothing more. And its so small we passed it a few times before we finally saw that disappointment.

Leaning Tower of Pisa, Italy

Every day, tourists visit the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy and pretend they're holding it up or pushing it over

This landmark in Pisa is in many cheesy holiday snaps, and its grating on the nerves of those who resist the temptation to pretend theyre holding it up.

Hundreds of people on the grass all posing as if they're trying to hold it up? That doesn't get old? wrote one user.

Another added: If I'm ever there, I'll take a picture that makes it look like I knocked it over. Is that slightly less lame?

A Redditor responded: No, people do that just as much.

Bourbon Street, New Orleans

Revellers drink and dance on Bourbon Street in New Orleans' French Quarter as people watch from a balcony

Known for its debaucherous Mardi Gras celebration, Bourbon Street is in New Orleans French Quarter.

Redditors complained of being overcharged for booze and harassed by vendors.

One wrote: The bars are all overpriced, youre surrounded by shills trying to get you to come into this overpriced strip club or pay too much for that hat or whatever, and the whole street reeks of p***. Constantly.

They suggested people visit it for an hour just to appreciate what else is on offer in the Big Easy.

A fellow Redditor added: I live in Baton Rouge and trips to NOLA are relatively common for me. You hit the nail on the head.
A former Victoria's Secret model scorned Philippine Airlines on social media this week, branding its staff as 'rude and disrespectful'.

Supermodel Karlie Kloss took to Twitter on Monday to inform her 1.28million followers of the 'worst customer service of all time' that she claims to have experienced after missing her flight home - and her tweet was shared more than 3,800 times.

The 23-year-old posted a photo, which was originally uploaded to her Snapchat account, and said: '@flyPAL has the worst customer service of all time. Most budget airline. Rude and disrespectful. Shame on you.'

Supermodel Karlie Kloss took to Twitter on Monday to inform her 1.28million followers of the 'worst customer service of all time' that she claims to have experienced after missing her flight home

A photo posted on both of Kloss's accounts had bold red writing on top of it which stated: 'No one [flies] Philippine Airlines... and now I know why.'

According to GMA Network, the American fashion model expanded on the incident on Snapchat.

In a video posted to the account on Monday, Kloss said: 'I travel international on a weekly basis and I have never had a worse customer experience than I have tonight. Thanks Philippine Airlines.'

A photo posted on both of Kloss's accounts had bold red writing on top, which stated: 'No one [flies] Philippine Airlines... and now I know why.'

An hour after the model took to the internet to express her upset, the airline responded and apologised for the incident.

A spokesman said: 'Hi, Karlie. We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience and the disappointment you felt.'

An hour after the model took to the internet to express her anger, the airline responded and apologised for the incident

The model scorned Philippine Airlines on social media, branding its staff as 'rude and disrespectful'

Kloss responded, thanking Philippine Airlines for its apology. She added that she would message the carrier privately in more detail.

The model, however, appears to have been able to catch another flight - she was spotted in New York on Tuesday.
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The Tevennec lighthouse in Brittany is a sight for sore eyes for sailors negotiating the difficult waters around it.

But there are few who'd want to spend any time there because the 141-year-old lighthouse is rumoured to be haunted and is said to have driven its first keeper mad.

These incredible pictures show the lighthouse at its most dramatic, with rough waters 65ft high in 87mph winds smashing against the rock it's built on just over three miles from the coast.

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These incredible pictures show the lighthouse at its most dramatic, with rough waters 65ft high in 87mph winds smashing against the rock it's built on just over three miles from the coast

The lighthouse, which is still operational despite being unmanned, just manages to stay clear of the waves.

It sits in the 'Raz de Sein' - a strait considered one of the most treacherous to shipping thanks to its maelstrom of currents.

It was first lit in 1875 and the first lighthouse keeper, Henri Guezennec, was said to have gone insane during his stay there. Twenty-three keepers manned it subsequently, but no one has dared live there since 1910.

However, last year adventurer Marc Pointud braved the spooky building and spent 60 days living there alone in a bid to raise awareness for it.

Photographer Mathieu Rivrin captured these shots of the lighthouse battling a storm. The 26-year-old flew in a helicopter and managed to catch the storm at its strongest.

Mr Rivrin, from Brest in Brittany, said: 'This was incredible to see, the sea was unbridled, the waves around 15 metres but someones were more than 20 metres high.

'The light was perfect for the photography and really emphasized the beauty of the lighthouses.

It was first lit in 1875 and the first lighthouse keeper, Henri Guezennec, was said to have gone insane during his stay there

'Storms this severe only happen once every two or three years, so I'm so happy to have caught this.

'What I love about this is the light, it's still so light and it allows you to see the waves crashing against the rocks so vividly.

'It was very powerful, it demonstrates how powerful nature can be.

'The lighthouse has been automatic since 1910 and one man called Marc Pointud spent 60 days in the lighthouse to focus on the poor state of the lighthouses in France in more particularly in Brittany.

'It's used to indicate the passage of boats in one of the most complicated parts of Europe - the Raz de Sein.

'Since I was a child I have dreamed of seeing lighthouses in storms from a helicopter. It's really a child's dream come true.'
A mother has expressed anger that airline staff left her eight-year old son stranded and alone on an aircraft forcing him to make his own way to the airport terminal, despite her having paid for him to have assistance on landing.

Seeley Kunkel had flown into Frankfurt from Minneapolis Saint Paul International Airport with Condor Airlines, which is owned by the Thomas Cook Group, en route to meet his grandparents in Hamburg.

Despite Seeley's mother, Jeana, booking her son on to the airline's 'unaccompanied minors' programme, he was left waiting in the plane on the tarmac at Frankfurt. The youngster boarded a bus to the terminal where police found him.

Being the last passenger left on the aircraft, Seeley disembarked and used a shuttle bus to get to the terminal.

But once inside, German police noticed the boy was on his own and called his German grandparents, who were able to tell the police which flight the child was booked on to get to Hamburg, where they were waiting.

Speaking to Kare 11, mother Jeana said: 'He waited on the plane and nobody was to be found.

'He was the last one on the plane, he saw a shuttle bus and jumped on, and that shuttle bus must have taken him to the airport.

'They have pretty much said I have to submit my complaint on the website, and it could take weeks to appear from them.'

Eight-year-old Seeley Kunkel finally arrived to meet his grandparents in Hamburg, Germany, but the journey was somewhat stressful when he found himself all alone connecting from Frankfurt

Seeley's mother Jeana spoke of how she was shocked the accompaniment programme she had booked her son on failed to work at Frankfurt

A Condor Airlines spokesperson has apologised to Seeley after he found himself all alone in Frankfurt

The ticket had cost $1,760 for the round trip from the U.S. to Germany.

A spokesperson for Condor told MailOnline Travel: 'The security and safety of our passengers is always our first priority. We recognise on this occasion that Seeley should not have been able to leave the aircraft unattended, and are extremely sorry about this and the distress caused to Seeley and his family.

'We have offered Seeley and his family our sincere apologies and reassured them that we are taking this matter very seriously, to understand what happened and take any steps that are necessary to make sure that it will not happen again.
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A British designer has come up with a striking new superyacht concept for an owner who wants to stand out from their super-rich friends on the water.

Andy Waughs concept, called Nouveau, lives up to its French name by putting a new spin on the aesthetic of a superyacht thanks to its eye-catching lines and walls that look like tentacles.

In addition to a dramatic design, the stunning vessel would boast an infinity pool, Jacuzzi and waterfall if someone is bold enough to build it.

In addition to its dramatic lines, the Nouveau concept yacht features an infinity pool, Jacuzzi and a waterfall that runs over multiple decks

There is a private deck for the owner, complete with a full-length suite and two balconies, and two VIP cabins with fold-down balconies

London-based Waugh, known for his radical concepts and previous work with leading shipbuilders, was inspired by the art nouveau style that was in use in Europe and the US from the late 1800s to World War One.

His dynamic superyacht features an owners deck with a full-width suite and balconies on both sides, situated below the bridge deck.

The back of the owners deck features sunbathing and informal lounging areas that are linked to the decks above and below by spiral staircases and a water feature which runs from the sun deck's Jacuzzi across the bridge and owners decks and down via a waterslide into the pool on the main deck.

The purpose of this feature is to enhance the feeling of being at one with nature and the seascape, said Waugh. The sweeping, tentacle-like bulwark adds to the drama of the exterior styling whilst providing an enhanced sense of light, space and connection to the environment for the interior.

The back of the owners deck has sunbathing and informal lounging areas that are accessible via spiral staircases

With a head clearance of nearly 9ft, the spacious main deck can be used for a variety of purposes for entertaining.

It boasts twin VIP cabins with fold-down balconies and dining and lounging space leading onto an intimate deck with relaxed seating and the infinity pool.

The vessel also has an office, space for formal al fresco dining, accommodation for crew and a private sun deck that serves as a secluded retreat from the other social areas on board with 360-degree views, said Waugh.

He said: Nouveau is aimed at the more modern client with a relatively small entourage who prefers to define themselves by their style and taste in design rather than by sheer size.

Practicality and efficient use of space were not primary concerns for the concept but despite its radical looks it has the potential to be a fully functioning yacht for owner and crew alike.

London-based Andy Waugh was inspired by the art nouveau style that was in use in Europe and the US from the late 1800s to World War I

When he designed the concept, Waugh was inspired by the works of art nouveau artists including Alphonse Mucha and Antoni Gaudi.

He said: Nouveau is a concept that pushes the boundaries of the yacht aesthetic to an extreme degree made possible by sophisticated surface manipulation and careful management of three dimensional space.

The tense, diagonal lines create drama whilst concealing a surprisingly spacious interior.

Waugh graduated from the prestigious Transport Design course at Coventry University and previously worked at Londons H2 Yacht Design.
Passengers were left holed up inside a plane on the tarmac after a swarm of bees gathered on the nose of the cockpit.

An astonishing photo shows the insects gathered on the front of the plane on the tarmac at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, with a ground official tentatively inspecting them.

Out of safety concerns, the captain of the aircraft, a Vietnamese Airlines Airbus A330, prevented passengers and crew from disembarking until the bees had been chased away.

An astonishing photo shows the insects gathered on the front of the plane on the tarmac at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

According to reports, flight VN 265, having departed from the capital Hanoi, arrived safely and on schedule at the airport apron, where ground services first spotted the large swarm of bees inside the jet bridge.

The insects then flew en masse onto the cockpit, causing the temporary safety scare.

The bizarre incident caused a small delay for the passengers arriving at Vietnam's largest airport, but also delayed the next flight by some 40 minutes as travellers were only allowed to disembark after the bees were driven away.

The appearance of the bees has been attributed to rainfall in the area.

Out of safety concerns, the captain of the aircraft, a Vietnamese Airlines Airbus A330, prevented passengers and crew from disembarking until the bees had been chased away

Last week MailOnline reported how a swarm of bees arrived en-masse on another mode of transport - a car in Haverfordwest, Wales.

The swarm of bees sparked chaos in the high street when their queen got stuck in a car boot resulting in a swarm of 20,000 insects chasing the 4x4 for two days.

Carol Howarth, 65, was amazed when the swarm flew down onto her silver Mitsubishi Outlander with up to 20,000 of the insects covering the boot.

MailOnline reported how a swarm of bees arrived en-masse on a car in Haverfordwest, Wales

A team of three beekeepers, a national park ranger and passers-by helped capture the swarm in a box while Carol was away from the car shopping.

But the bees came back for the next two days - and it was all because the queen bee was trapped in the boot.

And last year staff had to be on their guard at Gold Coast Airport in Australia when a snake came within inches of getting onto a plane.

Last year staff had to be on their guard at Gold Coast Airport in Australia when a snake came within inches of getting onto a plane

As passengers began to settle into their seats aboard the Virgin flight to Sydney, a green snake slithered its way up the stairs to the entry door.

One passenger told MailOline that 'the airport staff acted quickly', and 'brought a bag with a rod to gather up the little guy and probably take him back to where he came from'.
Are the Royal Family worth the 37.9million it costs UK taxpayers to keep them? Italian tourists certainly think so.

An enormous 59 per cent of Italians believe that the Queen is one of the biggest lures to a holiday in the UK, a new study has revealed.

The second biggest supporters of the British monarchy are Canadians, of which 49 per cent admitted coming to the UK for the Royals, and in third place were US travellers - but not everyone is as enthralled.

An enormous 59 per cent of Italians believe that the Queen is one of the biggest lures to a holiday in the UK, a new study has revealed

The study, which was created by travel deals company Travelzoo, revealed that just 19 per cent of Germans, 15 per cent of French and 10 per cent of Spanish travellers would visit the UK because of the Royal Family.

However, along with Italy, the three European countries contribute to nearly a third (29 per cent) of inbound tourism spending, bringing in a combined 7.7billion between them.

Travelzoos European Head of Communications, Louise Hodges, said: 'The UK makes 106billion from tourism each year  3,000 times more than UK taxpayers spend on keeping the Royal Family.

'There's no denying that the Queen and the Royal Family play a role in making Britain a more appealing travel destination.'

The second biggest supporters of the British monarchy are Canadians, of which 49 per cent admitted coming to the UK for the Royals, and in third place were US travellers

The study also asked tourists if they believed that the Queen and Royal Family played an important part in the UKs tourism industry, 70 per cent of which said yes.

Hodges added: 'Buckingham Palace and the Royal Palaces have been in the top 10 UK tourist attractions for decades now, attracting a record 2.5 million paying visitors in 2014, and contributing 55 million to the UK economy.
A Ryanair plane was forced to make an emergency landing after cabin crew noticed an odour in the cockpit.

The packed flight set off from Dusseldorf Weeze Airport on Tuesday bound for Porto  but made an unscheduled landing in Cologne after the smell was detected and the alarm raised.

The 185 passengers on board the Boeing 737 were eventually collected by a replacement aircraft after an 11-hour wait.

The aircraft made an unscheduled landing in Cologne after the smell was detected and the alarm raised (file image)

The flight which set off from Dusseldorf at 5.05pm local time diverted to Cologne and landed at 6.20pm.

A replacement aircraft was sent to Cologne to collect the 185 passengers who had to wait 11 hours for a new flight.

The replacement aircraft departed Cologne at 2.50am local time on Wednesday morning and arrived in Porto at 4.20am local time.

Some reports on social media alleged there was 'smoke in the cabin' but this has been denied by the Irish-based low cost airline.

And the Aviation Herald claim that 'fumes' were reported on board flight FR5489, but that emergency services which were scrambled to Cologne did not find evidence of these, or smoke, on the aircraft once it had landed.

A replacement aircraft was sent to Cologne to collect the 185 passengers who had to wait 11 hours for a new flight

Speaking to MailOnline Travel, a Ryanair spokesperson said: 'This flight from Dusseldorf Weeze to Porto diverted into Cologne as a precaution after the cabin crew reported a harmless odour in the cabin.

'The aircraft landed normally and customers disembarked.
It is one of the most popular shows of modern time, so it is little wonder that the hotly-anticipated premiere of Season Four of Orange Is The New Black has attracted hoards of devoted fans as well as the world's media.

Reporting live from the special 'Orange Carpet' in Berlin, MailOnline spoke exclusively to the seriously glamorous stars behind some of the show's most iconic characters as fans count down to the big night.

Uzo Aduba - OITNB's Suzanne 'Crazy Eyes' Warren herself - was a world away from her unhinged convict alter-ego as she stunned in a very elegant white dress.

The show's most beloved stars, including (L-R) Lea DeLaria, Dascha Polanco, Kate Mulgrew, Selenis Leyva, Yael Stone and Uzo Aduba, hit the 'orange carpet' at the OITNB premiere in Berlin ahead of Season Four

With her hair worn in sleek bob, the star looked the epitome of sophistication, rounding off her chic look with a simple black clutch and matching heels.

The acclaimed actress - a double Emmy winner thanks to her turn as one of OITNB's stand-out personalities - told us that Season Four not only challenged her as an actress, but has produced some of the most boundary-pushing TV in years.

'I think the fans can look forward to seeing new characters. I think they can look forward to characters we have known before evolving, changing and being pushed into corners we never thought they would be in,' Uzo revealed.

'I've been asked to do some things this season that I never thought I would be asked to do, and that's the challenge. And I hope that I met it! But I was excited to try.'

As for the fans, the star insists the Netflix hit wouldn't have been the award-magnet megahit it has been without their constant support: 'I'm so excited to be here. This is what we work six months for - to give it to the people; for the fans who have supported us for years - and for the new blood.'

Uzo Aduba - OITNB's Suzanne 'Crazy Eyes' Warren herself - was a world away from her unhinged convict alter-ego as she stunned in a very elegant white dress

After stunning on the orange carpet, the actress - a double Emmy winner thanks to her turn as one of OITNB's stand-out personalities - told us that Season Four not only challenged her as an actress, but has produced some of the most boundary-pushing TV in years

Meanwhile, Kate Mulgrew - otherwise known as Litchfield's boss lady Red - certainly looked in charge as she posed alongside her castmates

And she was just as no nonsense as her character when it came to revealing any juicy plotlines which could spoil the fun anticipated audiences at home - but promised fans that the show would hit them like a 'tsunami'

Meanwhile, Kate Mulgrew - otherwise known as Litchfield's boss lady Red - certainly looked in charge as she posed alongside her castmates.

Kate went for a sophisticated ensemble for the show's big night in Berlin, combining a black silk blouse with tailored white cigarette pants and monochrome heels.

And she was just as no-nonsense as her character when it came to revealing any juicy plotlines which could spoil the fun anticipated audiences at home.

One thing Kate did make clear, however, is that her relationship with frenemy, correctional office and councillor Sam Healy, will have more ups and downs as ever.

'I can tell you it is a relationship that is enduring and authentic - but other than that I can't say anything!'

As for what people can expect from the fourth run, Kate describes it simply: 'a tsunami'.

Bringing some serious Cell Block Tango-style glamour to the event was Yael Stone

The Australian actress - who plays everyone's favourite hopelessly romantic fraudster Lorna Morello - sizzled as she posed for photographers in a plunging black gown with mesh detail

Keeping with the show's convict theme, Yael joked that she would have to kill us if she let slip any of Season Four's big secrets, as she posed alongside co-star Dascha Polanco

'I'm very excited to see the fans reaction to season four because it is unlike the other seasons,' she continued. 'I mean you can say the entire series is unprecedented, but Season Four is a tsunami!'

As for how Litchfield's ladies will fare, TV veteran Kate quipped: 'There are some that will survive and those that will not do so well.'

Bringing some serious Cell Block Tango-style glamour to the event was Yael Stone.

The Australian actress - who plays everyone's favourite hopelessly romantic fraudster Lorna Morello - sizzled as she posed for photographers in a plunging black gown with mesh detail.

Keeping with the show's convict theme, Yael joked that she would have to kill us if she let slip any of Season Four's big secrets.

She laughed: 'There are so many exciting things in this new season but obviously if I told you any of them I would have to kill you!

One of the show's most explosive earliest storylines was Dayanara Diaz's pregnancy after her romp with Correctional Officer John Bennett.

Now, three seasons on, actress Dascha Polanco - who plays the jailhouse mum - states her character is now most definitely a woman to be reckoned with.

Actress Dascha Polanco brought a risque element to the big night, mixing things up in a leather and lace dress which made the most of her fabulous curves

Now, three seasons on, actress Dascha Polanco - who plays the jailhouse mum - states her character is now most definitely a woman to be reckoned with, and praised the Netflix hit for introducing a whole new spectrum of diversity to the small screen

The beauty brought a risque element to the big night, mixing things up in a leather and lace dress which made the most of her fabulous curves, as she explained: 'Dayanara is a woman in this season. I think she is a mother now and it's interesting to see how calm she is after giving birth.

'There is a storm brewing within her, and you can sympathise with that, and you really get to see that this season. There is a maturity now.'

Beaming with pride about how OITNB has broke down barriers in terms of introducing a whole new spectrum of diversity to the small screen, Dascha adds: 'There's different ethnicities, shapes, sizes and I think that goes to show that it isn't about how you look - it's about the story.'

Comic Lea DeLaria, a fan favourite for her portrayal of frisky Big Boo, stuck to her trademark suited and booted look for the evening - and warned fans to get ready for the ride of their life.

Explaining how things at the federal slammer take a sinister turn, she admits shooting the dramatic scenes were gruelling.

She told us: 'The Biggest challenge in filming season four was definitely how dark it is. Season four is excruciating.

'I'm not naturally that kind of actor let's face it, I'm much more of a stand up comic. The directors asked me to be emotive much more than I'm used to, so that was a challenge.'

And even Lea admits she can't wait to see what was in store for all of the cast: 'I am so excited to be here. I didn't actually know they were going to be showing the first few episodes here today. So all of us are all excited to see it!'

Actress Selenis Leyva, OITNB's Latina leader Gloria Mendoza, turned heads in a gothic plunging shirt and dramatic floor-length skirt and urged viewers to keep their eyes peeled for one particularly shocking moment

Comic Lea DeLaria, a fan favourite for her portrayal of frisky Big Boo, stuck to her trademark suited and booted look for the evening - and warned fans to get ready for the ride of their life

Explaining how things at the federal slammer take a sinister turn, she admits shooting the dramatic scenes were gruelling - and welcomed the light relief of mingling with fans who had flocked to the packed premiere

The ladies of Litchfield got to watch the first few episodes of the highly-anticipated new run ahead of its premiere on Netflix on June 17th

Actress Selenis Leyva, OITNB's Latina leader Gloria Mendoza, reiterates that this is going to be the most explosive series yet - and urges viewers to keep their eyes peeled for one particularly shocking moment.

Turning heads in a gothic plunging shirt and dramatic floor-length skirt, she explained: 'God, season four... there is this particular moment, which I can't reveal but you will know it when you see it, that was very difficult for me.

'It was a scary season to shoot- there were times when even I felt a little bit violated- and that's a good thing!

'I think the fans are really going to be surprised. We are taking them on a journey they haven't been on before so I'm very excited about that!'

After months of hype, season 4 of Orange Is The New Black is nearly here  and it's set to be the biggest season yet.

The award-winning comedy drama promises a tension-filled season ahead, set on the conversion of Litchfield Penitentiary into a for-profit prison, meaning plenty of changes and even more competition.

Season Three left viewers on a momentous cliff-hanger with the arrival of 100 new inmates certain to cause friction, intensify feuds and push old friendships to their limit.

Piper, played by Taylor Schilling (pictured right with Ruby Rose as Stella, left, in the Litchfield yard in Season 3) is the focus of the hit Netflix original show, which has hooked fans with its unique blend of comedy and drama

Since Season 1 launched on Netflix in 2013, the show has gained a huge following - leaving anyone who hasn't been watching feeling some serious FOMO.

But don't worry, you can catch up- the first three seasons are available to watch on Netflix.

It all begins when Piper, a New York wasp and former wild-child, is convicted for a decade-old crime to 15 months' lockup in Litchfield Penitentiary.

But since Piper's rebellious youth, which she spent globetrotting with her felonious girlfriend, she's built a tame, law-abiding life with Larry, her very vanilla fiance.

The first few episodes throw viewers straight in at the deep end of prison life with feisty inmates, girl-on-girl shower scenes and Piper's world being turned totally upside down.

Over the following three seasons the characters' lives unfold and plot lines unravel to create some of the standout moments of recent television history.

That's not to say it's all drama; what has gained the show such popularity is its seamless mix of heart-melting moments and hilarious incidents to lighten the mood, and Season Four promises many more laughs still to come.

Kate Mulgrew's much-loved character Galina 'Red' Reznikov makes a return as her same sly self, taking delight in a little juicy gossip as well as her ever-developing friendship with Counsellor Healey.

Hype around Season Four has been huge after Season Three ended with a prison break and the imminent arrival of new inmates (Pictured: Maritza Ramos, played by Diane Guerrero, Dayanara Diaz played by Dascha Polanco, Maria Ruiz, played by Jessica Pimentel and Blanca Flores played by Laura Gomez)

Lovable Poussey and lonely Soso had only just found each other at the end of Season Three but their relationship is set to get plenty more screen time in the highly anticipated new season.

Season Four also sees Taystee, played by Danielle Brooks, finally getting the recognition she deserves for winning the job fair at the beginning of Season 2 with a new job assignment as prison secretary. A job which she obviously approaches with her trademark enthusiasm and cheeky attitude.

The much-hyped new season also promises more background on some of the prison's most notorious characters. Ever wondered why Maria, who up until now has been an integral, but neutral, character in the Hispanic 'crew', was in-lock up?

Or maybe why political protester Soso has so much to say?

Or even why Counsellor Healey has had such a skewed view on women (not to mention women-on-women)?

Along with the familiar faces there's also new arrivals, including Judy, played by Blair Brown, who joins inmates as a former celebrity chef, whose sassy attitude is bound to ruffle a few feathers.

And what about Piper? And Alex? Will there be reconciliation or will they finally call it quits?

Bring it on and in Piper's words: 'trust no bitch'.
She recently retrained as a yoga teacher after leaving her role in Hollyoaks.

And Gemma Merna certainly looked the part for her new job as she stepped out in some super sexy sportswear on Tuesday.

Trading in her trademark bright leggings, the 32-year-old embraced summer in a pair of neon pink Nike shorts that showed off her never-ending legs.

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On the go! Gemma Merna looked every inch the yoga bunny as she stepped out in some super sexy sportswear on Tuesday

The actress continued her colourful theme right down to her toes as she sported a pair of bright blue New Balance trainers with a coordinating fuchsia logo.

She also kept her gym style fresh and airy with a plain white tank top that skimmed her taut abs and exhibited her enviable golden glow.

However, although she appeared to be embracing the June heat during her outing in Liverpool, Gemma made sure that she was ready for all eventualities as she tied a thick black hooded top around her waist and toted a large floral holdall.

Yoga-tastic! Trading in her trademark bright leggings, the 32-year-old embraced summer in a pair of neon pink Nike shorts that showed off her never-ending legs

Keeping her accessories to a minimum the TV star looked low-key as she proudly held her yoga mat under her arm.

But she couldn't resist adding a touch of glamour to her ensemble with a pair of large cat-eye shades, that covered her fresh face.

Showing off her natural beauty, Gemma went makeup free for her yoga session and she tied back her brunette tresses into a messy ponytail, with pretty plait detailing.

But despite her new-found zen, the actress couldn't bear to be away from her phone for too long as she clutched it in her manicured hands, in a case which spelled out her initials with a large 'GM' on the back.

Gemma recently said that she had planned to give up acting and retrain as a yoga teacher in Morocco for six years but finally took the plunge in 2015 after being persuaded by a friend.

Speaking to Digital Spy about her new career, Gemma explained: 'Yoga is my life at the moment, so it doesn't ever feel like something I'm "falling back on". I do it day to day, but then if another [acting] job comes in and it suits me, it's all quite flexible.'

Gemma's Hollyoaks character Carmel was killed off in 2014 and she took a year out to focus on her new role, but inside the studio, Gemma says she's a completely different woman.

She continued: 'When people first come into the room for one of my classes, they may see me as "Gemma from Hollyoaks". But by the time they leave, I'm just "Gemma the yoga teacher" and they've had a great class.

'I'm very tough in my classes - nobody gets away with anything! So when they're in the room, they need to focus on their breathing and just do the class.'

In March, Gemma helped to keep Liverpool Yoga Studios open up for 24 hours when she volunteered to teach drop-in classes to raise money for Sport Relief.
Amber Rose 'celebrated' her love for Wiz Khalifa as she joined him at a strip club to mark the conclusion of their divorce.

The couple celebrated the peaceful end of an acrimonious split by hitting up a strip club where they lavished money on scantily clad dancers.

Photos taken of the pair show Amber and Wiz counting out dollar bills at the Ace of Spades and then throwing them out into the crowd.

Happy exes: Amber Rose and Wiz Khalifa celebrated reaching a divorce settlement by enjoying a night out together at a strip club in LA on Monday night

Amber also took to Twitter to express her satisfaction at the outcome of their divorce in which she received $1 million as stipulated in the couple's prenup along with $14,800-a-month in child support for Sebastian, her three-year-old son with Wiz.

The pair agreed to share legal and physical custody of their child,TMZ reported.

Wiz got to keep a five-bedroom, four-bath home on 2.8 acres of wooded property in Pennsylvania and 10 cars, including a Porsche, a 1968 Camaro and a 1969 Chevelle.

Settlement reached: The former couple, who wed in 2013 and split just over a year later, looked to be having a great time as they held wads of cash and laughed and joked together

'Never goes away': The former lover of Kanye West took to Twitter to express the love the pair still have for each other despite their breakup

Sharing the cash: The rapper was pictured counting dollar bills as his shaven-headed former wife partied

Splashy show: Wiz, 28, was photographed throwing cash at the exotic dancers

The buzz-haired blonde, 32, was wearing a clingy white top and white-framed shades with diamond studs in her ears.

Wiz, 28, looked festive in a pink animal print button-down shirt with lots of bling sparkling around his neck, wrists and on his hands.

The rapper, who wore real cool shades, was grinned as he threw cash at the dancers.

According to TMZ, Amber already got $356,000 from Wiz and will likely get the remaining $644,000 soon.

The couple married on June 8, 2013 but Amber filed for divorce on September 22, 2014, citing irreconcilable differences.

Happy mama: Amber, 32, , who shares a three-year-old son Sebvastian with the rapper, also joined in the fun, showering strippers with dollar bills after snagging a $1 million-plus divorce settlement

Initially Amber sought full custody of Sebastian but she and Wiz have shared joint custody since 2015 and have clearly come to a mutually-satisfactory arrangement regarding his welfare going forward.

Amber has previously revealed she and Wiz were working on maintaining a friendship for the sake of their little boy.

'I think that we just wanted different things in our lives,' she said on Larry King Now. 'Being married in the public is not easy. Having access to pretty much any and everything we want is not easy. We still love each other.'

'Right now we're just working on co-parenting and learning how to be friends. He's at my house a lot for the baby. I'm at his house.'
On Friday, Mark Salling pleaded not guilty to child pornography charges and posted $150,000 to keep himself jail free ahead of his sentencing.

On Tuesday, the 33-year-old actor was spotted utilizing his semi-freedom as he left an LA area 7-Eleven.

As part of his release, the former Glee star submitted to additional terms, including a requirement to wear a monitoring device at all times.

On Tuesday, Mark Salling, 33, was spotted utilizing his semi-freedom as he left an LA area 7-Eleven

For his convenient store run, Mark threw on a basic black tank top, matching sandals and army print cargos.

His monitoring device was not visible, most likely hidden underneath his trousers.

As he made his way out, the actor kept his head down, eyes focused on the ground as he walked.

On Friday, Mark Salling pleaded not guilty to child pornography charges, ultimately posting $150,000 to keep himself jail free ahead of his sentencing

In December, authorities were tipped off by an ex-girlfriend of the star in regards to his alleged possession of child pornography, according to Crime Watch Daily.

Police forced entry into the home, after Mark would not answer when they called his name.

He also refused to give up his passwords, forcing the authorities to take hold of his electronic devices.

At that time, he had a bail of $20,000, which he paid.

As part of his release, the former Glee star submitted to additional terms, including a requirement to wear a monitoring device at all times

On Friday, Mark headed to court where he pleaded not guilty to charges brought before him, according to the AP.

He posted $150,000 bail, $100,000 of which was reportedly paid for by himself.

The actor's attorney surrendered his passport. He was also ordered to wear a monitoring bracelet, submit to drug tests and obtain approval prior to using the internet.

This is only the beginning of Mark's troubles.

It's been decided that he will face two charges of owning and receiving child pornography, where he could face up to 40 years behind bars.

A trial date has been set for July.
She's used to showing off a lot of skin being that she's a Victoria's Secret Angel.

But as Elsa Hosk walked down the street on Tuesday, she flashed more than she bargained for as her dress flew up in the wind, recreating a Marilyn Monroe moment from the film The Seven Year Itch.

The 27-year-old Swedish model put on a leggy display in a lacy black frock during her outing in New York City.

Marilyn Monroe moment! As Elsa Hosk walked down the street she flashed more than she bargained for as her dress flew up in the wind exposing her undies while out and about in NYC on Tuesday

Elsa's short summery sheath featured long sleeves and a full skirt.

Thankfully, Elsa donned matching undies underneath her chic black dress to lessen the embarrassment from the wardrobe mishap.

Elsa dressed down her upper half by opting for a pair of white trainers with multi-colored shoe laces.

She lightly accessorized with only a red Gucci clutch which featured the brand's famous logo.

Swedish stunner: The 27-year-old model looked naturally beautiful with minimal make-up while her long tresses were styled down and looked half done as one side of her hair was pulled back by three silver clips

The Seven Year Itch: Marylin's iconic moment from the 1955 film

The blonde bombshell looked naturally beautiful with minimal make-up while her long tresses were styled down and looked half done as one side of her hair was pulled back by three silver clips.

Elsa made a phone call during her outing, but she didn't seem to be bothered by the breezy wardrobe malfunction.

This comes the day after the Swedish stunner stepped out at the 2016 CFDA Fashion Awards on Monday night in New York City.

Leggy display! Elsa, who matched her undies to her black dress, made a phone call during her outing but didn't seem to be bothered by the breezy wardrobe malfunction. She accessorized with white trainers featuring multi-colored shoe laces and a red Gucci clutch

Elsa looked flawless in a nearly see-through jumpsuit adorned with shimmering gold sequins across every inch of it.

Her slender frame was covered head-to-toe in the sparkling baubles and thousands of beads designed in a fringe pattern which swayed from her shoulders.

She topped the glamorous look off with Christian Louboutin wedges, a small black and gold handbag, and a chunky pair of statement earrings that nearly grazed her shoulders.
They say distance makes the heart grow fonder.

And this was the case for Nicola Robinson Evans, 39, whose celebrity chef husband Pete Evans has been overseas filming his new Paleo series.

Taking to Instagram on Wednesday, the Australia-based beauty shared a tribute to her jet-setting husband by uploading an image of a shirtless Pete in the shower.

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Nice view! Nicola Robinson Evans, 39, took to Instagram to share this shirtless snap of her husband Pete Evans taking a shower on Wednesday

Flexing his back and bicep muscles, the meat-loving chef showcased his sculpted frame as well as a rather unusual arrow-like haircut.

'I miss making you shower outside @chefpeteevans!' wrote the lovelorn Nicola next to the steamy snap.

'How many sleeps??? We miss you beautiful boy!!! Xxx' she went on before adding the hashtag '#wings'.

Thank you for creating such a wonderfully magic day': Pete reiterated his love for second wife Nicola a tender message on Instagram days after they tied the knot in front of his two daughters Indii and Chillii

Meanwhile, Pete has been travelling through America filming for his cooking show, Movable Feast.

Nicola and her My Kitchen Rules judge beau tied the knot in April this year, in front of Pete's ttwo children Indii and Chillii.

Days after saying 'I do' Pete reiterated his love for second wife Nicola with a tender message on Instagram.

'Everyday is unique & special, but this particular day was a fairy tail! [sic]. Thank you for creating such a wonderfully magic day to celebrate LOVE!' he wrote on next to an image of his wife and children riding a horse in bridal garb.

On the move! Meanwhile, Pete has been travelling through America filming for his cooking show, Movable Feast

Loved up: Pete met his second wife Nicola in Adelaide four years ago, and she has been a driving force behind his Paleo lifestyle

The besotted pair met four years ago in Adelaide, with Nicola serving as the driving force behind much of Pete's Paleo lifestyle.

Nicola, a former glamour model, was previously married to millionaire Warriors rugby league club owner, Eric Watson, though they didn't have children together.

Meanwhile Pete's two daughters are from his previous marriage with Astrid Edlinger, from whom he split in 2011.
While at the CFDA Awards on Monday, the blonde stunner modeled a black, long-sleeve jumpsuit and ultra glam make-up.

And just one day following her high-end night out, Doutzen Kroes left her evening ensemble at home in favour of a dressed down day look while out in NYC.

The mother-of-two displayed part of her midriff in a dark, scoop neck crop top.

Contrast: Just one day following her attendance at the CFDA Awards, Doutzen Kroes, 31, left her evening ensemble at home in favour of a dressed down day look while out in NYC

The 31-year-old model layered a blue and white striped button-up over her bra-like article of clothing.

Doutzen paired her top half with a set of light wash, high waist, cropped trousers and white sneakers.

The Dutch-born beauty carried two bags; one, an oversize lilac purse and the other, a maroon chain bag.

On display: The mother-of-two paid displayed part of her midriff in a dark, scoop neck crop top

'On my way to work': Doutzen took to Instagram to share a selfie of her look, keeping her followers aware of her schedule

The Vogue cover girl appeared to have been busy working on Tuesday.

Doutzen took to Instagram to share a selfie of her look, keeping her followers aware of her schedule.

'On my way to work,' she wrote, followed with a high heel emoji.

'90s inspired: Doutzen paired her look with a set of light wash, high waist, cropped trousers and white sneakers

On Monday, the model attended the CFDA Awards in NYC, which honoured those in the fashion industry.

Doutzen has been featured in magazines such as Elle, Glamour, Harper's Bazaar, walked the runway for Prada, and has been a part of for L'Oreal and Tiffany & Co.

Her success in the industry earned her a spot on the red carpet, where she was dressed in a Calvin Klein jumpsuit and jewelry from the the line famous for their little blue boxes.
She's well-known for her approach to glamour.

But Nancy Dell'Olio seemed to go more than a little overboard when she stepped out in central London on Tuesday evening.

The 54 year-old commanded attention when she attended the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition party at Burlington House.

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Nancy Dell'Olio went more than a little overboard when she stepped out in central London on Tuesday evening

Dressing like something from a theatre production, the New York-born socialite turned heads (for all the wrong reasons, perhaps).

Wearing a floor-length sequinned kaftan dress in sparkling jet-black, the interesting number featured billowing sleeves and a plunging neckline.

It was accessorised with chandelier-sized earrings and utterly bizarre make-up.

Hard to miss! The 54 year-old commanded attention when she attended the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition party at Burlington House

Dressed to impress: Dressing like something from a theatre production, the New York-born socialite turned heads (for all the wrong reasons, perhaps)

This seemed to feature a whitewash base with black patterned squiggles decorated with stick-on jewels.

Scooping her hair up into a bun, she also wore a white flower in her hair which seemed another random addition to her look.

She capped it all with a rigid clutch bag and some bright red lipstick, which simple seemed to re-iterate the old maxim that less is more.

She capped it all with a rigid clutch bag and some bright red lipstick, which simple seemed to re-iterate the old maxim that less is more

Wearing a floor-length sequinned kaftan dress in sparkling jet-black, the interesting number featured billowing sleeves and a plunging neckline.

Still, never one to shun the limelight, she posed up a storm at the event and lapped-up the attention

No doubt Nancy will be promoting her latest business venture - a new kind of Italian lemon liquor limoncello

Still, never one to shun the limelight, she posed up a storm at the event and lapped-up the attention.

No doubt Nancy will be promoting her latest business venture at the bash - a new kind of Italian lemon liquor limoncello.

'Sugar is now the white enemy. This is the right time to launch a sugar-free drink,' she told The Telegraph earlier this year.

Working the room: The socialite was the life and soul of the party, chatting to all the guests
Reese Witherspoon stepped out in spring style on Monday during a family outing with her two sons in Los Angeles.

The 40-year-old actress donned a blue floral print peek-a-boo blouse that she teamed with white capri jeans.

The Oscar-winning actress beamed while taking her sons Deacon, 12, and three-year-old Tennessee out for a casual dinner in the Brentwood area.

Spring style: Reese Witherspoon donned a pretty floral print blouse on Monday while taking her boys out to dinner in Los Angeles

Reese had her blonde hair pulled back into a high bun, accessorised with sunglasses and completed her outfit with white sandals.

Deacon kept it casual in a blue polo shirt, tan walking shorts and black Nike sneakers.

Tennessee was kid cool in a white T-shirt, tan shorts and white slip-ons.

Reese had Deacon and 16-year-old daughter Ava with ex-husband Ryan Phillippe.

Casual meal: Deacon, Tennessee and Reese were dressed casually for their family dinner outing

Doting mother: The Oscar-winning actress has been enjoying spending time with her boys lately while juggling work commitments

The actress and her talent agent husband Jim Toth welcomed son Tennessee in September 2012.

The doting mother has been enjoying spending time with her boys and last month went on a hike with them in the Pacific Palisades area.

She won the Entrepreneur award on Tuesday at the Glamour Women Of The Year Awards in London.

Holding hands: Reese and Tennessee held hands as Deacon took point

The Election star appeared by video link to accept the award.

The actress co-founded the production company Pacific Standard along with 44-year-old Australian film producer Bruna Papandrea.

Pacific Standard produced the 2014 survival drama Wild that earned Reese an Oscar nomination as well as the films Gone Girl and Hot Pursuit.

Reese is also starring along with Nicole Kidman in the upcoming HBO series Big Little Lies produced by Pacific Standard, Bloom Films and David E. Kelley Productions.

All business: Reese was later seen arriving to her Draper James office

Hollywood star: Reese is shown with the late Paul Walker in a still from the 1998 film Pleasantville

Reese later this year will travel to Australia for a speaking tour that will raise money for charity.

She took to Instagram on May 27 and shared her plans by posting a picture of herself with a koala super-imposed on each arm.

'One guess where I am headed this summer!' Reese captioned the image.

'I'm very excited to visit Australia and New Zealand this July! I'll be speaking at Simpatico Connect, which will benefit the incredible charitable work of Save The Children.
She is the latest cover girl for New You magazine.

But on Tuesday Ashley Tisdale gave her makeup team a break and let her natural beauty shine through.

The 30-year-old put her fresh face on show following a workout in Beverly Hills, where she stepped out sporting a grey tank top and black leggings, which showed off her gym-honed limbs.

Natural beauty: Ashley Tisdale put her fresh face on show following a workout on Tuesday in Beverly Hills, where she stepped out sporting a slashed grey tank top and black leggings

Ashley had a light green sweatshirt conveniently thrown over her shoulder, as her hands remained full with a chic black purse and her cell phone.

The on-the-go actress kept her hair style fuss-free, slicking her light blonde locks back into an easy ponytail.

While looking for the most part completely casual, she did add some glam to the look with her studded earrings and wedding ring.

Ashley, meanwhile, recently appeared on the cover of New You magazine.

On the go: Ashley had a light green sweatshirt conveniently thrown over her shoulder, as her hands remained full with a chic black purse and her cell phone

There in the magazine, the actress revealed she would not be returning for High School Musical 4 after playing Sharpay Evans for the previous three installments.

The friendships that were built during the filming of HSM is what Ashley believes was the magic dust for the franchise: 'High School Musical didnt make us, we made High School Musical because of our friendship, how close we were, and the magic there at the time.'

When asked if she would return for a fourth installment, the Disney star said it's not going to happen.

Meanwhile: The actress recently appeared on the cover of New You magazine, in which she wears a silky pink maxi dress and has her tresses styled to perfection inside the glossy

'No. Looking back, it was such a perfect thing for its time and was so pure that I just dont know how you go from there.'

The petite blonde also revealed that it was difficult trying to get away from her character.

She said it has been tough for people to separate who she played from who she really is: 'Its been challenging. I think people in this business put you in a box and label you for what they think they know of you and what character you have played.'

Ashley said she loved playing the role of Sharpay despite being nothing like her in real life: 'Sharpay was such an awesome character, but at the end of the day it was a character; it wasnt me. Anything that Ive gotten since then, TV-wise and movie-wise, is me really fighting for it.'
Her husband shot to fame in acclaimed daytime soap opera Sunset Beach.

So it would seem the seaside would be the ideal destination for LeAnn Rimes and Eddie Cibrian as they enjoyed a summer family fun day in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

The dynamic duo looked like they were having a great time as they zoomed around the streets of the posh Calabasas neighbourhood in the small screen hunk's vintage Ford Bronco.

Can't fight the sunlight: LeAnn Rimes seemed in bliss as she went for a spin in Los Angeles on Tuesday

Excited to be spotted by fans, they grinned as the sped past, with Eddie's cheeky nine-year-old son Jake even popping up in the back seat to give a greeting.

The 33-year-old country warbler, who last had a US hit with 2000's Can't Fight The Moonlight, showcased her toned figure in a skimpy vest, and rounded off her look with a pair of comically oversized sunglasses.

Sunset Beach legend Eddie, 42, meanwhile went for a casual look of pullover, jeans and leather shoes.

As if a day speeding around town was not enough, LeAnn also shared a video of herself working out at the gym on Instagram.

Family fun day: She was joined by her husband Eddie Cibrian and his son Jake

Cheeky chap: The little fellow and his stepmother were lapping up the attention

Show off: LeAnn posted a thrilling video of herself working out on Instagram on Tuesday

A video posted by LeAnn Rimes Cibrian (@leannrimes) on Jun 7, 2016 at 4:29pm PDT

In the exciting clip she showcases her form in a tight vest and leggings, which she showcases to the full as she does side lunges and leg raises.

She said: 'Workin' it out on #tighttushtuesday Adding 3lb ankle weights kicks your butt, but you can do these without them 8x each leg...#ttt #butt #workout #tush #fitspo.'

The couple, whose relationship started when their both married to other people, have been happily wed since April 2011.

They met when they filmed Lifetime TV movie Northern Lights back in 2008, with Eddie subsequently leaving his wife Brandi Glanville, who is the mother of his two children, while LeAnn also split from her husband and former backup dancer Dean Sheremet.

Fitness or bust: She showed off her generous charms as she partook in some side lunges

Doing the twist: She made it look easy as she spun around despite having weights on her ankles

Rearly impressive: She showcased her delightful derriere as she did her Tight Tush Tuesday session

Meanwhile all those wondering how they can look just as good LeAnn, finally had their prayers answered last year.

The country stunner revealed her beauty regimen includes taking 40 pills a day.

She said: ''I'm a big vitamin person. I take like 20 pills in the morning and 20 at night - fish oil, prenatal vitamins, probiotics, biotin...

'I have a herbalist I work with who has put me on a bunch of different things. Im very strict about making sure I take them.'

Playing happy families: Earlier this month she posted this image of herself, Eddie and his sons Jake and Mason as they celebrated the latter's 13th birthday

She loves the Sunset Beach: She also shared this image of herself in a bikini on Memorial Weekend
He faces a packed schedule after returning from Los Angeles weeks ago where he was focussing on his career.

And already former Home And Away star Dan Ewing was back in fictional Summer Bay where he is appearing in a special guest storyline alongside co-star, Lisa Gormley.

The former soap star, who featured in the series as Heath Braxton until 2014, was back looking brooding on Palm Beach in Sydney in a khaki jacket with the collars pulled up on Tuesday.

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Brooding: Dan Ewing makes his return to Summer Bay and is seen on set on Palm Beach, Sydney, on Tuesday

He's back! The former soap star featured in the series as Heath Braxton until 2014 and was seen on his old stomping ground in fictional Summer Bay

He was seen as the soap's storyline centres on co-star Billie Ashford continuing to stay quiet on her babys paternity.

The much-loved character is preparing to tie the knot with her schoolboy boyfriend, VJ Patterson, in upcoming scenes of the Channel 7 drama.

And in newly released images, the pregnant younger sister of Ash can be seen walking down the aisle while showing off her burgeoning baby bump.

Soaking it all up: The 31-year-old has returned form a tough year in Los Angeles

Back on track: Dan was last seen filming Home And Away in 2014 before he left for Los Angeles

Weeks ago Dan revealed he split from his wife Marni after enduring some 'horrible times' during a year-long stint in Los Angeles.

The pair released a statement saying how they plan to remain friends for the sake of their young son.

'Dan and Marni Ewing amicably decided to end their 3 year marriage in December, 2015 due to irreconcilable differences,' the statement, which was released to New Idea, said.

Runaway bride! Home And Away's Tessa De Josselin pictured in character as the bride-to-be Billie, on the set at Palm Beach with Matt Little in character as VJ

'The couple remain friends, and will continue to co-parent their son, Archer, who will be two in September.'

The pair recently spoke about how they decided to end their three-year marriage in December 2015 due to 'irreconcilable differences' after Daily Mail Australia broke the news of their separation.

Dan - who has a two-year-old son, Archer, with Marni - has told how their stay in 'soulless' LA placed pressure on their relationship.

End of their relationship: Former Home And Away star Dan said he split from his wife Marni after enduring some 'horrible times' during a year-long stint in Los Angeles

The actor told New Idea that they had 'some really horrible times over there'.

'It wasn't for us. We were over there and we didn't really like the set-up or the infrastructure of the country,' he said.

'LA is a very desperate soulless place. It's very tough - it's a pressure cooker and it's like Sydney on steroids.

Split: The pair recently spoke about how they decided to end their three-year marriage in December 2015 due to 'irreconcilable differences' after Daily Mail Australia broke the news of their separation

'As soon as we had the bubba over there, it just changes your whole perspective.'

He vented his frustration at the endless meetings where Tinseltown castings agents and producers would 'talk your ear off for four hours'.

The split comes three years after Marni suffered a miscarriage and revealed the sad news on social media, writing: 'I yesterday learnt that I had lost my angel.

Tribute: Dan wished Marni a happy Mother's Day and posted a sweet Instagram. They share a two-year-old son Archer

'We spent all day mourning our loss. I underwent tests, injections, surgeries. The baby I had wanted for so long had left us.'

In 2011, Dan was charged with assaulting his then-fiancee during a dispute at their Northern Beaches home.

According to an article published in the Sunday Telegraph at the time, police allegedly found Marni in a 'distressed' state-of-mind with 'superficial injuries to her arm'.

A statement released by the Local Area Police stated: 'A Sydney man will appear in court later this month charged with assaulting his girlfriend at their northern beaches home.

Broken: The exciting arrival for the pair came after it was revealed Marni had suffered from a miscarriage two months earlier while they were in London as part of a promotional tour for Home And Away

'At 10.45pm on Tuesday December 6, police from Manly responded to a domestic altercation at an apartment at Sydney Rd, Fairlight.

'Upon arrival officers found a 28-year-old woman in a distressed state suffering superficial injuries to her arm.

'A 26-year-old man was arrested at the scene and taken to Manly police station where he was charged with common assault.'
They have been living it up in the tropical paradise of Tulum, Mexico.

But during their idyllic trip, best friends Ashley Hart and Renee Bargh also made sure to pencil some down time into their schedule.

It appears yoga-enthusiast Ashley was showing pal Renee the ropes of the popular exercise, as she showed off her impressive flexibility, lifting her leg almost above her head on Tuesday.

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Feeling zen-tastic! Yoga-enthusiast Ashley Hart was showing pal Renee Bargh the ropes of the popular exercise, as she showed off her impressive flexibility, lifting her leg almost above her head on Tuesday

Sharing a shot of her friend to Instagram in the difficult pose, Renee, 29, gushed as she said she felt 'Inspired.'

In the image, Ashley, 27, not only shows off her stretching skills, but also her enviable physique in a teeny bikini.

Meanwhile, Ashley also shared a similar version of the same picture, and in the caption penned an inspiration quote.

'The practice, I may fall on and off but she never leaves. The space between breaths was felt today,' adding the hashtags: 'Thank you,' ;Grateful,' and 'unconditional love.'

Flexible: Sharing a shot of her friend to Instagram in the difficult pose, Renee, 29, gushed as she said she felt 'Inspired'

Relaxing: The pair have been living it up in the tropical paradise of Tulum, Mexico

Ashley and Renee regularly reference their friendship across social media with picture-perfect snaps.

On Sunday the Australian beauties took their bond to the next level and shared a revealing image of themselves across Instagram.

Posting to the photo sharing site, Ashley uploaded a shot of the pair's toned derrieres as they posed with their backs to the camera while dressed in Brazilian bikini bottoms.

Showing off: Australian beauties Ashley Hart (L) and Renee Bargh (R) uploaded an image of their toned derriere on Sunday as they pose with their back to the camera while dressed in g-string bikini bottoms

Telling them apart: Ashley (L) dressed in vibrant aqua blue swimmers which featured a beaded hemline while Renee (R) opted for a deep grey pair of bottoms and matching top

The sister to former Victoria's Secret model Jessica Hart dressed in vibrant aqua blue swimmers which featured a beaded hemline while Renee opted for a deep grey pair of bathers.

In the image, the two models cropped out their upper bodies and heads as they held on to each other's hands tightly.

Ashley captioned the post: 'Cheeky Beach Bums! #friendship #sisterhood #love #support #gratitude.'

Best of friends: Hours earlier, Renee shared a stunning image of herself and Ashley while enjoying a swim in the ocean

Taking a moment: The television host soon after uploaded another photo of herself during an impromptu photoshoot along the beachside

Hours earlier, Renee shared a stunning shot of herself and Ashley while enjoying a swim in the ocean.

The image showed the gorgeous duo embracing each other as they flaunted their incredible bikini bodies in the shallows.

'Thank god for this one,' Renee captioned the image, referring to her model pal.

On Sunday, Ashley shared another photo of the pair, in which they truly embraced their surroundings despite the wet weather.

Enjoying the scenery: Ashley also shared another photo of the pair, in which they truly embraced their surroundings while riding bikes despite the wet weather

Revealing: After a day out in the sun Renee posted a revealing photo of Ashley to Instagram which captured a glimpse of sideboob while she bathed

'Caught in the rain...Surrender and embrace! @reneebargh #tulum #mexico,' she captioned the image, with the famous friends positioned on their own bicycles.

Navigating their way through the area on the bikes, the stunners slipped their feet into comfortable sandals to make pedalling a bit easier.

Renee layered her blue bikini with a plunging black blouse, while Ashley draped a printed kaftan-style number over her green patterned swimwear.

There's no doubt the glamazons are enjoying some time away from their busy lives in the spotlight.

Cherishing the moment, they flashed their pearly whites will having their eyes closed for the snap.
She claimed she had already taken over Miami and the Hamptons.

So no wonder Khloe Kardashian seemed so pleased when Ellen DeGeneres gave her the chance to take over a forthcoming episode her show.

And the youngest Kardashian sister proved she is more than just a pretty face when she used her extensive contact book to secure an exclusive chat with sibling Kourtney before focussing all the attention on herself once more by twerking.

See more Khloe Kardashian updates as Ellen DeGeneres lets her take over her show

A DeGeneres offer: Khloe Kardashian is given the chance to host the Ellen DeGeneres Show on Wednesday

Twerk it baby: And she took full advantage of her high profile platform to showcase her gargantuan behind

The thrilling Ellen DeGeneres Show extravaganza, which airs Wednesday, started when the host called Khloe onto the stage after revealing she just happened to be hanging out at the Burbank studio where the show is filmed.

She said: 'I have, just while you're here a a quick, just a favour. I just need a little one. The favour is if you would just take over the show for me today.

Whipsmart Khloe jumped at the opportunity, and said: 'I've done Miami, I've taken over The Hamptons. I can take over Burbank. Let's do this'

The reality television personality then tried her hand at some of the stand-up comedienne's trademark witty banter, mocking her benefactor's sense of style.

She told the plainly dressed chat show doyen: 'We wear the same glam and everything so I'm good right?'

Ellen who? She used all of her Kocktails With Khloe experience to enthrall the studio audience

Who ya gonna call: The reality television personality dug deep into her contacts book for an exclusive

Sister act: And she gave the fans something to savour by Facetiming her sibling Kourtney

As if that was not enough excitement for one episode, she treated the studio audience to an exclusive Facetime session with her eldest sibling Kourtney, the only one of the sisters with a university degree.

And during an hilarious game she gave the viewers a morsel to remember by revealing family figurehead Kim is the 'sister who complains the most.'

Kourtney also labelled Kylie the messiest and Kendall the worst babysitter, while shamelessly claiming she is the sexiest.

Khloe then made sure the attention was once again all on her by dancing in the studio, with her big sister steadfastly refusing to follow her lead.

But the audience were far from disappointed, for the Kocktails With Khloe favourite showcased her gargantuan behind by briefly indulging in a spot of twerking, much to everyone's amusement.

Kourt-ing kontroversy: Every one was filled with mirth when she revealed Kim was the biggest whinger

Back of the net: Khloe was thrilled when she was told she is the best babysitter
There are just a few more weeks left until the live-action adaptation of Tarzan hits screens.

But until then fans had their appetite whet with a stunning new image of star Alexander Skarsgard in all his shirtless glory.

The 39-year-old put his six pack on show as he roamed the jungle shirtless with just beige trousers on for The Legend Of Tarzan.

Wowza: Fans had their appetite whet with stunning images of star Alexander Skarsgard in all his shirtless glory in new images for The Legend Of Tarzan

Giving the camera an intense expression, no doubt fans will find themselves unable to take their eyes off of the leading man.

The David Yates-helmed film starts with Tarzan out of the jungle, a decade removed from his jungle home and completely established in the British upper class.

On the run: In a previously released image, the actor dashed through the jungle with Samuel L. Jackson, who wielded a firearm

Tarzan, now living as John Clayton III aka Lord Greystoke, is sent by Parliament as an emissary to return to the Congo, where his now wife Jane and their old friends are put in danger.

Discussing the reboot's fresh approach to the timeless tale, Alexander told USA Today: 'It's almost the opposite of the classic tale, where it's about taming the beast.

'This is about a man who's holding back and slowly as you peel off the layers, he reverts back to a more animalistic state and lets that side of his personality out.'

Having a moment: In previously released images, he also nuzzled up to his on-screen wife Jane, portrayed by Margot Robbie, pressing his head gently against her hair

The film boasts an all-star cast of Oscar nominees and winners including Samuel L. Jackson, Djimon Hounsou, Jim Broadbent and Christoph Waltz.

David Yates, who directed the final four Harry Potter, has helmed The Legend of Tarzan from a screenplay by Adam Cozad and Craig Brewer, story by Brewer and Cozad based on he Tarzan stories created by Burroughs.

The Legend Of Tarzan is released on July 1 in the US, and July 8 in the UK.
Adriana Lima made sure to stand out in the crowd as she joined a host of other models and celebrities for the Fragrance Foundation Awards in New York City on Tuesday.

The Brazilian beauty, who's 34, was smoking hot in a cool powder blue Marc Jacobs design that focused all attention of her very ample bosom.

With her dress straps falling off her shoulders to reveal a white bra detail, the Victoria's Secret Angel struck a vampy pose on the red carpet in the figure-hugging number.

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Vision of loveliness: Adriana Lima was smoking hot in powder blue Marc Jacobs as she arrived at the Fragrance Foundation Awards in New York City on Tuesday evening

Adriana went bare-legged in black strappy heels and wore her long raven hair swept up across her had and styled to fall down on her left shoulder in soft waves.

She added blue shadow on her eye-lids and lots of mascara on her lashes while opting for a natural pink lip color.

She accessorized with a pair of very large diamond chandelier earrings.

Model perfect: The Brazilian beauty, 34, struck a vampy pose with her raven hair swept over her head and styled over her left shoulder in soft waves

Buxom beauty: Adriana's designer number revealed her ample bosom as the dress straps fell from her shoulders revealing a bra detail that only focused more attention on her cleavage

Skin on show: The Latin American stunner bared flesh front and back in the outfit

Curvaceous: The Victoria's Secret Angel paired the almost backless frock with black heels and showed off its back slit and piping that accentuated her curves from behind

Adriana's designer gown had a low-cut back and a back slit that revealed her legs including her foot tattoo as she walked.

The full-length skirt featured some blue piping that emphasized her curves from behind.

She posted a selfie on her Instagram before heading out the door in which she wrote: 'So happy to co-chair for @FragranceFDTN Awards! Wearing @marcjacobs and the one fragrance I cant live without #MJDecadence.'

'So happy': Adriana posted this selfie on her Instagram before leaving home for her big night as the gala co-chair

Glowing: The model's smile was as big as the chandelier diamond earrings she was wearing

On the stage: Adriana and and Harper's Bazaar editor-in-chief Glenda Bailey spoke onstage

Awards event: Glenda and Adriana shared the stage with Ed Huber and Sebastian Suhl

Czech model Petra Nemcova hit the red carpet with a huge smile and laughed as she posed for photographers at the star-studded event.

The 36-year-old blonde beauty shimmered in a flapper girl-inspired silver frock that had embroidered detail on the bodice and a fringed tinsel-style skirt.

Petra added a silver clutch and a pair of pearl white stiletto heels that put her star constellation tattoo on her right ankle on full display

Shiny happy person: Petra Nemcova shimmered in a silver flapper girl-inspired number

In the swing: The Czech model, 36, even showed off a few moves on the red carpet that revealed the full extent of her tinsel-style skirt

Stunning: Petra's sleeveless dress featured an embroidered bodice and spaghetti straps and the blonde beauty paired it with with some pearl stilettos and bright red lipstick

Karolina Kurkova, 32, was pretty in a full-length yellow gown with a green and pink floral motif.

The former Victoria's Secret Angel showed off the floaty number to full effect as she arrived at the awards gala.

She paired the dress with black strappy heels and wore her blonde hair pulled back from her face.

Springtime: Karolina Kurkova wore a yellow floral frock with a very floaty skirt and high-necked bodice

Covered up: The blonde Czech beauty's dress had an asymmetrical hem that fell around her ankles and had ruffles on its long sleeves

Canadian model Jessica Stam donned a daring black cut-out number that revealed plenty of bare skin.

The fabric was held in place around her body by large silver buckles at the side at thigh level and mid-back.

The 30-year-old paired the halterneck full-length outfit with towering black heels and left her blond hair loose and falling straight down her back.

Dared to bare: Jessica Stam, 30, buckled up in a stretch black fabric outfit held together with silver clasps

Barely there: The leggy Canadian model added towering heels and showed off plenty of skin as she rocked a matching black manicure

Taut and toned: New Zealand model Stella Maxwell, 25, paired a bra top with skinny slacks and studded waistband adding a jacket to complete the all-black ensemble

Transgender actress Laverne Cox and transgender model Andrea Pejic both opted for a shade of red for the big night out.

The Orange Is The New Black star wore layers of dark red pairing frills with sheer panels.

The Australian chose a scarlet red off-the-shoulder gown gathered at the hips and with a long train.

Pretty: Transgender actress Laverne Cox and transgender model Andrea Pejic opted for different shades of red. The OITNB star opted for layers of dark red while the Australian went for a scarlet off-the-shoulder number

Stylish: Actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead, 31, wore a two-tone frock with a sleeveless bright red bodice and full damson skirt

Angelic: Danish model Josephine Skriver, 23, wore a white wraparound dress with winged sleeves and a thigh-high slit as well as a plunging neckline

Dapper: Singer and songwriter Lionel Richie looked sharp in a dark suit with shirt and tie as he arrived at the gala accompanied by a female companion

Model Lindsey Wixson, 22, wore a busy black and white outfit pairing half-sleeves with a strapless bodice and calf-length hem.

The Kansas native added a silver choker and a silver necklace and a pair of pointed black pumps.

Alec Baldwin and wife Hilaria also showed up with the 30 Rock star dapper in dark blue and the pregnant yoga instructor in sleeveless black with chunky heels.

Her own look: Model Lindsey Wixson, 22, chose an eclectic outfit that paired a strapless dress with half sleeves and chunky chokers

Celebrity couple: Alec and Hilaria Baldwin showed support for the event with the actor dapper in blue and the yoga instructor, who's expecting her third child, in a sleeveless back dress and chunky heels

Ladies in black: Actress Genesis Rodriguez, 28, wore a strapless monochrome dress with peek-a-boo midriff while Black-ish actress Tracee Ellis Ross, 43, paired a low-cut black jumpsuit with a black jacket and chunky red heels
She has been flaunting her enviable figure in an array of stunning bikinis during her beach holiday in Mexico with close friend Ashley Hart.

And it was business as usual for Renee Bargh on Monday as she rocked a pink two-piece while soaking up the sunshine in party destination, Cancun.

With her blonde locks in loose waves, the Australian TV presenter was seen frolicking in the water in the pale pink number, which boasted frilly straps.

Sun's out, buns out: TV presenter Renee Bargh rocked a pink bikini while soaking up the sunshine in Cancun, Mexico, on Monday

She showed off her pert posterior in a pair of skimpy bikini bottoms as she enjoyed a day out with a group of friends, including the sister of former Victoria's Secret model Jessica Hart.

Renee went makeup free for the beach trip and donned a pair of designer sunglasses.

The Extra reporter was later seen chatting to Ashley - who was wearing a floral dress and boater hat.

Beach bum: Renee showed off her pert posterior in a pair of skimpy bikini bottoms

Fun in the sun: With her blonde locks left in waves, the Australian TV presenter was seen frolicking in the water in the pale pink number, which boasted frilly straps

Glowing: Renee showed off her bronzed skin in the pale pink bikini

The pair have been driving their social media followers wild with envy with a number of snaps since touching down in Mexico at the weekend.

They are both based in the US for their respective careers.

Renee is originally from Queensland while Ashley is from Victoria's Melbourne.

The girls have documented their stay in Mexico on social media, including Ashley sharing a shot of their pert derrieres in bikinis.

She captioned the snap: 'Cheeky Beach Bums! #friendship #sisterhood #love #support #gratitude.'

Natural beauty: Renee went makeup free for the beach trip and donned a pair of designer sunglasses

Enviable figure: The Australian TV star showed off her toned physique in the two-piece

Hours earlier, Renee shared a stunning shot of herself and Ashley while enjoying a swim in the ocean.

The image showed the gorgeous duo embracing each other as they flaunted their incredible bodies in the shallows.

'Thank god for this one,' Renee captioned the image, referring to her model pal.

On Sunday, Ashley shared another photo of the pair, in which they truly embraced their surroundings despite the wet weather.

Close pals: The Extra reporter was later seen chatting to Ashley Hart (right) - who was wearing a floral dress and boater hat

Say cheese: The pair were enjoying the day out on the beach with a group of friends
She's worn it before in demure black sparking chuckles around the country.

And it seems Sunrise host Samantha Armytage hasn't learned her lesson and donned the smart crimson top with so-called 'penis' neckline in to report on the aftermath of the Picton floods.

The presenter, 38, showcased the top that bore the distinctive phallic neck shape, made famous by Ten reporter Natarsha Belling, as she discussed the flooding in South Sydney on Wednesday.

Oblivious: Samantha Armytage donned a smart crimson top with so-called 'penis' neckline to report on the aftermath of the Picton floods on Sunrise on Wednesday

She struck a demure figure from behind her desk as she commented on the clip which showed her pick up a broom and console grieving victims whose homes and belongings were destroyed.

The host has worn a peplum top with the same dubious neckline before, in November when she joined co-host David Kochie Koch in the Sunrise studio.

The black version showcased a healthy glimpse of cleavage and sparked giggles around the country at the time.

Uh oh! The Channel Seven presenter donned a similar plunging black top with the so-called 'penis neckline' as she presented Sunrise with co-host David Kochie Koch in November

And here's the news... Samantha sparked giggles when she wore a black version of the top to co host with Kochie in the Sunrise studio last year

Rival Channel Seven host Melissa Doyle also failed to learn her lesson when she raised eyebrows in a smart bottle green version to cover Prince Charles and Camilla's tour in Sydney in November

The mother-of-two showcased a glamorous image in the top as Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall greeted royal fans in Martin Place.

She should have known better, however, having caused a stir in March last year when she wore a similar baby pink short-sleeved blouse whilst interviewing with Kerryn Baird the wife of then NSW premier Mike Baird.

What would the Palace say? Melissa Doyle donned a smart peplum-shaped jacket with so called 'penis' neckline in green to report on Prince Charles and Camilla's Sydney trip in November

Oblivious: The Sunday Night presenter struck a demure figure which bore a distinctive phallic-shaped neckline

And she had worn a cream, long-sleeve version of the same design on March 13 whilst reading an evening bulletin.

The jacket was also worn on air by Eyewitness News host Natarsha that month and was liked more than 110,000 times on Facebook after the website Unilad captioned it once you see it, you cannot unsee it.

Seeing the funny side Today show host Lisa Wilkinson, apparently not put-off by the controversy, said she planned to wear her jacket the following day and called on other TV hosts to do the same.

Standing out: Melissa wore a beautiful baby pink short-sleeved jacket in March last year during an interview with Kerryn Baird, the wife of NSW premier Mike Baird (R)

'Once you see it, you cannot unsee it...': This photo of Natarsha Belling's green jacket (L) made the penis neckline famous and was shared thousands of times online (left) after Melissa wore a similar one last March

The #p***sjacket! REALLY? Calling all TVhosts who have this jacket to wear it on air tomorrow. I will! #geez,' Wilkinson Tweeted to her 125,000 followers.

However, Nine News Brisbane reporter Eva Milic has emerged as the original trendsetter, wearing a maroon version with the much talked about neckline in May 2014.

Phallic-looking necklines are nothing new, as a 2010 photo of the ABC's Leigh Sales in a more extreme black number shows, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

Earlier this year, Leigh wore the cut out top while presenting Lateline and an eagle-eyed viewer uploaded a video of the clip to YouTube with the crude caption: 'ABC Lateline newsreader Leigh Sales wears a penis.'

The original: Nine News Brisbane reporter Eva Milic appears to be the original trendsetter, wearing a maroon jacket back in May 2014

The bemusement and fascination with Belling's top appears to stem from the fact when you first look at the photo its hard to notice anything  but once the necklines shape is pointed out its hard to 'unsee' it.

Facebook user Ruben Haywood wrote on the social forum, garnering 26,408 likes: Like if you came here to find out what it is.

Another Sarah Herbert wrote: Yep, definitely cannot unsee this now. And Chris Thompson added: Thank you, you have enlightened me on this picture.

Coping the trend: Today show star Lisa Wilkinson has laughed off the controversy surrounding Natarsha's jacket, saying she has the same item in her wardrobe

Defiant: Lisa, apparently not put-off by the controversy, said she planned to wear her jacket tomorrow and called on other TV hosts to do the same

You legend I couldn't find what was happening but you've made me at ease now, Adam Baldwin said.

And Lourens Odendaal realised: Ooo thats what it was now I get it.

Reporter Dion Lim, who reports for the Ten News channel in Tampa, Florida, wrote: 'Oh c'mon. People ur [sic] reading too much into this! Anchor wears "phallic" jacket #anchorproblems.'

She did it too: The ABC's Leigh Sales was previously accused of 'wearing a penis' when she donned this black top
She put in a stylish appearance at the CFDA Awards on Monday night.

But after supporting her twin sisters Mary-Kate and Ashley, Elizabeth Olsen wasted no time in hopping back on a plane to Los Angeles the next day.

The 27-year-old actress was spotted heading out of the arrivals terminal looking understated chic in dark hues.

Back on the west coast: Elizabeth Olsen looked stylish as she landed at LAX from New York on Tuesday after attending the CFDA Awards

The Godzilla star teamed a slouchy black t-shirt with faded jeans which clung to her slender legs.

She sported black leather mules and a matching cross-body bag.

Opting for a low-maintenance hairdo, Elizabeth tied up half her tresses in a messy bun while leaving a portion down around her shoulders.

Completing her look were some chic brown-tinted shades.

Quick trip: After supporting her twin sisters, Elizabeth wasted no time in hopping back on a plane to Los Angeles on Tuesday

Dark hues: The Godzilla star teamed a slouchy black t-shirt with faded jeans which clung to her slender legs

The night before, Elizabeth made an appearance at the Hammerstein Ballroom with her designer siblings.

Ashley and Mary-Kate, 29, founded clothing line The Row so it was only natural they would be at the fashion industry's version of the Oscars.

The actress plays hero Wanda Maximoff a.k.a Scarlet Witch in Marvels movies Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War.

Effortless: Opting for a low-maintenance hairdo, Elizabeth tied up half her tresses in a messy bun while leaving a portion down around her shoulders

And she recently revealed she wouldn't be opposed to taking center stage for a Scarlet Witch solo movie but it would have to be on one condition.

Talking to Huffington Post, she explained: 'Its not something Im opposed to, but its also something that has to make a lot of sense. I wouldnt just do it just to do it. Itd have to make sense for how it advances in the world. But Id be open to talking about it. Id never say no to just an idea.'
Sexy, stylish Stella Maxwell has made her mark on the red carpet yet again.

This time the 25-year-old model opted for all black as she stunned at the 2016 Fragrance Foundation Awards that was presented by Hearst Magazine on Tuesday evening in New York.

This Victoria's Secret Angel dazzled in her pant-suit outfit, which showed off her toned tummy and a hint of cleavage.

Sexy Stella! The Victoria's Secret Model wore slender black slacks, paired with a belt and a laced bralette, showing off the model's toned body

The Irish beauty walked out in black slacks, which accentuated her slender, long legs. She clinched a thick black belt with gold hoops at the waist.

The outfit had an edgy kick to it while she paired the pants with a laced bra that flaunted her toned midriff and bit of cleavage. She completed the outfit with an open black jacket, and a pair or strapped sandals.

The model's hair was straight and sleek, pushed back behind her ears and shoulders. She opted for minimal jewelry and a natural make-up look.

Dreamy look: Model Maxwell flaunted her slender and toned body at the Fragrance Foundation Awards as she opted for an all-black ensemble

Work it: Known for bringing innovation to the carpet, Stella did not disappoint

Beautiful: Laverne Cox wowed in a deep red, ruffle-layered dress with just the right amount of sheer. Angel Adriana Lima stunned in a low-cleavage, light blue colored dress, showing off her curves

The star-studded fashion awards was hosted by Alec Baldwin and celebrated the global and creative achievements in the world of perfumery.

Other attendees of the event included host Alec Baldwin with his wife Hilaria, Lionel Richie, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jessica Stam, and Petra Nemcova, among many others.

It was held at New York's Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center.

Angel in white: Danish model Josephine Skriver, 23, killed the carpet in a thigh-high, winged dress with a low neck-line, bearing some cleavage

Pop the foot: The Irish beauty styled her hair sleek and straight, pulled back behind her shoulders. She kept it simple with natural-looking make-up and minimal jewelry

Model on the move: Stella's sandal heels matched perfectly with the classic yet edgy look to her outfit

All black: VS Angel decorated the simple outfit with sexy lace and an edgy belt

Teamwork! Maxwell took a photo with senior creative of Victoria's Secret, Ed Razek who brushed up well in a black-and-white suit

A week ago, the New Zealand-born model shot her most scandalous shoot as of yet. Maxim called her the number one hottest girl of 2016.

After being romantically linked to Miley Cyrus last year, Maxwell seems to be creating more daring and bold moves for herself.

She said recently in an interview with Maxim, 'I think those of us who have found success grew into ourselves in our 20s. I know I was not the hottest chick at school! We all peaked a little later than the other girls.'

Bold and bootyful: The editorial, shot in California by Gilles Bensimon showed a racy look to the model
Amanda Seyfried and actor boyfriend Thomas Sadoski looked loved-up as they cast their votes on Monday.

The actress, 30, and Life In Pieces actor, 38, held hands and proudly wore their 'I voted' stickers as they left their polling station in Hollywood after voting in California's primary election.

Amanda went makeup free and wore comfortable sweats as they strolled hand-in-hand.

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The couple that votes together: Actors Amanda and Thomas Sadoski held hands as they left their polling station wearing 'I voted' stickers in Hollywood on Monday

Amanda went makeup free and covered up with over-sized sunglasses.

The Mamma Mia! star appeared to have brought her own coffee and clutched a white mug as the pair held hands.

She added blue espadrilles and a red cross-body bag.

It's official! Amanda shared a snap to Instagram with her new beau

Relaxed: Amanda wore comfy sweats and carried a mug of coffee as the pair strolled hand in hand

Relaxed: The Ted 2 actress wore a striped shirt and went makeup free

Former The Newsroom actor Thomas also looked relaxed in a grey henley top and faded blue jeans.

The Broadway actor added a blue Boston Redsoxs cap.

Amanda and Tom started dating while shooting their upcoming film The Last Word and reportedly became friends while appearing together as a couple who have a one-night stand in the off-Broadway production of The Way We Get By in 2015.

Former Newsroom actor Thomas is in the middle of a divorce from his ex-wife of eight years, casting director Kimberly Hope.

Casual style: Life in Pieces actor Thomas wore a grey henley shirt and blue Red Soxs cap

Amanda split from her ex-boyfriend, actor Justin Long, in September after they began dating in 2013.

Thomas was also seen visiting Amanda on the set of her upcoming movie The Clapper on Monday night.

The 30-year old actress sported a dress-down brown outfit wearing a ghastly oversize pullover underneath a wool jacket matched with baggy corduroy pants and moccasins.

Lovebirds: Amanda Seyfried was spotted having a good time with boyfriend Thomas Sadoski on the set of The Clapper on Monday night

The Ted 2 actress wore her trademark blonde tresses loose and parted to one side.

She wore no make-up showing off her model look and flawless complexion.

Sedosky brought on set Amanda's dog, Finn, and sported a casual outfit, matching his lover's brown color palette, and wearing a cotton cashmere sweater over straight cut jeans.

Dress-down: The 30-year old actress sported a dress-down brown outfit wearing a ghastly oversize pullover underneath a wool jacket, baggy corduroy pants and moccasins

On Monday the couple made their love affair Instagram official by sharing their photo together while at a No-Kill LA animal rescue event on Sunday.

Amanda shared a snap of the group shot and some pups, adding the caption: 'We watched hundreds of animals find loving homes today! Thanks for all you do to help.'

Stunning duo: Amanda and Tom started dating while shooting their upcoming film The Last Word and reportedly became friends while appearing together in the off-Broadway production of The Way We Get By in 2015

It's official: On Monday the couple made their love affair Instagram official by sharing their photo together while at a No-Kill LA animal rescue event on Sunday

The Mean Girls actress was spotted on The Clappers' set on Saturday as she filmed with comedian Ed Helms.

The film centers on a professional infomercials clapper (Helms) who gets chosen by a late-night talk show to host his own TV series.

She wore a lilac-colored oversize t-shirt over a button-up with busy colorful patterns that were sticking out.

On the bottom she had on loose-fitting grey corduroys, brown moccasins, and polka-dotted socks.

The Mamma Mia actress has been keeping herself active as she has a lot of movies under her wing. According to her IMDB page, she is also in pre-production on American Express with Charlize Theron and the yet-to-be-named film from Nash Edgarton, which is filming in Chicago.

Baggy outfit on set: The Mean Girls actress was spotted on The Clappers' set on Saturday, wearing a lilac-colored oversize t-shirt over a button-up with busy colorful patterns that were sticking out
Australian supermodel Nicole Trunfio once again put on a brave face as she attended an event in New York on Tuesday after her beloved father passed away last week.

The 30-year-old stuck a serious yet vampy figure as she went braless in a slinky black slip dress and thigh-high boots.

The outing comes after she was seen earlier in the day, dressed down in tights and a crop top while sharing a tender embrace with husband, Gary Clark Jr.

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Back to business: Australian supermodel Nicole Trunfio put on a brave face as she attended an event in New York on Tuesday, following the death of her father last week

The model's frock featured spaghetti straps, a thigh split and was backless.

Nicole teamed the ensemble with a chic gold chain and black leather choker, and carried her favourite Valentino bag.

She also went vampy with her makeup, with a slick of plum lipstick on her pout and and a generous application of bronzer.

The brunette beauty had her hair out and straightened over her shoulders, with the top slicked down with gel.

Picture perfect: She also went vampy with her makeup, with a slick of plum lipstick on her pout and and a generous application of bronzer

All in the details: Nicole teamed the look with a chic gold chain and black leather choker, and carried her favourite Valentino bag

Catching up: At one point, she bumped into an equally stylish friend, who was dressed in ripped jeans and a sheer black blouse and gold designer heels

The mother-of-one strutted to an awaiting car as she made her way to the Manhattan-based event.

She could be seen clutching her mobile phone before taking a quick phone call.

At one point, she bumped into an equally stylish friend, who was dressed in ripped jeans and a sheer black blouse and gold designer heels.

Her support: The outing comes after she was seen earlier the same day wearing tights and a crop top as she shared a tender embrace with husband Gary Clark Jr

Last Wednesday, Nicole - who hails from Western Australia - lost her father Giuseppe to appendix cancer.

He was diagnosed with the disease five years ago and at the time, was told he had only 11 months to live.

She shared a tribute to him on Instagram on Friday, saying how much she loved and missed him, alongside a black and white snap of him as a child.

Tragic: Nicole lost her father Giuseppe last week to cancer of the Appendix

Sweet: She shared a tribute to him on Instagram on Friday, saying how much she loved and missed him, alongside a black and white snap of him as a child

'The greatest soul I have ever known, so blessed and humbled you are my father. I love you more than words can describe,' she wrote in part of her post.

'I am more heartbroken than I could have ever imagined possible, to know I cannot feel your warmth and call you for wisdom and love, or even just a laugh any more. No words can describe the fact you're not here with me.'
Original Ghostbusters stars Bill Murray and Annie Potts joined reboot castmembers Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones for an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!

The actors were spotted arriving for a taping at the ABC late night show's Hollywood Boulevard studio on Tuesday.

Sony, the studio behind the all-female remake, is ramping up its marketing for the film and declared Wednesday as Ghostbusters Day, when the Kimmel appearance will air.

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Ain't afraid of no talk show host: Bill Murray and Annie Potts, who starred together in 1984's Ghostbusters, arrived at Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Tuesday for an appearance taped for broadcast on Wednesday night

The reboot has cost the studio an estimated $150 million but has been bogged down by negative fan reaction.

Some have objected to the 1984 original being remade at all, while others have voiced criticisms of the female-led cast that have been called sexist.

Much attention has centered on the high number of 'dislikes' the film's trailer received on YouTube.

In with the new: Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy, who star in the all-female reboot opening July 15, were also on hand for the taping which will mark Sony's declared Ghostbusters Day on Wednesday

Ready for action: New Ghostbuster Kate McKinnon showed up as well clutching a green bottle filled presumably with water and not slime

Murray, 65, who starred in the 1984 Ghostbusters with Dan Akroyd, Harold Ramis, Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis, as well as Potts, was casually dressed as he arrived for the taping.

The veteran star wore crumpled black shorts with a pale long-sleeved shirt and vest and a pair of black hiking boots.

He added a touch of finesse with a straw Panama hat with blue headband.

Comedy icon: Veteran star Murray, 65, was all smiles as he arrived in casual short and hiking boots paired with a long-sleeved shirt, vest and a Panama straw hat

Reliving the past: Potts, who starred for seven seasons on TV's Designing Women,was stylish in black and silver patterned slacks with a crisp white jacket

Potts, 63, looked stylish in black and silver patterned slacks and heeled pumps paired with a crisp white jacket.

Her curly brown hair was flawlessly styled and she accessorized with pearl earrings and a bangle.

SNL alum Wiig opted for a black and white patterned dress that had buttons down the front.

The lower sleeves were black while the main body of the outfit was striped as was the collar.

Cool look: SNL alum Wiig opted for a black and white patterned dress that had buttons down the front

Coordinated: The 42-year-old paired the striped outfit with monochrome patterned pumps

Work together: Kate McKinnon wore a low-cut black sleeveless dress with some white flip-flops, while her Saturday Night Live co-star and fellow new Ghostbuster Jones had on a white tank top and distressed denims

The actress and comedienne went bare-legged in the knee-length dress that she paired with monochrome patterned heels.

McKinnon, 32, also a castmember of Saturday Night Live, wore a low-cut black sleeveless dress with some white flip-flops, while SNL costar Jones, 48, opted for a white tank top and distressed denims cropped at the calf.

McCarthy chose a pink smock top over black pants and added a colorful pair of kate spade new york licorice heels, waving to onlookers as she walked into the studio.

Also on hand was original Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman.

The new Ghostbusters movie, directed by Paul Feig, will premiere in North America on July 15.

Headliner: McCarthy, 45, paired a pretty pink smock blouse with black cotton pants and a pair of pink floral kate spade new york licorice heels

Supporting the new crew: Ivan Reitman, who directed the original 1984 Ghostbusters and its 1989 sequel, was also part of the ABC late night appearance
She is the daytime chat show doyen beloved for her inoffensive brand of comedy.

But that has not stopped a real estate agent called Titi Pierce from suing Ellen DeGeneres after she mocked her moniker on an episode of her show in February.

Her send up of the name during a segment called Whats Wrong With These Signs garnered plenty of titters, not least from the host herself.

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Putting a smile on her face: Ellen DeGeneres was tickled pink by realtor Titi Pierce's name, which she featured in the Whats Wrong With These Signs segment on her show in February

Speaking about the name, which she featured after the similarly amusingly named but unconnected 'Nipple Convalescent Home, she wryly noted: 'Titi Pierce, sounds like she might have spent some time in that nipple home.'

Unfortunately Ellen pronounced the name like the slang name for a woman's breast, rather than the supposedly grammatically correct, 'tee-tee,' which is said to have led to the woman being a source of mockery ever since. Titi claims it was the first time anyone had mispronounced her name.

According to the Macon Telegraph, the Warner Robins, Georgia woman has been subjected to constant ridicule, with people ringing her mobile phone to leave cruel answerphone messages, including during a funeral.

Her attorney Stacey Godfrey Evans told the newspaper: 'Shes a real person with real feelings. She is a private, proud person, and she was humiliated on national television not once, but twice.'

Sign of trouble ahead: While her mobile number has since been blurred, Titi is suing due the distress she has suffered after her people started ringing her personal phone as it was shown in the original airing

In her suit the 35-year-old says when the segment aired her personal mobile phone number had not been blurred from the real estate sign featuring her name used on the show.

Realtor Titi, who also works as an Air Force base electronics engineer, claims she did not even see the segment when it initially aired, but soon afterwards received calls as she drove to a funeral, at the wake and during the service itself.

She claims she called the show in February and the following month to inform show staff the correct correct pronunciation of her name and that her number had not been blurred. She also begged that they do not reference her on the show or on social media.

While it was blurred on a video posted on social media, when the programme aired again April 15 her number could still be seen.

Deadpan delivery: But she struggled to keep a straight face after she read the name aloud

Titters aplenty: The audience was guffawing with glee at the apparantly ridiculous moniker

Her name was apparently taken from the Nigerian word for flower, which her mother discovered in a book on Nigerian names.

Titi is seeking unspecified monetary damages as she claims her privacy was invaded due to her name and phone number being publicised, and that emotional distress was intentionally inflicted

She also wants the court to force Warner Bros to stop airing the segment on television, the internet or social media.

The Ellen DeGeneres Show and Warner Bros have yet to comment on the case, however the clip has yet to be taken down from the show's YouTube page.
It was the social media sensation that went global thanks to one mother's infectious laughter.

And now reality TV star Angelique 'Frenchy' Morgan has jumped on the 'Chewbacca mom' bandwagon by posing in a Wookiee mask.

The 40-year-old ex-girlfriend of Gabi Grecko was seen writhing around on a deckchair wearing little more than bright pink bikini bottoms and a ripped T-shirt saying: 'I heart Chewbacca mom'.

The force is with her: Reality TV star Angelique 'Frenchy' Morgan has jumped on the 'Chewbacca mom' bandwagon by posing in a Wookiee mask

Frenchy growled at the camera and showed off her pink talons while wearing the Star Wars mask which howls just like the movie franchise's beloved Wookiee character.

With her long platinum blonde locks left loose over her shoulders, the former Celebrity Big Brother star was seen kneeling on wooden chairs in a backyard with her dirty feet clearly visible.

The original video, which was posted more than two weeks ago, starred Texas mother Candace Payne who filmed herself having a fit of laughter as she tried on the Chewbacca mask.

Out of this world: The 40-year-old ex-girlfriend of Gabi Grecko was seen writhing around on a deckchair wearing little more than bright pink bikini bottoms and a ripped T-shirt saying: 'I heart Chewbacca mom'

Wookie monster: Frenchy growled at the camera and showed off her pink talons wearing the Star Wars mask which howls just like the movie franchise's beloved character

She was so overjoyed by the toy that she started laughing to the point that she let out a loud snort before tears started streaming down her eyes.

Her infectious laughter captured the hearts of viewers and it became the most viewed Facebook live stream of all time with more than 50 million views and 1.4 million shares.

Candace had even more to laugh at after she got to 'drive James Corden to work' with a special surprise guest in the back seat during his Late Late Show.

Last month, busty reality TV star Frenchy confirmed that she had split with her girlfriend of just over one month, Gabi.

Big fan: The reality TV star left little to the imagination in a pair of skimpy pink bikini bottoms

Jumping on the bandwagon: Frenchy donned the mask more than two weeks after the original video

Photo shoot: With her long platinum blonde locks left loose over her shoulders, the former Celebrity Big Brother star was seen kneeling on wooden chairs in a backyard with her dirty feet clearly visible

The bottle blonde said she was the one to call it quits because she was too busy with her music career.

She said she thought she was a 'rebound' for Gabi, 26, who has split from her Australian businessman husband, Geoffrey Edelsten, 73.

Frenchy told Daily Mail Australia: 'I'm too busy to be tied down.'

'I think I was rebound for Gabi from her breakup with her ex and I'm very happy if I helped to move on, feel better about her and her ex,' the former exotic dancer from Paris said.

'She is my BFF (Best friend forever) friend (sic) and she knows she can contact me anytime.

'She is an amazing girl and she deserves someone who can be with her 24/7. I'm too busy to be tied down or [to] date anyone full time.'

The pair first got together in early April and appeared inseparable in weeks leading up to their split.
Mayte Garcia, who was married to Prince from 1996 to 2000, showed off her new tattoo in honor of the late artist for the first time in public on Tuesday.

The 42-year-old revealed via Periscope in May that she was getting the inking done.

And she showed up at a special PETA event in Los Angeles sporting the large image that had at its center the symbol Prince used to express himself during his record label dispute with Warner Bros. in the 1990s.

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Missing him: Mayte Garcia who was married to Prince from 1996 to 2000 showed off her new tribute tattoo in public for the first time as she headlined a special PETA event in Los Angeles on Tuesday

Poignant: The inking featured a flower design with The Love Symbol at the center. The symbol was created by Prince in 1993 during a record label dispute when he dumped his name to become known as 'The Artist'

The image features petal shapes with sun and flowers inside them and the so-called 'Love Symbol' at the center.

Mayte, a dancer, wed Prince on Valentine's Day in 1996 when she was 20 and he was 37.

She gave birth to their son Boy Gregory in October that year but the child, who suffered from the rare Pfeiffer syndrome, died just a week later.

Mayte and Prince divorced in 200.

Message: The 42-year-old former dancer wore a sleeveless black jumpsuit with cut-out panels at the waist as she endorsed the release by PETA of a free download of the Prince pro-vegan track Animal Kingdom

Passion: Mayte was 20 when she married the 37-year-old recording artist. Tuesday would have been Prince's 58th birthday. The pair are pictured performing on stage in 1995

The prolific musician and recording artist passed away on April 21, but had he lived, Tuesday would have been his 58th birthday.

Back in 1999 he had donated the pro-vegan track Animal Kingdom to the animal rights group PETA.

In honor of Prince, the organization is offering the song as a free download and Mayte said in a statement that she hoped it would encourage Prince fans to go vegan.

'My mission every 7 Jun is not only to celebrate his birth but also, with PETA, to remember this man by making 7 Jun a day where Prince fans go vegan to see how much better they feel and to honor his kind legacy,' Mayte said.

'PETA has a veg pledge on their site to make it really easy,' she added. 'Prince said, Compassion is an action word with no boundaries, and thats our message with this campaign, which everyone can participate in.'

The download is available online at PETA.org.
Katy Perry led the parade of celebrities who took to social media on Tuesday to celebrate Hillary Clinton becoming the first female major party presidential nominee.

'A lot of little girls are in bed right now dreaming for the first time, without limits. You broke the mold @HillaryClinton,' Perry, 31, tweeted to her nearly 90 million followers on Twitter.

Clinton, 68, claimed victory in the battle for the Democratic presidential nomination after primary wins in New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota, three of the six states that voted on Tuesday.

Campaign rally: Showing support: Katy Perry took to Twitter on Tuesday after Hillary Clinton became the first female major party presidential nominee (Perry is shown with Clinton in October 2015 at a campaign rally in Des Moines, Iowa)

Cher, 60, tweeted that she had tears as Clinton became the presumptive nominee.

'SAY WHAT YOU WILL...THE CHICK'S A WARRIOR,' Cher added.

The Real Housewives Of New York City star Dorinda Medley also took to social media to express herself.

'Can't help but feel awfully #proud tonight. Not only as a #woman and as a #Democrat, but as an #American. #ImWithHer #Hillary,' she tweeted.

Presumptive nominee: Clinton is shown on Tuesday during an election rally in New York

Elizabeth Banks tweeted that she was 'very emotional' about Clinton and called it a 'historic moment for American Women.'

Angela Bassett, 57, tweeted her support for Clinton while also acknowledging the late US Representative Shirley Chisholm who in 1968 was the first black woman elected to Congress.

Chisholm also ran for the presidency in 1972 as the first major-party black candidate and the first woman to seek the Democratic Party's nomination.

So proud: Cher tweeted that she had tears in her eyes watching Clinton

With her: Dorinda Medley also shared her pride on Twitter

Getting emotional: Elizabeth Banks said she was getting 'very emotional' watching Clinton secure the nomination

Paved the way: Angela Bassett gave a nod to Shirley Chisholm while supporting Clinton

Real difference: Jane Fonda tweeted that Clinton would make a 'real difference on so many levels'

Olivia Munn, 35, also noted the signifance in a tweet.

'Regardless of your political beliefs, it's pretty damn awesome to have a woman on the ballot for President,' she wrote.

Jane Fonda, 78, also tweeted her support for Clinton upon learning she'd clinched the nomination.

'I've known Hillary since the 90s when she wanted to talk to me about the challenges of raising a child as a famous woman. She's as intimate and personable as can be and she'll make a real difference on so many levels,' Fonda tweeted.

Mother and son: Jaime King celebrated the historic moment with her son

would now be a good time to re-post? my mother and Hillary- 2 Wellesley women- and me. deal w it pic.twitter.com/waWLKK5wT0  Liz Phair (@PhizLair) June 8, 2016

Woman card: Ellen DeGeneres tweeted that she was proud of her 'woman card' thanks to Clinton

Special night: Josh Gad noted the historical significance also
They're the genetically-blessed couple who have been wowing fans with their good looks since getting together approximately three years.

And on Tuesday, Darren McMullen and his American actress girlfriend Crystal Reed looked like the picture perfect pair as they walked the red carpet at The Matrix Theater in West Hollywood.

Proving just how close their bond is, the good-looking twosome dressed alike in matching leather jackets and black pants.

Back in black! Darren McMullen and his American actress girlfriend Crystal Reed stepped out to an event in Hollywood wearing matching outfits on Tuesday

The 34-year-old House Husbands actor looked more than handsome with his new short hairstyle as he stood next to his stunning partner.

Darren kept his look all black, sporting a black shirt and boots to complete the stylish ensemble.

Teen Wolf starlet Crystal went for a similar colour scheme, although she broke the black look by wearing a cream blouse underneath her jacket.

Stylish: The duo were wearing matching leather jackets and black pants as they posed for photos

Darren McMullen was recently announced as the host of Network Seven's new show, Big Music Quiz.

The 34-year-old's new role comes after he cut ties with rival network Nine late last year, ending his time on The Voice Australia and drama series House Husbands.

He revealed in an interview with the Daily Telegraph earlier this year: 'Its like the next step up from The Voice and towards a talk show; it has that feel about it and Id love to do that.'

The next step: Darren revealed in March he will host Seven Network's new show Big Music Quiz just months after leaving rival network, Nine's The Voice Australia and drama House Husbands

The Scottish-born presenter added that he wanted more from his career: 'I wanted to play something else, other than a gay librarian,' in reference to his House Husbands role.

His burgeoning career has been on the rise and he was recently signed to a high profile global U.S based agency, Creative Arts Agency (CAA)

Darren left Australia in pursuit of bigger things and told the publication: 'they were very, very keen to have me here [in LA] for pilot season. It all seemed to line up and was a good time to leave.'

New network: The 34-year-old cut ties with rival network Nine late last year ending his time on The Voice as a co-host with Sonia Kruger

Wanting more: The Scottish-born presenter added that he wanted more from his career: 'I wanted to play something else, other than a gay librarian,' in reference to his House Husbands role

Big Music Quiz is set to started production in Melbourne in May under Endemol Shine and is set to debut on screens later this year.

The shows format, originally from France, will see celebrity contestant teams battle it out with their music trivia knowledge while a huge crowd sings and dances behind them.

In a twist, which will be new to the Australian series, viewers will be able to play along at home and test their own knowledge through a mobile application.

New gig: Big Music Quiz is set to start production in Melbourne early next month under Endemol Shine and set to debut on screens in the back end of the year

Homecoming: His upcoming filming demands mean that he and girlfriend Crystal Reed will be relocating back to Australia this year

His upcoming filming demands mean that he and girlfriend Crystal Reed will be relocating back to Australia this year.

The loved-up pair have been based in the U.S since he signed with CAA and have been relishing their time together.

Darren regularly takes to social media to share sweet snaps with the brunette beauty, most recently a trip to Disneyland where they cosied up with Micky Mouse.
She's no stranger to turning heads in jaw-dropping ensembles.

So it's hardly surprising Isabel Lucas stole the attention when she attended the Australian Theatre Companys (ATC) opening night of Ruben Guthrie in Los Angles on Tuesday evening.

The 31-year-old beauty flaunted her slender frame in a semi-sheer peasant shirt which featured a digital red flower print and a peek-a-boo cut-out along the chest and sleeves.

Stunner: Isabel Lucas flaunted her slender frame in a floral ensemble as she lit up the Ruben Guthrie opening night red carpet with her perfect smile on Tuesday evening

Isabel neatly tucked the loose-fitting shirt into a pair of flared trousers with the same graphic print and added a caramel handbag and matching boots to her eye-catching look.

The former Home And Away star shunned glitzy accessories for a simple choker with a crimson stone, while leaving her honey coloured tresses out and straight.

She opted for a natural palette of make-up to highlight her striking features and flashed her perfect pout to the cameras that vied to capture her every move down the red carpet.

Keeping it simple: The 31-year-old styled her look with a caramel handbag and matching boots

Eye-catching style: The 31-year-old beauty flaunted her slender frame in a semi-sheer peasant shirt which featured a digital red flower print and a peek-a-boo cut-out along the chest and sleeves

Keeping the outfit as the focus: The former Home And Away star shunned glitzy accessories for a simple choker with a crimson stone, while leaving her honey coloured tresses out and straight

Isabel was later joined by fellow Australian actress Jackie Weaver who looked incredible in a simple white suit.

The 69-year-old Academy Award nominated film star looked to be in good spirits as she beamed for the cameras in a white blazer teamed with a matching pair of trousers.

Continuing the all-white theme, the Animal Kingdom actress added a loose fitting T-shirt and a pair of wedges to her chic red carpet uniform.

She's all white: Australian actress Jackie Weaver looked incredible in a simple white suit

Jackie left her platinum blonde tresses out and cascading over her shoulders and added a bold pink lip to give her outfit a pop of colour.

The Silver Linings Playbook star completed her look with pearl drop earrings and a black band wristwatch which matched her manicured toes lacquered with a dark polish.

Next to make his way down the red carpet was David Jones ambassador and fitness fashion designer, Jason Dundas.

Shining: Jackie left her platinum blonde tresses out and cascading over her shoulders and added a bold pink lip to give her outfit a pop of colour

Natural posers: The 69-year-old was joined on the red carpet by former Home And Away star Nick Hardcastle

Hiding something? Jason Dundas covered up his impressive muscular frame in a crisp white button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows

The 33-year-old covered up his impressive muscular frame in a crisp white button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows.

He teamed the business shirt with a pair of black denim trousers and a set of white trainers, while accessorising his look with a simple silver watch.

Jason neatly brushed back his raven coloured tresses, while adding a tiny amount of gel to his stylish do' to keep his luscious strands neatly into place.

Cutting a casual figure: He teamed the business shirt with a pair of black denim trousers and a set of white trainers, while accessorising his look with a simple silver watch

Flaunting it: Former Home And Away star Ester Anderson showed off her enviable figure in a pair of thigh-skimming shorts and a canary coloured long-sleeve shirt

Meanwhile, former Home And Away star Ester Anderson showed off her enviable figure in a pair of thigh-skimming shorts and a canary coloured long-sleeve shirt.

The brunette beauty pouted and posed, while kicking one leg up in the air as the cameraman snapped away.

She styled her long and luscious brunette locks into sweeping waves, while opting to highlight her big blue eyes with kohl eye-liner and lashings of mascara.

Strike a pose: The brunette beauty pouted and posed, while kicking one leg up in the air as the cameraman snapped away

Blooming beautiful: Kym Wilson had all eyes on her in an eye-catching floral wrap dress which clung to every contour of her body including her ample assets

Keeping in theme: The blonde actress added a bright red belt to the summer dress and boosted her petite frame in a pair of open-toed heels

Next to strut her stuff down was Former Heartbreak High actress Kym Wilson.

The 43-year-old Brisbane native had all eyes on her in an eye-catching floral wrap dress which clung to every contour of her body including her ample assets.

The blonde actress added a bright red belt to the summer dress and boosted her petite frame in a pair of open-toed heels.

She was also joined on the red carpet by former Blue Heelers star Matt Passmore who cut a casual figure in denim trousers and a leather jacket.

The pair couldnt wipe the smiles off their faces as they posed ahead of the show.
Her husband John Krasinski recently revealed that their second child will be arriving 'soon-ish'.

And as she enjoys the latter stages of her pregnancy, Emily Blunt continues to glow, heading to a pal's home in West Hollywood on Tuesday.

The 33-year-old actress wore a plain black top, which stretched tightly across her large baby bump, proving to be the slightest bit sheer.

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Pregnancy glow: Emily Blunt, 33, flaunted her baby bump in a slightly sheer black top as she headed to a pal's home in West Hollywood on Tuesday

The Devil Wears Prada star ensured she was dressed for maximum comfort and clad her legs in black jogger bottoms which featured cuff detailing just above her ankles.

Quite the multi-tasker, the British beauty carried a large black handbag and a matching water-bottle while juggling a folder full of documents.

A pair of animal print loafers spruced up the look, while tinted sunnies framed her natural make-up application.

The actress has made sure to keep sprightly during her pregnancy and earlier this week she put on a fun display with her two-year-old daughter Hazel at the playground.

Lively till the end! The Devil Wears Prada star- who according to her husband John Krasinski is due 'soon-ish'- ensured she was dressed for maximum comfort and clad her legs in black jogger bottoms

Her husband of six years Krasinski, 36, teased the due date of their second child last week in an interview withE! News at the premiere of his latest film, The Hollars.

And earlier this year, Blunt opened up to C Magazine about the differences she noticed in her two pregnancies.

'The first pregnancy is the most self-indulgent thing in the world because you get massages and prenatal yoga and hypnotherapy CDs,' said the actress.

'During this one I forget that Im even pregnant. Im hoisting my 2-year-old around!'

Maternity chic: A pair of animal print loafers spruced up the look, while a pair of tinted sunnies framed her natural make-up application

As for Hazel looking forward to having a new sibling? Emily told E! News earlier that she is slow to accept the fact and dismissed the idea initially.

Adding: 'We've bought her every single "I'm a big sister" book that's out there and she's a bookworm, so she's coming around.'

In other news, Blunt will follow the legendary Julie Andrews in the remake of 1964 classic, Mary Poppins, which is scheduled to release 2018 on Christmas Day.

Sibling rivalry: Emily recently revealed that it took some time for her 2-year-old daughter Hazel to accept the fact that she would be a big sister - Pictured at the playground earlier this week

The 'Hamilton' creator Lin-Manuel Miranda will join the cast as a new character, Jack the street lamplighter.

Despite her motherhood duties which will set to double, the Huntsman actress also has Girl On The Train to heavily promote in the upcoming months.

However, recent reports show that Blunt will not appear in the follow-up flick to 2015's nail-biting thriller Sicario, despite initial reports saying she would return.
Amber Heard was seen heading to a meeting in Los Angeles on Tuesday, as it was alleged that she was arrested for domestic violence against her then girlfriend Tasya Van Ree in 2009.

Johnny Depp's estranged wife made a low key arrival in a wide-brimmed hat and shades.

The sighting comes after TMZ reported that Heard and van Ree got into an argument on September 14, 2009 at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

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Hitting headlines: Amber Heard was seen heading to a meeting in Los Angeles on Tuesday

Amber looked relaxed as she strolled into the office building, dressed in a pair of loose jeans, smart white shirt and leopard print loafers.

It was reported this week that the actress allegedly grabbed van Ree's arm, was arrested and booked for misdemeanor domestic violence in a 2009 incident.

Her mugshot was taken and she appeared in court the following day.

Chic: Amber looked relaxed as she strolled into the office building, dressed in a pair of loose jeans, smart white shirt and leopard print loafers

Heard is currently suing Johnny Depp for divorce claiming, amid other things, that he was violent towards her and threw his iPhone at her, bruising her face.

But the prosecutor declined to take the case further but warned Heard she could reconsider and refile within the two-year statute of limitation period.

It was previously revealed that Heard considered herself married to her Van Ree, before she ever tied the knot with Depp.

New documents have revealed Amber (pictured, left) was arrested for misdemeanor domestic violence towards her then partner Van Ree (right) in 2009

While gay marriage was not legal at the time, the couple did everything that would make them as legally close to married as possible.

The two women viewed themselves as a married couple even if on paper the word was not available to them eight years ago.

The now 30-year-old actress went as far as changing her last name to match her photographer love's name.

On March in 2008 in California, the star legally changed her name to Amber Van Ree and stated the reason to do so as they were in a 'domestic partnership'.

Three months later, California started issuing marriage licences to gay couples but that was halted later that year, with gay marriage not legal in California again until 2013 and across the US until 2015.

Covered all bases: While gay marriage was not legal at the time, former couple (pictured 2010) did everything that would make them as legally close to married legally changed her name to Amber Van Ree and stated the reason to do so as they were in a 'domestic partnership'

Secret wedding: A source said the two women held a private ceremony three years after Amber changed her name to celebrate their love

A source told the Mirror that the couple went on to have a private ceremony in 2011 in New York, when same-sex marriage was legalized there but did not make it legally official.

The couple asked the special few who attended the wedding to keep the wedding a secret, the source said.

Amber, The Mirror reports, did not need to divorce her partner because of their legal status but did petition to change her name back in 2013 and it was granted the following year three months after she and Johnny got engaged.

Bruises: Amber claims the 52-year-old actor attacked her while drunk and high over last weekend - and it was not the first time that he had done so

It was Amber's continued friendship with her former wife that reportedly led to Johnny's alleged explosive anger at the star.

Amber claims the 52-year-old actor attacked her while drunk and high over last weekend - and it was not the first time that he had done so.

Amber said in documents submitted to a Los Angeles court on Friday that she 'truly feared my life was in danger' more than once during the couple's 15-month marriage.

The star successfully argued she need restraining order against her estrange husband, who she says smashed up there home and threw a phone at her leaving her battered and bruised.

The Rum Diaries actress also begged the judge for protection for her Yorkshire terrier, Pistol, who was a gift from wife Tasya.

While Amber claimed she feared what the actor would do to the pooch, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Carl H. Moor determined there was 'an insufficient showing of need to protect the pet dog.'

In her declaration of petition for a restraining order, seen by DailyMail.com, Amber said she this was not the first time Johnny had been abusive.

Amber, who has filed for divorce, said: 'Johnny has a long-held and widely acknowledged public and private history of drug and alcohol abuse. He has a short fuse.

'He is often paranoid and his temper is exceptionally scary for me as it has proven many times to be physically dangerous and/or life threatening to me.'

She also said: 'During the entirety of our relationship, Johnny has been verbally and physically abusive to me.

Asked for protection: The star (pictured Janurary) successfully argued she need restraining order against her estrange husband, but failed to get the same for her dog Pistol, who was a present from ex Tasya

'I endured excessive emotional, verbal and physical abuse from Johnny, which has included angry, hostile, humiliating and threatening assaults to me whenever I questioned his authority or disagreed with him. I live in fear that Johnny will return to (our house) unannounced to terrorise me, physically and emotionally.'

Giving credibility to reports that Johnny has had an issue with Amber's continued relationship with her ex, Amber said of Friday's alleged attack was started over 'something that was untrue' that he was obsessed about and his 'demeanor changed dramatically' and 'became extremely angry'.

Johnny did not appear in court but his legal team have dismissed the domestic violence claims as nothing more than a cash grab - the couple have no pre-nup.
She is one of the very few transgender models making her mark in the modelling industry.

And on Tuesday Australian beauty Andreja Pejic proved why as she attended the 2016 Fragrance Foundation Awards presented by Hearst Magazines in New York City.

The 24-year-old beauty stunned at the event as she slipped her slender frame into a flawless off-the-shoulder gown.

Lady in red: Transgender model Andreja Pejic stunned on Tuesday as she slipped her slender frame into a flawless off-the-shoulder gown for the 2016 Fragrance Foundation Awards in New York City

The red garment hugged tightly around her figure and formed a long train as it gathered on the floor.

It also had a criss-cross feature across her hip region.

Andreja wore her blonde shoulder length hair out and parted down the middle while styled straight.

Details: The red garment hugged tightly around her figure and formed a long train as it gathered on the floor

Featured: It also had a criss-cross feature across her hip region

Behind: The floor-length piece showed off the model's sun-kissed tanned skin as it featured a low-cut back

She kept her make-up simple with a bold red lipstick and a grey and black toned eye shadow.

Later in the day she posed up a storm while dressed in an all-black leather outfit.

She had slipped into a loose-fitting halter neck top which she had paired with a matching material mini-shirt.

Andreja kept her bold make-up and hair style the same but added a black choker necklace as an accessory.

Stylish: Andreja wore her blonde shoulder length hair out and parted down the middle while styled straight

Flawless: She kept her makeup simple with a bold red lipstick and a grey and black toned eye shadow

Say cheese: As she posed for the camera she tucked her locks behind her ear to give a clear view of her blemish free complexion

Bling: The Australian beauty also accessorised with a pair of gold and red gem earrings

Making a statement: Later in the day she posed up a storm while dressed in an all-black leather outfit

Born in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Andreja and her family immigrated to Melbourne as political refugees when she was eight years old in 2000.

She was scouted at age 16 while working at McDonald's and began making a name for herself as an androgynous model, showcasing both male and female designs.

In 2014, Andreja made the transition to female and has since become the first transgender model to front a cosmetics campaign. Her debut as the face of Make Up Forever was unveiled in July 2015.

In February last year, she made her triumphant debut on the catwalk as a woman following a year spent undergoing a series of gender reassignment procedures.

All eyes on her! She had slipped into a loose-fitting halter neck top which she had paired with a matching material mini-shirt
Having starred in 14 Victoria's Secret shows, she's no stranger to showing off her stunning figure in barely-there ensembles.

And Adriana Lima oozes body confidence as she poses for a stunning new shoot for swimsuit line Calzedonia.

The 34-year-old mum of two positively sizzles as she models the Italian brand's 2016 swimwear collection.

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Model behaviour: Adriana Lima oozes body confidence as she poses for a stunning new shoot for swimsuit line Calzedonia

The Brazilian beauty was photographed by Russell James and styled by Elizabeth Sulcer for the gorgeous shoot.

Adriana is seen showing off a series of skimpy bikinis for the shoot, including one tiny white crochet two-piece which barely covers her ample assets.

Another shot sees the dark-haired stunner posing up a storm in a sexy cut-out one-piece, which showcases her hourglass curves to perfection.

All white: One shot sees the dark-haired stunner posing up a storm in a sexy cut-out one-piece, which showcases her hourglass curves to perfection

Strike a pose: The 34-year-old mum of two positively sizzles as she models the Italian brand's 2016 swimwear collection

There's also plenty of colourful pieces in the new collection, including a neon pink bikini with black trim and sizzling bandeau tops.

To add to the sexy vibe, Adriana's long locks have been styled in wet-look waves, while she rocks shimmering eye shadow and flawless skin.

The top model, who is mum to her daughters with ex husband Mark Jaric, Valentina, four, and Sienna, two, hit back at the haters earlier this year as she spoke out on her exhausting schedule.

Summer's here! The Brazilian beauty was photographed by Russell James and styled by Elizabeth Sulcer for the gorgeous shoot

Perfect poster girl: There's plenty of colourful pieces in the new collection, including a neon pink bikini with black trim and sizzling bandeau tops

Kicking back: The mum of two's toned figure is on full display in the red hot shoot

Sharing a make-up free selfie, Adriana embarked on an Instagram rant about her long working hours.

She wrote: 'This is not a complaint, just sharing a little bit of my life. Sometimes, people question, that model life is easy, and that's wrong, we work as hard as any other individual.

'Today I had 10 hours of work day, shooting with a very bad cold, coughing no stop and a massive headache. That did not stopped me on doing what I love.

It's getting hot in here: To add to the sexy vibe, Adriana's long locks have been styled in wet-look waves, while she rocks shimmering eye shadow and flawless skin

Posing up a storm: Adriana looked in great shape in the tiny bikinis

Finishing touches: Delicate body chains and jewelry add to the glam vibe of the swimwear shoot

'I finished, went to airport, to come back home to see my 2 princesses. Arriving there, my flight was over 3 hours delayed. I fly from NYC to Miami. Just waked home 2am. Happy to be here. [sic].

'And wanted to share the face of a hard working model, and share that I am not the only one that works this hard. Thank you. And I hope my message don't get misunderstand. Love u all.'

The secret: Adriana recently gave an interview with Vogue magazine, in which she divulged some of her beauty secrets, naming happiness as her best trick

Ready for her close up: The star has modelled in 14 Victoria's Secret shows throughout her career

Adriana recently gave an interview with Vogue magazine, in which she divulged some of her beauty secrets.

'Happiness is the best beauty trick,' she said when asked what advice she would like to pass on to her children.

She also revealed that 'coconut water is her ultimate beauty secret.'

Chic cover up: Adriana is also styled in a white crochet dress for one shot
Last month, he had a decidedly busy visit to the UK, as he sang in celebration of Leicester City's momentous Premier League victory and performed at Queen Elizbaeth II's 90th birthday event.

But on Tuesday, Andrea Bocelli was spotted soaking up the sun thousands of miles away in Beverly Hills, California, as he enjoyed a family lunch with his wife Veronica and their daughter Virginia.

Donning a navy jacket over a white T-shirt, the Italian tenor, 57, appeared to be in his element as he dined al fresco while smooching with his spouse and cuddling and kissing his four-year-old offspring.

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Fine dining: Andrea Bocelli was seen enjoying an al fresco lunch with his wife Veronica in Beverly Hills, California, on Tuesday

His wife of two years looked notably glamorous for their daytime excursion, stepping out in a cleavage-bearing pink floral dress, which she teamed with strappy neutral heels and a pink handbag.

Protecting her eyes with a stylish pair of sunglasses, Veronica tied her brunette tresses into a relaxed ponytail.

Not to be outdone, adorable little Virginia arrived at their eatery of choice in a pushchair while wearing an elaborately layered pink dress, teamed with ballet flats.

Doting dad: The classical tenor was also spotted kissing his adorable daughter Virginia on the cheek

A little help from my friends: The family enjoyed their sun-soaked meal surrounded by a large group of pals

Fancy seeing you here! As the group tucked into their meal, they were briefly joined by Randy Jackson

Catching up: The former American Idol judge chatted enthusiastically as Andrea listened intently

Here comes the hotstepper: As well as appearing on American Idol, Randy has served as executive producer on America's Best Dance Crew

Listen up! Randy was also spotted chatting with Veronica, who was seated at the centre of the group's table

The munch bunch: Andrea was seen enjoying dessert as his lesiurely group meal drew to a close

As the family chowed down on their chosen culinary delights, they were briefly joined by former American Idol judge Randy Jackson, who dropped in for a chat.

On Sunday, Andrea served as a headlining performer at a sold-out show at the Hollywood Bowl, ahead of performances across the US.

The classical tenor and his manager wife Veronica met in 2002, and tied the knot in 2014 in the Italian coastal town of Livorno.

Pretty in pink! Virginia stole the show as they arrived at the family meal wearing a layered pink gown

Daddy's girl: Virginia shared hugs and kisses with her famous father during their sunny afternoon out

We are family: The alented Italian star is also the father of two sons, from his previous marriage

Anticipated: Andrea is set to perform with American Idol runner-up Jessica Sanchez in Minneapolis on Friday

Cool to a T: As the California sunshine blared down on him, Andrea removed his jacket to reveal a white T-shirt

American Idol season 11 runner-up Jessica Sanchez recently divulged that she's set to perform with the star in Minneapolis on Friday.

'I still feel like its not real,' an excited Jessica, 20, told Billboard magazine in a recent interview.

She added of her performance preparation: 'I am learning all of these songs and its going to be beautiful. I love singing in Spanish and Italian, so I am really excited for everybody to hear this. It's an honour.'

Fan favourite: One of the eatery's waitresses couldn't resist the temptation to take a snapshot with the star

Glamour girl: Veronica looked decidedly glamorous for the daytime excursion, donning a floral pink dress

All in the details: Veronica teamed her plunging frock with a pair of strappy heels and a pink-and-grey handbag
They were tasked with cooking Chinese street food for 500 people at Melbourne's Chinatown.

But MasterChef Australia's Chloe Bowles and Harry Foster, who were on the same team together, butted heads over how to prepare a beef noodle salad, which contributed them to losing the challenge.

'We can taste the blandness and friction there,' said special guest judge Kylie Kwong as she tried the dish, clearly unsatisfied.

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Got beef? MasterChef Australia's Chloe Bowles and Harry Foster butted heads over a beef noodle salad on Wednesday's episode

Earlier in the episode. Chloe and Harry clashed as they tried to determine how to prepare the dish.

Harry was keen to do it as a standard beef noodle stir fry, while Chloe insisted on incorporating some kind of cold salad.

Eventually it was Chloe who got her way, due to her status as the team captain for the challenge.

'Chloe's the captain, so she needs to make the decision,' sighed Harry as he conceded to her request.

Different ideas: Harry wanted to prepare a standard noodle stir-fry, while Chloe insisted on having some kind of cold salad in the dish

'Chloe's the captain, so she needs to make the decision,' sighed Harry

Compromise: Eventually they decided on a beef noodle salad for five bucks

Eventually a beef noodle salad was decided upon, which left both the hungry Chinatown crowd and the judges unsatisfied.

'We can taste the blandness and friction there,' said Kylie, referring to the fight that Harry and Chloe had over the dish.

The other judges echoed Kylie's sentiment, specifying that it was the lack of flavorsome dressing that really did the dish in.

'We can taste the blandness and friction there,' said special guest judge Kylie Kwong as she tried the dish

Nobody likes it: All the judges agreed that the salad dressing was lacking flavour

Ultimately, it was the red team, led by Elise, who came out on top after selling $3,285 worth of food - several hundred dollars more than yellow did.

'It's the best feeling ever to win a team challenge as a captain!' said Elise.

'I'm feeling shattered, I'm feeling really responsible for how today went,' lamented Chloe.
He's currently taking aim at Google in a bid to have unflattering years-old images of himself permanently removed from the internet.

But on Tuesday, 54-year-old rocker Axl Rose took his mind off his woes as he enjoyed a night out at London hotspot Chiltern Firehouse.

Propping himself up with an embellished walking stick, the veteran musician looked casually cool in a black ensemble, which included fitted jeans, a snake-patterned T-shirt and hi-top shoes.

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Out and about: Axl Rose was spotted enjoying a night out at London's Chiltern Firehouse on Tuesday night

Axl - born William Bruce Rose - added small dabs of colour to his outfit with a navy long-sleeved shirt, which was tied around his waist, and a white leather jacket, which rested on his shoulder.

With an array of silver jewellery adorning his neck, fingers and wrist, the tattooed star topped off his get-up with a wide-brimmed grey hat, from which fell his shoulder-length hair.

Axl's night out came as news emerged he is demanding that an image he claims was released without his consent or approval be removed from the internet by Google.

Stick with it: The Guns N' Roses frontman was seen using an embellished walking stick as he exited the venue

Black to basics: Axl - born William Bruce Rose - donned a black ensemble, with small hints of colour

The image in question was taken of the Guns N Roses frontman at a 2010 concert in Canada by Boris Minkevich and published in the Winnipeg Free Press.

That photo was quickly stolen of the newspaper's website and used to male memes mocking Rose's weight.

Rose has now hired Web Sheriff to get the photo taken offline.

Hat's the way to do it: The 54-year-old star topped off his ensemble with a wide-brimmed grey hat

Weighty issue: Axl's fuller figure has attracted an onslaught of less-than-kind memes at his expense

All that glitters...: The veteran musician added to his look with an array of chunky silver jewellery

Torrent Freak reports that late last month a notice was sent to some sites that hosted the photo reading: 'Copyright image of Axl Rose. Please be advised that no permission has been granted to publish the copyright image so we cannot direct you to an authorized example of it.'

Web Sheriff also said that Minkevich never had any right to publish or post his photograph since he signed a waiver before the concert.

When asked about this Minkevich told TF that he could not remember if he had signed a waiver at the time as the event took place over six years ago.

Mad: Axl Rose (above on Saturday) is demanding that a photo taken of him at a 2010 concert be removed from the internet

Sticks and stones... : The image ran in the Winnipeg Free Press and had led to countless memes mocking his weight in the years since

He also said that he was completely unaware that Rose was trying to have the image removed from the internet.

'Either way the photo was stolen off our website with no permission granted by the Winnipeg Free Press,' said Minkevich.

Even if Web Sheriff does succeed however, it will not be able to erase the countless memes that have popped up of the image over the years.

Not so sweet: Even if the image is removed however, the memes will still exist of the image on social media
It wasn't hard to figure out how Stacy Keibler was nicknamed 'The Legs of WWE' as she headed to Gracias Madre in West Hollywood on Tuesday.

The 36-year-old former pro-wrestler paraded her mile-long pins in a flirty b&w halter frock beneath a denim trench and black T-strap sandals.

The 5ft11in stunner - whose fitness trainer is Nonna Gleyzer - sported square shades over her minimally made-up face.

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Lady who lunches! It wasn't hard to figure out how Stacy Keibler was nicknamed 'The Legs of WWE' as she headed to Gracias Madre in West Hollywood on Tuesday

Stacy - who once romanced George Clooney - finished off her summery ensemble with black tote featuring a gold chain strap.

Keibler enjoyed organic vegan Mexican fare without her millionaire husband, Future Ads CEO Jared Pobre, and their daughter Ava Grace, who turns 2 on August 20.

Ever since her 19-hour home birth with no meds, the former Dancing with the Stars contestant has been a stay-at-home mother and refuses to hire a nanny.

Out and about: The 36-year-old former pro-wrestler paraded her mile-long pins in a flirty b&w halter frock beneath a denim trench and black T-strap sandals

Natural beauty: The 5ft11in stunner - whose fitness trainer is Nonna Gleyzer - sported square shades over her minimally made-up face

Nice stems: Stacy - who once romanced George Clooney - finished off her summery ensemble with black tote featuring a gold chain strap

'Being a mom is the most important job I've ever had, but being a full-time mom means more to me than anything in the world right now,' Stacy told People last year.

The former Baltimore Ravens cheerleader hasn't blogged on her 'Well-Being, Organic Living' website since December 15.

'As most of us can attest to, life can become overwhelmingly busy. And for me, this is one of those times,' Keibler apologized to her 1.5M followers.

Family-of-three: Keibler enjoyed organic vegan Mexican fare without her millionaire husband, Future Ads CEO Jared Pobre, and their daughter Ava Grace, who turns 2 on August 20 (pictured March 25)

'Being a full-time mom means more to me than anything': Ever since her 19-hour home birth with no meds, the former Dancing with the Stars contestant has been a stay-at-home mother and refuses to hire a nanny

'You know I'm all about health and wellness - and that means finding the right balance between work and family. It also means being conscious of our physical, emotional and spiritual well-being. Sometimes our balance needs adjusting, and we need to listen to that little voice thats trying to help us. I hear that little voice, so Im going to slow down until I can catch up.'

The Maryland-born brunette hasn't posted anything on social media since March 15, and she's been largely out of the spotlight since 2014.

'Life can become overwhelmingly busy. And for me, this is one of those times': The former Baltimore Ravens cheerleader hasn't blogged on her 'Well-Being, Organic Living' website since December 15
Drew Barrymore has made a career off her stunning facial features, not only landing romantic comedy roles in hit films like Blended, but also selling makeup for her Flower line.

So it's odd to see the 41-year-old beauty posting a shot to Instagram where her face looks off.

On Tuesday the mother-of-two shared a photo where she was not just completely makeup free, but also had some unruly eyebrows as she cast her vote in California.

Funny face: Drew Barrymore showed off unruly eyebrows when she went makeup free on Tuesday while voting for the Democratic party

Closer look: It may have been that she just forgot to brush them in place, or perhaps she had trouble with a brow liner. But normally she does not look this way. Still, she oozed charisma with her winning smile and looked several years younger than she really is

Done up: The star often wears plenty of makeup, like she did here on May 13

It may have been that she just forgot to brush them in place, or perhaps she had trouble with a brow liner. But normally she does not look this way. Still, she oozed charisma with her winning smile and looked several years younger than she really is.

The Charlie's Angels star was flashing a peace sign and had her hair down in long, unfussed waves. Her grey shirt said Barrymore Carmel Road and she wore a gold necklace. On her arm her BREATHE tattoo could be seen.

The former child star was in the Democratic booth.

 Slide me  Pretty either way: The Hollywood icon with no makeup (left) and in May (right) with her glam on

Still pals: The Blended actress said she is still close to her ex Will Kopelman's sister Jill Kargman, seen here in December

This comes after Drew said she was still ;best friends; with her estranged husband's sister.

The actress recently split from Will Kopelman - the father of her daughters Olive, three, and Frankie, two - after almost four years of marriage but she has maintained her close friendship with his sister Jill Kargman and recently filmed a guest appearance on her show Odd Mom Out.

Jill's co-star Andy Buckley told PEOPLE: ;She and Jill are still best friends and everybody's still super close even though there's trouble, obviously.

SAd: When the couple announced that they were separating, Drew and Will insisted it didn't make them any less of a family. They said in a statement: 'Sadly, our family is separating legally, although we do not feel this takes away from us being a family'; here they are seen in April 2015

'You wouldn't think, 'Oh, there's trouble,' because it certainly didn't appear that way.'

And Andy was hugely impressed with Drew when she filmed her guest appearance.

He said: 'She couldn't be sweeter, She's like this super relaxed Topanga, if you will, relaxed hippie feeling girl almost. She's incredibly funny. I didn't really know how funny she is.'
Trainer Aaron Williamson shared an eye-popping snap of his client J.K. Simmons flexing his sinewy, bulging biceps at Gold's Gym in Los Angeles on Thursday.

Believe it or not the 61-year-old Oscar winner has been buffing up for his role as Gotham City Police Commissioner James Gordon in Zack Snyder's two-part Justice League films.

'Every time we train together I forget he's 61 years old,' Williamson captioned the work-out picture.

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'#OldManCranking': Trainer Aaron Williamson shared an eye-popping snap of his client J.K. Simmons flexing his sinewy, bulging biceps at Gold's Gym in Los Angeles on Thursday

'He's making me look bad': The 61-year-old Oscar winner has been buffing up for his role as Gotham City Police Commissioner James Gordon in Zack Snyder's two-part Justice League films (pictured April 30)

Williamson wrote: 'Every time we train together I forget he's 61 years old...Making the young generation jealous. This is what dedication looks like...His intensity in the gym is through the roof' (pictured April 23)

'Making the young generation jealous. This is what dedication looks like...His intensity in the gym is through the roof. It's been a privilege helping him stay on point. I've got a lot of respect for this man.'

The retired US Marine - who also worked with Simmons on Terminator: Genisys - has previously trained Zac Efron, The Rock, James Marsden, Sylvester Stallone, and Jamie Foxx.

J.K. - born Jonathan Kimble - clearly wants his Gordon to look physically impressive like his future Justice League co-stars Henry Cavill, Ben Affleck, and Jason Momoa.

'My understanding, from what I've learned so far about Commissioner Gordon, is that he's the older guy with the mustache who relates with our hero in a certain way,' the Spider-Man alum told Collider in April.

'#Family': The retired US Marine - who also worked with Simmons on Terminator: Genisys - has previously trained Zac Efron, The Rock, James Marsden, Sylvester Stallone, and Jamie Foxx (pictured December 9)

Big boys: J.K. - born Jonathan Kimble - clearly wants his Gordon to look physically impressive like his future Justice League co-stars Henry Cavill (L), Ben Affleck (M), and Jason Momoa

The Spider-Man alum told Collider in April: 'Commissioner Gordon is the older guy with the mustache who relates with our hero in a certain way. I'm sure there will be differences and similarities with what Gary Oldman or Pat Hingle have done before, but I'm just going to try to do my take on it' (pictured Sunday)

'I'm sure there will be differences and similarities with what Gary Oldman or Pat Hingle have done before, but I'm just going to try to do my take on it and be as informed as I can about the rich history of the Batman universe, going into it.'

The Zootopia actor will next play Ray King, the head of Treasury Department's Crime Enforcement Division, in The Accountant hitting US theaters October 14.

The forensic accounting thriller - hitting UK theaters November 4 - also stars Anna Kendrick, Ben Affleck, John Lithgow, and Jeffrey Tambor.

Hitting US theaters October 14! The Zootopia actor will next play Ray King, the head of Treasury Department's Crime Enforcement Division, in The Accountant

Hitting UK theaters November 4! The forensic accounting thriller also stars Anna Kendrick, Ben Affleck, John Lithgow, and Jeffrey Tambor

And Simmons has memorably voiced the Yellow M&M in adverts since taking over for John Goodman back in 1996.

The Broadway thespian has two children - son Joe and daughter Olivia - with his wife of 20 years, Michelle Schumacher.

Michelle will soon direct her Michigan-born man in the 2017 drama I'm Not Here alongside Mandy Moore, Maika Monroe, and Sebastian Stan.

Candy-coated voiceover gig: And Simmons has memorably voiced the Yellow M&M in adverts since taking over for John Goodman back in 1996
Kyle Richards has a curvaceous figure thanks to her consistent workout routine.

The reality star was spotted hiking with her girl pals in Los Angeles on Tuesday morning.

The 47-year old stunner wore a casual outfit for the occasion, sporting a black tank top and underneath full cup bra that revealed her ample cleavage, and matching black leggings showcasing her shapely legs.

Working it out: Kyle Richards was spotted hiking with her girl pals in Los Angeles on Tuesday morning

The Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills star kept holding on to her grey jumpsuit and rounded off her look with pink trainers, while covering her eyes with a pair of oversized and tinted aviator shades.

She choose a variety of accessories, donning a seed bead long lariat necklace with pendant which fell right in between her gorgeous breasts, while adding into the mix a pair of pearl drop earrings and a silver diamond ring.

The stunning brunette ditched the make up and pulled her silky brunette tresses away from her face in a low ponytail.

Morning Hike: The 47-year old stunner wore a casual outfit for the occasion, sporting a black tank top and underneath full cup bra that revealed her ample cleavage, and matching black leggings showcasing her shapely legs

Ready for a kick: The stunning brunette owns an incredible toned and curvaceous figure also thanks to her consistent workout routine

The American actress has been a part of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills cast since the show's very beginning, which means that she has seen a lot of women come and go through the years with all the cast changes, including her own sister Kim Richards.

While it's still not certain if Kyle will return for the show's seventh season, the overwhelming tension between her and sister Kim became explosive during the show's last installment.

The best moment during the Richard sister's feud arrived when Kyle got her final word against Kim: 'As a sister, I will always love you. As a person, I don't like you very much.'

She's the main star: Kyle Richards has been a part of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills cast since the show's very beginning, which means that she has seen a lot of women come and go through the years with all the cast changes, including her own sister Kim Richard

Sister's feud: While it's still not certain if Kyle will return for the show's seventh season, the overwhelming tension between her and sister Kim became explosive during the show's last installment

The Hollywood native has been married to Mauricio Umansky, a real estate agent, since 1996. Their first daughter Alexia was born on June 18, 1996 and the couple went on to have two more daughters, Sophia (b. 2000) and Portia (b. 2008).

The television personality took to Instagram this past weekend, sharing several snaps of her sweet vacation in the Bahamas.

In one of the snaps, captioned "Bahama love', she is seen kissing with her hubby by the shores of the Exumas, a splendid Caribbean resort which during the weekend welcomed 15 celebrities for a two day bash benefiting The Sandals Foundation.

Another playful snap, captioned, 'I mean it's not THAT bad being the only girl on this trip', sees the reality star laying on the beach sporting a sexy black and white bikini, while eight men, including her hubby, are checking her wonderful assets.

Lovebirds: The Hollywood native has been married to Mauricio Umansky, a real estate agent, since 1996. Their first daughter Alexia was born on June 18, 1996 and the couple went on to have two more daughters, Sophia and Portia

Kisses from heaven: The television personality took to Instagram this past weekend, sharing a snap, captioned "Bahama love', where she is seen kissing with hubby by the shores of the Exumas, a splendid Caribbean resort in the Bahamas
It looks like the Skinny Girl is craving a Million Dollar Listing.

Bethenny Frankel was spotted out in the Tribeca neighbourhood of New York City on Monday with fellow reality star Fredrik Eklund.

The 45-year-old author is hunting for something in the $15 to $30 million range according to a Wednesday report from TMZ.

Splashing the cash? Bethenny Frankel was spotted looking for a home in the Tribeca neighbourhood of New York City on Monday with Million Dollar Listing star Fredrik Eklund

She seems to be no stranger from scooping up properties in the Big Apple as she already has four homes in the area along with several in the city and a residence in the Hamptons according to an Insider for the gossip site.

On the same day Bethenny Frankel was spotted stepping out with Dennis Shields..

The Real Housewives Of New York star and the executive chairman of the board of New Yorks Esquire Bank have been friends for years.

But they appeared to be more than that during their afternoon outing as they held hands.

Looks like romance: The 45-year-old was spotted holding onto banker Dennis Shields' hand as they strolled together in the Big Apple that same day

The pair put on an intimate display as they held hands with one another during their stroll.

According to Page Six, 'Bethenny is very much enjoying being single. Her focus is on her business and her daughter.'

Dennis and his wife Jill are currently separated and apparently Frankel and her have a long history.

Looking fresh:The brunette TV personality left her short brown locks down as she accessorized her summery outfit with a pair of large round sunglasses

Bright and cherry: Frankel looked cute in her bright ensemble

Frankel's rep said of the subject: 'Frankel has been going through her own divorce from Jason Hoppy since 2013.'

She said in an interview in January that the divorce 'is sort of like a drop of poison in the ocean . . . Am I feeling it? No. But its there . . . Its not that emotionally draining. It does come up at times. You have to really just be very Zen about it.'

Frankel has also said she would not get legally married again, 'not even with a billionaire.'

Looking cute: The Real Housewives Of New York star wore a pair of coral chinos, a white blouse and a colourful printed scarf as she strolled around Manhattan

Bethenny wore a pair of coral chinos, a white blouse and a colourful printed scarf as she strolled around Manhattan.

The star looked casual but chic as she wore a pair of flat shoes whilst carrying her large tote bag.

The brunette TV personality left her short brown locks down as she accessorized her summery outfit with a pair of large round sunglasses.

Dennis look laid back in a pair of black jeans, a light blue shirt and a pair of red trainers.

On Wednesday, Us Weekly released a new explosive clip from RHONY where Frankel had a screaming match with fellow castmate Luann de Lesseps over whether she had or had not claimed to have had a part in the formation of Frankel's Skinnygirl brand name.

Things certainly seemed to come to a head as Frankel called Lesseps a 'slut, liar and a hypocrite.'

What's going on? Dennis and his wife Jill are currently separated and apparently Frankel and her have a long history
It was her famous genes that got her scouted - but it seems like Mick Jagger's daughter Lizzy now bares a stronger resemblance than ever to mother Jerry Hall.

The 32-year-old catwalk beauty looked look a red-headed version of her famous mother, now 59, as she was unveiled as the new face - and glorious head of hair - behind Redken.

It's little surprise that Lizzy, born Elizabeth Jagger, has been chosen for the role, thanks to her lustrous flame-coloured curls and exquisite, natural beauty.

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She's got the look: Lizzy Jagger bore a striking resemblance to her mother Jerry Hall as she was unveiled as the new muse for Redken on Wednesday

Lizzy cuts a striking pose in a in a suit jacket, going braless underneath to tease a portion of her porcelain English rose skin beneath.

With her hair worn in voluminous curls, Lizzy is the spitting image of Jerry in her modelling hey-day, the height of which saw Mick's ex land over 40 magazine covers including Italian Vogue and Cosmopolitan.

Lizzy was the eldest of Mick and Jerry's children, preceding James, Georgia May and Gabriel, during the couple's 18-year relationship.

Who's that girl? Lizzy (left) looked exactly like Jerry (right) with her voluminous curls

Rock chick: The star also channeled her Rolling Stones rocker father Mick Jagger as she flung about her hair in the shoot

In a nod to her father's Rolling Stones rocker background, Lizzy also got to throw her long locks about in the fun photoshoot, dressed in a leather biker jacket and skinny jeans.

Of the Redken debut, Lizzy said: 'I am so honoured and excited to be joining the Redken family. I had such an amazing time shooting with them.'

Lizzy is helping the brand to launch a new in-salon service, Heatcure Professional, which promises to improve the look and feel of damaged hair.

Model maven: Lizzy is helping the brand to launch a new in-salon service, Heatcure Professional

Lizzy is currently signed by TESS Management and made her catwalk debut with her mother almost 20 years ago.

She walked for Thierry Mugler in her first ever show, and obviously made quite the impression considering the long-standing career she's had.

Before Redken, Lizzy has been the face of high street fashion brand Mango and she's also starred in Marks & Spencers campaigns.
Her husband's acting career never sees him too far from a guise.

And Isla Fisher looked to be wearing her own one when she stepped out for a walk with her youngest son Monty, one, in North London on Wednesday afternoon.

The gorgeous red-head, who is married to comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, appeared to want to go under the radar as she sauntered along the street in a low-key ensemble.

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Low-key: Her husband's acting career never sees him too far from a guise and Isla Fisher looked to be wearing her own one when she stepped out for a walk with her youngest son Monty, one, in North London on Wednesday afternoon

The 40-year-old actress' casual style comprised of a purple zip-up jumper, which she paired with camouflage print sweatpants.

The Now You See Me star clearly hadn't anticipated the high temperatures as she rolled her bottoms up to her knees as she pushed her youngest child in his buggy.

She cleverly opted for comfortable footwear for the jaunt as she pounded the pavement in white velcro trainers.

Keeping it casual: The gorgeous red-head, who is married to comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, appeared to want to go under the radar as she sauntered along the street in a low-key ensemble

Her trademark golden tresses cascaded in natural waves around her face while the beauty opted to showcase her flawless complexion by foregoing make-up.

Like all mothers on the go, the Wedding Crashers star flaunted her ability to multi-task as she maneuvered her young son in his pram while also chatting on her mobile phone.

Isla seemed in high spirits during her call as she giggled at regular intervals.

Aside from motherhood, the Australian beauty, who, along with Montgomery, shares daughter Olive, eight, and Elula, five, with her Borat star husband, has been busy with her acting career.

Pared-back: The 40-year-old actress' casual style comprised of a purple zip-up jumper, which she paired with camouflage print sweatpants

The star recently wrapped up filming of Keeping Up With the Joneses, in which she stars alongside the likes of Gal Gadot and Jon Hamm.

According to IMDB, the movie tells the tale of a suburban couple who become embroiled in an international espionage plot when they discover that their seemingly perfect new neighbors are government spies.

The Hollywood starlet also boasts a leading role in Nocturnal Animals, which follows an art gallery owner who is haunted by her ex-husband's novel, a violent thriller she interprets as a veiled threat and a symbolic revenge tale.
After they spent time in Europe together, it was claimed that Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck might be ready to give their relationship another shot.

But according to a new report by People on Wednesday, the ex-couple are still very much exes.

Jennifer was spotted taking son Samuel for breakfast in Brentwood, California on Wednesday as it emerged that she allegedly still plans to go ahead with the divorce.

The breakfast club: Jennifer Garner took son Samuel for breakfast in Brentwood, California on Wednesday

A source told People that Ben would like to get back together, but the 44-year-old 'is adamant about going through' with the divorce.

'She seems to want the divorce, but doesn't seem to mind at all that it's not finalised,' the insider added.

What's more, Jennifer apparently finds the idea of a reunion with the Batman v Superman actor, 43, amusing.

The source claimed that the actress 'denies that she is back with Ben', adding: 'She actually almost laughs when asked.'

Still separated: The outing comes amid claims that the actress won't be getting back together with Ben Affleck

Seeing the funny side: According to a source, Jennifer 'almost laughs' when asked if she's giving their marriage another go

Jennifer and Ben had sparked rumours of a reconciliation after spending time together while he filmed The Justice League: Part One in London.

The former couple and their three children also took trips to Paris and Venice as a family.

Ben is still in the UK but Jennifer travelled back to Los Angeles last week.

On Wednesday, the Miracles From Heaven star looked cheerful as she held hands with her little boy while leaving the Brentwood Country Mart.

'Adamant': The 44-year-old apparently still wants to go ahead with the divorce, but 'doesn't seem to mind at all that it's not finalised'

The apple of her eye: Jennifer was carrying four-year-old Samuel in her arms as they headed to the Brentwood Country Mart

Jennifer was sporting a black sweater with the word 'love' scrawled across it, over a matching T-shirt and navy yoga pants.

The mother-of-three also wore colourful trainers and went make-up free, with her chestnut brown hair down.

Jennifer was sipping on an iced tea while four-year-old Samuel - dressed in blue and grey - carried a large book.

Ben and Jennifer, who met on the set of Daredevil, announced their separation on June 30, 2015, a day after their 10th wedding anniversary.

Spreading the 'love': The Miracles From Heaven star wore a 'love' sweater with navy yoga pants and colourful trainers
Ed Sheeran is being sued for $20million (13.7M) over copyright - and the attorney in the case just won the Marvin Gaye lawsuit over infringement on Blurred Lines.

The British musician, 25, has been accused of making a 'note-for-note copy' of a Martin Harrington and Thomas Leonard song called Amazing, released by X Factor winner Matt Cardle six years ago.

Ed's song Photograph came out in 2014 as part of the No. 2 album Multiply and has most recently been used in the soundtrack for big screen romance Me Before You.

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Facing legal action: Ed Sheeran has been accused of copyright on his 2014 hit Photograph, which will soon feature as part of the Me Before You soundtrack

Copyright: The song in question features on Ed's No2 album Multiply

In court documents obtained by MailOnline on Wednesday, Harrington and Leonard, along with HaloSongs, can be seen to bring an action against Ed and co-writer Johnny McDaid, from Snow Patrol.

They are specifically accused of, 'participating in a scheme aiding, inducing, and contributing to copyright infringement in the U.S.'

According to the plaintiffs, Photograph - among others on the album - 'copied, and exploited, without authorization or credit, the work of other active, professional songwriters, on a breathtaking scale, unabashedly taking credit for the work of these songwriters by claiming it to be their own.'

Harrington and Leonard therefore believe that their song has been copied by Sheeran.

It was originally released by Matt, who won British TV talent competition The X Factor in 2010, though Amazing charted at No84 in UK.

Remember this: X Factor 2010 winner Matt Cardle released Amazing, written by Martin Harrington and Thomas Leonard, in 2011 as his third single but the songwriters claim Photograph is a 'note-for-note' copy of theirs

Matt competed in the same year that international pop sensations One Direction were formed and his debut single When We Collide went straight to No1.

Though the singer is not involved in the lawsuit, Harrington and Leonard have called in representation from Richard Busch, the attorney who won $7million (4.8M) on behalf of Marvin Gayes family against Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams in March 2015.

In this case, the plaintiffs take issue with 39 notes in the chorus that share 'pitch, rhythmic duration, and placement in the measure.'

Taken to court: The song-writers Martin Harrington and Thomas Leonard say there is a 'similarity of words, vocal style, vocal melody, melody, and rhythm'

Befitting of a love story: The track has been used in a 2016 big screen flick, Me Before You, starring Emilia Clarke and Sam Claflin (pictured)

There is also 'similarity of words, vocal style, vocal melody, melody, and rhythm are clear indicators, among other things, that Photograph copies Amazing.'

A representative for Ed Sheeran has been contacted by MailOnline for comment, though refused to comment when asked by other publications.

Harrington was previously behind What Took You So Long, his first release, which went on to reach No1 in the UK Singles Chart for former Spice Girl Emma Bunton.

Winning: Attorney Richard Busch (left) is on the prosecution once again, after his triumph on behalf of Marvin Gaye's family (here with Nona Gaye, centre) against Blurred Lines hitmakers in March 2015

Sued: Robin Thicke, along with Pharrell Williams were sued for $7million (4.8M) on the likeness of their 2014 song

He also wrote Lets Dance for 5ive, Love at First Sight by Kylie Minogue and produced with Natalie Imbruglia on her album Counting Down The Days.

It has been alleged that the song-writing duo failed to settle the lawsuit out of court but since December 2015, Ed has been taking a break from the spotlight.

Announcing that he would be absent from his well-followed social media outlets, Twitter and Instagram, Ed concluded his Multiply tour with a post that outlined his plans for 2016.

He wrote: 'I'm taking a break from my phone, emails and all social media for a while. I've had such an amazing ride over the last five years but I find myself seeing the world through a screen and not my eyes.

Song-writing duo: Ed wrote the popular song with Snow Patrol's Johnny McDaid (here together in May 2013)

'So I'm taking this opportunity of me not having to be anywhere or do anything to travel the world and see everything I missed.'

In the same vein, he told his loyal fans to hold tight for a third album, which is 'the best thing [he's] made thus far.'

Ed shot to fame with the hit single The A Team in 2011, which was the first track from his breakthrough album Plus.

Since his breakthrough, he has won two Grammy Awards, three Brit Awards and two MTV Europe Music Awards.

The lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles this week at a federal court.

Matt is currently on a 16-date intimate tour around the UK, with gigs planned at Yeovil, Wirral and Canterbury.

Going offline: Following his Multiply tour (here in Australia) Ed announced that he was taking some time out
Ben Affleck is celebrating his 35-year friendship with Matt Damon.

The 43-year-old shared snapshots of Matt, 45, to his Instagram Wednesday in honor of National Best Friends Day.

In the photos, Matt is seen dunking Ben's face into a birthday cake, captioning it: 'This guy. #NationalBestFriendsDay.'

Time for a celebration: Ben Affleck shared snapshots of Matt, 45, to his Instagram Wednesday in honor ofNational Best Friends Day

The lifelong friends met when Ben was eight years old and Matt was 10; the twosome lived only two blocks away from each other in Cambridge, Massachusetts, according to Interview magazine.

The best friends became household names in 1997 after they wrote the screenplay for their award-winning film, Good Will Hunting - which they also starred in.

The writing duo won an Academy Award as well as a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Screenplay.

The Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice star shared the collage to his 1.1 million Instagram followers.

Blast from the past: The best friends became household names in 1997 after they wrote the screenplay for their award-winning film, Good Will Hunting - which they also starred in

In the first of four pictures, Matt is seen grinning ear to ear as his birthday cake is placed in front of him.

Dressed in plaid, Matt is seen looking over Ben's shoulder as his pal took a taste of the birthday cake.

Matt then grabs his best friend by his head and pushes his face into the cake.

True friendship: The lifelong friends met when Ben was eight years old and Matt was 10; pictured in August 2015 at the Project Greenlight season four premiere

A smiling Ben is snapped covered in cake in the last shot.

On Saturday, Ben and Matt accepted the Guys Of The Decade Award at Spike's Guys Choice Awards.

The Massachusetts-raised stars grinned ear to ear as they took the stage at the awards show, which took place at Sony Picture Studios in Culver City, California.

Ben joked to the crowd: 'I think it goes without saying that this is an award Matt and I have been dreaming about since we were little boys,' as reported by People magazine.

He added: 'I did Gigli and Matt did that Liberace movie and all of a sudden it all seemed out of reach. Then I did [Batman V Superman} and all of a sudden it was back in reach again.'

Matt and Ben have worked together on the reality series Project Greenlight; they are currently collaborating on the film Thirst for HBO about the global water crisis as well as a reality show called The Runner.

Victory: On Saturday, Ben and Matt accepted the Guys Of The Decade Award at Spike's Guys Choice Awards
Ajay Rochester has revealed she is officially a cancer free agent.

The 47-year-old, who recently revealed she has 'lumpy breasts', took to her social media sites on Wednesday to tell her fans she has been given the all clear by doctors.

After taking a 30 minute ultrasound scan, the Biggest Loser star was quick to urge women to try out the screening process for themselves in order to find some peace of mind.

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'It's just incredible feeling of peace': Ajay Rochester has revealed she is officially a cancer free agent

In the video, she said: Ive just got the results of my breast scan and its all clear! Yay! I cannot tell you the feeling of relief that you get when you know everything is clear, she shared in an Instagram video.

Its 30 minutes of your time, its a tiny amount of money and you have peace of mind. Knowing that this particular kind of scan can detect breast cancer so much earlier than mammograms, its just incredible feeling of peace.

If I were you [go check] soundbreastinstitute.com, check it out. It could save your life especially if youre younger and are not ready for a mammogram or youre afraid of mammograms.'

Happy days: The 47-year-old, who recently revealed she has 'lumpy breasts', took to her social media sites on Wednesday to tell her fans she has been given the all clear by doctors

Later adding: 'Just go in, its completely painless, thirty minutes, just quick scan of the boobies and happiness or early detection, thats the key.

Just moments before as she took the ultrasound, Ajay told her followers she was apprehensive about taking the test, by admitting: 'It makes me nervous, wish me luck.

Citing the 'sh****' health care system in America, the TV personality revealed she didn't get checks as often as she is supposed to.

However, having walked the Great Wall Of China with Olivia Newton John in 2008, raising five million dollars for a new cancer wellness centre, Ajay explained she has had a lot of exposure to to stories of the disease.

Doing her bit: After taking a 30 minute ultrasound scan, the Biggest Loser star was quick to urge women to try out the screening process for themselves in order to find some peace of mind

Having met with survivors as well as knowing people who didn't win their battle, she insisted 'prevention is better than cure'.

Once inside the Sound Breast Institute in Santa Monica, 47-year-old took another video as she lay back at ease in a well-equipped room.

A technician named Lisa explained the ultrasound procedure is for women, like Ajay, who are scared of the radiation in mammograms.

However, Lisa explained they should be used in conjunction with mammograms not instead of.

'Painless': The 47-year-old shared a video of the procedure, as she lay in the clinical room in a sheer nude-colour tank top while having her scans

Talking it through: Technician Lisa explained the ultrasound procedure is for women, like Ajay, who are scared of the radiation in mammograms but should be used in conjunction with mammograms not instead of

Pleasantly surprised by the 'painless' procedure, Ajay took to social media to reveal: 'I've waited wayyyyy too long to get my breasts checked especially with a weird lump in my right breast.'

Ajay swapped Australia for Hollywood several years ago, producing and presenting on a number of projects.

Often sharing her weight loss journey and cosmetic procedures online, her fans are always kept in the loop.

To celebrate her 47th birthday in May, the bubbly blonde treated herself to a bit of 'birthday Botox'.

Sharing photos and videos of the procedure to fans across her social media platforms, Ajay said: 'I say, do whatever makes you happy and if a wrinkle-free forehead does that then so be it!'
US man gets 12 years in prison for seeking to join IS

A California man was sentenced to 12 years in prison Tuesday for seeking to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State group and wage holy war, authorities said.

Nicholas Michael Teausant, a 22-year-old convert to Islam, had pleaded guilty in December to a charge of attempting to provide material support or resources to a terror group. He was arrested in March 2014 near the Canadian border, while en route to Syria to join the terror network.

His prison sentence will be followed by 25 years of supervised release.

A California man was sentenced to 12 years in prison for seeking to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State group and wage holy war, authorities said

"Terrorism has to become a zero-tolerance crime. There is no margin for error," US District Judge John Mendez said in imposing the sentence in Sacramento, California.

"It is the court's responsibility to fashion a sentence to reduce any risk you might pose in the future."

According to authorities, Teausant caught the attention of the FBI in 2013 after he joined online forums, expressing a desire to "conduct violent jihad and to be part of America's downfall."

In his subsequent dealings with an FBI informant, he spoke of a plot to attack the Los Angeles subway but later backed away from those plans.

Teausant, who has an infant daughter, was "fixated on violence," officials said, and wanted to go to Syria in the hope of "being on every news station in the world."

Authorities said the case illustrates the vulnerability of young people who can fall prey to jihadist groups on the Internet.

"Violent extremists of all kinds -- foreign and domestic -- actively recruit disillusioned youth who can be radicalized and motivated to harm others," said Monica Miller, in charge of the FBI bureau in Sacramento.

"Everyone should increase their awareness of this issue and consider how they can lead from where they stand by reaching out to individuals before their fascination evolves into recruitment by a violent extremist group."
Papua New Guinea police open fire on protesting students

Police in Papua New Guinea opened fire Wednesday on students protesting against the prime minister, injuring almost 40 according to an international rights group which slammed the shooting as "disgraceful".

Students have been locked in a month-long standoff with authorities and have boycotted classes as they demand Prime Minister Peter O'Neill step aside over corruption allegations.

Witnesses said the clashes broke out in the capital Port Moresby as students prepared to march from the University of Papua New Guinea to parliament, where O'Neill was due to face a no-confidence vote.

Police are deployed as students prepare to march from the University of Papua New Guinea in Port Moresby on June 8, 2016 in a protest against the prime minister over alleged corruption

Anti-corruption campaigner Noel Anjo Kolao, who helped organise the protest, said police had set up roadblocks and pointed their guns at students.

"Then they started shooting at them," he told AFP by phone, saying he saw several injured students.

"We have two sets of laws in Papua New Guinea, one for the prime minister and one for ordinary citizens."

Police Commissioner Gari Baki said in a statement that 23 people were hurt. Five of them were critically injured, according to the Port Moresby General Hospital and the Gerehu St John's Hospital.

Reports in Australian media that four people had been killed were denied.

Amnesty International said it had information that 38 people were injured, including four in critical condition.

The shooting was "a disgraceful attack on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and expression", the rights group said in a statement.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he was "concerned" by the reports and stressed "the importance of respect for peaceful protest and freedom of assembly and a commitment to rule of law, dialogue and non-violence", according to a statement from his spokesman.

Baki said that when police told the students their march was illegal, they were pelted with stones before shots were fired in the air to disperse the crowd.

He added that as news circulated on social media, a large crowd armed with machetes, bows and arrows and homemade guns tried to burn down a police barracks but were thwarted.

Crime and lawlessness is rampant in the sprawling and impoverished Pacific nation, where many still live traditional subsistence lives in remote areas.

Cases of cannibalism have been reported in recent years, as well as women brutally beaten after being accused of "sorcery".

- 'Political agendas' -

O'Neill has been wanted for questioning by anti-corruption police for the past two years but has refused to comply with a warrant for his arrest.

Police are investigating whether he authorised millions of dollars in illegal payments from the government to Paraka Lawyers, one of the Pacific nation's largest law firms.

When the arrest warrant was issued in 2014, O'Neill sacked the PNG police commissioner, fired his attorney-general and suspended numerous other justice department and police officials.

He also moved to disband the anti-corruption watchdog.

O'Neill has denied the graft allegations, and last month published a lengthy letter responding to the students' concerns that suggested the accusations were politically motivated.

He said on Wednesday that "a small group of students were violent, threw rocks at police and provoked a response that came in the form of tear gas and warning shots".

"The factors that led to students being injured are yet to be ascertained," O'Neill added, blaming the situation on his political opponents he referred to as "agitators".

"The people behind these protests have political agendas," he said.

Both Canberra and Washington issued warnings, with the US embassy in Port Moresby saying: "The situation is still volatile and could escalate at any time."

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop urged calm.

"We call on all sides for calm to de-escalate the tensions and certainly call on all sides to respect the peaceful and lawful right to protest," she said.

Papua New Guinea factfile Gal Roman (AFP)

This picture provided by the PNGFM News shows police standing guard as students get ready to march from the University of the Papua New Guinea in Port Moresby on June 8, 2016 PNGFM News (AFP)

Papua New Guinea students have been locked in a month-long standoff with authorities as they call for Prime Minister Peter O'Neill to step aside over corruption allegations Peter Parks (AFP/File)
Prosecutors raid Daewoo Shipbuilding in fraud probe

Prosecutors on Wednesday raided Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Co., one of South Korea's three giant shipbuilders, as part of a probe into a $2 billion accounting fraud.

Some 150 staff from the Supreme Prosecutors' Office stormed DSME headquarters in Seoul and its Okpo shipyard on the southern island of Geoje, the company said.

"This morning, they started collecting accounting books, computer hard disks and other documents," a spokesman for the company told AFP.

Prosecutors raided Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Co. (DSME) headquarters in Seoul and its Okpo shipyard on the southern island of Geoje, pictured Ed Jones (AFP/File)

DSME faces allegations it manipulated its financial statements in 2013 and 2014 in order to make it appear financially healthier than it really was.

Prosecutors have imposed travel bans on former CEO Nam Sang-Tae, who led the company from 2006 to 2012, and Ko Jae-Ho, who succeeded him until last year.

In January, auditors filed a petition with prosecutors calling for a probe into suspected accounting irregularities.

More than 400 shareholders have also launched a lawsuit against the company and Ko claiming $21 million in compensation for losses suffered when the firm's shares fell because of the alleged fraud.

DSME is accused of hiding $2 billion of losses from 2013 and 2014.

Auditors argue the shortfall was then factored into its 2015 accounts, when the company reported a 5.1 trillion won ($4.4 billion) net loss -- six times higher than the previous year.

DSME and two other South Korean shipbuilding giants -- Hyundai Heavy Industries and Samsung Heavy Industries -- have enjoyed a decade of almost uncontested global dominance.

But a prolonged slump in oil prices and the global economic slowdown has sapped demand for tankers and container ships, while overcapacity, regional rivalry and competition from cheaper Chinese shipbuilders has squeezed profit margins.

After racking up a collective loss of 8.5 trillion won last year, the three shipbuiders have come under pressure from the government and creditors to come up with restructuring plans to keep themselves afloat.

Minister of Finance and Strategy Yoo Il-Ho said Wednesday the companies had decided to raise a total of 10.3 trillion won through asset sales and cuts in jobs and wages.
Euphoric Clinton supporters feel hand of history in New York

For ecstatic Hillary Clinton supporters it was a celebration of history in the making, a night of euphoria setting aside moments of past doubt to dream what once seemed impossible.

"Thanks to you we've reached a milestone, the first time in our nation's history that a woman will be a major party's nominee," she told a packed warehouse of cheering supporters in New York.

The enormity of the moment moved obstetrician Ellen Landsberger almost to tears, having sacrificed her own retirement party to leave work early and bag a prime spot in the front of the crowd.

As Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton celebrated on stage the crowd screamed "Hillary, Hillary, Hillary," with a deafening energy previously unmatched in an often lackluster campaign Timothy A. Clary (AFP)

"If America doesn't elect her it will be a shame on us," she said dressed in "A Woman's Place is in the White House" Clinton T-shirt.

As a girl, Landsberger remembered just one woman in the Senate. In her career she saw sexism in the workplace and now she was overjoyed to see Clinton on the cusp of shattering the ultimate glass ceiling.

"Everyone is so delighted," she gasped. A volunteer for the campaign, she was at the same Brooklyn warehouse two months ago for Clinton's last debate against her Democratic Party challenger Bernie Sanders.

Back then, she remembers the tension as Clinton and Sanders came to verbal blows in their acrimonious rivalry to sew up the nomination. In contrast, Tuesday at the Duggal Greenhouse in the Brooklyn Naval Yard was a scene of "overwhelming joy and happiness," she told AFP.

"Hillary, Hillary, Hillary," screamed the crowd with an deafening energy previously unmatched in an often lackluster Clinton campaign.

Four giant US flags hung from the rafters behind the podium. A live band belted out motivational anthems and pop tracks.

"I feel like we're on the precipice of history, of doing something historic and I wouldn't miss this for the world. I have goosebumps just thinking about it," agreed Will Liu, 30, who works in finance.

- Uphill battle -

He came to Clinton's victory party with his husband, the couple stopping to buy beer from one of a string of bar stands set up with the glittering Manhattan skyline in the distance.

It was a fitting venue for Clinton to celebrate becoming the first woman to win a major party nomination for the White House.

New York is her adopted home and the state that twice elected her to the US Senate. Her national campaign headquarters is up the road. Her family's global foundation is based in New York and it is the home of her much loved daughter Chelsea, now pregnant with her second child.

The Greenhouse from which the lights of Manhattan glitter across the river, is also a high octane venue for the privileged -- playing host to parties, fashion shows and Lady Gaga's recent album launch.

"We really want to celebrate because even though she was ahead in almost everything it seemed like an uphill battle," said Gina Basnuh, a 45-year-old waitress who works in a jazz bar.

Michael Medeiros, a 46-year-old Manhattan dentist born to immigrants from Portugal, was so delighted he came dressed in a Hill for 2016 T-shirt, a Hillary pin on his white cap and even had the cast protecting his broken arm colored blue and red in her campaign logo.

"Amazing," he said when asked how he felt. "I got my beer with me and my little flags and my Hillary gear," he added, a long-time supporter of Clinton who wanted to see her beat Barack Obama in 2008.

"I think by having a female president, she would bring women up and take a place within this country and they deserve it," he said.

Republican nominee Donald Trump, he said to laughter, "should stick to running businesses and let Hillary run the country."

But underneath the festivities, even ardent fans confessed to concerns looking ahead and how well a candidate often criticized for being stiff and weighed down by scandal over her use of a private email server would fare against the brash New York businessman and master in self-promotion.

"You campaign, you support, you donate, you talk about her and hopefully everything works out," said Medeiros.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's nomination triumph came almost eight years to the day since her first bid for the Oval Office was spectacularly thwarted by Barack Obama Timothy A. Clary (AFP)
Hong Kong pro-democracy protester tells court of police 'assault'

A Hong Kong protester told Wednesday how he was kicked and punched during pro-democracy rallies in 2014 as seven police officers stood trial over the attack, which was captured on film and beamed around the world.

Civic Party activist Ken Tsang testified for the first time in the trial which began last week in the semi-autonomous Chinese city.

All seven officers have pleaded not guilty.

Pro-democracy activist Ken Tsang, pictured arriving at court on June 6, said he was assaulted by seven men after he was subdued by police at a rally in 2014 Anthony Wallace (AFP)

Video footage of the assault, filmed by local media near the city's government headquarters, shocked residents and dented their faith in the usually trusted police force.

Police have been criticised for their sometimes heavy-handed treatment of protesters during the 79 days of rallies and street blockades which brought parts of the city to a standstill.

The demonstrators were seeking fully free elections for Hong Kong's future leaders.

Tsang, 40, said he was assaulted by seven men after he was subdued by police at a rally.

He was shown video footage in which prosecution lawyers asked him to identify himself. In one clip, he was thrown to the floor before several men kicked him in a dimly-lit area.

Footage by local network TVB and broadcast at the time showed a group of men hauling a handcuffed Tsang to a dark corner in a public park, where he was beaten.

One man stood over him punching him while three others were seen repeatedly kicking him.

Defence lawyers have said they would challenge the authenticity of the videos.

One of them told the court there were inconsistencies in what Tsang had told police in his early statements, including his failure to point out the exact number of people who assaulted him.

Cheng Huan suggested Tsang had no "independent memory" of what happened and was influenced by footage that became widely available afterwards.

The seven police, including senior officers, are charged with causing grievous bodily harm to Tsang, while one is accused of common assault.

They were suspended from duty after their arrests.

Tsang himself was sentenced to five weeks in prison for assaulting and resisting officers after he splashed liquid on police on the same night he was beaten.

Pro-police supporters gathered outside court, chanting "We support our police force" while several Tsang supporters carried yellow umbrellas, a symbol of the democratic movement.

Nearly 1,000 people were arrested over the course of the protests, with student leader Joshua Wong facing a verdict later this month.

He was acquitted Tuesday in another protest-related case.

The hearings come as tensions remain high in the city.

Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997 under a "one country, two systems" agreement and enjoys much greater freedoms than in mainland China, but there are concerns those freedoms are being eroded.

Police officers arrive at court on June 1 to stand trial for allegedly beating activist Ken Tsang. Seven officers are charged with causing grievous bodily harm with intent on Tsang, while one also faces an allegation of common assault Anthony Wallace (AFP)
Wide support for petition to oust US judge in sex assault case

Nearly half a million people had signed a petition calling for the ouster of a California judge who has sparked outrage for his lenient sentence in a high-profile sexual assault case.

Santa Clara Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky last week sentenced Brock Turner, a former Stanford University student, to six months in jail for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman in January 2015.

Lurid details of the case and the woman's emotional court statement recounting the assault and its impact on her life have gone viral on social media, with many denouncing the sentence as a slap on the wrist.

Santa Clara Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky sentenced Brock Turner to six months for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman sparking outrage and a petition to have the judge removed Damien Meyer (AFP/File)

Persky, who automatically won another term on the bench during elections as he was unopposed, justified his sentence, saying that he feared a stiffer jail term would have "a severe impact" on Turner.

The ruling drew outrage and prompted an online petition that more than 480,000 people had signed by Tuesday afternoon.

The petition argues that Persky's sentence, which has drawn international attention, clearly showed bias.

"Judge Persky failed to see that the fact that Brock Turner is a white male star athlete at a prestigious university does not entitle him to leniency," says the petition, started by Maria Ruiz, a nurse in Miami.

"He also failed to send the message that sexual assault is against the law regardless of social class, race, gender or other factors."

Stanford law professor Michele Dauber told US media that she doubted Persky would complete his new six-year term given the huge outcry over the case.

-'Dangerous and wrongheaded' -

She said a hand-written petition would soon be launched to garner the necessary 70,000 signatures to put Persky's recall on the ballot.

"His ruling was dangerous and wrongheaded," Dauber told the USA Today newspaper. "We need to replace him with someone who understands violence against women."

The 20-year-old Turner, who was a member of the prestigious university's swim team, had faced up to 14 years behind bars for the assault.

The judge said he decided to give him a lenient sentence based on the recommendation of probation officials who had suggested a six-month term given that he had no prior convictions and the fact that he was drunk when the assault took place.

A letter submitted to the court by Turner's father, Dan Turner, has also sparked outrage.

In it, the father argues that a jail term was "a steep price to pay for 20 minutes of action out of (Turner's) 20 plus years of life."

At the sentencing hearing last week, the victim, who has not been identified, read an emotional statement describing the impact the assault has had on her life.

She recounted waking up in a hospital bed on the morning of January 18, 2015 without any recollection of what had happened and described the invasive exam she underwent.

"TRUTH. Sitting in that courtroom was like a trip to the Middle Ages. Do we still burn witches?" Dauber tweeted after attending the sentencing hearing.
China miners accused of multiple murders in extortion scam

Chinese prosecutors have charged 74 people in connection with a series of grisly murders aimed at extorting compensation from coal mining firms, state media said Wednesday.

The workers are accused of a killing spree that left 17 dead in six regions across the country, the Global Times said, with the deaths made to look like work accidents.

The slaughter was all part of a complicated con by participants who posed as the victims' family, and then offered mine-owners their silence in exchange for a big pay day, the paper said.

Chinese prosecutors have charged 74 people in connection with a series of grisly murders aimed at extorting compensation from coal mining firms, state media said Greg Baker (AFP)

"Once paid, they would quietly move on... since they knew how easy it was to con and extort money out of coal mine owners, they would kill again and again," the paper reported.

The newspaper cited lawyers as saying that such murders have been common in China's vast mining sector in the past decade.

The country is the world's largest producer of coal and hundreds die each year in accident-prone mines, though the number of deaths has fallen in recent years.

"There have been loads of cases like this in Chinese coal mines dating back 20 years," Sun Yong, a lawyer from Beijing's Shouxin Law Firm told the Global Times.

"Most of these people haven't been caught and their crimes are still hidden," he added.

Sun said the number of such scams rose after 2011, when an amended regulation almost doubled compensation for worker deaths.

"With the compensation now reaching 600,000 yuan ($91,290), people... take greater risks to extort money," Sun said.

The alleged murders are eerily similar to those depicted in the 2003 Chinese film "Blind Shaft", about two con artists who pose as relatives of mine workers they murder for compensation money.

The film won the Silver Bear award at the Berlin International Film Festival.

The workers were indicted in Bayannur, part of the North China's Inner Mongolia region, it said. They will stand trial, the paper said.
Bangkok brothel raid reveals underage sex workers, cop racket

A raid on a large Bangkok brothel notorious for its 'soapy massages' has found underage sex workers and logbooks detailing big kickbacks to corrupt cops and officials, investigators said Wednesday.

Thailand's police force has a reputation for graft, but it is rare for authorities to reveal so clearly how the protection rackets work.

More than 100 officers from Thailand's Interior Ministry raided Nataree Massage, which is in downtown Bangkok and popular with locals and foreigners.

Prostitution is technically illegal in Thailand but is ubiquitous across the country Jimin Lai (AFP)

During the Tuesday evening raid they found documents detailing alleged payments worth thousands of dollars to police and city officials.

"The account book with the hush money is very clear in detailing which agencies and persons received the money. Most are police and police agencies," Ronnarong Thipsiri, director of the Territorial Defence Office, which was involved in the raid, told AFP.

"We did not inform police ahead of the raid because we had information that they were benefiting from this operation," Ronnarong added.

A photograph of one log book page, taken by local reporters who joined the raid, showed more than $10,000 worth of payments made to multiple police officers and law enforcement agencies over a 20-day period in March this year.

Ronnarong, who said the photo was legitimate, added that one section of the brothel's account book showed 19 million baht ($539,000) in takings, though he did not say over what period of time the money had been made.

The raid also uncovered multiple underage sex workers under the age of 18 inside the brothel, most of them foreign -- a stark reminder of how impoverished teenage migrants continue to be lured into Thailand's sex trade.

Ronnarong said around 90 percent of the 121 women found working in the brothel at the time of the raid were Myanmar nationals, primarily ethnic minority women from the two country's border regions.

"Three held documents proving they are under the age of 18," he told AFP, adding that investigators believed at least 12 others were suspected of being underage.

Prostitution is technically illegal in Thailand but is ubiquitous across the country.

Despite its reputation as a global sex tourism destination, the vast majority of sex work caters for locals.

Because of their criminalised status, brothel owners and sex workers often have to offer protection payments to police or criminal gangs to ward off arrest or closure.

Activists have long advocated for the trade to be legalised to better protect the many women, men and transgender people who sell sex commercially.

But it is a cause few politicians have been willing to embrace in a country that remains socially conservative when it comes to sex.

The head of Bangkok's police force, Lieutenant General Sanit Mahathavorn, told reporters on Wednesday he had appointed a task force to investigate the hush money payment allegations.
Nigerian oil rebels reject peace talks, claim new attack

The Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) militant group on Wednesday rejected a truce offer to end attacks on key oil infrastructure that has cut output in Nigeria, and claimed another strike.

The NDA wrote on its Twitter account @NDAvengers: "We're not negotiating with any committee. If (the) federal government is discussing with any group they're doing that on their own."

It added that it had blown up a Chevron well called "RMP 20" next to the Dibbi flow station in the Warri area of Delta State at about 1:00 am (0000 GMT) on Wednesday.

Most of the recent attacks on oil facilities in the oil-rich south have been claimed by the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), who want a fairer share of revenue from the sector for local people Stefan Heunis (AFP/File)

There was no immediate confirmation of the attack from the company while the Nigerian Navy, which has been involved in security operations in the region, said it did not have details.

But spokesman Commodore Chris Ezekobe told AFP nine suspected militants blamed for previous attacks around the port city of Warri had been arrested.

"The suspects include the mastermind of recent attacks on Shell's Forcados trunkline and Chevron's Escravos pipeline," he added.

Ezekobe said a cache of arms, ammunition and bomb-making equipment was also seized.

The Avengers have attacked facilities operated by the Nigerian subsidiaries of Shell, Eni, Chevron, and the state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) since the start of the year.

Nigeria's government this week announced it had set up a committee headed by the national security advisor to open talks with the rebels to bring an end to the repeated attacks.

Junior oil minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu also said military operations to hunt down the group in the creeks and swamps of the oil-rich delta region in the south had been scaled back.

The violence over poverty in the region and repeated oil spills has slashed production to 1.6 million barrels per day, well below the budgeted-for 2.2 million bpd, Kachikwu said on Monday.

The NDA is believed to have sympathies for a former oil rebel leader active in the region in the 2000s and who is now wanted on money laundering and corruption charges.
Philippine militants release four Malaysian sailors: military

Four Malaysian sailors held for more than two months by a notorious kidnapping-for-ransom gang in the strife-torn southern Philippines were released on Wednesday, the Philippine military said.

The Abu Sayyaf, a loose network of Islamic militants that has earned millions of dollars from kidnappings in recent years, released the sailors just after midnight on Jolo island, one of its strongholds, according to regional military spokesman Filemon Tan.

The sailors were then taken by speedboat about 300 kilometres (200 miles) back to Malaysia, Tan said.

The kidnappings of the Malaysian sailors prompted Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines to launch joint patrols in their waters and set up a security hotline Philippine Navy (Philippine Navy/AFP/File)

He confirmed that the Abu Sayyaf kidnapped the sailors, but could not say if ransoms were paid.

"We have yet to confirm whether ransom money was paid in exchange for the safe release of the victims," said Tan.

Formed in the early 1990s, the Abu Sayyaf is a radical offshoot of a Muslim separatist insurgency in the south of the mainly Catholic Philippines.

The militants regularly abduct foreigners and locals to extort money for their release.

In May, the Abu Sayyaf released 14 Indonesian sailors who had been kidnapped in two high-seas raids similar to the abduction of the Malaysians.

The kidnappings prompted Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines to launch joint patrols in their waters and set up a security hotline.

In April, the Abu Sayyaf beheaded Canadian hostage John Ridsdel after a deadline for paying a ransom of $6.4 million passed, and in November last year killed a Malaysian man.

Ridsdel was kidnapped along with a Canadian friend, a Norwegian man and a Filipina from aboard yachts at a marina in the southern Philippines in September last year.

The Abu Sayyaf has warned it will kill either the Canadian or the Norwegian if a multi-million-dollar ransom is not paid by Monday.

The Abu Sayyaf is also holding a Dutch birdwatcher kidnapped in 2012.

The Abu Sayyaf's leaders have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, but analysts say it is more focused on kidnappings for ransom than setting up a caliphate.
China says US 'hyping' spy plane intercept

Beijing accused Washington of "hype" on Wednesday after the US said two Chinese jets conducted an unsafe intercept of one of its spy planes over the East China Sea.

The spat came soon after the world's two largest economies concluded an annual dialogue overshadowed by disagreements over maritime issues.

US Pacific Command spokesman Commander David Benham said two Chinese J-10 fighter jets flew close to an American RC-135 reconnaissance plane that was on a routine patrol.

US authorities said two Chinese J-10 fighter jets flew close to an American RC-135 reconnaissance plane that was on a routine patrol over the East China Sea

The Pentagon downplayed the encounter and blamed it on shoddy piloting.

"One of the intercepting Chinese jets had an unsafe excessive rate of closure on the RC-135 aircraft," Benham said, without specifying exactly where the incident occurred.

"The US once again is deliberately hyping this issue," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a regular briefing on Wednesday.

"The relevant Chinese military personnel have always acted professionally and in accordance with law."

He also called on the US to stop carrying out "close surveillance activity against China...to prevent similar incidents from happening again".

The East China Sea is part of the Pacific and home to small islands whose ownership is disputed by China, Japan and Taiwan.

China also claims a string of islets across the South China Sea and its military expansion in the contested waterway has sparked heightened tensions with regional neighbours and the United States.

Pentagon chief Ashton Carter attended a security summit in Singapore over the weekend, promising unspecified "actions" if China continued its buildup.

Last month the Pentagon said two Chinese jets conducted an "unsafe" intercept of a US reconnaissance plane over the South China Sea.

Still, PACOM head Admiral Harry Harris told reporters in Singapore on Saturday that such incidents were rare.

Tuesday's reported intercept came as US Secretary of State John Kerry urged China to settle its territorial rows peacefully and based on the "rule of law" on a visit to Beijing.
Migrant smuggling 'general' extradited to Italy

An Eritrean dubbed "the general", suspected of controlling a migrant trafficking network responsible for shipping thousands of people to Europe and sending some to a watery grave, has been extradited to Italy.

Medhanie Yehdego Mered, 35, who had been on a wanted list since 2015 for international people smuggling, was arrested in the Sudanese capital Khartoum and flown to Italy late Monday.

He is "the accused ringleader of one of the four largest criminal migrant trafficking organisations", the Sudanese interior ministry said in a joint statement with the country's British and Italian embassies.

Medhanie Yehdego Mered is escorted by police after he was extradited from Sudan to Rome, on June 6, 2016

Referred to in wiretapped conversations between his subordinate alleged traffickers as "the general" for his control over a large area and number of "troops", Mered is accused of organising the smuggling of up to 8,000 people a year on migrant boats.

Investigators believe his organisation was responsible for packing migrants onto a boat that sank in 2013 off the Italian island of Lampedusa, claiming at least 360 lives in one of the worst disasters in the Mediterranean.

He reportedly described the sinking as "Allah's will" in a wiretap.

His arrest is "a key turning point in the fight against people trafficking," prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi told a press conference, while Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano dubbed it "an extraordinary result" in a bid to stop "merchants of death".

It is the first time a suspected top smuggler has been arrested in Africa and brought to face justice in Italy, which has been overwhelmed by the arrival of hundreds of thousands of people since the migrant crisis began in 2008.

Mered allegedly directed operations in Africa but also kept fellow operators in Italy up to date on the arrival of boats, so migrants could be picked up and squeezed for more money to continue to their final destinations in Europe.

Between 2012 and his capture, he also played a key role in helping migrants escape from Libyan jails and detention centres, bribing guards to let them out and then holding them to extort money from their relatives back home, police said.

- 'Beaten with iron sticks' -

Mered was tracked down by the Sudanese intelligence services, with support from Italy's organised crime police and Britain's National Crime Agency.

A top Sudanese police officer told AFP on condition of anonymity that Mered was "accused of smuggling youngsters from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia and Sudan across the Mediterranean through Sudan or Libya or Egypt".

Wiretaps of Mered's conversations revealed he was in contact with traffickers in northern Europe, particularly in the Netherlands and Scandinavia, and held a "senior position in a criminal network operating in several continents", Italian police said.

The taps followed smugglers who were constantly on the move between Eritrea, Ethiopia, Libya, Sudan, the UAE and Europe.

Mered was a contact point for people worried relatives may have disappeared during the perilous Mediterranean crossing.

He was loving with his family on the telephone, making several references to leaving Libya and moving to Sweden to be with his wife, but showed "utter disregard for the lives of the migrants, appearing cynical and unscrupulous", Italian police said.

There have been numerous reports from survivors of people being forced to board boats and dinghies on Libyan beaches at gunpoint, as well as reports of people being shot dead if they refuse or try to escape.

According to the UN's refugee agency (UNHCR), over 48,500 people have arrived in Italy by boat so far this year. More than 10,000 people have died crossing the Mediterranean to Europe since 2014.

On Wednesday, rescuers were hard at work off Libya, pulling at least 800 people to safety.

Doctors Without Borders, which picked up 226 people, quoted on Twitter a survivor who said "we're happy to be alive but our brothers are still in Libya".

"Last night they were beating us with iron sticks".

Over 48,500 people have arrived in Italy by boat so far this year, according to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) Gabriel Bouys (AFP/File)
Bomb hoax forces EgyptAir plane to land in Uzbekistan

An EgyptAir flight from Cairo to Beijing made an emergency landing in Uzbekistan on Wednesday after a bomb threat that turned out to be a hoax, the airline said.

Uzbek authorities checked the Airbus A330 and found no explosives on board, EgyptAir chairman Safwat Musallam told AFP.

"The authorities there cleared the plane for departure after they searched the plane and found no threats," he said.

EgyptAir has suffered a string of incidents in recent months including a crash in the Mediterranean and a hijacking in Cyprus

Musallam said an anonymous call was received warning there was a bomb on board after flight MS955 had left Cairo, and it landed at the nearest airport.

Uzbek authorities confirmed the plane had made an emergency landing at an airport in Urgench in the west of the country.

The flight had left Cairo five minutes before midnight on Tuesday, and the plane was scheduled to land in Beijing at 3.34 pm on Wednesday, according to EgyptAir's website.

It is the latest in a series of incidents involving Egyptian planes or airports.

An EgyptAir plane crashed in the Mediterranean with 66 people aboard on May 19 while en route from Paris to Cairo.
Hillary Clinton's mighty challenge: to unify her camp

On June 7, 2008, Hillary Clinton made way for Barack Obama to conquer the White House, conceding defeat after a fractious primary race, and throwing her full weight behind him.

Eight years later, it is she who faces the arduous task of unifying her camp after a -- sometimes bitter -- battle with Bernie Sanders.

On paper, it seems an easier task than the one facing her Republican rival Donald Trump, whose insurgent candidacy and incendiary comments -- dubbed "racist" by leading GOP figures -- are tearing his party apart.

Hillary Clinton hailed a historical "milestone" for women as she claimed victory over rival Bernie Sanders in the Democratic White House nomination race Timothy A. Clary (AFP)

But Clinton's challenge remains very real, with one big question still unanswered: how will "Bernie" behave towards the nominee he fought tooth-and-nail to stop?

The Vermont senator told supporters late Tuesday that "the struggle continues" and vowed to take his message about reforming Wall Street, the minimum wage and the role of money in politics to the Democratic party's convention in Philadelphia next month.

Sanders acknowledged "a very, very steep fight. But we will continue to fight for every vote and every delegate we can."

"We understand that our mission is more than just defeating Donald Trump, it is transforming our country," the silver-haired 74-year-old said.

After decades of relative isolation in Congress, this campaign has handed him, and his calls for a political revolution, a belated -- but spectacular -- dose of recognition.

Delivering her victory speech in New York, Clinton did not directly urge her rival to stand down. But she held out an olive branch to him and his supporters.

"Let there be no mistake, Senator Sanders, his campaign, and the vigorous debate that we've had about how to raise income, reduce inequality, increase upward mobility, have been very good for the Democratic Party and for America," she said.

"As we look ahead, let's remember all that unites us."

Obama called both Clinton and Sanders on Tuesday to congratulate them, but made it clear that his former secretary of state was the nominee.

The US president was to meet Sanders at the White House on Thursday -- perhaps the first steps towards a unified approach to November.

Tuesday's primaries "are no longer about the nomination. They are about leverage in the peace talks that are sure to follow," the one-time Obama strategist David Axelrod tweeted on Tuesday.

- 'Fear of Trump' -

In 2008, Clinton threw her weight unequivocally behind her erstwhile rival, calling for her supporters "to take our energy, our passion, our strength, and do all we can to help elect Barack Obama, the next president of the United States."

This time, Clinton will have to earn the support on November 8 of the young, passionate voters fired up by Sanders' grassroots campaign.

Her biggest hurdle: the sizeable share of Bernie's fans who view the former first lady, senator and secretary of state as calculating and insincere -- echoing the favorite line of attack of her Republican rival Trump.

"Clinton doesn't have the ability to do it alone," argued Larry Sabato, a political analyst from the University of Virginia.

"A sizable minority of the Sanders troops have grown to despise her. Sanders will have to back Clinton repeatedly and with enthusiasm."

Democrats like to point out that the bad blood between the Obama and Clinton campaign teams was considerably worse than that between this year's rival camps -- and that it did not stop them from winning.

They are also counting on Obama himself to enter the race in the role of unifier-in-chief.

"I think you can expect the president to play that kind of role," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said recently.

Obama's message has already been fine-tuned: the two Democratic candidates, while very different in style -- are not so different when it comes to substance.

"They're both good people. I know them both well," Obama said during a trip to Japan last week -- as if laying the groundwork for the necessary reconciliation ahead.

"I think that it's important for us to try to end this in a way that leaves both sides feeling proud of what they've done."

For Sabato, "President Obama must reason with his party's left wing, using fear of Trump as the emotional appeal."

According to the latest Gallup poll, Obama's popularity with that segment of the electorate is sky-high -- at 92 percent.

Eight years apart, Obama and Clinton have one asset in common: both offer voters the chance to write a new page in American political history, as the first African American in the White House, and the first woman US president.

Whatever the weaknesses of Clinton, a candidate whose stiff campaign style has struggled to ignite crowds, Democratic voters could yet mobilize massively to prove that their party is, once again, the one that pushes the boundaries in American society.

Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders vowed to "continue the fight" despite Clinton's triumph Jonathan Alcorn (AFP)

Hillary Clinton takes Democratic nomination

Clinton will go to head to head with Republican Donald Trump in the race for the White House Josh Edelson (AFP/File)
Berlin court upholds Airbnb ban

A Berlin court Wednesday threw out a challenge against the German capital over a ban on private holiday rentals through online portals such as Airbnb.

A new law came into force in the city on May 1, banning property owners and tenants from renting out whole apartments or houses for short-term holiday lets.

Berlin authorities fear that the phenomenon of such private holiday rentals is fuelling rising property prices as investors snap up apartments for the lucrative market.

As of May 1, 2016, Berlin restricts private property rentals through Airbnb and similar online platforms, threatening hefty fines in a controversial move meant to keep housing affordable for locals John Macdougall (AFP/File)

The plaintiffs, four property owners who had put up their apartments for temporary holiday lets, argued that such state interference ran counter to property ownership rights enshrined in the constitution.

But Berlin's administrative court rejected their arguments, saying the "ownership guarantee provides no claim for a residential property to be used with the expectation of making a profit".

It added that the authorities had also granted a two-year transition period to give affected property owners time to adjust.

The court also pointed out that the restriction did not affect registered holiday rental apartments and said that the wider ban in protected residential properties "is justified in order to counter the housing shortage".

The cases are among dozens filed since the law came into force, according to a spokesman for the administrative court.

The popularity of home-sharing sites like Airbnb and Wimdu has fuelled the private holiday rental market, and Berlin's authorities estimate that around 12,000 residential apartments are being used for such purposes.

The new law was passed in 2014 but provided for a two-year transition period that ended on April 30, after which owners are only allowed to rent out rooms via such portals, not entire flats or houses.

Offenders can face fines of up to 100,000 euros ($113,000) and neighbours are encouraged to report any suspected misuse online.
Eritrean leaders guilty of crimes against humanity: UN

Eritrea's government is guilty of committing crimes against humanity since independence a quarter-century ago with up to 400,000 people "enslaved", and should face international justice, the UN said Wednesday.

The United Nations Commission of Inquiry (COI) on human rights said the government of President Isaias Afwerki, in power since 1991, was guilty of systematic enslavement, forcible conscription and other abuses.

"We probably think that there are three to four hundred thousand people who have been enslaved," chief investigator Mike Smith told journalists in Geneva.

Eritrea split from Ethiopia in 1991 after a three-decade conflict in the Horn of Africa Jenny Vaughan (AFP/File)

According to the United Nations, around 5,000 Eritreans risk their lives each month to flee the nation where forcible army conscription can last decades.

"Very few Eritreans are ever released from their military service obligations," Smith said.

Refugees from the repressive Red Sea state have in recent years made up one of the largest contingents of people risking the dangerous journey to seek a new life in Europe.

"What we are asking for is the Security Council to contemplate targeted responses" against individuals responsible for rights abuse, he said, without naming those involved.

The UN report also called for the perpetrators to be brought before the International Criminal Court in The Hague to ensure accountability.

Since it was established in June 2014, the COI has interviewed more than 800 Eritrean exiles and received more than 45,000 written submissions, some defending Eritrea's record.

- 'Widespread abuses' -

"Crimes against humanity have been committed in a widespread and systematic manner in Eritrean detention facilities, military training camps and other locations across the country over the past 25 years," the UN commission said.

"Particular individuals, including officials at the highest levels of state, the ruling party  the Peoples Front for Democracy and Justice  and commanding officers bear responsibility for crimes against humanity," it said.

The 1991 split between Ethiopia and Eritrea followed a three-decade independence war, which saw Eritrean rebels battling far better-equipped Ethiopian troops backed first by Washington and then by the Soviet Union.

The country ranks below North Korea as the worst in the world for press freedom, according to Reporters Without Borders.

Smith said Isaias presided over a state with no functioning democratic institutions.

"This has created a governance and rule of law vacuum, resulting in a climate of impunity for crimes against humanity," he said.

He said there was no chance that Eritrea's judicial system could bring the perpetrators to justice through a legitimate trial.

Eritrea has repeatedly denied UN investigators access to the country.

Refugees from the repressive Red Sea state have in recent years made up one of the largest contingents of people risking the dangerous journey to seek a new life in Europe.

With an annual per capita gross national income of $480, Eritrea is one of the world's poorest nations, according to the World Bank.

Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki has been in power since 1991 Ashraf Shazly (AFP/File)

Around 5,000 Eritreans flee the African nation every month, according to the UN, with many trying to reach the European Union Philippe Huguen (AFP/File)
Syrian rebels re-open key northern supply route after ousting IS

Syrian rebels ousted the Islamic State group from two villages near the Turkish border on Wednesday, re-opening a key supply route for opposition forces in northern Aleppo, a monitor said.

IS had captured several villages between the rebel-held northern towns of Marea and Azaz on May 27, cutting off rebel forces in Marea from their supply line with Turkey and forcing thousands of people to flee.

But on Wednesday morning rebels including several Islamist groups launched simultaneous attacks from the two towns to squeeze IS fighters out, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group.

Syrians ride through a fruit market in the rebel-held side of Aleppo on June 6, 2016 KARAM AL-MASRI (AFP/File)

IS "did not fight hard, but rather withdrew, as they are facing attacks on numerous fronts in northern Syria," said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.

Marea and the border town of Azaz, 20 kilometres (12 miles) to the northwest, have been in rebel hands since 2012.

The jihadist assault also threatened tens of thousands of displaced people sheltering in makeshift camps next to the Turkish border.

IS controls a band of territory along the Turkish border from parts of Aleppo province to the group's stronghold of Raqa on the Euphrates river to the east.

The group is under pressure from simultaneous attacks that threaten its supply lines from the Turkish border down to Raqa.

US-backed Kurdish and Arab fighters are advancing towards the IS-held town of Manbij in an attempt to cut off the jihadists' supplies of recruits and funds across the Turkish border.
'I want justice': Husband of Pakistani teen murdered for honour

The husband of a 16-year-old Pakistani girl who was murdered by her family for marrying him vowed Thursday to do whatever it took to get justice for his young wife.

Zeenat Bibi was set on fire Wednesday in Pakistan's cultural capital of Lahore, a little over a week after she wed 20-year-old motorcycle mechanic Hasan Khan against the wishes of her family.

Her mother Perveen Bibi has admitted to the killing, though details of the brutal murder remain unclear. Early reports suggested she had been burnt alive though police now say she may have been asphyxiated first, with a post-mortem report not expected until later this month.

Hassan Khan shows a document with a photograph of his wife Zeenat Bibi, who was burnt alive by her mother, at his residence in Lahore on June 8, 2016

Bibi's charred remains were buried by her new husband's family before dawn after none of her relatives sought to claim her body.

Speaking to AFP on Thursday, a visibly distraught Khan said: "I am determined to continue the legal proceedings against the family. I am after them, and my family is supporting me.

"It is my destiny now to bring her justice -- if the accused are condemned it will bring calm and peace to my soul."

Khan, who said he had met his wife while they were students at high school, also suggested that Perveen had been helped in the murder by her brother and son, and was covering up for them.

The case has drawn widespread outrage even in a country used to so-called "honour killings", which account for hundreds of deaths every year.

It was also the third such case involving burning over a three-month span.

An AFP reporter said Zeenat's family home was closed and locked Thursday, as neighbours expressed their shock.

Zeenat had taught the Koran to local children, and the mother of one told AFP her daughter was frightened after the killing.

"Before sleeping she asked many questions: 'Why was my teacher killed? Why did her mum kill her?'" said Rani Bibi -- who shared the common last name with Zeenat's family -- of her ten-year-old Maham.

"I said, 'Don't worry. You are my beloved daughter.'"

- Culture of impunity -

Pakistan amended its criminal code in 2005 to prevent men who kill female relatives escaping punishment by pardoning themselves as an "heir" of the victim.

But it is left to a judge's discretion to decide whether to impose a prison sentence when other relatives of the victim forgive the killer -- a loophole which critics say is still exploited.

Leading opposition senator Sherry Rehman, who is also a prominent women's rights activist, called on the government Thursday to pass a long-awaited bill aimed at amending the law.

"What is the reason for the delay? Three girls have been burnt to death -- this is a scary new trend.

"It's not as though we didn't have thousands being killed before. It's not as though the law will put an end to it but the the state must put its full force into addressing the issue," she told AFP.

Rehman added that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had promised to push through legal reform after a documentary highlighting the issue won an Oscar in February, but had failed to act.

"I think they are pandering to the religious parties," she said, referring to Pakistan's Islamist opposition parties who wield considerable influence beyond their representation in parliament, where they hold around five percent of seats.

Those who would kill in the name of honour "have increasing impunity -- they can see that despite public anger it's the hallowed halls of power are turning a blind eye," she added.

Pakistani schoolgirl Maham, who was taught by Zeenat Bibi, a teenager who was set on fire by her mother, stands outside the house where their teacher lived in Lahore on June 9, 2016 Arif Ali (AFP)

An ambulance transports the body of a Pakistani teenager burnt alive by her mother from her home in Lahore on June 8, 2016 STR (AFP)
'New life' for Syrians returning to IS-free villages

For the first time in more than two years, Awash al-Aboud looked out at her village in northern Syria wearing a fearless grin instead of the black veil imposed by the Islamic State group.

The elderly woman was among hundreds of residents who returned this week to villages recaptured by the Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-Arab alliance advancing on the jihadist stronghold of Manbij.

"For the past two and a half years, I felt like I was living among the dead because of the terror that IS imposed on us," she said.

Syrian families, who fled the assault launched by Arab and Kurdish forces against Islamic State (IS) group fighters in the town of Manbij, arrive at an encampment on the outskirts of the town, on June 4, 2016 Delil Souleiman (AFP/File)

Wearing an indigo-coloured robe, Aboud told AFP that she fled her village of Khirdeh, located between Manbij and the Euphrates river, along with other residents as SDF fighters approached last week.

Standing amid a gaggle of young children, she said that when IS controlled her village she had been forced to wear the black, full-face veil prescribed by its ultra-conservative form of Islamic law.

"Today, a new life has started for us. We're so glad to be done with Daesh," she said, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

An AFP journalist travelled to several villages where the SDF, backed by US-led coalition air strikes, has expelled IS.

Arab fighters from the Kurdish-Arab alliance chatted with residents and strolled between buildings, some damaged by US-led coalition strikes or IS's infamous car bombs.

- 'Being safe is enough' -

Abu Mohammad, 35, from the farming town of Abu Qulqul, said life under IS rule was so expensive that some residents were tempted to join the jihadists.

"They used to tell us that whoever wants to live well must join our ranks, but I refused. I preferred to starve than to join them and oppress my brothers," he said.

His wife, wearing a bright headscarf and carrying a toddler on her back, held up her arm and began to ululate -- a sign of celebration and joy.

"Just being safe is enough," she said.

On the outskirts of the village, a suntanned man in a long robe and green vest took his flock of sheep out to the nearby plains.

Architect Khalaf al-Moussa, from nearby Qana al-Tahtani, said IS had imposed a system of fines and punishments during its rule over his hometown, also east of Manbij.

"We couldn't roll up our trouser legs while we were farming our land -- every time we did, they would fine us 1,000 Syrian pounds ($2)," he said, standing in front of a modest fruit orchard.

"If someone tried to criticise their behaviour, they would sew his mouth shut for a while, or they would cut his head off and hang him up for everyone to see," Moussa added.

- 'Burned our books' -

People arrested by the jihadists were not seen again.

The villagers were so terrified that their friends and family would report them to IS that "you couldn't trust your brother, your father, or your neighbour because of how afraid you were," Moussa said.

In many of the towns and cities it holds, IS has seized control of public institutions in a bid to project an image of a functioning, corruption-free utopia.

But that was not the case in Qana al-Tahtani.

"We used to ask them to provide electricity for us, and they would answer, 'Did the Prophet Mohammad have electricity?'" Moussa said.

"And I used to say to myself, 'Did the Prophet have all of these weapons to terrorise people?'"

Rada al-Sayyad, 18, said that IS jihadists had stopped him going to school when they overran his village of Tal Aras east of Manbij two years ago.

"They burned all of our schoolbooks and they banned studying. They started forcing us to take religious courses that taught us that Kurds, teachers, and other religious scholars are all infidels," he said.

IS has been dealt several major blows at the hands of a powerful Kurdish militia -- the People's Protection Units (YPG) -- whose fighters make up the majority of the SDF.

In areas under its control, IS has enforced its own religious education coupled with military training.

But now, Sayyad said, he can return to school and a life without IS.

"Things are relatively okay. We'll go back to school soon -- back to our way of life before Daesh entered our hometown."

Syria conflict Omar KAMAL, Kun TIAN (AFP)
Fiat Chrysler in talks with Uber over driverless cars

Uber is in talks with Italian-American auto giant Fiat Chrysler (FCA) and others about potential driverless car alliances, a source close to the matter told AFP on Wednesday.

The source cautioned that discussions were in an early phase, and not exclusive to any one automobile maker.

Earlier in the day, Bloomberg news agency cited a source as saying a deal between the automobile maker and Uber could be announced by the end of the year, adding that FCA was also reaching out to online commerce giant Amazon on the potential for using vehicles for deliveries.

Uber unveiled its first self-driving car last month, announcing it had begun testing an autonomous vehicle on the streets of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Thomas Oliva (AFP/File)

Amazon has been consistently exploring technology that could improve efficiency of distribution or delivery of goods handled by the online retail colossus.

Uber Technologies and FCA declined AFP requests for comment. Amazon did not respond to an AFP query.

Fiat Chrysler announced an alliance with Google parent Alphabet in May, saying self-driving cars could hit roads within five years.

Google began testing its autonomous driving technology in 2009, using a Toyota Prius equipped with the tech giant's equipment. The deal with FCA sees it snap up 100 new 2017 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans.

An array of automobile makers including Audi, Ford, Mercedes, Lexus, Tesla and BMW are working on building self-driving capabilities into vehicles.

Uber unveiled its first self-driving car last month, announcing it had begun testing an autonomous vehicle on the streets of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
S.Africa rebukes US, Britain over 'terror' alert

The South African government reacted angrily Wednesday to warnings by the United States and Britain about possible imminent "terrorist" attacks by Islamic extremists in the country's major cities.

Without naming the countries, a strongly-worded government statement described the warnings as "alarmist" and said diplomatic action had been taken to register South Africa's "displeasure".

The US embassy, which Wednesday stood by its warning, said Saturday it had received information that "terrorist groups" were planning to carry out attacks in upmarket shopping malls in South Africa during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

South Africa, which has a Muslim minority of around 1.5 percent in a population of some 53 million, has so far escaped the jihadist attacks seen in several other African countries Gianluigi Guercia (AFP/File)

Britain issued a similar alert two days later -- but Pretoria rejected the warnings as unsubstantiated.

"The information provided as a basis for the latest terror alerts on South Africa has been found to be very sketchy," the government said in a statement.

"We have found the information to be dubious, unsubstantiated and provided by a 'walk-in' source based on questionable conclusions."

South Africa said it rejected "attempts to generate perceptions of government ineptitude, alarmist impressions and public hysteria on the basis of a questionable single source," it said.

The US embassy insisted, however, that it stood by its warning.

"U.S. Embassy in Pretoria confirms that there is no change in status of the Security Message issued on June 4, 2016. It was based on specific, credible, and non-counterable threat information."

The British embassy did not immediately comment.
2,000 Chad troops head to Niger after Boko Haram attack

Some 2,000 troops from regional military powerhouse Chad headed to neighbouring Niger on Wednesday, where Boko Haram insurgents inflicted heavy losses in the town of Bosso last week, a military source said.

Chad is a leading member of a multi-national force fighting the Nigeria-based Islamist fighters who have extended their attacks to neighbouring countries from their base in northern Nigeria.

Chad's "heavily armed" soldiers will "search everywhere for Boko Haram," added the source, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Niger, Chad, Cameroon and Nigeria have launched a joint offensive to end Boko Haram's seven-year insurgency in western Africa Issouf Sanogo (AFP/File)

Boko Haram on Friday attacked a military post in Bosso in Niger's Diffa region, killing 26 soldiers including two from neighbouring Nigeria, in one of its deadliest attacks in Niger.

A total of 55 insurgents from the Nigeria-based Islamist group were killed and "many" injured, according to Niger authorities.

On Tuesday, witnesses near Bosso said Boko Haram remained in control of the town though the Niger government had said the previous day that "Bosso was totally under control."

In the regional capital, Diffa, some 140 kilometres (87 miles) to the west, teacher Ari Issa said he had seen many fighter planes.

Local radio Anfani said "military planes are coming and going between Lake Chad and Diffa airport".

There was no confirmation available from the Chadian army.

Last year, Chad dispatched soldiers to Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon to fight Boko Haram. The regional multi-national force includes the four countries.

- Tens of thousands displaced -

Some 50,000 people have fled the Bosso area, UN refugee agency (UNHCR) spokesman Adrian Edwards said Tuesday.

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.

The UNHCR said most of those fleeing the violence in Bosso had walked to Toumour, some 30 kilometres to the west.

In Abidjan on Wednesday, the medical charity Doctors Without Borders called for urgent help for those displaced in Bosso, saying they were short of water and food as well as medicine.

A local journalist working with Radio Anfani told AFP earlier this week that on Tuesday he was sheltering in Toumour with no food, along with many others who had fled the violence.

"The Boko Haram gunmen stayed in Bosso from 6:30 pm (1730 GMT) on Friday to 3:00 am on Saturday, burning the military barracks, police facilities and local administration office before looting shops and carting away food supplies," he said.

He said the gunmen used heavy artillery which allowed them to overrun the town's garrison.

"They came in large numbers shouting 'Allahu Akbar' (God is greatest)," he said.

Boko Haram launched military raids in 2009 to create an Islamic state in western Africa Stephane Yas (AFP)

About 50,000 people have fled Niger's troubled Diffa region after deadly attacks by Boko Haram insurgents on June 3, 2016 Issouf Sanogo (AFP)
Taliban kill 12 Afghans, abduct 40 others: officials

Afghan authorities Wednesday recovered bullet-ridden bodies of 12 security officials recently captured by the Taliban in eastern Ghazni province, while gunmen kidnapped 40 others in the country's north as the insurgency escalates.

The violence underscores Afghanistan's fragile security situation as the Taliban, who launched their annual spring offensive in April, rejected government calls this week for a ceasefire during the holy month of Ramadan.

The 12 soldiers, police and intelligence officers were captured over the past two months from different highway crossings in the insurgency-prone province of Ghazni.

Afghan policemen stand guard at a checkpoint in Ghazni province on January 20, 2015 Rahmatullah Alizadah (AFP/File)

"The bodies... of our personnel captured by the enemy were discovered in Andar district this morning," Ghazni's Governor Mohammad Aman Hamim told reporters.

Separately, insurgents abducted 40 bus passengers in Kunduz on Wednesday, in the second such group abduction in the northern province in less than two weeks, officials said.

Seven other passengers managed to escape when Taliban fighters stopped the bus on the highway near Kunduz city, said police spokesman Mahfuzullah Akbari.

The Taliban have so far not commented on the 12 captives and the latest abduction.

The latter came after the Taliban killed 10 bus passengers, many of them summarily executed, and kidnapped dozens of others in Kunduz last week.

The insurgents said they were targeting Afghan security officials aboard the buses, and Amnesty International condemned the abductions.

"The kidnapping by an armed group of scores of civilians... in Kunduz represents an abhorrent new tactic that endangers civilian lives by ensnaring them in the conflict," the rights group said in a statement.

"By kidnapping a large group of civilians for the second time in as many weeks, armed groups have demonstrated contempt for the security of ordinary people. Combatants in a conflict have a responsibility to protect civilian life."

The Taliban have stepped up attacks after announcing Haibatullah Akhundzada as their new leader on May 25, elevating a low-profile religious figure after officially confirming the death of Mullah Mansour in a US drone strike.
Iraqi forces seize part of southern Fallujah from IS

Iraqi government forces fighting to retake Fallujah from the Islamic State group seized a southern neighbourhood of the city on Wednesday, officials said.

Led by the country's counter-terrorism service, Iraqi forces and allied militias backed by air support from a US-led coalition began an operation on May 23 to wrest the city from IS.

Iraqi forces made incursions into Fallujah, 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Baghdad, in the early days of the offensive, but their advance soon slowed.

Iraqi pro-government forces hold an IS group flag upside down in the village of al-Azraqiyah as they advance towards the centre of Saqlawiyah, north west of Fallujah, on June 4, 2016 Ahmad Al-Rubaye (AFP/File)

They managed last week to enter parts of the southern neighbourhood of Al-Shuhada Al-Thaniya and on Wednesday took full control of the district, Sabah al-Noman, the spokesman for the counter-terrorism service, told AFP.

"Counter-terrorism service forces liberated Al-Shuhada Al-Thaniya entirely from Daesh control and raised the Iraqi flag over buildings in the district," he said, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

"The army and the police will be responsible for controlling the neighbourhood after it has been cleared of bombs," Noman said.

A colonel in the Anbar province police force confirmed government forces took control of the district and said five members of the security services were injured during fighting on Wednesday.

Lieutenant General Abdelwahab al-Saadi, who is commanding the operation, said on Tuesday that Iraqi forces were advancing on the centre of the city from the south and vowed that "within the coming days we will announce the liberation of Fallujah."

Jasim Al-Halbous, a member of the Anbar provincial council, said the taking of the district was an important strategic victory.

"Al-Shuhada Al-Thaniya is the largest neighbourhood in southern Fallujah and its liberation marks the launch of a rush by security forces for the centre of Fallujah," he said.

"Daesh fighters were hiding in fortified tunnels and various houses in the district."

Fallujah is one of the most important bases of IS -- which seized control of large parts of Syria and Iraq in mid-2014 -- and the second-largest city in Iraq still under the jihadist group's control after Mosul.

Fallujah was the first Iraqi city to fall out of government control in January 2014 and was the scene a decade earlier of some of the worst fighting US forces had seen since the Vietnam War.

The Iraqi advance on the city comes as IS is also under pressure in Syria from twin offensives by US-backed Arab and Kurdish fighters and regime troops supported by Russia.
Advertisement

Many people turned to exploring local nature paths for their daily exercise when lockdown closed gyms and group sports took a hiatus amid the pandemic.

Amateur photographers who captured stunning images of animals in their natural habitat were quick to submit their snaps to Weekend magazine's annual Wildlife Photography Challenge in the hopes of winning a package worth over 1,000.

The entrants were split into five categories - Birds; Mammals; Insects; Under-18s; and Reptiles, Fish, Amphibians & Molluscs.

While each category winner received a Nikon mirrorless digital camera kit and a year's subscription to Nikon Owner magazine, the overall winner also received a trip to the Camargue with wildlife photographer Simon Stafford, courtesy of Create Away, for a four-night masterclass in photographing the region's wild horses, flamingos and bulls.

Judges David Suchet, Clare Balding, Lucy Cooke, Steve Brown, Kelly Brook and Michael Eleftheriades were impressed with Lee O'dwyer, 67, a retired engineer from Lancashire, who was awarded the overall winner for his shot of a long-tailed tit.

These runner-up snaps taken by talented amateur photographers prove choosing an overall winner was a tough decision...

BIRDS

PUFFIN: Taken by Joseph Bristow, 23, a retail supervisor from Llantwit Major. 'Arriving at 3am and queueing for the 6am ticket office to open. First in line I caught the boat over to Skomer Island. With only a few hours permitted on the island I had no time to waste. Surrounded by the Puffins was an amazing spectacle and allowed me to capture some amazing photos. I found this one puffin who seemed very tame and loved posing for the camera. As he stared down the barrel of my lens I took my shot and was pleased with the result. I found the black background really provides a provocative and striking image highlight the vibrant colour of the Puffins.'

KESTREL CHICKS: Taken by Jayne Kirkby, 20, from Braintree, Essex. 'Beautiful pair of Kestrel chicks, taken at Wrabness on 20th June 2020.'

KINGFISHER: Tim Clifton, a 59-year-old from, St Leonards on Sea, snapped this captivating photo of a kingfisher hunting for small fish

MALLARD: William Watson, 64, a semi retired HGV driver from East Dunbartonshire. 'Taken on the Forth & Clyde canal (December '19') Bishopbriggs, As I went to take this photo of this female Mallard it stretched creating a nice reflection....'

INSECTS

BUTTERFLY: Adam Lane, a 27-year-old host at Legoland, from Slough, captured a butterfly perched on a purple flower in specular detail

WASP: Shelia Moth took this captivating photo of a wasp on a thistle, capturing the insect and plant in immense detail

SPIDER: Taken by Geoffrey Wells, 67, a maintenance caretaker from North Yorkshire. 'This picture was taken in my back garden during the recent lockdown.'

REPTILES

MATING FROGS: Taken by Steve Jellett, 64, from Essex, who is retired. 'Taken in small garden pond when 21 frogs descended to mate.'

MAMMALS

ROE DEER: Tim Cliffton, a 75-year-old from St Leonards on sea, took a photograph of two roe deer spotted in a field

MOUSE: Taken by Cameron Parfitt, 20, a student at the University of Brighton, from Worthing. 'I would love to highlight that even in your back garden there are images to be had. This image is of a cheeky wood mouse that keeps stealing food from what we have now dubbed the mouse feeder. It's not unheard of for this little guy to be found inside the feeder without a care in the world stuffing himself with the bird seed.'

JUNIORS

FOX CUB: Billy Evans-Freke, 15, a secondary school student from East Sussex. 'It wasn't a long wait in the hide before the first fox cub woke up from its nap and came out into the open. It was soon followed by another cub. At first they stayed in the shadows of the bushes near the den. But once they gained their confidence they started coming closer. This cub in particular was very curious and came very close to the hide.'
Clinton and Trump -- their strengths and weaknesses

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are part of the same generation, but that is about the only thing they have in common: their careers, personalities and political instincts could not be more different.

Here are highlights of the strengths and weaknesses of the presumptive Democratic and Republican presidential nominees, five months before November's general election.

- Clinton: ready but disliked -

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are the presumptive Democratic and Republican candidates, five months ahead of the US general election dsk (AFP/File)

History-making woman

"If Hillary Clinton wins, that would have been two presidencies in a row where it was not a white man in the Oval Office," American University's Jennifer Lawless, an expert in women in politics, told AFP.

As she takes on the role of pioneer, Clinton could help inspire Democratic women, and some men, to be more involved in the political process.

"I think it needs a woman's touch," actor Ryan Gosling told the Evening Standard magazine. "I've always liked women more... They are better than us. They make me better."

Impeccable resume

When she was still known as Hillary Rodham, the young lawyer was already involved in women's and children's causes -- a worthy calling beyond reproach.

She put her successful career on hold to become the political partner to her husband Bill, following him from the Arkansas governor's mansion to the White House.

The 68-year-old former first lady then established her own name in politics, as a two-term senator from New York and then as secretary of state for Barack Obama's first four years in office.

"There's nobody else right now who is more qualified to be president," supporter Linda Rosel, a 60-year-old criminal investigator in Las Vegas, said in February.

All those scandals

But Clinton's deep political experience is not without baggage -- the scandals dogging her have provided fodder for Republicans, who have since the 1990s portrayed her as a woman with suspect friendships and poor ethical judgment.

The scandals run the gamut: from the Whitewater real estate investment controversy, in which the Clintons were eventually cleared, to the Benghazi attacks and her use of a private email server while at the State Department, which has made her the subject of an FBI probe.

All of those have made her the most unpopular and polarizing Democratic presidential candidate in recent history.

"I think if you've been attacked as much as she has for standing up for people the way she has, yeah, you pay a price for that," her campaign manager Robby Mook told MSNBC television.

Public speaking - not her strong point

"I am not a natural politician, in case you haven't noticed, like my husband or President (Barack) Obama," Clinton acknowledged in March.

Her speeches often get bogged down in policy details, and don't flow. Americans have however elected a president with mediocre oratory skills before... Dwight Eisenhower, in 1952.

- Trump: media-friendly but raw -

Career in business, not politics

Trump is "not a career politician. Career politicians are killing our country," defense contractor Matthew Weiner, 55, said in October. "He's a successful businessman. Our country is set up on capitalism, we are a big business."

Many voters see in the 69-year-old Trump a gifted businessman with the Midas touch who can balance the budget and create jobs. Trump says he is worth $10 billion, but independent estimates say his fortune is less than half that.

Democrats will pick holes in this image of the consummate, successful mogul, pointing out his failures in the casino business and the controversy swirling around his Trump University.

Showman

Trump's rallies are never boring, he has said. Between the scuffles, the protesters who sneak in to disrupt the proceedings, and the stream of insults and attacks from the candidate himself, the audience is always riveted.

Trump has been a tabloid favorite in the Big Apple since the 1980s, but he knows how to work the media, giving near-daily interviews to television networks, who have offered him more coverage than any other candidate by far.

His ability to captivate an audience, even with his somewhat stream-of-consciousness style, will be a major challenge for Clinton to overcome.

Breaking the policy mold

Trump's campaign has been built on the idea that the establishment needs a wake-up call. But in his quest to keep things most decidedly politically incorrect, the Republican candidate has failed to develop a solid policy platform.

His policy ideas are mainly soundbites -- about building a wall on the Mexican border, or making America's allies pay more for US military assurances -- and he often goes for an incendiary remark to make headlines.

By attacking Muslims and immigrants, he galvanized white voters on the political rights, but shocked some of his Republican allies and equally galvanized Hispanic voters against him.

"My advice to the nominee would be to start to talk about the issues that the American people care about and to start doing it now," Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell warned Tuesday.

"It's time to quit attacking various people that you competed with or various minority groups in the country and get on message."

Hillary Clinton hailed a historical "milestone" for women as she claimed victory over rival Bernie Sanders in the Democratic White House nomination race Timothy A. Clary (AFP)

US election: Clinton vs Trump? John SAEKI, Adrian LEUNG, Gal ROMA (AFP)

Former US president Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton share a moment on the night of June 7, 2016 in New York when she claimed victory over rival Bernie Sanders in the Democratic White House nomination race Timothy A. Clary (AFP/File)

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a rally at the San Jose Convention Center in San Jose, California on June 2, 2016 Josh Edelson (AFP/File)
Rebels kidnap dozens of civilians in DR Congo: UN

Nearly 100 people have been kidnapped in northeast DR Congo during an attack blamed on Uganda's rebel Lord's Resistance Army, the United Nations said Wednesday.

Lieutenant-Colonel Martin Amouzou Codjo, spokesman for the UN's MONUSCO peace mission in DR Congo, said the suspected LRA members had "attacked and looted" two villages during Saturday's attack in Bas-Uele province.

"These attackers also kidnapped nearly a hundred people to carry the loot," Codjo told a press conference, condemning the regular atrocities committed by the ruthless LRA against civilians in northeast DR Congo.

The LRA has killed more than 100,000 people and kidnapped more than 60,000 children, forcing many of them to become child soldiers, according to the UN Issour Sanogo (AFP/File)

The LRA first emerged in northern Uganda in 1986 when it took up arms in the name of the Acholi ethnic group against the government of President Yoweri Museveni.

Over the years it has moved freely across porous regional borders, shifting from Uganda to sow terror in southern Sudan before heading into northeastern DR Congo in 2005, finally crossing into the southeastern Central African Republic in 2008.

Combining religious mysticism with guerrilla tactics and bloodthirsty ferocity, its leader Joseph Kony has turned scores of young girls into his personal sex slaves while claiming to be fighting to impose the Bible's Ten Commandments.

The group has killed more than 100,000 people and kidnapped more than 60,000 children, forcing many of them to become child soldiers, according to the UN.

Top LRA commander Dominic Ongwen, himself a former child soldier who became one of the group's most feared leaders, is due to go on trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in December charged with keeping sex slaves and recruiting child soldiers.
Modi urges US-India partnership against terror

Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared Wednesday that India and the United States should work together more closely to defeat terrorism and head off regional instability.

While the Indian leader did not mention Pakistan by name, Modi urged US lawmakers to help isolate those who support terrorism that is "incubated in India's neighborhood."

And, while he did not address China's maritime territorial ambitions, Modi said a US-India partnership would "help ensure security of the sea lanes of commerce and freedom of navigation."

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi waves after addressing a joint meeting of Congress at the US Capitol in Washington, DC on June 8, 2016 Mandel Ngan (AFP)

Modi made the remarks in an address to a joint session of the US Congress during a visit to Washington designed to build on improved ties between the world's two largest democracies.

Once effectively banned from the United States because of his alleged role in anti-Muslim riots before coming to national office, Modi has built a rapport with US President Barack Obama.

Now, with Obama's final term coming to an end in seven months, the two partners are keen to secure support for India's civil nuclear program and build an enduring great power partnership.

Modi said Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi had inspired US civil rights hero Martin Luther King and that both countries had been inspired by their "struggle for freedom."

- 'Natural allies' -

"No wonder then, that former Prime Minister of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee called India and the US 'natural allies'," he told the US lawmakers.

"No wonder then, that President Obama has called our ties the defining partnership of the 21st century," he added.

India has a tradition of shunning formal alliances and relations with the United States were strained in the past by Cold War tensions.

Modi was also still careful to paint the relationship as one of equals, stressing that Obama supports Delhi's bid to become a permanent member of the UN Security Council.

But he was keen to play up for his Washington audience the more than $10 billion India has spent on US weaponry in the past five years -- and its role in securing regional stability.

"A strong India-US partnership can anchor peace, prosperity and stability from Asia to Africa and from Indian Ocean to the Pacific," he declared.

While not formally adopting the role of a US military ally, India has helped international rescue foreign nationals from war-torn Yemen and in anti-piracy operations off Somalia.

Modi also suggested that Delhi would be a positive influence as Washington seeks to defuse a confrontation with China over its territorial claims in the South China Sea.

- Terror threat -

But he also pointedly urged his new US friends to see India's long stand-off with neighboring Pakistan through the prism of Islamabad's alleged history of support for Islamist extremism.

He thanked Congress for what he said was its support when "terrorists from across our border" launched the Mumbai attacks in November 2008.

"Globally, terrorism remains the biggest threat," he argued before the body that must authorize American arms sales to Pakistan.

"In the territory stretching from west of India's border to Africa, it may go by different names, from Laskhar-e-Taiba, to the Taliban to ISIS."

Lashkar-e-Taiba is a Pakistani-based group blamed for attacks inside India, the Afghan Taliban use safe havens in Pakistan and ISIS, or the so-called Islamic State, has opened a South Asian affiliate.

Modi's speech, coming a day after a successful visit to the Democratic president in the White House, was warmly received by the Republican leaders in Congress.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell agreed the visit was an opportunity to hear Modi's view "on India's economic growth and how he feels we can strengthen the strategic partnership between our countries."

After giving his address, Modi was to be hosted for lunch by House majority leader Paul Ryan and then attend a reception organized by Congressmen for 500 dignitaries.

"He spoke eloquently about the importance of a strong US-India relationship to promoting peace and freedom around the globe," Ryan said.

During his three-day visit he has also met US and Indian business leaders -- and has already secured a promise of $3 billion in investment by online retailer Amazon.

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks during a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office with US President Barack Obama at the White House on June 7, 2016 in Washington, DC Mandel Ngan (AFP/File)
Libya unity govt forces says barracks seized from IS

Libya's unity government said its forces on Wednesday captured two military barracks from jihadists of the Islamic State group near their stronghold of Sirte in the east of the country.

"Our forces are in full control of Tagreft barracks and military engineers are inspecting the zone to clear anti-personnel mines," the forces of the Government of National Unity (GNA) said on Facebook.

It said the fighting 20 kilometres (12 miles) outside Sirte left six dead and 15 wounded.

Forces loyal to Libya's UN-backed unity government fire during clashes with jihadists of the Islamic State (IS) group around 23 kilometres (14 miles) west of Sirte on June 2, 2016 Mahmud Turkia (AFP/File)

A second barracks, named Al-Jalet, was also seized as well as a bridge and an intersection that leads to the western entrance to the city of Sirte, it said, in operations backed by seven strikes by the Libyan air force.

The GNA forces said one of the air raids destroyed a booby-trapped truck before it reached their lines.

Anti-personnel mines and booby-trapped vehicles left behind by retreating IS fighters were failing to slow the GNA forces, they said.

The unity government's forces and those of a rival authority in the east are currently engaged in a race to be the first to drive IS out of Sirte, the hometown on the Mediterranean of Libya's ousted dictator Moamer Kadhafi.

The international community believes this could jeopardise efforts to defeat IS, whose threat has grown since it established a foothold in Libya at the end of 2014.
Good cop Obama to 'hear Sanders out'

President Barack Obama will play Democratic peace broker on Thursday, hosting defeated and disaffected ally Bernie Sanders at the White House in a bid for party unity.

The Vermont senator has refused to recognize Hillary Clinton's primary victory, raising the specter of a split as Democrats try to beat Republican nominee Donald Trump in November.

Sanders told his defiant supporters that "the struggle continues" Tuesday, even after crushing defeats to Clinton in California and New Jersey -- the two main prizes of the night.

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders speaks to reporters after a meeting with US President Barack Obama at the White House January 27, 2016 in Washington, DC Brendan Smialowski (AFP/File)

Obama is expected to tread softly -- "hearing Sanders out," according to a Democratic source familiar with preparations for the White House meeting -- and offering him a very public show of respect for his insurgent campaign.

There is unlikely to be fist-thumping or angry demands for Sanders to face political reality and drop out.

"I think there is a recognition that this is emotionally very challenging," said the Democratic source, who asked not to be named.

"Sanders has poured his energy into this, there is a tremendous amount of pressure. It's like a battleship -- it takes a while to change course."

Sanders and Obama have spoken three times in the last month and are said to have a good rapport.

Obama was almost certain to back Clinton, his former secretary of state, but he has so far refrained from making any formal endorsement.

The outgoing president has lauded Sanders for "energizing millions of Americans with his commitment to issues like fighting economic inequality and special interests' influence on our politics."

- High stakes -

The stakes are high for Democrats. Decisions now will have an impact on Clinton's chances during the general election in November.

From relative obscurity, Sanders garnered 12 million of the primary campaign's 27 million votes.

He tapped a deep well of anger among young voters who were the lifeblood of Obama's victories in 2008 and 2012.

The risk for Clinton is that Sanders overplays his hand or feels shunned -- and continues his insurgency.

"Clinton finds herself in a shaky position she could not have imagined last year," said Larry Sabato, head of the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

"Weakened by the self-inflicted wounds of her email controversy and her inability to generate enthusiasm in major parts of the Democratic coalition, Clinton has been forced to spend precious time, money, and energy fighting Sanders right to the end."

Some Sanders supporters would indeed like him to battle all the way to the party convention in Philadelphia next month.

For diehard Sanders supporters, Clinton -- the former first lady, secretary of state and US senator -- is the epitome of a political establishment that has failed the people.

More pragmatic supporters are pressing for Sanders to leverage his newfound political clout.

They would like to see the party platform overhauled and reforms to the next nominating process in 2020 -- opening primaries to independent voters and curbing the role of bigwig "super-delegates."

Critically, Sanders supporters also want to see Clinton embrace more left-leaning policies, according to Neil Sroka of Democracy for America, a political action committee that endorsed Sanders.

"The degree to which the party unites behind Secretary Clinton is ultimately going to depend on the degree to which she picks up and embraces the political revolution and runs on the populist progressive issues that have been defining the primary," he said.

Actor Mark Ruffalo, a Sanders stalwart, echoed that sentiment, congratulating Clinton on her "historical win."

"My Sanders family, let's keep pushing our Progressive values!" he tweeted.

Now all eyes will be on Sanders' message at a rally in Washington, also on Thursday.

If there is still no hint of unity, the next discussion with Obama could be a lot less amiable.

Democrat primaries Sophie Ramis, Thomas Saint-Cricq, Frederic Bourgeais (AFP)
Four killed in shooting at Tel Aviv nightspot

Two Palestinians opened fire at a popular Tel Aviv nightspot near Israel's military headquarters on Wednesday, killing four people in one of the worst attacks in a months-long wave of violence.

The shooting spread panic, and video posted on social media showed a uniformed officer firing a handgun, though his target could not be seen.

Police said one of the attackers was arrested, while the other was wounded by gunfire and undergoing surgery.

Israeli security forces, emergency personnel and civilians are seen at the site of a gun attack in the coastal city of Tel Aviv on June 8, 2016 Jack Guez (AFP)

Five people were wounded in addition to the four killed at the Sarona Market in Israel's commercial capital, police said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the scene of what he called the "cold-blooded terrorist murder" after returning from a trip to Moscow and conferred with senior colleagues, including newly installed defence minister Avigdor Lieberman, Netanyahu's office said in a statement early Thursday.

"We discussed a range of offensive and defensive steps which we shall take in order to act against this phenomenon," it quoted the premier as saying.

"There will be intensive action by the police, the army and other security services, not just to catch every accomplice to this murder but also to prevent further incidents."

He did not elaborate further.

Israeli authorities said the two attackers were cousins from the Hebron area in the occupied West Bank.

The market and complex of bars and restaurants is located across the street from Israel's defence ministry and main army headquarters.

The nighttime shooting led police to clear the area.

Police said the wounded included those sitting at a coffee shop in the complex. The assailants' weapons had been retrieved, they said.

"We are talking here about a pretty serious terrorist incident," Tel Aviv police chief Chico Edri told reporters.

"Of the two terrorists, one was arrested and the other wounded by gunfire," he said.

"We do not know of another terrorist at large and so from our point of view people can return to their normal lives," he added.

The nationalities and other details of the victims were not yet known.

- 'Horrific' -

The United States called the shooting a "horrific terrorist attack".

"These cowardly attacks against innocent civilians can never be justified. We are in touch with Israeli authorities to express our support," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.

UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Nickolay Mladenov, said "all must reject violence and say no to terror".

"I am also shocked to see Hamas welcome the terror attack. Leaders must stand against violence and the incitement that fuels it, not condone it," he said in a statement.

A spokesman for Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai quoted him as saying "we will not be able to put a policeman on every street corner".

"The lone assailant can appear from any corner," he said. "That is the reality with which we have to live."

The city however said in a statement it was increasing security at schools and municipal buildings.

Violence since October has killed at least 207 Palestinians, 28 Israelis, two Americans, an Eritrean and a Sudanese.

Most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, according to Israeli authorities.

Others were killed in clashes or by Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip.

The violence has steadily declined in recent weeks, though attacks have continued to occur.

Shooting attacks such as the one that occurred Wednesday night have been rare, though Tel Aviv has seen two other major incidents in recent months.

In March, as US Vice President Joe Biden visited, a Palestinian went on a stabbing spree along the Tel Aviv waterfront, killing an American tourist and wounding 12 people.

On January 1, an Arab Israeli killed three people in a rampage in Tel Aviv.

Many analysts say Palestinian frustration with Israeli occupation and settlement-building in the West Bank, the complete lack of progress in peace efforts and their own fractured leadership have fed the unrest.

Israel says incitement by Palestinian leaders and media is a leading cause of the violence.

Last week in Paris, representatives from 28 countries, the Arab League, European Union and United Nations met to discuss ways of restarting Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts.

Negotiations have been at a complete standstill since a US-led initiative collapsed in April 2014.

Following last week's meeting, France hopes to hold an international peace conference before the end of the year.

Israel strongly opposes the French plan, calling instead for direct negotiations, while the Palestinians support it.

Mass shooting in Tel Aviv Kun Tian, Alain Bommenel (AFP)

Israeli security forces and emergency personnel are seen at the site of a shooting attack at a shopping complex in the Mediterranean coastal city of Tel Aviv on June 8, 2016 Jack Guez (AFP)

Israelis embrace following a shooting attack at a shopping complex in the Mediterranean coastal city of Tel Aviv on June 8, 2016 Jack Guez (AFP)
Rights groups tell Ban to put Saudi-led coalition back on blacklist

Twenty leading human rights groups on Wednesday urged UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to reverse his decision and put the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen back on a list of shame for the deaths of children in Yemen.

Ban decided to remove the coalition from the annual list of child rights violators under pressure from Saudi Arabia, which reacted furiously to the decision and threatened to cut off funding to UN agencies.

Diplomats and UN officials said Saudi Arabia had also enlisted allies from the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation and the Arab League to lobby Ban to make the changes.

Ban decided to remove the coalition from the annual list of child rights violators under pressure from Saudi Arabia, which reacted furiously to the decision and threatened to cut off funding to UN agencies YONHAP (YONHAP/AFP/File)

"The secretary-general's decision flies in the face of overwhelming evidence that violations by the Saudi-led coalition have killed and maimed hundreds of children in Yemen," said Jo Becker, a director at Human Rights Watch.

"Allowing governments that commit abuses against children to bully their way off the list makes a mockery of the UN's children protection efforts," she said.

Amnesty International, the Child Rights International Network, Oxfam and Physicians for Human Rights were among the 20 groups that made the appeal in a letter sent to Ban.

The United Nations blacklisted the coalition after concluding in a report released Thursday that it was responsible for 60 percent of the 785 children killed in Yemen last year.

Three days later, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric announced that the coalition would be scratched from the list pending a joint review with the Saudi-led alliance.

Saudi Ambassador Abdullah al-Mouallimi said the number of child deaths blamed on the coalition was "wildly exaggerated," and later proclaimed that the decision to be taken off the list was "irreversible."

- Saudis 'whip up' allies-

A Security Council diplomat said the Saudis had "whipped up a lot of supporters and some of those supporters added to the pressure to the secretary-general and the UN to make the changes."

Saudi Arabia threatened to pull tens of millions of dollars in funding to the UN Palestinian relief agency UNRWA and warned that UN-brokered peace talks on Yemen could be affected, diplomats said.

"Saudi Arabia and others make their viewpoint very clear, in various conversations," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

But he insisted that a final decision had yet to be made on the list.

"We are not walking back from the content of the report," said the spokesman.

Ban is expected to address the uproar over his decision to de-list the coalition during a press conference on Thursday.

The coalition launched an air campaign in support of Yemen's President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi in March 2015 to push back Huthi rebels after they seized the capital Sanaa and many parts of the country.

The war has left some 6,400 people dead, with more than 80 percent of the population in desperate need of humanitarian aid, according to the UN.
Famous Brazilian officer arrested for smuggling

A Brazilian police officer of Japanese origin -- and the driving force behind high-level arrests in a government corruption investigation -- was jailed for smuggling Wednesday, according to local press.

Newton Ishii, known as "the Japanese cop," gained fame for arresting dozens of well-known businessmen and politicians as part of the "Operation Car Wash" probe that began as a money laundering investigation but has since turned to the massive Petrobras fraud scandal.

An appeals court convicted Ishii of smuggling charges, sentencing him to four months and three weeks for facilitating the import of smuggled goods from Paraguay, his lawyer Oswaldo de Mello Junior told the Brazilian news outlet G1.

Federal Police officer Newton Ishii (L) as the treasurer of Brazil's ruling Workers' Party (PT) Joao Vaccari is escorted by him to his medical examination after being arrested in Curitiba, Southern Brazilian state of Parana, on April 16, 2015 Geraldo Bubniak (Brazil Photo Press/AFP/File)

Ishii's involvement was uncovered in Operation Sucuri, an investigation into federal agents participating in illegal smuggling efforts.

The federal police branch in Parana had not responded to repeated AFP confirmation requests as of noon local time.

In addition to arresting prominent Brazilian figures, Ishii -- always sporting a flak jacket and dark sunglasses -- is known for taking selfies with politicans. He lept to prominence during the last carnival as revelers donned masks in his likeness, and after a song about him gained YouTube fame.

Ishii also inspired an erotic novel available on Amazon titled "Arrest me, Japanese Cop!"
Chadian troops 'pour into Niger after Boko Haram attack'

The first of an expected 2,000 troops from regional military powerhouse Chad began arriving in neighbouring Niger Wednesday, where Boko Haram insurgents inflicted heavy losses in the town of Bosso last week, a local security source said.

Chad is a leading member of a multi-national force fighting the Nigeria-based Islamist fighters who have extended their attacks to neighbouring countries from their base in northern Nigeria.

"The first Chadian soldiers have already arrived in Bosso on board around 30 heavily-armed all-terrain vehicles," the source said.

Nigerien soldiers patroling on a road between Diffa and Bosso on May 25, 2015 Issouf Sanogo (AFP/File)

A Chadian military source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the troops will "search everywhere for Boko Haram".

The planned offensive comes after Boko Haram on Friday attacked a military post in Bosso in Niger's Diffa region, killing 26 soldiers including two from neighbouring Nigeria, in one of its deadliest attacks in Niger that sent tens of thousands fleeing.

A total of 55 insurgents were killed in the fighting and "many" injured, according to Niger authorities.

On Tuesday, witnesses near Bosso said Boko Haram remained in control of the town though the Niger government had said the previous day that "Bosso was totally under control."

In the regional capital, Diffa, some 140 kilometres (87 miles) to the west, teacher Ari Issa said he had seen many fighter planes.

Local radio Anfani said "military planes are coming and going between Lake Chad and Diffa airport".

There was no immediate confirmation from the Chadian army.

Last year, Chad dispatched soldiers to Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon to fight Boko Haram. The multi-national force includes the four countries.

- '50,000 displaced' -

Some 50,000 people have fled the Bosso area, UN refugee agency (UNHCR) spokesman Adrian Edwards said Tuesday.

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.

The UNHCR said most of those fleeing the violence in Bosso had walked to Toumour, some 30 kilometres to the west.

In Abidjan on Wednesday, the medical charity Doctors Without Borders called for urgent help for those displaced in Bosso, saying they were short of water and food as well as medicine.

A local journalist working with Radio Anfani told AFP earlier this week that on Tuesday he was sheltering in Toumour with no food, along with many others who had fled the violence.

"The Boko Haram gunmen stayed in Bosso from 6:30 pm (1730 GMT) on Friday to 3:00 am on Saturday, burning the military barracks, police facilities and local administration office before looting shops and carting away food supplies," he said.

He said the gunmen used heavy artillery which allowed them to overrun the town's garrison.

"They came in large numbers shouting 'Allahu Akbar' (God is greatest)," he said.
Civilian deaths undermining US military missions: report

The United States underestimates the long-term impact of civilian deaths on its military missions and is failing to implement lessons learned from 15 grueling years in Afghanistan, a report released Wednesday found.

While the US military frequently stresses it does all it can to prevent civilian casualties, the report said poorly planned air strikes, misidentified targets, unexploded ordinance and rogue partner troops have too often led to non-combatant deaths in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and elsewhere.

The study by Open Society Foundations, a charity created by US magnate and philanthropist George Soros, found that in Afghanistan, such deaths seriously undermined the mission and fueled the growth of the Taliban.

US army personnel ride in a truck inside an Afghan military base during fighting between Taliban militants and Afghan security forces in Kunduz on October 1, 2015 Wakil Kohsar (AFP/File)

A US-led coalition invaded the country at the end of 2001 and war still rages between Taliban and other insurgent groups and US-backed Afghan national forces.

Speaking at a Washington discussion with the study's authors, Michele Flournoy, a former under secretary of defense for policy, said the United States is quick to commit to new military engagements without stopping to digest the costly knowledge it has just acquired.

"After more than 15 years of war, there is still far too little reflection on what the lessons we should be learning from these experiences are, particularly at the strategic level," said Flournoy, who is widely tipped for consideration as the next Pentagon chief if the Democrats win the presidential election.

In Afghanistan, feuding locals have frequently duped US forces into attacking rivals and those fights often ended up with civilian dead, further fueling anti-US resentment.

"Civilian harm accelerated the insurgency and undermined the US and Afghan governments," said Army combat veteran Christopher Kolenda, a study co-author.

"It was like burning a candle at both ends with a blowtorch."

The report describes several causes of civilian casualties, and is particularly critical of unplanned air strikes to support troops on the ground as being a "primary driver" of civilian harm.

In Afghanistan in 2008, for instance, air strikes accounted for 64 percent of the 828 non-combatant deaths blamed on pro-government forces.

- US backs 'predatory partners' -

The Pentagon is still reeling from the fallout of last year's inadvertent strike on a hospital in the Afghan city of Kunduz, in which 42 people were killed.

In Syria and Iraq, where a US-led coalition has been bombing Islamic State targets since August 2014, the US military has publicly acknowledged killing 41 civilians, even though it has conducted nearly 13,000 strikes.

Study co-author Rachel Reid said the number was a massive underestimate.

"The US really does not know the scale and impact of the civilian harm that it is currently causing in Iraq and Syria," she said.

Additionally, the report blasts "predatory partners" the United States worked with in Afghanistan who could "operate with near impunity due to their close and highly visible relationship to the US military."

Amnesty International in January said US-backed Kurdish forces fighting jihadists in Iraq have destroyed thousands of homes in an apparent bid to uproot Arab communities, actions that may constitute war crimes.

Study authors make a slew of recommendations including the implementation of "civilian protection cells" that would monitor civilian harm and communicate with commanders to improve battlefield decision making.

The military should also "respond to civilian harm in ways that avoid premature denials, provide timely and clear communication of the outcomes of investigations and accountability measures to host nations, victims, and the public," the report states.

Lessons learned need to be applied to US military interventions in Iraq and Syria, in Yemen -- where strikes target Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula -- and in Pakistan, where US drones hunt the Taliban.

Still, the report acknowledged some of the difficulties the Pentagon faces as it tries to avoid killing civilians.

"In Yemen, Iraq, Syria, and Pakistan, US forces are confronted with incredibly challenging targeting and operational environments, and have been taking considerable steps to protect civilians," the report states.

But "other parties to the conflict have at times displayed a callous disregard for civilian life, including egregious war crimes in Syria, in particular."
S.Sudan moots truth body to heal war wounds

The newly-reconciled leaders of South Sudan have called for a South Africa-style truth commission to heal the scars of a gruesome war in the world's youngest nation.

President Salva Kiir and the newly-appointed vice president, Riek Machar, a former foe, said in a joint piece in The New York Times they were committed to ensuring South Sudan never again goes through a civil war.

"Bringing South Sudan together can be truly guaranteed only through one route: an organised peace and reconciliation process with international backing," they wrote on Tuesday.

First Vice President of South Sudan and former rebel leader, Riek Machar (L), and President Salva Kiir (R), at the Cabinet Affairs Ministry, in Juba on April 29, 2016 Albert Gonzales Farran (AFP/File)

"We intend to create a national truth and reconciliation commission modelled on those of South Africa and Northern Ireland," they said, ruling out punitive action for past misdeeds.

"Disciplinary justice -- even if delivered under international law -- would destabilise efforts to unite our nation by keeping alive anger and hatred among the people of South Sudan," they said.

After gaining independence from Sudan in 2011, South Sudan erupted into civil war in December 2013, when Kiir accused Machar of plotting a coup and sacked him as vice president.

That set off a cycle of retaliatory killings that split the poverty-stricken, landlocked country along ethnic lines.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than two million have been driven from their homes.

The conflict has been characterised by horrific rights abuses, including gang rapes, the wholesale burning of villages and cannibalism.

The United States is pushing for the rapid creation of a special court backed by the African Union to try war crimes suspects.

In Washington, the State Department said there may also be a role for a truth and reconciliation commission, but warned that both leaders had signed up for a true court.

"We're disappointed," spokesman Mark Toner said.

"We firmly support the African Union's efforts to establish this hybrid court, which is called for by the peace agreement which was signed by President Kiir and First Vice President Machar in August 2015," he added.

"And we expect the parties to fulfill their responsibilities."

The creation of the hybrid court and a separate truth and reconciliation commission was a key provision of a peace accord signed by Machar and Kiir in August last year.

But that failed to stop the fighting. In February, Kiir named Machar as his vice-president once again and Machar entered the capital Juba in May, finally paving the way for a unity government.

Kiir and Machar said the truth and reconciliation commission would have sweeping powers and be able to investigate everybody from "the poorest farmer to the most powerful politician".

"Those who tell the truth about what they saw or did would be granted amnesty from prosecution - even if they did not express remorse," they said.

The two leaders said the conflict had left "South Sudan with one of the highest levels of military spending by gross domestic product in the world."
DR Congo opposition leader ready for 'dialogue' with government

Veteran Democratic Republic of Congo opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi said Wednesday he was ready for dialogue with President Joseph Kabila under international oversight as he called for unity against the government.

DRC opposition figures began a two-day meeting in Belgium to thrash out a common position against Kabila who is widely believed to want a third term, in contravention of the constitution which allows only two.

Tshisekedi, 83, told them they were gathered "as patriots to exchange views on the grave crisis affecting our country."

The President of the Democratic Republic of Congo opposition party Union for Democracy and Social Progress Etienne Tshisekedi, during the opening session of the meeting of the Opposition leaders from the Democratic Republic of Congo on June 8, 2016 Thierry Charlier (AFP)

"More than ever, we must be united to get rid of you know who," he said, referring to Kabila who has been in power since his father's assassination in 2001.

At the same time, the opposition must be mindful of the possible dangers and get the president "to leave quietly... and not expose the people to bullets," he said.

Tshisekedi, who leads the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), said the opposition could consider dialogue with Kabila but on conditions -- respect for the constitution, release of political prisoners and oversight by the international community to make sure any agreement was implemented.

The meeting at a hotel in Genval near Brussels was called by Tshisekedi who has been convalescing in Belgium since 2014.

Moise Katumbi, a leading DR Congo opposition figure who has announced his candidacy for the presidency, had been expected to attend but sent his closest advisers instead, organisers said.

Katumbi quit the DRC in May ostensibly for medical treatment and is now staying in Britain. He left his country a day after the government announced he would be tried for endangering state security.

Tensions have been soaring in the DRC in recent months over fears that Kabila will postpone elections due to be held late this year as he manoeuvres to extend his time in office.

Tshisekedi, an opposition leader since the rule of strongman Mobutu Sese Seko, came second to Kabila in a fraud-tainted 2011 election.

His UDPS party, struggling with internal divisions, was the only major opposition group to have shown willingness to negotiate with the government.

No date has yet been set for a new election, and late last year Kabila said he hoped to organise a "national dialogue" aimed at reaching a wide consensus ahead of any poll.
Assault on IS-held Manbij in Syria within days: Pentagon

A US-backed Kurdish and Arab alliance is set to attack an Islamic State-held city in northern Syria within days, a military spokesman said Wednesday, helping clear the way for an eventual assault on the jihadists' stronghold of Raqa.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are on the northern edge of Manbij, a strategically important town held by IS forces that serves as a waypoint between Raqa and the Turkish border.

"At the pace they're moving now and at the speed that they've been able to fight the enemy, we think they're a matter of days before they conduct the attack on (Manbij)," Baghdad-based military spokesman Colonel Chris Garver told Pentagon reporters in a video call.

Syrian families, who fled the assault launched by Arab and Kurdish forces against Islamic State (IS) group fighters in the town of Manbij, arrive at an encampment on the outskirts of the town, 20km away from the center, on June 4, 2016 Delil Souleiman (AFP/File)

The Arab-Kurdish offensive on Manbij is one of two major assaults on the route the IS group uses to send in more fighters, weapons and money from the Turkish border to Raqa.

Tabqa, another IS-held transit town which lies near Syria's largest dam, is also under attack.

Russian-backed regime forces are also attacking IS jihadists in the region and the proximity of Russian- and US-backed forces has led observers to question whether the two powers are coordinating over an eventual assault on Raqa.

"There is no coordination between us and those (Russian-backed) forces at this time," Garver said.

"The forces we support are focused on Manbij right now, and that's where we're supporting them."

Washington, which has more than 200 special forces troops deployed to back the SDF, has said some 3,000 Arab fighters are taking part in the assault, supported by about 500 Kurds.

But the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says that of the 4,000 fighters it estimates are taking part, most are actually Kurdish.
FBI director: Number of IS cases in US has not dropped off

BROOKLYN CENTER, Minn. (AP)  The director of the FBI said Tuesday that the Islamic State group is currently the main threat facing the United States, both in its efforts to recruit fighters to join its members overseas and to have others carry out violence in America.

Director James Comey said the IS group poses a third potential threat: a "terrorist diaspora" that he said will eventually flow out of Syria and Iraq and end up in Western Europe, where members will have easy access to the U.S.

"There's three prongs to this ISIL threat," Comey said. "The recruitment to travel, the recruitment to violence in place, and then what you saw a preview of in Brussels and in Paris  hardened fighters coming out, looking to kill people."

FBI Director James Comey speaks during a news conference Tuesday afternoon June 7, 2016, in Minneapolis, Minn., while in town as part of a two-day regional visit. (Jeff Wheeler/Star Tribune via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT; ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS OUT; MAGS OUT; TWIN CITIES LOCAL TELEVISION OUT

He said officials are "laser-focused on that."

Comey took questions from reporters Tuesday in the FBI's Minneapolis office as part of a two-day visit to the region that included meetings with community leaders and local law enforcement. Comey responded to questions about the heroin epidemic, shootings involving officers and surveillance issues, but the bulk of his comments were about the Islamic State group.

Last week, three Minnesota men who were accused of plotting to join the IS group were convicted of conspiring to commit murder overseas  which carries a potential life sentence  as well as conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and other charges.

The defendants  Guled Ali Omar, 21; Abdirahman Yasin Daud, 22; and Mohamed Abdihamid Farah, 22  were among a group of friends who prosecutors say recruited and inspired each other to travel to Syria. A total of 10 men were charged in the conspiracy; six pleaded guilty and a seventh is at large, believed to be fighting in Syria.

Comey said the FBI is continuing to focus on the Islamic State group, and there are close to 1,000 open cases nationwide involving people at various stages of recruitment. He said the group's slick videos and propaganda can resonate with people of all ages, but seem to draw in people under 30 who are "unmoored" in some way.

He said he hopes the FBI's work, including the convictions in Minneapolis, will send a message that "there will be severe consequences for people who go down that path."

Comey added that the number of active IS-related cases hasn't decreased, but the number of people seeking to travel to Syria has dropped since the end of last summer  going from about six to 10 attempted travelers each month to about one or two.

He said he can't pinpoint the reasons for the trend, but it's possible people are traveling to other Islamic State outposts, have been deterred by the outcomes of other criminal cases, or have been stopped by families and community members.

Another  and more disturbing  possibility is that some are staying in the U.S. and looking to carry out violence here, Comey said.

"It's good news the traveler numbers have come down," he said. "I don't know exactly what to make of it yet."

Comey was in Williston, North Dakota, on Monday to open a new FBI office that will focus on crime in the Bakken region, which has spiked with the oil boom. The FBI's Minneapolis division covers Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.

___

Follow Amy Forliti on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/amyforliti. More of her work can be found at http://www.bigstory.ap.org/content/amy-forliti .

FBI Director James Comey listen during a news conference Tuesday afternoon June 7, 2016, in Minneapolis, Minn., while in town as part of a two-day regional visit. (Jeff Wheeler/Star Tribune via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT; ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS OUT; MAGS OUT; TWIN CITIES LOCAL TELEVISION OUT
Iowa GOP senator suspends party membership to protest Trump

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP)  A senior member of the Iowa Senate says he has dropped his Republican Party affiliation in protest of what he calls Donald Trump's "bigotry," in light of the presumptive GOP presidential nominee's comments about a federal court judge's ethnicity.

Sen. David Johnson, from heavily Republican northwest Iowa, told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday that "somebody had to make a statement."

Johnson, an 18-year state legislator from Ocheyedan, was referring to the billionaire's allegation that U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel was biased in his decision against the now-defunct Trump University, a business owned by Trump, because he disagrees with Trump's position on immigration. Gonzalo is of Mexican descent but was born in Indiana.

Trump has called for building a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border and has broadly described people from Mexico in the United States illegally as having unlawful intentions.

"There's no room in the party of Lincoln for such a bigot and demagogue," Johnson said. "How did we lose touch with our origin as a party?"

Johnson also scolded state and national party leaders  including Gov. Terry Branstad, U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan and U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell  for condemning the comments about Curiel but not withdrawing their support for Trump.

Johnson said his late father, Donald E. Johnson, was an Army veteran who served in World War II and was part of a unit which was the first to encounter and liberate the Nazi concentration camps.

"I was raised in a home without hearing a racial slur or any kind of denigration of someone's ancestry," Sen. Johnson said.

Johnson, 65, says he is unsure whether he will caucus with Republicans in the Iowa Senate for the 2017 legislative session. Johnson supported former Texas Gov. Rick Perry in the Iowa caucus campaign, and then former tech CEO Carly Fiorina after Perry quit the race last year.

As for whether he remains officially unaffiliated, as he re-registered Tuesday, he will wait and see.

"I'm going to wait and see how the convention plays out," Johnson said, holding out hope Trump not be nominated.

___
I am a history buff  hopelessly curious and always ready to be inspired by what came before. I recently had cause to read diaries, letters and newspaper accounts of travelers on the Bozeman Trail heading to the Montana gold fields in 1866, 150 years ago.

In the late spring and early summer, Montanas streams were still running high after a snowy winter and cold, wet spring. The Bighorn River was a major obstacle faced by travelers. Fording was not possible so ferrying was the only alternative, but building a raft was not a simple task.

The basic law of physics is that an object will displace a volume of water equal to its weight. A foot-long section of a dry cottonwood log 14 inches in diameter weighs about 40 pounds, so it would displace about two-thirds of a cubic foot of water, which weighs about 60 pounds.

Doing rough math says that it would take about seven 10-foot logs lashed together to support a 3,000-pound loaded wagon. Captains of wagon trains had to learn that by either trial and error or relying on some other source of information.

Solutions were varied, and accounts of some travelers were recorded. On May 31, Thomas Miles crossed on a raft made of five good sized cottonwood logs, but "Popcorn" Meyers, the trains guide, was drowned when crossing back over to the east bank.

Richard Lockey, in another train, muddled across in mid-June just north of the mouth of Soap Creek at the Spotted Rabbit crossing. That train forded two channels to an island where the people built a raft and wagon box boats to cross the main channel. Some wagons and much material were swept away.

Theodore Bailey, in a train captained by John Zeigler, crossed on about June 27. Zeigler had floated down the Yellowstone River on flat bottomed boats the year before and so knew something about the laws of buoyancy. But a man named Wiston and a Dr. Storer were drowned, and Mrs. Fisher and her son narrowly escaped.

Ellen Fletchers train was led by John Reed. He used hollowed-out cottonwood logs with wagon boxes set across. William Norton, who later helped found the town of Columbus, was a teamster with Cyrenius Beers train. The site they selected became the preferred crossing for later immigrants.

The train crossed just north of present-day Fort Smith in early July, but they lost most of their mules to marauding Sioux and Arapaho before succeeding. The wagon box raft was poorly made and caulked with rags. They waited more than a month before members of their party returned from Virginia City with replacement mules.

The common theme in all these accounts is that when obstacles were encountered, the intrepid travelers found a way to cross over. They used ingenuity, were not reluctant to ask for guidance and they were mindful that the passage would not always be smooth.

For most of us today, our journey through life is not as perilous as trekking over the Bozeman Trail in 1866. But we have all met obstacles that seemed as formidable as the Bighorn near flood stage.

We believers have a decided advantage. Just as builders of rafts have the physical law of buoyancy, we have the Bible as a reference manual and faith to rely on to cross over. Like a dry cottonwood log, we can keep afloat.

Our passages might not seem to have the direct hand of God as evident as Joshuas crossing of the Jordan, but if we let God be the captain of our lives, passage is assured.
Rolling gunbattle claims 1 life on Atlanta-area Interstate

ATLANTA (AP)  Authorities say one man was killed in a rolling gunbattle and multiple cars were hit by bullets when people in two vehicles fired at one another while speeding down Interstate 20 just east of Atlanta.

News organizations report it happened just before 6 p.m. Tuesday.

Major Stephen Fore, a DeKalb County police spokesman, said in an email that officers found a male driver in his late teens to early 20s dead from gunshot wounds in one vehicle. Police did not immediately release his name.

Police at the scene near Panola Road had pulled over five cars with bullet holes. TV news footage showed multiple bullet holes in the windows of one car.

All lanes except one were closed for two hours.
Activists file suit challenging Tennessee counseling law

CLINTON, Tenn. (AP)  Two gay rights activists have filed a lawsuit challenging a new Tennessee law that lets therapists decline to see patients based on religious values and personal principles.

Bleu Copas is an Anderson County man who says he was discharged from the Army under "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Caleb Laieski is an activist from Virginia. Their lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Anderson County Chancery Court. It claims the new law targets gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, violating the right to equal treatment guaranteed by the Tennessee Constitution.

Gov. Bill Haslam's spokeswoman, Jennifer Donnals, says the governor's office is unaware of any lawsuits challenging the counseling law and has not seen the Anderson County suit.
Papua New Guinea bans student protests after violent clash

SYDNEY (AP)  The University of Papua New Guinea has obtained a court order banning student protesters from further demonstrations following a violent scuffle with police, as officials on Thursday tried to piece together what happened during a clash that left scores of students wounded.

The injunction from the National Court restricts the students involved in Wednesday's confrontation from boycotting classes and barricading or locking classrooms in protest.

The court order was issued after police fired gunshots to quell a student protest in the South Pacific nation's capital, Port Moresby. The students have been demanding for weeks that Prime Minister Peter O'Neill resign because of alleged corruption and mismanagement.

In this photo provided by Staycey Yalo, 34-year-old Esther Was bleeds from a head wound suffered during a student protest Wednesday, June 8, 2016, in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. Police fired gunshots to quell the protest demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Peter O'Neill, the government said. (Staycey Yalo via AP) EDITORIAL USE ONLY

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said the situation in Port Moresby remained volatile on Thursday, and that Australia had offered Papua New Guinea help to stem further unrest.

"We are calling for calm. Obviously, lawful and peaceful protests should be allowed," Bishop told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio. "The police response should at all times be proportionate."

The government denied initial reports students had been killed in the scuffle, but acknowledged several people had been injured.

The exact number of protesters who were hurt was unclear. O'Neill said five people had been injured; the country's police commissioner, citing information from local hospitals, said 23 were hurt, five critically; and Amnesty International said 38 people were injured, four critically.

Both sides blamed each other. O'Neill said he was told a small group of students became violent, threw rocks at police and "provoked a response that came in the form of tear gas and warning shots." Protesters said they had done nothing to prompt aggression from police and accused the officers of firing directly at students.

"The shooting of students peacefully protesting is reminiscent of the worst excesses of repressive regimes in the region," Rafendi Djamin, Amnesty International's director for South East Asia and the Pacific, said in a statement. "Papua New Guinea's authorities must establish a prompt, impartial and independent investigation to determine who is responsible for the unnecessary and excessive use of force."

O'Neill said an investigation was underway, though it was unclear who would be in charge of the inquiry.

Staycey Yalo, a journalism student at the university, said she and the other protesters encountered a line of police officers blocking them when they tried to march to Parliament. The police demanded they hand over the student president. When the protesters said no, an argument broke out, she said.

"They threw tear gas and amidst the smoke, they started shooting directly at the students," Yalo told The Associated Press by telephone. "That's when we all ran."

Police in vehicles began chasing after the protesters, with officers firing from their cars at fleeing students, Yalo said.

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Associated Press writer Rod McGuirk in Canberra, Australia, contributed to this report.
Patience wears thin as Peru vote count drags on

LIMA, Peru (AP)  Patience was wearing thin as ballots in Peru's presidential election continued to trickle in on Wednesday, three days after a contest whose results remained too close to call.

Front-runner Pedro Pablo Kuczynski's running mate met Wednesday with electoral authorities to request they speed up the counting. Meanwhile, dozens of supporters of his rival Keiko Fujimori held a demonstration Tuesday night outside the electoral board to denounce what they said is fraud, even though neither the candidate nor her campaign have presented any evidence to back up their supporters' claims.

Electoral officials said they hope to wrap up their work on Thursday when the last ballots cast at embassies abroad arrive in Lima.

Presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori waves to the press as she leaves of her home in Lima, Peru, Wednesday, June 8, 2016. Economist Pedro Pablo Kuczynski clung to a thin lead over the daughter of a jailed former president early Wednesday as the count from Peru's presidential election dragged on, straining nerves in a nation divided after a polarizing campaign. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

But most experts said it's already mathematically impossible for Fujimori to make up the 42,000 vote difference separating her from Kuczynski. With 99 percent of polling stations counted, the former World Bank economist had 50.1 percent compared to the 49.9 percent for Fujimori, the daughter of imprisoned ex-president Alberto Fujimori.

Still, Fujimori has yet to concede defeat and her supporters are holding out hope for a turnaround.

"She's worked so hard crisscrossing the country," said Lusa Maria Cuculiza, a congresswoman for Fujimori's Popular Force party. "It would be unfair if she doesn't win."

Still being counted are the last ballots cast by an estimated 885,000 Peruvians eligible to vote abroad. Peruvians living outside the South American country, most of them in the United States, turned out massively for Fujimori in the 2011 election but with 90 percent of their vote already counted they appear to have favored Kuczynski this time around.

Another potential spoiler is the thousands of handwritten tallies that were being disputed and evaluated by a special electoral board. Currently, 677 such tallies representing up to 200,000 votes remain to be computed. Disputes are common in Peru, where voting is mandatory and any observer can lodge a complaint, but they've never proven decisive in past elections and almost always a losing candidate ends up conceding defeat before they are resolved.

Both candidates have remained largely silent while awaiting final results of Peru's tightest presidential race since 1962, a contest that ended in a military coup. While Fujimori has traveled every day to her campaign headquarters, Kuczynski has remained mostly holed-up in his mansion with his family and aides.

President Ollanta Humala on Wednesday urged Peruvians to avoid jumping to conclusions and said the police would remain on alert until results were known.

"We exhort the authorities to deliver the results the quickest and most-responsible manner," he said.

Regardless of who wins, half of voters are bound to be disappointed, making it harder for the next president to govern. Aides in both campaigns were jockeying for positions in an eventual alliance in congress, where Fujimori's party won a solid majority of 73 of 130 seats. Kuczynski's fledgling movement will have just 18, fewer than the country's main leftist alliance.

The 77-year-old Kuczynski was once far behind, but rose by reminding voters of Alberto Fujimori's ties to the corruption, organized crime and death squads for which he's serving a 25-year prison sentence.

Kuczynski also benefited from a last-minute endorsement by the third-place finisher in the first round of voting, leftist congresswoman Veronika Mendoza.

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Joshua Goodman contributed from Bogota, Colombia.

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Franklin Briceno on Twitter at https://twitter.com/franklinbriceno. His work can be found at: http://bigstory.ap.org/author/franklin-briceno .

Presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori smiles as she leaves of her home in a car in Lima, Peru, Wednesday, June 8, 2016. Economist Pedro Pablo Kuczynski clung to a thin lead over the daughter of a jailed former president early Wednesday as the count from Peru's presidential election dragged on, straining nerves in a nation divided after a polarizing campaign. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

Martin Vizcarra, who is running for first vice president on the ticket with presidential candidate Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, arrives to Kuczynski's home in Lima, Peru, Wednesday, June 8, 2016. Economist Pedro Pablo Kuczynski clung to a thin lead over the daughter of a jailed former president early Wednesday as the count from Peru's presidential election dragged on, straining nerves in a nation divided after a polarizing campaign. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

Mercedes Araoz, who is running for second vice president on the ticket with presidential candidate Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, arrives to Kuczynski's home in Lima, Peru, Wednesday, June 8, 2016. Economist Pedro Pablo Kuczynski clung to a thin lead over the daughter of a jailed former president early Wednesday as the count from Peru's presidential election dragged on, straining nerves in a nation divided after a polarizing campaign. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

Supporters of presidential candidate Pedro Pablo Kuczynski chant slogans against his rival Keiko Fujimori outside the National Office of Electoral Processes, (ONPE) in Lima, Peru, Tuesday, June 7, 2016. The nail-biter race for Peru's presidency remained tight Tuesday night as the daughter of imprisoned ex-president Alberto Fujimori gained ground on Kuczynski thanks to votes trickling in from remote rural areas and embassies abroad. The poster in background reads in Spanish; "I love you Peru. Don't steal my vote ONPE!" (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Supporters of presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori chant slogans against her rival Pedro Pablo Kuczynski outside the National Office of Electoral Processes in Lima, Peru, Tuesday, June 7, 2016. The nail-biter race for Peru's presidency remained tight Tuesday night as the daughter of imprisoned ex-president Alberto Fujimori gained ground on her rival thanks to votes trickling in from remote rural areas. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori smiles as she leaves of her home in Lima, Peru, Wednesday, June 8, 2016. Economist Pedro Pablo Kuczynski clung to a thin lead over the daughter of a jailed former president early Wednesday as the count from Peru's presidential election dragged on, straining nerves in a nation divided after a polarizing campaign. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

Supporters of presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori chant slogans against her rival Pedro Pablo Kuczynski outside the National Office of Electoral Processes in Lima, Peru, Tuesday, June 7, 2016. The nail-biter race for Peru's presidency remained tight Tuesday night as the daughter of imprisoned ex-president Alberto Fujimori gained ground on her rival thanks to votes trickling in from remote rural areas. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Supporters of presidential candidate Pedro Pablo Kuczynski gather outside the National Office of Electoral Processes, in Lima, Peru, Tuesday, June 7, 2016. The nail-biter race for Peru's presidency remained tight Tuesday night as Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of imprisoned ex-president Alberto Fujimori, gained ground on Kuczynski thanks to votes trickling in from remote rural areas. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Language barriers, fear heighten woes in Flint water crisis

FLINT, Mich. (AP)  Margarita Solis regularly drives to Flint distribution centers to load up on bottled water, as thousands of residents have done in the city coping with a lead-contaminated water crisis.

One stop is a little farther afield but feels like home: She goes to Our Lady of Guadalupe Church north of the city, where the conversation with volunteers may be in Spanish. It's nice for the 21-year-old Solis  a church member and lifelong Flint resident who speaks English and Spanish  but necessary for her parents and others with Hispanic or Latino roots who speak little or no English.

"They always depend on me or my siblings, who do know how to speak English well," Solis said of her parents, who moved to Flint shortly before she was born and now are U.S. citizens. "So, sometimes, like for my mom, she kind of has to wait around until we have free time, because we go to school and work and everything."

In this Wednesday, May 25, 2016 photo, Margarita Solis, carries wipes as Rick Vasquez carries bottled water at Out Lady of Guadalupe Church in Flint, Mich. Solis regularly drives to Flint distribution centers to load up on bottled water, as thousands of residents have done in the city coping with a lead-contaminated water crisis. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

The city of nearly 100,000 has been dealing with the lead contamination since switching from the Detroit system, which draws from Lake Huron, to the Flint River in April 2014 as a short-term measure to save money while another pipeline to the lake was under construction. Last September, state officials acknowledged a failure to add chemicals to limit corrosion had enabled the river water to scrape lead from aging pipes, exposing people in some homes and schools to the potent neurotoxin.

The struggles have been acute for members of some Spanish-speaking households, who say it took several months to learn about the water problems and the need for filters. State officials said there are no Spanish language print media or radio outlets in Flint devoted to news. What's more, some people in the country illegally have been afraid to provide information to anyone in exchange for water or other basic help lest they be deported or questioned by law enforcement officials.

Officials with Our Lady of Guadalupe recognized the language and cultural barriers in January, when they started distributing supplies as well as information in English and Spanish developed with the help of government officials. After concerns were raised, government officials also stopped checking identification at official distribution sites.

Advocates note improvements, with more documents and phone assistance being made available in Spanish and other languages. Still, it's difficult to reach everyone after concerns spread in the community.

"I think it's hard to convince people that there are safe places for them to come to  even at this point," said Victoria Arteaga, a local immigration attorney who attends and works at Our Lady of Guadalupe, where her husband, Omar Odette, is the administrator. "We still see people who are hesitant to go to these sites and ask for help. ... There's always that fear that if I got in my car and get pulled over, something will happen."

She said it's also likely some children aren't having their blood tested for lead because of those fears. And some might not see the right doctors to deal with lead contamination because people must be U.S. citizens or non-citizens meeting certain criteria to get Medicaid. Those without documents have to rely on limited emergency services, she said.

Arteaga says there are an estimated 1,000 people living illegally in the Flint area. Flint's Latino community represents at least 5 percent of the overall population, according to the federal Census, though she says it's likely higher.

The language barrier came up in April during a Michigan Civil Rights Commission hearing exploring whether residents have faced racial and ethnic discrimination. Commissioners heard from Yaquelin Vargas, 21, who moved to Flint from San Antonio, Texas, six years ago with her father.

Vargas said buying their home was a "dream come true," but now they struggle. Her father is too ill to work and she must care for him and her 7-month-old daughter, Lydia, who tested positive for lead. She's also concerned about people in her east-side neighborhood, many of whom, like her father, speak little English.

Arteaga said Vargas "is a perfect example of the people that are lost right now  they're not sure what the future holds for them."

President Barack Obama, who declared a state of emergency in the city in mid-January and ordered federal aid to supplement the state and local response, visited Flint in May.

Among those who met with Obama was Rick Vasquez, a retired General Motors worker who coordinates Our Lady of Guadalupe's distribution efforts. He's glad to be helping other residents, particularly those dealing with language barriers.

Vasquez said it's hard for him to fathom how a U.S. public water system can be fouled in this way, and shared those concerns with Obama.

"I've lived here all my life. I never thought that I would be living in a Third World country, and this is exactly what it feels like," said Vasquez, during a break from lugging water and filters to residents' cars. "We're surrounded by Great Lakes. This should have never happened."

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Associated Press writer Mike Householder contributed to this story.

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Follow Jeff Karoub on Twitter: http://twitter.com/jeffkaroub .

FILE - In this Feb. 5, 2016 file photo, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, center, and Our Lady of Guadalupe Church Deacon, Omar Odette, meets with volunteers helping to load vehicles with bottled water, in Flint, Mich. Snyder visited the church that's distributing water and filters to its predominantly Latino parishioners. Our Lady of Guadalupe Church north of the city developed bilingual information with government officials. (AP Photo/Carlos Osori, File)

In this Wednesday, May 25, 2016 photo, Rick Vasquez carries water to a vehicle at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Flint, Mich. Officials with Our Lady of Guadalupe recognized the language and cultural barriers in January, when they started distributing supplies as well as information in English and Spanish developed with the help of government officials. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

In this Wednesday, May 25, 2016 photo, Raul Garcia Jr., carries a bottle of water to a car at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Flint, Mich. Officials with Our Lady of Guadalupe recognized problems with the language and cultural barriers in January, when they started serving as a site to distribute supplies and information in English and Spanish with bilingual volunteers. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

In this Wednesday, May 25, 2016 photo, Raul Garcia Jr., loads water into a van at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Flint, Mich. Officials with Our Lady of Guadalupe recognized the language and cultural barriers in January, when they started distributing supplies as well as information in English and Spanish developed with the help of government officials. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Former first lady Barbara Bush is celebrating her 91st birthday with her family in Maine.

Born on June 8, 1925, she and former President George H.W. Bush are being joined by family members including their son, former President George W. Bush, to help her celebrate on Wednesday.

The Bushes have a summer home in Kennebunkport, on the Maine coast.

A family spokeswoman says it will be a quiet family event.

Scroll down for video

Barbara Bush is celebrating her 91st birthday with her family in Maine. She and former President George H.W. Bush are being joined by family members including their son, former President George W. Bush, to help her celebrate on Wednesday (2009 file photo)

Mrs. Bush's gala 90th birthday celebration featured special guests Amy Grant, Teri Hatcher, Reba McEntire and Michael W. Smith. She is seen in 2015 blowing out her cake

From left, Reba McEntire, Michael W. Smith, the former first lady and Amy Grant are seen at the 2015 event

Actress Teri Hatcher was also on-hand for Mrs. Bush's 90th birthday in 2015 (left and right)

That's in contrast to a year ago, when Mrs. Bush's gala 90th birthday celebration featured special guests Amy Grant, Teri Hatcher, Reba McEntire and Michael W. Smith.

Last year, Mrs. Bush told her granddaughter, Today's Jenna Bush Hager of her pearl jewelry: 'The pearls are to cover the wrinkles, which they no longer do. You can't wear pearls all over your face.'

She also discussed her white hair in the interview, revealing: 'The white hair was because I wanted to play golf. I wanted to play tennis.

'I wanted to swim and my hair turned, as I'm sure someone else will tell you, orange, green, yellow, depending upon how much chlorine in the pool. So I decided to go white.'

Barbara Bush was born Barbara Pierce on June 8, 1925. On the right she is seen in 1943 in her high school graduation photo

She and George H. W. Bush married in 1945 (left). They are seen in China in 1974 (right)

Her husband, the nation's 41st president, also is celebrating a birthday this week: George H.W. Bush turns 92 on Sunday.

Mrs. Bush was just 16 when she met him at a school dance, and he borrowed a car for the couple's first date, Today reported.

The former first lady recalled in the interview with her granddaughter: 'He told me later, "I got the Oldsmobile because it had a radio. And I was afraid we'd have nothing to say to each other."

'And he tells the world now that I've not stopped talking in 75 years.'

They tied the knot in 1945.

The couple's six children include former President George W. Bush, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Neil Bush, Marvin Bush, Dorothy Bush Koch, and the late Robin Bush, who died in 1953.

Barbara Bush and George H. W. Bush are seen with their children in 1964

The Bush family poses for a photo in 2015 to celebrate Mrs. Bush's 90th birthday. Former president George H.W. Bush, is seated front row center; his wife Barbara, second row center; former President George W, third row center; his wife Laura, second row third from left; former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, back row sixth from right, and his wife Columba, second row fourth from left. Former model Lauren Bush Lauren and her husband David are back row left. Lauren's sister Ashley stands left of former first daughter Barbara Pierce Bush. Former first lady Laura Bush holds her granddaughter, Jenna Bush's daughter Mila, in her arms. Barbara and Jenna flank their mother while Jenna's husband, Henry Chase Hager, stands behind. George HW and Barbara's youngest son, Marvin stands back row left of Jeb Bush, other brother Neal Bush is right of Jeb with his wife Maria. Doro Koch (nee Bush) is right of Neal. Front row, second from right is Marvin Bush's son Charles Walker
Military dress at graduation? In most places, it's a no-no

CONCORD, N.H. (AP)  Can the cap and gown worn by high school graduates coexist peacefully with military uniforms worn by classmates destined for the armed services? Until recently, the answer in New Hampshire was no.

A law went into effect last month allowing graduates the opportunity to wear their uniform at commencement ceremonies if they have completed basic training. New Hampshire joins Pennsylvania and California, which passed similar laws in 2011 and 2009 respectively.

The debate about appropriate attire for a rite of passage is not as simple as it seems. The idea of military dress breaking up a uniform sea of school colors speaks directly to deeply held convictions about school spirit, patriotism, the role of the military and the significance of graduation.

In this June 2013 family handout photo provided by Jessie Kelly, Marine Lance Cpl. Brandon Garabrant is seen in his military uniform in Greenfield, N.H., before he was killed in the line of duty, June 20, 2014, in Afghanistan. When Garabrant graduated from high school he wanted to wear his Marine uniform but school officials said policy bans uniforms and requires graduates to wear blue caps and gowns. A new state law passed this year now allows high school graduates to wear their military uniforms if they have completed basic training. (Jessie Kelly via AP)

"I would love for other kids to see this law and be motivated by it. I would like Brandon's Law to be an inspiration for other high school students to strive to succeed and be rewarded for it," said Jessie Kelley, mother of the young man killed in action for whom the New Hampshire law is named. "They are putting their lives on the lines, so I feel it's the least we could do."

Her son, Marine Lance Cpl. Brandon Garabrant, fought unsuccessfully to wear his uniform to his 2013 graduation from ConVal Regional High School. The school worried he would outshine his classmates and said the uniform represented achievements beyond the classroom.

Reaction was swift and fierce. Commenters raged on Facebook, with some even posting personal details about the principal who denied Garabrant and encouraging emails to him. Reporters camped out at graduation.

The brouhaha came into poignant focus when the 19-year-old was killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan the following summer.

In McHenry, Illinois, last month, Pvt. Megan Howerton was not allowed to walk in her graduation from McHenry West High School when, minutes before the ceremony, she asked to collect her diploma wearing her Marine Corp dress blues. She was told she would have to wear it under her gown, so she chose not to participate.

Her case inspired a hashtag, #letmeganwalk, with commenters split between those who felt her service should be recognized and those who argued she should follow school policy as rigidly as military protocol.

The Marine Corps Recruiting Station Chicago said in a statement that the decision was rightly left up to the school because "graduations recognize the academic accomplishments of the class and the class's final chapter at that institution."

In New Hampshire, Brandon's Law passed with none of the angry words that surrounded his bid. The concerns at legislative hearings included the impact it would have on a school's ability to set policy and a few complaints that uniforms would be a distraction.

Kate Williams, a family friend who cut Garabrant's hair for years, led the campaign and put a sign in her salon that said, "Brandon deserves to wear his uniform." Many community members couldn't understand why the school wouldn't make an exception, given what he was doing for the country, she said.

Brian Pickering, the principal at Garabrant's school, supports the new law. Even though he also got the blessing from Marines and other veterans for his decision, Pickering said, the threats he endured "nearly ruined my career and family."

"I'm thankful for the law because, at the time, there was no law," Pickering said. "There was nothing to fall back upon."

Colleges have also dealt with the issue. The Army ROTC at the University of New Hampshire, which covers nine universities, said students can wear military dress or their cap and gown.

So far this graduation season, only one New Hampshire high school student is known to have worn a military uniform during graduation  Michael Joy, of Prospect Mountain High School. But he wore it under his gown when he graduated Friday, opting instead for a red sash over his gown representing the Army National Guard.

Joy, who will be a member of the military police in the Guard, said he didn't want to stand out from his fellow seniors.

"I didn't want to make myself like, 'Oh, I'm better than you guys,'" Joy said. "It could be an opportunity to celebrate patriotism and stuff. But I feel like joining and actually serving, that is my way of showing patriotism. I don't have to wear the uniform to show people that I'm in the service."

In this Friday June 3, 2016 photo, high school graduate Michael Joy marches with his class wearing his Army National Guard graduation sash in Alton, N.H. New Hampshire has passed a law that allows students to wear their uniform during graduation ceremonies if they have completed basic training. (AP Photo/Jim Cole)
Bicyclists bonded as 'Chain Gang' before crash that killed 5

COOPER TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP)  They called themselves "The Chain Gang"  a group of bicyclists drawn together by zest for their sport, physical fitness and love of the outdoors whose day trip in the southwestern Michigan countryside ended tragically as a pickup truck plowed into them, killing five and injuring four others.

Stunned biking enthusiasts joined relatives and friends of the riders Wednesday in mourning them, leaving flowers, a commemorative "ghost bike" and a small wooden cross at the crash scene and gathering by the hundreds for a 5-mile "silent ride."

"We're all part of a community and this community needs to feel safe on the roads," Sheila Wood, an organizer of the ride, told the crowd of cyclists before they took off from a brew pub in nearby Kalamazoo.

A ghost bike is displayed as a memorial Wednesday, June 8, 2016, in Cooper Township, Mich., where five bicyclists where killed and four where injured by an oncoming vehicle. A prosecutor says police were seeking a pickup truck due to reports that it was driving erratically minutes before five adults in a group of bicyclists were struck and killed on a street in western Michigan the night before. (Tom Brenner/The Grand Rapids Press via AP) ALL LOCAL TELEVISION OUT; LOCAL TELEVISION INTERNET OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT

Police said they had received complaints about a pickup being driven erratically and were searching for it minutes before the crash around 6:30 p.m. Tuesday on a two-lane road in Kalamazoo County's Cooper Township.

The driver, a 50-year-old man who fled but was caught by police shortly afterward, remained in custody Wednesday. County prosecutor Jeffrey S. Getting said he expected a report Thursday from the sheriff's department and other agencies that would help determine whether charges would be filed.

The prosecutor identified three of the bicyclists who were killed as Debra Ann Bradley, 53; Melissa Ann Fevig-Hughes, 42; and Suzanne Joan Sippel, 56, all of Augusta. The two others who died were Fred Anton "Tony" Nelson, 73, and Lorenz John "Larry" Paulik, 74, both of Kalamazoo.

Three others were listed in serious condition and a fourth in fair condition at area hospitals.

"There is no way to measure the grief we feel," said Renee Mitchell, president of the Kalamazoo Bicycle Club.

Mark Rose, who co-founded The Chain Gang about 15 years ago, said its members weren't "hardcore," but biked regularly for the exercise, enjoyment of being with friends and the "safety in numbers." He said he dropped out several years ago to focus on running.

"They were just casual cyclists who enjoyed the ride," said Rose, 58, of Galesburg, who participated in Wednesday's memorial ride wearing a shirt with a Chain Gang logo.

Sister Pam Owens, pastoral associate at Saint Thomas More Catholic Student Parish, said Nelson and Paulik were congregation members who were in "great shape" and had a well-known passion for cycling. Their group was 5 miles into a planned 30-mile ride when they were struck, she said.

"They were doing what they loved to do, and they were together. The family took solace in that fact," said Owens, who visited the crash site Tuesday night with the men's wives.

Nelson and Paulik also were devoted parishioners. They and their spouses helped lead a program that introduced newcomers to the Catholic faith, Owens said. They frequently helped people who had money troubles; Nelson assisted them in filling out tax returns.

Sippel was a science data manager at Michigan State University's Kellogg Biological Station and was married to an aquatic ecologist there, said director Kay Gross. She described Sippel as a "valued and cherished" colleague and said the husband and wife sometimes worked together on research projects.

"After her family, Suzanne's passion was clearly bike riding," Gross said in an email to The Associated Press, adding that Sippel often biked to work "and on more than one occasion I saw her heading out in rain and sleet to get home."

Sippel helped raise money to expand the nearby Kalamazoo River Valley Trail and lobbied to have part of it extend through university lands in the area, Gross said. An avid sportswoman, she took trips with her family that usually involved "hiking, biking, canoeing/kayaking or some outdoor adventure."

The couple had planned to take a sabbatical next year in Oregon, where their son will attend college, Gross said, adding, "I cannot express how much she will be missed."

As people streamed past the location of the fatal collision Wednesday, some kneeled in prayer.

"Ride on, friends, on the roads of heaven," one mourner wrote on a card left behind.

Bob Coffman, who said the force of the crash sent one of the victims' bicycles into his yard, placed the small wooden cross at the scene. A neighbor, Marc Laning, applied white paint to the "ghost bike" and attached it to the cross with a bungee cord, a gesture of respect to bicyclists killed by motor vehicles.

Some cycling advocates said they hoped the tragedy would inspire motorists to be more tolerant.

"Unfortunately, Michigan still worships the automobile and not everyone is yet comfortable with sharing the road with cyclists," said Ethan Alexander, founder of the Kalamazoo-based group Open Roads.

Gov. Rick Snyder issued a statement of condolence to the victims' families and the community on Wednesday. The Kalamazoo area still is dealing with the aftermath of the random fatal shootings of six people and wounding of two others in February. Jason Dalton, 45, is charged with murder and attempted murder in that case. His attorney told a judge Monday that Dalton is expected to enter an insanity plea.

"What we already know for certain is that Michiganders as a family are in mourning today as Kalamazoo struggles to understand another senseless tragedy," Snyder said.

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Flesher reported from Traverse City.

Hundreds bikers stand before a silent bike ride in Kalamazoo, Mich., Wednesday, June 8, 2016, to supporting the cyclists who were killed and injured in a crash the day before. Police fielded complaints that a pickup truck was being driven erratically just minutes before the vehicle slammed into a group of bicyclists in western Michigan, killing several, authorities said. (Chelsea Purgahn/Kalamazoo Gazette-MLive Media Group via AP) LOCAL TELEVISION OUT; LOCAL RADIO OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT

A cross and flowers are placed in lieu of a memorial at the the scene of a fatal crash that happened Tuesday evening involving several bicyclists in Cooper Township, Mich., on Wednesday, June 8, 2016. Several people were killed and others were seriously injured. (Bryan Bennett/Kalamazoo Gazette-MLive Media Group via AP) LOCAL TELEVISION OUT; LOCAL RADIO OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT

CORRECTS FROM COPPER TO COOPER- Police and rescue workers attend to the scene after multiple bicyclists were struck by a vehicle in a deadly crash Tuesday, June 7, 2016, in Cooper Township, Mich. (Chelsea Purgahn/Kalamazoo Gazette-MLive Media Group via AP) LOCAL TELEVISION OUT; LOCAL RADIO OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT

A ghost bike is displayed as a memorial Wednesday, June 8, 2016, in Cooper Township, Mich., where five bicyclists where killed and four where injured by an oncoming vehicle. A prosecutor says police were seeking a pickup truck due to reports that it was driving erratically minutes before five adults in a group of bicyclists were struck and killed on a street in western Michigan the night before. (Tom Brenner/The Grand Rapids Press via AP) ALL LOCAL TELEVISION OUT; LOCAL TELEVISION INTERNET OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT

A cross and flowers are placed in lieu of a memorial at the the scene of a fatal crash that happened Tuesday evening involving several bicyclists in Cooper Township, Mich., on Wednesday, June 8, 2016. Several people were killed and others were seriously injured. (Bryan Bennett/Kalamazoo Gazette-MLive Media Group via AP) LOCAL TELEVISION OUT; LOCAL RADIO OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT

Kalamazoo Prosecuting Attorney Jeff Getting speaks with media about a fatal crash involving several bicyclists at the Kalamazoo Township Police Department in Kalamazoo Township, Mich., on Tuesday, June 7, 2016. (Bryan Bennett/Kalamazoo Gazette-MLive Media Group via AP) LOCAL TELEVISION OUT; LOCAL RADIO OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT

Police investigate the scene after multiple bicyclists were struck in a deadly crash Tuesday, June 7, 2016, in Cooper Township, Mich. (Bryan Bennett/Kalamazoo Gazette-MLive Media Group via AP) LOCAL TELEVISION OUT; LOCAL RADIO OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT
Mesh opening allowed leopard to escape Utah zoo enclosure

SALT LAKE CITY (AP)  A rare leopard at a Salt Lake City zoo escaped to a nearby high beam by squeezing through a small opening in the steel-grade mesh on top of her enclosure, officials said.

Hogle Zoo spokeswoman Erica Hansen said Wednesday that a security team investigating the escape found a trail of leopard hair around the 6-inch-by-6-inch opening built into the enclosure's mesh.

"It's quite a feat," she said. "A lot of people with cats at home know they can be escape artists, but wow."

In this Tuesday, June 7, 2016 photo, Zeya, an Amur leopard sits in her enclosure at the Hogle Zoo, in Salt Lake City. The leopard, which briefly escaped from its enclosure Tuesday, was tranquilized and recaptured about a half an hour after it was reported missing. (Hans Koepsell /The Deseret News via AP) SALT LAKE TRIBUNE OUT; MAGS OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT; TV OUT

Shortly after the Hogle Zoo opened Tuesday, a visitor spotted the 4-year-old female sleeping on a wooden support beam right above where people would have clustered to watch her, Hansen said.

Hansen said that the tranquilizer has worn off and the Amur leopard has woken up and is in good health.

The zoo plans to move the leopard to a different enclosure that has smaller openings in its mesh.

The animal left visible claw marks on the wooden perch as she hung on briefly before the dart took full effect, but after she was sedated she was transported quickly to a back room.

Visitors said the situation played out calmly, and many returned to the zoo when it re-opened after about an hour. Authorities said they were lucky it happened early, before the zoo was full of visitors, and that the cat was asleep when she was found.

The leopard named Zeya is a petite, 60-pound animal who is one of the smallest leopards the zoo has had in the exhibit. She was brought in recently from a sanctuary in England to mate with the zoo's other Amur leopard, Hansen said. He is in a separate enclosure and did not escape

Amur leopards are considered critically endangered, according to the conservation organization World Wildlife Fund. There are only about 60 of them left in the wild.

Last month, a zoo in Cincinnati shot and killed a gorilla when a young boy got into its exhibit and was dragged by the 400-pound animal.

While the Utah leopard was quickly contained, if the animal had actively threatened people zoo officials would have used lethal force, Carpenter said.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture last inspected the Hogle Zoo on May 3 and found no violations.

The federal agency said it's aware of the incident and plans to look into whether the zoo violated any part of the Animal Welfare Act.

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Associated Press writers Michelle L. Price and Kareem Copeland contributed to this report.

In this Tuesday, June 7, 2016 photo, keepers from the Asian Highlands area of Utah's Hogle Zoo look to see where a leopard may have escaped in Salt Lake City. The leopard, which briefly escaped from its enclosure Tuesday, was tranquilized and recaptured about a half an hour after it was reported missing. (Hans Koepsell /The Deseret News via AP) SALT LAKE TRIBUNE OUT; MAGS OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT; TV OUT

Scratches mark a wooden beam where a young mother spotted an escaped leopard at Hogle Zoo Tuesday, June 7, 2016, in Salt Lake City. Salt Lake City zoo officials say a rare Amur leopard is safe after it escaped from its enclosure and was tranquilized by staff. Hogle Zoo spokeswoman Erica Hansen says the 4-year-old female leopard was found Tuesday morning by zoo visitors after it escaped. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
Homeless shelters struggle with loss of federal funding

HONOLULU (AP)  David Willett lived in a tent and struggled with drug addiction before coming to Gregory House, a Honolulu shelter that has provided temporary housing for people with HIV and AIDS for more than a decade.

But the shelter is among many that face steep federal funding cuts this year, and Willett and other residents worry about its future. The program's daily meetings and supportive atmosphere has helped Willett stay away from drugs for the last two years.

"I would be dead if it wasn't for Gregory House," said Willett, 49. "We just desperately need this program."

In this Wednesday, May 18, 2016 photo, Jonathon Berliner, left, executive director of Gregory House Programs, and David Willett, a resident, talk in the kitchen of Gregory House in Honolulu. Shelter managers in Hawaii are scrambling to figure out how to keep a roof over the heads of hundreds of homeless people. Similar cuts are being made around the country as the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development shifts its money to programs that focus on permanent housing. (AP Photo/Cathy Bussewitz)

Shelter managers in Hawaii are scrambling to figure out how to keep a roof over the heads of hundreds of homeless people, and similar cuts are being made across the nation this month as the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development shifts its grant money to programs that focus on permanent housing.

After hearing the news, Gregory House residents held hands in the kitchen  its walls decorated with the words "live," ''believe" and "laugh"  and shared stories about how living in the shelter helped them battle drug addictions and disease.

The transitional shelters and programs  many operating for more than a decade  applied for grants and were scored on factors including the community's success at reducing homelessness. Local communities across the nation decreased homelessness by 11 percent since 2010, according to HUD. But Hawaii  with the highest rate of homelessness in the nation  bucked the trend, with more people falling into homelessness every year since 2011.

Each local area ranked their programs in order of priority when submitting the applications to HUD, and programs at the bottom of the list faced stiff competition nationwide.

Programs also were graded for the first time in the annual competition on whether local groups serving the homeless are working to decriminalize homelessness.

"We have been looking at policies that criminalize homelessness for many years now, and they don't help," said Norm Suchar, director of office of special needs assistance programs at HUD.

When communities criminalize homelessness, people end up going to jail for sleeping or urinating in public places, Suchar said. They remain homeless, because it's harder to get a job with a criminal record, and the community spends more money on jails and emergency room visits, he added. While HUD hasn't released how it graded the individual programs, several cities with policies that criminalize homelessness experienced cuts.

Honolulu County, which banned sitting and lying down in Waikiki and other places in 2014, saw overall funding from HUD slashed by more than $525,000 this year, impacting programs that house about 465 people.

Miami-Dade County got $2.5 million less from HUD than it did last year. While some programs in the Miami area saw increased funding, cuts to existing programs totaled about $6 million, said Ron Book, chairman of the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust. That impacted 23 programs providing more than 750 shelter beds, including transitional shelters serving victims of domestic violence, Book said.

"If you don't have the money to fill the gap, you're going to put those women and those children directly into harm's way," Book said.

Programs in Baltimore, Maryland saw their overall funding dwindle by $1.6 million. When prioritizing its grant applications, the city put transitional housing programs at the bottom of the list, said Bill McCarthy, executive director of Catholic Charities of Baltimore. A new permanent housing project got about $2 million, but transitional housing programs lost $3.8 million for 18 programs with hundreds of beds, he said. That included My Sister's Place Lodge, which houses 27 women with disabilities such as mental illness, and Christopher's Place, a shelter that helps men transition back into the workforce after serving time in prison.

"You're talking about hundreds of beds that are lost without the support of HUD," McCarthy said. "The city had no plan in place with what they would do with the individuals that were living in these programs."

Nationwide, many of the programs that lost money were transitional housing. While HUD believes there's a place for transitional housing, data shows that programs offering permanent housing have better long-term outcomes, Suchar said.

"We have a very difficult homelessness problem and not all the resources that you would want to have, so we prioritize," Suchar said.

Not all programs lost money; funding from HUD was up overall. HUD awarded nearly $2 billion in grants for homeless programs, up from $1.8 billion last year.

Houston had a large increase in funding, getting an additional $9 million for a total of $32 million. New York City also saw a big increase, with an additional $17 million boosting its total to $122 million.

HUD's federal office is working with local groups to ensure that if a de-funded shelter shuts down, the residents have an alternative place to go, officials said. But with no specific plan in place, local shelter managers are worried.

"I can't in good conscience just allow this group of people to become homeless because of some ill-arrived decisions from a federal agency," said Jon Berliner, executive director of Gregory House Programs. "The impact of this is just going to be unbelievably awful."

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Follow Cathy Bussewitz on Twitter at https://twitter.com/cbussewitz. Her work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/journalist/cathy-bussewitz

In this Wednesday, May 18, 2016 photo, Pamela Binns, left, and Deric Anzai hold hands as they talk in the kitchen of Gregory House in Honolulu. Shelter managers in Hawaii are scrambling to figure out how to keep a roof over the heads of hundreds of homeless people. Similar cuts are being made around the country as the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development shifts its money to programs that focus on permanent housing. (AP Photo/Cathy Bussewitz)

In this Wednesday, May 18, 2016 photo, Deric Anzai talks about his stay at the transitional shelter Gregory House in Honolulu. Shelter managers in Hawaii are scrambling to figure out how to keep a roof over the heads of hundreds of homeless people. Similar cuts are being made around the country as the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development shifts its money to programs that focus on permanent housing. (AP Photo/Cathy Bussewitz)

In this Wednesday, May 18, 2016 photo, Gene DeFrancia, left, and Timmie Clarkson talk about their stays at Gregory House in Honolulu. Shelter managers in Hawaii are scrambling to figure out how to keep a roof over the heads of hundreds of homeless people. Similar cuts are being made around the country as the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development shifts its money to programs that focus on permanent housing. (AP Photo/Cathy Bussewitz)
Voters gave the go-ahead for the county to borrow as much as $9.7 million to increase the number of beds available for female inmates at the Y
Stanford put on defensive over efforts to deter sex assault

SAN FRANCISCO (AP)  Stanford University officials say policies to prevent and respond to sexual assault worked as well as expected after bystanders spotted a member of the swimming team sexually assaulting an unconscious woman near a garbage bin.

Two graduate students passing by on bicycles interrupted the attack, chased down a freshman and held him until campus police arrived. Brock Turner was arrested and agreed to leave Stanford and never return rather than be expelled.

But with outrage brewing over a six-month jail sentence the one-time Olympic hopeful received last week, Stanford unexpectedly has found itself defending its sexual assault prevention efforts and arguing that the case should be cited as evidence of their success, not failure.

In this Sept. 16, 2015 photo provided by Tessa Ormenyi, students hold up a sign about rape at White Plaza during New Student Orientation on the Stanford University campus in Stanford, Calif. Stanford University considers itself a national leader on preventing and handling sexual assaults, but students have complained that the school isn't doing enough and have drawn attention to the issue by holding demonstrations. (Tessa Ormenyi via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT

"Stanford University did everything within its power to assure that justice was served in this case," the university said in a statement, citing a swift police investigation and referral to prosecutors, who got a conviction on felony assault and attempted rape charges.

A judge who attended Stanford and played lacrosse there as an undergraduate sentenced the 20-year-old Turner of Dayton, Ohio, to the jail stint, three years' probation and ordered him to register as a sex offender.

Like other U.S. colleges and universities, Stanford has been under renewed pressure from federal education officials, state lawmakers and students to improve the way sexual assault victims are treated and to ensure perpetrators face serious and consistent consequences.

When Turner began his short-lived career as a swimmer for the prestigious California school in September 2014, orientation sessions featured a video of student-athletes discussing sexual violence and a talk by the provost on their rights and responsibilities as members of the Cardinal community. Stanford also required new students to complete online training that covered topics such as getting consent for sex.

Four months later, Stanford police arrested Turner for assaulting the woman he had met while they both were drunk at a fraternity party. The university banned him from campus for life and offered the victim counseling and other support even though she was not a student.

"What the case highlighted was the importance of our training and prevention efforts, and those are continuing, particularly in terms of bystander intervention  'If you see something, do something about it'  and this case has been an excellent example for all of our students," campus spokeswoman Lisa Lapin said.

But some faculty and students are not impressed with the university's handling of sexual assaults and its response to the Turner case.

The Association of Students for Sexual Assault Prevention, a Stanford student group that staged protests and a teach-in for parents this school year, started an online petition calling on the school to publicly apologize to the victim, devote more money to prevention and survivor counseling programs, and undertake a survey of how prevalent sexual assaults are among campus fraternities.

Group co-founder Stephanie Pham called the university's statement about its role in seeking justice for the victim "cold" and said it "lacked sympathy for the survivor in any way."

"Sure, there were bystanders that stopped the rape from proceeding, and sure, they took whatever required steps afterward," Pham said. "However, Stanford utilized its statement to defend its brand and defend its image."

Lapin said Stanford welcomes the student efforts to educate their classmates but said the petition unfairly suggests the university shares blame for the length of Turner's sentence.

"There is a certain point where the university doesn't have the authority. So we did a thorough investigation, we presented considerable evidence to the county for prosecution and it was a successful prosecution," she said.

Turner's sentence sparked anger from critics who say Santa Clara County Judge Aaron Persky was too lenient on a privileged athlete. Persky cited a recommendation from the county's probation department in the sentencing as well as Turner's clean criminal record and the effect the conviction will have on his life.

The prosecutor had argued for a six-year term for crimes that could have sent Turner to prison for 10 years.

Backlash flared again Tuesday after it emerged that a member of an Ohio indie band wrote a letter of support for her childhood friend Turner. Several venues in New York City canceled appearances by the band, Good English.

An emotional statement the 23-year-old victim read at Turner's sentencing faulted him for failing to take responsibility. She did not criticize the university and thanked the graduate students who tackled her attacker.

"I don't sleep when I think about the way it could have gone if the two guys had never come. What would have happened to me?" she said.

The Associated Press does not generally identify victims of sexual assault.

One of the students who stopped the attack told NBC News (http://nbcnews.to/1t6QKMZ ) that he and his friend saw Turner on top of the woman and knew something was wrong.

"We saw she wasn't moving at all, so talked to him briefly, then he started running away," Carl-Fredrik Arndt said. "My friend Peter ran after and caught him."

The victim and others are calling the pair heroes.

"I think it happened on instinct for us," said Arndt, who testified at Turner's trial. "I never thought about it twice, and I'm glad I did it."

Stanford acknowledged that more needs to be done about sexual violence but said it is a national leader in implementing prevention programs, student training on intervention and support for victims.

"There is still much work to be done, not just here, but everywhere, to create a culture that does not tolerate sexual violence in any form and a judicial system that deals appropriately with sexual assault cases," its statement said.

This January 2015 booking photo released by the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office shows Brock Turner. The former Stanford University swimmer was sentenced last week to six months in jail and three years' probation for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman, sparking outrage from critics who say Santa Clara County Judge Aaron Persky was too lenient on a privileged athlete from a top-tier swimming program. (Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office via AP)

FILE - In this June 2, 2016 file photo, Brock Turner, right, makes his way into the Santa Clara Superior Courthouse in Palo Alto, Calif. A letter written by Turner's father was made public over the weekend by a Stanford law professor who wants the judge in the case removed from office because Brock Turner's sentencing. (Dan Honda/Bay Area News Group via AP, File) MAGS OUT NO SALES
Israel indicts French immigrants in 9.1 million euro scam

JERUSALEM (AP)  Israel's state prosecutor indicted four new immigrants from France on Wednesday for allegedly running a major international scam, impersonating company executives and costing five European companies about 9.1 million euros, or over $10 million.

The companies that lost money included German electronics retailer MediaMarkt, Belgian electronics company Eldi, European supermarket chain Cora, multinational perfume chain ICI Paris XL and Dutch hardware store owner Intergamma, according to the indictment.

About two dozen other companies were also entangled in the case, including candy maker Mars, high fashion company Chanel, Italian athletic clothing retailer Diadora, beer brewing giant Anheuser-Busch InBev, and car manufacturers Kia Motors and Toyota, though not all the companies fell for the trick, according to the indictment.

Israeli police say this building served as the headquarters of an international scam operation that duped global companies out of more than $10 million, in the coastal city of Netanya, Israel, Tuesday, June 7, 2016. The police said they have busted a new crime ring in which French and Italian immigrants posed as company executives to bilk millions of dollars from dozens of multinational giants, including Kia Motors, Hugo Boss and Chanel. The case suggests that the so-called fake CEO scam is still thriving in Israel, where Gilbert Chikli, the man widely credited with inventing it continues to evade French attempts to arrest him. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

The case suggests that the so-called fake CEO scam is still thriving in Israel, where the man widely credited with pioneering the technique, Gilbert Chikli, continues to live openly, evading French attempts to arrest him.

Chikli is not suspected in the current case. The French-born defendants were identified as Henri Omessi, Daniel Michael Allon, Jeremy Lalloum and Mordechai Lellouche. They appeared at a court hearing on Wednesday. Rotem Tubul, a lawyer for Omessi, said her client and the other defendants pleaded not guilty.

"Because it involves evidence from many countries around the world, there are clear difficulties in handling this case in Israel, and it is doubtful whether it will be possible to overcome them," said Liya Felus, an attorney for Allon.

Israeli prosecutors says the immigrants collected information on European companies, including names of company employees and details on vendors with which they did business.

Then, according to prosecutors, they created fake email accounts to send forged documents to an employee in charge of finances, presenting themselves as a CEO or representative of a vendor. They would then instruct the employee to send money to a new "clearing firm" used by the vendor. In reality, the clearing firms were shell companies with bank accounts controlled by the defendants.

In one scam that took place in November and December, according to Wednesday's indictment, defendants impersonated an executive of German electronics giant Bosch and emailed an executive of Eldi, telling him that Bosch had begun to work with a new clearing firm and asking him to update his records with the firm's new bank account information.

Later, Eldi transferred 794,175.70 euros owed to Bosch to the shell company's bank account at PKO Bank Polski, Poland's largest bank.

In another scam, according to prosecutors, defendants impersonated an employee of Swedish home appliance company Electrolux, and tricked German electronics retailer MediaMarkt into sending them more than 1 million euros.

Defendants also allegedly impersonated the chief financial officer of Mars  the manufacturer of M&Ms and Snickers candy  and convinced supermarket chain Cora to send 322,264.70 euros owed to Mars to their bank account instead. Meanwhile, the defendants allegedly impersonated a Cora representative and tried to convince Mars that the money transfer was delayed for technical reasons.

In the biggest single scam, the defendants, allegedly impersonating an employee of Chanel, convinced ICI Paris XL to transfer nearly 5.5 million euros to an account at a Slovakian branch of the Bulgarian bank UniCredit Bulbank.

In March, two Italian-born immigrants, Enzo Bondi and Yitzhak Sonino, were allegedly recruited to expand the con to entrap companies in Italy. The prosecutor indicted them in a separate case for attempting  but failing  to steal money from Diners Club Italia and other companies.

It is unclear how the defendants got the money from their European bank accounts to Israel. One defendant tried to launder some of the ill-gained money by depositing sums of cash into a currency exchange business, and in turn, an employee of the business tried to deposit the money in smaller amounts into the defendant's and others' bank accounts, but each time, Israeli banks rejected the money as suspicious, prosecutors say.

On the morning of May 2, a French media report about Israel-based scammers targeting companies in France was "brought to the defendants' attention," according to the indictment. Three minutes later, the three defendants allegedly began taking apart hard drives and destroying the computers used in the scam.

That same day, police raided the defendants' office in Netanya, a seaside Israeli city home to a large French immigrant population, following a nearly six-month undercover investigation that included video surveillance inside the office.

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Follow Daniel Estrin on Twitter at www.twitter.com/danielestrin
The Latest: 3 woman launch new super PAC for Trump

WASHINGTON (AP)  The latest developments in the 2016 campaign for the presidency. All times EDT:

10:55 p.m.

Three of Donald Trump's female supporters are starting a new super political action committee to help the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is seen through the teleprompter as he speaks at the Trump National Golf Club Westchester, Tuesday, June 7, 2016, in Briarcliff Manor, N.Y. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

The group calls itself Women Vote Trump and it aims to raise at least $30 million.

Women Vote Trump is at least the fourth super PAC backing Trump, who has repeatedly called such groups "corrupt" because they can accept large checks from donors seeking to curry favor with candidates. Super PACs are legally barred from coordinating with candidates.

The group is describing its plans at a news conference Thursday in Washington. Co-founder Ann Stone says the group's goal is to help Trump appeal to women voters. The candidate has been accused by both Republicans and Democrats of unflattering comments about women.

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9:30 p.m.

Two people with knowledge of Elizabeth Warren's plans say the Massachusetts senator will formally endorse Hillary Clinton for president in the next week or two.

The hero of the Democratic Party's liberal wing has so far withheld her endorsement, saying it was important for Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders to fully debate the issues.

The two people say Warren has decided to throw her support behind Clinton now that she has secured the support of enough Democratic delegates to become the party's presumptive nominee. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the endorsement before Warren makes it.

Warren's endorsement is considered key to helping pull Democrats together as they look to the fall contest against presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.

Many of Warren's signature issues  fighting Wall Street and battling rising student loan debt  have echoed Sanders' core issues.

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Associated Press writer Steve LeBlanc in Boston contributed this report.

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7:55 p.m.

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has returned home to Vermont, while his campaign is declining to call Hillary Clinton the party's presumptive nominee.

Sanders was greeted with cheers by about 30 supporters outside the South Burlington, Vermont, airport where he arrived after a flight from Los Angeles.

Sanders did not talk to reporters after landing, but campaign manager Jeff Weaver is declining to call Clinton the presumptive nominee, calling it a "term of art that the media uses."

Weaver says that right now, "no one is the nominee. The nominee is elected at the convention."

Sanders will travel to Washington on Thursday to meet with President Barack Obama at the White House and Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid on Capitol Hill. Sanders was holding a Thursday night rally in the District of Columbia ahead of its primary next Tuesday, the final one on the calendar.

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7:40 p.m.

President Barack Obama says he hopes Democrats will start "pulling things together" over the next couple weeks after their divisive primary.

Obama's first public comments on the end of the primary fight come during a taped appearance on NBC's "Tonight Show."

Obama isn't explicitly endorsing Hillary Clinton or calling for rival Bernie Sanders to drop out.

He is instead praising Sanders for bringing "enormous energy" to the party. He says he thinks the fight made Clinton a better candidate.

Obama acknowledges there are plenty of bruised feelings after the bitter fight and says it may take some time for Democrats to unite to face Republican Donald Trump.

NBC released a clip Obama's comment shortly after the taping Wednesday. The full interview with Jimmy Fallon is slated to air Thursday night.

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5:17 p.m.

Hillary Clinton is opening her general election campaign against Donald Trump by accusing him of behaving like a "demagogue." She likens his attacks on judges, the media, his opponents and their families to dark moments in world history.

In a telephone interview with The Associated Press, Clinton says: "It's classic behavior by a demagogue. We've seen it many, many places and times in the world, and that's why I think it's so dangerous."

The presumptive Democratic nominee declared victory in her race against Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders on Tuesday, a day after reaching the number of delegates needed to claim the nomination.

In the interview, she seemed to wonder whether Trump's candidacy was little more than an elaborate political stunt.

She says, "I don't know if this is just, you know, political gamesmanship that he thinks plays to the lowest common denominator, but whatever the reason for it is, it's wrong and it should not be tolerated by anybody."

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5:05 p.m.

Donald Trump has finished the presidential primary season with an exclamation point.

Some Republicans in Congress might be uneasy about their party's new standard-bearer. But with no one else left in the race, Republican voters have given him five overwhelming victories Tuesday, enabling the billionaire businessman to sweep all 303 delegates that were up for grabs.

Trump now has 1,542 delegates, including 1,447 who are required by party rules to vote for him at the convention. It takes 1,237 delegates to win the Republican nomination for president.

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3:35 p.m.

The White House says President Barack Obama is holding off on endorsing Hillary Clinton for president until after he meets with Bernie Sanders.

Obama plans to sit down with Sanders in the Oval Office on Thursday at 11:15 a.m. EDT. The call comes after Obama called Sanders and Clinton on Tuesday evening after voting wrapped up in some of the final primary contests.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest says Sanders has earned the right to make his own decision about the course of his campaign. He says Obama is respectful of that because of the way Sanders has inspired millions of Americans during the primary.

Earnest says Obama will congratulate Sanders during the meeting. He says the two will discuss how to further advocate for issues like fighting economic inequality and countering the influence of special interests in politics.

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2:45 p.m.

Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley is equating Donald Trump's comments about a U.S.-born judge of Mexican heritage with Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor's description of herself as a "wise Latina."

Republicans have widely criticized the presumptive GOP presidential nominee's claim that U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel can't preside fairly over a case involving Trump University because the judge is of Mexican heritage and Trump wants to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico.

Grassley, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told reporters Wednesday the public shouldn't "have any more trouble with what Trump said" than with Sotomayor's remarks.

In a 2001 speech, Sotomayor, then a judge on the appeals court, spoke of ethnicity and gender affecting judicial decisions, saying: "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life."

Grassley said, "I don't hear any criticism of that sort of comment by a justice of the Supreme Court."

At her confirmation hearing for the Supreme Court in 2009, Sotomayor denied racial bias and said the remark was a rhetorical device gone awry.

Grassley has come under criticism for blocking confirmation hearings for President Barack Obama's nominee to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court, insisting that the decision rests with the next president.

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12:58 p.m.

Vice President Joe Biden says it's up to Bernie Sanders to decide when to end his increasingly futile campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Asked Wednesday if it was time for the Vermont senator to halt his effort, Biden said: "Oh, let him make that decision. Give him time."

Asked how much time Sanders should have to make that decision, Biden said, "I'm being graceful."

Biden answered a reporter's questions as he left the House chamber after an address to Congress by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Hillary Clinton has won enough support from elected delegates and superdelegates  Democratic lawmakers and party leaders who can back whomever they'd like  to capture the nomination at the party's national convention next month. She won contests in four of six states Tuesday, as the race for the Democratic nomination all but drew to a close.

Sanders has come under growing pressure from Democrats to drop his bid so the party can unite against the presumptive Republican nominee, Donald Trump.

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11:33 a.m.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada will meet Thursday with Bernie Sanders. The meeting comes amid growing calls from Senate Democrats for the Vermont senator to end his presidential candidacy and unite behind Hillary Clinton.

Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida said Wednesday that Sanders should "stand down." Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania said Democrats must "come together and unify." Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire said Hillary Clinton's nomination was historic and she would like to see Sanders wind down his candidacy sooner rather than later.

Other Senate Democrats were still trying to give Sanders space to do things on his own terms. Reid himself has stopped short thus far of saying Sanders should drop out, although he said last week that "sometimes you just have to give up."

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11:20 a.m.

One of Donald Trump's first supporters in the House says that Speaker Paul Ryan has reaffirmed his support for the presumptive Republican presidential candidate in a closed-door meeting with fellow GOP lawmakers.

New York Rep. Chris Collins says that Ryan opened Wednesday's session by telling lawmakers that he remains comfortable backing Trump. Collins said "there was no controversy in the room" over the comments, but no applause, either.

It was Ryan's first meeting with House Republicans since endorsing Trump last week after initially withholding his support.

It also came a day after Ryan called Trump's assertion that an American-born judge of Mexican descent couldn't handle a Trump lawsuit fairly the "textbook definition of a racist comment." But Ryan said he would continue supporting Trump.

Trump's comments prompted many congressional Republicans to chastise him.

A Ryan aide said the speaker described his thinking behind his Trump endorsement to his colleagues and told them he would continue criticizing the billionaire when needed. The aide said Ryan's remarks were greeted by applause.

The aide spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the private remarks.

Associated Press writer Alan Fram in Washington

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10:55 a.m.

Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign is downsizing as it reaches the final primary next week in Washington, D.C.

About half of the staff is being laid off with most of the jobs involving field staff and advance aides. That's according to two people familiar with the plans.

The people spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak publicly about the layoffs. Campaign officials declined comment.

Sanders had previously reduced his staff and redeployed most of his team to California ahead of Tuesday's primary.

Hillary Clinton has secured enough pledged delegates and superdelegates combined to secure the Democratic nomination.

Clinton defeated Sanders in California, New Jersey and two other states Tuesday.

The cuts represent a winding down of Sanders' campaign at the end of the primary calendar and as he shifts to influence the party's platform at the Democratic convention.

Associated Press writer Ken Thomas in Los Angeles

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10:30 a.m.

Donald Trump's media relationship with Joe Scarborough has gone from friendly to a full-on feud.

The MSNBC "Morning Joe" host, a former Republican congressman, on Wednesday ripped into Trump for acting like a "bush-league loser" and a bigot, and said he wouldn't support his candidacy.

"Don't use Hillary Clinton as a threat against me," Scarborough said, looking into the camera. "Don't use Hillary Clinton as an excuse, as a blank check to say racist things about people born in Indiana. No, Donald, you don't get to play in that way. I'm not scared of you."

Trump was a regular "Morning Joe" guest during the first few months of his campaign, and Scarborough boasted about taking his campaign seriously when others didn't. Critics wondered if the relationship was too friendly.

Trump responded with a tweet on Wednesday: "Nobody is watching @Morning_Joe anymore. Gone off the deep end  bad ratings."

"Morning Joe" was up 63 percent in viewers in May compared to May 2015, according to the Nielsen company.

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6:13 a.m.

Hillary Clinton crowned a precedent-shattering quest for the Democratic presidential nomination with a strong victory in delegate-rich California.

For Clinton, it was the fourth victory in half a dozen contests Tuesday. Although she had already garnered enough delegates to assume the mantle of leadership for the party at its convention in Philadelphia next month, the electoral triumphs gave her even greater momentum heading into the fall general election campaign against real estate mogul Donald Trump, who's set to be named the Republican standardbearer at the GOP convention in Cleveland.

Clinton's rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders, pledged anew late Tuesday to "continue the fight" all the way to the Philadelphia convention. But at the same time, he acknowledged that overcoming Clinton at this juncture would be a "very, very steep fight."

3:25 a.m.

Donald Trump is tightening his grip on the Republican nomination for president, winning at least 297 delegates in Tuesday's primaries  the last five contests of the primary season.

Six delegates in California are still left to be allocated because of incomplete results in individual congressional districts.

With no one else left in the race, Trump easily won all five Republican primaries Tuesday.

He has 1,536 delegates. It takes 1,237 delegates to win the Republican nomination for president.

FILE - In this June 7, 2016 file photo, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks in New York. Powered by a solid triumph in California, Clinton seizes her place in history as the first women to become a presumptive presidential nominee and sets out to unite a fractured party to confront Donald Trump. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump smiles as supporters cheer during a news conference at the Trump National Golf Club Westchester, Tuesday, June 7, 2016, in Briarcliff Manor, N.Y. ( Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks at a rally Tuesday, June 7, 2016, in Santa Monica, Calif. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Iraqi troops in southern Fallujah for first time in 2 years

NAYMIYAH, Iraq (AP)  A column of black Humvees carrying Iraqi special forces rolled into southern Fallujah on Wednesday, the first time in more than two years that government troops have entered the western city held by the Islamic State group.

The counterterrorism troops fought house-to-house battles with the militants in the Shuhada neighborhood, and the operation to retake the city is expected to be one of the most difficult yet.

"Daesh are concentrating all their forces in this direction," said Gen. Haider Fadel, one of the commanders of the counterterrorism forces, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State militants.

A soldier from Iraq's elite counterterrorism forces monitors radio traffic from an armored vehicle as special forces enter the nearby Shuhada neighborhood in Islamic State-held Fallujah, Iraq, Wednesday, June 8, 2016. The operation to retake Fallujah is expected to be one of the most difficult yet; this city in Iraq's western Anbar province is symbolically important to the militant group and has been a bastion of support for anti-government militants since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.(AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi promised a swift victory when he announced the start of the operation on May 22 to liberate Fallujah, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) west of Baghdad. But the complexity of the task quickly became apparent.

Although other security forces from the federal and provincial police, government-sanctioned Shiite militias and the Iraqi military have surrounded the city, only the elite counterterrorism troops are fighting inside Fallujah at this stage of the operation. And they are doing so under the close cover of U.S.-led coalition airpower.

"We expect to face more resistance, especially because we are the only forces entering the city," Fadel said.

The Islamic State group has suffered setbacks on several fronts in the region where it captured large swaths of territory two years ago. In northern Syria, U.S.-backed rebels made a final push Wednesday in the town of Manbij  a key waypoint on the IS supply line to the Turkish border and its self-styled capital of Raqqa. And in Libya, forces loyal to a U.N.-brokered government have advanced deep inside the coastal city of Sirte, the main stronghold of the IS group's local affiliate.

Fallujah is one of the last IS strongholds in Iraq. Government forces have slowly won back territory, although IS still controls parts of the north and west, as well as the second-largest city of Mosul.

The sky above Fallujah's Shuhada neighborhood on Wednesday filled with fine dust and thick gray smoke obscuring minarets and communication towers as artillery rounds and volleys of airstrikes cleared the way for Iraqi ground forces.

At a makeshift command center, Iraqi forces coordinated the operation via hand-held radios, with Australian coalition troops stationed at a nearby base. One of the Australians listed the casualties among the militants.

"Two KIA (killed in action), one wounded with a missing arm  his right arm," the unidentified Australian radioed after calling in an airstrike on Islamic State fighters.

A frontier city on the easternmost edge of Anbar province, Fallujah has long been a bastion of support among its mostly Sunni population for anti-government militants following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

It is symbolically important to both sides: Many of the Iraqi forces fought al-Qaida in Iraq  the predecessor to IS  in this same territory, and the city was the scene of some of the bloodiest urban combat with U.S. forces in 2004.

Its high value is one of the reasons IS has deployed well-trained snipers and built extensive networks of tunnels to defend it.

"We are having to fight two battles  one above the ground and one below," said Iraqi Maj. Ali Hamel of the military's intelligence wing.

While Fallujah's sparsely populated northern outskirts were recaptured quickly by Iraqi forces, IS used the initial days of the operation to pull the majority of its fighters into the city center, taking about 50,000 civilians with them for use as human shields.

Once Iraq's special forces began trying to punch inside the city limits, the pace of operations slowed.

In past battles with IS in places like Ramadi, Fadel said, one of the signs that the militants were losing their grip on territory was when civilians begin fleeing the city center.

"So far, we haven't seen that" in Fallujah, he said. "Once we do, it will only be a matter of time."

The Islamic State militants "had chosen their battle space," a counterterrorism officer said, explaining how the group set up many defensive positions in the southern outskirts to try to bog down the Iraqi forces before they even had a chance to enter.

That southern neighborhood of Naymiyah, which was secured by Iraqi forces on Sunday, bears the scars of a protracted fight, a now-common sight in Iraqi territory that has been won back from IS.

Walls stood shredded by artillery fire, with almost every home either partially collapsed or pancaked. Craters from airstrikes left many main roads unusable. Convoys of armored Humvees were forced to use the neighborhood's unpaved side streets instead, churning up the soft sand beneath their treads.

"We're expecting another big fight like this one before Fallujah falls," the officer said, explaining that he anticipated Iraqi forces would encounter another heavily fortified neighborhood. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters.

On Wednesday evening, the prime minister visited the recently retaken territory.

Al-Abadi was joined by Lt. Gen. Abdel Wahab al-Saadi, the counterterrorism commander of the Fallujah operation.

It was al-Abadi's fourth trip to the area since the operation began. Despite territorial victories against IS, the Iraqi leader continues to grapple with a deepening political crisis and growing social unrest in Baghdad.

A soldier from Iraq's elite counterterrorism forces looks from the gun turret of a Humvee as troops gather on the edge of the Shuhada neighborhood in Islamic State-held Fallujah, Iraq, just before special forces pushed into the district Wednesday, June 8, 2016. The operation to retake Fallujah is expected to be one of the most difficult yet. This city in Iraq's western Anbar province is symbolically important to the militant group and has been a bastion of support for anti-government militants since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.(AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

A soldier from Iraq's elite counterterrorism forces looks from the gun turret of a Humvee as troops gather on the edge of the Shuhada neighborhood in Islamic State-held Fallujah, Iraq, just before special forces pushed into the district Wednesday, June 8, 2016. The operation to retake Fallujah is expected to be one of the most difficult yet " this city in Iraq's western Anbar province is symbolically important to the militant group and has been a bastion of support for anti-government militants since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.(AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

Soldiers from Iraq's elite counterterrorism forces rest in an unfinished apartment building serving as a battle position as special forces enter the nearby Shuhada neighborhood in Islamic State-held Fallujah, Iraq, Wednesday, June 8, 2016. The operation to retake Fallujah is expected to be one of the most difficult yet; this city in Iraq's western Anbar province is symbolically important to the militant group and has been a bastion of support for anti-government militants since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.(AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

Operation commander Lt. Gen Abdel Wahab al-Saadi, center, visits the edge of the Shuhada neighborhood in Islamic State-held Fallujah, Iraq, just before special forces pushed into the district Wednesday, June 8, 2016. The operation to retake Fallujah is expected to be one of the most difficult yet." This city in Iraq's western Anbar province is symbolically important to the militant group and has been a bastion of support for anti-government militants since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

A soldier from Iraq's elite counterterrorism forces smokes a water pipe in an unfinished apartment building serving as a battle position as special forces enter the nearby Shuhada neighborhood in Islamic State-held Fallujah, Iraq, Wednesday, June 8, 2016. The operation to retake Fallujah is expected to be one of the most difficult yet; this city in Iraq's western Anbar province is symbolically important to the militant group and has been a bastion of support for anti-government militants since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
EgyptAir plane lands in China after bomb threat

CAIRO (AP)  An EgyptAir plane that made an emergency landing Wednesday in Uzbekistan following a bomb threat resumed its flight and landed in Beijing, Egyptian officials said, the latest in a series of deadly or damaging air travel incidents involving Egypt.

The officials said no bomb was found after the Airbus A330-220 and its passengers were searched by explosives experts. The plane took off for the Chinese capital four hours after it landed in the town of Urgench, about 840 kilometers (600 miles) west of the Uzbek capital, Tashkent.

According to the officials, an anonymous caller telephoned security agents at the Cairo airport to say a bomb was on board EgyptAir Flight 955, which had 135 passengers and crew on board. The agents immediately contacted the aircraft and ordered it to land at the nearest airport, the officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

FILE - In this May 19, 2016 file photo, an EgyptAir Airbus A330-300 takes off for Cairo from Charles de Gaulle Airport outside of Paris. Egyptians officials say a bomb threat has forced an EgyptAir airliner en route to Beijing from Cairo to make an emergency landing in Uzbekistan, where the aircraft is being searched. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena, File)

Russian news agency RIA Novosti quoted an unnamed official with Uzbekistan Airways as saying the airport in Urgench was closed following the EgyptAir plane's emergency landing.

The incident came nearly three weeks after an EgyptAir flight crashed in the Mediterranean Sea as it was approaching the Egyptian coast while en route to Cairo from Paris. All 66 people on board were killed and the search for the plane's flight and data recorders  the so called black boxes  is still underway.

Egyptian officials say the Paris-Cairo plane was most likely downed by an act of terror.

Last October, a Russian airliner crashed in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula shortly after taking off from the Egyptian resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh, killing all 224 people on board. A local affiliate of the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for downing the aircraft just hours after the crash. In November, Russia said an explosive device brought down the aircraft.

The Russian airliner's crash has decimated Egypt's already battered tourism industry. While the cause of the May 19 EgyptAir crash in the Mediterranean remains unknown, it has associated Egypt with another air disaster, further damaging the once lucrative industry.

The two disasters have unsettled authorities at the Cairo airport, where false alarms or bomb threats have caused lengthy delays to flights and at least one cancellation this week.

Security has also been considerably tightened at Egypt's 20-plus airports since the Russian plane crash, with passengers now subjected to roughly the same security measures in force at major international airports.

In March, an Egyptian man hijacked an EgyptAir plane on an Alexandria-to-Cairo flight and forced it to land in Cyprus. Seif Eddin Mustafa threatened to destroy the plane with a fake suicide belt, saying he was doing so because he opposes Egypt's military-backed government.

All 72 passengers and crew members aboard the Airbus A320 were released unharmed after a six-hour standoff and the hijacker was taken into custody. He is now in court fighting extradition to Egypt.

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Associated Press writer Nataliya Vasilyeva in Moscow contributed to this report.

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This story has been corrected to show that the number of the flight is EgyptAir 955, not 995.

FILE - In this May 21, 2016 file photo, an EgyptAir plane flies past minarets of a mosque as it approaches Cairo International Airport, in Cairo, Egypt. Egyptians officials say a bomb threat has forced an EgyptAir airliner en route to Beijing from Cairo to make an emergency landing in Uzbekistan, where the aircraft is being searched. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil, File)
Modi to Congress: India, US can anchor stability in Asia

WASHINGTON (AP)  Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told the U.S. Congress on Wednesday that the world's two largest democracies can anchor stability and prosperity from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific in an aspirational speech that glossed over continuing divisions in the relationship.

Modi, who has ushered in closer bilateral ties since taking power two years ago, said that India and the U.S. have overcome "the hesitations of history" and called for ever-stronger economic and defense links between the two countries.

Speaking in English, Modi used dashes of humor, drawing a parallel between the rough-and-tumble politics of his own nation and the U.S., which he described tongue-in-cheek as "harmonious" and well-known for bipartisanship. Modi, a keen advocate of yoga, also referenced cultural ties, citing estimates that "more Americans bend for yoga than to throw a curve ball."

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, gestures with the traditional Indian greeting as he applauded during his address to a joint meeting of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, June 8, 2016. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Modi paid tribute to the role of Congress, including through a civilian nuclear deal in 2008 that lifted U.S. export restrictions on nuclear technology to India and which is hoped to lead to a contract by mid-2017 for the construction of six power reactors by U.S.-based Westinghouse Electric Co.

He also praised Congress for "refusing to reward" those who preach and practice terrorism. Although Modi avoided direct mention of Pakistan, he was alluding to lawmakers recently blocking a proposed, U.S.-subsided sale of F-16 fighter jets to India's archrival.

"A strong India-U.S. partnership can anchor peace, prosperity and stability from Asia to Africa and from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific," Modi said.

Modi's 46-minute speech followed years of being shunned in the U.S. because of religious violence in his home state. It came a day after a White House meeting with President Barack Obama and was followed by a lunch with congressional leaders and a reception hosted by the House and Senate Foreign Affairs committees.

U.S.-India relations have been transformed since Rajiv Gandhi in 1985 became the first of five Indian prime ministers to have addressed a joint meeting of Congress. During the Cold War, U.S. was more focused on ties with Pakistan, and many in Washington believed India, with its "non-aligned" foreign policy, was far too friendly with the Soviet Union.

Today, the U.S. and Indian militaries conduct more drills with each other than with any other nation. While India resists the notion of becoming a U.S. ally, both nation share concern over China's rise and over freedom of navigation in the Asia-Pacific region.

Although Modi lauded both nations' common democratic principles and hailed two heroes of nonviolence, India's Mahatma Gandhi and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., he did not address congressional concerns his government's record on religious tolerance and other rights issues.

"I wish there had been an emphasis on cooperating with the U.S. and every other democracy on combating all human rights abuses, especially human trafficking and slavery," said Republican Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey.

But the overall response from lawmakers of both parties was positive.

"We're now standing shoulder-to-shoulder in ways that no one would have imagined a generation ago," Rep. Eliot Engel of new York, the top-ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said of the bilateral relationship.

Modi described the U.S. as an "indispensable partner" for India. He said his nation's 1.25 billion people made India an "ideal partner" for U.S businesses. Trade has expanded dramatically in recent years, from $60 billion in 2009 to $107 billion in 2015, although the U.S. remains concerned over restrictions on foreign investment and bureaucratic red tape.

Modi did not read a passage from his prepared remarks that said he and Obama "have agreed" that making India a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council "has to be an intrinsic part of this century's new reality." It was not immediately clear why Modi dropped the reference. Obama first voiced support for Indian membership in 2010 and reaffirmed it Tuesday, but it appears no closer to happening because of resistance from other council permanent members.

At his meeting with Obama, the two leaders consolidated strong bilateral ties but fell short of major outcomes. India, the world's third-largest carbon emitter among nations, said it would strive to formally join a global climate deal this year  as the U.S. and China have said they will do  but it gave no ironclad commitment.

The last Indian prime minister to address Congress was Modi's predecessor, Manmohan Singh, in 2005.

____

Associated Press writer Alan Fram contributed to this report.

Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis., laugh as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses a joint meeting of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, June 8, 2016. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses a joint meeting of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, June 8, 2016. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Two South Carolina Air National Guard F-16 fighter pilots ejected safely after an apparent midair collision in eastern Georgia, the Guard said.

The collision happened about 9.15 p.m. Tuesday during night training operations over a remote military operating area in Jefferson County, Georgia, a National Guard spokeswoman said.

The two jets were part of a group of six that was conducting night training operations in preparation for an upcoming deployment.

The pilots were wearing night-vision goggles when the collision occurred.

Debrief: Base commander Col. Nicholas Gentile speaks with reporters outside McEntire Joint National Guard Base in Eastover, South Carolina after two F-16C Air National Guard jets collided over eastern Georgia

Scare in the air: Two South Carolina Air National Guard fighter jets involved in training ahead of an upcoming deployment collided Tuesday night over rural Georgia (file photo)

The base commander, Col. Nicholas Gentile, said the two pilots are among the most experienced in the unit.

Gentile said he could not yet release their names, but said they are back in South Carolina being debriefed as part of the investigation.

'We had planes spread out across the Southeast last night,' Gentile said, adding that the bombing range is only about a 15-minute flight from the South Carolina base.

The F-16C models practice maneuvering against opponents and were involved in some of the earliest deployments in the Persian Gulf War in the 1990s.

The jets were assigned to the South Carolina Air National Guard's 169th Fighter Wing, which operates out of McEntire Joint National Guard Base in Eastover, South Carolina.

Survivors: The planes involved in Tuesday evening's crash were totally destroyed, but the pilots ejected and survived, and have returned to South Carolina

It has been decades since South Carolina F-16s have been involved in a collision, he said, though he did not know the date of the last time it occurred. The 169th Fighter Wing has 28 of the aircraft.

U.S. F/A 18 jet fighters from Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort also were flying nighttime operations and contacted officials to help locate the pilots, Gentile said.

The National Guard, Marines and Air Force all use the area, called the Townsend Bombing Range, for training, he said.

There were no injuries on the ground, Jefferson County Fire Chief Jim Anderson said Wednesday.

'We have located the debris from the first aircraft, which was located in a wooded area,' Anderson said.

Crews were still searching for the second aircraft but expected to find it nearby, he said.

Gentile was heading to the crash scene Wednesday, McEntire spokeswoman Lt. Col. Cindi King said. The South Carolina Army National Guard was flying Gentile to Georgia aboard a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter, King said.

'With the sun out, they will be able to see the area,' she said, adding that the Blackhawk helicopters will help in their ability to fly over and assess potential damage.

King said South Carolina National Guard commander Maj. Gen. Robert Livingston Jr. was in Washington on Tuesday night when he got news of the crashes and was returning to Columbia to be updated.

The South Carolina Air National Guard and the U.S. Air Force are dispatching teams to investigate the collision.

The collision comes after both of the military's precision flying teams suffered crashes last week.

A Blue Angels F/A-18 crashed last Thursday near Nashville, Tennessee, while taking off for a practice session. The pilot, Marine Capt. Jeff Kuss, was killed.

Also Thursday, a Thunderbirds F-16 crashed outside Colorado Springs, Colorado, but that pilot, Maj. Alex Turner, ejected safely. The Thunderbirds had just performed over the open-air graduation ceremony at the nearby Air Force Academy, where President Barack Obama spoke.
French cardinal questioned in priest sex abuse cases

PARIS (AP)  French investigators questioned a prominent cardinal Wednesday about alleged failures to report on suspected pedophilia by a priest under his watch, in the highest-profile church abuse investigation in France to date.

Cardinal Philippe Barbarin has been under pressure for months since he was named in two investigations of accusations of sexual abuse of children by priests.

Barbarin, one of the highest-ranking figures in the French Catholic Church, is among several church officials accused of failing to report pedophile priests to judicial authorities. He has denied covering up abuse, but acknowledged some mistakes in handling and appointing priests.

FILE - In this April 3, 2016 photo, French Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, Archbishop of Lyon, leads a mass for migrants, in Lyon, central France. Police are questioning a prominent French cardinal about alleged failure to report pedophile priests under his watch. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani, File)

One of Barbarin's lawyers, Jean-Felix Luciani, said the cardinal was questioned for nearly 10 hours on Wednesday in Lyon, saying the hearing took place "in a calm atmosphere."

Barbarin is being questioned in the case of Bernard Preynat, a priest charged with sexual aggression and rape of a minor and accused of abusing boy scouts in the 1980s. Barbarin says he was convinced the priest reformed in 2007-2008 when they met.

A Lyon court is scheduled to decide Thursday whether the case can still be pursued or whether the alleged abuse happened too long ago to determine responsibility.

Some called for Barbarin's resignation after the investigations began, and France's prime minister called on Barbarin to take action.

Pope Francis recently expressed support for Barbarin, saying he shouldn't resign.

"Based on the information I have, I think in Lyon, Cardinal Barbarin has taken the necessary measures and has taken things well in hand," the pope said in an interview with French Catholic daily La Croix last month.
Italy arrests alleged migrant smuggling masteremind

MILAN (AP)  Italy for the first time has taken custody of one of the alleged organizers of a people-smuggling route through Africa that has moved millions of euros across borders and tens of thousands of migrants to Europe, setting the stage for criminal proceedings that reach higher than the on-the-ground smugglers netted in the past.

Medhane Yehdego Mered, a 35-year-old Eritrean, was flown to Rome overnight from Sudan, where he was arrested two weeks ago. Last year authorities identified him as a prime suspect along with Ethiopian-born Ermias Ghermay, who remains at-large, in the transport of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa via lawless Libya and across the Mediterranean to Europe.

Authorities on Wednesday said he is one of four principal traffickers identified during their investigation.

This photo taken from a video and released by the Italian Police shows Medhane Yehdego Mered, center, a 35-year-old Eritrean, arrested two weeks ago in Sudan, upon his arrival at Ciampino's airport, in the outskirts of Rome, late Tuesday June 7, 2016. Italy for the first time has taken custody of one of the alleged organizers of a people-smuggling route through Africa that has moved hundreds of millions of euros across borders and tens of thousands of migrants to Europe. (Italian Police via AP)

"The suspect facing justice is a character without scruples and without any respect for human life; an individual who occupies a key role in the operational center of a criminal network that moves millions of euros," a chief investigator for Italy's national police force, Renato Cortese, told a news conference in Palermo.

Rescues continued in the Mediterranean Sea on Wednesday. An Italian coast guard ship delivered 223 people to the Sicilian port of Pozzallo, including arrivals from Eritrea, Somalia and Sudan  suggesting the same route that Mered allegedly operated. The route from Libya is separate from the influx of Syrians and other asylum-seekers via Turkey to Greece over the past year that is now drying up.

"Even as we speak, the migrant arrivals are continuing. Even as we speak, this network of Mered is still operating its traffickers," Cortese said. "But having detained a subject who surely had a role of protagonist, we are aware of having delivered a blow to this organization."

So far this year, nearly 48,000 migrants saved at sea in smugglers boats have been brought to Italy, Premier Matteo Renzi said Wednesday, compared with 51,000 the same time last year. More than 2,800 lives have been lost, most on the route to Italy, with the vast majority disappearing at sea, according to the International Organization for Migration.

"The demographic pressure continues to push on Africa and the emergency is not letting up," Renzi said in a Facebook post.

Cortese called it "an epochal emergency" of which the arrivals was the most visible aspect.

Not only is Mered being investigated for aiding illegal migration dating from 2012, but also on possible charges related to banking fraud for the transfer of funds to pay for the smuggling, said prosecutor Maurizio Scalia.

Authorities said he bragged about packing migrants tightly into boats to maximize his earnings, and that he forced family members to send tranches of money for a migrant to continue on each leg of the trip, which typically included a trip across Africa, the risky boat journey across the Mediterranean Sea and final transport to northern Europe.

"This is a demonstration of how little these organizations and their bosses respect human life, the lives of all those desperate people who for various reasons attempt to reach Italy and Europe in the hope of a better life," said Palermo chief prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi.

Tapped telephone conversations indicated that Mered paid Libyan officials 40,000 euros on one occasion to get a group of migrants out of prison.

Scalia said Mered claimed to be the most powerful in the group, calling himself general and claiming to have the same style as the former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, surrounding himself with trusted allies.

In the wiretapped calls, Mered indicated he was going to move to Sweden to join his wife as soon as he could arrange the proper documents. He also talked about building a house in Eritrea and making investments in Dubai.

Italy has arrested dozens of smuggling suspects, typically people who captain the rickety boats and maintain order on the crowded decks. While they try to blend in as migrants when rescued, prosecutors have had increasing success getting migrants to identify their smugglers.

Authorities praised both the speed and the breadth of the cooperation among international authorities from Britain to Sudan.

"As we are aware, it is a phenomenon that you can fight with cooperation among the various police forces in Europe, but above all with police from northern Africa," Cortese said.

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Frances D'Emilio and Patricia Thomas in Rome and Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report.

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This story has been corrected to show the first name is Medhane, second name is Yehdego and surname is Mered.
A look at NATO and the EU, neighbors now cooperating more

BRUSSELS (AP)  A look at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and European Union, two multinational organizations now cooperating more closely than ever.

COMMON ORIGINS

NATO and the institutions that grew into the EU were born in the ashes of World War II, and the desire to prevent yet another war from devastating Europe.

FILE - In this Thursday, May 26, 2016 file photo, The NATO German warship FGS Bonn, left, is escorted by a rescue boat as it departs from the harbor of the city of Izmir, Turkey. The FGS Bonn is part of the NATO flotilla patrolling the Aegean Sea in an effort to curb migrant activity between Turkey and Greece. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)

A 1949 treaty signed in Washington, D.C., created the U.S.-led NATO alliance as a means of countering the military might of the Soviet Union, and preventing the rebirth of the militant nationalisms that had led to Europe's two world wars.

Fostering closer ties between postwar European countries through merging their economies was also seen an effective tool for preventing a revival of nationalist extremism. The initial steps leading to the EU came in 1952 with the pooling of some former enemy countries' coal and steel industries, and the 1957 Rome Treaty that created what was familiarly known as "the Common Market." France and Germany, neighbors that had gone to war three times in the previous 70 years, were core founders.

COMMON MEMBERS

Both NATO and the EU have grown to have 28 members, and 22 European countries belong to both.

In both: Belgium, Britain, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain.

In NATO only: Albania, Canada, Iceland, Norway, Turkey, United States.

In the EU only: Austria, Cyprus, Finland, Ireland, Malta, Sweden.

(Montenegro has been invited to become NATO's 29th member, but its membership must be ratified by the U.S. Senate and legislative authorities in other NATO member states).

COMMON HOME BASE

NATO's political and administrative headquarters and most EU institutions, including the executive Commission, are based in Brussels, capital of Belgium.

NATO's headquarters had been in London, then Paris. But when French President Charles de Gaulle decided to withdraw French forces from the alliance's integrated military command structure, NATO moved to Brussels in 1967.

COMMON VALUES AND INTERESTS

NATO and the EU agree they share strategic interests and values, and the alliance is on record as considering the EU "a unique and essential partner." Institutional relations between the organizations officially started in 2001.

NATO's Strategic Concept, adopted in 2010, commits the alliance to preventing crises, managing conflicts and stabilizing post-conflict situations, and calls for working more closely with NATO's partners, especially the EU and United Nations.
Abandoned boy reflects Japan's attitude on discipline, abuse

TOKYO (AP)  A 7-year-old Japanese boy who survived almost a week in a forest after his parents left him at the side of a road was released from a hospital this week, smiling and waving to a crowd cheering the happy ending. Public criticism of the father, who made Yamato Tanooka get out of the car to punish him for misbehavior, has faded, and police reportedly won't pursue charges. Some possible explanations why:

Q: Is leaving a child behind considered abuse in Japan?

A: Abandoning a child, or anyone who needs care, is a crime punishable by up to five years imprisonment in Japan. However, it's generally enforced when someone abandons a person with no intention of retrieving him or her despite awareness of a life-threatening risk. In this case, the father returned for his son a few minutes later, but the boy had disappeared.

FILE - In this June 7, 2016 file photo, Yamato Tanooka, who survived almost a week in a forest after his parents left him at the side of a road, waves as he leaves a hospital in Hakodate on the northern island of Hokkaido. The Japanese boy was released from a hospital this week, smiling and waving at a crowd cheering the happy ending. Public criticism of the father, who made 7-year-old Tanooka get out of the car to punish him for misbehavior, has faded, and police reportedly wont pursue charges. (Daisuke Suzuki/Kyodo News via AP, File) JAPAN OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT

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Q: Are attitudes toward what constitutes abuse different in Japan?

A: Apparently so. The Japanese Embassy in the United States urges Japanese nationals to be cautious with their children in America. It warns that corporal punishment, a father bathing with his little daughter, or leaving a child outside a supermarket in a shopping cart  all generally accepted in Japan  could be taken as child abuse subject to criminal charges. "Remember, you're not in Japan," the embassy says on its website.

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Q: Why are attitudes different?

A: In Japan, the concept of children's rights and protection is relatively new. It's more common for children to be considered the property of their parents, rather than individuals with their own rights. In a country of conformity, good parents are expected to control their kids. Borderline cases of child abuse are more often viewed as a family matter rather than a crime.

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Q: Are attitudes changing?

A: Japan signed the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1994, prompting it to enact the Child Abuse Prevention Act of 2000. The act defines four types of child abuse  physical, emotional, sexual and neglect  largely modeled on the U.S. definition, but does not include penalties. Instead, guidance centers, governments and schools officials are instructed to intervene in possible abuse cases. The case of the 7-year-old boy split public opinion. While many criticized the father for going too far, others sympathized with him over the challenges of parenting and said they faced similar punishment as children.

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Q: What is the current trend in Japan regarding child abuse?

A: Japanese are increasingly coming forward to report child abuse cases, with the government attributing this largely to a growing awareness of the issue. Since Japan started collecting data in 1990, the number of cases, including suspected ones, reported to child guidance centers has increased more than sevenfold, with nearly 89,000 in 2014, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. Emotional abuse was the most common type of case, at 40 percent, followed by physical abuse, neglect and sexual abuse. The most vulnerable were elementary schoolchildren, and mothers were most often the perpetrators. From 2004 to 2014, there were 1,009 child fatalities in abuse cases, according to the ministry.

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Follow Mari Yamaguchi at https://www.twitter.com/mariyamaguchi
Big Brussels neighbors, once wary, stepping up cooperation

BRUSSELS (AP)  They both have their headquarters in Belgium's capital and they profess many of the same values and goals, but until recently the NATO defense alliance and the European Union economic bloc have acted like wary neighbors with little to say to one another.

That's despite the fact that 22 prosperous Western democracies with more than 450 million citizens are members of both organizations, and both have been key to building and keeping the postwar order in Western Europe.

This summer, the old standoffish ways are to change dramatically and the keyword will be cooperation, primarily because of Russia's new military might and assertiveness, the threat of armed Islamic extremism and Europe's continuing migration crisis.

FILE - In this May 18, 2015 file photo, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, left, speaks with European Union High Representative Federica Mogherini during a meeting at the European Council building in Brussels. The EU's Federica Mogherini said the official calendar for the summer of 2016 provides good synergy for forging a better working relationship between NATO and the EU. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert, File)

Some in the EU in the past have seen NATO as a Trojan horse for the trigger-happy United States to keep exercising domination over Europe. Meanwhile, some at NATO saw the EU  which also has security and military responsibilities  as a potential competitor.

"Neither of these two institutions that are separated by, what, two miles or something here in Brussels, should be separated by the kind of institutional distance that we've seen in the past," Douglas Lute, U.S. ambassador to NATO, said recently.

When U.S. President Barack Obama and other NATO leaders sit down together in Warsaw next month, the two multinational groupings should formally agree to cooperate in several fields, including fighting new threats to their own citizens' security and helping bolster the defense and law-enforcement institutions of fragile states like Libya and Iraq.

"We need to take our cooperation to a higher level, and that's exactly what we are working on now," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said as he hosted a visit by the EU's foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, to alliance headquarters last month.

On Wednesday Stoltenberg planned a closed-door meeting with top EU officials Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker.

Mogherini, a former Italian foreign minister, has said the official calendar this summer will provide "excellent synergy" for forging the better working relationship between the two international organizations that she and Stoltenberg have advocated.

The week before NATO's July 8-9 summit, Mogherini is scheduled to present the EU's first redrafted global security strategy in 13 years to a meeting of the bloc's 28 leaders in Brussels.

The new EU document is expected to take note of a dramatically altered strategic landscape: one where Russia is an increasingly worrisome neighbor, and where the Islamic State extremist group can exploit the territorial enclave it has carved out in the Middle East to stage bloody attacks in European capitals, including Brussels itself.

"No country alone, and not even a united Europe, can carry the whole world on its shoulders," Mogherini said in a major policy address she delivered in Paris in April. She predicted that "our cooperation with the U.S. and NATO can only grow stronger."

Already this year, NATO and the EU have reached formal agreements on the swift exchange of information in the event of cyberattacks, as well as deployment of alliance warships to the Aegean Sea to help stop human traffickers from bringing people from Turkey to Greece.

Institutional relations between NATO and the EU were launched in 2001, and in 2010, NATO allies expressed their determination to improve the NATO-EU strategic partnership. But only recently has there been much payoff.

"We have concluded more arrangements in the past three months than in the previous 13 years," Stoltenberg said last month. "We can and must do more."

Already, NATO military and civilian experts are pondering how they can use lessons learned in the Aegean to support Operation Sophia, an EU action mounted to shut down people-smuggling operations in the central Mediterranean.

Work is also underway to draft "playbooks" to help NATO and the EU closely coordinate their response to so-called hybrid threats  the use of nonconventional tactics as well as military means to achieve a strategic objective  and react quickly in tandem when they occur.

"This focuses on information-sharing, civil preparedness, cyber and strategic communications," said NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu. "The idea of the playbooks is to identify who does what if our nations and organizations come under hybrid attack."

Russia's prowess in mobilizing non-military and unconventional assets  including social and mass media, energy and other economic resources and civil organizations, showcased in the Kremlin's 2014 takeover of Crimea  has been of particular concern to both NATO and the EU.

"What these organizations are discovering is that NATO has some capabilities, the EU has others, more in the civilian component, and that the organizations are highly complementary if they work together," said Heather Conley, a former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state.

A joint statement is being prepared for signature in Warsaw, said an alliance official who was not authorized to make public remarks and spoke on condition of anonymity. That document is expected to focus on specific areas for future pooled efforts, including countering hybrid and cyber threats, increasing maritime security and helping partner nations build their military.

At both NATO and the EU, "pragmatism finally has sort of taken hold," said Conley, director of the Europe Program at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. She cautioned, however, that "it's going to take quite a while for these two organizations to really figure out their modus operandi in the future."

FILE - In this Thursday, May 26, 2016 file photo, The NATO German warship FGS Bonn, left, is escorted by a rescue boat as it departs from the harbor of the city of Izmir, Turkey. The FGS Bonn is part of the NATO flotilla patrolling the Aegean Sea in an effort to curb migrant activity between Turkey and Greece. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)
Family seeks body-camera footage in fatal police shooting

NORFOLK, Va. (AP)  The family of man shot and killed by Norfolk police last week is calling for the release of body-camera footage of the shooting.

The Virginian-Pilot (http://bit.ly/1OcXq6i ) reports that relatives of 43-year-old Willie D. James said during a news conference outside city hall Tuesday that they want to see the evidence backing the police account of what happened during the incident.

Police Chief Michael Goldsmith says officers opened fire at a home last Thursday when James lunged at them with a knife.

The police department is conducting an internal investigation.

Police have refused to make the video public. Goldsmith said Friday it was too early in the investigation to consider doing so.

James' death was this year's fifth fatal shooting by police in the city.

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Russian courts convicts, releases dissident artist

MOSCOW (AP)  A Russian court on Wednesday ordered the release of a performance artist who was charged with vandalism for two stunts in Moscow and St. Petersburg, ending what could have been a trial to rival that of punk band Pussy Riot.

Pyotr Pavlensky has been in detention since November after he set fire to the doors of the headquarters of the Russian security agency FSB, formerly the KGB, in Moscow. In May, Pavlensky was found guilty for a pro-Ukraine protest in which he and other activists burned tires and banged metal sheets with sticks near a St. Petersburg cathedral.

Pavlensky claimed all of it was political art aimed to protest the Kremlin's turn to becoming increasingly authoritarian and intolerant of dissent.

Russian artist Pyotr Pavlensky, right, leaves the court room in Moscow on in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, June 8, 2016. The Russian court has ruled to free Pavlensky, who has been in detention since November after he set fire to the doors of the Russian security agency, the former KGB headquarters in Moscow, on Wednesday, June 8, 2016. .(AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)

The Moscow court on Wednesday found Pavlensky guilty of vandalizing the doors of what it said was a heritage building because prominent Russians had been kept in detention there. Pavlensky was fined about $7,600 and set free in the court room packed with reporters.

Pavlensky's trial was seen as a possible repeat of a trial of Pussy Riot members who were sentenced to two years in prison for a performance at Moscow's major cathedral. The charges against Pavlensky did carry a prison term but the prosecutors took everyone by surprise when they asked the court to fine, not jail him.

Speaking outside the courthouse on Wednesday, the St. Petersburg performance artist thanked everyone for their support.

"It does not matter how the trial ended," he said. "What is important is the fact that we were able to unmask, uncover the truth: the government is founded on the methods of terror."
Afghan security forces deploy to prevent illegal mining

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP)  Afghan authorities are deploying security forces to ensure that insurgents fighting to overthrow the government do not benefit from illegal mining, an official said on Wednesday.

The pledge follows recent reports that the Taliban earn tens of millions of dollars each year from illegal extraction and export of minerals, which the government has failed to keep safe.

Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said Afghan forces would do more to secure mineral deposits and prevent illegal mining across the country.

"The Taliban not only are benefiting from opium and drug smuggling, unfortunately they have also targeted the country's mines  mines that are national asset of the country and the people," Sediqqi said.

London-based advocacy Global Witness said Monday that mineral smuggling is now the Taliban's second biggest source of funding, after drugs produced in the southern Afghan provinces. Helmand province, a Taliban heartland, is the source of opium from which most of the world's heroin is produced. The annual opium output is valued at around $3 billion.

In recent years, police had secured several mines in eastern Logar and Khost provinces, where illegal extraction and smuggling of chromite ore had been going on, Sediqqi said.

Last year, police impounded 65 trucks carrying illegally mined lapis lazuli, a rare blue stone almost unique to northern Afghanistan. The lapis lazuli was being transported from the mines in Badakhshan province when the trucks were caught in Parwan province, close to Kabul, Sediqqi said.

Global Witness and the Kabul independent think tank Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit say the Taliban make up to $20 million a year in protection money from strongmen and officials who have taken control of the lapis lazuli mines in Badakhshan.

Much of the stone is smuggled through the Panjshir Valley, then to neighboring Pakistan where it is purchased by Chinese merchants who have it made into jewelry and ornaments for sale in China, where demand is high.

Global Witness accused China of colluding in a trade that funds the ongoing war in Afghanistan. The Taliban have been fighting to overthrow the Kabul government for 15 years.

Sediqqi conceded that not enough was being done to secure mines across the country, which are said to hold a wide range of minerals  copper, iron ore, gold, coal, lithium, marble, gems and much more  that could, if developed securely and transparently, generate substantial revenue for war-torn Afghanistan's development.

The Afghan government banned lapis lazuli mining in early 2015 because the mines could not be secured. But the mining continued with impunity, with local police and politicians reportedly benefiting from the illegal extraction and export of the stone. The Global Witness report identifies warlords, police chiefs and politicians who it says benefit from the trade.

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2 more officials dismissed after Marine recruit death

PARRIS ISLAND, S.C. (AP)  The Marines have dismissed two officials at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot on Parris Island in the aftermath of a recruit's death in March.

Corps spokesman Capt. Joshua Pena tells news outlets that Col. Paul D. Cucinotta was relieved of command Monday following an investigation into the death of 20-year-old Raheel Siddiqui of Taylor, Michigan.

Cucinotta was responsible for recruit training and had relieved Lt. Col. Joshua Kissoon of command on March 31.

Sgt. Maj. Nicholas A. Deabreu was also dismissed. Deabreu was the sergeant major of Siddiqui's recruit training regiment.
Deputy shot by son who broke into mother's house

STAFFORD, Va. (AP)  Authorities say a young man who broke into his mother's home after being told not to return shot a Virginia sheriff's deputy who responded to the mother's 911 call.

The Stafford County Sheriff's Office said in a news release Wednesday that a woman called the sheriff's office to report the break-in by her 18-year-old son, Joshua Sumter.

Authorities say that when deputies found Sumter on a bedroom floor, he began shooting, striking one deputy four times. One deputy returned fire, but Sumter wasn't injured.

The sheriff's office says Sumter ran, was arrested hours later and tried to escape while being escorted to jail.

Sumter is charged with attempted capital murder and other offenses.
What the result of Britain's EU vote could mean for Scotland

GLASGOW, Scotland (AP)  A referendum this month to determine whether Britain remains part of the 28-nation European Union could also shape the future of the older union of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Former British prime ministers Tony Blair and John Major have warned that a vote to leave the EU on June 23 could tear the United Kingdom apart because it might spur Scotland to vote for independence.

The thinking goes like this: Scottish voters who want Britain to remain part of the EU would be so unhappy if it doesn't that they would back a repeat referendum on forming their own independent nation.

In this picture taken on Saturday, May 28, 2016, a man and a woman pass a whisky shop on the Royal mile in Edinburgh, Scotland. Scotch Whisky Distillers, small and large, are very supportive of the UKs membership of the European Union. Scotch Whisky is Scotlands biggest export, supporting about 40,000 jobs in Scotland. (AP Photo/ Dorothee Thiesing)

Scottish voters in 2014 said no to independence, but popular First Minister Nicola Sturgeon  leader of the Scottish National Party  says a British decision to drag Scots out of the EU could be just the kind of material change needed to prompt a second independence vote.

A variety of polls show that support for remaining in the EU is substantially stronger in Scotland than in Britain as a whole, and surveys suggest that a British exit, or Brexit, would galvanize the independence movement inside Scotland, said John Curtice, author of "What Scotland Thinks."

"There have been about five polls asking people what they would do now in the event of a U.K. vote for Brexit and on average they show about a 4 or 5 percent swing to those in favor of independence," he said. "That's enough to turn a narrow majority in favor of the union to a narrow majority of around 52 percent in favor of independence."

Prime Minister David Cameron told the House of Commons Wednesday that he worries about a Brexit vote leading to a second Scottish referendum on independence  and a possible breakup of the United Kingdom.

Scottish independence would end a political union dating from 1707, when England and Scotland joined together in a single country, Great Britain. Although Scotland now has its own parliament with substantial powers, it and England still share a monarch, a currency, a London-based government  and revenue from North Sea oil and gas. Divorce would mean a long and messy untangling of powers.

Brendan Davy, an assistant director of the Vote Leave campaign, dismissed the idea that British exit vote could lead to the breakup of the U.K. He said Remain campaigners are "clutching at straws" with this argument.

"Claims that it could lead to a second Scottish independence referendum are a desperate measure to scare and intimidate people into staying within the EU," he said, adding that many Scottish nationalists also back the Vote Leave effort.

"They must wonder why the SNP is so keen to break away from Westminster but don't want to take more powers back from Brussels. If people want to see the Scottish Parliament get more powers then they should vote to leave the EU."

Then there are those who want to keep Britain inside the EU because they believe that will make it easier for Scotland to obtain independence. They believe that if Scottish voters provide the victory margin that keeps Britain inside the 28-nation bloc, it will anger so many English voters who wanted to leave that it will make it easier for Scotland to gain independence.

Construction worker Andrew Fraser plans to vote this way because he thinks it could be a fast-track to breaking Scotland out of the United Kingdom.

"I'm voting to stay in the EU not because I feel strongly about Europe but because I want independence for Scotland," he said. "If the vote is so close that Scotland keeps England in against its will, then the English nationalists will be pushing for us to leave the UK."

His views are typical among some Scottish independence supporters anxious for another chance to end Scotland's 309-year-old political union with Britain.

However, Sturgeon has stopped short of saying any specific result in the referendum would be enough on its own to prompt politicians to call another referendum.

Her party's platform for the recent Scottish Parliamentary election stated a second independence referendum would be demanded only if there was "clear and sustained evidence" the majority of Scots wanted it.

To this end the SNP has announced plans to embark on a new campaign this summer to win the hearts and minds of wavering voters.

James Mitchell, Professor of Public Policy at Edinburgh University, said pro-independence campaigners would likely have to be patient even if the Brexit movement succeeds and Britain leaves the EU.

"Much would depend on the nature of any post-Brexit agreements reached with the EU," he said. "It is likely Brexit would contribute to increased support for independence over the long haul but it may be a slow burner for Scottish nationalists."

If Scotland voted for independence in a second referendum, its leaders have said it would hope to remain part of the EU  or rejoin it if Britain has already left.

But there is no guarantee it would receive the same preferential deal in Europe currently enjoyed by the U.K.

"We would probably be welcomed with open arms but we would have to look very carefully at the terms being offered," said Dr. Thomas Lundberg, Lecturer in Politics at Glasgow University. "It's also possible U.K. would offer more favorable terms to Scotland to stay within the U.K. Whatever happens, Scotland could be in a good position to negotiate a better deal with the EU or the U.K."

Despite the extensive coverage of the Brexit referendum, some Scots have yet to make up their minds  and they may drift toward voting in favor of keeping Britain part of the European Union rather than making a change.

"I haven't really thought about it and don't really know what would be best," said David Hammond, a 22-year-old kitchen worker. "I'll probably go with staying in the EU because nobody has really told me, one way or another, what difference it would make if we left."

In this picture taken on Thursday, May 26, 2016, a man walks in the rain as he passes a "Taste of Scotland shop, offering typical Scottish specialties, like Haggis and shortbread, on the Royal mile, in Edinburgh. The British referendum this month will determine not only whether the country remains part of the European Union but could also shape the future of the older union of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. (AP Photo/ Dorothee Thiesing)

In this picture taken on Thursday, May 26, 2016, Scottish kilt-maker Nicola Laird stitches kilt in her family-run business shop Nicolson kiltmaker which is also home of the Edinburgh kilt academy, in Edinburgh, Scotland. A variety of polls show that support for remaining in the EU is substantially stronger in Scotland than in Britain as a whole, but unlike many of her fellow Scots, Nicola Laird supports an exit of the UK from the European Union. (AP Photo/ Dorothee Thiesing)

In this picture taken on Thursday, May 26, 2016, Scottish kilt-maker Nicola Laird poses in the basement of her family-run business Nicolson kiltmaker which is also home of the Edinburgh kilt academy, in Edinburgh, Scotland. A variety of polls show that support for remaining in the EU is substantially stronger in Scotland than in Britain as a whole, but unlike many of her fellow Scots, Nicola Laird supports an exit of the UK from the European Union. (AP Photo/ Dorothee Thiesing)

In this picture taken on Thursday, May 26, 2016, an EU flag, a Scottish flag and an Union Jack, left to right, wave outside Scottish parliament in front The Queens Gallery in Edinburgh. Scottish voters who want Britain to remain part of the EU would be so unhappy if it decided to break away that they would back a second referendum on forming their own independent nation. (AP Photo/ Dorothee Thiesing)

In this picture taken on Thursday, May 26, 2016, Scottish Member of Parliament Christina McKelvie, Scottish National Party (SNP), poses outside Scottish parliament in Edinburgh. Clearly for remaining within the EU, as long as that EU is reformed, and as long as that Scottish voice, that distinct Scottish voice is heard within that European Union McKelvie told the AP a month before the EU referendum on Britains exit from the EU. (AP Photo/ Dorothee Thiesing)

This picture taken on Thursday, May 26, 2016, shows the statue of Adam Smith in front of St. Giles cathedral on Royal Mile during a rainy day in Edinburgh, Scotland. Former British prime ministers Tony Blair and John Major have warned that if voters decide to remove Britain from the EU on June 23 it could tear the United Kingdom apart because it might spur Scotland to vote for independence. (AP Photo/ Dorothee Thiesing)
Florida man appeals conviction, sentence in NYC terror plot

MIAMI (AP)  A Florida man who pleaded guilty along with his brother to plotting to launch a terrorist attack on New York City landmarks is appealing his conviction and sentence.

Raees Alam Qazi, acting as his own lawyer, recently filed the 21-page appeal in Miami federal court. Qazi pleaded guilty to terrorism-related charges last year as well as assault on a federal officer. He's serving a 35-year prison sentence.

Qazi contends he misunderstood his plea agreement and that there was no conspiracy because his brother was unaware of his plans. Qazi also claims he didn't support al-Qaida as charged because he took no direction from the terrorist organization.
Billings-area primary races were wrapping early Tuesday night, while rural Eastern Montana returns were trickling in at press time.

With local returns mostly in shortly after polls closed at 8 p.m., most leaders were ahead by several percentage points in contested primary races within The Gazettes coverage area. Three Billings Republican incumbents with challengers were leading.

The Gazette is following 13 House Districts and four Senate Districts in Billings and Eastern Montana.

In early returns:

Donald Roberts leads two challengers in the Republican race for Billings' Senate District 26 with 50 percent of the vote. Joshua Kotter was in second place with 26 percent and, Rodney Garcia was third with 23 percent. There were 2,088 votes counted and partial results from every precinct.

The winner will take on Democrat Margaret MacDonald in the general election.

In a widening race, Tom Richmond leads in the Republican race for Billings's Senate District 28 with 53 percent of the vote. Mark Morse was trailing with 46 percent. There were 2,442 votes counted and partial results from every precinct.

In the Republican race for House District 40, which includes parts of rural Billings and Roundup, Barry Usher, of rural Laurel, had a narrowing lead in a three-way race with 37 percent of the vote. Pat Riley, of Roundup, was second with 34 percent. Bruce Hoiland was third with 28 percent. There were 2,151 votes counted.

Incumbent Dale Mortensen led the Republican race for Billings' House District 44 with 69 percent of the vote to TJ Smiths 30 percent. There were 1,479 votes counted and partial results from every precinct.

Incumbent Daniel Zolnikov led in the Republican race for Billings' House District 45 with 62 percent of the vote. Challenger John Bedford had 37 percent. There were 1,796 votes counted and partial results from every precinct.

In House District 33, Casey Knudsen, of Malta, led with 51 percent of the vote to 48 percent for Michael Burns, of Glasgow. There ware 1,150 votes counted with no returns from several precincts.

In House District 35, Sidney incumbent Scott Staffanson led with 60 percent of the vote to Joel Krautter's 39 percent. There were 1,876 votes counted and partial results from every precinct.

In House District 36, incumbent Alan Doane, of Bloomfield, led with 59 percent of the vote. Edward Hilbert, of Glendive, had 40 percent. There were 2,581 votes countedand partial results from every precinct.

Incumbent Bill Harris, of Winnett, was ahead very early in the Republican race for House District 37 with 55 percent. Luther Waterland, of Ekalaka, had 44 percent. There were 3,018 votes counted by 9:30 p.m and results for only half the precincts.

In Harlowton, incumbent Ryan Osmundson, of Buffalo, leads in the three-way Republican race for Senate District 15 with 59 percent of the vote. Hertha Lund, of Martinsdale, had 28 percent and Harry Klock, had 12 percent. There were just 4,769 votes counted in the race.

In the Democratic race for Senate District 16, which includes the Fort Peck and Rocky Boy's Indian reservations, Frank Smith, of Poplar, led with 50 percent of the vote. LeAnn Montes, of Box Elder, was second with 30 percent. Bobbi Favel, of Rocky Boy, was third with 19 percent. Only 1,240 votes had been counted.

In Senate District 17, Mike Lang, of Malta, lead the Republican race with 59 percent of the vote. Wayne Stahl, of Saco, had 40 percent. there are 2,884 votes counted, with no precinct fully counted.
The Latest: Fighter pilots home with families after crash

MCENTIRE JOINT NATIONAL GUARD BASE, S.C. (AP)  The Latest on the crash of two South Carolina Air National Guard fighter jets in Georgia (all times local):

2:30 p.m.

The commander of the South Carolina National Guard says the two pilots who survived a midair collision in Georgia are in good shape and are home with their families.

Maj. Gen. Robert Livingston Jr. said Wednesday that neither of the planes was carrying bombs or explosives when they went down late Tuesday night in Jefferson County, Georgia.

But Livingston warned people against touching any wreckage they might find in the area, noting that fuel and other materials from the F-16C jet fighters could be dangerous to handle. People are asked to call 911, their local authorities or the South Carolina National Guard at 803-647-8888 if they find any parts.

The wreckage of only one of the planes has been found so far.

Livingston did not release the pilots' names.

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11:00 a.m.

First responders in eastern Georgia say the pilots of two fighter jets from the South Carolina Air National Guard that crashed at a rural bombing range were talking normally when they were found.

Jefferson County Fire Chief Jim Anderson says the pilots of the F-16C jets were taken to a hospital Tuesday night as a precaution. The planes crashed at the Bulldog Military Operations Area while on a training mission.

Anderson said the pilots did not talk about the details of the crash. They've returned to South Carolina for debriefing in the investigation.

Anderson says one pilot was found in a pasture and the other at the edge of some woods.

Wreckage of one of the planes was found in some woods. Crews are still looking for the other jet.

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9:50 a.m.

The fire chief in Jefferson County, Georgia, confirms there were no injuries on the ground when two South Carolina Air National Guard fighter jets collided over a bombing range.

Chief Jim Anderson says the area where the planes came down Tuesday night is a very rural section of the county.

Anderson said crews have found the wreckage of one of the F-16C fighters, which was found in some woods.

He said crews are still looking for the second plane, which they expect to find near the first crash site.

The pilots ejected safely and are back in South Carolina being debriefed as part of the crash investigation.

McEntire Joint National Guard Base commander Col. Nicholas Gentile (jin-TIHL'-ee) says the planes were among six F-16s training for an upcoming deployment.

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8:45 a.m.

The commander of a South Carolina National Guard base says two F-16 fighter jet pilots involved in a midair collision over Georgia are two of the most experienced flyers in the unit.

Col. Nicholas Gentile (jin-TIHL'-ee) said he cannot yet release the names of the pilots, who ejected safety following the collision over a remote bombing range in Jefferson County, Georgia, on Tuesday night.

But Gentile says both pilots have returned to South Carolina and are being debriefed as part of the investigation of the crash.

Gentile says the planes were part of a six-aircraft group that was training for a future deployment mission that he cannot talk about now.

He says both jets were destroyed.

The Townsend Bombing Range is used by the National Guard, Marines and Air Force.

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7:35 a.m.

Officials from the South Carolina National Guard are heading to Georgia to investigate the apparent midair collision of two F-16 fighter jets.

Col. Cindi King says the planes appear to have both crashed in remote areas of Jefferson County, Georgia, late Tuesday.

McEntire Joint National Guard Base commander Col. Nicholas Gentile (jin-TIHL'-ee) was heading to the crash scene Wednesday morning.

King could not immediately say whether the pilots have been released from medical care. But she says both pilots were well enough to eject safely and to contact National Guard officials in South Carolina to say they were okay.

The crash site is known as the Townsend Bombing Range and is where South Carolina Air National Guard fighter jets routinely train for their electronic warfare and bombing missions.

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5 a.m.

The South Carolina Air National Guard says two F-16 fighter jet pilots ejected safely after a midair collision over eastern Georgia.

A news release from the Air National Guard says the collision happened Tuesday night around 9:15 p.m. during routine night-flying operations over a military operating area in Jefferson County, Georgia.

The jets were assigned to the South Carolina Air National Guard's 169th Fighter Wing.

The Air National Guard says local first responders were securing the area. There have been no reports of injuries on the ground.

The Air Force will conduct a safety investigation of the incident.
Correction union boss, hedge fund founder face fraud charges

NEW YORK (AP)  The longtime head of the nation's largest municipal jail guard union was paid tens of thousands of dollars in cash, delivered in a Ferragamo handbag, in exchange for steering $20 million in union money to a hedge fund, according to a criminal complaint.

Norman Seabrook, the brash and defiant president of the 9,000-member New York City Correction Officers' Benevolent Association, and Murray Huberfeld, the hedge fund's founder, were arrested by FBI agents on conspiracy and fraud charges Wednesday.

Seabrook was released on $250,000 bond after a bail hearing at which his lawyer called the charges weak. Huberfeld was to appear later.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara speaks to reporters during a news conference, Wednesday, June 8, 2016, in New York. Norman Seabrook, president of the New York City Correction Officers' Benevolent Association, and hedge fund founder Murray Huberfeld, were arrested by FBI agents on conspiracy and fraud charges Wednesday morning, officials said. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

The arrests are the latest development in a series of overlapping public corruption investigations coordinated by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, with other targets including high-ranking New York Police Department officials and political fundraising activities of people with ties to New York's mayor.

Seabrook "made decisions about how to invest the nest egg for thousands of hardworking civil servants based not on what was good for them but on what was good for Norman Seabrook," Bharara said.

Prosecutor say the scheme by Huberfeld to hand hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks to Seabrook in exchange for the investments in his fund, Platinum Partners LP, was facilitated by someone who has pleaded guilty and is cooperating with federal investigators.

The court papers don't name the cooperator. But two people with direct knowledge of the case identified him as Jona Rechnitz, a businessman who has contributed to Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio's campaigns, was friendly with top police officials and has been captured on FBI wiretaps in a related gifts-for-favors probe.

The people weren't authorized to discuss the ongoing case and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity. A lawyer for Rechnitz didn't return a request for comment Wednesday.

There was no information on an attorney who could comment for Huberfeld, and an email to Platinum was not immediately returned.

Shortly after Rechnitz introduced Seabrook and Huberfeld in December 2013, union lawyers sent a letter to Huberfeld expressing interest in investing $10 million in union annuity funds in a Platinum fund, the complaint says. In subsequent months, Seabrook invested two other $5 million payments, leaving "COBA with just over $3 million cash on hand for the union," it says.

Though Seabrook was promised more for his investments, he ultimately was paid $60,000 by Rechnitz, the complaint says.

The middleman stashed the cash in an $820 bag he bought at "one of Seabrook's favorite stores, Salvatore Ferragamo on Fifth Avenue," before handing it to the union leader at a meeting in Manhattan in December 2014, it says. Investigators searching Seabrook's home recovered the luxury bag and 10 pairs of Ferragamo shoes, prosecutors said.

Huberfeld reimbursed Rechnitz for the kickback by having him create a fake invoice for eight games from his season tickets to the New York Knicks. Platinum then paid the bill by check, it adds.

Seabrook has fiercely defended his union members amid repeated allegations of brutality and misconduct at the Rikers Island jail complex and elsewhere in the 10,000-inmate jail system. In his more than 20 years in power, he has become a political powerbroker, contributing heavily to state and local elections and influencing almost every administrative decision affecting the city's jails.

But according to the complaint, he was desperate to gain personally from his work investing union funds, complaining drunkenly in a hotel room during a trip with Rechnitz that he "worked hard to invest COBA's money and did not get anything personally from it," adding "it was time that 'Norman Seabrook got paid.'"

De Blasio, who sought to distance himself from Seabrook on Wednesday, said if the allegations against Seabrook are true they are "very sad." He also lamented crossing paths with Rechnitz.

"If we had any inkling this is the kind of human being he was," de Blasio said, "I never would've gone near him."

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AP reporters Kiley Armstrong and Ezra Kaplan contributed to this report.

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This story has been corrected to show the allegations are contained in a criminal complaint, not an indictment.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara speaks to reporters during a news conference, Wednesday, June 8, 2016, in New York. Norman Seabrook, president of the New York City Correction Officers' Benevolent Association, and hedge fund founder Murray Huberfeld, were arrested by FBI agents on conspiracy and fraud charges Wednesday morning, officials said. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
Estonia says Russian plane violated airspace, Russia denies

TALLINN, Estonia (AP)  Estonia says a Russian military plane has violated its airspace near the island of Vaindloo in the Gulf of Finland. Russia denies the allegation.

Estonian military spokeswoman Kristel Maasikmets said Wednesday that the Antonov An-26 entered Estonia's airspace for less than one minute on Tuesday. She said the plane's transponders were switched on but that the flight crew failed to maintain radio contact with Estonian air navigation officials.

Russia's Defense Ministry told Interfax the aircraft was flying from the Baltic Sea outpost of Kaliningrad to St. Petersburg "along a strictly established route" without violating Estonia's airspace.
3 teens killed in single-vehicle crash in Maryland

DAMASCUS, Md. (AP)  Officials say three teenagers have been killed after a single-vehicle crash in Maryland.

The crash happened late Tuesday night in Damascus. Montgomery County police say in a statement that the driver 17-year-old Jacob Tyler Dennis of Boyds and passengers, 18-year-old Patrick Andrew Shifflett of Laytonsville and 17-year-old Cary Mauri'ce Greene of Clarksburg, were killed.

Authorities say an investigation found that the car the teenagers were traveling in left the roadway and hit a tree.

Dennis and Shifflett were pronounced dead at the scene. Greene was taken to the hospital, where he died.
Path to Victory: How Clinton learned from '08 missteps

NEW YORK (AP)  For two weeks in February, Hillary Clinton's campaign appeared on the brink of falling into an all-too-familiar pattern.

Her razor-thin win in Iowa and crushing defeat in New Hampshire to Bernie Sanders sparked questions about her weaknesses as a candidate and second-guessing about her operation. A flood of "helpers"  the derisive term some aides use to describe the legion of Clinton friends and allies outside the campaign wanted to offer advice. Press reports began popping up about an internal shakeup.

"There was a moment when we were worried," recalled Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Clinton backer. "We thought this will be really a test, can she withstand everyone talking in her ear?"

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks during a presidential primary election night rally, Tuesday, June 7, 2016, in New York. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

It was a test Clinton would pass.

Within weeks, she started opening a delegate lead that would never close. Her campaign team remained intact, displaying strategic and financial discipline that surprised veterans of the Clintons' past political operations. After victories March 15 in Florida, Ohio and three other states, aides celebrated at the campaign's Brooklyn headquarters with a boozy, late-night dance party, confident that Clinton had put the nominating fight out of reach for Sanders.

For Clinton, those were the moments when she finally shed the ghosts of her failed first White House run in 2008, a cursed campaign that repeatedly buckled and ultimately collapsed under pressure.

"We just stuck together and hung together," said Robby Mook, Clinton's campaign manager and a target of early shakeup rumors. "That was a really galvanizing and important moment for the campaign."

In many ways, Clinton's 2016 success was a redemption story, the tale of how a flawed candidate overcame some of her failings. But the campaign also underscored that Clinton can't help being her own worst enemy, with new revelations about her private email use at the State Department and her refusal to release transcripts of her highly paid speeches to Wall Street banks.

The question now is which Clinton  the rehabilitated policy wonk or the reflexively defensive politician  will win out as she faces perhaps her most unpredictable challenge: Donald Trump.

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Nearly two years before announcing her candidacy, Clinton commissioned an extensive evaluation from a team of Democratic consultants. They delved into her weaknesses, likability, potential challengers, finances and electoral possibilities.

The consultants from Dewey Square Group, some of whom now work for her campaign, made the following recommendations:

Clinton would have to run a more disciplined, frugal operation  one not poisoned by the in-fighting and free spending that defined her first bid. She'd need to focus far more on winning delegates than voters. And she would have to overcome questions about her authenticity to connect with voters.

On two of those three fronts, Clinton found a winning formula in her primary campaign against Sanders.

Gone were the old Clinton hands, with their warring fiefdoms. Mook, a young operative known for inspiring fierce loyalty among his staff, prided himself on thriftiness. Aides were ordered to take cramped buses instead of the train between New York and Washington. Donors used to attending catered events sometimes found themselves on their own for meals at finance gatherings. When the staff traveled to Las Vegas for the first Democratic debate, they had to share rooms at Circus Circus, an aging hotel on the strip that ran $29 per night.

"When that cost gets further reduced to $14.50 because you discover you'll have a roommate, now that's the sign of a madman," Nick Merrill, Clinton's traveling spokesman, joked about Mook.

Aides say Clinton was fixated on the campaign's delegate operation, desperate to avoid one of the most glaring mistakes from 2008. While Clinton captured more votes that Barack Obama in that race, his operation mastered the complex delegate allocation process that ultimately gave him the edge.

So Clinton hired the man who built the system that defeated her, delegate guru Jeff Berman.

Last summer, Berman began locking down crucial superdelegates for Clinton. At the annual Democratic National Committee meeting in Minneapolis in August, Clinton backers were rewarded for their loyalty with invitations to private briefings from Clinton and top campaign officials.

Superdelegate supporters also got weekly newsletters updating them on the campaign strategy, part of an effort to keep them on the team.

By November, Clinton had public support from nearly half the superdelegates, according to an Associated Press count. Only eight supported Sanders. That gave her 15 percent of overall delegates she would need to win the nomination before voting even started.

To date, no superdelegates have switched from Clinton to Sanders, according to the AP tally.

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Even with her campaign on more solid footing, nothing prepared Clinton for the challenge she would face from Sanders.

A rumpled 74-year-old from Vermont, Sanders was unknown to many voters when he entered the race. But he quickly began drawing massive crowds around the country and announcing eye-popping fundraising totals, with the money pouring in almost exclusively from small-dollar donors.

Sanders supporters appeared to be drawn as much to his populist economic message as his raw authenticity, which stood in sharp contrast to Clinton's carefully scripted style.

Revelations that she'd exclusively used a private email account and server at the State Department saddled Clinton with new questions about her trustworthiness even before she officially launched her campaign. Her sudden pivot on issues such as trade seemed to underscore that she was willing to shift positions to match the political moment.

And, perhaps her biggest problem: Some voters simply didn't like her.

In an effort to solve the likeability issue, Clinton's campaign tried to put her in situations where she'd play to her strengths, maximizing one-on-one interactions in smaller settings and long, policy-heavy roundtables. And unlike in 2008, when she all-but-ignored her gender, Clinton owned her historic status, joking about hair dye and her famous pantsuits.

As Clinton closed in on the nomination, her efforts appeared to resonate with her supporters. In California this week, they chanted "deal me in" along with Clinton after she mentioned being accused of "playing the woman card."

Karen Finney, a campaign spokeswoman, said Clinton "had a real vision about how she wanted to do the campaign and what works best for her."

At times, that meant walking away from her husband's legacy as president, including the 1994 crime bill that is blamed for mass incarcerations, particularly among minorities. Clinton went on to draw massive support from black primary voters.

But it wasn't just the former president's policies that were shelved. Bill Clinton found himself benched at the start of the campaign.

Campaign aides worried his presence early on could undermine their efforts to reintroduce his wife to voters. He developed a reputation in the 2008 campaign for being an undisciplined campaigner and quick to anger when he felt she was under attack.

To date, he's spoken at only a handful of big rallies, largely keeping his travel to smaller events in places such as Puerto Rico and South Dakota.

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Clinton's aides say she's eager for a bruising, no-holds-barred battle against Trump and a Republican Party that has targeted her for decades.

It's a fight she's been girding for since her days in Arkansas and the Clintons' early years in Washington. While Clinton may struggle with the softer side of politics, she's at her best when pitted against a partisan opponent, particularly one she deems a policy lightweight.

But at least for a few moments Tuesday, Clinton stopped to relish in her milestone moment as the first woman to ever lead a major U.S. political party. As she took the stage in Brooklyn before a cheering crowd, she stretched her arms wide, grinning broadly as she soaked in the moment.

She spoke movingly of the women who blazed a trail for her, from those who convened the Seneca Falls women's rights convention in the 19th century to her own mother, who died in 2011 at the age of 92.

"She told me to never back down from a bully," Clinton said during an emotional remembrance of her mother.

Then, seamlessly slipping back into the political fight to come, Clinton added: "Which it turns out was pretty good advice."

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Follow Lisa Lerer and Julie Pace on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jpaceDC and http://twitter.com/llerer

Former President Bill Clinton, left, stands on stage with his wife, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, center, and their daughter, Chelsea Clinton, after Hilary Clinton spoke during a presidential primary election night rally, Tuesday, June 7, 2016, in New York. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, left, is greeted by supporters as she arrives to a presidential primary election night rally, Tuesday, June 7, 2016, in New York. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks during a presidential primary election night rally, Tuesday, June 7, 2016, in New York. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)
Police: Person who spent night in pharmacy a runaway teen

STOUGHTON, Mass. (AP)  The person suspected of spending the night inside a Massachusetts pharmacy before making off in the morning with candy bars, energy drinks and razor blades has been identified as a 15-year-old runaway.

Police say the person spotted on surveillance video entered the Stoughton CVS at about 11:30 p.m. Sunday, stayed inside overnight, then left at about 7 a.m. Monday without being noticed by employees.

Stoughton Detective Sgt. Robert Welch tells The Enterprise of Brockton (http://bit.ly/1t8ykeP ) that the person was identified Tuesday as a 15-year-old Boston boy listed as a runaway from a Department of Children and Families group home in Hingham.

The teenager is now back in DCF care and will be summonsed to Dedham Juvenile Court to faces charges of breaking and entering and larceny under $250.

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Russia looks to revive its aircraft industry with new plane

MOSCOW (AP)  Russia presented Wednesday a new airliner that is intended to revive the nation's aircraft-making prowess and reduce its reliance on Western planes.

The MC-21, a twin-engine short- and mid-range passenger jet, was unveiled in the Siberian city of Irkutsk. It has been built by Irkut Corp., part of the state-controlled United Aircraft Corporation.

Unlike the old Soviet designs, the new jet is built with a significant amount of composite materials that help reduce weight and enhance fuel efficiency. It can be powered by Pratt & Whitney engines or new Russian-built engines, which are being finalized.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev walks to speak at the unveiling ceremony of a new passenger jet MC-21-300 at a plane at "Irkut" corporation assembling plant in Irkutsk, Russia, Wednesday, June 8, 2016. Russia unveiled new MC-21-300 airliner ahead of flight tests for the new passenger jet. (Alexander Astafyev/Sputnik, Government Press Service Pool Photo via AP)

The new plane is expected to conduct its maiden flight next year, and deliveries to Russian flag carrier Aeroflot are set to start in 2018. Irkut has so far received orders for 175 planes, including 50 for Aeroflot.

Various models of the MC-21 are designed to carry from 165 to 211 passengers.

Aeroflot and other Russian airlines have increasingly relied on Boeing and Airbus planes, but the government has made the revival of domestic aircraft-making industries a top priority.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev hailed the new plane as the cutting edge in aircraft design, superior to Western planes currently in service.

"The MC-21 is new evidence of Russia's ability to create planes that move our aircraft manufacturing industry forward and allow us to compete with other countries," Medvedev said. "There are very few nations that have aircraft-making industries. They are the top league and we mustn't drop out of it."

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev speaks at the unveiling ceremony of a new passenger jet MC-21-300 at a plane at "Irkut" corporation assembling plant in Irkutsk, Russia, Wednesday, June 8, 2016. Russia unveiled new MC-21-300 airliner ahead of flight tests for the new passenger jet. (Alexander Astafyev/Sputnik, Government Press Service Pool Photo via AP)

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev speaks at the unveiling ceremony of a new passenger jet MC-21-300 at a plane at "Irkut" corporation assembling plant in Irkutsk, Russia, Wednesday, June 8, 2016. Russia unveils new MC-21-300 airliner ahead of flight tests for the new passenger jet. (Alexander Astafyev/Sputnik, Government Press Service Pool Photo via AP)
Edison statue displayed in Ohio birthplace before trip to DC

MILAN, Ohio (AP)  A 900-pound bronze statue of prolific inventor Thomas Edison has arrived in his Ohio birthplace, where it will be displayed this summer before going to its permanent home at the U.S. Capitol.

The Blade in Toledo (http://bit.ly/1svTkfJ ) reports the nearly 7-foot figure of Edison holding a light bulb arrived Tuesday at the public library in Milan (MY'-lan), where Edison spent the first seven years of his life.

In September, it will join the historic figures at Statuary Hall in Washington.

Sculpture Alan Cottrill helps remove his 900-pound statue of Thomas Edison from a flatbed truck, during a celebration Tuesday, June 7, 2016, in Edison's hometown of Milan, Ohio. More than 50 people turned out to watch a short parade of the statue, which wound its way through downtown and stopped off at Edison's childhood home before ended at the Milan-Berlin Public Library in downtown Milan. The statue will be on display inside the library until September, when it will be shipped to Washington D.C. to represent Ohio in the National Statuary Hall. (Katie Rausch/The Blade via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT; MAGS OUT; NO SALES; TV OUT; SENTINEL-TRIBUNE OUT; MONROE EVENING NEWS OUT; TOLEDO FREE PRESS OUT

Each state can display two notable figures at Statuary Hall. Edison will replace a statue of a former Ohio governor who supported southern slave owners.

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Denmark's Supreme Court revokes citizenship in terror case

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP)  Denmark's Supreme Court has upheld a lower court ruling to revoke the Danish citizenship of a Moroccan-born dual national who was convicted of instigating and promoting terrorism.

Said Mansour is the first person to be stripped of his Danish citizenship under a law introduced in 2004.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected his appeal of a lower court decision to revoke his citizenship and expel him after a four-year prison sentence.

Mansour, who is 56 and has lived in Denmark for 32 years, was convicted of instigating and promoting terrorism by posting social media messages in support of al-Qaida and associated groups. Mansour denied the charges, citing the freedom of speech.
HELENA  Montana voters, undeterred by Hillary Clinton becoming the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, threw their support behind Bernie Sanders on Tuesday.

Montana also boosted Donald Trump's lock on the Republican presidential nomination, while Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock and his GOP rival, Bozeman businessman Greg Gianforte, easily defeated token opponents in their primary elections.

Defiant Sanders supporters dismissed an Associated Press count that showed Clinton secured the delegates needed for the nomination Monday. Clinton built on that momentum Tuesday with election victories in other states.

Wait for the official tally at next month's Democratic National Convention, Sanders backers said.

"Maybe there will be some kind of major eruption at the convention," said Bob Filipovich of Helena, who voted for Sanders. "It's not out of the realm of possibility."

While Sanders won the popular vote, he won't take all the state's 21 pledged delegates, who will be proportionally divided between the candidates based on the final results.

Trump, on the other hand, will add 27 Montana delegates to his total.

Kendra Daniel said she was eager to vote for Trump even though he became the presumptive GOP nominee weeks ago. Trump says a lot of things people are thinking, she said.

"I know there's a lot of controversy around him over the election this year, but I'm excited to get out there and vote for him," she said.

Some voters expressed disappointment with the options on both sides of the ballot in the presidential race. Natalie Clark of East Helena said she doesn't like Trump's attitude or how demeaning he is of some people, but she voted for him anyway.

"Everyone else was out of the running, weren't they?" she said.

State Republican leaders, while not as quick to warm up to the bombastic Trump, urged the GOP faithful to back him as a better candidate than Clinton.

Gianforte is the latest high-profile Republican leader to publicly support Trump.

"We have a contrast of extremes," Gianforte said Monday. "Up until this point, it's really energized the electorate, and I think it's going to cause more people to turn out in November."

Gianforte and Bullock easily defeated their opponents in the gubernatorial primary elections. Democrat Bill McChesney and Republican Terry Nelson filed for office just before the deadline to do so, and they had not raised any significant funds or spent much time campaigning.

But their presence allowed Bullock and Gianforte to effectively double their fundraising. Under state law, candidates who have no primary opponents must return the contributions earmarked for that election.

Bullock and Gianforte have been amassing campaign funds in anticipation of a tough general election campaign that will also include Libertarian candidate Ted Dunlap.

Montana's primary also decided or confirmed the party nominees for U.S. House, four statewide offices, three Public Service Commission spots and a slate of legislative seats. Three of the seven state Supreme Court positions are also up for election, though only one is contested.

The real contests were being fought in the state House and Senate, both of which are controlled by Republicans. An ongoing ideological split between moderate and conservative factions of the Republican Party has resulted in challenges against several incumbents that could determine the direction of the Legislature when it convenes in January.

State Republican Party Chairman Jeff Essmann acknowledged the rift but said there is a long period between the primary and general election to unify the party.

Democrats also had several contested legislative primaries. But Montana Democratic Party Chairwoman Nancy Keenan said those races weren't as acrimonious as the Republican elections.
British European lawmaker says goodbye to EU, he hopes

BRUSSELS (AP)  A top British anti-European Union campaigner has made what he hopes will be his last speech to the European Parliament, two weeks before a referendum on whether Britain should leave the bloc.

UK Independence Party leader and EU lawmaker Nigel Farage said Wednesday he hopes "we are going to leave this Union on 23 June."

Farage told EU lawmakers that he hopes the vote "brings an end to this project and in a few years' time we can be sovereign, democratic nation states that work and trade together."
Congo releases American who was opposition security guard

KINSHASA, Congo (AP)  An American security guard for a top Congolese opposition leader has been released after being arrested in April, Congo's prosecutor general said Wednesday.

Darryl Lewis had been arrested during an opposition demonstration in Lubumbashi. He worked for Moise Katumbi, who has been accused of hiring mercenaries. The charges against Katumbi were announced the same day in May that Katumbi said he would run for Congo's November presidential election.

Lewis will return to the United States, said prosecutor general Victor Mumba Mukomo, but "the return to his country does not signify that the case is closed."

Katumbi's hearing began last month but was postponed after police fired tear gas outside the venue, and he fell ill. He was medically evacuated to South Africa and has since sought treatment in London and Germany, his colleague Olivier Kamitatu said.

Katumbi, president of the popular TP Mazembe soccer team, left the ruling party and his post as a governor last year, criticizing efforts by the government to delay elections.

Tensions surround the elections, which the opposition fears will be postponed to keep President Joseph Kabila in power longer.

Kabila took office in 2001 after the assassination of his father and is barred by the constitution from seeking another term. However, a court recently ruled that he could stay in power beyond December if elections were delayed, to ensure the country still has a head of state.

The election commission has said it needs more time for elections.
'I know there are people here that understand and know what happened,' an FBI agent told McClellanville residents as teen's parents wept

Feds revealed the girl is likely dead, and offered a $25K reward for info

Seven years after a teen from upstate New York disappeared while on a spring break trip to Myrtle Beach, the case is now considered a homicide and a $25,000 reward is being offered for information leading to a conviction, the FBI said Wednesday.

Brittanee Drexel of Rochester, New York, was 17 when she was last seen leaving a beachfront hotel in April 2009 in video recorded on a surveillance camera.

The investigation indicates Drexel was likely held against her will and killed in the vicinity of McClellanville, a fishing hamlet about 60 miles southwest of Myrtle Beach, said FBI South Carolina Special Agent in Charge David Thomas.

Drexel's cellphone transmitted its last known signal the day after she disappeared near the South Santee River, about 15 miles outside McClellanville.

Scroll down for video

Brittanee Drexel of Rochester, New York, was 17 when she was last seen leaving a beachfront hotel in April 2009

This undated photo provided by the Myrtle Beach, S.C., Police Department shows Brittanee Drexel, who was 17 years old when she disappeared in 2009

Dawn Drexel, mother of Britanee Drexel, speaks to reporters during a news conference in McClellanville, S.C. on Wednesday

Courtesy of 13WHAM

Thomas said the teen was probably in the area for several days, and he urged anyone with information to come forward.

'After seven long years of waiting and praying for the return of my daughter, we know she isn't coming home alive,' Dawn Drexel, her mother told reporters.

'Brittanee's life was stolen from her in a brutal and senseless fashion. I need your help in bringing the people responsible for her death to justice.'

The investigation for years has been handled as a missing-person case.

Drexel she was last seen leaving a beachfront hotel in April 2009 in video recorded on a surveillance camera

Another angel from a surveillance camera shows the teen leaving the hotel. The investigation for years has been handled as a missing-person case

The investigation indicates Drexel was likely held against her will and killed in the vicinity of McClellanville. She is pictured above

Although authorities have believed for some time that Brittanee was probably dead, they didn't say so earlier 'in the interest of trying to protect the parents and ... maintain hope that we could still bring her back alive'.

Asked if anything has changed in recent weeks that prompted the news conference, Thomas said, 'We think we are at the point where one or two small pieces of information could put us over the edge. We're reaching out to those people that may have information.'

FBI Special Agent in Charge David Thomas speaks to reporters during a news conference in McClellanville on Wednesday. He said that the case of Brittanee Drexel is now being investigated as a homicide and the agency is offering a reward of $25,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible

Chad Drexel, father of Britanee Drexel, pleaded to listeners for help in locating his missing daughter

'I do know that there are people here that understand and know what happened. ... Were focusing on this area because we know she was here, but there could be numerous people involved. Were still investigating all of that,' he continued.

The missing girl's father, Chad Drexel, cried as he offered a final plea, Myrtle Beach Sun News reported.

'We need everyones help to bring something from her home to us,' he said. 'Seven years. Please help.'

Lt. Joey Crosby of the Myrtle Beach Police speaks at a news conference Wednesday as Brittanee Drexel's family and their supporters listen

Map shows McClellanville - Drexel's cellphone transmitted its last known signal the day after she disappeared near the South Santee River, and Myrtle Beach where the teen had gone against her mom's wishes

In this Oct. 7, 2012, file photo, Brittanee Drexel's sister Myrissa Drexel, left, and her mother Dawn Drexel embrace at a candlelight vigil marking Brittanee Drexel's 21st birthday in Myrtle Beach, S.C
Philippine official: Abu Sayyaf frees 4 Malaysian captives

MANILA, Philippines (AP)  Abu Sayyaf militants in the Philippines have freed four Malaysian sailors more than two months after they were abducted off Borneo island, an official said Wednesday.

Maj. Filemon Tan, a Philippine military spokesman in Zamboanga, said the four crew members were freed early Wednesday in Sulu and immediately taken by speedboat to Sandakan in Malaysia's Sabah state on Borneo.

Another Philippine military source said a ransom was believed to have been paid, but Tan said he couldn't confirm whether that was true. Media reports have said the Abu Sayyaf demanded 18 million ringgit ($4.5 million) for the release of the four men, who were kidnapped from their tugboat on April 1.

Sabah police declined to provide details.

In April, Abu Sayyaf militants beheaded a Canadian hostage after they failed to receive a large ransom by a deadline they had set. Three other people who were kidnapped with him last September  another Canadian, a Norwegian and a Filipino  are still being held.

More than a dozen foreign and Filipino hostages remain in the hands of the Abu Sayyaf, including a Dutch bird watcher who was kidnapped more than three years ago.

Both the United States and the Philippines have labeled the Abu Sayyaf a terrorist organization.
Kenya: President says parliament to discuss electoral body

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP)  Kenya's president on Wednesday said parliament will form a bipartisan committee to discuss the country's election commission after opposition protests demanding its disbandment over alleged corruption and bias turned deadly.

The announcement follows almost weekly opposition protests and a police response that has included tear gas and live ammunition. Witnesses said at least five people have died and at least 30 have been wounded, many by bullets.

There are fears that next year's election will see the kind of violence that plagued the 2007 election, in which more than 1,000 people were killed and 600,000 forced to flee their homes.

Opposition supporters stand by a bus that had been set on fire during demonstrations on Monday, and was then dumped by pro-government supporters outside the private offices of opposition leader Raila Odinga on Wednesday, June 8, 2016, as a sign that they held him responsible, in Nairobi, Kenya. Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta said Wednesday that parliament will form a bi-partisan committee to discuss the country's election commission after opposition protests demanding its disbandment over alleged corruption and bias turned deadly. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

The government on Tuesday banned the weekly protests, but the opposition vowed to continue if there are no negotiations.

President Uhuru Kenyatta said he had met with religious leaders from all faiths and the speakers of the senate and parliament to decide on the way forward.

Opposition leader and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga called the president's announcement "a welcome development."

Opposition leaders, Protestant churches and the Central Organization of Trade Unions have called for the disbanding of the electoral commission, calling it biased and corrupt.

Eleven diplomats representing the United States and other western countries have urged Kenya's leaders to hold discussions about the issue.

Some members of the electoral commission have been named in a case in which two executives of British printing firm Smith and Ouzman Ltd. were convicted in the U.K. for making corrupt payments to individuals in various countries, including Kenya, to win business for the company.
The Latest: Deputy kills armed man who fatally shot woman

CULPEPER, Va. (AP)  The Latest on two fatal shootings, one by a deputy sheriff, in Virginia (all times local):

11:15 a.m.

Virginia State Police say a deputy sheriff shot and killed a man who confronted officers with a gun after fatally shooting his estranged wife's neighbor.

Police say in a news release that 49-year-old Willis N. Walker Jr. of Culpeper threatened his estranged wife, who ran to a neighbor's house for refuge Tuesday night. According to police, Walker followed the woman and assaulted her after fatally shooting the 74-year-old neighbor. A 70-year-old woman in the house hid and called 911.

Police say that when Culpeper County deputies arrived, Walker threatened them with a shotgun and was shot after refusing orders to drop the weapon.

Walker's estranged wife was taken to a hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries. The woman who called 911 was not injured.

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9:45 a.m.

Authorities in Virginia say a sheriff's deputy shot and killed a man who confronted officers with a gun after killing another person.

The Culpeper County Sheriff's Office says in a statement on its website that deputies and state troopers responded to a report of breaking and entering Tuesday night in the village of Norman. The sheriff's office says a deputy shot and killed a man who confronted the officers with a gun.

Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller says by telephone that the man who was shot had killed another person. A third person was injured, but the sheriff's office did not specify how or when that person was hurt.
UN cites environmental threats to public health in Europe

GENEVA (AP)  A United Nations report is warning that poor air quality and climate change are the two greatest threats to public health in a vast zone stretching from Europe to central Asia.

Wednesday's publication of the sixth Global Environment Outlook for the pan-European region includes recommendations for policymakers, such as boosting renewable energy production, reducing use of fertilizers and chemical contamination of seas, and improving laws on land and soil protection.

The report was unveiled at an environmental conference in Batumi, Georgia.

It warns that biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation are continuing throughout the region, while private use of cars and trucks now causes more pollution than industry in some EU nations.

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Controversial religious activist enters Israel's parliament

JERUSALEM (AP)  For years, Yehuda Glick has pushed for greater Jewish access to Jerusalem's most sensitive holy site  promoting an ideology that has unnerved Palestinians and made him the target of an assassination attempt. Now, as a new member of Israel's parliament, Glick is vowing to use his office to press his cause, bringing his explosive campaign to the nation's corridors of power.

Glick, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party, is the man most associated with Jewish activism at the hilltop compound revered by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and by Jews as the Temple Mount. While he portrays his call for expanded Jewish prayer as a matter of human rights, critics say his true aim is to usher in a messianic age that would see a Jewish shrine rebuilt where a mosque now stands.

"Twenty years ago, Temple Mount activists were considered totally delusional, extreme, marginal. Today, half of the Knesset's members agree with the basis of what I express," Glick, 51, told The Associated Press in an interview.

In this Thursday, June 2, 2016 photo, Knesset member Yehuda Glick, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press at the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem. For years, Glick has pushed for greater Jewish access to Jerusalems most sensitive holy site -- promoting an ideology that has unnerved Palestinians and made him the target of an assassination attempt. Now, as a new member of Israels parliament, Glick is vowing to use his office to press his cause, bringing his explosive campaign to the nations corridors of power. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)

Jews revere the Temple Mount as the site of the two biblical Temples. The Noble Sanctuary is the third-holiest site in Islam, housing the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the golden-topped Dome of the Rock, from where Muslims believe the Prophet Mohammed ascended to heaven. Palestinians view the site as a potent national symbol.

For decades, Israel has enforced a status quo at the site that allows non-Muslims to visit but not pray there. That directive has the support of most rabbis, who say the site is too holy for Jewish prayer, though a growing number of rabbis have relaxed such bans.

While Jews pray for the Temple to be rebuilt, they worship at the adjacent Western Wall, a retaining wall of the ancient Temple complex.

The site has long been a flashpoint for violence between Israelis and Palestinians, and an increase in visits by Jews and Israeli lawmakers last year was met by Palestinian protests, sparking clashes with police. That deteriorated into what has become a nine month-long spell of violence that has killed 28 Israelis and some 200 Palestinians.

About two dozen advocacy groups focus on boosting Jewish visits and prayer rights. These groups all maintain their goal of a messianic age when a Jewish Temple will be built, by most estimates where the Dome of the Rock stands today.

Glick, who once headed an organization that built a model of the hoped-for Temple, now tempers his message, saying he wants to turn the mosque compound into a shared prayer space and "place of peace." He blames Muslim activists for any tensions at the sacred site.

Glick has experienced success in part because he frames the campaign as a battle for human rights and freedom of worship, a message that resonates with secular Israelis. He claims that in the decade since 2005, Jewish visits to the site more than doubled from 5,000 to 12,000 per year, numbers police could not confirm.

Now that he's in the Knesset, Glick hopes to see that number skyrocket. Key lawmakers, some of whom Glick counts as his closest friends, have been receptive to his message.

In recent years, a parliamentary committee held discussions about allowing Jewish prayer at the site. Last year, when the violence broke out, two senior lawmakers, both devout Jews, told Israeli media they would like to see the Israeli flag flying over the Temple Mount.

"The Israeli Knesset and all of us are proud that, from today, you are our partner here," Cabinet Minister Zeev Elkin told Glick on his first day in the Knesset.

Glick, who lives in a West Bank settlement and is instantly recognizable with his bushy red beard, ran for parliament on Likud's list of candidates in the last elections, just barely missing the cutoff to become a legislator.

But following a whirlwind period that saw the resignation of Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon and his replacement by ultranationalist Avigdor Lieberman, Glick entered the Knesset last month. Upon his resignation, Yaalon lamented that the party and the country were being overtaken by "extremist" forces.

Glick could prove a challenge for Netanyahu, who has tried to contain tensions surrounding the holy site and has repeatedly denied accusations that Israel is trying to change the status quo there.

Netanyahu has banned all legislators from visiting the Temple Mount since the violence erupted last year. Glick, who used to visit the sacred compound daily, said he will not violate the directive but will work to have it rescinded. Glick made one final visit just before being sworn in, drawing a warning from Netanyahu that "this is the last time you do this kind of thing to me."

The higher profile will also bring new scrutiny. Glick's movements and statements are closely watched by the Palestinians. He was shot four times at point-blank range by a Palestinian gunman in 2014 and spent half a year in recovery. His Facebook profile is awash in threats by Muslim users.

The Jordanian Islamic authority that administers the holy site said it expects Israel to restrain Glick. "We are going to defend our sacred mosque with all means," said Azzam al-Khatib, director of the Islamic Waqf in Jerusalem.

Glick's critics see his new role as part of a broader religious radicalization that is likely to exacerbate tensions between Jews and Muslims.

"He will continue to take a lead on the push to change the status quo on the Temple Mount," said Daniel Seidemann, an expert on Jerusalem. "When that comes from within the Knesset and the ruling party, that has a destabilizing effect."

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Associated Press writer Mohammed Daraghmeh contributed reporting from Ramallah, West Bank.

In this Thursday, June 2, 2016 photo, Knesset member Yehuda Glick, poses for a photo during an interview with The Associated Press at the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem. For years, Glick has pushed for greater Jewish access to Jerusalems most sensitive holy site -- promoting an ideology that has unnerved Palestinians and made him the target of an assassination attempt. Now, as a new member of Israels parliament, Glick is vowing to use his office to press his cause, bringing his explosive campaign to the nations corridors of power. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)
US says Chinese jet did unsafe intercept in East China Sea

WASHINGTON (AP)  The U.S. says a Chinese fighter jet intercepted an American reconnaissance plane at an "excessive" rate of speed in international airspace over the East China Sea on Tuesday.

Navy Cmdr. Dave Benham says the initial assessment is that it was improper airmanship, and there were no other unsafe maneuvers.

This is the second such incident in the past month.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei says Beijing strongly objects to U.S. spy missions near its coast. He says they seriously undermine China's maritime and airspace security.
HELENA  VA Montana Health Care System Director John Ginnity has submitted his resignation, a day ahead of a scheduled hearing on whistleblower protection claims filed by a former top administrator at Helena's Fort Harrison Medical Center.

An attorney for Dianne Scotten, the center's ex-associate chief of inpatient care, on Wednesday confirmed that hearing was open to the public and scheduled for 9 a.m. Thursday at Fort Harrison's administrative building.

Ginnity, who has led the state VAs medical system since March 2015, could not be reached for comment on the hearing or his resignation. A Montana VA spokesman did not respond to questions.

The outgoing director cited his family and his health among "several" contributing factors to his departure. He did not elaborate on the rest of those factors in a Wednesday email announcing the move to Fort Harrison medical staffers.

His last day will be July 8.

U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., promised to hold the VA accountable for moving quickly to find and vet Ginnitys replacement.

Tester, a vocal advocate for veterans issues and the top Democrat on the subcommittee that funds the VA, pointed out in a statement the top three leadership positions at VA Montana are now held by someone operating in an acting capacity.

A Tester spokesman on Wednesday blamed the agencys failure to fill some of those openings on a growing pay disparity between the VA and private sector pay scales.

U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., said the Montana VA had failed to meet expectations.

Montana veterans deserve a leader who will ensure their needs are being met and the Montana VA has not lived up to this commitment, Daines said in a statement. The Montana VA needs a strong leader who understands the mission and will not fail Montana veterans.

U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., agreed it was time for a change and called on the VA to seek out women leaders to promote.

Our veterans deserve the absolute best we have to offer, sadly the VA has fallen tragically short at fulfilling their mission of providing care to our warriors, the first-term congressman and U.S. Navy veteran said. The VA must immediately embark on a thorough search for the right person to lead the VA in Montana.

Its time to shake things up at the VA and I think every effort should be made to get the right person in that job.

Statements released Wednesday closely echoed remarks the same lawmakers issued in February 2015, when Ginnity, who was named acting director in June 2014, was removed from that position after exceeding the 120-day cap on interim appointments.

His first day as permanent director came less than a month later, and only weeks after the VA announced it was temporarily closing its acute care mental health unit on the Fort Harrison campus because of chronic workforce shortages.

A series of scandals surrounding lengthy wait times, false record-keeping and disease outbreaks has prompted resignations and firings at VA hospitals nationwide.
12-minute opportunity: Entrepreneurs pitch products to QVC

PHILADELPHIA (AP)  Each entrepreneur got just 12 minutes. In that time, the women pitched tote bags, baby pillows, headphones and more to representatives of QVC  telling their stories, demonstrating their products and hoping they'd win the approval of people who help decide what merchandise the home shopping channel will sell.

Getting a product on QVC is a small business owner's dream. The company says it reaches 360 million households worldwide through broadcast, cable and satellite, and had nearly 1 billion visits to its e-commerce sites last year. Those at the November session in Philadelphia that focused on women entrepreneurs knew it was aimed at giving them feedback, with no guarantee QVC would agree to sell their products.

But since then, several have indeed landed a presence on QVC.com, and the company has told others it's interested in offering their products through programs aimed at helping young companies.

In this Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016, photo, Sherrill Mosee, founder of MinkeeBlue, poses for a photograph with her product, the Madison Tote Bag, in Philadelphia. Getting a product on QVC is a small business owners dream. One of Mosee's totes is selling on QVC.com. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Before an entrepreneur can get on TV, they must have the right products, says Rich Yoegel, QVC's vice president of merchandising.

"We must determine if it will be better than something else we sell, and is it going to resonate with our customers," he says.

Selling products on TV was the springboard for Joy Mangano, who has sold mops, clothes hangers, luggage and other merchandise on QVC and its rival, the Home Shopping Network, since 1990. Mangano was the subject of the 2015 movie "Joy" and portrayed by Jennifer Lawrence, who garnered an Academy Award was nomination. And Lori Greiner, who appears on the reality show "Shark Tank," got her start on QVC in 1998 and sells household products, home decor, storage items and more.

Some small businesses have thrived on home shopping TV even as they compete with national brands and QVC's private-label goods for viewers' money. IT cosmetics, which had $1 million in revenue in 2010, when it first appeared on QVC, has seen its revenue grow to more than $200 million.

A look at how some entrepreneurs have fared since the Philadelphia pitch session:

PRODUCT: MinkeeBlue bags, totes that include a lunch bag and coin purse

ENTREPRENEUR: Sherrill Mosee, of Philadelphia

LIGHTBULB MOMENT: Mosee was tired of carrying a purse, laptop case and tote bag, and also saw mothers carrying multiple bags for toys and diapers plus their purses. In 2014, she designed a bag with different compartments and components.

THE PITCH: Mosee, who was already in contact with QVC about an earlier version of her bags, showed the panel the latest model. They liked it but wondered about the cost; the suggested price was about $200. While Mosee demonstrated the bag as something for working women, the panel asked whether the bags could be marketed to mothers.

"We want to have as broad a mass appeal as possible," Albany Irvin, a QVC program host, told Mosee.

THE UPSHOT: Mosee had already had a good response to the previous version of the bag from panel member Christine Dunn. After the pitch, Dunn contacted Mosee and said QVC wanted to sell the bags in its Sprouts program, designed to help young companies get ready for mass merchandising. But in March, Mosee heard separately that QVC and NBC planned a joint pitching competition. Mosee applied, appeared on the "Today" show in April and was a finalist; now one of her totes is selling on QVC.com.

PRODUCT: Loopit, headphones designed to look like jewelry

ENTREPRENEUR: Vanessa Chan, of Philadelphia

LIGHTBULB MOMENT: Chan found it irritating to untangle headphone wires whenever she used them, so in 2014 she designed phones that combined with a metal chain to look like a necklace.

THE PITCH: Chan demonstrated how tiny magnets turn her headphones into jewelry. The panel was impressed with the idea and that she had answers to technical questions and had a manufacturer lined up.

THE UPSHOT: In early December, QVC told her its buyers would look at Loopit. In January, QVC said it was interested in including Loopit in its Sprouts program. But Chan also heard about the QVC/NBC competition, also appeared on "Today" and Loopit is now on QVC.com.

Chan has had interest in her headphones from other retailers since her TV appearance, and has gotten an order from a store in Virginia. After having been on TV, Chan says, "I'm feeling great. ... I couldn't be happier."

PRODUCT: Proper Posie, pillow and lounger designed to elevate babies' heads and upper bodies, to help children with acid reflux

ENTREPRENEUR: Karissa Tunis, of Lititz, Pennsylvania

LIGHTBULB MOMENT: Tunis' children suffered from acid reflux, which causes stomach acid to be forced up into a baby's esophagus and mouth. They had to be propped up on extra pillows. She designed a pillow that can be adjusted to give a baby's body more elevation and began selling it last year.

THE PITCH: Tunis made her first pitch ever for her product, hoping to at least get some feedback.

"I really didn't know what to expect," she says. "I wasn't expecting a deal."

The panel liked Proper Posie, its fabric and the way it was constructed.

THE UPSHOT: QVC employees contacted Tunis and proposed selling her product on the online site Zulily. She's working toward that goal, but is taking some time to develop colors besides pink and aqua to improve her chances of success.

PRODUCT: Shea Radiance, skin and hair care products made with shea butter from West Africa

ENTREPRENEUR: Funlayo Alabi, of Ellicott City, Maryland.

LIGHTBULB MOMENT: Alabi was given shea butter to soothe eczema as a child in Africa. About 10 years ago, she used it to help her son. She found shea butter products were either cheap and didn't work well, or very expensive. She wanted to create shea butter products that worked well and were a good value.

THE PITCH: Alabi was emotional as she told the panel about the millions of women in Africa who make a living collecting shea nuts and processing them into shea butter. Shea Radiance buys its ingredients from women in Nigeria. The panel listened soberly, tried her moisturizers and complimented Alabi on the feel and scent of the products and her packaging.

THE UPSHOT: QVC representatives told Alabi they were interested in Shea Radiance for the Sprouts program. However, skin and hair care products must undergo laboratory testing before QVC will sell them

"The testing is expensive, not in our budget. We are going to do it when we can afford to do it," Alabi says.

PRODUCT: ShoeCandy, women's shoes and accessories

ENTREPRENEUR: Kara Mac, of Mount Kisco, New York

LIGHTBULB MOMENT: When Mac commuted to work, she carried an extra pair of shoes if she had an evening social event. In 2014, she decided to design basic flats, pumps and boots that could be dressed up with interchangeable bows, heel covers and other bling

THE PITCH: Mac showed the panel how her shoes and accessories are mixed and matched. The panel was enthusiastic; Irvin and Lori Goldstein, who sells fashion merchandise on QVC, said she had a great idea. Mac was surprised at how receptive they were; it was a big change from previous pitches she's made.

"How many times I've presented and they looked at me with a blank stare," she says.

THE UPSHOT: QVC representatives were initially interested in ShoeCandy, but its buyers later said no. Mac is selling her products through her website and at conferences, meetings and events that working women are likely to attend. She's hoping QVC will change its mind and says doing the pitch did help her confidence.

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Follow Joyce Rosenberg at www.twitter.com/JoyceMRosenberg . Her work can be found here: http://bigstory.ap.org/content/joyce-m-rosenberg

This Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016, photo shows the Madison Tote Bag, created by Sherrill Mosee, in Philadelphia. Getting a product on QVC is a small business owners dream. One of Mosee's totes is selling on QVC.com. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
EU businesses anxious to end Russia sanctions

MOSCOW (AP)  In a sign of the growing frustration amid companies across Europe to get back to business as usual, the French Senate overwhelmingly voted Wednesday to urge the government to lift economic sanctions on Russia.

The resolution to "gradually and partially" lift sanctions was approved by 302 votes for and 16 against after hours of debate  and despite the opposition of France's Socialist government.

France's junior minister for European affairs, Harlem Desir, told senators restrictions could only be relaxed following the "full implementation" of the Minsk peace deal for Ukraine.

FOR STORY RUSSIA SANCTIONS - In this photo taken Tuesday, June 7, 2016, Matthias Platzeck, chief executive of the German-Russian Forum, speaks to the Associated Press in Moscow, Russia. The French Senate is expected to vote on Wednesday June 8, 2016, on a non-binding measure, proposed by pro-Russia French lawmakers, urging the government to lift economic sanctions against Russia, signaling a growing anxiety of businessmen across Europe to get back to business as usual with Russia. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)

"When the Minsk agreements are implemented, sanctions will be lifted," he said.

Wednesday's vote is nonbinding, but it's a barometer of European frustration with the sanctions. For years, the European Union was Russia's biggest trading partner, but two years ago the EU imposed sanctions in response to its actions in Ukraine. They range from banning the export of oil equipment to barring Russian banks from accessing long-term lending. In retaliation, Russia moved to ban all vegetable, dairy and meat exports from the EU.

EU imports from Russia dropped by a third last year compared with 2013, the year before the sanctions, while agricultural exports to Russia halved.

French oil, auto and food companies have suffered from the sanctions and Russian embargo and have long quietly lobbied French politicians to lift them. Several pro-Russia lawmakers in the French parliament, mainly in the conservative Republican party, have complained that the sanctions are hurting the French economy and argue that France and Europe should not follow U.S. policy on Russia.

One of the countries where businesses are most worried about the impact of the trade war is Germany, Russia's biggest trading partner before the sanctions.

German businessmen are anxious for sanctions to be lifted and the longer they are in place, the more difficult it will be for the German companies to reclaim their market share, said Matthias Platzeck, chief executive of the German-Russian Forum, a powerful lobby group that works to advance the interests of Germany in Russia and Russia in Germany.

Platzeck, a former Brandenburg governor and longtime critic of the sanctions who was visiting Russia earlier this week meeting with Russian and foreign businesses, says he feels that German politicians seem more inclined to lift the sanctions than a year ago.

"I have a feeling that many people in Europe have now realized that the policy of sanctions, it brings nothing," he said speaking of European politicians.

The sanctions initially didn't meet any major resistance from business in Germany, but dairy producers have been grumbling recently that they have been left with a glut of milk that they've been unable to export to Russia, among multiple other problems, causing prices to fall below costs. The government has pledged at least 100 million euros to help, and is in talks with authorities in Brussels for further solutions.

In recent weeks, both Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier have talked up the possibility of rolling back sanctions against Russia, but making clear that this would only be possible with the implementation of the Minsk peace agreement for eastern Ukraine.

The sanctions against Russia were initially imposed over its annexation of Ukraine's Crimea and were extended after Russia threw its weight behind separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine. Russia's mediation in the Minsk talks was seen as a sign that Moscow was willing to stop its interference and use its influence on the rebels to stop the ongoing war.

Privately some German diplomats acknowledge that the sanctions have not had the desired effect yet and that the EU could not drop them without a major loss of face even if it wanted to.

Dmitri Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, says the sanctions have certainly hurt Russia but they aren't fatal.

The Russian economy contracted by nearly 4 percent last year and unemployment is on the rise, but prudent fiscal policies and a sizeable rainy-day fund have saved Russia from disaster.

"Russia cannot step back because if it does  can you imagine Putin giving up Crimea and surviving? I can't," he said.

In order for the EU to renew its sanctions against Russia at the end of July, each member state has to support them, or the vote will not get through.

German Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer acknowledged there were some countries whose interest in continuing the sanctions was wavering, and said that Germany would work to try to make sure there was unified support when it came to a vote.

Despite the flagging economy and the lack of investment, agriculture in Russia is one of the sectors showing growth, which was in part boosted by the EU import ban. Cheese production last year increased by 18 percent and production of vegetables by 13 percent.

Responding to calls from farmers anxious that they will have a tough time once European produce is back on the market, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev last month asked the government to extend the ban until the end of 2017.

Western businesses are worried that the longer the sanctions stay, the more difficult it will be for Western companies to reclaim their market share.

"Returning (to the market) is getting more difficult by the year," Platzeck of the German-Russian Forum says. "I wouldn't be surprised if we were to find other players in those market niches three or four years from now."

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David Rising and Frank Jordans in Berlin, Niko Price in Moscow, Angela Charlton and Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed to this report.
Prosecutor: Ex-DEA official hid involvement in strip club

NEW YORK (AP)  To prosecutors, the Twins Go-Go Lounge in New Jersey was fertile ground for crime and unfit to be owned by a top Drug Enforcement Administration official and another DEA employee. To defense lawyers, the club was an investment that the DEA should not care about. The criminal case was left in the hands of a jury Wednesday after closing arguments.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Martin Bell appealed to the common sense of a Manhattan federal court jury that will decide whether David Polos and Glen Glover conspired to hide their ownership in a club where bikini-clad dancers offered lap dances.

He said partial ownership of the South Hackensack, New Jersey, club where the scent of marijuana had been noticed and where condom wrappers in the lap-dance area and the parking lot meant prostitution was a possibility was bad particularly for Polos, who as assistant director in charge of the DEA's New York office needed to keep himself free of places where his integrity might be compromised.

Polos, 52, of West Nyack, New York, was privy to the highest level of government secrets as his office pursued highly sensitive matters including the shutdown of Silk Road, an anonymous website that authorities said rang up $8 million in monthly drug sales, Bell noted.

So he said it was no mindless error when Polos and Glover, 46, of Lyndhurst, New Jersey, failed to mention their extensive work at the club when they filled out top-secret security clearance forms in 2011 that asked about outside employment.

"This was not an ordinary work place," Bell said, pausing for effect. "This was a strip club!"

He said it was "not the sort of work where at the end of the day, oops, you just forget."

Polos and Glover pleaded not guilty and contested the government's charges. Polos has retired and Glover has been suspended without pay.

Attorney Marc Mukasey said Polos "might not be a perfect guy" but was a "dedicated, devoted, die hard DEA agent." He said Polos "did not purposefully mislead or conceal" anything.

Attorney Cathy Fleming, representing Glover, said Polos and Glover operated the club lawfully and considered themselves owners rather than employees.

"Did he think he was employed at Twins? The answer is no," she said.

As Bell summarized government evidence shown to jurors over the last week, Bell directed them to study phone and email records that show Polos and Glover were in frequent contact with the club and its employees and that they each worked regular shifts as they dealt with the staff, advertising, club improvements and paying employees.
Spanish lawmakers ban bull-spearing at Tordesillas festival

MADRID (AP)  Spanish lawmakers have voted to ban the spearing to death of bulls at one of the country's goriest spectacles.

Wednesday's decision by lawmakers in the Castile and Leon region confirms an earlier government decree to prohibit bull killing at September's annual Toro de la Vega festival in the town of Tordesillas 200 kilometers (120 miles) northwest of Madrid. The vote does not affect traditional bullfighting in the region.

During the centuries-old festival, men on horseback traditionally have chased a bull and speared it in front of onlookers. The event has attracted increasing protests in recent years by animal rights activists.

FILE - In this Sept. 11, 2012 file photo, men holding spears riding horses next to a bull during the 'Toro de la Vega' bull spearing fiesta in Tordesillas, near Valladolid, Spain. Regional Spanish lawmakers have voted to ban bull killing at town festivals in a measure that will stop the animals from being speared to death at one of the country's goriest spectacles. The centuries-old event about 200 kilometers (120 miles) northwest of Madrid drew increasing protests in recent years, with animal rights activists denouncing it as brutally cruel. (AP Photo/Israel Lopez, File)

Bullfight and bull spectacle supporters who demonstrated Wednesday outside the regional parliament argued that the ban would violate the cultural heritage of Tordesillas and Spain.
Taiwan study group baffled over blocked Geneva visit to UN

GENEVA (AP)  A Taiwanese labor relations professor complained Wednesday to the United Nations after a study group that she has regularly led was blocked from an International Labor Organization conference in Geneva.

Li-chuan Liuhuang of Chung Cheng University wrote an open letter to ILO director-general Guy Ryder noting her group has had access to the U.N.'s Geneva offices since 2014 for the International Labor Conference, but was refused entry twice this week during the two-week session that runs through Friday.

The episode highlights concerns about where and when China might seek to block Taiwanese interests in the international arena since independence-leaning President Tsai Ing-wen took office in Taiwan last month.

FILE - In this Monday, Feb. 1, 2016 file photo, reporters wait in front the UN building after Syria talks were rescheduled at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. A Taiwanese labor relations professor complained Wednesday, June 8, 2016 to the United Nations after a study group that she has regularly led was blocked from an International Labor Organization conference in Geneva. The episode highlights concerns about where and when China might seek to block Taiwanese interests in the international arena since independence-leaning President Tsai Ing-wen took office in Taiwan last month. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP, file)

U.N. officials, however, cited tighter security standards as one reason. A Chinese mission official declined to comment and deferred questions to the International Labor Organization, a U.N. agency focused on global labor standards.

China made no move to block Taiwan's participation in last week's World Health Assembly at the Geneva office of the United Nations. Taiwan is not a U.N. member and has formal diplomatic ties with just 22 nations as a result of China's efforts to isolate the island that it claims as its own territory.

In a phone interview, Liuhuang said she noticed "things distinctly changed" since last year, and said access for her group had become "more strict after our presidential election."

She said in her letter that "the access application went smoothly" in 2014 and 2015. "This year, we came with the same goals ... and the access was unexpectedly denied."

In an e-mail, ILO spokesman Hans von Rohland said: "Any visitor is required to hold a passport of a state or entity recognized by the United Nations under relevant General Assembly resolutions."

When asked by The Associated Press how Liuhuang's group had gained admission in previous years, Rohland suggested that recent terror attacks in Paris and Brussels also were a factor. "Due to the current security situation in Europe, international organizations have tightened their security measures," he said. "On that basis, we had no choice to decide otherwise."

Rheal Leblanc, a U.N. spokesman in Geneva, said the U.N. recognizes passports only from member states such as China, not Taiwan. He said Taiwanese visitors wishing to tour the immense Palais des Nations building could acquire a visitors badge for tourism, but not to attend official meetings.
Morocco: Migrant dies trying to enter Spain via sewer

RABAT, Morocco (AP)  The Moroccan state news agency says a migrant from sub-Saharan Africa has died after trying to cross from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Melilla through the sewage system.

The MAP news agency reported the man was evacuated from the sewer by local authorities along with three other migrants. He was hospitalized in the Moroccan border town of Nador and died Tuesday.

MAP said the other three migrants were treated and released.

The Moroccan government did not comment on the unusual incident.
Germany's Merkel renews call for speedy US-Europe trade deal

BERLIN (AP)  German Chancellor Angela Merkel is renewing her call for quick progress toward a U.S.-Europe trade deal.

Visiting Germany in April, President Barack Obama said "the time is now" for the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. He warned that if negotiations aren't completed this year, the deal could be delayed much longer because of political transitions in the U.S. and Europe.

Merkel said Wednesday her conservative party stands firmly behind the proposed deal. She added: "We are convinced that we must move forward quickly."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, right, listens to Vice Chancellor and Economic Minister Sigmar Gabriel prior to the cabinet meeting of the German government at the chancellery in Berlin, Wednesday, June 8, 2016. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

The proposed trade pact is regarded with suspicion by many in Germany and other EU nations. German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel, who leads the center-left Social Democrats, recently said it was wrong for Merkel to create pressure by saying negotiations could be completed this year.
New fossils push 'hobbit' story back to 700,000 years ago

NEW YORK (AP)  Scientists say new fossil finds on an Indonesian island have revealed ancestors of the "hobbits," our extinct, 3  -foot-tall evolutionary cousins that gained fame more than a decade ago after their remains were found in a cave there.

The fossils are about 700,000 years old, extending the hobbit story far backward from the original remains, which date to just 50,000 years ago.

Scientists say the six isolated teeth and a jaw fragment come either from hobbits or a related species. The fossils were excavated in 2014 about 46 miles from the cave where the first hobbit remains were found.

This 2015 picture provided by Kinez Riza shows a reconstruction model of Homo floresiensis by Atelier Elisabeth Daynes at Sangiran Museum and the Early Man Site. In a paper released Wednesday, June 8, 2016, researchers say newly-discovered teeth and a jaw fragment, which are about 700,000 years old, have revealed ancestors of Homo floresiensis, also known as hobbits, our extinct, 3 1/2-foot-tall evolutionary cousins. The fossils were excavated about 46 miles from the cave where the first hobbit remains were found in Indonesia. (Kinez Riza via AP)

The discovery is described in two papers released Wednesday by the journal Nature.

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Online:

Nature: http://www.nature.com/nature
After 'big bite' from shark, water went red, victim recalls

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP)  Maria Korcsmaros was swimming just off the Southern California coast to get ready for her summer triathlon when something big gripped her side and then let go.

She knew immediately she had been bit. The normally choppy water around her grew still and turned red with blood, Korcsmaros, a 52-year-old fitness instructor, recalled lifeguards telling her after they pulled her from the ocean and whisked her to safety.

"I instantly knew it was some kind of fish, and probably a big fish, like a shark," she told reporters from her bed at Orange County Global Medical Center in Santa Ana on Tuesday, nine days after the attack off the coast in Corona del Mar.

Maria Korcsmaros recovers from a shark attack in her hospital bed at Orange County Global Medical Center in Santa Ana, Calif., on Tuesday, June 7, 2016. The teddy bear next to her is wearing the swim goggles she used when she was bitten by a shark off the Orange County coast last month. (AP Photo/Amy Taxin)

"It felt like a big bite and then it let go. And then I was like, 'OK, I've got to get out of here,'" she said.

Since then, shark sightings have closed beaches near the site of her attack twice in two days. Swimmers and surfers were allowed back in the water Tuesday, officials said.

Shark bites are incredibly rare. But the waters off California have more great white sharks because of protections for the predators, and the human population also has grown, so occasional encounters happen, said Christopher G. Lowe, director of the Shark Lab at California State University, Long Beach.

Lowe swabbed bite marks on Korcsmaros' mangled wet suit Tuesday to try to learn more about the shark. Ralph Collier of the Shark Research Committee said the shark was likely 9 or 10 feet long.

Korcsmaros, a mother of three, said she was lucky lifeguards were in a boat nearby. After the bite, she treaded water, raised her arms and hollered for help.

They put her in the boat and had her apply pressure to her arm to try to stop the bleeding. She said it was hard to breathe, but she was awake all the way to the hospital, where she had surgery.

She suffered injuries to her arm and side, including two fractured ribs.

Korcsmaros, a longtime triathlete who lives in the inland city of Corona, said she has seen dolphins and fish on her swims but never sharks. She didn't perceive the wildlife around her as a threat but "a very interesting thing to be around."

While it will take time to recover, she hopes to get back in the water. She says she will just have to see how she feels upon returning to the ocean.

"I'll probably start with my lake swims, and go from there," Korcsmaros said from her hospital room adorned with bouquets, balloons and a teddy bear sporting her swim goggles. "But I want to train for another race, and I want to do another race."

Christopher G. Lowe, professor and director of the Shark Lab at California State University, Long Beach, takes DNA samples with a swab from the mangled wetsuit surfer Maria Korcsmaros was wearing when she was bitten by a shark, as she recovers at Orange County Global Medical Center in Santa Ana, Calif., Tuesday, June 7, 2016. Scientists wanted to learn more about her experience being bitten by a shark last month off the coast of Southern California. (AP Photo/Amy Taxin)

Christopher G. Lowe, professor, and director of the Shark Lab at California State University, Long Beach, left, and Ralph Collier, of the Shark Research Committee, interview surfer Maria Korcsmaros who was bit by a shark, as she recovers at Orange County Global Medical Center in Santa Ana, Calif., Tuesday, June 7, 2016. Scientists wanted to learn more about her experience being bitten by a shark last month off the coast of Southern California. (AP Photo/Amy Taxin)

Maria Korcsmaros recovers after being bitten by a shark in her hospital bed at Orange County Global Medical Center in Santa Ana, Calif., on Tuesday, June 7, 2016. Korcsmaros was swimming just off the Southern California coast to get ready for her summer triathlon when she was attacked by a shark. (AP Photo/Amy Taxin)
Voters gave the go-ahead for the county to borrow as much as $9.7 million to increase the number of beds available for female inmates at the Yellowstone County Detention Facility.

Fifty-seven percent of voters supported the plan; 22,388 supported the jail initiative while 16,763 were against it.

"I think our (jail) employees have worked hard to maintain a level of safety, Yellowstone County Sheriff Mike Linder said. If this vote continues as it has, itll be a good thing.

We need immediate relief, and the (inmates) who are suffering most are the women.

The Yellowstone County Commission asked voters to authorize borrowing up to $9.7 million to construct a dedicated section for womens detention and the renovation and repair of existing portions of the Yellowstone County Detention Facility.

State law requires that county commissioners get voter approval to borrow more than $2 million for a project.

Linder said a 148-bed addition is planned with the borrowed funds.

"My plan is to house inmates in other units while we do upgrades and deferred maintenance," he said.

County Finance Director Kevan Bryan has said the county has existing revenue streams to cover repaying the loan without a tax increase.

All three county commissioners  Democrat Bill Kennedy and Republicans John Ostlund and Jim Reno  supported the jail plan, which was devised by Bryan and Linder.

The expanded facility will "allow us to separate murderers from people who may not be a danger," Linder said, as well as allow female inmates more opportunity to use the facility's outdoor recreation area.
2 North Africans suspected of arson in German refugee center

BERLIN (AP)  German authorities say two North African men are suspected of starting a fire at their refugee center in Duesseldorf and causing extensive damage as part of a dispute over food.

Police and prosecutors said Wednesday that one of the two 26-year-olds was seen pouring flammable liquid onto a mattress and setting fire to it, while the other told fellow residents: "We had to do it so that things change."

An argument over food is believed to have preceded Tuesday's fire. Muslims who weren't observing dawn-to-dusk fasting during Ramadan had complained about what they said was a small lunch.

Firefighters try to extinguish a fire that has broken at a refugee accommodation on the grounds of the convention center in the western city of Duesseldorf, Tuesday, June 7, 2016. Joerg Schmitter, spokesman of the local firedepartment told The Associated Press that the fire started shortly after noon on Tuesday. He said that all people who had been in the hall appeared to have made it out. (Rolf Vennenbernd/dpa via AP)
The Latest: Young Detroit man released from prison

DETROIT (AP)  The Latest on the release of a young Detroit man from prison after prosecutors agreed that his four murder convictions should be thrown out (all times local):

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3:30 p.m.

FILE - In this June 30, 2010 file photo, Davontae Sanford sits in a Detroit courtroom. On Tuesday, June 7, 2016, a judge ordered the release of Sanford, who is in prison after pleading guilty to killing four people at age 14, a crime for which a professional hit man later took responsibility. The Wayne County prosecutor's office agreed Davontae Sanford's second-degree murder conviction should be vacated after state police took another look at the case. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File)

After eight years, a young Detroit man who entered prison as a 15-year-old is free. It comes a day after a judge threw out his convictions in four execution-style slayings.

Davontae Sanford didn't speak to a crowd of reporters Wednesday as he walked out of prison in western Michigan with a brother and lawyer Valerie Newman. His brother carried his belongings in a plastic sack.

Judge Brian Sullivan dismissed Sanford's four guilty pleas to second-degree murder at the request of prosecutors. A state police investigation found problems with how Detroit police obtained an alleged confession. Separately, a hit man in prison for eight killings says he committed the so-called Runyon Street murders in 2007.

Sanford, who is blind in one eye, was 14 when the killings occurred and 15 when he pleaded guilty.

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1:15 p.m.

The mother of a young man who is being released from prison after eight years says she feels "blessed" after the prosecutor agreed that convictions in four killings should be thrown out.

Davontae Sanford is scheduled to be released from a prison in western Michigan around 3 p.m. Wednesday, a day after a Detroit-area judge dismissed his 2008 second-degree murder convictions.

His mother, Taminko Sanford, says she'll probably have more to say Thursday.

At age 15, Sanford pleaded guilty to killing four people in a Detroit drug den. But a hit man has long said that police and prosecutors had the wrong guy.

Prosecutors said the convictions should be erased after reviewing a state police investigation of how Detroit police handled the case.

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2 a.m.

A judge has ordered the release of a young Detroit man who is in prison after pleading guilty to killing four people at age 14, a crime for which a professional hit man later took responsibility.

The prosecutor's office agreed Davontae Sanford's second-degree murder conviction should be vacated after state police re-examined the case.

Judge Brian Sullivan tells The Associated Press he signed the order Tuesday and Sanford is expected to be released on bond.

Sanford, now 23, is in prison for the 2007 fatal shootings of four people at a Detroit drug den. He pleaded guilty at age 15. He's been trying to undo that plea for years, especially after hit man Vincent Smothers, confessed.

Smothers insists Sanford had no role.

Sanford's family says he confessed to please police.
Policeman, symbol of Brazil's anti-corruption push, arrested

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP)  A high-profile federal police agent seen as a symbol of Brazil's crackdown on corruption has been convicted of facilitating contraband.

Newton Ishii has often been the lead officer arresting high-profile people accused in a probe of kickbacks involving the state oil company Petrobras. Dozens of politicians and businessmen have been ensnared and Ishii was often photographed leading the handcuffed suspects to police vehicles.

Ishii was arrested Tuesday after being convicted to more than four years in prison for facilitating smuggling across the Brazilian-Paraguayan border.
Rain stops Roger Federer's comeback at Mercedes Cup

STUTTGART, Germany (AP)  Roger Federer was a break up in the first set against Taylor Fitz when rain set in for the evening, ending his comeback after seven games at the Mercedes Cup on Wednesday.

The break put top-seeded Federer 4-3 up against the American teenager, whose big serve deserted him in that seventh game. But steady rain then forced organizers to abandon play for the day.

Federer is returning from a back injury that forced him to miss the French Open. The Stuttgart event is a tune-up for Wimbledon, where Federer is a seven-time champion.

Federer's second-round match will resume Thursday, with the winner to play qualifier Florian Mayer, who beat Michael Berrer 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.
EU slams Turkish leader over end to parliamentary immunity

BRUSSELS (AP)  European Union lawmakers have slammed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan over his government's decision to lift parliamentary immunity on opposition legislators.

Liberal German lawmaker Alexander Lambsdorff said Wednesday that the move was "contrary to European democratic values."

Erdogan has approved constitutional amendments paving the way for potential trials of 138 parliamentarians, including several pro-Kurdish lawmakers who face terror-related charges.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks to the media outside a hospital near an explosion site in Istanbul, Tuesday, June 7, 2016. A car bomb attack targeting a bus carrying riot police during rush hour traffic in Istanbul on Tuesday has killed number of people and wounded dozens others, the city's governor said. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

Erdogan says the People's Democratic Party is an arm of the outlawed Kurdish PKK rebel group. EU membership candidate Turkey and its Western allies consider the PKK a terrorist group.

Christian Democrat lawmaker Cristian Dan Preda said the move was questionable "not just because of the collective nature of these decisions but also because of its impact on Turkish citizens."

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses a group of family members of security forces in Ankara, Turkey, Tuesday, June 7, 2016. A car bomb attack targeting a bus carrying riot police during rush hour traffic in Istanbul on Tuesday has killed number of people and wounded dozens others, the city's governor said. (Murat Cetinmuhurdar, Presidential Press Service/Pool via AP )

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks to the media outside a hospital near an explosion site in Istanbul, Tuesday, June 7, 2016. A car bomb attack targeting a bus carrying riot police during rush hour traffic in Istanbul on Tuesday has killed number of people and wounded dozens others, the city's governor said. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)
Woman accused of stabbing boy in bank robbery charged

SAN LEANDRO, Calif. (AP)  A woman accused of stabbing a 12-year-old boy in the back three times as she tried to rob a Northern California bank was charged with attempted murder Wednesday, authorities said.

The boy was in stable condition after surgery, San Leandro police Lt. Robert McManus said.

Iyona Dzshae Hammond, 32, of Oakland went into a Wells Fargo branch in San Leandro, a city on the east side of San Francisco Bay, on Monday morning and walked over to the customer-waiting area.

This June 2016 booking photo provided by the Alameda County Sheriff's Office shows Iyona Dzshae Hammond. Authorities say Hammond, accused of stabbing a 12-year-old boy in the back three times as she tried to rob a Northern California bank on Monday, June 6, is expected to be charged with attempted murder. The boy is in stable condition after surgery. (Alameda County Sheriff's Office via AP)

She demanded money from a customer and the boy and then stabbed him while he was sitting in a lounge chair. McManus said she was arrested with blood on her hands and scissors. No money was taken, and no one else was injured.

McManus said the boy didn't know the woman and didn't do anything to trigger the stabbing.

A working telephone number for Hammond couldn't be found. The Alameda County Public Defender's Office said it was not currently representing her.
Twin sisters' bickering relationship ends in deadly crash

HONOLULU (AP)  Identical twin sisters Alexandria and Anastasia Duval always lived together, played together and worked together, operating what were once two of the hottest yoga studios in the Palm Beach, Florida, area. They called the business Twin Power Yoga.

They would finish each other's sentences, and while they had boyfriends, their sibling relationship seemed to come first.

But after a reality TV project fell through, the two descended into a cross-country spiral of business failures, debts, arguments and drunken run-ins with the law that all came to a tragic end last week, when their SUV plunged off a 200-foot cliff on Maui's rocky shore during what was described as a hair-pulling fight over the steering wheel.

In this Oct. 12, 2011 photo, Anastasia, left, and Alexandria Duval, known as Alison and Ann Dadow before they changed their names, stand in the window of their yoga studio in West Palm Beach, Fla. The identical twins' SUV plunged off a 200-foot cliff on Maui, Hawaii's rocky shore on May 29 during what was described as a hair-pulling fight over the steering wheel. Anastasia was killed and Alexandria was arrested and jailed on second-degree murder charges, accused of deliberately causing her sister's death. (Thomas Cordy/The Palm Beach Post via AP) MAGS OUT; TV OUT; NO SALES; MANDATORY CREDIT

Anastasia, 37, was killed, and Alexandria was arrested and jailed on a second-degree murder charge, accused of deliberately causing her sister's death.

On Wednesday, however, a judge ordered Alexandria's release after determining there was no probable cause for a murder charge.

"We will have to see what other evidence we can find by furthering the investigation," Maui Prosecuting Attorney John Kim said when asked what prosecutors plan to do next.

Despite the judge's ruling, defense attorney Todd Eddins said he was trying to bail her out Wednesday evening. He said she was still jailed because of charges related to a previous arrest involving disorderly conduct.

She's eager to get to upstate New York in time for her sister's funeral, Eddins said.

"She's grateful but she's still traumatized by the whole series of events," he said.

Leslie McMichael, who became the sisters' spiritual adviser after meeting them at a Kabala center in Florida, called the crash a horrible turn of events.

"They were beautiful twins with so much life. They were so funny. They were such a machine together that people would stop and watch them," she said.

Authorities said Alexandria was behind the wheel of a Ford Explorer on May 29 when witnesses saw the sisters arguing on Maui's Hana Highway, a perilously narrow, twisting route along a scenic stretch of coastline. A witness cleaning a family gravesite on the highway shoulder told police that he heard a woman screaming in the vehicle and that the passenger was pulling the driver's hair and the steering wheel.

The SUV accelerated, made a hard left turn and crashed into a rock wall, then went over the cliff, authorities said. Anastasia was pronounced dead at the scene. Alexandria was hospitalized in critical condition but appeared in court Monday with her arm in a sling.

The twins had been fighting and drinking earlier on the day of the crash, Federico Bailey, Anastasia's boyfriend, told the Maui News. He said they had gone camping together for the Memorial Day weekend.

The sisters' relationship involved distrust and constant fighting but also love, he said: "When they drink, their personalities change."

Eddins disputed the allegations against her, saying she "did not try to harm herself or the person she most loved and was closest to in the world." He called it a "heart-shattering" tragedy for the sisters' family.

Before they changed their names from Alison and Ann Dadow, the twins ran two popular Twin Power studios in Palm Beach County, Florida, from 2008 to 2014.

Brett Borders, a former student of theirs, said they held the best yoga classes he has ever taken. "They were very good at picking and training yoga instructors. They were very consistent. The best teachers around. It was just very high quality," he said.

The sisters were living large, with fancy cars, before they suddenly closed the studios and bolted town, leaving behind bewildered customers and friends and many debts. Employees and vendors complained they hadn't been paid, and customers' memberships were rendered worthless.

McMichael said their downfall began after they were approached by reality television producers who wanted to feature them on a show.

They had outgrown one of their studios, in well-to-do Palm Beach Gardens, but instead of annexing a neighboring storefront as planned, they were persuaded by the producers to lease space on the priciest, trendiest street in West Palm Beach, McMichael said.

They were banking on the TV income to make it work, but then the show fell through and they were stuck with a lease they couldn't afford, she said.

"They were all but in. They had set up their lives around" the show, McMichael said. "When it didn't happen, they were in too much debt."

The sisters moved to Utah and opened a yoga studio in the high-end ski town of Park City in 2014. They had several run-ins with the police during the two years they lived in the state, and faced charges including drunken driving, intoxication and leaving the scene of an accident.

In January 2014, they were kicked out of a restaurant when their drinking got out of hand, according to police. Officers said the twins fought with each other and with police who arrived after their car slid into a ditch. Hair-pulling was also involved.

The sisters had a close bond but struggled with alcoholism as their Park City studio floundered, said Utah lawyer Craig Chlarson. They never mentioned their success in Florida, but never seemed like they'd purposely hurt or take advantage of anyone, he added.

The twins legally changed their names in Utah in 2014 to write a book together, according to court documents. Both women filed for bankruptcy around the same time and reported around $150,000 in debts each, including two 2013 Porsche Boxsters.

Looking for a new start, they moved to Maui in December and planned to open yoga studios, according to Alexandria's attorney. But they were soon charged with disorderly conduct and terroristic threatening over a Christmas Eve incident.

Their rowdy behavior doesn't tell the twins' full story, said McMichael, the spiritual adviser.

Referring to them by their previous names, she described Alison (later Alexandria) as outgoing with a "big, dominant personality" and a tendency to drink too much sometimes, and called Ann (Anastasia) "the sweetest, kindest, most level-headed person you would ever meet."

McMichael said the pair, whose mother had died when they were 5, always lived together and put their relationship ahead of their boyfriends.

"They realized that love was not in their future because they were so co-dependent," she said. "I would joke that the only people who would understand them were a pair of male twins who would understand that they needed to be together."

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Spencer reported from West Palm Beach, Florida, and Whitehurst reported from Salt Lake City. AP Researcher Rhonda Shafner contributed to this report.

In this Oct. 12, 2011 photo, Anastasia, left, and Alexandria Duval, known as Alison and Ann Dadow before they changed their names, stand in the window of their yoga studio in West Palm Beach, Fla. The identical twins' SUV plunged off a 200-foot cliff on Maui, Hawaii's rocky shore on May 29 during what was described as a hair-pulling fight over the steering wheel. Anastasia was killed and Alexandria was arrested and jailed on second-degree murder charges, accused of deliberately causing her sister's death. (Thomas Cordy/The Palm Beach Post via AP) MAGS OUT; TV OUT; NO SALES; MANDATORY CREDIT

This June 2016 booking photo released by the Maui County Police Department shows Alexandria Duval. A woman who was driving a vehicle when it plunged off a Hana, Hawaii cliff is charged with second-degree murder in the death of her twin, who was in the passenger's seat. Prosecutors say Alexandria Duval, who is also known as Alison Dadow, intentionally caused the death of her identical twin sister, Anastasia Duval, also known as Ann Dadow. The incident took place on May 29, 2016. (Maui County Police Department via AP)

In this May 30, 2016 photo provided by Tom Johnson, a vehicle sits at the bottom of a cliff off Maui's Hana Highway in Hana, Hawaii. Alexandria Duval, who is also known as Alison Dadow, was driving the vehicle when it plunged off the Maui cliff May 29, and is charged with second-degree murder in the death of her twin, Anastasia Duval, also known as Ann Dadow, who was in the passenger's seat. (Tom Johnson via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT
Police have arrested two parents after their one-year-old baby girl daughter died from ingesting enough heroin to kill an adult.

Casey Cormani, 31, and his wife Cassandra Richards, 32, both of Provo, Utah, were taken into custody this week after a toxicology report concluded their daughter Penny died from a heroin overdose, said police officer Nisha King.

King did not have any further details on how the child came to ingest the highly dangerous and addictive drug.

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Penny Cormani's (pictured) parents were charged with child endangerment and possession of drug paraphernalia after the baby girl died in Provo, Utah last year

They were charged with child endangerment, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison, and possession of drug paraphernalia, according to Provo police.

Since the baby's death on December 2, police had been reviewing the evidence and interviewing witnesses until they felt ready to make the arrests, King added.

Richards and Cormani are being held in the Utah County Jail on $25,000 bond each, according to Utah County Sheriff, Sergeant Spencer Cannon. They have not yet been formally charged.

Richards reported finding her daughter unresponsive after putting her down for a nap, according to police reports.

She called 911 and paramedics took the child to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead. King did not know if the couple had any other children.

Police found 'burnt foil with residue and straws with burnt ends and residue' - often signs that heroin has been smoked - at a house where the girl's parents were staying. They denied it was theirs.

The couple and Penny were staying at an apartment belonging to David and Sina Belgard who both have a long history of criminal activity involving drugs, KUTV reported.

Casey Cormani (left), 31, and his Cassandra Richards (right), 32, wife was arrested and charged with heroin possession in a separate case just two days after his daughter Penny died

The couple and Penny were staying at an apartment (pictured) belonging to David and Sina Belgard who both have a long history of criminal activity involving drugs

Cormani, who has several drug convictions himself, was arrested and charged with heroin possession in a separate case just two days after his daughter died.

The Utah County Attorney's Office did not return a message Wednesday seeking further details.
Drummer faces wrath in ex-Stanford swimmer rape case

NEW YORK (AP)  Social media lynch mob or do-gooders done, well, good?

That's for you to decide as we consider the week just had by 20-year-old drummer Leslie Rasmussen of the indie rock band Good English.

Rasmussen, who lives in suburban Dayton, Ohio, is a friend since childhood of ex-Stanford University swimmer Brock Turner who was convicted last week of felony sexual assault and attempted rape. The six-month jail sentence of the Olympic hopeful, who agreed to leave the prestigious school rather than face possible expulsion, unleashed a fury.

This January 2015 booking photo released by the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office shows Brock Turner. The former Stanford University swimmer was sentenced last week to six months in jail and three years' probation for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman, sparking outrage from critics who say Santa Clara County Judge Aaron Persky was too lenient on a privileged athlete from a top-tier swimming program. (Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office via AP)

Santa Clara County Judge Aaron Persky cited Turner's clean criminal record and the impact the conviction will have on his life. The outrage has lasted for days.

In the aftermath, a "character statement" Rasmussen wrote in support of 20-year-old Turner was leaked. In it, she blamed campus drinking culture and political correctness for Turner's inebriated life choices after two bystanders caught him in the act of assaulting a drunken, unconscious woman near some garbage bins.

Said lynch mobbers or do-gooders then took to Twitter, Facebook and other social streams to demand Rasmussen's band, which includes her two sisters, be dumped from at least four gigs that included some in Brooklyn clubs hosting a small music festival called the Northside Festival.

In the aftermath of the aftermath, the music-focused website BrooklynVegan.com reports Rasmussen released a long statement Tuesday explaining the one submitted into the court record in California two months ago, ahead of Turner's sentencing.

While Rasmussen's home phone rang busy Wednesday, the statement posted by Brooklyn Vegan speaks of her sympathy for the victim in Turner's case.

"Unfortunately, due to the overzealous nature of social media and the lack of confidence and privacy in which my letter to the judge was held, I am now thrust into the public eye to defend my position on this matter in the court of public opinion," the statement said.

It continued: "Now, my choices to defer college to write and play music, to finally introduce 10 years of hard work to a national audience while working consistently and intentionally on my own personal and professional integrity, has led to an uproar of judgment and hatred unleashed on me, my band and my family."

It appears Rasmussen is crying victim. That doesn't matter to David Kyrejko, co-founder of Industry City Distillery, one of the Brooklyn venues that canceled Good English as soon as the world figured out Rasmussen was in the band and playing there.

Industry City and other venues, along with the promoters of Northside Festival and the festival itself, have been dealing with outraged New Yorkers over Rasmussen's remarks. None immediately returned calls and emails seeking additional comment beyond what they have posted online.

Industry City was to host a number of artists, not just Good English, on June 11.

"Then this whole situation started to unfold and we immediately contacted the producers of the event and demanded that they be removed from the lineup," Kyrejko said Wednesday. "We found out through fans. We were made aware of it Tuesday, almost instantaneously. Our response was that Good English was removed from the roster."

Why? And what of Rasmussen's right to free expression?
Kelly Sharp is living what she calls her new normal. It just hasn't been defined yet.

She was diagnosed with a form of leukemia in 2012, and the rounds of chemotherapy took a toll. Sharp, 51, described it as a full-body treatment.

"Their whole goal is to take you a breath from death," she said.

She ultimately underwent a stem cell transplant and started the road to recovery. Doctors said it could be five years before her body would allow serious activity.

Now a little over three years since the transplant, she decided to take on a duathlon and two triathlons. She signed up two weeks ago. A naturally competitive and active person, Sharp decided that she'd try to find out how far her new normal can go.

"I'm getting to the point where I know my limitations," she said. "And I have to be OK with that."

The decade before Sharp learned about her illness was tough. She was devoid of energy, and sometimes it was tough just to get out of bed and to work at the Lincoln Center, where she works for Billings Public Schools.

Doctors did various tests to find out what was going on. Eventually, one doctor ordered a bone marrow biopsy. That's when she learned she had myledisplastic syndrome, a form of leukemia.

"I didn't expect it," Sharp said. "I was standing in a class with my kids and got the phone call."

Much of 2012 was spent getting treatments, including the corrosive chemotherapy. Sharp moved back and forth from Billings and Seattle hospitals. The doctor told her that the only cure was a bone marrow transplant via stem cells.

In December 2012, she went in for the transplant. Her brother, a perfect donor match, provided the cells. Sharp remembers being hooked up to an IV with a substance inside that looked like apple sauce.

A long recovery period followed. To build up her muscles again, she tried to be as active as possible. Sharp said that her husband essentially carried her when she wanted to walk down the hospital hallway.

Sharp is a go-getter. Despite the 120-day hospital stay after the transplant, she said that the idea of a triathlon would have been fine with her at that time. She'll be back at it in no time, she thought.

But it turned out to be a more incremental recovery than she first anticipated. At one point, she said that she told her husband that she couldn't do it anymore  the slow progress and pain hung around for years.

Her husband asked her what she would do about it. When she had no answer, she realized the only thing to do was to press on. Sharp said it was a turning point.

"I thank God every day that I'm still here," she said.

It was only last summer that Sharp started to feel more active, a bit more pain-free. Her stamina was returning.

After working with a trainer for a while, she wanted to see what she could do. That competitive spirit came from years in track and swimming.

"I said, 'I want to do some sort of goal,'" she said.

Her trainer recommended a new event  the Trailhead Trifecta.

Collectively, it's a new series of events organized in part by the 406 Race Series. It features two new races and one annual race, and anyone who finishes all three reaches the trifecta.

It doesnt matter what distance you do," said Suzie Eades, 406 Race Series organizer. "As long as you enter it, you do it solo and you complete it. We just want to recognize those taking on that challenge.

Eades, who has worked with the Big Sky State Games for years, said that the goal was to promote competition events in the Billings area. The first event for the 406 Race Series was the 0.75-mile Santa's Dash for Cash, which took place in November.

The Trailhead Trifecta is new this year, as well as two of the three events.

"The trifecta is a badge of honor," Eades said. "We're coming up with the duathlon."

The first event takes places on Sunday. It's a new duathlon from the 406 group with short, mid and long courses. The short course is a two-mile run and a 10-mile bicycle ride.

The second race of the trifecta takes place at the long-running Big Sky State Games. There are duathlon and triathlon options, but Sharp opted for the triathlon.

That's an 800-meter swim in Lake Elmo, a 16-mile bicycle ride and a three-mile run.

The third race is also new to Billings. The Yellowstone Kelly MountainMan Triathlon takes place in August and is part of a weeklong tribute to the figure. One race includes a 750-meter swim, 12.4-mile bicycle ride and a 5-kilometer run. A separate "Olympic" race will be the same with increased distances.

Sharp, who will enter all three events, said that this wouldn't have been an option in the earlier stages of recovery.

"If you'd have asked me last year, I'd say there's no chance in hell," she said.

But by July 2015, she started feeling better. By May 2016, she was determined to take on the challenge.

It's been a long physical trial up to this point, but Sharp's recovery has been defined by her state of mind. Taking on two triathlons and a duathlon 3.5 years after a marrow transplant? That's proof.

"I figure that if it doesn't make me want to throw up, than it's not a worthy goal," Sharp said.
Kansas governor backs $38M schools fix for special session

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP)  Republican Gov. Sam Brownback on Wednesday embraced a $38 million increase in state aid for poor Kansas school districts as he called a special session aimed at averting a court-mandated shutdown of public schools statewide.

Brownback issued a proclamation summoning the GOP-dominated Legislature back to the Statehouse on June 23. He wants lawmakers to respond to a state Supreme Court ruling last month declaring that the state's system for distributing more than $4 billion a year in aid to its 286 school districts remains unfair to poor ones.

The court warned the state won't have a system that complies with its constitution  and schools "will be unable to open"  after June 30 if lawmakers don't rewrite school finance laws. State officials believe the $38 million increase in aid would be in line with the court's decision, and it would redistribute dollars from wealthier districts.

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback announces that he is calling the legislature into a special session to address school finance issues, Wednesday, June 8, 2016 in Topeka, Kan. Gov. Sam Brownback called a special session that will begin June 23 to respond to a state Supreme Court order last month. The court rejected changes in school finance laws made earlier this year. It warned that schools will not be able to open after June 30 unless legislators make the education funding system fairer to poor districts. (Chris Neal/The Topeka Capital-Journal via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT

Brownback said he's willing to consider a variety of ways to raise the $38 million, including shifting it from other pots of aid to schools or cutting other areas of the state's already-stressed budget. He also said he'd consider changes in education policy that Republicans might want in exchange for voting for the aid increase.

"We must remain focused on what is in the best interest of our students," Brownback said. "My goal for the special session is to keep the schools open."

John Robb, an attorney representing four school districts that have sued the state, said in an email that he was encouraged that Brownback is talking about "a legitimate fix."

But he said he's "disturbed" by talk of discussing additional policy issues. One possibility is submitting a proposed constitutional amendment to voters in November to declare that the courts can't close public schools.

Robb said lawmakers should concentrate on making education funding fairer to poor districts.

"Just fix it and go home," he said.

The state Supreme Court has ruled several times in a lawsuit filed in 2010 by the Dodge City, Hutchinson, Wichita and Kansas City, Kansas, school districts. In February, the justices said poor districts weren't getting their fair share of the state's aid, and lawmakers responded by rewriting school finance laws.

Afterward, most districts didn't see a change in their aid, and the state's overall spending didn't increase. The court rejected some of the changes, saying legislators still weren't complying with their duty under the state constitution to fund schools so that all children receive a suitable education, whether they live in rich areas or poor ones.

The court issued its latest ruling May 27, several weeks after lawmakers finished most of their work for the year. Legislators reconvened June 1 for a ceremony adjourning their annual session, but Republicans were divided over how to respond to the court.

Some GOP lawmakers wanted to defy the court, despite the threat that schools might not reopen. Brownback and Republican legislative leaders continue to strongly criticize the latest decision  even as they move toward complying.

"Despite the court's attempts to stir up fear and close Kansas schools, it's not going to happen," House Speaker Ray Merrick said in a statement.

Legislators faced a budget crunch this year as part of the state's ongoing financial struggles after GOP lawmakers slashed personal income taxes in 2012 and 2013 at Brownback's urging to help stimulate the economy.

They also felt political pressure not to help poor districts by cutting aid to their wealthier cousins, particularly in Johnson County in the Kansas City area. A GOP stronghold, it is the state's most populous county. Merrick is from there.

But State Department of Education data show that the fix embraced by Brownback would reduce aid to 96 local districts. And the three biggest districts in Johnson County would lose nearly $4.8 million a year.

Ensuring that no district lost aid would cost an additional $12 million a year. But Brownback questioned Wednesday whether the Supreme Court would see that as a move away from fairness.

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Follow John Hanna on Twitter at https://twitter.com/apjdhanna .

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback signed a proclamation to bring the legislature back for a special session to address school finance issues, Wednesday, June 8, 2016 in Topeka, Kan. Gov. Sam Brownback called a special session that will begin June 23 to respond to a state Supreme Court order last month. The court rejected changes in school finance laws made earlier this year. It warned that schools will not be able to open after June 30 unless legislators make the education funding system fairer to poor districts. (Chris Neal/The Topeka Capital-Journal via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT

Gov. Sam Brownback answers questions from the media, Wednesday, June 8, 2016 in Topeka, Kan. Gov. Sam Brownback called a special session that will begin June 23 to respond to a state Supreme Court order last month. The court rejected changes in school finance laws made earlier this year. It warned that schools will not be able to open after June 30 unless legislators make the education funding system fairer to poor districts. (Chris Neal/The Topeka Capital-Journal via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback discusses his frustrations of being forced to call a special session to prevent schools from being closed due to the supreme court's ruling, Wednesday, June 8, 2016 in Topeka, Kan. Gov. Sam Brownback called a special session that will begin June 23 to respond to a state Supreme Court order last month. The court rejected changes in school finance laws made earlier this year. It warned that schools will not be able to open after June 30 unless legislators make the education funding system fairer to poor districts. (Chris Neal/The Topeka Capital-Journal via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT
An Arizona jury convicted the founder of the Minuteman border-watch group of molesting a five-year-old girl.

Christopher Allen Simcox, 55, was found guilty on charges that he molested the girl and showed her pornography on Wednesday.

But he escaped a mandatory life sentence after the jury acquitted him on of engaging in sexual conduct with a six-year-old girl.

A molestation conviction carries a sentence of 10 to 24 years in prison.

Christopher Allen Simcox (pictured left, in his mugshot, and right, in 2007) was found guilty on charges that he molested the girl and showed her pornography on Wednesday

Simcox, who was convicted on two molestation counts, is scheduled to be sentenced on July 5.

An attorney who assisted him at trial said Simcox will still likely spend the rest of his life in prison, given Arizona's tough sentencing guidelines.

In closing arguments, a prosecutor scoffed at Simcox's claim that the girls were pressured by adults to bring the allegations.

Simcox, who isn't a lawyer but nonetheless represented himself at trial, told jurors that he didn't abuse the girls.

His case was also noteworthy for Simcox's insistence that he should be allowed to personally question the girls on the witness stand.

Prosecutors argued that letting Simcox question the girls would cause them emotional distress. In the end, Simcox got an attorney to pose the questions.

Kerrie Droban, the lawyer who served as Simcox's adviser, said she was unsure whether Simcox would appeal the verdict.

The jury listened attentively, Droban said. They gave him a fair trial.

Simcox's arrest in 2013 came after his career as an advocate for tougher immigration policies had fizzled.

The Minuteman movement stepped into the spotlight in 2005 when illegal immigration heated up as a national political issue.

Minuteman volunteers fanned out along the nation's southern border to watch for illegal crossings and report them to federal agents.

The movement splintered after Simcox and another co-founder parted ways and headed up separate groups.

Simcox, who once served as publisher of the Tombstone Tumbleweed newspaper, went on to briefly enter Arizona's 2010 U.S. Senate primary against incumbent John McCain but dropped out of the race. His name didn't appear on the ballot.
Stanford sex assault victim becomes a powerful symbol

SAN FRANCISCO (AP)  With her furious and graphic 12-page letter to the court, the young woman at the center of the Stanford University sexual assault case has instantly become a powerful symbol of courage and resilience to other sex-crime victims, all while remaining anonymous.

Her widely shared statement has been held up as a must-read for boys and young men and a source of strength to other women who have fallen prey to sexual assault. BuzzFeed and The Washington Post posted it online, and CNN's Ashleigh Banfield read nearly the entire thing on the air.

In it, the woman recalled the emptiness she experienced after the attack, vented her anger over her assailant's seeming lack of remorse and described in detail her invasive hospital examination, recounting the ruler nurses used to measure the scrapes on her body and how enough pine needles to fill a paper bag came out of her hair.

In this Sept. 16, 2015 photo provided by Tessa Ormenyi, students hold up a sign about rape at White Plaza during New Student Orientation on the Stanford University campus in Stanford, Calif. Stanford University considers itself a national leader on preventing and handling sexual assaults, but students have complained that the school isn't doing enough and have drawn attention to the issue by holding demonstrations. (Tessa Ormenyi via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT

"What brought tears to my eyes was just how courageous she was," said Victoria Kress, who teaches counseling at Youngstown State University in Ohio and works with sex assault victims. "It's not typical that somebody does come forward in this type of a way."

A nationwide furor erupted last week when a judge sentenced the woman's attacker, Brock Turner, a 20-year-old former swimmer at Stanford, to six months in jail, triggering criticism that a star athlete from a privileged background had gotten special treatment. Prosecutors had asked for six years in prison.

The fury grew when it was learned that Turner's father had sent the judge a letter lamenting that his son had already paid a steep price "for 20 minutes of action."

The victim has not come forward publicly outside court, and little is known about her other than her age  23  and that she wasn't a Stanford student. She was attacked as she lay unconscious behind a dumpster in January 2015 after drinking at a fraternity party, authorities said. She said she did not remember the assault.

In her statement, she said she would learn from a news report later how she had been found naked. She did not immediately tell her boyfriend and parents about the attack, pretending the whole thing wasn't real, she said. She didn't talk, eat or sleep.

But she also thanked her parents, sister, boyfriend and friends for their support and a prosecutor who "never doubted" her.

Experts said she effectively highlighted the obstacles to recovery that sex assault victims face and the support they need to succeed.

"We know that there are things like being believed, being supported by those around you that can help in terms of recovery," said Victoria Banyard, a psychology professor at the University of New Hampshire who studies the long-term effects of sexual assault.

In a recent text message, the woman told a prosecutor that she was staying anonymous to protect her identity, but also as a statement.

"I'm coming out to you simply as a woman wanting to be heard," she wrote. "Yes, there's plenty more I'd like to tell you about me. For now, I am every woman."

This January 2015 booking photo released by the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office shows Brock Turner. The former Stanford University swimmer was sentenced last week to six months in jail and three years' probation for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman, sparking outrage from critics who say Santa Clara County Judge Aaron Persky was too lenient on a privileged athlete from a top-tier swimming program. (Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office via AP)
The Latest: Speaker has testy exchange with prosecutor

OPELIKA, Ala. (AP)  The Latest on the public corruption trial of House Speaker Mike Hubbard (all times local):

4:50 p.m.

Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard squared off with a state prosecutor over consulting contracts and other money the Republican's companies received.

Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard testifies during his trial, Tuesday, June 7, 2016, in Opelika, Ala. (Todd J. Van Emst/Opelika-Auburn News via AP, Pool)

Hubbard and prosecutor Matt Hart exchanged testy remarks Wednesday during the first day of a contentious cross-examination at Hubbard's ethics trial.

Hart questioned Hubbard about $2.3 million his companies received and emails he sent former Gov. Bob Riley, now a lobbyist, seeking help finding a job.

Hart referred to Riley as a lobbyist. Hubbard in his responses referenced Riley as "my friend."

Hubbard faces 23 felony ethics charges accusing him of using his political positions to obtain $2.3 million in work and investments for his companies. His defense has argued the transactions fall within exemptions for longstanding friendships and normal business dealings.

He returns to the witness stand Thursday.

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4:00 p.m.

Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard returned to the witness stand in his public corruption trial, denying accusations that he used his office to make money and help his business clients.

Hubbard on Wednesday said he never knowingly violated the ethics law. Hubbard at several points contradicted testimony from prior witnesses.

Hubbard said he had not seen language in a 2013 budget that could have benefited one of his clients until shortly before the House vote. He also denied asking a lobbyist for a $150,000 investment in his printing company.

The Republican said calls to a patent office he made on behalf of another client, the owner of a drinking cup company, was because he was a constituent and employer in his district. The company was also paying Hubbard $10,000 a month. Hubbard said the company hired him because of his connections to college sports.

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3:35 a.m.

Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard is testifying in his own defense at his ethics trial.

Hubbard will return to the witness stand Wednesday afternoon as he offers jurors his explanation of contracts his companies received and emails he sent seeking work.

Hubbard faces 23 felony ethics charges accusing him of using his political positions to obtain $2.3 million in work and investments for his companies. The Republican speaker testified Tuesday that he took precautions to obey the law and sought input from the director of the state ethics commission before accepting contracts.

The speaker said he sought advice from friends after being laid off and he vented his financial stress in emails to former Gov. Bob Riley.

Prosecutors will get a chance to question Hubbard later.
Federal court allows America's Cup sailor's suit to proceed

SAN FRANCISCO (AP)  A federal court has denied a request by an international America's Cup jury to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a sailor punished before the 2013 regatta.

Matt Mitchell, formerly with Oracle Team USA, sued the International Sailing Federation  now called World Sailing  and its five-member international jury in September, asking that his penalty from the 2013 America's Cup be vacated.

Mitchell, a grinder from New Zealand, was suspended for the first four races of the regatta for what the jury said was his role in Oracle Team USA's illegal modification of boats in warm-up regattas. The suspension effectively ended Mitchell's America's Cup career.
House approves bill to delay EPA rule on ozone pollution

WASHINGTON (AP)  Ignoring a White House veto threat, the Republican-controlled House on Wednesday approved a bill delaying an Obama administration rule setting stricter limits on air pollution linked to asthma and respiratory illness.

The bill, approved 234-177, would delay implementation of a new federal ozone standard by at least eight years. In the Senate, approval of the bill as a stand-alone measure is considered unlikely. Proponents said they may try to insert the ozone proposal into a broader energy bill stalled in the Senate.

The White House says the measure would block efforts to reduce smog, leading to more asthma attacks and premature deaths. The Environmental Protection Agency plans to implement the ozone rule over a 20-year period that gives the most-polluted states until 2037 to fully comply.

But Republicans said a series of interim deadlines set to begin this fall are difficult for states to meet. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Pete Olson of Texas, delays state action until 2024.

"States have worked hard over the last few decades to reduce ozone levels and improve air quality," Olson said. "My bill provides needed flexibility so that states and localities can adequately achieve new, lower standards with time for compliance."

The White House said in its veto threat that the bill would "undermine the vitally important environmental and health protections" of the Clean Air Act and significantly delay health benefits worth billions of dollars for millions of Americans, including vulnerable children, older adults and people with asthma.

The bill "would result in people living in areas with unhealthy ozone levels for at least an additional 10 years," the White House said.

The EPA said the new ozone standard of 70 parts per billion will reduce exposure to dangerous ozone pollution and prevent thousands of asthma attacks and emergency room visits and avert hundreds of premature deaths each year.

Business groups said a new ozone standard is unnecessary and could jeopardize jobs.

Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., said the House bill would "gut" the Clean Air Act and "allow the polluters to override the scientists."

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Governor's artist-wife's humorous work on Statehouse display

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP)  The artist-wife of Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin says a piece she did that satirizes her deer-hunting husband as a peacock standing over a disemboweled deer was a way to inject a sense of humor into their lives.

Katie Hunt made the comments Wednesday while giving a tour of her artwork on display in Shumlin's Statehouse office.

Another papier-mache piece of hers depicts her as a cow in high heels overseeing three members of the media, also depicted as cows. The "journalists" are attentively plying the tools of their trade: a camera, a laptop and a newspaper.

Artist Katie Hunt, the wife of Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin, stands by an art display she created in the governor's ceremonial office in Montpelier, Vt., Wednesday June 8, 2016. Hunt, who has been married to the Democratic governor since December, says the art is meant to be a satirical look at their lives. Hunt did the sculptures as part of her senior thesis at Mount Holyoke College. Shumlin says he's proud of his wife's work. (AP Photo/Wilson Ring)

"With lives like ours you kind of have to have a good sense of humor," said the normally shy Hunt who tries to stay out of the limelight that shines on her husband. "It would be pretty unhealthy for us not to be making fun of our lives here."

Hunt, who married the Democratic governor in December, did the sculptures as part of her senior thesis at Mount Holyoke College where it was displayed for several weeks before it was moved to the Vermont Statehouse on Monday.

"It's also to let people look through a small window into my life," she said. "I'm not into formal introductions so I thought this would be kind of a fun way of showing who I am."

Statehouse Curator David Schutz said Wednesday the response to the art has been "all over the place," which is common for modern art. He said some have questioned whether such a display is appropriate in the Statehouse, but he's comfortable with it.

"It's his office. It's a little different from other rooms in the Statehouse where I am not sure we would do this," said Schutz.

Shumlin said he asked Schutz for permission to display Hunt's art in his ceremonial office. And the governor said Wednesday he's proud of his wife's work, though "she's always pushing me to hide it in the basement so no one will see it."

The sculpture representing Hunt includes a bright pink udder and high heels with the arms at its side giving a reproving look at the journalists.

"If you look at it carefully, it's pretty offensive and pretty ugly, just the same as the seated cows so I think they are equal in that respect," Hunt said. "I am making fun of myself and also making fun of them."

She said the figures representing journalists are not meant to represent individual members of the Vermont press corps.

The sculpture of her husband as a peacock was inspired during a deer season before they were married when the governor shot a big buck on opening day. Shumlin said she felt that he was strutting around like a peacock after his success.

The artwork is separated from the public space by velvet ropes, and is getting attention.

Carla Beecher, of Essex Junction, heard a radio report about the display and went to the Statehouse to see it. She said she wasn't sure if it was appropriate for Hunt to exhibit her work there while Shumlin's in office. But, Beecher said, "I like the artwork."

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This story has been revised to correct the wording from "wife" to "life" in the quote: "It's also to let people look through a small window into my life," she said.

A group of 4th graders from Northfield, Vt., look at an art display by Katie Hunt, the wife of Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin, in the governor's ceremonial office in Montpelier, Vt., Wednesday June 8, 2016. Hunt, who has been married to the Democratic governor since December, says the art is meant to be a satirical look at their lives. Hunt did the sculptures as part of her senior thesis at Mount Holyoke College. Shumlin says he's proud of his wife's work. (AP Photo/Wilson Ring)
Awkward: Illinois governor sued by wife's nonprofit

CHICAGO (AP)  A lifelong Democrat, Bruce Rauner's wife Diana campaigned enthusiastically for the Republican multimillionaire businessman during his 2014 bid for Illinois governor.

Now the child-advocacy group she leads is among 82 social service providers suing her husband's administration for payment of over $130 million locked up in Illinois' unprecedented budget fight with Democratic legislative leaders.

The awkward situation has raised eyebrows and drawn some jabs about her twin roles as first lady to Illinois' first Republican governor in over a decade and as a longtime social services advocate in Democratic-leaning Illinois.

In this Jan. 27, 2016 photo, Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner's wife Diana looks on as her husband delivers his State of the State address to a joint session of the General Assembly in the House chambers at the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield, Ill. Diana Rauner's child-advocacy agency is now among 80 nonprofits suing her husband for the immediate release of millions in funds tied up in his year-long budget deadlock with Democratic legislative leaders. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman)

The Pay Now Illinois coalition says its lawsuit is about honoring legally binding contracts. Chairwoman Andrea Durbin said Diana Rauner's involvement  as president of the Chicago-based Ounce of Prevention Fund  increases the awareness of their plight as Illinois has operated for nearly a year without a budget and there's little sign of change. Attorneys this week set a July hearing for the lawsuit, which Diana Rauner's group joined weeks after it was first filed.

"Certainly we recognize that she's in an extraordinary position," Durbin said. "We were serious in this effort before the Ounce joined us and we continue to be serious about it. It wasn't a stunt."

The move prompted criticism from Democratic Mayor Rahm Emanuel. He and Gov. Rauner, onetime vacation pals, have been locked in an escalating war of words over state help for Chicago and its schools.

"Is it any accident that his wife's own organization sued him?" Emanuel told Chicago's WLS-AM after Rauner vetoed a pension relief measure last month. "Part of being a leader is people being able to work with you and trust you."

Emanuel later walked back his comments, but didn't apologize outright.

Diana Rauner declined interviews through her chief of staff in the Rauner administration. The Ounce  which offers early child development programs  released a statement on her behalf, which didn't directly address the lawsuit or state budget.

"In my work life, not much has changed since my husband was elected governor. I still work very much full time in my role at the Ounce, and our pace hasn't slowed a bit!" it read. "Outside of Illinois, my other role as first lady is not as well known; and my colleagues in the field here in Illinois have worked with me long enough that I think they see me first and foremost as a partner and a leader in our field."

The organization hasn't shied away from budget advocacy. In a June statement the group accused elected leaders of lacking "political courage." Joining the lawsuit was a logical next step.

"We made a business decision, it was under Diana Rauner's leadership," said Chief Operating Officer Sarah Bradley, adding the group serves families "regardless of what the governor's positions may or may not be."

Gov. Rauner has noted the situation, saying his wife is angry about the impasse and she lets him know. But he's sure to add she's also mad at Democrats, who control the House and Senate. When the lawsuit was first filed, Rauner said he shared the frustrations. A Wednesday statement from his office said the frustration was driving "worthwhile organizations to seek solutions" and budget measures pushed by him would help.

Providers in the lawsuit, which names Rauner and state agencies, claim the governor created an "unconstitutional" situation by vetoing appropriations for services while enforcing contracts. While the impasse threatens to stretch into a second year, most state spending continues because of court orders and statutes. Still, groups contracted to provide social services await payment. Some have closed their doors.

The Ounce, founded in 1982, has cut back. But because of its public-private model, less than one-third of its approximately $60 million budget comes from Illinois. Roughly $7 million is tied up in the impasse. The organization helps 600 fewer families  from about 2,000 total  for home visiting services for new and expectant mothers, including low-income teenagers.

Diana Rauner, a Yale graduate with a doctoral degree in developmental psychology, was a memorable part of the gubernatorial campaign ousting Democrat Pat Quinn. That included an ad featuring playful spousal banter on the differences between her and her husband where she said she'd vote for him anyway because he'd "take on both parties to fix Illinois."

Her presence offered Democrats cover in voting for Rauner, who's pushed for union weakening reforms since taking office. The couple met while she worked for his investment firm.

Diana Rauner called becoming Ounce president in 2011 a "dream job."

"To the extent that I can use my role as first lady to better our state," she said, "it's in raising awareness of the importance of supports for vulnerable children and families."

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Follow Sophia Tareen at http://twitter.com/sophiatareen.

In this Jan. 12, 2015 photo, Bruce Rauner takes the oath of office for Illinois governor as his wife, Diana, holds the Bible in Springfield, Ill. Diana Rauner's child-advocacy agency is now among 80 nonprofits suing her husband for the immediate release of millions in funds tied up in his year-long budget deadlock with Democratic legislative leaders. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman)
Former Swiss Colony warehouse manager admits to fraud scheme

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP)  A former warehouse manager for The Swiss Colony catalog company pleaded guilty Wednesday to committing an elaborate fraud scheme in which he stole thousands of sales items worth $423,000 and privately sold them online.

Chad Saeugling, of Asbury, faces the possibility of a lengthy prison term after entering guilty pleas to mail fraud and two counts of making a false statement to a financial institution.

During a hearing at the federal courthouse in Cedar Rapids, Sauegling acknowledged that he stole a wide range of merchandise from family-owned Colony Brands and sold it online to unwitting customers through eBay from at least 2009 through August 2014. In all, he stole at least 2,632 items worth $423,000, the amount the Monroe, Wisconsin, company has recovered under an insurance policy for employee fraud. That was more than one theft every day for years.

Sauegling, 39, agreed to pay restitution to the insurer, Berkley FinSecure, and to forfeit some property traced to the scheme. A federal prosecutor said the government hasn't decided whether to seize a home that he purchased in the fraud.

Sauegling was released from custody pending a sentencing hearing, which is yet to be scheduled. The maximum punishment would be 80 years in prison and a $2.2 million fine. Sentencing guidelines will likely call for a prison term of five years or longer, according to a 24-page plea agreement.

Colony Brands, Inc. is one of the nation's largest direct marketers, selling everything from home furnishings to apparel and cheese through The Swiss Colony catalog.

Sauegling was an inventory manager at its warehouse in Peosta, Iowa, which ships things like vacuum cleaners and furniture. Prosecutors say he advertised company merchandise for sale through a personal eBay account without Swiss Colony's knowledge, offering items at lower prices than the catalog and other sellers at the online auction site.

Once a customer bought an item, he would print off shipping labels that were similar to Swiss Colony's and secretly put the packages in FedEx and UPS trucks that were stationed at the warehouse's dock for legitimately bought items. He blacked out return addresses and other information that might be traced back to him.

One example of an item he sold was a Dyson vacuum cleaner to a customer in Los Angeles for $280. "Very reasonable thank you very much," the customer wrote on eBay.

Saeugling then would enter fictitious adjustment codes for the stolen items in Swiss Colony's computerized inventory, claiming they were taken for promotional or other legitimate purposes.

The company fired Saeugling in August 2014 after uncovering his theft, but his fraud wasn't over yet, court documents show.

Confronted by police about his scheme, Saeugling "was not truthful in the interview" and took steps to conceal the scheme and its proceeds, the plea agreement says. He hid his eBay account from investigators, emptied his PayPal account of all $17,000, traded in a $41,000 truck and cashed out his Swiss Colony retirement savings plan.
A woman's 32-year-old son is charged with locking her and her husband in a bedroom while he beat her for several hours.

Matthew Joseph Saddler was charged Tuesday with two felony counts of partner or family member assault, two counts of misdemeanor unlawful restraint and a misdemeanor charge of criminal destruction of, or tampering with, a communication device.

Yellowstone County Justice of the Peace David Carter held Saddler in lieu of a $50,000 bond and ordered him not to return to his mother's residence if he is is released.

According to court documents, Saddler's mother reported the attack to police on Monday. She said her son had attacked her that morning at about 5 a.m. when he dragged her into a bedroom of her home. After Saddler put his mother into the bedroom, he put her husband in a headlock and pulled him into the room as well.

Saddler's mother told police he kicked and hit her for "several hours" while her husband watched from a corner, according to court documents.

Saddler would not let his mother's husband help her. At one point, Saddler took his mother's phone and threw it against a wall, breaking it.

Both adults showed police injuries from the attack, according to court documents.

Saddler was arrested at the home where the attack occurred and told police he knew why they were there. Saddler's mother told police her son wasn't taking his medication when the attack occurred.

Saddler has two previous misdemeanor convictions for partner family member assault and one felony conviction.
Columbus Short gets month in jail for violating probation

LOS ANGELES (AP)  Former "Scandal" actor Columbus Short has been sentenced to a month in jail for violating probation in an assault case.

Short was also ordered Wednesday to spend six months in a live-in drug treatment program.

Short appeared in a Los Angeles courtroom to face allegations he violated his probation after he tested positive in April for cocaine and marijuana use. He got six days' credit for time he already has spent in jail.

FILE - In this Feb. 22, 2014, file photo, Columbus Short arrives at the 45th NAACP Image Awards at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in Pasadena, Calif. Short has been sentenced to a month in jail for violating probation in an assault case. (Photo by Arnold Turner/Invision/AP, File)

His attorney, Ludlow B. Creary, says he expects his client will be released soon. He says Short has no comment on the court's findings.

Short was given community service and probation after pleading no contest to felony assault for knocking a man unconscious at a family gathering in 2014.
Clinton to AP: 'It's time that we unite the party'

WASHINGTON (AP)  A day after declaring victory in her race against Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton spoke Wednesday to the Associated Press. Quotes from the interview:

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On Donald Trump:

"(Trump) has a very unfortunate and divisive tendency to attack all kinds of Americans. I just don't think anybody should stand for that. It's a classic demagogic attack. You go after your political opponents, maybe even their families. Then you go after anyone who's against you, even the press and, you know, you begin to just attack everyone to build yourself up. And it's classic behavior by a demagogue. We've seen it many, many places and times in the world and that's why I think it's so dangerous."

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On the Democratic primaries:

"I think the people have spoken and I think it's time that we unite the party and plan for a terrific convention in Philadelphia and then come out and really make a campaign about the issues and contrast with Donald Trump."

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On the Zika virus:

"It's deeply distressing but it's not just about Brazil. It's also about Puerto Rico, Florida and across our country where people are being diagnosed with (Zika.) This is not just about Rio and the Olympics this is about a potential outbreak and epidemic of the effects of Zika and the various ways it can be transmitted."

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More on Trump:

"I didn't know him that well but I never really ever had any information about him engaging in bigotry and prejudice until he took up the cause of the birthers against President Obama, which is really so bizarre. It's one of those conspiracy theories that is so farfetched and he was one of the major cheerleaders for it."

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"I really don't pay a lot of attention to his efforts to attack me personally. I don't intend to respond to them because this is his, this is his modus operandi. I don't think it's what most voters care about. I don't think it's what this general election will be about."

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3 charged with injuring New York prison guard with bomb

FLOYD, N.Y. (AP)  Three Ohio residents have been charged with assaulting a central New York prison guard who was burned by an exploding package left at his mailbox, police said Wednesday.

Oneida County Sheriff Robert Maciol said the May 29 attack was intended to stop the 53-year-old victim from reporting an elder care scam against his mother in Ohio. Maciol said it wasn't related to Alan Dobransky's work as a state corrections officer at the Marcy Correctional Facility.

The sheriff said Dobransky suspected one of the accused, 58-year-old Cindy Shields of Conneaut, Ohio, stole money from his mother when she was the elderly woman's caretaker for four years.

Also charged were 58-year-old Keith Seppi and his wife, 63-year-old Donna Seppi, also Conneaut residents. Police said Keith Seppi is Shields' brother-in-law. The three were arrested Tuesday at their homes in Ohio and charged with first-degree assault.

All three are in Oneida County Sheriff's Office custody. It couldn't be determined if they have lawyers to comment for them.
Honolulu police arrest fellow officer in sex assault case

HONOLULU (AP)  An off-duty Honolulu Police Department officer was arrested on suspicion of first-degree sexual assault, authorities said Wednesday, marking the latest trouble for the embattled agency.

Police said they found Officer Jessie Laconsay on Oahu's North Shore and he was taken to a hospital for non-life threatening injuries after his arrest.

"Sadly, it's a continuation of incidents and problems and crimes involving our county law enforcement officers, and it seems like the Honolulu Police Department needs a change in leadership," said state Sen. Will Espero, a Democrat. "It's quite appalling."

This undated photo provided by the Honolulu Police Department shows Officer Jessie Laconsay. The Honolulu Police Department is asking for help locating Laconsay, who is a suspect in a first-degree sexual assault investigation. Police said in a news release Wednesday, June 8, 2016, that off-duty Officer Laconsay may be driving a white Dodge Charger. (Honolulu Police Department via AP)

Phone calls seeking comment from the department and the union that represents its officers were not immediately returned.

In recent months, a grand jury began looking into allegations of civil rights abuses and corruption within the agency.

The department also came under scrutiny this year when Honolulu Police Chief Louis Kealoha sought to promote a major who had been arrested in 1994 for domestic violence. The major later declined the promotion.
Vodafone the UK's most valuable brand as Google takes global top spot - report

Vodafone has been named the UK's most valuable brand while Google has regained its leading global position, according to an annual ranking.

HSBC and BT took second and third place respectively in the BrandZ UK ranking, while tea brand Lipton entered the top 10 for the first time and Dove made a return to take ninth position.

Vodafone held on to the top spot with a strong communications campaign, despite its brand value dropping 4% to $37 billion, while BT benefited from being a "disrupter" and reaping the benefits of entering the pay TV and mobile markets to increase its value by 3% to $18.5 billion, the annual report by WPP and Millward Brown said.

Vodafone held on to the top spot with a strong communications campaign, despite its brand value dropping 4% to $37 billion

Personal care brand Dove entered the UK top 10 for the first time since 2013 with a value of $5 billion, boosted by its commitment to campaigns such as its 'Choose Beautiful' initiative which called on women to renounce narrow standards of beauty.

Tea brand Lipton is another newcomer to the top 10 with a value of $8.5 billion after it targeted health-conscious consumers and found success in India and the US.

Supermarket chain Tesco retained its sixth placing despite dropping 5% in value to $9 billion, although this compared favourably to last year's 37% decline.

The report said Tesco's placing indicated that its turnaround plan was taking effect, and the grocer was adapting to technology-driven challenges faced by the retail sector.

However, "another challenging year" for the UK saw the total value of its top 10 brands drop 8% from last year to $137 billion, compared to an increase of 5% in mainland Europe.

The drop indicated that the influence of the economic slowdown in China, global financial issues and uncertainty "cannot be under-estimated", the report said.

The report added that continual innovation had pushed Google back to the top spot, from second place last year, with a brand value of $229 billion - up 32% on 2015.

Apple dropped back to second place with an 8% decrease in value to $228 billion.

Peter Walshe, global BrandZ director at Millward Brown, said: "It's clear from the BrandZ rankings that innovation, whether that is delivering something new or disrupting an existing market, plays a critical role in a brand's success, both in the UK and around the world.

"More than that, it is also about consumer perception, so it is essential that they shout about their achievements and then deliver on their promises.

"This is ably demonstrated by the notable success stories of brands such as Vodafone, BT, Dove and Lipton, which are thriving despite the impact that the current global outlook is having on the UK."

The study uses the views of three million consumers globally, alongside financial data, to calculate a company's brand value.

The top 10 most valuable UK brands, according to the BrandZ ranking, are:

1. Vodafone

2. HSBC

3. BT

4. Shell

5. BP

6. Tesco

7. Lipton

8. Barclays

9. Dove
Commons vote due on EU referendum voting registration extension

MPs are to vote on Thursday on a 48-hour extension to the deadline to register for the EU referendum, which is expected to allow tens of thousands more people to vote in the June 23 poll.

The emergency legislation came after the Government registration website crashed on Tuesday evening as almost a quarter of a million people tried to apply in the final hours before the midnight deadline.

Prime Minister David Cameron urged would-be voters to keep on submitting their details, saying he was working "urgently" to ensure they would be able to take part in the referendum.

Screengrab taken from the Government website to register to vote in the EU referendum which crashed shortly before the deadline

But senior pro-Brexit Tory Bernard Jenkin, the chair of the Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, warned that the extension would be vulnerable to judicial review.

He told MPs that any attempt to rewrite the rules in a substantial way "would be complete madness and make this country look like an absolute shambles".

Campaigners for EU withdrawal were branded "a bunch of conspiracy theorists" by a Cabinet minister after the chief executive of Vote Leave accused the Government of using the deadline extension to try to "skew" the result of the EU referendum by extending the deadline.

In a message to supporters, Matthew Elliott said "we know the Government and their allies are trying to register as many likely Remain voters as possible", adding: "Don't let the Government skew the result of the referendum - make sure you and your friends are all registered today."

There was speculation that many of those blocked from joining the electoral roll by Tuesday's website meltdown may be younger voters, who polls suggest predominantly back EU membership.

But Downing Street said there was no way the Government could know the voting intentions of those applying to register.

Responding to Mr Elliott's comments, Education Secretary Nicky Morgan said: "Anyone who cares about British democracy, whichever side of the argument they are on, should support any attempts to get new voters registered to have their say in this referendum.

"Vote Leave's anger is a reflection of their paranoid, anti-democratic attitudes. They want to con the British people into voting to leave Europe on a derisory turnout. However much they talk about sovereignty, it is clear they have no respect for the democratic rights of the British people."

Following emergency discussions with the Electoral Commission and opposition parties, the Government plans to table a statutory instrument to amend the EU Referendum Conduct Regulations, reducing from five to three the number of working days before the poll that the electoral lists must be published.

This has the effect of extending the registration deadline to the end of Thursday, while preserving a separate five-day period for appeals against entries on the register. Mr Cameron's spokeswoman said ministers were confident this would be "legally watertight" against challenge.

Although the website was only down for two hours, it has been decided to extend the deadline by 48 hours in order to allow time for disappointed would-be voters to learn that they are being given a further chance to sign up, said Downing Street, which confirmed that the Vote Leave and Stronger In campaigns were not involved in the discussions.

Downing Street said 214,000 people were trying to use the www.gov.uk/register-to-vote website between 9pm and 10pm on Tuesday, but it was not known how many were prevented by the system overload from registering before the midnight deadline.

Measures have been taken to try to ensure that the system is robust enough to deal with further high volumes of applications over the course of Thursday, said the PM's spokeswoman. Interest in the referendum may spike once more that evening, when ITV broadcasts a live EU debate featuring Boris Johnson.

Leading Brexit campaigner Michael Gove warned that changes to the voting regulations would take the Government into "complex legal waters", but added: "In my heart is a desire to ensure that everyone possible can be given the vote."

Alex Robertson, director of communications at the Electoral Commission, said: "No-one should miss out on voting in this historic referendum because of the problem with the Government's registration website last night.

"We said this morning that legislation should be introduced to extend the registration deadline and we're pleased the Government will now be making this change.

"We are urging everyone who is not already registered to vote to take this last chance to do so before the end of Thursday."

Labour and Liberal Democrats have promised their support in rushing emergency legislation through Parliament.

But Lib Dem leader Tim Farron branded the situation a "shambles" and said some voters would inevitably have given up the effort to register because the Government had been "incredibly slow" to act.

Pro-Brexit Tory Sir Gerald Howarth said voters had only themselves to blame if they missed out after leaving registration to the last minute, telling MPs: "P eople have had months and months in which to register and ... if they left it to the last minute and all tried to register yesterday, that's their fault ...

"We should not change our regulations in the middle of a very important referendum campaign simply to suit those who haven't organised their personal affairs well enough to secure their registration in good time."

Backing the planned extension, Mr Gove added: "People will only have one chance to vote on whether they share free movement of people with Turkey, so the more people who register to vote on June 23, the better, and we welcome the extension of the registration deadline.

"It is particularly important given how few young people normally vote and I hope that this election will be different."
Royal Navy frigate intercepts Russian submarine in North Sea

A Russian submarine has been intercepted by the Royal Navy as it cruised towards the English Channel.

The sub was being escorted by frigate HMS Kent on Tuesday evening and is expected to pass the Strait of Dover on Wednesday morning.

It is understood the Stary Oskol, a Kilo-class submarine capable of carrying cruise missiles and torpedoes, was first detected in the North Sea where Nato forces are monitoring the waters.

HMS Kent first detected the Russian submarine in the North Sea

The Ministry of Defence said it will continue to be shadowed by the Type 23 Duke class frigate, which had been taking part in commemorations for the Battle of Jutland centenary.

Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said: "This shows that the Navy is maintaining a vigilant watch in international and territorial waters to keep Britain safe and protect us from potential threats."

HMS Kent's Commanding Officer, Commander Daniel Thomas, said: "Locating this submarine was a combined effort with Nato allies and shadowing such units is routine activity for the Royal Navy.

"We continue to escort the submarine as it conducts its passage, providing a visible presence."

The incident is the latest face-off between the British and Russian military following several incursions by aircraft in skies around the UK.
Charity attacks 'scandalous' police training deal with Saudi Arabia

British police are teaching Saudi Arabian officers skills that could lead to the torture and execution of pro-democracy activists, a charity has warned.

Personnel from the Arab kingdom's interior ministry have been trained in detective work and high-tech forensics as a money-maker for the College of Policing, according to Reprieve who branded the programme "scandalous".

The anti-death penalty campaigners said an internal document showed the long-running partnership had continued despite a brutal crackdown by the regime following the 2011 Arab Spring that led to the torture of dozens of young protesters who were sentenced to death.

The Foreign Office said British expertise was being used to improve the Saudi justice system

One teenage demonstrator was among 47 people executed on a single day in January this year. A 17-year-old sentenced to death after attending a non-violent protest now faces being beheaded alongside several others.

The report showed college bosses recognised there was a risk "the skills being trained are used to identify individuals who later go on to be tortured or subjected to other human rights abuses" and predicted an outcry over the arrangement, Reprieve said.

Despite the risks the college was considering expanding its training programme, which began in 2009, to include advanced cyber crime techniques, the charity said.

Maya Foa, director of the Reprieve death penalty team, called on the Foreign Office to justify the sharing of British know-how with the regime.

"It is scandalous that British police are training Saudi Arabian officers in techniques which they privately admit could lead to people being arrested, tortured and sentenced to death," she said.

"The training Britain delivered included hi-tech skills that could easily have been used to target pro-democracy activists in Saudi Arabia."

The Foreign Office said the British expertise was being used to improve the Saudi justice system, including human rights compliance, rehabilitation for abuse victims and legal aid.

Advanced training in forensics was being used to ensure accurate evidence gathering, it said.

A spokeswoman said: "It is not good enough to merely criticise other countries from the sidelines.

"Only by working with Saudi Arabia are we able to bring about the changes we would like to see in the country."

Reprieve said UK involvement with the Saudi interior ministry was at odds with the Government's official stance to oppose the death penalty.

Using Freedom of Information laws it obtained an internal report that described a "trusted and professional partnership" and contained proposals for future collaboration.

The partnership was an "income generating business opportunity", the report said.
Sainsbury's reports 0.8% fall in sales amid 'challenging' trading

Sainsbury's has posted a fall in sales as it remains under pressure amid a supermarket price war and cautioned over "challenging" trading.

Britain's second biggest supermarket reported a 0.8% drop in like-for-like sales excluding fuel for the 12 weeks to June 4.

The fall marks a setback after a return to quarterly like-for-like growth for the first time in more than two years the previous three months, when sales edged 0.1% higher.

Sainsbury's recently began scrapping multi-buy promotions and has ditched its brand-match guarantee in favour of overall lower prices

Mike Coupe, chief executive of Sanisbury's, said: "Market conditions remain challenging.

"Food price deflation continues to impact our sales and pressures on pricing mean the market will remain competitive for the foreseeable future."

Sainsbury's recently began scrapping multi-buy promotions and has ditched its brand-match guarantee in favour of overall lower prices.

The first quarter update comes as the group's 1.4 billion takeover of Argos owner Home Retail Group faces scrutiny from the competition watchdog.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said last month it was looking into whether the tie-up with Argos owner Home Retail could result in a "substantial lessening of competition".

It will consider comments on the deal and decide whether to launch an inquiry by July 25.

Mr Coupe said he was "as confident as we can be" that the Home Retail deal will be cleared in the CMA's initial inquiry, with the group adding that it remains on track to complete the takeover in the third quarter.

He insisted the group's decision to end multi-buy deals was not denting trade, with the number of customer transactions up on a like-for-like basis.

He admitted the decline in first-quarter sales was a "slight step back", but said the chain would stick to its strategy and continue to lower everyday prices.

The group has slashed prices on staple items such as whole chickens, free range eggs and cheddar cheese in response to customer feedback.

It now has around 23% of goods on promotion, down from more than 30% a year ago.

Mr Coupe gave hope of an easing in the food price deflation that has been hitting the sector hard, saying it is now running at around minus 1% against falls of up to 2.5% last year.

But Sainsbury's believes food price deflation will continue until at least the autumn.

However, its clothing arm is helping offset the food price woes, with sales growth of nearly 5% in its first quarter.

This month's Euro 2016 football championship could also provide a boost.

Mr Coupe said: "If the sun shines and it's a barbecue weekend, we tend to see a spike in business."
Theres no magic formula to creating a school rooted in Native American languages.

Leslie Harper knows, having been a part of creating one of the U.S.s first language immersion schools in Minnesota. She spoke at the Stabilizing Indigenous Language Symposium held in Billings on Monday and Tuesday at the Radisson Hotel.

I cant tell you guys whats gonna work for you, she said. You are the experts, you know whats going to work best for your community.

Language immersion programs  especially preschools  have grown in popularity in Montana in recent years. A bill passed by the 2015 Legislature offers funding for immersion programs.

The conference, in its 23rd year, is organized by the National Alliance to Save Native Languages and addresses the fading of traditional languages being experienced by tribes across the nation. For the Crow Tribe, Crow fluency has dropped from 86 percent among adults in 1969 to 28 percent in 2014, according to tribal surveys.

Harper advocated for an approach similar to the one she helped build on the Ojibwes Leech Lake Reservation, where she and other tribal members created a language immersion program within the existing Bureau of Indian Affairs-operated school. The program was featured in a PBS documentary.

We had to get rid of those ideas of what the American public school system wants us to do, she said. It was just kind of reframing our thinking. We had grandmas and grandpas with no formal education training, but they had a lifetime of Ojibwe skills.

The program began as just kindergarten in 2004 but expanded each year until it became K-6.

Having cultural foundations is just as important as linguistic ones, said Lanny Real Bird, an instructor at Little Big Horn College whos developed materials for teaching the Crow, Hidatsa and Mandan languages.

Some of the needs that they have are with their cultural foundations, he said of existing immersion programs. Even though some of us might be able to speak Spanish, that doesnt make me Hispanic.

Part of that solution is filling more teaching roles with Native Americans, he said. Multiple studies, though not focused on Native Americans, have linked increased achievement for minority students to having a teacher of the same race.

I hope, sometime or another, there is more contribution to creating more teachers, he said. We need to support our teachers and we need to recruit more teachers.

Both Harper and Real Bird said that the larger public school system might not be the best fit for Native American students.

Erase the ideas of those public school systems, erase the idea of superintendents and principals  erase the idea of state standards, Harper said.

We think that white people have the answer, Real Bird said. Thats not the case. We have the answers. Its in our heart, its in our vision, its in our prayers.

Darrin Old Coyote, chairman of the Crow Tribe, reflected on his time as a Head Start teacher on the reservation.

I was exhausted from those 3-year-olds running all over me and trying to speak Crow and the kids not understanding, he said. Theres no state of emergency for our language being lost. ... If we dont participate in these dying arts, this dying language, then were part of the problem.
Adoption row father faces jail threat for identifying children on Facebook

A father embroiled in an adoption row is facing a jail threat for revealing the identities of his children on the internet, including Facebook.

A High Court family judge has given the father time to answer allegations that he breached court orders obtained by the London Borough of Haringey.

Mr Justice Bodey, sitting in London, warned parents against posting details about family cases on social media in the hope that it will help them "when frequently it does the opposite".

A High Court judge has given the father time to answer allegations that he breached court orders obtained by the London Borough of Haringey

The father, whom the judge said should not be named, claims his children are being forcibly adopted without consideration being given to the fact they are citizens of another country.

Haringey Council barrister Sarah Nuttall applied to the judge to have the father committed to prison for breaches of multiple court orders.

Ms Nuttall said care proceedings involving the man's two children, both aged under 10, concluded some time ago and they had been placed with prospective adopters.

Court orders were applied for after he and third parties started posting material on the internet which was "clearly very harmful both for the prospective adopters and the children".

Ms Nuttall said: "Unfortunately they have continued to post material in breach of the orders."

She added that the material identified the children by name and included their photographs, as well as the names and addresses and photographs of people said to be their proposed adopters.

The father had been on hunger strike in Strasbourg in France but stopped on medical advice. A court order had been made allowing his passport to be seized when he returned to the UK.

Haringey Council made an urgent application requesting Facebook to remove material, said Ms Nuttall.

Indu Kumar, appearing for the father, applied for the committal application to be adjourned and said items were being posted on Facebook which were outside his control - "because people are outraged by what is going on".

Ordering the committal application to be "stood out", or adjourned, the judge said the father had not had sufficient time to answer the allegations.

The judge said: "His liberty is at stake and the procedural checks and balances have to be correct."

He ruled the case should come back before the court later in June if both sides could not reach an agreement.
Hope fades for missing wife of pensioner found stabbed to death in woods

There is "very little hope" that the missing wife of a pensioner who was stabbed to death will be found alive, police have said.

Sylvia Stuart, 69, and her husband Peter, 75, were last seen on May 29 when they were caught on CCTV going shopping together.

His body was found with multiple stab wounds in woodland near their home in Weybread, Suffolk, on Friday June 3.

Forklift driver Ali Qazimaj (pictured) went on the run after Peter Stuart, 75, was knifed to death and his wife Sylvia, 69, went missing

Kosovan immigrant Ali Qazimaj is wanted in connection with the murder and went on the run around 24 hours after Mr Stuart's body was discovered.

The 42-year-old, who goes by the name Marco Costa, caught a ferry from Dover to Calais at around 6:30pm on Saturday June 4.

Police had been pursuing the possibility that he abducted Mrs Stuart but officers say he made the journey to France alone.

Detective Chief Superintendent Simon Parkes said there is "no indication at all that they have ever been together in any shape or form".

He described the chance of finding Mrs Stuart alive now as "extremely remote".

"Since she was last seen on the CCTV we are now some 10 days further forward, we've had no reported sightings and no information to indicate that she may be alive," he added.

"We now think there is very little hope. Clearly Peter was killed, she would appear to have gone missing around the same sort of time, and we haven't seen or heard or had any information to indicate she has been alive throughout the last 10 days.

"We have to consider that it is the most likely possibility."

Police are working with European authorities and have launched legal proceedings to obtain a European Arrest Warrant for Mr Qazimaj.

"We know precious little about him," Mr Parkes added.

"He is a suspect in a murder investigation in which someone was repeatedly stabbed - we have to assume he may be dangerous. We have no way of knowing if he is armed."

He continued: "We know that he was living in Tilbury in Essex and that he has been working in Purfleet as a forklift driver.

"We believe he is from Kosovo, that he sought asylum following the conflict and was granted this and given a British passport.

"We urgently need anyone who knows him, who may have spent time with him over the last few weeks or before this to get in touch and tell us more about his background so that we can trace his movements.

"We are particularly keen to hear from anyone who may have seen him between Sunday 29 May and when he left the country on Saturday 4 June, or anyone who can shed light on where he may have been between these times."

Mr Qazimaj's car, a silver Citroen C3, was found near the ferry terminal in Dover at around midnight on Sunday. The vehicle has been searched and will be forensically examined.

Members of the public are warned not to approach him but to call 999 immediately if he is seen.

He is described as white, around 5ft 6in, with brown eyes and dark brown, greying hair.

Police are appealing for anyone who saw Mr and Mrs Stuart between May 29 and June 3 to come forward.

The couple were captured on CCTV walking into Goodies Farm Shop in Wood Lane in Pulham Market at around 10.20am on May 29.

Mr Stuart's body was found in woodland close to where the couple lived in Mill Lane, Weybread.

It is not known when he was murdered and officers are "still trying to understand" if he was stabbed at the scene or whether his killer moved the body.

A 61-year-old man from Leicester was arrested on suspicion of murder and has been released on bail to return to Martlesham Police Investigation Centre on August 3.
IS-inspired fanatic guilty of Tube station Lee Rigby copycat murder bid

An Islamic State-inspired fanatic is facing years in jail for trying to copy the killers of Fusilier Lee Rigby by beheading a random stranger at a Tube station.

Somali-born Muslim Muhiddin Mire, 30, attacked 56-year-old musician Lyle Zimmerman with a rusty knife and threatened four other travellers as he ran amok through the ticket hall at Leytonstone Underground station in east London.

The whole incident was caught on shocking CCTV and mobile phone footage taken by a passer-by who bravely carried on filming even as Mire lunged at him with the blade.

Somali-born Muslim Muhiddin Mire, 30, attacked 56-year-old musician Lyle Zimmerman with a rusty knife (Metropolitan Police/PA)

One onlooker shouted out "You ain't no Muslim, bruv" after Mire claimed he was doing it for "my Syrian brothers" as police took him down with Tasers.

The court heard that minicab driver Mire had a history of mental illness and his psychosis involved the belief that he was being persecuted for his religion and stalked by MI5 and MI6.

He had images of Fusilier Rigby and British Islamic State (IS) executioner Jihadi John on his Samsung phone, along with material linked to IS.

Flanked by several dock officers, Mire stared ahead with a blank expression and his mouth open as a Old Bailey jury found him guilty of attempted murder after just over a day of deliberations.

He had already admitted four counts of attempted wounding and an alternative count of wounding with intent to cause Mr Zimmerman grievous bodily harm.

Afterwards, Judge Nicholas Hilliard QC highlighted the "public spiritedness" of people on the day of the attack, saying "It would have been very easy to continue one's journey on, but that did not happen."

Mire, of Sansom Road, Leytonstone, was remanded into custody at Broadmoor secure mental hospital ahead of his sentencing at the Old Bailey on July 27.

On December 5 last year, Mr Zimmerman had stood out from the crowd in cowboy boots and hat, carrying a mandolin in one hand and an amplifier in the other and with a guitar strapped to his back.

He was targeted by Mire as they travelled on the same train from Stratford back to Leytonstone, where the defendant lived alone on benefits.

Mire followed him off the carriage and produced a black-handled knife with a serrated edge from his pocket.

As Mr Zimmerman approached the barriers, Mire grabbed him from behind and swung him around and on to the floor.

Mire then kicked him repeatedly around the head and body as a woman nearby called out for him to stop.

As Mr Zimmerman lay defenceless on the ground, Mire crouched down and began to "saw" at his neck with the serrated blade in front of shocked passengers.

Giving evidence from behind a screen, the victim told the jury: "At the time my subjective impression was that I was being attacked by a crazy person, a mentally unwell person."

A junior doctor on his way home rushed in to help stem the blood flowing from Mr Zimmerman's neck wounds as Mire went up to street level.

He continued to threaten members of the public, swinging his blade at Polish Daniel Bielinski, who began filming events on his mobile phone.

Mire went on to lash out at Serena Valori and an unknown man before coming face to face with Russian security guard Andrius Sabaliauskas, who tried to talk to him.

But despite the efforts to calm him down, Mire tried to slash lift engineer David Pethers before police arrived with Tasers.

Mire ran at an officer and the security guard shouting: "This is for my Syrian brothers, I'm going to spill your blood", before he was finally subdued.

An onlooker called out to Mire: "You ain't no Muslim, bruv" - words which became famous in news reports and social media.

Mire, who suffered from psychotic episodes, had been referred to mental health services by his GP a month before the attack.

The court heard he had paranoid delusions that he was being followed by MI5 and MI6 and was suffering from anxiety and depression.

During that time, Mire was spotted around the estate where he lived wearing traditional Muslim clothes rather than his usual jeans and T-shirt.

Commander Dean Haydon, of the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command, said: "I would like to focus not on the terrible actions of Mire last December but the bravery of all of those involved - the junior doctor who gave medical aid to the victim as he lay bleeding on the floor, people who attempted to intervene, people who took video footage which has aided the prosecution, and people who engaged Mire and kept his attention, restricting his movement around the station, effectively confining him until the police arrived and detained him.

"This was Londoners responding calmly and sensibly to a very dangerous individual and all should be praised.

"The officers who detained Mire were faced with a man armed with a knife and with blood on his hands. Using their Taser, they were able to disarm him quickly and effectively, but I have no doubt it took immense bravery to go forward at that moment.
Tottenham set for talks with Holland striker Vincent Janssen

Tottenham have been granted permission to speak to AZ Alkmaar striker Vincent Janssen, Press Association Sport understands.

Janssen is one of Europe's most exciting young forwards, having scored 27 goals in 34 matches in the Eredivisie last season.

A transfer fee is yet to be agreed between the clubs, but AZ have allowed the 21-year-old to hold talks with Spurs and he arrived in London on Tuesday.

Tottenham are in talks with AZ Alkmaar's Dutch striker Vincent Janssen

Several teams have expressed an interest in Janssen, who already has five caps for Holland, but Mauricio Pochettino's side are the first he has spoken to this summer.

AZ are believed to want around 12million for their top goalscorer, a fee unlikely to deter Spurs, although negotiations are ongoing around additional performance-related payments.

Tottenham are desperate to add forward cover for Harry Kane, who played in all 38 of his team's Barclays Premier League matches last term.

Kane, who won the Golden Boot award with 25 goals, is unlikely to be dislodged from the first team, but another offensive player would give Pochettino greater options off the bench and in cup competitions.

Janssen has enjoyed a remarkable rise to stardom, joining AZ only last summer after he scored 19 times for Almere City in the Dutch second tier.

Renowned for his high energy and excellent technique, Janssen then exploded into form this calendar year with 21 goals in 17 league appearances.
Tony Blair warns of 'serious economic shock' if Leave vote wins

Tony Blair has questioned the sincerity of Boris Johnson's role in the Brexit campaign, suggesting it is "strange" that the former mayor of London apparently went from agonising over whether the UK should stay in the EU to becoming the Leave campaign's biggest cheerleader.

The former prime minister said he believed the UK would vote to Remain in the 28-nation bloc in the June 23 referendum.

And he warned of "seismic consequences" if Leave wins, arguing that it was beyond dispute that Brexit would trigger a "serious economic shock" lasting at least several years for the whole UK.

John Micklethwait, editor-in-chief of Bloomberg Editorial, speaks to former prime minister Tony Blair during a Bloomberg Television interview in London (Simon Dawson/Bloomberg/PA)

In an interview with Bloomberg Television, Mr Blair was asked whether Mr Johnson's outspoken activities on the campaign trail made him unfit to be PM.

The former Labour leader replied: "Whether he's fit or not to be prime minister is not dependent on this vote, but I find it hard to understand how someone who's been mayor of London can seriously think it's not going to be economically damaging if Britain leaves the European Union."

And he added: "One of the things I find strange is when people say, `Look, I had to agonise over this decision, I'm not quite sure, but now I've come down on the side of Remain'. This is not one of those decisions. This is a decision where you should only be for Leave if you're absolutely clear. If you're not clear, don't do it."

Asked whether he was convinced that Mr Johnson's support for the Leave side was absolutely clear in this way, Mr Blair replied: "I f you look back at some of the things he's said in the past, it's indicated that he thinks it would be wrong for Britain to leave the European Union. Now he's frankly the most out-there campaigner of the Leave campaign. I think it's a strange position to find yourself in.

"If you've been in government - and in a sense being mayor of London you're in some sort of situation of government - you know how big this decision is and its consequences.

"If Britain leaves, the day after you're going to get the beginnings of what will be a serious economic shock for the country. You literally cannot dispute that, because you will put then on the table your entire relationship with the European Union that's grown over four decades of interlocking trade agreements and service agreements.

"All of that has then got to be renegotiated or scrapped, and given that half our trade is with the European Union, how can you not think that you are at least going to suffer several years of economic uncertainty?"

Mr Blair said Prime Minister David Cameron had "fought the campaign you would expect from him and you'd want from him", arguing that there was "nothing more he can do as Prime Minister" to support the Remain cause.
Diana stance on arms hailed as MP criticises use of Charles in Saudi trade deal

The late Diana, Princess of Wales would have campaigned against alleged Saudi killing of Yemeni civilians in stark contrast to the Prince of Wales who courted the kingdom's princes ahead of a controversial arms deal, an MP has said.

The UK's relationship with Saudi Arabia has faced renewed scrutiny following revelations British police have trained officials from the country in detective skills they accept could be used in the execution of pro-democracy activists.

While the UK Government had licensed 6.7 billion of arms to Saudi Arabia since 2010, including 2.8 billion since the bombing of Yemen began in March 2015.

MPs speaking in a Westminster Hall debate lined up to criticise Saudi Arabia's poor record on human rights

Speaking in a Westminster Hall debate on the human rights record of the autocratic regime, SNP MP Margaret Ferrier said the Government must impose a ban on the sale of arms to the country.

And she criticised Charles, who donned traditional robes and joined Saudi princes in February 2014 in a sword dance in their capital of Riyadh the day before British arms company BAE announced a multi-billion pound sale of Typhoon fighters to the kingdom.

She said: "People will recall the fantastic work of Princess Diana in raising awareness of mines, leading to the success of the Ottawa mine ban treaty. Putting herself in danger in the process, she left behind a lasting legacy through her bold activism.

"If she were still here today, I have no doubt she would be a fierce advocate for the civilians suffering in the growing humanitarian crisis in Yemen.

"In stark contrast, the UK goes to great lengths to ensure that the arms trade with Saudi Arabia continues unhampered.

"Back in 2014, when the Prime Minister could not convince the Saudis to agree to the financing for a multibillion-pound defence deal, Prince Charles was dispatched to the Middle East to a festival supported by BAE Systems to perform a sword dance in traditional Saudi attire.

"The next day, Saudi Arabia and BAE announced that the deal had been finalised. Great effort is put into maintaining our relationship and arms trade with Saudi Arabia."

MPs lined up to criticise Saudi Arabia's record on human rights and to warn that evidence strongly suggested Saudi-led coalition forces had dropped cluster munitions in Yemen.

Cluster bombs, which are banned under international law, kill indiscriminately and can lie undetected for many years if they fail to detonate - posing a threat to civilian populations.

MPs warned there is evidence that schools and hospitals are being targeted in the Yemen bombing campaign.

And they criticised Saudi Arabia's bloody crackdown on its own people, executing many who have dared to speak out against the regime.

Ms Ferrier said: "The use of cluster munitions in Yemen is scandalous; this is a country facing an almost incomprehensible humanitarian crisis.

"Will the Government now, in light of all of this evidence, follow the example set by Germany and Sweden and impose a ban on the sale of arms to Saudi Arabia whilst an investigation takes place?"

DUP MP Jim Shannon echoed the concerns, saying: "We are on the wrong side of humanity if we continue to cosy up to the brutal theocracy of Saudi Arabia, and we will be on the wrong side of history."

Foreign Office Minister David Lidington said Saudi Arabia has a "very different culture, very different political traditions" from Britain, but is an important ally in the fight against Islamic State (also known as IS or Daesh) terrorism.

He said the Government "remains committed" to campaigning against the death penalty and will "encourage" Saudi Arabia to abolish it.

Mr Lidington added: "We have not supplied cluster weapons of any kind to Saudi Arabia since the 1980s.

"The United Kingdom signed the convention on cluster munitions in 2008 and ratified it in May 2010, and since 2008 we have not supplied, maintained or supported these weapons anywhere in the world.

"The Government does take the allegations that have been made very seriously. We are seeking clarification from the Saudi-led coalition about those allegations, and, in line with our obligations under the convention on cluster munitions, we have always made it clear to the Saudis that we cannot support the use of cluster munitions in any circumstances, and we continue to encourage Saudi Arabia, as a non-party to the convention, to accede to it."

He said the Ministry of Defence has assessed that the Saudi-led coalition is not targeting civilians and said the Government "pressed the Saudis" to investigate allegations that its forces have breached international and humanitarian law.

He added: "The Government's judgment remains that a strong relationship with Saudi Arabia helps us to keep this country both prosperous and safe, and that it is by working with Saudi Arabia that we can encourage the changes we would like to see in that country."
No agreement to say Pep Guardiola cannot sign Bayern Munich players for Man City

Suggestions Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola is contractually prohibited from signing players from his previous club Bayern Munich are incorrect, Press Association Sport understands.

The German side's winger Douglas Costa has this week been quoted by Brazilian television network Globo Esporte as saying of Guardiola: "It is something he has in the contract, a clause that he can't take anyone from Bayern."

But sources at City have indicated that is not the case, with there being nothing of that nature to stop them doing business with Bayern in future should they seek to.

Pep Guardiola officially starts work as Manchester City boss next month.

Guardiola officially starts work at City on a three-year deal next month, when his Bayern contract will have expired.

The Blues made their first new signing of the summer last week when they recruited Germany defender Ilkay Gundogan from Bayern's Bundesliga rivals Borussia Dortmund.
Swiss manufacturers cut jobs that sector warns won't come back

By Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi

ZURICH, June 7 (Reuters) - Visitors say views through the glass floors in Schindler's Auckland Sky Tower elevators offer one of the most exhilarating lift experiences in the world.

But for the Swiss workers who make the elevator parts, their uncertain future might feel as dizzying as the 220-metre drop underfoot as Swiss industry accelerates job cuts to mitigate the impact of the galloping franc.

Six decades after opening, Schindler's hometown factory in Ebikon that decades ago employed hundreds will be scaled back to under 100 employees by the end of 2017.

They will focus on special orders the company said would secure the site's competitiveness, justifying higher costs than at factories it opened this decade in China, Slovakia and India.

General Electric is also cutting 900 Swiss industrial jobs, Rieter 150 and Sulzer 90 since the "franc shock", the central bank's abandonment in January 2015 of the ceiling for the franc against the euro that abruptly made Swiss goods a fifth costlier abroad.

The franc's leap unleashed a wave of job cuts as factories shut down and small manufacturers struggled to keep afloat.

Now fears are mounting that jobs in the manufacturing sector -- still a bedrock of the Swiss economy even as other advanced economies shift more to services -- are going for good after being whittled away during decades of automation and offshoring.

"These jobs aren't coming back," said Guido Schluep, secretary general of industry at the Syna union, who has helped negotiate the extent of job cuts at Schindler.

Switzerland has long had an international reputation for high-quality manufacturing of everything from luxury watches and precision instruments to Nespresso capsules and cancer drugs, as well as Schindler elevators and escalators.

BUCKING TREND

Bucking the trend in nearly every other developed country, manufacturing has gained importance for the Swiss economy over the past 25 years. It accounted for 19.5 percent of Swiss economic output last year, up from 17.6 percent in 1991.

Just over 620,000 jobs -- or 16 percent of the total -- are in manufacturing, twice the percentage in countries such as Britain, once known for robust industry.

But the number is down from 800,000 in 1991, when industry generated 23.2 percent of Swiss payrolls.

Since last year's shock, manufacturing employment has fallen 1.6 percent while overall numbers of workers stagnated on a seasonally adjusted basis, based on first-quarter figures.

Outsourcing, automation and a shift towards high-end products requiring less manual input had already taken their toll on the numbers employed.

A boom in the pharmaceutical and chemical industries has seen the Swiss economy through difficult years, offsetting industry's emaciation and buoying trade.

But these businesses contribute only modestly to Swiss jobs, representing just one in eight manufacturing posts and generally requiring technical training or beyond.

While jobs in the pharmaceutical industry may have nearly doubled in the past 25 years, one in three mechanical production jobs has become obsolete.

Even as order books start filling and revenues rebound, experts say layoffs could take another year and a half to work their way through the industry.

The mechanical and electrical engineering industry has taken a particularly hard hit, with payrolls falling more than 4 percent in just over a year. Industry lobby Swissmem calls this an "accelerated structural change" in which manufacturers move manual work to cheaper countries.

UNSKILLED WORKERS AT RISK

Politicians from Swiss President Johann Schneider-Ammann -- an industry mogul himself -- to the leader of the Social Democrats warn that creeping deindustrialisation could take a turn for the worse if the franc strengthens again. The franc hit a five-week high against the euro on Tuesday.

The government has been consulting with business but has said it sees no need for a special economic stimulus package.

Unlike previous crises in which state-subsidised short work hours helped companies limit wage costs while ensuring they could ramp up production once good times returned, employers are hardly positioning themselves to bring those jobs back.

A scant rise in short-time contracts in 2015 indicated that "employers in industry no longer expect to have any more work for many employees even if the economy picks up", Credit Suisse economists wrote.

The franc's weakening from over parity against the euro on Jan. 15, 2015, to 1.10 per euro of late and an additional 61 million francs in spending to support small- and medium-sized exporters this year have helped ease some of the pressure.

Price-sensitive domestic sectors such as retail and tourism have shown the first tentative signs of a pick-up.

But while production and exports showed some signs of stabilisation in the first quarter, Credit Suisse said it was too early to speak of a pronounced industrial recovery. It now thinks its January forecast for a 1.2 percent fall in manufacturing employment this year was "a bit too optimistic".

Two-thirds of the world's elevators are now installed in China, an opportunity that Schindler -- a rival of United Technologies' Otis, Kone and ThyssenKrupp - is seizing.

It announced on Tuesday it was taking a stake in a Chinese joint venture partner.

Schindler has said it has no choice but to adapt to new market conditions.

"Due to robust market growth in Asia and high production costs in Switzerland, more and more of our orders are being processed abroad," it said.

Talks between labour and management reduced the number of job cuts in Ebikon from 120 to 105. Union representative Schluep said 60 cuts could come from "decent solutions" like early retirement or finding other opportunities for laid-off workers.

Well-trained personnel had better chances of finding new jobs, he said. "But mass production relying on cheap work that doesn't require special training doesn't have a future here," he said. "It's the unskilled jobs I am worried about."
Germany's K+S says Kassel prosecutors drop pollution case

FRANKFURT, June 7 (Reuters) - German potash and salt miner K+S said on Tuesday that public prosecutors in the city of Kassel, where the company is headquartered, had dropped investigations into suspected water pollution because they had found no evidence of misconduct.

In a separate case about water pollution which was brought by prosecutors in the town of Meiningen against the company's chief executive and supervisory board chairman among others, a decision on whether to start proceedings remains outstanding.
White House threatens to veto Senate defense bill

By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON, June 7 (Reuters) - The White House threatened on Tuesday to veto a Senate defense policy bill, saying it would prevent President Barack Obama from closing the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay and limit the size of his National Security Council.

"The bill would undermine expert judgments of the (Defense) Department's civilian and military leadership and constrain the ability of the president and the secretary of defense to appropriately manage and direct the nation's defense," the White House said in a statement.

The $602 billion National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, sets spending policy for the Pentagon each year. The Republican-led Congress generally uses the must-pass bill as a vehicle for a range of policy measures.

The Senate Armed Services Committee passed the bill last month. It is now being debated in the full Senate, where lawmakers have introduced hundreds of amendments.

Obama had already threatened to veto the House of Representatives' version of the annual bill, which passed that chamber last month. The White House opposed it for a number of reasons, including its use of $18 billion in special war funds for day-to-day military programs to avoid automatic budget cuts.

The Senate version did not adopt that strategy. But Senator John McCain, the Armed Services Committee's Republican chairman, filed an amendment with a similar plan to use $18 billion of so-called Overseas Contingency Operations, or OCO, funds to pay for additional troops, more equipment and an increase in a planned military pay increase.

KEEP AMERICA SAFE

McCain and other Republicans argued that the increased spending was necessary to keep Americans safe.

In a statement, he criticized Obama's veto threat as "a sorry defense of the status quo," and said he hoped Obama would change his mind.

"I hope when the NDAA reaches the president's desk, he understands the critical importance of this legislation to our national security better than his administration seems to now," McCain said.

Democrats said they would support more military spending if Republicans also approved spending on civilian programs.

Harry Reid, the top Democrat in the Senate, said Democrats would offer their own amendment, adding funding for airport security, to combat Zika, for local police, to fight opioid addiction and improve infrastructure.

"If the Republicans pass the defense amendment but then block a similar increase to middle-class programs, they will have broken the budget agreement and the appropriations process will come to a grinding halt," Reid told a news conference.

After the House and Senate pass their versions of the NDAA, the two chambers agree on a final version of the bill. If that passes, it is sent for Obama to veto or sign into law.
Republican Terry Halpin, a judicial assistant, will become Yellowstone Countys new clerk of court, soundly beating incumbent Republican Kristie Boelter, whose first term was marked by controversies, and challenger Richard Nixon, a Billings businessman.

No Democrat filed for the job.

Unofficial final results showed Halpin with 11,542 votes or 51 percent, while Boelter had 7,653 votes or 33 percent, and Nixon had 3,378 votes or 14 percent.

As initial results were reported, Halpin said she was "cautiously optimistic" about her wide lead over Boelter but that it was still early. "I'm excited. It's such a good turnout," she said.

Boelter said she was "still hopeful" about her chances, saying smaller cities were still reporting.

Halpin maintained a nearly 20 percent lead over Boelter for most of the night.

Halpin, who started in 1996 as a deputy clerk and worked in the office for three years before going to work for District Judge Russell Fagg, said she sought the job because she saw numerous problems and mistakes being made.

Calling herself a problem solver, Halpin said she would improve training for deputy clerks, improve customer service and make sure the office worked cohesively with the districts six judges.

The clerks job pays a base salary of $66,363. Boelters salary is $79,015 with longevity included.

The office is responsible for court filings in District Court and issues marriage licenses. The countys office is the busiest in the state, with about 10,000 new cases filed a year and six judges, and has about 21 deputy clerk positions plus he clerk of court.

Halpin said she has a good working relationship with the judges and that she would meet with them informally, call them if necessary and is willing to learn and to ask for help. The job of the clerks office, she said, is to serve the legal needs of the community.

Nixon, a Billings businessman and former levy officer, said he has experience working with the office and would provide leadership.

During her first four years in office, Boelter said she made the office friendlier and streamlined processes. Boelter sought a second, four-year term saying she has learned the basics and wanted to make additional improvements to make the office more efficient.

Boelter, a former deputy clerk who started in 2009, beat former Clerk of Court Carol Muessig, a Democrat, in 2012.

During Boelters first term, she also clashed with judges, who sent her letters of concern over the quality and quantity of the work in her office.

In the run up to the primary election, Boelter posted, then deleted, in April a Facebook comment in which she referred to half of the judges as being corrupt.

Boelter also accepted responsibility in April for a search warrant in a homicide investigation that was left unsealed for public review because of a clerical mistake.

Boelter had conflicts with the county commissioners and the county attorney over issuing same-sex marriage licenses. She said she objected to making accommodations for a deputy clerk who objected on religious grounds to issuing same-sex marriage license, despite being advised to do so.

The commissioners and county attorney formally warned Boelter to follow the law and to accommodate the employee or face personal legal liability if the county were sued.
U.S. says China fighter made 'unsafe' intercept of spy plane

By Idrees Ali and Ben Blanchard

WASHINGTON/BEIJING, June 7 (Reuters) - A Chinese fighter jet carried out an "unsafe" intercept of a U.S. spy plane on routine patrol on Tuesday in international airspace over the East China Sea, the U.S. Pacific Command said, as China again demanded an end to U.S. surveillance flights.

The intercept involved two Chinese J-10 fighter planes and a U.S. Air Force RC-135 reconnaissance plane, U.S. Pacific Command said in a statement.

"One of the intercepting Chinese jets had an unsafe excessive rate of closure on the RC-135 aircraft. Initial assessment is that this seems to be a case of improper airmanship, as no other provocative or unsafe maneuvers occurred," Pacific Command said. It did not say how close the Chinese fighter came to the U.S. plane.

"The Department of Defense is addressing the issue with China in appropriate diplomatic and military channels," the statement said.

China's Defense Ministry said it had noted the report and was looking into it.

"Judging by the report, the U.S. side is again deliberately hyping up the issue of the close surveillance of China by U.S. military aircraft," it told Reuters in a statement.

"Chinese military pilots consistently carry out operations in accordance with the law and the rules, and are professional and responsible," it added, without elaborating.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said such patrols seriously harmed China's security, and repeated a demand they stop.

"China has the right to take defensive measures," he told a daily news briefing, without identifying the site of the intercept.

Asked if the incident had been timed to coincide with high-level China-U.S. talks in Beijing, attended by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Hong responded, "Ask the Americans."

In May, the Pentagon said two Chinese fighter jets flew within 50 feet (15 meters) of a U.S. EP-3 aircraft over the South China Sea.

The Pentagon determined that the May incident violated an agreement the two governments signed last year.

Earlier this week, Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States would consider any Chinese establishment of an air defense zone over the South China Sea to be a "provocative and destabilizing act."

U.S. officials have expressed concern that an international court ruling expected in coming weeks on a case brought by the Philippines against China over its South China Sea claims could prompt Beijing to declare an air defense identification zone, or ADIZ, as it did over the East China Sea in 2013.

China has claimed most of the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in trade is shipped every year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims.

Washington has accused Beijing of militarizing the South China Sea after creating artificial islands. Beijing, in turn, has criticized increased U.S. naval patrols and exercises in Asia.
BHP Billiton sells Indonesian coal assets to Adaro

MELBOURNE, June 7 (Reuters) - BHP Billiton said on Tuesday it has agreed to sell its coal assets in Indonesia to its partner, Adaro Energy, following a slump in prices for metallurgical coal.

BHP did not disclose the price for its 75 percent stake in IndoMet Coal, which it first flagged was up for sale in April.

"After a detailed review of IndoMet Coal, we concluded that although the project could support a larger scale development, BHP Billiton has a range of other growth options in the portfolio that are more attractive for future investment," IndoMet Coal asset president James Palmer said in a statement.

Analysts said in April BHP would be lucky to fetch $200 million for the stake, well below the $335 million Adaro paid for a 25 percent stake in IndoMet in 2010, due to regulatory uncertainty in Indonesia and the sharp slump in coal prices.

IndoMet holds seven coal contracts of work in Central and Eastern Kalimantan, including the 1 million tonnes a year Haju mine, which started producing last year.
Talent shortage stymies Indonesia's tech scene

By Aradhana Aravindan and Fransiska Nangoy

SINGAPORE/JAKARTA, June 8 (Reuters) - Indonesian online retailer Bilna spent two years looking for a chief technology officer before it finally discovered Ridy Lie, who had returned home after eight years with Amazon in the United States.

Until Lie, the company had struggled to find someone who could "take us to the next level," said Eka Himawan, group chief financial officer at the company, which was renamed Orami after a merger this year.

"He is the one who is guiding (the engineers) and telling them: this is how the things are done in Amazon and this is how we should do it," Himawan said.

Even as internet giants like Alibaba and SoftBank are making major investments in startups heavily exposed to Indonesia, recruitment of talented executives is proving to be a huge drag on the country's technology sector.

Indonesia is the most populous country in a region where 3.8 million internet users are coming online every month. A recent report by Google and Singaporean state fund Temasek estimated that Southeast Asia needed to attract investment worth $40-50 billion in sectors such as ecommerce over the next decade to potentially become a $200 billion internet economy, with Indonesia poised to receive a big chunk.

But the tech talent needed to drive such growth is scarce, the result mainly of shortcomings in Indonesia's education system, a lack of experience and the low salaries on offer compared with those available in the United States.

Highly skilled workers account for only about 10 percent of total employment in the archipelago of 250 million people, the lowest ratio of any major Southeast Asian nation, according to the World Economic Forum.

"I would say it definitely means things grow slower. If I compare a startup in Indonesia with startups in some other places, they will tend to be less on the cutting edge of technology, less efficient," said Vinnie Lauria, a founding partner at Singapore-based Golden Gate Ventures.

Some investors are offshoring tech work to fill the talent gap as they seek to grow startups. So far, however, no private Indonesian tech firm has reached a valuation of more than $1 billion, compared with more than 20 in China.

"The solution of last resort is to solve the problem out of the country," Adrian Vanzyl, CEO of Thailand-based Ardent Capital, told Reuters in April.

Ardent has invested in Thai logistics firm aCommerce, which has engineers in Indonesia but leaves "a lot of the core platform development" to staff in Thailand, he said.

Another creative work-around is a fly-in-fly-out approach to get people with specialised knowledge to advise local startups on a temporary basis.

"Spend three or six months ... to help the company scale," Chua Kee Lock, chief executive at Vertex Venture Holdings, part of Temasek, told Reuters.

HURDLES AHEAD

Skills shortages are only one of many challenges startups and technology investors face in Indonesia. Others range from difficulties in finding materials for training engineers to poor logistics and frequent policy flipflops.

When Jakarta's taxi drivers protested violently against ride-hailing apps like Grab and Uber in April, the government bowed to pressure and forced the tech firms to partner with local transportation companies.

The government is also trying to pursue back-taxes from Yahoo and Twitter, and has ordered companies that deliver content over the internet to establish Indonesian offices and pay Indonesian taxes.

Indonesia ranks 109 out of 189 countries in terms of ease of doing business, according to a World Bank Study, below neighbours such as Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.

But for startups and their investors, the talent shortage is the biggest headache.

"Getting good people is tough. The education system is mismatched - what's taught in university isn't much in use at work," said Lie, who worked in a development engineering team at Amazon before joining Orami.

The government plans to tackle the skills shortage by putting coding on the public school curriculum and through knowledge transfers from foreign investors.

"There is plenty of capital available ... and Indonesia is exploding on every possible level," said Vanzyl at Ardent.
World Bank cuts global growth forecast on weak demand, commodity prices

By David Lawder

ANCHORAGE, Alaska, June 7 (Reuters) - The World Bank slashed its 2016 global growth forecast on Wednesday to 2.4 percent from the 2.9 percent estimated in January due to stubbornly low commodity prices, sluggish demand in advanced economies, weak trade and diminishing capital flows.

Commodity-exporting emerging market countries have struggled to adapt to lower prices for oil, metals, and other commodities, accounting for half of the downward revision, the multilateral lender said in its latest Global Economic Prospects report.

It expects these economies to grow at a meager 0.4 percent pace this year, a downward revision of 1.2 percentage points from the January outlook.

Commodity-importing emerging market countries are faring better, but the benefits of lower energy and other goods have been slow to materialize, the World Bank said. It now expects growth in these countries will reach 5.8 percent, down a tenth of a percentage point from the January forecasts.

In the United States, a steep decline in energy sector investment and weaker exports will also shave eight tenths of a percentage point from the World Bank's 2016 forecast, bringing growth to 1.9 percent.

The euro area saw a slight downgrade of its 2016 forecast to 1.6 percent, despite extraordinary monetary policy support and a boost from lower energy and commodity prices.

"As advanced economies struggle to gain traction, most economies in South and East Asia are growing solidly, as are commodity-importing emerging economies around the world," said World Bank Chief Economist Kaushik Basu said in a statement.

However, he cautioned that the rapid rise of private debt in several emerging and developing economies posed a risk to growth should non-performing bank loans rise.

The downgraded World Bank forecast follows a similar move by the International Monetary Fund, which cut its growth forecasts two months ago.

Among major emerging market economies, the World Bank kept China's growth forecast unchanged at 6.7 percent this year after 2015 growth of 6.9 percent. It expects China's growth to slow further to 6.3 percent by 2018 as the world's second-largest economy rebalances away from exports to a more consumer-driven growth model.

India's robust economic expansion also is expected to hold steady at 7.6 percent, while Brazil and Russia are projected to remain in deeper recessions than forecast in January.
UN chief faced funding cut-off, fatwa risk over Saudis -sources

By Louis Charbonneau, Michelle Nichols and Yara Bayoumy

UNITED NATIONS, June 7 (Reuters) - Muslim allies of Saudi Arabia piled pressure on U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon over the blacklisting of a Saudi-led coalition for killing children in Yemen, with Riyadh threatening to cut Palestinian aid and funds to other U.N. programs, diplomatic sources said on Tuesday.

The United Nations announced on Monday it had removed the coalition from a child rights blacklist - released last week - pending a joint review by the world body and the coalition of cases of child deaths and injuries during the war in Yemen.

That removal prompted angry reactions from human rights groups, which accused Ban of caving in to pressure from powerful countries. They said that Ban, currently in the final year of his second term, risked harming his legacy as U.N. secretary-general.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the sources said Ban's office was bombarded with calls from Gulf Arab foreign ministers, as well as ministers from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), after the blacklisting was announced last week. One U.N. official spoke of a "full-court press" over the blacklisting.

"Bullying, threats, pressure," another diplomatic source told Reuters on condition of anonymity about the reaction to the blacklisting, adding that it was "real blackmail."

The source said there was also a threat of "clerics in Riyadh meeting to issue a fatwa against the U.N., declaring it anti-Muslim, which would mean no contacts of OIC members, no relations, contributions, support, to any U.N. projects, programs."

A fatwa is a legal opinion used in Islamic Sharia law. In Saudi Arabia fatwas can only be issued by the group of top, government-appointed clerics and are sometimes commissioned by the ruling family to back up its political positions.

Responding to the allegations, Saudi U.N. Ambassador Abdallah Al-Mouallimi said "we don't use threats or intimidation," and Riyadh was "very committed to the United Nations."

Mouallimi denied any threat of a possible fatwa.

"That's ridiculous, that's outrageous," he said, adding that the meeting of Saudi clerics was to approve and issue a statement condemning the blacklisting of the coalition.

On Monday Mouallimi described the annual U.N. report on states and armed groups that violate child rights in war as "wildly exaggerated" and demanded that it be corrected.

The main Saudi complaints were that the U.N. had not based its report on information supplied by the Saudi-backed Yemeni government and accused the world body of not consulting with the coalition. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric, however, said on Tuesday that the Saudis had been consulted.

Several diplomatic sources said that the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) would be hit especially hard if the blacklisting were upheld. Saudi Arabia was the fourth biggest donor to UNRWA after the United States, European Union and Britain, having supplied it nearly $100 million last year.

Coalition members Kuwait and United Arab Emirates are also key donors for UNRWA, together supplying nearly $50 million in 2015.

In addition to Saudi Arabia, Dujarric said that Jordan, United Arab Emirates and Bangladesh contacted Ban's office to protest the listing of the coalition. Diplomats said Egypt, Kuwait and Qatar also complained to Ban's office.

The Saudi-led coalition includes Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Senegal and Sudan.

There was no indication that the United States or any other Western Saudi allies encouraged the U.N. to reverse the blacklisting of the coalition.

The U.N. report on children and armed conflict said the coalition was responsible for 60 percent of child deaths and injuries in Yemen last year, killing 510 and wounding 667.

U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said he was not aware that the United States had contacted the U.N. about the report.

"We take very seriously the protection of children in armed conflict in Yemen ... and continue to urge all sides in the conflict in Yemen to protect civilians and comply with their obligations under international humanitarian law," Toner said.

Dujarric said the removal of the coalition was pending a review of child casualties in Yemen and could be reversed, though Mouallimi said the deletion was "irreversible and unconditional."

Jordan's U.N. Ambassador Dina Kawar described her country's complaint to the U.N. chief.

"The report was accusing the coalition and of course we are a part of it," she said. "So my (foreign) minister did contact the secretary-general and did voice his opinion that the report was biased and that they need to look into it."

Bangladesh's mission told Reuters that their foreign minister contacted Ban's office prior to the reversal while on an official visit to Saudi Arabia.

One diplomatic source familiar with the situation said the Saudi fury was to be expected, adding that "the SG's (secretary-general's) reaction to the pushback was disappointing."

Several diplomats cited the U.N. decision not to blacklist Israel last year over child casualties in the Gaza Strip after the Israeli and U.S. governments lobbied Ban hard, saying that it was clear the current U.N. chief was vulnerable to threats.

Another diplomatic source said the recent spat between the U.N. and Morocco over Ban's use of the term "occupation" to describe Morocco's presence in the disputed territory of Western Sahara had set a bad precedent.

He noted that when Morocco demanded the expulsion of dozens of civilian staff in the U.N. peacekeeping mission there earlier this year, the U.N. Security Council failed to rally behind Ban with a strong show of support. That, he added, set a dangerous precedent for the world body's 193 member states.
Growing pressure on Malaysian authorities over handling of paedophile case

By Joseph Sipalan

KUALA LUMPUR, June 8 (Reuters) - Malaysian authorities faced increasing pressure on Tuesday to explain how they handled the case of the convicted paedophile Richard Huckle after British officials said they told their counterparts in Kuala Lumpur about his suspected behavior more than 18 months ago.

Huckle, 30, was detained when he arrived at London's Gatwick airport from Malaysia in December 2014, and was charged with sexually abusing dozens of children for at least nine years, mostly in Kuala Lumpur, the nation's capital. He was sentenced to life in prison on Monday.

"I believe if indeed the Malaysian authorities failed to take reparatory steps since 2014 then an immediate investigation must be launched...," said Nurul Izzah Anwar, a member of parliament for the opposition PKR and also the daughter of jailed leader Anwar Ibrahim.

Nurul Izzah said results of the investigation must be presented to parliament.

"A serious breach of security of our borders, religious institutions and havens for underprivileged children have taken placed and we must never allow this breach to repeat in future," she said.

The Malaysian police have said they were only told about Huckle by Britain's National Crime Agency (NCA) in April this year.

Huckle, dubbed the U.K's worst paedophile by the British media, was sentenced for abusing 23 Malaysian and Cambodian children and babies, including one aged just six months.

He is believed to have targeted nearly 200 children over a span of nine years, posing as a photographer, English teacher and western philanthropist to gain access to impoverished families, mostly in Malaysia.

Sharmila Sekaran, chairman of the welfare group Voice of the Children (VoC), said if the Malaysian authorities had been informed in 2014 and there had been no response then they delayed providing help and counseling to the abused children.

That, though, was much less significant than the failure to detect Huckle's behavior over nine years.

"The fact is that from 2006 to 2014 he was here abusing our children. Why did we not know? Why did we not pick him up? We need to do some serious, honest soul-searching," she said.

"This was systematic rampant abuse in our own backyard - how could it have gone undetected until someone else informed us?"

Asked why the authorities may not have responded after first being informed, she said: "Why they didn't do anything - I don't know. Maybe they didn't know what they could do."

INFORMATION SHARED

NCA deputy director, Andrew Brennan, told reporters after Huckle's sentencing on Monday that the British had informed the Malaysian authorities of Huckle's case in November 2014 and shared "all the information and all of the intelligence" that they had on Huckle at that time.

"Let me assure you we have met Malaysian authorities on a number of occasions throughout autumn of 2014," Brennan said.

"When it became clear they (Malaysia) didn't have sufficient evidence to arrest him, we made the decision that we would arrest him in December 2014," Brennan said outside of London's Old Bailey court.

The British High Commission also told Reuters in a statement on Tuesday that it had been engaged with the Malaysians since 2014.

"Where British nationals commit such offences, anywhere in the world, we will work to bring offenders to justice and ensure victims get the right protection and treatment," said a spokesman for the British High Commission.

"International cooperation is critical for that. Our engagement with the Malaysian authorities on the Richard Huckle case, since 2014, reflects that."

The Malaysian police did not immediately respond to a request for comments on the British High Commission's statement.

Ong Chin Lan, a senior officer in the police's Sexual, Women and Child Investigation Division, told state news agency Bernama that the NCA did not provide any information on Huckle's case because he had been on trial.

Huckle, who awarded himself points for his crimes, had boasted on the dark web that those from poor communities made easier victims than well-to-do westerners. He filmed and photographed the rape and abuse of children, and shared it online with paedophiles worldwide.

According to a leader from an Indian community that Huckle frequented, the Malaysian police only visited them for the first time on Monday.
Chinese border region asks for DNA for travel documents

BEIJING, June 8 (Reuters) - A sensitive border region in China's violence-prone far western region of Xinjiang has begun asking applicants for travel documents to provide DNA samples, fingerprints and voice prints, rules released just ahead of the holy fasting month of Ramadan.

Ramadan, which began this week, is a sensitive time in Xinjiang, where deadly attacks in recent years blamed by Beijing on Islamist militants have left hundreds dead.

People who live in Ili, on the border of Kazakhstan, will need to provide the additional identification when applying for passports and separate documents issued for travel to the Chinese territories of Hong Kong and Macao as well as the self-ruled island of Taiwan, the official Ili Daily said last week.

The rules are effective from June 1. The story was picked up by Hong Kong-based media this week.

Authorities in Xinjiang in the past have stepped up controls around this time, including on the practice of Islam followed by the Uighur ethnic minority during Ramadan, a people who call Xinjiang home.

China said last week there was no religious discrimination in the far-western region of Xinjiang and there would be no interference in the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, despite criticism from rights groups.

The Ili Daily newspaper did not give a direct reason for the new rules, but said two simplifications to the application process last year there had been a massive increase in applicants.

Calls to the government in Ili seeking comment went unanswered.
Brilliant bowling lifts South Africa to win over Australia

June 7 (Reuters) - Paceman Kagiso Rabada led a brilliant South Africa bowling display that lifted the Proteas to a 47-run win over Australia in the triangular one-day international series in Guyana on Tuesday.

After winning the toss and making 189 for nine off their 50 overs, South Africa's bowlers had a field day on a low, slow turning pitch at Providence Stadium in Georgetown as Australia crumbled to be all out for 142 off 34.2 overs.

Australia made heavy weather of the run-chase right from the start, with the quick departure of dynamic opener David Warner (1), beaten by the pace of Wayne Parnell and trapped leg before.

South Africa were rewarded for playing three specialist spinners but it was 21-year-old Rabada who led the way, using his genuine pace to claim 3 for 13 from seven overs.

He was backed by fellow quick Parnell (2/23), while spinners Imran Tahir (2/39), Aaron Phangiso (2/26) and debutant Tabraiz Shamsi (1/36) collected the other five wickets.

Middle-order batsman Farhaan Behardien top-scored for South Africa with 62 off 82 balls, a man of the match performance, and captain AB de Villiers said his display had given the side momentum.

"I thought we had a fantastic game today," de Villiers said in an interview.

"That innings that Behardien played got a bit of momentum on our side and then we started (bowling) really well with the two seamers and then the spinners did a fantastic job."

The only sour note for South Africa was the news Rilee Rossouw incurred a suspected dislocated shoulder when he landed on the boundary rope diving to prevent a four.

Opening batsman Aaron Finch was the only Australian to offer significant resistance, compiling 72 off 103 balls before being caught at extra cover off Phangiso, the ninth wicket to fall.

Paceman Josh Hazlewood was the pick of the Australian bowlers with 2/20.

Australian captain Steve Smith lamented his team's inability to adapt to the conditions.

"We've got to adapt better on wickets like this that are a bit slower and take a bit of spin," he said.

The result leaves the series delicately balanced with all three teams - South Africa, Australia and West Indies - on one win and one loss at the end of the Georgetown segment of the tournament, which now moves to the Caribbean island of St Kitts for the next three matches.

South Africa and Australia have five points, after each picking up a bonus point, while West Indies have four.
Gunfire, clashes between Papua New Guinea police and protesters

SYDNEY, June 8 (Reuters) - Clashes erupted between Papua New Guinea police and members of the public outside Port Moresby General Hospital on Wednesday, said a hospital admissions official, adding gunfire was heard.

"Now there is a very big clash with the public and with the police just outside the Port Moresby General Hospital," the hospital official told Reuters by telephone from the admissions department.
Yellowstone County voters didn't say yes for senior programs while voting Tuesday. They screamed it, as the measure passed by a nearly 3-to-1 margin.

Residents gave their approval for the increase, 29,516 votes to 10,280.

The levy will boost Meals on Wheels and other services to seniors. The margin was 74 percent yes, 26 percent no.

The Yellowstone County senior levy was a ballot proposal seeking an increase of 1.73 mills and is expected to raise about $578,000.

I cant explain how relieved we are, said Bea Ann Melichar, executive director of the Adult Resource Alliance. We started a get-out-the-vote campaign two months ago, and we made more than 15,000 attempts to contact people. Out of those we identified 4,136 people who said they would vote for the mill levy.

"The message is clear with these results," Melichar said in a news release. "Our community is as unified as ever in support of our seniors."

She said it's been 10 years "since we asked our neighbors for additional funding to meet the growing needs for these services, and it is truly humbling to see such an outpouring of support for the work we do every day."

Nibs Moessmer, chair of the Yes for Yellowstone Elder Services Ballot Initiative Committee, said its really terrific how voters trusted us. I knew they would trust us enough to see the levy through.

Melichar said Hilltop Solutions was hired to help with the campaign, but credited about 70 volunteers with knocking on doors and making telephone calls to help pass the levy.

We would talk to any group who would listen to us, she said. We dont have the expertise or the ability to fund raise $500,000 in a year.

The money will be distributed to help operate senior meal sites in Billings, Laurel, Broadview, Custer, Worden, Huntley and Shepherd. It will allow the Adult Resource Alliance to serve more homebound seniors with Meals on Wheels.

The levy increase will also support Big Sky Senior Services programs that include in-home services, prevention of elder abuse and guardianship for elders who have no family to help them.

Melichar said an early expansion of services will include boosting Meals on Wheels offerings to residents who live east of Billings, where no such service is currently available.

The owner of a $200,000 home will pay an estimated $4.67 per year in added taxes with the senior levy increase.

The current property tax levy of 2.51 mills raises about $839,000 annually, but that is not enough to provide needed services, supporters of the levy told Yellowstone County commissioners.

Voters last approved a levy increase in 2006.
China says the Philippines is ignoring a maritime talks proposal

BEIJING, June 8 (Reuters) - China said on Wednesday the Philippines has ignored a proposal for a regular talks mechanism over maritime issues, as it repeated that its door was always open to bilateral talks with Manila on the South China Sea.

China claims most of the waters, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims, as well as close military ties with the United States.

The Philippines has brought a case at an international tribunal in The Hague contesting China's claims, a case rejected by China which wants to solve the issue bilaterally.

In a statement released in both Chinese and English, China's Foreign Ministry said the two countries had agreed in 1995 to settle disputes in the South China Sea "in a peaceful and friendly manner through consultations on the basis of equity and mutual respect".

China and the Philippines have held many rounds of talks on the proper management of maritime disputes, though have had no negotiations designed to settle the actual disputes in the South China Sea, the ministry said.

"China has on a number of occasions proposed with the Philippines the establishment of a China-Philippines regular consultation mechanism on maritime issues; however, to date, there has never been any response from the Philippine side."

A former Philippine foreign minister and a U.S. security expert said on Tuesday Philippine President-elect Rodrigo Duterte should not hold unconditional bilateral talks with China to try to resolve their South China Sea dispute.

Duterte has said he would not go to war against China and may hold bilateral talks.

China's ministry repeated that it would not accept any dispute settlement being imposed on it, but the door of China-Philippines bilateral negotiations was always open.

"China urges the Philippines to immediately cease its wrongful conduct of pushing forward the arbitral proceedings, and return to the right path of settling the relevant disputes in the South China Sea through bilateral negotiation with China," it said.

The Philippines is contesting China's claim to an area shown on its maps as a nine-dash line stretching deep into the maritime heart of Southeast Asia, covering hundreds of disputed islands and reefs.
Qatar to slash condensate exports by October 2016 -official

DOHA/SINGAPORE, June 7 (Reuters) - Qatar will double its capacity for processing condensate by almost 150,000 barrels a day (bpd) in August when trials begin on a new splitter at the Ras Laffan refinery with commercial production starting by October, a Qatar Petroleum official said.

Condensate exports from Qatar will drop from the current 500,000 bpd to about 350,000 bpd when the 146,000-bpd splitter starts operating, said the official, who declined to be named as he was not authorised to speak publicly.

Qatari condensate exports have already been facing competition from U.S. and Iranian light oil shipments but the splitter should help the Gulf state soak up some of its condensate at home.

"Overall, there should be less condensate supply in August, but it would still be enough for everyone considering how long the market was in July," a Singapore-based trader said.

Output of full-range naphtha will double with the start of the new condensate splitter, Ibrahim Al Sulaiti, marketing director of condensate at Tasweeq said in 2014. Part of this would then be used as feedstock for new gasoline and aromatics units that are set to come online in late 2017.

The Qatari unit's start-up will increase Middle East naphtha exports to Asia, which is already struggling with a stubborn supply glut and tepid demand from gasoline producers.

"(Qatar is) ambitious in their plan to ramp up production but it would be foolhardy to push a new plant so quickly," the trader said, pointing to the naphtha glut.
Dozens wounded as PNG police fire on protesters, riots spread

By Colin Packham and Matt Siegel

SYDNEY, June 8 (Reuters) - Dozens of people were wounded in Papua New Guinea on Wednesday after police opened fire on a student demonstration in the capital and riots erupted across the country, but officials said earlier reports of up to four dead were incorrect.

A groundswell of political unrest in recent weeks has surged in the country, just to Australia's north, amid calls for Prime Minister Peter O'Neill to resign over corruption allegations.

Students and officials said police fired on the public and used tear gas to disperse crowds during a protest at the University of PNG's Waigani campus in Port Moresby. Protests were later reported in the PNG highland cities of Goroka and Mt. Hagen, and in Lae on the north coast.

"Now there is a very big clash with the public and with the police just outside the Port Moresby General Hospital," a hospital official told Reuters by telephone soon after a group of wounded students were taken there for treatment.

"There is also shooting going on, open gunfire."

The government said initial reports that up to four people had been killed were incorrect. An official at the Port Moresby General Hospital said 38 casualties had been treated there, including four with bullet wounds, but no deaths.

O'Neill later issued a statement in which he refused to stand down.

"The facts relayed to me are that a small group of students were violent, threw rocks at police and provoked a response that came in the form of tear gas and warning shots," he said.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday expressed concern about the clashes.

"He calls for calm and stresses the importance of respect for peaceful protest and freedom of assembly, and a commitment to rule of law, dialogue and non-violence," Ban's spokesman Stephan Dujarric said in a statement.

Papua New Guinea, formerly administered by Australia, struggles with endemic violence and poverty despite a wealth of mineral resources. It is ranked 139 out of 168 in Transparency International's corruption index.

Wednesday's events echoed a similar confrontation in 2001 when police opened fire on anti-government student protesters. A full account of that incident has never been given.

The PNG Police Ministry did not directly address the shooting, but said in a statement that students or others who had engaged in subsequent vandalism or assaults would face the "full force of the law."

"Police are now investigating the string of offenses that have been committed and arrests will be made," it said.

The Australian government said there had been an "unconfirmed number of deaths and serious injuries," while the United States and Britain told its citizens to avoid areas hit by violence. "The situation is still volatile and could escalate at any time," the U.S. Embassy said in a statement.

Qantas Airways and Virgin Australia said they had canceled one flight each from Australia to Port Moresby and were assessing whether to fly on Thursday.

PEOPLE FLEEING

Hubert Namani, a lawyer and business leader, said public transport had been halted in Port Moresby and businesses shut.

"People are looting and rioting and sort of revolting, so the police are now caught trying to manage all of that," Namani told Reuters by phone from the capital.

Student protest leader Noel Anjo said the violence began when students started a march from the campus toward the parliament building in Port Moresby, where police had set up a roadblock.

"Police did not like that idea and started assaulting the students, punching them, hitting them with the gun butts, before firing shots at them," Anjo said. "The students were running for cover in all directions, but I saw some people badly wounded."

TEAR GAS, GUNFIRE

Video showed students fleeing amid clouds of tear gas and the sound of gunfire. Pictures showed several men with what appeared to be serious stomach, chest and leg wounds.

Thousands of students across PNG have been protesting and boycotting classes for weeks amid growing political unrest.

O'Neill, who came to power in 2011 promising to reign in corruption, has faced allegations he authorized millions of dollars in fraudulent payments to a leading law firm.

In 2014, an anti-corruption watchdog issued an order for his arrest over the incident, which O'Neill denies. He refused to submit to the warrant and ordered the watchdog stripped of its funding.

Most of Papua New Guinea's seven million people live subsistence existences in isolated mountain villages and scattered tropical islands.

Despite that, an energy production boom, which includes Exxon Mobil's $20 billion LNG plant, has fueled annual economic growth of almost 10 percent a year for the past three years.

Exxon and partner Oil Search said there had been no damage or impact to their operations, as did Newcrest Mining , which operates two remote gold mines in PNG.

"This is going to get worse before it gets better," said Greg Anderson, executive director of the Papua New Guinea Chamber of Mines and Petroleum in Port Moresby.

"Incidents like this trigger paybacks, which could easily spiral out of control," he said.
S.Korea announces plans to capitalise state-run banks, restructure shipyards

SEOUL, June 8 (Reuters) - South Korea announced plans on Wednesday to create a 11 trillion won ($9.51 billion) fund in order to support two state-run banks most exposted to the country's troubled shipping and shipbuilding firms currently undergoing restructuring.

The companies have also announced plans to expedite the process, including wage cuts and stock sales.
North Korea restarts plutonium production for nuclear bombs - U.S. official

By Jonathan Landay, David Brunnstrom and Matt Spetalnick

WASHINGTON, June 7 (Reuters) - North Korea has restarted production of plutonium fuel, a senior U.S. State Department official said on Tuesday, showing that it plans to pursue its nuclear weapons program in defiance of international sanctions.

The U.S. assessment came a day after the U.N. nuclear watchdog said it had "indications" that Pyongyang has reactivated a plant to recover plutonium from spent reactor fuel at Yongbyon, its main nuclear complex.

The latest developments suggest North Korea's reclusive regime is working to ensure a steady supply of materials for its drive to build warheads, despite tightened international sanctions after its fourth nuclear test in January.

The U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that Washington is worried by the new plutonium reprocessing effort, but he offered no explicit word on any U.S. response.

"Everything in North Korea is a cause for concern," the official told Reuters.

"They take the spent fuel from the 5 megawatt reactor at Yongbyon and let it cool and then take it to the reprocessing facility, and that's where they've obtained the plutonium for their previous nuclear tests. So they are repeating that process," the official said. "That's what they're doing."

North Korea, which conducted its fourth nuclear test in January, vowed in 2013 to restart all nuclear facilities, including the main reactor and the smaller plant at Yongbyon, which was shut down in 2007 as part of an international disarmament-for-aid deal that later collapsed.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has no access to North Korea and mainly monitors its activities by satellite, said last year it had seen signs of a resumption of activity at Yongbyon.

IAEA chief Yukiya Amano told a news conference in Vienna on Monday that there have been indications of renewed plutonium reprocessing activities at Yongbyon. Reprocessing involves extracting plutonium from spent reactor fuel, one route to obtaining bomb fuel other than uranium enrichment.

"I would agree that there are indications," the U.S. official said.

The official declined to confirm whether this determination was made from satellite imagery or intelligence sources, or to say how much plutonium North Korea could produce by this method.

South Korea's Unification Ministry spokesman Cheong Joon-hee said Seoul was closely watching movements related to the North's nuclear facility "with grave concern" but declined to comment directly on plutonium production.

SHROUDED IN SECRECY

North Korea announced at a rare congress of its ruling Workers' Party last month that it would strengthen its defensive nuclear weapons capability.

It had already declared itself "a responsible nuclear weapons state" and disavowed the use of nuclear weapons unless its sovereignty is first infringed by others with nuclear arms.

While North Korea in the past has often obtained key components for its nuclear program from other countries despite international sanctions, there was no sign of any recent outside procurement involved in reactivating its plutonium reprocessing, the U.S. official said.

There is little proven knowledge about the quantities of weapons-grade uranium or plutonium that North Korea possesses, or its ability to produce either, though plutonium from spent fuel at Yongbyon is widely believed to have been used in its nuclear bombs.

South Korea's Defence Minister Han Min-koo said last month the North probably had about 40 kg (88 lb) of plutonium. That would be enough to make eight to 10 bombs, according to experts.

Operating the 5 megawatt reactor could yield about 5-6 kg of plutonium a year, they said.

Experts at the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies in Washington predicted last year that North Korea's nuclear weapons stockpile could grow to 20, 50 or 100 bombs within five years, from an estimated 10 to 16 weapons at that time.

North Korea has come under tightening international pressure over its nuclear weapons program, including tougher U.N. sanctions adopted in March backed by its lone major ally China, following its most recent nuclear blast and ballistic missile tests.

The website 38 North reported last week, based on commercial satellite imagery, that exhaust plumes had been detected twice in May from the thermal plant at Yongbyon's Radiochemical Laboratory, the site's main reprocessing installation.

The Institute for Science and International Security also reported exhaust emissions from a chimney at the plant, which it said was often associated with reprocessing activities there.
China says the Philippines is ignoring a maritime talks proposal

BEIJING, June 8 (Reuters) - China said on Wednesday the Philippines has ignored a proposal for a regular talks mechanism over maritime issues, as it repeated that its door was always open to bilateral talks with Manila on the South China Sea.

China claims most of the waters, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims, as well as close military ties with the United States.

The Philippines has brought a case at an international tribunal in The Hague contesting China's claims, a case rejected by China which wants to solve the issue bilaterally.

In a statement released in both Chinese and English, China's Foreign Ministry said the two countries had agreed in 1995 to settle disputes in the South China Sea "in a peaceful and friendly manner through consultations on the basis of equity and mutual respect".

China and the Philippines have held many rounds of talks on the proper management of maritime disputes, though have had no negotiations designed to settle the actual disputes in the South China Sea, the ministry said.

"China has on a number of occasions proposed with the Philippines the establishment of a China-Philippines regular consultation mechanism on maritime issues; however, to date, there has never been any response from the Philippine side."

The Philippines Foreign Ministry declined to comment.

A ministry official familiar with the arbitration case said that as Manila is expecting the tribunal to hand down a ruling this month it would rather remain quiet until then.

A former Philippine foreign minister and a U.S. security expert said on Tuesday Philippine President-elect Rodrigo Duterte should not hold unconditional bilateral talks with China to try to resolve their South China Sea dispute.

Duterte has said he would not go to war against China and may hold bilateral talks.

China's ministry repeated that it would not accept any dispute settlement being imposed on it, but the door of China-Philippines bilateral negotiations was always open.

"China urges the Philippines to immediately cease its wrongful conduct of pushing forward the arbitral proceedings, and return to the right path of settling the relevant disputes in the South China Sea through bilateral negotiation with China," it said.

The Philippines is contesting China's claim to an area shown on its maps as a nine-dash line stretching deep into the maritime heart of Southeast Asia, covering hundreds of disputed islands and reefs.
China says important glacier is melting due to climate change

BEIJING, June 8 (Reuters) - A glacier that is one of the largest at the source of China's Yangtze River is fast retreating because of climate change, state media said.

The Jianggudiru Glacier on Geladaindong Mountain in a remote part of the western province of Qinghai has shrunk 34 metres (38 yards) over the past six years, Pu Jianchen, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told the Xinhua news agency.

The glacier started to shrink slowly in the 1970s, then expanded between 1989 and 1994 before retreating more quickly from 1995, Pu said, Xinhua reported late on Tuesday.

Yang Xin, president of the Green River Environmental Protection Association, told Xinhua the glacier retreated two metres a year in the 1980s and 1990s but about six metres a year over the past several years.

"This is direct evidence of global climate change," he said.

Pu said the Yangtze would get more water in the short term as that glacier and others melt, but eventually no more water would flow from them.
In the lab: six innovations scientists hope will end malaria

By Katy Migiro

ARUSHA, Tanzania, June 8 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - A fter being abandoned as too ambitious in 1969, global plans to eliminate malaria are back on the agenda, with financial backing from the world's richest couple, Bill and Melinda Gates, and U.S. President Barack Obama.

The Gateses aim to eradicate malaria by 2040 by doubling funding over the next decade to support the roll out of new products to tackle rising drug resistance against the disease.

Their goal of permanently ending transmission of the disease between humans and mosquitoes is more ambitious than the Sustainable Development Goal of ending epidemic levels of malaria by 2030.

They are also supporting a push to create the world's first vaccine against a parasite.

Six innovations scientists are working on are:

* New insecticides: Mosquitoes are becoming resistant to insecticides used to spray inside homes and in bed nets.

"There is no current insecticide that doesn't show insect-resistance at the moment," said Jed Stone, a spokesman for the UK-based Innovative Vector Control Consortium (IVCC).

Indoor spraying of walls with insecticide -- which was used to wipe out malaria in the United States in the 1940s -- has fallen by 40 percent since 2012 due to resistance to older products and the high cost of newer ones.

The IVCC is developing three new insecticides for use in indoor sprays and bed nets that kill insecticide-resistant mosquitoes.

"The insecticides are virtually ready but it will take about five years to finally develop them," Stone said, adding that this largely involves registration with regulators.

* A single-dose cure: A pill that would wipe out all parasites in the body could be available by 2019, the Gates Foundation says.

Human trials of one candidate are planned following successful tests on mice, published in 2015.

Existing drugs have to be taken for three days with the risk that people do not finish their medication, contributing to the development of drug-resistant malaria.

They also only kill parasites at the asexual-stage where they cause fever but not at the sexual-stage where they are picked up by mosquitoes in blood.

* Insecticide-treated wall liners: Scientists hope insecticide-treated wall liners, which look like wallpaper, will be more effective than spraying people's homes with insecticide every three to eight months. The wall liners kill mosquitoes that rest on them and can last for three years.

Tanzania's National Institute for Medical Research is testing wall liners in 6,000 homes to see if they protect people from malaria. Results will be published in 2017.

* Insecticide-embedded clothing: American soldiers have been wearing combat uniforms treated with permethrin, a synthetic insecticide, since 2010 to protect them against insect-borne diseases.

The U.S. government's Walter Reed Army Institute of Research will test the effectiveness of treated combat uniforms and repellent creams in July on Tanzanian soldiers who often catch malaria when working at night as peacekeepers.

* A vaccine: This is a big one, given vaccines success in eliminating smallpox, polio and measles in many countries.

More than 30 malaria vaccines are under development.

The Mosquirix vaccine, discovered in 1987, is a decade ahead of other candidates but, to date, it only halves the number of bouts of malaria young children suffer.

The World Health Organization is seeking funding for a pilot programme to administer Mosquirix to 400,000 to 800,000 African children. The results will be used to make a decision on whether to use the vaccine more widely.

* GM mosquitoes: Scientists have genetically modified (GM) mosquitoes by adding genes that block the development of the malaria parasite inside the insect and prevent it from being transmitted to people.

Scientists have also genetically modified mosquitoes to make them infertile, so that they die out. But many are cautious about the unforeseen consequences of this.

"When people imagine a malaria end game scenario, GM mosquito technology would be incredibly powerful because it doesn't rely on a robust health system in order to go in and disrupt transmission of the parasite," said Martin Edlund, chief executive of Malaria No More, referring to war-torn countries like South Sudan.
Key maturities on Venezuelan dollar bonds

LONDON, June 8 (Reuters) - Venezuela has a relatively light debt repayment schedule in the near future but this ramps up over coming years. However funds are betting the country will be able to honour short-dated debt and expect generous terms in event of a restructuring. The sovereign has a total $31 billion in bonds outstanding while state oil firm Petroleos de Venezuela has another $30 billion, according to brokerage Exotix. Following is a table detailing the major bond maturities for Venezuela and PDVSA. Maturing sovereign bonds Date billion $ Coupon pct Reuters ric Aug 15 2018 1.0 13.625 VE013635706= Oct 13 2019 2.5 7.75 VE045730417= Dec 09 2020 1.5 6.00 VE023767678= Aug 23 2022 3.0 12.75 VE053359132= May 07 2023 2.0 9.0 VE036133643= Oct 13 2024 2.5 8.25 VE045730476= Apr 21 2025 1.6 7.65 VE021724912= Oct 21 2026 3.0 11.75 VE069374506= Sep 15 2027 4.0 9.25 922646AS3= May 07 2028 2.0 9.25 VE036133678= Aug 05 2031 4.2 11.95 VE065541947= Jan 13 2034 1.5 9.275 922646BL7= Mar 31 2038 1.25 7.0 VE033116080= Maturing PDVSA bonds (inc. subsidiaries) * Senior note Date bln $ Coupon Reuters ric Oct 16 2016 1.0 5.125 VE046054679= Apr 12 2017 3.0 5.25 VE029436410= Nov 02 2017 4.2 8.5 716558AB7= Feb 15 2020 1.5 10.75 VE119056667= Nov 21 2021 2.4 9.0 VE070527910= Feb 17 2022 3.0 12.75 VE059352415= Aug 15 2022 0.650 6.25 VE109247235= Oct 21 2022* 3.0 6.0 XS112689168=TE May 16 2024 5.0 6.0 VE107037462= Nov 15 2026 4.5 6 VE099583070= Apr 12 2027 3.0 5.375 VE029436495= May 17 2035 3.0 9.75 VE078589230= Apr 12 2037 1.5 5.5 VE029436720= Source: Thomson Reuters (Compiled by Sujata Rao; Editing by Alistair Bell)
UK supermarket Sainsbury's says prepared for price war escalation

By James Davey

LONDON, June 8 (Reuters) - Sainsbury's said on Wednesday it was prepared for an escalation of price wars in Britain's highly competitive supermarket sector after reporting a decline in underlying quarterly sales.

With profits squeezed by the growth of German discounters Aldi and Lidl, Britain's "big four" supermarkets have been under pressure to cut prices and improve customer services.

Wal-Mart, the owner of the Asda chain, said last week it would shift the strategy of its British business from safeguarding profit to protecting market share, indicating a new price offensive is on the way.

"For the last God knows how many years there's been lots of noise from Asda and indeed lots of noise from everybody else," Sainsbury's CEO Mike Coupe told reporters.

"If things change, we'll deal with that but we'll maintain our price position," he added.

He said Sainsbury's had stuck to a strategy of lowering its regular prices and cutting back on multi-buy promotions, adding that it had never been more competitive on prices than now.

Coupe's strategy is also focused on better product quality and availability as well as improvements to customer service. However, the company has still reported two straight years of profit decline.

Sainsbury's is the second largest of Britain's main supermarket groups, trailing clear market leader Tesco but ahead of Asda and Morrisons.

"While investors continue to worry about the possibility of an Asda backlash...Sainsbury's appears to be paying the heavier price of Tesco taking back customers," said analysts at Jefferies.

HOME RETAIL DEAL

Coupe, who has been in the top job for almost two years, was speaking after Sainsbury's reported first quarter sales fell less than feared but combined that with a cautious outlook.

Its shares, down 7 percent over the month before Wednesday's update, gained 1.2 percent to 249.8p by 1100 GMT.

Sainsbury's, which in April agreed a 1.4 billion pound ($2 billion) takeover of Argos-owner Home Retail, said comparable sales fell 0.8 percent, excluding fuel, in the 12 weeks to June 4, its fiscal first quarter.

That was slightly better than analysts' average forecast of down 1.4 percent but compared with a rise of 0.1 percent in the final three months of the supermarket's last financial year, its first quarter of growth in over two years.

"Market conditions remain challenging. Food price deflation continues to impact our sales and pressures on pricing mean the market will remain competitive for the foreseeable future," said Coupe, though he still expects Sainsbury's to outperform its major rivals.

Sainsbury's proposed purchase of Home Retail is currently being considered by the competition regulator, which said last month it would decide by July 25 whether to launch a full investigation.
CMC chief Cruddas poised to cash in on post-Brexit chaos

By Patrick Graham and Noor Zainab Hussain

LONDON, June 8 (Reuters) - Peter Cruddas, one of the City of London's most prominent Brexiteers, has much to gain from the imminent vote on Britain's membership of the European Union, no matter the outcome.

While other UK companies are fretting about the impact of the referendum on their business, Cruddas is one of those who could cash in the more turmoil the vote generates.

"From a business point of view we are not concerned about it (the referendum) at all," he said. "We think from a volatility point of view it will generate more business for us."

His spreadbetting firm, CMC Markets, went public this year almost three decades after Cruddas launched it with a 10,000 pound investment. CMC lodged profits on Wednesday of 53.4 million pounds ($78 million) for the full year to March.

Cruddas said he was optimistic, after a sluggish couple of months, of a boost this month to the volatility the company thrives on as one of the biggest of a new generation of online financial gambling portals.

That would come less than a year after Cruddas, a former Treasurer of Britain's ruling Conservative Party donated 1 million pounds to the Leave campaign being led by former London Mayor Boris Johnson and other senior Conservatives.

"I'm not involved with the campaign. I'm working full time in CMC. I've helped them raise money and I definitely don't regret it. I think we'll win, I think we'll Brexit."

Cruddas said the bulk of his London-based workers would be at their desks through the night after the polls close on June 23.

Cruddas and Chief Financial Officer Grant Foley, scarred by lessons from a surge in the Swiss franc last year which left the company in conflict with clients, said they would have up to 40 additional workers in the office compared to normal staffing.

They said that the company, which listed on the London stock market in February with a valuation of 691 million pounds ($1 billion), was on track to achieve its target of 220 million pounds net operating income in the year ended March 2020.

Its rivals include IG Group Plc, Denmark's Saxo Bank and FXCM Inc.

CMC said active client numbers grew 14 percent to 57,329 in the year, while revenue per active client rose 4 percent to 2,828 pounds. The value of client trades rose 445 billion pounds to 2,071 billion pounds.

CMC, whose stock has risen 15 percent since its debut, said it would pay a final dividend of 5.36 pence per share, up from the 3.57 pence it paid last year.
Egyptian airliner makes emergency landing in Uzbekistan after bomb threat

MOSCOW, June 8 (Reuters) - An Egyptian passenger plane, en route from Cairo to Beijing, has made an emergency landing in the town of Urgench in Uzbekistan after a bomb threat, Uzbek state carrier Uzbekistan Airways said in a statement on Wednesday.

There were 118 passengers and 17 crew members on board, all of whom were safely evacuated, the Uzbek company said. It did not specify the name of the Egyptian airline, though Russian news agencies reported the plane belonged to EgyptAir.
Bomb threat forces EgyptAir plane to make emergency landing in Uzbekistan

MOSCOW/CAIRO, June 8 (Reuters) - An EgyptAir passenger plane, en route from Cairo to Beijing, was forced to make an emergency landing in Uzbekistan on Wednesday after receiving what two Egyptian aviation sources said was a false bomb threat.

All 118 passengers and 17 crew members on board the Airbus A-330-220 plane were safely evacuated, Uzbek state carrier Uzbekistan Airways said in a statement.

There was no statement from EgyptAir or official confirmation that the threat was a hoax.

The plane landed in Urgench, in western Uzbekistan, after EgyptAir received a call saying there was a bomb on board, two Egyptian aviation sources said. The plane was then searched, but no explosives were found, they said.

"The plane is preparing to resume its journey. It was a hoax, thank God," said one of the officials.

An EgyptAir Airbus-320 jet, en route from Paris to Cairo, crashed in the Mediterranean last month, killing all 66 people on board. An investigation to determine why and exactly where it crashed continues.
Twelve people killed, 50 kidnapped in Afghan highway attacks

GHAZNI, Afghanistan, June 8 (Reuters) - Suspected Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan killed 12 people after stopping their vehicles on a road in the east of the country, while 50 people were kidnapped in the north, the latest in a spate of highway attacks, officials said on Wednesday.

The Taliban have made considerable gains in fighting in various parts of the country in recent months and the killing of their leader, Mullah Akhtar Mansour, in a U.S. drone attack last month has had no discernable impact on the violence.

Attackers in the eastern province of Ghazni stopped two cars late on Tuesday and shot dead everyone they found. Several members of the security forces were among those killed, said Jawid Salangi a spokesman for the provincial governor.

"Taliban ordered the passengers out and brutally shot them dead," Salangi said.

Villagers later found 12 bodies, he said.

Taliban spokesmen were not immediately available for comment.

On Wednesday, suspected Taliban stopped a bus and a car near the northern city of Kunduz and took all 50 people in the vehicles hostage, a police spokesman in the area, Mahfozullah Akbari, told Reuters.

"We are putting all our efforts into freeing them as soon as we can," he said.

Travellers have faced a string of murders and kidnappings on roads in recent weeks.

Insurgents killed at least nine people and kidnapped 20 when they held up three buses in Kunduz late last month.
Four Malaysians held hostage in the Philippines freed, army says

MANILA/KUALA LUMPUR, June 8 (Reuters) - Four Malaysian sailors kidnapped by Filipino gunmen in April were freed on the southern Philippine island of Jolo on Wednesday, a Philippine army spokesman said.

The sailors, part of the crew of a tugboat travelling between Malaysia and the Philippines, were abducted by members of the Abu Sayyaf militant group off the eastern Malaysian state of Sabah on April 1.

It was not immediately clear if a ransom had been paid. The Philippines rarely publicises such payments, but it is widely believed no captives are released without them.

Canadian John Ridsdel, 68, a former mining executive, was executed in April by Abu Sayyaf who captured him and three others in 2015 while they were on vacation on a Philippine island.

Philippine Major Filemon Tan told reporters the Malaysians were released on Jolo, Abu Sayyaf's stronghold in the southern Philippines.

The sailors were then sent by speedboat to Sabah.

"We have yet to confirm whether ransom money was paid in exchange for the safe release of the victims," Tan said, adding that the kidnapping was led by Abu Sayyaf leader Madjan Sahidjuan, also known as Apuh Mike.

Malaysian authorities have yet to confirm the sailors' release.

Abu Sayyaf, a group linked to the Islamic State, have become notorious for kidnapping, earning millions of dollars in ransom.

Last month, 14 Indonesians kidnapped by the group were released but several people, including Norwegian, Canadian and Japanese citizens are still being held.
UK industrial output growth hits 6-year high in three months to May

LONDON, July 7 (Reuters) - British industrial output expanded at the fastest pace in six years during the three months to May, suggesting the sector was on track to contribute to economic growth before the vote to leave the EU.

Industrial output rose 1.9 percent in the three months to May compared with the previous three months, the strongest increase since May 2010 and reflecting strong growth in April.

In May alone, industrial output slipped 0.5 percent, a smaller decrease than the 1.0 percent drop forecast in a Reuters poll of economists.

These figures are likely to be viewed mostly as moot by financial markets after Britain's decision last month to leave the EU, which sent the currency tumbling and has raised fears the country will fall into recession or suffer years of weak growth.

Still, for industrial output to drag on economic growth it in the second quarter, it would have to plummet at least 6.0 percent in June alone - something that has not happened since 1979, the ONS said.

Industrial output fell 0.2 percent in the first quarter, a slightly smaller decrease than the latest economic growth figures suggested.

Britain's overall economy slowed in the first quarter, with the pace of growth easing to 0.4 percent compared with 0.7 percent in the previous three months.

Manufacturing output also fell 0.5 percent month-on-month, again a smaller decrease than economists had expected. The pharmaceutical sector, which surged in April, was one of the main drags.

A series of surveys of businesses from Markit/CIPS published last week suggested economic growth was on course to slow to just 0.2 percent in the April-June period, with most of the data collected before th June 23 referendum.

British manufacturing expanded at the fastest pace in five months in June before Britons voted to leave the European Union last week, according to the Markit/CIPS survey conducted almost entirely before the historic referendum.

The Bank of England has said economic data are likely to be volatile and tricky to interpret around the referendum.
North Korea restarts plutonium production for nuclear bombs - U.S. official

By Jonathan Landay, David Brunnstrom and Matt Spetalnick

WASHINGTON, June 7 (Reuters) - North Korea has restarted production of plutonium fuel, a senior U.S. State Department official said on Tuesday, showing that it plans to pursue its nuclear weapons program in defiance of international sanctions.

The U.S. assessment came a day after the U.N. nuclear watchdog said it had "indications" that Pyongyang has reactivated a plant to recover plutonium from spent reactor fuel at Yongbyon, its main nuclear complex.

The latest developments suggest North Korea's reclusive regime is working to ensure a steady supply of materials for its drive to build warheads, despite tightened international sanctions after its fourth nuclear test in January.

The U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that Washington is worried by the new plutonium reprocessing effort, but he offered no explicit word on any U.S. response.

"Everything in North Korea is a cause for concern," the official told Reuters.

"They take the spent fuel from the 5 megawatt reactor at Yongbyon and let it cool and then take it to the reprocessing facility, and that's where they've obtained the plutonium for their previous nuclear tests. So they are repeating that process," the official said. "That's what they're doing."

North Korea, which conducted its fourth nuclear test in January, vowed in 2013 to restart all nuclear facilities, including the main reactor and the smaller plant at Yongbyon, which was shut down in 2007 as part of an international disarmament-for-aid deal that later collapsed.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has no access to North Korea and mainly monitors its activities by satellite, said last year it had seen signs of a resumption of activity at Yongbyon.

IAEA chief Yukiya Amano told a news conference in Vienna on Monday that there have been indications of renewed plutonium reprocessing activities at Yongbyon. Reprocessing involves extracting plutonium from spent reactor fuel, one route to obtaining bomb fuel other than uranium enrichment.

"I would agree that there are indications," the U.S. official said.

The official declined to confirm whether this determination was made from satellite imagery or intelligence sources, or to say how much plutonium North Korea could produce by this method.

South Korea's Unification Ministry spokesman Cheong Joon-hee said Seoul was closely watching movements related to the North's nuclear facility "with grave concern" but declined to comment directly on plutonium production.

A spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry said China, North Korea's lone major ally, has always promoted the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and a resolution of the issue via talks.

"We hope all parties can work hard together to put the nuclear issue back on the track of dialogue and negotiations," spokesman Hong Lei told reporters.

SHROUDED IN SECRECY

North Korea announced at a rare congress of its ruling Workers' Party last month that it would strengthen its defensive nuclear weapons capability.

It had already declared itself "a responsible nuclear weapons state" and disavowed the use of nuclear weapons unless its sovereignty is first infringed by others with nuclear arms.

While North Korea in the past has often obtained key components for its nuclear program from other countries despite international sanctions, there was no sign of any recent outside procurement involved in reactivating its plutonium reprocessing, the U.S. official said.

There is little proven knowledge about the quantities of weapons-grade uranium or plutonium that North Korea possesses, or its ability to produce either, though plutonium from spent fuel at Yongbyon is widely believed to have been used in its nuclear bombs.

South Korean Defense Minister Han Min-koo said last month the North probably had about 40 kg (88 lb) of plutonium. That would be enough to make eight to 10 bombs, according to experts.

Operating the 5 megawatt reactor could yield about 5-6 kg of plutonium a year, they said.

Experts at the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies in Washington predicted last year that North Korea's nuclear weapons stockpile could grow to 20, 50 or 100 bombs within five years, from an estimated 10 to 16 weapons at that time.

North Korea has come under tightening international pressure over its nuclear weapons program, including tougher U.N. sanctions adopted in March backed by China, following its most recent nuclear blast and ballistic missile tests.

The website 38 North reported last week, based on commercial satellite imagery, that exhaust plumes had been detected twice in May from the thermal plant at Yongbyon's Radiochemical Laboratory, the site's main reprocessing installation.

The Institute for Science and International Security also reported exhaust emissions from a chimney at the plant, which it said was often associated with reprocessing activities there.
WIDER IMAGE-In Indonesia, 'national defence' training against perceived threats

By Eveline Danubrata and Johan Purnomo

BOGOR, Indonesia, June 7 (Reuters) - Yakobus Mebri stepped in front of his classmates at a training centre in Indonesia's West Java province and, at the top of his voice, demanded if their hearts burned to defend the nation.

"It does! It does! It does!" the recruits thundered back, breaking into what appeared like a war dance.

Their instructor, Major General Hartind Asrin, then asked them to sit down: the Bela Negara - "defend the nation" - class was starting.

"We have to be more vigilant of potential threats in their infancy," he said as students diligently took notes.

The sprawling training centre in Bogor, about 60 km (35 miles) south of the capital, Jakarta, is at the heart of a movement spearheaded by officials from the ministry of defence and military against perceived threats such as communism, drugs and homosexuality.

The concept of defending the nation in this way has existed since before Indonesia's independence in 1945, officials say, but they now see a need to shore up protection against "influences" that deviate from the founding principles and norms of the country with the world's largest Muslim population.

Over the last few months, the movement has gained momentum, partly in a reaction to support from President Joko Widodo for an investigation into an anti-communist purge in 1965.

Historians say at least 500,000 people died in the violence that followed when suspected communists killed six generals in an attempted coup against then-president Sukarno.

Successive governments have refused to apologise or accept that death toll, and Widodo's move has outraged many among the military's elite.

"THEY DESERVED TO DIE"

Defence minister and retired general Ryamizard Ryacudu, who told Reuters recently that communists may now be seeking revenge, last week drew a comparison with the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945 to justify the massacre of half a century ago.

"This was an uprising, they deserved to die," he told a conference of retired officers and nationalist groups from which a reporter said she was ejected because some there accused her of being a lackey of the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI).

More than 2,000 members of "Bela Negara" and Islamic groups marched from a mosque to the presidential palace in Jakarta on Friday to protest against what they see as a resurgence of communism, burning hammer-and-sickle flags in the streets.

Many in the march said they feared a revival of the PKI, which was one of the largest communist parties in the world before it was outlawed in 1966.

Like other protesters Reuters asked, 40-year-old Ilyas from Jakarta had never met a communist. But he had seen signs of their return: "Many features of communism have appeared, from the perspective of culture and clothing and other areas," he said.

Under the authoritarian General Suharto who took over from Sukarno, the PKI was dissolved and leftist symbols were banned.

Critics believe the recent whipping-up of a "red scare" - along with condemnations of gays and other "foreign influences" - is an attempt by the army to re-militarise Indonesian society following its loss of influence in civil and political affairs with Suharto's fall from power in 1998.

JOGGING, SONGS AND LECTURES

"Bela Negara" official Major General Asrin told Reuters the programme was necessary to strengthen nationalistic values and said about 1.8 million people had signed up for it.

Officials aim to have almost 900 training centres across the country by early 2018, with lesson materials and funding being provided by the government and trainers coming from the military or police, Asrin said.

At the training centre, a typical day starts at 5 a.m. with a jog, songs and marches, followed by lectures and practical sessions. Officials insist the aim is to make people better citizens, not soldiers, though Reuters saw some participants learning how to assemble a gun.

The spirit of "Bela Negara" can be implemented in various forms, such as reporting a misbehaving peer to the authorities, said Gianto, one of 10 trainers at the centre, who teaches a session on leadership skills.

Gianto, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, said he tried to instil a "one for all, all for one" mindset in his students and said a practical example of this would be punishing an entire group of students for the mistake of an individual.

The programme stemmed from the concerns of the authorities that some trends in society were not in line with nationalistic values, said political analyst Djayadi Hanan.

"But it became controversial because the military and the defence ministry are involved in this programme, prompting suspicion that this is militarisation," he said.

For "Bela Negara" student Mebri, however, it will cultivate in Indonesians a love for their country from a young age.

"This course helps me to shape my character and personality, so I'll become a strong, determined and honest person who is always ready to follow the orders of my superiors," he said.
Turkey blames Kurdish militants for Istanbul car bombing

By Tulay Karadeniz and Seyhmus Cakan

ANKARA/MIDYAT, Turkey, June 8 (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's office blamed Kurdish militants for a car bombing that killed 11 people in central Istanbul, while a second bomb on Wednesday killed five people in the largely Kurdish southeast.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, meanwhile, said that the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), blamed for Tuesday's attack in Istanbul, had recently sought to revive peace talks and offered to lay down their arms.

A ceasefire with the PKK collapsed almost a year ago, setting off the worst violence the country has seen in two decades. Yildirim, in comments broadcast live by TRT television, said Turkey would not negotiate to end the violence.

The car bomb on Tuesday ripped through a police bus during the morning rush hour in Istanbul, killing six police officers and five civilians near the main tourist district, a major university and the mayor's office.

On Wednesday the bomb targeted a police station in the southeastern town of Midyat, killing three civilians and two police officers and wounding more than 30 others. The province borders Syria in a region where Kurdish militants have waged a three-decade insurgency.

"All indicators and signs regarding the attack in Istanbul yesterday point to the separatist terror organisation," Erdogan's spokesman Ibrahim Kalin told a news conference, referring to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

"The Midyat attack is very fresh and we can only make an assessment once we have all the information," Kalin said.

There has been no claim of responsibility from Kurdish militants. They have carried out similar attacks in Turkey's major cities in the recent past as violence has spiralled since the ceasefire with the PKK collapsed almost a year ago.

The unrest has been fuelled by the war in Syria. Turkey says the PKK - considered a terrorist organisation by Ankara, the European Union and the United States - has deep ties to the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia fighting just across the border.

The groups do not deny links. The PKK founded the YPG as a Syrian organisation a decade ago and both are inspired by Abdullah Ocalan, who led the PKK from its inception and lived in Syria shortly before his capture in 1999. He remains in jail.

Clashes broke out between security forces and PKK militants in Midyat during the attack when the explosion destroyed the facade of a five-storey block, security sources said.

"Whether they carry out suicide bombings in our cities, whatever methods they use, they can never wear down this nation and can never pull us back from this honourable fight," Yildirim said after visiting wounded in Istanbul.

Referring to the PKK's offer to revive peace talks, Yildirim said: "These days, the terrorist organisation has conveyed messages, directly and indirectly, saying 'We can negotiate, we will put down our weapons, let's talk' ... There is nothing to talk about," he said.

The collapse last year of peace negotiations with the autonomy-seeking PKK reignited the three-decade war in July 2015. Thousands of militants and hundreds of security forces have died in the mainly Kurdish southeast, the government says.

Opposition parties and rights groups estimate that between 500 and 1,000 civilians have also been killed.

Security concerns have weighed on tourism and investor confidence in Turkey.
Austria's far-right Freedom Party has launched a court challenge of presidential election results that saw their candidate lose by just 0.6 per cent once postal votes were counted.

Nobert Hofer was running for the FPO and would have become the first far-right head of state in the European Union.

When postal ballots were counted, Hofer lost a tight run-off to former Greens leader Alexander Van der Bellen with only 31,000 votes in it.

Austria's far-right Freedom Party has launched a court challenge of presidential election results after their candidate Nobert Hofer lost a tight run-off to former Greens leader Alexander Van der Bellen with only 31,000 votes in it

But now the FPO leader Heinz-Christian Strache, has announced the party will be challenging the result of the election in Austria's constitutional court.

Announcing the legal challenge in Vienna, he said: 'We are not sore losers. This is about protecting the very foundations of democracy.

'The extent of irregularities is more than terrifying. That's why I feel obliged to challenge the result.

'You don't have to be a conspiracy theorist to have a bad gut feeling about this whole election... Without these irregularities Hofer could have become president.'

Austrian authorities have said they were investigating several cases of alleged election irregularities.

The FPO leader Heinz-Christian Strache has announced today his party a mounting a legal challenge over the election result

For the most part, however, the allegations concerned postal votes being opened for counting too early, and were not thought capable of changing the overall result.

It was unclear what the next legal steps would be but Van der Bellen, the winner of the election, is due to be sworn in on July 8.

The post of president is largely ceremonial in Austria, but governments across Europe breathed a sigh of relief at his defeat.

Mirroring the rise of other populists in Europe and beyond, Hofer tapped into unease about immigration and Austria's faltering economy to win support.

It was unclear what the next legal steps would be but Van der Bellen, the winner of the election, pictured, is due to be sworn in on July 8

He was portrayed as moderate but believes Islam is not part of Austria, opposes gay marriage and says that if the country were not a member of the EU, he would vote against joining.

The vote in Austria has unsettled leaders elsewhere in Europe, particularly in neighbouring Germany where the new anti-immigration Alternative for Germany is on the rise.

French Prime Minister Manual Valls also voiced 'relief' over the razor-thin victory.

In France, the National Front of Marine Le Pen is leading in polls ahead of a presidential election next year.
Eritrea rejects "politically motivated" rights charges by U.N. body

NAIROBI, June 8 (Reuters) - Eritrea's government said on Wednesday it rejected what it called unfounded accusations of human rights abuses made in a report by a U.N. Commission of Inquiry (COI) and said the investigators were driven by political concerns.
PKK carried out car bomb which killed 3 in Turkey's southeast - PM

ISTANBUL, June 8 (Reuters) - Three people including a police officer were killed in a car bomb attack carried out by Kurdish militants in Turkey's southeastern town of Midyat, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Wednesday.

More than 30 people were wounded in the bombing, Yildirim told reporters. He was speaking after visiting those injured in a similar attack a day earlier in Istanbul, when a police bus was targeted in a car bomb which killed 11 people.
Security hoax forces EgyptAir plane to make emergency landing in Uzbekistan

MOSCOW/CAIRO, June 8 (Reuters) - An EgyptAir passenger plane en route from Cairo to Beijing was forced to make an emergency landing in Uzbekistan on Wednesday after receiving a security threat that the airline said turned out to be a hoax.

All 118 passengers and 17 crew members on board the Airbus plane were evacuated in Urgench, western Uzbekistan, after the threat was made three hours into the flight, EgyptAir said in a statement.

The plane and passengers were searched by Uzbek authorities who confirmed that the threat was a hoax, it said.

"The necessary actions are underway to resume the journey to Beijing Airport," it said.

The emergency landing comes weeks after an EgyptAir flight crashed into the Mediterranean on May 19, killing all 66 people on board. An investigation is underway into the causes of the disaster.

EgyptAir has received a number of bomb threats since the crash, all of which have turned out to be hoaxes.

An EgyptAir official, who asked not to be named because he is not authorised to speak to the media, said the hoaxes had caused numerous delays and cost the company a lot of money.

"It is a conspiracy against EgyptAir," he said. "It is very costly."

Last month's crash was the third major aviation incident for Egypt since a Russian plane was brought down by a bomb in late October. In March, a man wearing a fake suicide belt hijacked an EgyptAir plane and diverted it to Cyprus.

Wednesday's false security threat, which was unusual in that it was made after the plane had taken off, could add to a climate of uncertainty that has already put off visitors.

The number of tourists visiting Egypt fell 54 percent in April 2016 compared to a year earlier as Egypt has struggled to restore confidence and lure visitors back to its sandy beaches and pharaonic relics.

Egypt's tourism industry, a cornerstone of the economy and a critical source of hard currency, has been struggling since the 2011 uprising that ended Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule and ushered in a period of political and economic upheaval.
German envoy urges Macedonian leaders to agree on new election date

SKOPJE, June 8 (Reuters) - Germany's special envoy for Macedonia urged political parties in the Balkan country on Wednesday to agree on a new date for a parliamentary election seen as key to resolving a year-long crisis triggered by a wiretapping scandal.

In an EU-brokered deal last year, Macedonia's political parties agreed to hold an early election and also agreed that a special prosecutor should investigate allegations that former prime minister Nikola Gruevski and his close allies authorised eavesdropping on more than 20,000 people.

In April President Gjorge Ivanov pardoned 56 officials over their involvement in the scandal, prompting nationwide protests that led to the cancellation of an election set for June 5.

But on Monday Ivanov bowed to the European Union, the United States and opposition demands and revoked his decision to pardon the remaining 34 officials.

"The good news is that there is a way out (of the crisis)," the German special envoy for Macedonia, Johannes Haindl, told reporters after meeting the country's leaders.

"First, parties need to agree on an election date and they need to do what it takes to fulfil the conditions for free and fair elections," he said.

Both Gruevski's VMRO-DPMNE party and the Social Democrats, the biggest opposition party, agree that snap elections would be a way out of the crisis. But the Social Democrats say free and fair elections are not possible unless voter lists are updated and media freedom is guaranteed.
Afghanistan orders curbs on media's use of drones

By Mirwais Harooni

KABUL, June 8 (Reuters) - In a country known for the widespread use of military unmanned aircraft, the Afghan government on Wednesday moved to restrict the use of camera drones by media companies.

The Interior Ministry announced the policy, citing national security.

"The Interior Ministry, with all respect it has to media, respectfully announces to all national and international media that they should not use such cameras that have broad coverage and can create problems for security institutions," the ministry said in a statement.

Afghanistan's National Security Council issued the order, the statement said.

The restrictions will not apply to the whole country, but only to sensitive areas like government and military facilities, according to an official at the Ministry of Information and Culture who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The official cited a recent incident in which a local TV news company flew a small drone over the presidential palace in Kabul while covering a large protest.

Many other countries have enacted similar restrictions as they grapple with how to regulate the expanding use of commercial and private remote-controlled aircraft.

Still, the news raised some eyebrows in a country rife with unmanned U.S. military aircraft.

"How about you banning killer drones instead?" wrote one Afghan user on Twitter.

Since the American-led military campaign began in Afghanistan in 2001, foreign militaries have used hundreds of unmanned aircraft to conduct surveillance and air strikes.

Nearly 15 years after a drone first fired missiles in combat, the U.S. military programme has expanded far beyond specific strikes to become an everyday part of the war machine.

Unmanned aircraft now log up to eight times as many flight hours as the few remaining manned aircraft in Afghanistan.
Denmark strips man of citizenship after terrorism conviction

COPENHAGEN, June 8 (Reuters) - Denmark's Supreme Court on Wednesday stripped the citizenship from a Danish-Moroccan bookseller jailed for inciting terrorism, upholding the verdict of a lower court and potentially paving the way for his deportation to Morocco.

Sam Mansour, now 56, was found guilty of supporting al Qaeda and Syria's al-Nusra Front in posts on Facebook and for his help in publishing books by Abu Qatada, a Jordanian cleric who was deported from Britain for trial at home.

He was sentenced to four years in jail in December 2014, but the prosecution sought also to strip him of his citizenship, possible only because he still has Moroccan citizenship.

Denmark's high court took the initial decision to strip Mansour of his Danish citizenship last July, in the first case of its kind in the country. He appealed against that ruling, arguing that he would face torture if returned to Morocco.
Greece to launch tender for power grid operator end June

ATHENS, June 8 (Reuters) - Greece's main power utility will formally launch the sale of a stake in its power grid operator ADMIE in June, a step towards opening up its electricity market and complying with the terms of its international bailout.

PPC controls almost 95 percent of the Greek retail market and must reduce this to below 50 percent by 2020 under its third bailout.

Greece has also promised to sell up to 24 percent in ADMIE, a grid of more than 11,000 km of high-voltage power cables which is fully owned by PPC.

PPC's Chairman and Chief Executive Manolis Panagiotakis said on Wednesday the tender process is expected to start at the end of the month and conclude in October. He said however that it was important that it remained under state control.

"The launch of the tender will be approved by the general assembly (on June 30) and will be published a few days later," Panagiotakis told Reuters on the sidelines of a press briefing.

"We hope that it will be concluded by mid-October and that there will be interest from investors."

Earlier, he said that it was important that PPC received 'just compensation'.

Greece has tried to sell PPC before. Soon after winning parliamentary elections, Greece's leftist Syriza government froze the process, but later pledged that to keep the asset at least partly state-controlled.

Panagiotakis called conditions "adverse and unprecedented".

Owed about 2.5 billion euros ($2.8 billion) in unpaid bills after Greece's deep recession, the company has announced a 15 percent tariff cut for customers who pay consistently on time, a move which may crimp revenues.

Panagiotakis could not estimate the exact impact and said it could be 'negligible'.

However the company was optimistic that collection of overdue payments would improve overall and that state arrears would be settled after the disbursement of fresh bailout loans expected this month.

ADMIE planned to invest in Albania's electricity market, he said, and would also revise costs and take investment and business initiatives.
Colombia's FARC rebels face tough move into politics after peace

By Helen Murphy and Luis Jaime Acosta

TORIBIO, Colombia, June 8 (Reuters) - For decades, Marxist rebels have come down the mountains to recruit fighters, stock up on supplies, and move freely through farmlands around Toribio, a town where generations of some families have joined them in Colombia's five-decade war.

For much of that time, the state has been virtually non-existent in these fertile western highlands, where marijuana and coca grow alongside coffee and sugarcane.

So it is precisely from strongholds like this that the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, hope to build a political movement once guerrilla leaders sign a peace deal with the government, likely later this year.

Yet even here among Toribio's largely poor farmers, there appears to be little enthusiasm for the 7,000 fighters' transformation from armed insurgency into a political party.

"I want nothing to do with them, they've done so much damage," said Martha Secue, 40, tearfully recalling the day five years ago when the FARC detonated a bus bomb outside a small police outpost in Toribio's main square, severing her husband's arm and ending his work as a cobbler.

From her crumbling adobe shack, she struggles to raise three children from the periphery of the illegal marijuana trade, feeding them rice, beans and plantain on good days and sugar water on bad.

"I will never vote for the FARC," she said, watching over a handful of marijuana plants she grows in order to sell to local dealers.

While a unilateral ceasefire by the FARC allows residents to sleep more peacefully at night, the long conflict caused havoc in the area, killing scores of local residents as rebel units battled troops across the valleys.

Across Colombia, the five-decade conflict has cost at least 220,000 lives.

The mostly indigenous residents of this area have long been accused of helping the FARC and many have had family members in its ranks. Only some, though, appear ready to give them a hearing in a new era of peace.

"Let's see what they have to offer, it can't be worse than what we have now," said Teresa Riva, 40, who sells basic foods and soda to marijuana and coca workers at her small grocery store near Toribio. "It's been hard."

Hoping to end Latin America's longest-running insurgency, President Juan Manuel Santos wants Colombians to at least forgive the rebels enough to support a peace accord through a national vote.

"The link between politics and weapons must be broken forever," he said recently, even as he cast doubt on whether the FARC will prosper as a political movement unless it discards its "archaic and Soviet-era" rhetoric of class war.

The FARC says it has always been a political movement, formed in 1964 to fight for social justice and the rural poor. In the 1990s, it had as many as 20,000 armed fighters and posed a serious threat to the government.

But it was then pushed onto the defensive by a U.S.-backed anti-insurgency campaign and its reputation has been hit by its involvement in the illegal drugs trade and human rights abuses that include attacks on civilian targets and the kidnapping of thousands of people for months or years on end.

The FARC wants to radically change Colombia's economic model, nationalize industries like oil and mining, and renegotiate free trade deals. Unable to force those changes in almost four years of negotiations in Cuba, it now plans to take them into electoral politics.

"Our platform's not new," said Benkos Bioho, a member of the FARC negotiating team. "The idea is to mount a broad front to channel people who don't agree with the way things are run."

But polls show more than 90 percent of Colombians have a negative view of the FARC and 77 percent do not want it to participate in politics.

Some analysts believe the rebels use fear to keep residents in line in its strongholds, and that they may get a very different reception once they swap camouflage fatigues and AK-47 rifles for ponchos and farm tools.

PRECEDENTS

In El Salvador, the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front rebel group formed a political party under a 1992 peace pact, quickly became the leading opposition force, won power in 2009 and was re-elected in 2014.

But the FARC has less popular support and Colombia's history of guerrilla groups' transitions into politics is a bloody one.

The Patriotic Union (UP), formed under a previous attempt at peace with the FARC in 1985, had about 5,000 members and supporters murdered, including two presidential candidates, by right-wing paramilitary death squads.

The M-19 rebel movement was also attacked after signing peace. Its presidential candidate, Carlos Pizarro, was shot dead on a commercial flight in 1990.

Since then, however, violence has eased and a former M-19 leader was elected mayor of Bogota, Colombia's second most powerful position.

Antonio Navarro Wolff, a senator and former M-19 rebel who lost his leg in an assassination attempt, says the FARC's path to politics could be dangerous.

"The FARC has many enemies," said Navarro, 67, adding the rebels would need to drop their more radical policies to succeed. "They will have to win support gradually and show that their bid for peace is genuine."

Aida Avella, a UP leader who took exile in Switzerland in 1997, received scores of death threats when she returned to Colombia to run for president in 2014.

"We worry about the resurgence of paramilitary groups," she said from an office adorned with pictures of the old Soviet Union and images of Argentine revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara. "They are revitalizing."

To succeed politically, the FARC would need to form alliances and begin at grassroots, says analyst Ariel Avila, who reckons it has 600,000 sympathizers in the country of 47 million people, possibly enough for it to win a few seats in Congress.

There are already signs the FARC is gradually changing its tone and becoming more conciliatory.

At peace talks, its leaders have agreed to help substitute illegal crops like coca and marijuana for coffee and fruits, release child soldiers and help clear land mines. Government officials say local rebel leaders are also working quietly with human rights groups to create political networks as a step towards building electoral support.

And a new mood is being felt in towns like Toribio.
After outcry, Philippines' Duterte says does not condone journalist killings

MANILA, June 8 (Reuters) - Denounced by journalists' groups for a comment that news people were "not exempted from assassination", Philippine President-elect Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday changed his stance, vowing to protect them and pursue their killers.

The 71-year-old lawyer was elected president on May 9, propelled by his loud approval of hundreds of execution-style killings of criminals over nearly two decades, and takes office at the end of June.

About 175 journalists have been killed in the Philippines since 1986. The country ranks 138th among 180 nations in the 2016 World Press Freedom Index of Reporters Without Borders.

"I do not condone nor tolerate killing of journalists, regardless of the motive of the killers, or the reason for their killing," said Duterte, who has stopped holding news conferences in the wake of his controversial remarks.

"I never said that killing journalists is justified because they are involved in corruption," Duterte said in a statement sent to news organisations by his spokesman, Salvador Panelo.

"My duty as president is to uphold and enforce the law and I will pursue and prosecute these killers to the hilt."

Last week, Duterte said journalists were "not exempted from assassination if you are a son of a bitch", drawing an outcry from journalist groups, including France-based Reporters Without Borders, which called for a press boycott of the leader.

"Reporters Without Borders is outraged by Philippine President-elect Rodrigo Duterte's comment yesterday that corrupt journalists are legitimate murder targets," the group said on June 1, demanding legal action against him.

Although political allies said Duterte, who has been mayor of the southern city of Davao for seven terms, was quoted out of context, he himself declined to apologise for his fierce media criticism, characterising some journalists as "vultures".

On Wednesday, Duterte explained the context of his comment.

"What I said is that you don't have to be a journalist to be the subject of an assassination," he added.

"There are many cases where journalists are killed by reason of their advocacy, but there are those who are killed because they take sides and accept bribes and renege on their commitments.

"The noble vocation of journalism does not apply to extortionists and criminals."

A Philippine group of lawyers and journalists working for press freedom said it welcomed Duterte's latest statement.
Denmark strips man of citizenship after terrorism conviction

COPENHAGEN, June 8 (Reuters) - Denmark's Supreme Court on Wednesday stripped the citizenship from a Danish-Moroccan bookseller jailed for inciting terrorism, upholding the verdict of a lower court and potentially paving the way for his deportation to Morocco.

Sam Mansour, now 56, was found guilty of supporting al Qaeda and Syria's al-Nusra Front in posts on Facebook and for his help in publishing books by Abu Qatada, a Jordanian cleric who was deported from Britain for trial at home.

He was sentenced to four years in jail in December 2014, but the prosecution sought also to strip him of his citizenship, possible only because he still has Moroccan citizenship.

Denmark's high court took the initial decision to strip Mansour of his Danish citizenship last July, in the first case of its kind in the country. He appealed against that ruling, arguing that he would face torture if returned to Morocco.

It was not immediately clear after the Supreme Court's ruling on Wednesday whether he would serve out the remainder of his jail term or be deported immediately to Morocco.

Mansour's defence lawyer told Danish television his client would appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.
Eight numbers listed in the Protect Montana Kids Commissions report to Gov. Steve Bullock summarize the crisis:

35,182 calls received by the Child Abuse Hotline in 2015.

17,753 reports of alleged abuse or neglect entered by hotline staff.

8,908 investigations.

3,170 Montana children in foster care.

111 percent increase in children in foster care between 2008 and 2015.

2,321 child abuse and neglect cases filed in District Courts.

125 percent increase in abuse and neglect cases filed between 2010 and 2015.

4 percent reduction in Child and Family Services Division staff positions between 2010 and 2015.

The commission Bullock created in December delivered its recommendations to him last week. They include several changes in state laws on child protection and long-term reforms for the staffing and operation of the Child and Family Services Division. However, Montanas child protection system first needs immediate help to increase staffing, improve staff retention and work more effectively with foster parents and other child service providers.

Theres an enormous gap between Montanas current child protection resources and the safety standards recommended by the Child Welfare League of America and the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

Montana now has 178 child protection caseworker positions, and needs 121 more to meet safety standards for no more than 15 children per caseworker doing investigations and ongoing services.

Montana has just 25 workers assisting foster families and needs 158 more to meet the standard of one worker per 15 children. Additional supervisors are needed, too.

Those numbers actually underestimate Montana needs because they are based on having 8,000 investigations per year and 2,750 children in foster care. In 2015, the understaffed CFSD conducted nearly 9,000 investigations and this spring the number of children in foster care exceeded 3,000 for the first time in Montana history.

The commission recommended that, within 12 months, the CFSD fill all vacancies. Further, the commission said funding must be requested from the 2017 Legislature for additional staff to reduce caseloads and allow the division to begin to develop long-term improvement plans. Better communication within the department and with families, foster parents and other service providers also demands urgent attention, the commission said. It recommends that the governor direct a state advisory council to monitor progress in implementing commission recommendations.

The members of the commission are commended for their determination to present workable solutions. They include District Judge Leslie Halligan, of Missoula, who led the commission; Jani McCall, longtime child mental health advocate and former Billings City Council member; Montana Chief Public Defender Bill Hooks; and Bart Klika, a professor of social work at the University of Montana. Other members work in law, pediatrics and other childrens services.

The commission recognized that Montana must do more to prevent child abuse from occurring, and that solutions must involve people and agencies beyond CFSD.

The commission is under no illusion that there are easy answers to the challenges Montana faces in the ever-growing number of children who have experienced child abuse or neglect. We must, however, come together to stem this tide and fulfill our obligations to the children of this state, the report concludes.

In the commissions last meeting, a conference call to finalize the report, members were adamant that the report is a call to action.

The next steps are up to Bullock. He has received good advice, he must implement the short-term improvements and build adequate child protection funding into his 2017-2019 budget proposal.
Turkey expects positive outcome in coming days in EU visa talks -presidency spokesman

ANKARA, June 8 (Reuters) - Turkey expects a positive outcome in coming days in talks with the European Union about visa-free travel for Turks, a spokesman for President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday.

Ibrahim Kalin also told a news conference in Ankara that EU allies should not ask for measures that limit Turkey's capacity to fight terrorism.
Suzuki patriarch steps down from CEO post as mileage test storm grows

By Naomi Tajitsu

TOKYO, June 8 (Reuters) - Suzuki Motor Corp patriarch Osamu Suzuki is stepping down as chief executive and the Japanese automaker promised to cut executive pay and slash 2015 bonuses after the bruising admission of major flaws in its fuel tests.

Executive Vice President Osamu Honda, who also served as chief technical officer, will retire, taking responsibility for the research and development team at the heart of the testing scandal.

The company said that board members would choose the next CEO on June 29 after its annual shareholder's meeting, and that the top executive would be selected from among the board members.

Japan's No. 4 automaker by sales said in May it had used the wrong methods to calculate mileage for models going back to 2010, widening a mileage testing storm that had already rocked smaller rival Mitsubishi Motors Corp.

Those followed accounting scandals at Olympus Corp and Toshiba Corp, prompting criticism from some investors that the Japanese government's push to introduce new corporate governance rules has failed to shake up a cozy and often secretive corporate culture.

Suzuki, who has led the company for nearly four decades, acknowledged that during the past few years it had become difficult to oversee all of the company's operations on his own.

"Upon reflection, I believe that this may have contributed to the latest incident," he told reporters on Wednesday.

Suzuki, 86, will remain as chairman, but his narrower role is a recognition of responsibility for a testing error the company previously shrugged off.

The automaker used indoor tests for its cars' individual parts, rather than testing vehicles on an outdoor course. It said this was done because its testing site is on a windy hill by the sea, making readings erratic.

On Wednesday, it also blamed a lack of transparency in its key research unit.

"This latest incident occurred because of problems within the company which had continued for a long time, including an R&D division which was not transparent enough," said Toshihiro Suzuki, the chairman's eldest son. He took over from his father as president last year.

"We are making these changes today to try to regain the trust of our customers, and to rebuild Team Suzuki."

Suzuki, as chairman, will oversee efforts to strengthen compliance and improve training for engineers, while reworking its mileage testing procedures to ensure they comply with regulations.

Raided by Japanese investigators last week as part of a probe over the tests, Suzuki also said it would encourage whistle-blowing.

Suzuki's changed role and Honda's retirement are effective June 29, subject to approval by shareholders at its annual general meeting, the company said.
Chinese investment welcome in France... up to a point

By Paul Taylor

PARIS, June 8 (Reuters) - When reports hit the headlines in France that a state-owned Chinese firm might be taking creeping control of AccorHotels, a national champion and Europe's biggest hotel chain, President Francois Hollande felt obliged to respond.

"Accor has Chinese shareholders because it is growing in Asia," Hollande told La Voix du Nord newspaper. "But I am watching closely to make sure that the capital of this big company remains in diverse hands."

The comment signalled a desire for Chinese authorities to restrain tourism group Jin Jiang, majority owned by the city of Shanghai, from going beyond its current 15 percent holding to acquire a controlling stake in AccorHotels.

AccorHotels, which controls 3,900 hotels from the luxury Sofitel brand to the budget Ibis, is not a strategic national asset by any French legal definition but it is a household name.

Jin Jiang may have stumbled into the firing line of French establishment alarm over a spate of departures of other blue-chip companies to foreign capitalist shores.

"Today, foreign investor groups are interested in France because of our companies' strong performance. But we have to be careful not to lose the decision-making centres," Hollande said.

Media and politicians have raised the alarm after several stalwarts of the CAC40 index came under foreign flags, in some cases for what look like tax reasons.

They include engineering corporation Alstom, swallowed by U.S. giant General Electric last year; telecoms equipment maker Alcatel, taken over by Nokia of Finland; cement manufacturer Lafarge, which merged with Swiss group Holcim and moved headquarters to Zurich; and oil services company Technip, which is merging with FMC Technologies of the United States and moving to London.

"There is an understandable sense of panic," said economist Elie Cohen, director of research at the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). "We have seen an accelerating haemorrhage of big French corporations in the last two years."

INVESTMENT VS CONTROL

Like Germany, France has generally welcomed Chinese investment as a boost to its economy and an opportunity to expand into fast growing Asian markets, but it remains more reluctant to cede control, especially over advanced technology.

German Vice-Chancellor and Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel voiced concern last week at a bid by China's Midea Group Co Ltd to take over German industrial robot maker Kuka though the Berlin government has denied reports that it is trying to organise a rival offer.

Jean-Francois Dufour, an analyst at Montsalvy Consulting in Paris specialised in Chinese industrial investment, said Beijing had often complied quietly in the past when foreign governments signalled its companies were not welcome in certain sectors.

"The Chinese government is at least indirectly involved because even private groups need finance from state-owned banks to fund foreign acquisitions," he told Reuters.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has taken a hands-off approach to foreign takeovers of German firms and this year alone, ChemChina agreed to buy machinery maker KraussMaffei for $1 billion; Beijing Enterprise Holdings announced a 1.44 billion euro takeover of German waste management company Energy from Waste; and Fujian Grand Chip Investment Fund LP said it was buying German semiconductor equipment maker Aixtron for 670 million euros.

French officials complain that Beijing does not permit reciprocity in investment. Foreign firms wishing to enter the Chinese market have to partner with Chinese companies and cannot hold more than a 50-percent stake.

The European Union Chamber of Commerce in China said in a survey this week foreign companies face "a business environment that is increasingly hostile combined with a playing field that is perpetually tilted in favour of domestic enterprises".

Debate in Europe on the issue is gaining momentum before a politically sensitive decision by the EU this year on whether to grant China market-economy status, which would give it better protection from anti-dumping lawsuits.

HOUR OF NEED

The French have been eager to seek Chinese capital in their hour of need, or when the state needs cash.

"France accepts Chinese investments when its companies are in trouble, but when it comes to talking about control, that raises opposition," Dufour said.

In late 2013, when PSA Peugeot Citroen was close to bankruptcy, the head of the state shareholdings agency was sent to cajole Chinese state-owned carmaker Dongfeng into paying 800 million euros ($909 million) for a 14 percent stake in the auto manufacturer, balanced by a matching French government stake. Then chairman Thierry Peugeot was not told in advance about the trip and was annoyed.

With Peugeot's finances now back in good health and the government looking to sell off some less strategic holdings, new Chief Executive Carlos Tavares has sounded the clearest note of caution about a possible state withdrawal from Peugeot -- which could shift the power balance in Dongfeng's favour.

In other sectors, Paris has rolled out the red carpet for the Chinese, notably in the travel and tourism sector, keen to strengthen France's place as the third biggest recipient of Chinese investment after Germany and Britain.

A Chinese-led consortium bought a 49.99 percent stake in Toulouse airport last year when the government privatised the regional hub, home of European planemaker Airbus.

France raised no objections when diversified Chinese group Fosun took control of Club Mediterannee, the standard bearer of French middle-class holiday culture, last year after a bidding war with an Italian suitor.

"We on the board went out looking for a Chinese partner ... because we anticipated that China would become the world's biggest tourism market and it wouldn't have made sense to go it alone," Club Med CEO Henri Giscard d'Estaing told Reuters.

The Chinese have also been buying up agricultural assets from milk-producing farms in Brittany to big-name vineyards in Bordeaux and Burgundy without official opposition.

"In the past two years, France has actually been quite open and non-interventionist for Chinese investment," said Francois Godement, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations think-tank. "Up to now, there hasn't been any red light for taking stakes in big French companies in either real estate or tourism."

Godement said Beijing appeared to be pursuing an official strategy of building up holdings in entire value chains such as tourism, to ensure that part of the income from Chinese tourists abroad accrues back to China.
Shell resumes Iranian oil purchases

MOSCOW, June 8 (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell has resumed purchases of Iranian crude, becoming the second major oil firm after Total to restart trade with Tehran after the lifting of sanctions, trading sources said and ship tracking data showed.

Iran has been trying to claw back its market share since international sanctions were lifted in January and regaining a major buyer such as Shell will further aid its cause.

Shell declined to comment.

According to shipping data, Shell fixed Suezmax tanker Delta Hellas to bring 130,000 tonnes of Iranian crude from Kharg Island on July 8 to continental Europe.

Trading sources said the cargo would unload in Rotterdam.

Shell repaid its outstanding debt to Iran from pre-sanction times earlier this year.

Besides Total, European purchases of Iranian crude have gone to refineries in Spain, Greece and Italy since the sanctions were lifted in January this year.

Tehran's re-entry to the oil market has heightened tensions with arch-rival Saudi Arabia and attempts by OPEC to concoct a strategy to boost oil prices have been scuppered as a result.

Iran has resisted Saudi Arabia's calls for output caps as Riyadh is itself aggressively expanding its buyer list ahead of an IPO for its state firm.

A production freeze deal collapsed in April when Tehran skipped a key meeting in Qatar that included non-OPEC members. OPEC delegates also failed to agree on a plan during their June meeting.

Major oil producers including Venezuela and Nigeria have been hit hard by a steep fall and protracted weakness in global oil prices.
South Africa protests to U.S., Britain over militant alerts

JOHANNESBURG, June 8 (Reuters) - South Africa has protested to the U.S. and British embassies after they issued alerts about possible miliant attacks which Pretoria said were based on "very sketchy" information.

Security officials say no known militant groups operate in South Africa, which has seldom been associated with Islamist militancy.

The government has sent a letter to the embassies "to register our displeasure" with the manner in which the matter was handled.

"The information provided as a basis for the latest terror alerts on South Africa has been found to be very sketchy," said foreign ministry spokesman Clayson Monyela and State Security Agency (SSA) spokesman Brian Dube in a joint statement.

"We reject attempts to generate perceptions of government ineptitude, alarmist impressions and public hysteria on the basis of a questionable single source."

Officials at the U.S. Embassy were not available to comment, but the embassy said on Twitter there is no change in the status.

"The Security Message was based on specific, credible, and non-counterable threat information," it said.

On Saturday, the United States warned its citizens of possible attacks by Islamist militants on U.S. facilities or shopping malls in South Africa during the Mulsim holy month of Ramadan.
Berlin court upholds short-term home rental ban

BERLIN, June 8 (Reuters) - A court on Wednesday upheld a city regulation that renders short-time home rentals in the German capital illegal, in a ruling with ramifications for home rental firms like Airbnb.

"The plaintiffs' basic rights are not violated by the regulation and are in line with the constitution," judge Rautgundes Schneidereid said explaining the verdict.

"The availability of affordable housing is severely threatened in the entire city of Berlin and the regulation therefore justified."

Several home-sharing companies had lodged a complaint against an effective ban on short-term rentals in Berlin in the first substantial challenge to such city legislation in Europe and on Wednesday made out their case.
Brazil poll shows majority of Brazilian want new elections

BRASILIA, June 8 (Reuters) - The government of Interim President Michel Temer has a low approval rating among Brazilians and a majority of the country wants new elections to be held this year, according to a poll on Wednesday.

Almost one month after taking over from suspended President Dilma Rousseff, Temer's government has a negative rating from 28 percent of Brazilians, according to the CNT/MDA poll. Only 11.3 percent give it a positive rating, while 30.2 percent find it "regular".

The poll showed 62.4 percent of Brazilians believe the impeachment of Rousseff, who was put on trial by the Senate last month for breaking budget laws, was the right decision.
Moldova says Russia not really helping recover stolen banking assets -PM

By Matthias Williams

CHISINAU, June 8 (Reuters) - Moldovan Prime Minister Pavel Filip said on Wednesday that Russia was not offering enough help to his government to track down and recover $1 billion that was siphoned from the banking system.

The scandal, in which around one eighth of Moldova's gross domestic product disappeared mostly in unsupported loans, caused uproar in the ex-Soviet country - Europe's poorest - and discredited the pro-European leadership that has pivoted it away from Moscow.

Bringing more transparency to the financial sector is a crucial reform needed for Chisinau to secure a memorandum with the International Monetary Fund. That in turn will unlock aid from the European Union on which the 2016 state budget, which has yet to be approved by parliament, relies.

But only 600 million Moldovan lei ($30.5 million) has been clawed back of the missing $1 billion.

"As regards identifying assets, for example, we are working very well with some of the countries. The Baltics for example, where they're really putting the finger on assets or they're showing us exactly what's the network, the chain by which something was passed over," Filip said in an interview.

"Truth is we're not really working well with the Russian Federation as regards this info on their side. As regards any possible financial chains or networks coming via Russia or towards Russia, as regards the money."

Russian lender VEB Capital had a 24.9 percent stake in one of the banks involved in the scandal, Banca de Economii, while one oligarch suspected of involvement in the scandal was believed to have ties to Russia.

Filip, who took over in January amid street protests as the fifth prime minister since 2009, stressed, however, that Moldova and Russia were working on a co-operation agreement between their respective prosecutors, which may improve matters.

Some, including former Prime Minister Ion Sturza, have said the Moldovan banks were a hub for Russian money-laundering.

Filip's government is waiting for recommendations from the Kroll consultancy on how best to recover the assets.

"We are focusing on asset recovery actions. And this is our expectations from the Kroll company to identify all the assets and subsequently to tell us what actions can be legally done," Filip said.

IN THE DRIVING SEAT

Sitting in front of an EU flag, Filip outlined a series of reform measures to restore public confidence in the political system and to show Moldovans that the government is working in their best interests.

The central bank will receive more powers to step in quickly to tackle problems, whereas before, it had to wait for permission from the ministry of justice, Filip said.

A move to slash the number of intrusive inspections -- currently at 69 -- by government institutions into businesses to check on their operations will make the investment climate more favourable, he said.

Another reform will change the mandate of the anti-corruption agency to focus only on high-level cases. The move follows in the footsteps of Romania, which has seen an unprecedented crackdown on graft into some of its richest and most powerful politicians and businessman.

But while the political situation in Moldova has stabilised, opposition to Filip's government has been vocal.

Protests in January trained their fire on the prime minister's close ties with Vladimir Plahotniuc, Moldova's richest man and first deputy leader of the ruling Democratic Party, who is seen by critics as pulling the strings.

Filip dismissed the idea.
Ex-CIA agent appeal fails, faces extradition to Italy

LISBON, June 8 (Reuters) - A former CIA agent will be extradited to Italy for her involvement in the kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric under the U.S. "extraordinary rendition" programme, after a last appeal to Portuguese authorities failed, she said on Wednesday.

Sabrina De Sousa, a joint U.S.-Portuguese citizen, was one of 26 people convicted in absentia on charges of snatching Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr from a street in Milan in 2003 and taking him to be questioned in Egypt.

The case focused attention at the time on the treatment of suspects moved around the world for interrogation in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and strained relations between Washington and Rome.

De Sousa was arrested in Portugal in October at the request of Italian prosecutors, who want her to serve a six-year sentence. De Sousa lodged an appeal against the extradition in January but Portugal's constitutional court has now rejected it.

"Yes, it (the rejection of the appeal) was confirmed about 10 days ago," De Sousa said in a an email response to Reuters. "The (extradition) process started last night. I have no idea of the date because Portugal (Interpol) have to contact Italy to agree on a date."

She said she had no idea if she would now have to serve the prison sentence in Italy or if she would be given a new trial to be able to counter the charges, as she has requested.

De Sousa has sent a letter to the Pope appealing for his intervention.

"Italy has guaranteed Portugal that I will be notified of my sentence and have the opportunity to counter the charges against me," De Sousa wrote in the letter, which she provided to Reuters. "Whether that happens, remains to be seen."
Chad sends 2,000 troops to Niger for counterattack on Boko Haram

N'DJAMENA, June 8 (Reuters) - Chad has sent 2,000 troops to Niger to prepare a counterattack against Boko Haram after the militant group seized a Nigerien town, two senior military sources said on Wednesday.

The sources, one at Chadian miliary command in N'Djamena, and another in the Lake Chad region where Boko Haram operates, told Reuters the troops arrived on Tuesday.

The Nigerian Islamist sect attacked the Nigerien town of Bosso on Saturday, killing 30 soldiers and forcing 50,000 people to flee.
BOSTON  In the end, the personal was political. What brought the 78-year-old California governor and former Jesuit seminarian to sign the law that will allow doctors to prescribe life-ending drugs to terminally ill patients was thinking about his own last days.

"I do not know what I would do if I were dying in prolonged and excruciating pain," wrote Jerry Brown, breaking a long silence on this issue. "I am certain, however, that it would be a comfort to be able to consider the options afforded by this bill. And I wouldn't deny that right to others."

And so on June 9, California will become the fifth and largest state to make physician-assisted death legal.

I share Gov. Brown's personal wish and, given only a yes or no option, I too would have signed the California legislation.

And yet, I worry about these bills spreading across the country, under consideration in 20 other state legislatures. I worry that the polarizing political debate may hijack a much-needed and much-richer movement to change the way we die in America.

1 in 500 Oregon deaths

In the past few years, the once-toxic subject of dying has gone mainstream. The disinformation campaign about "death panels" collapsed. Medicare has just begun to pay doctors for time spent having conversations about end-of-life wishes.

At the same time in Oregon, the first state to pass a "Death with Dignity Act," only one out of every 500 deaths comes from doctor-ordered medication. So why are we spending so much political energy to help the one rather than the 499?

The debate reminds me of the way we attack issues these days -- like food fights. We ramp up controversies with opponents on either side, hurling opinions at each other.

If opponents of legal abortion call themselves pro-life and proponents call themselves pro-choice, well, in this argument proponents talk about "death with dignity" while opponents talk about "assisted suicide."

Indeed I am reminded of the line attributed to Woody Allen when asked to describe his religion: Jewish ... with reservations. In this end-of-life congregation, I find myself pro-legislation with deep and abiding reservations.

Reservation One? How many of the people who favor death-with-dignity think it's the single, simple solution to the entire problem of people dying in ways they would not choose? We forget that the huge majority don't want a right to die, they want a right to care.

Two: The important safeguards in this legislation require -- as well they should -- that a person asking for a lethal drug is of sound mind. But the greatest fear among many of the people I know is outliving their mind. For people with dementia or Alzheimer's, the legislation offers nothing.

Three: The "death with dignity" mantra appeals most to that cohort of people who believe they can control the end of their lives, the way they controlled the rest. Surely this is not the only way to die with dignity.

Four: The assumption behind these bills is that pain is commonly uncontrollable. Yet palliative care doctors tell us that uncontrollable pain is as rare as the 1 percent. We need more palliative care. But a prescription for death mustn't become the dominant substitute for "comfort care."

And, Reservation Five: This bill makes it legal for doctors to give lethal drugs. But we know from surveys how few doctors are comfortable talking with patients about their end-of-life wishes.

Beware of false choice

Americans face the health care system with two conflicting fears, the fear that they won't get enough care and the fear they will get unwanted care. At the heart of my reservations is the fear that we set up a false choice between suffering miserably or hastening death.

I agree that doctors shouldn't be prosecuted and the handful of people with unrelenting pain should have a merciful aid. But what will really make a difference?

For most of us, what's more important than legislation is conversation. One thing I learned in founding The Conversation Project is that everyone needs to talk with the people we love about how we want to live at the end of our life -- including what treatment we want and don't want.

Half of the people over 65 admitted to hospitals are incapable of making choices for themselves. So we need to choose a decision-maker in case we can't decide for ourselves. And to fill out an advanced directive.

As for doctors, rather than simply being allowed to give drugs, they need to be better trained in the art of difficult conversations.

The sample of my reservations is less about ethics than efficacy. But my deepest concern comes from watching how easy it is to derail this movement into a polarizing political fight.

Too many of us do not die in the way we would choose. Too many survivors are left guilty, depressed and bereft. Rather than just offering a few patients the "comfort and dignity" of lethal medication, we need to assure everyone the comfort and dignity of a humane, caring ending.

The odds are  500 to 1  that this is not a political problem but a deeply personal one.
Moldova says Russia not helping recover stolen banking assets -PM

By Matthias Williams

CHISINAU, June 8 (Reuters) - Moldovan Prime Minister Pavel Filip said on Wednesday that Russia was not offering enough help to his government to track down and recover $1 billion that was siphoned from the banking system.

The scandal, in which around one-eighth of Moldova's gross domestic product disappeared mostly in unsupported loans, caused uproar in the ex-Soviet country and discredited the pro-European leadership that has pivoted it away from Moscow.

Bringing more transparency to the financial sector in Europe's poorest country is a crucial reform needed for Chisinau to secure a memorandum with the International Monetary Fund.

That in turn would unlock aid from the European Union on which the 2016 state budget, which has yet to be approved by parliament, relies.

But only 600 million Moldovan lei ($30.5 million) of the missing $1 billion have been clawed back.

"As regards identifying assets, for example, we are working very well with some of the countries. The Baltics for example, where they're really putting the finger on assets or they're showing us exactly what's the network, the chain by which something was passed over," Filip said in an interview.

"Truth is we're not really working well with the Russian Federation as regards this info on their side. As regards any possible financial chains or networks coming via Russia or towards Russia, as regards the money."

Russian lender VEB Capital had a 24.9 percent stake in one of the banks involved in the scandal, Banca de Economii, while one oligarch suspected of involvement in the scandal was believed to have ties to Russia.

Russia's foreign ministry declined to comment on assistance to Moldova in investigating the scandal. The investigative committee, the Russian state body that investigates crime, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Filip, who took over in January amid street protests as the fifth prime minister since 2009, stressed that Moldova and Russia were working on a co-operation agreement between their respective prosecutors, which may improve matters.

Some, including former Prime Minister Ion Sturza, have said the Moldovan banks were a hub for Russian money laundering.

Filip's government is waiting for recommendations from the Kroll consultancy on how best to recover the assets.

"We are focusing on asset recovery actions. And this is our expectations from the Kroll company to identify all the assets and subsequently to tell us what actions can be legally done," Filip said.

IN THE DRIVING SEAT

Sitting in front of an EU flag, Filip outlined a series of reform measures to restore public confidence in the political system and to show Moldovans that the government is working in their best interests.

The central bank will receive more powers to step in quickly to tackle problems, instead of waiting for permission from the ministry of justice as it had to before, Filip said.

A move to slash the number of intrusive inspections - currently at 69 - by government institutions into businesses to check on their operations will make the investment climate more favourable, he said.

Another reform will change the mandate of the anti-corruption agency to focus only on high-level cases. The move follows in the footsteps of Romania, which has seen an unprecedented crackdown on graft by some of its richest and most powerful politicians and businessman.

But while the political situation in Moldova has stabilised, opposition to Filip's government has been vocal.

Protests in January trained their fire on the prime minister's close ties with Vladimir Plahotniuc, Moldova's richest man and first deputy leader of the ruling Democratic Party, who is seen by critics as pulling the strings.

Filip dismissed the idea.
Poll shows majority of Brazilians want new elections

By Anthony Boadle

BRASILIA, June 8 (Reuters) - More than a quarter of Brazilians view interim President Michel Temer's government negatively and a majority want new elections this year, according to a poll on Wednesday that suggested scandals and policy reversals had dented his popularity.

Temer's government, which began on May 12 when Brazil's Senate suspended leftist President Dilma Rousseff for breaking budget laws, received a negative rating from 28 percent of Brazilians, according to the CNT/MDA poll.

Only 11.3 percent of those questioned gave it a positive rating, while 30.2 percent found it "regular".

The poll, the first major sampling of public opinion since Rousseff's suspension, also showed increased support for her impeachment. Almost two-thirds of those surveyed - 62.4 percent - said the decision to send her to an impeachment trial was the right one, compared to an MDA poll in February that showed 55.6 percent in favor of impeachment.

The poll's findings could be a vital indicator as some senators waver in their commitment to convict Rousseff in her impeachment trial.

A majority of those polled - 54.8 percent - said they saw no difference between Temer's government and that of Rousseff, which was roiled by a sweeping corruption investigation into political kick-backs from state-run oil company Petrobras.

Some 46.6 percent of those polled believe corruption in the Temer government will be the same.

The survey showed that 50.3 percent of Brazilians favor holding new elections this year to resolve the political crisis.

A string of recent scandals has weakened Temer as he seeks to build support in the Senate to definitively remove Rousseff, who has described her impeachment as a coup.

Brazil's chief prosecutor is seeking the arrest of senior members of Temer's PMDB party for allegedly trying to obstruct the Petrobras investigation, O Globo reported on Tuesday.

Their arrests would be a severe blow to the interim president's efforts to establish his government's legitimacy.
Penn West asset sale draws at least four bids -sources

By John Tilak and Matt Scuffham

TORONTO, June 8 (Reuters) - Canadian energy producer Penn West Petroleum Ltd has received at least four bids from companies for its Viking light oil assets as it races to avoid a default, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Bidders include Raging River Exploration Inc, Crescent Point Energy Corp, Whitecap Resources Inc and Teine Energy, said the sources, who declined to be named because they were not authorized to comment on the process.

The Calgary-based company, which is working with Royal Bank of Canada on the sale, is seeing strong demand for the assets, which could fetch more than C$500 million ($395 million), according to the sources.

Shares of Penn West, already up more than 6 percent due to stronger oil prices, shot up another 4 percentage points after the news of the bidders was published. As of 11:50 a.m. ET (1550 GMT) they traded 8 percent higher at C$1.30 in Toronto.

Penn West has been under enormous financial pressure in recent weeks over its large debt burden, and said last month it might default on its debt at the end of the second quarter. At the time, it also raised doubts about its ability to continue as a going concern.

A slump in oil prices over the past two years has hit energy producers, and highly leveraged companies such as Penn West have struggled as a result.

Penn West's Viking assets, which produce almost 20,000 barrels of oil equivalent daily, are important to the company, and its willingness to sell them highlights the financial state the company is in. It has reported net losses in the past three years and carries net debt of about C$1.9 billion.

The company is trying to sell other assets as well.

"Penn West continues to pursue multiple avenues to both reduce its absolute debt levels and to negotiate with its lenders to amend its financial covenants," Penn West spokesman Paul Surmanowicz said. He declined to comment on the bids.

All four bidders have a presence in the Viking area of Saskatchewan, a light oil region that is attractive to energy producers because of its low costs to recover crude and competitive production costs.

Crescent Point is one of the most-active investors in the Canadian oil industry. While the company has made about 20 acquisitions in the last decade, it has slowed its dealmaking pace in recent months. Its most-recent acquisition was Coral Hill Energy in August 2015.

Whitecap in May said it plans to buy some assets in southwest Saskatchewan from Husky Energy for C$595 million.

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board owns 77 percent of Teine Energy, a Saskatchewan-focused energy producer.
German transmission line delays to curb wind power use

By Vera Eckert

BERLIN, June 8 (Reuters) - Germany's biggest grid operator has delayed major north-south power lines by three years and warned they will cost more than forecast, but said there is no alternative if a shift to renewable energy is to succeed.

Dutch group TenneT has put back the completion date for the SuedLink and SuedOstlink projects to 2025, Urban Keussen, chairman of the board of TenneT GmbH, its German arm, said.

The transmission lines will bring wind power from the north of Germany to the industrialised south, where nuclear plants are being shut down, to help Berlin meet a 40 to 45 percent renewable power share by 2025 to help fight climate change.

"The reason is that major parts of the connections must be put underground," Keussen said in an interview.

"Costs of SuedLink are now around 10 billion euros ($11.4 billion) instead of originally 3 to 4 billion, and those of SuedOstLink, originally estimated at 1 billion, will rise pro rata by the same multiple," he added.

A law passed in 2015 required that the lines go underground to quell opposition from local residents to pylons.

TenneT redrew its plans to comply with the change, which apart from causing delays also boosted costs.

German energy laws require grid companies to provide network stability and to charge consumers for the service via their final bills. Transmission line investments are written off over 40 years.

SuedLink is to run from Hamburg, near wind installations in the north. to Bavaria, close to where the Grafenrheinfeld reactor closed last year, ending stable round-the-clock power.

SuedOstLink will run from eastern Saxony-Anhalt to Bavaria, where the Isar 2 reactor is due to shut in 2022.

Until the lines are ready, the costs of scaling down excess wind power and activating reserve plants in the south will escalate, Keussen added.

Meanwhile, intervening in plant schedules cost 1 billion euros last year and this bill could rise to 4 billion euros per annum by 2022/23, Germany's energy regulator estimates.

The cost of emergency measures would ultimately outstrip those for new lines if they did not materialise, said Keussen.

"It does not make sense to invest in wind power, get no electricity, and to pay on top of that," he said.
Chad sends 2,000 troops to Niger for counterattack on Boko Haram

N'DJAMENA, June 8 (Reuters) - Chad has sent 2,000 troops to Niger to prepare a counterattack against Boko Haram after the militant group seized a Nigerien town, two senior military sources said on Wednesday.

The sources, one at Chadian military command in N'Djamena and another in the Lake Chad region where Boko Haram operates, told Reuters the troops arrived on Tuesday and were advancing on Bosso, a town near Lake Chad that has been the scene of clashes in recent days.

Boko Haram killed 30 soldiers and forced 50,000 people to flee when it took Bosso on Friday, its deadliest raid in Niger in over a year.

"About 2,000 soldiers with tanks went into Niger yesterday. They should link up with the Nigerien forces in Diffa and advance on Bosso," said one of the Chadian military sources.

A security source in Niger confirmed that about 2,000 troops were heading to Bosso on Wednesday.

Clashes have continued in Bosso in recent days. Niger troops briefly regained control of Bosso on Saturday, according to the defense ministry, but the militants retook it on Sunday, Bosso Mayor Mamadou Bako said.

Boko Haram has been trying to establish an Islamic state adhering to strict Sharia, Islamic law, in northeast Nigeria since 2009. About 2.1 million people have been displaced and thousands killed during the insurgency.

Chad's intervention comes after Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou flew to Chad for talks with President Idriss Deby on Tuesday.

Chad and Niger started joint army operations against the militants early last year. Chad's involvement in combating the insurgency, which affects the whole Lake Chad region where Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad meet, was decisive in taking back control of territory controlled by Boko Haram.
"Paris calling": Paris authorities and lobbyists seek to lure bankers from London

By Maya Nikolaeva

PARIS, June 8 (Reuters) - Paris can be an alternative to London for financial professionals in the event of Britain voting to leave the European Union, backers of a major marketing campaign said on Wednesday just two weeks before the British referendum.

European financial centres, such as Dublin, Frankfurt, Luxembourg or Paris, will be anxious to attract as big a share as possible of the UK's financial industry if Britain votes 'out' on June 23.

"The referendum has encouraged major international companies, particularly in London and New York, to consider rebalancing their businesses towards the euro zone," Gerard Mestrallet, head of the Paris marketplace lobby, said.

"For this reason, we as a group are ready to promote the competitiveness and appeal of the Paris financial marketplace," said at a conference dubbed "Paris: Welcome to Europe".

The initiative, bringing together officials from the Socialist-controlled Paris City Hall, opposition conservative leaders and financial professionals, was the biggest coordinated push by Paris so far to get a slice of the UK finance cake in the event of victory for Brexit.

"Britain can't blackmail Europe for ever without getting a response at some point," said Patrick Devedjian, head of the big business Hauts-de-Seine area, referring to British demands for opt-outs from many EU policies.

However, France should stop bashing bankers and ease its tax regime for financial institutions if it wants to mop up London business, some said.

"I heard our president say that our enemy is finance. There is nothing more stupid. Our enemy is unemployment," Valerie Pecresse, the conservative head of the wider Paris region said, adding that a strong financial sector was essential for French sovereignty.

Though undergoing tough times with banking job cuts, strategy overhauls and the forthcoming referendum, London remains the key destination for bankers, including those with French passports, who feel under-appreciated and overtaxed by the centre-left government at home.

"Let's be honest, we are in the challenger position," Societe Generale CEO Frederic Oudea said at the event at La Defense, once a beacon of French financial might.

He urged a rethink on France's tax system which many see as punitive and a deterrent to business.

Elected in 2012 on traditional left-wing rhetoric that included labelling the world of finance as "the enemy", President Francois Hollande slapped a 75 percent tax on millionaires which, although temporary, dented France's image among investors, according to French officials.

Despite a pro-business U-turn in 2014 - which saw his prime minister tour world cities to claim his "love for business" - and the fact that the top rate of income tax is now the same as in Britain, Paris has struggled to lure over bankers.

The Paris Europlace financial lobby called for more tax incentives, such as an extension of tax relief for expatriates to ten from five years and urged authorities to upgrade key infrastructure in Paris in the coming years.

In particular, they called for a quick completion of the long planned express train link from Charles de Gaulle airport to the city centre and a renovation of the Gare du Nord train station, often unfavourably compared to the recently upgraded St Pancras station across the Channel in London.

However, major initiatives by the Socialist government to help the banking sector less than a year ahead of presidential elections would be something unrealistic in France.

Despite the clear will to position Paris as a continental alternative, none of the officials said they were in favour of Britain leaving the EU.
British union defends decision to ban white men from part of equality conference

By Umberto Bacchi

LONDON, June 8 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - A union representing British lecturers has defended its decision to bar from special sessions of an equality conference representatives who are able-bodied, straight, white and male, saying the ban serves to create a "safe space" for discussion.

The University and College Union's (UCU) equality conference, scheduled for later in the year, typically focuses on topics such as the gender pay gap and discrimination at work.

As part of the annual meeting, the union organises closed-door discussions for female, gay, disabled and black representatives of universities and colleges across the country.

Last week a motion to change the rule to allow all representatives to take part in all sessions was dismissed.

"Members felt that it was important that those from different minority groups should be able to meet to discuss the unique hurdles they face together," a UCU spokesman said in a statement.

Gargi Bhattacharyya, a professor of sociology at University East London who sits on UCU's Black members' standing committee, said the rules had been loosely enforced in the past with non-minority members occasionally taking part in closed sessions.

"I would be very surprised if it comes to a point of rejecting people from a meeting," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Like others, however, Bhattacharyya backed the rule saying people from minority groups felt more comfortable addressing issues, such as sexual harassment at work, with their peers.

Roddy Slorach, vice chair of a UCU committee of disabled members, described the controversy as "a storm in a tea cup", saying most members agreed with the union's policy.

Pura Ariza, a senior lecturer in education at Manchester Metropolitan University and part of the UCU's LGBT members' standing committee, also defended the union's position.
Central Europeans ask EU to help Ukraine deal with war displaced

PRAGUE, June 8 (Reuters) - Central European countries asked the European Union on Wednesday to free up funds to help Ukraine deal with a growing number of people displaced by conflict.

Ukraine is battling Russian-backed separatists in the eastern Donbass region and a ceasefire agreement negotiated with the help of Russia and Western powers is barely holding.

In a letter to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, the leaders of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary said the number of internally displaced persons in Ukraine had reached more than 1.7 million by March.

Poland, Hungary and Slovakia - which along with the Czech Republic make up the Visegrad Group - border Ukraine and would be most affected by migration from the former Soviet republic.

"There is no indication that conflict will be solved in the near future and that the number of internally displaced persons in Ukraine has reached its maximum," the letter said.

It requested the EU's executive to free up funding for a Regional Development and Protection Programme, which the bloc has used in Jordan and Iraq.

The programme would help Ukraine beef up state institutions to handle the rise in displaced people and refugees. The countries said they were ready to lead this programme.

The leaders of the four countries met before an EU summit due to discuss issues including migration on June 28-29.

Eastern European countries have been fiercely opposed to attempts to put a quota system for refugees in place despite pressure from larger member states feeling the strain of an influx of migrants mostly from the Middle East and North Africa.
EU unlikely to extend global bail-in rules beyond big banks -official

By Francesco Guarascio

BRUSSELS, June 8 (Reuters) - The European Commission is unlikely to extend global rules on how failed banks absorb losses to European lenders below the top tier of international institutions, a Commission official told Reuters on Wednesday.

Such a decision would find favour with Germany and Britain, which have urged the EU executive not to extend the so-called TLAC requirement beyond the very biggest banks.

Under global rules set by the Basel-based Financial Stability Board, the world's 30 top banks must raise money through long-term bonds in order to be able to cover from 2019 the costs of their being wound up if they fail.

This rainy day fund is to amount to at least 16 percent of a bank's risk-weighted assets from 2019 and be even bigger 10 years later, to ensure that taxpayers would no longer have to bail out banks like during the 2007-08 financial crisis.

The need to create such Total Loss-Absorbing Capacity (TLAC) concerns among others Britain's HSBC and Barclays and Germany's Deutsche Bank.

The European Commission, which is in charge of transposing global rules into EU legislation, suggested in April that the TLAC requirement may be extended to smaller European banks that are considered systemically important in domestic markets.

This would mean including medium-sized lenders such as Germany's Commerzbank and Britain's Lloyds Banking Group, now exempt from the global TLAC.

"An extension of TLAC to domestic systemically important banks at this stage is unlikely," the EU official said on Wednesday.

In April, a Commission official told a conference that the EU executive was still considering the matter.

A Commission spokeswoman declined official comment.

In a document, seen by Reuters, Germany and Britain had urged the Commission to limit the scope of global bank-failure rules "only" to global systemically important banks.

TLAC forces lenders to hold a minimum of shares, bonds and other securities that may be liquidated if the lender needed to be rescued, a requirement that increases taxpayers' protection but may raise banks' financing costs.

CAP-FLOOR BATTLE

The German-British paper also said that EU rules to prevent taxpayers from bailing out banks should not include a cap on the extent banks should finance their own winding up, the opposite of the position held by two other big EU economies, France and Italy, who want clear limits.

The EU rule, known as Minimum Requirement for banks' own funds and Eligible Liabilities (MREL), entered into force in January. Under that law, some 140 European banks have to hold debt that would be used to finance their resolution, but the amount to be held is not pre-defined, as it is for TLAC.

MREL's purpose is the same as TLAC's but the two standards are based on different benchmarks, which banks are still trying to assess. The Commission will issue a proposal this year to align the two standards as much as possible.

The French-Italian call for a cap on MREL would limit the powers of the newly established EU body, the Single Resolution Board, which is in charge of setting a specific MREL for each lender which it oversees. SRB chief Elke Koenig has often called for a floor on MREL, rather than a cap.

Burdened by a huge amount of bad loans, Italian banks are finding it more difficult to raise MREL-eligible capital than their German counterparts.
Brazil police officer, symbol of corruption crackdown, arrested

By Brad Brooks

RIO DE JANEIRO, June 8 (Reuters) - He is a symbol of Brazil's biggest corruption investigation - a ballyhooed battle against impunity for powerful politicians and businessmen.

But on Wednesday, federal police agent Newton Ishii sat in the same jail where he had been photographed and shown on TV escorting countless high-profile politicians and executives linked to a kickback scandal at state-run oil company Petrobras .

It is a long fall for Ishii, perhaps the first Brazilian policeman ever to be exalted in a Carnival song, sung by party-goers who wore masks bearing his likeness and dressed in his black police garb.

Known in Brazil simply as "the Japanese cop," due to his heritage, Ishii's face appeared on placards at massive rallies in the past year that demanded the impeachment of now-suspended President Dilma Rousseff.

Ishii's visit to Brazil's lower house of congress in February created a commotion as deputies, including the far right-wing Jair Bolsonaro, took selfies with him. Rumors even floated that the agent might consider a political career.

But his growing cult of personality rubbed some high-level federal police officials the wrong way, two authorities familiar with the situation said on condition of anonymity, and Ishii has not been seen in the Petrobras police raids since his congress visit.

Federal police in the southern city of Curitiba, where investigators, prosecutors and a judge are spear-heading the Petrobras probe, said Ishii was arrested on Tuesday afternoon.

His case is under seal, so the exact reason for his detention is not known. But it is likely tied to a previous conviction, the two authorities said.

Ishii, along with several other police, tax collectors and professional criminals, was arrested in 2003 when authorities broke up a ring that bribed authorities to ferry contraband into Brazil over the Triple Frontier area, where Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay meet.

It is a region renowned for trafficking all manner of goods, from drugs and arms to electronics and cigarettes.

Ishii was found guilty in 2009, but had remained free on appeal.

Beyond his corruption conviction, Ishii was accused by the lawyer of a state's witness in the Petrobras case of selling information about the investigation to the press - which police say they are probing.

Calls to the last known lawyer for Ishii were not returned.
NEW TOWN, N.D.  When FBI Director James Comey visited a northwest North Dakota Indian reservation Monday, the tribal chairman didnt sugarcoat the crime problems facing the community.

The situation of excess crime on Fort Berthold is literally killing our people and tearing our people apart, said Mark Fox, chairman of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation.

Comey met with tribal officials, law enforcement and North Dakotas U.S. senators on Monday to hear about the challenges facing the reservation in the heart of the Bakken.

Comey also visited Williston on Monday to participate in a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the FBI office that recently opened there, the first new FBI resident agency to open in decades.

In New Town, Comey said the additional three agents and support staff assigned to Williston should free up other FBI resources to focus more on Fort Berthold.

We all acknowledge its probably not going to make enough of a difference, said Comey, during his first visit to a Great Plains Indian reservation. The next question is, what more can we do?

Crime at Fort Berthold has increased during the past seven years, said Fox, who said the reservation is in a drug epidemic.

Here at Fort Berhold, its gotten to a point where were getting actually a little bit desperate, Fox said.

Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., has been advocating for FBI agents to be stationed at Fort Berthold and other reservations.

This isnt a problem thats unique to Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Heitkamp said. Its complicated by all the money, its complicated by all the economic opportunity, and its a step above, but its not isolated here. The need to have a focus, not just on northwest North Dakota, but really all across Indian Country is, to me, pretty critical.

Comey said FBI officials will monitor what effect the new resources in Williston have on fighting crime at Fort Berthold and determine what the next step would be.

One of his initial reactions Monday was to reinvigorate an FBI Safe Trails Task Force in North Dakota, which Comey said used to exist in the area. The task forces focus on combatting the growth of crime in Indian Country through collaboration with other federal, state, local and tribal agencies.

There really ought to be one in this area, given the demand, given the number of people who are suffering, especially given the drug plague, Comey said. Im walking away thinking weve got to push hard to see if we can get one done.

U.S. Attorney Chris Myers called it remarkable that the presence of FBI in the Bakken has tripled since officials began pushing for more resources. Myers said strong collaboration among agencies will be key.

We can yell and scream all day long for more resources, but at some point we only get so much, Myers said. Then we have to do with what we have.

Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., said getting additional FBI agents stationed permanently in Williston will help the entire state as well as the northwest. Hoeven said he is continuing to advocate for other federal resources, including more federal prosecutors.

Were continuing to make the case that we need more resources given the growth and the development in the energy patch, Hoeven said.
Huge port envisioned by tycoon opens in Brazil - without him

By Jeb Blount

SAO JOAO DA BARRA, Brazil, June 8 (Reuters) - The launch this week of Prumo Logistica's $3.7 billion Port of Acu, the largest in Latin America, marked the revival of a Brazilian logistics hub many thought doomed when the empire of its former billionaire owner collapsed.

Acu's more than 25 km (15.5 miles) of docks, piers and breakwaters is a much-needed step towards narrowing a crippling infrastructure gap in Latin America's largest economy.

The Manhattan-sized industrial complex northeast of Rio de Janeiro, which officially opened on Tuesday, however, remains a far cry from the plans drafted by Eike Batista before his $60 billion EBX industrial empire disappeared almost overnight in 2013.

While Batista envisioned a thriving hub of shipyards, steel mills and electric-car factories, much of the giant complex remains a quiet expanse of bird-flocked dunes and swamp.

Batista ceded control of Acu three years ago to Washington, D.C.-based EIG Energy Partners in exchange for a promise to invest $562 million in the unfinished port.

"Acu is doing well because the port was based on solid ideas," said Jose Magela, CEO of Prumo, which is 74 percent owned by EIG.

So far, Acu has been most attractive for oil-related ventures. About 240 km (150 miles) northeast of Rio, it sits aside waters responsible for 80 percent of Brazil's oil output. The petroleum industry accounts for more than a tenth of the nation's gross domestic product.

On Tuesday, Prumo opened Brazil's first independent crude-oil terminal in partnership with Germany's Oiltanking GmbH.

It can transfer up to 1.2 million barrels a day from shuttle tankers loaded at offshore fields to long-haul vessels. Royal Dutch Shell Plc has a contract to transfer as much as 300,000 barrels a day of its growing Brazilian output at the terminal, Prumo said.

A new maritime diesel terminal run by Britain's BP Plc just sold its first fuel for ships working in adjacent deepwater fields. Prumo's general cargo docks exports bauxite for Brazilian industrial conglomerate Votorantim Participacoes SA.

Louisiana-based ship and oil service company Edison Chouest expects to complete its largest offshore oil supply base outside the United States at Acu in 2017.

For Brazil's government, struggling with its biggest recession in decades, the port is a lifeline. More than a decade of government-led infrastructure spending has failed to make exports competitive.

It is counting on private investment to revive an oil industry, struggling with low prices. State-controlled oil giant Petrobras is crippled by debt and corruption.

"The government has signaled a new phase of private sector interaction," Transportation Minister Mauricio Quintella said. "Everyone knows the budget restrictions that Brazil faces."

Among the nearly 200 government officials, investors, politicians and executives flown in for the ceremony, one person was notably absent: Batista.

Asked if an invitation was extended to Batista, who lost Brazil's largest personal fortune when project delays and overreach saddled his sprawling empire with debt, Prumo executives shrugged. "I don't know," CEO Magela said.

Batista was banned from running public companies for five years by the CVM markets regulator last year for conflicts of interest at his oil company OGX.

Eucherio Rodrigues, who was briefly chief financial officer of Batista's shipbuilding unit OSX after its bankruptcy filing, said the tycoon's absence was unfair.
"Feminine" virtues blamed for unequal land rights in Rwanda, research shows

By Anna Pujol-Mazzini

LONDON, June 8 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Female "silence and submissiveness" continue to be valued feminine traits in Rwanda, stopping women from taking advantage of equal land and property laws, researchers said.

According to a study by International Alert (IA), the UK-based peacebuilding organization, Rwandan women are also hindered by their own acceptance that men make better leaders and that wives come "empty handed" to marriage.

The IA survey, undertaken in March in four major Rwandan provinces including Norberto in the West and Norma in the East, explored female participation in decisions related to land use.

It found that while the majority of the 210 men and women interviewed reported a belief in principle that household-land related decisions should be shared by wife and husband, this did not play out in practice.

Decisions relating to which crops are grown or farming methods were made by women or jointly with their husbands, respondents reported, while financial decisions including crop sales and spending were the exclusive domain of men.

"An important cultural perception regarding women's social role that impacts her ability to assert her control rights can be summed up as such: 'A good wife is patient with her husband's decisions and obeys, even if she disagrees'," the report said.

"The social construction of femininity plays out as silence and submissiveness, as described by most female participants, who often choose to remain quiet regarding land transaction decisions to keep the peace."

The report said there is also a link between the belief that a 'wife comes empty-handed (with no land) to her husband's household' and that this contributed to the lack of bargaining power held by women over jointly owned land.

"She is perceived as not having contributed to the patrimony, and is therefore considered to have an inferior claim to the land," the researchers found.

The report also pointed out that Article 206 of the Rwandan Civil Code continues to stipulate that men are the head of household, underlining notions of male superiority.

This is despite the introduction of new land laws in 2013 which enshrined gender equality in both land ownership and decision-making.

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

According to Betty Mutesi, International Alert's Rwanda director, women who make decisions without consulting their husband - or who contest their male partner's decisions - can also face violence.

"Land is the most valuable commodity for many Rwandans, and culturally women were not allowed to inherit," she said.

"So the new law which gave them 50 percent of land ownership made men feel threatened. There was a need to first prepare men so that they accept these changes," she added.

One female respondent quoted in the report said female decision-making can spark domestic violence.

" ... you may disagree with him about some decisions on land and he beats you. Beating is the most common gender-based violence known to women in this area," she said.

The report also highlighted inequalities in inheritance laws that protect married women but result in women in de facto marriages being stripped of land and property after the death of their partner.

A 2015 Demographic and Health Survey reported that around 17 percent of women in Rwanda live in informal unions.

"If a man and a woman co-habit without being legally married, a woman in this situation has no right to the land owned by a man because she is considered a prostitute who cannot claim any right," a male respondent from the Huey district told researchers.

The report also outlined a series of legal reforms, including revision of Article 206, and targeted education programmes aimed at breaking down traditional resistance among both men and women for truly equal decision-making.

"The law has changed but the mind-set is slow," said Mutesi. "There is a political will to make men and women equal but culture is still an issue."

The persistent inequality in land rights is in stark contrast with the Rwandan government's concerted efforts, since the end of the 1994 genocide, to re-build the nation with more women in leadership positions.

A constitutional amendment saw a historic 64 percent of parliamentary seats in the nation won by female candidates - the highest ratio in the world.
Libyan brigades edge closer to Islamic State stronghold of Sirte - security sources

TRIPOLI, June 8 (Reuters) - Forces aligned with Libya's new unity government advanced on the eastern and southern outskirts of the Islamic State stronghold of Sirte on Wednesday, taking control of at least one military camp, security sources said.

The brigades, who are based in the western city of Misrata, launched their counter-offensive against Islamic State last month, pushing the militants back along the coastal road to the west of Sirte and saying they intended to recapture the city.

The brigades are aligned with the U.N.-backed Government of National Accord (GNA), which has been trying to establish its authority over Libya's competing political and armed factions since arriving in Tripoli in March.

After a lull in fighting at the start of the week, clashes resumed in Sirte on Wednesday and the brigades edged forward, capturing the Taqrift military camp, security sources said.

The brigades' media office said in statements on social media that they had also captured the Al-Jalet military camp and the Au Hadi roundabout immediately south of Sirte, though this could not immediately be confirmed.

A hospital spokesman in Misrata said at least six brigade members had been killed and 30 wounded in the clashes.

Libya slid into chaos after veteran ruler Muammar Gaddafi was toppled in an uprising five years ago, allowing Islamic State to set up its most important base outside Syria and Iraq.

The GNA is designed to replace two competing administrations that were set up in Tripoli and the east in 2014 with the backing of rival alliances of armed groups.
Government aims to rejuvenate domestic industrial production to make the country less

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Russia has unveiled a new medium-range passenger plane that it hopes will rival Airbus and Boeing models.

In a glitzy ceremony at a factory in Siberia attended by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Irkut Corporation rolled out its new MC-21 passenger plane, which is still undergoing testing but is due to enter serial production next year.

The plane is sometimes also known as MS-21.

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Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev speaks during the official ceremony showing the first MC-21-300 mid-range passenger aircraft

Medvedev is pictured sitting in the aircraft that Russian officials hope will rival western companies such as Airbus and Boeing

Medvedev hailed the new twin-engine short and medium-range aircraft as 'cool,' saying it was important that Russia remained in what he called the top league of aircraft makers despite the high costs involved.

Squeezed by Western sanctions over its role in the Ukraine crisis, the Russian government is trying to rejuvenate domestic industrial production to make the country less dependent on foreign firms, such as Boeing and Airbus.

Prime minister Medvedev hailed the new twin-engine short and medium-range aircraft as 'cool'

Squeezed by Western sanctions over its role in the Ukraine crisis, the Russian government is trying to rejuvenate domestic industrial production

'I only want to say that I am absolutely certain that the airliner will be the pride of Russian civil aviation, and that our citizens and foreign people will take pleasure in flights on MC-21,' said Medvedev.

The plane will be built in two variants, the MC-21-300, which will have 160 to 211 seats, and the MC-21-200, which will have 130 to 165 seats. Deliveries are expected to start in 2018 and state media said numerous contracts with domestic and foreign carriers had already been agreed.

State-controlled United Aircraft Corporation, of which Irkut is a subsidiary, said the new plane would be able to service routes of up to 3,976.78 miles and that its operational costs would be up to 15 per cent cheaper than current generation aircraft.

Vladimir Valkov, vice president of Irkut Corporation, said: 'It is not made of metal, it is made of composite materials. That allows us to give it a special shape. It is much lighter and stronger so it is a great step in the development of our aviation industry.'
World Health Organisation reports case of yellow fever in Congo

KINSHASA, June 8 (Reuters) - A new case of yellow fever has been detected in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a spokesman for the World Health Organisation said on Wednesday.
At least nine wounded in shooting attack in central Tel Aviv-police

JERUSALEM, June 8 (Reuters) - At least nine people were wounded on Wednesday in a shooting incident in central Tel Aviv and one person was in critical condition, with Israeli police describing the shooting as an apparent attack aimed against Israelis.

The incident occurred in an area of trendy cafes and restaurants very close to the central military headquarters and Defence Ministry compound.
Ecuador sees oil trading at around $50 a barrel for rest of 2016

QUITO, June 8 (Reuters) - Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa predicted on Wednesday that the global oil price would hover around $50 a barrel for the rest of 2016, though he said that would not be enough to relieve the financial strain on the smallest OPEC nation.

"It's reasonable to expect the prices to stay close to $50 until the end of the year," Correa told reporters at a briefing.

A global oil price collapse since mid-2014 has hurt Ecuador's finances, raising its debt and forcing cuts in investment.

Correa said the recent oil price rally would bring only partial relief to his country. "In Ecuador's case ... $50 or $60 will still be a cheap barrel because of our production costs," he said.
WHO says new yellow fever case in Congo transmitted locally

KINSHASA, June 8 (Reuters) - A new case of yellow fever detected in the Democratic Republic of Congo's capital was transmitted by a local mosquito, the World Health Organisation said on Wednesday, raising the possibility of a wider outbreak of the disease in the country.

The case, confirmed this week after testing by the Pasteur Institute in Dakar and the National Institute of Biomedical Research, was not an imported case from neighbouring Angola as other recent cases were, WHO spokesman Eugene Kabambi said.

"Measures are being taken to strengthen investigation around this case to prevent the spread," Kabambi said in an email. "Social mobilization activities and surveillance are going on with WHO support."

This was the fourth case of the disease transmitted inside the country since March linked to an ongoing epidemic, WHO said.

It was not clear how many mosquitoes in Congo may be carrying yellow fever or what effect this will have on a spread of the virus that has already infected nearly 3,000 people in Angola in the last four months, of which about 325 died, according to WHO.

But yellow fever can spread fast in highly populated areas, with devastating consequences.

So far there have been 52 laboratory-confirmed cases of yellow fever in Congo, most of which have come from Angola. The disease has already spread to Kenya and China and there is an unrelated outbreak in Uganda, generating fears of the mosquito-borne fever jumping to sprawling cities in Asia and Africa.
U.S. FDA panel backs approval of Pfizer's opioid painkiller

By Toni Clarke

June 8 (Reuters) - A U.S. advisory panel on Wednesday recommended approval of Pfizer Inc's long-acting opioid painkiller Troxyca ER, saying it dulls pain and its design could deter abuse by addicts in search of a quick high.

The panel, however, had reservations about the drug's ability to curb all forms of abuse, voting against a claim that it deters oral abuse while endorsing claims of deterring injecting or snorting the drug.

Troxyca ER contains oxycodone and naltrexone, a drug designed to cancel the effect of oxycodone. When taken as directed, the naltrexone remains hidden and does not diminish the effect of the oxycodone, which is released over time.

The product is designed to deter addicts from crushing the pellets to release the oxycodone for a quick high. When crushed, the naltrexone is released along with the oxycodone.

The panel concluded that addicts could use certain solvents to extract oxycodone and only limited amounts of naltrexone, though they said it would be harder to take the additional steps needed to snort or inject it.

The FDA is not obliged to follow the advice of its panels, but typically does so.

On Tuesday the panel concluded that a different long-acting opioid made by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd was likely to deter abuse whether addicts sought to swallow, snort or inject it.

Panelists were more conflicted about Pfizer's drug, voting 9-6 to recommend approval of the product but voting 9-6 against the claim that it deters oral abuse. They voted 11-4 that the drug deterred nasal abuse and 9-6 that it deterred intravenous abuse.

"The committee is in a quandary about Troxyca ER," Dr. Raeford Brown, Jr., a professor of anesthesiology and pediatrics at the University of Kentucky, said, summarizing the views of the panel. "The data are not clear."

Panelists also wrestled with their role in recommending approval for any high-dose opioid at a time when opioid abuse has reached epidemic proportions. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 78 Americans die every day from opioid overdose. Music superstar Prince died from an accidental overdose of an opioid painkiller in April.

Dr. Jeanmarie Perrone, a professor of emergency medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, described the entire discussion as one of "whether we should approve another high-dose opioid with maybe a bit of abuse deterrence."

A number of panelists said Pfizer met current standards for approval, but said they would like to see those standards raised.
Barclays offers internships to those returning from career breaks

By Richa Naidu and Olivia Oran

June 8 (Reuters) - Barclays Plc said on Wednesday it was launching an internship program in New York targeting people who had taken a career break from the finance industry, the latest move by a big bank to emphasize its focus on work-life balance.

In a profession known for its rigorous schedules, banks are competing fiercely for talent around the world and are taking more active steps to both retain employees and attract new types of candidates.

Barclays' 10-week paid program is designed for people who took time off mid-career for "personal responsibilities," which could include raising children or caring for a sick relative. Applicants must have worked for five years previously and earned the title of vice president or above. If accepted into the program, they are placed in an area within Barclays' investment bank.

"There's a need for talent which is sparking [this initiative]," said Barbara Byrne, a vice chairman of investment banking at Barclays. "This is a pool of people who are available, experienced and talented."

Recent efforts at other banks have focused largely on improving the work-life balance of existing employees to increase retention.

UBS told investment bankers this month to take at least two hours of "personal time" during the week, aiming to give them more flexible hours.

In November, Goldman Sachs made changes designed to retain junior bankers, including promoting them more quickly and encouraging mobility.
NEW TOWN, N.D.  The Bakken crude on the oil train that derailed in Oregon last week met North Dakotas oil conditioning order that requires companies to remove the most volatile gases.

The Federal Railroad Administration said the oil on the train that derailed in the Columbia River Gorge in Mosier, Ore., had a vapor pressure of 9.2 pounds per square inch.

Thats below the requirement of 13.7 psi set by the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources last year to reduce the volatility of Bakken crude in response to fiery oil train derailments in the U.S. and Canada.

The train, headed to Tacoma, Wash., was loaded at the Dakota Plains terminal in New Town, an FRA spokeswoman said.

Sixteen of the 96 rail cars derailed Friday and officials estimate 42,000 gallons of crude oil escaped from four rail cars. No one was hurt, but the incident forced evacuations, the closure of a highway and the towns sewer system to be shut off temporarily.

Jim Tate, vice president of operations for Dakota Plains, said the rail-loading facility receives oil by pipeline and truck from several oil producers. The oil is commingled before leaving the rail facility.

The Department of Mineral Resources requires that companies report the vapor pressure testing at the point when the oil changes custody, such as when it is loaded into a truck or enters a pipeline, said spokeswoman Alison Ritter.

The Dakota Plains facility does its own vapor pressure testing on the oil before its loaded into rail cars, Tate said.

We run a very tight sampling protocol on all of our oil thats shipped, Tate said.

Justin Jacobs, a spokesman for Union Pacific, said the cause of the derailment is under investigation, but early indications point to an unusual failure with a fastener that connects the railroad tie to the rail.

Union Pacific has reopened rail traffic in the area, but has suspended unit trains of oil from traveling through the Columbia River Gorge, Jacobs said.

About 35 percent of oil produced in the Bakken region traveled by rail in March, or about 400,000 barrels per day, according to the North Dakota Pipeline Authority.

West Coast refineries receive about 25 percent of Bakken crude that is shipped by rail, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The East Coast continues to be the largest recipient of Bakken crude-by-rail shipments.

Overall, rail shipments of Bakken crude are down by about half compared to the end of 2014.

The reduction is largely due to economic factors, but also attributed to a drop in North Dakotas oil production and increased availability of pipeline transportation.
Vodafone says Ghana needs to meet financial obligations for growth

ACCRA, June 8 (Reuters) - Britain's Vodafone said on Wednesday that plans to return its Ghana operations to profit-making were hampered by the West African country's failure to fulfil its financial obligations as minority shareholder.

The world's largest mobile group by revenue paid $900 million for a 70 percent stake in state-run Ghana telecom in 2008 while the government retained the remaining 30 percent with an enterprise value of around $1.3 billion at the time.

Since the acquisition, Vodafone has put an additional $1.2 billion to modernize network infrastructure and quality of service without the corresponding contribution from the minority shareholder, Kenneth Gomado, chief finance officer of Vodafone Ghana, told reporters in Accra.

The debts were mainly the principal and interest charges on a $550 million investment from the Vodafone Group and a $240 million loan from the World Bank's IFC.

Gomado said the government's inability to meet its obligations had resulted in accumulation of debt due to increasing interest charges on the investment loans, and he noted that Vodafone Ghana had yet to declare profit since its launch.

The company has delayed plans to list on the local stock exchange until ongoing talks with the government to redeem its obligations conclude, Gomado said.

"As we speak today, we are not making any profit before taxes ... we invested $1.2 billion, most of which is accruing interest and at the end of the day that puts our pre-tax profit in negative," he said.

"We've grown and improved quality and profitability of the business, but as of now I don't think we are able to list because there are certain balance sheet issues that we've been discussing with the government in the past three years that needs to be resolved," Gomado said.

Vodafone Ghana has around eight million subscribers on its network and is the second largest mobile operator in subscription and revenue after South Africa's MTN. Serpil Timuray, group head for Africa, Middle East and Asia-Pacific, said despite the challenges, Vodafone would continue critical investments to build on growth, adding that the company's future in Ghana looked bright.
A few weeks ago the Pakistani Islamic Council - known as CII - made the headlines when it proposed a bill that would allow men to "lightly beat" their wives, in order to punish them. Such punishment was considered acceptable for a list of transgressions that included not wearing the hijab, interacting with strangers, disobeying the husband, declining sex and so on.

Many people were outraged at the CII's views, which were seen as misogynistic and oppressive. However this kind of thinking is clearly not unique as domestic violence is prevalent across the world. Just like the CII members, perpetrators believe that they have a right to impose their will and control women through violence. Oftentimes their views are sanctioned by sections of society.

In this article, I will address some common myths around domestic violence, the reasons why many women put up with it and how you can help a victim. The first myth about domestic violence is that it is a rare problem, which affects poor, uneducated women. In reality domestic violence is more prevalent than most realise. According to the World Health Organisation, globally almost one third (30 per cent) of women report experiencing some form of physical and/or sexual violence by their intimate partner. These women cut across race, culture, religion and economic status. They may be doctors, lawyers, business school graduates and successful women in their chosen careers. They may even be glamorous celebrities whom other women look up to.

Second, it is believed that people usually get violent due to the consumption of alcohol. This is the standard movie stereotype. While there is a correlation between alcohol and violence, many abusers use alcohol as an excuse. Drinking impairs thinking but it does not cause the violence. Battering is about power and control, and stopping alcohol is usually not enough to stop abuse.

Third, violence is seen as a one-time, isolated occurrence. In reality battering is a pattern of coercive behavior that happens over and over again and involves many tactics. These include physical violence, sexual abuse, threats, economic depravation, and isolation. It often escalates in severity.

Fourth, some assume that the victims bring the abuse upon themselves by provoking the abuser. At work I regularly come across with men who say "if she didn't make me angry I would not react" or "she triggers me". Victim blaming is an attempt to shift responsibility from the perpetrator's unlawful actions. Violence is a conscious choice made by a person. There are multiple other ways to express anger, frustration and other emotions.

Finally, many assume that if the situation really gets out of hand, the victims can walk away. "Why can't she just leave?" is a common refrain. This view often has an element of judgement as the women who stay on despite repeated battering are labeled "stupid" or "crazy".

Domestic violence affects 30 per cent of global population, according to World Health Organisation.

The reasons why women put up with abuse are complex. They involve the interplay of various practical, social and psychological factors. Many women are stuck in a hellish situation due to financial dependence, lack of housing or support, and the prospect of harming or losing their children. In addition, many lack knowledge about avenues for help, or are pitted against an unresponsive criminal justice system.

Many a time women are constrained due to cultural norms, social stigma and religious beliefs. For instance, some communities in India not only condone domestic violence but accept it as a normal part of marriage. Many traditional communities frown on divorce and stress on the need to keep the family together, come what may. In such situations, the women face tremendous social pressure, and fear isolation and ostracism.

Sometimes victims are psychologically paralysed by the cycle of abuse. They begin to believe that the battering is their fault and they don't deserve anything better. Others hang on as they think they can change the abuser.

A lot of women are also trapped by fear. In fact, the most dangerous period for an abused woman is when she tries to leave. When the abuser senses he is about to lose control, he often escalates the violence against the victim and people close to her.

Given the various constraints, when women muster the courage to speak out and seek help for physical abuse, they often don't want to end the marriage or dysfunctional relationship. They want to learn how to cope with the abuse and/or change the other person.

Dear reader, if you ever come across a woman in your family or social circle in a similar situation, kindly desist from knee-jerk diagnosis and advice. Having suffered though abuse, and the last thing she would need is shaming or lectures.

Express concern, offer emotional support, listen to what she has to say and encourage her to communicate with other people. Give her positive reinforcement as abuse has probably chipped away at her self-esteem.

If possible, help her build a social support group. Abusers often isolate victims by slowly destroying their social networks.

Provide her with relevant safety information such as local helplines in your area, details of protective orders and shelters, if she should ever need it.

However, do not try and pressurise her to leave. You may end up jeopardising her safety and make matters worse.

Finally, be patient. Self-empowerment is often a slow process and victims may need to take baby steps till they are ready to change. Empowering is not about imposing your views and beliefs on another. It means accepting another person's pace of change and choices, even though they might be at odds with your own.
India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been a once-in-a-generation opportunity for reorienting ties with the United States. Modi is undertaking his fourth visit to the United States since taking office and his last engagement with the Obama administration.

For President Barack Obama, strengthening US-India ties is an achievement in an otherwise underwhelming foreign policy track record, and the two men have developed personal rapport. Both would like to institutionalise this rapport so that long-term sustainable outcomes can be achieved.

Even as Modi reinforces his credentials as the politician best placed to move forward not only Indian economic reforms but also Indo-US ties, he must address concerns in the US polity about Indias record on religious tolerance as well as on economic issues such as protection of intellectual property and high tariffs. There is a strong bipartisan commitment in Washington for the issue and Modi cannot let that waiver.

China is working in concert with Pakistan to block Indias entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group.

At a time when the US Congress is tightening the screws on military aid to Pakistan and has effectively blocked the funding of F-16 fighter sale, the US House of Representatives in May approved a bipartisan legislative move to strengthen defence ties with India, bringing the nation on par with NATO allies in so far as defence equipment sales and technology transfer are concerned.

The amendment on security cooperation asks the US government to enhance Indias military capabilities and promote co-development opportunities and calls upon New Delhi to move towards combined military planning with the US for missions of mutual interest. A similar bill has also been introduced in the Senate.

India-US defence ties have soared under the Modi government powered by defence trade between the two worth $14 billion in 2015. The two nations are collaborating on joint projects with a significant strategic imprint such as aircraft carrier and jet engine designs. Joint exercises are routine with new areas such as anti-submarine warfare being explored.

India has yet to agree to the US request for joint patrolling of the sea lanes, though after years of wrangling, in April agreed in principle to open up its military bases to the United States. This pact is expected to be signed during Modis US visit. Such sharing and exchanging of logistics would allow the two naval forces to refuel and re-provision expeditiously.

Indian moves towards the United States are driven in large measure by Chinas openly hostile acts vis-a-vis India. The Modi governments initial outreach towards China has not resulted in any improvement in bilateral ties. Instead Chinas anti-India posture seems to have taken a new vehemence.

China blocked the United Nations from banning Jaish-e-Mohammad chief and the January Pathankot terror strike mastermind Masood Azhar by the global body as a favour to Pakistan by insisting that UN designation of any individual as terrorist is a "serious issue." And China is working in concert with Pakistan to block Indias entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), the 48-nation grouping that controls nuclear-related exports. The US supports Indias entry into the club and has come out fighting for the cause.

India received a one-time clean waiver from the NSG in 2008 after convincing the group of the effectiveness of its export-control regime which was deemed to be in line with global standards. The Bush administration lobbied for India extensively with President George W Bush himself talking to his Chinese counterpart after Beijing refused to budge until the last minute.

Today, India wants to be part of the decision-making at the highest levels of global nuclear architecture. As a rising and responsible nuclear power, New Delhi would like to be a part of this structure and Indias participation will also make the decision-making process of the NSG more credible.

China is taking a hard line and its opposition to Indias entry seems unlikely to change. Whereas the United States and other supporting members have called for Indias inclusion based on New Delhis non-proliferation track record and the US-India civil nuclear accord, China has made the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty signature as its central argument to scuttle Indias entry.

Beijing is claiming that a "compulsory" requirement for NSG membership is that "the NSG members must be signatories to the NPT".

Apart from the NPT rhetoric, China has also encouraged Pakistan to apply for NSG membership so as to link New Delhis entry with that of Islamabads knowing full well that there will be few takers for Pakistans case. The US has declared its support for Indias full membership since 2010, and the US state department promptly came to Indias defence reaffirming the view that "India meets missile technology control regime requirements and is ready for NSG membership."

Such obstructionist acts by China are only serving the cause of strong India-US ties. But the Modi governments role itself should not be discounted. The administration does not carry the ideological baggage of its predecessors. Though it was the Congressled government which signed the nuclear accord with the US in the face of bitter domestic opposition, it has been ambivalent about the US role in Indian foreign policy.

Modi, by contrast, wants India to emerge as a leading global power: not a non-aligned power or a bridging power, but a power that can shape global outcomes. He recognises that New Delhi needs Washingtons support in this endeavour and is willing to take risks towards that end while not abandoning Indias traditional historic friendship with Iran, criticised by some in the US Congress.

Modis visit to Tehran in May resulted in the signing of trilateral Chabahar agreement between India, Afghanistan and Iran with India making about $500 million available for this project after years of dilly-dallying from New Delhi. The Chabahar port holds immense strategic and economic significance, allowing India to circumvent Pakistan to develop connectivity with Kabul.

The port is also viewed as Indias challenge to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

In addressing a joint session of the US Congress, Modi will be welcomed by the US polity against a backdrop of developments on the domestic political front, including his partys impressive performance in regional elections which has given his image a much needed boost in India.

Though the Indian economy continues to do well with an estimated growth of 7.6 per cent in 2016 and India replacing China as the top destination for FDI in 2015, there are concerns about Modis ability to push a reform agenda through Parliament. There is renewed hope that Modi governments centerpiece reform initiative  the Goods and Services Tax  can now be passed through the Parliament with help from regional parties.

As Prime Minister Modi makes his case to the US Congress that his government views the United States as his countrys primary strategic partner, it is important for Washington to listen carefully and respond adequately. Strong cross-border relationships require broad-based domestic support.

Recent sharp criticism of Indias human rights record by influential Republican senators underscores the challenges that Modi government faces in meeting American expectations.

For India to develop stronger strategic ties with Washington, the Modi government must bring to heel its extremist Hindu rank-and-file and the administrations authoritarian tendencies in dealing with NGOs. Strong ties between the two countries must be built on broad public support in both countries. This will be Modis challenge as he reaches out to Washington.
When two people fight, we pick sides by force of habit. One of them is bound to be right and the other will be wrong, right? Wrong. Both can be wrong. Both can be right. That's the way it is, but we still blindly back one person and attack the other one.

That is what has happened after maverick BJP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy declared that Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Raghuram Rajan should be sacked. A war has already broken out on Twitter where Swamy supporters are telling Rajan to go while Rajan supporters are telling Swamy to go to hell. How personal things have become can be seen by just this one exchange:

Wrote US-based writer Sadanand Dhume in a column: Some party supporters appear genuinely appalled by Swamy's newfound prominence, but they keep mum out of fear. With some 2.7 million followers on Twitter, Swamy has the power to drag just about anyone into the social media gutter with him.

After a bitter exchange on Twitter, Swamy (@Swamy39) ended thus: PTs have done a terrific job of Dhoolai while giving Dhume a tour of the gutter. So he has taken new name: Gadhanand Dhule.

PTs have done a terrific job of Dhoolai while giving Dhume a tour of the gutter. So he has taken new name: Gadhanand Dhule  Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) June 6, 2016

Such exchanges are a sign of our times where the core issue is always missed out and trivial ones are discussed which degenerate into a no holds barred fight.

But first, Swamy is not going anywhere because Prime Minister Narendra Modi needs him.

Modi is the strongest and most vocal opponent of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty. But so far Modi's deeds have fallen far short of his words. He doesn't seem to have taken direct action against the dynasty.

The only other BJP prime minister, AB Vajpayee, appeared to be totally in awe of the dynasty and even today most BJP leaders squirm in their seats at the thought of attacking Congress president Sonia Gandhi strongly.

Arun Jaitley may be made the president of India, and Swamy his replacement at the finance ministry. If it happens, Rajan will go any way.

That's not the case with Swamy. He fought Indira Gandhi's Emergency in the 1970s and since the 1990s has been the biggest pinprick for Sonia. Swamy is the only person who has brought a case against the dynasty that has actually stood in court (Indira's case was thrown out after the Janata Party government goofed up big time by arresting her). In fact, both Sonia and Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi are now squirming in the National Herald case.

The sessions court, high court and Supreme Court have all looked at it. No judge could dismiss it. It is a huge victory for Swamy and now also for Modi since the former is now part of the BJP.

Modi's other big image is that of anti-corruption. That's where Swamy fits the bill too. He ended the career of Karnataka chief minister Ramakrishna Hegde even though both of them were on the same side. He was instrumental in finishing off former telecom minister A Raja. Swamy's case sent Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa to jail and she is not off the hook yet.

Action by the Enforcement Directorate under Union finance minister Arun Jaitley hasn't led to any high profile convictions in the last two years. Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has his image tarnished by Vyapam.

Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has been set back by the resignation of his state revenue minister Eknath Khadse. Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, for all his bluster of threatening to send Robert Vadra to jail, has done absolutely nothing yet.

So yet again, Swamy is the best bet for Modi.

Then there are issues related to Hindutva. Swamy has been a key person in the reopening of the Kailash Manasarovar pilgrimage route. He was involved in the scrapping of the Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project which would have destroyed the Ram Sethu to Sri Lanka which many Hindus believe was actually used by Lord Ram during the days of the Ramayan. Finally, Swamy is the most active prominent national Hindu leader on the Ayodhya Ram Janmabhoomi front.

Modi is doing well on governance and development where he is ably supported by the likes of power minister Piyush Goyal, infrastructure minister Nitin Gadkari and railways minister Suresh Prabhu. But on the above-mentioned points there appears to be a vacuum and Hindutva voters are extremely restless with Modi. The prime minister relies heavily on Swamy to counter that.

Now let's come to the post of the RBI governor. Unlike the post of prime minister, there's not much that an RBI governor can do. A prime minister may steer his country Left (Jawaharlal Nehru), then Right (PV Narasimha Rao) and then Left again (Manmohan Singh). However, the global banking and financial system is a slow moving monolith and no one man may change it. You don't need a maverick but a colourless and really competent bureaucrat to keep the machinery running smoothly.

That's where Rajan fits the bill perfectly. For those who don't know, Rajan was the youngest chief economist of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He is an IIT alumnus and did his PhD in banking from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Rajan is the first recipient of the Fischer Black Prize.

India is going through rapid economic transition and increasing its footprint in the global economy. Rajan looks good to help take India to the next level.

Rajan is also a member of the elite Group of Thirty (G30) which Wikipedia defines as: An international body of leading financiers and academics which aims to deepen understanding of economic and financial issues and to examine consequences of decisions made in the public and private sectors related to these issues.

As you can see, both Swamy and Rajan have their uses and the current debate has degenerated into whether they are useful or useless.

Nobody seems to be discussing the central issue head on. It's not whether Rajan has the right qualifications for the job (which he definitely has) but the allegations that Swamy has hurled at him.

Swamy has accused Rajan of allowing Sharia-compliant financial institutions into the country against RBI guidelines. He has accused Rajan of leaking "confidential and sensitive" information out of the country. Swamy has accused Rajan of helping Karti (former home and finance minister P Chidambaram's son) in the Aircel-Maxis case. Finally, Swamy has raised the issue of the ethics of a US Green Card holder holding the post of RBI governor.

Now these are very serious allegations. All media houses have to do is to investigate and find out if any of these charges are true or not. Modi is probably doing the same.

Is Swamy right?

If he is, then Rajan must go.

If he is not, then Swamy is way out of line and should apologise to Rajan and be admonished by Modi.

The problem is that all of Swamy's allegations at first appear totally outlandish and he seems to be talking grade one nonsense. But quite a lot of what he says actually holds up in court. Just ask Raja, Jaya, Sonia or Rahul.

One wishes that the national debate revolved around these specific allegations instead of their respective competencies. That debate will go nowhere because as mentioned before, India needs Rajan and Modi needs Swamy.

Of course there's a wild card: the impending Cabinet reshuffle. There are wild rumours of sending HRD minister Smriti Irani as the chief ministerial candidate for Uttar Pradesh and Jaitley being considered for president of India. If the latter happens then we could have a new finance minister. And if that happens to be Swamy, then Rajan goes any way.
Its February 1966, and three Missoula businessmen are about to meet the Heavyweight Champion of the World  and a world champion traveling companion to boot.

It was the private side of Muhammad Ali, the flamboyant fighter and showman. Though he called himself the Greatest when the TV cameras were rolling, Ali proved to be anything but haughty when it came to spending time with ordinary people from Montana.

Art Mandell of Missoula, who spent much of his career owning Dairy Queen restaurants, said it happened after he and some colleagues boarded an eastbound Northern Pacific train in Missoula about 5:30 a.m. to attend a regional Dairy Queen meeting in Bismarck, North Dakota. Mandell was already owner of the Dairy Queen restaurant in Missoula. Traveling with him were Herb Searles, who owned Meadowland Dairies and made the mixes for all the Dairy Queen restaurants in the state, and Cliff Kerney, who worked for Meadowland Dairies and delivered the mixes.

It was early in February 1966 and there were few passengers on the train. Shortly after they got on, a conductor told them Muhammad Ali, the boxer, was on the train, a car or two forward.

Ali, who died Friday at age 74, had won his first heavyweight title in 1964 from Sonny Liston. He was to win the title again in 1974, despite being forced to stay out of the ring for several years. Ali had refused to register for the draft because of his religious convictions as a convert to Islam and his opposition to the war in Vietnam. And he was to win the title a third time in 1978.

The Missoula men made their way forward to the observation car, the Vista Dome, and there was the fighter, along with his wife and driver. After a while, Mandell approached him.

I walked up and said, Can I shake the hand of the champ? And he said, Sit down, sit down, join us,  Mandell told the Missoulian this week.

Mandell recalled it all in a memoir he wrote later for his children: We spent most of the day with them, playing checkers, Old Maid, a game called Pitty-Pat and one called War. He had a short, light rope, and showed us rope and knot tricks. He told one story after another, many about his career and about his fight with Sonny Liston, and also about his conscientious objector status that got him into so much trouble. He was mild-mannered and not at all like we were used to seeing him on television.

Ali told them he was returning from a speaking engagement in Portland, Oregon. Hed been traveling that way by car when the car slid off the road in a snowstorm near Moorhead, Minnesota. So theyd gone the rest of the way to Portland by train, and now they were returning by train to pick up their car in Minnesota. The benefit of that change in plans by Ali and his party was that the travelers from Missoula got to see the person behind the showman.

Someone came by later in the day and offered to buy him a drink and he said the only thing he drank was 7UP; then he got started on the evils of alcohol and drugs, Mandell wrote later in his memoir. A while later, a fellow came by with a Polaroid camera and took a picture of Muhammad and me playing Old Maid and gave me the picture. I took some Northern Pacific napkins and asked Muhammad to autograph them for me and he did.

Mandell still has one of those autographed Northern Pacific napkins to this day: To Art from Muhammad Ali, World Heavyweight Champion. Ali also wrote an autograph for Mandells son John, and then Herb Searles asked Ali to write an autograph for a friend of his, Snooze, who was a big fight fan.

Part of what Mandell remembers is that the fighter  world heavyweight champion though he was  was no champ at all when it came to cards. Mandell said his own strategy was to have the Old Maid card sticking out slightly higher than the other cards in his hand and Ali  either on purpose or by bad luck  seemed to draw it every time.

He seemed to like that game, Mandell said.

Ali turned in about 9:30 p.m., but the Montana travelers still sat up in the observation car visiting.

After about an hour or so Muhammad came out of the sleeper car and sat with us. We were the only people in the car. This time he was wearing only his white boxer shorts. He was quite a sight. We visited with him until around midnight when he went back to his sleeper.

About 2 a.m. the train pulled in to Bismarck and let the Missoula travelers off. The fighter went on, riding a course that would take him to two more world titles, and more and more fans  including three of the staunchest from Missoula, Montana.
CASPER  Wyoming Medical Center laid off 58 workers Tuesday, compounding the woes of a state already suffering from increasing unemployment and a stagnant energy sector.

The job cuts are expected to save the Casper hospital $7.2 million, CEO Vickie Diamond said. They come amid a downturn in the local economy, a drop in the number of patients with private insurance and increased competition from the city's two private hospitals.

In addition to the layoffs, the hospital will leave vacant another 57 positions. And the hospital reduced the hours of 11 employees to 12 hours a week. Combined, the job cuts and vacant positions amount to 9 percent of the hospital's workforce.

The job cuts affected 30 departments at the hospital  from finance and radiology to quality management and central sterilization. No nurses who take care of patients at their bedsides were laid off.

Workers who lost their jobs were informed Tuesday morning. They were given 30 days of pay and benefits. If they agree to terms of a severance agreement, they will receive another 30 days of pay and benefits, counseling and career transition services.

Officials at the states second-largest hospital announced the layoffs during a noon news conference.

The 217-bed center had 1,125 employees before the layoffs, according to its website. Even after the cuts, it remains Casper's second-largest employer, said WMC Board Chairman John Masterson.

The hospital operates central Wyomings only Level II trauma center, with an emergency department that provides comprehensive care and essential specialists at all times.

In 2014, the hospital saw over 37,000 emergency room visits, according to tax documents Wyoming Medical Center, a nonprofit, submitted to the Internal Revenue Service.

That number is likely to increase, as the ER cannot turn away people unable to pay. The number of patients without health insurance is expected to rise, as layoffs have increased in Wyoming's oil and gas, coal and uranium industries.

Wyoming's unemployment rate rose to 5.5 percent in April. Natrona County posted the state's second-highest jobless rate, at 7.5 percent.

Hospitals throughout the state provide more than $100 million a year in uncompensated care.

In January, such care was expected to cost Wyoming Medical Center $53 million this year, Diamond told the Star-Tribune at the time. But on Tuesday, CFO Yvonne Wigington said the costs will be $55 million by the end of June, the close of the hospital's fiscal year.

In addition to treating patients from Casper, the hospital offers specialized services that many Wyoming rural hospitals lack. Wyoming Medical Center draws patients from large swaths of the northern and central parts of the state.

In each of the past four years, the Wyoming Legislature had rejected expanding Medicaid to some 20,000 low-income adults. Diamond and other state hospital officials have argued that expansion is critical to their bottom lines. Many of the people who show up in the emergency room would be Medicaid patients if the state adopted one of the key components of the Affordable Care Act.

Each member of Natrona Countys all-Republican legislative delegation has voted against expansion  including Sen. Charlie Scott, the powerful chairman of the Senate Labor, Health and Social Services Committee. That committee has reviewed the states plan for expansion three of the four times its been before the Legislature. With Scott chairing the committee  and arguing against Medicaid on the Senate floor  lawmakers have resisted plans for expansion proposed by Gov. Matt Mead, also a Republican, and the Wyoming Department of Health.

If lawmakers had approved expansion, it would have added $2 million to the hospital's bottom line, WMC officials said.

The layoffs would have been less severe had the Legislature expanded Medicaid, said Wigington, the CFO.

"Any additional reimbursement would improve our financial status," she said.

Diamond, the CEO, earned $668,594 in 2014, according to the IRS tax forms. That included $520,175 in base compensation, retirement benefits and other perks.

The hospital pays for her memberships to the Casper Country Club, Casper Petroleum Club and Rotary.

Management  everyone from managers, directors, vice presidents and other executives  had mandatory furloughs up to 12 days, reflecting a 2 percent overall reduction in salaries. Previously, managers could receive financial incentives for meeting goals. Those were cut. The hospital hasnt filled open positions in leadership. Four leaders were laid off Tuesday, Diamond said.

In 2014, the medical center opened a new 100,000-square-foot, 48-bed tower to the tune of $43 million. The McMurry Tower has a new mother-baby unit, surgical center and redesigned food and nutrition services department. The addition was paid for through a $20 million revenue bond, hospital savings and private donations. Diamond said payments for the new construction are on schedule. The addition is used. The hospital had to offer new services to be comeptitive in the medical market, she said.

"This is not volumes that are causing this," she said. "This is payer mix.

The hospital runs a number of clinics  from Advantage Orthopedics and Neurosurgery to one offering immediate care for sick patients unable to get in with their physicians.
DENVER  Rangers protecting the lions, elephants and leopards of Rwanda's Akagera National Park often patrol on foot, venturing only with difficulty into the swamps to keep an eye on rare birds.

A Denver teen who visited the park in northeast Rwanda last summer had an idea he thought would make the rangers' job easier: He and a friend would build a drone to donate to Akagera.

Akagera's rangers "deal with a lot more difficult problems than we do, and with very limited resources," Max Alger-Meyer said from a robotics lab at the Denver School of Science and Technology.

Once home from his trip organized by a Denver-based international development nonprofit, Alger-Meyer applied the lessons he had learned in frugality and ingenuity. He and Nathan Lepore, both 18, made the drone themselves because that was cheaper than buying one.

Lepore has been accepted into Stanford's mechanical engineering program. Alger-Meyer will enter the aeronautical engineering at the University of Colorado next year.

In a telephone interview from his park, Akagera manager Jes Gruner said he was surprised when got an email from Denver. He'd heard before from people who wanted to sell him a drone, but never from anyone who wanted to give him one.

Gruner said the donation will be useful for spotting brushfires. In addition, the drone will allow Akagera to do more frequent surveys of rare animals such as shoebill storks -- endangered birds that inhabit swamps that are difficult for rangers to navigate.

The park now brings in a helicopter for animal counts, "but it's incredibly expensive. We only do that every two years," Gruner said. "We don't have the luxury of playing with money."

Alger-Meyer, who would like to go into business himself one day, values the experience of putting in hours of research to be sure drone parts ordered were right. He and Lepore didn't want to waste donor money. Most of the just over $1,000 they spent on the drone came from friends and family.

Alger-Meyer and Lepore were putting the finishing touches on the drone as their school year ended. They hope to go to Rwanda this summer to deliver it and train rangers on its use.

The Denver teens knew as they designed their drone that park rangers will have to improvise fixes if anything goes wrong. The frame is assembled from standard-issue aluminum tubing, which anyone with a drill and some screws could replace easily.

Colby Loucks, senior director of the wildlife conservation program at World Wildlife Fund in the United States, applauded the teens' thinking.

"In the conservation space, people have a bad habit of getting really excited about technology solutions  and then trying to find problems that fit those solutions. You can end up with a bunch of expensive equipment that no one knows how to use, that's broken and no one knows how to repair, or that sits around because no one asked for it in the first place."

Alger-Meyer visited Rwanda on a trip organized by the Global Livingston Institute, founded by Jamie Van Leeuwen, whose day job is senior adviser to Colorado's governor. Van Leeuwen wants the Americans, Rwandans and Ugandans he brings together to consider the problems they share and what they can learn from one another about finding solutions.

Alger-Meyer said he was not particularly interested in conservation before meeting the Rwandans. He returned from that trip with a new perspective.

"Seeing how (rangers) operated such a vast park with limited resources, that kind of problem-solving they do intrigues me," he said.
With supporters calling the presidential race a "street fight" and a political revolution, North Dakota Democratic-NPL Party supporters came out widely in favor of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the states presidential caucus Tuesday evening.

The caucus was meant to elect delegates in each legislative district to attend the partys State Delegate Selection Committee meeting June 18 in Bismarck. Unofficial results with all districts reporting had Sanders taking 253 of the 394 delegates allotted for the June 18 meeting. Clinton came away with 101, while the remaining 40 were uncommitted.

The number of delegates from each district who will be able to attend the June 18 meeting are divided proportionately based on 2012 presidential election results. On June 18, a total of 23 delegates and two alternates will be selected to represent the state at the partys national convention July 25-28 in Philadelphia.

About 450 Bismarck caucus-goers began casting their ballots inside Bismarck High School, with supporters of Sanders providing a substantial presence. The atmosphere prior to voting was upbeat, with chants, playful banter and even two young children holding signs of opposing candidates running around yelling candidate names, drawing laughter and cheers.

Vinod Seth, a Bismarck doctor, lauded Sanders' policy plans and blunt opinions before a District 35 crowd that was firmly in the senators camp: Enough is enough is enough is enough! Its time to take our country back."

Seth said politics isnt a spectator sport, and Dem-NPL faithful need to get into the arena and get involved.

Tim Purdon of District 35, a past U.S. Attorney for North Dakota, countered with a pitch for Clinton, saying its important to have a strong leader in charge overseeing who's running other federal agencies and guiding overall policy in the country.

This is going to be a street fight, he said.

Purdon said anyone paying attention to this years election knows that by watching the harsh nomination fight that occurred within the Republican Party.

When you show up for a street fight, who do you want with you? Hillary Clinton, he said.

Twelve district delegates are to be pledged to presidential candidates proportionately based on candidate preference at Tuesdays caucuses. The two alternates also will be chosen from the district level.

In addition, four at-large delegates will be chosen, as will two pledged and five unpledged Party Leader or Elected Officials delegates.

The unpledged Party Leader or Elected Officials delegates are Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D.; the state party's chair and vice-chair; and the partys national committeeman and committeewoman.

Dem-NPL Party Executive Director Robert Haider said how the 12 district delegates are split between both candidates depends on who shows up June 18. He guessed the split between those delegates would end up being 7 to 5 or 8 to 4 in favor of Sanders.

It definitely exceeded what we were expecting to show up, Haider said of statewide attendance, although he declined to provide a specific figure.

Sean Dunlap of District 47 was firmly in the Clinton camp.

I think (Sanders) is kind of a one-trick pony, he said. I think shes more experienced and would deal better with foreign policy.

Dunlap said a Clinton presidency would be better for the country as a whole.

The alternative is horrifying, he said of presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.

Dunlap questioned how long Sanders polling numbers, which show him as the stronger Democrat in a head-to-head match-up with Trump, would last.

Thats going to last until (Republicans) open up with both barrels, he said.

Sanders supporters were in no short supply among District 7 caucus-goers. Nick Winkler called him the only viable candidate.

He genuinely seems to love everyone and thats what we need  rather than walls and separation, Winkler said, taking a swipe at Trumps stance on building a wall along the border with Mexico.

When this presidential race first began I was actually for Hillary Clinton, Brian Johnson, caucusing in District 7, said.

Johnson said Clinton has been wishy washy on issues and changed positions over time, which he doesnt like. Between that and learning about Sanders stance on issues such as health care and education brought him to support Sanders.

Hes in it for us; hes in it to help us, Johnson said.

Lexie South, also of District 7, said she agrees not only with Sanders policy positions, but also with his honesty. She said she knows one man cant change the country, but its important to have a leader who will work tirelessly to improve peoples quality of life.

Im beyond confident hed get the ball rolling, she said.

North Dakota joined five remaining states Tuesday in holding their nominating contests: California, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota. Those results were not available at press time.
Responding to David Camerons appearance in the ITV debate, Vote Leave Chief Executive Matthew Elliott said:

Earlier David Cameron called for more honesty in the EU debate but he told five outright lies.

He lied about being able to remove EU jobseekers without a job after six months, our ability to stop foreign criminals walking into the UK, our ability to deport foreign criminals, his pledge to restrict benefits and how much his government is investing in the NHS.

He still claims that Turkey wont join the EU while his Government is spending 1 billion to help speed up their membership. The truth is you cant trust anything David Cameron says on the EU. That is why you should Vote Leave on 23 June.

The myriad of lies and falsities spouted by David Cameron are comprehensively debunked

The Government claims that the renegotiation means it will be able to prevent dangerous EU nationals from coming to the UK and make it easier to deport them if they have been living in the UK. This is false . The renegotiation does not in any way relax the onerous requirements of EU law which prevent the UK deporting dangerous criminals.

There is no proposal to amend the Treaties or the 2004 Free Movement Directive. The proposals agreed at the European Council will be contained in a Communication to be issued by the European Commission. As the Commission accepts, a Communication is a policy document with no mandatory authority. The Commission takes the initiative of publishing a Communication when it wishes to set out its own thinking on a topical issue. A Communication has no legal effect.

The Governments proposals will have no legal status and are, in any event, merely restatements of the status quo.

David Cameron is misleading the public when he says he is putting an additional 12 billion into the NHS. This was a lie.

The Government has only committed to spend an additional 8 billion. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, said: we will commit to a minimum real-terms increase in NHS funding of 8bn in the next five years.

The Government will not even meet this target. In December 2015, the Nuffield Trust, the Health Foundation and the Kings Fund said that health spending in England will rise by just 4.5 billion in real terms between 2015/2016 and 2020/2021. This is because health spending not included in NHS Englands budget will fall by 3.6 billion, despite NHS Englands budget being protected. The organisations stated the real terms increase was clearly much less than was expected when the NHS settlement was announced.

David Cameron claimed he got what he wanted on benefits. This was a lie.

The 2015 Conservative Manifesto stated We will insist that EU migrants who want to claim tax credits and child benefit must live here and contribute to our country for a minimum of four years. Migrants will still be able to claim benefits during their first four years in the UK.

The Conservative Manifesto promised: If an EU migrants child is living abroad, then they should receive no child benefit or child tax credit, no matter how long they have worked in the UK and no matter how much tax they have paid. The export of child benefit will continue after his deal.

David Cameron claimed EU jobseekers must leave after six months. This was a lie.

The Prime Minister promised that all jobseekers would be removed after six months and has claimed this has already been achieved. In 2014, David Cameron promised that: [I]f an EU jobseeker has not found work within six months, they will be required to leave. In his Chatham House speech in November 2015, the Prime Minister said that this pledge had already been achieved.

The EU Treaties forbid the removal of all jobseekers after six months. In 1991, the European Court of Justice ruled that the Treaties forbid the removal of jobseekers from another EU member state regardless of the duration of their stay if the person concerned provides evidence that he is continuing to seek employment and that he has genuine chances of being engaged.

The Free Movement Directive forbids the removal of all jobseekers after six months. The Free Movement Directive provides that: an expulsion measure may in no case be adopted against Union citizens or their family members if the Union citizens entered the territory of the host Member State in order to seek employment. In this case, the Union citizens and their family members may not be expelled for as long as the Union citizens can provide evidence that they are continuing to seek employment and that they have a genuine chance of being engaged.

The Government admitted in December that many jobseekers could remain for longer than six months. The Home Office Minister, James Brokenshire, admitted in December that some EU migrants can keep the status of jobseeker for longer than six months.

There is no mechanism for monitoring whether or not jobseekers remain in the UK for over six months. In any event, EU law forbids systematic verification of whether EU citizens are lawfully resident in the UK. It states that this verification shall not be carried out systematically.

David Cameron claimed he had a deal to deport foreign criminals. This is a lie.

We are not able to deport EU criminals because of EU free movement rules. David Cameron was actually referring to the EUs prisoner transfer agreement  this has been a failure. The number of foreign nationals offenders from the EU has increased since it came into force. This costs us over 150 million each year.

In November 2008, the EU established a prisoner transfer agreement, which allows for the transfer of prisoners to serve their sentences in their country of nationality without their consent. This entered into force in December 2011, but is yet to enter into force in respect of transfers to certain member states such as Poland. The Government has claimed that: the EU PTA will result in a significant increase in the number of prisoners transferred.

Just 73 prisoners have been transferred under this agreement according to the Government.

The number of FNOs who are EU citizens has increased from 3,427 on 31 December 2010 to 4,203 on 31 March 2016, an increase of 22.6%, or 776 prisoners. The proportion of FNOs who are EU citizens has increased from 31.54% on 31 December 2010 to 42.15% on 31 March 2016, an increase of 34%..

The cost of providing 4,203 prison places to house them is 152.4 million each year.

Cameron claims he got a substantial renegotiation. No powers will be brought back by his deal.

The Decision states that: The competences conferred by the Member States on the Union can be modified, whether to increase or reduce them, only through a revision of the Treaties with the agreement of all Member States. Since there will be no Treaty, no powers will be returned to the UK.

Before the agreement, the EU had 28 legislative competences over the UK. Today, it still possesses 28.

The Decision states that it respects the powers of the institutions of the Union, including throughout the legislative and budgetary procedures. This makes clear the Decision will not affect the EUs powers to legislate for the UK or to demand 350 million per week from Britain.

David Camerons deal failed to return powers. These include:

Social and employment legislation . David Cameron once said that it will be a top priority for the next Conservative government to restore social and employment legislation to national control. This deal does nothing to return control of social and employment legislation.

The Charter of Fundamental Rights . David Cameron once promised a complete opt-out from the Charter of Fundamental Rights. The last Conservative Manifesto promised to make our own Supreme Court the ultimate arbiter of human rights matters in the UK. None of this is possible while the Charter remains in force. This deal does not end the Charters application in the UK.

Breaking the link between British courts and Strasbourg . The last Conservative Manifesto promised to break the formal link between British courts and the European Court of Human Rights. Yet the contents of the European Convention on Human Rights (as interpreted the European Court of Human Rights) will continue to constitute general principles of EU law.

Ending the European Courts control of criminal law . David Cameron once said his proposals involved limiting the European Court of Justices jurisdiction over criminal law to its pre-Lisbon level. The Home Secretary promised that the Prime Minister must look again at this matter in our renegotiations with the European Union before the referendum. This has not happened.

Ending the EUs ability to regulate working hours in the NHS. In his Bloomberg Speech, the Prime Minister said: it is neither right nor necessary to claim that the integrity of the single market, or full membership of the European Union requires the working hours of British hospital doctors to be set in Brussels irrespective of the views of British parliamentarians and practitioners. This has not happened.

Cameron claimed GDP was the key measure of political success. He has previously rejected this view.

In 2010, Cameron has said GDP is an incomplete way of measuring a countrys progress.

The UK has no influence in the EU institutions which are unaccountable to the British public.

Every time the UK has voted against a measure in the Council of Ministers, it has been outvoted. This is happening with increased frequency: of the UKs 72 defeats, over half (40) have occurred in the last five years.

The UKs representatives are often outvoted in the European Parliament as well. The majority of UK MEPs voted against 576 EU proposals between 2009 and 2014, but 485 still passed.

The UK has lost 101 cases in the European Court since it joined the then European Economic Community in 1973, a failure rate of 77.1%. The current Government has lost 16 out of 20 cases in the European Court, a failure rate of 80%.

Research for the House of Commons Library shows 60% of UK law is made in Brussels.

An Australian-style points system will make it easier to recruit skilled staff.

11% of doctors are from the European Economic Area, whereas 25.7%, or 70,404 are from the rest of the world. This is despite the stringent restrictions that apply to migrants from outside the EU coming to the UK.

If we Vote Leave, we can prioritise those with the skills our NHS needs and we can end the open door to the rest of Europe.

The NHS is under major pressure from immigration.

In the financial year 2015-2016, NHS providers experienced a record NHS deficit of 2.45 billion. NHS Improvement has stated: Rising demand, especially for urgent and emergency care continued to add significant cost pressures to the sector.

This puts pressure on accident and emergency services: The number of patients who waited longer than four hours on a trolley for a bed in 2015/16 increased by 26.3% to 387,809, compared to 2014/15.

In the year ending September 2015, 172,000 persons (net) came to UK from the EU.

Between 2005 and 2014, there were 475,935 live births to mothers who were EU citizens. The number of births to EU mothers rose from 24,942 in 2005 to 64,067 in 2014, an increase of 157%. This is the equivalent of adding a city the size of Manchester to the UK population. With the estimated cost of maternity care in the NHS being 2,800, the cost of providing NHS services to those families could be over 1.33bn.

GP registrations have risen by a million and a half over the last three years. In April 2013, there were 56.0 million patients registered with a general practice. In January 2016, there were 57.5 million patients registered with a general practice.

The number of A&E attendances has increased from 14.0 million in 2002-2003 to 22.4 million in 2014-2015, an increase of 59.16% in the last thirteen years.

David Cameron used to admit you could control immigration without harming the economy. He was right.

In 2011, Cameron said: So what Im trying to say today is, you know, those who say you cant control immigration without damaging the economy, that this is a forlorn hope, I really believe thats wrong. We can control immigration. We can do it in a way that doesnt damage the economy.

A report for the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries shows that introducing an Australian-style points system and reducing migration would bring billions in additional revenue and lead to a higher state pension.

Cameron has broken his promise to fix free movement and to cut migration to the tens of thousands. He failed.

In his 2014 conference speech, Cameron said: Numbers that have increased faster than we in this country wanted at a level that was too much for our communities, for our labour markets. All of this has to change  and it will be at the very heart of my renegotiation strategy for Europe.

The 2010 Conservative Manifesto promised that we will take steps to take net migration back to the levels of the 1990s  tens of thousands a year, not hundreds of thousands.

The 2015 Conservative Manifesto promised to keep our ambition of delivering annual net migration in the tens of thousands, not the hundreds of thousands.

In 2015 alone, 270,000 persons came to the UK from the EU. This is the equivalent of a city the size of Newcastle. This is up from 264,000 in 2014. In the same year, net migration from the EU was 184,000.

EU migrants can come without a job offer, despite David Camerons promises he would end this.

As early as 1991, the European Court held that the Treaty entails the right for nationals of Member States to move freely within the territory of the other Member States and to stay there for the purposes of seeking employment.

This is still the case  in the last year alone 77,000 EU migrants came to the UK looking for a job  despite the PMs promise in 2014 to stop this. In November 2014, the Prime Minister, David Cameron, promised that we want EU jobseekers to have a job offer before they come here So lets be clear what all these changes taken together will mean. EU migrants should have a job offer before they come here.

Cameron claimed that proposals on ever closer union will have an impact. This is wrong.

The UKs former Advocate General in the European Court, Professor Sir Francis Jacobs QC, has said the phrase does not create rights or obligations. It does not impose obligations on member states and that there is very little basis for the view it has been used in integrationist judgments of the European Court. Removing the phrase will have no impact on the European Court and will not stop further European integration.
The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has been making changes in how it operates the state penitentiary and the early indications of the results are positive.

In a series of stories Sunday, reporter Caroline Grueskin explained why the prison has been moving away from the use of solitary confinement. Interviews with prison officials and inmates showed how a willingness to explore alternatives to how things have been done for years has prompted major changes.

When additions and renovations were made at the prison seven years ago increasing the size of the solitary confinement cell block, officially known as the administrative segregation unit, was a priority. When completed, the unit was quickly filled and prison officials realized the system wasnt working. It was chaotic and confining men for long stretches in small cells didnt improve behavior.

When prison administrators visited a prison in Norway they were intrigued by the idea that prison should be more like the outside. The penitentiary has been working since then to reduce the number of inmates in solitary. This involves changing the approach used by corrections officers to inmates and working to change the behavior of inmates. The motto has become behave your way in, behave your way out.

Some may think the prison is going soft, but it isnt. The prison and most of the jails in the state are full. Officials have been saying for some time that the state cant build its way out of the problem. We have to find ways to prepare inmates for a return to society. Solitary confinement can add to a prisoners attitude problems.

Solitary confinement hasnt been dropped, but its not as quickly used as in the past. Prison officials should be commended for their willingness to adopt new approaches. Changes are going to be necessary or the state could be overwhelmed by corrections costs in the future.

This week legislators are being told if no action is taken the cost of contracting beds for the state's growing prison population will total $485 million through 2025.

That figure doesnt include building any new prisons, according to Katie Mosehauer, project manager for the Council of State Governments Justice Center, which is working with lawmakers on a study of the corrections system. The Justice Center hopes to help lawmakers decide on action to ease pressure on the prison system while also reducing recidivism rates and improving overall public safety.

The work of the Legislature combined with the steps being taken by prison officials could put North Dakota on the path of solving its prison and jail problems. Its an effort that needs to succeed.
I have known Wayne Stenehjem since 1974, the year I met his sister, Susan, my future wife. I remember the first time I met him. He gave me a big smile, we shook hands, and formed a bond that has lasted for more than 40 years.

Although Wayne is highly intelligent, has a great sense of humor, a quick wit, and is one of the nicer guys you could ever meet, what I admire about him is his commitment to improving the lives of every North Dakotan.

While he served in the North Dakota Legislature while running a successful law firm in Grand Forks, Wayne wrote and sponsored nearly every law to protect women and children.

As North Dakotas longest-serving attorney general, he has fought hard against federal overreach, including opposing Obamacare and the EPAs crippling regulations on agriculture and natural resources development. Whats more, Wayne has worked tirelessly to protect all of us from the scourges of illegal drugs, human trafficking, and scammers who prey on the elderly. Clearly, Wayne cares about all North Dakotans, not just those who live in Cass County.

Stenehjem is experienced, knowledgeable and committed to keeping North Dakota strong, running a tight ship of state, and cooperating with the Legislature.

Finally, consider this: If a loved one needed open-heart surgery, who would you rather have perform the operation  an experienced, skilled, and highly respected heart surgeon, or the hospitals CEO whose ego is so big he thinks he can charge into the operating room, never having been there before, insult the doctors and nurses, and demand to do the operation? I know who I would choose.

I dont support Stenehjem for governor because hes my brother-in-law and my friend. I support Wayne because hes clearly the best person for the job.
Healthy oceans, healthy planet. Its more than just a catchy theme for this years World Oceans Day.



The ocean regulates the climate, feeds millions of people every year, is home to an incredible array of wildlife and provides us with important medicines. In short, we depend on it for our existence.



At Dalhousie, there are over 100 faculty members conducting oceans research. This includes working on an answer to the complex question of how healthy our oceans are.



Monitoring the oceans breathing



To help diagnose the health of our oceans, a new oceanographic mooring system called the SeaCycler is spending the next year studying air-sea gas exchange and deep convection within the Labrador Sea, or as the scientists involved like to say, they are monitoring the oceans breathing.



The Labrador Sea is an area that is a critical part of the worlds ocean for impacts and feedbacks associated with climate change. Here, the surface water becomes so dense in winter that it sinks, bringing oxygen and carbon dioxide into the deep ocean where it disperses into the ocean interior. At the same time, large amounts of heat are released back into the atmosphere.



The SeaCycler was successfully deployed on May 22, and has been busy at work collecting preliminary data ever since. This includes oxygen and carbon dioxide levels along with light, nutrients, salinity and temperature. (Left: Some members of the Seacycler team.)



The data are being sent back to Dalhousie via satellite and will allow us to gain a better understanding of how a warming climate may be impacting this region, which scientists refer to as one of the lungs of the ocean given its role in facilitating the deep oceans intake of oxygen, says Doug Wallace, Canada Excellence Research Chair in Ocean Science and Technology and Dals lead investigator on the SeaCycler project.



Presently, the region also takes up and stores large quantities of the carbon dioxide that have been released to the atmosphere by the burning of fossil fuel. The SeaCycler will also act as an offshore reference station for visits by other smaller, more mobile robotic vehicles that make measurements in the region.



An international partnership



The SeaCycler is the result of a collaborative effort with a long history and involving financial support from Canada, the USA and Europe. The energy-conserving system that allows SeaCycler to profile such a large suite of sensors was originally developed by George Fowler at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography in 1999. A patent was granted shortly afterwards and an impressive partnership has since formed to enhance the new technology and further its ongoing development. The present development version is a result of a major cooperation between Dalhousie, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) in San Diego, California and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO).



The SeaCycler is a resource shared between Dalhousie and SIO, and deployment was from a German research vessel, the Maria S. Merian, in cooperation with the GEOMAR research centre in Germany. The deployment effort in the Labrador Sea was supported largely by the VITALS program of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) which is coordinated by the University of Alberta, as well as the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Ocean Science and Technology at Dalhousie. These types of international partnerships are becoming the norm for modern observation of the ocean.



A UN-designated international day of ocean celebration



The concept of World Oceans Day was first proposed in 1992 by the Government of Canada at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. A United Nations General Assembly resolution was passed in December 2008, which led to June 8 officially being recognized as World Oceans Day. Each year, an increasing number of countries and organizations participate in this annual event.



To mark the occasion, the Dalhousie affiliated International Oceans Institute (IOI) is hosting its annual Elisabeth Mann Borgese lecture on June 8. The focus of the event will be on the implications of climate change in Nova Scotia.



Georgia Klein from Dalhousies College of Sustainability is one of the panelists. She is speaking on the importance of having the tools available to help make change.



At the College of Sustainability, we are teaching the students to become the leaders and look at the bigger picture to find solutions, says Klein. I see a lot of initiatives related to oceans happening here in Nova Scotia, and that makes me very happy.



This years lecture will be hosted by meteorologist, radio host and author Richard Zurawski. In addition to Klein, panelists include Blair Greenan from the Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Tim Webster, research scientist, Applied Geomatics Research Group, Nova Scotia Community College; and Shannon Miedema, manager, energy & environment, Halifax Regional Municipality.



Lectures like these are a beautiful example of making something that may seem very academic available to the general public, says Klein.



For more information on World Oceans Day and all the events taking place, visit the World Oceans Day website.


A man from the city has filed a case against e-Commerce giant Flipkart for delivering a soap bar. (Representational image)

Mumbai: In a bizarre incident, a man from Mumbai has filed a case against e-Commerce giant Flipkart for delivering a soap bar, after he had ordered a Samsung Galaxy Note 4.

According to a Hindustan Times report, a resident of Walkeshkar Anand Bhalakia was looking forward to receive his parcel but was shocked to find a bar of Nirma soap instead.

Bhalakia, who is employed with a global IT firm, filed a compliant against Flipkart, after the company initially gave him a cold shoulder.

Bhalakia said that he had ordered a Samsung Galaxy Note 4 on May 25 and got his package five days later. He had paid Rs 29,900 for the package to the delivery boy.

However, as he opened the box, he saw a bar of Nirma soap that triggered him to quickly call the delivery guy who wasnt even 10 minutes away. However, the delivery guy refused to come back and asked Bhalakia to call Flipkarts customer care number to lodge a complaint.

To his utmost surprise, a staffer from the companys customer informed him that his complaint was not genuine. This forced him to report the matter to the Malabar Hill police station, where he lodged a first information report (FIR) under section 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the IPC.

Adding more bitterness to his experience, Flipkart had also been really ignorant about the whole issue. Bhalakia called the companys customer care service several times after the incident had taken place but neither was a new phone sent to him nor was the money refunded.

However, after filing the initial complaint with the police and on several online forums, Flipkart finally refunded the full amount on Tuesday, Bhalakia.

Making things clear on its part, Flipkart expressed through a written statement that the company observes zero tolerance on policy incidents that impact customers trust.

We are conducting an internal investigation into this case and are putting all efforts to find out the real facts of this incident. Meanwhile, as a responsible marketplace, the money has been refunded to the customer in good faith, the statement added.

This is not the first time that such an incident has occurred; there have been numerous episodes in the past where the company has sent rocks instead of laptops, and mangoes instead of phones. Its high time that online portals properly examine each parcel before dispatching it for delivery.
Rajkot: Seeking to clear the air on a second term for RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, Union Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha on Wednesday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will take a call on this "at an appropriate time".

Rajan's current term is set to end in September and there has been intense speculation about whether he would be given another term, especially when a section of the ruling party has been pitching for his ouster.

"The announcement will be made at an appropriate time. Our Prime Minister and Finance Minister had said they would make the announcement as soon as they take the decision in this regard," Sinha told reporters here.

Sinha was in Rajkot today as part of the second anniversary of the NDA government. He termed the Prime Minister, who is currently visiting the US, as "a global statesman".

"Modi has become a global statesman now. India's prestige and identity have touched new heights under him. Today, India is among the three or four most important countries in the world. It is a matter of pride for all of us that he will address the US Congress today," said Sinha.
New Delhi: In a move that will help mothers who are travelling, railways today launched a facility to provide baby food at stations. Named as Janani Sewa, railways will ensure availability of essential items like hot milk and water at stations under the scheme.

"We are introducing Janani Sewa to make mothers happy," Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said after launching the scheme here. He said the initiative was taken after a complaint of a mother about the absence of milk at rail premises.

"Once a mother had tweeted about milk unavailability in the train and taking note of her complaint on the social networking site, we had ensured milk at that train," he said.

The facility is being introduced at over 25 stations including New Delhi, Mumbai Central, Howrah, Chennai, Nagpur, Pune, Surat, Lucknow and Moradabad. Besides baby food, railways also launched children menu items like burgers for children between 5-12 years of age group.

Prabhu said "we have taken steps to fulfill all our budget promises. While many have been implemented, the rest are at various stages of implementation."
The offer to create the cluster, which may also include residential localities and school which can cater to their specific needs, was again made to the South Korean Ambassador to India Cho Hyun

Hyderabad: Telangana government has offered to create an industrial cluster for South Korean companies to set up manufacturing facilities in the state, officials said today.

"Recently, Ministry of External Affairs appointed (facilitated) a meeting of Telangana Chief Secretary and state's Industry officials with Korean delegation where the state government offered a land parcel depending upon the requirement of South Korea where various Korean companies can set up their base at one place ... so it will be a mini-cluster of Korean companies," Telangana (Industries, Commerce and Power) Principal Secretary Arvind Kumar said.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of Korea Caravan 2016 organised here, he said the offer to create the cluster, which may also include residential localities and school which can cater to their specific needs, was again made to the South Korean Ambassador to India Cho Hyun here today.

"Yesterday, they (a Korean industrial delegation) went and visited some sites here. We are hopeful that some of the companies have expressed their interests and it will be followed by one and one meetings and we are hopeful we will be able to attract Korean companies in a big way," Kumar said.

"In terms of manufacturing base, IT base or electronics base, presence of South Korean companies in Telangana is not much as of now. "Our effort is to make South Korea as the focus partner for us.

A team led by Industry Minister and officials will also visit South Korea before December end," he added. On power sector in Telangana, Kumar claimed that the state has overcome power deficit.

"Through GENCO we are adding 6,000 MW, Singareni Collieries 2,000 MW, NTPC 4,000 MW and 2,000 MW from Chattishgarh which will make a total of 14,000 MW within next three years," the officer said.

"We have a solar energy generation target of 5,000 MW till 2018 and out of this, PPAs were signed for 2,500 MW and most of them are likely to be operational by April of next year," he added.

In addition, Telangana would be getting more power generation from central generating stations and there will be some more PPAs and, in all, about 20,000 MW plus capacity would be added in the state in the next three years, he said.
Shah Rukh and Salman were seen wearing shoes on the sets of the temple while shooting for an episode of Bigg Boss 9 where the idol can be seen in the background.

New Delhi: A Delhi court has dismissed a criminal complaint seeking registration of FIR against actors Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan for allegedly hurting religious sentiments by entering the sets of a temple wearing shoes while shooting for reality show Bigg Boss 9

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vandana Jain, however, allowed the complainant advocates plea to record pre-summoning evidence in support of his complaint.

The court had on June 1 reserved its order after hearing arguments of the complainant who had questioned the action taken report (ATR) filed by the Delhi Police in which the megastars were given a clean chit.

In the ATR, police had earlier said that Shah Rukh and Salman were shooting at a makeshift temple which was part of the sets in a studio for the reality show and had no intention to hurt religious sentiments.

The report was filed following court order on the plea of advocate Gaurav Gulati who had sought registration of an FIR against the two actors, Colors channel and director and producer of Bigg Boss 9 for alleged offences under sections 295A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings), 298 (uttering words with deliberate intent to wound religious feelings) and 34 (common intention) of IPC.

The complainant had also sought to record presummoning evidence in support of his allegations against the actors.

He had alleged that in a video being circulated, Shah Rukh and Salman were seen wearing shoes on the sets of the temple while shooting for an episode of Bigg Boss 9 where the idol can be seen in the background.

It is a disrespect to the Hindu religion and its belief as it is strictly prohibited to come in the temple with shoes and also they were showing their back to the idol which is also deemed to be an insult to the Hindu goddess... (sic), it had alleged and claimed that it seemed to be a wellplanned malicious act to outrage Hindu feelings.

However, the report forwarded by SHO of Roop Nagar Police Station in February, had said No cognisable offence is made out. The promo was not shot to disturb the sanctity of a religious place or disturb or hurt the religious sentiments of any individual, group, community or section of the society.

It its report, police had also mentioned that a similar complaint was filed in a Meerut court which had dismissed it.

As they (actors) had met after a long time, the director thought of an idea of showing them reuniting on the sets of Kali Mandir in a similar manner as they had reunited in the movie Karan Arjun in such a temple after their rebirth in the film.

This idea was not motivated by any intention of hurting any religious sentiments of any religious group and shooting of the promo was done in a studio and the incident never took place, police had said, citing the channels reply.
Mumbai: The controversy over the much-talked of movie 'Udta Punjab' catapulted a notch higher on Wednesday with Bollywood biggies throwing their weight behind the movie's producer Anurag Kashyap. Cracking down upon the prevailing slew of allegations against Kashyap, tinsel town's celebrated director Mahesh Bhatt came out in the former's defense.

Bhatt on an acerbic note said, We can't turn into a Saudi Arabia where there is opulence but no free thought in society.

Besides, he had also tweeted, "Censorship is the child of fear and the father of ignorance". Is Pahalaj Nihalani listening ?"

" Censorship is the child of fear and the father of ignorance". Is Pahalaj Nihalani listening ?  Mahesh Bhatt (@MaheshNBhatt) June 6, 2016

The Indian Film and Television Directors Association along with Udta Punjab team held a press conference on Wednesday where they addressed the media and put forth their perspective on the issue. Present at the press conference along with Shahid, Alia and Anurag were Mahesh Bhatt, Mukesh Bhatt, Imtiaz Ali, Zoya Akhtar, Vikas Bahl, Ashok Pandit, Abhishek Chaubey and others.

The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) has purportedly raised certain objections to the Shahid Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor, Alia Bhatt and Dijlit Dosanjh starrer regarding references to the problem of substance abuse in Punjab, following which the movie may have to go through some changes.

The board has also demanded the removal of "Punjab" from the title of the Abhishek Chaubey-directed movie.

Further, Shahid Kapoor asked everyone to support the message Udta Punjab is sending. "We are in the age of information and technology. Today's youth should be well informed about what is happening, be it in Punjab or anywhere else in the nation. We are trying to do that through this movie. Hence, we need to support the message this film is sending," said the actor.

Meanwhile, Amitabh Bachchan who is all in favour of showcasing creativity said, "Not aware of the issue totally, but must not kill creativity."

Films producer, Anurag Kashyap questioned the Censor Board by saying, What has happened in the last two years that now every film has to be cleared through tribunal?

He has also rubbished his purported connection with the Aam Aadmi party (AAP). Towing a similar line of thought, he also took the micro blogging site Twitter where he said, " FYI I have fought the UPA more on censorship issues than the NDA. But you know what , there was no Nihalani then. So the paid trolls can FO."

FYI I have fought the UPA more on censorship issues than the NDA. But you know what , there was no Nihalani then. So the paid trolls can FO  Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) June 7, 2016

After the press conference today, Anurag Kashyap wrote a long post on the issue on Facebook:

Earlier on Wednesday, Pahlaj Nihalani made allegations that filmmaker Anurag Kashyap took money from AAP and is doing this for publicity. Commenting on the allegation, Anurag said, I feel ashamed in even defending myself on such an allegation (taking money from AAP).

Amid the controversy over drug-themed Bollywood film 'Udta Punjab', its producers moved the Bombay High Court today (June, 8) seeking a copy of the order passed by Censor Board's Review Committee purportedly suggesting cuts in the movie and removal of reference to Punjab in it.
At 76, Amitabh Bachchan is still looking to reinvent himself as far as acting is concerned. And he has done it again in his upcoming film Te3n.

The actor plays John Biswas, who has a trademark scooter in the film. Says Bachchan, Back in the days, we werent affluent. Those were the days when if anyone had a scooter, he would be the hero of the college. All of us would borrow his scooter and go on joyrides. Unfortunately, I was out of touch and had to learn to ride a scooter for the film all over again. Luckily, I had done a scooter commercial and was presented with one. I practised riding it in my bungalow daily for my role.

Since the topic of his bungalow came up, he went on to explain the names. Pratiksha has been named after one of Babujis poems. And Jalsa because we celebrated our daughters wedding by entering this bungalow. Actually, the bungalow was supposed to be named after the first woman in our family, Mansa. We have recently bought another bungalow which is between Jalsa and Janak (their office). We have named this one Mansa.

Te3n is based in Kolkata, and Bachchan has a long connect with the city; after all, he married a Bengali girl. Bengali is not only a sweet language, but they are very loving people as well. Even today whenever I go to Kolkata I meet all my old friends.

Amitabh adds with a laugh, After living in Kolkata for seven-eight years (he was working in the city), I realised that Bengal had arrived into my house, I got married to Jaya.

Lastly, about his love for writing poetry, he says, Sometimes I do pen a few lines, like a common man. Im not an ardent poet like Babuji. I remember my mom would always say, One poet in the family is enough. However, I am not a very regular writer I can rhyme a few lines sometimes.

Whos the boss?

When Amitabh was shooting for Te3N, the makers saw a few people constantly by his side. It was later learnt that they were the first bosses of the actor.

Regarding this interesting anecdote Amitabh told Deccan Chronicle, Whenever I go to Kolkata, I am in touch with them. I dont think you can forget them. Your first job, your first boss and I feel that the term boss has a certain kind of image in our minds. He is our lawyer, our guru, he is someone who knows everything, and he rules us. There is respect for him... When they come to meet me, I introduce them to others as my boss. I still call them boss.
The board has also demanded the removal of "Punjab" from the title of the Abhishek Chaubey-directed movie.

Mumbai: Filmmakers Kabir Khan, Farhan Akhtar, Gauri Shinde and actress Kalki Koechlin have joined the growing number of Bollywood celebrities, who have slammed the censor board for demanding cuts in 'Udta Punjab'.

The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) has purportedly raised certain objections to the Shahid Kapoor-Kareena Kapoor starrer regarding references to the problem of substance abuse in Punjab, following which the movie may have to go through some changes.

The board has also demanded the removal of "Punjab" from the title of the Abhishek Chaubey-directed movie. Khan said changing the name of a film is not logical.

Citing his own example, the director said censor board had asked him to make alterations in the title of 'Bajrangi Bhaijaan' and wanted him to retain either 'Bajrangi' or 'Bhaijaan', which he felt was ridiculous.

Read: Exclusive: Balaji Telefilms, Phantom to split over Udta Punjab censor row?

"Now here, they seem to say by changing 'Udta Punjab' to 'Udta Timbuktu', the film is going to change. I don't understand the logic behind this kind of decision. How is this depicting any community or state in the negative way," Khan said.

"Are we saying the drug problem does not exist?... We all know till what extent the drug problem exists in Punjab. I was shooting last year in the border areas of Punjab for 'Bajrangi Bhaijaan' and everybody was talking about it. We saw people, families who were suffering from this problem and it is a film trying to highlight and focus on it. How is it going to negatively portray people?" he added.

Akhtar criticised officials of the censor board, writing, "Power is the most dangerous addiction of all & someone in the CBFC seems to be tripping hard on Lassi in the Sky with Diamonds. #UdtaPunjab."

Power is the most dangerous addiction of all & someone in the CBFC seems to be tripping hard on Lassi in the Sky with Diamonds. #UdtaPunjab  Farhan Akhtar (@FarOutAkhtar) June 7, 2016

'English Vinglish' helmer Shinde said, "When you tear out a man's tongue, you are not proving him a liar, you're only telling the world that you fear what he might say. #UdtaPunjab."

When you tear out a man's tongue, you are not proving him a liar,you're only telling the world that you fear what he might say. #UdtaPunjab  Gauri Shinde (@gauris) June 8, 2016

Kalki said in the case of "Udta Punjab", censorship is trying to limit a very realistic point of view.

Also read: Row over 'Udta Punjab' escalates, Kashyap calls Censor chief

"I don't blame even the censor board. It's an ancient system that hasn't changed for very long time. These days there is internet people know everything. But censorship tries to limit people's point of views and specially in this case, it is limiting a very realistic point of view," Kalki told PTI.

Alia Bhatt, who also stars in the film, posted Nobel Peace Prize winner from Pakistan Malala Yousufzai's quote, which read, "We realise the importance of our voices only when we are silenced."

Comedian-actor Kapil Shrama, who hails from Punjab, said it is important to address the drug problem. He said drugs is a real pain in the state as many families have lost their youth to it.

Read: Censoring Udta Punjab won't fix drug problem: Rahul Gandhi

"Those who say that there are no drugs or illegal medicines easily available in Punjab.. don't know the real pain of Punjab.

"Families have lost their youth to easy drugs and lack of rehabs in the state.. so can't shut our eyes to this."

"After removing Punjab from #UdtaPunjab, Censor Board to remove Daro from #MohenjoDaro in all dry states like Gujarat and Bihar," filmmaker Shirish Kunder tweeted.

After removing Punjab from #UdtaPunjab, Censor Board to remove Daro from #MohenjoDaro in all dry states like Gujarat and Bihar.  Shirish Kunder (@ShirishKunder) June 7, 2016

Earlier, Karan Johar, Mahesh Bhatt, Hansal Mehta, Sudhir Mishra, Ranvir Shorey and Ram Gopal Varma expressed their displeasure over the board's decision to censor 'Udta Punjab'.
Mumbai: Censor board chief Pahlaj Nihalani today (Wednesday, June, 8th) dismissed allegations that he was under any political pressure from the Punjab government over the release of Udta Punjab.

The Abhishek Chaubey-directed movie is in the middle of a censorship row and while its makers are battling with the board, political parties have alleged that Nihalani acted under the direction of the state government.

One of the producers, Anurag Kashyap, has openly slammed the censor board and its chief for allegedly demanding 89 cuts in the film, besides asking them to drop the word 'Punjab' from the title and the movie.

"Absolutely not. I am not under any political pressure," Nihalani said when asked whether he acted under the pressure of Punjab government. Taking a potshot at Kashyap, Nihalani claimed he has heard that the filmmaker had taken money from Aam Aadmi Party to show Punjab in bad light.

"I've heard Anurag Kashyap has taken money from AAP to show Punjab in bad light," Nihalani claimed. The film has been passed, but with certain cuts.When asked about Kashyap's remarks that he acts like a dictator, Nihalani said, "I can't comment on someone's personal opinion. It is their own choice. People are fighting over freedom of speech and expression. It's their responsibility. But a film goes to public exhibition and we act according to the rules made by the government.

When asked whether it was true that he had told the makers to drop 'Punjab' from the title, Nihalani said, "When they have put a disclaimer that the film has fictitious characters but the whole movie is on Punjab and they have taken names from Punjab... Then we have a reason and as per the guidelines we can cut. That's why we have cut."

In response to jibes made at him, then declared that he was proud to be the PMs chamcha.

The makers had also alleged that Nihalani purposely refused to hand them the letter, which mentioned the cuts. Nihalani, however, said that the producers themselves did not collect the letter until today and instead went to media persons making the matter public.

"We met with the producers on Monday and told them about the cuts. They said, 'If we get cuts, will you give us the certificate?' I said, 'Of course yes'. But they did not turn up to collect the letter. They directly went to media. Today they came to collect the letter."

The producers have now moved to the Bombay high court. It is not for the first time that Nihalani has locked horns with filmmakers over censorship issues. He has been at the center of controversy since his appointment at the beginning of the last year. He was slammed for shortening the length of a kiss scene is James Bond movie Spectre, making cuts Anushka Sharma's NH10, Aligarh and other Bollywood and Hollywood movies. He has been facing opposition from within the board and from Bollywood.
Mumbai: After Hrithik Roshan and Kangana Ranaut controversy died down, the actress has found herself linked to Ranbir Kapoor. Last evening, their pairing was trending on Twitter, #nowranbirkangana.

A source close to Ranbir, told DNA, "He is wondering where these rumours originated as there is no truth to it. Ranbir, who is shooting for Jagga Jasoos in Mumbai, since he has come back from Morocco, is in a state of shock over the spate of stories that have sprung out of nowhere in the last few months. He is upset that people are taking advantage of the fact that he doesnt issue clarifications. There is no truth in the stories of Ranbir and Kanganas affair, yet in a very systematic manner this is being spread in media. He knows who is behind these rumours and if this continues, he is considering issuing a strong denial this time.

There were rumours of Ranbir and Kangana bonding off late. Ironically, both of them recently went through a lot of turbulence in their respective relationships. While Ranbir broke up with his longtime girlfriend Katrina Kaif, Kangana's secret affair came out in the open after a lot of public mud-slinging.

On work front, Ranbir is currently shooting for Anurag Basu's 'Jagga Jasoos' and will soon start prepping up for Sanjay Dutt's biopic. On the other hand, Kangana is gearing up for the release of 'Rangoon' opposite Shahid Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan.
Actor Tahir Raj Bhasin, who was supposed to be a part of Kushan Nandys film Babumoshai Bandook-baaz, along with actors Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Chitrangada Singh, will not be a part of the film anymore. And if sources are to be believed, the actor, who impressed many with his suave villain role in Mardaani has not even been paid his dues yet by the films makers for his earlier schedules.

The actor, who was earlier a part of the project had even started shooting for the film in West Bengals Burdwan and Bolpur districts. However, the films schedule came to an abrupt end when the makers ran into some trouble with the Federation of Cine Technicians and Workers of Eastern India regarding the number of technicians needed and the film went into a limbo.

Ever since the episode, Tahir had been waiting to start shooting and had signed Force 2 in the meantime. But now, word has it that the makers of the film have already started the shoot afresh in new locations in UP without Tahir and have yet to clear his dues.

A source from the industry informs us, They have not cleared Tahirs dues, they dont even answer calls or reply to messages regarding payment. So obviously when they have not cleared his dues, how will they just call him for the shoot and why will Tahir shoot the film in such a case?

Speaking to us, Tahirs spokesperson said, We would not like to comment on this as Tahirs dues remain unpaid from the earlier schedule.

However, when we contacted director Kushan Nandy, the filmmaker said, We are not using anything from what we shot in the past. Its the same story but we are shooting it afresh. About the films casting, he said, Characters and parts of the script have undergone changes so all of the cast apart from Nawaz and Chitra have changed.

The director, however, did not reply to our questions on whether Tahirs dues for the film were yet to be paid and chose to remain silent on the matter.
The controversy surrounding Udta Punjab, refuses to die down. While the censor board reportedly demanded that the movie make about 40 cuts earlier, the revision committee has not only asked for more than double the number of cuts, but has also directed that the filmmaker Abhishek Chaubey to drop references to Punjab entirely (including in the films title).

The film, which was to be released on June 17, is delayed by at least a month, while the producers Phantom Films and Balaji Motion Pictures battle it out with the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), possibly even in court. The movie first got into trouble thanks to excessive swearing, and now it has seemed to have landed itself in a bigger soup for allegedly showing Punjab in poor light.

One of the movies producers, Anurag Kashyap, whose debut film Paanch is yet to see the light of day because of censor woes, took to Twitter to rant about this  I always wondered what it felt like to live in North Korea, he said as part of another tweet. Ab to plane pakadney ki bhi zarurat nahin. (sic)

Later the filmmaker was seen on multiple news channels, blaming censor board chief, Pahlaj Nihalani for deliberately stalling Udta Punjab by withholding the official certificate of cuts. I dont want Nihalani to play God to my films. Ive only started having this problem with the censor board in the last two years. All filmmakers are fed up of Nihalani. I hope the government addresses our concerns, he fumed. He went on to say how the controversial CBFC chief is considering it payback time for when he was pulled up by the I&B ministry during Bombay Velvet.

The problem, says producer and director Vikram Bhatt, lies with the Information and Broadcast Ministry, and not the examining committee. My guess is that this is happening because theres a diktat from above, muses Bhatt. He adds, Its not possible that there are so many jokes, tweets and media attention given to Udta Punjab and that the I&B ministry does not know about it. So, either they are sitting back and letting this kind of heavy and dictatorial censorship take place, which is sad, or they are watching this and it is something of their doing, which is even sadder. I think that making the Censor Board a whipping horse is something that is working for the I&B dept.

Many are of the opinion that this time around, the move is politically motivated. It is not a coincidence that the Akalis rule Punjab and are in a coalition partnership with the BJP, the government in power at the centre, says Mayank. There are elections slated for next year and this is a film on the drug problem in Punjab which has a very strong link to the political structure there. All these factor in for the problem that the film faces right now.

Ashoke Pandit, filmmaker and a board member with the CBFC reacted saying, The decision of not allowing Punjab is condemnable and a mockery of expression of a filmmaker. Does this mean if I have to make a film on my genocide and ethnic cleansing, I cant use the word Kashmir? This is a dangerous trend. Going by Nihalanis logic, issue based classics like Salam Bombay, which dealt with prostitution, Bombay that dealt with riots and New Delhi Times that dealt with corruption would have never released.

Anurag, on the other hand, tweeted to other political parties to try and not to make this fight about political affiliations. I request Congress, AAP and other political parties to stay out of my battle. Its my rights versus the censorship. I speak only on my behalf. Its my fight versus a dictatorial man sitting there operating like an oligarch in his constituency of censor board, thats my North Korea. Dont colour my fight with any political affiliations, because there is none, he said.
Tamil filmmakers courting controversy by making offensive remarks, or by misbehaving with actresses in the name of shooting, is not new. As in the case of director/actor/cinematographer Thangar Bachan, who made this derogatory remark after a tiff with his Chidambarathil Oru Appasamy co-star Navya Nair  actresses will do anything for money. In another incident, director Saamy slapped Padmapriya while shooting outdoors for Mirugam in front of the crowd, saying she didnt get the right expression. However, Padmapriya reported that Saamy misbehaved with her and gave her trouble after shooting hours. Both the directors were made to tender their apologies in front of the media at Nadigar Sangam.

The latest victim is Ishara Nair, who says that director Kevin of her upcoming film Engada Irundheenga Ivvalu Naala tried to misbehave with her under the pretence of teaching her a bold scene (which was apparently not in the script) and used filthy words on the sets  that is why she walked out of the film. Also, all these cases have involved actresses from Mollywood!

According to producer Joseph of Engada Irundheenga Ivvalu Naala and director Kevin, Ishaara worked only for two days and is refusing to honour her commitment. Upset by this, they lodged a complaint with the Malayalam Artistes Association and Actors Guild in Chennai.

Now, Ishaara spoke to us from Dubai, stating that it was the misbehaviour of the films director, which led to this issue. I am an actress who has worked in other language films as well, apart from my debut flick Sathuranga Vettai in Tamil. Can you imagine an actress running away with `75,000, which was paid as my advance as alleged by them? They shot only two days and those two days were nightmarish for me.

She adds, On the first day, director Kevin had a scene in which I was to watch an X-rated film and get turned on by the video. He touched me all over, under the pretext of teaching me! He even pushed me to the wall and hurt me. As she wanted to leave, the producer said they would change the scene to the character watching Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaayaa.

On the second day, there was a scene where I would be chased by a car. The director, who sat at the wheel that day, did not apply the brakes and it hit me! Ishara claims, allegedly.

Because of harassment and safety concerns, I am in no mood to work in this film anymore, she states, adding, They claim they would go to court. I am ready to face them legally.

Director Kevin Joseph, when contacted, said, This films theme revolves around cinema and I did discuss this bold scene while narrating the script. I asked her to emote accordingly but did not touch her or use vulgar words as Ishaara claims.

She can even see the edited portions edited by ace Suresh Urs. I have no intension of demeaning her. This is my first film, why would I risk it? I am ready to apologise, as I dont want my producers to suffer because of this. We are a small start-up company. I want Ishaara to come and work and finish the film  thats my only intention.
The average number of drugs prescribed per patient per visit was also found to be much higher at 2.31, compared to the WHO standard of 1.6-1.8. (Representational image)

Hyderabad: Doctors are not adhering to the standards set by the World Health Organisation when it comes to prescribing drugs. They are prescribing needless drugs, especially antibiotics, even while medical researchers across the world are trying to combat antibiotic resistant bacteria.

Six researchers from Malla Reddy Institute of Medical Sciences and Malla Reddy College of Pharmacy have conducted a study by evaluating 4,000 medical prescriptions by doctors received at 106 pharmacies in Ranga Reddy district and analysed them using WHO prescription parameters.

The researchers found that the percentage of antibiotics prescribed by doctors per prescription was 30 per cent, whereas the WHO standard is 20-26.8 per cent. The average number of drugs prescribed per patient per visit was also found to be much higher at 2.31, compared to the WHO standard of 1.6-1.8.

Two findings which raised the suspicion that doctors might be prescribing drugs to benefit their favourite pharmaceutical company were the values obtained of drugs prescribed as per Model Lists of Essential Medicines of WHO and the parameter of drugs prescribed by generic name.

WHO has prepared a Model Lists of Essential Medicines for various ailments. These are drugs which satisfy the healthcare needs of majority of the population aiming towards rational use of drugs. Such drugs are expected to be available at all times in adequate amounts, at affordable prices.

It was found that only 53 per cent of the drugs in the analysed 4,000 prescriptions were from the WHO list. More shocking was the finding that less than 0.5 per cent of drugs were prescribed by doctors in generic form and the rest had brand names. Usage of generic names helps in reducing the spending on drugs as well as clears confusion at pharmacies. It was also found that WHO guidelines were not followed for ailments related to circulatory and digestive systems and orthopedic issues.

Former Indian Medical Association secretary Dr Yadagiri Rao said, There is nothing wrong in what the doctors are doing. They prescribe medicines as per what is best for their patients and they know what they are doing. For example, when it comes to prescribing generic drugs or writing generic names in prescriptions, doctors avoid it because generic drugs are not as effective as branded ones. Patients desire effective treatment and for that branded drugs are necessary.
A Bengaluru based company Wescopower Generation Ltd representative said Korean technology will be used to generate power. The plant will have a capacity to process 2,500 metric tonnes of waste and produce 18 MW of power on a daily basis.

BENGALURU: A number of waste processing companies made a presentation to the Bengaluru Development Minister K.J. George on Tuesday and said that these projects will turn Bengaluru into a no waste city. Through their presentations, companies explained that waste can be used as raw material to generate power and the solid waste generated in the city had sufficient calorific value to produce energy.

A Bengaluru based company Wescopower Generation Ltd representative said Korean technology will be used to generate power. The plant will have a capacity to process 2,500 metric tonnes of waste and produce 18 MW of power on a daily basis. Another company Movers India Private Ltd representative said gasification technology uses low calorific and high calorific value waste, including animal waste such as meat.

The representative of Zonta, which is now installing a waste to energy plant in Pallavaram near Chennai, said his company would use controlled combustion technology for converting the solid waste to energy. A multinational company NEG explained that its plant had the capacity to convert 600 tonnes of garbage to generate 12 MW power.

A number of other companies including Ecoman, D&S Renergies Private Limited, Eleplant Energy Private Limited, Innovision Engineers Private Limited, Ramky Energy and Environment Limited, Indium Projects Private Limited, ILP, MSGP, Orgreen, Green Elephant and Jindal ITF gave their presentations to the screening committee. The expert Committee members were also present during the presentation.
Tricia Rianne is a student from Singapore, who calls herself gulab jamun on Twitter. But thats not why everybody has been talking about her on the social networking sites.

The 19-year-old, who identifies herself as Tamil-Hindustani-Malayalee writer, is the founder of the online forum called South Asian Feminism that aims to embrace, reclaim and celebrate all things South Asian.

I had the idea of creating the hashtag #SouthIndianAndProud, after I saw this hashtag #brownszn going around on Twitter. It was just North Indians and Pakistanis in a group chat using that caption as an excuse for selfies. At that moment, I realised how prevalent light skin supremacy was and how being desi was very North Indian and Pakistani oriented, says Tricia.

Tricia admits that she has seen so many South Asian beauty accounts on Twitter that frequently promote people with Eurocentric features or ones who are fair.

I hated how many are unaware that there are five states in South India compromising so many ethnicities and languages and dialects within them. Not all of us are Madrasis like people often imagine, she says.

Sick and tired of South Indians being underappreciated, she started posting her photographs under the hashtag SouthIndianAndProud. Within minutes, her tiny little post snowballed into a movement that even though she didnt see coming, she is very proud of. People from across the world, both men and women, started posting their photographs.

Proud of being part of the dark skin community, posted one user online; while another wrote, If you believe that #SouthIndianAndProud is about division and not empowerment, you have a lot to learn about prejudice in India.

I have received many messages from my followers and friends thanking me for creating the hashtag. One of my friends from Australia has said that they showed it to their religion/society teacher and they might even use it for their social change case study. Another Malayalee wrote and said to me that, even though (he) was not the most in-touch with his Malayalee culture, it was really nice to see so, so many people embracing their South Indian (heritage) when it gets an underserved bad reputation, she says.

A student at ITE College Central, Tricia is Malayalee-Chinese on her dads side and North Indian-Tamil on her moms side. I have faced issues where Singaporeans think every Indian is a Tamilian with their Mother tongue being Tamil, and they are confused when I tell them there are more South Indian ethnicities and languages. My parents are able to converse in their own language but speak to me in English. As a result, I do not know how to speak in my native tongues. With that, I have had many people ridicule me for not knowing Tamil and have also had people think that I am ashamed to be Indian which is why I refuse to speak in Tamil, says Tricia, adding,

I find that many South Indians are the subject of ridicule because many Singaporeans here poke fun at Tamil and how it sounds funny. I have a very English sounding name and because of it I would pretend that I belonged to other races or ethnicities which would leave people curious. I was ashamed of my race and the skin tone I was born with. More than ever I wanted to be fair, so I lied to people about being Bengali, Eurasian, etc. It worked well for me before because that allowed me not to be the butt of jokes until people eventually found out. But now things are different, I have been more than proud and unapologetic of my ethnicities. And South Indians seem to agree as the social media sites are inundated with them sharing their photos and being proud of them.

There has been some backlash where people question why we are excluding other Indians from the hashtag, but this was never to say who was better or to ostracise any party. It was to showcase South India in all its mystery and beauty, which is so commonly forgotten. It was our spotlight to shine, she says.
With this, the total numbers of arrested in the case has gone up to nine. (Representational Image)

NEW DELHI: Alleged kingpin of the kidney racket, busted in the citys Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, was arrested in Kolkata on Tuesday. T. Rajukumar Rao, who has been evading arrest all these days, was hiding in Kolkata. We had sent police teams there and they have arrested him today (Tuesday), said a senior police officer.

Rao, aged around 40 years, who is believed to be associated with similar rackets in Nepal, Sri Lanka and Indonesia, will be brought to Delhi on transit remand. Rao was under police scanner for operating similar rackets in Jalandhar, Coimbatore and Hyderabad.

Three other persons, including two women, were arrested on Tuesday as 10 doctors will be questioned by the police. With this, the total numbers of arrested in the case has gone up to nine.

The 10 doctors, who were members of the Apollo Hospitals internal assessment committee for transplant surgeries, will be quizzed. The three arrested are Umesh and Nilu, a couple residing in Kanpur, and Mamta alias Maumita, wife of one of the five main accused arrested earlier.
Bengaluru: British paedophile Richard Huckle, who has been found guilty of sexually abusing dozens of children in orphanages posing as a Christian English teacher, had visited an orphanage in Bengaluru in 2013.

The New Hope for Children Orphanage in Bengaluru published a statement on its Facebook page, saying that Huckle had visited it years ago but clarified that he was not allowed to be around children at the time and not a single child was harmed. They were shocked to know that he is accused of sexually assaulting children and babies in south-east Asian countries.

He had posed as a photographer when he visited the orphanage and made a video on the work of Pastor George, who is the executive director of Helping Hands, a non-profit organisation based in Bengaluru.

Several years ago, Huckle briefly visited New Hope for Children Orphanages, where he created a video about the work of Pastor George. Praise God that Huckle was at no time allowed to be around any of the children in India without supervision. Pastor George assures us that none of the children in India could have been harmed, the statement by the orphanage said.

Huckle used to target slums and orphanages in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. He would often disguise himself as an English teacher cum photographer and would sexually abuse minor children.

Huckle has also been accused of forcing minors to indulge in sexual acts while he filmed the entire act, which he would later share with his audience on the social platform. He would often share the X-rated videos on the 'dark web' which his audience would access through a special internet connection.

While making the sexual content available to other paedophiles, Huckle would boast about it by writing things such as hitting the jackpot with a three-year-old girl, who he said was loyal as my dog and nobody seems to care.

Huckle, originally a resident of Ashford, Kent, was nabbed by the Australian police while they were investigating a child abuse case after receiving a tip-off from the Britains National Crime Agency.
Under the new law, the offence of gangrape entails a minimum jail term of 20 years and a maximum of imprisonment till remainder of natural life. (Representational image)

New Delhi: Delhi Police is likely to seek full life term for five convicts for gangraping a 52-year-old Danish woman at knife point near the New Delhi railway station two years ago, in a city court tomorrow.

Additional Sessions Judge Ramesh Kumar II, who on June 6 had convicted the five men, is scheduled to hear tomorrow the arguments on the quantum of sentence to be awarded to the convicts.

Under the new law, the offence of gangrape entails a minimum jail term of 20 years and a maximum of imprisonment till remainder of natural life.

Special Public Prosecutor Atul Shrivastava said the crime was committed in a "barbaric and inhuman" manner and he would demand the maximum punishment for the convicts, that is imprisonment till the remainder of natural life.

"The manner in which this act has been committed is barbaric and inhuman and, despite mercy by the woman, she was not let off for about five hours. She was beaten while committing rape and the weapon of offence was also used in commission of crime," he said.

Legal aid counsel Dinesh Sharma, who represented all the convicts, said he would seek leniency for his clients and file an appeal against the judgement before the Delhi High Court.

The court has convicted Mahender alias Ganja (27), Mohd Raja (23), Raju (24), Arjun (22) and Raju Chakka (23) for the offences under sections 376 (D) (gang rape), 395 (dacoity), 366(kidnapping), 342 (wrongful confinement), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 34 (common intention) of IPC.

The sixth accused, 56-year-old Shyam Lal had died in February this year and proceedings against him were abated. Three other accused in the case are juveniles and inquiry against them is in progress before the Juvenile Justice Board.

According to the prosecution, the five men, all vagabonds, had robbed and gangraped the Danish tourist at knife-point on the night of January 14, 2014, after leading her to a secluded spot close to the Divisional Railway Officers' Club near the railway station.

The victim had here on January 1, 2014, and stayed for a couple of days before leaving for Agra. After visiting several places, she returned to Delhi on January 13, 2014, and stayed in a hotel in Paharganj near the station.

On the next day when she was returning to her hotel, she lost her way and had asked one of the accused for directions when the men waylaid and gangraped her.

During the trial, the accused had claimed innocence.
People heard her cries came to her rescue, taking her home where her widowed mother was waiting for her daughters return.

Chennai: People rescued a 21-year-old woman who had been detained overnight by a gang of four men and raped at Guduvancherry in neighbouring Kancheepuram district. The woman, working in a plastic manufacturing company, was allegedly lured by the gang of four who were known to her and who had convinced her that they should celebrate her birthday on Sunday night.

The four accused  Kannan (21), Chandrasekhar (18), Jayachandran (21) and Ganapathy (24)  were arrested by the police on Monday evening before they could escape to their native village in Tirunelveli.

Police said that two members of the gang initially took her to local market in their bike to purchase a gift and later to a place in Vallanchery where the two other suspects joined them.

All the four forced her to drink alcohol and dance after which they took turns to rape her. Only around 2.30 am on Monday did she manage to escape from the clutches of the men by shouting for help.

People heard her cries came to her rescue, taking her home where her widowed mother was waiting for her daughters return.

Initially her mother was not keen on lodging a complaint as she did not want to bring shame to the family. Her tormentors had also told the victim that they had taken videos of her being sexually assaulted and they would be posted in a WhatsApp group if she complains about the incident. Only after neighbours and friends insisted did her mother lodge a complaint with the police on Monday evening, police said.

Based on the complaint, the police nabbed the quartet before they could escape to their native village. The victim was sent to a medical test.
Hyderabad: A lemon vendor allegedly raped and impregnated a 14-year-old child worker at LB Nagar. The girl was rescued by the police and child rights activists on Tuesday.

The accused, M. Yesaiah aka Yesappa had employed the girl at his shop and had been sexually assaulting her since two years, police officials said.

The girl has been shifted to Osmania General Hospital for medical examination.

Police said 38-year-old Yesappa, had been running a lemon shop in LB Nagar market. The girl was employed in his shop for a meagre wage to help him.

Exploiting her helplessness he molested and raped her for two years, said a child right activist, who was in the team which rescued the girl.

The girl was living in a temporary shelter at Junior NTR Nagar in LB Nagar with her parents. But, she had never told her parents about the sexual assault till they came to know that she was pregnant.

Police said the accused lured the girl by giving her money and other favours. The accused, who is married, live with his wife and children. Police booked a case against him for rape (Section 376) and under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (Pocso).

Police arrested M. Yesaiah. He was sent to judicial remand by the court.
The accused had allegedly abducted the victim's sister and had been staying with her for the past one year.

New Delhi: A 20-year-old man was allegedly shot at by a youth for objecting to his live-in relationship with his minor sister in Vijay Vihar area of outer Delhi, police said on Tuesday.

According to a senior police official, the accused had allegedly abducted the victim's sister and had been staying with her for the past one year.

The incident happened on Saturday when the couple got into a brawl and the minor girl ran away to her parents' house in Vijay Vihar.

"As per the family members of the girl, the accused reached their house with a gun and threatened them to accept their relationship failing which he will shoot everyone in the family. The girl's brother refused and got into an argument with him following which the accused shot him in his stomach," said the official.

While the brother was rushed to hospital, the accused fled from the spot. The brother is recuperating at a city hospital, police said.

"A case has been registered under relevant sections and we are searching the accused. Further probe in the case is on," the official added.
Mumbai: The special TADA court on Wednesday rejected the application of an accused in 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case to turn an approver.

"Your application is rejected," Special Judge G A Sanap told accused Firoz Khan. The court also rejected his oral request to keep him in Arthur Road jail here till Ramzan Eid. Earlier, Khan had applied to the court seeking to become an approver and get pardon in the case, following which he was transferred to Taloja jail in Navi Mumbai.

The prosecution said that it had enough evidence against the all the accused and did not want any approver. Meanwhile, the Arthur Road Central Prison authorities on Wednesday moved the special TADA court seeking transfer of Mustafa Dosa, another accused in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, to Thane jail.

The court today directed the Prison authorities to keep Dosa in the high security 'Anda cell'.

According to sources, the jail officials in the application said that Dosa was forming his own gang inside the jail.

They also said that over 60 percent of the inmates are Muslims and Dosa has supremacy over them. Prison officials further said that on May 30 there was a fight in the jail between two groups and they suspect Dosa's role in it.

In the application, sources said, the officials said that the jail is overcrowded and is having inmates of over three times its capacity. They also said that even Dosa could also be attacked in the jail.

Seven accused -- extradited gangsters Abu Salem, Mustafa Dosa, Karimullah Khan, Firoz Abdul Rashid Khan, Riyaz Siddiqui, Tahir Merchant and Abdul Quayyum -- are facing trial in the case in which the court had earlier convicted 100 men, including Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt.

The trial of these seven men was separated as they were arrested later. As many as 257 people were killed in thirteen powerful blasts that rocked the mega-polis on March 12, 1993.
New Delhi: In a fresh confrontation, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday accused Lt Governor Najeeb Jung of snooping on him and his cabinet ministers and sending his government's "secret information" to the Prime Minister's Office, a charge rejected by the LG's secretariat.

Kejriwal's attack on Jung came after a letter written by the LG to the Prime Minister's Principal Secretary Nripendra Mishra in February on working of a bureaucrat in the office of Delhi's Home Minister found its way to media.

In the letter, Jung had said that an officer, S K Nagarwal, belonging to Indian Railway Service of Engineers (IRSE), was found working with Delhi's Home Minister while on study leave from the Railways.

The LG, in the letter dated February 26 to Mishra, sought departmental action against Nagarwal saying he was found working with Delhi government on December 29 last year.

Rejecting LG's report, a Delhi government spokesperson said Nagarwal never worked with city administration as he was not released by the Railways. "Shocking! LG snooping on CM and Ministers. Who visits CM and ministers- LG secretly collecting this info and informing PMO," the Delhi Chief Minister tweeted.

A senior official in the Lt Governor's secretariat termed Kejriwal's allegation as "baseless", saying that it had received a written complaint stating that Nagarwal was working in the Delhi government when he was on study-leave from Railways.

"Services matter is the domain of the LG. On written complaint, Lt Governor had written to Principal Secretary to Prime Minister and brought the breech of service rules to his notice," the official said.

The Delhi government is also furious over a directive by the Union Home Ministry which had asked it to furnish details of all officers on deputation to Delhi administration. The MHA, in its letter dated May 24, even asked the city government to provide details of all consultants appointed by the AAP dispensation.

In reply to the Home Ministry directive, Kejriwal today wrote a letter to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh refusing to provide the details as sought by his ministry.

Instead, Kejriwal asked Singh for information relating to appointment of consultants by the NDA government in the last two years.
File photo of Mayor Manjunath Reddy with Minister Ramalinga Reddy and Deputy Mayor Hemalatha Gopalaiah, along with BBMP officials inspect potholes around Madiwala area, in Bengaluru

Bengaluru: Mayor B.N. Manjunath Reddy on Tuesday announced the release Rs 4 crore from the Mayors fund to widen major storm water drains in the city to arrest flooding.

Reddy, along with Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy, inspected some of the rain affected areas such as Madiwala, Vasantapura and Rajyotsavanagar. Storm water had entered into scores of houses and thrown normal life out of gear at areas like Rajyotsavanagar, and Sannappanagundi.

Residents of the area alleged that the storm water drain has been encroached upon resulting in overflowing of drains and flooding. Indiscriminate dumping of garbage into the drains and failure to desilt the drains have led to flooding of low lying areas, the residents said.

Expressing his displeasure over the poor quality of work and loss of life of a woman, he said that he would soon hold a meeting with BWSSB officials to ensure all the bad roads are fixed and made motorable.

Revealing lack of co-ordination between BBMP and BWSSB, Reddy said directed the BWSSB officials to fix the road soon after their work is over and assured to hold meeting with these officials on every Monday.
New Delhi: The CBI on Tuesday questioned Uttarakhand chief minister for investigations into an alleged sting operation in which he is apparently seen trying to influence some dissident Congress MLAs to support him during the floor test in the Assembly.

Mr Rawat was questioned by the CBI on May 24 also. The CBI officials claimed that Mr Rawat had not answered some of the questions satisfactorily, a claim which was rubbished by the Uttarakhand CM who said he had fully cooperated with the investigating agency. The CBI had registered a preliminary enquiry in connection with the case on April 29.

Even though Mr Rawat has denied the allegations and called the video fake he later admitted that he was on camera in the sting operation, but clarified that it had been edited to convey a wrong impression. After Mr Rawat won the floor test, the state Cabinet met on May 15 and withdrew the notification recommending a CBI probe into the sting operation. But his plea to stop the CBI investigation into the incident was rejected by the HC.
Patna: An FIR has been lodged in connection with the theft of about 500 files of Bihar's animal husbandry directorate which are supposedly related to the multi-crore fodder scam.

"An unnamed FIR has been lodged for theft of 500 files of the Animal Husbandry Directorate from its office," a police official said on Wednesday.

The FIR has been lodged by Section Officer Satyendra Kumar at a directive of Animal Husbandry Director on May 16 last, he said.

It would be known during the course of investigation as to which files were stolen, he said.

Unearthed in 1996, the scam pertains to syphoning of funds by non-existent companies in the name of supplying fodder. RJD president Lalu Prasad Yadav, at present out on bail granted by the Supreme Court, was convicted in the case in 2014.

Prasad, also an accused in another related case, is the chief of RJD, an ally of the ruling government in the state.

The scam pertains to fraudulent withdrawal of public money worth about Rs 950 crore from the treasuries of undivided Bihar under the head of the animal husbandry department (AHD) in 1990s.

Meanwhile, Animal Husbandry Department (AHD) Minister Awdesh Kumar Singh has denied that the missing files were connected to the fodder scam.

"The missing files are not related to the fodder scam as all the files related to that case have already been handed over to the CBI which is investigating the scam," Singh said.

The minister said the missing files, over 500 in number, pertained to issues like retirement, pension and other departmental matters of employees from 1997 to 2011.

He said the FIR has been registered with the Secretariat police station here and added that a three-member departmental committee has been set up to look into the issue of the missing files. "Based on the report of the committee, stern action would be taken against those found guilty in the missing files case," the minister said.

Singh, who hails from Congress, alleged that rivals were "spreading canards that the missing files are related to fodder scam to draw political mileage."
The three women pilots will be commissioned into the fighter stream on June 18. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: The first batch of women fighter pilots, comprising three cadets, will be inducted in the Indian Air Force on June 18.

The three women pilots will be commissioned into the fighter stream on June 18 this year after successful completion of the initial training, official sources said.

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar is also expected to attend the event. Thereafter, they would undergo advanced training for one year and would enter a fighter cockpit by June 2017.

Bhawana Kanth, Mohana Singh and Avani Chaturvedi are the trainees who qualified for the fighter stream after it was thrown open to women in October 2015.

They will go to Bidar in Karnataka in June 2016 for their stage-III training for a year on Hawk advanced jet trainers, before they get to fly supersonic warplanes.

Six female cadets were competing to become fighter pilots after the government, in a landmark move, approved an IAF plan in October to induct them as fighter pilots.

However, only three female trainees were selected for the fighter stream.
Hyderabad: The upcoming Gender Sensitisation course being introduced in degree colleges in Telangana from this academic year is unique in many ways. It touches on different topics like Housework: the invisible labour; Preparing for womanhood and growing up male; first lessons in caste; Domestic violence: is home a safe place? The caste face of violence etc. This courses book, titled Towards a World of Equals, is bilingual with English and Telugu lessons in the same volume.

Experienced teachers and researchers from the English and Foreign Languages University, the University of Hyderabad, Osmania University and Anveshi Research Centre for Women Studies were involved in the books preparation.

Ms A. Suneetha, the books editor and a senior fellow at Anveshi Research Centre for Womens Studies said that the subject and its contents were very new. Unlike other subjects that revolve around definitions and theoretical explanations, Gender Sensitisation is different. You wont find lessons included in this book anywhere else. These are drawn from experiences and examples from our day-to-day lives, she said.

When asked about the reasons behind including English and Telugu translations in the same book, Ms Suneetha said that this was done for better understanding of the subject. For students who have switched to English medium after doing schooling in Telugu, the explanations in English might be difficult to understand. And this is not a subject that a student can simply learn by heart. These are more of examples from our daily lives and hence it was decided to come out with a bilingual book, she said.

Professor Rama Melkote, a former OU professor who also contributed to the book, has written in the preface that education and education policies must acknowledge the centrality of the gender in the making of citizens and civil society. As new issues and questions emerge regarding sexuality and sexual orientations of women and men, the state and the society must learn to address them in an inclusive way.
New Delhi: Nearly eight years after the Mumbai terror attacks, the government is all set to install tracking devices and issue identity cards to small fishing vessels free of cost to monitor their movement and curb security threat along the coastline.

The Home Ministry is planning to install transponders in fishing vessels below 20 metres in length and also issue identity cards for the purpose of tracking their movement up to a distance of 50-km from the coastline. The Ministry has estimated the cost of each transponder at about Rs 16,800 and the total cost would be around Rs 336 crore for installing transponders in two lakh small boats.

The proposal will be placed before the meeting of Chief Ministers of all coastal states to be held in Mumbai on June 16. According to the proposal, the Home Ministry will bear the entire expenditure on transponders while the project will be implemented by the Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries under the Agriculture Ministry.

Technical assistance would be given by the Directorate General of Lighthouses and Lightships (DGLL) under the Shipping Ministry. All boats will be issued identity cards and colour coding of fishing vessels will also been done.

At present, there is a system in place for tracking vessels above 20-metre in length, but there is no such facility for boats below that length. The Home Ministry has proposed to install 'AIS (P)' transponders in small boats based on the recommendations of the expert committee set up by the Defence Ministry on this issue.

According to officials sources, the expert panel has suggested installation of Automatic Information System- Proprietary (AIS-P) transponder for tracking small boats after evaluating three types of devices that were tested on a pilot basis by both DGLL and Indian Coast Guard.

As per the proposal, installation of AIS(P) transponders will be made "mandatory" and linked with issuance of licence for fishing granted under the State Marine Fisheries Departments.

India has 7,517-km coastline, which is dotted with 12 major ports and 187 minor or intermediate ports.

Mumbai was the target of India's worst terror attack in 2008. Ten terrorists had come from Pakistan through the sea route, killing 166 people.
The girl was born at the Indore District Hospital on June 3 and she died on Tuesday. (Representational Image)

Indore: A three-day-old baby girl died after she was allegedly administered a vaccine in the district hospital here with her family claiming that the body was kept in the mortuary for the entire day where it was bitten by ants.

The girl was born at the Indore District Hospital on June 3 and she died on Tuesday.

A state health department official said the Madhya Pradesh government today suspended four staffers of the hospital and ordered a magisterial inquiry into the episode after taking serious cognisance of the incident.

"A local resident Sangita Baghel had given birth to a baby girl in the district hospital on June 3. Two days later (on June 5), the new-born was administered a vaccine, following which she turned unwell with a high fever," MP Health Department Joint Director, Sharad Pandit said.

The girl died yesterday and her relatives alleged that it was due to the negligence of the hospital staffers they lost their child.

The infant's kin also alleged that the body was kept in the hospital's morgue from morning till evening yesterday, where ants bit it. In the evening, the body was sent to another government hospital for post-mortem.

Pandit said that in view of the allegations, a three-member committee was formed to probe the matter, which confirmed that there was negligence in the treatment of the new-born baby.

Following the findings of the committee, the state government was recommended to suspend four staffers of the hospital.

"Acting tough, the state government today suspended Indore District Hospital's Dr Anubha Shrivastava, nurse Shushila, female worker Choti Bai and sanitary worker Madhu Bai for being lax in performing their duties," MP Public Relations Department senior officer Ashok Manvani told PTI.

Pandit said a departmental inquiry has been ordered in the case.

Meanwhile, Indore District Collector P Narhari has ordered a magisterial inquiry that will be conducted by a Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM) into the incident in a fortnight.

The incident comes in the wake of death of two children who were administered an anaesthetic agent instead of oxygen at the Maharaja Yeshwantrao Hospital here.
AYUSH minister Shripad Yesso Naik also dismissed the controversy related to chanting of Om during the event and said it has not been made compulsory. (Photo: File)

New Delhi: The AYUSH ministry may request the Union government to declare the International Yoga Day (IYD), which falls on June 21, as a public holiday if such a demand comes, Ayush minister Shripad Naik said on Wednesday.

Speaking ahead of the second IYD celebrations, he said that his ministry would consider such a demand and request Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the interest of promoting a practice with multiple benefits to the masses.

Read: Centre plans grand yoga show in 10 cities on June 21

"It is not needed, nobody has demanded that. Last year, also no such demand came. But if the demand comes, I will request the Prime Minister to do so.

"Yoga's time is early morning. It will go on around 8 am. There is no need of a holiday but if there is a demand for that, we will request the government," Naik said during the National Health Editors' Conference on the theme - 'Yoga for Holistic Health - Recent Researches' in Delhi.

Read: JNU to reconsider introducing courses in yoga and culture

June 21 this year falls on Tuesday while last year, it fell on a Sunday.

He also dismissed the controversy related to chanting of Om during the event and said it has not been made compulsory.

"There is always some opposition whenever some good work is done. There is no opposition this year to it. We have not made it compulsory. Without OM, yoga cannot be complete. We have made those people who are opposing understand this and it seems they have understood," he said.

A fresh controversy had broke out recently over the UGC's directive asking universities and colleges to follow Ayush ministry's yoga protocol that begins with chanting of 'Om' and some Sanskrit sholakas during Yoga Day celebrations on June 21.

Both the government and BJP, however had insisted that last year's protocol has been maintained and no changes have been made. "There is no compulsion to chant 'Om'," the

Ministry had earlier said.

Asked about the controversy which had erupted over performing of 'Suryanamaskar asana, the minister said that this particular 'asana' had not been kept last year and this year, it will not be performed.

"The Surya namashkar asana, last year also we had not taken it. Its a complex exercise. It is difficult to do in 45 minutes and for people who are new to the exercise.

Therefore we have not kept this one," Naik said. Ayush Ministry officials said that yoga has been added in the physical activity sessions in various schools for class six to tenth but it has not been made compulsory.

Naik said that a circular has also been issued by the HRD Minister to all the schools to include yoga and while many schools have adopted it, for others, "work is in progress".

"HRD minister has sent circular to schools. Work is in progress. All schools have started adopting," Naik said.

Asked about the total budget of the Ministry for this year's celebrations, Ministry secretary Ajit Sharan said that every ministry is spending its own money and Ayush Ministry is not supporting anybody in terms of funds for celebrating this.

"Although if all is taken collectively, it may be hundreds of crores. But from the AYUSH Ministry side, the sum is around Rs 15 crore," he said.

Naik said that most of the modern day health problems are because of faulty life-style and yoga is an "efficacious" means to overcome these disorders.
Obsolete administrative rules would be done away with, Vijayan said adding e-filing and e-governance will be given thrust by his government. (Photo: PTI)

Thiruvananthapuram: The LDF government in Kerala is aiming at a corruption-free and transparent governance, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Wednesday.

"A corruption free and transparent civil service is what the government is targeting," he said addressing the state Secretariat employees in Thiruvananthapuram.

Read: CM Pinarayi Vijayan sets March target for Kochi Metro

Obsolete administrative rules would be done away with, he said adding e-filing and e-governance will be given thrust by his government.

E-governance would be immediately implemented at the Secretariat, he said at the meeting attended by senior IAS officers among others.

Read: Zero tolerance policy on toxic veggies: Pinarayi Vijayan

Action would be taken against the employees who fail to take decisions and delay early clearing of files, the Chief Minister said.

The applicants, who approach the government, with their grievances, can keep track of the progress of their files through telephones, he said.

On transfer of employees, he said accurate guidelines would be followed and there would be no political vendetta.
Lucknow: Magsaysay award winner Sandeep Pandey has started an indefinite hunger strike to press for the implementation of the Allahabad High Court order asking government employees and elected representatives to send their children to government primary schools.

Mr Pandey said that the court order which came last year had asked the UP chief secretary to take effective steps to implement the order within six months.

The new academic session will start next month but till now the state government has not moved an inch towards the implementation of the historic judgement. I am on strike to draw the governments attention to this, he said on Tuesday.

The 35-page court order which came on August 18, 2015 had suggested a revolutionary measure to address the sorry state of affairs in the primary schools.

The court said that the government must ensure penal provisions for those who violate this condition.

For example, if a child is sent to a primary school not maintained by Board, the amount of fee etc. paid in such privately managed primary school, an equal amount shall be deposited in the Government funds, every month, so long as such education in other kind of primary school is continued.
Hyderabad: Observing that it is the permanent executive which would have to advise and steer the political executive, Justice Sanjay Kumar of the Hyderabad High Court has advised the Chief Secretaries of AP and TS to issue necessary instructions to the executive to properly aid, assist and guide the political executive while discharging quasi-judicial functions.

The judge was allowing a petition by G.I. Estates, a mining company in Guntur district, challenging a memo issued by the AP government confirming the demand notice issued by the assistant director, mines and geology department, rejecting its revision petition.

As per the provisions of the Mines and Mineral Act, the minister for mines has the power to review the demand notices issued by the authorities of the department, in the capacity of revisionary authority.

During the course of the hearing, P. Roy Reddy, counsel for the petitioner, brought to the notice of the judge that in three cases where three different orders were passed by the revisionary authority and contended that there was no rationale in applying different standards to similarly situated persons.

After perusing the orders passed by revision authority, the judge said: To put it mildly, the above stated records reveal a shocking state of affairs. Neither in the Note Files nor in the Orders, did the revisionary authority deem it necessary to disclose the reasons as to why the penalty was reduced or waived in that particular case.

The judge made it clear that when the revisionary authority was only exercising discretionary power and was not applying the letter of the law, it obviously had to indicate as to why discretion was being exercised in that particular manner.

The judge said that the revisionary authority shall not presume that they had inherent infinite autonomy under statute to decide the quantum of the penalty to be levied without disclosing the reasons.

The judge ruled that delegation of functions of revisionary authority to any of his subordinate for passing a speaking order by supplementing reasons, after disposal of the revision, was wholly illegal.

Maintaining that this was a deplorable situation which requires to be remedied immediately, the judge observed that it is the permanent executive which would have to advise and steer the political executive, the revisionary authority, in the right direction but it is manifest that there is patent failure in this regard. These observations would apply not only to the revisionary authority but to all other statutory authorities discharging their functions who need to be sensitised of their role and responsibility in the scheme of statutory adjudication.

While remitting the matter to the revisionary authority for fresh consideration, the judge directed the registry to mark a copy of the order to the Chief Secretaries of both the states to issue necessary instructions to the executive.
Namdhari, in his plea before the apex court, said he was not keeping well and hence be enlarged on bail during the pendency of trial.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to entertain the bail plea of sacked Uttarakhand minorities panel chief Sukhdev Singh Namdhari, accused in a 2012 shootout in Delhi that killed liquor baron Ponty Chadha and his brother Hardeep, saying charges against him were "grave".

"We are not interested in entertaining the petition. The charges against you are grave," a vacation bench comprising Justices PC Ghose and Amitava Roy said.

The apex court took strong note of the fact that Namdhari earlier secured interim bail on health grounds from the trial court during the pendency of his regular bail plea in the Delhi High Court.

"It is strange. The trial court grants you interim bail when the bail petition is pending in the High Court," it said.

Namdhari, in his plea before the apex court, said he was not keeping well and hence be enlarged on bail during the pendency of trial.

In April this year, the trial court, which is currently recording prosecution evidence in the case, has cancelled the interim bail of Namdhari and sent him to jail.

The trial court, while cancelling the interim bail, had said the main complainant, Nandlal Mahto, had turned hostile in the matter and it could not be ruled out that Namdhari had threatened him or given him gratification to turn hostile.

The plea seeking cancellation of Namdhari's interim bail was filed by wife of Hardeep in the trial court.

Namdhari, the alleged main conspirator in the case, was granted interim bail on November 27 last year on medical grounds which was extended time to time.

The accused had said that he was suffering from various ailments like hepatitis C, blood pressure and heart problems apart from depression and having suicidal tendencies.

Ponty and Hardeep, who were allegedly involved in a property dispute, were killed in a shootout at a Chhattarpur farmhouse here on November 17, 2012. Subsequently, Namdhari was arrested on November 23, 2012. Later, the remaining accused were apprehended.

The trial court in July last year had framed charges under section 302 (murder) read with section 149 (offence committed by member of unlawful assembly) of the IPC against all the 21 accused, including Namdhari and his Personal Security Officer (PSO) Sachin Tyagi.
The Devendra Fadnavis-led Maharashtra government has told the railway authorities that the proposed station will hamper its plans to build a financial centre at the same place. (Photo: File)

New Delhi: The Rs 98,000 crore Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project has run into a major problem.

According to a report, the Maharashtra government is very reluctant to allow the railways to build the Mumbai station underground at Bandra-Kurla complex (BKC).

Read: India to get bullet train that would travel under sea near Thane creek

The plans were prepared by Japanese consultants, who surveyed all options and zeroed in on this area after speaking with state authorities.

But the Devendra Fadnavis-led Maharashtra government has told the railway authorities that the proposed station will hamper its plans to build a financial centre at the same place. The state government contends that after the underground station work begins, it will be impossible to build the centre on the area.

Read: First bullet train to run in India by 2023: Suresh Prabhu

In May, Railway Ministry officials held two rounds of meetings with Maharashtra officials, the chief secretary and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, but failed to arrive at a breakthrough. The Fadnavis government claims that the station would lead to a loss of Rs 10,000 crore.

The Railway ministry is now considering approaching Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a solution.

Railways needs only 0.9 hectares to build access to the underground station while the total land area available is 28 hectares. But Maharashtra has said that because of the existing building bylaws and rules governing commercial establishments, a significant portion would become inaccessible for the proposed financial centre.

The argument that the railway stations proximity to the financial centre would be good for enhance the latters profile has also failed to cut ice with the state.

Once an underground station is built there, we will not be able to build anything on the ground, so the loss of land to us is more than just 0.9 hectares, U P S Madan, commissioner of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), was quoted as saying.

The state government also believes that since only a small part of the proposed bullet train corridor falls in Maharashtra, a revenue loss of Rs 10,000 crore is not justified.

Railways has been asked to extend the project beyond Mumbai or use its own land. At present, the Railways has vacant land in both Bandra and Kurla, but BKC was chosen for its primacy of location.
'Our party delegation will soon meet Chief Minister and ask him to reconsider his decision,' Congress MP Ashok Chavan said. (Photo: PTI)

Mumbai: A day after the Maharashtra government renamed the 'Rajiv Gandhi Jeevandayi Arogya Yojana' (RGJAY) as 'Mahatma Phule Jana Arogya Yojana' (MPJAY), the Congress on Wednesday accused BJP of "disrespecting" a former prime minister who "gave up his life for the nation".

"We had started this scheme to provide health benefits to crores of poor people. But, after the new government came to power, we had been hearing that it wants to change the name of this scheme. The (state) Cabinet has erred with its decision," Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee president Ashok Chavan told reporters in Mumbai.

"The BJP government has disrespected a former PM (Rajiv Gandhi) who gave up his life for the nation," he said.

"Our party delegation will soon meet Chief Minister (Devendra Fadnavis) and ask him to reconsider his decision," the Congress MP said.

Chavan, himself a former chief minister, said after 'Indira Awaas Yojana' was renamed as 'Pradhan Mantri Gramin Awaas Yojana', this is the second scheme to be renamed.

"We have immense respect for Mahatma Phule. But, the BJP government has taken this decision to create controversy and disruptions. The government has stooped very low as far as standards of morality are concerned," he alleged.

Chavan further said the Opposition parties would not have objected if a new scheme was given name of the government's choice, but "renaming old scheme reeks of a political conspiracy".

The new scheme envisages more medical, surgical and follow up procedures and comes into force from October.

Talking about the scheme on Tuesday, Fadnavis had said 971 ailments were covered under the old scheme. Now, this number got increased to 1,100, including old age issues, hip and knee replacement, sickle cell anemia treatment.

Also, 31 super speciality and 127 follow up procedures have been included.

Moreover, the insurance cover under the new scheme has been raised from the earlier Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 2 lakh.
The two factions of Hurriyat Conference said a seminar would be organised on June 12 and a sit-in protest will be held on June 15 to "create awareness about the anti-Kashmir plans" of the government. (Photo: PTI)

Srinagar: Coming together, different Kashmiri separatist groups on Wednesday came out with a "campaign" schedule to oppose setting up of separate township for Kashmiri Pandit migrants and Sainik Colonies, notwithstanding the government's assertion that there are no such moves.

Read: 'Cat and pigeon' analogy distorted: Mehbooba on Kashmiri Pandits

The two factions of Hurriyat Conference -- one headed by hardline leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani and the other by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq -- said a seminar would be organised on June 12 and a sit-in protest will be held on June 15 to "create awareness about the anti-Kashmir plans" of the government.

In identical statements issued here, the separatist groups said the statements of the PDP BJP coalition government over Sainik Colony, satellite townships for Kashmiri Pandits and the new industrial policy were "vague, ambiguous and confusing".

They said if such steps were taken, there would be "alarming consequences" and the separatist groups would "not stay silent over these issues".

Read: Kashmiri Pandits pitch for reopening of 'seat of learning' in PoK for them

The decision to organise protests comes despite Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti asserting that there are no such moves.

The unity in the separatist camp has come after six years. The last time separatist groups functioned from a single platform was in 2010 summer agitation that left nearly 120 people dead.
'The Prime Minister garnered applause for speaking on how corrupt India is. This is like maligning the reputation of the country on foreign soil,' said the Saamana editorial. (Photo: PTI)

Mumbai: Shiv Sena on Wednesday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's remarks in Doha about India being plagued by corruption "maligned the nation's image", and questioned if scams in BJP-ruled Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat can be attributed to the Gandhi family.

Since Modi is the face of the nation, other countries may believe what he says about India which in turn might affect the financial condition of the country, an editorial in Sena's mouthpiece 'Saamna' said.

Read: Devendra Fadnavis worked 'secretly' for Khadse's ouster: Shiv Sena

Vowing to root out corruption in India, the Prime Minister had on Sunday said in Doha that he "faced problems" by depriving the "sweets of many" and saved over Rs 36,000 crore annually by stopping leakage and theft in government schemes.

"The Prime Minister garnered applause for speaking on how corrupt India is. This is like maligning the reputation of the country on foreign soil. If people are talking about corruption two years after the new government coming to power, whom do we blame for it? Can we attribute what is happening in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat to the Gandhi family," the editorial said.

Read: Shiv Sena lends support to ending triple talaq system

"Since Modi is the face of the nation, other countries might believe what he speaks and take decisions based on that which might affect the financial condition of India. Jibes at opposition should be taken within the country itself. One does not need to go to America or Europe to take potshots at Modi or the Gandhi family," it added.

Sena, an ally of the ruling NDA, said that it was enough of leveling corruption charges against Robert Vadra and Gandhi family. It is now time to take action against them if they have indulged in wrongdoings, the party said.

"(Former Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister) Ajit Pawar had recently said he lost power because he lost control on his tongue. This should become a political mantra," the Sena said.
Southern Railway Mazdoor Union (SRMU) has decided to become part of the indefinite nationwide strike work by railway employees starting from July 11 raising various demands.

Chennai: The Southern Railway Mazdoor Union (SRMU) has decided to become part of the indefinite nationwide strike work by railway employees starting from July 11 raising various demands.

The union said it was forced to join the strike because of the lackadaisical attitude of the Union Government in addressing grievances of railway workers.

In a statement here, union president, C A Raja Sridhar, and general secretary, N Kannaiah, said the response of the government on the charter of demands submitted in December 2015 has been very disappointing and casual.

Consequently, the organisations of the central government employees - Railways, Defence, Postal, Income Tax, Central Customs and Excise  whose number is over 32 lakh have taken unanimous decision to go on indefinite strike from July 11, the statement said.

Demands include raising minimum wage of Rs 26,000 and correspondingly improve multiplier factor for pay fixation, scrapping the New Pension Scheme (NPS) and restore old pension scheme to be made applicable to those employees on and after January 1, 2004, scrap report of Bibek Debroy Committee and implement positive recommendations of High Power Committee and recall FDI notification of Government of India dated August 22, 2014, in construction, ope-ration and maintenance of Indian Railways.
Hyderabad: June 8, 2014. Nara Chandrababu Naidu left Hyderabad for a location near Guntur city to be sworn-in as Chief Minister of residuary Andhra Pradesh. The ceremony over, he flew back to Hyderabad. Reason: There was no Chief Ministers seat for him to sit or an office to do governance, around the Vijayawada-Guntur cities. After the AP Reorganisation Act came into being, things were in a flux. Out of the blue, things needed to start from scratch for residuary Andhra Pradesh. The division mandated AP to share space in Hyderabad for 10 years even as the city was declared the capital of the new Telangana state. During the period, it was for AP to locate, plan and construct its own capital city; with central help, of course.

Mr Naidu wanted to move things with god speed. His ambition was to fashion a world-class capital city in Amaravati, the site identified for the new capital on the banks of River Krishna. But, while his dreams had no limits, money was a constraint. Two years later, on May 17, 2016, Chief Minister Mr Naidu observed at a media meet in Delhi after a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi that he being one of the senior-most politicians and administrators was being made to beg for funds and development projects for the new state from the Centre. Also, he stressed, bifurcation of the state was done by the then Congress-led UPA government in an unscientific manner. His success, or the lack of it, in getting funds and projects is a barometer for the performance of the two-year rule of the TD government headed by him in AP.

An experienced politician like Mr Naidu, who had earlier served as Chief Minister for nine years in undivided AP, was able to gauge the public mood against his present government, thats still operating from Hyderabad. To administer a state located 200-km away from the common capital presented its own problems. The process to shift it to the new capital, Amaravati, is programmed to materialise by June 27. As mr Naidu himself regretted, he should have started moving to Amaravati in a years time after bifurcation.

As everybody admits, AP suffered a lot than the newly formed Telangana State in the process of bifurcation. Other states were bifurcated in the past on demands raised by some territory. The region now forming into AP did not ask for a separate state, but a decision was thrust upon it, and it still has to go the whole hog out to create a new capital and infrastructure thereof from scratch and slush. Fact is also that the erstwhile united AP rulers made it a policy to develop Hyderabad as an international destination for investment, FDI etc.

This was done at the cost of developing other cities and towns in the state. Mr Naidu himself as CM in the previous stints not only pushed but also perfected such an agenda. With Hyderabad remaining with Telangana, it was now a washout for AP. The present AP, that has 13 districts, is however not a new concept. It was formed into a state when Andhrites wanted to separate themselves from the United Madras Province in 1953. But Andhra State was in existence for just three years and it merged with Telangana to form the AP state in the first states reorganisation on linguistic grounds in 1956. Some 58 years later; and over to 2014. For the newly formed Telangana State, everything was the same as before.
The family of Ikhlaq, who was beaten to death by a mob, at Bishada in Dadri. (Photo: PTI)

Dadri: Villages surrounding Bishada in Dadri have been put on high alert as the residents of these areas have begun organising panchayats demanding the registration of a case against the family of 50-year-old Mohammad Akhlaq for alleged cow slaughter and beef consumption.

The villages under Dadri tehsil put on alert include Ucha Hamirpur, Samana, Sapnawat, Patadi, Rasoolpur and Chithera. Amidst threats of a mahapanchayat, Jaan Mohammad, the brother of Mohammad Akhlaq who was lynched nine months ago over beef-eating rumours, appealed for peace.

With folded hands I appeal for calm. Dont bury your brotherhood. Even if one drop of blood is shed, it will give me more pain than my brothers murder, he said.
Living near Yemlur lake has become such a hazard that residents ensure that the doors and windows of house are always closed to protect their children from the noxious froth spilling over from its banks.

Two days ago, the DC photographer who set out to photograph the foam on Bellandur lake was shocked to find the situation replicated in Yemlur. Houses in the area had their windows and doors shut, while children played dangerous little games by setting the foam alight. Illnesses are on the rise too, for our civic authorities are simply re-routing the froth from one lake to another.

Living near Yemlur lake has become such a hazard that resident, Savitha K, ensures that the doors and windows of her house are always closed to protect her three children from the noxious froth spilling over from its banks. She also insists on keeping her children indoors as much as possible. Ask her if this is too cautious and she says, I am concerned about the well being of my family and especially my children. If this is going to keep them from falling sick, then so be it.

She is one of many people living near Yemlur lake whose lives have changed drastically, more so from the day the civic agencies decided to divert the sewage and froth from Bellandur lake towards it for widening the bridge over the former. Not surprisingly, Yemlur is now the new Bellandur.

The lake is smaller and the froth over it has grown into huge hillocks unlike in Bellandur where it is spread over a larger area. Even a light breeze is enough to send the froth flying around the area and into the homes of the people, who prefer staying indoors with their doors and windows closed to keep it from entering.

Visitors to Yemlur, who are greeted by an obnoxious smell, are often surprised to see the homes all bolted and shut and only some curious children out on the streets with matchsticks, trying to light a fire with the froth , in immitation of the stories of the fire on Bengaluru lakes last year.

A child playing with the froth coming out from Yemlur lake

If people are worried about their childrens health it is not without reason as many have been complaining of respiratory and skin problems. Says a local doctor, Prasanth Kumar, I get a lot of patients, especially children, coming to me to with respiratory problems. The number of asthma patients here have increased over the last few years.

Says Rajamma S, a mother of two, The froth keeps flying around due to the wind. Our children used to play with it but have now stopped after being warned. But it can still come to rest on our food , which could be dangerous. Most of the children in our village suffer from flu, breathing problems and headaches. Both adults and children complain of skin problems as well.

Not surprised by the many health issues of the Yemlur residents, professor T V Ramachandran of the Indian Institute of Science warns the froth also has a high nitrate concentration, which can even lead to cancer.

With no solution in sight although it has been over five years since untreated sewage from apartments and industries in HAL, Domlur, Kormangala and Agara began flowing into Bellandur lake, IISc. professor, Ashwin Mahesh demands pertinently, Who is going accept responsibility if something happens? Our lakes form a chain and so pollution in one affects the other. We have to address this issue at each point to stop it from have a cascading effect.

Although the authorities have fenced the lake and installed about four to six machines near it to spray a chemical to mitigate the smell and froth, this doesnt seem to have helped matters any.

Stop sewage from entering the lake

All eyes are now on the Bengaluru Blueprint Action Group (BBAG), which has promised to solve the citys problems and clean up its lakes. While a sub-committee on lakes set up by BBAG is expected to come out with a solution for a frothing Bellandur, civic activist , Meenakshi Bharath stresses the need for both short and long term measures to tackle the pollution .

For the short term sewage must be stopped from entering these lakes with immediate affect and after that the rejuvenation process must begin. If people dont listen, they should be penalised for letting their sewage into the lakes, she suggests. As far as the BBAG sub-committee is concerned, she demands,

Does it have the power to levy such a fine? If not, the it will be like any other sub-committee. Urban expert, Ashwin Mahesh believes that a sub-committee alone cannot stop the pollution of the city's lakes.  We need to create a working task force that will dedicate itself to cleaning up the lakes, he says.

Q & A with Lakshman, chairman of Karnataka State Pollution Control Board



What do you have to say about the Yemlur froth issue?

I am being informed about the situation by your newspaper. I will depute my staff for immediate inspection. Once they give me a spot report, we will take all the necessary measures. I will direct both the BWSSB and BBMP to take action. I agree that Yemlur lake is not as broad as Bellandur and things could be difficult there.

What measures have been initiated by you in solving Bellandur lake issue?

I have slapped showcause notices on 137 apartments. We are also inspecting all the STPs to see if they are working properly and keeping an eye on the laundries and construction projects in and around the locality .

Do you think sub-committee on lake under BBAG will bring any difference?

I definitely think that the technical expertise of the members of the sub-committee will make a tremendous change to the lakes of the city. They are already on the job and are working on a long term goal.

Can you share some of the plans?

We are looking to construct more STPs for sure. Some are already under construction and some are in the commissioning stage.
Dehradun: Accusing CBI of leaving BJP out of the ambit of its probe in the sting CD case, Chief Minister Harish Rawat on Wednesday asked the agency to interrogate the "main players" of the "horsetrading drama" that unfolded during the recent political crisis in Uttarakhand.

"On the basis of my conversation with a third man who was not a player in the episode, CBI summoned me for interrogation.

"I ask the investigating agency why it does not question the main players and beneficiaries of the horsetrading drama," he said.

Several of them have also been named in the sting CD, he said. "Why aren't they summoned by the CBI," Rawat told reporters here on his return from New Delhi after making his second appearance before the CBI in connection with the case.

"After all who was the end beneficiary of the horsetrading exercise? I lost 10 MLAs while BJP gained as many," he said, adding, "someone who lost 10 MLAs due to horsetrading is being interrogated whereas those who earned as many are being left out."

Rawat said he has told CBI his side of the story and submitted to it documents which can serve as evidence of BJP's "active" role in the horsetrading that took place in the state during the peak of the crisis in March.

"There were allegations made by Congress MLAs even on March 18 (the day crisis broke out in the state assembly) that they were offered money to break ranks with us.

"The whole world saw BJP leaders taking Congress defectors to Raj Bhawan in a chartered bus and then in a chartered aircraft to a Gurgaon hotel," he said.

Numerous visits were made by BJP central leaders to Dehardun during the one-and-a-half month long crisis, he said.

After all what were they up to? Isn't it enough reason for CBI to bring the BJP under the ambit of its probe?' he asked.

Rejecting charges that he had tried to lure the rebel MLAs, he shot back, "Wouldn't it have been a self-defeating exercise? Why would I try to bring back MLAs against whom I had demanded action from the Speaker," he said.

The Chief MInister said he has been saying all along that he will cooperate with the CBI in its ongoing investigations in the sting CD case. "I am doing exactly that," he said.

In the CD, Rawat was purportedly seen talking to middlemen in a bid to strike a deal with dissident Congress MLAs. Rawat has denied any wrongdoing.

Two days before Rawat was to face vote of confidence on March 28, nine rebel Congress MLAs, led by former chief minister Vijay Bahuguna, had alleged that they were offered bribe by Rawat for support during the floor test in the Uttarakhand Assembly and released a video of the "sting" operation.

An inquiry was initiated on the recommendation of the state government, then under President's Rule, and a notification on it was issued by the Centre. Rawat went on to win the floor test in the Assembly and return as CM.
Hyderabad: YSR Congress would file cheating cases against the AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu in all police stations across the state on June 8 for his alleged failure to fulfil his poll promises. YSRC spokesperson K. Parthasaradhi told the media on Tuesday that the Chief Minster has failed to do anything for the people while Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has been with the people throughout, to highlight the failures of the government, and now we will file cases in all police stations.

He said the filing of cases was to highlight Mr Naidus failures and the way in which the TD had deceived the people on the poll promises. Mr Naidu has wilfully defaulted on the poll promises. He gave in writing that he had the experience and had taken into account the feasibility of the promises he made in the election manifesto, and asserted that they were practical and could be implemented, when he was questioned by the Election Commission about the veracity of his promises. However, after coming to power, he did not give a thought to it. This is nothing short of cheating of the people and we are fling cases in all police stations.

Meanwhile, YSRC MLA RK Roja told the media that Naidu was the most corrupt Chief Minister and that he was having his personal agenda to pursue, instead of working for peoples welfare. She said Naidu and his son Lokesh had institutionalised corruption.The CM has done nothing after coming to power in the past two years other than pursuing his personal interests, Roja said, adding that Naidus son Lokesh had become an extra-constitutional authority and the father-son duo was on a collection spree.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi waves as he arrives to address a joint meeting of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington on Wednesday. (Photo: PTI)

Washington: With Pakistan obviously in mind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said terrorism is being "incubated in Indias neighbourhood" and pressed for action without making any distinction against groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba, Taliban and ISIS who share the same philosophy of hate, murder and killings.

In his address to the joint sitting of US Congress here, he said terrorism has to be fought with one voice as he commended the American Parliament for sending out a clear message by refusing to reward those who preach and practice terrorism for political gains, an apparent reference to the blocking of sale of 8 F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan.

In the course of his 45-minute speech, he covered all major aspects of the growing relationship between India and the US, particularly strategic ties and civil nuclear cooperation, and emphasised that the two countries should leave constraints of the past behind as the foundations of the future are firmly in place.

Dressed in trademark white kurta pyjama and grey-coloured half-jacket, Mr Modi was warmly received by the American lawmakers who interrupted his address more than 40 times to cheer him, a few times by standing.
Gutted huts near Jawahar Bagh in Mathura on Friday, a day after violent clashes between encroachers and the police. (Photo: PTI)

Lucknow: A US made rocket launcher has been found by the bomb disposal squad while combing the Jawahar Bagh area in Mathura. The deadly weapon was found when the security officials were searching the 270 acres of government land, which was encroached by Swadheen Bharat Vidhik Satyagrahi outfit.

SSP Mathura Bablu Kumar told reporters that the rocket launcher was recovered from the Jawahar Bagh and was inscribed with Launcher, Made in USA. The police are now probing as to who supplied the sophisticated weapons to the group.

The members of the cult were heavily armed and outnumbered the policemen which went to evict the encroachers from the Jawahar Bagh on June 2. Grenades and automatic weapons were freely used against the police and two two police officials lost their lives in the clashes.
Bengaluru: The resignation by DySP Anupama Shenoy on Saturday, citing personal reasons, has garnered tremendous support from netizens. To show their solidarity, the supporters have even started a Facebook page titled Justice for Anupama Shenoy.

A day after the Kudligi deputy SP posted in Facebook When injustice becomes law, rebellion becomes duty, scores of netizens came out demanding justice for her and shared her message.

We stand with DySP Anupama Shenoy. We salute honest police officer. Protest against the corrupt system and the inefficient state government. Sham on them! Let us unite. Fight for the justice, a message stated.

Read: FIR against Karnataka's former Deputy SP Anupama Shenoy?

This is not for the first time the netizens have shown their support to the Mardaani cop. In January, 2016, the Kiran Bedi of Karnataka had managed to gather huge support from her supporters after she faced frequent transfers.

Facebook users came out in support of her with hashtags #?SaveKarnatakaFromCm ?and #?JusticeforAnupamaShenoy.

A Facebook uses Ramdas Naik stated, This is why police constables wanted to go on strike. Pressure from ruling parties whoever it is. But had a hope from this govt. But this one is worse than any other govt. Pressure building to save a wine shop that too in front of Shri Ambedkar ji's Bhavan. Get lost C.M.

When the entire or majority of the system is against honesty, then practically it is close to impossible to bring changes and we have endless examples for the same in our state. You have earned our respect madam and by letting the public know about the facts that are otherwise hidden we only appreciate you further. Being a part of the system or out of it; we want you to fight for the common man, a post by Lokesh Kumar stated.

Read: Rs 40 lakh changed hands to oust DySP Anupama Shenoy?

Another comment read, It seems people adjusted to poor, bad secular politics full of bribery from top to bottom. Hence they curb honest sincere, hardworking officials.

While thousands have come in support of Ms. Shenoy, many others have also urged her to take back the resignation. Madam Anupama Shenoy I think when people like you give up, many of us feel the system cannot be changed and feel dejected. Please reconsider your resignation, otherwise the evil forces will feel they cannot be defeated and go to any extent to destroy this country and the society around us. I pray God to give you the strength to face these anti-social elements head-on. We are with you in your rebellion against the corrupt and incompetent system governing us, Giridhara Upadhyaya said.
Hyderabad: The Telangana government has initiated steps to regulate the mushrooming of engineering and teacher training colleges in the state.

The state churns out thousands of engineering and teacher graduates every year though there are not enough job opportunities available in these sectors in Telangana.

The state Cabinet, which met at the Secretariat on Friday, had a long discussion regarding the measures that should be taken to create awareness among students and parents about not to opt for engineering and teaching courses in the new academic year thinking that these degrees would guarantee employment after completion, irrespective of attaining the required professional skills or not.

The government wants to discourage such students from opting for these courses in the new academic year by taking up awareness programmes.

The government has been under tremendous pressure from B.Ed./ D.Ed. qualified students to issue teacher recruitment notification for the last two years since the last recruitment drive was taken up more than five years ago. They are holding demonstrations in Hyderabad and other districts demanding job notifications.

Prof D.N. Reddy, former regional chairman, AICTE and former v-c of OU and JNTU-Hyderabad said, "The time has come to focus on quality rather than quantity. Most engineering graduates are opting for lower paid jobs with SSC, Inter qualification due to poor training in colleges. The government's proposal to discourage such colleges and students is a welcome move."

The Cabinet has asked the Education department to take up a comprehensive study on how many engineers and doctors are required in Telangana, how many are produced every year, the reasons for huge unemployment among them and what should be done to check the menace.

No openings for Most graduates

AICTE data shows that only 30 per cent engineering graduates got jobs in campus placements this season nationwide. TS education officials believe that it would be less than 15 per cent in Telangana.

There are nearly 85,000 engineering seats, 25,000 B.Ed. seats and 20,000 D.Ed. seats on offer in Telangana, which are already in excess when compared to the job opportunities available in the state.

The Cabinet was of the view that many students, especially from poorer sections, were opting for engineering and teaching courses as the government reimburses their fees though they do not have the aptitude.Engineering and teaching graduates with poor skills are not getting employment in the private sector and are waiting for jobs.
MUMBAI: After senior Congress leader Gurudas Kamats resignation, infighting in the party has come out in the open with the party workers targeting the outsider Mumbai chief Sanjay Nirupam.

Sources, however, said that the infighting could be a result of the possible power change in the party wing in Delhi.

While Mr Nirupam was unavailable for comments, former CM Prithviraj Chavan said that efforts would be made to pacify the senior Congress leader. Meanwhile, Mr Kamat said he will be involved in social work.
New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party asked the Mehbooba Mufti government to revise the soft policy towards separatists as it was affecting business and tourism in Kashmir, on Wednesday. The party demanded that security given to separatists be withdrawn and they be put behind bars.

The party also demanded that concrete steps be taken to prevent the youths from being lured by terrorist groups. State BJP spokesman Virender Gupta said that despite their anti-India activities, the separatists were enjoying special privileges, including security cover provided by the state government.

The government should revise its policy towards the separatists. The government should withdraw the security given to separatists and put them behind bars under the Public Safety Act (PSA) for indulging in anti-social and anti-national activities, he said.

Expressing concern over frequent protests, violence and hoisting of Pakistani and ISIS flags in Kashmir Valley, he said, All these incidents are taking place at the instigation of separatists. Recently, a separatist leader, along with his supporters, slapped a policeman who was discharging his duty in Srinagar, he claimed.

Gupta said soft policy towards separatists has on one hand encouraged anti-India forces and anti-social elements and on the other, demoralised security forces and the masses. Soft policy towards separatists is demoralising security forces who are fighting to curb militancy and sacrificing their lives. These separatists are continuously disturbing the peace by holding the Valley to ransom thereby affecting business and tourism industry, he said.

Cautioning that the situation might worsen if steps are not take, Gupta asked the PDP-BJP coalition government to take strong action against separatists. The BJP spokesman asked the government to take concrete steps so that the youth of the Valley are not lured by the separatists and terrorist groups.
Lucknow: BJP president Amit Shah on Tuesday blamed the Akhilesh Yadav government in Uttar Pradesh for all the ills plaguing the state, from the Mathura violence and Dadri tension to irregularities in the implementation of MGNREGA and corruption and lawlessness.

After attacking the Bahujan Samaj Party for the past several months, the BJP has now trained its guns at the Samajwadi Party. Mr Shah told reporters here on Tuesday that the Akhilesh government was acting as a barrier blocking welfare schemes formulated by the Modi government and preventing the benefits from percolating down to the common man for political reasons. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court refused to to order a CBI probe into the Mathura violence.

Akhilesh orders probe into Mathura violence

In a major development, the Akhilesh government on Tuesday announced a judicial probe into the Jawahar Bagh violence in Mathura in which two police officials were killed on June 2 while trying to remove squatters. Justice (retired) Imtiaz Murtaza will head the one-man judicial commission and has been asked to submit its report within two months.

The terms of reference of the inquiry include circumstances which led to the clashes, the failure of intelligence agencies, role of local police and civil officials and other aspects that may have impacted the incident. The inquiry commission will also suggest ways to prevent such situations form recurring in the future.

The judicial inquiry ordered by the state government is apparently aimed at pre-empting any move to get a CBI inquiry into the Mathura clashes. The BJP has been pressing for a CBI probe into the Mathura clashes to unravel the political angle in the matter.
Vadodara: BJP leader Ram Madhav on Wednesday said the Congress promotes just one "surname" and ignores the contribution of other leaders in the party, that's why it is losing power in one state after another.

Asked about the resignations of two senior Congress leaders Gurudas Kamat and Ajit Jogi, Madhav said as a BJP member he can not comment on internal affairs of the Opposition party.

"However, in my individual capacity, I criticise the Congress which considers only those with a particular surname (a reference to Gandhis) as their leader and does not recognise the contribution of other leaders in the party."

It is due to this reason, Congress, which received severe drubbing in 2014 Lok Sabha polls, has been losing power in one state after another, the BJP General Secretary said.

He was talking to reporters during a brief halt at Harni airport here on way to Mehsana city in North Gujarat.

To a query, Madhav said "tight security arrangements will be made during the 59-day long Amarnath Yatra (in Jammu & Kashmir) beginning next month." Madhav is in charge of party affairs in Jammu & Kashmir, where BJP is part of the PDP-led ruling coalition.
Hyderabad: Senior Congress leader and three-time Lok Sabha member Gutta Sukhender Reddy is likely to join the ruling TRS. Mr Sukhender Reddy, 62, was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Nalgonda Parliamentary constituency on a Congress ticket in the 2014 elections.

A seasoned politician, he was first elected to the Lok Sabha on a Telugu Desam ticket in 1999-2004 and later joined the Congress. He was elected on Congress ticket in 2009 and 2014.

Its a fact I was invited by the TRS leadership to join the party. I havent taken a decision yet, Mr Sukhender Reddy told DC, when asked whether he was joining the ruling party at the invitation of TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao.

He, however, avoided saying if he had rejected the TRS offer. If he does cross over, Mr Govardhan Reddy would be the second MP, after Telugu Desams Ch. Malla Reddy, to join the TRS.

Meanwhile, sources confirmed that Mr Sukhender Reddy was indeed joining the TRS and his entry has been okayed by the top brass of the party. He will join any moment. Its a matter of time. Its confirmed, a senior TRS leader from Nalgonda said.

Asked about rumours that Congress MLA Komatireddy Venkata Reddy, also from Nalgonda district, too would be joining the TRS, the source said, When Sukhender Reddy is joining the TRS, there no chance that Venkata Reddy will follow. Some Congress MLAs want to join TRS but they are seeking Cabinet berths. Their demand has been rejected by the TRS president.

The sources said that energy minister A. Jagdish Reddy, who also hails from Nalgonda district, was opposed to Mr Venkata Reddys entry into the TRS.

Mr Sukhender Reddy had also served as chairman of AP Dairy Development Cooperative Federation during 1995-99 in undivided AP and had also headed the Nalgonda-Ranga Reddy Milk Producers Mutually Aided Coop Union Ltd.

Many TRS coverts in Congress: Palvai

Accusing a few party leaders, including Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly K. Jana Reddy, of acting like coverts of the ruling TRS Congress senior leader and MP Palvai Govardhan Reddy on Wednesday said that a complete overhaul of the Telangana Congress was the need of the hour.

Addressing the media at the Gandhi Bhavan here, Mr Govardhan Reddy said that some leaders like Nalgonda MLA Komatireddy Venkata Reddy, Nalgonda MP Gutta Sukhender Reddy and Miryalaguda MLA N. Bhaskara Rao were preparing to join the TRS. He said that this development would be most welcome one for the Congress.

The sooner they leave the party, the better as we can start rebuilding it. But all those who intend to leave the Congress should resign from their posts, the Rajya Sabha member said.

There are several TRS coverts in the Congress; Jana Reddy is among them. I dont know whether he will also quit the party, Mr Govardhan Reddy said.

He said that the Komatireddy brothers have been lobbying with minister Harish Rao and getting a few contracts for their companies. They are too selfish and do not have any interest in developing the Congress, he said.

The senior leader said that since Mr Venkata Reddy had openly shown indiscipline by saying that he does not care about the cause notice issued against him by TPCC, he should be expelled from the party.

When asked about his comments against Mr Jana Reddy and AICC general-secretary Digvijay Singh in the past, Mr Govardhan Reddy said that he had never abused anybody but he only criticised their actions in the interest of the Congress.
The Congress Party is in the throes of its worst internal moment in a long time. There has been no split. Such an open breaking away is usually caused by ideological and political cleavages which are often emphasised by personality differences at the top.

Of late, what the Congress is seeing instead is a slow drifting away by prominent individuals and of sections of its legislature parties in states, in at least one of which  Arunachal Pradesh  a sizeable section left and converted their own government into a BJP government. Something similar nearly came to pass in Uttarakhand as well.

Though in both these states the BJP played a nefarious role by seeking to misuse constitutional functionaries like the governor, what simultaneously stood out was the absence of meaningful communication between the Congress Partys central leadership and its units in the states.

A crisis engendered by such a factor is quite different from an election defeat. It immediately shows up an important facet of the current movers and shakers of the Congress.

While Congress president Sonia Gandhi earned accolades for bringing the party to power at the head of the UPA for 10 long years, her leadership and that of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was conspicuous for its lack of communication with the people.

No matter what was going on in the country, or around them, all that the top guns of the Congress could summon was silence. This left the people befuddled and the Congress was ejected from office by a rampaging BJP under the leadership of Narendra Modi although UPA had delivered a seven per cent average rate of growth over a 10-year period, a record in the democratic world.

The problem at the top leadership level seems worse than suspected. It is not just the electorate that the Congress has failed to communicate with, it is its own rank and file and its state leaders. Stories abound of important leaders made to wait for days together and not being able to meet Sonia or Rahul Gandhi. This is bad news if even only half of what is rumoured is true.

On the heels of the shock in Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand (and a near awkward situation arising in Meghalaya), half a dozen Congress MLAs in Tripura have joined the Trinamul Congress. Top leader Ajit Jogi has left the party in Chhattisgarh, and that may well be good riddance. But Gurudas Kamat leaving the Congress in Mumbai is bad advertisement for the party.

Analytically, each of these setbacks may have specific causes. But taken together, it is evident that the national leadership has failed to communicate and to inspire. Accountability is in order. Mere tinkering wont do. Saving the brand is more important than saving individuals.
The quarter-century from 1971 to 1996 witnessed some of the most transformational events in Indian history that changed the socio-political discourse and led to a tectonic shift in the Indian polity. It began with war against Pakistan and ended with Atal Behari Vajpayee becoming Prime Minister. It saw the best and worst of Indira Gandhis leadership in a span of four years (from the 1971 war to the 1975 Emergency), the Janata Partys rise and fall, the extremism in Punjab, mass conversion of dalits to Islam in nakshipuram, Indira Gandhis tragic assassination, the peak of appeasement politics, rising Pakistani-sponsored jihadi terrorism, the BJPs emergence as a strong alternative to the Congress  to list just a few. It also witnessed some of the most prominent social movements and unrest in post-Independence India like the agitation against the Emergency, the Assam agitation against illegal infiltration from Bangladesh, anti-reservation protests and, biggest of all, the Ram Janmabhoomi movement.

This period also saw the emergence of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh under the leadership of Madhukar Dattatraya Deoras, better known as Balasaheb Deoras, as a strong nationalist force. He became RSS chief, its third sarsanghchalak, in 1973, relinquished his post in 1993 and died just after Mr Vajpayee was sworn in as Prime Minister in 1996.

The first critical test of Deoras leadership was the imposition of Emergency and the ban on the RSS. He himself, along with 30,000 other Indians, were held under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act and 75,000 others were detained under the Defence of India Rules. He not only kept the morale of his cadre high in this crisis but also secretly guided the largest non-violent satyagraha movement in Independent India. When Indira Gandhi finally announced the elections in 1977, she knew well that the RSS was the only force that could quickly reassemble and help the Janata Party to victory. Therefore, she approached Deoras with an olive branch to withdraw the ban on the RSS if it did not support the Janata Party. But Deoras firmly declined, and the rest is history. However, after the Emergency, when Y.B. Chavan appealed for forgive and forget, Deoras was the first to back him, saying that an atmosphere of vindictiveness was detrimental to the nation, despite the fact that the RSS swayamsevaks had suffered the most during the Emergency.

Indira Gandhis second innings was full of turmoil. The RSS, under Deoras leadership, developed a multi-pronged strategy to face these challenges. The RSS worked tirelessly in Punjab to defeat the primary aim of extremists; to create animosity between Hindus and Sikhs. One pracharak from each state was sent to Punjab. The RSS did everything it could to keep Hindu-Sikh harmony despite murderous attacks on several RSS workers and even a direct attack on a RSS shakha. Deoras himself had a long ting with Sant Harchand Singh Longowal. The RSS was also instrumental in taking the message of the Assam agitation to every corner of India. It held thousands of corner tings and distributed literature on the dangers on illegal infiltration from Bangladesh. In response to the mass conversation of dalits to Islam in nakshipuram, the historic Ekatmata Yatra was taken out by the VHP. Three yatras, two from north to south and one from east to west, along with thousands of small yatras across the country, touched 1.5 lakh villages and almost all districts in the country. In the Ram Janmabhoomi agitation, of course, the RSS had played a pivotal role.

Deoras was a great champion of social equality and harmony. Immediately after becoming RSS chief, he gave a seminal speech in Pune in 1974, in which he said: If untouchability is not wrong, nothing is wrong. But he didnt just confine himself to talking. He was strong proponent of reservations for dalits and Scheduled Tribes. At the peak of the anti-quota protests, when the issue was being hotly debated in a RSS conclave, he intervened: Put yourself in a role of a dalit and then discuss if reservations are required or not. Needless to say, the RSS decided in favour of continued reservations. On the Meenakshipuram conversion, he stressed that instead of blaming petro-dollars, all Hindus should come together to get rid of social inequality.

He personally visited, encouraged and helped several projects for the poorer sections of society in the remotest part of the country. He shared the dais with two prominent dalit leaders of his time, R.S. Gawai and Rajabhau Khobragade, who were chief guests at RSS programmes at Nagpur in 1981 and 1983. During the birth centenary of RSS founder Dr Hedgewar in 1989, he announced that the RSS would launch over 1,000 projects for the poor and needy in a year.

Deoras was an exceptionally good team player, consensus builder and experimenter. When he became RSS chief, some raised questions about his ability to lead, mainly due to his health (he was already diabetic in 1973), but he said in his first speech that he had a team of workers whom even God would envy. He was the first RSS chief to relinquish the post (1993) as soon as he realised his health was sinking.

He tried his utmost to ensure the success of the Janata Party experiment, despite its inherent contradictions. He stayed in constant touch with Jayaprakash Narayan, Morarji Desai and Chandra Shekhar. He was even willing at first to keep a distance between active RSS workers and Janata officials, but the RSS later retracted from this when it realised it was seen as the Sanghs weakness by those bent on splitting the Janata Party. After the Janata government collapsed, Mr Vajpayee publicly suggested that the RSS use the word Bharatiya rather than Hindu. Deoras replied saying there was nothing wrong in the word Bharatiya, but there was nothing inferior about Hindu either. He gave Mr Vajpayee the freedom to build the BJP on the principle of Gandhian socialism, and after the BJPs sorry performance in 1984, he walked the extra mile to bridge the distance between the RSS and the BJP, and reinforced the BJP with many RSS workers.

Thanks to the Emergency, Socialist leaders like S.M. Joshi, G.P. Pradhan and Bhai Vaidya and Jamait-e-Islami leaders became his good friends and their friendship continued till the end. Achyutrao Patwardhan described the RSS as Ready for Selfless Service. Deoras even met Imam Bukhari of Jama Masjid after the Emergency.

He had strong political instincts. But he was also aware of the limitations of politics. More than politics, he strived for Hindu consolidation, social equality and harmony in one of the most crucial period of post-Independence Indian history. In this year of his birth centenary, it is imperative to remember the contribution of this great but not so well-recognised leader.
Thiruvananthapuram: When a human cell with 23 pairs of chromosomes divides, the two new cells will have 23 pairs each. Ever wondered how nature manages to ensure this every time? A team at IISER-Thiruvananthapuram, led by Dr Tapas Manna, head of the School of Biology, has identified a component which is playing a crucial role in chromosome regulation. Their research paper on the component, EB1, has been published in the international science journal, Nature Communications.

Since errors in chromosome segregation lead to genetic disorders like Down Syndrome and cancers, the study will find use in pharmacology in the future.

Much of the research till now focussed on the interaction of components in chromosomes with spindle apparatuses formed during cell division. (Spindles are formed to separate two sister chromatids, the identical chromosomes formed as a cell splits into two.)

In our paper, we have shown that EB1 is an essential connector, linking chromosome to spindles. We are the first to identify that it has a crucial role to play in chromosome regulation during cell division, he says.

For some years now, scientists have been curious about EB1, a kind of protein inside cells that behaves like Marys little lamb. It is End Binding as it attaches to the end, and only the end, of spindles. How it manages to track the tip of a spindle still remains a mystery, and thats another research altogether.

To understand the structure, Dr Manna sought the help of Joy Mitra of School of Physics, IISER-TVM, electron microscopist Manidipa Banerjee of IIT-Delhi and computational biologist Raja Paul of Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS), Kolkata.

Dr Manna says that there have been studies revealing how EB1 promotes tumour growth. Now, with their current paper, they are able to explain how. If EB1 is high, chromosome attachment will take place at a faster rate, like how it happens in a cancer cell. So inhibiting EB1 could work as a cancer cure. There is a long way to go. But we can hope, he says.

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Networking sites are taking a heavy toll on kids, as they are getting addicted to online friendships

Staying in touch is not the same anymore as it was about two decades back. The inception of social media websites has drastically changed way people communicate or keep in touch with each other.

While there is no harm in having a digital presence, a report has suggested that the networking sites are taking a heavy toll on kids, as they are getting addicted to online friendships, which has a lot of drawbacks.

According to new research carried out by Kaspersky Lab and iconKids & Youth, it is mostly pressure from peer groups that force kids to join networking sites and keep pace with their friends.

Moreover, parents provide their kids with connected devices to help them maintain contacts with their friends, and children have claimed that they use these devices because their friends do so. The connected kids survey also pointed out that 52 per cent of parents provide their children with mobile devices so that they can communicate with their friends on social media platforms.

44 per cent of young people say they use a connected device because their friends do and one third of kids (32 per cent) keep in touch with their friends more often online than offline. It has also been revealed that the importance attributed to online friendships is as much as real world friendships for many children.

Over two fifths of kids (42 per cent) have claimed that they are equally afraid to lose friends online and offline, and one in ten (11 per cent) are more afraid to lose friends online than offline.

Use of modern communication platforms is a major online activity for young people, including social media (35 per cent) and messaging apps (35 per cent).

The research also elucidates that the older children get, the less likely they are to meet friends face-to-face, preferring to use instant messengers, social networks and SMS to communicate.

76 per cent of kids aged between eight and ten prefer real world contact, as opposed to only 46 per cent of teenagers aged 14-16.

Andrei Mochola, Head of Consumer Business at Kaspersky Lab, comments: "Online communication has become such a substantial part of modern kids lives that parents should be paying extra attention to it."

Pointing out the threats related to online platoforms, he said, "Kids are now experiencing peer pressure to use online tools as part of everyday communication and its important that parents are as vigilant as possible to the threats and aware of what their kids are doing on the Internet."

"It is also very important to talk to the child, explain online dangers and the advantages of communicating in the offline world. Online safety programs allow parents to see what is happening with their children online and to take measures when needed to protect them," he added.

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Clinton had already won New Jersey, South Dakota and New Mexico on Tuesday, according to US networks, and was leading Sanders by a substantial margin in California. (Photo: AP)

Washington: US President Barack Obama congratulated Hillary Clinton on Tuesday for clinching the Democratic presidential nomination, and planned to meet with her party rival Bernie Sanders later this week, the White House said.

Obama called Clinton and Sanders and congratulated both candidates for running inspiring campaigns that have energized Democrats, brought a new generation of Americans into the political process, and shined a spotlight on important policy ideas," White House press secretary Josh Earnest said in a statement. He also said the president will meet with Sanders at the White House, at Sanders request on Thursday.

The late night statement, coming on the final night of major primaries in the combative nominations race, fuels speculation about whether the self-described democratic socialist Sanders would take his fight all the way to the Democratic convention in July, as he has repeatedly insisted, or concede defeat.

Sanders was to make a highly-anticipated address to supporters later Tuesday night in California, the most populous state in the nation and a contest he was battling fiercely to win. He has argued that a strong finish Tuesday in the six states, particularly in the trophy state of California, would bolster his argument for remaining in the race.

But Clinton had already won New Jersey, South Dakota and New Mexico on Tuesday, according to US networks, and was leading Sanders by a substantial margin in California. Sanders was projected to win North Dakota.

Obama thanked Sanders for "energizing millions of Americans" with his campaign highlighting the fight to end economic inequality and the influence of special interests on US politics, according to Earnest.

The president, who has expressed a keenness to enter the political fray and help the Democrat who goes up against Republican Donald Trump in the general election, was eager to work with Sanders "to engage millions of Democratic voters, and to build on that enthusiasm in the weeks and months ahead," Earnest said.
Pentagon said two Chinese jets conducted an unsafe intercept of a US reconnaissance plane over the South China Sea. (Photo: Representational Image)

Beijing: Beijing accused Washington of "hype" on Wednesday after the US said two Chinese jets conducted an unsafe intercept of one of its spy planes over the East China Sea.

The spat came soon after the world's two largest economies concluded an annual dialogue overshadowed by disagreements over maritime issues.

US Pacific Command spokesman Commander David Benham said two Chinese J-10 fighter jets flew close to an American RC-135 reconnaissance plane that was on a routine patrol.

The Pentagon downplayed the encounter and blamed it on shoddy piloting. "One of the intercepting Chinese jets had an unsafe excessive rate of closure on the RC-135 aircraft," Benham said, without specifying exactly where the incident occurred.

"The US once again is deliberately hyping this issue. The relevant Chinese military personnel have always acted professionally and in accordance with law ," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a regular briefing on Wednesday.

He also called on the US to stop carrying out close surveillance activity against China to prevent similar incidents from happening again. The East China Sea is part of the Pacific and home to small islands whose ownership is disputed by China, Japan and Taiwan.

China also claims a string of islets across the South China Sea and its military expansion in the contested waterway has sparked heightened tensions with regional neighbours and the United States.

Pentagon chief Ashton Carter attended a security summit in Singapore over the weekend, promising unspecified "actions" if China continued its buildup.

Last month the Pentagon said two Chinese jets conducted an "unsafe" intercept of a US reconnaissance plane over the South China Sea. Still, PACOM head Admiral Harry Harris told reporters in Singapore on Saturday that such incidents were rare.

Tuesday's reported intercept came as US Secretary of State John Kerry urged China to settle its territorial rows peacefully and based on the "rule of law" on a visit to Beijing.

Beijing will not budge on its claims of ownership over a vast tranche of the South China Sea, a top official insisted Tuesday, as a key two-day annual meeting ended in the Chinese capital.
Two Chinese fighter jets intercept a US spy plane over the East China Sea, says Pentagon. (Photo: AFP)

Washington: Two Chinese jets conducted an "unsafe" intercept of a US spy plane over the East China Sea on Tuesday, officials said, but the Pentagon downplayed the encounter and blamed it on shoddy piloting.

According to US Pacific Command spokesman Commander David Benham, two Chinese J-10 fighter jets flew close to an American RC-135 reconnaissance plane that was on a routine patrol.

"One of the intercepting Chinese jets had an unsafe excessive rate of closure on the RC-135 aircraft," Benham said, without specifying exactly where the incident occurred.

"Initial assessment is that this seems to be a case of improper airmanship, as no other provocative or unsafe maneuvers occurred."

The East China Sea is part of the Pacific and home to small islands whose ownership is disputed by China, Japan and Taiwan.

China also claims a string of islets across the South China Sea and its military expansion in the contested waterway has sparked heightened tensions with regional neighbors and the United States.

Tuesday's intercept came as US Secretary of State John Kerry visited Beijing and urged China to settle its territorial rows peacefully and based on the "rule of law."

Pentagon chief Ashton Carter attended a security summit in Singapore over the weekend, promising unspecified "actions" if China continued its buildup.

On May 17, the Pentagon said two Chinese jets conducted another "unsafe" intercept of a US reconnaissance plane over the South China Sea. Still, PACOM head Admiral Harry Harris told reporters in Singapore on Saturday that such incidents were rare.
The former first lady, US senator and secretary of state spoke to supporters at a raucous event in Brooklyn, New York, and placed her achievement in the context of the long history of the women's rights movement. (Photo: AP)

Santa Monica: Hillary Clinton celebrated her triumph as the first woman to lead a major party in a race for the White House, scoring big wins in California and New Jersey to cement her grip on the 2016 Democratic Party presidential nomination.

The former first lady, US senator and secretary of state spoke to supporters at a raucous event in Brooklyn, New York, and placed her achievement in the context of the long history of the women's rights movement.

"Thanks to you, we have reached a milestone," Clinton said in a speech. "We all owe so much to who came before."

Clinton, 68, appealed to supporters of party rival Bernie Sanders, 74, to join her campaign. She said Democrats had been bolstered by his campaign for eradicating income inequality, which has commanded huge crowds and galvanized younger voters. Not yet ready to concede, Sanders vowed to fight on.

Clinton also harshly attacked Donald Trump , 69, her presumptive Republican rival in the November 8 presidential election, for using divisive rhetoric that belittled women, Muslims and immigrants. She took specific aim at his condemnation of an Indiana-born judge of Mexican heritage.

"The stakes in this election are high and the choice is clear. Donald Trump is temperamentally unfit to be president and commander-in-chief," Clinton said.

"When Donald Trump says a distinguished judge born in Indiana can't do his job because of his Mexican heritage, or he mocks a reporter with disabilities, or calls women pigs, it goes against everything we stand for," she said.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday showed Clinton leading Trump by 10 percentage points nationally as they launch their general election battle, little changed from a week earlier.

Obama, Sanders to meet

Clinton edged Sanders out in a rough-and-tumble battle that stretched over four months and 50 states. She won support, especially among older voters, with a more pragmatic campaign focused on building on the policies of her fellow Democrat, President Barack Obama.

Obama called both Clinton and Sanders on Tuesday. The White House said he congratulated her on securing the delegates necessary to clinch the nomination and would meet Sanders on Thursday at Sanders' request.

CNN and NBC projected Clinton would win in California. With about two-thirds of the votes counted, Clinton led Sanders 56 percent to 43 percent, avoiding what would have been an embarrassing loss in America's most populous state. The California win came on the heels of a decisive win in New Jersey and narrower victories in New Mexico and South Dakota in Tuesday's nominating contests. Sanders won Montana and North Dakota.

A defeat in California would have reinforced doubts about Clinton's candidacy. Now, she can turn her attention to healing her fractured party and drawing in Sanders' passionate supporters.

Clinton's credentials for office have not been a serious issue, but a scandal stemming from her use of a private email account while at the State Department hangs over her head as she enters the general election campaign.

She will also be running against the current of this election season, one that has favored outsiders like Trump and Sanders. In Trump, she has an unpredictable opponent who shreds the standard campaign rule book on an almost daily basis.

Few options for Sanders

For his part, Sanders seems to have few options left.

Democratic Party elites are lined up squarely behind Clinton, including most likely Obama, who may endorse his former secretary of state as early as this week. Pressure will mount on Sanders to exit graciously and throw his support to Clinton.

Eight years ago in June 2008, Clinton did exactly that when she ended her bitter primary fight with Obama. At the time, it appeared unclear whether Obama would be able to garner the support of Clinton's most ardent backers, but that election drew the highest voter turnout in generations.

At a rally in Santa Monica on Tuesday, Sanders showed no interest in ending his upstart candidacy, telling cheering supporters he would go on campaigning through next Tuesday's primary in the District of Columbia and carry his political mission - although not necessarily his campaign - to the party convention in Philadelphia next month.

"We are going to fight hard to win the primary in Washington, DC," he said. "And then we take our fight for social, economic, racial and environmental justice to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania."

Prominent Democrats say that unifying the party now is the highest priority, and that if Sanders maintains his challenge to Clinton through the party's July 25-28 convention, Trump will benefit.

"We have our work cut out for us," said Representative Alan Lowenthal, a Democrat from Long Beach, California, who was one of the few Democrats in the House of Representatives to remain neutral in the race. "My overriding fear is that we get divided, and Donald Trump could win the election."

Even if Sanders does concede to Clinton, his supporters may not go quietly. Several told Reuters in recent days that they would have trouble supporting Clinton in a matchup against Trump, saying they either would not vote or would support a third-party candidate.

"People right now are talking if Bernie doesn't get the nomination, they are deregistering as Democrats," said Susan Hartley, 71, a lawyer from Northern California, who was part of the noisy throng of thousands at a Sanders rally in an aircraft hangar in Santa Monica. "People are really upset."
Washington: In Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President Barack Obama has "found a partner" to extend and strengthen the relationship between India and the US, the White House said on Tuesday after the two leaders met for the seventh time in less than two years.

"The President is pleased that he has found a partner in Prime Minister Modi to extend and strengthen the relationship," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said.

"I think what makes the relationship between Prime Minister Modi and President Obama so strong is the shared commitment that they have to warm relations between our two countries," he said.

Both leaders recognise that a strong relationship between the US and India benefits the economy, the national security and the people of the US and India, Earnest said, adding that he thinks this is what animates their relationship.

"The President obviously has had an opportunity to spend time socially with Prime Minister Modi. Modi, as I recall, hosted a very nice state dinner for President Obama in India on Republic Day when the president was there last year," he said.

"Unfortunately, the president was not able to visit the Taj Mahal on that trip, but the president is certainly looking forward to having an opportunity to visit the Taj Mahal at some point after leaving the White House," Earnest said.

The White House Press Secretary said Obama is committed to strengthening the relationship between the US and India.

"We want to look for every opportunity we can to remove impediments in that important relationship because the world and surely the citizens of our two countries benefit from a stronger relationship," he said.

"So we're seeking to deepen our cooperation on economic issues, on national security issues, on fighting terrorism, on fighting climate change. There are a whole host of ways in which the United States and India can work together to improve the world for the citizens in our two countries. And President Obama has made this relationship a priority," Earnest said.

"In fact, President Obama was interested in strengthening US ties with India even before Prime Minister Modi took office," he said, adding that the very first state dinner that Obama and the First Lady hosted at the White House was to host Prime Minister Modi's predecessor at the White House.

"That was an important event and I think it was an important symbol about the priority that the president places on the US relationship with India," he said.

"Obviously, each country has their own unique process for signing on to the deal and I'd refer you to my Indian counterpart for an explanation of how that process works in India. I did get a brief explanation of how it works, though I'm not sure that I could explain it accurately here, so I'll let them do that," Earnest said.

"But it's more than just the prime minister himself signing on the dotted line," he said when pressed by another reporter.

India will work through their process, but they are working through that process with an aim to complete it before the end of the year, and that would represent substantial progress in meeting the bar for what is required for the agreement to go into effect, he asserted.

"What is required is for 55 countries representing 55 per cent of the world's carbon emissions signing on to the deal for it to go into effect. And India, I believes represents about four per cent of the world's carbon emissions, so getting them to sign on to the agreement this year would represent substantial progress towards that goal," Earnest said.

"If we are able to achieve that goal and if agreement were to go into effect this year, that would be several years ahead of schedule," the White House Press Secretary said.

This he argued would be a clear sign that leaders around the world have a sense of urgency about fighting climate change and fighting carbon pollution and it would be a welcome step in a positive direction for the health of the planet and the health of the people who live here.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses the American business community at the annual gala of the US India Business Council (USIBC). (Photo: Twitter)

Washington: Observing that the world needs a new engine of growth, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said India is poised to contribute as the new engine of global growth and asserted that a larger Indian economy has "multiple benefits" for the world.

"This is the time when the world needs new engine of growth. It would be nice if the new engines are democratic engines," Modi said in his address to the American business community at the annual gala of the US India Business Council (USIBC).

"Today India is poised to contribute as a new engine of global growth. A larger Indian economy has multiple benefits for the world," the Prime Minister said as he listed out the achievements of his government in economic reforms and liberalization of policies.

As a result, India has now emerged as the one of the fastest growing economies of the world and urged the American businesses to come and invest in India, set up efficient manufacturing units.

"India is much more than a market," he said, adding that it is a "reliable partner", as he listed out the key features of a resurgent Indian economy that is geared to become "driver of global economy".

The Prime Minister said that a larger Indian economy has multiple benefits for the world.

The Prime Minister said as India marches ahead on the path of development, it needs to learn from the America experience, in particular its entrepreneurship, technological advancement and products which ranges from drugs to drones. "Indeed, to me America is not just has a great past, but it is a country with an exciting future," the Prime Minister said.

Modi exuded confidence that Indo-US partnership would benefit both the countries.

Modi said his government has taken decisive steps to curb corruption. "We would continue to have disciplined and prudent macroeconomic policies," he told the US corporate leadership.

"We would continue to improve the investment climate and ease of doing business," the Prime Minister said, adding his government wants to make India a destination which not only welcomes businesses but also it is easier to do business.

Modi urged developed countries to open their market. "We see this as a win-win situation," he said.

He assured the US corporate world to make its taxation system transparent. India, he said would continue to open up the defence sector. "We are exploring a simpler and transparent licensing system. The purchase of six nuclear reactors from Westinghouse which would mark a new era in the field nuclear energy in India," the PM said.

Clean Ganga campaign is on the verge of taking off. It is a high priority of the Modi government, he said, adding that his aim is to restore Ganga to its pristine glory. "We have begun our journey to transform India," he said, adding that this would transform the world and other countries also.
Three murders of reporters have been recorded in Guatemala in 2015 and the first four months of 2016. (Photo: Representational Image/AFP)

Guatemala City: A television journalist walking with his grandson in a city street in eastern Guatemala was shot dead by two assailants on a motorbike, police and fellow local reporters said.

Victor Valdez, a 66-year-old Guatemalan journalist who led a cultural program on local cable network TL-COM for the past 29 years, was killed on Tuesday while walking with his teenaged relative in Chiquimula, a city near the border with Honduras where he lived.

The motive for the deadly attack was not immediately known, local police chief Abelino Lajuj said. The two assailants went up to Valdez, shot him, then rode off, Lajuj said.

"We condemn this crime and express our solidarity with the family and with the journalistic trade. We demand a rapid investigation," said Ileana Alamilla, head of the Guatemalan Journalists' Association.

She called on President Jimmy Morales to speed the establishment of a special body to protect journalists provided for under a four-year-old decree.

Three murders of reporters have been recorded in Guatemala in 2015 and the first four months of 2016, along with 256 cases of threats, assaults and coercion against journalists, according to prosecutors.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi meeting with US President Barack Obama in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. (Photo: PTI)

Washington: President Barack Obama on Tuesday backed India's bid for membership of the elite Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) amid a major push to the strategic ties between the two countries which finalised a "roadmap" to give India the status of US' close partner in the defence sector.

Obama, who held over hour-long talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi here, also promised to cooperate with India against terrorist threats from groups such as Pakistan-based Jaish-e Mohammad, Lashkar-e-Taiba as well as 'D' Company, a reference to underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.

"In this context, they (the two leaders) directed their officials to identify specific new areas of collaboration at the next meeting of US-India Counterterrorism Joint Working Group," said a Joint Statement issued after the talks.

Significantly, the American side also committed itself to treating Pathankot attack at par with 26/11 terror strike in terms of ensuring punishment to perpetrators based in Pakistan.

Read: US-India agree to construct 6 nuclear reactors in India

The two countries also decided to start work on construction of six American nuclear reactors in India amid affirmation that the Liability issue has been addressed.

Six pacts, including one on exchange of screening of terror information, besides two other documents were signed after the talks that mainly covered issues like terrorism, clean energy, climate change, defence, regional security, cyber security, economic ties and people-to-people contacts.

Addressing the media jointly with Modi at his Oval office, Obama said it was natural for India and the US, two biggest democracies, to "deepen and broaden" partnership. Progress made in the Civil Nuclear agreement was among the issues discussed, Obama said. "I indicated support to India being a part of NSG," the US President said in remarks which assume significance since China is opposing such a move.

Read: US recognises India as 'Major Defence Partner'

Obama underlined that India needs technology, which is critical for its progress and prosperity. The 50-point Joint Statement said, "President Obama welcomed India's application to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), and re-affirmed that India is ready for membership. The United States called on NSG Participating Governments to support India's application when it comes up at the NSG Plenary later this month.

"The United States also re-affirmed its support for India's early membership of the Australia Group and Wassenaar Arrangement."

Modi later said, "I am ever thankful for the help and support that my friend President Obama has extended with regard to membership in MTCR and NSG."

Seeking to boost the strategic ties, India and the US finalised the text of the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA). "Noting that the US-India defence relationship can be an anchor of stability, and given the increasingly strengthened cooperation in defence, the United States hereby recognizes India as a Major Defence Partner," the Joint Statement said. "The United States will continue to work toward facilitating technology sharing with India to a level commensurate with that of its closest allies and partners," it said.

Read: India, US announce $60 million clean energy financial support

Briefing the media, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar said the two sides finalised a "roadmap" under which India can have "better" and "licence-free" access to America's defence and dual-use technology.

The framework will also ensure that the relationship goes beyond that of sale and collaboration and encompasses the 'Make in India' initiative, whereby defence equipment could be manufactured in India through transfer of technology, he said.

"The leaders reached an understanding under which India would receive license-free access to a wide range of dual-use technologies in conjunction with steps that India has committed to take to advance its export control objectives.

"In support of India's 'Make in India' initiative, and to support the development of robust defence industries and their integration into the global supply chain, the United States will continue to facilitate the export of goods and technologies, consistent with U.S. law, for projects, programs and joint ventures in support of official U.S.-India defence cooperation," the statement said.

Read: In Modi, Obama has found partner to boost Indo-US ties: White House

According to the statement, the US committed to enhance cooperation in support of India's 'Make in India' Initiative and expand the co-production and co-development of technologies under the Defence Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI). "They welcomed the establishment of new DTTI working groups to include agreed items covering Naval Systems, Air Systems, and other Weapons Systems," it said.

The leaders announced the finalization of the text of an Information Exchange Annex under the Joint Working Group on Aircraft Carrier Technology Cooperation.

Obama also said that he looks forward to India's entry into the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR).

"Recalling their shared commitment to preventing proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery, the leaders looked forward to Indias imminent entry into the Missile Technology Control Regime," said the Joint Statement titled 'The United States and India: Enduring Global Partners in the 21st Century'.

Read: Consensus reached within MTCR for India to become member: US

The United States and India will work together to combat the threat of terrorists accessing and using chemical, biological, nuclear and radiological materials, it said.

During the meeting, Modi offered to host a Summit on Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Terrorism in 2018, which was welcomed by Obama.

They also discussed the steps that the two governments have taken in the last two years in the implementation of the Civil Nuclear deal, including by addressing the liability issue, "inter alia, through India's ratification of the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage".

"Culminating a decade of partnership on civil nuclear issues, the leaders welcomed the start of preparatory work on site in India for six AP 1000 reactors to be built by Westinghouse and noted the intention of India and the US Export-Import Bank to work together toward a competitive financing package for the project," the statement said.

Read: India set to contribute as new engine of global growth: Narendra Modi

"Once completed, the project would be among the largest of its kind, fulfilling the promise of the US-India civil nuclear agreement and demonstrating a shared commitment to meet India's growing energy needs while reducing reliance on fossil fuels.

"Both sides welcomed the announcement by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd, and Westinghouse that engineering and site design work will begin immediately and the two sides will work toward finalizing the contractual arrangements by June 2017," it said.

The two leaders noted that the United States and India share common climate and clean energy interests and are close partners in the fight against climate change. "Leadership from both countries helped galvanize global action to combat climate change and culminated in the historic Paris Agreement reached last December.

Both countries are committed to working together and with others to promote full implementation of the Paris Agreement to address the urgent threats posed by climate change," it said.

Read: India, US to ink cyber framework accord

They recognized the urgency of climate change and share the goal of enabling entry into force of the Paris Agreement as early as possible.

"The United States reaffirms its commitment to join the Agreement as soon as possible this year. India similarly has begun its processes to work toward this shared objective," the statement said.

The leaders reiterated their commitment to pursue low greenhouse gas emission development strategies in the pre-2020 period and to develop long-term low greenhouse gas emission development strategies.

Further, the two countries will pursue under the leadership of the G20 strong outcomes to promote improved heavy-duty vehicle standards and efficiency in accordance with their national priorities and capabilities.

Read: Paris climate pact was unlikely without India's leadership: US

The two sides also signed an MOU to Enhance Cooperation on Energy Security, Clean Energy and Climate Change, and an MOU on Cooperation in Gas Hydrates. The two sides also signed an MOU to enhance cooperation on Wildlife Conservation and Combating Wildlife Trafficking.

With regard to Clean Energy Finance, the US expressed support to India's ambitious national goals to install 175 GW of renewable power which includes 100 GW from solar power.

It also welcomed the launch of the International Solar Alliance (ISA), recognized the critical role it can play in the development and deployment of solar power, and intended pursuing membership in the ISA, the Joint Statement said.

Read: China insists on consensus among NSG members to admit India

To strengthen ISA together, the US and India will jointly launch the third Initiative of the ISA which will focus on off-grid solar for energy access at the Founding Conference of ISA in September, 2016 in India.

The United States also remains committed, with other developed countries, to the goal of jointly mobilizing $100 billion per year by 2020 to address the needs of developing countries in the context of meaningful mitigation and adaptation action.

The US is committed to bring to bear its technical capacity, resources and private sector, and is jointly launching with India new efforts, to spur greater investment in India's renewable energy sector, including efforts that can serve as a model for other ISA Member Countries.

The two countries also finalised a roadmap for cooperation under the 2015 U.S.-India Joint Strategic Vision for the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean Region, which will serve as a guide for collaboration in the years to come.

They resolved that the United States and India should look to each other as priority partners in the Asia Pacific and the Indian Ocean region.

The two countries also concluded technical arrangement for sharing of maritime 'White Shipping' information.

In an apparent reference to South China Sea dispute, the two leaders reiterated the importance they attach to ensuring freedom of navigation and overflight and exploitation of resources as per international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and settlement of territorial disputes by peaceful means. As part of encouraging people-to-people contacts, India decided to open another consulate in Seattle.
PM Narendra Modi spoke on a range of issues including defence cooperation, renewable energy, terrorism and yoga at the US Capitol (Photo: Twitter/MEA)

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Capitol Hill and addressed Congress lawmakers in a joint meeting on Thursday. Modi was received by Paul Ryan, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Here is what Modi said as he addressed the US Congress:

9:35 pm: Our relationship is primed for a great future. The past is behind us and foundations of the future are firmly in place, Modi tells the US Congress. He says 'there is a new symphony in play'.

9:32 pm: For us in India, to live in harmony with mother earth is a part of our ancient belief. Modi seeks to cooperate with the US on renewable energy.

Our partnership seeks to balance responsibilities with capabilities.

9:27 pm: Terrorism remains the biggest threat to the world, says Modi, adding that from West of India to Africa, it goes by different names like Lashkar-e-Taiba, Taliban and ISIS. Modi says terrorism is incubated in 'our neighbour' and adds that Pakistan uses terrorism for political gains.

The fight against terrorism has to be fought at many levels, not just through traditional means of military intelligence and diplomacy: Modi.

Those who believe in humanity must come together to fight terrorism and speak in one voice. Terrorism must be delegitimised: Modi.

9:22 pm: Institutions with the mindset of the 20th century have to change to reflect the mindset of today, says Modi.

India is already assuming responsibility in securing the Indian Ocean: Modi.

In every sector of India's march, I see US as an indispensable partner, PM Modi says in his address to US Congress.

India's strong economy and growth rate of 7.6% per annum, is creating new opportunities for our mutual prosperity: PM

9:15 pm: From nearly zero, our defence purchases from US have nearly reached $10 billion in a year. "A stronger and prosperous India is in US' strategic interests," says Modi. India can be the ideal location for the US to produce and manufacture, he adds, pushing Make in India programme.

Many from the Indian diaspora are among your best CEOs, scientists, economists, even spelling bee champs, PM Modi tells US Congress. He says his dream is to empower a billion citizens through many economic and social transformations.

9:10 pm: SIRI tells us that India's ancient heritage of Yoga has over 30 million practitioners in the USA, says Modi. We have not yet claimed intellectual property rights on Yoga, jokes Modi.

We trade more with the US than with any other nation, he says.

9:05 pm: For my government, the Constitution is its real holy book, says PM Modi. And, in that holy book, freedom of faith, speech and franchise, and equality of all citizens, regardless of background, are enshrined as fundamental rights, he adds.

The India-US civil nuclear agreement in 2008 changed the relationship between the two countries. He says India is thankful to the US for standing by it in times of need, such as when terrorists from across the border attacked Mumbai is 2008.

Modi says the spirit of bipartisanship in the US Congress is visible in the Indian Parliament too, in the Rajya Sabha.

9:00 pm: Today, India lives as one, India grows as one and India celebrates as one, says Modi. He adds that all Indians have freedom from fear.

Modi invokes Mahatma Gandhi, Swami Vivekanand, Martin Luther King and Babasaheb Ambedkar in his speech. Modi says India and the US have shared ideas of democracy and freedom.

8:50 pm: Modi invokes Abraham Lincoln, says the US Congress is a temple of democracy which encourages other nations. As the leader of the world's largest democracy, it is my privilege to speak to the world's first democracy, says Modi.

Modi also applauds the courage of the US armed forces, especially in the Second World War and thereafter in protecting freedom and democracy. He says India understands this because India's soldiers have fallen in the way of duty.

8:40 pm:

The members of the Congressional Escort Committee will escort Prime Minister into the House to deliver his address pic.twitter.com/FfV8douolV  Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) June 8, 2016

8:30 pm: One of my most cherished memories is a statue of Gandhi gifted by a student named Modi decades ago, says Paul Ryan.

Modi will begin to address the US Congress soon.

8:11 pm: Our partnership with India is strong and will only get better in the future, Paul Ryan says ahead of PM Modi's address to the US Congress

Day 3 in DC: A day for democracy - PM @narendramodi arrives at Capitol Hill, is received by @SpeakerRyan pic.twitter.com/9z5gwnIoNq  Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) June 8, 2016

After his speech at Capitol Hill, Modi will also have lunch with congressional leaders and attend a reception hosted by the House and Senate foreign affairs committees.

A White House meeting with President Barack Obama on Tuesday consolidated the strong bilateral ties but was short on major outcomes. India, the worlds third-largest carbon emitter among nations, said it would strive to formally join a global climate deal this year  as the U.S. and China have said they will do  but it gave no ironclad commitment.

There was also some progress on a landmark nuclear agreement between the U.S. and India that was reached in 2008. The two governments said that U.S.-based Westinghouse Electric Co is preparing to build six nuclear reactors in India, but it has yet to finalize a contract.

Modi will be the fifth Indian leader to make a speech to Congress since 1985. The last was by his predecessor, Manmohan Singh, in 2005.
The Pathankot air base was attacked in January 2016 by heavily armed terrorists reportedly having allegiance to the Jaish-e-Mohammed, a terrorist organisation based in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. (Photo: PTI)

Washington: Treating Pathankot attack at par with 26/11, President Barack Obama today sent out a clear message to Pakistan, asking it to punish its perpetrators amid the US vow to stand with India against terror threats from Pakistan-based groups like JeM, LeT and Dawood "company".

"They (Obama and Modi) called for Pakistan to bring the perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai and 2016 Pathankot terrorist attacks to justice," a joint statement issued after the Obama-Modi meeting at the White House said.

During the meeting, Modi and Obama acknowledged the continued threat posed to human civilisation by terrorism and condemned the recent terrorist incidents from Paris to Pathankot, from Brussels to Kabul, the statement said.

"They resolved to redouble their efforts, bilaterally and with other like-minded countries, to bring to justice the perpetrators of terrorism anywhere in the world and the infrastructure that supports them," the statement said.

During the meeting, Obama and Modi committed to strengthen cooperation against terrorist threats from extremist groups, such as "al-Qaeda, Daesh/ISIL, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, D Company and their affiliates, including through deepened collaboration on UN terrorist designations."

"In this context, they directed their officials to identify specific new areas of collaboration at the next meeting of US-India Counter-terrorism Joint Working Group," the statement said.

"Recognising an important milestone in the US-India counter-terrorism partnership, the leaders applauded the finalisation of an arrangement to facilitate the sharing of terrorist screening information," it said.

Modi and Obama also affirmed their support for a UN Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism that advances and strengthens the framework for global cooperation and reinforces that no cause or grievance justifies terrorism, the statement said.

Obama also said that he looks forward to India's entry into the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR).

"Recalling their shared commitment to preventing proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery, the leaders looked forward to Indias imminent entry into the Missile Technology Control Regime," said the Joint Statement titled 'The United States and India: Enduring Global Partners in the 21st Century'.

The United States and India will work together to combat the threat of terrorists accessing and using chemical, biological, nuclear and radiological materials, it said.

During the meeting, Modi offered to host a Summit on Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Terrorism in 2018, which was welcomed by Obama.

They also discussed the steps that the two governments have taken in the last two years in the implemenation of the Civil Nuclear deal, including by addressing the liability issue, "inter alia, through India's ratification of the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage".

"Culminating a decade of partnership on civil nuclear issues, the leaders welcomed the start of preparatory work on site in India for six AP 1000 reactors to be built by Westinghouse and noted the intention of India and the US Export-Import Bank to work together toward a competitive financing package for the project," the statement said.

"Once completed, the project would be among the largest of its kind, fulfilling the promise of the US-India civil nuclear agreement and demonstrating a shared commitment to meet India's growing energy needs while reducing reliance on fossil fuels.

"Both sides welcomed the announcement by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd, and Westinghouse that engineering and site design work will begin immediately and the two sides will work toward finalizing the contractual arrangements by June 2017," it said.

The two leaders noted that the United States and India share common climate and clean energy interests and are close partners in the fight against climate change.

"Leadership from both countries helped galvanize global action to combat climate change and culminated in the historic Paris Agreement reached last December.

Both countries are committed to working together and with others to promote full implementation of the Paris Agreement to address the urgent threats posed by climate change," it said.

They recognized the urgency of climate change and share the goal of enabling entry into force of the Paris Agreement as early as possible.

"The United States reaffirms its commitment to join the Agreement as soon as possible this year. India similarly has begun its processes to work toward this shared objective," the statement said.

The leaders reiterated their commitment to pursue low greenhouse gas emission development strategies in the pre-2020 period and to develop long-term low greenhouse gas emission development strategies.

Further, the two countries will pursue under the leadership of the G20 strong outcomes to promote improved heavy-duty vehicle standards and efficiency in accordance with their national priorities and capabilities.

The two sides also signed an MOU to Enhance Cooperation on Energy Security, Clean Energy and Climate Change, and an MOU on Cooperation in Gas Hydrates.

The two sides also signed an MOU to enhance cooperation on Wildlife Conservation and Combating Wildlife Trafficking.
Tehran: Syria's defence minister is to hold Tehran talks with his Iranian and Russian counterparts on Thursday as government forces press an offensive against the Islamic State group, state media said.

Moscow has sent warplanes and special forces in support of President Bashar al-Assad's regime, while Tehran has deployed military advisers and trained and equipped pro-government militias.

The visit by Syria's General Fahd Jassem al-Freij comes as the Damascus regime steps up its campaign against both IS and rebel fighters in second city Aleppo it charges are in cahoots with Al-Qaeda.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu travels to Tehran after Moscow pledged to step up its air strikes against rebel forces in and around Aleppo, accusing non-jihadist rebels of failing to deliver on a February ceasefire pledge to break ranks with Al-Qaeda's Syria affiliate Al-Nusra Front.

The talks are being held at the invitation of Iran's General Hossein Dehghan, the state IRNA news agency said.

Tehran has provided Damascus with military and financial support ever since the uprising against Assad's regime erupted more than five years ago. Moscow's military intervention last September has significantly improved the regime's position.

Russian forces helped government troops to recapture the famed ancient city of Palmyra in March and are now backing a push towards Syria's largest dam at Tabqa in the Euphrates Valley.
It would be "extremely difficult" for the European Union to work with Donald Trump if the Republican wins the US presidential race. (Photo: AFP)

Paris: It would be "extremely difficult" for the European Union to work with Donald Trump if the Republican wins the US presidential race in November, a European commissioner said on Wednesday.

Economic Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said that while the EU had not taken an official position on whether to back Trump or Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, he hoped a Trump presidency "could be avoided".

"When I see Donald Trump, I see the face of a populist and I see words which are criticised by members of the Republican Party, and not just any members," he told French media.

Moscovici recalled that US House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan on Tuesday described Trump's criticism of a Mexican-American judge as "racist", although Ryan also reiterated his support for Trump as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

Moscovici, who is a former French finance minister, said that with Trump, "I see anti-European words and I see protectionist words. It would be extremely difficult to work with a Trump administration," he said.

"I hope we can avoid it, speaking as a political leader."

But Moscovici added: "At the same time, if Donald Trump becomes president of the United States, he would have this legitimacy and we would have to work with him."
A Syrian boy drinks tea in the Al-Shallal suburb of Al-Hol, in Syria's Hasakeh province, after Syrian Democratic Forces re-took control of the area from IS jihadists (Photo: AFP)

Khirdeh: For the first time in more than two years, Awash al-Aboud looked out at her village in northern Syria wearing a fearless grin instead of the black veil imposed by the Islamic State group.

The elderly woman was among hundreds of residents who returned this week to villages recaptured by the Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-Arab alliance advancing on the jihadist stronghold of Manbij.

"For the past two and a half years, I felt like I was living among the dead because of the terror that IS imposed on us," she said.

Wearing an indigo-coloured robe, Aboud told AFP that she fled her village of Khirdeh, located between Manbij and the Euphrates river, along with other residents as SDF fighters approached last week.

Standing amid a gaggle of young children, she said that when IS controlled her village she had been forced to wear the black, full-face veil prescribed by its ultra-conservative form of Islamic law.

"Today, a new life has started for us. We're so glad to be done with Daesh," she said, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

An AFP journalist travelled to several villages where the SDF, backed by US-led coalition air strikes, has expelled IS.

Arab fighters from the Kurdish-Arab alliance chatted with residents and strolled between buildings, some damaged by US-led coalition strikes or IS's infamous car bombs.

'Being safe is enough'

Abu Mohammad, 35, from the farming town of Abu Qulqul, said life under IS rule was so expensive that some residents were tempted to join the jihadists.

"They used to tell us that whoever wants to live well must join our ranks, but I refused. I preferred to starve than to join them and oppress my brothers," he said.

His wife, wearing a bright headscarf and carrying a toddler on her back, held up her arm and began to ululate -- a sign of celebration and joy.

"Just being safe is enough," she said.

On the outskirts of the village, a suntanned man in a long robe and green vest took his flock of sheep out to the nearby plains.

Architect Khalaf al-Moussa, from nearby Qana al-Tahtani, said IS had imposed a system of fines and punishments during its rule over his hometown, also east of Manbij.

"We couldn't roll up our trouser legs while we were farming our land -- every time we did, they would fine us 1,000 Syrian pounds ($2)," he said, standing in front of a modest fruit orchard.

"If someone tried to criticise their behaviour, they would sew his mouth shut for a while, or they would cut his head off and hang him up for everyone to see," Moussa added.

'Burned our books'

People arrested by the jihadists were not seen again.

The villagers were so terrified that their friends and family would report them to IS that "you couldn't trust your brother, your father, or your neighbour because of how afraid you were," Moussa said.

In many of the towns and cities it holds, IS has seized control of public institutions in a bid to project an image of a functioning, corruption-free utopia.

But that was not the case in Qana al-Tahtani.

"We used to ask them to provide electricity for us, and they would answer, 'Did the Prophet Mohammad have electricity?'" Moussa said.

"And I used to say to myself, 'Did the Prophet have all of these weapons to terrorise people?'"

Rada al-Sayyad, 18, said that IS jihadists had stopped him going to school when they overran his village of Tal Aras east of Manbij two years ago.

"They burned all of our schoolbooks and they banned studying. They started forcing us to take religious courses that taught us that Kurds, teachers, and other religious scholars are all infidels," he said.

IS has been dealt several major blows at the hands of a powerful Kurdish militia -- the People's Protection Units (YPG) -- whose fighters make up the majority of the SDF.

In areas under its control, IS has enforced its own religious education coupled with military training.

But now, Sayyad said, he can return to school and a life without IS.

"Things are relatively okay. We'll go back to school soon -- back to our way of life before Daesh entered our hometown."
With Modi's visit, New Delhi hopes there will be breakthroughs in many aspects, especially business and trade, security cooperation and nuclear issues. (Photo: PTI)

Beijing: India cannot rise by "containing" China or picking one side against the other, a Chinese state- run paper said on Wednesday, taking note of the Indo-US ties which are being ramped up to an "unprecedented level".

"Four visits to the US and seven meetings with President Barack Obama in two years, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has ramped up the India-US relationship to an unprecedented level. How the two countries will engage with each other has raised heated discussions," an op-ed article in state-run Global Times said.

"Picking one side or camp against the other is not the way India will rise. New Delhi is looking into a multi-faceted diplomacy. The well-performing Indian economy will give incentives to the country to be more confident with multilateralism and to seek balanced international relations. Although rivalling China in many aspects, India knows its great vision cannot be realised by bashing or containing China. Instead, they should expand cooperation, explore the potentials and build mutual trust for their own good. China is more of a help than a competitor for India. This will eventually constitute India's fundamental understanding of China," it said referring to Modi's current visit to the US.

With Modi's visit, New Delhi hopes there will be breakthroughs in many aspects, especially business and trade, security cooperation and nuclear issues, the article titled 'India's vision cannot be realised by containing China' said.

"The transformation of the geopolitical landscape is the major driver drawing the US and India much closer. Washington's rebalance to the Asia-Pacific makes the US realise India's strategic significance, economic potential and ideological commonality," it said.

"India hopes that by consolidating its relationship with the US, it could gain leverage in development and forge an international status that is worthy of its potential. Modi has riveted his interactions with the US on this simple outlook to make India a veritable powerhouse. He was eager to boost a broader and better economic relationship with the US.

"He urged the signing of the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement, a landmark deal promoting logistics and defence cooperation with the US and he also expects an endorsement from the US to help India become a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the last step to solidify India's status as a nuclear powerhouse," the article said.

As for Washington, it is always hoping that India could serve as its right hand to counterbalance China's rise. But so far, Washington's calculations do not work well. Turning down Washington's invitation to join a patrol in the South China Sea, New Delhi has no intention to cast away its founding principles: independence and non-alignment, it said.

"In the process of fulfilling its ambition to be a major power, India has always employed independent and pragmatic approaches. A balance between other major powers will be its primary and optimal choice," the article added.
Dhaka: Suspected militants in Bangladesh hacked an elderly Hindu priest to death on Tuesday, in what police suspected was the latest in a spate of attacks by Islamists on minority groups in the majority-Muslim country.



Three motorcycle-borne attackers slit the throat of Ananta Gopal Ganguly, 70, while he was en route to the temple he served in the district of Jhenaidah, about 100 miles (161 km) west of Dhaka, the capital, police said.



"They almost beheaded him before they fled the scene," said police official Hasan Hafizur Rahman.



The attack bore the hallmarks of previous killings by Islamist militants. The government banned more than one person riding pillion on a motorcycle on Monday a day after the wife of a prominent anti-terror security official was shot dead by three suspected militants on a motorbike.



ISIS claimed responsibility for killing Ganguly, the US-based monitoring service SITE said, quoting the militant group's Amaq news agency.



Rahman dismissed the group's claim as "baseless", saying it had no organisational base in Bangladesh and domestic militants were responsible.



A 60-year-old Christian grocer was also hacked to death after Sunday prayers in an attack claimed by ISIS.



Bangladesh has not seen the sort of Islamist violence that has rocked Muslim Pakistan, or even the number of attacks that India has seen over the past decade or so.



Since February last year, militants have killed more than 30 people in Bangladesh, including members of religious minorities, liberal bloggers and academics.



ISIS and al Qaeda have claimed responsibility for most of the killings, but the government denies either group has a presence in Bangladesh.



Last month, junior foreign minister Shahriar Alam told Reuters that ISIS was trying to ride a wave of religious radicalisation by falsely claiming killings, and said there was enough evidence implicating domestic militant groups.



The government has launched a crackdown on militant groups who want to impose strict Islamic law in Bangladesh. At least eight militants have been killed in shootouts since November, including three on Tuesday, police said.



Analysts say a climate of intolerance in Bangladeshi politics has both motivated and provided cover for perpetrators of crimes of religious hatred.



The government blamed the growing violence on its political opponents linked to Islamist parties aiming to create chaos and prevent war crimes trials from going ahead.



Tension has risen since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ordered Islamist leaders suspected of atrocities during the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan to be put on trial for war crimes.



Hasina's rivals accuse her of settling political scores by hunting down members of the Jamaat-e-Islami, an ally of the main opposition group headed by former prime minister Khaleda Zia. The government denies these assertions.
Islamabad: Pakistan has expressed serious concern over India's recent development of an anti-ballistic missile system, saying that it may give India a false sense of security, leading to unexpected complications which are contrary to its policy of a friendly neighbourhood.

India had successfully test-fired indigenously developed supersonic interceptor missile, capable of destroying any incoming ballistic missile, from a test range off Odisha coast on May 15.

Read: India never opened a window of opportunity with Pak: Sartaj Aziz

The criticism came in the meeting of the Senate on Tuesday, according to a report. Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz told the government's response to the Senate.

"Massive conventional nuclear and missile development programmes pursued by India are now leading to nuclearisation of the Indian Ocean," he said.

"The development of an anti-ballistic missile system (ABM) may give India a false sense of security, leading to unexpected complications. Such actions are also contrary to the policy of a peaceful and friendly neighbourhood, which our prime minister (Nawaz Sharif) has repeatedly espoused," Aziz said.

Read: War not a solution to Indo-Pak problems: Pak envoy Abdul Basit

"Pakistan has serious concerns over these developments and will take all necessary measures to augment its defence capabilities," he said.

"The balance of power has been disturbed in South Asia the way it was disturbed following India's nuclear tests in 1998," said Senator Javed Abbasi of ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

"I'm not aware of our military's response, but I suggest that the security establishment take note of the Indian interceptor missile test and devise a strategy accordingly," he said.

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

"The (interceptor missile) test has increased military threats from India," said Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed of opposition Pakistan Muslim League Quaid-e-Azam (PMLQ).

Referring to an upcoming meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) in Seoul, Mushahid said ground was being paved for India's elevation to the NSG.

"This is our diplomatic failure. The Indians are encircling us from all sides. Even our immediate neighbours, like Afghanistan and Iran, have gone to India. It's a result of our failed diplomacy and traditionally passive foreign policy," he added.

Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Senator Farhatullah Babar blamed flawed security policies for the foreign policy debacle.

"Isn't it a reality that we protected non-state actors to further our security agenda? Our age-old policy of harbouring non-state actors is taking toll on us," he said.

Read: India creating instability through 'subversive activities', says Pakistan

Chairman of the Senate Raza Rabbani said a clear strategy must be devised to respond to the situation created by India's missile test.
Islamabad: Pakistan is 'lobbying' in all member countries of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) over India's efforts to join the 48-member exclusive club.

While India, backed by US and Switzerland, is pushing to join the NSG club, Pakistan's adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs, Sartaj Aziz, told the Senate that Pakistans efforts towards non-discriminatory approach will pay off.

Both countries have applied for membership to the NSG, which would enable them to participate in nuclear commerce.

Pakistani senators had expressed concern over the growing collusion between India and the US as they were worried that the NSG member states would positively consider Indias request to join it.

Pakistan Muslim League(Q) Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed, chairman of the Senate defence committee, said NSG member states would be considering New Delhis request to join the group.

Sayed said that if India became a member of the NSG it would be able to block Pakistans entry into the group, alleging that Pakistan's diplomacy has failed.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently visited Afghanistan and Iran, which are immediate neighbours to Pakistan. We have alienated Iran and Afghanistan and the two countries are now improving their economic ties with India, said Sayed.

This is our diplomatic failure. The Indians are encircling us from all sides. Even our immediate neighbours, like Afghanistan and Iran, have gone to India. Its a result of our failed diplomacy and traditionally passive foreign policy, Sayed added.

Sayed also called for "cohesion" within the country, stating that India should not be in a position to take advantage of the situation in Pakistan.

However, Aziz asserted that Pakistan's scientists and experts were monitoring and evaluating the strategic threats that Indian nuclear doctrine posed to national security.

He also added that despite limited resources, Pakistan had developed a robust nuclear deterrent system.

Aziz said that Pakistan was planning to highlight the dangerous implications of Indias plan to nuclearise the Indian Ocean.

He also added that Pakistan was considering the option of moving a resolution in the UN General Assembly, seeking to declare the Indian Ocean nuclear-free.
This may well be a high speed season in Indian Railways (IR). No one had imagined that IR would catch a speed fever in this manner. If we look at railways policy three or four years ago, we find experienced politicians like Pawan Kumar Bansal or Mallikarjun Kharge dismissing the idea as a useless one.



Backed by trade unions and officials of railways, they were confident enough to even resist perception at the top level. It is well known that Manmohan Singh, the then prime minister, always favoured liberalisation in railways like in other sectors, but his colleagues did not endorse it.



Even the immediate predecessor of incumbent Suresh Prabhu, Sadanand Gowda, did not show much enthusiasm towards such projects. If we take a glance at railways current policies, Prabhu seems to be completely in the grip of high speed fever despite the fact that railways do not consider these projects as core projects. The real theme behind chasing a bullet train seems to be rapid commercialisation of the national carrier wherein high end projects are to be executed with the help of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). It is not difficult to decipher the script that bullet train projects are those which can allow a 100% FDI and no one could question it. That is why these projects have jumped on the priority list.



One among many facts which makes the story of bullet train interesting is the manner in which feasibility studied have been done. A very senior rail official confided that generally, the companies which are exploring markets for bullet trains have sponsored the study. Obviously, these studies endorse the projects.



The ministry has formed a High Speed Rail Corporation of India to oversee the implementation of the high speed projects. The Corporation declares that the high speed corridors are essential for revitalisation of the Indian Railways. India does not have a single high speed rail corridor capable of running trains at speeds of over 250 kmph. High speed corridors have played a major role in revival of railways in Japan and Europe, says the Corporation.



It also maps out the strategy, Indian Railways would follow a two-pronged approach in this respect. The first approach would be to raise the speed of segregated passenger corridors on trunk routes using conventional technology to 160 to 200 kmph. The second approach would be to identify a number of intercity routes, depending on viability, and build state-of-the-art high speed corridors for speeds up to 350 kmph through the PPP mode in partnerships with the state governments.



And, the Corporation sets the target as well. By 2020, at least four corridors of 2,000 km would be developed and planning for eight other corridors would be in different stages of progress, the HSRC says. According to it, the contract has been awarded for the consultancy of Feasibility study for Diamond Quadrilateral network of High Speed Rail Corridors. The contract for Delhi-Mumbai corridor has been awarded to a consortium of led by China, Mumbai-Chennai to SYSTRA (of France) and RITES (India), and Delhi-Kolkata to INECO (Spain).



In addition to the Diamond Quadrilateral network, the SYSTRA has already submitted an interim report on the feasibility of Delhi-Chandigarh-Amritsar corridor. Acco-rding to the report, the cost of the 458 km-route will be around Rs 1 lakh crore. The French company has recommended that the project should not be implemented on the Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode. It has said that railways should implement with its own resources. Likewise, a Chinese company has submitted an interim report on the Chennai-Bengaluru-Mysore route.



But, the Mumbai-Ahmedabad project seems to be the front runner in gaining momentum, perhaps because it is generating huge political and commercial interest. The Delhi-Amritsar is also attracting attention for the simple reason that Punjab is going to polls next year. The Mumbai-Ahmedabad project has been put on fast track for it would be electorally beneficial if it is seen running by 2019 when the nation goes to polls.



Mumbai-Ahmedabad project

This is no secret that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been after such projects and he was keen to sign the Memorandum of Understanding for Mumbai-Ahmedabad project during the official visit of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The momentum of the project has pushed questions of viability into the background. The ministry went ahead even without properly debating the issue. In fact, more objective facts have started coming in later.



A study by IIM-Ahmedabad has suggested that the bullet train on 508 km route can only be financially viable when it carries 88,000-1,18,000 passengers per day. This can be only done by making 100 trips a day. The railway has planned only 70 trips a day and assures viability.



The haste with which minister Prabhu has proceeded has not given enough time for the railway officials to reconcile to the change in priorities. Officials are not ready to buy the argument that these projects will modernise railways and help acquire new technologies. They view with doubt the ag-reement on transfer of technology and say that it even prescribes import of spare parts.



The argument of speed trains becoming a catalyst of industrialisation alongside the track on which it will run also does not seem to carry much weight. In fact, all the proposed high speed projects are connecting such metro cities which have reached saturation. Railway officials are worried over the fact that the bullet train project will cripple railways as financially important routes will go to foreign companies and railways would be left with poor and backward areas.



Moreover, Yen loan is considered to be the worst loan in the global financial market because of currency fluctuations. The 0.1% interest is misleading. We will have to pay much more, a senior railway official argued. But the ministry seems to have shut the doors on these arguments.




Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Tuesday asserted that illegal mining of minor minerals would be dealt with severely and no one would be allowed to indulge in this unlawful practice.





On the sidelines of his Sangat Darshan programme in Ropar Assembly segment, he said he had already directed the SSP Ropar to take stock of the situation and all-out efforts should be made to put a stop to the menace.



He said severe of severest punishment would be meted out to those are involved in such illegal trade.



Badal said that by and large, mining activity was being carried out in a lawful manner in the region barring few incidents, which would also be checked closely in future.



On allegations levelled by Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh of Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley targeting him, his family and especially his son Raninder by investigating agencies like Income Tax Department and Enforcement Directorate (ED), which were directly under his domain, he said It is a sheer frustration on the part of Capt Amarinder to accuse anyone blindly rather he should be considerate enough to repose faith in the administrative system because ultimately truth will prevail.



On the issue of clean chit given to Congress leader Jagdish Tytler, Badal said everybody knew how the Congress leadership through its stalwarts in New Delhi perpetrated genocide in 1984 against innocent Sikhs by killing them.



Referring to objections raised by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) on the screening of Bollywood film Udta Punjab, Badal asked how the state government could be held responsible for it when the censor board was exclusively under the control of central government.



On accusations made by senior Congress leader Sunil Jakhar claiming Punjab governments misleading advertisements on central grants to the state, he said this was cheap politics. He added that if there was any crunch, the state would not have been able to give free power to the farmers worth Rs 5,000 crore annually besides launching several pro-farmer initiatives like free health insurance to provide free treatment to them up to Rs 50,000.
Some Delhi University students are trying to make learning History more fun for school goers.





A batch of five students of Delhi Universitys Cluster Innovation Centre have taken upon themselves to develop innovative methods of teaching History in classrooms and tested them in class 6 of at least 9 schools in the capital till now. The students have attempted to replace rote learning with games.



History is a stereotype subject and kids study it through rote learning. We do not have a very good experience of learning history during our days and so we thought of changing how it is being taught. The lessons in the NCERT textbook and the language used is almost the same as what was being taught decades back, said Ana Sinha, a third-year student at the Centre.



She, along with four of her classmates, has taken up this initiative as a part of her semester project.



In a 40-minute session, modules like Silk Route and trade between Indus Valley and Mesopotamia, which are generally taught through regular lectures, are now being taught with the help of games and role play where students become traders and travel to different countries.



If the topic is about ancient trade, we ask them to pretend to move from city to city on the route and in the process they get to know about the products each of them specialised in and the fluctuations in currency. When we play these games, we get a lot of extra information apart from the NCERT books, said Sinha.



The batch, with the help of their mentor Geetanjali Kala, developed the module in 3 months and has covered 9 schools in May in areas such as Patparganj in east Delhi and Munirka in south Delhi.



It has also held interactive workshops after these exercises. A pre- and post-module test on the subject was conducted for the students and the team found that students did better when the lessons were taught with the help of these games.



We plan to extend this exercise till December and cover as many schools as possible, said Sinha.
The Federation of Resident Doctors Association (FORDA) has called off the indefinite strike at citys government hospitals they had threatened from Wednesday.





This comes after the Central government assured their demands for a better pay structure would be processed. The resident doctors had earlier decided to go on strike from June 1.



The strike was deferred till June 8 after Union Health Minister J P Nadda met FORDA doctors and assured them th-eir demands would be looked into. The FORDA had earlier sent a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on their decision to go on an indefinite strike.



The association on Tuesday wrote another letter that the strike has been postponed after a unanimous decision taken by the FORDA members.



Patient care



We took the point of patient care while deciding this. So our strike is on hold till the final submission of the empowered committee to Finance Ministry, read the letter submitted by FORDA on Tuesday.



There was a meeting with the officials of the Health Department. They have assured us that the demands are being processed. There is no word yet if all the demands would be met, said Dr Munish Sharma, a FORDA member.



However, they are negotiating with FORDA and the department has sought more time from FORDA to look into the issues raised by us, added Sharma.



The doctors are unhappy with the recommendations of the Seventh Central Pay Commission. If they are implemented, their non-practising allowance will be reduced from the existing 25% to 20%.



The doctors had demanded that it be increased to 40%. We have not been assured yet if it would be raised to 40%. There are possibilities that it will be brought back to 25% as before in the recommendations, said Dr Sharma.



The resident doctors had raised demands for learning resources, night shift and extra duty allowances, filling of posts through the UPSC exam and more seats for post-graduation.
More than a fortnight after notifying the app-based bus service scheme, the Delhi government on Tuesday sought public suggestions on it. The amendments will be injected in the notification after suggestions pour in until June 20.





The scheme recently attracted criticism, with BJP MLA and Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta claiming that the Aam Aadmi Party government favoured a particular aggregator. Following a complaint from Gupta, the Lieutenant Governor-controlled anti-corruption branch launched a probe to check irregularities.



The AAP resented the charges vociferously and even protested outside Guptas residence. According to a senior transport official, the government will prepare a cabinet note after gaining more clarity from the public suggestions.



It is expected that many people will leave their cars and switch to these comfortable buses under this scheme. Large-scale private sector investment in public bus transport is expected under this scheme, a newspaper advertisement issued by the Delhi government on Tuesday says.



The advert asks denizens to send their suggestions by June 20 on email: deltrpt@gmail.com.



To prevent private bus aggregators from fleecing commuters, the government has proposed to fix the fare depending on market forces. But if all the companies join hands and form a cartel, the government could step in and fix an upper limit. Similarly the government would have the power to check predatory pricing, the advert says.



After the roll out of air conditioned and comfortable buses under this scheme, the passengers will be able to book their tickets through mobile app. Bus aggregators will not be allowed to book more than the seating capacity.



Under this scheme, all buses will have free Wi-Fi facility, panic button for the safety of women, GPS to track location of the buses, and two CCTV cameras.



For any violation, any passenger could directly complain to the government through the app, on which immediate action would be taken, the advert says.



The Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung is yet to give a nod to the policy.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has crossed swords with the Centre and Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung over their right to seek details from the AAP government on postings of central government officers or hiring of consultants.





He also hit out at Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Jung on the deteriorating law and order situation in his tweets and separate letters written to the two.



Apart from stinging tweets against Prime Minister Narender Modi and the LG on Tuesday, Kejriwal wrote on Monday to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh that the central government has no constitutional or legal right to seek details from the city government on postings of officers and consultants hired by it.



In an identical letter to Jung, Kejriwal asked the LG to focus on controlling crime in the city rather than creating hurdles for his government. Kejriwal also sought information from Jung on steps taken to prevent rapes and other crimes.



The Chief Minister also advised Singh to devote one hour daily for resolving Delhiites problems related to law and order situation.



In his tweets, he slammed the LG for spying and passing on information related to his government to the Prime Ministers Office and accused the central government of creating hurdles for his Aam Aadmi Party government.



Shocking! LG snooping on CM n Ministers. Who visits CM n ministers- LG secretly collecting this info n informing PMO, tweeted Kejriwal. Raj Niwas sources, however, rubbished the snooping charge.



The LG is duty-bound to inform the Centre on service matters and this communication with Centre cannot be called as snooping, said an official, who did not wish to be named.



The communication being dubbed as snooping relates to an Indian Railway Service of Engineers official who was working in Delhi Home Ministers office after taking study leave from the Railways, he said.



During this illegal stint in the city government, the railway official took action against a Delhi government official who brought the matter of his illegal posting to the LG, he said.



The LG, as part of his constitutional duty, informed the Centre about the railway officials functioning in the city government without any information to the Raj Niwas, said the Raj Niwas source.



Kejriwal also tweeted against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Modi govt has no positive agenda except creating hurdles, he tweeted, a day after flagging the law and order situation in the city and describing it as jungle raj.



In his letter to the Union Home Minister, Kejriwal objected to an attempt by the central government to collect information on officers on deputation to the city government, and the consultants employed by it and the process adopted for hiring them.



As per advice given by legal experts, I am told that the central government does not have the constitutional or legal right to seek this information, wrote Kejriwal.



Other information can, of course, be sought by the Centre from a state government just as a state can seek information from the Centre, he said, expressing happiness over Prime Minister Narendra Modis increased interest in Delhi government.



Assuring to prepare a list of consultants working in the AAP government, Kejriwal said he would also want to know the number of consultants hired by the central government in the past two years.



Taking a dig at Modis frequent foreign trips, Kejriwal said: The Prime Minister spends a lot of his time in foreign visits but when he is in the country, he spends most of his time in matters related to Delhi government.
Two Chinese jets conducted an "unsafe" intercept of a US spy plane over the East China Sea, officials said, but the Pentagon downplayed the encounter and blamed it on shoddy piloting.





According to US Pacific Command spokesman Commander David Benham, two Chinese J-10 fighter jets yesterday flew close to an American RC-135 reconnaissance plane that was on a routine patrol.



"One of the intercepting Chinese jets had an unsafe excessive rate of closure on the RC-135 aircraft," Benham said, without specifying exactly where the incident occurred.



"Initial assessment is that this seems to be a case of improper airmanship, as no other provocative or unsafe maneuvers occurred."



The East China Sea is part of the Pacific and home to small islands whose ownership is disputed by China, Japan and Taiwan.



China also claims a string of islets across the South China Sea and its military expansion in the contested waterway has sparked heightened tensions with regional neighbors and the United States.



Yesterday's intercept came as US Secretary of State John Kerry visited Beijing and urged China to settle its territorial rows peacefully and based on the "rule of law."



Pentagon chief Ashton Carter attended a security summit in Singapore over the weekend, promising unspecified "actions" if China continued its buildup.



On May 17, the Pentagon said two Chinese jets conducted another "unsafe" intercept of a US reconnaissance plane over the South China Sea.



Still, PACOM head Admiral Harry Harris told reporters in Singapore on Saturday that such incidents were rare.
Scripting history, Hillary Clinton today became the first woman to clinch the presidential nomination of a major American political by winning the New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota primaries, but her Democratic rival Bernie Sanders remained defiant.





"Thanks to you, we've reached a milestone, the first time in our nation's history that a woman will be a major party's nominee," Clinton, 68, told her supporters at her campaign headquarters in Brooklyn, New York.



US President Barack Obama congratulated Clinton for securing the 2,383 delegates necessary to clinch the Democratic party's presidential nominee.



However, Obama did not formally endorse Clinton  his former Secretary of State.

"Her historic campaign inspired millions and is an extension of her lifelong fight for middle-class families and children," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said in a statement.



Obama called both Clinton and her Democratic rival Bernie Sanders to applaud them for "running inspiring campaigns that energised Democrats." The President will meet Sanders at the White House tomorrow at the Vermont senator's request, the statement said.



Clinton now has 2,497 delegates in her kitty while Sanders has 1,663 delegates.

Clinton was also beating Sanders in early results in California.However, Sanders, who won in Montana and North Dakota, refused to concede defeat to Clinton, vowing to stay in the Democratic nomination.



"Next Tuesday we continue the fight," Sanders told a large crowd of cheering supporters gathered in Santa Monica.



"We are going to fight hard to win the primary in Washington, DC, and then we take our fight for social, economic, racial and environmental justice to Philadelphia."



Sanders, 74, has been facing mounting pressure to drop out of the race amid calls for Democratic party unity.



In the November presidential elections, Clinton would face fellow New Yorker Donald Trump, from the Republican party, whom she said is not fit to lead the country.



If elected in the November general elections, she would be the first ever woman president of the US.



"To every little girl who dreams big: Yes, you can be anything you wanteven president. Tonight is for you," Clinton said.



"We cannot let a man who demeans women, attacks people for their race or religion, and traffics in paranoid conspiracy theories take the oath of office," she said, attacking 69-year-old Trump.



"We won't let a man who said he'll order our troops to commit war crimes by killing the wives and children of suspected terrorists become Commander-in-Chief. This election isnt about the same old fights between Democrats and Republicans...It's about who we are as Americans. And it is an argument we must win," Clinton said.



In most of the polls, Clinton is leading Trump, though the margin has been reducing every passing day.



Clinton said the Republican candidate would take America back "back to a time when opportunity and dignity were reserved for some, not all."



"He's not just trying to build a wall between America and Mexico, he's trying to wall off Americans from each other," she alleged.



"When Donald Trump says a distinguished judge born in Indiana cant do his job because of his Mexican heritage, or he mocks a reporter with disabilities, or calls women pigs, it goes against everything we stand for because we want an America where everyone is treated with respect and their work is valued," Clinton said.
With the noose tightening around him, Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) Chairman Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh resigned today in connection with 10+2 toppers' scandal even as the state government overhauled the state board with new appointments.



Patna Commissioner Anand Kishore was today made Administrator of the BSEB, highly placed sources in the Education minister's office said.



Anoop Sinha replaces incumbent Harihar Nath Jha as Secretary of BSEB, Education minister Ashok Choudhary told PTI.



With evidence of irregularities in the toppers muddle following police investigation, Singh tendered his resignation.



"We have received the resignation letter of Board Chairman Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh," houdhary said.



The minister said a show-cause notice was served to Singh as to why he should not be removed from the post for the irregularities committed in +2 plus examination results.



Singh was asked to give reply within 24 hours to the department. His resignation came before the deadline ended.



Hours after resignation, police said Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh has gone underground.

A Special Investigation Team (SIT) under Patna Senior Superintendent of Police Manu Maharaj raided Singh's home.



Earlier, the SSP himself visited BSEB office and questioned some officials and checked documents.



Maharaj told reporters at BSEB office, "Prima facie, anomalies have been found in the toppers scandal."



Police action was witnessed in Vaishali district too where the controversial Bishun Rai Intermediate college from where Arts and Science toppers Ruby Ray and Saurabh Shrestha hailed from.



Separate notice was pasted at the residence of four toppers Ruby Ray, Saurabh Shrestha, Rahul Kumar and Shalini Ray asking them to present themselves before SIT .



SSP Patna, who is supervising the police action in the toppers muddle, said four persons have been detained by the police in the case lodged by the education department against seven persons on Monday night.



Bihar has drawn a bad name across the country after the scandal surfaced following a video featuring Arts topper Ruby Ray and first ranker in Science Saurabh Shreshth went viral in which both the students of Vishun Rai College were seen giving ridiculous answers to questions on their subjects.



Ruby Ray had called Political science as "Prodigal Science" which according to her teaches cooking.Likewise, Saurabh sounded unaware of electron and proton.


Japanese small car major Suzuki Motor Corporation today said its Chairman and CEO Osamu Suzuki will give up the CEO position while announcing pay cuts for its directors in the aftermath of the mileage testing controversy.



The company said its Executive Vice-President Osamu Honda will also retire as it 'deeply' apologised for "the improper conduct in application of driving resistance, different from regulations by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT)".



The board of directors of Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC) at its meeting held today resolved the issue of change of Representative Directors and reduction of compensation of the management, the company said in a statement.



"The change of Representative Directors and reduction of compensation for the management is to clarify the responsibility of the management against the improper conduct in application of driving resistance, different from regulations by MLIT," the statement added.



Subsequently, Suzuki, who is the designated Chairman and CEO, will give up his CEO title.

Osamu Honda, a Representative Director and Executive Vice-President, Chief Technology Officer will retire on June 29 June subject to approval of shareholders at 150th Ordinary General Meeting, SMC said.



Stating that the company will "promptly work on measures to prevent recurrence of such an incident in future", SMC said: "We express once again our deep apologies to our customers, clients and all stakeholders for any inconveniences and concerns caused."



On the reduction of executive compensation, SMC said bonus for financial year 2015 for its Representative Directors and Directors has been fully waived while for the Senior Managing Officers and Managing Officers, it has been reduced by 50 per cent.



Furthermore, after July 2016, the monthly compensation of the Chairman will be cut by 40 per cent for six months while that of President Toshihiro Suzuki by 30 per cent for six months, it said.



The salary of Vice-Chairman Yasuhito Harayama will be reduced by 25 percent for six months and that of Managing Officers by 20 per cent for the same duration.



The monthly compensation of Outside Company Directors will be reduced by 10 per cent for three months, similar to those of Senior Managing Officers and Managing Officers.



Assuring that "disciplinary measures will be taken against the personnel concerned of the management level", SMC announced a slew of measures, including auditing system for engineering operations and promoting utilisation of whistle- blowing system, to prevent recurrence of such incidents.



Last month, SMC had admitted to discrepancies in emission and fuel efficiency testing process between the regulation by MLIT and the actual method carried out by it. A total of 16 models were subjected to investigation, but vehicles sold outside Japan were not affected.



SMC's arm Maruti Suzuki India had also clarified that the issue faced by parent in Japan did not have implications on India, citing distinct testing regulations.


Two South Carolina Air National Guard F-16 fighter pilots ejected safely after an apparent midair collision in eastern Georgia, the Guard said.





The collision happened yesterday during night training operations over a remote military operating area in Jefferson County, Georgia, a National Guard spokeswoman said.



The jets were assigned to the South Carolina Air National Guard's 169th Fighter Wing, which operates out of McEntire Joint National Guard Base in Eastover, South Carolina.



The two male pilots were taken to a hospital, said 1st Lt Stephen Hudson, a spokesman for the Guard.



Guard spokeswoman Col Cindi King said this morning she could not say whether the pilots had been released from medical care.



"The good news is, they were able to eject safely and contact the base immediately to say they were both okay," King said.



There were no immediate reports of injuries on the ground. "We are dealing with two crash sites," Hudson said. Local first responders were securing the area and providing emergency services, the Guard's news release said.



McEntire Joint National Guard Base commander Col Nicholas Gentile was heading to the crash scene Wednesday morning, King said.



The South Carolina Army National Guard was flying Gentile to Georgia aboard a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter, King said.



"With the sun out, they will be able to see the area," she said, adding that the Blackhawk helicopters will help in their ability to fly over and assess potential damage.



The area is known as the Townsend Bombing Range and South Carolina Air National Guard fighter jets routinely train there for their electronic warfare and bombing missions.



King said South Carolina National Guard commander Maj Gen Robert Livingston Jr was in Washington last night when he got news of the crashes and was returning to Columbia to be updated.



The South Carolina Air National Guard and the US Air Force are dispatching teams to investigate the collision.



The collision comes after both of the military's precision flying teams suffered crashes last week.



A Blue Angels F/A-18 crashed last Thursday near Nashville, Tennessee, while taking off for a practice session. The pilot, Marine Capt. Jeff Kuss, was killed.



Also Thursday, a Thunderbirds F-16 crashed outside Colorado Springs, Colorado, but that pilot, Maj. Alex Turner, ejected safely. The Thunderbirds had just performed over the open-air graduation ceremony at the nearby Air Force Academy, where President Barack Obama spoke.


'Suryanamaskar asana' will not be part of this year's Yoga Day celebrations and chanting of 'Om' won't be compulsory even though Yoga is incomplete without it, Ayush Minister Shripad Naik said today about the June 21 event which is expected entail a collective cost of hundreds of crores of rupees.





"The Suryanamaskar asana...last year also we had not taken it. It is a complex exercise. It is difficult to do in 45 minutes and for people who are new to the exercise. Therefore we have not kept this one," Naik, whose ministry is the nodal agency for organising the annual celebrations, told the media.



There has been a controversy over this asana, with Muslim groups saying their faith does not allow such a practice.



The International Yoga Day is celebrated on June 21 since last year, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi taking a lead in this. Modi performed the Yoga at Rajpath here last year and this time, he will do so in Chandigarh.



Naik also dismissed the controversy related to chanting of 'Om' during the event and it has not been made compulsory.



"There is always some opposition whenever some good work is done. There is no opposition this year to it. We have not made it compulsory.... We have made those people who are opposing understand this and it seems they have understood," he said but added "without OM, yoga cannot be complete."



Chanting of 'Om' has also been a matter of controversy, with Muslim bodies saying members of their faith cannot do so.



There was a controversy recently too over the UGC's directive asking universities and colleges to follow Ayush ministry's yoga protocol that begins with chanting of 'Om' and some Sanskrit shlokas during Yoga Day celebrations on June 21.



The government, however, had insisted that last year's protocol has been maintained and no changes have been made. "There is no compulsion to chant 'Om'," it had earlier said.



About whether a holiday will be declared on June 21, Naik said, "It is not needed, nobody has demanded that. Last year, also no such demand came....Yoga's time is early morning. It will go on around 8 am...There is no need of a holiday."



However, "if the demand comes, I will request the Prime Minister to do so (declare holiday)," he said. The Yoga Day this year falls on Tuesday while last year it was a Sunday.



Ayush Ministry officials said that yoga has been added in the physical activity sessions in various schools for class six to tenth but it has not been made compulsory.



Naik said that a circular has also been issued by the HRD Minister to all the schools to include yoga and while many schools have adopted it, for others, "work is in progress".



"HRD minister has sent circular to schools. Work is in progress. All schools have started adopting," Naik said.



Asked about the budget for the celebrations, Ministry secretary Ajit Sharan said every ministry is spending its own money and Ayush Ministry is not supporting anybody in terms of funds for celebrating this.



"Although if all is taken collectively, it may be hundreds of crores. But from the AYUSH Ministry side, the sum is around Rs 15 crore," he said.




The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) has reportedly asked the makers to remove the word 'Punjab' from the title and the story. They have also purportedly asked for more than 89 cuts, prompting the makers to move the Bombay High Court.





Besides Bachchan and Aamir, other Bollywood heavyweights to come out in criticism of the board include Mukesh Bhatt, Zoya Akhtar, Imtiaz Ali, Sudhir Mishra and Kabir Khan among others.





"When you kill our creativity, you kill our soul... I hope we can device a system where there is certification rather than censor. Don't try and kill creativity. We all must have the freedom to create because we are in this field and all we have is our soul to create," Bachchan said on the sidelines of promoting "TE3N" in Kolkata.





"I am not aware of 'Udta Punjab' issue. But it is unfortunate that there is going to be a delay that they have to fight their way to the high court," Bachchan said.

Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan termed the controversy around the film unfortunate.





"I'm pained that the film is going through this. As per my knowledge, it is based on drug addiction and delivers a social message. I don't think there is anything that should be cut or audience should be kept away...





"It reflects badly on CBFC. I hope the film gets justice at the Tribunal. The voice of the filmmaker shouldn't be throttled... There should be freedom of speech. Every Indian should have this right," he said.





In a press conference, Mahesh Bhatt said it was a shame that a movie which "holds a mirror" and shames the Indian society about the drug menace "is being strangulated".





"This is not the industry's problem at all, this is the problem of this country," he said.





"A person who is a roadblock and not a facilitator should be removed. That is something intolerable, unaccepted to film fraternity and we want him out. His move is malicious and vicious. He lies, delays the process and will bully the person," his brother, Mukesh, who is the president of Film and Producers Guild of India, said.





Filmmaker Zoya Akhtar said burying one's head in the sand will not make the problems disappear.





"You can't certify something as adult and then give 89 cuts. We are in constant denial of what is going on in the society. It's like it does not exist. There is no drug problem, there is no marital rape, there is no racism... It's just ridiculous," she said.





Kashyap said they will try their best to release the film without cuts and as per its scheduled release on June 17.





"Censor board has got a bullying attitude and they are resorting to lies... It's unfortunate that we have to justify our honesty at every stage. At every stage, we need government approved stamp," Kashyap said.



When asked about Nihalani's allegations that he took money from AAP, Kashyap said, "You really want me to answer that? I don't know what to say. I have not taken money. I wish someone would give me money so that I can make more films. I have lots of ideas."





The producer said he wants to release the film the way it is as the cuts suggested are too many.





"There are 94 cuts. We have been asked to delete a lot of things. We have been asked to delete the word Punjab. We have not counted how many times the word has come in the film. We would want to release the film the way it is now," Kashyap said while also denying any political affiliation.





The film's lead star Shahid Kapoor, who plays a drug-addict rocker in the movie, said, "The youth has the right to be informed. But it is not allowed and that is the problem. Youth has the right to know that drugs are a menace. They have the right to know what happens when you indulge in drugs. We all need to support the message this film is sending."





Film's director Abhishek Chaubey said he was almost willing to give in to the demands of the censor board as he did not want his producers to suffer financially.

"There is an environment of fear in Bollywood. Two days ago, we had a meeting and later I sent a text to Vikas (Bahl) and Madhu (Mantena, producer) and told them 'Let's release the film with cuts.





"I don't have the energy to go through this'. Who has the time for all this?," Chaubey said.





The director, whose previous films include "Ishqiya" and "Dedh Ishqiya", said despite the financial risk to the producers, they felt it was an important battle to fight for.





"We realised that if we back off then no other filmmaker will ever make a political film, issue-based film or films on a state. I know there is a huge amount of financial risk for Ekta (Kapoor) and others and personal risk for Anurag (Kashyap) but we will stand by this," Chaubey said.





At the press conference, the makers revealed that they had written a letter to CBFC and Nihalani in which they asked the board to convey their decision regarding certification within 24 hours as the movie is very close to release.





The letter, dated yesterday, said that the producers had applied to the CBFC for "Udta Punjab" certification on May 10.





Filmmaker Kabir Khan, who had to face censor issues with his film "Bajrangi Bhaijaan", said there is no point in ignoring the drug problem.





"Are we saying the drug problem does not exist?... We all know till what extent the drug problem exists in Punjab. I was shooting last year in the border areas of Punjab for 'Bajrangi Bhaijaan' and everybody was talking about it."





Filmmaker Sudhir Mishra said, "If the idea is to scare us let me me say I am not going to get scared."





"Tamasha" helmer Imtiaz Ali said, "The content of the film can be judged only after it releases. But as filmmakers, we are not bound to tolerate this. Anything that attacks the freedom of speech and expression should be questioned."





Backed by the Indian Film & Television Directors Association, the press conference was also attended by Ekta Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Aanand L Rai, Madhu Mantena, Satish Kaushik, Ashoke Pandit, Reema Kagti and Ramesh Taurani among others.





Major Bollywood celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan and Mahesh Bhatt today lent their support to Anurag Kashyap, who has locked horns with censor board chief Pahlaj Nihalani over his alleged demands for major cuts in "Udta Punjab".
Censor Board chief Pahlaj Nihalani today faced heat on multiple fronts in the escalating row over "Udta Punjab" with demands for his sacking including over his allegation that its maker Anurag Kashyap may have taken money from AAP to make the drug-themed Bollywood film.





As the film fraternity rallied behind Kashyap in the censorship row with superstar Amitabh Bachchan saying creativity should not be killed, the producers moved the Bombay High Court seeking a copy of the order passed by Censor Board's Review Committee suggesting "13 changes" and removing reference to Punjab in the film.



The producers later said they got a copy of the order.

Nihalani said that the producers themselves did not collect the order until today and instead went to media persons making the matter public.



"We met with the producers on Monday and told them about the cuts. They said, 'If we get cuts, will you give us the certificate?' I said, 'Of course yes'. But they did not turn up to collect the letter. They directly went to media. Today they came to collect the letter."



Mahesh Bhatt, Mukesh Bhatt and Anurag Kashyap alleged that the Censor Board was intentionally delaying the film's clearance.



The Shahid Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Diljit Dosanjh starrer movie that delves into how the youth in Punjab have succumbed to drugs is slated for release on June 17.



The makers had also alleged that Nihalani purposely refused to hand them the letter, which mentioned the cuts.



Mukesh Bhatt while targeting Nahalani said a person who is a roadblock and not a facilitator should be removed.



"That is something intolerable, unacceptable to film fraternity and we want him out. His move is malicious and vicious. He lies, delays the process and will bully the person," Mukesh, President, the Film and Producers Guild of India, told reporters at a joint news conference in Mumbai that included the cast of the film.



Nihalani's allegation against Kashyap and AAP set off another war of words.

Taking a potshot at Kashyap, who is the face of the fight against the Censor Board, Nihalani claimed he has heard that the filmmaker had taken money from Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) to show Punjab in bad light.



"I've heard Anurag Kashyap has taken money from AAP to show Punjab in bad light," Nihalani claimed. Punjab goes to polls next year and AAP is a key contender.



Rejecting the charge, AAP leader Ashish Khetan told reporters in Delhi that Nihalani must apologize to Kashyap for levelling the allegation or else he should be sacked.



The Indian Films and Television Directors Association also condemned the allegation and demanded an apology as soon as possible. "This is not just an insult to Kashyap but to the film industry as a whole, said the Association, led by president Ashoke Pandit, who is also a member of the CBFC.



AAP Chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal alleged that Nihalani's statement makes it amply clear that he has stopped the film on "BJP's instructions".

BJP rejected the allegation.



"I completely reject it (charge) that the government has any role or intervened to stop its release. AAP survives on controversies.



It creates controversies for political purpose," Union Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy said. Nihalani also rejected allegations that he is under any political pressure.



Information and Broadcasting ministry officials asserted that the certification process is independent and even court verdicts have made it clear that the government does not have much role in it.



The revising committee had recently viewed film "Udta Punjab" and suggested 13 changes to be made by the film makers besides removing the reference to Punjab state in the film.

According to the committee, the changes were suggested as the film was not in conformity with the Cinematograph Act.



Outside the court, the lawyers of the film production company said "We had asked for a 'A' Certificate and said the film does not portray anyone in bad light."



Though 73-year-old Bachchan has not taken any side in the debate, he said, "I am not aware of the issue, but would like to say that don't try to kill creativity."



"Filmmakers can approach tribunal and courts, only problem is censoring comes near the release of a film," he further said.



Another superstar Aamir Khan also came out in support of "Udta Punjab", saying the voice of a filmmaker should not be throttled
With Pakistan obviously in mind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said terrorism is being "incubated in India's neighbourhood" and pressed for action without making any distinction against groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba, Taliban and ISIS who share the "same philosophy of hate, murder and killings".



In his address to the joint sitting of US Congress here, he said terrorism has to be fought with "one voice" as he commended the American Parliament for sending out a clear message by refusing to "reward" those who preach and practice terrorism for political gains, an apparent reference to the blocking of sale of 8 F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan.



In the course of his 45-minute speech, he covered all major aspects of the growing relationship between India and the US, particularly strategic ties and civil nuclear cooperation, and emphasised that the two countries should leave "constraints of the past" behind as the "foundations of the future are firmly in place".



Dressed in trademark white kurta pyjama and grey-coloured half-jacket, Modi was warmly received by the American lawmakers who interrupted his address more than 40 times to cheer him, a few times by standing. When his predecessor Manmohan Singh addressed the US Congress in 2005, his speech was applauded 33 times, according to Sanjay Baru, who was the Media Adviser to the then Prime Minister.



Underscoring that both India and the US share the vision of peace and prosperity of the world, the Prime Minister said "globally, terrorism remains the biggest threat" and it must be fought at many levels" as the traditional tools of military, intelligence or diplomacy alone would not be able to win defeat it.



"In the territory stretching from West of India's border to Africa, it may go by different names, from Laskhar-e-Taiba, to Taliban to ISIS. But, it's philosophy is common: of hate, murder and violence," Modi said.



"Although it's shadow is spreading across the world, it is incubated in India's neighbourhood," he said an apparent reference to Pakistan.



He said those who believe in humanity must come together to fight against terrorism as one and speak against this menace in one voice.



"I commend the members of the US Congress for sending a clear message to those who preach and practice terrorism for political gains," Modi said, adding "Refusing to reward them is the first step towards holding them accountable for their actions."



He was clearly referring to the blocking of sale of 8 F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan by the US Congress recently.



Emphasising that "terrorism must be delegitimized", he said, "The need of the hour is for us to deepen our security cooperation."



He said the cooperation should be based on a policy that "isolates those who harbour, support and sponsor terrorists; that does not distinguish between 'good' and 'bad' terrorists; and that delinks religion from terrorism."



The Prime Minister noted that both the countries have lost civilians and soldiers in combating terrorism and highlighted how the US stood by India in the aftermath of terror attack in Mumbai in November 2008, which originated from Pakistan.



Observing that India-US "relationship is primed for a momentous future", the Prime Minister said a strong partnership between the two countries can anchor peace, prosperity and stability from Asia to Africa and from Indian Ocean to the Pacific.



"It can also help ensure security of the sea lanes of commerce and freedom of navigation on seas," he said, adding India is already assuming its responsibilities in securing the Indian Ocean region.



He used the occasion to pitch apparently for the UN reform as he said, "but the effectiveness of our cooperation would increase if international institutions, framed with the mindset of the 20th century, were to reflect the realities of today."



Modi, who invoked Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, Swami Vivekananda and Atal Bihari Vajpayee in his speech, said India and the US, the world's largest and oldest democracies, had learnt a lot from each other's philosophies and practices, making them "natural allies".



"As we deepen our partnership, there would be times when we would have differing perspectives. But, since our interests and concerns converge, the autonomy in decision-making and diversity in our perspectives can only add value to our partnership," he said, adding "So, as we embark on a new journey, and seek new goals, let us focus not just on matters routine but transformational ideas."



He said these ideas should focus "not just on creating wealth but also creating value for our societies; not just on immediate gains but also long term benefits; not just on sharing best practices but also shaping partnerships; and not just on building a bright future for our peoples, but in being a bridge to a more united, humane and prosperous world.



"And, important for the success of this journey would be a need to view it with new eyes and new sensitivities. When we do this, we will realise the full promise of this extraordinary relationship."



Highlighting India's growth of 7.6 per cent and the immense opportunities it offers, the Prime Minister said, "in every sector of India's forward march, I see the US as an indispensable partner."



He noted that many Americans believe that a stronger and prosperous India is in the strategic interest of the US and said, "Let us work together to convert shared ideals into practical cooperation. There can be no doubt that in advancing this relationship, both nations stand to gain in great measure."



As the US businesses search for new areas of economic growth, markets for their goods, a pool of skilled resources, and global locations to produce and manufacture, India could be their ideal partner, Modi said.



He said transformative American technologies in India and growing investment by Indian companies in the United States both have a positive impact on the lives of the citizens of the two countries.



Talking about the commonalities, the Prime Minister told the American lawmakers that like in the US Congress, Indian Parliament also reflects a spirit of bipartisanship.



"I am informed that the working of the US Congress is harmonious. I am also told that you are well-known for your bipartisanship. Well, you are not alone. Time and again, I have also witnessed a similar spirit in the Indian Parliament, especially in our Upper House. So, as you can see, we have many shared practices," he said.



While mentioning about the ties between India and the US, Modi said the pioneers had shaped a development partnership very early on, "even when the meeting ground was more limited", with the genius of Norman Borlaug bringing the Green Revolution and food security to India.



"Fast forward to today. The embrace of our partnership extends to the entirety of human endeavour-from the depths of the oceans to the vastness of the space....Ties of commerce and investment are flourishing. We trade more with the US than with any other nation. And, the flow of goods, services and capital between us generates jobs in both our societies.



"As in trade, so in defence. India exercises with the United States more than we do with any other partner. Defence purchases have moved from almost zero to ten billion dollars in less than a decade.



"Our cooperation also secures our cities and citizens from terrorists, and protects our critical infrastructure from cyber threats. Civil Nuclear Cooperation, as I told President Obama yesterday, is a reality," Modi said.



Noting that the 21st century has brought with it great opportunities, he said it also comes with its own set of challenges.



"Inter-dependence is increasing. But, while some parts of the world are islands of growing economic prosperity; other are mired in conflicts," he added.



Talking in the context of Asia, Modi said the absence of an agreed security architecture creates uncertainty. "Threats of terror are expanding, and new challenges are emerging in cyber and outer-space. And, global institutions conceived in 20th century, seem unable to cope with new challenges or take on new responsibilities," the Prime Minister said.



"In this world full of multiple transitions and economic opportunities, growing uncertainties and political complexities, existing threats and new challenges, our engagement can make a difference by promoting cooperation not dominance; connectivity not isolation; respect for global commons; inclusive not exclusive mechanisms; and above all adherence to international rules and norms," he said.



He said India and the US may have been shaped by differing histories, cultures, and faiths "yet our belief in democracy for our nations and liberty for our countrymen is common. The idea that all citizens are created equal is a central pillar of the American constitution."



Modi said the founding fathers of the two countries too shared the same belief and sought individual liberty for every citizen of India.



"There were many who doubted India when, as a newly independent nation, we reposed our faith in democracy. Indeed, wagers were made on our failure. But, the people of India did not waver," he said.



"Our founders created a modern nation with freedom, democracy, and equality as the essence of its soul. And, in doing so, they ensured that we continued to celebrate our age old diversity. Today, across its streets and institutions, in its villages and cities, anchored in equal respect for all faiths; and in the melody of hundreds of its languages and dialects. India lives as one; India grows as one; India celebrates as one," Modi said.


Observing that there are over 30 million practitioners of Yoga in America, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today told members of the US Congress that India has not yet claimed IPR on Yoga.





"SIRI tells us that India's ancient heritage of Yoga has over 30 million practitioners in the US. It is estimated that more Americans bend for yoga than to throw a curve ball.



"And, no Mr Speaker (Paul Ryan), we have not yet claimed intellectual property rights on Yoga," Modi said in his address to the joint session of the Congress.



SIRI is an iPhone programme that serves as an intelligent personal assistant and knowledge navigator, using sequential inference and contextual awareness to help perform personal tasks and answer questions.



"Connecting our two nations is also a unique and dynamic bridge of three million Indian-Americans," Modi said underscoring that the people to people links are strong and there is close cultural connect between the two societies.



"Today, they are among your best CEOs; academics; astronauts; scientists; economists; doctors; even spelling bee champions. They are your strength. They are also the pride of India. They symbolise the best of both our societies," he said.



In the course of his 45-minute speech, Modi covered all major aspects of the growing relationship between India and the US, particularly strategic ties and civil nuclear cooperation, and emphasised that the two countries should leave "constraints of the past" behind as the "foundations of the future are firmly in place".



In 2014, the UN General Assembly recognised June 21 as the International Yoga Day after 177 member states supported the draft moved by India.



The first International Day of Yoga was observed world over on June 21, 2015.


Unable to digest the defeat in the 2014 election, the Congress is levelling allegations against the BJP-led NDA government, said Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.





She was addressing the Vikas Parva  India entering as powerful nation programme organised on the NDA government completing two years, at Town Hall on Wednesday.



She said, There is a new governance paradigm in the country after the Narendra Modi-led government came to power in the centre. The politics of appeasing a particular class has received a break. The government has been working towards efficient delivery of services and empowerment of the poor through various welfare schemes.



She said, The entire government mechanism is with the people of the country through various social media. The Modi government and its ministers have been prompt and proactive in harnessing the power of social media, especially when it comes to governance. As a result, the government is accessible to the people at any given point of time.



She challenged the Congress to point out one step which was taken up by the government that has helped the rich at the cost of the poor. Those who can not digest the move of the government clear the system are engaged levelling false allegations, she added.



With the weeding out of bogus ration cards, a sum of Rs 36,000 crore has been saved. About 3.7 crore new LPG connections have been given in 2015-16 using the money saved from over one crore cooking gas users voluntarily giving up their subsidies. By using LED bulbs in 500 cities, about 20,000 mega watt electricity has been saved, she explained.



The minister said that there are no corruption charges against any of the Cabinet ministers in the central government.



Transparency has been maintained in the auctioning of coal blocks. The import of coal has been stopped and adequate coal is available for thermal power stations in the country. The centre is not discriminating against any state when it comes to development works, she insisted.



Haribhai P Choudhary, Minister for State Home Affairs, said that the NDA government has implemented 52 welfare schemes. After the government came to power, around 5,300 villages have been given power connection. The government is committed to the welfare of farmers, he concurred.



Dushyanth Kumar Gautham, former SC Morcha national president, said that a Congress-free India is the aim of Narendra Modi. A Congress-free India is nothing but building a strong India. After the NDA government came to power, the country has emerged as one of the strongest countries of the world, he added.



MP Nalin Kumar Kateel said after the NDA government came to power, Dakshina Kannada has received Rs 10,000 crore for various development works.



We, however, are failing to get required support from the State government while implementing the works, he added.

DH News Service
Minister for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman said that the foreign direct investment risen since the NDA government assumed office in May 2014.





Speaking to mediapersons, she said that the Modi-led government has taken steps to attract foreign investment in the country. As a result, India continues to remain among top choices for foreign investors. India was in the ninth position in attracting foreign investment when the government came to power. The government has liberalised FDI policy in railways, insurance and defence sectors. About Rs 36,500 crore have been saved through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme, she explained.



She said that the government is committed to deal with the menace of black money in the country and Black Money Act has been enacted. The Congress leaders have failed to understand the measures taken by the Centre in checking black money. With the tight rules of the government, about 21,000 crore undeclared assets have been identified, she pointed out.



A new clause of royalty is included while auctioning minerals. As a result, the collected royalty amount will be used for the development of the district where the minerals are extracted, she added.



To a query on the response to Twitter Seva for start ups on the social media site started by her  hashtag #MOCISEVA  the minister said that the response has been unbelievable. Under this, any start up, or anyone keen on setting up a start up can tweet a query to Commerce and Industry Ministry with a grievance or a suggestions with the hash tag #MOCISEVA, she said, adding that the team has been able to address about 98 per cent of the queries.



Decision of EC

To a query on Rajya Sabha election causing a furore over the phenomenon of horse-trading, the minister said that the decision of the Election Commission is final in the matter. She refused to comment further and said, I am a candidate and I will not react on the issue.

DH News Service
PNC Regional President Brian Bucher recently joined volunteers from the Alabama Chapter of the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve to sign 77 copies of the Statement of Support for the Guard and Reserve at the company's Birmingham headquarters.

Bucher's signed statements of support will be placed in every PNC location in Alabama as part of a company-wide initiative chaired by PNC's Military Employee Business Resource Group.

PNC's efforts for its employees who serve in the Reserves and Guards earned it the prestigious 2014 Secretary of Defense Employer Support Freedom Award. The award is the Department of Defense's highest recognition given to employers for exceptional support of Guard and Reserve employees. The Statement of Support confirms PNC Bank joins other employers in pledging to:

Fully recognize, honor and comply with the Uniformed Services Employment and Re-Employment Rights Act. Ensure PNC managers and supervisors will have the tools they need to effectively manage those employees who serve in the Guard and Reserve.

Appreciate the values, leadership and unique skills service members bring to the workforce and will encourage opportunities to hire Guardsmen, Reservists, transitioning service members, and veterans.

Continually recognize and support our country's service members and their families in peace, in crises and in war.

Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve is a Department of Defense agency established in 1972 to develop and maintain employer support for Guard and Reserve service. ESGR advocates relevant initiatives, recognizes outstanding support, increases awareness of applicable laws, and resolves conflict between service members and employers. Paramount to ESGR's mission is encouraging the employment of Guardsmen and Reservists who bring integrity, global perspective and proven leadership to the civilian work force.

PNC Bank, National Association, is a member of The PNC Financial Services Group Inc. (NYSE: PNC). PNC is one of the largest diversified financial services institutions in the United States, organized around its customers and communities for strong relationships and local delivery of retail and business banking; residential mortgage banking; specialized services for corporations and government entities, including corporate banking, real estate finance and asset-based lending; wealth management and asset management.

For more information about PNC, visit www.pnc.com.
Knowing how to distinguish good terrorists from bad terrorists is an essential feature of state sponsorship of terrorism. Till Taliban leader Mullah Mansour was successfully targeted in a drone strike, it seemed that Pakistan had mastered this art.





The elimination of Mansour has, however, come as a severe jolt to Pakistans security establishment, as expressed by the countrys foreign policy advisor Sartaz Aziz, who feels that Mansours killing has not only added to the complexity of the Afghan conflict but also undermined the Afghan peace process. This could not have come at a worse time for Pakistan. Not surprisingly, it is furious over American action.



Pakistan had invested a great deal of its energy and resources in helping Mansour win the succession battle within the Taliban after the death of Mullah Omar, which complicated rather than eased the security situation in Afghanistan.



Rawalpindi, obsessed with gaining strategic depth in Afghanistan, has always manoeuvred to undermine the legitimacy of the democratically elected government in Kabul in the eyes of its own people, and Mansour was more than willing to oblige the Pakistani generals.



Pakistan made no secret of the fact that it was complicit with Mansour in withholding the news of Omars death from illness for two years, as reflected in Azizs frustration about the leak of the news to media in 2015. Americas relentless drone strikes inside Pakistani territory have often led to intense tension between Washington and Islamabad. The latter openly denounces the drone strikes despite constant revelations that it secretly permits them.



In fact, the incoherence and inconsistency of Pakistans approach is an important reminder that readers must be very cautious about reading too much into Islamabads proclamations. However, the complex relationship between the United States and Pakistan has now reached a turning point.



Mansours stubborn refusal to engage peacefully with the Ashraf Ghani administration was proving to be the biggest hurdle in taking the Afghan peace process in a meaningful direction. His vitriolic and pro-vocative rhetoric against the US-led forces could have been igno-red but not his mindless killing spree across Afghan territory which made the government forces appear too impotent and submissive in the face of a hostile and threatening Taliban.



Mansours death provides a rare opportunity to those Taliban leaders who want the conflict in Afghanistan to come to a final end through dialogical engagement with the Afghan government. But if the dreaded Haqqani network, led by the deputy leader of Taliban, Sirajuddin Haqqani, manages to tighten its hold within the Taliban, it would make reconciliation efforts even more difficult to succeed.



Show of strength

Though there does not seem to be any possibility of a letup in the fighting, nor is there any visible chance of immediate paralysis within the Taliban. The targeted killing of Mansour is the spectacle through which the US has again announced itself as exceptional and powerful since assassinating Osama bin Laden.



By successfully wiping out the senior-most Taliban leader in Pakistans restive province of Balochistan, the US has clearly demonstrated its strength to those insurgents who are still vacillating or unwilling to come to the negotiating table as well as to those in Pakistans security establishment who think that the safe havens they have crafted for good terrorists are impregnable.



The depth and extent of Pakistans support for spreading violence and terror in Afghan-

istan is not a secret. Pakistan has been fortunate in its Afghan misadventures because the US seems to have exhausted its enthusiasm and will to confront the Taliban militarily, and is too dependent on Pakistan to help find a face-saving exit route from the Afghan quagmire.



The time has come to dispel the strong perception that the US has abdicated its strategic responsibility in Afghanistan. The US must continue to be a solid supporter of peace process through Afghan-led peace negotiations with the Taliban and other insurgent groups.



There is no doubt that peace in Afghanistan cannot be ensured without a politically negotiated settlement as was affirmed in April in the latest meeting of the Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG) comprising Afghanistan, Pakistan, the US and China. Therefore, those who oppose peace must be targeted so that innocent lives could be saved.



(The writer is Assistant Professor and Coordinator, Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, Sardar Patel University, Jodhpur)
If there was a single moment that captured what would carry Hillary Clinton to the 2016 Democratic nomination, it came not during her sun-splashed campaign kickoff in New York last June, or in any of her speeches celebrating hard-fought primary victories over Senator Bernie Sanders.





No, it was the unscripted instant in which a blase Clinton coolly brushed from her shoulder a speck of lint, dirt  or perhaps nothing at all  as a Republican-led House panel subjected her to more than eight hours of questioning in October over her handling of the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya.



She may not be the orator President Barack Obama is, or the retail politician her husband was. But Clintons steely fortitude in this campaign has plainly inspired older women, black voters and many others who see in her perseverance a kind of mirror to their own struggles. And Clintons very durability  her tenacity, grit and capacity for enduring and overcoming adversity  could be exactly what is required to defeat Donald Trump.



As a politicians wife, first lady, senator and secretary of state  and as a two-time candidate for president  Clinton, 68, has redefined the role of women in US politics each time she has reinvented herself. She has transfixed the nation again and again, as often in searing episodes of scandal or setback as in triumph.



She came on the public stage as someone who was a little different, said Ann Lewis, a longtime adviser. She attracted fascination, devotion and attacks  and the partisan attacks havent stopped. Even as first lady, it was Who does she think she is?' said Melanne Verveer, a close friend of Clintons who was her White House chief of staff.



Clintons confidants say it is only fitting that, having overcome so many obstacles before, including some of her own making, she now faces an opponent so eager to go negative with her  and to refight the bare-knuckled brawls that have defined her career.

In her victory speech Tuesday night, Clinton said the biggest influence on her life had been her mother, and she taught me never to back down from a bully  which turned out to be pretty good advice.



It was with that same grit that Clinton picked herself up after a bruising defeat by Obama in 2008, when she assured a crowd of tearful female supporters, eight years ago to the day, that they had made 18 million cracks in the highest, hardest glass ceiling.



For 14 straight years, and 20 in all, Clinton has been named the woman Americans admire most, according to a yearly Gallup poll. But her campaign, and the controversy over her use of a private email server as secretary of state, have taken a toll: Her favourability and trustworthiness ratings have plummeted. And she is being caricatured, once more, as a calculating and inauthentic career politician: Lady Macbeth, now in her own play.



In the same way, her longevity and fame are not undiluted assets: The baggage she brings as a consummate Democratic insider, pointed up most damagingly in the enormous sums she commanded as a paid speaker to Wall Street banks, has weighed Clinton down.



If age-old antipathies to Clinton can be cha-lked up in part to Americans struggles to adjust to changing gender roles at home, at work and in politics, her history of political combat has also left scar tissue that, in part, defines the candidate she is: wide-eyed about the realities of Washington, but cautious and wary to a fault.



Her prolonged contest with Sanders, whose campaign was not widely expected to survive the first few nominating contests, laid bare the cost of that restraint, both in style and substance. As voters have gravitated to Trumps unchecked impulsiveness and Sanders unabashed idealism, Clinton has displayed little of either.



This is not an incremental, cautious election, and being cautious is not her friend, said Anna Greenberg, a Democratic pollster. Both primaries exposed the depth of anger and frustration and disgust, Greenberg added. She has had to, and will have to, adjust to it.



For 14 months, Clintons campaign has been out of step with younger voters and with swathes of an angry electorate that has demanded more than the competence and hard work she has promised. Her difficulties with those voters could be a warning sign.



It has not helped that her campaign has cycled through a half-dozen slogans, from championing everyday Americans to fighting for us, breaking down barriers, and, most recently, stronger together  playing on Trumps more divisive remarks about Mexicans, Muslims and other groups.



As Sanders has demonised Wall Street and Trump has disparaged immigrants, and as they have vowed to reverse economic malaise, Clinton has run on a flinty practicality. The most telling promise she has made is that she will not overpromise. We dont need any more of that, she has told voters.



Lending an ear

But what she has lacked in rhetorical brio, she has made up for by listening to peoples problems and prescribing solutions. She has shed tears in conversations with a man whose mother had Alzheimers and a woman who lost a child to a gun accident.



And she has shown a vulnerability she did not reveal in 2008, when she campaigned as a strong would-be commander in chief, seeking to neutralise any doubts about whether she was tough enough for the Oval Office.



I am not a natural politician, in case you havent noticed, like my husband or President Obama, Clinton said in one of her debates with Sanders, a bracingly honest statement.

To her supporters, there may be a kind of strange logic at work. Clinton is somehow expected to project the mettle of a commander in chief, the charisma of a drinking buddy, the warmth of a favourite aunt, they say. Youre required to be touchy-feely and smiley and also required to grow a hide like an elephant, said Tina Brown, the journalist. Which is it? An impossible combination, they complain  and if she managed all that, there would no doubt emerge some other vital quality that she was failing to display, because there is no template yet for a female US president.



Attitudes about female leadership eventually may change, of course. And in talking to reporters, hours before reports that she had clinched the nomination, Clinton looked past November to a time when female presidential candidates may not require quite so much durability to have a shot at the White House.



Its predominantly women and girls, but not exclusively  men bring their daughters to meet me and tell me that they are supporting me because of their daughters, Clinton said. And I do think itll make a very big difference for a father or a mother to be able to look at their daughter just like they can look at their son and say, You can be anything you want to be in this country, including president of the United States.
Unlike his previous trips that had more fluff than content, Prime Minister Narendra Modis recent visit to the US  his fourth since assuming office in 2014  culminated in some important takeaways. This was an important visit not only because it is probably the last one-on-one official interaction between Modi and US President Barack Obama before the latter demits office and a new President takes charge in Washington, but also the visit came on the eve of a key meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) where Indias membership of the body is to be discussed. The US strongly endorsed Indias admission to the NSG during Modis visit. Whether this and the announcement of Indias impending entry to the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) will convince obstructionists among NSG members remains to be seen. Still, it is a strong and welcome sign of support. During Modis visit, the two sides took an important step forward on civilian nuclear cooperation. India has agreed to buy six nuclear reactors from Westinghouse.



Preparatory work onsite in India is to begin soon and a deal on contractual arrangements is to be signed in a year. This is the first India-US deal to flow from the civilian nuclear accord that the two countries signed over a decade ago and the two sides made progress in closing that deal during Modis visit.



A joint statement issued at the end of the prime ministers visit refers to India as a major defence partner of the US. This means the US could share technology with India to a level commensurate with that of its closest allies and partners. It could pave the

way for India to gain licence-free access to a wide range of dual-use technologies. Talks between Modi and Obama are said to have helped iron out differences relating to

defence logistics, sharing of maritime information etc. With the text having been finalised, the signing of the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) can be expected soon.



The signing of key India-US agreements are in the horizon. Their content has not been put in the public domain. While security concerns may underlie this reluctance to publicise the text, the lack of transparency will raise doubts over whether the agreements will undermine Indias autonomy. Will India gains from them in the long run? The government must take opposition parties into confidence and discuss the text of the agreements threadbare before signing them. By taking on board the opposition, Modi will strengthen Indias hand in the agreements with the US.








Chairman of Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) L P Singh, who was in the eye of storm ever since the toppers scam surfaced, resigned from his post on Wednesday.





The secretary of BSEB Hariharnath Jha too quit following the intermediate result controversy which brought huge disrepute to the state.



Singh, who was earlier summoned by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, was served upon a notice wherein he was asked to explain within 24 hours why he should not be removed from his post for ordering a judicial inquiry into the toppers scam without seeking permission of the state government.



The government on Tuesday dissolved the probe body and ordered Bihar police to conduct investigation.



On Wednesday, as soon as Singh tendered his resignation, the Special Investigating Team (SIT), probing the matter, conducted raid at his Patna residence and seized computer, laptop and other relevant files. It is worth mentioning here that Singh stays here with his politician wife Usha Singh, who was JD (U) MLA from Hilsa in Nitishs home district Nalanda from 2010 to 2015.



Notwithstanding his political clout, Singh was shown the door after SIT on Wednesday raided the residence of Bachcha Rai, principal of Vishun Roy College in Vaishali, from where the three toppers Ruby Rai, Saurbah Shreshta and Rahul Kumar appeared for intermediate examination.



Notice on Rubys house

The SIT also pasted a notice on the house of Ruby Rai, who is absconding, and asked her to appear before the investigating officer at the earliest.



Meanwhile, the SIT apprehended Shail Kumari, the principal of GA Intermediate College which was the centre for examination of students of Vishun Roy College.



In the meantime, the Bihar Government has asked Patna Divisional Commissioner Anand Kishore to hold additional charge of BSEB chairman. Anup Sinha will replace Hariharnath Jha as BSEB secretary.

DH News Service
The Uttar Pradesh Police have recovered a rocket launcher from Jawahar Bagh Park in Mathura, where a clash between members of a cult and the cops had left many, including two senior police officials dead.





The rocket launcher, which had Made In USA inscribed on it, was recovered from the park during the search operation conducted by the bomb disposal squad, according to the police sources here on Wednesday.



Sources said that the squad members also recovered a huge quantity of articles used in making bombs. A large amount of gun powder and other articles have been found at the park...these articles could make hundreds of crude bombs', said a senior police official here.



Officials in Mathura said that a case was registered with the police in this connection and investigation was on. We are trying to ascertain from where the cult leader Ram Vriksh Yadav had procured the launcher and other automatic weapons, said the official. The police suspect that the cult members had close connections with the Maoists outfits and it was possible that they had procured weapons and ammunition from them. The Maxalite connection was already under investigation.



The toll in last weeks violence at the park had gone up to 32 with death of three more people in the hospital, sources said.



Scores of people were still being treated at the hospitals. The police said that they had arrested 236 people in connection with the incident so far. We are looking for the cult members, who managed to escape, the official added. Sources said that police teams have been looking for Yadavs closest aide Chandan Bose, who is believed to have escaped from the park soon after the clashes started.



Bose was said to be the accountant of the sect and kept records of all the expenditure. Teams had been sent to Delhi and some other states in search for the cult members.

The UP government has announced a judicial probe into the violence.



DH News Service



police: A large amount of gun powder and other articles have been found at the park...these articles could make hundreds of crude bombs.


The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students on Wednesday demanded scrapping of the rules that stipulates for giving 26% reservation to OBCs in the recruitment of assistant professors only.





While protesting outside the University Grants Commission (UGC) office, they also demanded for OBC quota in promotion of the university teachers and increase in the number of fellowships for students belonging to OBC.



A delegation led by JNU students union president Kanhaiya Kumar later submitted a memorandum to the higher education regulator. All the leftist students unions supported the protest held amid heavy deployment of police around the UGC office.



The UGC regulations stipulates that 26% reservation will be given to candidates belonging to OBCs only in recruitment of assistant professors, not that of associate professors and professors. The students described the UGCs regulations as discriminatory.



The OBC quota is applicable at all levels of faculty recruitment in many premier institutions including Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) in department of humanities, social sciences and management.



However, the OBC reservation is limited to recruitment of assistant professors' science and technology disciplines in the IITs and other technical institutions.



Why is it discriminatory? they said, threatening to intensify their protest if the Commission does not accept their demands.



The students also demanded for scrapping of a provision in recruitment rules where university can disqualify an OBC candidate from recruitment of faculties by just putting in records not found suitable.



The issue of OBC quota in recruitment has created concern within the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry as the students have picked up the issue to corner the UGC at a time when the BJP was gearing up for Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh.



According to sources, senior officials of the Ministry held a meeting on Tuesday evening and asked the UGC to issue a clarification after Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) patriarch Lalu Yadav also picked up the the issue and accused the Narendra Modi government of taking away 26% reservation assured to OBCs in faculty recruitment.
The Centre is unlikely to intervene in the ongoing row over the film certification to Udta Punjab by the Censor Board.





The Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry has rather kept its focus on proposal to restructure the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) to streamline its functioning. The ministry is examining recommendations made by the Shyam Benegal committee in its report.



Senior officials of the I&B Ministry said that any interference of the Centre into matters pending with CBFC would be inappropriate and amount to interference with its autonomy.



They also cited a Supreme Court verdict in 2000 in which the apex court observed that the Cinematograph Act that vested powers to the Centre of review and revision over the decisions of the CBFC and its Appellate Tribunal was a travesty of the rule of law.



The ministry officials response to the raging controversy came a day after one of the co-producers of Udta Punjab Anurag Kashyap reportedly complained that he did not get any help from the Centre.



The CBFC has recommended as many has 89 cuts in the film Udta Punjab, which seeks to highlight the wide-scale abuse of drugs and narcotic substances prevalent in the state. The film is scheduled to be released on June 17.



Punjab, which is being ruled by the Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party (SAD-BJP) coalition, is gearing up for Assembly polls in the state next year. Addressing a press conference here, Union Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy dismissed Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwals accusation that CBFC recommended 89 cuts in Udta Punjab at the behest of the BJP-led coalition government at the Centre. I completely reject it (charge) that the government has any role or intervened to stop its release. AAP survives on controversies. It creates controversies for political purpose, he said.



When asked if he believed that Punjab suffered from drugs addiction problems, Rudy said: I don't think there is any problem. The I&B Ministry officials said that CBFC was an independent body, suggesting that makers of the film can challenge the Boards decision before the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT).



The process is quite clear. The court guidelines also make it clear that it is not for the I&B ministry to take up such matters, an official said.

DH News Service



Kashyap took AAP money: Nihalani

Censor Board chief Pahlaj Nihalani on Wednesday said that filmmaker Anurag Kashyap has taken money from the AAP to show Punjab in bad light in Udta Punjab, DHNS

reports from Mumbai. However, Kashyap, who is the co-producer of Udta Punjab, in response said that it is such a statement that does not even merit a comment. On the other hand, Mukesh Bhatt, the president, Film & Television Producers Guild of India and Ashoke Pandit, the president, Indian Film & Television Directors Association, demanded an unconditional apology from Nihalani for having made such a statement. Kashyaps Phantom Films and Balaji Motion Pictures, which are the co-producers of Udta Punjab, were asked to make 89 cuts to the movie to get a release certificate from the Central Board for Film Certification (CBFC). The film is slated to be released on June 17.





Snip snip: what the CENSOR BOARD wants to remove



*Delete sign board of word Punjab in the beginning

*Delete words like Punjab, Jullandhar, Chandigarh, Amritsar, Taran Taran, Jashanpura, Ambesar, Ludhiana and Mogha

*Delete words - election, MP, party from party worker, MLA, Punjab, Parliament

*Delete the close up shots of injecting the drugs wherever it appears

*First disclaimer should be audio/video and to be changed as - The film focusses on the rising menace of drugs and the war against drugs and is an attempt to show the ill-effects of drugs on todays youth and the social fabric. We acknowledge the battle against drugs being fought by the government and police. But this battle cannot be won unless the people of India unite against this menace.

*Certain wordings used in two songs need to be changed

*Name of a dog, which resembles a top Hollywood actor, needs to be changed

*Expletives used at every place need to be deleted

*A certain visual sequence in song needs to be changed
If New Delhi went past the last hurdle in its bid to get into the Missile Technology Control Regime, it was largely due to recent upturn in India-Italy ties.





Italy has been lobbying against Indias bid to enter the MTCR over the past several months. Romes relations with New Delhi had turned sour over the past four years following arrest of two Italian marines in India. This came in the way of Indias bid to win support of Italy for admission into the MTCR, which controls global trade in missiles and missile technology.



The MTCR had set June 7 as the deadline for its members to formally submit its objections to proposed admission of India.



But amid recent signs of a thaw between India and Italy, Rome chose not to formally convey its objection to the French government, which has been serving as a point-of-contact for the MTCR since its inception.



The MTCR is one of the four export control regimes India has been trying to enter ever since it inked the civil nuclear cooperation agreement with US in 2008, the others being Nuclear Suppliers Group, Wassenaar Arrangement and Australia Group.



India on May 12 last applied for membership of the NSG, but is facing strong opposition from China. The NSG controls global nuclear trade.



That China is not a member of the MTCR also made Indias entry to the cartel easier, compared to its move for an NSG berth.



India, however, is yet to seek membership of the Wassenaar Arrangement and Australia Group, which too did not include China.



The Wassenaar Arrangement controls global commerce of conventional weapons and dual-use goods and technologies, while the Australian Group governs international trade of materials used to make chemical and biological weapons.



As the deadline passed on Tuesday without any formal objection from any of the MTCRs 34 members, Indias entry to the cartel now appears to be a fait accompli.



The breakthrough came just 10 days after Italian Navy sergeant Salvatore Girone returned home. Girone and his colleague Massimiliano Latorre were arrested four years back for killing two fishermen of Kerala off the southern coast of India on February 12, 2012. The Supreme Court eased the bail conditions of Girone, who was staying in Italian Embassy in New Delhi, and allowed him to go home after noting that the government of India had no objection to the relaxation.

DH News Service




 Harvard Professor is Worried About Jewish Threat | Main | CAMERA Waiting for Response to Letter to Mart Green About Little Town of Bethlehem 

June 08, 2016

Yahoo News, Russia Today, Misreport Tel Aviv Terror Attack

As we were posting an article noting Yahoo News's prior connections to radical hate sites, and its continued promotion of extreme and inaccurate anti-Israel propaganda, Palestinian terrorists opened fire outside a chocolate shop in a crowded area of Tel Aviv, leaving four Israelis dead.

After the attack, Yahoo News on Twitter gave the false impression that the "militant attack" targeted Israel's defense ministry:

Responsibility for that tweet might lie with AFP, whose breaking report, which Yahoo News linked to, used similar language. But while AFP has since updated its reporting to note that the shooting occurred at "a Tel Aviv bar and restaurant complex," Yahoo News seems to be sticking with the "Defense Ministry" spin. A subsequent tweet by the Yahoo account again described the attack as being "near Israel's defense ministry."

This time, though, Yahoo News did not link to an article that mentioned the defense ministry. Instead, it referred to an AP article correctly describing an attack "near a popular open-air market." Why, then, does Yahoo News continue suggest to its Twitter followers that the terrorists were targeting anything other than Israeli civilians?

It can always get worse, though. Russia Today initially claimed it the gunmen were Jewish:

(It subsequently corrected its headline, which currently reads, "'Harsh terror attack': 2 Palestinians dressed as Orthodox Jews kill 3 in Tel Aviv.")

Posted by GI at June 8, 2016 04:34 PM

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Censor Board chief Pahlaj Nihalani on Wednesday faced heat on multiple fronts in the escalating row over Bollywood movie Udta Punjab, with demands for his sacking, including over his allegation that its maker Anurag Kashyap may have taken money from the Aam Aadmi Party to make the film.



Addressing a jam-packed news conference, Mukesh Bhatt, president of the Film and Television Producers Guild of India, and Ashoke Pandit, president, Indian Film and Television Directors Association, accompanied by a host of producers and directors, urged the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to sack Nihalani forthwith.



It used to happen in the previous government... its happening in this government... but now, it is crossing the limit, said Bhatt. I appeal to the government to remove him (Nihalani) immediately. There is a vicious system prevailing in the CBFC (Central Board of Film Certification). The producers guild does not want him as the CBFC chief; we are united on this, he added.



Nihalani has made the entire board redundant... whatever is happening is not good, Pandit said. Filmmakers should be respected and encouraged for making such good issue-based cinema, he said. The film delves into how the youth in Punjab have succumbed to drugs.



Kashyap said: We dont want a Censor Board, we want a certification board... it is distressing, financially distressing... they are breaking the back and the backbone.

Talking about Nihalani, veteran filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt said that at one point in time, both of them had together fought against the Censor Board. There is no freedom without free thought, he said.



Director of the film Abhishek Chaubey said they had been under so much pressure that he almost agreed to the cuts suggested by the board. It is a good beginning...we are all fighting together, added Sudhir Mishra.Filmmaker Imtiaz Ali said: Anything that attacks freedom of thinking is frustrating. Good thing is we are together over here. We will see what happens.



The producers have now moved the Bombay High Court seeking a copy of the order passed by the Censor Boards Review Committee suggesting 13 changes and removing reference to Punjab in the film.



For his part, Nihalani said the producers themselves did not collect the order until Wednesday and instead went to the media making the matter public. We met the producers on Monday and told them about the cuts. They said, If we get cuts, will you give us the certificate? I said, Of course, yes. But they did not turn up to collect the letter. They directly went to media. Today they came to collect the letter.



Taking a potshot at Kashyap, the Censor Board chief claimed he had heard that the filmmaker had taken money from AAP to show Punjab in bad light.

DH News Service


The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) will conduct special audit of the AAP governments two departments  Public Works Department and Department of Information Publicity.





While the AAP government welcomed the move claiming that it would clear doubts over large ad spend of the city government, the BJP claimed the move confirmed its suspicion of wasteful expenditure.



Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, in a letter, welcomed the CAG decision to enhance transparency but, in a sarcastic way, asked the government auditor to conduct a similar audit of the Central government and other states.



Meanwhile, Delhi BJP president Satish Upadhyay claimed the CAG audit of Delhi governments accounts has vindicated their stand that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwals government has been splurging public money on self promotion. The tenders of the PWD would also expose wrongdoing in road maintenance, construction of public buildings and desilting of big drains, said the BJP leader.



In a letter to Shashi Kant Sharma, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, Sisodia said: Various kinds of misinformation are being spread about our governments advertisement expenses. It is an outrageous lie which has been repeatedly stated that this expenditure is around Rs 500 crore, which in reality is note more than Rs 75 crore for the entire year, which I am sure will come out in your audit.



Sisodia said the Delhi government would welcome a similar audit by the CAG of all its departments.



The deputy chief minister wrote he was disappointed to know that the CAG was only auditing the advertisement expenses of the Delhi government alone. It is being portrayed as if Delhi was the only government which was placing advertisements in media outside the state. The CAG is not auditing the advertisement expenses of either the central government or any other state government, Sisodia wrote.



The Central government has reportedly spent Rs 1,000 crore on advertising its second year anniversary celebrations. Advertisements were placed in all national dailies in addition to TV and radio campaigns and it ran for more than a week, Sisodia wrote.



The governments of Telangana, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu also carried massive publicity campaigns. Therefore, advertisement expenses of all governments is being debated nationally for the last few years and this was dealt by no less than the Supreme Court, he said.
Many Cabinet ministers on Wednesday expressed displeasure at Deputy Superintendent of Police Anupama Shenoy for having threatened to expose Labour Minister P T Parameshwar Naik.





At the Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, the ministers suspected that the opposition BJP would be backing the police officer who has tendered her resignation. No officer can muster courage to openly take on the government. The BJP must be behind all these developments, ministers are learnt to have said.



But Siddaramaiah chose to remain silent on the issue. Naik and Home Minister G Parameshwara did not attend the meeting. Earlier, speaking to reporters, Siddaramaiah said he has directed the state police chief Om Prakash not to accept Anupamas resignations and convince her to continue in the service.



He said officials should remain sincere to the government. If any officer has any grievance, he/she should bring it to the notice of their higher-ups and get it solved. It is not proper to use social media to air their grievances, he added.



Meanwhile, Naik reiterated that he has nothing to do with Anupamas resignation. She is a police officer. The police department will find out her whereabouts. I have nothing to do with it, he said in reply to a question by reporters on whereabouts of the officer.



Asked about the threat by Anupama to release a CD pertaining to him, Naik said the question should be posed to the person who issued such a threat. On Anupamas demand for his resignation, he questioned her authority to seek his resignation.



Shobha targets govt

Udupi-Chikkamagaluru MP and former minister Shobha Karandlaje on Wednesday said DySP Anupama Shenoy was another victim of arrogance of the state government officials. In Udupi, she said IAS officer D K Ravi, police officers Mallikarjun Bande, Jagadish were at the receiving end of government earlier, despite honesty and commitment. She said Shenoys resignation should not be accepted and added that if BJP comes to power it will take steps to encourage officers like Anupama.
The doctors have stared seeing sporadic cases of dengue in the city. This year, the cases of dreaded viral fever were being reported much in advance.



According to statistics available with the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), as many as 52 cases have already been reported within the city limits. According to Dr Ambanna Gowda, consultant, Fortis Hospitals, We usually see a good number of viral fever and dengue cases by August or September when it rains. This time, we have begun seeing patients early.



Gowda said that patients with symptoms of viral arthralgia are also seen in good numbers in the outpatient department. Patients with joint pains, sever back ache and high grade fever are visiting hospital. This, apart from the other usual symptoms of flu, he explained.



As a precaution, he suggested that patients visit the doctor if the fever does not subside within two days. They could have rashes as well, Dr Gowda added.



Among the major causes for early onset of the flu, this season, is dip in temperatures in the state following showers. In Bengaluru, he said, the situation usually aggravates due to the garbage menace.



With the BBMP facing shortage of health workers, several measures planned by the local body to control mosquito breeding may fall flat.



Dedicated lab

The BBMP is all set to have a dedicated lab for testing dengue samples from the city. Earlier, samples were sent to the National Institute of Virology at Nimhans.



The number of samples that went to National Institute of Virology were very high. To reduce the burden on them, the Health minister had proposed that we have a lab of our own, a senior official in the BBMP, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Deccan Herald.



The lab would be housed near Johnson Market. The Palike is in the process of recruiting manpower for the said lab which would be ready in a month. Three lab technicians, round-the-clock security and one microbiologist would be working in the facility.

DH News Service



Keep surroundings clean, dispose dry waste scientifically

Use mosquito repellents

Wear full sleeves clothes

Keep yourself well hydrated

If fever does not subside within two days, visit a doctor






The House Committee on Lake Encroachment Chairman K B Koliwad on Wednesday directed the Bengaluru Urban district authorities to survey the Arakere lake within a fortnight, and demolish the compound wall of an apartment inside Hulimavu lake.





During his inspection of Arakere and Hulimavu lakes, Koliwad vented ire at the officials for allowing the construction of compound wall inside the Hulivmavu lake.



Arakere is one of the lakes we (panel) had visited soon after the formation of the committee.



We had directed the district administration to conduct a survey of the lake. But it has not been done so far.



Who should be held responsible for it. Koliwad questioned the officials. Assistant Commissioner of Bengaluru South L C Nagaraj explained to Koliwad that some of the property owners obtained the stay order against the action. The court had ordered status quo, besides directing the joint survey. In the mean time the encroachers built a compound wall, he added.



Reacting to the assistant commissioners explanation, another panel member S Suresh Kumar wondered why no survey was carried out in the last one year even as the court had issued directions for joint survey in July 2015. He also questioned the district officials why they didnt abide by the status quo order.



Bengaluru South Tahsildar S M Shivakumar told the panel members that many missives to the Survey Settlement department for the joint survey failed to elicit any response.

An activist, who was present during panels inspection, said the compound wall was constructed with the help of rowdies while the entire district administration remained mute spectator to it.

DH News Service
Prithiviraj To Shoot In Portugal For His Next Romantic Musical
Satellite data communications services provider Avanti Communications Group has signed a two year contract extension with Imarasat.

The contract will enable growth for Imarasat in consumer, SME and enterprise markets across 14 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. In particular, Imarasat will target the significant opportunity that the growing SME market presents in countries such as Kenya.

It is estimated that 1.1 million active Kenyan SMEs contribute 45% to Kenyas economy. However, nearly 75% of them do not have access to the Internet and are therefore unable to benefit from the growth and productivity gains that broadband can offer. 32% of SMEs are outside of 3G broadband coverage entirely. These SMEs are perfectly suited to satellite broadband services offered by Imarasat and Avanti.

Avantis pre-packaged Select product allows Imarasat to provide consumer and SME customers with fast, affordable satellite broadband. Avantis guaranteed capacity Custom product is more suitable for enterprise customers. It is enabling Imarasat to more effectively address key verticals, such as financial services, oil and gas, hospitality and agriculture.

Imarasats Ka-band satellite broadband service includes a highly differentiated Quality of Service (QoS) feature. It ensures real-time prioritisation of mission critical applications for SME and enterprise customers using Imarasats packet shaping technology. This is implemented on hubs at Avantis Gateway Earth Stations. The technology avoids contention and interrupted business broadband services associated with non-business traffic, such as infotainment and peer to peer file sharing.

Salim Suleman, Managing Director of Imarasat, commented: Avanti [offers] a combination of reliable, high quality satellite broadband delivered as part of flexible product portfolio at a cost-effective price and with zero capital expenditure.
Ascensia Diabetes Care staff are climbing three British peaks in 24 hours to raise funds for the type 1 diabetes charity JDRF.

Berkshire-based Ascensia, which was established in 2016 as a global specialist diabetes care company, helps people with diabetes manage the condition through innovation and specialist expertise in diabetes. Their products include the CONTOUR blood glucose meters.

Ascensia is hoping to raise 5,000 for JDRF, which is the leading global organisation for type 1 diabetes research.

Thirty-three staff members from across the UK will take on the highest peaks in England, Wales and Scotland: Scafell Pike, Ben Nevis and Snowde, on 10-11 June 2016.

The three climbs will cover a total of 42km horizontal distance and 3,000 vertical metres, and completing it in 24 hours would challenge even the most seasoned of hikers.

Elie Kelpie, Senior Corporate Fundraising Manager at JDRF in the UK said: Were delighted the team from Ascensia Diabetes Care is raising funds for JDRF and are very grateful for their stellar efforts.

Their commitment to this fantastic fundraising challenge and to the diabetes community is admirable and will help JDRF support vital type 1 diabetes research.

Ros Barker, Country Head UK, Ascensia Diabetes Care added: As a team, we are very excited about doing this trek and hope we can exceed our fundraising target for this crucial organization that we have worked with for many years.

We are delighted to be supporting JDRF and hope our efforts can help make a difference for people with type 1 diabetes.

You can donate to the challenge here.
Mineral exploration and production company Red Rock Resources updated the market on its programme at the Shoats Creek Field in Louisiana on Wednesday, including the identification of a low-cost recompletion opportunity at the LM19 well.

The AIM-traded firm reiterated that there have been development delays since production began earlier this year, and the original spud date for the LM21 was not met.

However, the investor group has been quick to assess and seize the new opportunity at LM19, Red Rocks board said.

As the operator gains experience, we expect to improve operational effectiveness while retaining this flexibility and entrepreneurial drive, commented chairman Andrew Bell.

Bell said the LM19 recompletion is a low cost and low risk attempt to exploit established Frio pay and add inexpensive and meaningful production to the project.

We look forward to the results of this effort and to updating the market on quarterly production and the spudding of LM21.

The 2016 work programme at Shoats Creek is focussed on driving production growth by taking advantage of current low drilling and development costs, and with improved oil prices this should flow through directly to the companys bottom line, Bell explained.
Wikileaks founder says that the tech company now has an enormous influence on the way elections are decided

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange claims Google is closely connected with Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign in order to promote the former First Lady who has claimed the Democratic nomination.

Assange was speaking as part of the "New Era of Journalism: Farewell to Mainstream international media" forum in Moscow via videolink, as he is still self-captive in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

The journalist is wanted in connection with a sexual assault charge in Sweden, but is being shielded by the embassy as he fears extradition to the United States over his website's leaking of secure information to the press.

"Google is directly engaged with Hillary Clinton's campaign," claimed Assange. "Of course when she is in power..she is a problem for freedom of speech. We know what she is going to do. And she made the chart for the destruction of Libya, she was involved in the process of taking the Libyan armoury and sending it to Syria."

Of course when she is in power..she is a problem for freedom of speech. We know what she is going to do

He repeated his claims that Clinton is a war hawk, but who is smart about the way she approaches them, coating herself in legal interventionism.

"What we have with Clinton is someone who is a hawk but who has the tools of legal interventionism, a rhetorical cover to start wars, and someone who seemingly wants to start them From WikiLeaks perspective Hillary Clinton is a problem in terms of war and peace."

Assange also pointed out the increasing influence of Google on existing power structures, citing Eric Schmidt's appointment to head of the Pentagon's Innovation department as an example of the close intertwining of the company within these structures

"Google is heavily integrated with Washington power, at personal level and at business level. Google, which has increasing control over the distribution channels, is intensely allying itself with the US exceptionalism."

GOOGLE EXIT FOR CHINA?

The Wikileaks' editor-in-chief has also predicted that China could one day boycott Google, such is the company's focus on being part of the "American family". He affirmed "I see a Google exit from China It seems much more to do with Google's feeling that it is part of family America and that it is opposed to the Chinese."

Google search rankings could potentially decide the outcome of an election

Assange's claims come after a report issued by Fortune said that researchers had found that Google search rankings could potentially decide the outcome of an election, with little doubt that the search engine at least has a heavy influence on results.

"If Google tweaks its algorithm to show more positive search results for a candidate, the researchers say, the searcher may form a more positive opinion of him or her," said Fortune.
Royal Dutch Shell shares gained on Wednesday after RBC Capital Markets lifted its target price on the stock to 2,000p from 1,9000 and reiterated an outperform rating.

The oil producer on Tuesday announced plans for more asset sales and cost-cutting over the next few years amid lower oil prices.

Shell will exit oil and gas operations in up to 10 countries and sell 10% of its production as part of a $30bn asset sale plan by 2018. The group lowered its planned 2016 capital expenditure (capex) to $29bn, with exploration set at $2.5bn, in a third cut from an initial $35bn.

The company also said it expected to save another $1bn from its takeover of BG Group. Chief executive Ben van Beurden confirmed that Shell was cutting another 2,200 jobs after the BG deal, on top of the 2,800.

Management's hardceiling on capex is a clear positive, in our view, although this commitment is likely to be tested over time, RBC said.

We see this commitment as significant, in particular for the dividend focused community, as many had likely feared that any oil price increase would ultimately lead to higher capex. While we do think this is likely to be the case for some oil companies, we think Shells focus on dividend sustainability means additional capex will have to compete with the buyback programme from now until 2020.

RBC said it continues to believe Shell has some of the best project optionality in the peer group and its rigorous capital allocation process should support the investment case in the long run. The BG Group acquisition brings project optionality with the introduction of BG's Brazil assets and liquefied natural gas volumes likely to kick-start the high-grading process, the broker added.

In the short term, however, RBC said cash flows are likely to be outstripped by Shells capex and dividends so confidence on divestments could weigh on investor sentiment.

We remain positive, and think Shell should remain a core energy holding for longer term investors.

Shares rose 1.62% to 1,784p at 0956 BST.
The militant group claiming responsibility for a wave of attacks that sent Nigerias oil production to a 27-year low said it was not holding talks with the government and announced it had carried out a new attack in the oil-rich Niger Delta.

If the government is discussing with any group theyre doing that on their own, the self-proclaimed Niger Delta Avengers said Wednesday in a post on Twitter referenced by various media outfits, although the authenticity of the account could not be verfied.

Through that same account the group also claimed they had blown-up Well RMP 20 belonging to Chevron in Warri North.

On 7 June, the government had announced its decision to de-escalate the military presence in the key oil-producing region, following a meeting between Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, governors from the Niger Delta States and military service chiefs.

In a statement, the countrys government cited Delta state Governor Ifeanyi Okowa as saying it has been decided that military presence in the region should be de-escalated, though it was agreed that the forces should be kept to provide security and presence while government begins immediate engagement process with the communities in the affected areas.

Militants in the Niger Delta were thought by some observers to be responding to the new governments decision to repeal an agreement granting them the responsibility for safeguarding the energy sectors assets in the region in exchange for payments.

As of 14:38 BST front month Brent crude futures were rising by 1.4% to $52.17 per barrel on the ICE.
A car bomb attack on a police station in Midyat, in the Mardin province of southeast Turkey, has killed at least three people and injured 20 more. It is the fifth major attack in Turkey this year.

This latest strike, near Turkey's border with Syrian and reported on by Aljazeera, came just a day after another car bomb hit a police vehicle in morning rush-hour Istanbul, leaving 11 dead.

UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office has advised against all travel to within 10km of the border with Syria and to the city of Diyarbakir.

In particular, it warned against all but essential travel to the remaining areas of Sirnak, Mardin, Sanliurfa, Gaziantep, Diyarbakir, Kilis and Hatay provinces, and also Siirt, Tunceli and Hakkari.

Several FTSE-quoted travel-related stocks, which are sensitive to such events, fell. The FTSE 350 index for Travel and Leisure was down 0.75%. EasyJet was down 1.78% and TUI dropped 1.53%.
Brazil's commerce watchdog, Cade, is set to rule today on whether Asia-focused bank HSBC can sell its Brazilian unit to Banco Bradesco SA .

The decision has potentially big implications for HSBC and its shareholders going forward.

Chief executive Stuart Gulliver is said to be counting on the $5.2bn sale of HSBC Bank Brasil Banco Multiplo SA to boost the group's main capital ratio, Reuters has reported.

Such a sale would also ensure HSBC remained the biggest dividend payer among its European peers, the news agency reported.

Some pundits have queried whether HSBC would maintain its payout if the unit sale was delayed.

Brazil's central bank has already given the deal a thumbs up.

However, watchdog Cade -- the Administrative Council for Economic Defense -- has clashed with the central bank previously over their roles in overseeing merger and acquisition activity in banking.
The mega-acquisition of SABMiller by Anheuser-Busch InBev NV is nearing sign-off by China's commerce watchdog after agreeing to divest some assets, a report says.

Although China's Ministry of Commerce might attach some conditions to the deal, it apparently saw no major hurdles, reported Bloomberg, citing sources.

If this occurred, the $100m-plus beer deal would be a step nearer to completion.

It is expected that the US Department of Justice would approve the deal in June, the news agency reported, again citing sources.

The tie-up plan has won regulator approval in more than a dozen jurisdictions, including the European Union.
Turkish food group Yildiz has set up a London-based company, it was revealed this week, in a bid to boost its access to global markets and investors.

The privately-held Istanbul-based conglomerate, owned by the Ulker family, owns a number of international brands including Godiva chocolates and McVities biscuits.

Its new wholly-owned UK subsidiary has been dubbed Pladis, with Yildiz reportedly planning to grow the company towards an initial public offering within three or four years.

Pladis is a global company and London is a global city, chief executive Cam Karakas told Reuters.

The company will combine Godiva chocolate with United Biscuits and its majority holding in the Istanbul-traded Ulker Biskuvi.

Among its plans are the launch of Godiva chocolate and cakes on the UK grocery market, expanding McVities biscuits globally, as well as improving sales and distribution in the US and growing markets in the Middle East and Africa.

Yildiz would not be drawn on how large an IPO it was aiming for, but it did confirm it intends to remain the majority shareholder.
Miners took the FTSE 100 blue chip index as metals and oil prices headed north.

Anglo American led the way with a rise of 4% in afternoon trade. Glencore, Fresnillo, BHP Billiton, Antofagasta, Shell and Randgold.

Shell shares gained on after RBC Capital Markets lifted its target price on the stock to 2,000p from 1,9000 and reiterated an outperform rating.

The oil producer on Tuesday announced plans for more asset sales and cost-cutting over the next few years amid lower oil prices.

Shell will exit oil and gas operations in up to 10 countries and sell 10% of its production as part of a $30bn asset sale plan by 2018. The group lowered its planned 2016 capital expenditure (capex) to $29bn, with exploration set at $2.5bn, in a third cut from an initial $35bn.

Dearer fule cost fears hit the leisure sector, the Guardian reported with Intercontinental, TUI and easJet all lower as a result.

A car bomb attack on a police station in Midyat, in the Mardin province of southeast Turkey, has killed at least three people and injured 20 more. It is the fifth major attack in Turkey this year.

This latest strike, near Turkey's border with Syrian and reported on by Aljazeera, came just a day after another car bomb hit a police vehicle in morning rush-hour Istanbul, leaving 11 dead.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 6,290.00 0.09%





FTSE 100 - Risers

Anglo American (AAL) 692.40p 4.04%

Glencore (GLEN) 145.05p 3.61%

Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 1,453.00p 3.05%

Fresnillo (FRES) 1,184.00p 3.05%

Antofagasta (ANTO) 452.60p 2.84%

BHP Billiton (BLT) 900.60p 2.35%

Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 1,804.00p 2.24%

Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) 1,794.00p 2.16%

Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 6,400.00p 1.99%

Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 251.40p 1.91%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Worldpay Group (WI) (WPG) 274.20p -2.21%

Direct Line Insurance Group (DLG) 361.50p -2.03%

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 2,675.00p -1.98%

TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) 1,026.00p -1.82%

easyJet (EZJ) 1,495.00p -1.71%

Dixons Carphone (DC.) 426.50p -1.39%

Prudential (PRU) 1,304.50p -1.32%

Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 226.70p -1.31%

Sky (SKY) 929.50p -1.22%

ARM Holdings (ARM) 1,000.00p -1.09%
Gains in shares of London-listed oil majors BP and Royal Dutch Shell , and oil stocks more generally, helped to keep the FTSE 100 and FTSE 350 in the green on Tuesday.

Traders welcomed news that Shell had boosted its estimates for the cost savings it expected to reap from its merger with BG Group from $3.5bn to $4.5bn. In an update, the company said it expected to achieve and exceed the $3.5bn synergies prospectus commitment earlier than expected, in 2017, when synergies should be $4bn.

Acting as a backdrop, crude oil futures were moving higher on the back of the newsflow surrounding the ongoing difficult security situation in Nigerias key oil-producing region, the Niger Delta.

Retailers Burberry Group and Next were in vogue among investors after the latest data from the British Retail Consortium revealed that a warmer May had led to a slight thaw in consumer spending.

Figures from the BRC revealed that like-for-like sales rose 0.5% year-on-year in May, after sales fell in the previous two months, although the consortium warned that trade conditions remained tough for the sector.

Clothing made a big comeback this month after suffering declines in April, said BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson.

This appears to be due to consumers waiting for just the right moment before embarking on their pre-summer spending, Dickinson added.

Mining stocks were soft after news broke that LME copper stocks spiked by 21.25kt on Monday as Singapore, Gwangyang, Busan and Chicago saw inflows.

"The abrupt one-day warranting rather implies intent to crush the backwardation in the forward curve. Spreads have duly flattened, and the recently emerged dominant party with >90% of warrants plus the next calendar two days of futures is almost certain to have seen their position dilute. Whether there will be more inflow to come is the main question: we think not (much)," analysts at Macquarie said in a research note sent to clients.

To take note of as well, analysts at UBS reiterated a 'sell' recommendation on shares of Anglo American.

Shares in life insurers were weaker as investors reacted to the non-committal and more 'dovish' remarks made by US Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen in the previous session.
Mineral exploration and production company Red Rock Resources updated the market on its programme at the Shoats Creek Field in Louisiana on Wednesday, including the identification of a low-cost recompletion opportunity at the LM19 well. The AIM-traded firm reiterated that there have been development delays since production began earlier this year, and the original spud date for the LM21 was not met.

Exploration company 88 Energy issued an extensive update on its operations at Project Icewine on Wednesday, including its securing of additional acreage. The AIM-traded firm said processing has been completed for the official award of 172,937 acres successfully bid on in the State of Alaska November 2015 Licensing Round.

Canadian oil company Bankers Petroleum confirmed on Wednesday that it has resumed its usual operations, following the commencement of export activities at the Petrolifera Italo Albanese Terminal port facility near Vlore, Albania on 7 June. The AIM-traded firm said that over the past six days, or curtailed production by around 4,000 barrels of oil per day within the Patos-Marinza oilfield due to a lack of storage.

Boohoo.com, an online fashion retailer, raised its full year sales guidance on Wednesday after reporting a 41% year-on-year rise in first quarter revenue to 58.2m. In a trading update the British retailer said it now expects annual sales growth of between 25% and 30%, compared to an initial estimate of about 25%, following a solid first quarter.

Travel and leisure company Minoan Group revealed some positive progress with its controversial large Crete development on Wednesday, with news that appeals to its planning consent will take place in July. The AIM-traded company said the Greek Council of State - its supreme administrative court - has set an early hearing of the appeals against the Presidential Decree granting the consent.
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12 teens charged in standoff at Ohio youth prison

Twelve teens are charged with rioting, inducing panic, escape and vandalism in a takeover of the Indian River youth prison school.
GULFPORT, Mississippi -- A 19-year-old Gulfport man has been charged with murder after a shooting in Gulfport Tuesday night left one man dead.

According to Gulfport Police Sgt. Damon McDaniel, officers responded to an address in the area of Dogwood Court and Holly Circle around 11:26 p.m. in reference to a shooting.

Officers found a male victim -- later identified as 38-year-old Chavis Allen -- suffering from an apparent gunshot wound to the chest. Allen was taken to Memorial Hospital, where he was taken into emergency surgery, but was pronounced dead at 4:34 a.m. Wednesday.

Later Wednesday, Gary Desean Perkins of Gulfport was taken into custody. Gulfport police have released no information relative to what led them to Perkins as the suspect.

According to McDaniel, it is "unknown" at this point what prompted the shooting. The case remains under investigation.

Perkins was charged with murder and booked into the Harrison County Adult Detention Center under a $1 million bond.
JACKSON, Mississippi -- State Auditor Stacey Pickering is being called to active duty in the Mississippi Air National Guard.

Auditor's office spokeswoman Kelley Ryan says Tuesday that Pickering will be deployed within the next week to a military base in Nevada in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.

Ryan says Pickering will remain in touch with employees at the auditor's office and will continue to be in charge of the agency.

Pickering is chaplain of the 253rd Air Support Squadron.

Ryan says it was not immediately clear when Pickering would return.
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The situation has no precedent  no country the size of the U.K. has ever left such an integrated economic union.



By DANICA KIRKA

Associated Press

LONDON  Gina Miller needs to look no further than her own small investment firm to decide that leaving the European Union would be bad for Britain.

She has an analyst who is Italian: would he need a visa? She has customers who are British retirees living in Spain: will they return home to keep health care and liquidate their euro investments? Her firm, SCM Direct, works closely with a French bank: would that relationship continue?





. . .
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PENDLETON, Ore. (AP)  A farm in eastern Oregon is looking to add a new housing development for 200 to 800 seasonal workers.

The East Oregonian reports that Morrow County is considering a zoning change that would allow the proposed site west of Boardman to house seasonal farmworkers.





. . .
An AGM of the Clady Anglers Club (CAC) ended in disarray after several members of the clubs board walked out at the Bunbeg meeting this week.

An AGM of the Clady Anglers Club (CAC) ended in disarray after several members of the clubs board walked out at the Bunbeg meeting this week.

The meeting had been called to discuss the application by the club for their status to be recognised by the fisheries board, Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI).

The dispute centred on the arrival of up to a dozen people claiming to be new members of the club as well as a number of un-invited observers.

Former club chairman and current assistant treasurer Seamus Gallagher from Dunlewey said the group of eleven who attended the meeting were fully paid up new members of the club.

Its all to do with numbers and they wanted to hand it over the fisheries board at the AGM. If this thing goes through we will be paying a hefty price. Its 35 to the fisheries board out of the 40 every year. Thats not what you call co-operation, Seamus said.

He claims it is true that the ESB who previously owed the fishing and boating rights on Dunlewey Lakes and Clady river had a long standing agreement with the local angling club that they would not sign over these rights without negotiations, but he now claims this has been totally disregarded without proper consultation.

He said they also argued a proposal for a fisheries manager for the water courses should be a local person.

That is what were after says Seamus Gallagher accountability.

Members of CAC want to negotiate the deal with the IFI to get a better deal for the local community. We want our voices to be heard and our rights to be upheld, we dont want the sell out that happened to the rest of the country to happen here, he added.

Secretary of the club, Vincent Breslin, who was one of the board who walked out of the meeting said the process of adding new members to the club was not properly followed and were a rent a crowd intent on rejecting the document proposed by the IFI.

He said he informed all club members of the meeting ten days previously and the eleven new members had not been a part of the club prior to that night or had been accepted as members by the committee.

The club has been here for the last five years and we have been in negotiations, initially, with the Northern Regional Fisheries Board. This had been going on and on and we are trying to get a club officially recognised by the fisheries board. The river is owned by the ESB so we in Gweedore said Ok, lets try and get a joint management of local people with the fisheries board for the good of the community and the good of the river. For year and years it has been ripped clean, poached, I mean just an open season and it has been absolutely dreadful, He stated.

He added: We, local people, set up this club on the Clady. We have about 40 members and hold regular meetings with the fisheries board and we have our own meetings trying to forward this. We tried to come up with an agreed agenda that both we and the fisheries board could buy into.

He said the group of people claiming new membership were in attendance to reject the legal document proposed by the IFI on the membership status.
Enterprise City Schools Superintendent Dr. Camille Wright honored longtime Board Member Ross Cotter as a generous soul who had saved the school system about $500,000 in three years and ensured the future of city schools.

Wright made the comments during Ross final board meeting on Tuesday.

Every student will soon be attending school in a modern or modernized facility that has a secure entrance and a safety shelter (thanks to Cotter), Wright said. He has personally overseen the construction of every one of these projects and has taken a personal interest to see that the plans are followed and everything is completed with meticulous detail.

Wright went on to say that Cotter, with his attention to detail, had saved the school system hundreds of thousands of dollars in construction costs and contracts by reviewing plans, contracts and laws.

It was his idea and his negotiation that helped secure (a portion of) the half-cent sales tax, but also to ensure the half-cent sales tax  once the debt was retired  to continue to come to Enterprise City Schools, she said. He may never see this, but he has ensured that the students of Enterprise City Schools have a sound financial future.

But it is Cotters generosity of spirit that has really meant the most to the school system, Wright said.

Cotter has been one of the systems strongest advocates for students from lower socio-economic backgrounds, she said.

(he) wants assurance from me that these students will be taken care of, she said.

He also has offered anonymous help to employees in need, Wright said.

What you may not know about Mr. Cotter is that he is a very kind-hearted and generous person, she said. Without going into details, weve had employees in our district who were in need for a variety of reasons. Mr. Cotter has made calls, given money or assisted these employees, most of whom he didnt even know personally, to help them with their situation. But he wanted to make sure that I did not tell them he had done this.

Wright added: If we ever have anybody that is in need, I can pick up the phone and call him and he will move heaven and Earth to try to take care and help somebody, whatever their needs are.

School board members echoed Wrights praise of Cotter.

He doesnt want us to tell anything, but Ive been on committees with him and this school system has certainly profited (from his time on the board,) Board Member Gloria Jones said.

Board President Dorothy Richardson agreed, saying Cotter always championed students from all backgrounds. She added, But he never wants anybody to talk about it.

Cotter will continue advising the school board on construction matters at no cost to the school system, Wright said.

He will be replaced by Bob Doerer, a retired Army colonel, who was named to the board by the Enterprise City Council in April.

Doerer is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and served 30 years in the U.S. Army. He currently works as director of the Organization and Personnel Force Development Directorate at the U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence at Fort Rucker.

During his military career, he has served in with the 3rd Armored Division in Germany, the 3rd Infantry Division in Georgia, the 1st Armored Division in Germany and V Corps in Germany, according to his biographical information.

In those assignments, Doerer deployed as the 3rd AD Aviation Brigade Headquarters Company commander during Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm, the 3rd ID Aviation Brigade Operations officer for SFOR8 in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the 1-501st Attack Battalion commander during Operation Iraqi Freedom and as the 12th Combat Aviation Brigade commander where his units were in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.

Other significant Army assignments include serving as an observer-controller at the National Training Center in Fort Irwin, California; an aide-de-camp for the commanding general at Aviation and Troop Command in St. Louis, Missouri; and staff officer for the chief of staff of the Army in Washington D.C. among others.

He finished his military career at Fort Rucker serving as the deputy commander and chief of staff for the USAACE commanding general.
The long-established practices of poisoning animals for a variety of purposes is on the way out, and it will be replaced by human biology that will give us better results and not leave a trail of animal victims in our wake. Photo by iStockphoto

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Last night, the Senate gave final approval to a bill that revamps a 40-year-old federal law regulating the use of chemicals. The bill contains  for the first time in any broader environmental and health protection statute  an explicit decree from Congress to minimize animal testing and to create a clear preference for the development and use of alternative methods and strategies. The section of the bill relating to animal testing, championed by Senators Cory Booker, D-NJ, and David Vitter, R-La.  and strongly supported by Senators Tom Udall, D-NM, Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., Sheldon Whitehouse, D-RI, Chairman of the Committee on Environment and Public Works Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., and committee ranking member Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.  was its own hard-fought battle, and the inclusion of this language will almost certainly accelerate the movement away from animal tests for chemicals, pesticides, biocides, cosmetics, and other potentially dangerous substances in risk assessment protocols or for safety substantiation.

Once President Obama signs this legislation, as he is expected to do in the next few days, it gives the Environmental Protection Agency an unmistakable mandate from Congress that it must continue to embrace 21stcentury science and wean itself off outdated animal testing protocols, which are expensive, slow, and often non-predictive of the human circumstance. I wrote recently that the EPA is dramatically decreasing animal tests for pesticide hazard assessments, and is now working to replace animal tests in its endocrine screening program. In fact, in 2016, the EPA proposed to waive skin lethal dose tests for pesticide formulations.

The National Institutes of Health, the largest funder of biomedical research in the world, has allocated tens of millions more in funding to the development of non-animal methods and approaches, and this work will build on the battery of non-animal-testing methods already in use and increasingly widely accepted by scientists. In testimony before a key Senate panel this year, NIH director Francis Collins predicted that ten years from now, safety testing for newly developed drugs as well as assessment of the potential toxicity of numerous environmental exposures will be largely carried out using human biochips that are loaded with cells accurately representing heart, liver, kidney, muscle, brain and other tissues. This approach, made possible by the dramatic development of induced pluripotent stem cells (IPS cells), will mostly replace animal testing for drug toxicity and environmental sensing, giving results that are more accurate, at lower cost, and with higher through-put.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a consensus body of 36 member nations, has embraced the concept of using the best new techniques and approaches for risk assessment, and that will also accelerate the move away from animal testing on the international stage.

To be sure, this is a global movement, and there is progress on many fronts. In 2013, the European Union banned cosmetic animal testing and trade, and India followed suit the next year. Earlier this week, we announced that Australia will soon join that club.

We are making gains in other domains where animal testing has long been a feature of risk assessment. In 2012, our Humane Society International team in Europe worked to reduce animal testing requirements, perhaps by as much as 50 percent, for risk assessment for pesticide and biocides. Weve also succeeded in convincing Brazil, Canada, the EU, and India to delete the requirement for a notorious one-year dog pesticide-poisoning study requirement (the United States deleted the requirement back in 2007).

In the past year HSI also convinced the EU to adopt animal replacement methods for skin/eye irritation, skin allergy, skin lethal dose testing and a reduced animal use test for reproductive toxicity under its chemicals law  potentially sparing 2.6 million animals the effects of these painful tests, while the Indian health ministry banned repeat animal testing of new drug imports.

In all, there is evidence around the globe that a combination of moral intention to reduce and eliminate animal testing and new technologies that give us superior options are ushering in a new paradigm in the realm of safety testing and drug efficacy work. This is the humane economy in action. The long-established practice of poisoning animals for a variety of purposes is on the way out, and it will be replaced by human biology that will give us better results and not leave a trail of animal victims in our wake. The language in the TSCA reform legislation to be signed by President Obama is the latest and, in some ways, the clearest evidence of this trend. For that reason, this legislation may be the most important animal protection gain in the entire 114th Congress.
dpa ElectionsData

With dpa ElectionsData you get access to a unique collection of data. Via a programming interface (Rest-API), your developers can access detailed information, candidate profiles and live results for all national elections in the European Union and important international elections, like the US Midterm elections etc.

The data pool also includes all heads of state and government as well as about 20,000 elected members of parliament throughout the EU. In addition to their data (name, party, constituency or list position), we collect social media profiles and official websites of individuals and parties.
Donald Trump on Tuesday tried to repair some of the damage his remarks about a federal judge have caused, after leading Republican figures criticized him over the racially motivated attacks.

The two page statement read, in part:

My comments have been misconstrued as a categorical attack against people of Mexican heritage. I am friends with and employ thousands of people of Mexican and Hispanic descent. The American justice system relies on fair and impartial judges. All judges should be held to that standard. I do not feel that ones heritage makes them incapable of being impartial, but, based on the rulings that I have received in the Trump University civil case, I feel justified in questioning whether I am receiving a fair trial.

Trumps full statement reads like a hybrid mix of his typical language and that of a completely different person. Two paragraphs in particular, at the top and bottom, did not sound the least like the presumptive GOP nominee. While this lawsuit should have been dismissed, it is now scheduled for trial in November. I do not intend to comment on this matter any further, the final paragraph states. The businessmans pledge not to talk about the case represented a total about-face for Trump, who instructed his campaign surrogates on Monday to amplify their attacks on Judge Gonzalo Curiel and journalists who asked about the case. Trump reportedly told his top supporters to accuse reporters and Democrats of being the real racists. He has repeatedly attacked the ?Indiana-born judge, who is presiding over a class action lawsuit against Trump University , the reality TV personalitys now-defunct seminar school. The businessman claims the judge is a Trump-hater who is Mexican.

Republicans and Democrats alike have condemned Trumps threats and accusations about Curiels heritage. Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) said on Tuesday that he would no longer support Trump s presidential bid. Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) on Monday called the comments the literal definition of racism.

The statement signals that Trump has gotten the message from his fellow Republicans. Yet to call it an apology would be incorrect.

Due to what I believe are unfair and mistaken rulings in this case and the Judges reported associations with certain professional organizations, questions were raised regarding the Obama appointed Judges impartiality. It is a fair question.

The reality TV personality went on to rehash some of the familiar defenses he has brought out before in the ongoing Trump University case  which alleges he committed fraud, but he says the students, many of whom paid up to $35,000 to learn the businessmans secrets, were happy with the program.

Read the full statement below:
Toyota has continued its streak as the world's most valuable car brand, topping the annual list of the most valuable car brand's in the world.

A big takeaway from this year's list produced by Millward Brown, now in its 11th year, is that Volkswagen has fallen out of the top 10 following its emissions scandal, as is the rise of Tesla.

Volkswagen saw its share price drop dramatically after the fallout of the diesel emissions cheating scandal which prompted worldwide recalls in the millions and destroyed much of the brand's goodwill in countries such as the US.

Volkswagen was valued at $US9.3b last year, which means its has lost more than half its brand value by this survey's standards.

The results of the survey are based on millions of consumer interviews to gauge public perception of the brand while also utilising data from companies such as Bloomberg to analyse financial and business performance and regional variations.

Toyota was valued at $29.5 billion, an increase of two per cent from 2015.

The top seven remained unchanged from last year with Toyota being followed by BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Honda, Ford, Nissan and Audi.

Audi, however, also took a hit from the diesel emissions scandal which saw its value drop by six percent from 2015 taking its total value to $9.5 billion.

The top 10 is rounded out by Land Rover, Porsche and Tesla.

Land Rover vaulted to eight spot from ninth after Volkswagen's fall despite the fact the brand's value had decreased by five per cent to $4.7b.

Toyota, the highest ranking car company, was listed as the 28th most valuable brand in the world climbing two spots compare to 2015.

BMW rose on spot to 33 overall with a value of $26.8b, while Mercedes-Benz's ranking lifted four spots to 39 while being valued at $22.7b.

Honda and Ford both had strong years climbing four and five spots respectively, finishing in 74th and 75th respectively with values of $13.2b and $13.1b.

Nissan rounded out the car brands that placed in the top 100 overall with a value of $11.5b, which put it in 92nd place.

Overall the value of the top 10 car brands has fallen by three per cent since 2015 to $139.9 billion which shows the change going on in the global car industry.

"The car business is facing perhaps the most challenging period since the arrival of the internal combustion engine, with the emissions crisis just one of many issues that it will have to navigate," said Peter Walshe, Global BrandZ Director at Millward Brown.

"Those car groups with strong brands will be best placed to pivot both their business model and their engineering as the move to electric only and potentially driverless cars changes consumer perceptions of what it means to drive. The arrival of Tesla in the top 10 for the first time shows how much change is on the horizon," said Walshe.

In the overall standings Apple lost its number spot to Google, while Microsoft remained third followed by AT&T and Facebook.

The highest ranking Australian company was the Commonwealth Bank which came in at 64.
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On May 21st of this year, I was elected to be the male delegate pledged to Hillary Clinton for Michigans 7th Congressional District. To say Im proud to be supporting the first woman to receive the Democratic Partys nomination for president is a bit of an understatement. Im proud of her and Im proud of my Party for shattering historic barriers and showing that, in America, literally anyone can be president, no matter what their gender or race.

Im also proud that a person like Bernie Sanders can come as close as he did and has been able to push our Party to a more progressive place. Theres no question that his candidacy has been a game changer. I actually wish he were younger and had more time to build the revolution he has begun  helping to elect people with his values and positions into office at the local, state, and national level. The chance of a revolution occurring in a single election cycle is remote but Sen. Sanders has begun something that I hope he and others will sustain going into the future.

Last night I attended a party where Sec. Clintons supporters gathered to watch primary results come in and to celebrate her historic achievement. It wasnt a gloatfest. There were no speeches. We cheered briefly when CNN called it for Clinton and labeled her the presumptive nominee but it wasnt a time for negativity toward Sen. Sanders. He has our sincere respect.

We did, however, talk about how weve been made to feel by far too many of Sen. Sanders supporters. Most of the people I chatted with have largely kept their heads down, not making a big deal about their support of Clinton. My wife Anne was among them. She was wearing a Clinton 16 t-shirt that I bought her over a year ago but she had never worn. Why? Because all too often weve been told by Sanders supporters that we are somehow sellouts for supporting Clinton; that her historic candidacy and lifetime of championing progressive causes and people without a voice was meaningless because Shillary. Its an incredibly insulting characterization often supported by trotting out the same attacks on her that Republicans and other conservatives have been peddling for decades. So, Clinton supporters have mostly bided their time, done the work needed to help propel her to victory, and waited for the primary to conclude so that we can do the real work of electing a Democrat as the 45th POTUS.

What we know is that Clinton and Sanders agree on the issues well over 90% of the time. We know that she will uphold our Democratic values and isnt seeking the presidency to enact an agenda that favors the wealthy and well-connected. You never heard Clinton supporters threatening to leave the Party or vote for Donald Trump if Bernie Sanders got the nomination. They know the stakes are far too high for that sort of thinking.

Weve been told by Sanders supporters that the process is rigged, that superdelegates are anti-democratic, and that the fix was in for Clinton the whole time. This is despite her having won more primary votes and more primary contests. For much of the primary, they along with Sen. Sanders himself contended that superdelegates should vote according to how primary voters in their state vote. But thats not how superdelegates function (even if thats historically exactly what they have done.) Superdelegates were ostensibly created to avoid the Democratic version of Donald Trump. This was done by ensuring that knowledgeable Party leaders represent a portion of the delegates. But it was also done in a way that ensures grassroots leaders dont have to compete against the more politically powerful Party leaders, that delegate spots were open to anyone (including people like me) who wished to run for them and could secure enough support.

The idea that superdelegates are there simply to amplify the votes of primary voters simply is not true. They, like all other delegates, choose who they are supporting based on their knowledge and core political beliefs. A common trope recently has been that the primary is somehow rigged because superdelegates declared their support for Clinton before a single primary vote was cast. Well, you know what? I pretty much knew who I was supporting before the primary began, too, and I am decidedly NOT a superdelegate. That doesnt mean Im somehow complicit in the rigging of the primary. It means that I, like superdelegates, am an individual, free to make my choice and I can do that however and whenever I want. That actually IS democracy.

As Anne and I watched Clinton speak last night for the first time as the presumptive nominee, we knew we were watching history being made. It was an amazing speech, well-written and well-delivered. It was Hillary Clinton at her best. After that we went back and watched her 2008 concession speech, delivered eight years before to the day. That, too, was an incredible speech. She showed poise, courage, and dignity as she endorsed Barack Obama and vowed to work hard to make sure he was elected.

After watching those speeches, I wondered how things will play out with Sen. Sanders. Based on Clintons 2008 concession speech, its clear he has very big shoes to fill. Unlike Clinton in 2008 (who actually had MORE support in the primary than Sanders currently has), he is vowing to stay in the race until after the Democratic National Convention. You see, he has changed his position on superdelegates. While he originally contended that they should vote as their states primary voters voted, he now believes they should do they opposite, in many cases. According to now-Sanders, they should choose him because he believes he is better poised to defeat Donald Trump in the general election.

I am personal friends with one Michigan superdelegate who is a national political figure. This person gave serious consideration supporting Sanders based on his win in Michigan. What changed their minds, however, was the bullying and truly offensive attacks they endured from some of Sen. Sanders supporters. Those completely inappropriate attacks, sometimes verging on threats, were enough to solidify them in their support for Clinton.

I dont generally condone judging a candidate by his or her supporters. Its unfair and not rational. However, when the candidate not only doesnt refute this sort of behavior publicly but actually seems to condone it, atrocious behavior by some supporters DOES begin to reflect on the candidate. Unfortunately, and though it breaks my heart to say it, I believe this is the case with Sen. Sanders. There is a sharp contrast between him and his actions as the primary draws to a close and Clinton and her actions as the 2008 primary drew to a close.

Fortunately, at least in my area, Clinton and Sanders supporters are generally united. Were all smart enough to know that we are  to use a phrase that appears to be becoming Sec. Clintons main campaign slogan  STRONGER TOGETHER. The person who ran Sen. Sanders primary campaign in my county is now running for a County Commission seat that has been held by a Republican for six years. She has the full support of our Party and our members and she has a real shot at taking this seat back for Republicans. THIS is the sort of revolution that is sustainable and builds toward future victories.

And we NEED to be stronger together. All you have to do is to listen to the speech Donald Trump delivered last night. Using a teleprompter just one week after deriding Clinton for using one and saying they should be outlawed for anybody running for president just last year, Trump went after Clinton hard, promising a speech on Monday that will detail how supposedly corrupt and criminal she and her husband are. I expect this from Republicans; theyve been trumpeting that disgusting message about Hillary Clinton for so long that even the supporters of her Democratic primary opponents began to use them. It was no coincidence that he used the words rigged and corrupt in his speech. These words have been all-too-frequently used by many of Sanders supporters when referring to the candidacy of Hillary Clinton and Trump wants those votes. In fact, he literally said, To all those Bernie Sanders supporters left out in the cold by a rigged system of superdelegates, we welcome you with open arms. Frankly, given how many demographic groups hes offended during his primary campaign, Trump NEEDS those votes.

But I believe that the majority of Sanders supporters are much more intelligent, much more politically savvy, and much more committed to good government than a small minority of his supporters would have you believe. They, too, believe we are stronger together. They know that Hillary Clinton shares the vast majority of their values and views. And they know that the prospect of a President Trump is simply too terrifying to sit on the sidelines for. Anyone who believes that its somehow okay for Trump to win because it will ignite Democrats to become more progressive is engaging in fairy tale thinking and, more repugnantly, expressing white, often male, privilege in the extreme. Because the people who would be most harmed by a Trump presidency are not comfortable straight white Christians. They are our LGBTQ brothers and sisters. They are our Muslims friends and neighbors. They are women who are disrespected and seen as objects, not worthy of equal treatment. They are people with disabilities. When someone says that its okay for a Trump victory as a way to justify sitting on the sidelines in the general election, theyre saying its okay for these groups of people to be harmed and to pay the price for that decision, not them.

I was disgusted with campaign that Hillary Clinton ran in 2008 and I was angry at her for it for quite awhile. However, she has more than redeemed herself in my mind since then and the campaign she and Robby Mook are running is a dramatic improvement over the one she ran with Mark Penn eight years ago. Mostly though it was her tenure as Secretary of State that proved to me that she is a diplomat with the knowledge, values, and ability to achieve change that our country needs in a president. I am proud to be a Clinton supporter and her historic achievement is something every Democrat should be proud of.
Nokia on Wednesday announced its return to the mobile phone and tablet business in connection with a larger agreement by Microsoft to sell its entry-level phone business toHMD Global andFIH Mobile for US$350 million.

Under the deal, Microsoft will sell its Hanoi, Vietnam, manufacturing facility to FIH Mobile, a unit of Hon Hai/Foxconn Technology Group. Workers will be given the opportunity to work for FIH Mobile or HMD Global, according to Microsoft.

Nokia will grant HMD, a newly formed company, the exclusive global license to create Nokia-branded phones and tablets for the next 10 years and will receive royalty payments from HMD for sales of those devices, covering both brand and intellectual property rights.

HMD plans to invest more than $500 million over the next three years to support the global marketing of the Nokia devices, which will be paid for by investors and profits from the new business.

Today marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter for the Nokia brand in an industry where Nokia remains a truly iconic name, said Ramzi Haidamus, president of Nokia Technologies. Instead of Nokia returning to manufacturing mobile phones itself, HMD plans to produce mobile phones and tablets that can leverage and grow the value of the Nokia brand in global markets.

HMD will be led by CEO Arto Nummela, a former senior executive at Nokia and the head of Microsofts mobile device business in Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Florian Seiche, senior vice president for Europe, sales and marketing at Microsoft Mobile, and also a former Nokia executive, will become president.

Nokias Long Game

Nokia found a strategy to get its name back into the mobile device business when faced with competition from brands such as Apple, Samsung and Google, which have dominated the mobile landscape in recent years, analyst Jeff Kagan said.

After selling their failing handset business to Microsoft several years ago, Nokia has been trying to re-enter the marketplace, he told the E-Commerce Times. Unfortunately, to date, they havent really created any growth waves yet.

Nokia has been stuck in a noncompete situation since the sale of its phone business to Microsoft in 2013, according to a report by IHS Technology. The companys goal was to re-enter the business in a way that required much less capital investment and reduced risk.

Feature phones represent a declining market, with only 400 million units shipped worldwide in 2015, the report said. However, Nokia still has a great deal of brand recognition, and HMD likely will target emerging markets under the new relationship.

Nokia is looking to get a fresh start back in the mobile device space by switching to Android, the most popular mobile OS on the market, said Todd Day, mobile and wireless communications senior industry analyst at Frost & Sullivan.

The company likely will pursue smartphones and wearables, he told the E-Commerce Times.

Uphill Battle

The devices will have the most appeal in countries where the Nokia brand is strong, said Ian Fogg, head of mobile analysis at IHS Technology and coauthor of the firms report.

The company struggled in the U.S. market even when it was far ahead in the mobile phone space, he told the E-Commerce Times.

It is very unlikely that Nokia will be able to revive its business in the U.S. market. In fact, the U.S. is probably the last market where they would be successful, said Annette Zimmermann, research director for personal technologies at Gartner.

The brand has never been strong in consumer minds in the U.S., and it would take very good carrier relationships for them to get back into the market. I am not sure that carriers would bet high on the Nokia phones, she told the E-Commerce Times.

There are other markets where Nokia may have a chance  for example, in some emerging markets where the brand is still well-known due to the feature phones they are still selling there, Zimmermann said.

My overall opinion of this strategy is that it is a total uphill battle for them as there are so many other brands, and the Nokia brand has lost appeal over the last years, she added.

Microsoft Hangs On

Microsoft will continue to develop Windows 10 mobile and support Lumia phones, including the Lumia 650, Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL, as well as phones from original equipment manufacturing partners including Acer, Alcatel, HP, Trinity and Vaio, the company said.

For Microsoft, it doesnt make much sense to continue with a feature phone business. Their focus is Lumia for enterprise, so feature phones with a Nokia brand name are not really complementary, said Zimmermann.

The move represents another failure by Microsoft to make a mark in the mobile device market and basically leaves the company as a marginal player going forward, the IHS report said.

Feature phones made up 87 percent of mobile phone shipments during the first quarter 2016. However, Microsoft shipped only 2.3 million smartphones, a 70 percent drop from the year-ago quarter, according to IHS.

Microsoft is still pursuing a dual mobile Windows strategy [to] have its own brand of phones and license the OS to others, Fogg said.

The deal means Microsoft will rely on other manufacturers to produce its smartphones going forward, he said.

Microsoft lost the battle in the consumer market worldwide, Zimmermann said. I dont see a partnership down the road either as none of the OEMs are interested in licensing Windows 10 for phones. They are all happy with Android, so why would they use Windows Phone at some point?

The Microsoft deal is expected to close during the second half of 2016.
Google on Thursday filed an appeal with Frances supreme administrative court over an order from a privacy regulator requiring it to scrub certain search results around the world under a law called the right to be forgotten.

The March order from the CNIL requires Google and other search engines to delist the information of Europeans that shows up in searches for their name, even if the link points to truthful information and lawfully published websites referencing newspaper articles or government websites, according to Google.

The company complied by delisting search information on sites available from the country of origin of person who makes the request, as well as other EU country domains, it said.

The order to delist that information from all of Googles global search capabilities is a bridge too far, general counsel Kent Walker said in an op-ed in Le Monde.

Race to the Bottom

As a matter of both law and principle, we disagree with this demand, Walker said. We comply with the laws of the countries in which we operate. But if French law applies globally, how long will it be until other countries  perhaps less open and democratic  start demanding that their laws regulating information likewise have global reach?

Enforcing such a law could lead to a global race to the bottom that potentially would block from French citizens information that is perfectly legal in France, he said.

Googles concern is not just hypothetical; it has resisted similar demands from other countries and has in some cases led to the blocking of its services, Walker noted.

Global Information Police

Such a requirement would place Google in an untenable position, according to theElectronic Frontier Foundation.

CNILs specific demand  that search engines modify their results universally to comply with a uniquely French administrative decision  would set an extremely damaging precedent, said Danny OBrien, international director of the EFF.

If every country demanded the same, it would transform what you see on the Worldwide Web into the sorry remains, after every countrys censorship policies had been subtracted, he told the E-Commerce Times.

It feels like Google has it about right: The EU can police and regulate itself, but not the rest of the globe, said John Carroll, mass communications professor atBoston University.

That said, there seems to be a discrepancy in the number of removals that have occurred over the past two years. Google says it has reviewed almost 1.5 million requests, with 40 percent resulting in the removal of a search result. Other data suggests that the denial rate is closer to 75 percent, he told the E-Commerce Times.

Regardless, the EU might more profitably address its criteria for removal: that search results appear to be inadequate or irrelevant. That gives Google an awful lot of wiggle room. Maybe before trying to widen the geographic scope of RTBF, the EU should attempt to narrow its criteria, Carroll added.

Spanish Origin

The order in March followed a 2014ruling by the European Court of Justice in a case involving Google and Google Spain against the national data protection agency of Spain.

In 2010, a Spanish citizen, Mario Costeja Gonzlez, filed a complaint with the agency against a large newspaper in Catalonia alleging that a search of his name resulted in a 1978 real estate auction to recover social security debts allegedly owed by him, according to the 2014 ruling.

The Spanish agency initially ruled against him, arguing that the newspaper had published the information lawfully, but the complaint was upheld with regard to Google. Google and Google Spain went to the National High Court of Spain to fight the order requiring Google to scrub the information.

The company decided in 2014 to scrub a blog post by TV journalist Robert Peston regarding the case of Merrill Lynch chief Stan ONeal, who was pushed out of the company after it took massive losses on reckless investments a year before the 2008 economic collapse.

The experience with the implementation of Google v. Spain is that the vast majority of requests were made by private people concerning private matters, said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of theElectronic Privacy Information Center.

And Googles unwillingness to delist globally, he told the E-Commerce Times, is both illogical as a matter of harm and inconsistent with its treatment of similar delinking requests for copyright violations.
China is investigating the encryption and data storage features of technology products sold there by large foreign companies such as Apple, The New York Times reported this week.

Authorities apparently are focusing on whether the products pose a security threat.

A committee associated with the Cyberspace Administration of China reportedly is conducting reviews that include interviews of company executives and other employees.

Other countries, including the U.S. and the UK, do review some tech products, but they tend to focus on those to be used by the military or government departments involved with security. Beijing apparently is looking at consumer software and gadgets as well.

In addition to ensuring that the products arent being used in espionage, the reviews could be used to siphon off technological knowledge, according to the Times. They might be used to block the import of products or to extract trade secrets in exchange for access to Chinas market. Tech knowledge so obtained might be passed on to Chinese companies competing with foreign ones, or expose vulnerabilities that could be exploited by hackers in China.

Pingpong Antidiplomacy

In March, China was the second biggest U.S. trading partner behind Canada, accounting for nearly 15 percent of Americas foreign trade, while Canada chalked up just over 15 percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

U.S. exports to China totaled just over US$25 billion of the $128 billion bilateral trade between the two countries, according to the Census Bureau.

Yet both countries have been cracking down on this trade for years.

In 2010, Google threatened to pull out from China over hacking and censorship concerns and got the U.S. government involved.

Last year, U.S. business groups asked China to postpone new rules for American businesses selling technology to banks there.

Meanwhile, Microsoft is facing antitrust scrutiny in China. Apples iBooks and iTunes Movies servicesshut down in China in April  but Apple has just invested $1 billion in Chinas answer to Uber,Didi Chuxing.

The U.S. has imposed restrictions on Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE, and in May the U.S. Department of Commerce imposed a ban on ZTE for exporting U.S. tech to Iran. The ban was lifted after two weeks in exchange for ZTEs pledge of cooperation with the departments investigation.

China Pushes Back

The U.S. has created various roadblocks for Chinese infrastructure companies such as Huawei and ZTE to compete effectively, citing national security concerns, said Brent Iadarola, VP of mobile and wireless communications at Frost & Sullivan.

The Chinese are attempting to level the playing field or at least plant the seed that, if the U.S. continues to subject Chinese commercial products to harsh review and regulatory requirements under the pretense of national security, they will retaliate, he told the E-Commerce Times.

Since NSA whistleblower Edward Snowdens revelations about the agencys spying activities, U.S. products are assumed to be compromised much like Chinese products were before that, noted Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group.

The NSAs and FBIs insistence on including encryption backdoors in high-tech products may have provided grounds for concern over espionage activities.

These efforts by the three-letter agencies are foolish and damaging and are badly damaging U.S. technology exports across a broad number of firms, Enderle told the E-Commerce Times.

On the other hand, China has a pattern of abusing the intellectual property rights of foreign companies, said Daniel Castro, vice president at theInformation Technology and Innovation Foundation.

Any actions by the Chinese government that force companies to unnecessarily disclose proprietary business information are cause for concern, he told the E-Commerce Times.

The goal of Chinas increased scrutiny, at least initially, Enderle maintained, is to reduce U.S. tech imports.
Facing growing pressure from labor unions and regulators across the U.S. and key overseas markets, Uber on Monday introduced a series of new apps and benefits for its core group of drivers. The goal is to make their working hours more productive and profitable.

Many drivers say they choose Uber because they want to be their own boss, set their own schedule and get work done at the touch of a button, wrote product managers Maya Choksi and Ryan Fujiu in a post introducing the features. Thats the beauty of the on demand economy, you define the work you do, it doesnt define you.

Uber has heard the message from drivers that there are many things it can do to make the job more empowering and worth your while, Choksi and Fujiu added.

Click and Drive

Among the new apps are Driver Destinations, which lets drivers input their destinations twice a day to restrict ride requests to their current routes. Uber has been testing the app in a few cities and will roll it out to at least a dozen more this week and worldwide in the future.

Uber later this month will begin testing a pause feature that lets drivers turn off the app to take a break.

A new Instant Pay feature allows passengers to send money to drivers instantly using a GoBank Uber Debit Card. Uber piloted the feature in San Francisco, and it is now available nationwide.

Drivers needing assistance from the company have access to Uber Greenlight Locations, which now are available in 250 locations worldwide.

Uber announced special perks and incentives for drivers, as a recent study showed 25 percent of Uber drivers use the service as a passenger. The company is offering 15 percent off an UberX ride to drivers for every 10 trips, or 50 percent off an UberBlack ride for every 20 trips in a week.

Uber recently began piloting in-app phone support for drivers in the Bay area. In addition, it currently is testing a fuel finder to help drivers locate cheap gasoline.

The company also launched a blog, called Behind the Wheel.

Uber has more than 1 million drivers, and it operates in more than 400 cities worldwide. Hundreds of its engineers, designers and product managers are dedicated to working on the drivers app, the company said.

Nationwide Movement

Uber likely will face additional pressure from drivers for better job security, pay and benefits as it expands to more cities and challenges taxis for the lions share of airport and nightlife business. Smaller services, such as Lyft, allow drivers to accept tips, which puts additional pressure on Ubers costs.

Uber realizes theyre not the only game in town, said Kelley Blue Book Managing Editor Matt DeLorenzo.

They might be the first, they might be the biggest  but theyre not the only one, he told the E-Commerce Times.

New York drivers last month won the right to organize as a guild affiliated with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. The company currently faces litigation in several major states and a federal class action case in Illinois to classify the workers as employees rather than contractors.

I think, generally, on-demand companies like Uber, Lyft or Postmates will not be able to avoid improving their driver/delivery person relations in the long run, said Gerrit Schneemann, senior analyst for mobile media and telecom at IHS.

The competition for drivers is only increasing, he told the E-Commerce Times. Perks will be a key differentiator.

While Uber has received the lions share of recognition for launching the ride-sharing business, it will have to mature as a company to maintain that success, suggested Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT.

The company is fabulously valuable on paper, but hasnt turned a profit, he told the E-Commerce Times. It claims its success is due to disruptive technologies and abilities, but treats reasonable complaints with thuggish disdain.

Austin, Texas, effectively banned ride sharing after months of political wrangling and a referendum, King noted, and since then a handful of alternative ride-sharing firms have appeared on the scene.
MILAN  Italian textile machinery builders have stressed their commitment to reduce the environmental impact of textile manufacturing through savings in water, energy and the reduction of acoustics by releasing a new video. The film, produced by the Italian Association of Textile Machinery Manufacturers (ACIMIT) also flags up its Green Label certification process which assesses key environmental performance data of its member companies technology.

The ongoing commitment of Italys textile machinery manufacturers to more sustainable technologies is highlighted in a new ACIMIT video on YouTube, Italys textile machinery industry goes green.

The new video has been produced by the Italian Association of Textile Machinery Manufacturers (ACIMIT) to promote awareness of the commitment of Italian companies, and highlights its Green Label certification system which assesses key environmental criteria for its members textile machinery technology.

In particular, it highlights data of a recent survey conducted to quantify the environmental benefits from the adoption of certified Green Label by Italian machine builders who have designed new technology to save on water, energy and acoustic pollution. Based on estimates drawn from the engineering firm DAppolonia, in 2014 the reduction in CO 2 emissions generated by the use of Green Certified machinery based on the protocol of the Sustainable Technologies project amounted to 221,181 tons of CO 2 , Said ACIMIT, This is equivalent to what is typically emitted by 38,534 automobiles travelling on average 35,000 km per year.

Although the Green Label initiaitive is a self-certification process for machine builder, The process is then assessed by a third-party certification body  RINA  which conducts randam inspection audits on 20 per cent of the participating companies every year.

This video aims to highlight the contribution of the association, as well as that of its member manufacturers, to promote a textile industry that is increasingly sustainable and focused on the parsimonious use of resources and its environmental impact on production processes, commented ACIMIT President Raffaela Carabelli.
If youve been following our coverage of Secretary of Education John B. King Jr., youve read his remarks that the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 was a civil rights law. And so is that laws latest version, the Every Student Succeeds Act, King says. Hes used that civil-rights language often to support how the U.S. Department of Education has approached spending and

accountability issues, among other things.

And Kings not the only one to talk about the law this way. The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, for example, refers to the first version of ESEA as a civil rights law .

But does everyone agree that the original federal education law was a civil rights law?

Kevin Kosar, a senior fellow at the R Street Institute, a Washington think tank that promotes free markets and limited government, says: No, it wasnt. On Monday, Kosar wrote a column for the Thomas B. Fordham Institute (also a right-leaning think tank) disagreeing with Kings description of the ESEA as a civil-rights law . Calling Kings version of events bogus history, Kosar wrote, ESEA was not a civil-rights law. It was an anti-poverty policy, a key part of Lyndon Johnsons Great Society.

As evidence, Kosar notes that the original ESEA of 1965 was a conditional-aid grant focused on the disadvantages faced by low-income children. States and local school districts were free to accept or reject the money. Redistribution, and not race, was the driving force behind the law, he says. He goes on to write:

Nowhere does the statute use the words civil rights, nor does it speak of equalizing spending or creating an individual entitlement to, well, anything. This stands in sharp contrast to the real civil-rights legislation of the 1960s, which explicitly conferred a legally enforceable right or privilege to persons. Title I of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 on Voting Rights, for example, sets forth prohibitions to protect individuals right to vote.

Noting that it distributes money to poor, non-poor, white and non-white children, ESEA was an anti-poverty, redistributive policy then and it is now, Kosar wrote.

But Kosars argument did not sit well with, among others, Matt Lehrich, the communications director at the U.S. Department of Education.

Strange line of argument both on history & strategy -- is the point to argue that all kids dont deserve equal opp? https://t.co/Eao6Kv59pJ  Matt Lehrich (@Lehrich44) June 6, 2016

Mike Petrilli, the president of the Fordham Institute, shot back by arguing that Kings attempt to use civil rights as a shield was inappropriate.

Quick background: The Education Department has proposed ESSA regulations, which have yet to be finalized, that would require districts to show that schools with relatively high shares of students from low-income backgrounds receive the same amount of state and local per-pupil spending as the average of the districts schools with relatively wealthy students. King says this would ensure greater equity for needy students. But critics have said this provision is beyond the departments power to require and could backfire.

This language would apply to the supplement not supplant part of ESSA, or SNS, which requires federal aid to supplement and not supplant state and local K-12 dollars. Petrilli wrote:

.@Lehrich44 @kevinrkosar But its also unfair for the Secretary to flagrantly break the law (on SNS) and use civil rights to justify it.  Michael Petrilli (@MichaelPetrilli) June 6, 2016

The dispute between Lehrich and Kosar continued:

The argument continued in that and other Twitter conversations.

We rang up Paul Manna, an associate professor of government at the College of William and Mary who studies K-12 policy and education history, to discuss the matter. Manna said there are two primary ways to think about this issue.

 On the one hand, Manna told us, ESEA is not technically a civil-rights law like the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act is. IDEA created a benefit that governments are obligated to provide. If those benefits are not properly provided, people can sue to try to ensure that they arethats what makes IDEA fit a relatively strict definition of a civil-rights statute, Manna said. In this way, he also noted, IDEA is both a civil rights program and a grant program, since it helps states and districts pay for what IDEA requires.

By contrast, Theres nothing in ESEA that gives parents the right to sue if something goes awry in implementation, Manna said.

 On the other hand, its no accident that Johnson and others pushed for the Civil Rights Act to be passed first, in 1964, before other pieces of legislation like ESEA, Manna told us. States that wanted access to the financial aid ESEA provided could not accept it and simultaneously ignore federal laws already on the books protecting civil rights.

Clearly people were thinking of these things as a package, Manna said.

Manna also referenced historical studies, such as The Hollow Hope by University of Chicago Associate Professor of Political Science Gerald N. Rosenberg, that show how the actions of Congress, civil rights movements, and presidents were more important for the progress of civil rights in education than the famous ruling in Brown v. Board of Education.

So is ESEA ultimately a civil rights law, in Mannas view?

Maybe not. But its clearly linked to a broader civil rights agenda, Manna said.

And in a Eduwonk blog post about the subject published Tuesday, Andy Rotherham of Bellwether Education Partners came to a conclusion similar to Mannas .

Bonus coverage: Last year, the 50th anniversary of the signing of ESEA, my co-blogger Alyson Klein wrote a detailed history of the law . She noted that Kings predecessor as education secretary, Arne Duncan, used similar language to describe the law. She also put together a timeline that covers the original law and how it changed overtime. Heres an image from a portion of that timeline:

Photo: President Lyndon B. Johnson, seated with his childhood schoolteacher, Kate Deadrich Loney, delivers remarks after signing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act at the former Junction Elementary School near Stonewall, Texas, on April 11, 1965. Frank Wolfe/The Lyndon Baines Johnson Library-File

Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 .
(Photo: Ecumenical News / Peter Kenny)Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Desmond Tutut, the former Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town speaking at the World Council of Churches in Geneva on April 20, 2008.

On his way to a Peace-building and Reconciliation Consultation in Johannesburg, the World Council of Churches general secretary stopped off to visit a man who knows about peace-building South African Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu.

WCC general secretary, Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit, went to Cape Town to talk with Archbishop Emeritus Tutu, the former leader of the Anglican church during the turbulent apartheid days.

The meeting with 1984 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Tutu was on 7 June, Tveit visited today Robben Island and the cell of prisoner 4664, Nelson Mandela, who spent much of his 27 years as an apartheid prisoner there, the WCC said June 8..

Tveit and Tutu discussed the role of the WCC, the situation in South Africa, which has important local government elections this year, Africa in general and the conflict in Israel and Palestine.

From 1978 to 1985, Tutu was general secretary of the South African Council of Churches, which was at the forefront of the struggle against the racist ideology of apartheid and a thorn in the side of authorities.

While Tutu was unflinching as a critic of apartheid he has also been scathing in recent times of South Africa's governing African National Congress, saying that the party and President Jacob Zuma have let down those who fought to end apartheid.

Tutu said his former ally Nelson Mandela had a nice house but did not spend milllions of dolars from State coffers on himself and has criticized Zuma's spending of State funds on his luxurious home at a rural estate while many of his compatriots live in poverty.

He said that the party's inability to deal with corruption in its senior ranks had betrayed the aspirations of those who fought to bring down apartheid, The Times (London) reported.

On June 7 the two church leaders discussed the refugee situation in South Africa where some 300,000 people from other African countries seek refuge, but also where xenophobia rears its ugly head in anti-migrant sentiment periodically.

"They gave us shelter when we needed it in our struggle," Tutu told Tveit in a reference to how many African countries accepted exiles from South Africa during the time of the struggle against apartheid.

In his conversation with Tveit Tutu spoke about the WCC noting, "We would never have won the struggle [against apartheid] without the support of the international ecumenical family."

"We also talked about new expressions of racism in all continents, particularly about the situation in the United States," said Tveit after the meeting.

"He [Tutu] shared some of his reflections about what a truth and reconciliation process can contribute in terms of another language to deal with such conflicts."

TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION

In 1996, Tutu was appointed by then President Nelson Mandela to chair the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a body set-up to probe gross human rights violations during apartheid and seen as playing an important role in preventing a post-apartheid blood-bath.

Some victims of apartheid have said, however, the commission let too many perpetrators of crimes and atrocities during the aprtheid era off the hook.

Commenting on racism Tutu told Tveit, "What we learn from human history is that we do not learn from human history."

Tveit commented, "It is always inspiring to listen to and talk with Desmond Tutu. He carries both the legacy and the vision of our Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace with us.

"His experience, wisdom and not least his spirituality is a great gift to the ecumenical movement as we work for the unity of humanity and the unity of the church in every corner of the world."

Next stop for Tveit is Soweto in Johannesburg, once a black dormitory city in the days of apartheid, where Tutu and Mandela both lived.

From 8 to 11 June the general secretary will attend a consultation entitled "Peace-Building and Reconciliation Consultation: The Place of the Church" in Soweto, the place where black children rose up against inferior apartheid education in 1976.

The consultation is jointly organized by the WCC and the SACC to provide a safe space where churches who come from conflict or post-conflict countries could engage in a mutual questioning, challenging and learning for improved participation of the churches in peace building and reconciliation among the churches and in the society.

Church leaders will be challenged to take a proactive role in engaging in and supporting initiatives for peace-building, justice and overcoming poverty.

The consultation will have 30 participants representing WCC member churches from Burundi, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Palestine, South Africa, South Sudan and Sudan.

Other ecumenical organizations will be the ACT Alliance Regional Forum, SACC, specialized ministries engaged in peacebuilding, WCC member of the Commission of the Churches on International Affairs (CCIA) and WCC staff.
Religious instruction materials being used in Queensland public schools face review after claims that one schools program was soliciting students to Christianity.Windsor State School, located in Brisbane, suspended its religious instruction classes after discovering its Connect syllabus taught students that every single person has sinned and rejected God and deserves to be punished.In a letter to parents, the schools principal, Mathew Keong, said he had suspended religious instruction classes after reviewing the syllabus, adding that the materials go beyond imparting knowledge of Biblical references.Religious instruction policy defines proselytising as soliciting a student for a decision to change their religion's affiliation. Solicit by its ordinary meaning is to ask for, to try to obtain, to persuade, to seek, to influence and express the need or desire, Keong wrote.Connect's lesson materials go beyond imparting knowledge of Biblical references, and extend to soliciting children to develop a personal faith in God and Jesus to become a Christian or Kingdom Kid.In the teachers' manuals, the Connect authors remind instructors that most of their audience is not yet Christian, and the whole program appears to be based on that premise of trying to solicit them for a decision to become the kind of Christian prescribed in the materials.Queensland Education Minister, Kate Jones, has now ordered a review of the Connect programs use across the state.We have guidelines in place for religious instruction in state schools for a reason, and it's concerning to me that any materials are being taught outside of those guidelines, she said in a statement.That's why I have asked the department to review the Connect materials. If it is found these materials are outside the guidelines we will remove it from all state schools.However, Paul Clark, the spokesman for the Queensland Christian Religious Instruction Network, told The Brisbane Times he was disappointed that the decision of one principal in one school had led to what he felt was an unwarranted review.We're a little disappointed that the decision of one principal, in one school, that independent legal advice clearly shows is a mistake, is somehow precipitating a review and media attention, without the stake holders - all the providers of RI represented by RIQA [Religious Instruction Quality Assurance - Christian, Muslim, Bahai, Buddhist, etc] - being informed or included, he said.We're comforted to know that the RI regulations/guidelines are very clear, and that the Government, DET and RIQA always work together well to ensure RI is done according to the guidelines.Clark said he was confident that cooler heads would prevail to resolve the issue in the coming weeks.
Its not often that special education research gets attention from more than teachers and other academics.

But its also not often that research purports to upend decades of accepted wisdom in the fieldand also takes direct aim at race-related policy issues currently under debate at the federal level.

In 2015, education professors Paul L. Morgan and George Farkas published a peer-reviewed analysis stating that there is clear bias in the way students are identified for special education. But the bias went in an unexpected direction, they said: By their calculations, black and Hispanic students are universally underrepresented compared to their white peersrather than overrepresentedin a variety of categories, including emotional disturbance and specific learning disabilities, such as dyslexia.

The paper was not the first time that Morgan, of Pennsylvania State University, and Farkas, based at the University of California, Irvine, had published those sort of findings. This particular paper, however, was accompanied by an editorial in The New York Times, propelling it to national attention.

The researchers paper, which situates itself squarely in the middle of debates on equity and racism, has received fierce pushback from others in the special education field. Those critics argue that Morgan and Farkas are making sweeping and inaccurate conclusions based on data that dont reflect the actual population of students with disabilities. In April, the journal Educational Reseacher published a point-counterpoint between the papers authors and its criticsjust as the U.S. Department of Education was collecting comments on its proposal to fix what the department perceives as the problem of too many minority students identified for special education.

Complete Series: Beyond Bias This yearlong series will examine efforts to recognize and overcome discrimination in schools. View the complete series.

Morgan and Farkas suggest that teachers may be reluctant to refer students for special education for fear of seeming racist, and that they need training in culturally and linguistically sensitive evaluation methods. Other researchers who see overrepresentation point to several potential causes, including educators unconscious racial biases, or inadequate instruction.

Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, districts that are flagged by states for overidentifying minority students for special education are supposed to use part of their IDEA money for early-intervention services. States are also required to monitor districts use of suspensions and expulsions, and the educational placement of students with disabilities for signs of overrepresentation.

Federal Policy

Even though the monitoring requirement has been around for nearly 20 years, states have identified only a tiny fraction of districts for overrepresentation problems. The Education Department has suggested a set of standards that would result in more districts being identified, with a comment period that ended May 16.

But if minority students are actually being denied the services they deserve, then the Education Departments efforts could be harming the students it means to protect, Morgan and Farkas say.

Black Students in Special Education: Differing Views Paul L. Morgan and George Farkas find in their research that minority children are less likely, not more likely, to be identified for special education services. Drawing on longitudinal student data, they computed the odds that a black student would be identified using two different methods. Both their estimates are significantly different from that of the federal Office of Special Education Programs. Based on national data collected in fall 2013, OSEP found black students were often more likely to be identified for disabilities that year compared with all other racial and ethnic groups combined. Source: Paul L. Morgan and George Farkas; Office of Special Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education

The simple policy [federal officials] should do is stop talking about overplacement. Thats such a modest suggestion. We should simply stop this harmful push that is just completely against the evidence, said Farkas. We have replicated [our findings] so many times, in so many ways, that it really cant be questioned at all.

The critics of the analysis are being driven by their political worldview, not the science, he said.

To their critics, however, Morgan and Farkas are ignoring studies that draw a more complex picture. They cite research that says students might be underrepresented in some categories, while being overrepresented in others that often carry a stigma, such as intellectual disabilities and emotional disturbances. Overrepresentation happens often enough that the federal government is correct to guard against it, they argue.

The findings in the research by Morgan and Farkas also harken back, for some, to arguments that black and brown students are fundamentally inferior to white peers.

We want kids to have the services that they truly need, said Elizabeth Harry, a professor of special education at the University of Miami. In 2006, Harry co-wrote a book, Why Are So Many Minority Students in Special Education? a three-year qualitative study of the special education placement decisions in an urban district. We dont want kids to be placed in categories that suggest they have intrinsic differences. Kids who are already marginalized by history, by continuing economic difference, then receive a label that suggests they are intrinsically deficient, she said.

Adjusting for Differences

Why are Morgan and Farkas findings so different from other research?

In their study, the researchers looked at a national sample of children who entered kindergarten in fall 1998 and were surveyed periodically through 8th grade. That sample of children is different from the child-count data that are collected by the federal office that oversees special education.

The sample data include a wide-ranging set of additional demographic variables including information on the childs academic achievement and on his or her behavior, as observed by teachers.

Morgan and Farkas used that additional information to make the children as similar to one another as possible. What they found is that for students who demonstrated similar levels of academic achievement and behavior, the minority students were less likely than their white peers to be enrolled in special education. We all know there are many sorts of underlying inequities or disparities in the United States. Its well established that minority children are likely to experience the hurts and harms that make disability more likely, Morgan said.

The data are not showing that minority children are intrinsically inferior, Morgan said, just that they bear the brunt of these damaging factors.

The right way to read the research is, if we look at kids who display a similar level of need, who is more likely to get help? Morgan continued. Amongst children displaying the same level of need, white children are more likely to get services. That, to me, seems like an inequity.

The data also appear to mirror other public-health research, which suggests that minority students, particularly African-Americans and Hispanics, are less likely to have access to medical care and are diagnosed with certain disabilities, such as autism, at older ages than their white peers.

Some in special education have found the research compelling. It helped me congeal a number of impressions that Ive had over the years, said Michael Gerber, a professor of education at the University of California, Santa Barbara and a leader in the field of special education, disabilities, and risk.

Up until the time that Morgan and Farkas started playing with this large, nationally representative sample, no one had really done a rigorous sample at the individual level and looked at the likelihood of data longitudinally, he said. There was satisfaction with what we were seeing was the truth.

Chilling Effects?

But lawsuits such as Larry P. v. Riles, a long-running California lawsuit that resulted in a ban on IQ tests to evaluate black students for what was then known as mental retardation, could have had a chilling effect on school leaders who might otherwise want to refer black students to special education, Gerber said. A judge found the tests to be culturally biased.

Gerber said in his own experience, he has heard of school leaders who want to halt special identification of, for example, Hispanic students.

Principals have said, Dont identify students who are Spanish-speaking to special education because they dont have learning problems. They have language problems,  Gerber said.

The federal education departments new rule may ultimately harm special education by diverting to early intervention money that is needed for students who are identified with disabilities, Gerber said. We should not be using special education as the vehicle for solving this pervasive problem, if it in fact exists.

Amanda L. Sullivan, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota who has conducted extensive research on special education disparities, said that Morgan and Farkas work is an interesting addition to the field, but cannot be taken as the last word on the subject.

One concern she has is that the number of students with disabilities in the data set that the researchers use is very small, but theyre using those findings to suggest that underrepresentation is universal. Her own research has found that minorities are both underrepresented and overrepresented in some categories, and that identification varies not only by disability category, but by region. You have a nationally representative sample, but theyre averaging across the entire country with these findings. And we do feel that region matters, she said.

Morgan and Farkas also make adjustments for students based on their academic proficiency and behavior. But not every student who struggles with school has a disability, Sullivan said. It is incorrect to assume that all the minority students in a group of low achievers has a disability and should therefore be enrolled in special education, she said.

As for the federal government proposal, theres ample evidence that school systems are not always following the spirit of the IDEA, she said.

To the extent that we can prompt some evaluation and self reflection among districts of their identification practices, its a good thing, Sullivan said.
School boards have a difficult task. They are expected to oversee a vast number of details for their districts: handle business operations, decide which e-tablets to buy, keep constituents happy, and spend hundreds of hours dealing with such mundane issues as choosing between paper towels and hand dryers for school restrooms. Its no wonder school boards find it hard to focus on what really matters.

I spent 14 years serving on the Houston Independent School Districts board of education. I cared so much about improving educational outcomes for children and, yet, accomplished so little. As the current president and CEO of the Center for Reform of School Systems, a Houston-based organization that provides training programs for school board members and superintendents, I work with individuals across the United States to improve their ability to govern. Regardless of the size, geographic location, and student demographics of the district, very few school boards believe their districts are improving fast enough.

These feelings cause friction between boards and superintendents, among the individual trustees, and across communities. Because board members typically are not education experts, their actions often dont translate into gains in education. Many board members blame the districts superintendent (who works for the school board) for the confusion and lack of progress. And, as most of us know, this is a decades-old story.

More and more, school board members feel as if theyre running on hamster wheels. They must jump from subject to subject and are expected to either contribute an educated opinion or just trust the administrations recommendations. School boards get that they may make decisions without fully understanding the issues; they spend huge amounts of time talking about what they know or can easily grasp, such as how long a students suspension should be. But the difficult discussionshow to reduce the dropout rate or implement meaningful professional developmentget short shrift.

Average board members devote 10 to 20 hours each week to school district business, often without pay. Board meetings might cover 20 to 50 business and discussion items and can last between two and eight hours, as members flit from topic to topic. There is little time to develop a deep understanding of any problem before the group must shift to the next agenda item. This frantic scrambling can be addictive for the members, who grow to expect that they must offer solutions for every issue and critique all actions for the district they help govern. And they can easily feel that the superintendent is either autocratic or patronizing when he or she insists on a direction for an issue.

We have charged school boards with an overwhelming responsibility, and, consequently, they cannot make real progress for their districts.

More and more, school board members feel as if they're running on hamster wheels."

Most states have laws that require their school boards to accomplish specific actions, such as hiring and terminating employees, approving the budget, and setting the tax rate. But according to former U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige, who was superintendent of the Houston district from 1994 to 2001, only about half the items on a board-meeting agenda actually required board action.

What if board members and superintendents could work together to dispense with unnecessary activity and instead spent an entire year focused on one subject? What if the team could study an issue deeply, gather expertise and input, explore solutions, and carefully consider policies to address a single concern? Instead of spending 80 percent of the boards time on routine matters and 20 percent on important ones, what would happen if school boards flipped those percentages to focus on demands worth their time and attention?

If school boards took a year to learn about teacher improvement and empowerment or the effects of poverty on learning and student outcomes, imagine the thoughtful and transparent decisions that would have the opportunity to germinate. Imagine the research that could be studied, the debates had, and the options explored. At best, boards now ram a pilot solution through, rush the results, and, all too often, watch the effort go down in flames.

Imagine if the school board and the superintendent spent a year focused on accountabilityand not just of students and teachersso that the entire district, including the board, could benefit. Perhaps there would be time to discuss how the community, parents, and students could work together to develop their ownership of K-12 learning.

What if school boards could dedicate a year to talking and learning about student achievement? Most board members have little or no knowledge of how to improve student learning, so we need to equip boards with the tools and time to fully grasp the implications of their decisions.

Our governance processes for school districts are doomed to conflict, frustration, and failure unless we make changes. Board members must give up their reliance on activities that masquerade as meaningful work. Superintendents must lessen the workload by bringing forward only critical issues, including those required by law for board consideration. By making a commitment to focus the time and energy of the governance team, boards and superintendents can be more effective with improving schools for their students.
We are quickly approaching the 20th anniversary of Sheff v. ONeill, a watershed desegregation case from Connecticut decided in July 1996. In that case, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled that the State is obligated by the Connecticut Constitution to reduce school segregation in the Hartford metropolitan region. Importantly, the Court ruled that the state legislature had an affirmative constitutional duty to remedy segregation, whether de facto or de jure. It also ruled that the current school districting scheme, which makes school boundaries coterminous with city and town boundaries, was unconstitutional with respect to the plaintiffs, all of whom were from the Hartford area.

The decision went far beyond what the United States Supreme Court has ever required of states. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that only intentional, de jure segregation violates the U.S. Constitution, and it has defined intent narrowly. It is not enough for plaintiffs to show, for example, that states or school districts knew that their policies or practices would cause segregation. Plaintiffs have to show that states or school districts enacted those policies or practices precisely because they wanted to segregate schools--which is a difficult showing to make in the absence of some sort of admission from school officials. In Connecticut, by contrast, the simple existence of segregation imposes a duty on the state legislature to address it and reduce it.

Since the ruling, Hartford has embarked on a slow but steady march toward more integrated schools, mostly by using magnet schools and school choice across school district boundaries. The progress has been halting at times, but integration has increased substantially since 1996, when the Court ruled in Sheff. The decision and its aftermath have received a great deal of attention from the academy and the media, and recently Ira Glass featured Hartford in a powerful, two-part series on integration for This American Life.

Heres the key question about Sheff: Why has its impact been limited to Hartford? In any legal case, including ones heard by a state supreme court or the United States Supreme Court, the ruling technically only binds the parties to the case and the remedy extends only to the plaintiffs. But just as clearly, everyone recognizes that a decision from the states highest court or the nations highest court is the law of the land. Governments bound by those decisions quite rightly act as if the ruling applies generally, and they do not typically insist that litigation continue person-by- person, or town-by-town before complying with the new law.

There are some notable exceptions to this norm, one of which involves school desegregation. After the Courts ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, many southern states and school districts, who were not parties to the Brown case, did nothing. They waited to be sued before they acted, even though the outcome of the suit, because of the precedent of Brown, was pre-ordained. This was a stalling tactic and an act of resistance, pure and simple.

So whats going on in Connecticut? There are other metropolitan areas in Connecticut that look just like Hartford, with a mostly minority city population surrounded by mostly white suburbs. New Haven and Bridgeport are the two most obvious examples. Yet the State has concentrated most of its integration efforts in Hartford. Technically, the ruling in Sheff only applies to the Hartford area. But just as clearly, the ruling establishes that the state legislature has an affirmative duty under the state constitution to remedy segregation. The state constitution applies just as much to New Haven and Bridgeport as it does to Hartford, so there is little reason to believe that the state legislature would have one set of obligations for Hartford and for Hartford alone.

There is a related, hard question: where have the lawyers been? When southern states and school districts dragged their heels, lawyers for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund dragged them to court to insist that they were governed by the ruling in Brown. Why havent lawyers done the same in Connecticut, to insist that the ruling in Sheff be applied throughout the state? More generally, why havent lawyers in other states used Sheff as a model to craft similar cases in their own states? Thats a question I will pursue in my next blog, but for now, its enough to focus on Connecticut and ask why Sheff has mostly been limited to Hartford.
While politicians and education policymakers across the country have talked a good game about creating broader access to high-quality computer science classes in public schools, one state appears to be far ahead of the pack.

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson campaigned on bringing computer-programming classes to every high school in the state, and early last year, just weeks after taking office, the Republican signed a bill establishing an aggressive timeline for making that goal a reality. The law, approved in February 2015, required that every high school offer computer science classes starting the following fall.

As a result, nearly 4,000 Arkansas students enrolled in a computer science course during the 2015-16 school year, a 260-percent increase from the previous year, according to the state department of education. But the students arent the only ones getting a digital education.

More than 1,000 teachers received some kind of professional development in computer science during the school year, most funded by $1.6 million in competitive grants awarded to schools and districts. The department doled out another $800,000 for additional training. Within five years, the state hopes to get 1,000 high-school and junior high school teachers certified to teach computer science and another 10,000 K-8 teachers trained in basic computer science.

Arkansas wasnt the first jurisdiction to institute aggressive coding-education objectives, but some experts attribute the states success to how it followed up with millions of dollars to train educators to teach a discipline that is largely new to the K-12 space.

While it is certainly a little ambitious, I dont know of any other state that has done more than Arkansas. They have a really strong, multifaceted plan that is well thought out and probably stands the best chance for success, said Mark R. Nelson, the executive director of the Computer Science Teachers Association.

Training teachers is the biggest part of the challenge, Nelson added. Inevitably, one or two teachers wont hit the mark on the first shot, but I think the state is far better off than anyone else.

Coding classes arent entirely new to Arkansas. The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts, or ASMSA, a residential public high school for students gifted in math and science, has been requiring students to take computer science classes since its founding in 1993. Today, the Hot Springs school offers 11 programming classes, including one on artificial intelligence and robotics. ASMSA boasts alumni working in the IT departments of large Arkansas firms like Wal-Mart and Acxiom, as well as prominent tech-industry figures working further afield like Luther Lowe, the director of public policy for Yelp.

K-12 Coding Laws In just the first half of 2016, several states have passed legislation relating to coding and computer science in schools. Heres a look at what the new laws do. West Virginia HB 4730 | Signed May 30

Requires the state board to submit a plan to the legislature on how it will implement computer science instruction in public schools, including recommendations for content standards, teacher certifications, and specific courses. Colorado HB 1198 | Signed April 21

Requires the state board to adopt content standards for computer science, including code writing, in one or more math or science courses that qualify as a graduation requirement. Tennessee HB 1755 | Signed April 8

Beginning in 2016-17, the state board must permit every candidate for a full high school diploma to enroll in and complete one computer science class. The class can satisfy the fine arts graduation requirement. Utah SB 93 | Signed March 28

Directs the state board to begin a computer science initiative and appropriates $400,000 for it, most of which will be awarded in competitive grants to schools to provide incentives for teachers to earn computer science endorsements. Also requires the state to develop an online repository of materials for teaching coding and to offer professional development. Virginia HB 831 | Signed March 25

Adds computer science and coding to the states Standards of Learning. Idaho HB 379 | Signed March 24

Creates the Computer Science Initiative for Public Schools. Directs the state board, state education department, and STEM action center to: adopt computer science content standards for implementation by 2017-18; provide professional development in teaching computer science; and create an online repository of instructional materials, among other actions. SOURCE: Education Commission of the States

At least one alumnus hasnt strayed too far. Daniel Moix first returned to the school as a teacher in 2003, serving in that capacity through 2010, and then again last year to lead the schools Coding Arkansas Future program, which school officials hope will be a signature code-training center for teachers across the state.

The ASMSAs teacher-training program entails a weeklong summer boot camp followed by a years worth of support and mentoring from Moix. He says he worked with 16 educators from across the state this year and that most of them were new to computer science.

They are mostly business and math teachers, but we even have a French teacher, said Moix. The business teachers, as far as technology goes, are very well off. They can use spreadsheets, for example, but didnt know computer programming or where that software comes from. The math teachers came in understanding more about algorithms, some of them had programmed calculators and some had even taken computer science classes in college. Each is facing a different set of challenges.

Tammy Glass is one of the business teachers, based in the Spring Hill district in the southwest corner of the state. Glass explained that she and her students were bored with her schools old computing curriculum, which consisted largely of lessons on using spreadsheets and making PowerPoint presentations, so she went to her superintendent and asked if she could apply for one of the new state grants to be trained to teach computer science. Glass didnt think she had much of a chance, since her district serves just 550 students. When she got word that she had gotten the money, she quickly signed up for Moixs class, not knowing what to expect.

Just being familiar with computers helped me, but I had zero coding and programming experience, she said. During that week [of class], a lot of us were overwhelmed. We had a lot of information thrown at us, but its just like picking up a new language. Time and practice have made it easier and easier, but Im not going to lie. It was a tough week.

Throughout the year, the teachers in the ASMSA program have been using technology to get help from Moix as well as from each other. They have a monthly video-chat meeting to chew over their progress and get tips from each other. During those sessions, they discuss issues like how to handle behavioral issues in a classroom where every student is on a computer, or how to help students untangle a complex coding issue.

We also have this amazing Google group, said Glass. You post a question, and five to 10 minutes later, someone has an answer. When you are in a smaller school district, theres nobody else.

Glass and one of her fellow ASMSA trainees, Deborah Horn, a math teacher in the Hot Springs school district, agree that the biggest challenge is balancing their training and new assignments teaching computer science with all their other duties.

Juggling all the other responsibilities is the toughest part, said Horn. I usually teach three or four different subjects. During the year, we had to make sure to stay at least a week ahead of the students, working through everything they were going to see later, so when a kid had a question, you knew the stumbling blocks to that problem. Id say on average we were easily spending an extra five to 10 hours a week learning computer science.

Beyond the time crunch, Glass advice to educators looking to teach coding is to accept that in many cases the students might know more about the subject than the teacher does.

Teachers like to hold all of the information and then give it out to students, but with computer science and technology, thats not the case, our kids are exploring on their own, and they, a lot of the time, know more than I do, said Glass.

Arkansass teacher-centered approach to increasing school coding offerings has begun to receive national recognition, with U.S. Secretary of Education John B. King Jr. citing the states progress as an example for the nation.

Educators in the state have the same agenda.

What were doing at ASMA reaches into 16 districts, but this is a national movement that Arkansas happens to be ahead of the curve with, said Moix. Its about moving computer science beyond the 2 percent who have been taking [Advanced Placement] classes. Getting all kids ready to be not just consumers of technology but producers, change agents.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) supports two major projects that will provide a total of 280m for social housing in Northern Ireland.

The long-term loans mark the Banks first direct engagement with social housing providers in the region and will substantially lower the cost of borrowing for Choice and Apex housing associations who have received EIB approval for 150m and 130m respectively. They now join a shortlist of high performing associations in the UK and Ireland that have met the EIBs requirements for credit approval. Legal contracts are expected to be concluded in the coming weeks.

The funding, alongside statutory support from the Department for Communities, will enable the associations to begin construction on 4,700 new social homes over the next five years and retro-fit of many existing units.

Jonathan Taylor, European Investment Bank Vice President said: The European Investment Bank has a firm commitment to supporting new investment in social and affordable housing across the UK that represents nearly half of overall EIB backing for social housing in Europe. I am pleased to be in Belfast and Bangor today to confirm our largest ever support for social housing investment in Northern Ireland with two excellent local partners, Choice and Apex housing associations. The GBP 280 million provided by the European Investment Bank will ensure more than GBP 560 million of overall investment that will improve lives, create jobs, benefit local suppliers and cut heating bills in homes across Northern Ireland.

Michael McDonnell, Chief Executive of Choice Housing said: This investment package demonstrates confidence in our ability to deliver high quality outcomes and gives us access to the most cost-effective long-term finance arrangements ever used in Northern Ireland. Ultimately that means we can make public money go further and put more social homes in the areas where they are needed most. As a social enterprise, we are direct our resources and commercial ambition towards long-term opportunities that can deliver more for the communities we serve. This is a great result for us, EIB and for the region.

Martin Doherty, Chairman of Apex, said: We are delighted that Vice President Taylor has taken time out of his busy schedule to visit our housing led regeneration schemes in North Belfast to see for himself the impact that the EIB funding can and will have on inner city communities. The EIB financial package will underpin Apexs future development plans and enable us to continue our current programme of transforming disused brownfield sites in Belfast such as Girdwood, North Queen Street police station, Tigers Bay and in other high need areas across Northern Ireland, into high quality, vibrant communities where people want to live.

Paul Givan MLA, Minister for Communities, welcomed the investment: This funding shows the confidence that the European Investment Bank has in the work of local housing associations and is a clear indication that social housing is a strong market which continues to deliver. My Department already provides significant funding for social housing and this combination of public and private financing will enable Choice Housing and Apex, two of our leading providers of social housing to build more social housing for those in most need across Northern Ireland.

The new EIB support was formally announced during a site visit by Jonathan Taylor, Vice President of the European Investment Bank to a new Choice Housing development in Greenisland. Mr Taylor also visited Apex Housing Schemes in North Belfast.

The GBP 280 million to be provided by the European Investment Bank will match-funded by grants from the Northern Ireland government and other sources ensuring more than GBP 560 million of overall investment to improve lives, create jobs, benefit local suppliers and cut heating bills in homes across the Northern Ireland.

Lending by the EIB in the UK last year totalled GBP 5.6 billion and supported long-term investment in 40 projects across the country. This represented the largest annual engagement since the start of EIB lending in the UK in 1973 which has supported nearly GBP 16 billion of overall investment.
After a contentious, litigious and politically fraught years-long debate over Louisianas use of the Common Core State Standards, state legislators on Tuesday approved what were described as minor alterations to the standards that include changing when students learn how to count money and tossing the requirement that students read a Shakespearean play, according to the Associated Press .

Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards is expected to sign off on the changes, which will take effect this fall.

We can now all pull together and focus our energy and resources exclusively on increasing student achievement, Edwards said in a statement.

Opponents werent pleased with the standards, referring to the changes as cosmetic.

We need to set ourselves apart from what the other states are doing, from this review proces where theyre just rebranding, Leslie Truax, a Louisiana teacher, told the AP.

Debate over the standards flared up in 2013three years after the states board of education adopted themwhen conservatives in the state began to argue that the standards were forced on them by the federal government and dont reflect local needs.

Then-Gov. Bobby Jindhal, who once supported the standards, sued the Obama administration for violating the states Administrative Procedures Act for adopting the standards the way the state did. That lawsuit was dropped by Edwards in February.

The changes to the standards approved by the house and senate education committees Tuesday were made by a 26-member panel appointed by the lawmakers. Around 21 percent of the English and math standarsd were changed.

My co-worker and State EdWatch predecessor Andrew Ujifusa created this awesome timeline that shows how contentious this debate became over the years. I updated it with todays news.

Dont miss another State EdWatch post. Sign up here to get news alerts in your email inbox. And make sure to follow @StateEdWatch on Twitter for the latest news from state K-12 policy and politics.
Last week, Education Week reported for NewsHour about the area surrounding Franklin, Vt., a small region on the border of Canada that was in the throes of a fierce debate over whether they should consolidate its five tiny school districts into one.

The proposal was spurred on by Act 46, a law passed by the states legislature last year that provides a series of tax breaks to districts that consolidate and a series of tax increases for those that dont and overspend. The effort is meant to cut in half the number of districts in the state, several of which have just a few dozen students in them.

But on Tuesday, the residents overwhelmingly voted against the consolidation effort. None of the five districts voted for the plan, according to local media reports .

Advocates of the plan said that by consolidating, district officials can combine their resources to offer more extracurricular activities and Advanced Placement courses. But opponents feared the effort was the first step to closing some of the areas smallest schools and end the areas flexible voucher program.

The consolidation effort fared better elsewhere in the state. Two other efforts across the state passed yesterday, according to the Associated Press .

Whats next is hard to tell, according to Jay Nichols, the superintendent of the Franklin Northeast Supervisory Union which oversees all five districts. The area could place the issue on the ballot again or they can wait for the state to intervene and come up with its own plan.

At this point we do not know what we will do next, Nichols said in an e-mail. Boards will be meeting this month to have conversations on how to best proceed.

Dont miss another State EdWatch post. Sign up here to get news alerts in your email inbox. And make sure to follow @StateEdWatch on Twitter for the latest news from state K-12 policy and politics.
Ely, Cambridgeshire is best known for its majestic cathedral dubbed the 'Ship of the Fens' because it dominates the flat landscape. The city, which is the second smallest in England, is about 14 miles north-northeast of Cambridge and about 80 miles by road from London.

13:33, 25 OCT 2022
Hillary's Brother-in-Law, Roger Clinton, Out on Bail After DUI Arrest

Hillary Clinton has a lot on her plate right now -- like trying to win the Democratic presidential primary in California -- so she was no doubt hoping to avoid a family scandal. But, as news outlets love to remind us, family scandals are common for the Clintons, and the latest comes from Bill's step-brother who was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence in Redondo Beach on Sunday night.

While Hillary Clinton campaigns, and Bill does the same on her behalf, Roger Clinton spent Sunday night in jail. His bail, which he has since posted, was set at $15,000 and his first appearance date is reportedly set for September. No doubt the Clintons are hoping that Hillary will win the state before concerning themselves with Roger Cassidy Clinton's fate.

Refusing Testing

According to CNN, Clinton was arrested after he performed field sobriety tests. He apparently did not pass and was taken to the county jail where he refused "all chemical testing." This is interesting to note because Clinton has been accused of DUI in a case in the same county 15 years ago, although he did not refuse testing then, apparently.

Did he learn from that experience that he should refuse the tests? if so, he presumably also learned that there can be consequences for refusing even if a DUI is not proven.

Roger Clinton also sparked an investigation of his half-brother Bill by Republicans after Bill pardoned Roger for a 1985 charge that sent him to prison for more than a year. The prison sentence was part of a plea deal in which Roger Clinton admitted to distributing a single gram of cocaine.

Growing Up Clinton

Roger Clinton posted bail on Monday morning reportedly and was released from custody. The political half of the Clinton family does not seem to be saying anything about the incident, which makes sense.

Regardless, Roger Clinton's difficulties with addiction are well documented. CBS News reports that in his 1995 book, Growing Up Clinton, Roger recounted his troubled life, childhood abuse at the hands of his dad, and his struggles with booze and drugs.

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What Is a Pet Worth? Georgia Supreme Court Decides

When you go away on vacation and leave your precious pooch at a kennel, you expect to get the dog back, intact. If that doesn't happen and you decide to sue, what can you expect to recover? Georgia's highest court has just provided guidance on this issue, concluding that that dog is worth its fair market value, not the actual value paid for the pet, and that owners may also sue to recover veterinary expenses incurred.

The decision stems from a 2012 case in which one couple left both of their dogs at a kennel for ten days. During that time, the couple says, the kennel gave the wrong dog medication, causing almost-immediate acute renal failure and ultimately leading to her death nine months later. Now they'll be able to try to collect costs from the kennel, according to the Georgia high court.

Losing Lola

Robert and Elizabeth Monyak sued Barking Hound Village Kennel and its manager, claiming negligence, fraud, and deceit leading to the death of their dog, Lola. In Georgia, a pet dog has value and is considered the personal property of its owner. At issue in the case was the proper measure of value -- whether actual or fair market -- and whether a cap on damages is appropriate in such a matter.

The Chief Justice, delivering the Court's opinion, wrote:

The subject matter of this case is near and dear to the heart of many a Georgian in that it involves the untimely death of a beloved family pet and concerns the proper measure of damages available to the owners of an animal injured or killed through the negligence of others. Observing that pet dogs are considered personal property under Georgia law, but finding that not all dogs have an actual commercial or market value, the Court of Appeals held that where the actual market value of the animal is non-existent or nominal, the appropriate measure of damages would be the actual value of the dog to its owners.

Reversing in Part

The decision from the state supreme court recognizes that the dog has a value beyond what was paid for it, and that the value can be demonstrated by reasonable veterinary and other expenses, as well as other economic factors. This ruling reversed in part and affirmed in part the court of appeals' ruling below, which considered "actual value" of the dog as opposed to fair market value the appropriate measure but capped damages, excluding vet costs.

Relying on an 1887 case about a horse who was injured stepping through wood on a rotting bridge, the George Supreme Court wrote: "Where an animal is negligently injured and subsequently dies as a result of those injuries, the proper measure of damages recoverable by the animal's owner includes not only the full market value of the animal at the time of the loss plus interest, but also expenses incurred by the owner in an effort to cure the animal."

The Monyaks were relieved about the ruling and believe that they are not the only pet owners to have suffered from kennel negligence. Elizabeth Monyak told WSB-TV 2 in Atlanta, "We suspect just like we weren't told when they made a medication error, these other people may not have been told either."

Negligent Kennel?

If your pet or any other beloved family member is injured due to the negligence of another, talk to a lawyer. Tell your story. Many attorneys consult for free or a minimal fee and will be happy to assess your case.

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The release date for the second season of 2015's runaway anime hit One Punch Man might not be revealed as of yet, but the plot for the next season could already be deduced. The One Punch Man anime gained accolades from both critics and fans due to its faithfulness to its source material. Thus, there is also a very good chance that the anime's second season would be based on the events of the manga as well.

With this said, the second season of One Punch Man might very well end with a battle that is intense, bloody and downright brutal. In the first season, the final enemy featured in the anime was the alien, Lord Boros, who battled Saitama one-on-one in a spectacular fight that quite literally sent the hero to crashing into the Moon.

If the events of the manga are to be considered, there is a very big possibility that One Punch Man Season 2 would primarily feature the Hero Hunter Arc, which involves Garou, a fallen disciple of Class S #3 Hero Silver Fang, hunting for the most powerful members of the Hero Association.

Indeed, Garou's bloody battles with Class S heroes such as Metal Bat and Tank Top Master were very intense and brutal in the manga. Since Madhouse is handling the animation, these battles would surely be a spectacle to behold in One Punch Man's second season.

What makes Garou a perfect main villain for the next season of One Punch Man is the fact that he is much like Saitama. Garou is not a monster, nor does he have powers like the other heroes in the franchise. Rather, he is just a human who became hyper-powerful due to intense training and an unwavering drive to be stronger.

In fact, it could even be said that Saitama and Garou are two sides of the same coin. One just happens to empathize with people while the other sympathizes with monsters and evil in the world.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about Garou, however, is the fact that in the manga, he quite literally took the fight to Saitama. In recent releases from the original webcomic by ONE, Garou has already taken dozens of punches from Saitama and he was still getting up and fighting back.

If the anime's second season does feature Garou as the main villain, the climax would surely be a spectacular, bloody and brutal battle between two men who have, through sheer heart and effort, become beings beyond what mortals could reach.
Talcum Powder May Increase Ovarian Cancer Risk in African American Women

Talcum powder, or baby powder as it's sometimes called, seemed harmless enough before. But recently the stuff has gotten a reputation for its connection to ovarian cancer. Now, there is new evidence that use of the powder is strongly linked to ovarian cancer in African American women.

This is reportedly because African American women were targeted by talc manufacturers in advertisements, according to the study's principal investigator. Let's consider what researchers discovered as reported by Reuters Health.

Skeptical Researcher

According to Joellen Schildkraut, an epidemiologist at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, who was the principal investigator in the study, "African-American women have been targeted for use of body powder, and they use it more commonly."

Schildkraut started out a skeptic of claims that there was a link between use of the powder and ovarian cancer risks. But she changed her mind by the time she was done with the study. Reports from women who said they regularly use the body powder seem to indicate that they were at greater risk for ovarian cancer than peers who didn't use it. Now, Schildkraut, the once-skeptical researcher, recommends that women avoid talc. "Why use it," she asked. "It's an avoidable risk for ovarian cancer."

Her team interviewed 584 women with ovarian cancer and 745 women without the disease, all black, reporting their findings in the publication Cancer Epidemiology. They found that nearly 63 percent of women with cancer and nearly 53 percent of those without all dusted themselves with the culprit powder.

More Skeptics

Dr. Nicolas Wentzensen, head of clinical epidemiology for the National Cancer Institute, noted that African American women are underrepresented in many epidemiological studies and told Reuters Health that Schildkraut's research was well-conducted. It confirms previous studies describing an increased risk of ovarian cancer from talc use.

But, he said, the associations found in this latest study were higher than in previous studies; he blamed this on study participants' recall. He said that answers might have been influenced by recent reports of successful lawsuits against talcum powder product makers Johnson & Johnson.

Schildkraut said that recall bias was a factor she considered in her study but she believes that women do recall their use of such products. Regardless, her newfound skepticism of talc is supported by other researchers as well. Cancer genetics expert Dr. Steven Narod of Women's College Research Institute in Toronto recently wrote in an editorial, "In the interests of public health, I believe we should caution women against using genital talcum powder."

Injured by Talcum Powder?

If you have been injured or fallen ill due to a defective product, talk to a lawyer. Many personal injury attorneys consult for free or a minimal fee and will be happy to assess your case.

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Continuity and Change: 50 Years

of Amish Society

June 9-11, 2016



The international conference will focus on changes and consistency within Amish communities during the years 1963 to 2013. This fifty-year time period is framed by the publication of Amish Society by John Hostetler (1963) and The Amish by Donald Kraybill, Karen Johnson-Weiner, and Steven Nolt (2013). The conference will highlight the many significant changes among the Amish during these five decades, such as population growth, cultural diversity, landmark legal decisions, the explosion of Amish-themed literature and media, health care issues, and the increasing involvement of Amish people in business. Speakers will also explore themes of continuity in Amish society such as family life, leadership patterns, dress, language, and transportation, among others. In addition, the conference will emphasize the advance and expansion of scholarship about the Amish. (View conference brochure.)

Live streaming: If you can't join us in person, please join our live video stream for three sessions:

GENERAL INFORMATION

The conference will include more than 60 presentations in a variety of formats: plenary lectures, academic paper presentations, panel discussions, seminars, and poster sessions.

Who should attend? Scholars, researchers, health care professionals, extension educators, government officials, and others who study or serve members of Amish or other Plain communities. The conference will provide a forum for exploring the dynamic forces for change and preservation in Amish life, understanding continuities and innovations in economic activity among the Amish, reviewing significant developments in Amish population growth, migration and family life, and discovering and sharing resources for understanding Amish culture. Continuing Education Units are available to attendees.

KEYNOTE ADDRESS

Amish Society: Continuity and Dynamism in a Hyper-Modern World

Steven Nolt

During the past half century Amish society has attracted attention for its remarkable persistence in the midst of modern North American. Yet the fact that the Amish survive and thrive has just as surely been a result of their ability to adapt to changing circumstances. Steve Nolt will consider key developments in Amish society and its relationship with wider social forces since the mid-twentieth century. In charting these patterns he will suggest what they may say about the possibilities and limits of American pluralism today, as well as for the future of a dynamic and increasingly diverse Amish world in the twenty-first century.

Steve Nolt is a professor of history at Goshen (Ind.) College and will begin his new role as the Young Center's senior scholar this summer. His newest book, The Amish: A Concise Introduction, was published by the Johns Hopkins University Press in March 2016. Other recent publications include A History of the Amish, 3rd ed. (2015) and, with Donald Kraybill and Karen Johnson-Weiner, The Amish (2013).

PLENARY ADDRESSES

SEMINARS

The ABCs of Amish Quilts: Abstract Art, Big Business, and Country Craft by Janneken Smucker, a fifth-generation Mennonite quilt maker and assistant professor of history at West Chester University

Medicine and the Modern Amish by Martha King, an anthropologist and folklorist currently working as a lecturer at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Mental Health Treatment and the Old Order Amish: Through the Looking Glass by Jim Cates, psychologist in private practice in northeast Indiana and the author of Serving the Amish: A Cultural Guide for Professionals

Are the Amish Models of Environmental Stewardship? Exploring the Amish Relationship with Nature by David L. McConnell, professor of anthropology at the College of Wooster, and Lyn D. Loveless, professor of biology emeritus at the College of Wooster

Reality TV Amish by Dirk Eitzen, director of the film and media studies program at Franklin & Marshall College

OPTIONAL TOURS

For an additional fee, conference attendees may register for one of three tours on Thursday, June 9:

Agriculture: Participants visit Amish farms and see new agricultural ventures developed by Amish farmers.

Business Enterprises: Participants visit Amish businesses and talk with the proprietors about their involvement in the business world of Lancaster County and beyond.

Health Care and Medical Services: Participants visit facilities that provide medical treatment for Amish patients and learn about various ways that health care is provided. NOTE THAT THE HEALTH CARE TOUR IS NOW FULL.

SCHEDULE

The conference opens at 1:00 pm on Thursday, June 9, and closes at 12:30 on Saturday, June 11. The complete schedule is now available.

REGISTRATION

CONFERENCE REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED.

Cost for the full conference is $250. Cost for full-time students and members of Plain communities is $150. The registration deadline is May 20.

Registration options: (1) Register online and pay by credit card. (2) Fax your registration form and payment information to (717) 361-1443. (3) Mail your registration form and payment to Amish Conference 2016, Young Center, Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown, PA 17022-2298.

LODGING

Limited housing is available in residence halls and apartment buildings on the college campus. The conference has also negotiated special rates at several local hotels.

LOCATION

Elizabethtown College is located in northwestern Lancaster County, approximately 90 minutes from Baltimore, two hours from Philadelphia, three hours from Washington, D.C., and four hours from New York City and Pittsburgh. The interactive campus map shows the location of the Young Center and other facilities on the college campus.

QUESTIONS

If you have questions about the conference, please send an e-mail to Amish 2016@etown.edu or call (717) 361-1470.
Results underscore importance of screening for sleep disturbances and providing evidence-based interventions to service members as well as their families.

DARIEN, IL - A new study found that spouses of military service members experience significant sleep problems, which can impact their health and psychosocial functioning.

Results show that 44 percent of spouses reported sleeping 6 hours or less per night. Approximately 54 percent of the sample endorsed daytime impairment due to sleep problems, and 62 percent reported experiencing daytime fatigue at least 1-2 times per week. Spouses of currently or previously deployed service members endorsed poorer sleep quality and more fatigue than spouses of service members who had never deployed.

"These results are important because we know very little about sleep problems among military spouses. Promoting sleep health may be an important strategy for enhancing military families' adjustment in the post-deployment period," said principal investigator Wendy Troxel, PhD, senior behavioral and social scientist at the RAND Corporation. "This is particularly relevant given that the past 14 years of protracted overseas combat have exacted an unprecedented toll on U.S. service members and their families."

The research abstract was published recently in an online supplement of the journal Sleep and will be presented Sunday, June 12, in Denver at SLEEP 2016, the 30th Anniversary Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies LLC (APSS).

The study group comprised 1,480 female spouses of military service members who completed self-report instruments related to sleep, physical health, marital satisfaction, and depression. Information regarding service member military characteristics (e.g., branch of service, deployment history) was also available.

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The study was supported by RAND National Defense Research Institute; Office of the Surgeon General, U.S. Army, and the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury (DCoE) and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI).

Abstract Title: Examining the Prevalence and Correlates of Sleep Problems Among Military Spouses

Abstract ID: 1015

Presentation Date: Sunday, June 12

Presentation Type: Poster

Presentation Time: 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

SLEEP 2016 is a joint venture of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society. The SLEEP 2016 abstract supplement is available at http://sleepmeeting.org/abstract-supplements. For a copy of the abstract or to arrange an interview with the study author or an AASM spokesperson, please contact AASM Senior Communications Coordinator Amy Pyle at 630-737-9700, ext. 9366, or apyle@aasmnet.org.

About the American Academy of Sleep Medicine

Established in 1975, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) improves sleep health and promotes high quality patient centered care through advocacy, education, strategic research, and practice standards. The AASM has a combined membership of 11,000 accredited member sleep centers and individual members, including physicians, scientists and other health care professionals (http://www.aasmnet.org).
Boys high in cognitive empathy attracted an average of 1.8 more girl friendships than low empathy counterparts, as revealed by a landmark study - When Empathy Matters: The Role of Sex and Empathy in Close Friendships.

The Australian Research Council-funded research, led by Professor Joseph Ciarrochi at the Institute for Positive Psychology and Education at Australian Catholic University, has been published in the Journal of Personality.

It is the first study to examine the extent that adolescent males and females select empathic classmates as friends. And the conclusion based on a study of 1,970 Year 10 students in Queensland and New South Wales (average age of 15.7 years) is that girls are more likely to nominate empathic boys as friends.

In contrast, empathetic girls didn't rate quite so highly with the opposite sex. In fact, the study found girls with empathetic qualities "did not attract a greater number of opposite sex friends" at all.

And, what's more, it doesn't seem to bother girls who, regardless, reported an overall feeling of friendship support. "The more friendship nominations a boy received from either boys or girls, the more they felt supported by their friends; the number of friendship nominations received by girls, in contrast, had no effect on their felt support by friends. Regardless of the quantity of friendship nominations, empathy was linked to more supportive friendships for both males and females," Professor Ciarrochi said.

The researchers defined cognitive empathy as the capacity to comprehend the emotions of another person.

They asked students to nominate up to five of their closest male and five closest female friends in the same year. Students were asked questions such as "when someone is feeling down, I can usually understand how they feel," and "I can often understand how people are feeling even before they tell me".

And using what is called the 'Friendship Subscale' of the 'Student Social Support Scale', students made selections from the following: "My close friend(s)...", "give me advice," "helps me when I need it," "spends time with me when I'm lonely," "accepts me when I make a mistake," "calms me down when I'm nervous about something," "understands my feelings," and "explains things when I'm confused".

Professor Ciarrochi said: "Friends are essential to positive adolescent development. It's well established that in addition to providing companionship, close friendships promote the development of interpersonal skills, learning, and growth. Having friends has also been linked with lower rates of depression and, to people feeling good about themselves," he said.

"This research suggests it is critical to identify and teach young people the skills they need to develop supportive friendships. To that end, our study provides a contextual understanding of the role of empathy in selecting and maintaining friendships," Professor Ciarrochi said.

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Notes to Editors

1. Professor Joseph Ciarrochi is available for comment: M: + 61 (0)419008430

E: joseph.ciarrochi@acu.edu.au

2. ACU Research Media contact: Rajiv Maharaj. M: + 61 (0)476 853 461.

E: rajiv.maharaj@acu.edu.au
STRATFORD, NJ - A research team, led by Dr. Robert Nagele from Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine and Durin Technologies, Inc., has announced the development of a blood test that leverages the body's immune response system to detect an early stage of Alzheimer's disease - referred to as the mild cognitive impairment (MCI) stage - with unparalleled accuracy. In a "proof of concept" study involving 236 subjects, the test demonstrated an overall accuracy, sensitivity and specificity rate of 100 percent in identifying subjects whose MCI was actually caused by an early stage of Alzheimer's disease.

"About 60 percent of all MCI patients have MCI caused by an early stage of Alzheimer's disease. The remaining 40 percent of cases are caused by other factors, including vascular issues, drug side-effects and depression. To provide proper care, physicians need to know which cases of MCI are due to early Alzheimer's and which are not," said Cassandra DeMarshall, the study's lead author, and a PhD candidate at the Rowan University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. "Our results show that it is possible to use a small number of blood-borne autoantibodies to accurately diagnose early-stage Alzheimer's. These findings could eventually lead to the development of a simple, inexpensive and relatively noninvasive way to diagnose this devastating disease in its earliest stages."

"It is now generally believed that Alzheimer's-related changes begin in the brain at least a decade before the emergence of telltale symptoms," Nagele explained. "To the best of our knowledge, this is the first blood test using autoantibody biomarkers that can accurately detect Alzheimer's at an early point in the course of the disease when treatments are more likely to be beneficial - that is, before too much brain devastation has occurred." Nagele is the study's corresponding author and the director of the Biomarker Discovery Center at Rowan's New Jersey Institute for Successful Aging. He is also the co-founder and chief scientific officer of Durin Technologies, Inc.

The researchers presented their results in an article published in Alzheimer's & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring that also reported the test's ability to accurately "stage the disease," meaning it can distinguish early-stage Alzheimer's at MCI from later, more advanced stages. The test was also disease-specific. It readily distinguished early Alzheimer's at the MCI stage from other diseases including Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, and early stage breast cancer.

For the study, the Rowan University researchers analyzed blood samples from 236 subjects, including 50 MCI subjects with low levels of amyloid-beta 42 peptide in their cerebrospinal fluid. The latter is a reliable indicator of ongoing Alzheimer's pathology in the brain and predicts a likely rapid progression to Alzheimer's.

Employing human protein microarrays, each containing 9,486 unique human proteins that are used as bait to attract blood-borne autoantibodies, the researchers identified the top 50 autoantibody biomarkers capable of detecting ongoing early-stage Alzheimer's pathology in patients with MCI. In multiple tests, the 50 biomarkers were 100 percent accurate in distinguishing patients with MCI due to Alzheimer's from healthy age- and gender-matched controls. Further testing of the selected MCI biomarker panel demonstrated similar high overall accuracy rates in differentiating patients with early Alzheimer's at the MCI stage from those with more advance, mild-moderate Alzheimer's (98.7 percent), early-stage Parkinson's disease (98.0 percent), multiple sclerosis (100 percent) and breast cancer (100 percent).

In their report, the researchers acknowledge that the utility of their MCI biomarker panel as a blood test for early detection of Alzheimer's disease will hinge on a successful larger replication study using an independent patient cohort. However, they also point out that, because this blood-based diagnostic strategy is dependent on the presence of Alzheimer's pathology which can be underway many years before symptoms emerge, this approach could open the door to even earlier pre-symptomatic detection of Alzheimer's disease.

According to the authors, early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease and the ability to stage the disease through a simple blood test would offer many potential benefits. Patients could possibly delay disease progression through lifestyle adjustments, begin treatment sooner and plan future medical care. Clinicians would have a way to measure the effectiveness of therapeutic intervention and clinical trials could enroll patients who were truly at the earliest stage of their disease.

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This research was supported, in part, by the Osteopathic Heritage Foundation and the Michael J. Fox Foundation. The researchers reported that neither organization had a role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the article.

About Rowan University

Rowan University offers bachelor's through doctoral programs to 16,100 students through its campuses in Glassboro, Camden and Stratford, New Jersey. In the past four years, Rowan created a School of Biomedical Sciences & Health Professions; opened the Camden-based Cooper Medical School of Rowan University; and incorporated the School of Osteopathic Medicine and the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, making Rowan only the second university in the nation to grant both M.D. and D.O. medical degrees. Rowan is collaborating with Rutgers-Camden to create degree programs to meet the growing need for medical services in the City of Camden. One of only three state-designated public research institutions in New Jersey, Rowan comprises the University's William G. Rohrer College of Business, the Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering and colleges of Communication & Creative Arts, Education, Humanities & Social Sciences, Performing Arts, and Science & Mathematics and the Division of Global Learning & Partnerships, as well as the medical schools.
As you read this paragraph, a NASA satellite orbits around planet Earth, gathering data on -- of all things -- soil moisture. Moisture in the soil acts like a thermostat for the planet. Along with affecting agricultural production, it has a large influence on the weather and climate. Its impact on the planet is so important, NASA has sent a satellite into space to measure it.

As sunlight is absorbed by the Earth, it can do two things for soil moisture. It can evaporate moisture in the soil. Or, if there is no moisture, it can warm the soil surface. This affects the amount of moisture in the air and the amount of heat the soil is absorbing, in turn shifting air patterns, weather, and climate.

"Measuring soil moisture is now one of our top priorities because it affects so much," says Michael Cosh. Cosh works at the Agricultural Research Service's Hydrology and Remote Sensing Laboratory in Beltsville, MD. "Soil moisture affects our crops, our weather, flooding, human health, and even determines if farmers can get into their fields."

Soil moisture is an important component of flood risk. If water falls on dry soil, it can be absorbed. But if it falls on saturated soil, it can run off and lead to flooding. Soil moisture is always of top importance for those working in agriculture. "I've heard of plants being grown without soil but never heard of one being grown without moisture," Cosh says. "Soil moisture is just critical for farmers. Growing up in a farming community, it is very rewarding to know I can help make farmers' jobs easier."

The problem is that there are many different methods, instruments, and sensors that can measure soil moisture -- including the NASA satellite called Soil Moisture Active Passive, or SMAP. Cosh is on a mission to ensure that information is accurate.

The SMAP satellite was originally planned to work in both an active and passive way. The passive sensor works like a camera, taking data from the Earth's surface. The active sensor sends a radar pulse and collects the bounce back. Unfortunately, the active sensor stopped working on July 7, 2015. However, the SMAP mission is continuing with just the passive sensor.

From space, the satellite obviously can't directly measure soil moisture, but the signals collected by SMAP are strongly related to the moisture conditions on the surface. Cosh says the satellite actually measures characteristics of the ground and then uses complex equations to estimate soil moisture, with some error. Cosh and his team are hoping to help NASA reduce the errors. They compare their on-ground moisture measurements to the SMAP satellite data.

By using numerous instruments here on Earth, Cosh and his team of collaborators are helping NASA determine the accuracy of its satellite. At the same time, they are working to ensure the methods and instruments they are using on the ground are also comparable.

Cosh explains that to test different instruments he and his team must compare data from an estimate to the "truth," which is the actual observed soil moisture. Obtaining this "truth" is simple in concept, but difficult in practice. A soil sample is scooped out of the ground, weighed, heated in an oven to evaporate any moisture, and weighed again. The difference between the two weights shows how much soil moisture evaporated. Using instruments to measure soil moisture is much easier but must closely reflect this true measurement -- and that's what Cosh and his team are trying to test.

"The soil moisture community is working to establish guidelines for instrument installation and data collection, and people are talking about building a national soil moisture database program," he says. "We want everyone talking the same language."

Using a satellite to gather data on soil moisture begs the question: Can we measure it on other planets? While Cosh says there are currently no plans to do so, the information NASA gains from its Earth experiences could help it explore other planets. "If we aim the satellite at another planet we would have the knowledge built up from Earth experiments to help interpret what that means on another planet," he says.

Read more about this work in Vadose Zone Journal. The SMAP Marena, Oklahoma, In Situ Sensor Testbed (SMAP-MOISST) was established in cooperation with Tyson Ochsner at Oklahoma State University and funded by the NASA Terrestrial Hydrology Program.

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'Jeepers Creepers' is one of those sad cases where the movie starts off strong and quite effective but quickly devolves into formulaic drivel because the filmmakers can't figure what to do with their otherwise terrific premise. Eleven years since its release  which is more of a frightful thought than the movie itself (Where did the time go?)  the story's most memorable aspect is the suspenseful mystery at the beginning, and its remains so, just as creepy and scary as ever. But as it drags along into the second half, made worse by Justin Long's terrible performance and a dreadfully weak third act, we're soon reminded of the film's flaws and why it's ultimately another forgettable genre entry.

From producer Francis Ford Coppola, the film is actually two stories in one, a sudden shift in tone and plot that occurs awkwardly at the midway point. The first half follows siblings, Darry (Long) and Trish (Gina Philips), driving though the lonely Florida countryside on their way home for Spring Break. Why they decided to miss out on traditional college debauchery in The Sunshine State is not entirely clear and becomes a bit of a mystery. Nevertheless, there's an amusing, lighthearted rapport between the two that's believable and soon ratchets up the chilling fun when they share an urban legend associated with the road they're on.

It's particularly cool when a medium two-shot from the front of their car shows an RV pulling off the road in the distance and a badly-aged, rust-covered 1940s Chevy truck quickly pulls up behind them, blasting its banshee-like horn. Its unique shape and build makes the classic truck an imposing figure demanding respect, while its ugly, weathered appearance makes it a disturbing vehicle of road-rage. In those first couple minutes, the truck becomes a terrifyingly daunting character in and of itself, with distinct, memorable features. Our first glimpse of the driver, parked next to an abandoned church throwing out bodies wrapped in blood-stained sheets, suddenly turns the movie into a cross between Steven Spielberg's 'Duel' and Tobe Hooper's 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.'

Even as the pair stupidly decide to investigate the large pipe, the entire first half is a frighteningly suspenseful ride of two kids trying to survive a maniac's bloodlust. And to this day, the image of the truck barreling down the road and of its creepy driver standing alone at a church remain ingrained in memory. Then, it starts going downhill when it's revealed what he actually is.

Much the same way Philips's character handles and pretty much ruins the transmission on a beautiful 1960 Chevy Impala, writer and director Victor Salva changes gears from a road thriller with a classic-horror overtone to a supernatural slasher flick with aspirations of a creature-feature. It's loud and grating to the ears as well as the imagination, and discovering the driver is some kind of demon or devil that feeds every twenty-three years cheapens the experience of everything that preceded it. There's something more unnerving and spine-chilling in thinking the killer was human. Not so much as an immortal being that can't be killed, an abrupt and rough downshift from scary urban legend to fantasy silliness.

By the time we finally arrive at the third act inside a police station, we're left wondering where the disturbing atmosphere disappeared to, not whether the siblings will survive their pursuer. Or that we even care if either of them does. And Patricia Belcher also shows up out of nowhere as the hysterical psychic Jezelle, reiterating everything we already knew about the creature when piecing the first half with everything that followed. Admittedly, Salva does set up Belcher's character somewhat via a phone call, but her presence nonetheless feels sloppy and rather superfluous. In fact, other than providing some minor exposition on The Creeper's eating habits, Jezelle is ultimately pointless, adding nothing of great value to the predictable finish.

It may seem as though I despise 'Jeepers Creepers' when pointing out its flaws, but I actually rather enjoy it as a mildly amusing horror movie with a bizarre sense of humor about itself, especially because of the exceptionally well-done first half. It wouldn't feel so awkward if only the transition from road thriller to supernatural slasher were somehow smoother. But as it stands, it's an entertaining flick with some severe engine problems that can't be avoided until it's too late and it suddenly breaks down in the middle of nowhere. Salva could have saved himself the trouble by having an experienced mechanic look under the hood rather than trying to do the work himself.

The Blu-ray: Vital Disc Stats

Shout! Factory brings 'Jeepers Creepers' to Blu-ray as a two-disc Collector's Edition package under the distributor's Scream Factory line. The two Region A locked, BD50 discs are housed inside a normal blue case on opposing panels with brand new reversible cover art and a cardboard slipcover. The second disc contains a wealth a new bonus features that should make fans very happy.

At startup, the disc goes to a generic main menu selection on the left side with music and full-motion clips. Unfortunately, according to the Shout! Factory website, the exclusive, limited edition poster of the newly commissioned artwork has already sold out.
BOSTON - Karsten Lunze, MD, DrPH, MPH, FACPM, FAAP, a preventive medicine physician at Boston Medical Center (BMC) recently received two awards in recognition of his humanitarian efforts in medicine.

Most recently, he and his wife, Fatima Lunze, MD, ScD, PhD, FASE, a pediatrician at Boston Children's Hospital, were awarded a United Nations (UN) Humanitarian Medal for delivering advanced health services and provider trainings for victims of war and terrorism in an area of Russia known as the North Caucasus. Following the 2004 tragedy in Beslan, Russia, where 330 hostages - including186 children - were killed in a school siege, the couple established "Health for the Caucasus," a non-profit dedicated to providing humanitarian assistance to refugees and victims of war and terror. For more than a decade, they have led efforts to improve the region's health sector troubled by recent violent conflicts and helped foster international collaborations.

Nominated jointly by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the Russian Federal Organization for Emergency Situations, the Lunzes were honored for leading international capacity-building efforts on both sides of the conflicts to strengthen local health systems and for serving people in the Caucasus who were directly and indirectly affected by the violent conflicts. In collaboration with their partners in the Caucasus, they have reported their analyses, implementation strategies and operational results in international journals.

In addition, Karsten Lunze of BMC received the American College of Preventive Medicine's (ACPM) Arnold P. Gold Foundation Humanism in Medicine Award for his outstanding achievements and contributions in the field. He received his award during the ACPM's annual meeting in Washington, DC, to recognize his global health work demonstrating how public health can contribute to and facilitate humanism in medicine. The award also highlights his work on individuals with substance use issues and his engagement for victims of war and terror.

Lunze, who also is a research assistant professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM), has a clinical background in pediatrics and preventive medicine and conducts research at the intersection of global health and human rights at both BMC and BUSM in collaboration with Jeffrey Samet, MD, MPH, chief of general internal medicine at BMC and professor of medicine at BUSM. His previous research has shown that human rights violations perpetrated against people who use drugs have adverse effects on their drug use behavior and HIV risks.

"I'd like to thank my wife, who I consider to be a role model as she demonstrates how compassion and empathy are critical components of individual and population medicine in both her teaching and practice," said Lunze. "My mentors and colleagues at Boston Medical Center and BU School of Medicine, including Jane Liebschutz and Jonathan Berz, demonstrate every day how to incorporate humanism into preventive medicine and public health, and I am grateful for the experience of working among and learning from these talented individuals." He also credits the BU Preventive Medicine Residency and the combined Internal/Preventive Medicine Residency and their academic research fellows and preventive medicine residents "whose activities in afterschool programs, research for the underserved and advocacy work in federal and local public health actively promote humanism in medicine."

Lunze received his medical and a doctoral degree in genetic epidemiology from Charite Medical School in Berlin, Germany. He received his master's in public health from Harvard School of Public Health. He trained in pediatrics and pediatric cardiology at Charite Medical School in Berlin and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.

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The environment the unborn child is exposed to inside the womb can have a major effect on her or his development and future health. Maternal stress during pregnancy can be transmitted biologically to the unborn child. A team of researchers, led by Prof. Dr. Sonja Entringer from the Institute of Medical Psychology at Charite - Universitatsmedizin Berlin, is starting a new study about the potential effects of stress during pregnancy on newborn cell biology, with a focus on cellular aging. A European Research Council grant of 1.48 million will provide the support necessary to develop and expand this research group over the next five years.

Stress experienced by a mother during pregnancy can impact her unborn child's development and can have a lasting impact on physiological mechanisms. This, in turn, can have major and long-lasting implications for future health and developing age-related diseases. Aging-related disorders occur, by definition, with advancing age, and result from accumulation over the life course of the detrimental effects of adverse exposures. Prof. Entriger and her research team are pursuing a different perspective: "Changes in the processes associated with cellular aging, as well as the mechanisms that control them, may have their origins in the womb," explains Prof. Entringer. "Conditions within the womb, which are affected by a plethora of different factors -- including stress -- could thus have a substantial impact on the unborn child's development," says the specialist in psychobiology.

For a number of years, Prof. Entringer's work has been focusing on the links between stress-related processes and a person's risk of developing different diseases. In this context, telomere biology and cellular aging have been a mechanism of particular interest. A new study, which will follow 350 mother and child pairs from early pregnancy through birth and over the child's first year of life, will focus on psychological and physiological factors, as well as data on the mother's day-to-day behavior during pregnancy, which will be recorded using a smartphone app. Prof. Entringer summarizes as follows: "We need a better understanding of the molecular biology and epigenetic pathways that connect maternal stress exposure with an increased risk of disease in the next generation. A better understanding of these mechanisms could open up new perspectives, which, in turn, could increase the accuracy of clinical diagnosis and the development of preventative and interventional measures. Such measures could then be used early on in the child's prenatal development, well before the appearance of symptoms of disease."

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ERC Starting Grant

The European Research Council provides support for young research scientists as part of 'Horizon 2020', the EU's 8th 'Framework Porgramme for Research'. Formal completion of the grant agreement means that the research group at Charite's Institute of Medical Psychology will have access to a total of 1.48 million in funding (Grant Agreement n678073).

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Sonja Entringer

Institute of Medical Psychology

Charite - Universitatsmedizin Berlin

Tel: 49 (30) 450 529 216

Email: sonja.entringer@charite.de

Link:

Institute of Medical Psychology

http://medpsych.charite.de/
A single entry of the plague bacterium into Europe was responsible for the Black Plague of the mid-14th century. This same strain sparked recurrent outbreaks on the continent over the following four centuries before spreading to China, where it triggered the third plague pandemic in the late 19th century. The wave of plague that traveled to Asia later became the source population for modern-day epidemics around the globe. The bacterium's routes over time were revealed by genome analyses published June 8, 2016 in Cell Host & Microbe.

"Our study is the first to provide genetic support for plague's travel from Europe into Asia after the Black Death, and it establishes a link between the Black Death in the mid-14th century and modern plague," says first author Maria Spyrou of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.

The plague bacterium, Yersinia pestis, is one of the deadliest pathogens in human history, sparking three major pandemics: the Plague of Justinian, which struck the Roman Empire during the 6th and 8th centuries; the second plague pandemic, which first erupted in Europe in the mid-14th-century Black Death and continued to strike the continent in recurrent outbreaks until the mid-18th century; and the third plague pandemic, which emerged in China during the late 19th century.

Evidence based on ancient DNA samples and historical climate patterns has suggested that the recurrent outbreaks of the second pandemic were caused by multiple reintroductions of Yersinia pestis into Europe, most likely from Asia. Moreover, some scientists have recently suggested that the plague bacterium migrated from Europe to Asia after the Black Death, later giving rise to the third pandemic. But until now, genomic evidence to support this model was missing.

To shed light on the origin and path of the second pandemic, Spyrou and co-senior study authors Alexander Herbig, Kirsten Bos, and Johannes Krause of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History collected samples from plague-infected individuals buried in mass grave sites in Barcelona, Spain, and Ellwangen, Germany, as well as a single grave in Bolgar City, Russia.

"The mass burials where our samples come from often represent events where hundreds of people died of plague during a single outbreak," Herbig says. "This gives us an impression about how significant the impact of this disease was during medieval times."

The Bolgar City site was dated to the second half of the 14th century using coin artifacts known to have been minted after 1362. Radiocarbon dates from bone fragments and tooth roots were estimated at 1300-1420 for Barcelona, 1298-1388 for Bolgar City, and 1486-1627 for Ellwangen.

After analyzing DNA extracts from the teeth of 178 individuals, the researchers identified Y. pestis DNA in extracts from 32 individuals. Three individuals from Barcelona, Bolgar City, and Ellwangen had sufficient Y. pestis DNA for genome-level analysis. The researchers sequenced the genomes of these three ancient Y. pestis strains and compared them to 148 previously sequenced ancient and modern strains to reconstruct the Y. pestis phylogenetic tree.

The phylogenetic analysis revealed no differences between their Black Death strain from Barcelona and previously genotyped strains from mid-14th-century London. The simultaneous presence of the same strain in both southern and northern Europe suggests that Y. pestis entered the continent in a single wave rather than through multiple pulses during the Black Death.

These Black Death strains from London and Barcelona gave rise to a branch containing the Ellwangen strain and previously sequenced 18th-century strains from the Great Plague of Marseille in France. Moreover, all three newly reconstructed genomes and previously sequenced genomes from the second plague grouped together in the same branch on the phylogenetic tree. Taken together, these findings suggest that a single Y. pestis lineage was responsible for the Black Death and subsequent second pandemic outbreaks throughout Europe.

Meanwhile, the Bolgar City strain shared similarities with the Black Death London strain as well as all modern strains. This finding supports the idea that one Y. pestis lineage traveled from Europe to Asia after the Black Death, later sparking the third pandemic and modern-day epidemics worldwide.

"Our most significant finding revealed a link between the Black Death and modern plague," Krause says. "Though several plague lineages exist in China today, only the lineage that caused the Black Death several centuries earlier left Southeast Asia in the late 19th century pandemic and rapidly achieved a near worldwide distribution."

In future studies, the researchers plan to gain additional insights into the entry and end points of the Black Death in Europe. They hope to expand their sample range and explore these regions further to better understand the route traveled by the disease, the evolutionary changes it acquired at different stages, and the toll it had on the human population.

"We hope that our findings will highlight the importance for more extensive sampling and sequencing of both ancient and modern plague isolates around the world, and open up new research themes regarding the role played by Europe and West Asia in plague's evolution and ecology," Bos says.

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The authors acknowledge the following sources of funding: the European Research Council, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme d'Aquitaine, the French Research National Agency, the Russian Government Program of Competitive Growth of Kazan Federal University, and the Regional Foundation of Revival of Historical and Cultural Monuments of the Republic of Tatarstan.

Cell Host & Microbe, Spyrou et al.: "Historical Y. pestis Genomes Reveal the European Black Death as the Source of Ancient and Modern Plague Pandemics" http://www.cell.com/cell-host-microbe/fulltext/S1931-3128(16)30208-6

Cell Host & Microbe (@cellhostmicrobe), published by Cell Press, is a monthly journal that publishes novel findings and translational studies related to microbes (which include bacteria, fungi, parasites, and viruses). The unifying theme is the integrated study of microbes in conjunction and communication with each other, their host, and the cellular environment they inhabit. Visit: http://www.cell.com/cell-host-microbe. To receive Cell Press media alerts, contact press@cell.com.
NEW YORK (June 8, 2016) - Scientists from the Center for Radiological Research at Columbia University Medical Center have shown that a narrow wavelength of ultraviolet (UV) light safely killed drug-resistant MRSA bacteria in mice, demonstrating a potentially safe and cost-effective way to reduce surgical site infections, a major public health concern.

A paper just published by PLOS ONE describes how the Columbia team found that a particular wavelength of UV light known as "far-UVC" (in this instance, 207 nanometers) is not only as effective as conventional germicidal UV light in killing MRSA, as shown in their previously published study, but also shows for the first time that, unlike conventional germicidal UV, far-UVC does not cause biological damage to exposed skin.

"Our new findings show that far-UVC light has enormous potential for combating the deadly and costly scourge of drug-resistant surgical site infections," said David J. Brenner, PhD, Higgins Professor of Radiation Biophysics, director of the Center for Radiological Research, and the senior author of the paper.

"We've known for a long time that UV light has the potential to reduce surgical site infections, because UV can efficiently kill all bacteria, including drug-resistant bacteria and even so-called 'superbugs.' Unfortunately, it's not possible to use conventional germicidal UV light when people are around because it's a health hazard to patients and medical personnel. What we showed in our earlier work is that far-UVC light is as effective at killing MRSA as conventional germicidal UV light -- and now with this new research, we have demonstrated that far-UVC kills bacteria but without risk of skin damage," Dr. Brenner said.

Surgical site infections (SSI) continue to be a critical health care issue in the US and worldwide. Patients who develop SSI have a mortality rate twice that of non-infected patients, and estimated annual healthcare costs in the U.S. due to SSI range from $3 to $10 billion.

The new idea behind Columbia's use of far-UVC light is that that, unlike conventional germicidal UV, far-UVC cannot penetrate through the outer, dead layer of skin to reach live skin cells, nor can it penetrate the outer layer of the eye. However, because bacteria and viruses are physically very small, far-UVC light can penetrate and kill them. Columbia's latest research was conducted on the skin hairless mice, which responds similarly to human skin when exposed to UV light.

"Our findings offer a potential practical pathway towards significantly reducing surgical site infection rates without risk to the health and safety of patients and medical personnel," added Dr. Brenner. "One of our next steps is to explore direct studies in surgical settings, in larger animals and humans. From there we can investigate other new applications of these exciting findings, like killing airborne bacteria and viruses such as TB and influenza."

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"207-nm UV Light -- A Promising Tool for Safe Low-Cost Reduction of Surgical Site Infections. II: In-Vivo Safety Studies" was published online on June 8, 2016 in PLOS ONE. Authors are David J. Brenner, Manuela Buonanno, Brian Ponnaiya, Alan W. Bigelow, Gerhard Randers-Pehrson, Yanping Xu, Igor Shuryak, and Lubomir Smilenov, at the Center for Radiological Research, Columbia University Medical Center; Milda Stanislauskas at the Department of Dermatology, Columbia University Medical Center; and David M. Owens at the Departments of Dermatology and Pathology and Cell Biology, Columbia University Medical Center.

The Shostack Foundation and USHIO Inc. of Tokyo, Japan provided funding for this research. USHIO has license and research agreements with Columbia University.

The authors declare no other conflicts of interest.

The Columbia University Center for Radiological Research has been studying the biological effects of both low and high doses of radiation for exactly 100 years, since its founding in 1916 by a student of Marie Curie. Their main research themes are 1) to provide better radiotherapy treatments for cancer, 2) to better understand the risks associated with exposure to very low doses of radiation, 3) to improve the nation's ability to respond to a large-scale radiological event, 4) understanding radiation health risks during space missions, as well as 5) to develop new ultraviolet light techniques to safely kill common bacteria and viruses. For more information visit crr.columbia.edu.

Columbia University Medical Center provides international leadership in basic, pre-clinical, and clinical research; medical and health sciences education; and patient care. The medical center trains future leaders and includes the dedicated work of many physicians, scientists, public health professionals, dentists, and nurses at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, the Mailman School of Public Health, the College of Dental Medicine, the School of Nursing, the biomedical departments of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and allied research centers and institutions. For more information, visit cumc.columbia.edu.
The Materials Project, a Google-like database of material properties aimed at accelerating innovation, has released an enormous trove of data to the public, giving scientists working on fuel cells, photovoltaics, thermoelectrics, and a host of other advanced materials a powerful tool to explore new research avenues. But it has become a particularly important resource for researchers working on batteries.

Co-founded and directed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) scientist Kristin Persson, the Materials Project uses supercomputers to calculate the properties of materials based on first-principles quantum-mechanical frameworks. It was launched in 2011 by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Science.

In 2012, DOE established the Joint Center for Energy Storage Resarch (JCESR), a DOE Energy Innovation Hub, which significantly enhanced the Materials Project with new simulations of next-generation battery electrodes and liquid organic electrolytes.

"This massive amount of precise data released through the Materials Project will have a profound and lasting impact on the battery research community," said JCESR Director George Crabtree. "This is a great example of the way Berkeley Lab and other JCESR partners share scientific knowledge to advance the scientific frontier."

The idea behind the Materials Project is that it can save researchers time by predicting material properties without needing to synthesize the materials first in the lab. It can also suggest new candidate materials that experimentalists had not previously dreamed up. With a user-friendly web interface, users can look up the calculated properties, such as voltage, capacity, band gap, and density, for tens of thousands of materials.

Data release includes two new apps

Two sets of data were released last month: nearly 1,500 compounds investigated for multivalent intercalation electrodes and more than 21,000 organic molecules relevant for liquid electrolytes as well as a host of other research applications. Batteries with multivalent cathodes (which have multiple electrons per mobile ion available for charge transfer) are promising candidates for reducing cost and achieving higher energy density than that available with current lithium-ion technology.

The sheer volume and scope of the data is unprecedented, said Persson, who is also a professor in UC Berkeley's Department of Materials Science and Engineering. "As far as the multivalent cathodes, there's nothing similar in the world that exists," she said. "To give you an idea, experimentalists are usually able to focus on one of these materials at a time. Using calculations, we've added data on 1,500 different compositions."

While other research groups have made their data publicly available, what makes the Materials Project so useful are the online tools to search all that data. The recent release includes two new web apps--the Molecules Explorer and the Redox Flow Battery Dashboard--plus an add-on to the Battery Explorer web app enabling researchers to work with other ions in addition to lithium.

"Not only do we give the data freely, we also give algorithms and software to interpret or search over the data," Persson said.

The Redox Flow Battery app gives scientific parameters as well as techno-economic ones, so battery designers can quickly rule out a molecule that might work well but be prohibitively expensive. The Molecules Explorer app will be useful to researchers far beyond the battery community.

"For multivalent batteries it's so hard to get good experimental data," Persson said. "The calculations provide rich and robust benchmarks to assess whether the experiments are actually measuring a valid intercalation process or a side reaction, which is particularly difficult for multivalent energy technology because there are so many problems with testing these batteries."

New data has led to new discovery

Together with Persson, Berkeley Lab scientist Gerbrand Ceder, postdoctoral associate Miao Liu, and MIT graduate student Ziqin Rong, the Materials Project team investigated some of the more promising materials in detail for high multivalent ion mobility, which is the most difficult property to achieve in these cathodes. This led the team to materials known as thiospinels. One of these thiospinels has double the capacity of the currently known multivalent cathodes and was recently synthesized and tested in the lab by JCESR researcher Linda Nazar of the University of Waterloo, Canada.

"These materials may not work well the first time you make them," Persson said. "You have to be persistent; for example you may have to make the material very phase pure or smaller than a particular particle size and you have to test them under very controlled conditions. There are people who have actually tried this material before and discarded it because they thought it didn't work particularly well. The power of the computations and the design metrics we have uncovered with their help is that it gives us the confidence to keep trying."

The researchers were able to double the energy capacity of what had previously been achieved for this kind of multivalent battery. The study has been published in the journal Energy & Environmental Science in an article titled, "A High Capacity Thiospinel Cathode for Mg Batteries."

"The new multivalent battery works really well," Persson said. "It's a significant advance and an excellent proof-of-concept for computational predictions as a valuable new tool for battery research."

Growing every day

The Materials Project has attracted more than 20,000 users since launching five years ago. Every day about 20 new users register and 300 to 400 people log in to do research.

One of those users is Dane Morgan, a professor of engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who develops new materials for a wide range of applications, including highly active catalysts for fuel cells, stable low-work function electron emitter cathodes for high-powered microwave devices, and efficient, inexpensive, and environmentally safe solar materials.

"The Materials Project has enabled some of the most exciting research in my group," Morgan said. "By providing easy access to a huge database, as well as tools to process that data for thermodynamic predictions, the Materials Project has enabled my group to rapidly take on materials design projects that would have been prohibitive just a few years ago."

More materials are being calculated and added to the database every day. In two years, Persson expects another trove of data to be released to the public.

"This is the way to reach a significant part of the research community, to reach students while they're still learning material science," she said. "It's a teaching tool. It's a science tool. It's unprecedented."

Supercomputing clusters at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC), a DOE Office of Science User Facility hosted at Berkeley Lab, provide the infrastructure for the Materials Project.

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Funding for the Materials Project is provided by the Office of Science, including support through JCESR.

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory addresses the world's most urgent scientific challenges by advancing sustainable energy, protecting human health, creating new materials, and revealing the origin and fate of the universe. Founded in 1931, Berkeley Lab's scientific expertise has been recognized with 13 Nobel prizes. The University of California manages Berkeley Lab for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science. For more, visit http://www.lbl.gov.

DOE's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov.

The Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR), a DOE Energy Innovation Hub, is a major partnership that integrates researchers from many disciplines to overcome critical scientific and technical barriers and create new breakthrough energy storage technology. Led by the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory, partners include national leaders in science and engineering from academia, the private sector, and national laboratories. Their combined expertise spans the full range of the technology-development pipeline from basic research to prototype development to product engineering to market delivery.
The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) opened a public comment period Wednesday for the recommended names of elements 115, 117 and 118.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia (JINR) were credited late last year for discovering elements 115 and 118. LLNL, JINR, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Vanderbilt University and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas were credited with the discovery of element 117.

Moscovium (Mc) is provisionally recommended for element 115 in recognition of the Moscow region and honoring the ancient Russian land that is home to JINR. Moscow is the capital of the region.

Tennessine (Ts) is proposed for element 117, recognizing the contribution of Tennessee research centers ORNL, Vanderbilt and the University of Tennessee to superheavy element research.

The provisional name for element 118 is Oganesson (Og) in recognition of the pioneering contributions of Yuri Oganessian to superheavy element research. Oganessian's vision and determination created this opportunity for the significant expansion of the periodic table and knowledge of superheavy nuclei.

The provisional names will undergo a statutory period for public review before the names and symbols can be finally approved by the IUPAC Council -- likely later this year.

"I'm proud of all of the hard work that this group has done over the years performing these experiments," said Dawn Shaughnessy," LLNL's principal investigator for the Heavy Element Group. "It's a huge accomplishment for the entire group that we are recognized for our efforts in accomplishing these highly difficult experiments and for the years of work it takes to successfully create a new chemical element."

LLNL teamed with JINR in 2004 to discover elements 113 and 115 (Japan was credited with the discovery of element 113). LLNL worked again with JINR in 2006 to discover element 118. The LLNL/JINR team then jointly worked with researchers from the Research Institute for Advanced Reactors (Dimitrovgrad), ORNL, Vanderbilt University and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, to discover element 117 in 2010.

This discovery brings the total to five new elements reported by the Dubna-Livermore team (114, 115, 116, 117 and 118, the heaviest element to date).

The new elements and nuclei will complete the seventh row of the periodic table, and provides evidence for the long sought "island of stability" for superheavy elements. Two members of the team, JINR and LLNL, were previously credited with the discovery of elements 114 (flerovium) and 116 (livermorium).

The concept of the "island of stability" was originally proposed in the 1960s. It predicts increased stability for superheavy nuclei at higher neutron and proton numbers. The new nuclei produced in this research exhibit substantially increased lifetimes consistent with approaching the island.

These new elements were discovered using the "hot fusion" approach, developed and implemented by Oganessian at JINR. This approach involves heavy ion reactions of an intense, high-energy calcium beam on rare actinide targets including berkelium and californium at the Dubna Gas-Filled Recoil Separator.

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Founded in 1952, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is a national security laboratory, with a mission to ensure national security and apply science and technology to the important issues of our time. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is managed by Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.
OAK RIDGE, Tenn., June 8, 2016 -- The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) Inorganic Chemistry Division has published a Provisional Recommendation for the names and symbols of the recently discovered superheavy elements 113, 115, 117, and 118.

The provisional names for 115, 117 and 118 -- originally proposed by the discovering team from the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna, Russia; the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California; and Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee -- will now undergo a statutory period for public review before the names and symbols can be finally approved by the IUPAC Council.

Tennessine (Ts) is proposed for element 117, recognizing the contribution of Tennessee research centers ORNL, Vanderbilt, and the University of Tennessee to superheavy element research, including the production and chemical separation of unique actinide target materials at ORNL's High Flux Isotope Reactor and Radiochemical Engineering Development Center. Actinide materials from ORNL have contributed to the discovery and/or confirmation of nine superheavy elements.

"These experiments and discoveries essentially open new frontiers of chemistry," said ORNL's Science and Technology Partnerships director Jim Roberto.

Prof. Yuri Oganessian from the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research and scientific leader of the team, noted the importance of international collaboration in discovering new elements and nuclei, completing the seventh row of the periodic table, and providing evidence for the long sought "island of stability" for superheavy elements. Two members of the team, JINR and LLNL, were previously credited with the discovery of elements 114 (flerovium) and 116 (livermorium).

These new elements were discovered using the "hot fusion" approach, developed and implemented by Oganessian at JINR. This approach involves heavy ion reactions of an intense, high-energy calcium beam on rare actinide targets including berkelium and californium at the Dubna Gas-Filled Recoil Separator.

The concept of the "island of stability" was originally proposed in the 1960s. It predicts increased stability for superheavy nuclei at higher neutron and proton numbers. The new nuclei produced in this research exhibit substantially increased lifetimes consistent with approaching the island.

Moscovium (Mc) is provisionally recommended for element 115 in recognition of the Moscow region and honoring the ancient Russian land that is home to JINR. Moscow is the capital of the region, and Moscow and its people have been very supportive of JINR and superheavy element research.

The provisional name for element 118 is Oganesson (Og) in recognition of the pioneering contributions of Yuri Oganessian to superheavy element research. It was the vision and determination of Prof. Oganessian that created this opportunity for the significant expansion of the periodic table and our knowledge of superheavy nuclei.

IUPAC also has published a Provisional Recommendation for element 113. The discoverers at RIKEN Nishina Center for Accelerator-Based Science in Japan proposed the name nihonium (Nh). Nihon is one of the two ways to say "Japan" in Japanese, and translates as "the Land of Rising Sun."

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The ORNL research is supported by DOE's Office of Science, and the isotopes for the experimental targets are provided by the Office of Science-managed DOE Isotope Program.

UT-Battelle manages ORNL for DOE's Office of Science. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit http://science.energy.gov/.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-FIRuqtYZo&feature=youtu.be

Background information:

https://www.llnl.gov/news/international-team-discovers-element-117

http://web.ornl.gov/info/ornlreview/v43_2_10/article02.shtml

http://science.energy.gov/news/featured-articles/2011/127004/

https://www.ornl.gov/news/new-sighting-superheavy-element-117

https://www.ornl.gov/news/ornl-team-officially-recognized-elements-115-117-discovery

Image: https://www.ornl.gov/sites/default/files/berkelium-249.png

Caption: Berkelium-249, contained in the greenish fluid in the tip of the vial, was crucial to the experiment that discovered element 117. It was made in the research reactor at DOE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

NOTE TO EDITORS: You may read other press releases from Oak Ridge National Laboratory or learn more about the lab at http://www.ornl.gov/news. Additional information about ORNL is available at the sites below:

Twitter - http://twitter.com/ornl

RSS Feeds - http://www.ornl.gov/ornlhome/rss_feeds.shtml

Flickr - http://www.flickr.com/photos/oakridgelab

YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/user/OakRidgeNationalLab

LinkedIn - http://www.linkedin.com/companies/oak-ridge-national-laboratory

Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/Oak.Ridge.National.Laboratory
Philadelphia, PA, June 8, 2016 - A new technology suitable for practical clinical testing can detect KRAS gene mutations in lung and colorectal cancers and could thereby facilitate targeted therapies, according to a new report in The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics.

The identification and functional analysis of tumor-specific genetic alterations suggest opportunities to exploit genetic mutations as predictors of therapeutic response and guide a more effective patient treatment regime. KRAS mutations represent a powerful biomarker for predicting treatment sensitivity in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer and colorectal cancer. The protein product of the normal KRAS gene is involved primarily in regulating cell division.

"Targeted therapies are a growing trend in basic and clinical cancer research, and for good reason -- the potential for improved treatment outcomes and cost savings is tremendous," explained lead investigator Kimberly A. Kelly, PhD, of the Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA. "However, the effective implementation of a targeted therapeutic regime requires a practical means for preemptive molecular characterization of the cancer. In an effort to fulfill the unmet clinical demand for a methodology amenable to the requirements of routine testing, we developed a novel approach that provides simple, rapid, and inexpensive detection of point mutations."

Conventional mutation testing technologies are not ideal for routine clinical screening of KRAS mutations because they often involve complex, time-consuming processes and/or costly instrumentation. Investigators have therefore developed and tested a new technique for lung and colorectal cancer samples that can be used in routine testing.

The new technique described in the study uses hybridization-induced aggregation (HIA) technology for mutation detection (HIAMD), which enables the detection of common KRAS mutations in less than 10 minutes following PCR amplification. HIA is a bead-based DNA-detection technology that is scalable for a microchip platform.

The investigators analyzed 20 lung and colorectal tumors and compared the results using this new technique with results from the more expensive and cumbersome sequencing method. The results of KRAS mutation screening using this technique were 100% in agreement with the results derived from sequencing. In addition, a sample with only 25% KRAS mutant content could be detected in a background of wild-type DNA, consistent with the detection limit reported using the sequencing method.

"These results indicate the validity of HIAMD as a mutation-testing technology suitable for practical clinical testing," said Dr. Kelly. "Importantly, the analysis is performed in a manner that is both rapid and cost effective. The current direction of clinical oncology research suggests that a technology such as HIAMD will continue to be a highly relevant and valued analytical tool for the facilitation of individualized therapeutic strategies, and the successes here indicate the potential to apply this technology for the routine analysis of other important genetic markers."

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Today's systems are often hidden by advertising, or buried under floors, in walls or in doors

Nice, France - 8 June 2016: Electronic anti-theft systems still post a threat to cardiac device patients, according to research presented today at CARDIOSTIM - EHRA EUROPACE 2016 by Professor Robert Stevenson, senior scientist at Greatbatch Medical in Santa Clarita, California, US.1

"Cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIEDs) are critical to patients' health," said co-author Dr Rod Gimbel, an electrophysiologist at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, US. "Pacemakers provide pacing support, without which there would be no heart beat at all for a pacemaker dependent patient. Implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) deliver pacing or shocks to rescue patients from potentially life threatening arrhythmias."

Even though reported events are rare, prolonged exposure to electronic anti-theft systems, also called electronic article surveillance (EAS) systems, can cause pacing therapy to drop beats or in the worst case leave pacemaker dependent patients with no heart beat, and cause ICDs to deliver inappropriate shocks. In 2000 the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advised CIED patients not to linger or lean next to EAS systems. But since then manufacturers have created sleeves for retailers to cover traditional pedestal systems with advertising and new systems are hidden under floors, in walls and in doors.

Dr Gimbel said: "We tell patients 'don't linger, don't lean' but that advice is hard to follow when systems are invisible. To make matters worse, advertising draws patients closer to the pedestals. Some shops have placed camouflaged pedestals next to a chair or in a checkout line, so patients may be next to them for some time, and sofas are put on top of under floor systems, encouraging patients to sit for long periods."

The current study was conducted at Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) in Atlanta and assessed the safety of modern EAS systems. The investigators tested pacemakers and ICDs with up to five CIED manufacturers against the three types of EAS systems currently in use: pedestals (five manufacturers), door frames/in wall (two manufacturers) and under floor (two manufacturers). The under floor system was tested flat and at a 30 degree angle to mimic slouching in a chair. The results were recorded in four categories: no interference, prolonged pacemaker inhibition, inappropriate shocks, and other inappropriate tachycardia therapy such as anti-tachycardia pacing or subclinical shocks.

The tests were conducted with the pacemakers and ICDs in a tank filled with a type of saline that mimics the electric properties of body tissue. Cardiac device leads were placed in the same loop shape as they would be in a patient and the devices were tested in unipolar and bipolar settings.2 The distance between devices and the floor was set for average height patient. Devices were tested in static positions and using a robot to simulate a patient walking through the EAS systems, leaning towards them, and facing them.

The investigators found that the pedestal systems interfered with cardiac device functioning particularly when the devices were in close proximity and lingered. Devices programmed for unipolar sensing had the most interactions which included prolonged inhibition of pacing and inappropriate ICD therapy. Devices programmed with bipolar sensing showed fewer interactions but unintentional shocks and other inappropriate tachycardia therapy was observed.

Professor Stevenson said: "Significant interactions occurred with nearly all the pacemakers and ICDs when the robot closely faced the EAS system and the device lead loop was parallel to the EAS system loop.3 Facing or having your back to an EAS pedestal or a toddler with a pacemaker crawling over a subfloor system is of particular concern."

Wall (door frame) systems did not interfere. Preliminary tests of under floor systems (only two CIED manufacturers), which are completely hidden, did not interfere when flat or at a 30 degree angle from vertical. Professor Stevenson said: "We know from the physics that at 90 degrees (this is when the patient's chest is close and parallel to the floor) we would likely have serious interactions. Further testing is needed to find out when the angle becomes dangerous. I suspect it will be about 45 degrees. This angle could occur with a patient really slouching in a chair for example."

He continued: "Unipolar sensing is sometimes required but otherwise I would urge doctors to use bipolar sensing since the lead loop area is smaller, lowering the chance of interference. Doctors must educate patients about the potential dangers of EAS systems as many have never been warned not to lean or linger in retail store entrances. It is particularly important that patients do not sit or slouch in a chair or couch in store entry areas."

Professor Stevenson concluded: "Electronic anti-theft systems are a part of everyday life, with more than 800 000 pedestals alone installed worldwide. Patients are safe if they walk at a constant pace through the system. EAS gates that are obscured with advertising or goods for sale, or hidden in the floor with couches or chairs adjacent, are a serious concern and EAS manufacturers have a responsibility to ensure that retailers install them in such a way that they are visible and well marked."

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Authors: ESC Press Office

Tel: +33 (0) 4 92 94 86 27

Email: press@escardio.org

Notes to editor

SOURCES OF FUNDING: The EAS in-vitro studies at GTRI were funded by Sensormatic, Medtronic, Boston Scientific, St. Jude Medical, Sorin and Biotronik.

DISCLOSURES: Professor Robert Stevenson and Professor Roger Carrillo, MD are co-chairmen of the Cardiac Rhythm Management Device Committee of the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI), which is also known as the US Pacemaker Committee. Robert Stevenson receives consulting and patent royalty income from Greatbatch Medical, Inc. Roger Carrillo is a thoracic and cardiac surgeon with University of Miami Hospital - Miller School of Medicine. Roger Carrillo is also a consultant to Spectranetics, and Tyco. Roger Carrillo is affiliated with the Medtronic, Inc. - Speaker's bureau, St. Jude Medical Corp. - Speaker's bureau/Research grant, and the LivaNova Group - Speaker's bureau.

References and notes

1Professor Stevenson will present the abstract 'Electronic article surveillance systems remain a potential threat to CIED patients' during Poster session 16: ICDs which takes place on 8 June from 9:00 to 12:30 in the Poster Area.

2Unipolar pacing systems have a lead with a sensing electrode within the heart with the device forming the second electrode (which leads to a large implant loop) while bipolar systems have two closely spaced active sensing electrodes within the heart (wherein the loop is relatively small).

3When the device lead loop is parallel to the EAS system loop this invokes Faraday's law of induction, which is when energy is transferred between circuits through electromagnetic induction. When the implant loop is large and aligned to the EAS transmitting loop antenna, coupling is maximised.

About CARDIOSTIM - EHRA EUROPACE

CARDIOSTIM - EHRA EUROPACE is an established, international conference attracting key opinion leaders, well-recognised scientists, physicians, allied professionals and industry.

About the European Heart Rhythm Association

The European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA) is a registered branch of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC). Its aim is to improve the quality of life of the European population by reducing the impact of cardiac arrhythmias and reducing sudden cardiac death. EHRA promotes science and education in the field of cardiac arrhythmias with a special focus on atrial fibrillation (AF). Besides patient engagement programmes, EHRA organises scientific and educational events for physicians and allied professionals. In cooperation with other associations and societies EHRA promotes the quality of care for patients with AF with the publication of international consensus documents.

About the European Society of Cardiology

The European Society of Cardiology (ESC) represents more than 95 000 cardiology professionals across Europe and the Mediterranean. Its mission is to reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease in Europe.

Information for journalists attending CARDIOSTIM - EHRA EUROPACE 2016

CARDIOSTIM - EHRA EUROPACE 2016 takes place 8 to 11 June at the Nice Acropolis Convention Centre. The full scientific programme is available here

To register please contact Catherine Rouille on +33 6 73 62 57 61 or contact@cr-communication.fr
Jena (Germany) It is only about one millimetre long and therefore barely visible with the naked eye. Its brief existence of only two to three weeks is spent hidden in the soil. At first glance, the tiny worm Caenorhabditis elegans and humans have very little in common. And yet their genetic make-up shows amazing similarities: "Up to 80 percent of the genes of the worm and humans are the same", says Dr Christoph Kaleta, bioinformatics scientist from Kiel, Professor of Medical Systems Biology at the Faculty of Medicine at Kiel University and a member of the Cluster of Excellence "Inflammation at Interfaces". "Approximately half of all the known genes which are involved in human diseases can also be found in C. elegans." This is the reason why the worm can be used as a simple model system to investigate and gain a better understanding of life processes as well as diseases -- also in humans.

To help in this endeavour, Kaleta and his team together with colleagues from the Friedrich Schiller University Jena and ETH Zurich have summarised the worm's complete metabolism in a mathematical model. Thus, all its metabolic pathways can be tracked "in silico" (on the computer) and investigated. "In particular, we are also able to forecast how certain changes -- such as in food absorption -- affect growth, life expectancy or the occurrence of diseases in this organism", explained Kaleta, who carried out research and lectured as an assistant professor at the University of Jena until 2014. Together with his former working group and gerontologists from Jena and Zurich, he presented the model called "ElegCyc" in the latest edition of the scientific journal Cell Systems (DOI: 10.1016/j.cels.2016.04.017).

The researchers combed through databases and specialist literature in meticulous detail and combined all the metabolic pathways of C. elegans that have been described up to now. In total, almost 2,000 metabolic processes were recorded in this way and linked to each other. A complex network emerged that shows the worm's life processes in detail and which the scientists can now search for individual genes, metabolic products or reactions. The major advantage of such comprehensive computer models is that they also enable the analysis of enormous amounts of data, says Juliane Gebauer from the Chair of Bioinformatics at the University of Jena. "Modern high-throughput techniques, such as RNA sequencing or metabolomics provide such a plentiful supply of data, which can hardly be analysed comprehensively without such models", says the doctoral candidate, who is the lead author of the publication.

The bioinformatics scientists were able to show that their model satisfies these requirements in the study that has now been presented: They fed the model with experimental data on the ageing process from the Jena research centre JenAge. The worms were given three different substances to eat, two of which were known to extend their lifespan. The activity of the roughly 20,000 genes of C. elegans was determined at a total of four points in time. Thanks to the "ElegCyc" model, the researchers identified which metabolic processes among this large number of genes contributed to the lifespan-extending effect of the fed substances.

In their future studies, the researchers want to use their model to gain a better understanding of the interaction between the worm and its intestinal bacterial microbiome. In contrast to the highly complex microbiome of humans, the worm's microbiome is very simple, making it particularly suitable to investigate how certain species of bacteria benefit health or promote diseases. From these studies, the researchers hope to gain new insights into the occurrence of chronic inflammatory bowel diseases, which are accompanied by a major imbalance in the intestinal microbiome in humans.

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The metabolic model of C. elegans is freely accessible on the Internet at: http://elegcyc.bioinf.uni-jena.de:1100

Original publication:

Gebauer et al., A Genome-Scale Database and Reconstruction of Caenorhabditis elegans Metabolism, Cell Systems (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cels.2016.04.017

Contact:

Juliane Gebauer

Chair of Bioinformatics at the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena

Ernst-Abbe-Platz 2, 07743 Jena

Phone: 49 (0)3641 / 949594

Email: juliane.gebauer@uni-jena.de

Prof. Dr. Christoph Kaleta

Cluster of Excellence "Inflammation at Interfaces" and the Institute of Experimental Medicine at the Christian Albrechts University Kiel

Michaelisstr. 5, Haus 17, 24105 Kiel

Phone: 49 (0)431 / 5973046

Email: c.kaleta@iem.uni-kiel.de
We have to increase security in the unfenced border region because separatist rebels are freely moving back and forth and attacking our forces," Garg told Mizzima during a recent visit to the Northeastern state of Tripura.

Northeast India's seven states have international borders and Myanmar is the most sensitive border at this moment. There are certain issues like in Manipur where there was a large attack recently. So the government of India is working on a plan to increase security along the Indo-Myanmar border, Garg told Mizzima.

He expressed his concern over Arunachal Pradesh being used as a corridor and safe shelter by armed rebels from Nagaland.

Arunachal has faced the impact of insurgency from Nagaland. Certain areas of Arunachal are next to Nagaland and there is a real insurgency situation. We are addressing the problem of the corridors used by insurgents."

Garg said that the Indian government is in touch with all neighbouring countries including Myanmar to stop the trans-border movement of arms, ammunition and of militants.

The Government of India takes [the issue] up with everybody whether it is Bangladesh, Myanmar, China or Bhutan, everywhere there are strategic interests, said Garg.

He said that to bring long-lasting peace in the region the government of India has taken the initiative to continue peace talks with various insurgent groups in the region, for which there should be a congenial atmosphere.

Garg said, The Government of India is talking to Naga insurgent group NSCN, Kuki groups and now operations have been suspended against a Meitei Manipuri rebel group also. We are reviewing the situation in Manipur on a regular basis and are hopeful that the situation will improve.
In an effort to identify a simple, reliable way to track the course of nasal polyps in chronic sinus disease, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers say they've linked rising levels of immune system white blood cells, called eosinophils, with regrowth of polyps removed by surgery. The findings, they say, reported online in the May 13, 2016 International Forum of Allergy & Rhinology, could lead to the development of a simple blood test to screen for early growth of polyps in sinus disease, track disease progression, and develop and monitor treatments for a common, often troublesome condition, called chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyposis.

"Unlike other airway diseases, like asthma, doctors don't have a single test or biomarker for detecting and tracking sinus-related diseases," says Jean Kim, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "A simple blood test would provide an additional way to monitor disease progression, in addition to endoscopies and CT scans for people with symptoms that may enable the ability to screen for sinus disease with nasal polyposis at a primary care facility."

Ultimately, she says, a specialist would need to confirm the presence of nasal and sinus polyps using a nasal endoscopy and/or CT scan. Kim cautions that the new research, conducted with a small number of patients, does not determine whether rising numbers of eosinophils can actually predict the size of nasal polyps.

An estimated 29 million people in the U.S. suffer from chronic rhinosinusitis, a chronic state of inflammation and swelling of the sinus and nasal passages, which normally conduct air flow and fluids. Over time, a subset of patients will develop teardrop-shaped growths of unhealthy sinus and nasal tissue, called polyps, in the passages, leading to severe inflammation, congestion, drippy postnasal discharge and excessive mucus. Oftentimes, this will lead to worsening of asthma or asthmalike symptoms.

Physicians may recommend removing polyps to ease breathing, but the polyps often grow back. The ability to detect regrowth by a blood test would facilitate diagnosis for these patients.

For the study, Kim and her team studied 61 male and female patients ages 18 to 77 with chronic sinusitis and nasal polyps who were scheduled to have surgery to remove the polyps. Fifty-eight of the patients also had asthma.

The investigators took blood samples and analyzed CT scans from patients prior to surgery. Then, these patients were followed after surgery with another blood sample and nasal endoscopy, which uses a scope to directly view the polyps in the nose. Nasal polyp size was measured and determined by nasal endoscopy.

The patients were then followed after surgery with additional blood tests and nasal endoscopies over the course of three to 12 months to see if the polyps regrew.

Nasal polyps contain several biological components associated with inflammation, including eosinophils, mast cells and immunoglobin proteins. Because eosinophils increase inflammation and collect in the airway of people with asthma, the researchers focused on whether eosinophil levels outside of the polyps in the circulating blood tracked with the growth of nasal polyps.

Using the blood samples, the researchers measured, on average, 807 eosinophils per cubic millimeter in patients before their sinus surgery, a level that dropped to an average of 200 one to two months after the polyps were removed. Over the next nine months, the physicians observed the eosinophils rise again to a high average of 338, presumably due to the regrowth of the nasal polyps. Kim cautions that the number of eosinophils from one patient to another can vary greatly and that the absolute number isn't so important, but the change in levels with respect to the presence of polyps is key.

Nasal polyp size was measure and determined by a 4-point scale for each nostril after endoscopy: 0 for no polyp and 4 for complete obstruction. Each person could thus have a maximum score of 8 if both nostrils were completely blocked by polyps. Prior to surgery, the patients had an average score of 5, which dropped to 0.1 one to two months after surgery. From three to 12 months following surgery, the average score rose to 1.5.

Then, Kim's team compared the eosinophil levels with the nasal polyp size to determine if there was a direct mathematical correlation. They found that for every time eosinophil number decreased by 100 counts after surgery, the nasal endoscopy score dropped by 1.6 units. And, as the eosinophil levels rose again by 100 counts, the nasal endoscopy score also increased by 1.2 units

"The rising levels of eosinophils tracked closely with the regrowth of the polyps," says Kim. "However, we still need more studies to further determine if eosinophils levels will be a reliable predictor of actual polyp size in the regrowth process." Kim says it is unknown whether the presence of eosinophils causes the polyps to regrow or if they are simply a byproduct of inflammation. More studies are needed to specifically address the cause-effect relationship between eosinophils and nasal polyps.

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Additional authors include Virginia Drake of the University of Maryland and Nicholas Rafaels of the University of Colorado.

The study was funded by the Flight Attendant Medical Research Institute.
ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Mayo Clinic announced the next major step in realizing Destination Medical Center's (DMC) vision of creating Discovery Square, a first-of-its-kind urban bioresearch campus that brings together renowned physicians, researchers, scientists and entrepreneurs to address unmet patient needs in an ultramodern setting for science innovation. Mayo Clinic is initiating a process to identify a strategic real estate development firm to expand its Rochester, Minnesota, campus by building more than 2 million square feet on Mayo Clinic-owned land as research, commercial and product development space over the next 20 years. This is in addition to Mayo's current research footprint in Rochester of 1.3 million square feet. Discovery Square, which will include Mayo and other private businesses, is a key milestone for DMC, the largest public-private partnership in Minnesota state history, and one of the largest economic development initiatives in the U.S.

"At Mayo Clinic, we feel that we have a responsibility to bring forward discoveries that will deliver hope and better health to people around the world," says John Noseworthy, M.D., Mayo Clinic president and chief executive officer. "There is no better way to stimulate innovation than through collaboration, which has been part of the Mayo culture for over 150 years. We're looking forward to welcoming businesses, medical innovators and researchers from around the world to Discovery Square who will work together to accelerate advances in bioscience, research, education and technology for health and wellness."

Mayo Clinic is unique in its research model of collaboration, which has roots as far back as its founders, the Doctors Mayo. In 2015, Mayo started 2,723 new human studies and the same volume is projected this year. Mayo research was published in 7,305 peer-reviewed journals. Mayo Clinic's total research budget in 2015 was more than $662 million. This total includes $281 million of Mayo-based funding and $381 million of external funding.

Discovery Square, and its close proximity to Mayo Clinic, will provide an urban experience that supports a unique environment for community amenities, collaborative culture and an innovative ecosystem.

"Discovery Square is at the heart of the DMC mission to make Rochester America's city for health," says Minnesota Lt. Governor Tina Smith, DMC Corporation board chair. "Mayo Clinic's decision, announced today, to invest in new bioscience innovation, will encourage additional national and international investment in Rochester. It will spur job creation and diversify the economy in Rochester and southeastern Minnesota. This is exactly the kind of transformational project we created the DMC to accomplish, and it represents significant progress toward our goal of transforming Rochester and Minnesota into world-class destinations for health and wellness."

With construction slated to begin in 2017, the first of several Discovery Square buildings is anticipated to be completed within two years. Discovery Square is a six-square-block area that is one of six DMC sub-districts in the DMC Development Plan catalyzing densely organized, mixed-use neighborhoods made up of life science businesses, new start-ups and residential options anchored by signature spaces.

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About Mayo Clinic

Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to clinical practice, education and research, providing expert, whole-person care to everyone who needs healing. For more information, visit http://www.mayoclinic.org/about-mayo-clinic or http://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/.
Using tunneling ionization and ultrashort laser pulses, scientists have been able to observe the structure of a molecule and the changes that take place within billionths of a billionth of a second when it is excited by an electron impact.

Oleg Tolstikhin, a Russian physicist from MIPT, and his colleagues from Japan and China have discovered a method of "looking" into molecules and obtaining information about their structure using electron interference patterns. They also conducted an experiment demonstrating the ability to track changes in a molecule during the transition of an electron to an excited state. The findings were presented in two papers published in Physical Review Letters.

Tolstikhin and his colleagues are working in the field of attophysics - a science which looks at very fast processes (1 attosecond, as = 10^(-18)s) such as the restructuring of electron shells or the displacement of atomic nuclei in molecules during chemical reactions. Their main objective is to learn to recognise how the structure of molecules changes with attosecond time resolution. i.e. billionths of a billionth of a second.

One method is to use tunneling ionization. A strong laser pulse is directed at a molecule, which causes electrons to break away due to the quantum tunneling effect. As we can say with certainty that ionization took place within a small fraction of a laser cycle (the duration of one complete oscillation of the electromagnetic field in the laser irradiation used at a wavelength of 800 nm is approximately 2.5 femtoseconds), the proposed method allows scientists to observe rapidly occurring processes within the molecule.

"Attophysics is currently a "fundamental science", but we are still able to suggest a range of applications: by knowing the way in which a shell configuration changes, or the way nuclei move during a chemical reaction, we can "shoot" a laser in the right place at the right time to produce a controlled outcome in a chemical reaction," says Oleg Tolstikhin, Chief Researcher and Associate Professor of MIPT's Theoretical Physics Devision and Head of the Attosecond Physics Group.

Tunneling ionization from the excited state of a molecule

The first paper describes an experiment in which and his colleagues from Nagoya University and The University of Electro-Communications in Tokyo used few-cycle laser pulses of different wavelengths to irradiate molecules of nitric oxide (NO). A weak UV pulse excited an outer electron to a higher state, followed by a strong infrared pulse creating a field in which the electron escaped from the molecule due to the tunneling effect. After breaking away from the molecule in the strong laser field, the electron returned and was scattered on a molecular ion, which resulted in the molecule dissociation into a positive nitrogen ion and an oxygen atom. The scientists then measured the momentum distribution of nitrogen ions for the ground and excited initial initial states (Fig. 1).

From this image, the scientists were able to track the dependence of the rate of tunneling ionization on the orientation of the molecule with respect to the laser polarization direction. It was found that in the ground state of the molecule, tunneling ionization is most likely to occur when the axis of the molecule is at an angle of 45 to the direction of the oscillation of the electric field, and in the excited state the distribution is almost isotropic, i.e. the same in all directions (Fig.1). The results of the experiment are consistent with the predictions of the weak-field asymptotic theory of tunneling ionization.

The good agreement between the experimental results and the theoretical calculations, and the high time resolution suggest that the method could potentially be used to visualize molecular configurations in real time, which means they could be observed dynamically and controlled effectively.

Photoelectron holography

The second paper is purely theoretical. It examines the development of a new method that enables scientists to "extract" structural information from spectra of photoelectron scattering in tunneling ionization of an atom or molecule. The numerical experiment is similar to the real experiment conducted with nitric oxide: the atom is irradiated with a strong femtosecond laser pulse. But instead of a momentum distribution of N+ ions, the scientists studied an interference pattern of photoelectrons that had tunneled from the outer shell of the atom.

Certain ionized electrons ultimately have the same momentum and this means that they are able to interfere. The time in which the photoelectrons are able to fly "back and forth" in a laser field and return for rescattering on the parent ion is comparable with the length of the optical cycle of the laser (a few femtoseconds). However, the observed interference pattern has a much narrower "time" structure - it encodes processes that last for attoseconds. This means that it is possible to observe what happened with an atom or a molecule in the time between the tunneling of an electron and its return to the ion with attosecond resolution.

Previously, scientists demonstrated that the momentum distribution in an experiment with tunneling ionization contains a stable interference structure that must store information about the composition of the parent ion. This structure was called a photoelectron hologram, similar to an optical hologram. However, precisely what structural information is encoded in the hologram and how to decode it from there was still a puzzle. Oleg Tolstikhin and his colleagues from China and Japan provided an answer to both of these questions.

Optical holography allows you to reconstruct three-dimensional images of objects. The physical basis of the method is to record an interference pattern of waves coming from a source (reference wave) and reflected off an object (object wave). The structural features of the object alter the phase of the object wave, and the interference pattern stores this information -- the volume and "structure" of the object recorded on the hologram.

In photoelectron holography, instead of a reference wave there are electrons that fly directly to a detector after the process of tunneling ionization. And the object wave corresponds to electrons that, on their way to the detector, are first scattered on the parent ion. It was found that the hologram encodes information on the phase of the elastic scattering amplitude of the electron on the ion. This phase can be used to restore the structure of the ion. The results of the numerical calculations very well agree with the predictions of the adiabatic theory, which confirms the validity of the theoretical conclusions made.

"In our study, we consider a model atom with one electron -- but this is only to simplify the calculations. We demonstrate the principle of extracting the phase of the complex scattering amplitude from the photoelectron momentum distributions and this procedure should apply to all atoms and molecules," says Oleg Tolstikhin commenting on the study.

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EAST LANSING, Mich. - A well-insulated home with a high-efficiency air conditioner and programmable thermostat are only as effective as the person using it.

A new study led by Michigan State University and published in the current issue of Procedia Engineering shows that people living in green dwellings who don't maximize their technology can lose half of the energy savings available to them.

"Technological advances in building and equipment account for only 43 percent of energy consumption," said Dong Zhao, assistant professor in MSU's School of Planning, Design and Construction. "That means that you could buy the greenest house on the market, yet your personal habits could waste more than 50 percent of your energy savings."

As summer heats up and air conditioners kick on, this could be a concern for individual homeowners as well as commercial property owners managing business and residential occupants.

Residential buildings account for a significant proportion of energy consumption, comprising 21 percent of the total national energy use and emitting more than one billion metric tons of carbon dioxide.

Zhao and his team of researchers collected data from 320 certified green residential units. They surveyed preferred temperature settings in summer and winter, how often windows were kept open, use of fans and space heaters, humidity settings, length of showers, dishwasher and washer and dryer use, and residents' knowledge of building systems.

"If an air conditioner achieves its highest efficiency at 72 degrees, but the resident likes it set at 68 degrees, there will be a lost value of energy savings," Zhao said.

There's hope, though, for people who want to maximize the full potential of their green building technologies. The study suggests that building scientists and mechanical engineers should consider residents' behaviors while designing technology to reach maximum efficiency.

The study also shows that education could have the biggest impact on improving energy efficiency. In California, for example, utility rates vary throughout the day. So what time you charge your electric car or run your dryer can affect the savings recouped from committing to a green lifestyle, Zhao said.

"Incorporating an orientation for apartment dwellers on all of the energy savings available to them would benefit the residents and the property managers," he said. "The education component is the key to achieving higher levels of energy and financial savings. The next phase of our research will focus on what types of education work best and how educators can effectively deliver the information to residents."

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Researchers from Virginia Tech University and Texas A&M University also contributed to this study.

Michigan State University has been working to advance the common good in uncommon ways for more than 150 years. One of the top research universities in the world, MSU focuses its vast resources on creating solutions to some of the world's most pressing challenges, while providing life-changing opportunities to a diverse and inclusive academic community through more than 200 programs of study in 17 degree-granting colleges.

For MSU news on the Web, go to MSUToday. Follow MSU News on Twitter at twitter.com/MSUnews.
An upcoming NASA astrophysics mission will uncover the physics governing the ultra-dense interiors of neutron stars. Using the same platform, the mission will demonstrate trailblazing space navigation technology.

The multipurpose Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) mission arrived at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Wednesday, June 8. The forthcoming International Space Station (ISS) payload was transported from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, aboard a climate-controlled, air-suspension truck.

A neutron star begins its life as a star approximately 10 times the mass of the sun. When its nuclear fuel is exhausted, the star's outer layers explode in a supernova. Crushed by its own gravity, the star's core collapses and forms a neutron star. These collapsed stellar corpses are the densest, most strongly magnetic and most rapidly spinning objects known in the universe.

Neutron stars, which squeeze up to twice the sun's mass into a city-size volume, are powerfully bound by gravity that is exceeded only around black holes. Theory has advanced a host of models to describe the physics of neutron star interiors, including the very nature of high-density matter that cannot be produced in any laboratory on Earth. NICER's astrophysical observations will test these models.

Some rapidly rotating neutron stars, called pulsars, are cosmic lighthouses that sweep narrow beams of radiation through space as they spin. Pulsars can spin up to hundreds of times every second, producing flashes of light from radio through gamma rays detected at Earth with clock-like regularity. NICER will exploit these pulsations to perform cutting-edge astrophysics investigations while another aspect of the mission - the Station Explorer for X-ray Timing and Navigation Technology (SEXTANT) project - demonstrates a technological first: real-time, autonomous spacecraft navigation using pulsars as beacons, ultimately furthering deep space exploration into the solar system and beyond.

NICER's X-ray Timing Instrument (XTI) offers an unprecedented combination of capabilities to view the emissions of neutron stars in "soft" X-ray light (less energetic than the X-rays typically used for medical imaging). A bundle of 56 co-aligned optics and X-ray sensors, the instrument represents an innovative configuration of flight-proven components, minimizing risk and meeting the science investigation's demands of fast timing and the ability to measure the energies of detected X-ray photons.

"Thanks to a terrific development team, we're pleased to have delivered NICER two weeks ahead of our original schedule crafted almost four years ago," said Keith Gendreau, NICER's principal investigator at Goddard. "We're looking forward to launching on a SpaceX rocket and integrating with the International Space Station. From this platform, NICER will provide both unique insights into neutron star physics and validation of a technology that may one day lead humanity into deep space."

NICER will operate from the ExPRESS Logistics Carrier 2 on the ISS after launch, extraction from the transfer vehicle and installation. NICER is planned for launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida aboard the SpaceX-11 ISS Commercial Resupply Services flight, currently scheduled for February 2017. The baseline mission lifetime is 18 months. The NICER team anticipates initial science results by late summer 2017.

Keith Gendreau and Zaven Arzoumanian are the mission's principal and deputy principal investigators, respectively. NASA Goddard provides overall mission design, development, management, science leadership, system engineering as well as payload integration, testing and flight operations. Partners from industry and academia include Moog Inc., the Technical University of Denmark and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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NICER is an Astrophysics Mission of Opportunity within NASA's Explorer program, which provides frequent flight opportunities for world-class scientific investigations from space utilizing innovative, streamlined and efficient management approaches within the heliophysics and astrophysics science areas. NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate supports the SEXTANT component of the mission, demonstrating pulsar-based spacecraft navigation.

For more information about NASA's NICER mission, visit:

https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/nicer/
Analysis of oxygen isotopes in fossil teeth from red deer near the Adriatic Sea suggest that they migrated seasonally, which may have driven the movements of the Paleolithic hunter-gatherers that ate them, according a study published June 8, 2016 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Suzanne Pilaar Birch from University of Georgia, USA, and colleagues.

Migration patterns of large herbivores, such as red deer (Cervus elaphus), have been used as a proxy to estimate the movements of the prehistoric hunter-gatherers in Europe who relied on them for sustenance. However, interpretation of prehistoric migrations often relies on data from modern populations that may be very different from those that lived before the end of the last ice age. Assessing isotope variation in fossil teeth can be a more accurate indicator of ancient migration patterns, as the teeth of migrating animals have less variation in levels of the oxygen isotope 18O than the teeth of animals which do not.

In the present study, Birch and colleagues analyzed oxygen isotope variation in the teeth from 10 red deer and 14 mountain goats collected at three cave sites in the Adriatic, which hunter-gatherers used as hunting outposts 12,000-8,000 years ago, to directly reconstruct the migratory behavior of red deer.

Although relying on a small dataset, the researchers found differences in the 18O ranges in red deer teeth from the Pleistocene/Late Upper Paleolithic compared to the Holocene/Mesolithic, and found less isotope variation within red deer teeth compared to teeth from mountain goats. The authors suggest that, while mountain goats mainly stayed put, red deer may have migrated seasonally in the Pleistocene/Late Upper Paleolithic, moving over smaller ranges in the Holocene/Mesolithic. These migration patterns may, in turn, have influenced human mobility strategies during this period.

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In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available paper: http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0155714

Citation: Pilaar Birch SE, Miracle PT, Stevens RE, O'Connell TC (2016) Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene Migratory Behavior of Ungulates Using Isotopic Analysis of Tooth Enamel and Its Effects on Forager Mobility. PLoS ONE 11(6): e0155714. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0155714

Funding: The Gates Cambridge Trust provided funding for SEPB's PhD, of which this research was a part, as well as substantial support for laboratory preparation and stable isotope analysis of the samples. Radiocarbon dates on samples were provided by a University of Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit/Natural Environment Research Council Grant, #2011/2/12. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
"The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine applauds the Senate passage of the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act, updating the statute that regulates chemicals policy.

"The bill requires alternatives to animal tests be considered and used, and places restrictions on animal testing-which are stronger than current law-that will over time facilitate the development and adoption of human-relevant, nonanimal methods. Because information obtained on chemicals will be human-relevant, products Americans use will be safer.

"Principles to replace and reduce animal-based test methods and to increase the use of information from human-based and mechanistic tools are integrated into the heart of the legislation.

"Since 2007, the Physicians Committee has worked to share with Congress the importance of fixing an integral part of the regulatory process-toxicity testing. We lack information on many chemicals and how they affect a diverse human population, because we rely too heavily on slow, unreliable, and expensive animal tests. The policies in this legislation -- supported by a broad coalition of stakeholders and legislators--will ensure strong protection of human health and the environment by modernizing toxicity test methods, allowing the Environmental Protection Agency to collect better information more quickly than current tests allow.

"We thank Senators Udall, Vitter, Inhofe, and Booker for their tremendous work on this bill and we encourage President Obama to sign the Lautenberg Act into law, without delay."

Founded in 1985, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is a nonprofit health organization that promotes preventive medicine, conducts clinical research, and encourages higher standards for ethics and effectiveness in research.

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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Two leaded bronze artifacts found in northwestern Alaska are the first evidence that metal from Asia reached prehistoric North America prior to contact with Europeans, according to new Purdue University research.

"This is not a surprise based on oral history and other archaeological finds, and it was just a matter of time before we had a good example of Eurasian metal that had been traded," said H. Kory Cooper, an associate professor of anthropology, who led the artifacts' metallurgical analysis. "We believe these smelted alloys were made somewhere in Eurasia and traded to Siberia and then traded across the Bering Strait to ancestral Inuits people, also known as Thule culture, in Alaska. Locally available metal in parts of the Arctic, such as native metal, copper and meteoritic and telluric iron were used by ancient Inuit people for tools and to sometimes indicate status. Two of the Cape Espenberg items that were found - a bead and a buckle -- are heavily leaded bronze artifacts. Both are from a house at the site dating to the Late Prehistoric Period, around 1100-1300 AD, which is before sustained European contact in the late 18th century."

The findings are published in Elsevier's Journal of Archaeological Science, and the research was funded by the National Science Foundation's Office of Polar Programs Arctic Social Sciences.

"This article focuses on a small finding with really interesting implications," said Cooper, who also has a courtesy appointment in materials engineering and is an expert in metallurgy and archaeology in the western Arctic and Subarctic. "This will cause other people to think about the Arctic differently. Some have presented the Arctic and Subarctic regions as backwater areas with no technological innovation because there was a very small population at the time. That doesn't mean interesting things weren't happening, and this shows that locals were not only using locally available metals but were also obtaining metals from elsewhere."

The items were found on Alaska's northwest coast at Cape Espenberg on the Seward Peninsula where the Thule people lived in houses. The field work was led by Owen K. Mason and John F. Hoffecker, both of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado, Boulder. From 2009-2011, their team excavated a variety of artifacts including six items with metal. Cooper coordinated the metallurgical analysis.

Metal artifacts are rarely found because they were usually used until they were worn down and, therefore, not well preserved at field sites.

"These items are remarkable due to curation and preservation issues," Cooper said.

The cylindrical bead and a fragment of a small buckle strap-guide are composed of leaded bronze, which is an alloy of copper, tin and lead. The fragmented leather strap on the buckle provided radiocarbon dating, and the item was dated to 500-800 years old, although the metal could be older.

"The belt buckle also is considered an industrial product and is an unprecedented find for this time," Cooper said. "It resembles a buckle used as part of a horse harness that would have been used in north-central China during the first six centuries before the Common Era."

Three of the other four items from another house were determined to be copper - a piece of bone fishing tackle with a copper hook, an eyed copper needle and a small fragment of sheet copper. The final item was a bone fishing lure with iron inset eyes. All items were analyzed with X-ray fluorescence technology.

This house is considerably younger, dating to the 17th to 18th centuries, and is part of a trading network in Alaskan native copper.

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Also part of the research team was Robert J. Speakman, of the Center for Applied Isotope Studies at the University of Georgia, and Victor Mair, of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Pennsylvania.

The two research projects funded by the NSF's Office of Polar Programs Arctic Social Sciences were the Cape Espenberg project, which was awarded to Mason and Hoffecker, and the Arctic and Subarctic grant, which was awarded to Cooper.
Krakow, June 08, 2016 - In the range of energies penetrated by the LHC accelerator, a new mechanism of the creation of particles is becoming more prominent, say scientists from the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Krakow. The comparison between theoretical predictions and test data leaves no doubt: the energy in collisions is now so great that some of the elementary particles, mesons containing charm quarks, are beginning to emerge in pairs as often as single ones -- and even more often.

A proton-proton collision is an extremely complex physical process of interactions wherein a variety of different particles arise. So far, today's particle accelerators (RHIC, Tevatron and now the LHC) studying the products of such collisions have recorded, among others, D0 mesons appearing one by one. Recently, however, the LHC has been accelerating protons to their limits, and in the new energy an interesting effect has been observed: where once only solo D0 mesons were formed, they are now appearing in pairs. Scientists from the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IFJ PAN) in Krakow have explained the essence of this phenomenon and showed that with increasing energy, it undoubtedly plays a dominant role in the production of charm particles. The latest research, published in the journal Physics Letters B, was carried out in cooperation with Russian physicists from the Samara National Research University.

"A few years ago, we predicted that collisions of protons at sufficiently high energy should result in more charm mesons produced in pairs rather than alone. Our latest publication not only describes in detail why this happens, but it also proves that in the LHC this effect is clearly visible," says Prof. Antoni Szczurek (IFJ PAN).

According to the Standard Model currently used by physicists, particles considered to be elementary perform different functions. Bosons are carriers of forces: photons are related to electromagnetism, gluons are responsible for strong interactions, and bosons W+, W- and Z0 mediate weak interactions. Matter is formed by particles called fermions. These include leptons (electrons, muons, tau particles and their associated neutrinos) and quarks (down, up, strange, charm, beautiful and top). The first three types of quarks are called light while the last three are called heavy. In addition, each quark and lepton has its antimatter partner. Complementing the whole is the Higgs boson, which gives particles mass (except for gluons and photons).

In our everyday world heavy quarks are present in small amounts and only appear for an extremely short time, mainly in the Earth's atmosphere. All visible and stable material of which atoms are constructed, including protons and neutrons, consists of up and down quarks. But when it comes to collisions of particles at sufficient energies heavy quarks may arise. In the case of charm quarks (the least massive heavy quarks) the dominant process of their creation is the fusion of two gluons. In the LHC this occurs during proton-proton collisions, formed by the merger of quark-antiquark pairs. Neither a quark or an antiquark can stand alone, so they quickly form pairs with other quarks. When one of the quarks is a charm quark, the particle is called a meson D; when one of them is a charm antiquark, an antimeson D is the result.

"At lower energies two particles usually arise from a collision: the D0 meson and its antimeson. We have shown that the energies at the LHC, however, are so high that in the course of a collision gluons are not scatter only once, but twice or even more. The result of a single collision can then be numerous D0 mesons, plus, of course, appropriate antimesons", explains Prof. Szczurek.

Physicists often call quarks and gluons partons. The phenomenon of multiple parton scattering is already well-known, but had not been dealt with more closely because it never played a significant role in the investigated processes. Now scientists at IFJ PAN have shown that the situation has changed. Energies of accelerators are already so high that multiple parton scattering has become the leading mechanism responsible for the production of charm mesons and antimesons. Theoretical analysis of the measurements collected were supported by a group at the LHCb, leading one of the four major experiments carried out at the LHC.

"The data from the LHCb experiment have shown many cases where instead of one D0 meson we have two of them. It is precisely the effect that we expected: production of twins is becoming as likely as the production of single mesons. In future accelerators, such as the already designed Future Circular Collider, the LHC's successor, this phenomenon will play quite a dominant role in the production of charm particles. Perhaps then we will see collisions with a resulting effect of not only two, but three or more D mesons," says Dr. Rafa? Maciula (IFJ PAN).

Potentially, multiple parton scattering can lead to the formation of mesons containing other heavy quarks, such as beauty quarks. The calculations of Krakow physicists, however, show that at current energies of collisions in the LHC these processes are much less likely. It has to do with the masses of the quarks: the greater the mass, the less likely they will be produced, and beauty quarks are significantly heavier than their charm counterparts.

"For now all we can say for sure is that the production of twin charm mesons seems to be much more likely than twin beauty mesons," says Prof. Szczurek with a wink.

The analysis and prediction of physicists from the IFJ PAN are important not only for the future designers of large particle accelerators, but also for contemporary experiments on the registration of neutrinos coming from outer space, such as the famous IceCube detector in Antarctica. Physical and technological limitations mean that neutrino detectors cannot be built in space. Meanwhile, there is a risk that some of the neutrinos registered by the device on or below the Earth's surface are formed by the action of high-energy cosmic rays in the atmosphere of our planet. Colliding with atoms and molecules of the atmosphere, cosmic rays can in fact create charm quarks, which are then transformed into short-lived D mesons. The problem is that some of the decay products of D mesons may just be neutrinos and antineutrinos. Research on multiple scattering of partons can therefore help in determining how many neutrinos observed in detectors actually came to us from the depths of space, and how much is just noise resulting from the presence of the atmosphere.

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The Henryk Niewodniczanski Institute of Nuclear Physics (IFJ PAN) is currently the largest research institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The broad range of studies and activities of IFJ PAN includes basic and applied research, ranging from particle physics and astrophysics, through hadron physics, high-, medium-, and low-energy nuclear physics, condensed matter physics (including materials engineering), to various applications of methods of nuclear physics in interdisciplinary research, covering medical physics, dosimetry, radiation and environmental biology, environmental protection, and other related disciplines. The average yearly yield of the IFJ PAN encompasses more than 450 scientific papers in the Journal Citation Reports published by the Thomson Reuters. The part of the Institute is the Cyclotron Centre Bronowice (CCB) which is an infrastructure, unique in Central Europe, to serve as a clinical and research centre in the area of medical and nuclear physics. IFJ PAN is a member of the Marian Smoluchowski Krakow Research Consortium: "Matter-Energy-Future" which possesses the status of a Leading National Research Centre (KNOW) in physics for the years 2012-2017. The Institute is of A+ Category (leading level in Poland) in the field of sciences and engineering.

CONTACTS:

Prof. Antoni Szczurek

The Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences

tel. 48-12-6628212

email: antoni.szczurek@ifj.edu.pl

Dr. Rafal Maciula

The Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences

tel. 48-12-6628240

email: rafal.maciula@ifj.edu.pl

SCIENTIFIC PAPERS:

"New mechanisms for double charmed meson production at the LHCb"; R. Maciula, V. A. Saleev, A. V. Shipilova, A. Szczurek; Physics Letters B, vol. 758, pp 458-464, 2016; DOI: 10.1016/j.physletb.2016.05.052

LINKS:

http://www.cern.ch/

CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research.

http://www.ifj.edu.pl/

The website of the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

http://press.ifj.edu.pl/en/

Press releases of the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

IMAGES:

IFJ160608b_fot01s.jpg

HR: http://press.ifj.edu.pl/news/2016/06/08/IFJ160608b_fot01.jpg

Production of mesons and antimesons D0 in interactions between gluons g. Left: creation of a single pair, right: two pairs are born. (Source: IFJ PAN)
Historical survey of excavated mosaic art of pagans, Jews, Samaritans, Christians and Muslims earns Hebrew University professor the first prize in this year's Polonsky Awards

Mosaics are not mere decorations, for when approached critically they can be read as first-rate historical documents that sharpen and refine our understanding of societies, their ideologies, institutions and liturgies.

The Holy Land (present day Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority) has been a central arena where different faiths met, communicated, competed and conflicted with each other. It boasts a plethora of ancient mosaics from the Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Umayyad and Early Abbasid periods.

Prof. Rina Talgam, the Alice and Edward J. Winant Family Professor of Art History, in the History of Art Department in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Faculty of Humanities, has been following the intricate visual dialogues among Paganism, Judaism, Samaritanism, Christianity and Islam in the Holy Land from before the Roman Empire to after the Muslim conquests.

"Mosaics located in private and public spheres, in both secular and religious buildings, played an important role in constructing cultural, religious and ethnic identities in a multicultural society, often intended to reflect the difference among the various communities, but also testified to the existence of an extensive commonality," Talgam said.

In her recent book -- Mosaics of Faith: Floors of Pagans, Jews, Samaritans, Christians, and Muslims in the Holy Land (Penn State University Press, July 2014) -- Talgam offers comprehensive analytical history of mosaics from a wide chronological range (a millennium), reviewing all aspects of the floor mosaics in their multicultural contexts.

"The discussion of the mosaics touches upon a long list of questions and deals with all aspects of the mosaics. Alongside the study of iconographic aspects, it examined the compositional characteristics, the style and the technique of the mosaic," said Talgam, a highly experienced archaeologist specializing in ancient art of the Middle East.

The book examines the relations between the religious and secular spheres and indicates a considerable degree of dynamism in the drawing of the boundaries between them over the course of time. What make this endeavor both timely and imperative are recent archeological discoveries that have considerably enriched the existing corpora and, above all, have challenged prevailing assumptions.

"The inclusion of mosaics in the scholarly discourse makes possible a richer perception of the past and sheds light on both the intimate links and the disjunctions between art and text," Talgam said.

Talgam's research has earned her the First Prize of the Polonsky Prizes for Creativity & Originality in the Humanistic Disciplines for the year 2016. The prize was presented to her at the Hebrew University's 79th annual meeting of the Board of Governors in Jerusalem, by Marc Polonsky, Associate Governor of the Hebrew University and former trustee of the British Friends of the Hebrew University

The Polonsky Prizes were initiated by Dr. Leonard S. Polonsky, a devoted, long serving former Trustee, now Patron of the British Friends of the Hebrew University. Dr. Polonsky is a Hebrew University Governor and Honorary Governor recipient whose charitable foundation has been funding such prizes for over 20 years in order to highlight the originality and creativity of scholarship in the humanities at the Hebrew University. The Prizes are awarded for creative endeavors in all areas of the humanities that were written or published during the past five years.

Dr. Polonsky holds an Honorary Doctorate from the Hebrew University, of which he is a Governor and where he serves on the Board of the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace. At the Hebrew University he established the Polonsky Prizes for Creativity and Originality in the Hmanitiewhich have been awarded annually since 2004. Other support for the Hebrew University includes awards for study in China and scholarships for undergraduates of Ethiopian background.

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The Hebrew University of Jerusalem is Israel's leading academic and research institution, producing one-third of all civilian research in Israel. For more information, visit http://new.huji.ac.il/en.
The protesters claim that the quarrying has been destroying the villagers resources by, amongst other things, damaging plantations, farmlands, streams and roads and blocking drains.

The protest leader, Ko Zaw Htwe said: If there is no change after we hold the first protest we will hold a second protest in front of Paung Township Office. If there is no change after we hold a protest in Paung Township we plan to hold a third protest in front of the [Mon] State Office. This rock quarrying is of no benefit to local residents. It is causing friction between villagers.

He also said that Long Life Aggregate Mining started quarrying in Oke Ta Dar Village in 2013, but that they never consulted with the villagers or asked for their opinions before starting to quarry.

During the protest protesters shouted slogans calling for the closure of the quarry to protect the natural environment, natural resources, water resources, farmlands and plantations.

Daw Pann Yi, one of the protestors said: We are protesting to stop the rock quarrying because water resources have been damaged and drinking water may become scarce. Sand running off from the mountain has damaged plantations. Thats why we are protesting.

Local residents submitted a petition of over 2,500 signatures on 12 August 2014, a petition of over 800 signatures on 29 December 2015, and a petition of over 1,000 signatures on 22 January 2016 to governmental departments.

Long Life Aggregate Mining obtained permission from the authorities to quarry in a 225 acre site in the Kalma Mountain Forest Reserve in Paung Township to produce rock and gravel for construction.

Translated by Thida Linn

Edited in English by Mark Inkey for BNI
Pinchas Tsukerman developed a novel immunotherapy method in which monoclonal antibodies neutralize the tumor's ability to suppress the immune system

The importance of the body's immune system in protecting against the creation of cancerous tumors has been known for a long time. But despite the existence of a competent immune system, some individuals develop tumors, in part because tumors have ways to evade destructive immunity or induce immune-suppression.

A major goal of cancer immunotherapy is to generate, induce or augment an anti-tumor immune response. In recent years, studies found that even after a tumor is formed the immune system is able to destroy it.

Dr. Pinchas Tsukerman studied the interaction between cancer cells and the key cells of the immune system that perform surveillance and elimination of tumor cells, called Natural Killer (NK) cells. On the basis of this research, he developed novel products that can boost the immune activity to eliminate cancer growths.

Dr. Tsukerman conducted the research as a PhD student at the Lautenberg Center for Immunology and Cancer Research, at the Institute for Medical Research Israel-Canada (IMRIC). IMRIC is a research institute within the Faculty of Medicine at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

His discovery, which earned him the prestigious Kaye Innovation Award, was made at the laboratory of Prof. Ofer Mandelboim (a 2015 Kaye award winner -- see http://new.huji.ac.il/en/article/26933) in collaboration with the laboratory of Prof. Stipan Jonjic from the University of Rijeka in Croatia.

NK cell activity is controlled by a balance of signals delivered by inhibitory and activating NK cell receptors. There are several activating NK cell receptors that recognize various ligands (surface molecules expressed by damaged or transformed cells), including tumor specific ligands.

"Our products are blocking monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) that target and block one of the inhibitory receptors as well as the ligand of the inhibitory receptor. Each of these mAbs is able to induce potent immune responses," Tsukerman said.

Additionally, these mAbs can act synergistically with existing immunotherapies, such as anti-PD1, anti-PD1L and anti-CTLA4.

"We thus have high hopes for using these novel anti-tumor mAbs to better treat cancer in the future," said Tsukerman.

The Hebrew University, through its technology transfer company, Yissum, holds patent applications protecting the new method, and it is now in the process of signing an agreement with a company for further development and commercialization.

Tsukerman's innovation was one of five which earned the Kaye Innovation Award during the 79th annual meeting of the Hebrew University Board of Governors.

Tsukerman was previously awarded the Rector's Award for excellent students in his first year at Hebrew University, and the Bester Award and the IMRIC award for excellence in cancer research.

The Kaye Awards have been given annually since 1994. Isaac Kaye from the United Kingdom, a prominent industrialist in the pharmaceutical industry, established the awards to encourage faculty, staff and students of The Hebrew University to develop innovative methods and inventions with good commercial potential which will benefit the university and society.

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The Hebrew University of Jerusalem is Israel's leading academic and research institution, producing one-third of all civilian research in Israel. For more information, visit http://new.huji.ac.il/en.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The world-renowned iSR'obotTM Mona Lisa makes its way to the United States, providing urologic surgeons with a tool to diagnose prostate cancer earlier through accurate diagnosis and precise localization that may allow for targeted treatments in the future.

The University of Alabama at Birmingham is one of two beta sites in the United States to receive this new image-guided system. Lead investigator Soroush Rais-Bahrami, M.D., will determine the utility of the equipment for potential clinical use in the setting of the UAB Urologic Oncology Innovations Lab through a pilot pre-clinical project, "Phantom-Based Evaluation of a Novel Trans-Perineal Platform for Prostate Cancer Detection and Treatment."

"As the only hospital in the Southeast to have the Mona Lisa robotic device, our team's input on the device will help shape the future of prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment, not only for our patients at UAB but also patients worldwide," said Rais-Bahrami, assistant professor in UAB's Department of Urology and Department of Radiology. "Our feedback will help modify and make the already successful robot better as it launches in the United States for research and clinical implementation."

The Mona Lisa robotic platform created by Biobot Surgical uses magnetic resonance imaging and ultrasound fusion techniques to robotically guide biopsy of suspicious lesions. The fusion software helps with the localization of the needle when a biopsy procedure is performed, providing pinpoint accuracy. With UAB investigators, the device is being further developed to plan for minimally invasive focal therapy for treating prostate cancer in the future.

Ultimately, the Mona Lisa will be used for focal or targeted therapy through image-guidance and treatment localization for prostate cancer. More than a thousand patients across Europe and Asia are already receiving biopsies with the Mona Lisa robotic device.

"In the United States, we are currently treating the entire prostate for cancer," said Jeffrey Nix, M.D., assistant professor in UAB's Department of Urology. "We have the capability to fuse MRI and ultrasound to identify the exact location of the cancer. We are excited about providing personalized care for each of our patients and look forward to the day that we can administer localized treatment with the use of the Mona Lisa."

The Mona Lisa is being integrated as an investigation by a multidisciplinary team founded and co-directed by Drs. Rais-Bahrami and Nix. The UAB Program for Personalized Prostate Cancer Care combines experts from urology, radiology, radiation oncology, medical oncology and pathology to determine the best treatment pathway for each individual with prostate cancer.

UAB investigators are using phantom studies and 3-D personalized molds of prostates to prove the principle that biopsies with spacial accuracy of certain targeted regions can be performed.

After Biobot receives approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration for the MRI-US Fusion software, UAB looks forward to beginning clinical trials that biopsy-qualified prostate cancer patients could benefit from the use of this device.

Biobot Surgical and BK Medical Systems provided support for the evaluation of this equipment.

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About UAB

Known for its innovative and interdisciplinary approach to education at both the graduate and undergraduate levels, the University of Alabama at Birmingham is the state of Alabama's largest employer and an internationally renowned research university and academic medical center; its professional schools and specialty patient-care programs are consistently ranked among the nation's top 50. UAB's Center for Clinical and Translational Science is advancing innovative discoveries for better health as a two-time recipient of the prestigious Center for Translational Science Award. Find more information at http://www.uab.edu and http://www.uabmedicine.org.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The University of Alabama at Birmingham is a separate, independent institution from the University of Alabama, which is located in Tuscaloosa. Please use University of Alabama at Birmingham on first reference and UAB on all subsequent references.

VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/uabnews TEXT: http://www.uab.edu/news TWEETS: http://www.twitter.com/uabnews
Athens, Ga. - Sexual transmission of the Ebola virus could have a major impact on the dynamics of the disease, potentially reigniting an outbreak that has been contained by public health interventions, according to research by University of Georgia ecologists just published in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters.

The potential for sexual transmission is high for three to four months after the virus has been cleared from the bloodstream, and possible for an average of seven months.

The research was prompted by the publication of data showing that viable Ebola virus remained in the semen of disease survivors for months after it was no longer detectable in their blood -- and by a study reporting at least one instance of sexual transmission of Ebola.

"We realized that this could be a hidden source of the virus," said senior author Andrew Park, an associate professor in the UGA Odum School of Ecology and College of Veterinary Medicine's department of infectious diseases. "We wanted to find out what role sexual transmission might play in the dynamics of an outbreak."

The researchers developed a mathematical model to test various outbreak scenarios.

First, they created a model population of 1,000 individuals and introduced Ebola virus to track its spread via regular transmission. Based on the experience of the 2014 outbreak, they assumed that many actions would be taken, from individual behavior changes to public health interventions, to control the outbreak. In the parameterized model, this resulted in one in four individuals infected throughout the population.

"An important point to make is that without the behavior changes and interventions, it would have been more like 80 percent of individuals infected," said Park. "The actions taken in West Africa were very effective."

Next, they set out to determine the impact that sexual transmission could have.

"We wanted to know what it would mean in terms of the size of an outbreak, how long an outbreak lasts, how likely an outbreak is to occur and the reproductive ratio of the parasite, a measure of how effectively the parasite transmits in populations," said the study's lead author John Vinson, a doctoral student in the Odum School.

There were, however, two components of sexual transmission about which very little is known. The first is what proportion of people who survive Ebola are actually able to transmit the virus through sexual contact; the second is how the rate of sexual transmission compares to that of regular transmission.

To overcome this lack of data, they ran the model using values that varied widely for both questions but within plausible limits.

Their results showed a clear impact from sexual transmission. When the values of both parameters--the number of sexually infectious individuals and the rate of transmission--were low, outbreaks were smaller and ended more quickly, but as the values increased, so did the size and duration of outbreaks.

The model shows that even the smallest and shortest outbreaks in the presence of sexual transmission were larger and longer-lasting than outbreaks where no sexual transmission occurred.

"Whenever we had die-outs of the directly transmitted infectious individuals, which would otherwise have spelled the end of the outbreak, we had reignition from the sexually infectious individuals transmitting the virus to the susceptible people left in the population, who then served as a source of direct transmission," Vinson said. "Thinking about it from the parasite's point of view, the parasite is able to persist in that population even without the direct contact transmission by symptomatic individuals."

Park said the findings point to the importance of considering alternative pathways of disease transmission.

"There's an increasing awareness that sexual transmission can happen in addition to a more clearly evidenced transmission route and not just with Ebola," he said. "But there's been very little written about how it works or what it means for the metrics that the public health community uses. Our model is ultimately translatable to other disease systems and shows how it can be done even under uncertainty of key parameters."

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The study, "The potential for sexual transmission to compromise control of Ebola virus outbreaks," is available online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2015.1079.

Co-authors are John Drake, an associate professor in the Odum School, and Pejman Rohani, a professor in the Odum School and College of Veterinary Medicine. Support for the research was provided by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under award number U01GM110744 and by the National Science Foundation.
COLUMBIA, Mo. - When predicting future global population growth, sometimes scientists look to the past. Using a database with historical records that began in 871 A.D., an anthropologist at the University of Missouri was able to show reproductive patterns and shed new light on the "quantity-quality" trade-off, a biological concept used to describe a parent's unconscious decisions to balance between the time and financial investment needed to produce offspring. Results from this study could help to predict future population growth and could help explain how parents allocate their time and financial resources in raising their children.

"The database is probably the best record of human reproduction on earth, with centuries' worth of data," said Robert Lynch, a post-doctoral fellow in anthropology in the MU College of Arts and Science. "Using this incredible resource, we evaluated the relationships and trade-offs among fertility, mortality and parental investment, or the amount of time parents spend in child-rearing. We also wanted to see how parental investment -- including the amount of time and financial resources parents spend with each of their children -- impacted the lifespans and reproductive success of offspring."

Lynch, in partnership with deCode Genetics, analyzed data from individuals born between 1700 and 1919. These dates were chosen to ensure the data were reliable and that all individuals in the study had complete life histories. The analyses examined the relationship between mortality rates and lifetime reproduction.

The study found that parents and offspring do not have similar lifespans or reproductive patterns. However, siblings who share the same mother and father (referred to as "full siblings") were found to have similar lifespans and reproductive success. These similarities among full siblings suggests that parental investment impacts how successful their children are when they decide to reproduce. The study also found that parents who had more full siblings had shorter lifespans and reproduced less. In other words each subsequent full sibling imposed a fitness cost on all the previous ones.

"It is important for parents to maintain a balance between investment, which can be hard to measure, and reproduction," Lynch said. "It also is important to recognize that, as a result of the investment balance that is struck by the parents, there is a cost to children when they have more siblings. For each additional sibling, the cost is one year of life less for their brothers or sisters and siblings may have fewer children. So, when people ask me how long they will live or how many kids they will have, I tell them to look to their siblings."

With the results from this study, Lynch is expanding familial relationships to include half siblings and first cousins to further establish the impact of parental investment on reproductive success of offspring. Half siblings and first cousins share genetic traits; yet they lack many key environmental factors, like a shared household, Lynch said.

The study, "Parents Face Quantity-Quality Trade-Offs Between Reproduction and Investment in Offspring in Iceland," recently was published by the Royal Society Open Science.

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Editor's Note: For more on the story, please see: https://coas.missouri.edu/news/parental-dilemma-more-kids-or-better-outcomes
Storms that battered Australia's east coast are a harbinger of things to come and a stark reminder of the need for a national effort to monitor the growing threat from climate change, UNSW coastal researchers warn.

"The damage we've seen is a harbinger of what's to come," said Ian Turner, Director of the Water Research Laboratory at the University of New South Wales. "Climate change is not only raising the oceans and threatening foreshores, but making our coastlines much more vulnerable to storm damage. What are king high tides today will be the norm within decades."

Turner's lab manages one of the world's longest-running beach erosion research programs, at Collaroy and Narrabeen in Sydney, using drones, real-time satellite positioning, fixed cameras, and airborne LiDAR and quadbikes. The variability, changes and trends in coastal erosion at the beaches have been tracked since 1976.

But the data collected by the UNSW team is only reliable for modelling when it comes to predicting effects in southeastern Australia. For the vast bulk of Australia's 25,760 km long coastline, researchers -- and the governments and coastal communities they advise -- are largely making guesses based on limited or non-existent data, say researchers.

"The wealth of data we've collected over decades makes our models of coastal variability increasingly more reliable -- but only for a 500 km stretch of southeastern Australia," Turner added. "But when it comes to modelling other parts of Australia, in many locations we are basically working blind.

"There are very different coasts across the country exposed to very different conditions, and we just don't have the observational data we need to make predictions with any great confidence," he said. "For that, we need a national approach."

The long-term data from the UNSW program has been crucial in understanding how climate change is changing Australia's coasts, recently showing that El Nino and La Nina cycles will intensify coastal hazards, leading to changes in behaviour of storms, extreme coastal flooding and erosion in populated regions across the Pacific.

As a result, estimates of coastal vulnerability - which once focussed on sea level rise -- now have to factor in changing patterns of storm erosion, more intense storms, and other coastal effects.

Dr Mitchell Harley, a Senior Research Associate at the Lab who manages the Narrabeen-Collaroy program, said that beach erosion and coastal variability has been found to be a lot more complex than had originally thought, partly thanks to insights from the UNSW data.

"It's now clear that sea level rise is not the only player in climate change: shifts in storm patterns and wave direction also have consequences, and distort or amplify the natural variability of coastal patterns," Harley said.

Turner added, "These are precisely the conditions we experienced in Sydney over the past weekend -- waves from the north-east, combined with unusually high sea levels brought on by king tides wreaked considerable damage. And, as sea levels rise, even ordinary tides will reach higher. What we consider king high tides today will be commonplace within decades."

In 2014, Australian coastal researchers called for the creation of a national coastline observatory, with basic data - such as sub-aerial profiles, bathymetry and inshore wave forcing measurements - collected routinely from a network of around 20 'representative' beaches across Australia.

This would provide valuable data that could be used to more accurately model how Australia's more than 11,000 beaches are changing, and predict how they will respond as climate change sets in.

The long experience gained by UNSW in Sydney's Northern Beaches "gives us a template of what can be achieved across Australia," said Turner. "But without consistent and national observational data -- from very different regions like the tropical north, or the highly energetic southwestern coastlines, or the Indian Ocean coastlines of Western Australia -- it's of little value. To say we have blindspots is an understatement."

Harley agreed, adding: "For the great majority of Australia's coastlines, we don't have observations for how they are behaving now -- let alone any clear idea how they might respond to increasing variability in the future. We see it happening at Narrabeen-Collaroy, and can therefore predict it for this part of Australia. But elsewhere, we're largely operating in the dark."

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DOWNLOADS & LINKS AVAILABLE (Must credit: "UNSW Water Research Laboratory")

Contacts:

Prof Ian Turner | Director, Water Research Lab | 61-414-462-254 | ian.turner@unsw.edu.au

Dr Mitchell Harley| Senior Research Associate| 61-450-915-573 | m.harley@unsw.edu.au

BACKGROUND ON FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AT UNSW

UNSW's Faculty of Engineering is the powerhouse of engineering research in Australia, comprising of nine schools, 21 research centres and participating or leading 10 Cooperative Research Centres. It is ranked in the world's top 50 engineering faculties, and home to Australia's largest cohort of engineering undergraduate, postgraduate, domestic and international students.

UNSW itself has 52,000 students from 120 nations, and is ranked #1 in Australian Research Council funding ($68.3 million in 2014), ranked #1 in Australia for producing millionaires (#33 globally); and ranked #1 in Australia for graduates who create technology start-ups.
PITTSBURGH, June 8, 2016 - Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have uncovered a major reason why the Parkinson's-related protein alpha-synuclein, a major constituent of the Lewy bodies that are the pathological hallmark of Parkinson's disease (PD), is toxic to neurons in the brain. The finding has the potential to lead to new therapies that could slow or stop progression of the devastating illness. The new research appears online today in Science Translational Medicine.

PD is a degenerative neurological disease characterized by tremor, slowness, and gait and balance difficulties that affects about 1 million people in the United States. The symptoms are caused by the degeneration and loss of neurons in the brain, particularly those crucial for the initiation and coordination of movement.

"It's really exciting that we have found a mechanism we can target to create new treatments for this devastating disease," said lead investigator J. Timothy Greenamyre, M.D., Ph.D., Love Family Professor of Neurology in Pitt's School of Medicine and director of the Pittsburgh Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases (PIND).

PIND's goal is an integrated, interdisciplinary approach to the study of neurodegenerative diseases and their mechanisms, with the aim of transforming cutting-edge science into novel therapies and diagnostics that directly benefit individuals affected by neurodegenerative diseases.

"With four different PIND investigators working together, the new study highlights the power of this collaborative approach," Dr. Greenamyre added.

Current treatments for PD can reduce symptoms, but they do not slow the inevitable worsening of the disease. To slow or halt illness progression, scientists must first determine why and how the neurons are dying.

Degenerating neurons contain large clumps of a protein called alpha-synuclein. People whose cells make too much alpha-synuclein or make a mutated form of the protein are at high risk of developing PD because of the protein's toxicity, researchers found. Scientists also demonstrated that the accumulation of alpha-synuclein in PD is toxic because it disrupts the normal functioning of mitochondria--the tiny powerhouses responsible for generating a cell's energy.

In the new study, Dr. Greenamyre and his team--led by coauthors Roberto Di Maio, Ph.D., and Paul Barrett, Ph.D., both of PIND--used a well-established rodent model of PD to show exactly how alpha-synuclein disrupts mitochondrial function. They found that by attaching to a mitochondrial protein called TOM20, alpha-synuclein prevented the mitochondria from functioning optimally, which resulted in the production of less energy and more damaging cellular waste.

Ultimately, this interaction between alpha-synuclein and TOM20 leads to neurodegeneration, Dr. Greenamyre explained.

The researchers then confirmed their animal findings in brain tissue from people with PD.

"The effects of alpha-synuclein on mitochondria are like making a perfectly good coal-fueled power plant extremely inefficient, so it not only fails to make enough electricity, but also creates too much toxic pollution," said Dr. Greenamyre.

Using cell cultures, the research team also found two ways to prevent the toxicity caused by alpha-synuclein: gene therapy that forced the neurons to make more TOM20 protein protected them from the alpha-synuclein; and a protein that was able to prevent alpha-synuclein from sticking to TOM20 prevented alpha-synuclein's harmful effects on mitochondria.

While more research is needed to determine whether these approaches could help PD patients, Dr. Greenamyre is optimistic that one or both may ultimately make it into human clinical trials in an effort to slow or halt the otherwise inevitable progression of PD.

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Coauthors of the study are Charleen Chu, M.D., Ph.D., Edward Burton, M.D., Ph.D., Teresa Hastings, Ph.D., Eric Hoffman, Ph.D., Caitlyn Barrett, Ph.D., Alevtina Zharikov, Ph.D., Anupom Borah, Ph.D., Xiaoping Hu, B.S., and Jennifer McCoy, B.S., all of PIND.

This work was supported by research grants from the DSF Charitable Foundation, the Ri.MED Foundation, the Consolidated Anti-Aging Foundation, the National Institutes of Health (grants NS095387, NS059806, ES022644, ES020718, ES020327, NS065789, AG026389 and P50AG005133), the United States Department of Veterans' Affairs (grant 1I01BX000548), the Blechman Foundation, the American Parkinson Disease Association and the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India.

About the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

As one of the nation's leading academic centers for biomedical research, the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine integrates advanced technology with basic science across a broad range of disciplines in a continuous quest to harness the power of new knowledge and improve the human condition. Driven mainly by the School of Medicine and its affiliates, Pitt has ranked among the top 10 recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health since 1998. In rankings recently released by the National Science Foundation, Pitt ranked fifth among all American universities in total federal science and engineering research and development support.

Likewise, the School of Medicine is equally committed to advancing the quality and strength of its medical and graduate education programs, for which it is recognized as an innovative leader, and to training highly skilled, compassionate clinicians and creative scientists well-equipped to engage in world-class research. The School of Medicine is the academic partner of UPMC, which has collaborated with the University to raise the standard of medical excellence in Pittsburgh and to position health care as a driving force behind the region's economy. For more information about the School of Medicine, see http://www.medschool.pitt.edu.

http://www.upmc.com/media
A team of researchers belonging to the Prehistory Area of the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country has published the results of its recent investigations in the San Cristobal Rock-shelter (Sierra de Cantabria. Laguardia. Alava, Basque Country). This is the first time that empirical data have been presented and which demonstrate the use of rock-shelters as enclosures (for sheep/goats) by agropastoral communities from the early Chacolithic onwards (about 5,000 years ago) in the area of the Basque Country and throughout the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula.

The UPV/EHU team was led by the Professor of Prehistory Javier Fernandez-Eraso and the work is the outcome of interdisciplinary collaboration coordinated from the UPV/EHU's Prehistory Area in which experts from the University of Barcelona and the CSIC have also participated.

Previous studies conducted by this same UPV/EHU research team had documented the existence of livestock enclosures dating back to the Ancient Neolithic (over 6,000 years ago) at other sites on the Sierra de Cantabria. Nevertheless, this is the first time that data of a geoarchaeological (microsedimentological analyses) and palaeobotanical (phytoliths, pollen, charcoal and seeds) nature have been incorporated. The aim is to find out about the specific practices that the human groups in the area were engaged in inside these shelters, and to know what function was fulfilled by these practices in their economy and in their strategies for organising the territory during the Chalcolithic.

"This is a piece of pioneering work in the studies on agropastoral communities on the Iberian Peninsula. We have evidence that the human groups that occupied San Cristobal during the Chacolithic used the shelter as a pen for goats and/or sheep and that this use, although repetitive throughout hundreds of years, was not ongoing but of a temporary nature linked to a seasonal exploitation of the rich natural resources available on the Sierra de Cantabria. We also know thanks to the microscopic study of the sediments that every now and again they used to burn the debris that had built up, probably to clean up the space that had been occupied and that this combustion process was carried out in line with some specific habits: they used to pile up the debris and on top of them pile up woody remains, perhaps to help to get the fire going before going on to burn the debris," explained Ana Polo-Diaz, a researcher in the UPV/EHU's Department of Geography, Prehistory and Archaeology.

On the other hand, the correlation of the microsedimentological and phytolith analyses (mineral remains that make up the skeleton of plants) has made it possible to determine what the livestock ate, and which was largely based on the grazing available around the shelter.

Hazelnut trees and oaks

The data on the pollen have revealed that a forest, in which hazelnut trees predominated along with deciduous oaks (possibly gall oaks), grew in the immediate surroundings of San Cristobal during the period studied. There is also evidence of holm oaks, box and pine.

The study of the charcoal remains preserved on the site has made it possible to go into how the timber available on the Sierra de Cantabria was used, and the results indicate a clear change in the selection of woody materials throughout the Chalcolithic occupation of the shelter: during the oldest phase a predominance of pine followed by yew is observed while in the most recent phase there is an increase in the use of species such as oak, holm oak, the rose family and box.

The pollen analysis also indicates the existence of grazing areas and farmland fairly close to the shelter, so the use of San Cristobal as an enclosure has to be understood in the context of a way of life in which agricultural and livestock activities were combined as a means of subsistence. Although it has not as yet been possible to locate any site in the open air in the area close to San Cristobal, a settlement may well have existed close by from which during specific periods of the year the livestock were moved to make use of the resources on the ridge.

The correlation of the data obtained at San Cristobal with the information provided by the neighbouring sites on the Sierra de Cantabria itself and its immediate area has also revealed that San Cristobal also formed part of a network of shelters-cum-enclosures used at the same time and for the same purpose by human groups with similar cultural features; it has also emerged that the communities that occupied these shelters-cum-enclosures were very likely the same ones that used the dolmen constructions of the Rioja Alavesa area during the Chalcolithic.

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Bibliographical reference

Polo-Diaz, A., Alonso Eguiluz, M., Ruiz, M., Perez, S., Mujika, J., Albert, R.M., Fernandez Eraso, J. 'Management of residues and natural resources at San Cristobal rock-shelter: Contribution to the characterisation of chalcolithic agropastoral groups in the Iberian Peninsula'. Quaternary International. Available online 19 May 2016. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2016.02.013.
The study conducted at the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country describes for the first time how these receptors participate in spermatogenesis

In recent years, over 3% of births per year in developed countries have corresponded to children conceived through assisted reproduction techniques, which poses a considerable economic burden apart from physical and psychological problems. According to the World Health Organisation, the cases of infertility have increased exponentially in developed countries during the last 10 years. Specifically, male infertility represents about half of the cases of infertility. Failures during the production of spermatozoa, in other words, during spermatogenesis, produce non-functional or low-quality spermatozoa and therefore infertility. Yet the molecular mechanisms involved in the regulation of this process remain unknown despite their importance in reproductive health.

This new piece of work published in Plos One and led by the UPV/EHU researcher Nerea Subiran describes for the first time the presence of opioid receptors in the cells involved in spermatozoon formation. Opioid receptors are part of the different systems of cell communication and are capable of regulating physiological processes that require a high degree of coordination and communication between the different cell and tissue types. The study describes how these receptors participate in the spermatozoa production process in mammals. Specifically, their activation regulates the formation of the machinery that undertakes to correctly segregate the genetic information during spermatogenesis.

"Although this is basic scientific research using animal models, these studies are shedding light on the molecular mechanisms that control male fertility, and are helping us to better understand the causes of many cases of infertility and enabling new horizons to be opened up in the development of therapeutic targets and strategies to combat it," explained Dr Subiran.

###

Nerea Subiran is a doctor in Physiology of the UPV/EHU, a lecturer in the UPV/EHU's Department of Physiology, and leads the Reproduction line within the Peptide Systems group led by Prof Jon Arazusta-Astiazaran. She has a broad international track record having completed her training in various research labs at high-prestige organisations, such as the Universite Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium), the CSIC-University of Seville, the University of California, Irvine (USA) and the University of Birmingham (UK).

Bibliographical reference

Estomba H, Munoa-Hoyos I, Gianzo M, Urizar-Arenaza I, Casis L, Irazusta J, Subiran N. Expression and Localization of Opioid Receptors in Male Germ Cells and the Implication for Mouse Spermatogenesis. PLoS One. 2016 Mar 31;11(3):e0152162.
HOUSTON - (June 7, 2016) - A multi-institutional collaboration, including The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) School of Public Health, has been awarded a $1.3 million training grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) to fund the Biosafety and Infectious Disease Training Initiative. The training program was piloted last summer in Houston under the leadership of Janelle Rios, Ph.D., and Robert J. Emery, Dr.P.H.

In addition to UTHealth School of Public Health, the collaboration includes the Indiana University School of Public Health-Bloomington, led by co-principal investigator Shawn Gibbs, Ph.D.; the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, led by co-principal investigator John Lowe, Ph.D.; Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, led by Paul Biddinger, M.D., and Dillard University, led by Beverly Wright, Ph.D.

"This project builds upon a long-standing and successful relationship between UTHealth partners and the NIEHS," said Emery, professor in the Department of Epidemiology, Human Genetics and Environmental Sciences at UTHealth School of Public Health and vice president of safety, health, environment and risk management at UTHealth.

The goal of the training initiative is to positively and meaningfully impact the health of communities by providing well-designed, well-delivered and practical hands-on health and safety training to prepare workers and communities for the risks associated with potentially deadly infectious diseases, said Emery.

The target audience for the program includes workers who generate, label, load, transport, unload, receive, treat, store, analyze or dispose of potentially biohazardous materials; first responders, including emergency medical technicians, law enforcement officers and fire fighters; security personnel; wastewater treatment personnel; mortuary and forensic technicians; and custodial staff, especially those working in settings in which biohazards are present.

"The training will specifically target workers who are not typically the recipients of biosafety or infection prevention training," said Rios, director of the Office of Public Health Practice and Career Service at the School of Public Health.

Ultimately, the group aims to train workers to protect themselves, their colleagues, their communities and the environment from exposure to biohazards through the development and delivery of curricula based on sound scientific methods, including research conducted by the team. At the same time, the initiative will place special emphasis on promoting the health, resiliency and financial stability of workers and their communities.

Previous UTHealth projects funded by NIEHS include the preliminary biosafety project in the summer of 2015 that trained more than 12,000 people and a large, multi-state consortium project in hazardous materials management that is currently in its sixth year.

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Off the coast of a Greek island, snorkelers found structures that resemble human artifacts. Some look like pottery, others like pipes. There even appear to be paved courtyards. Were these treasures from a sunken ship, or remains from a town that became submerged after a tidal wave? Archaeologists from two universities went to investigate.

Weve considered cases before (here and here) of odd formations that didnt look designed but were judged by archaeologists to be man-made structures. Heres a case of the opposite: features that look designed at the outset, but left room for doubt. Can William Dembskis famous Design Filter rescue us from a case of mistaken identity?

Archaeology, as we have observed before, is an example of intelligent design science in action. Archaeologists do not rush to a design inference. Hardened pieces of clay in a dry riverbed might be mistaken for pottery shards, for instance. In this case, the symmetrical structures and patterns resemble archaeological stonework from the Hellenic Period. According to their paper in Marine and Petroleum Geology, the researchers came prepared to examine possible remains from the age of classical Greece. A funny thing happened when they took a closer look, according to news from the University of East Anglia:

When underwater divers discovered what looked like paved floors, courtyards and colonnades, they thought they had found the ruins of a long-forgotten civilization that perished when tidal waves hit the shores of the Greek holiday island Zakynthos. But new research published today reveals that the site was created by a natural geological phenomenon that took place in the Pliocene era  up to five million years ago. Lead author Prof Julian Andrews, from UEAs School of Environmental Sciences, said: The site was discovered by snorkelers and first thought to be an ancient city port, lost to the sea. There were what superficially looked like circular column bases, and paved floors. But mysteriously no other signs of life  such as pottery. [Emphasis added]

As they gathered data, the geological explanation became clearer:

The lack of other evidences of human artifacts was unexpected if this were a city port. The linear distribution suggested association with a fault line. The structures are composed of dolomite, a material unlikely to have been used by Greek artisans. It was known that anaerobic bacteria can precipitate this kind of dolomite from methane seeps. Isotopic data fit the theory that these were natural concretions. Though rare in shallow waters such as these, similar concretions are known from other parts of the world in deep waters, from hundreds to thousands of feet deep, nowhere near civilization.

For these and other reasons, the scientists rejected the design hypothesis and attributed these structures to natural causes. But before giving up entirely on intelligent design, consider these additional parts of the geological explanation:

Microbes in the sediment use the carbon in methane as fuel. Microbe-driven oxidation of the methane then changes the chemistry of the sediment forming a kind of natural cement, known to geologists as concretion. In this case the cement was an unusual mineral called dolomite which rarely forms in seawater, but can be quite common in microbe-rich sediments. These concretions were then exhumed by erosion to be exposed on the seabed today.

Here we find an important nuance that complicates a binary design/non-design inference. We hear about microbes taking the methane for a function of extracting energy. Their functional actions change the chemistry of the seawater. As a result, a rare mineral is produced that would not likely appear by geological processes alone.

While its true that the microbes did not design the overall shape of the structures, or their linear arrangements, the concretions might not have been produced without the complex specified information in the genomes of the microbes  information that constructs irreducibly complex molecular machines able to extract energy from methane. In addition, the outer shapes of the concretions were further modified by other sea creatures. Would the geological explanation work on a planet devoid of life, all things being equal? Probably not.

We need to subdivide this case, therefore, into two queries: the origin of the distribution of the concretions, and the origin of the material comprising them. The natural law explanation works for the former; the design explanation for the latter.

Heres another interesting test case from some pictures sent along by our old friend David Coppedge. Along the shores of Lake Crowley in eastern California, he photographed a series of regularly spaced columns that look, for all the world, like the remains of an ancient temple. Quite amazing. See the photo at the top.

Each column is further composed of regularly spaced disks of stone. The width, spacing and regularity of these structures are remarkable.

We know these are not designed, however, for a combination of reasons.

They are composed of the same volcanic tuff that occurs over a wide area. Columns in all stages of development can be found along the same cliff. Very few of the columns are as perfect as those shown above; many are slanted, and they come in no meaningful arrangement of heights and diameters. No native peoples in the area were ever known to build structures like this. Moreover, the space inside being shallow, they would have served no apparent function.

Additionally, geological theories exist to explain these formations by natural causes. They are known as degassing pipes from the Long Valley Caldera in which they are found. Rising gas under the lake when it was deeper likely cemented the material in the pipes, making it more resistant to erosion when the lake level dropped and the cliff began to erode. Broken remnants of collapsed columns, furthermore, are evident along the base of the cliff.

None of these reasons is alone sufficient for rejecting design, but according to Dembskis design filter, a natural cause is preferred when available and when the amount of specified complexity is low.

One last example comes from Spain. Look at National Geographics picture of mysterious stone circles found a thousand feet inside the entrance of Bruniquel Cave. Though not elaborate, the ring of broken stalactites contains sufficient specified complexity for archaeologists to infer design. They believe Neanderthals who inhabited the area built the structure for unknown reasons. According to the paper in Nature, and a summary also in Nature by Marie Soressi, scientists felt justified in inferring that the stones were placed deliberately by beings with cognitive abilities and acting with purpose. Natural law and chance were thereby rejected.

Chris Stringer, a paleoanthropologist from Londons Natural History Museum, said, This discovery provides clear evidence that Neanderthals had fully human capabilities in the planning and the construction of stone structures, and that some of them penetrated deep into caves, where artificial lighting would have been essential. Notice how he says this without ever having met a Neanderthal. His inference comes entirely from the artifacts that show the activity of a mind.

Archaeology is intelligent design in action. Archaeologists routinely distinguish between natural causes and intelligent causes. A design inference may be drawn with rigor, avoiding hasty conclusions. But if the paltry level of organization seen in a ring of stalactites is sufficient for a design inference, how much more the genetic code of a microbe, containing vast amounts of complex specified information?
The Reservoir Dolls are going to the JRDA Nationals! Help the team travel from Lane County, Oregon to Lincoln, Nebraska!

Via their GoFundMe:

Our Junior Roller Derby Team, the Reservoir Dolls, has just been invited to participate in the JRDA Nationals for the first time! Coming from Lane County, Oregon, this is a tremendous honor for our Junior skaters and they are very excited to represent our county as they travel to Lincoln, Nebraska this summer.



For more information on the JRDA Nationals, please see the following link.

We are also excited to announce that 5 members of our Team have made it into the JUNIOR OLYMPICS for Roller Derby's inaugural year! Psychotic Angel (Alexia Vinje), Deathwish (Maggie Coombs), Jubert (Rochelle Jubert), Bashful Babe (Felicity Farrell) and Mowder (Danielle Mowder). As the first year that roller derby will be a part of the Junior Olympics, it is especially exciting that so many of our local skaters were invited to participate. For more information on the Junior Olympic Games, please see the link.

These two competitions are being held this July 9-13th in Nebraska. We are needing our community's help in getting there! The cost is significant and many of the children on our team may only be able to make it to the competition with community assistance. We are needing help with Air travel, hotels, food and van rental for our whole team and several chaperones.

Thank you for any donation you are able to make! Our team thanks you!!
Bluebird Group of Companies with over 35 years of expertise in product segment has added another feather to its cap by roping in actor Anil Kapoor as its brand ambassador. A TV commercial is soon going to be aired featuring him promoting the range of Bluebird Water Purifiers. The company has been certified by leading bodies for its quality and practices and is a Gold Member of India Water Quality Association. Bluebird Water Purifiers has introduced AlkaRich Technology which increases the pH value of water and adds essential minerals to promote healthier lifestyle.

Bollywood actor Anil Kapoor, whose career spans nearly 40 years and enjoys similar credibility as the brand, said, Its a pleasure to associate with Bluebird Water Purifiers as they are working towards purification for not just drinking water but also the entire water requirements of our homes. They are coming up with AlkaRich Technology for drinking water and various other treatment solutions for hard water. To prevent water borne diseases we require pure water that is rich in essential minerals. Bluebird Water Purifier removes disease causing unhealthy impurities from water and adds minerals to enhance our immune system.

Commenting on the association, Aditya Mittal, founder of Bluebird Water Purifiers said, We are happy with our association with Anil Kapoor as the brand ambassador who portrays a rare blend of talent, class & credibility. His responsible & inspirational image along with his charming nature will send a correct message to the target audience. As he represents our brand, I believe our association will leverage the versatility and legacy of both Bluebird and Anil Kapoor. Our television campaign will start from this week and we are very confident that our new technology in the space of water purifiers will bring in good health and happiness for many families.

The company has done years of extensive research before launching water purifying systems and thereafter has been working towards widening their range of quality products. Moreover, the quality assurance has been certified by leading test labs and their quality management systems bear an ISO 9001:2008 certification. Within six months of its formal launch, Bluebird Water Purifiers has been awarded with The Best Commercial RO by The Water Digest Water Award 2015-2016. Besides quality management, the company has always focused on advancement in technology for the betterment of their products.

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Target employee SentioVenia uses all sorts of accents when he informs shoppers that Target will be closing in 10 minutes. A few of them are crude stereotypes, but it's worth it for Mickey Mouse.

1. Bane???



2. Effeminate man.



3. Mickey Mouse.



4. Apu.



5. Irish.



6. Russian.



7. Texas.



8. "Urban."
Disagreement between Spanish government and central bank weakened the EUR to USD exchange rate on Wednesday, assisted by rising risk appetite and a lack of domestic data. Where next for the euro against the US dollar in today's currency forecasts?

The euro fell against its two major rivals on Thursday, due to GBP and USD rising.

The euro to pound sterling exchange rate is +0.14 pct higher at 0.783. The euro to US dollar conversion rate is +0.02 pct higher at 1.1312.

Scotiabank analysts "remain bearish on the EURUSD outlook and continue to feel that relatively stronger US growth and a modest tightening in Fed policy this year will be USD-supportive."

In the British pounds case, gains have been brought about by speculation that the Remain vote may be won by last-minute registrations. The US Dollar has advanced due to better-than-expected claims results.

European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi offered investors little reason to buy into the Euro (EUR) on Thursday, having stressed the importance of Eurozone governments implementing fiscal policies to support the efforts of the central bank.

With markets increasingly unconvinced by the ECBs ability to bolster domestic inflationary pressure this commentary only served to undermine the appeal of the euro.

Latest Pound/Euro Exchange Rates

The euro exchange rates had, for the most part, lost out against its peers earlier today, owing to the latest US developments.

Owing to how closely they are tied, the Euro and the US Dollar have been respectively adversely and positive affected by the latest US news.

This has been the MBA mortgage applications figure for early June, which has shown a substantial increase from -4.1% to 9.3%.

Wednesday marked the start of the European Central Banks (ECB) corporate bond buying program, although this fact failed to encourage confidence amongst foreign exchange investors.

With worries persisting that the central bank could be prompted to adopt further easing measures in response to continued weak levels of domestic inflation the euro exchange rates fell further out of favour amongst traders.

Rising commodity prices, coupled with a lack of domestic data, kept the Euro in a weak position on Wednesday, with small gains against the Pound and US Dollar countered by larger drops against commodity currencies.

Also weakening sentiment was a forecast from the Spanish central bank, warning that the Prime Ministers claims the country would meet the EU deficit target by 2017 were out by a year.

According to the Banks statement:

The difference with official forecasts is due to the fact that these [the banks] estimates take in a more moderate increase in public revenues and in nominal GDP.

On Wednesday the Pound to British Pound exchange rate (GBP/GBP) converts at 1 FX markets see the pound vs pound exchange rate converting at 1. Today finds the pound to us dollar spot exchange rate priced at 1.145. The GBP to CHF exchange rate converts at 1.139 today. The pound conversion rate (against australian dollar) is quoted at 1.79 AUD/GBP. Please note: the FX rates above, updated 26th Oct 2022, will have a commission applied by your typical high street bank. Currency brokers specialise in these type of foreign currency transactions and can save you up to 5% on international payments compared to the banks.

Pound to Euro Exchange Rate Forecast: Will GBP/EUR Recover?

Concerns over the potential for a Brexit result from the EU referendum override positive industrial and manufacturing figures, keeping Pound Sterling weak.

A strong rise in both UK industrial and manufacturing output recently failed to provide much support for Pound Sterling, with the UK unit remaining mostly in negative territory, while what gains there were remained small.

Monthly manufacturing production growth rose from 0.1% to 2.3%, while yearly production increased from -1.9% to 0.8%, beating predictions of 0% and -1.5% respectively.

Industrial production growth increased from 0.3% to 2% in April on a monthly basis and from -0.2% to 1.6% on a yearly basis, defying forecasts of 0% and -0.4% respectively.

However, referendum uncertainty remained strong after the voter registration website crashed on Tuesday evening - the deadline for signing up - sparking a furious debate as to whether or not the deadline should be extended to allow more voters to register.

Euro to Dollar Forecast

The US Dollar was weakened recently after the World Bank cut global growth forecasts and Chinese data disappointed predictions.

The World Bank have given yet more reasons for the Federal Reserve to hold off on normalising monetary policy after downgrading both its global and US economic outlooks.

According to the Bank, expansion in the US economy will slow from 2015s rate of 2.4% to 1.9% in 2016, while global growth will remain stagnant at the 2015 level of 2.4%.

Chinese data also caused investor jitters and potentially gave the Fed something else to worry about, after Mays trade balance increased by just under half what was forecast, rising from US$45.56 billion to US$49.98 billion, while exports declined marginally further-than-expected.

Euro, Pound US Dollar Exchange Rates Today: EUR-USD Bullish Claims UOB

Thursdays Euro, Pound and US Dollar movement looks likely to be driven mostly by trade data, with German and UK trade balance figures due out, although the main US releases will be the initial jobless claims and continuing claims figures.

The UK data is predicted to be positive, showing a narrowing of the trade deficit, while Germanys trade surplus is expected to shrink and US initial jobless claims are predicted to tick higher, while continuing claims will edge marginally lower.

According to United Overseas Bank, the outlook for the Euro to US Dollar exchange rate is still bullish:

EUR traded within a tight 1.1336/1.1380 range yesterday leading to a slow-down in short-term momentum. However, looking further out, the strong rally that started late last week appears incomplete and we continue to expect a move towards 1.1400 where a break would shift the focus to 1.1450. Stop-loss for the bullish view remains unchanged at 1.1250 for now (even though 1.1300 is already a strong support).
Don't know the status of the M bag you mention, but back when I was still on the move it was always noticeable that the US post office seems to lack a "book rate" for mailing books and other printed matter.



Now, I share your concern over finding English language reading material while living in France. (And for much the same reason.) I would check with one of those package and mailing stores to see if they can suggest a cost-efficient method of shipping over multiple boxes of books (assuming you can't just include them in with your household items shipment, which is what I did).



But once here, you'll find that "international" subscriptions to magazines and newspapers are expensive and the "international" or "European" editions of US favorites are thin pretenders to the US "home" editions. Probably handier to turn to the UK for periodicals. For p-books (paper, as opposed to e-books), the UK is also your go-to source. Amazon.fr has a healthy listing of English language books, or you can order directly from Amazon.co.uk or any number of other British bookshops.



The one joker is e-books. Due to regional rights involved, you can't buy and download e-books from UK vendors if your residence (i.e. billing) address is in France. For Amazon, you generally have to choose between your local Amazon and Amazon.com (international section) for downloading Kindle titles. For e-pub there are a few "international" stores - the two main ones are Kobobooks and Google Play books.



Yeah, I know all the arguments for p-books over e-books, but it you want something to read in your own language, the invention of e-books has been a god-send for us expats.

Cheers,

Bev
It's a very long thread, but here's the simple version: nobody knows exactly. There's no useful precedent. But "Leave" campaigners clearly want to limit EU/EEA freedom of movement into the U.K., and it's certainly hard to imagine EU/EEA countries then tolerating freedom of movement for U.K. citizens. Those rights are reciprocal; I don't see any other option. Existing U.K. citizen residents of EU/EEA countries will probably be allowed to remain, but future movement (and resettlement to another EU/EEA country) would probably be restricted -- although those who get EC Long Term Residence Permits (5+ year U.K. expats in the EU/EEA who qualify) should still do pretty well.


There are opportunities for new relationships to develop between New Zealand and South East Asian countries, particularly Singapore, according to government officials.Economic links are being explored further by Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce who has arrived in Singapore to strengthen the bilateral science and innovation relationship between the two countries.He is also meeting with high-net worth investors to promote New Zealand as an investment destination and believes that could lead to wealthy business people considering a move to the country.There is huge potential to grow the economic links between New Zealand and Singapore which is one of our most valued partners in the Asia-Pacific region. Whether it is in terms of tourism, two way trade or foreign direct investment, Singapore consistently ranks in our top 10 countries, said Joyce.Singapore has become a major source of foreign direct investment. Year on year foreign direct Investment from Singapore has increased from $4.3 billion in 2014 to $5.6 billion in 2015, growth of more than 30%, he explained.These investors are choosing New Zealand because they see opportunity. They see our growing economy, booming tourism, strong migration and a large pipeline of construction projects which will continue to stimulate growth, he added.The New Zealand Government currently wants to attract more high value foreign direct investment (FDI) in some of the countrys most competitive sectors, with a target of facilitating investments with a potential direct economic impact of $5 billion over three years.According to Joyce that kind of investment would mean many more high value jobs being created in New Zealand and opportunities for people from around the world.FDI creates jobs and businesses and provides funding to get infrastructure projects off the ground. High quality international investment can also help New Zealand firms to grow by forging international connections, and enhancing access to export markets and complex global supply chains, he added.There are also growing travel links between New Zealand and other Asian Pacific countries. For example, a new direct return flight from New Zealand to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam has just been launched.
An honest essay has numerous characteristics: original thinking, a good structure, balanced arguments, and plenty more.

But one aspect often overlooked is that an honest essay should be interesting. It should spark the readers curiosity, keep them absorbed, make them want to stay reading and learn more. An uneventful article risks losing the readers attention; whether or not the points you create are excellent, a flat style, or poor handling of a dry subject material can undermine the positive aspects of the essay. The matter is that a lot of students think that essays should be like this: they believe that a flat, dry style is suited to the needs of educational writing and dont even consider that the teacher reading their essay wants to search out the essay interesting. You might want to have online essay editor service to boost your confidence in writing with an error-free output. Academic writing doesnt need to be  and shouldnt be  bland. The excellent news is that there is much stuff you can do to create your essay more attractive, while youll be able only to do such a lot while remaining within the formal confines of educational writing. Lets study what theyre.

Have an interest in what youre writing about

Dont go overboard, but youll be able to let your passion for your subject show.

If theres one thing bound to inject interest into your writing, its being fascinated by what youre writing about. Passion for a subject matter comes across naturally in your essay, typically making it more lively and fascinating and infusing an infectious enthusiasm into your words  within the same way that its easy to talk knowledgeably to someone about something you discover fascinating.

Include fascinating details

Another factor that may make an essay boring maybe a dry material. Some topic areas are naturally dry, and it falls to you to form the article more interesting through your written style and by trying to seek out fascinating snippets of knowledge to incorporate, which will liven it up a small amount and make the data easier to relate to. A way of doing this with a dry subject is to create what youre talking about that seems relevant to the critical world, as this is often easier for the reader to relate to.

Emulate the fashion of writers you discover interesting

When you read lots, you subconsciously start emulating the fashion of the writers you have read. Reading benefits you a lot, as this exposes you to a spread of designs, and youll start to require the characteristics of these you discover interesting to read.

Borrow some creative writing techniques

Theres a limit to the quantity of actual story-telling youll do when youre writing an essay; in the end, essays should be objective, factual and balanced, which doesnt, initially glance, feel considerably like story-telling. However, youll apply a number of the principles of story-telling to create your writing more interesting.

consider your own opinion

Take the time to figure out what its that you think instead of regurgitating the opinions of others.

Cut the waffle

Rambling on and on is dull and almost bound to lose the interest of your reader. Youre in danger of waffling if youre not completely clear about what you wish to mention or havent thought carefully about how youre visiting structure your argument. Doing all your research correctly and writing an essay plan before you begin will help prevent this problem.

Editing is a vital part of the essay-writing process, so edit the waffle once youve done a primary draft. Read through your essay objectively and eliminate the bits that arent relevant to the argument or labor the purpose.

employing a thesaurus isnt always a decent thing

Avoid using unfamiliar words in an essay; theres too great a likelihood that youre misusing them.

You may think that employing a thesaurus to seek out more complicated words will make your writing more exciting or sound more academic, but using overly high-brow language can have the incorrect effect.

Avoid repetitive phrasing

Please avoid using the identical phrase structure again and again: its a recipe for dullness! Instead, use a variety of syntax that demonstrates your writing capabilities and makes your writing more interesting. Mix simple, compound, and complicated sentences to avoid your paper becoming predictable.

Use some figurative language

Using analogies with nature can often make concepts more accessible for readers to know.

As weve already seen, its easy to finish up rambling when youre explaining complex concepts  mainly after you dont know it yourself. One way of forcing yourself to think about a couple of pictures, present it more simply and engagingly is to form figurative language. This implies explaining something by comparing it with something else, as in an analogy.

Employ rhetorical questions

Anticipate the questions your reader might ask.

One of the ways ancient orators held the eye of their audiences and increased the dramatic effect of their speeches was by using the statement. A decent place to use a statement is at the top of a paragraph, to steer into the following one, or at the start of a replacement section to introduce a brand new area for exploration.

Proofread

Finally, you may write the top interesting essay an instructor has ever read. Still, youll undermine your good work if its plagued by errors, which distract the reader from the particular content and can probably annoy them.
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Two of the nations largest convenience store chains are in a bidding war for San Antonio-based CST Brands Inc., which has fallen vulnerable to shareholder attacks since spinning off from Valero Energy Corp. in 2013.

CST and its 1,219 retail gas stations pitching freshly prepared foods and groceries have struggled to win over shareholders as an independent company.

Since its separation, its stock fell 11.9 percent through February as CST executives pursued an ambitious new direction that burdened its books with excessive debt and threatened its credit rating. But the company recently has emerged as a hot commodity on Wall Street with rumors of at least three would-be suitors vying to purchase the convenience store chain.

The foreign owners of the 7-Eleven chain of mini-marts and Canadas Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc., the parent company for Circle K, have submitted bids for CST as they set their sites on expanding in the U.S., Reuters News reported last week, citing anonymous sources.

A consortium of private equity firms including Blackstone Group and Apollo Capital Management also offered to buy CST, Reuters reported.

The companys stock price jumped 18.2 percent Thursday to $44.97 when news of the potential sale broke. CST stock closed at $44.68 Tuesday.

The industry is trying to attract more than just road-weary drivers looking to gas up and get going. Convenience store chains are offering grocery items, gourmet coffees and hot meals to get a more frequent and bigger share of customers cash.

With fuel, the average consumer gets gas once, maybe twice a week, said Jeff Lenard, a spokesman for the National Association of Convenience Stores. With food, you have the chance to get that customer once, maybe twice a day.

Couche-Tard Inc. and 7-Eleven owners Seven & I Holdings did not return calls and emails requesting comment.

Spokespeople for CST Brands, Blackstone Group and Apollo Capital Management declined to comment.

CST is an attractive target as the industry looks to insulate itself from fluctuating gas prices and declining cigarette sales by offering more food items than just hot dogs and oversized soft drinks, stock analysts said.

Its also one of the largest convenience store operators in the nation, the chains website states.

The company overhauled its format with its Corner Store Market brand unveiled in November, emphasizing groceries and freshly prepared food items over fuel sales. The company plans to move 30 percent of its existing stores to the Market format within the next five years and expects sales of groceries and fresh food to account for roughly 70 percent of its gross margin revenue by 2020.

Its a strategy that seems to be paying off.

After the rebranding, CST reported a 21.2 percent jump in gross profit from sales of merchandise and services to $160 million during the first quarter from $132 million last year. Gross profit for fuel sales rose just 6.2 percent from $113 million to $120 million during the same time frame.

Corner Store is a great name in terms of that is where our industry is moving, Lenard said. We are moving back to the feeling of a general store of not necessarily a gas station that happens to sell food, but a corner store that happens to sell gas.

Convenience store revenue across the industry dipped from $696.1 billion in 2014 to $574.8 billion in 2015 in the U.S., the National Association of Convenience Stores reported. The downturn was driven by a nearly 28 percent decline in fuel sales to $349 billion in 2015, down from $482.6 billion in 2014.

At the same time, revenue from selling 5-Hour Energy shots and other merchandise rose 5.8 percent from $213.5 billion in 2014 to $225.8 billion in 2015, driven largely by growth in serving prepared food and beverage items, the National Association of Convenience Stores said.

CST had what looked like a winning strategy, but for its aggressive expansion plans that left it saddled with $1.32 billion in debt. Standard & Poors warned earlier this year that CSTs mounting liabilities put its credit rating at risk of a downgrade. Its shares fell 10.3 percent compared with a 0.73 percent drop in the S&P 500 Index last year.

Voter Guide: What to know for the midterm election Your guide to the Texas and San Antonio races and candidates on the Nov. 8 ballot.

The company took on $300 million of fresh debt in February when it acquired the Georgia-based Flash Foods convenience store chain, which had 165 stores. That month, CSTs subsidiary CrossAmerica Partners LP snatched up Wisconsin-based Erickson Oil Products, which had 64 stores in the upper Midwest. CrossAmerica Partners also bought 22 convenience stores in San Antonio and Austin from Houston-based Landmark Industries in early 2015. Also in 2015, CST bought New York-based Nice N Easy Grocery Shoppes, with 77 stores. CST also expects to open as many as 60 stores this year.

Acquiring CST Brands would pair well with either Japan-based Seven & I Holdings or Alimentation Couche-Tards portfolio, analysts said. CST operates 1,219 stores in Texas, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Wyoming as well as Canada, according to the chains website.

Both Couche-Tard and 7-Eleven have been expanding their U.S. footprint.

Couche-Tard added more than 1,500 stores to its portfolio in March 2014 when it acquired The Pantry, a North Carolina-based convenience store chain, for $1.7 billion. It now operates 8,000 stores in the United States and Canada as of Jan. 31. 7-Eleven, which operates, franchises and licenses more than 10,000 stores in North America, agreed last month to buy CSTs California and Wyoming stores for $408 million.

CSTs lackluster stock performance last year made it the target of investor pressure from New York hedge fund Engine Capital LP and Houston-based JCP Investment Management, which muscled their way on to the board in March and pressured the company into exploring strategic alternatives to further enhance stockholder value.

Wall Street analysts praised the potential sale in reports to investors last week. A sale is considered the most likely outcome in the company's strategic review process and could be attractive to suitors other than Seven & I Holdings and Alimentation Couche-Tard, Wells Fargo analyst Bonnie Herzog said.

Gabelli & Co. analyst Damian Witkowski speculated that Japanese convenience store chain Lawson Inc. also could enter the fray, citing recent remarks made by the companys president and CEO Sadanobu Takemasu to Bloomberg News indicating that Lawson may try to expand in the United States via mergers and acquisitions.

CST is expected to seek at least one more round of offers before deciding whether to sell itself, Reuters reports.
AUSTIN  Hoping to avoid the chaos that erupted in Nevada, the Texas campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are asking their supporters to put differences aside ahead of the upcoming state Democratic convention.

Thousands will gather next week in San Antonio for the Texas Democratic Party convention amid a volatile mood within the party as supporters of Clinton and Sanders remain staunchly dedicated to their candidates.

Facing what was described as growing tensions that have begun to divide the party, Garry Mauro, a member of Clintons Texas leadership team, and Jacob Limon, Texas state director for the Sanders campaign, recently sent an email touting party unity to roughly 6,000 state delegates.

Texas Democrats must stand together against this sort of divisiveness and remain a party united in inclusion, the two wrote.

We must work in a positive and energetic manner, the email reads. Donald Trump must never be allowed to assume the presidency, and we must all come together to prevent that nightmare from becoming a reality.

State party officials have been working with the Clinton and Sanders camps for several weeks to curtail infighting at the convention, which runs June 16-18. The email from Mauro and Limon marks a pre-emptive attempt to ensure things go smoothly.

An already divisive Democratic primary devolved into pandemonium last month when Sanders supporters clashed with officials at the Nevada Democratic Party Convention over the distribution of national delegates.

Nevada has one of the most complex systems for allocating national delegates, and Sanders supporters grew enraged over a rules dispute.

Mauro and Limon point out in the email that there should not be a fight over national delegates at the Texas convention. The 252 delegates Texas will send to the national convention in Philadelphia are awarded proportionately from the March 1 primary, in which Clinton won the state with 65 percent of the vote.

Thats expected to defuse a lot of bickering at the convention, though party officials are expecting Clinton and Sanders supporters to collide during debates on the state party platform and over resolutions adopted by the state party.

Sanders supporters are expected to push the envelope and try to move the party platform further to the left.

Theyre going to try to bring in some off-the-wall things into the party platform, said Nick Pena, a state Democratic Executive Committee member from Carlos Urestis Senate district. Well give them some of the things they want. Were not going to try to scare them off.

Pena, a Clinton supporter, said he expects supporters of both candidates to have a united effort at the convention.

Lane Lewis, chairman of the Harris County Democratic Party, said the potential for squabbling between Clinton and Sanders supporters has been on his radar for some time.

He said hes worked with supporters from the two campaigns to minimize hard feelings and make sure everybody feels like the party as an entity is being completely fair and balanced.

Lewis said he also expects any flareups to be part of a platform battle.

Its important our platform represent progressive ideas, but we also have to consider do we want to get into a knock-down-drag-out fist fight over something thats not going to have a direct impact over whether Hillary or Bernie is going to win the nomination or the presidency, Lewis said.

Clinton already has locked down the delegates necessary to win the Democratic nomination, the Associated Press reported. A final round of primary elections on Tuesday, however, could set the stage for just how acrimonious the Texas convention will be.

A Sanders victory Tuesday in a key state like California, Lewis said, will only ignite more animosity between the two sides heading into San Antonio.

If that happens, the Hillary people are going to dig their heals in, he said, and the Bernie people will try to push forward.

Given the current divide in the party, Lewis said it was a stellar move for the Clinton and Sanders campaigns to urge their supporters to play nice at the Texas convention.

Manny Garcia, the states partys deputy executive director, said the email from the campaigns set a clear example to all Texas Democrats about the goals for this state convention and what we need to accomplish.

drauf@express-news.net
A private prison and government outsourcing company is proposing a new family detention facility in Jim Wells County, but immigration officials havent said how that would impact the controversial centers in Karnes County and Dilley.

Alan Hill, a spokesman for Serco Inc., said his company responded to a request for information from the federal government earlier this year and is in talks with the county government to build a facility in San Diego, which straddles Jim Wells and Duval counties. Serco Inc. is the U.S. subsidiary of the British company Serco Group, which says it employes 10,000 in the U.S. and Canada.

In its March request for information, a preliminary step in the contracting process, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it wants to add 1,000 family detention beds. The agency already has more than 3,000 beds at two family detention centers that it opened near San Antonio in 2014.

ICE has stated that they will choose one or more facilities to reach this target, Hill said in an email. The San Diego facility we are planning to propose would only accommodate a portion of this amount. The exact bed count is still under development.

ICE officials said they couldnt comment because the contracting process is ongoing. Jim Wells County Judge Pedro Trevino Jr. did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday.

The Corpus Christi Caller Times reported that Jim Wells commissioners on Monday authorized Trevino to begin negotiations with ICE and Serco to put the detention center in a 114-bed former nursing home.

Hill said he couldnt comment on the contracting process, but ICE in the past has used intergovernmental service agreements, a contracting method in which local governments appear on paper as the detention centers operators then subcontract to private companies.

The process has been criticized because the prison operators are generally not required to submit public bids for contracts that can be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. In the case of the 2,400-bed Dilley detention center, ICE modified an existing agreement with the city of Eloy, Arizona, to construct and operate the center.

Serco has international experience of managing immigration facilities, Hill said. We are committed to looking after all those in our care with trust and respect. We are currently consulting with the local community about our proposal for a facility in San Diego, Texas.

Bob Libal, the executive director Grassroots Leadership, an Austin advocacy group that has been critical of private prisons, said hes opposed to any expansion of family detention. He also said there should be a public bidding process for the detention center contract.

I think what that would allow is for there to be public comments, and hopefully the ability of the media to scrutinize the contracting, Libal said. Whereas with the (intergovernmental service agreement) process, its only if a reporter happens to be covering a remote countys business that anybody runs into it. Its not like the federal government is being transparent in this process.

ICE has indicated it is considering changes to its family detention model. In its 2017 budget request, the Department of Homeland Security asked for enough money to operate only 960 family detention beds, down from more than 3,000 currently, and in congressional testimony earlier this year, ICE Director Sarah Saldana said the agency is considering converting the 830-bed detention center in Karnes County to a facility for adults.

The South Texas family detention centers have put ICE at odds with immigration activists who last year convinced a federal judge that the facilities violated a court settlement, in part because theyre not licensed by the state. ICE obtained a license for the Karnes County center, but a judge in Austin enjoined the state from issuing a license for the Dilley facility.

jbuch@express-news.net

Twitter: @jlbuch
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KERRVILLE  A proposed settlement of litigation over Tony Ayala Jr.s estate calls for his girlfriend to get his West Side gym, where he died of a drug overdose a year ago, and to pay the troubled boxers mother $45,000.

The pact, struck in mediation last month, prompted cancellation of a trial that had been set here for this week on contested issues that included the validity of a hand-written will discovered months after Ayalas death and assertions by Jenna Lewis that she was his common-law wife.

Expert witnesses offered conflicting opinions on whether Ayala authored the will dated Jan. 16, 2015, which left Lewis all my worldly possessions, including the rights to my life story.

Although lawyers for Ayalas family challenged Lewis spousal claim, court records include receipts for wedding rings theyd put on layaway in 2014, loan documents they signed as husband and wife two weeks before his death and representations in Ayalas purported will.

While we are not officially married through a state-recognized marriage, she is my wife through common law, the document says.

The binding agreement, reached during 12 hours of court-ordered mediation three weeks ago, wont be final until Kerr County Court-at-Law Judge Susan Harris issues an order to conclude the case. Both sides expressed satisfaction Tuesday that theyd resolved the dispute without going through the financial and emotional costs of a trial.

This whole year has been pure hell on her, trying to run the gym, not lose the gym, being devastated over losing someone and being involved in a lawsuit, said Lewis attorney, Samira Mery Lineberger.

Lewis loved Tony Ayalas mother, Pauline Ayala, whod deeded him the Zarzamora Street Gym in late 2014, so the settlement includes an agreement to pay her $45,000 within a year, Lineberger said.

If that amount is not paid, Pauline Ayala instead will receive a 30 percent stake in the gym, the estates main asset, according to the settlement, which also grants Lewis title to two vehicles once owned by Tony Ayala.

Police reported finding heroin and drug paraphernalia beside the body of Ayala, 52, at the gym on May 12, 2015.

Crowds that day gathered on the sidewalk outside as authorities investigated the death, recalled Joe Navarro, 39, who owns a nearby restaurant, Nicks Tacos.

Its a landmark, Navarro said Tuesday of the modest gym at 1402 N. Zarzamora. I knew there was a lot of controversy (over the estate). Everybody wanted some of it.

Ayala died barely a year after finishing the last of several prison stints that undermined his once-promising career as the brawler known as El Torito, the bull.

He was 22-0 with 19 knockouts as a pro fighter after winning a Golden Gloves title as an amateur in 1979. But in 1983, at age 19, Ayala was convicted of rape in New Jersey and sentenced to a 35-year term. He served 16 years and was paroled in 1999.

He returned to San Antonio and resumed fighting, trained by his father, Tony Ayala Sr., as were his brothers Mike, Sammy and Paulie Ayala.

But Tony Ayala Jr.s legal troubles continued. In 2000 he was shot by a woman as he was breaking into her apartment, for which he served a short jail term.

In 2004, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for probation violations after being pulled over for speeding while not having a license and possessing heroin and pornography.

Pauline Ayalas failing health factored into the decision to strike the settlement, said Mike Ayala, who holds power of attorney for his mother.

I could have fought it and I think we would have come out on top, but it was taking a toll on my mom, he said. I had to look at the bigger picture and make a decision for my family.

A major concern of Pauline Ayala was that her sons remains stay in his grave in San Fernando Cemetery No. 2, said her attorney, Daniel Sandoval, noting Lewis initially proposed that Tony Ayala be cremated.

Mrs. Ayala was able to ensure that her sons grave isnt disturbed, Sandoval said.

Lewis, an acquaintance of Ayala who had traded letters with him while he was incarcerated, took him into her Center Point home following his release from prison last year, shortly after his fathers death, Lineberger said.

It was a very quick transition from friends to romance, she said, noting the couple worked together at the gym. They were very passionately in love.

Despite listing the Center Point address on some documents, Ayala was registered as a sex offender with the state at the gym address.

The legal sparring after his death began in Bexar County over Lewis cremation plans, which Ayalas family successfully opposed in court. Lewis countered by initiating probate proceedings in Kerr County on May 18, 2015, which Kerr County County Judge Tom Pollard transferred the next month to the county court-at-law.

There, Judge Harris last October ruled venue in Kerr County was proper, rejecting Ayala family pleadings that the case be heard in Bexar County.

Lineberger said Lewis, who has been running the gym, discovered the hand-written will there last summer.

She had no idea there was a will, Lineberger said. It was a shock.

Experts compared the will to samples of Ayalas prison letter penmanship and reached diametrically opposed conclusions on its authorship.

Court records show Curt Baggett, a document examiner hired by Lewis, reported last July, Antonio Ayala did indeed author his own signature and handwriting on the questioned document.

Wendy Carlson, the expert hired by the Ayalas, concluded in an Aug. 12 report: Someone did indeed forge the Antonio Ayala Jr. handwriting and signature on the questioned document.

Among the handwriting samples used for comparison was a Feb. 2, 2009 letter from Ayala to his parents.

Dont worry about my well being, God is with me and He protects me, he wrote. Nothing happens to me outside of His will.

zeke@express-news.net
Donald Trump cant keep his ethnic stereotypes straight.

For much of the past year, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee has assured us that the Hispanics adore him for his proposals to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants and force Mexico to build a border wall.

As he told reporters last June: The Latinos love Trump and I love them.

Now, he wants federal Judge Gonzalo Curiel to recuse himself from a fraud case against Trump University, on the grounds that Curiel, as a Mexican American, must harbor a bias against him. When CNNs Jake Tapper tried to extract a pebble of judicial logic from this argument, Trump shot back, as if it were insulting to be asked such a no-brainer: Im building a wall.

Exactly. The same wall that you claim is making Mexican Americans love you.

Of course, its too much to expect Trump to maintain a consistent line of thought on any topic, in much the same way its unreasonable to expect an infant to change its own diapers.

Trump wages a daily internal war between his voracious ego and his barracuda business instincts. It feeds Trumps ego to tell himself that his relationship with Latinos is a spicy taco bowl of love. On the other hand, it serves his bank balance to find any way  no matter how reptilian  to wiggle out of an ugly lawsuit.

That Trump sullied the reputation of Curiel  an honorable judge who risked his life as an assistant U.S. attorney by taking on the Mexican drug cartels  is no hair off the scalp of a man who dumped his second wife, Marla Maples, a few months before a prenup provision was set to kick in and guarantee her a percentage of his fortune.

After all, Trumps avowed love for Latinos can never compete with the major crush he has on himself.

In the process, he not only offered the most bigoted world view that weve heard in a presidential race since David Duke threw his white hood into the ring in 1992. He also attempted to monkey-wrench the U.S. judicial system.

If we accept Trumps reckoning, a female judge cant be trusted to handle a case in which men and women are on opposing sides; a white judge cant handle a suit involving an African American; and an African American judge would be suspect in a case where one of the litigants is white.

Trump made a big deal during the GOP primary about self-funding his own campaign, arguing that he alone among the Republican contenders wasnt bought and paid for by special interests. Apparently, such considerations no longer trouble him, as evidenced by the fact that hell be in San Antonio for a fundraiser on June 17. (In truth, Trumps self-funding claims were always specious, because he merely loaned his campaign money, and now has the opportunity to use donations to reimburse himself.)

The announcement of Trumps visit instantly prompted Maestranza, a local community organization, to organize a Dump Trump San Antonio! protest event. As of Tuesday afternoon, more than 1,300 people had indicated on the events Facebook page that they planned to attend.

Maestranza founder Denise Hernandez insists that the protest rally will be peaceful and uplifting. Thats crucial, because so far this year, Trump has mostly reaped political benefits from protests at his events.

Last Thursday, for example, demonstrators egged and hit Trump supporters outside a San Jose, California rally, foolishly undermining their own cause by deflecting media attention away from the Trump University case and making themselves look like the intolerant bullies they accuse Trump of being.

While its tempting for some Trump detractors to try to match his abrasive tone, its the wrong approach. On Monday, U.S. Rep. Filemon Vela, D-Brownsville, released an open letter to Trump. For the most part, Vela did a good job of critiquing Trumps bigotry, but he could not resist a crass cheap shot at the end.

Mr. Trump, Vela wrote, youre a racist and you can take your border wall and shove it up your ass.

The letter succeeded in getting Vela national attention, and he defended his tone by telling MSNBC host Chris Hayes that he had to speak to Donald Trump in language that he understands.

Id prefer to see Trumps critics avoid stooping to his level. After all, you dont make the case that your opponent is too inflammatory by proving you can be just as inflammatory.

ggarcia@express-news.net

Twitter: @gilgamesh470
CARROLL, Ohio  The fields that belong to central Ohio farmer David Brandt are easy to spot.

He grows the same crops as most grain farmers: corn, soybeans and some wheat. But when those crops are harvested, his fields look very different.

During the off-season - fall through early spring  his fields are still growing with plants like sunflowers and radishes, mixed with various kinds of grasses that form a layer of vegetation over his soil.

Its called cover cropping  and the concept is nothing new. In fact, with all of todays concerns with water quality and nutrient loss, cover crops are arguably more popular now than ever before.

Early adapter

Brandt, 69, has been using cover crops in his no-till operation since 1978, about five years after he went 100 percent no-till.

He needed a way to break up the soil compaction and, not wanting to go back to tillage, he decided that maybe he could use the root action of cover crops to help break up his soils.

It seemed to loosen the soil; it eliminated the compaction we were having from the surface, he said.

His way of farming was criticized at first, he said, and some still dont understand it.

They (other farmers) thought we were crazy, he said. Farming in the weeds  hell never make it.

In truth, Brandts fields do resemble a bit of a meadow, a place where the soil is so covered in growth that its hard to see. But you can see the soil of other fields in the county  where the ground has been tilled and worked clean  blowing when the wind blows and washing with the rain.

Mimicking nature

The covered look is part of Brandts goal: to mimic what nature does and provide a variety of cover crop species, with different heights and root structures, which brings a diversity of nutrients into the soil.

What were trying to do is do like Mother Nature does in a woodlot, he said.

In some cases, hes reduced purchased fertilizer and chemicals by as much as 85 percent. And some of his land hasnt seen fungicide, herbicide, insecticide nor purchased fertilizers in five years.

Meanwhile, his soil compaction has gone down, and the organic matter has gone up  so much so that he can take a shovelful of earth from most anywhere on his 1,100-acre farm, and turn up a good, loamy soil full of earthworms.

Brandt and his wife, Kendra, and their family have been farming this way for so long that they dont qualify for todays cost-share programs that pay farmers to plant cover crops. Instead, he said he started planting them because he thought it was the right thing to do.

And because hes been successful, hes made a career out of promoting cover crops, and is engaged in various research projects on his farm. The industry knows him as the cover crop guru, and in March he was named a Master Farmer by Ohio Farmer magazine.

His family operates Walnut Creek Seeds, which sells cover crop seeds to other farmers and educates them about the benefits.

Reaching out

Opinions vary widely about cover crops  especially among farmers who may have never tried them, or tried them and had a bad experience. Through his own farm, Brandt tries to show farmers how covers can work.

Most farmers are willing to listen, Brandt said, adding, Theyre not willing to change very fast. Theyve been taught so long that you have to apply lots of nutrients to get a little bit back. And what were trying to show them is that we can reduce their nutrients and still maintain their yields.

Getting started

Brandts own introduction to cover crops came at a time of major transition  not only for his farm, but his personal life, as well.

He grew up in agriculture, working on his grandfathers farm, and in high school, he milked cows and managed a farrow-to-finish swine operation.

After high school, he served as a Marine in Vietnam from 1968-69, an experience that earned him the Purple Heart.

When he returned from the Marines, tragedy struck when his father was killed in a tractor accident. Without a will, the family was forced to sell the farm, and David and his wife had to start over.

In 1971, with no tillage equipment to speak of, he and his wife took a chance on no-till, and later cover crops, as a way of grain farming without all the equipment.

From 1981-1984, David worked for the USDAs Natural Resources Conservation Service as an area agronomist. He still works with NRCS researchers on new cover crop tests and public outreach.

The Brandt family, which includes son, Jay, and his wife, Ann, started their current Fairfield County farm in 1985, and launched their cover crop business about four years ago.

More answers

The farm and cover crop business is currently conducting research with blended cover crops (multiple species), to track which species bring which nutrients to the surface.

This helps Brandt and other seed suppliers give farmers a prescription of the cover crops that will work best on their farm  to match each farm and each farming practice.

The farm is also engaged in research to see if soybeans planted between corn rows can supply at least half the nitrogen the corn needs.

And Brandt is hoping to eventually test whether corn grown on a cover-crop operation  which has shown to produce higher-nutrient grains  might also lead to higher-nutrient meat in livestock that consume the higher-nutrient grains.

During the busy season, Brandt will have 100 varieties of cover crop seeds on hand. Hes in the process of building a seed cleaning shed, and hopes to become licensed to clean seeds for the organic industry.

What excites him most about cover crops is getting people to think differently about farming.

I just want to help people and teach them that theres different ways of getting to the end result of producing corn, beans and wheat, and we dont have to rely (as much) on our boughten fertilizer and boughten chemicals to get there, he said.
A business plan is a road map of your business, says Chris Zoller, Ohio State Extension educator in Tuscarawas County. It is a place to outline your business mission, goals and objectives and it gives you a direction to achieve those goals. A business plan should be realistic, simple, specific and complete.

Ohio State Extension and Penn State University Extension make the business plan seem less overwhelming by breaking it down into the following sections.

1 Mission, goals and objectives

When you read a mission statement, you should be able to identify what the business does, why they do it and how they do it. The mission statement doesnt have to be lengthy, but it should be clear.

By listing goals and objectives in this portion of the business plan, the reader knows what the business owner wants to accomplish. Goals should be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Rewarding and Timed (SMART).

2 Background information

This section of the business plan should include a history of the industry, current state of the industry and future of the industry your business is a part of. It should also include the state of your own farm business.

By reading this portion of the business plan, a reader could determine what the business is, the size of the operation, how long the operation has been in business, where it is located and where the business is headed.

3 Organizational matters

This section of the plan describes the current or planned business structure, the management team, and risk management strategies.

The business structure is an important decision and can require the advice of an attorney and/or accountant. The business structure should fit the management skills and styles of the owner and take into account the risk management needs (both liability and financial) of the business.

4 Marketing plan

This portion of the plan should include what markets you intend to sell your product to, industry trends, who the customers are and what they want, and who is your competition. Use SWOT analysis to determine your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in the current marketplace.

5 Financial statements

This section gives you a snapshot of how your business is doing financially. This is where you should include your balance sheet, income statements and cash flow statements.

This section will be most crucial to a lender, as he or she will want to know if and how you will be able to pay back any borrowed money.

6 Summary

The business or executive summary should be the first part of your business plan, but should be written last. The summary describes the purpose of the business, research findings and recommendations and an outline of the direction of the business (future plans or goals).

Putting together an effective business plan requires time and communication, but an effective plan will help you determine where your business stands in the market today, determine your goals and how to achieve them, and will be a useful tool when applying for additional funding of your operation.

The Center for Farm Financial Management at the University of Minnesota offers a free AgPlan to help you develop your own business plan.

Source: Ohio State University Extension and Penn State University Extension

(Farm and Dairy is featuring a series of 101 columns throughout the year to help young and beginning farmers master farm living. From finances to management to machinery repair and animal care, farmers do it all.)

More Farming 101 columns:
The Prairie Doc: We need to be more intentional with antibiotics
With just one week to go until the deadline of midnight on Wednesday 15 June 2016, Rural Economy Secretary Fergus Ewing is urging farmers and crofters not to leave it until the last minute to submit their Single Application Form.

The form is required to receive Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) payments  and their Beef Efficiency Scheme (BES) claim, which also closes on 15 June.

As of Tuesday 7 June, 2016, 16,787 SAF applications have been submitted. This compares to 14,162 applications submitted with one week to go last year.

The Cabinet Secretary said: "We are well on track to get all applications in on time for the 2016 SAF and BES.

"We know the last seven days of the SAF window are traditionally the busiest  with almost 6,500 of last years SAFs submitted in the final week before the deadline.

"Although we are way ahead of that tally this year, farmers and crofters should not leave it until the last minute to get their forms in.

"Resolving the payment problems many have experienced with the CAP remains my first and foremost priority.

"I am well aware that the resolution of the CAP payments will not be achieved overnight, but I do not want to see a repeat of the problems we have faced over this past year, and it is one of my main objectives to see that the 2016 payments are on a proper footing."

Scotlands Chief Agricultural Officer David Barnes added: "With just one week to go until both the SAF and BES deadlines, farmers and crofters should ensure they get their applications in as soon as they can.

"The system is still new so filling in the SAF may take longer than it has done in previous years.

"BES applications are made separately on the ScotEID website. With all of the correct information to hand, it takes about 15 minutes to complete your BES claim.

"Ensuring the Rural Payments and Services website continues to perform, and helping customers get in their SAFs and BES applications are the focus for my team this week.

"If you do need any help with either application, or encounter any issues, then support is available from local area offices."
Former President of the National Farmers Union, Sir Peter Kendall, and former DEFRA Secretary Owen Paterson MP will join the speaker panel at The Arable Event later this month.

Sir Peter, now Chairman of the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB), and North Shropshire MP Owen Paterson have been announced as the latest guests at the event, organised by Wynnstay and GrainLink.

The Arable Event will be held near Weston Park on the Shropshire/Staffordshire border on June 22 and will include a debate on the implications of a potential Brexit  with the important vote being held the following day.

They join Simon Ward, founder and Managing Director of agricultural business consultancy Increment Ltd, to speak about the economic impact on the agricultural community if the UK votes to leave the European Union.

Event organiser Kelly Dolphin said: "We are delighted to announce that Sir Peter and Mr Paterson will join the HSBC speaker panel at The Arable Event.

"Sir Peter was appointed by the Government as the Chairman of the AHDB for a three-year term from April 2014 and sits on a range of bodies in the UK and Europe, making him a perfect choice to speak at the event.

"In addition, he and his brother Richard, farm 620 hectares of crops on the home farm and through agreements operated with four local farmers.

"The farm has evolved over the last 15 years from a very traditional mixed farm to a totally arable unit."

His achievements were recognised in the 2015 New Year's Honours when he became a Knight Bachelor for services to the agricultural industry in England and Wales.

Mr Paterson is has been the MP for North Shropshire since 1997. He was appointed Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in 2010, and two years later was appointed the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

The speakers will take part in a question and answer session for delegates who are undecided to help them make up their mind before the vote the following day.

This years seed trial plots will be winter cereals and oilseed rape, highlighting which varieties should be considered with the changing climate.

The free day-long programme, organised by Wynnstay and GrainLink, runs from 10am to 5pm.

Established just two years ago, it is becoming one of the most popular arable events in the Midlands attracting more than 750 visitors last year.

Event organiser Kelly Dolphin said: "The implications of the UK leaving the EU is a question on every arable farmers mind.

"The panel debate will be interesting and informative and will address the issues that the agricultural community is asking.

"It is particularly timely with the referendum due to take place the next day. There will, of course, be the usual programme of activities to bring arable farmers up to speed on the latest developments in the sector and the chance to meet and make new contacts."

Farmers are being encouraged to register online for quick entrance into the event and to be in with a chance of winning an iPad.
The NFU has submitted its revised application for the emergency use of neonicotinoid seed treatments for a more targeted area of the oilseed rape crop in England.

One of neonicotinoid's critics, Friends of the Earth - an international network of environmental organizations - is urging the government to 'stand up for Britains bees'.

The application will be discussed by the governments official advisor, the Expert Committee on Pesticides, which is meeting next on Tuesday 14 June.

Friends of the Earth is calling for the application to be rejected, warning that the pesticides pose a real threat to Britains bees.

Friends of the Earths Head of Campaigns, Andrew Pendleton said: "Having last month turned down the NFUs application to use bee-harming pesticides, it would be doubly reckless to allow their use now and also completely unnecessary.

"However, last year the Government caved in to their special pleading after first turning them down.

"Oilseed rape yields have actually risen since the ban on neonicotinoid pesticides was introduced, while the evidence of the harm these chemicals pose to bees has increased.

"Bees are essential for pollinating our crops - we cant afford to gamble with their future.

"The Expert Committee and the government must uphold the ban and keep these dangerous pesticides out of our fields."
Leading London chefs and restaurateurs will gather in the exclusive surroundings of Fortnum and Mason on June 9 to celebrate the increasing role that quality PGI Welsh Lamb is playing on the menus of the capitals foremost eateries.

The event is organised by Hybu Cig Cymru  Meat Promotion Wales (HCC) and its Welsh Lamb Club.

The Club includes Michelin-starred chefs among its members, who are all committed to sourcing and serving PGI Welsh Lamb.

It is also an opportunity to recognise the contribution of Daphne Tilley from Henllan, Denbighshire, who has received an MBE for services to the food industry, and in particular Welsh Lamb.

Daphne Tilley supplies PGI Welsh Lamb to some of the worlds finest chefs, such as Jamie Oliver, Anthony Demetre, Richard Corrigan, Adam Hilliard, James Adams, Stephen Smith and Francesco Mazzei.

Yet Daphne's Original Welsh Lamb began in a very small way indeed.

Daphnes familys farms were producing lambs for a retailer, and, while visiting a friend in London she decided to approach a few restaurants.

"It just came to me. I thought - why not sell direct? Youve got to be brave, so I took ten half lambs on ice in polystyrene boxes in the Land Rover.

"Straight away I had eight restaurants that were prepared to take my lamb.

"They loved it; I kept taking it to them and its grown from that.

"Its been word of mouth about the quality of the lamb as much as knocking on doors."

There is no doubt Daphne aimed for the stars in setting up her enterprise.

"In those early days, one of the restaurants that was very helpful was Jamie Olivers.

"He had just done the Naked Chef stuff; he was such a nice man, he really helped me."

Sue Franklin, HCCs UK Market Development Executive said: "HCC is delighted to support this industry-wide event, held at such a prestigious location, and to recognise the work Daphne Tilley and her customers have done to promote PGI Welsh Lamb.

"Our warmest congratulations go out to Daphne; she is passionate about farming and about her high quality product and has been a brilliant ambassador for the whole industry."
A majority of MEPs have voted in favour of a report by Green MEP Maria Heubuch which heavily criticises a G8 initiative aimed at levering in private investment in agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The critical report  supported by 577 MEPs, with only 24 against and 69 abstentions  calls on the EU to fundamentally review its participation in a plan known as the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition in Africa (NAFSN).

The plan aims to improve food security and nutrition, but Green MEPs say it favours 'large-scale farming, fosters landgrabbing and marginalises small-scale producers, who are supposed to be the ultimate beneficiaries.'

In their report, the Greens call for binding legislation against landgrabbing, and argue that informed consent must be obtained from all communities, before land is transferred for a private sector project.

There are also calls on the G8 not to support GMO crops in Africa and for African farmers to have the right to produce, exchange and sell seeds freely and protect seed diversity.

Commenting on the outcome, Molly Scott Cato, Green MEP for the South West, who steered the report through the agricultural committee in the European Parliament, said: "Our concerns that food security and nutrition appear to be secondary to export opportunities and growth have been acknowledged by the vast majority of MEPs.

"If nutrition is to be at the heart of food systems, we must shift the focus away from global profitability of the land, towards the quality of soil and its produce in local communities.

"The New Alliance must protect the interests of small scale farmers by preventing land grabs, corruption and speculation on land.

"We also need to see the role of women taken much more seriously. It is vital they are consulted, empowered and involved equally in any initiative claiming to address food security."
Milk production is likely to slow down in the key dairying regions for the rest of the year, according to new forecasts from the European Commission.

The revised forecasts put production for the nine months from Apr-Dec down 0.4% on 2015 volumes, a reduction of around 350m litres.

Developments in milk production vary among member states, mainly due to differing rates of cow slaughterings.

Both Italy and Denmark have recorded lower numbers of slaughterings in the first three months of the year, and are expected to see only a marginal slowdown in production.

In the Netherlands, while slaughterings did not increase in the first quarter of 2016, the allocation of phosphate rights is expected to lead to a reduction in the herd sometime during the year.

Previously, uncertainty over the base period for allocating these rights led farmers to hold onto their cows regardless of financial considerations.
The National Farmers Union is calling for a simpler application process and improved delivery for BPS 2017.

A new NFU survey results suggest that over 40,000 farmers (46 per cent of claimants) paid agents 20million to fill in BPS forms for them this year.

The union has major concerns over the increase of around 10,000 farmers using agents in just two years  an additional expenditure of 5million to agents at a time when the industry can ill afford it.

Farmers are calling on Government, in particular Defra, to ensure RPA have the necessary resource to invest in the system and administration.

The NFU said it is in a good position to influence the RPAs processes to bring down the amount of money farmers are collectively paying to agents for form-filling going forward.

Farmers should be able to complete themselves

Vice President Guy Smith said: "Our survey work should serve as an important reminder to the RPA that the application forms must be within farmers capabilities.

"Its essential that the guidance, navigating the system itself and the administration are user-friendly.

"The basic principle of the BPS form is that it is designed for farmers to be able to complete it themselves.

"The fact that it has been so complex has forced many farmers to hand the form over to specialists to complete and this is unacceptable.

"The industry is suffering with current prices and the extra cost of a third party isnt something 40,000 farmers would hand out with pleasure.

"This demonstrates a real problem. With the application window closing, the NFU is in position to be able to discuss the application system for next year.

"To be clear, we are not suggesting agents do not represent good value for money or that farmers should not use agents at all.

"On top of this we have a BPS 2015 hangover; we estimate there are over 20,000 queries relating to mapping, field data, coding and entitlements outstanding from BPS 2015.

"Our demand of Government is to make sure the RPA have the necessary resource to sort these issues out quickly and competently.

"Our estimate is there is 60 million that has not gone out this year because of application issues.

"This is yet more cost on our industry at a time it can ill afford it."
The Tenant Farmers Association (TFA) is calling on the Government to come up with a plan B for the farming industry in the event that the UK votes to leave the European Union in the referendum this month.

Stephen Wyrill, national chairman of the Tenant Farmers Association, said that if David Camerons Government hasn't got a plan B, hes got a lot of work to start.

He said that, in the event of Brexit, it would be possible for the UK to trade with other countries and that if the EU wants to deal with us, theyll deal with us.

He said that British products would still be in demand, saying, We have good products, we have first class food, we have engineeringso why shouldnt they deal with us?

On the possibility of tariffs put on British exports after Brexit, Wyrill said that the Government would need to ensure they would be minimal.

Being more like Switzerland and Norway

In March, the UK government said it will give more to farmers than they do now.

Defra minister George Eustice was speaking at the launch of Farmers for Britain and marking the publication of a new Vote Leave leaflet in March.

Eustice drew attention to non-EU nations like Switzerland and Norway and how their governments gave more to farmers than the UK does.

"Where power has been ceded to the EU, we see inertia, inconsistency and indecision," the Farm minister said.

"The achievements we cherish most of all are those where we have secured opt-outs from EU initiatives."

Eustice said the UK gives money to the EU, which they convert into foreign currency creating unnecessary exchange rate risks.

'Lack of clarity'

CLA President Ross Murray has also called on the Government to dispel confusion and uncertainty by setting out the Governments Plan B for farming in case of a Brexit scenario.

In an interview on BBC Radio 4s Today programme, the CLA has warned that investment, jobs and the environment will be put at risk without assurance from Government that plans are being developed to address significant issues for farming and the rural sector, whatever the outcome of the EU Referendum.

CLA President Ross Murray said: "Whatever the outcome of the Referendum, there are important decisions that the Government will need to make to ensure the continued health of farming and the wider rural economy.

"With no clear Government plan set out for farming and the rural sector in the case of a vote for Brexit and with Defra Ministers supporting opposing campaigns, there is a lack of clarity around what is statement of fact and what is conjecture regarding Government plans.

"This is causing confusion and uncertainty around investment decisions and around meeting long-term environmental commitments.
British business competitiveness will suffer if Britons vote to leave the Europe Union, the head of the World Trade Organization warned during a visit to London on Tuesday (7 June).

This is a further setback for the hopes of British agriculture in the event of the UK leaving the European Union.

Roberto Azevedo, the WTO director-general, said he expected any talks to be long and difficult, adding: "We havent had any discussions about the process.

"We dont know what the process would be. We do know it would be a very unusual situation."

Azevedo said the position was complicated by the fact that all Britains trade commitments had been negotiated by the EU and that these would cease to apply in the event of a decision to leave.

Warning that it would be impossible for the UK to cut and paste its old EU trade deals into new agreements, Azevedo said the UK would be starting from scratch without the institutional machinery necessary to negotiate trade deals.

Azevedo has already said that Britain would have to renegotiate its relationship with the rest of the World Trade Organization, which could take years or decades, and he reiterated that it would not be a simple job.

"Britain is a member of the WTO and will continue to be a member of the WTO. But it will be a member with no country-specific commitments. We have had no other situation like that," he said.
AHDB agrees to transfer surplus levy funds to new horticultural body
What was it like to be an Oath Keeper? John Zimmerman can tell you

John Zimmerman said he was active with the Oath Keepers from September to November 2020, then left after a falling out with founder Stewart Rhodes.
I was pleased to read that others are picking up on the excellent work undertaken by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government.

Among the legal reforms alluded to in Russell Stamets recent post for the FCPA Blog about Mr. Modis visit to Washington today is the countrys new Bankruptcy Code.

The Codes predecessor was a multi-layered muddle of statutory rules and a Bleak House-like judicial system which did little to instil confidence in foreign businesses looking to invest in India.

As fraud and asset recovery lawyers, we are eminently aware of the dangers that poorly-written legislation or a slow judicial process can bring to bear, when the unscrupulous seek to use the laws inherent weaknesses to their own ends.

Mr. Modi and his government have clearly recognized that the old bankruptcy laws were not fit for purpose. Not only did they drag out and perpetuate the insolvency process, they also opened a door to corruption and acted as a green light for the deceitful to use tactical bankruptcy as a means to commit fraud. It is imperative that countries have robust bankruptcy systems, as this instills confidence in foreign investors who otherwise may shy away from capitalizing in that jurisdiction.

When my ICC FraudNet colleagues and I were alerted to the impending Indian Bankruptcy Code by our New Delhi representative, Shreyas Jayasimha, we approached the Indian government and offered our help on a pro-bono basis, to see if we could offer any insight that would improve the effectiveness of the legislation. We were delighted when the senior officials in charge of drafting the legislation invited us to meet with them so they could consider some of our suggestions.

To this end I and others travelled to India and were deeply impressed by the friendliness and kindness shown to us by the local people.

We held several meetings with the senior officials concerned. They were very responsive to our suggestions. Indeed, we had drafted a White Paper ahead of our visit that encapsulated recommendations. Those we met were extremely knowledgeable on the subject but open-minded to our observations. We are sending a second delegation to India in the near future, armed with information that will hopefully assist Indian legislators in formulating a future new law on cross-border insolvency cooperation.

It is this attention to detail and determination to draft the Bankruptcy Code that underpins Mr. Modis determination to free India from the manacles of corruption, at a time when the country is rapidly developing into a player on the world economic stage. This process of being seen to discard the old ways appears to be gathering momentum and in my view will generate further confidence and enthusiasm among the international community.

As outlined by Russell Stamets, there is plenty of room for improvement in Indias bureaucracy. But in Mr. Modi India has a leader prepared to work to change the systems that should have been ruled defunct many years ago. It is this willingness to implement change that shines through when you visit the country.

Although the regime may not take to criticism too kindly, in fairness he and his officials are facing an uphill battle to right the wrongs of many generations. It is obvious to all that there remains a compliance risk for companies conducting business with India. But we need to encourage Mr. Modi and his government to keep forging ahead with their reforms in order to maintain momentum.

What we shouldnt do is decry their efforts simply because there are historical hurdles to overcome. They know and understand this, so to this end anything ICC FraudNet can do to assist them in their endeavours will hopefully be accepted in the spirit that it is being offered.

____

Martin Kenney is Managing Partner of Martin Kenney & Co., Solicitors, a specialist investigative and asset recovery practice focused on multi-jurisdictional fraud and grand corruption cases www.martinkenney.com |@MKSolicitors.
Rob Kazinsky has warned he'll throw a "Christian Bale" on set if his take was ruined.

Rob Kazinsky

Kazinsky teased he'd throw a tantrum like the infamous one Bale threw on the set of the 'Terminator Salvation' in 2009, when a member of the crew walked into his eye-line.

The 32-year-old star took part in a game of 'Would You Rather' and when asked if he'd prefer to ruin his own scene or another actor to do it, the hunk quipped: "Have someone screw up my best take or someone else screw it up? Well, there was one scene in this movie that I felt like I was screwing up every single take and I felt so bad about it because I felt like I hadn't really nailed it and I went around saying sorry to everyone.

"I don't ever want to have that feeling again, it was the first time in my career I thought, 'You know what, I didn't bring my A game today.' So I think that I'd rather have someone screw up my best take, because then I can just go all Christian Bale on them! Like (impersonating Bale) 'Do I walk around and mess up your lights! Aww look at me!'"

Meanwhile, the 'Warcraft' actor - who rose to fame on British soap 'EastEnders' - would never work with prosthetics again after an experience on the set of a previous project.

Asked if he'd prefer CGI motion-capture technology or layers of make-up and costume, he told Collider: "God, motion capture! I've done full face prosthetics and eight hour make-up, then a twelve hour shoot day, then a two hour get out and then that's five days a week when you're getting an hour's sleep at best.

"That's brutal, the fact there's nowhere for the sweat to go and then it pulls up behind your eyebrows and them someone comes in with a little brush and lifts up the thing, and there's like sweat drains out of your eyes. No, never ever again!"
There's something exciting about a band who like to keep their identities a secret. It means that they're not doing this for the fame or the glory, but simply because they love creating music.

yllwshrk

We got the opportunity to chat to Ian Anderson of the new group yllwshrk all about their sound, career so far and much more. Read on to find out what he had to say...

For those new to your music, how best would you describe your sound?

Our music is quite dark and intense, so don't expect any feel-good party numbers. But I hope our music is ultimately uplifting and rewarding, and I don't think there's too much other stuff like it around at the moment, for better or worse. For rock music we use a lot of unusual harmonies. Our philosophy is that straight-up major or minor chords should be used only in exceptional circumstances!

What challenges have you faced in the music industry so far?

We've only been going as a band since January of this year, so as a band we're still in the first push of creativity. So far it seems to be going ok, albeit in small increments.

But as a musician I've experienced all manner of challenges and set backs. I've done countless auditions for orchestras and ensembles, and I've entered many competitions, and the vast majority of these end up with rejection. In the classical music world you quickly become accustomed to failure and I've developed a way of just letting go and moving on. I'm sure that with yllwshrk we will experience countless disappointments and rejections. At least I'm prepared for them!

How difficult would you say this career path is in terms of making a name for yourself?

It's very difficult - there's so much competition out there, so to get your music heard in such a crowded marketplace is very difficult. But we do believe that we have a different voice to the majority of stuff out there, although I'm sure most bands think that of their own music! So we're hopeful that we can carve a niche for ourselves.

How important is it for you to have creative control over the work you proudce?

There's different types of control when it comes to making music. If you work with fantastic musicians who you trust and who inspire you, it's a matter of giving them a framework to experiment in. Of course there's moments where you don't agree with something someone is doing, but the important thing is to be not too precious about your music, and to allow your songs to be moulded in directions you never considered when writing. That's something I've certainly got better at over the years.

As a band, I don't think we'll be able to work without ultimate control of the shape of the songs and the albums/EPs. But at the moment this isn't an issue as we're doing everything ourselves!

Where do you draw influence and inspiration from for your work?

Anything and everything. Each song needs an initial focus from which it develops and this can be a musical focus or a more conceptual focus, which can come from novels, news articles, politics, visual art, or personal experience. You just need something to hang the song on, to go 'yes I know the identity of this song', and until you find that identity, the song will be a bit aimless.

One of the most inspiring things I find is going to see great, more successful bands or artists. That mixture of awe and jealousy can be a fantastic cocktail...

If you could collaborate with anybody going forward, who would you choose and why?

I've been extremely lucky and have already worked with some of my musical idols. I play viola with the London Contemporary Orchestra and with them have toured with Jonny Greenwood performing his contemporary classical chamber music with him. As a result of that I also played viola on Radiohead's latest album 'A Moon Shaped Pool', which was one of the most surreal and amazing experiences I've had. Beforehand I was terrified that it would be a massive let down, but from the start it was just sheer joy. Getting to see how they work and experiment in the studio was so inspiring, and it's opened my mind to techniques and ways of building up a song. But that wasn't collaboration - that was just getting to play with them.

I have my musical heroes who in some ways I would love to collaborate with, but in general I don't think musical collaborations work too well. Think Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson. Or Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder. Queen and Bowie was ok, but it's nowhere near either of their best work. As soon as you have two people who equal claim on songwriting, then neither of them can fully follow their own vision and the music suffers.

A couple of years ago I started playing with the orchestra of Scottish Ballet, which properly exposed me to the world of dance - both classical and contemporary. I would love to do a big project involving dance. In Scottish Ballet, one of the dancers - Sophie Laplane - is a fantastic choreographer. We're making a video for our upcoming single 'Northern Soul', and I tried to get her involved, but unfortunately schedules didn't work out. Hopefully in the future we can do something together.

Tell us a random, funny fact about you that not many people know.

I wrote my first - and only - symphony when I was 12. It was 30 minutes long and the whole thing was in C minor and intensely boring. Like very bad film music. Or Hans Zimmer. I still have the music somewhere on my computer, but I won't be trying to get it played anytime soon...

Do you have definitive aims or goals for your career?

There's a dearth of really innovative alt-rock bands at the moment, so there's definitely a space there. Whether we are able to fill that remains to be seen but that's definitely our aim.

Jonny Greenwood has the perfect career at the moment, combining his work with Radiohead with contemporary classical composition for films and orchestras. Working in both fields of music is very important to me, as I couldn't live without either. So that's the ultimate goal. Might as well aim high

Where do you hope to be by this time next year?

We're just taking it as it comes, not putting too much pressure on ourselves. We've only been going since January, after all. But this time next year we hope to be playing festivals and working towards our first full album.

What should we expect from you in the coming weeks and months?

Our first single, 'Northern Soul', will be released on June 24, followed by our 3-track EP on July 22. We are in the process of making a video for our single so hopefully that will be finished soon too.

yllwshrk's self-titled debut EP is officially released on July 22 via IMOGEN Records.

by Daniel Falconer for www.femalefirst.co.uk

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Beer goggles do exist - and you'll get more sex if you wear them on a date, says a new survey.

Sex on Female First

According to Illicit Encounters- beer goggles exist and aren't just a term anymore. Their recent survey found that people are more likely to have sex after they have been on the booze.

74% of women said that drinking a little tipple on a date made the guy they didn't fancy before seem more saucy.

84% of men revealed that after a few cheeky drinks- negative first impressions of their date were forgiven.

86% of women were honest enough to say that they were more likely to have sex with a man on a first date if they had shared in a few glasses beforehand.

Many men appear to have the same opinion according to the results as 92% said that a glass here and there increased the likelihood of sex on a date.

The official definition of beer boggles is the "phenomenon in which one's consumption of alcohol makes physically unattractive persons appear beautiful."

The study found that over half of women had sex with a bloke while their beer goggles were firmly fixed on their faces. 84% opted not to see the man again after their encounter.

Of the two thirds of men who had beer goggle sex- most of them never saw the woman again either.

Even though these findings suggest that a meeting with Merlot might result in a one night stand- 68% of women and 82% of men still drink alcohol on a first date. If this is the- case then why? Well many justify this decision because it apparently 'helps to break the ice' and increases their confidence around a prospective partner.

The findings show- the group who wear the most beer goggles are students, with over half of men and just less than half of women admitting to sex inspired by beer goggles at college.

IllicitEncounters.com spokesman Christian Grant said: "Dating is a stressful business - you are meeting a new person and need to make a good impression fast.

"It's no wonder that both sexes finding that drinking alcohol makes the whole process a lot easier.

"As the booze flows, inevitably the beer goggles come on and dates that might have finished with a quick peck on the cheek end up going far further.

"That is the experience of millions of people who are dating online including lots of members of IllicitEncounters.com - you end up kissing a few ugly ducklings before meeting your swan.

"Beer goggle sex may not lead to true love most of the time, but it can often be a lot of fun."
Journalist Rana Ayyubs book Gujarat Files-Anatomy of a Cover-Up has brought the Gujarat riots back into the public consciousness. In 2010, Rana, then working for Tehelka, undertook an eight-month-long undercover investigation to find out more about the role of the state machinery in the Gujarat riots, fake encounters and murder of state Home Minister Haren Pandya. She took on the identity of Maithili Tyagi, a filmmaker, and conducted a series of sting operations on bureaucrats and top Gujarat cops. However, the transcripts of those secretly-taped conversations was not published by Tehelka and was even rejected by the major publishing houses for its explosive content. Not to be silenced, Rana took the self-publishing route and launched her book last month. We spoke to the gutsy journalist.



What was the hardest part about publishing your book?

Finding a publisher; approaching editors of various news organizations; getting a loan, writing it and living the trauma each moment with every page. There were also the constant warnings from lawyers that I was asking for trouble from a vindictive government.



Why did you choose the name Maithili Tyagi?

I needed a strong Hindu name for a woman not just for the people I was going to do a sting on but also for myself. Maithili is another name for Goddess Sita and has very strong religious overtones to it. Sita, for me, also has been one of the strongest women across all religious faiths.



Tell us an anecdote during your investigations that stands out from all the others.

One of them was taking a sting camera right into the Chief Minister's residence and chamber despite being aware of the risks.



Have you faced any threats after the book has been published?

I have faced online threats. Somebody asked to garland me with chappals; another asked for my address so he could strangulate me. None from the dispensation post-publication because they cannot hazard anymore damage to their own reputation. Pre-publication life wasnt easy either with routine nasty calls, character assassination and agonising political pressure. They ensured that no organisation employed me and have tried to kill most of my stories and columns. I ignore trolls because its a paid syndicate and they are just doing their job. Especially the ones who tried to downgrade my book on Amazon by giving it negative ratings



Your Tehelka story on Amit Shah got him arrested. Tell us more about it.

Its an expose that led to this undercover investigation on Amit Shah. I had published call records of Amit Shah and the internal note of the state CID in Gujarat which held him notoriously involved in the fake encounter syndicate. Within a month of the investigation, Amit Shah was arrested and which led me to probe deeper.

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If traditional yoga bores you and you need some excitement in your workouts, heres how you can add a twist.

Aqua yoga

Water babies will love their yoga class moving into a swimming pool. Water reduces the stress put on joints and makes you more flexible. It is great for those suffering from back problems, arthritis and stiff joints. Stretching in water increases your lung capacity and also has a calming effect.






Lets face it. Aside from a killer fashion sense, the First Lady has the perfectly toned body, thanks to healthy food and a disciplined workout regimen. Many fitness enthusiasts crave for well-toned arms. Here are some basic exercises you can follow to achieve them:

Bicep curls

How to start: Stand with your back straight and arms bent at a right angle against your body. Your palms should be facing upwards.



What to do: Hold a dumbbell and lift them up to your shoulder joints. Make sure to hold at least for five seconds. Release and repeat for 10 counts.



How it helps: Youll feel the burn on your biceps and wrists
Next Story : Not Your Average Gift: Our Handpicked Thoughtful Diwali Gifts

Start-ups across India are expected to get a big boost, thanks to an ambitious blueprint announced by the Narendra Modi government, earlier this year. Several studies say that there is already a start-up boom in the country. This is only going to scale newer heights, experts say, thanks to the myriad incentives being offered under the Centre's ambitious 'Start-up India' project. In other words, start-ups are set to be effective job creators as well.According to career counsellors, if you are applying for a job in a start-up anywhere in India, make sure you do your homework about your prospective employer. A little knowledge about the financial background of the start-up can also come in handy.As per career counsellor Sauraveswar Sen, founder and chief mentor, Catalyst Learning Services, Kolkata(i)some information about the background of the start-up's founder - what made her/him initiate the venture(ii)social media presence(iii)rate of the company if the start-up has been there for a little more than a couple of years. In case it is a very new organisation, try to find out details such as the capital invested, reserve cash, business plans, targets, etc(iv)of the start-up; be practical in cross-checking if the same is indeed justifiableHappy job hunting!
En route: Hyderabad

Did you know that the rock formations around Hyderabad are older than the Himalayas? In fact, they are estimated to be 2,500 million years old. Unfortunately, due to modernisation, most have made way for malls and high rises. Regular treks conducted by Save The Rocks Foundation will take you for a tour around the areas where these rocks still stand. This experience will help you learn about unusual geological formations, legends, and the local history behind the stones. You will also discover hidden lakes among the rocks. The walk takes place on the third Sunday of every month.



For more information, visit: www.saverocks.org
Youre pregnant with your second child and now you need to prepare your firstborn for a siblinghow can you ensure it goes smoothly?

While some believe five years between children is a large gap, others say eight or more years is the crucial gap to focus on. Older children must be given the assurance that his or her emotional needs will not be neglected, says Dr Shefali Batra, psychiatrist and cognitive therapist.

Here are things you just shouldnt do while preparing your child for their new sibling:



- Dont wait until your second child is born to explain to your first that he or she now has a new sibling. Broach the subject as soon as your baby belly begins to grow.



- Older children have a better understanding, so if the child is around eight years old, you can take them out for a picnic and break the happy news.



- Dont put the onus on your child to be more mature now that theyre going to be the elder sibling. They shouldnt feel burdened with responsibilities.



- Dont begin to change your childs routine in preparation for the new babyit can make him or her feel insecure. Instead, reiterate how much you love them, and how exciting it will be to take care of the child together.



- Dont make your child give up their toys or room. In fact, dont coax them to share their toys or room with your newborn either. Its important to let your older child know their place in your heart and home will remain theirs.

Photograph: Shutterstock
Sequoia Capital-backed fashion marketplace Voonik has acquired three startups - Zohraa, Picksilk.com and Styl -to build its premium fashion platform Vilara. The company has now acquired five startups in the past six months.Bangalore-based Voonik, which is focused on curated fashion, is attempting to strengthen its leadership in the unbranded fashion segment largely via acqui-hires or team acquisitions of startups in niche fashion offerings.

Sequoia Capital-backed fashion marketplace Voonik has acquired three startups - Zohraa, Picksilk.com and Styl -to build its premium fashion platform Vilara. The company has now acquired five startups in the past six months. Bangalore-based Voonik, which is focused on curated fashion, is attempting to strengthen its leadership in the unbranded fashion#

Voonik's core app is focused on women with 8 million app downloads, 10 million registered users and highest engagement among shopping apps. In contrast, Vilara will be a one-stop place to shop from thousands of premium boutiques and independent designers.Founded in 2013 by Sujayath Ali and Navaneetha Krishnan, Voonik is a personal shopping app for women, which allows them to buy apparels from multiple stores, according to their body type, lifestyle and budget.Sujayath Ali, CEO Voonik said We are very excited about Vilara and the idea of bringing over 1000 boutiques in one place. We have been able to acqui-hire a talented bunch of entrepreneurs, with the right expertise to help us strengthen the Vilara offering.Zohraa.com was founded in June, 2012 by IIM-Ahmedabad, Washington University and New York University graduates Sanjeev Jain (CEO), Pramod Rathi (COO), Vibhor Tikiya (CXO) and Darshit Hirani (CTO) respectively. It is an online occasion-wear brand with a high emphasis on curation, sells ethnic wear and designer wear products. Zohraa has a team of 12 members.Styl was founded as a platform to connect salons and stylists and consumers, through an app. Both the founder Anup Mohan and Srikant Ch were part of founding team of Lookup earlier. Styl has a team of 9 members.Picksilk.com is an online silk store with 10,000 plus handloom saree collection, was founded by Shivakumar Kancharla and Hareesh Vemala. It aims to empower weavers through technology and transform the industry by making it more demand oriented by mapping manufacturing to the actual customers' choices rather than to the weavers' convenience and resources.In June 2015, Voonik secured $5 million funding led by Seedfund and Sequoia. Prior to this, the startup had also raised $390,000 (Rs 2.5 cr) from Seedfund. (SH)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
High quality textile machines producer EFI Reggiani unveiled new sustainable and efficient printing technologies at Tuyap Expo Centre, ITM Exhibition (hall 8, booth 807A) from June 1-4, 2016, emphasising on the theme 'Green Factory of Future'.

The company showcased All-in Green Printing Process, complete solution for printing featuring the latest EFI Reggiani Renoir One-600 printer. The new printer offers better print quality with new ink feeding and recovery systems.

Additionally, it also showcased EFI Reggiani Aqua reactive ink, an extension to its existing ink portfolio at ITM Istanbul.

EFI Reggiani unveiled new sustainable and efficient printing technologies at Tuyap Expo Centre, ITM Exhibition (hall 8, booth 807A) from June 1-4, 2016, emphasising on the theme 'Green Factory of Future'. The company showcased All-in Green Printing Process, complete solution for printing featuring the latest EFI Reggiani Renoir One-600 printer.#

It also showed the 1.8m Next printer on transfer paper for sportswear, fashion and signage applications, employing dye-sublimation inks at the fair. (MCJ)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk - India
Online marketplace to promote Indian food, culture and heritage through handcrafted products, iShippo.com, has tied up with Development Commissioner Handloom of the Textiles Ministry to educate, train and empower weavers to directly sell their products on the ishippo.com online portal.Described as as one of the top 5 e-commerce startups to look out for in 2016, iShippo.com is a marketplace where people around the world connect, both online and offline, to make, sell and buy handcrafted goods. Its mission is to support local artisans by connecting them with designers & buyers from across the globe.

The partnership allows iShippo.com to initially engage with weavers in Bagalkot and other clusters hubs in the state of Karnataka, Business World has reported. The products will carry government certifications 'India Handloom Brand' and 'Handloom Mark'.



The global demand for Indian Handloom is increasing. According to Handloom Export Promotion Council, India exported handloom worth $350 million for the FY 2014-15. India has 2.4 million looms with significant production capacity in the country. The Indian handloom sector employs 4.3 million weavers.



It's opening up to change, focusing on sustainable growth & welfare of the weaver communities. We are literally bringing the global market to our weaver's doorstep. We can take an idea from design to finished goods and deliver it to the hands of buyers in one seamless transaction. said Karma Bhutia, Founder and CEO of iShippo.com



Promotion of marketing of Handloom products through e-commerce is a priority of the Textiles Ministry. In order to promote e-marketing of handloom products in a transparent competitive and effective manner, the Textile Ministry has partnered with iShippo.com



On this occasion Alok Kumar, Development Commissioner, Handlooms, said, India Handloom Brand is a major initiative of Government of India to reposition premium and good quality handloom products for the benefit of consumers as well as weavers. We are promoting e-marketing of genuine and authentic handloom products so as to reduce intermediaries and increase the gains both for consumers and the weavers."



According to the report, iShippo aims to allow technological enablement of artisans to bridge the digital divide, bring the global market at the doorstep of weavers, help weavers transform into entrepreneurs from daily wagers, initiate capacity building of the artisan community and ensure self-sustainability of clusters. (SH)

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India
The Ministry of Agricultures Research division held their first ever plant health clinic program in the Western Division last week.



The one day program which was held opposite the Nadi market gave the farmers an opportunity to exchange ideas and knowledge in regards to pest and disease control on the plants.



The Acting Senior Research Officer Entomology Toloi Vasuidreketi said farmers are being challenged with the discovery of new pests on their farm.



We have seen a bigger and improved clinic program in Nadi and there are lot of farmers coming to us with their samples, Mr Vasuidreketi said.



Mr Vasuidreketi added that the key message was for farmers to control the pests and diseases on a phase by phase basis.



Farmers who have disease, insects and weeds on their farm, can come to us and we provide advice on the management and mitigation of plant pests and diseases, Mr Vasuidreketi said.



The Acting Senior Research Officer Entomology highlighted that they will be holding a similar program in the Northern Division for one week.



We are planning to hold a similar training programme in Vanua Levu from 20th June and were looking at centres in Nabouwalu, Savusavu and Labasa, Mr Vasuidreketi said.



Farmer Pita Lebira from Solovi, Nadi said the plant health clinic program is vital to farmers in safeguarding plant health.



Sometimes we farmers just depend on our knowledge but there is lot we have learnt from the Ministry of Agriculture which gives us an idea on how to better control pest and weeds on our farm, Mr Lebira said.
He was accompanied by his wife Mrs. Rothie Zackhras at the presentation of credentials at the State House yesterday. He was accorded a 25-men Guard of Honour by the Republic of Fiji Military Forces. Fiji's First Lady, Her Excellency Sarote Konrote was also present to receive the new envoy and his wife.

The President His Excellency Major-General (Ret'd) Jioji Konrote yesterday received the credentials for the new envoy from the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), Ambassador Ruben Rakin Zackhras.The President congratulated the new Ambassador and expressed his desire for both countries to strengthen diplomatic and bilateral relations.Fiji has been offering training to the RMI in the areas of diplomacy and protocol since 1992. Both countries signed a memorandum of understanding on development cooperation in 2011 enabling Fiji to deploy the first batch of overseas teachers under its volunteer scheme.Ambassador Zackhras thanked the Fijian Government for the teachers and indicated that the RMI would like to engage more teachers in light of the successes in the academic results of students in the RMI. Seven Fijian teachers are currently serving in the RMI.Both countries are working towards more cooperation in the areas of policing, medical and trade relations, the latter of which is conducted through the Pacific Islands Trade Agreement (PICTA).Ambassador Zackhras has served the RMI as a Member of Parliament for 36 years and has held several key appointments including Minister for Transport and Communications, Minister for Justice, Minister for Health and Human Service, Vice Speaker of Parliament, Minister of Finance under two administrations, Assistant Minister to the President under two Presidents.
Prithviraj's association with love stories would continue with another film of the actor in the offing which would be a romantic musical tale.

The film which would be directed by debutante Roshni Dinakar would be shot in exotic locations of Portugal and Spain.

Even though a romantic tale, the film would have Prithviraj in a different role. According to reports, the actor would be seen portraying different stages of the protagonist's life, which would be definitely safe in the hands of the actor.

Recently, Prithviraj was seen in James And Alice directed by Sujith Vaassudev, in which he was seen playing two different stages of the protagonist's life

Roshni Dinakar's film has its script written by renowned writer-actor Shankar Ramakrishnan. It is after a gap that Shankar Ramakrishnan is penning a script for a film.

This untitled film has some big names in the technical department. The cinematography of the film would be handled by R Rathnavelu who cranked camera for the film Enthiran. The sound engineering department would be handled by Bishwadeep Chatterjee who is a well known name in Bollywood circuits.

Songs would play an important part in this musical film and Shaan Rahman has been roped in to take care of the music department.

The film which is expected to go on floors in the month of August is planning to be the Christmas release of Prithviraj.
In the previous episode of Kasam, Rishi (Sharad Malhotra) and Manpreet pack their bags and plan to leave for Amritsar without informing their family to find proof against Pawan. But, Tanvi (Kratika Sengar) catches them. Manpreet is about to tell her the truth, but Rishi stops him.

Meanwhile, Pawan and Saloni arrive at Tanvi's house to give her shagun. Pawan gets disturbed when he does not find Rishi around. He gets surprised when none of them does not know where Rishi is.

Click on View Photos to see the pictures

On the other hand, Tanvi shares her agony with Neha. She tells her that she doubts the relationship between Pawan and Saloni. Neha, who already knows that they are married, keeps mum and tells her not to worry.

In the upcoming episodes, Rishi and Manpreet are on the way to Amritsar. They stop at the nearby temple to seek Mata Rani's blessings. While coming from the temple, a fast moving car is about to hit Manpreet, but, Rishi saves him. In the process, Rishi falls off a bridge and is injured badly.

Manpreet admits Rishi to the hospital. Pawan gets to know that Rishi had gone to Amritsar to collect proofs against him. He gets worried. He silently goes to the hospital and disguises himself as a doctor! He enters Rishi's ward and takes away the mobile phone which contains all the proofs against him!

Rishi, on the contrast, is lying unconscious! What will be Rishi's next step?
Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) returned to the equity linked market on Tuesday with a $450 million Reg-S only convertible bond offering that received a similar level of strong demand to its debut offering in 2013.

SMIC marketed the new deal at a base size of $300 million and was met with massive demand, which according to one source amounted to nearly six times the deal size.

Such strong demand allowed sole bookrunner JP Morgan to enlarge the deal by another $50 million on top of the $100 million upsize option that was stated as part of the offer terms when the deal launched.

In addition, SMIC could raise additional capital from three existing shareholders  Datang Telecom, China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund (China IC Fund) and China Investment Corp (CIC)  who could exercise their pre-emptive rights to subscribe for more bonds in order to maintain their current shareholding, subject to shareholder approval.

Should they decide to exercise the rights in full relative to the final deal size, SMIC could raise an additional $274 million based on the three companies combined shareholding of 37.86% in the chip maker.

Final terms of the unsecured bond, including zero coupon, zero yield and a conversion premium of 34.06%, was similar to the companys existing $295 million convertible bond due 2018, although the new deal was structured as six-put-four compared with five-put-three for the old deal.

The bond was offered with an initial conversion premium of 30%-35%, with full dividend protection and an issuer call after four years subject to a 130% trigger. It can be converted into SMIC's Hong Kong-listed shares.

The new deal was marketed at a time when existing bondholders are getting closer to the October 2016 put date, when they can sell the old bond back to the company.

It has also effectively increased the strike price to HK$0.925, which is close to SMIC's HK$0.93 all-time high, compared to HK$0.7965 for the existing 2018s.

Some market participants were incentivized to swap their existing note into the new deal given that the latter turned out to be slightly cheaper in terms of implied volatility.

Based on underlying credit assumptions of 250bp over Libor and a 50bp borrow cost, the new 2022s would result in an implied volatility of 31% compared to nearly 40% for the existing 2018s at the current trading level.

SMIC was able to retain the level of interest because it is a well-known company and many investors are familiar with its credit. In fact, it is the only repeated issuer among all convertible debt issuers in Asia ex-Japan so far this year.

The new 2022s were indicated at a bid/ask of 100.875%/101.375% immediately after launch in the grey market before widening to 101.325%/101.875%, according to a bond trader.

Outbound M&A

One source told FinanceAsia that the outcome of the transaction implies that market demand for solid investment grade credit remains strong. SMIC, rated BBB- by Standard & Poors and Baa3 by Moodys, is one of Chinas leading semiconductor foundries and is supported by a number of government-related entities.

CIC, Chinas largest sovereign investment fund, injected $250 million into SMIC in 2011 to help the company weather a turbulent market after the global financial crisis. SMIC received another $400 million investment from China IC Fund in 2015, while Shanghai Integrated Circuit Investment Fund agreed earlier this year to invest a combined Rmb20 billion ($3 billion) into SMIC and two other semiconductor companies in the future.

Beijing has become more supportive of domestic semiconductor makers since 2014 when the State Council unveiled initiatives to improve self-sufficiency and develop a world class semiconductor manufacturer.

Since then many Chinese firms have sought outbound acquisitions at various stages of the semiconductor value chain.

Jiangsu Changjiang Electronics Technology, which is widely regarded as a leader in chip testing and assembly in China, purchased Singaporean semiconductor packaging company STATS ChipPac for $1.8 billion in late 2014.

Tsinghua Unigroup, a leading Chinese semiconductor design firm, spent $9.4 billion in a series of outbound acquisitions that included a 15% stake in US data storage firm Western Digital and 25% respectively in Taiwanese semiconductor duo Silicon Precision Industries and Powertech Technology.

Now many industry watchers expect SMIC to follow suit to embark on foreign acquisitions and it appears the company will have sufficient cash for a sizable M&A deal after the convertible debt offering.

SMIC could have as much as $2 billion in its war chest after the bond deal assuming the existing shareholders subscribe to additional bonds. Meanwhile, its relatively low gearing of 39.3% as of the end of March also provides room for further debt financing.

The company will use the proceeds from the bond sale for capacity expansion and general corporate purposes, according to a termsheet.

An outbound M&A would provide a much needed upside for SMIC, which has seen its shares largely trading between HK$0.6 and HK$0.8 since the beginning of 2014.

This article has been updated to reflect that existing shareholders will require shareholder approval to exercise their pre-emptive rights.
Pakistani food-to-energy conglomerate Engro Corp raised PRs19.3 billion ($185 million) on Tuesday by selling more than a quarter of its shareholding in Engro Fertilizers in the countrys biggest-ever block trade by a private company.

In a coup for Pakistan, Engro Corp's sale of shares in its Karachi-listed subsidiary provides further proof that foreign investor interest in the relatively illiquid frontier market is growing and potentially blazes a trail for more offerings.

This is a relatively small deal from a regional perspective but it is a very important transaction for Pakistans equity capital markets, a source familiar with the situation told FinanceAsia.

According to Dealogic, there have been only two secondary block trades in Pakistan worth more than $100 million since 2010. They comprise a $387.9 million block sale of United Bank shares in June 2014 and the $993 million sale of Habib Bank shares in April last year.

But while these two transactions were borne out of government privatisation initiatives, the Engro Fertilizers transaction is the first major case of a private company using domestic capital markets for fundraising, according to the source familiar with the situation.

On Tuesday Engro Corp, which held a 78.78% stake in Engro Fertilizers before the selldown, sold 295 million shares in the subsidiary at PRs65.47 per share -- a discount of 4.2% to the stocks last close. The stake sold accounts for 22.1% of the Engro Fertilizerss outstanding shares.

Credit Suisse, which arranged the two government stake sales in United Bank and Habib Bank, was the sole global coordinator of the Engro Fertilizers block trade, while Arif Habib was a co-bookrunner.

Through the block trade, Engro has effectively enlarged the subsidiarys free float to 43.3% from 21.2% and helped to introduce foreign investors into the company, which was mostly owned by local institutions before the sale.

About 40% of the deal was allocated to foreign investors, according to the source familiar with the situation, underscoring the demand for exposure in the Pakistani stock market even though the company might be less well-known among investors.

Foreign investors have been increasing exposure in Pakistan because it has been one of the best performing emerging markets in the region. Pakistani equities have consistently outperformed the benchmark MSCI Emerging markets index over the past five years, bolstered by a steady acceleration of GDP growth from 2.7% in 2011 to 4.7% in 2014, according to the World Bank.

Ali Naqvi, co-head of Asia-Pacific Global Markets at Credit Suisse, told FinanceAsia that more private companies are expected to raise equity finance as the economy continues to improve.

Infrastructure and energy would be one of the active sectors for equity fundraising because there will be a lot of infrastructure development under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) programme, which is part of Chinas One Belt, One Road initiative, Naqvi said.

Under CPEC, China will invest $46 billion in Pakistan for the development of infrastructure and energy projects. That is equivalent to 54 times Pakistan's $851 million foreign direct investment inflow in the 2014/15 fiscal year, according to data from the Board of Investment Pakistan.

The CPEC initiatives, together with measures to support the country's key sectors including agriculture and textile, are part of the government plans to further accelerate economic growth to 5.7% for the 2016/17 fiscal year.

Pakistan's benchmark KSE-100 Index is trading at an all-time high at 32,816 points and has gained 14% so far this year.
Traditional car service providers such as insurers, car makers but also breakdown assistance companies, auto clubs and leasing companies, are all being challenged for customer ownership by young innovative mobility operators.

As part of the TU-Automotive Detroit 2016 Conference on June 9, Frederic Bruneteau, Managing Director of PTOLEMUS Consulting Group will moderate the debates around the impact of these connected mobility offerings on the auto insurance sector with senior executives from Farmers Insurance, TheFloow and LexisNexis.

The panel will investigate the transformation of the connected vehicle service markets and the future impact it will have on measuring risk, pricing premiums and handling claims

Vehicle connectivity is radically changing the future prospects of mobility. For example, the number of cars shared is set to explode from 72,000 today to more than 620,000 in 2020 in North America alone.

It also enables the most forward thinking players to find opportunities outside their traditional silos. Vehicle leasers such as Arval have begun to provide their own low-cost fleet telematics solution. Fuel card suppliers such FleetCor are becoming tolling services operators. Google-backed navigation provider Waze has now launched a car pooling offer, while Apple invested in Didi Chuxing, the largest Chinese ride sharing operator.

Ahead of the show, Frederic Bruneteau commented: "In the car market, connectivity has moved from an aspirational feature to an essential part of the OEM business model and value proposition. The same transformation will also occur throughout all mobility markets.

Understanding which services have the greatest potential and which players are best positioned to take advantage of these changes in the market is key. These are the objective of the Connected Mobility Global Forecast, published by PTOLEMUS.

The forecast paints a complete picture of the connected mobility services market place, assessing the commercial potential of services such as connected roadside assistance, leasing, usage-based insurance, car pooling and sharing, road user charging and navigation no less than 14 services are analysed and quantified in total

To download the free abstract, or access the full study, visit www.ptolemus.com/mobility or contact thomas@ptolemus.com

About PTOLEMUS Consulting Group

PTOLEMUS is the first strategy consulting research firm entirely focused on connected mobility services and the Internet of Things. Present in Europe and North America, PTOLEMUS help numerous car makers, automotive suppliers and aftermarket service providers define and execute their connected strategies.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160607006827/en/

Contacts:

PTOLEMUS

Thomas Hallauer

thomas@ptolemus.com
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 7, 2016) - Coronet Metals Inc. (TSXV: CRF) (FSE: 2CM) (OTC Pink: CORMF) ("Coronet" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the appointment of Fred Tejada, P.Geo. to the Board of Directors. Mr. Tejada has been involved with Coronet's projects over the years and very familiar with its White Caps Gold Project in Nevada.

Mr. Tejada is a professional geologist, registered in British Columbia. He has over 30 years of international mineral industry experience and has a proven track record, working with both major and junior mining and exploration focused organizations. He is currently President and CEO of Rise Resources Inc. which recently announced an acquisition of portfolio of gold and zinc properties in Southeast British Columbia and President of Tirex Resources Ltd. with exploration properties in a historic mining district of Albania. Mr. Tejada was Country Manager for Phelps Dodge Exploration Corporation in the Philippines with responsibility over corporate and technical matters, development of exploration strategy and acquisitions. He previously held the position of Vice President for Exploration of Panoro Minerals Ltd. where he directed the resource definition drilling of its two major copper projects in Peru.

Theo van der Linde, President, commented: "We are pleased to welcome Mr. Tejada to Coronet's board as the Company moves its flagship White Caps Gold Project in Nevada forward. He brings decades of exploration, corporate and consulting experience gained within the resource industry. We look forward to leveraging this experience during this exciting period of growth."

The Company also announces that Mr. Joel Dumaresq has stepped down as Director of the Company after being involved with the Company since 2011. The Company wishes to thank Mr. Dumaresq for his guidance and contributions over the last 5 years and wish him continued success in his future endeavors.

The Company also reports the issuance of 450,000 stock options to Officers and Directors of the Company. The options were issued with a strike price of $0.10 per share with a 4-year term to expiry. The Options were granted pursuant to the Company's stock option plan and are subject to regulatory approval.

About Coronet Metals

Coronet Metals Inc. is engaged in the business of acquiring, exploring and developing natural resource properties, with a focus on precious mineral properties/projects which have the potential for both near-term cash flow and significant exploration upside potential. Coronet's White Caps Gold Project is near the town of Manhattan in Northern Nye County. The Project is well in line with its strategy of acquiring precious metals mining projects which have the potential for both near-term cash flow and exploration upside.

Forward Looking Information

This news release contains forward-looking statements and other statements that are not historical facts. Forward-looking statements are often identified by terms such as "will", "may", "should", "anticipate", "expects" and similar expressions. All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this release are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's expectations are risks detailed from time to time in the filings made by the Company with securities regulations.

The reader is cautioned that assumptions used in the preparation of any forward-looking information may prove to be incorrect. Events or circumstances may cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted, as a result of numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. As a result, the Company cannot guarantee that any forward-looking statement will materialize and the reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking information. Such information, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect and actual results may differ materially from those anticipated. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date of this news release and the Company will only update or revise publicly any of the included forward-looking statements as expressly required by Canadian securities law.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its regulation services provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION AND ENQUIRIES:

Theo van der Linde

President and CFO

Tel: +1 604-336-3193

Email: tvanderlinde@coronetmetals.com
NEW YORK, NY -- (Marketwired) -- 11/14/16 -- Energy Impact Partners (EIP) today announced the addition of Australia-based AGL Energy Limited (AGL) to its Nexus strategic partner network. EIP's other Nexus Partners include Southern Company (NYSE: SO), National Grid plc (NYSE: NGG), Xcel Energy Inc. (NYSE: XEL), Ameren Corporation (NYSE: AEE), Great Plains Energy (NYSE: GXP), Fortis Inc. (TSX: FTS) and Avista Corp. (NYSE: AVA).

EIP is a private equity firm that invests in emerging technologies, products, services and business models throughout the electricity supply chain from generation to consumption. The EIP portfolio includes companies like Opus One Solutions, which provides visibility and control to electric distribution utilities; Sense Labs, which enables customers to know exactly how much energy every device in their homes is consuming; and AutoGrid Systems, which offers big data analytics and cloud computing solutions for the energy industry.

"AGL will bring valuable new perspectives to Energy Impact Partners," said EIP CEO and Managing Partner Hans Kobler. "The Australian market is evolving rapidly, in some ways faster than North America or Europe. AGL will bring valuable insights as we seek solutions that have the ability to scale, and represents a trusted partner for our portfolio companies to expand into Australasia. EIP now truly embraces global insights and provides global access."

AGL Managing Director and CEO Andy Vesey said: "We are pleased to become members of EIP's Nexus strategic partner network, which gives us the opportunity to collaborate with some of the world's leading energy companies in the development of new energy solutions. Innovation is key to our growth and customer focus and this investment will provide access to innovative ideas, technologies, and business models. This will benefit our customers through greater choice, more customer-intuitive energy solutions and a reduced carbon footprint through emerging, lower-emission technologies."

AGL Executive General Manager, New Energy, Elisabeth Brinton added: "The investment with EIP forms part of a broader innovation strategy at AGL, providing greater reach for AGL's technology scanning and incubation, and a ready process to bring new solutions to scale. It is also a channel to international markets, strategic partnerships and finance for our innovative Australian technology partners."

About Energy Impact Partners

Energy Impact Partners (EIP) is an investment firm focused on companies optimizing energy consumption and improving sustainable energy generation. EIP is based on a collaborative strategic investment approach, pioneered by the firm's principals at GE. EIP seeks to bring the best companies, experience and vision in the industry to bear on the emerging energy landscape. EIP's strategic partners include Southern Company, National Grid plc, Xcel Energy Inc., Ameren Corporation, Great Plains Energy, Fortis Inc., Avista Corp. and AGL Energy Limited. Key focus areas are set by EIP's strategic partners and include energy efficiency, sustainable generation, energy storage, connected devices, big data and software solutions, and energy management -- "The Grid of Things." For more information, visit www.energyimpactpartners.com.

About AGL Energy Limited

AGL is one of Australia's leading integrated energy companies. It is taking action to responsibly reduce its greenhouse gas emissions while providing secure and affordable energy to its customers. Drawing on over 175 years of experience, AGL serves its customers throughout eastern Australia with meeting their energy requirements, including gas, electricity, solar PV and related products and services. AGL has a diverse power generation portfolio including base, peaking and intermediate generation plants, spread across traditional thermal generation as well as renewable sources including hydro, wind, solar, landfill

Contact info:

Eugene Hunt

Trevi Communications for Energy Impact Partners

Email Contact

(978) 750-0333



Energy Impact Partners, LLC

Email Contact

(212) 899-9700




Fujitsu Limited Public and Investor Relations Tel: +81-3-3215-5259 URL: www.fujitsu.com/global/news/contacts/ Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. ICT Systems Laboratories Server Technologies Lab E-mail: Retimer_ISSCC2015@ml.labs.fujitsu.com

TOKYO, June 8, 2016 - (JCN Newswire) - Today Fujitsu Limited (TSE: 6702) and Box (NYSE: BOX) announced they have entered into a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding with regard to a strategic partnership in the content management space. Under the proposed partnership, Fujitsu would deploy Box to the approximately 160,000 employees across its internal communication platform. In addition to improved content management, Box will help control storage expansion costs that grow in line with increased volumes of data storage.Fujitsu will use Box internally and, leveraging the knowledge gained through this experience, intends to integrate Box into global communication solutions. Under the proposed partnership, the two companies would jointly roll out solutions tailored to specific industries, and also plan to make Box available to Japanese customers as part of the FUJITSU Digital Business Platform MetaArc (MetaArc).In light of their initial experience in the Japanese market, Fujitsu and Box also aim to expand the collaboration into the global market, including joint investment in Asia.Fujitsu has been building its global group-wide communications platform since January 2012. Leveraging the knowledge gained from this internal implementation, Fujitsu seeks to provide communication platforms as solutions capable of supporting customers in various industries and business categories, and going forward, to develop solutions with an even greater level of convenience to meet customer needs. Fujitsu also aims to provide solutions that integrate the cutting-edge ICT of MetaArc with Box for a content management platform with even higher quality.Proposed Partnership overviewDeploy Box to Fujitsu's Global Communication PlatformFujitsu will explore deploying Box to its globally integrated communication platform, and expects to begin making it available to the approximately 160,000 Fujitsu employees worldwide, starting in the latter half of Fujitsu's fiscal 2016 (ending March 2017). This will empower simple and secure information sharing as well as consolidated content management, further accelerating collaboration in the enterprise environment. It will also enable control of storage expansion expenses incurred with growing volumes of data.Offer Box from Fujitsu's data centers in JapanFujitsu plans to offer Box as one part of its MetaArc service beginning in 2017. This will allow Box content to be stored in Fujitsu data centers located in Japan, meeting the needs of those customers who require data storage at data centers inside the country.Develop solutions that integrate Box, and conduct joint sales and marketingLeveraging its own experience using Box, and based on its track record of supporting so many customers transform their workstyles, Fujitsu intends to launch new solutions that combine its global communication platform with Box. Fujitsu is targeting this for the second half of its fiscal 2016.Box and Fujitsu intend to jointly develop solutions for CRM, ECM, and industry-specific solutions such as for manufacturing, retail, and public sectors. This will be done by integrating Box with Fujitsu's solutions, specialized for various industries and with advanced features such as security, mobile devices, network capability, and palm vein authentication. To promote these, Fujitsu and Box intend to jointly conduct marketing activities.Global RolloutFollowing successful collaborative efforts in Japan, Fujitsu and Box intend to explore ways to target a wider global market. In Asia, a particularly promising region for growth, the companies will consider expanding their collaboration with an eye toward joint investments in sales and marketing activities so as to better address the requirements of local customers.Company QuotesFujitsu"Fujitsu's objective is to bring Digital Transformation to life by creating a secure, user-friendly, and simple environment where people can thrive. Our collaboration with Box will be a big step towards making this vision a reality. This partnership will help us to provide our customers with new business opportunities by harnessing cloud-computing technologies. It fits perfectly with our strategy, and it will contribute significantly to the future of ICT."Fujitsu Limited, Corporate Executive Officer, EVP, Head of Global Marketing, Hiroyuki SakaiBox"Global businesses today are more connected, collaborative and global thanks to the power of the cloud. Fujitsu's move to Box underlines its appetite for improved ways of working in the new digital era. The intended partnership will help power digital transformation for customers and we're excited at the possibilities to accelerate international growth with Fujitsu."Co-founder and CEO, Aaron LevieBox Japan"We're thrilled to be working with Fujitsu to identify ways of creating transformative software for Japanese businesses in every industry. Our intended partnership will help more organizations to benefit from entirely new ways of working by providing technology which enables secure collaboration and content management."About BoxFounded in 2005, Box (NYSE:BOX) is transforming the way people and organizations work so they can achieve their greatest ambitions. As a leading enterprise content management platform, Box helps more than 57,000 businesses, including Eli Lilly and Company, General Electric, KKR & Co., P&G and The GAP securely access and manage their critical information in the cloud. Box is headquartered in Redwood City, CA, with offices across the United States, Europe and Asia. To learn more about Box, visit www.box.com.About Fujitsu LaboratoriesFounded in 1968 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Fujitsu Limited, Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. is one of the premier research centers in the world. With a global network of laboratories in Japan, China, the United States and Europe, the organization conducts a wide range of basic and applied research in the areas of Next-generation Services, Computer Servers, Networks, Electronic Devices and Advanced Materials. For more information, please see: http://www.fujitsu.com/jp/group/labs/en/.About Fujitsu LtdFujitsu is the leading Japanese information and communication technology (ICT) company, offering a full range of technology products, solutions, and services. Approximately 159,000 Fujitsu people support customers in more than 100 countries. We use our experience and the power of ICT to shape the future of society with our customers. Fujitsu Limited (TSE:6702; ADR:FJTSY) reported consolidated revenues of 4.7 trillion yen (US$41 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2016. For more information, please see http://www.fujitsu.com.* Please see this press release, with images, at:http://www.fujitsu.com/global/about/resources/news/press-releases/Source: Fujitsu LtdContact:Copyright 2016 JCN Newswire . All rights reserved.
NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - June 07, 2016) - Jacob Frydman, a native New Yorker and real estate expert, is proud to have recently joined the National Committee for Furtherance of Jewish Education (NCFJE) in support of its Released Time program of Greater New York. Devoted to his Jewish heritage and continuing his philanthropic efforts, Frydman dedicates much of his time and capital to various organizations and programs aimed at helping people in struggling communities.

The Released Time program helps Jewish youth in public schools by educating them about the history, customs, and prayers of Judaism. Since its creation in 1941, NCFJE's initiative has inspired more than a quarter of a million Jewish boys and girls in New York City, Rockland County, Long Island, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New England, Ohio, Pennsylvania and California to discover the history of their heritage. The program has expanded and now services more than 125 sites in the New York City area. Throughout the year, each Wednesday afternoon during the last hour of school, dedicated instructors instill the joy of Judaism and create a warm atmosphere of religion and acceptance for over 900 students currently enrolled in the program. The classes are available at every public school in New York, free of charge. Rabbi Hanoch Hecht of The Rhinebeck Jewish Center was the one who introduced Frydman to this initiative and continues to praise Frydman for his sustained commitment and the work he is doing for the community.

Jacob Frydman understands the importance of reaching out to young people and believes it is imperative that children within the Released Time program, who come from households that experience a range of economic and social hardships, are nurtured just as attentively as any other. Not a stranger to making a difference in the lives of the new generation, in 2013 Jacob founded a scholarship fund, helping countless American students gain access to higher education and inspiring them to reach their full potential. The program awarded $100,000, over three years, to students who best answered the question, "How Do I Invest in My Future?"

Over his 30-year career, Jacob Frydman made a positive and lasting impression with the real estate investment industry. Through his vast experience in structuring, financing, and executing highly complex real estate transactions, he has acquired over five million square feet of American property and has participated in investments valued at over $2 billion. He often speaks at Columbia University and in the Master's Lecturer series at New York Law School, discussing business, law, and ethical elements of real estate management to aspiring students. Frydman is an avid philanthropist, who cares greatly for his Jewish community, and supports many other charitable committees, including The Chabad of Dutchess County and The Brem Foundation, which focuses on the eradication of breast cancer among women and men in the Washington DC metropolitan area.

Jacob Frydman -- Property Expert and Consultant: http://jacobfrydmannews.com

Jacob Frydman -- To Attend the NCFJE 76th Annual Awards Dinner: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/jacob-frydman-attend-ncfje-76th-182213209.html

Jacob Frydman -- Devoted Member and Supporter of The Rhinebeck Jewish Center: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/jacob-frydman-devoted-member-supporter-050741846.html

Embedded Video Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lpgwu_U5liM

Contact Information:

JacobFrydmanNews.com

contact@jacobfrydmannews.com

www.JacobFrydmanNews.com


WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - One day after declaring that she had enough delegates to clinch the Democratic Party's nomination for president, Hillary Clinton put an exclamation point on the race by winning several contests to erase any doubt.



The former secretary of state picked up wins in New Jersey, New Mexico, South Dakota - and was far ahead in the biggest prize of all, California.



Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders won the North Dakota caucus and was also ahead in Montana.



The night's results put Clinton well over the 2,383-mark needed to secure the nomination - even without counting the so-called super delegates of which Sanders had been so critical.



Sanders, who had vowed to fight through to the party's nominating convention next month, is expected to take some time to evaluate his circumstances.



There were reports that Sanders would be laying off almost half of his campaign staff.



Both candidates received a call from President Barack Obama, who congratulated them on running a campaign that helped to energize the party.



He also congratulated Clinton on winning the nomination.



There was not much suspense in the Republican race as businessman Donald Trump - the presumptive GOP nominee and the only man left in the race - swept all of the contests.



The final primary is June 14 with the Democratic contest in the District of Columbia.



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BEIJING (dpa-AFX) - Chinese exports declined at a faster pace in May, as overseas demand for Chinese products weakened further, data from the General Administration of Customs revealed Wednesday.



Exports slid 4.1 percent year-over-year in May, slightly bigger than economists' expectations for a 4.0 percent decline. In April, exports had decreased 1.8 percent.



At the same time, imports dropped 0.4 percent in May from a year ago, much slower than the 6.7 percent fall expected by economists and a 10.9 percent fall registered in April.



China's export growth is likely to remain subdued going forward, Julian Evans-Pritchard at Capital Economics, said. While the economist does not anticipate much more of a slowdown in global growth given that the worst is probably over for many emerging markets, he does not foresee a significant pick-up either.



The economist said import growth is forecast to edge up further for the remainder of this year as the fall in commodity prices during the second half of 2015 enters the base for comparison and the continued feed-through from earlier policy easing helps to prop up domestic demand.



The visible trade surplus of the country came in at $49.98 billion in May versus $45.5 billion in the prior month. This was smaller than the $55.85 billion surplus expected by economists.



In yuan terms, exports increased 1.2 percent from last year and imports advanced 5.1 percent in May.



Elsewhere, the World Bank today downgraded its global growth projection, citing sluggish growth in advanced economics, stubbornly low commodity prices and weak global trade.



The lender said China will grow only 6.7 percent in 2016 following 6.9 percent growth last year.



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8 June 2016

Energiser Investments plc

("Energiser" or the "Company")

Posting of Accounts, Circular and Notices of Meetings

The Company announces that it has posted its Annual Report and Accounts for the year ended 31 December 2015, together with a circular ("Circular") and notices of its annual general meeting ("AGM") and a general meeting ("GM") to all shareholders.

The Company's AGM and GM will be held at 11.00 a.m. and 11.15 a.m. respectively on 30 June 2016 at Decimal Place, Chiltern Avenue, Amersham, Buckinghamshire, HP6 5FG.

The documents will shortly be available on the Company's website and an extract of the circular appears below.

For further information, please visit http://www.energiserinvestments.co.uk/ or contact:

Energiser Investments plc

Nishith Malde

+44 1494 762 450 Cairn Financial Advisers LLP

Jo Turner / Sandy Jamieson

+44 20 7148 7900

Extract of the Circular

Proposed issue of new shares by way of capitalisation of indebtedness, grant of New Share Options,

and

Notice of Annual General Meeting and General Meeting

Dear Shareholder,

1.Introduction

Over the last couple of years the UK housing market has shown a continued recovery and our property investments have continued to perform. Our residential property investment remains at near 100 per cent. occupancy and our mezzanine funding initiative is drawing to a close with our investment soon to be realised. The development at Kingswood Park, Surrey has three remaining units and two of those three units are already reserved, with legal completion expected to occur in the near future.

In order for the Group to continue to grow and take advantage of the strength in the UK real estate sector, we are proposing to restructure the Group's balance sheet to better position the Company to raise funds to make further investments in furtherance of its two key performance indicators ("KPIs") of return on project investment and the net assets position of the Group (including net assets per share).

In support of this action, I am pleased to have recently welcomed Dominic White to the Board. Dominic adds investment experience to the Board's considerable experience in the real estate market. We believe that his addition to the Board combined with favourable market conditions and the proposed restructuring will allow the Group to progress in driving its targeted KPIs at an improved pace.

I am, therefore, writing to you to outline the proposed balance sheet restructuring and related proposals and to seek Shareholders' consent for the resolutions which will be required to equip the Board with the tools it needs to increase its investing activities. The Resolutions, which will be proposed at a general meeting to be convened immediately following the Company's annual general meeting, include resolutions for the approval of the capitalisation of indebtedness of the Company owed to Highlands Village Limited, the grant of authorities to issue new shares sufficient for that capitalisation and to enable the raising of funds in the short to medium term and the approval of the grant of options to your Directors to incentivise them in driving growth and further align their interests with those of the Shareholders.

Notices of the Annual General Meeting and the General Meeting are set out at the end of this document. Details of the resolutions to be proposed at those meetings are set out later in this letter.

2.Capitalisation of indebtedness

In 2008, HVL, a private Company in which Nishith Malde and I are directors and shareholders, made an interest bearing loan of 281,000 to the Company to provide working capital. The loan is unsecured and repayable on demand. As at the date of this letter, the amount of accrued interest on the HVL Loan is approximately 95,000.

The Group's long-term strategy is to increase its investing activity and, in the last year, the Group has demonstrated it can source and manage profitable investments. The HVL Loan represents a significant ongoing liability on the Company's balance sheet and its elimination will better position the Company to raise additional investment funding.

The Company therefore proposes to enter into an agreement with HVL under which HVL will agree to capitalise the majority of the amounts owed to it by the Company by accepting 17,375,000 new Ordinary Shares of the Company in satisfaction of the liability of the Company to repay the whole of the principal amount of the HVL Loan, being 281,000, and 66,500 of the interest accrued on that loan. The balance of the unpaid interest on the HVL Loan, amounting to approximately 28,500 will be paid to HVL in cash.

Nishith Malde and I beneficially own 8.4 per cent. and 33.2 per cent., respectively, of HVL's issued share capital (amounting to in excess of 30 per cent. of its share capital on an aggregated basis) and are the directors of that company. The Capitalisation will therefore comprise a related party transaction pursuant to AIM Rule 13 and, accordingly, this document includes, at paragraph, 4 below, the required fair and reasonable opinion from Dominic White as the independent Director on the Board.

The Conversion Shares will be credited as fully paid up in the sum of 2 pence per share and will rank equally with the Existing Ordinary Shares.

The Capitalisation is conditional upon the passing of the Capitalisation Resolution and the Resolutions numbered 3 and 4 in the Notice of General Meeting (being, respectively a resolution to authorise the Directors to issue shares of the Company and a resolution to disapply statutory pre-emption rights in respect of such issues). Subject to those Resolutions being passed, it is proposed that the Conversion Shares will be issued in certificated form and admitted to trading on AIM on or around 6 July 2016.

3.Cancellation and Grant of Options

The Company currently has outstanding options to subscribe for 1,600,000 Ordinary Shares at an exercise price of 20 pence per share granted under the terms of the Existing Share Scheme. The options will expire on 23 March 2017. Further details of the Existing Share Scheme are set out below.

In recognition of the fact that neither Nishith Malde nor I have received any remuneration for our services to the Company for a number of years and to further align our interests with those of the Shareholders of the Company, it is proposed, subject to the passing of the Share Option Resolution, that we be granted further options to subscribe for 3,050,000 Ordinary Shares each representing, in aggregate, approximately 10 per cent. of the issue share capital of the Company following the Capitalisation. The exercise price for the New Share Options will be fixed at the time of issue but will not be less than the average of the closing middle market quotations of an Ordinary Share for the three dealing days prior to the date of grant. It is further proposed that on or prior to the date of grant to Nishith Malde of New Share Options, Nishith Malde will surrender the option to subscribe for 700,000 Ordinary Shares at an exercise price of 20 pence per share which he currently holds under the Existing Share Scheme. I do not currently have any share options.

Following the grant of the New Share Options and the Cancellation, the Company will have outstanding options over 7,000,000 new Ordinary Shares, representing 11.44 per cent. of its issued share capital, as enlarged by the issue of the Conversion Shares.

The Existing Share Scheme is an unapproved employee share option scheme designed to enable the Company to grant options to employees and executive directors of the Group from time to time over Ordinary Shares representing, in aggregate, up to 20 per cent. of the issued share capital of the Company at the time of grant. Options granted under this scheme are exercisable between the third and tenth anniversaries of the date of grant. The options may only be exercised by optionholders while they are still employees or executive directors of the Group. If death in service occurs, the options can be exercised (to the extent that they have vested) by the optionholder's personal representatives for a period of 12 months following the date of death. If an optionholder ceases to be employed and the Directors deem the optionholder to be a 'Good Leaver' the options can be exercised (to the extent that they have vested) for a period of six months following the date of cessation of employment.

It is intended that the New Share Options will be granted, in part, under the Existing Share Scheme (which may require amendment to enable me to participate in it) and, in part, under one or more new share option plans to be adopted by the Company, which may include an HMRC approved share option plan.

The granting of the New Share Options to Nishith Malde and myself will comprise a related party transaction pursuant to AIM Rule 13 and, accordingly, this document includes, at paragraph 4 below, the required fair and reasonable opinion from Dominic White as the independent Director on the Board.

The grant of the New Share Options is conditional upon the passing of the Share Option Resolution and the Resolutions numbered 3 and 4 in the Notice of General Meeting. Subject to those Resolutions being passed, it is proposed that the Directors will seek further advice as to the scheme or schemes under which the New Share Options will be issued (and as to any amendments which may be required to be made to the Existing Share Scheme) with a view to the New Share Options being granted at the earliest practicable opportunity following the passing of the relevant Resolutions.

4.Related Party Opinion

As detailed above, the Capitalisation and grant of the New Share Options comprise Related Party Transactions pursuant to Rule 13 of the AIM Rules.

In respect of the Capitalisation and the grant of New Share Options, Dominic White is an independent Director and has consulted accordingly with Cairn. In both cases, Nishith Malde and I are not independent.

With the exception of Nishith Malde and me, Dominic White, the independent Director, considers, having consulted with Cairn, its nominated adviser, that the terms of the transactions are fair and reasonable insofar as its Shareholders are concerned.

5.Annual General Meeting and General Meeting

Notices convening the Annual General Meeting and the General Meeting of the Company, which are to be held at Decimal Place, Chiltern Avenue, Amersham, Buckinghamshire, HP6 5FG, or any adjournment thereof, at 11.00 a.m. and 11.15 a.m. respectively on 30 June 2016 are set out at the end of this document. The business to be considered at each meeting is set out in the relevant notice. Explanatory notes relating to each Resolution are set out below.

Annual General Meeting

At the Annual General Meeting, ordinary resolutions will be proposed to receive and adopt the Company's annual accounts for the year ended 31 December 2015, to reappoint UHY Hacker Young as auditors, to reappoint Dominic White to the Board (Dominic was appointed by a resolution of the Directors and is therefore required to retire and offer himself for re-election at the Annual General Meeting) and to reappoint Nishith Malde to the Board under the retirement by rotation provisions contained in the Company's articles of association. In view of the proposed Capitalisation and the proposals relating to the grant of New Share Options, the Resolutions for the granting of authorities to issue Ordinary Shares and for the disapplication of the statutory pre-emption rights on issues of shares for cash, which would ordinarily appear in the Notice of Annual General Meeting, will be proposed at the General Meeting and are set out in the notice convening that meeting.

General Meeting

At the General Meeting, Resolutions will be proposed:

to approve the Capitalisation; to approve the grant of the New Share Options; to grant authority to the Directors to exercise all the powers of the Company to allot, grant options over, offer or otherwise deal with or dispose of any relevant securities (as defined in Section560 of the Act) of the Company up to a maximum aggregate nominal amount of 120,000; to empower the Directors, pursuant to Section571 of the Act, to allot equity securities (within the meaning of Section560 of the Act) for cash without the requirement for such securities to first be offered to existing Shareholders on a pre-emptive basis; and to authorise the Company to make on-market purchases of Ordinary Shares having an aggregate nominal value of up to 4,378.80 at prices not exceeding 105 per cent. of the average mid-market price of an Ordinary Share, for five Business Days prior to the day on which the Company agrees to purchase the Ordinary Shares.

Authorities to issue securities up to a maximum aggregate nominal value of 120,000 are being sought so as to enable the issue of the Conversion Shares and the grant of the New Share Options and to provide the Company with flexibility to raise funds through equity issues in the medium term should the Directors consider this to be appropriate.

6.Action to be taken by Shareholders in respect of the General Meeting

Shareholders will find enclosed with this document a white form of proxy for use at the Annual General Meeting and a pink form of proxy for use at the General Meeting. Whether or not you propose to attend either or both the Annual General Meeting or General Meeting in person, you are strongly encouraged to complete, sign and return both forms of proxy in accordance with the instructions printed on them as soon as possible, but in any event so as to be received, by post or, during normal business hours only, by hand, by 11.00 a.m. on 28 June 2016 in the case of the Annual General Meeting and by 11.15 a.m. on 28 June 2016 in the case of the General Meeting (or, in the case of an adjournment, not later than 48 hours before the time fixed for the holding of the adjourned meeting (excluding any part of a day that is not a working day)).

The appointment of proxies or the giving of any instruction by the CREST system will not be accepted for the purposes of the Annual General Meeting or General Meeting.

Appointing a proxy in accordance with the instructions set out above will enable your vote to be counted at the Annual General Meeting and/or the General Meeting (as the case may be) if you are unable to attend. The completion and return of the forms of proxy will not prevent you from attending and voting in person at the Annual General Meeting or General Meeting, or any adjournment either, should you wish to do so.

7.Recommendation

The Directors (excluding, in the case of the Capitalisation Resolution and the Share Option Resolution, myself and Nishith Malde who are the Related Parties in respect of those Resolutions and have therefore excluded ourselves from the consideration and recommendation of those Resolutions) believe that the resolutions to be proposed at the Annual General Meeting and General Meeting are in the best interests of the Company and Shareholders as a whole and recommend that you vote in favour of them as they intend to do (or procure to be done) in respect of their own beneficial holdings totalling 29,494,501 Ordinary Shares, representing approximately 67.36 per cent. of the Existing Ordinary Shares.

Yours faithfully

Stephen Wicks

Non-executive Chairman





DEFINITIONS

The following definitions apply throughout this document (including the Notice of Annual General Meeting and General Meeting) and the forms of proxy unless the context requires otherwise:

"Act" the Companies Act 2006 "Admission" admission of the Conversion Shares to trading on AIM becoming effective in accordance with Rule 6 of the AIM Rules "AIM Rules" the AIM Rules for Companies published by the London Stock Exchange "AIM" the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange "Annual General Meeting" or "AGM" the annual general meeting of the Company to be held at 11.00 a.m. on 30 June 2016 at Decimal Place, Chiltern Avenue, Amersham, Buckinghamshire, HP6 5FG or any adjournment thereof, notice of which is set out in the Notice of Annual General Meeting "Business Day" any day on which banks are generally open in England and Wales for the transaction of business, other than a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday "Cairn" Cairn Financial Advisers LLP, the Company's Nominated adviser and broker as at the date of this document "Cancellation" the proposed cancellation of the existing options to subscribe for 700,000 Ordinary Shares granted to Nishith Malde under the Existing Share Scheme "Capitalisation" the issue by the Company to HVL of the Conversion Shares in satisfaction of the Capitalisation Debt "Capitalisation Debt" the sum of 347,500 owed by the Company to Highlands Village Limited in respect of the HVL Loan, comprising 281,000 of principal (being the whole of the principal amount of the HVL Loan) and 66,500 being part of the interest included within the HVL Loan) "Capitalisation Price" the issue price for the Conversion Shares, being 2p per Conversion Share "Capitalisation Resolution" The Resolution numbered 1 in the Notice of General Meeting "Conversion Shares" the 17,375,000 new Ordinary Shares to be issued in satisfaction of the Capitalisation Debt "CREST" a relevant system (as defined in the CREST Regulations) in respect of which Euroclear is the Operator (as defined in the CREST Regulations) "CREST Regulations" the Uncertificated Securities Regulations 2001 (SI 2001/3755), as amended from time to time "Directors" or "Board" the existing directors of the Company whose names are set out on page 4 of this document "Euroclear" Euroclear UK & Ireland Limited "Existing Ordinary Shares" the 43,787,956 Ordinary Shares in issue at the date of this document "Existing Share Scheme" the unapproved share option scheme currently operated by the Company "General Meeting" a general meeting of the Company to be held at 11.15 a.m. on 30 June 2016 at Decimal Place, Chiltern Avenue, Amersham, Buckinghamshire, HP6 5FG or any adjournment thereof, notice of which is set out in the Notice of General Meeting "Group" the Company and its subsidiary undertakings "HVL" Highlands Village Limited, a private company limited by shares and registered in England and Wales with number 02809508 "HVL Loan" the sum of 281,000 loaned by HVL to the Company in 2008 together with all interest accrued thereon, amounting to approximately 376,000 at the date of this document "New Share Options" the proposed options to subscribe for up to 6,100,000 Ordinary Shares which may be granted under the authority conferred by the Share Option Resolution "Notice of General Meeting" the notice convening the General Meeting which is set out at the end of this document "Ordinary Shares" ordinary shares of 0.001 each in the share capital of the Company "Regulatory Information Service" the regulatory information services approved by the London Stock Exchange for the distribution of AIM announcements "Resolutions" the resolutions to be proposed at the General Meeting, details of which are set out in the Notice of General Meeting "Shareholder" a holder of Ordinary Shares from time to time "Share Option Resolution" the Resolution numbered 2 in the Notice of General Meeting "United States" or "US" United States of America and its territories






CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - Commodity currencies such as the Australian, the New Zealand and the Canadian dollars strengthened against their major counterparts in the Asian session on Wednesday amid crude oil prices rise, fueled by supply disruptions from Nigeria.



Crude oil for July delivery are currently up $0.13 to $50.49 a barrel.



Militants have been attacking oil fields in the central African nation, resulting in numerous shut downs.



In other economic news, data from Statistics New Zealand showed that the value of manufacturing activity in New Zealand slipped a seasonally adjusted 2.6 percent on quarter in the first three months of 2016. That follows the 1.9 percent decline in the previous three months.



Data from the General Administration of Customs showed that China's exports decreased at a faster-than-expected pace in May, while imports fell less-than-expected.



Exports slid 4.1 percent year-over-year in May, slightly above economists' expectations for a 4.0 percent decline. Imports dropped 0.4 percent in May from a year ago, much slower than the 6.7 percent fall expected by economists.



The visible trade surplus of the country came in at $49.98 billion in May. The expected surplus was $55.85 billion.



Tuesday, the Australian, the New Zealand and the Canadian dollars roes against their major counterparts.



The Australian dollar rose 1.12 percent against the U.S. dollar, 1.20 percent against the yen and 1.22 percent against the euro. The NZ dollar rose 0.47 percent against the U.S. dollar, 0.64 percent against the yen and 0.79 percent against the euro. The Canadian dollar rose 0.63 percent against the U.S. dollar, 0.45 percent against the yen and 0.61 percent against the euro.



In the Asian trading, the Australian dollar rose to 1.5239 against the euro and 79.94 against the yen, from early lows of 1.5300 and 79.37, respectively. If the aussie extends its uptrend, it is likely to find resistance around 1.48 against the euro and 83.00 against the yen.



Against the U.S., the New Zealand and the Canadian dollars, the aussie edged up to 0.7459, 1.0681 and 0.9497 from early lows of 0.7430, 1.0655 and 0.9470, respectively. The aussie may test resistance near 0.78 against the greenback, 1.09 against the kiwi and 0.98 against the loonie.



The NZ dollar rose to more than a 5-week high of 0.6988 against the U.S. dollar and a 5-day high of 1.6256 against the euro, from yesterday's closing quotes of 0.6977 and 1.6263, respectively. If the kiwi extends its uptrend, it is likely to find resistance around 0.71 against the greenback and 1.60 against the euro.



Against the yen, the kiwi edged up to 74.93 from yesterday's closing value of 74.89. On the upside, 77.00 is seen as the next resistance level for the kiwi.



The Canadian dollar rose to a 5-week high of 1.2727 against the U.S. dollar, from an early low of 1.2761. The loonie is likely to find resistance around the 1.24 area.



Against the euro and the yen, the loonie edged up to 1.4467 and 84.22 from early lows of 1.4494 and 83.75, respectively. If the loonie extends its uptrend, it is likely to find resistance around 1.41 against the euro and 88.00 against the yen.



Meanwhile, the safe-haven fell against its major rivals.



In other economic news, the Cabinet Office said that Japan's gross domestic product was revised up to 0.5 percent on quarter in the first three months of 2016. That was in line with expectations following last month's preliminary reading for a 0.4 percent gain. That followed the 0.4 percent contraction in the previous three months.



The Ministry of Finance said that Japan had a current account surplus of 1.878 trillion yen in April. That was shy of expectations for 2.308 trillion yen following the 2.980 trillion yen surplus in March.



The trade balance came in at 697.1 billion yen, missing forecasts for 919.0 billion yen following the 927.2 billion yen in the previous month.



The Bank of Japan said that overall bank lending in Japan was up 2.2 percent on year in May, coming in at 497.216 trillion yen. That was in line with expectations and unchanged from the previous month.



The yen fell to 156.12 against the pound and 111.14 against the Swiss franc, from early highs of 155.16 and 110.62, respectively. If the yen extends its downtrend, it is likely to find support around 164.00 against the pound and 114.00 against the franc.



Against the euro and the U.S. dollar, the yen edged down to 121.89 and 107.28 from early 2-day highs of 121.33 and 106.72, respectively. The yen may test support near 125.00 against the euro and 113.00 against the greenback.



Looking ahead, Swiss CPI data for May and U.K. industrial production for April are due to be released later in the day.



In the New York session, Canada housing starts for May and building permits for April, U.K. NIESR GDP estimate for May and U.S. crude oil inventories data are slated for release.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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REDMOND (dpa-AFX) - Microsoft has chosen India to be one of its cyber security hubs, among seven such places worldwide. The company launched its Cyber Security Engagement Center or CSEC in India's Gurgaon on Tuesday, aiming to help reduce malware and digital risk in the country. Working with the National Cybersecurity Coordinator as well as the CERT-India, the center would fight cybercrime through public-private partnerships. It will also strengthen cooperation with Indian businesses, government and academic organizations on cybersecurity. The CSEC would also increase its contribution towards securing Indian computer and internet users from cybercrime threats. The CSEC will combine Microsoft's Digital Crime Unit experts, which comprise attorneys, investigators and security response experts from the company as well as cutting-edge tools and technology to effectively reduce digital risks. The center will offer cyber monitoring, use machine learning based detection technology and ensure rapid response and resolution to cyber threats to enterprise customers in the country. Announcing CSEC, Bhaskar Pramanik, Chairman, Microsoft India, said, 'Cybersecurity is crucial for Digital India. A data driven economy can flourish only when governments, businesses and individuals have access to hyper scale and hyper flexible cloud computing with the confidence that their data is secure.' Microsoft's DCU Cyber Threat Intelligence Program monitors and analyze malware infections, while Microsoft Advanced Threat Analytics helps customers adapt to the changing nature of cybersecurity attacks. Additionally, Microsoft's Advanced Threat Protection in Exchange Online Protection helps prevent malware attacks in an email environment. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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ROME, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

A phase II clinical trial conducted in South Africa has confirmed that the therapeutic Tat vaccine against HIV/AIDS can effectively improve the response to antiretroviral drugs in people living with HIV. The results are published today in the peer-review open access Journal Retrovirology. The vaccine was developed at the National Institute of Health of Italy (Istituto Superiore di SanitA , or ISS) by the National AIDS Center (NAC) directed by Dr. Barbara Ensoli.

The trial, conducted at MeCRU, the Clinical Research Unit of the Sefako Makgatho University, enrolled 200 participants on antiretroviral treatment with undetectable levels of HIV in blood. The participants were randomly assigned to two "blinded" groups to receive three intradermal injections of 30 g of the vaccine or placebo one month apart. After 48 weeks from vaccination, the codes were broken, and the vaccinated participants showed significant increases of CD4+ T cells over placebo. The gain of CD4+ T cells was particularly significant in participants with low CD4+ T cells at study entry. The vaccine acts by inducing protective antibodies capable of neutralizing the HIV Tat protein from different viral subtypes, including the A, B and C clades circulating in Asia, Europe, America and Africa. The Tat vaccine promises to improve the effectiveness of current treatments against HIV and the expectancy of life of people living with HIV worldwide.

The CD4+ T cells are pivotal players of the immune response against pathogens but are progressively lost during HIV infection, a condition leading to AIDS. Although antiretroviral treatment is very effective at suppressing virus replication, CD4+ T cells can remain low, particularly in people starting treatment late as still occurs in both developed and developing countries.

Dr. B. Ensoli, the inventor of the vaccine, explains that "The vaccine was developed to target the HIV protein "Tat", which is produced very early in the infection. Tat has a key role in viral replication and progression of the disease by weakening the immune system. By designing a vaccine that included a small amount of the Tat protein we were able to induce an immune response capable of improving the effects of HIV drugs."

This study confirms the results of a previous phase II trial with the Tat vaccine conducted in Italy on 155 patients treated with antiretrovirals (Ensoli F. et al, Retrovirology, 2015 - https://retrovirology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12977-015-0151-y), showing induction of antibodies against Tat and restoration of CD4+ T cells. After three years from vaccination, the Italian study also showed a significant decrease of the "virus reservoir" in blood, a pool of "silent" virus, insensitive to antiretroviral drugs, and responsible for virus rebound upon therapy interruption or low "adherence" to treatment. A follow-up study is ongoing also in South Africa to confirm the decrease of the HIV reservoir seen in the Italian trial.

The trial in South Africa is part of a large cooperation program with the South African Department of Health and the Medical Research Council in the fight against HIV/AIDS, signed by the Governments of Italy and South Africa, and directed by Dr. B. Ensoli (Principal Investigator) and by Dr. P. Monini (head of operations in South Africa) in close collaboration with the South African counterparts. The program was funded by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was audited with recommendations for future sustainability of its achievements by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO)(https://open.unido.org/index.html#/projects/ZA/projects/100086).

Prof. Gualtiero Ricciardi, the new ISS President, underlines that "the Program represents an example of excellence that has effectively combined the translational clinical research with public health, and promoted innovation and international development."

The Italian and South African counterparts are now advocating moving to phase III studies toward vaccine registration with financial support from international organizations.

Press office contact:

Mirella Taranto

T: +39 06 49903298

Email: mirella.taranto@iss.it



The Istituto Superiore di SanitA

The Istituto Superiore di SanitA (National Institute of Health), also ISS, is an Italian public institution that, as the leading technical-scientific body of the Italian National Health Service (Servizio Sanitario Nazionale), performs research, trials, control, counseling, documentation and training for public health. The Institute is under the supervision of the Ministero della Salute (Ministry of Health). Home for some time to three Nobel price winners who conducted research within its walls, (Daniel Bovet, Ernst Boris Chain, Rita Levi Montalcini), ISS today is a body of approx. 2.000 scientists, technicians and office personnel in the heart of Rome's biomedical research and hospital area.

The National AIDS Center (NAC)

The National AIDS Center was established at ISS in 2005. Its mission is fighting HIV/AIDS and associated diseases though the development of innovative vaccines and therapeutic approaches based on studies on HIV pathogenesis and its progression. The NAC carries out translational research programs, from basic research to clinical studies and has coordinates several national and international research programs. Its scientific and technological know-how, its leadership in national and international networks and its multiple cooperations with the Developing Countries and Humanitarian Agencies, makes the NAC a national and international reference in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Contact:

Dr. Barbara Ensoli, Director

Email: barbara.ensoli@iss.it



Notes to editor:

1. Research article

Barbara Ensoli, Maphoshane Nchabeleng, Fabrizio Ensoli, Antonella Tripiciano, Stefania Bellino, Orietta Picconi, Cecilia Sgadari, Olimpia Longo, Lara Tavoschi, Daniel Joffe, Aurelio Cafaro, Vittorio Francavilla, Sonia Moretti, Maria R Pavone Cossut, Barbara Collacchi, Angela Arancio, Giovanni Paniccia, Anna Casabianca, Mauro Magnani, Stefano ButtA, Elise Levendal, John Velaphi Ndimande, Bennett Asia, Yogan Pillay, Enrico Garaci, Paolo Monini and SMU-MeCRU study goup

HIV-Tat immunization induces cross-clade neutralizing antibodies and CD4+ T-cell increases in antiretroviral-treated South African volunteers: a randomized phase II clinical trial

Retrovirology 2016

doi: 10.1186/s12977-016-0261-1

After embargo, article is available at journal website here: http://retrovirology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12977-016-0261-1

Please name the journal in any story you write. If you are writing for the web, please link to the article. All articles are available free of charge, according to BioMed Central's open access policy.
Strategic Agreement Represents a Continued Expansion of Over-the-Air (OTA) Technology Provider Integration into Airbiquity's Software & Data Management Offering

SEATTLE, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --Airbiquity, a global leader in connected car services, today announced an agreement with EnGIS Technologies to integrate the EnGIS DM Differential Tool and Software Installer Client into Airbiquity's recently launched Software & Data Management offering. This strategic agreement represents the continued expansion of over-the-air (OTA) technology provider integration into the company's Software & Data Management solution for the configuration and automation of large-scale vehicle software update and data collection campaigns using its Choreo' cloud-based service delivery platform.

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Cloud-based OTA vehicle software update campaigns for software related recalls-including cybersecurity breaches-is forecasted to provide huge financial benefits to automakers in the years ahead. Worldwide automaker cost savings for OTA software updates are projected to grow from $2.7 billion in 2015 to over $35 billion by 2022, according to IHS. Additionally, OTA software updates will enable automakers to achieve faster recall compliance, eliminate the time intensive consumer burden of bringing vehicles to dealers for repairs, and deliver post-purchase performance and feature enhancements contributing to customer satisfaction and loyalty.

"Remote software updates represent an undeniable opportunity for automakers and consumers alike, but making them happen in automotive is very complex due to the wide ecosystem of electronics and software suppliers supporting vehicle platforms and systems," said Scott Frank, Vice President of Marketing at Airbiquity. "Airbiquity is committed to helping automotive customers manage and automate this complexity with our Software & Data Management solution, and the inclusion of OTA technology from leading providers like EnGIS."

"EnGIS is looking forward to joiningAirbiquity'sgrowing ecosystem of technology providers supporting their Software & Data Management offering," said Martin Carr, Vice President of EnGIS Technologies. "Integrating our DM Differential Tool and Software Installer Client into Airbiquity's solution is a great opportunity to work with an established and innovative telematics service delivery provider to further extend our automotive market engagement."

Learn more about Airbiquity's Software & Data Management offering here.

About Airbiquity

Airbiquity is a global leader in connected vehicle services and pioneer in the development and engineering of automotive telematics technology. Airbiquity enables the vision of connected car today with the industry's most advanced cloud-based connected car service delivery platform: "Choreo'." Working in partnership with Airbiquity, automakers, tier one suppliers, and mobile network operators are delivering scalable and manageable connected car solutions meeting the safety, efficiency, convenience, and infotainment needs of their customers in over 60 countries around the world. Learn more about Airbiquity at www.airbiquity.com. Airbiquity is a trademark of Airbiquity Inc.

About EnGIS Technologies

EnGIS Technologies develops navigation and over-the-air (OTA) software solutions for the automotive and consumer electronics industries. EnGIS provides end-to-end OTA solutions with the added flexibility of modular implementations to integrate with existing service solutions, and utilizes best-in-class delta generation technology delivering exceptional performance in delta file creation and packet size. EnGIS OTA technology is deployed with blue-chip clients across the telecom, consumer electronics, and automotive industries. Learn more about EnGIS Technologies at www.engistech.com. EnGIS is a trademark of EnGIS Technologies, Inc.

AIRBIQUITY CONTACT:

Kristin Scheidegger

Airbiquity PR

1-206-344-3133 (Seattle, USA)

media@airbiquity.com

ENGIS TECHNOLOGIES CONTACT:

Jungwoo Kwon

EnGIS PR

+82-2-571-0576 (Seoul, Korea)

kjw@engistech.com
SOUTHBOROUGH, Massachusetts, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --Corrona, a leader in real world evidence and consulting in the auto-immune field, will be represented by 13 clinical researchers who will be showcasing their research at the Annual European Congress of Rheumatology (EULAR 2016) to be held June 8-11 in London, UK. The presentations represent the efforts of 654 practicing rheumatologists in the US who, over the last 15 years, have collected longitudinal randomized controlled trial quality clinical data on patients with rheumatic diseases. In particular, 2 abstracts were accepted for podium presentations and 13 as posters, 3 of which will be highlighted on poster tours. These efforts add to Corrona's growing number of scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals, with over 300 abstracts and 80 manuscripts.

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"The Corrona team appreciates that the continued data collection efforts of our rheumatology investigators have provided the foundation for our research programs in areas such as comparative effectiveness and safety of novel therapies." -- Jeff Greenberg, MD, MPH, Chief Scientific Officer, Corrona, LLC.

Work presented at the meeting will be derived from Corrona's rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis/spondyloarthritis registries. The podium presentations will focus on the impact of rheumatoid arthritis disease activity on infection risk and explore biomarkers' ability to predict response to biologic medications. Other topics being explored in the rheumatoid arthritis patient population include: trends in disease activity and treatment patterns, delays in treatment acceleration, outcomes related to a treat to target strategy, the influence of comorbidities, and a comparative effectiveness evaluation of disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs. In psoriatic arthritis/spondyloarthritis, presentations focus on: characterization of unique patient subgroups, treatment patterns, evaluating biologic medication persistency, and rebounding of symptoms following achievement of low disease activity and biologic disontinuation.

About Corrona

Corrona was founded in 2001 by leading physicians dedicated to advancing and improving the care of patients with chronic autoimmune diseases. Its mission is to advance research and improve the quality of patient care through world-class observational cohorts. Corrona provides longitudinal clinical data, patient reported measures, and research results to all biopharmaceutical companies with an interest in autoimmune diseases. Corrona data analysis has provided a rich framework in which to explore topics such as comparative effectiveness, post market safety reporting, and commercial applications. Corrona is advised by experienced academic and clinical physicians throughout the country with a wide range of expertise. Read more at www.corrona.org.

Contact:

Leslie R. Harrold, MD, MPH, Senior Medical Director, 508-266-8252
HAMBURG, Germany, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

- Overwhelmingly positive industry response / ATG releases definitive answer to the Adblock problem with secure lock-and-key technology / International publishers about to implement ATG solution

Many of ATG's clients and partners have reported the increasing prevalence of Adblocking and a resulting loss of revenue, which threatens whole business models. Several answers have flooded the market promising immediate remedy only to be quickly rendered useless as soon as Adblocking technologies have caught up ensuing in an ever on-going arms race.

The continued debate on this issue shows that none of the suggested answers have proven to be a long-term solution. Participating in the arms race, paying for white-listing or focusing on certain ad types (Native Ads) is oftentimes costly, time-consuming and/or unprofitable. On top of that, all of these answers come with the drawback of obscuring ad performance metrics that are especially important for advertisers.

The ATG Adblock Prevention on the other hand offers a different way to tackle the Adblock problem. A new patent-pending technology enables publisher-side encryption of specific content which requires display of advertisements for decryption. Or simply put: Without deactivating the ad-blocker, the content cannot be viewed. Since this decryption requires active user approval, Adblock software has no way to interfere.

The positive industry response to the release of the ATG Ad Block Prevention is due to the fact that it renders the arms race moot while at the same time ensuring the validity of established advertising standards. Daniel Siegmund, CEO of ATG Ad Tech Group and responsible for advertising matters, attributes the positive feedback from the industry to two things: "On the one hand our solution guarantees outstanding advertising metrics on premium ad placements. On the other hand it minimizes expenses and efforts to fight Adblocking as it is a set-and-forget solution. Thus, we address the needs of advertisers and publishers alike."

Daniel Siegmund is attending the NOAH-Conference in Berlin. Please call for meeting requests: +49-40-6758-675-0.

Further information about ATG Adblock Prevention: http://ad-tech-group.com/atg-adblock-prevention/

Contact: Rene Rasmussen, Rasmussen@ad-tech-group.com, Telefon: +49(0)40-675-8675-22

ATG Ad Tech Group GmbH, Stresemannstrae 342, 22761 Hamburg, Germany
Metsa Group Stock Exchange Release 8 June 2016 at 11.30 EETMetsa Wood, the Wood Products Industry of Metsa Group, launches an investment programme in its Kerto LVL and plywood operations as part of its industrial efficiency strategy. Thanks to the programme, planned to be implemented in steps by the end of 2018, the company is able to better meet the globally growing demand for its products and improve its competitiveness. The programme includes a total of EUR 100 million investments in Finland and Estonia.A new birch veneer peeling and drying line is planned to be built in Aanekoski to the Metsa Group's Pulp and Paperboard Industries' mill site. This veneer production is planned to be processed in a new plywood mill to be constructed in Estonia. Suolahti mill's current birch veneer line is planned to be transferred to Estonia. The total annual birch plywood production volume would increase by approximately 30,000 cubic meters.Production of a new softwood based speciality product with an annual volume of approximately 60,000 cubic meters is planned to be established at the Suolahti mill. The final investment decision will be made at a later stage.The annual production capacity of the Kerto LVL mill in Lohja is planned to be increased by 20,000 cubic meters by replacing two oldest production lines with one new line. The increased capacity combined with the higher product quality enables strengthening of Metsa Wood's position especially in markets outside Europe."These are major steps for Metsa Wood to grow and further improve cost competitiveness. Demand for birch plywood is increasing especially in the light transport industry. In Kerto LVL business more capacity is needed to continue growth in North America, in particular. Thanks to the investment programme a notable result improvement will be achieved, fully from 2019 onwards," says Esa Kaikkonen, Executive Vice President, Metsa Wood.Approximately half of the EUR 100 million investments will be allocated to Finland. Annual saw log consumption is expected to increase by almost 300,000 cubic meters.The investment programme is not expected to impact the total amount of Metsa Wood's mill personnel in Finland. Potential mill-specific personnel implications will follow the statutory labour negotiation process. Considering the changes in wood harvesting and logistics, the increase in employment in Finland is expected to be approximately 100 person-years in total. About 200 new jobs are expected to be created in Estonia.METSA GROUPFor further information, please contact: Esa Kaikkonen, Executive Vice President, Metsa Wood, tel. +358 10 469 4749 Juha Laine, Senior Vice President, Communications, Metsa Group, tel. +358 10 465 4541www.metsagroup.comMetsa Group is a forerunner in bioeconomy utilising renewable wood from sustainably managed northern forests. Metsa Group focuses on wood supply and forest services, wood products, pulp, fresh forest fibre paperboards and tissue and cooking papers. Metsa Group's sales totalled EUR 5.0 billion in 2015, and it employs approximately 9,600 people. The Group operates in some 30 countries. Metsaliitto Cooperative is the parent company of Metsa Group and owned by approximately 116,000 Finnish forest owners.www.metsawood.comMetsa Wood provides competitive and environmentally friendly wood products for construction, industrial customers and distributor partners. Metsa Wood manufactures products from northern wood, a sustainable raw material of premium quality. Metsa Wood's sales in 2015 were EUR 0.9 billion, and the company employs about 2,000 people. Metsa Wood is part of Metsa Group.
LONDON, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --European Capital Fund Management Limited announced today that its European mid-market direct lending fund, European Capital Private Debt, LP, has provided unitranche financing to support the buyout of Xendo (the "Company") backed by Sovereign Capital, the UK private equity Buy & Build specialist.

Xendo, headquartered in the Netherlands, is a leading independent consultancy and project management organisation in the pharmaceutical products, medical devices and healthcare fields. The Company's ambition is to enhance the quality and safety of medicine and help shorten the time to market for drugs and medical devices that improve the quality of life. Xendo operates from three countries in Europe (UK, Netherlands and Germany) and in Japan.

"We are pleased to partner with Sovereign Capital and to support the buyout of Xendo," said Matthew Gordon Clark, Managing Director of European Capital in London. "Xendo represents our first unitranche financing in the Netherlands having looked at a number of opportunities. We look forward to building on this transaction and providing further tailor-made solutions to leading mid-market private equity sponsors looking to invest in the Netherlands."

Colin Wright, Director of European Capital in London, added, "Xendo has an exciting opportunity to develop its business and extend its geographic reach during our investment timeframe and we look forward to supporting the management team and Sovereign Capital to help achieve this."

"Sovereign Capital is pleased to work with European Capital and we appreciated their flexibility, speed and professionalism as well as their appetite to provide further funding during the investment," commented Jonathan Kay, Investment Director of Sovereign Capital.

ABOUT EUROPEAN CAPITAL FUND MANAGEMENT

European Capital Fund Management Limited manages 600 million in two funds. With offices in London and Paris, it seeks to provide direct funding in the form of unirate, mezzanine and senior financing to sponsor-led lower and mid-market European companies. European Capital Fund Management Limited is an English limited company regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, and is an indirect, wholly owned affiliate of American Capital, Ltd.

ABOUT EUROPEAN CAPITAL PRIVATE DEBT, LP

The European Capital Private Debt, L.P. (the "Fund"), seeks to provide direct funding in the form of unirate, mezzanine and senior financing to sponsor-led mid-market Western and Northern European companies. The Fund is established in the UK and is managed by European Capital Fund Management Limited, an English limited company regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, and an indirect, wholly owned affiliate of American Capital, Ltd.

Contact: + 44 207 539 7000

Matthew Gordon Clark, Managing Director

Colin Wright, Director
LONDON, England, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

New research highlights the extent to which shadow IT is endemic

NTT Communications Corporation (NTT Com), the ICT solutions and international communications business within the NTT Group (NYSE: NTT) today announced new research into the rapid rise of shadow IT. The research reveals that employees are deliberately bypassing IT in adopting applications because IT approval processes are too slow, too draconian or do not offer the solutions they want. IT often comes across to employees as the 'Ministry of No' which is totally at odds with IT's self-image as an enabler. If this situation is not addressed it risks having a detrimental effect on business.

The report showed that 78 per cent of business decision makers (BDMs) admit that employees in their department are using cloud services without knowledge of the IT department, while 77 per cent of IT decision makers (ITDMs) are aware that is happening.

57 per cent of respondents went as far as saying that shadow IT is happening in at least half of the departments in their enterprise. The research, conducted by Vanson Bourne on behalf of NTT Com, also revealed that of the 500 IT and business decision makers surveyed across the EU, shadow IT has been used on average for 18 months, while 87 per cent of respondents believe it will increase in frequency over the next 2 years.

Furthermore, 56 per cent reported having no idea where their shadow IT data is being stored. 79 per cent of respondents said that they store data in the cloud that is critical to their organization. Going forward this leaves companies at risk of breaching forthcoming General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), due to become law in 2018, under which they could face huge fines.

The main reasons why employees are ignoring IT department policy and going 'off piste' are primarily down to ease-of-use, with 62 per cent citing 'ease of set up' as their primary motivation, with a further 52 per cent saying 'ease of use' is a defining factor. 29 per cent say shadow IT provides a cheaper alternative to their prescribed 'official' option

However, simply shutting down the command and control of shadow IT is not the answer, according to Len Padilla, Vice President Product Strategy, NTT Europe. "Our recommendation is that IT departments jettison the 'Ministry of No' approach and instead work with their business colleagues to understand why the shadow IT solutions they are currently using are better than those that the IT department can offer. This consultative approach will enable organizations to get a full view of their IT estate. This will effectively create an amnesty with which to achieve compliance - while retaining the edge employees are looking for to carry out their jobs and ensure the success of the business."

The report suggests that shadow IT is here to stay. While there is widespread use of unauthorized services and at the same time an acceptance that doing so breaches company policy, 87 per cent of BDMs surveyed believe the trend is set to increase over the next two years.

At the same time, shadow IT has become a key cog in the business mechanism. 80 per cent of respondents said data stored in shadow IT is critical to their organization, and 77 per cent stated that stopping the usage of these services would limit department functionality. At the same time, 48 per cent of ITDMs believe that employees provisioning their own cloud services frees up time in their own department for other technical and development issues.

"Shadow IT has undoubtedly carved for itself a place in business and is only going to expand its influence", said Len Padilla, Vice President Product Strategy, NTT Europe. "Employees are flouting the IT department in favour of 'off-piste' alternatives as they search for options that are easier to use and install. The dilemma for the IT department is how to embrace this trend while keeping company data secure. What is very apparent is that there is an overall reluctance to tackle the issue for fear of stifling the speed and agility that employees require today to do their jobs efficiently."

"With today's vast technological landscape, it is impossible for one department to understand the technological needs of every department in the enterprise. By forging a relationship with business managers, IT can view shadow IT as an opportunity to work together instead of playing a tug-of-war game over applications" added Padilla.

To see practical, real world recommendations of how to approach this situation, download the report from http://www.ministryofno.com



About the research

The survey took place during March 2016, and was carried out by independent consultancy Vanson Bourne who polled 500 decision makers, of companies with more than 1000 employees from the UK, France, Germany and Spain. The research was split 50/50 between IT and business lines to monitor the differing view on shadow IT. All businesses were in the private sector and had over 1,000 employees with respondents from sectors including financial services, retail, manufacturing, professional services, IT, and energy.

About NTT Communications Corporation

NTT Communications provides consultancy, architecture, security and cloud services to optimize the information and communications technology (ICT) environments of enterprises. These offerings are backed by the company's worldwide infrastructure, including the including leading global tier-1 IP network, Arcstar Universal One' VPN network reaching 196 countries/regions and 140 secure data centers worldwide.

NTT Communications solutions leverage the global resources of NTT Group companies including Dimension Data, NTT DOCOMO and NTT DATA.

http://www.eu.ntt.com | @NTT_Europe | http://www.nttcom.tv

Media Contacts:

press@ntt.eu

+44-(0)-207-977-1170


GENEVA, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

IBS Software, one of the leading IT solution providers to the global air transportation industry, has been accorded 'NDC Capable' Level 3 status, the highest level certification, by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) for its iFly Res Passenger Service System (PSS). iFly Res is one among the first PSS to attain this recognition. This status recognizes that IBS supports deployments using offer and order management messages whose schemas are compliant with the standard NDC message schema, version PADIS Publication 15.2. IATA provides the only official industry certification program in support of NDC standard.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20121122/577929 )

New Distribution Capability (NDC) is a travel industry-supported program launched by IATA to address the industry's current distribution limitations. The program focuses on the development and market adoption of a XML-based data transmission standard which allows rich content display. This will enable airlines to differentiate their products, sell directly as well as through indirect channels such as GDS or travel agency systems and transform the way air and non-air products are retailed to corporations, leisure and business travellers.

IBS' iFly Res comprehensively addresses all the key functions of an airline's passenger services system, including passenger reservations, schedules & flight control, inventory control, fares & ticketing, complex ancillary services management & distribution and departure control. With configurable capabilities and real-time operational data, the solution focuses on enhanced passenger experience, operational efficiency and revenue growth.NDC compliant iFly Res will benefit airlines to manage and distribute not just seats but all other ancillary products from within their PSS. Built with powerful rules engines, it simplifies and enhances an airlines' business giving them control of their own destiny. The addition of NDC schemas provide the opportunity to address the end-to-end airline distribution process, and to deliver enhanced customer experiences.

"IBS recognises the potential of NDC to allow airlines to get closer to their passengers who now expect meaningful digital interactions. We have made significant investments in NDC, both in IATA working groups and in product investment. We are proud to be one of the first PSS to achieve NDC Level 3 certification and will continue to enhance our portfolio to NDC standards as they evolve," said Paul Lynch, Head of Passenger Services, IBS Software.

"As more and more airlines move toward implementing the NDC standard, they will rely heavily upon the ability of their IT partners to support this transition. By achieving NDC Level 3 capable status, IBS Software is demonstrating its strong commitment to helping airlines deliver more value to the air traveller through the NDC Standard," said Yanik Hoyles, IATA Director, NDC Program.

More information on IBS is available at http://www.ibsplc.com

For media enquiries, please contact

Bratati Ghosh

Chief Marketing Officer, IBS

bratati.ghosh@ibsplc.com


DUBLIN, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Research and Marketshas announced the addition of the"Global Smart Home Healthcare Market Size, Share, Development, Growth and Demand Forecast to 2022" report to their offering.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160330/349511LOGO )



The global smart home healthcare market is expected to grow with a CAGR of 38% during 2016 - 2022. Among the various applications, the fall prevention and detection segment is expected to witness the fastest growth during the forecast period. The global smart home healthcare market is growing at a significant rate, due to growing demand for advanced smart home healthcare technologies, and growing geriatric population.



The increasing demand of mobile health (mHealth) technologies and increasing demand of personalized healthcare technologies are also driving the growth of the global smart home healthcare market.



The restraints associated with the growth of the global smart home healthcare market include privacy and security issues; and high capital expenditure. The growing popularity of IoT devices in the home healthcare sector is the major trend witnessed in the smart home healthcare market.



Geographically, North America is expected to maintain dominance in the global market of smart home healthcare during 2016-2022. This is due to due to improved healthcare infrastructure, increased healthcare spending, growing geriatric population, and growing prevalence of chronic and lifestyle associated diseases. In addition, the increased awareness about innovative and advanced applications of smart home healthcare technologies is also supporting the growth of the smart home healthcare Market in North America.

The European smart home healthcare market is growing, mainly due to improved healthcare infrastructure, increasing prevalence of chronic diseases, and growing demand for remote monitoring services. However, the Asian market of smart home healthcare is expected to witness the highest growth globally, during the forecast period. This is due to growing geriatric population and increasing awareness about innovative and advanced applications of the smart home based wireless sensors. Additionally, the increased patient demand and increasing life expectancy are likely to increase IT investments in healthcare industry within the region.

Companies Mentioned:

Abb Ltd

At&T Inc.

Essence Group

General Electric Company

Honeywell Life Care Solutions

Koninklijke Philips N.V.

Schneider Electric Se

Siemens Ag

Smart Solutions

Key Topics Covered:



1. Research Scope & Methodology



2. Executive Summary



3. Market Outlook



4. Global Smart Home Healthcare Market Size and Forecast (2012 - 2022)



5. Global Smart Home Healthcare Market, by Technology



6. Global Smart Home Healthcare Market, by Service



7. Global Smart Home Healthcare Market, by Application



8. Global Smart Home Healthcare Market, by Geography



9. Competitive Analysis



10. Company Profiles and Strategic Developments

For more information visithttp://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/8m8f5p/global_smart_home

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com



For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470

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For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716


AUSTIN, TX -- (Marketwired) -- 06/08/16 -- Inkscreen, experts in secure mobility of enterprise content, today introduced a new version of CAPTOR, a comprehensive new solution that provides IT with a new flexible deployment and data policy enforcement offering for complete control over the capture, security and governance of sensitive business content. Inkscreen will demonstrate the new CAPTOR capabilities for the first time at the Gartner Security and Risk Management Summit, June 13-15, 2016 at The Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, MD.

With CAPTOR, mobile users can securely capture and share their business content -- pictures, videos audio recordings, and scanned documents -- with other apps, other users, or even back them up to a secure corporate database for secure archiving and ongoing enterprise content management. CAPTOR is the first secure mobile data capture technology for enterprise data to give organizations the option to safely govern their mobile data while efficiently managing their mobile content environment, even when there is no enterprise mobility management (EMM) technology deployed.

"Mobile communication and collaboration is accelerating and improving enterprise productivity and growth like no other universal technology since the dawn of the Web 25 years ago" said Josh Bohls, Founder, Inkscreen. "Ask any IT manager, compliance officer or C-level executive what keeps them up at night, and loss of market confidence, competitiveness and compliance resulting from a mobile data breach is near the top of the list. Various products have picked piecemeal at the breadth of mobile security problems, but CAPTOR will close the gaping security holes that mobile content creates."

CAPTOR delivers enterprise mobility management capabilities that lets organizations invoke policies to define and control mobile content capture, sharing and usage, thereby preventing the unauthorized access and storage of sensitive business content while restricting other activities that could adversely impact the organization's regulatory compliance across a broad range of industries and sectors.

CAPTOR is the first solution to seamlessly secure mobile content throughout its entire lifecycle: capture, storage, collaboration, exchange, management and governance. CAPTOR also meets the requirements imposed by nearly any enterprise infrastructure and mobility strategy found in organizations of all industries and size. It operates as a stand-alone solution for organizations without an enterprise mobility management (EMM) system in place, with native configurations and security extensions in line with AppConfig Community standards for VMware AirWatch and IBM MaaS360 environments, and with integrated SDK's from MobileIron and Good Technology/Blackberry.

CAPTOR's advanced mobile content security and governance capabilities help organizations in highly-regulated industries such as healthcare, manufacturing and construction assure compliance with complex regulatory guidelines with features including secure capture, encrypted storage, secure content exchange, digital watermarks, end user captioning, and automated collection of metadata. CAPTOR also provides unique protections for organizations governed by evolving regional security and privacy regulations, such as those potentially affected by the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR).

CAPTOR is an ideal solution for BYOD workplace scenarios: all pictures, videos, document scans, and audio recordings are captured in CAPTOR's secure client-side container app, enabling the organization to fully control and audit sharing, edits, deletions, and privilege changes such as when an employee departs the company or loses their device -- all without affecting the device owner's personal content.

CAPTOR is available now. To request a trial, please visit http://www.inkscreen.com/trial.

About Inkscreen

Inkscreen was founded in 2012 to provide enterprise-ready mobile applications to manage and control sensitive content captured on mobile devices. Company founders have extensive backgrounds in enterprise mobility, Fortune 500 IT consulting, and ERP software. For more information, please visit: http://www.inkscreen.com/

Contact:



Dan Chmielewski

Madison Alexander PR for Inkscreen

714-832-8716

949-231-2965

Email Contact




Important Deal for Boeing StockDuring the month of May, Boeing Co (NYSE:BA) received orders for 268 new airplanes. As of the end of April, the company delivered 230 planes. This puts it ahead of its rival Airbus. However, while Boeing stock has recovered nicely since its February dip, it's still down 8.34% year-to-date. Having said that, now is not the time to be holding back on Boeing stock.In fact, a potentially historic deal with Iran Air is in the works, suggesting Boeing stock could surge sometime before the end of 2016. Investors interested in Boeing should take.

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
DUBLIN, June 08, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Platinum-Group Metals Market in United States: 2016-2020 Review" report to their offering.

The report brings together facts and figures about platinum-group metals market in United States covering period of 2010-2020. Statistics, experts' opinions and estimations are given.

The report about platinum-group metals market in United States covers:

- reserves, mines, production - manufacturers - demand structure, trends - consumers - prices - market forecast

Buying the report means:

- availability of key statistics about platinum-group metals market in United States (historical and forecast) - allocation of country market players, their role in the market - provision of data on demand characteristics - identification of market potential

Key Topics Covered:

1. OVERVIEW OF PLATINUM-GROUP METALS MARKET IN UNITED STATES

2. RESERVES IN UNITED STATES

2.1. Deposits

3. PLATINUM-GROUP METALS SUPPLY IN UNITED STATES

3.1. United States output in 2010-2015

3.2. United States production shares in global market and in regional market (2010-2015)

4. PLATINUM-GROUP METALS DEMAND IN UNITED STATES

5.1. Demand structure, 2015

5.2. United States consumption in 2010-2015

5. PLATINUM-GROUP METALS TRADE IN UNITED STATES

5.1. Export (recent years)

6.2. Import (recent years)

6.3. Annual prices (recent years)

6. FUTURE TRENDS IN PLATINUM-GROUP METALS MARKET TO 2020

6.1. General market forecast

6.2. Platinum-Group Metals output forecast to 2020

6.3. Platinum-Group Metals consumption forecast to 2020

7. PLATINUM-GROUP METALS END-USERS IN UNITED STATES

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/jx64sl/platinumgroup

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com

For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

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VIENNA (dpa-AFX) - French shares drifted lower on Wednesday after mixed Chinese data and amid concerns about the impact the EU Referendum will have on regional economies. German bund yields hit a fresh record low of 0.04 percent on Brexit jitters. On a light day on the economic front, the Bank of France said it expects French economic growth to expand at a slower than previously expected pace in the second quarter after a strong start to the year. GDP is forecast to rise 0.2 percent in three months to June, which reflects a downward revision by 0.1 percentage point. The benchmark CAC 40 was down 18 points or 0.40 percent at 4,458 in late opening deals after rising 1.2 percent on Tuesday in the wake of dovish comments by Fed Chair Janet Yellen, higher oil prices and a slew of upbeat regional data. Franco-Dutch airline Air France - KLM dropped over 1 percent after unveiling passenger traffic figures for May. Electronic payments solutions company Ingenico slumped 4 percent after its rival VeriFone posted disappointing earnings for the second quarter of fiscal 2016. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 06/08/16 -- Lydian International Limited (TSX: LYD) ("Lydian" or "the Company") is pleased to announce a formal decision has been made to proceed with construction at its 100%-owned Amulsar Gold Project in Armenia. This action by the Company's board of directors follows recent receipt of an amended Mining Right from the Republic of Armenia and the previously announced closings of a C$38.3 million public offering and US$80 million in private placements.

The development plan for Amulsar demonstrates a compelling opportunity for value generation. Upon completion, Amulsar is expected to be the largest gold mine in Armenia, producing an average of 243,000 ounces of gold per year over the initial five years of operations. With this scale of production and a 10-year life-of-mine total cash cost estimated at US$509/gold ounce, Amulsar will be a highly profitable operation. First gold pour is expected within approximately 20 months from the start of construction. Lydian will also be evaluating future expansion potential from currently defined inferred mineral resources and, ultimately, from open extensions at depth.

Financing for Amulsar has been established, most notably through the comprehensive US$325 million financing package announced in late 2015 (see Lydian's news release, dated December 1, 2015). Amulsar's construction capital is estimated at US$370 million. Funding for more than 80% of this is in place; equipment financing is expected to fill in the remainder.

Howard Stevenson, Lydian's President and CEO, stated, "Lydian is now rapidly advancing on a number of fronts to achieve a summer start to construction at Amulsar. Basic engineering is advancing and we plan to tender several key contracts during the coming weeks in anticipation of breaking ground. We expect to accomplish a number of milestones this year and will outline our path forward at Lydian's upcoming annual meeting."

About Lydian International Limited

Lydian is an emerging gold developer, focused on its 100%-owned Amulsar Gold Project, located in south-central Armenia. The Company's current mine development and construction plan for Amulsar is aimed at achieving average production greater than 200,000 ounces of gold per year and establishing the Company as a high cash-flow producer. The Company is committed to best practices in all aspects of its operations including production, sustainability, and good corporate citizenry. For more information and to directly contact us, please visit www.lydianinternational.co.uk.

Caution regarding forward-looking information

Certain information contained in this news release is "forward looking". All statements in this news release, other than statements of historical fact, that address events, results, outcomes or developments that the Company expects to occur are "forward-looking statements". Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects", "intends", "anticipates" or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "will", "may", "could", "would", "should", or "occur" or the negative connotation of such terms. Forward-looking statements in this news release include, among others, statements with respect to: construction of the Amulsar Gold Project, including the cost and timing thereof; timing of key contract tenders; timing of the Amulsar Gold Project's first gold pour; future expansions and extensions; future financing arrangements and the ability to access funds under existing arrangements; the timing and results of future value generation as a result of developing the Amulsar Gold Project; the level of production, including average ounces of gold per year; cash costs per gold ounce; and future profitability and the timing thereof.

All forward-looking statements in this news release are based on the opinions and estimates made as of the date of such statements and are made and are subject to important risk factors and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's ability to control or predict. The forward-looking statements in this news release are subject to the following assumptions: the satisfaction or waiver of all conditions precedent of the private placements; and the satisfaction or waiver of all escrow release conditions.

Forward-looking statements are necessarily based on estimates and assumptions that are inherently subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risks, uncertainties and factors include, without limitation: changes in gold and silver prices; adverse general economic, market or business conditions; regulatory changes; as well as "Risk Factors" included in the disclosure documents filed on and available at www.sedar.com. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, and actual results and future events could materially differ from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. All of the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are qualified by these cautionary statements. The Company expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, events or otherwise, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

Cautionary Note Concerning Estimates of Inferred Mineral Resources

This news release uses terms that comply with reporting standards in Canada and certain estimates are made in accordance with National Instrument 43-101, which is a rule developed by the Canadian Securities Administrators that establishes Canadian standards for all public disclosure an issuer makes of scientific and technical information concerning mineral projects. These standards differ significantly from the requirements of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), and mineral resource information contained herein may not be comparable to similar information disclosed by United States companies. This news release uses the term "inferred mineral resources", and we advise United States investors that while such term is recognized and required by Canadian regulations, the SEC does not recognize this term. United States investors are cautioned not to assume that any part or all of the mineral deposits in such categories will ever be converted into mineral reserves under SEC definitions. This term has a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence, and great uncertainty as to their economic and legal feasibility. Therefore, United States investors are also cautioned not to assume that all or any part of "inferred mineral resources" exist. In accordance with Canadian rules, estimates of "inferred mineral resources" cannot form the basis of pre-feasibility or other economic studies. It cannot be assumed that all or any part of the "inferred mineral resources" will ever be upgraded to a higher category.

Financial Definitions-Non-GAAP Measures

"Total Cash Costs" figures are non-GAAP measures which are calculated in accordance with a standard developed by The Gold Institute, a worldwide association of suppliers of gold and gold products and included leading gold producers from North America that ceased operations in 2002. Adoption of the standard is voluntary and the cost measures presented may or may not be comparable to other similarly titled measures from other gold companies. Total cash costs for Lydian were calculated and defined to include the addition of mining costs, processing costs, general and administrative costs, off site refining and transportation of bullion costs, the Newmont royalty, and the Armenian mining royalty tax on gross revenues. The sum of these components are reduced by the estimate of by-product credits. This sum is then divided by tonnes of ore or ounces of gold to attain Total Cash Costs on a per tonne ore or per ounce of gold basis. These measures are considered to be key indicators of a Company's ability to generate operating earnings and cash flow from its mining operations. This data is furnished to provide additional information and is a non-GAAP measure specific to the gold mining industry. Total cash costs do not have standardized definitions under GAAP and may not be comparable to other measures. It should not be considered in isolation as a substitute for other measures of performance and it is not necessarily indicative of operating costs presented under GAAP.

Contacts:

Lydian International Limited

Howard Stevenson

President and CEO

+1 720-307-5080 (d)

+1 775-771-0739 (m)



Lydian International Limited

Doug Tobler

CFO

+1 720-307-5087 (d)

+1 303-905-4442 (m)



Lydian International Limited

moreinfo@Lydianinternational.co.uk




The mining and resources sector is beginning to wake up to the potential of solar+storage at offgrid sites to reduce diesel consumption, deliver more reliable electricity, and result in operational savings. The 10.6 MW DeGrussa solar project, located at a copper and gold mine operated by Sandfire Resources in Western Australia, was inaugurated today and marks a landmark project in the sector. The DeGrussa solar+storage array is both the largest offgrid solar project in Australia and the largest solar array to provide peak power at a mine site globally. Juwi Renewable Energy was the EPC on the DeGrussa project, which deploys single axis tracking. A 6 MW lithium-ion battery has been coupled with the array. The solar+storage system has been integrated with a 19 MW diesel generator, supplying the underground mine and mining processing operation with baseload power during daylight hours. juwi has been retained as the O&M provider. The DeGrussa system is designed to reduce the mine site's diesel consumption by 20%. French renewable developer Neoen will own the Degrussa array, which was financed by the Australian government's Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) and partly through a grant from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA). "This is a clear example of renewables providing substantial, reliable results for one of Australia's largest ...

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 06/08/16 -- Midokura, the global innovator in software network virtualization, today announced $20.4 million in Series B funding in response to continued demand for its award-winning network virtualization technology Midokura Enterprise MidoNet (MEM).

Series B funding participation came from Japanese Fintech company Simplex Inc., and existing investors Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ) and Allen Miner, a member of Midokura's board of directors. The new funding brings Midokura's total investment to over $44 million to date.

"Midokura aims to fundamentally transform and automate networking for any public, private or hybrid cloud and container deployment. We are delighted to have the support of our investors in our $20 million Series B funding round, and are poised to build upon our success," said Dan Dumitriu, co-founder and CEO of Midokura. "We look forward to further developing our globally adopted MEM network virtualization technology to support the world's appetite for microservices and IoT connected devices, as well as growing our team, strategic business partnerships and valuable channel alliances."

Midokura technology is the network overlay of choice for the enterprise and a leader in the container orchestration ecosystem. The new round of funding will be used to address market demand to continue to provide 24/7 enterprise-grade support for its globally popular MEM solution. Specifically, funds will be used to build upon and accelerate product development, expand the company's executive and development teams and secure new partnerships with industry leaders.

As leading organizations, including Midokura customers Blue Jeans Networks, Overstock.com, Puppet and SysEleven, and Midokura partners including Dell and Fujitsu continue to rapidly adopt OpenStack and container orchestration ecosystems, the demand for network virtualization or Software Defined Networking (SDN) solutions, such as MEM, to make the most of their investments, continues to grow. According to IDC, the global SDN market will have a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 53.9 percent from 2014 to 2020 and will be worth nearly $12.5 billion in 2020.(1)

"The network is the enabler of a connected lifestyle, including connected cars and connected devices," says Tatsuya Kato, co-founder and chairman of Midokura. "With the wholesale re-imagination of global industries, from commerce to financial, travel and transportation, software gives rise to a new class of applications that demands higher levels of network agility and performance. Midokura is on a mission to deliver on the demand via our unique approach to network virtualization and make MidoNet the preferred virtual networking solution everywhere."

Midokura's MEM technology offers an intelligent, software-based network abstraction layer between the hosts and the physical network, by decoupling the IaaS cloud from the network hardware. In turn, operators can build isolated networks in software to overlay the existing hardware-based network infrastructure. The open source version of its core MidoNet technology is quickly gaining in popularity among organizations of all sizes in more 120 countries.

To learn more about MEM and to register for a free trial, visit: www.midokura.com/midonet-enterprise. To learn more about open source MidoNet, go to: www.midonet.org.

Supporting Quotes

"Network virtualization and SDN is a huge market poised for exponential growth. Midokura has a savvy executive team focused on staying on the forefront of this market. A game-changing vision, laser-like focus and A-team are the tenets of a great startup, and this is what I see in Midokura. The company continues to disrupt the market, and I look forward to its future successes."

-- Allen Miner, Investor and Board Member, Midokura

"Simplex Inc. has been providing IT solution services to help major Japanese financial companies drive profit-making activities since the company was founded in 1997. Through our investment in Midokura, a global company who offers cutting-edge network virtualization technologies, we are excited to now offer even more value-added services to this community."

-- Hideki Kaneko, CEO, Simplex Inc.

"As a lead investor, INCJ has been supporting the Midokura team, who have been innovating with its unique network virtualization software technology in the SDN market. With this Series B funding, I am excited to see Midokura enter the next stage of the company to strengthen its product competitiveness and to expand its business globally, not only becoming a leading startup founded in Japan."

-- Mikihide Katsumata, President, Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ)

"As enterprises worldwide pursue digital transformation, they inevitably realize that the underlying network infrastructure must also be transformed significantly. Network virtualization and SDN provide the network with the agility and flexibility it needs to support hybrid cloud initiatives and next-generation workloads based on containers and microservices. As a network virtualization vendor, Midokura understands these market dynamics and customer requirements, and this new round of funding will help it scale the business accordingly."

-- Brad Casemore, Director of Research for Datacenter Networking, IDC

Tweet This: Midokura secures $20M Series B funding to support growing demand for its NetworkVirtualization technology worldwide http://bit.ly/25mN73D

Resources

Midokura

MidoNet Community Site

Midokura Enterprise MidoNet (MEM) Free Trial

Midokura Twitter

MidoNet Twitter





About Midokura

Founded in 2010, Midokura was an early global leader in network virtualization. The company's pedigree includes Amazon, Cisco, Google and VMware. With its Midokura Enterprise MidoNet (MEM) solution, Midokura offers the industry a complete overlay technology that integrates with cloud platforms, such as OpenStack. Now gaining awareness in 122 countries, the source code for MidoNet is freely available at www.midonet.org. MidoNet delivers the first truly open, vendor-agnostic network virtualization solution available to the OpenStack community. Midokura is a contributing member of the OpenStack Networking (Neutron) Project and the Kuryr Project.

Midokura has offices in San Francisco, Tokyo and Barcelona, and is on the web at www.midokura.com. Follow us on Twitter: @midokura.

About Simplex Inc.

Simplex provide the financial IT solutions focused on "the realm of Financial Frontier", which we define as the IT investment where financial companies strategically focus to maximize their profit. In capital markets, we provide wide variety of dealing applications covering most financial products such as the front-middle system which was chosen by major banks and the bond front-system which was adopted by eight (8) major securities companies. In retail, Simplex is proud to have the No.1 market share to provide FX (foreign exchange margin transactions) systems with the most advanced dealing engine.

About Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ)

INCJ was established in July 2009 as a public-private partnership that provides financial, technological and management support for next-generation businesses. INCJ specifically supports those projects that combine technologies and varied expertise across industries and materialize open innovation. INCJ has the capacity to invest up to  2 trillion (approx. US $20 billion).

INCJ's management team is drawn from the private sector with diverse experience in investment, technologies and management. Through its Innovation Network Committee, INCJ assesses investment opportunities that contribute to industrial innovation in Japan in line with criteria set by the government.

(1) IDC, SDN Market to Gain Enterprise Headway, Driven by 3rd Platform and Cloud, Doc # US40628315, Nov 2015

Media Contacts



United States

Lila Razzaqui

Kulesa Faul, Inc. for Midokura

(650) 825-5452

Email Contact



APAC

Akane Matsuo

Midokura

+81 (0)50-6865-3261

Email Contact




MILL VALLEY, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 06/08/16 -- Glassdoor, the world's most transparent jobs and recruiting marketplace, has announced the winners of its annual Employees' Choice Awards honoring the Highest Rated CEOs in 2016 across North America and parts of Europe. Unlike any other workplace awards, the Glassdoor Employees' Choice Awards are based solely on the input of employees who voluntarily provide anonymous feedback, by completing a company review, on whether they approve or disapprove of their CEO, along with insight into their job, work environment and employer over the past year.

This year, Glassdoor has expanded its Employees' Choice Awards across six countries, honoring the Highest Rated CEOs across the U.S., Canada, UK, France, Germany and the Netherlands. In addition, there are two categories in the U.S.: 50 Highest Rated CEOs (honoring CEOs at employers with 1,000 or more employees) and 25 Highest Rated CEOs at Small & Medium Companies (honoring CEOs at employers with less than 1,000 employees). Winners are ranked based on their overall CEO approval rating from employees during the past year. For reporting simplicity, approval ratings are rounded to the nearest whole number though actual calculations extend beyond the thousandth to determine rank.

The top five Highest Rated CEOs in 2016 in the U.S. are:

1. Bain & Company's Bob Bechek (99 percent approval) 2. Ultimate Software's Scott Scherr (99 percent approval) 3. McKinsey & Company's Dominic Barton (99 percent approval) 4. Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg (97 percent approval) 5. LinkedIn's Jeff Weiner (97 percent approval)

The top five Highest Rated CEOs at Small & Medium Companies in 2016 in the U.S. are:

1. Madwire's Joe Kellogg & JB Kellogg (99 percent approval) 2. Justworks' Isaac Oates (99 percent approval) 3. StormWind Studios' Tom Graunke (99 percent approval) 4. EverFi's Tom Davidson (99 percent approval) 5. SailPoint Technologies' Mark McClain (99 percent approval)

"The Glassdoor Employees' Choice Awards honor CEOs that stand out for having gained the support and approval of their workforce -- no easy task for any leader," said Robert Hohman, Glassdoor CEO and co-founder. "I am proud to expand these awards to new markets as incredible leaders are found around the world and are not limited by boundaries or borders. I congratulate all of the winners on this significant achievement."

Glassdoor's 50 Highest Rated CEOs in 2016 features business leaders across diverse industries, spanning technology, consulting, biotech and pharmaceuticals, consumer goods, travel and tourism, retail and more. Bain & Company's Bob Bechek (No. 1, 99 percent approval) is among 22 CEOs debuting as a Highest Rated CEO, along with Nestle Purina PetCare's Joseph R. Sivewright (No. 9, 96 percent approval), NBCUniversal's Stephen B. Burke (No. 39, 93 percent approval) and lululemon's Laurent Potdevin (No. 48, 92 percent approval) among others. Google, whose former CEO Larry Page ranked No. 1 last year (97 percent approval), takes No. 7 this year under new CEO Sundar Pichai (96 percent approval). Four women CEOs also make the top 50 this year, including In-N-Out Burger's Lynsi Snyder (No. 17, 95 percent approval), Staffmark's Lesa J. Francis (No. 28, 94 percent approval), Enterprise Holdings' Pamela Nicholson (No. 31, 94 percent approval) and Deloitte's Cathy Engelbert (No. 42, 93 percent approval).

On the 2016 list of the 25 Highest Rated CEOs at Small & Medium Companies, the top five CEOs are all newcomers to this list.

Employees' Choice Award winners for the 2016 Highest Rated CEOs and Highest Rated CEOs at Small and Medium Companies lists are determined using Glassdoor's proprietary algorithm, taking into account the quantity and consistency of Glassdoor-approved company reviews shared by U.S.-based employees between May 2, 2015 and May 1, 2016. To be considered, employers eligible for the large list must have received at least 100 company reviews, including at least 100 CEO approval ratings and at least 100 senior management ratings, while companies eligible for the small & medium list must have received at least 35 company reviews, including at least 35 CEO approval ratings and at least 35 senior management ratings, respectively, during the eligibility period. Complete methodology can be found and downloaded here: https://www.glassdoor.com/Awards-and-Trends/about-employees-choice-awards.htm

When an employee submits a company review on Glassdoor, he or she is asked to share their opinion on some of the best reasons to work for their employer (pros), any downsides (cons), and are encouraged to provide advice to management. Employees are also asked to rate several factors tied to their employment experience, including sentiment around their CEO's leadership, in addition to rating their overall satisfaction with their employer, and workplace attributes like senior management among others. Specifically, when rating their CEO on Glassdoor, employees are able to choose from one of three options: approve, disapprove or no opinion of the CEO.

SEE THE 2016 WINNERS: All winning CEOs across this year's seven categories can be found by visiting:

50 Highest Rated CEOs - U.S.

25 Highest Rated CEOs at Small and Medium Companies - U.S.

25 Highest Rated CEOs - Canada

25 Highest Rated CEOs - UK

10 Highest Rated CEOs - France

10 Highest Rated CEOs - Germany

10 Highest Rated CEOs - The Netherlands





Workplace/office photos and employee commentary about winning CEOs, their senior management team and company culture are also available upon request. Please email: pr@glassdoor.com.

About Glassdoor

Glassdoor is the most transparent jobs and recruiting marketplace that is changing how people search for jobs and how companies recruit top talent. Glassdoor combines free and anonymous reviews, ratings and salary content with job listings to help job seekers find the best jobs and address critical questions that come up during the job search, application, interview and negotiation phases of employment. For employers, Glassdoor offers job posting, recruiting and employer branding solutions to help attract high-quality candidates at a fraction of the cost of other channels. In addition, Glassdoor operates one of the most popular job apps on iOS and Android platforms. Launched in 2008, Glassdoor has raised approximately $200 million from Google Capital, Tiger Global, Benchmark, Battery Ventures, Sutter Hill Ventures, DAG Ventures, Dragoneer Investment Group, funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. and others.

(c) 2016 Glassdoor, Inc. Glassdoor is a registered trademark of Glassdoor, Inc.
Switching data on Benepali (etanercept), Flixabi (infliximab) and SB5 (adalimumab) investigational biosimilar candidate shows sustained comparable efficacy and safety profiles after switching from reference product to biosimilar version

Long-term data shows Benepali (etanercept) and Flixabi (infliximab) sustain comparable efficacy and safety profiles to etanercept and infliximab reference products up to Week 100 and Week 78, respectively

In one-year Phase III study, SB5 (adalimumab) investigational biosimilar candidate demonstrates comparable efficacy and safety profile to adalimumab reference product

Samsung Bioepis to operate booth and host satellite symposium on biosimilars

Samsung Bioepis Co., Ltd. today announced new clinical data on its anti-TNF-a portfolio of Benepali (etanercept), Flixabi (infliximab) and SB5 (adalimumab) investigational biosimilar candidate. The data will be presented through seven poster presentations and an abstract publication at the Annual European Congress on Rheumatology (EULAR 2016), which is being held between June 8-11, 2016 in London, United Kingdom. Samsung Bioepis will also operate a booth and host a satellite symposium.

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Christopher Hansung Ko, President CEO of Samsung Bioepis (Photo: Business Wire)

The poster presentations include switching data for the three Samsung Bioepis anti-TNF-a biosimilar molecules. The 100-, 78- and 52-week Phase III studies for Benepali, Flixabiand SB5, respectively, demonstrated comparable efficacy and safety profiles after transitioning from the reference product to the biosimilar version.

"Payers and healthcare providers must be given sufficient clinical evidence, so that they can make informed decisions when deciding whether to switch to a biosimilar treatment option," said Christopher Hansung Ko, President CEO of Samsung Bioepis. "Our clinical studies have demonstrated that transitioning from a reference product to its biosimilar version yields comparable outcomes with regards to both the efficacy and safety of treatment."

Chul Kim, Vice President and Head of the Medical Lifecycle Safety Team at Samsung Bioepis, added, "Long-term clinical data is essential for anti-TNF-a medicines, as chronic patients suffering from autoimmune diseases require treatment over an extended period of time that can last many years. We hope that our new clinical evidence on switching, as well as long-term efficacy and safety, will assist physicians in their daily decision making process and ultimately help benefit the quality of patient care."

Highlights of the data are as follows:

Benepali (etanercept), also known as SB4

In a randomized, double-blind 100-week Phase III study, 596 patients with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis were treated with either weekly dose of subcutaneous 50 mg SB4 or etanercept with background methotrexate. After 52 weeks, 245 patients participated in the extension study. 126 patients continued to receive SB4 (SB4/ SB4) and 119 patients switched from etanercept to SB4 (etanercept/SB4). Among them, 119 (94.4%) patients of SB4/SB4 and 113 (95.0%) patients of etanercept/SB4 completed the 100-week treatment. At Week 100, the efficacy, safety and immunogenicity profiles remained comparable between SB4/SB4 and etanercept/SB4 with ACR20 response rates of 77.9% and 79.1%, respectively. There were no treatment emergent issues, such as loss of efficacy, increase in adverse events or increase in immunogenicity.

Flixabi(infliximab), also known as SB2

In a randomized, double-blind 78-week Phase III study, 584 patients with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis were randomized in a 1:1 ratio to receive either SB2 or infliximab. At Week 54, 396 patients were re-randomized. 94 patients from infliximab were transitioned to SB2 (infliximab/SB2), 101 patients from infliximab continued to receive infliximab (infliximab/infliximab) and 201 patients from SB2continued to receive SB2 (SB2/SB2). Up to Week 78, the efficacy, safety and immunogenicity profiles remained comparable between the infliximab/SB2, infliximab/infliximab and SB2/SB2. There were no treatment emergent issues or clinically relevant immunogenicity.

SB5 (adalimumab) investigational biosimilar candidate

In a 52-week Phase III study, 508 patients with rheumatoid arthritis were randomized in a 1:1 ratio to receive either SB5 or adalimumab 40 mg every other week via subcutaneous injection. At Week 24, 254 patients from SB5 continued to receive SB5 (SB5/SB5), 125 patients from adalimumab were transitioned to SB5 (adalimumab/SB5) and 129 patients from adalimumab continued to receive adalimumab (adalimumab/adalimumab). At Week 52, the efficacy, safety and immunogenicity profiles remained comparable between SB5/SB5, adalimumab/SB5 and adalimumab/adalimumab with ACR20 response rates of 76.9%, 81.1% and 71.2%, respectively. There were no treatment emergent issues or clinically relevant immunogenicity precipitated by switching. After transition up to Week 52, the incidence of anti-drug antibody was 15.7% in SB5/SB5, 16.8% in adalimumab/SB5 and 18.3% in adalimumab/adalimumab.

The seven poster presentations and one abstract publication are as follows:

Benepali (etanercept), also known as SB4

LONG-TERM SAFETY AND EFFICACY OF SB4 (ETANERCEPT BIOSIMILAR) IN PATIENTS WITH RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS: COMPARISON BETWEEN CONTINUING SB4 AND SWITCHING FROM ETANERCEPT REFERENCE PRODUCT TO SB4 [POSTER SESSION: THU0150, June 9, 2016 at 11:45]

Flixabi (infliximab), also known as SB2

COMPARABLE SAFETY AND IMMUNOGENICITY AND SUSTAINED EFFICACY AFTER TRANSITION TO SB2 (AN INFLIXIMAB BIOSIMILAR) VS ONGOING INFLIXIMAB REFERENCE PRODUCT IN PATIENTS WITH RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS: RESULTS OF PHASE III TRANSITION STUDY [POSTER TOUR: FRI0162, June 10, 2016 at 11:50]

EFFICACY AND SAFETY ANALYSIS BY OVERALL ANTI-DRUG ANTIBODY RESULTS UP TO WEEK 30 IN PATIENTS WITH RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS TREATED WITH SB2 (AN INFLIXIMAB BIOSIMILAR) OR INFLIXIMAB REFERENCE PRODUCT IN PHASE III STUDY [POSTER SESSION: THU0140, June 9, 2016 at 11:45]

THE 54-WEEK RESULTS OF INTERFERON-G RELEASE ASSAY IN A PHASE III STUDY COMPARING SB2, AN INFLIXIMAB BIOSIMILAR, TO INFLIXIMAB REFERENCE PRODUCT IN PATIENTS WITH RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS [POSTER SESSION: THU0149, June 9, 2016 at 11:45]

SB5 (adalimumab) investigational biosimilar candidate

SUSTAINED EFFICACY AND COMPARABLE SAFETY AND IMMUNOGENICITY AFTER TRANSITION TO SB5 (AN ADALIMUMAB BIOSIMILAR) VS CONTINUATION OF THE ADALIMUMAB REFERENCE PRODUCT IN PATIENTS WITH RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS: RESULT OF PHASE III STUDY [POSTER TOUR: FRI0161, June 10, 2016 at 11:50]

SECONDARY EFFICACY RESULTS UP TO WEEK 24 FROM A PHASE III STUDY COMPARING SB5 (AN ADALIMUMAB BIOSIMIAR) WITH ADALIMUMAB REFERENCE PRODUCT IN PATIENTS WITH MODERATE TO SEVERE RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS DESPITE METHOTREXATE THERAPY [POSTER SESSION: THU0138, June 9, 2016 at 11:45]

IMPACT OF ANTI-DRUG ANTIBODIES ON EFFICACY AND SAFETY UP TO WEEK 24 FROM A PHASE III STUDY COMPARING SB5 (AN ADALIMUMAB BIOSIMILAR) WITH ADALIMUMAB REFERENCE PRODUCT IN PATIENTS WITH MODERATE TO SEVERE RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS DESPITE METHOTREXATE THERAPY [POSTER SESSION: THU0146, June 9, 2016 at 11:45]

A PHASE I PHARMACOKINETIC STUDY COMPARING PRE-FILLED PEN AND PRE-FILLED SYRINGE OF SB5, AN ADALIMUMAB BIOSIMILAR IN HEALTHY SUBJECTS [ABSTRACT PUBLICATION]

Samsung Bioepis will operate a booth at the Annual European Congress on Rheumatology (EULAR 2016), where visitors can learn about the company. The booth will be located in Stand 200, Hall S16, South Event Halls (Level 1) of ExCeL London

Samsung Bioepis will also host a satellite symposium, titled, Biosimilars: Your questions answered, which will address key questions regarding biosimilars and their impact on the management of rheumatoid arthritis. The symposium will take place between 8:15-9:45 on June 10, 2016 in Room 7, ICC Capital Suite of ExCeL London. Topics include:

What do you think about biosimilars?

How does Samsung Bioepis rapidly develop and manufacture high quality biosimilars?

How are biosimilars regulated and monitored?

How can clinicians interpret biosimilar studies?

What if biologics were readily available?

About Samsung Bioepis Co., Ltd.

Established in 2012, Samsung Bioepis is a biopharmaceutical company committed to realizing healthcare that is accessible to everyone. Through innovations in product development and a firm commitment to quality, Samsung Bioepis aims to become the world's leading biopharmaceutical company. Samsung Bioepis continues to advance a broad pipeline of 13 biosimilar candidates that include six first-wave product candidates that cover the therapeutic areas of immunology, oncology and diabetes. Samsung Bioepis is a joint venture between Samsung BioLogics and Biogen. For more information, please visit: www.samsungbioepis.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160608005570/en/

Contacts:

Samsung Bioepis Co., Ltd.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Mingi Hyun, +82-32-455-6128

mingi.hyun@samsung.com

INVESTOR CONTACT:

Kwang Ryu, +82-32-455-6149

kwang1.ryu@samsung.com
SUGAR LAND, TX -- (Marketwired) -- 06/08/16 -- Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas) is pleased to be presenting a complimentary online webinar focusing on trends in the Global Power Industry. The webinar will be held June 14, 2016, at 9:00 a.m. CDT (10:00 a.m. EDT).

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The webinar is entirely complimentary and participants will receive a link for "on demand" viewing after the event. Make sure to RSVP today!

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Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, five offices in North America and 10 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities. To contact an office in your area, visit www.industrialinfo.com.

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VANCOUVER, BC--(Marketwired - June 08, 2016) - Balmoral Resources Ltd. ("Balmoral" or the "Company") (TSX: BAR) (OTCQX: BALMF) today reported the final results from the winter 2016 drill program on the Company's Martiniere Property, part of the Detour Trend Project in Quebec. The Upper Bug Lake Zone returned gold mineralized intervals ranging from 25.02 to 48.46 metres wide, starting at less than 100 metres vertical depth, from four of five holes along the southern segment of the Bug Lake Trend. The Upper Bug Lake Zone in the fifth hole, MDE-16-206 was disrupted by a dyke but returned a high grade intercept of 7.16 g/t gold over 1.08 metres at the base of the Zone.

Drilling continues to intersect high-grade (>3 g/t) gold mineralization within the Upper Bug Lake and Hanging Wall Porphyry ("HWP") Zones, including results of 3.44 g/t gold over 7.14 metres and 3.14 g/t gold over 8.76 metres from the Upper Bug Lake Zone in holes MDE-16-209 and MDE-16-210 respectively (see Figures 1, 2 and 3 and Table 1 below).

"Today's results cover a 375 metre long segment of the southern Bug Lake Trend and continue to illustrate the broad nature of the Upper Bug Lake Gold Zone in the near surface. As well all holes successfully intersected high grade intervals within the core of the Upper Bug Lake and HWP Zones," said Darin Wagner, President and CEO of Balmoral. "Two drills are set to return to the Property and begin further expansion of the Bug Lake Gold Zones, and broader Martiniere gold system, within the next two weeks."

Table 1: Bug Lake South Results

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hole Northing Easting Dip From To Number (Degrees) (Metres) (Metres) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MDE-16-206 3+00S 1+00W -50 223.70 238.55 including 226.87 228.05 and 232.55 234.05 315.00 316.08 335.37 344.02 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MDE-16-207 2+50S 2+60W -50 98.86 100.88 112.32 160.78 including 116.56 118.92 and 127.08 129.41 264.38 275.09 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MDE-16-208 4+50S 2+70W -54 131.40 156.42 including 132.6 134.05 and 142.94 143.94 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MDE-16-209 1+25S 2+80W -45 21.45 24.00 56.40 100.00 including 75.70 98.72 which includes 80.54 87.68 which includes 86.63 87.68 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MDE-16-210 1+25S 2+80W -56 18.01 22.14 88.31 133.10 including 92.02 100.78 which includes 96.27 97.14 including 119.77 121.13 184.82 195.56 including 184.82 185.63 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hole Interval* Gold Zone Number (Metres) (g/t) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MDE-16-206 14.85 1.64 HWP including 1.18 6.37 " and 1.50 6.18 " 1.08 7.16 U Bug Lk 8.65 0.67 L Bug Lk ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MDE-16-207 2.02 0.84 48.46 1.15 HWP+U Bug Lk including 2.36 3.44 HWP and 2.33 3.20 U Bug Lk 10.71 0.30 - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MDE-16-208 25.02 1.23 U and L Bug Lk including 1.45 8.60 U Bug Lk and 1.00 12.00 U Bug Lk ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MDE-16-209 2.55 0.18 Zinc Zone 43.60 1.41 U Bug Lk including 23.02 2.34 " which includes 7.14 3.44 " which includes 1.05 8.46 " ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MDE-16-210 4.13 0.21 Zinc Zone 44.79 1.18 U Bug Lk including 8.76 3.14 " which includes 0.87 15.00 " including 1.36 3.25 " 10.74 0.44 L Bug Lk including 0.81 3.25 " ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

* Reported drill intercepts are not true widths. At this time there is insufficient data with respect to the shape of the mineralization to calculate true orientations in space. All values presented uncapped.

Drill hole MDE-16-207 tested the central portion of a wedge created by the intersection of the Upper Bug Lake and HWP Zones, intersecting a broad zone of gold mineralization with higher grade sub-zones associated with both the HWP contact, and the Upper Bug Lake Zone. Drill holes MDE-16-209 and MDE-16-210 both collared into a new, sediment hosted zone of anomalous gold and zinc mineralization. Hole MDE-16-209 returned 0.45% zinc and 0.18 g/t gold over 2.55 metres from the bedrock collar (21.45 metres). Hole MDE-16-210 returned 0.62% zinc and 0.21 g/t gold over 4.13 metres also from the bedrock collar at 18.01 metres down hole.

Three holes were also drilled into areas of complex geology toward the northern end of the Bug Lake Trend (see Figure 1). Holes MDE-16-211 and MDE-16-212 each intersected multiple intervals of anomalous gold mineralization associated with the extensive felsic porphyry dyking, including several intervals located west of the projected trace of the Bug Lake Trend suggesting the potential for additional zones of gold mineralization in this area. Hole MDE-16-213 was collared along the northern margin of the Lac du Doigt ("Finger Lake") Fault Zone to aid in summer target delineation along and north of this structure. It returned high-grade gold mineralization from a zone of shearing and quartz veining at approximately 32 metres vertical depth highlighting the potential of this new target environment.

Table 2: Northern Bug Lake Gold Trend, Martiniere Property

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hole Northing Easting Dip From To Number (Degrees) (Metres) (Metres) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MDE-16-211 5+25N 6+20W -50 131.03 144.92 294.46 305.48 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MDE-16-212 2+75N 3+90W -50 140.53 144.55 186.02 187.70 194.13 202.14 227.00 245.87 271.97 281.66 including 273.47 274.13 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MDE-16-213 6+50N 5+15W -45 40.37 41.29 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hole Interval* Gold Zone Number (Metres) (g/t) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MDE-16-211 13.89 0.28 - 11.02 0.47 L Bug Lk? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MDE-16-212 4.02 0.42 1.68 2.50 L Bug Lk? 8.01 0.37 18.87 0.11 9.69 1.14 including 0.66 7.59 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MDE-16-213 0.92 3.04 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

* Reported drill intercepts are not true widths. At this time there is insufficient data with respect to the shape of the mineralization to calculate true orientations in space. All values presented uncapped.

The fully funded, summer-fall $4.0 million, 20,000 metre diamond drill program for the Detour Trend Project is anticipated to commence within the next two weeks with two drills initially focused on expanding the known gold zones along the Bug Lake Trend.

Quality Control

Mr. Darin Wagner (P.Geo.), President and CEO of the Company, is the non-independent qualified person for the technical disclosure contained in this news release. Mr. Wagner has supervised the work programs on the Martiniere Property, visited the properties on multiple occasions, examined the drill core and/or photographs from the holes summarized in this release, discussed, reviewed the results with senior on-site geological staff and reviewed the available analytical and quality control results.

Balmoral has implemented a quality control program for all of its drill programs, to ensure best practice in the sampling and analysis of the drill core, which includes the insertion of blind blanks, duplicates and certified standards into the sample stream. NQ sized drill core is saw cut with half of the drill core sampled at intervals based on geological criteria including lithology, visual mineralization and alteration. The remaining half of the core is stored on-site at the Company's Martiniere field camp in Central Quebec. Drill core samples are transported in sealed bags to ALS Minerals' Val d'Or, Quebec analytical facilities. Gold analyses are obtained via industry standard fire assay with atomic absorption finish using 30 g aliquots. For samples returning greater than 5.00 g/t gold follow-up fire assay analysis with a gravimetric finish is completed. The Company has also requested that any samples returning greater than 10.00 g/t gold undergo screen metallic fire assay. Following receipt of assays, visual analysis of mineralized intercepts is conducted and additional analysis may be requested. ALS Minerals is ISO 9001:2008 certified and the Val d'Or facilities are ISO 17025 certified for gold analysis. In addition all results are subjected to independent, third party QA/QC review prior to publication.

About Balmoral Resources Ltd. -- www.balmoralresources.com

Balmoral is a well-funded, Canadian-based company actively delineating and expanding the high-grade Bug Lake Gold Trend on its wholly owned, 700 square kilometre Detour Trend Project in Quebec, Canada. Employing an award winning exploration team, Balmoral has a philosophy of creating value through the drill bit. By focusing our efforts in proven productive precious/base metal belts in one of the world's preeminent mining jurisdictions, Balmoral is following an established formula with a goal of maximizing shareholder value through discovery and definition of high-grade, Canadian gold and base metal assets.

On behalf of the board of directors of

BALMORAL RESOURCES LTD.

"Darin Wagner"

President and CEO

This press release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian and United States securities laws. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein, including statements regarding the anticipated content, commencement, duration and cost of exploration programs, anticipated exploration program results, the discovery and delineation of mineral deposits/resources/reserves, the timing of the receipt of assay results, and business and financing plans and trends, the potentially open nature of the mineralized zones on the property and the potential for future discoveries of additional mineralization on the property are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as: believe, expect, anticipate, intend, estimate, postulate and similar expressions or are those which, by their nature, refer to future events. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. The Company cautions investors that any forward-looking statements by the Company are not guarantees of future performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual events and results to differ materially from the Company's expectations include those related to weather, equipment and staff availability; performance of third parties; risks related to the exploration stage of the Company's projects; market fluctuations in prices for securities of exploration stage companies and in commodity prices; and uncertainties about the availability of additional financing; risks related to the Company's ability to identify one or more economic deposits on the properties, and variations in the nature, quality and quantity of any mineral deposits that may be located on the properties; risks related to the Company's ability to obtain any necessary permits, consents or authorizations required for its activities on the properties; and risks related to the Company's ability to produce minerals from the properties successfully or profitably. Trading in the securities of the Company should be considered highly speculative.All of the Company's public disclosure filings may be accessed via www.sedar.com and readers are urged to review these materials, including the latest technical reports filed with respect to the Company's mineral properties.

This press release is not, and is not to be construed in any way as, an offer to buy or sell securities in the United States.

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For further information contact:

John Foulkes

Vice-President, Corporate Development

Tel: (604) 638-5815

Toll Free: (877) 838-3664

E-mail: jfoulkes@balmoralresources.com
Presentation of the first U.S. observational study exploring the impact of biomarkers on treatment response for Orencia and TNF-inhibitors in moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis

In this study, patients who tested positive via a common blood test for certain biomarkers of poor prognosis (anti-CCP or RF) were more likely to have a greater response with Orencia treatment than patients testing negative for the biomarkers

Other data being presented: More than 20 abstracts, including new pediatric study findings demonstrating equivalent efficacy and safety of subcutaneous Orencia to intravenous Orencia in pediatric juvenile idiopathic arthritis patients and the first data disclosure of Phase 1 data showing investigational BTK inhibitor, BMS-986142, for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory disease was well tolerated

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE:BMY) today announced that it will present new data offering insights into the field of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) at the Annual European Congress of Rheumatology (EULAR 2016), to be held June 8-11, in London, UK.

Among the studies that Bristol-Myers Squibb will present are findings from the first U.S. observational study exploring patients' response to treatment based on their baseline status for two biomarkers of poor prognosis, anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (anti-CCP, also known as ACPA) and rheumatoid factor (RF). Both anti-CCP and RF are biomarkers of poor prognosis which may be associated with more severe disease progression and joint damage. This new study and its results will be featured in an Annual European Congress of Rheumatology (EULAR 2016) press release and in an oral presentation on Thursday, June 9, 10:50 CET.

The study analyzed data from the Corrona, LLC RA registry, the largest RA cohort prospectively followed in North America. The analysis included patients with RA who had been tested for both anti-CCP and RF, and received Orencia, a T cell co-stimulation blocker (n=566), or another class of RA biologic medicines, TNF-inhibitors (n=1715), between June 2002 and January 2015. The primary outcome measured in the analysis was mean change from baseline in Clinical Disease Activity Index (CDAI) at six months and secondary outcomes were achievement of low disease activity (LDA) at six months (LDA; CDAI =10 among those with moderate or high disease activity at baseline) and achievement of remission at six months (CDAI =2.8 among those with low, moderate or high disease activity at baseline). Response rates for Orencia and TNF-inhibitors were evaluated based on serologic status: double positive (anti-CCP+/RF+); single positive (anti-CCP+/RF- or anti-CCP-/RF+); and double negative (anti-CCP-/RF-).

Topline results from the real-world data analysis showed that in patients who initiated Orencia, double positive status was associated with a significantly greater response compared with double negative status on all outcomes (CDAI -8.9 vs. -4.5, p=0.002; LDA 43% vs. 26%, p=0.002; remission 15% vs. 5%, p=0.001). In addition, single positive status was associated with a greater likelihood of remission as compared with double negative status for those administered Orencia (12% vs. 5%, p=0.018). The study did not show significant differences in responses between anti-CCP/RF status in those administered TNF-inhibitors (double positive vs. double negative: CDAI -7.5 vs. -6.8, p=0.46; LDA 39% vs. 35%, p=0.20; remission 16% vs. 14%, p=0.38).

"The Corrona RA registry offers an unrivaled source of real-world observational data collected from U.S. patients with RA," said Leslie Harrold, M.D., M.P.H., the study's Principal Investigator and an Associate Professor of Medicine and Orthopedics and Physical Rehabilitation at the University of Massachusetts Medical School as well as Senior Medical Director of Pharmacoepidemiology and Outcomes research at Corrona. "We believe our findings provide new insights on RA for the rheumatology community."

The Corrona RA registry is a real-world observational study that has collected data from 662 participating rheumatologists in 168 rheumatology practices across 40 states in the U.S. It currently includes data from more than 40,000 patients with RA.

"As a leader in the field of immunoscience, Bristol-Myers Squibb is dedicated to the research of disease biomarkers and finding transformative ways that may help reduce the impact of autoimmune diseases like RA," said Douglas Manion, M.D., Head of Specialty Development, Bristol-Myers Squibb. "The real-world data from the Corrona RA registry study showed patients who are seropositive for anti-CCP or RF, and particularly those who are double seropositive, were more likely to have incremental improvements in response to Orencia than if they were negative for these biomarkers as compared to those who initiated TNF-inhibitors. In addition, there was differential response to Orencia but not with TNF-inhibitors in patients who were CCP+ vs. CCP-. These findings and scientific insights underscore our decade-long commitment to ongoing Orencia research."

Other key data Bristol-Myers Squibb is presenting at the Annual European Congress of Rheumatology (EULAR 2016) includes:

Phase 3 data from the AVERT ( A ssessing V ery E arly R heumatoid A rthritis T reatment) study, which evaluated the efficacy and safety of re-treating patients with early, active RA (tested positive for anti-CCP) with Orencia plus methotrexate after a period of treatment withdrawal. The full analysis of the data will be featured in a poster presentation on Saturday, June 11, 10:20 CET.

ssessing ery arly heumatoid rthritis reatment) study, which evaluated the efficacy and safety of re-treating patients with early, active RA (tested positive for anti-CCP) with plus methotrexate after a period of treatment withdrawal. The full analysis of the data will be featured in a poster presentation on Saturday, June 11, 10:20 CET. A Phase 3 juvenile idiopathic arthritis (pJIA) study demonstrating subcutaneous (SC) Orencia has equivalent efficacy and comparable safety to intravenous (IV) Orencia for pJIA patients. SC Orencia showed efficacy after four months with greater than 80% of patients achieving an ACR30 response with few clinically relevant adverse events. The data will be featured in an oral presentation on Friday, June 10, 10:20 CET.

has equivalent efficacy and comparable safety to intravenous (IV) for pJIA patients. SC showed efficacy after four months with greater than 80% of patients achieving an ACR30 response with few clinically relevant adverse events. The data will be featured in an oral presentation on Friday, June 10, 10:20 CET. The first data disclosure for Bristol-Myers Squibb's investigational Bruton's Tyrosine Kinase (BTK) inhibitor, BMS-986142, targeted for RA and other inflammatory diseases. Researchers will report on Phase 1 data which showed that BMS-986142 was well tolerated, warranting further development of the agent. The data will be featured in a poster presentation on Thursday, June 9, 11:45 CET.

The full listing of abstracts Bristol-Myers Squibb will present at the Annual European Congress of Rheumatology (EULAR 2016) follows. Complete abstracts can be accessed online via the Annual European Congress of Rheumatology (EULAR 2016) program planner at https://b-com.mci-group.com/AbstractList/EULAR2016.aspx.

Abstract Title Presentation Date and Time Oral Presentations Abstract OP0178/Corrona: Impact of Anti-Cyclic Thursday, June 9th Citrullinated Peptide and Rheumatoid Factor Status on 10:50 CET Response to Abatacept Therapy: Findings from a U.S. Observational Cohort Abstract OP0215: Subcutaneous Abatacept In Patients Friday, June 10th With Polyarticular Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis and 10:20 CET Inadequate Response To Biologic or Non-Biologic Disease-Modifying Antirheumatic Drugs: Pharmacokinetics, Efficacy and Safety Poster Presentations Poster Session Abstract THU0066/ACTION: Do Predictors of IV Abatacept Thursday, June 9th Retention Depend On the Line of Rheumatoid Arthritis 11:45 CET Treatment: 12-Month Interim Analysis of the Observational, Prospective Action Study Abstract THU0632: Retrospective Analysis of the Thursday, June 9th Association Between Anti-Cyclic Citrullinated Peptide 11:45 CET Positivity and Healthcare Costs Among Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis Initiating Conventional Disease- Modifying Antirheumatic Drugs Abstract THU0090/BRASS: Association of the Rheumatoid Thursday, June 9th Arthritis Prognostic Factors Anti-Citrullinated 11:45 CET Peptide Antibodies Rheumatoid Factor and Erosions With Disease Activity and Work Productivity Abstract THU0615: Cost Per Response For Abatacept Thursday, June 9th Compared With Adalimumab In the Treatment of Patients 11:45 CET With Rheumatoid Arthritis Based On Anti-Citrullinated Protein Antibody Titres In Italy, Spain and Canada Abstract FRI0227/ACQUIRE: Five-year Safety and Friday, June 10th Efficacy of Subcutaneous Abatacept In Patients With 11:45 CET Moderate to Severely Active RA and An Inadequate Response to MTX: Long-Term Extension of the Phase III, Double-Blind, Randomized ACQUIRE Study Abstract FRI0229: Risk of Hospitalized Infections in Friday, June 10th Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis Initiating 11:45 CET Abatacept and Other Biologics: Analysis of A United States Claims Database Abstract FRI0217: Anaphylactic-Type Reactions Friday, June 10th Associated With Abatacept and Other Biologic Agents: 11:45 CET Review of Safety Reports From Faers Poster Tour Abstract FRI0205/Corrona: Relationship Between Anti- Friday, June 10th Citrullinated Protein Antibody Status and Response To 11:50 CET Abatacept or Anti-Tumor Necrosis Factor Therapy In Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis: A US National Observational Study Abstract SAT0153/AVERT: Abatacept Plus Methotrexate Saturday, June 11th Can Effectively and Safely Regain the Target of 10:20 CET Remission Following Re-Treatment For Flares After Drug-Free Withdrawal In Patients With Early Rhuematoid Arthritis Abstract FRI0513/AVERT: Validating MRI-Detected Friday, June 10th Inflammation Thresholds Predictive of Structural 11:50 CET Damage Progression In Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis In A Randomized Placebo-Controlled Trial Abstract FRI0551/BRASS: Evaluation of Change In Anti- Friday, June 10th Citrullinated Peptide Autoantibody Levels In Clinical 11:50 CET Practice and Association With Resource Use Abstract SAT0150: Comparative Risk of Malignancy With Saturday, June 11th Initiation of Abatacept and Other Biologics In 10:20 CET Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Cohort Analysis of A United States Claims Database BTK Inhibitor Abstract THU0194: A Novel Reversible Bruton's Tyrosine Thursday, June 9th Kinase (BTK) Inhibitor (BMS-986142) Provides 11:45 CET Favourable Safety, Pharmacokinetic and Pharmacodynamic Profiles in Healthy Subjects Program Book Abstract AB0213/Corrona: Is Disease Duration An N/A Independent Predictor of Low Disease Activity/Remission Among Biologic-Naive Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis Treated with Abatacept? Abstract AB0346: Testing For Anti-Citrullinated N/A Peptide Antibodies In US Clinical Practice Settings In Patients Newly Diagnosed with RA Data From Three Databases Between 2007-2014 Abstract AB1006: Anti-Citullinated Peptide Antibodies N/A and Rheumatoid Factor Testing Patterns Among Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis In the US Abstract AB1018/AGREE/AIM/ATTAIN: Does Fatigue Improve N/A In A Similar Manner To Pain In Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) Treated With A Biologic? A Reanalysis of Randomized Controlled Trials of Abatacept In 1536 Patients With Active RA Abstract AB0371/ACTION: Is Switching From IV to SC N/A Abatacept therapy Sustainable In the Real World? 1- Year Analysis of the Prospective, International Action Study Abstract AB0356: How does First-line Abatacept Compare N/A to other Biologics? Data from a Rheumatic Disease Registry

About Rheumatoid Arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systemic, chronic, autoimmune disease characterized by inflammation in the lining of joints (or synovium), causing joint damage with chronic pain, stiffness, and swelling. RA causes limited range of motion and decreased joint function. The condition is more common in women than in men, who account for 75% of patients diagnosed with RA.

About the Corrona RA Registry

The Corrona RA registry is the largest RA cohort prospectively followed in North America and consists of data collected from both physicians and patients at the time of a clinical encounter. The Corrona RA registry offers insights from more than 40,000 RA patients and 130,000+ patient-years of longitudinal follow-up between June 2002 and January 2015.

About Orencia

Orencia SC and IV is indicated for reducing signs and symptoms, inducing major clinical response, inhibiting the progression of structural damage, and improving physical function in adult patients with moderately to severely active rheumatoid arthritis. Orencia may be used as monotherapy or concomitantly with disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) other than tumor necrosis factor (TNF) antagonists.

Orencia IV is indicated for reducing signs and symptoms in pediatric patients 6 years of age and older with moderately to severely active polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis. Orencia IV may be used as monotherapy or concomitantly with methotrexate (MTX). Orencia SC has not been studied in pediatric patients.

Orencia should not be administered concomitantly with TNF antagonists.

Orencia is not recommended for use concomitantly with other biologic rheumatoid arthritis (RA) therapy, such as anakinra.

Orencia is intended for use under the guidance of a physician or healthcare practitioner.

Indications/Usage and Important Safety Information for ORENCIA (abatacept)

Indication and Usage

Adult Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA): ORENCIA (abatacept) is indicated for reducing signs and symptoms, inducing major clinical response, inhibiting the progression of structural damage, and improving physical function in adult patients with moderately to severely active RA. ORENCIA may be used as monotherapy or concomitantly with disease-modifying, anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) other than tumor necrosis factor (TNF) antagonists

Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA): ORENCIA (abatacept) is indicated for reducing signs and symptoms in pediatric patients aged 6 years and older with moderately to severely active polyarticular JIA. ORENCIA may be used as monotherapy or concomitantly with methotrexate (MTX).

Important Limitations of Use: ORENCIA should not be administered concomitantly with TNF antagonists, and is not recommended for use concomitantly with other biologic RA therapy, such as anakinra.

Important Safety Information for ORENCIA (abatacept)

Concomitant Use with TNF Antagonists: Concurrent therapy with ORENCIA and a TNF antagonist is not recommended. In controlled clinical trials, adult patients receiving concomitant intravenous ORENCIA and TNF antagonist therapy experienced more infections (63%) and serious infections (4.4%) compared to patients treated with only TNF antagonists (43% and 0.8%, respectively), without an important enhancement of efficacy.

Hypersensitivity: Anaphylaxis or anaphylactoid reactions can occur during or after an infusion and can be life-threatening. There were 2 cases (<0.1%; n=2688) of anaphylaxis or anaphylactoid reactions in clinical trials with adult RA patients treated with intravenous ORENCIA. Other reactions potentially associated with drug hypersensitivity, such as hypotension, urticaria, and dyspnea, each occurred in <0.9% of patients. There was one case of a hypersensitivity reaction with ORENCIA in JIA clinical trials (0.5%; n=190). In postmarketing experience, a case of fatal anaphylaxis following the first infusion of ORENCIA was reported. Appropriate medical support measures for treating hypersensitivity reactions should be available for immediate use. If an anaphylactic or other serious allergic reaction occurs, administration of ORENCIA should be stopped immediately and permanently discontinued, with appropriate therapy instituted.

Infections: Serious infections, including sepsis and pneumonia, have been reported in patients receiving ORENCIA. Some of these infections have been fatal. Many of the serious infections have occurred in patients on concomitant immunosuppressive therapy which, in addition to their underlying disease, could further predispose them to infection. Caution should be exercised in patients with a history of infection or underlying conditions which may predispose them to infections. Treatment with ORENCIA should be discontinued if a patient develops a serious infection. Patients should be screened for tuberculosis and viral hepatitis in accordance with published guidelines, and if positive, treated according to standard medical practice prior to therapy with ORENCIA.

Immunizations: Live vaccines should not be given concurrently with ORENCIA or within 3 months of its discontinuation. The efficacy of vaccination in patients receiving ORENCIA is not known. ORENCIA may blunt the effectiveness of some immunizations. It is recommended that JIA patients be brought up to date with all immunizations in agreement with current immunization guidelines prior to initiating therapy with ORENCIA.

Use in Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD): Adult COPD patients treated with ORENCIA developed adverse events more frequently than those treated with placebo (97% vs 88%, respectively). Respiratory disorders occurred more frequently in patients treated with ORENCIA compared to those on placebo (43% vs 24%, respectively), including COPD exacerbation, cough, rhonchi, and dyspnea. A greater percentage of patients treated with ORENCIA developed a serious adverse event compared to those on placebo (27% vs 6%), including COPD exacerbation [3 of 37 patients (8%)] and pneumonia [1 of 37 patients (3%)]. Use of ORENCIA in patients with RA and COPD should be undertaken with caution, and such patients monitored for worsening of their respiratory status.

Blood Glucose Testing: ORENCIA for intravenous administration contains maltose, which may result in falsely elevated blood glucose readings on the day of infusion when using blood glucose monitors with test strips utilizing glucose dehydrogenase pyrroloquinoline quinone (GDH-PQQ). Consider using monitors and advising patients to use monitors that do not react with maltose, such as those based on glucose dehydrogenase nicotine adenine dinucleotide (GDH-NAD), glucose oxidase or glucose hexokinase test methods. ORENCIA for subcutaneous (SC) administration does not contain maltose; therefore, patients do not need to alter their glucose monitoring.

Pregnancy: There are no adequate and well-controlled studies of ORENCIA use in pregnant women and the data with ORENCIA use in pregnant women are insufficient to inform on drug-associated risk. A pregnancy registry has been established to monitor pregnancy outcomes in women exposed to ORENCIA during pregnancy. Healthcare professionals are encouraged to register patients by calling 1-877-311-8972.

Lactation: There is no information regarding the presence of abatacept in human milk, the effects on the breastfed infant, or the effects on milk production. However, abatacept was present in the milk of lactating rats dosed with abatacept.

Most Serious Adverse Reactions: Serious infections (3% ORENCIA vs 1.9% placebo) and malignancies (1.3% ORENCIA vs 1.1% placebo).

Malignancies: The overall frequency of malignancies was similar between adult patients treated with ORENCIA or placebo. However, more cases of lung cancer were observed in patients treated with ORENCIA (0.2%) than those on placebo (0%). A higher rate of lymphoma was seen compared to the general population; however, patients with RA, particularly those with highly active disease, are at a higher risk for the development of lymphoma. The potential role of ORENCIA in the development of malignancies in humans is unknown.

Most Frequent Adverse Events (=10%): Headache, upper respiratory tract infection, nasopharyngitis, and nausea were the most commonly reported adverse events in the adult RA clinical studies. Other events reported in =5% of JIA patients were diarrhea, cough, pyrexia, and abdominal pain. In general, the adverse events in pediatric patients were similar in frequency and type to those seen in adult patients.

Note concerning SC ORENCIA: The safety and efficacy of SC ORENCIA have not been studied in patients under 18 years of age.

Please see Full Prescribing Information at http://packageinserts.bms.com/pi/pi_orencia.pdf

ORENCIA(abatacept) is a registered trademark of Bristol-Myers Squibb Company.

About Bristol-Myers Squibb Immunoscience

With a robust pipeline of immunomodulatory therapies, Bristol-Myers Squibb is committed to the discovery and development of transformational medicines that may lead to long-term remission in patients suffering from immune-mediated disease. As we learn more about the immune system in diseases with substantial unmet needs, the potential for new therapies that modulate the immune system continues to drive our research efforts.

About Bristol-Myers Squibb

Bristol-Myers Squibb is a global biopharmaceutical company whose mission is to discover, develop and deliver innovative medicines that help patients prevail over serious diseases. For more information about Bristol-Myers Squibb, visit us at BMS.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTubeand Facebook.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Forward-Looking Statement

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 regarding the research, development and commercialization of pharmaceutical products. Such forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and involve inherent risks and uncertainties, including factors that could delay, divert or change any of them, and could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially from current expectations. No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed. Forward-looking statements in this press release should be evaluated together with the many uncertainties that affect Bristol-Myers Squibb's business, particularly those identified in the cautionary factors discussion in Bristol-Myers Squibb's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015 in our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and our Current Reports on Form 8-K. Bristol-Myers Squibb undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160608005765/en/

Contacts:

Bristol-Myers Squibb

Media:

Robert Perry, 407-492-4616

rob.perry@bms.com

or

Investors:

Ranya Dajani, 609-252-5330

ranya.dajani@bms.com

Bill Szablewski, 609-252-5894

william.szablewski@bms.com
KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA -- (Marketwired) -- 06/08/16 -- Mitra Energy Inc. ("Mitra" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE: MTE) today announced changes to its board of directors and senior management. Paul Blakeley, Cedric Fontenit and David Neuhauser have joined the board, while Jerry Korpan and Paul Ebdale have tendered their resignation as directors. In addition, Mr. Ebdale has tendered his resignation as chief executive officer of the Company and subsidiaries and Mr. Blakeley has been appointed as Executive Chairman. Michael Horn has been appointed Interim CEO in charge of supervising the transition towards a new strategy for the Company and focussing on M&A activity.

The Company wishes to thank Mr. Korpan and Mr. Ebdale for their many years of dedicated service to the Company. Mr. Ebdale was a founding member of Mitra in 2005 and was instrumental in building the Company's portfolio of exploration and development assets in Asia Pacific. Mr. Korpan has been a director of the Company since 2008 and assumed the Chairman's role in 2014. In this role, Mr. Korpan has provided significant advice and leadership to the Company.

Under Mr. Blakeley, Mitra will focus on acquiring production in the near term and further enhancing value through follow-on development activity. Mr. Blakeley brings a track record of executing such a strategy with 35 years' of energy experience, most recently (since 1994) at Talisman Energy Inc. ("Talisman"). As Executive Vice President Asia Pacific & Middle East, Mr. Blakeley led the building of Talisman Asia Pacific into a multibillion NAV powerhouse, and will bring that experience to his new role at Mitra.

Mr. Blakeley is a recognised industry leader, influential in collaborating to change the upstream landscape through Government interaction, and with a reputation for strong leadership and building highly engaged and high performing teams. He has a passion for safety, for the development of national talent in the upstream sector and for creating results-focused organisations.

Mr. Blakeley holds a B.Sc (Hons) in Geology and Chemistry from Bedford College (University of London), and in 2002 he was conferred as Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by H.M. Queen Elizabeth II.

Mr. Blakeley commented: "I'm very excited to be engaged in this new venture with Mitra and apply my experience, consistent with the acquisition thesis and track record we achieved at Talisman." "I look forward to working at Mitra to recreate our success at Talisman, by acquiring primarily operated interests with production enhancement options and with potential for early development of low-risk discoveries, focusing on opportunities where we have a differentiated view on value uplift."

Michael Horn has over 25 years of Oil & Gas industry experience, largely in Asia Pacific, with assignments in Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore, the last 12 of which were with Talisman. He has identified and closed a number of key transactions which were a vital part of Talisman's success in Asia, and has a strong reputation as a dealmaker within Asia amongst industry stakeholders and the investment community. In 2011, the Vietnam Ministry of Industry and Trade conferred upon Mr. Horn its highest industry award in recognition of Michael's 20 year contribution to the oil and gas industry in Vietnam. Mr. Horn has a Bachelor of Law degree from Dundee University, a Diploma in Oil & Gas Law also from Dundee, and a Diploma in Legal Practise, from Edinburgh University.

In connection with the appointments of Messrs. Blakeley and Horn, the Company will complete a small private placement with these two individuals of a total of 700,000 common shares at a price of $0.49 per common share for gross proceeds of $343,000. The proceeds will be used by the Company for general working capital requirements. The Company has also granted a total of 750,000 stock options with an exercise price of $0.49 which are exercisable for 10 years. The options will vest in equal tranches over a period of three years.

A number of the major shareholders in the Company have expressed their support in providing financing for acquisitions consistent with the new strategy of delivering short term production and enhanced value creation through follow-on development activity.

Tony Chedraoui, Chief Investment Officer of Tyrus Capital S.A.M., added: "Under new leadership, with no debt on the balance sheet and strong financial backing, Mitra is now very well positioned to seize on optimum market conditions in the current low oil price environment. We look forward to working with Mr. Blakeley and the team in the transformation of Mitra into an operator of producing assets and deploying capital in support of the management team's acquisition strategy."

The addition of Mr. Fontenit and Mr. Neuhauser will bring two shareholder representatives to the Board to support the new leadership in delivering on its acquisition strategy and strengthen the Board with their capital markets and M&A expertise.

Mr. Fontenit is a senior member of the investment team at Tyrus Capital S.A.M. Over the course of his sixteen-year career in investment banking and hedge fund industry, Mr. Fontenit gained extensive experience in advising on and structuring M&A and investments across issuers' capital structure. He joined Tyrus Capital in 2009, where he has had significant investment experience in the oil & gas and mining industries, among others. Mr. Fontenit has a MSc in Management from the Hautes Etudes Commerciales in France and a MA in Law from Paris-XI University.

Mr. Neuhauser is Founder and Managing Director of Livermore Partners based in Northbrook, Illinois. Livermore is a private alternative asset manager servicing Institutions, high-net worth clientele and highly-regarded private equity sponsors. Mr. Neuhauser received his B.A. with concentrations in Economics from Northeastern Illinois University and has conducted Graduate studies in Economics and Sociology from Roosevelt University of Chicago.

Cautionary Statements

This press release may contain forward-looking information and statements ("forward-looking information") within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Readers are cautioned to not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Actual results and developments may differ materially from those contemplated by these statements. The statements in this press release are made as of the date of this release. The Company undertakes no obligation to comment on analyses, expectations or statements made by third-parties in respect of the Company, its securities, or financial or operating results or (as applicable). Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in our forward-looking information is reasonable, our forward-looking information has been based on expectations, factors and assumptions concerning future events which may prove to be inaccurate and are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the Company's control. We caution that the forgoing list of risks and uncertainties is not exhaustive.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Not for distribution to U.S. Newswire Services of for dissemination in the United States. Any failure to comply with this restriction may constitute a violation of U.S. securities laws.

Contacts:

Paul Blakeley

Executive Chairman

+60 3 2031 8830



Michael Horn

Interim Chief Executive Officer

+60 3 2031 8830

contact@mitraenergylimited.com




Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
WAYNE, NJ -- (Marketwired) -- 06/08/16 -- (AAOE Booth #701) - Konica Minolta announced today the publication of a technical paper to help orthopedic practices transition from Computed Radiography (CR) to Digital Radiography (DR) in light of expected reimbursement penalties for CR users over the next several years. The federal Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2016, or the Omnibus Bill, includes a number of health-related provisions including a reduction in Medicare payments for imaging exams performed on analog X-ray and CR equipment. As key decision-makers from the American Association of Orthopaedic Executives (AAOE) meet June 9-12 in San Francisco, they're seeking knowledge and advice regarding legislative changes and how IT solutions can drive efficiency.

"With the recent passage of the Omnibus Bill, orthopedic practices that are using analog and CR technology have the opportunity to seamlessly transition to DR for greater efficiency with major financial incentives to do so," said Guillermo Sander, Senior Strategic Marketing Manager, The Americas for Konica Minolta. "The educational guide from Konica Minolta can help orthopedic executives navigate the challenging waters of reimbursement changes and technology transitions."

Orthopedic executives in San Francisco for the AAOE conference will discuss the consequences that declining reimbursements and increasing costs will have on their practices, with analog technology users most impacted. Provisions of the Omnibus Bill include a 20 percent reduction in the technical component reimbursement associated with film X-rays beginning next year, and technical component reimbursement for imaging services that rely CR will be incrementally reduced by seven percent each year starting in 2018. With additional penalties planned starting in 2023.

Through the bill, the government intends to encourage orthopedic and other practices to make the transition to digital technology. Some practices, however, are deterred by misconceptions about costliness. The new educational paper from Konica Minolta highlights various options for DR retrofitting, leasing equipment, and details how the technology itself enables numerous practice benefits including:

Faster imaging and greater time efficiency

Greater clarity and diagnostic speed

Improved workflow and efficiency

Competitive differentiation in the marketplace, and

Overall lower cost of ownership

"The passing of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2016 makes it very challenging for CR users to maintain their current levels of profitability," explains Sander. "Our Omnibus campaign educates managers and practice staff about the reimbursement changes ahead, the return on investment DR delivers, suggestions for throughput improvements, and how DR-transitioned practices are achieving their outcome goals."

Visit Konica Minolta at AAOE at booth 701 for information on the Omnibus Bill and the company's current DR, PACS and Ultrasound offerings. You can also download the Konica Minolta blue paper here: http://www.konicaminolta.com/medicalusa/omnibus-information/

About Konica Minolta Medical Imaging

Konica Minolta Medical Imaging is a world-class provider and market leader in medical diagnostic primary imaging. With over 75 years of endless innovation, Konica Minolta is globally recognized as a leader providing cutting-edge technologies and comprehensive support aimed at providing real solutions to meet customer's needs. Konica Minolta Medical Imaging, headquartered in Wayne, NJ, is a unit of Konica Minolta, Inc. (TSE: 4902). For more information on Konica Minolta Primary Imaging Solutions, please visit www.konicaminolta.com/medicalusa.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Company name KONICA MINOLTA, INC. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Headquarters JP TOWER, 2-7-2 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Founded December 1936 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- FY 2015 Revenue $8.6 Billion ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Number of employees Approx. 41,600 (2015) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Business Lines The Konica Minolta Group operates in sectors ranging from business technologies, where our products are typified by MFPs (multi-functional peripherals), and Industrial Business (former Optics Business), where our products include pickup lenses for optical disks, and TAC film, a key material used in LCD panels, to healthcare, where we make digital X-ray diagnostic imaging systems. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Contact:

Katie Toomey

KNB Communications

315-529-3947

www.konicaminolta.com/medicalusa




DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA -- (Marketwired) -- 06/08/16 -- Handeni Gold Inc. (the "Company" or "Handeni Gold") (OTC PINK: HNDI) announces that it has effected a reverse stock split (the "Reverse Split") of its issued and outstanding shares of common stock, on one (1) new share for 150 old share basis (1:150), as set for in a Certificate of Amendment to the Company's Articles of Incorporation filed with the Nevada Secretary of State.

As a result of the Reverse Split, the Company's issued and outstanding shares of common stock have now decreased from 321,416,653 shares of common stock to 2,142,848 shares of common stock.

The Company's common shares will commence trading on the OTC Pink at the opening for trading on June 8, 2016 under the stock symbol "HNDID", and the "D" at the end of the Company's symbol (which signifies a stock split) will be removed 20 business days from June 8, 2016. The Company's new CUSIP number is 41024A202.

About Handeni Gold Inc.

The Company is an emerging mineral exploration company focused on exploring and developing mining opportunities in Tanzania.

For further information, go to www.handenigold.com

Safe Harbour Statements

Except for the statements of historical fact contained herein, the information presented in this news release may constitute "forward-looking statements" as such term is used in applicable United States and Canadian laws. These statements relate to analyses and other information that are based on forecasts of future results, estimates of amounts not yet determinable and assumptions of management. Any statements that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance (often, but not always, using words or phrases such as "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", "plans, "estimates" or "intends", or stating that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and should be viewed as "forward-looking statements". Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors and risks that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements including, the risks and uncertainties outlined in our most recent financial statements and reports and registration statement filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") (available at www.sec.gov) and with Canadian securities administrators (available at www.sedar.com), there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements contained in this news release and in any document referred to in this news release.

Contacts:

Handeni Gold Inc.

+255 22 270 0084

+255 22 270 0052 (FAX)




LOS ANGELES, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 06/08/16 -- Are You a Human will provide Danari with the capability to serve ads to a verified human by allowing real time access to its verified human whitelist. "This collaboration will allow us to close a crucial loop in our ability to block non-human traffic at the time of the bid instead of after a click happens. We can now detect and serve an ad to a verified human in real time," said Collin Kay, Danari's VP of Sales and Marketing. "As viewability and click fraud continue to be a major problem in our industry, media buyers can now feel confident in knowing that their ad will be shown to a human and that Danari continues to invest in cutting edge technologies to combat this problem."

Danari has been beta testing with Are You a Human over the past 8 months and has seen a significant lift in performance, viewability, and click patterns. "Along with the increase in quality we have seen a rise in CPC, client retention, brand safety, and the final CPM," said Kay.

Danari Media is one the fastest growing online advertising networks, selling over 12 million clicks daily to media buyers; providing them with highly sophisticated and detailed filtering tools. The Danari platform enables advertisers, publishers, networks, and agencies to instantly match their ads to sources of traffic that will yield the most profitable return on investment. Danari Media is headquartered in Sherman Oaks, CA.

Are You a Human's patented technology analyzes biometrics and deterministic data from our footprint of 3 million sites and partners. This data provides a real-time, accurate signal that allows publishers, CDN's, ad tech companies, and data platforms to know for certain whether the user they are about to address is definitely human or not before serving content, ads, or allowing a user to login, post content, or view sensitive information.

Collin Kay

Danari Media

818-681-1016

collin@danarimediappc.com




DELRAY BEACH, FL -- (Marketwired) -- 06/08/16 -- iTalk Inc. (OTCQB: TALK) ("iTalk" or the "Company"), a value added distributor and master agent for the wireless industry, is providing an update to shareholders and the investment community today regarding the progress of completing the audit of our subsidiary United Mobile Solutions' 8- K financial statements for years 2014 and 2015 iTalk's 10-Q.

In addressing these financial reporting requirements, management continues on a path focused toward fully integrating the recent acquisition United Mobile Solutions, United Prepaid and TouchPoint, which is expected to result in increased profitability and liquidity for the Company.

"Our audit process for the 8-K and 10-Q will take a bit longer than expected. We are diligently working with our auditors to complete the audit. We would like to thank shareholders for their patience and assure them that the Auditor is working as fast as possible to get them complete."

About iTalk

iTalk is a full service solutions provider for the mobility industry, specializing in retail and wholesale distribution, master agent services, as well as providing turn key dealer portal and logistic solutions to our customers and dealers. We have positioned ourselves to stay ahead of the evolving mobile technology curve through our focus on creative value added services. Through our extensive offerings, iTalk has set itself apart by implementing innovative solutions to the customers and dealers of the carriers it serves. iTalk is a proud preferred distribution partner with the fastest growing Post Paid carrier in the nation as well as the number 1 fastest growing Prepaid Carrier in the nation. Through its extensive portfolio of capabilities and talent, iTalk is able to provide turn key solutions to meet the demands of today's wireless industry and provide value added solutions to its growing network of resellers and eCommerce driven consumers. Our foundation is built on a solid distribution network, comprised of various channels enabling us to continue to source and develop innovative products and services while quickly deploying new emerging mobile technologies and brands into the marketplace. iTalk currently employs 30 people and is based in Norcross, GA with operations in San Antonio, TX, Dallas, TX, the Carolinas, Georgia and Miami, Florida, with planned expansion to growth markets throughout the United States.

Forward Looking Statements: 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 is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The Company intends that such forward-looking statements be subject to the safe harbors created thereby. Forward-looking statements in this report consist of, among other things, statements regarding the Company long-term financial goals for non-GAAP revenues, Non-GAAP operating costs and non-GAAP income from operations, all of which are based on current expectations, estimates, and forecasts, and the beliefs and assumptions of the Company's management. The above information contains information relating to the Company that is based on the beliefs of the Company and/or its management as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to the Company or its management. When used in this document, the words "anticipate," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "plans," "projects," and similar expressions, as they relate to the Company or its management, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect the current view of the Company regarding future events and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including the risks and uncertainties noted. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove to be incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as anticipated, believed, estimated, expected, intended or projected. In each instance, forward-looking information should be considered in light of the accompanying meaningful cautionary statements herein. Factors that could cause results to differ include, but are not limited to, successful performance of internal plans, the impact of competitive services and pricing and general economic risks, estimated, expected, intended or projected. In each instance, forward-looking information should be considered in light of these uncertainties.

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iTalk Inc.

Investor Relations

E-mail: investor@italkmobility.com

Website: www.italkmobility.com




Cybersecurity Researchers Launch Solution to Address Inherent Vulnerabilities in Network Embedded Devices, with Focus on Healthcare, Critical Infrastructure and Corporate Environments

Today, Senrio, an Internet of Things (IoT) cybersecurity solution, emerges from stealth mode with the launch of an IoT network cybersecurity platform that provides visibility and defense for networked embedded devices (NEDs) used in healthcare, critical infrastructure, retail and corporate environments.

"The market needs a comprehensive answer to the IoT dilemma: A dramatic increase of deployed devices, high susceptibility to attacks due to inherent vulnerabilities and high value of the accessible assets. Today, there are few solutions to this challenge. However, Senrio offers a much-needed new approach," said Christina Richmond, Program Director, Security Services, IDC.

"We typically associate the term 'Internet of Things' with the consumer world, smart toasters and WiFi fridges; however, a large part of our life depends on networked embedded devices that have been around for decades. Think of smart meters, medical devices, and connected industrial controllers used for elevators, traffic lights, and factories. Adoption is driven by business rationale but the security exposure is often overlooked. Based on my experience, there is not a single IoT device that cannot be compromised or misused by a determined attacker," said Stephen Ridley, CEO of Senrio.

After years of conducting vulnerability research and reverse engineering in support of the U.S. Defense and Intelligence community, Stephen A. Ridley, CEO and founder of Senrio, turned his embedded device research capabilities towards creating a comprehensive solution to address inherent vulnerabilities in networked embedded devices deployed in billions across life- and mission-critical environments. Hailing from MIT, Draper Labs, ManTech, Tektronix, and McAfee, the Senrio team combines security research capabilities with product design expertise. The team has reverse-engineered numerous products and trained Fortune 500 companies on mobile security exploitation and protection, including the largest seller of Point-of-Sale systems, makers of consumer devices, as well as prominent mobile device companies.

Through the deployment of the Senrio Sensor, available as software, virtual machine or API integration, the company provides IoT network operational health and cybersecurity analytics by passively monitoring network traffic and creating device-specific behavior profiles. Senrio eliminates the conventional notion of false positives that is a common side effect of today's signature-based security technologies. Instead, Senrio automatically provides context-rich analytics based on adaptive algorithms and device-specific behavior. All this is done via a lightweight software deployment and seamless integration with existing dashboards, making Senrio incredibly scalable and maintainable for high-value networks across multiple industry verticals. It's like having a security camera for your embedded device network.

Senrio currently supports several enterprise customers through evaluation and API integration and closed its first round of financing led by Talis Capital, a London-based VC. Vasile Foca, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Talis Capital, explained, "Senrio have built a market-leading IoT cybersecurity solution which counters the inherent security risk within embedded devices. Deployment of embedded devices is set to grow significantly over the coming years; CISOs will need solutions that can monitor and identify vulnerabilities on their ever-expanding IoT networks. Stephen and the team have long been at the forefront of research in this field, and we believe they are uniquely positioned to help organisations manage security risks posed by growing numbers of embedded devices."

To learn more about Senrio, visit http://senr.io.

About Senrio

There is a growing distrust of rapidly proliferating, inherently insecure, networked embedded devices in mission-critical environments. The Senrio team combines world-class security research capabilities with strong industry expertise to address the Internet of Things security challenge. As an IoT cybersecurity platform, Senrio provides operational health analytics, as well as security visibility for all embedded devices in a networked environment. Unlike traditional signature-based security technologies that fatigue users with false positives, Senrio automatically provides context-rich analytics based on adaptive algorithms and device-specific behavior.

About Talis Capital

Talis Capital is a London-based venture capital firm focussed on three key areas: Security, SaaS and Financial Services. Talis Capital have completed over $350m of transactions since 2009.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160608005403/en/

Contacts:

Hi-Touch PR

Danielle Ostrovsky, 410-302-9459

ostrovsky@Hi-TouchPR.com
Global leader in enterprise phishing defense and intelligence unveils highly anticipated update to help organizations resist Ransomware, Business Email Compromise (BEC) and other timely threats

PhishMe Inc., the leading provider of human phishing defense solutions, announced today the integration of critical content into PhishMe Simulator to help prepare employees for trending phishing attacks and damaging payloads. The Active Threats update allows operators to quickly utilize phishing templates based on current real-world attacks that are targeting organizations, such as Business Email Compromise (BEC) and Ransomware. Simulating these types of attacks ensures users are aware of the new techniques used by phishers and empowers operators with a resource to combat new threats early on.

Based on intelligence gathered by PhishMe Research, the new phishing email simulations represent the most pertinent and recent phishing attacks, and evolve as new and different methods are utilized by the threat actors. Current simulations include the most dangerous phishing attacks today Business Email Compromise and Ransomware.

Business Email Compromise: According to the latest alert issued by the FBI, enterprises have lost more than $2.3 billion to Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks. A BEC scheme typically targets companies working with foreign suppliers and employees who regularly perform wire transfers.

Attackers are known to go after employees who manage money by spoofing senior management email addresses and using language specific to the company they are targeting as they request a wire fund transfer using dollar amounts that lend legitimacy.

Ransomware: Ransomware locks your computer screen and prevents you from accessing files until a ransom is paid and, according to the FBI, criminals are netting an estimated $150 million a year through these scams. Ransomware is a growing concern for companies of all sizes and in all industries. The recently released PhishMe Q1 Malware Report revealed that ransomware payloads comprised 93% of all phishing emails analyzed in March 2016 as compared to 8% in October 2015.

"It's near impossible for enterprises to expect their employees to recognize and resist constantly evolving, increasingly sophisticated phishing attacks," said Rohyt Belani, CEO and Co-Founder of PhishMe. "Active Threats equips PhishMe Simulator operators with the most relevant, critical examples to keep all employees up to speed with new phishing attempts. It's a real-time inoculation to build immunity against the most relevant threats at the time."

PhishMe Simulator was designed to condition employees to recognize and report malicious phishing email that bypasses technology layers. By empowering employees as the last line of defense, organizations improve their ability to fight prolific cyber threats before they infiltrate the network and suffer data loss.

PhishMe will be demonstrating their new Active Threats capabilities alongside their human phishing defense suite this week at Infosecurity Europe in London, UK June 7th 9th 2016.

For more information on PhishMe's enterprise phishing defense solution, please visit http://phishme.com/product-services/pm-solution/

Connect with PhishMe Online

Follow PhishMe on Twitter: https://twitter.com/phishme Follow PhishMe's Blog: http://phishme.com/blog/ Follow PhishMe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/phishme-inc-

About PhishMe

PhishMe is the leading provider of human-focused phishing defense solutions for organizations concerned about their susceptibility to today's top attack vector spear phishing. PhishMe's intelligence-driven platform turns employees into an active line of defense by enabling them to identify, report, and mitigate spear phishing, malware, and drive-by threats. Our open approach ensures that PhishMe integrates easily into the security technology stack, demonstrating measurable results to help inform an organization's security decision making process. PhishMe's customers include the defense industrial base, energy, financial services, healthcare, and manufacturing industries, as well as other Global 1000 entities that understand changing user security behavior will improve security, aid incident response, and reduce the risk of compromise.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160608005841/en/

Contacts:

AxiCom

James Kennedy

James.Kennedy@axicom.com

+44 208 392 4091
Center to lead region's liquid coating research

Axalta Coating Systems (NYSE: AXTA), a leading global manufacturer of liquid and powder coatings, officially opens its newly expanded European Technology Centre (ETC) in Wuppertal, Germany today. The center will be home to the company's liquid coating research facilities for the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region.

This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160608005855/en/

Opening Axalta's expanded European Technology Centre in Wuppertal, Germany are (from left to right) Robert K. Roop, Axalta Vice President of Refinish Technology, and Head of Technology Europe, Middle East and Africa; Barry Snyder, Axalta Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer; Charles Shaver, Axalta Chairman and CEO; and Matthias Schonberg, Axalta Vice President, and President Europe, Middle East and Africa. (Photo: Axalta)

"Axalta is making this considerable investment in its EMEA research and development facilities to expand, to upgrade and to centralize our technological capabilities to support our growth in the region," says Matthias Schonberg, Vice President of Axalta and President of EMEA. "The origins of our company can be traced back to the Wuppertal site, where paint production first began 150 years ago. Today, over 300 technical professionals will work on creating and developing next generation paints and services to address regional market needs and to meet our customers' specific requirements."

The ETC will comprise facilities that house the latest coating research equipment. The entire campus encompasses 15,000 square metersof laboratories, formulation and application capabilities, a weathering and corrosion service, pilot-scale and full scale-up facilities, customer demonstration center, as well as offices.

Dr. Barry Snyder, Axalta's Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, says, "Axalta's expanded ETC in Wuppertal will include several new labs for light vehicle paint research, new laboratories for industrial electrocoat research, as well as expanded labs for refinish paints and new color development facilities for both the refinish and commercial vehicle markets. Its central location for Europe, and historical importance to the company as a whole, make it the ideal base for regional liquid paint research and development work."

Axalta has taken a strategic approach in expanding and enhancing its global coating research and development capabilities, with recent announcements of new technology centers to be constructed in North America and Asia Pacific. The company is constructing a Global Innovation Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, which will be the hub of its worldwide technology network, and a new technology center in Shanghai, which will support technology applications across the Asia Pacific region. In EMEA, Axalta's powder coatings technology hub is in Montbrison, France, on the campus of its powder manufacturing facility.

For more information on Axalta worldwide, please visit www.axaltacs.com

About Axalta Coating Systems Celebrating 150 Years in the Coatings Industry

Axalta is a leading global company focused solely on coatings and providing customers with innovative, colorful, beautiful and sustainable solutions. From light OEM vehicles, commercial vehicles and refinish applications to electric motors, buildings and pipelines, our coatings are designed to prevent corrosion, increase productivity and enable the materials we coat to last longer. With 150 years of experience in the coatings industry, the 12,800 people of Axalta continue to find ways to better serve our more than 100,000 customers in 130 countries every day with the finest coatings, application systems and technology. For more information visit axaltacoatingsystems.com and follow us on Twitter @axalta and on LinkedIn.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160608005855/en/

Contacts:

DA Public Relations Ltd

Chantal Bachelier-Moore

D +44 207 692 4964

chantal@dapr.com
FRANKFURT, Germany, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Dr. Thomas Rinne (Partner) presents his newest Guide on the choice of the most appropriate legal entity for foreign investors in Germany. The Guide is supposed to give a first orientation to companies that consider to enter the German market.

"Any new market entry should start with a profound research into the target market. With this Guide we want to give insight that is easily and quickly accessible and, above all, does not discourage the reader. The Guide is available free of charge and can be downloaded in PDF-format in English and Spanish. We hope this will give foreign businesses and investors some comfort in their decision making process," said the German attorney-at-law (also admitted as "abogado" in Spain).

Buse Heberer Fromm provides solutions for all national and international commercial and tax issues. As a "full service" law firm with more than 100 specialized attorneys, auditors and tax consultants, Buse Heberer Fromm is present in six German offices and at eight international locations.

Read more: http://buse.de/en/kompetenzen/corporate-law-and-ma/market-entry/

Contact:

Dr. Thomas Rinne

Rechtsanwalt / Abogado



Buse Heberer Fromm Law Firm

Bockenheimer Landstrasse 101

60325 Frankfurt am Main



Telefon: +49-69-9897235-0

Telefax: +49-69-9897235-99



rinne@buse.de

http://www.buse.de


VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 06/08/16 -- Calibre Mining Corp. (TSX VENTURE: CXB) (the "Company" or "Calibre") is pleased to announce the first set of results from the 2016 drilling program on the Eastern Borosi Project, Nicaragua which is being funded by Calibre's partner IAMGOLD Corporation ("IAMGOLD").

Highlights

-- Drilling to date in 2016 consists of 18 diamond drill holes for a total of 3,487.5 metres, with results received and reported here for the first 11 holes -- Diamond drilling of the Blag Gold-Silver Vein System has further extended the defined mineralization on two targets, including; Main Blag Structure and the East Dome -- Step out drilling on the East Dome has intersected 4.51 metres grading 1.82 g/t gold and 146.3 g/t silver including 1.56 metres grading 4.44 g/t gold and 142.9 g/t silver -- Step out drilling on the Main Blag Structure has intersected 4.64 metres grading 1.51 g/t gold and 38.1 g/t silver including 0.85 metres grading 7.10 g/t gold and 62.6 g/t silver -- Additional drilling in 2016 has tested extensions to the Guapinol and Vancouver Vein Structures, and first pass drilling on the Vein Swarm Target

President and CEO Greg Smith stated: "Drilling in 2016 at the Eastern Borosi Project continues to expand the gold-silver vein systems showing the robust nature of the mineralization. Drilling in 2016 has extended mineralization along strike and down dip at both the Main Blag and East Dome targets."

Recent Drill Highlights from Eastern Borosi Gold-Silver Project

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Length Au Ag Hole_ID Target From_m To_m (m) (g/t) (g/t) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- BL16-024 East Dome 211.60 216.11 4.51 1.82 146.3 BL16-024 East Dome incl 214.55 216.11 1.56 4.44 142.9 BL16-025 East Dome 203.00 209.00 6.00 0.23 103.7 BL16-025 East Dome incl 206.60 207.50 0.90 0.49 420.0 BL16-026 East Dome 122.37 133.47 11.10 0.01 23.6 BL16-027 East Dome 81.07 81.60 0.53 0.49 96.0 BL16-028 East Dome 166.22 169.27 3.05 0.14 63.4 BL16-029 Blag Main 130.90 135.54 4.64 1.51 38.1 BL16-029 Blag Main incl 134.00 134.85 0.85 7.10 62.6 BL16-030 Blag Main 98.15 102.17 4.02 0.34 29.1 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Notes: - Intervals are core lengths / true width are estimated to be 70-80% of lengths - Length weighted averages from uncut assays.

IAMGOLD Option - Eastern Borosi Project

Exploration to date on the Eastern Borosi Project has outlined several tens of kilometres of highly prospective mineralized structures located in an historic gold-silver mining district. Targets have been defined by surface soil and rock sampling, trenching and drilling.

To date in 2016, 18 holes have been completed (5 East Dome; 4 Blag Main; 3 Santos Trend; 3 Vancouver vein; 3 Vein Swarm for total meterage to date of: 3,487.53 metres (1,017.00m East Dome; 696.39m Blag Main; 466.64m Santos Trend; 686.24m Vancouver vein; 621.26m Vein Swarm). Results have been received and are being reported in this news release for the first 11 holes including five holes drilled at East Dome, three holes completed at Main Blag and three holes testing the Santos Trend. Additional drill holes completed and being assayed include; three holes testing the Vancouver and Guapinol Vein System, three holes on the Blag Vein Swarm target, and an additional drill hole at the Main Blag Structure.

Drilling in 2016 is targeting a series of high grade gold-silver vein systems defined by the 2014-2015 drilling campaigns. Step out drill holes are testing down plunge and on-strike extensions.

Low sulphidation epithermal gold-silver mineralization intersected on the Eastern Borosi Project is hosted within porphyritic andesite and consists of structurally controlled, high energy quartz-carbonate vein breccias, vein-stockworks and discrete smokey quartz veins containing fine grained sulphide minerals.

Drilling on the East Dome has extended the mineralization 150 metres to the south and 75 metres below previous drilling. The step out drilling on the East Dome has intersected 4.51 metres grading 1.82 g/t gold and 146.3 g/t silver including 1.56 metres grading 4.44 g/t gold and 142.9 g/t silver (BL16-024), 6.00 metres grading 0.23 g/t gold and 103.7 g/t silver (BL16-025), 11.00 metres grading 0.01 g/t gold and 23.6 g/t silver (BL16-026), 0.53 metres grading 0.49 g/t gold and 96.0 g/t silver (BL16-027), and 1.60 metres grading 0.24 g/t gold and 100.4 g/t silver (BL16-028). Additional step out drilling will be completed on the East Dome target.

Drilling on the Main Blag Gold-Silver Vein System has extended the mineralization 100 metres to the south testing the structure in that area to a depth of 150 metres below surface. Intervals include 4.64 metres grading 1.51 g/t gold and 38.1 g/t silver including 0.85 metres grading 7.10 g/t gold and 62.6 g/t silver (BL16-029), 4.02 metres grading 0.34 g/t gold and 29.1 g/t silver (BL16-030), and 2.80 metres grading 0.44 g/t gold and 11.4 g/t silver (BL16-031). Further drilling is planned on the Main Blag structure.

Three holes tested the extension of the Santos Trend mineralization with each drill hole intersecting the mineralized structure, however, returning low gold and silver values highlighted by two intercepts in drill hole BL16-033; 1.08 metres grading 0.73 g/t gold and 70.9 g/t silver and 1.69 metres grading 0.25 g/t gold and 0.8 g/t silver. Drill holes BL16-032 and BL16-034 contained weakly anomalous gold and silver values.

Calibre and IAMGOLD entered into an option agreement dated May 26, 2014 whereby IAMGOLD can earn a 51% interest in the Project consisting of 176 km2 within the Borosi Concessions, Northeast Nicaragua, by incurring US$5 million in exploration expenditures and making US$450,000 in payments to Calibre by May 26, 2017, the first and second anniversary US $150,000 payments having been made in May 2015 and May 2016 respectively. The total potential investment by IAMGOLD to earn a 70% interest in the Project is US$10.9 million. The Project hosts gold-silver resources in two deposits and a series of well-defined low sulphidation epithermal gold-silver targets.

Calibre is committed to best practice standards for all exploration, sampling and drilling activities. Drilling was completed by independent firm Kluane Drilling Ltd. Analytical quality assurance and quality control procedures include the systematic insertion of blanks, standards and duplicates into the sample strings. Samples are placed in sealed bags and shipped directly to Acme Labs (a Bureau Veritas Group Company) in Managua, Nicaragua for sample preparation and then to Acme Labs in Vancouver, Canada for 50 gram gold fire assay and ICP-MS multi element analyses.

The technical content in this news release was read and approved by Gregory Smith, P.Geo, President and CEO of the Company who is the Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101.

About Calibre Mining Corp.

Calibre controls a 100% interest in over 340 km2 of mineral concessions in the Mining Triangle of Northeast Nicaragua. Additionally the Company has an option agreement with IAMGOLD covering 176 km2 of concessions, an option agreement with Centerra Gold on 253 km2, joint venture exploration programs underway with B2Gold Corp. on 66.1 km2 of concessions which includes the Primavera gold-copper porphyry discovery and the Monte Carmelo Gold Zone, and a joint venture on the 33.6 km2 Rosita gold-copper-silver project with Rosita Mining Corporation. Major shareholders of Calibre include gold producer B2Gold Corp, Pierre Lassonde and Management.

Calibre Mining Corp.

Greg Smith, P.Geo., President and CEO

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains certain forward-looking statements, Any statements that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance (often, but not always, using words or phrases such as "expects" or does not expect", "is expected", anticipates" or "does not anticipate" "plans", "estimates" or "intends" or stating that certain actions, events or results " may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be "forward-looking statements". Forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties which could cause actual events or results to materially differ from those reflected in the forward-looking statements.

Safe Harbor Statement under the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Except for the statements of historical fact contained herein, the information presented constitutes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements including but not limited to those with respect to the price of gold, potential mineralization, reserve and resource determination, exploration results, and future plans and objectives of the Company involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievement of Atlas to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

Contacts:

Calibre Mining Corp.

Ryan King

604 628-1012

www.calibremining.com




Montreal, Quebec--(Newsfile Corp. - June 8, 2016) - Today Sunset Cove Mining (TSXV: SSM) (the "Company") announces the British Columbia Securities Commission ("BCSC") on June 1st, 2016 had lifted the Cease Trade Order ("CTO") that had been in place since August 6, 2015 for not filing its 2015 Year End financials and subsequent continuous disclosure documents on time.

As of June 1st the Company has now met all of its continuous disclosure reporting requirements and looks forward to having the Company's shares return to trading soon.

Mr. Lorne Woods, President and CEO of Sunset Cove would like to thank the shareholders for their support during these times. In addition Sunset Cove is proceeding with a small share for debt settlement with long time suppliers. Subject to the approval of the TSXV Exchange, these debts will be settled by the issuance of Common Shares at a price of $ 0.05 per share.

About Sunset Cove - Sunset Cove Mining Inc. is a dynamic Canadian junior mineral exploration and development company dedicated to driving shareholder value through the economical acquisition, exploration and development of strategic metals properties in to the point where they become attractive joint venture or acquisition targets. Sunset currently has four properties in its portfolio, the Lac Gueret West and North graphite properties; the La Pause and Lac des Vents Gold properties in Quebec.



Forward-Looking Statements

Some of the statements contained herein may be forward-looking statements that involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Results presented in this press release are exploratory in nature. Historical data, if mentioned, should not be relied upon, as they are not admissible under NI 43-101 rules and the Company has not conducted sufficient testing to verify this type of information. Without limitation, statements regarding potential mineralization and resources, exploration results, and future plans and objectives of the Company are forward-looking statements that involve various degrees of risk. The following are important factors that could cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements: changes in the world-wide price of mineral commodities, general market conditions, risks inherent in mineral exploration, risks associated with development, construction and mining operations, the uncertainty of future profitability, and the uncertainty of access to additional capital. Sunset Cove disclaims any obligation to update any such forward-looking statements.

"Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release."



For further information, please contact:



Lorne Woods, President, Sunset Cove Mining

(877) 234-0692; ext. 250

lwoods@sunsetcovemining.com

www.sunsetcovemining.com
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Questioning whether Donald Trump has the right temperament to be president, Senator Mark Kirk, R-Ill., announced Tuesday that he will no longer support the presumptive Republican nominee. In a statement, Kirk attributed his decision to withdraw his support for Trump to the real estate tycoon's recent comments about Hispanic Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel. 'I have spent my life building bridges and tearing down barriers-not building walls,' Kirk said. 'That's why I find Donald Trump's belief that an American-born judge of Mexican descent is incapable of fairly presiding over his case is not only dead wrong, it is un-American.' 'While I oppose the Democratic nominee, Donald Trump's latest statements, in context with past attacks on Hispanics, women and the disabled like me, make it certain that I cannot and will not support my party's nominee for President regardless of the political impact on my candidacy or the Republican Party,' he added. Kirk said he has concluded that Trump has not demonstrated the temperament necessary to assume the office of the presidency, noting that the president commands a military with an arsenal of thousands of nuclear weapons. The retraction of support for Trump comes as Kirk is facing a tough re-election fight against Rep. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., who questioned why it took so long for the Senator to renounce the billionaire. Kirk previously said he would back Trump but told CNN he will now write in former CIA director David Petraeus this fall. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwired - June 08, 2016) - Silicon Legal Strategy today announced that James Alonso has joined the firm as an associate in its San Francisco office. This marks the second new hire for the firm in the last month.

James helps startups navigate through the incorporation and funding processes, as well as manage day-to-day issues like negotiating commercial contracts and licenses. Before joining Silicon Legal, James practiced at the Silicon Valley office of Gunderson Dettmer, where he advised over one hundred emerging technology companies and investors in connection with venture capital financings, M&A transactions and corporate governance matters. Most recently, James founded his own startup, Docasaurus.com. Docasaurus provides document automation software for corporate attorneys and is used by lawyers across the country to form and finance companies.

James received his B.A. in Biochemistry from UC Berkeley and his J.D. from Columbia Law School.

"Silicon Legal is able to take care of startups in a way that other firms just can't match," said Alonso. "Their focus on scalable service is shown by how fast the firm itself is growing while continuing to delight its clients. I'm feeling very fortunate to be a part of this team and look forward to working with their incredible client base."

"We're very excited to welcome James to Silicon Legal Strategy. We feel that our clients will benefit immensely from the targeted legal and business experience that James brings with him," said Andre Gharakhanian, partner at Silicon Legal Strategy. "Silicon Legal just continues to attract top tier talent from other, larger firms. Having recently moved into a new, larger office space in San Francisco's SOMA district, we are excited to continue growing our headcount in the second half of 2016."

About Silicon Legal Strategy

Silicon Legal Strategy is the premier boutique law firm providing targeted, bottom-line-oriented advice to technology startups, innovative entrepreneurs and seasoned investors. Trained at the top firms in Silicon Valley, our attorneys and staff are incredibly passionate about technology and have extensive experience representing early stage companies and investors. We are a known quantity in Silicon Valley, and work with or sit across the table from every major law firm in the area. Perhaps most importantly, we ourselves are entrepreneurs. We truly understand the challenges of a startup -- like building and motivating a team, creating repeatable processes to ensure continued customer satisfaction at scale and dealing with infrastructure issues. We face these challenges every day -- and as a result, are able to deliver more relevant, bottom-line-oriented advice. Put simply, we actually "get" what entrepreneurs are going through.

Contact:

Jaime Madden

Silicon Legal Strategy

info@siliconlegal.com

(415) 230-0870
Acclaimed Israeli storyteller recognized for inspiring Jewish and universal values throughout the world

NEW YORK, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --The Charles Bronfman Prize today announced Etgar Keret, the internationally acclaimed Israeli author, storyteller and filmmaker, as the 2016 Prize recipient in recognition of his work conveying Jewish values across cultures and imparting a humanitarian vision throughout the world.

The Prize was established in 2004 byEllen Bronfman Hauptman and Stephen Bronfman, together with their spouses,Andrew Hauptman and Claudine Blondin Bronfman, to honor their father, Charles Bronfman, his values, and his commitment to young people and their potential as change makers. Past recipients have been recognized for their significant contributions to a diverse range of causes, including: refugee rights, poverty, education, disability rights, the environment, healthcare, and workforce development for veterans. The Prize is accompanied by a $100,000 award.

Keret, 48, best known for his short stories, graphic novels, film and television projects, has been one of Israel's most popular writers since his first collection of short stories was published in 1992. Hailed as the voice of young Israel, Keret is one of the most successful Israeli writers worldwide. His work has been published in 46 countries and translated into 41 languages, including Farsi, and has been featured around the world in outlets including The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Le Monde, The Paris Review, Zoetrope and National Public Radio (NPR).

"We recognize that humanitarian work is increasingly taking new forms and this marks the first time The Charles Bronfman Prize has been awarded to anindividual who uses storytelling as a medium through which he challenges and inspires the way people think about themselves and the world," said Stephen Bronfman on behalf of the Prize founders andinternational panel of judges."EtgarKeretis an important international voice who speaks of the Jewish condition in contemporary terms and demonstrates that writers can play an influential and critical role within society."

Charles Bronfman, the namesake of the Prize, said, "In a dangerous world, Etgar Keret portrays people who have the capacity to empathize with the other, to hear the other, and to find compassion for the other. He counters dehumanization and inspires his readers with warmth and humor and original thinking. He encourages others to make the world a better place and translates the lessons of the Holocaust to a new generation. Etgar's ability to innovate and collaborate with others involved in creative endeavorsfully embodies the values and spirit of the Prize and I am delighted by his selection."

"It is a great honor for me to be the 2016 recipient of The Charles Bronfman Prize.If I had the choice to either become a better writer or a better person, I would choose, with no hesitation, the latter option. I feel that The Charles Bronfman Prize sets the same priorities, being given not only for talent and excellence but more than anything, for thegenuineattemptto make a change and shape the world we live in." said Keret. "The best way to learn a text is through arguing about its meaning with anotherperson. The value of critical thought is of great moral importance. It doesn't excuse us at any momentfrom contemplating ourdecisions and assuming full responsibility for them. When I write I try not to preach to my readers but to put them in front of a text presenting an incomplete world, thus turning the reading process itselfinto aHevruta (fellowship) study."

"In periods of great change, writers may capture the feelings, thoughts, and experiences of many and give them a voice," said Keret's nominator, Nissim Calderon, Professor Emeritus of Hebrew Literature at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel."Etgar is one such writer, and his literary creativity is paralleled by social involvement. His stories offer his readers - many of them young people - something in their multiple cultures, which responds to some need greater than the particular in their lives."

Keret's nominating team for The Charles Bronfman Prize also includes best-selling author Jonathan Safran Foer, Polish journalist Pawel Smolenski and Palestinian-Israeli author and journalist Sayed Kashua, who said in support of Keret's nomination: "Somehow, when I read Keret, I know deep inside that there is still room for understanding, for cooperation, that there is another way which refuses to accept the segregation between religions, people, nationalities and species. That there is another way, Keret's way, which refuses to accept dichotomies, and in which opposites mix and turn into one creation, harmonious in its discordance and complete with its shortcomings...proving that literature can change the world."

More About Etgar Keret

Born in Ramat Gan in 1967 and raised by parents who survived the Holocaust, Etgar Keret is one of the leading voices in Israeli literature and is internationally acclaimed for his work across a wide range of cultural endeavors. One of Israel's most innovative and extraordinary storytellers, Keret, is best known for his short stories. Rarely extending beyond three or four pages, his stories offer a window into a surreal world that is at once funny and sad. Keret started writing in 1992 during his service in the Israel Defense Forces and has since published five collections of short stories, one memoir, four Associated Pressgraphic novels, and four children's books.

Keret has been awarded the Prime Minister's Prize (1996), the Ministry of Culture's Prime Minister Award for Literature in Israel (1998),the Ministry of Culture's Award for Film Making in Israel (2000), the Jewish Quarterly - UK Wingate Award (2008), the St. Petersburg Public Library's Foreign Favorite Award (2010), the Newman Prize (2012), and each of his books has received the Book Publishers Association's Platinum Prize (1995, 1996, 1999, 2003, 2011). In 2010, Keret was honored in France with the decoration of Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. His latest book, The Seven Good Years, his first non-fiction book, was chosen by The Guardian as one of the best biographies and memoirs of 2015.

Keret has written several screenplays, including Malka Lev Adom (Skin Deep) (1996), which won first prize at several international film festivals and was awarded an Israeli Film Academy award. Keret and his wife, Israeli filmmaker and children's book writer Shira Geffen, won the 2007 Cannes Film Festival's Camera d'Or award and Best Director Award of the French Artists and Writers' Guild for their film Jellyfish.

In an effort to bring literature closer to a younger generation, Keret initiated and edited Silhouettes, and founded the nonprofit StoryVid. Silhouettes is an anthology of work by young Israelis that aims to describe, through fiction,the difficulties confronted by people with psychiatric disabilities. Proceeds from the book were donated to help related causes. Keret's StoryVid is a new media project that combines books and cinema to create, as The Paris Review said, "the literary equivalent of a music video."

He is a regular contributor to NPR's"This American Life," and a lecturer in the Department of Hebrew Literature at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel. Keret resides in Tel Aviv with his wife, Shira Geffen, and their son, Lev.

AboutThe Charles Bronfman Prize

The Charles Bronfman Prize celebrates the vision and endeavor of an individual or team under the age of 50 whose humanitarian work is inspired by Jewish values and whose accomplishments are of universal benefit. The Prize brings public recognition to their work and impact, providing inspiration to the next generations. An internationally recognized panel of Judges selects the Prize recipient(s) and bestows an award of $100,000.

Previous recipients include Jay Feinberg, Founder and Executive Director of theGift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation; Dr. Alon Tal, Founder of Israel'sArava Institute for Environmental Studies; Dr. Amitai Ziv, Founder and Director of theIsrael Center for Medical Simulation; Rachel Andres, Founder and Director ofJewish World Watch's Solar Cooker Project;Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin, Co-Founders of theKnowledge is Power Program(KIPP); Sasha Chanoff, Founder and Executive Director,RefugePoint; Jared Genser, Founder and President ofFreedom Now; Karen Tal, Former Principal ofThe Bialik-Rogozin Schooland Co-Founder ofEducation Insights; Eric Greitens, Founder and CEO ofThe Mission Continues; Eric Rosenthal, Founder and Executive Director ofDisability Rights International; Sam Goldman, Founder of d.light; and Rebecca Heller, Co-Founder and Director of the International Refugee Assistance Project.
SEATTLE, WA -- (Marketwired) -- 06/08/16 -- CFN Media Group ("CannabisFN"), the leading creative agency and media network dedicated to legal cannabis, today announced that Signal Bay Inc. (OTC PINK: SGBY) has engaged CFN Media to conduct a 3-month investor and capital markets visibility program beginning on June 7, 2016.

CannabisFN's initial publication discusses Signal Bay's recent acquisitions of cannabis testing laboratories in Oregon, the company's plans for further expansion both in Oregon and in California, and the role cannabis testing plays as the legal cannabis market develops. The article, titled "Signal Bay (SGBY) Builds Presence in $850 Million Cannabis Testing Industry," can be read here on CannabisFN.com: http://www.cannabisfn.com/signal-bay-sgby-builds-presence-in-850-million-cannabis-testing-industry/

"We are excited to be working with one of the industry's foremost cannabis consulting and analytical laboratory services companies," said CFN Media President Frank Lane. "Signal Bay's recent acquisitions of Oregon Analytical Services and Kenevir Research represent major milestones in the company's efforts to become a leading player in the cannabis consulting and laboratory testing space."

Signal Bay Inc., through its subsidiaries Signal Bay Research Inc., Signal Bay Services Inc., and EVIO Labs Inc., provides advisory services, operational management, and analytical testing services to the legal cannabis industry.

"Signal Bay is fortunate to be able to partner with CFN Media Group," said Signal Bay CEO William Waldrop. "Having an experienced media partner to share our story and successes is critical as we continue to focus on growing the company and maximizing shareholder value."

CFN Media will leverage its extensive reach and presence within the public markets of the North American legal cannabis industry together with its award winning content platform to drive investor and market engagement for Signal Bay Inc.

Learn how to become a CFN featured company, brand or entrepreneur: http://www.cannabisfn.com/become-featured-company/

Download the CFN Media iOS mobile app to access the world of cannabis from the palm of your hand: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cannabisfn/id988009247?ls=1&mt=8

Or visit our homepage and enter your mobile number under the Apple App Store logo to receive a download link text on your iPhone: http://www.cannabisfn.com

About CFN Media

CFN Media, the leading creative agency and media network dedicated to legal cannabis, helps marijuana businesses attract investors, customers (B2B, B2C), capital, and media visibility. Private and public marijuana companies and brands in the US and Canada rely on CFN Media to grow and succeed.

CFN launched in June of 2013 to initially serve the growing universe of publicly traded marijuana companies across North America. Today, CFN Media is also the digital media choice for the emerging brands in the space.

About Signal Bay Inc.

Signal Bay, Inc., through its subsidiaries Signal Bay Research, Inc., Signal Bay Services, Inc. and EVIO Labs, Inc., provides advisory services, operational management and analytical testing services to the legal cannabis industry. EVIO Labs, a Signal Bay wholly owned subsidiary, currently operates three cannabis testing facilities in Oregon. Learn more at www.signalbay.com and www.eviolabs.com.

CFN Media

Frank Lane

President

(206) 369-7050

flane@cannabisfn.com



Signal Bay, Inc. & EVIO Inc.

William Waldrop

Chief Executive Officer

(541) 633-4568

william@signalbay.com




AUSTIN, TX--(Marketwired - June 08, 2016) - For the month of June, VERTS Mediterranean Grill will host an AnniVERTSary party to celebrate five years of serving chef-inspired food.

To thank the community for their support, VERTS will give away one free, full-size entree per guest on select dates in Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio and San Marcos.

The AnniVERTSary schedule for free entrees is as follows:

Houston

June 11 from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Dallas

June 18 from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Austin, San Antonio, San Marcos

June 25 from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

The first 25 guests at each location will receive complimentary swag bags that will include VERTS shirts, recipes, coupons, and other goodies. Guests will have a chance to participate in social media contests held throughout the day.

"When we opened the first VERTS near the University of Texas, our goal was to recreate the delicious Mediterranean food we grew up enjoying in Europe," VERTS Co-founder and CEO Michael Heyne said. "Today, the VERTS brand has grown to over 30 restaurants. We could not have accomplished this without the communities who place a shared importance on fresh, flavorful food that's as good for your body as it is for your taste buds."

VERTS Mediterranean Grill continues to evolve as it grows to be a leader in the fast casual food category. Earlier this year, the restaurant unveiled a new logo, restaurant interior, packaging design, website and test kitchen. VERTS will open its first out-of-state location this Fall when it launches on the East Coast.

For a full list of VERTS locations visit http://www.eatverts.com/locations.

About VERTS Mediterranean Grill

VERTS is an award-winning restaurant concept that delivers on its mission to become the culinary leader in fast casual Mediterranean food by serving chef-inspired pitas, wraps, salads and rice bowls. Under the direction of Culinary Director Jason Donoho, teams in each one of our restaurants' kitchens prepare savory, healthy food from scratch daily using fresh, all natural ingredients.

Co-founders Michael Heyne and Dominik Stein launched VERTS in 2011 with the simple idea of recreating the popular food they missed from their native Europe and making it available for American consumers. VERTS currently has locations across Austin, Dallas, San Antonio and Houston. The company is expanding to the East Coast this fall and plans on having 45 restaurants by the end of 2016. To learn more, please visit us at www.eatverts.com or follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

Image Available: http://www.marketwire.com/library/MwGo/2016/6/8/11G101963/Images/VERTS_Image-7273bb6640ba95fa987a58110416065b.jpg

Media Contact:

Sarah Pendley

VERTS

832-290-0751

sarah.pendley@vertskebap.com
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Facing a backlash from other members of the Republican Party, presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump claimed his comments about Hispanic Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel have been misconstrued. In a lengthy statement, Trump said he does not feel a judge's heritage makes them incapable of being impartial but continued to question whether he was receiving a fair trial in a case involving Trump University. 'It is unfortunate that my comments have been misconstrued as a categorical attack against people of Mexican heritage,' Trump said. 'I am friends with and employ thousands of people of Mexican and Hispanic descent.' 'The American justice system relies on fair and impartial judges,' he added. 'All judges should be held to that standard.' The statement from Trump comes after House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., described the real estate tycoon's comments about Curiel as textbook racism. Senator Mark Kirk, R-Ill., also cited Trump's comments about Curiel in a statement withdrawing his support for the likely Republican presidential nominee. CNN noted that Trump repeatedly took aim at Curiel last week, calling him a 'hater' and 'a Mexican' as he slammed the judge's rulings in the case. (Photo: Gage Skidmore) Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 06/08/16 -- Today, the Ontario government released its long anticipated Five Year Climate Change Action Plan to promote the reduction of greenhouse gas ("GHG") emissions and to facilitate the shift to a low-carbon economy.

Included in the Action Plan is a commitment to implement a Home Energy and GHG Rating and Disclosure (HERD) program for properties at the time of sale. This means that a universal home energy audit, paid for by government, must be conducted prior to the sale of a home and that information must be provided to the seller during the purchase process.

"Ontarians deserve to know how a home operates when comparing properties to better understand their monthly future payments," said Jay Nordenstrom, Executive Director of NAIMA Canada. "We have labels for food, gas mileage and medicine, why not homes too?"

Mandatory home energy labelling is an initiative the Home Energy Transparency Coalition and its members have championed for many years as they believe it is a valuable tool that can be used to improve consumer protection, increase the value of homes, strengthen energy literacy, and encourage homeowners to contribute to the fight against climate change.

"Home energy rating and disclosure is a foundational first step in cutting carbon pollution from Ontario households," said Patrick DeRochie, Coordinator at the Clean Economy Alliance. "It empowers homeowners with the knowledge to take climate action, while encouraging energy efficiency and conservation, stimulating local employment in energy retrofits, and helping build a clean economy in Ontario."

"Universal home energy labelling is the single most important tool to increase energy literacy towards a successful climate change strategy," said Elizabeth MacDonald, CEO of the Canadian Energy Efficiency Alliance.

According to Ontario's Climate Change Strategy the province's third largest source of emissions is the building sector and residential buildings make up a significant portion of these emissions. Residential buildings is a sector where substantial GHG reductions can be achieved with minimal effort and maximum results.

"With over 80 per cent of homes in Ontario built prior to 2000, a mandatory energy disclosure requirement is the most effective consumer education tool to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and upgrade Ontario's 4.8 million existing homes," said Joe Vaccaro, CEO of the Ontario Home Builders' Association.

By placing greater value on energy efficiency, homeowners will look for ways to improve the performance of their homes and reduce their carbon footprint - including greater utilization of government-funded renovation and retrofit programs.

Ontarians spend more than $26 billion annually on home renovations. If a fraction of that money is shifted to spending on energy efficient renovations based on information obtained through a mandatory energy audit, not only will homeowners experience an increase in home valuations, the resulting GHG reductions will be substantial.

The Home Energy Transparency Coalition applauds the Ontario government for taking a bold step in the fight against climate change.

About Home Energy Transparency Coalition:

The Home Energy Transparency Coalition comprises the Canadian Energy Efficiency Alliance, Ontario Home Builders Association, Clean Economy Alliance, and NAIMA Canada representing more than 125 organizations.

Contacts:

Media Inquiries:

NAIMA Canada

Jay Nordenstrom

Executive Director

613-232-8093

jnordenstrom@naimacanada.ca






IRVING (dpa-AFX) - Norway will ban the sale of cars running on conventional fuels by 2025.



Though Norway is one of the major oil and gas producer in Europe, it has been curbing cars running on diesel and gasoline.



Elon Reeve Musk, co-founder and CEO of Tesla Motors responded to Norway's decision through a tweet reading, 'What an amazingly awesome country.'



More than 20 percent of Norway's vehicles are already running on electric power. In a bold decision, the country has set the deadline for stopping all fossil fuel vehicles. In the next nine years, it is expected that several countries across the globe will try to imitate the green targets of Norway.



Norway has other ambitious energy conservation plans to triple its wind power by 2020. The country boasts of lower domestic and industrial electric prices.



Statistics on energy efficiency in transport in Norway has shown that gasoline consumption has been downward in the country and between 2000 and 2013 there was a reduction of 4 percent. Meanwhile use of diesel increased 3.5 percent.



Popular measures such as exemption of non-recurring tax, free parking, free drive in lanes for public transport, exemption from road toll, etc. helped in popularising battery electric vehicles in a faster pace in Norway, than most other countries. It has imported 3063 zero emission cars in 2014 and 13 percent of the new registration cars are with zero emission.



The country has been trying several measures for environmental protection, such as reduced speed limits in specific areas, tax for studded tires in city center, duties on gasoline, diesel, high registration tax on vehicles, purchase tax based on carbon dioxide emissions, etc.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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VANCOUVER, Canada, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Professor Lord David Blunkett, a high-profile British politician who recently made news headlines by drawing parallels between Donald Trump's pursuit of the American presidency and Britain's impending vote on Brexit, is coming to Vancouver.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160608/808993 )



Recently appointed Chair ofThe University of Lawin London, England, The Right Honorable Blunkett was a cabinet minister in former British Prime Minister Tony Blair's labour government, which came to power in 1997. He is also aprofessor of Politics in Practice and chair of the Board of the Crick Centreat the University of Sheffield.

Blind since birth, Professor Lord Blunkett will deliver a free public speech at theUniversity Canada West (UCW)at 9:30 a.m. (PST) on Wednesday, June 15 on the potential impact of Brexit on Britain. Registration for attendees will be at 9 a.m. Brexit is a merger of the words Britain and exit. Blunkett's speech will take place at UCW just eight days before the Brexit vote.

In the national referendum, British Prime Minister David Cameron's government will ask Britons: "Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union (EU) or leave the European Union?"

In The Brexit: Will Britain leave the EU and why should anybody in North America care?Blunkett will argue that remaining in the Union amounts to a marriage of economic, social and international survival. The EU is an economic and political partnership involving 28 European countries.

Despite being opposed to Britain's involvement in the EU in 1975 when it was first created, today Blunkett warns Britain's exodus from the Union would be catastrophic. It would erode Britain's substantial role in helping Europe deal with Islamic State terrorism, organized crime and mass migration.

"Yes there is an enormous need for continuing reform of the grinding bureaucracy that permeates the EU," says the former Member of Parliament of 28 years for Sheffield Brightside. "But in a world of global markets, people movements and global blocks, we need each other more than ever before. In terms of finance and business, in terms of the nation state and democratic politics the challenge in front of us is blindingly obvious. To have power, we need to be able to work together."

Blunkett was Britain's Home Secretary during the 9/11, 2001 attack on the United States' World Trade Centre. He notes that since that world changing event Britain and North America have come to appreciate that collaboration is key to resolving issues of power and terror.

"We are in a fortunate position that we are trusted by and able to work extremely closely with the United States on intelligence gathering, analysis and action," notes Blunkett. "But it is extremely silly and beneath those who should know better to suggest that this somehow 'trumps' if I dare use such expression these days, wider co-operation against terrorism on our doorstep."

On BBC's Daily Politics, Blunkett recently likened U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's increasing popularity to rising public support for Britain's exit from the EU.

He warned that the world should be mindful of how a breakdown of voters' trust in traditional politics can lead them to consider wacky proposals and destabilizing opt-out mechanisms. He cited Trump's "crazy wall between Mexico and the U.S. to keep out illegal immigrants" and the British Out-Campaign's comparison of the EU to a Hitler-like "European State" as examples of this.

The University of Law and UCW are part of theGlobal University Systems(GUS) international network of higher-education institutions headquartered in the Netherlands. With institutions and affiliates across the UK, Canada, Germany and Singapore the group educates more than 50,000 students from 160 different nationalities.

About University Canada West

UCW delivers programs that provide students with the applied and theoretical basis for success in the workplace and future academic endeavours. Established in 2004, UCW offers quality education with courses that transfer broadly into the public education system. Courses are offered at UCW's downtown Vancouver campus and online. For more information visithttp://www.ucanwest.ca
Health Industries South Australia:

Six organisations representing life sciences and health clusters in Europe and Australia have signed a business development agreement today at BIO International Convention 2016 in San Francisco.

The agreement will help fast-track business results for companies and solve a common problem for small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) landing in new markets.

The organisations are from five regions: Adelaide (Australia), Catalonia (Spain), Auvergne-Rhone Alpes Region (France), Bavaria (Germany) and Piedmont (Italy).

The two Australian organisations, BioSA and Health Industries South Australia, signed the agreement on behalf of over 100 health industries companies and research organisations in Adelaide, a city with a fast-growing health and life sciences sector.

"Everyone has been working very hard to deliver this agreement and I'm glad it has been finalised here at BIO 2016," said Health Industries South Australia CE Marco Baccanti.

"This cooperative effort will deliver real, practical results for companies and research organisations across all our regions, and is particularly exciting for Adelaide as it focuses on growing its health industries."

Over A$3 billion is being invested in health and life sciences infrastructure at Adelaide BioMed City one of the largest health and life sciences clusters in the southern hemisphere, bringing together research, education, clinical care, and business incubation and development.

"This agreement will benefit South Australian companies targeting European markets enabling them to create networks for potential commercialisation partners and customers," said Dr Meera Verma, Acting CE of BioSA.

"It will facilitate exports, research collaboration and commercial outcomes and provide opportunities for job creation within the high-tech health sector in South Australia."

The four European clusters Biocat (Catalonia, Spain), BioM (Bavaria, Germany), bioPmed (Piedmont, Italy) and Lyonbiopole (Auvergne-Rhone Alpes, France) form bioXclusters PLUS alliance

This super cluster comprises more than 3,300 SMEs, focusing on drug development, healthcare and medical technology.

This initiative is co-funded by the European Union's COSME programme.

The EU's Ambassador to Australia, Sem Fabrizi, said the COSME programme supports SME competitiveness by facilitating internationalisation and creating a single European entry point for global players, including from Australia, in the life sciences health sector.

"The EU is the world's largest economy and has allocated more than A$3.5 billion over seven years for the COSME programme," Ambassador Fabrizi said. "This agreement is another welcome development in the ever deepening economic ties between the EU and Australia."

"Australia is an interesting business place for companies in Europe. In particular, this agreement will provide an easier direct access to academic and clinical research," said BioM CEO Prof Dr Horst Domdey.

BioPmed Vice President Fabrizio Conicella is eyeing markets in Australia and beyond.

"Asia-Pacific is the fastest-growing healthcare market in the world, and it makes sense for European companies to target these markets from Australia," said Mr Conicella.

The agreement will deliver opportunities across Europe and Australia, helping create connections between businesses, clinical research institutions and hospitals.

This will be achieved by:

Raising awareness about business opportunities in each other's regions.

Providing government support to foster relationships between business, research, education and clinical care organisations.

Helping companies new to a region navigate local regulatory frameworks and make connections in the local business community.

One of the challenges life sciences research companies face is finding a way to commercialise their developments.

"Having strong connections to businesses in South Australia will be great for Catalan life sciences companies looking to commercialise their IP," said Biocat CEO Dr Albert Barbera.

Lyonbiopole CEO Florence Agostino-Etchetto said ICT applied to healthcare is a fast growing sector.

"Australia has a strong focus on big data and AI research and companies in Lyon will be able to tap into this," said Ms Agostino-Etchetto.

A signing ceremony for the agreement will take place at BIO International Convention 2016 in San Francisco, 4pm Wednesday 8 June 2016 at the Lyonbiopole booth (#705).

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160608005466/en/

Contacts:

Media Contact:

Health Industries South Australia

Marco Baccanti

?Chief Executive

Mobile: +61 475 810 469

Email: marco.baccanti@sa.gov.au


OTTAWA (dpa-AFX) - The recent wildfires near Fort McMurray in Alberta have reduced Canada's oil sands production and it may take weeks for production to return to previous levels, the U.S. Energy Information Administration or EIA said Wednesday.



May's raging inferno near the Canada's oil sands capital prompted the province of Alberta to declare a state of emergency. It also forced the evacuation of the entire population of Fort McMurray.



An estimated 1,600 homes and buildings were destroyed in the region from the wildfires, but no deaths or serious injuries were reported. Oil sands production companies operating near Fort McMurray either shut down completely or operated at reduced rates.



The EIA estimates that disruptions to oil production averaged about 0.8 million barrels per day, or b/d, in May, with a daily peak of more than 1.1 million b/d. The EIA expects disruptions to average 400,000 b/d in June.



According to the EIA, evacuees from the wildfires in Fort McMurray have now begun to return to the city. However, a state of emergency still remains in place throughout Alberta and the temporary shutdown of the area's oil sands production sites also continues.



While the fires have moved away from Fort McMurray, they have still not been contained. Dangerous air quality conditions at facilities and surrounding towns have slowed the return of workers.



But facilities located farther north of Fort McMurray have begun to restart production amid improving conditions, although not at full capacity.



The EIA noted that in response to the fire, local pipeline capacity was also shut down and resulted in reduced crude oil takeaway capacity.



Oil sands production yields very thick crude oil that often requires liquid diluent such as natural gas condensates to reduce viscosity so that the crude oil can flow in pipelines. As this diluent is delivered to the production area by pipeline, the pipeline shutdowns also affected this diluent supply.



But the Fort McMurray fires have not significantly affected the regional crude oil price, Western Canadian Select, or WCS, according to the EIA.



Canada's major oil producer Suncor Energy Inc. has said it plans to be back on full steam by mid-July.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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Technavio's latest report on the global transit cards marketprovides an analysis on the most important trends expected to impact the market outlook from 2016-2020. Technavio defines an emerging trend as a factor that has the potential to significantly impact the market and contribute to its growth or decline.

Amrita Choudhury, a lead analyst from Technavio, specializing in research on automatic identification systems, says, "The transition from paper-based ticketing to transit cards has enhanced the ticketing system and these cards are gaining prominence in the transportation industry in developed countries. The transportation sector is integrating smart card technology into fare collection systems because of the many benefits it offers in terms of convenience, efficiency and also enhanced security."

The top five emerging trends driving the global transit cards market according to Technavio ICT research analysts are:

Introduction of hybrid smart cards

Increase in adoption of e-passports

Emergence of contactless smart cards in transportation sector

Introduction of multi-application smart cards

Increased adoption of contactless smart cards in developing countries

Introduction of hybrid smart cards

Hybrid smart cards have a dual-interface (a combination of contactless and contact interfaces) on a single card. They have shared storage and processing of information, eliminating the need for multiple cards. Hybrid smart card authentication requires smart card middleware, a smart card, a smart card reader, and a smart card PIN. It is easy to use because the data and information is consolidated in one smart card. The emergence of hybrid cards will support the adoption of smart cards by the transportation sector.

Increase in adoption of e-passports

The need for passport authentication is growing with the increase in cross-border travel. In addition, the increasing cases of terrorism are leading to an increase in the demand for chip-embedded passports (i.e., e-passports). E-passports are embedded with smart chips that generate a unique code for the identification of a user. These codes are difficult to decode or forge, making e-passports more reliable than the traditional paper passports. The increased adoption of e-passports is thus driving the growth of the market.

Emergence of contactless smart cards in transportation sector

Contactless cards are convenient and easy to use compared to contact-based cards. The transportation sector is increasingly deploying contactless e-ticket cards to improve security in billing and payment processes. Contactless smart cards are becoming the preferred choice for the transportation sector because they enable fast identity and fare payment transactions allowing high passenger throughput in less time at border crossings. The card does not have to be inserted, swiped, or scanned by the reader. France, Russia, Brazil, Indonesia, Poland, Malaysia, South Africa, and Canada are likely to see increased adoption of contactless smart cards during the forecast period.

Introduction of multi-application smart cards

With advances in technology, a number of vendors are offering multi-application smart cards. These cards are a combination of contactless and contact interfaces on a single card. Multi-application smart cards eliminate the need to carry multiple cards for different applications because they have shared storage and information processing. Blue from American Express is a smart card that provides additional security while shopping online and booking tickets. Santander Universities has provided multi-application smart cards to students for multiple applications such as secure access to computers, transit ticketing, parking access, and electronic purses.

Increased adoption of contactless smart cards in developing countries

Government organizations in developing countries are increasingly adopting contactless and contact-based smart cards for identity verification and authentication. Contactless smart cards are widely used in India for driving licenses, ID cards, e-passports, vehicle document smart cards, and voter IDs. Gemalto is organizing training sessions for its customers to help them understand the importance of contactless smart cards. "The adoption of contactless smart cards will increase in the government, healthcare, transportation, and defense sectors in developing countries such as Brazil during the forecast period," says Amrita.

Browse Related Reports:

Global Contactless Smart Cards Market 2016-2020

Global Smart Card Market in the Transportation Sector 2015-2019

Global Mobile Card Reader Market 2016-2020

Purchase these three reports for the price of one by becoming a Technavio subscriber. Subscribing to Technavio's reports allows you to download any three reports per month for the price of one. Contact enquiry@technavio.com with your requirements and a link to our subscription platform.

About Technavio

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. The company develops over 2000 pieces of research every year, covering more than 500 technologies across 80 countries. Technavio has about 300 analysts globally who specialize in customized consulting and business research assignments across the latest leading edge technologies.

Technavio analysts employ primary as well as secondary research techniques to ascertain the size and vendor landscape in a range of markets. Analysts obtain information using a combination of bottom-up and top-down approaches, besides using in-house market modeling tools and proprietary databases. They corroborate this data with the data obtained from various market participants and stakeholders across the value chain, including vendors, service providers, distributors, re-sellers, and end-users.

If you are interested in more information, please contact our media team at media@technavio.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160608005045/en/

Contacts:

Technavio Research

Jesse Maida

Media Marketing Executive

US: +1 630 333 9501

UK: +44 208 123 1770

www.technavio.com
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - With Hillary Clinton seeming to have secured the delegates needed to clinch the Democratic presidential nomination, Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson urged supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., to consider voting for his party's ticket. In an appearance on CNN's 'New Day' on Wednesday, Johnson argued that he offers a 'real alternative' to Clinton and presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. 'For all those Bernie supporters out there, how about taking a look at the Libertarian ticket?' Johnson said. Johnson stressed his belief that smaller government is better but acknowledged that government can play a role in leveling the playing field. The former New Mexico Governor has previously said he agrees with Sanders 73 percent of the time, noting their agreements on issues such as abortion, same-sex marriage, and military intervention. In his appearance on CNN, Johnson called Clinton the 'architect of what is happening worldwide' and suggested the world is not safer as a result. A Quinnipiac University National poll released last week showed Johnson with the support of 5 percent of voters, which would far exceed the 1 percent he received in 2012. (Photo: Gage Skidmore) Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
BROOKFIELD, WI -- (Marketwired) -- 06/08/16 -- Trident Brands Incorporated (OTCQB: TDNT) ("the Company"), an emerging growth company focused on identifying and building growth brands in dynamic consumer segments, today announced the appointment of Steve Bromley as Special Advisor and Chair of the Company's Advisory Committee.

Mr. Bromley brings of over 30 years of food, beverage and general business experience in private and public companies at both management and board levels to the Company. He spent the last 15 years at SunOpta Inc. where he played a key leadership role in growing the business from $50 million to $1.5 billion in revenues, positioning the company as a global leader in natural and organic foods. He served as Chief Executive Officer from February 2007 through September 2015, Chief Operating Officer from 2003 to 2007 and Chief Financial Officer from 2001 to 2003. Prior to joining SunOpta Inc. he spent thirteen years in the Canadian dairy industry and two years in the Canadian processed meats industry. Mr. Bromley served on the Board of Directors of SunOpta Inc. from February 2007 to December 2015, the Board of Directors of Opta Minerals Inc. from 2005 through April 2016, and currently serves on the board of Enchi Corporation, a privately held technology company, as well as a number of advisory boards. Mr. Bromley is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) and a Certified General Accountant (CGA). He will advise the Company on ongoing business and corporate governance matters.

"We are pleased to add Steve Bromley to our team of professionals," said Don MacPhee, President and CEO of Trident Brands. "As we enter a crucial phase of scaling up our business, Steve's experience will be a huge asset. He has deep experience in the markets that we are targeting as well as a track record of building organizations and driving solid returns for shareholders. He knows how to identify opportunities and how to get results."

About Trident Brands Incorporated

Trident Brands, Incorporated is an emerging growth company focused on identifying and building growth brands in dynamic consumer segments. Trident is currently targeting growth opportunities in consumer goods such as functional foods, supplements, and beverages, life science technologies that have applications in consumer products, and intellectual property and/or licenses in recognized brand platforms. Trident Brands holds a 15-year license to market and sell products in the nutritional foods and supplements category under the Everlast brand. The Everlast Nutrition line includes Everlast Vegan Protein, Everlast Fuel hydration drink mix, and Everlast Burn metabolism boost. Everlast is owned by International Brand Management and Licensing (IBML), a worldwide leader in brand licensing. Trident Brands also holds an exclusive worldwide license from Royal DSM to market Brain Armor. A pure plant based DHA sourced from a sustainable process in an FDA inspected facility, Brain Armor is the highest single capsule dose of plant based DHA on the market; it has a strong following among professional and collegiate athletes.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the "safe-harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that are not historical facts. These statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "believe," "expect," "may," "will," "should," "project," "plan," "seek," "intend," or "anticipate" or the negative thereof or comparable terminology, and include discussion about the contribution Mr. Bromley may make to the organization. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from the results expressed or implied by such statements. For a discussion of these and other risks and uncertainties see "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in the Company's public filings with the SEC. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. The Company has no obligation to update the forward-looking information contained in this press release.

Trident Brands Incorporated

1-262-789-6689

info@tridentbrands.com

www.TridentBrands.com




LEUVEN, Belgium, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

ThromboGenics NV (Euronext Brussels: THR), a biotechnology company focused on developing novel medicines for back of the eye disease, today announces that the Office of Biotechnology Products of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a new already-diluted formulation of its JETREA (ocriplasmin).

The new formulation of JETREA offers the additional benefit of eliminating the current preparatory dilution steps prior to injection. At the point of administration into the eye, the strength, potency, composition and pharmaceutical form of the already-diluted formulation remain identical to the currently available formulation after dilution.

JETREA is approved in the USA for the treatment of symptomatic vitreomacular adhesion (VMA), an age-related progressive, sight-threatening condition that may lead to visual distortion, decreased visual acuity and central blindness.

ThromboGenics Inc., which is commercializing JETREA in the US, plans to launch the already-diluted formulation of JETREA in the first half of 2017.

About ThromboGenics

ThromboGenics is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing innovative treatments for diabetic eye disease. The company's attractive pipeline of disease modifying drug candidates is targeting the key segments of the diabetic eye disease market.

ThromboGenics is conducting the CIRCLE study, a Phase II clinical trial to assess THR-409 (ocriplasmin) as a potential treatment to prevent the patients with non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy progress to proliferative diabetic retinopathy. The study is recruiting patients in the US, Canada and Europe.

THR-317, a PIGF inhibitor being developed to treat diabetic macular edema, or as a combination therapy with anti-VEGF treatments, is expected to enter the clinic by year end 2016. In addition, THR-149, a plasma kallikrein inhibitor, which has resulted from research collaboration with Bicycle Therapeutics, and THR-687, an integrin antagonist, which was in-licensed from Galapagos are in late stage pre-clinical development.

ThromboGenics pioneered the new drug category of pharmacological vitreolysis with JETREA (ocriplasmin) which is now approved for the treatment of vitreomacular traction in 54 countries worldwide. ThromboGenics is commercializing JETREA via its subsidiary ThromboGenics, Inc. in the US. Novartis commercializes JETREA outside the United States.

ThromboGenics is headquartered in Leuven, Belgium, and is listed on the NYSE Euronext Brussels exchange under the symbol THR.
TUCSON, AZ--(Marketwired - June 08, 2016) - Liberty Star Uranium & Metals Corp. ("Liberty Star" or the "Company") (OTCBB: LBSR) (OTC PINK: LBSR) today announced that the expiration date of certain previously issued warrants has been extended by three years.

The expiration date of any warrant issued by Liberty Star between May 1, 2013 and May 1, 2016 that was outstanding on May 1, 2016 has been extended for an additional three years. All other terms of the warrants, including the exercise price, remain unchanged. In addition, all terms of warrants issued prior to May 1, 2013 or after May 1, 2016, including the expiration date, remain unchanged.

"James A. Briscoe" James A. Briscoe, Professional Geologist, AZ CA

CEO/Chief Geologist

Liberty Star Uranium & Metals Corp.

About Liberty Star Uranium & Metals Corp.

Liberty Star Uranium & Metals Corp. is engaged in the acquisition and exploration of mineral properties in the States of Arizona and southwest USA. The Company's website address is www.libertystaruranium.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Some statements in this release may be "forward-looking statements" for the purposes of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In some cases forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "plan," "potential," "continue" or similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements include risks and uncertainties, and there are important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These factors, risks and uncertainties are discussed in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended January 31, 2016, as updated from time to time in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company is not responsible for updating the information contained in this press release beyond the published date, or for changes made to this document by wire services or Internet services.

Follow Liberty Star Uranium & Metals Corp. on Agoracom, Facebook, LinkedIn & Twitter@LibertyStarLBSR

Contact:

Agoracom Investor Relations

lbsr@agoracom.com

http://agoracom.com/ir/libertystar



or



Liberty Star Uranium & Metals Corp.

Tracy Myers

520-425-1433

Investor Relations

info@libertystaruranium.com
Launch of BioChaperone Glucagon development based on promising early preclinical results

Addition of this fifth project bolsters Adocia's diabetes portfolio

Discontinuation of non-diabetes programs, DriveIn and monoclonal antibodies formulation

Regulatory News:

Adocia (Euronext Paris: FR0011184241 ADOC), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on diabetes treatment with innovative formulations of approved proteins, today announced a strategic update and the launch of a new project to develop an innovative formulation of human glucagon.

"With this fifth BioChaperone product, we are leveraging the expertise we have established over the past 10 years, positioning Adocia as a center of excellence in protein formulation in diabetes," said Gerard Soula, President and Chief Executive Officer of Adocia. "We strongly believe in the potential of human glucagon, a key hormone in glucose control, to improve diabetes treatment. Our formulation of human glucagon could have significant advantages in terms of performance and cost-effectiveness, allowing us to open new therapeutic applications. With BioChaperone Glucagon, we are affirming our commitment to advance innovative treatments for diabetes."

One of the main challenges with many current glucose-lowering agents, especially insulin, is the risk of severe hypoglycaemia. Glucagon is a peptidic hormone that plays the opposite role of insulin, increasing blood glucose concentration by hepatic glucogenolysis. Two products based on human glucagon (GlucaGen, Novo Nordisk and Glucagon, Eli Lilly) are approved to treat severe hypoglycaemia. However, prior to injection, these emergency kits require dissolution of freeze-dried glucagon with sterile water due to human glucagon instability in aqueous solution. One study* demonstrated that these products can be difficult to use resulting in a very low probability of injecting a proper dose.

Adocia's aqueous formulation of human glucagon could address the medical need for a ready-to-use product for severe hypoglycaemia rescue and unlock the use of glucagon as a chronic treatment for the dual hormone artificial pancreas (DHAP), congenital hyperinsulinism (CH), and bariatric surgery related hypoglycaemia, all of which represent potentially significant market opportunities. More recently, glucagon has also been envisioned as a cornerstone of innovative combinations with incretins for treating obesity.

BioChaperone technology has unique properties to solubilize and stabilize human glucagon in pure aqueous solution at physiologic pH, precluding the need for organic solvent or mutation of the native amino-acid sequence of this peptide. This formulation strategy, building on human glucagon track record in terms of safety and efficacy, could significantly shorten the clinical development plan compared to that of a new glucagon analog.

"BioChaperone Glucagon is an important addition to our portfolio, and it is a prime example of the growing relevance of our technology in treating diabetes. Based on promising preclinical results, we have established a development plan aiming to test BioChaperone Glucagon in a clinical study in the first half of 2017," said Olivier Soula, Deputy General Manager R&D Director.

Consistent with its dedication to diabetes, Adocia has decided to strategically redeploy its resources on proprietary projects in this important therapeutic space. Consequently, its Monoclonal Antibodies and DriveIn programs will be discontinued.

http://investor.biodel.com/releasedetail.cfm?releaseid=904936

About ADOCIA

Adocia is a clinical-stage biotechnology company that specializes in the development of innovative formulations of already-approved therapeutic proteins. Adocia's insulin formulation portfolio, featuring four clinical-stage products and one preclinical product, is among the largest and most differentiated in the industry.

The proprietary BioChaperone technological platform is designed to enhance the effectiveness and/or safety of therapeutic proteins while making them easier for patients to use. Adocia customizes BioChaperone to each protein for a given application in order to address specific patient needs.

Adocia's clinical pipeline includes a unique formulation of PDGF-BB for the treatment of diabetic foot ulcer and four novel insulin formulations for the treatment of diabetes: two ultra-rapid formulations of insulin analogs (BioChaperone Lispro U100 and U200), a rapid-acting formulation of human insulin (HinsBet U100) and a combination of insulin glargine and a rapid-acting insulin analog (BioChaperone Combo). Adocia is also developing a concentrated, rapid-acting formulation of human insulin (HinsBet U500). In December 2014, Adocia signed a partnership with Eli Lilly for the development and commercialization of the BioChaperone Lispro projects.

Adocia aims to deliver "Innovative medicine for everyone, everywhere."

To learn more about Adocia, please visit us at www.adocia.com

Disclaimer

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements concerning Adocia and its business. Such forward-looking statements are based on assumptions that Adocia considers to be reasonable. However, there can be no assurance that the estimates contained in such forward-looking statements will be verified, which estimates are subject to numerous risks including the risks set forth in the 'Risk Factors' section of the Reference Document filed with the French Autorite des marches financiers on April 8, 2016 (a copy of which is available on www.adocia.com) and to the development of economic conditions, financial markets and the markets in which Adocia operates. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are also subject to risks not yet known to Adocia or not currently considered material by Adocia. The occurrence of all or part of such risks could cause actual results, financial conditions, performance or achievements of Adocia to be materially different from such forward-looking statements.

This press release and the information contained herein do not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy Adocia shares in any jurisdiction.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160608005999/en/

Contacts:

Adocia

Gerard Soula

Chairman and CEO

contactinvestisseurs@adocia.com

Tel. +33 4 72 610 610

or

Adocia Press Relations Europe

MC Services AG

Raimund Gabriel

raimund.gabriel@mc-services.eu

adocia@mc-services.eu

Tel. +49 89 210 228 0

or

Adocia Investor Relations USA

The Ruth Group

Tram Bui

tbui@theruthgroup.com

Tel.: +646.536.7035
SAN FRANCISCO, CA and LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM -- (Marketwired) -- 06/08/16 --

WHO:

Brynne Herbert, founder and CEO of MOVE Guides, helping HR teams move their employees around the world -- for any reason, any location and any time, and Evan Rudowski, managing partner, Atlantic Leap

WHAT:

Will present "Taking Your Startup Global" during The Europas annual conference.

WHEN:

Tuesday, June 14, 2016 at 2:45 p.m. BST

WHERE:

Old Billingsgate

1 Old Billingsgate Walk

London EC3R 6DX

DETAILS:

Starting a company comes with a unique set of challenges and opportunities; starting a global company is an entirely different story. From language barriers to physical borders, taking a startup global requires careful research and a well-designed action plan -- and it certainly isn't for the faint at heart.

During The Europas annual conference, Brynne Herbert, founder and CEO of MOVE Guides, will join Evan Rudowski, managing partner, Atlantic Leap, to discuss how companies can build a global culture from day one. Herbert and Rudowski will walk through the steps necessary to establish a footprint, forge an identity and cultivate a workforce -- in offices all over the world. In addition, drawing on her own experiences in building a global company from scratch, which now includes more than 100 employees of 20 different nationalities working all across the globe, Herbert will share proven tips and strategies for a successful operation. Conference attendees interested in launching a global organization, or helping their existing company grow its presence internationally, are encouraged to attend this inspiring session.

MOVE Guides also has been shortlisted in three categories for the 2016 Europas Awards for European startups: Best Enterprise, SaaS or B2B Startup; Best Startup Founders; and Fastest Rising Startup Of The Year. The winners will be announced during the awards dinner on Tuesday, June 14, 2016.

For event details and registration, please visit: https://theeuropas.com.

About MOVE Guides

MOVE Guides helps HR teams move their employees around the world for any reason, any location and any period of time. MOVE Guides partners with leading multinational companies to deliver a full global mobility program with the Talent Mobility Cloud, concierge level support for employees and a global supply chain of partners.

MOVE Guides has offices in San Francisco, London and Hong Kong and is backed by NEA and Notion Capital. For more information go to: http://www.moveguides.com and follow MOVE Guides on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Complete destruction of nodules in 90% of patients demonstrated by first "treat and biopsy" study results

Regulatory News:

THERACLION (Alternext, FR0010120402 ALTHE), a company specialized in leading-edge medical equipment for echotherapy, announced today that Tubingen University has presented promising Echotherapy results from its breast fibroadenoma (BFA) trial. 90% of BFA patients treated with Echotherapy presented at 12 months post-treatment with no vital fibroadenoma tissue.

In the study, 27 patients were treated utilizing Theraclion's therapeutic ultrasound technology to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the technique. The center's initial experience was reported in a peer-reviewed article published in the "Senologie Journal". Now the preliminary histology results were reported by Professor Markus Hahn's team during the German Congress of Senology in Dresden that took place on May 26-28th, 2016.

At 12 months post-procedure, biopsies were performed and preliminary results show that:

24/27 of the biopsied patients were without residual vital BFA tissue.

26 out of 27 patients declared that they would recommend the procedure.

"These results are extremely encouraging," explains Michel Nuta, Chief Medical Officer of Theraclion. "Echotherapy has initially been designed for volume reduction of a nodule, not for its complete destruction. These preliminary results show that there is reason to believe that by adapting the protocol, complete tissue destruction can be obtained."

Pr. Markus Hahn, senior author within the Tubingen group, adds: "Histology performed 12 months after treatment was able to show absence of vital tissue in 90% of cases. The technique which is very easy to use could be envisioned for breast cancer treatment in the short-term future."

"These results exceed our expectations by far. While for BFA the treatment objective remains volume reduction, complete tissue destruction with a completely non-invasive method without radiation could become a promising option for breast cancer patients in the future," adds David Caumartin, CEO of Theraclion.

About Theraclion

Theraclion is a French company specializing in high-tech medical equipment using therapeutic ultrasound. Drawing on leading-edge technologies, Theraclion has designed and manufactured an innovative solution for echotherapy, the Echopulse, allowing non-invasive tumor treatment through ultrasound-guided high-intensity focused ultrasound. Theraclion is ISO 13485 certified and has received the CE mark for non-invasive ablation of breast fibroadenomas and thyroid nodules. Based in Malakoff, near Paris, France Theraclion has brought together a team of 34 people, 50% of whom are dedicated to R&D and clinical trials. For more information, please visit Theraclion's website: www.theraclion.com.

Theraclion is listed on Alternext Paris

PEA-PME eligible

Mnemonic: ALTHE ISIN Code: FR0010120402

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160608006158/en/

Contacts:

Theraclion

David Caumartin

Chief Executive Officer

Tel.: +33 (0)1 55 48 90 70

david.caumartin@theraclion.com

or

NewCap

Financial Communication and Relations

Emmanuel Huynh Valentine Brouchot

Tel.: +33 (0)1 44 71 94 94

theraclion@newcap.eu

or

Kalima

Press Relations

Estelle Reine-Adelaide Florence Calba

Tel.: 33 (0)1 44 90 82 54

era@kalima-rp.fr
OTTAWA, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 06/08/16 -- During CRCA's 57th Annual Convention held May 28-30 in Halifax Nova Scotia, CRCA announced that Dr. Sudhakar Molleti is the 2016 recipient of the Frank Ladner Award. Dr. Molleti is a Research Officer at the National Research Council of Canada's Construction Portfolio. His past work includes wind effects on low-sloped roofing systems, wind performance of vegetated roof assemblies, as well as energy and durability of PV integrated roofs. He is an active member of ASTM's Committee D08 on Roofing and Waterproofing and CRCA's National Technical Committee. Dr. Molleti received his PhD in engineering from the University of Ottawa (Canada).

The CRCA Frank Ladner Award recognizes a person for their technical contribution to the roofing industry. Eligible nominees will have demonstrated the quality of providing technical knowledge to the roofing industry.

The award was established in honour of CRCA's first Technical Director, Frank Ladner to recognize his technical contribution to the Canadian roofing industry.

For more information about the Frank Ladner Award, click here.

About CRCA

The Canadian Roofing Contractors Association (CRCA) is the National Voice of the roofing industry in Canada. CRCA consists of companies actively engaged in the roofing and related sheet metal business in Canada including contracting, manufacturing and supplying of materials and services.

Contacts:

CRCA

800-461-2722

crca@roofingcanada.com




VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 06/08/16 -- A British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC) panel has issued financial sanctions against Mark Aaron McLeary for failing to file insider reports and, because of his history of securities regulatory misconduct, has issued permanent market prohibitions.

In December 2015, the panel found that McLeary, a resident of North Vancouver, failed to file insider reports for a substantial number of trades he made in two companies for which he was CEO and director. The two companies - Silver Sun Resource Corp. and Newton Gold Corp. - were B.C. reporting issuers whose shares traded on the TSX Venture Exchange during the period of McLeary's trades.

The panel found that McLeary conducted certain of his trades through a Panamanian brokerage account - opened with a corporation he had created with nominees named to the account - and through Canadian brokerage accounts. McLeary admitted that the trading of Silver Sun and Newton Gold shares in the Panamanian account was not reported in insider reports in a timely manner. He also admitted that some of the trading in the two companies conducted in his Canadian accounts was also not timely reported in insider reports.

The panel noted in its sanctions decision that McLeary was already subject to lifetime market prohibitions for previous misconduct. In an earlier proceeding (2015 BCSECCOM 281), he was found to have engaged in market manipulation, contrary to the Securities Act.

In its decision, the panel wrote that "the respondent, as a result of the misconduct found in this case along with his other securities related misconduct... represents a very serious risk to investors and our capital markets."

The panel ordered McLeary pay an administrative penalty of $25,000. He must also cease trading in, and is permanently prohibited from purchasing, any securities or exchange contracts (with limited exceptions).

The panel also permanently prohibited McLeary from becoming or acting as a registrant or promoter, from acting in a management or consultative capacity in connection with activities in the securities market, and from engaging in investor relations activities. He must also resign any position he holds as, and is permanently prohibited from becoming or acting as, a director or officer of any issuer or registrant (with limited exceptions).

You may view the sanctions decision on our website www.bcsc.bc.ca by typing Mark Aaron McLeary or 2016 BCSECCOM 191 in the search box. Information regarding disciplinary proceedings can be found in the Enforcement section of the BCSC website.

Please visit the Canadian Securities Administrators' Disciplined List for information relating to persons disciplined by provincial securities regulators, the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) and the Mutual Fund Dealers Association (MFDA).

About the British Columbia Securities Commission (www.bcsc.bc.ca)

The British Columbia Securities Commission is the independent provincial government agency responsible for regulating capital markets in British Columbia through the administration of the Securities Act. Our mission is to protect and promote the public interest by fostering:

-- A securities market that is fair and warrants public confidence -- A dynamic and competitive securities industry that provides investment opportunities and access to capital

Learn how to protect yourself and become a more informed investor at www.investright.org.

Contacts:

Media Contact:

Alison Walker, Media Relations

604-899-6713



Public inquiries:

604-899-6854 or 1-800-373-6393 (toll free)




NEEDHAM, MA--(Marketwired - June 08, 2016) - Bio-IT World, the leader in reporting the application of informatics, IT and computer science in biomedical research and drug discovery, today opened the call for entries for the 2017 Bio-IT World Best Practices Awards. Bio-IT World has held the Best Practices awards since 2003, highlighting outstanding examples of technology innovation in the life sciences, from basic R&D to translational medicine. We particularly encourage vendors to nominate entries from valued academic and/or industry partners.

The Criteria for Entry Includes:

Send us a brief overview of your technology, including a statement of the issue or problem at hand, the innovative approach or technology applied, and the ROI (Return on Investment) in terms of scientific insights, cost savings, productivity, etc.

Entries will be accepted until February 3, 2017.

All entries will be judged by an expert panel in February/March 2017.

Winners will be announced in a plenary session at Bio-IT World Conference & Expo, May 23-25, 2017 at the Seaport World Trade Center in Boston.

All winners will be featured in follow-up profiles in Bio-IT World.

Past Winners Included:

2016 Best Practices Winners

Clinical IT & Precision Medicine: Amgen

Informatics: FDA & DNAnexus

Knowledge Management: AstraZeneca

Judges Prize: Human Longevity

Editors' Choice Award: XOMA

2015 Best Practices Winners:

Informatics: Biogen

IT Infrastructure: University of California, Santa Cruz

Knowledge Management: European Lead Factory

Research & Drug Discovery: UCB BioPharma

Clinical & Health IT: GlaxoSmithKline

Judges' Prize: Michael J. Fox Foundation

Editors' Choice Award: National Institutes of Health Undiagnosed Diseases Program

2014 Best Practices Winners:

Clinical & Health IT: AstraZeneca and Tessella

IT Infrastructure & HPC: Baylor College of Medicine

Research & Drug Discovery: U-BIOPRED

Informatics: The Pistoia Alliance

Knowledge Management: Genentech

Editors' Prize: The Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai

Judges' Prize: UK National Health Service

For more information on submitting your Bio-IT World Best Practices Awards entry form, visit: Bio-ITWorld.com/BestPractices Allison Proffitt, Editorial Director, 617.233.8280 or aproffitt@Bio-ITWord.com. Deadline for entry is December 9, 2016.

Winners are chosen by a panel of experts and will be announced at the Cambridge Healthtech Institute's Fifteen Annual Bio-IT World Conference & Expo, that is taking place May 23-25, 2017 at the Seaport World Trade Center in Boston.

Additional information on this event, can be found at Bio-ITWorldExpo.com

About Bio-IT World (www.Bio-ITWorld.com)

Part of Healthtech Publishing, Bio-IT World provides outstanding coverage of cutting-edge trends and technologies that impact the management and analysis of life sciences data, including next-generation sequencing, drug discovery, predictive and systems biology, informatics tools, clinical trials, and personalized medicine. Through a variety of sources including, Bio-ITWorld.com, Weekly Update Newsletter and the Bio-IT World News Bulletins, Bio-IT World is a leading source of news and opinion on technology and strategic innovation in the life sciences, including drug discovery and development.

About Cambridge Healthtech Institute (www.healthtech.com)

Cambridge Healthtech Institute (CHI), a division of Cambridge Innovation Institute, is the preeminent life science network for leading researchers and business experts from top pharmaceutical, biotech, CROs, academia, and niche service providers. CHI is renowned for its vast conference portfolio held worldwide including PepTalk, Molecular Medicine Tri-Conference, SCOPE Summit, Bio-IT World Conference & Expo, PEGS Summit, Drug Discovery Chemistry, Biomarker World Congress, World Preclinical Congress, Next Generation Dx Summit and Discovery on Target. CHI's portfolio of products include Cambridge Healthtech Institute Conferences, Barnett International, Insight Pharma Reports, Cambridge Marketing Consultants, Cambridge Meeting Planners, Knowledge Foundation Bio-IT World, Clinical Informatics News and Diagnostics World.

For more information:



Lisa Scimemi

Corporate Marketing Communications Director

lscimemi@healthtech.com
MCLEAN, VA -- (Marketwired) -- 06/08/16 -- The Food Processing Suppliers Association (FPSA) today announced that PROCESS EXPO 2017 has been selected to participate in the US Department of Commerce's International Buyer Program Select. This valuable program is a joint government-industry effort that increases U.S. export sales by promoting international attendance and recruiting pre-screened international buyers to U.S. trade shows.

"Participating in the International Buyer Program Select is just the latest development in a series of actions we have undertaken to continue boosting our international customer audience for PROCESS EXPO 2017," said Tom Kittle, Chairman of the Food Processing Suppliers Association (FPSA) and President of Handtmann Inc and Handtmann Canada Limited. "Coupled with our recent strategic marketing agreement with Messe Frankfurt/IFFA and our continued collaboration with Messe Dusseldorf and Messe Nurnberg, PROCESS EXPO is now being promoted throughout the world as THE food and beverage processing and packaging technology trade show of the Americas."

"We are extremely excited to have been chosen for next year's IBP Select," said David Seckman, President and CEO of the Food Processing Suppliers Association. "Only eight shows a year are chosen for this prestigious program and the fact that PROCESS EXPO was one of these clearly indicates that the Department of Commerce sees strong export potential for our exhibitors and our event. We look forward to working with the Department of Commerce staff both here and abroad to deliver new delegations of highly qualified international food processors to the PROCESS EXPO show floor."

PROCESS EXPO 2017 will take place from September 19-22, 2017 at Chicago's McCormick Place. For more information about the show please visit www.myprocessexpo.com. For more information regarding exhibiting at PROCESS EXPO 2017 contact Grace Cular Yee, FPSA Vice President, Sales at gyee@fpsa.org or (703) 663-1220.

The Food Processing Suppliers Association (FPSA) is a global trade association serving suppliers in the food and beverage industries. The Association's programs and services support member's success by providing assistance in marketing their products and services, overall improvement in key business practices and many opportunities to network among industry colleagues. Programs and services to achieve these objectives include PROCESS EXPO (industry leading trade show), electronic media marketing, education, market intelligence, research, and advocation of critical industry issues such as food safety, sanitary design of equipment, and global trade.

FPSA members are organized in vertical industry councils, which focus on specific needs and concerns that are unique to each industry sector. FPSA councils currently represent the Bakery, Beverage, Dairy, Prepared Foods and Meat sectors.

For Further Information, contact:

Amy Riemer

Media Relations Representative

978-502-4895 (cell)

978-475-4441 (office)

Email Contact




TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 06/08/16 -- A giant 10-foot tall wooden rocking chair is touring 19 towns across Ontario. Joining the giant rocking chair in highly visual media events, will be local health coalition members, including seniors, family council members, union and care workers, long term care residents and concerned citizens. The goal is to bring awareness about improving the care standards at long term care facilities.

The care levels in Ontario's long term care homes are inadequate:

-- More than 18,500 hospital beds have been closed since 1990 and patients are moved out of hospitals ever quicker and sicker. -- Access to care is poor with long-waits and increasingly severe rationing of access to care. There have been approximately 20,000 people on wait lists for long-term care home spaces for more than a decade. -- Almost 2/3 of long-term care residents have dementia and almost half have aggressive behaviours. Since 2001, more than 24 long-term care residents in Ontario have died as a result of violence from other residents and thousands have been attacked by other residents.

There is a solution. The Ontario provincial government must:

1. Set a minimum care standard of 4-hours of hands-on care per day per resident. 2. Improve access to care and reduce wait times.

The coalition will be collecting 20,000 signatures on postcards as they travel with the chair to symbolize the approximately 20,000 people waiting for long-term care placements.

When and Where?

Each event will be approximately 1/2 hour.

Day 1: Monday June 13 Prescott 10 a.m., S/W corner Churchill Rd. W & Edward St. S. Plantagenet 2:30 p.m., Pinecrest Nursing Home (front lawn) 101 Parent St. Day 2: Tuesday June 14 Orleans 10 a.m., Waterfront lawn at Rosyln Ave. & Hiawatha Park Rd. Carleton Place 1 p.m., Centennial Park (near waterfront) Joseph St. Almonte 3:30 p.m., Waterfront rest area, corner of Martin St. S. & St. Paul St. Day 3: Wednesday June 15 Barry's Bay 10 a.m., S/E corner Opeongo Line and Mintha St. Bancroft 2 p.m. north sidewalk of Monck St. & Manor Lane Day 4: Thursday June 16 Norwood 10 a.m., Asphodel-Norwood Community Centre (lawn in front of playground), 88 Alma St. Lindsay 2 p.m., Manorview Park, Wilson Ave. & Andrew Dr. Day 5: Friday June 17 Newmarket 10 a.m., N/E corner Davis Dr. & Yonge St. Alliston 1 p.m. N/E corner of Victoria St. E. & Sir Frederick Banting Rd. King City 3:30 p.m., entrance to Centennial Park, Jane St. & Kingswood Dr. Day 6: Saturday June 18 Orangeville 10 a.m., N/W corner Broadway & Blind Line. Exeter 2:30 p.m., sidewalk in front of Municipality of South Huron, 322 Main St. S. Day 7: Monday June 20 Amherstberg 10 a.m., Parkette at Sandwich St. S. & Rankin Ave. Essex 1:30 p.m., Cenotaph at Talbot St. S. & Iler Ave. Day 8: Tuesday June 21 St. Thomas 10 a.m., S/W corner Wellington St. & Stokes Rd. (across from Elgin Mall). Tillsonburg 1 p.m., N/W corner Broadway St. & Ridout St. W. Woodstock 3:30 p.m., sidewalk across from Caressant Care Nursing Home, 81 Fyfe Ave.

Contacts:

Tina Si, Campaign Coordinator

Ontario Health Coalition

416-441-2502 (office)

647-505-8253 (cell)



Peter Boyle, Tour Lead

613-539-3622 (cell)




CALGARY, ALBERTA -- (Marketwired) -- 06/08/16 -- Tanager Energy Inc. ("Tanager" or the "Corporation") (TSX VENTURE: TAN) announced today that further to its news releases dated April 27, 2016 and May 6, 2016, trading will resume in the common shares of Tanager on the TSX Venture Exchange commencing at the opening of trading on Thursday, June 9, 2016.

Tanager intends to close the proposed acquisition of an undivided 50% interest in a producing well and certain lease holdings and a 50% participation right in certain wells to be drilled to the prolific woodbine formation on those leases, in Polk County and Tyler County, Texas (the "Proposed Transaction") following the annual general and special shareholders meeting (the "Meeting") on June 27, 2016.

Tanager believes this key strategic acquisition located in the heart of a recent major oil and gas discovery is significant for the Corporation's short and long term reserve growth potential and market capitalization value as evidenced by its 2P reserve report. Tanager's major competitor in the area (Pantheon Resources LLC - PANR London AIM) has recently spudded its second well in the field area and has announced plans for a 3rd well.

As part of Tanager's overall strategy for rapid growth in the US markets, it has recruited world class executive leadership to its board to lead it through these exciting times and as such following the re-election of the current directors of Tanager at the Meeting, three of the current directors, namely Hugh Loney, Patrick Acham and David W. Pryce, will resign upon the closing of the Proposed Transaction to create vacancies to allow for the appointment of the three nominees of the sellers, as required under the applicable purchase agreement. Upon closing of the Proposed Transaction, the Board of Directors of Tanager will be comprised of John Squarek, a current director of Tanager, and the three nominees of the sellers, namely Roland Oberlin, Craig Davis, and Thomas M. Crain Jr.

Mr. Oberlin is a Managing Director/Petroleum Engineer in the Houston Oil & Gas Group of the Commercial and Investment Banking Division of Societe Generale, a position he has held since joining the firm in August 2003. Mr. Oberlin received a Bachelor's Degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin in 1973. His experience includes two years with Atlantic Richfield Company, seven years as an independent consultant and more than 30 years' experience with four (4) different regional and international financial institutions. During his lengthy career, he has reviewed a large number of oil and gas development projects and producing fields on every continent where there is commercial oil and gas production. His upstream expertise and advice has been relied upon by numerous producers, investors and financial institutions over the years. Immediately prior to joining Societe Generale, Mr. Oberlin was an Executive Director for 15 years with Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce in Houston, where he provided technical engineering expertise for commercial lending and capital markets transactions to the oil and gas industry, both domestically and internationally. Mr. Oberlin is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Texas and holds Series 79 and Series 63 Securities Licenses from FINRA.

Mr. Davis co-founded Interactive Exploration Solutions Inc. (INEXS) in 1990 to provide premium quality geoscience, and engineering consulting services to the worldwide oil and gas industry. He is actively involved with the management of many of the company's projects, and is responsible for most of the large projects for major oil companies that include field evaluations, packaging and selling producing assets and major acquisitions. Throughout the years, Craig has led exploration teams on various field development and exploration projects for clients in Venezuela, Turkey, the UK, Indonesia, Eritrea, Norway, India, the Netherlands, and numerous locations in Texas, Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico. He has also managed multiple projects of varying size, while one of the largest projects objective was to review, interpret, package and sell the exploration upside potential for 108 producing fields in the Gulf of Mexico for Unocal. Craig began his career in 1980 when he graduated from Indiana University with a BSc in Geology, and began working the mid-continent of the U.S. for Texaco in Tulsa. His career path has included companies such as Mondanto Oil Company, Tri-D, and Landmark Graphics, as well as projects in such places as the deep water flexure trend and the Green Canyon 18 field, the Ivanhoe and Rob Roy field developments in the North Sea, regional projects in Norway, and of course the Gulf of Mexico.

Mr. Crain is currently Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Everest Resource Company and its affiliates, with his primary responsibilities being to supervise all land acquisitions, oversee all lease brokers, market oil and gas prospects, negotiate joint venture agreements, seismic acquisitions, acquire and maintain oil and gas leaseholds, oversee and participate in investor relations, raise investor funds, and other landowner/mineral owner communications and related documentation. Mr. Crain has been employed with Everest Resource Company since February 1992. Mr. Crain graduated from Texas Christian University with a degree in Business in 1977.

The information provided below relates to Tanager's net share of the Proposed Transaction, and the reserves and Net Present Values are specific to this transaction and do not include any of Tanager's other properties.

The tables below set forth selected information presented in the report prepared by Mr. Rex D. Morris at the request of Tanager, which report has been reviewed by Deloitte LLP, the Corporation's independent qualified reserves auditor. The effective date of the report is April 1, 2016.

Summary of Oil and Gas Reserves as of Forecast Prices and Costs as of April 1, 2016

Light and Medium Oil Conventional Natural Gas ------------------------------------------------ Gross Net Gross Net (Mbbl) (Mbbl) (MMcf) (MMcf) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Proved Developed Producing 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 Developed Non-Producing 112.48 42.18 1,381.69 518.13 Undeveloped 426.05 124.64 5,233.65 1,531.04 Total Proved 538.53 166.82 6,615.34 2,049.17 Probable 2,099.33 461.49 54,091.31 12,080.17 Total Proved Plus Probable 2,637.86 628.31 60,706.65 14,129.34

Summary of Net Present Values of Future Net Revenue as of April 1, 2016

Forecast Prices and Costs

Remaining Reserves ------------------------------------ Gross Company ------------------------------------ 100% Gross Net ------------------------------------ Grand Total (Mboe) - Before Tax Proved Developed Producing 0.00 0.00 0.00 Proved Developed Non- Producing 430.29 342.76 128.54 Proved Undeveloped 1,298.33 1,298.33 379.81 ------------------------------------ Total Proved 1,728.61 1,641.09 508.35 Total Probable 11,114.55 11,114.55 2,474.85 Total Proved + Probable(1)(2) 12,843.16 12,755.64 2,983.20 Net Present Value (CDN$M)(3) ------------------------------------------------ @ 0% @ 5% @10% @ 15% ------------------------------------------------ Grand Total (Mboe) - Before Tax Proved Developed Producing 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 Proved Developed Non- Producing 3,006.0 1,618.7 1,545.3 1,209.1 Proved Undeveloped 5,871.9 3,662.8 2,321.3 1,470.1 ------------------------------------------------ Total Proved 8,877.9 5,741.2 3,866.6 2,679.2 Total Probable 60,340.7 43,995.0 34,232.4 27,718.1 Total Proved + Probable(1)(2) 69,218.6 49,736.2 38,099.0 30,397.3 Notes: (1) Forecast pricing used is based on a forward looking averaged NYMEX Spot price in US dollars as of April 1, 2016. (2) It should not be assumed that the estimates of the present value of future net revenues before tax presented in the above tables represent the fair market value of the reserves. There can be no assurance that the forecast price and cost assumptions contained in the report will be consistent with actual prices and costs and variances could be material. (3) All US dollar amounts in the report have been converted to Canadian dollars based on the closing price of the Bank of Canada on June 7, 2016, being 1.2771.

The reserves evaluation was conducted by Mr. Morris in accordance with National Instrument 51-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Oil and Gas Activities ("NI 51-101") relying on the Canadian Oil and Gas Evaluation Handbook (COGEH).

Mr. Squarek, Tanager's President, believes that the completion of the Proposed Transaction is an exciting step in Tanager's move to a goal of at least 2000 bbls/day of oil equivalent within 12 to 18 months, a goal it plans to achieve in part by expanding its activities to the United States.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as the term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Tanager Energy Inc. is a Lethbridge, Alberta based corporation engaged in the exploration for oil and gas and minerals with its operations office in Calgary, Alberta. The Corporation's common shares are listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the trading symbol "TAN".

Forward-Looking Information: This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein are forward-looking information. Generally, forward-looking information may be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", " expects" or "does not expect", "proposed", "is expected", "budgets", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases, or by the use of words or phrases which state that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, or might occur or be achieved. In particular, this news release contains forward-looking information regarding: the Proposed Transaction and completion of the Proposed Transaction. There can be no assurance that such forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information. This forward-looking information reflects Tanager's current beliefs and is based on information currently available to Tanager and on assumptions Tanager believes are reasonable. These assumptions include, but are not limited to: TSXV acceptance of Proposed Transaction; satisfaction of the conditions to the completion of the Proposed Transaction; market acceptance and approvals, including TSXV acceptance; and the anticipated closing date for the Proposed Acquisition.

Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of Tanager to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such risks and other factors may include, but are not limited to: volatility in market prices for oil and natural gas; liabilities inherent in oil and natural gas operations; uncertainties associated with estimating oil and natural gas reserves; geological, technical, drilling and processing problems; general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; general capital market conditions and market prices for securities; delay or failure to receive board or regulatory approvals; the actual results of future operations; competition; changes in legislation, including environmental legislation, affecting Tanager; the timing and availability of external financing on acceptable terms; and lack of qualified, skilled labour or loss of key individuals. A description of additional assumptions used to develop such forward-looking information and a description of additional risk factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking information can be found in Tanager's disclosure documents on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com. Although Tanager has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. Readers are further cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are placed will occur. Forward-looking information contained in this news release is expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking information contained in this news release represents the expectations of Tanager as of the date of this news release and, accordingly, is subject to change after such date. However, Tanager expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable securities law.

BOE Presentation. References herein to "boe" mean barrels of oil equivalent derived by converting gas to oil in the ratio of six thousand cubic feet (Mcf) of gas to one barrel (bbl) of oil. Boe may be misleading, particularly if used in isolation. A boe conversion ratio of 6 Mcf: 1 bbl is based on an energy conversion method primarily applicable at the burner tip and does not represent a value equivalency at the wellhead.

Proved reserves are those reserves that can be estimated with a high degree of certainty to be recoverable. It is likely that the actual remaining quantities recovered will exceed the estimated proved reserves.

Probable reserves are those additional reserves that are less certain to be recovered than proved reserves. It is equally likely that the actual remaining quantities recovered will be greater or less than the sum of the estimated proved plus probable reserves.

Developed reserves are those reserves that are expected to be recovered from existing wells and installed facilities or, if facilities have not been installed, that would involve a low expenditure (e.g., when compared to the cost of drilling a well) to put the reserves on production. The developed category may be subdivided into producing and non-producing.

Developed producing reserves are those reserves that are expected to be recovered from completion intervals open at the time of the estimate. These reserves may be currently producing or, if shut-in, they must have previously been on production, and the date of resumption of production must be known with reasonable certainty.

Developed non-producing reserves are those reserves that either have not been on production, or have previously been on production but are shut-in and the date of resumption of production is unknown.

Undeveloped reserves are those reserves expected to be recovered from known accumulations where a

significant expenditure (e.g., when compared to the cost of drilling a well) is required to render them capable of production. They must fully meet the requirements of the reserves category (proved, probable, possible) to which they are assigned.

Contacts:

Tanager Energy Inc.

John Squarek B. Sc., P. Eng., MBA

President and Chief Executive Officer

403-388-0969

john@tanagerenergy.com




DUSSELDORF, GERMANY -- (Marketwired) -- 06/08/16 -- Memjet (www.memjet.com) announces that its new OEM partner New Solution (newsolution.eu) has incorporated the patented Memjet inkjet printing technology into a new wide format packaging solution called the NS MULTI. This new wide format printer can produce several packaging applications, including printing and laminating on a variety of substrates such as corrugated and flexible materials. At drupa 2016, Spanish printer Corporacion de Comunicacion (CdC) became the first customer to purchase the NS MULTI. Visitors of drupa 2016 can see the NS MULTI and other New Solution products on display in the Memjet booth (C24 in Hall 5) and in the New Solution booth (Booth E20 in Hall 5) through June 10.

Kevin Shimamoto, General Manager, Wide Format Technology at Memjet, says, "Customers today are looking for solutions that can help them to gain efficiency, profitability and grow their business. The NS MULTI is a new flexible solution that produces a variety of packaging substrates with single pass speeds. It enables manufacturers to bring packaging in-house with both primary and secondary packaging solutions. Memjet is proud to be part of this innovative machine."

The printer features five Memjet 220 mm printheads stitched to print single pass at speeds of 300 mm per second at 1600x800 dpi or 150 mm per second at 1600x1600 dpi. The NS MULTI can accommodate variable widths up to 42" or 1.07/m.

These features combine to bring a high level of four color quality printing to a wide range of markets, including the production of food packaging products that require full surface laminating.

Driving the NS MULTI is a proprietary software that includes a user-friendly interface that allows users to control all aspects the machine, including ink level control, consumption and measurements, roll radius measurement, temperature and climate control, and automatic consumables. A powerful PC, which is included as part of the solution, lets users install variable data software and alternative RIP solutions as their business needs develop and grow.

New Solution CEO Eloi Ferreira says, "At New Solution, our goal is to bring innovation and ideas to the service of the digital printing market. Our partnership with Memjet enables us to realize that goal in a faster, more efficient way. As we keep on learning and growing, we are confident that Memjet can not only support our innovation, they can help us drive it."

In addition to the NS Multi, New Solution also uses Memjet printheads as part of their range of other labeling and packaging solutions. These products are engineered to bring speed, accuracy and reliability to the label and packaging market:

The NS PRO is a high-speed single pass inkjet solution for multi job, continuous printing.

The NS F22 is an all-in-one label finishing solution that includes a digital cutting plotter, cold lamination, and a dye cutter and slitter which can be used as a standalone press or integrated in-line with the NS PRO.

Kevin Shimamoto continues, "The debuts of innovative solutions like the NS MULTI are what make drupa such an exciting event. We look forward to the rest of the show, and to making our technology a part of powerful solutions that can better serve this evolving market."

About New Solution

From their headquarters in Portugal, New Solution operates a research and development lab and manufacturing plant. From this facility, the Company's engineering team combines their expertise in labels and packaging with their technical knowledge to develop solutions that service the growing digital print market.

About Memjet

Memjet created a whole new category of inkjet printing when it introduced their revolutionary printhead technology. These color printheads use Memjet's unique Waterfall Printhead Technology that fires millions of ink drops per second. The waterfall technology and related components hold approximately 3,500 global patents, demonstrating both the innovation and the value of this solution.

Memjet has since grown to become a global leader, offering page wide, color printing technologies that provide remarkable speeds and affordability to a growing number of customers and markets, with a focus on desktop, wide format, and production applications.

Memjet maintains its corporate office in San Diego, and has offices in Dublin, Sydney, Taipei, Singapore and Boise, Idaho. The company is privately held. For more information, please visit www.memjet.com, follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter @memjet.

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Press Contacts:



US

Marion Williams-Bennett

Create Communications

Email Contact



Europe

Laura Konig

LEWIS PR

Email Contact




VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 06/08/16 -- Affinor Growers (CSE: AFI)(FRANKFURT: 1AF)(OTCQB: RSSFF) ("Affinor" or the "Corporation"), is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Rick Easthom as a member of Affinor's board of directors.

Mr. Easthom has been an advisor for the Corporation since June 2014. Mr. Easthom's previous experience as Director of Corporate Brands for the Overwaitea Food Group, and Manager of Retail Development for Choices Markets, will give Affinor Growers an instant advantage in the development and distribution of its products. Mr. Easthom has extensive produce retail experience and is an authority in developing products, packaging, launching and merchandising them at retail while maximizing sales and profit. He has a comprehensive background in management and brings superior skills as an analyst, negotiator and planner.

Mr. Jarrett Malnarick, President and CEO, commented that, "We are pleased to have the experience Rick brings to Affinor and fortunate to have him on our Board as we continue to develop, expand and commercialize Affinor's growing technology and products."

Mr. Nick Brusatore has resigned from the Board of Directors of the Corporation. Mr. Brusatore has been a valuable contributor to the Corporation since February 2014 and the shareholders have benefited from his insights and experience as the inventor of the technology. Mr. Brusatore will continue to work closely with Affinor as Vice President of Corporate Development.

Mr. Nick Brusatore comments, "Though I am sad to step off the board I am happy to have been able to help set the company up for success with strong minds and direction. I look forward to continuing to serve management, the board and shareholders and bringing solutions in food production with vertical farming."

Stock Option Grant

The Board of Directors of Affinor has also granted 200,000 stock options with an exercise price of $0.10 for a period of three years.

About Affinor Growers Inc.

Affinor Growers is a publicly traded company on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the symbol ("AFI"). Affinor is focused on growing high quality crops such as romaine lettuce, spinach, strawberries using its vertical farming techniques. Affinor is committed to becoming a pre-eminent supplier and grower, using exclusive vertical farming techniques.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

AFFINOR GROWERS INC.

Jarrett Malnarick

President & CEO

The CSE has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

FORWARD LOOKING INFORMATION

This News Release contains forward-looking statements. The use of any of the words "anticipate", "continue", "estimate", "expect", "may", "will", "project", "should", "believe" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that the expectations and assumptions on which the forward-looking statements are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Since forward-looking statements address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. These statements speak only as of the date of this News Release. Actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors and risks including various risk factors discussed in the Company's disclosure documents which can be found under the Company's profile on www.sedar.com. This News Release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended and such forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

Contacts:

Affinor Growers Inc.

Jarrett Malnarick

President and CEO

604.837.8688

jarrett@affinorgrowers.com




TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 06/08/16 -- Nighthawk Gold Corp. ("Nighthawk" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE: NHK) is pleased to announce that following the completion of the previously announced amalgamation involving Superior Copper Corporation, Brian Howlett and Brent Peters have been appointed to the Company's Board of Directors. Concurrently, Mark Goodman has resigned from the Board of Directors. Michael Byron, the Company's President and Chief Executive Officer, commented: "The Board of Directors would like to thank Mr. Goodman for his contributions throughout his tenure and wish him well in his future endeavours. Furthermore, we look forward to working with Messrs. Howlett and Peters as we continue to advance the Indin Lake Gold Property."

Mr. Howlett is a seasoned professional with over 25 years of senior financial management experience. Mr. Howlett is currently the President, Chief Executive Officer and Director of CR Capital Corp. and serves as an officer and director of several other public companies. He also formerly served as the President and Chief Financial Officer Superior Copper Corporation. Prior to that, Mr. Howlett spent 12 years with ELI Eco Logic Inc., including 6 years as Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Howlett graduated in 1982 with a B.Comm. in finance from Concordia University and received his CMA designation in 1989.

Mr. Peters is a finance executive with almost 20 years of experience in the mineral exploration business. Since 1996, Mr. Peters has been the Vice President, Finance of Northfield Capital Corporation. From 2003 to 2008, Mr. Peters was also the Chief Financial Officer of Gold Eagle Mines Ltd. which was purchased by Goldcorp Inc. for $1.5 billion in 2008. He has also served as an officer and/or director for a number of public and private corporations.

In addition, the board of directors has amended the Company's Stock Option Plan to increase the aggregate number of common shares of the Company (the "Common Shares") which may be issued and sold under the Stock Option Plan from 5,845,369 to 11,273,940, representing 10% of the Company's current issued and outstanding Common Shares.

The Company also announces that it has granted an aggregate of 2,630,000 stock options to certain officers, directors and consultants of Nighthawk. The options were granted under Nighthawk's Stock Option Plan at an exercise price of $0.25 per Common Share. Each stock option entitles the holder to purchase one Common Share for a period of five years and vests immediately.

For more information about the Company, please visit www.nighthawkgold.com.

About Nighthawk

Nighthawk is a Canadian-based exploration company focused on acquiring and developing gold mineral properties in the Northwest Territories and Northern Ontario. Including the mineral claims and leases of the Colomac Gold Project, Nighthawk's Indin Lake Gold Property comprises a total land package of 222,203 acres in the Indin Lake Greenstone Belt, located approximately 200 kilometres north of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. Nighthawk also holds a 100% interest in the property known as the Superior Project, which covers 39,015 acres approximately 85 kilometres north of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

Contacts:

Nighthawk Gold Corp.

Dr. Michael J. Byron

President and Chief Executive Officer

(416) 628-5940

mbyron@nighthawkgold.com




VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 06/08/16 -- Eastern Platinum Limited (TSX: ELR)(JSE: EPS) ("Eastplats" or the "Company") today reported on the collectively poor track record of the six candidates nominated by dissident Ka An Development Co. Limited ("Ka An"), which seeks to replace Eastplats' board of directors.

"The history and experience disclosed by the Ka An nominees highlights their association with a number of companies that delivered staggering losses to shareholders," said David Cohen, Eastplats' Chairman, President and CEO. "Collectively, the Ka An nominees may put Eastplats at risk based on their past performance, a lack of disclosed experience in platinum mining and South Africa, and a lack of personal shareholdings in Eastplats."

Eastplats urges shareholders to vote the YELLOW proxy FOR the incumbent board prior to the proxy voting deadline of 10:00 AM (Vancouver Time) on Thursday, June 30, 2016. The Annual General Meeting is scheduled for July 5, 2016. For more information, shareholders should read Eastplats' recently filed and mailed Management Information Circular and letter to shareholders.

The Ka An nominees: share price declines of up to 100%

The six Ka An nominees disclosed director and/or officer roles with fully 20 publicly traded companies in their press release of May 9, 2016. Nearly all of those companies have performed poorly, with share price declines of up to 100% and a collective average share price decline of 65% during the tenure of the Ka An nominees. Some have suffered cease trade orders or bankruptcy. Eastplats is concerned that, as detailed below, Ka An's nominees will not perform well if they replace the Company's current board.

Additionally, the Ka An nominees' biographies do not disclose the full story with regard to their track records. Some of their undisclosed roles with publicly traded companies have also left those shareholders with significant losses in what Eastplats views as dubious circumstances, as described below.

The Ka An nominees have disclosed no personal ownership of Eastplats shares, no platinum mining experience and no Southern African or South African working/mining experience. These are critical failings. They contrast starkly with the incumbent board's personal investment in Eastplats coupled with extensive experience in South Africa and Eastplats' South African platinum mining business, as outlined in detail in Eastplats' Management Information Circular.

In the table below, Eastplats has summarized the relevant experience of Ka An's nominees:

A Summary of Ka An Nominee Information(1)

Average Share Performance of Platinum South ELR Shares Disclosed Public Mining African Personally Companies During Nominee Experience Experience Held Tenure ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- George Dorin None None Zero -92% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- George Pirie None None Zero -90% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Michael Cosic None None Zero -84% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Douglas Perkins None None Zero -74% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Peter Clausi None None Zero -49% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sam Wang None None Zero -44% ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Average -65%

1 Based on Ka An's Public Disclosure (May 9, 2016) and closing stock prices on June 6, 2016 for current companies. For specific details on the stock price performance of each company please see the table at this link on Eastplats' website. See below additional hyperlinks with underscored text for supporting documentation posted to Eastplats' website.

Ka An nominee George Dorin: Poor performance, four cease trade orders

During George Dorin's tenure as a director on the boards of the four companies that he has disclosed, he has achieved an average share price decline of 92%.

While Mr. Dorin discloses that he served as a director of two companies that have faced cease-trade orders, he omits from his Ka An biography two more cease trade orders for problems that came to light on his watch. All four of these cease trades, as described below, involve a failure to file financial statements in accordance with securities law and contributed to significant shareholder losses.

In Eastplats' view, these four cease trades illustrate Mr. Dorin's inability to effectively direct and control public companies and shortcomings in the exercise of his fiduciary duties. These four cease trades also bring into question his ability to make objective judgments about the foreign investors who request his participation as a director and with which he becomes involved. Eastplats' shareholders should be concerned that these issues will be perpetuated by Mr. Dorin as a nominee of Hong Kong-based Ka An.

Cease trade #1: Undisclosed - Vancouver-based Asia Packaging Group Inc., where Mr. Dorin served as a director and audit committee chair for 19 months. It is important to note these relevant facts:

-- The British Columbia Securities Commission ordered a cease trade of Asia Packaging on December 6, 2013, just eight days after Mr. Dorin resigned. -- Mr. Dorin's resignation announcement cites, among other problems, the board's failure to communicate with, or obtain cooperation from, Asia Packaging's overseas-based controlling shareholder, who was also President and CEO. -- In British Columbia and Alberta, Mr. Dorin and others now face lawsuits related to Asia Packaging. The claim filed in BC Supreme Court includes allegations that the defendants acted "in breach of their duties," that they made "misrepresentations" and that they are liable for "failing to act in the face of trading by insiders prior to the investing public being informed." The defendants have engaged lawyers but have not yet filed their defenses. -- Shareholders lost in effect 100% of their investment, as Asia Packaging's shares never resumed trading.

Cease trade #2: Undisclosed - China-based Xianburg Data Systems Canada Corp., where Mr. Dorin served as Chief Financial Officer for approximately five months. The Globe and Mail, in an article published June 20, 2011, described Xianburg as "one of the quickest trips from listing to suspension in Canadian market history." It is important to note these relevant facts:

-- The BC Securities Commission ordered a cease trade of Xianburg on May 10, 2011, just 16 days after he resigned. -- In the news release announcing Mr. Dorin's resignation, Xianburg also disclosed a "default announcement" proclaiming that it would be late in filing required financial statements, which were due within a few days. -- Xianburg was cease traded a mere four months after Xianburg issued a news release celebrating its first listing on the TSX-V. -- As with Ka An and Asia Packaging, certain controlling shareholders of Xianburg were based overseas. The details are in Xianburg's Management Information Circular dated December 12, 2011. -- As with Asia Packaging, shareholders in effect lost 100% of their investment as Xianburg's shares never resumed trading.

Cease trade #3: Disclosed - Vancouver-based China Keli Electric Co., where Mr. Dorin has been a director and chair of the audit committee since May 5, 2010. It is important to note these relevant facts:

-- The BC Securities Commission initiated the China Keli cease trade on September 8, 2014 and kept it in place for more than ten months. -- Again as with Ka An, Asia Packaging and Xianburg, certain controlling shareholders of China Keli are based overseas. China Keli's Management Information Circular dated November 2, 2015 provides the details. -- The share price has declined by 81% since Mr. Dorin joined the board.

Cease trade #4: Disclosed - Vancouver-based Huaxing Machinery Corp., where Mr. Dorin has served as a director and chair of the audit committee since June 6, 2013. It is important to note these relevant facts:

-- The BC Securities Commission imposed the cease trade on February 26, 2015 and has not revoked it. -- As disclosed in a Huaxing news release, the company did not complete an audit for 2014, which was to include restated financial statements for the prior year (the year Mr. Dorin became a director and chair of the audit committee). -- As with Ka An, Asia Packaging, Xianburg and China Keli, certain controlling shareholders of Huaxing are based overseas. Huaxing's Management Information Circular dated June 24, 2014 provides the details. -- Like Asia Packaging and Xianburg, shareholders have in effect lost 100% of the value of their investment as Huaxing's shares never resumed trading.

Mr. Dorin has disclosed two other public company board memberships, and the performance of those companies should also raise concern for Eastplats shareholders:

-- Sino Rise Group Holding Corp. - the share price of this company has in effect declined by 100%. There are no bids for the shares and they have not traded since January 2016. As noted in Sino Rise's listing document dated April 29, 2016, the head office, CEO and certain major shareholders of Sino Rise are overseas and the auditor notes "the existence of a material uncertainty that may cast significant doubt about the Company's ability to continue as a going concern." -- Gourmet Ocean Products Inc. - the share price of this company has declined by 85%. As detailed in the Management Discussion and Analysis dated May 25, 2016, Gourmet has incurred net losses for each of the most recent eight quarters.

Ka An nominee George Pirie: Resignations ahead of bankruptcies

George Pirie's biography lists him as an officer or director of three publicly traded companies but omits any description of the performance of those companies during his tenure. On average they declined by 90%.

-- During Mr. Pirie's tenure as CEO of Val-D'Or -based Northern Star Mining Corp., the share price declined by 84% and the shares were effectively worthless not long afterwards. His resignation and the company's bankruptcy were announced on January 24, 2011. -- Subsequent to Northern Star, Mr. Pirie, as President and CEO of Winnipeg-based San Gold Corporation, presided over a 93% share price decline. He resigned on March 25, 2013 and approximately 18 months later San Gold announced that it was seeking protection from creditors under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (Canada). It went bankrupt shortly thereafter. -- The third underperforming company listed in his biography is Sudbury- based Canadian Arrow Mines Ltd., the only company for which he still serves as a director. Its share price has declined by 92% during his tenure.

Eastplats believes that, again, disturbing questions arise with regard to Mr. Pirie's exercise of judgment and fiduciary duty based on the bankruptcy of Northern Star and San Gold and the poor performance of Canadian Arrow.

Ka An nominee Michael Cosic: Limited experience, poor performance

Michael Cosic, who is currently unemployed according to his Linked-In profile, has not disclosed any board positions with publicly traded companies. He lists only one company in his biography. For that company, Toronto-based Lithium Americas Corp., he served as an officer for six years ending in November 2015.

The biography fails to mention that the share price declined by 84% over this period. Shareholders should question what value Mr. Cosic would bring as a director.

Ka An nominee Douglas Perkins: Poor performance, omission of pertinent information

Douglas Perkins is not currently a director of a publicly traded company but he has disclosed prior service on boards of two publicly traded companies. Both underperformed with an average decline of 74% during his term of service. The poor performance during his tenure is not mentioned in his biography.

Mr. Perkins' biography does not mention his pertinent board service from March 2011 until July 2013 with a third publicly-traded company, Ottawa-based Mindesta Inc. During his tenure of approximately two years, Mindesta's share price declined by 99%.

Shareholders should question whether Mr. Perkins brings any value to Eastplats or is a suitable director based on the poor performance of Mindesta and the other companies on whose boards he has served.

Ka An nominee Peter Clausi: Poor performance, cannabis experience is not pertinent

Peter Clausi's biography discloses that he currently serves on the board or is an officer of four publicly-traded companies. While there is no description of the performance of these companies, on average they dropped by 49% during his tenure. This poor performance is omitted from his biography.

Shareholders should question Mr. Clausi's value to Eastplats and whether he is suitable as an Eastplats director based on the poor performance of the companies for which he currently serves as a director or officer. Additionally, shareholders should evaluate whether his experience in the cannabis sector with Green Swan Capital Corp. is relevant to underground platinum mining in South Africa.

Ka An nominee Sam Wang: Poor performance, dizzying array of simultaneous roles

Sam Wang's biography omits any description of the performance of the seven publicly-traded companies on which he has disclosed having served as a director or officer. On average they declined by 44%. The poor performance during his tenure is not mentioned in his biography.

Mr. Wang is reported to simultaneously serve as Chief Financial Officer of five companies, Corporate Secretary of two companies, and a director of three companies. Yet his biography omits Xianburg Data Systems Canada Corp (described above), where Mr. Wang was a director and chair of the audit committee. This was at approximately the same time as fellow Ka An nominee George Dorin served as Xianburg's CFO.

Mr. Wang resigned from Xianburg's board in April 2011 at approximately the same time as Mr. Dorin resigned as CFO, and just before the BC Securities Commission ordered a cease trade of the shares for failure to file financial statements.

Mr. Wang still works together with Mr. Dorin at Sino Rise Group Holdings Corp. (described above), where Mr. Wang is a director and CFO and Mr. Dorin is a director and chair of the audit committee. The shares have not traded since January and are essentially worthless, with no bids.

Just as with Mr. Dorin, Eastplats believes that shareholders should question Mr. Wang's exercise of judgment and fiduciary duty based on his involvement with Xianburg and Sino Rise, as well as the poor performance of several of the other publicly traded companies for which he has disclosed service as a director or officer. Additionally, as the CFO of five listed companies, shareholders should question his ability to engage proactively and fully in Eastplats' business as a director.

Vote the YELLOW proxy FOR the incumbent board

Shareholders, to safeguard their investment in Eastplats, should vote the YELLOW proxy FOR the incumbent board. Don't place Eastplats' assets and treasury under the control of nominees with a history of questionable exercise of their fiduciary duties and woeful track records during their tenures as directors or officers of other publicly traded companies.

Eastplats and its shareholders have been well-served by the incumbent board, which is in the best position to guide Eastplats forward. As further described in Eastplats' Management Information Circular, the incumbent board has maintained an undiluted shareholder base over the last five years, keeping its assets in good order, protecting its strong balance sheet, and navigating Eastplats safely through perilous times in the platinum market. The Board has also continually explored alternatives to enhance shareholder value and will continue to do so.

Even as US dollar denominated prices have declined for platinum group metals, Eastplats' shares have maintained their value due to the board's strategic decision three years ago to place Eastplats operations on care and maintenance. Eastplats has outperformed its peers since then and unlike its peers, Eastplats has not diluted shareholders with equity financings at distressed prices. The interests of the incumbent board are aligned with shareholders.

Your vote counts, no matter how many shares you own. Vote now to protect your investment in Eastplats. Vote the YELLOW proxy FOR the incumbent board.

How to Vote

The proxy voting deadline is 10:00 AM (Vancouver Time) on Thursday, June 30, 2016.

For assistance voting your shares, please contact Eastplats' proxy solicitation agent, Laurel Hill Advisory Group toll free in North America at, 1-877-452-7184 (+1-416-304-0211 collect outside of North America), or by email at assistance@laurelhill.com.

No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein.

Contacts:

Eastplats' proxy solicitation agent:

Laurel Hill Advisory Group

Toll free in North America:1-877-452-7184

Outside of North America, collect at: (+1) 416- 304-0211

Email: assistance@laurelhill.com



David Cohen

Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

Tel: (+1) 604-689-9663

info@eastplats.com

www.eastplats.com




SAN MATEO, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 06/08/16 -- Franklin Resources, Inc. (Franklin Templeton Investments) (NYSE: BEN) today reported preliminary month-end assets under management by the company's subsidiaries of $737.3 billion at May 31, 2016, compared to $747.1 billion at April 30, 2016, and $888.4 billion at May 31, 2015.

ASSETS UNDER MANAGEMENT Preliminary (In billions) 31-May-16 30-Apr-16 31-Mar-16 31-Dec-15 31-May-15 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Franklin Templeton Investments: Equity: Global/ international $201.4 $206.2 $204.7 $211.7 256.1 United States 101.0 100.1 99.5 102.0 116.9 ------------------------------------------------------- Total equity 302.4 306.3 304.2 313.7 373.0 ------------------------------------------------------- Hybrid 134.3 135.0 132.6 134.4 159.6 Fixed Income: Tax-free 74.7 74.2 73.6 72.4 73.4 Taxable: Global/ international 167.0 171.9 172.8 182.0 212.2 United States 52.6 53.4 53.2 54.8 62.8 ------------------------------------------------------- Total fixed income 294.3 299.5 299.6 309.2 348.4 ------------------------------------------------------- Cash Management 6.3 6.3 6.2 6.6 7.4 ------------------------------------------------------- Total $737.3 $747.1 $742.6 $763.9 $888.4 =======================================================

Franklin Resources, Inc. (NYSE: BEN) is a global investment management organization operating as Franklin Templeton Investments. Franklin Templeton Investments provides global and domestic investment management to retail, institutional and sovereign wealth clients in over 180 countries. Through specialized teams, the Company has expertise across all asset classes -- including equity, fixed income, alternative and custom solutions. The Company's more than 600 investment professionals are supported by its integrated, worldwide team of risk management professionals and global trading desk network. With offices in 35 countries, the California-based company has more than 65 years of investment experience. The Company posts information that may be significant for investors in the Investor Relations and News Center sections of its website, and encourages investors to consult those sections regularly. For more information, please visit investors.franklinresources.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

The financial results in this press release are preliminary. Statements in this press release regarding Franklin Resources, Inc. ("Franklin") and its subsidiaries, which are not historical facts, are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. When used in this press release, words or phrases generally written in the future tense and/or preceded by words such as "will," "may," "could," "expect," "believe," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "seek," "estimate," "preliminary" or other similar words are forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements involve a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors, some of which are listed below, that could cause actual results and outcomes to differ materially from any future results or outcomes expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. While forward-looking statements are our best prediction at the time that they are made, you should not rely on them and are cautioned against doing so. Forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations and assumptions regarding our business, the economy and other future conditions. Because forward-looking statements relate to the future, they are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict. They are neither statements of historical fact nor guarantees or assurances of future performance.

These and other risks, uncertainties and other important factors are described in more detail in Franklin's recent filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including, without limitation, in Risk Factors and Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations in Franklin's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2015 and Franklin's subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q:

Volatility and disruption of the capital and credit markets, and adverse changes in the global economy, may significantly affect our results of operations and may put pressure on our financial results.

The amount and mix of our assets under management are subject to significant fluctuations.

We are subject to extensive, complex, overlapping and frequently changing rules, regulations and legal interpretations.

Global regulatory and legislative actions and reforms have made the regulatory environment in which we operate more costly and future actions and reforms could adversely impact our financial condition and results of operations.

Failure to comply with the laws, rules or regulations in any of the jurisdictions in which we operate could result in substantial harm to our reputation and results of operations.

Changes in tax laws or exposure to additional income tax liabilities could have a material impact on our financial condition, results of operations and liquidity.

Any significant limitation, failure or security breach of our information and cyber security infrastructure, software applications, technology or other systems that are critical to our operations could harm our operations and reputation.

Our business operations are complex and a failure to properly perform operational tasks or the misrepresentation of our products and services, or the termination of investment management agreements representing a significant portion of our assets under management, could have an adverse effect on our revenues and income.

We face risks, and corresponding potential costs and expenses, associated with conducting operations and growing our business in numerous countries.

We depend on key personnel and our financial performance could be negatively affected by the loss of their services.

Strong competition from numerous and sometimes larger companies with competing offerings and products could limit or reduce sales of our products, potentially resulting in a decline in our market share, revenues and income.

Changes in the third-party distribution and sales channels on which we depend could reduce our income and hinder our growth.

Our increasing focus on international markets as a source of investments and sales of investment products subjects us to increased exchange rate and market-specific political, economic or other risks that may adversely impact our revenues and income generated overseas.

Harm to our reputation or poor investment performance of our products could reduce the level of our assets under management or affect our sales, and negatively impact our revenues and income.

Our future results are dependent upon maintaining an appropriate level of expenses, which is subject to fluctuation.

Our ability to successfully manage and grow our business can be impeded by systems and other technological limitations.

Our inability to successfully recover should we experience a disaster or other business continuity problem could cause material financial loss, loss of human capital, regulatory actions, reputational harm, or legal liability.

Regulatory and governmental examinations and/or investigations, litigation and the legal risks associated with our business, could adversely impact our assets under management, increase costs and negatively impact our profitability and/or our future financial results.

Our ability to meet cash needs depends upon certain factors, including the market value of our assets, operating cash flows and our perceived creditworthiness.

We are dependent on the earnings of our subsidiaries.

Any forward-looking statement made by us in this press release speaks only as of the date on which it is made. Factors or events that could cause our actual results to differ may emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for us to predict all of them. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise, except as may be required by law.

Contact:

Franklin Resources, Inc.

Media Relations:

Matt Walsh

(650) 312-2245

Investor Relations:

Brian Sevilla

(650) 312-4091

investors.franklinresources.com




SUNRISE, FL -- (Marketwired) -- 06/08/16 -- South Beach Spirits, Inc. (OTC PINK: SBESE) ("South Beach" or the "Company") is pleased to announced it has entered into a Definitive Securities Exchange Agreement to acquire a 100% interest in St. Martin Powerboats, LLC ("St. Martin"), an American watercraft designing, manufacturing, and marketing business based in Mentor, Ohio, in exchange for a 51% equity interest in SBES. Upon completion of this transaction, St. Martin will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company and the management of St. Martin will assume management roles at SBES. South Beach management believes the transaction will strengthen the Company's access to additional potential sources of working capital and enable it to continue to implement its current business strategy to become a leading holding company for producing and marketing a wide variety of "lifestyle" products, including distilled spirits. Closing of the transaction is subject to satisfaction of customary closing conditions.

St. Martin has been in the business of designing, manufacturing and marketing watercraft since 2007, with a focus on compact and mini performance boats between 12 and 15 feet in length. The small and lightweight characteristics of St. Martin's powerboats make them exceptional performers even when compared to larger speedboats. St. Martin also manufactures and markets a 27-foot offshore vessel, whose production is limited to just 50 boats a year. St. Martin anticipates launching additional specialty branded models of its popular mini-powerboat designs in the near future.

"The completion of the acquisition of St. Martin is expected to be the first of several consumer product company acquisitions planned for South Beach over the next 12 months," commented Vince Prince, CFO of South Beach. "St. Martin and other established lifestyle products companies like it, represent existing opportunities that together we can quickly re-launch or expand to deliver immediate potential revenues and profits for the Company and its shareholders."

Paul Spivak, CEO of St. Martin, added, "We believe the joining of St. Martin with South Beach will create a stronger combined entity and represents a huge step towards achieving a goal of building a diversified consumer lifestyle company. Going-forward, we anticipate that we will continue to acquire and develop other well-positioned brands in the wine and spirits industry, which, along with the boating company and other products we have identified, should create numerous cross selling and marketing opportunities."

Martin D. Ustin, CEO of South Beach, concluded, "The addition of St. Martin and Paul Spivak, its CEO, to the South Beach management team, adds a great new product lineup and potential revenue stream to the Company, and also brings the skills and talent of very successful entrepreneur to the group. We look forward to working closely with Paul to assist him in executing his growth strategy for St. Martin."

The Company intends to make additional information regarding St. Martin, its expanded business strategy, and new potential product acquisitions and launches over the next several weeks.

About South Beach Spirits, Inc.

South Beach Spirits, Inc. (OTC PINK: SBES) is a Florida-based holding company engaged in acquiring, developing, manufacturing, and marketing "lifestyle" products, including distilled spirits.

Disclaimer/Safe Harbor:

This South Beach press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Securities Litigation Reform Act. The statements reflect the Company's current views with respect to future events that involve risks and uncertainties. Among others, these risks include failure to meet schedule or performance requirements of the Company's contracts, the Company's ability to raise sufficient development and working capital, the Company's liquidity position, the Company's ability to obtain new contracts, the emergence of competitors with greater financial resources, and the impact of competitive pricing. In the light of these uncertainties, the forward-looking events referred to in this release might not occur as planned or at all.

Investor/Media Contact:

South Beach Spirits, Inc.

Investor Relations

ir@southbeach-spirits.com




DUBLIN, June 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "India Household Cleaning Market Outlook, 2021" report to their offering.

According to India Household Cleaning Market Outlook, 2021, the overall market for household cleaning is anticipated to grow with a CAGR of 22.74% in the next five years.

In utensil cleaning category, dishwashing bars dominate market revenues, followed by liquid cleaners whereas dishwashing paste has negligible contribution. Consumers in urban areas are now upgrading to dishwashing liquids which are expected to register robust growth in the forecast period. Powder based utensil cleaners are now set to diminish from the market. The surface cleaning market is growing mainly because of rising awareness about brands due to heavy promotion by leading companies. Floor cleaners dominate category revenues, followed by specialized and multi-purpose cleaners. Surface cleaners are targeted mainly at urban households and thus are more popular in urban markets.



This report gives an in-depth analysis of household cleaning industry. The household cleaning industry in India is highly unorganized and the size of unorganized sector is three times than that of organized one. However, this report includes only the organized sector i.e. the branded household cleaning market. The organized household cleaning market in India is mainly split into three broad categories viz. utensil cleaner, toilet cleaner and surface cleaner. Utensil cleaners are further split into dishwashing bar, liquid, powder and pastes. Toilet cleaners consist of liquid cleaners, in-cisterns & rim blocks whereas surface cleaners are split into floor cleaner, specialized and multipurpose cleaners. The specialized cleaners are further split, based on their application areas.



Major companies in the household cleaning market include Hindustan Unilever, Reckitt Benckiser, Jyothy Laboratories, Rohit Surfactants, Dabur India, SC Johnson etc. Major brands operating in the industry are Vim, Harpic, Pril, Exo, Xpert, Lizol, Domex, Colin, Sani Fresh, Cif, Mr Muscle, Easy Off Bang, Dazzl, Dettol etc.



Key Topics Covered:



1. Executive Summary



2. Global Household Cleaning Market Outlook



3. India Household Cleaning Market Outlook



4. India Utensil Cleaner Market Outlook



5. India Surface Cleaner Market Outlook



6. India Toilet Cleaner Market Outlook



7. India Economic Snapshot



8. Raw Material



9. Market Penetration



10. Future Development



11. Policy & Regulatory Landscape



12. Trade Dynamics



13. Channel Partner Analysis



14. India Household Cleaning Market Dynamics



15. Market Trends & Developments

16. Competitive Landscape



17. Strategic Recommendations



Companies Mentioned



- Reckitt Benckiser (India) Ltd.

- Hindustan Unilever Limited

- Dabur India Limited

- SC Johnson Products Pvt. Ltd.

- Jyothy Laboratories Limited

- Venky's (India) Limited

- Future Consumer Enterprise Ltd.

- Fena Private Limited

- Pitambari Products Pvt. Ltd.

- The Clorox Company



For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/hgsr5h/india_household

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

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OTTAWA, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 06/20/16 -- Northern Canadian communities have often lacked the infrastructure and investment that is needed to thrive, and as a result, Northern Canadian's face the highest cost of living in the country. Economic prosperity, food security, and affordable living conditions should be things that all Canadians enjoy, regardless of which part of our country they call home.

In this Economic Club exclusive, we will explore the huge potential for growth in the north and identify practical solutions to some of the most difficult challenges northern communities face. As Prime Minister Trudeau has said, Northern communities can thrive, but they need a partner that will invest in people and infrastructure.

WHAT: Infrastructure in Canada's North: A Fresh Perspective (a panel discussion) WHO: The Honourable Bob McLeod, Premier, Northwest Territories The Honourable Monica Ell-Kanayuk, Deputy Premier, Nunavut Dr. Brock Friesen, President & CEO, First Air Natan Obed, President, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami Sara Wiebe, Director General, Air Policy, Transport Canada Naomi Nind, Partner, Parlee McLaws LLP (moderator) WHEN: Monday, June 20th, 2016 11:30 am-1:30 pm (i) Formal remarks to begin @ 12:15 pm WHERE: The Fairmont Chateau Laurier (Ballroom) 1 Rideau Street, Ottawa

As an additional opportunity, media are welcome to join us in the morning for the national launch of a financial literacy toolkit for Inuit youth. The program, developed by Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK) and the National Inuit Youth Council (NIYC) in partnership with the Jr. Economic Club of Canada (Jr. EC) and with support from the Government of Canada and First Air, explores the financial literacy themes of personal money management, entrepreneurship and the link between health and wealth. The toolkit will be launched at a breakfast event presented in partnership with TD Bank and First Air.

WHAT: National launch of the Inuit Youth Financial Literacy Toolkit WHO: Special guest: Sophie Gregoire Trudeau 70 youth and their chaperones visiting Ottawa from the Inuit Nunangat (homeland) Dr. Brock Friesen, President & CEO, First Air Maatalii Okalik, President, National Inuit Youth Council Natan Obed, President, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami Rhiannon Traill, Presdient & CEO, The Economic Club of Canada & The Jr. Economic Club of Canada WHEN: Monday, June 20th, 2016 8:45 am - 11:15 am WHERE: The Fairmont Chateau Laurier (Ballroom) 1 Rideau Street, Ottawa

About The Economic Club of Canada:

Each year, more than 100 key policy makers and business leaders seek out the Economic Club of Canada's platform to deliver major keynote addresses. Audience members are drawn from the most senior levels of Canadian business, health care and government. Sessions provide accessibility to speakers and the opportunity to pose questions, direct and unfiltered. Membership is open to all who share a passion for discourse around the most important issues of today.

Contacts:

To confirm attendance or for more information, contact:

Kara Merpaw

Communications

The Economic Club of Canada

416-333-8795

merpaw@economicclub.ca




Capsilon Corporation, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of cloud-based document and data management solutions for the mortgage industry, received an investment from Francisco Partners.

The amount of the deal was not disclosed.

The investment will provide Capsilon with a capital partner to expand product portfolio, and customer adoption.

Led by Sanjeev Malaney, CEO, Capsilon provides cloud-based document and data management solutions that enable mortgage lenders, investors and servicers to increase productivity and lower costs, while ensuring compliance. The companys flagship product, Capsilon DocVelocity, is a document imaging and data capture platform built specifically to address the needs of large mortgage companies, including two of the 10 largest residential mortgage lenders in the United States.

FinSMEs

08/06/2016
Midokura, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of a software network virtualization platform, raised $20.4m in Series B funding.

Backers included Japanese fintech company Simplex and existing investors Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ) and Allen Miner, a member of Midokuras board of directors.

The company, which has raised over $44m to date, intends to use the funds to accelerate product development, expand its executive and development teams and secure new partnerships with industry leaders.

Founded in 2010 by Dan Dumitriu, CEO, and Tatsuya Kato, chairman, Midokura provides Midokura Enterprise MidoNet (MEM), a network virtualization technology platform that offers an intelligent, software-based network abstraction layer between the hosts and the physical network, by decoupling the IaaS cloud from the network hardware. In turn, operators can build isolated networks in software to overlay the existing hardware-based network infrastructure. The open source version of its core MidoNet technology is used by organizations of all sizes in more 120 countries.

The company has offices in San Francisco, Tokyo and Barcelona.

FinSMEs

08/06/2016
Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm SoftTech VC closed two funds totalling $150m.

The funds, backed by a mix of 40 institutional LPs, family offices and individual investors  often entrepreneurs from previous portfolio companies, include the following:

 SoftTech VC V, a $100m seed stage fund, and

 SoftTech VC Plus, a $50M opportunity fund.

Fund V will invest in approximately 40 startups over three years in SaaS/B2B, connected devices, marketplaces, and monetized consumer services. It will make initial investments of $500k to $1.5m, with the goal of owning a 7-10% ownership stake in early stage companies. The team plans to invest about $40m in approximately 40 companies over 3 years, leaving $60m for follow-ons in Series A and Series B rounds.

The fund will invest 80% in startups located in San Francisco/Silicon Valley, with New York/Boston, Boulder, Southern California, and Toronto-Waterloo forming the remaining.

The Plus Fund will focus on select growth stage opportunities across previous SoftTech VC funds committing between $2m to $5m per deal. It has already made a first investment of $3m in the $35m Series C round of Vidyard.

The firm, led by Founder and Managing Partner Jeff Clavier, and Partners Stephanie Palmeri and Andy McLoughlin, has an investment focus including such areas as Software-As-A-Service (SaaS)  including mobile infrastructure and services, vertical SaaS and cloud infrastructure  B2C services, connected devices, marketplaces, digital health, edtech, govtech AI, VR/AR, robotics, and autonomous vehicles.

Baased in Palo Alto and San Francisco, SoftTech VC now has over $300M under management.

FinSMEs

08/06/2016
Mumbai: After the revising committee of Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) recommended 89 cuts for Udta Punjab, Anurag Kashyap and the other producers of the film have approached Bombay High Court to review the decision.

The storm started after the board purportedly raised certain objections and asked the filmmakers to make 40 cuts in the film, owing to explicit language and drug consumption. When the film was taken to the revising committee for revision they went a step further and sought 89 cuts.

Speaking to Economic Times, CBFC chief Pahlaj Nihalani defended the Board's stand and said, "The film shows 70% of the people in the state consume drugs. The movie puts entire Punjab in bad light. Nearly 98% of the movie is in Punjabi and based entirely in Punjab. It is not a Hindi film at all."

Kashyap now has even criticised the government, saying it was wrong to politically colour his fight with CBFC over censorship issue.

FYI I have fought the UPA more on censorship issues than the NDA. But you know what , there was no Nihalani then. So the paid trolls can FO  Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) June 7, 2016

The Gangs of Wasseypur maker slammed the alleged "paid" trolls projecting him as an agent of Congress and AAP.

And it's pathetic that the party supported and paid trolls are trying to make me look like an agent of congress or AaP  Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) June 7, 2016

Kashyap said he had been working closely with Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore before the controversy.

Where as I have been working closely with this ministry and the MOS mr. Rathore on the censorship issues  Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) June 7, 2016

And I have all our texts and messages saved so if the govt is trying to make there incompetence look good then they've picked a wrong person  Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) June 7, 2016

& stop taking out list of cuts made for television of my adult films to show as censored portions of my film to prove a non-existing point  Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) June 7, 2016

Upset with the censor board committee's recommendations, Kashyap had tweeted yesterday,

I always wondered what it felt like to live in North Korea .. Ab to plane pakadney ki bhi zaroorat nahin..  Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) June 6, 2016

To which Rathore had said, "Do you think you are living in North Korea? We can have a vote here, it is a democracy."

(With inputs from PTI)
If the situation were not so grim, some of CBFC chief Pahlaj Nihalanis responses in his interview to the Hindustan Times, would surely qualify as stuff that good comedy is made of. In his inexplicable defense of the boards clampdown on Udta Punjab  a film crafted around Punjabs overwhelming drug problem  Nihalani has proven for the umpteenth time how unqualified he is to occupy the office he currently holds. He not only believes that films should be based in unreal situations and imaginary locales, but also holds the notion that people do not swear in Punjab unless they are under the influence of drugs.

Heres a nugget from the interview: When Udta Punjab came to us for certification, we found the film carpeted with the filthiest abuses. Almost every line that Shahid Kapoor speaks is filled with the most explicit abuses and gaalis (expletives) that even I had never heard, Pahlaj Nihalani tells interviewer Subhash K Jha. He further explains: We said ok let him abuse when his character is under the influence of drugs. But, why should he talk like that when normal? Who speaks like that in every day conversations?

Well, it seems that Pahlaj Nihalani is not only clueless about the fundamental concept of films and filmmaking, he is grossly out of touch with reality as well. Perhaps he needs to walk around the streets of North India and connect with real street talk that he apparently is not familiar with. Abuses, the censor board chief should know, are firmly lodged in North Indias masculine aggressive culture. Men use expletives like they would use punctuations in a sentence.

In fact, so common is the random use of such abuses (remember the crude mother-sister Hindi swear words) its often difficult to tell whether the abuses are used in friendly jest or sheer anger! For Nihalani to claim that people get abusive only under the influence of drugs makes absolutely no sense in this context.

The censor board chief also doesnt seem to comprehend what a disclaimer means, or for that matter, a work of fiction. Udta Punjab claims to mirror the truth about the whole of Punjab. According to the film, 70 percent of the youngsters are drug addicts, says Nihalani. Its surely embarrassing to have to remind Nihalani  who claims to have a distinctive record in filmmaking  that Udta Punjab carries a disclaimer to say it is a work of fiction.

When the interviewer actually asks this basic question to Nihalani, heres how he responds to it. What is the disclaimer worth when after claiming to be a work of fiction the film proceeds to name every major town in Punjab, from Amritsar to Tarn Taran as a drug den? How is it a work of fiction when you are naming real towns from Punjab? Of course, all this is topped up with the pompous statement  We couldnt allow Punjab to be damned and labeled a drug haven.

Nihalani should perhaps educate himself on the alarming proportions of drug abuse in Punjab. Considering the censor board usually tends to lean towards films with strong moralising content, one wonders why Nihalani did not actually welcome Udta Punjab, a film that reveals the dark underbelly of drug addiction in Punjab.

It also raises the question of whether Pahlaj Nihalani would be so bothered about so-called negative perception of Punjab had there been a Congress government in power in the state; or, if the political parties were not gearing for assembly elections next year. That the censor board chief has already labelled Anurag Kashyap, the films co-producer, a sponsor of the AAP, accusing him of having taken money from the party, gestures towards the political calculations behind the row. Kashyap, for his part, has asked all political parties  including the Congress and the AAP  not to meddle in a matter that is strictly to do with his film and not electoral politics.

Its easy to see why Kashyap has gone all out to lay the blame squarely at the censor board chiefs door. In a tweet that has become famous now, Kashyap said, It's my fight Vs a dictatorial man sitting there operating like an oligarch in his constituency of censor board, that's my North Korea. And we do seem headed that way.
Anurag Kashyap has been very vocal about his fight with the CBFC regarding the cuts for his co-production, Udta Punjab.

In an exclusive interview with CNN-News18, Kashyap spoke about his issues with the board and clarified that the film doesn't paint Punjab in a bad light.

"It's been four weeks, we haven't heard from the Revising Committee of the CBFC on the proposed cuts. We've been kept in a limbo. In order for us to go ahead to the Tribunal or the Supreme Court, we will need an official document," he said.

Kashyap informed that when his team approached Pahlaj Nihalani for further clarity he said that the letter has "left the office" but hasn't been received by anyone yet.

The most important question to ask to him would be whether there seems to be any pressure from political parties on the representation of Punjab in the film.

Kashyap clarifies, "If this was just happening with Udta Punjab I would say it is political. However, this happened with Prakash Jha, with Mastizaade, and many other films over this last one year. It is like one person acting like a monolith. I am not going to sit here and assume that Akali Dal or BJP has asked the CBFC to make the cuts. I am just going to say that there is nothing derogatory in the film about Punjab. It's about youth and drugs."
Two years ago, the South Korean government invested $3.8 billion to promote the start-up industry in that country. Since then, the government has invested in a number of financial start-ups in South Korea.

Another initiative in that direction is the K-Startup Grand Challenge to invite start-ups from across the world to South Korea VCs and mentors as partners of the government.

When South Korea is mentioned in a business context, the top names that come to mind are of their home-grown giants in mobile phones and cars. The start-up industry has not been able to have an impact as yet. Agreeing that it is true that the manufacturing industry has had a top recall with consumers across the world, Kyung Hwan Lee, Executive Director of India-Korea SW Cooperation Center said that the country has been working for some time on developing technology with a focus on research and development.

Lee was in India last week with regard to inviting start-ups for the Grand Challenge. He said that the start-up industry in South Korea is of a different genre from other sectors and the government is willing to handhold it. Companies in Korea are now collaborating with start-ups, especially those that are focused on software. Samsung too is collaborating with some Korean start-ups, said Lee.

The core objective of the K-Startup Grand Challenge is to promote the expansion of an open entrepreneurship ecosystem in Asia and to assist in South Korea's evolution into a prominent start-up business hub in the region. The challenge will open gates for the Indian Technology startups  catering to different categories to enter the Korean market and further expand its reach to global customers.

In recent years, a great number of large Korean conglomerates have expressed their interest in collaborating with foreign start-ups. The K-Startup Grand Challenge program offers the opportunity for such start-ups to interact and to work with large conglomerates (Samsung, LG, Hyundai Motors, KT, Kakao, Naver, CJ, SK, POSCO, etc.), said Lee.

With regard to the growth of the start-up ecosystem in India, Lee said that patents and Intellectual Property Rights are a concern in the sector.

K-Grand Challenge

To make South Korea an Asian hub for start-ups, Koreas Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning is inviting start-ups across the world to a K-Startup Grand Challenge. The all-expenses-paid program is the first of its kind in Asia and is sponsored by Koreas Science Ministry.

The start-ups that have held centre stage in Korea has been those that have focused on beauty and cosmetics, apparel, he said.

Forty start-ups will be selected for the three month acceleration program and will receive $4,100 per month to cover living expenses, along with free round-trip flights to Korea for three team members. They will also get offices and lab space in its $160 million Startup Campus in Pangyo, within walking distance of several major Korean companies that have signed on to provide R&D support.

If a start-up is among the 40 team selected for the challenges acceleration program, it will receive $4,100 per month for three months to cover living expenses in Kora and also receive round-trip airfare for up to three team members. For those start-ups who make it to the top 20 start-ups, it will have access to #833,000 in additional prizes. Each of the top 20 start-ups will receive $33,000 if they set up a legal entity in Korea. The top four teams will get grants of between $6,000 and $100,000. Those that do well in this round may also be offered equity investment opportunities from accelerators and local VCs.11`

Applications for this program close on June 14. Applications can be made on: http://www.k-startupc.org
Washington - Amazon Inc Chief Executive Jeff Bezos said on Tuesday the company would invest an additional $3 billion in India, boosting its committed investment in the country to over $5 billion.

Bezos told an event in Washington attended by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi - who met earlier on Tuesday with President Barack Obama - that India was Amazon's fastest growing region.

"I can assure you its only the beginning and as we say in Amazon, its only day one," Bezos said, adding that the investments would help start-ups in India and accelerate the country's role as a hub for innovation and digital entrepreneurship.

He said Amazon would open a Web Services Cloud Region in India this year and the country would soon become home to the firm's largest software engineering and development center outside of the United States, located in Hyderabad.

Bezos said Amazon had so far built 21 fulfillment centers with more than 5 mln cubic feet of storage space. He said its link-up with India Post enabled it to reach all serviceable postal codes in the country.

He said the Hyderabad center would create jobs and career development opportunities for thousands of people and a "significant" number of jobs would be created over time because of the deployment of Amazon Cloud Services.

Bezos, the world's fourth-richest man, made the comments the same day Warren Buffett, the world's third richest man, praised him for embodying the potential of small business owners who build their companies.
NEW YORK Warren Buffett, the world's third-richest person, on Tuesday offered strong praise for Jeff Bezos, the fourth-richest, saying he embodies the potential that can blossom when small business owners build their companies.

Speaking at a panel discussion in Long Island City, New York on the state of small business in America, Buffett called Bezos, the chief executive of retailer Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O), a "classic example" of how business owners can succeed by focussing not just on satisfying their customers, but delighting them.

"Twenty years ago he had a very, very, very small business," but Bezos today is still "thinking about how to further delight his customer," said Buffett, who has run his Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N) since 1965.

Buffett is worth $66.4 billion while Bezos is worth $62.9 billion, Forbes magazine said on Tuesday.

Both also have a shared interest in newspapers, with Berkshire owning dozens of newspapers including its hometown Omaha World-Herald and Bezos owning the Washington Post.

The panel also included Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein, Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) Chief Executive Jack Dorsey, and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Earlier on Tuesday, in an opinion piece published by USA Today, Buffett, Blankfein, Bloomberg and Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter called for reduced regulatory burdens and increased transparency in borrowing.

They said this would help make it easier for small businesses to raise affordable capital they need to grow, without compromising consumer and environmental protections.

Buffett, 85, nonetheless said the restrictions in place now do not dampen his enthusiasm for America.

"The potential of men and women in this country has not been exhausted in any way shape or form," he said. "The luckiest person in the world is the baby being born in the United States today."

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Tom Brown)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
NEW DELHI Indian refiners have turned to State Bank of India and Germany-based bank Europaeisch-Iranische Handelsbank AG (EIH) to speed payment of billions of Iranian oil dues they still owe to Tehran, after delays in another money route.

Refiners in India, Iran's top oil buyer after China, last month resumed settling their back debt of about $6.6 billion after the lifting earlier this year of some of the sanctions against Tehran had opened up oil trade and banking channels.

The first payments were handled in May by state-run Union Bank of India via Turkey's Halkbank, which had previously handled payments before tougher European sanctions were put in place in February 2013.

But Union Bank has asked the refiners to raise their credit limits or deposit money in rupees a day ahead of initiating payments, sources familiar with the matter said, and refiners were fearful of delays in working down their oil debt.

Timely payment of the Iranian dues is crucial not only for future crude supplies but also for winning investments in Iran that would strengthen trade ties between New Delhi and Tehran.

From June, refiners have been making payments through State Bank and EIH, said government and company sources with direct knowledge of the matter, which should be quicker since most of the refiners have their main accounts at SBI.

A senior official at the Union Bank of India confirmed that his bank was no longer handling Iran oil payments, declining to provide further details.

No comment was available from Turkey's Halkbank, and EIH did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

STATE REFINERS TAKE LEAD

Last month, state-run Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemical, Indian Oil Corp and Hindustan Petroleum Corp together cleared $770 million in euros via Union Bank and Halkbank to National Iranian Oil Co (NIOC).

So far state refiners are taking the lead in settling dues to Iran, aiming to wipe out their debt in three months after weekly limits were set by the Reserve Bank of India.

India has capped weekly dollar purchases by oil refiners at $500 million as they pay off their Iran debts to avoid pressure on the rupee.

Accordingly, Essar Oil was in June to start clearing about $260 million a week, followed by MRPL at about $200 million and IOC at about $30 million, with the rest coming from HPCL and its joint venture company HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd (HMEL).

So far this month, MRPL and IOC have cleared about $330 million through EIH, the refinery and government sources said. Essar Oil, however, Iran's biggest Indian client with about $3 billion in debt, has settled only $100 million, they said.

Essar and SBI did not respond to an email seeking comment.

(Reporting by Nidhi Verma in NEW DELHI; Additional Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy in MUMBAI, Arno Schuetze in FRANKFURT, and Ebru Tuncay in ISTANBUL; Editing by Tom Hogue)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
LOS ANGELES Democrat Hillary Clinton beat rival Bernie Sanders in New Jersey's presidential nominating contest on Tuesday, Fox News projected, bolstering her lead a day after she captured the number of delegates needed to become her party's U.S. presidential nominee.

Clinton, a former first lady, senator and U.S. secretary of state, would be the first woman to become the presidential candidate of a major U.S. political party.

New Jersey was one of six states holding contests on Tuesday, including the big prize of California, where Clinton is still at risk of an embarrassing loss to Sanders as she heads into a campaign against presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump in the Nov. 8 election.

Other news outlets, including MSNBC and CNN, said it was still too early to call the winner in New Jersey shortly after the polls closed.

Clinton secured enough delegates to the party's convention to win the nomination before Tuesday's voting, U.S. media outlets reported on Monday night.

But Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook said the campaign was pushing supporters and volunteers to "stay at this" for the contests in New Jersey, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and New Mexico and California.

"We're on the verge of making history, and we're going to celebrate that tonight," Mook told CNN. "There's a lot of people we want to make sure turn out today. We do not want to send a message that anybody's vote doesn't count."

HISTORIC NOMINATION

Clinton, who now must try to unify the party and win over Sanders supporters, will highlight the historic nature of her nomination at an event in Brooklyn on Tuesday night. Her campaign has compiled a video tying her to women's rights movements in American history.

She wants to move beyond the primary battle and turn her attention to Trump. But Sanders, a democratic socialist U.S. senator from Vermont, has vowed to stay in until July's party convention that formally picks the nominee, defying growing pressure from party leaders to exit the race.

If Sanders wins the primary in California, America's most populous state, it would not be enough for him to catch Clinton in the overall delegate count but could fuel his continued presence in the race. Polls in California were due to close at 11 p.m. ET (0300 GMT on Wednesday).

"We will look forward tonight to marking having reached the threshold of a majority of the pledged delegates, Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon told CNN, referring to delegates won in the state nominating contests. "And at that point, Bernie Sanders will be out of our race."

Sanders, 74, has commanded huge crowds, galvanizing younger voters with promises to address economic inequality. Clinton, 68, has edged him out, particularly among older voters, with a more pragmatic campaign focussed on building on President Barack Obama's policies.

Steven Acosta, a 47-year-old teacher living in Los Angeles, voted for Clinton on Tuesday, saying that was partly because he believed she stood a better chance of winning in November.

"I like what Bernie Sanders says and I agree with almost everything that he says," Acosta said. "The problem is that I think Republicans would really unify ... even more against him."

'RUSH TO JUDGEMENT'

Sanders was determined to stay in the race, even after the Associated Press and NBC reported on Monday night that Clinton had clinched the number of delegates needed to win the nomination. A Sanders campaign spokesman castigated what he said was the media's "rush to judgement."

Under Democratic National Committee rules, most delegates to the July 25-28 convention in Philadelphia are awarded by popular votes in state-by-state elections, and Clinton has a clear lead in those pledged delegates.

But the delegate count also includes superdelegates, party leaders who can change their minds at any time. Clinton's superdelegate support outnumbers Sanders' by more than 10 to 1.

The Sanders' campaign has said it can still persuade superdelegates to switch to him, although in practice superdelegates who have announced their intentions are unlikely to change their minds.

Sanders would have to get more than 60 percent of the superdelegates backing Clinton to switch their votes. So far, his campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, acknowledged they had not converted a single delegate.

Trump, 69, became his party's presumptive nominee last month, outlasting 16 Republican challengers.

(Writing by John Whitesides and Ginger Gibson; Additional reporting by Amanda Becker and Doina Chiacu in Washington; Jonathan Allen and Chris Kahn in New York; Joseph Ax and Frank McGurty in New Jersey; Alex Dobuzinskis and Dan Whitcomb in California; Editing by Howard Goller)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation last month urged banks to look for signs of possible cyber attacks in the wake of the massive heist at Bangladesh's central bank, asking them to hunt for technical clues that they have been targeted by the same group.

The private "Flash" notification, which provided technical information about the attacks, said a "malicious cyber group" had compromised the networks of multiple foreign banks.

"The actors have exploited vulnerabilities in the internal environments of the banks and initiated unauthorized monetary transfers over an international payment messaging system," the alert said.

The report did not identify specific victims. An FBI representative declined to elaborate on the report.

(Reporting by Jim Finkle; Editing by Dan Grebler)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
New Delhi: India is all set to become member of Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), a key anti-proliferation grouping, as it cleared final hurdles in getting membership of the bloc that will help it access high-end missile technology.

Diplomatic sources said there was "no objection" to India's applications for the membership of the MTCR and that the deadline for member countries to object to it had expired on Monday.

They said the plenary meeting of the 34-nation grouping will take place later this year in Seoul during which India will be formally inducted as the new entrant into the bloc.

"Mission almost accomplished. Only some procedural formalities remain before India becomes member of #MTCR," Roald Naess, Norwegian Ambassador to Ireland tweeted.

Mission almost accomplished. Only some procedural formalities remain before India becomes member of #MTCR. @AlphaNonpro @RRajagopalanJNU  Roald Nss (@Roald_Naess) June 6, 2016

Membership of the MTCR will help India procure high-end missile technology and surveillance systems by leading manufacturers which are allowed to be accessed by only MTCR member countries.

Sources said India had applied for the MTCR membership last year and its application was under consideration as part of a "silent procedure" which ended yesterday without any objection from any country.

There were certain formalities to be completed before India is inducted into the bloc, added the sources.

The development comes as India was expanding its diplomatic outreach seeking support for its entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group.

India has developed a range of missile systems including Brahmos, Agni and Prithvi missile systems. Brahmos is a joint venture with Russia.

India's application at the NSG is expected to be taken up for discussion by the NSG at its plenary meetings on 9 June in Vienna and 24 June in Seoul. China has been opposing India's bid arguing that it was not a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
In a country like India, if a voice dares to rebel against those abusing power, it gets quickly stifled under the burden of relentless oppression.

The now former Karnataka deputy superintendent of police (Dy SP), Kudligi sub-division, Anupama Shenoys action against the local mining baron led to her resignation on Saturday, according to a Deccan Chronicle report.

The report states that a day before resigning, Shenoy had visited Yashwant Nagar village in Sandur, where the villagers, who were opposing the construction of an iron ore manufacturing plant by a local mining baron, were arrested for allegedly demolishing the compound wall of the factory.

Shenoy reportedly took the local police officers to task for registering FIR against the protesters.

In a separate incident, Shenoy had detained three people over construction of a liquor shop owned by a local Congress leader Veerendra Kumar. One of the people detained was a relative of Kumar who belongs to the Lingayat sect. These two incidents reportedly upset the Sandur mining baron who also heads the Lingayat community.

Though Shenoy cited personal reasons for resigning, it is not clear if her resignation has been accepted, the report stated that SP Ballari Chetan ordered DySP Hoovinahadagali SR Patil to take over the additional charge of Kudligi sub-divison.

It was her Facebook posts that reflect her dissent against the system.

'Resigned and jobless  with a smile emoticon, Shenoy wrote on Facebook. Her profile picture  the Jeffersonian quote: "When injustice becomes law, rebellion becomes duty  bespeaks her protest against the unfair treatment meted out to her."

The 2010-batch IPS officer, Shenoy insinuated on Facebook that she had some kind of evidence against Labour Minister PT Parameshwar Naik. She wrote: CD beku?... Audio beku?...  (Do you want a CD or a audio tape?) using hashtags #ParameshiPremaPrasangaBhaga1 and #WashingPowderNirmaPart2.

According to The Hindu, she again posted stating that the evidence would be released by midnight. She also took a dig at former Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy and called the Siddaramaiah government Rum Rajya.

In another post, she wrote that an FIR may be filed against her considering the status she had put on the social media website. Her status read: "Heard FIR would be filed against me after going through my status in Facebook #Brihannalas".

Shenoy's brother was quoted in The New Indian Express report as saying that she will be will be interacting with the media in the next couple of days and clarify the reasons behind her resignation.

Earlier in January, Shenoy was transferred for putting labour minister PT Parameshwar Naiks call on hold. As per the NDTV, the minister was caught on camera taking pride in having her transferred for it. However, after considerable public outrage, the officer was reinstated in February.

The Hindu reported that Naik, in a media briefing on Tuesday, said that he had no role in Shenoys resignation. I have not put pressure on her. I dont know what made her resign. Her senior officers, the superintendent of police or the inspector-general, will handle the issue.

Karanataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that he was unaware of the details, but had heard about Shenoy's resignation, reported the NDTV. "The officers are looking into that. I don't know about it. She has sent her resignation, they say. It has come to the DG - they will look into it," he told reporters in Bengaluru.

Rising public support

The undaunted officer has been garnering tremendous public backing with her supporters launching a Justice for Anupama Facebook page. D Roopa, IPS officer, said: "Resigning is not the way. Resigning attitude won't take you anywhere. Swim against the tide."

BJP, district general secretary at Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh, Duddakunta Venkateswara Reddy wrote: "#AnupamaShenoy Resigning is Not right way. You must fight against #LiquerMafia and #corruption political harassment in the work place. We are with you."

"I firmly believe and am also confident that the arrogant and corrupt politician will learn the lesson from public in next election. It is unfortunate that the political think tanks repeat the same mistakes again. I salute the courage of Anupama. All the best to her," another Facebook user Tapan Mahapatra wrote.
Panaji: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has said it is ready to face elections in Goa any time.

The elections to the 40-member Goa Legislative Assembly are due in March next year.

"People are so sick and tired of this BJP government. People can demand an early election as well," AAP leader Ashish Khetan told PTI.

"We are ready to face election anytime from now in all the constituencies," he said.

AAP has already announced it will contest all the 40 constituencies of the state.

Party's national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had also recently addressed a public rally in Panaji.

Meanwhile, senior party leader Ashutosh expressed confidence that the party will form the government on its own in Goa after the polls.

However, he also said that AAP would prefer to sit in opposition if it has to take help of any other political outfit to gain power.

He said Kejriwal is likely to visit Goa at least once a month and later more frequently when the polls approach.

Notably, Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar had ruled out early polls in the state, saying he was not in favour of elections before completion of five years of the government.
Its a womens drought, declared Avik Saha, my partner in imagining and designing this padyatra, and now my co-passenger. This was the third day of our padyatra in Marathwada. We had just gone past yet another queue of women and girls waiting for water with their pitchers and cans.

It took some time for his formulation to sink in. Avik is always on the lookout for a way to summarize what we have seen. I guess his astonishing range of experience  a high-flying real estate lawyer, a humble organic farmer, the patron of a classic guitar society and a connoisseur of indigenous seeds  accounts for his knack for thinking a step ahead of everyone else. I had learnt not to let his remarks go past me.

So I pocketed his remark and carried it with me, like my glasses, till we concluded the yatra at Mahoba. Wherever we went, it enabled me to see many faces of this drought, that would have otherwise escaped my attention.

The one thing that could not have escaped my attention was the sheer presence of women in all the meetings. Women dominated the show, even in Bundelkhand  with all the remnants of feudal culture and taboos about womens participation.

With so many men migrating in search of jobs, the presence of women is more noteworthy in the villages. They were in purdah, using their fingers deftly to open a slit for a one-eyed view of the meeting. But they were there.

And they were not silent. Women led the way in the discussions on water, ration and mid-day meals, and took a lot of interest in discussions on employment and animal fodder. They were less informed about crop loss compensation and crop loan restructuring. But they took interest.

It was quite a sight: one hand firmly pulling the pallu over their face and the other one waving an accusatory finger at the powers-that-be. Women, more than men, took on the official lies. The presence of the sarpanch and local officials would send signals to men. In some cases these officials had anticipated our visit and tutored men.

But they had not taken the women's voice into account. The women shattered the manufactured silence and brought out the truth about the non-delivery of ration, non-implementation of Mid-Day Meal orders and the non-supply of water.

In rural India, drinking water is undoubtedly a womans issue. I have never understood how water resource management was added to a womens portfolio of child welfare and food & supplies. But somehow everyone knows that anything to do with water is womens business: they queue up, they wait, they draw, they fetch, they quarrel over it, they negotiate and they manage it.

She could be a ten year old child (looking barely eight) or a fifty year old grandmother (who looks and feels seventy), she is there in the queue. If she is lucky, the tanker arrives in her locality and the queue is less than an hour long.

Or else, she could be trudging up to two km in search of water or standing in the queue for two-three hours. Dalit, landless women are most vulnerable in having to beg for water from landlords who own private bore-wells.

Women dont always buy food-grains from the ration shop (boys more than men perform that duty, just as I used to queue up for sugar when I was young), yet they know everything about it. Men may be unsure about the quantity and quality of food-grain received, but not women. They are not just the principal disburser of food, but also its last consumer. They are the first ones to feel the pinch.

That is why women are more eager than men to take up MNREGA work. Wherever we went we heard complaints about MNREGA wages being too low to attract rural workers. It ranges between Rs 160 to Rs 200 per day. They prefer city work for it pays better. And that is why MNREGA has not picked up. Or so went the official explanation.

But when we turned to women, they punctured these claims. Yes, the wages are low, but are much higher than what they can get elsewhere. Wages for women agriculture labour in Maharathwada has plummeted to Rs 100 per day. Women who went to work in a Latur bakery barely made Rs 90 a day after meeting their transport costs. For them MNREGA work, assured work within their own village, is a God sent. Its just that there is very little of it, except in Uttar Pradesh.

If drought is an invisible disaster, the burden of its consequences placed on womens shoulders is also an invisible burden. Men talk and complain. They talk about the non-delivery of compensation promised by the government. They talk about recovery of loan installments and non-availability of fresh loans. They talk about the unbearable burden of running a household after crops have failed. And if they cannot take it anymore, they commit suicide.

It is for women to gather all the pieces of everyday life and carry on with it somehow. Women experience drought in its quotidian cruelties where exit is not an option.

Editor's note: Swaraj Abhiyan founder Yogendra Yadav is on a padyatra of drought affected regions of Marathwada and Bundelkhand. He has been filing dispatches for Firstpost about the drought and his march. This is the fifth and final 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

Read Story 4: 13 ways to deny the poor food-grains at a time of scarcity
Re-energising the Congress from its present inertia is a challenging task. But if media reports of how Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi wants to meet that challenge are correct, there may be reason to worry still. Keen to initiate a culture of collective functioning in the dynasty-driven party, Gandhi apparently wants to set up a group of 10 leaders to revamp the Congress. The groups mandate will include outlining the partys policies in key issues that are believed to be close to Gandhis heart  welfare reforms and tribal rights.

Political analysts have already outlined parallels between Gandhis proposed panel and the National Advisory Council (NAC), established by his mother and Congress President Sonia Gandhi. The NAC functioned as the fulcrum of the UPA governments welfare policies, which as many economists since have asserted, did impact the lives of Indias underclasses. Despite frequent allegations of policy paralysis levelled against the Manmohan Singh government during its two-term tenure, the welfare policies did make a difference  even if minor. That the Congress was not able to craft a popular campaign around its own productive policies is something the party should ponder.

But Gandhi seems to have forgotten that the Congress today is in a very different place from the time the NAC played an active role in the governance agenda. The Congress then led a coalition which remained in power for a decade. Today, the Congress is a party in Opposition, with just 44 Lok Sabha members. The electoral losses the party has suffered since 2013 have drastically reduced its political power, ceding more and more ground to assertive regional parties like Trinamool Congress, Aam Aadmi Party, Janata Dal (United), AIADMK and others.

For the Congress, things are about as bad as they can get. This is the time to shake the party up, not to institute committees. Sure, well-researched perspectives and critiques on the present BJP-led governments policies will help the Opposition to call the government out on important policy fault lines. But policy deficit is not whats corroding the Congress.

The problem goes right to the heart of the partys leadership and its political direction. Or more precisely, the absence of political direction and the weak leadership provided by none other than the Congress vice-president himself. These are urgent issues demanding reform. This is where the Congress needs surgery  a term repeatedly used by some senior party leaders following the Congress recent assembly poll defeats. But if surgery means instituting more committees in the name of collective leadership, such a project is doomed from the very outset.

The Congress vice-president needs to define the partys core politics. Playing the soft Hindutva card  especially against an aggressive BJP  has, unsurprisingly, led the Congress nowhere. For instance, we have seen Rahul Gandhi vociferously oppose the slogan Bharat Mata Ki Jai as a mandatory chant, but at the same time his partys MLAs in Maharashtra assembly have backed a resolution to suspend the AIMIM legislator Waris Pathan for defying the fiat. Neither Sonia nor Rahul Gandhi has pulled up the party MLA or strictly laid down the party line on an issue that for weeks dominated national conversation.

Such shifting opportunistic stances have become a defining marker of Congress politics. Just as glaring is its lack of a genuine commitment to Dalits and minorities. The only way the Congress can revitalize its organisation is by truly marking out its political differences from the BJP. To achieve that end, the party needs to junk committees and take drastic steps. It has to come clean. And that can only be achieved under a decisive party leadership. Barring the blind and the faithful, few will dispute that Rahul Gandhi lacks the political vision that is needed to extricate the Congress from the morass it has sunk into.

Take the partys fractious state units, for instance. Even as the Congress talks of a revamp, it has more bad news in the North East. The latest to join its long list of rebellious units is Tripura. Six Congress legislators (out of a total of 10 MLAs) have resigned and joined the Trinamool Congress, which will now be the ruling Left governments primary opposition in Tripura. In Chhattisgarh, senior Congress leader Ajit Jogi recently announced his decision to launch a new party, severing links with the Congress. Not so long ago, Assams important Congress leader Himanta Biswa Sarma, quit the party and joined the BJP. Sarma was instrumental in defeating the Congress and facilitating the formation of the first-ever BJP government in the state.

Clearly, Gandhi hasnt got his political fundamentals right. The time when he could still be excused as a novice in party politics, is long gone. Rather than focusing on strengthening regional units and fostering a strong line of regional leaders, Gandhi has been running helter-skelter without political purpose.
On 3 June, in broad day light two motorcyclists shot dead a local money changer in Jalandhar. According to reports police suspect a hawala money dispute. Easy money coming from drug trade in Punjab has many disturbing offshoots; hawala and gang war are some of it.

Shashi Sharma, a resident of Jalandhar who has been working relentlessly for last one decade and has given the names of over 16,000 drug peddlers to the court, says, "Drugs problem have increased manifold in last few years and have resulted in gangs and gang wars now. And this all has happened in last four-five years. Anyone who wants to suppress any information regarding the problem of drugs in state in an active accomplice in the menace."

Sharma was one among thousands of those who lost their family members and friends to drugs. There are infinite imageries of a lost generation in the bylanes of numerous villages in Punjab. Pahlaj Nihalani and his censor army might not be able to cut them all.

In Punjab the political class have always been evasive on questions of drug abuse in the state and have been in denial mode for long. In contrast Himachal Pradesh which too is grappling with the drug menace is accepting the problem and making some genuine efforts for finding long term solution.

In the month of April speaking at a conference, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh acknowledged the problem of drug abuse in his state and said, It is a big threat to the country and is destroying the present generation and humanity at large. There is a constant war between the people who are trading in drugs and people who wants to stop this. We have to stop this at any cost. This was by any means an honest admission of the problem by a chief minister of the state.

Davinder Singh Johal, associate professor, department of psychology, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar who has been researching on drug abuse in the state for many years says, Drug abuse is something which people of Punjab are well aware of. It is a reality with which people are living and are forced to live. If someone wants to tell this story of irredeemable loss then what is wrong in that. If a filmmaker wants to depict how this great land of Punjab succumbed to drugs, I dont think censor board has any right to stop it. I think it is more about the peoples right to know than someones right to tell."

Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) had raised serious objections over the film Udta Punjab, which addresses Punjabs drug abuse problem, CBFC has ordered 89 cuts in the film including deletion of references to Punjab not just in the title but the entire film. While CBFC might be concerned about image of Punjab, its people are more concerned about their youth falling prey to its youth.

Gagandeep Singh, a student from Panjab University says, Censor board is showing a cliched ostrich like approach. We all are aware of the problem here. I have friends who are into drugs. The problem is evident even from government record, which in any case is quite downsized. Why does CBFC want to suppress truth?

Udta Punjab has now raised a political storm in the state with Congress and AAP accusing the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and its partner Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for influencing censor boards decision. While there is no proof of the allegations, the fact remains that political masters in Punjab have always been averse to questions on drugs.

OP Sharma, former superintendent of Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) Chandigarh and currently posted as senior superintendent (preventive) Of Central Excise and Service Tax, Shimla, says, "If it is a truth then it is prevailing and is all pervasive. Just by closing eyes to it does not meant that it dont exist. You cannot suppress the truth because it is existing in the society. And ultimately it is the society that will react to it and find a solution to it."

Sharma says, "In Himachal Pradesh, the governor convened the meeting of all the heads of departments (HoD). In that meeting I asked the CID, the state narcotics department and forest department officials that if they know the extent of the problem. I told them if we are seeking solution of problem we need to know the scale then only we plan a strategy to strike at the menace and eradicate it."

He adds, I asked them if the government accept the problem or not and if they dont accept it I will tell them, the extent of the problem. I told them I can challenge them with facts. I told them that 100 metric tons of charas alone is produced in the state. The fact is that state took it positively and took note of it and now the chief minister is accepting the problem."

While in Himachal Pradesh the problem is being discussed, reasons for its existence are probed upon and serious deliberations are made to find solution, denial exists in Punjab. While the officials talks about problem off the record, no body readily accept the extent of problem openly.

Whom are you betraying? Your own people. If you do not acknowledge the problem how will you make genuine effort to find a solution?" asks Sharma.
Santa Monica, United States: Bernie Sanders refused to concede defeat to Hillary Clinton, vowing to "continue the fight" for the Democratic nomination despite his rival declaring herself the party's flagbearer for the US presidential race.

"Next Tuesday, we continue the fight in the last primary in Washington DC," the senator from Vermont told supporters in California.

"And then we take our fight for social, economic, racial and environmental justice to Philadelphia," where the Democratic convention will be held to formally nominate the party's candidate to challenge Republican Donald Trump for the White House.

Sanders appeared to ignore the political writing on the wall, after Clinton surpassed the number of delegates necessary to clinch the party's nomination.

Tuesday was the last major date of the 2016 primary calendar, with six states voting.

The former secretary of state extended her delegate lead with wins in New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota.

Sanders won North Dakota and Montana, US networks said.

The grand prize, California, had yet to be called, but Clinton was holding a substantial lead.

Sanders graciously acknowledged Clinton's victories, drawing some boos from the crowd.

"Our fight is to transform this country and to understand that we are in this together. To understand that all of what we believe is what the majority of the American people believe," Sanders said.

Sanders by all accounts has conducted an extraordinary grassroots campaign.

His supporters are deeply passionate, and Clinton has made it clear she is welcoming any and all of them to her general election campaign as she seeks to defeat Trump.

But Sanders signaled he would want to have an important role not just for keeping the White House in Democratic hands, but in shaping the party's policy platform.

"We understand that our mission is more than just defeating Donald Trump, it is transforming our country," Sanders said.

The senator will meet with President Barack Obama at the White House on Thursday to discuss "significant issues at stake in this election that matter most to America's working families," White House press secretary Josh Earnest said in a statement.
ABUJA The Niger Delta Avengers militant group on Wednesday rejected an offer of talks with the government to end its attacks on oil facilities and said it had blown up a Chevron (CVX.N) pipeline site in the Niger Delta.

Attacks by militants on oil and gas pipelines in the southern delta swamps have brought Nigeria's oil output to a 20-year low and helped push oil prices to 2016 highs. [O/R]

Nigeria's oil minister said on Tuesday the government would start talks with the Niger Delta Avengers, which has claimed responsibility for a string of attacks in the delta.

The militant group rejected the offer of talks on its Twitter account. "We're not negotiating with any committee," the group said. "If the Fed Govt (federal government) is discussing with any group they're doing that on their own."

The group said it had blown up a Chevron site called "RMP 20" located next to the Dibbi flow station in the Warri area in the delta at 0100 local time. It has previously attacked Chevron, Shell (RDSa.L) and ENI (ENI.MI) facilities.

An RMP, or remote manifold platform, is a gathering location where small oil or natural gas pipelines converge before connecting to a larger storage hub. It is not a producing well, though the Niger Delta Avengers have conflated the two terms in posts on social media and other platforms.

"The attack on Chevron's RMP 20 is confirmed," said local community leader Chief Godspower Gbenekema. "The place is on fire."

Chevron, citing long-standing policy, declined to comment.

"We do not comment on the safety and security of our personnel and operations," Chevron spokesman Kent Robertson said.

While Chevron is the third-largest oil producer in Nigeria, its biggest production streams are offshore, which has mitigated the immediate impact on oil output from the spate of attacks on its infrastructure.

A group of former Niger Delta militant leaders issued a statement on Wednesday condemning the actions of the Avengers and urging them and other groups to "re-consider their activities."

"We enjoin our brothers to give peace a chance, lay down their arms and accept the offer for a meaningful dialogue," said the Leadership, Peace and Cultural Development Initiative.

(Reporting by Ulf Laessing in Abuja; Additional reporting by Tife Owolabi in Yenagoa, Anamesere Igboeroteonwu in Onitsha, Libby George in London and Ernest Scheyder in Houston; Writing by Ulf Laessing and Alexis Akwagyiram; Editing by William Hardy and Leslie Adler)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Washington: A Russian opposition figure is urging US authorities to impose sanctions against a greater number of top Russian government officials in order to defend human rights and democracy in his country.

Speaking at a hearing at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday, Vladimir Kara-Murza, national coordinator at the Open Russia foundation, suggested that more senior officials should be put on the so-called Magnitsky list, a 2012 law named after the late Russian whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky.

Thirty-nine Russian officials deemed responsible for human rights abuses now face travels bans and asset freezes in US jurisdictions as part of that law.

Kara-Murza said this list needs to be expanded to include more top officials, as well as government journalists involved in anti-Western and anti-opposition propaganda.

"I really think that the most effective way and frankly the most principled way, the most honourable way to deal with those human rights abusers is to place them on that sanctions list," Kara-Murza told the hearing. "This is the way it should be done."

Last year, Kara-Murza, 34, barely survived a mysterious poisoning, which he says was a murder attempt connected with his opposition activity. He now works at Open Russia, which is run by ex-tycoon and former prisoner Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who lives in London.

Kara-Murza said that in contrast to Soviet officials, Russian leaders and Kremlin-connected oligarchs have bank accounts in the West, send their children to study and buy property and yachts in the West. He said depriving them of that lifestyle would hit them hard.

"This double-standard, this hypocrisy has to stop," he said. "When high-ranking human rights abusers are placed on this sanctions list, it has a very strong effect."

Magnitsky was arrested on tax-evasion charges and died in a Moscow prison in 2009 after accusing Russian officials of stealing USD 230 million in tax rebates.

Speaking at the hearing, Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland said the US will continue to oppose the Russian government on its actions in Ukraine and Syria, but will work with members of civil society to promote freedom of expression and pluralism.

Ties between Moscow and Washington reached a post-Cold War low when Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean peninsula and threw its support behind separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine. The US and other nations responded with economic sanctions against Russian officials, state-owned companies and entire sections of the economy
Washington: The protagonists are set: Hillary Clinton versus Donald Trump. The battleground? Fifty states. Voters will now be treated to a historic, bruising spectacle as two of America's most polarising figures wage war for the White House.

On the Democratic side is a candidate rich with political experience, a pioneering if controversial stateswoman embracing her chance to become the nation's first female commander-in-chief.

The Republican standing in her way is the brash billionaire businessman and political neophyte who rewrote the campaign playbook as he vanquished his many rivals for the nomination with a mudslinging unparalleled in modern American politics.

The ferocity of the primaries  Americans and many around the world had never seen a modern US presidential race play out with such insulting and denigrating attacks  promises to be just a preview of what is in store for the general election.

Clinton, the former secretary of state, euphorically seized the Democratic Party mantle Tuesday, seizing the nomination in dramatic fashion with primary wins in four of six states including the grand prize, California.

On perhaps the biggest night of her political career, as she declared a historic milestone for women, she assailed Trump for his divisiveness and his trademark slogan, "Make America Great Again."

"That's code for let's take America backward," she said, "back to a time when opportunity and dignity were reserved for some, not all."

"Don't let anyone tell you that great things can't happen in America," she said.

Trump was pledging a tough fight, choosing to lay into Clinton in his own presumptive victory speech and accusing her and her former president husband Bill of enriching themselves by "selling access, selling favours, selling government contracts."

And he signalled there would be no honeymoon, announcing a "major speech" for early next week in which he will address "all of the things that have taken place with the Clintons."

'No out-Trumping Trump'

The trajectory of the race is unlikely to soar into loftier issues.

Norman Ornstein, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, feared the race will be less a battle over substance like the economy or foreign policy than a clash of two outsized personalities.

"Clinton has deep knowledge and detailed platforms, but because Trump doesn't have any, nobody focuses on the differences," Ornstein told AFP in an interview.

"And because we have two candidates who are more distrusted than trusted, more disliked than liked, this becomes a race to the bottom."

Clinton will be looking to exploit the various controversies ensnaring Trump  most recently his criticism of a Mexican-American federal judge, which sparked uproar within his own party  as a way to enhance her own resume.

"There's no out-Trumping Trump, he is an extremely talented unique character," said Tim Miller, a former communications adviser to Republican Jeb Bush, one of the many candidates defeated by Trump in the primaries.

"Getting down in a mud-wrestling fight with him is going to be a loser. She has to focus on the issues that drive her base" of minorities and women and inspire young voters, Miller said.

'Temperamentally unfit'

But she will also need to make a compelling case for supporters of her Democratic rival, Bernie Sanders, to embrace her campaign to defeat Trump in November.

Trump, beating Clinton to the punch Tuesday, extended an olive branch to Sanders' supporters, saying: "We welcome you with open arms."

Sanders refused to capitulate Tuesday, vowing to "continue the fight" to the final Democratic primary in the capital Washington next week, and then on to the Democratic convention in July.

But the Vermont senator meets on Thursday with President Barack Obama  perhaps a sign that Obama will play a significant role in uniting a deeply divided Democratic party to battle the 69-year-old real estate mogul.

Obama is soon expected to offer a formal endorsement of the 68-year-old Clinton, perhaps serving to coax hardline "Bernie or bust" fans back into the party tent.

Clinton has appeared completely dialled in to combatting Trump, especially since last week in San Diego when she earned plaudits from Democrats for her blistering critique of Trump as "temperamentally unfit" to be president, a line of attack she repeated Tuesday night.

Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor who ran for president in 2004, said he was impressed with Clinton's historic achievement.

"Any time a glass ceiling is shattered, it's important," he told AFP.

But he was quick to note that Clinton is capable of turning tough in an instant.

"If Hillary Clinton continues to campaign the way she did last week in San Diego, I think Trump is toast," he said.
Geneva: Eritrea's government has systematically committed crimes against humanity in the last 25 years, with top officials bearing direct responsibility, UN investigators said on Wednesday.

The second report of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry (COI) on human rights also said there was a "rule of law vacuum" in the secretive Horn of Africa nation.

Independent UN investigators found vast evidence that Eritrean officials, especially in the security services, were guilty of enslavement, enforced disappearances, torture, rape and murder, among other offences.

These were perpetrated to terrify and control the civilian population, while crushing opposition, the COI said.

"Crimes against humanity have been committed in a widespread and systematic manner in Eritrean detention facilities, military training camps and other locations across the country over the past 25 years," the commission said in a press release.

"Particular individuals, including officials at the highest levels of state, the ruling party  the People's Front for Democracy and Justice  and commanding officers bear responsibility for crimes against humanity," it said.

The UN's trenchant condemnation comes less than three weeks after Eritrea marked 25 years of independence from its bitter enemy Ethiopia.

The 1991 split between the two nations followed a three-decade independence war, which saw Eritrean rebels battling far better-equipped Ethiopian troops backed first by Washington and then by the Soviet Union.

Since independence, the Red Sea nation has been rigidly controlled by President Isaias Afwerki, a former rebel leader.

The country ranks below North Korea as the worst in the world for press freedom, according to Reporters Without Borders.

Lead investigator Mike Smith said Isaias presided over a state with no functioning democratic institutions.

"This has created a governance and rule of law vacuum, resulting in a climate of impunity for crimes against humanity," he said in a statement.

Smith said there was no chance that Eritrea's judicial system could bring the perpetrators to justice through a legitimate trial.

He therefore called on world nations to use other means, including the International Criminal Court in The Hague to ensure accountability.

Since it was established in June 2014, the COI has interviewed more than 800 Eritrean exiles and received more than 45,000 written submissions, some defending Eritrea's record.

Among the major violations documented is "the indefinite duration of military and national service programmes," which many sited as the reason to flee.
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I love dividends, so I have to work double time to make sure I don't get suckered in by a big yield or a good story. Which is why Italy's Eni (E 0.91%) and Energy Transfer Equity (ET -0.25%) both make my list of dividend stocks I'd never buy.

Difficult to deal with

Italian oil giant Eni has a hefty 6% yield. That's well above the 3.3% yield that ExxonMobil (XOM -0.68%) offers. Notably, since Eni has already cut its dividend during this troubling period for oil prices, the current payout is at a level that's more attainable for the company. Mix those two factors, and you'd think energy investors would be champing at the bit for some shares of Eni.

But the backstory here is important. Partially because of its location, Eni has a long history of dealing with what could politely be called difficult nations. To give you a rough idea of the issue, about 45% of the company's proved reserves reside in Africa. Now, to be fair, there are perfectly well-run countries in Africa -- and then there are countries that are war-torn and run by despots.

One of the best current examples would be Libya, where Eni has oil and gas exploration activities. Up until a few years ago, that country was run by a dictator. Now it's, at best, in a transition period. In fact, the CIA notes that after the country's former leader was deposed, there were two rival governments vying for power. It's stuff like this that can make life extra-complicated for Eni. Some investors might like the idea of owning an oil and gas company that has a proven track record of making such dealings work out, over the long term. For me, it's just too much risk. I'd rather stick to companies that don't work quite as much with difficult political situations.

To be fair, Exxon, a stock I own, deals with difficult nations, too. But it's partners are much more broadly diversified and include a healthy dose of stable Western governments. There's one more little thing with Eni, though, that makes it very different from a competitor like Exxon... Italy still owns about 30% of the company. That makes it hard to figure out if Eni is as independent as investors might like -- another risk I'd rather avoid. At the end of the day, Eni has some very interesting things going on, but it's not a stock I would personally buy.

The art of the deal

The second stock here only just arrived on my verboten list, and I'm actually kind of sad about it. Energy Transfer Equity is a large and diversified midstream oil and gas company. Structured as a limited partnership, it's the general partner for a number of sizable limited partnerships in the midstream space, including Energy Transfer Partners, L.P. and Sunoco LP.

With the units yielding nearly 9%, income investors would be remiss if they didn't at least take a look at the company. But there are some problems here, and they all relate to a troubled acquisition.

When the energy markets hit the skids, Energy Transfer Equity inked a deal to buy The Williams Companies (WMB 2.41%). There was a significant cash component to the deal that would, at this point, require Energy Transfer Equity to issue units or take on debt. That has become problematic because Energy Transfer's units have fallen significantly, meaning more unitholder dilution, and additional debt would increase costs to the point that a distribution cut might be necessary.

So, Energy Transfer Equity has been trying to scuttle the deal. And that's why I find myself saying "no thanks" to the units. But it isn't because Energy Transfer Equity made a bad acquisition choice or that it's having second thoughts. It's because part of the attempt to get out of the acquisition has involved selling convertible shares to make the deal less likely to happen because of contractual issues. (It's kind of complicated, but here's a quick primer on all that's gone wrong.)

That choice is questionable enough, but here's the linchpin: Half of that convertible sale went to Energy Transfer Equity's CEO Kelcy Warren. Oh, and the convertible could actually shield the CEO from some of the pain of a distribution cut if the deal does go through. That's a little too shady-looking for my taste, even if it doesn't run afoul of any laws. So, this deal maker has gone a step (or two) too far for my liking, and I'm not going to be a buyer anytime soon.

Partners are important

When you invest in a company, it's easy to think you just own a piece of paper. But you are inherently dealing with the company's leaders and, indirectly, with all of the company's partners. It's often those relationships that end up being the hidden risk. In the case of Eni and Energy Transfer Equity, the difficult nature of the relationships is on display. Some investors might be willing to take on those risks for the added income, but I'd rather stick to more boring fare. Which is why these are two stocks that I'd never buy.
Has Ford Motor Company (F 2.80%) hit a wall in China? The Blue Oval's sales in the world's largest auto market slipped again in May.

What Ford said

Ford has two joint ventures with local automakers in China. Changan Ford Automobile (CAF) builds and sells mostly familiar Ford passenger vehicles, and Jiangling Motor Company (JMC) produces commercial vehicles including some of Ford's Transit vans. CAF sold 67,055 vehicles in May, roughly flat from a good result a year ago. But JMC's sales fell 4% to 19,692 vehicles.

Ford also sells some vehicles in China that are made elsewhere and imported. Sales of imported Ford models fell 45% to 1,501 vehicles in May.

For the most part, Ford doesn't break out sales of specific models in China. But its statement about May sales noted that it sold over 8,500 examples of the Edge SUV, while sales of an all-new (and so far, exclusive to China) version of the big Taurus sedan totaled "nearly 2,500" last month.

A slump in commercial-vehicle sales is hindering Ford's growth efforts

Ford's China operation started the year strong. But May was the second month in a row in which the company recorded a year-over-year sales decline in China.

An industrywide slump in commercial-vehicle sales has played a big part in Ford's sluggish sales in the last few months. A massive construction boom that lasted for several years has faded, and contractors and tradespeople aren't getting as much work -- and thus aren't buying as many new vehicles.

As in other parts of the world, commercial vehicles are an important component of Ford's business in China. The slump has hit JMC hard: Its sales are down 12% year to date, dragging down Ford's overall results.

But Ford's retail offerings have continued to do fairly well. CAF's sales are up 11% year to date, driven by strong results for Ford's crossover SUVs. Chinese buyers, like their counterparts in Europe and the United States, are migrating away from sedans in favor of car-based crossover SUVs.

Ford's strong global SUV lineup has helped it sustain gains in China -- but at the same time, competition (and pricing pressure) has been fierce as domestic Chinese automakers have made gains with SUVs, particularly at the lower end of the market.

How Ford will respond to pressures in China

Ford will soon roll out more hybrids in China, including a plug-in hybrid version of the midsize Mondeo sedan (a near-twin to the U.S.-market Fusion Energi). The hybrid Mondeo will be made in China, which will make its buyers eligible for government incentives. That should help boost Ford's sedan sales -- but continued pressure on the commercial-vehicle market may make it hard for Ford to find sales growth in China for a while.
3 The number of venues that have hosted the Canadian Grand Prix. Current home Montreal has staged the event since 1978, but prior to that Mosport in Ontario held it eight times and Mont-Tremblant in Quebec twice

235 The number of laps led in Canada by Lewis Hamilton  more than any other driver in history bar Michael Schumacher on 433. Hamiltons closest current rival is Sebastian Vettel on 157.

7 The victory tally achieved by the most successful driver in Canadian Grand Prix history - Michael Schumacher. Closest to him in the wins table in Lewis Hamilton, currently on four.

3.4 The maximum lateral G-Force experienced by drivers around the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve - at Turn 5.

6 The number of current drivers to have won the Canadian Grand Prix. In addition to the aforementioned Lewis Hamilton, the following have each taken one victory in Montreal: Kimi Raikkonen, Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button, Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo.

45 The percentage of the Montreal lap spent at full throttle.

4 The record number of fastest laps achieved in Canadian Grand Prix history - an honour shared by Kimi Raikkonen and Michael Schumacher.

2004 The last year in which Ferrari won the Canadian Grand Prix - with Michael Schumacher at the wheel.

10 The lowest grid position from which the Canadian Grand Prix has been won  by Jacques Laffite for Ligier in 1981. In more recent years, Kimi Raikkonen won from seventh in 2005, as did Jenson Button in 2011.

2.36 The fastest pit-stop time  in seconds  recorded during last years Canadian Grand Prix, achieved by Toro Rosso and Max Verstappen.


Homebuyers with little money for a down payment are finding more home loans available for a low down payment or even no down payment.

The Federal Housing Administration, or FHA, insures loans with small down payments, and private mortgage insurers have relaxed their down-payment requirements. It's even possible to get a mortgage today with no money down. The nation's biggest credit union offers "zero-down" mortgages. The Department of Veterans Affairs, or VA, and the Department of Agriculture, or USDA, guarantee home loans with no down payments.

Following are a few options for borrowers seeking low-down-payment and zero-down-payment home mortgages.

RATE SEARCH: Find a low-down-payment mortgage today.

No down payment: VA loan

The VA guarantees purchase mortgages with no required down payment for qualified veterans, active-duty service members and certain members of the National Guard and Reserves. Private lenders originate VA loans, which the VA guarantees. There is no mortgage insurance. The borrower pays a funding fee, which can be rolled into the loan amount.

For purchase and construction loans, the VA funding fee varies, depending on the size of the down payment, whether the borrower served or serves in the regular military or in the Reserves or National Guard, and whether it's the veteran's first VA loan or a subsequent loan. The funding fee can be as low as 1.25% or as high as 3.3%.

For 1st-time purchasers making no down payment, the funding fee is 2.15% for members or veterans of the regulator military, and 2.4% for those who qualify through service in the Reserves or National Guard.

No down payment: Navy Federal

Navy Federal Credit Union, the nation's largest in assets and membership, offers 100% financing to qualified members who buy primary homes. Navy Federal eligibility is restricted to members of the military, some civilian employees of the military and U.S. Department of Defense, and family members.

The credit union's zero-down program is similar to the VA's. One difference is cost: Navy Federal's funding fee of 1.75% is less than the VA's funding fees.

No down payment: USDA

The USDA's Rural Development mortgage guarantee program is so popular that it has been known to run out of money before the end of the fiscal year.

"That's the cat's meow, my favorite loan program," says Jeff Tufford, mortgage consultant for Epic Mortgage Group in Grand Blanc, Michigan.

Some borrowers are surprised to find that Rural Development loans aren't confined to farmland.

"It's not all rural," Tufford says.

The USDA has apps on its website that highlight eligible areas. In addition to geographical limits, the USDA program has restrictions on household income, and it is intended for first-time buyers, although there are exceptions.

The USDA mortgage comes from a bank, and there is no mortgage insurance. Instead, the USDA levies a 2% upfront guarantee fee, which can be rolled into the loan amount, and an annual guarantee fee of 0.5% of the loan balance.

Low down payment: Mortgage insurance

Qualified borrowers can make down payments as low as 3% with private mortgage insurance, or PMI. For most borrowers, PMI costs less than FHA mortgage insurance. But PMI has stricter credit requirements.

PMI has another edge over FHA: Once your mortgage balance is under 80% of the home's value, you can cancel PMI. You can't get rid of FHA insurance unless you refinance into a non-FHA loan.

Low down payment: FHA

With a minimum down payment of 3.5%, the FHA is the low-down-payment option that's available to people with imperfect credit histories.

The FHA charges an upfront premium of 1.75% of the mortgage amount. On a 30-year loan with the minimum down payment, there's an annual premium of 0.85% of the mortgage amount, or $850 a year for each $100,000 borrowed -- about $71 a month.

RATE SEARCH: Shop FHA-approved lenders today.

Copyright 2016, Bankrate Inc.
Larry Gatlin, best known for his 80s hits with the Gatlin Brothers, told the FOX Business Networks Stuart Varney that Donald Trump has his vote in the 2016 presidential race.

Hes an old friend of mine, Donald doesnt really make friends -- he takes hostages. So Ive been a hostage for over 40 years. Hes been very nice to me, he said.

Although the presumptive Republican nominee would not be the country stars first choice, Gatlin said he agrees with Trumps stance on abortion, ISIS and the economy.

Gatlin also offered his old friend a bit of campaigning advice.

Talk about really what youre going to do with ISIS I want to see how you are going to take 11 million people on day two of your presidency and, you know, put them on trains and all that, get them to [go] back to Mexico. Come on Donald, we dont believe that, its not going to happen Ill vote for him but Im not going to tell anybody else to, he said.
While Soros manages billions of dollars and, therefore, this is a tiny position for him, his buying could suggest he's kicking the tires ahead of data froma phase 3 study of a vaccine to combat respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, a common cause of infant and elderly hospital admissions.

George Soros is arguably the most influential hedge fund manager in history, and although the stocks he owns in his portfolio change frequently, I found his new 30,000 share purchase of Novavax, Inc. very intriguing.

Billionaire investors have proven that they can profit in good and bad times, and while no one should blindly follow in the footsteps of these gurus, tracking the buying and selling activity of the world's best and brightest can be a very good source for investment ideas. With that in mind, I scoured the quarterly 13-F reports of some of my favorite billionaire investors and discovered these three intriguing stocks to add to my portfolio.

Currently, there's no approved vaccine to prevent RSV, and in mid-stage trials involving over 1,600 elderly people, Novavax's RSV-F protein vaccine became the first vaccine to show efficacy in this patient population.

If results from late-stage trials confirm those mid-stage trial results (data is anticipated in the third quarter), then RSV-F's fast-track status could mean this vaccine will be available as early as 2017.Because RSV leads to 132,000 infant hospitalizations and 180,000 elderly hospitalizations in the U.S. every year, this vaccine could be a top seller.

It's anyone's guess how much revenue this vaccine could ultimately bring in for Novavax, but management has said in the past that this drug's peak potential could eclipse $6 billion per year. That's a pie-in-the-sky forecast, butif RSV-F works in seniors, and additional trials show it can be used in pregnant mothers to prevent RSV in infants, then billions of dollars in sales isn't that unreasonable. After all, the company estimates up to 111 million seniors could be targeted with this vaccine in the U.S. alone by 2020. If the company can effectively tap into that patient population, Novavax's $1.7 billion market cap could be too low.

Image source: Agile Therapeutics.

No. 2: Agile Therapeutics

Bruce Kovner amassed a net worth north of $5 billion, and in Q1, his Caxton Corp. significantly increased exposure to clinical-stage drugmaker Agile Therapeutics . Caxton came into January owning about 23,000 shares in the company, and it exited March owning 1.4 million shares.

The bet is a big vote of confidence for Agile Therapeutics, a tiny company with a market cap of just $234 million that's developing Twirla, a once-weekly contraceptive patch for women. Results from Twirla's phase 3 study are expected before the end of the year.

If results are positive, Twirla could be perfectly positioned to elbow away market share from daily oral contraceptives, and since the market for oral contraceptives exceeds $5 billion, it wouldn't take a lot of market share to make this company undervalued.

Adding conviction to the idea of buying Agile Therapeutics for your portfolio is the fact that Caxton wasn't the only influential fund to buy shares last quarter. Healthcare-focused hedge funds Vivo Capital, LLC and RA Capital Management also bought 2 million shares and 1.06 million shares, respectively.

Given Agile Therapeutics is targeting a big patient population, and Twirla could be a simpler alternative to daily oral dosing, I can see why these billionaires are so interested in owning it.

Image source: Flexion Therapeutics.

No. 3: Flexion Therapeutics

Flexion Therapeutics' shares soared recently when management reported that the FDA gave it an all-clear to file for approval of itsosteoporosis drug Zilretta, which targets knee pain. The fact that shares have soared over 80% since March is likely being cheered by investment teams at Millennium Management and Renaissance Technologies, two Goliath hedge funds piloted by multibillionaire investors that snapped up125,414 shares and 124,500 shares of Flexion Therapeutics in the first quarter, respectively.

Although there's no guarantee the FDA will approve Zilretta, the drug targets a massive market opportunity that could make it a billion-dollar blockbuster. Every year,12 million patients in the U.S. are treated for osteoarthritis pain in the knee, and roughly 5 million of those patients are treated with quarterlycorticosteroid shots that frequently wear off before the next injection.

In clinical trials, Zilretta provided pain relief for up to three months, andZilretta patients saw a 50% reduction in pain from baseline over weeks 1 through 12. That performance may be good enough for Zilretta to replace corticosteroid use in many of these patients. If so, it could be a top seller because management has indicated pricing could be as much as $2,000 per patient per year.

Given the market size and that pricing forecast, it wouldn't take much market share for this drug to be a game-changer for investors, especially since Flexion Therapeutics' market cap is only $348 million.

Tying it together

Hedge funds buy and sell stocks for various reasons, and without knowing their specific reasons for buying these three particular stocks, it would be (small-f) foolish to follow blindly in their footsteps without researching these companies on your own.

Unquestionably, these arehighly speculative, and that means risk-averse investors should avoid them. But if you can stand the risk, and you invest in clinical-stage biotech stocks like I do, then these companies' catalysts could make them worth stashing away.

The article 3 Biotech Stocks Billionaires Are Buying That I'm Buying, Too
While it's certainly possible, several indicators hint that investors may need to continue weathering the industry's current volatility. Here are three reasons Potash Corp stock could fall, which will be followed by an article presenting the opposing perspective, in the coming weeks.

Despite recent hardships, the fertilizer industry is understood to be cyclical. That means recent trends have to reverse eventually, right?

Investors are often drawn to fertilizer stocks for above-average dividends and growth potential, as the world needs to increase food production to feed a growing population; but a confluence of headwinds have smacked fertilizer manufacturers in recent years. Potash Corp , the world's largest fertilizer producer, has certainly felt the economic impacts of falling commodity prices and a restructuring of the potash industry. The stock is down 70% in the last five years.

Bloated potash inventories

During the last industry upcycle that peaked in 2008, fertilizer companies touted investments in production expansion projects that would allow them to sell higher volumes of much-demanded agricultural nutrients. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

The three major nutrients -- potash, phosphate, and nitrogen -- were all selling at record-high prices. The optimism quickly faded, however, especially for potash, and by default, the world's largest producer of it: Potash Corp.

Selling prices fell precipitously after the global economic slowdown in 2009 -- again after the surprise dissolution of a major potash cartel in 2013. They have continued their downward slide since mid-2015 thanks to lower grain prices. (Farmers had less to spend on agricultural inputs.)

Image source: PotashCorp

The introduction of once-highly anticipated capacity expansions in recent years have exacerbated the decline in selling prices. Swelling potash inventories have forced producers to take production offline.

Image source: PotashCorp

In response, Potash Corp temporarily closed its Picadilly, New Brunswick facility in January, and expedited the permanent closure of its Penobsquis facility near Sussex, New Brunswick last November. Those actions will help to resolve inventory problems in the long run; but the markets won't respond immediately. Unfortunately, prices are likely headed even lower in 2016.

China and India

Excess potash inventories have given buyers the upper hand when negotiating contracts -- and major importers India and China aren't wasting the opportunity to exploit their power. Both countries, which consumed one-third of global potash in 2015 and often set the tone for global contracts and spot prices, delayed signing import contracts earlier this year, and are attempting to wrestle even lower potash prices than agreed to in 2015. India and China represented 15% of Potash Corp's total potash sales by volume last year.

Another unknown is China's hesitation to even enter contracts. The country's rapidly growing economy has abandoned fixed contracts for spot-market purchasing of other commodities in recent years, and now analysts are entertaining the idea that potash is next. That can work both ways -- favoring China or favoring producers, depending on market conditions -- and Canpotex, the North American cartel to which Potash Corp belongs, could be well positioned to respond. Right now, however, the potential for any structural changes by the world's largest potash consumer represents an unknown for investors.

Another potential red flag for Potash Corp is China's growing ability to support its own potash consumption with domestic and domestically owned supply. In 2016, the country is expected to produce nearly two-thirds of its consumption. The trend could shrink an important market for exporters, and therefore result in even larger excess supply. Canpotex has managed to increase its exposure to China by 33% since 2013, so investors will want to keep an eye on events as they unfold.

Potential dividend cuts

Potash Corp steadily increased its quarterly dividend from just $0.03 per share in early 2008 to $0.38 per share in the first quarter of 2016 -- not bad considering the headwinds above. Moreover, a falling share price during the same period resulted in a hefty yield for investors.

But persisting market headwinds proved too powerful, and forced management to lower the quarterly dividend to $0.25 per share. While it was a fiscally responsible move for the long-term health of the company, additional dividend cuts could be in store for investors if potash markets don't stabilize. Unfortunately, there's no telling how long the current rut will last -- or how much further prices can fall.

What it means for investors

The high dividend yields sported by fertilizer stocks -- currently sitting at 6% for Potash Corp -- might attract investors, but the potential opportunity represented by the industry remains clouded by several big unknowns. As difficult as it may be to believe, current market indicators hint that things could still get worse before they get better. For balance, I'll explore three reasons why Potash Corp's stock could rise, in an upcoming article.

The article 3 Reasons Potash Corp Stock Could Fall
Tata Motors stock is up double-digits after reporting end of fiscal year earnings on May 30. The company beat estimates for sales and profits in its last quarter from January through the end of March, led by strong sales and higher-than-expectedprofit margins. What is the company doing right, and can its run continue?

The Indian business was strong as a high rate of fleet replacement demand has propped up commercial vehicle sales. The Indian government launched a wave infrastructure improvements and spending this year, and Tata's construction vehicles have benefited from those initiatives.

Total revenue for Tata Motors was up to 806.8 billion rupees ($12 billion), a 19% increase from the same quarter last year. The sales increases were led by commercial vehicles in the Tata Indian business, with year-over-year growth exceeding 26%, more than offsetting flat sales in passenger cars.

Jaguar Land Rover sales were also strong. In the last year, the luxury brands struggled with falling sales and profits. That trend has started to reverse, as revenue and profits for the brand increased over13% and 56%, respectively.

Mainland Europe played an especially large factor in the rebound, with sales of Jaguar Land Rover increasing 55%. Overall, the luxury vehicle brands rode a tidal wave of increased global spending on vehicles during the first three months of 2016. North America sales increased 24%, Great Britain increased 23%, and China was up 19%.

Expectations for next quarter

The next quarter to be reported starts a new fiscal year for Tata Motors. So far, the company is off to a good start. April and May reported sales remained on the same upward trajectory seen earlier in the year.

For the Tata division, exports were flat in April and down 5% in May, but that was more than offset by domestic Indian sales increases of 10% and 2% in April and May. Total sales growth over the first two months of the new fiscal year are up 5% from last year. Jaguar Land Rover sales in April were up 11% year over year. As of this writing, Jaguar Land Rover had not yet released May's figures.

For the coming year, Tata Motors has a slew of new releases that the company hopes will prop up sales. The Indian business expects demand to stay strong for commercial and construction vehicles as the Indian government continues to invest in infrastructure development. New passenger vehicles, the Tata Tiago hatchback and HEXA and NEXON sedans, will be released this year with the hope of revitalizing that flat segment of business last year. The Indian business has stated making export growth a focus in the new fiscal year to help boost sales.

Jaguar Land Rover is similarly going into a year with a number of new model releases. To support the new launches, company management announced a 17% increase in investment spending for the coming fiscal year. New product launches include Jaguar's foray into the SUV world with the F-PACE model, as well as a convertible Land Rover Evoque SUV. Two models were introduced to China in recent months, and a third is slated for launch later this summer. Tata expects the new models to keep recent momentum going and propel sales higher.

Jaguar's new F-PACE utility vehicle. Image source: Jaguar.

Investor takeaway

Despite strong quarterly results and the corresponding jump in its share price, I think Tata Motors has more room to run. The new fiscal year is off to a strong start with the sales figures continuing to trend higher, and the company's export business is starting to turn the corner after struggling the previous year.

Underpinning the pipeline of new model releases is the Indian government's expanding budget supporting infrastructure and road building. The company has benefited with booming sales of its commercial vehicles, and so far the sales rate has continued higher. India's economy overall has been a standout in emerging markets, and that trend also bodes well for the country's largest auto manufacturer.

More than a short-term growth streak, I believe Tata Motors is still a great buy. Profits are expected to grow at a 20% annual rate for the next five years, putting its PEG (Price-to-earnings growth)ratio currently at 0.4. A PEG of 1.0 indicates a company to be fairly valued, and anything less could be considered undervalued. Considering the momentum and pipeline for growth the company has, Tata Motors is worth investors' consideration.

The article India's Largest Automaker Just Had a Banner Quarter
Image source: Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

A spat between Merck & Co. and Gilead Sciences that could have a big impact on Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has taken a turn for the worse for Ionis' investors.Last night, a judge overturned a prior patent-infringement award against Gilead Sciences, derailing tens of millions of dollars in revenue for Ionis in the process.

Gettin' paid

After determining earlier this year that Gilead Sciences violated two Merck patents that it co-owns with Ionis earlier, a jury awarded Merck $200 million plus 4% royalties on future sales of Gilead Sciences' hepatitis C drugs.

Specifically, the jury found Gilead Sciences to have infringed on two patents stemming from the work that Merck and Ionis Pharmaceuticals did together in the late 1990s on the use of nucleotides to inhibit hepatitis C viral replication -- an approach that Gilead Sciences' top-selling Sovaldi and Harvoni rely on.

Because Ionis will get 20% of whatever monies Gilead Sciences pays to Merck, the jury's finding, had it stood, would havebeen needle-moving for Ionis, which would have received $40 million in up-front money as compensation for past sales, along with ongoing annual revenue of about $40 million, based on historical U.S. sales of Gilead Sciences' drugs. SinceIonis lost $88 million last year because of spending on its R&D program, that money would have been quite a windfall.

Not so fast

Although the jury found in favor of Merck, Gilead Sciences requested the case be reopened, citing conflicting statements by a key Merck employee regarding his access to information regarding the design of Gilead Sciences' hepatitis C drugs when they were under development atPharmasset, a company Gilead Sciences acquired for over $11 billion in 2012.

Before Gilead Sciences' acquisition,Merck scientistPhil Durette, who also served as Merck's patent lawyer, participated in a call with Pharmasset in which details of Pharmasset's hepatitis C R&D was disclosed. During a pretrial deposition, Durette said he wasn't on that call. However, he later admitted on the stand that he had participated on it.

After reviewing the case,judge Beth Labson Freeman wrote, "Dr. Durette's lying at his deposition, recanting that testimony at trial without proper prior notice to Gilead, and further untruthful testimony at trial all support the court's conclusion that Merck did intend to deceive Gilead and the court."

Her determination that Merck and Durette's hands were unclean because of his access to the scientific make-up of Pharmassset's drugs led her to conclude that Merck's patents were invalid, and that there was therefore no misconduct by Gilead Sciences.

Looking ahead

Merck will appeal Labson Freeman's decision, so this story isn't over yet. But the outcome in round one of this trial is definitely in favor of Gilead Sciences.As such, Ionis investors shouldn't bank on seeing any money come its way from Gilead Sciences anytime soon.

Instead, Ionis investors need to hope that Ionis'extensive pipeline of drugs that interfere with messenger DNA will produce some winners.Unfortunately, a bit of cold water was thrown on that hopewhen collaborator GlaxoSmithKline pressed the pause button on development of Ionis' TTRrx. GlaxoSmithKline opted to wait for additional ongoing trial data, rather than rush TTRrx into phase 3 studies.

Ultimately, the pipeline, not patent suits, will determine whether Ionis is worthy of owning in portfolios. Nevertheless, this is an intriguing story that's worth keeping an eye on over the coming one to two years as it unfolds.

The article Legal Dispute Puts Ionis Pharmaceuticals' Payday on Hold originally appeared on Fool.com.

Todd Campbell owns shares of Gilead Sciences.Todd owns E.B. Capital Markets, LLC. E.B. Capital's clients may have positions in the companies mentioned. Like this article? Follow him onTwitter where he goes by the handle@ebcapital to see more articles like this.The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Gilead Sciences and Ionis Pharmaceuticals. 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.
But there's still more to explore. Here are some more notable topics that surfaced during the two long interviews.

' recent annual shareholder meeting, there is a lot of fresh commentary from the company's outspoken CEO, Elon Musk, available to mull over. In two other articles, I began to explore some of the takeaways from these interviews, including how Musk expects Apple to be a direct competitor to Tesla plans

Will Model 3 have autonomous driving?

When asked in a recent interview at Recode's Code Conference 2016 about whether Model 3 would have autonomous driving capabilities, Musk responded that Tesla will hold another event later this year to "talk more about that."

But after Recode's Walt Mossberg pushed harder for a more specific answer, Musk said: "Let me just say that we are going to do the obvious thing. ... It's really obvious."

Musk has said on several occasions that the company is aiming to build cars capable of autonomous driving within about two years

Tesla already revealed at the Model 3's first unveiling event, which included limited information about the vehicle, that autopilot hardware would come standard. While Tesla's autopilot in current vehicles enables automatic steering and lane changes on the highway, it falls far short of total autonomy.

Nevada incentives: Worse than you think

Another interesting quote from Musk came during the company's annual shareholder meeting on May 31, when the CEO was talking about the incentives Nevada is giving Tesla for the construction of the Gigafactory. The frequently cited "$1.3 billion tax break" Tesla is receiving for its $5 billion Gigafactory massively overstates the discount the company is bringing to the state, he explained.

"In order for Tesla to earn that money over 20 years, the Gigafactory has to generate over $100 billion in revenue," Musk said. "It's basically a 1% discount."

Musk even suggested that if the press were to title an article with a more accurate headline, "Tesla receives 1% discount on Gigafactory," it "would get no clicks, because it's lame." For what it's worth, my Foolish colleague Evan Niu took on the challenge and actually wrote the article with this headline anyway

Electric aircraft? Maybe someday.

When a shareholder asked Musk during the annual meeting about whether the company would consider building an electric aircraft in the future, Musk unsurprisingly noted that this was "off topic" and that the company needs to stay focused on its "primary" goal of building electric cars. And even if Tesla wanted to build these electric aircraft, Musk said the energy density of batteries "is not yet ideal for aircraft."

But the CEO didn't entirely say Tesla wouldn't consider building an electric aircraft at some point in the future: "I mean, it's not out of question that Tesla would do electric aircraft in the future. Our goal is to accelerate the advent of sustainable transport."

Tesla Energy may approach Tesla vehicle sales

Long-term, Tesla Energy revenue could be "roughly similar" to revenue derived from vehicles, Musk said during the annual shareholder meeting. But Musk was sure to say this forecast is "highly speculative" and has a "high degree of uncertainty."

Tesla Powerwall. Image source: Tesla Motors.

Currently, Tesla's energy business, which sells energy storage products, is basically immaterial to the company's results.

But sales are growing fast. The company said in its first-quarter report that the business, which is accounted for in its "services and other" revenue segment, "posted strong growth." Further, Tesla noted that it delivered 2,500 Powerwalls and nearly 100 Powerpacks during the quarter.

If you're either a Tesla shareholder or are interested in investing in the stock, both Recode's interview with Elon Musk and the company's annual shareholder meeting are worth listening to from beginning to end. These topics only touch the surface of what was covered.

The article Tesla Motors, Inc. CEO Elon Musk: More New, Must-Read Quotes
What:Shares of closeout retailerTuesday Morning lost 22% in May, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence

So what:The retailer's earnings report actually came out on the last day of trading in April, but the stock fell for the first five days of trading in May, shedding 16% over that period. For the third quarter, Tuesday Morning reported a loss of $0.12 per share, in line with estimates and down from a $0.06 loss a year ago, though it was a strong report by other conventional metrics. Comparable sales jumped 13.4%, driving a similar increase in overall revenue; however, gross margin fell 150 basis points to 36.7%. Selling, general, and administrative (SG&A) expenses also increased 12%, primarily due to higher rent as the company relocates stores to better locations and improves its real estate.

CEO Steve Becker said he was "very pleased" with third-quarter results, and said the company made progress on core initiatives including the development of its new Phoenix distribution center.

Now what:Tuesday Morning has been a volatile stock in recent years; shares have lost about 70% in the last year and a half as the company has missed analyst estimates and results have been erratic. The surprise resignation of its former CEO last year also sent the stock tumbling. Still, a double-digit jump in comparable sales is encouraging, and evidence that Tuesday Morning's real estate strategy is taking hold. If management can continue controlling costs anddelivering that kind of growth, the stock should bounce back.

The article Why Tuesday Morning Shares Fell 22% Last Month
Well-chosen small-cap stocks can deliver years of outsize gains to investors. However, the best of these businesses often come with premium price tags, which can lower the returns for those who buy at those elevated prices. There are, however, rare occasions when the stock of an excellent business goes on sale. Today, we have one such opportunity with Boston Beer .

Therein lies our opportunity, as we can now buy shares in a quality business at a bargain price.

Boston Beer -- led by founder, chairman, and brewing legend Jim Koch -- is a pioneer and leader in the craft-brewing industry. Thanks to the popularity of its Sam Adams line of beers, the company has built a powerful distribution system that allows it to acquire shelf and tap space for its newest products. That's helped Boston Beer's Angry Orchard become the top-selling brand in the fast-growing hard-cider category and should also help to spur adoption of its new hard soda drinks and Nitro line of beers

Image source: Boston Beer.

But competition has been intensifying in the craft-brew arena, with industry behemoths such as Anheuser-Busch InBev and Constellation Brands snapping up

This competition has taken a toll on Boston Beer's results in recent months, with core shipment volume falling 6% year over year to 830,000 barrels in the first quarter. "We believe Samuel Adams has lost share due to the increased competition and continued growth of drinker interest in variety and innovation," Koch said in a company press release.

But innovation is where Boston Beer excels. In a recent interviewUSA Today, Koch highlighted Boston Beer's strength in this area.
It's been a busy couple of days for investors in Sirius XM Radio , and its Liberty SiriusXM tracking stocks over at majority shareholder Liberty Media

Here are three things you need to know.

Thing No. 1: This is a tough call

According to our stats here at Motley Fool CAPS

Thing No. 2: Deutsche likes Liberty Sirius' shiny new shares

When comparing Sirius stock to the Sirius tracking stock created by its majority shareholder, Deutsche sees more value in the latter. Quoting from today's StreetInsider.com

Put more simply, Deutsche sees investors undervaluing shares of Liberty SiriusXM. This may partly owe to a lack of clarity on when Liberty Media will ultimately mop up the last few shares of Sirius XM that it does not yet own (Liberty currently owns about 64% of Sirius shares outstanding). Investors may also feel uncomfortable owning a tracking stock, rather than Sirius's actual stock.

Thing No. 3: Macquarie prefers tried and true to shiny and new

After all, Macquarie cites the same concern over timing. Although "Liberty's intentions are crystal clear: they remain enthusiastic owners of Sirius XM (now ~64%)," and although "LSXMA tracks the performance of Sirius XM," Macquarie admits to having doubts as to "when and how" Liberty will finally finalize its ownership of all of Sirius. The Australian analyst also worries that Liberty might have to pay a high price -- perhaps much higher than the 5% premium to Sirius' share price that it has bid in the past -- to finalize its takeover.

When you consider that such a premium would increase the value of Sirius XM stock, Macquarie believes an investor is better off just buying "pure-play Sirius XM Radio," sitting tight, and awaiting the eventual buyout. Why waste time chasing tracking stock discounts that might prove illusory, when a profit from owning Sirius is essentially certain?

Final thing: Valuation

And I have to say, that argument makes a lot of sense. As I've already pointed out, from a valuation perspective, Sirius XM stock looks cheapS&P Global Market Intelligence

That works out to a 0.65 price-to-free-cash-flow-to growth ratio, which makes Sirius XM stock a bargain in my book.

Now, is Liberty SiriusXM a better bargain? It may well be. After all, according to S&P Global data, Liberty SiriusXMstock has an implied market capitalization of just $7 billion, which is less than half of Sirius XM's $19.8 billion market cap, despite supposedly representing ownership of much more than half Sirius XM's stock.

Personally, I suspect that both stocks are good bargains at today's prices. But Sirius XM is the easier stock to understand, and for that reason, I'm more comfortable backing Macquarie's recommendation of Sirius XM stock.

The article 2 Bankers Recommend 2 Flavors of Sirius XM: 3 Things You Ought to Know
In a statement supplied to Marketwatch lat week, Foxconn acknowledged that it is "applying robotics engineering and other innovative manufacturing technologies to replace repetitive tasks previously done by employees." The Apple contractor also says it has "plans to automate more of our manufacturing operations over the coming years." In fact, it plans to eventually put 1 million robotsto work, replacing 30% of its human workforce by 2020.

Last week, we learned that Foxconn, the contract manufacturer responsible for building most of our Apple iPhones, has replaced 60,000 human workers with robots.

I'm sorry. Does that sound a bit hyperbolic? Well, consider: Toyota Motors already uses thousands of robots on its car assembly lines and is perhaps only hours away from buying a humanoid robots-producer Amazon.com , one out of every four workers in the e-commerce giant's warehouses is a robot. And now, even China -- once home to some of the lowest wages for manual labor on the planet -- is beginning to switch out humans for robot workers.

What's more, China's South China Morning Post reports that "roughly 600 companies in the Kunshan region," which Foxconn calls home, "are reportedly looking to reduce headcount with robots."

Humans = obsolete technology?

Why all the fascination with robots? Well, there's the cost factor, for one thing. Industrial robots can cost as little as $25,000. For a $12.50 an hour a job here in the U.S., that means a robot capable of replacing one human's worth of work can pay for itself in a year. Raise wages to $15 an hour, and a robot will pay for itself even sooner (and be more likely to get hired

Here in the U.S., the Robotic Industries Association (RIA) reportsthat more than 260,000 robots are already on the job, and this number is growing. RIA says North American companies ordered 31,464 new robots in 2015, a 12% increase worth $1.8 billion.

How to profit from the robot revolution

It's important to keep those numbers in context. The U.S. added 38,000 jobs last month. So from one perspective, even anemic jobs growth in the U.S. still has humans landing new jobs more than 12 times faster than robots -- for now. But the percentage rate at which robot jobs are growing vastly exceeds percentage job growth for humans. Over time, it's not hard to predict how this trend plays out

So, what's a human to do? Well, one thing you might do is focus on finding a job that can't be done -- or can't be done economically -- by a robot. (Interior designer? Park ranger? I'm open to suggestions...)

In the meantime, it only makes sense for investors to begin buying stock in robotics companies that are supplying this trend. In Foxconn's case, unfortunately, Investors Business Dailyconfirms that Foxconn actually builds its robots in-house -- logical, for a high-tech electronics manufacturer. But elsewhere in China, the biggest suppliers of robots currently include foreign namesFanuc , Germany's Kuka , and Switzerland's ABB . Throw in Japan's smaller and less-famous Yaskawa Electric, and these four companies produce 60% of the robots currently in use in China.

According to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence

Despite being the strongest cash-generator, ABB stock sells for a very reasonable price -- less than 15 times free cash flow. Its projected growth rate exceeds 11%. Throw in a very respectable 3.6% dividend yield, an NYSE listing that makes the stock easy to trade, and a leading position in a growing segment of the market, and ABB looks like a great way to profit from the growing trend of robots in the workplace.



Manual labor at a Foxconn factory in Shenzhen -- soon to become obsolete? Image source: Wikimedia Commons

The article Apple's Biggest Contractor Builds a Robot Army
Image credit: Getty Images.

Late last year, Devon Energy unveiled a bold new plan to sharpen its focus around its core assets. The first phase of that plan saw the company spend billions to create industry-leading positions in two of the best emerging oil plays in America. That was a bold statement for the company because it came amid one of the deepest downturns to hit the industry in decades. Further, due to those acquisitions, the company needed to perform some serious portfolio reshuffling in order to keep its balance sheet in tip-top shape. It was able to do just that this week, when it announced a number of asset sales as it continues to make progress on its plan to strengthen its core.

Details on the deals

Despite the wild ride commodity prices took to start the year, Devon Energy was able to secure several buyers for assets that it no longer deemed as core. In total, the company has now signed deals to sell $1.3 billion in assets.

The largest deal was for the company's natural gas assets in East Texas, which fetched $525 million. Those properties were producing 22,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, or BOE/d, though only 5% of that production was oil. In addition, the company sold its non-core position in the Anadarko Basin's Granite Wash area for $310 million. Again, these were natural gas heavy assets, with the 14,000 BOE/d of production only being 13% oil. Finally, the company sold its overriding royalty interest across 11,000 acres in the Midland Basin for $139 million. That property was only producing 1,000 BOE/d.

Image source: Newfield Exploration Co.

When these sales are added to the $200 million non-core Mississippian transaction the company previously announced, they bring the asset sales total roughly $1.3 billion. That puts Devon Energy well on its way to hit its target of selling $2 billion to $3 billion in assets this year. In fact, the company said that it is seeing encouraging interest in its remaining non-core oil assets in the Midland Basin as well as its Access Pipeline in Canada, the sale of which the company expects to be able to announce some time in the next several weeks.

What's next for Devon Energy

Once Devon Energy concludes its remaining planned asset sales, it will have completed a pretty significant shift. Not only will it have bulked up on assets in two of its emerging core regions -- the STACK play northwest of Oklahoma City, and the Powder River Basin across southeastern Montana and northeastern Wyoming -- giving it leading positions across four top-tier, oil-rich shale plays, but it will also have solid positions in the Canadian oil sands region and the gas-rich Barnett Shale of Texas. Further, the company will have significantly bolstered an already-strong investment-grade balance sheet. If fact, when adding in the company's most recent asset sales, it's sitting on roughly $2.5 billion in cash.

That cash position gives Devon Energy the ability to accelerate its drilling activity once it feels confident in the price of oil. In particular, the company is most excited about accelerating the development of the STACK play, where it paid $1.9 billion to bolster its position over the last year. The reason it was willing to pay such a high price was due to the low well costs and high production rates of the play, which lead to strong drilling returns.

Devon Energy isn't the only oil company to pay a pretty penny to recently bulk up its position in the STACK. Last month, rival Newfield Exploration paid $470 million to acquire an additional 42,000 acres in the play. At more than $10,000 an acre, that was an expensive purchase. In fact, when adding Newfield Exploration's cumulative acreage acquisitions in the region, that sale only bumped up its average acreage acquisition price to $3,000 an acre. That being said, both Newfield Exploration and Devon Energy felt these lofty prices were justified, given that the STACK is one of the few oil plays that is still very profitable to drill in the current environment.

Investor takeaway

Devon Energy has really remade itself during the energy price downturn. It has sharpened its focuses around its core plays, while also significantly bolstering its balance sheet. This puts the company in the position to deliver tremendous future production and earnings growth as oil prices continue to rebound.

The article Devon Energy Corp.s Future Comes Into Clearer Focus originally appeared on Fool.com.

Matt DiLallo has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of Devon Energy. 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: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Australia)/Flickr.

As mosquito season intensifies across the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and engineered biology conglomerate Intrexon are both working overtime to boost awareness of Zika virus. The CDC is tracking known cases and transmission as part of a growing public health education program, while Intrexon is keeping its self-limiting insect platform top of mind for investors with a barrage of press releases and investor updates. The company's platform, which is being positioned as a vector control tool against mosquito-borne illnesses such as Zika virus and dengue (and can similarly be applied to control agricultural pests), represents a lower-impact and potentially more effective tool than the current status quo: insecticide applications.

But things are never quite that simple. The company's product has yet to be approved as a biopesticide by regulators, and it's not the only next-generation vector control tool undergoing field trials. MosquitoMate has also enjoyed success in greatly reducing wild mosquito populations, but employs a slightly different approach than Intrexon. Both are in talks with regulators. So, which company has the better Zika tool?

Vector control overview

Intrexon picked up the insect control platform when it acquired London-based Oxitec last summer. The idea is straightforward: Insects are engineered with a self-limiting gene, released into the wild, mate with wild populations, and pass a lethal gene on to their offspring that prevents them from reaching adulthood. The platform is being developed for various insects, including agricultural pests such as pink bollworm and diamondback moths, and the world's most dangerous animal, the mosquito. Specifically, Oxitec's most advanced mosquito-control product targets the Aedes aegypti species, which is widely distributed in the United States and is a common vector for Zika virus, dengue, yellow fever, malaria, and other diseases. Ongoing pipeline projects are underway for another disease vector, Aedes albopictus, also known as the Asian tiger mosquito.

ESTIMATED POTENTIAL RANGE OF AEDES AEGYPTI. IMAGE SOURCE: CDC.

MosquitoMate has an insect-control platform that doesn't utilize genetic engineering. Instead, the company infects mosquitoes with a common insect bacterium called Wolbachia, but from there the story parallels Oxitec. Infected mosquitoes are released into the wild, mate with wild populations, and keep offspring from surviving. The company's most advanced product targets Aedes albopictus, while trials for Aedes aegypti have recently begun in California.

Side-by-side comparison

Let's get right into it. Here's a breakdown of each company's vector control tool and important metrics being considered by regulators in the United States and abroad.

Sources: Compiled by author from company websites, regulatory submissions, Nature.

As you can see, both Intrexon and MosquitoMate offer intriguing technical advantages as next-generation vector control tools. Both platforms have been shown to reduce wild populations (of different mosquito species) by at least 70% with no off-target effects. While critics are quick to note that neither platform has been proven to reduce disease in humans,significantlyreducing wild populations of the vector should have that result. Studies testing this thesis are underway and should be publishedsoon.

The major difference is the fact that Intrexon's product utilizes genetic engineering. That means the biopesticide being considered is a genetically modified mosquito, which current regulatory frameworks may struggle to classify (because most countries focus on the process of creating a product instead of logically focusing on the product itself). Either way, that shouldn't keep Intrexon from regulatory approval, but it may be a major non-market factor to consider when predicting the ultimate success of the technology. This is hinted at in the tally of public comments attracted prior to domestic field trials for each company's technology: Genetically engineered mosquitoes incited over 2,600 comments, while bacteria-infected mosquitoes attracted just one.

Meanwhile, MosquitoMate has already begun testing its platform for multiple mosquito species -- and should have an easier development process than Intrexon, which has to engineer living organisms and jump through complicated regulatory hurdles for each new potential product -- although relying on infected mosquitoes could tilt selective pressures in favor of wild mosquitoes that are resistant to Wolbachia.

Both platforms face difficult paths to scaling the technology. While mosquito-producing factories are not difficult to build for either company, releasing a steady flow of vector-controlling insects across wide areas for sustained periods of time presents technical hurdles that have yet to be addressed in real-world conditions. Additionally, each platform may be relatively expensive to deploy, especially in countries that could benefit the most from controlling mosquito-borne diseases.

What does it mean for investors?

If nothing else, this comparison serves as a reminder that Intrexon isn't the only game in town when it comes to vector control solutions for mosquito-borne diseases. And although investors may not usually acknowledge the importance of non-market factors, current public sentiment about genetic engineering -- whether based on fact or fear or honest curiosity -- represents a real obstacle to self-limiting mosquitoes reaching their full market potential. Intrexon is working hard to educate the public, but that doesn't guarantee that the technology will face a frictionless path to commercialization.

A lack of non-market obstacles, combined with the reduced technical obstacles when controlling populations of multiple mosquito species, might give MosquitoMate the upper hand if we consider all factors that contribute to successful commercialization of a technical product. Then again, Intrexon's access to capital and exemplary management team could represent a crucial advantage over MosquitoMate's academic founding team, which may struggle to push the tech to market.

In reality, both technologies will likely be approved and deployed to combat the spread of mosquito-borne diseases. But if Intrexon fails to effectively communicate its technology to the public, then investors may fail to realize the full potential of the platform, especially if an alternative technology exists that doesn't utilize genetic engineering and boasts essentially equal effectiveness.

The article Intrexon vs. MosquitoMate: Who Has the Better Zika Tool? originally appeared on Fool.com.

Maxx Chatsko has no position in any stocks mentioned. Follow him on Twitter to keep up with developments in the engineered biology field.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.
Consumers, it seems, are loosening their grip on their wallets and increasingly using credit to fuel consumption. Importantly, borrowers are also paying their bills on time, resulting in low loss rates.

Data from the Federal Reserve shows that credit card receivables and other revolving loan balances were recently growing at a rate of 7.7% annually, the fastest pace since the Great Recession. On an absolute basis, the amount of credit outstanding has grown to more than $950 billion.

This should be a great time to be a credit card company, but you wouldn't know it from the stock charts. American Express , Capital One , and Discover Financial are all off their highs, posting annualized returns of -21%, -8%, and -8%, respectively, since the start of 2015.

American Express's credit card book remains pristine, with charge-offs roughly half that of Capital One and Discover. Capital One's charge-offs have risen recently as a result of growth in its loan book. (The company is issuing more cards to new customers, which typically have a higher charge-off rate before leveling off as newly issued cards season and bad credits are terminated, according to conference call commentary.)

Despite favorable industrywide growth in balances, and relatively benign credit metrics, credit card stocks simply haven't kept pace with the broader market.

More than meets the eye

American Express's stock performance is perhaps the most justifiable. Having lost its relationship with Costco, and thus shedding 8% of its network spending and 20% of its loan book, the stock price merely reflects a declining business.

The key challenge going forward is profitably deploying the $1 billion in proceeds it expects from selling its Costco book into marketing to drive card growth.Though the company reported strong card issuance in the first quarter, it admittedmany of its cards

When it comes to Capital One, the commercial banking unit is the real troublemaker. The bank's net charge-off rate jumped from 0.29% in the first quarter of 2016, up from 0.02% during the year-ago period. Likewise, non-performing assets grew to 1.64% of assets, up from 0.31% last year.

This business simply cannot afford losses in the same way the card business can. Seeing as Capital One earned just 3.38% on its commercial banking loans in the latest quarter,a slight increase in nonperforming assets and charge-offs has an incredible impact on its bottom line.

Underperformance stems from the bank's foray into taxi medallion lending, a loan book that has increasingly run into trouble as taxis fail to compete with ride-sharing services like Uber.Meanwhile, the company's 2005 acquisition of Hibernia Corporation, a bank headquartered in Louisiana, greatly increased the company's exposure to oil credits, which have come under stress as oil prices plunged from $100 a barrel in 2014 to a recent price of just $51.

Discover Financial's book of riskier credits has performed well, despite its focus on lower-quality borrowers who are more likely to carry a balance. If there's any weakness, it's in its credit card receivables, which grew just 4% over the last year despite 7.7% growth in revolving balances across the industry.

The company noted that gas prices had a particularly strong effect on card spending, noting that 4% credit sales growth in the first quarter was actually more like 5%, if gas sales and the benefit of a leap year are thrown out.

The article No Easy Money for Credit Card Companies
Tesla Powerwall. Image source: Tesla.

Over the past few days, you may have seen some headlines about Tesla Motors taking delivery of copious quantities of battery cells from Samsung. This comes shortly after reports that Tesla was in talks with the three major South Korean battery suppliers: LG Chem, Samsung, and SK Innovation.

This has all sparked speculation that Tesla was straying from its main battery flame for its cars -- Panasonic -- but it turns out that's not the case.

That's what he said

In characteristic fashion, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has taken to social media to clarify the situation. Panasonic will remain the exclusive supplier for all current and forthcoming vehicles, including Model S, Model 3, and Model X.

So if the Samsung cells are not destined to make their way into vehicles, where else could they go? The only answer is that Tesla intends to use the Samsung cells for Tesla Energy products. Keep in mind that the Gigafactory's long-term targets have always been for 35 GWh of cell production and 50 GWh of module and pack production. That necessitates second-sourcing cells to put into packs that are assembled at the location.

Call now if you'd like to purchase over 5 GWh of storage

If you look at the Tesla Energy site, you'll note that you can easily spec out and order a commercial-grade Powerpack immediately. These start at $162,000, and go up to "That's a big system" and please-call-us-if-you-need-to-purchase-over-10%-of-the-Gigafactory's-long-term-output-target-for-your-zombie-apocalypse-bunker. Tesla has long prided itself in being a leader in apocalyptic defense scenarios, after all.

Call us. Image source: Tesla Energy.

However, if you look for a Powerwall, you can only reserve a residential stationary storage solution for later fulfillment.This implies that there is a current shortage of cells relative to combined Powerwall and Powerpack demand. It also stands to reason that the cell supply that Tesla does have available is predominantly being allocated to commercial and utility customers ordering Powerpacks, which makes perfect sense, since Powerpack is where it's at.

The article The Only Explanation for Tesla's New Supply Agreement With Samsung 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.
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Earlier this year, in his first public comments as CEO of Spirit Airlines , Bob Fornaro said that he wanted Spirit to be less "predictable" in choosing new routes. He hinted that, under his leadership, the brash ultra-low-cost carrier (ULCC) would deploy more capacity in midsize cities rather than challenging the market leaders in their biggest hubs.

Spirit Airlines' new CEO wants to move the airline beyond big cities. Image source: Spirit Airlines.

Expanding into midsize markets seems like a wise strategic move for Spirit Airlines. First, this will increase the size of Spirit's long-term addressable market. Second, these midsize markets may help Spirit avoid some of the destructive price wars that have undercut its unit revenue in the past year-and-a-half.

Following its rivals

Allegiant Travel and Frontier Airlines -- the other two domestic ULCCs -- have been quicker than Spirit to move into midsize markets.

Allegiant's bread and butter has always been flying from small markets to popular leisure destinations. However, it has started expanding into midsize markets lately, including launching a new operational base in Cincinnati. Other midsize markets that Allegiant has added include Austin, Indianapolis, Memphis, and Pittsburgh.

Meanwhile, Frontier Airlines has historically had more exposure to midsize markets, offering numerous connections through its hub in Denver. Since shifting to a ULCC business model a few years ago, Frontier has shrunk the Denver hub and added a wide swath of small, midsize, and large cities to its route map. Its growth in 2016 has been primarily focused on midsize markets, though.

Frontier Airlines is also growing in midsize markets. Image source: The Motley Fool.

New routes will come this fall

Spirit Airlines has been talking about moving into more midsize markets for four months now. It has started to prepare for the effort by revising its fleet plan to include more A319s and A320s -- and A320neos -- rather than adding a lot of larger A321s.

However, Spirit still hasn't announced any new flights into midsize markets. Because nearly all of its routes earn high margins -- and are most profitable during the summer peak season -- Spirit didn't want to make any big changes before the fall.

Within the next month or so, the carrier is likely to start announcing new routes that will launch after Labor Day. Spirit expects to grow its fleet by five aircraft in the second half of 2016, which could allow it to add up to a dozen new routes. At least some of those will likely be in midsize markets, although the lifting of slot constraints this fall at Newark Airport, just outside New York City, could drive Spirit to deploy some capacity in that congested, high-fare market.

Will Spirit attack its rivals head-on?

Spirit Airlines faces an interesting choice in deciding which midsize markets to enter. Fornaro specifically mentioned the Midwest and Florida as underserved regions that could support more flights in midsize markets.

However, those are precisely the markets that Spirit's fellow ULCCs have targeted in the past few years. By now, Allegiant and Frontier serve nearly every midsize market in the Midwest -- and many of those flights go to Florida.

On the one hand, Spirit could try to elbow its way into many of the markets that Allegiant and Frontier serve, undercutting them on price, if necessary, to stimulate demand. But that would risk trading a price war with the legacy carriers for a new price war between the three ULCCs.

On the other hand, Spirit could look further off the beaten path to find midsize markets where Allegiant and Frontier have little or no presence. (Think Buffalo, Louisville, or Providence.) However, by doing so, Spirit could be closing off future growth opportunities by allowing its rivals to consolidate their positions in key midsize cities in the Midwest.

It will be interesting to see how Spirit navigates this dilemma in the coming months and years. By the end of next month, investors should have a much-better feel for Spirit's midsize market strategy.

The article Where Will Spirit Airlines Incorporated Grow Next? originally appeared on Fool.com.

Adam Levine-Weinberg owns shares of Spirit Airlines and is long June 2016 $30 calls on Spirit Airlines. The Motley Fool recommends Spirit Airlines. 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 possibility that Williams Companies will be on the hook to pay this termination fee is one of the reasons it's warning that its dividend could be cut. The company's financials are already under pressure after having to pay its affiliated MLP Williams Partners a $428 million termination fee after breaking up that merger in favor of the merger with Energy Transfer Equity.

Williams Companies and Energy Transfer Equity have been embroiled in a bitter battle over their pending merger for months. However, Williams Companies is reportedly more open to renegotiating the deal

Williams Companies issued a stark warning to its investors. Its generous 8.3% dividend could be cut if it doesn't close its merger with Energy Transfer Equity . Worse yet, that cut "could be material," according to the company.

Concerns abound

In addition to that potential cash payout eating deeper into Williams Companies' coffers, the company's underlying business is clearly being impacted by the downturn in the oil market. That actually stems from the fact that it derives the bulk of its cash flow from its ownership interest in Williams Partners, which is feeling the impact from weak commodity prices on its earnings. Last quarter, for example, Williams Partners' distribution coverage ratio was just 1.02 times, meaning it just barely covered its distribution. That said, the coverage ratio would have been even weaker if it wasn't for the fact that it benefited from a reduction in incentive distribution rights paid out to Williams Companiesas part of the aforementioned merger termination fee. This is on top of the fact that Williams Partners' cash flow was weaker than it could have been thanks to volume shut-ins by producers amid weak commodity prices.

These issues weighed on Williams Companies' own coverage ratio, which was a very weak 0.89 times last quarter, meaning it paid out all of its cash flow and then some. While that was partially because of the lower IDRs received as a result of the termination fee payout, the bottom line is that Williams Partners and Williams Companies aren't generating enough cash flow to sustain both payouts in the currently weak operating environment.

Further, because of the credit concerns in the sector, Williams Partners can't raise capital as easily as it had in the past to fund its growth projects. That was made clear earlier this year when Williams Partners had to cut its 2016 growth capex budget by nearly a third. Further, in order to fund its reduced spending plan, Williams Partners announced that it would sell roughly $1 billion in assets this year so it didn't need to issue public debt or equity. While that was expected to cover the balance of its capital needs for the current year, it doesn't solve its capital needs going forward. As such, Williams Partners might need to significantly reduce its distribution in order to fund growth capex, which would therefore cut deeply into Williams Companies cash flow, necessitating a deep dividend cut.

Investor takeaway

Williams Companies' dividend looks like it could be toast. The company's current operations are just barely sustaining its payout, meaning it certainly couldn't afford to keep it up if Williams needed to pay a big termination fee to Energy Transfer Equity. That said, given the weakness of Williams Partners' underlying operations and the underlying problems causing concerns with the Energy Transfer Equity merger, its dividend doesn't look sustainable even if that merger closes under a framework that has been dramatically reworked.

The article Williams Companies Inc. Warns Its Dividend Could Soon Be Toast
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has won California's Democratic primary according to the Associated Press.

With 93% of the vote counted, she was leading rival Bernie Sanders 56% to 43%.

(The following is the original story published by Reuters)

Hillary Clinton declared herself the Democratic Party nominee for U.S. president on Tuesday, embracing her role in history as the first woman to lead a major party in a race for the White House.

The former first lady, U.S. senator and secretary of state celebrated her victory in the nominating race over rival Bernie Sanders at a raucous event with supporters in Brooklyn, New York, where Clinton placed her achievement in the context of the long history of the women's rights movement.

"Thanks to you, we have reached a milestone," Clinton said in a speech. "We all owe so much to who came before."

Clinton, 68, spoke shortly after beating Sanders in New Jersey's nominating contest, expanding her lead in the delegates needed to clinch the nomination and setting up a five-month general election campaign against presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump in the Nov. 8 election.

New Jersey was one of six states holding contests on Tuesday, including California, the big prize where Clinton was still at risk of an embarrassing loss to Sanders as she heads into the campaign against Trump.

With about one-third of the votes counted in California, Clinton held a wide 20-percentage-point lead over Sanders, but news networks said the race was still too close to call.

In her speech, Clinton appealed to Sanders supporters to join her and said the Democratic Party had been bolstered by his campaign for eradicating income inequality, which has commanded huge crowds and galvanized younger voters.

Clinton edged Sanders out, especially among older voters, with a more pragmatic campaign focused on building on the policies of her fellow Democrat, President Barack Obama.

But Sanders showed no interest in ending his upstart candidacy, telling cheering supporters in California that he would go on campaigning through next Tuesday's primary in the District of Columbia and carry his political crusade - although not necessarily his campaign - to the convention in July.

"We are going to fight hard to win the primary in Washington DC," he said. "And then we take our fight for social, economic, racial and environmental justice to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania."

The White House issued a statement saying Obama had called both Clinton and Sanders. It said he congratulated her on securing the delegates necessary to clinch the nomination and would meet Sanders on Thursday at Sanders' request.

TRUMP 'TEMPERAMENTALLY UNFIT'

In her speech, Clinton harshly attacked Trump for using divisive rhetoric that belittled women, Muslims and immigrants, and took specific aim at his recent condemnation of an Indiana-born judge of Mexican heritage.

"The stakes in this election are high and the choice is clear. Donald Trump is temperamentally unfit to be president and commander-in-chief," she said.

"When Donald Trump says a distinguished judge born in Indiana cant do his job because of his Mexican heritage, or he mocks a reporter with disabilities, or calls women pigs, it goes against everything we stand for," she said.

Clinton also won in New Mexico and South Dakota. Sanders, 74, won in North Dakota and Montana on the final night of big presidential nominating battles that began on Feb. 1 in Iowa. The District of Columbia will be the last next Tuesday.

In a fundraising email to supporters, Clinton declared her campaign had broken one of the highest, hardest glass ceilings.

On Twitter, she said: "To every little girl who dreams big: Yes, you can be anything you want - even president. Tonight is for you."

Clinton's race against Trump, 69, will unfold amid an ongoing investigation of her use of a personal email server while secretary of state. Opinion polls show the controversy has hurtClinton's ratings on honesty and trustworthiness.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday showed Clinton leads Trump by 10 percentage points nationally as they launch their general election battle, little changed from a week ago.

PARTY UNITY

Clinton now must try to unify the party and win over Sanders supporters, who booed lustily in California when Sanders congratulated her on her victories on Tuesday.

A Sanders campaign spokesman castigated what he said was the media's "rush to judgment" after the Associated Press and NBC reported on Monday night that Clinton had clinched the number of delegates needed to win the nomination.

Clinton's victories on Tuesday ensured she will have a lead in the pledged delegates won in nominating contests. Clinton clinched the nomination with the added support of superdelegates, party leaders who are free to back any candidate.

Steven Acosta, a 47-year-old teacher living in Los Angeles, voted for Clinton on Tuesday, saying that was partly because he believed she stood a better chance of winning in November.

"I like what Bernie Sanders says and I agree with almost everything that he says," Acosta said. "The problem is that I think Republicans would really unify ... even more against him."

Trump, who became his party's presumptive nominee last month, outlasting 16 Republican challengers, is struggling to get the party's leaders solidly behind him after a bitter primary campaign during which he made a series of controversial statements directed at Muslims, Latinos, women and the disabled.

On Tuesday night he addressed a crowd of supporters in New York, welcoming Sanders supporters "with open arms" should they decide to support him and declaring a new phase of the campaign had begun.

"I am going to give a major speech on probably Monday of next week, and we are going to be discussing all of the things that have taken place with the Clintons," he said. "I think you are going to find it very informative and very, very interesting. I wonder if the press will want to attend."

(Writing by John Whitesides; Additional reporting by Amanda Becker, Alana Wise and Megan Cassella in Washington; Jonathan Allen and Chris Kahn in New York; Joseph Ax and Frank McGurty in New Jersey; Alex Dobuzinskis and Dan Whitcomb in California; Editing by Howard Goller)
WWE star Luke Harper has landed a role in the horror movie "Mohawk," TheWrap.com reports.

Directed by Ted Geoghegan, the horror action film also stars"Hemlock Grove" actress Kaniehtiio Horn and "Twilight's" Justin Rain.

The film follows Horn's character, a young female Mohawk, who is on the run from renegade soldiers after someone in her tribe sets their camp on fire.

"Mohawk is hard-hitting action-horror that subverts traditional genre tropes while delivering a timeless tale of good versus evil," Geoghegan said. "We look to deliver a horrifying home invasion film where the home is North America itself."

There's no word yet on what Harper's role will be. He has been on hiatus from wrestling since suffereing an injury in March.

The film also features WWE's Jon Huber and actors Noah Segan, Ian Colletti, Robert Longstreet, Sheri Foster, Ezra Buzzington and Andrew Sensenig.
A construction worker is on his way to recovery after he was impaled by a metal bar through his chest and back. Adem Ozcoban, 19, was working on a site in Gaziantep, Turkey, when he felt dizzy and fell, Central European News (CEN) reported.

Ozcoban fell from the first floor to the ground and on to the metal bar, which struck him in the chest.

His colleagues called an ambulance, and he was rushed to the University Training and Research Hospital, where doctors stabilized him and determined the bar did not puncture his heart, CEN reported.

After the first intervention in the emergency department, we took him immediately into sugery, hospital faculty member Dean Levent Elbeyli, told CEN. The metal bar was successfully removed in the surgery conducted by a team lead by prof. Dr. Maruf Sanli.

The damaged (sic) caused by the metal bar in the chest and lungs of our patient was repaired. As of today, the patients state is stable. If he wasnt brought to such an equipped hospital, his state might have got worse.

Doctors expect him to be discharged after several days and cautioned others to be more careful while at work.
A new study on immunotherapy for head and neck carcinoma found that the treatment doubled the overall survival and improved quality of life, with fewer side effects in treatment of rapidly progressing forms of the cancers. According to researchers, the phase three clinical trial was stopped early to allow patients in the comparison group to receive the new drug.

The study, co-led by investigators at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institutes (UPCI), were presented Monday at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago. Researchers studied 361 patients with recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma who did not respond to platinum-based chemotherapy. This form of the disease progresses rapidly and has an especially poor prognosis. According to the Cleveland Clinic, metastatic disease at presentation is uncommon and incurable.

Half of the patients received nivolumab, an immunotherapeutic drug. This class of drugs enables the bodys immune system to destroy cancer cells and is approved for treatment of certain cancers, including melanoma and lung.

After 12 months, 36 percent of the nivolumab group was alive, compared to 17 percent of the standard chemotherapy group, according to a news release.

The immunotherapy treatment doubled the number of patients whose tumors shrank and the number whose disease had not progressed after six months of treatment.

These benefits were achieved with just one-third the rate of serious adverse events reported in the standard chemotherapy group, researchers noted.

The drug appeared to be most successful in patients whose tumors were positive for the human papillomavirus (HPV), which is noteworthy because the fraction of head and neck cancers attributable to HPV infection has increased by 250 percent over several decades, researchers noted.

Unfortunately, most patients in this trial still experienced a progression of their cancer, demonstrating that we still have a lot of work to do, the trials international co-chair Dr. Robert Ferris, Ph.D., UPMC Endowed Professor, and chief of the Division of Head and Neck Surgery and co-leader of the Cancer Immunology Program at UPCI, said in the news release. But, the future appears brighter than ever before because there is a new class of agents, immunotherapies, which we now know can prolong survival and improve quality of life, with few side effects, in head and neck cancer.

The study was funded by nivolumab manufacturer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, who are now seeking approval from the Food and Drug Administration.
Kyle Solle has been lifelong friends with David Eidsmo, but the pairs story isnt like most friends.

Eidsmo, a deputy in Minnesota, delivered Solle in 1997 after receiving an emergency call, Fox 5 Atlanta reported.

"Next thing you know, all of a sudden, there is a baby being born up the street, Eidsmo told the news station.

He recalled the snowy Christmas Day: I just kind of cushioned his head as he came out.

The two stayed in touch, exchanging Christmas cards and photos each year. Eighteen years later, Solle has graduated high school, and, like the momentous day Solle entered the world, Eidsmo was there to witness this milestone.
A Florida mother who said her doctor advised her to abort her child after detecting Down syndrome during a prenatal appointment has shared a photo of the girl mailing a letter to that same doctor.

This is Emmy, mailing our letter to the prenatal specialist who didnt want her to live, Courtney Baker, Emmys mom, wrote on the Parker Myles Facebook page. He said her and our quality of life would be horrible. He was so unbelievably wrong. I want to do something to advocate, but other than my letter to him, I dont know what yet.

Baker sent the letter to the doctor last month, and in it she wrote of a friend whose doctor had declared a child born with Down syndrome perfect.

Once her son was born with Down syndrome, she visited that same doctor. He looked at her little boy and said I told you. Hes perfect. Her story tore me apart, Baker wrote. While I was so grateful for my friends experience, it filled me with such sorrow because of what I should have had. I wish you would have been that doctor.

I came to you during the most difficult time in my life. I was terrified, anxious and in complete despair. I didnt know the truth yet about my baby, and thats what I desperately needed from you, Baker said. But instead of support and encouragement, you suggested we terminate our child. I told you her name, and you asked us again if we understood how low our quality of life would be with a child with Down syndrome. You suggested we reconsider our decision to continue the pregnancy.

From that first visit, we dreaded our appointments. The most difficult time in my life was made nearly unbearable because you never told me the truth. My child was perfect, Baker said. Im not angry. Im not bitter. Im just really sad. Im sad the tiny beating hearts you see every day dont fill you with a perpetual awe. Im sad the intricate details and the miracle of those sweet little fingers and toes, lungs and eyes and ears dont always give you pause. Im said you were so wrong to say a baby with Down syndrome would decrease our quality of life. And Im heartbroken you might have said that to a mommy even today. But Im mostly sad youll never have the privilege of knowing my daughter, Emersyn.

Baker wrote that Emmy has touched the hearts of thousands and has only added to the familys quality of life, which includes older sisters Rhyan, 14, and Evynn, 11. She wrote that Emmy has given them a purpose and joy and fills their days with smiles, laughter and sweet kisses.

Shes opened our eyes to true beauty and pure love, Baker wrote. So my prayer is that no other mommy will have to go through what I did. My prayer is that you, too, will now see true beauty and pure love with every sonogram. And my prayer is that when you see that next baby with Down syndrome lovingly tucked in her mothers womb, you will look at that mommy and see me then tell her the truth: Your child is perfect.

Down syndrome occurs when an individual has a full or partial extra copy of chromosome 21, which alters development, according to the National Down Syndrome Society. Common physical traits include low muscle tone, small stature and an upward slant to the eyes. It occurs in one in every 691 babies in the U.S. Individuals with Down syndrome experience cognitive delays, but the effect is mild to moderate.

The doctor was not named in the letter, but other media outlets have described the family as being from Florida.

http://parkermyles.com/2016/06/07/girl-with-down-syndrome-posts-letter-to-doctor-who-wanted-parents-to-abort-her/
While most of the medias focus in this election has been on Donald Trump successful attempts to burn down the GOPs clubhouse, the Democratic Party establishment has also struggled to put out a populist fire as Democrats have tried to maintain the status quo. For now, establishment Democrats may have preserved a skeleton of the institution but we wont really know what it will look like until after what many expect will be a contested convention in July.

Sanders supporters have continuously (and rightfully) complained about a system that has been built and manipulated to protect their anointed nominee. In fact, four hundred sixty-five of the 714 superdelegates went beyond their intended utility as a last minute insurance policy to determine the outcome of a contested convention.

These superdelegates went against the Democratic Partys rules -- by preemptively endorsing and campaigning for Hillary -- before the primary began in the summer of 2015. They were seen as a buffer to prevent other Democratic candidates from running against Hillary.

This ultimately set the stage for a Democratic nominee who appeared to have almost universal support. Hillary walked into the first Democratic debate with support from most of the federally elected Democrats in America and also the support of party leaders across the country who oversee their regions primary process.

Yet, after running the most notable woman in recent history -- someone who has the infrastructure, money, media, endorsements and years of planning behind her -- how could Bernie Sanders, the most liberal man in America -- give Hillary Clinton such a fight? How could this fight become one that was fueled by a dream, a collection of $27 donations and a message spread across the internet?

When you look beyond the 24/7 news cycle reports, this presidential race is just a reflection of a party thats broken down at all levels.

If theres anything weve learned in this bizarre election year, its that political institutions are not too big to fail.

Despite jarring demographic splits, horrifying defeats at the state and congressional level over the past decade and unpopular tactics by its equally unpopular chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the DNC has clung to its out-dated 80s era fundraise or bust strategy. Perhaps they did this out of fear of change or fear of the unknown or frankly, out of fear of losing their lucrative Beltway consulting contracts.

Bernie Sanders campaign -- crowd-sourced and unapologetically liberal -- has shown the Democratic Party something very important:

No, a Democratic presidential candidate does not need to be a corporate puppet.

No, a Democratic presidential candidate does not need to out-raise Republicans.

No, a Democratic presidential candidate does not need to distance himself from the grassroots.

Just remember, the only candidate in this race who consistently beat Republicans -- across the board -- all while mobilizing new voters was Bernie Sanders.

Democrats can no longer keep their blinders on. Despite having raised record amounts of money, the DNCs strategies are flawed and ineffective -- as evidenced by the loss of over 1,000 seats from the local to the national level since 2008.

At a time when the country is becoming more open to liberal policies and when the Democratic Party membership is 70 percent more progressive than it was 10 years ago, more and more progressives are still leaving the party. That means its time for reform.

Bernie Sanders has revolutionized the Democratic model of presidential campaigns. But thats not all hes done. Through a citizen-funded campaign he has electrified the base and attracted disaffected, first time voters and the much needed independents back into the party -- all while being honest, courageous and transparent.

These are the prescriptions that the Democratic Party needs to take to rebuild itself from the ground up.

There is much reform and debate to come at what many expect will be a contested convention in July.

The political revolution has just begun.


In comfy suburbs from the East Coast to the Midwest and from the Rockies to the Southwest, large proportions of middle-class students are failing to perform well in their core academic subjects.

That's the disturbing conclusion of a massive two-year, five-state series of studies by the Pacific Research Institute. The studies looked at regular public schools in Illinois, Texas, Michigan, Colorado, and New Jersey where students were predominantly "non-low-income" -- that is, where less than one-third of the school population qualified for the federal free and reduced lunch program.

The studies looked at various student-performance indicators, including results on national and state tests, plus the SAT.

On the National Assessment of Educational Progress exam, around half of non-low-income eighth graders in New Jersey, Illinois, and Colorado failed to score at the proficient level in reading.

Worse, in Texas and Michigan, more than half of non-low-income eighth graders failed to achieve proficiency in reading.

The state tests examined in the PRI studies varied in content difficulty and scoring rigor. In Texas, for example, the state currently sets a low scoring benchmark for "proficiency" on state tests. But that benchmark will be raised to a more rigorous and telling level in a few years.

If that more rigorous proficiency scoring benchmark is used, then 60 percent of Texas public schools with predominantly non-low-income student populations had half or more of their students in at least one grade level failing to achieve proficiency on state math or reading exams in 2013.

An especially troubling note for an American economy increasingly dependent on worker knowledge of science, technology, engineering, and math is the poor performance among middle-class students on math exams.

In Michigan, nearly half of predominantly middle-class public schools had 50 percent or more of their students in at least one grade level failing to achieve proficiency on a 2013 state exam. Most of that failure was in mathematics.

In Colorado, 75 percent of predominantly middle-class public high schools had half or more of their students failing to achieve at the proficient level on a 2014 state exam -- mostly on the math test.

The failure of middle-class students to perform proficiently on K-12 national and state exams has consequences for exams linked to higher education.

In New Jersey, nearly three out of 10 predominantly middle-class public high schools had 50 percent or more of their students failing to reach the college-readiness benchmark score on the SAT. It's no wonder then that many students in New Jersey, as in other states, must take remedial-instruction courses once they get to college.

To get a real flavor for the problem of underperforming middle-class schools, look at some individual schools.

Castle View High School is in Castle Rock, Colorado, which has been named by various publications as one of America's best places to live. Although only about one in 10 students were socio-economically disadvantaged, 58 percent of the school's tenth graders failed to score proficiently on the 2014 state math exam.

Grosse Point North High School is in tony Grosse Pointe Woods outside Detroit. On the 2013 state math test, 59 percent of the school's eleventh graders failed to hit proficiency. No wonder that one alumnus of the school, who went on to attend the University of Michigan, posted, "I felt unprepared my first year of college."

At Waldwick High School in affluent Bergen County, New Jersey, only a microscopic one percent of the school's students were socio-economically disadvantaged. Yet 56 percent of students taking the SAT failed to score at the college-ready level.

For middle-class parents, such results should be a wake-up call. School-quality problems are not just limited to poor inner cities. Every child -- rich, poor, and middle-class like -- should have the right to a good education. If the neighborhood public school isn't providing it, the child should be able to go somewhere else.
Theres just something different about him.

Hes standing on the edge of the interstate ramp and even from the intersection, I can tell hes been up and down the highway many times.

Hes wearing a camo hat and his energetic white hair blends into an impressive beard. Everything about him hints that he has a tale to tell, including the cardboard sign hes clutching that promises a Fun-tastic Story!

I pull over, roll down the window and ask how far hes going.

New York, he laughs. But you dont need to drive me the whole way.

I offer 30 miles - because thats where my exit is - and he accepts with gratitude and grace. Before we even merge into traffic on interstate 81 in Virginias Shenandoah Valley, hes introduced himself as the Hiking Pilgrim.

By the time we say goodbye at a gas station half-an-hour later, Ive learned a lot about pilgrims, hiking and finding God.

My new friend was born in the U.S. but spent most of his life in Ireland - a fact made obvious by a fantastic accent that adds color to every word.

After taking an early retirement, he began to backpack Ireland, Europe and Asia. Hes walked the periphery of Ireland and twice completed the famed pilgrimage to the shrine of the Apostle St. James the Great in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in northwestern Spain.

In recent years hes returned to the U.S. to tackle the Appalachian Trail, the Grand Canyon and the entire east coast from Florida to Canada. Along the way hes encountered more bears than he can remember and even more kindhearted strangers. Hes also written a book, Hiking to Hell and Back.

So, I ask as the mile markers flash by, tell me about your pilgrimage.

With his wise smile filling my rear view mirror, he describes it with this simple phrase. Ive been on a mission to find God.

The Hiking Pilgrim describes a pilgrimage that took him from agnostic to gnostic. My journeys have taught me that not only is God real, but that I can actually come to know him. Just as he knows me.

In touching terms, he tells of quiet moments on the trail when he felt God near. I can honestly say I went looking and that I found him. And in the process, he found me, too.

We spoke about politics and his deep concerns about progressives taking over America. As someone who has witnessed terror firsthand in Ireland, he worries about our approach to battling todays threats.

I marvel at how well-read he is and how smoothly he articulates Americas hot-button issues. In return, he relishes the opportunity to smash stereotypes about hitchhikers.

Not all of them are homeless. Not all of them want money. Not all of them travel the highways looking for the next meal.

The Hiking Pilgrim has a home, he didnt ask for money and hes not hunting to be fed. Hes looking for much more.

While he accepts that some find God in a church pew, the Hiking Pilgrim believes there are other places to meet God and to know his plan. He will give us experiences everyday, if we only ask.

My passenger believes that in his darkest moments, hes been led to the right person at the right time to make the right kind of difference.

When we say goodbye and go our separate ways on our own, I thank him for the stories and he knocks down one more myth.

Not everyone you see by themselves is really alone.

Some of them, like the Hiking Pilgrim, walk with God.
North Carolina Rep. Renee Ellmers campaigned as a Tea Party conservative  but when she got elected in 2011 voters quickly realized they had elected a phony.

To paraphrase a great country music song, Renee got the ring, Voters got the finger.

But thanks to redistricting, North Carolina conservatives got a heaping helping of payback on Tuesday night.

Click here to join Todds American Dispatch: a Must-Read for Conservatives!

Heres how it went down:

Ellmer and fellow Republican Rep. George Holding were competing to represent the newly drawn second congressional district.

Ellmers, as we now know, turned out to be an open-border, pro-gay marriage "Republican in Name Only."

Holding is a pro-life Tea Party conservative. He is also a Southern Baptist  which carries a lot of weight in North Carolina.

But Ellmers had an ace up her sleeve  an endorsement from the man himself  Donald J. Trump.

Read Todds latest book  a guide to restoring traditional American values! Click here!

Trump sang her praises in a robocall that North Carolinians received while they were spreading Dukes Mayonnaise on their ham sandwiches.

I need her help in Washington so we can work together to defeat ISIS, secure our border and bring back jobs and frankly, so many other things, Trump gushed. And Renee knows how to do it. She gets it. And together, we will make America great again.

So why did Donald Trump fall head over heels for Ellmers? Why did he snub the one, true conservative in the race?

Ellmers had hoped Trumps last-minute endorsement would be her saving grace. It was neither saving nor graceful.

She was crushed in Tuesday nights Republican primary -- by roughly 30 points.

Ellmers was elected as a Tea Party conservative -- but once in Washington she betrayed her base -- and became a foot soldier of the Establishment.

She angered pro-lifers by holding up a bill that would have banned abortions after 20 weeks. She opposed North Carolina's marriage amendment.

"Rep. Renee Ellmers was our ally until she led the charge to derail the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. That's why we had to flex the political muscle of the pro-life movement," Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a statement to NPR. "She has her own failed leadership to blame for this loss."

And if that wasnt bad enough, she sided with President Obama's plan to legalize illegal aliens.

Conservative Review ran an editorial -- calling her a fanatically open-borders RINO.

And yet Donald Trump still endorsed the woman who betrayed conservatives  saying she was terrific and boy, is she a fighter.

True. Shes just a fighter for the wrong side -- a woman who betrayed conservatives.

Or using Trump's political vernacular -- maybe she just evolved and moderated on the issues.

What happened in North Carolina should serve as a wakeup call to the Trump campaign. If you turn your back on conservatives -- we will turn our back on you.
Charles Krauthammer told viewers Tuesday on "Special Report with Bret Baier" that the historical factor regarding Hillary Clinton clinching the Democratic presidential nomination will be very much minimized and muted."

Clinton is the first woman to clinch a major party's presidential nomination.

It will probably last for an hour or two tonight, but after all shes essentially been running for 16 years. She was expected to be the nominee in 2008, Krauthammer, a syndicated columnist and Fox News contributor, said.

"She was going to be coronated this time around so there was a delayed feeling," Krauthammer said, adding, "We had the first African-American, which I think was a far more improbable proposition, 8 years ago."

This is less of a reverberating event, Krauthammer said. The fact is Democrats are worried, and should be worried, simply because you cant use the usual playbook against Donald Trump.

Krauthammer argued the Clinton campaign is nervous about running against Trump because Democrats know how to run against conservatives. They dont know how to run against a populist who was unexpected, unpredictable and can do anything.
GOP Rep. George Holding on Tuesday defeated fellow North Carolina Rep. Renee Ellmers in this years only primary between incumbents.

Ellmers, competing in a redrawn district that included much of Holding's former territory, becomes the first Republican incumbent to lose this year. She had been endorsed by presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump in a final-hour effort to win.

The lawmakers were forced to compete after a federal court ordered the state legislature to redraw districts, merging Holding's and Ellmers' into one.

The final weeks of the race became a feud on the airwaves over conservative credentials, with heavy spending by the two candidates and more than $1 million from outside groups attacking Ellmers.

Holding won by a wide margin over Ellmers and Dr. Greg Brannon, a two-time Senate candidate.

The race marked Trumps only endorsement and the first time since 2012 that two sitting members of Congress ran against each other.

Holding is expected to have a strong chance of winning the Republican-leaning district in the November general election. He'll face the winner of a five-way Democratic primary.

The race was set up by court-ordered redistricting in February that moved Ellmers' 2nd District to the north and east, absorbing much of Holding's old 13th.

After federal judges struck down two North Carolina congressional districts in February as illegally race-based, the legislature redrew the map of 13 districts and split the congressional contest off from the March presidential primary.

The Holding and Ellmers campaigns each spent more than $1 million during the election cycle, and a significant influx of money has come from outside groups attacking Ellmers or supporting Holding.

The Club for Growth, Americans for Prosperity and American Foundations Committee spent more than $1 million combined, accusing Ellmers of not being conservative on fiscal issues and failing to challenge President Obama's administration.

Ellmers, once the favorite of Tea Party activists who helped elect her in 2010, has said the outside spending is retribution for not following the groups' agendas closely enough. Holding, a former federal prosecutor, was first elected in 2012.

Outside groups -- including the pro-life/antiabortion groups the National Right to Life Committee and Susan B. Anthony List -- argue Holding, elected in 2012, is more conservative than Ellmers.

The Ellmers campaign on Saturday released a 40-second robocall from Trump declaring his support for her re-election.

I need her help in Washington so we can work together to defeat ISIS, secure our border, and bring back jobs and frankly so many other things, Trump said. Renee knows how to do it. She gets it, and together we will make America great again.

Ellmers told FoxNews.com in a statement: I am proud to be the first member of Congress to have received an endorsement from the Republican nominee and soon-to-be president Donald Trump.

An aide to Holding argued Trumps backing wouldnt change the incumbents record on the issues.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
After two failed bids to grant voting rights to illegal immigrants, some San Francisco officials believe they have found the man who can make it happen: Donald Trump.

A proposed charter amendment drafted by Board of Supervisors member Eric Mar would give illegal immigrants with kids in the public school system the right to vote in school elections. Voters have rejected two previous ballot proposals, but Mar is betting on anti-Trump sentiment to carry the pro-illegal immigrant proposal if he can get it on the November ballot.

With Donald Trumps racist and anti-immigrant sentiments, there is a reaction from many of us who are disgusted by those politics," Mar said. "I think thats going to ensure there is strong Latino turnout as well as other immigrant turnout.

A key promise in Trump's campaign for the Republican nomination for president has been to build a wall on the Mexican border. This week, Trump claimed a federal judge overseeing a lawsuit against Trump University wouldnt be impartial because he is of Mexican heritage.

Mar staffers confirmed the measure will go before the rules committee within weeks, and could then be presented to the full board of supervisors. If a majority support it, the charter amendment will be on the ballot Nov. 8 when the city and nation votes for president.

The time is right for San Francisco to make history, to pave the way for immigrant parents to have a say in the policy decisions that impact their childs education and who gets to sit on the Board of Education, Mar said in a written statement.

In 2004, voters narrowly rejected the same proposal. A similar measure, introduced by California Assemblymember David Chiu, D-San Francisco, failed in 2010 with just 46 percent of the vote.

Chiu believes Trump's presence on the ballot, and the fact that one of every three children in the system is now the child of an immigrant parent could make the third time a charm.

With the anti-immigrant rhetoric from Donald Trump, it is more important than ever that we come together as San Franciscans to stand up for our immigrant communities and support their civic engagement, Chiu said in a written statement.

The plan is bad public policy, according to Hans von Spakovsky, senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation and former Federal Elections Commission member.

It is wrong to extend the vote to individuals who have not entered the American social compact or made a commitment to the our Constitution, our law, and our cultural and political heritage by becoming citizens, von Spakovsky said. It is even worse to extend the franchise to illegal aliens whose very first act is to violate our laws; that encourages contempt for the law.

While laws in all 50 states bar noncitizens from voting in state elections, and federal law makes it a felony for noncitizens to vote in federal elections, there is an opening in local elections, von Spakovsky acknowledged.

Seven jurisdictions - including 6 in Maryland and one in Chicago  afforded voting rights to noncitizens, Ron Hayduk, a political science professor at Queens College of the City University of New York, told the Chronicle.
A California judge who was censured for having sex with an intern and a lawyer in his chambers won re-election Tuesday over an opponent who promised to restore integrity to the bench.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Scott Steiner won 56.3 percent of the vote, according to unofficial results, edging out prosecutor Karen Schatzle by more than 45,000 votes, The Los Angeles Times reported.

Steiner became a judge in 2011 and was censured by a judicial oversight panel three years later for having sex with two women in his chambers. Steiner had previously taught both women at Chapman Universitys law school. The judge expressed remorse for his acts, The Times reported, and the panel opted for censure instead of removal from the bench.

Engaging in sexual intercourse in the courthouse is the height of irresponsible and improper behavior by a judge, the Commission on Judicial Performance wrote in its censure decision.

Schatzle used the scandal regularly in her rhetoric while challenging Steiner for his seat.

Scott Steiner has made a mockery of what our community expects of our judiciary, Schatzle said on her website.
Illegal immigrants hoping to win entry into the U.S. under a judge's interpretation of border policy are kidnapping children and then posing as families before attempting to cross the Mexican border, a top Justice Department official told a federal appeals court on Tuesday.

The claim, reported by The Washington Times, was made by Deputy Assistant Attorney General Leon Fresco, who was defending the Obama administrations policy of detaining illegal immigrant parents and children caught together at the border. The case was an appeal of a federal judge's order in a civil case brought by illegal imigrant families that agents release families quickly.

When people now know that when I come as a family unit, I wont be apprehended and detained  we now have people being abducted so that they can be deemed as family units, so that they can avoid detention, Fresco told the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency that handles detention and deportation, declined to comment.

Peter Schey, president of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, which is representing illegal immigrant families detained under the old policy in their suit against the government, told the newspaper there was no evidence to back Frescos claim.

We know zero instances of that, and theres zero support for that anywhere in the record, he said. If they know of any such instances, I would think they would bring the actual instances to the attention of the court.

Unaccompanied minors from nations not bordering the U.S., who under a 1990s ruling must be processed quickly and released, have flooded across the border over the last two years. But the latest controversy involves illegal immigrant families who travel from Central America through Mexico to reach the border.

The Obama administration has opened several new detention facilities to hold the families until they can be deported in an effort to signal those still in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras that trying to enter the U.S. will be futile.

Immigrant rights advocates challenged the detention. Last year U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee agreed and issued an order that all children, including those who travel with families, be processed and released without delay.

Fresco told the appeals court on Tuesday that the 1990s ruling was supposed to apply only to unaccompanied minors, and made his statement that applying it across the board invited kidnappings.

Click for more from The Washington Times.
Donald Trumps rise has fueled an identity crisis of sorts for the Republican Party  and now, the GOP is seeking the publics help defining what the party of 2016 represents.

On the heels of the final primary contests that solidified Trumps claim to the nomination, the Republican National Committee on Wednesday launched an interactive website, www.platform.gop, for people to share what they would like to see in the partys platform. That document will be drafted and adopted at the convention in July.

While Democrats are letting party insiders write their platform behind closed doors, Platform.gop is proof of our Partys philosophy of listening to the voice of the people and honoring the democratic process, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said in a statement.

The site asks users to explore six general policy categories  ranging from foreign policy to the economy to natural resources. Within each, users can rate what matters most to them by dragging and dropping pre-set issues into a top-three list.

For instance, on the economy, users are asked to pick from: balancing the budget, homeownership, infrastructure, innovation, jobs, tax reform and trade. The RNC also includes a space for additional comments.

The unique move to open up the platform debate to the public follows some tensions in the party over how its presumptive presidential nominee might try to tweak the GOPs guiding document of goals and principles.

Trump earned historic support in the primaries in part by attracting independents and cross-over Democrats. He did not campaign as a doctrinaire conservative and, rather, has been famously fluid in his positions over the years  over the course of the 2016 race, Trump bucked traditional party stances on key issues ranging from trade to entitlements to taxes.

All this stirred speculation and concern from some corners that he may try to remake the platform in his image. Supporters of ex-candidate Ted Cruz even urged fellow conservatives to make sure to fight for their principles in the platform committee at the convention.

At the same time, Trumps team apparently has telegraphed that theyre not planning major changes.

During meetings on Capitol Hill last month, Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort reportedly told lawmakers they werent pursuing platform changes, according to a report at the time in BuzzFeed. Priebus also told the Associated Press he doesnt think Trump is interested in rewriting the platform of the Republican Party."

But Iowa GOP Rep. Steve King, a Cruz supporter and delegate, told FoxNews.com last month: I have not yet seen a real effort to change the platform. But my point from the beginning is that we have to be prepared.

Priebus, in a video on the new website, said the RNC launched the platform site so people can add their voice to the process of establishing and reaffirming our partys core principles during one of the most important elections of our lifetime.

He made clear this will include an unshakable commitment to life, individual liberty, a strong national defense and an economy that creates opportunities for every American.
A writer for the Huffington Post is defending his recent op-ed that "a violent response is the logical approach to stopping presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.

Jesse Benn wrote in the op-ed titled Sorry Liberals, A Violent Response To Trump Is As Logical As Any, posted on Monday, [T]heres an inherent value in forestalling Trumps normalization. Violent resistance accomplishes this.

"These denunciations of violence from anti-Trump protestors rest on the misguided view that the divide Trumps exposed is a typical political disagreement between partisans, and should be handled as such.," he wrote. "This couldnt be further from the truth. Trump might not be a fascist in the 20th century European sense of the termthough many of his supporters arebut he might represent its 21st century US version."

"Violent resistance matters. Riots can lead to major change," Benn wrote. "Its not liberal politicians or masses that historians identify as the spark underlying the modern movement for LGBTQ equality. Nor was it a think piece from some smarmy liberal writer. It was the people who took to the streets during the Stonewall Uprising."

"Assuming anti-Trump protests should be strictly focused on electoral politics and not these broader goals would be a detrimental oversight," he wrote. "Understanding European anti-fascists use of violent tactics to shut down large rallies from White Supremacists can be illustrative here. Because while Trump isnt leading full bore White Supremacist rallies, there is value in making it clear that even his fascism-lite has no place in civilized society."

Benn took to Twitter to defend his piece.

"It is funny I wrote that piece specifically calling out liberals but its #AltRight fanatics/White Supremacists throwing a tantrum over it," he wrote.

It'd make what happened in #SanJose look like a spat between preschoolers. #Trump supporters are among the most violent people in the US.  Jesse Benn (@JesseBenn) June 8, 2016

He also received plenty of backlash online.

Some1 needs to step up and take out people like @JesseBenn that incite violence vs innocent ppl.His hate speech needs retaliation #trump2016  wguy13 (@wguy13) June 8, 2016

@JesseBenn I think your beliefs are dangerous so i hope you get mugged on the way home. Its for the good of America really.  Plutonium Field (@PlutoniumField) June 8, 2016

If that wasnt enough, The Huffington Post also included a not-so-subtle editors note at the bottom of an article Wednesday on a survey about Trumps controversial Latino judge comments. The addendum noted: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims  1.6 billion members of an entire religion  from entering the U.S.

All this comes nearly a week after an editor with the website Vox was suspended for a series of tweets encouraging protesters to "start a riot" at Donald Trump rallies  shortly after the Republican candidate's supporters were attacked outside a San Jose rally the night before.

"We welcome a variety of viewpoints, but we do not condone writing that could put others in danger, the site's founder, Ezra Klein, said in a statement announcing the suspension of Emmett Rensin.

Rensin, deputy editor for the site's first-person section, had taken to Twitter as reports first emerged of the chaotic scenes last Thursday night outside the California rally, where protesters confronted supporters of the presumptive GOP nominee as they departed. Supporters were punched, and one woman was seen on film being hit with an egg and other trash.
President Obama will meet with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders at the White House Thursday after Hillary Clinton wrapped up the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday with a string of convincing primary victories.

The White House said Sanders requested the meeting after Obama called both Democratic candidates late Tuesday. A statement from the White House said Obama "thanked Senator Sanders for energizing millions of Americans with his commitment to issues like fighting economic inequality and special interests' influence on our politics."

Obama did not formally endorse Clinton in the call, but congratulated her on "securing the delegates necessary to clinch" the Democratic nomination. Clinton, Obama's former secretary of state, crossed the magic delegate number with a win in the New Jersey primary.

Sanders was trying to effectively end his nomination battle with Clinton on a high note by winning the California primary. However, early returns, mostly made up of absentee ballots, showed Clinton with a sizable advantage.

A senior Sanders campaign official told Fox News Tuesday that Sanders planned to return to his home in Vermont Wednesday before flying to Washington to meet with Obama. The official said Sanders had no plans to meet with Clinton in the coming days.

Fox News' Jake Gibson and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders will lay off "over half" of his campaign staff over the next week, a senior campaign official confirmed to Fox News Wednesday.

Confirmation of the layoffs, which were first reported by The New York Times, came after Sanders vowed to continue his bid for the Democratic nomination despite Hillary Clinton securing a majority of pleged delegates and superdelegates ahead of next month's convention.

The Times reported that most of those being laid off are advance and field staff members, some of whom may be moved to jobs at Sanders' Senate office. Politico reported that campaign personnel whose work isn't related to next month's District of Columbia primary or the convention will be let go.

"Most of the field staff will likely get their 10-day notice tomorrow because there's no work for then to do," a former Sanders state director told Politico.

Sanders plans to return to his home in Vermont Wendesday before traveling to Washington Thursday for meetings with President Barack Obama and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid.

Fox News' Lauren Blanchard contributed to this report.
This is what it looks like when the whole world is against you.

The media are denouncing Donald Trump. The Democrats are denouncing Donald Trump. Other Republicans are denouncing Donald Trumpin fact, not a single prominent member of the GOP is defending him.

And it all stems from a self-inflicted wound.

When the House speaker, Paul Ryan, who just reluctantly endorsed Trump, describes Trumps remarks about a judge of Mexican heritage as a textbook racist comment that is indefensible, youve got a problem.

Trump tried to subtly tone things down when Bill OReilly asked him about the firestorm. Trump had doubled and tripled down in a series of interviewswith the Wall Street Journal, CNN and CBSsaying that U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel could not be fair to him in the Trump University suit because of his Mexican heritage. Curiel was born in Indiana.

On the Factor, without retracting his previous comments, Trump said: I dont care if the judge is Mexican or not.

He also tried to shift the spotlight to the press: The question was asked to me. Trump said he would rather be talking about other issues, but every time I go onto a show, all they want to do is talk about Trump UniversityFrankly, I dont even like wasting my time talking about this lawsuit.

But any candidate can brush off questions he doesnt want to deal with, as Trump sometimes does. Its harder when youve made an ethnic-based criticism against a sitting federal judge, that journalists naturally want to ask about.

Trump tried again yesterday with a campaign statement: "It is unfortunate that my comments have been misconstrued as a categorical attack against people of Mexican heritage...I do not feel that ones heritage makes them incapable of being impartial, but, based on the rulings that I have received in the Trump University civil case, I feel justified in questioning whether I am receiving a fair trial."

But the most important sentence may have been this one: "I do not intend to comment on this matter any further."

During the primaries, there was a similar uproar over Trumps proposal to temporarily bar Muslims from entering the United States, with widespread media and political condemnation. But it turned out that most Republican primary voters agreed with him. Now, however, Trump has to deal with a much broader electorate.

More important, the Muslim proposal was connected to national security. Whether you found the plan offensive or not, Trump could always pivot to the argument that we had to get the system under control to ensure that Islamic terrorists didnt slip through and kill innocent people.

But the only larger issue in the Curiel case involves one of Trumps business ventures. The allegations have been kicking around, and journalists have been writing about them, for years. So Trump has allowed his campaign to be diverted over a private grievance at a time when he is trying to unite the GOP against Hillary Clinton.

The media are loving this, and not just because its a juicy story. For a year now, journalists have been reporting on Trump saying controversial and inflammatory things and predicting his imminent demise, only to see him keep winning. So there is a bit of see-we-told-you-so now that this story has blown up.

Newt Gingrich, despite reports that he is on Trumps VP list, said it was the candidates biggest mistake. Lindsey Graham, who had been tiptoeing toward a rapproachement with Trump, is now asking GOP leaders to un-endorse him. It has been painful to watch other Republicans, from Mitch McConnell to Chris Christie to Bob Corker, dance around the controversy.

Former rivals like Marco Rubio cant resist: I ran for president, and I warned this was going to happen.

And the press seems determined to make this a Republican Party problem.

Just take a look at the Washington Posts op-ed page yesterday:

George Will: The Big Price Paul Ryan Has Paid for Supporting Donald Trump.

Richard Cohen: Paul Ryans Profile in Cowardice.

Dana Milbank: Republicans Discover that Trump is an Actual Racist.

Gene Robinson: Endorsing Trump Will Leave a Mark.

And he gets whacked by the New York Times editorial page: Mr. Trump holds the rule of law in contempt.

Plus, Buzzfeed has decreed that he is so odious it is canceling a million-dollar RNC advertising contract on Trumps behalf.

Youre even starting to see comments like this, from CNBC contributor and former anchor Ron Insana:

I am beginning to think Trump will not be the Republican candidate for president this year. The GOP may abandon him. He may not be able to field a VP. He can't find surrogates. I predict he may take his ball and go home.

Trump isnt going anywhere. The question is whether his statement enables him to move on from this mess and how much he has damaged himself, especially with Hispanic voters and leaders of his own party.

He has been a master of changing the subject in the past. But scrutiny as a general election nominee is more intense than when youre mocking your rivals as Lyin Ted and Little Marco. Trump had better hope that Clinton, who has clinched her own nomination, is subjected to the same level of media probing and skepticism.
Donald Trump said in an interview Wednesday that he has narrowed down his search for a running mate to just four or five names, and that the list includes former 2016 rivals.

In an interview with Bloomberg Politics, Trump said among them is one former foe who has not even endorsed the presumptive Republican nominee, but who he predicted will come over to my side.

Trump did not offer specific names, although he did say that two of the possible picks are military officials. However, he said he was less likely to pick one because of the fact that I think Im going to do well on national security.

He also ruled out someone with Wall Street experience, saying: "I dont need that type of ability."

Former rivals rumored to be being considered include Ohio Gov. John Kasich, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. In May, Trump said he was not considering Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for the job.

When asked how he would announce the pick, he said he would keep it under his hat until the convention.

"Id like to save it, give it the old fashioned way, right? Trump said.

Click for more from Bloomberg Politics.
Two eyes painted on a newly discovered Egyptian coffin seem to stare out from across millennia, conveying the secrets of the ancient Egyptian elite.

The coffin, discovered this year in the necropolis at Qubbet el-Hawa across the Nile River from Aswan, belonged to an important local woman, Sattjeni, daughter of one governor, wife of another and mother of two more, said excavation leader Alejandro Jimenez-Serrano, an Egyptologist at the University of Jaen in Spain.

Sattjeni's mummified body was buried in two cedar coffins made of wood imported from Lebanon. Though the outer coffin had degraded over the nearly 4,000 years since Sattjeni's death, her inner coffin was in excellent condition, according to Egypt's antiquities ministry, which announced the discovery May 24. [See Photos of Sattjeni's Elaborate Burial]

Sattjeni was not a royal, but her family practiced royal strategies to hold on to their governing power: She married her sister's widower, and the family also associated itself with the ram-headed deity Khnum, much as pharaohs intermarried to keep power in the family and claimed to be descended from the gods.

In an email interview with Live Science, Jimenez-Serrano revealed more about the excavations at Qubbet el-Hawa and the life of Sattjeni.

Live Science: Tell us about the excavations at west Aswan. What kinds of artifacts and structures do you find at this site? What was this area used for during the Middle Kingdom (between about 2000 B.C. and 1700 B.C.)?

Jimenez-Serrano: Qubbet el-Hawa is one of the most important nonroyal necropolises of ancient Egypt. Its importance lies in the great quantity and quality of the biographical inscriptions carved in the facades of the funerary complexes. The necropolis was mainly used to bury the highest officials of the nearby town of Elephantine, the capital of the southernmost province of Egypt, at the end of the third millennium and the beginning of the second (2200 B.C. to 1775 B.C). The governors were buried together with their relatives; the members of their courts (officials and domestic service) were buried in other smaller and less-decorated tombs. Thus, today, we know the existence of 100 tombs, of which only 80 have been completely cleared.

During the Middle Kingdom, especially during the 12th Dynasty (1950 B.C. to 1775 B.C.), the governors of Elephantine built giant funerary complexes in the necropolis of Qubbet el-Hawa. Some of them are beautifully decorated and have important inscriptions.

Live Science: How did you uncover the burial of Sattjeni? What was that moment like?

Jimenez-Serrano: In 2013, we discovered the upper part of a chamber, which belonged to a tomb that was probably quarried in the Byzantine period (fifth century A.D.). In the walls of this chamber, there was a Christian prayer painted by the Coptics. Thus, we thought that the area was disturbed. However, that chamber at the end was not a chamber, but the beginning of a shaft. During this year, we began the excavation of the shaft, and the more that we excavated, the more we got the sensation that a great discovery might appear ... and it appeared!

The worker called me, and I went to the bottom of the shaft, where there was a tiny aperture. With a torch, I could have a look inside, and the first thing that I could see were hieroglyphs. Later, we could determine that those hieroglyphs were on the coffins of the Lady Sattjeni. [Photos: More Than 40 Tombs Discovered in Upper Egypt]

Live Science: Who was Sattjeni, and why was she an important figure?

Jimenez-Serrano: Sattjeni was the second daughter of one of the most important figures of the 12th Dynasty, the governor Sarenput II. Unfortunately, her brother Ankhu died shortly after his father, and there were no male successors. So she and her sister Gaut-Anuket had the rights of the rule in Elephantine. The latter married a certain official called Heqaib and converted him into the new governor of Elephantine: Heqaib II. However, we suspect that Gaut-Anuket did not live much time, because Sattjeni married Heqaib II. They had at least two children, who became the governors of Elephantine successively, as Heqaib III and Ameny-Seneb.

Live Science: What does this discovery tell you about 12th Dynasty society?

Jimenez-Serrano: This discovery shows that the local dynasties of the periphery of the State emulated the royal family. In this concrete case, we can confirm that women were the holders of the dynastic rights. Probably, the members of these families married as the royal family  brother with sister  in order to keep the divine blood "pure." We must not forget that Sattjeni's family declared themselves heirs of a local god.

Live Science: What were the coffins like, and was there anything interesting about their construction or preservation?

Jimenez-Serrano: We are still investigating why the outer coffin was so decayed compared to the inner [one], which was in perfect condition. Both were made with the same foreign wood: cedar from Lebanon. Perhaps the inner coffin was treated with an organic substance that we have not yet detected.

(This interview was edited lightly for length and clarity.)
The Federal Aviation Administration has warned pilots flying on the west coast of potential GPS outages.

In a recent Notice to Airmen (NOTAM), the agency alerts pilots to upcoming "GPS Interference Testing," which will reportedly be conducted by the US military this month. As a result, GPS signals in the southwestern US could be blocked for up to six hours (between 12:30 and 6:30 p.m. ET) on June 7, 9, 21, 23, 28, and 30.

According to Gizmodo, the experiments are happening near the Naval Air Weapons Center (NAWC) in China Lake, Californiaa 1.1-million-acre range with 20,000 square miles of controlled airspace in the Mojave Desert. The Navy, however, hasn't provided much detail about what it's actually doing.

The military jammers work above 50 feet, so pedestrians and motorists shouldn't notice any disruptions to their in-car GPS or mapping apps. But planes are a different story. The FAA says its note "applies to all aircraft relying on GPS."

Specifically, the FAA recommends that Embraer Phenom (EMB) 300 business jets avoid the area entirely during this month's testing, as the experiments could affect the aircraft's "flight stability controls." A map posted by the FAA suggests the blockades could expand to neighboring states.

The NAWC did not immediately respond to PCMag's request for comment. But a spokeswoman told Gizmodo that it is "aware of the flight advisory," but declined to provide further details, adding that "it's general testing for our ranges."

This article originally appeared on PCMag.com.
Technology leaders are meeting in San Francisco this week to discuss making the Internet a more decentralized, secure, and less censored place, with an emphasis on privacy and preserving history.

The event, called the Decentralized Web Summit, is focused on locking the web open.

The idea is that the Web could be a place where governments dont spy or censor information, where culture is preserved, and information is stored in a decentralized way.

Related: ISIS taps tech for Web radio

The Decentralized Web aims to make the Web open, secure and free of censorship by distributing data, processing, and hosting across millions of computers around the world, with no centralized control, the summits website declares.

Among the speakers at the summit is Tim Berners-Lee, the 1989 creator of the World Wide Web. He spoke about its current shortcomings with The New York Times.

It controls what people see, creates mechanisms for how people interact, Berners-Lee said. Its been great, but spying, blocking sites, repurposing peoples content, taking you to the wrong websites  that completely undermines the spirit of helping people create.

Related: Case shines spotlight on translation, tech in policing

Another focus is on new digital payment systems a move away from entering credit card information and towards new tech that gives people more control and takes the focus away from advertising.

Ad revenue is the only model for too many people on the web now, Berners-Lee told the Times. People assume todays consumer has to make a deal with a marketing machine to get stuff for free, even if theyre horrified by what happens with their data. Imagine a world where paying for things was easy on both sides.

He added that he thought the Web was already decentralized, it just needed more options than one search engine, for example.

Follow news about the summit on Twitter: #DWebSummit
Looking for the hottest cities to visit this summer?

Dont take this list too literally. Some of these destinations aren't especially warm during the summer months but they are burning up with airfare deals-- and among the cheapest destinations for June, July and August.

But yes, most are also hot in the sense they are fun places to visit with great restaurants, nightlife, and plenty of seasonal festival throughout the coming weeks.

10 cheap destination deals for summer 2016

Boston, Denver, Seattle: These three cities have been making the cheap lists for years now, thanks to robust competition among low cost carriers including Frontier, JetBlue, Spirit and more. If you like history, youll love Boston plus its a grand gateway to New England. Denver is your portal to the Old (and new) West, while Seattle combines sophistication, scenery and plenty of fun nightlife.

Chicago and Washington, D.C.: Two newcomers to the cheap list, thanks to increased airline competition. If you havent seen the monuments of the nations capital, now is the time (and dont miss the multi-museums of the Smithsonian). Chicago is always loads of fun; enjoy attractions like the Navy Pier on Lake Michigan and gorge on the deep-dish pizza.

Dallas and Houston: Texas has taken off ever since the restrictions of the Wright Amendment were lifted a few years back (which kept Southwest from offering many non-stops from these cities). There are plenty of outdoorsy things to do plus designer shopping opportunities and of course, excellent Tex-Mex grub.

Dublin: Irelands capital has been one of the cheapest cities of Europe for years now. After exploring Dublins many charms, hop in a rental car to visit castles and countryside. You can also use the city as your jumping-off point for the rest of Europe with cheap flights from discounters like EasyJet, Ryanair and more.

Oslo and Stockholm: There have been some incredible deals to these Scandinavian cities thanks to European low cost carriers like Wow Air and Norwegian Air Shuttle. A recent deal on Wows website: Los Angeles to Stockholm from $199 one-way in July.

Honorable Mention

Cancun, Mexico and Costa Rica cities: Not just for spring breakers. These make the list thanks to the heated competition from JetBlue and Southwest. If youre looking for a Caribbean-area paradise, check out these beautiful beaches.

Southern Florida: Both Miami and Ft. Lauderdale trade places in a game of 'which is cheaper'-- but thats no problem for travelers since the airports are a mere 25 miles apart. Either way, you get fun in the sun.

New Orleans: Were seeing more and more deals to this charming city every year. Sure, Louisiana summers can be on the steamy side, but the Big Easys restaurants are air-conditioned and the jambalaya and gumbo always superb.

Paris: This is currently the cheapest of the Big Three (the others being London and Rome) from many stateside departure cities, but no matter what it costs, its worth it. The Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, walks along the Seine, this is one city that should not be missed.

Vancouver: Airfare prices have been inching down for this glittering British Columbia city. Boasting unique charms like lots of outdoorsy fun amidst glorious scenery plus elegant and eclectic dining and club scenes. If you like, fly to cheap Seattle; Vancouver is less than 3 hours away by car.

But how do you really find the cheapest deal to any of these cities... or others? You must compare ticket prices on an airfare search site. If you only check prices with a single airline, you could wind up paying way too much.
A Celebrity Cruises ship, the Celebrity Infinity, crashed into a dock in Ketchikan, Alaska, Friday, causing an estimated $2 to $3 million in damage.

According to the Alaska Dispatch News, the Celebrity Infinity was approaching the dock in Berth 3 when longshoremen, port security personnel and Celebrity employees began to flee the area as they noticed the ships approach wasnt going as planned.

There were no injuries reported from any passengers or crew onboard the ship, nor were there any injuries to the personnel on or near the dock when the accident occurred. Officials did acknowledge that winds were gusting up to 45 miles per hour at the time of the crash.

A video of the Celebrity Infinity crashing into the dock was shared on YouTube:

The Celebrity Infinity was moved to Berth 2 as investigators tried to determine the cause of the accident and the extent of the damage to both the dock and the ship itself. Officials believe the dock will be back in service within two months, and crew members from Celebrity Cruises began working on repairs to the ship soon after.

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Royal Caribbean Cruises reported on Twitter that the ship was completely repaired and cleared by authorities.

#CelebrityInfinity was cleared by authorities and has set sail from Ketchikan, Alaska. She will continue on her scheduled itinerary.  RCLcorp (@RCLcorp) June 4, 2016

After completing repairs, the Celebrity Infinity set sail on June 4.
Police in New York were searching for a former Navy SEAL and Afghan war veteran Tuesday after he skipped bail on a 2015 arrest on assault and other charges, the LI Herald reported.

Nathanael Lalo Roberti, 33, was arrested during an April 2015 altercation in Long Beach, N.Y. and faced charges of assault, strangulation, unlawful imprisonment and criminal possession of a weapon.

He was released on $1,000 bail but failed to appear at a recent court date at Nassau County Criminal Court.

Roberti repeatedly threatened police officers who responded to the dispute at the time, but authorities would not comment further on the incident.

Police made the initial announcement Monday that they were searching for Roberti, Long Beach Patch reported.

Roberti has brown hair, brown eyes and a tattoo sleeve on his left arm, police told the paper.

Authorities stressed that the public use caution if approaching Roberti, who is 6-foot-2 and weighs 230 pounds.

While overseas in 2005, Roberti participated in a major rescue mission in Afghanistan, the Herald reported. He was later awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal. Roberti wrote in 2014 that he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.

In 2013, he recounted to NPR that he had trouble adjusting to civilian life in the United States. I pulled a knife on four individuals, thats why I ended up in front of a judge, he told the outlet. Wed come back from these deployments, and I just felt like, I cannot relate to anybody in the United States.

Roberti is also the founder LALO Tactical, a California-based footwear company, Patch reported.

Anyone with information on Roberti and his whereabouts are asked to call the Long Beach, N.Y. Police Department at (516) 431-1800. Beside New York, he previously lived in California and Virginia, police said.

Long Beach is located on Long Island, about 30 miles east of New York City.
Two South Carolina Air National Guard F-16 fighter pilots ejected safely after an apparent midair collision in eastern Georgia, the Guard said.

The collision happened about 9:15 p.m. Tuesday during night training operations over a remote military operating area in Jefferson County, Georgia, a National Guard spokeswoman said.

The jets were assigned to the South Carolina Air National Guard's 169th Fighter Wing, which operates out of McEntire Joint National Guard Base in Eastover, South Carolina.

The two male pilots were taken to a hospital, said 1st Lt. Stephen Hudson, a spokesman for the Guard.

Guard spokeswoman Col. Cindi King said Wednesday morning she could not say whether the pilots had been released from medical care.

"The good news is, they were able to eject safely and contact the base immediately to say they were both okay," King said.

There were no immediate reports of injuries on the ground.

"We are dealing with two crash sites," Hudson said. Local first responders were securing the area and providing emergency services, the Guard's news release said.

McEntire Joint National Guard Base commander Col. Nicholas Gentile was heading to the crash scene Wednesday morning, King said. The South Carolina Army National Guard was flying Gentile to Georgia aboard a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter, King said.

"With the sun out, they will be able to see the area," she said, adding that the Blackhawk helicopters will help in their ability to fly over and assess potential damage.

The area is known as the Townsend Bombing Range and South Carolina Air National Guard fighter jets routinely train there for their electronic warfare and bombing missions.

King said South Carolina National Guard commander Maj. Gen. Robert Livingston Jr. was in Washington on Tuesday night when he got news of the crashes and was returning to Columbia to be updated.

The South Carolina Air National Guard and the U.S. Air Force are dispatching teams to investigate the collision.

The collision comes after both of the military's precision flying teams suffered crashes last week.

A Blue Angels F/A-18 crashed last Thursday near Nashville, Tennessee, while taking off for a practice session. The pilot, Marine Capt. Jeff Kuss, was killed.

Also Thursday, a Thunderbirds F-16 crashed outside Colorado Springs, Colorado, but that pilot, Maj. Alex Turner, ejected safely. The Thunderbirds had just performed over the open-air graduation ceremony at the nearby Air Force Academy, where President Barack Obama spoke.
Authorities in central Florida are trying to figure out how an alligator got ahold of a dead body Tuesday near a lake.

Lakeland police said they first received a 911 call in the morning after someone reported seeing the alligator with a body in its mouth on the shore of Lake Hunter.

Police said the body found Tuesday is that of a male, and preliminarily appears to have been deceased for at least a day. Lakeland is located about 35 miles east of Tampa.

It appears  prematurely, a little early  that maybe this body was in the lake more than a day from looking at the body, said Lakeland police spokesman Sgt. Gary Gross in a video from the scene. It doesnt appear to have just occurred.

LIVE on #Periscope: Body pulled out of the lake in Lakeland - Police Investigation https://t.co/R5yPcm33zS  Sgt. Gary B Gross (@GaryBGross) June 7, 2016

When officials arrived at the scene, the alligator let go of the body and swam away, police said.

Watch on #Periscope: Body pulled out of the lake in Lakeland - Police Investigation https://t.co/lVQqr9s5gH  Sgt. Gary B Gross (@GaryBGross) June 7, 2016

It wasn't known if the alligator killed the person or simply found the dead body. Gross said a medical examiner will have to determine the cause of death.

Officials from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission responded to the scene and will attempt to trap the alligator, Fox 13 reported.

Click for more from Fox 13.
Five bicyclists were killed and four injured Tuesday when a pickup truck seen driving erratically moments earlier plowed into them just north of Kalamazoo, Mich., police said.

One neighbor who saw the truck after the accident told The Detroit Free Press that it "looked like it hit a brick wall."

The driver tried to flee on foot, but was nabbed shortly after the 7 p.m. incident, said police. The horrific scene took place near a park in Cooper Township, and local prosecutor Jeffrey Getting said the bicyclists were pronounced dead at the scene.

Neither the suspect nor the dead and injured were immediately identified. Authorities said the driver was a 50-year-old man from western Michigan, and that no children were hurt.

Getting said police had received multiple calls warning were made about the pickup earlier Tuesday "over concerns" about erratic driving. He said authorities had been searching for the driver, but there was no active pursuit at the time of the accident.

A hospital spokesperson told Fox 17 that one of the injured victims was in critical condition while a second was in fair condition. The status of the other two injured victims was not immediately clear.

Paul Selden of the Kalamazoo Bicycle Club told MLive that he knew of a group of bicyclists who held regular rides and would have been in the vicinity of the park at the time of the crash.

"What I have seen of these riders in the past and the way (they) organize the rides, they always were led in a safe manner," he said.

Witness Markus Eberhard told WOOD-TV that he was leaving the park after going fishing when someone yelled at him to watch out. Eberhard said the pickup truck almost ran over his foot before striking the bikers.

"I saw a bunch of bikes hit the front of his truck and a couple of them flew," Eberhard said.

"All I heard was a pop and a really big crash noise," witness Arika Kruger told the station. "We didnt see anybody walk away."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Atlanta police said they've found a car belonging to a woman who was stabbed to death in west Tennessee as investigators continue to search for a suspect in the killing.

Police said the blue 2013 Buick Verano was found Monday southeast of downtown Atlanta.



Police in Memphis, Tennessee, said Raymond Clark is being sought on murder and kidnapping warrants in the killing of his former girlfriend, Zeneatrice Crawford, in Memphis.



Police said Clark argued with Crawford and then stabbed her repeatedly while both were in the Buick Verano on Saturday in Memphis. They said her body was later found behind a vacant house in a north Memphis neighborhood.



Atlanta police said the driver of the car found in Atlanta -- whom they didn't identify -- left the scene on foot.
Editors Note: Entrepreneurs 20 Questions series features established, along with up-and-coming entrepreneurs and asks them a series of questions about what makes them tick, their everyday success strategies and advice for aspiring founders.

For Jeff Chapin, bringing ideas to life is what makes him tick and excites him. I get pride in seeing people creating great stuff whatever their area is, he says.

As the former designer at famed innovation firm IDEO, Chapin definitely got to see his fair share of dreams turn into reality. Yet, after having worked on big projects, Chapin was ready to tackle his own passion project: turning the mattress industry on its head.

Theres a big issue in society that people only get a few hours of sleep a night, which can have huge life and productivity impact, he says. Its a huge potential business opportunity to create a market in that realm.

Chapin did just that. He, along with four others, saw an opportunity to disrupt the mattress industry after witnessing customers continually overwhelmed by the multiple mattress options, lack of customer service and complicated return policies.

So, in 2014 the small team launched New York City-based Casper, an ecommerce mattress startup focused on creating a streamlined and simplified experience through an all size fits all mattress and a seamless return policy. In doing so, the Casper team seized the chance to disrupt the $14 billion mattress industry.

The opportunity we saw was just to try to help people sleep better and change how they balance sleep with the rest of the decisions in their life, Chapin says. Being underslept in New York City, seeing focused companies tackle industries and the success they were having, combined with our past experience got us excited to give it a shot.

Now, after recently surpassing $100 million in business, the company has gone from a staff of five to 150 employees in less than three years. It has expanded to include sheets and pillows, while also currently experimenting with more products focusing on the practice of sleeping overall.

Now looking at the long-term game, idea-man Chapin is excited by the myriad of possibilities Casper aims to explore as it works to go international.

To understand what made this entrepreneur tick and his keys to success and growth, we caught up with Chapin and asked him 20 questions:

1. How do you start your day?

I have a dog named Alta, so I start by running with my dog around 6:30 or 7 in the morning. I try best not to check my phone or email until I at least do that and have breakfast.

The reason being is my default is to do many things at once, or rush to the next thing. Real life rarely allows us to get a full eight hours of sleep or an entire hour to run with the dog in the morning, but that doesn't mean we can't use those six hours of sleep or 30 minutes to run and clear the head, right?

2. How do you end your day?

Some nights I watch Game of Thrones, but when Im better behaved, I read. I read a lot of nonfiction, so I can keep learning. Mostly I read about science, technology, design and sometimes history. Anything that tells me how the world works.

3. Whats a book that changed your mind?

Tower and the Bridge, a professor of mine in college wrote it.

When I started college, I was headed down the path of becoming a chemist. I'd always wanted to wear a lab coat and work in a lab. But when I read this book in my first year of college for a class about structural art -- essentially, the beauty found in architecture and engineering -- it was so captivating I switched majors and pursued a civil engineering degree focused on structures. To this day, it's still a reference for me in my work, even though I've switched from structures to products and work on a much smaller physical scale.

4. Whats a book you always recommend?

Making of the Atomic Bomb, a story of the U.S. effort to build the atomic bomb. Its a beautifully written book about the science and technology behind it. I dont think many people think of a non-fiction book as page turner, but it sucked me in.

There's incredible science (described in a very understandable way), tension around the morality of building an atomic bomb, egos and personality conflicts, along with the fact that many of the scientists were Jews expunged from Nazi Europe creating the ultimate weapon to destroy Nazism. It's a good read. A lot of people haven't had great experiences with non-fiction, so I think it surprises them.

5. Whats a strategy to keep focused?

I have to remove distractions. Its pretty simple. Headphones and music with no words and an office where theres no people.

6. When you were a kid what did you want to be when you grew up?

I thought I was going to be a scientist. I wanted to wear a lab coat and be in a science lab, all clean and pure. I started in college as a chemical engineer and then I took this guys class who created this notion that form follows art, the idea engineers and scientists can create beautiful things.

7. What did you learn from the worst boss you ever had?

I had a boss who was both sexist and racist. I observed him treating women and African Americans terribly and making bad candid comments to me. It was extreme.

Everyone deserves a fair shot regardless of their background. You just cant judge anyone from their background. It was shocking to work with someone like that, because I had not been exposed to that before. I didnt keep the job long.

8. Who has influenced you most when it comes to how you approach your work?

My parents. They were builders. It was their passion and hobby to always be making things and fixing the house. It was this notion to not overthink something and just take an initial idea, build it and improve it over time. Nothing is permanent; you can make it better later.

9. Whats a trip that changed you?

In 2009, I moved to Cambodia for six months and worked with a nonprofit to do a rural sanitation project.

I had always been a part of an institution. I learned you can do something on your own, even though you've always been a part of these institutions. You dont need them; you can go on your own to learn, grow and continue to succeed.

10. What inspires you?

Im inspired by good citizens -- people who contribute to their communities. So much of society relies on good citizens to function, but it's not talked about all that much.

They're everywhere in the country, filling holes that our government can't fill. I am blown away by dedicated people helping hold society together.

11. What was your first business idea and what did you do with it?

In grad school, we were all surfers in New England. We made a dry glove for surfing and called it Furance Surf. It still exists.

Eventually I peeled out. We were all very much the same people, and you really should start a business with people different from yourself. There are a lot of reasons for that, but I'll boil it down to two. One, since there are so many different things that need to get done, it's incredibly helpful to be able to divide and conquer, Second, I believe you don't need more than one expert on any one topic. We all have opinions on everything, and we all share them and listen to them, but we each get a final say on our own area of the business. It helps us make decisions quickly and move faster.

12. What was an early job that taught you something important or useful?

My most influential job was working at IDEO for such a long time. I started there when I was 25 or 26 and worked there for 10 years.

One useful thing I learned was how to present. Youre always standing up telling your story, presenting your ideas and showing clients your work. That repetition took something that, for me, used to be very nerve-wracking, and now I enjoy it. It was a massive change.

13. Whats the best advice you ever took?

In undergrad we went to do a tour of an architecture office. Someone there advised us not to get married too early. Its weird advice, but if you want to build a career it's hard to do if you have family pressures and kids early on. Im 39 and still not married, so maybe I took it too much to heart. But I am engaged now.

14. What's the worst piece of advice you ever got?

When I was thinking about leaving IDEO there was a senior person who told me I was making a big mistake leaving, and Id never find another place like it. I think it's healthy for people to move on and find something new. If I waited even just a month or two, I wouldn't have been here.

15. Whats a productivity tip you swear by?

I ignore a lot of emails. For better or worse, it helps with my productivity, so I can focus on the task at hand.

16. Is there an app or tool you use in a surprising way to get things done or stay on track?

I still use sticky notes to make daily to-do lists. I make a list of what I need to do and check it off. Pencil and paper works for me better than anything Ive seen.

17. What does work-life balance mean to you?

I have a good signal for whether or not Im doing good at this or not. If I go to bed and Im not thinking about work, then Im doing OK in the work-life balance. Its about being able to shut off work at certain times.

18. How do you prevent burnout?

I like working, so Im not that at risk at burnout. I'm focused in the specific job I have and the field Ive chosen. We always take on new projects and for every new project there's things to learn about materials or functionality. As long as you're doing that, its hard to burn out, because the next thing is exciting.

19. When youre faced with a creativity block, whats your strategy?

Youre not going to be that creative sitting at your desk. Whatever it takes to do something with your body and hands and experience it is the solution. You have to create the right environment to do that and it's on us to create that environment now.

I leave the office and go to stores, talk to people in their homes, go to tradeshows.We also have a workshop, and you can go play around in the workshop and play with materials.

20. What are you learning now? Why is that important?

Most of my learning and thinking right now is about how to build and design the right office. I have to learn how to build a design culture, how to inspire people, how to enable them to come up with new ideas. Its becoming larger and past the point where I actually know what everyone's working on. For long-term sustainability, we have to get that infrastructure and attitude correct.

This interview was edited for clarity and brevity.
Senior officials from Georgia and Ukraine on Wednesday exhorted NATO members to bring the two nations into the alliance in order to protect them from Russia and cement ties with the West.

Georgia, a small post-Soviet nation in the South Caucasus intensified efforts to join the Western military alliance after it lost control of two breakaway provinces in a 2008 war with Russia. Ukraine's pro-Western leaders are also pushing for membership after Russia annexed its Crimean peninsula and supported pro-Russian insurgents in a two-year separatist conflict in the east of the country. Russia vehemently opposes both bids as a threat to its security.

Speaking several weeks ahead of a key NATO summit in Warsaw where the alliance will evaluate the two countries' membership prospects, Georgian Defense Minister Tina Khidasheli said that the United States has a strong interest in helping Georgia join NATO as a way of deterring Russia.

"You need Georgia even more than we need membership in NATO today," Khidasheli said at the Atlantic Council, a think tank. "Why? Because Georgia is an opportunity for you to prove to (the) Russians that they do not have veto power, that they do not guide your policies, they do not make decisions instead of you."

Hanna Hopko, head of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Ukrainian Parliament said that NATO membership would bring security guarantees to her war-scarred country that has already lost more than 9,300 people in the conflict.

"I ask you to think carefully about the real strategy (of) how to protect Ukrainian society from Russian aggression," Hopko said.

The statements came two days after NATO launched its biggest ever joint exercises in Poland amid strong concerns about Russia among eastern European nations.

Created after World War II to counter the Soviet Union, NATO has absorbed 12 former Communist nations since the 1991 break-up of the Soviet Union, strongly irritating Moscow, which says that NATO troops on its eastern borders threaten Russian security. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said this week that the NATO drills and military reinforcements in eastern Europe give Russia the right "to provide its own safety with methods that are adequate for today's risks."

John Mearsheimer, a political science professor at the University of Chicago, criticized NATO's enlargement, saying that it provoked Russian actions in Georgia and Ukraine.

"The idea that Ukraine is going to become a Western bulwark on their doorstep is simply unthinkable and they will wreck Ukraine before they let that happen," Mearsheimer said. "And of course this is what's happening now."

But Stephen Biegun, a former staff director at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, disagreed.

"NATO is not a threat to Russia," Beiegun said. "The expansion of NATO has created stable, peaceful, friendly states in central and eastern Europe that have contributed to the security of Russia as much as it has to anybody else on the European continent."
A Houston man convicted of drunken driving nine times since 1980 has been sentenced to life in prison.

The Montgomery County judge who sentenced Donald Middleton on Tuesday said the 56-year-old man is a habitual offender.

Middleton pleaded guilty last week to driving drunk in a May 2015 traffic accident.

Investigators say Middleton was arrested after he fled on foot after the wreck, ran to a store and begged the clerks not to turn him in.

Prosecutors say Middleton has already served four prison terms for alcohol-related convictions.
A Massachusetts college is alleging a student who was raped at a party is partly responsible because she was intoxicated and chose to follow a stranger onto a rooftop, according to court documents.

The Boston Globe reported Tuesday Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) made the arguments in response to a civil lawsuit filed last year in which the victim claims the college failed to provide a safe environment for its students.

The documents states that the school argues the victim made some risky choices that night and that the woman disregarded instructions and training on how to protect herself in a potential harmful situation.

President Laurie Leshin said the legal document was prepared by an insurance carrier and wasnt approved by the college. She said the college would never blame a victim for being raped.

The Globe reported that the victims lawyers said in a statement that the schools apparent argument is an attempt to harass, intimidate and re-victimize her.

Colby Bruno, a consultant for the womans attorney in the case, told the Globe the WPI lawsuit should set a precedent by ruling that a rape victim cant be held responsible for the crime.

No one can contribute to their own rape, no matter what, because everyone has the right to be free from rape, she said.

The woman in the case said she was assaulted by a security guard in 2012 at a college-leased apartment building in Puerto Rico.

William Rodriguez, the security guard, was convicted by a Puerto Rican jury for the crime and is serving a 20-year sentence.

Court documents state that Rodriguez was formerly a police officer but was convicted of selling bullets to an undercover official.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Click for more from The Boston Globe.
It was a beautiful spring afternoon on the East Coast. I had just finished a keynote for a client, and to say that I was in a hurry would be a slight understatement. With an alarmingly small window of time to catch my flight home, I quickly shook a few hands, hastily packed up my things, and tore into a run once I left the meeting room. As I sprinted through the hotel hallway, I heard equally fast footsteps in the distance. When I turned around, I was surprised to see one of my audience members chasing after me.

Thinking Id left something behind, I abruptly stopped. But instead of handing over my laptop power cord, he breathlessly exclaimed, Im so glad I caught you! I wanted to give you some feedback on your talk! And in about three minutes, this wonderful man provided a few unbelievably valuable ideas. The saying feedback is a gift is such a painful cliche that we often forget how true it really is.

But when was the last time someone (literally or metaphorically) chased you down to give you feedback? Most of us expect that if we have room to improve in a particular area, surely someone will say something. But sadly, this truism isnt true at all: we live in a world where people prefer telling pretty lies over the (sometimes ugly) truth.

Lets imagine a hypothetical meeting: Barb is making a presentation to her peers on a new, clearly ill-conceived initiative. But when Barb finishes, the room is surprisingly silent, save a few utterances of good job, good plan, cant wait to hear more. Next comes the meeting after the meeting (sans Barb) where everyone tells each other what they really thought.

Why people mislead.

Now, when humans behave in such strange ways, its because the behavior accords us some kind of advantage as a species. In the early days of the human race, individual survival depended on belonging to a group, and breaking the rules often meant having to go it alone. For that reason, humans are hard-wired to avoid upsetting the social apple cart -- in fact, researchers have shown that social rejection activates the same parts of our brains that physical pain does!

Related: How to Handle Confrontation at Work

At work, though our peers and employees tend to be the biggest offenders, even bosses arent immune to this primal fear. I recently heard about a workgroup whose manager abruptly resigned. Each of his five employees fancied themselves his successor and eagerly awaited their upcoming promotion. Not only did that news never come, the company hired someone outside the group. Apparently, unbeknownst to all five employees, none were doing their current jobs acceptably, let alone being considered for a promotion. But had their manager -- or anyone -- told them? Of course not! In fact, all had received glowing performance reviews. Had the employees known about their subpar performance, they each would have had the chance to improve and -- who knows? -- one might have landed the job.

When we dont know the truth about our behavior or our performance, the result is an enjoyable but dangerous sense of blissful ignorance. Managers who overestimate themselves, for instance, are six times more likely to derail. People who lack self-awareness bring down the performance of their entire team. And companies made up of blissfully ignorant employees even experience poorer financial performance.

So are we doomed to be forever oblivious? Thankfully, almost anyone can take charge of learning the truth. As part of the research for my forthcoming book (due out in May of 2017 with Penguin Random House), Ive spent nearly two years studying people who have made transformational improvements in their self-awareness -- because this quality is as special as it is rare, one of my research assistants called them self-awareness unicorns, and the term stuck. Not shockingly, weve found that unicorns make smarter choices, have stronger relationships and live better lives.

Related: 4 Ways to Get Truly Honest Feedback From Employees

Here are three unicorn hacks to learn the truth about yourself without sacrificing your confidence.

1. Hunt for indirect feedback.

I was recently interviewing a Fortune 500 CEO on this very topic. I asked him how he assessed his leadership effectiveness at any given point in time. If I look over my shoulder and people are following me, thats a good sign, he said, But if nobody is back there, thats called feedback. Even though people dont always tell us the truth, they often give indirect signals that belie their real feelings -- whether its their body language, their tone of voice, or even what they dont say. Maybe youre working on a report and your boss sends it back to you for three rounds of revisions. Thats indirect feedback that you might need to hone your writing skills. Or if you smooth over a difficult client situation and your normally taciturn boss smiles, thats indirect feedback that you performed well. Even though our world is designed to keep the direct truth from us, simply being a little more tuned in to indirect signals can be surprisingly illuminating.

2. Find loving critics.

As professor John Jacob Gardiner aptly observes, pity the leader caught between unloving critics and uncritical lovers. Indeed, there are three types of people in our lives: Unloving Critics find fault in everything we do, often because of a lack of trust, perceived competition, jealousy, or insecurity. Uncritical Lovers tell us everything were doing is just great; this group includes people who simply think we walk on water (e.g., our moms) or those who are afraid to speak truth to power (e.g., fearful employees). Finally, Loving Critics tell us the ugly truth because they care and want us to be successful. Self-awareness unicorns know that feedback from unloving critics and uncritical lovers is rarely helpful, nor is it necessarily reflective of reality. For this reason, they seek feedback primarily from loving critics -- a supportive spouse, a trusted coworker, a brave employee -- who call them on their nonsense in a caring way.

Related: Five Steps for Giving Productive Feedback

3. Listen first, respond later.

Of course, no matter who were getting it from, hearing tough feedback can be excruciating, even for unicorns. To help them deal with this reality, they dont pressure themselves to figure it out right away. One noted, when Im getting feedback, especially if I dont like it, the main thing I focus on is to listen non-reactively. I know that in a few days, I can come back and figure out what I want to do with it. Especially with tough feedback, give yourself some time -- then and only then should you ask yourself: Does it make sense? Is it valid? Is it important to act on?

Lets conclude with a few wise words from author Marianne Williamson: it takes courage...to endure the sharp pains of self-discovery rather than choosethe dull pain of unconsciousness that would last the rest of our lives. Instead of being content with this dull pain, unicorns take charge, bravely seeking out feedback on their own terms -- and all the while knowing that it absolutely is worth it.
Authorities in Boston are searching for a suspect in a daylight shooting near a high school that left one student dead and three others wounded on Wednesday.

The shooting took place near Jeremiah E. Burke High school in the citys Dorchester neighborhood just after a fire alarm went off in school.

"We don't know whether it was just a fight that spilled out of the school. Unfortunately, as we know now, kids don't fight anymore with their hands. They run and get weapons," Police Commissioner William Evans said in an afternoon news conference.

Students said they heard about six or seven shots ring out and when the gun fire stopped, a 17-year-old student was dead and three others, including two teens and a 67-year-old woman, were wounded.

"When a 17-year-old dies on the street, coming out of school, then we all should be outraged, and shame on anybody who doesn't step up to the plate and help us solve this," Evans said.

According to WFXT-TV, police said there was no indication of a drive-by shooting.

Law enforcement officials have urged the community to help identify whoever was responsible for the shooting.

One homicide is too many homicides. A mother and parents are going to be notified today that their son has been killed. And I think that we have to do more and we need the entire community to do more," said Mayor Marty Walsh.

Victoria Johnson, a student at the school, said she was friends with the teen who was killed. She told WBZ-TV that she had just said goodbye to him.

"He just gave me a hug and said 'stay safe.' That's what we say every day when we leave school. He gave me a hug and I said the same back to him," Johnson said.

The deceased student nor the wounded victims have been identified.

At a school committee meeting Wednesday night Superintendent Tommy Chang said trauma counselors would be at the school Thursday for students and staff.

"We send our condolences to the family and pray that one day we can see an end to senseless violence in this city and this country," Chang said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
More than 600,000 people had signed an online petition Wednesday calling for the removal of the California judge who gave a former Stanford University student athlete six months in jail for raping an unconscious woman -- even as the jurist began a fresh term on the bench Tuesday after running unopposed.

The petition was started in response to Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky's sentencing of Brock Turner -- a former star swimmer and Olympic hopeful -- to six months in jail and ordering him to register as a sex offender following his conviction in March on three counts of sexual assault. Prosecutors were pushing for the judge to sentence Turner to six years in prison -- though the maximum sentence could have been up to 14 years.

Defense attorneys sought a four-month sentence, while probation officials suggested a six-month sentence, to which Persky ultimately agreed.

Two graduate students riding bicycles told police they saw Turner raping an unconscious, 23-year-old woman on campus behind a Dumpster in January 2015. The two young men chased down Turner, who then was a Stanford freshman, and held him until campus police arrived.

In his ruling, Persky, who also attended Stanford, cited Turner's age, no "significant" prior legal problems and said he carried "less moral culpability" because he was drunk the night of the attack.

Persky also said that state prison could have a "severe" impact on Turner's life -- a statement that has ignited national outrage.

The Change.org petition, which as of Wednesday morning had 608,240 signatures, calls for Persky's removal from the bench. Ironically, Persky began a new judicial term on Tuesday after running unopposed for his seat.

"Judge Persky failed to see that the fact that Brock Turner is a white male star athlete at a prestigious university does not entitle him to leniency," the Change.org petition reads.

"He also failed to send the message that sexual assault is against the law regardless of social class, race, gender or other factors," it says.

There also is a separate White House petition calling for Persky's impeachment. Although both petitions were likely to clear the threshhold for requiring a response from the White House, it is unclear what, if anything, the Obama administration can do about the case or the judge's term on the bench.

Turner's father, Dan Turner, added to the controversy, writing that his son's life "will never be the one that he dreamed about and worked so hard to achieve. That is a steep price to pay for 20 minutes of action out of his 20-plus years of life."

At Turner's sentencing, meanwhile, the victim read a 12-page statement in court, addressed primarily to Turner and taking him to task for not taking responsibility for his actions.

She did not criticize the university and thanked the graduate students who tackled Turner and summoned police.

"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, I didn't know what had been in it, if it had been contaminated, who had touched it," she said. "I wanted to take off my body like a jacket and leave it at the hospital with everything else."

"I don't sleep when I think about the way it could have gone if the two guys had never come. What would have happened to me?," she added. "That's what you'll never have a good answer for, that's what you can't explain even after a year."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A Florida elementary school principal arrested in a child porn investigation Friday had pictures of students on his home computer and was reprimanded for inappropriate behavior with a 6-year-old boy in 1999, officials revealed.

The investigation into 59-year-old Ricky Sheppard began when the Spessard Holland Elementary School principal allegedly downloaded a nearly 4-minute video depicting a male child being raped, Florida Today reported. A subsequent search of Sheppards computer revealed more than 1,000 files of child pornography, including 14 movies featuring young boys being sexually abused, as well as pictures of students from a Spessard Holland brochure, according to the federal complaint against Sheppard. Investigators are also trying to locate any possible victims that Sheppard may have abused, Florida Today reported.

Obviously words cant adequately express how saddened and disgusted I am by what the sheriff just shared with you, Brevard Public Schools Superintendent Desmond Blackburn said Friday. Im sickened by it. I look at this case and I find it hard to understand how anybody could be this demented.

Sheppard was relieved of his duties at Spessard Holland and Blackburn said he was trying to have him permanently removed.

While a teacher at Gemini Elementary in 1999, Sheppard was reprimanded for alleged inappropriate professional behavior and poor judgment concerning excessive gifts and personal comments targeted at an individual student in your first-grade classroom, the reprimand letter stated. Sheppard was barred from having contact with the male student, Florida Today reported, and was told not to talk about taking students home with you anymore.

But Sheppard remained employed at Gemini until 2003, when he moved to another elementary school where he was promoted to assistant principal in 2007. After serving as assistant principal at yet another elementary school from 2009-2015, Sheppard was named Spessard Hollands principal before the 2015-16 school year began.

A detention hearing is set in Federal Court on Wednesday.
A Texas county agreed Monday to remove the display of Christian crosses on sheriffs vehicles to settle a lawsuit with an atheist group.

The Austin American-Statesman reported that Brewster County officials agreed to pay the Freedom From Religion Foundation nearly $22,000 in legal fees and $400 in other court costs. The settlement was approved last week.

According to the paper, two other atheists who joined the groups lawsuit against the county both received $1 each for past constitutional violations.

Greg Hudson, a lawyer for Brewster County and Sheriff Ronny Dodson, told the paper the settlement reflected a policy that was instituted in March which banned political, religious, commercial and personal symbols from county vehicles. The ban was approved three weeks after the Freedom From Religion Foundation filed its lawsuit.

The Brewster County sheriffs office vehicles had a cross on each of the vehicles in the lower right on its back windshield.

It was just a business decision. There was no reason to fight anything, Hudson said. I think the countys position is, lets save this fight for another day; weve taken care of this issue internally.

The atheist group had argued that the religious symbols represented a government endorsement of Christianity in violation of the First Amendment.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was asked to issue an opinion on the court case, but was blocked when the group filed a lawsuit in March.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbot supported Brewster County officials in the lawsuit and released a statement saying the crosses do not favor one type of religion.

The Brewster County deputies crosses neither establish a religion nor threaten any persons ability to worship God, or decline to worship God, in his own way,  he said. The symbol of the cross appropriately conveys the solemn respect all Texans should have for the courage and sacrifice of our peace officers.

Click for more from the Austin American-Statesman.
Two South Carolina Air National Guard F-16 fighter jets crashed Tuesday night in Georgia, officials said in a statement.

The South Carolina Air National Guard said in a statement that the pilots of the single-seat aircraft ejected safely after a mid-air collision during routine night-flying operations in Jefferson County, Ga. Officials said there were no injuries reported on the ground.

The two jets were assigned to the 169th Fighter Wing. The pilots werent immediately identified.

Officials said an initial safety board has been activated and the U.S. Air Force plans to conduct a safety investigation.

The latest incident comes on the heels of two crashes by military jets last week.

A pilot of a U.S. Air Force Thunderbird crashed following a flyover for graduating cadets at the Air Force Academy. The pilot safely ejected and was uninjured.

Capt. Jeff Kuss, 32, was killed when his F/A-18 jet crashed just after takeoff while he was practicing for an air show outside Nashville. The Blue Angels have canceled upcoming performances.

Fox News Lucas Tomlinson and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Two 13-year-old boys have been charged with sexually assaulting a classmate in a Rhode Island public school bathroom.

The Providence Journal reports the boys turned themselves in to police on Monday.

Police say the boys lured a 14-year-old girl into a third-floor boys bathroom at Gilbert Stuart Middle School in Providence on June 2 and then groped her. School administrators heard allegations of an assault and contacted police. The boys were suspended.

Both boys were arraigned on charges of first-degree sexual assault and are being held at the Rhode Island Training School. They are not being identified because they are juveniles.

Providence Public Schools spokeswoman Laura Hart says the school district takes any allegation of sexual abuse and misconduct very seriously and is cooperating with police.


A man shot a sheriff's deputy who was responding to a break-in call at a Virginia home, authorities said.



The Stafford County Sheriff's Office said in a statement that the deputy responded to a breaking and entering report Tuesday night in Stafford. That's when officials said a man fired multiple shots at the deputy, injuring him "extensively."



Sheriff's Office spokeswoman M.C. Morris Moncure said by telephone that the deputy's injuries are serious, but not life-threatening. She said it's still not clear whether the deputy fired any shots.



The sheriff's office announced early Wednesday that authorities had arrested a suspect in the shooting, 18-year-old Joshua Anthony Sumter, who was sought on warrants for attempted capital murder.

Moncure said Sumter was arrested without incident or injury.
If you cant beat em, blatantly leech off of em. That seems to be Microsofts cutthroat approach to Apple these days. This time, the not-so-sexy software giant is taking on its biggest rival with a nervy take-off of Apples annual developer powwow.

As evidenced by an undeniably hungry official invite, Microsoft will indeed throw an after-party directly following Apples much-anticipated WWDC16 conferences June 13 State of the Union address. Think of it as direct competition, served with a side of roasted apple.

Related: How Samsung Rewrote its Playbook to Regain Some Ground in the Smartphone Market

The Redmond, Wash.-based corporate giants shindig -- complete with Apple Watch and Xbox One giveaways, massage chairs and drones flights -- will take place in the heart of San Francisco, just a stones throw from Apples event (0.2 miles, to be exact). Thats not as poor form (read: slimey) as some might have you believe, says corporate company culture expert Delta Emerson. She is the president of Global Shared Services, a Dallas-based company that provides financial services to clients in the technology, retail and telecom sectors.

They say the best defense is to go on the offense, Emerson tells Entrepreneur.  There is no law against leveraging off of another companys moves. I dont think Emily Posts etiquette rules apply in this case.

Rather than viewing Microsofts WWDC16 after-party as all-out competitive slumming, she sees it as a smart yet strong strategic play. This is obviously an audience that will be interested in what Microsoft has to say, so grabbing them at this moment in time makes sense," Emerson says. "Bold? Yes. Brilliant? Perhaps. Besides, its flattering to be fought over.

Related: 4 Ways the 'New' Microsoft Is Dramatically Different From the 'Old' Microsoft

In keeping with CEO Satya Nadellas newish platform-agnostic vision for Microsoft, the company obviously hopes to lure Apple app developers in town for WWDC16 (WHO: All iOS & OS X devs are welcome! the invite reads).

More specifically, the spin-off bash is aimed at selling tech talent on mobile app testing tools created by Xamarin, a San Francisco-based startup that Microsoft recently acquired. The subsidiary provides a cloud platform that lets developers code apps on any device. If the tool sells well, it could lend Microsoft a much-needed leg up in the exploding mobile app market.

But the first step is to get mobile app developers in the door, right as they step out of WWDC. All of the best developers in the world want to be at Apples event, says William Manning, longtime tech startup advisor and chief technical officer of Nooji, a Mountain View, Calif.-based mobile messaging platform provider. Adding additional value after the fact is brilliant on Microsofts part. It has nothing to do with stealing Apples thunder and everything to do with drumming up business and increasing revenue.

Makes sense. If you cant be the Oscars and slip in some product placement there, host an Oscars after-party instead and slap your products all over it.

Related: How Can I Set My Business Apart From the Competition?

Any time your key demographic is located in one spot, thats a really good time to try to utilize them for some sort of opportunistic sales tactic, Manning tells Entrepreneur during a phone interview. Besides, its Microsofts job to do so. Their focus is not their own platform any more. Its developing killer applications for other platforms also. Theyve accepted that reality and it was a huge move.

As for Microsofts wannabe-WWDC move, we wonder, might Manning, an 18-year veteran of the Silicon Valley software development scene, attend? You bet I would, he says. Im all about the free schwag.

We cant say we blame him there.

Takeaways for small businesses

Here are four lessons Emerson says you can learn from Microsofts cheeky play on Apples WWDC16:

1. Dont be ashamed to give credit to your competitor once youve laughed at it.

2. Dont ignore your competition. Get to know it very well. Move in next door to it if you can.

3. Dont look to others for the rulebook regarding how to act when it comes to opportunities like this. Think outside the box.

4. Dont be afraid to take a calculated risk like this. What is the worst thing that could happen, even if your idea flops?
An Israeli police official told Fox News that Palestinians were celebrating the terrorist attack that left four dead in central Tel Aviv Wednesday night.

Israel Police Superintendent Micky Rosenfeld told On the Record with Greta Van Susteren that Israelis will mourn those killed at the Sarona market for the next week and vowed that further action would be taken.

Unfortunately, within the West Bank area we have seen Palestinians celebrating this attack, said Rosenfeld. Meanwhile here in Israel ... we will be mourning for a week over the people that were lost -- and we are talking about four innocent people that were shot to death, literally shot and killed at close range for no reason whatsoever.

The attack, one of the deadliest in an eight-month wave of violence, took place around 10 p.m. local time in an upscale area of cafes and restaurants near the central military headquarters and Defense Ministry compound. A Fox News producer in Jerusalem confirmed five others were wounded in the attack and in severe condition.

The two attackers were described to Fox News as Palestinian cousins from Yata in the Hebron area of the West Bank who were known to Israeli authorities. The gunmen disguised themselves as Orthodox Jews, a law enforcement source told Fox News.

Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rules Gaza, welcomed the attack and claimed the shooters as members of the organization. Hamas official Mushir al-Masri called the shootings a "heroic operation" and the group later issued an official statement promising the "Zionists" more "surprises" during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The Times of Israel reported that Fatah, Hamas' rival, issued a statement on Twitter saying Israel was "reaping the repercussions of choosing violence against the Palestinian people."

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz, citing Palestinian media, reported early Thursday that Israeli military forces had surrounded Yatta and were preparing to carry out arrests and interrogate family members of the attacks.

"Whatever action has to be taken will be taken based on the security assessments that will be carried out and implemented both tonight as well as tomorrow morning, Rosenfeld told "On The Record."

Rosenfeld told Fox News that one of the suspects was shot by police and the other was captured by authorities. He said the suspect wounded by police is in moderate condition at a nearby hospital.

The weapons used by the attackers included a Karl Gustav improvised machine gun, Israeli police told Fox News. Haaretz reported that the assailants had no prior criminal record and had entered Israel illegally.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with his defense minister and security leaders shortly after the attack and then traveled to the scene. He called the attack a "cold blooded murder by despicable terrorists," according to a statement from his office.

Meital Sassi told Channel 10 TV she was out with her family celebrating her son's birthday when she heard shots and "immediately understood it was a terror attack."

"We ran like lighting with the baby and the stroller.... I yelled at people who didn't understand what was happening to run," she said.

Tel Aviv district police chief Moshe Edri told Haaretz there was no prior terror alert before the shooting took place.

The Ynet news website showed CCTV footage of civilians running into a nearby restaurant to take cover.

Shlomi Hajaj, director of the market, told Channel 10 that security guards at the entrance "prevented the attackers from entering the facility, averting a bigger disaster as the compound was packed with people."

Channel 10 cited witnesses as saying the two attackers were dressed in suits and ties and spent time in a nearby restaurant, sitting at the bar, before the attack. It showed footage of police forensic teams dressed in white suits examining items in restaurants at the scene.

U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner condemned the "horrific terrorist attack" in a statement, saying "cowardly attacks against innocent civilians can never be justified."

Israel has been struggling to cope with eight months of Palestinian attacks that have killed 28 Israelis and two Americans. About 200 Palestinians have been killed during that time, most identified as attackers by Israel.

Most of the attacks have been in east Jerusalem or the West Bank, territories Israel seized from Jordan in the 1967 war which the Palestinians want for their future state.

But Tel Aviv, Israel's most cosmopolitan city, has not been spared.

A member of Israel's Arab minority went on a shooting rampage on New Year's Day, killing three people. And in March a Palestinian went on stabbing spree, killing an American and wounding 7 other people before he was shot and killed.

Fox News' Jennifer Griffin and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A Chinese jet fighter conducted an unsafe intercept of a U.S. spy plane in international airspace over the East China Sea, the U.S. Pacific Command said, in the second such midair encounter in a month.

The jet was one of two Chinese J-10 fighters that intercepted a U.S. Air Force RC-135 reconnaissance plane on routine patrol Tuesday, the Pacific Command said in a statement. That same day, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was in Beijing for annual economic and security negotiations that included discussions of regional tensions.

The intercept was the second since Beijing and Washington agreed on rules of behavior for air encounters last September. The Pentagon said last month that a Chinese fighter had flown dangerously close to a U.S. spy plane over the South China Sea. China denied that its plane flew dangerously during that encounter and accused the U.S. of threatening its security by regularly patrolling along the Chinese coast.

Chinas foreign and defense ministries didn't immediately respond to requests for comment about Tuesdays encounter.

The Pacific Command didn't specify where Tuesdays intercept occurred, saying only that it was in international airspace over the East China Sea. China and Japan both claim a small group of islands there, known as Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese.

One of the intercepting Chinese jets had an unsafe excessive rate of closure on the RC-135 aircraft, the Pacific Command statement said. Initial assessment is that this seems to be a case of improper airmanship, as no other provocative or unsafe maneuvers occurred.

The Defense Department is addressing the issue with China in appropriate diplomatic and military channels, the statement said.

Click for more from The Wall Street Journal.


A mysterious humming noise is captivating  and torturing  a small Canadian city across the river from Detroit.

The strange sound, which has been compared to everything from a low rumbling to the buzzing of the Star Trek Enterprise engine, has been irritating Windsor residents for six years, The Guardian reports. But in recent months, the so-called Windsor Hum has reached agonizing levels.

Its past unbelievable, resident Mike Provost, 62, told the media outlet. Never have I ever heard it like this.

The 35Hz sound has sparked wild conspiracy theories, with some linking the noise to UFOs and covert military activity. The humming has also triggered social media outrage. A Facebook group with 140,000 members was created for people to share their discontent.

Everybody has their own story, says Provost.

This isnt the first time the sound has moved the community of 210,000 to anger. In 2012, more than 22,000 people participated in a phone conference to express their concerns about the sound. Some blamed it for rattling houses while others worried it could have impacts on pregnancy.

According to a study by the Canadian government, the sound could be coming from an American industrial area on Zug Island, located near the international bridge that separates Windsor and Detroit. While researchers have been unable to prove their findings, the study has created diplomatic tension between Canadian and American lawmakers.

This is the equivalent to pushing a snowball uphill, New Democrat politician Brian Masse told The Guardian. Masse claims he has tried to tackle the noise problem with American politicians, but to no avail.

Ive been [to Detroit] and they feel the hum as well, Masse added.

Were trapped in the middle, says Windsor resident Gary Grosse of the diplomatic struggle. In the meantime, some residents, and even their pets, have turned to anxiety medication to cope with the noise.

Theres nothing more that Canadian citizens can do, says Grosse. Its like being on a rope that is being pulled in multiple directions.
A Kurdish rebel suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden vehicle outside a police headquarters near Turkey's border with Syria Wednesday, killing at least three people and wounding some 30 others, officials said.

The attack in the town of Midyat, in Mardin province, came amid a surge in violence in the country and a day after a car bomb hit a police vehicle in Istanbul, killing 11 people during the morning rush hour. It took place as funerals for the Istanbul victims were underway.

Speaking in Istanbul, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the victims of the attack in the town of Midyat, in Mardin province, were a police officer and two civilians. It was not clear if the toll included the suicide bomber.

In televised remarks, Yildirim said the attack was carried out by the outlawed rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK. He said concrete barriers and other security measures in place at the police headquarters had prevented a greater loss of life.

"Those who carried out the attack are (members of) the murderous PKK organization," Yildirim told reporters after visiting survivors of the Istanbul attack in hospital.

News reports said the assailant rammed the vehicle into protective concrete blocks surrounding the town's main police station located on a street lined with cafeterias, shops and businesses. Television images from the scene showed thick smoke rising from the site of the attack, which destroyed the facade of the police headquarters building and blew out windows of nearby buildings.

The private Dogan news agency said the vehicle was laden with a half-ton of explosives.

As with previous terror attacks, authorities on Wednesday imposed a media gag order, barring the broadcast and publication of graphic images from the aftermath of the Midyat attack and the reporting of details of the police investigation.

Turkey has been hit by a series of attacks in the past year. PKK rebels have targeted police and military personnel since July, when a fragile peace process between the rebels and the government collapsed. The Islamic State group has also been blamed for a series of deadly bombings in Turkey, which is part of the U.S.-led coalition against IS.

PKK has waged a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state in a conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives. The group is considered a terror organization by Turkey and its allies.

The state-run Anadolu Agency, quoting unnamed security forces, said Turkish warplanes carried out air strikes against PKK targets in northern Iraq and in Turkey's mainly Kurdish south-eastern province of Diyarbakir on Wednesday. Turkish planes have been regularly conducting cross-border aerial operations against PKK since last summer.

The agency also said that 22 PKK militants were killed in previous strikes in northern Iraq on Sunday.

An estimated 500 Turkish security personnel have been killed while fighting with the Kurdish rebels since July 2015, according to the military, which claims to have killed 4,900 PKK militants in Turkey and northern Iraq.

Mardin, where government forces are battling Kurkish militants, has endured similar attacks in the past months. In May, three people were killed in a car bombing by Kurdish rebels against a gendarmerie station in Midyat. A soldier was killed and six others were wounded in a car bomb attack against their outpost in April.

Last week, the military announced that it had ended a large-scale operation to flush out Kurdish militants from the nearby Syrian border town of Nusaybin, also in Mardin province.


The teacher crisis is real, and were not going to work our way out of it simply by making it easier to hire teachers.
But Meyers neither saw many of these advances nor the full impact of his own research.

In 1991, at the age of 46, Meyers died of colon cancer. A study he led on preventing a deadly viral infection in transplant patients  one of the most important findings of his career  was in press at The New England Journal of Medicine at the time. It would be published a few weeks after his death.

Next week, infectious disease researchers from around the world  all of whom now specialize in the field to which Meyers and his colleagues gave a name soon after that sparkling June day in 1975  will gather in Seattle to share findings, catch up with collaborators and reminisce about their mentor, colleague and friend. The Hutchs inaugural Symposium on Infectious Disease in the Immunocompromised Host, the first research gathering of its kind in the world, takes place next Monday as a tribute to Meyers.

CDC days

Thrasher and Meyers first met in Atlanta in the early 1970s  shed moved there for a teaching job and didnt know anybody. One of her college friends introduced her to another friend who worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and that friend asked Thrasher if he could set her up on a date with one of his co-workers.

And I said, Oh my gosh, yes you can. And he got me a date with Joel, she said. It was a blind date, and when I opened the door I just had this overwhelming feeling that this is the person, Thrasher said.

Meyers was working at the time as what is known as an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer, or EIS officer, one of the CDCs disease detectives. It was during the Vietnam War; Meyers was in the middle of his medical training and was recruited to serve a two-year stint at the CDC in lieu of active military service.

He hadnt yet selected a medical specialty and became enthralled with the little-known field of infectious disease research, Thrasher said.

When you told people you were in infectious disease, they almost chuckled; theyd never heard of it, she recalled. Theyd say, Is that like colds or what?

During his time at CDC, Meyers was introduced to the late Dr. E. Donnall Thomas, the leader of Seattles newly formed bone marrow transplantation group that would later become the foundation of Fred Hutch. There was a mysterious outbreak of what turned out to be hepatitis C among Thomas transplant patients, and Meyers was dispatched to Seattle to investigate.

Joels work on this outbreak  really illustrated the importance that the discipline of infectious disease had for the marrow transplant patient, said Corey, who was also an EIS officer at the time. Corey met Meyers through his job and he and his wife, Amy, had become fast friends with Meyers and Thrasher.

Thomas was impressed with Meyers during that brief visit, and Meyers fell in love with Seattle and the team there, Thrasher said.

Thomas and his colleagues were just starting to recognize that they were having a lot of deaths from cytomegalovirus, or CMV, a type of herpesvirus, said Corey, although it wasnt yet clear whether the virus was the killer or just along for the ride. There was this recognition that they needed someone who had the infectious disease and epidemiological skills to do this.

After Meyers finished his stint at the CDC and his residency, Thomas recruited him to join his growing transplant team as the groups first infectious disease expert. Meyers and Thrasher were married a year after they moved to Seattle, in 1976.

CMV days

That period  the mid-to-late 1970s  was at the same time exciting but devastating for those involved in transplantation. Thomas and his colleagues were snatching very ill patients from the brink of death, but those they saved from cancer were the exception to the rule. Most patients died, and many of them died of CMV infection.

I remember going on rounds and seeing a patient who was otherwise looking fine, listening to their lungs and hearing a few crackles in their lung. It would be CMV, said Fred Hutch transplant researcher Dr. Fred Appelbaum, who joined the transplant team in 1978, in a previous interview. And that patient was almost certainly going to die. They went from healthy to dead in a matter of weeks.

Meyers first task was to understand whether CMV was truly responsible for those deaths. Through pivotal research, he showed that CMV was actually the pathogen that killed 40 percent of patients after bone marrow transplantation in those days, Corey said. It was the major deterrent in advancing the field of bone marrow transplantation. We actually needed to do something about it; it wasnt just a casual bystander.

Meyers and Corey then helped test the antiviral drug acyclovir, showing that the treatment was incredibly powerful in treating infections with the related pathogen herpes simplex virus, which Corey studied. It worked to a certain extent against CMV too, and the transplant team started using it to treat their patients.

It was an amazingly effective drug that totally transformed both our lives and patients lives, Corey said. The first studies we did were like, Oh my god, something is happening here.

Meyers also took the (at the time) heretical step of testing whether treating transplant patients in advance with antibiotics or antivirals would reduce serious disease and death. This was incredibly controversial in the infectious disease field, Corey said. Such potentially harsh drugs were only used for treatment, not prevention  but Meyers showed through clinical trials that treating bone marrow transplant patients before they were severely ill saved lives from these deadly infections.

He later ran clinical trials testing whether the antiviral drug ganciclovir, a close relative of acyclovir, could prevent even more deaths from CMV in transplant patients. It did  that was the paper that would be published shortly after he died.

Not only did he define that CMV was a pathogen, he did the first studies to show that he could treat that pathogen and almost make it go away, Corey said. Being able to discover it and then treat it, in such a short period of time  it was cool that he got to see that, he got to know that, before his premature death.

Future days

Concurrently with his work on CMV, Meyers was also laying the groundwork for a growing research field and program on infections in the immunocompromised patient. Although the Fred Hutch teams work initially focused on infections in bone marrow transplant patients, their studies would have implications for many others with weakened immune systems  including organ transplant recipients and those living with HIV/AIDS.

Meyers was always thinking about the next generation of researchers, Thrasher said. He loved traveling to meetings to share findings and talk research, and often looked for ways to bring trainees along with him to help them network and further their careers.

His door was always open to young scientists, she said. He said theyre the most important people there because theyre the next line.

Dr. Michael Boeckh, who now heads Fred Hutchs Infectious Disease Sciences Program, was one of those young scientists. He came to Seattle as a fellow in 1990 to train with Meyers because the Hutch scientist was the world expert in CMV infection in transplant patients, Boeckh said.

Joel was an iconic leader and inspiring mentor and role model, he said. He always looked out for his fellows in their careers.

It was in that vein that Thrasher, with Coreys help, established the Joel Meyers Endowment Scholarship shortly after her husbands death. The endowment, which Thrasher has continued to support with her second husband, Rick Koffey, funds infectious disease researchers early in their careers. Eighteen Joel Meyers scholars have since launched their careers with the funds help, and many of them will return to Seattle next week for the symposium, along with others in the now-established field of infectious disease in the immunocompromised.

[Meyers] would be just thrilled to see that this continues and that hes had an effect, that his life had that effect, Thrasher said. You always wonder after someone dies, what did all that mean? To me this is an enormous meaning, to continue in his name.

The last days

When Meyers was diagnosed with cancer, everyone had this feeling of disbeliefhow can this happen to a doctor? Thrasher said. But the detachment Meyers was (mostly) able to maintain with his own patients slipped away with his own illness.

Its very hard when its you, Thrasher said. You try to intellectualize it and deal with it by attacking it from the academic side, but for him, it was difficult to do that, to depersonalize it and look at it and make these decisions.

It was Meyers first trainee, Dr. James Wade, who stepped up to help Meyers and Thrasher make those tough decisions. As a last ditch effort, Thrasher said, Meyers went through a transplant himself, at the time being tested at the Hutch as a treatment for solid tumors. The transplant didnt work against his cancer, and the approach was ultimately abandoned.

As painful as Meyers premature death was for Thrasher and everyone else who loved him, she wouldnt trade the time she had with him for anything, she said.

Even inside of losing a husband  and I cant describe what thats like to anyone  I still feel like Im probably one of the luckiest people around. I feel incredibly lucky to have known Joel, even though it was all too brief, Thrasher said.

She and Meyers were married for 15 years before he died.

When someone has cancer, when you have that in your life, you hope for a miracle, she said. You hope for the miracle that theres a cure, or the miracle that youll wake up some morning and it will turn out to be a bad dream. But I realized after Joel died that the miracle was that you got to be with that person. That you got to see some part of that persons life.
Cheap Dumpster For Rent Launches To Provide New Kind Of Dumpster Rental Nationwide

Cheap Dumpster For Rent can offer unbeatable rates on dumpster hire to homeowners and contractors across all fifty states, after launching their online business with nationwide reach.

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Dumpsters are an essential part of any large scale project or undertaking, for as the saying goes, 'you can't break an omelet without breaking some eggs'. Dumpsters enable individuals to contain and remove refuse of all types and scales, and dumpster rental even ensures that the waste is removed as part of the service. Cheap Dumpster For Rent is a brand new business that has launched nationwide to provide an unbeatable standard of service with the lowest possible prices, to customers throughout the United States of America. Their new website describes in full their unique service provision.

The Dumpster Rental Marketing Company enables people to get free, competitive quotes from dumpster rental services in any state, and will automatically pass on the very best quote available to interested parties. The site also has comprehensive listings of rental companies for every state, and a resource center providing information on how people can get the best deal.

There is even a section on the website (CheapDumpsterForRent.com) committed to local deals, so that individuals can get the very best offers before committing to a service. All this comes with comprehensive customer support from the Cheap Dumpster For Rent team, who aim to provide the very best customer experience possible.

A spokesperson for Cheap Dumpster For Rent explained, "This launch has been a long time in the making. We have worked hard to make contact with the very best providers of dumpsters throughout every state. We have authenticated their services and negotiated a favorable partnership that can guarantee our customers the best deal on the market. This is therefore an exciting time for anyone who is looking to clear out unwanted furniture, or even remodel their home this summer, as well as contractors who constantly require dumpsters for their refuse."

About Cheap Dumpster For Rent: The team at Cheap Dumpster For Rent is hard working and determined to provide the best cheap dumpster services available in the US today. Opening their central HQ in Tampa, Florida and offering nationwide services, they aim to balance high quality dumpster services and value for the customer's money. Fulfilled by teams of skilled experts with the latest and best equipment.

For more information about us, please visit http://www.cheapdumpsterforrent.com/

Contact Info:

Name: PRWhirlWind

Organization: PRWhirlWind

Phone: (844) 669-5151

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/cheap-dumpster-for-rent-launches-to-provide-new-kind-of-dumpster-rental-nationwide/118560

Release ID: 118560

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Drug and Alcohol Rehab Columbus Opens Specialized Heroin Rehab Treatment

( June 08, 2016 ) Columbus, Ohio -- Dispatch reports in the first three months of the year Ohio suffered 148 overdose deaths in Cuyahoga County. The majority (60) are attributed to fentanyl, and the rest to heroin overdose and finally overdose with fentanyl and heroin mixed together. In response to the heroin and opiate epidemic in Ohio, Drug and Alcohol Rehab Columbus newly introduced heroin rehab in columbus, to help transition chronic opiate addicts into sober living through intensive treatment and cognitive behavioral therapy based addiction rehabilitation.

Drug and Alcohol Rehab Columbus specializes in both heroin rehab in Columbus and drug rehab in Columbus. Clients undergo rigorous addiction treatment to discover the causes of addiction and address them in therapy. Clients come away with an understanding of their particular substance use disorder, and learn ways to combat addiction from the source, as to prevent relapse after rehabilitation. Heroin rehab in Columbus includes integrative group therapy, family therapy, and intensive one on one therapy with a psychotherapist.

Client treatment is focused around treating physical, emotional, and spiritual for total wellness. Clients participate in daily yoga and meditation sessions, and have full access to a spa and salon. The treatment facility offers separation for mature clients 35 and older from younger populations in an entirely separate campus. Treatment is tailored to the specific needs and situations of each client.

Drug and Alcohol Rehab Columbus accept most major insurance plans, and help potential clients who do not have insurance acquired. New treatment tracks for relapse intensive therapy and those completely new to the recovery realm will be introduced in the months to come. Their heroin rehab in Philadelphia program is now accepting new enrollees immediately.

For more information about addiction and recovery in Columbus visit http://drugandalcoholrehabcolumbus.com/ or call (614) 945-4163.

About Drug and Alcohol Rehab Columbus 43089:

Drug and Alcohol Rehab is a drug and alcohol rehabilitation in Ohio. The treatment center offers residential rehabilitation, outpatient rehab, and specialized heroin

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Koala Center For Sleep Disorders Announces Opening Of New Office

The national dental sleep medicine chain has opened a new office in Albuquerque, announces www.koalasleepcenters.com

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With growing awareness of obstructive sleep apnea and its potential for complications, an increasing number of people are seeking out treatment. While the most common treatment is a continuous positive air pressure (CPAP) device, The Koala Center for Sleep Disorders offers a more comfortable approach to treatment through the use of custom dental appliances. The national chain has just announced the opening of a new office in Albuquerque, NM where they welcome Dr. Eric Coontz, a dentist with 35 years of experience, including work in the U.S. military, the private sector, and public health.

"Many patients come to me because they want to stop snoring," said Coontz, "but in fact, they have a more serious underlying condition than they realize. Snoring is often a sign of obstructive sleep apnea, which is associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular problems. With sleep apnea, the patient actually stops breathing because the air passage gets blocked when the throat muscles relax." Coontz went on to recount his own struggles with sleep apnea that likely resulted in the heart attack he suffered some years ago. This experience motivated him to focus his practice on helping patients overcome sleep apnea.

Coontz described the process of evaluating and treating patients with the disorder. He begins by examining the patient's airways and tissues of the nose and throat, using high tech imaging equipment. Once a diagnosis is made, a dental appliance is custom-made to fit the patient's mouth. The appliance repositions the lower jaw, tongue, and soft palate so that the airway remains open even as muscles relax in sleep. "I've had patients who tried to buy a dental appliance off the shelf at a drug store," Coontz comments, "but those are useless at best. I can't emphasize enough the importance of an individualized treatment."

In addition to sleep apnea, Coontz treats patients with temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorder, which can also negatively impact sleep. It occurs when the joint slips out of position and can cause pain in the jaw, neck and head. One of the methods he uses is Transcutaneous Electric Neural Stimulations, or TENS. This method involves a painless current of electricity that relaxes tension and relieves pain in the jaw, allowing the doctor to find the natural position where the jaw should rest. A custom dental appliance known as a neuromuscular orthotic is then used to stabilize the jaw.

Coontz brings not only a wealth of knowledge about dental sleep disorders, he also brings equipment found in only one hospital in the state of New Mexico. "I'm pleased to join Koala Sleep Centers here in Albuquerque," concluded Coontz. "I'm happy to be working with a group that shares my passion for saving lives through treating sleep disorders."

About The Koala Center For Sleep Disorders

The Koala Center For Sleep Disorders specializes in treating sleep apnea, TMJ, snoring, and all sleep disorders. Their appliances are a comfortable alternative to CPAP machines, and they are customized for each patient. The center accepts all insurance including Medicare.

For more information about us, please visit http://www.koalasleepcenters.com/abqne%20

Contact Info:

Name: Dr. Eric Coontz

Organization: Koala Center for Sleep Disorders

Address: 831 San Pedro Ave NE, Suite 3 Albuquerque, NM 87113

Phone: 505-433-2107

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/koala-center-for-sleep-disorders-announces-opening-of-new-office/118610

Release ID: 118610

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iPOPOLOGY Launched Catering to Accountants' Evolving Digital Marketing Needs

Swelling competition within the field lends greater weight to effective industry-specific marketing strategies, publishes ipopology.com

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According to figures released last year by the Financial Reporting Council, the number of accountants across the United Kingdom surged more than 10 percent from 2010 through 2014, the most recent time frame for which information has been made available. Industry analysts predict a continuation of this trend for the years to come. While this is promising news for up-and-coming students in the field, it also means a steady increase in competition among firms vying for business.

In light of the swelling rivalry, spokesperson George Dinmore has announced the launch of iPOPOLOGY, a newly established company specifically offering seo for accountants. Said Dinmore, "At this point, organic search results hold far more weight than paid advertising where consumers are concerned. At the same time, the online world is offering a growing number of opportunities in this particular realm. We're a full-service firm extending our expertise in all areas of marketing for accountants from Google Maps optimization to relevant and keyword-rich content creation."

With Google now lending increased flexibility to its keyword-based search results, legible and visual content continue to play a significant role in this regard. While this is a universal standard across all industries, the type of information consumers seek differs by individual field. Whereas those looking for certain products may be more interested in a combination of photos, video and brief details, people who search accountants in their local areas tend to be more concerned with comprehensive written material noting a company's experience and describing the services being provided.

iPOPOLOGY focuses on enhancing online presence on a local level, a key factor for businesses offering in-person services as opposed to operating solely online. The company's team of specialists provides optimized content, link building for higher credibility, social media marketing and a number of other elements critical to boosting search engine ranking, drawing in qualified leads and fulfilling the expectations of internet-savvy consumers. More in-depth information is available on the iPOPOLOGY website.

Concluded Dinmore, "We combine creative ideas with our vast experience to deliver consistently outstanding results. With our range of services, clients can count on a stronger online presence, even when it comes to highly competitive keywords in a growing industry like accountancy. We're dedicated to helping our clients build their own clientele by improving their online visibility and catering to leads in all stages of the sales funnel."

About iPOPOLOGY:

iPOPOLOGY is a UK-based SEO Agency for Accountants committed to helping clients boost customer acquisition and visibility within the search engines through industry-specific digital marketing strategies.

For more information about us, please visit http://www.ipopology.com

Contact Info:

Name: George Dinmore

Organization: iPOPOLOGY

Phone: +44 7936 638 596

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/ipopology-launched-catering-to-accountants-evolving-digital-marketing-needs/118608

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Armor Security Systems Celebrates 20 Years by Moving into Fort Collins & Wyoming

Armor Security Systems has announced it is not only celebrating twenty years in business but has also unveiled its expansion plans for Fort Collins, Colorado and the State of Wyoming.

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Armor Security Systems, one of America's leading fully licensed and insured residential and commercial security companies, has confirmed today that it is not only celebrating 20 years in business but has also revealed its expansion into Fort Collins, Colorado and the State of Wyoming.

With headquarters in Denver, Colorado, the locally owned and operated company and its team of highly trained professions have been providing for the residential and commercial needs of its customers around the United States for over two decades. "This is an exciting development on the 20th anniversary of the business. We are also proud to be helping the people of Fort Collins and Wyoming with the protection of their families and businesses," observed, Joseph Crossley, Vice President, Armor Security Systems. He has 33 years experience in the security sector and holds several valid State licenses. "I also wish to take this opportunity to welcome Louan Watson Tamburlin to our company. She brings a wealth of over 30 years experience in the security industry to our team, specializing in residential and commercial intrusion and camera systems."

Every Armor Security Systems Service Technician has at least 15 years of hands-on experience in the design and installation of state of the art equipment from burglar alarms, wireless / mobile solutions, video surveillance, access control, fire and safety, camera systems and so on.

According to official figures released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI last year 8,277,829 million people endured the pain of burglaries and thefts in the United States in 2014 costing the economy $14.3 billion dollars in losses. Inspect:https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2015/september/latest-crime-stats-released/latest-crime-stats-released This is why Armor Security Systems devised advanced protocols for customers available 24 hours a day from its Central Control Station. Families and businesses have peace of mind knowing that ultramodern monitoring services are guarding them with security agents trained to instantly respond. Armor Security Systems was established in 1996 from a desire to build a respected company of integrity supporting the needs of residential and commercial customers. The company is fully licensed and insured. Visit: http://www.Armor5280.com

For more information about us, please visit http://Armor5280.com

Contact Info:

Name: Joseph Crossley

Email: info@armor5280.com

Organization: Armor Security Systems Inc.

Address: 3801 E Florida Ave 4th Fl, Ste 51 Denver, CO 80210

Phone: 720-870-1300

Release ID: 118240

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Prescott Arizona Realtor Giveback Habitat For Humanity Donation Program Launched

RE/MAX Mountain Properties have announced the launch of a giveback program. Donny Karcie will donate up to $5,000 when a first time home buyer uses his services. The money will go to Habitat for Humanity to help build homes for those in need.

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Donny Karcie, a real estate agent in Prescott, Arizona, has announced the launch of a giveback program where for every first time home buyer who uses his services, he will donate up to $5,000 to Habitat for Humanity to help someone else get into a new home. Karcie, of RE/MAX Mountain Properties explains how his primary goal in real estate is to help people find their dream home. This giveback program is an extension of that.

More information can be found on the Feature Prescott website at: http://www.featureprescott.com.

On the site, Donny Karcie discusses how he has always wanted to give back to his community to help others in need. To help illustrate this, full details of the giveback program can be found on the site, which shows how 33% of Donny's commission will be donated on every first time house sale he helps to provide.

Habitat for Humanity is a charity that works with the poor and vulnerable, helping to build towards a world where everyone has a safe place to call home. It has made a positive impact on people's lives for years, including housing projects in the US, UK, and countries like Ethiopia, Armenia, and Bosnia.

The first home buyer giveback program offered on the RE/MAX Mountain Properties site includes donations to Habitat for Humanity. Interested parties looking to buy homes will find a selection of properties in the Southview area, Prescott Lakes, and Yavapai Hills area.

Southview is a prestigious subdivision offering many luxurious homes, with scenic landscape located close to town. The Prescott Lakes community offers its residents a number of valuable features and benefits from location to a large selection of amenities. Meanwhile, Yavapai Hills is a master-planned community located close to shopping centers like Costco, Trader Joe's and a Mall with mountain landscapes and pinion pines.

This Realtor also offers a home valuation service for people in Prescott looking to sell their home. All anyone needs to do is fill in the simple form to receive their quote, and this real estate professional will be in touch with more information

For more information about us, please visit http://www.featureprescott.com

Contact Info:

Name: Donny Karcie, MBA

Organization: RE/MAX Mountain Properties

Address: 731 W Gurley Street

Phone: (928) 1-899-4772

Release ID: 118594

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GoGreeNow's Registered Energy Auditing Service Expands into North Carolina

GoGreeNow has announced that the same standards designed for professional energy auditing services at FORTUNE 200 clients are available to commercial, government and non-profits across Maryland, Washington D.C., Virginia, Pennsylvania and coming soon to North Carolina.

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GoGreeNow, America's leading energy efficiency company, has confirmed today that the same standards designed for professional energy auditing services at FORTUNE 200 listed clients are now available to commercial, government and non-profit entities across the Maryland, Washington D.C., Virginia, Pennsylvania and soon North Carolina areas.

From its headquarters in the historic city of Gaithersburg, Maryland and a new office opening shortly in Raleigh, North Carolina, the 15 strong team of experts at GoGreeNow help commercial businesses, governments and non-profits to become more energy efficient saving an accumulation of valuable dollars better off in customer's pockets than wasted through needless inefficiencies that are easily remedied. The firm has saved energy for some of America's biggest companies, giant multinationals such as McDonald's and several dozen of the country's best-known franchises.

"We have always been proud to be a grassroots business serving the requirements of commercial, government and non-profits, regardless of size," asserted, Arti Sahebi, Owner, GoGreeNow. "We are all very excited about the upcoming expansion into North Carolina.

The exceptional standards speak volumes." The company is registered to work with State and Local Governments in the Washington D.C. area, providing peace of mind to customers for advanced advice, workmanship, and services related to commercial kitchen equipment, compressed air systems, water heaters, LED lighting and HVAC. In the United States in 2014, the production of non-hydropower renewable energy was bigger than hydropower for the very first time. Inspect: https:// www.statista.com/statistics/499189/generation-of-r...

"We work with energy company incentive programs to help our customers save energy and money," explained, Raymond Wickline, Business Manager, GoGreeNow. "That is a really worthwhile vocation when you have the opportunity to help many companies and organizations in just 3 easy steps."

About: GoGreeNow was established in 2012 to disrupt America's green energy industry by providing superior energy efficiency expertise. Visit: http://gogreenow.net

For more information about us, please visit http://gogreenow.net

Contact Info:

Name: Raymond Wickline

Email: Raymond@gogreenow.net

Organization: GoGreeNow

Address: 2112 Old National Pike, Gaithersburg, MD 20879

Phone: +1 240 477 4596

Release ID: 118471

For more information visit r



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020616YOUNG SELMAH REUNITES WITH FAMILY

By Tom Kathoa



A 7year old girl who went missing for more than a year has finally been returned to her biological family.



The mother, Alice Simeta of Nagovis in South Bougainville told New Dawn FM that her daughter Selmah NABARO went missing on the 31st of April last year, 2015 until she was found and taken back to the family last month.



An emotional Mrs. Simeta said the past 16months has been very painful for her while searching for young NABARO.



She said she spent a lot of money and even asked church groups and magicians for help in locating her daughter.



The family had a little get together dinner with friends and neighbors today to celebrate Selmas safe return.



Ends


Lowes Financial Management has made a donation to Yorkshire charity Chernobyl Aid UK to fund a delivery of humanitarian relief items to the poor, sick and disabled people of Belarus.

Chernobyl Aid raises money for costs associated with the trip, but those on the convoy pay for their own accommodation, food and other personal costs.

The lorry, funded by the Lowes donation, will travel to Belarus from Stockton on Tees, where aid is prepared for distribution.

Article continues after advert
The Association of British Insurers will take on the chief executive of Aviva, Andy Briggs, as its next chairman.

Andy Briggs will replace Paul Evans, chief executive of Axa UK, who has completed his two-year term at the organisation.

Members of the ABI nominated Mr Briggs, who has been deputy chairman since November last year.

He will start his new role as chairman in October.

Since joining Aviva in April 2015, Mr Briggs has led the firm through the acquisition of Friends Life, where he was group chief executive.

He has previously held executive roles at Scottish Widows, Lloyds Banking Group and Prudential.

Mr Briggs said: The ABI plays an important role working closely with government, regulators and others to ensure that the industry promotes best practice, transparency and great value for customers.

I believe that as an industry our unwavering focus should be to help customers think both about savings, so that they can enjoy a secure and prosperous retirement, and also to protect their families, businesses and belongings when the unexpected happens.

Meanwhile, Paul Geddes, chief executive of the Direct Line Group, will become ABI deputy chairman, having previously worked as chief executive for RBS Groups UK retail banking business.

katherine.denham@ft.com
'Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age' HD Remaster Confirmed! Game Coming to PS4 in 2017

Square Enix has announced that the long awaited remake of "Final Fantasy XII" is now confirmed for an HD Remaster and it's called "Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age."

IGN reports that during the "Final Fantasy" concert last year, they actually mentioned a "Final Fantasy" HD remake -- as they put it -- although it was really more of a remaster. Nothing was really said anything past that, so people never really knew if it was official or just a rumor.

'Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age' confirmed for 2017 release

Just a couple of weeks before E3 2016, we got official confirmation for "Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age," Forbes reports. "Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age" will be released in 2017 for Sony's PS4.

"Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age" is basically what you'd expect it as an HD version of "Final Fantasy XII." Obviously, if you can tell by the name, it is the International Zodiac version of the "Final Fantasy XII" game.

"Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age" is a re-release and it's going to be based off of the Japanese International version of "Final Fantasy XII." Aesthetically, everything is getting pumped up and it looks really nice and gamers will definitely enjoy the re-vamped version of "Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age."

'Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age' teaser trailer released

The "Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age" teaser trailer didn't show that much, but for the most part it does look like the original game except it is upscaled to HD.

But not only are they going to be doing that, they're going in and they're re-doing all of the backgrounds, all of the characters, and they also said they they're going to be improving the voice acting as well.

"Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age" gamers will be able to switch between either the English or Japanese voices

The "Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age" music is going to be getting remastered but gamers will have the option to select between the original score and the remaster score.
Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia was among the right people enshrined on the memorial wall on Saturday, Oct. 21.
Corvallis voters likely will be considering a city tax on recreational marijuana sales on the November ballot.

The City Council discussed the tax at a Tuesday work session and although councilors cannot take votes or reach final decisions at such meetings, members seemed inclined to look at a marijuana tax as the city struggles to find the revenue to pay for increasingly expensive city services.

Finance Director Nancy Brewer said that it was not clear how much money might be raised by imposing such a tax, which the state limits to 3 percent. Brewer did note that the state is bringing in considerably more revenue from marijuana sales than it expected, although there is no city-by-city data available.

The council passed a resolution authorizing such a tax a day before Oregon voters approved Measure 91 in November 2014. All a new resolution would require is adding a number for the percentage to be imposed. The city faces a deadline of Aug. 15 to put the issue on the ballot.

Councilors discussed the marijuana tax during a session on next steps for the task force working on the city goal of a sustainable budget. The task force has met 14 times since June 2015, looking at revenue and expense challenges on a department-by-department basis.

Among the revenue ideas that have been discussed are a local sales tax, a local income tax, a business license fee and an increase in the city services bill which covers water, stormwater, wastewater, urban forestry and street and sidewalk maintenance.

The city plans to hire a consultant to survey the public. The consultant work, which has tentatively been budgeted at $25,000 to $35,000, will involve seeking public input on which revenue ideas to pursue and what cuts residents would recommend in city services.

Ward 9 Councilor Hal Brauner, who chairs the seven-person budget task force, said any revenue measures that would be referred to the voters likely would be considered in November 2017.

Councilors also discussed the challenge of bringing all of the unimproved streets in town to city standards. Current city policy limits city street funds to those that already meet city code, but residents  five of whom waited nearly two hours to testify  think it is unfair that they pay the city services bill yet are not eligible to have their streets fixed.

Public Works Director Mary Steckel and Greg Gescher, city engineer, led six neighborhood outreach sessions in May to answer questions and gather questions on the issue.

Residents and city staff noted at Tuesday's work session that given the limited funding available, any expansion of the number of streets eligible could reduce the chances that any street gets potholes fixed or resurfacing done.

Mayor Biff Traber said the council will consider changing the policy. But the larger questions of how to pay for the improvements and how to meet the needs of neighbors who like the rural feel of streets without sidewalks remain to be resolved.
Oregon State University will open a housing facility for students in recovery this fall.

Students who are part of the universitys Collegiate Recovery Community will be moving into Dixon Lodge, one of the four former housing co-ops at the east end of the campus between Southwest Jefferson Avenue and Southwest Madison.

OSU housing officials say Dixon will be the first such on-campus student recovery housing in the state.

The recovery community, which was formed in 2013, has been working ever since to line up a housing option for the group. It has used meeting space in McNary Hall until now.

It was hard finding space that we could commit to being substance-free, said John Ruyak, alcohol, drug and recovery specialist in Student Heath Services. University Housing and Dining Services does a great job with its policies and expectations regarding alcohol and drugs, but it was hard to control for the student who goes off campus and comes back (under the influence).

Thats going to present challenges for someone in recovery.

About nine to 12 students will be residing in Dixon come fall and space remains available. Currently, 16 students are in the Collegiate Recovery Community, but a number of them are graduating Saturday.

Dixon Lodge, which is now being used as temporary lodging for visiting researchers and scholars, will need some Americans With Disabilities Act upgrades before the students move in, said Jennifer Vina, OSU's marketing and communications director in University Housing and Dining Services.

A donation from OSU alum Tom Skoro and his wife, Joan, will pay for the upgrades, which will only address issues on the first floor. The university still is looking for funding to upgrade the second floor, which would increase capacity to more than 25 students. The donations also will help pay for scholarships for students in recovery.

The Recovery Living and Learning Community, as it will be called, will be jointly staffed by employees from Student Health Services and University Housing and Dining Services. Ruyak will move his office from Plageman Hall to Dixon, and he will be joined by a graduate teaching assistant from Student Health Services and a residential assistant from University Housing and Dining.

This is a really important step that the university is taking, Ruyak said. A lot of these students face challenges entering college. A lot of them are older and not really a good fit for the traditional residence halls.

The university closed the four co-ops, which included Avery Lodge, Azalea House and Oxford House in addition to Dixon, at the end of the 2013-14 school year. OSU officials cited the cost of required renovations and changes that they thought were necessary for the co-operative housing program.

Remodeling of Avery, Oxford and Azalea is scheduled to be completed before fall. Avery will host the Human Services Resources Center, Azalea will mainly be used for services to support student parents and Oxford will become office space for University Housing and Dining Services.

Vina said that Bloss Hall will be used as additional housing for visiting scholars and researchers, who also use lodging in Sackett Hall and the International Living Learning Center.
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

MONDAY, JUNE 6

MENACING: 1 p.m., 235 N.W. Fourth St. Officers responded to Burger King after an employee reported that a man brandishing a knife had threatened to kill him. Police later located Henry Clay Hern, 33, no address given, and found him to be in possession of an approximately 10-inch long knife. Hern was charged with menacing and disorderly conduct.

FRIDAY, JUNE 3

TURKEY THEFT: 1:38 p.m., 3600 block Northwest Roosevelt Drive. A resident reported that a man snatched a baby wild turkey out of the front yard. The suspected thief reportedly told the person that he was going to raise the turkey himself. The man then reportedly drove off in a black GMC truck. Officers were unable to locate the man, the truck or the missing bird.

Benton County Sheriff's Office

TUESDAY, JUNE 7

DUII: 12:19 a.m., Highway 34 and Highway 20, Philomath. A deputy arrested and charged Camran Paul Hewitt, 26, of Philomath after the officer reportedly observed Hewitt steal a bicycle and ride away. Hewitt was charged with DUII and theft. He had a reported blood alcohol content of 0.088 percent.
More than twenty years ago The New Yorker published a cartoon captioned "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog."

Today, not only can the Internet know if you're a dog (or presumably not), but also your location, age, shopping preferences, friends, favorite movies and much more. And that's just what the legal companies can glean. The bad guys may also know your credit card digits, social security number, mother's maiden name, medical history, and bank account access information.

Smartphones shrank your zone of privacy even further, with apps able to see where you are at all times.

But now, virtual reality is threatening to erode our privacy to a new level from knowing how we physically move around to the brain waves we emit. Even though VR technology is still in its infancy, privacy advocates already quickly raising red flags concerned that consumers don't know what virtual reality companies can glean from our use of their devices.

VR watchdogs

After Senator Al Franken (D-Minn.) learned that Oculus collected information about users' location and physical movementsand could share those details with othershe asked the virtual reality headset maker some hard questions about privacy and security in a letter to Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe last month.

The company's response? Saying they needed the information " to help improve its services," wrote Jordan McCollum, Oculus General Counsel in a seven-part letter.

That answer did little to appease Franken. Although noting that Oculus Rift "will have a big effect on the future of technology," Franken also vowed to "make sure that the company is doing everything it can to protect the very sensitive, private data of its users," he said in a statement in mid-May.

Consumers, of course, are already fairly comfortable with companies knowing their whereaboutsand those details are not unique to virtual reality, of course. But knowing a user's head movement? That their eyes glanced to one figure and not another while wearing a VR headset? Those details are unique.

Certainly today's virtual reality applications tend to be very basic experiences. But as the technology improves, and virtual reality environments become more and more immersive and realistic, the potential uses will expand dramaticallyallowing tech providers to monitor every single interaction and motion.

"It's true that virtual reality platforms have the ability to collect an unprecedented amount of data," says Eric Mugnier, senior vice president and U.S. head at London-based mobile marketing agency M&C Saatchi Mobile. "[That]could be detrimental to users' privacy if used maliciously."

Advertisers' delight

But he added that there's a potential benefit to this data collection, as well. With more data, brands will likely create marketing campaigns that the end-user may feel is more relevant to them. He cites Facebook's purchase of Oculus in 2014 as one way the social media platform likely hopes to build ads that its users may actually want.

"With Oculus, Facebook will have access to an even larger amount of data, which will likely be used to better target specific audiences to serve more relevant ads in real-time," says Mugnier. "By many, this is seen as a positive as it will increase the Facebook platform efficiency for marketers and users alike. "

Plus Facebook is hardly alone in seeing the potential of virtual reality for advertising. Three-quarters, or 75 percent, of those on Forbes' World's Most Valuable Brands list, have created some form of virtual or augmented reality experience for customers or employees, or are themselves innovating and developing these technologies, according to YouVisit's Virtual Reality Brand Power Index.

Targeted advertising is something most consumers are already used to in their online life. Plus Mugnier adds that virtual reality platforms will be using privacy policies already in place "and as users are aware and careful with their privacy settings, it should not create any additional issues or be reason for concern," he says.

Still, the amount of personal information collected could pose both privacy and security risks, says privacy expert Adam Levin, chairman and founder at Scottsdale, Arizona-based IDT911, an identity protection company. If a company collects detailed information about how you behave in a virtual world, hackers could get their hands on itmuch like they do on details collected by other firms.

"The more people know about you, these are all digital bread crumbs that are being collected to create this mosaic of your life," says Levin. "This mosaic is the platform that they use to commit crime, either against you, or against someone else in your name."





Lock your device down

With VR devices and headsets, Levin recommends customers protect themselves right from the start. First? Be aware of the data that is collected about them. Next? Change default settings when those are provided, and set up a separate email address and passwords for gadgets that operate in virtual environments. If someone hacks into one online service, they then won't be able to use your login and password everywhere else on the net.

In fact, it's a good idea, in general, to setup multiple free, disposable email accounts to log into sites you don't care about so they are separate from your financial sites, and separate from your shopping sites.

After all, it's not just advertisers and hackers who might want to track your virtual behavior. Government agencies, might one day as well, notes Monolina Sen, senior analyst at Scottsdale, Arizona-based ABI Research. Or they may demand that information from companies that collect it.

"The future of surveillance will adapt to virtual reality," she says. "The National Security Agency is finding new ways to store records, and to keep tabs on citizens."

Companies then bear some responsibility sits with companies in creating privacy policies that are simple and clearabout what's collected on them and what isn't so consumers can make an informed decision about whether to use their services or not, says Levin. Otherwise, more officials, like Franken, are likely to step up and force the issue further.

"I think at some point, if companies don't take more serious steps to make sure that consumers are educated, that you will have some government interaction," he says.

Giphy
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.
Sparkasse Cologne-Bonn : Bank to shut 7 branches in Bonn

Bonn / Cologne A big change to the banks network sees the closure of 22 branches in Bonn and Cologne

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Sparkasse Cologne-Bonn announced huge changes to its network on Wednesday. In Bonn alone, seven branches are to close.

The banks board of directors decided at its last meeting to merge seven branches in Bonn and 15 in Cologne with larger neighbouring branches over the period from autumn 2016 to the end of 2017. The 22 branches will be closed.

The primary reason for the decision is the change in customer behaviour in the digital age. The bank said on Wednesday there had been a significant decrease in the number of customers visiting branches. Moreover, 55 per cent of private bank accounts had now been activated to use online banking. The advisory services provided by the branches were no longer being used everywhere.

Automated teller machines for cash withdrawals would remain at the affected locations or nearby. In addition, the Sparkasse wants to expand its 24-hour telephone banking, so that money transfers or standing orders can be made over the phone.

The bank advisers will also move to the neighbouring branches. They will remain the customers trusted contact persons, said the bank in a press release.

The following Bonn branches will close:

Heiderhof

Kudinghoven

Lengsdorf

Lessenich

Plittersdorf

Tannenbusch-Paulusplatz

Vilich-Muldorf
Bonn civic services : Lengthy waiting times have not improved

BONN Citizens having difficulty registering changes in residence status

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There are still long waiting times for appointments at the Bonn civic services. Those wanting to book an appointment online to apply for an identity card or register themselves as resident, de-register or register a change of address will not get an appointment before the middle of September.

SPD member of the State Parliament, Renate Hendricks, finds this untenable, particularly as there has been no improvement since the change was made to online booking over a year ago. Hendricks has therefore told Federal Minister of the Interior, Thomas de Maiziere (CDU) that people in Bonn are, for example, not able to register themselves as resident or register a change of address within the legal deadline of two weeks.

The Minister of the Interior told me that both he and the NRW State Interior Minister were aware of the situation in Bonn. The State Interior Ministry has also told the city of Bonn that its their duty to register residents and changes of address within the correct deadlines.

As previously reported, the Mayor of Bonn, Ashok Sridharan, has said the city will revert to the old ticketing system if the situation at the civic services has not considerably improved by the end of October.
Article

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.
Professor Sheila Rowan appointed Chief Scientific Adviser

Professor Sheila Rowan MBE is to be Scotlands next Chief Scientific Adviser, Deputy First Minister John Swinney has announced during a visit to the University of Glasgow.

Mr Swinney and Science Minister Shirley-Anne Somerville met Professor Rowan at the Universitys Institute for Gravitational Research, of which she is Director.

Research carried out by the Institute was part of a global effort leading to the discovery of gravitational waves, one of the most significant scientific discoveries of this century, with the international team involved being awarded the 2016 Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics.

John Swinney, Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, said: I am delighted to welcome Professor Rowan to the Scottish Government and look forward to working with her as Chief Scientific Adviser.

The Scottish Government values science and the expert scientific advice provided by our network of specialist science advisers. As CSA, Professor Rowan will help to ensure that science informs the Scottish Governments work and advise on the impact that new developments in science may have.

Minister for Further Education, Higher Education and Science Shirley-Anne Somerville said: Professor Rowans work is a fantastic example of our world-leading science base, and she is a great advocate of its potential to benefit Scotlands economy, environment and people. I hope that she will also inspire many of our young people to consider a future career in science.

Professor Rowan said: This is an exciting time to join the Scottish Government and I am looking forward to working with Ministers and officials to show the added value that science advice can bring to their work. Im also keen to meet scientists across Scotland so that I can fully appreciate the potential impact of new developments in science, engineering and technology.

Professor Sheila Rowan speaks about her new role

University of Glasgow's Principal and Vice Chancellor, Professor Anton Muscatelli, welcomed the appointment. He said: Sheila Rowan is an outstanding scientist as was shown through the work she and her team contributed to the discovery of Gravitational Waves  one of the most significant scientific breakthroughs in recent decades. She is also a brilliant communicator and a superb role model. Sheila is an excellent choice as Chief Scientific Adviser for Scotland.

Sheila follows on from the lead given by another University of Glasgow academic - Professor Muffy Calder - who was Scotlands Chief Scientific Advisor from 2012-15.

We are delighted that another of our leading professors will hold this position at a time when the role of science in society and the economy is more important than ever. Everyone at the University of Glasgow wishes Sheila well in her new role."

Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, welcomed Professor Rowans appointment: The Royal Society of Edinburgh is strongly of the view that expert scientific advice should be available to the Scottish Government when considering policy issues. We therefore welcome the news that Professor Rowan has taken up the crucial Chief Scientific Adviser post and look forward to offering support to her in the future.

Professor Rowan will start her new post of Chief Scientific Adviser for Scotland on 13 June 2016.

The discovery of gravitational waves earlier this year both confirmed Einsteins theory predicting their existence and showed that the collision of two black holes could be detected from their gravitational ripples travelling across the universe.

In line with previous CSA appointments, this position will be a three-days-a-week secondment to the Scottish Government for three years, with the possibility of further extension. The CSA Scotland will provide advice in a range of policy areas, focusing on strategic and/or cross-cutting issues, particularly in policy areas not already covered by the Chief Scientist (Health) and the CSA for Rural Affairs, Food and Environment. The CSA Scotland is an ex officio member of the Scottish Science Advisory Council and will work closely with the Council to advise the Scottish Government.

Professor Rowan has been Director of the Institute for Gravitational Research at the University since 2009. She received an MBE in 2011.

After her PhD studies in Glasgow, Professor Rowan held various positions split between the University of Glasgow and the Edward L. Ginzton Laboratory at Stanford. She returned to Glasgow in 2003, becoming Professor of Experimental Physics in 2006.

Her research is targeted at developing optical materials for use in gravitational wave detectors, and her recent work has been a crucial part of the Advanced LIGO upgrades, carried out between 2010 and 2015, that contributed to one of the most significant scientific breakthroughs of this century: the first detection of gravitational waves announced in February 2016, resulting in a share of the 2016 Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for her and the members of her team in Glasgow.

At the Institute Professor Rowan leads a group of around 60 researchers developing detectors and signal analysis methods to search for gravitational waves both on the ground and from space. She currently chairs the Gravitational Wave International Committee, focussed on co-ordinating and shaping the global strategic landscape of gravitational wave research.

Media enquiries: liz.buie@glasgow.ac.uk / 0141 330 2702
'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.
Several Danville Public Schools principals and assistant principals will be changing schools as part of restructuring efforts in the district, Superintendent Stanley Jones announced Wednesday.

This was all about trying to align our leadership needs with our school needs, Jones said.

For school principals, Kim Agnor will become principal of Woodberry Hills Elementary School, Jocelyn Fitzgerald will become principal of E.A. Gibson Elementary School and Larry Toomer will become principal of Langston Focus School.

Prior to the announcement, Schoolfield Elementary School teacher Tonya MaCrae asked the Danville School Board and Jones not to place Principal Everette Johnson at a different school. MaCrae said teachers were disappointed with the timing of the announcement and worried the move would affect school stability.

How can you show stability to the faculty, to the students and to the parents if after two years you want to move someone who has made progress? MaCrae said.

Johnson will remain at Schoolfield this school year, but Jones said the teachers comments were not a factor in his decision. Jones said the decision had more to do with the needs of the school.

Additionally, several assistant principals will be moving to new schools next year. Kenya Gravely will be an assistant principal at Bonner Middle School, Withers Jackson will be an assistant principal at Westwood Middle School, Carolyn Stephens will be an assistant principal at George Washington High School and Lisa Totten will be an assistant principal at G.L.H. Johnson Elementary School.

Jones said the changes were a reflection of the districts commitment to meeting needs, improving learning and enhancing school performance. He said he was grateful for the support of city leaders and their willingness to lead learning in Danville.
Danville City Council approved its $271.8 million 2016-17 budget during its meeting Tuesday night.

The budget includes performance-pay increases for city employees, an increased utility rate and about $1.4 million to be repaid to the Virginia Tobacco Commission.

The budget comes with no tax increase and about $103.3 million in the general fund.

Councilmen voted unanimously to approve the budget, though Alonzo Jones said he still opposed the rate increase and wished there were more discussion of the topic.

Vice Mayor Gary Miller said the city had to increase its rates or make up for the low rates somewhere else. The public underpaid for its utilities, he said.

We have got to pay our bills, Miller said, adding that a tax increase could result without a rate hike.

Councilman Fred Shanks said rates will increase from now on and all the city can do is keep the rate of increases down. Customers can cut consumption and take advantage of rebate programs to alleviate the burden, but costs will increase, Shanks said.

In the end, the rates needed to be raised in order for Danville Power and Light to continue to operate, Shanks said.

Councilman John Gilstrap asked how much revenue the increase will generate. It will bring in about $1.8 million  equal to a 9-cent increase in the real estate tax rate, said City Manager Ken Larking.

Miller said one problem is the city is stuck with transmission charges. If the rates arent paid, the power supply can be cut off, he said.

Councilman Larry Campbell Jr. said, This is one of the hardest decisions Ive had to make on council.

Jones and Councilman Lee Vogler voted against the utility rate increase but approved the budget for the other items in it, including pay raises for employees.

Raising rates is never desirable but oftentimes necessary, said Mayor Sherman Saunders.

Danville has budgeted more than $1 million to cover the salary increases, including about $720,000 in the general fund.

The raises will be based on job performance, and will average about 2 percent. Some employees will get more than 2 percent, while others will get 2 percent or less.

The $1.4 million will be repaid to the tobacco commission for failed economic development projects in Danville. That money will come from the citys reserve fund.

The utility rate increase raises the monthly customer charge by $1.20 for residents, increasing the rate by $.00120 per kilowatt hour. Residential utility bills will increase by an average of $2.43 per month.

The citys local contribution to Danville Public Schools will be about $19 million, an increase from about $17.4 million. The budget includes a 2.5-percent increase for school employees.

In another matter, City Council approved a request from the Danville Redevelopment and Housing Authority to rezone 502 Franklin St. from Old Town Residential to Tobacco Warehouse Commercial.

Jones abstained from the vote because he serves on the DRHA board.

The DRHA will move its homeownership program office to the location and expand its services this month.

City Council also approved an award of $55,220 from the Danville-Pittsylvania Community Services Board to the parks and recreation department for the Recreation Enrichment Program and the Expanded Summer Program.

The Special Recreation Division will use the money to provide recreation, education and cultural services to intellectually disabled citizens. The award is a continuation of funding from the board.

The money will be matched with local in-kind funds of $123,885 for a total appropriation of $179,105. The in-kind funds are included in the citys 2015-16 budget.

The city also approved an ordinance appropriating $305,195 in Virginia Department of Transportation Alternative Program money for continued improvements for the Riverwalk Trail project from Advance/Trade Street to Commerce Street.
Asked to talk about his vision for the future of Danville, City Manager Ken Larking told a roomful of chamber of commerce members that he prefers to call it our vision  a collaborative effort between city staff, the public and City Council.

We have about 43,000 people who live in Danville and at least that many different opinions on how their city government should function, Larking said Tuesday. The City Council has the difficult task of taking those 43,000 opinions and developing a strategy that is in the best interest of everyone  I feel certain that during Danvilles existence, the vision has boiled down to this: To create a place where people can have a rich, safe and enjoyable life through their working, learning and playing.

To accomplish that, Larking said, the citys role is to set policy, adopt laws, establish services and appropriate money  something he said the city has been doing since it was founded 223 years ago, expanding those efforts as needed for the common good of this community.

Larking said while the city is not the driving factor on whether a business succeeds  saying that responsibility belongs to business leaders who take the risk to build a business  there are ways the city government can help.

First, we need to have common sense ordinances and a permitting process that encourages orderly development, but not so restrictive that its hard to start and maintain a business, he said.

Larking said the city needs to be aggressive in all aspects of economic development, including having safeguards to protect the citys investment in business ventures, working to recruit businesses that research shows makes sense for Danville, protecting existing businesses, creating opportunities for people looking for work and encouraging educational opportunities so companies will find workers ready for the jobs they will provide.

Youth disengagement is an issue, Larking said, and work needs to be done to eliminate any feeling that some young people have that there is no hope in their future.

He said he recently visited W.W. Moore Detention Center and spoke to young people who asked how they were going to get jobs and better themselves. Larking said the answer to beginning a successful work life is to be able to pass a drug test, show up at the job on time and to be committed to learning the job.

Larking said he was impressed with their desire for better futures and to be able to support themselves.

If you do those three things, you can start a career, Larking said, noting that initially it could be a ground-floor position that offers the opportunity to work their way up. Some of these kids dont realize its there for the grasping  there are jobs in Danville. You dont have to disqualify yourself because of circumstances.

Larking admits there are challenges and there is a lot of work to be done, but said he believes residents should also be proud of what has been accomplished.

When I decided to come to Danville three years ago, I was so impressed by the business, civic and government leaders who were dedicated to overcoming the challenges before them, Larking said. It may be difficult to see from the inside, but anyone from the outside who takes the time to learn about what our community is doing to re-imagine ourselves, is impressed. I often speak to my colleagues from other cities about what is happening here and they are in awe at what we are doing  as am I.
More than 22 million students nationwide receive free or reduced-price meals during the school year  but what happens to those students when school closes for the summer?

Tuesday marked the kickoff of the nationwide USDA Summer Food Service Program.

In Virginia, about 87 percent of students who rely on free or reduced price school meals miss out on summer meal programs each day, Virginia First Lady Dorothy McAuliffe said in a news release. We can and must do more to increase participation in these programs and connect more kids with the healthy food they need to be successful.

During the summer, there are 50 locations serving meals within 30 miles of Danville  from Sutherlin to Axton, and Providence, North Carolina, to Gretna  but not all locations serve meals every day.

One of the locations that will be serving meals  for the first time  is the Chatham branch of the Pittsylvania County Public Library. Chatham will be serving a lunch after their summer reading program on Tuesdays, and a snack after their summer reading program on Thursdays.

Many of these locations are sponsored by Pittsylvania County Community Action, and the food is prepared by the Salvation Army on Henry Street in Danville. Other locations are sponsored by the local school systems and private organizations. There are currently 69 sponsored by PCCA, but the organization is hopeful that more groups will join throughout the summer, according to program coordinator Ervenia Myers.

I would like for them to know that we do have these programs going on in different areas so they can send their children out to have their basic lunch and breakfast, said Myers. Even though schools out, I would still like for the children to have their breakfast and lunch.

The interactive map at http://www.fns.usda.gov/summerfoodrocks can help searchers to find the location that serves the meal that they need. Searchers can also call the National Hunger Hotline at 1-866-3-HUNGRY or 1-877-8-HAMBRE, or text Food or Comida to 877-877.
WENTWORTH  Mickey Dale Snow, who in October fled the country to avoid prosecution on sex crimes involving minors, walked out of the Rockingham County jail on Thursday night after his children paid $1 million in cash and put up $20 million to ensure he wouldnt run away again.Snow, 75, of 318 Bearside Court in Eden had been held since late November on $25 million bail, but he was released after Russell and Katrina Snow paid a non-refundable, bonding-related fee and guaranteed all but $5 million of the original bail.Snow faces six counts each of patronizing a mentally disabled prostitute and statutory rape, one of six Rockingham residents who were being held on those charges since the charges first emerged in September.But Snow, indicted Oct. 5, fled to Thailand, where he was picked up by federal agents and extradited in November after having tried to work his way to Costa Rica.His release came less than three weeks after Rockingham County District Court Judge Edwin Wilson declined to reduce the bail amount. Bankers Insurance Company representative Melissa Jones also signed the bond-release form as guarantors of the $20 million, which would be released immediately if Snow again were to flee.Rockingham County Sheriffs Office spokesman Kevin Suthard and court documents state that Snow remains under house arrest and must wear a GPS monitor administered by the Rockingham County Sheriffs Office until he returns to court on Jan. 4.Snow is believed to be required to wear another ankle bracelet by Bankers Insurance, but telephone messages requesting comment from the company were not returned immediately.Rockingham County District Attorney Craig Blitzer said Monday that Snows release does not change anything from the courts side.His release from bond has no affect on my plan, he said. He shows up to court, and we move on. If he doesnt, he doesnt. But that plan is still the same as of now.The day before his indictment, Snow flew to Thailand, and on Nov. 3 he was picked up on a federal arrest warrant by police in Bangkok, Thailand. He was extradited on Nov. 25.Snows ticket from the United States to Thailand had been purchased in March and involved a return to the United States, but the return flight later was canceled as he flew from Thailand to Amsterdam and Panama before being denied by Panamanian officials to board a flight to Costa Rica, which has no extradition agreement with the United States.Panamanian officials sent him back to Amsterdam, and he returned to Thailand.Maximum possible punishment for statutory rape is life without parole, and he could receive up to 204 months in prison on the prostitution charge.Three people originally arrested and indicted in the case, Teresa Vanover, 52, Thomas Woodall, 66, and Everett James Ferris Jr., 67, remain in jail on $5 million bail.A fifth defendant, Donnie Ray Carter, 55, of Eden has not been indicted but has $5 million bail. All five are scheduled to appear in court Jan. 4.Vanover is charged with 24 counts of child abuse by prostitution and 24 counts of promoting prostitution, and Woodall is charged with 12 counts of statutory sex offense and 12 counts of patronizing a prostitute. Ferris is charged with six counts of indecent liberties with a child and six counts of patronizing a prostitute.Carter is charged with two counts of indecent liberties with a minor, both felonies, and one count of patronizing a prostitute.
Try out a virtual welder, see a hunk of metal transform into a high-tech part, and explore in-demand careers this Saturday at the second annual open house at the Gene Haas Center for Integrated Machining.

Hands-on activities, live demos of precision machines, tours, program graduates and industry representatives will be available from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Charles Hawkins Building, 230 Slayton Avenue, at the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research. There will be giveaways, free hot dogs and drinks for attendees. WAKG radio (103.3 Hot Country and Cool Classics) will be on-site doing a live broadcast.

The event is a chance for the public to learn about careers in advanced manufacturing and training programs available through DCC, such as integrated machining and dimensional inspection training, industrial maintenance, flow cell technology, precision machining, welding, and more. College personnel will be on hand to answer questions and help participants apply and find financial aid.

Local and regional industry representatives who hire DCC graduates will be on hand to discuss career options with their companies. Careers in advanced manufacturing can pay $17 to $25 per hour, and these skills are in-demand locally and regionally. For example, the first class of third-year capstone course completers at the Haas Center recently earned their CNC Flow Cell Machining certificates, with a 100 percent completion rate and 100 percent of graduates receiving job offers  some receiving multiple job offers.

Attendees will also have a chance to sign up for free exploratory classes in these areas scheduled at DCC on Saturday, June 18, with sessions from 9 a.m. to noon and repeated again from 1 to 4 p.m. Potential students are encouraged to try out one or more of these classes for a hands-on look at different career fields and to decide if the program is a good fit before pursuing a degree or certification.

Classes offered June 18 include:

 Factory Automation & Robotics, held at DCCs RCATT facility, 210 Slayton Ave, Danville.

 Welding, DCCs Main Campus (EIT building), 1008 South Main St, Danville.

 CNC Machining, DCCs Main Campus (EIT building) 1008 South Main St, Danville.

There is no charge to participate in the classes, but pre-registration is required. Attendees should reserve a spot by contacting Amanda Hylton at (434) 766-6607 or Amanda.hylton@dcc.vccs.edu, and setting up a new student profile at https://dcc.augusoft.net/.

While RSVPs for the open house event are not required, attendees can indicate if they are coming at https://www.facebook.com/events/720317078106665/.
VANCOUVER, Jun 7, 2016 - Reservoir Minerals Inc. ("Reservoir" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE:RMC) (OTC PINK:RVRLF) (BERLIN:9RE), reiterates the premium value of the Arrangement Agreement (the "Arrangement") it has entered into with Nevsun Resources Ltd. ("Nevsun") (TSX:NSU) (NYSE MKT:NSU). Following the completion of the Arrangement the pro-forma company will have over US$300 million in cash to fund the development of Timok, as well as ongoing cash flow generated by Nevsun's 60%-owned Bisha mine, a high grade mine which generated US$120 million of operating cash flow in 2015.Reservoir's Board of Directors unanimously urges shareholders to vote IN FAVOUR of the Arrangement in order to receive premium value and long-term exposure to the Timok project. Reservoir's Board also cautions that Reservoir's shares are currently trading at a premium linked to the Arrangement and the price may decline substantially if the Arrangement is rejected.The Company reports that it has been made aware of criticism of the Arrangement put into the public domain by Jing Bao, a dissident shareholder based in China. As the dissident shareholder is not a reporting issuer in Canada, it is under no obligation to provide support for or to substantiate any of the data presented and shareholders are thus cautioned not to rely on the numbers Jing Bao is using.The Company also reports that related to the Jing Bao dissent, it has received an unsolicited, non-binding financing proposal from another China based shareholder, Shandong Xiangguang Group Co. Ltd. ("XGC"). This proposal requires the Company to make an US$80 million private placement of equity to XGC priced at C$8.00 a share, a 7.5% discount to the Company's current share price.The financing proposal also requires Reservoir to borrow US$50 million from XGC, secured by Reservoir's interest in Timok as well as other Reservoir assets. Reservoir cautions shareholders of the risk of a default that could deliver to XGC the full ownership of Reservoir's interest in Timok, since Reservoir has no current operations that would allow it to service or repay the loan when it comes due.The Company cautions shareholders not to rely on these terms or on such funds being available as proposed or at all in the event of a no vote for the Arrangement. XGC could change any of the terms of its proposal, or withdraw it entirely, at any time.Miles Thompson, Non-Executive Chairman of Reservoir commented: "The Arrangement with Nevsun is the result of a rigorous process during which our Board of Directors considered a range of strategic alternatives, details of which have been provided in our information circular. The Arrangement was selected as it offered a premium for Reservoir's shareholders, a low risk path to exercise our Right of First Offer on Timok, and access to Nevsun's substantial balance sheet and proven mine building expertise. We reiterate our recommendation that Reservoir shareholders vote in favour."Simon Ingram, President and CEO of Reservoir commented: "As announced last week, we have recently received recommendations for the Transaction with Nevsun from leading independent proxy advisory firms ISS and Glass Lewis. This is in addition to the strategic process we ran and the fairness opinion from our financial advisor. Reservoir was funded by Nevsun at $9.40 per share and Nevsun's balance sheet and expertise will put the Company in the driver seat to deliver value."In November 2015 the Board of Directors of Reservoir contacted approximately 25 parties during a rigorous strategic process to consider potential strategic partners for the Timok project, and in March 2016 the Board engaged independent financial advisors to assist in evaluating strategic alternatives.The Board and its advisors considered a number of options, including financing proposals from Jing Bao and XGC, and the Board unanimously agreed that the Arrangement with Nevsun was the preferred alternative. The Board also received a fairness opinion from its independent financial advisor that the consideration to be received by the Reservoir Shareholders pursuant to the Arrangement is fair, from a financial point of view, to the Reservoir Shareholders.As part of its evaluation of alternatives, Reservoir and its advisors conducted extensive due diligence on Nevsun and its operations, including legal, financial, political risk, and technical analyses. Both the Non-Executive Chairman of the Board and the CEO of Reservoir visited the Bisha mine site and met with Eritrean government officials. The Board concluded that Nevsun has the proven mine development expertise and balance sheet to move the Timok project forward.The Company has provided extensive and detailed disclosure on the Arrangement in the Information Circular dated May 18, 2016 that sets out the terms and conditions regarding the Arrangement, as well as voting instructions for the special meeting to be held on June 17, 2016 (the "Meeting"); eligible shareholders and optionholders are encouraged to read it carefully. Reservoirs' Board of Directors and Executive team unanimously supports this transaction and urges shareholders to vote their Proxy FOR the Arrangement. Subject to certain customary conditions, the transaction is expected to close on or about June 23, 2016. At that time, Reservoir Shareholders will receive two common shares of Nevsun and $0.001 in cash (less applicable statutory withholdings) for each Reservoir common share they own.TIME IS SHORT - VOTE YOUR PROXY NOW TO RECEIVE PREMIUM VALUE AND UPSIDEIf you have any questions or need assistance with voting, please contact D.F. King, the proxy solicitation agent, by telephone at 1-866-822-1237 (North American Toll Free) or 1-201-806-7301 (Collect Outside North America); or by email at: inquiries@dfking.com Reservoir Minerals Inc. is an international mineral exploration and development company run by an experienced technical and management team, with a portfolio of precious and base metal exploration properties in Europe and Africa. The Company operates an exploration partnership business model to leverage its expertise through to discovery.This news release includes certain "forward-looking statements" under applicable Canadian securities legislation. Such forward-looking statements or information, including but not limited to those with respect to receipt of the Information Circular and proxy materials, the expected closing date of the Arrangement, the consideration to be received in respect of the Arrangement, beliefs with respect to future value creation at the Timok Project and the outcome of the Arrangement and benefits to shareholders, and the future ownership by Reservoir shareholders of Nevsun Shares, involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Reservoir Minerals Inc. to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or information. Such factors include, among others, (i) the conditions to completion of the arrangement will not be satisfied, including approval by Reservoir's and Nevsun's shareholders, and court approval; (ii) an event, change or other circumstance that could give rise to the termination of the arrangement agreement will occur; (iii) the retention of employees and other personnel will be adversely affected by uncertainty surrounding the arrangement; (iv) the companies will be unable to successfully integrate their operations following completion of the arrangement; (v) any of the assumptions in the historical resource estimates turn out to be incorrect, incomplete, or flawed in any respect; (vi) the methodologies and models used to prepare the resource and reserve estimates either underestimate or overestimate the resources or reserves due to hidden or unknown conditions, (vii) exploration activities or the mine operations are disrupted or suspended due to acts of god, internal conflicts in the country of Eritrea or Serbia, unforeseen government actions or other events; (viii) operations will be disrupted due to equipment or power failures, uncertainties in the copper minerology, metallurgical recoveries or concentrate grades, or other or other events; (ix) Nevsun is subjected to any hostile takeover or other unsolicited attempts to acquire control of Nevsun; or (x) are associated with the speculative nature of exploration activities, periodic interruptions to exploration, failure of drilling, processing and mining equipment, the interpretation of drill results and the estimation of mineral resources and reserves, changes to exploration and project plans and parameters and other risks disclosed in documents filed from time to time with the securities regulators in the applicable Provinces of British Columbia and Alberta.Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.Chris MacIntyre, VP Corporate Development+1 416 346-7660chris@reservoirminerals.comScott A. Trebicock, Chief Development Officer+1-604-623-4700strebilcock@nevsun.comwww.nevsun.comMedia Inquiries:Alan Bayless, Longview Communications Inc.(604) 694-6037abayless@longviewcomms.ca
TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - June 8, 2016) - Torex Gold Resources Inc. (the "Company" or "Torex") (TSX:TXG) announced updates on operations and geological model reconciliation at its El Limon-Guajes Mine (ELG) in southwest Mexico.

Fred Stanford, President & CEO of Torex stated: "The team on site continues to deliver excellent safety and environmental performance, and to exceed production expectations. In May they routinely operated the processing plant at design throughput levels and produced 29,995 ounces of gold, or 1,000 ounces per day. The Guajes deposit has also exceeded the expectations of the geological model, in both grade and tonnes. We have now processed over one million tonnes through the plant and can compare what the plant received against what was predicted by assays from blast-hole samples, and from there relate through to the geological model. In summary, since the plant was 'bedded down' at the end of February, when data became reliable, the plant has received 12% more gold ounces than was predicted by the geological model. Of this 12% increase in gold ounces, '10' came from increased grade, and '2' came from increased tonnage. Skarns are known to be variable and there is no reason to expect that this one will be any different; however, it is encouraging to note that as we work deeper into the Guajes deposit the positive reconciliation has strengthened. In conclusion, a big "thank you" to all Torex/MML teams, for their consistent performance in turning intentions into reality."

Operations Update

Processing Plant

The plant produced 29,995 Au oz in May 2016

Plant throughput was ahead of plan, averaging 11,468 tpd during May, or 82% of design capacity. The current peak daily throughput was achieved on May 9 th at 16,429 tpd, or 17.4% above design capacity

at 16,429 tpd, or 17.4% above design capacity The tailings filtration plant delivered an average of 11,651 tpd, matching the cadence of the grinding circuit

Average gold recovery for the month of May at 75%, was lower than previous performance. The cause was tracked back to an undiagnosed failure of equipment and a lack of accuracy in the measurement of cyanide concentrations. Both issues are now understood and corrected. During the first week of June recovery has averaged 87.6%

Commercial production, for accounting purposes, started April 1, 2016

Mining

At the end of May, the Company had approximately 0.9 million tonnes of ore stockpiled (The pace of mining has been reduced in order to draw down the stockpile.)

The El Limon crusher and RopeCon are fully commissioned

Pre-stripping at El Limon continues.

Reconciliation of Mine Production to the Mineral Reserve Model

For March, April and May, 860,000 tonnes were processed through the plant. Of that 860,000 tonnes, 73% came from Guajes and the rest came from the North Nose deposit.

The same blast-hole sampling processes were used to estimate mined grade for both Guajes and North Nose. The tonnes delivered by the mine to the processing plant are assigned the grade that was estimated by the blast-hole sampling processes.

The processing plant calculates the received head grade based on the ounces contained in all of the streams that exit the plant, plus 'live' in process inventory.

Since the head grade is calculated from streams that exit the plant, the data was not considered reliable until the 'lock-up' of gold in the processing plant had been 'bedded down'. This was estimated to be complete by the end of February 2016.

For March, April, and May, the blast-hole sampling processes underestimated the gold delivered to the processing plant by a weighted average of 8%.



Tonnes

Processed Mine Estimated

Au Grade

Delivered To

The Plant

(g/t) Process Plant

Calculated Au

Head Grade

(g/t) Plant Au

Grade Relative

To The Mine

Estimated

Au Grade March 283,000 2.10 2.51 120% April 221,000 2.97 3.44 116% May 356,500 3.02 2.95 98% Total 860,500 2.70 2.93 108%

For the benches mined to date at Guajes, the geological model predicted 1.023 million tonnes of ore, containing 76,000 ounces of gold. Based on the grade estimates of the blast-hole sampling processes, 1.043 million tonnes were mined from those benches with an expected 79,000 ounces of gold. This equates to the blast-hole sampling processes increasing the ore tonnage mined from those benches by 2%, at an estimated 2% higher grade, for a combined increase of 4% in estimated total ounces.

The grade received by the processing plant indicates that the blast-hole sampling processes have been under estimating grade by 8%. This calculates through to the geological model under estimating grade by 10% and total ounces underestimated by 12% given that more tonnes were mined than predicted by the geological model.

The table below indicates the Guajes bench by bench comparison of what was predicted by the geological model versus that mined according to the blast-hole sampling processes. (The 8% factor from the processing plant 'actuals' is not included in the table.) The table illustrates the variability that is frequently inherent in a skarn deposit. It also illustrates that the reconciliations have been more positive as mining gets to the heart of the deposit.

Area Mineral Reserves Model

(2015 LOM plan) Delivered to

Plant/Stockpiles Delivered to

Plant/Stockpiles

relative to Reserve Model

Reconciliation Factors (F1) Ore

(t) Au

g/t Au

Ounces Ore

(t) Au

g/t Au

Ounces Ore

(t) Au

g/t Au

Ounces Guajes East Bench 917 0.00 0.00 0.00 15,073 0.59 286 - - - Bench 910 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 - - - Bench 903 0.00 0.00 0.00 2,227 0.53 38 - - - Bench 896 0.00 0.00 0.00 8,186 0.50 131 - - - Bench 889 7,710 3.35 831 7,364 0.74 176 0.96 0.22 0.21 Bench 882 9,008 1.64 474 17,400 0.92 514 1.93 0.56 1.09 Bench 875 1,482 0.98 47 32,795 1.35 1,419 22.13 1.38 30.43 Bench 868 2,402 1.98 153 28,821 1.84 1,709 12.00 0.93 11.15 Bench 861 22,215 1.91 1,363 19,223 1.45 898 0.87 0.76 0.66 Bench 854 52,434 2.31 3,902 44,869 1.15 1,663 0.86 0.50 0.43 Bench 847 67,590 1.89 4,102 38,174 1.30 1,596 0.56 0.69 0.39 Bench 840 77,997 1.33 3,347 37,132 1.34 1,602 0.48 1.01 0.48 Bench 833 78,483 1.85 4,670 107,641 1.75 6,065 1.37 0.95 1.30 Bench 826 191,606 3.04 18,729 121,106 2.56 9,964 0.63 0.84 0.53 Bench 819 105,538 1.49 5,044 53,089 2.27 3,875 0.50 1.53 0.77 Bench 812 164,492 2.92 15,449 178,876 2.98 17,138 1.09 1.02 1.11 Bench 805 140,000 2.10 9,431 192,243 2.76 17,059 1.37 1.32 1.81 Bench 798 103,524 2.63 8,740 138,561 3.38 15,057 1.34 1.29 1.72 Total 1,024,480 2.32 76,283 1,042,779 2.36 79,191 1.02 1.02 1.04

The rest of the processed ore came from the North Nose deposit (approximately 1.5% of the mineral reserve), which is unusual for the property in that it is exposed, weathered, and oxidized. It was also on very steep terrain and that steep terrain made it difficult to get diamond drill holes into the upper part of the deposit that was exposed on surface. As a result of the topography and the exposed nature of the upper part of the deposit, channel samples were used extensively in that area.

Reconciliation was positive in the diamond drilled areas, less so for the channel sampled areas. This area is all mined out and the results have been included in the 2016 mineral reserve update. The North Nose tonnes remaining in stockpile are expected to be 8% higher in grade than what was accounted for in the 2016 mineral reserve update. (See news release dated May 12, 2016)

Qualified Person

Scientific and technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Dawson Proudfoot, P.Eng., Vice President, Engineering of Torex Gold Resources Inc. and a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

About Torex

Torex is an emerging intermediate gold producer based in Canada, engaged in the exploration, development and exploitation of its 100% owned Morelos Gold Property, an area of 29,000 hectares in the highly prospective Guerrero Gold Belt located 180 kilometers southwest of Mexico City. Within this property, Torex has the El Limon-Guajes (ELG) Mine, which started production in December 2015, and the Media Luna Project, at an advanced stage of exploration, with a positive PEA completed in July of 2015. The property remains 75% unexplored.

CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" and "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, the continued positive reconciliation results compared to the geological model, achieving gold recoveries as planned and achieving mine and plant production as planned,. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects", "estimates", "intends" or "indicates" or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may" or "could" be achieved. Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including those risk factors identified in the Company's annual information form and management's discussion and analysis. Forward-looking information is based on the reasonable assumptions, estimates, analysis and opinions of management made in light of its experience and its perception of trends, current conditions and expected developments, as well as other factors that management believes to be relevant and reasonable in the circumstances at the date that such statements are made, but which may prove to be incorrect, including without limitation, the accuracy of mineral reserve and mineral resource estimates and the assumptions on which the mineral reserve and mineral resource estimates are based, blast-hole sampling underestimates grade by 8% and continued uninterrupted access to the mine site. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and expectations reflected in such forward-looking information are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking information because the Company can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.
VANCOUVER, June 8, 2016 /CNW/ - NexGen Energy Ltd. ("NexGen" or the "Company") (TSXV:NXE, OTCQX:NXGEF) is pleased to announce the appointment of Charles Scorer as Special Advisor, Uranium Marketing of the Company.

Mr. Scorer has more than 25 years of commercial and operational experience in uranium and the global nuclear fuel market. Previously, Mr. Scorer served as the Chief Executive Officer of Accord Nuclear Resources, a partnership with First Reserve Corporation, a global energy-focused private equity firm assessing uranium assets worldwide. Prior to joining Accord, Mr. Scorer served as the Chief Executive Officer of London based nuclear fuel trading company, Nufcor International Limited, having formed it in 1998. During Mr. Scorer's time with Nufcor International, he oversaw the spinning out and listing on the London AIM of Nufcor Uranium Ltd., a uranium commodity investment vehicle. Nufcor International was subsequently sold to a large US investment bank. Prior to that, Mr. Scorer was the Managing Director of the Johannesburg based Nuclear Fuels Corporation of South Africa (Pty) Ltd. where his primary responsibility was the final processing, marketing and distribution of all South African origin uranium.

Mr. Scorer also previously held senior positions at the Chamber of Mines Research Organisation of South Africa where he was involved in the research and development of hydraulic, mechanised mining equipment for use in South Africa's deep level gold mines. Mr. Scorer holds a B.Sc. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Natal, South Africa and a Diploma in Production Engineering from the Witwatersrand Technikon, Johannesburg.

Leigh Curyer, Chief Executive Officer commented: "On behalf of everyone at NexGen, I would like to personally welcome Charles. Having worked with him at First Reserve, I know first hand his top tier experience in the field of nuclear fuel marketing and trading. The timing for bringing Charles on now as Special Advisor, Uranium Marketing is opportune given the stage of development Arrow is in. Cultivating long-term relationships with uranium end users takes time and this is an initial step in that process."

The Company also granted 250,000 options to Mr. Scorer. Each option entitles the holder to purchase one common share at a price of $2.69 per share, has a term of five years, vests in three equal annual installments commencing on the date of grant and is subject to the terms and conditions of the Company's stock option plan.

About NexGen

NexGen is a British Columbia corporation with a focus on the acquisition, exploration and development of Canadian uranium projects. NexGen has a highly experienced team of uranium industry professionals with a successful track record in the discovery of uranium deposits and in developing projects through discovery to production.

NexGen owns a portfolio of prospective uranium exploration assets in the Athabasca Basin, Saskatchewan, Canada, including a 100% interest in Rook I, location of the Arrow Discovery in February 2014. Rook I also hosts the Bow Discovery which is 3.7 km along trend and northeast of Arrow and was made in March 2015.

The TSXV has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release. Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE NexGen Energy Ltd.
Vancouver, British Columbia (FSCwire) - Rockhaven Resources Ltd. (TSX-V:RK) ("Rockhaven") announces that it has closed the first tranche of the private placement announced on May 18, 2016. Closing consisted of the issuance of:

5,995,000 flow-through units at $0.20 per unit, for total consideration of $1,199,000; and

3,469,000 non-flow-through units at $0.17 per unit, for total consideration of $589,730.

Each flow-through unit consisted of one flow-through common share and one-half (1/2) of a non-flow-through share purchase warrant, and each non-flow-through unit consisted of one non-flow-through common share and one-half (1/2) of a non-flow-through share purchase warrant. Each full warrant from either the flow-through or the non-flow-through units entitles the holder to purchase one additional non-flow-through common share at a price of $0.25 until December 3, 2017, provided that in the event the closing price of Rockhavens common shares as traded on the TSX Venture Exchange is equal to or greater than $0.35 for a period of ten (10) consecutive trading days subsequent to October 4, 2016, Rockhaven may give notice of an earlier expiry of the warrants, in which case the warrants would expire thirty (30) calendar days from the giving of such notice.

Rockhaven paid cash finders fees totaling $111,953 and issued a total of 592,830 finder warrants in connection with the closing, distributed among PI Financial Corp., Haywood Securities Inc. and Canaccord Genuity Corp., each of Vancouver, British Columbia, and Secutor Capital Management Corp. of Toronto, Ontario. Each finder warrant has the same terms and conditions as the warrants forming part of the flow-through units and the non-flow-through units disclosed above.

All of the securities issued pursuant to this private placement, including any shares issued pursuant to the exercise of any of the share purchase warrants disclosed herein, will be subject to a four month hold period expiring on October 4, 2016.

Rockhaven expects that a second and final tranche in respect of this private placement will close by mid-June 2016.

About Rockhaven

Rockhaven Resources Ltd. is a mineral exploration company focused on growth through the advancement of its Klaza project. For additional information concerning Rockhaven or its Klaza project please visit Rockhavens website at www.rockhavenresources.com.

Matthew Turner

President, CEO and Director

Rockhaven Resources Ltd.

T:604-687-2522

mturner@rockhavenresources.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view this press release as a PDF file, click onto the following link:public://news_release_pdf/RockhavenJune82016.pdfSource: Rockhaven Resources Ltd. (TSX Venture:RK) http://www.rockhavenresources.com/s/Home.asp

Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com

Copyright  2016 Filing Services Canada Inc.
June 8, 1967, technical research ship USS Liberty AGTR-5 was attacked while on maneuvers 13 miles off the Gaza strip during the Six-Day-War between Israel and its adversaries Egypt, Jordan and Syria. The attack killed 34 and injured 171 of the 294 crew members on board and caused heavy damage to the ship.Forty-nine years later, Ronald Kukal, a Liberty survivor reflects on his experience, and the continued process of coping with the loss of shipmates after so long.I was within 20 feet of the torpedo when it hit the ship, said Kukal. Something told me to get on the ground quick and just as I did the torpedo struck.Surviving the attack itself was only the physical battle on the ship. The next battle was mental and it continues with Kukal today.I was the petty officer in charge of body recovery after the attack, added Kukal. It was my job to put the pieces back together and identify them. I will never forget those 34 people.An E6 at the time with hopes to be an E7 and turn the Navy into a career, that August Kukal was honorably discharged due to a back injury sustained in the attack, two months after the strike of the Liberty.In the 49 years since the attack Kukal has dedicated his time to helping other veterans. He worked in Veterans administration for 23 years and is currently a chaplain for the Liberty Veterans Association.I feel strongly about my dedication to this country, said Kukal.In October 2003, Goodfellow dedicated the Liberty Memorial Park outside of the Navy Detachment in remembrance of those who were lost and effected by the attack.I thank Goodfellow for maintaining the memorial down there, said Kukal. It is one of the best that I have seen.In 2004, the park underwent renovations to expand the memorial.The Six-Day war began June 5 because of unresolved conflicts from the 1948 Arab-Israel War. Expecting an attack from Egypt, Israel chose to strike first, attacking Egypt, then Jordan and finally Syria. Israel destroyed each nation's air power in a matter of hours, giving them complete air superiority.

By June 8, the tensions had heightened and Israel was on a full offensive. According to the Liberty Veterans Association, the Liberty was maneuvering through the Mediterranean Sea and had been experiencing numerous radio and communication glitches. This caused immense difficulties contacting Israel and Egypt to communicate their exact location and identification. With communications so bad, the Liberty failed to receive orders from the U.S. to move back a few hundred miles, an order that would have altered their fate.

Israeli jets flew overhead and performed flybys for most of the morning. The jets flew low, but, other than that, gave no indication of the impending attack of the Liberty.After reflecting on his experiences Kukal had no regrets, noting that, Its all worth it when you have the best interest of your country in mind.
Queensland's most cracking food festival is back, folks. Brisbane Times Good Food Month presented by Citi is returning July 1-31 and this year's program is its greatest to date.

I'm not just saying that as editor of the Brisbane Times Good Food Guide either. Visit brisbane.goodfoodmonth.com and you'll see it's a program chock-a-block full of events engineered for people who like eating food (that is, everyone). Matt Moran, Luke Nguyen, and George Calombaris will be heating up the hotplates for proceedings, the Night Noodle Market is back and there's a ton of other events and dinners you can be a part of. Here are my top picks of the bunch. Happy eating, pals.

Gauge X Ides

Housemade silken almond tofu with eggplant, caper leaf and elderflower at Gauge. Photo: Supplied

Ask a Brisbane food fan where the most exciting place to eat is in town at the moment and there's a bloody good chance they'll say Gauge. They'll say it with a firm nod and a hunger in their eyes and that's because chefs Cormac Bradfield and Phil Marchant are serving high-voltage dishes that give a very large middle finger to the concept of 'cafe food' while still keeping deliciousness the top priority. (If you haven't tried Gauge's blood taco with bone marrow, mushroom and native thyme, stop reading this and edify yourself immediately).

Anyhow, the Gauge boys from Brisbane are teaming up with the Ides blokes from Melbourne for two nights and this is very exciting news. Former Attica sous chef and Ides main man, Peter Gunn, known for his risky, dynamic, multi-layered cooking will be on the pans at Gauge with Ides sous chef Zach Furst for a handful of eight-course dinners with super limited seat numbers. Expect top-notch wine matches of wild, natural, unfiltered grape juice and tickets to sell out ferociously quick.

WHERE Gauge, 77 Grey Street, South Brisbane WHEN July 25 and 26 COST $195 BOOKINGS eat@gaugebrisbane.com.au

Chefs Mark Best and Ryan Squires will join forces again for Brisbane Times Good Food Month. Photo: Supplied

David Thompson Nahm Pop-Up presented by Cathay Pacific

Hey ho, let's go. Australia's prodigal son of Thai cuisine is headed for Longtime and there's a good chance you have never experienced an explosion of flavour like David Thompson's cooking before. Unless you're lucky enough to have eaten at Nahm in Bangkok, in which case I apologise and you completely understand why Thompson's flagship venue sits at number 22 on the World's Best Restaurants list.

Longtime is a shorter pilgrimage for pad see ew than Bangkok and any fan of Thai food that snap, crackles and pops with freshness and fire needs to make this a must do on their khao calendar.

WHERE Longtime, 610 Ann Street, Fortitude Valley WHEN July 19 and 20 COST $200 BOOKINGS brisbane.goodfoodmonth.com

Momofuku Seiobo at GOMA

I had lunch at Momofuku Seiobo a couple of months ago and for the life of me I can't recall ever having as much fun in a restaurant, ever. Barbados-born Paul Carmichael is now on Seiobo's pass and rocking dishes threaded with Dave Chang's umami-drenched Momofuku DNA while still telling tales of Barbados and using native Australian ingredients. Plus, the Pavement and Beach Boys soundtrack is a cracker.

Carmichael and his crew will be joining Brisbane Times Good Food Guide 2016 Citi Chef of the Year, Josue Lopez, in the GOMA kitchen to serve six courses with matched booze and if the idea of this doesn't get you champing at the chompers, then I will think of you in my daily prayers to the gods of fried chicken and caviar.

WHERE GOMA, Stanley Place, South Brisbane WHEN July 13 COST $200 BOOKINGS brisbane.goodfoodmonth.com

Mark Best at Esquire

When Mark Best announced he would be closing his acclaimed Marque restaurant at the end of June, the hospitality world shed a tear. Best's influence on contemporary cooking in Australia is massive thanks to his harnessing of young talent and a penchant not for pushing the envelope, but scrunching it into a ball and pegging it at your head.

But, hey. Chin up, tiger. It's not like the bloke's dead. He's just doing other things. Things like this five-course dinner at Esquire where the chef and former electrician will be showcasing recipes from his new (and really quite terrific) cookbook Best Kitchen Basics. Head along and experience food from a legend who, as Myffy Rigby writes in the introduction to said new cookbook 'isn't just a taste-maker, he makes other people taste.'

WHERE Esquire, 145 Eagle Street, Brisbane WHEN July 14 COST $160 BOOKINGS brisbane.goodfoodmonth.com
Nathan Dalah says the interior of Fishbowl in Bondi will be like a skate bowl. Photo: Dominic Lorrimer

In February, Good Food reported the Japanese-influenced Hawaiian poke craze was headed Sydney's way and fine-dining chef turned burger-preneur Warren Turnbull was poking around Bondi for poke sites. Now Bondi has cemented itself as the beachhead for the raw-fish invasion with several new start-ups planned.

Nathan Dalah opens Fishbowl this month in the Pacific development on Campbell Parade, while another venture, from Bondi Best's Pier-trained chef Joel Best, is circling a site on Glenayr Avenue. "It's perfect for Bondi. Healthy, quick and not expensive," Best tells Good Food.

Dalah describes Fishbowl's interior brief as "like the Bondi skate bowl" and the food as more Japanese-leaning, Los Angeles style poke.

"We'll be using sashimi-grade fish and mixing it to order," he says. Coincidentally, Turnbull also looked at the site where Fishbowl is opening. Turnbull, who led Sydney's recent burger charge with Chur Burger, has cooled a little on his poke launch. "Now everyone's jumping in I'm not so sure. I'm looking at something different. Something that was cool a while ago," he says.
Reagan Hospital District board members (left to right), Garry Goff, Ann Schneemann, Robin Russell and Linda Rees break ground on the new $32.2 millon medical complex Monday in Big Lake.

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By Jane Jeschke Special To The Standard-Times

In a little more than a year, several acres of dry and dusty pasture full of mesquite trees will become the future of health care for residents of Big Lake and Reagan County.

With the turn of a shovel Monday, members of the Reagan Hospital District board of directors broke ground for a $32.2 million medical complex on 14 acres in the northwest corner of Big Lake, across from the county park.

Voters passed a bond election for the complex last May.

"It's been a long journey to get to this point," said board President Linda Rees to a group of residents and special guests gathered for the groundbreaking. "There's a saying that when God closes a door, he opens a window, and we have climbed through a lot of windows these last two years."

The current facility, Reagan Memorial Hospital, was built in 1949 and is showing signs of age. Inadequate electrical output plus structural, mechanical and plumbing problems vexed hospital staff and patients. Renovations were not economically feasible.

The new complex will include the hospital and its emergency room, a wellness center, a 36-bed care center, a helipad, a doctors clinic and a retail pharmacy. Its completion date will be late summer or early fall 2015.

"The old building served the community well for 65 years," said Bill Peeples, of the Austin-based architecture firm of Downing, Ferguson and Peeples. "My hat's off to those builders. We hope to get a good 65 years out of this new complex."

Having a state-of-the-art facility is a twofold benefit for Kyle Rockwell. Along with being the hospital's chief operating officer, he was recently elected mayor of Big Lake. At 28, he's the youngest mayor in the town's history.

"This will bring our medical facility into this century," Rockwell said. "We'll be able to provide more services to the community and provide overall better care to the community."

Rockwell told those gathered to look around at the site and see past the construction.

"Unfolding here is the future," he said, "the hopes and healing for our community."

The mayor also thanked all of the donors and everyone who was making a difference in the lives of Big Lake residents.

The acreage was donated by the Pembrook family.

"This was my grandfather's land, and his name was Ralph Pembrook," said Ann Schneemann, who also serves on the hospital board. "He came to Texon (an unincorporated community near Big Lake) in 1924 and then ranched this land. We're just all very excited about this."

Hospital CEO Pam Clark is equally excited about the new equipment that will be in the medical complex.

"We'll have new equipment, new beds, new monitors," she said. "This is a brand new beginning for us. There's a better future and better care for our patients."

The current medical complex is squeezed into a residential area on Main Street, and there was no way to expand, she said. Also, patients needing CT scans have to go outside to a mobile unit.

Rees expects construction costs to stay within the budget.

The Reagan County school district is doing renovations on its elementary, and nearby Rankin also is building a new hospital, so she's hoping the three entities can somehow work together and share certain contractors, such as concrete work, to help keep down costs.

Cheryl DeCordova, from Rep. Drew Darby's office, presented the board with a Texas flag that few over the state Capitol, along with a letter from the representative.

DeCordova and hospital board member Robin Russell praised the care center for taking such good care of family members.

"I've lived here forever," Russell said. "This community is very important to me, and now families will have a good medical facility for years and years."
SHARE Pork Loin Spiedies. (Tim Turner) Hasselback Potatoes with Garlic Butter and Parmesan. (Tim Turner) Chef and author Jamie Purviance. His new book is "Weber's New American Barbecue: A Modern Spin on the Classics." (Photo courtesy Weber/TNS)

Dos, donts to boost your grilling skills

By Lee Svitak Dean Star Tribune (Minneapolis) (TNS)

With grilling season having officially begun, thoughts turn to the big issues  namely, who cleans the grill?

That should be on your list  or someone near and dear  before the food even leaves the kitchen, which makes sense to anyone operating the grill.

But to be even more prepared for the summer cooking season, we turned to the grillmeister himself, Jamie Purviance, author of 15 books for Weber Grill, three of them New York Times best-sellers (Webers Way to Grill, a James Beard Award finalist; Webers Smoke, and Webers New Real Grilling). His new book, Webers New American Barbecue: A Modern Spin on the Classics, is hot off the presses.

Purviance, a graduate of Stanford University and the Culinary Institute of America, has explored what would seem to be every aspect of the grill, whether charcoal or gas.

We asked him for a Top 10 list of dos and donts for making the best meal outdoors. Heres what he had to say:

Do preheat the grill. A lot of cooks use a grill thats not properly preheated and they end up with food sticking or not browning very well, and not tasting particularly good, either. If the grate is cold, the food will stick and never have a decent chance of searing properly or developing those awesome grill marks. Even if a recipe calls for medium or low heat, you should preheat the grate on high first for 10 minutes. The grill temperature should reach at least 500 degrees.

Dont start with a dirty grate. If you left some stuff on the grate from your last barbecue, it could be the glue that holds your new food to the grill a lot longer than you want. To clean the grill, wait until the grill gets very hot (preheat it for at least 10 minutes), then scrape off the last meal. The best tool for the job is a sturdy, long-handled brush with stiff, stainless steel bristles.

Do get your act together. Bring everything you need near the grill before you start to cook. That means all the necessary tools, as well as food that is prepped  oiled and seasoned  along with any glaze or sauce or whatever else. Dont forget the clean platters for the cooked food.

Do give yourself at least two heat zones. Have one for direct heat (where the fire is right under the food) and one for indirect heat (where the fire is off to the side). This provides some flexibility, so you can move your food from one zone to another if the food is cooking too quickly or the coals are flaring up. Think of this as a safety zone. It also allows you to grill two very different foods at one time. There are foods that do well with a combination of types of heat, such as when you sear food on one side and then cook it more slowly on the other.

Dont overcrowd the grill. Packing a lot of food into a tight space is asking for trouble because it restricts where you can move the food. Case in point: If you try to squeeze too many pieces of food over direct heat, the pieces at the edge of direct heat, right where the indirect heat begins, will cook unevenly. The direct heat should extend at least 3 inches beyond all the items you are grilling. And try to leave some space between each item of food so that you get your tongs in there easily and move the food from one area to another. Purviance typically leaves 25 to 30 percent of the grill open so he has the flexibility to move food around.

Do use the lid. Keep the lid down as much as possible. It traps some of the smokiness that develops on the grill, which is important for flavor. It also eliminates a lot of flare-ups that are fueled by air rushing through the grill. Keeping the lid down also tends to cook things a little faster because now the heat is coming from below and above, reflecting off the lid. Thats really good for quick-cook items such as chicken breasts, hamburgers and pork chops, which dry out quickly. If you can cook them less on both sides by a couple minutes, they will be juicier. Dont forget to open the vents of a charcoal grills lid at least halfway. Every fire needs a little air to keep on burning.

Dont fiddle with food so much. Turn the food only once or twice. This is really important. It means you wont have the lid open so much, which affects how quickly food cooks (which impacts how dry it becomes). Cooks tend to try to turn food too early. This is especially true of fish and chicken with the skin on. As soon as food lands on the grate, it tends to stick, but if you leave it long enough, it releases. The problem is most cooks dont wait long enough, so they end up with some issues with sticking. And if you move the food too much, it never really develops as deep a sear as it could.

Do take charge of the fire. This is more of an issue with charcoal. Lit charcoal changes over time. Its quite hot in the beginning and then it fades out slowly or quickly. You need to take charge of the fire by refueling it, by pushing the coals around to suit your needs, by sweeping away the ashes that clog the bottom vents, and by adjusting the vents on the lid for optimal airflow. For the best result, anticipate what the fire is going to need and act proactively.

Do watch for doneness. Sometimes in grilling the most important thing to know is when to stop. Learn some doneness clues, as in the gently yielding firmness of perfectly grilled chicken when you press the surface with a fingertip. If you want an even more reliable test of doneness, get an instant-read thermometer, which will help you pinpoint that critical moment when your food is at its best.

Do use the grill for more than grilling. This is the spirit of the new book, that there is more to grilling than meat over the flames. There is a whole world of techniques that you can do on a grill, whether its charcoal or gas. You can smoke or roast, simmer, saute or stir-fry on the grill. If you want to be a true master of the grill, expand your repertoire and do a more mixed menu.



PORK LOIN SPIEDIES

Serves 6.

Note: A spiedie is a type of hoagie from Binghamton, N.Y. Cubes of meat are marinated with a combination of Italian seasoning and mint, and then cooked and arranged, skewer and all, in a long roll or slice of Italian bread. This recipe must be prepared in advance and requires 6 long bamboo skewers and a handful of hickory wood chips. From Webers New American Barbecue: A Modern Spin on the Classics, by Jamie Purviance.

1 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

1/4 cup finely chopped fresh mint leaves

1/4 cup finely chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh dill

2 teaspoons minced garlic

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 1/2 teaspoons fennel seed

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 1/2 pounds trimmed pork loin, cut into 1 1/2-inch chunks

6 Italian or French sandwich rolls, cut lengthwise in half but not all the way through

In a large bowl whisk the olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice, mint, parsley, dill, garlic, salt, fennel seed and pepper. Reserve and set aside 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons to drizzle over the cooked pork. Place the pork chunks in the large bowl with the remaining marinade, cover and refrigerate for 2 hours, stirring once.

Soak the skewers and wood chips (separately) in water for at least 30 minutes.

Prepare the grill for direct cooking over medium heat (350 to 450 degrees).

Thread pork cubes onto the skewers. Discard the marinade. Drain and add the wood chips to the charcoal or to the smoker box of a gas grill, and close the lid. When smoke appears, grill the skewers over direct medium heat, with the lid closed, until the meat is evenly seared and cooked to an internal temperature of 145 degrees, 9 to 11 minutes, turning occasionally. During the last minute of grilling, toast the rolls, cut side down, over direct heat.

To serve in the authentic style, place a skewer on each roll and, using the roll as a pot holder to grasp the meat, twist and pull out the skewer, leaving the pork cubes in a neat line right down the middle of the roll. Drizzle each spiedie with 1 tablespoon of the reserved marinade and serve right away.

HASSELBACK POTATOES WITH GARLIC BUTTER AND PARMESAN

Serves 6.

Note: The brilliant idea for these accordion-looking potatoes came from the chefs at Restaurant Hasselbacken in Stockholm. From Webers New American Barbecue, by Jamie Purviance.

6 russet potatoes, each about 12 ounces, scrubbed and dried

6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter

6 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 ounces Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, finely grated

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves

Prepare the grill for indirect cooking over medium-high heat (400 to 450 degrees).

So that each potato will lie flat on the cooking grate, cut off a very small piece (1/4 inch or less) on the widest side of each potato, which will now be the bottom side. Then, using a very sharp knife, starting 1 inch from the end, cut slits crosswise into each potato, 1/8 to 1/4 inch apart, stopping just before you cut through so that the slices stay connected at the bottom.

In a small skillet over medium heat on the stove, melt the butter. Add the garlic and cook until lightly browned, 1 1/2 to 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove the skillet from the heat and add the salt and pepper. Fan out the layers of each potato enough that you can get some butter and seasonings inside the layers. Brush the potatoes, including the bottoms, with half of the butter mixture.

Grill the potatoes over indirect medium-high heat, with the lid closed, for 30 minutes. Brush the potatoes with the remaining butter mixture, making sure some of the butter drips down into the slices. Continue grilling, with the lid closed, until the potatoes are almost cooked through, 30 minutes more.

Top the potatoes evenly with the cheese and cook until the cheese is melted and slightly browned and the potatoes are crisp on the outside and tender on the inside, 5 to 10 minutes more. Garnish with the parsley and serve hot.
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By Paul Hodgins and Nancy Luna The Orange County Register (TNS)

Tipping. Everybody has an opinion about it, and nobody is completely happy with the practice.

Recently, plans to raise the minimum wage in California and New York to $15 have renewed the debate over eliminating gratuities. And some industry leaders are trying alternatives: Prominent New York restaurateurs Danny Meyer (Union Square Cafe, Gramercy Tavern, Blue Smoke) and Tom Colicchio (Craft) have drawn a lot of attention by banning tipping entirely in favor of a surcharge added onto the bill that is distributed equitably to the staff.

Chez Panisse, Alice Waters legendary Berkeley, Calif., restaurant, has been adding a 17 percent surcharge to its checks since the late 1980s. The money reportedly is distributed among the staff as an enhancement to wages and benefits.

To tip or not to tip?

Last month, critically acclaimed local chef Noah Blom instituted a hospitality included program at his two restaurants, Arc and Restaurant Marin. Instead of a surcharge, though, the extra cost is built into the menu.

In some cases, that means a 20 percent hike in prices. Servers and bartenders, in turn, get higher wages  up to $25 an hour.

Blom said the menu sticker shock is scary for some customers. At Marin, a breakfast sandwich is $22, and refillable coffee is $7. But it all comes to fruition when you get your bill: You sign, and youre done, he said.

Still, tip-free restaurants and bars across the country are rare. The National Restaurant Association sees no industry-wide trend.

The move towards a nontipped environment is a new and somewhat small concept with only a handful of restaurants testing it nationwide, said association spokeswoman Christin Fernandez. As the industry of hospitality, weve found the practice of tipping has traditionally attracted millions of employees to our industry and still has strong support from American diners.

Dann Bean, owner of Main Street Wine Co. in Huntington Beach, Calif., agreed.

Our regular customers are especially generous to my employees and appreciate good, friendly service. I personally am a little turned off by business owners who have raised their prices to accommodate tips for their employees. I am a little old-fashioned and believe service will eventually suffer.

CASUAL DINING CHAIN CAVES

New signs have emerged to show that America isnt ready to do away with tipping yet.

This month, Joes Crab Shack said it was scaling back on its no-tipping test six months after it launched the program at 18 of its 130 locations nationwide.

After listening to customer and employee feedback, we have decided to keep the no-tipping model in four Joes Crab Shack locations, said Bob Merritt, CEO of Ignite Restaurant Group.

Orange County servers say theyd rather hold on to their tips, according to an informal study by UC Irvine Professor Emeritus Richard B. McKenzie.

McKenzie surveyed 40 servers working for moderately priced sit-down restaurants. He asked what hourly wage they would need to voluntarily forgo their current minimum wage and all tips.

The hourly pay rate given ranged from $18 to $50, with a median hourly rate of $30. All the servers were quick to assert that if tipping were replaced by a fixed hourly rate of pay, service would suffer significantly, at least on average, according to McKenzies study, published in March for the think tank National Center for Policy Analysis.

Blom and his partner and wife, Marin Howarth, are unfazed by the no-tipping naysayers.

The math works for them as a boutique restaurant group.

For us, hospitality included is not an experiment, but the future of our industry, Howarth said.

Their servers, in fact, have embraced the no-tipping policy.

No one has quit, and some are actually working even harder because theyre working for Arc, not themselves, the couple said.

The staff has responded well, and we havent seen a drop in work ethic, Howarth said.

ONCE CONSIDERED DISTASTEFUL

Those who travel outside the U.S. know that our rules about tipping are not recognized universally by any means. In Fiji, Japan and Iceland, among many other countries, its frowned upon  most Japanese consider it an insult. Even in countries that allow tipping, the American norm of 15 percent to 20 percent for a restaurant meal is considered excessive. (Restaurants in some countries, though, add a 10 percent to 15 percent service charge to the bill, a la Chez Panisse. Its easy to miss if youre unfamiliar with the practice.)

So were a nation of unparalleled generosity when it comes to services rendered. Lets set aside the whys and wherefores for a moment to consider this: Not so long ago, our country was more like the rest of the world.

Historically, rewarding the servant was an act of noblesse oblige and social dominance practiced by the aristocracy. Think of Shakespeares high-born characters, always paying off their underlings with little sacks of silver to ensure obeisance and performance of their dirty work. In the 16th century, guests at English mansions had to provide a tip, called a vail, to each of the owners servants at the end of a stay. (In larger mansions with more servants, the practice could be quite costly.)

Widespread tipping for services has also been traced to England. The word itself, according to some sources, is an acronym for To Insure Promptitude, a phrase that could be found on jars near the entrances of British taverns beginning in the 1600s. (Snopes, a website that discredits myths and old stories, says theres little evidence to back that theory.)

Others claim that the word came from the criminal underworld. John Hendel, in his 2010 Atlantic magazine article The Case Against Tipping, claims that in 17th century rogues circles, tip meant the unnecessary and gratuitous gifting of something somewhat taboo  or illicit money exchanges.

The first literary instance of tip as a verb, in George Farquhars 1706 play The Beaux Stratagem, implies a monetary reward to a lowly employee: Then I, Sir, tips me the Verger with half a Crown. (A verger was a caretaker at a church.)

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN HAS THE LAST SAY

Its understandable that a practice designed to reinforce the class system would not make its way across the Atlantic, particularly in the years after the American Revolution. But after the Civil War and the rise of fine dining in larger cities, tipping slowly began to take hold.

At first the custom was practiced by worldly and moneyed travelers who had encountered it in Europe. Yet for decades, tipping was treated with general disdain in the United States.

In his popular 1916 book, The Itching Palm: A Study of the Habit of Tipping in America, William Rufus Scott decried the rise of flunkyism, which he defined as a willingness to be servile for a consideration. He proclaimed it democracys greatest foe. Scott invoked the passions of the Founding Fathers when he declared that tipping, and the aristocratic idea it exemplifies, is what we left Europe to escape.  In a republic where all men were supposed to be equal, some cannot be superior until they grind other men into dust. Tipping comes into a democracy to provide that relation.

Scott wasnt a lone voice in the wilderness. In 1904, the Anti-Tipping Society of America was created in Georgia. Its 100,000 members had to pledge not to tip a soul for a full year. Tipping was banned in several American states. Washington was the first to pass a law in 1909, followed by Arkansas, Iowa, South Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia. Labor leader Samuel Gompers and William Howard Taft, the 27th U.S. president, were among the leaders of the anti-tipping movement.

But by the 1920s, tipping in its modern form existed throughout the country. By 1926, every anti-tipping law at the state level had been repealed. So how did something that was so universally despised become common practice in only a few years? One word: Prohibition.

According to Kerry Seagrave in Tipping: An American Social History of Gratuities, the ban on alcoholic beverages in 1919 severely affected the revenue of hotels and restaurants. The resulting financial pressure quickly changed proprietors and especially servers minds about the practice. In other words, tipping replaced lost cocktails.

In the 1960s, tipping became even more deeply ingrained in American culture when Congress passed a law that workers could receive a lower minimum wage (presently $2.13 an hour) if at least $30 of their monthly salary was earned in tips.

Most states allow employers to pay tipped workers less than the state minimum hourly rate (in 19 states its pegged at the federal minimum, which hasnt changed since 1991), and the real value of this tipped minimum wage has declined about 60 percent since 1968. Many people are aware of this situation, which leads to another level of motivation for paying your server, one that turns its aristocratic origin on its head. We tip because we feel guilty about having people wait on us, writes Cornell University professor Michael Lynn, an expert in the psychology of tipping.

Benjamin Franklin captured the dilemma even more succinctly: To overtip is to appear an ass: to undertip is to appear an even greater ass.



EMILY POSTS GUIDE TO TIPPING IN THE U.S.

Wait service (sit down): 15 percent-20 percent, pretax

Wait service (buffet): 10 percent, pretax

Host or maitre d: No obligation for greeting you and showing you to your table. $10-$20 for going above and beyond to find you a table on a busy night or on occasion, if you are a regular patron

Takeout: No obligation; 10 percent for extra service (curb delivery) or a large, complicated order

Home delivery: 10 percent-15 percent of the bill, $2-$5 for pizza delivery depending on the size of the order and difficulty of delivery

Bartender: $1-$2 per drink or 15 percent-20 percent of the tab

Tipping jars: No obligation; tip occasionally if your server or barista provides a little something extra or if you are a regular customer.

Restroom attendant: $0.50-$3, depending on the level of service

Valet: $2-$5. Tip when the car is returned to you.

Source: The Emily Post Institute
Mail ballots from voters of color were more likely to be rejected
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By Ngan Ho of the San Angelo Standard-Times

Pretrial hearings continue for a 26-year-old San Angelo man accused of killing a 5-year-old girl.

Isidro Miguel Delacruz appeared before 119th District Judge Ben Woodward on Tuesday for his eighth court appearance at the Tom Green County courthouse since December 2014.

Three more pretrial hearings are scheduled and no trial date is set. State prosecutors and the defense counsel both asked the court for more time to collect evidence and prepare for trial.

Delacruz is accused of cutting the throat of Naiya Bermea on Sept. 2, 2014, at her home in the 2700 block of Houston Street.

51st District Attorney Allison Palmer intends to seek the death penalty. Delacruz's attorney is Robert Cowie.

The next tentative pretrial hearing is 2 p.m. June 22.

Delacruz has remained in the Tom Green County Jail since September 2014 in lieu of $2 million bail on charges of murder and assault on a family or house member by choking.

He was indicted for capital murder of a person under 10 years old in November 2014, a charge punishable by death or life in prison.

The San Angelo Police Department arrested Delacruz at the home of his ex-girlfriend Tanya Bermea after officers responded to a domestic violence call about 2:30 a.m. Sept. 2, 2014. Police said on the day of Naiya's death, Delacruz forced his way into the house through a bathroom window. Bermea fled to get help and returned with her mother, Jesusita Bermea, 62, according to a complaint filed in the case. Naiya remained at the house when her mother left.

When Bermea and her mother arrived back at the house, Delacruz wouldn't let them in, police said, so they left to get Delacruz's mother, Elizabeth Delacruz, to help them get Delacruz out of the house. When the three returned, Bermea saw her daughter with a slit throat and Delacruz covering the wound with paper towels, according to police.

Bermea told police Delacruz got up, punched her several times, pushed her onto the sidewalk outside and began to choke her, according to police.

Police said they saw blood inside the bathroom; on the bedding in Bermea's bedroom leading to Naiya's room; and on the floor, bed, walls and doors in the girl's room. It was also in the living room and appeared to be in the kitchen.
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By Michelle Gaitan of the San Angelo Standard-Times

Fifty-five teachers representing 22 school districts took part in a daylong program designed to help them teach about money management.

The Education Foundation of the Independent Bankers Association of Texas hosted its Teach the Teacher program Tuesday at the Region 15 Education Service Center in San Angelo.

The program was created to build financially literate communities across Texas, to meet a need for financial education in schools and to teach a teacher how to feel confident with financial management, said Mary Lange, foundation president.

The program is offered once a year, and this marks the third year IBAT has hosted the program in San Angelo, she said.

"This region is just tiptop," she said. "You can tell they put teachers first."

In 2011, the foundation launched the program to address the Texas Legislature's unfunded mandate to provide financial education as a part of public high school curriculum. It has been held in 18 markets to date. By the end of this year, Teach the Teacher will have been held in all 20 Texas Education Agency regions, according to IBAT.

Participating teachers  who covered several areas in elementary, middle and high school economics, math, social studies and business  were shown how to teach about topics such as credit, debit, savings, budgeting, taxes, credit scores, identity theft and investment vehicles, among others.

To get a sense of how the teachers felt about finances, the program kicked off by having the them answer a series of questions to reflect their attitude about money.

Speaker Jerry Lozier, Duncanville High School instructor, engaged the teachers by reading aloud the answers to some of the questions.

"If I have extra money some troll usually finds it and spends it," one teacher wrote when asked to fill in the blank to "If I have extra money, I ..."

Most wrote they saved the money, while others said they would give it to their children in college and others said they would spend it.

Part of the program introduced online financial literacy games and a Texas Workforce Commission website, texasrealitycheck.com, for teachers to take back to their classrooms and share with students to help them gauge their own attitudes about money management.

Gail Scott, a high school math and science teacher at Paint Rock ISD, said the program gave her resources she can use to help spark an interest with her students and start a conversation with them about money. It was Scott's second year to attend the program.

Introducing students to finances in junior high school hopefully will help them become familiar with the topic and stay interested once they reach high school, she said. She stressed the importance of students being able to understand and apply how to budget once they're out of high school.

For more information about the Teach the Teacher program, visit ibat.org.
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By Staff Report

Thousands of San Angelo area students will learn lifesaving CPR skills thanks to the American Heart Association and Community Medical Center, which is providing funds to purchase lifesaving kits for all six Tom Green County school districts.The effort was announced during a news conference Tuesday at the San Angelo Independent School District headquarters.

Were excited about the opportunity for all of us to do what we do for a living, which is save lives, said Dee Baker Amos, vice president of Community Health and Stroke for the American Heart Association.

The association spent several years lobbying state legislatures to pass a bill requiring all school districts to make learning CPR a mandatory graduation requirement, Amos said. The bill passed two years ago, but school districts have until 2017 to implement the program.

Community Medical Center is providing the funds to purchase 12 CPR in Schools Training Kits that will be used by students in grades 7-12 at San Angelo, Christoval, Water Valley, Wall, Grape Creek and Veribest schools, said Tiffany Travis, media director for the American Heart Associations Southwest affiliation.

The kits, which cost $600 each, include 10 mannequin torsos that students will use for practice, an instruction video and other related tools. They also will learn the importance of calling 911 first and then begin CPR so that professional medical staff can respond quickly. Students who successfully complete the course receive certification by the American Health Association.

This is a great opportunity for all of us, said Jeremy Riney, CEO of Community Medical Center. We have an opportunity to invest into the health and safety of our community. Its also an issue thats very personal to me.

I was 16 years old when my father was in the backyard chopping wood when he had a stroke. Thanks to a nearby good Samaritan who knew CPR, my fathers life was saved.

Christoval schools began teaching the new CPR program during the 2015-16 school year and were pleased with the results.

Amanda McAllister, a part-time nurse at Community Medical Center, obtained the kit a year earlier than everyone else and began using it. She taught the 4-hour CPR program to 10 seniors a week.

They really paid attention and seemed to enjoy it, said McAllister, who works full-time as a nurse for the school district.

School and health officials say the effort is important because positive changes are often initiated when young people are educated. The program also will teach students about living healthier lifestyles, including how to eat better, heart-healthy meals.

According to Tom Green County Emergency Medical Services data, only one out of every 10 residents know how to correctly apply CPR, said Michael Blanc, an interventional cardiologist at Community.

This is an important topic that doesnt get addressed enough, Blanc said. About 350,000 people in the U.S. die from cardiac arrest every year  70 percent of those cases dont happen at the hospital. They happen at home, in the car, while theyre shopping.

By having people trained in the community we can improve the rate (of people who know CPR) to 20-25 percent.

The American Heart Association and physicians from Community Medical Center will continue to assist in educating students by speaking at assemblies and providing community events that students can participate in.
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By Michael Price

With the approach of All Hallows Eve, we are bombarded with frightening images on television, in stores and elsewhere. However, as scary as many of these images may be, they pale in comparison to the fear elicited by the largest spider in West Texas for those who suffer from the fear of spiders, or arachnophobia.

Tarantulas are a large and diverse group of spiders that can be observed throughout the southwestern United States, Mexico and South America. The most familiar and recognizable species belong to the genus Aphonopelma, which is represented in Texas by 14 species, the most commonly observed being Aphonopelma hentzi, the Texas brown tarantula.

The Texas brown tarantula, like other species of arachnids, has a body consisting of two parts ? the cephalothorax and the abdomen ? as well as the customary eight legs. As the common name implies, the dorsal coloration is primarily brown, although the intensity of the brown is directly correlated with the age and physical condition of the spider. The abdomen is covered with long, coarse, dark brown hairs known as urticating hairs.

The abdomen is generally one way to differentiate between males and females. The female's abdomen is as wide or wider then the cephalothorax, giving her an hourglass or figure-eight shape. The male's abdomen is generally thinner than the cephalothorax. Tarantulas are among the biggest spiders of the New World, and this species is by far our heaviest. Females are slightly larger than males, reaching a body length up to 1.5 inches and a leg span of almost 4 inches.

Tarantulas inhabit myriad habitats from the grasslands and cotton fields of the Panhandle to the gravelly, dry soils of the Trans-Pecos. The most consistent variable in their habitat selection is the looseness of the substrate, as they need to have soil in which to burrow. The vast majority of their lives are spent in this humid underground lair. This is especially true for the females, who allow food to come to them, ambushing their prey as it passes by the entrance to their domain.

Prey items accepted by this species include just about any smaller invertebrate creature, including many harmful and nuisance species, but they also have been known to feed on small mammals such as mice. Food is eaten in a very odd, if not disturbing, way. The fangs are inserted into the prey, much like short, hollow straws, and the insides of the food are sucked from within. The exoskeleton is discarded after the feeding. This is akin to a person drinking a milkshake. We drink the contents of the cup, but then we throw away the inedible container.

Despite their dastardly appearance, most tarantulas are quite placid. However, they have several means by which they can defend themselves. The first is to run for cover. The second is the shedding of the urticating hairs on the abdomen, which can be very itchy and irritating in the eyes, nostrils or mouth of a would-be predator. The third defense is to raise the forebody to expose 3/8-inch long fangs, and the fourth is to actually bite with the fangs. Although tarantulas, like all spiders, are venomous, the bite is of no long-term consequence, as the venom is rather weak.

Due to their relatively passive nature, many tarantulas are kept in captivity as pets. Females have been documented to live up to 30 years, and many researchers think they might live longer than that. Males, on the other hand, generally survive only two to three years.

Every summer there is a mass movement of tarantulas that many nature enthusiasts enjoy ? when mature males leave their burrows and set out on a quest for food, as well as to look for love. It is not uncommon to see hundreds of males on West Texas country roads as they passively search for these items. At this time many tarantulas can be seen in neighborhoods, backyards and parks when no others have been seen before this time.

Michael Price is the director of the San Angelo Nature Center. Contact him at michael.price@sanangelotexas.us.
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The Caligulan malice with which Donald Trump administered Paul Ryan's degradation is an object lesson in the price of abject capitulation to power. This episode should be studied as a clinical case of a particular Washington myopia  the ability of career politicians to convince themselves that they and their agendas are of supreme importance.

The pornographic politics of Trump's presidential campaign, which was preceded by decades of ignorant bile (about Barack Obama's birth certificate and much else), have not exhausted Trump's eagerness to plumb new depths of destructiveness. Herewith the remarkably brief timeline of the breaking of Ryan to Trump's saddle.

On May 3, Trump won the Indiana primary, ending competition for the Republican nomination. On May 5, Ryan said he still was not prepared to endorse Trump. That day Trump responded that he was not ready to endorse Ryan's agenda.

This was not news, considering that Trump has campaigned against every significant element of this agenda  entitlement reform, the rule of law, revival of Congress as a counter to the executive overreach that Barack Obama has practiced and that Trump promises to enlarge upon.

On May 12, a Trump meeting with Ryan resulted in a cringeworthy joint statement that had to be read to be properly disbelieved. The two spoke about the "great conversation" they had about "our shared principles." They celebrated their "many important areas of common ground" while offhandedly mentioning "our few differences." Those who know, or thought they knew, Ryan doubted that he could name a single shared principle, and he did not do so.

Despite, and in conspicuous dissonance with, the May 12 happy talk, Ryan continued to withhold his endorsement. Perhaps he hoped that Trump, at age 69, was going to mend his manners.

Instead, Trump dragged a personal problem, his coming trial on fraud charges associated with Trump University, into the presidential campaign. Having first done so in February, on May 27 he again attacked the "Mexican" judge (born in Indiana, 1,332 miles from Mexico) who will preside at the trial, asserting that the Hoosier Mexican was unfit to preside because his ethnic heritage would incline him against Trump, the wall-building scourge of Mexican rapists.

On May 30, Trump again attacked the judge, again embracing the identity politics that actually characterizes contemporary progressivism: An individual has, always and only, the interests and motivations of his race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation.

By June 2, Ryan had heard enough. He endorsed Trump. He did so because President Trump would sign Ryan's House "agenda." Well.

Since May 5, the Hamlet of southeastern Wisconsin had indeed learned something. He had learned Trump's contemptuous response to his scruples. Trump's response was an insouciant intensification of his anti-institutional politics  the judicial system, too, is "rigged."

Ryan limply described Trump's attack on the judge as thinking "out of left field" that he could not "relate to."

All supposedly will be redeemed by the House agenda. So assume, fancifully, that in 2017 this agenda emerges intact from a House not yet proved able to pass 12 appropriations bills. Assume, too, that Republicans still control the Senate and can persuade enough Democrats to push the House agenda over the 60-vote threshold.

Now, for some really strenuous assuming: Assume that whatever semblance of the House agenda that reaches President Trump's desk is more important than keeping this impetuous, vicious, ignorant and anti-constitutional man from being at that desk.

Some say in extenuation of Ryan's behavior that if he could not embrace Trump, he could not continue as speaker. But is Ryan, who was reluctant to become speaker, now more indispensable to the nation's civic health than Trump is menacing to that health?

Ryan could have enhanced that health by valuing it above his office.

In March, Trump said of Ryan: "I'm sure I'm going to get along great with him. And if I don't, he's going to have to pay a big price." Ryan has now paid a staggering price by getting along with Trump. And what did Ryan purchase with the coin of his reputation? Perhaps his agenda.

In Robert Bolt's play "A Man for All Seasons," Thomas More is betrayed by Richard Rich, who commits perjury to please the king, in exchange for being named attorney general for Wales. Says More: "Why Richard, it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world. ... But for Wales?" Or for the House agenda?

George Will is a Washington Post columnist. Contact him at georgewill@washpost.com.
'On board to do it'

Amendment idea

Tax component

Redistribution

Gov. Sam Brownback will call Kansas lawmakers back to Topeka later this month in an effort to prevent the closure of the state's schools.The Legislature faces an order from the Kansas Supreme Court to fix inequities in school funding by June 30. If lawmakers fail to do so, the court could put a hold on education funding on July 1, triggering a shutdown of the state's school districts."After discussion with Legislative Leadership, I have decided to call a special session to keep Kansas schools open, despite the Court's threat to close them," Brownback said in a statement Tuesday.He has not yet set a date for the session.Later in the day, he said he's "trying to hear what the Legislature's willing to do, because I want this to be successful."Whether lawmakers can reach agreement on a plan to provide equitable funding for schools remains to be seen. Some wanted to defy the court order. Others, most notably from Johnson County, are concerned that their districts might lose money as the state tries to level funding.Brownback's announcement comes as a relief for educators."School personnel and Kansas families need the certainty that we're going to solve this problem together and we're going to not have any disruption to Kansas schools," said Diane Gjerstad, a lobbyist for the Wichita school district.John Robb, the attorney for the Wichita school district and other plaintiff districts, called the announcement a positive sign."I think the lawmakers have been home long enough to figure out that the people of Kansas are virtually unanimous that they don't want the schools closed," Robb said. "I hope it's a sign that the Legislature and the governor are going to fix this and not play more games."Some Republicans said last week that the Legislature should try to fight the case in federal court rather than hold a special session.However, public pressure has been mounting in the past week. Brownback's call for a special session comes after Democrats began an effort to collect petition signatures in order to force a special session.Brownback said the Democrats' petition didn't have any impact on his decision to call a special session."Not in the least. Probably had a negative impact more than anything," Brownback said.It will be 23rd time in the history of the state that the governor has called a special session.Brownback held a conference call with legislative leaders on Tuesday morning before announcing his decision."I wanted to work with legislative leadership to make sure people were on board to do it, because these are highly unusual events for Kansas," the governor said when approached in the hall later that day.Paje Resner, spokeswoman for Senate President Susan Wagle, R-Wichita, called it a joint decision.Rep. Annie Kuether, D-Topeka, said holding a special session is "definitely much better than creating a constitutional crisis."Lynn Rogers, a member of the Wichita school board who is seeking a seat in the Kansas Senate, told a crowd of about 200 people at a rally at North High School that he was thankful the governor will call a session but that "we need him to set the date, and the sooner the better.""We need the Sedgwick County delegation, those who represent us in Topeka, to go back to Topeka and do their job as quickly as possible. ... We really need them to represent our kids and our communities," said Rogers, a Democrat.Brownback said he and legislative leaders would settle on a date soon but that he made the announcement Tuesday because he "wanted to get it out there now that we're going to it."He said he wanted to address the ruling last week when the Legislature met for the official end of its session but that the time frame was too short for such a complex issue.Rep. Ron Ryckman, R-Olathe, the House budget committee chairman, had pushed for a special session despite his objections to the court's ruling."It is now up to us to pass yet another bill that distributes over $4 billion to make sure that our kids and teachers' lives aren't disrupted by litigation," Ryckman said. "We need to remove our kids from this ever happening again. They should not be involved in a political dispute between two branches of government."Some lawmakers have floated the idea of passing a constitutional amendment -- which would require a two-thirds majority in both legislative chambers and approval of a majority of Kansas voters -- to explicitly forbid courts from closing schools in the future.Asked about that, Ryckman said, "We need to look at all options that make it so our kids won't be pawns or collateral damage in this dispute."Brownback said he would "do everything I can to keep this session focused on education."Kuether said lawmakers need to tackle both school finance and taxes, two issues that she says are intertwined."Well, we don't have any money, so we've got to come up with money somewhere if we're going to make the courts happy," she said. "I mean, if we're going to come back and be responsible, that's exactly what we need to do."The state missed revenue estimates by nearly $75 million last month and faces a shortfall for the current budget year that needs to be resolved by June 30.Complying with the court order could cost $38 million if lawmakers decide to restore the state's old equalization formula, one option the court identified as a "safe harbor" for lawmakers."Clearly, it is the simplest and most direct way to do it at least for this year," said Mark Tallman, associate executive director of the Kansas Association of School Boards. "I don't think that we've seen an alternative. The alternative that they considered was rejected by the court."Tallman said it may be difficult to pay for this without raising new revenue but said that "to get an agreement on what type of revenue might compound the problem."Lawmakers struggled to find agreement on tax policy last year, and the session stretched on for a record 114 days. Few lawmakers are eager to renew the tax debate in an election year.Another thorny issue will be whether a funding bill takes money from wealthy districts to redistribute it to poorer ones. Johnson County lawmakers, in particular, object to the idea."My No. 1 priority will be to protect the Johnson County schools," said Sen. Greg Smith, R-Overland Park. "I've got three school districts ... Shawnee Mission will lose about $1.5 million, Olathe will lose almost $1 million and De Soto lose almost $300,000 if we go back to the old formula."Smith said he would not vote for any bill that does not hold those school districts harmless.Including a hold-harmless provision would potentially make the cost of the bill more than $50 million, said Robb, who added that doing that might undermine the goal of leveling funding among districts."The whole purpose for equalization is to equalize between wealthy districts and poor districts, so when you add a 'hold harmless,' it doesn't equalize to the wealthy districts," Robb said."Now, we didn't see this cry from Wichita legislators when the block grant cut money from Wichita, but all of a sudden we see this huge cry if Shawnee Mission is going to lose a dime," he said. "I think equalization is just that, and to equalize, there's going to be some cuts, so I think a 'hold harmless' is a bad idea. I don't think the court's going to buy it."
Despite opposition from the pharmaceutical industry, Vermont late last week became the first state in the country to require drug makers to justify price hikes for medicines.The law is part of a wave of state legislation that comes in response to growing concern over the rising cost of prescription drugs. Around the country, lawmakers have been introducing bills in hopes of forcing drug makers to either disclose costs or explain pricing. These demands reflect industry arguments that rising prices reflect rising R&D costs.This bill is about accountability, Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin said in a statement.
Longtime head of the New York City correction officers union Norman Seabrook was arrested Wednesday by federal authorities and charged with taking kickbacks in a case potentially linked to investigations of Mayor Bill de Blasio.Seabrook, according to a complaint filed in federal court in Manhattan, took a $60,000 kickback in 2014 in return for steering $20 million in union pension money and general funds to Platinum Partners, a hedge fund.Seabrook, head of the union for 21 years, and the hedge fund founder, Murray Huberfeld, are charged with conspiracy and honest services fraud. The complaint also said an unnamed intermediary -- who has been identified in published reports as Jona Rechnitz, a Brooklyn real estate investor and de Blasio fundraiser -- has pleaded guilty and is cooperating.The complaint said the FBI has been investigating Seabrook since 2014.U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in Manhattan was to announce the charges in a 12:30 p.m. news conference, and Seabrook and Huberfeld were expected to appear in court later Wednesday.The government said Seabrook's clout inside the 9,000-member Correction Officers' Benevolent Association gave him substantial clout to direct investments of roughly $81 million in pension assets and $12 million in general funds.Huberfeld and the cooperating witness allegedly took Seabrook on trips to the Dominican Republic, Israel and Las Vegas while they were persuading him to invest union funds, sometimes accompanied by an NYPD officer, and on one trip in December 2013 he complained that he worked hard on investing the union money and got nothing personally from it."Seabrook said that it was time that 'Norman Seabrook got paid,' " according to the complaint.The government alleged that the cooperator arranged to get $60,000 from Platinum through a phony invoice for some Knicks tickets, and then bought Seabrook an expensive Ferragamo bag and put $60,000 in it.But when he got the bag Seabrook, who had arranged to be paid a percentage fee based on Platinum's profits that he had been told would be between $100,000 and $150,000, was "angry that it was not as much money as he was initially promised."Seabrook's lawyer, Paul Shechtman said, "Norman has spent his life fighting for correction officers and one should not expect him to stop fighting now."DeBlasio said Seabrook would be immediately suspended from his job as a correction officer."If proven true, it's disgusting and it's very, very sad," the mayor said. "It means he stole money from his own workers. That's what it comes down to. If he defrauded his own pension fund, it means he took money that was meant for his workers' retirements and put it in his own pocket, and obviously his members entrusted him to take care of the pension fund."Seabrook has resisted some reforms pressed by de Blasio and Bharara's office to curb violence at Rikers Island, but the mayor has also described Seabrook as "a friend" and a "great leader in this town."The Seabrook case is one of multiple corruption investigations overseen by Bharara's office, including investigations of the NYPD and of de Blasio's fundraising that are believed to involve Rechnitz.
On Tuesday, in the afternoon, His Excellency the Honourable Paul de Jersey AC assumed duty as Administrator of the Government of the Commonwealth of Australia, and the Honourable Chief Justice Catherine Holmes assumed duty as Acting Governor.

Also in the afternoon, the Administrator and Mrs Kaye de Jersey departed Brisbane for an official visit to Central and Central West Queensland.

In the evening, at The Capricornian, Emerald, the Administrator and Mrs de Jersey hosted dinner for representatives of Central Highlands Regional Council and Queensland Rail.
Description

GIS - 08 June, 2016: The Ministry of Financial Services, Good Governance and Institutional Reforms will introduce the Financial Crime Commission Bill into the National Assembly before the end of the year to provide for the creation of the Financial Crime Commission. The Ministry of Financial Services, Good Governance and Institutional Reforms will introduce the Financial Crime Commission Bill into the National Assembly before the end of the year to provide for the creation of the Financial Crime Commission.

This reply was given yesterday in the National Assembly by the Prime Minister, Sir Anerood Jugnauth, to a question pertaining to the proposed setting up of a Financial Crime Commission and to the appointment of a substantive Director General of the Independent Commission against Corruption.

The Financial Crime Commission will be an apex body to combat white collar crimes, fraud and financial crimes and more importantly to provide the synergy between the various law enforcement and intelligence gathering agencies, highlighted the Prime Minister.

Sir Anerood Jugnauth underlined that the opportunity will also be taken to review the existing legislation in relation to corruption, money laundering, terrorist financing and other related legislation so as to make them more responsive to the present and future needs of society.

The Prime Minister also gave assurance to the National Assembly that a substantive Director General of the Independent Commission against Corruption will be appointed in due course.
Description

 GIS - 08 June, 2016: An exhibition at the Mauritius Oceanography Institute (MOI) in Albion, mounted by various stakeholders in the margins of World Oceans Day 2016, today attracted secondary and tertiary students from different regions of Mauritius. The theme chosen this year is Healthy Oceans-Healthy Planet.

In parallel to the exhibition, a one-day seminar is also being held at the seat of the MOI. The themes which will be discussed are: Hydrographic services in Mauritius; Safety at sea and services provided by the Mauritius Meteorological Services; Business opportunities in the Ocean economy; Coastal ecosystems-mangroves, seagrass and coral reef; Marine renewable energy; Submarine groundwater discharge; MESA project; and Geophysical mapping of the deep sea floor. Several films on hydrography, coral reefs, and storm surge will also be shown.

This joint initiative of the Ministry of Ocean Economy, Marine Resources, Fisheries, Shipping and Outer Islands and the MOI aims to sensitise the public on how to optimise the use of an ecosystem without damaging it; promote public awareness of the ocean and the current challenges faced by the community in connection with marine biodiversity; and reach out to youngsters to become caretakers of our oceans and to conserve them for future generations.

Present at the opening ceremony, the minister of Ocean Economy, Marine Resources, Fisheries, Shipping and Outer Islands, Mr Premdut Koonjoo, recalled that t he ocean regulates the climate, feeds millions of people every year, produces most of the oxygen we breathe, is the home to an incredible array of wildlife, and provides the population with important medicines. Hence the need, he stressed, to ensure the health and safety of our communities and future generations by taking care of the ocean. He appealed to the population in particular the youth to think about what actions each of us can take to safeguard vulnerable ocean communities.

Speaking about the national policy on the blue economy, Minister Koonjoo said that Government is taking several initiatives to unleash the full potential of the ocean economy. These include: the increase of the extension of the port area from Baie du Tombreau to Grand River North West, the increase in training capacity of the Mauritius Maritime Training Academy, signing of the first deed of concession for the implementation of the Deep Ocean Water Application (DOWA) project, and approval of five large scale aquaculture projects.

World Oceans Day

This year, the World Oceans Day is laying special emphasis on plastic pollution, which is a serious threat because it degrades very slowly and pollutes waterways for years.

The concept for a World Oceans Day was initially proposed in 1992 at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro and the United Nations General Assembly passed the resolution in December 2008. The official recognition of World Oceans Day by the United Nations provided an important boost to countries, NGOs and individuals involved in ocean conservation.
Even as smartphone mapping apps have become ubiquitous, many Americans still rely on paper maps issued by state transportation departments. After all, paper maps dont disappear when you lose wireless signal.Putting together a state highway map is no easy task. It involves plotting and updating thousands of miles of roads as well as the names and locations of landmarks like cities, parks, colleges and hospitals.But one state has figured out a way to automate much of that task, which means maps are more accurate and more up-to-date. Missouri is believed to be the first state to draw its highway maps using GIS technology -- a standard for displaying geographic information that can be shared easily -- rather than commonly used CAD ("computer aided design") files, which are more proprietary. Other states are following suit.Its really versatile. Its correct," said Joe Carter, the leader of the Missouri Transportation Department (MoDOT) team that produces the maps. "With us maintaining 34,000 miles of roadway, thats the biggest feature on our map, and we like to make sure we are the ones representing that to the public."Switching to GIS has several advantages.For one thing, it's a universal format, so it's much easier for transportation officials to pull in data from other agencies within the state, at the federal level and even in other states.It also makes it much easier for Missouri to fill out the edges of its map: Missouri neighbors eight other states. In the old days, Missouri cartographers had to piece together information from all of those states to build its own map, and each state had its own way of presenting the information. But the GIS files contain geographic information, such as latitude and longitude, that makes it easy to fit the pieces together.Because it's so much simpler to compile and update the maps, Missouri can print them on demand. Before, the state had to keep up to 4 million printed maps on hand; now it only stores about one-quarter as many."When we get reports that theyre running low, I can call the printer and well have another run like that," said Carter.And because the maps are updated so frequently, any errors can be fixed more quickly. Plus, the easy-to-update format also makes it easier to produce special maps of smaller regions in the state.Moving to GIS could save states money, according to Carter. Many of them currently hire outside firms to produce their highway maps. But most transportation agencies already have the software they need to produce GIS-based maps. That was the case in Missouri: MoDOT already used a software known as ArcGIS to inventory state roads and keep track of accident locations for safety studies, among other uses. But Carter realized he could use the ArcGIS software to build highway maps as well.States will still rely on traditional CAD programs for specific projects, such as designing bridges or highway improvements in three dimensions. Products like Autodesk's Map 3D can also incorporate GIS data to give projects local topographical context, showing, for example, how a new road might curve around a hill and connect to an existing subdivision.But as Missouri has shown, when it comes to cranking out lower-tech two-dimensional highway maps, GIS can be an easier and more nimble approach -- at least, as long as states continue to produce paper maps.Carter said hes fielded questions from officials around the country. Delaware, Illinois and Iowa all seem particularly interested in following Missouris approach.Other states are moving in this direction, he said. Its exploding.
1. Breaking Down Communications Barriers

2. Identifying the Challenges Facing Government

3. Aligning Business and IT

4. Making Life Easier for the Average Citizen

SALT LAKE CITY  Whether government likes it or not, the way citizens want to access government service has changed forever. The mobile technology evolution and the rise of on-demand companies like Uber and Amazon has put the buying power in the hands of the masses.One of the major criticisms state and local government face is that unlike these private companies, they are not keeping up with the instant consumer demand. And myriad challenges stand between conception and deployment of similar public-sector ideas, many of which are outside of the control of a single, well-meaning agency or branch.At Utahs Digital Government Summit held June 7, the topic of how to address the shortfalls in citizen-centric design and outreach was one that elicited innovative solutions to the all-too-common problems of public service.For Salt Lake Citys Transportation Division, Program Manager Julianne Sabula said a mixed bag of electronic and quasi-traditional methods has worked wonders in gathering the greater public's input on transportation-related issues.On top of collaborating with local businesses in one-on-one dialogues and hosting more customary public meetings, the city staff also relies on electronic means to eliminate barriers with the citys diverse population.In a less traditional opinion-mining excursion, Sabula said staff set up a booth at a local grocery store to catch city residents where they are, as opposed to trying to get them to attend an after-work meeting at a government building.An online city survey system, called Peak Democracy, helped equate the opinions of participants into the benefit to the city. Sabula said the tactic garners substantial input from residents, who seem to view the process as a game.We get a lot more bang for our buck doing things online, she said.But operating in the government space is not without challenges, Sabula noted.Changes in the guard within an organization or the state itself can also prove to be detrimental to successful initiatives.In one Salt Lake street car project slated for the rapidly growing Sugar House district, an 18-month gap in discussion let the public discourse around the project shift to the negative.If we had been talking about the project during that 18-month gap, Sabula said, "life would have been a whole lot easier."Often the complexity of the organizational chart can pose problems not only in communications, but also in getting projects off the ground.From the industry side of the discussion, Kumar Rachuri, director of state and local government solutions with Adobe, said government needs to focus on the digital transformation and better connecting the business and information technology aspects of its duties.When you talk about digital transformation, it really implies agile development. You cant have one without the other and expect positive results, he said. That is what leads to increasing the pace at which innovation is rolled out.Government, unlike its private-sector counterparts, is often forced into a corner with huge forklift projects that cost tens of millions of dollars over a number of years," Rachuri said, adding that by his count, if a project runs for five or more years, there is a 70 percent chance of failure.He points to Delta Airlines as a model for modernization efforts in spite of substantial legacy systems. The airline has built customer-friendly applications in front-facing older systems to ensure service without the massive costs of a complete IT overhaul.They too have a ton of legacy systems, and they are not doing forklift. Their legacy systems are still their system of record, he said. "What they are doing is modernizing on the periphery.When it comes to how customers interact with government, Rachuri joked that simply making a form available online is not providing a truly mobile solution to those who might use the tool.If a mobile PDF form takes longer to fill out than three-and-a-half minutes, he said, irritated customers will begin to call the help desk.[Millennials] dont understand the concept of delayed gratification," he said. "Its instant gratification: I want what I want, when I want, where I want."Instead, he recommends phone-friendly drop-down menus that enable users to complete the document without struggling to pinch and zoom a static document.One thing I ask you to keep in mind as you are developing the solutions, though they are transactional," Rachuri said, "[is] concentrate on the journey of your citizen greater than a single transaction."
Avoid the cloud, go to jail. That was the gist of a piece of Arizona legislation almost passed into law in May. But Gov. Doug Ducey vetoed S.B. 1434 (PDF), which outlined potential jail-time penalties for officials who failed to comply with the cloud-first provisions in the legislation.Its time for state government to enter the 21st century, and major advances in technology are needed to get there, Ducey wrote in his formal veto letter. This bill appears to add extra layers of bureaucracy that are unnecessary and will stall needed advancements in technology.Doug Robinson, executive director of the National Association of State Chief Information Officers, estimated that the legislation was too aggressive.Its extremely unusual for a state legislative body to specify an IT architecture direction or computing platform with deadlines and penalties, Robinson told theThe legislation vetoed by the governor required a laundry list of criteria for IT planning and purchasing of state departments, including that the Arizona Department of Administration had to identify opportunities for IT consolidation and shared services, a two-year technology refresh cycle for each budget unit, a cloud-first approach to each solution, and more than a dozen other stipulations, mostly relating to meeting federal standards and submitting budget approvals to governing agencies. PDF fact sheet for the legislation, as vetoed, can be found on Azleg.gov
(TNS) -- Short-term rental companies like Airbnb could face big fines and criminal charges if they advertise hosts who havent registered with the city, under legislation unanimously passed by the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.The 10-0 vote renders moot a threat by Mayor Ed Lee to veto the measure, as the board has the eight votes needed to override a veto.After the vote, Airbnb said the ordinance, proposed by Supervisors David Campos and Aaron Peskin, is legally questionable and that it will consider all options moving forward.Broadly speaking, the legislations passage is another loss for Airbnb and other short-term rental companies, such as VRBO and HomeAway, which have seen a growing backlash to the business model of helping residents turn their homes into short-term hotels.On May 1, Berlin enacted a ban on residents renting out entire apartments through Airbnb and its competitors in an effort to preserve affordable housing. Last year, Santa Monica banned short-term rentals altogether.San Francisco caps short-term rentals on entire homes at 90 days a year. It also requires all short-term rental hosts to register with the city under a law that took effect in February 2015. But only roughly 1,400 of the estimated 7,000 or more residents who rent their homes and rooms have done so, the city estimates.Under Campos and Peskins bill, short-term rental companies would have to verify that all listings have a valid San Francisco registration number before posting them online. When the city flags rentals that appear not to be registered, the listing services would be required to respond with details about those properties within one business day or face fines. Funds generated from the new plan would go to an affordable housing fund.Companies that disregard the law would face fines of up to $1,000 a day per listing and misdemeanor charges.Campos called the ordinance a modest piece of legislation and compared it to the obligations rental car companies face.If you are a rental car agency, you have to make sure the person that you rent that vehicle to has a license before you rent them a car. That is exactly what we are asking the short-term platforms to do here, Campos said.Supervisor Scott Wiener, who has supported Airbnb in recent legislative and electoral fights, voted for the ordinance but said the real problem was that the city makes it too hard for people to register. Hosts complain that registering can take multiple trips to different city departments. Once thats done, they are required to submit an itemized list of all the furniture, appliances, supplies, equipment and fixtures in their rentals, which the city then taxes.Wiener amended Campos and Peskins ordinance to require the citys Office of Short Term Rentals to report back to the board on streamlining the registration process.Supervisor Mark Farrell, who has backed Airbnb in the past, recused himself from the vote because he has business interests in a short-term rental company.Meanwhile, technology law groups have warned that the legislation appears to conflict with federal law shielding online platforms from liability for content generated by their users.Airbnb said in a statement after Tuesdays vote that an estimated 1,200 San Franciscans avoided foreclosure or eviction by hosting on Airbnb, and this legally questionable proposal puts their housing at risk without offering any real solutions to fix the complex (registration) process.Lees spokeswoman, Christine Falvey, said the mayor remains concerned that this law will not withstand a near-certain legal challenge and will in practice do nothing to aid the citys registration and enforcement of our short-term rental laws.Academics who study short-term rentals said a key question is whether the city can enforce the ordinance.The question of whether it can actually be done is important, said Paavo Monkkonen, an assistant professor in the department of urban planning at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. Monkkonen, who has consulted for Airbnb in the past, pointed to the experience of Portland, Ore., which has a similar law to the one passed Tuesday.Last fall, Portland sued HomeAway for failing to display the registration numbers, collect hotel taxes and meet other requirements.What we have seen in city after city is that without data from Airbnb  which the company refuses to provide  these sorts of interventions have not been effective, said Steven Hill, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, D.C. If San Francisco wants to regulate Airbnb, it must be willing to go to the mat  legally speaking  to get the data from Airbnb.
Watching the Skies, Using Dogs

Screening, Jamming Technology

Last month, a Georgia inmate was indicted for ordering the revenge killing of a 9-month-old baby from his prison cell. His alleged tool: a cellphone.In March, prisoners at the Holman Correctional Facility in Alabama rioted, taping the uprising with smuggled phones  and posting the videos on Facebook.In January, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that more than 50 people had been charged with using contraband cellphones to run elaborate wire fraud and money laundering schemes from inside Georgias prisons.The use of contraband cellphones for illicit scams and worse inside prisons is bedeviling state correctional officials. And it has prompted 10 governors, led by Republican South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, to ask the Federal Communications Commission for help in cracking down on it.Its our No. 1 problem, said Bryan Stirling, director of the South Carolina Department of Corrections.The governors are asking the FCC, which governs the nations airwaves, to give states flexibility and authority to take advantage of technology that makes it impossible to use cellphones from prison, including jamming cellphone frequencies  a practice that is illegal.The governors appear to have the support of at least one FCC commissioner: Ajit Pai. In the hands of an inmate, a cellphone is a weapon, Pai said at a Corrections Technology Association conference in May.Cellphones provide inmates with unfettered access to the outside world and the tools to engage in all types of criminal activity with speed and efficiency, prison officials say. Theyve been used to intimidate witnesses, order hits on a prosecutors family member, coordinate escapes, bribe prison officers, orchestrate gang activity, extort money from family members, defraud the elderly and run nationwide drug rings.In 2010, a South Carolina prison official in charge of investigating contraband cellphones was gunned down after prison inmates orchestrated an assassination attempt through cellphones. He survived six gunshots to the chest and stomach  barely.Prisoners are allowed to use phones, but they are limited to using landline phones under the close supervision of prison officials. (And for family members on the outside, staying in touch with incarcerated loved ones can be extremely expensive .) It is illegal for inmates to possess cellphones, or for anyone to provide them with one. But that doesnt stop prisoners from getting them. (Nationwide, most prisons do not allow their staff to bring cellphones on-site.)Theres little national data on the scope and extent of the problem, but corrections officials report that contraband cellphones are on the rise. Prison officials in South Carolina, for example, confiscated 3,037 cellphones and accessories in 2014, according to Stirling; last year, they confiscated 4,107.When it comes to smuggling cellphones, inmates get creative, prison officials say. Sometimes they bribe correction officers. Sometimes they use drones to fly over prison walls, or smuggle them in through food delivery trucks, or in underwear or legal papers. Some use accomplices to shoot them into prison yards using potato guns made out of PVC piping. Or they just enlist help in throw overs getting a friend to toss them over prison fences. In Georgia, prison officials confiscated cellphone parts that had been thrown over the fence  stuffed in the body of a dead cat.Its not hard for these folks to get their hands on cellphones, Stirling said. Folks who are incarcerated have a lot of time to figure things out.David Fathi, director of the ACLU National Prison Project, said that prisons have a legitimate security reason to ban prisoners from having cellphones. But prisons themselves help create the demand for contraband by making it very difficult and expensive for prisoners to call their loved ones through legitimate channels, he said.States are combatting contraband cellphones in a number of ways, from old-fashioned searches and beefed up security at the front gates to body scanners. Prison officials also use a B.O.S.S. chair, or body orifice security scanner , which detects when prisoners have metal hidden on their body. And these days, prison officials find themselves monitoring the air.Prisons are meant to keep people in, not keep things out, Stirling said. Now were not only having to look out [for cellphones], but now were having to look up.In South Carolina, Haley allocated $10 million so that prisons could build towers around the perimeters and buy cameras and metal detectors, the better to keep an eye out for contraband.In California, Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown signed a law in 2011 that carries a $5,000 fine for anyone who supplies an inmate with a cellphone. California inmates caught with cellphones lose 90 days of earned  good-time credit .In Mississippi, where prison officials confiscated over 3,000 cellphones last year, the state uses body scanner equipment and dogs trained to detect cellphones. California also uses K-9 units.Cellphones in the prison system are a security nightmare, said Sean Smith, director of Mississippis Corrections Investigation Division. To combat them, the Department of Corrections is on board with using any technology that will be helpful with the cellphone epidemic.Several states, including California, Maryland, Mississippi and Texas, have started using an inmate call capture system. It picks up calls made from within the prison and passes along only authorized calls, by someone such as a corrections officer. If a cellphone number is on an approved list, the call goes through. If the number is not on the list, it doesnt.Alabama has considered using the system, but decided the cost  roughly $1 million per unit  was too high, said Alabama Commissioner Jefferson Dunn.In 2013, the FCC proposed streamlining the regulatory review process so that prison officials could quickly take advantage of innovations such as the call capture technology. The FCC also proposed making it easier for cellphone providers and prison officials to identify and deactivate contraband phones. But the commission has yet to act on the proposals.If the 10 governors get their way, the FCC would allow them to jam calls and render inmates cellphones useless.Jamming works like this: A device is used to transmit the same radio frequencies as cellphones, disrupting communication between phones and the cellphone tower. But under a 1934 federal law, its illegal for states and local agencies to interrupt radio airwaves.The FCC has so far said that jamming technology causes more problems than it solves, such as interfering with 911 calls or other emergency services.And the cellphone industry strenuously opposes jamming.For prisons and jails located within an urban area, such as the Baltimore City Detention Center, located within yards of an interstate highway, jamming phones poses serious problems, said Brian Josef of the CTIA, the association that represents the nations wireless industry.Radio frequency waves dont neatly stop at a corrections facility fence, Josef said.But some prison officials, such as Alabamas Dunn, say that because most prisons are located in remote rural areas, other calls wouldnt be compromised by the jamming.Its a tool that we out to at least be able to explore. I think the rewards potentially outweigh the risks, Dunn said.
The U.S. spends $270 billion on incarceration each year, has a prison population of about 2.2 million and an incarceration rate thats spiked 220 percent since the 1980s. But with the advent of data science, White House officials are asking experts for help.On Tuesday, June 7, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policys Lynn Overmann, who also leads the White House Police Data Initiative , stressed the severity of the nations incarceration crisis while asking a crowd of data scientists and artificial intelligence specialists for aid.We have built a system that is too large, and too unfair and too costly  in every sense of the word  and we need to start to change it, Overmann said, speaking at a Computing Community Consortium public workshop She argued that the U.S., a country that has the highest amount of incarcerated citizens in the world, is in need of systematic reforms with both data tools to process alleged offenders and at the policy level to ensure fair and measured sentences. As a longtime counselor, advisor and analyst for the Justice Department and at the city and state levels, Overmann said she has studied and witnessed an alarming number of issues in terms of bias and unwarranted punishments.For instance, she said that statistically, while drug use is about equal between African-Americans and Caucasians, African-Americans are more likely to be arrested and convicted. They also receive longer prison sentences compared to Caucasian inmates convicted of the same crimes.Other problems, Overmann said, are due to inflated punishments that far exceed the severity of crimes. She recalled her years spent as an assistant public defender for Florida's Miami-Dade County Public Defenders Office as an example.I represented a client who was looking at spending 40 years of his life in prison because he stole a lawnmower and a weedeater from a shed in a backyard, Overmann said, I had another person who had AIDS and was offered a 15-year sentence for stealing mangos.Data and digital tools can help curb such pitfalls by increasing efficiency, transparency and accountability, she said.We think these types of data exchanges [between officials and technologists] can actually be hugely impactful if we can figure out how to take this information and operationalize it for the folks who run these systems, Overmann noted.The opportunities to apply artificial intelligence and data analytics, she said, might include using it to improve questions on parole screenings, using it to analyze police body camera footage, and applying it to criminal justice data for legislators and policy workers.In Oakland, Calif., where the police department recently deployed body cameras, Overmann said the city has seen a dramatic decline in police use-of-force incidents and citizen use-of-force complaints. The program generates more than 8 terabytes of data per month, something Overmann sees as a huge resource, and a first step, to truly harnessing police data.Think of all the things you could learn when you have hundred of thousands, if not millions, of hours of police data on body-worn cameras, Overmann said. We would actually be able to know what policing looks like on the street, we would be able to identify not just the officers who are having problems, but also those officers who seem to magically de-escalate any situation they encounter.If the private sector is any indication, artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques could be used to interpret this new and vast supply of law enforcement data. In an earlier presentation by Eric Horvitz, the managing director at Microsoft Research, Horvitz showcased how the company has applied artificial intelligence to vision and language to interpret live video content for the blind. The app, titled SeeingAI , can translate live video footage, captured from an iPhone or a pair of smart glasses, into instant audio messages for the seeing impaired. Twitters live-streaming app Periscope has employed similar technology to guide users to the right content.
Bernie Ecclestone is being asked to speak out about human rights, just over a week before formula one sets up camp for the first time in Azerbaijan.

A year ago, just as the Azerbaijan capital Baku was added to the 2016 schedule, the Formula One Group unveiled a new policy vowing to respect "human rights in all of our activities".

But Azerbaijan has been constantly criticised by human rights bodies, for reasons including arbitrary arrests, indefinite detentions, beatings and torture.

The F1 supremo, however, said a year ago: "I think everybody seems to be happy. Doesn't seem to be any big problem there."

But it now emerges in the British media that, while it was not Ecclestone himself, two representatives of his organisation met up with the 'Sport For Rights' human rights group.

The group's chief, Rebecca Vincent, said: "We have called on Bernie Ecclestone to publicly speak out on human rights issues in Azerbaijan.

"We wrote him an open letter and there has not been a public response yet.

"I do emphasise that it was a constructive meeting compared to our engagement with other bodies, (but) Ecclestone himself has been making some unhelpful comments and we might be expecting some more of that because that seems to be his nature," she added.

Another human rights campaigner also urged Ecclestone to "make a stand".

"We're not asking them to cancel the race, we're not calling on people not to go. We are asking Mr Ecclestone to use it to make a stand instead of enabling repression," Phil Bloomer, of the business and human rights resource centre, said.

"He (Ecclestone) said last year that there was no big problem with human rights in Azerbaijan, and people seemed happy. It takes just five minutes on Google to see what is really going on," he added.

The only official comments about Baku by F1 authorities this week have been made by race director Charlie Whiting, who after an inspection gave the street track a ringing endorsement.

"I must say that the standards of the circuit built so far are absolutely superb and personally I am getting quite excited about the idea of coming here to race in a week's time," he said.

(GMM)
Designed as a replacement for conventional piston engine and transmission systems, the award-winning Route is a range-extended electric vehicle powertrain that provides unlimited range and significantly reduced fuel costs for todays refuse, delivery and mass transit markets. Wrightspeed counts FedEx, Ratto Group and New Zealand Bus as early Route customers.

At this weeks WasteExpo2016, Mack Trucks, one of North Americas largest manufacturers of heavy-duty Class 8 trucks, engines and transmissions, will showcase Wrightspeeds The Route turbine-based extended range electric powertrain ( earlier post ) applied in a refuse truck.

On display at WasteExpo2016 will be a Mack LR model refuse collection truck chassis retrofitted with the Route 1000 powertrain.



LR model refuse collection garbage trucks chassis, retrofitted with Wrightspeeds the Route 1000 powertrain. Click to enlarge.

At Mack, our focus is delivering the best performing and most efficient products to our customers. While our LR model trucks are already providing our refuse customers with the finest driving and operating experience, we continually investigate technologies that advance our offerings. Wrightspeeds The Route is a very interesting advanced technology that were pleased to showcase during WasteExpo. Curtis Dorwart, Macks refuse product manager

Capable of powering vehicles weighing up to 66,000 pounds up grades as steep as 40%, the Route provides the refuse market with the power-to-weight ratio needed for collection duty cycles.

Outfitted with 730kW regenerative braking power, as well as an 80kW, fuel agnostic Fulcrum Turbine Generator that charges on-board batteries, the powertrain kit gives the vehicles unlimited range with refueling.

Wrightspeeds patented Geared Traction Drive (GTD) (earlier post) digitally drives each rear wheel of the vehicle, providing the slip control needed to operate in tough road conditions.



Route 1000 powertrain applied in a Class 8 refuse truck chassis. Click to enlarge.

Located in Silicon Valley, Wrightspeed was founded by Ian Wright, co-founder of Tesla Motors.
Officers assisted Wyoming Highway Patrol locate a vehicle on Astle Avenue and Uinta Drive described in a REDDI (Report Every Drunk Driver Immediately) report on Highway 530 south of Green River.

Officers assisted Castle Rock Ambulance Service on a medical call.

Officers received a call of two dogs described as huskies at large on Shoshone Avenue and Uinta Drive. Officers checked the area and were unable to locate the dogs.

Officers assisted Castle Rock Ambulance Service on a medical call.

Officers contacted a resident who was advised their residence on Fawn Circle was listed on a websit...
Plans push for economic diversification

Green River City Councilman Ted Barney's life-changing, mind-opening experience happened many years ago when he made the decision to go on a high school trip to Paris and London.

"It was the best decision I ever made in my life," he said. "It opened my eyes to a great big world. It brought me out of the box of Sweetwater County."

Barney pays close attention to what is going on around the world; and that is a big reason he is running for county commissioner.

Barney is a Green River resident who has worked as an investigator in the public defenders' office for 16 years and is in the middle...
Janice Doser passed away at her home surrounded by her family June 5, 2016 due to complications from a long illness.

Doser was born in Yankton, S.D., Nov. 27, 1941 to Harold Henry Sonnenfield and Loretta Agnes Engle Sonnenfield. She spent almost all her childhood in Sioux Falls, S.D. Having been educated in Catholic parochial schools she graduated from Cathedral High and entered St. Theresa's College located in Winona, Minn. to study nursing under Franciscan nuns. After one year her curriculum required her to transfer to nearby Rochester, Minn. to complete her studies at a large hospital known as St. Mary's where she studied psychiatry.

After graduating with a BS degree on May 1963, she stayed on at St. Mary's for another six years as a psychiatric nurse. She married Robert Doser at St. Joseph's Cathedral in Sioux Falls, Aug. 23, 1969. After the honeymoon she and Robert left for Salt Lake City h where he studied post graduate mathematics at the University of Utah. During this time she worked as an instructor from 1969-1972 in the University of Utah School of Nursing, and then returning to La Crosse, Wisc. where her husband was employed as a mathematics instructor at the University of Wisconsin. While there, she worked as an instructor in nursing at Viterbo, a Catholic College.

At Viterbo she met and knew the famous Sr. Thea Bowman, now a possible candidate for sainthood. In 1976 she and her husband moved to Rock Springs where he began working for Stauffer Chemical. She was asked along with another nurse to help set up a degreed nursing program at Western Wyoming Community College. After finishing work at the college, she took employment with Public Health for a time, then SWRC and later Community Nursing.

Her interests were PEO, Council of Catholic Women, church related activities, crafts, knitting, reading, helping others in her nursing work, camping, travel, and genealogy plus being with her family and socializing.

Janice is survived by her husband Robert; her three sons, Andrew Doser (Marisol), James Doser (Keely), and Thomas Doser (Jennifer); two daughters, Laura Brown (Murray), Sara Dunkin (Justin); six grandchildren; four nieces; and brother-in-law, Richard Doser. Preceding her in death were her father Harold, her mother Loretta, and her brother John Sonnenfield.

A mass of Christian burial will take place at 10 a.m. Friday, at Saints Cyril and Methodius Catholic Church in Rock Springs. A vigil service with rosary will be recited at 6 p.m. Thursday at the church. Interment will be in the Rock Springs Municipal Cemetery. Friends may call at the church on Thursday, one hour prior to the rosary and on Friday at the church one hour prior to services.

The family of Janice Doser respectfully suggests that donations in her memory be made to Hospice of Sweetwater County or http://www.myhsc.org.
Virginia Lee, a vendor at the Quilting on the Green, shows a quilter how she sewed a quilt.

It doesn't take long for the stories to appear to the viewer. Just looking at the pieces of fabric sewn together in a pattern tells a tale.

What the tale is all depends on who sewed the quilt and what kind of a mood they were in when doing so.

Green River residents who attended the Quilting on the Green, which once again took place at Expedition Island this past weekend, were not disappointed with the creativity that went into each quilt at the show.

Quilts of all colors and sizes were on display for visitors to see, but more than that, the stories were on display for all to see. Each quilt...
McCrory and Frank Perry, secretary of the N.C. Department of Public Safety, had asked that the lawsuit be moved from the Eastern District to the Middle District, where the federal government had filed its lawsuit against the state and UNC system, alleging the law often called House Bill 2 is discriminatory. HB 2s most controversial provision requires transgender individuals to use the bathroom that corresponds with the gender on their birth certificates.
North Carolina students performed the worst theyve done in more than 20 years on national tests of reading and math performance  showing how much achievement has declined since the pandemic. Reading and math scores in the state dropped from three years ago for fourth- and eighth-grades on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP. The results released on Monday by the U.S. ...
GREENWICH  A guilty plea has been entered by a suspect in connection with the theft of two cars on Greenwich Avenue in late March.

Arielle Blume, 26, was facing charges of conspiracy to commit larceny, threatening and risk of injury to a minor. She pleaded guilty earlier in the month and is likely to face 18 months in jail and three years probation under terms of a plea agreement. She was facing three years in prison.

In late March, two cars were stolen from a parking garage at 200 Greenwich Ave. Both vehicles, a 1969 Pontiac GTO and a 2015 Dodge Challenger, had the ignition keys inside them when they were stolen.

According to court papers, three juveniles were involved in the thefts of the vehicles. Their names were not released because of their age, and pending charges against them have been sealed in juvenile court.

The three teenagers were observed on a video camera at the parking garage, and police officers who work at Greenwich High School later identified them.

The teenagers contacted Blume, according to court papers, about selling the vehicles. One teenager, driving a gold Mercedes-Benz, picked up Blume and drove her to Port Chester, N.Y., to show her the cars in question, according to court documents. The cars were in a public garage at Waterfront Place.

According to authorities, when the juveniles initially approached Blume, she pointed a realistic-looking weapon at them  later determined to be a .BB gun. Court documents also stated that she encouraged them in the plan to steal the cars. Blume also said she had contacts, in the Maine department of motor vehicles and a repair shop, that could remove vehicle identification markers and create new paperwork and plates.

Blume is due for sentencing July 27. She is currently being held in custody in lieu of a $25,000 bond.

The vehicles have been returned to their owners.

The three juveniles knew Blume from her brother, who attended Greenwich High School, according to the arrest warrant.

Robert.Marchant@scni.com
It reportedly only sold a few thousand. Photo: Keurig

Some would argue they saw this one coming, but Keurig has finally pulled the plug on its prohibitively expensive, quite unpopular DIY soda-maker. The company says the device, called Kold, didnt fully deliver on consumer expectations, especially around size, speed and value. In what feels like an even greater insult to its creator, Keurig even says it will buy the blasted things back from anyone silly enough to have purchased one.

The end of Kold means layoffs as well  130 workers who produced the machines pods at a facility in Vermont. Top brass predicted just eight short months ago that their new disruptive countertop-size innovation would go on to be even bigger than hot coffee for Keurig, but that was some seriously Don Quixotelevel optimism: Literally nothing about the device sounded worth the $370 it initially cost  it was large, apparently emitted a noise like Darth Vader taking a nap, and needed 60 seconds to make just eight ounces of soda.

This is the latest in a string of headaches for Keurig, whose sales have been declining since 2014. The company was sold for $14 billion last December to an investor group led by JAB Holding, a private company that now controls an alarming amount of the worlds liquid caffeine, from Intelligentsia and Caribou on down to all of Mondelezs coffee brands and Krispy Kremes Starbucks-copycat lattes. If this is JABs idea of getting rid of products nobody wants, it had better get busy.

[WSJ, AP]
Another victory to celebrate. Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images

Fast-food workers in the nations capital have a big pay raise coming their way. Lawmakers voted unanimously Tuesday to up the citys minimum wage to $15. The move will put D.C. among the handful of places (Seattle, New York, and California) where low-income earners are promised the so-called living wage. Mayor Muriel Bowser, one of the bills key backers, has promised to sign it when it reaches her desk, probably later this summer. The raise takes the usual format of a multiyear phase-in; here, the timeline will turn thousands of restaurant and service-industry workers in Washington, D.C.  the place with Americas worst income disparity  into some of the highest-paid in the country by 2020.

The bill will also likely suck the air out of a November ballot measure thats trying to institute a $15 wage for all workers, including those who get tips. Fifteen bucks an hour is more than double the current $7.25 federal minimum wage, but D.C. lawmakers raised the tipped wage by a smaller amount to keep the citys influential restaurant industry happy. The pay for servers will rise from $2.77 to $5 an hour over the same four-year period. Advocacy groups for restaurant workers werent thrilled about this, but the Washington Post notes the bloc is saving its ammo for a fight over another proposed bill that would give workers the most generous family-leave benefits in the country.

Opponents complain that D.C. is tiny in size, so if food and hotel prices go up, people can stay in hotels in Arlington, they can go out to dinner in Alexandria.  There could be a migration of jobs from the District. House Speaker Paul Ryan also made sure to register his disagreement yesterday by traveling to one of the citys poorest neighborhoods and warning, I think that will actually do more harm than good in so many instances, because what it does is it prices entry-level jobs away from people.

Mayor Bowser says that as long as the city remains hip and safe, people are going to want to live and work in the District of Columbia. She also rejected the argument put out by Ryan and others that a $15 wage kills jobs, saying, Weve heard that argument before.

[WaPo, AP]
Oysters and more at Fort Defiance. (Youll want a drink with that.) Photo: Melissa Hom

Serviced by a single subway station and somewhat isolated from the rest of Brooklyn by the towering Gowanus Expressway overpass, Red Hook retains an improbable small-town feel, right down to Van Brunt Streets modest restaurant row and the influx of seasonal tourists who disembark from the ferry platform on weekends. The result is an offbeat mix of food establishments that include a red-sauce holdout from the neighborhoods working waterfront era, small but pioneering dining rooms with stellar food, a destination cocktail bar, and even a gregarious barbecue joint. Here, the absolute best restaurants in Red Hook.

The Absolute Best 1. Fort Defiance

365 Van Brunt St., at Dikeman St.; 347-453-6672 As a bartender and consummate cocktail scholar, proprietor St. John Frizell is well-known for his stellar pina colada and a downright transcendental Irish coffee. Moreover, the general concept of drinking food goes in several fun directions: Get snacks to match the slings and fog cutters on tiki night, a dozen oysters and a bottle of Muscadet for $40 on Wednesdays, or a Tom Collins-and-burger combo on Mondays. Matt Fleming, the chef, serves immensely flavorful Berkshire pork chops with chorizo and beans, and a just-about-perfect whole branzino with briny olives and crunchy patatas bravas. The wine list is packed with unexpected and great-value bottles from practicing organic and biodynamic producers.

2. Pizza Moto

338 Hamilton Ave., nr. Mill St.; 773-931-7900

Photo: Dina Litovsky

Some of the most impressive and inventive pizza in the city is found beneath the green and rusted girders of the Gowanus Expressway, behind a stack of split logs that burn inside its ancient oven. Greenmarket options inform starters like a springtime asparagus dish with Pecorino and a buttery six-minute egg, while pies have a slight sourdough tang, with spots of char, bubbles galore, and a tellingly wispy, inner-tube-like outer crust. Sour pickled chilies, broccoli rabe, and spicy sausage dot one pizza that also sports a mantle of melted mozzarella and vaporized ricotta. Smooth buffalo mozzarella, nutty Pecorino, almost fermented tomato, and a splash of bitter olive oil combine to majestic effect in the entry-level margherita.

3. Hometown Bar-B-Que

454 Van Brunt St., at Reed St.; 347-294-4644

Photo: Courtesy of Hometown Bar-B-Que

Hardwood smoke permeates the air, behemoth beef ribs weigh down the paper-lined trays, and most everyone gets at least a quarter pound of the brisket. The meat cavalcade extends to pastrami bacon, finished on the grill, and smoked lamb belly, which has crisp salty bits and fatty sweetness. Lip-smacking Chinese sticky ribs and jerk-pork ribs are a nod to owner Billy Durneys old Flatbush Avenue haunts, and his terrific namesake sausage with peppers and provolone suggests nothing less than the enduring power of Bensonhursts old-school pork stores.

4. The Good Fork

391 Van Brunt St., nr. Coffey St.; 718-643-6636

Photo: Melissa Hom

Red Hook had few full-service restaurants in 2006, when Sohui Kim and Ben Schneiders hand-built space debuted and set the tone for their immediate neighborhood peers. Now, as then, the menu abounds with pretense-free comfort food, with Korean accents that reflect the food Kim ate growing up. Grilled skirt steak with kimchee rice and a perfect fried Lancaster egg is a reliable favorite, as are Kims pork-and-chive dumplings, seared to a crisp finish.

5. Defontes

379 Columbia St., at Luquer St.; 718-625-8052

Its possible that the quartet of picnic tables in the adjoining lot satisfy the loosest possible definition of seating, but because Defontes started out in 1922 as an earnest morning stop for dock workers and longshore folk and has become a full-fledged Brooklyn institution in the decades since, its on this list. The Nicky Special, with its barrage of cured meats, slices of the shops trademark battered eggplant, and a slather of house hot salad (bright cherry peppers, pickled mushrooms, giardiniera veg) is a great starting point. Proceed with more of that eggplant  parm, loaded up with fantastic meatballs; with roast beef and mozzarella  on the shops quirky one-third or half bread-length formats. Either size is probably more sandwich than can be eaten in one sitting.

6. Red Hook Lobster Pound

284 Van Brunt St., nr. Verona St.; 718-858-7650

The illustrious lobster-roll purveyors heavily decorated space can come across as an alt-universe, freak-flag TGI Fridays, especially because the jolly staff duly upholds the carnival atmosphere. Theres also funnel cake, enough nautical-flag decor to occupy a semaphore buff for hours, and lobster-claw Bloody Marys to match. Rolls are not only available in classic Maine and Connecticut style, but even Tuscan (tomato-basil vinaigrette) and then some, with battered fish and chips, lobster cheese fries, and Steves Key-lime pie, made from scratch just a few blocks over on Van Dyke Street, rounding it all out.

7. Court Street Grocers Hero Shop

116 Sullivan St., nr. Conover St.; 347-529-6803

Seeded Caputos hero rolls are primo vehicles for meatloaf with cheddar and tangy pickles, or a few soft sardines and pickled fennel tucked into mounds of Caesar-dressed greenery. While the diminutive Court Street Grocers spinoff is, like the vaunted Defontes nearby, a sandwich shop with a few seats, the availability of salads (like kale and arugula with house ranch dressing) imbue the sub shop with an extra flourish.

8. Kevins

277 Van Brunt St., nr. Visitation Pl.; 718-596-8335

Dinnertime, Thursdays through Saturdays, Kevin Moore can be found sending out shrimpy amuses-bouches, popping Fishers Island oysters, and twirling Raffettos noodles in lobster cream sauce. There are hollandaise-doused poached eggs on hefty crab cakes at brunch, as well as fluffy pancakes with tiny caramelized blueberries, both of which complement the beachy vibes.

9. The Brooklyn Icehouse

318 Van Brunt St., at Pioneer St.; 718-222-1865

Red Hook lost a foundational dive when Bait & Tackle closed in 2018. Even if it lacks the resolute outlandishness of the storied bar, the neighboring Icehouse still has bargain pulled-pork sandwiches, onion rings, and cold beer. Its wares are delightfully mismatched, its stash of board games are irredeemably stained with condiments, and the spacious yard, seemingly assembled by carpenters with a cache of driftwood, soldiers on as a respite from whatever trends are reshaping the neighborhood around it.

10. Edward Lunch

56 Lorraine St., nr. Columbia St.; 718-260-8284

While less of a restaurant proper and more of a steam-table operation with a handful of tables, the austere environs belie a vast menu of home-style Dominican dishes, starting bright and early with mangu with salami and fried cheese at breakfast. The shrimp ajillo is appropriately garlicky, and snapper is flaky and golden. Pernil is doled out in heaping portions, and the hangover-busting mondongo has the mild sting of chilies and brims with soft bits of tripe.

11. Fairway Cafe

480-500 Van Brunt St., nr. Reed St.; 718-694-6868

In a city lousy with pricey lobster rolls, Fairways bare-bones, claw-and-knuckle-meat version is a steal. At press time, a meals $9.99 retail price included a bun heaped with meat, a snappy dill spear, and a side of non-offensive coleslaw. (An admirable seasonal crab roll was on special as well, and theres always sushi, pizza, and burgers.) The layout expands with the grocers summer Waterfront Grill, replete with lamb sausage and BBQ chickens from Murrays. The harbor view is unbeatable, and for a digestive, Nobletree Coffee is a short walk away.

12. Brooklyn Crab

24 Reed St., nr. Conover St.; 718-643-2722

A supercharged realm of wedged lemons, strawberry-bourbon smashes, nautical knickknacks, and hapless crustaceans awaits the crowds who pack out the shacklike multiplex on weekends. The draw, though, has never been impeccable chowder or sustainable steam pots, but the view, particularly in summer months at dusk, when the sky turns layered shades of frazzled pink and burnt orange, and even the hardest-partying mini-golfers hush for a minute.
Friendly service, a great selection, and very plush surroundings. Photo: Danny Kim/New York Magazine

Its time to declare the best place to drink wine in New York  a bar or restaurant that not only has an exceptional list (filled with both affordable and unusual bottles), but also sommeliers and servers who offer advice thats actually helpful, and make you feel at ease. Weve asked Richard Betts, author of The Essential Scratch and Sniff Guide to Becoming a Wine Expert, to share his picks. Take it away, Richard:

The Absolute Best 1. The NoMad

1170 Broadway, nr. 28th St.; 212-796-1500 Thomas Pastuszak has put together a thoughtful and complete list that he and his team of sommeliers attend to in the most caring fashion. Im never happier than when Im drinking here. Its super-easy to slip into the moment with their Empire Estate Dry Riesling from the Finger Lakes 2014 ($40). Then theres so much great stuff to choose from on the red side  a recent love has been Franck Balthazars Cornas Sans Soufre 2014 ($125). When it comes to the wine service, everyone adores Thomas, but hes also assembled an equally skilled and caring team, so no matter whose hands you end up in, you feel great.

2. Charlie Bird

5 King St., nr. Sixth Ave.; 212-235-7133

The list that Grant Reynolds and Robert Bohr put together is full of gems that are very fairly priced. It is the most dynamic list in the city, as its always changing. The list is now overseen by Arvid Rosengren, who just won Best Sommelier in the World honors, so thats a bonus, as is the Zalto stemware. Every wine on it is ready to drink, and a couple Ive loved recently are the Kalin Cellars Chardonnay Cuvee W 1995 ($95) and the Paradiso di Manfredi Rosso do Montalcino 2013 ($85). One other cool fact is that theyll open any bottle on the list for you if you buy two glasses from it, so you dont have to have the entire thing. Lastly, if youre really feeling it, there is a small leather-bound, handwritten book of extra-special wines available, too.

3. Rebelle

218 Bowery, nr. Prince St.; 917-739-3880

The work that Patrick Cappiello and his team are doing down on the Bowery is second to none. The wine list is an embarrassment of riches, and its all priced so well that its actually hard to choose. That said, you cant go wrong choosing Domaine du Closel Savennieres Clos du Papillon 2013 ($71) for a white, and then something like Olga Raffaults Chinon Les Picasses 1990 ($125) for a stellar, mature red.

4. The Four Horsemen

295 Grand St., nr. Havemeyer St., Williamsburg; 718-599-4900

The cooking is very good, and so is the wine, which is also, frankly, cheap! Justin Chearno presides over a list with a real point of view. You might find your way to something less well known but especially yummy, like the Maxime Magnon Corbieres Rozeta 2012 ($70) or the ultradelicious J.B. Becker Riesling trocken 1990 (yes, 1990) for $73. So good.

5. Aldo Sohm Wine Bar

151 W. 51st St., nr. Seventh Ave.; 212-554-1143

Aldo is a sommeliers sommelier. Hes won just about every honor there is to win as a somm, and hes ultrahumble, which leaves you feeling as though your happiness is his only objective. While he also presides over the wine program at Le Bernardin, his own wine bar is a perfect little hideout in midtown. The wine list is filled with all sorts of gems, but why choose? The very best thing I can tell you to do is put yourself in Aldos hands.

6. Maialino

2 Lexington Ave., nr. 21st St.; 212-777-2410

Jeff Kellogg has curated one of the great Italian wine lists on Earth, full of beautiful, mature wines that are priced too fairly. I just have such a blast with it. Of course, its always a good idea to start with something white, bright, and beautiful, like Ottaviano Lambruschi Costa Marina Vermentino from Liguria 2014 ($118). I love that wine and drink it almost as often as I see it. Then, a real strength of the list is the collection of older reds that you cant find anywhere else. Its wonderful to be able to drink things like Travaglini Gattinara Selezione 1971 (from $185)  great and very fairly priced. Essentially, Jeffs list takes all kinds of typically special-occasion wines and makes them accessible for every day.
15 can't really buy you much in terms of interesting gadgets nowadays, but from time to time, great deals do come along. If you are in the UK, you probably don't want to miss out on a Chromecast Audio for only 15. That is half off its original price and when you factor in the free delivery as well, the deal starts to sound sweet enough even to buy one on impulse and let it sit around until you figure out a use for it or pass it on as a perfect tech gift.

The offer is live now, but only online. You can, however, still opt for click and collect if you really want to get it form a brick and mortar store. And if you are not sure what a Chromecast Audio dongle can do for you - it is basically the best way to turn any conventional speaker system into a smart device you can digitally stream audio to.

And in case you were wondering, the little dongle is a lot better than your typical Bluetooth-enabled gear. All casting is done over the network with the Chromecast Audio usually doing the playing by itself, freeing up you other devices. It also offers support for Multi-room group playback, so you can get a few and wirelessly cover multiple rooms. And better yet, the feature is constantly improving with support for many other Google Cast enabled devices expected soon as well.

Source | Via
On Mon. Jun. 6, Haitis Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) announced an electoral schedule for the next eight months, culminating in the inauguration of a new president on Feb. 7, 2017. Despite opposition from Washington and former President Michel Martellys Haitian Bald Headed Party (PHTK), the CEP fully recognized and implemented the findings and recommendations announced on May 30 by Haitis Independent Commission of Electoral Evaluation and Verification (CIEVE). According to the CEPs calendar, presidential candidates must confirm their participation in the new elections between Jun. 8-22, and for Senate and Deputy candidates, the registration process will be from Jul. 7-16. The first round of the new elections are scheduled for Oct. 9 with a run-off on Jan. 8, 2017. The publication of the final results is scheduled for Jan. 30, 2017, a week before the swearing-in of the newly elected President. As for disputed parliamentary elections reviewed by the CIEVE, the CEP, through a special National Electoral Complaints and Challenges Bureau (BCEN), will review 42 disputes for 39 Deputy and three Senate seats. The CIEVE found that the elections of Aug. 9 and Oct. 25, 2015 were vast operations of planned fraud, a genuine electoral coup against the Haitian people. Therefore, not just the presidential but the parliamentary elections as well should be reheld so that the Haitian people can have their true representatives. While presenting the electoral calendar, CEP President Leopold Berlanger announced a number of new reforms to Haitis electoral procedures. Voter registration will be reopened at the National Identification Office (ONI). Polling station staff and poll-watchers (mandataires) will be recruited among young people, especially students. Berlanger said that the CEP is implementing all of the CIEVEs recommendations. Meanwhile, under one interpretation of a Feb. 5, 2016 agreement, the 120-day term of Interim President Jocelerme Privert ends on Jun. 14. However, Privert offered another interpretation, saying: "As long as the elections are not conducted, the Feb. 5 Agreement retains all its validity." So his mission is clear: to hold elections which were interrupted by popular mobilizations due to massive fraud. Privert also said that with or without funding from foreign nations, the elections will take place so that a new president can be installed on Feb. 7, 2017 in the National Palace. The 2015 elections had a price tag of about $100 million. President Privert estimates the coming elections will cost about $40 million. While the announcement of new elections is a positive development, those affiliated with the previous regime who perpetrated an electoral crime, the theft of popular votes, and the waste of public funds remain unpunished. They have not dared raise their voices on most radio airwaves. Nonetheless, they are likely preparing a new coup against the provisional president on or around Jun. 14. Their intentions are clear, but it remains to be seen if they will actually dare to carry out their subversive plans. They may surely hesitate before provoking another popular mobilization like that of six months ago which foiled their attempt to subvert democracy.


Korean Movie | 2003

 Action  Drama

Directed by Kang Woo-seok ()

Written by Kim Hee-jae ()

133min | Release date in South Korea: 2003/12/24

January 1968, 31 members of North Korean Special Unit 124 infiltrated South Korea with the ultimate mission of attacking the Blue House (Presidential Palace in Korea) and assassinating President PARK Chung-hee. When KIM Shin-jo, the only member who was captured alive, was asked "What was the purpose of infiltration?" on a live TV program, he shouted "I came to slit the throat of President PARK Chung-hee!" and made the whole country's blood run cold.



At the same time, In-chan escapes the death penalty for being an accessory to a crime when he accepts an unexpected proposal from Jae-hyun , a general at Silmido H.I.D. Project and is transported to Silmido Special Unit. Silmido Special Unit is a unit composed of dysfunctional social outcasts and criminals under the death or life sentences. Sang-pil and Won-hee are also among the members of this unit. When they arrive at the island, Jae-hyun gives them the classified national duty, which is to explode the North Korean presidential palace and behead KIM Il-sung, the North Korean president. It is a retaliatory project.

To its all 31 members, it is the ultimate patriotic mission with pride and loyalty; and it is the only chance they have to start a new life that is promised once the mission is successfully accomplished. With their hopes and promising vision, they survive through the most hellish inhumane 'killing' training and are reborn as human armories. They are the human killing machines, with strong comradeship and respect for each other.





Finally, the day arrives and they receive an order from the head office to carry out the mission. With their supreme confidence, they depart for the North. However, the project is suddenly revoked and they return to Silmido with much discouragement and stress. After then, the hellish training continues but, there is no more mission. The psychological frustration and physical tolerance start to reach their limits. And soon, the members start to lose their focus and unity. In order to regain complete control of the unit, the head office performs public executions of its own members. Meanwhile in 1970, with growing nationwide peacemaking movement between the North and the South, the government quickly decides to demolish Silmido Special Unit and executes all its members...

Source
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Europe grounds all Airbus H225 and AS532 helicopters following fatal crash

The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has grounded all Airbus Super Puma H225 and AS332 (L2) helicopters across Europe. This comes soon after the publication of an Accident Investigation Board Norway (AIBN) report which found evidence of fatigue in gear box parts retrieved from the remains of the H225 involved in a crash off the island of Tury on 29 April, which killed all 13 crew and passengers.

EASA said it was unclear if the apparent component failure caused the crash or was triggered by another factor. The grounding was a precautionary measure, the safety regulator said.

The Super Puma was travelling from the North Sea Gullfaks B oilfield, about 74 miles off the Norwegian coast, when it crashed en route to Flesland Airport, Bergen. Witnesses said the main rotor became detached from the helicopter prior to the crash.

AIBNs preliminary report published on June 1 detailed fatigue in the gearbox and a catastrophic failure, rendering early safety warnings not effective.

The AIBN report read: Among the recovered parts were two pieces which together form approximately half a second stage planet gear. Examinations of these parts have revealed features strongly consistent with fatigue. The fatigue appears to have its origin in the outer race of the bearing (inside of the gear), propagating towards the web of the gear teeth. There is sign of spalling in front of the fracture surface.

The report said it felt the findings to be of such significance that it has decided to issue the following safety recommendation to ensure the continuing airworthiness of the Main Gear Box (MGB).

It added: It cannot be ruled out that this signifies a possible safety issue that can affect other MGBs of the same type. The nature of the catastrophic failure of the LN-OJF main rotor system indicates that the current means to detect a failure in advance are not effective.

The Super Puma is a major component of the fleets of helicopter companies operating in support of the North Sea oil industry. Its commercial use was suspended in Norway and Britain immediately after the crash.

Norwegian oil company Statoil said on June 2 that three of its emergency helicopters would be affected by the extended flight ban. The company has search and rescue helicopters based on the Oseberg field, the Statfjord B field and at Sola Airport near Stavanger in western Norway.

A Statoil spokesman said the company would be converting two Sikorsky S-92s to fulfil the SAR and emergency services role.

The German Defence Ministry also decided to ground the three Airbus Cougar AS532 helicopters used to transport Chancellor Angela Merkel. The German newspaper Die Welt reported that German police would continue to operate other Airbus helicopters since they use a different model.

Results of the investigation have potential implications for the Super Puma programme following earlier accidents. Investigators have ruled out human error, saying the crash was caused by a technical fault.

Previous Super Puma incidents linked to gearbox problems included a 2009 crash off Peterhead, Scotland, in which the rotor also flew off and 16 people died. Airbus Helicopters told operators in a bulletin hat there were "significant elements" differing from the 2009 crash.



The BBC reported that an online petition calling for all Super Puma 225s to be "permanently removed from service" has attracted nearly 30,000 signatures.


Request that the employee provide reasons for their refusal, within a reasonable timeframe (for example 24-48 hours)

Consider the employees reasons for refusal

If the employee has provided compelling reasons for refusing to take part in a telephone disciplinary meeting, the employer should delay the disciplinary meeting until such time as it can take place in person

If the employee does not have compelling reasons for refusing to take part in a telephone disciplinary meeting, the employer should remind the employee of his or her obligation to comply with all lawful and reasonable directions of the employer. The employer should nominate a time for the telephone disciplinary meeting to take place, and direct the employee to take part. The employer should further warn the employee that any refusal or failure to take part will be considered a failure to comply with a lawful and reasonable direction of the employer, which may lead to further disciplinary action, potentially including dismissal

h sickness and sick leave being an inherent and unavoidable part of workplace life, there may come a time for any organisation when an employees sick leave clashes inconveniently with important disciplinary meetings.Some employers may be tempted to get round this by requesting that the employee subject to disciplinary discussions attend the meeting via phone, yet any HR manager dealing with such circumstances should tread lightly, according to one leading employment law specialist.Lara Radik, senior associate at Brisbane-based law firm Carter Newell, observes a number of factors that should be taken into consideration by employers when considering asking an employee to attend a disciplinary meeting over the phone. These factors include the urgency of the meeting, the many advantages that in-person interaction allows, and the question of whether an employee is represented in such proceedings by a third party such as a lawyer.Radik was on hand to answer HC Onlines questions regarding this potentially delicate and complex scenario.If an employee is certified totally unfit for work, it is inappropriate for an employer to compel the employee to participate in any disciplinary process, whether that process takes place in person, by telephone or otherwise. There may, however, be limited circumstances in which an employee is represented (for example by a union or a lawyer) and is capable of providing their representative with instructions notwithstanding the employees incapacity for work. In those limited circumstances, it may be appropriate to conduct a disciplinary meeting over the phone, notwithstanding the employees incapacity for work.If an employee is unable to attend a disciplinary meeting in person for reasons other than total incapacity (such as partial incapacity, fly-in-fly-out work etc), it may be appropriate to consider conducting the meeting via telephone if it must take place urgently. If there is no urgency to the meeting, the more prudent course of action is to advise the employee of the intention to conduct a disciplinary meeting when they are next available to attend in person.If the only urgency for conducting the disciplinary meeting is to avoid having to continue to pay sick leave, an employer may expose itself to the risk of an adverse action claim.Whenever possible, it is desirable to conduct disciplinary meetings in person so as to ensure that the employee understands the allegations against them, to observe body language and demeanour, to facilitate multiple persons being present such as a witness or support person, and because addressing serious matters affecting the employees livelihood via telephone may be perceived by the employee as impersonal.If an employee refuses to attend a disciplinary meeting over the telephone, an HR manager should:
pite being a Fortune 100 company, attracting graduates to Philip Morris International is not without its challenges, said director of HR Graeme Smith.



To find talented individuals in one of the worlds toughest markets, the global tobacco firm has had to develop a new global internship program, INKOMPASS, which offers university students the chance to work at Philip Morris and potentially take up a job there.



This program is not just an ordinary internship; rather its a journey of learning through self-discovery, Smith said.



Developed by all business departments and HR, the program features a two-cycle structure through which interns are placed in multiple departments for some hands-on experience.



Interns are trusted to deliver against tangible business objectives, he said. For example, this year a pair of interns working in procurement are executing a project to implement our paperless office program which will remove a business expense as well as help the environment.



Smith said that while INKOMPASS was meant to demonstrate precisely what was needed to work at Philip Morris, this was only half the journey.



While we have a great program we still faced the challenge of connecting with the best new talent, he said. The solution to recruiting  was to roll up our sleeves, get into the weeds and find them ourselves.



In order to reach Generation Y, Philip Morris implemented a bold campaign, interactive website and two-way communication via social media networks. In this way, the firm was able to identify possible students who were the best fit, he said.



During the internship, continuous feedback and individual mentors are used to develop the interns. Project buddies are also there to provide professional workplace training.



As part of our two-cycle structure, interns who are successful in reaching the second cycle will be given the opportunity to delve deeper into a specific department or functional area.



At this stage, interns work on individual projects which aim at revealing the functions challenges, opportunities and processes. Top performers will then be offered a job, Smith said.



While its difficult for companies to recruit great young talent, our experience is showing that dedicated, engaging programs pitched where your target audience gathers is beginning to yield promising results.


Today the voters of North Carolinas 5th Congressional District decisively endorsed my record of fighting for limited government, conservative values and strong national security. Im honored that theyve given me the chance to appear on the ballot in the fall and I thank everyone who voted today for their commitment to a functioning democracy.

Thanks to federal judges tampering with North Carolina elections, this was an unusual year and an unusual campaign.

But despite the challenges we faced, my campaigns volunteers and staff and our friends and family never gave up. They worked tirelessly to spread our message of conservative solutions to the tough problems facing our nation which is why Id like to express my deepest gratitude to each of those who gave their time, energy and resources to make this victory possible.

The fall election season will soon be upon us and I look forward to continuing the fight for the sort of commonsense conservative solutions that will protect the unborn, reduce taxes, shrink the federal government and preserve our national security.

Its a real privilege to represent the people of northwest North Carolina. I promise to work hard to both represent them well and to uphold and defend our Constitution.

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By Jessica Isaacs | [email protected]

Awesome opportunities for summer fun await you high atop the towering summit of Beech Mountain Resort!

Make your way over to the resorts 5506 Skybar for great, drinks and live music from a different band each week at this one-of-a-kind local hot spot. The bars new lunch menu offers sandwiches, salads and snacks beginning on Thursday every weekend, as well as brunch on Sundays.

5506 is a unique facility. There is not another bar or restaurant like it in the High Country, said Talia Freeman, marketing director at BMR. Customers experience endless views, seeing all the way to Tennessee, Virginia and North Carolina. Its pretty incredible.

The live music kicks off at 2:30 p.m. every Saturday afternoon, and this years lineup will feature several local favorites, including the Corklickers, the Harris Brothers and more.

Its nice to hear live music with such beautiful surroundings, Freeman said. Plus, we have a great music lineup  some really talented artists. I am excited for people to experience such great talent.

Although there is no space for parking at the summit, there are two ways to get to the top and check out 5506.

If youre feeling adventurous, take the scenic chairlift and soak up the incredible vistas for just $10. If youre not so much a fan of heights, the resort now offers shuttle services to and from the summit for just $5.

The panoramic views of the mountains are simply stunning. I live and work here, but I am still in awe of the beauty, Freeman said. Some people simply do not enjoy the chairlift, though, so the shuttle is a more affordable option and it eases the discomfort that some people have with heights.

Just cant get enough of life on top of the world? Start your day with Mile High Yoga on the 5506 observation deck at 10:30 a.m. on select Saturdays this summer.

Our mission is to provide a safe, friendly, soothing and unique atmosphere for all ability levels, said Freeman. Our hand-picked instructors bring a wealth of knowledge and passion to help you strengthen your body, calm your mind and find a little inspiration for the rest of your journey.

Mile High Yoga is all about the experience. We really strive to have quality instructors. That combined with the beautiful setting and the long range mountain views make for a rejuvenating and relaxing class.

Whether you plan to visit for morning yoga, lunch and drinks or afternoon music, 5506 at Beech Mountain Resort will keep you coming back for more this summer.

Freeman said youll definitely enjoy the good food, good people, beautiful surroundings and cool weather at 5506, where family friendly fun is never in short supply.

Continue reading for the live music schedule, the weekend lunch menu, shuttle availability and information on Mile High Yoga.

To learn more, visit beechmountainresort.com or call 800-438-2093.

5506 Live Music Lineup:

June 4  The local bluegrass legends The Corklickers

June 11  The blues, rock and funk of Andrew Scotchie and the River Rats

June 18  The up-and-coming rock and blues vocalist Shelby Rae Moore

June 25  The rowdy, edgy and fun bluegrass of Grandpas Cough Medicine

July 2  The local blues, rock and funk legend Melissa Reaves

July 9th  The funky horn-driven rock and soul of Dr Bacon

July 16  The blues, soul and jazz/funk of South Carolinas Shane Pruitt Band

July 23  A return performance by local bluegrass legends The Corklickers

July 30  The versatile blues, rock and country of The Harris Brothers

August 6  The earthy and eclectic Americana music of Wise Old River

August 13  TBD

August 20  The atmospheric and fun New Acoustic sounds of Sweet Sweet

August 27  The Americana, folk and rock grooves of Virginias If Birds Could Fly

Sept. 3  TBD

Scenic Lift Rides to 5506:

$10 round trip tickets, open from noon to 6 p.m. on Thursdays and from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday through Sunday.

Shuttle Option to 5506:

$5 shuttle tickets include rides up and back down the mountain and can be purchased at Ski Beech Sports. Shuttle space is limited and this option is not suitable for small children that require a car seat or booster seat.

Shuttle rides back down from the summit run on the half hour with the last ride scheduled for 5:30 p.m. each day. You must purchase a ticket to take the shuttle.

Shuttles are located at the end of lot #1.

Thursday rides up the mountain: noon, 1 p.m., 2 p.m., 3 p.m., 4 p.m., 5 p.m.

Friday through Sunday rides up the mountain: 11 a.m., noon, 1 p.m., 2 p.m., 3 p.m. 4 p.m., 5 p.m.

Mile High Yoga Schedule:

June 4, 11, 18, 25

July 2, 9, 16, 23, 30

Aug. 6, 13, 20, 27

Sept. 3

Classes begin at 10:30 a.m. and last approximately one hour. The class is accessible by the chairlift. Participants are asked to ride the lift between 10-10:15 a.m.

Yoga mats are limited and instructors include Cara Pittman and Jenna Thompson.

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Compiled by Jesse Wood

April 23, 2014. For the N.C. Supreme Court Associate Justice section on the primary ballots, residents have three choices: Eric Levinson, Robin Hudson and Jeanette Doran.

While the N.C. Democratic Party has endorsed only one of those three candidates  Robin Hudson, a group called N.C. Experienced Conservative Judges has endorsed two: Eric Levinson and Jeanette Doran.

While some of the primary races are only open to certain parties, every registered voter has the opportunity to vote on the candidates for N.C. Supreme Court. You may only vote for one of the judge candidates. Take a look below at information provided in the N.C. State Board of Elections 2014 Primary Voter Guide about each candidate.

ERIC LEVINSON

Place of Residence: Cornelius, N.C.

Education: UNC-Chapel Hill School of Law, J.D., 1992, University of Georgia, BBA Finance, cum laude, 1989; Institute on Political and Economic Systems, Fund for American Studies (coursework Georgetown University, internship at Reagan White House), 1989

Occupation: Superior Court Judge

Employer: State of N.C.

Date Admitted to the Bar: 1992

Legal/judicial Experience:Superior Court Judge, 2009-present; Rule of Law Counselor, Kabul, Afghanistan, 2008; Justice Attache to Iraq, U.S. Department of Justice, 2007-2008; Associate Judge, N.C. Court of Appeals, 2003-2007; District/Family Court Judge, Mecklenburg County, 1996-2002; Assistant District Attorney, Cabarrus and Rowan Counties, 1992-1996

Candidate Statement: No other candidate offers my combination of experience as a judge on the Court of Appeals, District/Family Court, and Superior Court. I am the only candidate who has been in the trial courtrooms as a judge andin our appellate courts as a judge.

Except for my service to our nation as the Justice Attache to Iraq for the U.S. Department of Justice (establishing Major Crimes Courts to prosecute terrorists), and my assistance to the Supreme Court of Afghanistan, I have been a judge since 1996. No other candidate has this breadth of experience.

I adhere to the rule of law as an impartial jurist and preserve individual freedoms. As a judge, I do not make public policy decisions.

I am described as a brave, independent jurist and Constitutional conservative. I have bipartisan support and am endorsed by former Chief Justice I. Beverly Lake, Jr. and former Justice Robert Orr, who say I am simply the most qualified candidate. I would be privileged to have your support.www.levinsonforjustice.com.

ROBIN HUDSON

Place of Residence: Wake County

Education: Yale University, B.A.; UNC-Chapel Hill, J.D.

Occupation: Justice, Supreme Court of North Carolina

Employer: State of North Carolina

Date Admitted to the Bar: 1976

Legal/judicial Experience: 2007-present, Justice, NC Supreme Court 2001-2006, Judge, NC Court of Appeals, first woman elected without being appointed 25 years legal practice representing individuals and families 1977-present, NC Bar Association; 2005-2006, Vice President 1978-present, NC Association of Women Attorneys

Candidate Statement: In 38 years as a lawyer and judge, Ive handled all kinds of cases for all kinds of people. That experience has helped me understand real people and real families and to be fair in every case, as my record on the Supreme Court since 2007 shows.

In 13 years as an appellate court judge, Ive made thousands of decisions. I know the challenges people face every day, with their jobs, children, property, safety, and schools. My experience with individuals from all walks of life has given me a unique understanding of our states people, the legal issues they face, and their need for judges who decide cases fairly.

All my life Ive worked hard. I went to public schools, worked in the summers, and waited tables in college. The hardest work Ive done was being a single mom, raising two young kids while trying to run a law practice.

People deserve even-handed judges. Im fair; Im independent. And I understand how our complex laws affect real people. More than a dozen former Justices and appellate Judges endorse my re-election.

Please visit www.robinhudson.org

Thanks.

JEANETTE DORAN

Place of Residence: Raleigh

Education: Campbell University School of Law, JD, cum laude. Auburn University, BA

Occupation: Chair, NC Board of Review; attorney

Employer: State of North Carolina

Date Admitted to the Bar: 2000, North Carolina; 2006 US Supreme Court

Legal/judicial Experience: Chairman, Board of Review, deciding appeals of unemployment insurance and tax claims; Executive Director, NC Institute for Constitutional Law; UNC School of Government; Federal Public Defender; Federal Law Clerk

Candidate Statement: Throughout my career, I have focused on state and federal constitutional issues. My experience at trial and appellate levels in state and federal courts shows a strong commitment to the rule of law. As a lawyer, I understand the importance of our founding principles and the role of the courts. As a mom, I have a special motivation to ensure the law is fairly, justly and consistently applied.

As an attorney, I represented ordinary taxpayers fighting to protect liberty and promote freedom by enforcing the constitution. My clients included everyday citizens, parents, school children, and charitable groups. I stood up for a wide range of North Carolinians, and I took on corporate giants and powerful politicians.

I believe policy changes should come from the people, not activist judges. I have traveled the state sharing my love of the North Carolina and United States Constitutions with civic and grassroots groups. I have earned a reputation for understanding complex laws but never forgetting the fundamentals of both the state and federal constitutions. I want to bring my ability and my dedication to public service to the Supreme Court.

I ask for your vote.

jeanetteforjustice.com

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The newspaper reported last week that the mother and daughter have been ordered to leave the country by Friday, leaving behind them the two other members of the family  a father and three-month-old daughter.

The Supreme Administrative Court of Finland has issued an order to stay the enforcement of the deportation of a mother and her three-year-old daughter to Iraq, reports Helsingin Sanomat .

The mother has applied for a residence permit twice, but both of her applications have been turned down by the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri)  the first on grounds that the family does not satisfy the income requirements for family reunifications and the second on grounds that it is safe for the mother and her daughter to return to Iraq.

The Supreme Administrative Court reminds that it has yet to determine whether or not to grant the leave to appeal requested by the mother, but that its ruling only stipulates that the mother and daughter must not be forced to leave the country before the request has been processed.

Migri presented its report on the issue to Petteri Orpo (NCP), the Minister of the Interior, on Monday, according to Helsingin Sanomat.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT

Photo: Vesa Moilanen  Lehtikuva
I don't like speaking about a class society in 2016, retorted Alexander Stubb, the Minister of Finance and chairperson of the National Coalition.

Petteri Orpo (NCP), the Minister of the Interior, came under fire for his recent remarks about the middle class as he and his fellow candidates to lead the National Coalition Party clashed in their final debate before the leadership election in Sanomatalo, Helsinki, on Tuesday.

The National Coalition is not about categorising people, the National Coalition is about values. The National Coalition is not a [social] class, he said, adding that he has talked with a wide variety of people  including nurses, farmers and police officers  on the campaign trail.

Orpo has spoken extensively about the middle class during his campaign. He, for example, expressed his concerns about the consequences of the shrinking middle class for tax revenues and the burden of taxpayers in a blog posted on Puheenvuoro.

Elina Lepomaki, the third candidate to lead the National Coalition, said she is very much of the same opinion as the incumbent chairperson. The National Coalition's main objective is to hold fast to the equality of opportunity to the very end, to make sure people can go wherever they want to in life, she stated.

She also expressed her concerns about the re-location of high-productivity jobs from Finland. Talented software developers have many options, they can leave our country. If we raise taxes, that tax base will suddenly disappear, warned Lepomaki.

Orpo, in turn, defended his earlier statements.

Those nurses and police officers are the ones who feel that too much has been taken from them, that their lives are built on an increasingly unstable foundation, that they have to work more and more. This is what I'm talking about when I'm talking about the so-called middle class, said Orpo.

He proposed that every policy decision necessitate an assessment of its implications for the general public.

The National Coalition is to elect its next chairperson in a party conference in Lappeenranta on 1012 June.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT

Photo: Vesa Moilanen  Lehtikuva

Source: Uusi Suomi
The inside story on one of the deadliest gang wars in the history of the State will be told in a TV3 documentary tonight.

The feud between the Kinahan cartel and the Hutch gang has resulted in seven deaths this year, and shows no sign of ending any time soon.

The feud began when Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch's nephew, Gary Hutch, was gunned down by a poolside on the Costa del Sol last September.

However, it spiralled out of control when a team of six hitmen stormed the Regency Hotel in Dublin - some of them dressed as members of a garda Emergency Response Unit and carrying AK47 assault rifles - and gunned down a member of the Kinahan gang, David Byrne.

The programme explains why the murder of Byrne was the pivotal event and led to savage recriminations.

Reckless

The mounting body count is happening against a backdrop of a more reckless and ruthless crime scene that is engulfing the capital.

The documentary will hear from Herald crime correspondent Ken Foy and other journalists who have followed events closely.

Garda Chief Superintendent Michael O'Sullivan of the National Drug Unit and Organised Crime Unit will be interviewed on the programme, along with former head of the Criminal Assets Bureau Felix McKenna.

Dublin's Gangland War airs at 9pm.
Marty Whelan says hes in a good place in his life these days

RTE's Marty Whelan has said that he's no problem turning 60 next week as he "has his hair back".

The jovial Winning Streak presenter, who had a hair transplant two years ago, has revealed how his family has planned a big surprise for his milestone birthday, However, the modest broadcaster said that he was happy to have a low-key celebration.

"My family have a plan but I had a big 50th and I'm not this time," he said.

"I'm fine about it because my eyes work, I've got my hair back, I can see. I'm fine.

"It's a state of mind and I'm fine about it (turning 60).

Lucky

"I'm lucky my children still live at home at 22 and 25 and we've a good thing going, we've fun together so I'm looking forward to it.

"I'm happy to go to the Trocadero because it's my favourite restaurant.

"It's my favourite place on earth and I'd happily just go there and have dinner."

The veteran presenter said that he's in a really good place in his life, having been lucky enough to have worked consistently for the past 40 years.

Last month saw him flying over to Sweden to commentate on the Eurovision for another year.

While he was disappointed that Nicky Byrne didn't get through to the final, the Eurovision aficionado firmly believes that Ireland could still win it again.

"Of course I do," he said. "We couldn't do it (go back) if we didn't believe that.

Click

"So you go with that firmly in the back of your mind and go, 'We're going to be OK'. And you know what, some year it's just going to click."

He said that it's all down to "pot luck" when it comes to the international singing contest and there was clearly no magic formula.
Jamie Woods (left, in glasses) - the Leaving Cert student from Navan, Meath who died on Monday morning 06/06/16 [crop out other person]

Tributes have been paid to a teenager who died only two days before he was due to begin his Leaving Cert examinations today.

Jamie Woods (17), died following a house party in Navan, Co Meath, in the early hours of Monday.

He was expected to sit the first of his Leaving Cert exams this morning, along with thousands of other students around the country.

Deputy Mayor of Meath County Council Wayne Forde described the incident as a "terrible tragedy" for the local area and expressed his condolences to the teenager's family.

"The community is in absolute shock over what has happened. Jamie was a young student who had his whole life ahead of him," Mr Forde told the Herald.

Distraught

"My sympathies of course go out to the family, and the people of Navan are rallying around them. They are understandably distraught."

A family friend described Jamie as an "intelligent" young student who had planned to attend college.

"Jamie was such a good kid, he had his whole life mapped out, he was doing his Leaving Cert this week and then had planned to go to college in Cavan," they said.

"Jamie was a bright, intelligent lad who it seems was enjoying his last night out with friends before knuckling down to his exams."

Jamie had attended a party in the Claremont Estate on Sunday night before returning to a relative's home.

When he arrived there he complained of feeling ill before lapsing into unconsciousness in the early hours of Monday.

He was taken by ambulance to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, Co Louth, where he died a short time later.

Friends of Jamie also took to social media to pay tribute to the student who was described as having "a heart of gold".

"Can't believe you're gone ... it won't be the same without you around," wrote one friend, while another said: "I've never been so shocked before in my life. I've never seen the chap without a smile on his face."

Gardai are investigating the circumstances surrounding the death. However, it is not being treated as suspicious.

A garda spokesman said: "Gardai are investigating the death of a 17-year-old who was found at a house on Slane Road on Monday morning.

"He was taken to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda where he subsequently passed away.

"A file is now being prepared under the Coroner's Act."

A post mortem examination was carried out last night, and gardai are awaiting the results of a toxicology report.

The teenager's funeral will take place over the weekend in Navan.

His body will be reposed at his home both tomorrow and Friday, before his funeral mass in St Oliver's Church, Blackcastle, Navan. His remains will then be taken to Rathmore cemetery in Athboy for burial.

He is survived by his parents, Mark and Sandra, and three siblings.
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.
On Tuesday Prime Minister Narendra Modi met United States President Barack Obama in Washington, their fourth meeting in two years. Although the joint statement is silent on it, one of the principal drivers of this new level of engagement is the shared concern on ensuring peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific and India Ocean regions, and the recognition that the South China Sea could be one flashpoint that could put the region in trouble. This is for a number of reasons, not the least that the South China Sea islands have many claimants; the sea connects the Indian and Pacific Oceans; and, it has now drawn in the US and China into a stand-off.

At The Shangri-La Dialogue, US defence secretary Ashton Carter and Chinese Admiral Sun Jianguo of the Central Military Commission were involved in a verbal duel on South China Sea. While Carter warned China of isolating itself on South China Sea claims and assertions, the admiral retaliated, saying that Beijing was not afraid of any trouble when it came to the question of its national sovereignty. The posturing was on account of tension rising over Chinese reclamation works and military activity on disputed reefs in the South China Sea. China claims some 80% of the waterway through a self-drawn nine-dash line, which hosts a major global shipping route, while The Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan have overlapping claims.

Read | India, Japan say no prosperity possible in South China Sea amid tensions

Although influential voices in Washington are talking about an India-US-Japan partnership to counter Chinese aggression in South China Sea, India is careful to commit itself on anything beyond the freedom of navigation and innocent passage in the South China Sea. The Indian position is in harmony with its partners, particularly the US, which has not taken any stand on Chinese territorial claims and counter-claims of some Asean countries, but is committed to upholding the freedom of navigation and the law of seas in this area and claims through recourse to peaceful means and in accordance with international law.

The reason for strategic ambiguity over territorial claims are not difficult to fathom as Asean nations themselves are divided over what constitutes territorial aggression by China in the South China Sea with Laos and Cambodia on Beijings side, Malaysia and Indonesia largely sitting on the fence.

However, India, like the US and Japan, wants unhindered access to sea lanes of communication in the South China Sea as more than 50% global trade passes through the Malacca Straits and no less than 55% Indian trade with China, South Korea and Japan passes through this waterway. The historical fact is that at the end of World War II, neither of the contested Paracel Islands or Spratly Islands or Scarborough Shoals were occupied by any power. It was post-war that China started moving into these territories and this led to bloody clashes with Vietnamese soldiers twice in the past century.

Read | China to pressure US on maritime issues: Report

Today, China has established military air bases in some of these island territories with proper administrative set-up and is ready to exploit its tourism potential. Even though the US, India and Japan want territorial disputes to be settled peacefully according to international law, China will not give up its territorial claims and its military influence, and its capability will grow by the day in the South China Sea. This assertion could lead to ships being denied access into the waterway with possible restrictions from the Peoples Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), which is on the verge of acquiring blue water status with two aircraft carriers and ballistic missile-armed nuclear submarines projecting power in the region.

With China defining South China Sea as its core interest, Beijings intention to dominate the waterway is evident through its enhanced military capabilities. This is also essential to its declared aim of becoming a maritime power. The problem facing Asean nations is that they are convinced of Chinese aggressions but are rather unsure about US long-term military and political commitment to the region. In this context, the big question now facing India is what should be its posture on Chinas assertion as any action by New Delhi will have a fallout on interlinked Indian Ocean.

While New Delhi has no intention of exploiting Chinese vulnerabilities in the South China Sea given its long-standing territorial dispute with Beijing, it is all for maintaining peace and stability in the waterway due to interlinked repercussions. India deals with Asean nations with varying degree of economic and diplomatic engagement, and thus New Delhi should be working with big powers in the region to ensure peace.

Read | India cant rise by bashing or containing Beijing: Chinese media

The week-long India-US-Japan Malabar naval exercise starting on June 10 off the coast of Okinawa in Japan is not only to assure the region but also to act as a deterrent to any aggression on sea lanes of communication. While China and its neighbours like The Philippines and Vietnam contest each others claim, India must be part of the global endeavour to keep unrestricted access to the South China Sea.

The play in South China Sea is not without ramifications towards Beijing as it shows China as an aggressive dominating power and could lead to serious militarisation of Japan as a counter-reaction. It also could end up drawing in Europe into the dispute, decades after the departure of colonial powers that enabled China to fill in the vacuum in the first place. Given that the South China Sea debate has heated up, it is time Asean nations took a united view on how to sort out territorial claims amicably without any hindrance to global trade and sea traffic. It is also clear that China should put an end to its ambitious territorial claims and muscle-flexing in the South China Sea as this could turn into a global flashpoint drawing big naval powers into the Pacific vortex. India cannot remain isolated from this storm.

shishir.gupta@hindustantimes.com

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Why is India seeking membership to various export control regimes taken as gospel, and not questioned?

US President Barack Obama will not be calling up his Chinese counterpart to back Indias application to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) in June this year.

That much was evident at the tepid White House press meet he had with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Mr. Obama made no mention of the NSG, while Mr. Modi thanked him for his general support for Indias membership to the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) and the NSG. Quite apart from China there are several States which have reservations regarding Indias membership. Why then has the Modi government launched an intensive diplomatic effort to seek membership now? This has led to high decibel noise in the media, as if Indias membership is imminent and the NSG is the most important agenda of Mr. Modis visit. The charitable view, that Mr. Modi wants to make the most of the Obama presidency, is hardly convincing. You cant make the most of something that you know doesnt exist! The NSG-China story is a red herring. India is making all sorts of promises to Mr. Obama on climate change, logistics support, nuclear power plants et al. These need scrutiny, vitally missing in todays debate. Why is India seeking membership to various export control regimes taken as gospel, and not questioned?

Indias Motivation

It is the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) that confers the status of a Nuclear Weapons State (NWS), and India will never join this treaty as a Non-Nuclear Weapons State (NNWS). India touted the Civil Nuclear deal with the US as a recognition of its NWS status, although its language describes India only as a state with advanced nuclear technology. Now seeking membership to the MTCR (ballistic missiles related), the NSG (commerce in nuclear and nuclear related materials), the Wassenaar Arrangement (conventional weapons related dual use) and the Australia Group (chemical and biological weapons related) export control regimes, is Indias way to enhance its de jure (by law) NWS status, from a de facto (by facts) nuclear armed state.

Strictly speaking, it is neither necessary to be a part of these groupings, nor damaging to stay out of them. It is better to be invited to elite clubs than petulantly argue that their rules of admission are unfair or go on a publicity blitz claiming exception to those rules. No one doubts one day India will be a member at the top table, no matter which way it is defined. That day is not today.

The Warning of the Times

The editorial in the New York Times (No Exceptions for a Nuclear India) of 4 June, is most likely a sign that India should temper its expectations. The outrage in India over it is unwarranted. While it is true that demands the editorial makes of India before it is offered such membership or status is overstated, they stem from legitimate concerns States have regarding Indias nuclear ambitions. It is Indias responsibility to reassure the world. Lets address these concerns one by one:

Prohibition on Using Nuclear Weapons

In reassuring the world, India cites its resolution at the UN on prohibiting ANY use of a nuclear weapon, not just No First Use, as proof of its intentions. First introduced in 1982 and tabled every year, India never actively canvassed for it worldwide or constructively amended the resolution to gather more support and give it teeth. Despite this resolution India tested its nuclear weapons in 1998! This Indian behaviour is hardly reassuring. India continues to table this resolution which makes no mention of the NPT, the Treaty which defines non-proliferation standards in the world and is the only legal document that all NWS have signed on to committing themselves to disarm in the long run, whether you believe them or not. Clearly, the Non Use resolution is rhetorical and India upholds the non-proliferation regime despite pretending the NPT does not exist.

Nuclear Disarmament

India is being sued at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for not pursuing nuclear disarmament, contrary to its claims, and actually helping an arms race. The Marshal Islands, victims of US nuclear testing, has taken all nuclear armed states to the ICJ. India accepts the mandatory jurisdiction of the ICJ, and hence, responds. The Court is considering whether Article VI of the NPT that obliges all NWS to disarm in good faith, forms a norm under Customary International Law for negotiating disarmament, thus applying to even non signatories like India. Isnt it premature then to argue that Article VI is NOT binding legally?

Indias former PM Rajiv Gandhi offered an Action Plan in 1988, laying out a way of reaching nuclear zero in 20 years. India did absolutely nothing to follow up all these years, except for a Working Paper that toyed with ideas in 2006.

The General Assembly gets hundreds of Working Papers every year on all sorts of subjects. Indias disarmament efforts are paper tigers, and yet, India cites this Action Plan in its defence at the International Court of Justice this year. Why should anyone believe India?

China, Pakistan, Nuclear Testing and Fissile Materials

India accuses China of behaviour contrary to the NSGs norms in helping Pakistan. If that calls into question NSGs standards, why seek to join it? Are we not guilty of the same behaviour as China, by being contrary to our paper commitments on nuclear disarmament? We refused to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) more out of pique than any genuine concern about subcritical testing, and we wanted to test our weapons before the window closed. We had genuine concerns that the CTBT was an arms control measure, rather than a disarmament one. When we tested in 1998 there were fears that the H bomb test was a failure. A section of our scientists demanded more tests. To assuage the world, we offered a voluntary moratorium on tests, but only when we were pushed to the wall at a point during the Civil Nuclear Deal negotiations with the US when the NSG was considering a special waiver for us. Most other NWS have signed onto the CTBT. We have even less reason today not to sign and ratify than we ever had in 1996. Our commitment to join remains an oral one that former PM Atal Behari Vajpayee made in Parliament that India shall not stand in the way of the CTBT.

Our weakest argument is that Pakistan stinks while we smell of roses on the Fissile Material Cut Off Treaty (FMCT) negotiations. The argument goes that if Pakistan were genuinely concerned about Indias weapons, then it should immediately call for a halt in the production of fissile materials. This is misleading. Pakistans concern is with the stock that has already been accumulated by various states, including India. It calls for a Fissile Material Treaty, as opposed to one that allows states to keep stocks till a cut off date is chosen. This stalemate leaves both India and Pakistan free to continue to produce fissile materials. Moreover, our Fast Breeder Reactor programme is expected to greatly enhance our ability. It is not possible to write off Pakistan or Indias concerns.

Indian Exceptionalism?

In other words, India is unwilling to sign onto these commitments and wants others to treat it as an exception. This is unfair to the rest of the world. Our actions and our words do not match. This time India did not even bother to participate at the Open Ended Working Group (OEWG) set up by the General Assembly to find ways forward on nuclear disarmament. In May 2016, I travelled to the OEWG in Geneva, the sole representative from civil society in India. In a speech applauded by the over 100 delegations present, I spoke of the failure of the Rajiv Gandhi Action Plan then, but the vital lessons it holds for us even today. The Chairman of the OEWG, Ambassador Thani Thongphakdi of Thailand, told me that he had never heard of this Action Plan! Clearly, Mr. Modis personal travels, media outreach and diplomacy are insufficient. There is no substitute for action on the ground.

Vidya Shankar Aiyar is a nuclear disarmament activist and India director of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament. The views expressed are personal

Read | From Pathankot to easy US entry: Eight key takeaways as Modi meets Obama

Read | Notable development: Obama-Modi meet marks big leap in India-US bilateral ties

Read | Citing rules to suit its ends
In a recent interview to Wall Street Journal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was asked a question on the public sector and privatisation. A phrase from his long answer  Both the public and private sector have a very important role to play. You cant suddenly get rid of the public sector, nor should you  has been interpreted and analysed over and over again.

To Modi sceptics, this is proof of his governments abdication of big bang reforms. To others, including some leading economists who are supportive of the Modi government, nothing in his record in Gujarat suggested an advocacy of privatisation in the first place, and so this is a pointless debate.

Where does the reality lie? Frankly, there are many layers to this. For a start, in the government there is understandable impatience with those who impulsively equate reforms with simply privatisation and argue that anything other than a quick dismantling of public sector companies and a Thatcherite revolution would amount to Modi betraying his mandate.

Such reasoning is over-the-top and ignores solid economic achievements of the government, it does not mean, however, that Modi and his team cannot legitimately be asked questions about privatisation. In the past two years, the finance minister has spoken more than once about strategic disinvestment. This is a code for privatisation, and for a controlling and management stake in a company going into private hands. In contrast plain disinvestment has the government selling only small stakes.

Read | How to bring railways on track: Privatisation or restructuring?

Why has strategic disinvestment not taken place? One suspects there are three reasons. First, the government believes its commitment to private enterprise needs to be seen not merely in terms of government companies it privatises but also in terms of sectors that were state monopolies and which it has opened for private investment. Defence manufacturing and railways are two examples Modi cited to the Journal. In mining, this government has taken the firmest steps in 40 years to end Coal Indias monopoly.

Yet, being open to private business is not the same as privatisation. Here the government runs into its second roadblock: the sense in the BJP that the sell-offs of the early 2000s rattled employee unions and contributed to a negative vote against the NDA government in 2004. This perception may be exaggerated, but it exists in the hearts and minds of senior BJP politicians. It cannot be wished away.

Read | Centre hints at possibility of exit from Air India, hospital sector

As such, mechanisms to make privatisation that much more palatable, including by offering discounted shares to common investors in a public offer that runs in parallel with a strategic sale, have been speculated upon. There is the issue of valuing physical assets (such as land) of a company as opposed to its business and brand value. Legacy controversies related to these plagued the privatisation ventures of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. Thinking on all this has now been delegated to NITI Aayog. In due course a report will arrive. Admittedly, there is no political urgency because this is not seen as a political priority.

Read | A balance between public and private is required

That brings us to the third point. The political appetite for rapid and wholesale privatisation is at its lowest since the late 1980s-early 1990s. This is a global phenomenon, not just limited to India. It is a sentiment evident in Britain and even the United States, where Donald Trump, to quote a related example, has emerged as the Republican presidential candidate most opposed to free trade in several decades.

India has not been immune to this. Like elsewhere, the impact of the financial crisis of 2008 and the consequent slowdown in the economy is undeniable. Take the steel industry. In the mid-2000s, with Indian steel companies buying international competitors, with iron ore and steel prices surging, with Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) being challenged by private players, it was possible to ask questions as to why SAIL and its component steel plants should not be privatised.

Today, with the commodities super-cycle having ended with a rude thud, with the steel industry in a crisis caused by Chinese dumping, with even the iconic Tata Steel getting rid of assets and threatening job cuts in Europe, no politician is going to risk a conversation on privatising Indian steel plants. If and when the context changes, the discussion may be revived. For the moment, it looks a long way off; there is no serious will to sell and there are no serious buyers anyway.

While the grim mood in commodities and heavy industry is leading to caution, the governments slow movement on privatising its assets in the services sector, for instance, is less explicable. Air India is a case in point. It remains a burden on the tax-payer. Not even the recent phase of operational profits  a product of little more than the sharp decline in international crude oil prices  can take away from that hard reality. At some stage, the Air India muddle will have to be tackled, and there remains a compelling case for privatisation.

Read | Govt panel rekindles Air India disinvestment debate

Indeed, as the Modi government has found, the Civil Aviation Ministrys twin role as owner of Air India and (through the Directorate General of Civil Aviation or DGCA) as regulator of the aviation industry is simply not sustainable. It has allowed the bureaucracy to virtually sabotage reform. Two years into Modis term, India is still saddled with the ridiculous 5/20 rule, which discriminates against newer airlines that wish to fly internationally. It also has to deal with a civil aviation policy that has sections specifically designed to protect DGCAs fiefdom.

Advance in this sector would require, as senior members of the government have correctly identified, the replacement of DGCA with a truly independent regulator. It would also require the privatisation of Air India.

Ashok Malik is distinguished fellow, Observer Research Foundation

The views expressed are personal
Close on the heels of signing the trilateral agreement on Chahbahar with Afghanistan and Iran, the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi visited Afghanistan to inaugurate the Salma Dam in the Herat Province of western Afghanistan.

The $300 million dam reconstructed by India has been rechristened the Afghanistan-India Friendship Dam by the Afghan government to recognise the efforts of India to support the rebuilding process in Afghanistan. Also, the Afghan President, Ashraf Ghani, conferred Modi with Afghanistans highest civilian honour, the Amir Aminullah Khan Award.

Read | We are restoring hope: Afghan Prez, Modi inaugurate India-built dam

Referring to the strong India-Afghan ties, Modi remarked This dam has not been built by bricks and mortar, but by the faith of our friendship and the valour of Afghans and Indians.

Read | I am used to the noise of democracy, Modi says in Afghanistan

The hydro-electric and irrigation project would help to irrigate 80,000 hectares of land and generate 42 MW of electricity. Thus, besides addressing power shortages, it would support agricultural and industrial activities in the western zone of the country.

Underlining the imperative of regional cooperation, Ghani said, This dam, in addition to its vital function of bringing light, joy and hope to the homes of thousands of Afghans in the area, also has a symbolic role in charting a new course that is the need of the world and region in the twenty first century: (that is) the course of cooperation for prosperity..

This was Modis second trip to Afghanistan in less than six months. In his maiden trip in December 2015, he inaugurated the Afghan Parliament, which was built by India and presented Mi-25 attack helicopters.

The two countries have a comprehensive and wide-ranging cooperation agenda, which is based on historical and friendly ties and mutual respect and trust. Indias external affairs minister, Sushma Swaraj on her visit to Kabul in 2014, stated Indias commitment to be Afghanistans first strategic partner. While, Indian developmental and humanitarian programmes in Afghanistan have earned India a special place in the hearts of the Afghans.

As the global economic dynamism is shifting to Asia, and India and China are emerging as economic juggernauts with increasing influence in the international affairs, Afghanistan could play a pertinent role in unleashing the regional economic potential. Moreover, both Delhi and Beijing could play an important role in stabilising Afghanistan, and thus the region, by developing Afghanistan as an economic bridge between South Asia and Central Asia, Middle East, Europe and beyond by capitalising on its geo-strategic location as well as mineral and energy resources.

Read | India, Iran and Afghanistan sign Chabahar port agreement

Read | Chabahar port willl be beneficial for China: Media

Afghanistan has always emphasised regional cooperation as a pivotal factor for the stability and prosperity for the entire region. It has undertaken a host of initiatives to promote regional integration and establish a conducive environment for the growth of private sector and attract foreign capital.

In January 2016, after eleven long years of negotiation, Afghanistan got accession to WTO. It is an active member of various regional associations and initiatives like the Regional Economic Cooperation Conference on Afghanistan (RECCA) and the Heart of Asia - Istanbul Process.

Read | India must join Chinas Silk Route initiative

It is working to revive the Silk route and the Lapis Lazulli route and to realise regional projects, among others, such as the Five Nations Railway; the Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan Railway; the TAPI gas pipeline; CASA-1000 and the Chahbahar port agreement.

Read | Why the Chabahar Port agreement kills two birds with one stone

The recently signed Chahbahar Agreement is a step in the right direction. The Agreement would act as a game changer and help to reap benefits of geographical contiguity, scale economies, regional production networks and spur economic growth in the entire region.

It is envisaged as a complementing, and not a competing route to other sub-regional networks and other countries could be part of the project. Efforts need to be made to exploit multimodal linkages along Trans Asian Railway and the Asian Highway networks and interconnections with International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Tajikistan (TAT) railway, Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA), Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC), One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative, Bangladesh-Bhutan-Indian-Nepal (BBIN) network, India-Myanmar-Thailand (IMT) highway and other important sub-regional corridors.

Read | India should consider the right road for Asian economies

Integrating the region would help to have a spiralling impact on regional trade and commerce, strengthen people-to-people connects in the region, and help to achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The region must come together to resolve common challenges and differences, especially those that threaten security, peaceful co-existence, economic stability, prosperity and progress in the region.

Sayed Mujtaba Ahmadi is deputy chief of Mission and economic counsellor at the embassy of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in India

The views expressed are personal
Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijaya Singh was questioned for four hours by Economic Offences Wing (EOW) on Wednesday for allegedly favouring a private college in Bhopal during his tenure that cost the state Rs 21.50 lakh.

Radhavallabh Sharda, a journalist, registered a complaint with the EOW, which during investigation found that the RKDF Institute of Science and Technology had given admission wrongly to 12 students in 2000-01 and 2001-02.

The technical education department had fined the institute Rs 24 lakh for the wrongdoing, which was approved by then chief minister Digvijaya Singh. Later, Singh also okayed a file sent by then technical education minister Raja Pateria asking him for reduction of the fine amount to Rs 2.50 lakh, the complaint stated.

The EOW registered the case in December 2015 against Singh, then technical education minister Pateriya and RKDF education society chairman Sunil Kapoor.

After the interrogation, the Congress general secretary said he did nothing wrong and that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was playing dirty politics.

The matter is politically motivated. For, they filed the complaint against me and my minister but why didnt they interrogate the then chief secretary and the then principal secretary? the Congress leader said.

He said the BJP is targeting me as I have raised several issues of corruption against the government.

When in the raid of income tax, crores of rupees were unearthed from the houses of officers and ministers, why EOW doesnt take any action against them? he asked.

The Congress leader said when he asked the EOW officers if they would lodge FIRs against such officers and ministers they said they would take action.

The BJP has exposed a great corruption case of Rs 5 lakh against me. If they want to hand over the case to CBI, I am ready, he said.

The case against Singh and others has been registered under sections 420, 467, 468, 471 and 120 B of the IPC and sections 13(i) d and 13 (ii) of the prevention of corruption act, 1988.
Anurag Kashyap, the co-producer of Udta Punjab, questioned the style of functioning of censor board chief Pahlaj Nihalani on Wednesday, saying demands to drop references to Punjab in the film violated free speech.

This is the war for the freedom of expression. You cant differentiate between two types of content. The audience should have the right to reject or accept, the filmmaker said.

He was flanked by prominent filmmakers such as Mahesh Bhatt, Imtiaz Ali, Zoya Akhtar and Satish Kaushik as Bollywood rallied behind the makers of the controversial film that revolves around the drug addiction problem in Punjab.

Read: Pahlaj Nihalani censored Udta Punjab on BJPs order, says Kejriwal

Read: Pahlaj Nihalani functions like mafia, says Anurag Kashyap

We should have the power to judge a film. Not a single person should do it for me. We have the right to make the kind of cinema we want,Kashyap said.

The film was slated for a June 17 release but ran intro trouble after Anurag Kashyap revealed that the censor boards revising committee had demanded 94 cuts and drop references to Punjab in the movie.

Critics say the demand is linked to the Punjab assembly polls nine months away where the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal  an ally of the BJP  is likely to face tough questions about the states mounting drug crisis.

Read: Kashyap like a child being denied a toy: Nihalani on Udta Punjab

Read: Udta Punjab vs CBFC: Dont blame the mirror for the reflection

Kashyap said that he was willing to take part in the process of certification. He referred to FCAT (Film Certification Appellate Tribunal) as well, Were trying to release our film on 17th. Now, when we have got the letter, were participating in the process.

Other prominent filmmakers said they stood by the Udta Punjab team.

We havent seen the film, so the content of the film can be judged only after it releases. But as filmmakers, we are not bound to tolerate this, said Imtiaz Ali.

Mahesh Bhatt echoed the same sentiments, We stand with Anurag on this issue. I am opposed to CBFCs manipulation and its functioning style.

Watch: Shahid, Alia, Kareena, Diljit in Udta Punjab trailer

Everybody knew about the theme of Udta Punjab when we were shooting it, so why there is a problem now. Whats happening now is not correct, said Satish Kaushik.

Mukesh Bhatt, President of the Film & Television Producers Guild of India, was also vocal in his criticism of Nihalani. I am opposed to CBFCs manipulation and its functioning style. Pahlaj Nihalani doesnt deserve to be the chief of the Censor Board.

Directed by Abhishek Chaubey, the film starring Shahid Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Alia Bhatt and Diljit Dosanjh.

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She calls herself a dreamer and her cousin, Arjun Kapoor, feels she lives in her own bubble. But Sonam Kapoor can zap you with her strong and uninhibited views on not just acting and her career, but other worldly matters as well. As the actor celebrates her birthday on June 9, we get chatting with her about her career, life and other plans.

Which was a more special year  2007 (she made her Bollywood debut) or 2016 (two big hits)?

It has to be 2016, as I believe in bettering my life with every passing year. With every film, I want to evolve. Next year, I will say its 2017. Every year, you have to learn from every opportunity, mistakes, success and failures. You get to learn and evolve as a human being and an artiste. Every year is my best year. Every year, I have become better and my life has become better and wider because thats main purpose is to become better  as an actor, artiste, human being, daughter, sister and even friend. I hope I become better every year; so I hope every year is my best year. We have to keep evolving.

Read: Sonam Kapoors Cannes red carpet dress sparks Twitter reaction

But hasnt last year been path-breaking?

If you look at the start of my career, Delhi-6 (2009), Aisha (2010), Mausam (2011) and Raanjhanaa (2013) were my building blocks, as people started taking me seriously. Raanjhanaa turned things for me and then came Khoobsurat (2014). By then, you want people to trust you as an artiste; they spend money to watch your films. They need to constantly be gratified. With all this, Neerja happened. So, it was like a final stamp of approval that, this girl can do a good job and it wont be disappointing to spend money on her films.

Have you become wiser over the years?

A wiser person, for sure. With wisdom, you can cultivate intelligence. So, its important to have an EQ (emotional quotient) and be wise as opposed to have an IQ (intelligence quotient) and not be wise. What will you do with the intelligence if you dont have the wisdom to use it?

Sonam Kapoor had a big hit last year in Prem Ratan Dhan Payo.

What do you want, commercial success or critical acclaim?

I want both. You make films for people and those same people (audiences) react to your films. Reviews matter, especially for the kind of films I do, like Neerja, as they arent the masala entertainers. And you want your movies to do well so that you get more work.

But do you feel you have come into your own now?

I feel theres still a long way to go. I will never say that I know it all. Its a wrong attitude.

Read: Sonam Kapoor reveals why Neerja isnt a Bollywood product

Whats more important for you  fashion or acting?

Obviously acting. I turn out well because I dont care about what people think. I only dress for myself. Once you have the confidence and you own whatever you wear, it will automatically look nice.

But you are more than just an actor

Actor, activist and even entrepreneur. Eventually, people will see what they want to. I have never apologised for who I am. And people recognise that. I have never shied away from being who I am. I have never been embarrassed for the mistakes I have made. Its all about being yourself. When you stand up for what is right and you have a certain world view, where you have the responsibility to be a certain person and you take your work seriously, people see that. I take my work very seriously, eventually that pays off.

Sonam Kapoor delivered a strong performance in Neerja, which was based on the life of slain flight attendant, Neerja Bhanot.

You are never afraid to speak your mind. Are you never scared?

I dont care. Lack of self-preservation and youth power (laughs). You feel no one can touch you. On a serious note, its about being responsible. I think its bad karma to not stand up for whats right; to even sit on the fence is like taking side of the wrong person. I dont trust such people. As they say, Everyones friend is no ones friend. If anyone asks me for an opinion or to take a side, I will always do that. You have to always stand up for what you believe in. I have got a platform and it would be irresponsible of me to not do that.

What matters to you more  awards or appreciation?

Awards are always nice, but rewards and appreciation can give you a kick too (laughs). When I meet people and they tell me what they think of my work and how it has impacted them, that is way more important than an award. Awards are great cherries on top. I have been nominated, but I have never lobbied for them. I dont think its as fixed as everyone thinks its. People are trying to be idealistic, but as Arjun says, I live in my own bubble. But I am always happy and positive. I would rather see best in people and not be cynical about.

Sonam Kapoor (right) with father Anil Kapoor and sister, Rhea Kapoor.

Is there ever a pressure of being Anil Kapoors daughter?

Theres a saying that not much grows under a banyan tree, but if sun shines bright enough, the shadow can grow. I will always be proud of my fathers daughter. He has worked very hard to give all of us a good life. I will never disrespect him by saying that there are pitfalls to being Anil Kapoors daughter. Hes the best dad, a great man and best artiste in the country. If I dont work as hard as him to make him proud, then that will make me an irresponsible daughter. I revel in the pressure and I acknowledge it. And at the same time, there are no negatives to being his daughter. There are only positives.

Are you a dreamer or a practical person?

I am a dreamer. I am practical for other people, but I feel I think from heart and make decisions from my heart and soul; and not think too much. I have a lot of dreams, but the biggest one is to constantly work, never stop working, to be happily married.

Read: Will never talk about my personal life, boyfriend: Sonam Kapoor

Are you thinking of marriage?

I want to be in love. I want to find the love of my life and spend the rest of my life with him. I want to be responsible, find happiness and work till the day I die. I want to have kids. I want to save the world and work towards making my country a better place. My biggest dream is to make the world a better place. They are very simple dreams.

What are your yet-to-be-fulfilled aspirations?

I want to direct films. That might happen in a year or two. I will keep acting. I want to work with a lot of good actors whom I have met in the industry; and Swara (Bhaskar) is one of them. I cant direct my father, but he can direct me, if he wants. Dad and I are very similar as people, so theres always going to be a clash, I guess (smiles). And I am very aware to not use my father to prop myself up. I dont want his persona as an actor to be affected due to my shortcomings.

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Kareena Kapoor Khan has been busy with the promotions of her upcoming film. But, last week, the actor, who is the goodwill advocate for UNICEF, took time out from her busy schedule to deliver a speech on menstrual hygiene for women. The talk was organised in Lucknow.

She spoke on the topic as part of a project called Garima. The initiative addresses the lack of menstrual hygiene in rural areas of Uttar Pradesh, and the problems adolescent girls in the state have to face.

Read: How I support my sister is no ones concern, says Kareena Kapoor

A source close to the actor reveals that Kareena will now be talking about this subject in four more cities. Kareena will be visiting Ratnagiri (Maharashtra), Jalandhar (Punjab) and Varanasi and Mathura (both in Uttar Pradesh) by the end of this month, adds the source.

Earlier, as part of the UNICEF campaign, Kareena had spoken about every childs right to education.

Read: Kareena Kapoor Khan is in love with reading

This time, she chose the topic of menstrual hygiene, as she considers it an important subject, one that needs to be discussed. She is looking forward to visiting these cities and spreading awareness about the same, says the source. Kareena says, All the girls I met and will be meeting are brave adolescents. We cant break the silence around gender equality without their help.

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Filmmaker and producer Anurag Kashyap has accused the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) of functioning like mafia as his film Udta Punjab remains stuck between revising and examining committees.

Kashyap found himself at the centre of a controversy over the Shahid Kapoor-starrer when he accused CBFC board chief, Pahlaj Nihalani, of having an iron fist over the board.

It (the board) is like mafia. When Bombay Velvet was in revising committee, people from examining committee were there , which is wrong. So for Raman Raghav, we went straight to the revising committee. They suggested changes and we accepted, but this made Pahlaj Nihalani unhappy that he didnt have control over things, Kashyap alleged in an interview to Times Now.

Read: Kashyap is behaving like a child who has been denied a toy, says Pahlaj

When asked why he hadnt approached Shyam Benegal instead, Kashyap replied, We cant go to Shyam Benegal because he doesnt have any power to influence. He has submitted his report but it is not being implemented.

The yet to be certified Udta Punjab is a dark drama on the drug menace of Punjab. Since its trailer released, the film has been stirring the hornets nest for its content and portrayal of the state.

Watch the complete interview here

In another interview with NDTV, Anurag detailed what actually transpired.

When Udta Punjab was screened for the examining committee, they said we are referring this to revising committee. When the tribunal sought the objections in writing, they were told by Nihalanis office that the objections had been sent by speed post. That speed post never reached the tribunal. Then we had no option but to go back to Nihalani. This time he asked us to delete references to Punjab, elections MLA and MLC. But we never got this in writing. Without the written objection, we cannot move further. We cant approach tribunal, cant approach the court.

Watch the complete interview here

"Tweet to PM Cry of Desperation, Govt is indifferent, This is Kafkaesque" My intvw with @anuragkashyap72 #UdtaPunjab https://t.co/usHbIHyLyw  barkha dutt (@BDUTT) June 7, 2016

The CBFC has reportedly asked for 89 cuts, including dropping all references to Punjab.

Read | You think youre in North Korea? Lets vote: Rathore tells Anurag

Directed by Abhishek Choubey, the movie also stars Alia Bhatt, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Diljit Dosanjh in lead roles. It is slated to release on June 17.

Watch Udta Punjab trailer

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Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos did not wait for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to re-pitch India. He announced a $3 billion (around Rs 20,000 crore) investment in India before Modis presentation here.

The prime ministers expansive pitch  offering India as a new engine of global growth, backed by accomplishments of his two years in office  came later, as Bezos listened intently.

He had already seen the promise.I can assure you its only the beginning and as we say in Amazon, its only day one, Bezos said at an event hosted by US-India Business Council.

Modi was the speaker at the event, which was followed by a dinner with senior members of US senate and House of Representatives from both parties and the India Caucus.

Bezos said his $3 billion investment was in addition to the $2 billion (around Rs 13,500 crore) he had outlined in 2014,and it would help start-ups and take India towards becoming a hub for innovation.

Amazon plans to open a Web Services Cloud Region in India this year in Hyderabad, thereby making India the companys largest software engineering and development centre outside the US. The fresh investment will be used to build this development centre.

Bezos said the Hyderabad centre would create jobs and career development opportunities for thousands of people and a significant number of jobs would be created over time because of the deployment of Amazon Cloud Services.

Turning to the prime minister behind him on the stage, Bezos said, The people of India are incredibly dynamic. When I peer into the future of India, what I see is unlimited India.

Modis pitch to a hall full of big American investors or their representatives, was not very different from the one he had delivered in exactly the same DC auditorium in 2014.

Only this time, he had two years of accomplishment to back him up.

At the time of his last speech, he said, India faced serious domestic challenges, investor confidence was low, and doubts were expressed about the Indian economy.

In the two years since, the prime minister said, speaking in English, we have managed to overcome the odds to register an impressive economic performance.

He proceeded to list out his reasons for how it was done. In the last two years, we have taken a comprehensive package of reforms, which go beyond mere economic reforms.

Some critics have said Modi hasnt gone far enough on reforms. But on Tuesday, the Prime Minister listed what he has achieved: One, employed right macro-economic policies to create a strong foundation. Two, implemented policies to stimulate growth and employment through investment and trade. Three, adopted policies to make sure benefits reached the poor and weaker sections of the society. And, four, a frontal attack on corruption.

Sadnanad Dhume of American Enterprise Institute, said, It was a good, solid speech. The bottomline: Modi is not interested in dangling the carrot of market-based reforms to attract business. He wants multinationals to invest in India, but on his terms.

The infusion of capital by Amazon into its India business comes at a time when its main competition and the largest e-commerce marketplace Flipkart is reportedly negotiating with investors for fresh funding. Media reports in the past few weeks have also suggested that negotiations with investors are prolonging on account of difference in the valuation of Flipkarts business. Over the last three months, Flipkarts enterprise value has been slashed to below $10 billion from a peak of $15 billion nearly a year ago.

At present, Amazon has 21 fulfilment centres with more than 5 million cubic feet of storage space.
NEW DELHI: Apples plans to open its signature stores in India may end up benefitting the entire telecom gadget industry with the government mulling the option of waiving of local sourcing conditions for overseas mobile phone manufacturers.

The Department of Investment Policy and Promotion (DIPP), the nodal agency for such policy moves, is learnt to be open to relaxing the condition that stipulates companies to source at least 30% of their components or merchandise for being eligible to set up company run retail stores in India.

The California-based company, whose CEO Tim Cook was in India recently, has sought easing of this norm to enable it to open the its iWorld stores that sell iPhone, iPads and its other proprietary products.

The Foreign Investment and Promotion Board (FIPB), the nodal agency that vets overseas investment applications, two weeks back ruled that Apple can open its stores only if it met the 30% local sourcing conditions.

According to current rules, a panel in the DIPP first approves a companys application, and then sends it to FIPB for a formal clearance.

The government can relax mandatory local sourcing norms for single-brand retailing if it is convinced that the companys cutting edge production technology requires specific components that cannot be sourced locally.

The Finance ministry however, is of the view that relaxing these conditions would go against the governments Flagship Make in India initiative, a source, who did not wish to be identified, told

HT. Launched in 2014, Make in India is an umbrella plan to turn the country in to a manufacturing power house.

India has been hard selling this initiative to overseas investors many of which such as Xiaomi and Foxconn among others, have announced plans to make phones and gadgets in India besides opening dedicated stores.

Finance ministry, sources said, is of the view that an exemption of the local sourcing norms only for Apple would send wrong signals to other investors, which have already detailed out their India specific rollout plans.

It was only last week when commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said that her department is in talks with finance ministry to reconsider Apple Incs foreign direct investment proposal that seeks a waiver from the countrys local sourcing rules.

Apple currently has Apple-owned stores across the world, including the US, the UK and China. It sells in India through distributors, such as, Redington, Ingram Micro and Bettel.
Refusing to comment on intense speculation over his tenure extension, RBI governor Raghuram Rajan said on Wednesday he has very cordial relations with finance minister Arun Jaitley and his long-term desire is to go back to the academia.

Rajan, who has been outspoken on various issues, also praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for ending the governments interferences in public sector banks.

Terming his relationship with the government extremely cordial, the governor said: There has never been a serious disagreement between me and Mr Arun Jaitley.

Read: HT Interview | Individuals come and go, but institution remains: RBI guv Rajan

Its extremely cordial. Whether its Mr (P) Chidambaram (former finance minister), whether its secretary to government, whether Mr Jaitley whether it is anybody else, all conversations are respectful of each others position and informative, he told a television channel.

Refusing to talk about his extension, Rajan said: I cannot confirm or deny. As the FM has said, wait for the announcement. My tenure is till September 4; so between now and then the announcement will come.

My long-term desire is to go back to academia for teaching, for research and for thinking. This would be my best destination, he said.

On BJP MP Subramanian Swamys comment that he is mentally not fully Indian, Rajan said there are certain allegations which are fundamentally wrong and baseless and addressing them would amount to giving them legitimacy.

Read: RBI monetary policy: Raghuram Rajan leaves key rates unchanged

I think when you think about Indianess, when you think about love for your country, its very complicated thing. For every person there is a different way that you show respect for your country...my mother-in-law will say karmayogi is the way to go-do your work.

He further said that he welcomes genuine criticism of our policy but will not address ad hominem attacks or allegations against him as individual instead of the policies and the position he holds.
State Bank of India, the countrys largest commercial bank, on Wednesday said it has launched a loan product for the horticulture sector to help farmers avail finance against receivables. At present, SBI has signed the memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Jain Farm Fresh for its farmers, the scheme will gradually be extended to all horticulture farmers associated with an anchor.

Designed for the horticulture industry, SBI will provide finance to farmers who supply their agricultural products to large food processing companies and are reimbursed during a fixed time. To finance them in the intervening period, the bank extends funds based on the receivables. When the food processing company pays, it does directly to the bank to square off the money extended to the farmers.

The scheme is similar to vendor financing that SBI is involved with in the small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The average ticket size of loans is in the Rs 5 lakh to Rs 50 lakh range.

The loan product uses proprietary historical performance data and information from public domain to assess farmers eligibility and credit worthiness to sanction the loan, instead of the traditional method of farmers assets, land holding and financial history. The loan product will use the corporates ecosystem data to digitally enable lending solutions to the customers. Farmers past performance data with the associated anchor company will be used to assess eligibility and enable loan sanction.

We are pioneering the combined potential of the rural economy, disruptive digital innovation, and leveraging the strength of corporate partnerships, said managing director (national banking group) Rajnish Kumar. The government is also taking many steps for reviving the farm sector  new crop insurance scheme, promotion of irrigation facilities, Kisan Suvidha app, electronic mandi portal etc. All of these will help revive the agriculture sector and boost our GDP. Our corporate customers will see great value in this programme and will look to strengthen their ecosystem.

The product is aimed at helping farmers to invest in modern agricultural technologies such as mechanisation, and irrigation for higher productivity, and relies on minimal documentation and liquid assets as security.

The farmer financing against companys receivables product is an innovative product. The solution provides quick and easy credit access to farmers, reducing reliance on informal money lending channels, said SBI chief general manager (rural business) KM Trivedi.

The main feature of the SBI product is that with access to capital, farmers will be able to invest in the upcoming cultivation cycle. The digital process has helped facilitate assessment and the usage of technology has reduced human intervention, especially for a segment that has high costs, longer customer turnaround time and manual processes.

This is part of the SBI plan to strengthen the farm-to-fork programme and increase agricultural lending through corporate partnerships. The affiliation and comfort from the anchor company will increase the risk mitigation for loans given to various stakeholders.

SBI also plans to expand the product suite across sectors to offer customised solutions to the corporate players and their associated farmers and vendors. Recently, SBI signed MoUs with NIF Private Limited (Namaste Dairy), PepsiCo India Holdings, Siddhivinayak Agri Processing and Origo Commodities for ecosystem financing in the agri-value chain.

SBI has over 10 million rural customers with a loan book of more than Rs 1.25 lac crore as on March 2016. There is a branch network of around 11,000 rural, semi-urban (RUSU) branches, 20,000 ATMs and around 58,000 business correspondents.
Suzuki Motor Corps chief executive and chairman Osamu Suzuki will step down as CEO, the Japanese automaker said on Wednesday, after revealing last month its use of wrong mileage testing methods.

Suzuki will stay on as chairman, the company said, adding that executive vice-president Osamu Honda will retire.

Japans No. 4 automaker by sales said in May it had used wrong tests to calculate mileage for models going back to 2010, submitting figures compiled from indoor tests performed on individual parts, rather than vehicle coasting tests.

Japanese investigators raided the companys headquarters last week in their probe of the improper tests.

The change to chairman Suzukis role and the retirement of the vice-president will be effective June 29, subject to approval by shareholders at its annual general meeting, the company said.

Suzuki said it plans to introduce improvements including better training for engineers and strengthening of its mileage testing systems. It would also encourage whistle-blowing, it said.
NEW DELHI: More than 19 people, including the SHO of Barakhamba police station, were injured on Tuesday after a group of protesters clashed with the police outside Manipur Bhavan in SP Marg on Tuesday evening.

The agitators were protesting against the Inner Line Permit (ILP) System-related bills that had been passed in Manipur.

The police said three vehicles, including PCR vans, were also damaged during the clash.

According to the police, the protesters broke barricades set up around Manipur Bhawan in Sardar Patel Marg and tried to enter the premises of the building. As the clash aggravated, the police resorted to lathi charge to disperse the crowd. One police officer is said to have sustained a stab wound during the lathi charge.

We had to call for backup from adjoining police stations and sub-divisions after the protesters grew in number and refused to disperse, a senior police officer said.

Water cannons were also used to control the crowd, he added.

The injured people, including police personnel, were rushed to a nearby hospital later. Police said that they had detained several protesters and were in the process of filing an FIR under sections of rioting.

Earlier in the day, an all-party delegation from Manipur, led by chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh, met Union home minister Rajnath Singh and apprised him about the need for presidential assent to convert three ILP System-related bills into Acts.

The delegation told the home minister that it was absolutely necessary to get Presidential assent for the three bills, which had been opposed by tribal groups of the state.

The three bills were passed last year in August after months of mass movement to protect the indigenous population from the illegal immigrants in the state, including those from neighbouring Myanmar.
In a case of alleged honour killing, a 22-year-old tailor from Rajasthan who eloped with an upper caste girl was murdered by her family last month. The body of the man was found near an under-construction building at Vijay Nagar in Ghaziabad on May 3.

The tailor, Vishal, was abducted on May 2 from his cousins home in Uttam Nagar allegedly by the girls family who took him to the building and beat him mercilessly before throwing him down from the 12th floor. The girls uncle was the builder of the same building, police said.

The alleged honour killing reportedly happened in front of the girl, a minor, who is untraceable since that day. The crime was allegedly executed by her father, uncle and cousin.

Investigators fear for her life, though they have information that she is alive.

The man belonged to a family of tailors at Burara village in Rajasthans Sikar and the 17-year-old girl is a Brahmin, police said. The suspects have been evading law even as the Ghaziabad Police registered a zero FIR and transferred the case to Delhi Police after a month-long probe.

The west Delhi Police are now hunting for the suspects since the honour killing conspiracy allegedly started from the house of Vishals cousin where the young couple had taken shelter after eloping from their village on April 29.

Deependra Pathak, joint commissioner of police (southwestern range), said, We initiated our probe immediately after the case was transferred to us from Ghaziabad. Our priority is to safely recover the girl and arrest her family members who were behind the planned murder of Vishal. Raids are being conducted.

A senior police officer privy to the probe said the two were seeing each other for a long time and wanted to get married. They knew their families would never approve of the relationship as they not only belonged to the same village but were from different castes. The girls family is influential in the village, said the officer.

On April 29, the couple eloped and reached Vishals cousins home in Uttam Nagar on May 1. His cousin panicked when they told her about their plan. She informed her father, a tailor in north Delhis Pitampura, who reported the matter to Vishals father, Ramesh, a tailor in Kolkata.

Vishals family then informed the girls family and asked them to reach Delhi to resolve the issue amicably.

The girls family convinced Vishal and his family members that they will allow him to marry the girl once she turns 18. His family was convinced and allowed the girls family to take the couple back home. But instead of taking them to their village, they took them to the under-construction building and murdered Vishal, the officer said.

Police said, Vishals body was identified after the Ghaziabad Police found his mobile phone in his pocket and contacted his family.
The special two-day session of the Delhi assembly that begins on Thursday will focus on the working of the municipal corporations.

The government and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have both been targeting the BJP-ruled MCDs over alleged mismanagement and corruption for the past few months.

The session has been called to discuss the issue of the lack of cleanliness in the city, which is solely the MCDs responsibility. Since monsoons are upon us, the issue becomes all the more important, keeping in mind the looming threat of dengue and malaria, said a government official.

The session is expected to see discussions on the government allocation for salaries of MCD employees and the corporations alleged failure to pay their employees.

The government allocation has risen but there is still a large-scale mismanagement in giving salaries to employees. It makes one wonder why. This issue will be raised in the assembly, said the official.

The AAP will contest its first municipal election in Delhi next year. It contested the by-poll for 13 seats last month and won five seats. The Delhi government and the MCDs have been at loggerheads ever since Kejriwal took office in 2015.

Read: PM, LG trying to create hurdles for Delhi govt: Kejriwal

On Wednesday, AAPs Delhi convener Dilip Pandey said corruption in MCD was a big problem.

The BJP-ruled MCDs have been constructing two flyovers for the past seven years. It has caused severe problems to the people. One flyover was supposed to cost R177 crore. After seven years, the MCDs got the urban development department to sanction R85 crore more. This is a clear case of corruption. Only 60% of the work has been completed so far, Pandey said.

The other issues that will be raised during the special session is alleged mismanagement at MCD schools and alleged corruption by councillors.

First time after trifurcation, civic bodies to meet in a joint session

The BJP-ruled municipal corporations in Delhi have called a joint session on Thursday to discuss the shortage of funds and other issues related to the Delhi government.

The joint session will take place at Ramlila Maidan and coincide with two-day special assembly session called by the Delhi government to discuss the functioning of the civic bodies.

Ironically, the venue of the joint session -- Ramlila Maidan -- is the cradle of the Aam Aadmi Party, where it emerged from a protest against corruption led by activist Anna Hazare.

There is shortage of the water and electricity in Delhi but the AAP government is focussing on carrying out its own political agenda. What about the sorry state of PWD roads? Where is the free Wi-Fi? What have they done about women safety? Has corruption been eradicated from departments of the Delhi government? No, yet the only thing they are concerned about is the MCD and the upcoming polls, said Subhash Arya, leader of the house, South Delhi Municipal Corporation.

Read: BJP councillors stage protest outside CM Kejriwals residence

The municipal corporations have been facing a crippling financial crisis for the past one year and blame the Delhi governments alleged deliberate attempts to starve it of funds for the problem. Civic bodies inability to pay its staff has led to strikes by municipal employees, triggering a sanitation crisis in the city.

The joint session has been called to tell the people that while the BJP-led corporations have been trying their best to launch projects, they have not received any help from the Delhi government, said Satish Upadhyay, Delhi BJP president.
PATNA: A police case was filed against a college in Bihar and four of its students who topped the state boards Class 12 exam but failed to answer basic questions later, triggering suspicion they had cheated their way to the top.

The state education department lodged an FIR against VR College of Vaishali and this years four toppers Ruby Ray, Saurav Shrestha, Shalini Ray and Saurav Kumar  on Monday night after chief minister Nitish Kumar sought a criminal investigation into possible wrong doing in the board exam.

Officials of the Bihar State Education Board (BSEB), superintendents at the exam and evaluation centres, where the answerscripts were evaluated, were also named in the two-page FIR lodged by secondary education secretary Rajiv Ranjan Prasad.

The culprits must be booked as these allegations of cheating have brought a bad name to Bihar, RJD chief Lalu Prasad said. These are people driven out from the party long ago. All those who have demeaned Bihar should go to jail, he said, responding to a query linking VR College secretary Bachcha Rai to the RJD.

Notorious for incidents of mass cheating, Bihar was engulfed in a merit muddle when the toppers failed to answer rudimentary questions during a media interaction soon after results were announced. Arts topper Ruby said political science is all about cooking while Shrestha, who topped the science stream, replied to a question that the most reactive element in the periodic table is aluminium.

The board called 14 students for a retest on Friday but Ruby, who had scored 444 out of 500 marks, skipped it citing ill health. Thereafter, Ruby was given time till June 14 to take the retest or risk getting the result struck down.

The police case follows the governments order to rescind its previous decision to set up a committee of inquiry. The government also shot down a board proposal to institute a judicial inquiry on Sunday.

Board chairman Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh was served a showcause notice for ordering a judicial inquiry without having the authority to do so.

The FIR mentioned that copies of the toppers seemed to have been changed, which makes it a case of fraud. The exam centre of the college was GA high school, Hajipur. All answer books of Vaishali went to AraBhabua districts, except for this college, which was examined at Rajendra Nagar high school in Patna, it said.

A special investigation team headed by Patna senior SP Manu Maharaj will investigate the case.

The investigation has begun and the process of evidence collection is on. Action will follow, Bihar director general of police PK Thakur said.

The board cancelled on Saturday the recognition of two Vaishali district colleges  VR Colle ge of Kirtipur and Bishundeo Rai college of Bhagwanpur, which has three toppers.

Vaishali gained national notoriety in 2015 for large-scale use of unfair means after visuals emerged of parents and friends climbing a multi-storey building to provide answers in pieces of paper to their wards writing an exam. Nitish Kumar, after being reprimanded by the Patna high court, had cracked the whip on cheaters, resulting in the arrest and suspension of hundreds of students and their parents.

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Scores of councillors from BJP-ruled MCDs staged a protest demonstration on Wednesday outside Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwals residence demanding clearance of their pending dues.

The protestors shouted slogans against the AAP government and criticised it for calling a two-day special session of the Delhi assembly to discuss the working of civic bodies, saying the move is only intended to defame the municipal corporations.

The all three MCDs - East Delhi Municipal Corporation, North Delhi Municipal Corporation and South Delhi Municipal Corporation - have called a one-day joint session at Ramlila Ground on June 9 in this regard

Councillors and mayors alleged that the city government has not implemented the report of Fourth Finance Commission so far due to which all the BJP-controlled civic bodies are facing a fund crunch.

During the protest, the police tried to pacify the councillors and three mayors, but they did not relent. Thereafter, police brought them to the nearest police station from where they were released after sometime.
KOCHAR: Vultures hover overhead, cackling hyenas gnaw at hundreds of carcasses and a putrid stench of decomposing flesh draws attention to an elevated area in the Aravalli hills of drought-battered eastern Rajasthan. Its the graveyard of abandoned cattle.

The grim situation at Kochar village of Sawai Madhopur district belies the governments promise and push to protect cows and bulls as severe drought over the past 45 days have forced people to simply abandon their cattle on a flat, barren and rocky hilltop.

The site, about 30km long and 7km wide, is where Kochar is located along with 25 other villages  many of them deserted as seven ponds that fed the area have dried up this year. Cows need at least 70 litres of water a day.

Bereft of vegetation, fodder and water, the forsaken cattle  mostly old and feeble  were dying by the dozen and becoming food for scavengers such as vultures and hyenas. A survey by the administration showed around 800 cows were abandoned there, and half of them have perished already.

There is always some water and scrub vegetation on which the cows survive. But this year, many died because of the water and food shortage, said Ramkesh Gurjarof nearby Khad Satolai village, about 120km east of Jaipur.

The deaths have triggered a political slugfest between the opposition Congress and the BJP government in the state, which has a dedicated department for cow protection called directorate of Gaupalan.

The BJP stands fully exposed. The Congress never makes cow a political issue but the BJP seeks votes in the name of cows and temples. But where is the BJP government when cows are dying in thousands? asked Rajasthan unit Congress chief Sachin Pilot. He visited the area about a month ago and had apparently prodded the government to take action.

The Congress pointed to the cattle deaths after the Vasundhra Raje government on Tuesday transferred a police officer in Pratapgarh for arresting members of a vigilante group, Gau Raksha Dal, for stripping and assaulting people transporting cows.

Rajasthan has banned the sale and slaughter of cows, considered sacred in Hinduism, while vigilantes have stepped up efforts to enforce the prohibition.

For its part, the government dismissed allegations of laxity. Instead, gaupalan or cow welfare minister Otaram Dewasi accused the Congress of politicising the issue. As soon as we came to know of cows dying, I spoke to the collectors and sought a report. Based on their report, we sanctioned 1 crore, he said.

The former additional district magistrate of Karauli, Mahavir Singh Rajpurohit, backed the ministers claim. The situation got aggravated because the area received only one-third the normal rainfall in the past two years, he said.

Besides funds, fodder was on the way too. Radha Krishna Gaushala in Sawai Madhopur has been authorised to route the fodder supply, district collector Anandhi said.

A resident of Sawai Madhopur, who first initiated relief work, thanked the administration for its supportive. It donated money that helped us get fodder and water tankers. The gaushalas also sent fodder. Earlier, 50-60 cows were dying daily but now 4-5 cows are dying, said Mahesh Chaprana.

The Congress was not convinced, though. The partys state unit secretary, Danish Abrar, said the government took more than a month to release funds and send the first fodder truck.

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Increasing incidents of misbehaviour by drivers of cabs operating with taxi aggregators has forced the transport department to rethink the rules for issuing the Public Service Vehicle (PSV) badge.

PSV badge is mandatory for those driving a commercial vehicle. To obtain a badge, the driver needs to undergo a two-day training in courteous behaviour.

The need for a rethink arose because as per the PSV rule the driver has to be a resident of Delhi. But since the demand for drivers has gone up multiple times after the entry of taxi aggregators in the public transport domain, the transport department is thinking of allowing people from other states to drive commercial vehicle. But this will be done after studying the system for issuing licences and other approvals in other states.

Most of the incidents of misbehaviour involved drivers who did not have a PSV badge. Before they get a PSV badge, the drivers had to go through rigorous tests and training. Also, their antecedents are verified properly and that is why chances of them indulging in crimes are lesser, said a transport department official.

But now since the demand for cab drivers has gone up, we may allow people from NCR to obtain a PSV badge in Delhi, if they have a similar badge from their state, the official said.

Sources said most of the drivers operating with taxi aggregators do not have a PSV badge. Taxi companies have requested the transport department to accept badges of other states and allow drivers from UP and Haryana to ply.

When someone has the PSV badge, it means his primary occupation is driving and he is serious about the job. However, it is difficult to get a driver with PSV badge because of the current rule. We hire drivers only with PSV badge but would want the government to expand the limit. PSV badge is important for security and just like the domestic help or tenant verification, verification for badge can be done by police, said Rahul Kapani, director of Meru group of companies.

Sources said that in a recent meeting with the transport department, representatives of other companies had requested the transport department to resolve this problem. Kapani said that if not to far-off states, the limit of PSV badge should at least be extended to NCR towns so that drivers from Gurgaon, Faridabad, Ghaziabad and Noida are allowed to operate cabs in Delhi.

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A 20-year-old man was shot by his sisters abductor for objecting to his self-proclaimed live-in relationship at Vijay Vihar in Delhi, the police said on Wednesday.

According to the police, the accused had allegedly abducted the victims sister, who is a minor, and been staying with her for the past one year.

On Saturday, the girl fought with his abductor and ran away to her parents house in Vijay Vihar.

According to the girls family, the accused reached their house with a gun and threatened them to accept their relationship failing which he will shoot everyone in the family. The girls brother refused and got into an argument with him following which the accused shot him in his stomach, said the official.

While the brother was rushed to the hospital, the accused fled the scene. He is recovering well, the police said.

A case has been registered and we are searching the accused, the official added.
The superintendent of a childrens home run by the Delhi-government in Lajpat Nagar has been arrested after six minors accused him of sexually assaulting and filming them.

Police said six more girls at the hostel, which houses children rescued from trafficking and child labour rackets, have levelled similar charges and their statements will be recorded soon.

Police said 45-year-old RS Meena was sacked with immediate effect and booked under the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act and for rape under lawful custody.

A woman welfare officer who was in charge of the children at the time was also dismissed.

The incident reportedly took place on June 2 when the caretaker of the home stepped out for some official work and left the children all under 10 years oldin the care of Meena and the welfare officer.

Read: Delhi: Childrens home officer sexually assaulted girls, made videos

According to the FIR, Meena told the officer to take charge of the boys who are housed separatelyand said he will monitor the girls.

He reportedly took the girls to a separate room. He then took them one by one to another room, locked it from the inside and assaulted them.

When the girls cried in pain and tried to get away, he told them he was conducting a check-up and allegedly gagged them. The girls said he also filmed the act. Shortly after, he left for the day.

The crime came to light when the caretaker returned two hours later and the girls detailed the incident to her. She reported the matter to the governments social welfare department, which informed the Child Welfare Committee.

The CWC approached the police and an FIR was registered leading to Meenas arrest on Tuesday night.

The facts of the complaint were verified and the superintendent was arrestedA medical examination was also conducted and the girl will undergo counselling sessions, a senior police officer said.

In a statement, the Delhi government said, Women and Child Welfare Minister Sandeep Kumar on Friday ordered the termination of two officials with immediate effect, who were working at the Lajpat Nagar Village Cottage Home for children, and also ordered registration of an FIR against the Superintendent of the Home.

The stern action followed the ministers inspection of the home.

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Three highly sophisticated firearms, including a US army pistol and a foreign-made laser light equipped gun, have been recovered from two interstate gangsters involved in a series of murders in Haryana and Delhi, police said on Wednesday.

Gyanendra alias Gadku and Rajesh Dahiya are members of the Mandhoti gang that is involved in a three-decade-long rivalry with the Sunda gang. More than 50 members of these gangs have been killed during this period.

The last time the gangs were in the news when Gadku killed four people in 2011.

Gadku and Dahiya were arrested on June 4 from the southwestern outskirts of Delhi following information that they were trying to take shelter in the national capital, Ravindra Yadav, joint commissioner of police (crime branch) said.

A Taurus pistol fitted with laser light, one US army pistol, and a carbine along with 66 cartridges were recovered from the possession of the two gangsters, Yadav said.

The Taurus pistol costs anywhere between Rs 30 lakh to Rs 40 lakh and is not sold in India.

He added they are interrogating them to ascertain the source through which they procured the foreign-made sophisticated weapons.

The two have been misleading us by giving names of different persons from whom they sourced the foreign made weapons. We are questioning some more people in this connection, said Yadav.

Police have not ruled out the possibility that the guns were smuggled into India from Pakistan.
No seats will be added in Delhi University this year as the humanities and science courses that were to start in some colleges have been put on hold after the University Grants Commission (UGC) asked them to start them on a self-financing mode.

Even the Delhi government colleges have been asked to put the process on hold.

The courses are new in some colleges and may already be offered in other colleges. There are at present 54,000 seats in 63 DU colleges and the new step would have added more than 2,000 seats.

These courses were approved by the admission committee last year but they could not be introduced as the admission process had already started.

The university could not allow self-financing courses to be started in DU colleges. So the introduction of the courses was put on hold, said a senior university official. For taking admission in a self-financing course, the students would have to pay a lot more than the normal fee paid for similar undergraduate level courses in DU.

Read more: New courses in 19 colleges will increase 2,000 seats in DU

The courses that were approved were Political Science in St Stephens College, BSc (Hons) in Physics at Daulat Ram College, BA (Hons) Sociology and Geography at Indraprastha College for Women.

Kalindi College was to start honours courses in Botany, Zoology, Chemistry and Geography. Similar such approvals were given to nearly 20 other colleges.

We are hoping these issues would be resolved and we would be able to start it from this year. We have already written to Delhi government with certain queries, said GK Arora, principal, Bhim Rao Ambedkar College.

The college was to start History (Hons) adding 40 more seats to the 872 seats in the college.

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Women applicants wanting to take admission in Delhi University can also apply to DUs Non-Collegiate Womens Education Board (NCWEB) which offers two undergraduate courses  BA Programme and BCom.

NCWEB, which started its admission process for undergraduate courses on June 1, has gone fully online. From filling the online admission form to paying the admission fee, the board will process everything online.

The last date to fill the application form is June 19.

NCWEB, which admits only female students from Delhi, has a total of 6,084 seats.

The first cutoff list will be released on July 12 and admissions under this will continue for the next three days after which a second cutoff will be released on July 15. A total of five cutoff lists will be released.

There are 13 DU colleges that function as teaching centres for NCWEB, including Hansraj College and Jesus and Mary College. The classes are conducted only on Sundays.

NCWEB, which only offers two undergraduate courses, is preferred by students who want to pursue professional courses such as diploma while pursuing an undergraduate degree to become more employable by the end of three years, said Anju Gupta, officiating director NCWEB.

The Non-Collegiate students are, however, not allowed to pursue any other full-time degree course. Students have to submit their original certificates at the time of admission and the annual fee is approximately `3,500 per year. However, no fee is charged from disabled students.

Women students get enough time to pursue professional courses and even do regular jobs as they are free for six days a week. Our classes only happen on Sundays so these students can do career enhancement courses during weekdays, Gupta said.

Gupta said NCWEB is fast becoming first choice of women students with high grades, who want to pursue a profession or any professional course. Last year also we had many students who had scored above 90 % joining NCWEB, she said.

Gupta said that NCWEB is also providing its students with the option of taking up skill development courses in association with National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC).

NSDC is holding skill development classes for students in various courses, said Gupta.

NCWEB admission guidelines:

Last date for filling application form: June 19

Announcement of 1st cutoff list: July 12

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NEW DELHI: The police busted a gang involved in the smuggling of red sandalwood and arrested four men. Around 6,000 kilograms of sandalwood worth Rs 3.5 crore was recovered from them.

The four were arrested from outer Delhis Alipur area on Tuesday, police said.

According to the police, L. Nahir (41), S. Rovek Kulanthai Raj (35), Thamimul Ansari (33) and Zafar Sathik(33) all hail from Chennai and were arrested when they were about to cross the Delhi border.

We received information that some men are loading banned red sandalwood in their truck. Around 5pm, our teams reached GTK Road in Alipur and the truck was flagged down. On checking, we found 92 logs of red sandalwood covered in plastic. The men were apprehended and the logs were recovered. A forest official was informed to identify the recovered wood, a senior police officer said.

An FIR has been registered and the police are on the lookout for their associates.
NEW DELHI: Police on Monday arrested six men allegedly involved in burglaries across south Delhi.

The six were reportedly planning to strike at a jewellery showroom when they were caught by the police team patrolling Malviya Nagar. With their arrest, the police claimed to have solved 10 cases of burglaries.

The six  Seikh Firoz, Seikh Tahir, Seikh Kalam, Seikh Kalam, Seikh Amjad and Mohammad Mister  who stole mostly cash and electronic items were nabbed after a brief chase. Police recovered housebreaking equipment, LCD TVs, video cameras, CD players and a Natraj statue.

In view of the spurt in house burglary incidents, we appointed special teams for night patrolling in the area. During the patrolling, the police team nabbed the men red-handed while they were trying to break into a jewellery showroom, a senior police officer said.

During interrogation, the men sad their gang was named Katihar and the kingpin was Seikh Firoz.

He has been involved in seven cases of burglaries and thefts. Earlier, his main areas of operation were Karol Bagh and North-East District, but recently he started committing night burglaries in South Delhi.

All members of this gang hail from Katihar in Bihar. They roped in Sheikh Amjad in their group, and his auto was used in burglaries. All members of the gang are expert in breaking any type of lock within seconds. They usually target locked flats in posh areas, residential apartments to steal cash, LCDs and other electronic items, DCP South, Ishwar Singh said.

After stealing, Firoz used to sell the gadgets and distributed the share the money among his gang members. Whatever they earned from the crime, they used to spend on g ambling and on other addictions, he said.

Two more members, Seikh Chilli and Bechna, are at large. Efforts are on to arrest them.
NEW DELHI: Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has accused lieutenant governor Najeeb Jung of snooping on him and his ministers, the latest in a war of words between the two leaders over who controls the appointment of bureaucrats in a city that is a semi-state.

Kejriwal, in a letter to Union home minister Rajnath Singh, urged the Centre  to which Delhi Police reports  to focus on improving Delhis law and order situation rather than on officers working with the AAP government.

Shocking! LG snooping on CM n Ministers. Who visits CM n ministers- LG secretly collecting this info n informing PMO (sic), tweeted Kejriwal on Tuesday, citing a letter that Jung wrote to the PMO in February.

In his letter, Jung had said the Delhi government appointed non-IAS officers without his knowledge and blamed Kejriwals principal secretary Rajendra Kumar for not issuing any circular regarding such postings. Jungs letter came two months after Rajendra Kumars office in the Delhi Secretariat was raided by a CBI team, triggering a row.

I am informed that there are quite a few instances of serving officers from the Central Services and retired officers from the All India Services being directly engaged by the elected government without the approval of the Lt Governor, Jung wrote.

Jung pointed out that SK Nagarwal of the Indian railway services of engineers, while on study leave, was found working in the office of Delhis home minister. The L-G sought rescinding of Nagarwals deputation and demanded a direction to all ministries that such appointments were not made without his offices approval.

Following L-Gs letter, the home ministry in the last week of May wrote to the Delhi government and sought details of all officers on deputation in the AAP government and a list of consultants employed on a contract basis.

Responding to the home ministrys missive, Kejriwal instead asked the Centre to share the list of consultants it had appointed in the last two years in the interest of both the governments.

You have asked which consultants Delhi government has appointed? I will get its list prepared. But Delhi government wants to know how many consultants has central government appointed in its two years. Please send the full list. Both the governments will benefit from the exchange of this list, Kejriwal wrote.

In response to the Centres request to provide details of officers working at IAS cadre posts, Kejriwal told the home ministry to share a state-wise list of such officers.

As per my understanding there wont be more than 2-4 such officers. I am hopeful that you have asked for the same information from Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Chandrababu Naidu, Vasundhra Raje, Devender Fadnavis. What is the situation there? he said.

L-G OFFICE REJECTS ALLEGATIONS

Sources in the L-G house rejected the CMs allegations as baseless. They said the L-G was only following protocol.

Sources said the L-Gs office had received documents that an officer was suspended by senior bureaucrat SK Nagarwal, who was on study leave.

According to service rules, he cannot join any department secretly while claiming that he is on study leave. This is a breach of service rules. Nagarwal is an officer of the Indian Railway Services of Engineers and reports to the Central government as his parent cadre. The L-G had written to the government to inform about the breach of rules by the officer, said a source in the L-G office.

The source clarified that the L-G did not seek any further details or snooped on anyone.

WITHIN OUR RIGHTS: HOME MINISTRY

According to a home ministry official, the Kejriwal government was appointing non-cadre (from Indian revenue service or railway engineering service) officers instead of IAS officers deputed to it. Because of this, four or five IAS officers are awaiting posting.

In the next cadre review, the cadre-controlling authority of IAS officers, the ministry of personnel, can say why should it earmark IAS officers for Delhi government it was not using their services. Therefore, we sought information about such officers from the Delhi government, said the official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Besides, the official said, the ministry was the cadre-controlling authority for Delhi. The ministry is well within its rights to seek such information from the Delhi government the official said.
NEW DELHI: The alleged kingpin of the kidney racket busted at Delhis Apollo Hospital was arrested from Kolkata on Tuesday.

A woman from Siliguri in West Bengal and a married couple from UP were also nabbed on Tuesday, taking the total number of arrests in the case to nine.

The mastermind, T Rajkumar Rao, 39, was held in a joint operation of Kolkata Police and Delhi Police and is likely to be brought to the Capital by Wednesday night or Thursday morning.

Rao was under the radar of Delhi Police and a team was camping in Kolkata for the last two-three days. Rao was reportedly arrested from a party that he had organised.

Rao was introduced to the organ racket by a woman named Shama and her aide Deepaankar in Kolkata eight to nine years ago.

Raos name surfaced in the latest racket during the interrogation of his three accomplices Aseem Sikdar, Devashish Moulik and Satya Prakash.

The others ar rested on Tuesday are Umesh Shrivastava and his wife Neelu, natives of Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, and Momita Mauli from Siliguri.

All three of them are donors whose kidneys were illegally donated to different recipients allegedly at the hospital by five members of the racket who were held on Friday, said police.

Momita is the wife of one of the middlemen already held, Devashish Mauli. Police said they were verifying the names and backgrounds of the ar rested people as they suspect the donors used fake names.

A quarrel between Momita and Devashish over payment of money promised to her against the kidney she had donated on her husbands direction came to the notice of Sarita Vihar police and helped them bust the racket.

Momitas kidney was donated to a patient from Jammu and Kashmir less than a fortnight before the racket was busted, said police. Momita had called the 100 number after the tiff with her husband.

Investigators are looking for two more donors and raids are being conducted in Kanpur, Kolkata, Nagpur, Jalandhar, Coimbatore and other cities to nab them.

Sources said the racket is spread across many cities. We are looking for the five recipients who got kidneys of the five donors, said a senior police officer.

Mandeep Singh Randhawa, deputy commissioner of police (southeast), said the names of the married couple and another woman surfaced following interrogation of the five arrested accused, Aseem Sikdar, Satya Prakashalias Ashu, Devashish, Aditya Singh and Shailesh Saxena.

Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals on Tuesday formed an inquiry committee to probe the alleged kidney racket that was busted last week.

The committee will be headed by Mukul Mudgal, former chief justice of the Punjab & Haryana High Court, and will be helped by NC Sood, who is a forensic expert.
The Delhi Police team brought alleged kidney racket kingpin, T Rajkumar Rao, from Rajarhat in West Bengal to Delhi on Wednesday night.

Rao was produced before the Barasat court which gave the police a three-day transit remand.

Rao (39) was arrested from his Rajarhat residence in a joint operation of the Bidhannagar and Delhi Police. Rao was under the scanner of Delhi Police team which was camping in Kolkata for the last two-three days.

Interrogation of Rao revealed he had been running the racket with Aseem Sikdar in Delhi, Kolkata, Coimbatore and Jalandhar since 2010. He shifted base to Kolkata after the racket in Coimbatore was busted in 2013.

Experience of working as a medical representative in these cities helped Rao develop contacts with employees at hospitals and pathological labs who further supplied him information about patients who needed kidneys.

Read more: Delhi kidney racket kingpin arrested in Kolkata, three more held

Rao had roped in touts from across the country whose job was to find potential kidney donors and convince them to donate their kidney for money. Sikdar was Raos representative in Delhi and Jalandhar. The two used to contact each other through chats on Skype and Facebook to avoid police attention, said a police officer adding Sikdar had met Rao as a kidney donor and later became a member of his gang.

Meanwhile, Dipak Kar, another accomplice of Rao, surrendered before the Bidhannagar police on Wednesday afternoon.

Teams of southeast Delhi Police arrested one more donor from Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh in connection with the kidney racket that was busted last week at Apollo Hospital.

The donor, identified as Bhanu Pratap, donated his kidney to a woman from Nagpur on the instructions of Satya Prakash alias Ashu, one of the five arrested members of the racket. While the gang had taken `20 lakh from the womans family the kidney transplant, Pratap was paid only `4 lakh.

Read more: Delhi: Apollo Hospital staffers among 5 held over kidney racket

Pratap is the 10th person arrested so far in the racket. Three donors, a married couple and a woman from Siliguri, wife of another arrested racketeer, Devashish Mauli, were arrested on Tuesday morning.

Both Pratap and Bhanu are expected to reach Delhi by Wednesday.

Police are now looking for Raos close aides Shama and Dipankar.
The police on Wednesday released 65 protesters who were detained after a clash broke out outside Manipur Bhawan on Sardar Patel Marg in Chanakyapuri on Tuesday night.

Protests outside Manipur Bhawan turned violent with around 34 people, including 15 police personnel, injured.

Around 500 protesters were outside the Bhawan demanding a meeting with chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh. T Romeo, convener of the Manipur Tribal Forum  the group under which different student tribal associations were protesting  said the violence was started by Manipur Rifles personnel posted inside the Bhawan.

The groups were protesting against the exclusion of the Naga Peoples Front from the all-party delegation led by Ibobi who met Union home minister Rajnath Singh to discuss the Inner Line Permit System-related bill in the state. The tribal groups are against the inner line permit system.

A delegation was to meet the chief minister. We were all waiting at the gate and around four members from each tribal student group were to meet him. Around 10pm, we were told by the Manipur rifles that the CM was not inside. We wanted to verify their claims and asked them to open the gates, said Romeo.

Romeo said that the protesters started banging the gates of the Manipur Bhawan.

Bruce, a protester, said, It started when a Manipur Rifles jawan pelted a brick at the protesters. The protesters got furious and threw the brick at them. There was stone pelting from both sides. The police reached the spot and ordered lathi-charge, said Bruce.

Police said they had registered a case of rioting but had not arrested anyone in the case.

A senior police officer said three vehicles, including a PCR van, was damaged and that a 15 police personnel was injured in the stone pelting.
WASHINGTON: India and the US agreed on Tuesday to begin preparatory workon building six nuclear reactors in India as Prime Minister Narendra Modi met President Barack Obama, who backed New Delhis candidature for the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

The Nuclear Power Corporation of India and US firm Westinghouse will immediately begin engineering and site design work for the AP1000 nuclear reactors and conclude contractual arrangements by June 2017.

Obama and Modi welcomed the start of the preparatory work on the reactors, a key step towards closing the first deal based on the landmark US-India civil nuclear deal struck more than a decade ago.

India and the US Export-Import Bank will work together on a competitive financing package for the project, the two leaders said in a joint statement. The project will be among the largest of its kind when it is completed and it will fulfil the promise of the civil nuclear agreement.

Addressing the media with Modi after their talks at the White House that lasted more than an hour, Obama backed Indias entry into the NSG. I indicated support to India being a part of NSG, he said.

India needs technology that is critical for its progress and prosperity, Obama added. Modi said, I am thankful for the help and support my friend President Obama has extended with regard to membership in MTCR (Missile Technology Control Regime) and NSG.

Obamas remarks came hours after Reuters reported that members of the MTCR had agreed to admit India.

During their meeting, Obama and Modi discussed a range of issues, including terrorism, clean energy, climate change, regional security and cyber security. Obama said it was natural for the two biggest democracies to deepen and broaden their partnership. Modi said the two leaders discussed ways to take bilateral economic ties to new heights.

Obama also said he had discussed with Modi how to bring the landmark Paris climate change agreement into force as quickly as possible. Modi expressed support for the enactment of the climate accord this year.

I believe what Prim e Minister Modi has said about this is that India shares the objective that the US has laid out, which is to see the agreement come into force this year, White House spokesman Josh Earnest told a news briefing.

Indias backing will provide significant global momentum towards implementing the historic agreement, the White House said. The US reaffirms its commitment to join the agreement as soon as possible this year. India similarly has begun its processes to work toward this shared objective, it added.

Both countries are committed to working together and with others to promote full implementation of the Paris Agreement to address the urgent threats posed by climate change, the White House said.

Referring to the agreement on building six nuclear reactors, Brian Deese, senior adviser to the US President, told reporters that the plants would bring clean energy to India and generate thousands of jobs in the US.

The White House said the steps the two governments had taken in the past two years through the US-India Contact Group, including by addressing the nuclear liability issue through Indias ratification of the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage, had laid a strong foundation for a long-term partnership between US and Indian companies for building nuclear power plants in India.

While addressing the media, Obama said, India and the US have strong bonds while Modi said India had made a name for itself as the worlds fastest growing economy and it will work with the US for the worlds peace and security.

I have fond memories of India when I took part in the Republic Day, Obama said. India is a young country and we are aware of the talent it has. We will continue to work together in the future too.

Modi echoed the view. India is a young country; over 800 million of Indians are below the age of 35. Our youth power in partnership with the US will serve mankind, the PM said. We are working shoulder to shoulder; we are proud. We will continue working together.
NEW DELHI: The censor boards advice to the makers of Udta Punjab to drop all references to the state sparked an angry pushback from the film industry on Tuesday while the controversy took on political overtones with Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal wading into it.

Punjab has a crippling drug problem. Censoring # UdtaPunjab will not fix it. T he government must accept reality and find solutions, tweeted Gandhi, who has been vocal about the drug menace in Punjab.

Anurag Kashyap, one of the producers of the film, also took to the micro-blogging site to express his anguish. I always wondered what it felt like to live in North Korea... Ab to plane pakadney ki bhi zaroorat nahin (now I dont even need to catch a plane), he said, dubbing censor board chief Pahlaj Nihalani a dictatorial man while asking politicians to stay out of my battle.

The film starring Shahid Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Alia Bhatt is about the substance abuse crisis facing the youth of Punjab  which goes to polls in 2017.

The Shiromani Akali Dal, an NDA ally that has ruled the state for nine years, says the film tarnishes the image of the state and its people.

Besides dropping all references to Punjab, the board has demanded 89 cuts, creating a controversy that threatens to delay the films June 17 release.

Backing the film, director Karan Johar tweeted, #UdtaPunjab speaks of the reality of our times....censoring reality amounts to delusion the fraternity has to stand by whats right.

Leading man Shahid Kapoor, who plays rockstar-addict Tommy Singh in the movie, said, Just because the title is Udta Punjab, everyone is thinking the problem is only in Punjab. First of all, Punjab is in India and any problem in Punjab is Indias problem Everyone associated with the film believes the issue genuinely concerns the youth and not just Punjabis...

There is no film more honest than Udta Punjab... And any person or party opposing it is actually GUILTY of promoting drugs, said Kashyap.

I completely agree, was AAP chief Kejriwals response on Twitter. But it elicited a terse response from the filmmaker: I request Congress, AAP and other political parties to stay out of my battle. Its my Rights vs the Censorship. I speak only on my behalf.

The elections are expected to be a three-cornered fight with the SAD-BJP alliance fighting for survival, the Congress looking for a comeback win and a confident AAP looking to spread its wings beyond Delhi.

Even before the Udta Punjab controversy broke, the Congress had made drug abuse in Punjab a key poll issue. Gandhi had in 2012 famously announced that 70% of Punjabs youth were addicts, the party citing a study to back its claim. In April this year too, the Congress vicepresident had said,

The present government in Punjab has been ignoring the drug issue. The drug problem will be solved in months if our party comes to power in the assembly elections.

The BJPs spokespersons refused to comment on what they called an issue related to films.
NEW DELHI: Badli residents were a happy lot last year when the Metro line was extended to their village in outer Delhi, unaware that they would have to risk their lives or shell out an additional Rs 10 for each ride.

The Metro station was constructed by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) next to the Badli railway station and is used by about 10,000 commuters each day. But a majority of the residents live on the other side of the railway station, making the trip to the Metro station a risky proposition.

To get into the Metro, we either have to purchase a platform ticket, which costs Rs 10  (and which most people) avoid  or risk our lives by crossing the railway track. The railway police often conduct raids to check whether we have an authorised (platform) ticket to enter the railway station, said Shri Krishan Mudgal, a resident of Yadav Nagar in Badli. The Metro was supposed to help us with connectivity but it is a risky affair now.

Mudgals son and daughter-in-law work in Connaught Place and have to cross the railway track to get to work every day.

The Metro station has an entrance only on one side, for Rohini residents, and a foot-over-bridge to make it accessible from Badli exists only on paper. The Janhit Prayas Samiti, a local NGO, has raised this issue on several platforms but the project is yet to take off.

This station is constructed on the Rohini side of the railway line of Northern Railway and there is no provision for passengers living in areas such as Yadav Nagar, Samaipur, Shivpuri, Siraspur and Libaspur to go to the other side of railway line. We have witnessed a few accidents as well, said Hitesh Sharma, a local working with the NGO.

It is most dangerous during peak hours, from 8.30am to 10am, when three local trains arrive at the railway station and a mad rush for the Metro station ensues.

A plan is at an advanced stage for building a foot-over- bridge at Samaypur Badli. However, this involves approvals and coordination with the railway authorities and the public works department, (and also) some financial issues. The matter is under the active consideration of all concerned authorities, said a DMRC spokesperson.

The construction of the bridge would bring much-needed relief to the locals, who are forced to walk for 20 minutes to reach the station that is barely five minutes from their homes.

A FOB bypassing the railway station would help us and it should have the facility of escalator to help senior citizens, said Dipak Kumar, who travels to Noida for work.

The 4.39 km- long extension of the Yellow line from Jahangirpuri to Samaypur Badli be g an operating in November last year.

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SHANNA BEDI/ KOT RAJADA (AMRITSAR): For Nanak Singhs parents, international boundaries do more than just separate countries. Sometimes, they gobble up loved ones.

Nanak was just seven years old in 1984 when he playfully chased his father through the fields and ended up crossing the India-Pakistan border. It was an understandable mistake, given that their house in Shanna Bedi village was located barely two kilometres from the boundary line.

The Pakistani authorities, however, seemed to care neither for Nanaks innocence, nor his tender age. His parents havent seen him since.

Nanak must be 39 today, and his parents dont know if they will recognise him if he shows up at their doorstep one day. My only wish is to see him before I die, his mother Pyari says as tears well up in her eyes. I appeal to the government to help us bring him home.

She still recalls the day Nanak ran after his father, Rattan Singh, never to return. We lodged a police complaint quickly. There was no border security fence then, so it was easy to stray over to the other side. We may be poor and without much influence, but we still have hope, says Pyari.

For a long time, Nanaks family was unsure of his whereabouts. But then, in 2002, Ramdas police came over to tell them that he was lodged in a Pakistan jail under a different name  Kakar Singh.

His name figured on the list of prisoners as Kakar Singh, but we were searching for Nanak, says his younger brother, Baldev Singh. The Border Security Force later sent the Pakistani authorities a letter seeking his release, but that didnt help. Nanak is the oldest of nine siblings, and the government is our only hope of getting him back, he says.

The Punjab and Haryana high courts recent notice to the Centre on a petition to ensure Nanaks return has come as a ray of hope. I approached many people, seeking help for this family, but to no avail. Finally, filing a public interest litigation seemed to be the only option left. It has been a long time since Pakistan sent over that list with Kakar Singhs name in it. I will try and take the family to meet external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj soon, the petitioner, Swaran Singh, said.

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When New Delhi carried out a nuclear test in 1974, the United States led the international community in imposing a set of technology sanctions against India and other new nuclear powers. The idea was to brand these nuclear outliers as nuclear outlaws. These sanctions became institutionalised in national-level sanctions and then international regimes. The sanctions also set India an impossible demand even in civilian nuclear power generation. India was told it could carry out nuclear commerce with the world or it could have nuclear weapons, but it could not have both. Given India has fought wars with only two neighbours and both are nuclear-armed, it kept its arsenal and sacrificed the ability to import nuclear fuel, reactors and technology from the rest of the world.

Read | Modi,Obama flip the switch on nuclear power, welcome pact on building reactors

However, even while in this technology wilderness India carefully adhered to the non-proliferation rules and practices of the countries that were inside the global nuclear tent. Unlike Pakistan, New Delhi kept to the straight and narrow, avoiding any rogue nuclear activities like selling centrifuges to the North Koreas and Libyas of the word. India always held to the view that it deserved to be part of the nuclear haves and that it the sanctions regimes were inherently unfair. The nuclear deal that exempted India from some of these sanctions negotiated with US president, George W. Bush, was a first step to bringing India out of the nuclear cold.

Read | Is the Modi-Obama equation a true friendship or smart politics?

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his current visit to the United States, took two and a half major steps to end this long injustice and make India part of the global rules-making system that handles so-called dual use technology. One step was the formal entry of India into the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), one of the four discriminatory regimes that looks at ballistic missile knowhow. The second step was the agreement to buy six civil nuclear reactors from the US-Japan firm Westinghouse. This symbolically ended a global boycott of the Indian nuclear market going back over 40 years. The half-step, because it is the first move in what is likely to be protracted diplomatic push, was to formally get the United States to agree to lobby for India to become a full-member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), the apex body for the sanctions that were imposed on India. Modi will visit two more countries, Mexico and Switzerland, as part of a concerted push to bring all the groups members on board.

Read | Indias NSG bid: Too much diplomacy, too little action

Becoming a member of these regimes will have many ancillary benefits for India. It will be easier to access technology or work with other countries in a host of technologies relating to the nuclear, defence and high-tech manufacturing sectors. Becoming an MTCR member, for example, makes it easier for India to export its Brahmos cruise missiles. The possibility of India selling certain classes of indigenous nuclear reactors is no longer unlikely. But the greatest satisfaction in all this will be being able to close the door on nearly a half-century of status as a nuclear pariah.

Read | India clears final hurdle to join missile control group, can buy high-end tech
Many students are coming up with queries on the informational website of IIT Kharagpurr or JEE Advanced qualifiers, why.iitkgp.ac.in, My rank is 2**, should I join Electronics or mathematics and computing to ensure better placement? or My rank is 1000+, I am applying in agriculture and food engineering, what is the prospect of placement in this department?

The faculty team in-charge of career development centre says, Based on the past records, its evident that those who have maintained a good academic CGPA in any of the disciplines, most of them students have been successful in getting the placement of their choice.

Atal Ashutosh Agarwal, a senior student from IIT Kharagpur says, The placement trend at IIT Kharagpur has shown that the flexibility in curriculum through interdisciplinary programmes, minor courses and co-curricular activities make our students fit into any sector such as core engineering, IT, finance, analytics, consulting et al. It does not matter which discipline you study, you may make a successful in-road to placement.

Now to even more increase this flexibility in curricula, last year IIT Kharagpur introduced microspecialisations wherein students can study three to four subjects from other disciplines, thus improving their employability in those fields. Students can also enrol for dual degree programmes, thus opting for MTech in interdisciplinary subjects like financial engineering, engineering entrepreneurship, energy engineering, environmental engineering, quality engineering, design and manufacturing or MBA.

The institute also offers mentoring, grooming programme and psychometric tests to help students perform better in placement interviews. The project, Know your Department, which was created to assist the queries similar to the ones mentioned above, has turned out to be a great success too.

The facebook page of IIT Kharagpur also had series of queries from JEE Advanced qualifiers who were then routed to the website why.iitkgp.ac.in to guide them accordingly.

Students at the institute have also started a Facebook group to directly interact with the qualifying students.

The authors are second year undergraduate students, mechanical engineering department, IIT Kharagpur
Can Meryl Streep ever go wrong? The 19-time Oscar nominee and 3-time winner is not just one of the greatest actors ever but a brilliant impersonator too.

At a recently held Park Public Theatre Gala in New York, Streep nailed it as the Republican Presidential nominee, Donald J Trump. Faking an orange tan, along with a padded suit and an oversized red tie, Streep took the audience by surprise by mimicking the oft-ridiculed Trump. From his pursed lips and hanging belly to that voice, everything was on point.

MERYL STREEP SANG FROM KISS ME, KATE WITH CHRISTINE BARANSKI WHILE IMPERSONATING DONALD TRUMP pic.twitter.com/kLhEuwBDuw  olivia (@omcook) June 7, 2016

Meryl Streep along with Christine Baranskis pantsuit-clad Democrat Hillary Clinton, performed Brush Up Your Shakespeare, a number from the Cole Porter musical Kiss Me, Kate. She enacted Trump throughout her performance, keeping in mind the way he sounds and his combative attitude even while singing. The performance was a sight to behold and the audience loved it.

Read: Hillary Clinton at White House an extension of Obama disaster: Trump

Meryl Streep just added Donald Trump to her resume at the Public Theater Gala pic.twitter.com/5ftmcKbRjN  Jacob Bernstein (@BernsteinJacob) June 7, 2016

The Public Theatre artistic director Oskar Eustis told the New York Times that the performance from the beginning to the end was Streeps idea and she was absolutely sure that she could do it. None of us had seen her in costume or makeup till she walked out on stage, he said. However, her depiction of Trump was a one time show.

More of Meryl and Christine Baranski doing Trump and HRC pic.twitter.com/t7jgNsf74d  Jacob Bernstein (@BernsteinJacob) June 7, 2016

Meryl Streep just added Donald Trump to her resume at the Public Theater Gala pic.twitter.com/5ftmcKbRjN  Jacob Bernstein (@BernsteinJacob) June 7, 2016

In February 2016, Johnny Depp starred in a mockumentary as the orange-faced, combed-over Donald Trump. Released by the comedy website Funny or Die, Donald Trumps The Art of the Deal: The Movie was a 50-minute video styled as Trumps self-made TV movie adaptation of his 1987 best-selling self-help book. The movie was intended to be released before Trumps campaign faded away, but as Owen Burke, the editor in chief of Funny or Dies said, It doesnt seem like he is going away.

Read: Johnny Depp is a spot-on Donald Trump in secret Funny or Die biopic

Follow @htshowbiz for more
A Bollywood movie on drug abuse in Punjab turned into a full-blown legal and political battle on Wednesday with the filmmakers moving court over censored parts, which Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said were done at the BJPs bidding.

Barbs engulfed the bitter censorship row over Udta Punjab after censor board chief Pahlaj Nihalani suggested that filmmaker Anurag Kashyap took money from Kejriwals Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to make the movie, a charge the party dismissed promptly.

The Delhi chief minister said Nihalanis allegation proved he had acted against Udta Punjab, a dark drama on drug menace in the state, under instructions from the BJP.

Read: Udta Punjab controversy: Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan speak out

Nihalanis statement makes it amply clear he has stopped the film on BJPs instructions  What else could one expect in the Modi regime, he said.

AAP has emerged as a strong player in Punjab that goes to the polls next year and wants to turn drug abuse into a political campaign, accusing the Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP government of promoting the illicit trade.

Besides the BJP, Kejriwals party targeted Nihalani as well, calling him a puppet of the Prime Minister.

He used to make third-grade films. He considers Prime Minister Narendra Modi his action hero and is close to the BJP. But for that he would not even have been in the censor board, forget being its chief, AAP leader Dileep Pandey said.

For their part, the Akalis stuck to the demand for a ban on the movie, saying the film distorted Punjabs image.

Artistes should be role models and movies should inspire people but this film is hurting sentiments of people which is unacceptable ... some political parties want to defame Punjab, said Prem Singh Chandumajra, the party parliamentarian for Anandpur Sahib.

The BJP-led Centre refused to be drawn into the controversy, saying a court order prevents it from intervening in the censor boards decision.

In 2000, the Supreme Court dismissed the Union governments appeal to retain powers to review decisions of the censor board or an appellate tribunal for film clearances.

I completely reject it that the government has any role or intervened to stop its release. AAP survives on controversies. It creates controversies for political purpose, Union minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy said.

He said the Akali Dal-BJP government in the state was doing an excellent work and Punjab has no drug problem as depicted in the movie.

Akali rival Dal Khalsa said the drug menace is a harsh reality and it has been plaguing the state since before the Akalis came to power and even when Punjab was ruled by the Congress. But the Akalis approach towards the problem is like a pigeon closing its eyes on seeing a cat, thinking she doesnt exist, said party spokesperson Kanwar Pal Singh.

Read: Udta Punjab vs CBFC: Dont blame the mirror for the reflection

He said Udta Punjab should be released without cuts, which is unlikely because the censors recommended an A certificate for the film with at least 13 cuts.

Filmmaker Kashyap dragged the censor board to the Bombay high court, saying Nihalini demanded 89 cuts to the Shahid Kapoor-starrer and even asked him to drop the name of the state from the title. The petition will be taken up on Thursday while the film is slated for release on June 17.

While the 43-year-old filmmaker is seeking legal redress, the censor chief, in an exclusive interview to Hindustan Times, hit back and said the film was littered with expletives and vilified Punjab. Mr Kashyap is like a child being denied a toy, he said.

Asked about Nihalanis allegations that he took money from AAP, Kashyap said: You really want me to answer that? I dont know what to say. I have not taken money. I wish someone would give me money so that I can make more films. I have lots of ideas.

As the duo slugged it out, a more hostile slugfest was fought among the political parties. The Congress and AAP, which fancies its chances in the northern state, criticised the board. The SAD, an NDA partner in power in Punjab for nine years, says the film tarnishes the image of the state and its people.

At a Congress briefing, party spokesman Ajoy Kumar said the controversy is the BJPs and RSSs standard operating procedure.

By nature, the RSS and BJP are against freedom of expression. That is in their DNA. They continue to terrorise people who speak against them, he said.

(With inputs from HTC Amritsar, Chandigarh and agencies)
US President Barack Obama should press the visiting prime minister of India to strengthen his countrys anti-trafficking laws and deliver justice to victims, human rights campaigners said on Tuesday.

Obama was due to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the White House on Tuesday to discuss economic growth, climate change, clean energy and defence cooperation.

However, activists called on Obama to use Modis fourth visit to the United States since becoming prime minister in 2014 to focus on Indias anti-slavery record.

India has the most slaves in the world with more than 18 million people trapped in debt bondage, forced into marriage, sold to brothels or born into servitude, according to the 2016 Global Slavery Index.

More people are enslaved in India than in any other country in the world, with millions of Indian men, women, and children trapped in debt bondage and forced to perform strenuous work, said Amy Sobel of the Washington-based Human Rights First pressure group.

Prime Minister Modis trip to the United States is an opportunity for President Obama to raise concerns over Indias progress in combating modern slavery while ensuring that the US-India relationship is grounded in respect for human dignity and fundamental rights.

Forty percent of the worlds estimated 45.8 million slaves are in India, although the scourge exists in all 167 nations surveyed in last months Global Slavery Index, according to researchers behind the list.

The US State Departments 2015 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report shows that Indias primary trafficking problem is forced labour.

Often trapped in debt, victims including women and children are forced to work in brick kilns, rice mills, agriculture, embroidery factories, and other industries to pay off what they owe to their traffickers.

The TIP report ranks India as a Tier 2 country which means the government has not fully complied with US standards but is making significant efforts to meet those standards.

Last week a senior US lawmaker raised concerns over Indias human rights record, noting that the 2015 TIP report indicated that Indian officials at various levels of government were complicit in human trafficking.

The government did not report investigations, prosecutions or convictions of government officials complicit in human trafficking offences, said Senator Ben Cardin, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, during a speech in New Delhi.

Indian officials, however, have pointed to a slew of initiatives taken by Modi government over the last two years which they said was proof that New Delhi was taking the issue seriously.

These include the introduction of a new anti-trafficking law, an online platform to find missing children and increased focus on the rehabilitation of victims of slavery.

Last week India unveiled a draft of its first comprehensive anti-human trafficking law, which provides for more shelters, a rehabilitation fund, fast-track courts to ensure speedy trials, a federal investigative agency to boost convictions.
Activists of Hindu rightwing groups on Wednesday attacked Muslim cattle traders in Jharkhands Palamu disrtrict and freed more than 100 bovines in the latest incident involving cow vigilantes in the state.

Sources said that the cattle were later forcibly taken away by a group of Muslims from the Satbarwa police station where they were kept.

Two Muslim cattle herders including a minor boy were killed and hanged at Jhabar village in the states Latehar district in March triggering nationwide outrage.

Sources said, tension gripped Satbarwa after a group of Hindu activists intercepted 117 cattle on the National Highway 75 and set them free. The freed animals were being transported outside the state but the activists alleged that these were being taken to slaughterhouses.

The Satbarwa police was also informed about the alleged seizure of the cattle.

The situation, however, took an ugly turn when activists allegedly owing allegiance to Bajrang Dal rushed to spot from Daltonganj and thrashed the cattle herders.

In another twist, a group of nearly 40-50 Muslims youths snatched the freed animals from the Hindu groups possession when they were herded to Satbarwa police station four hours later and ran away with them.

Irate over the audacity, the Hindu villagers blocked the movement of vehicles on the national highway 75 for more than 30 minutes besides trying to set on fire a bike.

The blockade was lifted after police assured action.

The Palamu superintendent of police Mayur Patel said, The situation was totally under control. The locals had seized cattle being transported outside and had informed the police.

The SP, however, denied that the cattle herders were thrashed by the mob. We have not received any complained in this regard.
An elephant strayed into Burdwan town in West Bengal, injuring at least two people and destroying several huts before it was tranquilised, police said on Wednesday.

Officials said the elephant entered into Burdwan from Patrasayer in Bankura district on Tuesday.

It entered Burdwan from Bankura in the morning crossing the river nearby and after injuring two persons who tried to get close. It crossed local villages and finally went to Burdwan town and entered the Golapbagh campus of Burdwan university, Priyobrato Baxi, officer-in-charge of Burdwan police station, said.

District forest officer AK Dey told Hindustan Times that the elephant was bothered by curious onlookers, who were following it, and ventured into the university campus.

The campus was temporarily evacuated and state forest department officials tried to drive it away with the help of elephant driving squad that are locally known as hula party.

I was inside the mess and suddenly on hearing a loud sound, I saw outside through the window and saw the elephant. A group of people were running behind it and shouting. We immediately left the hostel, Somnath Kaiti, a student, said.

According to sources, the elephant also damaged over a dozen huts before entering the university campus, which has a large number of trees.

A large contingent of police was deployed in front of the campus so that no one could go inside. Police also warned locals to remain alert and not to venture out of their houses.

An initial attempt by the hula party, which came with firecrackers, to drive the elephant away failed because of the darkness.

Forest department officials were finally able to bring the elephant out of the campus and tranquilise it at around 1am, before shifting it to a wildlife sanctuary in north Bengal.

We were ultimately able to tranquilise the elephant after midnight. An expert from Kolkata was brought in to tranquilise the elephant, Dey said.
A special SIT court is likely to pronounce the quantum of sentence on Thursday for the 24 people convicted in the Gulberg Society massacre, in which 69 persons including former Congress MP Ehsan Jafrey were killed during the 2002 Gujarat riots.

The prosecution had sought nothing less than death sentence or jail term till death for all the convicts, while the defence lawyers contested it saying that the incident was spontaneous and there were enough provocations for it.

Judge P B Desai had earlier on June 2 convicted 11 persons of offences including murder, while 13 others were charged with lesser offences. The court acquitted 36 others.

The hearing on quantum of sentence took place on Monday and is likely to continue tomorrow with the lawyers for prosecution, victims and convicts presenting their submission before the court. Quantum of sentence will be pronounced after conclusion of their submissions.

During arguments over the quantum of sentence on Monday, public prosecutor representing the Supreme Court appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT), R C Kodekar, had sought nothing less than death sentence or jail term till death for all 24 convicts.

He said all 24 convicts were found guilty of offence under section 149 of the IPC and therefore required to be treated on par when the sentence is pronounced.

Section 149 states that every person who, at the time of the committing of that offence, is a member of the same assembly, is guilty of that offence.

The manner of crime was cruel, barbaric and inhuman. Victims bodies were roasted alive in the crime for which there was no provocation, much less in case of women and children who were defenceless, Kodekar had told the court.

A lawyer for the victims, S M Vora, also sought maximum punishment for the accused and argued that sentence for each offence should not run concurrently so that they spend their entire life in jail.

A defence lawyer, however, refuted the demand of capital or maximum punishment in his arguments saying that the incident was spontaneous and there were enough provocations for it.
India should not focus on containing or bashing China but cooperate and build mutual trust, the Chinese state media said on Wednesday, in reaction to the upswing in India-US ties as Prime Minister Narendra Modi tours the United States.

The op-ed piece in the nationalistic tabloid Global Times suggested New Delhi should look to multilateralism and balanced international relations because picking one side or camp against the other is not the way India will rise.

The piece is one of several articles in the state media that is closely tracking Modis visit to the US. The op-ed noted the US was always hoping that India could serve as its right hand to counterbalance Chinas rise, but its calculations have so far not worked.

Policy stands of the Chinese media are often seen by western academics as a proxy for its governments views.

Following the meeting between Modi and Obama on Tuesday, the US recognised India as a Major Defence Partner. The two sides announced they will begin work on building six nuclear reactors in India and Obama backed New Delhis candidature for the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

But China has opposed Indias entry into the 48-member atomic trading club and yoked Indias membership to that of Pakistan. In recent weeks, China has also blocked moves by India to sanction Pakistan-based terrorists such as Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar at the UN Security Council.

Read: Ten things you should know about Modi-Obama meeting at White House

The op-ed noted that Modi had ramped up the India-US relationship to an unprecedented level with four visits to the US and seven meetings with Obama in two years since he took office in 2014. The transformation of the geopolitical landscape is the major driver drawing the two countries closer and Washingtons rebalance to the Asia-Pacific makes the US realise Indias strategic significance, economic potential and ideological commonality, it said.

Although rivalling China in many aspects, India knows its great vision cannot be realised by bashing or containing China. Instead, they should expand cooperation, explore the potentials and build mutual trust for their own good, the article said.

China is more of a help than a competitor for India. This will eventually constitute Indias fundamental understanding of China.

The article further said India has always employed independent and pragmatic approaches while fulfilling its ambition to be a major power. A balance between other major powers will be its primary and optimal choice, it suggested.

China would have also noticed that the joint statement issued after Modis meet with Obama did not have any mention of the South China Sea, which would have come as a surprise to many.

Beijing would be happy that the joint statement only referred to the freedom of navigation and said territorial disputes should be resolved by peaceful means.

Read: No indication Indias NSG application figured in US-China dialogue

As recently as 2014, a joint statement issued after a Modi-Obama meeting had expressed concern at tension in the South China Sea and talked about maritime security in the region.

The state media in Beijing has closely followed the visit for various reasons, including the deepening defence ties between India and the US.

Indian PM Narendra Modi comes to the US expecting to close a deal for deeper defence cooperation begun by his defence chief in April. Thats when US defence secretary Ashton Carter and Indian defence minister Manohar Parrikar announced a deal in principle which would facilitate greater interoperability between the Indian and American navies. Its a measure Beijing is watching closely, state broadcaster CCTV said in a report.

Quoting Rick Rossow of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, CCTV said countries such as China could look at US-India defence ties with some amount of concern.

This just facilitates the sharing of logistics on the ground when you already give an agreement of an American ship docking at port or something like that. Or when you engage in an exercise or something but still any time you have a tangible marker like this, and Im sure that countries that look at this with some concern like China, they will point out that theyre concerned about the growth in the US-India security relations, Rossow said.
The claim by the US that India will ratify the Paris climate change agreement this year, was contradicted on Wednesday by official Indian sources.

We agreed to join as soon as possible and that is what is reflected in the Joint Statement as well, the sources said, indicating that India had not fixed a deadline to sign.

After Prime Minister Narendra Modis talks with President Barack Obama, the US had said India will try to sign the landmark accord to limit greenhouse gases this year.

The accord will become binding when at least 55 countries representing 55% of global emissions formally join.

Indias signature is crucial as it will guarantee that the agreement will go into effect before the next US President takes over in January, with Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump threatening to re-negotiate it.

The Joint Statement said that both India and the US recognised the urgency of climate change and share the goal of enabling entry into force of the Paris agreement as early as possible.

It said the US reaffirmed its commitment to join the agreement as soon as possible this year.

India similarly has begun its processes to work toward this shared objective. The leaders reiterated their commitment to pursue low greenhouse gas emission development strategies in the pre-2020 period and to develop long-term low greenhouse gas emission development strategies, it said.

Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar yesterday said there were regulatory and legal issues to be addressed and that the Indian government was looking at ways and means to take the agreement forward.
Led by Speaker of House of Representatives Paul Ryan, top US lawmakers on Wednesday lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modis address to the joint sitting of the Congress, describing it as insightful.

It was an honour to host Prime Minister Modi at the Capitol today. He spoke eloquently about the importance of a strong US-India relationship to promoting peace and freedom around the globe, Ryan said in a statement after Modis address.

Congressmen and Senators from both the Republican and Democratic parties gave a standing ovation to the Prime Minister several times during his address.

A number of them also queued up to get his autograph after Modi came into the well of the House.

Given the importance of fighting poverty, it was encouraging to hear the prime ministers steadfast commitment to making sure everyone has an opportunity to rise. I share his commitment to strengthening our critical partnership, and I thank him for joining us, Ryan said.

Ryan and several top Congressional leaders received the Prime Minister as he came to the Capitol Hill in the morning for his address to the Congress.

Ryan was joined by Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid for a meeting before Modis address to the Congress.

About three dozen top lawmakers greeted the Prime Minister as he entered the hall for his address.

Prominent among them were Majority Whip Steve Scalise, Chair, Republican Conference, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Chairman, National Republican Congressional Committee, Greg Walden and Chairman, Committee on Foreign Affairs on Foreign Affairs, Ed Royce.

He delivered a very insightful speech, which laid out the mutual benefits of our growing relationship with India, said Congressman Brad Sherman.

The Prime Minister has played an important part in improving relations on issues as varied as alternative energy development, defence and security cooperation, counter-terrorism, and climate change, he said.

As things stand, our current trade relationship amounts to around $110 billion. I am encouraged by Prime Minister Modis reform efforts and hope we can work together to make it easier for US companies to export to India and achieve the goal of a $500 billion balanced trade relationship, Sherman said.

Congressman Joe Crowley said, It was a historic speech.

Im proud to welcome Prime Minister Modi to the US Capitol, Royce said.

As the oldest and largest democracies, the US and India have a special relationship. Our partnership on such issues as defence, nuclear power, renewable energy and space exploration is very strong. And I am confident that Prime Minister Modis address will provide new momentum for additional progress, Royce said in a statement.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for a closer security relationship between his country and the United States on Wednesday, in an address to the US Congress stressing the importance of the warm relationship between the two countries.

The fight against terrorism has to be fought at many levels. And the traditional tools of military, intelligence or diplomacy alone would not be able to win this fight, Modi told a rare joint meeting of the Senate and House of Representatives.

Read: Full text of PM Modis speech

Here are highlights of Modis speech:

Modi concludes his speech by quoting Walt Whitman as he says the India-US relationship is primed for a momentous future.

The constraints of the past are behind us and foundations of the future are firmly in place.

For us in India, to live in harmony with mother earth is a part of our ancient belief.

Those who believe in humanity must come together as one and speak against this menace in one voice. Terrorism must be delegitimised.

Although its shadow is spreading across the world, terrorism is incubated in Indias neighbourhood.

Globally, terrorism remains the biggest threat, going by different names, but with the common philosophy of hate, murder and violence.

I commend the members of US Congress for sending a clear message to those who preach and practice terrorism for political gains.

The effectiveness of our cooperation would increase if international institutions were to reflect the realities of today.

A strong India-US partnership can anchor peace, prosperity, and stability from Asia to Africa & from Indian Ocean to the Pacific.

Indias strong economy and growth rate of 7.6% per annum is creating new opportunities for our mutual prosperity.

I see US as an indispensible partner. Many of you believe that a stronger and prosperous India is in Americas strategic interest.

My dream is to economically empower our billion citizens through many social and economic transformations.

Connecting our two nations is also a unique and dynamic bridge of three million Indian Americans.

Our cooperation secures our cities and citizens from terrorists and protects our critical infrastructure from cyber threats.

The embrace of our partnership extends to the entirety of human endeavour - from depths of the oceans to vastness of the space.

And, we have not yet claimed intellectual property right on Yoga.

SIRI tells us that Indias ancient heritage of Yoga has over 30 million practitioners in the US.

We trade more with the US than with any other nation.

Our cooperation secures our cities and citizens from terrorists and protects our critical infrastructure from cyber threats.

The genius of Norman Borlaug brought the Green Revolution and food security to India.

Our independence was ignited by same idealism that fuelled your struggle for freedom.

You are well-known for your bipartisanship. I have also witnessed a similar spirit in Indian Parliament, especially in Upper House.

India will never forget the solidarity shown by US Congress when terrorists from across our border attacked Mumbai in 2008.

Today, our relationship has overcome the hesitations of history.

No wonder then, that President Obama has called our ties the defining partnership of the 21st century.

The genius of Dr BR Ambedkar was nurtured in the years he spent at the Columbia University a century ago... No wonder then, that former Prime Minister of India Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee called India and the US natural allies.

The Constitution is our real holy book, in which freedom of faith, speech and franchise and equality of all citizens are fundamental rights.

Gandhis non-violence inspired the heroism of Martin Luther King

Today, India lives as one; India grows as one; India celebrates as one.

Our founders created a modern nation with freedom, democracy, and equality as the essence of its soul.

There were many who doubted India when, as a newly independent nation, we reposed our faith in democracy.

India applauds the great sacrifices of the men and women from The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave in service of mankind.

As a representative of worlds largest democracy, it is indeed a privilege to speak to the leaders of its oldest

In granting me this opportunity, you have honoured the worlds largest democracy and its 1.25 billion people

This temple of democracy has encouraged and empowered other democracies the world over

Thank you, Mr Speaker for opening the doors of this magnificent Capitol

I am deeply honoured by the invitation to address this joint meeting of the US Congress

Following shooting incident in gurudwara in my constituency, the Sikh communitys compassion and forgiveness has been a lesson -- US House of Representatives speaker Paul Ryan

On April 28, Ryan had announced that he formally invited Modi to address a joint meeting of the US Congress on June 8. Ryan received Modi at Capitol Hill on Wednesday.

Modi is the fifth Indian prime minister to address the US Congress after Rajiv Gandhi (1985), PV Narasimha Rao (1994), Atal Bihari Vajpayee (2000) and Manmohan Singh (2005).

Read: Modi, Obama flip the switch on nuclear power, welcome pact on building reactors

In 1949, the then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru had addressed only the House of Representatives but not a joint session or a joint meeting of the Congress.

Modi met US President Barack Obama at the White House on Tuesday. Later in the day, he met business leaders in the US and addressed the US-India Business Council also.

Read: Is the Modi-Obama equation a true friendship or smart politics?

After his address to the US Congress on the final day of his three-day visit, the prime minister will head to Mexico City.

With inputs from agencies
The body of the Satyagrahis leader, Ramvriksh Yadav, was cremated on Monday as serious allegations of political patronage flew thick and fast.

Most everyone has wondered how a shabbily clad man could simply walk in from Sagar in Madhya Pradesh with 100 odd men and occupy the 280 acre of the Horticulture department for 27 months. But, even as investigations look into these sensitive questions, the BJP has squarely blamed public works department minister Shivpal Yadav, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadavs younger brother, for it. The minister has vehemently denied this, challenging his opponents to show evidence.

Read | Who is Ram Vriksha Yadav and what is his role in Mathura violence?

Shivpal Yadav was actively involved in appointing Pankaj Yadav as successor of Jai Gurudev, which is an open fact. It is at the behest of Shivpal that no action was taken against Ram Vriksha for more than two years, alleged IPS officer Amitabh Thakur.

Thakur, who has been at loggerheads with the SP government, accused Shivpal of protecting Ramvriksh.

I do not have any proof. But everything is in public domain. How can a person occupy a government land for more than two years without patronage from a politician, he questioned.

Read | Lust for money, illegal politics led to Mathura clashes: IPS officer Amitabh Thakur

The spiritual leader in question  Jai Gurudev  was based in Mathura and passed away in 2012. He is believed to have left behind an empire worth over Rs 10,000 crore, apart from 250 luxury cars  all supposedly gifted by his devotees. He also left behind a palatial ashram in Mathura and properties in several cities in northern India.

Ramvriksh had joined the Gurudevs cult, even contesting elections on his party, Doordarshi Partys ticket. However, following Gurudevs death, as disciples struggled to claim the leaders legacy, Ramvriksh was ousted from the ashram.

It was after this that he moved to Mathura, taking over Jawahar Bagh and raising bizarre demands such as doing away with a Prime Minister and President, and replacing the currency system with a Azad Hind currency. He even formed his own cult, the Swadheen Bharat Subhash Sena, which claimed to be true followers of Subhash Chandra Bose.

Taking over Jawahar Bagh

Back in 2014, when Ramvriksh initially reached Jawahr Bagh, he had sought permission for a dharna for 2-3 days. He was accompanied by about 150 activists, said Narendra Singh, leader of Jawahar Bagh Sangursh Samiti which opposed the goings-on in the park.

Earlier the site for such protests used to be one near Collectorate but the then District Magistrate shifted it to Jawahar Bagh, facilitating Ramvrikshs entry into the Bagh, he said.

He initially demanded the death certificate of Baba Jai Gurudev. When it was furnished, he alleged that it was a fake certificate. He then began demanding the death certificate of Netaji Bose, and reducing the cost of 40 litres petrol and 60 litres of diesel to Rs 1, apart from bringing in Azad Hind Sena currency to replace the existing one, Narendra said.

How come those occupying Jawahar Bagh attained aadhar card, gas connections, ration cards and had regular supply of food and other material, the leader said, insinuating that Ramvriksh was politically protected.

The district horticulture officer, Mukesh Kumar, also filed an FIR against the satyagrahis for encroaching upon government land at the Sadar Bazar police station on June 7, 2014.

Later, more FIRs were filed for obstruction of government work and damaging property, but no action was taken.

In May 2015, advocate Vijay Pal Singh Tomar had filed a Public Interest Litigation in Allahabad high court seeking that Jawahar Bagh be vacated. The court had even passed an order to that effect.

On January 22, 2016, the application for contempt proceedings was moved and the high court issued notices to local administration. However, with panchayat elections on, force could not be made available for the same, said Tomar, who also alleged that Ramvriksh was receiving political patronage.

Former minister in state cabinet and BJP leader Ravi Kant Garg also accused that a minister in the state cabinet was responsible for providing cover to the deceased Sena leader.

Read | Mathura under police watch after clashes, uneasy calm prevails

Reign of terror

Growing concerns emerged as Ramvriksh allegedly began threatening locals around Jawahar Bagh to vacate their houses, a local journalist said.

He even asked these residents, who were shown baton if they climbed on rooftops, not to look towards their area There were plans to lease out Jawahar Bagh for 99 years to Ram Vriksh but the courts order came in between, said the journalist who wished to remain anonymous.

Police had received several complaints against those occupying the park, including dissenters being beaten up.

However, as Ramvriksh grew from strength to strength  police claimed they recovered a cache of sophisticated arms after clearing out the squatter last week  it appears the issue remained a local problem, with no echo in Lucknow, including the Legislative Assembly.

Read | Mathura clashes: Mastermind of Netaji cult got UP govt pension

Police attempting to tie-up loose ends now say that Ramvrikshs network was fairly spread out.

A statewide search for his followers has been launched. Sources claimed that hundreds had escaped during the clashes that broke last week when police attempted to evict the squatters.

Blame game

Meanwhile, political parties are in a slug fest as they attempt to gain traction from the incident.

BJP leader and MP from Mathura, Hema Malini demanded to know why the issue was not taken up by the MLAs from Mathura  two from the Rashtriya Lok Dal, two from the Bahujan Samaj Party and one from Congress.

Denying that they kept mum, Congress MLA Pradeep Mathur said he had repeatedly taken up the issue with various officials but no action was taken. He further said it would be unfair to any one leader but called for a thorough inquiry into the matter.

Read | Mathura SSP, DM transferred on day SC agrees to hear plea on CBI probe
The violent clashes in Mathura last week has opened an ugly can of worms, centering around Jai Gurudev  a spiritual leader whose death four years ago led to a war of succession.

Police identified Ramvriksh Yadav, the leader of Swadheen Bharat Subhash Sena that occupied Jawahar Bagh in Mathura, as the perpetrator behind the violence that killed 30 people. However, his ideological past traces back to Jai Gurudev and his cult.

Read | Who is Ram Vriksha Yadav and what is his role in Mathura violence?

Born Tulsidas, Gurudev became known as a spiritual leader in the 1950s, opening his first ashram in Krishnanagar, Mathura, in 1952.

He died in 2012, allegedly at the age of 116. He is believed to have left behind an empire worth over Rs 10,000 crore, apart from 250 luxury cars  all supposedly gifted by his devotees. His assets also include a palatial ashram in Mathura and properties in several cities in northern India.

Tulsidas sought a spiritual life after he lost his parents in his childhood. Born in 1896 in Khitaura village of Etawah district, Uttar Pradesh, he met many with religious gurus in his early life.

He finally followed Baba Ghurelal Sharma, better known as Budhau Baba, of Chirauli village in Iglas (Aligarh). Tulsidas stayed in Iglas till Sharmas death in 1948. Later, he moved to Mathura where he became famous as Jai Gurudev, said Rajesh Agarwal, a disciple of Budhau Baba.

In 1961, he moved to Delhi-Agra highway.

Jai Gurudev eventually forayed into politics, forming the Doordarshi Party in 1980. Following his call to his disciples to contest both assembly and Lok Sabha elections, several of them stood for elections, including Ramvriksh Yadav who lost.

Another disciple, Gajendra Singh, also contested the elections the year the party formed, and won 1,000 votes.

Singh claimed Jai Gurudev was regularly visited by senior politicians such as Rajnath Singh, Babu Jagjivan Ram, LK Advani, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Mulayam Singh Yadav to seek his blessings.

He also claimed that Indira Gandhi and her son Sanjay came to the ashram to meet the baba in 1979.

However, during Emergency, Gurudev was apparently lodged in Agra and Bareilly jails and later shifted to Bangalore Central Jail to keep him away from his followers.

After being released, he formed the Jai Gurudev Dharm Pracharak Sangh Trust in Mathura in 1977. Two years later, he founded the Jai Gurudev Dharm Pracharak and set up another trust with the same name in his native town. Under the aegis of these trusts, he set up more than 250 ashrams across the country.

Ramvriksh and Jai Gurudev

The ideologies of Ramvrikshs and Gurudevs following do not appear to exactly align, given Ramvrikshs emphasis on Netaju Subhash Chandra Bose. However, Gurudev had once claimed he was Bose and received much flak for it.

The spiritual leader was addressing a public meeting in Kanpur in 1978 when he made the claims.

Ramvriksh, on the other hand, has stated that his people were true followers of the late freedom fighter. Aside from occupying Jawahar Park, Ramvrikshs Sena was demanding a set of bizarre socialist reforms, including scrapping the positions of Prime Minister and President, and replacing the Indian currency with an Azad Hind currency.

Read | Mathura under police watch after clashes, uneasy calm prevails
Prime Minister Narendra Modi told the US Congress on Wednesday that the two nations have overcome the hesitations of history and called for ever-stronger economic and defense ties between the two countries.

Read: Modi to US Congress: Terrorism is incubated in Indias neighbourhood

Here is the text of Modis full speech:

Mr. Speaker,

Mr. Vice President,

Distinguished Members of the U.S. Congress

Ladies and Gentlemen.

I am deeply honoured by the invitation to address this Joint Meeting of the U.S. Congress.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker for opening the doors of this magnificent Capitol.

This temple of democracy has encouraged and empowered other democracies the world over.

It manifests the spirit of this great nation, which in Abraham Lincolns words, was conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

In granting me this opportunity, you have honoured the worlds largest democracy and its 1.25 billion people.

As a representative of worlds largest democracy, it is indeed a privilege to speak to the leaders of its oldest.

Mr. Speaker,

Two days ago, I began my visit by going to the Arlington National Cemetery -the final resting place of many brave soldiers of this great land.

I honoured their courage and sacrifice for the ideals of freedom and democracy.

It was also the seventy-second Anniversary of the D-Day.

On that day, thousands from this great country fought to protect the torch of liberty on the remote shores of a land that they did not know.

They sacrificed their lives so that the world lives in freedom.

I applaud India applauds, the great sacrifices of the men and women from The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave in service of mankind.

India knows what this means because our soldiers too have fallen in distant battlefields for the same ideals.

That is why the threads of freedom and liberty form a strong bond between our two democracies.

Mr. Speaker,

Our nations may have been shaped by differing histories, cultures, and faiths.

Yet, our belief in democracy for our nations and liberty for our countrymen is common.

The idea that all citizens are created equal is a central pillar of the American constitution.

Our founding fathers too shared the same belief and sought individual liberty for every citizen of India.

There were many who doubted India when, as a newly independent nation, we reposed our faith in democracy.

Indeed, wagers were made on our failure.

But, the people of India did not waver.

Our founders created a modern nation with freedom, democracy, and equality as the essence of its soul.

And, in doing so, they ensured that we continued to celebrate our age old diversity.

Today, across its streets and institutions, in its villages and cities, anchored in equal respect for all faiths; and in the melody of hundreds of its languages and dialects.

India lives as one; India grows as one; India celebrates as one.

Mr. Speaker,

Modern India is in its 70th year.

For my government, the Constitution is its real holy book.

And, in that holy book, freedom of faith, speech and franchise, and equality of all citizens, regardless of background, are enshrined as fundamental rights.

800 million of my countrymen may exercise the freedom of franchise once every five years.

But, all the 1.25 billion of our citizens have freedom from fear, a freedom they exercise every moment of their lives.

Distinguished Members,

Engagement between our democracies has been visible in the manner in which our thinkers impacted one another, and shaped the course of our societies.

Thoreaus idea of civil disobedience influenced our political thoughts.

And, similarly the call by the great sage of India Swami Vivekananda to embrace humanity was most famously delivered in Chicago.

Gandhis non-violence inspired the heroism of Martin Luther King.

Today, a mere distance of 3 miles separates the Martin Luther King memorial at Tidal Basin from the statue of Gandhi at Massachusetts Avenue.

This proximity of their memorials in Washington mirrors the closeness of ideals and values they believed in.

The genius of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar was nurtured in the years he spent at the Columbia University a century ago.

The impact of the U.S. constitution on him was reflected in his drafting of the Indian constitution some three decades later.

Our independence was ignited by the same idealism that fuelled your struggle for freedom.

No wonder then that former Prime Minister of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee called India and the U.S. natural allies.

No wonder that the shared ideals and common philosophy of freedom shaped the bedrock of our ties.

No wonder then, that President Obama has called our ties the defining partnership of the 21st century.

Mr. Speaker,

More than fifteen years ago, Prime Minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee stood here and gave a call to step out of the shadow of hesitation of the past.

The pages of our friendship since then tell a remarkable story.

Today, our relationship has overcome the hesitations of history.

Comfort, candour and convergence define our conversations.

Through the cycle of elections and transitions of Administrations the intensity of our engagements has only grown.

And, in this exciting journey, the U.S. Congress has acted as its compass.

You helped us turn barriers into bridges of partnership.

In the fall of 2008, when the Congress passed the India-U.S. Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement, it changed the very colours of leaves of our relationship.

We thank you for being there when the partnership needed you the most.

You have also stood by us in times of sorrow.

India will never forget the solidarity shown by the U.S. Congress when terrorists from across our border attacked Mumbai in November of 2008.

And for this, we are grateful.

Mr. Speaker,

I am informed that the working of the U.S. Congress is harmonious.

I am also told that you are well-known for your bipartisanship.

Well, you are not alone.

Time and again, I have also witnessed a similar spirit in the Indian Parliament, especially in our Upper House.

So, as you can see, we have many shared practices.

Mr. Speaker,

As this country knows well, every journey has its pioneers.

Very early on, they shaped a development partnership even when the meeting ground was more limited.

The genius of Norman Borlaug brought the Green Revolution and food security to India.

The excellence of the American Universities nurtured Institutes of Technology and Management in India.

And, I could go on.

Fast forward to today.

The embrace of our partnership extends to the entirety of human endeavour-from the depths of the oceans to the vastness of the space.

Our S&T collaboration continues to helps us in cracking the age-old problems in the fields of public health, education, food, and agriculture.

Ties of commerce and investment are flourishing. We trade more with the U.S. than with any other nation.

And, the flow of goods, services and capital between us generates jobs in both our societies.

As in trade, so in defence. India exercises with the United States more than we do with any other partner. Defence purchases have moved from almost zero to ten billion dollars in less than a decade.

Our cooperation also secures our cities and citizens from terrorists, and protects our critical infrastructure from cyber threats.

Civil Nuclear Cooperation, as I told President Obama yesterday, is a reality.

Mr. Speaker,

Our people to people links are strong; and there is close cultural connect between our societies.

SIRI tells us that Indias ancient heritage of Yoga has over 30 million practitioners in the U.S..

It is estimated that more Americans bend for yoga than to throw a curve ball.

And, no Mr. Speaker, we have not yet claimed intellectual property right on Yoga.

Connecting our two nations is also a unique and dynamic bridge of three million Indian Americans.

Today, they are among your best CEOs; academics; astronauts; scientists; economists; doctors; even spelling bee champions.

They are your strength. They are also the pride of India. They symbolize the best of both our societies.

Mr. Speaker,

My understanding of your great country began long before I entered public office.

Long before assuming office, I travelled coast to coast, covering more than 25 States of America.

I realized then that the real strength of the U.S. was in the dreams of its people and the boldness of their ambitions.

Today, Mr. Speaker, a similar spirit animates India.

Our 800 million youth, especially, are particularly impatient.

India is undergoing a profound social and economic change.

A billion of its citizens are already politically empowered.

My dream is to economically empower them through many social and economic transformations.

And, do so by 2022, the seventy-fifth anniversary of Indias independence.

My to-do list is long and ambitious. But you will understand.

It includes:

 A vibrant rural economy with robust farm sector;

 A roof over each head and electricity to all households;

 To skill millions of our youth;

 Build 100 smart cities;

 Have a broad band for a billion, and connect our villages to the digital world;

 And create a twenty-first century rail, road and port infrastructure.

These are not just aspirations; they are goals to be reached in a finite time-frame.

And, to be achieved with a light carbon foot print, with greater emphasis on renewables.

Mr. Speaker,

In every sector of Indias forward march, I see the U.S. as an indispensable partner.

Many of you also believe that a stronger and prosperous India is in Americas strategic interest.

Let us work together to convert shared ideals into practical cooperation.

There can be no doubt that in advancing this relationship, both nations stand to gain in great measure.

As the U.S. businesses search for new areas of economic growth, markets for their goods, a pool of skilled resources, and global locations to produce and manufacture, India could be their ideal partner.

Indias strong economy, and growth rate of 7.6% per annum, is creating new opportunities for our mutual prosperity.

Transformative American technologies in India and growing investment by Indian companies in the United States both have a positive impact on the lives of our citizens.

Today, for their global research and development centres, India is the destination of choice for the U.S. companies.

Looking eastward from India, across the Pacific, the innovation strength of our two countries comes together in California.

Here, the innovative genius of America and Indias intellectual creativity are working to shape new industries of the future.

Mr. Speaker,

The 21st century has brought with it great opportunities.

But, it also comes with its own set of challenges.

Inter-dependence is increasing.

But, while some parts of the world are islands of growing economic prosperity; other are mired in conflicts.

In Asia, the absence of an agreed security architecture creates uncertainty.

Threats of terror are expanding, and new challenges are emerging in cyber and outer-space.

And, global institutions conceived in 20th century, seem unable to cope with new challenges or take on new responsibilities.

In this world full of multiple transitions and economic opportunities; growing uncertainties and political complexities; existing threats and new challenges; our engagement can make a difference by promoting:

 Cooperation not dominance;

 Connectivity not isolation;

 Respect for Global Commons;

 inclusive not exclusive mechanisms; and above all

 adherence to international rules and norms.

India is already assuming her responsibilities in securing the Indian Ocean region.

A strong India-U.S. partnership can anchor peace, prosperity and stability from Asia to Africa and from Indian Ocean to the Pacific.

It can also help ensure security of the sea lanes of commerce and freedom of navigation on seas.

But, the effectiveness of our cooperation would increase if international institutions framed with the mindset of the 20th century were to reflect the realities of today.

Mr. Speaker,

Before arriving in Washington D.C., I had visited Herat in Western Afghanistan to inaugurate Afghan-India Friendship Dam, a 42 MW hydro-electric project built with Indian assistance.

I was also there on the Christmas day last year to dedicate to that proud nation its Parliament, a testimony to our democratic ties.

Afghans naturally recognize that the sacrifices of American have helped create a better life.

But, your contribution in keeping the region safe and secure is deeply appreciated even beyond.

India too has made an enormous contribution and sacrifices to support our friendship with Afghan people.

A commitment to rebuild a peaceful, and stable and prosperous Afghanistan our shared objective.

Yet, Distinguished Members, not just in Afghanistan, but elsewhere in South Asia, and globally, terrorism remains the biggest threat.

In the territory stretching from West of Indias border to Africa, it may go by different names, from Laskhar-e-Taiba, to Taliban to ISIS.

But, its philosophy is common: of hate, murder and violence.

Although its shadow is spreading across the world, it is incubated in Indias neighbourhood.

I commend the members of the U.S. Congress for sending a clear message to those who preach and practice terrorism for political gains.

Refusing to reward them is the first step towards holding them accountable for their actions.

The fight against terrorism has to be fought at many levels.

And, the traditional tools of military, intelligence or diplomacy alone would not be able to win this fight.

Mr. Speaker,

We have both lost civilians and soldiers in combating it.

The need of the hour is for us to deepen our security cooperation.

And, base it on a policy:

 that isolates those who harbour, support and sponsor terrorists;

 that does not distinguish between good and bad terrorists; and that delinks religion from terrorism.

Also, for us to succeed, those who believe in humanity must come together to fight for it as one, and speak against this menace in one voice.

Terrorism must be delegitimized.

Mr. Speaker,

The benefits of our partnership extend not just to the nations and regions that need it most.

On our own, and by combining our capacities, we are also responding to other global challenges including when disaster strikes and where humanitarian relief is needed.

Far from our shores, we evacuated thousands from Yemen, Indians, Americans and others.

Nearer home, we were the first responders during Nepals earthquake, in the Maldives water crisis and most recently during landslide in Sri Lanka.

We are also one of the largest contributors of troops to UN Peace Keeping Operations.

Often, India and the U.S. have combined their strengths in science, technology and innovation to help fight hunger, poverty, diseases and illiteracy in different parts of the world.

The success of our partnership is also opening up new opportunities for learning, security and development from Asia to Africa.

And, the protection of environment and caring for the planet is central to our shared vision of a just world.

For us in India, to live in harmony with mother earth is part of our ancient belief.

And, to take from nature only what is most essential is part of our civilizational ethos.

Our partnership, therefore, aims to balance responsibilities with capabilities.

And, it also focuses on new ways to increase the availability and use of renewable energy.

A strong U.S. support for our initiative to form an International Solar Alliance is one such effort.

We are working together not just for a better future for ourselves, but for the whole world.

This has also been the goal of our efforts in G-20, East Asia Summit and Climate Change summits.

Mr. Speaker and Distinguished Members

As we deepen our partnership, there would be times when we would have differing perspectives.

But, since our interests and concerns converge, the autonomy in decision making and diversity in our perspectives can only add value to our partnership.

So, as we embark on a new journey, and seek new goals, let us focus not just on matters routine but transformational ideas.

Ideas which can focus:

 Not just on creating wealth but also creating value for our societies;

 Not just on immediate gains but also long term benefits;

 Not just on sharing best practices but also shaping partnerships; and

 Not just on building a bright future for our peoples, but in being a bridge to a more united, humane and prosperous world.

And, important for the success of this journey would be a need to view it with new eyes and new sensitivities.

When we do this, we will realise the full promise of this extraordinary relationship.

Mr. Speaker,

My final thoughts and words would reiterate that our relationship is primed for a momentous future.

The constraints of the past are behind us and foundations of the future are firmly in place.

In the lines of Walt Whitman,

The Orchestra have sufficiently tuned their instruments, the baton has given the signal.

And to that, if I might add, there is a new symphony in play.

Thank you Mr. Speaker and Distinguished members for this honour.

Thank you very much.
India will soon open its sixth consulate in Seattle to cater to the needs of large number of Indian-Americans living in the northwestern part of the US.

Read: Amazon pledges $3-bn investment as Modi hardsells Destination India

We hope to open a new Indian consulate in Seattle, Indian Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar said after the conclusion of the talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Barack Obama at the White House.

This was reflected in a joint statement issued after Modi-Obama talks.

Both sides committed to open additional consulates in each others country. India will be opening a new consulate in Seattle and the US will open a new consulate at a mutually agreed location in India, the joint statement said.

Read: Indias NSG bid: Too much diplomacy, too little action

Apart from its embassy in Washington, India currently has consulates in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Houston and Atlanta.

In the joint statement the two countries also announced a series of measures to encourage people-to-people contacts. Modi and Obama announced that the United States and India will be Travel and Tourism Partner Countries for 2017, and committed to facilitate visas for each others nationals.

According to a senior administration official the US plans to increase its number of people to issue visas at its diplomatic missions in India.

Reflecting on the strong educational and cultural bonds between the two countries, Modi and Obama welcomed the growing number of Indian students studying in the US which increased by 29 per cent to nearly 1,33,000 students in 2014-2015.

They also look forward to increased opportunities for American students to study in India. They also appreciated their governments joint efforts through the Fulbright-Kalam Climate Fellowship to develop a cohort of climate scientists to confront the shared challenge of global climate change.

Recognizing its mutual goal of strengthening greater people-to-people ties, the two leaders intend to renew efforts to intensify dialogue to address issues affecting the citizens of both countries that arise due to differences in the approaches of legal systems, including issues relating to cross-country marriage, divorce and child custody, the joint statement said.

The US Embassy and Consulates in India issued more than 76,000 student visas in Fiscal Year 2015. Indian students accounted for the second-largest group of foreign students in the United States in the 2014-2015 school year, with the number of students from India in the US increasing by over 29 per cent to a record high of nearly 1,33,000.

Through the Passport to India program, the US government encourages American students to study in India. At the same time, more than a million Americans travelled to India in 2015.

The announcement that the US and India will be Travel Tourism Partners in 2017 aims to develop joint efforts and programs to grow these people-to-people and economic linkages. Similarly, the implementation of the Global Entry Program will facilitate travel between the two countries, the White House said in a fact sheet.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is on a three-day visit to the US, has visited more countries and flew more air miles than American President Barack Obama in the first two years of their tenures, according to their flight logs.

In the past two years since he rode to power, Modi visited 35 countries and interacted with two-thirds of the worlds leaders reinvigorating Indias diplomatic relations.

Obama, on the other hand, toured only 25 countries between January 2009 to January 2011. Modi flew 1,64,187 air miles between May 2014 and May 2016 and Obama flew only 1,56,336 air miles in the first two years as the head of state.

Countries like Japan, France, Germany, Canada, China, South Korea, Russia, United Kingdom, Turkey, Singapore, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia have featured on the travel list of both the world leaders.

From the archives | Interactive | Mean machines: Modis BMW vs Obamas Beast

A map showing PM Modis visits

Out of the 35 countries that Modi visited, 21 are in Asia, making 60% of his visits about strengthening ties with immediate neighbours. Followed by seven countries in Europe, two countries in North America, two countries in Africa, two countries in Oceania, one country in South America.

A map showing US president Obamas visits

Out of the 25 countries that Obama visited, 11 are in Europe, making the continent his primary focus in the first two years. Followed by nine countries in Asia, three countries in North America and two countries in Africa.

Multiple visits

Modi visited France, Nepal, Russia, Singapore twice and the United States three times during the first two years of his tenure.

Obama visited Afghanistan, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea and Mexico twice in his first two years in office.

Modi said he will cut down his foreign visits in 2016, travelling abroad only when it is absolutely necessary so that he can devote more time to issues of domestic importance.

He asked the external affairs ministry to keep his foreign engagements to the minimum and his travel plans, as of now, is restricted to a couple of visits abroad in the first half of the year and international summits in the latter.

His frequent tours abroad have drawn ridicule from the Opposition that accuses him of ignoring domestic issues.

Source : PMO website, White House official website

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The Madhya Pradesh government on Wednesday waived the road tax on a luxury vehicle worth more than Rs 1.30 crore owned by Shankaracharya Jyotishpeetha (Badrikashram), Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati.

According to sources, the tax amounting to approximately Rs 11 lakh was waived off during a state cabinet meeting that was chaired by chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

They said the original price of the bus was about Rs 15 lakh but modifications like washroom, lift, bed, etc to the tune of Rs 1.30 crore-1.35 crore were added to it.

Parliamentary affairs and health minister and the state government spokesperson Narottam Mishra told reporters about the cabinets decision after the meeting. The minister, however, didnt disclose the amount of the tax exempted.

The Shankaracharyas disciples were pursuing authorities to get the tax waived on the bus that was bought last year.

The transport department refused to oblige the holy man but home minister Babulal Gaur tried convincing the government to waive off the tax.

According to sources, though Shankaracharya is considered to be close to the Congress camp, Simhastha fair held in Ujjain in April-May this year also played a role in changing the Chouhan governments mind on the issue.

Transport minister Bhupendra Singh, who was in charge of organising the Simhastha, had to seek support from Shankaracharya besides the akharas.

Singh took up Shankaracharyas request and sent a proposal to the state cabinet, which is the authority that takes such decisions, that accepted it on Wednesday.

Shankaracharya ji is protecting sanatan dharma. Hence, the tax exemption is justified. We are happy that the state government has done this, Swami Ramanand, a disciple of Shankaracharya, told Hindustan Times.

The Congress understandably didnt oppose the cabinet decision.

I wish to thank chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan that he gave respect to the Shankaracharya by waiving off the tax, state Congress chief spokesperson KK Mishra said.
Seeking to play down the recent row over his remarks that people of Goa in general are unhappy with Nigerians, Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar on Wednesday said all foreigners, including Nigerians, are welcome in the state, which is committed to providing security to everyone.

Goa is a tourist state. How can we ask someone not to come or ban them? Everyone is welcome in Goa - be it Nigerians or Africans. We will provide security to everyone, he told reporters here after meeting Home Minister Rajnath Singh.

Parsekar, however, said there might be one or two incidents involving a few Nigerians but for that a generalised opinion cannot be formed.

We cant generalise about all Nigerians or Africans for that matter, he said.

On May 30, Parsekar had sparked a controversy by saying in Panaji that in general, people are angry with Nigerians and not other foreigners. I feel they (Nigerians) have a different attitude.

The CM was responding to a question on recent allegations of rape against a Nigerian national in Goa and racial attacks in Delhi.

We get people from all other countries, but in general the people of Goa are very much annoyed with their behaviour, attitude, their way of life...because on many occasions I hear complaints against Nigerians, Parsekar had said.

His remarks drew flak from opposition Congress which alleged that it reflected the racist attitude of the BJP government.

The Chief Minister said on that he discussed with Rajnath Singh the forthcoming BRICS summit to be held in Goa in October.

There will be 8,000 to 10,000 delegates but we have a very small airport.

I have requested the Home Minister to enhance the immigration and other facilities for the benefit of the visiting foreign guests from the five BRICS nations, he said.
Pakistan on Wednesday said leaders of Russia, New Zealand and South Korea had backed a non-discriminatory approach for expanding the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) by including non-NPT states.

As part of efforts to mobilise support for Pakistans application for membership of the nuclear trading club, Pakistans foreign policy chief Sartaj Aziz has telephoned the foreign ministers of Russia, New Zealand and South Korea.

Pakistan has stepped up efforts to gain entry to the NSG since India recently submitted its application to the elite 48-nation bloc. Islamabads close ally Beijing has linked Indias entry to that of Pakistan. Aziz told the Senate that Pakistan is lobbying effectively and pro-actively with NSG members over Indias efforts to join the group. He said these efforts towards non-discriminatory approach will pay off.

Aziz highlighted to the foreign ministers of the three countries Pakistans credentials for the NSG membership. A statement issued by the Foreign Office said Azizs interlocutors expressed support for a non-discriminatory approach on NSG expansion to non-NPT states.

Read: India never opened window of opportunity; Pak not desperate for talks: Aziz

Pakistan also asked NSG members to be objective and non-discriminatory while deciding on expanding the groups membership. The Foreign Office said in a separate statement additional foreign secretary Tasnim Aslam briefed diplomats of NSG states ahead of the groups plenary session in Vienna this month.

Aslam highlighted factors in support of Pakistans application, including its technical experience, capability and well-established commitment to non-proliferation and nuclear security. She cautioned against any country-specific exemptions which would negatively impact strategic stability in South Asia.

He was responding to concerns expressed by senators over the growing collusion between India and the US and apprehension that NSG members would positively consider Indias request to join it.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi met US President Barack Obama on Tuesday on the penultimate leg of his whirlwind five-nation tour, during which the Indian leader hopes to strengthen strategic partnership in diverse areas. Modi arrived at the Joint Base Andrews from Switzerland after securing the European nations support for Indias Nuclear Suppliers Group membership ahead of a key meeting of the 48-nation bloc.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the Prime Ministers fourth visit to the United States:

1. Financial assistance for clean energy

Two financial assistance programmes worth $60 million to support Indias much-needed clean energy initiatives was announced by the two countries. The United States is committed to bring to bear its technical capacity, resources and private sector, and is jointly launching with India new efforts, to spur greater investment in Indias renewable energy sector, including efforts that can serve as a model for other ISA Member Countries, the White House said.

This includes the creation of a $20-million US-India Clean Energy Finance initiative and a $40 million US-India Catalytic Solar Finance Programme. It is expected to mobilise up to $400 million to provide clean and renewable electricity to up to 1 million households by 2020.

Read: India set to contribute as new engine of global growth: PM Modi in US

2. Cyber framework accord

Ushering in a new era of collaboration in the cyberspace, India and the US will sign a framework for a bilateral cyber relationship within the next two months. The announcement in this regard was made in a joint statement after the White House meeting between Modi and Obama.During the meeting the two leaders emphasised that cyberspace enables economic growth and development, and reaffirmed their commitment to an open, interoperable, secure and reliable internet, underpinned by the multi-stakeholder model of internet governance.

They committed to deepen cooperation on cybersecurity and welcomed the understanding reached to finalize the framework for the US-India Cyber Relationship in the near term, the joint statement said.

3. Indias role in Paris climate change agreement recognised

The historic climate change agreement in Paris may not have been possible without the leadership shown by India in making some substantial commitments, the White House said. Its unlikely that we would have actually reached an agreement in Paris last December had the Indians not stepped up and shown some leadership in making some substantial commitments, White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters.

Earnest said Modis role at Paris last year is a testament to his willingness to take a political risk to do what he thinks is right, not just for his country, but for the planet.In a joint statement with the US, India said it would seek to join the climate deal as soon as possible this year and that it had started its domestic process to ratify it. The US is eager for the two countries to join.

President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Narendra Modi shake hands in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. (AP)

Read: Modi,Obama flip the switch on nuclear power, welcome pact on building reactors

4. Pakistan asked to punish Pathankot attack perpetrators

Treating the attack on the Pathankot airbase on par with the Mumbai attacks, Obama sent a clear message to Pakistan, asking it to punish the perpetrators. They [the two leaders] called for Pakistan to bring the perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai and 2016 Pathankot terrorist attacks to justice, a joint statement issued after the Obama-Modi meeting at the White House said.

During the meeting, Modi and Obama acknowledged the continued threat posed to human civilisation by terrorism and condemned the recent terrorist incidents from Paris to Pathankot, from Brussels to Kabul, the statement said.

They also committed to strengthen cooperation against terrorist threats from extremist groups such as al-Qaeda, Daesh/ISIL, Jaish-e Mohammad, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, D Company [under world don Dawood Ibrahims firm] and their affiliates, including through deepened collaboration on UN terrorist designations.

5. India, US ink deal to boost defence, counter-terror cooperation

India and the US inked an agreement in the sphere of defence cooperation and counter-terrorism after talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Barack Obama. The agreement opens the doors to exchange of terrorist-screening information between the Multi-Agency Centre/Intelligence Bureau of India and the Terrorist Screening Center of the US, under which the two sides shall provide each other access to terrorism screening information through the designated contact points, subject to domestic laws and regulations.

The arrangement will enhance the counter-terrorism cooperation between the two countries, said a statement.

6. Agreement to step up conservation efforts

A Memorandum of Understanding was signed to enhance co-operation in Wildlife Conservation and Combating Wildlife Trafficking in areas such as Wildlife Forensics and Conservation Genetics, Natural World Heritage Conservation and Nature Interpretation, and Conservation Awareness.

The two countries also agreed to improve bilateral effort on Energy Security, Clean Energy and Climate Change through increased engagement and further joint initiatives for promoting sustainable growth.

US Chief of Protocol Ambassador Peter Selfridge (centre L) greets Prime Minister Narendra Modi (centre R) as he arrives to meet with US President Barack Obama in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington. (REUTERS)

7. Expedited clearance for entry into the US

An MoU between the Consular, Passport and Visa Division of Indias ministry of external affairs and the US Customs and Border Protection, Department of Homeland Security for the Development of an International Expedited Traveler Initiative - the Global Entry Programme, which is a US Customs and Border Protection programme.

This programme allows expedited clearance for pre-approved, low-risk travellers upon arrival in the US. After joint scrutiny and clearance by both countries, the approved Indian travellers will be extended the facility of expedited entry into the US through automatic kiosks at select airports, the statement said.

Read: India clears final hurdle to join missile control group, say diplomats

8. Activists raise Indias poor record in human trafficking

Human rights campaigners urged the US President to press India to strengthen its anti-trafficking laws and deliver justice to victims. India has the most slaves in the world with more than 18 million people trapped in debt bondage, forced into marriage, sold to brothels or born into servitude, according to the 2016 Global Slavery Index.

More people are enslaved in India than in any other country in the world, with millions of Indian men, women and children trapped in debt bondage and forced to perform strenuous work, said Amy Sobel of the Washington-based Human Rights First pressure group. Forty percent of the worlds estimated 45.8 million slaves are in India, although the scourge exists in all 167 nations surveyed in last months Global Slavery Index, according to researchers behind the list.

Indian officials, however, have pointed to a slew of initiatives taken by the Modi government over the last two years that was proof that New Delhi was taking the issue seriously. A draft of the first comprehensive anti-human trafficking law, which provides for more shelters, a rehabilitation fund, fast-track courts to ensure speedy trials, a federal investigative agency to boost convictions, was released recently.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has left for Mexico for the fifth and final leg of his five-nation tour after wrapping up his visit to the US.

After two days of a fruitful USA visit, PM @narendramodi emplanes for Mexico, the PMO tweeted on Thursday.

Thank you again America! A successful visit ends as PM @narendramodi takes the long way home, via Mexico City, ministry of external affairs spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted.

Thank you again America! A successful visit ends as PM @narendramodi takes the long way home, via Mexico City pic.twitter.com/aLj0cGMt8g  Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) June 8, 2016

Modi addressed the joint session of the US Congress and attended a reception hosted jointly by the Foreign Relations Committees of the House of Representatives and the Senate as well as the India Caucus before emplaning for Mexico for the final leg of his five-nation tour that also took him to Afghanistan, Qatar and Switzerland.

He and US President Barack Obama held bilateral talks following which a number of agreements signed, including one on US firm Westinghouse building six nuclear power plants in India.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will join a long list of world leaders when he walks up to address the joint session of the US Congress on Wednesday night.

Other Indian leaders who have had the honour before Modi are Rajiv Gandhi, PV Narasimha Rao, AB Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh.

Modi joins a galaxy of 117 leaders starting with former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (he addressed the Congress thrice) to Pope Francis, who was the last to address American lawmakers in September 2015.

Modi will the first leader to address the Congress this year.

Here are the five things to watch out for in his address.

1) How he says it and how he plays it

This is a big occasion. Prime Minister Modi would be placing India-US relationship in many contexts. First of all, how would it shape up a better future for the two countries and two peoples. He is addressing the lawmakers when regional geopolitics is in a flux and US is devoting a great deal of its military resources to the Indo-Pacific in view of an aggressive China. The joint statement issued after the meeting between President Obama and Modi dropped the mention of South China Sea. But how he plays up or down the ties with America in the regional context will be interesting to watch out for.

Read | Is the Modi-Obama equation a true friendship or smart politics?

2) Climate change

Despite all the spins given by the Indian side, a time-bound Indian commitment to the Paris climate deal was something the Americans had insisted and won. Getting the deal, the most ambitious plan of its kind, rolled out is crucial for the legacy of Barack Obamas presidency. Republicans have never minced words about their opposition to the deal. But the climate deal will be in force if countries that constitute 55 per cent of worlds green house emission ratify the pact. (China said they would by September).

Now the question is, how would Prime Minister Modi as a leader of a developing nation place the issue of climate change, holding the developed world responsible for the mess more than the developing nations. And how the developing nations should help countries like India in fighting the challenge

3) Reforms of the United Nations Security Council

That the US supports Indias bid for a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council is oft repeated. But the real question is whether the US is in favour of expansion of the council. There is nothing to suggest that yet. This would be a forum for the Prime Minister Modi to tell American lawmakers that the United Nations should reflect 21st century realities and countries such as India needs to be a permanent member.

Read | Modi and Obama flip the switch on nuclear power

4) Aligning his domestic policy with the foreign policy objectives

Prime Minister Modi has been insistent that his foreign policy should help his domestic economic policy and flagship schemes such as Make in India. The defence manufacturing sector is an area where the prime minister is keen on getting foreign investment and technology. India is also placing its bid for membership in the export control regimes like Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) in the context of the potential its domestic industry has in areas such as the nuclear energy and space.

Read | India to open new consulate in Seattle

5) Terrorism

Modi is expected to make a strong pitch on the need to fight terror, with the subtext of troubles in Indias immediate neighbourhood. He is also likely to call upon the need to fight it through various measures globally.

Read | Stop maligning Indias image abroad: Shiv Senas Saamna to PM Modi

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The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to entertain the bail plea of sacked Uttarakhand minorities panel chief Sukhdev Singh Namdhari, accused in a 2012 shootout that killed liquor baron Ponty Chadha and his brother Hardeep, saying the charges against him were grave.

A vacation bench comprising Justices PC Ghose and Amitava Roy said, We are not interested in entertaining the petition. The charges against you are grave.

The bench took strong note of the fact that Namdhari secured interim bail earlier on health grounds from the trial court, during the pendency of his regular bail plea in the Delhi High Court.

Read:Ponty, Hardeep Chadha murder case: No regular bail for Namdhari

It is strange. The trial court grants you interim bail when the bail petition is pending in the High Court, it said.

In April this year, the trial court, which is currently recording prosecution evidence in the case, cancelled the Namdharis interim bail and sent him to jail.

The trial court, while cancelling the interim bail, had said the main complainant, Nandlal Mahto, turned hostile in the matter. Therefore, it could not be ruled out that Namdhari had threatened him or given him gratification to turn hostile, the court added.

The plea seeking cancellation of Namdharis interim bail was filed by Hardeeps wife in the trial court.

Namdhari, the alleged main conspirator in the case, was granted interim bail on November 27 last year on medical grounds, which were extended from time to time.

The accused said he was suffering from Hepatitis C, blood pressure and heart problems, apart from depression and suicidal tendencies.

Ponty and Hardeep, who were allegedly involved in a property dispute, were killed in a shootout at a Chhattarpur farmhouse here on November 17, 2012.

Read:Mohali shoots late to cancel Namdharis gun licence

Namdhari was arrested on November 23, 2012.

Later, the remaining accused were caught. The trial court in July last year had framed charges under section 302 (murder) read with section 149 (offence committed by member of unlawful assembly) of the IPC against all the 21 accused, including Namdhari and his Personal Security Officer (PSO) Sachin Tyagi.
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi is considering the option of setting up an advisory body to deliberate over public policies in the party.

The move comes amid the growing clamour within the party over organisational reshuffle and Rahuls elevation to the top post of Congress president held by his mother, Sonia Gandhi. There is, however, no clarity on when the much-awaited reshuffle till take place.

Sources close to Gandhi told HT that he has already sound out a few senior leaders about an advisory council.

Whether it will happen or not, is not clear. But he has spoken about the need for such a body in close quarters and started initial discussions with a few Congress leaders, said a close aide of Gandhi.

Senior members who have wide range of experience in public policy and lawmaking would be part of the council. If it is formed, Congress president Sonia Gandhi is likely to head it, said a leader.

During the UPA regime, the Congress-led government had constituted the National Advisory Council (NAC) to guide and suggest policies and propose laws, especially in the social sector.

Currently, in the Congress there is no such structure to specifically discuss and formulate the stand on public policies. The proposed body will not only scrutinize the NDA governments social sector policies but also come up with new public policies to be spearheaded by the Congress, said a senior functionary.

A Congress leader admitted that while the NAC had a huge responsibility to guide the government of the day, the new advisory council will handle a limited mandate to help the party in the Opposition benches. To give an example, the proposed body may review the current education policy in the light of the target of universal education. The Congress might come up with its own policy on how to reach this important milestone, said a leader.

The BJP, after coming to power in 2014, had constituted a margdarshak mandal but the advisory body is widely seen as a virtually non-functional body of veterans, which has no role in the running of the government. The advisory council, if formed, will be a very active body and it will play a key role in the partys policy-making, said a leader.

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The Shiv Sena on Wednesday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to stop maligning India on foreign shores with his public utterances on corruption in the country.

The Sena took strong objection to Modis repeated statements criticizing the corrupt systems in India during his foreign trips, saying this would prove counter-productive in the long run.

The PM said publicly in Doha how India was steeped in graft, and outlined the measures he had initiated to clean up the mess. The gathering clapped and cheered him. This is nothing but maligning the countrys fair image abroad, the Sena said in an editorial in its mouthpiece Saamana.

It wondered who was responsible if there was talk of corruption among the masses even two years after a Bharatiya Janata Party-led government took charge of the country.

The (corruption) matters coming up in (BJP-ruled) Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh - can the Gandhi family be still blamed for it? it asked.

The PM knows better. Hes the countrys face and the world has faith in him. But the world may also misinterpret his statements abroad and this could directly hit our economy, the Sena cautioned.

Chiding Modi, it advised him to criticize corruption and other ills plaguing India domestically and tackle them effectively.

Enough has been spoken about the alleged corruption of Gandhi family and Robert Vadra. Now, its time for action against them. No need to travel to Europe and America shouting about it, the editorial said.

As a nation we are all united, and despite our political differences, we are like a big undivided family and this is the image which should be presented before the whole world.

Touching on Modis recent trip to Switzerland, it chided Modis request seeking the names of Indians holding black money in that countrys banks. This, Saamana said, was ruining Indias image abroad.

The Swiss economy thrives on stash monies from all over the world and they will never reveal whose black money is lying there.

Modi had assured Rs15 lakh to each Indian by bringing back the hidden money in foreign banks. But all this must be done very discreetly, the Sena said.

Anyway, it pointed out that there was enough black money within India. So what is being done about it?

The Sena said India must be the only country in the world where its a sin to eat beef, mutton, chicken, eggs, fish, garlic and onions but it is no crime if public money is stolen


With Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah raking up the Ram Temple issue in Ayodhya ahead of the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls scheduled next year, the Congress Party on Wednesday alleged that the saffron party was making desperate attempts to keep the issue alive for political gains.

Congress leader Pramod Tiwari asked why the BJP president is not taking action against party members who often make communal remarks in the Ayodhya issue .

Stop such two-faced talks Amit Shah ji. If what you have said is the partys stand then why dont you take action against those making statements otherwise? You do not want to solve the issue, but just want to keep it alive for political gains, Tiwari told ANI.

The BJP president, who was briefing the media in Lucknow on Tuesday,said that Ram Janmabhoomi is a part of his partys election manifesto.

We have specified that a Ram temple should be made on the site either after a consensus or by the directions of court. This is our firm stand, he said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi met US President Barack Obama on Tuesday on the penultimate leg of his whirlwind five-nation tour, during which the Indian leader hopes to strengthen strategic partnership in diverse areas.

Modi discussed the challenges posed by extremism with the US President and the two leaders underlined the need to ensure the participation of civil society and minority communities to address the issue, officials said.

India also agreed to work toward joining the Paris Agreement on climate change this year. The two countries also pledged to expand military cooperation and outlined principles for cooperation on cyber issues.

Read: Amazon pledges $3-bn investment as Modi hard-sells the Indian dream

Below are the 10 things you should know about Modis meeting with US President Obama and the joint statement issued about shared goals and plans.

1. Third summit: This was Modi and Obamas third bilateral summit and their seventh meeting in all. They first met in 2014, over dinner at the White House, when the Prime Minister was fasting for Navratra. His hosts were reportedly nervous going into the dinner-meeting, but everything went fine.

2. Big leap in defence partnership: Noting that the US-India defence cooperation can become an anchor for stability, the joint statement said the US recognises India as a major defence partner. In other words, the US will facilitate technology sharing with India at the same level as it does with its closest allies and partners. India would receive license-free access to a wide range of dual-use technologies in conjunction with steps that India has committed to take to advance its export control objectives.

3. Nuclear, a done deal: Modi and Obama welcomed the start of preparatory work onsite in India for six AP 1000 reactors to be built by Westinghouse. India and the US Export-Import Bank will work together towards a competitive financing package for the project. Once completed, the project would be among the largest of its kind. The two sides welcomed the announcement by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd and Westinghouse that they would work to finalise the contractual arrangements by June 2017.

4. Multilateral regimes: The leaders looked forward to Indias imminent entry into the Missile Technology Control Regime. President Obama welcomed Indias application to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), and re-affirmed that India is ready for the membership.

5. Climate change goals: Both leaders reiterated their determination to implement the Paris deal, though there was a minor difference in their perception of the timeline. The US wants to sign the agreement by the end of the year, before the end of Obamas term, and believed India was committed to the same goal under a shared objective. However, India doesnt quite see it that way. India has committed to work with the US on a global HFC-reduction deal, which experts said was extremely significant.

6. Lockstep on terrorism: In a sign of growing understanding on combating terrorism, the two countries said they were committed to bring to justice the perpetrators of terrorism anywhere in the world, which was taken to mean the US will now push Pakistan to speedily try perpetrators of the Pathankot and Mumbai terrorist attacks.

7. People-to-people interaction: India and the US will open additional consulates in each others country  India will open one in Seattle, while the US will pick a city at a later date. The two countries will also be Travel and Tourism Partner Countries for 2017.

8. Expedited entry programme: India will join a small group of countries whose citizens are given expedited clearance through US customs and immigration at select airports. This facility is open only to low-risk individuals pre-cleared by both countries. Indian officials believe this will especially benefit business travellers.

9. Finalised, but not signed: India and the US have finalised a defence agreement called Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement that would give the two countries access to the others military bases around the world. The two countries also committed to deepen cooperation on cybersecurity and welcomed the understanding to finalise the Framework for the US-India Cyber Relationship in the near future.

10. Global leadership: Both leaders reaffirmed their support for a reformed United Nations Security Council, with India as a permanent member. They also stressed the need for trilateral cooperation with African partners including in areas such as agriculture, health, energy, womens empowerment and sanitation.

Read: Indias NSG bid: Too much diplomacy, too little action

Read| India set to contribute as new engine of global growth: PM Modi in US
About 150 Nairobi-bound passengers who had boarded a Kenya Airlines aircraft early morning on Tuesday left Mumbai at 2:05 am on Wednesday - almost 20 hours behind its original schedule.

On Tuesday, the flight had returned to the city an hour after getting airborne when crew found that the on-board toilets were dysfunctional.

The Kenya Airways flight took off from Mumbai around 7.30am on Tuesday about an hour behind schedule.

An hour into the flight, the crew discovered that at least two toilets were not working, according to passengers. As a result, they decided to fly back to Mumbai. The flight returned to Mumbai around 9.15 am but that didnt end passengers ordeal.

It seemed like an unending ordeal Ashutosh Tiwari, a passenger on the flight told HT.

For about an hour after turning back, the crew did not offer us water. Snacks were served on board after fliers began to lose their cool, said Tiwari.

He added that unable to take the long wait, some passengers called off the trip. The crew refused to give information and was unapologetic about whole experience. As a result, some passengers chose to get off the plane, added Tiwari.

After returning to Mumbai, passengers were stuck in the plane for over six hours with little update from the crew. This forced many travellers, particularly those travelling with families, to call of their trip.

Passengers such as Tiwari who stayed put were finally asked to get off the plane at 1pm and sent back home around 5 pm.

The Kenyan Airways staff at T2 told HT that officials at its reservation office in Andheri would comment on the matter but despite several calls the airlines staff was not available for a comment.

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The Centre has washed its hands of the raging controversy over filmmaker Anurag Kashyaps ongoing tussle with the censor board over the certification of his film Udta Punjab.

It has pointed out that it cannot intervene in the censor boards decision and is barred from doing so by a court order.

Even as Kashyap has taken his fight with the censor board to the governments doorstep--including tweeting to Prime Minister Narendra Modi--sources said the information and broadcasting ministry finds its hands tied by a Supreme Court decision.

In 2000, the Supreme Court dismissed an appeal filed by the central government to retain with it the powers under section 6(1) of the Cinematographic Act, 1981, which allowed it to make orders it deemed fit, even after establishing an Appellate Tribunal for film clearances.

The apex court had noted that allowing the government to review the decision of the censor board or the Appellate Tribunal regarding the clearance of a film would amount to interference with the exercise of judicial functions of a quasi-judicial body.

Read | Kashyap like a child being denied a toy: Nihalani on Udta Punjab | HT Exclusive

The court did not agree with the Centres reasoning that it should be allowed to retain the powers, despite setting up the Tribunal as there would be situations where it would be required to review the decision of the censor board or Tribunal.

As per the procedure laid down, after the Tribunal has cleared the film, the government cannot intervene. It cannot stop a film on the grounds that there may be a law and order situation as the court has spelt out that maintaining law and order is the responsibility of the state and cannot be used as an excuse, a source said.

While Kashyap is now seeking legal redress, the controversy has acquired a political hue with the AAP and the Congress hurling allegations against the ruling SAD in Punjab for pressing the censor board to order cuts and drop the word Punjab from the title.

Read | Pahlaj Nihalani censored Udta Punjab on BJPs order: Kejriwal

Read | Censoring wont fix drug problem: Rahul Gandhi gives Udta Punjab wings

Kashyaps comments comparing India to North Korea have not gone down well with the government, but his colleagues in the film industry have joined his battle against the censor board. How is that the films trailer got a certificate from the censor without suggesting any cuts? filmmaker and censor board members Ashok Pandit told HT, questioning the belated objection to the use of Punjab in the title.
Hours after the education department served him a second showcause notice, Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) chairman Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh, who is under fire for irregularities in the intermediate results, resigned on Wednesday.

Education minister Ashok Choudhary confirmed the development.

If he would not resign within 24 hours, he would get the sack, as the government has gone by the provisions of the BSEB Act. The Act gives power to the government to sack the chairman after seeking explanation, sources said.

The departments second show-cause was terse, asking the chairman why he should not be removed for the lapses within the board, which reflected his complicity as well as incompetence.

As per the Act, the boards chairman is supposed to function in a well-decided manner laid down by the government and in the larger interest of the board. It is your incompetence that made the department lodge FIR due to a lot of embarrassment to the state, the notice read.

Soon after resigning, Singh reportedly got in touch with Patna University, where is a professor in the geography department.

A senior official of the education department said BSEB secretary Hariharnath Jha would also be removed. Now the entire set-up of the board will be changed and its charge may be handed over to an IAS officer, said the official.

The board had first served a notice to the chairman on Saturday over his unilateral decision to set up a judicial probe into the irregularities without the governments nod. That same day, the department of education set up a committee to investigate the matter as well.

However, chief minister Nitish Kumar dissolved both committees the next day and ordered a criminal investigation into the entire episode. It is matter of investigation, not inquiry, to fix accountability and take action against whoever is found guilty, he said.

Despite the resignation, Singhs troubles are far from over, as police investigation uncovers the state boards complicity in the intermediate results fiasco. He was quizzed by the police on Monday and his laptop was seized.

Sources said with the police investigation pointing to the boards complicity in tampering with answer books and the evaluation process to favour VR College (Vaishali), the chairman was out of options.

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Union information technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Wednesday asked software exporters not to get perturbed too much by the visa issue for sending professionals into their largest market, the US, saying American companies cannot survive without their help.

Do not be unnecessarily perturbed by the US visa issue. I dont think American companies can survive without our companies. They cannot, Prasad told a meeting organised by the industry lobby IMC.

He said concerns surrounding the visa issues have been taken up at the highest level and exuded confidence of finding a solution to it.

The minister elaborated that the issue of massively hiking the visa fees apart from restricting the number of IT professionals entry into the US, has been raised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with US President Barack Obama and he himself has also discussed it with his US counterpart.

Stating that countrys IT industry has clocked exports of $108 billion last fiscal, Prasad said they currently serve a majority of the Fortune 500 companies through their presence in 200 cities spanning 80 countries.

Job losses due to the shift to cheaper alternatives like India have always been a very contentious issue in the US, and the emergence of the ultra-right Donald Trump as the Republican presidential candidate has only heightened fears in the sector.

In the past as well, domestic IT companies have had to lobby hard to ensure that adequate number of IT professionals get the required visas to serve at client locations.

On the IT and cyber security, the minister said there is a strict coordination between the agencies concerned to protect against the scourge of terrorism and specifically the threat posed by groups like the terror group IS which is using the cyberspace very proficiently.

Extremists and terrorists cannot be allowed to derail the India story by use of information and communication technologies, he said.

Prasad said skilling the people, law enforcers and legal officers to deal with the challenges in the virtual world is also important and elaborated on the work being done by the government in this regard.

Meanwhile, on Tamil Nadu governments decision to include IT workers under labour laws, Prasad said companies will have to follow the law of the land.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday pushed for deeper ties with the US, describing it as an indispensable partner, even as he called for isolating countries that harbour and sponsor terror groups like the Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Islamic State.

During his address to a joint sitting of the US Congress, Modi made no mention of Pakistan but it was clear who he was referring to. While specifically naming Pakistan-based LeT, Modi said the policy to counter terror must delink religion from the menace and make no distinction between good and bad terrorists.

Read: As it happened: Modis address to US Congress

Modi addressed members of the House of Representatives and the Senate a day after his meeting with President Barack Obama, who backed Indias candidature for the elite Nuclear Suppliers Group. The two sides also agreed on the building of six nuclear reactors in India and measures to ratify the Paris climate accord.

In every sector of Indias forward march, I see the US as an indispensable partner, said Modi, whose remarks were repeatedly applauded by the lawmakers.

Many of you also believe that a stronger and prosperous India is in Americas strategic interest. Let us work together to convert shared ideals into practical cooperation.

The Prime Minister described terrorism as the biggest threat not just in Afghanistan, but elsewhere in South Asia, and globally.

Read: India has not claimed intellectual property rights on yoga: Modi to US Congress

In the territory stretching from west of Indias border to Africa, it may go by different names, from Laskhar-e-Taiba, to Taliban to ISIS. But its philosophy is common: of hate, murder and violence, said Modi, who was clad in a white kurta-pyjama and grey waistcoat with a handkerchief in the colours of the national flag tucked in his pocket.

Though the shadow of terrorism is spreading across the world, it is incubated in Indias neighbourhood, he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi signs autographs for members of Congress after his address to a joint meeting of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday. (AP Photo)

Without naming Pakistan, he commended members of the US Congress for sending a clear message to those who preach and practice terrorism for political gains.

Refusing to reward them is the first step towards holding them accountable for their actions, he added.

His remarks were an apparent reference to the blocking of a US subsidy for the sale of eight F-16s to Pakistan by American lawmakers. Several leading lawmakers have recently questioned Pakistans role in the war on terror and accused it of duplicity.

Modi said the fight against terrorism must be based on a policy that isolates those who harbour, support and sponsor terrorists; that does not distinguish between good and bad terrorists; and that delinks religion from terrorism.

Read: Modi addresses US Congress: Full text of PMs speech

Also, for us to succeed, those who believe in humanity must come together to fight for it as one, and speak against this menace in one voice. Terrorism must be delegitimised, he said.

Terrorism, he said, has to be fought at many levels and the traditional tools of military, intelligence or diplomacy will not be able to win this fight, he said while calling for deeper security cooperation with the US.

Both nations stand to gain in great measure while advancing their relationship, Modi said.

As the US businesses search for new areas of economic growth, markets for their goods, a pool of skilled resources, and global locations to produce and manufacture, India could be their ideal partner, he said.

Indias strong economy and growth rate of 7.6% per annum is creating new opportunities for mutual prosperity, while transformative American technologies in India and growing investment by Indian companies in the US have a positive impact on the lives of the people, he added.

Today, for their global research and development centres, India is the destination of choice for the US companies. Looking eastward from India, across the Pacific, the innovation strength of our two countries comes together in California, Modi said.
The city residents can now lodge their complaints through social messaging application WhatsApp, after the facility was launched by Visakhapatnam Rural Police on Wednesday.

DIG, Visakha Range, Ch Srikanth on Wednesday launched the Rural Police WhatsApp number - 8142003339.

Srikanth expressed hope the facility would give a major boost to rural policing with regard to gathering information, especially on eve-teasing, gambling, anti-social activities, ragging, snatching, property offences, and other crimes.

He clarified the WhatsApp account is not a platform to register FIR but its only for quick response to people facing problem anywhere in the district.

Anyone creating nuisance by misusing the number would face necessary action, police said.

Superintendent of Police (Visakha Rural) Rahul Dev Sharma will be the admin for the account and it will be monitored round the clock by a group of trained policemen, they said.

Soon after receiving complaints, policemen will alert the police officer concerned to respond to the complaint within 15 to 30 minutes. If it is cognisable offence, the police will visit the house of the complainant to register FIR, Srikanth added.
For Nanak Singhs parents, international boundaries do more than just separate countries. Sometimes, they gobble up loved ones.

Nanak was just seven years old in 1984 when he playfully chased his father through the fields and ended up crossing the India-Pakistan border. It was an understandable mistake, given that their house in Shanna Bedi village was located barely two kilometres from the boundary line.

The Pakistani authorities, however, seemed to care neither for Nanaks innocence, nor his tender age. His parents havent seen him since.

Nanak must be 39 today, and his parents dont know if they will recognise him if he shows up at their doorstep one day. My only wish is to see him before I die, his mother Pyari says as tears well up in her eyes. I appeal to the government to help us bring him home.

She still recalls the day Nanak ran after his father, Rattan Singh, never to return. (Photo by Gurpreet Singh/Hindustan Times) (Hindustan Times)

She still recalls the day Nanak ran after his father, Rattan Singh, never to return. We lodged a police complaint quickly. There was no border security fence then, so it was easy to stray over to the other side. We may be poor and without much influence, but we still have hope, says Pyari.

For a long time, Nanaks family was unsure of his whereabouts. But then, in 2002, Ramdas police came over to tell them that he was lodged in a Pakistan jail under a different name  Kakar Singh.

His name figured on the list of prisoners as Kakar Singh, but we were searching for Nanak, says his younger brother, Baldev Singh.

The Border Security Force later sent the Pakistani authorities a letter seeking his release, but that didnt help. Nanak is the oldest of nine siblings, and the government is our only hope of getting him back, he says.

The Punjab and Haryana high courts recent notice to the Centre on a petition to ensure Nanaks return has come as a ray of hope. I approached many people, seeking help for this family, but to no avail. Finally, filing a public interest litigation seemed to be the only option left. It has been a long time since Pakistan sent over that list with Kakar Singhs name in it. I will try and take the family to meet external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj soon, the petitioner, Swaran Singh, said.

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With the Congress leadership discussing organisational changes after the Rajya Sabha elections, the party has begun rolling out its battle strategy for Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, where assembly elections are to be held in early 2017, party sources told HT.

The organisational revamp is already overdue and on its own will be insufficient to revive the Congress. We need to win elections for that, a senior leader said.

In a meeting with Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi last week, Punjab Congress chief Capt Amarinder Singh and poll strategist Prashant Kishor got the go-ahead for implementing a 200-day plan for the 2017 elections in the state, a source involved in framing of the strategy said.

For Uttar Pradesh, Kishors team has prepared a plan that will be implemented once the party decides the face of its campaign in the state for 2017. The team, in consonance with Gandhis office in Delhi, has prepared a blue-print for reviving the party organisation from the block-level upwards.

Capt Singh, who is the partys chief ministerial face in Punjab, begins a new leg of the programme Coffee with Captain in Pathankot, where he will meet 2,000 ex-servicemen on Wednesday evening. The backdrop of the meeting will be the Pathankot airbase attack and the Pakistan policy of the Narendra Modi government, of which the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) is a part. Punjab has a large number of ex-servicemen who are seen as not just a vote-bank but also influencers in elections.

In the last week of June, Capt Singh will begin a door-to-door campaign in the strongholds of the ruling SAD in the state. The idea, sources said, is to show that Capt Singh, who became chief minister in 2002 after running an aggressive campaign against the SAD and particularly its leader Parkash Singh Badal, is still his aggressive self.

The campaign will help the Congress counter the rise of the Aam Aadmi Party..., which has been aggressively taking on the state government, a party leader said.

In UP, experts feel the party missed a strong chance of revival in the last assembly elections in 2012, when it had 22 Lok Sabha MPs from the state. There are too many players in UP and revival for the Congress will be a difficult task, said political analyst and author Prof Sudha Pai.

Delaying the implementation of the plan will only make Congress task more difficult, she added. Over the years, people seem to have deserted the Congress and gone to other parties. The SP will do anything to win and so will the BJP, the party is up against that.

The party also plans to push the frontal organisations into reviving Congress in UP, where the party has been out of power for over a decade and a half.

Read: Team Kishor at work, Rahul too gets an image makeover

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The BJP on Wednesday demanded that the Mehbooba Mufti government in Jammu-Kashmir withdraw the security given to separatists and they be put behind bars.

The party also demanded that concrete steps be taken to prevent the youths from being lured by terrorist groups.

State Bhartiya Janata Party spokesman Virender Gupta said that despite their anti-India activities, the separatists were enjoying special privileges, including security cover provided by the state government.

The government should revise its policy towards the separatists. The government should withdraw the security given to separatists and put them behind bars under the Public Safety Act (PSA) for indulging in anti-social and anti-national activities, he said.

Expressing concern over frequent protests, violence and hoisting of Pakistani and ISIS flags in Kashmir Valley, he said, All these incidents are taking place at the instigation of separatists.

Recently, a separatist leader, along with his supporters, slapped a policeman who was discharging his duty in Srinagar, he claimed.

Gupta said soft policy towards separatists has on one hand encouraged anti-India forces and anti-social elements and on the other, demoralised security forces and the masses.

Soft policy towards separatists is demoralising security forces who are fighting to curb militancy and sacrificing their lives. These separatists are continuously disturbing the peace by holding the Valley to ransom thereby affecting business and tourism industry, he said.

Cautioning that the situation might worsen if steps are not take, Gupta asked the PDP-BJP coalition government to take strong action against separatists.
Remember Sofia Ashraf from Kodaikanal Wont? The rapper is back with a new song and, this time, she wants your help to bring justice to the victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy.

The last time we spoke to Sofia Ashraf (29), she was set to leave the city and move to Chennai. Since then, the Kodaikanal Wont rapper has written songs, shot videos and comedy sketches, and news satires (unreleased as yet), and caught up on art and writing.

Ashraf shot to social media fame when her song Kodaikanal Wont went viral last year. The song called for Hindustan Unilever to make itself accountable for the mercury poisoning in Kodaikanal. Now, she has released another video, about corporate responsibility. In DOW Vs. Bhopal, she asks the White House to stop shielding Dow Chemical from its legal responsibilities.

Ashraf wrote the song eight years ago, when she was known as the burkha rapper (I was strongly religious back then) in Chennai. As a student, she would rap at college festivals. She also performed at Justice Rocks, an initiative that invites youngsters to express themselves on issues that matter. I wrote it along with another song about Islamophobia for that show. Eight years later, these two issues are still relevant, she says.

Also read: Whats the Kodaikanal Wont rapper been up to?

The songs format is that of a rap battle; with Ashraf representing America and the people of Bhopal in different avatars. I had a lot of data. But I needed to find a way to present it to people. So I felt a dramatised debate would be the best way to do it, she says.

Ashraf has also put up a petition on the White House website. If it gets 100,000 signatures in 30 days, the US government will be forced to address the issue on a public forum, she says. And if the petition doesnt? Then we fail Bhopal (sic).

Rapper and activist Sofia Ashraf (HT File Photo)

At the time of going to press, 38,796 signatures were needed by June 14 for the petition to work. All it takes is a signature and a verification process. I know people go through way more trouble to download a Game of Thrones episode. As an internet community, we managed to make a difference in the lives of 591 ex-workers from Kodaikanal through our last petition. Lets aim higher this time, Ashraf says.

Next, she plans to release a more prolific yet fun sequel to the Kodaikanal issue, regarding the clean-up. She is also working on spoken word pieces about domestic abuse, gender issues, and the identity of the modern Indian women. But what she is most excited about are her comic sketches and spoof songs. I dont believe that every song has to have a message. I am actually quite a comical character. [Thats] an avatar of mine that those close to me know well, she says.

Make a difference

Sign the petition Uphold International Law! Stop Shielding Dow Chemical from Accountability for Corporate Crimes in Bhopal, India on wh.gov/isOdv

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The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has set up an informal group under chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union power minister Piyush Goyal to devise a strategy to win the Mumbai civic polls slated to be held in February 2017.

The BJP leadership is keen to win the elections to the civic body, which governs Indias financial capital and has an annual budget of Rs37,000 crore this year. The election to the BMC  the Shiv Senas strongpoint  is being seen in political circles as a make or break moment for the uneasy saffron alliance. While there are no visible signs of a strong opposition, the two alliance partners are locked in a bitter tussle to win the civic body on their own.

The group has been set up to assess the ground situation and prepare an overall strategy ahead of the polls. We need to know where the party stands, how many seats we can contest, said a senior party functionary. The group, which includes city chief Ashish Shelar, education minister Vinod Tawde (who is also guardian minister for Mumbai suburbs), housing minister Prakash Mehta, senior legislators from the city Raj Purohit and Mangal Prabhat Lodha and national general secretary and North Central Mumbai MP Poonam Mahajan, held its first meeting last month.

The Shiv Sena has been ruling the BMC in alliance with the BJP for about two decades but the BJP is keen on wresting it from its ally or at least increasing its footprint in the civic body, where it now plays second fiddle to the Sena.

Goyal, seen as among the BJPs best-performing central ministers, hails from Mumbai (Matunga) and played a key role in drafting the campaign strategy for Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of the 2014 polls, including the social media outreach. He is also known to have good relations with corporate houses.

The presence of Mahajan and Goyal, seen as representatives of the national leadership, is an indicator that the BJP top brass does not want to leave anything to chance for these civic polls.

The Mumbai civic polls are being seen as an indicator of what can happen in the 2019 elections. So instead of just relying on a city unit, a collective leadership will take calls on everything for the polls, said a source.

During the last elections, the BJP had contested only 70 of the 288 seats in the BMC, with the remaining being contested by ally Shiv Sena. This time around, the BJP is keen on contesting at least double the number of seats in the alliance with the Sena. The latter in unlikely to agree and the big decision that the party will have to take is whether it can afford to contest the elections solo. There is also a likelihood of the allies snapping ties if the campaigning for the civic polls takes an ugly turn.

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NEW DELHI: India is on course to become the 35th member of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) this week as the first stage on the way to entry into the 48- nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). The MTCR membership, a move that has US support, will allow India to export and import missile technology subject to non-proliferation rules. Membership of the NSG will greatly boost Indias quest for clean nuclear power.

We expect the membership of MTCR to be announced on June 7 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in Washington. India has been a unilateral adherent of MTCR since 2008 and has more than fulfilled all its commitments, including signing of the Hague Missile Code, a top Modi government official told Hindustan Times on condition of anonymity. Ministry of External Affairs officials, however, continue to be evasive, saying that Indias entry into the multi-lateral regime will be completed this summer now that the Reinforced Point of Contact meeting of MTCR officials this April has gone as per Indian plans. Unlike the NSG, China is still not a member of MTCR, a body formed by consensus.

Entry into MTCR will help add India add capabilities in highaltitude, long-range Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) with or without armament.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his team of advisors have been pushing for entry into these regimes by constantly engaging the principals.

President Pranab Mukherjee also added his weight to the effort, apparently reminding President Xi Jinping in Beijing last month that India has historically never opposed Chinas entry into any multilateral forum, including the UN Security Council.

Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar, who accompanied President Mukherjee, also told his Chinese counterpart that India needs a defined path with membership in NSG to plan for its future nuclear power needs.

Although India is looking towards Modis diplomacy and US President Barack Obamas heavy-lifting for a push into the NSG at the June 9 plenary meeting in Vienna, American diplomats and corporate czars are very bullish on New Delhis entry into the MTCR and then the NSG.

India applied for MTCR membership last year while its application for NSG was submitted on May 12, 2016.

Modis Washington visit will see the two leaders finalising discussions on the Logistics Exchange Memorandum Agreement (LEMOA), that allows t he t wo countries to share each others naval facilities. The final document will, however, be signed by the defence ministers of the two countries.

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The Bombay high court is likely to take up for hearing on Wednesday, an appeal filed by 2008 Malegaon blast accused Lt Col Shrikant Purohit challenging his custody in the case and seeking bail.

Purohit, who has been in custody after his arrest seven years ago, has claimed in his bail application filed before the HC that considering that he was a permanent commission officer of the Indian Army, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) should have followed a certain procedure while taking him into custody and since the NIA flouted the same, his custody itself must be considered as illegal.

He has also sought bail claiming that he has an indefensible right to bail considering that NIA is yet to conclude its investigations.

Purohits bail plea has been consistently been denied by a special court since 2010. His last bail plea was rejected by the special court in October last year, following which Purohit has now approached HC.

He has claimed before HC that such a perpetual custody makes his detention illegal and that the special court erred in rejecting his plea and thus, disregarded his fundamental right. Purohit has also claimed that the special court should have appreciated the fact that he has an outstanding meritorious record and that he risked his life to fight against terrorism across the country.

In the last hearing, Purohit had also argued that he had been framed by the investigating agencies.

On May 13, NIA had submitted a supplementary charge sheet in the trial court giving clean chit to six accused, including Sadhvi, and also recommended to drop all the charges against them. The central agency said that the shoddy probe by Maharashtra anti-terrorism squad (ATS) officials, forced the U-turn and also said provisions of the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) are not applicable to the case.

Purohit, was charged under the anti-terror law - unlawful activities (prevention) act and the Indian Penal Code. He and nine others were named in the charge sheet.

The case was handed over from the ATS to the NIA in 2011 along with six other cases of alleged Hindu terror. The NIA charge sheet said MCOCA provisions were dropped because of procedural lapses and the ATS appeared to have filed charge sheets against one of the accused without sufficient evidence, only to fulfil conditions of the anti-terror act.

Without the MCOCA, confessions by the accused to police officers wouldnt be admissible in court.

In the September 2008 blast in the Muslim-majority town of Malegaon, six people were killed and 101 were injured.
The southwest monsoon is expected to enter the city on June 12, officials from the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Wednesday.

The monsoon advanced over the Kerala coast on Wednesday. The IMD officials said the current pulse of the monsoon is strong and conditions are favourable for movement towards the north. The southwest monsoon is likely to hit parts of Karnataka by Thursday.

The monsoon is expected to set in along the Mumbai coast and north Konkan areas between June 11 and June 12, said Bishwajit Mukhopadhyay, additional director general meteorology, climate services division, IMD. While the monsoon is currently active over Kerala and has nearly covered the whole state, we expect it to advance northwards into Karnataka and Ratnagiri coast. There are chances of rains reaching Mumbai over the next three to four days.

Private weather-forecasting agency Skymet had, in May, predicted the onset of monsoon in Mumbai on June 12. We maintain what we had said earlier and stand by our prediction for the onset in Mumbai on June 12. While we have said the rain will be deficient across India, Maharashtra will do much better than the rest of the country, said GP Sharma, vice-president meteorlogy, Skymet.

Meanwhile, the city continued to grapple with above-normal temperatures, both in south Mumbai and the suburbs. While the night temperature between 8.30am on Tuesday and 8.30am on Wednesday at the Colaba weather station was 29.8 degrees Celsius, 2.8 degrees above normal, the temperature at Santacruz was 28.6 degrees Celsius, almost 2 degrees above normal.

Between 5.30pm on Tuesday and 5.30pm on Wednesday, the day temperatures at Santacruz and Colaba were 35 degrees Celsius and 35.2 degrees Celsius respectively, 2 degrees above normal.

There is a large amount of moisture being deposited along the Mumbai coast, which is leading to cloud formation that is trapping the heat during the night and early hours of the day, said VK Rajeev, director, western region, IMD.

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There was a time when All India Radio was more effective than a watch. People set their routine as per the programmes played. AIR celebrates its 80th birthday on Wednesday, and on this occasion, its most celebrated presenter, Ameen Sayani, has a story to share.

Radio club of Bombay began broadcasting programmes in June 1923. Stations based in Kolkata, Madras, Mysore and Delhi were set up. The Indian State Broadcasting Service was named All India Radio on June 8, 1936 which was renamed Akashvaani in 1956.

All India Radio was born #OnThisDay in 1936.!

'Indian State Broadcasting Service' was renamed the #AllIndiaRadio. pic.twitter.com/eeJwSVOTUa  Prasar Bharati (@prasarbharati) June 7, 2016

Binaca Geetmala, one of the most popular programmes of AIR, began in 1952. It was the first version of what later evolved as the countdown for songs based on their popularity. The countdown began in 1952 and was broadcast on Radio Ceylon till 1988. Later, it was shifted to Vividh Bharti channel of the AIR.

Read: AIR, the celestial voice that binds India together

In this rare audio clip uploaded on YouTube, Ameen narrates the story of how the programme came into being. He informs that he was chosen for the programme merely because he happened to be the junior most at Radio Ceylon.

Listen to Ameen Sayani here

Listen to Binaca Geetmala:

Follow @htshowbiz for more
HYDERABAD: N Chandrababu Naidu completes two years in office on Wednesday as the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, but unlike in neighbouring Telangana which last week celebrated his counterpart K Chandrasekhar Raos second anniversary with gusto, the festivities are low-key.

Naidu finds little to cheer in his latest stint as the chief minister. Present-day Andhra Pradesh, following its bifurcation to carve out the new state of Telangana, is much smaller in size and clout as Naidu is figuring out the hard way. He helped create Hyderabad as the IT hub during his earlier stints as the chief minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh, but the city having now gone to Telangana, Naidu is left governing a state without even a functional capital.

He admits it has been a big climb down for him since his heyday. True, I had enjoyed national and international attention when I was the chief minister of combined Andhra Pradesh for nine years. During the regime of AB Vajpayee, I had immense clout in Delhi with 35 MPs. But that is history. I am the chief minister of a smaller state with just 13 districts now, Naidu told HT in an exclusive interview.

A downsized Andhra has considerably shrunk the clout of Naidu, who is rarely seen or heard in national media. Naidu is just a shadow of his past, points out an aide not willing to be named. At the helm of a state groaning under a mounting debt of ` 18,000 crores made worse by the crippling loss of 40% of the states revenues that came from Hyderabad, the Andhra CM is faced with daunting challenges.

Instead of celebrating his second anniversary, Naidu has chosen to mark the day as Nava Nirmana Deeksha  renewing a pledge to make a fresh beginning. He will be taking a Maha Sankalpam (Great Resolution) at Kadapa on Wednesday to rebuild the state.

The foremost task at hand is to build a new capital for his state. The biggest challenge for me is to create infrastructure for the new capital and shift administration from Hyderabad to Amaravati. I started functioning from a bus; then moved to a temporary camp office, and now we are building the state secretariat complex. We have acquired land for the capital and we are now focusing on capital infrastructure, he said.

But building the capital in Amaravati that will cost some ` 27,000 crores is easier said than done. Infrastructure is not in place and thousands of government employees who need to move in are resisting plans to relocate from Hyderabad. Naidu has unveiled grandiose plans for the capital, saying it would be state-of-the-art, but finds himself struggling to give shape to his plans.

His biggest obstacle is the paucity of funds. We have started off with a negative balance sheet. That is why we have been requesting the Centre to come to our rescue, whether it is by way of granting special category status or special financial package. We never wanted a separate state. It is the responsibility of the Centre to provide all resources either by revising its policies or granting additional resources to AP till it gets the level-playing field with other states, Naidu said.

For someone who was once courted by the likes of Bill Gates, Naidu with just 16 MPs is finding it hard to be heard in Delhi. Despite his repeated visits to the national capital, no special financial assistance has been announced for Andhra Pradesh yet. It has also sparked speculation that the BJP is seeking to undermine him with a view to emerge as a political alternative in the state.

Naidu though remains diplomatic. I am pursuing all the issues with the Centre strongly. But we need to maintain a lot of restraint, since AP is just a two-year-old baby. I have to handle the relations carefully to get maximum benefits for the state, he said.

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GOA: The Central government should ban Nigerians from entering India, former Goa chief minister Ravi Naik demanded, adding that the state does not need Nigerian tourists.

Referring to Nigerians with the pejorative negroes, the senior Congress leader told reporters that Nigerians have been causing problems in Goa and metros across India.

The government of India should ban them. They should be probed. It should be checked whether they are here to study or for picnic or to sell drugs, said Naik, a former home minister in the erstwhile Congress-led coalition government.

Nigerians come here and do dadagiri, in Delhi, Bengaluru and the entire country. We should chase the Nigerians out of here, Naik said, adding that even Aam Aadmi Party leaders had a fight with Nigerians in the past.

Naiks comments come a few days after Goa CM Laxmikant Parsekar said Goans were unhappy with the attitude and the lifestyle of Nigerians living in the coastal state.

On the same day, Goas tourism minister Dilip Parulekar also said that Nigerians create problems in Goa and sell drugs.
NEW DELHI: The government is deliberating to merge existing categories of business, tourist and medical visa, to make a comprehensive non-working or non-permanent stay visa class, in order to simplify it.

Tourists, businessmen or people coming for medical treatment or even for film shoots can be covered under it. They can be given multiple entry visas on long-term basis, said a senior government official.

The ministry of commerce has circulated a note in this regard among all stakeholders including ministries of home and external affairs, said the official, adding that at present, the proposal is at discussion stage.

A commerce ministry official confirmed the move.

Yes, we have moved a note for discussions. Under the rules of business, this is a subject of the home ministry. The formal note will be moved by home ministry after a detailed understanding., said a senior commerce ministry official on the condition of anonymity.

According to the proposal, if a person is granted long term, multiple-entry non-working or non-permanent stay visa and his or her stay is restricted to 60 days on a distinct visit, the government may wave off visa fee as well.

Deliberations will also be held to incorporate the new category in its online e-visa on arrival scheme for short term visits.

Commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that visa issues were cropping up every now and then. We have asked the stakeholders to look into for a relaxation for categories like medical, tourism and business, she said.

The move comes after the launch of governments e-tourist visa on arrival scheme which is now available to nationals of 150 countries.

Under the e-Tourist Visa scheme, an applicant receives an email, authorising him or her to travel to India after it is approved and he or she can travel with a print-out of this authorisation. On arrival, the visitor has to present the authorization to the immigration authorities who would then stamp the entry into the country.

On an average, 3500 e-tourists visas are being granted every day. The government is also planning to extend e-visa on arrival facility for those coming to India for medical treatment.
Police have stepped up investigations into the intermediate merit muddle and detained several people, including the superintendents of the exam and evaluation centres for VR College, Vaishali, which is at the centre of the controversy.

The exam centre was in Hajipur-based GA High School, and the evaluation centre was set up in Patnas Rajendra Nagar Boys High School.

The centre superintendent of GA High School is Kumari Shailja, who happens to be the sister of VR College secretary Bachcha Rai. We are interrogating her, said a senior police officer who did not want to named. The evaluation centre superintendent is also under interrogation. Several clerks of the board and the two institutions have also been detained, while Rai, the alleged kingpin, is absconding.

The investigating teams are also on the lookout for a board official, Ranjit Mishra, who was in-charge of Vaishali district. His role in the irregularities is suspected because it is believed that such a racket could not have succeeded without his knowledge.

The police raided the boards office and two institutions in Vaishali, and seized computers, laptops a number of documents. We have to corroborate facts right from registration, admission, examination to results publication, and there seems to be a larger racket involving board officials as well, said the officer.

Just one day after an FIR was registered in the matter, the officer said, irregularities have emerged that point to the involvement of a number institutions in connivance with board officials. There is already evidence of change of answer books and tampering. We have also talked to board chairman Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh and secretary Hariharnath Jha to gather details, the officer added.

It has also come to light that another girl of VR College, Shalini Rai, daughter of secretary Bachcha Rai, was the topper in science, but her name was later dropped from the merit list. Her result was also stopped, while the board itself came out with her name before the department of education when the controversy snowballed, the officer said.

On the directive of the police headquarters, Patna senior superintendent of police Manu Maharaaj is monitoring the investigation being carried out by four teams. Kotwali deputy police superintendent Shibli Nomani heads the special investigation team.

We may arrest a few detained persons, as the racket seems to be quite deep. We are heading in the right direction and will soon expose the nexus, said the officer.

Education department officials said preliminary investigation has revealed the boards involvement. With chief minister Nitish Kumar particular about exposing the entire nexus, time seems to be up for both the board chairman and the secretary. The chairman has already been served a show-cause [notice] for ordering judicial inquiry on his own and he is yet to reply to that, said an official.

Nitish Kumars ally and Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad said the intermediate results controversy had brought infamy to Bihar and the culprits must be booked.

When questioned about VR College secretary Bachcha Rais RJD affiliation, he shot back: These are the people who were driven out from the party long back. All those who have demeaned Bihar should go to jail.

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Against 4,500 Class-11 seats in nine Schools for the Meritorious in Punjab, a little more than 6,500 students have registered online by Wednesdays deadline.

Nearly 10,000 students of government schools in state who scored 80% or above in the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) Class-10 examinations this year are eligible for these seats but 3,500-odd have not shown interest. This year, the admission will be through a common entrance test (CET) in all 22 districts on June 12.

Also read I At Punjabs meritorious schools, 2.3% students fail

The merit list based on the performance in the test will be uploaded on the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan website, said Meritorious Schools Project director major general KAS Bhullar (retd), adding: The student response is better than the past two years and we expect the competition to be tougher. The Class-11 academic session start on July 15. Reminded of vacant posts in meritorious schools, he said staff recruitment was on.

For lukewarm student response to the Meritorious Schools scheme, education experts blame lack of awareness about the facilities. The schools students also dont get Dr Har Gobind Khorana post-Matric Scholarship, which is worth Rs 30,000 a year. Government schools are reluctant to let go of their bright students.

Last year, 5,023 students registered online against 3,000 seats in six Meritorious Schools (Amritsar, Bathinda, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, SAS Nagar, Patiala).

Entrance on June 12

o Written test in English, mathematics, and science for all streams

o Question paper to be bilingual (English and Punjabi)

o Total marks 150

o Three parts one subject in each, for 50 marks.

o Qualifying marks: Minimum 16.5 in each part, overall 50%.

About project

o Classes: 11 and 12 (induction in Class 11 only)

o Schools: 9 (Amritsar; Bathinda; Jalandhar; Ludhiana; SAS Nagar; Patiala; Gurdaspur; Hakumat Singh Wala village, Ferozepur; and Ghabdhan village, Sangrur).

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With the arrest of four people on Tuesday, police claim to have solved the May 23 case in which seven robbers had killed a security guard on the Kotkapura bypass in Moga and taken away Rs 60 lakh from a taxi moving the Oriental Bank of Commerce cash to nearby Baghapurana town.

Police claim to have seized Rs 7.5-lakh cash, two 0.32-bore pistols, 16 live cartridges, and a Maruti Swift car from accused Jagraj Singh Jagga of Butter Kalan and Baljinder Singh of Baghapuranas Rajeana village.

FORMER DRIVER TIPPED THE GANG

Of the other two men arrested, Rinku of Rajeana is reported to have scouted the taxi and Ranjit Singh Jeeta of Smalsar is its former driver who is believed to have tipped the gang that the vehicle carried cash quite often.

Alleged kingpins Gagandeep Singh Gagna of Hathur and Manpreet Singh of Butter Kalan, besides accomplices Navdeep Singh of Butter Kalan, Lovepreet Singh of Hathur, and Rinku of Sudhaar, are on the run. Ferozepur range deputy inspector general of police (DIG) Ranbir Singh Khatra told the media how on the Budh Singh Wala-Rajeana link road near Sem Nullah, cops had flagged down the Swift car for checking but its occupants had tried to flee. Accused Jagraj Singh was behind the wheel, with Baljinder Singh sitting adjacent. From each we seized a loaded pistol and Rs 1 lakh cash, the DIG said.

Police claim to have also recovered another Rs 3 lakh of the heist money from Jaggas house and Rs 2 lakh from Baljinders house. They claim to have paid Rinku Rs 50,000 for reconnaissance. He is also under arrest and the cash has been recovered, the officer said.

GANG TOOK AWAY RAIDING COPS CAR

DIG Khatra accepted that the gang had taken over the Mahindra Xylo car of an assistant sub-inspector (ASI) after overpowering the cops who gone to raid a house at Butter Kalan village in Moga district during a hunt on May 24, a day after the robbery.

The embarrassed Moga police had tried to hide the incident after HT had brought it out first. Senior officials feigned ignorance about it and didnt even mention it in the first-information report (FIR). Asked why, DIG Khatra said that it was a small matter, as robbery and murder were the main charges.

He (Harjit Singh Pannu) is a young SSP (senior superintendent of police) and we must give him time before he starts to share things with you (reporters), Khatra said, when asked why the Moga SSP had denied the incident.

Two of the gangsters had escaped in this stolen car around 5.30am on Tuesday after firing upon the fivemember raiding party of Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) led by ASI Pahara Singh.
The controversy surrounding the release of Bollywood film Udta Punjab has come as godsend for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to target the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in the run-up to assembly elections slated early next year.

AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal at a rally in Punjab. (HT File Photo)

The AAP had entered the Punjab assembly poll arena with a bang in January this year when party leader and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal addressed a hugely successful rally on the occasion of Maghi Mela. However, over the past months, the party has been hunting hard to look for issues to corner the ruling SAD-BJP alliance in the state.

Also read I Udta Punjab raises political storm; Cong, AAP blame Akali govt for censor cuts

The AAP, aiming to emerge as a key challenger in the poll sweepstakes, has gone all out and hit the SAD where it hurts the most. Its leaders have even repeatedly accused state revenue minister Bikram Singh Majithia of promoting narcotics. (HT File Photo)

The AAP toyed with several issues but nothing could really be turned into a pan-Punjab subject of mass concern. The party spoke vociferously in favour of the farmers, highlighting agriculture distress leading to suicides. Its bid to launch itself back into the slot of the hot favourites through a mega protest march to the chief ministers residence last month on the issue of an alleged Rs 12,000 crore food grain scam also didnt pay off. Instead, its own wavering response on division of river waters with Haryana and the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal dulled the initial dazzle it had created.

Also read I Punjabs drug problem in 5 steps: Facts, figures, falsehoods, and worse

For the Akalis, Udta Punjab could not have come at a worse time than this. Out of all the issues that total up to the overwhelming anti-incumbency that the SAD-BJP combine is facing, rampant drug abuse is at the top. In the past three years, the shift in public perception with respect to drug abuse has gone entirely against the SAD. What was considered to be a matter of personal choice for the drug user and explained away as bad luck by the users family, has come to be a seen as a fault of the government, not just in terms of the police-peddler nexus, but also direct blame being shifted to politicians for their alleged facilitation of drug smugglers.

Read: U-turn on SYL to be political suicide for Kejriwal: Majithia

The AAP, aiming to emerge as a key challenger in the poll sweepstakes, has gone all out and hit the SAD where it hurts the most. Its leaders have even repeatedly accused state revenue minister Bikram Singh Majithia of promoting narcotics. Majithia had reacted by slapping criminal defamation cases against AAP leaders, including Kejriwal, and party state in-charge Sanjay Singh.

Read: Video: AAPs Nasha song on Punjab drug menace targets Badals

While the AAP has been aggressively harping on the drug issue, the Punjab Congress led by Captain Amarinder Singh, has given a virtual clean chit to the government on the issue. It now suits the AAP if a film which focuses on the severity of the problem gets a national attention. If AAP leaders, two of who are actors/stand-up comedians themselves, are able to scale up the issue, riding on the strong voices emerging from Bollywood in support of the film, and revive the debate on drug abuse in Punjab, the issue has the potential to emerge as a key factor in the poll-bound state, much to the discomfort of the Akalis.

Read: Censor acting against Udta Punjab at Badal govts behest: Bhagwant Mann

HT Analysis: The Kejriwal question: Is Punjab that simple, really?

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Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) chief Captain Amarinder Singh on Wednesday staged a dharna against teh SAD-BJP government in Dinanagar and raised issues of farmers. Former PPCC chief Partap Singh Bajwa also joined him.

Video: Congress MLA slaps Sewa Dal chief just before Captain Amarinders dharna

Amarinder led the offensive against the SAD-BJP combine on farmers issues. Significantly for the Congress, Partap Bajwa too joined him on the stage. Held outside a cooperative-run sugar mill here, the dharna also saw participation of former CM Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, Indian Youth Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, partys national secretary Harish Chowdhary, and former state finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal.

In the series of three, the next dharna is in Jalandhar on June 13 on the issue of law and order; and the last in chief minister Parkash Singh Badals constituency, Lambi, on June 18 over corruption.

It is very unfortunate that the farmers of Punjab are committing suicide. I would appeal that they should just wait for six to seven months; once our government comes, we will bring an end to their woes, Amarinder said. He added that the government owed sugarcane growers Rs 250 crore. We will take account of everything and all those on the wrong side, and the Badal family, will be put behind bars.

Putting differences aside for party, Punjab: Bajwa

Bajwa, who recently became a Rajya Sabha member, also attacked the Badals, while urging Congress leaders to be in your constituencies and keep the morale of the workers intact.

With Amarinder sitting next to him, Bajwa added, I will appeal to party workers and leaders to stay together for the Congress. We had differences, have differences, and may have differences in the future too; but, for the party and Punjab, we are together.

Taking a dig at CM Badal, Bajwa said, I will ask Badal to stop his sangat darshan programmes and instead start a dharna outside the house of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. We will support Badal in that. Bhattal too lashed out at the Akali-BJP government for bringing the state to the brink of bankruptcy.
A 25-year-old Dalit youth, on Wednesday morning, succumbed to his injuries, which he had sustained after being assaulted allegedly by liquor contractors at Jhaneri village on Sunday.

The deceased was identified as Bhupinder Singh (25), a resident of Phaguwal village in Sangrur.

The father of the deceased, Harminder Singh, said around one year ago Kulwinder Singh, a liquor contractor, filed an FIR against Bhupinder for selling illicit liquor, the case for which was under proceedings till now. However, a month ago, the contractor started forcing Bhupinder to join his work and smuggle liquor. But Bhupinder refused to do the same, he added.

Harminder said, on Sunday when Bhupinder was out with his friends at 9 pm, he called that he would be coming home shortly. However, Bhupinder never returned home. Harminder said he was sure that Kulwinder and other liquor contractors had beaten his son. He added that the police called him and informed that his son had been injured and was lying at the roadside at Jhaneri village. The police, meanwhile, admitted Bhupinder in the Bhawanigarh hospital.

From there Bhupinder was referred to Rajindra Hospital, Patiala. On Tuesday, he was referred to DMC, Ludhiana where he died during treatment, on Wednesday morning, said the father.

Meanwhile, a police official said on the statement of Harminder, they have registered a case against the liquor contractors under various sections and further investigations were on in the matter.

Also read I Dalit youth murder: Akali councillor, 4 others acquitted

The police said the body has been sent for postmortem. Meanwhile, the accused are still at large.

Meanwhile, the villagers came on roads to protest against the incident and blocked the national highway 64 for over two hours. The villagers have alleged that the police knew where the accused were and are trying to protect them. They said they did not feel safe in Punjab anymore and demanded the police to arrest the accused soon.

Protesters demand arrest of murderers of Dalit girl

Meanwhile, during the protest, residents of Balial village also reached the site. The villagers demanded the arrest of accused in the murderer of a dalit girl whose body was found in a canal at Sangrur on May 5. The protesters said it had been more than a month and the police have yet not arrested the main accused of the murder. The villagers alleged that all the crimes were happening under the eyes of Punjab Police and instead of nabbing the culprits, the police were busy covering up the accused.
Second major emigration fraud in five months has come to light here. Travel agency Aakriti Overseas, operating from Virk Complex near the bus stand, is named in 85 complaints about cheating Punjab and Himachal Pradesh youths on the pretext of sending them to Kuwait.

Earlier 200-odd complaints were registered against Royal Education Consultants of local Karan Chambers. The owner and two employees of Aakriti Overseas, who are booked in the latest case, have gone into hiding. On Wednesday, police recovered 119 passports from the agencys office.

Also read I Another immigration fraud FIR against Jalandhar firm

One of the complainants, Barjinder Pal Singh, son of a retired sub-inspector from Kapurthala, claimed to have paid the agency Rs 70,000 but received fake Kuwait visa on May 10. I fell for the newspaper advertisements in which the agency had claimed that Kuwait required drivers, carpenters, and security guards. The employees and owners now have switched off their mobile phones, he said.

Carpenter Harnek Singh of Rahon road in Ludhiana claimed to have paid a similar amount to the firm. My father sold off some of his land to get me the money. the agencys office is now shut for the past three days. Complaints of cheating are coming in from Mansa, Kapurthala, Pathankot, Patiala, Hoshiarpur, Moga, and Rupnagar in Punjab, besides Una in Himachal Pradesh. Police now have our passports recovered from the agencys office, he said.

Station house officer concerned Navdeep Singh said the raided squad had found the given address of firm owner Sarbjot Singh to be fake. A case under Sections 406 (punishment for criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 24 of Emigration Act (offences and penalties) was registered against three people, including the owner.

Also read I How Flipkart got conned by a Punjab gang via easy return policy

Accused in the Royal Education Consultants fraud, its owner Gagandeep Singh is also at large and court has declared him a proclaimed offender. Police had recovered 400 passports from his bank locker.
After graduating from IIT Mumbai in 2013 and working for a private firm thereafter, Sushil Reddy was set for life. But he had some other plans in his mind.

Concerned over global climate change, Sushil, hailing from drought-ridden Maharashtra, left his job this year and started putting his education gained in IIT to practical use. This is when Sushil, who has earned integrated masters degree in solar energy science and engineering from one of Indias premier most engineering institute, began designing a solar energy powered electric bicycle and decided to ride six states with it and spread the awareness on solar energy.

On Tuesday, this 27-year-old lad reached Bathinda after entering Abohar in Punjab on Monday from Rajasthans Ganganagar. From Punjab, he would go to Uttarakhand, then Delhi and from there, to Mumbai via Rajasthan. On this mission, he is not alone. Accompanied by three friends- Rajinder Bhaskar, Krunal Tailor and Himanshu Singh- they started from IIT on May 8 and travelled through various parts of Gujarat and Rajasthan. Sushil and Rajinder ride on the bicycle whereas Krunal and Himanshu Singh travel on a four-wheeler behind them as support team. They all travel about 100 to 120 kilometres daily on average. On their way, they spread awareness among school children, engineering and other college students and professional engineers at various cities.

They also talk to passers-by on road, who come to them after getting intrigued with bicycles design, tell them about the benefits and uses of solar energy. Sushil said, Earlier I had designed a bicycle with solar panel fitted on as roof and travelled from Mumbai to Goa in December 2015, but it had some technical limitations so I changed the design again. He said now he has modified a manually operated geared cycle into electric plus manually operated cycle. He fitted a 250 watt electric motor in rear axle of the cycle which draws its power from a lithium-ion battery and generates about 300 horsepower.

The battery takes two hours to charge completely from the solar panel, which is resting on a small trolley, hooked to the cycle. Riding under the motto- The Sun Pedal Run- he said that solar energy was the best source of energy and could be used as the best alternative source of all non recyclable sources. Sushil said that when he designed the cycle in March 2015, he contacted the sponsors and planned the bicycle ride through six states in 70 days. He now wants to raise funds for a non government organisation to provide solar energy system to a school in Jatrana village of Rajasthan. Sushil and his team will go to Amritsar, Jalandhar and Ludhiana and then would go to Chandigarh. After that they will go to Roorkee in Uttarakhand and then Delhi, from where they would head to Mumbai.
Acting on the petition of Patiala MLA Preneet Kaur, a three-member team of Punjab Vidhan Sabhas Questions and References Committee inspected various parks located at Jyoti Enclave, Master Tara Singh Park and those in Model Town, besides reviewing the condition of seasonal rivulet Jacob drain near Government Mohindra College, Patiala on Tuesday.

The ground inspection was carried out on the orders Punjab Vidhan Sabha speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal after Preneet Kaur moved a plea before him, saying that she was not satisfied with the official response of the state government on spending crores to keep up Patialas green parks and seasonal rivulet clean, during proceeding of last Vidhan Sabha session in March.

As part of its inspection, the committee members, including Sundar Sham Arora, Bharat Bhushan Ashu and Surinder Dawar, visited several sites even as local Congress supporters were found eager to show them how the local municipal corporation (MC) was not at all keeping the city clean.

The Congress leader in MC, Sanjeev Bittu, said todays inspection by the team would definitely nail the false claims of the state government and the local MC since team members were themselves privy to the bad condition of citys parks and further how drain has turned into dumping yard due to the MCs negligence.

A member of the committee, Bharat Bhushan Ashu, refused to share their observations. He told HT that their job was to carry out on the spot inspection which they have done today. We will accordingly submit our report to the Vidhan Sabha speaker for further perusal of the case, he added.

Meanwhile, Patiala MLA Praneet Kaur said the committee members looked for themselves how the parks were not maintained. The government had claimed in the Vidhan Sabha that it had spent `4.75 crore on the maintenance on 98 parks during the past five years, which is completely wrong, she said.

According to her, the city was under complete mess as development had come to a standstill. More than 60 parks are lying encroached and little has been done by the MC to upkeep the existing parks, she claimed

Besides, local bodies minister Anil Joshi has himself asserted in his reply that out of total of 235 parks, the MC was maintaining only 98, which itself revealed MCs lack of concern for citys green belts, said Preneet Kaur.

Speaking on the Jacob Drain, she said the committee members interacted with a large number of local residents who informed them that de-silting of the drain had not been carried out for years, whereas the government claimed that it was being done on annual basis and lakhs of rupees were paid for the work.

I am sure that my effort for spot inspection by the committee concerned will bring out the factual position with regard to the deteriorating condition of the green parks and also the Jacob drain and directions will be issued to respective officials to ensure development here, said Preneet Kaur.

Meanwhile, mayor Amarinder Singh Bajaj said the MC extended full co-operation to the committee and provided all the information sought by them. The allegations raised by Congress workers are false and misleading since the city has seen a lot of development in past several years, he added.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the Committee, Manpreet Singh Ayalli, could not join the inspection. However, presence of three members was enough to complete the quorum for the meeting and inspection. MLA Preneet Kaur accompanied them throughout the inspection along with MC senior officials and administration.
Karthik Subbaraj (of Pizza and Jigarthanda fame), whose latest Tamil work Iraivi hit the screens last week, now finds himself in trouble. One of the characters in the film, a movie producer, is portrayed as a villain whose refusal to release a picture drives its director, Arul (played by SJ Suryah), to drink and destruction.

Even though, one is familiar with such stories -- not just among the cinema fraternity but also in other trades and professions -- the Tamil Film Producers Council is peeved over the manner in which Subbaraj has depicted the producer in Iraivi. An absolutely gory scene where the man is bludgeoned to death by Michael (Vijay Sethupathi) -- a close pal of Arul -- has being seen by the council as a reflection of Subbarajs anger against the Jigarthanda producer, Kathiresan. The two had apparently fallen out. A case is now in court.

The vice president of the council, Thenappan, said that Subbaraj had changed the original story as he was shooting Iravi. What Subbaraj said initially and what has finally emerged are two different things. He even hesitated to show the progress of the post-production work to his producer.

Read: Iraivi review | A dark tale of male arrogance

Iraivi stars SJ Surya, Vijay Sethupathi and Bobby Simha in lead roles.

One of Iraivis presenters, producer KE Gnanavelraja, too appeared upset with Subbaraj. In a report appearing on the portal, indiaglitz.com, Gnanavelraja said: Unlike others, Karthik Subbaraj doesnt know the pain of becoming a director as he never worked as an assistant to anyone... Now with Iraivi, the director has not only overshot the budget but also put the producer (CV Kumar) in an insecure state.

Read: My role in Iraivi both refreshing and challenging, says Kamalinee

While Subbaraj promised to complete Iraivi in Rs 7 crores, he over spent, taking the cost to Rs 13.5 crores, including print and publicity. Kumar had to release the movie on a deficit, and while Iraivi has seemingly done well in urban multiplexes, it has fared poorly in B and C centres -- going by footfalls, although actual figures are yet to be compiled.

Sreedhar Pillai, a Chennai-based trade analyst, felt that budgets must be strictly adhered to. A new age director like Subbaraj must have an idea of his market, and refrain from overshooting his budget. After all, Subbaraj cannot hope to spend the kind of money someone like Shankar or any other commercial director in the big league do.

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Actor Ajaz Khan of Bigg Boss fame has been booked by Versova police for allegedly sending messages to a model insulting her modesty.

According to Versova police, the 25-year-old model approached them with a complaint against the actor after which an FIR was registered on Tuesday.

Quoting Aishwarya Choubeys complaint, police said Khan allegedly sent her his objectionable photo, which she later deleted. She has claimed that Khan sent her vulgar messages on a popular messaging platform.

Kiran Kale, a senior inspector with the Versova police station, said, We have registered an FIR under Section 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) and 509 (word, gesture or act insulting the modesty of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code.

Read: All you need to know about Entertainment

When inside the Bigg Boss house, Ajaz Khan was one the centre of of most of the controversies.

The actor has been asked to be present before the police station at the earliest.

Choubey had approached Versova police and submitted her complaint, following which an FIR was registered against the actor. In her letter, the starlet said this was not a publicity stunt and that she was lodging the complaint to expose Khan.

Read: Latest updates from TV

While attempts to reach Ajaz went unanswered, the actor posted a video on his Facebook where does not mention the case directly but alleges that media should avoid running stories on mere controversies.

Police have summoned Khan who has not been arrested so far.

(With PTI inputs)

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Parents of television actor Pratyusha Banerjee, who died in April, on Wednesday launched a signature campaign in her home town Jamshedpur to garner support for a CBI probe into her pre-planned cold-blooded murder.

The Maharashtra government is also contemplating to approach the Supreme Court seeking further investigation.

On April 1, the 24-year-old actor, who shot to fame for her role of Anandi in the hit TV series Balika Vadhu, allegedly committed suicide by hanging herself inside her flat at Goregaon area in Mumbai.

Her parents, Shankar and Soma Banerjee, said their fight for justice would continue and they would write to President Pranab Mukherjee seeking his permission for euthanasia if the case was not probed impartially.

Read: TV actor Pratyusha Banerjee of Balika Vadhu fame commits suicide

Pratyusha Banerjee allegedly committed suicide by hanging herself inside her flat at Goregaon area in Mumbai. (IANS)

They said they wanted justice and demanded a capital punishment for Rahul Raj, Pratyushas boyfriend.

We will move the SC after the vacation ends on June 28 challenging the bail granted to the accused Rahul Raj Singh by the Mumbai high court. I have already apprised the state government about the case and will tell the SC that the state government wants to investigate the case further, Nilesh Pawaskar, special public prosecutor representing the prosecution in the case, told HT.

Vipin Nayar, the SC lawyer who pleaded Pratyushas parents petition in the SC challenging bail given to Rahul, said, We have withdrawn the petition and will decide the next course of action after the chargesheet is filed.

Read: Pratyusha Banerjee wanted to file a case against boyfriend Rahul

Pawaskar said Pratyushas parents petition had to be withdrawn as the SC had earlier ruled in a separate case (Sandip Kumar Bafna vs state of Maharashtra) that complainant (individuals) had no locus standi in such cases and the onus was on the state government to take a stand and move the court.

Hundreds of residents signed a public pledge demanding justice for Pratyusha and a CBI probe into her mysterious death on Wednesday evening at a public rally at Bata Chowk inside Sakchi market.

We held this signature campaign here this evening as it was Pratyushas city. We are also holding a campaign on social media for our petition on www.change.org and so far over 700 people have signed it. We will also hold a signature campaign in Mumbai, Pratyushas workplace, where her colleagues, friends and the media have given support to us. We have also approached the PMO, Shankar told HT.

Read: Pratyusha Banerjee death | Medicines, alcohol found during house search

Pratyushas parents would also meet Jharkhand chief minister Raghubar Das and Jharkhand state commission for women (JSCW) chairperson Mahua Maji in Ranchi on Thursday.

We hope the CM would take up the cause for the states daughter and approach his counterpart in Maharashtra so that the case is probed properly. We will also provide them the copies of our petitions to the President, home minister Rajnath Singh and Maharashtra CM, said Soma Banerjee.

Pratyushas parents said they had bank documents showing withdrawal of about Rs 60 lakh by Rahul from Pratyushas accounts.

Two days before Pratyushas death on April 1, Rs 30 lakh was withdrawn and both her ICICI and HDFC bank ATM-cum-Debits cards were with Rahul. He also sold Pratyushas Chevrolet Optra car. Mumbai police must probe cheating allegations against him by seven other girls some of which are still pending in the court or police stations. Rahuls first lawyer was Ashok Sarawgi who fought mafia don Abu Salems case and was later arrested, alleged Pratyushas parents.

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Already the presumptive Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton sailed to victory in Tuesdays primary in New Jersey, one of six states voting across the country. Rival Bernie Sanders hoped a strong showing in California, the nights biggest prize, would raise doubts about Clintons historic achievement and spur superdelegate to rally around him instead.

Donald Trump won Republican primaries in New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota, capping an otherwise difficult day for the presumptive GOP nominee. Party leaders recoiled at Trumps comments about a Hispanic judge, with one senator even pulling his endorsement.

Trump was conciliatory at his victory rally, saying he understands the responsibility of leading the Republican Party. He also made a direct appeal to dejected Sanders supporters and other Democrats.

This election isnt about Republican or Democrat, its about who runs this country: the special interests or the people, he said.

Clintons win in New Jersey came a day after she secured the 2,383 delegates she needed to become first female presumptive nominee of a major political party, according to an Associated Press tally. Her total includes pledged delegates won in primaries and caucuses, as well as superdelegates - the party officials and officeholders who can back a candidate of their choosing.

To every little girl who dreams big: Yes, you can be anything you want_even president. Tonight is for you, Clinton wrote on Twitter shortly after she won New Jersey.

We are at the brink of a historic, historic unprecedented moment, she said during a rally in California on Monday.

Clinton and Sanders were both pressing for victory in California, each eager to effectively end their primary battle on a high note. However, the California results might not be known Tuesday night; more than half of Californians vote by mail, and the deadline for returned ballots isnt until Friday, as long as they are postmarked by Election Day.

Contests were also being held in Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota and South Dakota.

Clinton was waiting until most of the voting was complete before fully reveling in becoming the first woman nominated by a major U.S. political party. She was to address supporters at a victory party in Brooklyn, where her campaign planned to run a gauzy video highlighting the achievements of women who helped clear a path.

Still, she was wasting no time moving toward the general election. Her campaign announced that she would make stops next week in Ohio and Pennsylvania, states that will be pivotal in November.

Sanders hoped a victory would help in his so-far-unsuccessful bid to get Clinton superdelegates to switch their support. Asked on NBC whether he was continuing that effort, he said, We are. Were on the phone right now.

The superdelegates who were counted in Clintons total told the AP they were unequivocally supporting her.

Trump, after vanquishing his last opponents about a month ago, has continued to make controversial statements, frustrating party leaders.

The latest cause for GOP concern was his insistence that a judge handling a legal case involving the businessman was being unfair in his rulings. Trump has said US district judge Gonzalo Curiel cant be impartial because the jurists parents were born in Mexico and Trump wants to build a wall along the border.

Illinois Senator Mark Kirk, who is locked in a close re-election fight, became the first lawmaker to pull his endorsement of Trump. House speaker Paul Ryan said the businessmans assertion was the textbook definition of a racist comment but he would continue to support Trump.

Trump released a statement saying he does not feel ones heritage makes them incapable of being impartial. But he still questioned whether he was receiving fair treatment in the case involving the now-defunct Trump University.

If some Republicans harboured hopes of edging Trump off the Republican ticket at the party convention, that was likely to be dashed in Tuesdays uncontested GOP primaries. Trump should end the night with enough delegates who are required by party rules to vote for him, whatever their personal views.

His shaky support among Republicans stands in stark contrast to the Democratic leaders mobilising behind Clinton.

The former secretary of state, first lady and senator secured support Tuesday from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who represents a California district. And Clinton will soon have help on the campaign trail from President Barack Obama. Her 2008 foe is to endorse her as early as this week, a move meant to signal to Sanders and his supporters that its time to unify behind her.

Obama and Sanders spoke by phone Sunday. While the content of the call is unknown, Sanders campaign has appeared to slightly soften its rhetoric since the call.

Dianne Feinstein of California said Sanders and Clinton should march on to a general election together, and any Sanders plan to keep fighting until the Democratic National Convention is going to make that much more difficult.

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said that for Sanders I think the math is unforgiving.

Sanders achievements have been remarkable for a candidate who was unknown to most Americans before the campaign. He has drawn massive crowds to rallies around the country and built a fundraising juggernaut based largely on small donations online. The Vermont senator has been particularly popular with young voters, an important piece of the Democratic coalition.

Still, Clintons victory has been broadly decisive. She leads Sanders by more than 3 million cast votes.

After her win in New Jersey, Clinton had 2,433 delegates to Sanders 1,606. That count includes both pledged delegates and superdelegates.
Afghan authorities on Wednesday recovered bullet-ridden bodies of 12 security officials recently captured by the Taliban in eastern Ghazni province, while gunmen kidnapped 40 others in the countrys north as the insurgency escalates.

The violence underscores Afghanistans fragile security situation as the Taliban, who launched their annual spring offensive in April, rejected government calls this week for a ceasefire during the holy month of Ramadan.

The 12 soldiers, police and intelligence officers were captured over the past two months from different highway crossings in the insurgency-prone province of Ghazni.

The bodies... of our personnel captured by the enemy were discovered in Andar district this morning, Ghaznis Governor Mohammad Aman Hamim told reporters.

Separately, insurgents abducted 40 bus passengers in Kunduz on Wednesday, in the second such group abduction in the northern province in less than two weeks, officials said.

Seven other passengers managed to escape when Taliban fighters stopped the bus on the highway near Kunduz city, said police spokesman Mahfuzullah Akbari.

The Taliban have so far not commented on the 12 captives and the latest abduction.

The latter came after the Taliban killed 10 bus passengers, many of them summarily executed, and kidnapped dozens of others in Kunduz last week.

The insurgents said they were targeting Afghan security officials aboard the buses, and Amnesty International condemned the abductions.

The kidnapping by an armed group of scores of civilians... in Kunduz represents an abhorrent new tactic that endangers civilian lives by ensnaring them in the conflict, the rights group said in a statement.

By kidnapping a large group of civilians for the second time in as many weeks, armed groups have demonstrated contempt for the security of ordinary people. Combatants in a conflict have a responsibility to protect civilian life.

The Taliban have stepped up attacks after announcing Haibatullah Akhundzada as their new leader on May 25, elevating a low-profile religious figure after officially confirming the death of Mullah Mansour in a US drone strike.

Observers say Akhundzada, who is seen as more of a spiritual figurehead than a military commander, will emulate Mansour in shunning peace talks and intensify attacks against the Afghan government.
Not many lend much credence to opinion polls after their poor show during the May 2015 general election, but if bookmakers are to be believed, it is a close race between the Remain and Leave camps in the June 23 referendum on Britains future in the EU.

The gap between the camps is narrowing, according to bookmakers Coral, who are offering odds of 1-3 that Britain will vote to remain in the European Union and odds of 12-5 that the vote will be for a Brexit.

A spokesman said: "The flurry of recent bets weve had on Leave means that the referendum is getting closer to call. Ten days ago the odds were so firmly in favour of Remain there was even talk of bookies paying out early, but since then, the money has come for Leave to such a significant degree, we are hardly taking a bet of note on Remain, and the gap between both sides is narrowing all the time according to our odds.

Following the money and avoiding the spin might be the wisest choice for punters when it comes to predicting this outcome.

The bookmakers analysis came within hours of another live appearance by Prime Minister David Cameron and UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage on ITV on Tuesday night. Both faced similar questions and provided similar answers with practised ease.

Former foreign secretary William Hague, a Eurosceptic-turned-Europhile, said on Wednesday leaving the EU risked the fragmentation of the western world. He said the political climate had shifted significantly since the mid-1990s, when his hostility to the EU was at its peak.

Hague told BBC he saw the EU as the lesser of evils compared with the damage a leave vote will deliver to the economy and to international instability. We are in an imperfect world and many of the choices we make in life or in politics are between the lesser of evils, he said.

I remain a critic of the EUbut you still have to make a cool-headed decision when it comes to leaving. It is in the interests of the people of this country, in the interests of their jobs and businesses in particular (to remain in the EU).

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Hillary Clinton celebrated her triumph as the first woman to lead a major party in a race for the White House, scoring big wins in California and New Jersey to cement her grip on the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination.

The former first lady, US senator and secretary of state spoke to supporters at a raucous event in Brooklyn, New York, and placed her achievement in the context of the womens rights movement.

Thanks to you, we have reached a milestone, Clinton said in a speech. We all owe so much to who came before.

Read | Bernie Sanders vows to stay in Democratic nomination race

Supporters hug as Democratic US.presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at her California presidential primary night rally in Brooklyn, New York. (Reuters)

Clinton appealed to supporters of party rival Bernie Sanders. She said Democrats had been bolstered by his campaign for eradicating income inequality, which has commanded huge crowds and galvanized younger voters. Not yet ready to concede, Sanders vowed to fight on.

Clinton also harshly attacked Donald Trump, her presumptive Republican rival in the Nov. 8 presidential election, for using divisive rhetoric that belittled women, Muslims and immigrants. She took specific aim at his condemnation of an Indiana-born judge of Mexican heritage.

The stakes in this election are high and the choice is clear. Donald Trump is temperamentally unfit to be president and commander in chief, Clinton said.

When Donald Trump says a distinguished judge born in Indiana cant do his job because of his Mexican heritage, or he mocks a reporter with disabilities, or calls women pigs, it goes against everything we stand for, she said.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday showed Clinton leading Trump by 10 percentage points nationally as they launch their general election battle, little changed from a week earlier.

Read | Obama congratulates Hillary Clinton, will meet Bernie Sanders

Supporters gather to hear Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks during her California primary night rally held in the Brooklyn borough of New York June 7, 2016. (Reuters)

OBAMA, SANDERS TO MEET

Clinton edged Sanders out in a rough-and-tumble battle that stretched over four months and 50 states. She won support, especially among older voters, with a more pragmatic campaign focused on building on the policies of her fellow Democrat, President Barack Obama.

Obama called both Clinton and Sanders on Tuesday. The White House said he congratulated her on securing the delegates necessary to clinch the nomination and would meet Sanders on Thursday at Sanders request.

The Associated Press called the race in California for Clinton early on Wednesday. Clinton won 56 percent to Sanders 43 percent, avoiding what would have been an embarrassing loss in Americas most populous state. The California win came on the heels of a decisive win in New Jersey and narrower victories in New Mexico and South Dakota in Tuesdays nominating contests. Sanders won Montana and North Dakota.

A defeat in California would have reinforced doubts about Clintons candidacy. Now, she can turn her attention to healing her fractured party and drawing in Sanders passionate supporters.

Clintons credentials for office have not been a serious issue, but a scandal stemming from her use of a private email account while at the State Department hangs over her head as she enters the general election campaign.

Clinton, 68, will also be running against the current of this election season, one that has favored outsiders like Trump and Sanders. In Trump, 69, she has an unpredictable opponent who shreds the standard campaign rule book on an almost daily basis.

Read | Hillary Clinton declares victory in Democratic race, hails a milestone

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton shares a moment on stage with husband, former US president Bill Clinton during her primary night event at the Duggal Greenhouse, Brooklyn Navy Yard, June 7, 2016 in New York. (AFP)

FEW OPTIONS

For his part, Sanders, 74, seems to have few options left.

Democratic Party elites are lined up squarely behind Clinton, including most likely Obama, who may endorse his former secretary of state as early as this week. Pressure will mount on Sanders to exit graciously and throw his support to Clinton.

Eight years ago in June 2008, Clinton did exactly that when she ended her bitter primary fight with Obama. At the time, it appeared unclear whether Obama would be able to garner the support of Clintons most ardent backers, but that election drew the highest voter turnout in generations.

At a rally in Santa Monica on Tuesday, Sanders showed no interest in ending his upstart candidacy, telling cheering supporters he would go on campaigning through next Tuesdays primary in the District of Columbia and carry his political mission - although not necessarily his campaign - to the party convention in Philadelphia next month.

We are going to fight hard to win the primary in Washington, D.C., he said. And then we take our fight for social, economic, racial and environmental justice to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Democratic presidential candidate former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks during a primary night event on June 7, 2016 in Brooklyn, New York. (AFP)

Prominent Democrats say that unifying the party now is the highest priority, and that if Sanders maintains his challenge to Clinton through the July 25-28 convention, Trump will benefit.

We have our work cut out for us, said U.S. Representative Alan Lowenthal, a Democrat from Long Beach, California. My overriding fear is that we get divided, and Donald Trump could win the election.

Even if Sanders does concede, his supporters may not go quietly. Several told Reuters in recent days that they would have trouble supporting Clinton in a matchup against Trump, saying they either would not vote or would support a third-party candidate.

People right now are talking if Bernie doesnt get the nomination, they are deregistering as Democrats, said Susan Hartley, 71, a lawyer from Northern California, who was part of the noisy throng of thousands at a Sanders rally in an aircraft hangar in Santa Monica. People are really upset.
A new smartphone app designed to alert users to possible terror attacks will be launched by the French government Wednesday, amid growing security concerns over the Euro 2016 football tournament.

The application, which will be free to download in both French and English, will send users a warning in case of a suspected attack, said the interior ministry, which has piloted and introduced the service.

It will also alert users -- who must agree to be geolocated -- about unexpected events such as the breaching of flood defences.

Alerts will appear on the app less than 15 minutes after the incident has been confirmed by authorities, and will be customised according to users exact location.

App users will also be able monitor alerts for up to eight different geographical zones, allowing them to check on family members or friends.

It will also provide advice on how to stay safe, with information tailored to each particular situation, the ministry added.

The idea emerged after the November 2015 terror attacks in Paris, with Prime Minister Manuel Valls pushing for it to be launched in time for Euro 2016.

The government hopes the app will help users -- or app ambassadors as it calls them -- spread reliable, official information about the security situation across social media.

This could help prevent Frances emergency services hotlines from becoming overwhelmed, said interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve, adding the app would keep the public up to date with what we know.

Authorities have pledged to protect the privacy of users.

The launch comes a day after Britain warned that stadiums and fan zones could be targeted during Euro 2016.


Hillary Clinton declared herself the Democratic Party nominee for US president on Tuesday, embracing her role in history as the first woman to lead a major party in a race for the White House.

The former first lady, US senator and secretary of state celebrated her victory in the nominating race over rival Bernie Sanders at a raucous event with supporters in Brooklyn, New York, where Clinton placed her achievement in the context of the long history of the womens rights movement.

Thanks to you, we have reached a milestone, Clinton said in a speech. We all owe so much to who came before.

Clinton, 68, spoke shortly after beating Sanders in New Jerseys nominating contest, expanding her lead in the delegates needed to clinch the nomination and setting up a five-month general election campaign against presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump in the Nov. 8 election.

New Jersey was one of six states holding contests on Tuesday, including California, the big prize where Clinton was still at risk of an embarrassing loss to Sanders as she heads into the campaign against Trump.

Polls in California closed at 11 pm ET (0300 GMT on Wednesday), but news networks said the race was too close to call.

In her speech, Clinton appealed to Sanders supporters to join her and said the Democratic Party had been bolstered by his campaign for eradicating income inequality, which has commanded huge crowds and galvanized younger voters.

Clinton edged Sanders out, especially among older voters, with a more pragmatic campaign focused on building on the policies of her fellow Democrat, President Barack Obama.

Although Sanders will be unable to catch Clinton even if he wins the primary in California, Americas most populous state, a triumph there could fuel his continued presence in the race and underscore Clintons weaknesses as she battles Trump.

The White House issued a statement saying Obama had called both Clinton and Sanders on Tuesday. It said he congratulated her on securing the delegates necessary to clinch the nomination and would meet Sanders on Thursday at Sanders request.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton arrives onstage during a primary night rally at the Duggal Greenhouse in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, June 7, 2016 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (AFP Photo)

Trump temperamentally unfit

Clinton harshly attacked Trump for using divisive rhetoric that belittled women, Muslims and immigrants, and took specific aim at his recent condemnation of an Indiana-born judge of Mexican heritage.

The stakes in this election are high and the choice is clear. Donald Trump is temperamentally unfit to be president and commander-in-chief, she said.

When Donald Trump says a distinguished judge born in Indiana cant do his job because of his Mexican heritage, or he mocks a reporter with disabilities, or calls women pigs, it goes against everything we stand for, she said.

Clinton also won in New Mexico and South Dakota and narrowly led in Montana, while Sanders, 74, was projected to win in North Dakota on the final night of big presidential nominating battles that began on Feb. 1 in Iowa. The District of Columbia, the last to vote, holds a Democratic primary next Tuesday.

In a fundraising email to supporters, Clinton declared her campaign had broken one of the highest, hardest glass ceilings.

On Twitter, she said: To every little girl who dreams big: Yes, you can be anything you want - even president. Tonight is for you.

Clintons race against Trump, 69, will unfold amid an ongoing investigation of her use of a personal email server while secretary of state. Opinion polls show the controversy has hurt Clintons ratings on honesty and trustworthiness.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday showed Clinton leads Trump by 10 percentage points nationally as they launch their general election battle, little changed from a week ago.

Party unity

Clinton now must try to unify the party and win over Sanders supporters. But Sanders, a democratic socialist U.S. senator from Vermont, has vowed to stay in the race until Julys party convention that formally picks the nominee, defying growing pressure from party leaders to exit the race.

A Sanders campaign spokesman castigated what he said was the medias rush to judgment after the Associated Press and NBC reported on Monday night that Clinton had clinched the number of delegates needed to win the nomination.

Clintons victories on Tuesday ensured she will have a lead in the pledged delegates won in nominating contests. Clinton clinched the nomination with the added support of superdelegates, party leaders who are free to back any candidate.

Steven Acosta, a 47-year-old teacher living in Los Angeles, voted for Clinton on Tuesday, saying that was partly because he believed she stood a better chance of winning in November.

I like what Bernie Sanders says and I agree with almost everything that he says, Acosta said. The problem is that I think Republicans would really unify ... even more against him.

Trump, who became his partys presumptive nominee last month, outlasting 16 Republican challengers, is struggling to get the partys leaders solidly behind him after a bitter primary campaign during which he made a series of controversial statements directed at Muslims, Latinos, women and the disabled.

On Tuesday night he addressed a crowd of supporters in New York, welcoming Sanders supporters with open arms should they decide to support him and declaring a new phase of the campaign had begun.

I am going to give a major speech on probably Monday of next week, and we are going to be discussing all of the things that have taken place with the Clintons, he said. I think you are going to find it very informative and very, very interesting. I wonder if the press will want to attend.

Read | US polls: How Hillary Clinton bested Sanders in the battle of Democrats

Read| Hillary has delegates to win democratic nomination: AP count
Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Asif caused outrage when he called Shireen Mazari, a portly female opposition lawmaker, a tractor trolley in the National Assembly on Wednesday, evoking strong criticism on social media.

Targeting the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf leader who was interrupting him loudly throughout his explanation on load-shedding during Ramadan, an exasperated Asif pointed towards her and said: Someone make this tractor trolley keep quiet.

The minister did not stop there, but also commented on her manly voice.

It will be better if you first transform your masculine voice into a more feminine one, Asif told Mazari.

When Mazari, who hails from the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, stood up in protest and demanded an apology, an unrepentant Asif said: I am not going to apologise, they can do whatever they want.

Mazari later tweeted, Told Asif if he had any sharm or haya he would know how to deal with women but he was besharam and behaya! Luckily my voice louder than his.

The PTI leader also said the party will not keep quiet.

An ill-mannered person is governments minister. Khawaja Asif lacks morals and ethics, she added.

Condemning Asifs remarks, PTI spokesman Naeemul Haq said: Khawaja Asif should be hung upside down for his vulgarity and misbehaviour, and should be beaten with a shoe 25 times in the morning and 25 times in the evening.

Not only did Asifs comments create chaos in the Assembly, but people from across the country took to Twitter to disapprove of his behaviour.

Khawaja Asif such a disgusting person taking out frustration of rigging? He doesnt deserve to be in NA should apologize on floor, tweeted Sania Khan.

Another tweeter account handled by some Fahim Maqsoon called Asif a joker and said Asif has no manners at all. We dont know what sort of things he says to his wife& mother!
The suicide of an Indo-Canadian correspondent for Torontos highest circulated daily has roiled Canadas media world amid calls for an independent investigation into the tragedy.

The 42-year-old Raveena Aulakh, who worked in the past for HT City in Chandigarh, reportedly committed suicide on May 28 but it did not become public till very recently.

In an article in the newspaper she worked at, Toronto Star, its public editor Kathy English wrote that Aulakh had made revelations and allegations about the staff at the newspaper in emails she sent to several people in the newsroom shortly before she died.

English said the last thing this award-winning global environment reporter wanted was to be the focus of this story about her suicide and its aftermath. English wrote Aulakh explicitly asked her paper not to publish an obituary.

Those emails revealed that Raveena and Jon Filson, the senior manager, who had led the Stars tablet project in the past year, had been involved in a relationship for some time that had ended recently. Further, the clearly heartbroken reporter made allegations in those emails about an improper relationship between Filson and his boss, managing editor, Jane Davenport, English wrote in her article, which appeared on Wednesday.

Filson is no longer with the newspaper and Davenport has been moved out of the newsroom while editors conduct an internal investigation.

Meanwhile, Unifor Local 87-M, the union that represents the Stars employees, has sought an independent investigation into the tragedy. It sent a memorandum to the company and stated that for transparencys sake, we are calling for a third-party investigation into a newsroom tragedy.

Aulakh was an award-winning environmental correspondent who often reported from her native India and neighbouring countries such as Bangladesh.
Hillary Clinton won four of six Democratic party nominating contests on Tuesday to become the first woman from a major party to run for US president, smashing the glass ceiling she left cracked but intact in 2008.

Clinton is now the presumptive Democratic nominee who will face Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, in the general election five months away in November.

But her rival for the nomination, Bernie Sanders, has refused to bow out and reiterated in a late night address his determination to go right up to the Democratic convention in July.

Clinton won California, the delegates-rich big prize of the night, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota; and Sanders took the remaining two, North Dakota and Montana.

Her combined total of delegates  pledged and un-pledged superdelegates  was much more than the 2,383 needed to clinch the nomination; she now has 2,755 delegates.

But with just 2,184 of them being pledged delegates (the rest are superdelegates), she misses the threshold, which is pointed out by Sanders as his reason for continuing the battle.

President Barack Obama, who spoke to both on Tuesday, is meeting Sanders on Thursday at the candidates request, and may persuade him to exit the race in the interest of the party.

Clinton, who spoke of the glass ceiling after her failed run for the nomination in 2008 and the 18 million cracks she left on it (votes she polled in the primaries), has moved on already.

Praising Sanders and his extraordinary campaign, Clinton pitched for party unity in her victory speech, saying, As we look ahead to the battle that awaits, lets remember all that unites us.

That battle ahead, of course, is Trump, who has been under fire for his racist remarks about a federal judge overseeing cases against his now defunct Trump University.

He has been criticised even by his own party. Speaker Paul Ryan called the remarks indefensible and Mark Kirk, a senator seeking re-election, has withdrawn his endorsement of Trump.

A chastened Trump has claimed his comment about the judge was misconstrued, and on Tuesday sought to rejoin battle with Clinton in remarks read uncharacteristically from a teleprompter.

I am going to give a major speech on probably Monday of next week and were going to be discussing all of the things that have taken place with the Clintons, he said, flanked by his family.

The real estate magnate has targeted the Clintons  including former president Bill Clinton  with personal attacks before, calling the Democratic nominee an enabler of her husbands infidelities.

But some experts have said they have no reason to believe his personal tirades will be any more effective this time than they were in the past  this is not Hillary Clintons first election.

She first ran in 2000 for the Senate, and won. Then she ran for the Democratic party nomination for the White House, which she lost to then first-time senator Barack Obama.

Though Clinton has decided to not respond to personal attacks and said she will stay focussed on policies instead, she hit Trump in a surprisingly hard-hitting speech recently.

Many commentators said Trump hasnt been the same since, flayed at the same time by his own party for his remarks about the judge. His speech on Monday will be his comeback.
M ayor Sadiq Khan is just over a month into his new job and it is beginning to dawn on him that solving Londons housing problems is not going to be easy. His pre-election pledge to build 50,000 homes a year with 50 per cent of them affordable already seems out of reach.

I cant solve it [Londons housing crisis] overnight, he told Homes & Property. Instead, he could only promise bad news for the capitals desperate would-be buyers for the foreseeable future.

Heaping blame on his predecessor, he conceded that for now, we are going to be churning out homes that Boris Johnson gave permission for. And they are not affordable.

He explains that it takes at least two years to build homes once they are approved. So for two years Londons new homes will have been given the go-ahead in the Boris era  only 13 per cent of which are defined as affordable, up to a budget-busting 450,000.

Revealed: London's top property news stories 1 /40 Revealed: London's top property news stories Southwark council moves to save historic arches A London council is stepping in to save its historic railway arches, after a rush of applications to convert them into homes.



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> Scroll right for more of London's top property news stories... Alamy Stock Photo Canning Town revealed as the most affordable property hotspot along the new 24-hour Night Tube route New research reveals the 10 most affordable stops to buy along the newest branch of Londons weekend Night Tube network...



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Daniel Lynch London's property hotspots for "second steppers" New research reveals the capitals top locations for first-time owners trading up in the suburbs. Here's where to start your search for good-value homes with more space...



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New-look 2016 Monopoly board for London's first-time buyers Barking and Bexley replace Old Kent Road and Whitechapel as the capital's cheapest property hotspots. Discover the average cost of buying in every London borough...



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Barratt London Top 30 fastest-rising hotspots for first-time buyers from Peckham to Walthamstow South-east London postcodes are a favourite with the capital's first-timers, but discover which areas are proving to be the best investment for newbie buyers...



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Bob Comics_Flickr City of London set to ban cars and trucks at Bank Junction The junction outside the Bank of England could become a bus and bike-only zone as early as next spring in an effort to reduce regular traffic accidents.



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100 days after Brexit: how the UK's vote to leave the EU has impacted the property market We ask UK property experts how Brexit has effected the housing market and what the future holds...



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> Scroll right for more of London's top property news stories... Shutterstock London borough of Redbridge is home to the capital's most satisfied residents The north-east London borough containing Ilford, Woodford and Wanstead has the best levels of life satisfaction in the capital, according to the latest data from the Office of National Statistics. So, what makes it such a good place to live? We find out...



Read more Daniel Lynch The Optic Cloak at Greenwich Peninsula This gigantic energy tower in south-east London, called the Optic Cloak, is set to warm up 15,000 new homes...



Read more Marc Wilmot_Greenwich Peninsula North Kensington house prices tipped to soar as council pledges to plug W10 into the Elizabeth line A new train station in North Kensington has become more likely after Kensington & Chelsea council pledged to foot the nine-figure bill to link the area to the Crossrail network.



Read more Alamy Stock Photo Post-Brexit sales "better than usual": 35m of London property sells in a single day at auction Guide prices were busted at a fiercely contested property auction where sellers were more nervous than the buyers...



Read more The 'world's largest smog vacuum cleaner' turns polluted city air into jewellery Winner of the 2016 Airbnb London Design Innovation medal, Daan Roosegaarde has launched his acclaimed Smog Free Tower in Beijing - and London could be next...



Read more Derrick Wang Locals vow to fight demolition of Fulham Gasworks Residents are preparing to fight plans for 1,300 new homes in tower blocks of up to 27-storeys high on the site of Londons last surviving Victorian gasworks in Fulham. .

Read more Post-Brexit UK property prices The pace of growth has slowed, but property prices are still rising following the Brexit vote. See how your region compares...



Read more PA Quietway cycle routes: Enfield to Greenwich London's first Quietway, the cycle route from Waterloo to Greenwich, is already up and running, with six more due next year. We reveal the traffic-free enclaves along the routes that are still some of the capitals best-kept secrets...



Read more Seven of the best Hertfordshire villages with 40-minute commutes to London Some of England's loveliest villages are found in family-friendly Hertfordshire, the low-profile home county just north of the capital that offers quick commutes to the centre. Take a tour of our pick of the best...



Read more Alamy Quietway cycle routes: Clapham Common to Walthamstow Discover the homes along TfLs peaceful new bike routes linking the suburbs to the centre through back streets and parks and along riverbanks and canal paths...



Read more Jonathan Bewley House prices in east London borough of Newham rise by more than 20 per cent in a year New figures reveal that while the pace of growth is slowing, property prices are still rising across the capital as demand continues to soar.



Read more Rex Grammar school expansion plans: homes near England's top 30 state schools command premiums of up to 630k Parents face paying an average of 53k extra to live near England's top 30 state schools - and grammar schools dominate the top 10, says new report.



Read more London's Zone 5 homes hotspots Thinking of moving? These are the areas you need to know about...



Read more Graham Hussey Tottenham Hale masterplan row Local residents complain they will lose their views if plans for the regeneration of the the River Lee Navigation waterfront, including apartment blocks up to 21 storeys tall, go ahead....

Read more Notting Hill's skinniest home for sale for 1.25m Inside west London's 'life-size doll's house' - measuring just seven feet wide...

Read more Seven of the best Kent villages less than 60 minutes from the capital - with good schools, shops and pubs Idyllic Kent villages with pubs, shops and good schools are great commuter options and only an hour - or less - from London.

Read more The Tube line extensions and Crossrail homes hotspots you need to know about Transport-led regeneration is the single most important factor boosting the value of homes. These are the new routes you need to know about...

Read more London's new walk-to-work homes near emerging business hubs - and mainline train stations As more creative companies and start-ups move out of central London's traditional business areas, neighbourhoods with new commercial hubs are being created with walk-to-work homes...

Read more The Olympic legacy? More than 100 small start up firms in Vittoria Wharf, Hackney Wick, are being forced to move into new premises following a green light to bulldoze the area to make way for a new bridge over the River Lee Navigation.

Read more Alamy Three-year forecast predicts the house price changes in your region House price growth has fallen in recent months, but is expected to start rising again by 2018, according to the latest three-year housing forecast by Countrywide...



Read more Shutterstock Night Tube: Tottenham Hale revealed as the most affordable property hotspot New research reveals the 10 most affordable stops to buy along London's Night Tube network as addresses along the Central and Victoria lines benefit from 24-hour connections...



Read more Rents fall for the first time in eight years as homes to let flood the market While rents are falling for the first time since the financial crash of 2008, rental prices across the capital are still far too high in relation to salaries.



Read more The university areas that get top marks for return on investment For parents considering buying a property for the three-year stint, a new study of the capitals top 12 universities reveals which present the best deals for buyers compared with renting.



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Khan says that to speed up affordable land, he has asked Transport for London to fast track those pieces that are surplus. But even if he manages to expedite the development of the 75 TfL sites already identified, this is only expected to yield 10,000 new homes. And what does he mean by speed up? The previous plan was to deliver these homes over the next 10 years.

When asked about what he wants to see built, gone is the old definition of affordability. He wants to create diversity of homes in the capital with first dibs for Londoners.

He sees this as including a role for council homes, a role for a new type of rental property called a London living rent [in new builds where the rent will be capped at a third of the average local earnings] and a role for shared ownership.

This is good news for those at the lower end of the income spectrum wanting to buy or rent. And it may mean that affordable housing will once again be accessible to the very people the schemes were originally designed for  Londons key workers.

But the details appear to be missing. Key omissions include his definition of affordable housing; how many units he wants to see built, and who will deliver them. More details will follow in the London Plan  the document where the Mayor spells out his expectation for Londons housing market. But this will take time, and is subject to public consultation as well as consideration by government and scrutiny from the London Assembly.

When added to the two- to three-year lead time for any new housing, this is likely to constitute another unwelcome delay for Londoners desperate for a home. And as the Mayors tenure is only four years, it may be that not one of his proposed affordable houses from the new plan will be built while he is in office.

In the meantime, James Murray, the deputy mayor for housing, said that as a rule of thumb, spending a third of the households income on housing was considered affordable.

Applying this metric to the average Londoners full-time salary of just over 34,000 a year, implies building developments that include at least some properties that costs less than 930 a month.

This chimes with the Mayors comments that he thinks it will be possible to build shared-ownership homes, at least on TfL land, that people can buy with a deposit of 5,000 and a monthly rent/mortgage of 1,000. With many residential mortgage rates available for two per cent or less, this sounds like an easy thing to deliver.

It isnt. Apart from their mortgage, shared owners are required to pay a 100 per cent of the service charge and only get a modest discount on their market rent, despite also being responsible for all of the flats upkeep. As a result, a 25 per cent share in a one-bedroom flat in The Cavallo, E1, for example, has an estimated total monthly cost of 1,513, while a 35 per cent share in a one-bedroom flat in Canonbury Cross, Islington costs an estimated 1,836 per month. Substantial changes will be needed to the shared-ownership model if the Mayor is to pull some new flats into the realms of real affordability.

But pushing down on prices, or capping rents/service charges risks exacerbating another problem  building the flats in the first place. The Mayors audit showed that fewer than 5,000 affordable homes were built in London last year. As Khan says, part of problem was the lack of investment in housing by the previous Mayor.

But the other problem is that only a small proportion of the capitals available land falls under his direct jurisdiction. After this he will need to work with other public and private bodies to get his vision delivered. Profit matters, even for housing associations; if he wants to attract pension fund investment and increase private sector development, profit is likely to matter more.

Khans next steps are hamstrung by his limited powers, the limited pipeline from his predecessor and the likely limits he wants to put on developers. No wonder he appears to have stopped citing his pre-election pledge to deliver 50,000 new London homes a year.
News, events, history, and other mid-week tidbits.

Tuesday, October 25, 4:30  7 p.m.

Orr Area EMS Open House

Brats and burgers will be served. Event includes a new ambulance tour and blood pressure screenings. For more info: 218-780-3798.

Orr Fire Hall

4540 Lake St., Orr

Tuesday, October 25, 12  6 p.m.

Essentia Health Job Fair

Talent recruiters and department managers will be on-site at Essentia Health-Virginia. Candidates from all backgrounds are encouraged to attendnurses, nursing and clinical assistants, surgery technicians, radiology technicians, respiratory therapists, human resource professionals, and those interested in environmental services or nutrition services. Essentia staff will greet candidates, conduct an initial screening and filter them to appropriate hiring managers for interviews. Select candidates will be verbally offered a position before leaving. Candidates are asked to bring a resume, but its not required. Attire is business casual. For more info: www.essentiacareers.org.

901 9th St. N., Virginia
Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, the world's leading luxury hospitality company, proudly celebrates its Founder and Chairman Isadore "Issy" Sharp, recipient of the prestigious 2016 Cornell Icon of the Industry Award.

Presented by the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration, the award honours the lifetime achievements of hospitality and travel industry visionaries, recognising their professional and philanthropic contributions that have transformed the global hospitality industry and society.

"True visionaries lead by example. They see what the future can be, decide to act, and inspire others to follow their lead. In the world of luxury hospitality there is no greater visionary than Issy," said J. Allen Smith, President and CEO, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts.

"Issy's passion for hospitality, his unwavering commitment to the highest standards of excellence, and his incredible generosity are an inspiration to us all," continued Smith. "On behalf of 43,000 Four Seasons employees worldwide, who share a deep sense of pride in being part of the remarkable Four Seasons story, we extend heartfelt congratulations to Issy on this important recognition of his leadership and vision."

In 1961 Isadore Sharp opened the first Four Seasons, a motor hotel in Toronto. He approached the business from a guest's perspective, asking "what would they value?" And from this premise, many innovations were born. From pioneering approaches to service to setting the standard for in-room amenities and the bold rethinking of hotel features, Four Seasons came to define modern luxury travel.

Today, the company, which continues to leverage its focus on a single brand and an unwavering commitment to luxury hospitality, operates 99 hotels, resorts and branded residences in 41 countries. With a pipeline of more than 50 projects at various stages of development, Four Seasons continues to grow its global portfolio, further enhancing its well-earned reputation for operating some of the best and most highly awarded hotels in the world.

"It's no secret that from the very beginning it has been the people of Four Seasons who have played the most significant role in our success," said Isadore Sharp, Founder and Chairman, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. "Receiving this recognition is a great personal honour and, equally as important, a chance for me to celebrate the collective efforts of many."

"I started out with a vision of what I believed luxury hospitality could be, but it was Four Seasons employees who brought, and continue to bring, that vision to life," continued Sharp. "Every day they deliver a genuine, personal style of service that has earned us the trust and loyalty of the world's most discerning travellers."

With a guiding philosophy based on the Golden Rule  the simple idea of treating others as you would have them treat you  Sharp empowered Four Seasons employees to deliver the highly personalised brand of service that would become synonymous with Four Seasons the world over. Today Four Seasons employees around the world share a commitment to service excellence that embodies the guiding values and philosophies set out by Sharp.

This commitment to service is also reflected in the company's culture of giving and social responsibility, which is focused on advancing cancer research, building communities and supporting sustainability. Sharp is the founder of the annual Terry Fox Run, the largest single-day fundraising event for cancer research worldwide, which has raised more than CAD 700 million to date. Today, introducing Terry Fox Runs in cities where Four Seasonsoperates is one of the many ways the company supports efforts to find a cure for cancer.

The Cornell Icon of the Industry Award is the latest recognition for Sharp, who is the proud recipient of many global awards and honours celebrating his business achievements and lifelong commitment to philanthropy.

About Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts

Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts opened its first hotel in 1961, and since that time has been dedicated to perfecting the travel experience through continual innovation and the highest standards of hospitality. Currently operating 119 hotels and resorts, and 44 residential properties in major city centres and resort destinations in 47 countries, and with more than 50 projects under planning or development, Four Seasons consistently ranks among the world's best hotels and most prestigious brands in reader polls, traveller reviews and industry awards. For more information and reservations, visit fourseasons.com. For the latest news, visit press.fourseasons.com and follow @FourSeasonsPR on Twitter.

Sorya Ingrid Gaulin

Director, Global Corporate Public Relations and Social Media

+1 416 441 4767

Four Seasons
Passugg, Switzerland  EHL Group announces Michael Hartmann as new Managing Director of the Swiss School of Tourism and Hospitality (SSTH) in Passugg. Michael replaces Mr. Knut Rupprecht who is leaving SSTH for personal reasons. We would like to thank Knut for his personal dedication to the rebirth of the school. Effective immediately, Michael is set to drive the further development of the sister school of Ecole hoteliere de Lausanne (EHL), dedicated to vocational hospitality education.

Michael Hartmann joined EHL in 2014 as Senior Executive Advisor, actively contributing to the creation of the Lausanne Report, a strategic in-depth report on the possible future scenarios of the hospitality industry which will be launched later this year. A sneak-preview of the report was presented to a professional audience in March 2016 at the Window to the Future think-tank summit held at EHL.

Having started his career in Munich, Germany, with Kempinski, Michael Hartmann is a graduate of the Hotel Management School in Heidelberg, Germany, and attended Cornell University. In 2004 he received a MBA degree from Henley Management College (UK). Click here to view Michael Hartmann's biography.

Michael Hartmann brings with him a wealth of experience in consulting and business development in the hospitality industry, namely within his previous position as Senior Vice President of the Siemens One Hospitality Market Development Board, with global responsibility for all Siemens divisions. With this strong background, he will continue to strengthen the school's close ties with the industry, ensuring that SSTH graduates meet the needs of the developing hospitality market.

In his new role, Michael Hartmann will be responsible for the development of SSTH in line with the strategic objectives of EHL Group, reinforcing the school's position as a leader in vocational hospitality education and providing the best career opportunities for its students. In addition to offering a higher degree in hospitality, SSTH offers its students the opportunity to study for a further 3 semesters in order to complete a Bachelor of Science HES-SO degree in International Hospitality Management at EHL.

About his nomination, Michael Hartmann stated: "It is an honor to have such an opportunity to help unlock the growth potential of SSTH and continue its path in becoming the first international address for holistic hospitality education."

EHL Group CEO Michel Rochat added: "We are delighted to have Michael lead the management of SSTH and pursue the development of this exceptional school. The hotel industry growth is providing ever more international opportunities for talented young professionals and the education delivered at SSTH ensures that those doors are open to our graduates."

Andre Witschi, President of the SSTH Board of Directors, stated: "We are very grateful for the hard work accomplished by all SSTH teams over the past 24 months to revive the school and establish a reference for vocational hospitality studies."

About EHL Group

EHL Group is the global reference in education, innovation and consulting for the hospitality and service sector.

With expertise dating back to 1893, EHL Group now offers a wide range of leading educational programs from apprenticeships to master's degrees, as well as professional and executive education, on three campuses in Switzerland and Singapore. EHL Group also offers consulting and certification services to companies and learning centers around the world. True to its values and committed to building a sustainable world, EHL Group's purpose is to provide education, services and working environments that are people-centered and open to the world. www.ehlgroup.com

Reto Wilhelm

+41 (0)44 365 20 20

EHL
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MHGs Fairfield Inn and Suites by Marriott, Seymour, IN

Hampton Inn, Choice, Holiday Inn, Marriott Courtyard Property Operator Has Daily Revenue, Expense and Other Hotel Data on The Desk by 9AM

MHG Hotels is a family business success story. The owner-operator started with one motel, and now operates 11 properties that include Wyndham, Marriott Courtyard and Springhill Suites, Holiday Inn and Choice brands. We were doing well small, but the time was right for the Patel family to grow with brands, said Gary Maass, director of operations for MHG Hotels LLC. We wanted a bigger view of the hotel industry and to expand our place in it. Hospitality is growing and we are growing with it.

Sanjay and Ranjan Patel founded MHG 20 years ago and continue to operate the company today with the help of their two sons. It is fantastic to be adding two hotels this year, Maass said. As MHG grew, the family brought me on to oversee operations. My focus is gathering accounting and performance data from our properties, analyzing the hotel data and getting the information to our team so we can manage by the numbers. I use a BI system to do this.

Two years ago MHG installed the Execuvue Business Intelligence (BI) system from Aptech Computer Systems to support its expansion. Our growth reached a point where Excel spreadsheets were no longer effective to track the performance metrics we use to measure the health of our hotels. It took a long time just to get the hotel data, let alone analyze it. For example, before we transitioned to BI, I had to open 55 files to get my property payroll reports. Today our BI system automatically gathers data from our properties via interfaces to our Hilton, Marriott, IHG and Choice property management systems (PMS) as well as our time and attendance systems. Now I open one Execuvue file to see everything in minutes.

Part of being a successful small operation is controlling expenses. We tapped Aptech to host our BI system from their secure data center. This reduces our hardware and labor costs since MHG does not need an IT department, Maass said. Aptech processes our information, creates and supports our reporting and manages our data. We do not need a big budget to benefit from Execuvue.

MHG uses specialized reports for individual property analysis and portfolio rollups. Our E report is a custom company accounting sheet with hotel data for revenue, profit center performance, expenses, occupancy, ADR and other measures. In the past, managers had to manually key in the numbers from our Marriott, Hilton and other brand reports, Maass said. Today, our BI automatically populates the same familiar E report with accurate property numbers, including payroll, every day. Our reports are pure information that helps us be a stronger company and make better decisions faster. We are a small company that uses big tools.

Controlling labor costs is important to MHG. We hold our GMs accountable for labor expenses, Maass said. Execuvue pulls data from property time and attendance systems and formats it for instant use. We receive updates each night and the labor report goes back 28 days. If someone makes a change to the previous period, the report updates automatically. Aptech helped us make these reports exactly what we wanted. Having our own familiar reports makes the BI information easy for our staff to use as we add properties.

MHG is developing an expanded daily flash report with year-over-year comparison of revenue, labor dollars, RevPAR and other measures to identify trends. We will grab the information from PMSes, put it into an easily understood format, and send to properties, Maass said. This will show who is performing and how well. Execuvue also rolls up our numbers for all properties for a high-level ownership view. We want to focus on labor. This is a top priority since it is a propertys largest expense.

Company growth is a new way of life for MHG Hotels. We have a healthy development pipeline, Maass said. Execuvue makes it easy to add new hotels to our BI process as we open properties. We will continue to operate as a family business because we have the systems to manage better by the numbers.

Aptech is the leading provider of hospitality software for business intelligence, budgeting, and enterprise financial accounting. Click here for more on Aptechs products and services.

About MHG Hotels

MHG Hotels is one of the largest privately owned progressive companies specializing in providing investor and career opportunities, development, construction, and management services. Founded in humble beginnings with one hotel over two decades ago by Sanjay and Ranjan Patel, the company has matured into developing and operating over 30 hotels. For more information please click here.

About Aptech Computer Systems, Inc.

Aptech Computer Systems, Inc., based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is the only provider of a fully integrated enterprise accounting, business intelligence and planning ecosystem to the hospitality industry. All of its clients are companies like yours, which own or manage hotels. Its solutions help customers at both the corporate and property levels understand their financial and operational data for faster goal achievement.

The company is renowned for introducing business intelligence into the hotel industry, and offers a solid resource of hospitality professionals. Aptech is an IBM Software Value Plus partner and Premier Solution Provider.

Incorporated in 1970, Aptechs state-of-the-art back office, true business intelligence and enterprise planning solutions are 100% hotel specific. Solutions include Profitvue, Execuvue, Webvue and Targetvue. Clients comprise over 3,500 properties - including large chains, multiple-property management companies and single-site hotels. Execuvue and Profitvue are registered to Aptech Computer Systems, Inc. All other trademarks are owned by their respective holders. For more information please visit www.aptech-inc.com.

CONTACTS:

Aptech Computer Systems

Cam Troutman, Vice President

135 Delta Drive

Pittsburgh, PA 15238

Phone: 800-245-0720 or 412-963-7440

Email: vueinfo@aptech-inc.com

www.aptech-inc.com

Media Contact

Julie Keyser-Squires, APR

Softscribe Inc.

609 SW 8th Street, Ste 600

Bentonville, AR 72712

Phone: 404-256-5512

Email: Julie(at)softscribeinc.com

www.softscribeinc.com
Flyte Systems Expands Its Reach; Companies Bring the Airport to Hotels for Guest Convenience, Revenue Capture

Flyte Systems and the hotel service firm Hospitality Partner in Copenhagen signed a joint collaboration agreement to expand Flyte Systems guest travel services and hotel flight information throughout the Nordic region. Hospitality Partner will provide Nordic hoteliers FlyteChannel, FlyteBoard, and FlytePass products that smooth the travel experience with real-time hotel flight information and boarding pass printing.

Flyte Systems is the leading provider of cost effective airport travel and flexible digital signage property information. The company delivers displays and digital signage content for hotels, corporate training centers, convention centers, and related businesses. Click here to request information on Flyte Systems' travel, hotel flight information and guest information services.

Hospitality Partner, with offices near Copenhagen, Denmark, provides consulting services for new facility system planning, installation and solution upgrades, and hardware and software support. The company delivers innovative solutions and products that are cost-efficient, increase revenue, and bring value to hotels and guests.

Win-win partnership keeps travelers and their revenue on-site longer

We welcome our win-win joint collaboration with Flyte Systems, said Kim Simonsen, co-founder of Hospitality Partner. Our partnership will expand their Scandinavian market presence and increase the portfolio of guest travel services we can offer Nordic hoteliers.

Flyte Systems Vice President Scott Triphahn said, Flyte Systems is pleased to collaborate with Hospitality Partner to smooth the travel experience for guests in the Nordic market. Flyte Systems services and hotel flight information transforms any hotel lobby into an opportunity to increase sales by keeping guests on property longer. The hotels guests and their revenue remain on-site. If a flight is canceled or delayed, the front desk can offer to extend their stay.

Flyte Systems is a division of Industrial Television Services (ITS), based in Chicago. ITS is a respected digital signage solutions company with more than 50 years of experience specializing in real-time information delivery.

Flyte Systems provides low-cost property promotions, local events, and flight information

Flyte Systems suite of products that serve the traveling public includes:

FlyteBoard, a wall, floor, or ceiling-mounted screen for passenger terminals, lobbies, restaurants, bars, and public areas. FlyteBoard displays real-time flight information for one or more airports.

FlytePass combines FlyteTouch with secure boarding pass printing. It is available as a standalone unit, or neatly packaged in either an all-wood kiosk or an integrated metal kiosk to match your decor.

FlyteTouch lets guests search flight information using an interactive touchscreen that displays real-time arrivals and departures for one or more airports.

lets guests search flight information using an interactive touchscreen that displays real-time arrivals and departures for one or more airports. FlyteChannel lets guests view airport flight information comfortably from their in-room television.

FlytePad is a mobile-ready service that delivers real-time airline information via the iPad.

EventDisplay displays user-configurable meetings and events on screens shared with flight information or on its own dedicated screen.

EventChanne l shows property events and specials on the guests TV.

l shows property events and specials on the guests TV. AmenityBoard lets hotels display profitable amenities anywhere.

lets hotels display profitable amenities anywhere. InfoBoard is a cost-effective touch screen that saves labor, provides greater guest service, and generates revenue with flight information and much more.

Many hotels and resorts also use Flyte Systems applications to increase revenue with innovative marketing approaches for distressed travelers. For tips on how to generate revenue by providing guests with Flyte Systems airline information, please log on to the Flyte Systems website at www.flytesystems.com.

About Flyte Systems

Flyte Systems is a division of Industrial Television Services (ITS), based in Chicago. ITS is a leading digital signage solutions company with 50 years experience specializing in real-time information delivery. Flyte Systems was formed in 2007 to offer real-time, web-based travel technology solutions. Flyte Systems provides subscription-based, environmentally responsible airport flight information and digital signage displays for the hospitality, convention center, digital signage industries, and related businesses. The companys solutions deliver accurate, instant, airport-centric updates of flight information  not just FAA-provided departure times that may be inaccurate when there is a ground delay. Flyte Systems solutions enable properties to differentiate themselves and boost repeat business with 'glance-and-go' content and property promotions. Its products use Energy Star-compliant digital displays to help significantly reduce energy consumption and eliminate unnecessary trips to the airport. Clients include Marriott, Hyatt, Hilton, Starwood, Westin, IHG, Days Inn, Hotel Sofitel, independent properties, convention centers, and transportation centers.

About Hospitality Partners

Hospitality Partners strives to become its costumers preferred partner. Whether they are a supplier, consulting or service partner for innovative and cost-efficient solutions within the hospitality and healthcare industry, Hospitality Partners is here to assist. Hospitality Partners strategy is to offer and provide innovative solutions and products that are cost-efficient and will increase revenue. Products that will be of great value to hotels as well as their guests. http://hospitality-partner.com/?lang=en

Contacts:

Flyte Systems

Sandra Ries

Flyte Systems

Phone: 877-Go-Flyte / 877-463-5983 or 847-671-4793 (International)

Email: sandra.ries@flytesystems.com

www.flytesystems.com

Media Contact

Julie Keyser-Squires, APR

Softscribe Inc.

609 SW 8th St., Suite 600

Bentonville, AR 72712

Phone: 404-256-5512

Email: Julie(at)softscribeinc.com

www.softscribeinc.com
Not long ago, Jordan Brand released a dope Swooshless Air Jordan 1 Low collection, a trend that will continue as part of Jordan Brands latest collaboration with fashion brand Public School.

Much like the aforementioned Air Jordan collection, this Swooshless PSNY x Air Jordan 1 Low is constructed on a premium, black pebbled leather upper with a contrasting white midsole. Gold aglets, a yellow outsole and splashes of yellow on the branding add some pop to the toned down Air Jordan 1 Low.

Of course, the shoes also feature PSNY branding, although it is subtly placed on the heel, almost hidden against the blacked out upper.

An official release date hasnt been announced just yet but just like all of the other PSNY x Air Jordan collabs, these will sell out instantly.

Item #1
Freddie Gibbss extradition hearing to determine whether or not he would be handed over to Austrian authorities has been delayed until June 16. It was scheduled to take place yesterday.

Gibbs was arrested last week in Toulouse, France for an alleged rape committed in Austria in 2015. His lawyer, Michael Malka, says that he will fight extradition.

Freddie Gibbs has indicated to the court that he would not be willing to be handed over to Austrian authorities without exercising his rights to a defense, Malka said. He categorically denies the accusations made against him in Austria. He is even very surprised that Austria could act on this a year later, while he was on tour in Europe.

Well keep you posted as the story develops.

[via]

Freddie Gibbs
America's Got Talent was treated to a very special performance

We'd all like to imagine that when we reach the grand old age of 82 we'll still be hip, or at the very least, still have our original hip.

One man that has proven that he still knows what it is to be cool is the retired 82-year-old John Hetlinger. "I retired about 15 years ago, that's about the time I started doing karaoke," John told Simon Cowell.

Despite a full filling life working as an aerospace engineer, a naval pilot and managing the Hubble Telescope, John noted that appearing on America's Got Talent "would be probably the high point of my life and many careers."

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Watch John Hetlinger perform Drowning Pool's 'Bodies'.
As part of the IFTA Academy programme, the Oscar winner will be part of a screening and discussion on his new film Where To Invade Next at the IFI next Monday

The renowned  and controversial  filmmaker Michael Moore is set to visit Dublin next week.

A special IFTA Academy screening and discussion of his new film Where to Invade Next will take place at the IFI on Monday, and the director of Bowling For Columbine and Fahrenheit 911 will be the guest of honour.

Noted for his political activism and willingness to criticise topics such as globalization, large corporations, guns, war, the American health care system and capitalism  in book form as well as film, as the bestselling Stupid White Men proves  his newest effort takes the form of a travelogue, as he visits countries including Tunisia, Finland, Italy, France, and Portugal to evaluate how they've dealt with the social and economic challenges the US also faces.
Music

08 Jun 16

Alex Turner talks to Hot Press about The Last Shadow Puppets and Tina Turner's thighs.
German company BASF said Tuesday that it will postpone building a massive chemical plant at its Freeport complex as the Gulf Coast petrochemical boom continues to slow.

Since the $1.4 billion project was announced more than two years ago, profit margins in the industry have declined in the face of increased global competition and a glut of petrochemicals on the market. As a result, BASF, the world's largest chemical company, is opting to delay the expansion until market conditions improve, BASF spokesman David Johnson said.

The plant would have produced 475,000 metric tons of propylene a year. Propylene is one of the most common chemical building blocks of plastics.

BASF and other chemical companies benefited from the so-called shale revolution that produced cheap and plentiful supplies of natural gas, which is the feedstock for propylene and other petrochemicals. Rock bottom natural gas prices meant healthy profit margins, fueling the construction and expansion of plants along the Gulf Coast.

But that construction rush began when oil was priced at about $100 a barrel, twice the current price. Most chemical plants outside the U.S. use a form of crude oil as their feedstock. As the price of oil fell, so too did the competitive edge for the chemical plants in Texas and Louisiana, forcing the companies to accept lower profit margins to hold on to their markets.

In addition, prices for petrochemicals, particularly propylene, have plunged because of a global oversupply, further squeezing profit margins. New production in China and elsewhere has contributed to the glut, said chemicals analyst Hassan Ahmed of New York-based Alembic Global Advisors.

"The propylene prices have been decimated," Ahmed said.

Concerns about a petrochemical glut and further price declines have led other companies to put planned projects on hold indefinitely.

For instance, Houston-based Ascend Performance Materials said in May it would further delay the construction of its $1.2 billion propane dehydrogenation, or PDH, plant at its Chocolate Bayou campus in Alvin.

In Louisiana, Houston-based G2X Energy recently delayed its planned $1.6 billion Big Lake Fuels methanol plant in Lake Charles, said Marc Alvarado, associate director of methanol research for IHS. Another key Texas project, Paris-based Total's planned $2 billion ethylene plant in Port Arthur, is still awaiting the go-ahead. A final investment decision is expected in the second half of the year.

The American Chemistry Council still counts almost 265 petrochemical projects planned across the country through 2023. They are estimated to cost a combined $160 billion to build. Texas would be to more than 100 of the projects, worth $50 billion.

BASF is still building its ammonia plant in Freeport with Norway-based Yara International. That plant is slated to open in 2017.

Founded in 1958, BASF's Freeport campus is the company's oldest manufacturing site outside Europe.
How people, and families, survive in the aftermath of war?

This is the question at the heart of the Horse Head Theatre Co.'s production of "Lidless."

The play, which runs through June 18 at the Fresh Arts Gallery in the Winter Street Studios, addresses these vital and topical moral questions. But the play, by Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig, often takes on these ethical conundrums with a messy brew of cheap metaphors and increasingly convoluted plot developments.

One of the chief problems, who's at the center of the drama that is "Lidless"?

One answer is Alice, the former military interrogator who pill-popped and repressed her way through the stress of what she perpetrated at Guantanamo Bay. Consequently, she leaves the Army with no memory of her actions and now faces internal struggle while starting a new life in Minnesota with her husband, Lucas, and daughter, Rhiannon.

Another answer as to the story's focal point would be Bashir, the detainee on whom Alice practices a relatively new interrogation tactic: "invasion of space by a female." The haunting and haunted Bashir shows up in Minnesota 15 years later for his reckoning with Alice.

The question of whose story this is has real significance.

More Information 'Lidless' When: 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, through June 18 Where: Winter Street Studios, 2101 Winter Tickets: $25-$50; horseheadtheatre.org See More Collapse

Alice's narrative arc leaves the audience with an awkward question: As sympathetic as we are to returning soldiers struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder, is it not too much to ask us to sympathize with a torturer in worrying about how well she's adjusting to civilian family life?

Bashir's story is that of a victim struggling to face the perpetrator who raped him, which also makes the dramas of Alice's household -Alice's 40th birthday party, Rhiannon's resentment of her mother - seem rather trivial.

All of this is more than enough to take in, to be sure, but it doesn't seem quite enough for "Lidless," which piles on the drama.

Bashir also needs a liver transplant, and he happens to remember that Alice shares his rare blood type - a fact she reveals in one of their sessions.

After some tense encounters at her florist shop, during which Alice protests she can't remember Bashir or what she did to him, Alice reveals she can't donate her liver because she has hepatitis. Meanwhile, Rhiannon is trying to discover her mother's past. She meets Bashir, develops a crush on him and later reveals, by noting genetic traits, that he must be her biological father - and that she is the product of a rape.

That, though, isn't quite enough complication for "Lidless." Plot twists can't address the nearly insoluble dilemmas that arise in the aftermath of hideous violence. Nor can the cheap metaphors.

And yet Herman Gambhir, as Bashir, manages remarkably with an awkward script. The most persuasive scenes are the ones in which he appears, whether in lyrical remembrances of his daughter or thoughtful meditations on his own broken life.

Deeba Ashraf, as family friend Riva, (a doctor at Guantanamo) is equally persuasive, especially as she recollects her Iraqi childhood and the seizure and torture of her father. She reads to Bashir, at his request, in Arabic, as a way of comforting him and reconciling herself with her own broken past.

As Alice, Mischa Hutchings is a gruff, gross, thrill-seeking and jingoistic interrogator with a slight Texas drawl. As Alice, the wife and mother, she's less remarkable, though that may be more a problem of the script. And whenever she and Bashir interact, Hutchings abandons her placid persona for the domineering torturer and excels.

Rick Evans, too, does what he can with the cheerful, nursery owner Lucas. But his past life as a drug addict, which is made out to be some strange parallel to Alice's past as an interrogator, convinces no more than his sudden demand for a divorce. Tanith Albright struggles the most to convey the troubled teen Rhiannon, who does a little too much shouting and pouting.

"Lidless" tackles weighty issues, but it plays like a casualty of its own good intentions.
A man is in the hospital battling for his life after he was critically wounded in a shooting Tuesday night in southeast Houston.

The man was found about 9:45 p.m. in the 5900 block of Schroeder near Griggs, said Sgt. T. Simmons, a homicide investigator with the Houston Police Department.
Police are investigating the death of a 27-year-old woman and a man's attempted suicide Tuesday in a room at a motel in west Houston.

The incident occurred about 4 p.m. a the Palace Inn Motel at 1307 West Sam Houston Parkway North, according to the Houston Police Department.
Michael Ciaglo

The latest round of storms left a fierce imprint on Montgomery County, damaging or destroying nearly 900 homes, officials said.

The toll was far worse than in April, when storms ruined about 600 houses. Many of the same homes were flooded during both of the heavy downpours, officials said.
Allegations of fraud against a presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump's real estate university had been part of the political landscape for a while, but Texas became focus earlier this month.

The Houston Chronicle reported that a 2009 state attorney general's office investigation into Trump University was begun and then abruptly halted, with Trump's school agreeing to halt operations in Texas in 2010. Then-Attorney General Greg Abbott received a $35,000 campaign contribution from Trump three years later.

RELATED: Inside the probe into Trump University that Abbott's office launched and then ended

The fraud charges resurfaced when a lawsuit was filed in 2013, and in recent weeks the scandal exploded. Fellow Republicans denounced, and even un-endorsed Trump, when he alleged that the Indiana-born judge assigned to the case was unfit for impartial judgement because of his Hispanic heritage.

That judge, Gonzalo Curiel of California's Southern District, is assigned to determine whether the business practices of Trump University amounted to hard sales tactics, which are legal, or fraud, which is not.

So what's the difference? When does aggressive selling cross the line into fraud?

Ken Mingledorff, a Houston lawyer and former chief prosecutor at the Harris County District Attorney's Office, pointed to a landmark case from the Texas Supreme Court that laid out a legal definition for fraud, and has since been cited in federal cases.

"The elements of fraud are a material misrepresentation, which was false, and which was either known to be false when made or was asserted without knowledge of the truth, which was intended to be acted upon, which was relied upon, and which caused injury," wrote the judges in the 1990 case DeSantis vs. Wackenhut Corp.

Let's unpack that.

A material misrepresentation is anything untrue and relevant. Mingledorff said lawyers currently aspire to prove a higher standard: "methodical systematic misrepresentations." In other words: falsehoods that were intentionally designed and regularly repeated.

And attorneys must prove that the offender knew their misrepresentation was such.

The misrepresentation must be intended to be acted upon and relied upon. That means that the offendersTrump University, in this casemust have meant for a falsehood to be a selling point of their product, not just a detail.

And the misrepresentation must cause damage or injury. The victim must have suffered some by the offender's fraudulent endeavor.

Only a trial will determine if Trump U. propagated fraud, and Trump's legal team is expected to mount a strong defense. But Mingledorff, drawing on his experience as a prosecutor and media reports of case details, speculated that the operations of the real estate school met the legal standards of fraud.

"It was really just a total lie," he said.

Misrepresentations in the case include describing the course instructors as executive real estate salespeople, handpicked by Trump, when in reality many of them had no real estate experience and Trump was almost entirely uninvolved, according to media reports.

The alleged fraud also seems to be methodical and systematic, Mingledorff said, since the false claims were laid out in promotional material and a sales playbook instructed faculty to make the false claims in enticing prospective students.

Media reports suggest the operation was focused entirely on recruiting students and little on teaching real estate sales.

A trial will likely show that those misrepresentations were acted upon and relied upon, because many former students have told media they enrolled in the course because of its affiliation with Trump, which they took as proof of its high-caliber instructors.

Injury also seems simple to prove; the highest level of Trump University cost $35,000 and students reportedly were encouraged to max out credit cards to pay. That cost, with no real rewards reaped from the program, probably hurt.
Texas has endured some rideshare drama recently, with the industry's two giantsUber and Lyft--dumping parts of their stake in the Lone Star State.

It started in 2014 when Houston adopted a new set of regulations for rideshare companies, and Lyft left the city, calling the rules excessively burdensome. In May 2016, Austin approved similar regulations and both companies pulled out of the capital city.

Now Uber says it may leave Houston unless the city nixes most of its rideshare regulations.

"There is a very distinct possibility that we'd have to cease our operations within the city of Houston," said Uber Houston general manager Safraz Maredia. "When we compare our operating metrics across cities the reason it is difficult in Houston is purely because of the additional regulations."

RELATED: What would change if Uber leaves Houston?

So what exactly are these "additional regulations" that have caused so much fuss? They are added steps to the application process to become an Uber driver, imposed by city ordinance in 2014 with the goal of making the service safer. But Uber and its allies call them burdensome additions to the application process already employed by the company.

So what does the company do?

Uber uses an accredited third-party background check service, called Checkr, to screen its potential drivers. To apply, prospective drivers submit their personal info, including social security number, a copy of their driver's license, vehicle registration and a verified bank account. Checkr runs that through more than 1,500 national, state and local databases for a two-phased screening.

The first phase: driving record. An applicant is disqualified with more than three recent minor violations, like a speeding ticket, or one recent (in the last seven years) major violation like street racing.

The second phase: criminal history. Uber doesn't allow registered sex offenders or anyone on the national terrorist watch list. Drivers can't have violent felony convictions in the last seven years.

If the driver meets those standards and has a legal car in good working order, they are good to go on Uber's account.

"In most cities and states across the country, once you got to that point, you'd be able to drive. In Houston 20,000 people have gotten to that point then decided not to go through the city process because of the barriers created," Maredia said.

So what is that city process?

Per Houston rules, a rideshare car must be four-door and 2008 or newer with a fire extinguisher inside. Cars from 2005 may be accepted if they pass a special, more-than-$100 inspection at one of several approved auto repair shops.

The applicant must pay for and pass a physical examination and a drug test at a medical center, then file a $20 application for a warrant check at the municipal court.

Within 30 days of beginning the process, the driver must take the results of their physical, drug test and warrant check, plus their Uber credentials, fire extinguishers and personal documents to a city office on Washington Avenue.

If all that checks out, the driver must schedule an appointment to be fingerprinted for another round of background checks at one of four Houston locations.

Maredia said that drivers in Houston report total application time between several weeks and four months before they receive their license to drive for Uber in the city.

The associated fees, from the fire extinguisher to the various services, cost between $150 and $200, he said.

Uber has said that the city requirements make it hard to recruit drivers, but has not set a timeframe for its potential withdrawal from Houston.
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It started with a $2,000 loan.

James and Pat Foley, working as clerks for their uncle, retailer William Foley, sought the money to strike out on their own. They picked a spot near the banks of Buffalo Bayou and set up shop. Foley Brothers Dry Goods Co. was born.

Over the next 106 years, their store would rise into a regional retail empire covering five states and etch an indelible impression in Houstonians' collective memory.

On Feb. 12, 1900, the Foley brothers officially opened their new venture along Main Street near Prairie Street to serve the bustling city of 44,000 people.

It was warmly received by Houstonians, who snatched up cotton fabrics, lace, linens and men's fashion accessories to the tune of $127.29 on the first day - roughly more than $3,000 in 2016 dollars.

RELATED: Departed businesses in Houston we miss the most

By 1919, sales reached $1 million. Years later, business moved again and Foley's became Houston's largest department store. Stories, a basement and an auditorium were added to the building.

More Information FOLEY'S HISTORY 1900: Foley Bros. Dry Goods Co. is founded near Buffalo Bayou 1945: Federated Department Stores purchases Foley's 1947: Foley's opens its downtown Houston department store, billed as a "store of the future," at 1100 Main, with an opening day crowd of 20,000 people. 1949: Led by Santa Claus riding his sleigh through downtown to the new store, Foley's launches its annual Thanksgiving Day parade. Foley's would spearhead the local tradition for 44 years. 1961: First suburban location opens at Sharpstown Mall. Foley's would later extend its suburban footprint anchoring malls. 1988: Campeau Corp. acquires Federated, and the Foley's division is sold to May Department Stores. May closes four stores, lays off 800 employees and begins a $200 million plan to build new stores and upgrade older ones. At this time, there are 11 Foley's department stores in the Houston area and one warehouse store. 2003: Foley's opens at the Galleria 2005: Federated purchases May Department Stores, acquiring 330 stores nationwide for $11 billion. Sixty-nine of those stores are Foley's. The change closes Foley's regional headquarters and cuts 1,200 corporate jobs there. 2006: To unify its regional brands under one banner, Federated changes Foley's name to Macy's. 2013: The 10-story Macy's (former Foley's) downtown department store on Main Street closes and the building soon after is demolished in 10 seconds. At the START An image of the original Foley Brothers store that opened on Feb. 12, 1900. The image was part of exhibit at the M.D. Anderson Library on the University of Houston campus in 2011. See More Collapse

Foley's growth continued, drawing the attention of Fred Lazarus Jr., who bought the store for Federated Department Stores. Federated set its sights on the 1100 block of Main and built the "store of tomorrow."

The Main Street store quickly became iconic, boasting the country's largest display window, a parking garage connected to the store by a tunnel, air conditioning and wide escalators.

Some 20,000 people, along with national media, crammed downtown blocks on opening day in October 1947. It was the perfect monument for an era when central business districts ruled retail. The downtown store and its seven restaurants still were a marvel when Ed Smith started at Foley's in 1972, as were the four other stores Foley's had in the area by then.

"It was really one-stop shopping," said Smith, who became vice president of public relations. "We sold tires and roofing. We had a pet store. We had pharmacies in our stores."

Houston was evolving, and Foley's changed with it. The city spread through the 1950s and 1960s to such edge communities as Sharpstown and Pasadena.

Foley's established stores in those areas. Its first branch store opened at Sharpstown Mall in 1961. In ensuing years, it opened stores at Almeda Mall, Northwest Mall and others.

Eventually, Foley's set up in Austin, Dallas, San Antonio, Corpus Christi, Arlington, Tucson, Ariz., Albuquerque, N.M., and cities in three other states.

It strove to retain a mom-and-pop feel. "With growth, we still had it to a certain extent," Smith said. "But the bigger you get, the more difficult it is to have that."

In the cities where Foley's entered, it played a role in civic affairs. In Houston, Bob Dundas, vice president of Foley's downtown store in the 1960s, saw sit-in protests and associated violence sweeping Southern cities. Dundas organized business leaders to silently desegregate downtown lunch counters to mitigate turmoil.

RELATED: Even more departed businesses and places in Houston we miss

Foley's brought a parade of stars to Houston through the years. It landed designers and celebrities launching lines at fashion shows, hawking scents or signing books: Lena Horne. Calvin Klein. Christie Brinkley. Donna Karan. Karl Lagerfeld. Cher.

And, of course, there was the annual Thanksgiving Day Parade. Launched in 1949 by Santa Claus taking a sleigh ride from the train station to the Main Street store, the Foley's banner flagged the Houston tradition for the next 44 years.

In 1987, Foley's acquired the Sanger Harris chain of North Texas. In 1988, Campeau Corp. bought Foley's and sold it to May Department Stores. Four stores in the chain closed, including the downtown Dallas location. The new owners eliminated major appliances, toys and books from Foley's offerings and turned the stores' focus to apparel.

May company officials said then the plan was to add to Foley's footprint of 34 stores with open at least two new stores per year for the next five years, mostly in Texas but also in Oklahoma and Arizona.

The flagship store again survived the changes. "Foley's is committed to downtown Houston," then-chairman Jerome R. Rossi told the Chronicle in 1989, a year after May's purchase. "This is where the history of this company began and it would be categorically wrong to do anything to this downtown store, but to continue to grow it."

May officials were outwardly upbeat about the downtown store's prospects, but Lasker Meyer, chairman of Foley's from 1982 to 1987, told the Chronicle the downtown Houston store had been losing money since 1982.

RELATED: Foley's and Macy's: A downtown Houston timeline

The retail landscape was changing. Malls still reigned, but the superstore was beginning its rise. Wal-Mart and the like were taking the department store model into overdrive. In 2005, Federated Department Stores bought May. As the two retail giants combined forces in their $10.4 billion merger, it was the beginning of the end for regional brands the companies held.

At that time, Foley's had 69 stores in five states, including 16 in Houston. Federated was known for absorbing regional chains across the country and rebranding them Macy's. It was just a matter of time before the same fate befell Foley's.

"Forget Wall Street. In Houston, Federated Department Stores' takeover of rival May Department Stores will reverberate most strongly on Memory Lane," a 2005 Chronicle article declared shortly after the merger announcement. In September 2006, the nameplates formally were changed.

The Foley's team keeps its tight bonds. "For all of us, the thing that kept all of Foley's going was the people," said Roz Pactor, former Foley's fashion director and employee of 31 years.

Its alumni are spread across the country.

Reunions are based around May 1, 2006, the date Foley's corporate offices were dissolved. There was a five-year reunion, a seventh-year reunion in 2013 when the downtown flagship store's building was demolished, and a 10-year reunion in 2016 attended by more than 200 people.

A monthly newsletter has an address list of more than 1,000 former employees. Jeannette Spivey, who organizes the newsletter and coordinates reunions, said the newsletter helps everyone keep in touch and connect for job opportunities. Spivey started working at Foley's as a furniture department clerk in 1971 and eventually became the first African-American woman to rise to corporate offices as executive assistant to the chief financial officer in 1984, a post she held until corporate was eliminated in 2006.

"Foley's was not only our place of employment, we were family," Spivey wrote in an email. "Foley's taught us a lot. We worked hard, but we played harder and ran a successful organization."
If you've come to rely on opioids for chronic pain, as a growing proportion of older adults has, you may have noticed that the drugs are becoming more difficult to get.

Something had to be done, surely: More than 165,000 people died from overdoses from 1999 to 2014.

But recent restrictions on access to these painkillers are likely to disproportionately affect the elderly - despite the fact that abuse and misuse of these painkillers have historically been lower among older patients than younger ones.

Older patients are simply more apt to have chronic pain. Some of their doctors are going to get an earful when they suggest different medications or nonpharmacological alternatives, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended in new opioid guidelines in March.

Dr. Mary Lynn McPherson, a palliative care specialist and a professor at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, told me about a 78-year-old patient with "screaming pain from fibromyalgia" (which doesn't respond to opioids anyway). McPherson urged her to undertake significant weight loss and begin regular aquatic therapy and stretching.

"Please, can't you just give me Percocet?" she said. Her physician agreed to continue her prescription but, to the patient's frustration, at a low dose.

"We do need to rein this in," McPherson said of opioid use. Yet like many health care professionals, she's worried about her patients' suffering.

How do you balance the need to relieve pain against the possibility that potent, habituating drugs can also sabotage people's health, particularly when older people are more vulnerable than the young to opioids' side effects? "It's this enormous conundrum," she said.

For patients who want to get or refill prescriptions, "you have to jump through more hoops," McPherson said.

Along with the CDC guidelines, which urge more careful monitoring, doctors face a wave of state laws restricting access. The Drug Enforcement Administration also reclassified certain opioid formulations in 2014, making them less readily available.

This represents a major swing of the medical pendulum. For years, doctors were warned against paying insufficient attention to pain. The Department of Veterans Affairs declared pain the "fifth vital sign" in 1999, and many hospitals and clinicians are evaluated in part on how well they treat it.

For many older people, chronic pain - lasting longer than three months or longer than the body's tissues normally need to heal - becomes an everyday burden. Older patients are more apt than younger ones to hurt from musculoskeletal disorders like arthritis, from nerves damaged by diabetes or shingles, from cancer, from multiple causes all at once. They have more surgery.

Once, physicians actually struggled to induce older people to take opioids, which we used to call narcotics.

"Most older adults are phobic about these medications," said Dr. Cary Reid, a geriatrician and palliative care specialist who directs the Translational Research Institute on Pain in Later Life at Weill Cornell Medical College. "You have to persuade them."

Consider them persuaded. Last year, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, published a study using two large national surveys of outpatient visits to examine analgesic drug use among older adults (average age: 75).

They found that from 1999 to 2010, the percentage of clinic visits involving any pain-relieving medication climbed to more than 19 percent from 13.6 percent. Opioid use drove much of that increase: The figure more than doubled, to 9 percent of visits from 4.1 percent.

But the Medicare population is more likely to suffer these drugs' ill effects, too, leaving physicians to ponder troubling trade-offs.

"Older adults don't metabolize drugs as well as a 30- or 50-year-old, so the medication stays in a person's system longer," Reid said.

Opioids can bring on nausea and vomiting and often lead to constipation, which may then require additional medications, creating cycles of constipation and diarrhea. Long-term use can cause kidney and cardiac damage.

Opioids affect balance and are associated with higher risks of falls and fractures. They can impair thinking and memory.

Vexingly, the medications physicians might prescribe instead, including anti-inflammatories like ibuprofen or naproxen, also pose greater dangers for older patients: bleeding, elevated blood pressure, reduced kidney function.

Experts worry, too, about diversion - relatives, neighbors or caregivers helping themselves to their elders' medicines.

"It's complicated terrain," said Christine Ritchie, the lead author of the UCSF study and a past president of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. Nationally, opioid prescriptions have begun to decline, and some physicians have stopped prescribing them altogether.

As an older patient seeking pain relief, you'll probably find that while you may continue using opioids, you'll get more questions, hear more about alternatives - and take home fewer pills.

For example, doctors can no longer call in prescriptions with refills for certain formulations, notably Vicodin. Under the Drug Enforcement Administration's tighter controls on such hydrocodone combinations, you have to take a paper prescription to a pharmacy, then return to your doctor for a new prescription every month, to allow closer monitoring. Those can be onerous requirements for older people in pain.

You'll also find doctors talking about reasonable expectations. "You probably can't make the pain a zero," McPherson said. "We're trying to make it tolerable."
U.S. crude oil prices climbed above $50 a barrel on Tuesday for the first time in nearly a year, providing a measure of relief to companies that have survived the worst oil bust in 30 years and hope that a long-awaited recovery is finally taking shape.

Oil prices have nearly doubled since they hit a low of $26 a barrel in February, settling Tuesday in New York at $50.36, up 67 cents on the day. It was the first time prices have settled above $50 since July 2015.

"It's a big milestone, 50 bucks," said Jim Krane, an energy studies fellow at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy. "It's one of those psychological barriers that's been breached. If you're a small oil company that's barely hanging on, you'll breathe a little easier tonight."

While far from the heady days of $100 oil, $50 a barrel is at least a threshold at which many of the shale drillers that led the last boom can make money, analysts said. Already, rising prices are leading to increased activity among oil producers and their suppliers.

Last week, in response to rising oil prices, drillers sent nine rigs back to West Texas' Permian Basin and other places - a tiny number compared to the 1,500 rigs sidelined during the bust, but nonetheless significant after months of declines that drove the number of operating rigs to record lows.

More Information By the numbers $50.36: Where West Texas Intermediate settled Tuesday, which was over $24 above February's low.1,500&: Number of U.S. rigs that were sidelined. 140&: Number of North American oil producers and suppliers that have gone bankrupt in the oil bust. See More Collapse

On Monday, Pioneer Natural Resources, a West Texas driller, said it planned to send five to 10 rigs back to the oil patch when crude prices reached $50 a barrel.

Meanwhile, a major U.S. drilling rig contractor, Helmerich & Payne, said demand from production companies for its equipment is finally picking up. "With oil prices over $45 a barrel and some confidence in the market, inbound calls have started to come in," Helmerich & Payne, headquartered in Oklahoma, told investors earlier this week.

"There's no doubt that higher prices are going to help immensely," said Jamie Webster, a fellow at Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy.

Supply disruptions

Crude prices have been rising recently amid supply disruptions caused by wild fires in Canada's oil sands region and militant attacks in Nigeria, as well as falling U.S. production, which in May experienced the sharpest monthly drop since Hurricane Ike shut down offshore production in 2008, the U.S. Energy Department said Tuesday.

In addition, U.S. commercial stockpiles have dipped by over 1 million barrels in recent weeks, even as U.S. demand for gasoline reaches record levels, according to the Energy Department.

"This thing is coming back into balance much faster than some people thought," said R.T. Dukes, an analyst at the energy research firm Wood Mackenzie.

Still few analysts expect a rapid recovery for the industry. Global markets remain awash in oil, with the Energy Department on Tuesday projecting that prices will rise slowly from here, averaging about $52 a barrel next year, far below the peak of more than $100 a barrel hit in June 2014.

Energy companies have shed jobs by the tens of thousands, with Texas alone losing nearly 100,000 jobs since the downturn began nearly two years ago, according to Texas economist Karr Ingham, who has tracked the state's oil industry for years. More than 140 North American oil producers and their equipment suppliers have gone bankrupt since the start of 2015, including 75 Texas companies, according to law firm Haynes and Boone.

Need cash to restart

In addition, many of the companies that have survived remain short of cash and saddled with heavy debts, making it difficult to get the money they need to resume drilling.

"It's going to take a while for the companies to get together their financial wherewithal," said Ann-Louise Hittle, another Wood Mackenzie analyst. "We don't think it's going to be a quick ramp-up."

But that could ultimately prove a benefit to the recovery. Last summer, oil prices returned above $60 a barrel, only to plunge as companies started pumping oil.

Some have predicted that the latest rebound in prices could lead to the same result, but others say that conditions over the past year have changed. Among those changes: Many more companies have gone out of business since last summer, curbing production.

Andy Lipow, president of oil consulting firm Lipow Oil Associates in Houston, said the surviving oil companies may well have made it over the wall. "The market feels a sense of a relief, that those who have survived will continue to make it through this low pricing period," he said.
If Houston's municipal pension board makes investment decisions the way it makes personnel decisions, it's in more trouble than we thought. Actually, we all are.

The Chronicle's Mike Morris reported recently that the pension board had renewed a generous contract with the fund's director, Rhonda Smith, in late 2014, only to notify her a few months later that she'd be out of a job. She was finally put on paid leave in January, and removed in February, but her contract entitles her to $223,000 in annual salary through August 2017, plus a monthly car allowance and other extras.

Must be nice. But not for us, the taxpayers, who are stuck with the bill, or for pension beneficiaries, who depend on their finances being managed responsibly.

To make matters worse, the board replaced Smith with David Long, a longtime pension official who is seen by city officials as an obstructionist in negotiations.

He was key in pushing 2001 benefits increases that turned out to be based on faulty cost assumptions. We haven't dug out of that hole yet. He also backed a provision that gave himself and other city executives what's known as a "two-fer," double the years of pension seniority for each year of service. During the funding crisis in 2004, he took a $25,000 bonus. Then there were the dozens of trips to Alaska, the Bahamas and elsewhere on the pension fund's dime that former Mayor Bill White recently described "in the nature of boondoggles."

On top of all that, Long appears to have a glaring conflict. As a retired city employee, and pension beneficiary, will he be advocating for himself or for current employees hoping there's something left in the shaky fund when they retire? As it stands now, the fund has only half the cash needed to pay benefits over the long term.

The words dysfunction and incompetence may come to mind. You may be shaking your head. You may be thinking the same thing as former City Attorney David Feldman:

"And the employees of the city of Houston tolerate that crap?" he said during an interview last week. "That is unbelievable."

I don't know if they tolerate it. A union representative didn't return a call. Neither did Long or pension board chairwoman Sherry Mose. A spokesman said they could not discuss personnel matters.

'It's ridiculous'

If you're wondering whose head will roll for these decisions, the answer is simple: nobody's. The pension board has a governing structure that makes it virtually unaccountable to the folks who supply a large chunk of the fund: Houston taxpayers.

The board is controlled by retirees, with seven trustees chosen by employees and four members appointed by City Hall. But the city appointees can't serve on the powerful "external affairs" committee, which handles the most important duties: meet-and-confer negotiations with government officials.

The rationale for this, I'm told, is that the city shouldn't negotiate with its own appointees. I don't see why not, if those appointees are indeed part of the board.

Apparently, decisions about Smith's ouster were made by the personnel and procedures committee, which includes a grand total of one city appointee. That committee, too, is able to make final decisions without full board approval, said former city appointee Craig Mason.

"It's ridiculous," he said. "The biggest expense they have is the salaries of the personnel.  Where else do you have committees making final decisions without full board approval?"

In Smith's case, her fate was approved by the full board on days when three city appointees were absent.

In addition, Feldman said, the state law governing the board includes catch-all language that basically gives it prerogative to interpret the statute however it wants, without being subject to review.

"So long as there's no accountability, it's never going to be reined in," he said.

Little leverage

Feldman acknowledges the city signed off on provisions to effectively neuter its own voice on the board. He says he and other city attorneys had little leverage to negotiate when they were asking the pension board for a big favor: to let the city pay less than what it owed into the fund.

"That was really the most frustrating thing," he said. "In each case, the city was looking for some kind of short-term relief. There was a financial or political motivation. And each time, the city gave up the future."

Will the next re-negotiation be any different? Possibly. Mayor Sylvester Turner is in a unique position as a former longtime legislator to get reforms passed in Austin, but his hands are bound by the same lopsided rules that disadvantage the city.

Bankruptcy, perhaps?

Recently, Turner seemed to downplay the significance of Smith's ouster, saying he doesn't care who's at the table when it's time for a new round of talks over benefits and funding. Just so they come ready to lower costs.

If Long is the obstructionist that former mayors describe, Turner's got his work cut out for him.

I asked Feldman what will happen if nobody relents. If the pension boards refuse to offer deep concessions. If taxes aren't raised to meet obligations. If the Legislature is unwilling to consider reforms.

"Nobody wants to hear the word bankruptcy. And it's Houston. We can't identify with Detroit," Feldman said. "But one day, that will be the only way that there can be a solution."
After deliberating just over an hour, a federal jury in Houston concluded Wednesday that a Montgomery County school district was not liable for damages to a teacher who fought in Iraq and experienced a flashback during a pep rally.

The teacher, Stephen Seidel, claimed the school had not provided reasonable accommodation for his post-traumatic stress disorder.

Attorney Erik Nichols, who represented the New Caney Independent School District, said he felt the jury reached the appropriate decision.

"It's very unfortunate for Mr. Seidel," he said. "We definitely feel a great deal of sympathy for Mr. Seidel and his condition."

Seidel's attorney declined to comment after the jury's decision. Seidel was not present in the courtroom.

New Caney ISD acknowledged that Seidel had been diagnosed with PTSD after discharge from the military. His mental disability stemmed, in part, from having been propelled by a mortar blast into the side of a building, according to his testimony in U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison's court.

And there was no dispute that David Loyacano, New Caney High School principal, agreed when Seidel was hired in 2011 that the science teacher would not be required to attend pep rallies because of his PTSD. Instead, he would patrol the halls.

The case boiled down to whether Seidel's department chair had the authority to tell Seidel he must accompany his students to a particularly high-voltage pep rally, called a "Lip Dub" rally, on the last day before winter break in 2012.

Two emails, including one in all caps, had instructed all teachers to attend. Seidel knew he was exempt, but when his department head insisted he be there despite his protest that he was a combat vet, he assumed she was speaking with authority. And he followed instructions.

The packed rally, featuring T-shirt and confetti cannons, loud screaming and popping balloons, triggered a series of flashbacks. Seidel has not returned to work since that day and has qualified as 100 percent disabled under Social Security. He testified that he feared going to sleep because of the nightmares and feared returning to work because he might endanger students.

The school district argued that the principal, the ultimate authority, never rescinded the pep rally accommodation. Seidel should have conferred with the principal before attending, the district contended.

Between 11 and 20 percent of American veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from PTSD, according to the Veteran's Administration. Many studies indicate this mental health condition is underreported. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, employers must provide reasonable accommodation for employees who have a disability.
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NEW YORK - Claiming her place in history, Hillary Clinton declared victory Tuesday night in her bruising battle for the Democratic presidential nomination, becoming the first woman to lead a major American political party and then immediately taking aim at Republican Donald Trump.

"Tonight's victory is not about one person," Clinton said. "It belongs to generations of women and men who struggled and sacrificed and made this moment possible."

Clinton spoke at an emotional rally in Brooklyn, eight years to the day after she ended her first failed White House run. She had already secured the delegates needed for the nomination, according to an Associated Press tally, but added to her totals with victories in New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Clinton's only remaining rival, has insisted he still has a narrow path to the nomination. Still, Clinton made a direct appeal to his supporters, recalling the raw emotions of her own supporters when she lost to Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic primary.

"It never feels good to put our heart into a cause or a candidate you believe in and come up short," she said. "I know that feeling well. But as we look ahead to the battle that awaits, let's remember all that unites us."

The Democratic race was ending amid new turmoil among the Republicans. GOP leaders recoiled at Trump's comments about a Hispanic judge, with one senator even pulling his endorsement.

Trump capped his difficult day with victories in New Jersey, New Mexico, South Dakota , Montana and California. He was muted his victory rally, saying he understands "the responsibility" of leading the Republican Party. He also made a direct appeal to dejected Sanders supporters and other Democrats.

"This election isn't about Republican or Democrat, it's about who runs this country: the special interests or the people," he said. Trump vowed to deliver a major speech next week on Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton.

Clinton spent much of her own victory speech targeting Trump, previewing a tough general election campaign.

"He wants to win by stoking fear and rubbing salt in wounds - and reminding us daily just how great he is," Clinton said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

Clinton's win in New Jersey came a day after she secured the 2,383 delegates she needed to become the first female presumptive nominee of a major political party, according to an Associated Press tally. Her total includes pledged delegates won in primaries and caucuses, as well as superdelegates - the party officials and officeholders who can back a candidate of their choosing.

Clinton and Sanders were both pressing for victory in California, each eager to effectively end their primary battle on a high note.

Clinton was leading in early returns. However, the final California results might be delayed; more than half of Californians vote by mail, and the deadline for returned ballots isn't until Friday, as long as they are postmarked by election day.

Sanders picked up a win in North Dakota, where a handful of delegates were up for grabs. Montana was also holding a primary, but the race was too close to call.

Sanders hoped a victory would help in his so-far-unsuccessful bid to get Clinton superdelegates to switch their support. Asked on NBC whether he was continuing that effort, he said, "We are. We're on the phone right now." The superdelegates who were counted in Clinton's total told the AP they were unequivocally supporting her.

Trump, after vanquishing his last opponents about a month ago, has continued to make controversial statements, frustrating party leaders.

The latest cause for GOP concern was his insistence that a judge handling a legal case involving the businessman was being unfair in his rulings. Trump has said U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel can't be impartial because the jurist's parents were born in Mexico and Trump wants to build a wall along the border.

Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk, who is locked in a close re-election fight, became the first lawmaker to pull his endorsement of Trump. House Speaker Paul Ryan said the businessman's assertion was the "textbook definition of a racist comment" but he would continue to support Trump.

Trump released a statement saying he does "not feel one's heritage makes them incapable of being impartial." But he still questioned whether he was receiving fair treatment in the case involving the now-defunct Trump University.

Clinton will soon have help on the campaign trail from President Barack Obama.

Obama called Clinton on Tuesday night to congratulate her for securing "the delegates necessary to clinch" the Democratic nomination. But the president did not formally endorse Clinton, although he is expected to do so soon.

The White House says the president also called Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders to praise him for shining a spotlight on economic inequality and energizing millions of voters.

The statement said that Obama and Sanders would meet at the White House on Thursday.
Police discovered an empty package of sleeping pills and a wine bottle inside the motel room of a former NASA astronaut accused of causing a crash in central Alabama early Monday that killed two young sisters.

Investigators said retired Air Force Col. James D. Halsell Jr., 59, smelled of alcohol, was unstable on his feet and had slurred speech as officials with the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency questioned him shortly after 3 a.m. Monday at a crash site on a lonely stretch of highway near Tuscaloosa, according to court documents in the case.

Halsell was charged with murder.

Alabama state police officials said the former space shuttle pilot was driving a rented Chrysler 200 that collided with a Ford Fiesta with four people inside, including sisters Jayla Latrice Parler, 13, and Niomi Deona James, 11. Neither was wearing a seat belt at the time and both were thrown from the car on impact, authorities said.

The girls' father, Pernell James, 37, was reportedly driving back to his home nearby after picking up his daughters from their mother's home in Houston, according to the Associated Press. Also in the car was Shontel Cutts, 25. Both adults were treated at area hospitals for their injuries, authorities said.

Juan Ibarra was driving to work at a construction site that morning when he spotted the crash. He said the force of the impact flipped the Ford Fiesta into the next lane.

"I stopped to help the people in that car," Ibarra told the Houston Chronicle on Tuesday in a telephone interview.

Ibarra said Halsell came up to him. "I tried to help him," Ibarra recalled, speculating that Halsell had been drinking. "He never said nothing."

The former astronaut tried to climb inside Ibarra's pickup and drive away, Ibarra said.

"When I saw that, I ran and took the keys and locked my truck," he said. "I pushed him and said, 'Stay away from my truck.' "

Ibarra said that was the last he saw of Halsell, who wandered away into the darkness and was later apprehended by state police officers responding to the fatal crash.

He found one of the girls, apparently Jayla, the older sister, on the freeway.

"I tried to talk to her and keep talking to her," Ibarra said. "She was moaning and in pain."

Ibarra also saw the younger sister on the ground. "She wasn't moving - nothing. I feel bad for her," he said.

The two injured adults who were in the car with the girls seemed dazed after the fatal crash.

"He (their father) was looking for his little girls. He was confused. His face, it was bleeding," Ibarra said.

During questioning by state police, Halsell said he did not remember what happened. The Huntsville, Ala., resident told them he was traveling to West Monroe, La., to pick up his son and stopped at a Motel 6 in Tuscaloosa.

"He appeared to be confused on where he was, where he was going and what time it was," according to an Alabama state police deposition in the case.

Halsell told police he drank three glasses of wine at the motel and didn't remember leaving.

"Halsell was so intoxicated he asked to see the victims' bodies," the troopers said in the deposition.

He was taken into custody and charged with two counts of murder. Halsell was released after posting a $150,000 bond.

On Tuesday, a message left at Halsell's home was not returned.

Monday's arrest was a stunning fall for the veteran NASA astronaut who commanded three of the five shuttle missions he flew into space.

He graduated in 1978 from the U.S. Air Force Academy and flight school a year later. After graduate school, Halsell became a test pilot. NASA chose him for the astronaut program in 1990. He was a pilot for space shuttle missions in 1994 and 1995 and was in charge for two space missions in 1997 and a third in 2000. Halsell logged more than 1,200 hours in space before retiring in 2006 from NASA to take a job in the private sector.
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The final unraveling this week of efforts to create a Southlawn "safety zone" to ban gang activity was met with jubilation from civil liberties supporters, anger from law enforcement officials and ambivalence from community advocates who all agree that the South Union neighborhood deserves an effective solution to its crime problems.

With trial set to start next week, Harris County Attorney Vince Ryan and District Attorney Devon Anderson abandoned the civil legal action dubbed a "gang injunction" for programs that will provide job training and educational opportunities to the lawsuit's former defendants.

The petition, which was withdrawn Monday, was the largest potential gang injunction in Harris County history, and one of three filed in the county. The original suit sought to ban 92 people identified as suspected gang members from a 2-mile area of south Houston.

Community leaders turned their attention Tuesday to crafting concrete plans for reducing crime.

About a dozen people involved in the "Southlawn Working Group" led by Houston NAACP branch president James Douglas met Tuesday to discuss solutions. Members include representatives from the county, the City of Houston and community organizations as well as some of the defendants' lawyers and local NAACP officials.

"We know that the people in the community need improved education, they need improved opportunity and they need jobs," Douglas said. "We know that the money is going to be available and we know that there are a lot of people out there who can provide the services."

The funding source for the programs and who might deliver the services remain unresolved.

Harris County Precinct 1 Commissioner Gene Locke, whose district includes the area, said Tuesday that the city and county have applied for a grant to hire an anti-gang coordinator. He also has arranged for increased patrols from the Harris County Sheriff's Office and Harris County Precinct 7 Constable May Walker's deputies.

Locke opposed the lawsuit as a crime-reduction strategy.

"I believe that civil injunctions are not the most appropriate or effective measures to fight criminal activity," he said. "The injunction bordered on violating First Amendment rights and had the effect of targeting people based on their age and color. We all want our communities to be safe, but there are existing law enforcement measures at hand that can be used in an appropriate way instead of gang injunctions."

Ray Hunt, president of the Houston Police Officers' Union, however, was incensed that the county dropped the lawsuit.

"We think that this is going to result in the good folks in that area out there continuing to be plagued by gang members, by violence and by drug dealing," he said. "I'm confident that this is going to do nothing more than empower that gang to think that they will continue to run that part of the neighborhood."

Hunt called the lawsuit's demise "pure politics" based on misinformation about what he believes is an effective law enforcement tool.

"We tried to do a solution and nobody wanted our solution," he said. "This is an insult to the law-abiding people who simply want to go to work or go to school without having dope-slingers and pistol-packers on the corner."

Weak criteria

The original petition was filed in September under seal by county officials seeking a "Southlawn Safety Zone" after success securing gang injunctions in two other Harris County communities. The confidentiality order on the case was lifted in October.

The suit combined the state's organized crime and public nuisance laws to request a protective order that would provide relief to a weary community under siege.

The lawsuit was named after the Southlawn Palms Apartments on Scott Street, where gang activity has been a chronic problem for years. The complex is beside Cullen Middle School, near Yellowstone Park and several other rental properties that house hundreds of children and seniors.

Critics said the legal action unfairly targeted young black men, and used weak criteria to label some of the defendants as gang members. Lawyers representing some of the original 92 defendants won support from activists in challenging the sweeping ban as a violation of constitutional rights.

That was the pivotal moment that set up a showdown between critics and supporters of the injunction as a solution to the Southlawn crime problem.

In March, the county dialed back the lawsuit, reducing the number of targeted defendants and the size of the banishment area.

County officials also intensified talks with community advocates about a possible settlement of the case. The informal mediation morphed into the Southlawn Working Group.

Gang injunctions in other areas of the country have been struck down by courts. For example, nearly 6,000 people who were subject to gang-related curfews settled their federal class-action lawsuit in March against the city of Los Angeles. Officials there agreed to spend up to $30 million on jobs programs and restorative justice efforts.

'Lazy policing'

On Tuesday, the ACLU of Texas and allied groups who circulated anti-injunction petitions over the last few weeks issued a joint news release celebrating the end of the lawsuit.

"Vince Ryan and Devon Anderson did their best to keep the residents of Southlawn from learning their community had been targeted for a gang injunction," said Caroline Duble, an ACLU of Texas community organizer. "This victory is not only a testament to the mettle of Southlawn's residents, but also to the undeniable power of grassroots community organizing. We won't allow government officials to operate in secret and target communities of color for harm."

Charles X. White, a community activist and former gang interventionist, worked to have the lawsuit thrown out because he believed the efforts targeted neighborhoods populated by people of color. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the proposed gang injunction area is roughly 78 percent black and 20 percent Hispanic.

"We are thankful that the community groups and individuals worked to open the eyes of the county attorney and the district attorney," he said, adding that there were additional law enforcement steps that could have been taken before filing a lawsuit. "To jump over accepted policing practices to get to a gang injunction is justifying lazy policing."

Not everyone was pleased. Area resident leader Preston Roe, president of the La Salette Place Civic Club, was disappointed that the county didn't go all the way with the lawsuit. His neighborhood was included in the original Southlawn zone, which included more than 1,300 acres roughly bounded by Loop 610, Texas 288, Old Spanish Trail and Cullen.

"I can't see why they would file an injunction like that if they weren't planning on following up on it," he said. "Everything has opened back up again."

He said offering resources and services to people with gang backgrounds doesn't mean they will become law-abiding citizens.

"If a person doesn't want to work, regardless of what type of job you put out there, they're not going to work," Roe said.

Crime not as bad

Southlawn would have been the third "safety zone" created in Harris County since 2010.

The first injunction was in northeast Harris County's East Aldine area, and initially banned 47 suspected gang members from a 57-acre zone, including the Haverstock Hills apartments. In 2014, that "safety zone" - an area about 70 percent black and 25 percent Hispanic - was expanded to 217 acres.

The second injunction in 2012 targeted several blocks of Houston's Brays Oaks community on Houston's southwest side. The area is about 41 percent black and 40 percent Hispanic.

Haverstock residents Tuesday offered mixed reviews on whether the civil actions have helped crime in their area.

"It's nothing like it used to be," said Tommy Dirden, 79, who has lived in Haverstock for nine years and knows five people who have been killed in the complex during that time. He feels crime has decreased but wishes there was more visibility by law enforcement officers in the neighborhood.

Norma Mombouli, 54, has lived in Haverstock for a year and also has seen improvement in the crime problem.

"I heard a couple of gunshots a couple weeks ago, but we haven't had as many as it was," she said.

Brooke Lewis contributed to this report.
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Legendary investigator Johnny Bonds, hero of the 1983 book "The Cop Who Wouldn't Quit," can rest for another five years.

The man he helped put in prison twice, once for a triple murder and then again for money laundering, has again been denied parole, Bonds said this week.

"If there's ever been a guy who deserved to spend the rest of his life in prison, it's him," the retired detective said of Walter Waldhauser, one of Houston's most notorious criminals. "He's one of the smartest people I've ever known. I never saw anybody work so hard to get over on people."

Waldhauser confessed in 1981 to his role in one of Houston's most infamous murder cases in exchange for a 30-year prison sentence.

Nine years later, Waldhauser was released on parole and changed his name to Michael Lee Davis. He eventually moved to Dallas and started running financial scams.

A decade after his release, he was sentenced to 60 years for money laundering on evidence that he stole more than $5 million.

Because it was a nonviolent crime, Waldhauser came up for parole just seven years later.

That year, Bonds marshaled forces to convince the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to deny release and put it off for five years.

Bonds did it again in 2011.

And earlier this year, he began a similar campaign by reaching out to his long list of friends and contacts to write letters protesting release.

That effort proved successful last week when the parole board again refused to set Waldhauser free and postponed the next decision until 2021.

Bonds was vacationing in rural Arkansas when he got the news.

"I've got another five years that I don't have to worry about the SOB being on the streets," he said with a laugh. "My goal is to outlive him."

Waldhauser is 63.

Bonds, now 68, retired from the Harris County District Attorney's Office in 2008 after 40 years in law enforcement.

His legacy became inextricably linked with Waldhauser's fate after the detective spent two years unraveling the 1979 murders of John and Diana Wanstrath and their 14-month-old son, Kevin.

Bonds was able to show the slayings were intentional killings orchestrated by Diana Wanstrath's adopted brother, not a murder-suicide as originally thought. He also showed that the adopted brother, Markham Duff-Smith, had hired triggerman Allen Wayne Janecka to kill the family for inheritance money. Duff-Smith and Janecka both landed on death row and have been executed for their roles.

Bonds was also able to prove that Waldhauser was involved in Diana Wanstrath's mother's death, which was ruled a suicide five years earlier.

Waldhauser, who confessed, acted as the middleman who hired and paid Janecka in both incidents.

The saga became the book "The Cop Who Wouldn't Quit" by Rick Nelson, which cemented Bonds' place in Houston's crime lore.
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Colin headed out to sea Tuesday after dumping as much as 9 inches of rain on parts of Florida, forcing at least one city to pump partially treated sewage into the Gulf of Mexico because the system was overloaded with rainwater.

Colin flooded roads and caused thousands of power outages in Florida and a team investigated a possible tornado related to the storm that damaged homes and toppled trees in Jacksonville. The city of St. Petersburg said it was pumping sewage into Tampa Bay because its sewer system has been overloaded with rainwater infiltrating leaky sewer pipes.

Although the storm was out to sea, forecasters said Colin is expected to produce additional rainfall of up to 2 inches across far eastern North Carolina, and as much as 5 inches across central Florida through Tuesday evening.

The U.S. Hurricane Center said Colin, which formed Sunday, was the earliest a third named storm had developed during the Atlantic hurricane season, which officially began June 1.

Warnings ended

In Dare County, N.C., which includes pencil-thin territories from Kitty Hawk down to Hatteras Island, Emergency Management Director Drew Pearson said rain had been falling nearly continuously since Tropical Storm Bonnie, which formed May 28. So far, there had been no major flooding.

"We're really just seeing large amounts of water," Pearson said, noting that many roads in the Outer Banks are at sea level, meaning that they can be quickly impacted by heavy rains. Traffic may be slow but hadn't been stopped anywhere, he said.

Tropical storm warnings were discontinued as the remnants of Colin sped away from the mid-Atlantic coast and out to sea.

Although maximum sustained winds are at 68 mph with higher gusts, the system's strongest winds and heaviest rains were over water and southeast of the center. The hurricane center said some slight strengthening was possible Tuesday night, but gradual weakening was expected Wednesday.

Pearson said he expected skies to clear along the Outer Banks, good news for tourists who have flocked there for early summer vacations.

"We anticipate conditions to improve over the day," he said. "Don't let it ruin your day."

Rip currents warning

On Georgia's Tybee Island, lifeguards posted red flags on the beach to warn swimmers of rip currents and 2- to 3-foot breakers.

The National Weather Service reported that about 2.7 of rain fell at McKinnon St. Simons Island Airport as the storm passed over the area. About 4 inches of rain fell at the Liberty County airport near Hinesville.

No significant problems were reported in South Carolina, with a handful of roads closed in Charleston and near the Georgia-South Carolina state line.

The high winds and rain knocked out power to about 10,000 people from Tampa Bay to Jacksonville.
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At the beginning of the decade, Alison and Ann Dadow were well-known yoga entrepreneurs who drove matching Porsches, as identical as they were, around West Palm Beach, Fla. In late May, the 37-year-old twins plunged over the edge of a cliff in Hawaii and fell 200 feet in a Ford Explorer, which crumpled like an old soda can when it hit the slick, jagged rocks peeking out of the Pacific Ocean below.

Ann, sitting passenger, was pronounced dead at the scene. Alison was rushed to the hospital in critical condition and on Monday, was charged with second-degree murder for the death of her sister. She's been ordered to remain in jail without bail, according to court documents obtained by the Washington Post.

Sometime before moving to Hawaii, the two assumed new identities under the names Alexandria and Anastasia Duval. It's unclear when the twins assumed new identities or if they legally changed their names. Court documents refer them by both names. For the sake of clarity, The Post will refer to twins by their given names, Alison and Ann Dadow.

On the afternoon of May 29, the two were cruising along Hana Highway, which snakes around the east coast of Maui for about 64 miles, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Despite the gorgeous scenery, an argument had allegedly grown between them, according to court documents.

Lawrence Lau, who was chaperoning a Boys Scouts troop outing, claimed to have come across the white SUV sitting motionless in the middle of the highway. According to court documents, the passenger was pulling the driver's hair.

"You could tell that she was very violently swearing at somebody else in the car," Lau told KHNL. "She was mad and when she took off, it was in a rage. So she floored it and was in a rage as she sped past us."

Alison allegedly drove straight off the cliff.

Alan Akina, a contributor to "Wake Up Today," told KHON he also witnessed the accident.

"They just sped up, drove right past our van and turned off the cliff," Akina said.

According to the Explorer's airbag control module, the car experienced a hard acceleration and no braking, even after it crashed into and over the rock wall on the side of the highway and plummeted to the rocks below, court documents state.

Alison was arrested at the Seaside Hotel last Friday, after she attempted to fly out of the Hawaii.

"We had information after she was discharged from the hospital she attempted to fly out of the jurisdiction Wednesday night," Maui Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Emlyn Higa told the Associated Press. The court documents state Alison had a flight booked to the West Coast.

Todd Eddins, Alison's defense attorney, told the Washington Post she did have a flight planned but it was back to upstate New York to attend a funeral for her sister with her grandmother, "to be confronted by the only maternal presence she had left," as the twins' mother died when they were young.

"All we know is she was trying to leave the state," Higa said. "We were afraid she would try to leave the country as well."

Eddins called the second-degree murder charge "extreme and cold-hearted."

"They were extremely close, even by identical twin standards," he told The Post. "[Alison] did not try to harm herself or the person she most loved and was closest to in the world."

Alison has pleaded not guilty, and a preliminary hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.
LILONGWE, Malawi - She is haunted daily by the image of the decapitated head of her 9-year-old son. Police asked Edna Cedrick to identify it after the boy, who had albinism, was snatched from her arms in a violent struggle.

The death in February was one in a recent surge in killings and abductions of people with albinism in this southern African country. They are targeted for their body parts, which are sold to be used in potions made by witch doctors who claim they bring wealth and good luck.

At least 18 albino people have been killed in Malawi in a "steep upsurge in killings" since November 2014, and five others have been abducted and remain missing, according to a new Amnesty International report released Tuesday. The toll is likely much higher because many killings in rural areas are never reported, according to the report. Malawi police also have recorded cases where the bodies of people with albinism have been illegally exhumed.

Malawian police say the growing violence comes after neighboring Tanzania imposed tough measures against such trade in January 2015. The United Nations has reported several killings of albinos in Burundi in recent years as well.

Cedrick recounted her son's abduction while holding the murdered boy's surviving twin brother, who also has albinism. In the middle of the night, she said, she woke to the sound of people kicking down her door. Her husband was away.

"Before I could understand what was happening, they sliced the mosquito net and grabbed one of the twins," the 26-year-old said, tears in her eyes. "I held on to him by holding his waist, at the same time shielding the other with my back."

When they could not overpower her, one assailant hacked her in the forehead with a machete, she said. "This dazed me, and I lost hold of my son and he was gone. I shouted for help, but when my relatives rushed to our house, they were gone."

The boy's twin keeps asking where his brother is, she said. She lies, saying he will return.

Elsewhere in Malawi, a deadly attack targeted 38-year-old Fletcher Masina, an albino father of four. When his body was found, the limbs were missing.

"The macabre trade is also fueled by a belief that bones of people with albinism contain gold," the rights group says, noting another mistaken belief is that sex with a person with albinism can cure HIV. The report also points out widespread discrimination against people with albinism, including by family members.

President Peter Mutharika has since established a committee to look into the issue, which he called disgusting.
The competition between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders enters an urgent new phase Wednesday - a delicate minuet that Clinton and leading Democrats hope will soothe tensions and move their divided party toward enthusiastic unification behind the presumptive presidential nominee.

If all goes well, the Democrats will arrive at their convention in Philadelphia in late July with Sanders fully supportive of Clinton and his millions of fervent followers ready to become foot soldiers in the race against presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.

But all that presupposes that Clinton and the senator from Vermont can quickly begin the process of reconciliation. And no Democratic leader thinks that will be an easy task.

A handful of people are expected to play key roles in brokering peace between the two warring campaigns, including President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Obama and White House political director David Simas, as well as Warren and Reid, have been in communication with both camps to lay the foundation for an eventual coming together, according to several senior Democrats. Obama called both candidates Tuesday night and was scheduled to meet with Sanders at the White House on Thursday. Sanders also plans to meet with Reid that day on Capitol Hill.

"It's not a one-way street. They're both going to have to, in effect, compromise," Reid said in an interview Tuesday. Reflecting on his earlier career as a trial lawyer, the Senate leader said, "I never knew what was going to happen when I went to trial, so if I could get a decent offer I would settle that case, and that's what I think my two friends should take a look at."

In one way, what Sanders and Clinton will be doing is common at the end of spirited nomination battles. Just eight years ago, Clinton was on the other side as the losing candidate, eventually reaching an accommodation with Obama but not without some hiccups along the way.

Leading Democrats say this time is different and potentially more difficult. For one, Sanders operates outside the Democratic Party structure. He has run in Vermont as an independent and self-described democratic socialist. And though he caucuses with Democrats in the Senate, his ties to the institutional party are decidedly looser than were Clinton's.

Even more important, however, is that his candidacy - like Obama's in 2008 - generated great enthusiasm and spawned a powerful grass-roots movement made up of independents and others who do not identify with the Democratic establishment. Clinton will need his voters in the fall, and that no doubt will require the help of Sanders.

How Sanders approaches this period is a source of uncertainty and anxiety. He has sent mixed signals in recent days, barnstorming California with a vow to contest the Philadelphia convention while also acknowledging that he would have to fully digest his new reality later this week.

Aides said the process of determining Sanders' next steps would begin Wednesday aboard the campaign's airplane as the candidate and top advisers hold their most complete conversation about his options while flying to Vermont from Los Angeles.

"He is certainly against Trump and will do anything to stop Trump," said Tad Devine, a senior strategist for Sanders. "If he is going to get out and endorse her before the convention, how do you do that in a way to persuade as many of his supporters as possible to support her? Not just, 'I'm for her,' but, 'You be for her, too.' "

Devine said there have been a number of conversations between the two camps, including talks between Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook and Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver. Some of these have had to do with issues around the Democratic platform.

"Things are going in a positive direction," Devine said. "No negotiations are going on but there is interaction."

Even though the primary calendar has all but run out - the Washington D.C. holds the final contest next Tuesday - the Sanders movement is very much alive. He has addressed big, boisterous rallies in California for the past several weeks.

"He's obviously struggling and in great internal conflict about what's going on," said former Vermont governor Howard Dean, a Clinton supporter. "He knows intellectually that he can't win, but he can't stop himself. . . .There is part of him that doesn't want to quit."

Sanders probably will find very little sympathy for the case that he has said he would make between now and the convention, which is to ask the hundreds of superdelegates - Democratic elected officials and party leaders - who have publicly committed to Clinton not only to change their allegiance but also to go against the total popular vote and the results of state-by-state contests over the past four-plus months.

Even among Sanders' supporters, that argument may not hold water. Many progressive activists dislike the very concept of superdelegates - a position that Warren, whose liberal base is the same that fueled the Sanders candidacy, advocated over the weekend.

"I'm a superdelegate and I don't believe in superdelegates. I don't think that superdelegates ought to sway the election," Warren, who has not endorsed a candidate, told reporters in Massachusetts.

Warren's comment about superdelegates notwithstanding, she is seen by other leaders of the party as uniquely credible and positioned to play one of the most influential roles in bridging the Clinton and Sanders divide.

A Warren adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly, said of the senator, "She takes the threat of Trump very seriously and she takes seriously her potential role in helping unify the party."

One danger is that Sanders could be met by a chorus of Democrats urging him, both personally and publicly, to bow out. "We have to be thoughtful about having a few voices at one time as opposed to everyone talking and preaching at the same time," said Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr., D-Pa., a Clinton backer. "You can't have 30 people call and start lecturing."

There is considerable recognition among some party leaders that Sanders deserves deference from Clinton as well as some concessions that would continue to elevate the populist ideas that have been at the heart of his candidacy.

At a meeting Tuesday morning of the Senate Democratic leadership, some senators vented about Sanders vowing to fight on and said that they had lost their patience with him. One Democratic official who relayed the exchange said Reid quieted the chatter, telling his colleagues,"We have to remember that Bernie has always been good to us, he's always been there when we needed him and we need to treat him fairly."

In the interview, Reid, who endorsed Clinton in February, reiterated those feelings and stressed the need to treat both Sanders and his followers respectfully. He said Sanders has been "a tremendously important part of my caucus," and Democrats would need to "depend on Bernie" for the final seven months of Obama's presidency.

"A lot of people he has energized and they are rabidly involved in the system now," Reid said. "What I am so impressed with is that we have these new people, so it's extremely important that Clinton and Bernie . . . both understand what they've got to offer and that they work toward a middle."

Supporters of Sanders see it as especially crucial that Clinton as well as the Democratic National Committee make genuine concessions. They already have seated five Sanders supporters on the 15-member committee responsible for drafting the party platform in Philadelphia.

Other ideas from Sanders allies include stronger policy positions by Clinton and in the platform on trade, fracking, Social Security, the role of money in politics and other reform issues.

"We're not talking about little tiny changes," said Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., a Sanders supporter. "My hope and expectation is that Secretary Clinton will find a way to understand how big these issues are and to find that she believes in aggressively taking them on. That would be necessary for the Sanders team to feel like they really want to get out and knock on those doors."

Some Democrats think that the most important step Clinton could take to bring Sanders supporters enthusiastically behind her candidacy - short of naming him as her vice-presidential running-mate - would be to tap Warren for the ticket. The idea has gained currency in Washington in recent weeks.

One potential obstacle is that Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican, would have the power to fill Warren's seat in the Senate were Warren to become vice president. But Reid, who has long expressed his admiration for Warren, recently ordered up a legal analysis of Massachusetts election law, first reported by the Boston Globe, which concluded that there are avenues open to the Democrats to minimize the threat.

"I'm a big fan of Elizabeth Warren," Reid said in the interview. "I would hope that Clinton and Bernie understand what a good woman she is and that they find a role for her, whatever that might be."

Reid raised the example of Obama in 2008 inviting Clinton into his circle, just as President Abraham Lincoln did in building a team of rivals. "He reached out to her and gave her the best job he had to offer, secretary of state, and I think the history books will recount that was a brilliant move," he said.

Asked whether he would counsel Clinton to ask Sanders to join her ticket, Reid said he would not give her advice.

"You can make a case for who is the strongest at this stage, either Clinton or Bernie, but the point is they have to work it out," Reid said. "No one can do it for them."
Immigration

Regarding "Border security, immigration a top issue" (Page A13, Monday), as the old saying goes, "There's lies, damned lies, and statistics." Larry Korkmas painted a vivid picture of the dangers of illegal immigration, citing statistics from the Texas Department of Public Safety to back up his claim that undocumented immigrants are a grave threat to the safety of Texans.

Readers may be forgiven for buying what he was selling. After all, 193,000 arrests of immigrants between 2011 and 2014  two-thirds of which were arrests of undocumented immigrants  certainly sounds like a fearsome crime wave. But is it, really?

What Korkmas fails to mention is how these numbers compare with those for non-immigrants. A few minutes of looking up crime statistics on the Texas Department of Public Safety website reveals that during that same 4-year period there were 20 times as many arrests of non-immigrants in Texas. Even correcting for the relative sizes of immigrant and native-born populations, simple math reveals that native Texans are arrested by DPS four times as often per capita as immigrants and twice as often as undocumented immigrants. Or to put it more simply, the arrest numbers Korkmas cited are not evidence that undocumented immigrants are dangerous criminals, it is evidence that they are, in fact, far less likely to commit a crime than those of us born here.

The entire essay is a cynical piece of propaganda which demonizes a particular group of people.

Donny Jansen, Houston

Bizarre attack

Regarding "Trump's latest antics draw GOP rebuke" (Page A21, Sunday), Donald Trump is doing an impressive job in alienating Hispanic Americans in Houston. My informal poll of family and friends indicates a universal repudiation of his despicable comments. Even some in my family and friends who are Republicans indicated they will abstain from voting in November or, more interestingly, vote for Hillary.

Omar D. Lopez, Houston

Silent majority?

The problem is that Donald Trump is telling the truth that no one wants to hear. There are many more Americans beginning to believe that Trump is correct, and it is high time we Americans that have fought for our country stand up and take it back from all of the illegal aliens that have invaded our country.

Trump has many millions of supporters who are ready, willing and able to once again fight for their country, no matter what it takes.

Richard A. Linden, Spring
Positive thinking

Regarding "Peale taught Trump to 'think positive'" (Page F4, Sunday), psychologically, there is much to be said about having a positive mindset. Many recent studies have shown that a positive (and negative) mindset and its correlative behavior patterns actually change the neurological structure of the brain and predisposes individuals to maintain that mindset.

On the other hand, the canonization of positive thinking as a theological precept by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale leaves a lot to be desired. Theologians have roundly criticized this tenet as being man-centered rather than God-centered, non-Scriptural, non-Protestant and desensitizing to the presence of evil.

Furthermore many of the citations in his once popular "The Power of Positive Thinking" are untraceable and therefore unverified.

Doug Verret, Sugar Land

Destined for greatness

Regarding "Ali was "Greatest" in and out of the ring" (Page A1, Sunday), I believe that a great man is predestined by God. Greatness belongs to a man who dares to challenge wrong to make it right. A great man's footsteps are ordered by God. He creates him, molds him and purifies him by fire.

Also, I believe that a great man becomes the image of his creator, of whom there is none greater. This was Muhammad Ali, who told the world that he was the greatest, and we believed him, because it was the truth.

Mary Ann Wilson, Pearland

More noble in reaction

Regarding "Now it's Starr's turn to walk a mile in Lewinsky's headline" (Page A3, Sunday), I have no use for the many college presidents who have chosen to ignore such egregious behavior, especially among athletes. And it should be obvious that Monica Lewinsky, a young female intern, was a victim of egregious conduct as well.

But remember that Bill Clinton was the perpetrator in the latter situation. He lied under oath, dodged and wriggled and managed to retain his office. Not only has he never really paid a price for his conduct, he has become a millionaire many times over for appearing in public. At least Starr, who obviously was not a participant but may have assisted the coverup, fell on his sword.

Hugh S. Fullerton, Magnolia

Puerto Rico Independence

Regarding "Puerto Rico legislators debate debt payoff and services cuts" (Page B4, May 31), the United States has occupied Puerto Rico since 1898. The U.S. also acquired Cuba and the Philippines that year, which are now independent countries. Puerto Rico should join them. Give Puerto Rico independence now.

R.B. Richter, Seagoville

Texting and driving

Regarding "Text alert" (Page A13, Monday), I disagree on more rules allowing the government to regulate what I do in my car. The logic that "A new scientific analysis underscores how wrongheaded former Gov. Rick Perry's action was," does not hold water. If this were true, then let the government ban all kinds of food that is detrimental to your health.

There is plenty of "scientific" evidence of food that if eaten for long enough will make you obese and eventually kill you. Or cigarettes or marijuana. We can also let the government regulate what we read and ban certain books.

Perry was right, and he is still correct.

Roberto Duffy, Houston
Donald Trump's treatment of journalists and the press isn't just offensive or rude or political theater. It is dangerous - and that is true whether or not "the media" is popular with the voting public. The fact is that the Freedom of the Press under our First Amendment is designed to guard our democracy most especially during those times when the press isn't universally popular.

At a deeply strange news conference last week, Trump spent 40 minutes berating the press, calling one ABC News reporter "a sleaze." He snidely told a CNN reporter: "You're a real beauty." During other campaign stops, Trump routinely bashes the press as "dishonest," "disgusting," "slime" and "scum." Trump has called Fox News host Megyn Kelly "a bimbo." He said NBC reporter Katy Tur is a "third-rate journalist." Trump has used Twitter to belittle other reporters - all the while complaining bitterly about the press' lack of appreciation for his many self-described accomplishments.

This has all become part of his standard campaign shtick and at his rallies, most of his anti-press comments are met with wild applause from his supporters.

Trump has also said that, if elected, he said he plans to "loosen" the libel laws in the United States so that he can have an easier time suing news organizations.

Never mind that changing the libel laws is not something a president can do on his own. But Trump's actions and views are clearly designed to send a chilling effect through the media. In fact, Trump has already demonstrated a willingness to go after reporters who expose details about him that he does not like.

He often threatens to sue reporters and at times has done so. In 2006, he filed a $5 billion lawsuit against author Timothy O'Brien and his publisher for understating Trump's wealth. O'Brien reported that three people close to Trump estimated his worth to be between $150 million and $250 million. Trump said he told O'Brien he was worth between $4 billion and $6 billion. The suit was dismissed in 2009 and the appeal was rejected in 2011.

A key defense against libel suits is reporting the truth.

Name the issue - his business practices, his treatment of women, tax returns, charitable giving, Trump University, Trump Wine or Trump Steaks - The Donald has consistently taken the view that scrutiny is itself unjustified. No one should question, they should just accept.

This would all be amusing and annoying if he were just another rich guy who wanted to manage his press coverage. But he is making the case that he should have the highest elective office in the land - and that disdain for the role of a free press in our society is acceptable for someone who could hold that role. Moreover, he is convincing large segments of the public that it's acceptable, too.

A free press is not always fun or pleasant. Journalists can be rude, and lazy and biased, just like anyone else. But the system as a whole only works if there are whole bunch of them chasing, checking, questioning and complaining.

The Founding Fathers had many, many complaints about the 18th Century press, but they also understood at a deep and fundamental level that a "managed" or "regulated" press would lead to tyranny. That is why Thomas Jefferson wrote, "Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter."

To propel his own interests forward, Mr. Trump is now working hard to make the case to the public that a free press is an annoyance he - and we - can do without. More than anything he has said or done to date, THAT view should be seen as a clear and present danger to our free society.

Chavern is president and CEO of the Newspaper Association of America.
While many in Texas and across the U.S. remain skeptical about reducing emissions, some of the planet's biggest oil producers - Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) - are moving into clean, emissions-free nuclear energy.

Why is the Persian Gulf, of all places, moving away from its foundation products?

For starters, the U.S. shale revolution has shaken OPEC's supply-side dominance. A debilitating price war since 2014 has knocked out some U.S. shale producers, but North America has become and will remain a "swing producer" rivaling the Saudis. Extracting oil from shale can, and will, ramp up quickly with better prices.

Prospects for global oil demand also spook the Persian Gulf producers. In the past few years, the words "peak oil demand" have morphed from a fringe concept to something like settled fact. Here's why: During 2005-2014, oil consumption in advanced industrial economies fell by 5 million barrels per day. Technology, lifestyle advances and slowing growth in emerging economies all augur less demand.

Haunted by gloomy supply and demand scenarios, the Saudis announced a "Vision 2030" plan a few days after another portent, Tesla's new Model 3 electric vehicle, attracted 325,000 pre-orders in the first week of its debut. The electric vehicles have arrived. Soon, better battery technology and improved recharging infrastructure will enmesh with the fully autonomous self-driving car phenomenon.

Transfixed by challenges to oil's preeminence in road transportation, the Saudi plan envisages, among other things, a move toward cleaner energy. Riyadh has contracted for 41 gigawatts of solar capacity by 2032, one-fifth of the Kingdom's need. The UAE has also made large solar investments.

Moving past solar, the two OPEC heavyweights want nuclear power. They say it's safe, and will diversify their economies, give baseload emissions-free power, and create a new skilled workforce. The Saudis will build 16 reactors while the UAE has four advanced reactors under construction, the first entering service next year from a site which has become the world's largest commercial nuclear construction site. When finished, the reactors will supply 25 percent of UAE demand.

As responding to climate change becomes a more mainstream concern, delivering large-scale emissions-free power will become a pressing necessity. Wind and solar generation can contribute much, but each lacks the all-important element of scale.

There are no easy choices but, as a proven and evolved technology, nuclear energy can be scaled up in relatively short time.

France constructed many dozens of reactors (now providing three-quarters of the country's electricity) in just 20 years.

Nuclear energy elicits a full spectrum reaction, from hysteria to calmer understanding. Over the next few years, 60 reactors will come on stream worldwide. Popular demand for climate-saving, emissions-free power could cause more to be built.

U.S. utilities are currently building five reactors. China has 20 plants under construction, with its smog-choked cities welcoming plans for dozens more. In Texas, two nuclear plants generate about 10 percent of the state's electricity.

Though approvals in February enable installation of two new reactors (at the South Texas Project plant, southwest of Houston), the actual go-ahead will take time. Cheap natural gas is dominating the electricity marketplace. Yet many states, including Texas, have also established renewable portfolio standards; why not include emissions-free nuclear energy as well?

We very rarely think of emulating Saudi Arabia, but the Kingdom's nuclear energy investments should prompt us to rethink our own policy. Resurgent nuclear energy could surprise us, in much the same way the shale revolution transformed the world of oil.

If nuclear energy momentum continues, its reappearance would constitute the only modern energy revolution comparable to shale.

A former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense, Clad is an international energy consultant based in Washington, D.C.
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Paul Ryan is a disappointment. That's more difficult for me to write than it should be. My approach to politicians has generally been similar to that of lab researchers to their test animals: Do not get too attached. For scientists, it's a lot easier to stick a guinea pig with a needle if you know it as "test subject 43A" than if you know it as "Mr. Fluffy." For the columnist, it's easier to twist the knife if you don't feel personally invested.

But philosophically and temperamentally, I've long felt that Ryan is my kind of politician, and that judgment didn't change after getting to know him (which is rare, given how most politicians are all too human). His vision for government's role and the kind of party the GOP should be has always resonated with me, even if I didn't agree with him on every policy or vote.

For those reasons I wasn't just pleased that he held the line against Donald Trump, I was proud. And for those reasons, his endorsement of Trump was a true disappointment.

On May 5, Ryan announced that he wasn't ready to endorse. Trump instantly retorted: "I am not ready to support Speaker Ryan's agenda."

Ryan is no naif. His stance was both strategic and principled. We were told that he was giving his GOP caucus "cover" so they wouldn't all have to bend the knee to King Trump at once.

Moreover, Ryan implied that he was holding out in order to push Trump in a more conservative direction; the businessman would have to show good faith and rein in his antics in exchange for party unity. GOP apparatchiks reassured the scattered holdouts, particularly among donors, that Trump would soon stop the scorched-earth insults and histrionics and get on board with the GOP agenda. Even Trump's supporters, such as Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, insisted that the presumptive nominee would "get better."

But Trump never showed signs of improvement. He attacked New Mexico's popular Republican governor, Susana Martinez, for the effrontery of not supporting him. And he vilified the Indiana-born judge in his Trump University fraud case for being a "Mexican."

"You think I'm going to change?" Trump asked reporters at a positively unhinged news conference last week. "I'm not changing."

Yet Ryan endorsed him anyway.

Admittedly, Ryan's endorsement was about as grudging as possible. He announced it on Thursday in a local Wisconsin newspaper. In a video interview with the Associated Press, he showed all the sincerity of a POW muttering into a captor's camera. Ryan said he was "confident" that Trump would help him advance his agenda. Alas, he didn't blink "just kidding" in Morse code.

In throwing his support to Trump, Ryan made two mistakes. The first was tactical.

Because Trump did nothing to earn Ryan's endorsement, the presumptive nominee may conclude that he needn't negotiate with the GOP establishment; he can just count on its eventual submission.

As the Washington Examiner's Philip Klein put it, "If Ryan can't stand up to candidate Trump, why should we expect he'd stand up to a President Trump?"

Ryan also jeopardized the party's long game. Ryan understands better than most that the biggest hurdle for conservatives is how their motivations are perceived. If someone starts out thinking you're greedy, mean-spirited or bigoted, they're not going to listen to your 10-point plan. Ryan has been fighting that perception all his political life.

Trump often embraces that perception, proving conservatism's harshest critics right. For example, the left says conservatives support "wars for oil." Trump says that "taking the oil" of Iraq and Libya should be a top priority. Democrats claim that conservative immigration and national security policies stem from animosity toward Latinos and Muslims. Ryan's honest retort to such claims is that he abhors identity politics. Meanwhile, Trump is perfectly comfortable saying that an American judge's Latino heritage is disqualifying. On Sunday, he said the same might hold for Muslim judges.

From entitlements to trade to the First Amendment, Trump has made it clear that his vision of government isn't Ryan's. And the gulf in temperament and tone between the two men is wider and deeper than the Marianas Trench.

Trump, then, poses an Aesopian challenge to Ryan; the scorpion must sting the frog because that is its nature. The only way to avoid the sting is not to ally yourself with the scorpion in the first place. Trump will fade one day, but even Ryan's halfhearted embrace of Trumpism makes it more likely Ryanism will fade too.

Goldberg (@JonahNRO) is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a senior editor of National Review.
Livestock exhibitors from Lamar, Dora, Raymondville, Houston, Licking, Salem, Richland, Mountain Grove, Adrain, Peace Valley, West Plains, Koshkonong, Rolla, Bland, Owensville, Stoutland and Pomona participated, as 131 animals were exhibited (up from 65 last year). The event is a preview show for market animals, and banners and cash prizes were awarded.

Fair Board chairman Darren Ice said the Jackpot Show does not retain any of the jackpot money  other than to cover the expenses incurred to stage the event  and more than 75-percent of the entry fees collected were paid back.
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eral agency, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, is suing the Baystate Medical Center of Springfield for allegedly discriminating against a member of the HR department because of her faith.An article in The Boston Globe said that hiring consultant Stephanie Clarke refused to get a flu vaccine because of her Christian beliefs.The suit said that Clarke believes her body is a temple and lives according to the precepts of the Bible. Her religious beliefs forbid all injections  meaning she rejects all drugs and vaccines.Continuing, the suit claimed that Baystate unlawfully suspended and fired Clarke.Like many US hospitals, Baystate requires employees to undertake an annual flu vaccine to prevent contagion. Those who refuse must wear a mask while on the premises.While Clarke initially wore a mask according to company policy, this made it difficult for her to interview job applicants. She would thus often pull the mask away from her mouth to talk.Allegedly the hospital suspended Clarke without pay in November last year for failing to wear the mask properly at all times. After Clarke requested an alternative solution which would not interfere with her job, the hospital then fired her in December.Because Clarkes job did not require her to have patient contact, it would not have been an undue hardship for [the hospital] to exempt Clarke from the flu vaccine requirement, or to permit her to remove the mask while speaking, the complaint said.The Commission claimed it had tried to reach a settlement with Baystate, asking that it stop discriminating against employees and demanding an unspecified amount of back pay and damages to Clarke.Benjamin Craft, spokesperson for Baystate Medical Center, spoke to The Boston Globe.Our patients safety is our highest priority, so we take all reasonable steps to minimise any risk of transmission of infectious illness such as flu, he said. That includes a requirement to be vaccinated against flu or wear a mask at all [times in] our facilities during flu season.
Blackmores

Chorus New Zealand Ltd

Cisco Systems

Coca-Cola Amatil New Zealand

DHL Express (New Zealand) Limited

Eden Brae Homes

Estee Lauder Companies, New Zealand

Estee Lauder Companies Pty Ltd  Australia

Federal Express Pacific, LLC

Online Education Services

Renault Australia

SEEK

Wood & Grieve Engineers

Z Energy

latest organisations to achieve Aon Best Best Employer accreditation status have been named, with fourteen innovative companies making the final list.Each year, an elite group of employers across New Zealand and Australia achieve the recognition for recording exceptionally high employee engagement scores and demonstrating outstanding people practices.The full 2016 list of Aon Best Employers is:Of these accredited organisations, one is selected by an expert judging panel to receive Best of the Best accreditation  this year, Cisco systems took the title.Considered by some as an indicator of the most outstanding employer in Australia and New Zealand, the accolades is awarded only to the company which is seen to have excelled the most at providing an exceptionally positive workplace experience for employees.I am thrilled that our continued efforts to create a great place to work have been recognised through this prestigious award, said Adrian West, Cisco Systems head of HR Australia and New Zealand.In a fast-changing environment, developing a culture of trust and transparency, along with workplace flexibility, gender equality, recognition of achievement and philanthropic programs, has enabled strong business performance, he added.
orrying new report has revealed that Kiwis have more than $15 billion of debt and at least a fifth of the population are in dire financial straits  but is it really anything to do with HR? Well, if an overwhelming array of statistics are to be believed, yes.According to the Commission for Financial Capability, around 21 per cent of the Kiwi population are in the financial equivalent to intensive care  unable to pay back loans, save for a deposit or even plan for retirement, many members of the group never get out of the red.Its a precarious situation which, unsurprisingly, takes its toll and soon spills into the workplace  research by financial education provider Finance Finesse revealed that 83 per cent of employees report at least some financial stress and 16 per cent say its high or overwhelming.This stress imposes significant costs on both the employees and their employers, says financial planner Erik Carter, pointing to a U.S study conducted in 2010 which estimated that financial stress costs an average of US$5k per employee per year in lost productivity.HR director Michaela Connor says its a cost that companies just dont have to incur - the Auckland-based leader heads up the HR department for Flight Centre, where employees can access free financial advice.We have financial advisors that will come out and see our people and help them save for a house or they sit down and they plan with them what they need to do in a financial situation, she told HRM.Employees dont have to pay for that, thats part of the service, thats part of being an employee at Flight Centre.Connor says the company established its own internal business, Moneywise, to serve the Flight Centre workfroce - combatting stress and providing a lifeline to workers who may be feeling overwhelmed.Were all busy, we dont really sit down and think about it, everything kind of snowballs sometimes, she admits. When someone else  a professional  comes in and sees you, they can just sit down and have a look at it with you and have a look at realistic goals  thats what they do.The company also helps employees and their families find the best home loans for their individual situation so they dont have to compare the different banks themselves.If you and your partner want to save for a house, MoneyWise will sit down with both of you so theyre helping you as a family get to where you need to be, she says.
Marylou Trayvilla, far left, will no longer be working for the Trudeaus after July 1. (Photo: Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

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OTTAWA  Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has ended the employment of one of the women who help take care of his children, and will be picking up the tab for a new hire.

Marilou Trayvilla  officially described as a special assistant at the prime ministers residence  will leave the position on July 1, according to a government notice.

No reason is given for her termination.

Olivier Duchesneau, Trudeaus deputy director of communications, wrote in an email that one of two caregivers would be leaving.

"That caregiver will be replaced with a person hired directly by the Prime Minister and Ms. Gregoire Trudeau, he wrote to The Huffington Post Canada on Tuesday. The status of the other caregiver remains unchanged.

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Justin Trudeau and his wife, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, are seen with their children. (Photo: Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

Duchesneau confirmed the Trudeaus would be paying for the new nanny themselves but he did not say why the change is being made.

Trayvillas husband told The Toronto Star she was moving to a new full-time job because she had been working only part-time in the Trudeau household.

Trayvillas appointment as a nanny at taxpayers expense was confirmed through a cabinet order last November. Her salary, along with another Trudeau caregiver, Marian Puego, was listed as $15 to $20 per hour for work during the day and $11 to $13 hourly for a night shift.

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According to The Ottawa Citizen last December, Trayvilla had been working for the family since Trudeau won the Liberal leadership race.

The Trudeaus have three children: Xavier, 8. Ella-Grace, 7 and Hadrien, 2.

Sophie Gregoire Trudeau holds her youngest son Hadrien while she greets students in March in Washington, DC. (Photo: Cliff Owen/The Associated Press)

After news emerged that the nannies were on the public payroll, Trudeaus office pledged it would not expand the prime ministers household budget, but would adjust staffing to fit the familys needs.

"Given the nature of the prime minister's responsibilities and his young family, the Trudeaus employ two household employees who, in addition to performing other duties around the house, act as secondary caregivers to the three children," Trudeaus spokeswoman, Kate Purchase, told CBC News in December.

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Opposition parties were quick to criticize the move. The NDP suggested the nannies were not being paid enough. The Conservatives said Trudeau should pay for the nannies himself, and pointed out that during the election campaign, the Liberal leader had repeatedly said that wealthy families like his and Harpers did not need the Conservatives universal child care benefit.

Help for Sophie Gregoire Trudeau

The Prime Ministers Office confirmed Tuesday it is still considering providing Sophie Gregoire Trudeau with new staff after she revealed to a newspaper last month that she needed more help to handle public appearance requests.

Id like to be everywhere, but I cant, she told Le Soleil. I have three children at home and a husband who is prime minister. I need help. I need a team to help me serve people.

Duchesneau told HuffPost that Gregoire Trudeau receives an extraordinarily high volume of correspondence and invitations.

We are continuing to look at new ways to make sure she is supported at the official events she attends, as well as making sure that correspondence from Canadians across the country is triaged and answered in a timely manner, he said.

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Preliminary discussions are currently taking place on potential solutions to handle the high volume of requests, but no decision has been made.

Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, right, mocked herself and her request for more help during a segment at Saturday's annual parliamentary press dinner. (Photo: Justin Tang/CP)

Duchesneau told HuffPost that the prime ministers wife currently has one executive assistant, Natalie St-Denis, who is charged with:

Answering correspondences.

Filtering requests to attend various events.

Co-ordinate her schedule with the prime ministers agenda.

Liaise with the RCMP.

Act as the point person between Gregoire Trudeau and the prime ministers office when there are official visits.

Gregoire Trudeaus stylist, Jessica Mulroney, is a close friend and is not being paid at all for the help she is providing, Duchesneau added.

6 other household staff

The prime ministers staff occasionally accompanies Gregoire Trudeau to events when her assistant is unable to attend or when more help is needed, he said. They also help prepare speaking notes and videos for official events.

Six other people are currently listed as working for the prime ministers residence: a chef, assistant chef, an executive co-ordinator, a house manager, and two additional household staff.

The Trudeaus kept most of the help that was previously at 24 Sussex although they did fire former executive chef Timothy Wasylko. Wasylko, who had been with former prime minister Stephen Harper since 2010, was paid between $76,002 to to $82,171. The salary of his replacement, Neil Dhawan, is between $67,168 to $76,151 a year.

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The Alberta NDP passed carbon tax legislation on Monday, defeating an amendment proposed by the official opposition that would have given a rebate to charities.

The move has Alberta non-profits worried about how they'll cover the additional costs, which could reach tens of thousands of dollars each year.

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The Calgary Food Bank is anticipating the move will cost their organization an additional $31,000 per year by 2018, the organization's president told Metro News.

We dont have the ability to write-off or to otherwise pay for the taxes. If I were a business, I could pass down some of those costs to my customer, but as a charity I cant," said James McAra, president and CEO, to Metro.

Increased costs coming at a difficult time

Food bank usage in Alberta has surged over the past year, with some organizations seeing an increase in clients as high as 60 per cent.

There could also be increased expenses for transportation, especially for charities like food banks that rely on vehicles for bulk deliveries of food to partner agencies.

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An increase of eight cents per litre may seem small, until it's multiplied by dozens of trips to different agencies.

The Calgary Chamber of Voluntary Organizations also noted its disapproval, saying in a release the organization was disappointed the bill includes no rebates or exemptions for the non-profit sector.

"If I were a business, I could pass down some of those costs to my customer, but as a charity I cant."

The official Opposition Wildrose Party voted against the bill, saying without the amendment protecting charities it would hurt Alberta's most vulnerable.

"All charities in Alberta are about to see a significant rise in their operating costs for fuel, heating, food and travel," said Wildrose MLA Angela Pitt during the debate.

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"These rising costs come at a time when charities are already facing a double-edged sword. On the one hand, due to the economic climate and the fact that many Albertans are struggling, charities are seeing an increased demand for their products and services and a decrease in the actual donations that are coming in."

Alberta Environment Minister Shannon Phillips defended the decision in the house, saying that charities should work to "find efficiencies" to make up the lost costs.

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TORONTO  A conference on Canadas economic future got a taste Wednesday of a possible new strategy for the country: Becoming a world leader in the burgeoning marijuana industry.

Thanks to Canadas medical marijuana program, the countrys licensed producers are already the most sophisticated manufacturers of cannabis in the world, said Alan Gertner, co-founder of Tokyo Smoke, a Toronto cafe chain that caters to pot smokers.

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Canada could be to cannabis what France is to wine, he said.

Gertner was speaking at the Economist magazine's Canada Summit in Toronto, focusing on the country's economic future and featuring Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as keynote speaker.

Trudeau said later he "absolutely disagreed" with Gertner's assertion. But that's only because of the high "calibre of Canadian wines," he told the audience to laughter.

But Gertner sees potential worth billions in the marijuana industry. Canada has an incredible opportunity to [be a] home for innovation in marijuana, he said.

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He sees marijuana as a fascinating business not least because, for the first time, a new industry is developing with a pre-existing customer base already in place.

Its already the case that more marijuana is sold than candy in Canada, Gertner said, referring to pot as a $100-billion business.

Gertner sees opportunities especially in the U.S., where a number of states have decriminalized marijuana in recent years. But marijuana stores in the U.S. are a terrible experience, he said.

His chain, which has two locations in Toronto, is eyeing expansion opportunities in U.S. states where marijuana is legal or de facto legal. A Tokyo Smoke pop-up store ran for a time in Venice Beach, Calif., last fall.

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But for Gertner, its about selling a lifestyle and an image as much as marketing an intoxicating product.

Marketing marijuana will be about lifestyle advertising, Gertner predicted. Alcohol ads show that people who drink are not defined by their drinking, and creating marijuana lifestyle brands would work the same way, he suggested.

Trudeau's government has made marijuana legalization a cornerstone of its platform, and has said it will bring legislation forward in the spring of 2017.

Though legalization is a crucial element in the development of a marijuana industry, Gertner notes that its a very complex problem and legalization is not going to happen overnight.

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With legalization seemingly on the horizon, marijuana dispensaries  of which Tokyo Smoke is not one  have been proliferating in Toronto and Vancouver.

Both cities have seen police crackdowns on the dispensaries in recent weeks.

Critics questioned the crackdowns ahead of legalization, but Toronto Mayor John Tory justified them saying the unregulated distribution system was running "out of control."

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According to Florida mom Courtney Baker, she was pressured by her doctor to abort her baby after the unborn child was diagnosed with Down syndrome. While Baker refused and now has a beautiful 15-month-old daughter named Emersyn, the incident continued to trouble her.

As a result, the mom wrote a heartfelt letter to the anonymous doctor in order to get some peace.

Every action from opening and closing the mailbox, to raising the red flag, was closure for me, Baker told ABC. I have no idea how the doctor might have reacted to my letter, but I do have faith that God can work any miracle and He can change any heart.

Bakers letter, which was sent last month, was also posted to Parker Myles Facebook page, a blog run by mom Kat Abianac, whose goal is to educate people on raising kids with Down syndrome.

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Dear Doctor, the mom writes. A friend recently told me of when her prenatal specialist would see her child during her sonograms, he would comment, Hes perfect. Once her son was born with Down syndrome, she visited that same doctor. He looked at her little boy and said, I told you. Hes perfect.

Her story tore me apart, she continued. While I was so grateful for my friends experience, it filled me with such sorrow because of what I should have had. I wish you would have been that doctor.

Baker goes on to explain how she was anxious about her visits to the doctor, even before her unborn baby was diagnosed. When she finally received the news, her doctor continually pressured her to abort, reiterating how low our quality of life would be with a child with Down syndrome.

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"Emersyn has not only added to our quality of life, shes touched the hearts of thousands. Shes given us a purpose and a joy that is impossible to express."

Noting that she is not angry or bitter, the mother tells the doctor how her baby girl Emersyn has changed her life for the better:

Emersyn has not only added to our quality of life, shes touched the hearts of thousands. Shes given us a purpose and a joy that is impossible to express. Shes given us bigger smiles, more laughter and sweeter kisses than weve ever known. Shes opened our eyes to true beauty and pure love.

Baker now hopes the doctor will see true beauty and pure love with every sonogram. She ended her letter saying: My prayer is when you see that next baby with Down syndrome lovingly tucked in her mothers womb, you will look at that mommy and see me then tell her the truth: Your child is absolutely perfect.

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Down syndrome is a chromosomal disorder that occurs in one in every 700 babies, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In 2009, ABC reported that Down syndrome births were on the decline as more women were aborting their babies after receiving a prenatal diagnosis. Then, in 2015, studies confirmed that the Down syndrome community was reduced by 30 per cent.

This issue is one of the reasons Baker decided to share her story. Emmy is proof that children with special needs are worthy and can change the world, the mom-of-three said. Shes doing it right now.

On Facebook, Bakers post has received over 6,000 likes and 3,000 shares. In the comments, many shared their own similar stories with heartwarming endings.

My doctor did the same to us about our son, Draco. The negativity he spewed made us stop going to him for 2 months until termination wasn't possible anymore, one user wrote. We love [our son] to the moon and back. Yes, there have been medical issues, but the love more than makes up for it.

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Another said: I was told after my 12 week ultrasound to don't bother doing anymore testing. Just abort. And try again. You are young. You won't be able to handle a disabled child. Fast forward 3 years later! And she is my little superhero!

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Last night, the @yogahosers went to Prom! @harleyquinnnn_ & @lilyrose_depp had dates of course but (ever on guard for thee) they were there strictly to chew bubble gum and squish Bratzis! And from all reports, they were all out of bubble gum... #harleyquinnsmith #lilyrosedepp #yogahosers #thecolleens #prom #losangeles #harleyquinn

A photo posted by Kevin Smith (@thatkevinsmith) on Jun 5, 2016 at 12:39pm PDT
Martin Shkreli's story is that of a cocky executive who raises the price of a drug by 5,400 per cent, then laughs in the face of a world that despises him.

It's a narrative perfectly suited to a musical, if a pair of writers have their way.

Lauren Gundrum and Joel Esher are seeking $6,500 to stage "Martin Shkreli's Game: How Bill Murray Joined the Wu-Tang Clan," The New York Post reported Wednesday.

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The musical will focus on Shkreli's purchase of "Once Upon a Time in Shaolin," a $2 million album by rap outfit the Wu-Tang Clan.

Rumours following the purchase said the transaction had a clause that allowed the rap group to work with Bill Murray to steal the album back  reports which were later proven false.

"Shkreli's just such an interesting character," Gundrum told the Post. "Shkreli buying this album is hilarious and so in character."

She and Esher expect to premiere the musical at the Midtown International Film Festival on July 19.

And they already have a name for one of the songs: "I'm Martin F***ing Shkreli and You Can All Go F**k Yourselves."

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It goes, in part, "You wonder what I'm worth, the richest damn Albanian to walk the Earth!"

The writers are far more enamoured with the musical than Shkreli is, if his lawyer's statement is anything to go on.

Defense lawyer Benjamin Brafman told CNBC that Shkreli and his counsel "intend to ignore this childish, absurd project."

"We have far more serious issues to address and will not allow ourselves to be distracted."

Shkreli was indicted in December on seven criminal counts after he allegedly used $11 million from Retrophin, a pharmaceutical company he founded, to pay off investors in hedge funds he used to operate, before another count was added Friday.

He has pleaded not guilty to all charges, according to Reuters.

Shkreli's court woes came after he controversially raised the price of Daraprim, a drug used in the treatment of HIV patients, by over 5,400 per cent, from $13.50 to $750 per dose.

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Shkreli justified the price increase by saying Daraprim was underpriced, relative to its peers, and that his then-company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, was spending tens of millions of dollars to make it a more effective drug.

He also cut a defiant personality on social media, later admitting he was being a "flippant jackass" in a Reddit AMA.

Here's another song that could work in a Martin Shkreli musical.

Imagine it set to the melody of "Dayman" from "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia."

Fighter of the poorman!

Champion of none!

You're a master of annoyance and rancour for everyone!

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When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited Washington D.C. in March, U.S. President Barack Obama was waiting with the coolest possible gift to cement their budding bromance: a copy of the "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" script, signed by director J.J. Abrams.

Trudeau  whose lifelong passion for the film franchise has been well-documented at this point  listed the gift on the conflict of interest and ethics commissioner's public registry, which was updated online this week.

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All public officeholders and their family members who receive gifts worth at least $200 are required to make a declaration to the ethics watchdog within 30 days.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau proposes a toast to U.S. President Barack Obama during a state dinner on March 10, 2016 in Washington. (Photo: Paul Chiasson/CP)

The prime minister noted that he received the script, which came in a custom leather slip case with "a personalized inscription," on March 10  the day of the historic state dinner at the White House.

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But that wasn't all the Trudeaus received from Obama and his wife.

The Obamas presented a number of goodies to the Trudeau children, including scooters, copies of a children's book written by the president, and plush toys of Bo, "the First Dog."

The president and first lady also gave their counterparts a framed photo of a U.S. national park and an olive branch sculpture by Maryland artist Zachary Oxman  also "with a personalized inscription."

Michelle Obama passed along a "custom alpaca fiber cape" to Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, with embroidered initials.

Trudeaus presented sculpture from Cree artist

The Trudeaus, of course, did not show up empty-handed. CBC News reported at the time the prime minister and his family gave the Obamas a soapstone sculpture carved by a Cree artist, and that Gregoire Trudeau presented the first lady with a cape beaded by a Quebec Mohawk designer.

According to The Toronto Star, the Obamas dogs, Bo and Sunny, also scored some Canadian-made all-weather booties.

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PM received headdress from Alberta First Nation

Trudeau has received other interesting gifts in recent months, according to the updated registry.

The prime minister declared that he received a leather jacket and traditional feather headdress from the Tsuut'ina Nation in early March. The southern Alberta First Nation honoured the prime minister at a special ceremony and gave him the aboriginal name "Gumistiyi," which means "The One Who Keeps Trying."

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau poses after receiving a ceremonial headdress while visiting the Tsuut'ina First Nation near Calgary, Alta., on March 4, 2016. (Photo: Jeff McIntosh/CP)

Trudeau also declared that Whistler Blackcomb ski resort in British Columbia provided "discounts on guides and lift tickets "during a family ski holiday in February.

With a file from The Canadian Press

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It wasn't long ago that women made up a quarter of the Tim Hortons board.

That all changed in 2014, when the popular coffee and doughnut chain merged with Burger King to form Restaurant Brands International (RBI)  creating one of the world's biggest fast food companies.

It wasn't the only significant change the Canadian brand faced  today, not a single woman sits on RBI's board. But a group of activist shareholders aims to change that, according to The Toronto Star.

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File photo of a Tim Hortons coffee cup. (Photo: Bloomberg via Getty Images).

OceanRock Investments is teaming with the Shareholder Association for Research and Education (SHARE) to persuade the company to ratify a board diversity policy at an annual meeting on Thursday.

Oceanrock, which is the asset manager for RBI shareholder Meritas Jantzi Social Index Fund, wants the company to continually report on its own progress towards gender diversity on its board, and within senior management.

"Given the current investment and corporate governance climate in Canada, we believe RBI's all-male board is a step backwards for diversity at the company," Fred Pinto, chef executive of OceanRock, said in a statement on Monday.

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RBI's board of directors didn't offer any recommendations on OceanRock's proposal in a note circulated to shareholders in April, according to CBC News.

But it has changed board practices so its governance committee has to "consider diverse candidates in terms of race, gender, geography, thought, viewpoints, backgrounds, skills, experience, and expertise."

The note continued to explain: "while our board has determined not to make a recommendation either in favour of or opposed to the shareholder proposal, we believe that our current practices and recent enhancements to our new director candidate selection process support board diversity."

The company also noted that two women hold senior management positions.

Research from the U.S. shows there's a simple solution to making gender diversity a non-issue on company boards: put more women in positions of power.

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Advocacy organization 2020: Women on Boards released a study on Monday suggesting boards with women as CEOs or chairs are "significantly more gender diverse than boards with male leadership."

"There is a strong relationship between the gender of a company's key leaders and the diversity of its board of directors," it said.

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Strong perfumes may repel other people, but it turns out one common brand can keep away mosquitoes, too.

Researchers at New Mexico State University found that Victoria's Secret's Bombshell eau de parfum is actually pretty effective at repelling the pests.

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The study, published last fall in the Journal of Insect Science, pitted the scent up against other common bug repellents, Avon's Skin So Soft Bath Oil, and a mosquito skin patch.

While it found that the products containing the common chemical DEET, like OFF!, or another ingredient called p-menthane-3-8-diol were the most effective, the Victoria's Secret fragrance and the bath oil also kept away the bugs for two hours after application.

"There was some previous literature that said fruity, floral scents attracted mosquitoes, and to not wear those," New Mexico State research assistant Stacy Rodriguez said in a press release.

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"It was interesting to see that the mosquitoes werent actually attracted to the person that was wearing the Victorias Secret perfume  they were repelled by it."

The researchers noted that they applied a large amount of the fragrance to the hand being tested, and that lower concentrations might not have the same effect.

Now Bombshell, which retails for C$66 online, is definitely pricier than drugstore bug sprays, and medical professionals would likely tell you to stick to conventional products.

But at least it smells a lot better, in our opinion, anyways.

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White boys rapping, Ready for Raitt, barbaric cultural practices and two Libertarians. All this and more as the Conservative Party of Canada begins electing their next leader. As we enter election season in North America with the American general election and the Conservative Party of Canada's leadership race, you wouldn't be remiss to forget the lacklustre CPC race playing out. The race has already been defined by its saccharine appeal sans Kevin O'Leary or Peter MacKay. Whatever interest there was has turned cringeworthy with the suggestion by MP Arnold Viersen that the leaders should hold a rap battle. Politicians rapping always resounds with the populace, right?

The Conservative party of Canada has been one of the two major parties in federal politics since Canada's over the last 15 years and has roots going back to the early 1800's. To discount them now would be an underestimation, especially after the Liberals David vs. Goliath win in 2015, but there is little about the current incarnation of the party that inspires and the current field of candidates even less when considering the whimper with which their current leadership campaign began.

CPC executive leadership may have seen the American election as a great time to piggyback on swelling political interest but with the media vacuum Donald Trump leading in many polls against Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders' campaign all but done, even Canadians are having a hard time finding interest in Canada with such a spectacle down south. Canadian politics are normally flaccid but the Conservative race is in need of a Viagra pill or 5. In a field of candidates that range from decent but unknown to unfortunately known, the reflection of Stephen Harper's paranoid leadership style has reared its head and left no obvious heir to the Conservative throne. It's a telling day in Canadian politics when the self-proclaimed Donald Trump lite, Kevin O'Leary and former Harper scapegoat Peter MacKay are both trending higher and more positively than anyone already in the race without even being in it.

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Unlike many of the candidates in the race, O'Leary commands a presence without even being present. Should he join it may be time for candidates to rethink their slogans and messaging ("Ready for Raitt", Working Hard, Helping Others, "New Leadership. For Canada") away from tired tropes that few would be naive enough to believe in. While O'Leary's business experience may appeal to a number of voters, his presence if he joins may not even be enough to compete with the circus of America. Choice is increasingly important in modern culture and the considerably more exciting and potentially impactful election south of the border will captivate regardless of what transpires in the north.

Harper led the CPC into a wasteland with almost paranoid levels of control, alienating even his closest advisors and ministers and leaving no direct heir or line of succession. On the positive side this does allow the opportunity for the conservatives to reorganize and remove some of the nastier aspects of Harper's reign. Whether or not they have the political will to do so is a looming question. Leadership campaigns are usually designed to either crown an heir apparent, like in the case of Justin Trudeau, or refresh and renew a party's platform like in the case of the original PC Party when Harper wrangled together two parties into his personal juggernaut.

So what can the CPC executive and candidates do? Make it relevant, make it interesting. As much as they may not want to admit, Justin Trudeau's Teflon personality is still intact, Rona Ambrose is considered a Harperite and the last Liberal Party of Canada leadership election, dirty as it may have been, is an example of renewing a party that had been in the doldrums for almost a decade. The CPC needs to find a sexy candidate that hasn't been glazed in Harper's sheen. At minimum the candidates need to understand the reason their party lost the 2015 election is that the CPC was out of touch with Canada and they have an opportunity to pivot toward listening (as the LPC made an effort to do with to its party members) and finding out how to connect again.

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This week Statistics Canada released a report that showed exports were the largest contributor to real GDP growth in Canada in the first quarter of 2016. This signals that businesses are taking advantage of global markets while our economy fluctuates. While small business owners might feel at a disadvantage when it comes to accessing international markets, they can take comfort in knowing that technology and innovation have made it quite simple to expand beyond existing customer bases. The international e-commerce opportunity is one that Canadian small businesses should be taking full advantage of, particularly in order to reach new markets and kick-start growth at a time when sales at home might be lagging.

In Canada, less than 20 per cent of small and medium businesses (SMBs) have an online retail presence. The reality is that many SMBs are so busy working to keep their businesses running that they have only ever given a brief thought to going online. It's a "nice-to-have," but not a "must-have." However, with an economy at home that is soft, and as borders disappear and tech-savvy millennials become more influential, online retail is quickly becoming a business necessity. Industry experts project global e-commerce sales will surpass $3.5 trillion within the next five years. Now is the time to take advantage of technology to reach new customers.

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The motivation for SMBs to get online and look past country borders can be seen in the data. An American Express report notes that over the last 12 months, the retail sector in Canada nearly doubled their international presence. They attributed this to an increase in online shopping (45 per cent in 2016 vs. 27 per cent in 2015). And, we know that specific spending by U.S. shoppers using PayPal on Canadian websites jumped 20 per cent in 2015.

PayPal's global consumer research also tells us that 28 per cent of Americans claim to have cross-border shopped online. Canada trails only China as the most prominent destinations for American online shoppers. The top three reasons Americans cite for cross-border shopping are: better prices, the ability to discover new and interesting products, and access to items not available in the U.S. With the Canadian economy continuing to struggle, there is huge potential to make the best of this situation by making products available online to global customers, and specifically, to our neighbours to the south.

Currently, Canadian SMBs are losing revenue to competing markets because they are simply not present in the channels where today's consumers are -- online and on mobile. Our data shows that, among U.S. millennials, 25 per cent claim that their cross-border transactions are made via their mobile smartphone, with another 12 per cent made via a tablet and six per cent made via another device. Clearly, Canadian merchants looking to attract this increasingly influential demographic should both ensure that e-commerce is a priority, and that retail websites are optimized for mobile use.

The good news is that setting up a website or using an online marketplace is relatively easy, and, as many Canadian business owners have discovered, the investment in getting online is often quickly offset by the increase in sales.

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When planning an e-commerce experience, Canadian retailers should consider the particular assurances U.S. customers with spending power are looking for when they purchase online -- such as the clarity of all shipping and duty charges, a clear return policy, the ability to pay in U.S. dollars, and that products being sold are authentically made in Canada. Being "Made in Canada" should not be undervalued, as many Americans have a high regard for the reliability and quality of Canadian products.

Another aspect of e-commerce to consider when setting up an online shop is that customers are still wary of the perceived risks of online transactions. Among the top 10 barriers to e-commerce listed by American shoppers, several could be resolved by engaging a secure global partner who can guarantee the ease of use and protection for both the seller and the buyer (concerns about identity theft/fraud, insufficient support and security of financial or personal details, and the lack of buyer protection/insurance).

Overall, the motivations to get online are clear, and the solutions and support are readily available. In April, the threshold level for Americans paying duty on imported goods was raised from USD200 to USD800. This increase, and the present dip in our economy, should be a call to action for Canadian small businesses to look beyond their borders. They simply cannot afford to overlook the potential rewards of selling online and internationally, especially when the solution is so simple. Getting online to reach new global customers could be just the lift Canadian SMBs need, and it's just a few clicks away.

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Bill C-14, the government's response to the Carter v. Canada Supreme Court ruling on medical assistance in dying, is generating a lot of criticism from diametrically opposed perspectives -- those who think it too permissive and those who think it is too restrictive.

Errol Mendes, in testifying before the Senate committee, was right to invoke the old adage: "Perfection is the enemy of the good." That is especially apt when there are so many different versions of what constitutes the perfect where assisted dying is concerned.

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The Supreme Court of Canada concluded that the absolute ban on physician-assisted suicide was contrary to the Charter because it went too far in its attempt to protect the vulnerable -- those who seek death at a moment of weakness. The Supreme Court suspended its declaration of invalidity of this ban until June 6, 2016, in order to give Parliament time to develop a complex regulatory regime.

The most contentious aspect of Bill C-14 is that it is limited to those who are dying, but with no time-limited cut-off. Those who think Bill C-14 is too permissive are seriously constrained by the Supreme Court of Canada's ruling. Any attempt to prevent medical assistance in dying completely is not an option unless the Charter's notwithstanding clause were invoked -- a highly unlikely scenario.

Very restricted access to assisted dying, such as the Conservative (Falk) proposed amendment in the House Committee that sought to limit access to those whose death is expected within 30 days, would almost certainly fail a Charter challenge.

Those who think Bill C-14 is too permissive should consider the consequences of defeating or significantly delaying Bill C-14. It would only make things far worse from their perspective. That's because having no criminal legislation -- and thus only the Supreme Court of Canada's ruling invalidating the ban on physician-assisted dying -- now results in much wider access than under Bill C-14.

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At the other end of the spectrum are those who think wide access is constitutionally required and that Bill C-14 is unconstitutional in its limitation to those with a reasonably foreseeable death. They claim that since the Supreme Court of Canada's declaration said nothing explicit about death being reasonably foreseeable and did not include any other end of life stipulation, there cannot be any such limitation. If an end of life stipulation were allowable, the argument goes, the Supreme Court would have said so.

The opposite point is more compelling. If the Supreme Court had already determined that Parliament could not adopt an end of life stipulation, it would have explained why not. But it never weighed the pros and cons of any end of life stipulation, such as those that exist in American states and in Quebec's legislation. It handed over the task of evaluating an end of life stipulation to Parliament.

Much has been made of the comment by Justice Karakatsanis on Jan. 11, 2016, during the hearing on the application to give Parliament extra time to respond. Justice Karakatsanis, in discussing the Quebec legislation, noted the Carter decision rejected "terminally ill." What has been given insufficient attention is that Justice Karakatsanis herself pulled back in the Court's written reasons just four days later. She was one of five judges who said, "we should not be taken as expressing any view as to the validity" of the Quebec legislation.

If Bill C-14 is unconstitutional in being limited to those who are dying, so is Quebec's legislation. The Supreme Court in the second Carter decision was careful to leave the issue open. Despite that, those arguing that the first Carter decision already settled that there can be no end of life stipulation in an assisted dying bill are saying that this matter is not even open for debate.

The principled defence of Bill C-14 -- why it warrants being found to be constitutional -- is that the risks of error are much higher for those not already close to death. The error in question is subjecting people to premature death who may have changed their minds if death had not precluded that option. To claim that all that counts is individual autonomy is to deny the social responsibility to protect the vulnerable.

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Jean Vanier, interviewed on CBC's As It Happens, offered sage advice in advocating caution. The Supreme Court ruling has not obliterated suicide prevention as important public policy. Bill C-14 may not be perfect, but it is far better than the alternatives of wide-open access.

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Zoubeir Souissi / Reuters Rached Ghannouchi, leader of the Islamist Ennahda movement, speaks during the movement's congress in Tunis, Tunisia May 20, 2016. REUTERS/Zoubeir Souissi

Stunning developments in Tunisia just might enable it to continue as the only successful graduate of the Arab Spring and a beacon of hope across the Arab World. While other Arab nations descended into violence or reverted to dictatorship, often worse than what had gone before, Tunisia transitioned from dictatorship to democracy in a relatively peaceful fashion.

That itself was a miracle, but Tunisia's democratic success has not lifted the economic malaise that triggered the Arab Spring protests and continues to fuel discontent. Western media interpreted the Arab Spring as a drive for democracy, but protesters were mainly motivated by lack of opportunity and jobs in dead crony-capitalist and crony-socialist systems. Tunisia's economy has gotten worse since the Arab Spring, beset by strikes, a tourist industry hobbled by terrorist attacks, and failure to make meaningful reform.

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Fortunately, Tunisians recognize the challenges. During a recent visit to Tunisia, I heard both leaders and average Tunisians say they had devoted the first five years after the Arab Spring to democracy; and the next five years would centre on economic reform, specifically free market reform to liberate Tunisians from the cronyism that has suppressed Tunisian entrepreneurship, opportunity, and prosperity.

Yet, the three power blocks that arose out of Tunisia's Spring, at first glance, appear to be against or indifferent to reform.

The Islamic Ennahda Movement, an offshoot of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood under the charismatic leadership of Rached Ghannouchi, was formed to push Islamic values, not economic freedom. Like the Brotherhood, Ennahda narrowly won the first post-Arab Spring election. However, when protests turned violent, it resigned power to maintain peace.

The Tunisian General Labour Union (Union Generale Tunisienne du Travail--UGTT), is wed to old-fashioned leftwing dogma, retaining the benefits its leaders gained under the Ben Ali dictatorship, and protecting a privileged union membership that excludes the disadvantaged through inflexible labour laws.

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Finally, there are former members of the pampered elite, who helped form Nidaa Tounes, a secular party with little policy other than opposition to Ennahda. Nidaa is led by another charismatic leader, Beji Caid Essebsi, now president of Tunisia.

The barriers of privilege hobbling business and workers alike must be torn down.

All three factions will need to make sacrifices to save the Tunisian economy, and the biggest mover may surprise Westerners used to negative stories about Islamic parties. It's Ennahda, which invited me to visit Tunisia to meet political and civic leaders, and speak at a seminar on the future of Tunisia.

Here's something remarkable. When I arrived in mid-April, Ennahda was an Islamic Movement; when I left five days later, it was a "normal" political Party. During its conference, members (by a large majority) set aside political Islam at the urging of Ghannouchi. The party continues to look to religion for moral guidance, as do many Western parties, but no Ennahda official may now also hold a position in the mosque.

Ennahda may also be the first major Arab political party to put free market policies at the centre of its platform. I attended the opening rally of the conference and was provided headphones for translation. Here's one of the many perceptive things the 74-year-old Ghannouchi said to the cheering crowd. "Wealth should no longer be made in government; wealth should be made in the private sector."

This neatly captures the problems plaguing Tunisia's economy and plots the path forward.

Tunisia has been a society intent on milking the state rather than productive activity, which creates sustainable prosperity in a free economy. The barriers of privilege hobbling business and workers alike must be torn down.

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Nidaa seems to be on board. Remarkably, Ennahda's old foe, President Essebsi, gave a keynote speech at the Ennahda opening ceremony calling for an end to privilege and transformation to a free market economy. He received an enthusiastic welcome.

However, the UGTT, which played a pivotal role in the democratic transition, now seems interested in cementing its power, privilege, and old-fashioned ideology. Over 150 strikes in 2015 doubled the workdays lost compared to the year before; it demands wage increases and exceptional promotions that have no relation to productivity, eroding the nation's competitive position; and it uses its muscle to maintain job market restrictions.

But it's worth recalling that not so long ago, Tunisian factions, including the UGTT, put aside their differences for the sake of their people. If there is a place where a miracle can strike twice, it may be Tunisia.

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Ignacio Palacios via Getty Images Canadian Rockies and Canadian flag in the Rocky mountains. Drive from Banff to Jasper near Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

How can the Canadian government and economy benefit from improved relationships with the First Nations, Inuit and Metis? Should we aim just for better integration and inclusion of Indigenous peoples into Canadian society, or is there a higher goal we can achieve?

These questions have become more pressing now as the Trudeau administration seeks to build a path towards "true reconciliation," increase innovation domestically and improve its image internationally. Through my courses in human rights and social change, and my research on sustainable development, I found that Bolivia -- yes, the small, poor, landlocked, South American nation -- can offer some valuable insights for Canada.

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The current Canadian government has set as a top priority the improvement of its relationship with the country's indigenous peoples. And, with increased funding for First Nations and the signing of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, it seems that the new administration is trying to walk the walk. However, even though these are steps forward, we need to work towards the inclusion of indigenous peoples in decision-making, governing and policy-making.

This would not only place Canada as a leader in regard to indigenous rights, but could also lead to social innovation and economic growth.

The road to true reconciliation requires a framework in which indigenous Canadians can cultivate and distill their own ideas in concrete projects that could benefit everyone.

As Trudeau believes in positive politics, using an asset model -- building on strengths rather than fixing weaknesses -- could provide opportunities for indigenous Canadians to harness their ideas and create innovative and efficient initiatives. Let's be clear though, including an indigenous person in the cabinet is not enough. The road to true reconciliation requires a framework in which indigenous Canadians can cultivate and distill their own ideas in concrete projects that could benefit everyone.

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The inclusion of indigenous peoples in policy-making and development in Bolivia under the Morales administration has led to positive outcomes. Even though Evo Morales, the first indigenous president of Bolivia, has faced criticism for his leftist and populist rhetoric, some of the policies enacted under his administration present an intriguing case study for Canada. Of particular interest is how facilitating the inclusion of indigenous peoples in governance and policy-making contributed to the new Constitution, the growth of the economy, and successful policies for the production of coca.

Being an Aymara -- one of Bolivia's indigenous groups -- and a cocalero (coca-leaf grower), Morales was elected in 2006 based on the promise of improving the lives of indigenous peoples, who constitute 40 to 62 per cent of the country's population, but had traditionally been excluded from public offices.

Morales first began to grow in popularity during the Water War of 1999, where he was a leading figure defending human rights. After securing access to water, the movement continued to grow, working towards Pachakuti, the indigenous Andean idea of bringing the inside out to effect fundamental change. This collaboration of professionals, environmentalists and workers for access to water set the foundations for the inclusion of Indigenous ideas in economic and social development.

The 2009 constitution defines Bolivia as a unitary, plurinational and secular state. It recognizes the rights of 36 indigenous nations and Afro-Bolivians and their languages, symbols, land rights and political systems. Bolivia's recognition of indigenous rights is the most progressive among Latin American constitutions, extending to other disadvantaged groups, such as women, elders and the disabled.

Developed with significant involvement from the indigenous peoples, the constitution provides that the Bolivian State shall protect the production of the coca leaf. More specifically, the "native and ancestral coca" shall be protected as cultural patrimony, as a "renewable natural resource of Bolivia's biodiversity, and as a factor of social cohesion."

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This policy change, initiated and supported by the indigenous coca leaf growers, was an act of legalization and not simply decriminalization: its production and commercialization would be regulated by the state. Since 2009, the Bolivian government has allowed coca farmers to grow a small amount of leaves legally, as they are a significant part of Andean culture and chewed by farmers and miners to boost energy. This approach allows farmers to earn a subsistence wage and helps cut down on the replanting of coca.

Morales has repeatedly called for the international legalization of the coca leaf and has been heavily criticized by foreign governments arguing that legalization would increase supply of the leaves and, in turn, drug trafficking. Their beliefs have proven to be flawed: in the past few years, coca cultivation has been falling in Bolivia. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime reported that the country's area used to grow coca leaf decreased by more than a third between 2010 and 2014 and total coca cultivation in Bolivia fell 11 per cent during 2014. In contrast, Colombia -- which, along with Peru, is the other major coca producer in Latin America, and where coca production is not legalized -- saw coca leaf production rise 44 per cent in 2014 from a year earlier. Bolivia has since been viewed internationally as an example for the unsuccessful militaristic war on drugs in Latin America.

After the constitutional changes, Bolivian indigenous peoples have continued to be involved in policy-making, resulting in successful social and economic programs. Additionally, according to the Economic Commission on Latin America and the Caribbean, Bolivia has been one of the few countries in the region that have reduced inequality during this time. Ten years after Morales' first election, both its indigenous peoples and institutions such as the World Bank agree on the Bolivian model of development. Could that inspire a real change in Canada?

Even though Bolivia, as a country and society, is in many ways different from Canada, the principle of including indigenous ideas in policy-making and governing remains valuable. As we take pride in our diversity and innovative ideas, why keep neglecting such a large asset of our society? Instead of aiming simply to improve indigenous peoples' relationship with the state, let's cultivate innovation for economic and social development and benefit the whole country.

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As we move further into the knowledge-based economy, human resources are becoming ever more important. In creating a more prosperous Canada, we need every part of our society contributing to better governance, including indigenous Canadians.

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Pacific Press via Getty Images TIMES SQUARE, NEW YORK, NY, UNITED STATES - 2015/11/21: Demonstrators standing at the edge of the rally area near the intersection of 42nd Street and Seventh Avenue hold signs. About a hundred members of New York's Muslim-American community and non-Muslim supporters gathered in Times Square for the two-fold purpose of expressing grief for the victims of recent attacks by Islamic State extremists and to condemn the Islamic State's radical interpretation of Islam and the terrorist acts carried out by them. (Photo by Albin Lohr-Jones/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Immediately after the November Paris attacks, my mother who lives in a small village in Morocco called me. She called to tell how sad she was for what happened in Paris, and asked me to pass on her condolences to my French friends. My mother is a Muslimah who prays five times a day. She did not call to justify what happened, or claim that the terror attacks had nothing to do with Islam. She just wanted to declare her solidarity with the victims.

At the end of our call, she told me about an imam in the village who incited young people to go fight with IS in Syria. I asked her what she thought of him. She answered, "I have called the police to investigate. This is how I fight terrorism."

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My mother's call illustrates a key point for me. What I notice here in the west is a paradox: after each attack waged by militant Islamists, Muslims are asked to distance themselves from terrorism, and Muslim organizations do exactly that by sheer reflex. The mantra is repeated everywhere that Islam has nothing to do with terrorism.

Notice the difference between saying "This is how I fight terrorism" versus saying "Islam has nothing to do with terrorism." The first is an act of defiance and resistance. The second is a way of distancing yourself.

Muslims can learn from mother. They must be proactive in the fight against Islamist movements that lead to terrorism. Because self-distancing alone cannot fight terror. On the contrary, merely denying personal responsibility for an act tends to lead very quickly to the abrogation of the responsibility to act.

Furthermore, the mere act of distancing oneself from something doesn't exclude the possibility that you might inadvertently (or even intentionally and secretly) be supporting it. It's as if I would say: "I distance myself from racism..." but I do not act, and deep down in my soul maybe there's a reason I do not act!

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This is not to say that any given Muslim necessarily endorses terrorist ideologies, of course. But many are in fact too ashamed to admit that there is a problem with their religion. And having distanced themselves from the problem, they distance themselves from the solution.

To distance your religion from terror is easy, it just takes few words to say. But to go against the ruling fundamentalist interpretation of the Qu'ran that is taught in schools and spread via fatwas and clerics is a completely different fight. Muslims need to fight the manifestations of extremism thriving in their societies, be it in their local communities in Europe or in their countries of origin.

In Islamic schools, they still teach the old "us vs. them," believer/infidel dichotomy. In mosques, imams incite hatred against infidels and apostates. Books and fatwas preaching the same intolerant concepts are distributed to millions worldwide via Saudi petrodollars. These are the factories of terrorism and intolerance. And if we want to fight those phenomena, we should strike them at their sources.

Five years ago I fled from my country, Morocco, to Switzerland. My life was in danger because I am an atheist and I dared to blog about it. Here in the west, when I criticize Sharia or the situation of women and apostates in the Islamic world, if I insist we must understand Islam in its historical context and argue for an Islamic enlightenment, I am often accused of being Islamophobic. And I wonder: Why do so many Europeans take any and all criticism of Islam as bigotry?

Islamophobia as a killer argument

People who attempt to silence criticism of Islam are curbing all efforts to induce positive change and enlightenment in the Islamic world, and instead of siding with the secular Muslims and ex-Muslims they are supporting the Islamic far-right.

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"Islamophobia" functions as a censorship device and is much favoured by Muslim fundamentalists who aim to suffocate open discussion and criticism, so they can comfortably spew their ideological poison in Islamic communities. I wonder, would my European friends adopt the same position towards criticism of, say, Catholicism? Would they label any and all criticism of Catholicism as Christianophobia or Catholicophobia? Why should Islam then be singled out and considered above criticism?

This "Islamophobia" reaction, which is commonplace among many Western non-Muslim academics and young people who embrace tolerance and multiculturalism, stems from an implicit cultural relativism. The assumption seems to be that the behaviour and mindset of an individual are relative to her or his culture of origin, and should be judged only within that context, implying that principles like human rights may not be universal or should not be considered as such.

Additionally, those who deploy the charge of "Islamophobia" are often quick to blame all the ills of the Islamic world on colonialism, refusing to accept their multidimensional nature, and yet again in effect abrogating the responsibility to act against extremism. My generation is being systematically denied the right to criticize the foundations of Islamic societies, especially Islam and Sharia law.

True "Islamophobes" are those who defend fundamentalist interpretations from criticism, knowing fully well that Muslims themselves are the first victims of these interpretations. They are on the wrong side of history, as they are against the secularization and modernization of Islamic societies, because they know that their values are incompatible with the principles of equality, with human rights, and with the spirit of our modern age.

Once a religion is codified in laws, it loses its claim to divinity. This is the problem of Islam today. If the majority of Muslims do not regard religion as a private matter between themselves and God, but as a set of rules for their lives and for the whole of society, insisting on taking Islam as a literal manual for life, then faith and civil laws will inevitably conflict. The aversion to any criticism of beliefs and practices associated with Islam will persist as well.

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This is why I and many other ex-Muslims and secular Muslims cannot and will not give up on our right to criticize. That does not make us "Islamophobes." We are not bigoted against Muslims (who in many cases are our own families and closest friends). Criticism of ideas is a necessary feature of free societies and one of the reasons they have become and remain open and competitive on an intellectual cultural and economic level.

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Both sides of the EU referendum campaign are behaving as though it were a general election. They are campaigning hard, fighting tooth and nail and using every political trick to try to win. But this isn't a general election, and if, as the polls suggest, there is a vote to leave the European Union, it is the government that will have to implement the people's mandate. The government is not the remain campaign, it is a separate entity, and while David Cameron happens to be the leader of the remain campaign, he is also our Prime Minister and he has a duty to the people of Britain to tell them how he will deal with a leave vote.

British Voters Have a Right to Know the Government's Plans

Photo: Number10.gov via Wikimedia Commons

Put aside the question of how you are going to vote for a moment. Whether you are pro or anti the EU, don't you want to know how the government plans to deal with a leave vote? The remain campaign has tried to terrify the British people with the prospect of economic Armageddon, but the truth is that civil servants in Whitehall have a plan for an orderly exit from the European Union, which is rumoured to be based on The EEA Option. You can find out more about it here and here.

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If you knew that there was no risk to the economy, if you were freed from that fear, how would you cast your vote? I believe a great many British people long to be shot of an undemocratic political union they never agreed to be part of. I believe that were it not for the economic fears instilled by the remain campaign, leave would win the referendum by a landslide. In fact, a vote to leave is the only way to draw a line under the European question once and for all.

If we vote to remain, UKIP will be resurgent because none of the issues that have led to its rise will have been addressed. It will continue its upward trajectory and eat into the vote of both Labour and the Conservatives at the next general election. If nothing else, this referendum has revealed people's profound anger at being forced into political union, and it would be folly to ignore it. A remain vote will drive people into the arms of UKIP and Nigel Farage.

Voting to remain will feed UKIP and the European Union, and ensure that the European question drags on for years, continuing to divide Britain, while the issues at the heart of the division, questions of sovereignty, democracy, border control, stress on public services, and a discriminatory immigration policy go unaddressed.

It is not Vote Leave's place to be putting forward policy on how to deal with Britain's exit from the EU. It is a campaign group, not an alternative government. It is David Cameron, the current leader of the government, who must provide voters with assurances that he knows how to handle what appears to be an increasingly likely outcome. It should be obvious to all why this means he has a deep and unpleasant conflict of interest. He cannot discharge his duties as head of a responsible government without revealing that the hyperbolic fears that have underpinned the remain campaign's economic argument are utter nonsense.

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If the government does not have a plan to deal with the leave vote, then it has been grossly irresponsible, but anyone with an understanding of how government works will know that it most certainly does have a plan. Indeed, many people close to government are already aware of that plan, and know that it is refusing to talk about that plan because it would become clear to the British people that the economic fears that have formed the basis of the remain campaign are utterly false. As I've noted above, most informed observers know that the government's plan is based on The EEA Option, which will provide a gradual, orderly disengagement with the EU.

I think the British public needs to be reminded that the remain campaign is not the government. We need to put pressure on the government to reveal its plans for dealing with a leave vote. I know that it will be very difficult for David Cameron to take off his remain campaign hat, but he must remember that he is the Prime Minister and that he has a duty to the nation that is above any personal views he might have on the referendum. By concealing the existence of the government's plan, he is attempting to prey on voters' fears and is conducting himself in a way that makes it difficult to view this as a free and fair election. Voters must have all the relevant information they need to make a decision.

This issue is one of the many reasons why some people said the Prime Minister should not have been allowed to lead the remain campaign, because it has put him in a position where his duties to the British people directly conflict with his role as the figurehead of a political campaign group.

If you agree with me that the British people deserve to know what the government's plans are in the event of a leave vote, please tweet David Cameron with the hashtag #EEA. I'm not suggesting that The EEA Option is the solution, but it is rumoured to currently form the basis of the plan that the civil service will implement in the event of a leave vote. It also happens to be a short, easily identifiable hashtag that will signal to David Cameron that we, the people, want answers, and that, above all else, he must discharge his duties as the head of a responsible government.

I'll get the ball rolling here:
In just over two weeks time, the UK public will vote in a referendum deciding their membership of the European Union with much at stake, not least around the area of climate change.

While polling confirms that the Remain campaign is just ahead, it is going to be a tight race, where on the day, everything can happen. If you, like I, think that climate change is the worst global threat we face, there is really only one option and that is to stay in the EU. While the organisation is not perfect, what it has done to combat climate change and protect the environment is very evident. And without the EU, we would be much further behind in our efforts to tackle climate change and environmental regulation in that area. And without the EU there is no doubt that individual countries would not have done as much as they have been required to under EU membership law, for instance concerning emission reduction and renewable energy installation targets.

Up until recently, when putting forward new climate goals and laws, the EU was in the leading pack. But this position has now been taken over by China and USA, who in recent years have upped their games in tackling climate change. After all, China and US are the world's two largest emitters. For years, while their emissions rapidly piled up, action was nowhere to be seen. In that period, the EU was firmly in position as a leader in addressing climate change setting for at the time, ambitious climate change goals.

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In the UK it is the EU's leadership that has prompted strong climate change policies. These policies include the legally binding climate change act, the carbon price floor and strong renewable energy targets; and not least, a rapid move away from coal. And around issues such as air pollution, it is the EU that challenges the UK government when they don't do enough. Without the EU there would be no one to hold the UK government to account on this important health and environment issue.

So who wants us to leave the EU? It is no surprise that the people who would want to see the UK leave Europe, also want the UK to do a lot less on climate change. This includes former chancellor Lord Lawson, founder of the climate skeptic think tank, The Global Warming Foundation. Therefore, if you want evidence why we need the EU to tackle climate change, look no further than to the political positions of some of those individuals who aggressively advocate that we leave the EU.

But unfortunately, on the Leave side, there are also people who want us to leave, because they claim that we would be better placed outside the EU to tackle climate change and move towards a greener economy.

With all due respect, they could not be more wrong. They're entirely focused on the things that the EU are doing wrong, and they fail to see what the UK will look like outside the EU. And for me, the evidence is pretty clear. Outside the EU, the UK would become the dirty man of Europe. Some Brexit campaigners rightfully point to the dangers and the flaws of The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). And there is no doubt, that was it to go through, it would be a disaster for the environment. But here is a point to be made. If it were to be adopted, and that is a big if considering the level of opposition to TTIP from many EU member countries, then the UK would likely be included, whether UK was in the EU or not. The suggestion that the UK would be immune to TTIP if they were to leave the EU is a fallacy.

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And fundamentally, the referendum stretches much further than just the UK. There are good reasons to suspect that if the UK were to leave, the European project would be at great risk. This would not only send a shockwave through EU member states, but it could also trigger a set of referendums in other EU-skeptic member states who are closely watching the UK referendum.

Research and data suggest that there is a large group of undecided voters who bemoan propaganda statements from both sides. They're right. A lot of the arguments put forward have been based on scaremongering tactics from both sides.

And, regrettably, the Leave side have focused heavily on immigration issues . They have produced a lot of false stats. They have reduced the argument to narrow issues . And we Remainers have not highlighted the EU's role in fighting climate change nearly as much as we should. Indeed, some mainstream Remainers have almost forgotten this issue. We have had to rely on Green Party MP, Caroline Lucas, former Labour leader, Ed Miliband, or conservative environmentalist, Stanley Johnson, to factor in climate change and environmental debate to the campaign.

There is a strong feeling among mainstream politicians that environmental issues are too narrow, and therefore, they bang on and on about the economy. But perhaps among that large pool of undecided voters, there are people who do actually care about climate change, and who would like campaigners to highlight it. It is an important message to speak out on .

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And it is vital that the huge sway of undecided voters learn that if you care about tackling climate change, there is only one option and that is to remain in the EU. This does not mean however that we should not work to reform the EU in the right direction. The EU can and should become an even stronger force in tackling the broad range of environmental problems we face.
Now is the time to make the most of our enviable position as a bridge from Europe to the United States and the Commonwealth, not put it at risk. Our membership of the EU gives us greater leverage in trade deals, and key countries value our role as a gateway to the European market, and a leader - indeed, the pioneer - of the Single Market. As a truly global player, the United Kingdom as part of the EU should go on working to keep our local neighbours looking outwards, continuing to act as a champion of free trade. We must also encourage many more British firms to become exporters - like our neighbours in Germany - and not get caught up in the growing threat of protectionism in the world.

I recognize, of course, that the EU is not perfect. It's right that the bureaucracy is being cut back, it's right that we have started a process of reform. But we are setting ourselves up for disappointment if we make the perfect the enemy of the good or, worse, fool ourselves that where there are challenges in the UK economy, Brexit is the magic wand to overcome them. There is a risk, a real risk, of a Brexit hit to exports. A recent London School of Economies study estimated as its most optimistic trade scenario that a post-Brexit UK would see losses of 1.3 per cent of GDP. It is hard to see how it is a hit we can afford to take.

It has been comforting for some to blame long-standing concerns about British export performance on Brussels red tape. So why hasn't it held Germany back? And the truth is that it's not just Germany, but France and even the Netherlands - with a population of only 17 million - who export more in total than we do. In terms of exports per head of population, we can add Italy, Belgium, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Ireland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Lithuania, and Estonia to the list. EU membership is clearly not restraining their exporters. We do need to ask difficult questions about Britain's challenges in productivity and export performance - but the answers are not to be found in Brexit, indeed by leaving the EU and worsening our terms of trade with nearly half of our export market, we would make matters worse.

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And, of course, it's not just our international companies that benefit from the EU, it's small businesses and consumers too. They will see more advantages as the Single Market for Services - championed by the UK - is taken forward. The removal of mobile roaming charges across all EU member states in June 2017 points to the potential for the Digital Single Market, as well. Working with twelve other EU member states, the UK is pushing for a Digital Single Market with a simple, transparent and stable regulatory environment that stimulates digital entrepreneurship and spurs digitisation across the economy to the benefit of business and consumers. We are winning the argument, it would be bizarre to walk away now.
True Love

They say true love encompasses warts and all: you fall for the flaws and imperfections, the cracks, as much as the beauty, the artwork, the crafted joy of that special someone. They're annoying, they push your buttons, their words cut deeper than sticks and stones.

I graduated with a degree in Politics last year and despite all I've learnt of abuses of power, the injustices and imperialism that characterise this country's path to this moment, I cannot escape it - I love this country.

It's not one of those fashionable things to say, especially in a Sussex University seminar room or the gladiatorial arena of social media.

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I am grateful for every opportunity this country has bestowed, for the heavy lifting, self sacrifice and cooperation of working men and women in our history that defines the character of our commonwealth today. Rowdy and creative - this country still has plenty of fuel in the tank.

The time has come to settle old scores, look our nation in the eye and define ourselves for generations to come. I want a better version of Britain. I want a Britain that thrives: our interests served, our standards of living preserved - for all its failures, cooperation within the framework of the European Union is the best answer to this quandary.

At Our Best

At our best, we are the team player, roll-your-sleeves-up, make-the-change nation. We have never, and will never be an isolationist country, grumbling by the exit door of modernity.

In excess and hubris, this nation used brawn and might to build two empires. Today, we use brains and sheer bloody argument to build innovative networks to exchange ideas. We contribute so much to culture, business, education. We extend the hand of partnership in everything we do. We are the collaboration nation; we are not quitters.

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At our best, modern Britain is a smooth (European imported) latte, the cultural bitterness of our imperial decline for the most part offset by the silky cream and sweet sweet sugar, the benefits of multiculturalism and an open society can bring.

The Challenges

Challenges remain - only an idiot would deny that globalisation is not reshaping this island and its identity but as in life, you have to ride the change - or let the change ride you. Be bold, be confident and self-assured. Embrace our history, as chequered as any nation and lead the charge against the challenges of the day - climate change, the migration crisis, keeping big business in check - and yes, removing roaming charges from mobile contracts (that millennial woe) - are best addressed in unison, from within the European Union.

In the run up to this referendum, I was determined to keep an open mind: not to slip into the millennial mind-set presuming that membership was beneficial for us all. I have flirted with the idea of leaving, recasting alliances with the 'Anglo-sphere'. However, whilst this fairy-tale is reassuring, a Brexit would be selfish and achieve few of the aims of those concerned about our current trajectory. We would be cutting off our nose to spite our face. If I am wrong, if you do not believe in the British mission of change, call another referendum in a couple of years. But if we leave now, there is no going back: job losses, investment down, solidarity undermined. Nominal 'sovereignty' achieved, but in reality still at the whim of Brussels bureaucrats. Is it really worth it? For Britain, we have to be in it to win it.

I do believe Britain could survive, go it alone and wander into the wilderness, fend for itself and get by. My ambition for this nation is not to merely 'survive'. I want a Britain that will thrive and grow, engage and lead. Britain should be the change-maker we have been at our best. We must stay true to the promises made to working men and women of time gone by - the promises of peace, prosperity and the freedom to pursue our dreams. Definitions of 'great' vary - but you could say, I want to make Britain great again.

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Misreading History

I was brought up on stories from relatives and neighbours of world war triumph - the Leave campaign are fundamentally misreading our history. Britain does not leave her friends and allies behind to rot in hours of darkness. The arena may have changed, but pragmatism and comradeship remains vital to our collective success in the modern age. CVs and resumes up and down the land profess examples of being a 'team-player'. Now is the time to stand up and put the money where our mouth is. Let's show the world we are still the team-player nation, that we accept the premise of give and take, that we can be the independent and distinctive voice in the crowded room: that we can lead and stay true to ourselves.

Compassionate and creative - connected and open-hearted. This is the land we fight for today, and what's on the ballot paper in this referendum.

What happened to this country? What happened to our self belief? Europe is flawed - who better to shake it up and make it work than the Brits? Britain, the land of make do and mend must embark on her biggest project to date. We must build a coalition for change across this continent. We must not retreat to a lonely island of little influence. In doing so, we stay true to those who have lost their lives in the name of a brighter future.

Voting to leave undermines every sacrifice that has seen this nation endure and prosper; every achievement of our story tossed aside, replacing it with a vision of a mediocre, divided island, a fiefdom of big business - elites unrestrained, unthreatened.

In this cynical age, I still buy into the narrative of a Britain better than the one we see, the poetry of this Albion nation - the beauty of the things we can achieve if we just believe and work together.

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BRITAIN AT HER BEST

We engage, we innovate, we build coalitions for change - we lead.

This is the Britain I am voting for on June 23rd.
The sad death of Harambe the Gorilla last week at Cincinnati Zoo has provoked international outrage and debate from experts, campaign groups and concerned members of the public alike.

Whether or not in this particular case the zoo's actions in shooting Harambe were right or wrong, the incident has provided an opportunity for animal rights campaigners (and wider social media audiences) to point the finger of blame at zoos more widely. It has been labelled as yet another example of captivity taking an animal's life and I even saw it suggested that families should stay away from any facilities that display animals.

As a researcher and lecturer in animal behaviour, interested in primate behaviour, welfare and conservation and focused on zoo animals, I believe that this kind of discourse is misleading for the public and could also be detrimental for the wider natural world.

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Despite this odd incident, modern zoos (for example, vast majority of members of BIAZA and EAZA networks) serve a crucial role as ambassadors of endangered animal species (such as lowland gorillas), educators of the general public and vital resources for local communities, which stimulate empathy and responsibility to the natural world. What is more, visitors are crucial to make modern zoos successful in this mission.

Zoos and aquariums depend on visitors from a financial point of view; they are largely funded by visitor tickets and the money spent by them within these institutions helps to fund crucial conservation projects, which protect threatened species and the local communities living alongside them, throughout the world. An example is the reintroduction of the European bison by Rewilding Europe, or the reintroduction of the Northern Bald Ibis by the Waldrappteam - both initiatives managed by project-tailored NGOs and in collaboration with several European zoos.

On the other hand, zoos need visitors just as much to accomplish this conservation mission in the first place, by educating them about animals and their habitats and raising awareness of environmental issues, including climate change, bush-meat and illegal trade in wildlife. Modern zoos/aquariums are an important resource for their communities and are also committed to conduct research aimed at studying the visitor learning experience, enclosure design, human-animal interaction, and visitors' effect on the welfare of captive animals.

Zoos provide people with the unique opportunity to experience the sights, sounds and smells of animals from all over the world who are ambassadors for their species in the wild. Encounters with these animals stimulate empathy for the natural world and help people to access their innate values and nurture a sense of responsibility. For me, this impact massively outweighs the negatives of captivity. Where else can you get such a great opportunity on your doorstep to learn about nature, conservation and your place within it?

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Finally, while in Western societies, zoo-designed education projects help people to connect with a natural world of which they might have little or no experience, in the least developed countries, zoo-managed field conservation projects often have an educational aspect which helps local human populations to better understand the animals around them and mitigates potential human-animal conflicts. An example is the conservation project on Wild Bactrian Camels in Mongolia run by ZSL and co-funded by several institutions including other European zoos.

Cincinnati zoo must have been devastated by what happened last week - for the loss of Harambe as a much loved member of the zoo community, and also because the incident had negative repercussions for zoos everywhere, quickly reaching round the world through the instantaneous power of social media. It certainly highlights the need for zoos to make sure they properly manage interactions between the public and animals, when it comes to the education of visitors and also making sure the appropriate physical safety measures are in place.
I am Italian by birth, but I have lived in the UK for nigh on 23 years. I have been working, paying taxes and doing voluntary work in this country for 16 of those. My wife is British, and both of my children were born here. The UK is the place that I and my family call home.

I am concerned at the not-so-veiled xenophobia that has characterised much of the EU referendum debate. I am concerned of what Brexit would mean for my family's ability to travel abroad and to visit our relatves in Italy. I am concerned of suddenly feeling like a stranger in my country. Most of all, I am concerned about what kind of future Brexit would bring for my children, should it prove to be the catalyst of a wider disintegration of European unity and cohesion, fuelling nationalism across the continent, and raising spectres which most of us thought had been dead and buried for good.

My grandfather, who is 95, was born in a poor family in Romagna, Italy. He was a teenager when Mussolini took power and barely an adult when he was sent to fight in the War. By a twist of fate he was not sent to Russia, where he was meant to go, but instead ended up fighting the British in North Africa. On the wall in his house hangs a picture of his school class, taken when my grandfather was just six years old. Out of the thirty-odd children in the picture, he is the only one to have survived the war. His classmates all died in Russia - young lives snuffed out by a war they had no choice but to fight in. Eventually my grandfather was taken prisoner, and he spent the rest of the conflict in a British prisoner of war camp. That was almost certainly what saved his life.

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When my wife's parents and my grandfather met for the first time, they instantly got on wonderfully well, despite the language barrier - hardly surprising, as they're all very friendly people. It was very poignant for all of us to reflect, afterwards, how absurd it was that not so long ago, our two countries had been at war, and that under different circumstances, my grandfather and my father-in-law could not be friends but had to be enemies.

The concept of war in Europe may seem so irrelevant to our daily lives, for most of us just a vague and fading memory. Yet that is precisely what first prompted Winston Churchill to talk about a "United States of Europe" in 1946.

Fast-forward to not-so-distant 1991, and mass murder, torture and ethnic cleansing returned to Europe as Yugoslavia disintegrated. I wonder how many people living in Sarajevo, Mostar, or Srebrenica at the time, had any inkling that in the space of a few months, they would be fighting for their lives, driven from their homes, see their loved ones killed, or risk death and torture at the hands of their neighbours.

What was inconceivable to most people in 1990 became all too real, all too quickly. It was nationalism that set Yugoslavia alight, nationalism that made other countries see it as none of their business, and nationalism that is rising again on our continent. It will be nationalism that will replace the unity that the EU, imperfect as it may be, represents.

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The EU is not the only thing that has kept Europe at peace since 1945. But it is perhaps the single most important thing - more than NATO, more than the Council of Europe, more than the UN. Why? Because between countries there are no stronger ties, and no best insurance against conflict, than economic ties. Particularly when they are laced with political unity. Not complete unity, but a negotiated one. While "ever closer union" was indeed the vision of most of the EU's early founders, reality has demonstrated that our national and regional identities are too strong to simply be lumped together like that. There is no appetite for that anymore in any country in Europe. The supranational dream, as conceived by the likes of Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman and Alcide De Gasperi, is no more. What's left is a much more pragmatic union, which nonetheless relies on its Member States to be effective.
DYLAN MARTINEZ via Getty Images

This is a hugely exciting time for the Green Party - and for progressive politics in Britain. By seeking the nomination to become the first job-shared leadership in modern British politics we are demonstrating our pledge to 'do politics' differently.

We share a burning ambition for our party to have more of an impact than ever before - but neither of us felt we could do the job alone.

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Like any parent, Jonathan, who once confronted David Cameron over his battle to get his son into a local school, struggles to balance work and family life. With the barriers that a disabled child like his son Samuel faces, he just couldn't dedicate the time needed to be the sole leader of the Green Party.

Caroline has ongoing commitments as a dedicated constituency MP. If we do become co-leaders we'll be able to share the important task of travelling up and down the country setting out the Party's distinctive message and helping win more elections than ever before. Ultimately we both believe that by working together in this role we'll have a greater impact than either of us would alone.

It's no coincidence that we began discussing our joint vision for the Green Party at a protest against the closure of the Independent Living Fund.

We saw there the power of working together. But we also saw how politics marginalises so many groups because of a First-Past-The-Post System which doesn't allow their voices to be represented.

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Our leadership campaign will focus on making sure more people get heard and we want an effective Green voice in every community to help that process.

In the coming years the Green Party must articulate a clear vision. We will be honest about the urgent need to redistribute power as well as wealth, and about the need to climate proof all that we do - not just treat the environment as an optional bolt on.

We will build a Party that reflects modern Britain and plan to break open the current closed political system, including by starting a debate about the role of progressive pacts in England and Wales.

We think a one-off 2020 general election progressive pact, on a case by case basis, as agreed by local parties, could be the basis for delivering a fairer voting system. If it happened it would only need to be in a handful of seats - but it could make all the difference.

For us the power of working together is about job sharing, harnessing the power of collective action at the grassroots of our party and starting a democratic revolution. Time is up for the two-party system - we want to seize this moment to create a new kind of politics that can in turn reclaim and reshape Britain - addressing both the cost of living crisis and the quality of life crisis too.

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Jonathan Bartley is the Green Party work and pensions spokesman
MINEFIELD is a theatre production which brings together veterans of the Falkland Islands/Islas Malvinas war on a stage 8,000 miles from the remembered battlefield. Combining our real lives and stories with fiction and performance to create a piece of theatre directed by Lola Arias.

Sporting lore has it that playing before a home crowd raises morale and improves performance, but I've been worried sick about performing in front of a British audience and veterans of the Falklands War in particular.

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I get giddy with excitement when I think about performing in Germany, Greece and Argentina, but I've never felt so alone as I felt during rehearsals in Hackney, London. Ten days later, the day before the opening night at Brighton Dome, a terrible feeling of sadness overwhelmed me and I found myself bursting into tears, which I masked by feigning to read a newspaper.

The anxiety I was feeling did not escape the notice of Lola Arias and her team. Indeed, I had expressed my concerns and worries when I began to complain about the use of the pronoun 'I' instead of 'We'; for men from a military background, talking about the experience of war in the first person is distasteful, if not down right dishonourable. Two days before opening at the Royal Court Theatre, London, I was again beset by a feeling of utter loneliness.

In contrast, I was never so happy as I was during rehearsals in Buenos Aries. When not rehearsing, I was giving talks on the British infantry experience of the Falklands / Malvinas War. I gave presentations to: doctors and unionists working at a pediatric hospital; school children and their teachers, and to a packed theatre audience comprised of Argentine Veterans and their families. A couple of weeks earlier, Malvinas Day 1 April, I was in the little town of San Andres de Giles with David Jackson, where we were confronted by 700 oil torch bearing VGM (Veterano Guerra Malvinas). That evening I met men of 602 and 603 Commandos, men who I was once to sent pursue and to kill, men who shot my friend through the chest during the fighting at Top Malo House. Those men, former enemies, were the first Falklands War veterans I had spoken to since leaving the Royal Marines in 1986. I would occasionally bump into other British veterans but I never discussed the war with them or how I felt about it.

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The philosopher George Simmel once wrote in praise of the 'stranger', describing how the stranger is both 'near' and 'far away' at the same time. My relationship to those Malvinas veterans could not be better described. One socially useful role the stranger takes is to be the recipient of 'confession without fear'. I wrote in my diary that Lola was my 'stranger' and I burdened her and Luz Algranti with my 'confessions' of war, of being sexual abused, and my dread of performing in front of the home crowd, of being judged by them. Lola and the production team have responded with openness, kindness and good advice. They are no longer strangers, but trusted friends and colleagues. And today, as I write this short essay, I feel ready to open my arms to the home crowd.
The first time I studied economics, at 16, the case could be neatly and simply put across at A level. I came across the enormous benefits the EU can offer us in terms of harmonisation laws and regulations to make trading easier, abolition of tariffs, to make free trade cheaper and free movement of people, so we get the best people for the job. Since the EU comprised 50% of our trade, this meant cheaper goods, less governmental interference in the market for businesses to flourish and better skilled workers to contribute to the economy.

Likewise, the first time I heard of the EU was during politics, also at 16, and the benefits of the EU could not be questioned. We could put aside irrational national grudges from untrustworthy politicians, reuniting Europe after World War Two and build a cooperative and mature democratic forum at the supra-national level. Made perfect sense in a time of globalisation where the power of big business could supersede national governments, and where powers had just been devolved to Scotland and Wales and more local levels, the nation state was changing and we needed decision making at different levels to adapt to this. There was absolutely no question, the EU was a great thing for me, a working class kid.

Anti-EU sentiment

Fast forward five years and I've learnt a bit more about politics and economics and am writing my dissertation on the topic at university. I'm anti-establishment, left wing and critical of the neoliberal free trade agenda of the EU and its lack of democratic legitimacy. I've been spoilt by 10 years of Labour governments during my formative years and wished for more radical policies in Europe, whilst also still criticising the Blairite labour government. I'd argue that the focus on free trade and neoclassical economics (a la thatcher and the Anglo Saxon model of capitalism) are ensuring traditional socialist policies of Germany, Sweden or France are being undermined in effect to harmonise the policy in member states.

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Fast forward a year, during my masters at LSE studying free trade (taught by those who worked at the WTO), the EU came up again as another target, this time for acting as a regionalist trading bloc which was preventing free trade and was a protectionist force to the outside world. Though what I realised was that this could protect workers' rights in the EU, and specifically those vulnerable to threats of globalisation (the least well off). It could stop a race to the bottom, as a club of some of the most powerful countries in the world, with a history of social democracy and workers' rights (which you'd not see in the Americas or Asia) could introduce common law to uphold basic social standards, and it did through the European Convention on Human Rights & European Social Chapter which enshrine basic workers' rights and keep them safe from any neoliberal or right wing government of the day. Most importantly (at that time, which was the year of the financial crash, 2008) , the EU led the way on talks on international monetary cooperation, such as the Basel accords, which are crucial to regulating our economy and stabilising our precarious financial system.

Working with the European Commission

I realised that I was probably right the first time, and my undergraduate years I'd gotten a bit carried away in the prospect that Britain may stay as it was in the 1970s, and I've realised the world is changing as we need to catch up or be left behind. I'm now 8 years into my working life, a trained accountant, and I now work for and audit for the European Commission as a contractor, as well as the United Nations and other 'unelected' bodies. I've lived most of my twenties under a Tory government and gone through the biggest recession since the Great Depression just after graduating, and have seen first-hand that the investment which has been cut off from the most deprived areas of the U.K. during this time by our government, has been provided by the EC.

Democratic Deficit

Moreover, working with the EC, I have come to realise the question of democratic legitimacy is not one that worries me now. What I hadn't realised back in 2007 was that the European Union (which is comprised of three institutions, the European Parliament (directly elected through the list system), the Council of Ministers (our own democratically elected heads of state) and the European Commission) is set up just like our own bi-cameral system (two chamber system). Just as we have one elected house (the House of Commons) and one appointed chamber (House of Lords), one acts as a check and balance on the other (although we have two elected chambers in the EU, and only one non-elected part of the EU). The EU is actually more democratic in the sense that the commission cannot put through legislation which has not been approved by all member states. Importantly for the Brexit debate, it us the most powerful member states which have the loudest voices, the U.K. being one of them. So if it is undemocratic it is because of the lack of political equality for the smaller countries.

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Social protection

Likewise, as mentioned, the voting system for the European Parliament elections is the list system, and is by far more democratic than FPTP which we use in the UK, and the list system is the most proportional system available. Importantly, the main reason I moved back to being pro EU is because we do not have a written constitution in the UK, it is easy for the government of the day to slowly repeal the social rights and responsibilities we've taken decades to enshrine in the EU. If we stay we can guard these from the Thatcherite side of the Tory party who are overwhelmingly in favour of Brexit. This check and balance is necessary in a time when the NHS is at stake, education is now a privilege of the wealthy and we are starved of investment across the board.

Trade

On trade, I wrote my masters dissertation on the struggles of the WTO Doha Round trade negotiations in 2008. This taught me one thing, trade talks take time. These talks are still ongoing in 2016 and likely never to reach a conclusion. The world has been going through unstable times since the financial crash, the Eurozone and US are looking inward in times of trouble (Bush, Le Pen, etc.) and this is not going to be a conducive ground for opening up new trade deals post Brexit. There's a reason that the EU takes a long time to negotiate trade deals, it's a logistical nightmare with so many countries involved. We will be negotiating our way back in the EU which will be a timely process, and something I'm not convinced we need to do at all.

Immigration

Finally, on the hot topic of immigration, I know we are an overpopulated country and we live in an overpopulated world. I also now work for UNFPA (UN Population Fund) as a contractor, with our main objective to ensure we manage the strain on resources as our population grows, in nation states and globally. I know better than most, living in a one bed flat in Peckham and paying 1,100 a month, that we don't have enough housing. I know as a school governor of an inner city school that we don't have enough teachers. I know as someone who's been unfortunate to have to use the NHS more times than I'd like to over the past couple of years that our doctors are stretched. I think we need to focus on the strains on our resources in terms of the government policies and investing more in public services. I know that most immigrants that are seen as a drain work low paid jobs but they pay tax legally in order to stay in the country. That puts into the pot for our social services and does grow our economy. It is not a zero sum game. What we now need to do is elect a government who want to invest in public services and our economy, and I know that the government we'll get if we vote Brexit are anything but that.
Yesterday it was announced by the Associated Press (AP) that the Democratic Primary had been won by Hillary Clinton. This soon led to reports from the Guardian, the BBC, the Huffington Post, and so on, repeating this 'fact'. However, it just isn't the case, and it is just the media repeating a blatant untruth.

Hillary isn't the Democratic candidate for president yet because the figures used for these statements come from AP, which counted 'superdelegates', who haven't voted yet. AP literally just asked superdelegates who they are thinking of voting for, then published it repeatedly as if this counted as them actually voting. Superdelegates don't vote until the Democratic Party Convention in late July.

This is important to note because Hillary won't have enough pledged delegates (voted by the American people) to win the nomination, and will rely on the future superdelegate vote in July to actually be the nomination. Thus, Bernie still has a chance, and the race isn't over by any means. Infact, superdelegates switched in 2008 to Obama, from Hillary Clinton. For Bernie to win, this scenario only has to occur again - it isn't too far fetched.

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The establishment media is working with Hillary extraordinarily closely on this campaign - creating this false story just to sway California, the largest state in America, that is voting in its primary today. Now, some of the media, such as the BBC, put the announcement of her 'win' in quotes, while others, including the Huffington Post US, didn't even do that. This repetition is blatantly misleading and displays clear bias. No responsible media outlet should be repeating such obviously misleading content - with or without quotations.

Even the pledged delegates that Hillary has won have been extremely dodgy. For example, in Puerto Rico this weekend, local officials expected a turnout of 700,000, but saw less than 10% of this. Why was there such a shockingly low turnout? Because there was 1500 voting stations in Puerto Rico in 2008, but under 500 in 2016. If people can't vote for their chosen candidate, Bernie cannot win. This is a travesty for democracy, and follows several other claims of election fraud in previous states.

It is time to call out the media bias and election fraud to ensure democracy in the most influential country in the world. Hillary isn't already the Democratic candidate.

Here is the actual delegate count of those delegates that have already voted, as of June 6th.

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Today marks the first in the Prosper series, "Voices from the Field" in which we'll share direct testimonies from refugee aid volunteers in various parts of the world. Some of these are individuals who have been going back and forth to Greece. Others have moved to indefinitely to "hotspot" areas or contribute remotely online. These testimonies are essential communication in the informal international solidarity network that has arisen in the past nine months. Most of this reporting takes place on Facebook, which leads to the inevitable problem of preaching to the converted. "Voice from the Field" will widen the audience of this critical testimony. We begin with the reporting of Leslie Meral Schick from Chios, a volunteer from Boston who has been to Greece several times over the past six months. Leslie is a historian of Islamic art and mother of two, who is originally from Turkey and the daughter of a Czech Holocaust survivor.

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Yesterday morning I attended a coordination meeting of all agencies and NGOs involved in Chios to address issues around the camps of Souda, Dipethe and Vial. The meeting was chaired by a UNHCR rep; the agenda was long. Much remained unresolved by the end -- and three huge issues went yet again unaddressed:

The unbelievable overcrowding in all three Chios camps and resulting inhumane living conditions. Escape plans in case of emergencies such as a fire. The entirely unsustainable food situation. Currently, meals for 1600 refugees are being provided by two volunteer-run and donation-funded kitchens; the funding is scheduled to run out on June 16th.

The UNHCR has no plans in response to any of these important issues. None. In response to the appeals for support or resolution, its representative helpfully pointed out that this is Europe, and that people would surely not be allowed to starve in Europe.

But none of what has been happening is permissible, or humane, or acceptable by any stretch of the imagination, in Europe or otherwise. The living conditions in some areas, including much of Chios, are ungodly. I was in Athens last week, struggling to find any housing with running water for a family with a hospitalized newborn and a 1-year old -- and supplying people living in tiny tents with no running or drinking water, no electricity, no food, no services whatsoever, with food packages purchased through donations.

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The food has been entirely inadequate. It's good -- but insufficient. So hearing that surely, surely Europe would not allow refugees to go without food, and waiting until the last moment for a magic wand is not exactly satisfactory. The UNHCR will not provide funding for food. There is no plan. Today is the 7th.

The kitchens will run out of money in 9 days.

It was pointed out repeatedly that the situation is already dire, that nerves are already beyond frayed, and that serious issues were likely to ensue if food should not be provided. I know that if any of us were living in these conditions and if our children were hungry and if we had no choices, we would also be pushed to the brink. There was unanimous agreement. Tongues were clucked. The meeting was adjourned.

About four hours later, a large fire was set in Souda Camp. Those responsible have not yet been identified, though they were obviously refugees at the end of their wits. Several containers housing NGO offices and a large tent housing refugees were burned to the ground. Walking through the camp and talking to people later I found them not angry, but devastatingly sad.

I sat in someone's tent as she told how they had escaped bombing in Syria only to find themselves in such horrible conditions -- and now, this. She was crying.

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It's just impossible to comprehend how this can be happening, broadcast for all to see. As Abeer, from Syria said, "Don't deal with us like a number. We are people; we need a life and a future."
It was like Britain's Got Talent, but just with all the best bits.

That's how a child at the Rowan School in Sheffield, whose pupils all have a diagnosis of autism, described our circus show. The pupils attended, as do all of our audiences, free of charge and with their entire family so that they can enjoy the show as a family group.

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Circus Starr, is the UK's only not-for-profit circus and also the only one in the UK to travel to a new location every other day as we seek to provide the very highest quality circus event for children with physical disabilities, learning difficulties low income families. We tour three times a year to a total of 75 locations. One area of our work is with children with autism.

Since Circus Starr was established in 1987, parents of children on the autism spectrum would tell us how their child who could not usually cope with unusual situations had been enthralled by the magic of the circus. Although a circus performance would not seem to be very 'autism-friendly' with loud music, crowds, lights and surprises parents reported that their child enjoyed the experience. However, new experiences and environments are a source of anxiety to many children on the autism spectrum and some did not get past the entrance to the Big Top. The unexpected experience, the queue, the new faces, not knowing what to expect - it was all too much. This resulted in a 'no show' for the circus and a treat missed by a family that desperately needed a special family experience in a welcoming, relaxed, environment. We needed to find a way to help those families to get through the doors of the tent to witness the thrills and spills of life in the Big Top.

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We wanted to create an app that could clearly explain in a visual way what circus was all about - the excitement, the glamour and the unpredictable nature of it - for a very literal audience. The app needed to be able to prepare a child who, most probably, did not like surprises for a show full of surprises ... and yet without ruining the surprise that is an essential part of circus performance. It needed to do all this without losing their interest or adding to their anxiety about new experiences.

The original development of the app was made possible by funding from the Digital R&D Fund for the Arts and was inspired by the idea of Social Stories TM. Social Stories TM use visual stories to create positive ideas to reduce stress and create coping strategies and have been successfully used by children on the autism spectrum. We created an interactive storybook that allowed children to create their own story about the circus from a selection of images, film footage and captions about a Circus Starr show. They could also personalise these stories by uploading their material such as photographs of themselves and their family, or of the transport they would use to get to the venue, to create their own circus story. The aim was to make the whole experience from start to finish very familiar in advance of the trip to the circus.

Research suggests that we are on the right path and the app was awarded the 'Best New Technological Innovation' Award at the 2015 Autism Professional Awards. The app was initially developed for iOS but an android version is currently being tested and will be released soon.

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As one of nine previously funded Digital R & D Fund for the Arts projects Circus Starr's 'Show & Tell' app was chosen to be part of pioneering pilot twelve week digital arts and culture accelerator, supported by Arts Council England and Nesta and designed to encourage arts organisations to be more digitally entrepreneurial. We are now looking to gain further investment for the app to create a "white label" product that can be licensed and re-purposed by other organisations to create more equal access for the 2.8 million people in the UK whose lives are touched by autism.

What does the future hold for the Show & Tell app? We initially saw the opportunity for the app to be licensed by other arts venues and producers or by visitor attractions such as theatre visits, museums and galleries as those are the obvious extensions of its current use. However, parents and teachers have pointed to its potential for supporting the transition into reception classes and Year 7 or preparing for unusual activities such as a Christmas play. We are also beginning to see how it could be used in wider commercial settings. The technology could readily be re-purposed for use by supermarkets and other shopping outlets, cinemas, holiday companies, airports and even entire towns and cities. Many outlets and destinations are seeking to offer autism friendly experiences such as autism friendly shopping times and cinema screenings. However, parents tell us that although they appreciate these opportunities they also long to be able to go shopping at a time that suits them or visit the cinema with other friends and family outside of a special screening. The Show & Tell app has the potential to make that wish a reality by preparing their child for new experiences and reducing their anxiety. As one parent told us:

Apps for autistic children are absolutely priceless. We've never been to a circus before and rarely go out as a family. The app was crucial - as he trusts what he sees in an app.
Former TOWIE star Jessica takes a step in the wright direction as she launches her second footwear collection for SS16.

Jessica Wright looked incredible as she arrived to her launch in a white bespoke four by four emblazoned with her name along the show stopping vehicle.

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All eyes were on her as she stepped out to a crowd full of papparazzi. Donning a rose gold silk robe,which showcased her tanned leggy pins. she partnered these with striking matching accessories.

Her hair styled back in to a sleek high pony tail, showcasing her stunning features that were enhanced with bold eyes, nude lips and that all important highlight. Proving Essex girls are full of glamour.

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The launch was held at Vanilla in London, such a great choice of venue with its modern but elegant decor. Naturally we were offered Jessica cocktails which consisted of vodka, raspberry puree, cranberry & orange juice with a dash of lime a perfect combination. Cupcakes with shoes and pictures of jessica adorned tables for guest to help themselves to.

Now lets get to the all important shoe collection. The collection, consisting of 41 different styles ranges from the fashion staple black heels to my absolute favourite the fashion forward neon pink courts which can liven up any little black dress to make a statement. Jessicas shoes are an affordable collection which can suit all, ranging from an RRP of 49.99 to 85. What I love about them the most is the signature gold glitter sole, because we all deserve to sparkle.

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As a girl who loves to sparkle I was overjoyed when I came across the Go Get Glitter stand, every girls dream come true. To match the theme of the glitter soled shoes I opted for a gold sparkle design around one side of my face which left me feeling like a very cool disco ball.

Next up was the photobooth to show off my glitter! Angel Sinclair and I had a great time trying out many a pose.

We got to chat to the very beautiful Frankie Essex who was wearing a little black dress which flattered her slim figure paired with flawless make up. I spoke to Frankie about how she feels about diversity within the fashion industry and refreshingly she was all for the curvier woman to be represented and that the likes of Kim Kardashian are helping to pave the way for the curvier ladies.

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Frankie leads a healthy lifestyle working out regulary and after talking to her I believe shes a great role model.

Also at the party were the cheeky lads Tay Tay and Ed Goacher from Franklin Lake. With boyband good looks and lively personalities I can only see amazing things for these boys and wow has Tay Tay got some dance moves! Tay Tay had some great words of wisdom "If you have a dream and you want to be a model and you love fashion, regardless of your shape and ability make sure you pursue your dreams" such perfect advice.

I received some great fitness advice from the beautifully curvy DJ Hannah B "body pump classes and pizza" now that is a fitness routine I could stick to!

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Also at the launch were Jessicas parents. Her mother carol looked stunning in a white lace dress . Also in attendance were the beautiful Ferne Mccan, Danielle Armstrong and Kate Wright to give Jessica support on her latest collection.

Jessica who shot to fame on TOWIE also has a clothing line and a top selling book titled " Sparkling Stilettos" which we were lucky enough to recieve in our personalised Jessica Wright goody bags.
Have you ever spoken to a surfer about why they surf? They will tell you that once you get into it there is no turning back. As someone who has never donned a wetsuit or waxed a board, I never really appreciated the significance of a surfer's relationship with the ocean and how this can influence their broader view of the world. Then I met the team at EcoSwell in Peru.

Perhaps unlike any other, surfing is a pastime that is inherently individual. Surfers speak in almost spiritual terms about the freedom of being alone with the ocean, away from the distractions and problems which accompany daily life.

Surfing connects me with myself (as a kind of meditation) and connects me with nature. It puts things into perspective. After each session you feel renewed, and when you've had a good session you feel that you can take on the world. - Michael, EcoSwell

It is also an activity which is uniquely tied to the natural world. Some of the world's most pressing issues acutely affect surfing communities, including population growth and climate change. Surfers are realising that their very personal relationship with the ocean is intricately related to the ecosystems, communities and industries of their chosen coastline.

Lobitos, Peru

EcoSwell was formed in 2013 by a group of surfers in Lobitos, Peru. Coming from a range of backgrounds and professions, they were bound by their love of the ocean and driven to make a difference to the local area and its environment. Some of the team live and work within the town itself, and others form the global family who are connected and support remotely.

EcoSwell's aim is to guide the Lobitos community on a sustainable path to generate positive impacts for its local population and environment. They have spent time and identified key challenges and opportunities facing its impending development that must be addressed imminently. This ranges from improving conservation of coastal ecosystems, to supporting vulnerable populations to mitigate and adapt to severe climate change effects.

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In the case of places like Lobitos, tourism brings new people and money into the local economy. A recent surge in surf tourism has spiked interest in the area, which brings both investment and employment opportunities. This sounds positive, but can easily result in environmental damage in the absence of sustainable practices. The unplanned waste dumping and release of untreated sewage in places like nearby Mancora is sadly a testament to this fact.

Other towns along the Peruvian coast (such as Mancora) have grown rapidly with tourism, but not necessarily sustainably.

EcoSwell go beyond just looking at the technical and financial factors involved to also consider solutions which are based in the area's unique culture. The delicate ecosystem balance extends beyond plants and animals to various groups including the local population, local fisherman, various levels of government and ever-increasing commercial interests. The solutions have to consider both the natural environment and the culture of those who inhabit it.

One of the team's first tasks was a study of the wellbeing of the people in the area. This study identified opportunities to support the community in a number of ways. These ranged from providing the first biodigester to treat wastewater and education on water conservation, to installing solar panels for energy, to teaching local fisherman about tide charts which help support their livelihood. These are projects which build self-esteem, self-worth and empowerment - a few traits surfing has built for the EcoSwell team.

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Installation of solar panels.

Sometimes the simplest of projects can have the biggest ripples and waves out to the community around them. A key EcoSwell initiative is the 'Green Lobitos' project, which provides families in the community with trees for which they are responsible. Locals regularly lament that Lobitos used to be greener, and that they were happier when it was. The planting of trees not only returns greenery to the area, but also engenders pride amongst the locals who are responsible for maintaining them. EcoSwell have now planted nearly 150 trees. Already these are providing some shade from the scorching summer sun, allowing families to spend more time outside and thus helping more than just the aesthetic of the area.

In the run up to 2016 Lobitos suffered 3 or 4 months of drought. Water supply came from trucks which brought in drinking water. Families then filled a limited supply of a storage tanks. Even through this period, families watered the plants - they were able to be resourceful in where their water came from. The project taught families about grey water sources (meaning those which had already once been used, such as water from washing dishes) that would previously have been thrown out on pavement was used to water these plants. A small change in behaviour made a big difference: everything else in the region had dried out, but these communities were green.

EcoSwell team with local residents ready to plant new trees for this year, with a tree planted just last year thriving in the background.

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It is incredible what a small change in personal perspective can lead to. Each of the personal experiences and self-reflection of the EcoSwell team through surfing, nature and the ocean lead them to a cause. They combine passion with genuine concern for the development and wellbeing of Peru's vulnerable populations in the face of the upcoming challenges due to climate change and the global economy. Through their work, they aim to apply some of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals and the COP21 Climate Change Agreement calls to action.

Surfing connects me with nature and with myself. It gives you balance in your life. - Jorge Luis, EcoSwell

For further information on the EcoSwell stories and to get involved in their volunteer programme, visit their website and their Facebook page.
I love the Summer Exhibition. I love its democracy and I love its chaos. This is the exhibition where amateurs get hung alongside the greats, and where galleries swell and overflow with such a wide array of works, from paintings to sculpture, from photography to architectural models, from computer screens to mannequins... It's all here.

The Summer Exhibition is always an intriguing and overwhelming deluge of art, but here's the thing - the shows are not always dense with impressive works. And sometimes the chaos can be such that it's hard to get a handle on the works on display.

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Well, that is categorically not the case for 2016 as this year, Richard Wilson, the British sculptor and Royal Academician, has coordinated a truly fantastic and exhilarating show full of dynamic, challenging works of a very high quality, and has overseen a layout that showcase them at their best - in galleries with structure and coherence.

This is one of the finest Summer Exhibitions I've seen in a long time.

The greats are here, of course. A vast Anselm Kiefer hangs at the far end of Gallery III, alongside a wonderfully bright and uplifting painting of trees from Ilya & Emilia Kabakov. A distinctive Allen Jones figure greets all visitors as they enter into the Central Hall, shadowed by a gloriously bright and in-your-face canvas from EVA & ADELE. Some delicate and beautiful drawings from William Kentridge on printed book pages hang on one of the many walls, there's a couple of prints from the one and only Wolfgang Tillmans, and designs for the proposed Cardiff Bay Opera House from the late Zaha Hadid.

All of the above impress - of course they do. But they don't overshadow the rest of the works on display. And that is the big success of the show - it is dense with quality as well as volume.

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Recent Royal Academician Emma Stibbon catches the eye with a number of monochrome works that examine the natural environment. Her works are dramatic and intimate in equal measure. That she captures such emotions with a sparse palette and composition is fascinating and impressive.

The dimmed lighting of Gallery II makes for an interesting contrast with the bright lights and energy of the other rooms, and within its walls is one of the show's highlights. Zatorski + Zatorski have strewn a broken carbonised human skeleton that is as black as night across a low-level white platform. It's haunting stuff, and its title 'Self-Portrait' only ferments that feeling of mortality.

In contrast, the blue wave formed from a myriad of tiny LCD screens that hang from the ceiling in Gallery I takes your breath away. Kutlug Ataman's Portrait of Sakip Sabanci is a constantly changing collection of tiny portraits, photos of people, who were all connected in some way to this Turkish businessman and philanthropist. It's a perfect demonstration of defining a human being by who they share their life with, and whose lives they touch along the way.

And, such is the diversity of works on display, that you can go from this to the delicate works from Aono Fumiaki who has restored everyday items destroyed, washed up and abandoned as a result of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, items such as a cassette tape, books, and a sake bottle. These are pieces that make a huge impression in a very quiet and understated manner.

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There is so much to admire, enjoy and absorb in this brilliant instalment of this annual institution. So much so that I will, unquestionably, be returning for a second visit.

Royal Academy of Arts, London to August 21, 2016.

Admission 13.50 (concessions available)
The NHS is never short of projects aiming to bring innovation into and across the organization. The latest of these is the Entrepreneur Training Programme, which aims to provide 85 clinicians with mentoring from the likes of Microsoft and Verily.

One of these is Chris Wittle, the founder of telehealth startup MyMed. Telehealth is a subject I've written about a lot in recent years, with startups such as Babylon and Vida leading the way in their delivery, whilst Medigo have attempted to use telehealth to provide top notch healthcare to those in third world countries.

Inside the NHS, the rollout of telehealth has largely been confined to trials in places like Airedale NHS trust, which installed a telehealth system in a care home for the elderly, thus providing residents with 24/7 care.

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When the system was tested out, it saw a 35% reduction in emergency admissions and a 53% drop in A&E attendance.

These gains were reflected in a study conducted by a team from UC Davis, which explored the cost savings possible with telehealth. It reveals that such savings are particularly pronounced in rural areas that use telemedicine to connect up emergency departments with doctors at much larger hospitals. It suggests that even once the costs of installation and maintenance are considered, the savings work out at around $4,662 per use on average.

"Our previous work showed that telemedicine was good for kids, families, and providers, but we didn't really address the cost issue," the authors say. "Now we know, not only does it improve quality, safety, and satisfaction, but it also saves money."

Changing habits

Of course, to obtain those kind of benefits will require a shift in behavior, from both patient and doctor alike. This may be a sizeable challenge, at least according to a recent paper from researchers from the Universities of Bristol, Oxford, Edinburgh and Exeter.

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The study, which the authors claim is the first of its kind on the UK, set out to examine the extent to which general practices teams in the UK were taking advantage of new platforms to offer their services, either now or in the future.

Over 400 practices were chosen, with a combination or urban and rural, deprived and affluent locations selected to try and provide a good cross-section of the country.

"We found that, despite the majority of practices offering telephone consultations on a frequent basis (66 per cent), fewer were implementing email consultations (6 per cent) and none were currently using internet video. In addition, the majority do not plan to implement these methods in the future," the authors say.

Build and they shall come

It's a problem that leading telehealth provider Babylon aren't facing. Their industry leading platform has had no such difficulties attracting doctors to both sign-up and use the platform in large numbers.

I met up with founder Ali Parsa at the recent unveiling of a new AI based triage service that aims to make it easier and more effective for patients to take those first steps towards good health. The service was tested both live against experienced doctors and nurses on the day and over a more prolonged period and featured strongly on both occasions. Indeed, the AI system was found to be both more accurate and considerably faster (and therefore cheaper) than human based triage services.

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Parsa suggested that if these kind of services can be provided then patients will flock to use them, which in turn will get the doctors on board. The challenge, therefore is to build telehealth platforms that are good enough to entice customers and the rest will naturally fall into place.
U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton makes a speech during a campaign stop in Lynwood, California, United States June 6, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Blake

BEIRUT -- Fighting the so-called Islamic State, as the narrative is told in the West and the Sunni Gulf states, is becoming seen as "nakedly sectarian," as the Washington-based Syria commentator Hassan Hassan wrote in the Financial Times last week. The fighting in Fallujah and the prospective battle for Raqa'a, he wrote, "offer ISIS an opportunity to present itself as a custodian of the Sunni, especially in Iraq, where it has established itself as the only Sunni militant group able to stand up to militias supporting the Shia-dominated government."

It is a narrative that is gaining currency in Washington as the administration strains to dress up its allied fighters in northern Syria, which are dominated by the Kurdish group the YPG, as somehow national and not sectarian. Indeed, the U.S. administration seems highly susceptible to this accusation. The danger of appearing anti-Sunni by pursuing the war on ISIS may have some superficial plausibility but the allegation, in fact, is Orwellian in nature. ISIS and fellow takfiri jihadists, in their war against apostasy, are essentially following the doctrine of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, one of the co-founders of Saudi Arabia.

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Fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance dominated by the YPG, in northeast Syria on Feb. 19. (DELIL SOULEIMAN/AFP/Getty Images)

Wahhab proclaimed those who did not accept his puritan monotheism as apostates and idolaters who should be killed immediately. And now, Shiites, Alawites, Zaidis, Druze, Ismailis -- and Kurds, who are mostly Sunni Muslim -- are defending themselves and their families from the truly fundamentalist zealotry of neo-Wahhabism that murders all whom it deems apostate. To reverse the narrative and cast their efforts to defend themselves as somehow sectarian is bizarre -- especially since the bulk of the Syrian army and Kurds fighting ISIS are themselves Sunni Muslims.

To fight ISIS is not anti-Sunni. To fight ISIS is to be against Wahhab's revived doctrines. The leading Iraqi commentator Hayder al-Khoei highlighted that in a recent op-ed:

The tip of the spear in Falluja is not an Iranian-backed paramilitary group but the U.S.-created Counter Terrorism Service and its elite U.S.-trained Special Forces known locally as the Golden Division. These forces, besides being a mixed Shia-Sunni unit, are led by a Kurdish commander ... At a time when sectarian dynamics is one of many factors fueling the crises in Iraq and beyond, it is important for Western journalists and analysts to not be more sectarian than the Iraqis on the ground actually fighting ISIS.

In short, the ephemeral global narrative does not relate well to the facts on the ground where there is much less sectarianism than this Western-Gulf narrative purports to exist.

But let that pass. This narrative, echoed widely beyond the Financial Times, is Orwellian in another way. It serves another deeper purpose. It has much to do with finding and articulating, as Jim Lobe notes, the point of intersection between liberal interventionism and neoconservatism. This intersection is the subject of a May 16 report from the Center for a New American Security, which was drawn up by a bipartisan task force of 10 senior members of the U.S. foreign policy establishment and augmented by six dinner discussions with invited experts.

Their approach is to cast Iran as the source of all 'regional tensions' and to hold onto America's Gulf bases in order to be a 'force that can flex across several different mission sets and prevail.'

It is, in a sense, the riposte from the two interventionist wings of American politics to Trump's iconoclasm in foreign policy. And, Lobe writes, "it's fair to predict that the above-mentioned report is likely to be the best guide to date of where a Hillary Clinton presidency will want to take the country's foreign policy."

The report is all about how to maintain America's benevolent hegemony -- or how to maintain and expand today's "rules-based international order," which implies maintaining and expanding the geo-financial order as much as the political order. As we saw in U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter's interview with Vox, there are clear, though somewhat cushioned, echoes of the 1992 U.S. Defense Planning Guidance.

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Carter in Germany in January. (Christoph Schmidt/dpa via AP)

The CNAS report states, "[F]rom a resurgent Russia to a rising China that is challenging the rules-based international order to chaos, and the struggle for power in the Middle East, the United States needs a force that can flex across several different mission sets and prevail." The report simply restates in more nuanced language many of ideas that underline the concept of the "American Century" and U.S.-led unipolar world order.

What does this have to do with propagating the meme that the war on ISIS is a disguised sectarian war on Sunni Islam? Well, quite a lot. Consider this from the report (italics mine):

The United States should adopt a comprehensive strategy, employing an appropriate mix of military, economic and diplomatic resources, to undermine and defeat Iran's hegemonic ambitions in the Greater Middle East. Whether in Lebanon, Yemen, Syria or Bahrain, Tehran's advances and longer-term ambitions should be regarded as a threat to stability that it is in the U.S. interest to counter and deter.

The next administration must make abundantly clear that it has no interest in pursuing an off-shore balancing strategy, such as the 'new equilibrium' some have suggested, which envisages a significant U.S. military drawdown from the region. On the contrary, the Persian Gulf should be deemed a region of vital interest to the security of the United States. As such, U.S. military forces in the region should be sufficient to ensure the security of Gulf allies and the Strait of Hormuz against potential Iranian aggression. At the same time, Gulf allies should have access to sufficient defense articles and services to deter Tehran even if U.S. forces are not present or immediately available to assist.

We also reject Iran's attempt to blame others for regional tensions it is aggravating, as well as its public campaign to demonize the government of Saudi Arabia.

The last sentence is truly amazing. So the spread of cultural and militant Wahhabism has nothing to do with tension in the region? Here we see that the crux of the joint neocon, liberal-interventionist foreign policy for the Middle East is to cast Iran as the source of all "regional tensions" and secondly, to hold onto America's Gulf bases -- in order to "flex across several different mission sets and prevail."

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Saudi Arabia is mildly rebuked in the CNAS report for having helped radicalize Sunni Islamist groups in the past, but the Kingdom receives applause for its law enforcement and intelligence cooperation. It is very clear from the report's context that a makeover of Saudi Arabia's status as a U.S. ally is underway and that this rehabilitation is seen as integral to aiding America's "hard-nosed enforcement strategy ... to counter Iran's destabilizing activities throughout the region, from its support to terrorist groups like Hezbollah to its efforts to sow instability in the Sunni Arab states."

The old Western standby of using psychologically inflamed Sunni radicalism as a means to weaken opponents seems like it won't be dismantled completely.

Another gloss in the CNAS report is striking: while ISIS as a threat is made much of, and a call is issued to "uproot" it, when it comes to Syria, the report simply states that "it is also essential to assist in the formation of a Sunni alternative to ISIS and the [Syria President Bashar] Assad regime" and to create "a safe space ... where moderate opposition militias can arm, train, and organize." Yet there is no mention of Jabhat al-Nusra, al Qaeda's Syria wing. Its role simply is not addressed.

This conscious lacuna suggests that the authors do not want to embarrass Saudi Arabia for all its fired-up Sunni jihadist tools. The old Western standby of using psychologically inflamed Sunni radicalism as a means to weaken opponents seems like it won't be dismantled completely. It is fine, evidently, to make a hoo-ha about ISIS while Nusra is to be slipped quietly into the Syrian calculus in order to shift the military balance and convince Assad that he cannot remain in power.

Michele Flournoy, one of the authors of the CNAS report, in Dec. 2011, when she was still the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

This new/old policy platform is well assisted by broadcasting a narrative that those fighting ISIS on the ground (Iran and its allies) are the "naked sectarians" who compound their sectarian intent by provoking Sunnis to rally to ISIS, their defender. Thus, Iran becomes the threat to regional security, and the CNAS case against Iran is crystalized. This is working quite well, it seems, to judge by its play in the media.

It may be fairly asked however, why these eminent American foreign policy hands should be espousing what many might see as such a retrograde stance. Promoting Saudi Arabia and Gulf states as key U.S. allies would seem to go against the grain of contemporary -- even Congressional -- sentiment. Ditto for maintaining America's necklace of (expensive) military bases around the globe in order to project American military power. Are Americans not tiring of endless war? And has not the arming and training of a Sunni opposition in Syria been tried several times and failed? Why should this policy be any more successful next time around?

ISIS is the consensual scapegoat to be lambasted by all and sundry, but its spirit -- neo-Wahabbism -- is not to be rooted out.

It is not that the report's authors don't grasp these points, but if the neocons have one constancy, it has been their unwavering support for Israel. They think that the Gulf states are ready for a normalization with Israel and wish to do profitable business with it. What stands in the way of this rapprochement, in the neocon view, is Iran, Syria and Hezbollah's vehement opposition -- and their ability to ignite public opinion across the Muslim world on behalf of the Palestinians.

So what is the final takeaway from all this? It is that ISIS is the consensual scapegoat to be lambasted by all and sundry, but its spirit -- neo-Wahabbism -- is not to be rooted out. It is too useful to Saudi Arabia and Turkey and to Western interests -- to weaken Assad, for example, and to contain Iran and fight Hezbollah.

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Members of the Ahrar al-Sham brigade in Idlib, Syria on Aug. 15, 2015. (Firas Faham/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

Whether in the form of Nusra or Ahrar al-Sham, another al Qaeda-allied rebel group in Syria, this chameleon-like Sunni jihadist force collectively provides a useful pivot around which neocons and liberal interventionists alike can pursue interventionism and the continuance of "the American Century." It also provides a valuable intersection between Israel and Gulf interests. As Lobe wryly notes, "the authors' undisguised hostility toward Tehran pours forth with specific policy recommendations that, frankly, could have been written as a joint paper submitted by Saudi Arabia and Israel."

Will the report, like the neocon Project for the New American Century, to which it is perhaps conceived as a successor, come to form the basis of American foreign policy if a Democrat won the forthcoming election? Possibly, yes.

But there is also an intangible feeling of something passe in these policy prescriptions, a sense that they belong to a former era. The current presidential campaign, with all its iconoclasm and evidence of widespread popular anger towards the status quo, suggests that such a palpable replay of the past is not tenable.

Earlier on WorldPost:
I made sure I was an ally before pitching this article, but I'd like to go as far as to appropriate the label. So can I? Can I go ahead and be feminist now? Simone de Beauvoir would say no, but I've consulted wikiHow, and I've followed the 12 steps to the extent that they apply to me. I messaged an acquaintance I knew to be a bit of a hardliner, asking whether there was a tasteful way to go about this. She didn't understand the context and thought I was trolling her. When I explained it was for an article, she responded in the spirit of the times: "That sounds like a journey you take on your own, bud. While I understand the temptation to make our personal journeys into marketable think pieces, I personally don't have the energy to guide or support a straight white man using feminism as a bit."

So, I'm on my own, I guess. I'll be the rogue feminist the Sisterhood wouldn't want to recognize - an Anglo-Saxon male, a beneficiary of all kinds of ugly history, a comedian on an indie improv team that was, until very recently, comprised solely of dudes (a lot of them), a musician who released an album six years ago called A Must for the Dick, a writer using the word 'feminist' as click bait. After completing this list, I took a coffee break and weighed whether I should just refer to myself as an artist from now on. Not only is it a convenient umbrella term, the title also takes some of the edge off of not being successful in any one branch of my creativity by granting me the license to be misunderstood. There's a high-strung voice in the back of my head that I should probably note here. Morally calibrated to my news feed, it's begging the exhibitionist in me to stop writing this, saying something about my perspective not being what the world needs right now. The Exhibitionist scoffs: We're an Artist now. That means we're in the business of self-indulgence. Also, didn't you hear? We're finally Feminist. Take a load off, brother.

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Lord grant me the serenity* of a hetero white male.  *the belief that I am inherently interesting  Nayomi With a Y (@nayomir) July 5, 2015

Nayomi Reghay, a contemporary I met in an Upright Citizens Brigade class, once tweeted: Lord grant me the serenity* of a hereto white male. *The belief that I am inherently interesting. Naturally, I fav'ed this for the public record, to demonstrate how cool and I am with being the target of a joke. In my case, though, I'd like to point out that the unwavering belief that I'm interesting required A LOT of work. Note my headshot next to the byline. I have a snide Chuck Bass thing going on. That means I have to go above and beyond to show my contemporaries (AND myself) that I belong in the Scene and not just in high school/ college on The CW network. Now I'm trying to separate myself from all of the other men who use feminism as a platform- white knights, bigots, and respectable male culture critics who I'm sure probably exist somewhere.

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I have this fantasy that if there's blowback from this article, if it turns out it's not in good taste to come out as a feminist without apologizing for history or glossing over my own selfish motivations, I'll have the opportunity to defend my stance. Wait, do I have a stance besides "I advocate gender equality and acknowledge prevailing injustice, so you should totes respect me"? Is believing in equality enough in an age when declarations of moral standing are so fetishized that many people treat their status updates like valorous acts of personal sacrifice? I don't use the word 'egregious' on social media, and I don't bro bash (an aesthetic choice, not a moral one). But can I fight the good fight in other ways? I just donated $25 to the Feminist Majority Foundation; does that count for anything? Absolutely not. I did it so I could include it in this paragraph.

The fantasy playing out in my head is getting louder now. I'm speaking publicly, somewhere like the Lincoln Memorial, dodging tomatoes while citing nuggets from Oxford University Press' Feminism: A Very Short Introduction by Margaret Walters, a book I downloaded on my iPhone when I decided to contribute my narcissism to this conversation. The crowd in my head is infuriated that I haven't stepped down from the podium yet. Why am I still talking? My voice is a played out noise that needs to learn to die gracefully. In the fantasy, I end up likening myself to Aphra Behn, a playwright whose choice of subject matter was scandalous only, she argued, because she was a woman. What a great point, right? In reality, no, not really. A 17th century woman's stakes had to have been higher than mine, and that's something I have to live with. But there are still stakes. I might be scarlet lettered if it's deemed that I handled this topic inappropriately from the seat of power that is my White Boy body.

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I live in a bubble in gentrified Brooklyn. I can go weeks at a time without ever seeing a Trump supporter in person. I see more people around me trying to fix problems than I see problems firsthand. This could be its very own problem, sure. Maybe I'm not using my privilege right. Maybe I should start embedding myself in different parts of town, but that's for another piece.

Catcalling aside, most of the backwardness and horrors of the world at large are background noise, feedback I hear best when amplified by progressives I associate with who use it, more often than not, for political posturing. I ruminate on these things as I soak in a tub, surrounded by all my girlfriend's bath supplies that I use and love, reading The End of Men by Hanna Rosin, who posits things like: less and less people want sons, American women have brighter futures than men by and large, the wage gap may just be a vestigial piece of a dying system. I feel like a naughty boy reading smut. By my community's standards, suggesting the Patriarchy doesn't exist anymore is obscene. Still, the artist in me enjoys imagining a world where I don't always have the upper hand. The artist in me wants a struggle.

On Mother's Day, Nayomi Reghay let me be the Token Dude at her show Mouthy: a mic for broads and others with big opinions at Legion Bar in Brooklyn, a mic geared for women, queer and trans performers. Part of me wanted to see an audience looking at me like I was an agent gathering intel for a sleeper cell of Asher Roth clones conspiring to bring back a golden age of Bro Comedy, but it was a small crowd owing to the holiday, and those present were supportive as I showed them a self portrait of buff, post-Apocalypse me and described how heroic I'd be after the collapse of civilization. I was welcomed there, and it got me wondering, as I often do, where, as a white male artist, I can go to be judged unfairly. Where can I get my struggle narrative? I could emulate heroes Sacha Baron Cohen & Johnny Knoxville, disguise myself and tease reactions out of people, or I could give myself over to the impassioned Left and nail my balls to things. Or maybe it's just time I forget about finding friction, accept my station in life and start making superhero parodies.

I would proudly rage against the Patriarchy if circumstances were different, but as a man in his bubble, it would sound like I was pandering to peers who are part of an exciting movement. It would sound like I was begging for inclusion when I know there's no pressing reason I should be endorsed by the Party and I don't deserve any of the currentday perks associated with it.

"Men invented nepotism and practically live by it. It's okay for women to do it too," writes Roxane Gay in her book Bad Feminist. This makes sense to me, and I have to concede that if I were a woman feminist, I wouldn't strike me as a good candidate to work with. I have a douchey look, and I have acquaintances who identify as bros. So, alas, I'll be a GDI who admits to adopting the label for this article in a meta act of shameless self promotion, satirizing the use of the movement as a personal marketing tool by using it as a platform myself. I won't dump the designation now that I've used it either, even though the word feminist leaves a gnarly taste in my mouth on account of a lifetime of patriarchal conditioning on one hand and extremists who would like to classify me as a rape machine hardwired to enslave half the population on the other.

So I'm the new entitled male feminist on the block, flying solo, trying to distance myself from stiffs who treat the word like Excalibur. I flaunt it because I can, but let's face it- the epithet needs a new breed of asshole, one that doesn't speak like a Model UN delegate. While Feminist communities shouldn't have to be accessible for privileged dudes, the Feminist cause should be. And that's a conversation everyone else can hash out, as I keep busy realizing my self-indulgent vision, adding touches of gray to an Internet that is, all too often, black and white, a polarizing playground for Opinion freaks who flesh out their basic identities in comments sections.

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Let me assure the scared voice inside my head and the good-hearted progress fiends reading this that I will continue to grow as a human, I'll continue to read widely and indiscriminately, above and beyond Facebook rhetoric, and I'll work with creatives who have backgrounds and body parts that differ from my own. Let me assure the Artist in me that I'll never be the guy at the open mic plugging his virtue. I won't be the white man who is so haunted by the ways he has contributed or been complicit to Dick Culture & Whitewashing that he goes noble and pretends that working toward mastering his craft is anything but a selfish enterprise.
Following the 2016 U.S. presidential elections, the next administration must adopt a new and realistically balanced policy toward Israel and the Palestinians to bring an end to their conflict in the context of a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace based on the Arab Peace Initiative. Throughout the primary campaign, only Senator Bernie Sanders had a position on this consuming conflict that was fresh, balanced, and welcome, especially given the increased intractability of the conflict and its dangerous implications not only for Israel and the Palestinians, but also for the US's strategic interests in the Middle East.

The continuation of the conflict also has direct consequences on the security of the EU, precisely because it feeds into the region's extremism from which the EU suffers greatly. In this regard, France's initiative to resume Israeli-Palestinian negotiations is timely and should be pursued despite the initial lack of consensus at a recent meeting in Paris between the European, American, and Arab foreign ministers on convening an international conference at the end of the year to address the conflict in earnest.

Throughout the primary campaign, Sanders articulated his position concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, stating that: "I read Secretary Clinton's speech before AIPAC, I heard virtually no discussion at all about the needs of the Palestinian people... Of course Israel has a right to defend itself, but long term there will never be peace in that region, unless the United States plays... an even-handed role in trying to bring people together and recognizing the serious problems that exist among the Palestinian people ... There comes a time when if we pursue justice and peace we are going to have to say that Netanyahu is not right all of the time." [emphasis added]

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What is admirable about his stand is not that it is new, but that it is articulated by a significant presidential candidate. Although he has failed to secure the nomination of the Democratic Party, he has become a major political force and the presumptive nominee, Hillary Clinton, must seriously take into account his position on this critical issue.

Many Israeli and American Jews cynically accuse Senator Sanders of being an apologetic, self-hating Jew who is willing to bend backwards only to demonstrate that he is even-handed, when in fact he is undermining, from their perspective, Israel's national security concerns.

On the contrary, I maintain that Sanders has taken this even-handed position precisely because he is committed to Israel's security and well-being; he fully understands that time is against Israel, and those who really care about Israel's future must speak out.

Sanders recognizes that Israel has no future as a Jewish, democratic, and secure state unless it recognizes the Palestinians' right to a state of their own and "treat[s] the Palestinian people with respect and dignity."

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Many American politicians who support the policy of successive Israeli governments are, in fact, exploiting Israel for their own benefit. They want to draw not so much the votes of the Jewish community and their financial contributions, but the tens of millions of votes of the critically important evangelical constituency, whose support of Israel, for religious reasons, is unwavering.

Due to its traditional one-sided policy, the US has become the enabler of Israel's addiction to the occupation and settlements by allowing successive Israeli governments to pursue a disastrous policy of expansionism, even though such a policy was and still is to Israel's detriment.

As a result, the US's involuntary acquiescence has allowed Israel to defy the international community with impunity, further strengthening Israel's resolve against making any significant concession and rendering peace ever more elusive. Ironically, instead of protecting Israel's national security, the US has inadvertently exposed it to constant threats and violence.

The fact that the Palestinians and the international community have failed to compel Israel to change direction does not suggest that the Israelis are winning. Israel is, in fact, only digging itself into an ever deeper hole from which it will be unable to climb unscathed.

This is what both Sanders and the French initiative want to avoid, as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict cannot be wished away. Direct involvement of the US and the EU continues to be essential to changing the dynamic of the conflict, provided that careful lessons are drawn from past failures.

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Given the intense hostility, hatred, and total lack of trust between Israel and the Palestinians, the resumption of direct or indirect negotiations will lead to nowhere as neither side is able to deliver the major concessions that will be required to reach an agreement without full public support.

For these reasons, the French initiative, with the backing of the next US administration, must support a process of reconciliation between Israel and the Palestinians that precedes formal negotiations.

Although the June 3 meeting in Paris left the prospect of convening an international conference to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process later this year somewhat ambiguous, the participants have nevertheless agreed on a positive joint communique.

The communique calls for "fully ending the Israeli occupation" which represents an important shift from the US's prior position, and 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." It further states that the status quo is unsustainable and "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 US, in conjunction with France and the EU, should develop the mechanism that would establish a process of reconciliation to advance the prospect of peace, and to that end create a commission of reconciliation.

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This commission should consist of individuals who are apolitical, greatly respected in their community for their integrity, and hold no formal position in their government. These individuals must be unbiased representatives, skilled in their profession, deeply committed to peace between Israel and the Palestinians -- seeking no reward or compensation -- and devoted humanitarians.

As such, the combined talents and creativity of the Commission will be unsurpassed, their power of persuasion will be formidable, and their unbiased perspective will make them a major force in advocating for the reconciliation process. In addition, a fair-minded Israeli and Palestinian, who are fully committed to peace and with a deep knowledge of the internal affairs of their respective communities, would act as general counsel to the commission.

The process of reconciliation undertaken by the commission should include scores of people-to-people interactions that would begin to mitigate some of the distrust between the two sides and pave the way for substantive negotiations 18 to 24 months down the line.

In this regard, Senator Sanders should insist that the Democratic platform reflect this new approach, and if Hillary Clinton becomes the next President, she must commit herself to pursuing such a course.

Simultaneously, as I mentioned a number of times before, the Arab Peace Initiative should provide an overall umbrella under which an Israeli-Palestinian peace (based on a two-state solution) is negotiated in the context of a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace, which a majority of Israelis and Palestinians would fully support.

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John Borneman is Professor of Anthropology at Princeton University and the author of "Cruel Attachments: The Ritual Rehab of Child Molesters in Germany."

In 2008, I began a study of the rehabilitation of men accused or convicted of child molestation. In much of the West, such offenders are the domestic equivalent of the international terrorist, considered the most incorrigible and despised of the modern criminal types. In Germany, the site of my study, they are both given prison sentences and obligated to seek psychological treatment. German courts in fact most frequently make release from prison contingent on therapy. I was interested in the role of therapy in legal rehabilitation, and under what conditions the treatment of offenders (German therapists call them clients) might initiate a psychic change.

Most prison therapy is cognitive-behavioral with pharmacological interventions, aimed at reducing risk by controlling impulses, eliminating "cognitive distortions," or avoiding specific behaviors such as drinking, drug-taking, or contact with children. Yet in decisions concerning release from prison or judicial supervision, judges are often dissatisfied with evidence that claims that an offender has merely adjusted his behavior to societal norms. To speak to the insecurity and fear produced by so-called pedophiles, they seek evidence of a deeper transformation, without being able to name exactly what sufficient evidence might be. Psychodynamic treatments offer such evidence. By means of introspection and reflection, therapists demand that clients think about their unconscious motives and desires, providing them an opportunity for a more fundamental transformation of the self.

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To understand the work of rehabilitation and psychic change, I engaged in long term, observational research (what anthropologists call ethnography) in a private institute that specialized in psychodynamic therapy for abused children and their abusers. An ethnographic approach -- presence in actual therapy, following the experience of specific subjects over time -- is more apposite for such study than a controlled experiment. This approach cannot measure the frequency of success or failure with large numbers of subjects, but, by observing and participating in therapy sessions, I could learn what goes on in them and how and why treatment can be efficacious. My participation consisted largely of observing four weekly therapy groups and visiting a prison one day a week.

Introspection and reflection are challenging for anyone, but especially for men accused of child molestation. Talking about their motives and desires not only brings the social stigma attached to their transgressions to light but also initially heightens the shame attached to this stigma. Therapy aims to transform this shame into guilt, thereby enabling an assumption of responsibility for one's actions -- considered an integral step toward successful rehabilitation. To do this, the therapists used psychodynamic techniques to reveal unconscious feelings through their redirection in the personal interaction between therapist and client. In my observations, this redirection of feelings -- transference and countertransference -- provided the key means to access and objectify desires, preconditions for a transformion of the sex offender's sense of self.

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In group therapy sessions, the men and boys (the youngest was thirteen) sat in a semicircle facing the therapists, while I sat in a corner of the room behind them taking notes. Except for initial sessions when I introduced myself and asked for permission to sit in and observe, I intervened only once in a group -- at the request of a female therapist (as the male therapist had suddenly fallen ill). All in all, however, I remained relatively insignificant to the therapeutic function of the group. The men in the group often found the interaction to be a respite from the boredom of prison life. They were less concerned with me than with one another's comments, criticisms, and corroborations, which the therapists elicited to serve as reliable reality checks on the relative truth of statements made.

After five years of research, I was able to observe some patterns. I noticed a certain amount of burnout by therapists. Most simply could not bring the same amount of energy and enthusiasm to each session, or to each client. When their investment was minimal, so was that of their clients. Sessions lagged, distracted clients mumbled, everybody appeared bored. Some therapists developed a repugnance to particular clients. Even though they glossed this feeling as a form of indifference, the clients were not fooled. This clearly affected the efficacy of the therapy, as it blocked any positive emotional transference between them and their clients. When the therapist's countertransference was acknowledged, clients who had formerly been lethargic and resistant became more alert and began reflecting more critically and in more detail on experiences that they had withheld.

Although the transference makes therapeutic success more likely, therapists frequently had a difficult time dealing with it, precisely because it entailed emotional transference with child molesters. I observed therapists struggle with this transference as an introject of the disgust attached to the person of the molester. Disgust functions as a defense and a protection from contamination. The proximity of the therapists to the stigma of their clients -- the pollution of the abject -- seemed to locate them, much like those they treated, as untouchable.

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In several cases, therapists began to show disappointment in clients who came in with the same complaints every week or who appeared unable or unwilling to engage in a minimal amount of introspection about their own transgressions (instead repeating stock phrases about culpability learned from others in the group). Or, alternatively, therapists began to devote more attention to clients who took an active interest in exploring their own pasts. Some of the clients were classic narcissists, simply using the opportunity to speak to be the center of attention. For others, this kind of attention and scrutiny was to be evaded at all costs. Once, after a therapist left the group and was replaced by another, two of the more reticent members suddenly began to open up and offer insights into their motivations. They seemed to sense that this new therapist was more able to contain their emotions; they began to disclose more and engage in less self-deception.

On the other hand, however, some clients were simply incapable of therapy because they could never grasp what all this talk was about. In the course of the therapy that I observed, they never revealed in either word or bodily expression any understanding of the difference between chatting and introspection, between their inner self and the image of themselves they presented in public appearances, or how they might objectivize their self through critical reflection.

I saw, through all these travails, that therapy provided the offenders, for the very first time, an environment in which they were able to think critically about their experiences and learn about themselves. Participatory research in this setting made special demands on me, also. Moving out of their environment -- of therapy and prison -- into my daily routine in Berlin was radically disjunctive. It was as if I had been in another moral universe. I had to work hard to redirect my thoughts away from what had been disclosed to us in the small therapy room. I had to quit thinking about histories of abuse and violation. And in sharing my research with others, I was often asked to carry the pollution of the abject men I was trying to understand.

The ethnographic approach is a way of learning that shares certain assumptions with psychoanalysis. Both differ crucially from isolated interviews and more controlled experimental research in that there is no controlled deception, no means of isolating the researcher from his or her subject to replicate the same conditions again. For both the therapist and the anthropologist, emotional transference must be converted from a source of anxiety than a method. Therapy situates each of us, in turn -- the sex offender, the therapist, and the anthropologist -- in a set of transferential relationships that provide an opportunity to learn through our experiences with each other.

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Last November the New York City Department of Education quietly announced a pilot program to increase socio-economic diversity in the city's schools starting this coming fall. Under the pilot, seven sought after elementary schools in some of the city's most quickly gentrifying neighborhoods will hold seats for a set percentage of low-income students, English language learners, and children in the welfare system. The primary goal of the pilot is to test a way to ensure socio-economic and racial balance in schools in rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods.

Increasing socio-economic balance is a noteworthy goal and the model being piloted is certainly worth public scrutiny. However, equally worth our attention are the types of schools selected for the pilot, which all adhere to a progressive approach to teaching children. Intentional or not, by selecting schools rooted in a progressive pedagogy the Department of Education is taking a stand that such an approach to teaching and learning is a historically grounded, feasible, and desired alternative for under-resourced students.

As "no-excuses" schooling models for low-income students continue to gain popularity, progressive education is increasingly viewed as a luxury for the well off. Despite this recent trend, progressive pedagogy has a rich history rooted in providing educational opportunity for the poor and New York is right to take cues from this history.

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While progressive education is attributed to a range of figures from John Dewey to Maria Montessori, at its core this type of education is student centered and teaches curricular content through inquiry. In the context of the selected schools, progressive education is generally practiced as child centered, project based, and community focused. History shows us a number of examples where this particular type of progressive pedagogy was successfully employed to equalize the playing field for students.

One such success story can be seen by looking back to 1965 and to the early years of the federally funded early childhood, poverty alleviation program Head Start. As historian Crystal Sanders illustrates in her recent book, the Child Development Group of Mississippi (CDGM) used the newly available federal Head Start funds to develop a child-centered program that saw huge success among poor black communities in Mississippi. Like other models of progressive schooling, CDGM believed that developing student's curiosity through exploration and project-based learning would be the foundation for active civic participation later in life.

CDGM engaged parents and community members of its students through employment as teachers and support staff at its centers, ensuring a strong community voice to advocate for a well-rounded education for its students. The progressive pedagogy that CDGM implemented saw wide support by such prominent national figures including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Its success, both with student outcomes and parental engagement, was in no small part due to its progressive model.

An example a little closer to home for New Yorkers can be found in East Harlem with the history of Deborah Meier's famed progressive school Central Park East. While Central Park East is not currently on the list of schools participating in the pilot (perhaps partially due to the criticism of the schools new principal), the schools history showcases the success of publicly funded progressive schools within diverse and low-income communities.

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Central Park East was founded in 1974 to serve the socio-economically and racially diverse population of East Harlem. It was grounded in the belief that parents, students, community members and teachers were best suited to develop curriculum for the school. As notable education reform historian David Bensman highlights in his study of the school's early years, Central Park East's early success was demonstrated by academic outcomes well above the city average. During the years of Bensmans study, CPE enrolled approximately 20 percent more students living in poverty than the citywide average and had high school graduation rates for its black and Hispanic students over 30 percent higher than the city's average. These academic successes were coupled with overwhelmingly positive reviews from students and parents of all backgrounds. There was never a question of whether a progressive curriculum could succeed with the families at Central Park East. To the contrary, it was seen as the best curricular option for student and family success.

While many might argue that this type of child-centered curriculum becomes increasingly difficult to successfully implement in secondary school, the history of Benjamin Franklin High School serves to demonstrate otherwise. Founded in 1934 by Leonard Covello, an Italian-American scholar and educator, Benjamin Franklin High School intended to serve immigrant boys in East Harlem through a similar community-centered progressive model as Central Park East later would. As Michael Johanek and John Puckett note in their in-depth study of Covello, his goal was to develop a curriculum that would not "water-down" subjects for its students. Covello designed courses of study that were not only appealing to the student's interests, but also prepared them for success in a number of future paths ranging from college study to a number of vocations. Covello and his staff raised the expectations for students who society tended to write off. The faith Covello and his staff had in the students and community in East Harlem mirrors the trust we need to put in low-income communities today.

Particularly in the age of accountability, many criticize progressive, child-centered models as poorly aligned to the content covered by state standards and assessments. This argument stems from a belief that child and community driven models may miss potential content required by mandated academic standards.

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This concern becomes particularly salient when speaking of students from impoverished backgrounds who may be coming into school academically behind their wealthier peers. This false dichotomy that students requiring remediation must focus only on the basics while those with no such requirements have the liberty to focus on child-centered work is propelled forward by the assumption that poor, minority students need a different type of education than their wealthier white peers. There is no doubt, or lack of evidence, that students from impoverished backgrounds may require additional assistance in certain elements of schooling, however it is equally clear that progressive curriculum is proven to be successful in providing this additional assistance.

If New York is serious about improving educational opportunity for the city's most vulnerable students, the choice of progressively rooted schools as the avenue for this opportunity is the right path. If successful, the pilot will showcase the capacity of these schools to educate all students and serve the diverse communities where they exist. I sincerely hope the schools participating in this pilot will represent a curricular trend that the city as a whole begins to embrace.
Image: Nadia Savchenko (Author: Inter Ukrainian TV Channel Youtube Stream)

When Nadia Savchenko was a girl, her favorite pastime was playing war with the boys in her Kiev neighborhood.

She was so single-minded about the military that it didn't surprise those who knew her when she chose it as a career.

She became a household name in Ukraine -- if not yet a hero -- by becoming the country's first woman fighter pilot and the only woman to serve in its peacekeeping force in Iraq.

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An outstanding military career seemed assured.

Then fate stepped in: Separatist forces captured her as she was fighting on the ground against them in eastern Ukraine. They spirited her to Russia, where she was convicted of trumped-up charges of helping mortar crews kill two Russian journalists covering the war.

Her two years in confinement made Savchenko not only a Ukrainian national hero but also a political figure. Ukrainians elected her to Parliament during her confinement as a gesture of defiance against Moscow.

Now that she has been released in a prisoner swap, people inside and outside Ukraine are wondering whether she can become the wise, selfless and dedicated political leader the country so desperately needs.

There have been mixed signs so far.

Savchenko has shown contempt for the political establishment, saying it has long focused on feathering its nest rather than serving the Ukrainian people.

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As part of that, she has been downright dismissive of establishment politicians she sees as part of the problem, including President Petro Poroshenko, who worked for her release from captivity, and Yulia Tymoshenko, whose Fatherland Party nominated her for the seat in Parliament that she won.

Savchenko's scorn for the establishment plays well with rank-and-file Ukrainians, who feel betrayed by Poroshenko. The president's ratings are abysmal because of his failure to improve people's lives, to eliminate corruption and to bring a conclusion to the war in the east.

While Ukrainians like Savchenko's anti-establishment stance, if she is to become an effective politician -- to get things done -- she will need to learn to work with others while not compromising her principles. Otherwise, she will be just a symbol.

She can look to the United States to see what happens to war heroes turned politicians. Dwight Eisenhower was an effective leader because he knew how to work with others. Senator John McCain has been ineffective because he's always been a political gadfly and maverick.

Savchenko also needs to learn what issues are important to pursue and what are not.

In recent days she has echoed many right-wingers' belief that Ukrainian should be the only language spoken in the country.

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It's a fact of life that many Ukrainians speak Russian, however. And they resent being told what they should speak.

As a national hero, Savchenko is one of the few politicians with the stature to bring Ukrainians together. She will squander that political capital if she pursues symbolic, divisive issues such as language.

No one gets to be a military officer and fighter pilot without being bright and learning to adapt.

Savchenko can become an effective politician without compromising her principles by learning to work with other politicians and by pursuing issues that are paramount.

Whether she uses her stature to become a Dwight Eisenhower -- an effective leader who moves Ukraine forward -- or an irrelevant political gadfly like John McCain depends on whether she can develop political savvy.

One lesson Ukraine has learned from the Savchenko phenomenon is that people want leaders who are not long-standing politicians. That's because most people view political insiders as the epitome of ineptitude and corruption -- the problem rather than the solution.

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That's why many Ukrainians have looked favorably on members of the diaspora taking top positions in government. There is a feeling that since they arrived as political outsiders, and came from countries where corruption is minimal, they will serve the public better than long-standing Ukrainian politicians.

Other countries in the former Soviet Union could learn from Ukraine's decision to put members of the diaspora in key positions.

Armenia is a perfect example. It has a large and talented diaspora spread across many countries that could move the country forward while rooting out corruption.

Like diaspora members, Savchenko, as a career military officer, comes untainted to her job as a Ukrainian politician.

Only time will tell whether she becomes the national leader the country is hoping for, or just a political hack whose promise failed to live up to expectations.

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By AsiaToday reporter Kim Ye-jin - "It's truly a war."

It was a statement by a mother in an interview with the Mainichi Shimbun last month on finding a nursery school. The interview took place after an angry blog post written by a Japanese mother went viral. In the blog, the mother strongly complained about the lack of nursery places and claimed, "My child wasn't accepted at nursery school. Die, Japan!"

As childcare shortage is stirring social controversy, the Japanese government is making efforts to increase the number of childcare facilities and child carers. The Nihon Keizai Shimbun (better known as Nikkei) reported Wednesday that such movement to improve caregiver treatment is spreading among the metropolitan municipalities.

This is because many child care workers don't get settled at their jobs due to low payments, which is obstructing to increase the number of child care workers. Chiyoda municipality in Tokyo has established an independent subsidy scheme last month which supports up to 20,000 yen (KRW 210,000) in order to raise the wages of caregivers. Kawasaki City is improving child care worker treatment by raising the wages of child care workers by 1.9% last year.

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The reason behind Japan's efforts to increase child care workers is because the government revealed its plan to increase day care slot numbers across the country by 500,000 by the end of 2017, and more than 90,000 new child care workers are needed. However, growing demand for nurseries is outpacing the government's efforts.
Part of my work as a consultant involves teaching a class for educators about communication and culture. On the first evening we meet, I ask the participants to make a list of the people who taught them how to be a human being. Recently one of them, a bright young teacher and mother of three, called me over and said, "What if I can't put my parents on this list? I was a latchkey kid." In response, I asked, "Who did show up for you?" She smiled and began writing her list of names.

This is a time of year when I reflect on the fact that, for many people, Father's Day and Mother's Day are national holidays that don't fit them and possibly bring up pain. Some may be longing for the mother or father they lost or never had. Some may have always wanted to be a parent but couldn't. Estranged spouses may mourn the marriage that didn't work.

When Anna Jarvis began campaigning for a holiday to honor mothers, soon after her own mother died in 1905, our nation had a different view of families and mothers. Publicly we held to the idea of the nuclear family. A few years later, in 1910, Sonora Smart Dodd initiated Father's Day as a tribute to her father, a single man who had raised six children. The holiday began because Dodd's family didn't fit the cultural norm of those times -- no mother was present to celebrate on Mother's Day.

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As a public school teacher years ago, I tried to be sensitive to situations that potentially could make some of my students feel "other." Because Mother's Day occurred during the school year, I saw the pain on some children's faces when that holiday was celebrated and they didn't have a mother at home. What I learned was that all students could honor the adults who had shown up for them in some way, even if they weren't the child's parents.

By finding ways to thank those people and acknowledge their gifts, the students began to understand the importance of gratitude. Gratitude is a lifelong practice that I knew would support them in their growth as human beings. By opening up the definition and moving beyond biology, we were reframing their stories. Now, when I teach the university class on culture and communication, I explain that in many indigenous cultures, young people will speak about their uncles or aunts, but often those individuals are not biological relatives. Rather, they are elders who have contributed in important ways to the young person's life. It is common for people in such cultures to claim many elders who have shown the way, expressed kindness, and been part of the fabric of the community in which the children have been raised.



One of the hardest things in life is contending with the cards we're dealt when they aren't the cards we wanted. Fathers may not be present for many reasons: divorce, death, fractured relationships. In some cases, a father may never have been in the picture at all. Consequently, Father's Day can sometimes be a painful reminder that seems to offer no appropriate way of celebrating. Even so, it could present an opportunity. For example, I once knew of two brothers who found Father's Day to be particularly painful because their father was choosing not to be present in their lives. Wanting to celebrate anyway, the young men decided to exchange cards and gifts between themselves to honor the ways they appreciated each other. By doing so, they broadened their own definition of the holiday.

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When my father was alive, although he and I had a deep and abiding love, we had the normal amount of static in our relationship. Apart from traditional celebratory cards and gifts, we struggled in our communication for several years. Now that he has slipped out of his costume, however, my awareness of what he contributed while he was alive continues to expand and grow.This Father's Day, I will be honoring my father by writing him a thank-you letter. Expressing my gratitude will strengthen my heart muscle.
Marin Mazzie continues.

One year ago last March, I was working with her on a recording of Misia, my Vernon Duke musical (you can read about that HERE, if you like). Marin, of course, was our star, singing the title role of Misia Sert absolutely spectacularly. On the 17th of March, we concluded the initial sessions. Marin was slated to return and record a final few numbers at a later date.



And that was the last I saw of her, until a performance of The King and I recently that now proves to be similarly fleeting. On May 6, 2015, Marin was diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer. The diagnosis was a shock. It also, initially, was a big secret. Understandably.

Over the ensuing months, supported by her extraordinary husband, actor Jason Danieley, Marin endured countless medical procedures, hospitalizations and two 12-week bouts of chemotherapy. Not only did she survive it all, Marin lived to see the cancer go into remission. She then picked herself up and returned to performing.

I stand in awe of her resiliency. One year almost exactly from her initial diagnosis, she stepped into the starring role of Anna Leonowens in the celebrated Lincoln Center Theater production of The King and I, replacing Tony winner Kelli O'Hara, as you may have heard.

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Anna is an exceedingly demanding role. Onstage for virtually all of the show's three hours, Anna does not sit still for long. Playing her is a stamina challenge for even the healthiest actress, to say nothing of the substantial vocal demands. It also must be noted that The King and I 's original Anna, the great Gertrude Lawrence, died of undiagnosed liver and abdominal cancer after fainting backstage following a matinee performance in 1952.

I rushed to catch Marin in The King and I. I brought my daughter Sara with me. Sara is especially enamored of The King and I, which she first saw with Kelli O'Hara. She had been itching to go back and was already smitten with Marin Mazzie, after watching and listening to her from the control booth during our Misia sessions.

Sitting there with Sara, I imagined two camps of theatergoers surrounding us: those who were present to see The King and I, and those who were aware of Marin's heath history and were waiting with bated breath to see how Marin was, in The King and I.

Then the great red and gold curtain parted on Bart Sher's sumptuous production, the grand, life-sized sailing ship shifted into gear, and Marin Mazzie as Mrs. Anna sailed into view.

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She looked great.

But how would she sing? How does a voice as fine as Marin Mazzie's survive chemotherapy and so many other physical depredations?

Far better than I ever would have expected. When Marin opened her mouth to deliver Mrs. Anna's opening song, "I Whistle A Happy Tune," what emerged was sheer velvet, a rich, perhaps moderately deepened, tone that filled the theater with depth and sheen. It really was breathtaking. It also was difficult to comprehend. How does one retain such vocal strength under such draining circumstances? Physical tribulation seems to have intensified the beauty of Marin's sound, ripening it, maturing it, in the sense of a peaking fine wine. It isn't easy to put into words. But it was impossible not to hear it.

Her performance was intense, more animated than Kelli O'Hara's, more emotionally direct, more furious in a way. I mean this not as a critical comparison but merely to report what I heard and saw. When Marin hollered at the King, her cries shook the theater.

Finally, inexorably, she danced. The waltzing exertions of "Shall We Dance" are, of course, one of American musical theater's most thrilling experiences. They also are the musical theater equivalent of an inside the park home run. Both runners are winded at the end. The breath has been knocked out of them.

Marin "Shall We Danced" with the best of them. The King (nicely played by Daniel Dae Kim) whirled her around the floor and if, at moments, I sensed Marin clinging to him a little more than intently, well, that might just have been me.

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When it was over and the ovations had rolled away, Sara and I went backstage to share with Marin our unadulterated joy in her performance. With the weight of her wig and billowing hoop skirt removed, Marin looked thinner. And absolutely triumphant.
Image by Haldane Martin (via flickr)

In the postmodern era that we are living in, more and more careers require giving up the 9 to 5 mentality and being more flexible when it comes to the location of our work. Some believe this leaves no free time for us, making all our time "working time", while others couldn't be happier about not having to go to the office every morning. However, for employees, the location where they work still matters and since working at home might be too distracting for some, co-working spaces that have gained huge popularity during recent years can be a good alternative.

To begin with, co-working spaces are all about providing people with a shared working environment where different individuals (usually freelancers) with completely diverse careers and professions can share a place and do their jobs. Co-working spaces usually come in different forms. They are mostly cafes or anti-cafes but they can also be libraries or basically any space that offers all the basic facilities needed for working, and Wi-Fi of course. All the people usually seem to be completely in "work mode" in these spaces which only help you concentrate better and be more productive compared to working from home.

In the list below you can find some of the coolest co-working spaces in several European cities.



Image by Coffice

This spot in Milan is a typical anti-cafe where you pay not for what you eat or drink but rather for the amount of time spent there. What makes this place one of the coolest co-working spaces is the diversity of activities that are on offer there. This means apart from working on your laptop and helping yourself to their buffet you can also play some board games with newly made friends as a short break from your work.

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They also have different talks, events and presentations here, so if you want to go there when it is more quiet you should probably check their website and pay a visit during a time when there is no event scheduled.

Image by e.b.

Milan has so many nice co-working places that it was very hard to choose only one. Open is a cafeteria, as well as a bookshop, that provides Milan residents with a cosy co-working environment. Although you can work in the cafeteria as well, it is separated from the co-working space which can also be rented out if you want the space all to yourself.

This is probably one of the nicest places in Milan to study or work as their bright interior design, with a lot of creative elements, will definitely serve as a peaceful place to work. And should you get tired and want a break from what you are doing you can have a look at the very unique collection of books that the bookshop has.

Image by Anna-Lena Schluchter

In addition to the comfortable working space that this Geneva place has, it also serves very delicious burgers and drinks. To make it clearer, Voisins doesn't have the sole purpose of providing a co-working space but it is a bar, a restaurant and a cafe at the same time.

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Thus, Voisins probably is the perfect place in Geneva especially for those who intend to spend a lot of time working there as they can get a very tasty lunch without leaving their working environment.

Image by Yuliya Tutova

Despite the fact that this place in Kiev is relatively new, it is already much loved by locals. Although at first it doesn't look like a co-working space, besides coming here for a delicious cup of coffee, people also enjoy working here as they've got everything you need to work (Wi-Fi, power sockets, tables) and the environment of this cafe is amazingly cosy.

Moreover, those who are passionate about art will most likely love One Love Espresso Bar a little more after discovering the collection of Taschen art books available there.

Image by Betahaus

The idea of betahaus, created in Berlin, has been successfully incorporated in Sofia as well. Consisting of 2 floors, Betahaus Sofia offers a cafe downstairs as well as a co-working place upstairs. It succeeded in creating a strong community of people who have similar goals. The place itself organizes various workshops or seminars encouraging and supporting startups in Sofia and giving them a platform to express and exchange their ideas with others.

Consequently, if you want a comfortable working place in addition to seeing what the innovative youth is up to in Sofia, then Betahaus is a must-check.

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Image by Nitzan Reisner

Located in a previous Warsaw ghetto that was completely renovated after the war, this place was created to be a cafe, a working space, a conference room or just a place for Warsaw residents to get together and talk. Here you can also participate in the events organized by NGOs and other small companies. In short, PanstwoMiasto is a space created to be used to the maximum benefit of the locals and the city.

Image by Mankica Kranjec

This place is one of the unique spaces in this list that does also have a cafe but rather is a 800 square meter office that brings young entrepreneurs and self-employed creative people together. Idea sharing is a vital part here as everyone tries to give input into making progress in the job opportunities in Slovenia and linking up young professionals to people who can help them bring their ideas to life. So, if you want to get some inspiration in addition to your ideas, as well as make yours heard, Polygon is the best platform for that in Sarajevo!

Image by Julie Landrieu

Are you looking for inspiration, productivity, quietness and as little distraction as possible? Then, LikeBirds in Ghent might be just the perfect place for you to get your work done. In comparison to coffeehouses, where no matter how hard you try you get distracted by the noise of coffee machines and the chatting of people, here people come solely to work (and maybe exchange a sentence or two with others). That is why this place is really calm and everyone has the mentality of getting as much done as possible while probably also drinking as much coffee as possible. On top of that, the big windows, bright walls and high ceilings only add up to the calmness of LikeBirds.
This article first appeared as an op-ed in my column in the Indian Express.

"Macbeth does not make my priority list," admitted Sun Microsystems founder and Silicon Valley eminence grise, Vinod Khosla, in a recent takedown of the liberal arts and humanities. Khosla should know better. A tutorial on even a selection of the babblings of the bard's many protagonists, with a dash of political economy, history and sociology may not be such a bad thing for the scions of Silicon Valley, who are so steeped in big data that they often miss the big picture. Nowhere does this gap hurt more than in the world's most exciting, and confounding, tech market: India.

In case you had any doubts that the Valley sees India as its next Valhalla, witness the parade of tech titans coming through. Apple's Tim Cook was only the latest, following in the footsteps of Messrs Bezos, Ma and Zuckerberg, among so many others, along with the homegrown lads, Nadella and Pichai. India is a market like no other; here lies seemingly endless opportunity.

Consider some of the data being tossed around by the many consultants and analysts: the world's second-largest smartphone market; a demographic primed for digital, with an average age of 29 by 2020; online spending to reach $75 billion by 2020; a billion users online by 2030. The country is also abuzz with tech startups. With $9 billion of venture capital pouring in over 2015, India is home to four "unicorns" -- privately held ventures valued in excess of a billion dollars. A 2015 Compass study found Bangalore to be the fastest-growing VC and seed investments destination, blowing past Singapore and Tel Aviv. It also helps that there are legions of Indian techies, including Indian-origin CEOs of major players. With the industrialised world maturing and the other mega-market -- China -- difficult to penetrate, India stands out as a digital opportunity without parallel.

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So why would Macbeth matter in the midst of what appears to be a stage set for growth and opportunity? The reality beyond the data is that India also happens to be a market where "context" eats opportunity for breakfast. In other words, the political backdrop, the collective and varied opinions, the rich and wretched state of the human condition, along with the heat and the dust make a difference in how one approaches this market. Silicon Valley has plenty of coding intelligence; it has resources to afford good consulting intelligence; but contextual intelligence will determine whether it can realise the Indian opportunity.

Cook, of course, took his contextual education quite seriously, making time for his first IPL match, going through a Siddhivinayak Temple visit, and gamely smiling through selfies with Shah Rukh Khan. Even if his view of the "real" India was through car windows, it will have given him some sense as to why Apple has under 3 per cent share in the world's second largest smartphone market.

The Indian market is not for the faint of heart. The mightiest Nawabs of the Net have learnt this the hard way. Facebook had launched its Free Basics initiative. The idea of the service is to offer a limited number of websites to consumers in collaboration with a telco, and to offer it for free to users. Amazon found a way around myriad regulatory barriers that prevent foreign retailers from selling from their own inventories of goods by owning no inventory and structuring its operations as a pure market maker between consumers and retailers. Apple sought ways to lower the price points to appeal to the price-conscious Indian consumer.

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Each has struggled with the larger political and socio-cultural reality. Facebook's fumble in India is now for the history books; the country's net neutralistas mounted a vigorous campaign against Free Basics. Facebook's response indicated a clear tone-deafness and lack of awareness of the context. The outcome: regulators have blocked Free Basics.

Amazon faced its own regulatory demons despite its creative organisational model. While Indian regulators confirmed that online marketplaces may be considered legal, they also decreed that no single seller could account for more than 25 per cent of sales. If enforced, such a requirement would eliminate Cloudtail, the largest seller on Amazon India, effectively making its "creative" solution illegal.

Apple has attempted to bring a lower-priced phone by selling used iPhones in India. Local businesses have protested, warning that it would create unfair competition for local manufacturers, and undermine PM Modi's "Make in India" campaign. Apart from the potential consumer sensitivity to being offered hand-me-downs from the West, going up against a major political priority would be a bad move for Apple.

Why are these contextually insensitive moves such a hazard for Silicon Valley players? One of the biggest challenges for these companies is that, unlike, say, companies such as Unilever or Pepsi, the techies work in places insulated from the market and the local context. Usually, the product developers and their managers are focused on writing code and building stuff in famously

comfortable offices. The sales process does not necessitate organising campaigns in small towns and rural areas and dealing with broken infrastructure or cranky local groups. The messiness of the context is far removed.

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Some of this is changing. Companies such as Amazon are taking steps that follow in the footsteps of the Unilevers. For example, its Chai Cart programme travelled through various cities on three-wheeled mobile carts connecting with small business owners.

While nothing is a substitute for spending time on the ground, it is a costly and time-consuming exercise. Besides, you need a framework to put all this contextual insight in, um, context. This is where a liberal arts education can, in fact, help build awareness, grasp the bigger picture and sharpen contextual intelligence. I would ask Vinod Khosla to reconsider his dismissal and his tech colleagues to expand their reading lists.

So, while you are at it, Macbeth may not be required reading to win in the Indian market, but I don't think it would hurt. After all, where else does one get the timeless warning that "All our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death". Rather appropriate advice -- especially the dusty part -- for the next global CEO planning to set foot in India.

(This article first appeared in the print edition under the headline 'Macbeth and Market')


Photo credit: istockphoto.com

Africa's rich coastal waters have long been plundered by foreign fleets, fishing illegally. Now global initiatives are gathering forces that aim to end such plunder -- and protect the livelihoods of coastal communities. For these initiatives to succeed, however, many more countries around the world need to participate.

Illegal fishing is a theft from national revenues. No less than non-renewable petroleum and metals, Africa's renewable fishery resources are a potential source of wealth and opportunity. Governed wisely, they could support livelihoods, promote food security, generate export earnings and support vital ecological systems.

In the absence of effective national institutions and international cooperation, however, Africa's fishery resources have been consolidating the power and personal fortunes of ruling elites, and enriching foreign traders. West Africa alone loses $1.3 billion per year due to illegal fishing. Apart from draining the region of revenue, overfishing reduces fish stocks, lowers local catches and harms the marine environment. It destroys communities, who lose opportunities to catch, process and trade fish.

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The good news is that two new international measures could halt this plunder of some of Africa's most vital resources. The first is the 2009 Port State Measures Agreement, an international treaty to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Thirty countries have adhered to the treaty, which became binding on June 5.

Countries that sign up to the treaty agree to prevent trawlers from offloading illegally caught fish. The treaty is a major step forward -- but for it to make a real difference, all countries need to ratify and implement it.

The second promising international measure is the Fisheries Transparency Initiative, launched recently by Mauritania, which aims at increasing the political will and international cooperation for improved management of world's fisheries. Indonesia, the Seychelles and Senegal have already joined; many more countries need to join in order to reinforce current multilateral efforts to tackle illegal fishing.

In recent years, the Africa Progress Panel has advocated strongly for sustainable fisheries in Africa. We have helped to raise awareness and mobilise the political and legal action necessary to prevent illegal fishing off African coasts and beyond. In our 2014 report Grain, Fish, Money: Financing Africa's Green and Blue Revolutions we call on governments to ratify and implement the Port State Measures Agreement.



Africa has 35 coastal nations and has some of the world's regions worst hit by illegal fishing. Africa's role will therefore be critical in pushing forward this important global agreement. At the regional level, the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) has issued a policy handbook to help guide efforts by African governments to make fisheries management an integral part of their national development strategies. African governments should increase fines on vessels that fish illegally, support artisanal fishing, increase transparency, and provide full disclosure of the terms on which commercial fishing permits are issued. It's time to limit the unequal and unfair competition between industrial fishing fleets and artisanal fisheries.

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Too often African nations lack the capacity to monitor and enforce compliance. They are weakened by the inaction of states that are unwilling or unable to carry out their regulatory responsibilities. A registry of fishing vessels that sail under a flag of convenience should be established, so African governments have the option of avoiding agreements with such vessels.

Some countries in Africa and beyond, including Mozambique, Senegal, the Seychelles, Indonesia and Argentina, are taking decisive action to monitor fishing in their waters. We need many more to follow their lead.



As demand for fish increases worldwide, African waters are becoming a magnet for more and more fleets from around the world. To safeguard these fisheries for Africa's people and for future generations, all countries should join the Port State Measures Agreement and the Fisheries Transparency Initiative.

The world's oceans are our common heritage. To protect that heritage, we need to act together, and we need to act quickly.
A homeless Korean War veteran dies from exposure on the streets of Washington, D.C. wearing a coat donated by White House Communications Director, Toby Ziegler. Authorities call Toby because his business card is in the coat and the veteran has no family nearby. Toby arranges a funeral with military honors at Arlington National Cemetery for the veteran and attends it.

Upon hearing this happened, the President confronts Toby asking, "If we start pulling strings like this, you don't think every homeless veteran would come out of the woodwork?" Toby replies: "I can only hope, sir."

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You may recall this poignant storyline from an episode called "In Excelsis Deo" from the first season of "The West Wing." It struck a nerve because it acknowledged our national failure on behalf of veterans, but gave hope that our elected officials felt the same frustration as everyone else. And it reminded us all that principle means nothing if it is not backed up by actions.

This was an enduring lesson that stayed with each of us fortunate to have been a part of "The West Wing." Fans of the show will remember Melissa Fitzgerald as CJ's assistant, Carol. A few years ago Melissa took an inspired action--she left Hollywood to run a non-profit called Justice For Vets. We are proud to come together to support her work and take action on behalf of our nation's veterans.



While the vast majority of our service men and women return home strengthened by their time in the military, too many veterans become involved in the justice system due to underlying issues such as post-traumatic stress (PTS), military sexual trauma, brain injuries, and substance dependence.

There is now a growing movement within our justice system to create veterans treatment courts to provide the structure, treatment, and mentoring these veterans need to get their lives back on track. Instead of being locked behind bars and separated from their families, veterans treatment courts provide them with an opportunity for transformation and recovery.

We recently met a veteran who exemplifies why this approach must be expanded.

Sgt. Tommy Rieman's life was forever changed on December 3, 2003, when his team was ambushed while on a reconnaissance mission in Iraq. Under heavy fire, Tommy used his body to protect his men. Despite being shot twice and suffering severe shrapnel wounds, he took charge and moved their convoy out of the line of fire. Tommy came home to a hero's welcome and was awarded the Silver Star for valor. During the 2007 State of the Union address he was acknowledged by President George W. Bush and given a standing ovation lasting several minutes.

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Despite the many accolades and "thank yous" he heard for his service to his country, Tommy struggled to adjust to life at home. Like many veterans, he was suffering with undiagnosed PTS and self-medicating with alcohol to cope. Within a few years his family life fell apart. He lost hope. In 2013, following a night of heavy drinking Tommy wrote a suicide note and drove his truck into a tree at a high rate of speed. He survived, but was arrested and faced criminal charges.

Consider this question: is justice best served by locking Tommy behind bars for years? Or is justice better served connecting him to the benefits and treatment that he needs and his country owes him? We believe this nation suffers if Tommy Rieman is behind bars. Justice is truly served when he and veterans like him are given the chance to reclaim their lives.

Today, over 13,200 veterans who would otherwise be incarcerated at taxpayer expense are receiving life-saving treatment in one of 264 veterans treatment courts across the country.

And veterans treatment courts work. A recent study found that 89.5% of veterans participating in a Veterans Treatment Court remained arrest-free and concluded that veterans experienced significant improvements with lower rates of depression, PTS and substance abuse. Veterans Treatment Courts generate a huge cost savings for taxpayers and reduce future crime.

But we must do more. More than half of the 2.6 million who volunteered to fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan struggle with physical or mental health problems stemming from their service. An estimated one in six are alcohol and/or drug addicted. One in five suffers from PTS or mental anguish. Left untreated, these issues can lead to homelessness, unemployment and arrest.

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Tommy was fortunate. He got the opportunity to participate in a veterans treatment court in North Carolina. For a year he received treatment for his PTS and substance abuse. He appeared weekly before the judge and met regularly with court staff. The program assisted with his VA benefits and helped him rebuild his relationships.



Tommy Rieman at his VTC graduation along with his veteran mentor. Photo Credit Justice For Vets

We had the privilege of getting to know Tommy through the making of a new public service announcement supporting veterans treatment courts. He is happy and healthy. He has been reunited with his family and is now running a national nonprofit that provides care for wounded veterans. Veterans like Tommy Rieman show us what honor, service, and leadership look like. They strengthen our neighborhoods and communities, and they never stop serving.

Stories like Tommy's are happening every day in veterans treatment courts across the country, but we can and must do more. We ask that you visit www.JusticeForVets.org to learn how you can join us in expanding veterans treatment court programs to reach every veteran in need.

Veterans fought for our freedom; join us and fight for theirs.
A serial about two artists with incurable neurological disease sharing fear, frustration and friendship as they push to complete the most rewarding creative work of their careers.





Read Episode Twenty: Submitting Our Stories...Again

Or, start at the beginning: An Illness's Introduction

Find all episodes here.

Over the course of two years, Hadley was diagnosed with the following conditions in this sequence: Parkinson's disease, possible multiple system atrophy, Parkinson's disease, primary lateral sclerosis, probable multiple system atrophy, possible functional movement disorder, upper motor neuron syndrome of undetermined etiology, and multiple system atrophy. These diagnoses didn't comprise an aggregate of multiple illnesses; rather, each ruled out a previous one. Hadley's movement disorders specialist, Dr. Youngman, diagnosed her with Parkinson's, then possible MSA and finally, denying parkinsonism altogether, he settled on upper motor neuron disease. It's significant that the first doctor to see Hadley at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester was also the last, because it demonstrates how the diagnostic process can become derailed. At their initial appointment, the doctor made the diagnosis of probable MSA but changed it to upper motor neuron syndrome after Hadley had been seen by the other Mayo specialists. Finally, in Houston, after studying the same health history and test results, Dr. Truitt diagnosed MSA.

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For months at a time, Hadley had been stuck in a medical quagmire. How did this happen?

Research has shown that about 10% -20% of patients are given an incorrect diagnosis by their doctors. Ideally, algorithms or information used in making a diagnosis are objective and thinking is logical; when diseases and conditions are obvious, a doctor recognizes a familiar pattern of symptoms. In today's practice of evidence-based medicine, diagnoses are often made on the basis of statistics and data provided by advanced technologies. But when a patient's symptoms don't fit the usual pattern or tests are inconclusive, the reliance on algorithms and evidence will often constrain a doctor's thinking, making the diagnostic process vulnerable to error.

Up to 80% of misdiagnoses or other medical mistakes are due not to technical failures but to errors in a physician's approach to the patient. Laboratory and statistical data are useful complements to a physician's understanding of a case, but are not a substitute for a careful examination of and dialogue with a patient. Many factors come into play when a doctor examines a patient and takes her history. For example, how a patient describes her symptoms is critical, but when stressed, she might overemphasize or underreport certain symptoms. Personal history, culture and emotional state all play a role in how a patient communicates with her physician. Hadley has this insight about herself as a patient:

I think my skill at adjusting to stressful situations and creating a facade that I am doing fine has sometimes kept me from being taken seriously by doctors. Even when I seek help, I put my best foot forward and minimize how I feel because it's embarrassing to make a big deal of something and then discover it isn't serious and I'm just being a wimp. I always assume first that I must be overreacting. This way of thinking has gone on throughout my life.

Equally influential on the diagnostic process are the doctor's own temperament, biases, and state of mind. Is he impatient to get an answer or frustrated that he can't, in a rush, or over-confident? Does his bedside manner earn him the trust of his patient so that his questions will prompt a spontaneous and open dialogue? Is he biased by something he sees in the patient that might not have anything to do with her symptoms?

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Pat Croskerry, a professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia who was trained as an experimental psychologist and went on to become an emergency medicine physician, has written extensively about what he has labeled "cognitive errors" in doctors' thinking that lead to misdiagnoses. Cognitive errors stem from failures in perception, failed heuristics (problem-solving techniques), biases, and emotions of the doctor who is diagnosing the patient. Hadley's journey to diagnosis illustrates some of the cognitive errors Dr. Croskerry names: attribution error, affective error, confirmation bias and diagnosis momentum.

Attribution errors occur when a patient fits a positive or negative stereotype. For example, a young man wearing dirty clothes and extensive tattoos who comes into the emergency room in a state of disorientation might be assumed to be on drugs when he's actually suffering a neurological event. A very thin, haggard twenty-year-old who comes in complaining that she gets sick every time she eats might bear a powerful resemblance to one of the twenty million women in the US suffering from an eating disorder, but she might have a serious autoimmune disease. When Hadley, a healthy-looking, industrious, articulate and delightful twenty-something first complained of a variety of symptoms that didn't fit a clear pattern, doctors were inclined to believe that she wasn't seriously ill.

Doctors see a surprising number of patients -- estimates are as high as 11.6% -- who have somatic symptom disorder or who are unnecessarily anxious about their symptoms. Because of this common phenomenon, Hadley was unfairly told by both Dr. Bright and Dr. Youngman not to "obsess," and by doctors at the Mayo Clinic that she might have a functional, or psychogenic, movement disorder. These admonitions and misreadings betrayed the doctors' preconceptions and reliance on past "evidence" as well as their lack of understanding of the individual in front of them -- Hadley.

Doctors make affective errors when they are biased in the direction of a positive outcome for the patient. In this case, the doctor will pay attention to the symptoms and information about a case that will confirm this positive outcome. Hadley's movement disorders specialist, Dr. Youngman, made this type of error when he set aside all the symptoms he himself had originally noted that pointed to parkinsonism and abruptly changed her diagnosis from Parkinson's or MSA to upper motor neuron disease. He based his decision on two tests known to often be inconclusive, a DaTscan and a levodopa challenge test, as well as a test ordered by a neuromuscular specialist. Hadley was on a first-name basis with Dr. Youngman and considered him a friend. Did Dr. Youngman's feelings of friendship influence him to veer away from a drastic diagnosis and pass her on to another doctor?

When I suggested that Hadley see my Dr. Bright to confirm or rule out MSA, I might have unwittingly contributed to the affective error that Dr. Bright made. I admit to having had fantasies that he would swoop in on the proverbial white horse and rescue her from the terrible fate of MSA or Unknown Disease; he might have understood that to be my motivation in referring Hadley to him. When he met with Hadley and John, I'm sure he wanted to be able to give the vibrant young couple good news. He focused on all of Hadley's symptoms that are typical in Parkinson's, choosing to downplay the symptoms that most concerned her: rapid disease progression, an inconsistent response to levodopa, as wells as orthostatic hypotension and other autonomic symptoms that are associated more with MSA. Such cherry-picking of data to support a diagnosis and minimizing information that contradicts it is called confirmation bias. Later, when Hadley pressed Dr. Bright in her email to explain what he saw that made him rule out MSA, he relied on statistical data and evidence from his own experience, citing the fairly common occurrence of young onset Parkinson's and the fact that he'd never seen a case of MSA in someone under forty. (This second point was especially frustrating to Hadley because online, she'd found numerous cases of MSA in people under forty.) Dr. Bright's approach further demonstrated an affective error when he told me that when it comes to diagnosing MSA, he doesn't "circle the wagons around the diagnosis unless they're sure." In other words, he would focus on a positive outcome (Parkinson's) until someone could say with 99% certainty that Hadley had MSA. It's easy to see why well-meaning, caring doctors might be susceptible to making affective errors; it must be very difficult to see a patient cut down in the prime of her life by a deadly disease. To err in this way is human. As Jane Austen wrote in her novel, Persuasion, "We each begin probably with a little bias and upon that bias build every circumstance in favor of it."

Diagnosis momentum is another kind of cognitive error doctors make when they rely on the diagnosis made by doctors who've previously seen the patient. In his book, How Doctors Think, Jerome Groopman tells the story of a woman who, for fifteen years beginning when she was twenty, suffered severely from chronic abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhea. Doctors diagnosed her over and over again with anorexia, bulimia and irritable bowel syndrome even though she told them she was doing everything she could to gain weight. Finally, at thirty-five, when her bones had begun to decompose and her immune system was failing, she consulted a new specialist. The doctor set aside her enormous stack of medical records and asked her to tell him her story. He listened carefully. Then, he examined the patient with a thoroughness that no other doctor had. He ran a few tests that confirmed his suspicion that she was suffering from celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder in which the body can't digest gluten. For fifteen years, the cereal, bread and pasta doctors had been recommending to the young woman for weight gain had been slowly killing her.

In Hadley's case, the misdiagnoses were not as "sticky" as that of the woman with celiac disease, but sticky enough that the diagnosis of one doctor seemed to unduly influence that of the next, creating something more like "diagnosis diversion" than diagnosis momentum. It was Dr. Youngman who first suggested MSA to Hadley, but when Dr. Bright ruled it out, Dr. Youngman, after running a few tests that didn't support an MSA diagnosis as well as one that could suggest upper motor neuron disease, abandoned the possibility of MSA. Hadley was unconvinced of the upper motor neuron disease diagnosis and traveled to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester to sort out whether she had Parkinson's or MSA. On her second day there, although no specialist had ever suggested a functional movement disorder, a doctor planted this new possibility in her records. In the absence of another clear explanation for Hadley's myriad symptoms, the functional diagnosis gained traction, appearing to cloud the diagnostic process for the Mayo doctors who saw Hadley later in the week.

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"It's a truism in medicine that difficult diagnoses are most likely to be made by the most or least experienced doctors," Dr. Lisa Sanders writes in her book, Every Patient Tells a Story. Without preconceptions and experienced-based biases that can build up over years of practice, a novice might be able to see a patient in a fresher light. Doctors with the most years of experience, on the other hand, have in their mental library a vast number of cases from which to draw when making a difficult diagnosis. It's not surprising that Dr. Truitt was able to diagnose Hadley with MSA at her first visit; he has been examining people with Parkinson's and MSA for decades. Hadley and I could be considered the novices in her case, since we knew nothing about MSA when we started talking to each other about how its symptoms mirrored hers. We knew that people with the disease were often first diagnosed with Parkinson's. We were focused on how her experience diverged from typical PD. We paid no attention to statistics regarding MSA's rarity, typical age of onset or the reliability of certain tests for it. Nor did we know about other illnesses that it could resemble, like functional movement disorder and upper motor neuron disease. With our limited knowledge, it was easy for us to remain focused on the evidence that supported a diagnosis of MSA.

To be fair, it is well known that distinguishing MSA from Parkinson's is tough. Because of the diseases' many overlapping symptoms, most doctors rely on time to clarify whether a patient has PD or MSA: if, within just a few years, a patient who's been diagnosed with PD has become incontinent or is unable to walk without falling down, for example, MSA is almost certain to be the cause.

A different patient -- less focused, curious or skeptical, or perhaps more fearful -- might have resisted digging for bad news. But Hadley didn't want to wait until she was falling down every day to get her diagnosis, and she felt very alone with her feelings of urgency. Most published diagnosis stories describe heart-pounding dramas in which a patient's life hangs in the balance in the emergency room or death is otherwise imminent because a diagnosis can't be made. When every second counts, doctors worry about a misdiagnosis that can hurt or kill their patient. However, when a patient is very ill but her life is not in immediate danger, there can be a slackening in a provider's drive to find an answer. Fortunately, Hadley's Dr. Reid in Missoula remained steadfastly intent on helping Hadley to get a diagnosis because they'd developed a strong doctor-patient bond. But in cases like Hadley's when the patient is passed among specialists who don't have an ongoing relationship with the patient, doctors can be less invested in the outcome. One specialist Hadley saw wrote in his report:



Complex individual has a plethora of complaints associated with meager findings.

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This doctor was expressing a phenomenon that Dr. Croskerry calls "yin-yang out." When a patient has been "worked up the yin-yang," doctors begin to feel that every avenue has been explored and they've hit a dead end.

Another factor in the confusion surrounding Hadley's case: because there is no treatment that will slow or alter MSA's progression, some of the doctors she consulted might have assumed there was no reason to rush into naming such a dire diagnosis. But without a diagnosis, she was forced into a preoccupation with her health that took an enormous emotional and financial toll on her and her family. She lost days and weeks of being with her family, of working on her art, as well as hours of sleep and the kind of rest a seriously ill person requires. Misdiagnoses that were made, especially of functional movement disorder, caused her nearly paralyzing psychological trauma. In this terrible limbo, Hadley was unable to see her future. How should she take care of herself, and who would help her? Could she take the commission she'd been offered? How could she soothe the fears of those closest to her when she herself was living with such uncertainty?

Although death was not imminent for Hadley the way it might be for someone in the ER, her lack of diagnosis was, undeniably, life-threatening.

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In How Doctors Think, Jerome Groopman suggests that to help avoid a prolonged or murky diagnostic process, patients should encourage their doctors to think outside the box by asking them, "What's the worst thing this can be?" He adds, "That question is not a sign of neurosis or hypochondria." His reassuring statement, of course, acknowledges that many doctors do find this question neurotic and hypochondriacal, which is why we laugh dismissively at ourselves when we wonder aloud to our physician whether the tightness in our chest could be heart disease or the new speck on our arm is skin cancer. When I was scared about my symptoms of yet-to-be-diagnosed Parkinson's, my doctor told me there was nothing physical wrong with me; I was just "very anxious." And, when Hadley asked Dr. Youngman and Dr. Bright whether she might have the "worst thing," MSA, they warned her not to "obsess."
Voter Registration Application for presidential election 2016

A woman is running for President as the nominee for the Democratic party!!!

I think that's pretty mind blowing. Long overdue but it really does take my breath away!

It really doesn't matter whether you are a man or a woman...born that way or transgender...Democratic or Republican...Jewish, Christian or whatever...black or white or whatever. The final barrier is down and we have broken through the ceiling.

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Today every parent can look into their daughter's crib, carriage, nursery school room, high school, college dorm or apartment and tell her - YOU CAN BE ANYTHING YOU WANT. Even the President of the United States. Whether Hillary Clinton wins or loses this election, she had a huge win and is making history.

I received an email this morning from the most incredible 90-year-old woman in Miami who runs the local support chapter for my charity, the American Friends of ALYN Hospital. She copied me on an email she sent out to her daughter and granddaughter with her reactions. She remembered the path to today's historic change.

It really resonated with me. We all need to remember how we got here.

We were the secretaries; never the bosses.

We were the relief workers during WWII, never on the front lines.

We were the assistants, never the CEO's.

We were the homemakers, never the breadwinners.

There was a time when we didn't have the right to vote and weren't deemed intelligent enough to sit on juries.

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It took us 96 years to get here. What do we do now with this game changing turn of the tide? For me, so consumed with my work for ALYN Hospital and always within eyesight of a picture of a severely physically disabled child beating the odds, I hear the constant refrain of our mission: making the impossible possible.

We stand on the shoulders of all the women who came before us. Let's do justice to all their battles and claim the rights our predecessors fought so hard to win. Let's see every woman eligible to vote go out and register and vote on November 8th. Let's insure that all the issues facing women are part of the political dialogue over the next months.

Each of us has their own agenda...I understand that. It is not for me to tell anyone else how to vote in November. But I know how I will vote. Because I am daily grateful for my health and inspired by the examples I see at ALYN Hospital in Jerusalem where even a small step with a walker can be a monumental victory I will be voting for the next President who will best safeguard the rights of all Americans which includes all women and for the President who will best respect and safeguard the rights of Israel, the only true democracy in the Middle East.

It's 2016. We are secretaries and bosses. We serve in all branches of the military. We are assistants and CEO's. We run homes, raise children and are often the primary earners. Too many of us live in poverty and too few of us are billionaires.

But we all have the right to vote. Exercise it. Together, we are an incredible force for change as we always have been.
By Thomas Kennedy

Knocking on a stranger's door and asking them to register to vote is a strange experience. In a diverse city like Miami where one can find someone from any nationality or political background behind that door, it can be both a rewarding experience and a challenging one. It can be frustrating to hear a person say that they feel so disenfranchised by the system that they don't feel the urgency to vote. On the other hand, I'm exhilarated as an elections canvasser when we talk and they change their minds.

I've worked in several voter registration campaigns in the past, and what is unique about this 2016 presidential race is that the apathy often at play is not a factor when I talk with potential voters. Latinos are feeling the urgency to cast a ballot like never before and it is because they oppose Donald Trump's bid for the White House in record numbers.

I've met the folks who will prevent a Donald Trump presidency. They are a powerful coalition composed of people from all walks of life with vastly different cultures and nationalities. I've worked with my fellow immigrants day after day as a community organizer in a massive voter registration campaign working to turn out voters. Regardless of their native country, these Americans are eager to become registered voters so they can make a difference in their communities.

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These prospective voters, about 2.8 million Latinos, have been emboldened by one of the most bizarre elections ever seen in American history. Republican nominee Donald Trump has risen to the top of the party on a scorched earth campaign in which he has called for a ban on Muslims coming into the country and the forced deportation of 11 million undocumented immigrants from the country. Faced with this intense anti-immigrant rhetoric, people who have never considered voting before are now eager to do so.

I worked with the community outreach group New Florida Majority from February to April in a campaign to register 5,000 new voters in nine weeks. We went to Hispanic and Haitian neighborhoods in Miami with traditionally low voter turnout rates in an effort to connect with people and inform them about the issues affecting their communities. We knocked on doors, stood outside shopping centers, joined in popular events such as the iconic Calle 8 Festival in Little Havana and visited Hispanic and Creole restaurants.

It was a very strange experience helping to empower people so they can have a voice through the ballot when I'm excluded from that privilege.

I came to this country on a tourist visa with my parents and overstayed it, effectively rendering me without legal status for 11 years. I felt pride in helping people exercise their right to vote, but at times I also felt a mix of jealousy and frustration.

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I know the power of voting and am eager to cast my first vote, but I never imagined that at age 25, I would still not have done so. It was difficult and frustrating to live here as an undocumented resident, but it also taught me the necessity for strong civic engagement and our individual responsibility to stand up for our communities. Growing up, I always lived with fear that a wrong choice would land me in police custody and possible deportation. I was paranoid that sharing my undocumented status with the wrong person could lead to being reported to ICE, and possible deported and ripped away from my family and friends. I watched my parents drive to work every day with the fear that a simple traffic stop could lead to their arrest for driving without a license.

As I registered new voters, I found that I was not alone. I was inspired talking to community members who were eager to demand the dignity and respect that has been denied to them despite their years of hard work. Natalia Jaramillo comes to mind, a Latina from Colombia who had previously been unable to become a citizen because it was so expensive and who now is eligible to vote for the first time. She told me that she was not wasting the opportunity to vote on behalf of those in her community who could not and who, like her, were disgusted by the politicians that disrespected the contributions of Latinos in this country.

I remember speaking to Johanna Shemesh from Brazil, who told me that as a woman she had a responsibility to stand up for her community against the racism and hatred of Donald Trump, whose anti-women policies would hurt her reproductive rights.

Trump's rhetoric last June was another hateful notch in what has been a long history of discrimination and xenophobia against immigrants in this country. Although I acquired residency through marriage in 2011, my parents are still living in the U.S. undocumented and seeing this racist xenophobe in my television screen refer to Mexican immigrants in this country as killers and rapists filled me with indignation. The hateful rhetoric currently at the forefront of the Republican party drove me to do as much as I possibly could to stop this man from ever becoming president.

Florida has voted for Democratic President Obama in the past two elections and it appears that the Republican party has not learned that disregarding the Hispanic vote is a losing strategy that will guarantee defeat in this crucial swing state where 23 percent of the population is Hispanic. We hit our target goal of 5,000 new registered voters at the end of the nine weeks, and we will continue to hit the streets to turn out voters until the Florida registration deadline 29 days before the November 8th election.

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As an immigrant youth (and I know that there are thousands who feel as I do), I will never forget the way my family was treated during these difficult years. A couple of weeks ago, I applied for my citizenship after spending five years as a permanent resident, making it highly likely that I will get to cast my first vote ever in this election. Myself and others who experienced the hatred and xenophobia directed at our hard working community will always remember who our friends were and who weren't. We'll vote accordingly.
By Maria Russo

In July 2015, my husband and I headed to Rwanda, a country that suffered one of the worst genocides the world has ever seen - more than 800,000 people were slaughtered in 100 days. We met a small group of women there that were living in terrible conditions and had faced the most unimaginable circumstances. Many are victims of rape, are widowed, orphaned and lost children of their own. These women inspired us to do something drastic.

To give a clear picture of the whole story of how we ended up in Rwanda, let me first rewind to November 2014, during our first trip there, a journey we were inspired to embark on after spending the last 14 years traveling around the world. A writer and a photographer duo, we took the time to deeply connect with many fascinating people we met along the way and to learn more about incredible cultures we came to love. We saw the juxtaposition between wealthy and poor and it gave us that unsettled feeling of enjoying something that was only available to those who could afford it.

As travelers, it is important to us to leave the planet a better place. Our journeys abroad brought a richness to our life that no material object ever could. So we thought - why not return this good to the world and pay it forward?

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So back to that drastic life-changing thing we did.

Last year, we launched Humanity Unified International, a nonprofit organization that empowers communities to rise above poverty through education, food security programs and economic opportunities. We start by investing in women.

I gave up all my opportunities to earn an income through my online magazine to focus solely on building the organization and our current project in Rwanda. For the past year, my life has been completely dedicated to serving and empowering the women involved in our project.

Now when my husband and I travel, we spend our time doing something meaningful and impactful in Rwanda. We've chosen to work with a local NGO that is leading a women's farming cooperative project with us. Our approach to sustainable development lies within investing in local organizations and stepping away from our own ideas and beliefs of how things should be or what development should look like from a Western perspective. We trust our partners and we know that they put the needs of the community first.

As a travel writer, I knew I could write stories to help spread awareness about the work we are doing with Humanity Unified Int'l. I've been sharing our story with people all over the world in hopes that it will inspire those drawn to our mission to get involved and to come together in making this planet a kinder, gentler, fairer place for the good of humanity.

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About the author
An article in yesterday's New York Times, entitled Parents Shouldn't Feel Guilty About Training Babies to Sleep, refers to a study published in Pediatrics this week that researchers say confirms the safety and effectiveness of sleep training.

The study was conducted by eight researchers from Flinders University in Australia, and appears to support the findings from a 2012 study, led by Anna Price from the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, which also appeared in Pediatrics.

So, with two independent teams of researchers confirming it, can we agree that sleep training is both effective and safe, or will the opponents of sleep training get in an uproar over the study size, slam the researchers, and cite other studies, (well, usually just the one) that they say proves otherwise?

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Before you answer, let me offer up a wager.

I will bet you a million dollars that they will.

I'll bet a million dollars they'll argue that the sample size is too small, the follow-up period is too short, or that the researchers had ulterior motives and are tied to organizations that profit from their findings. It's the same old rhetoric, coming from the same people, and no amount of research, evidence, or scientific consensus is ever going to change their minds.

Which would be fine, if they could just accept that they have their methods and other mothers have theirs, but they don't all do that; not by a long shot.

Every day, I find someone commenting on my Facebook about how my program changed their lives; how they're so revived and capable now that their whole family is getting enough sleep, and about how they feel like better mothers now that they're not struggling with a chronically overtired, cranky baby.

And every day, I see someone shouting them down.

"What about the studies that show long-term psychological damage caused by leaving babies to cry themselves to sleep? Your baby needs you! You shouldn't have had a baby if you weren't ready to give up some sleep! I can't believe how selfish some mothers are!"

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These arguments are ridiculous and unfounded, but I'm going to say that and no more on the subject, because I've come to the realization that we're just never going to agree.

So, if we can't agree, what's next? Well, maybe we could accept each other's parenting choices. Maybe we could even respect them. Better yet, maybe we could appreciate that we're all doing the best we can and nobody needs, appreciates, or benefits from hearing about how they're abusing their kids over something that's been proven, at least to the satisfaction of the scientific community, to be beneficial, safe and effective.

It's a lot to ask, I know. Every time another one of these studies comes out, I see a thousand armchair experts jumping onto the comment threads, ranting about the specifics, insinuating conflicting interests, and linking to various blog posts and opinion pieces that apparently carry the same credibility as double-blind peer-reviewed, scientific studies.

I think it's a great thing that we're able to share our opinions and insight with each other over social media and other online resources. I can only imagine how many new parents have obtained answers to vital questions without having to leave the house, or have found much-needed support from people they have never met.

Unfortunately, for all of the wonderful people who use these media to help each other out with encouragement and facts, there are plenty who take the opportunity to attack and insult people who don't agree with their opinions.

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After all of the work I've done, all of the research I've poured over, and more importantly, all of the families I've helped, I sincerely, adamantly believe that sleep training isn't just safe and effective, it's incredibly beneficial.

Those who would argue, well, they're entitled to their opinion.

But I'm going to keep sharing, retweeting and reposting these studies as they continue to come out, because I know that somewhere out there is a new mother who's trying to decide what's right for her and her baby. She's exhausted, confused, and conflicted because she's trying to decide between what she sees as two potentially dangerous options.

What if sleep training is harmful?

What if not sleeping is harmful?

And maybe, just maybe, amidst the shouting and the scare tactics, she'll find a legitimate scientific study that convinces her that sleep training will help her and her child get to sleep, and there are no negative side effects. Maybe it's bolstered a little by the fact that it's in a respected medical journal, and maybe it gets a little bump from being in the New York Times as well.

And if that's what convinces her to take the plunge, put in the work, and get her and her baby sleeping through the night, then I tip my hat to everybody involved.
More than two years have elapsed since the last direct talks between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators.

When the Israelis refused to release Palestinian prisoners from a previously agreed to list, the talks, in the words of US Secretary of State John Kerry, went up in the air.

The continuation of the stalemate, coupled with the latest right-wing addition to an Israeli government already controlled by settlers, is pushing some Palestinians and Jordanians to rethink the confederation concept.

In many ways, a Jordanian-Palestinian confederation would make sense. It would be a mechanism that could end the occupation and its continued colonial settlement policy.

Confederation with Jordan would present the Israeli public with a security solution that can be guaranteed by a neighbouring country with which Israel has a peace deal and whose leader is a person Israelis trust.

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Some statements, activities and decisions further fuelled this discussion.

Palestinian philosopher and strategic thinker Sari Nuseibeh made statements in support of a confederation, provided it is an agreement between the states of Palestine and Jordan, and there are two capitals: East Jerusalem and Amman.

Public opinion polls in Palestine have shown a marked increase in Palestinian support for a confederation. Very few reliable polls are taken in Jordan.

Jordanian and Palestinian officials have been totally quiet on this issue.

Moving the issue from debates and public statements to a more concrete reality is hard.

Hardcore Palestinians will oppose the idea that will dilute the concept of an independent Palestine.

The late Palestine Liberation Organisation PLO leader, Salah Khalaf (Abu Iyyad), was quoted as saying that Palestinians want five minutes of independence and then they would happily agree to a confederation.

The idea of a consequential path that begins with an independent state and then, after a plebiscite of sorts, moves to a confederation is probably not what is being talked about here.

Many worry that the idea being cooked would basically transfer control over parts of the West Bank (without many settlements) from the Israeli army to a Jordanian security force. This would certainly be rejected by Palestinians, especially if, in all likelihood, the Israelis would not ceded control over East Jerusalem.

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The fact that Jordan and Israel have found some kind of understanding to deal with Al Haram Al Sharif/Al Aqsa Mosque can be seen as a signal of the two countries being able to detonate explosive problems, but this kind of understanding will not fly with most Palestinians, especially if the Israelis will continue to be sovereign in East Jerusalem.

The biggest hurdle for a confederation would probably be getting Jordanians on board.

The issue requires the support of all East Bank Jordanian before it becomes a reality.

For decades, Jordanians and Palestinians have been forced by history, proximity and in many cases family relations to deal with the region's most difficult conflict together.

At present, the relationship between Jordan and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is extremely cold.

If this idea has any chance of happening, it has to be discussed honestly and candidly at the highest official level.

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The international community and Israel have also been rather silent on the issue.

The French proposal for peace talks to be restarted has been largely accepted by Arabs and the world community, but has been stalled by Israelis.

While this and other out-of-the-box ideas are certainly needed to break the deadlock between Israelis and Palestinians, the key issue that needs to be always looked at is the occupation.

Any idea that can speed up the end of what the UN Security Council called "inadmissible" occupation will be welcomed, while any idea that will provide cosmetic effects while keeping the Israeli occupation will be rejected.

This is the real litmus test for any peace plan.
As 2015 came to an end, The Atlantic published an article entitled, 2015: The Best Year in History for the Average Human Being. Indeed for many of us things are better than ever -- so good, in fact, that more and more of us have an opportunity to seek the highest levels of personal fulfillment -- even at work.

While things are looking better on average, plenty of people are still suffering. This has paved the way for a new economic model that combines purpose and profit. Take for example, TOMS shoes, which donates a second pair to someone in need, or modern non-profits like Kiva. These companies are driving our economy forward, because modern innovation is often fueled by a desire to improve the lives of those less fortunate.

Bringing Out The Best

15Five is driven by a mission to bring out the best in people at work. That applies to our own company as well as our customers who use our employee feedback software to check-in regularly and support their employees.

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We have built a rare values-based culture and believe that companies can and should shed outdated management styles like micromanagement and Command & Control. Managers can see that they don't have to threaten or use outdated processes like stack-ranking and performance reviews held only once per year. In the new model, companies succeed by building genuine relationships with employees, granting them trust, mentoring and supporting them in their personal and professional goals, and allowing their greatest selves to flourish as a result.

What makes our team so incredibly creative is that they are driven by more than personal advancement. They are driven by genuine love for our customers and a desire to have every business experience camaraderie, trust, candid communication, financial success, and the fulfillment of their own company missions.

There are also small ways in which we help employees feel fulfilled. We give back annually via 1% for the Planet. Employees choose which charity resonates the most with their personal values. And because we give 1% of our revenue, this drives the team to improve our bottom line. Additionally, every employee receives an annual $500 birthday gift to invest in any form of personal growth and development they choose. This complements workshops 15Five provides internally on topics such as money management, personal integrity, and strengths based leadership.

Driven By Purpose

Supporting the personal growth of employees may seem like a fool's errand to some, especially company leaders who view their people as mere commodities or resources. They are reluctant to support employees in their personal endeavors. This makes sense from their point of view; that energy, focus, and creativity are finite. From their perspective, that employee could be using their precious resources at work instead of on a personal project.

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We must change the frame to a more holistic understanding of human energy and effort. When employees perform tasks that are aligned with their personal values and strengths, those endeavors actually generate more energy and limitless creativity -- even at work.

I spoke about purpose at work at Success Summit 3.0 in 2014, where I told the story of our recently hired content manager who also desired to be an author. I have always supported that fully, without any reservations about diminished performance at work. When he spends 2--3 hours every night writing his novel, he is also honing the writing skills that improve his contributions to our blog. He is feeding his soul in a complementary way to the nourishment he receives by helping the team achieve company-wide goals.

I went on to explain the shift in management models from authority figure to mentor. As an example, I sent that employee an email with just one question; "How can 15Five be a support to make sure you get published this year?" His response was that being part of the team had provided more structure, clarity of purpose, and the tools to succeed. He was also in disbelief that I was so supportive -- disbelief that has translated over the years into high performance and loyalty.

This framework for managing teams and running a company is also congruent with what the marketplace wants. Millennial consumers, who are driving the economy, often make choices based on the Why of the company, rather than what they are selling. People of all ages want to follow something they truly believe in, and this includes the companies they work for and the products or services they patronize.



I don't have a staff of monks who are willing to eschew wealth and possessions. People still want to be financially secure and experience the triumph of more ownership at work. But a nice salary and a promotion are no longer enough. Employees and customers all want to be part of something greater than themselves. The companies that already recognize this are the ones that are succeeding today, but soon companies that do not evolve in this direction will start to fall behind.
The Obama Administration is on the verge of issuing a proposed rule that would create new procedures and standards for cancelling the federal student loan debt of people who were defrauded by their colleges. The rule would also create new standards for the Department of Education to require colleges to post escalating letters of credit based on concerns about their operations. And it would ban or limit the ability of a college receiving federal aid to force students to resolve claims in private, secret arbitrations, rather than in court.

There were several months of public negotiations on a rule among representatives of colleges, students, and others, and various draft proposals submitted by the U.S. Department of Education at those sessions. More recently, members of our coalition of student, veterans, civil rights, consumer, and educator groups have held meetings with White House and Education officials, as have representatives of the for-profit college industry, regarding the rule.

The for-profit colleges are engaged in prolonged hysteria, claiming that this effort to aid students is somehow "ideological"; expressing shock that misbehaving schools, rather than taxpayers, might bear some of the burden of debt relief; demonstrating again their presumption that, whatever misconduct has occurred in their ranks, they are permanently entitled to billions annually from taxpayers, and that the demise or reform of predatory schools would be a disaster for our country.

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I have discussed the details of the rule multiple times. But let me here share with you some basic reasons that the rule should be strong across the board -- with broad, automatic cancellation of debts for students who attended colleges engaged in fraudulent behavior; a strong letters of credit provision that reserves the right of the Department to go even beyond the designated escalation standards; and a complete ban on colleges stripping students of their legal rights.

The Administration has an opportunity -- and a responsibility -- to fix a huge problem, give people a better chance to train for careers, and save taxpayers a lot of money over the long term. A strong rule can do all these things.

I have spoken with hundreds of for-profit college students and industry insiders. There are good programs and teachers in the industry. But the abuses are remarkably bad, and they are ongoing.

This new rulemaking process was triggered in large part because the awful predatory Corinthian Colleges collapsed. It's now clear that Corinthian deceived students and regulators. Now students want their loans forgiven, and the Department has begun granting some relief. But Corinthian says its broke. It's in bankruptcy. Taxpayers are stuck with bill.

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Bad behavior at Corinthian is echoed at other schools. Seven of the ten biggest for-profit college companies, which got $8 billion in federal student aid last year, have all been under federal and state law enforcement investigation or settled cases for deceptive practices in recent months and years: These are Apollo / University of Phoenix, EDMC, ITT Tech, Career Education Corp., DeVry, Bridgepoint, and Kaplan. By the way, the operator of Kaplan, now called Graham Holdings, previously owned 8 percent of Corinthian.

By continuing to approve those companies and other bad actors for federal student aid, without demanding reforms, the Department of Education is essentially bestowing its Good Housekeeping seal, telling students it's not just possible to enroll with taxpayer help, but that it's OK to enroll.

As you read this, more students are enrolling at these schools. Often they have been lured by misleading TV advertising, or hooked by bait and switch websites that offer jobs, food stamps, veterans advice, and other things that struggling Americans need, when really they're designed to get a phone number so a college recruiter can call 10 times a day, pressuring and deceiving people until they enroll in substandard college programs that will ruin their finances.

A strong debt relief rule is needed to be fair to students who relied on these deceptive pitches, backed by this government Good Housekeeping seal. It would be just, because the government owed these students more due diligence. A strong rule will compel the government to step up its scrutiny and enforcement with respect to funding predatory schools, because doing otherwise will become just too expensive. In other words, the most important effect of the rule will be on the regulator, the Department of Education, itself.

In our coalition's view, where the Secretary of Education has evidence that a group of students are eligible for loan relief because of school misconduct, those students should have their loans discharged automatically, unless the student declares that he or she does not wish to be part of the relief. Champions for students in Congress have echoed the view that debt relief should be automatic, without compelling each student to prove that he or she suffered from the deception.

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Leaning to the side of students' interests would be a long-overdue position for a Department of Education that long has acted as if colleges were its primary constituency. Over the first 22 years since the law empowered the Department to cancel student loans for reasons of school fraud, the Department has done nothing to make students aware of, or draft rules or create systems to help them to exercise, their rights. As a result, only five students have ever applied, and only three of those had their debt cancelled.

A strong rule also will save taxpayers a lot of money by requiring troubled schools to post those escalating letters of credit, so money is available to compensate ripped off students.

And a strong rule will save taxpayers a lot of money by banning mandatory arbitration clauses, thus allowing private lawsuits that will expose, punish, and deter bad behavior by schools -- so the burden doesn't fall so hard on regulators and law enforcement. (Virtually no non-profit college, other than a few who converted from for-profit status on questionable terms, have forced students to arbitrate all claims, while nearly all for-profit colleges that receive federal aid have been imposing these one-sided arbitration clauses.)

In doing all these things, a strong debt relief rule ultimately will strengthen opportunity and our economy by directing students to quality education programs that will actually help them build careers.
Forget strategic weapons and missile shields: in the race towards deliberate, self-destructive ignorance, Russia and the United States are, as usual, neck and neck. While the American South is working itself up into a frenzy over nonexistent transgender predators (" Is your washroom not breeding breeders?") and Texas State Senators fight the scourge of gay space colonies, representatives of a Russian government think-tank remind us once again that the spread of AIDS is really the wages of sin.

Yes, throw out your condoms and pick up your Bibles (but try not to confuse the two, or you'll run afoul of Russian laws protecting the delicate feelings of religious believers): HIV is a medical problem whose only solution is spiritual.

As reported by Kommersant and TV-Rain (and conveniently summarized by Meduza and translated by The Russian Reader), a delegation of "specialists" without a single medical or scientific qualification to their names informed the Moscow City Duma this Monday that AIDS is simply one more weapon in the West's "information war against Russia."

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Bareback Mountain

Appropriately enough, the Chair of the Moscow City Duma's health care committee framed the visit from the Russian Institute for Strategic Research (RISS) in geopolitical terms, rather than simply as a matter of public health, reminding her audience that RISS had previously issued a "stunning report on various NGOs funded by the West." HIV/AIDS, in other words, is the medical equivalent of the so-called "foreign agents" targeted by the anti-NGO-legislation: alien contaminants attacking the healthy, innocent Russian body politic.

Much of the RISS presentation is old news to those who followed American right-wing responses to the AIDS crisis at the end of the last century: contraceptives encourage debauchery, abstinence is the only solution, and people with HIV/AIDS implicitly deserve whatever happens to them. The reason it all sounds so familiar is not a lack of imagination, but the longstanding pipeline between American "family values" think tanks and Russia's crusaders for morality.

But the geopolitical aspect of the Institute's retrograde approach to epidemiology may strike some Americans as novel. Though the management of AIDS in America has had its fair share of remarkably stupid xenophobia (starting with the stigmatization of Haitians and continuing in a ban on HIV-positive visitors or immigrants that lasted until 2010), the family values crowd tends to see HIV/AIDS as a domestic threat to public morality.

RISS, on the other hand, is an institute whose official mission involves "issues of national security" and "preventing the falsification of history" (a phrase that would be better understood as "promoting the falsification of history," but that's a matter for another day). Paraphrasing a hundred trite term papers on the Russian soul, the experts explain that AIDS is more of a problem in St. Petersburg, which is a "symbol of Western values." The "earthy primordially of the spontaneously emergent holy lands of Moscow," on the other hand, are much less hospitable to HIV.

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Safer Sects

This rhetoric performs the typically authoritarian shift from the body of the individual to the body politic of the nation. RISS is far more concerned with the country's metaphorical immune system (its spirituality) than with anything biological.

Emily Martin has written persuasively on the exploitation of "immune system" metaphors in the wake of the AIDS crisis, but here, immunity has lost all connection to its original, medical context. On the contrary, condoms are said to somehow cause AIDS rather than prevent HIV infection ("five [sexual] contacts involving a condom during adolescence are the equivalent of one unprotected contact.")

Instead, it is the "contraceptive industry" and the purveyors of pornography who are the truly infectious agents undermining the Russian body: condom use encourages as part of wide-ranging campaign to promote tolerance of LGBT people (which is, of course, a bad thing).

By shifting the focus from the physical body to a purely imaginary one, the RISS delegation can conveniently ignore biology altogether. They prefer to operate in a world of pure abstraction: why discuss embarrassing bodily fluids when you can talk about "information warfare"? Once the battle against AIDS serves as a metaphor for the fight against foreign values, the physical and the spiritual get swapped back-and-forth in a rhetorical shell game. Susan Sontag must be spinning in her grave.

This approach is, of course, magical thinking, and it is not limited to public health. In fact, the RISS explanation of the spread of HIV should be familiar to readers of contemporary Russian children's books. Last year's release of the animated trailer for Children versus Wizards (  ) has revived interest in a series of nationalist Russian novels that began in 2004. Here the world's children are seduced by none other than Pottermania: the widespread popularity of Harry Potter and other children's fantasy stories are actually part of a (primarily Jewish) international conspiracy to hand the world over to the forces of Satan.

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Only Russia has been spared so far, thanks to a mysterious, metaphysical "Russian shield" preserving the nation's morality That shield turns out to be none other than Russian Orthodoxy itself.

As barrier methods go, it's not a bad metaphor for the current Russian cultural climate, but I wouldn't bet my life on it.
Over the last decade, homeownership among Hispanic Americans has continued to hover below the national average of 62.5 percent, as reported by the U.S. Census Bureau in April 2016. First-time Hispanic home buyers may have shied away from entering the housing market due to stagnant wages and debt, but times have changed.

According to TD Bank's Mortgage Service Index, Hispanic Americans feel optimistic about the housing market, with two out of five reporting that it's a good time to buy a home.

If you're purchasing a home, it's important to be prepared for the financial journey that lies ahead. Often times, first-time home buyers jump into the housing market. If done wrong, a homeowner can find themselves with financial regrets and issues. Here are three common pitfalls made by first-time buyers - and how to avoid them.

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1.Lack of knowledge about the financing process. TD's survey found that two-thirds of recent Hispanic homeowners were first-time buyers. First-time buyers need to have a good understanding of the financing process. One way for buyers to become educated on the financing process is to take advantage of free educational courses offered by local financial institutions, as well as certain government programs.

For example, TD Bank offers first-time home buyer seminars that explain the pros and cons of renting vs. owning, outline the true costs of obtaining a mortgage, provide an overview of the loan application process and share information on the criteria lenders use when evaluating borrowers.

If you're daunted or overwhelmed by the process, be sure to speak with a trusted financial advisor as well. Your lender should be a valuable resource throughout the home buying process.

2.Not saving enough cash for unexpected costs. A mortgage is only one part of the cost of homeownership. Saving for a down payment and closing costs is not enough.

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First-time buyers should be prepared to have a cushion for unexpected repairs and other expenses that come up. Over half of Hispanic Americans surveyed in our study incurred more than $2,000 in unexpected expenses during the mortgage process. These costs may include a home inspection and appraisal, lender and attorney fees, escrow fees and closing costs. Factor in these costs when you're establishing a budget. Also, keep in mind that your utility bills and maintenance costs may increase if you're buying a larger home.

3.Not shopping around for a mortgage. Finding a lender and discussing financial needs and budget should be the very first step a buyer takes in the home buying process - even before finding a realtor.

TD Bank's Mortgage Service Index revealed that a quarter of potential Hispanic American homebuyers expressed a strong desire for education and guidance when identifying a home loan. By working with a lender even before you begin your home search, you can get a much better idea of the best loan options that fit your unique financial situation.
I was 16 years old when I lost my vision.

At the time, as a high school student in Nairobi, Kenya, there were few opportunities for secondary education for blind students in my country. Due to low levels of awareness regarding education services for children with disabilities, I was forced to drop out. It was seven years before I found another high school that allowed me to earn a diploma.

In spite of being forced to play catch up for much of my life, the experience was ultimately transformational -- for the better. It changed my life's trajectory and, most importantly, showed me the incredible value and purpose of education: to serve others.

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As hundreds of thousands of new graduates from around the world prepare to leave higher education and embark upon their own careers, they should take with them a similar lesson -- to use their education in the service of the greater good.

After finishing high school, I entered an undergraduate program in Kenya and decided to study education, hoping that the training would enable me to improve circumstances for other disabled children (and because other departments told me that visually impaired students could not study subjects like economics or biology). I didn't want young students in Kenya to have to experience what I did.

I thought becoming an educator would allow me to help many other people who found themselves in situations like my own, and that I could point them in the right direction.

But even after graduating, I continued to face boundaries that kept me from pursuing my passions. I wanted to pursue an advanced degree, but once again, resources and support to do so were largely nonexistent in Kenya. If completing high school was difficult for the visually impaired, obtaining an advanced degree was nearly impossible.

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Fortunately, an opportunity presented itself in 2008: a scholarship from the Ford Foundation's International Fellowships Program (IFP), a unique, 12-year initiative designed to recruit students from typically underrepresented groups and give them the support they need to succeed in higher education. IFP encouraged thousands of students like me to work toward positive social change in communities around the world.

After being selected into IFP, I chose to attend Monash University in Australia and enroll in a Master's program in Special and Inclusive Education. The support for visually impaired students in Australia compared to Kenya was night and day. I was suddenly immersed in a system with significant support services and strong policies to help people with disabilities. Students like me were told they had the same potential and promise as anyone else and, in turn, they flourished in the classroom.

Since graduating, I have applied what I learned at Monash to my job at the Kenyan Ministry of Education, working to implement supportive policies for learners with disabilities, increase funding for disadvantaged students, and make the national curriculum more accessible for all children.

It was -- and continues to be -- an uphill battle: most children with disabilities in Kenya are not in school, to say nothing of the limited intervention programs available for them if they do enroll and the scarce employment opportunities that exist once they graduate.

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Ultimately, my own journey through education has revealed three important lessons -- lessons that are applicable to recent graduates and current college students alike.

First, follow your heart when making decisions about which programs to pursue -- and how to use the opportunities presented by higher education to help others.

Too many people choose degree tracks not because they are passionate about the subject, but because others influence them or they are told it's the "right" path to be successful. Rather than ask which degree will earn you the biggest salary in the future, ask which courses will best equip you to effect social change.



Second, recognize that education is, first and foremost, about empowerment.

For those young people that are already driven toward social justice, know that to help others you need to first empower yourself -- and that begins with education.

Despite growing debates over the merits of a university degree in the 21st century, the power of education in today's world cannot be overstated. Just as my studies in Australia allowed me to bring a unique perspective to my work in Kenya, higher education instills powerful lessons about equality and justice for students pursuing any profession.



Lastly, higher education institutions should strive to be more accessible for students and more centered on social justice.

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This includes advocating for more scholarship programs like IFP that attract students from historically marginalized groups and who are committed to improving conditions in their home countries. If my own story reveals anything, it's that given the right tools and support, emerging leaders from disadvantaged communities can succeed in higher education and help advance equality and justice as a result.
Zdravo, Melanija. It's me again - you know, the American guy of Slovenian descent who worries about you, our country, and the whole world (including our homeland, where people are chanting your husband's name). Please do as I suggested in an earlier letter to you to STOP TRUMP, your husband, whose wrath you have yet to experience - the same wrath that you felt in Sevnica under communism.

Do you know what many of your fellow Americans are thinking these days? That Donald Trump is trying hard to become a member of a small group of disrespected international politicians. They are not unlike Adolph Hitler and his like who in World War II declared us Slavs to be subhuman (Untermenschen) and planned to exterminate the Slavic people, starting with us Slovenians.

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Just as your husband sparks hatred against Mexicans, Hispanics, Muslims, and women, some American politicians early in the 20th century, led a wave of Anti-Slavism (Slavophobia) when my dear Bubby Josephina Cepin's immigrated to America.

Here are three current mean-spirited, small-minded, and populist Donalds in that group:

The "Trump of the East"

Rodrigo Duterte, who was just elected President of The Philippines,

"The Trump of the East." Here are a few recent quotes from the Filipino Donald Trump:

At a mass wedding, Duterte offered himself to the brides as a wedding gift. He said, "I don't have money to give, but I could give your wives something else, and this is for the wives only. Men, I'm sorry, but you don't get anything, because I'm not a queer." (Sound familiar, Melania?)

He promised that he will be a "dictator against evil" when he becomes president.

He called Pope Francis "a son of a bitch."

He promised if elected he would "kill five criminals every week." (Since he's been mayor, extrajudicial death squads have reportedly killed over 1,000 people.)

The "Latino Trump"

Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro is clearly the Latino Donald. Here are some of his recent quotes:

During the Presidential campaign of 2013, he made homophobic insinuations against his opponent Henrique Capriles (who is neither married nor known to be dating anyone).

He said that America has "imperial designs on Venezuela," wants to "eliminate" him, and that a US surveillance plane have twice violated Venezuela's airspace.

He said, "My ministers have studied a lot, schools, universities and whatnot." (Sound familiar, Melania?)

He has also said: "We have to install a chip onto our brains;" "We will improve the foundations of our poor people houses!"; and "I want to build schools for mongoloid kids!"

The "Russian Trump"

Why does Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov remind some observers of Donald Trump? One reason is that he has more than a million followers on photo-sharing website Instagram where he regularly posts self-aggrandizing pictures of himself. He once used the account to announce he would star in a Hollywood action film called "Whoever Doesn't Understand Will Get It" (Remind you of anyone you know, Melania?)

Kadyrov hosts and attends flamboyant (razposajeni) parties and collects flashy (neokusen) sports cars (including a Lamborghini Reventon -- one of only 20 made), Chechen daggers (bodala), and race horses.

After the publication of the Mohammed cartoons, he accused the Danes of "spying and being pro-terrorist" and banned Danes from entering Chechnya. (Kind of like banning Mexicans and Muslims from entering the US, no?)

He supports polygamy and feels it would be "more honest than having lots of mistresses and would resolve Russia's demographic problem." (Please take note, Melania!)

In 2005, he boasted that "Europe's largest mosque" would be built in Chechnya, that Chechnya is the "most peaceful place in Russia" and it would be "the wealthiest and the most peaceful place in the world." (Sound kind of Trumpy, Melania?)

The US Trump

And finally, there is the fourth Trump -- the Trump, who out-trumps them all. As you already know, Melania, he says so many outlandish (

nenavaden

) things, like these:

"An extremely credible source has called my office and told me that Barack Obama's birth certificate is a fraud."

"Ariana Huffington is unattractive, both inside and out. I fully understand why her former husband left her for a man - he made a good decision."

"I will build a great wall - and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me - and I'll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words."

"If I were running The View, I'd fire Rosie O'Donnell. I mean, I'd look at her right in that fat, ugly face of hers, I'd say Rosie, you're fired."

"The beauty of me is that I'm very rich."
By Andrew DePietro, Finance Writer

If you want to move to a city that's better for your budget -- or maybe just to a different housing complex in your current city -- you need to compare all of the apartments for rent. However, comparing the cost of apartments from city to city is a tedious process that involves tons of Google searching and number-crunching.

For this reason, GOBankingRates conducted a study of what the average one-bedroom apartment costs in 50 major U.S. cities. This study looked at various factors, including the median rent for a one-bedroom apartment, the average square footage, the cost of basic monthly utilities and each city's walkability score, which is based on a scale from 0 to 100.

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In order to provide the most comprehensive apartment guide to cities across the country, GOBankingRates also identified the percentage of apartments for rent in each city that have the following amenities: dishwashers, washer-dryers, a pool, fitness center access, pet-friendly units and parking.

To better understand where your city -- or soon-to-be city -- ranks nationally, here are the averages for each factor from all 50 cities on the list:

Median rent for 1-bedroom apartment: $1,234.43

Square footage of 1-bedroom apartment: 678.32 square feet

Cost of basic utilities: $147.06

Walkability score: 52

Percentage of apartments for rent with a dishwasher: 68%

Percentage of apartments for rent with a washer-dryer: 39%

Percentage of apartments for rent with a pool: 61%

Percentage of apartments for rent with a fitness center: 53%

Percentage of pet-friendly apartments for rent: 26%

Percentage of apartments for rent that have parking, either covered or with a garage: 36%

Click through to see how much the average apartment costs in 50 major U.S. cities. The cities are listed in order of population from smallest to largest.

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1. Newark, N.J.

Median rent for 1-bedroom apartment: $850

$850 Average square footage of 1-bedroom apartment: 650 sq. ft.

650 sq. ft. Cost of basic monthly utilities: $146.33

$146.33 Walkability score: 80

Newark ranks in the top 20 cities with the lowest median rent for a one-bedroom apartment. Getting around on foot in Newark isn't too bad either; this city is the No. 4 most walkable city.

Apartments with a dishwasher: 40%

40% Apartments with a washer-dryer: 25%

25% Apartments with a pool: 9%

9% Apartments with a fitness center: 23%

23% Apartments with parking: 34%

34% Pet-friendly apartments: 19%

2. Anchorage, Alaska

Median rent for 1-bedroom apartment: $995

$995 Average square footage of 1-bedroom apartment: 593.12 sq. ft.

593.12 sq. ft. Cost of basic monthly utilities: $222.92

$222.92 Walkability score: 32

The median rent for Anchorage apartments is just under $1,000 per month. But apartments in Anchorage rank third highest in the cost of utilities. Unsurprisingly, Anchorage apartments for rent aren't big on pools.

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Apartments with a dishwasher: 29%

29% Apartments with a washer-dryer: 22%

22% Apartments with a pool: 0%

0% Apartments with a fitness center: 16%

16% Apartments with parking: 25%

25% Pet-friendly apartments: 44%

3. Pittsburgh

Median rent for 1-bedroom apartment: $1,850

$1,850 Average square footage of 1-bedroom apartment: 604 sq. ft.

604 sq. ft. Cost of basic monthly utilities: $174

$174 Walkability score: 61

The average rent for Pittsburgh apartments increased by over $300 in the last seven years, from $627 in July 2009 to $958 in February 2016, according to RentJungle.com. And the most expensive apartments for rent in Pittsburgh are in Squirrel Hill North, Strip District and South Side Slopes.

Apartments with a dishwasher: 65%

65% Apartments with a washer-dryer: 33%

33% Apartments with a pool: 38%

38% Apartments with a fitness center: 41%

41% Apartments with parking: 35%

35% Pet-friendly apartments: 20%

4. St. Louis, Mo.

Median rent for 1-bedroom apartment: $700

$700 Average square footage of 1-bedroom apartment: 672 sq. ft.

672 sq. ft. Cost of basic monthly utilities: $142.92

$142.92 Walkability score: 64

St. Louis apartments rank seventh in terms of cities with the cheapest median rent for one-bedroom apartments. Another perk of apartments in St. Louis is the high prevalence of dishwashers.

Apartments with a dishwasher: 79%

79% Apartments with a washer-dryer: 30%

30% Apartments with a pool: 69%

69% Apartments with a fitness center: 53%

53% Apartments with parking: 25%

25% Pet-friendly apartments: 24%

5. Anaheim, Calif.

Median rent for 1-bedroom apartment: $1,606

$1,606 Average square footage of 1-bedroom apartment: 775.64 sq. ft.

775.64 sq. ft. Cost of basic monthly utilities: $127.90

$127.90 Walkability score: 53

Anaheim apartments offer low utility bills but high rents. But, many apartments for rent in Anaheim offer some great amenities, including pools.

Apartments with a dishwasher: 68%

68% Apartments with a washer-dryer: 28%

28% Apartments with a pool: 82%

82% Apartments with a fitness center: 57%

57% Apartments with parking: 64%

64% Pet-friendly apartments: 35%

6. Honolulu

Median rent for 1-bedroom apartment: $1,795

$1,795 Average square footage of 1-bedroom apartment: 538.50 sq. ft.

538.50 sq. ft. Cost of basic monthly utilities: $228.53

$228.53 Walkability score: 63

Hawaii might have natural beauty, but Honolulu apartments have the second-highest monthly utility costs. And, the median rent for a one-bedroom apartment is high as well. Honolulu also doesn't have many pet-friendly apartments for rent.

Apartments with a dishwasher: 40%

40% Apartments with a washer-dryer: 60%

60% Apartments with a pool: 60%

60% Apartments with a fitness center: 80%

80% Apartments with parking: 31%

31% Pet-friendly apartments: 2%

7. Tampa, Fla.

Median rent for 1-bedroom apartment: $1,100

$1,100 Average square footage of 1-bedroom apartment: 697.56

697.56 Cost of basic utilities per month: $127.26

$127.26 Walkability score: 49

One-bedroom apartments in Tampa have a lot going for them, including above-average square footage. Plus, Tampa apartments have fairly cheap utilities.

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Apartments with a dishwasher: 84%

84% Apartments with a washer-dryer: 55%

55% Apartments with a pool: 92%

92% Apartments with a fitness center: 84%

84% Apartments with parking: 26%

26% Pet-friendly apartments: 27%

8. New Orleans

Median rent for 1-bedroom apartment: $1,297.50

$1,297.50 Average square footage of 1-bedroom apartment: 695.86 sq. ft.

695.86 sq. ft. Cost of basic monthly utilities: $157.99

$157.99 Walkability score: 57

One-bedroom apartments in New Orleans rank in the top 20 for highest median rent. If you're looking for cheaper apartments for rent, the least expensive neighborhoods are Little Woods, Viavant-Venetian Isles and West Lake Forest, according to Rent Jungle.

Apartments with a dishwasher: 86%

86% Apartments with a washer-dryer: 64%

64% Apartments with a pool: 77%

77% Apartments with a fitness center: 47%

47% Apartments with parking: 20%

20% Pet-friendly apartments: 39%

9. Wichita, Kan.

Median rent for 1-bedroom apartment: $470

$470 Average square footage of 1-bedroom apartment: 595.30 sq. ft.

595.30 sq. ft. Cost of basic monthly utilities: $153.75

$153.75 Walkability score: 34

Wichita is the cheapest city on this list for one-bedroom apartments, with a median rent of only $470. And, a good portion of Wichita apartments for rent feature key amenities.

Apartments with a dishwasher: 90%

90% Apartments with a washer-dryer: 26%

26% Apartments with a pool: 76%

76% Apartments with a fitness center: 56%

56% Apartments with parking: 53%

53% Pet-friendly apartments: 38%

10. Cleveland

Median rent for 1-bedroom apartment: $525

$525 Average square footage of 1-bedroom apartment: 650 sq. ft.

650 sq. ft. Cost of basic monthly utilities: $114.05

$114.05 Walkability score: 59

Cleveland ranks as the city with the second-lowest median rent of $525 for a one-bedroom apartment. And, this city has one of the cheapest monthly utilities. A high percentage of Cleveland apartments also provide dishwashers and parking.

Apartments with a dishwasher: 72%

72% Apartments with a washer-dryer: 26%

26% Apartments with a pool: 45%

45% Apartments with a fitness center: 47%

47% Apartments with parking: 69%

69% Pet-friendly apartments: 42%

This is just a glimpse of what the average apartment looks like in 50 U.S. cities. To see your city and cities like Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City, check out the full apartment guide at GOBankingRates >>>

Keep Reading: Ultimate Guide to Spending Your Money in 42 Countries This Summer
Kira M. Newman

On June 5, Swiss voters will weigh in on a referendum for "universal basic income": a policy that would give every person, rich or poor, working or not, a modest amount of money per year -- no strings attached.

Although the Swiss vote is just preliminary -- the details would have to be hashed out in parliament, including the proposed amount of $2,500 per month -- it's the first time an entire country has weighed the idea. The United States and Canada conducted limited experiments with similar policies in the 1970s, but momentum stalled amidst changing political tides and controversy over the results.

Now, basic income is back on the table. In addition to the Swiss vote, the technology investor Y Combinator plans to offer basic income to a group of Americans for five years and study what happens. The Canadian province of Ontario will be designing a basic income pilot as a way to support residents who are struggling in today's labor market. Finland and the Netherlands have committed to basic income experiments that could reach over 100,000 people, and the nonprofit GiveDirectly is raising $30 million to offer thousands of Kenyans a basic income for up to 15 years.

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Not everyone is sold on the idea. Some have raised questions about its fiscal feasibility, while others have argued that people protected from risk may incur costs that others will have to pay.

But few advocates or opponents have explored the psychology of basic income -- or highlighted research about the policy's impact on people's well-being. Admittedly, predicting the effects of widespread policy change is a bit like trying to look through a keyhole. But there are reasons to believe that basic income could make us happier and fundamentally alter -- for good or for ill -- our sense of motivation and meaning in life.

Happiness for the poor

A few years ago, University of Manitoba professor Evelyn Forget went looking for data on Canada's 1970s guaranteed income experiment and found it in a warehouse in Winnipeg -- all 1,800 dusty boxes of it. When funding for data analysis hadn't come through, the paperwork had simply been loaded up into cardboard boxes and eventually shipped off to the National Archives.

Under "Mincome," Canadian families who didn't earn any income received an amount equal to 60 percent of the low-income cutoff (today, a total of about $10,000 for a family of four -- "enough to add some cream to the coffee," a participant said). For every dollar earned, benefits were reduced by 50 cents. The experiment ran for five years and reached the entire rural town of Dauphin, as well as some residents of Winnipeg.

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After a bit of data gymnastics -- cross-referencing data from other sources with what could be salvaged from the jumble -- a picture started to emerge. Professor Forget found that, when their family received basic income, people had fewer doctor visits for mental health issues; they were less likely to be hospitalized for such issues, as well as for accidents; and high school students were less likely to drop out. In other words, basic income seemed to be a buffer against the obstacles that particularly afflict people who are struggling to make ends meet. If implemented as proposed in Switzerland, basic income might also reduce the stigma of receiving welfare, because it's offered to everyone.

Similar results were found for a 2011-2013 GiveDirectly program that offered funds of around $400-$1,500 -- more than twice the monthly average household consumption -- to rural families in Kenya. Kenyans who received the money not only reported becoming less stressed and depressed over the course of the experiment, but they also showed increases in happiness and life satisfaction. When women were the recipients, their worries decreased while their self-esteem increased. This hints at the potential of basic income to empower women, perhaps because it enables them to leave abusive relationships and make more of their own life choices.

These findings wouldn't come as a surprise to Daniel Kahneman and Angus Deaton, authors of a seminal 2010 study on income and happiness. They found that money buys more happiness at incomes below a certain threshold (specifically, for Americans, up to an average annual household income of around $75,000). After that point -- where, perhaps, families don't have to worry about basic necessities anymore -- the relationship between income and happiness breaks down.

"The evidence from various sources is that a basic income provides people with basic security, which increases their sense of control over life," says Guy Standing, co-founder and co-president of the Basic Income Earth Network and a professor at the University of London.

Standing has a point, one that gets to the heart of what financial security means: control. Considerable psychological research suggests that a sense of autonomy is a basic human need, and acting from a place of autonomy has been associated with higher well-being, more creativity, more productivity, and less burnout.

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"Basic income allows people to think farther into the future," says Beth Rhodes, research director at Y Combinator. "You could cut back hours, spend time with a child, leave the labor market to get further training or education, make more decisions, and have a little bit more freedom, in that you're not going to have to worry about how to pay rent."

Knowing that whatever you do, you won't starve or live on the streets is liberating -- and that's part of the promise of basic income.

A threat to motivation?

Basic income doesn't only influence our access to resources; it also affects our relationship to work, and this effect is perhaps even harder to predict and less clearly positive. If we don't absolutely have to work, will we still continue to toil away at our jobs? Would this liberation free us, or paralyze us with choice?

Around the 1970s, at the same time that Canada was testing guaranteed income in Manitoba, the United States conducted four experiments with a policy that provided payments to people who earned below a certain financial threshold, enabling them to reach that threshold -- what's called a "negative income tax." These experiments reached over 7,000 people, setting thresholds that varied from 50 to 150 percent of the poverty line.

People did work less -- but it wasn't as bad as media reports at the time suggested. Across all five experiments in the United States and Canada, husbands reduced their weekly work by up to nine percent, while wives and single mothers reduced their work by up to 30 percent. In Canada, female spouses reentered the workforce more slowly after a break, perhaps allocating more time to child care. Teen men also worked less because they entered the workforce later, likely staying in school longer. Mostly, people weren't actually working less per week but starting, going back to, or finding work more slowly -- an outcome that isn't inherently a negative one. Investing in education or taking more time to find the right job could be beneficial in the long term, both psychologically and financially.

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This accords with a recent survey of more than 1,000 Swiss, only 2 percent of whom reported that they would completely stop working under basic income. Instead, 22 percent said they would start their own business or work for themselves, and 54 percent would pursue an academic degree.

As Yale University professor Amy Wrzesniewski and her colleagues explain in a recent paper, for some people work is merely a "job" -- something they do for the money, a necessary evil that they would avoid if they could. But others have a "calling" -- they get innate satisfaction from what they do and see themselves as contributing to the world. In the middle lie people with a "career," who aren't simply in it for the money but also value achievement and advancement in their field.

According to this formulation, people with a job might stop working, or at least find a different one, under a basic income scheme. But the rest of us have other reasons to show up at the office.

Unfortunately, we're experiencing something of a crisis of meaning at work these days. According to a 2013 Gallup report surveying 230,000 workers in 142 countries, 63 percent of people were not engaged at work -- unenergetic and "checked out -- and another 24 percent actively hated their jobs. Only 13 percent felt passionate about what they did on a daily basis.

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Change attitudes first, income second

Barry Schwartz, a professor at Swarthmore College and author of Why We Work , lays part of the blame on our cultural attitudes.

As he explains, when society believes money is the only incentive to work, corporations feel free to design jobs that are monotonous and deadening. That saps motivation, and we start to internalize the view that "work" is something you do only for money, because you have to.

This is why Schwartz is pessimistic about how people would respond to basic income -- at least in the short term. "People are shaped by the social institutions within which they live," he says. "If you gave everybody enough to live on, it wouldn't surprise me if people basically did just sit on their asses. It's a real possibility that this would be a motivational disaster."

Schwartz recalls an experiment he did about 40 years ago in a motivation course at Swarthmore College. At the beginning of the semester, he announced that everyone in the class would get a B, no matter how much work they did or didn't do -- think of it as "basic grades." Students were assigned tests and papers, but their grades wouldn't count; they would have to study because they wanted to learn.

In a humbling surprise, the experiment was an "abysmal failure": Enthusiastic at first, students started lagging during midterm week, fell behind, and stopped coming to class; only 10 percent even turned in a term paper. But Schwartz didn't blame the students; he blamed a university system and culture where grades are everything. "I have a feeling that something like this would happen if you took financial incentives away cold-turkey," he says.

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Workers might become the equivalent of college graduates supported by a trust fund, who don't absolutely need to work and don't know what they want to do with their lives. We aren't all budding entrepreneurs bursting with the next big idea, simply held back by the steep price of ramen.

Che Wagner, a 25-year-old co-organizer of the movement for basic income in Switzerland, admits that basic income might make us all a bit uncomfortable. "The idea goes to the personal question: What are you doing in your life?" he says. "Is it actually what you want to do?" That might be a question that we've never asked ourselves before.

A more meaningful life

All that said, in the long term, Schwartz is optimistic that people receiving basic income would reconnect with their intrinsic motivation for meaningful, engaging work. He also believes that basic income could change working conditions for the better by giving workers a little more bargaining power -- an idea endorsed by other academics.

"An unconditional basic income would make it easier for employees to leave unpleasant jobs," writes Jan Ott, a researcher at Erasmus University Rotterdam. "It would stimulate employers to treat employees with respect." If not, employees can leave--and not worry about putting food on the table while they search for a more fulfilling job and a healthier work environment.

And if people are able to find meaningful work, that would open up all the benefits that flow from having a calling, including higher job satisfaction, less stress and depression, more commitment, and a more meaningful life. If they're able to cut back on their work hours, they could spend time nurturing other major sources of meaning in life, including relationships with their family, friends, and community.

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"Work is a big source of meaning for us now," says Rhodes from Y Combinator. "If there are a lot of people who lose jobs, we have to figure out a new way to find meaning -- and if basic income fosters that community and that social engagement, that could be a real opportunity."

None of those countries have adopted basic income -- and it doesn't appear likely that Switzerland will be the first to test the policy in the wild. According to an April poll, only 40 percent of the population is in favor of basic income, and most experts predict that the referendum will fail. But it might be telling, after years of rising inequality in the US and elsewhere, that basic income is suddenly up for debate. The controversy over this policy shows just how conflicted, confused, and hopeful we are about money and work, and their potential to contribute to a more meaningful life.


Too much verse translation is much too free and loose. We must take the time and effort to preserve both meaning AND form (including meter and rhyme where they exist) without sacrificing one for the other. Though we can never fully translate verse from one language to another, we can come close if we're willing to work hard enough. To illustrate this, I want to give some French to English examples of my own. I don't claim they are perfect by any means but I think they make my point. I ask the reader to pull the original French texts and compare them with what I have done. I break my examples into seven parts (I-VII).

I. For my first example, MacIntyre claimed: "No one has ever translated, or can or will translate, this poem properly; yet it offers the supreme challenge, the shifting lure of the bright impossible." I suggest MacIntyre didn't try hard enough.

Fall's Song

(Chanson d'automne)

By Paul Verlaine



The long sobbings

Of fiddle strings

Of Fall wound

My heart by

Monotony

Of dull sound.

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Suffocating, pale,

Hearing clocks wale

As chimes keep

The hours, I'm cast

To years long past

And I weep;

And then I go

With winds that blow

Ill, that hurl

Me here and there

And everywhere

Dead leaves swirl.

II. These next three poems are examples where insufficient effort has not only involved lack of inventive effort. It has also involved lack of another sort of effort: simply pulling the necessary older French dictionaries to discern period meaning where it differs from current French.

Du Bellay's Regrets, Number 1

In nature's bosom I've no wish to pry,

No wish to find what cosmos truly is,

No wish to sound dark depths of the abyss,

Or sketch grand architectures of the sky.

The ink I use has not so rich a dye,

Nor does my verse explore such loftiness:

Down here I merely write about what is--

Though good or bad--by chance I versify.

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My lines hear my complaints if I've regret,

I laugh with them, my secrets, too, they get

As trusted secretaries of my heart.

I do not wish to comb or curl them, though,

Or hide them under gallant names as though

They're more than merely jottings on my part.

Du Bellay's Regrets, Number 38

O happy is the man whose life is spent

With others like himself! He need not feign,

Fear, strive or envy. He can peacefully reign

In his poor home ambitionless, content.

The miserable cares of more accomplishment

Can't tyrannize or otherwise restrain

Him when all wealth he wishes to attain

Is heritage that comes from his descent.

He's not preoccupied with others' rank.

For his great hopes he has himself to thank.

His court, king, patron, and his boss he is.

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He never risks his wealth in foreign states,

Nor risks his life for other men's estates,

Nor wishes greater wealth than now is his.

Du Bellay's Regrets, Number 51 (To Mauny)

Let's look for pleasure in adversity.

We have no good of which we are assured;

Yet, in misfortune we can hope, assured

That ill luck like all luck shifts constantly.

Wise sailors flinch at Neptune's charity

Since sunny days have never long endured,

And random storms of course must be preferred

To constant fear of what might lurk at sea.

Thus, virtues are enhanced by storms we bear.

Whenever fortune dims our virtue, we

Find strength and light in our adversity;

When good luck tricks us with its lying face,

Ill fortune culls out flatterers we face

And helps to make our own self-knowledge clear.

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III. A symbolist poem such as the following might seem daunting but I believe that it too can be sufficiently conquered.

Gilded Verses

(Vers dores)

By Gerard de Nerval

Oh! All is sentient!

-- -Pythagoras

Free-thinking man! You think that only you

Think in a world where life bursts in all things?

Despite the forces that your freedom brings

You, you don't give the universe its due.

Respect the mind that stirs in creatures, too.

Each flower's a soul that Nature has enclosed.

Love's secrets have in metals, too, reposed.

"Oh! All is sentient" and affecting you!

Beware in the blind wall a look that sees

You--even matter has its language. Thus,

Treat nothing in a way that's scandalous!

Gods often hide in obscure entities,

And as babes' eyes beneath their lids begin

Maturing, pure minds grow beneath stones' skin!

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IV. Fables, too, are worth the effort!

The Cicada and the Ant

(La cigale et la fourmi)

By Jean de la Fontaine

Cicada having sung her song

All summer long,

Found all her cupboards bare

Once winter's winds were there.

She couldn't even spy

A bit of worm or fly.

She cried of hunger's gnaw

To a neighbor ant she saw,

And begged a bit of grain

To ease her hunger pain

Till spring had come instead.

"I'll pay you back," she said,

By harvest--word of animal--

Both interest and the principal."

The ant was not a lending bug,

Of all her faults it was her least.

"What did you do till summer ceased?"

She asked the beggar with a shrug.

"I sang all night and day

If Madame finds it fine."

"You sang? Why, that's divine.

Now dance instead I'd say!"

The Wolf And The Lamb

(Le loup et l'agneau)

By Jean De La Fontaine

The strongest beast is right we say

As we can show here right away:

A thirsty lamb was drinking where

It found a pure and flowing creek.

A starving wolf then came to seek

His luck--his hunger drew him there.

"What makes you foul my waters here?"

The wolf barked at the fleece's ear.

"You'll pay for your temerity."

The lamb then said, "Your Majesty,

If you'd just hold your anger back

And measure out my careful track

You'd see I've merely come to drink

In waters which I'd surely think

Are twenty paces down from you,

So I could not in any way

Be doing harm as you would say."

The beast responded: "Yes, you do,

Mean lamb who slandered me last year."

"How so? I was not born, I fear,"

He bleated, "I am nursing yet."

"Then was your brother." "I regret

I've none." "Then was your family--

They are the worst group I have met--

Those shepherds, dogs and sheep all three--

I've heard enough; it's vengeance now."

He dragged the lamb into the trees

And had his dinner anyhow

With no more process, no more pleas.

V. If a child can write a masterpiece, I want to believe an adult can capture most of it in English.

Evil

(Le mal)

By Arthur Rimbaud

While crimson globs of grapeshot spittle fly

All day across the wide blue firmament;

While green and scarlet troops of soldiers fry

Close by the king who mocks them as they're spent;

While awful madness grinds away until

A hundred thousand men smoke in a mound--

Poor dead that nature made in her goodwill

With joy, in summer, in the grass and ground!

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There is a God who laughs at altars laid

With damask, incense and their cups of gold;

Who falls asleep in sweet Hosannah's fold,

And wakes again when mothers come arrayed

In anguish weeping in their black old caps

To give him one whole penny each unwraps!

VI. As an interlude, I give a nod to a French Canadian. We should not forget their art!

The Gold Ship

(Le vaisseau d'or)

By Emile Nelligan

It was a massive ship, a gold-carved one

Whose masts touched azure upon seas unknown;

Love's Venus, naked skin, hair sparsely strewn,

Sprawled on the prow in the excessive sun.

One night she struck a large and perilous

Reef in that lying sea where sirens lull

And the horrific wreck inclined its hull

Toward the abyss, changeless sarcophagus.

It was a gold ship whose translucency

Revealed some treasures profane hands at sea

(disgust, hate and neurosis) could contest.

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How much is left in a brief storm like this?

Where does my heart, deserted vessel, rest?

Alas! It sank into the dream's abyss!

VII. Finally, the length of verse drama may especially tempt a lazy approach. However, again, the reader deserves better. Setting out a whole play would be too long for a blog and I hope a selection can make my point.

Racine's Phedre (a Selection)

(Theseus's prayers for his son's death were unfortunately answered)

Theseus

My son's no more? When I would give my arm

To him, the gods are quick to do him harm?

What blow has stricken him? What thunder blast?

Theramenes

Through Trozene's outer gates we just had passed.

He rode his chariot. His guards were sad.

In silence, too, they circled round the lad.

Pensive, he took the Mycenaean[1] road.

He barely held the reins taut as he rode,

And his great horses that we used to see

Obey their master's voice so eagerly

Now walked downcast. They seemed to imitate

A master's sadness in their mournful gait.

From deep beneath the waves a frightful cry

Disturbed the peaceful airs that filled the sky.

A fearsome voice then deep beneath the ground

Groaned in response to that first awful sound.

Deep down within our hearts our blood froze and

We saw the manes on all the horses stand

Up straight. The watery plain then arched its back

Into a foaming mountain. The attack

Was on: the waves spewed out and we could see

An awful monster rising from the sea.

His face was huge and armed with horns. The grim

Beast had foul yellow scales all over him.

Untamable, that beast, that dragon next

Heaved up and coiled its awful parts. It flexed

As endless bellows caused the shores to quake.

The sky was horrified to see it snake

And move the earth as it fouled, too, the air.

In fear, the waves that brought it drew back. There

Then followed flight--no point in being brave--

All sought some shelter that some temple gave--

Except Hippolytus. The hero's son

Just stopped his horses, grabbed his spears, hurled one

With his sure hand right at the monster. He

Then hit and wounded it most grievously.

The monster bounding in fierce rage and pain

Fell roaring at the horses' feet. Again,

It rolled. It bared a burning mouth that spoke

With blood and fire. All covered up in smoke,

The frightened horses had forgotten all.

They didn't know their reins or master's call.

He tried in vain to take control. They bled.

They gnashed their bits. Their mouths were foamy red.

Next in this horrid spectacle some say

A god was seen, too, spurring them away.

In fear they dashed across the rocks from us.

The axles screamed and broke. Hippolytus

Then saw his chariot flying, crashing. He

Fell tangled in the reins most pitifully.

Oh, what a horrid scene! I am afraid

I'll cry forever at the sight he made.

Dragged by the very horses he had fed,

I saw your brave son struggle as they fled.

He tried to call them back. That scared them more.

They ran. His body was one wound, one sore.

Our sad cries echoed all around the plain.

At last their stamina began to wane.

They stopped close by the ancient tombs that hold

His family's relics, bones that now lie cold.

I ran there sighing. His guards followed me

Upon a trail of blood there off the sea--

The rocks were painted crimson where he bled.

There thorns held red locks ripped out of his head.

When I arrived, I called him, offered my

Hand. He just cracked then quickly closed one eye.

"The gods have killed a guiltless man," he said.

"Look after Aricia when I'm dead.

My friend, if Father learns the truth one day

And pities how they treated me you may

Appease my blood and ghost if you will tell

Our Theseus to treat his captive well,

To give her...." At that word the hero died.

I held his tattered body by my side,

The work of angry gods, his sad corpse you

Would never recognize as one you knew.

Theseus

My son! My dearest hope! I erred! You fell!

Inexorable gods, you served me much too well!

I'm cursed with everlasting grief and blame!

Again, please pull out the original French and compare. Tell me what you think. Tell me how and where any of this can be improved--I'm sure it all can be improved or other versions would work at least as well. Part of the fun and enlightenment of verse translation is seeing that verse translation is not merely a matter of substituting one word for another. Capturing both meaning and form requires creativity well beyond that. I think it also teaches valuable lessons to those who think that any text has only one meaning across language (including any single language itself). This lesson goes beyond art to fundamentalism of other sorts as well.

This and other posts can also be read on my person blog here and here.
I unknowingly created a tool for children who needed it the most. Being a dentist wasn't enough for me. The impact I make as an oral health educator makes me feel truly accomplished. Professionally, I feel complete!





I still recall our elementary school in India requiring that our nails be trim and clean, hair neatly tied in white ribbons and shoes polished to a gleam. We would have daily inspections. In dental college I learned how oral health affected our overall well-being and how much more important oral hygiene screening would have been, especially when compared to well-polished shoes!

In dental college, Community Dentistry class gave us an opportunity to work in rural villages. It was shocking how many kids with swollen faces I came across in a single day. I remember examining a four-year-old girl. She had a piece of dead bone in her mouth that had partially separated from her jaw (also known as sequestrum). As a young student, I was unsure of the diagnosis. Even after all these years, I remember rushing to my professor saying, "You've got to see this". He was able to tell that an untreated tooth infection had resulted in a jaw infection, causing a part of the bone "to die". Although we were able to treat the child, what bothered me was that her parents had taken their daughter to a priest for spiritual treatment instead of a dentist.

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It has almost been 20 years since that incident and to this day, it remains a vivid memory to me. I have never been able to shrug away the fact that a little education about dental health will go a long way. Years of practice since then have left no doubt in my mind that oral health education is severely lacking even in a country as advanced as the United States. Teeth are directly connected to our body and any infection goes straight into the blood. If a child is diabetic or has heart problems, it is even more important that they keep their teeth clean. Dental infections for them especially, could result in serious complications.

After dental college, I moved to United States. Of course, USA was way advanced when it came to dentistry. I had the best technology, instruments and top-of-the-line materials to work with. I was in dental heaven and then I came face-to-face with Nursing Bottle Syndrome (NBS). How could a country like USA have problems as preventable as NBS, I wondered! Why didn't pediatricians and dentists collaborate to educate parents? Day after day, I treated toddlers who faced pain and extensive treatment for NBS. "Is my job only to fix teeth once the damage has been done? Is that all I've signed up for?" were questions that haunted me.

Britney Spears Has it Good

I couldn't play the passive onlooker any longer. In an effort to educate the world, I wrote to what now seems like every single magazine and newspaper I had heard of. I was disappointed to learn that for the commercial media, Britney Spears' haircut was apparently more important than educating parents. Undeterred, I kept pitching local papers and parents newsletters until I succeeded. Huffington Post, Greater Kashmir, Daily O, Mother and Child Magazine. and many other media outlets published my articles on that topic.

Adults however, weren't my only audience. I felt compelled, almost obsessive about reaching out to children. How could I get kids to manage their own dental care? The question tossed and turned in my head and eventually resulted in a series of children's books, my foray as a writer. I wrote Sam and the Sugar Bug, Leila and the Tooth Fairy and Leila's First Visit to the Dentist. Later, I added narration and sound effects to Sam and the Sugar Bug and released it in iBooks. It makes my day to see that Sam and the Sugar Bug has four times more reviews than Cat in the Hat or Green Eggs and Ham. All three titles continue to be the only books to educate children about the importance of good oral health in a fun and engaging manner, especially kids with special needs. I recently wrote another book, Funny Teeth and Bunny Ears to help children quit thumb sucking. Today, all my books are available on Amazon.com, Android and Sam and the Sugar Bug is also available in iBooks.



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The Reviews in iBooks

Truth be told, I could have never imagined that my books would find their way into the National Resource List for Kids with Special Needs or that I would be featured on Austim Live. To this day, whenever I hear from parents of kids with Special Needs about the difference the books have made, I feel a sense of satisfaction that I didn't stop at wringing my hands in despair but that I did something about the issue. In the process, I unknowingly created a tool for children who most needed it. Professionally, I feel complete. Being a dentist wasn't enough for me. The impact I make as an oral health educator makes me feel truly accomplished.
Rising sea levels will now take small but distinct bite out of the pocketbooks belonging to land owners around the San Francisco Bay. In an historic first, Measure AA was approved by San Francisco Bay Area voters on June 7, establishing the first tax to pay for the impacts of climate change. Local property will be dinged with a parcel tax of $12 per year to help finance shoreline projects to defend against rising sea levels in the San Francisco Bay. The parcel tax is expected to bring in over $500 million in the coming years, and an even greater number of dollars in matching grants. That's all to the good. Agreeing to a tiny tax now in order to avoid ruinous costs later is just common sense. However, that tiny ding might turn into a tiny sting whenever one looks up the road at the big oil refinery run by Chevron over in Richmond and wonders: why aren't Chevron and the other big carbon polluters paying this bill?

On it's own, Measure AA is a no-brainer. Denying the existence of rising sea levels is a bit like sticking your head in the sand. It just guarantees flooded basements and submerged roads during high tides and storms over the years to come.

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But denying the existence of climate change is exactly what Chevron and the other big carbon polluters have been doing for decades. Even as recently as last year Chevron and other big oil companies were outed for funding a stealth campaign to delay climate action in California.

It's hard to know how exactly much of the coming damage could have been avoided had the U.S. and other governments moved to act as soon as the science was clear. But now the bills are rolling in and it's only going to get worse. Temperatures will continue to rise until fossil fuel pollution is reduced all the way down to zero. Only then will warming stop completely. And even the most optimistic believe that will take several decades.

Making the transition to zero emissions by 2050 or so will probably be enough to avoid truly catastrophic climate change. But it won't be enough to stop the damages in the meantime, and the bills will continue to mount until the warming is the stopped, completely.

Looking backwards, it was two decades ago that the U.S. made a fateful choice. Urged on by the fossil fuel companies, the U.S. spurned the newly signed Kyoto Protocol and kept on moving straight down the fossil-fueled road. In contrast, Europe headed down the clean energy road. As a result, emissions plunged in Europe, but continued to increase in the U.S. Not surprisingly, China and India followed the U.S. down the dirty road.

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As a result global warming has past the 1 C mark and is marching upward. To put that into context, it only took a shift of 6-8 C in past geologic eras to swing the planets' climate between ice ages and global tropical conditions that witnessed crocodiles in the arctic.

Not surprisingly then, the big insurance company Munich Re reports that damages from climate-related natural disasters globally, such as storms and heat waves, have soared by hundreds of billions of dollars over the last several decades while damages from geophysical disasters such as earthquakes have remained flat.

Taxpayers are often left holding the bill for these climate related disasters. The U.S. flood insurance program has been running up billions in arrears in recent years. And just a few weeks ago the federal government announced that relocating the first official climate refugees from disappearing shores of Louisiana will cost $48 million.

We have a long history in the United States of making polluters pay for cleaning up the damages they incurred, and all the more so when they knew what they were doing. And the big carbon polluters knew exactly what they were doing in promoting climate denial, as has been revealed by numerous investigations including a recent Pulitzer Prize winning run of news stories.

Several state attorneys general are now investigating Exxon and other big carbon polluters for hiding the impact of fossil-fuel pollution. Much like the tobacco companies were held to account for their actions, the clamor is growing to hold the big fossil-fuel companies accountable.

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By Keira Monclair

I started writing on a whim. I loved historical romance so much that I decided to try creating it, and I was surprised by how easily the words flowed. I researched how to get a book published, hired an editor, submitted to contests, and sent out queries, but nothing came of it.

I joined Romance Writers of America, which was a tremendous help, and started learning more about writing in the genre. So I rewrote, and rewrote, and sent out more query letters. Still no luck.

But I kept writing.

Four years later, in 2013, I had two completed historical romances, but could still not get them published through the traditional route. There they sat on my computer. Around that time, my daughter and her husband were trying to get pregnant, and after many trips to fertility clinics, they were looking into in-vitro fertilization and adoption. Both were so prohibitively expensive, my daughter basically gave up on her dream of becoming a mother.

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I wanted more than anything to help, but we had so much debt that it was out of the question. After a tearful phone call with my daughter, I decided to take action. I still had those manuscripts, and I'd heard about self-publishing through Amazon. I decided to look into it in the hopes of assisting my daughter and her husband with the costs of IVF.

I had no idea what I was doing, but somehow managed to contact the right people from the start. Kim Killion and Jenn Jakes from the Killion Group helped me get my first novel ready to sell. They do cover design, formatting, and other services provided by a traditional publishing house, and they helped me publish through Kindle Direct Publishing and CreateSpace, both through Amazon. They have been such a blessing, and I've worked with them on every novel since then.

That first novel, Rescued by a Highlander, took off beyond my wildest expectations and now has over four hundred reviews on Amazon. It was the first book in what has become my bestselling Clan Grant series.

A year later, I was able to quit my job as a nursing instructor to write full-time, and it's been wonderful! I still publish through Amazon. I found a great editor, Angela Polidoro, who started with me on my third novel, and she has been so helpful and insightful with my writing that I fear the day I would have to publish without her input.

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The best part about my success is that I was able to help my daughter. My twin granddaughters were born in December of 2015, thanks to IVF. Yay!!!

Now, for the first time in my life, my husband and I are debt free except for our mortgage and one car payment. I have published eight novels in my first series, The Clan Grant, which is Scottish Medieval Historical Romance, and three books in my second Scottish series, The Highland Clan. I also have started a contemporary series, The Summerhill Series, set in The Finger Lakes of Western New York.

A new career, granddaughters, and a bevy of wonderful readers. What more could I ask for?

# # #

For more about Keira Montclair and her books, visit her website at www.keiramontclair.com.
TIJUANA, MEXICO - MAY 01: Deported family members of 'Dreamers' and their supporters pray at the U.S.-Mexico border fence on May 1, 2016 in Tijuana, Mexico. 'Dreamers' are U.S.-born American citizen children of undocumented immigrants, many of whom were deported back to their home countries. Mexicans on the Tijuana side can approach the border fence at any time. The U.S. Border Patrol, however, tightly controls the San Diego, CA side and allows visitors to speak to loved ones through the fence during specific weekend hours at 'Friendship Park,' which straddles the border. The park is the only place along the 1,954-mile border where such interactions are permitted by U.S. authorities. On only three occassions have U.S. officials allowed a gate to be opened at the park for pre-screened separated family members to embrace. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

I was undocumented. A black undocumented migrant.

Being undocumented instilled a constant and nagging fear that my entire life could be turned upside down at any moment. I worried that I would be ripped away from a country -- no, the only country -- I loved and knew. I worried that I would be separated from my American family members and sent to a country that was foreign to me.

I came to the U.S. with my parents from Nigeria when I was only a few months old. Both of my parents had been admitted to study at American universities and were part of the exodus of African migrants who were being educated in Western universities. The rest of my migration story is a bit blurry because I always assumed that I was an American citizen. I grew up here. I related more to African American culture than Nigerian culture in many ways. All my friends were American. My brothers were American. I had an American accent. How could I not be American?

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Yet, after experiencing difficulties obtaining government-issued identification during my first year in high school and the ensuing confusion that followed, I learned of my undocumented status. At first I was angry. How could my parents let this happen? This was irresponsible I thought. How could I not be able to get identification when I would be entering college in a few years? This constant fear did something to my psyche.

However, I was very fortunate and able to change my status some years after confirming that I was undocumented. My parents eventually secured an attorney, and soon after, I was granted permanent residence status. Because I was granted lawful status, I was able to attend college. I graduated from law school with honors. I clerked on some of the same federal courts as many of the current Supreme Court clerks who will be involved in providing research for the United States v. Texas decision, and now I work as a social justice attorney. I consider the United States to be my "home" country. With all its flaws, faults, and shortcomings, I believe that this is a great country. My country. I have devoted my professional life to social justice, and the only reason I bother is because I believe in this country.

However, my story easily could have been different. Had I been racially profiled, like many of my high school friends from my hometown of Yonkers, NY, and made the mistake of shoplifting, like many teenagers, my story would be different. I might have been deported. Barred from becoming a citizen. Thankfully, I was lucky. And, this did not happen.

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Most Americans believe that everyone deserve a second chance, and that mistakes like shoplifting shouldn't ruin your life. But our criminal justice system does ruin the lives of many immigrants who come into contact with it. Even under the provisions of Obama's executive actions, which are currently being challenged in the United v. Texas case, I could have been deported from this country.

This hypothetical highlights the gaps in Obama's executive actions, especially when you consider the full scope of the injustices that persist in our current immigration system. Immigrants should be treated fairly, yet there are draconian laws that make it difficult for immigrants to contribute to society. While Obama's executive actions will provide relief to millions of immigrants, we must continue to demand comprehensive immigration reform. Furthermore, immigration reform must be sensitive to the unique challenges of migrants of color, especially black migrants who face increased policing and profiling. Until then, we have Obama's executive actions. In the coming weeks, the U.S. Supreme Court will issue its decision in United States v. Texas, and there is no question that the initiatives should be upheld, allowing immigrants to come out and continue making contributions to this country without the persistent fear of deportation.
A new postal stamp in French Polynesia highlights a mural at the "ONO'U" festival in Tahiti, a first for the multi-island country as well as the French Street Artist SETH and his local Tahitian collaborator, HTJ.

Introduced in New York last week at the decennial World Stamp Show, an eight-day stamp extravaganza visited by a quarter of a million people, the new 140 CFP stamp depicts his mural at the 2015 "ONO'U" festival, as shot by photographer Martha Cooper.

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French Street Artist SETH mural for ONO'U Street Art and Graffiti Festival in Tahiti, French Polynesia in 2015 was selected by the country's Postal Service for their new Philatelic Stamp issued in time to represent French Polynesia at the World Stamp Show in New York City this year. SETH was assited on this mural by HTJ. (photo  Jaime Rojo)

The six-story painting depicts a sleeping French Polynesian girl wrapped in a traditional pareo dress that also morphs into traditional bed covering called tifaifai. "To design the patterns he collaborated with a local artist, HTJ, " says ONO'U co-founder Sarah Roopinia,"and Seth conceptualized the girl sleeping, protected under the traditional patterns. It's like a guardian protecting her with her culture and also she's also representing dreaming about the future of French Polynesia."

The white cut-out forms on the intense rouge background have propelled the design to stardom among ONO'U's social media followers and when the postal service approached organizers to make a commemorative stamp of the 2-year old mural festival in downtown Papeete, Roopinia and her co-founder Jean Ozonder jumped at the chance. "What we liked with this production was having the opportunity to broaden the impact of street art and to have more people be aware of it," she says. "To us the idea of a postal stamp was an original initiative and a way to bring this art into an area where you would not expect to find it."

SETH. ONO'U Street Art and Graffiti Festival. Tahiti, French Polynesia. 2015. (photo  Martha Cooper)

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Looking at the patterns in the bedspread you may also see more than the folklore forms of typical plant leaves and the Tiare flower that many wear tucked behind an ear in archetypical portraits. You also may recognize a symbol for radiation near the girl's back and the form of an atomic mushroom cloud near her bended knees, both referencing the approximately 175 nuclear tests that France did on the island of Moruroa from roughly 1966 to 1996, tests which The Gaurdian now says "showered vast area(s) of Polynesia with radioactivity."

By inclusion of these symbols with more traditional symbols in the new piece one is reminded of the inclusion of historical disasters traditionally in folk art ranging from pottery to quilting. Since we began making art we have been storytelling about natural disasters, man-made disasters, wars, political upheavals, societal shifts, milestone events and religious practices.

HTJ assists SETH with the mural's background motif. ONO'U Street Art and Graffiti Festival. Tahiti, French Polynesia. 2015. (photo  Martha Cooper)

As street art-influenced murals have gained a wider audience across the world and certain works and artists are highly celebrated, there have been other issues of official stamps in recent years including works from Invader, Shepard Fairey, C215, Rero, Vhils, Ludo, and Mis Tic. The presidents of France and Singapore released a dual "Street Art" stamp a year ago and a recent Polish stamp depicts a 4 story wall by Polish painter Natalia Rak in Biaystok, Poland, of a young girl in traditional Polish dress who is watering a tree.

The ONO'U festival is now readying for its third edition and Ms. Roopinia was in New York with Mr. Ozonder to check out the current street art scene, the Coney Art Walls, the Governors Ball concerts and to share their new stamp with the thousands of people trekking by at the stamp exhibition. Roopinia tells us that the hugely successful festival draws top names for exhibition and competition from both the street art and graffiti world, but initially the mayor of Papeete, landlords, and the local businesses were rather hesitant, as were street artists who had not considered going to a place where there was not a large graffiti or street art scene to speak of.

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SETH. ONO'U Street Art and Graffiti Festival. Tahiti, French Polynesia. 2015. (photo  Martha Cooper)

"The challenge that we had was convincing the best street artists in the world to come to a 'lost paradise' to paint gigantic walls right in the center of the city. For a whole year we were working on finding walls, convincing the owners. Basically for the first six months no one was willing to give us their walls because they thought that it was all going to be horrible -- so convincing the population was difficult," she says.

"I could feel that some of the politicians were not very happy that we were going to do this in the beginning because they didn't understand exactly that a small team could do such great things with artists," she says, but the response of locals and businesses was overwhelmingly good, and word of the festival spread among artists, not least because most of their costs are covered and, by the way, they are painting in Tahiti after all.

SETH. ONO'U Street Art and Graffiti Festival. Tahiti, French Polynesia. 2015. (photo  Martha Cooper)

"The second year the volume was really incredible," says Jean of the interest that was piqued and the good reviews that went out among artists. "So many guys wanted to be invited to be a guest or to make a wall and we said 'We can't invite everybody because there is a budget.'

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And quite a substantial budget it is. The partners say they have to raise over 300,000 a year and "80 percent of the festival is funded by private partners and sponsors," including brand names like Nissan, Perrier, and Montana paints. The remaining 20 percent is funded by the city and the Ministry of Tourism.

SETH. ONO'U Street Art and Graffiti Festival. Tahiti, French Polynesia. 2015. (photo  Martha Cooper)

"The festival is always about two things," says Roopinia, "There are 'the main walls' which are by larger names like Seth or Kobra that are right in the center of the city you can walk from one wall to the other, making a very beautiful art promenade or city walk. At the same time that this is happening there's a contest that invites mostly graffiti artists -- in the rules it's only aerosol and there are no stencils -- we really try to keep it strictly graffiti."

Considering they already have a stamp and cruises are now dropping off visitors to walk through the streets and discover murals, it looks like ONO'U is putting Tahiti on the map for international street mural fans. "There is a general enthusiasm," says Roopinia of people not just in Tahiti but across many of the 118 islands of French Polynesia. "So the festival is taking place on Tahiti and in Pepeete (the capital) where most people live but the impact is also through the TV, the Internet, and on the social media. But also in the outer islands they were flying to come in to see the walls and talk to the artists during the festival. Everybody is out walking in the streets talking with the artists, taking pictures."

HTJ assists SETH with the mural's background motif. ONO'U Street Art and Graffiti Festival. Tahiti, French Polynesia. 2015. (photo  Martha Cooper)

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SETH . HTJ. ONO'U Street Art and Graffiti Festival. Tahiti, French Polynesia. 2015. (photo  Martha Cooper)

SETH. ONO'U Street Art and Graffiti Festival. Tahiti, French Polynesia. 2015. (photo  Martha Cooper)

SETH and HTJ's mural for ONO'U Street Art and Graffiti Festival in Tahiti, French Polynesia and the Philatelic Stamp on a post marked envelope. (photo  Jaime Rojo)

The full sheet of stamps. (photo  Jaime Rojo)

Click HERE to learn more about ONO'U Tahiti Festival. Graffiti and Street Art. Tahiti, French Polynesia.Our very special thanks to photographer Martha Cooper for sharing her photos with BSA readers.

Please note: All content including images and text are  BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer's name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!

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This article is also posted on Brooklyn Street Art.

Read all posts by Steven P. Harrington and Jaime Rojo on The Huffington Post HERE.

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SMERCONISH: That is not an answer...why hasn't the motion been filed?

LORD: Look look look look...this man is a lifetime member of the Hispanic Bar Association...

VAN JONES: Nothing wrong with that.

LORD: ...which on July 2nd of last year, put out a statement saying that there should be a boycott of all Trump properties .

CUPP; That is also not an answer to Michael's question.

(overtalk)

LORD: What his lawyers are going to do (overtalk)...

SMERCONISH: I am an attorney. If I were HIS attorney, I could not say, I would run afoul of the Code of Conduct if I were saying extra judicially what he is saying.

LORD: He is running for President of the United States.

(overtalk)

LORD: Are we going to have a Judiciary that is infected by racial politics?

(overtalk)

CUPP: This is a total distraction from both Michael's question and what the hell this has to do with the actual case - nothing - and the notion of Donald Trump out of one side of his mouth saying 'Hispanics love me, they are going to vote for me because I have not said anything disparaging' to him now saying 'this Hispanic hates me because I have said disparaging things' . You can't have it both ways. You can't be winning the Hispanic vote and having Hispanics love you and have THIS Hispanic be biased because you have said things disparaging about Hispanics. It's a total admission and I think it really has him spooked and you know it has him spooked because he is using a teleprompter tonight which is a complete defeat. I mean, he is going to look so small, standing at this rally on such a big night, speaking from a prompter, with all of the excitement completely out of his sails because he has been spooked by this. It was near universal condemnation and even you Jeffrey, you cannot spin his way out of this.

LORD: (silent stare of defeat at S.E. Cupp)

stop transcript at 4:00

restart at 4:50

VAN JONES:Has Trump ever said anything about race that is wrong?

LORD: He hasn't said that much about race.

VAN JONES: (eye roll and look back in shock)

(laughter from panel)

(look of disbelief on Lords face)
Today's primary election in Los Angeles occurred in the biggest voting jurisdiction in the country, with over 4,500 polling places, serving nearly five million voters. In a closely-watched state amid an election season marred by voting disenfranchisement and mistrust, the widespread problems encountered by voters today merit close study and meaningful reform.

Based on reports from across the city, two types of problems stood out over most: ballot reader malfunctions at polling places and confusion over NPP (No Party Preference) Voters, independent voters who are allowed to vote in the Democratic Party but need a crossover ballot to do so. Ballots will be counted at the LA County Registrar's office regardless of the ballot scanners at polling places, which serve to make sure the vote is readable before the voter leaves. When these ballot readers malfunction, some polling places did not know what to do, and issued provisional ballots, which should count in theory, but don't have great odds.

The Los Angeles Times reports on the "chaos"some Angelenos faced. Other problems reported through social media by Angelenos were polling places that ran out of ballots, poll workers providing misinformation, voters not finding their name in the rolls, polling places moved, voters finding their registration changed, and other concerns.

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Documentary filmmaker Holly Mosher covered polling issues on the West Side for Video The Vote L.A.:

Online Reports:

Machine broke at 14800 Devonshire St., Mission Hills CA (Amber Lynn Blomgren)

Poll workers having trouble finding walked-in signatures at Mar vista Nursing Center, 3966 Marcasell Ave. (Daisun Cohn-Williams)

Need more ballots, Democratic and Crossover Dem at 2700 N Beachwood Drive in Hollywood, 90068. (Alex Helisek)

Poll worker confusion at Mackey Van Nuys school on Albers. Three different districts in three different areas and voters waiting at the wrong line with no clarification. (Hope Shapiro)

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Poll worker "literally put his hand in my face because i walked to wrong table." (Mark Dalbis)

Election official apparently provides incorrect information, that "crossover ballots" don't exist, when that is how most NPP were voting with that day. (Jason Norcross)

Broken ballot reader at Fiesta Hall/Pink Table Plummer Park 1200 N Vista Street, West Hollywood, CA 90046 (Jainee Patrice)

Voter found his party registration changed to Green Party and was forced to fill out a Democratic Provisional ballot in Los Angeles (Allison Burnett)

Broken voting machine in Tarzana. (David Prybil)

Poll machine broke in the first 10 minutes of the morning in Studio City. (Rick Cohen)

Voter had to vote provisionally because poll worker said they didn't have her name listed, even though that was the polling place on her sample ballot. The Commons Activity Room, 21711 Ventura Blvd., LA, CA 91364 (Kristine May)

L.A. polling place opened late and had a broken ballot reader with untrained poll workers in Los Feliz. (Jessica Pappas)

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Broken ballot reader led to voters waiting and being turned away at The Hayward Apartments at 206th W 6th St., LA, CA 90014 (Brittany Tatiana Nylund)

Ballot reader machine at a Sun Valley precinct (Sara Watts)

Hard-to-Find Polling Place, a middle school graduation made for difficult parking and obscured polling location with balloons at Irving Middle School in Glassell Park. (Jessica Hughes)

Broken ballot reader at Kahal Joseph Synagogue (Allison Burnett)

Because of a malfunctioning ballot reader, voters were asked to leave their ballots loose on a table at Liberal Arts Masonic Lodge. (Allison Burnett)

Voter found their registration changed from Democrat to Republican, had to vote provisionally in Encino, CA. (Lauren Dobbs)

Polling place ran out of ballots and voters were asked to vote provisionally or come back later in the Miracle Mile. (Laurie Kaufman)

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Polling place opened late, voters waited hours, suffered machine malfunctions, had unsecured ballots, untrained poll workers tried to give provisional ballots, the precinct inspector didn't know who to ask for help, in Precinct 4240 in Downtown L.A. (Devin Larson)

Ballot reader was not taking ballots, leading to poll worker confusion and insecure ballots, 206 W 6th Street LA CA 90014 (Clare Gwinn Holzer)
I attended several and sensed resident skepticism about any value added outside of networking and the free food. I and many people I spoke with didn't feel they walked away with anything substantive. I understand why. As a result of crises facing schools, public finances, police, criminal justice and City Hall, black communities are experiencing its version of the Arab Spring . Though much of Chicago expresses righteous indignation, so, too, their faith in government has all but disappeared. Is anybody listening? In Fierce Conversations, author Susan Scott says life's most important conversations must be "robust, intense, strong, powerful, passionate, eager and unbridled." The most consequential heart-to-hearts demand the courage to interrogate reality and provide an impetus to change behavior. Fierce conversations require broaching subject matter other people can't say, won't say, haven't said or don't know.

A sense of fierceness was lacking at many of the On the Table discussions. Participants coming from business, not-for-profits, and neighborhoods are often nice and politically correct when engaging in the topic at hand. "Fierce" attempts at forthrightness are often met with backhand compliments meant to thwart discussion: "We really appreciate your passion, but ... " Candor should be the litmus test for accomplishment. Instead the standard is whether attendees leave the table comfortable. This type of exercise will never accomplish anything because fierce conversations require discomfort and anxiety.



So in true "fierce" form, let's interrogate reality and be real about where we've gone wrong in Chicago civic life, economic development and social support for all it residents.



Chicago has failed its poor, and since they are predominantly black and brown, we act like we don't care. Poor communities are managed, not developed. Development in poor communities is an afterthought, rarely intentional. Racial segregation has and continues to be a dead-end management strategy. Symptoms of bad management show up in chronic unemployment, decrepit schools and broken families. Too many times government manages poverty by breaking the law, and poor people break the law to manage their poverty.



Cynicism and inaction are destructive when it becomes an impediment to what is possible. For example, while Mayor Rahm Emanuel's unveiled law enforcement strategy, public safety changes and recent appointment of Andrea Zopp as deputy mayor may ease tensions, it won't be enough. Being intentional about developing poor communities requires collaboration between the private sector and government. To be successful, they must work in concert with and not on behalf of the poor.



A case in point: To avoid a missed opportunity that would benefit underserved communities, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art development plan should be salvaged -- not scrapped --with compromises, to spur development.



To be sure, Chicago has more important priorities (education, violence, civic engagement) than helping "Star Wars" billionaire couple, George Lucas and Mellody Hobson build a $1.17 billion tribute to his legacy along the lakefront. And Friends of the Parks certainly has a point in opposing lakefront development that honors the Burnham Plan to keep that public treasure forever open and free, but we have options, including the following:



 Relocate the project to the vacant U.S. Steel site along the South Shore's lakefront. The museum could be the economic stimulus to spur development in a part of the city desperate for it.
Hillary Clinton is the first female presumptive nominee for president for a major political party in US history. (Hillary Clinton/Flickr)

Six states--California, New Jersey, Montana, New Mexico, and North and South Dakota--are voting today. And a week from today, the last primary of the 2016 election cycle will be held, in Washington, DC. So, millions of votes are about to be cast.

But that didn't stop the Associated Press from dropping a bombshell last night: They announced that, by their count, Hillary Clinton was already the presumptive nominee of the Democratic party.

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BREAKING: @AP finds Clinton reached the number of delegates needed to clinch the Democratic nomination for president pic.twitter.com/e473F0G4vX  The Associated Press (@AP) June 7, 2016

Businessman Donald Trump has been the Republicans' presumptive nominee for about a month, since his main remaining competitor, Senator Ted Cruz, withdrew.

But former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is still fighting a fierce race with Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who insists he isn't dropping out and says he's willing to contest the results at the Democratic National Convention in late July.

The question on everyone's minds is: WHAT THE HELL?

How did the Dems' nominee get called before the primary was over?

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There wasn't a single election or caucus on Monday, so how did Hillary Clinton clinch the magic number of delegates to be the presumptive nominee?

For two reasons:

1. Puerto Rico voted on Sunday. But it has taken awhile for those votes to be counted and their delegates to be awarded. Clinton beat Sanders badly in Puerto Rico, and last night the AP was able to project how many delegates she got. She wound up with 36 regular delegates plus 7 superdelegates, and Sanders got 20 regular delegates. That alone put her right at the cusp of the 2,383 needed for the nomination, counting superdelegates. (More on that in a sec.)

2. They surveyed superdelegates to see who they're going to vote for. AP and NBC News both reported that she has enough delegates total to be the presumptive nominee, even before these primaries are over.

Wait, wait, what are superdelegates again?

Superdelegates, something only Democrats have, are political leaders--like sitting governors, members of Congress, previous presidents and vice presidents, and party officials. Like President Obama, for example.

There are 712 superdelegates, and they can vote however they want, meaning they can match the state's popular vote or the overall popular vote or just pick the candidate they personally prefer.

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Two key things to keep in mind about superdelegates:

1. They often decide who they're supporting at some point in the primary, but like any voter, they can switch allegiances up until they formally vote at the Democratic National Convention.

2. They don't formally vote until July 25th. So all we have now is who they are likely to vote for. And not just likely--the AP asked superdelegates how staunch their support is. They say it's clear that Clinton has enough devoted, unequivocal superdelgates planning to vote for her that that's that.

So, does that mean Bernie Sanders still has a chance at the nomination?

Bernie Sanders campaigning in Los Angeles before the California primary. (RevDills/Flickr)

In terms of math, no.

Today's primaries in California, New Jersey, North Dakota, South Dakota, New Mexico, and Montana will decide the pledged delegate total, save for the District of Columbia. Clinton is projected to do well in those states.

Tomorrow, Clinton will also clinch a majority of ELECTED delegates unless Sanders wins every state by 40 points.  Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) June 7, 2016

Sanders would not only have to win the pledged delegates in the upcoming races by more than 83%, but he would also have to convince a lot of superdelegates who have already pledged to support Clinton to come to his side before July 25th.

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Would Clinton win without superdelegates? https://t.co/Yt77pnkBxy pic.twitter.com/iqY7lqotsy  The New York Times (@nytimes) June 7, 2016

After tonight, Sanders can only win if superdelegates overrule popular will. https://t.co/9wH4aMJX1W pic.twitter.com/7mPmIYKw7c  Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) June 7, 2016

Is there ANY hope for Sanders?

Sure. The only real hope Sanders has is if Clinton gets indicted, or charged with a crime, for her controversial use of a private email server while she was Secretary of State.

But Clinton staunchly affirms that she did nothing wrong. The FBI case over her email server was dismissed.

Do we usually have "presumptive" nominees?

This election overall has been unique in many ways. But this is far from the first time a presumptive nominee has been declared before every vote has been tallied.

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In 2008 when President Obama beat Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination, he was declared the winner weeks before the superdelegates cast their votes at the party convention. That race was even closer in every way: the popular vote, the number of states won, and the pledged delegate count.

The same rules that elected Obama are still in place. People should have been prepared for Clinton being named presumptive nominee.  Kathy Riordan (@katriord) June 7, 2016

After he won the lion's share of pledged delegates from Montana and South Dakota, a rush of superdelegates switched to Obama. That brought him to the winning number, and Clinton conceded.

Fact: We didn't wait for supers to actually vote in '08 for Obama to clinch & be called the presumptive nominee. https://t.co/7LOBebM24R  Kicker (@goKicker) June 7, 2016

Why "presumptive"?

As for why we say "presumptive nominee" over just nominee despite Clinton and Trump both seeming to have wrapped up the primary is to be accurate and specific. It means it's looking clear that this person is their party's nominee, but it hasn't been formalized yet.

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It's done in every election in the past decade.

It requires a candidate to be at the mathematical target, or to be the party's last serious challenger. Both of which apply to both Clinton and Trump now.

What do people think?

People who have been closely tracking the delegate math weren't surprised by this call. If anything, they were surprised only by the timing of the AP's announcement--the night before 6 states, including the largest state in the country, voted.

Clinton supporters were excited to hear that for the first time in history a woman would be a major party's nominee.

Clinton hitting the delegate threshold, even with superdelegates, is important. Here's why: https://t.co/AwtHEzldeB pic.twitter.com/3dMb3WLrKp  Emily Atkin (@emorwee) June 7, 2016

The CA primary is today, & I'm taking my daughter to the polls w me when I cast my vote for Hillary Clinton. I am excited & proud to do so.  Andy Richter (@AndyRichter) June 7, 2016

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"My heart is beating a little faster today" -- @BarbaraBoxer on Clinton's historic moment https://t.co/1LLxglJFPc https://t.co/yAijVbmWox  New Day (@NewDay) June 7, 2016

Including Nancy Pelosi, a congresswoman from California and the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, who just endorsed Clinton.

Just in: Nancy Pelosi endorses Hillary Clinton, praises Bernie Sanders for "great invigoration." pic.twitter.com/eJCbUx3FbS  Alex Seitz-Wald (@aseitzwald) June 7, 2016

But Clinton supporters also worry that the announcement that she had it in the bag would keep some of her supporters from bothering to go to the polls today.

And there's a vocal group that is suspicious of both the AP's count and the timing of it being released the night before a big #PrimaryDay.

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One group that's stayed entirely silent since Clinton clinched last night? The DNC.  Gabriel Debenedetti (@gdebenedetti) June 7, 2016

I haven't seen or met a Hilary Clinton supporter in person once. NOT once. That's why I don't believe she clinched the nomination.  Alex (@AlexD77_) June 7, 2016

Interesting how all media broke the story of Clinton winning before election, they could have done that tonight and are surprising the vote  Kevin_corona (@Kevcipherking88) June 7, 2016

"Shame!" -- The left exploded at the media after Hillary Clinton was declared the presumptive Democratic nominee. https://t.co/fJ7L0G6UBZ  Mashable (@mashable) June 7, 2016

This is mostly addressed by one simple factor: math. With a sprinkling of historical context.

"AP concluded Clinton had enough delegates after a straightforward exercise. We counted": Exec Editor @kathleenatap. https://t.co/Ihs8TNttpE  AP CorpComm (@AP_CorpComm) June 7, 2016

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For your "How Clinton Won" explainers, I'd like to add mine: 1+1=2  Oliver Willis (@owillis) June 7, 2016

Meanwhile, many Sanders supporters, especially in California, are fired up about continuing to support him.

What does it mean for turnout?

A Clinton supporter in California. (Hillary Clinton/Flickr)

There is definitely concern that this will hurt voter turnout. The Clinton campaign has chosen not to celebrate until after the election because they don't want Americans not to vote.

To everyone who's worked so hard, thank you. Let's go win this thing. pic.twitter.com/T6ou2Znh9D  Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 7, 2016

Bill Clinton: "We can't say the primary is over. Let people vote. Let them have their say." https://t.co/lvnZqeQUX1 https://t.co/a69DWZYwt6  ABC News (@ABC) June 7, 2016

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Sanders' campaign is also urging people to get to the polls to continue the movement and to challenge Clinton for as long as he can.

It will be hard to know what impact the announcement will actually have on the outcome of today's votes.

I think one thing is clear: whoever loses California tomorrow night will blame the media for calling the nominating race for Clinton tonight  Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) June 7, 2016

What can I do?

VOTE!

If you are upset with this call, if you're an eligible voter in one of today's six primary states or in DC, you do still have the chance to get out there and make your voice heard by voting. And you should.

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If you're an eligible voter in Cali, NJ, ND, SD, NM, or Montana, GO VOTE YOUR HEART OUT for the candidate you prefer on June 7th!    Kicker (@goKicker) June 7, 2016

Remember, there is a lot more at stake in this election than just the presidential candidates. Often, crucial policies that affect your life are created at the local and state levels, so stay aware and involved.
We all have our strange photos that we take in different places, and travel blogger Kimmie Conner of Adventures & Sunsets is no different. She travels far and wide, to amazing views and landmarks, to beautiful places and across oceans, and she takes photos of her feet in each location. Here is what she had to say:

Ever since I started traveling I have had a 'tradition' picture to take photos of my feet.... in different places, scenes, doing different things, in front of views or hanging over cliffs, dirty after festivals, tired in the airport... etc. Scenes that really got the gist of what I was doing and the feel of wherever I was.

I have been doing this just over three years now, ever since I started traveling. I have just decided to group these by year on my blog, but have shared my best ones here with HuffPost.

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I grew up with a flight attendant mother and pilot father, one British and one American. I always say I got the travel bug from them! I really got hooked on traveling when I first studied abroad during university. I went to Italy to study, and backpacked a bit around Europe. I've had the travel bug ever since, and have actually been taking these strange photos of my feet ever since, too.

2015 was a massive year for me and my traveling. I started my blog, moved to London to live and work there for half a year, got my dream job as an 18-35 tour guide in Croatia for the summer, spent a bit of time back at home in California, traveled around Southeast Asia for two months with one of my best friends, and rung in the New Year traveling solo in Malaysia. It was quite the year of growth and adventure, as the photos below will definitely confirm.

In 2016 I backpacked around Australia for a month before settling into Manly Beach in Sydney to save up some money - and of course still adventuring around the area in every free chance I got. Exploring Australia has been incredible, as the photos will also definitely confirm :)

I'm not entirely sure why I started doing this.... my feet aren't all that attractive and basically always have small chips of old nail polish somewhere and are slightly dirty because I don't like to wear shoes... but it has evolved into a tradition nonetheless that brings back tons of memories and also appreciation for shoes that have been there for me through it all ;) It now means quite a lot to me to get a good, meaningful, or encompassing 'foot' picture, and I have been increasing my scope and skill since I began as a wee little backpacker in continental Europe for the very first time with an iPhone 5.

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So here is my journal of The World & My Feet - I hope you enjoy!

One of my favorite hikes I have ever done. When there's a higher mountain to climb, always climb it! - Kotor, Montenegro

Touring the Cu Chi tunnels just outside Saigon in Vietnam. During the war, the Viet Cong lived and operated out of these underground tunnels, with hundreds of entrances not much larger than my laptop. Terrifying! Read more about my experience here - Cu Chi, Vietnam

On my quest to find the best views of Sydney, I think I found a winner here. -Lavender Bay, Sydney, NSW, Australia

When you follow a tiny little trail up a hill in Scotland and come to this view - Loch Rathvun, Scottish Highlands

Sitting on a tree hanging my feet over a few hundred feet of waterfall - Luang Prabang, Laos

When your best friends come to visit you in England, take them to Brighton to soak up some English sun (when it exists!) -Brighton, UK

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Stillness and motion in flowing water - Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia

What better place to watch the sunset over Vang Vieng's dramatic mountains than a hammock? -Vang Vieng, Laos

A great way to pay it forward while traveling in Thailand is to volunteer at Care for Dogs. You can walk, bathe, and play with rescued feral and abandoned dogs to help ready them for adoption in a new home. Just look at those adorable puppies! - Chiang Mai, Thailand

Exploring my new home city - London, UK

Taking a little snack break maaaaybe just about half way up the highest mountain in Wales/England, and before walking along a ridge with a few thousand foot drop on either side. Such an adventure! (see photos here) - Snowdonia National Park, Wales

Rock climbing on a cold snowy day - Joshua Tree National Park, California

How I wake up each morning on the boat in Croatia - with a coffee and the Adriatic. - Somewhere along the Adriatic, Croatian coast

About to go cliff jumping - Chiang Mai Grand Canyon, Thailand

Good friends and a great Aussie country sunset - Myella Farm, Queensland, Australia





Touring the Roman Baths - Bath, England

The only way to get to Manly Beach's secret rock pools involves scaling a cliff. Sounds like my type of adventure. Manly Beach, Australia

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Exploring the incredible island of Penang with my cool new $5 Indian shoes and a few remnants of the Full Moon party on my toes :P - Penang, Malaysia

Staying on a 3rd level bed in a 26 bed tiki hut hostel dorm called Spicy Pai. Definitely one of the most unique places I have ever stayed! - Pai, Thailand.



The highest point of the walls around Dubrovnik, Croatia

One of my favorite markets in London - Columbia Rd Flower market, Shoreditch, London

A nice vantage point to get a little work done in my aunt's remote house in Scotland. - Nairn, Scotland

Exploring the colorful houses of Notting Hill - London, UK

Exploring the shipwrecks of Shipwreck beach - San Juan, Puerto Rico

A Holocaust memorial site protesting the apparent denial of the Hungarian involvement in the Holocaust by the government - Budapest, Hungary

One of my favorite things to recommend to my passengers in Makarska is to go parasailing next to the highest mountains in the country. But sometimes tour guides have to have fun too, right? - Makarska, Croatia

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Amazing blue rock pools hidden within Manly's massive cliffy North Head - Manly, Australia





Waiting for my ferry at sunset - Venice, Italy

Getting some unique views from the highest point in Sydney - Sydney Tower Eye, Australia

You can't tell here, but I am actually sitting on the edge of the Tower Bridge to appreciate the sunset. - London, UK

Taking a moment to appreciate the beauty of (two of) the twelve apostles. - Victoria, Australia

Had to take part in the famous 'tubing pub crawl' in Vang Vieng, where you stop at 3 or 4 bars on your way floating down the river! - Vang Vieng, Laos

My favorite lookout spot - Korcula, Croatia

An incredible art space we stumbled upon in Pai, Thailand

One of our first views upon starting our road trip of the Great Ocean Road on tour. Absolutely breathtaking!! - Victoria, Australia

Getting into mischief like we always do. Climbing trees and exploring Greenwich Park, London, UK

The reality of standby traveling- just waiting, waiting, airport McDonald's, and waiting some more... All the while wearing a nice skirt in hopes of being given a good seat. Chicago, USA

My very first job in London working at a fashion trade show at Kensington Olympia! - London, UK

While making sure to explore every inch of Sydney in my last few days in the city, I stumbled upon this awesome view. Shark Bay, Sydney, Australia

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Watching the scintallating 'shin kicking' competition at the annual Cotswold 'olympicks.' No, I'm not kidding... they do that in England. Read more about it here! Cotswolds, England, UK

Just paddleboarding along in the Whitsundays and came upon some of my own kind! We had some great conversations about all sorts of mermaid things. (Really just some cool statues off Daydream island but let me have my fun) - Whitsundays, Queensland, Australia

Watercolored rocks during my trek through Royal National Park in Sydney. I've never seen any rocks so colorful! - Sydney, Australia

Swimming around the island to find hidden caves and inlets along the jutting cliffs - Koh Phi Phi, Thailand

Post-swim perch watching the waves crash into Queenscliff rock pool - Manly, New South Wales, Australia

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Lucky to explore the islands off Stockholm's archipelago with a local, and a dinghy boat! - Stockholm, Sweden

At the start of a new bush walk in Sydney - another of my favorite views! Mosman, NSW, Australia

Stillness and motion while waiting for the tube - London, UK

The most impressive and beautiful waterfall I have seen to date - Kuang Si Falls, Laos (Taken with my Sandmarc pole... my favorite Go Pro accessory!)

Would you believe this view is just outside of Sydney?! Hiking up to the lighthouse in Palm Beach was one of my favorite walks in Sydney. Read more on how to get there here! - Palm Beach, NSW, Australia

On each break from class at UCLA, I would sit in this exact spot. It became like my little happy place! Los Angeles, CA

Chasing some Welsh Waterfalls for a change - Aber Falls, Wales

Apparently Australia has some of the best quality camels and even export them to the Middle East. Who knew?! - Outback, Northern Territory, Australia

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Appreciating the intricate patterns and colors that nature can create. - Red Wharf Bay, Wales

An absolute stunner of a sunset - Puerto Rico

Spiral staircases in Urquhart Castle - Loch Ness, Scotland

I tried to put my feet up on my surfboard just to get a nice foot photo... and it was actually really hard. -Manly Beach, Australia

When exploring Koh Phangan solo by scooter, I saw signs for a viewpoint. So I parked and walked up a hill to find this amazing little bar. It was a viewpoint indeed! - Koh Phangan, Thailand

Taking in the Holocaust Memorial - Berlin, Germany

Visiting some salt flats on the way to the Outback in Australia. Our tour guide suggested we lick the salt and take tequila shots.... so we did. When in Rome, right? - Victoria, Australia

Soft white sand, new anklets, and sunshine. - Bamboo Island, Thailand

Got a pretty sweet spot for a picnic with friends. - Sydney, Australia (if you couldn't tell)

We checked into our hotel on the Gold Coast and found our whole tour group had rooms in the same row! - Surfer's Paradise, Queensland, Australia





Wine and cheese under the Eiffel tower... what more could you ask for?! - Paris France

When your friends' parents have a hotel room with the best view in Sydney... make sure to lay on their bed, just to pretend you're fancy for a quick sec. - Sydney, Australia

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Mid-massive mountain hike in Wales - Anglesey, UK

Sitting in my favorite spot with my feet dangling off the side of the boat during an especially beautiful swim stop - somewhere off Korcula island, Croatia

An amazing achievement - hiking to the top of Angel's Landing in Zion National Park, Utah. What a view!

I seem to love dangling my feet off the edges of cliffs. There's just something thrilling about it... such as the fact that I'm just a few feet away from death. Sorry again, mum. - Grampians National Park, Australia

Thank you a million times for working for the airline, mum & dad.... flight benefits have helped me live the dream I'm living! First class isn't so bad either :P - LAX, California

Exploring the beautiful city of Budapest - Budapest, Hungary

The only way to get to the Tat Sae waterfalls was to take this long, wobbly, wooden boat a few minutes up the river. - Luang Prabang, Laos

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Living on the edge is what I do. Cliffs of Moher, Ireland

I may not be on the track team anymore, but I still love to run these stadiums! UCLA, California

At the top of a tower after a rainforest hike in Puerto Rico - San Juan, Puerto Rico

Appreciating some color and textures on our cold walks - North Wales, UK

One of my favorite activities on Mljet island is kayaking on the beautiful blue lakes of Mljet National Park - Mljet, Croatia

A beautiful waterfall in the Grampians - Lake Mckenzie, Victoria, Australia

Quite possibly the best breakfast sandwich I have ever had - San Sebastian, Spain

Well, that's all for now! I hope you enjoyed all the places my feet have taken me. I know it's hard to believe, but I actually have a face and body apart from these feet, and I would love to take you along on my adventures! Follow me on instagram (@kimmconn) to see other photos I take besides of my feet (there are a lot I swear), on Facebook as Adventures & Sunsets, or twitter also as @kimmconn. Or, you could always just check out my blog. I would love to hear any feedback you may have. Cheers!
These lines got me thinking when they popped up on my Facebook feed this week just as Hillary Clinton was coming across the finish line as the first ever woman to win a Presidential nomination:

"STOP NOW. Stop cozying up to the banks, to the chemical companies, to the military-industrial complex, to the party machine, and to all the various financiers who make up the plutocracy now ruining this country. I know you know exactly what I'm saying, I remember you -- a lot of us remember you -- when you were raging against the Establishment machine on top of which you're now so sweetly perched. I don't want to sit on the sidelines longing for Elizabeth or Bernie. I want to hear what's true from you."

Here's my truth: I'm a fighter, a decades-in-the-trenches grassroots organizer, a writer, a mom. I'm a fierce believer that people have the power to make impact together and, in fact, I've been lucky to see people power make real change many times over at the city, state, and federal levels. And never has the organization I co-founded taken a donation from a corporation.

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And yes, #ImWithHer

Because I'm with her, I've been accused of "cozying up" to all kinds of corporations I've never been any kind of cozy with, of being a "knothead who giggles into my little fist" and a "fool" simply for posting excerpts of a speech where Hillary was taking down Trump. I've been told that I support Hillary because, "I'm only parroting establishment misinformation." And that Hillary is the biggest liar in the race, even though an independent source, Politifact, finds the opposite to be true: Of all the candidates in the race, Hillary has been found to be the most truthful by a long shot.

This is all friendly fire. This is not coming from Trump supporters.

Most worrisome is that many of these people who profess to care about the dispossessed are saying that they'll stay home and not vote in the general election if their preferred candidate doesn't win--and some have even put forward that Hillary and Trump are the same.

They're not. And I'm still not quite sure how anyone could think they are.

I'm not alone in this; friends in the Bernie camp tell me that they're taking friendly fire too. That they too feel accused and unheard.

It's time to talk. It's time to share our own truths. One of the biggest problems with our nation right now is that we stop talking at the point of disagreement, and conversations degenerate into yelling matches instead. In fact, it's at the point of disagreement - if we just keep at it - that true dialogue that leads us toward solutions begins. It's uncomfortable, more difficult than yelling at each other in many ways, to do this; but it's never been more important to talk across our divides--to share our own truths-- to help heal the harm that has already happened in this election.

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Because: Trump.

So here's my truth about why I, a mom who rages for justice, supports Hillary:

Decades of grassroots organizing has allowed me to watch which leaders can move a ball forward, and to see what happens when the TV cameras are no longer rolling.



What type of organizing? In 2006, I co-founded MomsRising to advance policy solutions relating to the fact that 82 percent of women become moms; that being a mom is a greater predictor of wage and hiring discrimination than being a woman; that one of the leading causes of poverty spells in our nation is having a baby; and to open doors to opportunity to everyone. Equal pay, childcare, paid family leave, healthcare -- too often those policy areas were just outright dismissed as something "cute" that were the result of personal failures of women to balance it all on our own. This dismissal repeatedly happened in spite of the fact that women were just becoming half of our labor force for the first time in history.

In short, we started MomsRising because our public policies relating to women and families were then--and many still are today-- archaic at best and actively harmful to families, businesses, and our economy at worst.

We were looking for leaders who understood what was going on in our nation. At that time many elected leaders didn't (and still don't) fully understand that when so many women/moms are experiencing the exact same problems at the exact same time, we aren't having an epidemic of "mom failures;" instead we have national structural barriers to opportunity that not only hurt women and children, but also hurt our economy. So we were looking for leaders who understood that these policies - policies like paid family leave - were actually good for everyone. And for context, at that time it was even seen as a sign of weakness in some ways for leaders to take these types of family economic security policies seriously.

Structural barriers can be broken down. The doors to opportunity can be opened. But it takes leaders with perseverance, compassion, grit, legislative savvy, and vision to open those doors.

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Hillary is one of those leaders. Hillary has long understood these structural barriers--and she has stepped forward many times over. She was in the U.S. Senate when MomsRising started in 2006 and Hillary not only stood with us, she fought with us.

Hillary moved the ball forward on equal pay. She was a lead sponsor of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act, which was signed into law in 2009 -- and the lead sponsor of the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would stop retaliation for talking about pay levels, among other paycheck fairness tools. It's a mistake to forget about what a big deal her leadership has been on fair pay.

It's also a battle we're not done fighting - and is a battle that Hillary can again be a leader on. In 2016, women working full-time earned just 79 cents to every dollar that men earned, with moms and women of color experiencing even greater wage disparity. And again, these numbers don't just point to an injustice--they indicate an economy that's not operating properly. Studies show that pay parity would boost our GDP by 3 percent because women are the primary consumers in our consumer-fueled economy.

Unfair pay hurts everyone and it's a daily reality for too many women, including Felicia:

"As a young woman, I experienced blatant wage discrimination while working at a technical support center for a large retail corporation. I was hired on to work the exact same job as my brother-in-law, and after talking to him discovered that I was being paid about $4 an hour LESS than him, to do the exact same job. I went on to find out that ALL of the men at work, working the same job, with the same amount of experience, were making $4 an hour more than me - and, as it turns out, the women were making the lower wage like I was. I was outraged. I was also young and spunky--and didn't have anyone else depending on me for my wages at the times--so I took the risk of calling out my boss on the situation. He listened carefully, and said, 'Let me get back to you.' He came back about 10 minutes later and told me I'd be bumped up to the higher rate, but reminded me that we weren't supposed to share compensation information so I was not to discuss it with anyone else."

Hillary also successfully fought to move healthcare coverage forward -- and in no small part because of her early work, 9 out of 10 people in our nation now have healthcare coverage. What many people don't know is that earlier in her career, Hillary played a major role in getting the Children's Health Program (CHIP) passed which covers millions and millions of kids. Specifically, when the corporate insurance companies defeated her health care effort she championed as First Lady, she didn't give up. She worked with Republicans and Democrats to help create the Children's Health Insurance Program, which now provides health coverage to more than 8 million children, cutting the uninsured rate for American children in half. This program saves lives.

Real lives. Lives like those of Angelica's son:

"My one-year-old has been really sick and having CHIP has meant being able to take my baby to the doctor. Without it, there's a lot of things we wouldn't have caught in time. He went from being in the 90 percent to 50 percent and having overall delays due to illness. My baby had to have surgery and now needs an expensive specialized formula that was covered by CHIP. It's been a really hard time for me and for all of us. The medical coverage has made it okay for me to take him to the hospital. No child should go without medical help. That's a fundamental human right. That's unacceptable. If I didn't have medical coverage like this, it may have meant death for my child."

Hillary has also long stood strongly for gun safety and against the corporate gun lobby, the NRA, which too many elected leaders fear to the point of inaction. In fact, as a U.S. Senator, Hillary co-sponsored the Gun Show Background Check Act, among other legislation that would require background checks for gun purchases; and as First Lady she strongly defended the Brady Bill and co-convened a White House Summit on School Violence after the Columbine tragedy. Hillary has broken the taboo of fighting the corporate gun lobby and she has brought forward the critically important voices of gun violence survivors to highlight the importance of gun safety in the 2016 election.

Voices like Cheryl's:

"Ten years ago I was one of the survivors who was shot at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle. An angry man forced his way into our offices by holding a gun to the back of the head of my 14-year-old niece who was meeting me at the office for a ride home. He then faced our receptionist holding a gun up to her face demanding to talk to a manager, so the receptionist came to get me. By the time she said, 'Cheryl there's a man here with a gun,' he was right in my face shouting. He was holding a gun at chest level and turning back and forth. I yelled for people to call 911 as he started shooting. I didn't even realize I'd been shot at first. It just felt like I'd been punched in the side. I turned to him and said why are you doing this? At that point he raised the gun and pointed it at my face. I dropped to the floor and thought this was it, 'I'm going to die.' My colleagues were on the floor next to me crying. I crawled to the doorway and then stood up and started running out hoping to find my niece. A SWAT team met me a block away and then I was loaded into an ambulance. I woke up a week later after a medically induced coma because they had to do so much surgery from the damage from the shooting. I was in the hospital for 6 weeks and had to go through over 20 surgeries. I was just one person that day who was shot. Luckily I survived. The impact even a single gunshot has on a person is huge. The reason I tell my story is so that people know that even if you survive the gun violence stays with you forever."

Please don't mistake my support for fawning; I want you to know that I'm clear-eyed about her faults. Is Hillary connected to the Establishment? Absolutely. She's used every tool and connection available to her - including those connections in the business world - to effective fight for women and children with her sleeves rolled up in rooms where there weren't reporters over and over again.

She's a warrior. These are important fights.

And, sure, other leaders have fought for women and children and were in those same fights too. Hillary didn't do it alone. Which brings me to the other part of my truth in terms of why #ImWithHer:

I'm not for Bernie Sanders. After all there are two sides of the coin, why I'm with her--and then also why I'm not with Bernie Sanders. I haven't ever written anything negative about Bernie Sanders. I respect so much of what he says--and all of this "friendly fire" has been counterproductive.

But right now, in this time when we are barely talking across our self imposed divides, it's essential for us all to come together around the candidate who has now won the democratic nomination for President. In this time it's no longer counterproductive to share our full truths about why we each choose our candidate preferences. In fact, it's necessary to share our full truths so we can all more deeply understand the costs and benefits of each candidate as we move toward unity.

So here's my truth on why I haven't been for Bernie: Over the past decade neither I, nor any of the colleagues who I double-checked with before writing this piece, ever saw Bernie Sanders or his staff really "go in" on many of the important legislative fights for paid family leave, fair pay, childcare, and more. To be blunt, when the s&*t hit the fan in times when everyone's Congressional staff pulled up a proverbial chair to figure out how to build support for these important legislative policies areas, the Sanders chair was largely empty. And, on the issue of gun safety, Sanders hasn't just been absent, his policy stands have been harmful.

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That all adds up to be a big deal to me.

While I applaud that Sanders has come to speak out about family economic security issues, particularly about the importance of paid family/medical leave, through this 2016 Presidential campaign and hope he continues to advance these policies; it's safe to say that he hasn't been a leading champion on these issues while serving in the U.S. Senate or in Congress over the many decades he's served.

So what's my truth? It's a crazy election year -- crazier than normal -- and lots of misinformation is going around. Hillary isn't shady, she's been shaded by decades of right wing attack campaigns against her that are specifically intended to make people question her worthiness, and yet she's still standing strong with more popular votes, delegates, and super delegates than Sanders.
Wendy Davis, the former Texas state senator who electrified the nation with her 11- hour- filibuster of the Texas legislature to defend the rights of women to have safe, legal abortions, was the keynote speaker at a Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania fundraiser in Philadelphia on May 24. The event had the feeling of a family reunion. Many of the women in attendance, such as former Pennsylvania state senator Constance Williams; have long fought for reproductive rights in a state where anti-choice Republicans dominate the legislature.

A surprising amount of men, including Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney, came out in support of Planned Parenthood. There was only one group of people missing. No hands were raised when the president of Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania, Dayle Steinberg, asked if there were any Republicans in the room. Apparently, the partisan divide has become so great that moderate Republican women from the Philadelphia suburbs are no longer willing to support a non-profit that provides vital health services, such as pap smears and screenings for sexual transmitted diseases, to the community.

Davis provided the audience with the current status of Texas Senate Bill 5 that she infamously filibustered. The bill, which banned abortions from being performed after 20 weeks of pregnancy, required abortion clinics to meet the same standards as hospital-style surgical centers, and mandated doctors who performs abortions have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital, was eventually signed into law. The Supreme Court is currently deciding on the constitutionality of the law with a decision is expected to be handed down this month. Davis said, "The bill I opposed would have most certainly endangered women's health in Texas, yet it was argued it would actually improve women's health. When it did pass, our fears that women would be harmed by it were certainly shown to be well placed. They closed over half our clinics in the state. We had 42 at the time. We have 19 now. If the law is fully implemented, we will have 9 or 10 in a state in a state of 27 million people with 5 million women of reproductive age."

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She ticked off some of the devastating human impact of that law. "Not surprising at all, the self induced abortion rate in our state is dramatically on the rise. The remaining clinics are having to push women to wait later and later into their pregnancies in order to have abortion care because their wait lists have grown so large. We have seen an increase in Medicaid birth rates and, of course, a corresponding cost to taxpayers as a result of those births," said Davis.

Despite this, Davis is optimistic about the future of women's reproductive rights. In an interview before the event, she said, "By 2020, millennials will occupy 40% of the total voting population in this country. They literally could change and I believe will change the political conversation as a result. When they are talked to and questioned about their beliefs and ideas about what's fair, right and good, they are very progressive overall. They believe attacks on people because of their sexuality, race, gender, or reproductive assaults are terrible. When they come into their own, understand the power of their own voices at the ballot box, and in other ways, they are going to shift this. They are going to move us out of this place. I honestly don't think we will go back there."

Davis, who is an important surrogate for Hillary Clinton, blamed misogyny for the polls that show Clinton and Trump tied in the presidential race. She experienced similar treatment during her unsuccessful race for governor of Texas.

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She noted, "Misogyny is the last, outwardly acceptable blatant form of discrimination. It is so frustrating to see it. There is a world in which those things have been accepted for such a long time and it's not going to go away unless and until we begin more and more to call it out, name it, and push back on it. I think it is going to take a strategic and collective effort for us to do it. There are things that are said about women today that if you inserted sexual orientation, race, or religion, it would be treated with such condemnation. Yet, things are said about women are so commonplace that we accept them as normal."
If you are in the U.S. keeping up with the outrageous, bizarre and controversial things Donald Trump has said since he announced his campaign for president can feel almost like a full-time job. But for people in Georgia, where I was last month, or Ukraine where I am this week, there is one Donald Trump statement and policy proposal that stands out above all others. For these countries, U.S. allies concerned about Russian aggression and anxious to strengthen their alliances with the West, Trump's comments questioning NATO are uniquely disarming.


When I first started hearing about an Impact Cruise I was very interested to learn more. Combining the humanitarianism and giving back spirit with a vacation was almost unimaginable. Could Fathom Impact really deliver all the hype? When they announce dates to the Dominican Republic I knew I was in for a treat. This trip would change me for better or worse but I had to give it a shot! Here are some very important things I learned, that I strongly feel all walks of life, should experience, at some point in their live time.



1. Visit a Third World Country. I knew the text book definition of what a third world country was and that was about it going into this. I am from a small country town. I learned fairly quickly that "textbook" is not reality. At first I down right felt sorry for the people of the Dominican Republic. To live in such conditions and have next to nothing. As I involved myself in the culture and atmosphere my thoughts and opinions began to change. When i was ready to leave I actually envied their love of life and strong family bonds with one another. I knew I would soon miss the simplistic life style so easily covered up by electronics and dead lines back home.



2. Embrace the culture you are in. I was rather scared at first to get my hands dirty. I could contract any number of scary things my health professional warned about as she gave me my shots before leaving for the trip. When I signed up for reforestation consisting of planting Mangrove trees to help stop flooding, I was not aware of said dangers. I got my hands dirty anyway! No way was I going to wimp out while everyone around me was helping these people who clearly needed these trees to stop their dirt floor homes from being wiped away by floods. I immersed myself in the work and the actives began to impact me personally and mentally. I have heard giving back really makes you feel good and it really does!



3. It changes you. The first two I mentioned how this trip changed me moving forward. It really did so much so this article was the hardest to date to write. I felt it would some how diminish my experiences. On one hand I want people to go through what I did because I think everyone could benefit. On the other I wanted to keep it to myself because these experiences changed me so much. Expectations of what I thought would happened flew right out the window when I was faced with using the "bathroom facilities" on the side of the mountain, in the pitch dark without any running water. You really find your inner strength and just how flexible you can be, let me tell you. I will spare you the details but just imagine doing this whilst a group of chickens are racing around to add to the mix. Suddenly going on the side of the road just seemed way more appealing!



4. Be prepared for culture shock. Remember those chickens I talked about? Yeah they raise those to cock fight. I knew it existed and have seen things on the news but something about seeing them in person and knowing their fate. I was also not prepared for the genuine kindness without expectations of something in return. Maybe that is an American thing but it seems more times than not when I travel people only want my money or to sell me something. Whilst I was creating products from recycled trash, to resell and benefit single working mothers I realized this. These women just were happy to show us something we had never seen or done before. They were excited for the extra hands to help them. They do this every day to help provide for their families if anything I was needing something from them because let's face it I am not very good at making recycled paper I found out!



5. We want everything. I cried on my trip, several times actually. Americans, myself included, want everything. The list of things I want materialistically is so long I bet I could not even remember it all to write it down. The Dominican Republic do not have the same mindset. This is such a good thing because they appreciate everything and do not take what they have for granted. I suppose when you have nothing something is always better? I taught English to children, some had never had access to a school before. Imagine never being able to express yourself through a language because you could not go to school to learn it? Never in my life have I wanted to sell everything that I own to give them an education. Things will not complete you as a person but experiences will. Education will, inspiring others will, that drive is what I think is lacking in so many of us.



I am not here to sell you on anything because I am not a good sales person. I will tell you though, no matter your age taking an Impact cruise could and will benefit you. If you are missing something in your life this just might be it. I was so changed when I got back home it took a few days to get back into the swing of things. Soon, I will bring my family on the same Impact travel and let them also experience it. I feel it is so important to get back to your roots as human beings and give back.

If you would like to hear more about my trip posts and review will be going up here (http://www.westernnewyorker.org)
As the presidential campaign heats up, temperatures are rising among homebuyers. Nearly a thousand of them let off some steam in Redfin's latest survey, which asked for their opinions of Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders and election-year politics.

Redfin has been asking homebuyers and sellers about the presidential campaign all year, with interesting results. Our respondents this time skewed young. Forty percent were millennials and more than 37 percent were first-time buyers. Here's what they said.



Buyers Are More Pessimistic About the Election

Homebuyers hit a gloomy note last month when we asked about the presidential election, with nearly 27 percent saying it will make the housing market worse.

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That doesn't sound like much, but it's almost double the negative response we got in February. Far fewer buyers said the election would have no effect on housing and the share who think it will make the market better inched down.

What's going on? More than 200 survey respondents elaborated on their answer. Most said the direction of the housing market will depend on who wins in November. No surprise there.

Regardless of who does move into the White House, though, he or she might be unable to accomplish much, others said.

"With all the political in-fighting the country has had in the past, it is unlikely the new president will be able to soothe both sides immediately and that may cause instability to the market," a first-time buyer in Virginia wrote.

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And many said our current crop of candidates and the political discord in Washington might give buyers second thoughts going into Election Day.

"This election is a true embarrassment and a circus," said a buyer in Atlanta who said she'd seriously consider leaving the country if her candidate loses.

Emotions Are Running High, but Not That High



Ten percent of buyers we surveyed last month said they'd consider leaving the country if their candidate lost the election. Two percent said they'd give it serious thought but only a handful vowed to actually do it.

So to the Chicago buyer who told us prices will fall when everyone moves to Canada or Australia after Election Day -- good luck with that.

Here's an interesting wrinkle. Buyers who named Sanders the best candidate for housing were far more likely to consider leaving the country if their candidate lost. Six times more likely, in fact, than buyers who gave Trump a thumbs up on housing policy.

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"One of my clients explicitly told me they're selling their home and moving to Canada regardless of who is elected. He thinks any of the current choices will send the U.S. into a downward spiral," Redfin real estate agent Alin Glogovicean said. "The election is definitely weighing on some of my clients."

Which Candidate Is Best for Housing?

When we asked buyers in March to tell us which candidate would be best for the housing market, 10 contenders were still in the race. Back then, Sanders got the most support from homebuyers, followed by "someone else." (Sellers picked someone else over everyone else.)

Last month, with only three candidates left, a plurality of buyers -- nearly 28 percent -- said the housing market would be better served having someone other than Sanders, Clinton or Trump as our commander-in-chief.

"I'm not sure any of them will do much to improve the housing market," one Boston homebuyer said.

"Who knows? I haven't heard clear plans from candidates about housing issues," said a millennial house hunter. She's right - the campaigns have had almost nothing to say about homeownership, mortgage credit or housing affordability.

Among White House hopefuls, Sanders continued to command an edge, with 26.5 percent of buyers in our survey endorsing him as the best candidate for housing. Those respondents also were more likely to be first-time buyers worried about affordability and high rents.

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"I truly think Bernie Sanders has the best interests of the middle class and low-income people at heart," said a first-time buyer in Sacramento. "He has ideas that will bring the classes to a more equal playing field."

Buyers cited Trump for his financial experience -- "a businessman may be what we need to look at political issues from a different perspective, including housing," said a buyer in Maryland. Clinton got hat tips for her "pragmatism."

The Upshot

"While homeowner anxiety over the election is clearly mounting, the likelihood of an immediate shock to the market is slim," Redfin chief economist Nela Richardson said. "It will take considerable time for our next commander-in-chief to implement policies that have any impact on housing."

While our survey respondents might have little faith in the current crop of candidates when it comes to housing, politics can determine who can afford homeownership and how and where people live. It's important. Here are six pressing housing questions the presidential candidates should be answering.

"The next president will inherit the lowest homeownership rate in 48 years and so far the voters have heard little to nothing about what the candidates will do to boost people's chances of becoming homeowners," Richardson said. "Candidates need to start discussing housing on the campaign trail now."

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NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER 17: Occupy Wall Street protesters wearing masks made out of enlarged dollar bills act in a short skit in Times Square on September 17, 2013 in New York City. Today marks the two year anniversary since the protestors set up camp in New York's financial district, calling for drastic social and finanical reform. (Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images)

*This post originally appeared on the blog for the Institute for New Economic Thinking

Does the question of morality have a place in the realm of banking and regulation? That it feels awkward to even raise the issue is convenient for bankers who engage in reckless and harmful activities every day without fear of punishment.

Ed Kane, Professor of Finance at Boston College, believes it's vital to discuss moral questions, in plain English, without abstractions. Following his own advice, he is blunt in characterizing some of the behavior in the banking industry in recent years: "Theft is a forced taking of other people's resources," he says. 'That's what's going on here." Kane urges a deep inquiry into our culture to understand why bankers so commonly get away with crimes in the United States.

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In 2007, just before the housing bubble burst, Goldman Sachs chief Lloyd Blankfein wrote to a colleague to discuss how the bank could deal with toxic mortgages  " cats and dogs" as he called them  on the books. Blankfein's bank went on to sell the toxic junk to unwitting investors who were told they were sound, while taking short positions on the very same securities. As the Financial Crisis Inquiry Report noted, one structured finance expert compared Goldman's practices to "buying fire insurance on someone's house and then committing arson."

Still, Blankfein and his fellow bankers later pocketed billions of dollars from the American people in the form of a bailout. They profited at the expense of their clients and society. Nobody went to jail.

In Kane's view, the word "should"  used in the moral sense  needs to be reinserted into the vocabulary of bankers. Today's executives may spend a lot of time considering the question, "Could we get away with it?" but there is little focus on the question, "Is it right to do it?"

In a new paper for the Institute for New Economic Thinking, " Ethics vs. Ethos in US and UK Megabanking" Kane argues that when bankers make reckless and harmful choices while counting on unlimited taxpayer support to bail them out, they are plainly stealing. He calls it "theft by safety net." Through the safety net, Kane explains, big banks demand that the public provide protection and relief from distress. They put great pressure on the government, which acts as a middleman in the robbery, just as in a "protection racket." As Kane puts it, "the government then, by dint of its authority, takes the money from hapless taxpayers."

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Why is this not considered a crime? Because, says Kane, politicians nearly everywhere are bought off by bankers. Plain and simple. The regulators who might intervene are more worried about their careers and hopping through the revolving door between government and the industry.

In Kane's view, pernicious cultural norms within banks and regulatory agencies have crowded out fundamental moral principles. Regulators in both the U.S. and the U.K. are fully aware that the reckless pursuit of profits is one of the main reasons for the expanding scale and frequency of financial crises over the last 50 years, but they tend to approach the issue differently.

Kane sees things as much worse in the U.S., where, he observes, authorities are stuck on the idea of toughening corporate-level rules: capital and liquidity requirements, corporate fines, periodic stress tests, and so-called living wills. That's not enough, says Kane. The British have done this, but they have also supplemented corporate restraints and punishments by defining a new crime called "reckless misconduct leading to the insolvency of a bank."

Besides that, Kane notes, it has been long been illegal in the U.K. for an individual director to allow a corporation to issue new debt if he or she knew or should have known that the firm was insolvent. In the U.S., Dodd-Frank Act allows a limited clawback of stock-based bonuses in the wake of a bank failure, but it does not make individual bankers criminally responsible for actions that they should have known were reckless. Prosecutors typically settle lawsuits and bankers find ways to put taxpayers on the hook.

In the U.S., Kane argues, the DunningKruger effect  a cognitive bias named for two Cornell researchers in which people can't recognize their own weaknesses  compounds the problem. If you don't recognize your inability to make sense of things using an ethical code, for example, then how can you overcome the shortcoming? Part of the problem is that ethical codes have to be taught and practiced. "College education in the U.S. has been much more watered down," observes Kane. "In the U.K., people still have some training in philosophy that helps them to see the ethical implications of their actions."

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Philosophy for financiers? Yes, says Kane. "When I present these ideas in Europe, I get much more enthusiastic reception than in the U.S., where people have this relativistic view of ethics." He argues that in America, there is a common perception that whatever feels good at the moment must be okay and that this kind of thinking justifies nearly any behavior. "Kant is still a force in modern philosophy," says Kane, "and he tries to develop an objective, non-theological reason for not hurting other people." Hurting others to please yourself, says Kane, is the essence of theft. It's a problem caused in part by ethical blindness.

"The regulators in the U.S. just don't see things ethically," notes Kane. "They see that they have tools, and they can do things with them to help them weather a crisis. They use the tools to put taxpayers in the hole. Even worse, this behavior worsens booms and busts and misallocations of resources that leave a lot of people unemployed when the bubble breaks. I've looked regulators in the eye and they tell me they just don't get it  they don't see the transfer of value to fat cats that bailouts entail through an ethical lens. They view it through the norms of their employer."

A code of ethics, says Kane, is what connects us. Acting in one's self interest may be the mantra of capitalism. But the self is not an autonomous unit; it is connected to other selves, as Kant emphasized: "Kant says that you can't escape that connection," says Kane. "Think of a couple in love. The other person's happiness is part of their own." On the other hand, "narcissistic individuals don't see themselves as connected. They do whatever makes them feel good in the moment and are unconcerned about the fallout." That, says Kane, is a dangerous way of thinking and at odds with thousands of years of thinking about how to approach morality. "All religions deal with that in not terribly different ways. It can't be right to make yourself happy by hurting someone else."

As Kane sees it, holding accountable the individual, rather than the corporation, is hugely important to dealing with crimes in the banking industry. "Individuals are the ones who act recklessly," he points out. "Banks don't act recklessly." The punishment of the individual is not a matter or revenge of retribution, it is about deterrence.

Kane believes changes are needed in the culture of banks and regulatory agencies, but of course by the time people enter jobs in those institutions, they are already well into adulthood and their ethical frameworks have already taken shape. Is it too late?

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"It really gets down to our family structure," says Kane. "Many children are not being disciplined. They're not learning about their obligations to other people. They're learning only about the obligations of other people to them. When they sense that their parents are lying and cheating, well, it's seen simply as a betrayal."

The educational system in the U.S. doesn't help. "The thing that our schools teach better than anything else is how to copy. Who to copy from. How to get away with it," says Kane. Getting stu dents to think about ethics is about more than simply adding an ethics course to the curriculum. It's about changing the incentives: "What people teach in ethics is the history of ethical theory. They don't teach operative ethics."

Kane believes that students need to be taken through numerous real life scenarios in which they can apply ethical principles. In business schools, students get bombarded with case studies in which they look at a company, identify a problem such as poor sales, and try to figure out how to solve it. But, he argues, they need to go through well-designed ethical case studies. When your bank holds toxic mortgages, what should you do? What would Kant's model suggest that you do? What does the Golden Rule indicate as a course of action?


Marking World AIDS Day 2014, Zimbabwe, Photo: UNDP / Nigel Coulson

This week, world leaders gather in New York for the United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meeting on Ending AIDS to chart the way forward towards ending the AIDS epidemic as a public health threat by 2030 as laid out in the newly adopted 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

A new report from UNAIDS shows that the number of people with access to antiretroviral therapy--life-saving medicines that suppress the HIV virus and stop disease progression--has more than doubled since 2010, bringing the new total of people on HIV treatment around the world to an estimated 17 million at the end of 2015.

This is certainly a boon to people living with HIV and cause for celebration for those who have long fought for the right to health and ensuring that HIV treatment is within reach of any person who needs it. The extraordinary scale-up of antiretroviral treatment is the result of the tenacious advocacy of people living with HIV - their loved ones, families and friends, as well as civil society, national governments, international actors and the private sector.

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Without a doubt we have made tangible progress. While declines in new HIV infections among adults have been encouraging, according to the latest UNAIDS report, these declines have now slowed. We have not done enough to reduce the exclusion, stigma and discrimination that fuels the spread of HIV and impedes access to services and support.

In 2012, the UNDP-led Global Commission on HIV and the Law, concluded that ending AIDS as a public health threat was within reach but only if science and action were accompanied by respect for human dignity and efforts to end injustice. The same holds true today.

Decades into the global AIDS response, marginalised populations such as men who have sex with men, sex workers, transgender people, people who use drugs and prisoners, continue to bear a disproportionate burden of HIV. The UNAIDS report shows that more than 90% of new HIV infections in central Asia, Europe, North America, the Middle East and North Africa in 2014 were among people from these key populations and their sexual partners. Punitive laws, discriminatory and brutal policing and denial of access to justice create and punish vulnerability. They promote risky behaviour, hinder access to prevention and treatment services, and worsen the stigma and inequalities that make them more vulnerable to HIV infection.

Young people and adolescents are also being left behind in the AIDS response. Young women and adolescent girls are particularly vulnerable to HIV infection, especially between the ages of 15-24 years old. They account for 20% of new HIV infections among adults globally in 2015. Key drivers of their increased vulnerability are harmful gender norms and inequalities, poverty, food insecurity, violence, and obstacles to education and sexual and reproductive health services in the form of archaic and often contradictory age-of-consent laws.

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So what will it take to truly turn this epidemic around? Universal access to treatment is simply not enough. We need to increase HIV investments in low, middle and high income countries not decrease them. Ending stigma, and discrimination requires significantly increasing investments in law and policy reform, human rights programmes and efforts to meaningfully include those we have left behind in the global AIDS response.

Reducing inequalities and discrimination in all their forms is at the heart of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. While we should celebrate the milestone of 17 million people on HIV treatment, we have to remember that same treatment is out of reach for the other 20 million. To end AIDS as a public health threat and to build a more sustainable world by 2030, the global community must give top priority to leaving no one behind. This is the moral imperative of our time.
Four years ago, when I first began writing my book What Will It Take to Make a Woman President? Conversations About Women, Leadership & Power, there were no female candidates running for president and that benchmark seemed distant and out of reach. Last night, Hillary Clinton marked the milestone of becoming the first female presidential nominee of a major political party. As I watched her inspiring speech with my daughter (as well as the powerful "History Made" video which preceded it), it was hard not to be moved. As Hillary walked out to the stage to overwhelming applause and cheers, her face reflected clear emotion and pride as she experienced that historic moment with us. No matter where you stand on the political spectrum, this is a symbolic breakthrough we can and should all celebrate together, just as we did with Barack Obama's historic win. As Hillary said in her speech, "Yes, there are still ceilings to break for women and men for all of us. But don't let anyone tell you that great things can't happen in America. Barriers can come down. Justice and equality can win. Our history has moved in that direction."

With another history-making step taken last night, I looked back through some of my interviews for insight on the impact of having a woman in the White House.

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What would having a woman president mean for our country, culture, and collective women's leadership? Why is it so important?

Having a woman break the presidential barrier would have an undeniable positive impact on women and girls in this country. The symbolism alone would be incredibly powerful, especially for young women and girls who would see first-hand that it is possible for women to be successful, respected leaders -- especially the highest leadership position of them all.

That's the reason I decided to write my book in the first place: my daughter. The book was inspired by my eight-year-old's seemingly innocent question after we were celebrating Barack Obama's historic win: "Why haven't we ever had a woman president?" Many interviewees in the book shared similar stories, such as Sheryl Sandberg, whose daughter noticed that there were no women's names in a song about US presidents, and this story from Lieutenant Governor of California Gavin Newsom and Miss Representation writer/director Jennifer Siebel Newsom:

"A few weeks ago, my wife casually mentioned something about a woman being president, and my daughter, who's three and a half--after all the indoctrination from birth on down around gender equality issues--says, 'A woman can never be president.' And that's in a household where we're trying to teach her and reinforce those opportunities. And our mouths dropped. It was to the old adage that 'you can't be what you can't see.' And the point being, every time Obama comes on TV, my daughter goes 'Obama, Obama, Obama!' Her image is so reinforced that it's a boy, it's a man. So from the earliest moments of childhood, you can imagine how that manifests in families all across the country and it creates a limiting belief and it creates a barrier of consciousness."

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Putting aside whether or not they felt Hillary was the right woman for the job, everyone I interviewed agreed that it would be significant in so many ways to break that ultimate glass ceiling. Many felt that having a woman president would be an important step towards a government that reflects the diversity of this country; women make up over half of the population, after all (and the numbers of women currently serving in political office are still startlingly low: less than 19.4% of Congress, 20% of the Senate, only 6 women out of 50 Governors.)

As journalist Nicholas Kristof put it, "...The great strength that women bring when they move into senior levels of politics is not that they're more nurturing, caring, maternal figures, but that they will bring a certain level of different perspective, a different way of thinking, and that is just really valuable for all of us. This is not something that is just going to benefit the women of America; it's something that's going to benefit all of America." Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, the first female Speaker of the House, shared that sentiment: "It's about equality, but it's not just about equality. And the reason it's necessary to have more voices is because that strengthens the debate and it strengthens the decisions. It isn't that women coming in are better than men; they're different from men. And I always say the beauty is in the mix. To have diversity of opinion in the debate strengthens the outcome and you get a better result."

So what would a woman bring to the presidency?

Having a woman president would help shift the deeply ingrained idea in this country that leadership is a masculine role. As Pat Mitchell, the first woman president and CEO of PBS, told me, "One gender throughout most of our history has had power, so there's little wonder that when we think of power, we think about it in one-gender terms. So we need to change that, and we can only change that by changing the people who have power. A new power paradigm emerges when a different gender holds it, has it, and then uses it differently. I mean, if women get power only to be just like the guys who had it before them, then that's not progress."

Would a woman govern any differently than a man? Interviewees had varied opinions on this, but many pointed to evidence that women do bring a new approach to leadership. As political commentator and former MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry told me, "I think there is reason to think that there are some substantive differences in how women govern, both stylistically and in terms of the policy output. And that's just the empirical work of women in politics--scholars who show us that, in fact, when you have more women in a state legislature, for example, you're more likely to have real bipartisan bills passed, that women tend to introduce more legislation on issues of the environment and education than their male colleagues."

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Robin Morgan, author and co-founder of The Women's Media Center, agreed: "There is a real difference in the way women practice power." She cited the example of the monumental changes that took place in Norway under female prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland in the 80's and 90's when she appointed the majority of her cabinet women: "Policies on everything from employment and child care and flextime and work hours to environmental policies to you name it--it just changed. It was absolutely enormous. And the same thing is happening in Rwanda now, because a majority of the parliament are females."

Former Republican Senator Olympia Snowe said this: "Obviously it's very difficult to stereotype, but I think there is a collaborative facet to women in the way in which they approach legislative solutions, similar to life. And I think women are much more practical. I think that's sort of a connection among us: we're looking at the practicality of how we can get something done, how can we accomplish it and move forward, because we're juggling so many different things in our daily lives. From that standpoint, I think, yes, women bring those indispensable ingredients to the legislative process, and that's why it's healthier for governing institutions to be more reflective of the broader society and certainly to include more women in the political process."

Julie Zeilinger, a recent college grad, author and founder of the young feminist zine The F-Bomb told me, "From the point of view of my generation, I think visibility is so important in inspiring future generations of leaders. If we don't see female politicians out there, and we don't see them in equal numbers to men, then going into politics, or leadership in general, doesn't seem like a viable option for us."

No matter who the first female president is, everyone I interviewed agreed her election would serve as an important symbol and be an inspiration to women regardless of age, ethnicity, race, or background. There was also the sense that having a woman president would act as a hopeful benchmark that our society is moving toward greater equality and diversity--not just of progress for women, but for all minorities. As Maya Angelou told me, "I think we are more ready for [a woman president] than we think we are. We are growing up out of the idiocies--racism and sexism and ageism and all those ignorances."

I look forward to the day when our daughters don't have to wonder why there have been no women presidents, but when there have been several for them to look up to and learn from-- and when they too can easily imagine that they might very well be the next.

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Photo credit: Hillary for America
It's that time of year again. The beginning of summer marks the time of year when every major city hosts its LGBT Pride Parade. The cities will explode in a Molotov cocktail explosion of pink confetti, diva music, and pinatas filled with condoms. Or so I've heard.

For the first time I will be participating in the festivities. Not because for the first time in my life I'm gay, but for the first time in my life, I'm verging on something adjacent to pride when it comes to my sexuality.

For the longest time, I didn't know what that meant. How could someone be proud of their sexuality? Did straight people walk around proud of the fact that they wanted to have heterosexual intercourse? Unlikely.

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But really what was there to be proud of when it came to sexuality at all? It is an uncontrollable fact bestowed upon each of us. It's like celebrating my red hair or freckles. Those don't bring me a sense of pride. They're just facts. I'm proud of accomplishments. My graduation from college, my job, the relationships I've built with those around me, my dedication to watch all of season 2 of True Detective no matter how bad it got. Those required work.

My gayness didn't require work. It required being born.

But then I thought again.

I grew up in a traditional, Irish-Catholic family in Boston. My mom is the principal of a Catholic school. My grandparents traveled over directly from Ireland. I've only ever missed two Sunday masses since I was eight. That's the level we're talking.

A few years ago, when I decided to finally come out as gay -- though my attendance at the last three Taylor Swift tours should've already been an indicator to anyone who breathes -- I went to Church first to talk about it with God.

In the Catholic faith, there is a practice called adoration. Growing up I didn't understand what it was. I just thought that's where my mom would go on Friday nights when she didn't feel like drinking. But as I grew older I understood why she went.

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Catholics believe that at the last supper Jesus said, "Take this bread and eat. For this is my body given up to you." When we receive the Eucharist, a consecrated piece of unleavened bread, we are not remembering the last supper or reenacting it. We believe we are actually receiving and consuming God and all the peace he brings.

In adoration, we do not consume it, but we adore it silently. We believe God is present in that room.

Everyone I've ever tried explaining this to gets a weird, bugged-out look in their eye. Like "Oh crap, I thought he was normal." It's like revealing you're a Scientologist at a dinner party while everyone backs away slowly hoping it's not contagious.

I used to think it was crazy too, but the more I went to it, the more peace I felt and the more I felt like I was having a direct conversation with God in that quiet.

I went to adoration when I decided to embark on Operation: Find a Man. I feared God would be angry, but instead I distinctly felt God encouraging me.

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The next day I got a call from my mom at work. She said she'd gone to Church that morning and felt there was something troubling me that I hadn't told her about. I struggled to hold the phone. I've never felt so assured that God was in the Eucharist.

As I came out to family and friends over the course of the next year and a half, the response was varied -- from unconditional love, to those who feared for my soul because now I was going to hell to blatant rejection. Many kept asking: "Why?"

That was a few years ago and I have developed a new life and new friends. Now their resounding question is: Why? Why are you still Catholic?

I understand that the Church deems my gayness "same-sex attraction disorder," which as an acronym spells "SAD" -- the exact opposite of gay. I am clear that I can never get married in a Catholic church -- even while I go to mass every weekend and most Catholics who get married in churches are the Christmas-Easter types.

I would like to think the Catholic Church will one day change its mind, but it's almost irrelevant because the Catholic Church has been wrong about a great many things. I grew up in a time when Boston was littered with sexual abuse victim stories daily. I know the Catholic Church would rather people in Africa die of AIDS than give them contraception. I know the Church is still incredibly and shamefully sexist in almost every regard.

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But that is the Church. And to be honest, I hate the Catholic Church as much as anyone. Catholicism has not lasted for 2,000 years because of priests or the institution. In fact it has lasted in spite of both. Its longevity stems from millions of people across the world who still connect to the beliefs of forgiveness, do unto others what you want done, and the self-sacrificing love of our creator.

When I was younger, I didn't come out because I thought I had to choose between my faith and my sexuality. I had no models of gay individuals who embraced their faith. People always chose one or the other.

When I came out, God reached out to me to say you can be both.
Many owners fail to develop an exit plan for their small business, which is a huge mistake. You should develop an exit plan for your business right from the very beginning.

Having an exit plan in place will help you keep the business going in the right direction by constantly aligning with your long-term goals. An exit plan also creates a trigger event that means it is time to get out; otherwise you just keep going.

One thing is for certain: Your exit plan will change over time, so make sure to review it often. I suggest writing your exit plan down and then reading it every six months or so; as it changes, make updates to it.

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Below are 8 steps to prepare your small business for an exit.

1. Sourcing Buyers

One thing businesses fail to think about is finding buyers for their business. Most owners just assume someone will want to buy their business, which is a huge mistake. According to exits.com, "Only 25% of saleable companies exit."

Keeping a list of potential buyers is a critical piece of your exit plan. Prospective buyers can be individuals or businesses who have approached you in the past about acquiring your business. You should also keep a list of competitors who may be interested in acquiring you when the time is right.

Sourcing potential buyers of your business and keeping a list of them will come in handy when the time comes to exit.

2. Reoccurring Revenue

Revenue is an important piece of your business exit; not only how much you have of it, but also the form in which it comes into your bank. Subscription-based products and services that produce reoccurring, predictable revenue are attractive to potential buyers.

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Another smart thing to do with your revenue if possible is to bill automatically, in advance. If all of your revenue is set up as reoccurring payments on the 1st of each month for that month's service, you will have a very attractive business to acquire.

A business with reoccurring, predictable revenue that is billed automatically and in advance is very attractive to a buyer.

3. A Good Growth Pattern

Obviously, having a business that has shown good growth patterns is what you are aiming for and what acquirers will want to see. Steady and predictable financial growth is the goal.

You may have some dips in your growth patterns here and there, but as long as they can be explained with an acceptable answer, you will probably be OK. What a buyer does not want to see is erratic swings in your growth.

Solid, predictable growth is attractive to a buyer.

4. Standard Operating Procedures

If you don't have a set of detailed standard operating procedures that are written down, you need to develop them right away. Build your business to the point where, if you get hit by a bus and are killed, your business will move forward without any disruption.

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You really want to detail everything in your standard procedures, including but not limited to:

 Executive strategy, vision, mission, core values, and management practices.

 Marketing plan--The strategy and tools used to attract prospects to your company.

 Sales plan and procedures--What tools and processes the business uses to convert prospects to customers.

 Operating procedures--Detailed processes of how the business works day in and day out to deliver to customers.

Think about it: If you are looking at two companies to acquire with similar revenues and other characteristics but one has a written set of standard operating procedures and the other does not, which one will you purchase?

5. Something Proprietary

Buyers love to invest in or acquire a business that has something proprietary. That doesn't necessarily mean you have to have a patent on something (although that is huge).

You could just have a certain process that is unique. In his brilliant book Built to Sell, John Warrillow explains, "You should name and own your process."

If you have anything that is exclusive to your business, make sure to highlight it as it will be a big selling point.

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6. Good Bookkeeping

Nobody, and I mean nobody, gets acquired without a good set of books. I was at a Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses alumni event when someone asked the business broker for his advice on exiting a business. The broker had already had a successful exit and he said, "Keep excellent records right from the beginning."

Many small business owners struggle with accounting and bookkeeping. Don't do what you don't know. Finding a good outsourced bookkeeping services company to help you keep solid records will prove vital to your growth and exit.

If you are going to exit, you will need a good set of books that have been audited regularly; using an outsourced bookkeeping service is recommended.

7. An Owner Who Is Removed

This may sound crazy, but if you are going to exit, you need to remove yourself from the business. If the business is only doing well because of you, then you will significantly decrease the value of your business.

If you, the owner, are vital to the success of the business, nobody will want to buy you or they will lock you into a long earn-out and make you stay involved for a predetermined amount of time.

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8. A Solid Long-term Management Team

While a potential acquirer may want to get an owner out of the business, they will want to see a management team who is committed to the future. If it appears that most key employees have the option to leave after the sale of the business, then this will be a big negative to a buyer.

Put good employee contracts in place with your key management team. Rather than giving them equity in the business, give them a bonus in the event of the business being sold and terms that allow the bonus to be paid out over a year or two.

If you are planning to exit your business at some point in the future, don't just assume that someone will want to buy your business. Increase your chances of success by following the above steps and reviewing your exit plan on regular basis.

Have you ever successfully exited a business?

What advice do you have?

Photo Credit: Canva
Learning to use our voice and having the courage to speak out is something that many women struggle with. From the confidence-zapping stories we tell ourselves, to the fear of being criticised by others for saying what we really think, it can often feel safer to stay silent over speaking our truth. But to both honour ourselves and create change, we need to step into our power and use our voice. So today I want to share with you some powerful words from a woman who is no stranger to speaking out, Tara Moss.

Tara Moss is an author, journalist, TV presenter and an outspoken advocate for the rights of women and children. Since 1999 she has written 11 bestselling books, which have been published in 19 countries and 13 languages. Tara has been a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador since 2007 and as of 2013 is UNICEF Australia's National Ambassador for Child Survival. She has spoken at numerous schools on cyber bullying and online child safety, and in July 2015 was announced as the new Norton Family Ambassador on these issues. In 2015 she was also announced as Patron of the Full Stop Foundation for Rape & Domestic Violence Services Australia, and launched the foundation at Parliament House. In 2015 she received an Edna Ryan Award for her significant contribution to feminist debate, speaking out for women and children and inspiring others to challenge the status quo.

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Tara is a truly inspirational woman and I was delighted to have the opportunity to interview her about her latest book, Speaking Out: A 21st Century Handbook for Women and Girls. Here's what Tara had to say...



Megan: Why was it important for you to write this book, and why now?

Tara: I wrote Speaking Out in direct response to speaking one-on-one with hundreds of women and girls around Australia. What started as a book tour after The Fictional Woman came out became a kind of 18 month speaking and listening tour at university campuses, schools, community halls and more. I spoke on gender, cyber bullying, violence - a lot of topics - and an incredibly large number of people disclosed personal stories to me both in person and online - particularly women and girls.

They told me their struggles and triumphs, their experiences of harassment, abuse and survival. They had specific questions, too - How do you speak out? How do you handle trolls? Critics? Being dismissed or talked over? After hearing the same questions hundreds of times I realized that a tweet or 5 minutes in a signing lineup just wouldn't cut it. I wanted to write a book for them, and for others with similar questions. In Speaking Out I do my best to answer those questions I was asked and more, and I provide strategies for how to speak out and keep on speaking out without burning out.

The reality is that we do not live in a predominantly feminist or 'gender equal' world, and many Australian women are experiencing workplace discrimination, sexual harassment, online abuse or worse, or common forms of casual, everyday sexism. They find themselves dismissed, talked over, ignored or facing backlash for doing the same thing their male colleagues are doing. This is brought home in anecdotes but also studies. I unpick everything from 'vocal fry' to 'RBF' - resting bitch face - and gender bias studies in the book. (And even gender bias studies about gender bias studies. That's right, as men don't experience the kind of gender bias being studied, they are statistically less likely to view the gender bias studies as 'meritorious'.)

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Speaking Out is honest about some of the challenges posed by speaking out and looks at possible responses and coping strategies. By comparing notes, we can help guide each other through what can be challenging life experiences.

Megan: What are the main barriers you see that stop women, particularly at work, from speaking out?

Tara: We have come a long way, particularly in terms of women becoming more equal under the law. Fortunately, workplace discrimination is now a crime - but unfortunately women still experience it. Fortunately, sexual harassment is now a crime - but unfortunately women still experience it. Fortunately, the assault of women is now a crime - but unfortunately women still experience it. The list goes on. There is the gender pay gap, the lower superannuation and more. And then there are the many shades of 'grey' where there is a blindness to the fact that particular behaviours are actually not acceptable, have crossed the line, but have been normalised and made acceptable.

A lot of women in the workplace are stuck in that uncomfortable place of having to come to terms with the fact that something isn't right, while no one around them will listen, or accept that something is wrong. Many workplaces have best practice, but sadly, many do not. The barriers are not insurmountable, but they are there, and we see that in the stats about women in leadership positions, on boards, in the corridors of power, or in terms of the public voice, and we certainly see that when we speak face to face to women in this country and listen to them.

Megan: Tell us about the most critical step that enables women to speak out.

Tara: We must all acknowledge our unconscious biases, and listen with less bias when women, and others who are marginalized, speak out. A lot of change is possible by just acknowledging unconscious bias - that exhaustively documented but unpleasant reality many would rather ignore - and listening with less bias and acting on what we then learn.

Megan: You have built an incredible platform in recent years around being an ambassador for women and girls. What have been the keys to your success?

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Tara: I am pleased to be in a position to be heard on some of these issues, but success will be measured by change in the appallingly high levels of violence directed at women online and in the physical world, and change in the low levels of women's participation in public life. That change will require collective action, just as the changes so far have taken collective action. Fewer than one in every four people we hear from or about in the media is female, worldwide, but that was only 17% in 1995. Change is possible. We have to do it together.



Megan: One of the reasons many women refrain from speaking up, especially on topics around feminism and women's issues, is because of the trolling and backlash that comes with using their voice. How do you personally deal with this, and what advice do you have for other women who have something to say but not sure they have the courage to say it?

Tara: It is important to know that criticism is a natural part of life and speaking out, and to know that a certain amount of the criticism you receive may have nothing to do with you, your argument, or the way you are articulating yourself. Some criticism online (and in the physical world) is neither constructive, nor balanced or intelligent. Some of it is abuse. When I am abused online I take snapshots for evidence, I report it to the social media platform and I ban the abuser. If I am threatened with violence I report the abuser to the police. It is vital to remember that threatening violence online is just as illegal as it is offline. Know your rights and the reporting procedures of any online platform you use.

We can't leave the internet to the bullies. You deserve to speak out and be heard just as much as the next man. Don't let bullies silence you. Support others, and make sure you look after yourself.

Megan: How pervasive do you think the issues of misogyny are in Australia, and other countries like the US and Canada?

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Tara: According to the worldwide UN Women report last year, Cyber Violence Against Women and Girls, women are 27 times more likely to be abused online. I think that gives us a hint as to how big the issue is. Things people won't often say to someone's face, particularly with others watching, are the things that people often say online, and that manifests in a lot of violent misogyny, as well as racism. There is a real effort to bully women out of public spaces and offline with violent intimidation. That issue speaks not just to casual sexism, which is more common, but actual, violent hatred of women by some.

Megan: In the book you tell the story of being the keynote speaker at a literary event in a mining town, where your speech was greeted with growing hostility. How as a speaker did you find the confidence to continue delivering that speech with conviction with the negative energy in the room? I am curious as to what was going through your mind throughout that speech.

Tara: I have learned with experience that speaking on difficult issues is important, but it means that you don't always find yourself facing audiences who are smiling the whole time. This is natural. As a speaker it is vital to prepare well and believe in what you have to say. You can't please every person in every crowd, but your message can matter much more than if you were only aiming to entertain. I'm not an entertainer in that way - that isn't my job and that wasn't why they asked me to speak. That particular example was an unusually hostile reception, but talks about gender are challenging to a lot of audiences. I have done such speeches perhaps 300 times in recent years and it is always rewarding. Just because it isn't always an easy topic, or it doesn't always result in easy smiles doesn't mean it isn't worth talking about.

Interestingly, though no one in the room spoke to me for about an hour after that particular speech, the women present gradually started coming up one by one through the rest of the evening, thanking me for my talk, telling me passionately how much it mattered to them, and explaining that 'some old blokes don't get it'. They basically apologized for their husbands. It was rather fascinating, actually. The client was very happy with the speech. She said it was just what was needed. I think I rather agree. It was an unusual experience but a good example of how preparation is key. I just kept going because it was what was needed. I never doubted a word I said, because I had done my prep and my research.

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Megan: You write about saying no, which is an issue so many women find challenging. What is the filter through which you choose your speaking and work opportunities?

Tara: I go into this in some detail in Speaking Out, because knowing you have the right to say no (and have that respected) can sometimes be as important as knowing you have the right to say yes. It is hard to distill this point, but in essence, if you are asked an overly invasive or personal question, you have the right to refuse to answer. Likewise, if you research a professional opportunity and it doesn't feel right, or if you are not being offered payment for your professional services, that may be a sign that you should consider saying no.

Megan: You write about self care in the book which is so important. What are your non-negotiables for looking after yourself, and your key tips for other women?

Tara: I know myself well enough to have some strategies in place for self-care, like making sure I get enough rest, family time and time out. If I can get a hike in on a regular basis I know I will feel better and I will be stronger. I set goals for myself - like learning to sew, learning to dance - things that are not work related. I find that play and craft with my family bring me a lot of joy, along with all things vintage. Other women will need different strategies. Above and beyond looking after your physical needs, it can be very helpful to think about what activities and hobbies make you smile. Make room for those things in your life, so you can look after your mental wellbeing and stay energized for life's challenges.

Megan: What influenced your transition from fictional novelist to non-fiction writer and researcher on women's issues?

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Tara: You have to write what is inside you, and right now, non-fiction work is driving me. I wanted to write directly about issues I am passionate about, including the experiences of women and girls. In future I will again have fiction stories I am burning to tell, and I would like to imagine a future as both a fiction and non-fiction writer.

Speaking Out: A 21st Century handbook for women and girls, has just been released and is available now where all good books are sold. Learn more about Tara at taramoss.com.
Over the weekend, tens of thousands turned out in Warsaw to protest the Polish government's recently-instituted policies that are hampering the work of the constitutional court and threatening the country's system of checks and balances. The protestors included two former presidents--leftist Aleksander Kwasniewski and centrist Bronislaw Komorowski--who sought to remind the Polish public of the importance of the freedom and democracy gained on June 4th 1989, in an election that peacefully ousted communist rule.

The demonstration was one in a series organized by the Committee for the Defense of Democracy (KOD), which began in January when the government's policies began to take effect. KOD's main concern is that under a new law, the "system of checks and balances is undermined," says KOD's International Coordinator, Katarzyna Morton. "The new law on the Constitutional Tribunal that was passed by the current government has paralyzed its work."

Polish civil society, including KOD, have also expressed concern over another new law that consolidates the government's power over the media, a draft law that would allow police to shut down public protest at any time, and the apparent rise in hate crime since the new government took power. One KOD supporter noted that the government's actions put Poland at risk for "Russian influences," meaning bigotry and xenophobia. Said Morton, "We want to create ... a sense of community, a way of being Polish that isn't based on hate."

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KOD has proposed its own draft law to reverse the paralysis afflicting the legal system and to once again empower the Constitutional Tribunal. The proposal closely tracks the Venice Commission recommendations provided to Poland in March. More than one hundred thousand signatures were gathered in support of KOD's draft, but it has not been introduced.

In the meantime, the European Commission has formalized its own concerns. It adopted a Rule of Law Opinion last week, the latest step in its evaluation of Poland's compliance with the basic legal framework requirements of membership in the European Union. The opinion cited as problems the process of appointment of judges to the Constitutional Tribunal, the functioning of the Tribunal, and its ability to effectively review other laws. The amendments to the law on the Constitutional Tribunal restrict the court's ability to review recently passed legislation in a way that allows the government to operate without oversight.

The European Union initially delayed issuing the opinion in light of indications that reform might be forthcoming. The Law and Justice Party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski informally proposed that he would be willing to publish the Constitutional Tribunal's opinion in a case challenging his government's amendments to the law regarding the Tribunal. The opinion states that the amendments are unconstitutional. The Tribunal's opinion, issued on March 9, has been prevented from going into effect by the Prime Minister's refusal to publish it, as required by law. The result has been confusion in the legal system, where some local courts have indicated they will follow the opinion as if it were published, while others refuse to follow it unless it is published. Kaczynski indicated that even if the decision were published, he still would not consider it binding. And while Kaczynski and Prime Minister Beata Szydlo last week made several references to reforms they might propose to the European Union, no reform proposals have been introduced.

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Publication of the European Commission opinion means that Poland must respond with concrete proposals and actions. If its response is unsatisfactory, the European Union could initiate the Article 7 procedure, which essentially calls for a formal hearing on Poland's compliance with rule of law. If successful, the procedure could result in sanctions against Poland, including suspension of Poland's voting rights in the E.U. But a finding of a "serious and persistent breach of the rule of law" would have to be unanimous, and Hungary has voiced its intent to support the Polish Government.

In adopting the opinion, European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans emphasized the importance of maintaining shared values within the E.U., and that the "rule of law is one of the foundations of the European Union." He took to Twitter to stress that the "business" of the Commission is "preserving the rule of law, in line with the Treaties." He recognized the importance of civil society in maintaining these checks and balances, and while meeting with KOD while in Warsaw, indicated that the European Commission could increase financing for civil society groups.

Timmermans and the European Union should hold steady in their support for civil society and the rule of law. The E.U. should keep up pressure on Poland to reform policies that threaten these foundations, such as the law hampering the Constitutional Tribunal, the proposed law that would allow law enforcement to prohibit peaceful protest at any time, and a draft anti-terrorism law that would make all foreigners potential targets of surveillance and suspicion. These measures threaten the very stability and security that Poland seeks to develop through its partnerships with the European Union and the United States.

The United States should support the E.U. in its fight to maintain rule of law and human rights standards. President Obama this week announced his intent to attend the NATO Summit in Warsaw on July 8-9 and to meet with government officials there. He should consider conditioning any face-to-face meetings with Polish officials on whether the government has made progress on its rule of law promises. American officials in Warsaw should also point out to their Polish allies the risks that recent legislative proposals present to the very thing Poland seeks to shore up at the NATO Summit: its own security.

These rule of law and human rights threats have already had an economic impact: Standard and Poor downgraded Poland's credit rating, and recently Deputy Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki noted that the situation in the country is dampening the interest of foreign investors. If Poland seeks U.S. and NATO support for the safety of its nation, the Polish government must do its part not to threaten that security.

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There is something mysterious that surrounds the month of Ramadan. There is this anticipation of the body cleansing and the hunger. There is an understanding that our souls are trying to get closer to the elusive Superior Being and seek forgiveness for the life which comes after our bodies are no longer alive. There is a communal buzz that elates the members and makes them feel that they are connected in some way for at least a short period of time. Muslims are advised to abstain from food, water, sex, gossip, cursing, and other sinful actions during the month. They are advised to pray and ask for God's forgiveness. This month is holy and it is said that the doors of Heaven open to those who seek absolution in their hearts.

I was born into a non-practicing Muslim family. Both my grandmothers were very religious women, but my parents were not. Both my grandmothers prayed five times a day and practiced Islam in all its earnestness. My sister recently found herself in the religion and has been practicing it, but I think it's more out of fear than from the real understanding of God. Early in my life I turned to religion seeking salvation from the injustice and suffering that I was going through at that time in my life. Now, I find myself in the crossroads where my heart and my brain are telling me that there is something more. In the innermost part of my soul I feel that the mere following of one particular religion is not enough to make my heart feed for eternity. It is easy to claim belonging to one religion, it is much, much harder to claim independence and call God or Universe your own.

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Recently someone told me that religion is all about humanity, and that God exists outside of it. I have been thinking about these words as Muslims all over the world welcome the holy month of Ramadan. I face questions every day about eternity and my obligation as a human being to the Superior One that oversees our destinies. I question suffering and I have a hard time understanding it. I shy away from the Islamic religion (and any other religion) for their clear cut regulations that sound so much as something that the governing humans thousands of years ago carved out in their attempt to rule their herds. Pray five times a day, perform very specific bodily motions, pray in the words from the great books (written by men), pray and stay away from thinking and contemplation.

Prophets from all the religions are alike. Religions are products of very smart, intuitive men, such as Abraham, Mohammad, Jesus and others. They were great. I am sure. When I look at their lives and actions I realize that they probably never meant to be in the center of these grand religions, they only meant to show the human race that goodness lives in all of us, waiting to be harvested. Goodness is the center of it all, pulling us together, saving us from the horrors of implosions that I see every day on the news. These great men helped the poor, they did not cast judgments, and they loved and cherished their families. They stood up for injustice and shielded those who were unable to shield themselves, from the forces that threatened to turn their lives into suffering. Their immediate followers on the other hand wanted to neatly package their teachings and guard them from changes or better understanding among the masses and also from questions that someone like me might ask one day.

So, during the month of Ramadan, it is easy to give up the food and the water. It is easy to line up on clean carpets and turn your bodies east and go through the motions of praying for forgiveness. On the other hand, it is hard to take a stand for injustice even though you fear that your life and the life of your own children might be on the line. It is hard to look at another human being, so different from yourself and understand their uniqueness and their struggles. It is hard not to see someone else's skin color and not turn away out of the fear of unknown. It is hard to understand that there are things in this Universe that will remain a mystery to us. We have come far in the history and sacrificing a goat or a lamb no longer holds the same symbolism as it did thousands of years ago. Fasting is no longer the same as it was then. We carry the pain of ignorance under our ribs as we continue down the path of blindness of human suffering that is presented to us every day.

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During this month of Ramadan I pray to the One that he saves the children of this planet, not from Satan, but from the evil that humans themselves are sowing. I pray that I do not ignore the news of Syrian suffering, of terrorism attacks in Turkey, Nigeria, of racism in America. I pray I am strong enough to see and act and love and accept.
There has not been a summer in the past decade that DJ Lina was not synonymous with Fire Island. As her era there comes to a close, Fire Island's loss is Asbury Park's gain, as Lina is joining The Asbury to spin for Jersey Pride. She sat down to chat with us about her what the boys of Asbury Park can expect for her return, what she is doing with a post-Fire Island summer, and what Pride truly means to her.



You're coming back to spin for The Asbury Hotel all weekend for Jersey Pride. Is it your first time in Asbury Park?

You know, for Pride it is. A good friend of mine, Russell Lewis he owns Watermark. I've spun all of his anniversary parties after Lady Bunny did the first one, and I fell in love with it in Asbury Park. It's beautiful!

I've heard you spin and known you for many years on Fire Island and beyond. How would you describe your sound to someone that has never heard that quintessential Lina sound?

Well, it's always going to be soulful and you're always going to hear vocals. Then of course, it's all organic, so I will have a vibe on Friday, I'l have a vibe on Saturday, and I'll have a vibe on Sunday. It will definitely all be soulful though.

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The "Twirlina" era of DJ LIna spinning on Fire Island is now over. While it's hard to comprehend a season on Fire Island without Lina, it opens up a whole new world for you in the summer.

You know, it's funny there is an article coming out this week saying just that. Last season in April, it was right before my birthday and I had an open house and I had this feeling; I said to myself "I think I'm done". It was my ten year anniversary, so I have always had these two cherubs and my guiding light that have always told me when it was time to go to the next place. I have done it a million times before and I would do it again. It spoke to me then and there was nothing more for me to do.



It was very hard for me to leave that community because I was so in it. Living there for seven months of my life for ten years of my life was a huge commitment to not return. At the same time, I have always gone with that guiding light inside of me and I always like to go on to the next level.

Does it feel surreal to have your summer so open ended without such a full calendar?

You know, it feels almost like a really positive separation. A friend of mine asked if i felt weird not being on the island, and it has been literally twenty years since i have been in New York City in the summer. Before that, I was in St. Tropez and Sardinia. I have never had a summer in the city since maybe the late 90's. I'm traveling, I'm here and there, but I wanted to stay based in New York, not just for my head, but for some of the things I've been working on that I hope to release in the next couple of weeks. I'm excited; I'm excited to be a part of Asbury Park and see a different part of New York that I don't get to see.

The one constant that we hear frequently in Asbury Park is that Asbury is very different from Fire Island in so many ways.

Absolutely; You can get in a car, you're not just walking. That's going to change the whole demographic in itself right?!



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Pride month kicks off today; you have been such a vibrant and visible part of the community long before you stepped behind the decks. What does Pride mean to you?

Pride is every day. Waking up and knowing where you came from and where you're going. I say that to all the young kids out there. It's important not to let these phones and this technology be able to empower us and not break us down. If you are going to be on the phone 24/7 and not interact with people, at least do your homework and find out where you came from. These kids have these A.D.D. moments and it's so entitled; where it just happened to them and they want it a minute later; you have to take your time with life and know where you came from, where you're going. I find such a disconnect with that; not really with everyone, but a majority.

I do remember the 90's so visibly and New York City was a different world when people like you, Candis Cayne, and Mona Foot really owned New York City nightlife. It seems like such a different world now you know?

That's because we come from the world of see, eat, smell touch. Could you imagine if we had the technology that these kids have today? With what we knew back then? Honey we would have owned it! But kids, we handed you the baton. I thought that when the year 2000 starts, and this new generation started, they would knock it into the stratosphere. But do they even know what we had to do with ACT UP and how we made it possible for you to walk hand in hand and get married? HEL-LO guys, this was a real struggle!

I'm so passionate about this. I am so blessed to travel around the world and have moments where i get to speak with young children about this. I am going to be in Vietnam for their first pride ever with President Obama and a few other officials, and I am going to be working with universities and doing workshops with transgender children, so I am so excited about that. I became a Global Ambassador for HMI and a board member on GMHC over the winter. Philanthropy has been my backbone since i left the coop. Now that I have the ability to pay it forward, i am so all about that.



It's wonderful to see people from many years ago that started in what many consider a golden era of New York City to really be doing something with the platform they have worked so hard to have and not just still be in the clubs performing.

Yeah you just can't. Ten years is more than enough, I was there once, I will be there again. Fire Island spoke to me when it needed me and vice versa. Everything I got from that beautiful spiritual island has empowered me and made me the woman I am today and keep me going on and getting me where i need to go.

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The World Health Organization has long been a leader in matters of public health, from its successes against such dreaded diseases as smallpox to its campaign to control tobacco. Its new Health and Ageing Strategy, passed recently in Geneva at the 69th World Health Assembly, follows in this admirable tradition.

But this effort goes beyond a current and easily observable health crisis, built instead from a huge insight on one of the mega-trends of our time -- 21st century longevity. The WHO has in its sights a unique approach to public health that fosters the goal of healthier and more active aging by enabling "functional ability" in our later decades. More than absence of disease is a huge shift, but has in its sights the essential need for wellness and prevention in an era of 100 year lives.

Wow. A global institution with a strategy that offers the preconditions for healthier and more active aging today, even as it creates the solid foundations to aid our grandchildren's longer lives? A rare, much-welcome development.

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Moreover, the strategy includes an execution plan for the 194 Health Ministers in the Geneva Assembly Hall to take home. They will report their progress over the next five years and then gather in 2020 to launch the decade of Healthy Ageing.

The newly minted strategy impressively builds on a year of work by the WHO's Ageing and Life Course Unit, headed by Dr. John Beard, and ably supported by Dr. Alana Officer. Last October, they issued the report that informed the strategy that WHO Director General, Dr. Margaret Chan, just got approved. Both the Report and the Strategy are well supported by the medical, health and scientific leaders seen in the Gerontologist Supplement on Healthy Ageing that accompanies the Report.

While it's understandable that emergencies like Ebola or Zika will continue to grab the public health headlines, don't for a second underestimate the importance and impact of what just happened in Geneva, which is laid out by the WHO itself.

commitment to action on Healthy Ageing in every country;

developing age-friendly environments;

aligning health systems to the needs of older populations;

developing sustainable and equitable systems for providing long-term care (home, communities, institutions); and

improving measurement, monitoring and research on Healthy Ageing

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The broad takeaways:

Culture Shift: As with any social or economic revolution, those living through it often miss the really big idea. Drs. Chan, Beard and their team got it exactly right by identifying the subtle shift necessary for the health of our 21st century global society. This is a world that will soon have more old than young; where 80+ is the fastest growing demographic; where planning for 100 years of life is, for the first time in history, the norm. It is essential to stop treating our 60+ population -- reaching 2 billion by mid-century -- as an afterthought to public health needs. But in a culture that counts an old person's health needs as, well, "they're just old" you get a kind of subtle but powerful and automatic lowering of priority. Yet, in today's "older world," how could we not consider an "adult immunization campaign" parallel to the childhood immunization program we have so brilliantly embedded in every aspect of public health thinking, everywhere? Or, dedicate the funds required to better manage and ultimately cure Alzheimer's? This new strategy will, by its very existence, re-imagine and re-shape public health to align with 21st century longevity. And it will be good for all of society.

Longevity wellness and functional ability: Perhaps the greatest insight of the new strategy is its shift towards the metric of functional ability. You see, with 20 percent, 30 percent and 40 percent of national populations being old, helping adults be active and healthy will be essential for economic growth and prosperity. Done right, we can add quality of life to all of our years, while also substantially reducing the expected cost burdens on health systems. To this end, the new strategy targets areas virtually ignored today, such as skin, oral and nutritional health. Longevity makes these aspects critically important. For example, a lifetime of skin damage will now also impact your mental health, make you susceptible to infections and wounds, and increase your risk for melanoma. To combat these kinds of challenges that otherwise impede functional ability, we need prevention and wellness strategies across the life course to keep us healthier and more active as we age.

Caring differently: It was fine for public health to arrange long-term care for 20th century aging. But today, in the 21st century, the ways we care for our aging population assume brand new paradigms and possibilities. Aging at home; effective and efficient uses of innovative technology; care aligned with wellness and functional ability; and employer support for caregivers all represent parts of the sea-change the new strategy envisions.

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To achieve changes in long-term care and many other areas, the WHO calls for widespread action: "Multiple actors and agents will need to align, collaborate and coproduce Healthy Ageing ... formal tiers of government, individuals in communities and as patients and caregivers, and a wide spectrum of networks, associations, businesses and organizations in diverse sectors." This, too, in today's global and diverse society is necessary for collaboration and partnership. One or the other segment of society just cannot do it alone.

Congratulations, WHO. Now, for the 194 Health Ministers to go home and start working with the rest of us for all our healthier and more active aging.

Earlier on Huff/Post50:
Surrounded by three seas: the Black, the Aegean and the Mediterranean Sea; in the neighborhood of the Balkan and Middle East countries; at the crossroads of the European and Asian history; turquoise Turkey can charm you to pack your bags instantaneously and renew your energy.

Below are four tangible reasons why you should experience Turkish adventures. The best part is that you can do it in a heartbeat, on a budget and without long preparation.

1)Turkey is accessible and hospitable world-class destination.

When you choose to go to a new destination, it certainly matters how your journey will look like. Since 2010 Turkish national carrier, Turkish Airlines has been proclaimed The Best Airline in Europe year after year, flying to over 114 destinations. This result and the viral video with satisfied Lionel Messi and Kobe Bryant should reassure any curious traveler that visiting Turkey would be remarkable and seamless experience.

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Moreover, according to UNWTO's statistics Turkey hosted 39 million travelers in 2014 and ranks as the 6th tourism destination in the world, which knows how to wow its guests. Did we mention that this hospitality has the youthful and vibrant spark, given the fact that Turkish median age is 28?

2)Turkish history leaves nobody indifferent.

Every city in Turkey is like an open museum because of the civilizations marching in and out throughout its windy history. Imagine architectural treasures that were built by the ancient Greeks, conquered by the competitive Romans and recreated by the Byzantines.

Within radius of several hundred kilometers mosks, churches and synagogues co-exist together and for instance in the eastward city Ani, called The City of 1001 Churches, many churches are still preserved.

Throughout Turkey there are remnants of the glorious era of Alexander the Great and Byzantine that restored faith in creativity and humanity. Fast forward centuries ahead and you can witness the symbols of Kemal Ataturk's reforms or the recent events in Gezi Park and Taksim Square that harnessed the power of the twitter generation.

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3)Turkish cuisine satisfies both lean and demanding eaters.

Once you try Turkish cuisine you will understand why culinary experts swear that there are three kinds of cuisine in the world: French, Chinese and Turkish.

A typical meal starts with meze and you can savour both dishes rich in meat and the leaner ones. For instance, sis and doner kebabs, kofte and tandir became household names for meat lovers. Gozleme and manti are the dishes rich in yogurt, popular as almost as borek pies with meat, cheese or potatoes. Dolma and pilaf are rice dishes, yet dolma is coated with grape or cabbage leaves, while pilaf can sometimes contain bulgur, peas, beans, carrot and aubergines.

At the end of the meal treat yourself with sweets such as kadaif, halva or baklava that are small in size, but dense in the rhapsody of tastes.

4)Turkish authentic design creates fantastic gifts.



Imagine rambling on a market in Istanbul and you need to decide among the cinnamon-scented gifts, velvet pashmina, turquoise marble boxes, thick beach towels, or the lucky charm with penetrating Turkish evil eye.

Thanks to the wonders of the internet, the best pieces of Turkish design, sustainable and authentic, can be chosen online. For example, over 10 generations of loomers in the city of Badabag have been creating the traditional Turkish towels. Now these exquisite products of gentle and hardworking artisans evolved and can be purchased on the website of Loombrand.

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How about, next time you head to the holiday, you pick up your favourite item from Loombrand's range of bath and beach towels or throws?

Now that you learned about Turkish geographical coordinates, history, scents, tastes and gifts, it is time to travel there.

Let this civilization that spreads on two continents allure you as you approach it with the open mind and heart, willing to take a proper wellness retreat from the daily grind.
Supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., cheer during a campaign rally at the Cubberley Community Center on Wednesday, June 1, 2016, in Palo Alto, Calif. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

I haven't weighed in on the election because everyone's said plenty already, and I don't think a blog post has ever changed anyone's mind about politics. But this is what I have to say to Bernie Bros -- and, for that matter, the white, liberal, largely untraveled and privileged Berners plugging their ears and pretending "visualization" helps people in need more than real social justice work and sacrifice working long hours for small compromises and for incremental changes in Congress and Senate:

I do feel, strongly, that Sanders supporters and Clinton supporters need to save their vitriol for Trump, because this man is incredibly dangerous. I believe his actions and words show him to be a fascist, a racist, a bigot, a bully, and a conman, and that any vitriol people in the Bernie camp want to direct at Hillary should be saved for Donald "Look at my African-American over here" Trump. I committed long ago to vote and to campaign for whomever gets the Democratic nomination, because there could not be more at stake here.

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Clinton is not the Antichrist. Sanders is not the Savior. Anyone who is attentive to these politicians' records as well as the kinds of debates they had on national television can see that where a lethal threat like Trump is concerned, Sanders and Clinton have got a lot more in common than they don't. Clinton and Sanders are both rational, accomplished, dedicated, hugely imperfect, and admirable public servants. I'll proudly support whichever of them gets the nomination come November. I'm worried Clinton depends on big money to the detriment of some of her consistency and integrity, sure. But I'm also deeply worried that Bernie's platform lacks essential practical clarity in terms of how he'll implement his very poetic and attractive vision, and that's actually where I see your viewpoint's myopia in this, Bernie Bros. In fact, the moral rectitude and argumentativeness of Bernie Bros' descension into Twitter Trolldom as the votes rolled in Tuesday are emblematic of where I differ from the those Bros shouting "Go f*ck yourself!" every time Hillary Clinton speaks in a debate. I am older and wiser than 2008, when I thought Barack Obama merely needed to be elected to implement his dream, only to watch him be blockaded a million times by the House and the Senate for both of his terms. I understand, now, how much compromise will be required of whoever becomes president next, and how little will change unless the House and Senate do.

It's certainly probable that among the compromises and deals the Clintons have made in the ever-changing political climate of the last 40 years of bipartisan American culture, they've contributed to systems whose injustice I do my best as an educator, activist, development worker, and author to work against. But I have more faith in Clinton's foreign policy than in Sanders', because I'm still not entirely sure what Sanders' is. And, as an international development worker, that's of utmost importance to me. Clinton has made mistakes, but I think she was the first Secretary of State to connect issues of development -- healthcare, schooling, young women's empowerment -- directly to our national security. I believe that she was right: the more starved, oppressed and disempowered young people in poor nations are, the more likely they are to join fundamentalist groups. Cookstoves, in other words, are not a joke and not a women's issue; they're connected to the wellbeing of those in need abroad and, ultimately, to ours. Regardless of how far Sanders comes in his quest for the nomination, I will always be grateful to Clinton for her vital work to underscore that. She caught a ton of guff for that from male lawmakers and wonks, just as she's caught a ton of guff for every decision she's made under a merciless and plainly gendered spotlight of public scrutiny since the 1970s.

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Broadly speaking, my platonically perfect ideals probably align more with Sanders', but my experience actually in the world, and working abroad, has given me great gratitude for the tireless, practical, exhausting work Clinton did as Secretary of State -- and most of all, an awareness of the necessity of ugly compromise in service of long-term policy change in the political landscape of an America embroiled in a long and bloody culture war. (And given what's at stake in this election, I'm honestly not particularly perturbed by the fact that Clinton, like Rice and Powell before her, had emails on a private server.) The youth I work with aren't only American and incarcerated; I also work with other youth in other countries,like female refugees from Congo, and their experience counts in equal to me. This is where I see *your* position as myopic, Bernie Bros: it's not clear to me how Sanders would achieve his vision, not to mention what that vision is on a lot of international issues, and it's therefore not clear what it would portend for people in other countries for him to be the one in charge. I've really only heard him talk at length about getting Wall Street out of Washington, and that's not the only thing I look at. Call that wide-lens and international-work-informed concern of mine myopic or unevolved or ignorant if you want, but I think that's rather a hypocritical assessment. Until Tuesday, I was still happy to either #FeelTheBern, or to say #ImwWithHer. I'll be a gladiator for either Bernie or Hillary, and I'll be honored to do so, but the work won't end there. I hope you take your political actions out in the field abroad, and to work on Congress and Senate elections, too, Bernie Bros, if you feel that strongly against Clinton. You're entitled to your opinion, and you're entitled to your vote. As am I, and my opinion is that if you refuse to vote for Clinton if it comes to that in November, you're abandoning marginalized people much more than I am by voting for her, and that you are doing the most entitled, white, cisgendered male thing there is to do.

This is what I have to say to the Bernie Bros trying to mansplain to me about how they have not worked grueling jobs here or abroad to learn, about what they think they're experts on because they read The New Jim Crow and can recite what Clinton got wrong without being able to recite or, even acknowledge, what Clinton got right. I voted for Sanders in the California primary, but Clinton won the nomination by popular vote. She is the first woman in U.S. history to do so. That's an enormous deal. Girls all over the world are going to see it, and it is going to matter to them, the same as it mattered to the refugees who had been driven out of China and who told me in Mongolian, eyes shining, "He's a Black guy! And he is your president!" Why yes, he was. He is. And he put this woman in charge of his international affairs for many good reasons.

Bernie Bros, I'm over you trying to kill my joy about this. I get to be excited for all the women I've met all over the developing world who will be heartened by tonight. I get to be excited to hold Clinton accountable and challenge her to be better. I get to be stoked to hold her to a high standard and ask her to strive to improve. I get to spend my working days as an educator, writer, and scholar learning about oppression and serving people who have suffered from it and ask Clinton to do what needs to be done to improve on her record in service of those people. This is historic, it brings me joy, and people trying to take that away from me, or minimize the history-making of this moment, can step off. Put your money where your mouth is, Bernie Bros, and work on changes in the Congress and Senate instead of "visualizing" the day away in your bubbles of largely white entitlement.

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(And also, Trump is like the White Walkers in Game of Thrones coming to kill everyone whilst they bicker and in-fight, so let's not be Westeros. Let's get to work.)

Bernie Bros, I say this as I enter into my summer of reading, for my PhD qualifying exams, no less than one hundred books with "Trauma", "Prison", "Restorative Justice", and "Violence" in their titles. bell hooks and Michelle Alexander are my anchor authors. I work as an educator with refugees and incarcerated youth. I am not perfect, and I am always learning, but I do my best to put my money where my mouth is.
Faced with two lawsuits claiming fraudulent practices in the operation of the now defunct Trump University, The Donald wants to cry foul and claim reverse discrimination because of the ethnicity of the Indiana-born Republican judge hearing the case.

Michael Isikoff, Chief Investigative Correspondent, reports:

In a startling 13-minute digression during a speech last week in San Diego, the presumptive Republican Party nominee tore into the judge, referring to him as a "Mexican" and a "hater" who showed bias against him because he has allowed fraud lawsuits against Trump University to proceed. "I'm getting railroaded by the legal system," Trump said. "They ought to look into Judge Curiel."

So let's do that. Let's "look into" U.S. District judge, Judge Gonzalo Curiel, a former federal prosecutor who was targeted for a "hit" by a convicted gunman for the Tijuana drug cartel who had been convicted by Curiel.

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"As a result of that threat, the prosecutor, Gonzalo Curiel, was placed under 24-hour protection by the marshals for a year. He was moved to a naval base, and later, for a while, to Justice Department headquarters in Washington. When he came back to work, so did the gun toting marshals, trailing him wherever he went."

Despite the danger, Curiel never wavered from his commitment to put Mexican drug traffickers behind bars.

Dishes it Out, But Can't Take it

This is not the first time The Donald has called foul and claimed he was being picked on unfairly. Isn't that just what he did with Megyn Kelly? In both cases, first he insults an entire segment of the population, making broad brush pejorative generalizations hailed by the scape-goat-seeking mob mentality of his followers who praise his crude insults as "honesty"... then he cries foul when his nastiness comes back and kicks him in the ass.

It is honest to admit having racist thoughts. Honesty never excuses bad behavior. Acting on racist thoughts by speaking them aloud in public is racism and is particularly troubling when it is done by someone in a position to hold the highest elected office in the nation - a position requiring great diplomacy and tolerance in dealing with peoples of all colors, nationalities, genders and faiths.

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Saying later that you "love THE Latinos" as you eat a meal prepared by chefs in Trump Towers on Cinco de Mayo, does not negate, change or nullify the racist sting of the original comments, especially not while continuing to insist that you WILL build a wall to keep out the Mexican "rapists" and "murderers" as well as those you admitted are "good people" among them.

Mr. Trump has - in his course, vulgar and vile outspoken manner - made it perfectly clear that he is a hateful bigot, not just of Latinos but also of Muslims, women, war heroes, and the disabled who he feels are fair game for his disparaging and degrading remarks.

NOW, Trump is upset when the tables are turned and cries discrimination! That is hysterically funny! It shows Trump's complete lack of understanding of Karma and reaping what you sow. It shows his total inability to take responsibility for any of his actions, but rather to constantly BLAME others for his blunders and failings.

Summary Judgment Facts

"I should have easily won the Trump University case on summary judgment but have a judge, Gonzalo Curiel, who is totally biased against me." Trump tweeted, May 30, 2016

The Donald told Megan Kelly he never starts it, just gives it back. Well, sir, you did start this mess. You, Mr. Tump, are at the mercy of Judge Gonzalo Curiel because of the fraudulent practices of your co-called "university." The judge didn't "make you do it" or "start it" as you often claim to justify your lambasting rants.

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As for claims that Judge Curiel is prejudiced because of Trump's anti-Mexican rhetoric... well, if it were true he'd deserve it, but Curiel is a bigger man than that and is trying this case on the facts of the case. So please, please stop being a cry-baby and take your lumps like a MAN, Mr. Trump.

A "summary judgment" - which Trump says should have been enacted - is a procedure that allows a judge to dismiss a case before going to trial. It is granted when a judge finds there is "no genuine dispute of material fact" that requires a full trial.

Summary judgments are rare. Fewer than 10 percent of all cases in six key federal district courts between 1975 and 2000 were resolved via summary judgment.

"The [Supreme] Court has made it clear that only in certain, limited cases, will summary judgment be granted. ... We have a Constitution that requires civil cases to be submitted to a jury if there's enough fact and dispute - and that's a pretty important right to most people," according to Kevin Johnson, dean of the University of California, Davis School of Law."

Summary judgment is a "weak filter designed to resolve only the most lopsided of cases where no reasonable jury could find for the other side," said David Freeman Engstrom, Stanford University law professor and expert in civil procedure.

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This is not the case.

There are two class action suits before Curiel, both from former Trump U students claiming fraud and demanding their money back. One lawsuit was filed in 2010 by students in California, Florida and New York, and the other in 2013 by a plaintiff who alleged he was misled and upsold to pay for an $35,000 upgrade.

According to the Washington Post: Trump's own defense team said that Curiel "is doing his job," and doing a "good job of trying to balance out competing interests" and that they have no plans to file a motion for the judge to be recused as Trump would like to happen.

Stop being a cry-baby, Trump!

Trump has prejudicially judged people based on arbitrary classification that have nothing to do with the person's individual character or behavior and now he is the one being judged on your ethics and practices as the great business man you tout yourself to be.

Trump's fellow GOPs are not happy with his claims of racism against Judge Curial. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich called the remarks "inexcusable" and the biggest mistake Mr. Trump has made. A comment that caused an 11 plus minute Trump meltdown on FOX News.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich tweeted that Trump's offensive against the impartiality of U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel "is flat-out wrong" and suggested he should apologize.

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Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said, "It's wrong and I hope he stops."

Instead, in classic Trump fashion, he doubled down on his attacks in a Wall Street Journal interview last week, claiming that Curiel had "an absolute conflict" in presiding over the Trump University cases because of his "Mexican heritage."

In a phone call in which he derides his own staffers, Trump allegedly said: "no one has suffered more discrimination than Donnieboy. Tremendous discrimination. The greatest." Boo hoo. Poor rich white boy!

Trump was short-sighted not to anticipate that someday someone from a group he disparaged would be in a position to judge him.

This is not the OJ trial. Mt. Trump, you do not get to turn racism around and claim you are being framed by a racist judge or racist judiciary system. It is Trump, the racist and crook on trial now, based on facts that have just one color: the green of greed!

Faced with two lawsuits claiming fraudulent practices in the operation of the now defunct Trump University, The Donald wants to cry foul and claim reverse discrimination because of the ethnicity of the Indiana-born Republican judge hearing the case.

Advertisement

Michael Isikoff, Chief Investigative Correspondent, reports:

In a startling 13-minute digression during a speech last week in San Diego, the presumptive Republican Party nominee tore into the judge, referring to him as a "Mexican" and a "hater" who showed bias against him because he has allowed fraud lawsuits against Trump University to proceed. "I'm getting railroaded by the legal system," Trump said. "They ought to look into Judge Curiel."

So let's do that. Let's "look into" U.S. District judge, Judge Gonzalo Curiel, a former federal prosecutor who was targeted for a "hit" by a convicted gunman for the Tijuana drug cartel who had been convicted by Curiel.

"As a result of that threat, the prosecutor, Gonzalo Curiel, was placed under 24-hour protection by the marshals for a year. He was moved to a naval base, and later, for a while, to Justice Department headquarters in Washington. When he came back to work, so did the gun toting marshals, trailing him wherever he went."

Despite the danger, Curiel never wavered from his commitment to put Mexican drug traffickers behind bars.

Dishes it Out, But Can't Take it

This is not the first time The Donald has called foul and claimed he was being picked on unfairly. Isn't that just what he did with Megyn Kelly? In both cases, first he insults an entire segment of the population, making broad brush pejorative generalizations hailed by the scape-goat-seeking mob mentality of his followers who egg him on and praise his crude insults as "honesty"... then he cries foul when his nastiness comes back and kicks him in the ass.

Advertisement

Being honest is to admit having racist thoughts. Acting on them - speaking them aloud in public - is racism and is particularly troubling when it is done by someone seeking the highest elected office in the nation in a position requiring great diplomacy and tolerance in dealing with people of all colors, nationalities, genders and faiths.

Saying later that you "love THE Latinos" as you eat a meal prepared by chefs in Trump Towers on Cinco de Mayo, does not negate, change or nullify the racist sting of the original comments, especially not when you continue to insist that you WILL build a wall to keep out the Mexican "rapists" and "murderers" as well as those you admitted are "good people" among them.

So, yes, Mr. Trump, you have - in your course, vulgar and vile outspoken manner - made it perfectly clear that you are a hateful bigot, not just of Latinos but also of Muslims, women, war heroes, and the disabled who you feel are fair game for your disparaging and degrading remarks.

NOW, you are upset when the tables are turned and you cry discrimination! That is hysterically funny! It shows your complete lack of understanding of Karma and how you reap what you sow. It shows your total inability to take responsibility for any of your actions, but rather to constantly BLAME others for your failings.

Summary Judgment Facts

"I should have easily won the Trump University case on summary judgment but have a judge, Gonzalo Curiel, who is totally biased against me." Trump tweeted, May 30, 2016

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You told Megan Kelly you never start it, you just give it back. Well, sir, you did start this mess. You find yourself at the mercy of Judge Gonzalo Curiel because of the fraudulent practices of your co-called "university." The judge didn't "make you do it" or "start it" as you often claim of your lambasting rants.

As for claims that Judge Curiel is prejudiced against you because of your anti-Mexican rhetoric, well, if it were true you'd deserve it, but Curiel is a bigger man than that and is trying your case on the facts of the case. So please, please stop being a cry-baby and take your lumps like a MAN!

A "summary judgment" is a procedure that allows a judge to dismiss a case before going to trial. It is granted if a judge finds there is "no genuine dispute of material fact" that requires a full trial.

Summary judgments are rare. Fewer than 10 percent of all cases in six key federal district courts between 1975 and 2000 were resolved via summary judgment.

The [Supreme] Court has made it clear that only in certain, limited cases, will summary judgment be granted. ... We have a Constitution that requires civil cases to be submitted to a jury if there's enough fact and dispute - and that's a pretty important right to most people," according to Kevin Johnson, dean of the University of California, Davis School of Law.

Summary judgment is a "weak filter designed to resolve only the most lopsided of cases where no reasonable jury could find for the other side," said David Freeman Engstrom, Stanford University law professor and expert in civil procedure.

This is not the case.

There are two class action cases before Curiel, both from former Trump U students claiming fraud and demanding their money back. One suit was filed in 2010 by students in California, Florida and New York, and the other in 2013 by a plaintiff who alleged he was misled and upsold to pay for an $35,000 upgrade.

According to the Washington Post: "Trump's own defense team said that Curiel 'is doing his job,' and doing a 'good job of trying to balance out competing interests' and that they have no plans to file a motion for the judge to be recused as Trump would like to happen.

Stop being a cry-baby, Trump!

You have prejudicially judged people based on arbitrary classification that have nothing to do with the person's individual character or behavior and now you are the one being judged on your fairness and practices as the great business man you tout yourself to be.

His fellow GOPs think not. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich called the remarks "inexcusable" and the biggest mistake Mr. Trump has made. A comment that caused Trump an 11+ minute meltdown on FOX News.

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Ohio Gov. John Kasich tweeted that Trump's offensive against the impartiality of U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel "is flat-out wrong" and suggested he should apologize.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said, "It's wrong and I hope he stops."

You can dish it out, Trump, now take it!

Instead, in classic Trump fashion, he doubled down on his attacks in a Wall Street Journal interview last week, claiming that Curiel had "an absolute conflict" in presiding over the Trump University cases because of his "Mexican heritage."

In a phone call in which he derides his own staffers, Trump allegedly said: "no one has suffered more discrimination than Donnieboy. Tremendous discrimination. The greatest." Boo hoo. Poor rich white boy!

Trump was short-sighted not to anticipate that someday someone from a group he disparaged would be in a position to judge him.

This is not the OJ trial. Mt. Trump, you do not get to turn racism around and claim you are being framed by a racist judge or racist judiciary system. It is Trump, the racist and crook on trial now, based on facts that have just one color: the green of greed!
June is LGBT Pride Month--and for a growing number of Mormons, it's a time for celebration. Social media is awash with rainbow-colored profile pictures of devout Latter-day Saints and their families, and active Mormons are planning marching contingents in several LGBT Pride parades throughout the country.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints itself, however, greeted LGBT Pride month with a strikingly different announcement. Just last week, church leaders released a letter urging Mormons in Mexico to reject a public policy initiative that would legalize marriage equality across the country--a move disappointingly similar to the misguided Mormon involvement in California's Proposition 8 in 2008.

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Since November of last year, when the church announced a policy that mandates church discipline (the process that leads to excommunication) for LGBT individuals in same-sex marriages and bars their children from baptism, church leadership has engaged in a consistent drumbeat of bigoted messages aimed at the LGBT community. Those words and actions have been so severe they've raised serious questions about their impact on suicide rates of LGBT youth inside the faith, including Harry Fisher, whose death was closely linked to his experience as a gay Mormon man.

But while the church itself seems largely indifferent to reports of youth suicide and appears determined to repeat mistakes of the past, church membership continues on a path of inclusion that is far more Christlike. Even prior to the November policy, Mormon acceptance of homosexuality had grown 50 percent over eight years, according to a Pew research study. However, the policy and continued anti-LGBT vitriol seem to have ignited an even faster cultural change.

According to prominent Mormon blogger Judy Dushku, this accelerating cultural change can be directly attributed to the November policy.

"[While] thousands of people left the church, thousands more stayed in and continue to regularly attend church, yet openly either joke about The Policy or, more respectfully but still firmly, reject it. And there is still a Mormon church and people still call themselves Mormons... But the authority of the Brethren [the senior Mormon Church leadership] has lost its tight grip. The church is bigger than both "The Policy" and bigger than the Brethren."

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Of course, we still have our fair share of "follow-the-prophet" Mormons--those who do as their told without question. But more and more Mormons are feeling it's their duty to follow Christ--and they hear their Savior calling them in a very different direction than the Brethren.

Social media posts provided some insight into what's going on inside the heads and hearts of Mormons today when it comes to how they think about LGBT individuals. One Mormon writes:

"More than ever gay people need to know they have Mormon love and support and the hierarchy certainly isn't going to give it. So we have to do it at the grass roots level and one day the hierarchy will turn around to see who is following them and nobody will be there. The shaming and the suicides need to stop."

Still another:

"I feel like LGBT Pride this year is more important than ever. The church's new 'revelation' is not remotely Christ-like. There is no love in exclusion. I want my brothers and sisters to know I stand with them and that I love them. I want the brethren to see that we as church members follow the admonition of the Savior to love one another. The message needs to be seen and heard loudly and clearly. There is not one story in the scriptures that shows Christ excluding. He drew people in. He loved. He served. That is the only path for me. "

And it's not just about words posted on social media. Mormons are taking concrete steps to show their willingness to increase inclusion of the LGBT community --despite leadership's apparent urging to do otherwise:

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LGBT Pride Parades: Just like we've done since 2012, Mormons will march in LGBT Pride parades all across the country, including Salt Lake City, San Francisco, New York, and Phoenix among others.. The Sunday marches replace traditional worship services and for many are viewed as a chance to go beyond simply talking about what Christ would do, and roll up our sleeves and actually do it. The best part might be the signs. You'll see Mormons holding banners that say things like, "This Mormon Mom Supports Your Right to Marry," "I Believe Jesus Would Bake the Damn Cake," and "Sorry We're Late!"

Rainbow Mormon Initiative: This is a group of Mormon LGBT allies launching an initiative to show their support and love by wearing rainbow ribbons to church (or wearing them on Sundays if they do not attend) and posting photos of themselves online. The Rainbow Mormon Initiative also encourages those who wish to participate to knit or crochet scarves, hats, or blankets to donate to Ogden Youth Futures, a shelter for homeless LGBT+ teens in northern Utah.

Local events and firesides: In the Mormon world, a fireside is a supplementary spiritually focused meeting held after normal church services. Across the country, we're seeing a surge of firesides that are directly targeted at LGBT Mormons, their families, and allies. These range from casual potlucks to full-day conferences, and in almost all cases, include Bishops and Stake Presidents (leaders of local Mormon congregations). All Arizona is among the largest, and this past April held a conference with more than 400 attendees from across the nation. In the San Francisco Bay Area we've launched The Hearth, which hosts monthly firesides featuring speakers on LGBT Mormon topics and fellowship after the events.

I can't help but look at all this and think of that famous quote by Benjamin Hooks, former director of the NAACP: "If you think you are leading and turn around to see no one following, then you are just taking a walk."

I predict that just like our misguided involvement in Prop 8, this time in our history will do more to create understanding and inclusion of LGBT individuals than any grass roots initiative that could ever be organized.

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Yesterday, the UN General Assembly held dialogues with two more candidates seeking to become the next UN Secretary-General. These dialogues, known as the SG Hearings, are part of a broader set of measures agreed to by all 193 UN members last year aimed at securing the best possible candidate for one of the most impossible and important jobs in the world.

Even the harshest of UN critics would admit that these new measures, including the SG hearings with all 11 candidates, have brought some much needed transparency and inclusivity to the process. At the same time, some say that that's about all they will achieve. They feel that the UN Security-Council will now undo the good work of the Assembly either by choosing a weak candidate who is unlikely to challenge the five permanent members of the Council or by recommending a compromise candidate who has not even been through the public process.

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Having presided over all 25 hours of the SG Hearings, I could not disagree more. It is of course true that the Security Council is still responsible for making a recommendation on the next Secretary-General to the General Assembly. But, what the SG hearings have done is fundamentally change the calculations upon which the Security Council will base that recommendation.

For a start, there is now significant global public interest in the process. The world's media has been reporting extensively on the SG hearings and millions of people have been following on Twitter, watching online, or participating in various related events inspired by the overall process. More than ever before, the world is watching.

Second, there's the fact that anyone who was watching the dialogues could see which candidates are best suited for the job and which are not. That in itself changes the equation. How would the world react if the Security Council recommends a candidate who most would deem to have been among the poorest performers in the SG Hearings?

Third, and perhaps most importantly, while the SG Hearings have not set out who the UN General Assembly believes is the best candidate, they have helped to identify what most member states are looking for in that candidate.

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They want a strong and independent Secretary-General, someone who will both work well with the Security Council and use the full extent of his or her UN Charter powers to demand that the Security Council fulfills its mandate.

A great number of UN member states want a female Secretary-General. After 70 years of male rule, they feel it is high time that the UN both promote and embody gender equality right across the Organization.

Finally, many members states want a Secretary-General with the skills and temperament to bring the UN organization into the 21 century -- making it more relevant and improving its efficiency, its culture and its operations.

They want a leader who will develop the tools that can tackle today's threats to global peace and security. They want a communicator who will mobilize the trillions needed to drive implementation of the new Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Climate Agreement. And they want a moral voice who will demand both greater respect for human rights and greater protection for the world's most vulnerable people.

The question now is whether the Security Council will meet the General Assembly's expectations or not.

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I sincerely hope it does because so far in this process, the cooperation between these two critical UN organs has been extremely positive. At the same time, many member states are skeptical that the Security Council will deliver for the whole membership on this process. Some are calling for the Council to recommend two candidates and to leave the final decision to the full UN General Assembly. Others are pushing for the term of the UN Secretary-General to be made into a single non-renewable term of seven years in order to strengthen his or her independence.

As we enter the more decisive part of the process, therefore, the stakes are clearly very high.

If the Security Council's members give due regard to the demands of the wider UN membership and recommend the best possible candidate for the job, then they will significantly strengthen the United Nations and the collective ability of all nations to respond to today's complex global challenges.

If they fail, however, then they will have miscalculated and should not expect the traditional rubber stamping of their recommendation by the UN General Assembly.
washington june 29 us...

The Obama Administration's passive response to the mounting human rights crisis and growing instability in Egypt is perplexing. It is not that the administration is unaware of the devastating levels of repression in Sisi's Egypt; administration officials voice their concerns about mounting restrictions on freedom of expression and an escalating crackdown on independent civil society organizations in private meetings and, occasionally, in public statements.

Nor is it that the administration does not care about what happens in Egypt. Administration officials know that if problems mount in Egypt, many other challenges around the region become harder.

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Contrary to the more paranoid assertions of President Sisi and his supporters, the U.S. government is not engaged in any dark conspiracy to divide Egypt or harm Egypt's interests.

So what accounts for the administration's repeated failures to confront Egypt's leaders with their responsibility for massive violations of human rights and for its recurrent unwillingness to use its influence to persuade Sisi and the Egyptian authorities to turn away from their disastrous repressive course?

One issue that has determined policy is that Egypt has just never been a priority concern within the administration's broader regional policy. The administration has always had greater ambitions - like the Iran nuclear deal or Arab-Israeli peace - or more urgent crises to deal with, like Syria, and has viewed Egypt primarily in terms of how it can be helpful to achieving these other priority objectives.

President Obama described this instrumental relationship with Egypt in his address to the United Nations General Assembly in September 2013 when he spoke of maintaining "a constructive relationship with the [then] interim government that promotes core interests like the Camp David Accords and counterterrorism." In the same address, President Obama made clear his intention to work with governments "who work with us on our core interests," even if they have poor human rights records.

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This points to a second factor that has shaped administration policy towards Egypt: the fact that promoting human rights has not been a priority interest in bi-lateral relationships with U.S. allies and partners in the region. For example, In March 2015, the administration lifted the suspension in the delivery of "certain military systems" withheld over human rights concerns, despite a worsening in the human rights situation.

U.S. government officials claim that the United States lacks leverage with the Egyptian authorities on human rights issues. How could they know, since the sustained, patient application of human rights conditions has never been tried?

The administration's Middle East policy demonstrates that if the United States does not lead multilateral efforts to promote positive change, no one else will, allowing unresolved problems to fester and spread instability.

In standing by as the Sisi regime doubles down on tyranny, the U.S. government is playing into the hands of not only the authoritarian regime in Cairo, but also to assertive authoritarian powers around the world, which oppose U.S. efforts to promote human rights and democracy everywhere.

Authoritarians are anxious to crush popular mobilization aimed at bringing more representative, less corrupt governments wherever they can. Egypt's current crisis feeds into the authoritarian narrative that popular uprisings, whether they are the color revolutions of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union or the Arab Spring, will inevitably fail and make life worse for the masses who may have dared to hope for something better.

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Authoritarian governments, like Russia, China or Saudi Arabia work from a common playbook in seeking to discredit local advocates of human rights as "traitors" and "foreign agents." They also support each other diplomatically, and in the case of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in Egypt, with financial backing.

While the United States and its allies are selective and at times reluctant about promoting universal values, authoritarians pursue their goal of crushing peaceful democratic change relentlessly and ruthlessly. For example, in Syria, Russia, Iran have shown that they are willing to destroy a country, drive millions from their homes and kill hundreds of thousands of civilians in order to ensure that there will be no peaceful transition away the Assad dictatorship.

The myriad of unresolved problems and conflicts that the Obama Administration will leave as its legacy in the Arab region point to a culpable readiness to deny the possibility of change, and a dangerous passivity in the face of concerted and destructive efforts by rival authoritarian states to undermine non-violent, democratic change. Its failure to implement effective policies to support peaceful inclusive democratic change in Egypt and across the Arab region has inflicted a terrible cost, harmed U.S. interests by continuing to associate Washington with repressive rulers, and contributed to the emergence of destabilizing violent extremist groups, like ISIS, which today threaten the United States and its allies in Europe.
It's almost impossible to get a handle on what is going on.

For the past twenty-four hours, the media buzz has been all about Donald Trump's racism. The proximate cause for this outburst was Trump's repeated claim that the Indiana-born judge in the faux Trump University civil case has an inherent conflict of interest because of his Mexican heritage. This has taken Muhammad Ali's death and Hillary Clinton's presumptive nomination and placed these stories, if not off the front page, then decidedly below the fold.

Erstwhile GOP supporters (or, as they now call themselves, those in the party who intend to "vote" for him) have claimed that Trump's attack on Judge Curiel was "completely unacceptable" (Newt Gingrich), "flat out wrong" (John Kasich), and "absolutely unacceptable" (Sen. Susan Collins of Maine). House Speaker Paul Ryan called Trump's claim a "textbook . . . racist comment." And South Carolina Sen. Lindsay Graham, who won't endorse Trump but has of late at least cozied up to him, said those who have endorsed Trump should now "rescind" their support.

For a number of reasons, however, I don't get it.

To begin, anyone surprised to discover that Donald Trump is a racist wins this year's Captain Renault award.

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Renault, for all of you young enough not to know, was the Vichy police chief in the film-version of French Morocco's Casablanca who, on enforcing his Nazi superior's order that Rick's be closed immediately, told Humphrey Bogart that he was "shocked" to discover gambling going on in the Cabaret. Within seconds of this announcement, Renault pockets his evening's "winnings."

Roughly the same thing is going on now with Trump.

The Donald has run a racist campaign from the get-go. Whether he was calling Mexicans rapists, or banning non-citizen Muslims from entering the country, or feigning ignorance of David Duke's white supremacy, or eating Taco bowls in service to a self-proclaimed love of Hispanics, or pointing out his "African-American" at a recent rally, the campaign's central trope has been overtly racist. The birther-in-chief who questioned Obama's nativity was appealing to all those out-of-work blue and not-so-blue collars quite certain that the cause of their demise was not Wall Street . . . or corporate greed . . . or the lack of any fiscal policy worthy of the name, but rather was on account of . . .

Them.

Where "them" was always some group whose identity "they" either could not change (nationality, race, country of origin) or were ostensibly free to choose without adverse consequence (religion).

The notion that Trump has only now crossed some unacceptable line is a farce.

He crossed that line long ago.

In fact, he began his whole campaign on the wrong side of it.

The elites cannot have it both ways. They cannot endorse or say they will "vote" for Trump on the one hand but condemn his racism on the other. The former cancels out the latter and turns any pretense of disapproval into hypocritical word salad.

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The same, moreover, is true of the media. On today's edition of Morning Joe, Mika Brzezinski said that any Republican endorsing Trump in light of his attack on Judge Curiel would be forever "stained." As a guest on the show, the Washington Post's Eugene Robinson echoed both those comments and his own in an op-ed published the day before. In that op-ed, Robinson warned "GOP leaders" that those "who choose 'party unity' over principle should know that there is no way back; when you embrace Trump, you make a decision that will stay with you forever."

Both of them are right.

But both of them are also late to the game.

Why the delay?

As part of her analysis this morning, Brzezinski also said that Trump's comments on the judge were different from his Mexicans-as-rapists and ban-all-Muslims assertions earlier in the year. The latter, she said, worked; in other words, they helped Trump win the primaries and the nomination. Brzezinski, however, contended that the attack on Judge Curiel "will not work."

And therein, I think, hangs the tale.

The answer, as it were, to the riddle of Trump's endurance.

Too many pundits and politicians, for too long, asked "will it work" either before or instead of "is it right." And as long as it worked, the sheer depravity of Trump was either ignored or tabled.

This is dangerous. My guess is that Trump will not win the general election and that, when all is said and done, we will have dodged the ethical and utterly insane bullet that is the Donald. I am willing to speculate that the coming general election campaign will render him toothless and his elite supporters spineless.

Nonetheless, because Hillary is not loved, and Trump is for good reason actually hated, the distance from here to there will give mud-slinging new meaning. And, at the end of the day, our frustrated electorate will heap even more negative ratings on the political class.

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It didn't, however, have to be this way.

The elites could have rejected Trump long ago.

They could have stood for something other than themselves.

This week we celebrate the life of a boxer willing to go to jail because he wouldn't go to war.

Muhammad Ali did not ask himself or his advisers what would work. Had he done so, the answer would have been obvious -- enlist; you are the heavyweight champion of the world; you will be sent to some safe haven, called upon to build up troop morale, and then sent home when your time is up. Robbed of his livelihood at precisely the time his gifts were supreme, he still chose conscience over accommodation.

Lots of Republican office holders will be at Ali's funeral in Louisville this Friday, mourning his loss and singing his praises.

That's fine.

But when they go home . . .
The most talked about astrological sign in the Zodiac, Geminis are acutely aware of their duality. In fact, in their own private universes, they wear it like a badge. Back when Prince celebrated birthdays, (before his Jehovah's Witness conversion), I can recall at least one interview where he fell back on his own Gemini-ness to explain away questioned behaviors. It is a simple, end-all answer for all that is too good and too bad to be true, at once. He owned it.

On Sunday, June 12, 2016, Harlem is calling out its Gemini contingent - and all who know, love, and hate them - in a Prince birthday celebration with an edible twist. Themed after, perhaps, one of the artist's most innocuous and quirky songs, Starfish & Coffee, it is a brunch happening at MIST Harlem that rallies Guest Chef, Stefanie Kelly, to bring the song's gastronomical lyrics to life.

From Prince's 1987 Sign O' The Times double album, Starfish & Coffee tells the story of a schoolgirl named Cynthia Rose, who thought and lived outside the norm. The chorus celebrates Cynthia's wondrous outlook on life and runs down her curious breakfast menu:

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Starfish and coffee/Maple syrup and jam/Butterscotch clouds, a tangerine, a side order of ham/If you set your mind free, baby/Maybe you'll understand/Starfish and coffee/Maple syrup and jam.

Starfish & Coffee was never released as a single but, to know Sign O' The Times was to love this song as much as any of the album's most monstrous hits. With very little instrumentation and only a few rudimentary piano chords, in the way only Prince can, the tune manages to paint a charming and wildly vivid portrait of a child who danced to the rhythm of her own drum. Moved by the story of a real-life Cynthia Rose that was shared with Prince many times over (and by request) by Susannah Melvoin - the musician and twin sister of guitarist, Wendy, of The Revolution - Starfish & Coffee seems an anthem of sorts, playfully urging tolerance for all that is different in others.

The song was originally slated for a Prince children's album. That, perhaps, remains in the vault but Starfish did make it on to The Muppets Show for this memorable performance:

Along with the standard menu - which includes such brunch favorites as Shrimp & Grits and the MIST Truffle Burger - artisan chef, Stefanie Kelly, was sought out by event organizers to bring Cynthia Rose's breakfast to fruition. Through her company, Ritual Catering & Craft Services, Kelly's overarching culinary goal is to "recreate and update traditional foods from around the world." At least for now, this includes and connects both real and imaginary worlds. "Prince was one of the last truly artistic and free spirits on this earth," Chef Kelly shared. "I am honored to manifest his magical flavors for the palate." Only the chef knows for sure what her Starfish-inspired delicacies will be. The rest of us must wait a few more days in mouthwatering anticipation.

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"We are excited to partner on unique and exciting food events that represent Harlem style," said Jacqueline Orange of Taste Harlem Tours, a collaborator on the event. "And, after all, who doesn't love Prince?" she concluded.
As anyone who has ever spent time in a hospital room knows, the laughs are few. On opening night of Halley Feiffer's "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Gynecologic Oncology Unit at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center of New York City" at the Lucille Lortel Theater on Tuesday, the audience filing in did not think otherwise: two beds separated by a curtain, two people asleep, a set so familiarly appointed, prepared for the worst, you might think nothing comic could happen here, not even on the television monitor perched above woman stage left, until you see Karla (Beth Behrs of tv's "2 Broke Girls"), in oversized sweater and goofy knit cap, as she moves antic testing a monologue for her stand-up act. (Picture: a younger Sandra Bernhard.) With mom (Lisa Emery) in bed, Karla's got a captive if comatose audience. As she contemplates--loud--the joys of rape with her vibrator, an anguished schlep named Don (Erik Lochtefeld) enters stage right to usher his mom (Jacqueline Sydney) to her final rest. For Feiffer, and for director Trip Cullman, it's a set up made in comedy heaven.

You could say mixing the terrors and pain of illness with humor is part of Halley Feiffer's DNA. Her mother, Jenny Allen, had cancer and performed a one-woman show, "I Got Sick and Then I Got Better." "I had the idea for the play when I was in the hospital with her," Feiffer told me when I caught up with her at the Sushi Samba after party. "I had the fantasy that I could have an affair with the son of her hospital roommate."

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Where can the sex--raucous and hilariously chatty--in a sea green bathroom lead? When Karla and her mother, joined by Don, watch "Law & Order" on television, the play could have ended with a communal moment. Feiffer said Trip Cullman and MCC suggested she explore the mother-daughter relationship a tad farther. The result is an extremely satisfying and moving end.

"Collaborating made me better at what I do," Feiffer said, as was working with Beth Behrs who told me that after she read the script, she laughed aloud and sobbed. Her agent wanted her to Skype an audition. Instead, she flew herself from LA to New York to try out.

What does performing this part teach you about your relationship with your mother? I asked. Said Behrs, "My mother is a teacher, and very kind, unlike the play's mom. This play makes me think about how awful it would be to lose her to cancer. And there's that beautiful monologue about Karla and a man in the subway trading ear buds, listening to each other's music. It's about vital human connection. Halley captures that."
The national real estate picture has brightened much since the dark days of the financial crisis, and home prices are now back to near record high across the U.S., 10 years upon the prior peak. Nevertheless, the real estate market, and therefore the way we live, has evolved dramatically, and presents a picture few had foreseen a decade ago.



Post-recession America has been the scene of large lifestyle and demographic changes. As in many major cities around the globe, urbanization accelerated, and the metropolitan areas of the coasts and the South have taken in swaths of 'Millennials' (broadly, today's 18-to-34 years old), attracted by technology sector jobs and 24 hours, live/work/play environments. Just like the long-abandoned neighborhoods of the 'Bowery' of New York and of the 'Tenderloin' in San Francisco, as America's urban cores grew, they transformed into pedestrian-friendly, low-crime city centers. And fast growing cities such as Denver, Portland and Raleigh-Durham became widely desirable given their mix of attractive career opportunities and outdoorsy settings.



Simultaneously, the lack of both financing and supply of homes for first time homebuyers and Millennials has created a rental boom across the nation. The U.S. homeownership rate fell to a 48-year low this year, at 63.5 percent. It was over 69 percent in 2004. And whether cause or effect, living patterns have changed: for the first time, in 2014, more young adults are living with their parents than with a romantic partner (32.1 percent). That number was 20 percent in 1960, with 62 percent of young adults living with a romantic partner then.



While this rental, if not 'roommate', boom has benefited commercial real estate developers and investors, Americans have gradually changed their relationship to homeownership, which is becoming more of a luxury. The single-family market has been dominated by investors, oftentimes institutional ones, such as Blackstone and Colony Capital, large private equity firms which have scooped thousands of foreclosed and distressed homes nationwide during the down days of the market. Such purchasers have crowded out end-buyers.

While bank lending has loosened over the past few years, obtaining a mortgage is still out of reach for the many that have unsteady income, low credit or tarnished credit reports, or just not enough downpayment to purchase a home. And since bank lending has not 'normalized' yet, a shadow lending system for the aforementioned borrowers has emerged, most often at onerous rates, starting at 8 percent.

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Even though rental and high-end condo prices have somewhat softened in large cities recently, there is a whole in the market at the starter home level: simply put, they have not been built. The combination of high land prices and a lack of 'bankable' prospective purchasers has pushed developers to focus on the luxury segment of the market, and deliver products unaffordable for many. And up until recently, much of the luxury or extra-luxury inventory found takers in international investors seeking to flee the instability of certain parts of the world (China and its economic slowdown, for instance) and looking for a shelter in the perceived safety of American real estate.

Furthermore, the scars of the subprime crisis and the housing bust have changed the image of real estate as a safe investment, leaving many without the appetite to purchase a home, either for fear of another downturn or for having lost a house to a foreclosure.

While the housing sector has been and remains a bright spot for the economy during the recovery of the past several years, the ongoing lack of inventory is nowhere close to having been remedied. The economy still needs to normalize in order for purchasing power to rise among potential homebuyers and apartment renters. If the very high end market experiences a further slowdown and even some distress, investors might seek to reposition certain properties to make them more attainable financially -and perhaps finally cater to the first-time homebuyer market. But that will take time.
Madame Secretary,

Congratulations on breaking the next to last glass ceiling. To break the final one you have two tasks. The first is to unite the party behind your candidacy, especially those who supported Senator Sanders. The second is to prepare for the Trump onslaught. I cannot help with the first but maybe have some useful insights on the second.

The fundamental thing to know when dealing with Donald J. Trump is that he is a bully. He uses insults, threats and intimidation to confront his opponents. But the most important thing to know is that Trump, like almost all bullies, is a coward. The best strategy is to stand up to him and hit back. But this should not be a blow for blow exchange. Nor should you engage in his mud wrestling penchant. An asymmetrical response challenging his courage and exposing his insecurities is more effective..

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For example, if during a debate he brings up former President Clinton's sexual foibles, the correct response is "I will not bring up your three marriages in this campaign and if you have a problem with the former president you should have the courage to deal with him directly, mano a mano."

Also, if in the debates he calls you Hillary, call him Donald. If he follows his normal stuck and insists on "Mr. Trump," you agree if he calls you Senator Clinton or Secretary Clinton (not Mrs. Clinton.) If he uses "Crooked Hillary" he should be ignored and dismissed with "Are you so insecure that you can only campaign in insults?"

(On the other hand, surrogates should be prepared with a number on names to use in response as the situation dictates. My favorites are "Don the Con,""Dodger Donald," or Donald MacDonald, the clown.)

When he interrupts as he must, ask him why he does not have the courage to listen to a question or hear a response. Ask him why he is afraid to release his tax returns, or face a trial about the failed Trump University. At every opportunity his failures and bankruptcies should be brought up and his courage questioned.

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If he brings up your email issue, answer that you have admitted that was a mistake and ask him why he has never admitted making a mistake. Remind him that he has said he has never had to ask God for forgiveness. Ask him if that is a sign of virtue or of insecurity.

At every opportunity mock his answers and his positions. Laugh at his idiotic ideas. Ask if he has commitments from Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell to fund the deportation of eleven million undocumented immigrants, including their native born children.

Finally, enjoy the exchanges. Have fun. Americans are optimistic, even now. One of the striking things about the GOP primary debates was how grim and serious all the candidates were. Only Trump seemed to be enjoying himself. You need to walk the line between the seriousness of our challenges while not buying the GOP dystopian view. Happy Warrior is the motif.
Earlier this month when a young boy fell into a gorilla enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo, concerned citizens from all over the world started weighing in on the incident and the ultimate outcome of the tragic events. The gorilla in the enclosure was shot and killed, infuriating many animal activists and raising questions from many parental groups. With so many different sides to the story, and so many different opinions on whether or not the gorilla should have been shot, there was no end to the media attention that the Cincinnati Zoo was getting.

No matter what side of the argument that you lie on, when it comes to this Cincinnati Zoo tragedy, there is one thing that every party can agree with; the events surrounding this incident can teach us all a great deal about public relations. Here are a few of the top PR lessons everyone can learn from the Cincinnati Zoo incident.

Always Respond Immediately

When a PR disaster hits, such as the incident that happened at the zoo, the best thing that your company can do is to respond immediately and to make sure that you focus only on the news. This is not the time to weigh in on opinions. In this particular incident, the zoo responded to the media reports right away and shared only the basics of what was going on, or the "who what, where, when and why." There is no point trying to hide it when an incident like this happens, but it is important to stick to only the basics before you collect all of your information.



Don't Undervalue the Importance of Counters

Counter reports, particularly counter visuals, can be a great help when a story goes viral and your company looks worse off for it. The Cincinnati Zoo's team did this the professionals that they are. They countered the cell-phone videos showing the gorilla "caring" for the boy with more realistic images, accounts and visuals depicting just how much danger the boy was in and why their fast action in shooting the gorilla ultimately saved his life.

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Find Experts to Weigh In

The camp who is at the center of negative controversy can say all they want about how they think a situation went down or what their opinion on a matter is. However, that will only go so far. If you really want to change people's minds, then you need to bring in an expert on the matter. When the gorilla, Harambe was shot, some animal activists were infuriated with the zoo. However, the organization quickly had several experts come in and testify that their actions ultimately saved the child's life and that any other professional would have made the same call.

Shift the Narrative

This can be a difficult one, but when done properly, shifting the narrative is a great way to make sure that people who want to keep talking about the controversy you are involved in are talking about it in a way that doesn't directly impact your company. In the case of the Cincinnati Zoo incident, the narrative had shifted from the zoo to other organizations that had already weighed in on the manner. Parenting groups were blaming the mothers, animal-rights activists were up in arms about people caring for gorillas all of a sudden, while others wanted the parents to pay for the loss of the gorilla. Either way, the focus shifted away from the Cincinnati Zoo's decision to shoot the animal at on to other issues surrounding the topic.
Preventing the next pandemic was the topic of Dr. Jim Kim's talk at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies last week, but if his solution was the only takeaway message audience members heard they weren't paying attention. Dr. Kim is a bonafide global health hero who for the time being is also President of the World Bank Group.

He packed a lot in his presentation, but a key message was his timely reminder that "we are still working with mental models that hamper our ability to have higher aspirations." No one is exempt, even the brightest people with the best of intentions have blind spots that obstruct their ability to see past their preconceived notions.

His message is especially poignant arriving just before the 35th Anniversary of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's alert of the arrival of what would be as AIDS and a few days away from the opening of the 2016 High-Level Meeting on Ending AIDS in New York City.

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Some of us in the audience rallied to the World Health Organization and Dr. Kim's then radical call of the "3x5 Initiative" to demand treatment for a paltry three million of the millions who were living with the HIV at the time. He told the story to those too young to remember that as shocking as it now seems, the conventional wisdom at the time was that 25 million Africans had to die. All sorts of short-sighted reasons were supplied, but they all pointed to the conclusion that providing AIDS treatment was just impossible.

Thankfully far fewer of our worst fears at the time came true. We would not be having the serious discussions about ending AIDS by 2030 that will take place this week were it not for the champions whose compassion, courage, perseverance and action brought us to where we are today. The path from the groundbreaking LIFE initiative that first boosted US support for global AIDS programs to $100 million during Bill Clinton's administration to the billions available to the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief established by George W. Bush is littered with skeptics proven wrong.

The success in making so much progress against the global AIDS pandemic isn't due to American efforts alone, but there is no mistaking as President Obama said recently that "American ingenuity and leadership has shaped the world's response to this crisis."

When governments officials, international organizations, the medical and scientific experts, AIDS practitioners, human rights defenders, communities most affected and at risk, activists and advocates of all types convene in New York, the conversation is likely to converge on several key topics.

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Pay now or pay far more later. International and domestic investments for HIV programs in low and middle-income countries have to rise by $7 billion by 2020 to establish the momentum needed to reach the 2030 targets, according to UNAIDS estimates. Slacking off and accepting the status quo will result in an additional 17.6 million HIV infections globally and an additional 10.8 million AIDS-related deaths globally between 2016 and 2030.

Bigotry and hatred kill. A report prepared for the High-level meeting cites a survey finding that one of every eight people living with HIV report has been denied health care because of their status. The UNAIDS World AIDS Day 2015 report found that in 35% of countries with available data, over 50% of men and women harbor discriminatory attitudes towards people living with HIV Prejudice. Negative attitudes and abuse directed at people living with HIV and AIDS are bad enough, but the resulting stigma also discourages people from knowing their HIV status and seeking lifesaving treatment.

Treatment works. The conventional wisdom of 15 years ago was dead wrong. Not only has expanded treatment produced a 42% decline in AIDS from 2004 to 2014, but the sharpest reductions in new HIV infections have occurred in countries where treatment was scaled up the fastest. UNAIDS reports there are direct correlations between improved access to HIV treatment and reductions in HIV-related stigma and discrimination. But the job is far from finished, as of 2014; 17.1 million people living with HIV did not know their HIV status.


Nora Ephron was 65 when she felt bad about her neck. At 64, I feel bad about my elbows. It is nature's gift that I don't have to look at them. But you do, so let me apologize in advance. Maybe that's why we are invisible. We are a walking advertisement for the inevitable pull of gravity and today's youth clearly would rather not be reminded. Assisted suicide franchises for people over 50 will spring up replacing plastic surgery as the only alternative to aging. Who has the money? Even with all the over-65 perks, who wants the perks? I have a friend with a Senior MetroCard who keeps her full price "vanity" card handy so she wont be forced to suffer the slings and arrows of her coworkers discovering her well-guarded secret. If you can't afford a facelift or fillers I have the cheapest alternative around. It's called Warby Parkers and bangs. Aging gracefully is a bore and the term "age appropriate" gives me hives. Fashion should be age neutral -- not age appropriate. I want to make some noise, break boundaries, have a cocktail ... maybe two.

CNN recently wrote an expose about how the modeling industry exploits young workers but nothing about older models. A stunning silver-haired model, who shall remain nameless, recently shared her own story of exploitation in the industry with me. While on a fashion shoot for a high profile billion-dollar company she was asked to work double the amount of hours of the other models who were half her age. Why, she asked indignantly? The answer was that she sold double the amount of clothes and they needed more shots. She also discovered she was being paid half the amount of her younger counterparts. Ageism at its finest.

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When I was in my mid 20s I had a boyfriend who told me I needed to start exercising in order to keep my body in shape. Like the late bloomer I am, 40 years later I took his advice. I snuck onto the information highway where The Refinery29 plank challenge beckoned. Now I never leave home without it. Three minutes of blissful purgatory. Keep your bod together and who's going to notice your neck?

As people around me are retiring, dying or even worse, leaving New York, I wonder, who am I and where am I going? At 64 I'm not ready to retire or die or even worse, leave New York. So I guess I go on discovering, growing and doing my three-minute plank every day. Maybe I'll just go outside and walk around naked. I'm sure to get noticed. And try to figure out what to do with my hair, while sipping a cocktail, of course.

Photo Credit: Leland Bobbe

Earlier on Huff/Post50:
The US exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the ocean is the world's largest, and American fishery management is the world's best. Yet more than 90% of all seafood consumed in the US is imported, and more than 75% is one of only four species: shrimp (mostly farmed in Asia), salmon (mostly farmed in Chile), tuna (almost all canned), and whitefish (mostly tilapia farmed under the most dubious conditions).

Wild fishing is the last true hunting on earth. Seafood is universally considered the healthiest protein. With the waters surrounding America's traditional wild fishing communities blessed with dozens of abundant, sustainable, healthy and delicious species, why don't Americans accept the incredible gifts bestowed on them?.

Americans are accustomed to cheap protein. Corn, soy and wheat are government subsidized and provide artificially low cost feed to industrial meat production. That means cheap meat for consumers, but at a frightening cost to the environment, small farmers, animal welfare, and human health.

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Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing is a worldwide scourge, and last year's AP investigative report shone a light on rampant seafood slavery. Harvesting fish illegally without any labor cost is an excellent business model for cheap imported seafood.

Meanwhile traditional American fishing communities have struggled under the stringent but essential US fisheries management policies that have brought our fisheries back from the brink to the rebuilt status of today. We owe it to ourselves to reward domestic fishermen for their gallant efforts.



John Tuttle of the F/V Cuda with an MSC certified Dogfish outside Chatham, MA

We can do this by enjoying the many "underloved species" our fishermen catch. In New England, Atlantic Pollock and Acadian Redfish are abundant in the warming waters that cod have left. In the Mid-Atlantic, invasive Blue Catfish and Atlantic Spiny Dogfish, the main ingredient for fish and chips in the UK, are dominating the ecosystem. In the Gulf of Mexico, Striped Mullet, once thought of as bait, is being realized as the tasty treat it is. The Pacific ground fishery, declared dead two decades ago, has been rebuilt and certified sustainable, yielding such unappreciated fish as Grenadier. And in Alaska record returns of Pink and Keta Salmon rarely reach our dinner plates.

Many progressive chefs and campus dining programs around the country have caught on to the fact that "underloved" wild domestic fish are sustainable and healthy; to the fishermen and the communities they support, to the well-being of the people that discover the deliciousness, and due to the affordable cost, to their pocketbooks.

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Support traditional American fishing communities by eating better fish. It is better for the fish, the fishermen, and all the people they feed.
The newly released 2016 Yoga in America Study conducted by Yoga Journal and Yoga Alliance shows that the number of US yoga practitioners has increased to more than 36 million, up from 20.4 million in 2012, while annual practitioner spending on yoga classes, clothing, equipment, and accessories rose to $16 billion, up from $10 billion over the past four years. "Yoga is a thriving, growing industry," says Carin Gorrell, editor in chief of Yoga Journal.

Whether we like it or not, we have to accept the reality that Yoga has become a growing industry today. Every Industrialization has its own advantages and disadvantages. Same is the case of Yoga. Great thing about this is it has increased the popularity of yoga in USA and globally by leaps and bounds. The dark side of this is that yoga has lost its authenticity, purpose and spirit which is indicted by this stats: The top five reasons according to Yoga Alliance Executive Director and COO Barbara Dobberthien, for starting yoga are: flexibility (61%), stress relief (56%), general fitness (49%), improve overall health (49%), and physical fitness (44%).

These stats are positive and encouraging. As a yoga teacher, I would have danced to my heart reading this stats 10 years back. But with my understanding of yoga going deeper, I would definitely love to see the stats as -- the top five reasons for starting yoga are: Self-realization (90%), spiritual growth (80%), imbibing human values (85%), self-discipline (70%), improve overall well-being (60%)!!!

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"Like a flower bud, human life has the potential to blossom fully. Blossoming of human potential to fullness is Yoga." -- Yoga Guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's this definition of yoga explains the real purpose of yoga so beautifully.

The Saints and Sages of ancient times evolved and perfected over the centuries a system of self-development and Self-realization known as Yoga. Since time immemorial, the science and philosophy of Yoga has always been taught from Preceptor to student -- transferred by the grace of the Guru to the spiritual aspirant or disciple. It is this grace which makes yoga practice effective, true and complete.

Throughout the history of yoga, the authentic guru has often been regarded as an essential spiritual guide, a living example of the teachings one advocates. In yoga, the genuine spiritual master is one whose life is the embodiment of spiritual philosophy and one who walks the talk.

Since there is much skepticism and misunderstanding about gurus in the world particularly in West today, it is important to understand this essence who the guru actually is. The Guru (gu+ru= dispeller of darkness) is the guiding light -- removing the darkness of ignorance. Guru is the infinite love in a bodily form. A Guru is someone who is so filled with devotion or love for the Highest Cause -- love or compassion for all living beings and who has dedicated his life to helping everyone find true happiness.

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Over a period of time, the world has deviated far away from the real purpose of yoga and the Guru-Disciple tradition. There are several hundreds of yoga schools mushrooming in the world which train the teachers to teach yoga. There are thousands of yoga teachers out there in the world. But very few teach the real essence of yoga. Yoga has become synonym with doing some asanas (physical postures), some breathing techniques, or some meditation techniques, etc. These may be a good starting point for the modern yogis however the wisdom is to not to remain stuck with the techniques but to go beyond to grasp the real essence and purpose of the yoga. This is where a Guru comes into picture. Tons of books, websites, DVDs, apps on yoga are available today in the market which give so much information but to translate the information into an experience, one needs a Guru. A Guru will put you into your Self, make you reach the goal -- not just show you some techniques or some path. A Guru will show you what you are, your highest possibility and take you there.

I began my yoga journey more than two decades ago and slowly it became my purpose of life. I had the intense desire to go to Gurukul (traditional yoga school) as described in the ancient yoga scriptures and learn yoga from an unpretentious Yogi and Guru who could bless and guide my life and yoga path. My desire was fulfilled when I met Sri Sri Ravi Shankar for the first time. My journey got the direction and momentum which was so badly needed. Without his guidance and grace, I would have just be playing on the shore of the vastly deep ocean that yoga is. I realized that whole life could be unrolled as yoga mat and every moment yoga could be practiced. With his teachings of yoga, my life has become a continuous celebration. To live in the proximity of a great guru is a priceless gift that is hard to understand and appreciate unless you have had the experience.

Recently Sri Sri tweeted, "The source of joy is deep within & events are impermanent. Keeping the mind like a clean mirror & being unfazed by events is Yoga."

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I took one last longing look into the mirror. There it was. My hair. The large halo of an Afro that rose high above my head and even higher around my face was about to meet its demise. Or at least, that's what it felt like to my 12-year-old self. In the coming years, I would dig deep into the far reaches of my mind to resurrect that memory, pining for that thick head of hair of days long gone, convincing myself that it existed once, but no more.

I guess you could call it a rite of passage of sorts. I was just a couple of months away from starting high school (I was born and raised in Jamaica, where our "high school" begins in the seventh grade, rather than the ninth), and so it was expected that I would begin to take the usual steps to being a "big girl". Relaxing my hair was mostly a relief to my mother, who would now only have two heads of hair to style on Sundays in preparation for the school week ahead, instead of three. Little would she expect that, at least for the first year of the seventh grade, I would wake her every morning to section my hair in straight lines for me, a skill that took a very long time for me to master.

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One of the hardest things for me to get used to after my hair was relaxed for the first time was how strangely people reacted to it. While my hair had always been thick and of a considerable length, it annoyed me that so many people felt the need to comment on the length as if it was a prize, the greatest stroke of luck a girl could possibly have. I will admit, especially in those years of extremely low self-esteem and constant self-deprecation, I did find some small pleasure in the fact that, even though I was not beautiful in any other way (or so I naively thought for too long; don't worry, I know better now), at least my hair was viewed as somewhat beautiful...



It annoyed me that so many people felt the need to comment on the length of my hair as if it was a prize, the greatest stroke of luck a girl could possibly have.

For years I went through the cycle -- relax, set/wrap every night, load with products each day -- to ensure ultimate smoothness and straightness, tame every strand of new growth as they are made noticeable, run home from school with your backpack overhead so as not to be sabotaged by the impending rainfall, tame even more new growth, and repeat. It was just the process of how things were done without much thought.

I think it was my second year of university that I started to notice a noticeable shift in my hair. It was stringier than usual, breaking off at the ends at an alarming rate. I started researching a lot about how to care for it, making healthy hair my main concern. After a couple of months of being the ultimate deep-condition and cover-with-satin-at-night ninja, I found myself on a natural hair website. So began my fall into this naturalista life.

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When I first decided to stop relaxing my hair on a regular basis, it was initially just supposed to be a way of giving my hair more time to recover between treatments. Eventually it hit me. If my hair needs time to "recover" between relaxing, why was I doing it in the first place? I began to delve deeper into not only how to treat my hair, but how to do so with the least amount of chemical and unnecessary additives as possible.

Despite the many statements of, "When are you going to start combing your hair again?", "Are you really going out like that?" and courtesy of an ex-boyfriend, "You know I like weaves and straight hair; you're only keeping your hair curly and natural because you know I don't find that attractive." I have been able to sift through my own destructive thoughts on beauty, health, and identity. Making a conscious effort to care for my hair led me to making a conscious effort to take care of myself holistically.



Making a conscious effort to care for my hair led me to making a conscious effort to take care of myself holistically.

My hair is no longer my crutch in a dark state of self-loathing, neither is it my crowning glory. Loving my hair as it is, has allowed me to love myself as I am, and this natural hair journey was the perfect catalyst for this state of introspection.

---

This post is part of HuffPost's My Natural Hair Journey blog series. Embracing one's natural hair -- especially after years of heavily styling it -- can be a truly liberating and exciting experience. It's more than just a "trend." It's a way of life. If you have a story you'd like to share, please email us at MyNaturalHairJourney@huffingtonpost.com.


There it was. Havana. I was about to step foot on the forbidden island. The hidden gem of the Caribbean. The island of controversy and music, art and cigars. The land of classic cars that's the dream of every car collector in the US. The day had come. I could finally travel legally to Cuba. Having been in the cruise industry for years, I had dreamed of docking in the port of Havana. Cruise after cruise, we would sail by the island on our way to the typical tourist ports of Jamaica or the Bahamas when the Captain would announce from the loud speaker "Now on the port side is the island of Cuba." Passengers would flock to the decks to see the only thing we were allowed to see. There on the horizon was the outline of a country caught in the past but begging to be recognized and loved by Americans.

People to People Cultural Exchange! President Obama set it into motion. US citizens were allowed to go to Cuba as long as we were engaged in meeting the Cuban people and learning of their culture. So, my husband and I jumped on the first cruise ship allowed to travel from Miami to Cuba. Fathom Adonia. We wanted to see as much as we could in the 7 days we had. Ship was the way to go. And Fathom had planned it right. In accordance with all of the regulations, Fathom had arranged tours for us that met all of the PTP requirements. We read all about it for weeks. We dreamed of what it would be like to walk the streets of Havana. We swore we would not be tourists. After all, we always travel like the locals. We eat on the streets of third world countries and talk to the natives in our broken attempts at their languages. Cuba would be no different.

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But I have a confession. After the initial tears of realizing we were about to dock in Havana, I was like every tourist I was not supposed to be. As the Havanese were waiving to us from the dock, my camera was locked on the old Chevys whizzing by in bright pink and turquoise, as they cruised along the Malecon. I could hear the music emanating from the dock and all I thought about was dancing in the streets of Cuba. The first day excursion took us through art galleries and churches, memorials and grave sights. We saw the streets of Cuba, which by the way are the cleanest streets I have ever seen in a so called third world country. I was overwhelmed by Old Havana. It was beautiful. Finally the tour ended, we jumped back on the ship, cleaned up and were ready for our free time in Havana. Yep, we could go off on our own in this mystical city and explore.
When Dambisa Moyo walks into a room she fills it with self confidence. The 47-year-old Zambian economist was named one of the 100 most influential people by Time magazine in 2009. She studied at the American University, Harvard University, and the University of Oxford, moving from chemistry to economics in the hopes of assessing its influence in people's everyday lives. After working for the World Bank and Goldman Sachs, she became an author and international public speaker. Moyo is an unconventional thinker. One of her most controversial books is called "Dead Aid," in which she argues that international assistance to African governments has fostered dependency, encouraged corruption, and perpetuated poverty. Her controversial ideas put her in high demand. Moyo keeps her calendar in a small tablet that she carries everywhere. She knows her schedule backwards and forward. Every minute is programmed. While she talks, she looks at her watch on the sly. In a typically efficient conversation, she explained her concerns about the concept and future of economic growth.
Pay it forward. Random acts of kindness. Helping someone without the expectation of quid pro quo. What does this mean in the context of a job search? What should you do the next time a student from your alma mater or your friend's brother's college roommate emails you about a job opening at your company?

As the National Association of Colleges and Employers' (NACE) Annual Conference and Expo unfolds this week in Chicago, with featured sessions ranging from Addressing Workforce Readiness to Building Alumni/Parent Connections to GPA is Not Predictive of Job Performance, I'm reminded that the simple answer is to help job seekers with a smile. Job search is overwhelming. Lend a helping hand to those who are working to conquer the vast sea of online resources and secure a coveted job. According to the Department of Labor, 48 percent of jobs are found through "word of mouth."



We can collectively make the job search world a friendlier place. Here's how:

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Spirit of Generosity. When you were looking for a job, what do you wish a contact had done for you? Would you have liked an introduction to her co-worker? Do you wish that your contact had taken the time to give you better insight into a company before an interview?

Courtesy, Patience, and Understanding. Now that you are settled in and busy at your job, did you let your friend's email fall to the bottom of your to-do list? How does it feel to be "stalked" by a networker? What about when the networker forgot to thank you for your time, follow up, or keep you posted on his job search? Hopefully, you won't mimic these behaviors when it is your turn again to look for a job.

Gainful Employment. When you help a candidate network, you could be helping an employer as well. A Federal Reserve Bank study revealed that candidates were much more likely to get the jobs when referred by a trusted contact.

Employers are looking to hire top quality candidates. They recognize the value of candidate referrals from internal employees and individuals they trust. So much so that many companies offer a "referral bonus" to employees who recommend candidates that ultimately get hired by the company.

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There are a host of ways you can help job seekers whether or not your company is actually hiring:



If you think your friend Jane would be a terrific addition to your team or want to introduce her to another one of your contacts, you might tell the hiring manager, "I have known Jane for 10 years and I have always been impressed by her work ethic and intelligence...I remember when we were working on a group project together, she..." Hiring managers and professional colleagues can read between the lines and recognize the difference between a referral that is a rave review and one that is a neutral endorsement.

What if you are lukewarm on John or don't think he is qualified for the job? While it's much easier to help someone you respect and believe is qualified, there are still plenty of ways to be helpful. Educate John about your industry, help him identify target companies, offer to conduct a mock interview, and/or suggest additional resources. You can also forward John's resume to the hiring manager with a neutral email. For example, "I was introduced to John through a mutual friend. Please let me know if you would like to meet him".

What if your boss asks you if you know a candidate that went to your alma mater (who you knew but had mixed feelings about)? You can say that you didn't really know the candidate. Unless you have real information about a candidate that would directly impact her ability to do the job, keep your mouth shut.
In 2006, Huffington Post columnist Danny Miller stated that "gays are the new Jews". He asked if our ability to accept people who are different from ourselves had plummeted to dangerous levels.

The world since then has altered substantially: for better, there was the historic Supreme Court decision to legalise same-sex marriage across the US last year. For worse, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex (LGBTI) persons are facing new, unprecedented legal and social challenges in Russia.

Furthermore, Amnesty International maintains that "the continued criminalisation of consensual same-sex conduct in 38 African countries is a serious cause for concern ..."

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In Uganda, a bill, first submitted in April 2009, would have made "aggravated homosexuality" a capital offence. It is defined as repeated homosexual acts, gay sex with a minor or someone with disabilities, or when one partner has HIV. Because it provoked an international outcry, the death penalty was revised to life imprisonment. This would allow the "rehabilitation" of gays.

South Sudan and Burundi are not far behind. Nigeria and Liberia introduced bills respectively in 2011 and 2012 to toughen penalties for same-sex relations and sexual conduct. Mauritania, northern regions of Nigeria, the southern region of Somalia and Sudan retain the death penalty for the same.

Media as lapdogs

I maintain that the role of the mainstream media in these 38 so-called democracies has been inverted. It now fulfils the exact opposite role of what a healthy and vibrant media should play in a healthy democracy: that of the Fourth Estate.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is notorious for his "gays and lesbians are worse than pigs and dogs" comment in 1995. He has repeatedly claimed that Europe is trying to force gay rights on Africa.

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Reuters

Mugabe's opinion - that "what is natural is made unnatural. And what is unnatural they want to say it is natural [...] let Europe keep their homosexual nonsense there" - is laced with irony. It is not the "homosexuals" who are unnatural, but the so-called "democracies" of these countries, and their mainstream news media. They engender horrifying class, sexuality and gender inequalities via state-sanctioned homophobia in Africa.

In contrast, the social media platform Twitter has scored winning goals in the face of the mainstream or "dominant" media of these African nations' abysmal, shameful own goals.

Furthermore, the ideal media in a democracy should represent diverse voices and positions in debates, reflective of media theory prior to the emergence of social media and the internet. Twitter, meanwhile, has usurped this role where the media has been corrupted in the less than ideal circumstances of these 38 African countries.

Twitter the democratiser

Twitter as the democratiser also provides a counterbalance to the mainstream media. The latter often represents the voices of the elites and the issues of the elites, according to media analyst Edward Herman and public intellectual Noam Chomsky. Twitter, instead, reflects many and varied voices.

Twitter offers an alternative voice to the influence of American right-wing Christians on the drafting of anti-gay bills on the continent. It also provides that voice when political opportunism contravenes human rights.

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Journalist Alexis Okeowo has pointed out that

[t]here is little question that former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, who was facing public disapproval over charges of inefficiency, corruption, and a badly fought war against Boko Haram Islamists ... seized [anti-gay] legislation as a popular, unifying distraction.

There is no toeing the line in the Twitterverse. That has resulted in attempts at literally pulling the plug. It happened in March 2014 when Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan restricted access to Twitter.

Cutting access to social media

There was a similar situation in Uganda when citizens went to the polls in February 2016 in heavily contested presidential and parliamentary elections. They discovered that their access to social media and mobile payment services had been cut off. It was part of a four-day ban by the government that limited political discussion. Financial transactions were also temporarily halted across the country.

Reuters

The power to change opinion lies within the democratic Twitterverse. While it simultaneously contains homophobic statements and other instances of hatred, it offers the potential of balance. There one finds a wide and disparate variety of opinions and pluralist debate. That is unlike the one-sided and controlled, mainstream, state-sanctioned media in repressive societies.

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In "Exploring Empathy: Its Propagations, Perimeters and Potentialities", a book to be published later this year, Dr Nic Theo argues that journalists should strive to "incorporate narrative frames of engagement which represent people beyond the identity-based categories of 'the homosexual', thereby giving them a voice as complex individuals".

This is possible on Twitter. Not only does the "victim"/source of the story have a right to reply, but it is not via the gatekeeper-journalist nor his or her media organisation. It is directly and unhindered to Twitter's timeline, which is a democratic and open space that can only be limited - and rarely so - by Twitter itself.

Source of the power

The source thus takes her power back and is then again the master of her own destiny. This reveals these sources to be complex individuals rather than the often one-dimensional and voiceless "victim"/sources of traditional media stories, where the journalist is in power.

It is particularly important for non-journalists to understand that they have as much and as equal access to a democratic, complex and unlimited international communication platform as any journalist. They have the right to be heard. They can tell their own stories. They can fill in the blanks. They are empowered to also call the journalist out publicly if required.

Once they have made the mind shift to move from "victim"/source in someone else's narrative to become the powerful narrator of their own story, they are able to garner empathy for themselves. With that they can garner assistance, guidance and resources from those who also have empathy for them.

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It is at that point that Twitter ceases to be a lonely, isolating space.


Credit: Courtesy of Open Road Media

By: Daniel O'Connor

Have you ever wondered if someone you know could be a psychopath? What if that person lived under your roof? What if he or she was your own child?

It can be difficult to draw the line between childhood mischief and the troubled behavior of a budding psychopath. After all, psychopathy can't be accurately diagnosed until the brain finishes developing in adulthood. But researchers have found strong correlation between certain childhood behavioral patterns and adult psychopathy. A child's out-of-control behavior could actually be the beginnings of something much darker ...

So what's it like to live with a budding psychopath? That was the living reality--or perhaps the waking nightmare--for Rav's parents, who watched in horror as their son took up increasingly violent pursuits.

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In Murderous Minds, Dr. Dean Haycock addresses the question all parents are terrified to ask themselves: Is my child a psychopath?

Read on for an excerpt of Murderous Minds.

Rav's parents knew that something serious was wrong with their son.

Based on his appearance, there was no way to tell what Rav was capable of doing, but we know he was capable of doing some very unsettling things, if we can trust the doctor his worried and exasperated parents took him to see. It is not surprising they sought the best help they could find for their eight-year-old boy; Rav's mother and father were good people, "well-to-do," according to the respected 19th century psychiatrist they consulted, Cesare Lombroso.

His parents had raised Rav in Romagna, the region in northern Italy where he was born.

[...]

He was well fed and appeared healthy with thick, close-cropped hair, protruding ears, and a blithely unconcerned, perhaps slightly bemused, expression. He slouched just a bit as he sat motionless in a wooden straightback chair, hands on knees, wearing a striped shirt and a dark jacket, waiting for the photographer to tell him he could move. We don't know what he was feeling or thinking as he waited for the film to be exposed; but if he had a conscience, he would have had a lot to think about.

His expulsion from school for "the bad influence he exercised over his schoolfellows" was certainly troubling but hardly an indication of criminality by itself. And his spiteful behavior toward his younger brothers and sisters might be dismissed as typical behavior of one child toward his siblings--until you hear about his attempts on more than one occasion to strangle several of them. That crossed the line from "it's just roughhousing" to "it's scary." It was also scary when the staggeringly underhanded nature of his antisocial behavior became clear.

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He seemed to take pleasure in robbing nearly everyone he came into contact with and then trying to blame others for the thefts. He stole from his parents, his neighbors, and the people he did jobs for. He lied well enough to convince them for some time that others were guilty of his crimes.

At age eight, for instance, he repeatedly stole the milk set on his neighbors' doorsteps before any of them could bring the daily deliveries indoors. He couldn't drink all of it. He didn't sell it or give it away. He threw it into the trash. He evidently just wanted to steal it and create mischief. Questioned about the thefts, he convinced his parents and his neighbors that a man who worked in the neighborhood, a janitor, was responsible for the thefts. The janitor was fired. Eventually, his victims discovered Rav's deceitfulness, but not before Rav's behavior produced more damage, anger, and hurt feelings.

At age nine, he falsely accused a pawnbroker of loaning him money for a cloak. This was bad news for the pawnbroker, because pawnbrokers were forbidden by law to loan money to a minor. The pawnbroker faced arrest and likely loss of his livelihood until Rav's mother found the cloak stashed in the basement of their home.

A year later, Rav's father became the target of the boy's maliciousness and deceitfulness. Based on the boy's accusations, his father was arrested for child abuse. The bruises on the child's body looked convincing to the police until they learned that the boy was the source of the damage; the bruises were self-inflicted.



Cesare Lombroso. Credit: Wikipedia

Lombroso's records indicate that Rav's family was law-abiding and honest. If we can believe them, their child was not raised among criminal role models; he didn't grow up in an environment of abuse. Rav's brothers and sisters did not impress their parents as abnormal. They did not display depravity like Rav and so did not inspire their parents to drag them to a renowned expert like Dr. Lombroso.

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Today, Hollywood screenwriters might describe Rav as a "bad seed." Like Eric Harris [the high school student responsible for the Columbine massacre], he came from a good home which provided no indication, hints, or clues that might account for his antisocial attitude and behavior. Like Eric's family, Rav's family were blameless for his behavior. It appears that Rav and Eric were exceptional, rare individuals who very likely were born with genetic traits that placed them on the most extreme end of the spectrum of antisocial behavior. Their robust predispositions to the disorder or personality type did not require the push of damaging environmental factors like child abuse, bad role models, or neglect to drive them from a very early age, developing what psychiatrists call conduct disorder with callous, unemotional traits.

[...]

From the Cradle

Many children can misbehave in many ways and still grow up to be psychologically healthy adults. Sadly, this outcome is less likely for one group of troubled and troubling children in particular: those who lack a sense of guilt and a sense of empathy, and who demonstrate a callous disregard for, or use of, others for their own purposes. It sounds a lot like budding psychopathy. And in fact, kids with these features, which are known to child psychiatrists and researchers as callous-unemotional traits, have an increased risk of becoming adult psychopaths.

READ MORE: 10 KILLER KIDS THAT WILL CREEP YOU THE EFF OUT

These children are a lot like Rav. They have temperaments that set them apart from their normally behaving and feeling siblings and peers. They seek thrills and may act without fear. Where other children who have trouble controlling their behavior may act violently in response to a disappointment or as a reaction to something that irritates them, callous-unemotional children engage in instrumental aggression, the cold-blooded kind that is very unnerving for adults to contemplate, let alone to witness.

The antisocial behavior of an impulsive, short-tempered child who does not obey, but who nevertheless can feel guilt and empathy, may be strongly influenced by his or her environment. Not so when there is a lack of guilt and empathy combined with a callous disregard for others. If one identical twin has callous-unemotional traits and shows antisocial behavior, the odds are excellent that the other twin will have these traits. Not surprisingly, callous-unemotional traits are highly heritable: twin studies suggest the figure is around 80 percent. And as with adult psychopathy, the genetic risk for developing callous-unemotional traits may be increased by exposure to stressful or unfavorable environments.

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Testing a criminal's pain sensitivity using an electrical device adapted by Cesare Lombroso in the second half of the 19th century. Credit: Courtesy of Open Road Media.

Scanning Young Brains

The brains of children are actively changing and developing. We still don't know as much as we would like about the normal development of the brain, although researchers have begun systematic studies to learn more about this important topic. We don't know the full extent of variations in brain structure and function in the population as a whole. As challenging as it is to interpret the meaning and significance of brain scans of adults with psychopathy, it is even more challenging to draw firm conclusions from scans of children with callous-unemotional traits whose brains are growing and changing.

Despite this caution, can we learn anything useful by scanning young brains that might some day develop into the brains of old psychopaths? Some studies published so far suggest that we can. For example, a study by researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health compared brain scans of children with callous-unemotional features to those with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and to children without behavior problems. Each group consisted of a dozen children between the ages of 10 and 17. The children were asked to look at and process information about fearful, angry, or neutral facial expressions. Activity in the amygdalae in all three groups looked pretty much the same when the children considered angry or neutral expressions. When the youths with callous-unemotional traits dealt with fearful expressions, however, their amygdalae showed reduced levels of activation compared to the other two groups. The association of callous and unemotional personality traits with reduced amygdala activation to fearful faces is not inconsistent with what we see in the brains of adult psychopaths, who appear to have deficiencies processing emotional information.

A year after that study was published, researchers at King's College London confirmed the finding in 17 boys with callous-unemotional traits compared to 13 well-adjusted controls. The decreased activity in the amygdala suggested to the researchers that the neuronal basis of the emotional deficits seen in children with callous-unemotional traits "are already present in childhood."

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A second study published in 2009 by the same group in the United Kingdom presented a finding that seemed to highlight differences between childhood conduct disorder with callous and unemotional traits and adult psychopathy. A comparison of around two dozen boys with callous-unemotional conduct problems and a similar number of controls detected increased gray matter in some parts of the brain: the medial orbitofrontal cortex, the anterior cingulate, and the temporal lobes. Yet, as we've learned, adult psychopaths have been found to have cortical thinning in several regions, including portions of the temporal lobes, the insula, and the prefrontal cortex, among others. Why don't children who give the impression they are developing psychopathy show the same pattern of cortical thinning? The answer probably lies in the way the brain develops. During childhood, unneeded gray matter is trimmed as the brain matures. Perhaps, as the authors suggest, youths with callous-unemotional traits experience delayed maturation of their cerebral cortices, if they ever do mature completely. If conduct disorder with callous-unemotional traits is a precursor to adult psychopathy, the flaw or flaws in brain development that affect key regions of cortex involved in empathy and morality somehow lead to less gray matter later in life.
I recently had the pleasure of spending four months in the Commonwealth of Dominica, one of the most beautiful countries on earth. In between listening to local politicians fibs (keep tuned to this blog) and having to earn a living, I managed to squeeze in a couple of weeks worth of hiking. Below an overview of the best hikes in Dominica.

THE FIVE BEST HIKES IN DOMINICA

1. The Boiling Lake Hike



Photo credit: Discover Dominica Authority

If you only have time to do one hike in Dominica, do this one. Starting from Titou Gorge above the capital city of Roseau, this hike takes you through beautiful rainforest up to a spectacular mountaintop viewpoint, down the Valley of Desolation with its bubbling mud pools and hissing volcanic vents, and finally onto a ledge overlooking a crater containing a lake so hot that it is literally boiling.



Photo credit: Discover Dominica Authority

Theres plenty of info on this trail online so I wont go into details, except to note that just after you reach the highest point theres a shelter hidden down a tiny footpath on the right where you can spend the night if you bring along a sleeping bag and water.

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Note: Its not really necessary to hire a guide, but doing so will help to generate badly needed local employment. It could also save you money. A friend of mine strayed off the path and his foot sank into some boiling mud: serious burns, carnival in hospital, medical evacuation to France, skin graft, weeks on crutches. A guide would have been far cheaper.

2. Waitukubuli National Trail Segment 4

Hiking Waitukubuli National Trail Segment Four is probably the best way to dive into Dominicas rainforest. Winding through Morne Trois Pitons National Park, its a neverending feast of towering trees, dangling dripping epiphytes, and twisted buttress roots. One of the the islands most spectacular waterfalls, Middleham Falls, lies along the way. I walked various bits of this segment dozens of times and always discovered something new.

This is a long and pretty hands-on segment of the national trail. If you get fed up with being drenched by torrential rain, stumbling over branches, sloshing through mud or slipping and sliding down steep slopes, you can get off the trail prematurely at Middleham Falls (continuing down to Hope Estate village) or at Sylvania village - both are signposted. If you walk all the way to Pond Casse, you can spend the night at D-Smart Farm (see further below).

3. Rosalie to Freshwater Lake

Starting from above the village of Guele Lion near Rosalie, this rarely trodden path winds its way up a mountainside to Freshwater Lake in the heart of the island. Its a climb of several hundred vertical metres, but as its all uphill, the footing is easy. Unusually for Dominica, where hikers are usually enclosed by vegetation on all sides, this trail affords sweeping views across the adjoining valley and back down to the sea. Freshwater Lake itself is great for bird watching, and you can hire kayaks to paddle around, or briefly detour to nearby Boeri Lake.

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Photo credit: Discover Dominica Authority (Freshwater Lake)

If you arrive well before dark, you can easily hitch a ride back to town from the lake with other visitors, else youll have to wander down the paved track to Laudat village. If you bring a sleeping bag, you can sleep on one of the tables in the national park building next to the lake, but be prepared for a cold and windy night!

4. Waitukubuli National Trail Segment 9

If you enjoyed Segment 4, youll love Waitukubuli National Trail Segment Nine. The trees are absolutely immense, and the path mostly consists of steep uphill scrambles and even steeper downhill slides through the tangled vegetation of the rainforest floor. Multiple recent landslides along the way can make the path difficult to follow at times, so start out early and keep up a good pace. (If it rained hard during the preceding night, consider postponing your hike for a day or two.)

If you manage to get as far as Syndicate Estate, theres a national park building where you can sleep on the tables until the parrots wake you up in the morning. Otherwise, there are some open-sided packing sheds along the rural access roads leading down to the coast.



5. Waitukubuli National Trail Segment 13

Dominica has a wide variety of climates and vegetation zones, and the national trail traverses all of them. Waitukubuli National Trail Segment Thirteen in the far north of the island is very different from the other segments discussed in this blog. It connects the villages of Pennville and Capuchin via a coastal path that leads through dry woodlands and plots of farmland, with beautiful views of the neighbouring islands of Guadeloupe and Marie Galante across the deep blue Caribbean sea. This is an easy and quite short hike, and the ground is firm rather than soggy, so its relaxation and pure joy all the way. Families in the villages at both ends of the trail offer rooms for rent with dinner included.

KNOWN UNKNOWNS: OTHER POTENTIALLY GREAT HIKES



The following are hikes that I didnt do myself, but that may interest other avid hikers. If you have done any of those hikes, please share your experiences in the comments section at the end of this blog.



Waitukubuli National Trail Segment 8 crosses the island from East to West in a day. It looks great on the map, but I didnt want to risk breaking my ankle far out in the bush on this long, very remote and rarely traversed segment. However, its reportedly somewhat easier than Segment 9, so its not particularly challenging per se.

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Grand Bay to Delices. This hike, via Perdu Temps, is marked on the map but locals told me that multiple landslides caused by Tropical Storm Erika have made the path nearly impossible to follow. I started off along it but turned back when I kept losing my way and time began running short. Start extremely early, hire a local as a guide, or do both.

Freshwater Lake to Boiling Lake. This hike is also marked on the map, but a national park employee told me that the last person who attempted it, two years ago, nearly died even though he was a very competent hiker and fully equipped. The path is completely overgrown and traverses some of the most challenging topography that I have seen anywhere in the world. Try to link up with a local hunter who knows the area and do it as a team.

GENERAL DOMINICA HIKING TIPS

Shelter. The only place in Dominica that doesnt seem to have any decent affordable accommodation is Roseau. In almost every village, there is at least one family that rents rooms at a reasonable price, just ask around when you get there. If you want to explore Morne Trois Pitons National Park and the rainforest trails in the centre of the island, the organic D-Smart Farm near Pond Casse provides the perfect starting point. They have a small chalet, some basic A-Frame shelters in the middle of the forest, and also permit camping. Its the nicest place I have ever stayed in, as well as being one of the cheapest on the island. Alongside rural access roads, there are often open-sided huts and shelters where you can spread out a sleeping bag for the night. Its safe to sleep out in the bush as there are no dangerous plants or animals in Dominica, but flat spaces to pitch a tent on can be very hard to find.

Water and food. You can drink water straight out of rivers if there are no settlements upstream, and Dominica has 365 rivers, so there is usually no need to carry a bottle. Locally grown food (as opposed to imports) is good and cheap. Most villages have shops that sell basic foodstuffs, boiled eggs and greasy takeaways.

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Maps. There is a decent 1:50,000 map of Dominica covering the entire Waitukubuli National Trail (WNT) and all farm access roads. Beware: district boundaries look nearly the same as footpaths on this map. Bizarrely, the map is not on sale in the tourist office or in downtown shops, but must be picked up from the Lands and Surveys Division of the Ministry of Lands and Housing, located on the corner of Goodwill Road and Charles Avenue. It costs a reasonable 40 EC$ (about 15 USD).

Transport. Hitchhiking is extremely easy. Farmers usually head out to their fields around dawn and return home in the early afternoon. Even on the main roads, public and private transport grind to a halt soon after dark.

Dangers. Fatal road accidents are frequent in Dominica; beware of accepting lifts from drivers who are completely drunk and/or stoned. If you come across a marijuana plantation, turn back immediately and dont tell anyone what you have seen. Darkness descends in a flash when you are in the rainforest so get out well before sunset. Sleeping on the beach or in any place where people may pass at night is very risky.

People. Most Dominicans are friendly, welcoming, and have a lot to say for themselves. Take the time to listen to the people you encounter along the way and you will learn a lot.
It is very likely there is a compelling political reason for the FBI's delay to issuing a richly-deserved indictment for Hillary Clinton. It's all about the delegate count. Obama has said he will not stop the FBI from their investigation in HRC's email server for political reason. However, he did not say he would not delay it. The most likely reason to delay an indictment is to make sure Bernie Sanders does not accumulate enough delegates to win the nomination outright before the Democratic convention or have enough to win it with delegates pledged and superdelegates at the convention. This should motivate those Feeling the Bern to show their power at the voting polls on June 7th. Anyone who wants the DC elite to feel their sting and show who really has the power in our country should not miss this opportunity. This is a great chance to make the statement that this type of manipulation is NOT at all acceptable. The best way to get this message across is to vote this Tuesday if your state has a primary.

Bernie's delegate situation stacks up like this, Bernie has 1501 pledged delegates and 46 super delegates committed to him for a total of 1547 delegates. There are 754 to be pledged delegates available. There are 137 superdelegates available. 2382 delegates are needed to win the Dem nomination. If on Monday the FBI were to issue an indictment for Hillary then theoretically Bernie could get 835 of the 891 pledged delegates and superdelegates available to win the nomination in the first round at the convention.

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The reason this will not happen is that Hillary has not been interviewed yet and no indictment will be issued before the FBI interviews her. They technically could issue an indictment before this interview but this is highly unlikely. So Obama and his Dem pals have successfully stymied Bernie from winning the nomination in the first round by slow-walking the FBI investigation.

Perhaps this is also why the Democratic insiders were fighting so hard and dirty for delegates in the Nevada Caucus. This may be effective politics but it is very bad governing for what is supposed to be a democracy. A high standard of democracy demands informed citizens. They are not even remotely informed if they believe Hillary is not likely to be indicted. Not only has Obama subverted a high standard for democracy in the 2016 election process, he has also effectively kept the entire intelligence community in high anxiety mode by delaying this indictment. Everyone should read the public statement made to President Obama by 17 intelligence officers with over 400 years of experience. They are part of an organization called VIPS which stands for Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. Among their ranks are Ray McGovern and Scott Ritter. According to them the FBI and DOJ have more than enough information to issue a preliminary report summarizing what they have found. They state that based on public information they know national security has been compromised by HRC's home server. They are certain this investigation has been slow-walked by President Obama. Keep in mind these intelligence veterans know intelligence procedures and active officers in the FBI so their claim of a slow-walk is more than speculation. They are pleading with the president to release information on this matter that needs to be known by every citizen as soon as possible.

It's pretty damn cynical of President Obama to manipulate a process that keeps absolutely vital information from voters before they vote. Obama's people have decided anybody but Bernie will put Obama's legacy in the best possible light. No doubt because if elected Bernie will back up his promises to change corruption in US politics. This would be the opposite of Obama who backed off his promises of dramatic changes in how business is conducted in our government. Instead he adhered to existing practices of the Democratic establishment who have the backs of the corporations and big money but not the common people of our country. Obama did many good things as president but he did not do anything of substance to change the corruption in our government.

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All those people that are stroking Obama's ego to make him feel that his legacy is more important than giving Bernie a clean shot to win the presidency are doing our country a grave injustice. Presumably the leader of the pack in this regard is his close confidant, Valerie Jarrett. It appears she is playing the same role at the end of Obama presidency that Rahm Emanuel did at the beginning of Obama's presidency. She like Rahm is spear-heading an onslaught of bad advice given for the absolute wrong reasons. After Obama promised "Change We Can Believe In" Rahm pushed Obama hard into embracing the role of Democratic corporatist. Given that the billionaire Penny Pritzer was the person who got Obama started into big time politics this should probably not have been as much of a surprise. She is his current Secretary of Commerce and introduced Obama to Robert Rubin. Later Obama appointed two of his acolytes Tim Gheitner and Larry Summers to take charge of his economic policies. Greg Palast has all the grimy details of Obama's connections to the 1% in his rise to power. That gets us back to his Chief of Staff, Rahm. This Clinton trained politician convinced Obama the best way to get the ACA passed was to get Big Pharma on his side. To get the backing of Big Pharma he allowed them to continue to gouge American citizens with the highest drug prices in the world. Their deal sent shock waves of delusion throughout the country to those that bought into Obama's promise of big changes on behalf of Main Street America. This blunder among other mistakes ultimately led to an extraordinarily obstructionist Republican run Senate and House. Obama's legacy as the first African-American president is important but not anywhere near as important as his old and current staff believe it is. Valerie Jarrett appears to be the one leading the charge for Obama to make as his top priority his legacy. This bad advice like Rahm's bad advice will only come back to haunt Obama. It is also wrong wrong wrong to do this to American citizens. The electorate is very fed up with this type of ego based politics and is angry enough to completely change the face of American politics regardless of what Obama does or does not do.

In the end Bernie will get the Dem nomination or run as a 3rd party candidate. Either way Bernie wins the presidency and America wins a shot to be free of rampant political corruption. Hillary will be indicted and that will kill her run for president. The Dems will most certainly try to squeeze Bernie out with Biden or Kerry but the electorate has woken up like a sleeping giant with a very bad attitude. They have absolutely no tolerance for this type of condescending gamemanship at their expense. The majority of the American people are demanding the next president be someone who is not part of the existing political establishment. Their is absolutely no reason for any one among the working and middle-class to trust any establishment politician. The vast majority of voters are way too angry and determined to accept anything less than a candidate they trust. They have that candidate. They love that candidate. They are working hard to get that candidate elected. Bernie has earned that trust by being consistent in his beliefs over a 40 year period in politics. The question is, does the Democratic Party want to emasculate itself or join the parade behind Bernie. Once the Democratic establishment players get the memo that HRC or her ilk will not be around to keep the fires burning brightly for the current out of control version of pay to play politics, they will see something that should ease their pain. Once their selfish little hearts accept the reality that Bernie Sanders as the Dem nominee should and will beat Trump by at least 10-15% or more, their too bad so sad moment should fade out. Bernie with a near historic landslide victory could easily bring back the Senate to the Dems. Given that every single House seat is up for re-election, it is not inconceivable that the House is in play as well. Even the gerrymandered districts have working and middles class voters who have not voted in the past that could change the expected outcomes of House seat elections. Bernie's presence on the Dem ticket at the very least could set up the Dems winning the House in 2018. What would close this deal would be for Bernie to get some judges in the Supreme Court who will over turn decisions that have enabled the gerrymandering of districts.

This should all happen because our stubborn leftie via Brooklyn and Vermont whose politics is rooted in the 1960's will NOT renege on his promises like Obama did in 2008. Bernie as president will continue to invigorate his populist movement and make it even stronger than it is now. As far as Democratic establishment types go, nothing appeals to a politician more than maintaining their political survival and the possibility of gaining more power. The medicine may be bitter for establishment Democrats to swallow but it is that or see the new most powerful movement in American politics shift from voting Democrat to a third party. This is an historic time in American politics. Bernie is going to lead this change and many of us are going to enjoy the ride.
Part one of the Everyday Empowerment series for girls and women.



They say youth is wasted on the young. If my first teenage sexual experiences were anything to go by that's certainly true -- hours and weeks spent half naked with the same very well endowed boy and not the first clue what to do with him. We groped endlessly in the dark (literally and metaphorically), both teetering on the torturous brink of orgasm but never quite making it.

In short, I was not sexually empowered. It took a few more years and several rereads of The Female Eunuch before I could either contemplate tasting my own menstrual blood (as Germaine Greer famously advocated) or feel entitled enough to orgasm with a man.

Thirty odd years later, I'd like to think this has all changed for young women. Surely, now, girls are growing up naming their vaginas, celebrating their clitorises and owning their orgasms. They know exactly where their boundaries are and how to keep themselves emotionally and physically safe, don't they?

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Well, when it comes to teenage girls' pleasure, YES! Because here's the real rub -- as a leading source of sex education for most young people, mainstream online porn is scripting our teenagers' sexuality on a grand scale. And with its misogynistic, male-centric default, girls are getting the rawest deal -- female arousal and orgasm are simply not being prioritised, catered for or acknowledged. In pornland, time is money -- the average six minute (male) porn time spend is making sexual etiquette and reciprocity expendable.

Peggy Orenstein confirms this trend in her new book, Girls and Sex: Navigating the Complicated new Landscape. In more than 70 interviews with young American women between the ages of 15 and 20, she discovered a striking sense of sexual disempowerment. The teenagers tended to be preoccupied with how men saw them, to prioritise male satisfaction over their own, to use porn to learn how to satisfy a man, and talked repeatedly about unsatisfactory or sexual encounters -- with unreciprocated oral sex being a common expectation of boys and men, even outside of a relationship. Few of the girls had experienced an orgasm with a partner but most had faked one.

Today, a teenage girl who finds herself in a sexually charged encounter with a boy is likely to be up against the accumulative influence of thousands of porn images on which his (and possibly her) sexual expectations and arousal have been incessantly and indelibly fused since puberty. Their sexual exchange is likely to hurtle towards his orgasm before she has time to reach for the tissues.

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In my day, at least mutual ignorance was a kind of bliss -- sexual tension was guaranteed since it could take a few weeks for a boy to work up the courage and skill to undo your bra. Nobody knew what they were doing or expected anyone else to. If he managed to (prematurely) ejaculate, it was much more likely to be experienced with embarrassment than entitlement, maybe even an apology and an offer to make amends if you were lucky.

So how can we help our daughters set their own sexual agendas and challenge the effects of the new porn-damaged boys and men they meet? As a mother, children's advocate, and lifelong pleasure seeker, here are my top five tips:

1. Teach critical thinking from a young age

Teaching our daughters to only ever be on the sexual defensive against boys and men -- to just keep saying "no" -- is simply not good enough. Young women need the critical thinking skills to lead the discourse, to understand the source and inequity of male entitlement, to pursue their own desires, to be the agents and the subjects of their own sexuality.

Problem solving and decision making are central to our children's survival and success in ALL areas of their lives, not just academically. We wouldn't send our teenagers into an exam, interview or on vacation without knowing they have thoroughly prepared first. The same applies to their first sexual experiences. Our daughters must be able to analyse, plan, risk assess, and reflect, when they begin exploring their sexual feelings or selecting sexual partners.

Dr Linda Elder, president of The Foundation for Critical Thinking, in The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking, says: "The quality of our life and that of what we produce, make, or build depends precisely on the quality of our thought."

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To this end, we need to encourage our children to have their own opinions and question everything from a young age. This way, when they reach their teens, they can ask and answer the important questions for themselves: What are my sexual feelings? How are they being influenced? How do I want to explore them? What do I want out of this sexual experience? What are the risks?

The Foundation for Critical Thinking does not provide specific sex education resources but does have an extensive range of critical thinking tools for all age groups which can be applied to all areas of life.

2. Let's talk about sex

Knowledge is power and never more so than when it comes to talking to our children about their sexuality. The more open, natural and positive our (age appropriate) discussions are with our children, the safer and happier their sexual journey will be.

Deborah Roffman, leading sexuality educator and author of Talk to Me First: Everything You Need to Know about Becoming Your Kids' "Go-To" Person about Sex, says in her blog: "We know from decades of research that children and adolescents raised by adults who educate and converse with them about sexuality grow up in healthier ways than their peers."

But consent, safe sex and saying "no" are the tip of the iceberg. Building connectedness, openness and mutual respect with our children from a young age is the key to fostering a sense of confidence, responsibility and ownership over their sexuality.

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Prof Amy Schalet, in her book Not Under MY Roof, underlines the importance of open discussion. She explains that in Holland -- where parents, teachers and doctors discuss sex more openly and in more positive terms with young people -- teenage girls' experience of sex is better according to all leading indicators including: sexual satisfaction, body image, unwanted pregnancy (some of the lowest teen pregnancy and abortion rates in the industrialised world) and sexually transmitted diseases. Dutch girls are more likely to become sexually active later, have fewer partners, enjoy their experience more, and express their needs and desires to their partners more clearly. Also see Prof Amy Schalet's The New ABCD's of Talking About Sex With Teenagers.



3. Re-thinking sexual definitions

One of the problems with sex education is our rigid definition of sex -- we tend to think of sex in reproductive terms: partnered, penetrative, and heterosexual. But sexuality is as much about how we feel as what we do (or don't do).

Our daughters need to be encouraged to define what sex means for them, definitions that are both more flexible and more individual; personal blueprints that will stop them racing towards a one-size-fits-all, male, penetrative imperative.

Critically thinking about their ideal sexual outcomes for any given scenario is a good place to start -- writing them down is even better. Would they involve talking, touching, kissing, conversation, arousal, penetration, orgasm? How long would it last? How would it feel emotionally? Where would it take place? What would it exclude?

4. Discuss porn before your daughter ever sees it

Like teaching healthy eating choices, we need to educate ourselves and our children about the online porn menu before they ever go there. This is not about the rights and wrongs of pornography per se -- it's about a misogynistic, cynical, multi-billion dollar industry doing our teenage daughter(s) (and son(s)) a sexual disservice. Despite its ubiquity and apparent variety, mainstream porn is mind numbingly formulaic and predictable in powerfully subjugating ways for girls and women. Here are three things your children will learn about human sexuality by watching mainstream porn:

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The only point of any sexual exchange is male penetration and ejaculation (usually on a woman's face). Women exist to facilitate 1. No emotional intimacy, love, romance, passion or reciprocation is necessary for 1. to occur.

And the learning I'm talking about is not intellectual -- it's more insidious than that. These porn shaped lovemaps are being hardwired into your children's malleable adolescent brains with Pavlovian efficiency.

It's the McDonalds principle -- it satisfies quickly and reliably, without nuance or imagination, and after sufficient repetition makes you go back for more, whether you're bored of Big Macs or not. I hate to sound like an erotica snob about this but mainstream porn is homogenizing our children's sexuality from something endlessly complex, individual, reciprocal, creative, emotional, and diverse into nothing more than a sprint to male ejaculation.

5. Masturbation matters

Where can girls (and women) go to have their desire (as opposed to their desirability) prioritised, to be aroused, to experiment, develop and express their preferences without always first having to ask themselves "How do I look?" or "How is this making him feel?"

The first step is very simple but has been surprisingly absent in mainstream sex education: we need to encourage girls to masturbate and fantasise more. Self love is so fundamental to empowering girls' sexuality that this post could have been headlined Why Teenage Girls Need to Masturbate More.

Peggy Orenstein found that only a third of the teenage girls masturbated regularly with a staggering 50 per cent saying they had never masturbated at all. This is in line with other research which also indicates that more than three quarters of teenage boys masturbate regularly.

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American youth advocate Charis Denison believes it's time for female masturbation to be on the sex education curriculum. In her talks with teenage girls, Charis covers contraception, safe sex and consent but places it firmly in the context of sexuality. She uses an anatomically correct 'vulva puppet' to show 10th graders where the clitoris is and how to masturbate, encouraging girls to discover what feels good for them.

There are also some excellent online resources to help such as Scarleteen -- Sex Education for the Real World and smartphone apps such as HappyPlayTime -- an animated guide to female masturbation.

6. Celebrate female pleasure

Another thing that came out of the Dutch research was that adults in Holland, particularly mothers, emphasise the joy and responsibility of sex to their daughters whereas Americans focus on the dangers and risks.

We need to talk to young women with passion and enthusiasm about female pleasure, about arousal, about women's superlative capacity for orgasm -- that we have the only piece of human anatomy designed entirely to make us feel good. Girls need to hear these positive messages over and over again.
By Sarah Zhang for WIRED.

The Great Barrier Reef, transposed to North America's west coast, would stretch from Baja California to British Columbia. "How do you study that big of an area by doing hour-long hikes?," says Eric Hochberg, a marine biologist at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences. Yet for a long time, scientists studying coral have essentially had to do just that. Since the 1950s, says Hochberg, the state of the art has been a mask and a scuba tank. Scientists studying coral reefs do so an hour at a time, until their air runs out.

Next week, that will change. Hochberg is principal investigator of a NASA-backed experiment called, well, CORAL for the COral Reef Airborne Laboratory. CORAL will use a state-of-the-art spectrometer to map reefs in four locations: Hawaii, Palau, the Mariana Islands, and parts of the Great Barrier Reef. (Even from the air, that thing is too big for one bite). These maps will provide a baseline comparison for future surveys. Climate change and the recent widespread coral bleaching events make such a project only more urgent.

For Hochberg, CORAL has been a long time coming. He and his collaborators have been trying to raise money to look at coral from the skies since the 1990s. At the time, scientists noticed the Great Barrier Reef and other reefs might be shrinking--thanks to a host of manmade threats like climate change, pollution, and oil spills. Hochberg and his team got close to putting a camera on the International Space Station, but that project fell through. In 2015, CORAL finally got the go ahead from NASA.

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On June 6, a Gulfstream plane will take off over Hawaii with the Portable Remote Imaging Spectrometer, or PRISM, in tow. Spectrometers such as PRISM measure light by slicing up the spectrum into several bands--you can think of each band as a color range--and measuring the brightness in each band. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which has long built spectrometers for spacecraft and satellites, developed PRISM specifically to survey coastal environments. A typical land satellite might look at 9 bands of color. PRISM will look at more than a hundred.

What's the point of slicing up the spectrum so narrowly? "It's a very high signal to noise ratio," says CORAL project scientist Michelle Gierach. And you need as much signal as you can get when the stuff you're trying to look at is underwater. For example, you can't tell the absolute depth of a coral reef based on a normal satellite image. But scientists also know that water absorbs a lot of red light. Depending on how much red, reddish-orange, orange light the spectrometer sees, the team can figure out the depth of the water.

The four spots CORAL is targeting will be only a tiny fraction of the world's coral reefs. But even that will provide valuable data for scientists as they watch how factors like temperature, water quality, and pollution affect coral. Eventually, Hochberg hopes CORAL will be proof of a principle for a satellite that can continuously monitor coral.

If a satellite just for monitoring coral seems a little bit far-fetched, consider that PRISM can already so much more than find reefs. Gierach has already worked with teams using PRISM to survey eelgrass and phytoplankton blooms in the ocean. In the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, the cloudiness of the water can be used to track the presence of the critically endangered delta smelt, which are a continuous source of headaches for water pump operators there. And the health of corals themselves can be a harbinger of things to come. "Coral reefs are a true canary in the coal mine," says Gierach. And when you watch them from the sky, you don't have to worry about running out of air.

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"I think all writers should know their craft and write beyond life in their immediate area. America isn't the center of the world. I'd like to read more of a worldview or a universal perspective that reaches a greater readership."

This is sage advice from Dr. Martin Luther Patrick, whose storied literary career spans decades. A playwright and a novelist, he has a PhD in Cultural Anthropology.

Patrick -- of Jamaican parentage -- was born and grew up in London, England (he currently resides in the Borough of Hackney). When he was 18, he began his literary journey.

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In 1985, Patrick entered London's Channel 4 Television script competition, placing second. Then in 1988, The London Theatre Coop named him "Best New Young Playwright." As well, he's has won other prestigious awards as a playwright.

In 2012, Strategic Books published Patrick's debut novel, "JJ's Isolation." Last year, he established Great New Writers Ltd, his own teaching and tutoring company. Its mission is to support aspiring LGBT, Black, Asian and Hispanic writers. As well, the prolific Patrick has completed his second novel, "Love Both Ways," which drops this summer.

This is Part Two of my exclusive interview with the engaging and rather candid Dr. Patrick.

EVANS: Welcome back, Martin! Thanks for taking the time to chat with me.

PATRICK: It's my pleasure, Wyatt.

EVANS: So, give us the "inside skinny" on "Love Both Ways," your new novel that drops in just a few months?

PATRICK: "Love Both Ways," to be released this September, is a romantic gay love story about two recently divorced fathers who meet at a support group, and fall passionately and spiritually in love. The novel is set between 2014 and 2016 in arts circles and new media environments.

As these devoted and intellectual fathers fight for the love they need, their romantic nature and love of family are played out in some of London's most beautiful iconic locations. David is a black British music producer and manager in his thirties, and Michael is an Italian-born art professor now art dealer who has just turned fifty. As fathers with sublimated gay desires, they struggle to get out of their marriage for different reasons. When David and Michael meet at the gay father's group, they're deeply conscious of their emotional bond and erotic attraction. Subsequently, their romantic courtship helps them find the courage to triumph over their business colleagues' and family's sexual prejudices.

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EVANS: It appears that "Love Both Ways" is a page turner that really tugs at your heartstrings.

EVANS: Did you experience growth in your writing style between the two novels? Do elaborate.

PATRICK: Yes, growth manifested in several ways. Firstly, I created a full character biography of the main, major and minor characters from the get go with "Love Both Ways." Conversely, I added and eliminated several characters over time who appeared in "JJ's Isolation."

Secondly, starting as I always do, I knew the entire character's arc from beginning, middle to end. Thirdly, I had my PhD knowledge of identity politics to draw on with "Love Both Ways." In the first novel ("J J's Isolation"), I was still developing that knowledge because I came up with the concept for it many years before completing it.

I have been developing my style of what I'll call "visual narration" that I've developed out of my love for world cinema. Having studied the visceral power of mise en scene in film, my writing style is to create character and narrative images in the mind of the reader, wrapped around evocative language. I'm getting better at doing this. (When applied to the cinema, mise-en-scene refers to everything that appears before the camera and its arrangement -- composition, sets, props, actors, costumes, and lighting.)

The opening chapter of "JJ's Isolation" reveals the character/story/plot through action rather than me recounting what's happening. I started writing for the theatre so I use every aspect of mise en scene -- setting, design, props and characters' action and reaction to unfold my story's action and emotionally engage the reader.

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EVANS: Martin, it seems that the marketplace is becoming more and more saturated with LGBTQ works of fiction. What sets you apart from the "rest of the pack," so to speak?

PATRICK: I've read some stories that barely go beyond a set-up and pretext for porn fan fiction. I don't write that. What makes my work stand out is the issues of cultural identity discourse and sexual politics that universalize the need for people of color to control their own destiny. I'm dedicated to issues of equality, and so I often create a narrative universe of multicultural conflicts where people of the diaspora take steps to meet. "JJ's Isolation" has characters of African-American, Hispanic, Native American, European, Asian, Australian and African heritage. In "Love Both Ways," there are two major cultural traditions that I explore.



Additionally, both men have to learn to accept that their attraction and desire for men have gotten the best of them. The change in their sexual identity as former married men with sons and daughter compel them to question their lives. I enjoy exploring that subject because to me, romance is more interesting than sex. Romance requires a lifetime's attention to detail and learning to please someone else. Sex requires some people to please themselves now and again, and again and again until they become vacant.

EVANS: In 2015, you created your own teaching and tutoring small business, Great New Writers Ltd to support aspiring LGBTQ, black, Asian and Hispanic writers. What was your impetus for founding GNW?

PATRICK: I like teaching, I like helping people and I want to change things. The absence of LGBT writers in the "literary landscape" is unacceptable. The visibility and historical evidence of lived experience is one of the greatest things we can pass on to other LGBT comrades. If I can help to make some of those changes, I want to do so.

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EVANS: Recently, I interviewed emerging and innovative African-American filmmaker Reginald A. Flemming for this same media outlet. I asked him, "What's your take on the continuing lack of visibility of LGBTQ folk of color--particularly black--in the media (novels, motion pictures, television)? How can it be turned around?" Do weigh in.

PATRICK: The first step is for black/Hispanic/Asian artists, dramatists, writers and filmmakers to "come out" and politically unite as a collective or movement that defines the core of narratives that give dignity to LGBT citizens; that is to say, people with humanity who must be depicted in stories about our lives. Consequently, when other people create vile stories and myths about us we are united in our aim to call those "trashy manuscripts" by their right name: rubbish! Therefore, when some uninform white dude gets it into his head to write about things he doesn't know anything about, we can disqualify his "work."

We have to define our humanity and take responsibility in protecting and setting standards that establish truths about our lives as dramatized through artistic license, and the philosophical psychology of our everyday existence.

EVANS: You've worked with my good friend, the late Mr. Essex Hemphill, the groundbreaking black gay/SGL author, poet and performance artist. He made it possible for both of us--and many others -- to break through. What are some of your impressions about and reminiscences of him?

PATRICK: Essex was a great person to meet and discover; I really admired his work. He didn't influence me because he wrote poetry and I wrote drama at that time -- and narrative prose fiction for novels now. What I remember most of all about Essex was his delight in meeting a black gay man from Britain. He had an interest in black gay voices outside of America.

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We had completely different angles on gay experiences, but I liked the fact that he wanted to understand what life for a black gay man in Britain was like. He was a real comrade in extending his friendship and advice to a new writer in 1989, and I liked that about him a lot.

EVANS: Just what was Essex's impact on LGBTQ literature as a whole -- and black LGBTQ lit in particular?

PATRICK: In the UK, his impact was far less profound than in the USA. The size of the UK alone determined that. Also, there were issues then and now about being a black gay man that is "out." But the majority of LGBTs in London, never mind the entire country, were unaware of Essex's work. I'd put that down to a lack of publishing options and opportunities; consequently, the readership was rather limited.

EVANS: How do you see LGBTQ literature evolving?

PATRICK: Heterosexism is so pernicious and pervasive that it still disempowers and intimidates vulnerable people. I've come through hell and high water to get here. I've experienced the verbal and physical attack of homophobic psychopaths. Caribbean and African people don't approve of my sexual identity; but if I respected their opinion on that subject, I would have been destroyed. Therefore, I want to live to see the time when men and women recognize they have the right to write -- regardless of their sexual identity. Documenting our lives beyond fiction into biography could be a progressive way forward.

EVANS: Dr. Patrick, thanks for giving me the opportunity to talk with you on behalf of Huffington Post Queer Voices! It's been an invigorating and illuminating experience.

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Journalist Glenn Greenwald flagged a questionable editorial decision that The New York Times made in an article published on May 25, 2016, titled "A Split Over Israel Threatens the Democrats' Hopes for Unity." The sentence in question read, "Two of the senator's [Bernie Sanders] appointees to the party's platform drafting committee, Cornel West and James Zogby, on Wednesday denounced Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and said they believed that rank-and-file Democrats no longer hewed to the party's staunch support of the Israel government."

In the original print edition, Greenwald notes that the word occupation was placed in scare quotes (that is, "a pair of quotation marks used around a term or phrase to indicate that the writer does not think it is being used appropriately or that the writer is using it in a specialized sense"). The Times removed the disputed punctuation later in the day with no editorial explanation.

"The refusal to use the word occupation without scare quotes is one of the most cowardly editorial decisions the New York Times has made," Greenwald says. "This is journalistic malfeasance at its worst: refusing to describe the world truthfully out of fear of the negative reaction by influential factions...." He is referring to powerful Israel supporters in the United States, like GOP billionaire and conservative Zionist Sheldon Adelson, to whom New Jersey governor Chris Christie had to apologize when he referred to the West Bank as part of the "occupied territories."

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One is hard pressed to ask, what is the problem in calling the Occupied Palestinian Territories just that, territory occupied by Israel in the 1967 war? This is the exact terminology of Amnesty International. Oxfam uses Occupied Palestinian Territory. The Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem employs Occupied Territories. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has adopted occupied Palestinian territory (oPt). Even the US Department of State refers to The Occupied Territories. Further, UN Security Council Resolution 446 determined in 1979 that "the policy and practices of Israel in establishing settlements in the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967 have no legal validity and constitute a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East." Clearly, then, each of these entities uses the word occupied when referring to the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem.

Earlier this year, another Israeli human rights organization, Yesh Din, released a position paper describing how the government of Israel has unofficially adopted a document from 2012, the Levy Report, which made a case for not recognizing the Palestinian territories as occupied, and therefore paved the way for rethinking the legality of building Israeli settlements there. In fact, major US news outlets had for years already been calling illegal settlements on the West Bank and East Jerusalem "neighborhoods" or "communities." Here the terminology has been watered down to evoke a residential district, reminiscent of a peaceful suburb, thus belying the true nature of the illegal military occupation that upholds it.

Another recent example of the media's questioning of the use of the word "occupation" occurred on the NBC program Meet the Press, during which host Chuck Todd pushed presidential candidate Bernie Sanders on the Palestinian question. Sanders had just noted that for a lasting peace in the Middle East, it would behoove the United States to respect the needs of the Palestinian people and not push them aside, and to level the playing field between the Palestinians and Israelis. Todd then asked him what the Democratic Party platform should say: "Do you want to refer to the Palestinians as an occupied people? Do you want to say that Israel is occupying Gaza and the West Bank?" That Todd posed these questions shows that the mainstream media, such as NBC, are interrogating, publicly, the use of the term occupation and disputing the longstanding international understanding of the illegality of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.

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As more and more media outlets toe this line, the consumers of news may slowly follow suit and accept the insidious nomenclature. Glenn Greenwald's concern with The New York Times' use of scare quotes around the word occupation is potential foreshadowing of a new kind of doublespeak, spurred by the Israeli propaganda machine and furthered by a deferential news media.
ASSOCIATED PRESS 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)

Washington-- Backing India's bid to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), the US has said by becoming the member of the elite grouping the country would be in a stronger position to be a "good citizen" on proliferation- related issues.

"Having gone down the path of the civil nuclear agreement with India, and having invested a significant amount of time in building up our cooperation with India as it relates to nuclear security," Deputy National Security Advisor Benjamin Rhodes told a Washington audience.

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Rhodes remarks on India came in response to a question about why some countries like China are opposing India's membership in the 48-member NSG.

"I think the bottom line for us is that we believe that through engagement with India and through engagement with groups like the NSG, we are in a better position to support India as a good citizen on these issues," Rhodes said.

He said the US believed that engaging India and trying to bring it into international processes will be more effective in promoting the country's security protocols.

"And frankly, it takes place against continued conversations that we have with India about their approach to nuclear weapons; and of course, the support that we've always expressed for diplomatic efforts between India and Pakistan," Rhodes said in response to a question at an event organised by the Arms Control Association.

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Based in Washington, Arms Control Association is a think-tank that had opposed India-US civil nuclear deal and is now opposing India's membership to the NSG.

Rhodes remarks on India came in response to a question on India about why some countries are opposing India's membership to NSG.

"So, I think the bottom line for us is that we believe that through engagement with India and through engagement with groups like the NSG, we are in a better position to support India as a good citizen on these issues going forward," Rhodes said.

"Of course, we'll take seriously the concerns of other nations, but again for us I think this is part of a broader context where we've decided to take this approach with India.

And we've seen it bear some fruit, particularly on issues related to nuclear security," he said.

"So again, we understand the concerns, but in many ways we're dealing with a challenge that was fairly far advanced by the time we took office. And we decided to sustain the previous administration's decision to pursue that civil nuclear cooperation broadly," he said.

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STR via Getty Images Indian Bollywood film producer and present Chairperson of the Central Board, Pahlaj Nihalani attends the funeral of the late Bollywood music composer and singer Aadesh Shrivastava in Mumbai on September 5, 2015. AFP PHOTO (Photo credit should read STR/AFP/Getty Images)

Pahlaj Nihalani, the controversial chairman of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), is under fire from all quarters now for the ongoing battle with Abhishek Chaubey's Udta Punjab.

The entire film industry is rallying against the Censor Board's draconian decision to award 89 cuts to the drama, starring Shahid Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Kareena Kapoor Khan, and Diljit Dosanjh.

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An interesting irony has emerged here, according to a report by Mumbai Mirror. An "awkward" situation has been created for Nihalani's own family, given that his 34-year-old son Chirag and daughter-in-law Radhika both work for Balaji Motion Pictures Ltd  which is one of the film's producers, along with Phantom Films.

While Chirag is a creative producer who is associated with all promotional material related to the film (including its trailer), his wife Radhika, whom he met in New York four years ago whilst studying filmmaking at New York Film Academy (she was a media student), is part of the film's marketing team.

The report states that Chirag was instrumental in getting the Udta Punjab trailer passed without any cuts a couple of months ago. However, when it comes to the fracas over the film, which is currently being denied a letter from the Revising Committee so that it can go to the next step (i.e. the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal, a statutory body that often overturns the Board's decisions), it seems that they are on opposite sides of the fence.

Both Chirag and Radhika have refused to comment on the matter to the media.

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DEHRADUN -- Touching off a controversy, VHP leader Sadhvi Prachi on Tuesday said it is time to make India free of Muslims.

Known for courting controversies, the Sadhvi claimed the mission of a Congress-free India has already been accomplished and it is now time to rid the country of Muslims.

Now that we have achieved the mission of making a Congress-free India, it is time to make India Muslim-free. We are working on that, she said in Roorkee where at least 32 people were injured last week in a clash between two communities over forcible evacuation of a scrap dealers shop.

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Khanpur MLA Kunwar Pranav Singh Champions house was attacked by members of a community alleging their sacred book was also desecrated by his supporters. The Sadhvi claimed that the attack on Champions house was part of a premeditated conspiracy.

Champion, one of the nine Congress MLAs who revolted against Chief Minister Harish Rawat, recently joined BJP.

On the forthcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, she said if BJP projects Yogi Adityananth as its chief ministerial candidate, it was bound to win 300 seats in the state.

Prachi had often been in the news for asking people to boycott films of Bollywood Khans and demanding a CBI probe into all Muslim educational institutions including Aligarh Muslim University and madrasas in Deoband to check anti-national activities.

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Elnur Amikishiyev via Getty Images Coins, pen and glasses over the hundred dollar ban

NEW DELHI -- Three American grant-giving organisations are on the Indian government's "watch-list", and will have to get clearance from the Indian home ministry before providing any funds to NGOs here, reported The Times of India.

These include the Open Society Foundation (OSF), World Movement for Democracy (WMD), and National Endowment for Democracy (NED). Unnamed sources told TOI that these NGOs have been put under MHA's "prior permission category" after they gave funds to an "unregistered NGO". HuffPost India has reached out to all three organisations for a response.

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These three grant providers are the latest in a growing list of foreign funders who are under the Indian government's "prior permission" list. The 15 other foreign aid organisations in this list include Greenpeace International and Ford Foundation, among others.

The OSF's mission statement is "to build vibrant and tolerant societies whose governments are accountable and open to the participation of all people." It has given grants across the world in areas of public health, business development, and education, among others. It was started by philanthropist George Soros "to help countries make the transition from communism".

Meanwhile, WMD comprises a global network of activists, practitioners, scholars, policy makers, and funders who come together "to advance democracy". According to the organisation's website, "Participants actively engage in or support struggles to open closed societies, challenge dictatorships, democratize semi-authoritarian systems, consolidate emerging democracies, and reform and invigorate established democracies both old and new."

The NED operates on similar lines, giving grants to individuals and organisations to help with "the growth and strengthening" of democracies across the world.

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Earlier last month, the US ambassador to India Richard Verma said that the government's crackdown on NGOs would have a "chilling effect" on civil society.

"I read with some concern the recent press reports on challenges faced by NGOs operating in India," Verma told journalists. "Because a vibrant civil society is so important to both of our democratic traditions, I do worry about the potentially chilling effects of these regulatory steps focused on NGOs."

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Chaitanya Tamhane, the director of the universally acclaimed multilingual drama Court (2015), has been selected by acclaimed Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron as his protege under the Rolex Mentor & Protege Arts Initiative for 201617, as per an IndieWire report.

29-year-old Tamhane's debut feature won upwards of 30 international awards, including two big trophies at the 71st Venice International Film Festival in September 2014, aside from being selected as India's official entry to the Oscars earlier this year. Meanwhile, Cuaron, who achieved worldwide fame with the Mexican road movie Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001), the visually stunning film adaptation of Harry Potter and The Prisoner Of Azkaban (2004), and the dystopian sci-fi drama Children Of Men (2006), won two Oscars in 2014 for his work on the sci-fi stunner Gravity (2013).

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Tamhane was one of 18 filmmakers selected for this annual philanthropic programme, which can only be applied for upon invitation. A month ago, after submitting a written application and clearing a telephonic interview, he travelled to London to meet Cuaron in person for a lunch meeting  the final stage of the selection process. "It was a really, really great meeting," he says, in a phone conversation with HuffPost India. "His knowledge about India really blew my mind. Apparently, he'd travelled a lot around Maharashtra in the '90s, and he knew quite a bit about personalities like Sant Tukaram [17th century poet-saint]."

Adding that it felt more like a conversation between two filmmakers rather than an interview, he said, "He's very humble and chilled out."

Over the course of a year, the Mumbai-based filmmaker will meet Cuaron several times to bounce off ideas and imbibe his understanding of the medium. This includes attending the shoot of the Oscar-winner's upcoming film. "We make very different kinds of films, but what I like about him is his ability to balance his own sensibilities within a commercial framework," he says. "Gravity I was especially blown away by; it was like watching magic on the big screen. My hope is this dialogue will help me understand more about how he looks at the medium and help me grow as a filmmaker."
ASSOCIATED PRESS Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks during the U.S.-India Business Council 41st Annual Leadership Summit, Tuesday, June 7, 2016 in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's grasp of Indian history seems to be getting him into trouble regularly.

On Monday, at a ceremony in Washington DC to mark the repatriation of ancient Indian cultural artifacts, Modi took the opportunity to expound on India's heritage.

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"Konark ke Sun Temple mei 2000 saal pehle uss samay ke kalakaro ne aaj ki modern fashionable girl, jo skirt pehenti hai, aur haath mei purse rakhti hai, unki murtiyan bhi banayi hui hai. Matlab us samay bhi ye cheeze maujood hongi. (In Konark Sun Temple, over 2000 years ago, artists made sculptures akin to the modern fashionable girl who wears skirts and holds a purse in her hand. This means such things were there in those times also," the Prime Minister said.

With this observation, Modi proved yet again that history is not his strong point.

The Sun Temple at Konark, Odisha, according to the Archaeological Survey of India, was built in the 13th-century CE or 700 years ago. The temple is more known for its erotic sculptures, though it also does have images of women wearing heels and garments akin to skirts sculpted on its walls.

According to The Telegraph, this wasn't first time the Prime Minister thought the Konark temple is 2000 years old. In 2004, at the inauguration of a new campus of the National Institute of Fashion Technology in Gandhinagar, Modi had said, "The 2000-year-old engraved idols on the walls of the Sun Temple in Konark are shown wearing mini-skirts and holding a purse. This proves that we have a legacy of fashion technology since times immemorial."

Twitter didn't lose much time in giving Modi history lessons and making mirthful references to his observations on the sartorial style of Indian women of yore.

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Rare sculpture from Konark temple from 4000 years ago showing hipster Modi doing standup comedy with a straight face pic.twitter.com/xKShplyiFr  TooMuchDemocracy (@atlasdanced) June 7, 2016

May be Modi is confusing Madam Tussaud museum with Konark sun temple :) @suhasinihhttps://t.co/NN2gchhuTt  Atul Agarwal (@Aga_Atul) June 7, 2016

Modi has a history of getting history wrong.

In 2013, while campaigning for the BJP, prime ministerial candidate Modi called Mahatma Gandhi--Mohanlal Karamchand Gandhi instead of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.

"Towards the end of his life, Mahatma Gandhi had a wish which was not fulfilled. Would you fulfill that wish? Would you fulfill Gandhi's wish? Mohanlal Karamchand Gandhi..." he said, while addressing a rally in Rajasthan.

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Days before the Gandhi goof-up, Modi mixed up the Jan Sangh founder Shyama Prasad Mookerji with the revolutionary, Shyamji Krishna Verma.

"Shyama Prasad Mookerjee was a revolutionist. He died in 1930. His last wish was that his ashes be brought to India after independence. The Congress governments didn't get them back. It was I who got the ashes back to India in 2003," Modi had said in Kheda while confusing Mookerjee with Verma.

He apologised for the error after it was brought to his notice, and clarified that he had meant Shyamji Krishna Verma.

At BJP's "Hunkar rally" in Patna in 2013, Modi made several goof-ups during his speech. In the fiery oration that was telecast live by several television channels, the Prime Minister said, "When we think of the Gupta dynasty, we remember Chandragupta Maurya."

Chandragupta Maurya, as is evident from his name, was the founder of the Maurya Empire and the first emperor to unify large parts of the Indian subcontinent under one state. Modi, in all likelihood, confused him with Chandragupta Vikramaditya of the Gupta dynasty.

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According to reports, Modi also said that Porus was defeated on the bank of the Ganga, thus getting both his history and geography wrong.

In 326 BC, Alexander the Great fought against King Porus of the Paurava kingdom on the banks of the river Hydaspes (now known as the Jhelum), at a spot that is now in the Punjab province of Pakistan.

He also said that the ancient learning centre of Takshashila, situated in present day Pakistan, was in Bihar. Perhaps Modi had Vikramshila in mind, which indeed is situated in Bihar.

Soon after his speech, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar called Modi's knowledge of history "amazing"

In October 2013, at the inauguration of a museum in Ahmedabad dedicated to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Modi said that Sardar Patel had proposed reservations for women in 1919. As the Congress leader Dinshaw Patel reminded him later, Patel had made this statement in 1926.

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After his Bihar rally speech, Youth Congress workers had sent him a package containing history textbooks from the 5th to the 10th standard as a Diwali gift, saying it was meant to help him "improve his knowledge" of the subject.

In the age of the Internet and social media, you are not allowed to forget your mistakes easily. Certainly not if you are the leader of a country like India. It probably wont be a bad idea for our Prime Minister, and his speech writers, to brush up on Indian history and save himself from further embarrassment.

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Hindustan Times via Getty Images NEW DELHI, INDIA - MAY 4: Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi at Parliament House during the Parliament Session on May 4, 2016 in New Delhi, India. Congress walked out of the House demanding time-bound for Supreme Court-monitored CBI probe on the AgustaWestland helicopter deal. (Photo by Arvind Yadav/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)

NEW DELHI -- The arrival of a new CEO is imminent at a company that has a long and successful history but has been steadily losing marketshare in the recent past. The new CEO will be faced with the task of a difficult turn around. But instead of a thumbs up, investors are dumping the stock. This is the unenviable situation the Indian National Congress is faced with.

The news that Congress Vice President and heir apparent Rahul Gandhi will be elevated to the top job surfaces every six month or so. After the latest round of drubbing in this round of assembly polls in May, last week, yet again news surfaced that Gandhi's elevation was imminent. But instead of confidence that he can turn things around for the Congress Party, which needs it rather badly, the party is faced with defections and desertions, in Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Tripura and Chhattisgarh.

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It's a measure of the confidence among Congressmen about Gandhi's ability to execute a turnaround. Congress Party sources have been maintaining a brave face, saying those who are deserting the party at this time are doing so for narrow reasons, such as denial of Rajya Sabha nominations, or opportunistic politics in the state.

On Tuesday, six Tripura lawmakers--Dilip Sarkar, Sudip Roy Barman, Asish Kumar Saha, Diba Chandra Hrangkhawl, Paranjit Singha Roy, and Biswa Bandhu Sen--quit the Congress Party to join Trinamool Congress. Earlier this week, two veteran leaders of the Congress Party, Ajit Jogi, who served as the first Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh, and Gurudas Kamat, who led the party in Mumbai for decades, also left.

While Jogi said that he plans to float his own party, Kamat, who was reportedly unhappy over being sidelined in Mumbai, said that he is retiring from politics.

Last month, the Congress Party almost lost Uttarakhand after nine of its lawmakers including Vijay Bahuguna, former Chief Minister of the state, left and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party.

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Speaking to Times Now about the flight of the six lawmakers from Tripura on Tuesday, former Congress Party leader Himanta Biswa Sarma, who joined the BJP in 2015, said that Rahul Gandhi could not lead the country.

Sarma, former Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi's right-hand man for several years, was upset with the arrival of his son Gaurav Gogoi in 2013. Sarma eventually resigned after he was rebuffed by Rahul Gandhi, who responded to his concerns with a series of "so whats," while "playing with his dog."

Two years after that meeting, both Sarma and the state of Assam are with the BJP.

While senior Congress Party leaders are still muted in their criticism of Rahul Gandhi, it's no secret that his working style is perceived as standoffish by many old-timers of the Grand Old Party. There are several accounts of the 45-year-old leader either keeping veteran leaders waiting for hours or ignoring them completely when he visits their states. "These are small matters but indicate that things are changing fast within the party," a senior leader remarked in 2013.

Kamat's letter to the media suggests that he was deeply hurt that neither Rahul Gandhi nor senior Gandhi had even bothered to acknowledge his resignation letter. "Since there was no reply I have formally informed that I would like to retire from politics," he wrote.

Gandhi's attitude towards the old guard is read by some as a genuine attempt to break with the Congress Party's tradition of sycophancy and inject new blood into the aging party, but observers say that it isn't working because ultimately he ends up surrounding himself with a different lot of yes men who hold back from challenging him.

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The Gandhi family also has a history of breaking with powerful leaders (Mamata Banerjee in 1997, Sharad Pawar and P.S. Sangma in 1999 and Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy in 2010, among others), but the past two years has seen an almost constant rate of defections including Sarma, Kamat, Bahuguna, and G.K. Vasan, who left to form Tamil Manila Congress.

While ambition and survival no doubt drives politicians to abandon ship, especially when the chips are down, observers point out that so many veteran leaders doing so suggests a shared sense of despondency at the present and future leadership of the Congress Party.

While the bad news mounts on the one side, little is heard from the Congress party about internal reform. It is seen in vigorous action during the Parliament sessions though, where it has managed to punch well above its weight of 44 MPs. But the presumed future boss of the Congress Party is unlikely to have easy work days.

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Anadolu Agency via Getty Images BHOPAL, INDIA - DECEMBER 03: Rap artist Sofia Ashraf performs outside the Remember Bhopal Museum on the 31th anniversary of the tragedy, in Bhopal, India, 03 December 2015. (Photo by A M Faruqui/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

A petition to the White House in order to get justice for the Bhopal gas tragedy victims has garnered over 58,000 signatures, with backing from Hollywood star Martin Sheen and Indian raptivist Sofia Ashraf. The We The People petition accuses American officials of obstructing the course of criminal justice in the 1984 tragedy, which is considered the worlds worst industrial disaster.

It asks the US Department of Justice to serve a notice to American multinational chemical corporation Dow Chemical Company so that they attend court in Bhopal on 13 July this year. Dow bought the US corporation Union Carbide (UCC) in 2001, but hasn't forced the company to face charges in India.

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A protestor smears mud on a logo of Union Carbide as survivors and relatives of the victims take part in a protest in India on the 31st anniversary of the Bhopal tragedy on 3 December 2015.

According to the petition, which needs just over 41,000 signatures to get a response from the White House, India has sent four notices to the DoJ under a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty to summon Dow to explain UCCs whereabouts.

"The DoJ has ignored or obstructed every notice," reads the petition. "The same DoJ made BP pay $4 billion in criminal fines and penalties for Deepwater Horizon. 31 years of US protection of UCC and Dow must end."

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The petition requires 100,000 signatures within a week to warrant a response from the White House. It has met over half its goal already.

According to the petitioners, the Bhopal court requires Dow to show cause as to why it should not produce UCC, which is its whollyowned subsidiary, to face manslaughter charges for its role in the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy. It is estimated that around 25,000 people have died so far because of the disaster.

Survivors of the Bhopal Gas Disaster stage a protest demanding proper compensation and justice, on the eve of 31st anniversary of the tragedy on 2 December, 2015.

Ashraf, a Tamil Indian rapper who shot to fame with her 'Kodaikanal Won't' video which supported workers affected by mercury poisoning at Unilever's Kodaikanal plant, helped them reach a settlement within nine months, ending a 15-year battle.

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The rapper has now released a video on the Bhopal tragedy to garner support for the petition. She engages in a rap battle with herself, where she plays the part of both Dow and victims of Bhopal. She ends the video with a personal request: If you sign one petition this year, let it be this one.

Sheen, who played UCC's erstwhile CEO, Warren Anderson, in the 2014 feature film Bhopal: A Prayer For Rain, said in a press statement, The U.S. government could pressure Dow to do the right thing, but instead the Department of Justice has been shielding Dow and Union Carbide from responsibility for over two and a half decades. And now, a possible merger between Dow Chemical and DuPont is looming. Once again the baton of ownership will pass hands but the liabilities will be ignored  unless we speak up.

"[T]he Department of Justice has been shielding Dow and Union Carbide from responsibility for over two and a half decades."

Gary Cohen, the founder of Health Care Without Harm and one of the White House's Public Health and Climate Champions of Change for 2013, noted the difference between the DoJs response to a similar issue. Because the gassing of Bhopal remains legally unresolved even after 30 years, Union Carbides victims experience prolonged, acute suffering. In 2012, the U.S. Department of Justice made BP pay $4 billion in criminal fines and penalties for the Deepwater Horizon disaster, in which 11 people died. The U.S. Government should play an equally active role in bringing Dow Chemical [Union Carbides owner] to justice in Bhopal.
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The makers of the upcoming drama Udta Punjab, which is in the centre of a swirling controversy with the Central Board Of Film Certification over its depiction of the drug problem in the state, have moved Bombay High Court.

Filmmakers move Bombay High Court against CBFC over Udta Punjab controversy #UdtaPolitics  TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) June 8, 2016

The upcoming film's release date of June 17 seems to be in jeopardy owing to the fact that they don't have a censor certificate yet. According to reports, the Board's Revising Committee has asked for a staggering 89 cuts in the film (many of them pertain to abusive language and drug use) and asked to drop references to 'Punjab' in the film.

In an interview with Economic Times, CBFC Chairman Pahlaj Nihalani asserted that the film "cannot be cleared the way it is" because it shows the entire state and its people "in a bad light"  it violates the section of the Cinematograph Act He further said: "There is no pressure on us. They can go to the tribunal or court now. Our only concern is the entire movie is completely based on Punjab. All the characters are negative. It will hurt the whole community."

However, the makers of the film  Ekta Kapoor's Balaji Motion Pictures Pvt Ltd and Phantom Films, run by filmmakers Anurag Kashyap, Vikramaditya Motwane, and Vikas Bahl, as well as producer Madhu Mantena  claim that they haven't received anything in writing from the RC specifically, which they can use as a 'grievance' and take it to the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal, a statutory body that resolves disputes between filmmakers and the Board. Sources close to the makers say that this is a way for the CBFC to stall the release of the film so that the makers get disheartened and accept the RC's decision.

In light of this, the decision to approach Bombay HC to resolve this dispute makes sense. According to a Mumbai Mirror report, despite Nihalani's own son Chirag (he is a creative producer at Balaji) requesting his father to release the letter demanding the cuts, the CBFC has been holding back, leading to delays that are costing the production house roughly Rs 1 crore a day.

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Udta Punjab, directed by Abhishek Chaubey, stars Shahid Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Alia Bhatt, and Diljit Dosanjh.

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Addressing the ongoing controversy surrounding Udta Punjab, a bunch of actors, writers and filmmakers assembled in Juhu, Mumbai today afternoon to register their protest against the dictatorial ways of the Censor Board.

Present were filmmakers Anurag Kashyap, Zoya Akhtar, Reema Kagti, Imtiaz Ali, Aanand L. Rai, Mahesh Bhatt, Mukesh Bhatt, Vikas Bahl, Ekta Kapoor, Madhu Mantena, actor Satish Kaushik,Udta Punjab director Abhishek Chaubey, lead stars Shahid Kapoor and Alia Bhatt.

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Ashoke Pandit moderated the session that lasted for over an hour.

Dismissing CBFC chief Pahlaj Nihalani's claims that he took money from Aam Aadmi Party to fund his film, co-producer of Udta Punjab, Anurag Kashyap said, "I don't know how to react to this. Of course I haven't taken any money. I feel ashamed that I have to even defend this."

The filmmaker said Nihalani had deliberately slowed down the process. He said that the Examining Committee watched the film as early as May 10, but yet a formal letter of cuts or suggestions wasn't presented to the makers thereby delaying the process. It was only after the producers, Balaji Motion Pictures and Phantom, approached the Bombay High Court yesterday did Nihalani relent and handed over the letter.

Said Kashyap, "We sent him a legal notice yesterday. Today, we went to the High Court. Right after the first hearing, we got the letter of cuts. We immediately applied for FCAT (Film Certification Appellate Tribunal). Right now, the judge is not available. He is on leave until the 16th. We're requesting for a window before that and we'll see how it goes."

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To this, Mukesh Bhatt said that Nihalani knew well in advance that the judge was going on that long leave. He deliberately delayed handing over the RC certificate so the makers have no choice but to push the release date and incur loses.

Seething with rage, he said, "I can assure you that this process has been deliberately delayed. Nihalani knew the judge was going to be on leave post-June 1. This has been done to sabotage the movie so that they cannot approach the FCAT within time. This is a vicious move. This is the most dangerous thing to happen. It needs to be rectified."

Added Bhatt, "The makers literally got the letter 2 hours before today's press conference. You have to deliver the overseas print of the film one week before the release. Nihalani, being a film industry person, should know this. How can it work like this? Today, I am asking for him to be sacked. I am asking the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to remove Nihalani from the post. He doesn't deserve to sit on that chair. His intention is only to cause harm to the film industry. He is conniving in every act. He will delay every process."

Kashyap reiterated the fact that the film, as reported by certain sections of the media, doesn't refer to either the elections or to any specific political party. "There is no such reference. The government is only projecting its fears and insecurities on to us filmmakers."

When asked about Nihalani's criticism that the film presents the Punjabi community in a negative light, Kashyap said, "That's his interpretation of the film. I can't help it."

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Mukesh Bhatt also emphasised the fact that the battle with the Censor Board is causing a major dent in the budget of the film. "The film stands to lose 60 crores if the release is halted. Who is going to pay that kind of money? Will the government cough up the amount that Balaji and Phantom have invested?" he said angrily.

A number of filmmakers present at the event agreed that the tyrannical functioning of the Censor Board is creating an environment of fear where filmmakers are succumbing to pre-censorship, essentially curtailing their ideas before even putting them on paper, let alone film.

Veteran filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, who has fought against censorship all through the 70s and the 80s when he was actively directing films, said, "There is a dangerous trend of pre-censorship that will start taking space in the minds of writers, directors, and producers. Before a thought can even be articulated, they'll be forced to kill it. When a policeman sits inside your own mind, then that society cannot be called free. There is no freedom without free thought. We must all fight against this trend of pre-censorship."

Here is a copy of the legal notice that Phantom sent to the CBFC.

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8tracks: Crowd-Curated Net Radio Service Experiments With New Investment Strategy [INTERVIEW]

Here we talk with David Porter, the founder of the new human-curated internet radio service 8tracks, about their new equity-based crowdfunding strategy, and how the service stands out form other internet radio offerings.

_______________________________

Guest Post by Chris Robley on The DIY Musician

If youre digitally distributing your music through CD Baby, we will deliver your music to 8tracks, the indie-friendly internet radio service thats curated by humans, not algorithms.

Have you checked out 8tracks? If not, you should; its a cool platform.

Recently 8tracks has been experimenting with a new crowdfunding-inspired investment strategy, allowing their users to actually own a share of the service, and theyve generated tens of millions of dollars in indicated interest. Opening up funding to existing supporters first  as opposed to chasing high-dollar investors  seemed kinda punk rock (or as close to it as a startup can get in 2016) to me, so I wanted to ask 8tracks founder and CEO David Porter about the process.

An interview with 8tracks David Porter

For any of our readers that dont know about 8tracks, can you tell us a little about the service? What differentiates it from Pandora or Jango?



DP: 8tracks is crowd-curated internet radio. We provide a way to connect people through music and explore music through people. Our DJs share a moment in time  an experience, an idea, a feeling  in the form of a highly personal playlist  an online mixtape, in effect. Listeners benefit from thoughtful selections packaged for lean back consumption.





Two key things differentiate us from Pandora and Jango. First, there is a person, not an algorithm, behind the programming. Each playlist tells a story, and the playlists are organized in human terms like activity and mood (e.g. study, workout, happy) as well as by genre. Second, the programming runs deep, spanning every imaginable style, ensuring a greater degree of music discovery and less repetition.

You recently started testing the waters on a new funding process. Whats your vision for that process  and how did you decide to go that route?

DP: 8tracks is driven by our community  its our community that creates, shares and consumes the programming. Many of our users already feel psychologically invested in the 8tracks platform. Accordingly, it made sense to allow the community to actually own part of the company in economic terms.

Equity-based crowdfunding for non-accredited investors was introduced last June, allowing retail investors to invest in private companies through a general solicitation for the first time. As a first step, we sent an email survey to our 17m registered users to gauge interest in investing in 8tracks. Over 35,000 people responded, resulting in an aggregate $33m in interest.

Weve filed with the SEC, and on June 8th, well open our crowdfunding round  limited to $11m in total  to the public. This funding will help us improve the product, pursue direct deals with labels and aggregators to populate our DJ Library, build out our ad sales team, and undertake marketing in a meaningful way.

I see parallels between this process and the way in which independent artists rally their fans to crowdfund a new album, video, or tour. Is that a fair comparison, and if so, what do you think the connection is?

DP: Yes, I think there is a real parallel. The economics of the music business can be challenging at all levels. Among the biggest challenges for a medium-size Internet radio company like 8tracks is the cost of royalties that we pay to artists and labels. The royalty rates that we pay are more affordable as we grow our audience and become more interesting to brands and agencies, and community support enables us to grow to a size at which we can sustainably return a large portion of our revenue to artists and labels.

Another thing your company shares in common with independent musicians is that youve recognized theres a lot of opportunity when youre okay operating at a level below the superstars, beneath the radar of the major labels and powerful music gatekeepers  or in your case, finding a profitable niche without trying to woo the billion-dollar investors. Can you talk about that mindset and how its helped 8tracks move forward?

DP: 8tracks is the most indie-skewing internet radio service in the US and Canada: fully two-thirds of the music we stream comes from independent labels and independent artists. This unique composition has emerged organically because our DJs are passionate about sharing music theyve discovered, that often cannot find an appreciative audience on more mainstream outlets, with our rather more musically-adventurous community. A core ethos of our community is digging deep to deliver an audience to indie talent.

Is there an advantage to NOT being the sensational flavor of the month in the tech world? Does it allow you to be more nimble?

DP: I think thats probably true. As a result of rapid growth and the large amount of funding raised in pursuit of unicorn ($1bn+) exits, some digital music companies have undoubtedly been forced into product and business model decisions that may not be in their long-term interests. 8tracks has raised a small amount of money ($3.5m over nearly a decade) but never so much that investors have put those kinds of demands on us.

So whats next in this funding process?

DP: About $4m of the $11m were seeking to raise has been reserved in advance by roughly 4,000 users, and there are many more reservations in process. People who reserved shares can invest as of June 4th; well open up the round to the public on June 8th.

As a service committed to the independent music sector, wed welcome your investment! You can get started at https://www.seedinvest.com/8tracks/series.a. The round will remain open until we hit our $11m target.

How can artists get their music onto 8tracks?



DP: 8tracks has deals in place with most of the larger independent distributors including CD Baby, so your music will automatically find its way onto 8tracks if you are a CD Baby member.

Radio is a broadly defined term these days (terrestrial, satellite, internet, customizable, etc.) Where do you think radio is headed in the next five years, and where should indie artists be focusing their efforts when it comes to finding new fans through radio?

DP: Some 80% of radio listening is still delivered over the air by traditional radio, but we think internet-based delivery of radio is going to increase rapidly as the user experience for in-car and at-home listening gets easier, and as more people gain faster mobile access. The lean-back experience of radio has always been one of the primary drivers of music discovery, and we believe its essential for independent artists to be represented on internet radio services like 8tracks.

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The New York Court of Appeals has given state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman the go ahead to claw back millions of dollars paid to insurance chief Maurice Hank Greenberg. The AGs legal avenue to reclaim the bonus is called disgorgement  unlike damages that are paid to victims who have suffered a loss, this remedy allows a plaintiff to demand that a defendant pay back any monies that he or she received from unlawful means. (Legally the term unlawful doesnt necessarily mean criminal, it can mean anything that is in violation of a statute, a state constitution or prior case law)Trumps lawyers are already keeping an eye on the AIG case. It doesnt help him, Jeffrey Goldman told Reuters. Goldman who is an attorney at Belkin Burden Wenig & Goldman LLP is acting for Trump in his NY case. The AIG ruling means that Schneiderman try to recover $5 million that he says Trump personally pocketed from Trump University. Goldman says that even if Trump doesnt win the case he can try to limit the amount repayable under the disgorgement ruling by arguing much of the money was earned outside of New York.NY filed the case against Trump in 2013 claiming that Trump University was an unlicensed operation that took up to $35,000 from students who were encouraged to max out their credit cards to make the payments. Trump also faces two similar class actions in California.In the AIG case Schneiderman is hoping to recoup over $25 million from Greenberg. The AG has accused the ex AIG CEO of misleading shareholders in regards to how the company was faring and of making a sham reinsurance transaction to inflate the insurers loss reserves.Greenbergs lawyer, who acted for Al Gore in the legal battle over the 2000 general election ballot recount has denied any wrongdoing by his client.The NY AG will be relying on a disgorgement claim to succeed if his $40 million damages claim is undermined by the California class actions. The California cases are due to go to trial on 28November, three weeks after the country elects a new president. Many of the claimants on the west coast will be the same as in the NY case meaning damages may already have been paid by the time Schneiderman gets Trump in court. Disgorgement claims would not be affected by the California cases.Schneiderman has made no bones about his intention to hammer the now defunct Trump University and the people he sees as being behind it. We have a law against running an illegal, unlicensed university. This never was a university.  He told ABCs Good Morning America. The fraud started with the name of the organization, and you cant just go around saying this is the George Stephanopoulos Law Firm/Hospital/University without actually qualifying and registering, so it was really a fraud from beginning to end.Meanwhile Maurice Greenberg told reporters that he is considering his options. Greenberg resigned from AIG in 2005.
Multinational private equity firm Blackstone Group is reportedly the frontrunner to acquire Acrisure, one of the top 15 insurance brokerages in the US.Citing insider sources, Reuters reported that Blackstone has prevailed in the auction for the Michigan-based broker, which is owned by Genstar Capital.The report claimed that Blackstone is in advanced discussions with Genstar, but it is unsure if the two firms will reach an agreement.A deal between the companies could value Acrisure at more than $2 billion, including debt, the report added.While it continues to negotiate with Blackstone, Genstar may also resume its talks with another private equity firm that bid for Acrisure, the unnamed sources told Reuters.Operating in 23 states, Acrisure offers insurance coverage in a range of sectors that include retail, energy and real estate.According to Moodys Investors Service, Acrisure generated a $231 million revenue for the 12 months through September 2015.The insurance brokerage was acquired in 2013 by Genstar, which invests in financial services, healthcare, software and life science industries, according to Reuters.In January, the agency reported that Acrisure hired investment bank Evercore Partners to run an auction for the company.
A major meeting of delegates from 35 countries of The Americas meet Wednesday (June 8) in Paraguay to discuss disaster risk reduction across the region.The region ranks second to Asia as the most disaster prone region of the world with 93 major recorded disasters in 2015. The UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) says that 31.6 per cent of disaster mortality in the world over the last 10 years has been in the Americas.This is a very important gathering for the Americas. It is the first opportunity for the region to discuss how to implement the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and a sign of the regions commitment to strengthening disaster risk governance, said UNISDR head Robert Glasser.The two-day meeting will aim to develop guidelines for a regional action plan that will encourage countries and communities to reduce disaster risk and potential losses.A sale of top 15 US insurance brokerage Acrisure could be a step closer. Reuters reports that talks are underway between the brokerages owners and Blackstone Group.It was reported in January that current owner Genstar was considering a sale which could value the brokerage at $2 billion. Blackstone has been the frontrunner to acquire Acrisure but there is no certainly that talks will result in a deal.Two Canadian insurance companies have changed their position on pot smokers. The National Post reports that Sun Life and BMO have made the move based on the latest medical evidence.Sun Life, the report says, will assess marijuana users as non-smokers unless they also smoke tobacco. BMO will allow those who smoke up to two marijuana cigarettes per week to be classed as non-smokers.Theyre trying to get an edge on the other companies, Lorne Marr of LSM Insurance in Toronto suggested to the Post . I dont think theyre just trying to lower consumers premiums.
The Hartford has named Mark Shults as division executive for its Central Division, according to a release. In his new role, Shults will lead the companys middle market sales and underwriting operation for independent agents, brokers and their customers in the central United States.Solid relationships with our distribution partners are crucial to helping us execute on our strategy to profitably grow our business and provide tailored insurance solutions to midsize business clients, said Tracey Ant, senior vice president of middle market field sales and execution. Mark has a strong history of driving company underwriting initiatives and sales strategies with agent and broker partners, and I am confident he will help us deepen our distribution relationships while focusing on market execution.Prior to joining The Hartford, Shults served as national broker relationship leader at Zurich . Hes also served at Zurich as regional executive in Atlanta and area executive in Houston. Prior to Zurich, Shults held leadership positions at McGriff, Seibels & Williams, Willis, AIG and Assurant Group.Shults will be based in The Hartfords Frisco, Texas, office.
The Hartford Courant has launched a damning attack on Connecticut Insurance Commissioner Katherine Wade over her role in the merger of two giant insurance companies. The newspapers negative coverage joins the growing chorus of calls from groups such as the Connecticut State Medical Society and the Universal Health care Foundation for the governor to seek a replacement.Ms. Wades refusal to heed calls for her to remove herself from the process has left her open to claims that she may not be able to give impartial advice where her previous employer is concerned. As a former lobbyist for Cigna she is not the only person in the family who relies on the insurance giant for funding  her husbands law firm is on the payroll. It also doesnt help hat her mother is an ex-Cigna employee and that her father-in-law works for a firm that lobbies for health insurers in the state.Although her appointment to her current role was by a unanimous vote, Senator Rob Kane said at the time he had reservations. He was unhappy that she took a noncommittal stance when she was asked whether she would step aside from any rulings involving Cigna.Wade was VP of Public Policy, Government Affairs and US compliance when she left Cigna where she had worked for 21 years.
Rebecca Flood feels her expertise in financial management will help the town.

Flood Seeking Seat on Lanesborough Finance Committee

LANESBOROUGH, Mass.  Brodie Mountain Road resident Rebecca Flood feels it is time to give back to the community.

Flood is challenging two incumbents for a seat on the Finance Committee. She is a current financial analyst at General Dynamics in Pittsfield with a history of bank experience and she feels those skills will help with the town's finances.

"I just want to dig into the numbers and be realistic about things," Flood said. "What do we need and what don't we need?"

Flood's family was originally from Lanesborough but had moved to Pittsfield, where she was raised. Her family has all moved back and she and her husband built a home on Brodie Mountain Road five years ago.

Now she feels settled into the town, knowing the people and issues, and wants to help out.

"I feel like things could change," Flood said, citing high taxes while there is a lack of services such as trash pickup.

The Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts graduate earned her bachelor's degree in business administration with a minor in accounting. She worked at First Massachusetts Bank  now TD Bank  through high school and college and later took a position as bank manager with Legacy Banks.

When Legacy merged with Berkshire Bank in 2010, Flood moved to General Dynamics, where she is currently employed. There is does exactly the same type of analytics she believes the town could use.

"I feel I could help out with my background," she said. "I feel it is time to get involved with the community."

The 34-year-old Flood says she understands all departments have issues with the budgets and that's where she can help out by finding efficiencies. She hopes to stabilize the tax rate.

"It'll be interesting to dig into the numbers," Flood said.

Between wanting to see some changes and her background and a little urging for her uncle, Selectman Henry "Hank" Sayers, she hopes to win one of two seats up for election. Chairman Al Terranova and Ronald Tinkham are both seeking re-election to three-year terms.

The Finance Committee is mostly responsible for presenting a budget to town meeting but also is in control of the town's reserve accounts. The other members of the five-person board are Christine Galib, Ray Jones and Stephen Wentworth.

The election is scheduled for June 21 and there are only two contested races  the Finance Committee and the Board of Selectmen. Selectman Robert Ericson is being challenged by Michelle Johnson. Danielle Taylor is running unopposed for the School Committee, taking the seat of Sheila Hebert who opted not to run for re-election.

Moderator and Northern Berkshire Vocational Regional School Committee (McCann School Committee) member Robert Reilly is running unopposed for both of those positions. Cemetery Commissioner Mary Reilly is running unopposed. And Rachael Eramo and Sherri Wilson are both seeking the two seats up for re-election on the board of library trustees.
Greylock Federal Credit Union representatives hosted an ice cream party at Cheshire School on May 27. The children in kindergarten and fourth grade made Flat Stanleys to take on adventures. PreviousNext

Cheshire Elementary Students Rewarded With Ice Cream Party

CHESHIRE, Mass.  Cheshire Elementary kindergarteners and fourth-grade students were treated to an ice cream party late last month after completing their Flat Stanley projects.

The Greylock Federal Credit Union held up its end of the deal: the students complete their Flat Stanley Projects and they get ice cream.

Brian Astorino, with Greylock Federal Credit Union, said he read a book from the "Flat Stanley" series during the school's Read Across America event. He promised a party if the children completed the supplementary project, in which they cut out and design their own Flat Stanley out of paper and take him on adventures.

"They decorate their little Stanley and as they went on trips and did things, they documented it," Astorino said. "They took pictures and wrote in their journals about the things they did."

Over April break, Stanley when on myriad adventures, including an Albany (N.Y.) Devils game, the batting cage, fishing, and one Stanley was even lucky enough to make it down to the state of Florida.

Fourth-grade teacher Laurie Cantarella said the project engages students at all levels.

"What is neat about it is it's an activity that can be used among all of the grade levels, and ... it's very motivational," Cantarella said. "They really enjoy it."

Kindergarten teacher Heather Emerson agreed and said it also gets the students out of the house and writing.

"They loved it, and they went to all kinds of places," Emerson said. "It's a nice project that they are excited about and it sneaks that writing in."

Also, the Greylock Federal Credit Union donated $500 to split between the two classes

"I'm not sure what we are going to get," Emerson said. "It is kind of overwhelming, but it will go towards something we need that we just can't afford."
Greylock Announces BCC 'Marilyn Sperling Greylock Scholar' Scholarship

PITTSFIELD, Mass.  Greylock Federal Credit Union has established the Marilyn Sperling Greylock Scholar Scholarship to honor the credit unions recently retired president and CEO.



The scholarship will be awarded annually to a recent female high school graduate, or non-traditional woman student interested in studying business at Berkshire Community College (BCC). It provides a maximum award of $5,000.



This years scholarship recipient is Lori Cormier, a non-traditional student who is studying Business Career Health Information Management and plans to graduate with her associate's degree from BCC in December 2016.



The Marilyn Sperling Greylock Scholar Scholarship will honor Marilyns community leadership and highlight her contributions as a mentor to women in business. The scholarship reflects Marilyns strong reputation as a role model for women and the need to cultivate more women business leaders and professionals in Berkshire County, said Greylock President John L. Bissell. We congratulate the 2016 recipient, Lori Cormier, and wish her well as she pursues her degree and business career.



Sperling retired Oct. 1, 2015, after serving as president and CEO of Greylock since 2010. In 2003, Sperling was named Greylocks first woman senior vice president and held responsibility for Greylock's entire branch network. She established a distinguished 40-year career as a financial services professional in Berkshire County.
We work towards an equitable,

gender-just, self-reliant and

sustainable fisheries,

particularly in the small-scale,

artisanal sector

We work towards an equitable,

gender-just, self-reliant and

sustainable fisheries,

particularly in the small-scale,

artisanal sector

We work towards an equitable,

gender-just, self-reliant and

sustainable fisheries,

particularly in the small-scale,

artisanal sector

We work towards an equitable,

gender-just, self-reliant and

sustainable fisheries,

particularly in the small-scale,

artisanal sector
Cloud Revolver match the visual with perfect audio / Provide gamers perfect solutions to upgrade system

As the technology of CPU and GPU keep evolving, it is no doubt that Virtual Reality has been the most heated topic lately. Games and APPs applied to VR devices have already grabbed gamers attention and everyone just cant wait to jump into the world of games. However, it actually takes more than VR device to experience the alternative reality. HyperX, a division of Kingston Technology, the independent world leader in memory products, provides a total solution for gamers to upgrade the system and make sure it keeps up with the suggested requirements.

To have nice and smooth VR gaming experience, its recommended to have at least 8GB modules within the system, and 16 GB if you need to work on 3D rendering or video editing. For gamers who want to upgrade the RAMs, the upcoming Predator DDR4 will end the wait. The aggressive design offers greater heat dissipation to optimize reliability while the black aluminum heat spreader and black PCB complement the look of the latest PC hardware. With fast frequencies up to 3333MHz and total capacities up to 64GB, Predator DDR4 will make sure you feel no stutter in virtual reality.

HyperX Predator DDR4 DRAM delivers fast frequencies with low CL15-CL16 latencies to keep enthusiasts and gamers in the lead. HyperX Predator DDR3 DRAM is also available in speeds up to 2666MHz with low CL9-CL11 latencies for an overall faster system. Both HyperX Predator DDR4 and DDR3 is 100-percent factory tested at speed and backed by a lifetime warranty, free technical support and legendary reliability.

In addition to components upgrade, the latest HyperX Cloud Revolver headset is also a perfect match for gamers looking for all around VR experience. Featureing a studio grade sound stage with 50mm directional drivers, HyperX Cloud Revolver delivers wider depth and width for improved audio precision in open environment virtual reality games, and it will match visual with perfect audio performance.

HyperX is the high-performance product division of Kingston Technology encompassing high-speed DDR4 and DDR3 memory, SSDs, USB Flash drives, and gaming accessories. Targeted at gamers, overclockers and enthusiasts, HyperX is known throughout the world for quality, performance and innovation. HyperX is committed to eSports as it sponsors over 30 teams globally and is the main sponsor of Intel Extreme Masters. HyperX can be found at many shows including China Joy, PAX, Davao Cyber Expo, and TGS & Big Fest.

Recently launched in the Philippines, Suzuki Ciaz is the biggest sub-compact sedan in its category and is packed with best-in-class fuel efficiency and other advanced features coupled with a sporty, elegant exterior design and redefined interiors. Whether a family man, an adventurous person, a young professional or a person with an active lifestyle, everyone will find the Ciaz perfect for his or her needs.

The partnership between Suzuki, which is a leading manufacturer of compact vehicles and TOTAL, one of the largest integrated oil and gas companies in the world, gives loyal customers a chance to drive their dream car. Every P500 worth of fuel purchase at participating TOTAL gas stations from April 15 to July 15, 2016 entitles the customer to get one (1) raffle coupon. During the raffle draw, three lucky customers will be chosen to each bring home a Suzuki Ciaz GLX A/T car.

Suzuki has established its reputation for quality, versatility and innovation and has created a heritage of trust and reliability. Partnering with TOTAL will help us bring the brand closer to its customers and to let those customers experience one of our best-in class vehicles, the all-new Ciaz. This collaboration with TOTAL Philippines affirms our commitment to share the Suzuki Way of Life to a larger market. With this, we would like to encourage everyone to go to the nearest TOTAL gas station to get a chance to win an all-new Ciaz. said Shuzo Hoshikura, General Manager of Suzuki Philippines for Automobile.

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All you have to do is REFER 200 FRIENDS TO USE SHOPBACK and you AUTOMATICALLY GET A TRIP FOR 2 TO MALDIVES! (So long as you are the first 5 to reach the 200 target anytime from 6 June to 6 July, 2016). Note that THIS IS NOT A RAFFLE, once you reach your target, you get the dream vacation for FREE.

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Press Release: IMF Mission Reaches Staff-Level Agreement with Madagascar on an Extended Credit Facility Arrangement

End-of-Mission press releases include statements of IMF staff teams that convey preliminary findings after a visit to a country. The views expressed in this statement are those of the IMF staff and do not necessarily represent the views of the IMFs Executive Board. Based on the preliminary findings of this mission, staff will prepare a report that, subject to management approval, will be presented to the IMF Executive Board for discussion.

Press Release No. 16/266

June 8, 2016

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission, led by Mr. Marshall Mills, visited Antananarivo during May 25June 8, 2016, to review the results of the Staff Monitored Program (SMP)1 and hold discussions on a three-year economic and financial program for Madagascar, to be supported by the Extended Credit Facility (ECF)2 arrangement. At the conclusion of the mission, Mr. Mills issued the following statement:

The IMF mission and the Malagasy authorities reached staff-level agreement on an economic program through 2019 that lays out a path to sustained and inclusive growth. The program could be supported under an ECF arrangement in the amount of SDR 220 million (about US$ 310 million), subject to approval by IMF Management and the Executive Board. Contingent upon the timely completion of prior actions by the Malagasy authorities and obtaining the necessary financing assurances, the Board could consider Madagascars request for ECF support by end-July 2016.

Under the Staff Monitored Program (SMP) in place from September 2015 to March 2016, the country has built a satisfactory track record, with progress in most areas, demonstrating a capability to sustain reforms. All quantitative targets have been met, except the one on net credit to the government, which resulted largely from a shortfall in external financing. The measures envisaged in the structural benchmarks were all implemented, although some with minor delays. Economic conditions have improved progressively during the SMP. Growth is expected to rise to over 4 percent this year, while positive external developments have enabled the central bank to boost reserves significantly.

Building on the National Development Plan, the agreed economic program supported by the ECF arrangement represents an intensification of reform efforts. The program aims to reverse the deterioration in development indicators by strengthening macroeconomic stability, building more efficient public institutions, and scaling up public spending on essential infrastructure and social priorities. The program is also expected to help stimulate private sector investment and catalyze significant support from development partners. In this context, official support in the form of grants and concessional lending will bolster debt sustainability. With steady and determined efforts, the authorities program will reinforce macroeconomic stability and promote sustained and inclusive growth.

Increasing revenue collection and enhancing the quality of public spending is central to the program. Revenue measures aim to expand the tax base by integrating the large informal sector through more effective inspections and audits, stricter control of tax credits and exemptions, and increased cooperation between the tax and customs administrations. Enhancing the quality of spending depends on a shift towards areas that boost inclusive growth, especially infrastructure and social services. This shift requires improving public financial management, cleaning up the governments payrolls, enhancing the financial viability of the public pension funds, maintaining full cost recovery prices for fuel, and reducing the need for transfers to loss-making state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Avoiding new arrears and clearing old ones also remain priorities.

Reform of the electricity and water company (JIRAMA) plays a key role in the governments program. To transform JIRAMA into an efficient, financially healthy enterprise, the authorities have taken upfront measures, including raising electricity tariffs, which limit the need for government transfers. They are also launching efforts to address deep-rooted operational and governance problems, with the World Banks assistance. In addition, the restructuring of state-owned Air Madagascar is already advancing rapidly, with the goal of becoming a commercially competitive airline supportive of developing the tourism sector.

Macroeconomic stability will be supported by the proposed new Central Bank law, which enhances its governance and independence. The Central Bank is improving the operational framework for monetary policy implementation, especially liquidity management. Following the recent Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP), the authorities are strengthening their reform efforts for financial sector stability and development, focusing on enhancing the prudential supervision of banks and nonbanks, the mobilization of savings, and the bank recovery and resolution mechanisms.

The government is also intensifying its efforts to strengthen economic governance and fight corruption. Procurement by the government and especially SOEs is being subjected to enhanced review. In particular, JIRAMA will restrict its single source procurement. The governments anti-corruption strategy, launched in 2015, is being fortified by developing stronger anti-corruption legislation; enhancing independence and resources of BIANCO (public anti-corruption agency); establishing anti-corruption units at all ministries; and buttressing the integrity of the judicial system. The business climate will benefit from strengthening economic governance, including reforms of the legal system.

The mission met with President Hery Rajaonarimampianina, Prime Minister Olivier Solonandrasana, Minister of Finance and Budget Gervais Rakotoarimanana, Minister of Economy and Planning Herilanto Raveloharison, Minister of Energy and Hydrocarbons Rodolphe Ramanantsoa, Central Bank of Madagascar Governor Alain Rasolofondraibe, the Economic Advisor to the President Leon Rajaobelina, and other senior officials, as well as private sector representatives and development partners.

The mission takes this opportunity to thank the Malagasy authorities for their strong cooperation and the constructive discussions that took place.

1 An SMP is an informal agreement between country authorities and Fund staff to monitor the implementation of the authorities economic program. SMPs do not entail financial assistance or endorsement by the IMF Executive Board.

2 The ECF is a lending arrangement that provides sustained program engagement over the medium-term in case of protracted balance of payments problems.
Kareena Kapoor-Saif Ali Khan's Son Jeh Having 'Meltdown' in Diwali Pic Becomes Meme
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A German court has granted Jost Vacano more than half a million dollars for his contributions to Wolfgang Petersens 1981 anti-war film Das Boot.

The Munich court ruled in favor of the Oscar-nominated cinematographer this week by ordering Bavaria Film, WDR and Eurovideo to pay Vacano $540,000 (475,000) along with a 2.25 percent share in all of the films future earnings, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Vacano successfully argued that he should be better compensated after the films success.

The 82-year-old cinematographer was initially given $200,000 for his work on the film, but he was cut out of the films profits. Despite winning in court, his compensation only covers earnings form 2002 to 2014, as previous copyright law does not account for the more than $100 million Das Boot generated worldwide.

Highest-grossing films of all time - ranked Show all 10 1 /10 Highest-grossing films of all time - ranked Highest-grossing films of all time - ranked 10. Avengers: Age of Ultron After the brilliant first Avengers, Age of Ultron had a lot to live up to. Reuniting the team wouldnt be enough, they needed a worthy adversary. Unfortunately, with Joss Whedon trying to ram so many superheroes on screen at once, the result was not as polished nor as fun as its predecessor. Marvel Highest-grossing films of all time - ranked 9. Furious 7 One of the best films in the Fast and Furious franchise, Furious 7 features Paul Walkers final performance on film. The all-thrills sequel was a surprisingly massive hit, with Vin Diesel since announcing another three films. Highest-grossing films of all time - ranked 8. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallow - Part 2 The final part in the epic Harry Potter saga was an emotional time for many: It would be the last time Daniel Radcliffe would have the iconic lightning bolt scar painted to his forehead. For that one reason, it was always going to be a success. Unfortunately, splitting JK Rowlings final novel in two probably wasnt the greatest idea, leading to one of the weakest entries in an all round great series. Highest-grossing films of all time - ranked 7. Iron Man 3 Coming straight off the back of Avengers, Iron Man 3 gave Robert Downey Jnrs character PTSD, shoved in a protege, and made iconic villain The Mandarin a phoney. Some fans were not pleased while others thoroughly enjoyed the film. For Marvel fans, however, the third instalment in the Iron Man series is either one of the most hated MCU films or one of the greatest. Marvel Highest-grossing films of all time - ranked 6. Jurassic World Coming out 22 years after Jurassic Park, World was a fast paced action film that bombastically ran everyone through the new park. Chris Pratts performance was enjoyed by many, but the spectacle of dinosaurs on screen wasnt quite as thrilling fourth time around. Highest-grossing films of all time - ranked 5. Frozen Let it go, let it go!, Do you wanna build a snowman? and Love is an open doooooooooooor. There, those should be in your head for a little while now. Disney managed to make a Christmas classic that won the hearts of children and adults alike with Frozen, making The Mouse millions in the process. Highest-grossing films of all time - ranked 4. Avatar The highest grossing film on the list, and for good reason. For many, Avatar was their first 3D cinematic experience, leaving people in awe of the spectacle they just witnessed. Hundreds went back multiple times (including myself), but many have forgotten about the once wonderful film. Whether it would make as much money today, now that every other film is in 3D, would be very, very interesting. Highest-grossing films of all time - ranked 3. Avengers Joss Whedons fist attempt at bringing together Captain America, Iron Man, Thor and The Hulk was masterfully executed. An action-packed romp featuring good guys v bad - what was not to love? Highest-grossing films of all time - ranked 2. Star Wars: The Force Awakens Joss Whedons fist attempt at bringing together Captain America, Iron Man, Thor and The Hulk was masterfully executed. An action-packed romp featuring good guys v bad - what was not to love? Highest-grossing films of all time - ranked 1. Titanic It was a close toss-up between Star Wars and Titanic for best 'highest-grossing film' movie, but the disaster film edged it. Camerons classic set a new precedent in 1997 for just how much money films could make, and it wasnt until his return to cinema with Avatar that the record was broken again. It was also a critical success and, importantly, launched Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet into the spotlight.

The winnings neither included interest payments, which Vacanos lawyers may appeal, THR reports. Michael Neubauer, director at the German Association of Cinematographers, said the lack of punitive damages sets a dangerous precedent for filmmakers.

If there is no punishment for denying or delaying payment, there is no incentive to properly compensate rights holders from the start, Neubauer told Suddeutsche Zeitung.

Vacano recently told the Abendzeitung Munchen that at least he's included in future revenues and he wont have to complain again when hes 105-years-old.
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Absolutely Fabulous has always populated its high-fashion world with LGBT individuals, blazing the trail without any sense of smug satisfaction or overt underlining.

And, with its first cinematic escapade due to hit cinemas, comes confirmation of something which has long been assumed by many fans of the show, thanks to small hints and teases throughout the years. Yes, Joanna Lumley has confirmed that Pasty Stone is indeed transgender.

"You go back and pick through it, the amount of gay references and ease with which its been put into the story, without it being dragged along like a great log of plot," Lumley explained to V Magazine. "Its really normal that one of [Edinas] ex-husbands now lives with his young boyfriend. Its completely normal that [Edina] wants Saffy [Edinas long-suffering daughter] to be a lesbian or that Serge [Edinas long lost son] is gay and living in New York. Its completely normal that Patsy is transgender."

The fact this is merely a throwaway comment absolutely encapsulates the attitude Lumley is speaking of, choosing to be progressive in the most natural way possible, and not treating Pasty's gender as the cornerstone of her character.

There certainly have been references in the past, with Edina once reflecting back to a time in 1971 when Patsy was said to have had a sex change operation. In the show's fifth season in 2003, there was a flashback of Patsy sporting a moustache.

The film version, however, has come under fire for a lack inclusivity elsewhere; with Margaret Cho speaking out against the "yellowface" casting of Janette Tough as Japanese fashion designer Huki Muki.

 Joanna Lumley Ab Fab at 70

The full-length trailer for Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie revealed the fashionistas, still as debauched as ever, heading to "London's biggest fashion event of the year" in order to sign up Kate Moss when they hear the model's "changing PR." Instead of signing her up, however, it seems Edina accidentally bumps her into the River Thames.

Heading to the French Riviera - "we're in the south of France, everyone's a criminal!" - the duo hatches a plan in order to live the high life once again.

Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie hits UK cinemas 1 July.
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Michael Moore, 120 mins, featuring: Michael Moore

In spite of its title, this is Michael Moore in less stridently polemical mood than in many of his earlier, angrier, documentaries. Its a surprisingly charming and playful affair but one that asks plenty of provocative questions. Moore starts from the premise that Americas military and political leaders have lost their way (we dont know what the f**k we are doing), and have called him into help.

Ever the patriot, Moore drapes himself in the stars and stripes and embarks on a one-man expedition to rescue his homeland. By invading various countries in Europe and North Africa, he hopes to discover social and political ideas that he can bring home to the US.

They pay for your honeymoon! the filmmaker exclaims in complete astonishment on the first leg of his trip, to Italy. Here, he meets a young working class couple who are given seven or eight weeks of paid holiday a year. He is equally astounded by the attitude of the owner of the Ducati motorbike factory, who speaks to him on the factory floor and who seems more concerned with the welfare of his workers than any profits he might make. In fact, as Moore discovers, the happier these workers are, the more time for eating, recreation and lovemaking they have, the more productive they become.

Europeans watching the film may think that Moore is guilty of both very selective vision and of a certain dewy-eyed naivety. He doesnt pay any attention to the migration crisis, unemployment, the rise of nationalism and the many political fissures in the countries he is visiting. However, as he makes clear at the outset, he is looking to pick the flowers, not the weeds. His focus is on the policies and social practices that work the best.

There is a comical, Jamie Oliver-style interlude in which the imposing and bulky Moore, looking like the honey monster, samples the lunch in a typical French school. The French take their food very seriously. (The school chef, the head teacher, and the mayor meet every month to set the menu.) The kids, busy eating their vegetables, fruits, and camemberts, react toward the American as if he is the anti-christ when he offers them some of his coke. Theyre even more startled when they are shown images of the slop served up in American schools.

In Norway, Moore is taken to maximum security prisons run along the lines of glorified holiday camps (but which are far more successful at rehabilitating inmates than their American equivalents.) In Finland, he discovers the secret of the countrys successful education policy - namely never giving any of the kids any homework.

He learns about Portuguese drug policy (which might be described as zero intolerance.) Hie discovers how women CEOs and politicians rescued the Icelandic economy after the willy waving male bankers almost brought it to collapse. He realises just how much attention that German kids are forced to pay in the classroom to their countrys vexed recent history. (By contrast, American kids learn little about the part that slavery and genocide played in their backstory.) In Tunisia, he reports how a conservative, Islamist government was persuaded to introduce womens rights legislation.

 Where To Invade Next - Trailer

You cant help but notice that his travels dont take him to the UK. (There doesnt seem to be much to inspire him here.)

One of the most piercing ironies, brought home to the director by several of his interviewees, is that many of the best and most utopian ideas he encounters were actually borrowed from the US. Now, he wants to borrow them back.

Where To Invade Next makes consistently entertaining viewing and again demonstrates Moores knack of dealing with complex issues in a folksy and populist style. Whether its a movie to see in cinemas is another question. In terms of its production values and approach, it often seems more like a TV documentary than a film made for the big screen.
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Based in Brighton, Normanton Street are Ned Archibong, Nicholson Davids, Phoebe Freya, and Nico Standing - are four piece hip hop and soul group

In the last 18 months, theyve played gigs and festivals across the UK and Europe, and opened for the likes of Talib Kweli and Kate Tempest, and are gearing up for the release of their EP Life's Real.

While they were hanging out in Texas for SXSW Festival they shot the video for their single Angelene' which we're premiering today - check it out and let us know what you think.

The band says of the EP: It's inspired by the mixture of both everyday trivial things such as the family parties mentioned on 'Rakim' as well as the serious life events that you'll find on 'The Interlude'. We also wanted to create a body of work that had both a nice live feel to it while maintain a lot of the soulful vibe.

We were influenced by the usual hip-hop music we love as well as 70's jazz records that have plenty of space yet still make you want to make moves and dance.

Q&A with Normanton Street

What are you listening to at the moment?

Nicholson: A lot of grime. Mainly AJ Tracey and Cadet.

Ned: I'm listening to an Mc from Bradford called Blazer Boccle. I'm also listening to a French artist we played with called Tennin - It's great discovering new music.

Phoebe: I'm listening to James blake, Alyss and Tom Misch, and I'm always listening to Nina Simone, Erykah Badu and Lauryn Hill, that never changes

What are your plans for summer?

Phoebe : Our plans for the summer are looking great! back To play at Soundwave in Croatia and a little tour around that.

Nicholson: We're going to be playing a few festivals in the UK and heading out to a few countries around Europe for more shows. Really looking forward to it, especially Croatia. On top of that we'll be playing the material from 'Life's Real' at the live shows and potentially working on one or two remixes.

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What was the first gig you ever played, and whats been the best so far?

Nicholson: The first actual gig was at the London Unity in the Hanover area of Brighton. We were given a free curry I think, remember that vividly. Best gig for me is probably the first time we played at Gwdihw in Cardiff. The energy was ridiculous, never seen such a small room make so much noise and dance like that. I reckon some our best gigs are yet to come especially once we start playing tracks from 'Life's Real'.

Phoebe: The first gig I personally played was in a tiny jazz pub in Bristol called the Old Duke. I was terrified and played 'Cry me a River' by Ella Fitzgerald very badly on guitar. The best for me has been our headline show at Birthdays in Dalston recently.

Ned: It's tough deciding my favorite gigs. I'd probably have to say Soundwave Festival last year, it was special, it was really hot, we drove all the way there in a Megane - we're back again this summer, I'm really excited. Whenever we play in our adopted hometown of Brighton it's always special also. We did an impromptu set at Kemptown carnival the other day. It was a bit mad - but fantastic.

Normanton Street's EP Life's Real is out on 15 July
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A huge poster hangs above the desk at the reception in Channel 4s hi-tech central London HQ. It reads: Power Monkeys  political comedy so topical, its still being writte_. Some 20 miles away at Pinewood Studios on the outskirts of London, The Independent is able to see first-hand just how topical Power Monkeys is.

This hot-off- the-presses satirical comedy (satcom?) is co-written and co-directed by Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin. The pair have previous in this field. Last year, they were behind Ballot Monkeys, a very entertaining Channel 4 sitcom about the chaos on the different political parties battlebuses in the run-up to the general election. It was penned at the last possible moment to ensure topicality.

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A quarter of a century before that, Hamilton and Jenkin pioneered this genre of ripped from the headlines comedy with the groundbreaking early Nineties sitcom, Drop the Dead Donkey. Set in a dysfunctional TV newsroom, it included many topical gags inserted at the eleventh hour. The pair are the masters of lastminute.comedy.

Now Hamilton and Jenkin are returning to this style once more with Power Monkeys. This ambitious six-part series, which starts at 10pm on Channel 4 tonight, cuts between four different sites.

One segment will focus on the Conservative Partys (fictional) Unity Unit. Jack Dee plays Oliver, a combustible former journalist who enjoys needling his more sensitive colleague, Sarah (Claire Skinner). Another section is set on the cross-party Brexit Roadshow bus. Kevin McNally portrays Spencer, a disillusioned ex-kipper who is somewhat compromised by the fact that he is head over heels in love with an Eastern European.

Another part of the sitcom takes place inside the Kremlin where two lowly government workers, Oleg (Ben Willbond, The Thick of It) and Alexi (Alec Utgoff, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit), jostle for President Putins attention.

The final section of Power Monkeys is filmed inside Donald Trumps campaign plane. Here the careerist politico, Lauren (Amelia Bullmore), who has been brought in to try to win women over to the cause, constantly clashes with the Trump-ist zealot, Bea (Ayda Field).

The producers show us round the interior of Trumps plane. It is, as you would hope, ludicrously over the top and bling-tastic. Everything is encrusted with gold, from the seat belts and lamps to the sofas and ornamental pineapples on the sideboard. But this is apparently a toned-down version of reality. It has been estimated that the inside of the New York mogul's real plane contains enough 24 carat gold to cover a London bus.

Field, an American, asserts that she is not scared about the prospect of Trump becoming her next president. Im just excited about his wall, she jokes. Who isnt chuffed about a bit of remodelling? No, Im just very happy to be part of a comedy that laughs at the extremity of it all.

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The USP of Power Monkeys is that each episode will be largely shot and edited on the day of transmission. Phil Clarke, head of comedy at Channel 4, is pleased to have commissioned a show without a finished script: Im delighted to announce that I have no idea what the content of this series will be.

'Power Monkeys' creators Andy Hamilton (left) and Guy Jenkin (Getty)

What makes this such an apposite moment to be producing Power Monkeys is that the world is currently in an unprecedented state of political upheaval. In a break between last-gasp rehearsals, 62-year-old Hamilton reflects that, One of our starting points for this series was that the politics of the world is in such turmoil at the moment. We couldnt really remember a period as tumultuous or uncertain as this. Everywhere you look, there is this sense of uncertainty and risk. We thought, if you ever needed a topical comedy programme about politics, its now.

All the previous certainties in politics seem to be fracturing at the moment," adds Jenkin. "In quite a short time, we could have a world summit that involves Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, Boris Johnson and Marine Le Pen. There is that old Russian proverb, Never live in interesting times.

You sometimes feel as if you might be hallucinating when you turn on the news, like I did this morning, to hear that North Korea is backing Trump.

Dee agrees that the time is right to make a comedy mirroring the absurdity of current global politics. All of a sudden, its gone bonkers. We have this sense of extremism, and were getting characters back in politics  and that makes it all the more interesting.

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"We had 20 years of greyness, and now suddenly we have Boris, Putin Trump. These are really colourful characters. Ironically, if anything, David Cameron is the slightly bland one trying to see them all off.

It feels this year as if a lot of things are at stake in politics," Bullmore says. "We could wake up to quite a different world come Christmas time.

Power Monkeys also contains an element of a plague on all your houses in its view of politicians. The two sides in the EU referendum, for instance, are portrayed as relentlessly negative.

Hamilton takes up the theme. One of our characters is a dinosaur because he believes that you have to give the public trustworthy figures, that you will forfeit the publics trust if you dont, and that its important to play by a certain set of rules. But no one else shares that view.

"There is this Trump-like attitude that you say whatever you need to say in order to get the result you want. Thats affected our politics very quickly.

Jenkin, who has worked with Hamilton since they met at Cambridge more than 40 years ago, adds that, Alan Johnson is one of the leaders of Remain and is seen as an asset, but he has barely been in the news, probably because hes using reasonable arguments. Those are being squeezed out of the news by people making vast, ridiculous claims that are more headline-worthy. Being provocative or inflammatory seems to be all that matters.

"The basis of the early Trump campaign was that by saying something outrageous every day he pushed everything else out of the news. They reckon that earned him the equivalent of 2bn worth of campaign spending.

That proves that publicity is more important than logical argument. Im quite alarmed by it. People have become bored with moderation. But once you release extremism, you cant put it back in the bottle. As he speaks, Jenkin is wearing a large Trump badge repeating the presumptive Republican nominees boast that he will win bigly!

The other extraordinary aspect of politics at the moment is that it has a fact is stranger than fiction quality to it, adds Dee. The Brexit campaigns warning that staying in the EU will threaten the survival of our curry houses almost defies belief, he says. You couldnt make it up. Thats whats fun about politics at the moment. When it becomes more colourful  as it has in the last three or four years  extraordinary stories start to emerge. You think, If you put that in a script, people would say it couldnt possibly happen.

Trump is so extraordinary that Id imagine making comedy out of him is actually quite difficult. Its come full circle. It is like saying, Lets make a joke about Reginald Perrin. Hes a joke already. We dont need to do any more.

As well as starring in 'Power Monkeys', Jack Dee will be returning to his Help Desk for three referendum episodes

The other remarkable side of Power Monkeys is, of course, the fact that it is written at the very last minute. You might have thought that would cause nerves in its writers, but as the deadline for the first episode approaches, they appear remarkably unflustered.

Doing it like this certainly adds to the adrenaline, says Jenkin. "And perhaps you have an iota of worry when you get up at six in the morning and you have to write a lot of material for that evenings show.

However, he continues, Our experience on Ballot Monkeys was that everyone felt this strange sense of calm. You imagine that it will be incredibly fraught and tense. But whats great is that you have to make decisions rapidly. You cant agonise about them or go back on them  because the show is going out that night. That is strangely relaxing.

Of course when it comes to episode four and the result hasnt gone the way we expected and we have to rewrite the entire script and have a nervous breakdown, you can quote this against me.

Power Monkeys is clearly a bold undertaking. But do its creators believe that comedy has the power to change peoples minds? No, Jenkin replies. If we had wanted to change things, we should have gone into advertising or politics. But what we can offer is a pressure valve for people who are sick of these campaigns which bang on about the same things day after day.

Like a good double-act partner, Hamilton chips in that, We both made a healthy amount of money writing jokes about Margaret Thatcher, but I dont remember her ever changing her behaviour because of what we wrote. We simply set out to point up absurdities, to entertain and to make people laugh.

Im fairly confident we will deliver a fun show, so people can have a breather from all the real-life nonsense, Dee says. In the run-up to the 23 June EU vote, he is also presenting three episodes of BBC2 comedy panel show, Jack Dees Referendum Help Desk. I like to think Im the friendly face of the referendum. People find solace in me at times like this.

Power Monkeys begins at 10pm Wednesday on Channel 4
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A man who had more than 26 cancer tumours in his abdomen is now free of disease thanks to immunotherapy.

Mike Chettle was left unable to move properly when bowel cancer began to spread rapidly around his body.

His first treatments included a complex surgery involving the bowel and several organs, followed by chemotherapy.

But a year later, the cancer had spread to Mr Chettle's liver. He had more surgery and doctors then discovered 26 tumours throughout his abdomen.

Despite more chemotherapy, all treatments failed and two years ago, Mr Chettle was told the cancer had spread to his bones. Cancerous spots were also still on his liver.

"It was spreading fast," Mr Chettle said in an interview for the magazine of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (Asco). "I was limping. I couldn't turn my neck. I was in a lot of pain." Mr Chettle had no more treatment options and was at the point of considering end-of-life care.

But then his consultant, Dr Steven Duffy, from the Bon Secours Cancer Institute of Medical Oncology at St Mary's in Richmond, Virginia, referred him to Dr Luis Diaz at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Centre in Baltimore, Maryland.

Dr Diaz enrolled Mr Chettle on a study looking at a genetic abnormality called mismatch repair (MMR) deficiency.

13 ways to help prevent cancer Show all 13 1 /13 13 ways to help prevent cancer 13 ways to help prevent cancer Stopping smoking. This notoriously difficult habit to break sees tar build-up in the lungs and DNA alteration and causes 15,558 cancer deaths a year 13 ways to help prevent cancer Avoiding the sun, and the melanoma that comes with overexposure to harmful UV rays, could help conscientious shade-lovers dodge being one of the 7,220 people who die from it 13 ways to help prevent cancer A diet that is low in red meat can help to prevent bowel cancer, according to the research - with 30 grams a day recommended for men, and 25 a day recommended for women 13 ways to help prevent cancer Foods high in fibre, meanwhile, can further make for healthier bowels. Processed foods in developed countries appear to be causing higher rates of colon cancer than diets in continents such as Africa, which have high bean and pulse intakes 13 ways to help prevent cancer Two servings of fruit and three servings of vegetables a day were given as the magic number for good diet in the research. Overall, diet causes only slightly fewer cancer deaths than sun exposure in Australia, at 7,000 a year 13 ways to help prevent cancer Obesity and being overweight, linked to poor diet and lack of exercise, causes 3,917 deaths by cancer a year on its own Getty 13 ways to help prevent cancer Dying of a cancer caused by infection also comes in highly, linked to 3,421 cancer deaths a year. Infections such as human papilloma virus - which can cause cervical cancer in women - and hepatitis - can be prevented by vaccinations and having regular check-ups 13 ways to help prevent cancer Cutting back on drinks could reduce the risk of cancers caused by alcohol - such as liver cancer, bowel cancer, breast cancer and mouth cancer - that are leading to 3,208 deaths a year 2014 Getty Images 13 ways to help prevent cancer Sitting around and not getting the heart pumping - less than one hour's exercise a day - is directly leading to about 1,800 people having lower immune functions and higher hormone levels, among other factors, that cause cancers 2011 Getty Images 13 ways to help prevent cancer Hormone replacement therapy, which is used to relieve symptoms of the menopause in women, caused 539 deaths from (mainly breast) cancer in Australia last year. It did, however, prevent 52 cases of colorectal cancers 2003 Getty Images 13 ways to help prevent cancer Insufficient breastfeeding, bizarrely, makes the top 10. Breastfeeding for 12 months could prevent 235 cancer cases a year, said the research AFP/Getty Images 13 ways to help prevent cancer Oral contraceptives, like the Pill, caused about 105 breast cancers and 52 cervical cancers - but it also prevented about 1,440 ovarian and uterine (womb) cases of cancer last year 2006 Getty Images 13 ways to help prevent cancer Taking aspirin also prevented 232 cases in the Queensland research of colorectal and oesophagal cancers - but as it can also cause strokes, is not yet recommended as a formal treatment against the risk of cancer

The trial examined whether this made tumours more susceptible to Keytruda (pembrolizumab), an immunotherapy drug.

Within two or three months of enrolling in the trial, Mr Chettle's symptoms began to ease off. "I was able to turn my neck again," he said. By the time his daughter's wedding took place a few months later, he was able to walk her down the aisle.

Mr Chettle, who receives the drug as a 30-minute infusion every two weeks, has now been on the trial for almost two years and has experienced a complete response to the treatment.

"I feel like I've been blessed to have good doctors who led me to where I am, to be in that trial," he said.

Press Association
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Vulvodynia is a chronic pain condition that can stop women from being able to have sex, use a tampon or even sit down for long periods of time. It has been described as a painful burning and stinging sensation around the vagina and can feel as bad as like having needles stuck into the skin or even like having an acid burn. And around 16 per cent of women are thought to suffer from it. But what is vulvodynia and how can it be treated?

What is vulvodynia?

Vulvodynia is unexplained pain experienced anywhere in the vulva, the area surrounding the vagina. It is experienced either as a constant pain, known as unprovoked vulvodynia, or as a pain that is triggered by touch, known as pressure-provoked vulvodynia, which is what can effect a persons ability to have sex, ride a bike, use tampons, sit down for long periods of time or even to wear underwear.

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Who does it effect?

Any woman can be effected from the age of approximately 20 to 65.

What are the symptoms?

The pain experienced by women varies  the NHS describes symptoms as like a burning and stinging sensation, or that it can feel like having needles stuck into the genitalia. One woman told BBC Newsbeat her pain felt like having a cut and having chilli rubbed into it, while some women have reported the pain to feel like having acid poured into an open wound, according to the New York Times.

The overall experience can be extremely distressing. Dr Jenner from the London Pain Clinic told The Independent the effects of vulvodynia can be absolutely debilitating, causing problems with relationships, anxiety and depression.

How many women experience it?

A study conducted in America gathered information from nearly 5,000 women aged between 18 and 64 to find out if the prevalence of unexplained chronic vulval pain was underestimated. Approximately 16 per cent of women were found to have experienced chronic burning, knife like pain in the vulva or pain on contact that lasted for three months or longer.

Health news in pictures Show all 40 1 /40 Health news in pictures Health news in pictures Coronavirus outbreak The coronavirus Covid-19 has hit the UK leading to the deaths of two people so far and prompting warnings from the Department of Health AFP via Getty Health news in pictures Thousands of emergency patients told to take taxi to hospital Thousands of 999 patients in England are being told to get a taxi to hospital, figures have showed. The number of patients outside London who were refused an ambulance rose by 83 per cent in the past year as demand for services grows Getty Health news in pictures Vape related deaths spike A vaping-related lung disease has claimed the lives of 11 people in the US in recent weeks. The US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has more than 100 officials investigating the cause of the mystery illness, and has warned citizens against smoking e-cigarette products until more is known, particularly if modified or bought off the street Getty Health news in pictures Baldness cure looks to be a step closer Researchers in the US claim to have overcome one of the major hurdles to cultivating human follicles from stem cells. The new system allows cells to grow in a structured tuft and emerge from the skin Sanford Burnham Preybs Health news in pictures Two hours a week spent in nature can improve health A study in the journal Scientific Reports suggests that a dose of nature of just two hours a week is associated with better health and psychological wellbeing Shutterstock Health news in pictures Air pollution linked to fertility issues in women Exposure to air from traffic-clogged streets could leave women with fewer years to have children, a study has found. Italian researchers found women living in the most polluted areas were three times more likely to show signs they were running low on eggs than those who lived in cleaner surroundings, potentially triggering an earlier menopause Getty/iStock Health news in pictures Junk food ads could be banned before watershed Junk food adverts on TV and online could be banned before 9pm as part of Government plans to fight the "epidemic" of childhood obesity. Plans for the new watershed have been put out for public consultation in a bid to combat the growing crisis, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said PA Health news in pictures Breeding with neanderthals helped humans fight diseases On migrating from Africa around 70,000 years ago, humans bumped into the neanderthals of Eurasia. While humans were weak to the diseases of the new lands, breeding with the resident neanderthals made for a better equipped immune system PA Health news in pictures Cancer breath test to be trialled in Britain The breath biopsy device is designed to detect cancer hallmarks in molecules exhaled by patients Getty Health news in pictures Average 10 year old has consumed the recommended amount of sugar for an adult By their 10th birthdy, children have on average already eaten more sugar than the recommended amount for an 18 year old. The average 10 year old consumes the equivalent to 13 sugar cubes a day, 8 more than is recommended PA Health news in pictures Child health experts advise switching off screens an hour before bed While there is not enough evidence of harm to recommend UK-wide limits on screen use, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health have advised that children should avoid screens for an hour before bed time to avoid disrupting their sleep Getty Health news in pictures Daily aspirin is unnecessary for older people in good health, study finds A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine has found that many elderly people are taking daily aspirin to little or no avail Getty Health news in pictures Vaping could lead to cancer, US study finds A study by the University of Minnesota's Masonic Cancer Centre has found that the carcinogenic chemicals formaldehyde, acrolein, and methylglyoxal are present in the saliva of E-cigarette users Reuters Health news in pictures More children are obese and diabetic There has been a 41% increase in children with type 2 diabetes since 2014, the National Paediatric Diabetes Audit has found. Obesity is a leading cause Reuters Health news in pictures Most child antidepressants are ineffective and can lead to suicidal thoughts The majority of antidepressants are ineffective and may be unsafe, for children and teenager with major depression, experts have warned. In what is the most comprehensive comparison of 14 commonly prescribed antidepressant drugs to date, researchers found that only one brand was more effective at relieving symptoms of depression than a placebo. Another popular drug, venlafaxine, was shown increase the risk users engaging in suicidal thoughts and attempts at suicide Getty Health news in pictures Gay, lesbian and bisexual adults at higher risk of heart disease, study claims Researchers at the Baptist Health South Florida Clinic in Miami focused on seven areas of controllable heart health and found these minority groups were particularly likely to be smokers and to have poorly controlled blood sugar iStock Health news in pictures Breakfast cereals targeted at children contain 'steadily high' sugar levels since 1992 despite producer claims A major pressure group has issued a fresh warning about perilously high amounts of sugar in breakfast cereals, specifically those designed for children, and has said that levels have barely been cut at all in the last two and a half decades Getty Health news in pictures Potholes are making us fat, NHS watchdog warns New guidance by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the body which determines what treatment the NHS should fund, said lax road repairs and car-dominated streets were contributing to the obesity epidemic by preventing members of the public from keeping active PA Health news in pictures New menopause drugs offer women relief from 'debilitating' hot flushes A new class of treatments for women going through the menopause is able to reduce numbers of debilitating hot flushes by as much as three quarters in a matter of days, a trial has found. The drug used in the trial belongs to a group known as NKB antagonists (blockers), which were developed as a treatment for schizophrenia but have been sitting on a shelf unused, according to Professor Waljit Dhillo, a professor of endocrinology and metabolism REX Health news in pictures Doctors should prescribe more antidepressants for people with mental health problems, study finds Research from Oxford University found that more than one million extra people suffering from mental health problems would benefit from being prescribed drugs and criticised ideological reasons doctors use to avoid doing so. Getty Health news in pictures Student dies of flu after NHS advice to stay at home and avoid A&E The family of a teenager who died from flu has urged people not to delay going to A&E if they are worried about their symptoms. Melissa Whiteley, an 18-year-old engineering student from Hanford in Stoke-on-Trent, fell ill at Christmas and died in hospital a month later. Just Giving Health news in pictures Government to review thousands of harmful vaginal mesh implants The Government has pledged to review tens of thousands of cases where women have been given harmful vaginal mesh implants. Getty Health news in pictures Jeremy Hunt announces 'zero suicides ambition' for the NHS The NHS will be asked to go further to prevent the deaths of patients in its care as part of a zero suicide ambition being launched today Getty Health news in pictures Human trials start with cancer treatment that primes immune system to kill off tumours Human trials have begun with a new cancer therapy that can prime the immune system to eradicate tumours. The treatment, that works similarly to a vaccine, is a combination of two existing drugs, of which tiny amounts are injected into the solid bulk of a tumour. Nephron Health news in pictures Babies' health suffers from being born near fracking sites, finds major study Mothers living within a kilometre of a fracking site were 25 per cent more likely to have a child born at low birth weight, which increase their chances of asthma, ADHD and other issues Getty Health news in pictures NHS reviewing thousands of cervical cancer smear tests after women wrongly given all-clear Thousands of cervical cancer screening results are under review after failings at a laboratory meant some women were incorrectly given the all-clear. A number of women have already been told to contact their doctors following the identification of procedural issues in the service provided by Pathology First Laboratory. 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REX Health news in pictures Cannabis extract could provide new class of treatment for psychosis CBD has a broadly opposite effect to delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main active component in cannabis and the substance that causes paranoia and anxiety. Getty Health news in pictures Over 75,000 sign petition calling for Richard Branson's Virgin Care to hand settlement money back to NHS Mr Bransons company sued the NHS last year after it lost out on an 82m contract to provide childrens health services across Surrey, citing concerns over serious flaws in the way the contract was awarded PA Health news in pictures More than 700 fewer nurses training in England in first year after NHS bursary scrapped The numbers of people accepted to study nursing in England fell 3 per cent in 2017, while the numbers accepted in Wales and Scotland, where the bursaries were kept, increased 8.4 per cent and 8 per cent respectively Getty Health news in pictures Landmark study links Tory austerity to 120,000 deaths The paper found that there were 45,000 more deaths in the first four years of Tory-led efficiencies than would have been expected if funding had stayed at pre-election levels. On this trajectory that could rise to nearly 200,000 excess deaths by the end of 2020, even with the extra funding that has been earmarked for public sector services this year. Reuters Health news in pictures Long commutes carry health risks Hours of commuting may be mind-numbingly dull, but new research shows that it might also be having an adverse effect on both your health and performance at work. Longer commutes also appear to have a significant impact on mental wellbeing, with those commuting longer 33 per cent more likely to suffer from depression Shutterstock Health news in pictures You cannot be fit and fat It is not possible to be overweight and healthy, a major new study has concluded. The study of 3.5 million Britons found that even metabolically healthy obese people are still at a higher risk of heart disease or a stroke than those with a normal weight range Getty Health news in pictures Sleep deprivation When you feel particularly exhausted, it can definitely feel like you are also lacking in brain capacity. Now, a new study has suggested this could be because chronic sleep deprivation can actually cause the brain to eat itself Shutterstock Health news in pictures Exercise classes offering 45 minute naps launch David Lloyd Gyms have launched a new health and fitness class which is essentially a bunch of people taking a nap for 45 minutes. The fitness group was spurred to launch the napercise class after research revealed 86 per cent of parents said they were fatigued. The class is therefore predominantly aimed at parents but you actually do not have to have children to take part Getty Health news in pictures 'Fundamental right to health' to be axed after Brexit, lawyers warn Tobacco and alcohol companies could win more easily in court cases such as the recent battle over plain cigarette packaging if the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights is abandoned, a barrister and public health professor have said Getty Health news in pictures 'Thousands dying' due to fear over non-existent statin side-effects A major new study into the side effects of the cholesterol-lowering medicine suggests common symptoms such as muscle pain and weakness are not caused by the drugs themselves Getty Health news in pictures Babies born to fathers aged under 25 have higher risk of autism New research has found that babies born to fathers under the age of 25 or over 51 are at higher risk of developing autism and other social disorders. The study, conducted by the Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment at Mount Sinai, found that these children are actually more advanced than their peers as infants, but then fall behind by the time they hit their teenage years Getty Health news in pictures Cycling to work could halve risk of cancer and heart disease Commuters who swap their car or bus pass for a bike could cut their risk of developing heart disease and cancer by almost half, new research suggests  but campaigners have warned there is still an urgent need to improve road conditions for cyclists. Cycling to work is linked to a lower risk of developing cancer by 45 per cent and cardiovascular disease by 46 per cent, according to a study of a quarter of a million people. Walking to work also brought health benefits, the University of Glasgow researchers found, but not to the same degree as cycling. Getty

What causes it?

The root cause of vulvodynia is not officially known, but there are a number of factors that can contribute to the pain developing.

Dr Jenner said that when trying to find out the cause of vulval pain a doctor needs to rule out conditions such as viral or fungal infections, dermatological conditions, or cancerous or abnormal cells that could be causing the pain.

Where there is no underlying root cause, said the pain could be down to nerve damage caused by previous fungal infections or even previous allergies from washing powders that caused skin irritation around the vulva. The legions may have healed, but the nerves may have already been irritated and started to dysfunction. he said.

What are the problems around diagnosis?

Many women experience issues with having vulvodynia diagnosed. As it is an unexplained pain it may look as though there is no problem when a woman is examined. The American study into vulvodynia found that of the women who chose to seek treatment, 60 per cent saw three or more doctors in their efforts to get a diagnosis for their pain and many were left undiagnosed despite their efforts.

Dr Jenner said he sees as many as two women a week who are undiagnosed, underdiagnosed or they havent responded to the treatment theyve been given. He has seen women who have been suffering from pain for a number of weeks to a number of years and have seen up to six doctors in an effort to discover the cause of the pain  though the simple acknowledgement that theyve got it can have a positive effect, he said.

Can it be treated?

There are a number of ways to treat vulvadynia, from using anti-nerve pain medications and creams to seeing a pelvic physiotherapist, who can help with desensitisation techniques. There are also procedures that women can undergo such as having botox injections or minimally invasive treatment such as pulse radio frequency on the pudendal nerve, which is the main nerve of the perineum.
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The collapse of BHS became a battleground during a Parliamentary hearing, as former bosses of the company pointed fingers and made jaw-dropping allegations over the events leading to its demise.

Dominic Chappell, who bought BHS from Sir Philip Green for 1 in March 2015, was accused of threatening to kill his former chief executive for challenging a transfer of 1.5mday out of the company.

Mr Chappell laid blame on Sir Philip for plunging BHS into administration rather than allowing it to be sold to the disgraced Sports Direct founder Mike Ashley.

MPs on the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee spent hours with witnesses picking apart wildly different accounts of how BHS collapsed within a year of being sold, putting 11,000 jobs at risk.

Darren Topp, former BHS chief executive, was asked about a 1.5m transfer Mr Chappell made from BHS to an unaffiliated company called BHS Sweden in April. Mr Topp said that when he phoned Mr Chappell to question him about the transfer, Mr Chappell threatened to kill him, saying: If you kick off about it Im going to come down there and kill you.

Mr Chappell said the money was to look after the home team. He also told Mr Topp that he had formerly been in the SAS and owned a gun.

The money was later recovered save for 50,000 in fees. Mr Topp said he thought the money had been completely recovered.

 BHS in numbers

During the session with former bosses of BHS, Mr Chappell was branded a Premier League liar with his fingers in the till. Michael Hitchcock, a former financial adviser to BHS, said Mr Chappell was a Sunday pub league retailer, at best.

So many people believed him, but he was a liar, Mr Hitchcock said. Mr Hitchcock was hired by Mr Topp to look into finances at the firm after he grew suspicious about Mr Chappells handling of the companys affairs.

Asked why he thought Mr Chappell was a liar, Mr Hitchcock said he didnt put in the money he had promised to when he bought BHS from Sir Philip.

Mr Hitchcock said Retail Acquisitions Limited, the company Mr Chappell used for the BHS takeover, put 10m into the business and took 17m out of it.

This put BHS at risk despite Sir Philip leaving its balance sheet stacked for the value at the time of the sale. On the balance sheet I saw there was enough value that if leveraged correctly you could give the business a much better chance than Chappell allowed, Mr Hitchcock said.

But in his extraordinary testimony to MPs, Mr Chappell said Sir Philip was aware that he knew nothing about retail.

I think Philip genuinely thought we would fail, but he sold it to us nevertheless, Mr Chappell said.

Chappell said he inherited stores that been slipping further into disrepair for decades.

For the past 10 years, there had been little or no investment in the stores, he said. Some shops had no heating. Staff came in to paint, to replace lights because no one had invested in it for years.

Mr Chappell said that when the business was going under, he phoned Sports Direct founder Mike Ashley and offered him his shares in exchange for BHS. Mr Ashley was willing to do it, Mr Chappell said, until the plan was derailed by Sir Philip.

Mr Ashley said that he 100 per cent wanted to buy BHS at a separate hearing on working practices at Sports Direct on Tuesday.

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I would have loved to have bought it, Mike Ashley said. BHS is logical, its also logical we could have offered extreme value, Sports Direct upstairs and BHS downstairs. Im not saying Im a saint, but we could have got synergies.

He added: Please dont ask me any more questions or Ill get shot.

Mr Chappell admitted that he had made a profit off BHS despite its collapse, but he would not say how much.

Some 11,000 jobs will go after administrators failed to find a buyer for the British retailer, leaving gaping holes on high streets around the country.

All of the 163 BHS stores in the UK will hold closing down sales in the coming weeks, marking one of the biggest failures in UK retail since Woolworths closed in 2008.
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Google has regained the title of the most valuable global brand from Apple in a new ranking of the worlds top brands.

It's the second time the company has topped the list in the past three years, after fighting Apple for the first spot, according to BrandZ ranking, an annual report by Millward Brown, a brand consultancy.

The report tracks the worth of the worlds best brands and is based on interviews with more than 3 million consumers as well as data on each companys financial and business performances.

Recommended Read more Apple reports falling revenue for first time in over a decade

Continual innovation has pushed Google back to the top spot in the global ranking, increasing its brand value by 32 per cent to $229 billion.

Apple, meanwhile, has experienced an 8 per cent decline in its brand value, which is likely due to the fact it has not launched any new big products this year, according to Millward Brown.

In what has so far been a difficult year for Apple, the company has also reported falling revenues for the first time in over a decade in April. The Apple watch, which the company launched in April, has not yet reached mainstream appeal.

In a ranking dominated by tech firms, Microsoft remained third growing 5 per cent to $112 billion. Facebook and Amazon entered the top ten for the first time ranking fifth and seventh respectively.

Overall the value of the world's top 100 brands grew to $3.4 trillion over the last year, up three per cent on the previous year despite economic factors such as low oil prices and an economic slowdown in China.

David Roth, CEO EMEA and Asia at the Store WPP said the brands that thrive are those that behave like challengers and are ready to disrupt mindsets such as shown by Google, Amazon and Facebook.

Theyre [successful brands] shaking up other categories with innovation that goes beyond new products or technologies  transforming the way a service is delivered, enhancing the consumer experience or changing a format.

The power these brands already hold, combined with the strength of their platforms, is enabling them to quickly and successfully move across sectors, Roth said.

The 10 most valuable brands in the world:

1. Google

The new chat app will be released this summer (Chris Jackson/Getty Images)

Brand value: $229.2 billion

Percentage change from last year: +32%

Last year's rank: 2

2. Apple

Apple CEO Tim Cook in San Francisco last September  before these results were announced, the company had experienced 51 quarters of growth (Getty)

Brand value: $228.5 billion

Percentage change from last year: -8%

Last year's rank: 1

3. Microsoft

Apple and Google have also responded to claims that the CIA took advantage of unknown vulnerabilities in iOS and Android (Getty Images)

Brand value: $121.8 billion

Percentage change from last year: +5%

Last year's rank: 3

4. AT&T

(Getty Images)

Brand value: $107.4 billion

Percentage change from last year: +20%

Last year's rank: 6

5. Facebook

Students want access to Facebook in their workplace, more than promotions and bonuses (Rex)

Brand value: $102.6 billion

Percentage change from last year: +44%

Last year's rank: 12

6. Visa

Donald hasn't had a credit card since he finally paid off his last one (Getty Images)

Brand value: $100.8 billion

Percentage change from last year: +10%

Last year's rank: 5

7. Amazon

Amazon parcels await distribution (Getty Images)

Brand value: $98.9 billion

Percentage change from last year: +59%

Last year's rank: 14

8. Verizon

Around 39,000 workers have gone on strike (EPA)

Brand value: $93.2 billion

Percentage change from last year: +8%

Last year's rank: 7

9. McDonalds

Staff from two McDonald's restaurants are staging a walkout (Getty)

Brand value: $88.6 billion

Percentage change from last year: +9%

Last year's rank: 9

10. IBM

IBM pulled the campaign less than a week after it was introduced (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Brand value: $86.2 billion

Percentage change from last year: -8%

Last year's rank: 4
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Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of the biggest advertising company in the world, will keep his pay package despite opposition from a third of WPP shareholders at the companys annual meeting on Wednesday.

Excluding abstentions, 33 per cent of investors failed to back the pay deal, up from 22 per cent last year.

Sir Martin keep his 70.4 million pay package, including a 62.8 million long term bonus.

But the vote indicates increasing concern among investors about executive pay.

Sir Martin is currently the best paid CEO out of the biggest 100 British companies in the FTSE 100.

He noted that the WPP share price rose by 98 per cent between 2011 and 2015, compared with a 5.8 per cent rise in the FTSE 100 over the same period.

In March, WPP reported a 2.8 per cent increase in yearly profit to 1.5 billion compared with 2014.

A number of groups spoke out prior to the meeting to urge investors to vote against the pay deal.

Asset manager Hermes, which represent around 1.2 per cent of WPP shareholders, said he would not be supporting the remuneration package.

Even considering the strong performance and pay practices of peers, the legacy equity incentive plan introduced in 2009 has once again led to what we regard as an excessive level of CEO remuneration for 2015, Hans-Christoph Hirt, the co-head of Hermes EOS, told the Guardian.

On Monday, the Local Authority Pension Fund Forum (LAPFF), a group of UK based public sector pension funds, urged their members to vote against WPPs remuneration report.

The group said that Mr Sorrell's pay rose by 56 per cent over the past five years, which is twice the year-on-year average increase in the company's total shareholder return over the same period.

Biggest business scandals in pictures Show all 20 1 /20 Biggest business scandals in pictures Biggest business scandals in pictures Volkswagen emissions scandal VW admitted to rigging its US emission tests so that diesel-powered cars would looks like they were emitting less nitrous oxide, which can damage the ozone layer and contribute to respiratory diseases. Around 11 million cars worldwide were affected. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Martin Shkreli and Turing Pharmaceuticals Martin Shkreli became known as the most hated man in the world after his drug company, Turing, increased the price of a 62-year-old drug that treated HIV patients by 5,000% to $750 a pill. He was charged with illegally taking stock from Retrophin, a biotechnology firm he started in 2011, and using it pay off debts from unrelated business dealings. Shkreli, who maintains he is innocent, and says there is little evidence of fraud because his investors didn't lose money. Biggest business scandals in pictures Panama Papers: Millions of leaked documents expose how worlds rich and powerful hid money - April 2016 Millions of confidential documents have been leaked from one of the worlds most secretive law firms, exposing how the rich and powerful have hidden their money. Dictators and other heads of state have been accused of laundering money, avoiding sanctions and evading tax, according to the unprecedented cache of papers that show the inner workings of the law firm Mossack Fonseca, which is based in Panama. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Google's tax avoidance Google reached a deal with the HM Revenue and Customs to pay back 130 million in so-called back-taxes that have been due since 2005. George Osborne championed the deal as a major success. But European MEPs have since called for the Chancellor to appear in front of the committee on tax rulings to explain the tax deal. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Rogue trader A French court cut the damages owed by rogue trader Jerome Kerviel from 4.9bn (4.2bn) to just 1m (860,000). The court ruled on that Kerviel was partly responsible for massive losses suffered in 2008 by his former employer Societe Generale through his reckless trades. Kerviel has consistently maintained that bosses at the French bank knew what he was doing all along. AP Biggest business scandals in pictures Barclays CEO under investigation for trying to identify whistleblower - Monday Paril 10 Authorities have launched an investigation into Barclays chief executive officer Jes Staley for trying to identify a whistleblower, the bank said on Monday. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) are both investigating Mr Staley after the bank notified them that Mr Staley had tried to identify the author of two anonymous letters, which were sent to the board and a senior executive in June 2016. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures UK to crack down on bank money laundering after reports of 65bn Russian scam, City minister says - March 2017 The Economic Secretary to the Treasury has vowed that the Government will crack down on money laundering practices, after several of the UK's biggest banks were accused of processing money from a Russian scam, believed to involve up to $80bn (65bn). Reuters Biggest business scandals in pictures Former HBOS bankers convicted of bribery and fraud over 245m loan scam - February 2017 Two former HBOS bankers were among six people found guilty of bribery and fraud that cost customers and shareholders hundreds of millions of pounds, the BBC reports. Lynden Scourfield, 54, a manager at HBOS, forced struggling clients to use the services of his friends David Mills, 60, and Michael Bancroft, 73. In return, the two businessmen arranged sex parties, cash and lavish gifts. On Monday, the three were convicted at Southwark Crown Court on accounts including bribery, fraud and money laundering. Mark Dobson, another manager at HBOS, Alison Mills, and John Cartwright were also convicted. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Lloyds chief apologises for damage caused by affair allegations - August 2016 Antonio Horta-Osorio, the chief executive of Lloyds Bank, has broken his silence over allegations about his private life admitting he regrets any "damage done to the group's reputation". In a message sent to the bank's 75,000 employees, the banker said that anyone can make mistakes while insisting that staff had to maintain the highest professional standards. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Christine Lagarde faces court over 340m Bernard Tapie payment - July 2016 The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde, must stand trial in France over a payment of 403 million (now 340m, then 290m) to tycoon Bernard Tapie, a France's highest appeals court has ruled. The court rejected Ms Lagarde's appeal against a judge's order in December for her to stand trial over allegations of negligence in her handling of the affair. Ms Lagarde could risk a maximum penalty of one year in prison and a fine of 15,000 euros if convicted. Reuters Biggest business scandals in pictures HSBC senior manager arrested in FX rigging investigation at JFK airport in New York - July 2016 A senior executive at HSBC has been arrested at New York's JFK airport for his alleged involvement in a conspiracy to rig currency benchmarks, according to reports. Mark Johnson, global head of foreign exchange cash trading in London, was reportedly arrested on Tuesday. He will appear before a federal court in Brooklyn on Wednesday charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, Bloomberg said. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Former PwC employees found guilty in 'Luxleaks' tax scandal - June 2016 Two ex- PricewaterhouseCoopers staffers were found guilty in Luxembourg of stealing confidential tax files that helped unleash a global scandal over generous fiscal deals for hundreds of international companies. Antoine Deltour and Raphael Halet face suspended sentences of 12 months and 9 months and were ordered to pay fines of 1,500 (1,230) and 1,000 (822) for their role in the so-called LuxLeaks scandal. Despite the minimal sentences, the ruling was described by Deltours lawyer as shocking and a terrible anomaly. The ruling puts on guard future whistle-blowers, Deltour told reporters.The LuxLeaks revelations sped beyond Luxembourg, causing European Union regulators to expand a tax-subsidy probe and propose new laws to fight corporate tax dodging, while EU lawmakers created a special committee to probe fiscal deals across the 28-nation bloc. Reuters Biggest business scandals in pictures Goldman Sachs dealmakers lavished Libyan officials with prostitutes to win contract - June 2016 A former Goldman Sachs dealmaker trying to persuade Gadaffi-era Libya to invest $1 billion with the investment bank procured prostitutes and invited Libyan officials to lavish parties in the hope of winning the business, the High Court heard on Monday June 13.The Libyan Investment Authority sovereign wealth fund is suing Goldman Sachs for inappropriately coercing its naive staff into giving its sovereign wealth fund cash to the bank to invest in products they did not understand. The products were designed to generate big profits for Goldman, the LIA claims.Goldman denies wrongdoing and says the LIA was treated as an arms-length customer Reuters Biggest business scandals in pictures Former boss of BHS said his life was threatened - June 2016 Darren Topp, the former boss of BHS, has said former owner Dominic Chappell threatened to kill him when he challenged him over a 1.5 million transfer out of the business. MPs on the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee asked Mr Topp about a 1.5 million transfer Mr Chappell made from BHS to a company called BHS Sweden. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Sports Direct founder Mike Ashley admits paying workers below the minimum wage - June 2016 Mike Ashley admitted paying Sports Direct employees below the minimum wage at a hearing in front of MPs. The company founder said that workers were paid less than the statutory minimum because of bottlenecks at security in an admission that could result in sanctions from HMRC. Reuters Biggest business scandals in pictures Mitsubishi admits improper fuel tests - April 2016 Mitsubishi has admitted to using false fuel methods dating back to 1991. The scale of the scandal is only just coming to light after it was revealed in April that data was falsified in the testing of four types of cars, including two Nissan cars. AP Biggest business scandals in pictures Quindell, the scandal-ridden insurance firm Quindell was once a darling of AIM but its share price fell in April 2014 when its accounting practices were attacked in a stinging research note by US short seller Gotham City. In August the group was forced to disclose that the 107 million pre-tax profit it had reported for 2013 was incorrect, and it had in fact suffered a 64million loss. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Toshiba Accounting Scandal The boss of Toshiba, the Japanese technology giant, resigned in disgrace in the wake of one of the countrys biggest ever accounting scandals. His exit came two months after the company revealed that it was investigating accounting irregularities. An independent investigatory panel said that Toshibas management had inflated its reported profits by up to 152 billion yen (780m) between 2008 and 2014. Biggest business scandals in pictures FIFA Corruption Scandal Fifa, football's world governing body, has been engulfed by claims of widespread corruption since the summer of 2015, when the US Department of Justice indicted several top executives. It has now claimed the careers of two of the most powerful men in football, Fifa President Sepp Blatter and Uefa President Michel Platini, after they were banned for eight years from all football-related activities by Fifa's ethics committee. A Swiss criminal investigation into the pair is ongoing. Getty Biggest business scandals in pictures Libor fraudster City trader Tom Hayes, 35, has become the first person to be convicted of rigging Libor rates following a trial at London's Southwark Crown Court. Hayes worked as a trader in yen derivatives at UBS before joining the American bank Citigroup in Tokyo. He was fired from Citigroup following an investigation into his trading methods. He returned to the UK in December 2012 and was arrested following a two-and-a-half year criminal investigation by the SFO. Getty

Campaign group ShareAction also disapproved of Mr Sorrell's pay on Monday, while Pensions & Investment Research Consultants (PIRC), an advisory firm and LAPFF's research partner, asked WPP shareholders last week to oppose it.

Executive pay is under close scrutiny after BP shareholders voted 60 per cent against a 14 million pay deal for BP chief executive Bob Dudley.

Anglo American shareholders revolted against an executive pay plan with 42 per cent of the votes against the pay award, at the companys annual meeting in London in April.
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Amber Heards friend iO Tillett Wright has defended Heard and has claimed she witnessed the injuries which Johnny Depp allegedly inflicted on her.

Wright, who is a gay rights activist and co-host of MTV show Suspect, claimed she was on the phone to Heard when her estranged husband, 52, hit her.

In a series of tweets, Wright criticised the witch hunt against the 30-year-old actress and the culture of victim blaming.

I've had enough. I saw the bruises. Many times. And the fat lip. And the cut head, she claimed.

"How much evidence does a woman need to present?! She has photos, texts, witnesses, and filed a restraining order."

I was on the f****** phone when he hit her. I HEARD HER SCREAM. I will testify. Here and in court. Under oath. WHAT ELSE DOES A WOMAN NEED? she later claimed.

Wrights defence of Heard follows negative coverage of the actress in the media.

Heard filed for divorce from Depp on 23 May, citing irreconcilable differences. She requested Depp pay her legal fees and spousal support but Depp asked a judge to reject these requests.

Johnny Depp on screen Show all 16 1 /16 Johnny Depp on screen Johnny Depp on screen Johnny Depp on screen Preening: Johnny Depp in 'Mortdecai' Johnny Depp on screen Johnny Depp on screen Johnny Depp in 'Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End' AP Johnny Depp on screen Johnny Depp on screen With Helena Bonham-Carter in 2007's 'Sweeney Todd' AP Johnny Depp on screen Johnny Depp on screen Depp in Richard Burton's 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' AP Johnny Depp on screen Johnny Depp on screen Johnny Depp with Winona Ryder in Edward Scissorhands back in 1990 Johnny Depp on screen Johnny Depp on screen Depp with short hair in 2009 film 'Public Enemies' AP Johnny Depp on screen Johnny Depp on screen In 2012's 'Dark Shadows' AP Johnny Depp on screen Johnny Depp on screen The actor in 'Finding Neverland', 2004 AP Johnny Depp on screen Johnny Depp on screen Johnny Depp stars in 2014 sci-fi thriller 'Transcendence' Alcon Entertainment, LLC. Johnny Depp on screen Johnny Depp on screen Johnny Depp in 2006 film 'Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest' AP Johnny Depp on screen Johnny Depp on screen Johnny Depp as Tonto in 2013 movie 'The Lone Ranger' Disney Enterprises, Inc Johnny Depp on screen Johnny Depp on screen Johnny Depp and Amber Heard star in 2011 movie 'The Rum Diary' AP Johnny Depp on screen Johnny Depp on screen Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz in 2011 film 'Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides' AP Johnny Depp on screen Johnny Depp on screen Johnny Depp stars with Angelina Jolie in 2010 movie 'The Tourist' Rex Feature Johnny Depp on screen Johnny Depp on screen Johnny Depp as The Mad Hatter in a scene from 2010 film 'Alice in Wonderland' AP Johnny Depp on screen Johnny Depp on screen Johnny Depp stars in Michael Mann's 2009 movie 'Public Enemies'

Days later, Heard appeared in court with a visible bruise on her face to request a temporary restraining order against Depp, whom she alleged had been violent towards her on multiple occasions during their 15-month marriage. She alleged Depp threw an iPhone at her face last Saturday and a month before grabbed [her] by the hair and violently shoved [her] to the floor.

Depps lawyer, Laura Wasser, has claimed Heard decided to apply for a restraining order in response to the negative media coverage shes recieved and in order to secure a premature financial resolution. The unfavourable media attention Wasser is referring to is the commentary surrounding Heard choosing to file for a divorce several days after Depps mother Betty Sue died.

Since then, Heard and Depps marriage has continued to dominate headlines. Last week, Heard released a lengthy statement via her lawyers which responded to the recent events that have unfolded.

In it, she said had not previously chosen to release a statement to the Los Angeles Police Department to protect her privacy and Depps career, revealing she had now released a full statement to the LAPD about the alleged domestic violence she has endured.

Depp has not made a public statement since the restraining order was issued but did release a comment in response to the news Heard was seeking spousal support and there was no prenuptial agreement in place.

Given the brevity of this marriage and the most recent and tragic loss of his mother, Johnny will not respond to any of the malicious false stories, gossip, misinformation and lies about his personal life, the statement read.

Hopefully, the dissolution of this short marriage will be resolved quickly.

Representatives for Depp and Heard did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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During her award-winning career, fans have seen Meryl Streep transform into Margaret Thatcher, Emmeline Pankhurst, a high-powered fashion magazine editor and a witch but her latest character must have come as a surprise to even the most hardcore Streep fan.

This latest transformation required a lot of fake tan, a trademark blonde wig, a red tie and a fake belly.

Yes, Streep impersonated presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at a gala benefit for the Public Theatre in New York on Monday night.

According to the New York Times, the 66-year-old actress took to the role like a moth to a flame giving a more than credible version of the presumptive Republican nominee, down to the pursed lips and low-hanging belly. She got the braggadocio-inflected voice, too, even while singing.

Donald Trump's most controversial quotes Show all 14 1 /14 Donald Trump's most controversial quotes Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Isis: "Some of the candidates, they went in and didnt know the air conditioner didnt work and sweated like dogs, and they didnt know the room was too big because they didnt have anybody there. How are they going to beat ISIS?" Getty Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On immigration: "I will build a great wall  and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me and Ill build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words." Reuters Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Free Trade: "Free trade is terrible. Free trade can be wonderful if you have smart people. But we have stupid people." PAUL J. RICHARDS | AFP | Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Mexicans: "When Mexico sends its people, theyre not sending their best. Theyre sending people that have lots of problems. Theyre bringing drugs. Theyre bringing crime. Theyre rapists." Getty Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On China: "I just sold an apartment for $15 million to somebody from China. Am I supposed to dislike them?... I love China. The biggest bank in the world is from China. You know where their United States headquarters is located? In this building, in Trump Tower." Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On work: "If you're interested in 'balancing' work and pleasure, stop trying to balance them. Instead make your work more pleasurable." AP Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On success: "What separates the winners from the losers is how a person reacts to each new twist of fate." Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On life: "Everything in life is luck." AFP Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On ambition: "You have to think anyway, so why not think big?" Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On his opponents: "Bush is totally in favour of Common Core. I don't see how he can possibly get the nomination. He's weak on immigration. He's in favour of Common Core. How the hell can you vote for this guy? You just can't do it." Reuters Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Obamacare: "You have to be hit by a tractor, literally, a tractor, to use it, because the deductibles are so high. It's virtually useless. And remember the $5 billion web site?... I have so many web sites, I have them all over the place. I hire people, they do a web site. It costs me $3." Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Barack Obama: "Obama is going to be out playing golf. He might be on one of my courses. I would invite him. I have the best courses in the world. I have one right next to the White House." PA Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On himself: "Love him or hate him, Trump is a man who is certain about what he wants and sets out to get it, no holds barred. Women find his power almost as much of a turn-on as his money." Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On America: "The American Dream is dead. But if I get elected president I will bring it back bigger and better and stronger than ever before and we will make America great again." GETTY

Streep, along with The Good Wife actress Christine Baranski who portrayed presumptive Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton, performed a rendition of Brush Up Your Shakespeare from the musical Kiss Me Kate. The decision to do so as Trump was apparently all Streeps idea.

There were sceptics, there were doubters but one of those sceptics was not Meryl Streep. She was absolutely sure she could do it, the theatress artistic director Oskar Eustis told the Times. None of us had seen her in costume or makeup, till she walked out tonight.

While imitation may be the biggest form of flattery, Streep has previously voiced support for Clinton - a role that surely its only a matter of time before Streep takes on given that when Clinton was asked who shed like to play her in a film last year she instantly replied: Well, Meryl Streep of course.
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A man who went on a bloody rampage at a London Tube station has been found guilty of attempting to kill a passerby after being inspired by Isis and the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby.

Muhiddin Mire tried to behead a musician with a rusty knife and threatened four other commuters as he ran through the ticket hall at Leytonstone station in December.

A jury at the Old Bailey found the 30-year-old, of Sansom Road in Leytonstone, guilty of attempted murder on Wednesday.

He had already admitted four counts of attempted wounding and an alternative count of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

The attack was caught on shocking CCTV and mobile phone footage taken by a passerby who carried on filming even as Mire lunged at him with the blade.

An onlooker was heard shouting, You ain't no Muslim, bruv, after Mire claimed he was doing it for my Syrian brothers and shouted Allahu Akbar as police took him down with tasers, sparking nationwide debate.

The court heard that Mire, a taxi driver born in Somalia, had a history of mental illness and that his psychosis involved the belief that he was being persecuted for being a Muslim, and stalked by MI5 and MI6.

He had images of Fusilier Rigby, who was murdered by extremists in 2013, on his phone as well as pictures of Mohammed Emwazi, the British Isis executioner known as Jihadi John, and material linked to the terrorist group.

In pictures: Leytonstone stabbing Show all 5 1 /5 In pictures: Leytonstone stabbing In pictures: Leytonstone stabbing Mobile phone footage shows the suspect being tasered and arrested at Leytonstone Tube station In pictures: Leytonstone stabbing Mobile phone footage shows the suspect being tasered and arrested at Leytonstone Tube station In pictures: Leytonstone stabbing Mobile phone footage shows the suspect at Leytonstone Tube station In pictures: Leytonstone stabbing Mobile phone footage shows the suspect at Leytonstone Tube station In pictures: Leytonstone stabbing Mobile phone footage shows the suspect at Leytonstone Tube station

Mire had travelled on the same Central Line train from Stratford as his victim, Lyle Zimmerman, on 5 December.

He followed him out of the carriage and produced from his pocket a black-handled knife with a serrated edge, pushing the musician to the floor as he approached the barriers.

Mire then kicked him repeatedly around the head and body as a woman nearby called out for him to stop, then crouched down and began to saw at his neck with the serrated blade in front of shocked passengers.

Giving evidence from behind a screen, the victim told the jury: At the time, my subjective impression was that I was being attacked by a crazy person, a mentally unwell person.

A junior doctor on his way home rushed in to help stem the blood flowing from Mr Zimmerman's neck as Mire went up to street level.

He continued to threaten members of the public, swinging his blade at Daniel Bielinski from Poland, who filmed crucial evidence on his phone.

Muhiddin Mire had a history of mental illness

Mire then lashed out at Serena Valori and David Pethers before coming face to face with Russian security guard Andrius Sabaliauskas, who tried to talk to him.

But despite the efforts to calm him down, Mire tried to slash lift engineer David Pethers before police arrived with tasers.

Mire ran at an officer and the security guard, shouting: This is for my Syrian brothers; I'm going to spill your blood, before he was finally subdued.

The court heard that Mire had been referred to mental health services by his GP a month before the attack and had recently started to wear traditional clothes rather than his usual jeans and T-shirt.

No formal link to Isis was uncovered but terrorism specialists at Scotland Yard are warning that the group is deliberately targeting mentally ill people with propaganda.

Commander Dean Haydon, head of the Metropolitan Police Service Counter Terrorism Command, said Isis aims to incite lone wolf attacks by spontaneous volatile extremists.

Witnesses said 'everybody ran away' as a man wielding a knife started attacking Tube passengers

"We're not just talking about mental health here; we're talking about vulnerable individuals within the community, he said.

"As a result of what I would call inspiration as a result of that propaganda, we are seeing more and more lone actors. Spontaneous volatile extremist is another term.

"Literally people who get inspired through propaganda material, mostly through the internet, and then decide to go off and commit an attack either here in the UK or elsewhere overseas."

Mire's family were also concerned about his mental state and had contacted police, as well as unsuccessfully trying to persuade him to travel back to his native Somalia.

He had no contact with jihadis in Syria, or extremist preachers in the UK, and has not been charged with any terror offences.

Mr Haydon defended Scotland Yard's decision to declare the attack as a terrorist incident on the night it happened.

"This was a random attack, completely unprovoked, he added. He wasn't a member of Isis [but] he was inspired by Isis."
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A Metropolitan Police officer was recorded raping a woman with a sleep app she had installed on her iPhone, a court heard.

Michael Graham, 47, who worked in the London borough of Hounslow, is accused of raping the woman seven times between December 2013 and September 2014 while off-duty.

Prosecutors told the court Graham was "increasingly ill-tempered" after giving up cigarettes, the Mirror reported.

Jurors heard he told the alleged victim she "needed to be punished" and would tie her up and rape her.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA UK news in pictures 21 September 2022 A flock of birds in the sky as the sun rises over Dungeness in Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2022 Flowers which were laid by members of the public in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland are collected by the Hillsborough Gardening Team and volunteers to be replanted for those that can be saved or composted PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2022 The ceremonial procession of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II travels down the long walk as it arrives at Windsor Castle for the committal service at St Georges Chapel AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 18 September 2022 A man stands among campers on The Mall ahead of the Queens funeral Reuters UK news in pictures 17 September 2022 Wolverhampton Wanderers Nathan Collins fouls Manchester Citys Jack Grealish leading to a red card. City went on to win the match at Molineux Stadium three goals to nil. Action Images/Reuters UK news in pictures 16 September 2022 Members of the public stand in the queue near Tower Bridge, and opposite the Tower of London, as they wait in line to pay their respects to the late Queen Elizabeth II, in London AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 15 September 2022 Members of the public in the queue on in Potters Fields Park, central London, as they wait to view Queen Elizabeth II lying in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 14 September 2022 The first members of the public pay their respects as the vigil begins around the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Hall, London, where it will lie in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 13 September 2022 Crowds cheer as King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort arrive for a visit to Hillsborough Castle Getty UK news in pictures 12 September 2022 Crowds line the Royal Mile, Edinburgh, as King Charles III joins a procession from the Palace of Holyroodhouse to St Giles Cathedral following the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II Katielee Arrowsmith/SWNS UK news in pictures 11 September 2022 Members of the Public pay their respects as the hearse carrying the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, draped in the Royal Standard of Scotland, is driven through Ballater AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 10 September 2022 Britain's Prince William, Prince of Wales, Britain's Catherine, Princess of Wales, Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Britain's Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, wave at well-wishers on the Long walk at Windsor Castle AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 9 September 2022 King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort wave after viewing floral tributes to the late Queen Elizabeth II outside Buckingham Palace Getty UK news in pictures 8 September 2022 A screen commemorating Britain's Queen Elizabeth II in Piccadilly Circus, London Britain EPA UK news in pictures 7 September 2022 Police officers stand guard after Animal Rebellion activists threw paint on the walls and road outside the Houses of Parliament in protest, in London, Britain Reuters UK news in pictures 6 September 2022 Queen Elizabeth II welcomes Liz Truss during an audience at Balmoral, Scotland, where she invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 5 September 2022 Visitors at the PoliNations garden in Victoria Square, Birmingham, which is made up of five 40ft high tree installations and over 6,000 plants. 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Prosecutor Eloise Marshall told the jury some of the alleged offences were recorded on the woman's iPhone.

She said: "The complainant had a sleep app that was set off by sound, it's an app you can have on your mobile phone - people use it so that when they talk in their sleep or snore they can gauge their sleep behaviour.

"She ended up recording a little bit more than she intended - we have them and we're going to play them to you."

She added: "There's times on the recordings when she says 'please don't do that, please don't do that' and there are two occasions of anal rape recorded on the sleep app."

Ms Marshall continued: "It's plain from the recordings that at the time the sexual assaults are taking place he's hurting her she doesn't want him to carry out those acts.

"She clearly tells him she doesn't want him to do those acts.

"We say he knew she wasn't consenting, he knew she didn't want him to do those things but he carried on regardless - using her fear and her submission for his own ends."

Graham denies seven counts o rape and one count of sexual assault.

He insisted the sex was consensual when played the sleep app recordings in his second interview with police.

The trial continues.
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A dog, believed to be the oldest in Britain, has died aged 24.

Yentl, a Jack Russell-Collie cross who belonged to a couple in Bude, Cornwall, would have been 168 human years when he died.

Charlie and Marlene Martin bought Yentl as a puppy for 15 after his previous owner threatened to shoot him if he could not find a home for the dog.

The dogs from Instagram Show all 6 1 /6 The dogs from Instagram The dogs from Instagram Noodle the Dachshund is just over a year old and comes with her own hashtag (#OodlesOfNoodle) The dogs from Instagram Three-year-old Staffie Ramsey was malnourished when he was adopted as a puppy but is now big and boisterous with ripped muscles and a cheeky grin The dogs from Instagram Winny the Welsh Corgi has been credited with the breed's upsurge in popularity The dogs from Instagram Bruno the miniature Dachshund has 66,700 followers The dogs from Instagram Mika the Husky has 58,900 followers The dogs from Instagram Elle the French Bulldog has 8,868 followers

The couple bought Yentl in 1991 and his name was inspired by the 1983 Barbra Streisand film, Mr Martin told ITV News.

I said to my missus I'm going to call him Yentl, said Mr Martin I've named him after a Barbara Streisand film, so that's what I named him and that's the name he responds to all the time.

Mr and Mrs Martins front room is brimming with pictures of their beloved pet. They also display the rosettes he won at various dog shows, the Telegraph reports.

A 25-year-old Jack Russell from Somerset was the last dog previously believed to be the oldest in Britain, which died in 2014.

In April, Maggie the Kelpie, thought to be the oldest dog in the world died at the age of 30.

Maggie was over 200 in human years, and a contender for the oldest dog in the world, but Mr McLaren had lost the original paperwork for the dog, meaning that her age could not be independently verified.

Officially, the title of the oldest dog in the world still belongs to Bluey, an Australian cattle-dog from Rochester in Victoria, which reached 29 years and five months.

According to the Guinness Book of Records his owner bought him as a puppy in 1910 and he grew up to work among the sheep and cattle until he was put down in November 1939.
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A British man who claimed to have ended up in Syria with his friends after boarding the wrong boat following a night out in Ayia Napa has said the story was a prank.

Lewis Ellis, 25, told the Daily Mirror he and two other club reps had boarded what they believed was a dolphin-watching boat in Cyprus on Tuesday and found themselves out at sea.

"The last club closed at 7.30am so we just powered through to our 9am boat trip and ended up blagging our way onto the wrong boat, he said.

Lewis Ellis, James Wallman and Alex McCormick work as holiday reps in Cyprus

"Everyone was foreign and it was pretty much half way out from the island when we asked 'how come we're so far away from land?

Alex McCormick, 19, who was also supposedly along the boat alongside 23-year-old James Wallman, added: We were panicking and saying to these guys 'you need to turn around'.

After hours and hours we turned up in this place and we were like 'what the f***, where are we?

The men claimed they were taken to a Russian military base after docking in an unknown location, before being told they were in the city of Tartous and interviewed before allowed to return to Cyprus.

Controlled by Bashar al-Assads Syrian regime, it is also home to a Russian naval facility and has been targeted in a series of Isis bombings in recent weeks.

A Syrian army soldier and civilians inspect the damage after explosions hit the Syrian city of Tartous, in this handout picture provided by SANA on May 23, 2016 (Reuters)

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office could not immediately confirm whether it had been alerted to the case, while there was no way of verifying photos the men claimed showed them in Syria were taken in the country.

As the unlikely story spread around the world on Wednesday morning - reaching media outlets as far as Australia - Mr Ellis admitted it had been fake in a conversation with friends on Facebook.

Hahaha what a prank, he wrote. When a friend asked if he really had made the journey, he added: Naaa we just made it up for fun.

Debunked myths and fake news stories Show all 25 1 /25 Debunked myths and fake news stories Debunked myths and fake news stories Nasa releases statement over rumours that asteroid will destroy Earth Nasa has just debunked a recent rumour of a giant asteroid due to crash into the Earth in September. Internet conspiracy theorists have been saying that an asteroid will hit our planet sometime between September 15 and 28, destroying the American continents. Acting in its role as space-news fact-checker, Nasa has issued a statement refuting the lot of it. 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Mr Ellis, from Manchester, is known for his pranks on YouTube, where he runs a channel that also includes footage of his work as a holiday rep in Ayia Napa.

He previously made headlines in February for stripping off and going swimming in a water feature in the Trafford Centres food court.
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Three British men who claimed they accidentally caught a boat to Syria after a night out in Ayia Napa have hailed the best prank ever after their fake news story spread around the world.

The trio said what started as a joke on Facebook spiralled out of control after a post was picked up by online news outlets, and they decided to carry out an unorthodox experiment.

Lewis Ellis, Alex McCormick and James Wallman, who all work as holiday reps in Cyprus, were looking for an apartment to rent in the resort when they were stuck by some graffiti on a wall.

Lewis Ellis, James Wallman and Alex McCormick work as holiday reps in Cyprus

We thought: This looks like it could be in Syria, Mr Ellis, 25, told The Independent. So we took a photo and showed some workers and they fell for it.

Mr McCormick, 19, then posted the image on his Facebook page as a joke with the caption: Thought we were going on a boat trip, turns out we were on a boat transfer and ended up in Syria. #FakeBoatParty.

The selfie shows them in front of a nondescript apartment block covered in graffiti. Despite the writing clearly being in Greek and Latin  rather than Arabic - script it started to gain traction.

Mr Ellis said the friends decided to flesh out a story to go with the post, researching nearby ports across the Mediterranean Sea in Syria, boat crossings, distances and times.

The men posed for Snapchat selfies to send to journalists as 'proof' of the unlikely journey (Snapchat)

The tale they came up with was that they had stumbled out of a club at 7.30am, blagged their way on to what they thought was a dolphin-watching trip and realised too late that they were on a much longer journey.

We were panicking and saying to these guys 'you need to turn around', Mr McCormick told the Daily Mirror in one of several interviews before coming clean.

After hours and hours we turned up in this place and we were like 'what the f***, where are we?

The men claimed they were taken to a Russian military base after docking in an unknown location, being told they were in the city of Tartous and interviewed before allowed to return to Cyprus.

A Syrian army soldier and civilians inspect the damage after explosions hit the Syrian city of Tartous on May 23, 2016 (Reuters)

Controlled by Bashar al-Assads Syrian regime, it is also home to a Russian naval facility and has been targeted in a series of Isis bombings in recent weeks.

Mr Ellis said they were careful not to blame anyone but ourselves with the tale and went to significant effort to back it up, even posing for more photos around Ayia Napa in day-old clothes when journalists asked for evidence for the supposed trip.

We have literally trolled the world media and we are so proud of ourselves, he added. They report bollocks all the time and people never check the facts. As soon as they posted it that was it  it went viral.

Mr Ellis, from Manchester, is known for his escapades on YouTube, where he runs a channel including footage of his work as in Ayia Napa and other "adventures".

He described himself and his friend as practiced pranksters but said they never expected the story to go so far.

Debunked myths and fake news stories Show all 25 1 /25 Debunked myths and fake news stories Debunked myths and fake news stories Nasa releases statement over rumours that asteroid will destroy Earth Nasa has just debunked a recent rumour of a giant asteroid due to crash into the Earth in September. Internet conspiracy theorists have been saying that an asteroid will hit our planet sometime between September 15 and 28, destroying the American continents. Acting in its role as space-news fact-checker, Nasa has issued a statement refuting the lot of it. 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Debunked myths and fake news stories Worlds oldest tree has been accidentally chopped down by loggers in Peru Several websites carried the news, seemingly without realising the entire story appears to be a hoax. It first appeared on the World News Daily Report  a fake news website carrying articles including Isis launches satellite and Pterodactyl sighting in New Guinea terrorises villagers. Debunked myths and fake news stories Alex from Target has teenage girls swooning Alex from Target went from being a cute, Bieber-esque cashier to an Internet sensation in less than 24 hours with a little help from social media. The internet memes featuring the Texas teenager in his Target uniform flooded Twitter and the hashtag #AlexFromTarget, a reference to his employee tag, began trending as teen girls swooned over the 16-year old. The "cute checkout guy" photograph earned him 500,000 new Twitter followers and landed him an interview with the popular talk show host Ellen DeGeneres. Alex from Target, his full name is actually Alex Laboeuf, said he was overwhelmed and was surprised by his new found fame. But a Los Angeles start-up known as Breakr has claimed responsibility for the Alex from Target phenomenon that has taken the internet by storm - insisting it was part of an intricate marketing experiment. Debunked myths and fake news stories Ryan Gosling adopted a baby A Father's Day Facebook post from "Ryan Gosling" detailing how he adopted an orphaned baby for a year attracted Likes from almost one million users. This was despite it having all the hallmarks of a hoax, including a link for users to "save thousands of children and meet me while doing it" actually redirecting to the purchase page for a Gosling t-shirt. Facebook Debunked myths and fake news stories Macaulay Culkin dead hoax How to reassure the world youre still alive after the internet reports that youre dead? Fake your own murder on Instagram, like Macaulay Culkin. The actor posted the above image via his band Pizza Undergrounds account yesterday, following several false rumours that hed passed away. One particularly misleading story, originally posted on MSNBC.website (not to be confused with the real MSNBC), read: Sources are reporting that Macaulay Culkin, best known for his role as Kevin McCallister in Home Alone and sequel Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, has been found dead at the age of 34. Debunked myths and fake news stories 'Crabzilla' - A fifty-foot crab dwelling somewhere off the English coast A satellite picture of the so-called crab, aptly dubbed Crabzilla, has gone viral after first surfacing on Weird Whitstable, a website for the supernatural curated by illustrator Quinton Winter, which deals in phantoms, mysteries, tall tales, and artefacts. The shadowy figure of a colossal crustacean, apparently spotted in the murky waters of Whistable, in Kent, dwarfs boats and cars on the pier it lurks besides. The invertebrate expert Paul Clark at the Natural History Museum in London has branded the photo a hoax. Photo courtesy of Weird Whitstable http://www.weirdwhitstable.co.uk Debunked myths and fake news stories Ebola 'risen from the dead' zombie story The story of dead Ebola victims rising from the dead, with the first "picture" of one of the zombies that has gone viral, (if it weren't glaringly obvious) is a hoax. The image on the article, while impressive, is in fact doctored picture of a zombie from the film World War Z. It appears to have taken an image of one of the films lab-zombies, and merged it with this picture of a realistic movie sculpture from Schell Studios, which the messageboard 8chan pointed out. Debunked myths and fake news stories 'Nasa Confirms Six Days of Darkness in December 2014' Satirical news site Huzlers.com has been spreading fake story about upcoming six days of darkness, far and wide on the web, taking in numerous Facebook and Twitter users and encouraging them to post about what theyre going to be up to during the six days of darkness. The story on the vaguely official looking website titled Nasa Confirms Earth Will Experience 6 Days of Total Darkness in December 2014! claims that an incoming solar storm is to blame, causing "dust and space debris to become plentiful and thus block 90% sunlight. This is false. Although solar storms certainly are real phenomena (they occur due to fluctuations in the Suns magnetic field) theyre not like terrestrial storms that can blow up dust and dirt. Reuters Debunked myths and fake news stories Meet Thea, Norway's 12-year-old child bride A Norwegian campaign highlighting the issue of child marriage has gained global attention after a blog seemingly written by a child bride-to-be went viral. The blog, apparently written by 12-year-old girl 'Thea', charts her thoughts and feelings towards her impending marriage to 37-year-old Geir. However, the blog was carefully created by Plan, an international aid organisation working on strengthening the girls rights, to bring home the issue of child brides. Courtesy of Plan Debunked myths and fake news stories Obsessive selfie-taking classified as a mental disorder An article claimed that the American Psychiatric Association (a real body) had classified new mental disorder selfitis as the obsessive compulsive desire to take photos of ones self and post them on social media. The origin of the article should have tipped off readers, however - it first appeared on a site whose owners admit that when writing [...] we spice it up with figments of our imagination. Debunked myths and fake news stories Shipwrecked British woman saved by Google Earth The extraordinary story of Gemma Sheridan, a woman from Liverpool saved by Google Earth after seven years stranded on a desert island, whipped up a storm among social media users. Aside from the fairly incredible details involved in the story, a wide range of issues showed it is quite clearly a hoax - including pictures and whole swathes of text borrowed from other (real) reports. Digital Globe via Waffles at Noon Debunked myths and fake news stories Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson is dead The Rock became the latest victim of a death hoax this month after rumours circulated that the action star had died while filming a dangerous stunt for the upcoming Fast and Furious 7 on Thursday. The bogus report was created by Global Associated News, a website responsible for some of the most outlandish recent fake celebrity deaths, and went viral on Twitter and Facebook. Getty Images Debunked myths and fake news stories Vaccines can cause autism A serious myth, this, and one which has repeatedly been rejected by scientific studies. The latest of these came earlier this year when a study that examined brain tissue samples donated by children who had died showed autism may actually develop in the womb during pregnancy. One scientist said the findings 'call sharply into questions other popular notions about autism'. Rex Features Debunked myths and fake news stories Homeopathic remedies have medicinal properties Proponents of homeopathy claim that it stimulates the body to heal itself, and is based on the principle of like cures like. 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But from the uniform thickness of the lines (which actually go off the page to the right) to the covering-up of identifying details, the 'drawing' looks a lot like an adults handiwork on Photoshop or MS Paint Weibo Debunked myths and fake news stories MH370 was caused by aliens/Snowden/the Bermuda Triangle Since the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 vanished on 8 March with 239 people on board, the story has sparked a host of myths and conspiracy theories. While some of these theories as to how the flight could have just disappeared have not been discounted by authorities, others have tended towards the unusual, bizarre and downright ridiculous. One Malaysian politician claimed the Bermuda Triangle must have moved to Vietnam. A 'citizen reporter' said radar picked up a UFO. Another said there was a complicated link to former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. None are likely to be true. Reuters Debunked myths and fake news stories Chayson Basinio, 2, snatched from French supermarket Police in France investigated a report in April that a two-year-old boy had been kidnapped in the French town of Moulins. But they later called off their search operation after they discovered he only existed on social media. The 'aunt' who reported the disappearance of 'Chayson Basinio' was arrested for 'reporting an imaginary crime or offence'. AFP/Getty Images Debunked myths and fake news stories Morrissey joined Twitter Morrissey fans rejoiced earlier this week when the verified Twitter account @itsmorrissey posted its first tweet since joining in 2009, saying: 'Hello. Testing, 1, 2, 3. Planet Earth, are you there? One can only hope...' It seems that the Twitter blue tick seal of approval doesnt mean as much as it used to, after Morrissey confirmed in a statement that he does not have an account on the social media site. Getty Images Debunked myths and fake news stories Chinese people ate doves at wedding, sued ugly wives and only sing numbers from takeaway menus In November last year, the western media was bombarded by a host of stories involving Chinese misrepresentations. One involved a Chinese man suing his wife 'because he was ugly' and winning - but was later debunked by an expat magazine in Shanghai. Here, Nyima Pratten writes about how our media depict Chinese people in an unreasonably negative way Getty Images

It spiralled out of control - its in the Greek papers, its in Australia, its everywhere, Mr Ellis said. Its the best prank Ive ever pulled.

He added that although the hoax started out as fun, the trio believed they were making a valid point about international press coverage.

We did a stupid thing and the media was all over it, but it was completely irrelevant, he said.

There are serious issues happening across the world that people dont give a f*** about.

Hopefully people will think about that but the more important issue is the fact-checking.

Any journalists who contacted us we told the truth but those who didntIve got no sympathy for them at all to be honest.
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Ramadan will finish on 5 July this year for the worlds 1.6 billion Muslims, marking the beginning of Eid al-Fitr.

Literally translated from Arabic as the 'festival of breaking the fast', the religious holiday usually lasts for a number of days.

The celebrations involve a range of traditions, generally including a gathering of family and friends to eat and pray together.

What is the Eid al-Fitr?

Eid al-Fitr is one of the most important days in the Muslim calendar, although its significance is purely spiritual.

The festival has no connection with any historical event but is a day where Muslims thank Allah for the strength, the will and the endurance he gives them, especially during Ramadan.

Regarded as one of the Five Pillars of Islam, Ramadan is the period when Muslims fast every day from sunrise to sunset. They refrain from consuming food, drink and engaging in sexual relations. It also includes the increased offering of prayers and recitation of the Quran.

In pictures: Ramadan around the world Show all 27 1 /27 In pictures: Ramadan around the world In pictures: Ramadan around the world In pictures: Ramadan around the world In pictures: Ramadan around the world Russia Russian Muslims pray outside the central mosque in Moscow, during celebrations of Eid al-Fitr marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Ramadan around the world Turkey Turkish Muslims offer Eid al Fitr prayers as they mark the first day of the Eid al-Fitr at Fatih Sultan Mosque in Istanbul Getty Images In pictures: Ramadan around the world Syria A Syrian Dervish dances as part of a traditional event organised by the Syrian Ministry of Tourism under the title 'Music and Dervishes' in the old city of Damascus EPA In pictures: Ramadan around the world Bosnia and Herzegovina A Bosnian Muslim man, wearing a traditional Bosnian outfit, fires a canon from a vantage point overlooking Sarajevo to mark the end of daily fasting on the final day of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Ramadan around the world Pakistan A general view of an illuminated Mosque as Muslims pray during the 27th night of Ramadan, in Peshawar EPA In pictures: Ramadan around the world Pakistan Muslim women offer prayer of the Jumat-ul-wida, the last Friday of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan at a mosque in Lahore AP In pictures: Ramadan around the world India Muslims offer prayers on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan in Dargah Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti Rex Features In pictures: Ramadan around the world Saudi Arabia The Prophet Mohammed Mosque in the holy city of Medina, during Ramadan EPA In pictures: Ramadan around the world Malaysia A Malaysian swings around fireworks to celebrate the last day of the Muslims' Holy fasting month of Ramadan, in Shah Alam, outside Kuala Lumpur In pictures: Ramadan around the world Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyz Muslims pray during the Eid al-Fitr Muslim celebration marking the end of Ramadan in Bishkek EPA In pictures: Ramadan around the world Ivory Coast People pray during the Laylat Al Qadr prayers on the 27th day of the Islamic month of fasting, Ramadan in the front of the Aghin mosque in Abidjan AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Ramadan around the world Syria Syrians shop for traditional sweets in Kafr Batna in the rebel-held Eastern Ghouta area, on the outskirts of the capital Damascus, ahead of Eid al-Fitr which marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Ramadan around the world Israel A Palestinian woman prays on the third Friday of the holy fasting month of Ramadan on the compound known to Muslims as Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City REUTERS In pictures: Ramadan around the world Iran Iranian Shiite Muslims pray at the graves of soldiers who were killed during 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War, at the Behesht-e-Zahra cemetery, during the holy fasting month of Ramadan, just outside Tehran, Iran AP In pictures: Ramadan around the world Israel A Palestinian man pours water on Muslim worshippers' heads to cool off in the heat, as others pray outside the Dome of the Rock at the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem during the last Friday prayers of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan EPA In pictures: Ramadan around the world Afghanistan Afghan women wait to receive food ration during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in Herat EPA In pictures: Ramadan around the world Pakistan A Pakistani Muslim reads the holy Koran as he observes Itikaf at a Mosque, in Peshawar EPA In pictures: Ramadan around the world India Kashmiri Muslim women offer prayers as the head priest (not pictured) displays a holy relic believed to be hair from the beard of the Prophet Mohammed, during special prayers to observe the Martyr Day of Hazrat Ali, cousin of Prophet Mohammed, on the 21st day of Ramadan, at the Hazratbal Shrine in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir EPA In pictures: Ramadan around the world India Indian Muslims sit with bowls of porridge(Nombu kanji)as they prepare to break the fast with the Iftar meal during the Islamic month of Ramadan at The Wallajah Big Mosque in Chennai AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Ramadan around the world Lebanon Spectators watch fireworks as a giant Fanous, or Ramadan lantern, is switched on four days before the start of Ramadan month in front of Mohamed al-Amine Mosque in downtown Beirut EPA In pictures: Ramadan around the world Lebanon Lebanese children perform during activities celebrating the upcoming Muslim holy month of Ramadan, in downtown Beirut AP In pictures: Ramadan around the world Palestine Palestinian men drink tea on the promenade of Gaza beach Getty In pictures: Ramadan around the world Indonesia Members of Nahdlatul Ulama, the biggest Muslim organisation in Indonesia, hold a mass prayer session to welcome in Ramadan in Jakarta AFP/Getty In pictures: Ramadan around the world Iraq Iraqis shop for food in a preparation for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in Baghdad AP In pictures: Ramadan around the world Indonesia Foods is seen during 'Unggah-unggahan' ceremony to welcome in the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan in Pekuncen village Getty

When is Eid al-Fitr?

On the Gregorian calendar, the date varies from one year to another and begins when the first sight of the new moon is seen in the sky

It also depends on the location, with different countries observing it in different ways. This year, it will be on the 6 July, according to Islamic Relief UK. The feasts last up to three days in most Muslim countries.

How do Muslims celebrate Eid al-Fitr?

On the first morning of the celebration, many gather in local mosques or open-air locations for special prayers called Salat al-Eid, and have breakfast.

Muslims put on their finest clothes for what will be their first daylight meal in a month. Some will exchange gifts, greeting cards and prepare special foods. Eid al-Fitr is to celebrate the happiness which man feels after successfully completing an important task, according to Al-Islam.

Gatherings will take place to mark the festival across the UK, including an event hosted by Mayor of London Sadiq Khan in Trafalgar Square on 9 July. Highlights include prayers, a food festival, and Arabic arts.

 NHS on how to have a healthy Ramadan

Last year, a record-breaking 60,000 Muslims turned up in a Birmingham park to celebrate the end of Ramadan.

Eid el-Fitr should be distinguished from Eid al-Adha, which is considered the holiest of the two main Muslim festivals.

Taking place this year on 10 September, it marks the willingness of Ibrahim to sacrifice his son as an act of submission to Allah's command, before Allah intervened through his angel Jibra'il and informed him the sacrifice had already been accepted.
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A controlled explosion of a "suspicious vehicle" has been carried out near the Israeli Embassy in Kensington, west London, police have said.

Metropolitan Police attended the scene and cordoned off part of High Street Kensington at around 6pm on Wednesday. Witnesses reported hearing an explosion.

It is understood that High Street Kensington tube station was evacuated and shut, while shops including Whole Foods supermarket were affected by the incident.

A Met Police spokeswoman said: "A controlled explosion was carried out after a suspicious vehicle was found parked opposite the Israeli Embassy".

The vehicle is no longer considered suspicious and the operation has been stood down. The area is now re-opened.

The Israeli Embassy is adjacent to Palace Green and less than 100 metres from Kensington Palace.
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Police have continued an appeal for the public's help in finding a 16-year-old girl who has been missing for three weeks.

Reneisha Brown was reported missing from her home in Wood Green by her mother on Wednesday, 18 May.

Raneisha is described as a black girl, 5ft 5ins in height and of a slim build with black hair.

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

She has been reported missing before, but police and her family are becoming increasingly concerned over her long disappearance.

Detectives say the teenager has been traveling in south London using public transport.

Officers have released a CCTV still showing her at Kennington tube station on Thursday, 2 June.

Anyone with any information as to Reneisha's whereabouts is asked call 101.
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A British tour boat operator says he has rescued scores of refugees from the English Channel in the past year, warning that the problem of small migrant boats slipping into the UK undetected is getting worse.

James Salmon, the owner of Dover Sea Safari, told Sky News people smugglers are increasingly chartering tiny vessels to make the treacherous journey across major shipping lanes.

Three Iranian refugees were intercepted by the UK Border Force on Tuesday alone, after their boat was spotted by a passing ferry.

And Tony Smith, former director of the borders agency, told the broadcaster there was a new and emerging threat in the Channel, the likes of which we are most used to seeing in the Mediterranean.

Its impossible to patrol 2,000 miles of UK coastline. This is a new threat for us, he said.

It is something we need to respond to.

But he added that it was not just a matter to be laid at the door of the Border Force.

What is required is collaboration between all of the agencies to make sure that our resources are properly commanded, properly controlled to enable us to eliminate this new and emerging threat.

Refugee crisis - in pictures Show all 27 1 /27 Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugee crisis - in pictures A child looks through the fence at the Moria detention camp for migrants and refugees at the island of Lesbos on May 24, 2016. AFP/Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Ahmad Zarour, 32, from Syria, reacts after his rescue by MOAS (Migrant Offshore Aid Station) while attempting to reach the Greek island of Agathonisi, Dodecanese, southeastern Agean Sea Refugee crisis - in pictures Syrian migrants holding life vests gather onto a pebble beach in the Yesil liman district of Canakkale, northwestern Turkey, after being stopped by Turkish police in their attempt to reach the Greek island of Lesbos on 29 January 2016. Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees flash the 'V for victory' sign during a demonstration as they block the Greek-Macedonian border Refugee crisis - in pictures Migrants have been braving sub zero temperatures as they cross the border from Macedonia into Serbia. Refugee crisis - in pictures A sinking boat is seen behind a Turkish gendarme off the coast of Canakkale's Bademli district on January 30, 2016. At least 33 migrants drowned on January 30 when their boat sank in the Aegean Sea while trying to cross from Turkey to Greece. Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A general view of a shelter for migrants inside a hangar of the former Tempelhof airport in Berlin, Germany Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees protest behind a fence against restrictions limiting passage at the Greek-Macedonian border, near Gevgelija. Since last week, Macedonia has restricted passage to northern Europe to only Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans who are considered war refugees. All other nationalities are deemed economic migrants and told to turn back. Macedonia has finished building a fence on its frontier with Greece becoming the latest country in Europe to build a border barrier aimed at checking the flow of refugees Refugee crisis - in pictures A father and his child wait after being caught by Turkish gendarme on 27 January 2016 at Canakkale's Kucukkuyu district Refugee crisis - in pictures Migrants make hand signals as they arrive into the southern Spanish port of Malaga on 27 January, 2016 after an inflatable boat carrying 55 Africans, seven of them women and six chidren, was rescued by the Spanish coast guard off the Spanish coast. Refugee crisis - in pictures A refugee holds two children as dozens arrive on an overcrowded boat on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugee crisis - in pictures A child, covered by emergency blankets, reacts as she arrives, with other refugees and migrants, on the Greek island of Lesbos, At least five migrants including three children, died after four boats sank between Turkey and Greece, as rescue workers searched the sea for dozens more, the Greek coastguard said Refugee crisis - in pictures Migrants wait under outside the Moria registration camp on the Lesbos. Over 400,000 people have landed on Greek islands from neighbouring Turkey since the beginning of the year Refugee crisis - in pictures The bodies of Christian refugees are buried separately from Muslim refugees at the Agios Panteleimonas cemetery in Mytilene, Lesbos Refugee crisis - in pictures Macedonian police officers control a crowd of refugees as they prepare to enter a camp after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A refugee tries to force the entry to a camp as Macedonian police officers control a crowd after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees are seen aboard a Turkish fishing boat as they arrive on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing a part of the Aegean Sea from the Turkish coast to Lesbos Reuters Refugee crisis - in pictures An elderly woman sings a lullaby to baby on a beach after arriving with other refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A man collapses as refugees make land from an overloaded rubber dinghy after crossing the Aegean see from Turkey, at the island of Lesbos EPA Refugee crisis - in pictures A girl reacts as refugees arrive by boat on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees make a show of hands as they queue after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures People help a wheelchair user board a train with others, heading towards Serbia, at the transit camp for refugees near the southern Macedonian town of Gevgelija AP Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees board a train, after crossing the Greek-Macedonian border, near Gevgelija. Macedonia is a key transit country in the Balkans migration route into the EU, with thousands of asylum seekers - many of them from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia - entering the country every day Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures An aerial picture shows the "New Jungle" refugee camp where some 3,500 people live while they attempt to enter Britain, near the port of Calais, northern France Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A Syrian girl reacts as she helped by a volunteer upon her arrival from Turkey on the Greek island of Lesbos, after having crossed the Aegean Sea EPA Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees arrive by boat on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Beds ready for use for migrants and refugees are prepared at a processing center on January 27, 2016 in Passau, Germany. The flow of migrants arriving in Passau has dropped to between 500 and 1,000 per day, down significantly from last November, when in the same region up to 6,000 migrants were arriving daily.

Officials said the boat carrying three Iranian nationals was intercepted by a Border Force cutter after the Maritime and Coastguard Agency sounded the alarm at 5.30am.

The three, all of whom were wearing life jackets, have since been taken to Dover where they will be processed by Home Office staff.

It comes after a boat carrying 18 Albanian migrants, two of them children, was met by officials off the coast of Kent. Two British men have been charged with people-smuggling offences.
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A Russian submarine capable of carrying cruise missiles and torpedoes has been intercepted by the Royal Navy while cruising towards the English Channel.

The vessel was last night being escorted by frigate HMS Kent and is expected to pass the Strait of Dover today.

It is understood that the submarine, Stary Oskol, was first detected in the North Sea where Nato forces are monitoring the waters.

The Ministry of Defence said it will continue to be shadowed by the Type 23 Duke class frigate, which had been taking part in commemorations for the Battle of Jutland centenary.

Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said: "This shows that the Navy is maintaining a vigilant watch in international and territorial waters to keep Britain safe and protect us from potential threats."

Commander Daniel Thomas of HMS Kent said: "Locating this submarine was a combined effort with Nato allies and shadowing such units is routine activity for the Royal Navy.

"We continue to escort the submarine as it conducts its passage, providing a visible presence."

Tensions between Russia and the Western world Show all 8 1 /8 Tensions between Russia and the Western world Tensions between Russia and the Western world Russia Vladimir Putin leaves G20 early after criticism from world leaders over Ukraine. David Cameron warned Vladimir Putin, face to face, that Russias whole post-Cold War relationship with the West is at a fork in the road over Ukraine Getty Tensions between Russia and the Western world Russia A mysterious Russian object is being tracked by space agencies, giving new life to fears about the increase of space weapons. The satellite, dubbed Object 2014-28E, has grabbed the interest of official and amateur satellite-watchers because it is taking a confusing path and its purpose has not been identified Getty Images Tensions between Russia and the Western world Russia Russian warplanes are risking the security of civilian passengers as they play a dangerous game designed to test Western air defences, according to Natos secretary general FRA Tensions between Russia and the Western world Russia Russia has warned Ukraine that a resumption of hostilities against pro-Russian separatists in the east would be catastrophic for Ukraine Reuters Tensions between Russia and the Western world Russia A Swedish minesweeper searches for suspected "foreign underwater activity" near Stockholm. A Russian sub in Swedish waters has slipped away into the sea...leaving recriminations in its wake Reuters Tensions between Russia and the Western world Russia Sberbank, Russia's largest lender, is taking the European Union to court in an attempt to loosen Western sanctions imposed over the Ukraine crisis GETTY IMAGES Tensions between Russia and the Western world Russia Russian government agencies have been accused of editing a Wikipedia article to suggest the Ukrainian military was responsible for shooting down the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, a Twitter account monitoring state IP addresses has claimed AFP Tensions between Russia and the Western world Russia Australias prime minister Tony Abbott has promised he will shirtfront Vladimir Putin over the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which killed 38 Australian citizens AP

The incident is the latest face-off between the British and Russian military following several incursions by aircraft in and around UK airspace.

In April 2015 a trawler was dragged violently by its nets while fishing 18 miles off the coast of Northern Ireland, leading to suspicions they had snagged on a Russian submarine - although the vessel later turned out to be British.

Press Association
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British police are teaching Saudi Arabian officers skills that could lead to the torture and execution of pro-democracy activists, a charity has warned.

Personnel from the Arab kingdom's interior ministry have been trained in detective work and high-tech forensics as a money-maker for the College of Policing, according to Reprieve, which has branded the programme "scandalous".

The anti-death penalty campaigning charity said an internal document showed the long-running partnership had continued despite a brutal crackdown by the regime following the 2011 Arab Spring that led to the torture of dozens of young protesters who were sentenced to death.

One teenage demonstrator was among 47 people executed on a single day in January this year. A 17-year-old sentenced to death after attending a non-violent protest now faces being beheaded alongside several others.

The report showed college bosses recognised there was a risk "the skills being trained are used to identify individuals who later go on to be tortured or subjected to other human rights abuses" and predicted an outcry over the arrangement, Reprieve said.

Despite the risks the college was considering expanding its training programme, which began in 2009, to include advanced cyber crime techniques, the charity said.

Maya Foa, director of the Reprieve death penalty team, called on the Foreign Office to justify the sharing of British know-how with the regime.

"It is scandalous that British police are training Saudi Arabian officers in techniques which they privately admit could lead to people being arrested, tortured and sentenced to death," she said.

"The training Britain delivered included hi-tech skills that could easily have been used to target pro-democracy activists in Saudi Arabia."

The Foreign Office said the British expertise was being used to improve the Saudi justice system, including human rights compliance, rehabilitation for abuse victims and legal aid.

Advanced training in forensics was being used to ensure accurate evidence gathering, it said.

A spokeswoman said: "It is not good enough to merely criticise other countries from the sidelines.

"Only by working with Saudi Arabia are we able to bring about the changes we would like to see in the country."

10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Show all 10 1 /10 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses In October 2014, three lawyers, Dr Abdulrahman al-Subaihi, Bander al-Nogaithan and Abdulrahman al-Rumaih , were sentenced to up to eight years in prison for using Twitter to criticize the Ministry of Justice. AFP/Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses In March 2015, Yemens Sunni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi was forced into exile after a Shia-led insurgency. A Saudi Arabia-led coalition has responded with air strikes in order to reinstate Mr Hadi. It has since been accused of committing war crimes in the country. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Women who supported the Women2Drive campaign, launched in 2011 to challenge the ban on women driving vehicles, faced harassment and intimidation by the authorities. The government warned that women drivers would face arrest. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Members of the Kingdoms Shia minority, most of whom live in the oil-rich Eastern Province, continue to face discrimination that limits their access to government services and employment. Activists have received death sentences or long prison terms for their alleged participation in protests in 2011 and 2012. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses All public gatherings are prohibited under an order issued by the Interior Ministry in 2011. Those defy the ban face arrest, prosecution and imprisonment on charges such as inciting people against the authorities. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses In March 2014, the Interior Ministry stated that authorities had deported over 370,000 foreign migrants and that 18,000 others were in detention. Thousands of workers were returned to Somalia and other states where they were at risk of human rights abuses, with large numbers also returned to Yemen, in order to open more jobs to Saudi Arabians. Many migrants reported that prior to their deportation they had been packed into overcrowded makeshift detention facilities where they received little food and water and were abused by guards. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses The Saudi Arabian authorities continue to deny access to independent human rights organisations like Amnesty International, and they have been known to take punitive action, including through the courts, against activists and family members of victims who contact Amnesty. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Raif Badawi was sentenced to 1000 lashes and 10 years in prison for using his liberal blog to criticise Saudi Arabias clerics. He has already received 50 lashes, which have reportedly left him in poor health. Carsten Koall/Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Dawood al-Marhoon was arrested aged 17 for participating in an anti-government protest. After refusing to spy on his fellow protestors, he was tortured and forced to sign a blank document that would later contain his confession. At Dawoods trial, the prosecution requested death by crucifixion while refusing him a lawyer. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Ali Mohammed al-Nimr was arrested in 2012 aged either 16 or 17 for participating in protests during the Arab spring. His sentence includes beheading and crucifixion. The international community has spoken out against the punishment and has called on Saudi Arabia to stop. He is the nephew of a prominent government dissident. Getty

Reprieve said UK involvement with the Saudi interior ministry was at odds with the Governments official stance to oppose the death penalty.

Using Freedom of Information laws, it obtained an internal report that described a "trusted and professional partnership" and contained proposals for future collaboration.

The partnership was an "income generating business opportunity", the report said.

According to the charity, candidates are drawn from the 300,000 officers working in the Saudi interior ministry, including policemen, prison guards and national security staff, some of whom have attended courses at a centre in County Durham.

Press Association
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William Hague will today accuse Brexit campaigners of peddling fantasy economics by suggesting that leaving the EU will not harm the British economy.

The intervention by Lord Hague, who stepped down as an MP at the general election after 26 years, comes after leading figures in the campaign to leave the EU have suggested Brexit will free up investment for the NHS and other areas.

Lord Hague will say: The idea that we can leave the EU without any serious economic consequences for jobs and businesses in Britain, and somehow have more money to spend on the NHS and other services at the same time, is a total fantasy, and people need to know that before they vote.

Precise forecasts of the damage that would be done will vary greatly. But economics is more of an art than a science and a successful economy rests above all on confidence. The greatest risk is that confidence would be seriously undermined. This is not something that can be laughed off by talking of Canada one moment and Albania the next.

Recommended Read more Thousands could get extra time to register to vote in EU referendum

This concerns the job prospects of millions of young people across Britain, and it is not responsible, sensible or rational to jeopardise those  and particularly to do so without any clear plan as to what the alternative to the current arrangements might be.

Ahead of the speech in London today the former Conservative leader also dismissed the possibility of the Turkey gaining membership of the EU and urged voters not to base their decision on fears about immigration in the upcoming referendum.

Its right to have a referendumthis is a profoundly democratic country there are 35 or so chapters of negotiations between Turkey and the EU and only one or two of them have been closed or settled. Turkish membership of the EU is not on the cards. It is not something how people should be deciding how to vote in this referendum, the former Foreign Secretary told BBC Radio 4s Today programme.

There arent any countries at the moment anywhere near joining the European Union.

He continued: We are an imperfect world and many of the choices we make in life, in politics and in government are between the lesser of evils  Ill be honest about that.

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.

I remain a critic of the European Union but you still have to make a cool-headed decision when it comes to leaving it to whether its in the interests of people in this country and in the interests of their jobs,

Asked about immigration and the free movement of people from European countries, the former Tory leader responded: This is not the issue in which to decide how to vote in this referendum. The Leave campaign have put forward an Australian-style points system but Australia has higher immigration relative to its population than we do.

He added: If you use leaving the EU as a means of controlling immigration it affects all those British people who want to live or work or study across the European Union.
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Why are we asking this question?

Opinion polls suggest that a majority (54 per cent) of people in Scotland want to remain in the European Union, with 32 per cent wanting to leave and 14 per cent saying dont know. If the UK voted to leave in the 23 June referendum, it would reopen the debate on whether Scotland should become independent. (This is not the only scenario: another is that England could vote for Brexit and be outvoted by Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland).

Havent the Scots just voted to remain part of the UK?

Yes. In September 2014, they agreed by 55 per cent to 45 per cent to remain. The Scottish National Party says the Scottish Parliament should have the right to hold another referendum after a material change in the circumstances  such as Brexit against Scotlands wishes  or clear and sustained evidence that independence has become the preferred option of most Scots. SNP sources suggest this would mean 60 per cent support for a year.

So would it be better for the SNP if Scotland votes to stay and the UK opts for Brexit?

Possibly. Alex Salmond, the former SNP leader, has suggested that a second referendum would be held within two years of a Brexit vote and that Scots would vote Yes to independence this time. Nicola Sturgeon, the current SNP leader and First Minister, says there would be a real chance of a second independence referendum in these circumstances, but insists this is a scenario I will be doing my best to ensure doesnt happen because she wants the UK to remain in the EU.

However, some Remain campaigners claim that Ms Sturgeon is playing a double game appearing to oppose Brexit while subtly doing what she can to bring it about.

If the UK voted for Brexit, Ms Sturgeon would come under strong pressure from her own party to secure a second referendum. But she wants one only when she is sure of winning: a second defeat would almost certainly kill the issue for a generation.

 David Cameron asked if he is 'finished as PM' after EU referendum

Would the UK Government give Scotland another independence referendum after a Brexit vote against its wishes?

Unlikely. The SNP might need to win a mandate at the 2020 general election or the next Scottish Parliament elections in 2021. But public pressure in Scotland could build. The Green Party would back a second vote, giving the SNP a majority on the issue in the Holyrood Parliament.

Is support for Scottish independence still on the rise?

No. Falling revenues after the oil price collapse have raised doubts about whether the Scottish economy could survive on its own. Some observers think the SNP may have peaked. Although the party retained power at the Scottish Parliament elections in May, it lost its overall majority. The Conservatives leapfrogged Labour into second place on a pro-union platform, amid signs that some voters are tiring of the independence debate and want the SNP to get on with running the country.

According to the What Scotland Thinks website, the latest polls suggest that 41 per cent of Scots would support a breakaway now, while 48 per cent would vote No (figures exclude dont-knows). After a Brexit vote, 44 per cent would back independence, and 47 per cent would vote No.

21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Show all 21 1 /21 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Portugal drinks more wine than France Tindo - Fotolia 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Young Italians, by some distance, are the most likely to live at home with their parents 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Britain is on course to overtake Germany as Europes most populated country 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Greek workers work the longest hours in the EU 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Estonia has, per capita, more drug-related deaths than anyone else 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe The fastest download speeds are to be found in Romania 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Slovenia, Malta and Poland have the smallest gender pay gaps 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe France hates its leader more than other European countries 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Eastern and Western Europe are very divided on the issue of gay marriage 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Germany has the most millionaires 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Everyone likes Christmas, apart from France 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Germany accepts by far the most asylum applications 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe The UK and France have some of the most positive views of Muslim people 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Europe's largest Muslim population is in Germany 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Danes are the most trusting Europeans, and Cypriots the least 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Finland has the worst economy in the EU 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Italy has cut back its military spending more than any other major European Nato member 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Everyone is sad about the refugee crisis 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe People in Spain are also the most likely to live in flats (Brits are most likely to live in houses) 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Spain is the most likely to feel neighbourly 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Luxembourg is home to the highest proportion of foreign nationals

Is anyone saying that the UK could break up if Scotland is outvoted on the EU?

David Cameron has warned that leaving the EU could lead to the disintegration of the UK. In Tuesday nights Sky News debate, he said he was worried about the prospect of a second referendum.

Sir John Major, the former Prime Minister, said there would be a high probability that Scotland will hold another referendum and leave the UK, and as a result the UK would be fractured. The House of Lords Select Constitution Committee has warned that the referendum poses a risk to the union.

But Jim Sillars, a former SNP deputy leader, said many Scots would balk at an uncertain future if the rest of the UK left the EU. I dont think it stands up to very serious analysis, he said. One scenario is an increasingly fractious Union, but one that does not break apart.

Could there be a constitutional crisis after a Brexit vote?

Possibly. The legislation governing the Scottish Parliament says it cannot pass laws incompatible with EU law. A clean break with the EU would require these laws to be amended, which would normally require Holyroods consent. It might refuse. Imposing change from Westminster could spark a crisis, some experts say.

Would an independent Scotland be allowed to join the EU?

There was confusion during the 2014 referendum over whether an independent Scotland could remain in the EU or would have to apply for membership, how long that might take and what terms would apply. There are signs of enlargement fatigue in the EU and five would-be members are already in the queue. In practice, Scotland might secure fast-track entry.

Nicola Sturgeon reacts after a positive result for her party at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow (EPA)

What problems might there be?

New EU states are supposed to sign up to joining the euro and independent Scotland could lose the UKs opt-out. The SNP wants to keep the pound, but the UK Government ruled that out during the 2014 referendum. Trade between Scotland and the rest of the UK would be covered by the deal struck between the EU and the UK. Scotland exports 48.5bn to England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and only 11.6bn to other EU members. (Figures exclude oil and gas.)

How is the EU debate going in Scotland?

The SNP is running its own Remain campaign and not sharing platforms with the Conservatives. The SNP has accused both sides of threats and fearmongering and called for more a positive In campaign. Labour and Liberal Democrat figures have accused the SNP of undermining the pro-EU cause, warning that talk of a second referendum could encourage some Scots to vote for Brexit.
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Every hospital in the country may have to cut 1,000 nurses or 155 doctors from their staff in the event of Brexit, Labours Shadow Health Secretary has warned.

Heidi Alexander said that leaving the EU could leave the NHS with a 10.5bn funding blackhole, hitting hospital budgets and risking major staff cuts.

The future of 130,000 European NHS employees and care workers would also be put in doubt if we voted to leave, the Lewisham East MP said.

In a speech in London today, she will point to House of Commons library analysis based on the worst-case scenario after Brexit, as set out by the Institute of Fiscal Studies, which suggests that the economic impact of leaving the EU could lead to the Department of Health to slashing billions from its spending.

Attacking Leave campaigners who have claimed that Brexit would be good for the NHS and pledged to redirect 100m extra a week to the health service, Ms Alexander said it was utterly astonishing that Boris Johnson and Michael Gove were characterising all Remain campaigners as the elite establishment that has been brainwashed by Brussels bureaucrats.

My view of the world is informed by going to a comprehensive school in Swindon, in contrast to them. Im the daughter of an electrician, my mum was a dinner lady, I didnt go to Eton, I didnt have those privileges, she said.

Labelling Vote Leaves warnings about the impact of migration on the NHS misleading, simplistic and complete and utter nonsense she argued that immigration had been overwhelmingly good for the health service.

You are a lot more likely to come across a migrant in a hospital who is caring for you than one who is in the bed next to you, she said.

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

I think of my own family. Two years ago my gran passed away and who was the person who sat by her bedside and dabbed water on her lips in the days before she passed away? It was a Polish care assistant called Kristina. We have to be honest about the benefits that migrants have brought to the country," she said.

52,000 non-British Europeans work in the NHS, a figure which rises to 130,000 when care workers are included. It is not clear what their working status would be if Britain were to leave the EU and there are concerns that many will seek to work in an EU country rather than update their visa.

Vote Leave said that the House of Commons library research was based on dodgy assumptions.

It is clear that the NHS benefits from having talented nurses and doctors but our immigration system makes it harder to bring those professionals in from across the world while increasing pressures in the waiting room, a campaign spokesperson said.
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Former Prime Ministers Sir John Major and Tony Blair will unite to warn that a vote for Brexit could tear apart the United Kingdom and plunge Northern Ireland into a new era of instability.

With only two weeks to go before the vote, the former rivals, both architects of the peace process, will warn that leaving the EU would be a deeply damaging and reckless course that would put Northern Irelands future at risk.

In a joint speech in Northern Ireland, they will also warn that if the UK votes for Brexit, but Scotland backs Remain, then pressure for a new independence referendum will become irresistible.

I say to everyone who is undecided, everyone who is wavering: please understand the potential  even the likely consequence of a vote to leave the EU, Sir John will say.

Not just a shrunken economy, not just a diminished United Kingdom on the world stage, but a smaller country in a very real and literal sense. The most successful union in world history would be broken apart for good.

Mr Blair, who as Prime Minister signed the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, will say that the Leave campaign has not answered fundamental questions about the consequences of Brexit for Northern Ireland, including the complex issue of the land border between the Republic of Ireland and the UK.

A mural marking unionist territory in Londonderry, which is situated on the border between the north and south of Ireland (Getty)

He will warn that the stability of Northern Ireland is poised on carefully constructed foundations and warn voters not to take a punt on Leave campaigners.

Their ideological fixation with leaving Europe is more important to them than the clear disadvantage Northern Ireland would suffer if we left and the consequent damage to the UK as a whole, he will say. We should always distrust those who put ideology before practical considerations.

Currently, the UK and the Republic of Ireland operate a Common Travel Area, in which citizens of the two states can move freely without passports and enjoy almost the same rights as citizens in each others countries  an arrangement that pre-dates the EU. However, a vote for Brexit would create a land border between an EU and a non-EU state. Remain campaigners have warned that it could lead to the return of a hard border between the two countries, putting trade and economic collaboration at risk.

Leave campaign figurehead Boris Johnson has said that the border arrangements would be absolutely unchanged in the event of Brexit. However, other Leave campaigners have suggested some border controls would be necessary to prevent opening up a backdoor to the UK for EU migrants.

What has the EU ever done for us? Show all 7 1 /7 What has the EU ever done for us? What has the EU ever done for us? 1. It gives you freedom to live, work and retire anywhere in Europe As a member of the EU, UK citizens benefit from freedom of movement across the continent. Considered one of the so-called four pillars of the European Union, this freedom allows all EU citizens to live, work and travel in other member states. What has the EU ever done for us? 2. It sustains millions of jobs A report by the Centre for Economics and Business Research, released in October 2015, suggested 3.1 million British jobs were linked to the UKs exports to the EU. What has the EU ever done for us? 3. Your holiday is much easier - and safer Freedom to travel is one of the most exercised benefits of EU membership, with Britons having made 31 million visits to the EU in 2014 alone. But a lot of the benefits of being an EU citizen are either taken for granted or go unnoticed. What has the EU ever done for us? 4. It means you're less likely to get ripped off Consumer protection is a key benefit of the EUs single market, and ensures members of the British public receive equal consumer rights when shopping anywhere in Europe. What has the EU ever done for us? 5. It offers greater protection from terrorists, paedophiles, people traffickers and cyber-crime Another example of a lesser-known advantage of EU membership is the benefit of cross-country coordination and cooperation in the fight against crime. What has the EU ever done for us? 6. Our businesses depend on it According to 71% of all members of the Confederation of British Influence (CBI), and 67 per cent of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the EU has had an overall positive impact on their business. What has the EU ever done for us? 7. We have greater influence Robin Niblett, Director of think-tank Chatham House, stated in a report published last year: For a mid-sized country like the UK, which will never again be economically dominant either globally or regionally, and whose diplomatic and military resources are declining in relative terms, being a major player in a strong regional institution can offer a critical lever for international influence.

The warnings from the two ex-Prime Ministers will prompt new allegations of scaremongering from Leave campaigners. But Sir John will claim that Brexit would risk the unity of the UK with implications for both Northern Ireland and Scotland.

If Scotland votes to stay in the EU, but the UK as a whole chooses to leave, there is a serious risk of a new referendum, he will say. Not straightaway perhaps, but ultimately nationalist pressure for another shot at leaving the UK could prove to be uncontrollable and irresistible.

David Cameron said this week that he was concerned about the prospect of a second referendum, while the SNP has repeatedly said that a vote for Brexit against the will of the Scottish people would lead to renewed calls for independence.

The EU referendum debate has so far been characterised by bias, distortion and exaggeration. So until 23 June we were running a series of question and answer features that explain the most important issues in a detailed, dispassionate way to help inform your decision.

What is Brexit and why are we having an EU referendum?

Will we gain or lose rights by leaving the European Union?

What will happen to immigration if there's Brexit?

Will Brexit make the UK more or less safe?

Will the UK benefit from being released from EU laws?

Will leaving the EU save taxpayers money and mean more money for the NHS?

What will Brexit do to UK trade?

How Brexit will affect British tourism

What will Brexit mean for British tourists booking holidays in the EU?

Will Brexit help or damage the environment?

Will Brexit mean that Europeans have to leave the UK?

What will Brexit mean for British expats?
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Nigel Farage has been accused of "falsely" claiming that EU migration policy has allowed 5,000 Isis-inspired terrorists into Europe.

Rob Wainwright, the British director of European law enforcement agency Europol, said the Ukip leader's claim had no basis in fact and was a very serious, even alarmist, conflation of migration and terrorism.

Mr Farage used a TV set-piece on Tuesday to claim Mr Wainwright had said the EUs policy towards refugees and migrants had led to 5,000 jihadis entering the EU in the past 15 months.

 Nigel Farage tells audience member to calm down after calling him out on scaremongering

However, Mr Wainwright said the figure was incorrect and based on false newspaper reports. He also strongly denied he had drawn a link between Europes response to the migration crisis and the number of potential terrorists entering the EU.

He told The Independent that 5,000 was the number of European nationals estimated by Europol to have been radicalised and travelled to Syria and Iraq, but that by no means had all of them returned to Europe.

I suspect less than one third have and of those the largest proportion are unlikely to pose a terrorist threat, he said.

Whilst I certainly believe we have a serious terrorist threat in Europe the numbers we are dealing with are much lower than those quoted by Mr Farage and I think keeping a sense of proportion is important on such matters.

Nigel Farage: 'Politicians govern through fear' Show all 4 1 /4 Nigel Farage: 'Politicians govern through fear' Nigel Farage: 'Politicians govern through fear' 5330791.jpg Kalpesh Lathigra Nigel Farage: 'Politicians govern through fear' 5333287.jpg Getty Images Nigel Farage: 'Politicians govern through fear' 5335053.jpg Rex Features Nigel Farage: 'Politicians govern through fear' 5334953.jpg Getty Images

However, he said there was absolutely no excuse for Mr Farages claim that he had said the EUs migration policy had led to 5,000 jihadists entering Europe.

There is no basis in fact, not even false media reporting, for this point and it is a very serious, even alarmist, conflation of migration and terrorism, he said.

I have consistently said that we have observed some isolated examples of terrorists travelling through migratory routes and that, possibly, the incidence of such cases is rising but on a tiny scale compared to any claim of 5,000.

Mr Wainwright said he had publicly corrected Mr Farage after the Ukip leader made similar claims at a public event last month.

I am disappointed therefore, that he continues to quote me in this way, he said.

A Ukip spokesman said Mr Farage would be advised the 5,000 figure was a misinterpretation. However, the spokesman said 2,000 Isis-inspired individuals within the borders of the EU was nothing to be complacent about in light of the recent terror attacks in Paris and Brussels.
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Nigel Farage told a live ITV debate audience he had been demonised in the press over claims there will mass sex attacks if Britain left the EU  then immediately repeated the same warning.

Asked by an audience member if he wasnt simply demonising migrants in turn, the Ukip leader said Germany and Sweden have had a huge issue in recent months, language reminiscent of the way Donald Trump talks about Muslims.

Whats happened is, a very large number of single males have settled in Sweden and in Germany, who come from cultures where attitudes towards women are different, he said.

I havent scare-mongered in any way, at all, he added.

Tola Jaiyeola, the audience member, was confronting Mr Farage over his suggestion that the possibility of sex attacks against British women would be a nuclear bomb in the referendum debate.

The Archbishop of Canterbury condemned the comments, saying Mr Farage was guilty of "inexcusable pandering to peoples worries and prejudices, that is giving legitimisation to racism".

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

Asked about Justin Welby's statement, Mr Farage said: "Im not going to stand and attack the Archbishop of Canterbury but he would have done better to read what I actually said ... It is a tiddly issue in the this campaign. I knew the Remainers would come to me and conflate what I said."

In an increasingly acrimonious exchange, Ms Jaiyeola asked: "How can you have the audacity to use such blatant scaremongering tactics for the Leave campaign?

"In light of the recent horrific sexual assaults in Germany, you have basically suggested that a vote to Remain is a vote for British women to be subdued to the same horrific assaults."

Mr Farage told the member of the public: Just calm down there, a little bit alright?

He went on: Because... sometimes in life what it says at the top of a newspaper page and what you've actually said can be slightly different things.

Look, I'm used to being demonised because I've taken on the establishment.

When I first suggested we should have an Australian-style points system, you'd think I'd said something dreadful. And now I'm pleased to say lots of people are saying it.

He added: What I said about Cologne was that it's a huge issue in Germany. It's a huge issue in Sweden. I think Angela Merkel has made a big mistake by saying 'please anyone come', and what's happened is a very large number of young, single, males, have settled in Germany and Sweden who come from cultures where attitudes towards women are different.
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Jeremy Corbyn represents the politics of protest and is standing by while people are bombed, beaten and starved into submission in Syria, Tony Blair has said, in his most vehement attack on the Labour leader yet.

The former Prime Minister, who is awaiting the publication of the Chilcot Report into the Iraq War, dismissed Mr Corbyn as the guy with the placard and suggested he was incapable of making the difficult decisions required of a world leader.

Attacking Mr Corbyn, who has suggested that Mr Blair should face a war crimes investigation, the former Labour leader told Bloomberg: Im accused of being a war criminal for removing Saddam Hussein  who by the way was a war criminal  and yet Jeremy is seen as a progressive icon as we stand by and watch the people of Syria barrel-bombed, beaten and starved into submission and do nothing.

Recommended Read more Corbyn makes last minute plea to young voters to register for EU poll

He said that both Mr Corbyn and US Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump had benefitted from the revolutionary phenomenon of social media, which he said could win mass support for political figures on waves of sentiment and emotion.

Outlining how he felt his style of politics differed to Mr Corbyns, he said: Theres a guy whose face is on the placard. Thats me: hate that guy. Youre the person in power taking difficult decisions. Jeremy is the guy with the placard, hes the guy holding it. Ones the politics of power and the others the politics of protest.

 Blair hints he could reject the findings of the Chilcot inquiry

Last year, Mr Corbyn said the former prime minister could be made to stand trial for war crimes, saying that he thought the Iraq War was an illegal one and that Mr Blair "has to explain that".

We went into a war that was catastrophic, that was illegal, that cost us a lot of money, that lost a lot of lives, he told Newsnight in August. The consequences are still played out with migrant deaths in the Mediterranean, refugees all over the region, he said.

In response to Mr Blair's astonishing attack, a spokesman for Mr Corbyn said: "What Tony Blair says is a matter for him. If he is suggesting that Jeremy Corbyn is leading a politics of protest, I would say that's not correct. Jeremy Corbyn is leading the Opposition and building support against a Conservative Government."

Tony Blair: A career of controversies Show all 11 1 /11 Tony Blair: A career of controversies Tony Blair: A career of controversies The Tony Blair 'selfie'.. A journalist takes a picture of Kennard Phillips 'Photo Op', depicting Prime Minister Tony Blair taking a 'selfie' in front of an explosion in Iraq, during a press viewing of the exhibition Catalyst: Contemporary Art and War Tony Blair: A career of controversies Protesters pictured outside the QEII Conference centre in London in 2011 as former British PM Tony Blair give his evidence in the Chilcot Iraq Inquiry Tony Blair: A career of controversies David Lawley-Wakelin, who disrupted Tony Blairs testimony at the Leveson Inquiry by bursting into the court Tony Blair: A career of controversies Blair giving evidence Tony Blair: A career of controversies Tony Blair visiting troops in Iraq in 2007 Tony Blair: A career of controversies Blair meeting with troops in Basra, Iraq in 2003 Tony Blair: A career of controversies Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair speaks to British soldiers at Divisional Headquaters in Basra, May 2007 Tony Blair: A career of controversies British Prime Minister Tony Blair eats dinner with British troops in Basra, Iraq, 21 December, 2004 Tony Blair: A career of controversies Syrian president Bashar El Assad during his official visit to the United Kingdom in 2002. Mr Blair tried to engage Mr Garcia in a conversation about Syria. The former Prime Minister made clear he was very much in favour of military intervention last summer. Tony Blair: A career of controversies Syrian president Bashar El Assad and wife Asma during their official visit to the United Kingdom in 2002. Mr Blair tried to engage Mr Garcia in a conversation about Syria Tony Blair: A career of controversies Former Prime Minister Tony Blair's signature adorns a program he signed for an Iraq veteran during a reception at the Guildhall in London following the service of commemoration at St Paul's Cathedral honouring UK military and civilian personnel who served in Iraq

He added that the Labour leader will not budge from his refusal to share platforms with Conservatives or the cross-party Stronger In campaign in the last few days before the EU referendum.

Mr Corbyn has been criticised from all sides for refusing to share platforms with Conservative opponents of Brexit during the referendum and been urged to make a stronger case for the Remain camp.

Asked whether he would be prepared to appear alongside Mr Blair on pro-EU platforms, the Labour leader's spokesman said: "I think Tony Blair has been involved in the Stronger In campaign. We have made it absolutely clear Jeremy is only working on the Labour In campaign. We are not sharing platforms with the Stronger In campaign and we are not sharing platforms with the Tories."

He added: "There are no plans to share a platform with Tony Blair ... We are not asking Tony Blair to do that, let's be clear about that."

On Tuesday, it was reported Mr Blair is expected to defend himself against the findings by claiming the situation in the Middle East would have been worse if Saddam Hussein had been left in power.
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A United Nations whistleblower who exposed the systematic sexual abuse of children by peacekeeping troops in Africa has resigned in protest at the entrenched lack of accountability within the organisation.

Anders Kompass, field operations director at the High Commission for Human Rights in Geneva, said he decided to leave after seeing the continuous failure of the UN to scrutinise the actions of senior officials.

The 60-year-old was suspended and faced dismissal last year before being exonerated in January, for leaking confidential documents detailing the abuse of children by French troops in Central African Republic (CAR).

He claimed he was driven to become a whistleblower through frustration after the UN failed to tackle abuse which is thought to have been widespread.

Mr Kompass told IRIN News: The complete impunity for those who have been found to have, in various degrees, abused their authority, together with the unwillingness of the hierarchy to express any regrets for the way they acted towards me sadly confirms that lack of accountability is entrenched in the United Nations.

This makes it impossible for me to continue working here. It was a very hard decision for me to take, after a total of 21 years of service with the United Nations, but one that I feel was unavoidable.

Among the alleged abuses revealed by Mr Kompass was the claim that children as young as eight in the MPoko refugee camp were being coerced into sex by soldiers in return for food or money.

In August 2015, UN troops were accused of raping a 12-year-old girl and killing a 16-year-old boy during a routine mission in CAR.

Mr Kompass departure may have been influenced by the announcement that Susana Malcorra, who was heavily involved in his controversial suspension in April last year, plans to stand for the role of UN secretary general later this year.

The former Swedish diplomat was charged with misconduct, marched out of his office and faced an uncertain future during a nine-month disciplinary process.

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

The report which later exonerated Mr Kompass highlighted the gross institutional failure of the UN to deal with the serious allegations of sexual abuse and accused UN officials of abusing their authority.

Mr Kompass will resign from his post on August 31, a year before the end of his contract, and has reportedly already accepted a job at the Swedish foreign ministry.

In February the UN peacekeeping mission for Central African Republic said it had identified seven new cases of sexual abuse by its troops including women and girls.

The new cases, which involved at least five children, came on top of over 20 allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation by UN peacekeepers in the country last year

The Independent has contacted the office of Mr Kompass for comment.
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One teenage student has been killed and three others were injured in a shooting that took place outside a high school in Dorchester.

A 17-year-old male student at Jeremiah E Burke High School High School was killed in the attack, two other teens were injured and a 67-year-old woman sustained a leg injury when grazed by a bullet, police said at a press conference on Wednesday.

Commissioner William Evans said that police have launched an investigation into the city's 13th homicide this year. When a 17-year-old is shot and dies on the street when leaving school, we should all be outraged, Commissioner Evans told reporters.

Nearby, both Dearborn STEM Academy and Lilla G Frederick Pilot Middle School were both placed on lockdown following the shooting.

Victoria Johnson, a 17-year-old junior at the high school, said she re-entered the school after the fire drill went off. He gave me a hug and said, Stay safe, Victoria,' she told Boston.com, adding the boy typically said this. Out on these streets, you have to stay safe Even outside of my school.

People who live near the high school said they were shocked by the violence.

Its hard to believe, Marlene Mena, 30, told the Boston Globe. There are a lot of kids out during the day. There is usually a patrol car on the street, when school lets out. You dont really hear this during the day.
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It is late in the Jardins district of Sao Paulo and Carlos Jereissati, an operator of luxury shopping malls, is arriving for a party at the mansion of Bia Yunes, a contemporary art collector, with a few of his friends. Just inside, they step insouciantly upon a pattern of steel plates created by the late Brazilian sculptor Amilcar de Castro. To their right a piece from the London Pictures series by Gilbert & George adorns a small salon. Waiters hover with pregnant bottles of champagne.

Nearby, on Haddock Street, Neide Nascimento Santos, 52, has finished cleaning her second home of the day and is mentally preparing to return to her husband, Francisco, in their small flat in Vila das Beleza in south Sao Paulo. Once a well-paid construction manager, he was laid off three years ago and has attempted to build a home appliances business, but nowadays the phone never rings. Despairing that his wife is now the households bread-winner, he is gripped by depression.

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It is a split-screen moment that is partly about economic inequality and crisis. Over four years, Brazil has tumbled from a commodities boom that precisely lifted families like Neides to where they could buy a home and a car into a new chasm that only the wealthiest can bestride. Its economy is 5 per cent smaller than a year ago. The construction industry, like others, has come to a standstill amidst astronomic borrowing costs. Two years ago 7 million Brazilians were jobless; 11 million are today.

It is also about diverging political perspectives. Santos will not say outright that the vote by Brazils Senate in May to suspend President Dilma Rousseff from office for allegedly massaging the nations books was wrong. But she, like millions of others who benefited from thirteen years of rule by the leftist Workers Party, first under President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, or Lula, and then Rousseff, are clear that Michel Temer, now interim president, will make things worse for them.

They are never going to be thinking about the poor of Brazil, she explained to The Independent on Haddock Street. They are only for themselves, they are going to forget about us.

Neide Nascimento Santos sees only dark days ahead for her and her husband (David Usborne)

Her suspicions may not be misplaced. Within hours of taking the reins, Temer, the 75-year-old leader of the centrist PMDB Party, unveiled an all-white, all-male cabinet that sent not just a message of government by the elite but also one promising brutal economic reform. Among his more striking picks was Henrique Meirelles as finance minister. A former governor of the Central Bank and one time captain of Wall Street, he is expected to take an axe soon to Brazils hitherto generous social programmes, dismantle its labyrinthine regulations and even rewrite its tax code.

While he still has to finalise a plan that will be acceptable to Congress, Temer has already shown intensity of purpose. This week, he vowed to replace political appointees running state institutions with technocrats and acted to pull back on further bloating the government payroll.

 Brazil: Michel Temer takes charge as Senate suspends Dilma Rousseff

It is a jolt that is giving residents in Jardins, in their garrison homes protected by high walls and electrified wires, as well as the business community in general, hope. For some, just sidelining Rousseff was almost enough. She will now face a trial, which is widely expected to lead to her permanent ousting. Should enough of her allies return to her side, she could yet return, however.

She is an ignorant, she is a bad mouth, she is impolite and has all the bad qualities you can think about someone you would never want to hire for your company. She should be put in a madhouse and even then they would have trouble to find a cure, blasted Roger Barends, an independent financial consultant in Sao Paolo. Its scary even to consider the option of her coming pack. It would be like putting razor blades in the paws of a monkey and letting it run around the room.

Brazils Senate suspended President Dilma Rousseff from office in May (EPA)

Celebrating 50 years of Iguatemi, the mall chain founded by his father, Jereissati began paring expansion plans three years ago. We knew something was wrong, he said in an interview. Foot traffic is still strong at his flagship mall in Sao Paulo, but people are shopping with caution. Only the state lottery on the top floor had a queue outside one morning this week. At the cavernous, W beauty studio, as sanitised as an emergency room, owner Wanderley Nunes admitted the mindset of his women (and some men) clients are changing. It is not so much about money but about time. Today, they want simple, practical styles they can easily manage. No more extensions.

Jereissatis also welcomes Rousseffs dismissal. She did not have the ability to lead. If you dont have a condition to lead, whats next, should we wait for ever? What took her away was her own party realising she did not have the wherewithal to lead any longer. And he is clear also that Temer stepping into her shoes offers the possibility, at least, of economic respite for the country.

Carlos Jereissati believes Temer has a chance to succeed (Iguatemi)

Temer has to sell the dream. He has to try to do ten things, but if he manages to pull off three of them it is already a big, big achievement. If he can do the most relevant ones, I think we are moving again. Jereissati cites social security reform, stabilising the public deficit and slashing government spending. He is moving to show he can do those reforms.

All the while, however, Temer has shown little willingness to address Brazils other malaise: corruption that has bound government and many of the countrys biggest corporations  Petrobras, the near-bankrupt state energy giant, in particular  in a rolling and odious bribery scandal. Seven of the ministers he chose were already implicated in the so-called Car Wash investigation into a pipeline of Petrobras kickbacks to politicians and government officials. Two have already quit his cabinet. This week, Brazil's chief prosecutor submitted a formal request for the arrest of the presidents of the Senate and of Temers PMDB party for allegedly trying to obstruct the corruption probe, though the Supreme Court has not yet acted on it.

Meanwhile, prosecutors are pursuing allegations that Temer violated election laws six years ago. A court last week found him guilty and banned him from running for office for eight years.

But to his supporters, including Jereissati, the Car Wash investigation, which has already seen several political figures put behind bars, is a sign that Brazil has reached a moment of institutional maturity and political transparency and should not be a totem of shame for the country. People laughing at Brazil over this are not paying attention, he offered.

Yet, ordinary Brazilians are paying close attention. As new corruption allegations surface on a near daily basis, faith in the political class is at rock bottom. For that reason alone, Temer has only a very narrow window to show results from his campaign of economic reform or popular patience will surely run out and he may become the next victim of mutiny, in Brasilia and on the streets.

Some see nothing to recommend Temer and his band of reformers even now. Asked if she could see any reason for optimism  that her husband might find meaningful work again and that their current predicament, as they scrape at their scant savings to survive, might pick up  Santos, her face worn by worry, does not hesitate. No, she replies flatly. With the politics that we have today, no, not at all.
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When Donald Trump tweeted a picture of him eating a taco bowl with the caption: I love Hispanics, it sent one politician over the edge.

In an open letter which has become legendary in Capitol Hill, a Democratic congressman called Filemon Vela from Brownsville wrote an open letter to the Republican nominee.

Mr. Trump, you're a racist and you can take your border wall and shove it up your a**.

 10 of the scariest things Donald Trump has ever said

Mr Vela, a lawyer who was elected to congess in 2013, has reportedly earned a reputation as a quiet workhorse in the southern Texas district and favours working in the shadows, as reported by Valley Central.

But his letter meant the congressman exploded into the limelight and he was suddenly juggling multiple interview requests.

Referring to Mr Trumps tweet, Mr Vela said: "There is no connection between him and people of Hispanic origin, and then these comments about the judge as the icing on the cake. I mean, who would ever say that?

Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is ruling over the scandal of the now defunct Trump University, has been accused by the Republican of being biased and unfair against him as he is a Mexican, although he was born in Indiana.

Mr Vela wrote the open letter over several days as he was driving from Texas to Washington, during which he stopped off at the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, the site of Dr Martin Luther Kings assassination.

People who will flee America if Donald Trump wins Show all 8 1 /8 People who will flee America if Donald Trump wins People who will flee America if Donald Trump wins Miley Cyrus 'God he thinks he is the f***ing chosen one or some shit!  Honestly f*** this sh*t I am moving if this is my president! I dont say things I dont mean!' Jemal Countess/Getty Images People who will flee America if Donald Trump wins Whoopi Goldberg 'I dont think thats America. I dont want it to be America. Maybe its time for me to move you know' People who will flee America if Donald Trump wins Samuel L. Jackson 'If that mother**er becomes president, Im moving my black ass to South Africa' People who will flee America if Donald Trump wins Raven Symone 'My confession for this election is, if any Republican gets nominated, Im gonna move to Canada with my entire family. Is that bad? I already have my ticket. I literally bought my ticket, I swear' People who will flee America if Donald Trump wins Cher 'If he were to be elected, I'm moving to Jupiter' People who will flee America if Donald Trump wins Neve Campbell 'Im terrified. Its really scary. My biggest fear is that Trump will triumph. I cannot believe that he is still in the game ... [I'll] move back to Canada' People who will flee America if Donald Trump wins Jon Stewart 'I would consider getting in a rocket and going to another planet, because clearly this planets gone bonkers' People who will flee America if Donald Trump wins Randy Blythe 'He could just be a clown. If he is the president, though, I am leaving America 'till he's gone'

In Mr Trump's first recorded address for a conference of Christian Hispanics last month, the presidential candidate filmed the two-minute video against loud background noise on his private plane.

At one point, Mr Trump almost dropped the piece of paper he was reading from.

"You're going to be very happy with president Trump," he said.

Mr Vela said to MSNBC that he agreed with Mr Trump on several policies like improving care for veterans, and dealing with Mexican drug cartels and deporting criminals who entered the US illegally.

But he wanted to take the real estate mogul to task for his rhetoric about those of Mexican descent and his plan to build a wall along the US-Mexican border.

Before you dismiss me as just another 'Mexican,' let me point out that my great-great grandfather came to this country in 1857, well before your own grandfather, he wrote in the letter. His grandchildren (my grandfather and his brothers) all served our country in World War I and World War II. His great-grandson, my father, served in the U.S. Army and, coincidentally, was one of the first 'Mexican' federal judges ever appointed to the federal bench.

I will not presume to speak on behalf of every American of Mexican descent, for every undocumented worker born in Mexico who is contributing to our country every day or, for that matter, every decent citizen in Mexico, he added.
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The family of a Texas teenager sent by her parents to a remote Christian boarding facility to pray away the gay have launched efforts to raise money for her release.

According to the GoFundMe page started by her cousin, the 17-year-old, identified only as "Sarah", was sent away to the East Texas school after attending prom with her girlfriend.

[W]hen they did that, Sarahs parents, who believe that homosexuality is a sin and abnormal, sent Sarah away against her will to an East Texas Christian boarding facility for troubled teens to pray away the gay, the page reads.

The family hired an Austin-based attorney, Christine Andresen of CHA Law Group, known for representing clients in LGBT cases. Sarahs aunt filed the suit, according to the GoFundMe.

Ms Andresens office could not address specifics of the case, citing ongoing litigation, but confirmed the authenticity of the information listed on the GoFundMe page to The Independent.

Since the 4 June launch of the "Save Sarah" fundraiser, more than 1,000 people have contributed $41,000 (28,265) of the $100,000 goal at the time of writing.

Much of the campaigns success is due in part to the high profile of one of Sarahs cousins, Jeremy Jordan, who co-stars in the CBS series Supergirl.

I can't believe beautiful, smart, incredible kids like my cousin Sarah are still being told that being gay is wrong, the actor said in a Facebook post urging his fans to support the effort. He explained that Sarah is trapped against her will at the terrible facility.

According to her family, Sarah had attempted to escape the rural facility, but was quickly caught by facility staff and punished. Texas law allows parents to force children to stay in residential boarding facilities until they turn 18.

She may not be able to see it now, Jordan added, but please show her how much she matters and take a stand to help us free this wonderful young woman and welcome her back to a world of love and acceptance.

Sarahs family describes her future as bright, as they say she is in the top 10 per cent of her class, belongs to the National Honour Society, and is part of the debate team.

Some states have passed laws to prohibit mental health providers from offering conversion or reparative therapy to minor, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

The American Psychological Association released a report in 2007 that found enduring change to an individual's sexual orientation is uncommon, and results of scientifically valid research indicate that it is unlikely that individuals will be able to reduce same-sex attractions or increase other-sex sexual attractions through [sexual orientation change efforts].
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A large alligator with a dead human body in its jaws was found roaming around an old people's home in Florida.

Lakeland Police department received a emergency 911 call from a resident of an assisted living community after someone spotted the reptile - estimated to be between eight and 10 feet long - with an adult man in its mouth.

Police officers sent to the scene later said the man had been dead for more than a day - but that is was unclear how he died, or if the alligator had killed him.

Sergeant Gary Gross from Lakeland Police told WLFA: "The officers got here and the alligator still had the person. He let the individual go, he is deceased, looks like this person may have been dead more than a day

"We dont want to speculate but I will tell you that when the officer got here the alligator did a roll and had the person in contact with him.

"The officers immediately got their firearms out in case the gator comes up. Once he left they didnt want him coming back and pull the body back out, that did not happen."

After the alligator released the body, police were able to pull the body from the water.

 'Monster' alligator filmed ambling around Florida golf course

Sgt Gross said Florida Fish and Wildlife Officers along with "gator trapper" Scott Barbon were searching the lake for the reptile predator.

He added: "The main thing now is if they trap the gator to try to figure out if they can do a test on that gator and see if theres any human parts in that gators stomach."

Lakeland Police are investigating the man's identity but have not released any other details,
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An off-duty police officer and his wife saved a boy whose skull was separated from his spine in a car crash.

Killian Gonzalez was driving home to Nevada with his mother, Brandy, when they were caught in hailstorm in Idaho.

Their car skidded on the ice and smashed head on into another car.

Witnessing the crash was policeman Joel Woodward and his wife Leah, who heard the four-year-old boy screaming from inside the car as they ran to help.

With the car doors still locked, Mr Woodward smashed in the back window and saw the extent of Killian's injuries.

He then told his wife to hold the boy's head steady until emergency services arrived.

Ms Woodward told the New York Times: "As a mom, that just goes right to your heart. My immediate instinct was: You have to help that little guy'.

"My first instinct would have been to cradle the little guy, but clearly that would have been the wrong choice."

Killian Gonzalez, 4, recovering in hospital after the crash (Leah Woodward)

They draped his broken arm against his side and covered him in a blanket. Ms Woodward saw a pinkish gel splattered over the backseat which she was later told could be spinal fluid.

While holding his head for over 30 minutes she spoke to Killian in an effort to keep his attention after finding out details about him from his trapped mother, Brandy.

At one point, Ms Woodward remembered him saying: "I don't hurt anymore, I am done."

It took emergency services an hour and a half to retrieve his mother from her car.

Killian, his mother and the other driver were flown by air ambulance to hospitals, local police said.

 Florida bear causes three deaths in car crash

According to his grandmother, the four-year-old suffered a right upper arm fracture, several broken ribs and a fracture at the base of his skull where the brain stem connects to the spinal cord.

This is colloquially known as clinical or internal decapitation and happens when the ligaments, muscles and joints connecting the base of the skull and the top of the spine are damaged.

Both lungs were bruised. As a result of the incident, the boy is one third of an inch taller due to his spine being stretched.

Ms Gonzalez was left with an open lower fracture in her left leg, a right upper leg fracture and a left lower arm fracture.

Killian has been discharged from hospital and is walking around unassisted, albeit while wearing a hard collar to protect his head and neck.

Grandmother Leslie Dorn has set up a fundraising page to help pay for medical expenses. Nearly $21,000 has been raised of the $100,000 target.
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Bernie Sanders has said he will compete for the position of Democratic nominee until the very last primary in Washington DC.

On the same evening that the Vermont senator looks set to lose New Jersey to Hillary Clinton and hours before the results are in for the vote in California, Mr Sanders sent out a campaign email to supporters which encouraged them to vote and to volunteer in anticipation of the final democratic primary in Washington DC on 14 June.

The email has sent a signal that Mr Sanders is determined to continue to fight against Ms Clinton to the very last vote.

A senior adviser to Mr Sanders, Tad Devine, told the Associated Press that the senator will campaign ahead of 14 June, which is very important and that Mr Sanders intends to let every voter cast their vote.

The adviser was asked if Mr Sanders' strategy to convince superdelegates to support him hinges on winning the Golden State, and Mr Devine replied that the campaign will have to have a very compelling argument with them.

Mr Sanders and his supporters were quick to call out the Associated Press, CNN and other media outlets for claiming the race was over before the convention.

He said he was upset and disappointed that the calls were made the evening before the countrys largest primary on the West Coast.

Mr Sanders' campaign has continued to encourage voters to go to the polls and is still strongly channeling Mr Sanders' message over social media, the same platform which enabled the candidate to fundraise around $200 million via small donations.

Ms Clinton has a clear lead on superdelegates, otherwise known as party insiders, which, combined with the number of pledged delegates from state primaries and caucuses, pushes her towards securing the nomination.

Superdelegates can change their minds and switch allegiance at the democratic convention, therefore the nominee cannot be officially announced until late July.

Mr Sanders was asked this week by a female reporter whether he is "sexist" as his refusal to quit the race is presenting a hurdle to electing the first female president.

"Is that a serious question?" replied Mr Sanders.

I dont think it is sexist, he said. "Our focus right now is running and winning right here in California and the second point that I have made is that it is absolutely imperative that we defeat Donald Trump as a candidate for president of the United States. I believe that I am the stronger candidate.
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Hillary Clinton is now the presumptive Democratic nominee in the race to the White House, pending all those super delegates shes accumulated before they vote at the convention, and shes become the first woman in US history to do so.

Tonights victory is not about one person; it belongs to generations of women and men who struggled and sacrificed and made this moment possible, Clinton said in Brooklyn late Tuesday night. Tonight belongs to all of you.

Newspapers across the states dedicated their front pages to Clinton for the historic achievement.

amNewYork

The New York Post

New York Daily News

The Wall Street Journal

The New York Times

Miami Herald

The Washington Post

Los Angeles Times

San Francisco Chronicle

Victoria Advocate

The Philadelphia Inquirer



View more of The Independent's elections coverage here.
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President Barack Obama extended his congratulations to presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton shortly after she swept up the majority of the votes in the final round of state primaries.

Mr Obama spoke personally with Ms Clinton, according to a statement from The White House.

The President congratulated Hillary Clinton for securing the delegates necessary to clinch the Democratic Nomination for President, read the statement. Her historic campaign inspired millions and is an extension of lifelong fight for middle-class families and children.

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Mr Obama has not endorsed Ms Clinton.

He also spoke with Bernie Sanders, who won the primary in North Dakota and Montana on Tuesday evening but failed to clinch the majority of delegates in California, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota.

The president congratulated Mr Sanders for energizing millions of Americans with his commitment to issues like fighting economic inequality and special interests' influence on our politics.

He added that both campaigns have brought a new generation of Americans into the political process, and shined a spotlight on important policy ideas aimed at making sure our economy and our politics work for everybody, not just those with wealth and power."

He has agreed to meet personally with the Mr Sanders on Thursday - at the request of the senator.

Mr Sanders insisted this week that he would compete against Ms Clinton until the very last primary next week in Washington DC.

The President looks forward to continuing the conversation with Senator Sanders about how to build on the extraordinary work he has done, said The White House.
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In India and Pakistan, laddus, ball-shaped sweets made of flour, minced dough and sugar, are for special festive occasions, like holidays, weddings and births. And on a Wednesday in mid-April, Umar Hayat and his family had much to celebrate in his village in Pakistans Punjab province, the birth of a grandson, Abdullah.

According to the newspaper Dawn, he invited scores of relatives to his small mud hut in Karor Lal Esan, dispatching his son in advance to buy five kilograms (about 11 pounds) of the treat, enough to serve everyone. Of course, they gobbled them down, especially the children.

But as they did, they started vomiting, one after the other, in quick succession. They were rushed to the local hospital, Dawn reported, where they only became sicker. Then, one by one, they started dying. By Thursday of that week, 12 members of Hayats family were dead, among them eight sons, a daughter and three grandchildren.

At the same time, several dozen others who had purchased sweets from the same Tariq Hotel and Sweet Shop, also took horribly ill and were rushed to the hospital. By this week, 19 more who had consumed the sweets were dead.

The tragedy became a great mystery.

Rameez Bukhari, a senior police officer from the local district, suggested that a worker at the shop inadvertently added pesticide to the laddus mix. There was a pesticide shop close by which was being renovated, and the owner had left his pesticides at the bakery for safe keeping, Bukhari was quoted as saying by Gulf News.

Poisoning Risk: The public perception of food safety Show all 8 1 /8 Poisoning Risk: The public perception of food safety Poisoning Risk: The public perception of food safety Where to put raw meat It is hygienically correct to put raw meat on the bottom shelf Poisoning Risk: The public perception of food safety Handling chicken It is hygienically correct to put raw meat on the bottom shelf Poisoning Risk: The public perception of food safety Campylobacter Poisoning Risk: The public perception of food safety 'Use by' dates Poisoning Risk: The public perception of food safety Washing meat It is hygienically correct not to wash raw meat Poisoning Risk: The public perception of food safety The tea towel Maintaining a clean tea towel is important to kitchen hygiene Poisoning Risk: The public perception of food safety Separate chopping boards Poisoning Risk: The public perception of food safety Food thermometers

A baker may have used a small packet in the sweet mixture, he said, but added that police were awaiting the results of laboratory testing.

The Chief Minister of Punjab paid a visit to the village, assuring the locals there would be a thorough investigation.

Local health officials shut down the shop and sent samples to a laboratory in Lahore.

Friday, Dawn and other news outlets reported that the mystery was solved. Authorities finally tracked down the alleged cause of the mass poisoning when the younger brother of the sweet shops owner confessed that he had spiked the sweets with a pesticide. He wanted to teach him [his brother] a lesson, he reportedly told police.

The 18-year-old, identified as Khalid Mahmood, reportedly claimed his brother had tortured him and insulted him on every trivial thing, according to Pakistans SuchTV.

According to media reports in Pakistan, Khalid said that he laced sweets with a poison named Chlorfenapyr. Police recovered an empty bottle of the chemical hidden in sunflower fields on the information provided by the accused, reported Abb Takk TV.

Copyright: Washington Post
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The number of people executed in Pakistan since it resumed hangings just 18 months ago is feared to have passed 400.

The government has ignored international appeals to reinstate a moratorium on the death penalty, which was removed following a Taliban terror attack that saw 130 children massacred at a school in Peshawar in 2014.

Pakistan has since become one of the most prolific users of the death penalty in the world, executing 404 people so far according to research by Reprieve.

 Pakistan postpones execution of man convicted as teen

The human rights organisation warned that the figure could be higher as not all executions may be recorded.

Maya Foa, director of its death penalty team, said: That Pakistan has gone from a non-executing state to executing over 400 people in little over 18 months is truly shocking.

The Pakistani Government seems indifferent to the plight of the many prisoners who should not even be on death row  those arrested as children, or suffering from severe physical or mental illnesses.

They need to put a halt to all executions until a full review of this chaotic capital punishment system can be carried out.

More than 70 hangings have taken place this year, putting Pakistan among the top countries for the death penalty behind China, Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Among a number of controversial cases is that of Abdul Basit, a paralysed prisoner who remains on death row despite concerns that there is no way to execute him that would not carry a high risk of prolonged suffering.

Where most executions were carried out in 2014 Show all 10 1 /10 Where most executions were carried out in 2014 Where most executions were carried out in 2014 1. China (1000+) Getty Where most executions were carried out in 2014 2. Iran (289+) Getty Where most executions were carried out in 2014 3. Saudi Arabia (90+) Getty Where most executions were carried out in 2014 4. Iraq (61+) Getty Where most executions were carried out in 2014 5. USA (35+) Getty Where most executions were carried out in 2014 6. Sudan (23+) Getty Where most executions were carried out in 2014 7. Yemen (22+) Getty Where most executions were carried out in 2014 8. Egypt (15+) Getty Where most executions were carried out in 2014 9. Somalia (14+) Getty Where most executions were carried out in 2014 10. Jordan (11+) Getty

He told his lawyers that during a previous attempt to hang him, the prison authorities had built a slope or ramp up to the gallows in order to take him to be hanged in his wheelchair.

As in Saudi Arabia, convicts who were arrested under the age of 18 are among those awaiting executions, in violation of international law.

Pakistan was among the human rights priority countries highlighted by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in a recent report, which said the British Government had been pressing ministers in Islamabad on a number of issues.

The 325 people executed in 2015 may have been the highest number in Pakistani history, the report said, while an estimated 8,000 people remain on death row.

The de facto moratorium on the death penalty was lifted first for terrorism in December 2014 and then the following March for all capital crimes, including rape, adultery and murder.

There were serious concerns over Pakistans use of the death penalty, including fair trial issues and the execution of persons who were alleged to have been minors at the time of the offence, the FCO said.

At the highest level, the UK made clear to Pakistan its opposition to the death penalty. We urged Pakistan to reinstate the moratorium and comply with international commitments.
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A Malaysian teenager has been jailed for posting derogatory comments about his states royal family on Facebook - days after the crown prince asked police to stop arresting people who insult him online.

Muhammad Amirul Azwan Mohd Shakri, a 19-year-old building site worker from the southern state of Johor, made a series of insulting comments on the social network under the name Miyo Castello between March and April.

Details of the alleged insults posted on the TRW Troll Story comedy page have not yet been divulged and they were later removed.

Mr Shakri was handed a one-year prison sentence on Tuesday after pleading guilty to 14 charges of wrongdoing under the countrys strict multimedia laws, according to the Straits Times.

Malaysias Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 states that anyone who insults state royalty online can be jailed or face a 8,400 fine.

Mr Shakri was seen breaking down in tears in the courtroom as the judge read out his sentence, before being led away.

Thirteen sultans serve as ceremonial rulers of Malaysias individual states, and alternate every five years as king of the entire country.

Johors 31-year-old crown prince, Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim, is a popular with young people in the state and has a strong social media presence of his own.

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

Last month two men were arrested for allegedly insulting the prince on Facebook and Twitter, although it is uncertain whether they will face charges.

At the end of May, Tunku Ismail publicly asked police not to arrest anyone else making derogatory comments about him or his family.

He said during an interview posted on Facebook: I would humbly share my opinion with the police not to arrest anyone making seditious remarks about me.

Give them the privilege of saying what they want to say to my face, man to man.

"I can honestly say that I don't really care about what other people may say about me, as I am truly thankful with what God has given me in my life."
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A mother has personally thanked Apple after voice-activated assistant app Siri helped save the life of her baby girl.

Stacey Gleeson, from Cairns in Australia, saw her one-year-old daughter, Giana, turn blue on a baby monitor and rushed to try and clear her airways.

She dropped her iPhone while hurrying to perform CPR on the child, but remembered the device's voice response capabilities.

Stacey shouted "Hey Siri, call an ambulance" across Giana's bedroom and the app complied by alerting the emergency services, allowing the mother to focus on reviving her child.

She was then able to successfully communicate the family's address on speakerphone before paramedics arrived.

Giana had been suffering from severe bronchiolitis and a chest infection before she stopped breathing.

The incident occurred in early March but has only now come to public attention, after Ms Gleeson sent a letter of thanks to Apple.

She told BBC News: "As cheesy as it sounds I wanted to say thank you. I've only had the phone since the start of the year.

"I had played around with Siri, I thought it was a fun feature. Now I have that feature turned on all the time and it will never be turned off again.

"Saving me the trouble of having to physically dial emergency services was a godsend."

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

Siri, which works as an intelligent response navigator, has been included on all iPhone models since it was introduced in October 2011.

With the new iPhone 6s, the device no longer needs to be plugged in to access Siri and activates whenever 'Hey Siri' is heard.

In August last year, a teenager from Tennessee claimed he was saved by the app after getting pinned underneath his truck while he was fixing it.

Sam Ray said he was unable to reach his iPhone at the time and used Siri to call the emergency services from a short distance.
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Doctors in Portugal have delivered a baby boy four months after its mother was declared brain dead, hospital officials have said.

A statement from Sao Jose Hospital in Lisbon said the healthy baby weighing 5.2 lbs was delivered on Tuesday by caesarean section after 32 weeks.

The infants 37-year-old mother was declared brain dead on 20 February following a brain haemorrhage; however doctors said the foetus was healthy, the BBC reports.

The statement added the hospitals ethics committee had agreed the procedure with the babys father and the mothers family.

The hospital did not state whether the woman remained on life support following the birth.

In Portugal the birth marks the longest a child has survived in the womb after the mother being declared brain dead.

Luis Graca, the head of the Portuguese Society of Obstetricians, said on Wednesday the birth was an extraordinary feat.

In January, a baby boy was born in Wroclaw, Poland after surviving in his mothers womb for 55 days after she was declared brain following a tumour, Al Jazeera reports.

The baby weighed just 2.2lbs at birth and was taken home in April showing no complications. The mothers life support system was turned off hours after the birth.

Additional reporting by Associated Press
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The European Commission is considering making Eritrea a partner for managing migration amid calls for its leaders to be tried for crimes against humanity.

The EUs executive body listed the East African nation among 16 possible countries in line for unspecified packages to increase co-operation as the refugee crisis continues.

Eritreans make up a significant portion of the asylum seekers crossing the Mediterranean Sea, risking their lives to escape a litany of human rights abuses documented in the authoritarian state.

2016 is on course to be the deadliest year in history for refugees crossing the Mediterranean Sea (Italian Navy)

A United Nations Commission of Inquiry found that crimes against humanity had been committed in a widespread and systematic manner in Eritrean detention facilities, military training camps and other locations over the past 25 years.

Its report listed enslavement, imprisonment, enforced disappearances, torture, persecution, rape, murder and other abuses as part of what investigators said was a campaign to control Eritrean civilians dating back to the countrys foundation in 1991.

Eritrea is an authoritarian State, said Mike Smith, chair of the UN Commission. There is no independent judiciary, no national assembly and there are no other democratic institutions in Eritrea.

This has created a governance and rule of law vacuum, resulting in a climate of impunity for crimes against humanity to be perpetrated over a quarter of a century. These crimes are still occurring today.

Eritrean asylum seekers arrive in southern Italy (AFP/Getty) (AFP/Getty Images)

The UN Commission, which received thousands of testimonies and written submissions, called for perpetrators to be sent to the International Criminal Court and claimed there was no prospect of them being held to account under the current administration.

Eritreans also continue to be subjected to indefinite national service, arbitrary detention, reprisals for the alleged conduct of family members, discrimination on religious or ethnic grounds, sexual and gender-based violence and killings, the report said.

It alleged that officials at the highest levels of government, in the ruling party, National Security Office and commanding military officers bear responsibility for crimes against humanity and other gross human rights violations.

But a European Commission document on its New Migration Partnership Framework said it was testing a new approach to Eritrea and other selected countries to increase co-operation on managing migration.

Sudan, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Somalia and Tunisia were among the other candidates, which include several listed as countries of concern in a human rights report by the British Government.

An EU report said research had shown a direct link between migration policies in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and that flows were being driven by both conflict and economic factors.

Refugee crisis - in pictures Show all 27 1 /27 Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugee crisis - in pictures A child looks through the fence at the Moria detention camp for migrants and refugees at the island of Lesbos on May 24, 2016. AFP/Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Ahmad Zarour, 32, from Syria, reacts after his rescue by MOAS (Migrant Offshore Aid Station) while attempting to reach the Greek island of Agathonisi, Dodecanese, southeastern Agean Sea Refugee crisis - in pictures Syrian migrants holding life vests gather onto a pebble beach in the Yesil liman district of Canakkale, northwestern Turkey, after being stopped by Turkish police in their attempt to reach the Greek island of Lesbos on 29 January 2016. Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees flash the 'V for victory' sign during a demonstration as they block the Greek-Macedonian border Refugee crisis - in pictures Migrants have been braving sub zero temperatures as they cross the border from Macedonia into Serbia. Refugee crisis - in pictures A sinking boat is seen behind a Turkish gendarme off the coast of Canakkale's Bademli district on January 30, 2016. At least 33 migrants drowned on January 30 when their boat sank in the Aegean Sea while trying to cross from Turkey to Greece. Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A general view of a shelter for migrants inside a hangar of the former Tempelhof airport in Berlin, Germany Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees protest behind a fence against restrictions limiting passage at the Greek-Macedonian border, near Gevgelija. Since last week, Macedonia has restricted passage to northern Europe to only Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans who are considered war refugees. All other nationalities are deemed economic migrants and told to turn back. Macedonia has finished building a fence on its frontier with Greece becoming the latest country in Europe to build a border barrier aimed at checking the flow of refugees Refugee crisis - in pictures A father and his child wait after being caught by Turkish gendarme on 27 January 2016 at Canakkale's Kucukkuyu district Refugee crisis - in pictures Migrants make hand signals as they arrive into the southern Spanish port of Malaga on 27 January, 2016 after an inflatable boat carrying 55 Africans, seven of them women and six chidren, was rescued by the Spanish coast guard off the Spanish coast. Refugee crisis - in pictures A refugee holds two children as dozens arrive on an overcrowded boat on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugee crisis - in pictures A child, covered by emergency blankets, reacts as she arrives, with other refugees and migrants, on the Greek island of Lesbos, At least five migrants including three children, died after four boats sank between Turkey and Greece, as rescue workers searched the sea for dozens more, the Greek coastguard said Refugee crisis - in pictures Migrants wait under outside the Moria registration camp on the Lesbos. Over 400,000 people have landed on Greek islands from neighbouring Turkey since the beginning of the year Refugee crisis - in pictures The bodies of Christian refugees are buried separately from Muslim refugees at the Agios Panteleimonas cemetery in Mytilene, Lesbos Refugee crisis - in pictures Macedonian police officers control a crowd of refugees as they prepare to enter a camp after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A refugee tries to force the entry to a camp as Macedonian police officers control a crowd after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees are seen aboard a Turkish fishing boat as they arrive on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing a part of the Aegean Sea from the Turkish coast to Lesbos Reuters Refugee crisis - in pictures An elderly woman sings a lullaby to baby on a beach after arriving with other refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A man collapses as refugees make land from an overloaded rubber dinghy after crossing the Aegean see from Turkey, at the island of Lesbos EPA Refugee crisis - in pictures A girl reacts as refugees arrive by boat on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees make a show of hands as they queue after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures People help a wheelchair user board a train with others, heading towards Serbia, at the transit camp for refugees near the southern Macedonian town of Gevgelija AP Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees board a train, after crossing the Greek-Macedonian border, near Gevgelija. Macedonia is a key transit country in the Balkans migration route into the EU, with thousands of asylum seekers - many of them from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia - entering the country every day Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures An aerial picture shows the "New Jungle" refugee camp where some 3,500 people live while they attempt to enter Britain, near the port of Calais, northern France Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A Syrian girl reacts as she helped by a volunteer upon her arrival from Turkey on the Greek island of Lesbos, after having crossed the Aegean Sea EPA Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees arrive by boat on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Beds ready for use for migrants and refugees are prepared at a processing center on January 27, 2016 in Passau, Germany. The flow of migrants arriving in Passau has dropped to between 500 and 1,000 per day, down significantly from last November, when in the same region up to 6,000 migrants were arriving daily.

Major refugee routes run through Africa, with smugglers transporting migrants in desperate conditions through countries  including Ethiopia, Sudan and Libya  on lengthy journeys that not all survive.

Nations chosen by the EU will be offered diplomatic, technical and financial incentives and aid as part of the scheme, although no details have been announced.

A spokesperson said the policy aimed to save lives at sea, increase returns, address the root causes of migration and enable migrants and refugees to stay closer to home.

Federica Mogherini, Vice-President of the European Commission, said migration could only be managed if nations act globally.

For this reason, we are proposing a new approach for strong partnerships with key countries, she added.

Our goal, while staying focused on saving lives at sea and dismantling smugglers' networks, is to support the countries that host so many people and foster growth in our partner countriesour duty, and also our interest, is to give people the chance and the means for a safe and decent life.

 Refugee shipwreck survivors arrive in Italy

More than 47,000 Eritreans applied for asylum in Europe last year, with many having made the deadliest sea crossing in the world between Libya and Italy.

The UN said many cited indefinite military service as the reason for their flight, with Mr Smith saying between 300,000 and 400,000 people were enslaved in Eritrea, mostly through conscription. The Eritrean government, which did not grant UN investigators access, has denied any wrongdoing.

Eritrea rejects the politically motivated and groundless accusations and the destructive recommendations of the COI, presidential advisor Yemane Gebreab said a statement. It believes they are an unwarranted attack not only against Eritrea, but also Africa and developing nations.

The EUs Emergency Trust Fund for Africa is being topped up with 1 billion (800,000)  as the work continues.

The European Commission has not yet responded to The Independent's request for a comment.
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An MEP took her baby to the European Parliament to make an impassioned speech about the need for a crackdown on tax dodging.

In a show of solidarity with working mothers everywhere, Anneliese Dodds, Labour MEP for the South East of England, took her four-month-old daughter Isabella to work with her in Strasbourg and spoke for several minutes on the importance of a cohesive approach to tackling tax avoidance and tax evasion - and the need for Britain to do so while remaining "in the EU".

Ms Dodds posted the video of her speech to her Facebook page, describing it as: "Today I spoke in the parliament on how we can tackle tax avoidance and evasion in the EU by working with our partners in Europe. By sharing information across borders and taking collective action, we can close the loopholes that happen when countries have different approaches to tackling tax dodging. I supported the report in the Parliament today and call on George Osborne and others to make this Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive as ambitious as possible."

In the speech itself, which lasted around two minutes, she said: "When I meet people in my constituency in South East England they want real information - why it might be better or worse to be part of a union of 28 countries working together, or to be on our own, and it's hard to think of a more compelling case where collective action works than in fighting tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance.

"Tax dodging, just like pollution, climate change and international crime, does not respect borders. In fact, it thrives in the mismatches that happen when countries don't speak to one another - don't cooperate - and so helpful little loopholes emerge.

"We have to take a collaborative approach to tackling this problem if we are ever to succeed."

Breastfeeding in public controversies Show all 11 1 /11 Breastfeeding in public controversies Breastfeeding in public controversies A woman has sparked a heated debate among parents after she revealed that she breastfeeds both her and her friend's son. Jessica Colletti, from Pennsylvania, said nursing Charlie Interrante's son seemed like the natural thing to do because she was already breastfeeding her son. Colletti told the Mama Bean parenting blog that she asked permission to nurse Interrantes son when she began looking after him, after they met at a photoshoot for new mothers. Interrante agreed as her son had not taken to formula milk Breastfeeding in public controversies New Hampshire State Rep. Josh Moore said on Facebook that men should be allowed to grab the nipples of breastfeeding mothers if the law banning women exposing their breasts did not pass Breastfeeding in public controversies When Gemma Colley's photo of her son with fake tan on his fake after she breastfeed him went viral, she also saw that no parent is alone when they make a silly mistake. Over 100,000 people liked and 40,000 people shared Ms Colleys photo of her sons sleepy face with fake tan encircling his mouth and nose, after she posted it to the Unmumsy Mum Facebook page Breastfeeding in public controversies A candid image of a mother breastfeeding her young child while using the toilet has divided parents online, as some argue its an honest depiction of parenthood, while others have labelled it disgusting Breastfeeding in public controversies The exclusive Claridges hotel has been widely criticised for asking a woman to cover herself with a ridiculous shroud while breastfeeding her three-month-old daughter. Lousie Burns said she burst into tears when staff members at the five-star venue asked her to cover herself and her baby with an oversized napkin in order to avoid causing offence to other guests Breastfeeding in public controversies An Australian cafe has been praised for sticking up for a breastfeeding mother after a customer told her to cover up. Jessica-Anne Allen, owner of Cheese and Biscuits Cafe in Queensland, Australia, has described how she was approached by a male customer in the cafe to complain that he was upset by a woman in the coffee shop breastfeeding her child nearby. The customer asked the cafe owner, 29, to tell the mother to cover up. When Mrs Allen refused to do so, he took matters into his own hands and challenged the woman himself. Staff at the cafe then asked the man to leave Breastfeeding in public controversies A woman who claimed a Primark security guard had forcibly removed her child while she was breastfeeding has admitted to perverting the course of justice. Caroline Starmer sparked a series of headlines after claiming on Facebook that a store guard had taken her nine-month-old daughter Paige away from her. The mother from Leicester then repeated her claims in a number of interviews, before Primark denied the incident and handed CCTV over to the police to show there was no evidence to support the allegations. Appearing in Leicester Crown Court, she admitted the charge of perverting the course of justice by not telling the truth Breastfeeding in public controversies Pope Francis has become an unlikely advocate for public breastfeeding, by encouraging mothers to feed their babies in the Sistine Chapel. During a ceremony in Vatican City on Sunday, the Pope baptised 32 babies and told their mothers: If they are hungry, mothers, feed them, without thinking twice, because they are the most important people here Breastfeeding in public controversies Facebook has changed its community guidelines to allow users to post photos of breastfeeding. The change comes as the wide-ranging #FreeTheNipple online campaign has built pace in its attack against guidelines used by social media websites to regulate nudity  from photos of breastfeeding to topless photos post by singer Rihannas on her now defunct Instagram account. Facebooks Community Standards, which outline what users are allowed to post, never included a outright ban on photos of breastfeeding Breastfeeding in public controversies The manager of a public swimming pool at the Lux Park centre in Liskeardhas been forced to apologise after he told a mother to stop breastfeeding her son by the waterside. 23-year-old Rebecaa Hough of Torpoint, Cornwall, was feeding 10-month-old Max a few steps from the main pool, when the manager told her to carry on in the changing rooms in case the infant was sick into the water. She was also told that she should not to return for half an hour to ensure the milk was fully digested Breastfeeding in public controversies A Conservative MP has claimed allowing women to breastfeed in the House of Commons chamber would expose politicians to tabloid ridicule. Sir Simon Burns, a former transport minister, spoke on what he called a controversial subject in a debate in making Westminster more family-friendly

Ms Dodds, who cradled her young baby on her shoulder the entire time, said she supported a proposal for an anti-tax avoidance directive and said it should "set the template" for Britain to lead a crackdown on tax dodging internationally - something she said would be best served by remaining inside the EU.

"Ambiguity only serves those who are looking to dodge tax," she warned. "I would urge finance ministers like George Osborne to take on board these recommendations and make the anti-tax avoidance directive as ambitious as possible.

"This is a good step forward and a clear indication that anyone who cares about tackling tax dodging should see that the UK is best placed to carry on the fight by staying in the European Union."

In April, Ms Dodds also took her daughter - who was born in February - to vote with her in Strasbourg.

And she isn't the first woman to do the same - Italian MEP Licia Ronzulli regularly takes her daughter Vittoria, three, to vote in the EU parliament, and has done since she was just six weeks old.
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One of the worlds most wanted people-smugglers has been arrested after an operation involving Britains National Crime Agency and GCHQ.

Mered Medhanie, dubbed "The General", is said to be the mastermind of an international smuggling network who is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of refugees in the Mediterranean.

The 35-year-old Eritrean, who earned the nickname because he styled himself on former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, was arrested in the Sudanese capital Khartoum in May before being extradited to Italy on Tuesday.

It is thought he ran an empire smuggling thousands of migrants from Africa and the Middle East into Europe by regular journeys across the Mediterranean.

Tom Dowdall, NCA deputy director, said: "Medhanie is a prolific people-smuggler and has absolute disregard for human life.

"Although he was operating thousands of miles away, his criminal activity was impacting the UK. Medhanie no doubt thought he was beyond the reach of European justice but we were able to support the Italians by tracking him down to Sudan."

According to Italian prosecutors, Medhanie was responsible for the death of 359 migrants who drowned after their boat sank off the Italian island of Lampedusa in 2013.

In an intercepted conversation he could be heard laughing about the fatal overloading of migrant ships.

Refugee crisis - in pictures Show all 27 1 /27 Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugee crisis - in pictures A child looks through the fence at the Moria detention camp for migrants and refugees at the island of Lesbos on May 24, 2016. AFP/Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Ahmad Zarour, 32, from Syria, reacts after his rescue by MOAS (Migrant Offshore Aid Station) while attempting to reach the Greek island of Agathonisi, Dodecanese, southeastern Agean Sea Refugee crisis - in pictures Syrian migrants holding life vests gather onto a pebble beach in the Yesil liman district of Canakkale, northwestern Turkey, after being stopped by Turkish police in their attempt to reach the Greek island of Lesbos on 29 January 2016. Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees flash the 'V for victory' sign during a demonstration as they block the Greek-Macedonian border Refugee crisis - in pictures Migrants have been braving sub zero temperatures as they cross the border from Macedonia into Serbia. Refugee crisis - in pictures A sinking boat is seen behind a Turkish gendarme off the coast of Canakkale's Bademli district on January 30, 2016. At least 33 migrants drowned on January 30 when their boat sank in the Aegean Sea while trying to cross from Turkey to Greece. Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A general view of a shelter for migrants inside a hangar of the former Tempelhof airport in Berlin, Germany Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees protest behind a fence against restrictions limiting passage at the Greek-Macedonian border, near Gevgelija. Since last week, Macedonia has restricted passage to northern Europe to only Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans who are considered war refugees. All other nationalities are deemed economic migrants and told to turn back. Macedonia has finished building a fence on its frontier with Greece becoming the latest country in Europe to build a border barrier aimed at checking the flow of refugees Refugee crisis - in pictures A father and his child wait after being caught by Turkish gendarme on 27 January 2016 at Canakkale's Kucukkuyu district Refugee crisis - in pictures Migrants make hand signals as they arrive into the southern Spanish port of Malaga on 27 January, 2016 after an inflatable boat carrying 55 Africans, seven of them women and six chidren, was rescued by the Spanish coast guard off the Spanish coast. Refugee crisis - in pictures A refugee holds two children as dozens arrive on an overcrowded boat on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugee crisis - in pictures A child, covered by emergency blankets, reacts as she arrives, with other refugees and migrants, on the Greek island of Lesbos, At least five migrants including three children, died after four boats sank between Turkey and Greece, as rescue workers searched the sea for dozens more, the Greek coastguard said Refugee crisis - in pictures Migrants wait under outside the Moria registration camp on the Lesbos. Over 400,000 people have landed on Greek islands from neighbouring Turkey since the beginning of the year Refugee crisis - in pictures The bodies of Christian refugees are buried separately from Muslim refugees at the Agios Panteleimonas cemetery in Mytilene, Lesbos Refugee crisis - in pictures Macedonian police officers control a crowd of refugees as they prepare to enter a camp after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A refugee tries to force the entry to a camp as Macedonian police officers control a crowd after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees are seen aboard a Turkish fishing boat as they arrive on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing a part of the Aegean Sea from the Turkish coast to Lesbos Reuters Refugee crisis - in pictures An elderly woman sings a lullaby to baby on a beach after arriving with other refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A man collapses as refugees make land from an overloaded rubber dinghy after crossing the Aegean see from Turkey, at the island of Lesbos EPA Refugee crisis - in pictures A girl reacts as refugees arrive by boat on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees make a show of hands as they queue after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures People help a wheelchair user board a train with others, heading towards Serbia, at the transit camp for refugees near the southern Macedonian town of Gevgelija AP Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees board a train, after crossing the Greek-Macedonian border, near Gevgelija. Macedonia is a key transit country in the Balkans migration route into the EU, with thousands of asylum seekers - many of them from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia - entering the country every day Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures An aerial picture shows the "New Jungle" refugee camp where some 3,500 people live while they attempt to enter Britain, near the port of Calais, northern France Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A Syrian girl reacts as she helped by a volunteer upon her arrival from Turkey on the Greek island of Lesbos, after having crossed the Aegean Sea EPA Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees arrive by boat on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Beds ready for use for migrants and refugees are prepared at a processing center on January 27, 2016 in Passau, Germany. The flow of migrants arriving in Passau has dropped to between 500 and 1,000 per day, down significantly from last November, when in the same region up to 6,000 migrants were arriving daily.

In other recordings he discussed organising journeys across the Mediterranean and co-ordinating smuggling gangs.

Operation Glauco, a probe set up by the Italian authorities in the wake of the Lampedusa tragedy, was assisted by NCA officers from the UK Immigration Crime Taskforce in tracking down the kingpin to an address in the El Diem area of Khartoum.

GCHQ assisted the NCA in trawling through chatter, while the agency used its "international network" to set up a trap with Sudanese authorities. Medhanie was arrested by the Sudanese National Police on 24 May.

He is charged with being the organiser of a transnational criminal conspiracy aimed at smuggling human beings from Africa to Italy, and on to northern Europe and the UK.

Other charges include the smuggling of migrants relating to numerous arrivals of boats in Sicily, with aggravating circumstances of the number of smuggled people, inhuman treatment and risk to the life of migrants.

Press Association
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Yemen has been named as the country which suffered the sharpest fall in peacefulness in the last year, according to the 2016 Global Peace Index.

The countrys civil war has escalated into a regional conflict, due to the intervention of Saudi Arabia and a coalition of Gulf States.

The Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), which produces the index, said Yemen was the standout example of a breakdown of peace in the Middle East that has seen the world as a whole become a more dangerous place in 2016 than at any point in the past decade.

Recommended Read more There are only 10 countries in the whole world that are fully at peace

While Syria maintained its position at the bottom of the index of 163 countries, Yemen suffered by far the greatest deterioration in terms of ranking, falling nine places to 158th.

And Yemens peacefulness score, calculated based on a host of factors such as deaths from conflict and military spend, dropped a staggering 15 per cent in the past 12 months  deteriorating twice as fast as Ukraine, the next-worst performer year on year.

Steve Killelea, the founder of the IEP, said that across the world more countries improved than deteriorated, by 81 compared to 79.

If you took the Middle East out of the index, last year the world would have actually become more peaceful, he told The Independent.

The report found Yemen had suffered its biggest losses in score as a result of increases in death from conflict and a massive rise in the number of refugees and internally-displaced people.

But it also deteriorated in terms of societal factors, such as perceptions of criminality, likelihood of violent demonstrations and what IEP calls the Political Terror Scale  a measure of political violence, imprisonments and disappearances.

Yemen is a standout example of the increase we have seen in proxy wars in the Middle East, something which is new and emerging over the last 12 months, Mr Killelea said.

With some Arab nations fighting for influence with Iran, we are seeing the complexity of these conflicts grow, compared lets say with the original invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

The 10 countries completely free from conflict Show all 10 1 /10 The 10 countries completely free from conflict The 10 countries completely free from conflict Conflict-free countries Botswana Ross Huggett/Flickr The 10 countries completely free from conflict Conflict-free countries Chile Getty Images The 10 countries completely free from conflict Conflict-free countries Costa Rica Chris Goldberg/Flickr The 10 countries completely free from conflict Conflict-free countries Japan Getty Images The 10 countries completely free from conflict Conflict-free countries Mauritius Herr Olsen/Flickr The 10 countries completely free from conflict Conflict-free countries Panama Getty Images The 10 countries completely free from conflict Conflict-free countries Qatar Getty Images The 10 countries completely free from conflict Conflict-free countries Switzerland Getty Images The 10 countries completely free from conflict Conflict-free countries Uruguay Eduardo Amorim/Flickr The 10 countries completely free from conflict Conflict-free countries Vietnam Source: Global Peace Index Source: Global Peace Index Getty Images

After 10 years of compiling the index, Mr Killelea said the deterioration of Yemen and other neighbouring states was one of the biggest causes for pessimism in terms of the outlook for peace around the world.

He said: The current conflict in the Middle East, if it was to spiral further out of control and extend into other countries, that may usher in an extended period of lower levels of peacefulness.

It depends on the decisions which are made in terms of how we manage the Middle East over the next year or two.
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At least 15 people have been killed and many others injured in air strikes on rebel-held areas of the Syrian city of Aleppo, Syrian activists report.

One of the strikes hit near a makeshift hospital in the Shaar neighbourhood.

Amateur video footage showed wounded people being loaded onto an ambulance as fires and thick black smoke billow from nearby buildings.

A body covered in thick grey dust is shown lying face down among the rubble.a

The Independent Doctors Association, which describes itself as a cross-border Syrian humanitarian organisation, said on Twitter an air strike had hit a children's hospital it runs, destroying one floor.

The Britain-based Syrian observatory for Human Rights said at least 10 people were killed, including children, in the strike on the Bayan Hospital.

The White Helmets, who volunteer as search and rescue workers for Syria Civil Defence, said at least 15 civilians were killed by two suspected barrel bombs in the Shaar area.

Syrians help a wounded woman after suspected barrel bomb attacks on Beyan hospital and a bazaar in Aleppo, Syria on 8 June, 2016 (Ibrahim Ebu Leys/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

The Local Coordination Committees, which also closely follows the conflict in Syria, also reported the air strikes, saying they resulted in multiple casualties.

It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the strike.

The last 48 hours have seen an increase in violence in Aleppo, with government forces pounding rebel-held areas in the east of the city with air strikes, while the rebels have been shelling the western, government-held areas.

In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Show all 19 1 /19 In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Syrian boys cry following Russian air strikes on the rebel-held Fardous neighbourhood of the northern embattled Syrian city of Aleppo Getty In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Russian defense ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov speaks to the media in Moscow, Russia. Konashenkov strongly warned the United States against striking Syrian government forces and issued a thinly-veiled threat to use Russian air defense assets to protect them AP In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Syrians wait to receive treatment at a hospital following Russian air strikes on the rebel-held Fardous neighbourhood of the northern embattled Syrian city of Alepp Getty In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov speaks at a briefing in the Defense Ministry in Moscow, Russia. Antonov said the Russian air strikes in Syria have killed about 35,000 militants, including about 2,700 residents of Russia AP In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Jameel Mustafa Habboush, receives oxygen from civil defence volunteers, known as the white helmets, as they rescue him from under the rubble of a building following Russian air strikes on the rebel-held Fardous neighbourhood of the northern embattled Syrian city of Aleppo Getty In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Civil defence members rest amidst rubble in a site hit by what activists said were airstrikes carried out by the Russian air force in the town of Douma, eastern Ghouta in Damascus, Syria Reuters In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria A girl carrying a baby inspects damage in a site hit by what activists said were airstrikes carried out by the Russian air force in the town of Douma, eastern Ghouta in Damascus, Syria Reuters In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Civilians and civil defence members look for survivors at a site damaged after Russian air strikes on the Syrian rebel-held city of Idlib, Syria Reuters In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Civilians and civil defence members carry an injured woman on a stretcher at a site damaged after Russian air strikes on the Syrian rebel-held city of Idlib, Syria Reuters In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Volunteers from Syria Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets, help civilians after Russia carried out its first airstrikes in Syria In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria The aftermath of Russian airstrike in Talbiseh, Syria In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Smoke billows from buildings in Talbiseh, in Homs province, western Syria, after airstrikes by Russian warplanes AP In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Russian Air Forces carry out an air strike in the ISIS controlled Al-Raqqah Governorate. Russia's KAB-500s bombs completely destroy the Liwa al-Haqq command unit In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Caspian Flotilla of the Russian Navy firing Kalibr cruise missiles against remote Isis targets in Syria A TASS/ITAR-TASS Photo/Corbis In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Russia claimed it hit eight Isis targets, including a "terrorist HQ and co-ordination centre" that was completely destroyed In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria A video grab taken from the footage made available on the Russian Defence Ministry's official website, purporting to show an airstrike in Syria In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria A release from the Russian defence ministry purportedly showing targets in Syria being hit In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Russia launched air strikes in war-torn Syria, its first military engagement outside the former Soviet Union since the occupation of Afghanistan in 1979. Russian warplanes carried out strikes in three Syrian provinces along with regime aircraft as Putin seeks to steal US President Barack Obama's thunder by pushing a rival plan to defeat Isis militants in Syria In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Caspian Flotilla of the Russian Navy firing Kalibr cruise missiles against remote Isis targets in Syria, a thousand kilometres away. The targets include ammunition factories, ammunition and fuel depots, command centres, and training camps A TASS/ITAR-TASS Photo/Corbis

Hospitals and medical facilities have been regularly targeted in the Syrian civil war, which has raged since 2011.

Since the start of the conflict, nearly 740 doctors and staff have been killed in more than 360 attacks on hospitals in Syria, according to Physicians for Human Rights.

In April, dozens of people were killed when the al-Quds hospital in Aleppo was bombed in an air strike widely believed to have been carried out by the Syrian government.

 Syria war: Fighting continues in Homs, Aleppo

Medecins Sans Frontieres says at least 100 staff members, patients and caretakers were killed, and at least 130 were injured, in aerial bombing and shelling attacks on more than 80 MSF-supported and run health structures in 2015 and early 2016.

Aleppo, once the thriving commercial centre of Syria, has become the location of a vicious war of attrition after it was divided between government and rebel-controlled districts since the summer of 2012.

Additional reporting by PA
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Four people have been killed and eleven others injured after a shooting at a popular entertainment district in central Tel Aviv.

Two suspects were taken into custody on Wednesday night, Israel Police Spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said in a statement, with officials calling the violence an act of terrorism.

Gunshots rang out around 9pm local time near the Benedict Restaurant in the Sarona Market. Victims of the shooting were rushed to the nearby Ichilov Hospital where four were pronounced dead, Israel Defense Forces said in a statement.

Few details have emerged in the incident, however, police said that one shooting suspect had been shot and hospitalized while another was subdued at the scene. The market was quickly evacuated and determined secure after police searched the area for explosives.

Emergency personnel and civilians at the scene the shooting. Jack Guez/AFP/Getty (Jack Guez/AFP/Getty)

Israeli media cited witnesses who said the attackers were dressed in white shirts, ties, jackets and black pants with some outlets reporting they were dressed as Orthodox Jews. These reports were discounted by Israel police spokesperson Luba Samri, The Washington Post reports.

The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he held a security meeting immediately after the shooting. He also addressed the media himself shortly thereafter.

"This is savage crime, murder, terrorism in the heart of Tel Aviv," PM Netanyahu told reporters. "Its done by criminal terrorists who dont value human life."

PM Netanyahu tonight: "This is savage crime, murder, terrorism in the heart of #TelAviv. Its done by criminal terrorists who dont value human life." #Israel A video posted by Molly Hunter (@hunterabcnews) on Jun 8, 2016 at 3:29pm PDT



Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai also condemned the shootings shortly after the attacks took place.

"It is an awful night for Tel Aviv. Terrorists shot innocent civilians in a cafe with no distinction, Mayor Huldai wrote on Twitter.

"We will continue to live in this city of Tel Aviv. We will continue to build, create and enjoy the city. Terror will not defeat us.
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The world is becoming a more dangerous place and there are now just 10 countries which can be considered completely free from conflict, according to authors of the 10th annual Global Peace Index.

The worsening conflict in the Middle East, the lack of a solution to the refugee crisis and an increase in deaths from major terrorist incidents have all contributed to the world being less peaceful in 2016 than it was in 2015.

And there are now fewer countries in the world which can be considered truly at peace  in other words, not engaged in any conflicts either internally or externally  than there were in 2014.

According to the Institute for Economics and Peace, a think tank which has produced the index for the past 10 years, only Botswana, Chile, Costa Rica, Japan, Mauritius, Panama, Qatar, Switzerland, Uruguay and Vietnam are free from conflict.

The 10 countries completely free from conflict Show all 10 1 /10 The 10 countries completely free from conflict The 10 countries completely free from conflict Conflict-free countries Botswana Ross Huggett/Flickr The 10 countries completely free from conflict Conflict-free countries Chile Getty Images The 10 countries completely free from conflict Conflict-free countries Costa Rica Chris Goldberg/Flickr The 10 countries completely free from conflict Conflict-free countries Japan Getty Images The 10 countries completely free from conflict Conflict-free countries Mauritius Herr Olsen/Flickr The 10 countries completely free from conflict Conflict-free countries Panama Getty Images The 10 countries completely free from conflict Conflict-free countries Qatar Getty Images The 10 countries completely free from conflict Conflict-free countries Switzerland Getty Images The 10 countries completely free from conflict Conflict-free countries Uruguay Eduardo Amorim/Flickr The 10 countries completely free from conflict Conflict-free countries Vietnam Source: Global Peace Index Source: Global Peace Index Getty Images

Brazil is the country that has dropped out of the list, and as one of the worst performing countries year-on-year represents a serious concern ahead of the Rio Olympics, the IEPs founder Steve Killelea told The Independent.

But perhaps the most remarkable result from this years peace index, he said, was the extent to which the situation in the Middle East drags down the rest of the world when it comes to peacefulness.

If we look at the world overall, it has become slightly less peaceful in the last 12 months, Mr Killelea said.

But if we took the Middle East out of the index over the last decade  and last year  the world would have become more peaceful. It really highlights the impact the Middle East is having on the world.

A snapshot of the Global Peace Index 2016

The index shows that 81 countries became more peaceful in the past year, while the situation deteriorated in 79.

Unlike with previous years, however, the IEP noticed a clear trend where the more peaceful countries improved further while the less peaceful countries got even worse  producing what they called greater peace inequality across the world.

The key reason behind it is our inability to solve the conflicts which are emerging," Mr Killelea said. The conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq have been going for well over a decade, then it spilled into Syria in 2011, and afterwards into Libya and Yemen. That [failure] is really the key to the problem.

If we take battlefield deaths for example, they are up at 112,000  a 20-year high. But again, if you took out Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, they count for 75 per cent of those deaths.

The index shows that political instability worsened in 39 countries in the last 12 months, including what the report described as the striking case of Brazil.

It has fallen five places to 105th out of the 163 countries included in the study, due to increases in the number of people jailed, the number of security officers deployed by the state and also a slight increase in terrorist activity.

It is very difficult to say how that will play out in terms of the Olympic Games, said Mr Killelea. Its obviously a very volatile situation.

Iceland was once again named the worlds most peaceful country, followed by Denmark, Austria, New Zealand and Portugal, the latter improving nine places. Syria was once again named the least peaceful country.

The index suggests the world is less peaceful in 2016 than at any point in the past eight years (IEP)

Asked how the rest of the world can learn from Iceland, Mr Killelea said: Its not just Iceland, its a whole range of countries which we can learn from. They are practising what we call positive peace, which are factors which create and sustain peaceful societies.

The IEP tries to define positive peace in numerical terms, giving countries scores for a range of factors including acceptance of the rights of others, low levels of corruption, the free flow of information and a well functioning government.

If positive peace is strong enough, then a country which is presented with shocks wont actually have a deterioration in peace [as measured by violence], he said.

Finally, the index identified Europe once again as the most peaceful region in the world, and by some margin, home to seven of the top 10 countries on the list.

Yet the continent is not immune to war  Britain, France, Belgium and others are heavily involved in external conflict in the Middle East, and face a growing threat to peace from international terrorism.

So given all the dire warnings from either side about the security of Europe if Britain leaves the EU, does the IEP foresee a change in the regions fortunes in the event of Brexit?

Its unlikely to have an effect in the short term, Mr Killelea said. But the longer-term ramifications, more for Britain than for [the rest of] Europe, would probably depend on what the economic outcome of a British exit would be.

If the economy was robust Britain would probably maintain its current levels of peace. However, if theres a deterioration in the economy then that would come back and have a negative impact on peacefulness.
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She wrote: I want the judge to know that he ignited a tiny fire. If anything, this is a reason for all of us to speak even louder. Through her letter, and her case, the Stanford University rape survior highlighted both the systematic and social rape culture that perpetuates our criminal justice systems, campuses, and wider society.

While the attacker in the Stanford case was found guilty of three felony sexual assault counts for the January 2015 attack - with the two formal charges of rape under California state law being dropped at the preliminary hearing - sexual assault on campus, and the lack of justice for survivors, is often misunderstood as something America messes up on.

Here in the UK, however, many people are unaware we have national statistics that show the two groups of people who are most likely to become victims of sexual violence are women aged 16 to 19, and full-time female students.

Youd think the prevalence of sexual assault on campus would mean we would have robust reporting systems and support for survivors across every campus. This, however, is not the case. Last year, when NUS surveyed student freshers of all genders, only 66 per cent said they were not aware of the procedure to report such incidents, while 12 per cent felt they would not be taken seriously if they did.

Since 1994, many universities in the UK have followed the Zellick guidelines which advise institutions to force students who have been raped or sexually assaulted to go the police before they initiate any disciplinary procedure of their own. The NUS Womens Campaign and Rape Crisis, therefore, has now created the #StandByMe campaign to highlight how the contents of these guidelines negatively impacts student survivors from coming forward.

The Zellick guidelines also display a naivety around the presence of rape culture in the criminal justice system. The general contents of the guidelines prioritise and protect institutions and alleged perpetrators over survivors, and has led to numerous cases where survivors have not felt able to come out and report. The fact that so many institutions use such guidelines to shape their policies means Ive had to watch, year after year, survivors drop out of education while the people that have assaulted them carry on like nothing has happened.

Only recently has the Universities UK taskforce on violence against women, harassment, and hate crime agreed to undertake a review of these guidelines. However, this is only one part of the of the multiple barriers which prevent student survivors from coming forward.

Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life Show all 19 1 /19 Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life Afghanistan Recommendation: I urge the Government of Afghanistan to adopt legislative reforms to ensure that sexual violence offences are not conflated with adultery or morality crimes and to establish infrastructure for the delivery of protection, health and le gal services to survivors. I call on the Ministry of the Interior to accelerate efforts to integrate women into the Afghan National Police, thereby enhancing its outreach and its capacity to address sexual and gender-based violence Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life Central African Republic Recommendation: I urge the authorities of the Central African Republic to ensure that efforts to restore security and the rule of law take into account the prevention of sexual violence and that monitoring of the ceasefire and peace agreement explicitly reflects this consideration, in line with the joint communique of the Government and the United Nations on the prevention of and response to conflict-related sexual violence signed in December 2012. I further encourage the authorities to make the rapid response unit to combat sexual violence operational and to establish a special criminal court Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life Colombia Recommendation: I commend the Government of Colombia for the progress made to date and its collaboration with the United Nations, including through the visit of my Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict in March 2015. I encourage the authorities to implement Law 1719 and continue to prosecute cases of sexual violence committed during the conflict to ensure that survivors receive justice and receive reparations. Conflict-related sexual violence should continue to be addressed in the Havana peace talks, as well as in the resulting accords and transitional justice mechanisms. Particular attention should be paid to groups that face additional barriers to justice such as ethnic minorities, women in rural areas, children, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex individuals and women abused within the ranks of armed groups. I encourage the Government to scale up its protection measures and share its good practices with other conflict-affected countries Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life Congo Recommendation: I urge the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to ensure full implementation of the armed forces action plan against sexual violence, to systematically bring perpetrators to justice and to deliver reparations to victims, including payment of outstanding compensation awards. I call on donors and the United Nations system to support the Government in its efforts and to pay increased attention to neglected areas, including unregulated mining regions Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life Iraq Recommendation: I commend the Government of Iraq for its national action plan for the implementation of Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) and urge its swift implementation, including by training its security forces to ensur e respect for womens rights. Programmes to support the social reintegration of women and girls released from captivity by ISIL are urgently needed, as is community-based medical and psychological care. The capacity of the United Nations system should be enhanced through the deployment of Womens Protection Advisers or equivalent specialists Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life Libya Recommendation: I urge the national authorities in Libya to implement Decree No. 119 and Resolution 904 of 2014 to ensure redress for all victims, including those affected by the current conflict, through the establishment of multisectoral services and the adoption of legislation to categorically prohibit sexual violence Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life Mali Recommendation: I urge the Government of Mali, with support from United Nations Action against Sexual Violence in Conflict, to develop a comprehensive national strategy to combat sexual and gender-based violence and to ensure the safety of humanitarian workers so that services can reach remote areas. I further call on all parties to ensure that conflict-related sexual violence is addressed in the inter-Malian dialogue and that perpetrators of sexual violence do not benefit from amnesty or early release Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life Myanmar Recommendation: I urge the Government of Myanmar to continue with its reform agenda and, in the process, take practical and timely actions to protect and support survivors of conflict-related sexual violence and to ensure that security personnel accused of such crimes are prosecuted. Sexual violence should be an element in all ceasefire and peace negotiations, excluded from the scope of amnesty provisions and addressed in transitional justice processes. It is critical that women be able to participate consistently in and influence these processes Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life Somalia Recommendation: I reiterate my call to the Federal Government of Somalia to implement the commitments made under the joint communique of 7 May 2013 and its national action plan to combat sexual violence in conflict, including specific plans for the army and the police. I encourage the adoption of a sexual offences bill as a matter of priority Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life South Sudan Recommendation: I urge the parties to the conflict in South Sudan to adopt action plans to implement the commitments made under their respective communiques. I call upon the Government of South Sudan to address the negative impact of customary law on womens rights and to reflect international human rights standards in national law. I also encourage the African Union to make public and act upon the report of its Commission of Inquiry on South Sudan Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life Sudan (Darfur) Recommendation: I call upon the Government of the Sudan to grant the United Nations and its humanitarian partners unfettered access for monitoring and the provision of assistance to people in need in Darfur. Given that there has been grave concern over sexual violence in Darfur for more than a decade, I encourage the Government to engage with my Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict to develop a framework of cooperation to address the issue comprehensively Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life Syria Recommendation: I acknowledge the Governments invitation to my Special Representative to visit the Syrian Arab Republic and call upon the authorities, in the context of such a visit, to agree on specific measures to prevent sexual violence, including by members of the security forces. I condemn the use of sexual violence by ISIL and all other parties listed in the annex to the present report and call on them to cease such violations immediately and allow unfettered access for the delivery of humanitarian assistance Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life Yemen Recommendation: I urge the authorities in Yemen to undertake legislative reform as a basis for addressing impunity for sexual violence, ensuring the provision of services for survivors and aligning the minimum legal age of marriage with international standards. I further call on the authorities to engage with local community and faithbased leaders to address sexual and gender-based violence and discriminatory social norms Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life Bosnia and Herzegovina Recommendation: I urge the relevant authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina to harmonize legislation and policies so that the rights of survivors of conflict-related sexual violence to reparations are consistently recognized and to allocate a specific budget for this purpose. I further call upon the authorities to protect and support survivors participating in judicial proceedings through, inter alia, referrals to free legal aid, psychosocial and health services, as well as economic empowerment programmes Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life Ivory Coast Recommendation: I urge the Government of Cote dIvoire to ensure the effective implementation of its national strategy to combat gender-based violence and the action plan for FRCI, and call on the international community to support these efforts. It is critical to accelerate disarmament, demobilization and reintegration and strengthen law enforcement to ensure that ex-combatants who have been reintegrated into the transport sector do not pose a risk to women and girls who are reliant on those services. The Government and the international community must provide monitoring and awareness-raising to mitigate the possibility of a recurrence of sexual violence in the context of the presidential elections to be held in October 2015 Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life Liberia Recommendation: I call on the Government of Liberia to continue its critical efforts to combat sexual and gender-based violence including through the United Nations-Government of Liberia Joint Programme, and in the context of recovery from the Ebola virus epidemic Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life Nepal Recommendation: I encourage the Government to ensure that survivors of conflict-related sexual violence are recognized under the law as conflict victims, which will enable them to access services, judicial remedies and reparations. I further call on all parties involved in the transitional justice process to ensure that the rights and needs o f survivors of sexual violence are addressed in institutional reforms and that these crimes are excluded from amnesties and statutes of limitations Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life Sri Lanka Recommendation: I call upon the newly elected Government of Sri Lanka to investigate allegations of sexual violence, including against national armed and security forces, and to provide multisectoral services for survivors, including reparations and economic empowerment programmes for women at risk, including war widows and female heads of household Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life Nigeria Recommendation: I encourage the Government to implement its national action plan on the implementation of Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) to ensure that womens protection concerns are mainstreamed throughout its security operations. I also call upon the authorities to guarantee security in and around internally displaced persons camps and to extend medical and psychosocial services to high-risk areas

On Tuesday, NUS launched the #StandByMe consultation report, a collection of student and students union views of what should be in place to support those who are affected by sexual assault and other forms of sexual violence at university. One of the most pressing issues highlighted by respondents was how institutions and students unions respond to disclosures of sexual violence. Ensuring the survivor is taken seriously, as well as ensuring there is no victim-blaming, were viewed as critical to an appropriate response.

 Hero Swedish student who stopped Stanford rape describes what he saw

For many student survivors, being able to access appropriate support is a postcode lottery due to the lack of standards in the higher education sector. Theres no recent guidance on what policy, report systems, investigation procedures, and disciplinary actions are appropriate to deal with these situations. Through the #StandByMe campaign - and other student grassroots projects - student activists have long been calling for a demand for institutions to commit to preventing and addressing sexual violence.

The case at Stanford University is not the first case of its kind - sexual assault on campus is an international issue. If we truly want to fight for a better future, we need to work together to dismantle the rape culture in society and make sure all survivors get the justice and support that is deserved.

Susuana Amoah is the National Union of Students womens officer
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It was a Christmas miracle.

On Christmas Eve in 2014, United Arab Emirates-based airline Etihad Airways offered deeply discounted tickets from major U.S. hubs -- New York City, Washington, Dallas and Chicago -- to cities around the world such as Abu Dhabi, Johannesburg and Mumbai. Some of the tickets were priced as low as $187 (128) round-trip.

The catch? The tickets weren't a Christmas Day stocking stuffer from the airline; they were the result of a pricing glitch. An Etihad spokeswoman told Forbes at the time that "a system filing issue caused ticket prices for a promotion in the U.S.A. to be temporarily listed incorrectly." Nonetheless, the airline honored the mistake fares, and thousands of people traveled around the world on Etihad.

I was one of them. A friend called and woke me up early Christmas morning, out of breath and explaining that I needed to quickly book a ticket before they ran out, or before the airline caught the error.

"It's about taking action immediately, and then figuring out whether the destination makes sense," said Matthew Ma, a co-founder of TheFlightDeal.com, the site that broke the news of the Abu Dhabi glitch.

According to Ma, more than 20,000 people around the world booked the flights. Two friends and I were among them. We went to Abu Dhabi in February 2015 and paid $265 for round-trip tickets -- including travel insurance -- out of Washington Dulles International Airport.

Since the Abu Dhabi trip, I've booked two more glitch fares -- to Lisbon and Panama City -- and one "fare war" deal to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The Vietnam ticket allowed my friends and I to hop around Southeast Asia to Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand.

Booking error-fare tickets requires patience and flexibility. The Transportation Department ruled in 2015 that airlines no longer have to honor glitch fares, so travel blogs recommend waiting until a ticket and confirmation number have been issued before making further plans. Even then, airlines may still cancel the fare.

Travelers dedicated to spotting glitch fares have multiple ways of doing so. Some people mine travel blogs such as The Flight Deal and Secret Flying. Some use Facebook and set Twitter alerts to make sure they never miss a deal. My friend learned about the fare from another friend who heard about it on Twitter.

Members of Evita Turquoise Robinson's travel group sent a "bat signal" upon learning about the glitch. "It was like anybody's sense of respectable-hour etiquette [went] completely out of the window," Robinson said of the glitch, which was discovered at 1 a.m. She booked a ticket to Johannesburg and didn't go to bed until 4 a.m.

Robinson is the founder of the Nomadness Travel Tribe, an invitation-only online social group, which is predominantly comprised of women of color and has nearly 13,000 Facebook followers. (Full disclosure: I'm a member.) While most glitch fares are the result of human or computer errors, she says their availability underscores the group's philosophy.

"Travel is not something that is only for the elite or [people] from certain economic brackets."

Copyright: Washington Post
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Muhaydin Mire, a 30 year-old Islamist fanatic who used to drive for Uber, was yesterday found guilty of attempted murder at Leytonstone station in east London last year. Shouting this is for my Syrian brothers, the deranged religious zealot took a knife to the neck of musician Lyle Zimmerman on 5 December, after which another commuter shouted: You aint no Muslim, bruv." The phrase went viral on social media.

Watching the video of the incident and its aftermath, which we have chosen to publish on independent.co.uk, it is impossible not to be struck by the bravery of other commuters. Several of them confront Mire, including by approaching him, and the fact that more than one of them tries to stop him shows how bravery can, in such dangerous circumstances, be infectious. Those heroic commuters deserve recognition and public credit. Unfortunately, our honours system is a corrupt farce, so the approval of their communities and London as a whole will have to suffice.

Mires frenzied attack shows another side to the age of terror in which we live. Plenty of terrorism, such as that of September 11 or the recent spate of attacks in Paris, will be high-profile and high-impact. Plenty of other terrorism will be committed by theologically minded loners with limited resources to cause damage, acting not in networks of terror but as solitary agents of doom. Mire is just one such. It is natural to read plenty into his filthy criminality  including, no doubt, that you cant trust Uber drivers, a dangerous myth that other cab drivers ought not to perpetuate.

The truth is that most terrorists are petty criminals who deserve our scorn and the firm application of the law. Overreacting to their perverted ways grants them a victory that any civilised society should be unwilling to give. In contrast, the courage and public spirit of the commuters in Leytonstone who had the misfortune to come across this Islamist spiv showed exactly how to respond to the moral depredations of terrorists. We salute them, and thank them for their example.
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So great is the concern about the influence of Google on governments all over the world that a Google Transparency Project has been set up to discover what is going on. This is an important issue. The OECD, an inter-government body, says that what it calls policy capture has consequences for business competition  which is putting it mildly.

Policy capture describes a situation in which commercial interests so infiltrate governments that they can affect the design of measures that are relevant to their activities. That this becoming commonplace is one reason why trust in government is waning.

Now the Google Transparency Project has done some valuable analysis of Googles interactions with the American government and with European governments including our own. Unfortunately the projects origins are not as clear as they should be. An American tax-exempt body called the Campaign for Accountability runs the unit.

The Campaign for Accountability states that it uses research, litigation and aggressive communications to expose misconduct and malfeasance in public life. It notes that millions of Americans lives are negatively impacted by decisions made behind the doors of corporate boardrooms, government offices, and shadowy nonprofit groups.

Recommended Read more US Supreme Court rejects Google appeal in lawsuit by advertisers

It adds that advocacy groups do not always have the capacity or will to take on the opposition directly. We will hold those who act at the expense of the public good accountable for their actions.

All fine and dandy. However a visit to the web site of Campaign for Accountability does not reveal its sources of finance. It lists staff members, but shows no major figure associated with its work. But, in spite of these omissions, its recent analysis of the revolving door between Google and the Government is undeniably interesting.

This shows that the company has hired at least 65 government officials from all over the European Union since 2005. During the same period, 15 Googlers have been appointed to government positions in Europe, thus penetrating to the heart of the decision-making process.

These included Baroness Shields, a former managing director for Google (she has held roles at Bebo, AOL and Facebook), who was appointed the UKs Minister for Internet Safety and Security at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport; and Googles executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, appointed by David Cameron to his business advisory council. Members of such groups have direct access to decision makers.

In fact, Google has particularly targeted public institutions in the United Kingdom. It has hired from no fewer than 17 state bodies including Number 10, the Home Office, the Treasury, the House of Commons, and Departments of Education and Skills, International Development, and Transport.

This adds to what was already known through the use of the Freedom of Information Act. Between January 2014 and March 2015, for instance, there were 24 meetings between Google and government ministers including the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne and his influential Cabinet colleague, Oliver Letwin.

Recommended Read more Google overtakes Apple as most valuable global brand

This is part of a much bigger story. It starts at the beginning of the 1980s when Margaret Thatcher here and Ronald Reagan in the US overturned the orthodoxy that governments knew best. This had held sway since the war regardless of which political party was in power.

Instead, the two leaders argued, markets know best. So Thatcher and Reagan removed restrictions on the movement of capital across borders (hence ushering in globalisation). They privatised some government functions and contracted out others to reduce the size of the state. And they rapidly deregulated business, complaining that entrepreneurial endeavours were being strangled by red tape.

Sensible though this programme was in many ways, business wanted more. Indeed, since the days of Thatcher and Reagan business interests have systematically set out to bend governments further to their will by incessant lobbying. The Google revelations provide a snapshot of how this is done. The same takes place in Brussels, Washington and wherever political power is situated.

Of course government ministers do not have to open their doors to business chiefs. But as in Britain at least, few of them have had any experience of business themselves, having for the most part worked in politics all their lives, they are naive. They cannot read their business visitors.

I would like to see zero tolerance of lobbying. No visits to ministers; written submissions only.

Or perhaps follow the French example. Frances tax prosecutor charged Google with aggravated tax evasion. So last month dozens of tax investigators raided Googles offices in Paris and sealed them off. For a few hours, nobody could enter or leave. No tea and biscuits.

Thats the way.
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I am so over Brexit. When once I felt excitement about the greatest democratic event of my life so far, I now feel paralysing apathy. I walk past newspapers in supermarkets, take one look at the headlines and forget who I am, what I came to buy and what the point in carrying on is anymore.

You know all sense of rationality has been lost in a debate when someone chooses to employ reductio ad Hitlerum, as Boris Johnson chose to do. It is time for everyone to just call it a day and get this thing over with.

This, I hope, was the sentiment that drove the surge of traffic that broke the gov.uk/register-to-vote website before the midnight deadline. The Cabinet Office said it was due to unprecedented demand. In short, the Government failed to prepare for the half a million people who applied to vote, the volume of users overwhelmed the servers and crashed the website.

If the Cabinet spokesperson had have been straight up, he might instead have said: Look, we didnt realise democracy would, like, go viral. We werent ready for it. But we are talking to Kim Kardashians people to figure out how they handled the naked bum situation and hopefully well have some tech tricks up our sleeves next time around.

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

Seriously though, they would have done well too check in with Paper, the magazine who brought the world the naked pictures of Kimmy K. Before launching the now infamous edition, the small indie publication went to their web company and said: We may get a lot of traffic." In response they installed pre-warmed load balancers, four front end servers and an extra server to share a filesystem between them and an additional content delivery network. All for one not so little bum. The least the Government could have done for peoples democratic rights was to get the contact details of these people (here they are incidentally, to prove it isnt that hard). Hopefully, theyll be prepared this time around, after the Government announced that the deadline had been extended until midnight on Thursday.

The calamity sets realistic expectations on calls for voting to be taken online. The estimate is that online voting would boost overall turnout to 79 per cent with an extra nine million voters. If the Government website couldnt handle half a million requests in the space of an hour, imagine the chaos with around 46,420,413 voters (the number of people who turned out in 2015), plus an extra nine million to boot.

The real tragedy is that over half of those registering to vote yesterday were people under 35. Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said: People might have seen the debate last night and wanted to register, that is valid. It seems many trying to register were young people. It would be a travesty if their first experience of democracy was this shambles. With most young people being likely to vote remain, this is sure to have an impact on what will inevitably be a close contest.
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According to the Leave campaigners, they are the champions of the people, standing against the elites by defending the NHS and all things working class. In the tradition of populism through the ages, they offer the people what they want to hear with a good dose of nationalism thrown into the mix. Leave campaigners rail against elites, without any sense of irony.

So let's take a look at a few of them.

There's Iain Duncan Smith, for example, who is the son-in-law of the fifth Baron Cottesloe and resides in a 16th century Tudor house. This is a man who apparently resigned, on principle, over cuts to welfare - despite being the architect of the bedroom tax, and under whose tenure at the Department for Work and Pensions foodbanks flourished.

Recommended Read more The EU referendum has showcased the very worst of politics

Then there's Liam Fox, the millionaire who called for an end to the protection of NHS spending.

And as for Michael Gove, suddenly he wants to spend money on the NHS, but once called for it to be dismantled because he considered it no longer relevant in the 21st century. This is probably why he had no difficulty voting for the Health and Social Care Act. He also says people are 'sick of experts'. I dont know about you, Michael, but if I had an ailment, I would rather speak to a doctor than a quack.

How about Jacob Rees-Mogg? He's a former Rothschild investment manager, who took his nanny canvassing, and consistently voted against spending public money to create guaranteed jobs for the young unemployed.

And then, of course, there is the Tory leadership contender who four months ago saw leaving the EU as "diverting energy from the real problems of this country. But I suppose personal ambition is more important than the economy and the nations security. So much for patriotism.

As for Nigel Farage: hes supposed to be the real voice of the people. But he fails to tell you he was educated at public school and made his fortune as a stockbroker. And at no time have I heard him say in this referendum campaign what he really believes about the NHS: that it should be replaced with an American-style private health service.

And Ill end with Arron Banks, a multi-millionaire supporter of Ukip whos on record as saying that, if it was down to him, hed privatise the NHS.

Now, I have no problems with people making money and getting on in life, as long as they are honest about it and dont hide it like some inconvenient truth.

 Cameron accuses Leave

But here lies the untold truth of the leading figures of the Leave campaign. They are really free-market anarchists at heart, who believe in minimal regulation, even if that regulation protects the rights of the people they encourage to vote their way. Their smoke screen is nationalism and the hollow ring of taking back control.

To paraphrase George Orwells Animal Farm, Leave campaigners start off by saying all people are equal. But if they get their way, and Britain leaves the EU, it will soon change to all people are equal - but some are more equal than others.

The Leave campaigners are scary people, so do not fall for their scary future. Their future is a Brexit world with Trump in the White House, Putin in the Kremlin and the UK out of the European Union with Boris Johnson as prime minister. Now that is a scary future.

Phil Wilson is Labour MP for Sedgefield
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I do not see why the Liberal Democrat MP David Ward needs to apologise over his remarks about firing rockets.

The Palestinians have been oppressed for decades and in Gaza are forced to exist on a tiny, narrow strip of land. Unless a breakthrough is made in Middle East negotiations, which looks unlikely, there is little hope for them. You can see why they retaliate against their oppressor.

Perhaps if more people, particularly Western leaders, showed more empathy for the Palestinians we would have long-lasting peace.

Clive Mowforth

Dursley, Gloucestershire

Using the maze of tunnels under Gaza to hide and transport weapons to densely populated sites from which to launch indiscriminate rocket attacks against Israeli civilians is an evil and despicable act which has rightly been condemned as a war crime.

To respond by bombing and shelling targets in the full knowledge that this will result in sizeable civilian casualties is equally a war crime, and has now been denounced as such by Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

A spokesperson for the Israeli government very eloquently stated: We [Israel] use our arms to protect our children whereas Hamas use their children to protect their arms. That does not give Israel the right to kill those children.

Israel cannot win a war against Hamas by the use of disproportionate force against the already beleaguered citizens of Gaza. Every picture of a dead Palestinian child is a recruiting poster for the militant arm of Hamas and causes worldwide revulsion against an Israeli regime which seems to care little about its international reputation.

The only way Israel can gain from this conflict is to cease hostilities, use its effective anti-missile defence system and air-raid shelters to protect its citizens and then offer some concessions to the Palestinians. Removing the blockade of Gaza and halting developments on the West Bank might just convince the Palestinian people to silence their extremist arm and work towards a peaceful coexistence.

Malcolm Harding

Ipswich

When Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, says that Hamas pile up as many civilian dead as they can to make Israel look bad, he is speaking from a mind-set that has informed the political attitude of Israels leaders for many years.

Israel paints an image of itself in the media wherein the victim becomes the oppressor, and the oppressor becomes the victim forced to defend itself. Israel is portrayed as wishing only for peace. The reason, they say, for so many civilian deaths is that the Palestinians use human shields, forcing Israel to choose between no response and one that incurs collateral damage.

The responsibility for Palestinian deaths is transferred to the Palestinians themselves; Israel is seen as blameless, guilt-free, angry at having been coerced into mass murder. In the words of the late Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir: We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children. We will only have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us.

And thus the cycle of killing and justification becomes self-perpetuating.

Daniel Cohen

Hastings

As a retired counsellor, I can liken the situation in Gaza/Israel to a combative couple. One swipes at the other ineffectively in frustration and the other batters them severely back. The batterer then tells the social services or the police that the other made me do it.

Blame is an ineffective solution to problems. They must sit down and talk.

Margaret Bellamy

Newmarket, Suffolk

Reform the benefits assessment now

We all know that the work capability assessment (WCA) isnt working. If the Government acts now on the recommendations in the Work and Pensions Select Committee report (23 July), it can make an immediate, positive difference to peoples lives.

Simple changes such as introducing flexibility, so that assessors are not trying to determine how a persons condition affects their ability to work in an often too-short 45-minute meeting, should make a huge difference to the accuracy of the assessment results. They should also reduce the amount of government money wasted on unnecessary appeals.

Another simple change involves a common-sense approach to reassessments. At the moment people are being reassessed far too quickly following a successful appeal. We have heard of many cases where people are asked to start the whole process again only a month after winning an appeal.

We believe the reassessment phase should instead begin from the date of the appeal outcome.

In the light of the news earlier this year that Atos will withdraw as the WCA provider, it is important that the Government immediately acts upon any changes that can be made to improve the process for people going through the assessments. This cannot wait until the contract is re-tendered in 2018.

Vicky McDermott

Chief Executive, Papworth Trust

Papworth Everard, Cambridgeshire

Cambridge colossus skews degree grades

The Tompkins Table 2014 again demonstrates that disproportionate wealth results in a better academic performance.

Trinity Colleges exceptional performance of nearly 43 per cent of its students obtaining a first-class degree should be compared with, say, Lucy Cavendish with its 11.1 per cent and Hughes Hall with its 12.7 per cent.

Trinitys wealth is put at some 900m (with a reported annual income in excess of 20m), whereas Lucy Cavendishs wealth is some 24m and Hughes Halls some 18m. The disparity of performance ties in with the disparity of wealth, and should be seen as a form of unacceptable elitism.

It is high time that Cambridge University grappled with this problem, which encourages an attitude that there are good colleges and other colleges which are also-rans. The problem is perfectly soluble without undermining the college structure, if the university were to put its mind to it.

Oxford University has a similar problem, but fortunately no colossus like Trinity College.

David Ashton

Shipbourne, Kent

Holidays in term-time

Like many others, I have been astonished and dismayed to read of the case of the very sick young man whose mother has been threatened with legal action should she take him on holiday in term-time.

I suggest she does so anyway and enjoys the public pummelling that the relevant head or local authority will get should they be stupid enough to pursue the matter.

I was a primary school head for many years, and my response, when informed that a child was going on holiday  I was rarely asked for permission  was almost always Have a lovely time, theyre bound to learn more with you than they do with us!

Richard Welch

Nantglyn, North Wales

Bad moment to shift ministers

What a miracle of timing on David Camerons part to fire his experienced Foreign Secretary and infinitely more experienced Minister without Portfolio, and move his Defence Secretary two days before the shooting down of Flight MH17! When cool heads and firm but forceful diplomatic language are required, all we get is megaphone diplomacy for the benefit of the tabloids.

Frank Donald

Edinburgh

Just what are these British values?

Allegations of a Trojan horse plot by Islamic hardliners to take over the running of schools are indeed disturbing, but I am dismayed that the new Secretary of State for Education should respond by stating that teachers should be barred from the profession if they fail to protect British values.

What constitutes British values is nebulous and open to various interpretations, some of which could themselves be illiberal and unpleasant.

Far better to just outlaw any promotion of racial, religious, sexual or other intolerance and bigotry without hooking this on to an unhelpful notion of what our national values may or may not be.

Jonathan Wallace

Newcastle upon Tyne

Guess who picks up the bill

The publicly remunerated Ed Balls sacks the publicly remunerated Sharon Shoesmith. The publicly remunerated Court of Appeal directs that the publicly remunerated Haringey Council is to compensate her with ... er, public remuneration.

Then I woke up. For a horrible moment there I thought that the fantasy financing of the banking crisis had returned.

Roger Harvey

Norwich
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Some politicians campaigning for staying in the EU are starting to fear they will win the economic battle but lose the referendum war, largely because of immigration. Their jitters have increased since Tuesdays ITV debate, in which David Cameron and Nigel Farage faced hostile questions from a studio audience.

Although Farage was accused of encouraging racism by two black members of the audience, Cameron came under pressure from two non-white Brits about immigration  a reminder that concern about the issue is not confined to Little Englander retired colonels and White Van Man.

Cameron and Farage grilled

The PMs strategy was to change the music, to the economy, stupid. Asked about the pressures that immigration puts on the NHS, his default position was that there would be more money for health under the stronger economy that continued EU membership would ensure. Cameron argued that one way to reduce migration was to ensure more Brits get the skills to do the jobs on offer here.

All very worthy, but not enough: he did not address public anxiety about immigration head on.

Some pro-EU MPs with seats in the Midlands and North suspect that a majority of their constituents will vote Leave. They tell me that the powerful economic arguments at Remains disposal do not cut much ice with people not sharing the benefits of globalisation, as symbolised by the EU.

They think Westminster is in denial about the problems caused by immigration, said one.

While the economy dominated the referendum debate, the Remain camp could be cautiously optimistic. But Leave now has a spring in its step because immigration has come to the fore.

 UKIP's Farage Places 1,000 Bet on Brexit

A study of media reports by Loughborough University found that the economy was the main theme in the first three weeks of May, but was overtaken by immigration in the final week. If that trend continues, it would be very ominous for Remain.

It is no longer tenable for Remain to take the view that it is better not to mention immigration because it only helps the other side. This strategy meant that the two Treasury tomes addressing the short and long term impact of Brexit largely skated over the immigration question. Presumably George Osborne judged it was better to keep it out of the headlines.

Yet there is a positive case to be made for migration; Cameron now needs to make it to avoid a career-ending referendum defeat.

He should devote a speech to the issue so that voters know he is listening to them. He might not convince them all, but he needs to try.

Free movement from the EU has boosted growth, productivity and the public finances. Most EU migrants are strivers who come here to work, and contribute more in taxes than they draw in benefits. They include 135,000 who work in NHS and social care. Many do jobs that British people do not want to do.

Cameron unwittingly made a rod for his own back by talking up the idea that EU migrants come to claim benefits. Unable to win any concessions from his EU partners on free movement, the Prime Minister claimed progress by delaying full access to benefits for four years. But he rarely mentions the great renegotiation, which shows how thin it was.

21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Show all 21 1 /21 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Portugal drinks more wine than France Tindo - Fotolia 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Young Italians, by some distance, are the most likely to live at home with their parents 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Britain is on course to overtake Germany as Europes most populated country 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Greek workers work the longest hours in the EU 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Estonia has, per capita, more drug-related deaths than anyone else 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe The fastest download speeds are to be found in Romania 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Slovenia, Malta and Poland have the smallest gender pay gaps 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe France hates its leader more than other European countries 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Eastern and Western Europe are very divided on the issue of gay marriage 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Germany has the most millionaires 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Everyone likes Christmas, apart from France 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Germany accepts by far the most asylum applications 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe The UK and France have some of the most positive views of Muslim people 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Europe's largest Muslim population is in Germany 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Danes are the most trusting Europeans, and Cypriots the least 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Finland has the worst economy in the EU 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Italy has cut back its military spending more than any other major European Nato member 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Everyone is sad about the refugee crisis 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe People in Spain are also the most likely to live in flats (Brits are most likely to live in houses) 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Spain is the most likely to feel neighbourly 21 maps and charts which will challenge perceptions of Europe Luxembourg is home to the highest proportion of foreign nationals

True, Cameron would find it harder to admit that the pressures on jobs and public services blamed on immigration are often caused by his austerity programme  not least the financial straitjacket imposed on local authorities. But Labour figures, including Jeremy Corbyn, could say so.

The Prime Minister could take a leaf out of Labours book by announcing plans to give financial help to the areas hit hardest by migration, as Corbyn has suggested.

Why not use EU funds, as Gordon Brown has proposed? OK, it might look like a last-minute ploy, but better late than never.

Cameron could also take more action to stop migrants undercutting British workers, as Corbyn proposed at Prime Ministers Questions on Wednesday. It might go against the Tory grain to further regulate the labour market, but why not stamp out abuses?

There is a way for Cameron to link the economy and immigration  by arguing more forcefully that wrecking the economy through Brexit would not allay peoples fears about jobs, health, housing and schools, and only make the problems worse.

He should do more to expose the Leave camps Achilles heel: would we have access to the EU single market after Brexit, and would we would accept free movement in order to secure it?

Recommended Read more This is what Britain will look like in 2025 if we leave the EU

The PM should also attack the double standards of Leave campaigners who say they want to hit the Governments target to reduce net migration to under 100,000 a year, but also hint that Brexit would allow more skilled people to come to Britain from Commonwealth countries.

They cannot have it both ways; allowing more non-EU migration (which accounts for more than half of the 330,000 total) would not enable us to hit the target.

Voters know this referendum is not a general election and that, by voting Leave, they will not make Farage prime minister.

Cameron must tell them he would stay on even if he loses, even though we would soon have a new prime minister probably Boris Johnson.

The old maxim that the economy conquers all other arguments has been proved right at recent general elections. But referendums are different  and highly dangerous, as Cameron now realises as he fights for his political life in a battle he foolishly chose to have.
Agriculture leaders said the stakes are highest for their sector

Irish farmers have weighed into the Brexit debate by urging their friends and relatives in the UK to vote to remain in the EU.

Agriculture leaders said the stakes are highest for their sector with food trade across the Irish Sea and into Northern Ireland worth 4.4 billion euro a year.

The Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) said sales into the UK of half of Ireland's beef, 60% of the country's cheese, almost every mushroom and 350 million euro of pork products are at risk from Brexit.

IFA president Joe Healy said the sector would also face added costs from tariffs, quotas and border controls and the threat that Irish foods would be pushed off UK supermarket shelves if Britain strikes better trade deals with other countries.

"With a long history of emigration to the UK to find work, all Irish farm families have family members, relatives and friends living in the UK and eligible to vote," he said.

"We are asking farm families, families in rural Ireland and across the country to communicate the concerns and risks that we are highlighting today."

The IFA warned that Brexit would bring added risks to agri-food and animal health on the island of Ireland if the UK splits from the EU.

The farmers' group said threats could increase because of the shared land border and the potential for different regulatory regimes in Ireland and the UK.

It also warned that European subsidies paid to Irish farmers under the Common Agriculture Policy would be in danger from Brexit as the UK boosts the Brussels budget by about eight billion euro.

Mr Healy said Ireland shares strong economic, social and cultural links with the UK which make the country "a very important partner and ally in Europe".

"Should the UK vote to leave the EU, Irish agriculture would undoubtedly suffer negative consequences, both in the short term and the longer term," he said.

"Already in 2016, we have seen a weakening of sterling against the euro, arising mainly from the uncertainty on the referendum outcome. This has reduced the competitiveness of Irish exports, with a disproportionate impact on the Irish agri-food sector."

Meanwhile, Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan, sat down with government advisers in Dublin to assess threats to exports.

"From the trade union movement to the business community and across the political divide, there is a consensus that anything that might get in the way of a seamless flow of goods, services, capital and people between Ireland and Britain would be extremely unwelcome," he said.

"I saw first-hand the potential for growing even further the trade links between Ireland and every region of Britain. We want to see both of our economies continuing to flourish, to the benefit of all."
In the second in a series of special Brexit podcasts brought to you by Independent.ie, INM Group Business Editor, Dearbhail McDonald, discusses the consequences for Irish business if Brexit happens.

Dearbhail was joined by John McGrane, Director General of the British Irish Chamber of Commerce, John Mattimoe, Head of Equity Analysis at Appian Asset Management, and Colm Kelpie INM Business Reporter.

Brexit could cut 20pc of Irish trade and knock 1.1 percentage points off GDP growth before the end of 2017. This makes Ireland the country that stands to lose the most should the UK leave the EU and no economist or think-tank says the UK will be better off by leaving either, said John McGrane.

Colm Kelpie who has been covering the Brexit campaign in the UK says economics are not to the forefront in the discussion.

Immigration is the big issue thats dominating the debate in UK, he explained. And while in Ireland, the vast majority of Irish businesses are for remaining, in Britain its a very different picture where a lot of businesses are for leaving. The economic argument is just not having the same effect.

Its too close to call, admitted equity analyst, John Mattimoe.

Read More

Markets never like uncertainty, sterling has weakened 10pc since December and has been very volatile in that period. Theres also been turbulence in the equity markets with smaller midcap companies such as UK house builders seeing their share prices down 20pc since last year.

But the world will still keep on turning if a Brexit happens, added McGrane. Business is about being pragmatic and practical and getting the job done. But having said that, it doesnt need to be catastrophic for it to be important, which it vitally is.
'The EU suits big UK corporates, banks and professional firms, as Brussels-based lobbying and red tape keeps smaller challengers at bay' Photo: PA

Anti-Brussels sentiment has risen sharply all across Europe over the past year thanks to a toxic combination of economic stagnation and the mismanagement of the migrant crisis, a new Europe-wide opinion poll has shown.

The Pew Research Centre survey found that rising disenchantment with the EU is not confined to the UK, with Greece, France and Spain also having a majority with an unfavourable view of Europe.

Euroscepticism is on the rise across Europe with about two-thirds of both the British and the Greeks, along with significant minorities in other key nations, wanting some powers returned from Brussels to national governments, said the report.

The findings, based on surveys covering countries that account for 80 per cent of the EU population, will strengthen the arguments of Brexit campaigners that Brussels have been too slow reverse the federalist agenda of the 1990s.

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In a sign that Europes publics increasingly want an end to the principle of ever closer union, more than twice as many people surveyed  some 42 per cent - said they wanted powers returned to their national parliaments than said they wanted powers transferred to Brussels.

As the British head to the polls, just 6% of the public in the UK wants such an outcome. And only 8% of Greeks favour more power for the EU. The strongest backing for an ever closer Europe is only 34%, in France, they added.

The report  based on interviews with 10,491 respondents from April 4-May 12 this year - blames rise in euroscepticism on the migrant crisis which saw more than one million migrants pouring into Europe in 2015.

EU favorability is down in five of the six nations surveyed in both 2015 and 2016. There has been a double-digit drop in France (down 17 percentage points) and Spain (16 points), and single-digit declines in Germany (8 points), the United Kingdom (7 points) and Italy (6 points), they wrote.

Despite the negative overall trend and their virulent anti-migrant stance, Poland (72 per cent) and Hungary (61 per cent) retained high levels of support for the EU which analysts say is widely seen as cash-cow for infrastructure and development projects as well as access to jobs in other EU countries.

On the other side of the scale, Greece - which has been hammered by EU austerity demands and a German-led refusal to offer significant debt-relief  the EU was viewed negatively by 71 per cent of people.

The figures also confirmed the continuing souring of French attitudes to Europe, with 61 per cent saying they had an unfavourable view of the EU  a number that will further boost Marine Le Pens eurosceptic National Front which is leading the polls ahead of next years presidential elections.

The survey found also that euroscepticism was evident on both the Left and Right-wing fringes of Europes increasingly fractured politics, with eurosceptics predominating on the Right in the UK, Italy, Netherlands and Holland, but on the Left in Sweden and Spain.

In one ray of future hope for the EU, although older voters were shown to have turned against Brussels in large numbers, a majority of younger voters aged 18-34 had a favourable view of Europe in every country surveyed, except Greece.

The survey did, however, come with a sting in the tail for pro-Brexit groups: while Europeans may be growing disenchanted with Brussels, there was overwhelming agreement  more than 70 per cent in half the countries - that a British vote to leave on June 23 would be bad for Europe as a whole.

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
Online food delivery service Deliveroo continues to thrive, with revenue reportedly reaching 166m in the past year.

The company operates a delivery service for restaurants who can avail of an online ordering service and self-employed drivers at no extra cost.

Irish investor Dylan Collins, of Hoxton Ventures, has put 22m into the venture since its launch back in 2013.

The company now operates in 12 countries, stretching from the UK and Ireland to Australia and Dubai.

Deliveroo has been in Ireland for just over a year, and already counts over 200 restaurants as clients, with 25pc month-on-month growth reported.

More than 400 jobs have been created in Dublin, Cork, Belfast and Galway. The company recently announced plans to expand the service to Limerick, which will create 30 new jobs in the area.

In addition, a partnership agreement has been reached with Pizza Express - owners of the popular Milano chain - which is due to begin this summer. "We are partnered with a number of large brands already, but the partnership with Pizza Express will be our largest to date, so it's very exciting," said Oliver Dewhurst, Deliveroo's general manager in Ireland.

"Ireland has far exceeded our expectations - the pace at which our service was adopted and has expanded in just 12 months has been an incredibly positive experience.

"Ireland is a real foodie nation and that's evidenced by the sheer breadth and quality of the high-end restaurant offering here," Mr Dewhurst said.

With growth of 25pc month-on-month, the sight of Deliveroo drivers fanning out across the nation's cities could yet become part of the urban landscape.

See Features, p36-37
I recently travelled with the Irish delegation to the Alltech ONE Ideas conference in Kentucky where we visited some very interesting dairy and beef farms.

Since my previous visit to America in 2012 a number of changing factors have had a significant effect on the beef industry.

The lowering of grain and soya bean prices have brought these feeds back in vogue as opposed to four years ago when the main feed focus was on the by-products from ethanol and distillery production.

Back in 2012, male calves from the dairy industry were very much viewed as an unwanted/nuisance end to a dairy cow's pregnancy. Since then, the American suckler herd has contracted significantly (by 10 million cows) resulting in greater demand for male calves from the dairy herd.

Production systems based upon moderate calf prices, excellent rearing, early castration, liberal hormone use and high cereal feed inputs result in a very acceptable end product for both the feedlot farmer and the beef packing industry. These steers are finished at 15-18 months of age producing a 325kg carcase.

They don't carry any of the marbling or quality characteristics of their Angus and Hereford bred feedlot compatriots, with factories paying on a meat eating quality basis. However, they are an ideal source of beef for the huge ground/mince beef market in the US.

While it was great to sample the extremely tender American steak and burgers it's still hard to beat our flavoursome and healthy beef here in Ireland.

The conference was attended by over 3,000 delegates from 72 countries and was a demonstration of Alltech's high standing throughout the agricultural world. The amazingly high calibre of the contributors was also to the fore.

The new Alltech/Keenan brand was prominent throughout the conference and there was huge curiosity and interest surrounding both the machine and InTouch technology. It gave me great pride to see these two iconic Irish brands side by side on a world stage.

Away from the American ranches, tightening beef supplies, the good weather, strengthening of sterling and excellent silage making conditions have somewhat lifted the mood on an otherwise difficult year to date.

Weight issues

With the drop in numbers of finished cattle available, factories appear to have eased the specification requirements somewhat, particularly surrounding the weight issue. Grain prices appear to be staying stagnant globally.

While this is not great news for the cereal growers here in Ireland, for those that intensively feed beef animals it must be seen as a great opportunity to lower feed costs.

With the excellent grass growth in the past few weeks, the demand for brewing and distillery by-products has reduced and I have heard of deals being done for these products.

With both of these products, careful attention should be given if ensiling for medium to long term use.

Brewers' grains tend to be a slightly wetter product than they were heretofore and this makes it essential to add an appropriate absorbent when pitting.

Limited supplies of 2015 season potatoes are available at present. Where available, they are the ideal complement to brewers' grains prior to ensiling.

Where potatoes are ensiled, an increased rate of absorbent (soya hulls, beet pulp, citrus pulp and oat husks) is required.

I had the recent pleasure of judging the Zurich Farm Insurance Farming Independent Beef Farmer of the Year. We had a range of outstanding entries and the final three represented all that is great with Irish beef production.

From excellent breeding, grassland management, the art of butchering to someone who had the vision to move the boundaries from conventional to organic production, we had great difficulty in arriving at our final decision.

Congratulations to Tom Dunne on his beef category and overall win. Tom helped change my view of organic production as being a low output and inefficient mode of beef farming.

I had my eyes opened as to the very high standards being set by not only Tom, but those within the organic beef circle that are breeding the raw material that is being taken through to finish.

There is huge potential for this sector to expand in a sustainable and profitable manner.

Gerry Giggins is an animal nutritionist based in Co Louth
Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan won plaudits last week for standing up to the Americans on the EU-US trade deal, known as the transatlantic trade and investment partnership, or TTIP.

His office sent a note to all 28 EU ambassadors in Brussels to counter what one official described as American "bullying" over agricultural tariffs.

The US wants greater access to the EU market, particularly for poultry, fruit and vegetable exports, but officials say it has refused to offer the European side enough in return.

US ambassador Anthony Gardner contacted EU embassies last week to lament a lack of progress on the deal, a move one senior Commission official called "a diplomatic and tactical mistake".

The spat has set progress back ahead of a 14th round of talks in July. "It can't be a cost-free round for the US," said one senior EU official close to the talks. Negotiators, particularly on the US side, want to close a deal before US presidential elections in November.

But those close to the talks accept that the timeline is impossible. "Both sides feel that neither is moving," says Fine Gael MEP Mairead McGuinness, who doesn't see a deal on TTIP for years to come.

"It's a political drum they're beating more angrily on both sides of the Atlantic," she added. "We don't have a deal, we have discussions," she said.

Meanwhile, Sinn Fein MEP Matt Carthy has called on the Irish government to block a new EU-Canada trade deal.

The deal was finalised last year but needs the seal of approval of parliaments in the EU's 28 Member States.

Carthy says the deal will lead to a glut of genetically modified products on EU markets, threatening Irish farmers' livelihoods. He says opening public procurement markets to Canadian firms will threaten EU jobs, and questions the legality of a new system of investor courts to be brought in under the deal. He says the Canada agreement is "TTIP in disguise" and should be spiked before it becomes law.

Jury is out on whether the EU will pursue Ireland over water charges

A flood of conflicting information on water charges has been pouring in from Brussels this week.

Many in the EU are baffled by Irish people's reluctance to pay for what is an unarguably scarce resource, and would like to see water charges maintained.

EU rules say countries must bring in a "cost recovery" policy for water by 2010 that takes account of the environmental and supply costs and the idea that the "polluter pays".

In answer to a parliamentary question by Sinn Fein MEP Lynn Boylan (pictured), the Commission said a country is in breach of EU rules if it opts out of water charging when the "established practice" is to charge.

The response was checked by Commission lawyers and run by the private office of President Jean-Claude Juncker, as with all parliamentary replies, so one can assume it's an official position.

But the EU has not taken a position on Ireland's specific case, and it is still unclear whether it will pursue the government in court over the issue.

That is because what constitutes "established practice" is still up for debate. Independent MEP Marian Harkin put the question to the EU executive way back in 2010, after the then-government was warned by Brussels over its tardiness in submitting a river basin management plan, where countries set out their water conservation and flooding strategies.

Then-environment commissioner, Janez Potocnik, told Harkin that "established practice" meant the regime in place at the time the EU's water framework directive was adopted.

For Ireland, that means 2003, before water charges were even a twinkle in any minister's eye.

"I don't disagree with water charges," Harkin told this newspaper, "but I'd be concerned if the Commission followed Ireland for the full costs of water," she said. "We'd have anarchy."

Fine Gael MEP Mairead McGuinness says the EU executive will be sensitive to the debate in Ireland, but not if the government moves to abolish charges altogether.

"They will be mindful of what's happening in Ireland, where we have a suspension, not an abolition - there is a major difference between these two verbs," she said.

French call for new crisis fund

French agriculture minister Stephane Le Foll presented his view for the future of farming at an EU meeting in Amsterdam last week.

His suggestions include a new emergency fund for farmers, funded partly by CAP payments, that could be drawn down in the event of future crisis like the one that has hit dairy farmers this year.

The minister is arguing for part of the direct aid paid to farmers to be put aside in good years to make up a reserve that can be mobilised during more difficult years, the French agriculture ministry said in a statement. This precautionary savings account would be implemented at farm level, in all farms, the statement said.
Glanbia is following a clear strategy of supporting the "growth ambitions" of dairy farmers, the company's managing director Siobhan Talbot has said.

Her comments came after Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan said producers have to take their "share of responsibility" in reducing supply to bring about a balance in the market place.

As part of the Glanbia strategy, Ms Talbot said the new Glanbia Advance Payment (GAP) scheme providing 55m interest-free cashflow support running from now until December 2020, was about sustaining dairy and grain suppliers "through the low part of cycles" as the markets were cyclical.

The move was welcomed by farm bodies, with the ICMSA describing the scheme as "imaginative".

Agriculture Minister Michael Creed said the scheme would put "pressure on the banks" as he criticised the lack of a "functioning competitive banking market".

Mr Creed said he would be meeting with the heads of the pillar banks in the coming weeks to urge them to show "forbearance" as they deal with individual farmers.

He warned the "cashflow and cost of credit" to the farming community was too high compared with other European countries.

The Glanbia Co-op raised 100m by issuing a five-year exchangeable bond linked to a pledge of 4.3 million Glanbia plc shares. It will allow dairy farmers a voluntary maximum advance of 2c/l in a month where the base price falls below 24c/l. Repayment will be triggered when the price moves above 30c/l or alternatively in 2020.

Grain prices have already hit the trigger point with 20/t available based on the MATIF price trigger of 180/t of wheat. A price of 205/t will trigger the repayment.

Ms Talbot said they would do a credit assessment on grain suppliers, and the Co-op board will sit in early 2017 and decide how best to utilise the fund for 2017. Glanbia Co-op chairman Henry Corbally said so far 1,000 farmers have attended the workshop on their 100m MilkFlex loan fund launched earlier this year.

Mr Creed said there was no "silver bullet" to fix price volatility but they were looking at a whole series of initiatives including pressing for action on fertiliser tariffs at EU level.

It comes as the IFA found retail fertiliser prices are continuing to fall but prices are lower in the northern half of the country. John Coughlan urged farmers to shop around as a large bag of CAN delivered to the farm in the north Midlands comes in at 220, compared with 240 to 265 down south.
Sheep farmers are well versed in the religious calendar - with Easter, Ramadan and the Eid al-Adha festival marked in months in advance.

Prices have stabilised and are likely to remain firm over the next few weeks as Ramadan is proving timely with the Muslim holy month beginning around June 6 at a time when mid-season lamb production is entering full flow, while EID falls on September 11 this year.

Yet, there is something else that farmers will have to bear in mind over the next few years as Ramadan is arriving two weeks earlier every year.

Beyond 2019 both Easter and Ramadan are going to be converging, with just one week separating them in 2021, which means a significant opportunity for farmers but also a challenge to meet the peak demand in a short space of time.

In Ireland the peak production of lamb tends to be the highest in the weeks ahead of EID, with the number of head of lamb processed surpassing 70,000hd over the past three years. Among all the options consumers have nowadays for protein, lamb does still hold a privileged position with its long-running traditional link to religious festivals.

Sheep meat continues to be the protein of choice for Muslim consumers which means a year-round demand in some of our key export markets such as the UK and France.

Worldwide the 1.6 billion Muslim population is growing and expected to reach 2.2 billion globally by 2030, or 26pc of the global population. With over 44 million Muslims in Europe, they also have a younger profile than other Europeans. Now the new season lamb is flowing, while the hogget numbers are tightening up. After an exceptional month in May, the lamb crop is looking good and all the indicators are pointing towards a good 2016.Lamb prices have struck an average of 5.19/kg so far this year. If you look at the figures, it is back on the record highs achieved last year by around 8c/kg, at a time when production throughputs are up 6pc on last year, equivelent to an additional 40,000hd. To get a proper perspective on it, the price should be looked at over the past five years where we saw an average price of 5.01/kg between 2012 and 2016.

Prices are still strong but the fall in sterling is impacting on the value of exports. The oil prices have begun to rise in recent weeks yet the long-running trough has had a significant impact on the buying power of nations in the Middle East and North Africa.

During 2013 in the lead up to Ramadan, Ireland exported about 20,000 live sheep to Libya. Yet now the unstable regime in Libya means security of payment is an issue, which has resulted in less Spanish imports going into North Africa.

The Spanish have been looking for alternative markets, which has seen them send more produce into the already difficult French market where there is a concentration on domestic produce. When you look at all the factors together it is a challenging marketplace.

Exports

The export trade historically involved shipping entire carcases to the two principal markets of France and the UK. Price returns were largely determined by market actions, which were controlled by a relatively small number of importers. In recent years, the industry has broadened its product portfolio by moving towards more value added/primal products.

With a great emphasis now on delivering primal cuts into key retail and food service across the Continent the emphasis on delivering an ideal carcase weight of 18-21kg is becoming ever more important.

In the first three months of the year, we've seen exports surge 20pc to over 10,157t valued at 59m, compared with 8,387 in 2015.

The strong performing export markets include Belgium, Sweden and UK. However, sales to France are also up marginally.

However, New Zealand are showing a renewed interest in the European market. As despite a fall-off in New Zealand lamb production, more lambs were exported into the European market, with less produce destined for China.

Bord Bia has a new series of promotional activities underway to match the peak supplies of new season lamb from this month onwards, with consumers encouraged to buy lamb carrying the Bord Bia quality mark.

Securing market access to countries such as the US and China remain a priority and Bord Bia is working closely with the Agriculture Department on this important matter.

Both would be complimentary markets, as the US demand would be mainly for the higher value cuts while Chinese demand would be for offal.

Declan Fennell is from the meat and livestock division of Bord Bia
The Doyle family have experienced a lot of change in both farming and the mart trade over the decades.

Myles Doyle's uncles Jim, Pat and Myles are credited with the founding of Blessington Mart in the centre of the town in 1952.

However, their siblings Ned, along with Myles' father Eugene, also later joined the business which remained in the centre of the town until 1957 when it moved to its present premises on the outskirts of Blessington town.

Eugene continued to be actively involved in the business until his death in 2008.

Ned Doyle, father to international show jumpers Edward and Jack, was also a founding member of the popular Blessington Horse Show.

The Doyle family ran Maynooth Mart before its closure in 2002 after 40 years in business, but thankfully Blessington Mart survived the recession. It is now owned and operated by Myles' brother John who also runs the property auctioneering business, JP & M Doyle, with offices in Blessington and Dublin.

While Maynooth closing was a sad day for the family, John says it was simply a sign of the times. Since then, there have been many other mart closures.

"Naturally it's not the same as it was during the 1970s when marts were booming, nor will it be again," he said.

"Thankfully business in Blessington is good at the moment but the age profile is worrying as there are so few young farmers taking over the business from their parents. There is very little money in farming and they don't want to work for half-wages.

"In my opinion, the rural end of society is being left behind."
The first of June has come and gone. For me this date is the day the weight of worrying about grass and the woes of spring are lifted from my shoulders.

The heifers, ewes and lambs are happily grazing in the fields. My priority at the moment is to keep the lambs constantly grazing leafy grass and moving them from field to field over the farm, gradually closing fields that are getting too far ahead for silage later in June.

You can expect lambs to put on anything from 250 to 300gm per day at this time of year. They need good quality grass to achieve this level of weight gain and I aim to starting drafting lambs towards the middle of June.

I conducted a faecal egg count on the lambs to sample the level of parasite burden which came back fairly clean. It's not something I would do normally but I got into it since being part of the STAP discussion group. Its really helpful and it's really easy to do.

The lambs have been doing well although I lost a few with pneumonia. Most years you find the odd dead one in the field and generally I would pass no remarks and put it down as one of those things.

But this year it has been a lot more prevalent than usual. It happened more so with the hoggets' lambs so there must be an issue there with immunity being passed from mother to lamb. I don't vaccinate for pneumonia and perhaps it is something that I should consider for ewe lambs in the future. I also think it was down to the changeable weather we had in April and early May which brought it on.

I'll be watching the lamb price over the next while. Last year the factories pulled the price a week earlier than usual. Going by price at this time of year I would try to draft lambs from 38 kilos upwards. As long as you are hitting the 100 mark, you are better off to take it now for a 38kg lamb than waiting till they are 45kg in mid or late July before you can get a similar price.

I weighed some of the pet lambs and they are doing well. I still have them inside on meal only. I feed them in troughs daily as well as that they have ad lib access to ration. They are doing a lot better than last year. Going by how they weighed I reckon the majority of them will be finished by the end of June.

The department's extension of the sowing date for the wild bird cover for GLAS was a welcome result. I have sprayed off the ground I have earmarked for this and I should get it sown any day now. I have fenced off corners of the field for the bee boxes and I have the bird and bat boxes up and running. GLAS is a good scheme, judging by the uptake it is clear that farmers are keen and it will achieve a lot of good for the environment. It could do with being up on the same pay levels as the old REPs scheme but it is a step in the right direction.

The news that there will be a 25m scheme for sheep farmers is a welcome boost to the sheep industry. One part of me is fearful that it could result in an over supply of lamb leading to a reduction in lamb price but as somebody said to me it is doubtful that people will rush into sheep for a 10 payment per head.

It's hard to know. I anticipate that there will be conditions to being in it and I hope that they advocate efficient sustainable and profitable sheep farming that ultimately yields long-term benefits to sheep farming in Ireland.

Contract rearing

The contract-reared dairy heifers are doing well. I had a busy two weeks in May with AI and heat detection, but it went well and they are thriving and on target. This years' calves are now gradually arriving on the farm and so begins the second year of the contract. Rearing dairy heifers really suits my farm. It goes well with sheep and getting paid once a month is a welcome boost to cashflow. I would really recommend sheep farmers to investigate this system as done properly, it is a win win situation.

Over the next month with the weather the way it is, the big job on the agenda for me is shearing. I like to get it out of the way as soon as possible. We usually get it done in one day depending on the weather. I am watching out for flystrike and I have had problems with ewes getting stuck on their backs which means that I have to check them regularly.

Shearing sorts this out and takes the pressure off. I will dip the lambs using a sheep shower. I did this last year and I found it cheap and effective and stress free. I use an non OP dip and the shower system is very safe to use. I expect to be cutting silage towards the end of June.

It is later than usual but I closed off my silage fields later than usual because of the late spring. I will also keep an eye to making some haylage as well. I find that haylage is a quality fodder for sheep and is never a waste of money to make.

Finally, and most importantly, I will be keeping a close eye on lamb thrive waiting for the opportunity to get off the mark and clear the first big draft of the year and pay a few bills.

John Fagan farms at Gartlandstown, Co Westmeath
Even city slickers accept that it's a tough time for farmers with prices down in most key sectors and a lot of uncertainty in world markets.

There may, however, be some good news in view for sheep farmers.

But it depends on how this "new politics" actually works out in practice.

So far, our "new politics" often looks just like the "old politics."

Now here's a big test for it in the shape of the 25m grant aid scheme which would work out at an average payment of 10 per ewe for each of the country's 2.4 million ewes.

Time is of the essence here as a draft scheme must be completed, agreed and sent to Brussels by June 30, to get EU Commission clearance.

So, there are just 23 days left to get broad sectoral consensus and, crucially, cross-party backing.

After June 30, the challenge will be to get the return package from the offices of Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan. Assuming that goes well, it will then have to be included in the Budget package in mid-October, and finally payments can be made early next year.

That all puts the spotlight very much on the opposition, especially Fianna Fail's agriculture spokesman, Charlie McConalogue, and his Sinn Fein counterpart, Martin Kenny, of Leitrim.

They are expected to meet with Agriculture Minister Michael Creed in the coming days and their response will be crucial.

The aid package was one of the schemes to emerge from "A Programme for a Partnership Government."

In fact, while that programme is rather like the curate's egg, good in parts, its section on agriculture is one of the better elements as it does offer some practical help to Irish farming.

The push for a sheep farmer grant scheme first saw the light of day at a Teagasc "sheep day" in Athenry exactly a year ago.

The IFA's first approaches to then-Agriculture Minister, Simon Coveney, on the issue were met with a deal of scepticism at best.

Mr Coveney reasonably wanted to know where the money would come from to fund the 20 per ewe payment which was at that stage being sought by the IFA. The then-Minister argued that some other sector or projects would have to lose out if the sheep farmers were to gain.

But, in what was otherwise a year of considerable internal tumult for IFA, they kept plugging the case, clearly sensing movement was possible in an election year.

It may have been no coincidence that the IFA's sheep committee is chaired by Mayoman, John Lynskey, capable of getting the ear of another well-placed Mayoman.

The chaotic and slow bicycle-race period around the negotiations for this curious hybrid government were of course crucial.

Independent Roscommon-Galway TD and future Minister, Denis Naughten, was both sympathetic and helpful to the effort.

It helped that the Rural Development Programme (RDP) was identified as a likely source of funding with unspent money building up in the allocation worth some 450m per year. Brussels allows one change to the RDP each year and details must be filed by June 30 - hence this very tight first deadline.

Naturally, Brussels requires evidence that the allocation will lead to some improvement in the sheep sector and/or things like animal welfare and the environment.

That is at the heart of current negotiations with items like progress on electronic tagging, breeding improvements and better sheep health remedies up for discussion.

All sides are sounding optimistic on these issues. But time, now in very short supply, will tell us all very soon.

John Downing is an Irish Independent political correspondent
Nama has reported a profit for last year of 1.8bn  up from 458m the previous year.

Cash amounting to 9.1bn was generated during the year, with 8.5bn coming from asset disposals.

Publishing its annual report, the agency said the strong cash generation during the year allowed it to redeem senior debt totalling 5.5bn during 2015. The amount of senior debt now repaid stands at 24.6bn.

Total income for the year increased 127pc to 1.9bn, while the agency reported its first full-year impairment write-back, which generated a credit of 86m as supposed to a charge in 2014 of 170m.

Chief executive Brendan McDonagh said the agency was on course to deliver a significant surplus for the tax payer.

This was an outstanding performance that delivered a very substantial profit, he said.

Chairman Frank Daly said Nama could deliver a surplus to the taxpayer of around 2.3bn.

NAMAs successful delivery of its mandate is good news for the taxpayer. We plan on being just as successful in delivering major development projects in the Docklands and thousands of homes for people who need them, he said.

Nama said it has funded the construction of 2,800 homes since 2014 and that a further 3,000 Nama funded homes are under construction.

Planning permission has been obtained for an additional 5,100 units, the agency said.

Regarding Dublins Docklands, construction has started on sites that will deliver 1.2m sq ft of commercial accommodation and 345 new homes, Nama said.
The Revenues latest tax snare netted a total of 24.7m from doctors, sales people, publicans and even a private investigator

Dublin builder Michael Murphy was stung with a 7m bill by the Revenue Commissioners in its latest haul from defaulters.

The Revenue's latest tax snare netted a total of 24.7m from doctors, sales people, publicans and even a private investigator.

Mr Murphy of Highfield Road in Rathgar, is a director of Astondale Investments, which is in liquidation.

He was well known in property circles, especially in the last decade. He was forced to cough up as a result of an offshore assets investigation case, as well as for an underdeclaration of income tax, VAT and capital gains tax. His bill included 2.38m in tax, 2.8m in interest, and 1.79m in penalties.

And two prison officers were also revealed by the Revenue to have received suspended sentences for claiming income tax relief to which they were not entitled. Joseph Kenny and Jennifer Malone, both of the same address at Mountrath in Co Laois, did not receive any financial penalties.

Other defaulters included private investigator Cliona Woods of Milltown Road in Dublin 6.

She paid a total of 215,000, including 98,000 in tax, 44,000 in interest, and 73,000 in penalties. That was as a result of an underdeclaration of income tax and VAT.

There were two more settlements with the Revenue for in excess of 1m.

One was for just over 1m, made by company director James Spollen of Clara Road, Tullamore, Co Offaly. That related to the underdeclaration of income tax.

John Tierney, a retired company director of Knapton Road in Dun Laoghaire, made a settlement of just under 1.5m.

That related to an offshore asset investigation, as well as an underdeclaration of income tax and capital gains tax.

Hussein Kaoun, a barber of Pairc Na Greine in Rathcormac, Co Cork, made a 484,000 settlement.

That included 235,000 in tax, 76,000 in interest, and 172,000 in penalties.
Emmanuele Angione, the connector who introduced the consultancy firm to Ireland, with Joanna Murphy, ceo, ConnectIreland, and Paul Pietrangelo, the coo of Alien Technology Transfers Ireland operations. Photo: Paul Sherwood

UK-based consultancy firm Alien Technology Transfer has opened a strategic operations centre in Dublin, creating 19 jobs.

The company, which specialises in project financing, project management, and concept development, aims to create the new roles over the next three years.

Alien works with small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to secure grant funding under the EU's research and innovation programme, Horizon 2020.

The EU announced it would be investing 80bn in companies between 2014 and 2020 under the programme.

The programme aims to secure Europe's global competitiveness by focusing on new projects and getting them running quickly.

Alien Technology chief operating officer Paul Pietrangelo said Dublin is "one of the best places in the world for startups to grow".

"With the presence of both research-focused universities and big tech companies, Dublin is a becoming a centre of excellence for innovation. We hope to work with many local startups in achieving their financial and commercial goals," he said.

The company was introduced to the country through ConnectIreland, the State-owned firm responsible for the Government Succeed in Ireland initiative.

Jobs minister Mary Mitchell O'Connor said "Alien Technology Transfer is among a rising number of companies who have decided to set up a European base in Ireland.

"Once again, this is a testament to our talented Irish workforce and also to Ireland as a great place to do business."

The firm has opened applications for project management roles.

"The company chose to locate in Dublin because of the highly educated, multilingual workforce, as well as the booming start-up culture and high concentration of small and medium-sized companies," the firms said in a statement. ConnectIreland chief executive Joanna Murphy welcomed the foreign direct investment (FDI) from Alien.
Fashion chain New Look has profited from a punt on menswear and increased investment in its Chinese business, generating a 17pc rise in pre-tax profits over the last financial year.

The company drove up revenues by 5.4pc to 1.49bn from 1.14bn the previous year, with profits of 59.1m.

Menswear has been key to the brand's growth in the UK, New Look chief executive Anders Kristiansen revealed. "We only had a 3pc mix of menswear before but the 25pc of the wider apparel market is men's," he said.

"Us guys are becoming more and more fashionable," he added. "They are spending more money on clothes and we want to tap into that."

New Look now has six standalone menswear stores and all of them have "exceeded expectations", he said. The brand is now experimenting with much larger sites for men, trialling two 4,000 sq ft stores this year.

"Guys were always put upstairs or downstairs and they had to go through kidswear or lingerie to check out," Mr Kristiansen said. "We are giving them their own space. Equal rights for men!"

According to the Danish boss, New Look now holds a similar market share in menswear as Zara Men. The company already boasts 41pc of UK women as customers.

The company has also managed to crack the "multichannel" offering, which has become the Holy Grail for fashion retailers. New Look's customers frequently cross over from the online store to become bricks and mortar customers, and vice versa, it said.

"People who shop in multiple channels are three times more valuable than people who shop in one," Mr Kristiansen claimed, but refused to reveal how New Look has persuaded customers to move from one channel to the other: "We'd like to keep that a secret."

New Look has experienced positive growth in China, where the recent economic woes have sent savvy shoppers into the arms of more affordable fashion brands. It has added 66 new stores in China over the past year, taking the total to 85.

Like-for-like sales in China rose almost 9pc last year.

Mr Kristiansen said that Poland was among the weaker territories for the brand but that elsewhere in Europe, such as in France, the company was expanding rapidly.

The company experiments with new markets by selling its clothes through third parties, such as Amazon and Asos. It will open its first store in Germany at the end of this year after discovering demand through Zalando, the European e-commerce site.

By the end of this year, New Look will have 442 stores around the world.

These results were published in the wake of the collapse of high street rival BHS, which has now fallen into liquidation.

Mr Kristiansen claimed that the retailer, which was once owned by Top Shop boss Sir Philip Green, had failed to keep up with new trends.

"Without an incredibly fast supply chain, you will miss out," he said. "Trends move faster than ever before because of social media. Something that's big in South Korea today can be in the UK tomorrow. You have to land that trend before it disappears."

New Look can turn around a new product range within three to four weeks, he said, compared to the traditional industry turnaround time of up to nine months.

New Look was bought by South Africas Brait last year and Mr Kristiansen said that he found the new owners "very supportive". Inward investment into New Look has risen from 60m before the sale to 100m last year.

Mr Kristiansen said that the new owners were keen to take the brand into new markets. "They are the ones asking why we're not in the US yet," he said. "They are keen for us to expand."

When asked if the US was on the hitlist, he said he was reluctant to expand there now but would in a few years. "The US has to be on everyone's radar," he said. "It's a place we want to be."
Last week, Airbnb released a memo stating it was launching an internal review to see what else it can do to battle discrimination. Photo: Getty

Airbnb is facing an outcry after a transgender guest stated she was denied a stay by a host because of her gender identity.

Shadi Petrosky, a well-known Hollywood producer, tweeted a screenshot on Sunday of a Minneapolis-based host denying her a stay because she did not want her 13-year-old son to "feel any discomfort in his own home", but thanked Ms Petrosky for her "honesty".

Ms Petrosky said she had privately complained to Airbnb in 2015, but the company upgraded the host to "super host" status, which rewards more experienced hosts with multiple five-star reviews from their guests.

It took a viral post, that has been retweeted over a thousand times, for the firm to take action.

The host was finally suspended this week.

"Discrimination has no place in the Airbnb community. We are removing this host from Airbnb," spokesman Nick Papas said.

Last week, Airbnb released a memo stating it was launching an internal review to see what else it can do to battle discrimination. The Hollywood producer clarified on Twitter that she decided to share the episode now because the company is being accused of failing to address complaints of racial discrimination.

In a posts following the viral tweet Ms Petrosky, now an "accidental transsexual travel activist," said the house-sharing company has no LGBTQ non-discrimination policy.

Black guests have been complaining they are denied accommodation because of their race.

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
Zambeef's results comes after the company successfully appealed a multi-million euro tax assessment in Zambia

Zambeef, the Zambia agri firm co-founded by Limerick native Francis Grogan, has swung to an $8.96m profit after tax in the first six months of its financial year, new figures have shown.

Profit after tax at the company was up significantly year on year after the firm posted a net loss of $3.86m in the same period last year.

Despite the increase in profits, revenue at the company fell from $102.14m to $98.82m year on year.

The firm also managed to reduce its expenses from $36.6m to $27.5m.

Zambeef chairman Dr Jacob Mwanza said the firm's positive results were down to hard work from the staff.

"Their efforts, driven by the boards clear strategic focus, will enable Zambeef to achieve its vision of becoming a major provider of cold chain food products to Zambia and the region.

With the strong focus on the retailing operations, Zambeef is confident that this robust performance will continue, demonstrating the resilience of the groups business model.

"As a consequence of this strong operational performance, the board is confident of meeting full year expectations.

Earnings before interest tax depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) stood at $15.45m.
Meryl Streep made use of a spray tan, fake belly and an oversized red tie to get in character for her latest role, Donald Trump.

The three-time Oscar winner took the stage in New York as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee during a gala benefit for the Public Theatre, the New York Times said.

A Times reporter posted video of the performance on Twitter showing Streep impersonating Mr Trump while performing a duet alongside actress Christine Baranski's trouser suit-clad Democrat Hillary Clinton.

The pair sang Brush Up Your Shakespeare from Cole Porter's musical Kiss Me, Kate.

Public Theatre artistic director Oskar Eustis told the newspaper that the performance was Streep's idea and "she was absolutely sure she could do it".

Streep is a supporter of Mrs Clinton.

Meryl Streep dressed up like Donald Trump tonight and Christine Baranski loved it. Sometimes the world is perfect. pic.twitter.com/NLg9FSUYiK  Jack Moore (@JackPMoore) June 7, 2016
The jury will continue deliberations tomorrow morning in the trial of former Irish Life and Permanent CEO Denis Casey accused of conspiring to defraud.

Mr Casey (56) and three other former banking executives pleaded not guilty to engaging in a 7.2bn conspiracy intended to mislead investors, depositors and lenders about the true health of Anglo in 2008.

At the end of day 88 of the longest running criminal trial in the State's history, Judge Martin Nolan told the jury at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to go home and to return in the morning. The jury has now deliberated for just over 58 hours over the course of 13 days.

Last Wednesday the jury convicted Anglo's former head of capital markets, John Bowe (52) and the bank's then finance director, Willie McAteer (65) of conspiring to mislead the public about the true state of Anglo's balance sheet. They have been remanded on bail pending sentence until July 25th next.

On Friday the jury returned a not guilty verdict for Peter Fitzpatrick (63) following nearly 47 hours deliberating.

Mr Casey from Raheny, Dublin, Mr Fitzpatrick of Convent Lane, Portmarnock, Dublin and Bowe from Glasnevin, Dublin and McAteer of Greenrath, Tipperary Town, Co. Tipperary had all pleaded not guilty to conspiring together and with others to defraud by setting up a 7.2bn circular transaction scheme between March 1st and September 30th, 2008 to bolster Anglo's balance sheet with the intention of misleading investors.

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, via their assurance firm Irish Life Assurance, to Anglo.

The scheme was designed so that the deposits came from the assurance company and would be treated as customer deposits, which are considered a better measure of a bank's strength than inter-bank loans.

The 7.2bn deposit was later accounted for in Anglo's preliminary results on December 3rd 2008 as part of Anglo's customer deposits figure. The prosecution alleged that the only objective of the scheme was to mislead anybody reading Anglo's accounts by artificially inflating the customer deposits number from 44bn to 51bn, a difference of 16pc.

Lawyers defending Mr Casey argued that their client had no control over how Anglo would account for the deposits and never had any intention to mislead the public.
A 32-YEAR-OLD man has been remanded in custody charged in relation to a double murder in County Louth four years ago.

Jason ODriscoll with an address at Richmond Avenue, Dublin 3 is accused of murdering Joseph Redmond and Anthony Burnett on the 7th March 2012.

The murders are said to have taken place at Ravensdale Park, Dromad, County Louth.

Dundalk District Court heard that Mr ODriscoll was arrested at Dublin Airport at 12.24 yesterday morning by detective inspector Pat Marry Dundalk on foot of two arrest warrants.

Det Insp Marry told Judge Conal Gibbons that at 1.35 am this morning, he was formally charged with the murders.

Mr ODriscoll made no reply.

Det Inspector Marry applied for the accused to be remanded in custody and this was consented to.

Legal aid was granted and the case was adjourned to Cloverhill District Court on the 15th June.
A Dublin man who threw a chair at a stranger during a house party and then chased him off the premises with a kitchen knife has been given a three year suspended sentence.

The court heard Christopher Dunne (22) subsequently contacted his victim via Facebook to say he was very sorry and couldn't recall the attack as he'd been taking tablets and alcohol.

Dunne, of St Cronans Lawn, Swords, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assaulting Scott Chapman causing him harm at Upper Main Street, Rush, Co Dublin on January 24, 2013.

He has ten previous convictions at district court level, including possession of knives and an imitation firearm.

Judge Melanie Greally acknowledged that a report from the Probation Service indicated that the officer was particularly impressed with Dunne's level of insight and remorse.

She accepted he was genuinely somebody who wishes to put his criminal days behind him and accepted he has made significant steps to deal with his various issues.

Judge Greally noted that Dunne had 1,000 in court to offer Mr Chapman as a token of his remorse before she suspended a three year sentence on condition that he engage with the Probation Service for 18 months and carry out 180 hours community service within 12 months.

Garda Derek Dalton told Fiona Murphy BL, prosecuting, that Mr Chapman had been invited to a house party at which Dunne was also present.

The two men had some conversation together and at one point Dunne went into the kitchen. Mr Chapman later told gardai that he heard a crashing noise and looked up to see Dunne throwing a wooden chair at him.

The injured party didn't have time to block the impact and was struck on the face. Gda Dalton said Mr Chapman felt a sharp pain and blood gushing.

Dunne demanded his victim's car keys and picked up a brown handled knife from the kitchen counter. He chased Mr Chapman, who ran out onto the main street and was assisted by another party goer.

This friend rang an ambulance and Mr Chapman was taken to hospital, where he received six stitches for a cut on his forehead.

The injured party had to pay 300 for medical bills, lost three weeks of wages and has a permanent scar.

Garda Dalton agreed with Lalita Pillay BL, defending, that her client had been 18 years old at the time and had had a difficult upbringing.

Ms Pillay submitted to Judge Greally that Dunne had been living in his car for a short period because of drinking and drug taking.

She said his life had stabilised since he had moved back in with his father and he now hoped to apply for a horticulture course.
A 22-year-old student, who claimed he was humiliated and degraded when security men broke into a toilet cubicle he was using in Heuston Train Station, Dublin, has won damages in the Circuit Civil Court.

Daniel Masterson told Judge Jacqueline Linnane his trousers were round his ankles and his genitals were exposed as he tried to protect his privacy after security guards pushed in the door and accused him of smoking and drug taking.

Barrister Tom Horan, who appeared with solicitors Darcy Horan for Masterson, told the court the then 19-year-old had been defamed and had his privacy breached in the incident on April 24, 2013.

Masterson, of Latsey, Canningstown, Cootehill, and a student at Cavan Technical Institute, said he had been at the train station to see off his brother, Shane, and had gone to the rest room to use the toilet.

As he was sitting on the toilet bowl the door, which he had locked, had been pushed in on him and up to five security men accused him of smoking and taking heroin which he had never done in his lifetime. They had ushered him out of the station.

I wasnt given a chance to make myself decent. My trousers and underpants were down and my genitals were on show, he told Mr Horan.

He said one of the security team shouted: F**king drugs, F**king drugs after they had burst open the door. Masterson denied he had been smoking and said he had never taken drugs in his life. He had felt abused and violated.

The proceedings took a dramatic turn when defendants STT Risk Management and STT Corporate Security Limited called security guard Igoris Kozlovas to give evidence.

He told the court he and a colleague had opened the toilet door when they had seen smoke rising from the cubicle

The man inside was in his forties or fifties, Kozlovas said. I have never seen the man before the court in my life before. It wasnt him. It wasnt him.

Judge Linnane, who heard there had been several hours difference between the time Masterson said he had been defamed and the incident involving Kozlovas, said the defence case, that Mastersons claim was a fabrication, had evaporated in the witness box when Mr Kozlovas was called.

She awarded Masterson 10,500 damages and his legal costs.
The Supreme Court has reserved judgment in a case brought by convicted drug dealer John Gilligan and his family challenging proceeds of crime orders in relation to some of their assets.

Following a one-and-a-half day hearing, Chief Justice Susan Denham said the five-judge court was reserving its decision.

The Gilligans claim they did not receive a proper trial when his assets were frozen by the State in 1996.

Subsequent court rulings based on that decision were flawed or invalid, they argued.

The property included an equestrian centre in Enfield, Co Meath, which Gilligan had bought and developed before he spent 17 years in prison for drug trafficking. Other property owned by his former wife Geraldine, daughter Tracy and son Darren, was also found to be the proceeds of crime.

The Gilligans claimed the properties were bought from legitimate earnings. They also included two houses in Lucan, Dublin, one belonging to Tracy, and another house in Blanchardstown, Dublin, belonging to Darren.

In continuing arguments on the second day of the case, Ben O'Floinn BL, for the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB), rejected claims they did not get a proper hearing.

The 1996 freezing orders, confirmed in a High Court decision in July 1997, were obtained in accordance with legal requirements, he said.

The Gilligans resiled from the opportunity to challenge those orders because they took the view that they would await the next stage provided for under the Proceeds of Crime Act 1996 which was an application by CAB to forfeit the property to the State, Mr O'Floinn said.

Michael Bromley Martin QC, for the Gilligans, disagreed with this characterisation about their approach to the freezing orders. They were assured by the authorities that the orders were of a temporary nature, he said.

Counsel also said at no time leading up to the final freezing orders had the family been represented.

This was because John Gilligan applied for an order under Section 6 of the Proceeds of Crime Act to allow a charge be placed on the property or to have funds released so that he could fund legal aid. That application was strongly resisted by CAB and while the High Court granted an order subject to certain conditions, on appeal the order was quashed, counsel said.

By that time (July 1997) all the freezing orders had been made, he said. "We maintain that at all stages of the Section 3.1 (freezing) orders, there was no representation or legal aid".

Paul Garlick QC, presenting the Gilligans' case in relation to alleged breaches of rights under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) Act 2003, said they did not receive a fair determination of the proceeds of crime case.

While the freezing orders pre-dated the 2003 Act, the subsequent disposal orders, and the fact that they were based on the original freezing orders, meant there had been a breach of their right to property under one of the protocols governing the ECHR, he said.

Asked by Mr Justice John MacMenamin was they anything counsel considered should be remitted to the High Court for rehearing, Mr Garlick said there may be abuse of process considerations. There would also be considerations under the right to family life provisions of the ECHR (Article 8) particularly in relation to Geraldine and Tracy who still live in two of the properties, counsel said.

Mr O'Floinn, for CAB, said in reply they had received a fair trial and they had every opportunity to make the arguments they were now making throughout several hearings that occurred over the years.

Earlier, Mr O'Floinn also said there had been "something of a bifurcation in this case" in that,while Mr Gilligan had disclaimed an interest in most of the property and it was other members of the family who owned it, he directed a good deal of the subsequent litigation even though "he was the person who has least in terms of property interest".
A judge has told a Co Dublin driving instructor that repayments of 5-a-week would not go very far towards reducing her mortgage arrears of 158,000.

Judge Jacqueline Linnane heard that KBC Bank was seeking to re-possess Gwen Finlays home on foot of several loans totalling more than 566,000 she had borrowed over several years from 2001.

Finlay, of Cherrywood, Loughlinstown, Co Dublin, told the court she expected her business income to improve in the near future.

Ms Finlay, who represented herself, said she was disputing a number of issues with the bank and would require further time. She did not oppose an application by the bank for a further adjournment.

Barrister Stephen Byrne, who appeared with Beauchamps Solicitors for Kbc, told Judge Linnane that Ms Finlay had served the bank with a further affidavit on Thursday last and he required time to deal with it.

Judge Linnane said the bank was owed a total of 566,632, including arrears of 158,000. Ms Finlay had told the bank her income totalled 1,332 a month and was making repayments of 20 a month.

Repayments should be something like 2,648 and it is the banks situation that your position is unsustainable, Judge Linnane said.

She told Finlay that the banks claim was not for a monetary sum but was for possession of her home which she had put up as security for her loans.

There are very substantial arrears and, while I am adjourning the matter until July 7th, the banks claim for possession will go ahead on that date, Judge Linnane said.
RELATIVES of a suspect in three of the seven murders in the capital's bloody gangland feud fear he has been murdered himself.

The 30-year-old New INLA criminal fled the country after the murder of Gareth Hutch (35) last month.

He is being investigated for the murder of Hutch's uncle, Eddie Hutch Snr (59), who was shot dead at his north inner city home on February 8 in revenge for the Regency Hotel bloodbath, and for another feud murder.

"This man's family are worried sick and are fearful that he has been murdered," a source told the Herald.

"They haven't heard a word from him in over a week and that is not like he normally behaves.

"His friends have heard reports that he was ordered back to Ireland from the UK after the murder of Gareth Hutch and that he may have been murdered by the New IRA or even the Kinahan cartel, who he had been working for.

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"Of big concern is that he is not thought to have much money, so his friends are wondering, if he is alive, how he'd able to pay for things.

"It's very unusual for him not to be in touch."

He previously served a lengthy sentence for explosives offences, and in recent months was part of a gang involved in extortion, criminal debt collection and drug-dealing.

However, the outfit is known also to be involved in a number of legitimate businesses.

This gang's links to the Kinahan cartel have only clearly emerged in the past three weeks.

The triple-murder suspect fled to Britain in the aftermath of Gareth Hutch being shot dead outside his home on May 24.

Gardai have no intelligence that the suspect has himself been murdered, and detectives believe he may still be hiding out in Scotland.

Gardai have had major successes against the New INLA gang in recent weeks, with one of its most senior members now in jail after being charged with offences not linked to the Hutch-Kinahan feud.

In April, the Herald revealed that the new gang - who were involved in a crime summit at the Regency Hotel - fled the area in a hurry after they were spooked by a garda surveillance team.

Sources said the gang are believed to have been behind two murder attempts last year on Limerick criminal Sean 'Cowboy' Hanley.

One of the gang's senior members is suspected of having been involved in a pipe bomb intimidation incident targeting Dublin drug dealer Charlie 'The Walrus' O'Neill before the 53-year-old died of natural causes last August.

Investigations into the mob were stepped up after a viable bomb and a pistol were seized and a Latvian man was arrested after armed gardai pulled over a vehicle near Mountrath, Co Laois, last February 25 in an incident that led to the closure of the M7 motorway for a number of hours.

threats

Gardai said the murder at the weekend of Neil Fitzgerald (36) was not linked to the wider feud, which has claimed seven lives to date.

Fitzgerald, who was a key lieutenant of the Brian Rattigan gang, was shot dead in a remote location in Tallaght.

His body was found by a passer-by on Sunday morning in the Hills Lane area of the Dublin suburb.

Fitzgerald was involved last Wednesday in a violent incident with a young man that led to associates of feared gangsters Graham 'The Wig' Whelan and 'Fat' Freddie Thompson becoming involved.

It has been claimed that Fitzgerald had issued threats against the rival criminals.
The Dublin city skyline was immersed in a dense fog. Twitter credit: @CliveWelsh

Flights destined for Dublin Airport have been diverted to other airports due to a fog over the city.

There have been five diversions this evening to Cork and Belfast airports, Dublin Airport Authority has confirmed.

These planes were refuelling this evening, a spokesperson said, and they will return to Dublin airport as soon as possible.

Passengers are advised to keep in touch wtih their airlines for updates, the spokesperson added.

What crazy fog this eve in #Dublin pic.twitter.com/3PKbfAO8JY  Aoife Caulfield (@Aoifecaulfield) June 8, 2016

It's the night before the Irish premiere of @creepypuppet 's @TheConjuring 2, & the fog rolls in here in Dublin. pic.twitter.com/2tGPSZwOJS  Simon Delaney (@SimonDelaneyEsq) June 8, 2016

BA824 heading to Belfast due to fog in Dublin pic.twitter.com/7h11v2WZfe  Scott Crossfield (@scottcossfield) June 8, 2016

Latest curveball weather thrown at us by the Irish climate - warm fog. What is this?!? #Dublin  Cian Mac Mahon (@Cianmm) June 8, 2016

Fog over Dublin. It was so bright and sunny above the clouds, now I've landed it's dull and fog-bound. Amazing diff pic.twitter.com/Zx3n8XWL7M  Abby Wynne (@AbbyNrgHealing) June 8, 2016

Country is baking, Dublin Port enshrouded in a cool fog.#Astoria pic.twitter.com/kEPkxFRbRR  Brian (@BrianMcTruck) June 8, 2016

I hope that's not that fog that turns people inside out... #fog #dublin pic.twitter.com/iqXYwvlkqu  Ian Cummins (@TheGreatHumbug) June 8, 2016

A very pea souper feeling this evening on Sandymount Strand - Dublin feels positively Sherlockian in the fog... pic.twitter.com/39kuZh6Set  Des FitzGerald (@desfitzgerald) June 8, 2016

A Twitter account, Airlive, alerted passengers that the fog is causing delays and diversions this evening.

Met Eireann has said the mist and fog will clear slowly tomorrow morning.

Forecaster Evelyn Cusack told independent.ie: Its very humid air thats coming up from the content. It's moist air passing over the sea and theres a slight easterly wind so its sea fog thats blowing in over Dublin."

During summer the land heats up and eventually burns the fog back to the coast. If people are planning on going sunbathing by the sea tomorrow, there could be fog."
The house in Wellesley, Massachusetts, owned by David Drumm and his wife Lorraine

Former Anglo Irish Bank boss David Drumm and his wife Lorraine have slashed the price of their US home in a bid to offload the property.

The asking price for the sumptuous, four-bedroom residence on the outskirts of Boston has been cut by $76,000 (67,000) since it was placed on the market two months ago.

The house was put up for sale after Mr Drumm returned to Ireland in March to face conspiracy to defraud and forgery charges.

The sum now being sought for the 4,089 square foot home is just under $1.85m (1.63m). If the Drumms manage to sell at that price, they will be accepting at least $150,000 (132,000) less than they paid when they bought the property in Wellesley, Massachusetts in November 2009.

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The colonial-style, wood and brick house was put on the market in April, just weeks after Mr Drumm returned to Ireland to face charges over alleged offences dating from his time at Anglo's helm in 2008.

He is due to face two trials, the first of which is scheduled to begin in April next year and the second in January 2018. The first trial will deal with conspiracy to defraud and false accounting allegations. The second mainly relates to the so-called Maple 10 share-support scheme.

At a bail hearing in March, Mr Drumm's solicitor Michael Staines said Lorraine Drumm was putting the house on the market and was planning to come back to Ireland at the end of June when the couple's youngest daughter is finished school.

It is believed to be the only property the couple still own, with others having been sold as part of Mr Drumm's US bankruptcy proceedings.

Selling agents Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage have described the 1938-constructed house as having a private office with travertine fireplace, a spacious living-room with marble fireplace and built-in bookcases, and a family room with a sunken brick fireplace.

They also described spacious bedrooms, including a master suite with a gas fireplace and walk-in closets.

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Two other homes were disposed of as part of Mr Drumm's US bankruptcy. These were a 2m mansion in the exclusive Abington development in Malahide, Co Dublin and a waterside home once valued at 4.1m in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

Mr Drumm is currently appealing a decision by a Boston judge to deny him bankruptcy protection.

He is representing himself in the proceedings. Anglo's successor, the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, is Mr Drumm's main creditor and is opposing the appeal.

The former chief executive has debts of over 8.5m.
After countless hours of study, worry and doubt, Leaving Cert 2016 finally starts today. As students head out to show off all they have learned, there are a few things to remember about the next couple of weeks that may help them pass a little easier.

First, they should know that any nerves will settle as they meet the challenge ahead.

Most of the hard work is done. Now it is important to maintain balance wherever possible. The Leaving Cert is both a physical and mental challenge and there are a number of things students can do to ensure they are in the best possible position to meet this challenge.

Before each exam, candidates should take time to go over that subject and refresh topics. They should stay positive and always remain in the exam hall until the end of the exam.

While working through each paper students may find information for other questions popping into their head. They should make a make a note of such things in the rough work section and return to add them in later.

Even if candidates feel they have written everything they can, they should reread what has been written and think about each answer. If candidates do remember something once they have left the exam hall it is too late. It is important for the candidate to be able to walk away from each exam knowing that they have truly given it their best.

Once an exam is completed, students should move on and avoid post mortems. Often, we are more likely to remember those question we could not answer than the ones we did well in. Spending too much time reviewing the paper or trying to figure out what mark was achieved will not change the grade - but is likely to increase stress and anxiety or affect future exam performance.

Similarly, avoid other students who may wish to discuss the exam in too much detail. There is always someone who will ask what did you say for this question? What answer did you get for number four? It is likely this person is trying to make themselves feel better: put yourself first and walk away.

After each exam students should take some time to relax, rest and unwind.

How long this break should be will depend on when the next exam is and the individual. They should try taking a nap, run, walk or some lunch before moving on to the next subject. It may be helpful to spend some time with family and friends.

When candidates have two exams in one day there can often be a temptation to work through lunch. Two exams in one day is always difficult, but brains and bodies need rest and fuel to function so candidates should try to make time for this as well as looking over their material.

Very best of luck to the class of 2016.

*Aoife Walsh is guidance counsellor at Malahide Community School, Co Dublin

Question: I put a lot of work in completing my CAO correctly in January. Do I have to do a Change of Mind form?

Answer: CAO applicants do not have to make changes to their list, however, I highly recommend that every applicant reviews their choices during the Change of Mind period. Choosing a career or perfect course is not a light bulb moment that occurs at some point during 6th year. Rather, it is a process that is worked through over a number of years. Therefore, it is essential that all applicants review the courses they have listed on both their Level 8 and Level 6/7 lists.

Applicants should ensure that they have a clear understanding of every course they have listed, and be satisfied that they would be reasonably happy accepting an offer for each one. Next, applicants should check that they are happy with their order of preference. It is essential that CAO courses are listed in genuine order of preference only as the CAO will make offers presuming that the form has been completed in this way.

Finally, they should check if any new courses have become available that are of interest. If an applicant has reviewed their CAO and they are happy with the courses they have listed, including the order in which they are listed, then there is no need to make any changes.

Applicants may continue to make changes, as regularly as they like until July 1.

Important dates

TODAY

Reply to offers by this date for decisions received by May 5  UCAS

JUNE 11

Taster Day, Child Adolescent Counselling and Psychotherapy  PCI College

JUNE 13

Briefing & Information Session/Hospitality Traineeship  Cavan Institute

JUNE 15

Open Evening  IT Tallaght

Info Session, Dublin Open University

JUNE 21

Lifelong Learning Information Evening  IT Carlow, Carlow Campus

JUNE 22

Enrolment Day  Ballsbridge College of Further Education

JUNE 23

Virtual Open day  DIT Cathal Brugha Street
Education Minister Richard Bruton led the good wishes to the 120,000 students who are starting the State exams today Photo: Getty Images. Picture posed.

Leaving and Junior Cert exam candidates, and their families, teachers and friends, have been urged to mind their mental health in the weeks ahead.

Children's Ombudsman Dr Niall Muldoon said students may feel a huge amount of pressure but all they could do was their best.

Education Minister Richard Bruton led the good wishes to the 120,000 students who are starting the State exams today.

It is the biggest number in over a decade, as rising school enrolments reflect high birth rates since the late 1990s.

The minister said that while recognising the exams were important, students should remember that there are many opportunities open to them following on from the Leaving Certificate.

He said as well as routes to further and higher education, there were alternative pathways to careers, such as apprenticeships, which are emerging in a number of sectors.

The minister paid tribute to the dedication of principals and teachers who have prepared and guided students, and also acknowledged the supportive role of family and friends.

Meanwhile, Dr Muldoon had a special word of encouragement for students with learning difficulties who, he said, faced additional challenges during exam periods.

"With the right supports, we know that these students can reach their full potential," he said.

About 20,000 students are availing of supports, such as readers or scribes, made available through the Reasonable Accommodations at Certificate Examinations (RACE) scheme, administered by the State Examination Commission.

Mr Muldoon said the Leaving Cert and the Junior Cert were significant milestones in a young person's life "but I would encourage all students, as well as their families, teachers and friends to take some time during this busy period to consider their mental well-being.

"Anxiety, depression and stress are common among those sitting exams. Young people feel a huge amount of pressure to do well and they should be reminded that while exams are very important, there will be lots of other opportunities and possibilities.

"I hope everyone sitting the Junior and Leaving Certificates achieve the goals they have set for themselves."

Association of Secondary Teachers' Ireland (ASTI) president Maire Ni Chiarba said the most important thing for candidates was to stay calm and focused during the exam period.

"It's normal to feel some level of anxiety. Try to keep things in perspective.

"You are sitting exams; that is all they are. Exams are very much part of going through life but they do not represent your value as a human being."

The ASTI is in dispute with the Government over changes to the junior cycle.

Ms Ni Chiarba said Ireland had a robust and transparent exams system which treated students in a fair manner "and it is vital that we retain these strengths which are of so much benefit to our young people".
For such a content heavy course, the Leaving Certificate Home Economics Higher Level paper was very fair, with no surprise, according to one teacher.

"Topics that appeared such as homelessness, housing, poverty and gender were all very current and relevant, said Sandra Cleary of Dublins Institute oF Education.

She said there was a nice, broad selection of short questions that were clearly phrased, and had no ambiguities, although students who put effort in to learning complex bio-chemistry diagrams might have been disappointed that this topic didnt come up.

She thought candidates might have been surprised Question 2 on fish and vitamin D, which have not featured for a number of years.

Ms Cleary described Question 3 on freezing and packaging as very manageable, while Question 4 on consumer studies and Question 5 on challenges experienced by a parent of a child with special needs wre topical.

Housing came up in Elective 1, while in Elective 3, students had an opportunity to discuss the social and economic reasons why poverty continues to exist in todays society.

Ms Cleary described the Ordinary level paper as fair and accessible, with short questions that were particularly straight forward.

Topical things like lipids, budgeting and marriage appeared.

However, she thought the lective 1, (part c) question , which asked students to discuss rental accommodation increases in certain areas, may have proved a little tricky for some.
Religion enjoys a unique profile in community national schools, which operate in under the patronage of Education and Training Boards (ETBs). Its profile in these schools is perfectly defensible on educational grounds and strikes the correct balance between openness to faith and freedom to reject it. It provides for classes in religion of a general nature designed for all pupils and formative lessons in particular faiths for children whose parents want it.

Yet, some extreme secularists would advocate the complete exclusion of religion from schools. One of the reasons is the suspicion of proselytising intent on the part of teachers. Clearly, there exists a danger of teachers attempting to exercise undue influence on impressionable young minds. But fear of indoctrination can be exaggerated. Where there exists a suspicion of attempts to exercise coercive religious influence, it is the role of the inspectorate to protect young people from attempts to subject them to such influence. Indoctrinatory designs are not only morally and educationally reprehensible, but their manipulative intent is unlikely to meet with success.

The dominant Catholic school system has obviously failed to create a nation of biddable citizens. The result of the Marriage Equality Referendum shows that voters are not compliant Catholics assiduously obeying what the Church teaches.

Still, the exclusion of education in faith from schools is misguided for three principal reasons.

The first has been troubling the French in the early years of this century where the exclusion of religion from schools is a long-standing and respected part of the country's educational tradition.

But this exclusion has led to ignorance regarding religion and its cultural expression on the part of French young people and, indeed, of their teachers.

To address this condition of religious illiteracy, a law was passed in 2005 that made mandatory the provision of information about religion as it arises in other subjects. Yet teachers remain uncomfortable when any topic on religion comes up and because they envisage such teaching as a covert way of bringing faith into the school.

Secondly, it is not difficult to expel religion from the worlds of young people and consequently the only exposure that some young people will get to faith as an integral feature of human life is in school.

Understanding the meaning of religion requires a particular exercise of the imagination that does not sit easily in contemporary culture. Participation in religious ceremonies further demands a discipline of quiet reflectiveness and the practice of this discipline may not always come readily to young people.

If a liberal education is to be genuinely comprehensive, it must be open to the possibility of there being a religious dimension to human experience. Rather than the merely teaching about religious beliefs and values, this requires that faith be presented as a living option accepted as true by many.

Thirdly, the exclusion of religious education from schools does not mean that civic values are not promoted, but the potential contribution of religion to life does not secure the focused attention that it requires.

This means that future citizens may not get an opportunity to acquire the tools necessary to understand religious phenomena in their theological, moral, or political forms. Thus, they may become more vulnerable to the attractions of cults or more susceptible to being radicalised by fundamentalists.

By offering formative education in religion within timetabled hours for those parents who seek it, community national schools thus offer a compromise between the approach in the dominant confessional schools and that in Educate Together schools.

Dr Kevin Williams is Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Evaluation, Quality and Inspection, School of Education, Dublin City University
Lord Mayor of Cork Chris O'Leary said the Cork scheme was an important first step in tackling Ireland's housing crisis Photo: Gerard McCarthy

European construction firms are being encouraged to bid on council housing developments in an effort to tackle the housing crisis.

It is also hoped that construction firms from Poland to Latvia and from Spain to Italy will help achieve maximum budgetary efficiency in the delivery of housing and also promote both competition and cost-savings.

Ireland needs 250,000-plus new homes after construction collapsed from 90,000 homes a year in 2005 to just 5,000 in 2010 after the crash.

The Government is committed to boosting construction rates to 25,000 a year, but experts warned it would take years to tackle the housing waiting list.

Under a pioneering new housing strategy in Cork, EU construction firms have been invited to tender on an ambitious partnership scheme to develop homes on greenfield and brownfield sites.

It is understood more than 1,000 homes are involved in the project - more than 500 in Cork city and a further 500 in strategic towns around Cork county.

Lord Mayor of Cork Chris O'Leary said it was an important first step in tackling Ireland's housing crisis and offering hope to people stranded for years on housing waiting lists.

"This is very much a good news story," he said.

"We need to get council houses built so we can begin the vital job of reducing and eliminating housing waiting lists."

The Cork scheme was first devised with former Environment Minister Alan Kelly, who demanded both Cork City Council and Cork County Council work together to address housing needs in a unified way.

The construction tenders were invited on the Official Journal of the European Union.

"Cork City Council, through a competitive dialogue procedure, is in the process of identifying suitable partners to deliver part of its housing programme for Cork," the tender note explained. "The city council is now in the final stages of selecting the preferred bidders and it is expected that construction of housing units will commence in the coming months on a number of sites in the city."

Council officials have stressed that foreign construction firms will be carefully considered for involvement in the scheme once they can offer firm assurances about meeting Irish construction and quality assurance standards.
Gardai investigating the murder of a young man in a Dublin pub have arrested a woman.

Michael Barr was shot dead in north Dublin last month as he sat in the Sunset House pub.

Mr Barr was killed as part of an ongoing feud between the Hutch and Kinahan criminal gangs. A total of seven people have been killed as part of the feud so far.

The woman arrested this morning is in her thirties.

She is being held at the Bridewell Garda Station in the capital, where gardai are questioning her over the death of Michael Barr.

A total of three people have now been arrested in relation to the shooting at the Sunset House licensed premises in Summerhill on Monday, April 25.

Speaking at a recent press briefing on the ongoing feud at Store Street Garda Station, Superintendent Dan Flavin said the support from the community has been 'phenomenal'.

In relation to the deaths of Eddie Hutch Snr, Michael Barr and Gareth Hutch, gardai say they have taken over 500 statements.

They said the majority of these statements are from members of the community coming forward to help.

Supt Flavin said he is "confident" as time progresses that their more progress will be made in the investigations.

To date, gardai have arrested 23 people arrested and conducted almost 109 searches in relation to the feud.

A total of 18 firearms have been seized, there have been 2,600 statements taken and over 7,000 lines of inquiry have been followed up on.
Two South African students living in Dublin described as "humiliating" an incident in which they were turned away from a city centre pub because there were "no blacks allowed".

Anathi Phela and Ezile Mhlambiso were refused entry to an unnamed establishment in Temple Bar on Sunday evening and were shocked to hear a security guard say that there were no blacks allowed.

He was dead serious. We spoke to him to see if he was being serious or if maybe there was a language problem, but it was not a joke, not at all, Anathi told RTE Radio Ones Liveline.

Anathi Phela, who received a prestigious scholarship to study at International Criminal Law and Criminology at UCD, said he was disappointed nobody spoke out. "

There were people going in and out, and we had to keep moving to the side to let people go through, he said.

While he described Irish people as very nice and friendly, he was disappointed that nobody stood up for them during the incident.

They immediately headed to the Garda station, and were asked to return on Tuesday to make a statement.

Anathi Phela holds a Bachelor of Law and a Master of Laws from two South African universities and was offered a scholarship at UCD to complete an ERASMUS Mundus programme.

Speaking about his scholarship at the time, Anathi said he applied for UCD because "he gets to spend a year in one of his favourite countries".

His supervisor, Professor Nomthandazo Ntlama, described him as a humble and polite student and a delight to work with.

The two friends described how they arrived at the pub on Sunday with another South African friend, and the security guard stretched his arms out and said no black people allowed.

They asked to speak to the manager of the pub to challenge the door policy, but the security guard refused.

Ezile described how they had to ask another representative to get the manager for them.

He came told us about the admissions policy, and said they have a right to not disclose the reasons why they deny access to people, she said.

It was my first time experiencing such racism.

The incident occurred just before 7pm, and Ezile said other patrons were permitted entry to the bar while they were speaking to the bouncer.

Outside of the bar, a group of five people were sitting at a table next to the door.

No one intervened. No one said anything, she said.

It was sad, I felt really let down. I thought someone would eventually get up and say something, but no one stood up, they just watched us. It was so humiliating.

Ezile added: Im never going back there again. This morning I passed the same area when going to my internship, and I wasnt at ease.

On the bus, I was thinking what if some people are thinking Im not going to sit next to her because shes black'? Thats whats been going through my mind since Sunday.
Bathers in Dublin have been warned to steer clear of three more beaches due to a water pollution risk.

Fingal County Council has warned that there was a short term overflow event from a pump station at Portmarnock following heavy rainfall last night.

Bathers have been warned to avoid swallowing or splashing water at Portmarnock, Claremont and Sutton.

Pregnant women and anyone with an open wound have been warned off swimming. Bathers should wash their hands before handling food.

Meanwhile, poor water quality failed to deter Dublin beach-goers from taking a dip at some popular bathing spots.

In spite of signs forbidding swimming at four North Dublin beaches affected by "unacceptable levels of bacteria", the Herald saw more than two dozen swimmers, mostly young children, in the water.

A suspected sewage discharge at the weekend is believed to have polluted the sea water at Skerries south beach, Balbriggan Front Strand, Rush North Beach and Loughshinny Beach.

Two of these beaches - Rush and Loughshinny - also failed water tests carried out by the Environment Protection Agency in April.

"I don't know what these people are thinking," said one concerned resident near Rush North Beach, pointing at those swimming in the water.

"People talk about getting their seafood sourced locally well I'd dare anyone running a Michelin-star restaurant in this country to serve up a Dublin Bay prawn."

One Dutch family staying in the caravan park beside the beach said that they had not seen any warning signs when they came down this morning, but said that a local schoolteacher had approached them and told them of the dangers posed by the contaminated water.

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"She told us that there had been some kind of incident at the weekend and that the water wasn't safe. We just came down from the path leading from the park, so we didn't use the main entrance and didn't see the sign."

Speaking as her daughter played close to the water in Loughshinny Beach, one mother told the Herald that she "had no clue" about the "Do Not Swim" notices placed up by Fingal County Council following a suspected sewage leak late last week.

Washed

"I didn't even think to look at the noticeboard. I had heard something about the water not being great up at Rush, but since there's been no one here stopping people from getting in the water, I assume it was safe."

According to Fingal County Council, following a routine inspection of its beaches on Friday afternoon, "Do Not Swim" notices were erected at Loughshinny Beach and Rush North Beach after a "significant amount of deleterious material was washed up on both beaches".

A spokesperson for the North Dublin council said these "precautionary measures" would remain in affect until test results show the water quality is of a standard suitable for bathing. "[While] these beaches are not closed and remain open to the public we would appeal to people to respect the notices as they have been issued to ensure that the health of bathers is not compromised," he said.
Serious overcrowding at University Hospital Galway has resulted in the cancellation of a significant number of elective surgeries.

The Full Capacity Protocol was implemented after a significant number of patients were left waiting for admission to the hospital today.

A statement from the hospital confirmed that all non urgent elective procedures had been deferred and that efforts were also made to identify patients who are appropriate for discharge.

We apologise to patients for the distress this deferral may cause, it added.

Management at the hospital urged members of the public to visit the Emergency Department only in the case of real emergencies, and advised people to contact their GP or GP Out-of-Hours service in the first instance.

University Hospital Galway would like to apologise to all patients and their families for any distress caused as a result of the delays, it added.
A government minister has warned business leaders in the UK about the dangers of Brexit, saying there is no better arrangement than the EU's single market.

Jobs Minister Mary Mitchell O'Connor told an audience of business leaders in Leeds that Ireland was closely observing the Brexit referendum. "We are convinced that no alternative arrangement will be better than the one we have - a single market and seamless flows of goods, services, capital and people. This trade sustains approximately 200,000 jobs on each side of the Irish Sea," she said.

Ms Mitchell O'Connor said the UK was Ireland's single largest export market and had about 1.2bn in trade every week, which "illustrates the importance of the two-way trading relationship".

However, speaking at the Leeds Irish Centre, she said the Government would "fully respect" the UK voters' decision.
THE Cabinet has approved a whopping 480m bailout for the health service.

The funding will be used to deal with a major spending overrun, as well as a winter initiative aimed at reducing the pressures on emergency departments.

And the 12m previously diverted away from mental health services is being restored. The move was strongly argued for by Minister with responsibility for Mental Health Helen McEntee and her senior counterpart Simon Harris.

Meanwhile, government sources confirmed that an additional 40m will be given to the Department of Justice.

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The additional funding is due to be ring-fenced for garda overtime.

Tanaiste and Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald and Garda Commissioner Noirin OSullivan have been under pressure to address the escalating gangland crisis.
Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams has rejected allegations from the widow of Jerry McCabe that he is withholding information about the garda's murder.

Ann McCabe has said Mr Adams "lies through his teeth" when he talks about the brutal killing and those involved.

And Limerick County's three TDs last night said that the Sinn Fein president should outline every detail he knows about the robbery at Adare Post Office in 1996.

But Mr Adams said he had no information about the incident beyond what was already in the public domain.

He told the Irish Independent: "I have no information concerning those involved in the murder of Garda McCabe."

Kevin Walsh and Pearse McAuley both served prison sentences for manslaughter - but Mr Adams said he accepted Ms McCabe's assertion that his killing was a murder.

Asked if he was aware of witness intimidation at the time of their trial, Mr Adams replied: "I have no information of this. If witnesses were intimidated then I would be concerned."

Newly appointed Minister for Sport Patrick O'Donovan, who is a local TD, described the stance taken by Sinn Fein in relation to the garda killing as "intolerable".

"Sinn Fein has come from a situation where in 1996 they claimed there was no IRA involvement to accepting they helped organise and facilitate the attack.

"It's a painful experience to have taken that amount of time for Sinn Fein to admit this was basically the murder of a member of An Garda Siochana, who was just doing his job accompanying money to a Post Office for social welfare payments," Mr O'Donovan said.

"If there are people who know anything, they have an obligation to come forward, especially if they aspire to be in government."

Fianna Fail's Niall Collins said: "Provisional Sinn Fein . . . compounded the offence by campaigning for his murderers' early release and celebrating" their release from prison.

"The weasel words of Sinn Fein over the years since the murder gave the country an insight into their thinking."

New Fine Gael TD for the area Tom Neville said Ann McCabe had "asked some very legitimate questions. The community has been on the side of truth and justice."

Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald said it was an "appalling event" that "reminds us of the history of violence on our island".

Fianna Fail's justice spokesman Jim O'Callaghan said: "The callousness of those garda killers is matched by their dishonesty and the dishonesty of their political supporters."
Secret compensation settlements between insurance companies and victims of road accidents will have to be revealed as part of an effort to clamp down on spiralling premiums.

Fianna Fail is to demand a new National Claims Register that will force insurance companies to publish anonymised details of every payout they make.

The proposal is an attempt to improve transparency in the sector at a time when motorists have seen prices rise by an average of 35pc.

Insurance Ireland, which represents the vast majority of insurers, has blamed "the spiralling cost of claims".

However, Fianna Fail's finance spokesman Michael McGrath told the Irish Independent there was a "black hole" when it came to information on the issue.

Up to 80pc of claims lodged with the Injuries Board - which was set up in response to rising insurance costs in 2004 - are now settled outside its remit, regularly in secret deals.

"At the minute, there are public records on the decisions of the Injuries Board and the courts - but there is a big black hole and a deficit of information for at least 75pc of cases," Mr McGrath said.

He said motorists were routinely being hit with "ridiculous hikes" of between 200-300.

Fianna Fail will place a motion before the Dail tonight which will demand that the Government sets up a new task force to investigate the situation. However, the Irish Independent understands Finance Minister Michael Noonan will resist calls for the task force, leaving the Government at risk of losing yet another Dail vote.

A review of the sector is already under way at the Department of Finance and sources said they expected it "to bear fruit" by the end of the year.

"We have our own review ongoing which we think is worthwhile so we should stick with it," said a source.

The Fianna Fail motion, which is likely to be backed by Sinn Fein, wants a new body along the lines of the Motor Insurance Advisory Board that was credited will stopping rip-off premiums in the 2000s.

It calls for an examination of "the current turmoil in the insurance market" and proposes legislative reform to increase penalties for false claims.

Mr McGrath said he had engaged with insurers but got contradictory reasons for why prices are rising. "We don't know what level of awards are being agreed so it's hard to evaluate the companies' claims in that regard," Mr McGrath said.

His proposed task force would involve the departments of finance and enterprise, the Central Bank, Road Safety Authority, An Garda Siochana, consumer representatives, the Injuries Board and others.

A spokesperson for Insurance Ireland said there was a "well-defined issue with the cost of claims which must be addressed".

They noted a Central Bank finding that the average cost of claims in motor accidents rose by 8pc between 2012 and 2014.

Insurers want the role of the Injuries Board to be strengthened and to increase sanctions for people convicted of fraud.

They also want payouts to be internationally benchmarked to ensure levels of awards are on similar levels to other jurisdictions.
The law says we must pay for insurance before taking to the road and yet there is no law stopping companies ripping us off for the privilege (Stock image)

It has reached a point where most people are very aware of the high cost of their insurance premiums but hugely unclear about its value.

The law says we must pay for insurance before taking to the road and yet there is no law stopping companies ripping us off for the privilege.

Any number of excuses have been offered up for why premiums have risen so dramatically in recent years.

The Central Statistics Office puts the average hike at around 35pc, but anecdotally many drivers have been hit with much harsher increases.

The first solution offered up by politicians in this situation is always 'shop around'.

Ireland has a healthy number of insurers but prices are universally on the rise. Ten phone calls or hours on the internet is the difference between being fleeced and massively fleeced.

The industry is suffering from a recession hangover that includes the fallout from the Quinn Insurance bailout and the collapse of Setanta.

Most analysts would agree we were undercharged for years and nobody was complaining. However, the idea that the market is now simply correcting itself is only one reason why insurers say prices are spiralling.

They also point to hefty payouts as more and more injured parties steer clear of the courts and Personal Injuries Assessment Board in search of a higher settlement.

Then there is the reduction in resources for the Garda Traffic Corps which has led some road users to complacency.

Other companies blame low reserves and high legal costs.

Ultimately the answer is probably a mix of all the above and that's why there is merit in the idea of a new task force to investigate these issues.

A review of the industry is already under way in the Department of Finance, but it's not due to be finished until the end of the year and has a limited scope. The re-establishment of the Motor Insurance Advisory Board, which investigated the industry in 2002, could facilitate participation by representatives from all sides of the debate.

Driving a car is a necessity for most people, not an expensive privilege.
Tributes have been paid to a teenager who tragically passed away just two days before he was due to begin his Leaving Cert.

Jamie Woods (17) died following a house party in Navan, Co Meath, in the early hours of Monday morning. He was due to sit the first of his Leaving Cert exams this morning.

Deputy Mayor of Meath County Council Wayne Forde described the death as a "terrible tragedy" and extended his condolences to the Woods family.

"The community is in absolute shock over what has happened. Jamie was a young student who had his whole life ahead of him," Mr Forde told the Irish Independent.

A family friend described Jamie as an "intelligent" young student. "Jamie was such a good kid, he had his whole life mapped out, he was doing his Leaving this week and then had planned to go to college in Cavan."

Jamie attended a party in the Claremont Estate in Navan on Sunday night before returning to a family member's home.

When he arrived there he complained of feeling ill, before lapsing into unconsciousness in the early hours of Monday.

He was rushed by ambulance to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, Co Louth, where he died a short time later.

Friends took to social media to pay tribute to the student who was described as having "a heart of gold".

"Can't believe you're gone...it won't be the same without you around," wrote one friend, while another said: "I've never seen the chap without a smile on his face."

Gardai are investigating the circumstances surrounding the death. However, it is not being treated as suspicious.
Three incoming Irish ministers have been briefed on Ireland's frosty relations with President Vladimir Putin's Russia. Issues of concern include Russia's involvement in Ukraine, unauthorised Russian military flights in Irish-controlled airspace and a block on Irish food exports.

"Twenty five years after the fall of the USSR, relations between Russia and the EU are in a state of reciprocal mistrust," Ireland's diplomats told Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan.

But Russia's Ambassador to Ireland Maxim Peshkov had his own answer to the criticism.

Claims in the briefing to Mr Flanagan that Russia was pursuing an "aggressive foreign policy" were met by Mr Peshkov with the suggestion that Washington was influencing such views in Europe.

"There is a saying: 'A dog is barking, the caravan is proceeding'," Mr Peshkov told the Irish Independent yesterday. "So it's their business to call us names. Our business is to do our work."

When asked about a claim by Mr Flanagan's officials that there was repression within Russia, he rejected this, saying: "The same. Dogs - let them bark. Our caravan will proceed."

Dialogue

But despite apparent difficulties between Dublin and Moscow, Mr Peshkov insisted relations were on good terms.

"I wouldn't say that they are bad. On the contrary, we have rather constructive co-operation with Ireland," he said, citing areas of engagement including counter-terrorism, business and cultural links between the two countries. Russian ballet troupes travel to Ireland, St Patrick's Day was celebrated in Moscow, and there were "dozens" of Irish dancing schools in his country, Mr Peshkov said.

Russian people living here "love Ireland", he added.

Mr Flanagan's officials said Ireland had a "dual-track approach" towards the Kremlin. They support "restrictive measures" such as EU sanctions imposed after the 2014 annexation of Crimea while "maintaining channels of dialogue".

Mr Peshkov disagreed that Crimea was "annexed". He said: "96pc of people living in Crimea ... voted for their independence and then to be reunited with Russia. It's their will and we accepted this will."

Another thorny foreign policy issue is the Russian military involvement in war-torn Syria. Mr Peshkov said his country's forces were invited by the government in Damascus and were therefore in compliance with international law.

Mr Peshkov agreed that there was mistrust between Europe and Russia on some issues.

"I wouldn't say that the party to be blamed is only Russia," he said, but added that contacts must be maintained to "find some compromises".

A Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman said the Government supported the EU's approach to Russia, but also noted Ireland's "long-standing friendly relations" with Moscow.

In other matters, Transport Minister Shane Ross was briefed on unauthorised incursions into Irish-controlled airspace by Russian war planes in 2015. His officials told him the Government "raised the issue diplomatically with the Russian authorities". Non-notification of such flights was "unacceptable", Mr Ross was told.

Mr Peshkov said the flights were within "the norms of international law" and there was "no risk at all" to civilian air traffic.

He said the Russian flights were resumed in response to "an explosion of activity" of similar Nato flights in the Baltic.

"We didn't have any official reprimand from the Irish Government. I had a small contact with the Minister for Foreign Affairs," he said.

Irish dairy and meat exports are being blocked be a "Russian Presidential ban", Agriculture Minister Michael Creed was told in his briefing. This was imposed in response to the EU sanctions on Russia over Ukraine.

Asked about the prospects of the ban being lifted, Mr Peshkov, referring to the EU sanctions, said: "Well the polite answer is, after you gentlemen. You initiated it."
At three years of age, Ceejay McArdle is about to become the youngest member of the gardai.

Today the youngster, who is fighting childhood leukaemia, will join the latest group graduating from the Garda training college in Templemore.

Ceejay, who wants to be a member of the force when he grows up, has had his uniform pressed ahead of his big day.

"We are very proud of him," said his mum Susan Brown and his dad Marcus McArdle.

Since meeting Garda Sergeant Derek Rochford, from his hometown of Castleblayney in Co Monaghan, Ceejay has been fascinated with the gardai.

"Every parent's dream is to watch their child grow up and graduate; we just never dreamt in a million years our special little boy would be graduating just five days off his fourth birthday," Susan said. "Ceejay was asked recently was he going to be a garda when he grew up, to which he replied 'eh, I am a Garda already'."

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Whatsapp Ceejay McArdle (3) from Co. Monoghan was made an honorary guard last year during a ceremony held in Dublins Garda HQ but this week

Ceejay is expected to receive a certificate from Garda Commissioner Noirin O'Sullivan.
Since April 17 last, defective or worn tyres on your car could land you with an 80 fine and two penalty points. It's a welcome development and it may lead to Irish motorists taking the state of their tyres seriously for the first time.

On the day before the new regulations came in, I visited a local tyre fitter.

He told me that he had done a week's worth of business that day alone as drivers rushed to replace their tyres.

What shocked me to the core was the state of the tyres as they came off various cars. A 141-reg Audi had four tyres with no tread showing on them. This is a car two years away from its first NCT test, making a mockery of the notion that the NCT is the last word when it comes to car safety.

A set of equally bald tyres came off an 08 Ford Focus saloon. I checked the side of the tyres for the year of manufacture which turned out to be 2007. They were on the car since it came out of the factory and were only now being changed because of the threat of penalty points.

Even when Irish motorists finally come in for new boots, there's still the problem that as a nation, we're famous for spending the least amount of money possible.

All tyres sold in Ireland must have an 'E' mark. A capital E shows that the tyre has been tested to international standards and a small 'e' graces tyres that have just met European standards, but either one is legal.

The problem is that there's a world of difference between a decent tyre, usually made by someone you've actually heard of, and some cheap ones.

While a cheap tyre will be grand for tipping around town, in an emergency you run the risk that some of them will not perform nearly as well.

After testing premium tyres against their cheap competition on many occasions I would never put anything other than a decent, respected brand of tyre on my car.

The most popular tyre size in Ireland is a 205/55 16 and the cheapest new option is around 55.

A decent, mid-range tyre will cost around 80 while spending 100 will get you a premium one.

It may look like a lot of money but the difference between mid-range and premium is 100 for a set of five tyres.

For several years now, new tyres come with a label giving some performance ratings.

Wet grip is scored from A to G, fuel efficiency is scored in a similar way and finally, a rating for noise levels is given.

It's well worth your while to study the performance figures for any tyre you're considering purchasing and that might encourage you to spend a little more.

At the other end of the scale, some motorists fit secondhand, or part-worn tyres.

These are generally imported from countries such as Germany where tyres with 4mm of tread are considered to be at the end of their useful life. Nothing is known about their provenance though.

Generally, these tyres are priced at around 35 and if we assume it's half-worn, you'll have 2.4mm of tread left before you hit our legal minimum of 1.6mm. That works out at just under 15 per mm.

Conversely, if you bought a brand new tyre for 80, you would get 6.4mm of usable tread, which works out at just over 12 per mm, blowing any economic argument for used tyres out of the water. Tyres should be checked regularly for correct pressure, damage and for tread depth and should be replaced at 3mm for safety.

The 1.6mm legal limit is woefully inadequate.

When new tyres are fitted, they should be balanced and aligned as a matter of course and any tyre over 10 years old should be replaced even if it has tread left on it.

The threat of penalty points shouldn't be the sole reason to keep your tyres in good order.
YOU can never have enough space, they say, and SsangYong must hope that's true.

They have just brought in a longer version of their Tivoli crossover - called the XLV - with a much bigger boot area (720 litres; 1,294 with the back seats folded).

Indeed that extra luggage room is the major difference between it and the more compact model that has been on sale here for some time now.

The key question is will people pay an extra 3,000 or so for the additional room and equipment?

There's a lot of spec - and an appreciable amount of overall space - so maybe they will.

The existing diesel version costs from 21,495. The new one in this larger SUV starts at 24,750 for the ES entry-level with the higher spec EL from 28,995.

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The XLV is 60mm higher; there is a tiny bit more space in the rear seats but all the room really goes to the boot which now has a flat-platform floor.

The main-selling XLV version will most likely be the 1.6-litre diesel 115bhp, 6spd manual 2WD (200 road tax, 4.5l/100km).

There are automatic versions too. And there is an interesting 'intelligent 4WD' which has 1.5-tonne towing capacity too. The electronically controlled on-demand system automatically adjusts power the front and rear depending on conditions.

The 44 versions also have multi-link rear suspensions which make for a better drive on-road.

Regardless of how many wheels are driving it, the larger model now gives the South Korean automaker a foot in the larger 'Compact Crossover' segment. That puts them in direct competition with hugely popular names such as the Nissan Qashqai (dimensions largely similar), Peugeot 3008 and the likes of the Mitsubishi ASX.

The XLV looks a good deal different to the smaller edition and I'm not so sure the overall profile is massively improved as a result. I think the first Tivoli takes the plaudits on that front.

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They say they will be expanding the range further. And they will have a new Rexton, a face-lifted Rodius and a Korando Sport next year so, after quite a while waiting, the models are about to flow in earnest.

With the XLV, it is obvious that the extra room is designed to attract younger families with their need to accommodate all the bits and pieces that go with ferrying small children around. But just be aware that the standard spare wheel reduces boot space to 574 litres.

However, you can increase that to its 720-litre capacity with a puncture repair kit if you so wish.

A big thing in the XLV's favour is the level of standard equipment: from heated front and rear seats to digital-dual zone automatic air con, three-piece roof rail and LED daytime running lights.

The MP3 infotainment system has been revised - there is a 7ins high-res screen for sat nav and there's Bluetooth, iPod and iPhone connection - rear parking sensors and seven airbags. I asked about the possibility of it being a seven-seater but that isn't going to happen for quite a while if at all.
It is hardly a surprise that Audis latest A5 Coupe hasnt veered too far from the successful original in terms of looks.

The recently-unveiled motor is due in Ireland before the end of the year.

The A5, in Coupe, Sportback and Cabriolet versions, has been an important car for the luxury maker as it has decent practicality in a stylish body shape.

More than 2,500 A5 and S5 models have been sold here since the car first arrived in 2007.

What you get is a neat evolution of the existing A5, but it does follow current Audi family styling trends.

New creases along the side, a lower and wider front grille, and a bonnet bulge are notable features that distinguish it from the A4 saloon with which it shares a platform and many parts.

A lightweight body built on a new chassis is up to 60kg lighter than the car it replaces.

Its bigger than before too, meaning more interior space, and comes with a boot 10 litres more spacious (465 litres).

Understandably, they are making a big deal of the technological advances, notably the optional Audi virtual cockpit with a 12.3ins TFT display.

Go for the MMI navigation option and you get the Audi connect SIM for on-the-go internet access.

Also new to the second generation A5 are a host of driver assistance systems including a predictive efficiency assistant that helps the driver save fuel, and Stop&Go adaptive cruise control. Audi tell us the A5 will also have higher equipment levels. Expect the likes of xenon headlights with LED DRLs and LED rear lights, the Audi drive select dynamic handling system, and Audi pre-sense city as standard.

A choice of two petrol and three diesel engines are up to 17pc more powerful than before with horsepower outputs of between 190hp and 286hp. Fuel efficiency, they say, is improved by up to 22pc. Audi in Ireland expect increased interest in the petrol engines.

Manual or automatic (Steptronic or Tiptronic depending on engine) gearboxes will feature, as will quattro all-wheel-drive versions. Electromechanical power steering makes its debut in the A5 with dynamic steering optionally available.

We also got to see the S5 version which has a new 3-litre litre turbo-charged V6 producing 354hp. Apparently a quarter of all A5 sales worldwide are of the S5 variant, though that figure is considerably lower in Ireland.

Pricing and specification will be announced later this summer, while a Sportback version will follow later in 2017. Expect a Cabriolet version in due course too.

At the unveiling at Audis headquarters in Ingolstadt, Germany, they showed us a selection of its coupes from the past including the quite beautiful DKW Monza and Audi Union 1000 SP Coupe from the 1950s, the iconic Quattro from the eighties, and the first generation TT.

A proud heritage, no doubt, and one they will be keen to continue with the new A5.
Brian Rohan, founder of Embrace Farm with Rory Best, Ulster Ambassador and Sinead McLaughlin, former Ladies Football Tyrone captain, who lost her father, Cathal, in a farming accident.

Five families have been left utterly devastated by the tragic loss of a loved one after a farm-related accident so far this year.

These are not just statistics - behind each story is a grieving family, a community in shock, and a farm that needs to continue being farmed no matter what's happened.

In many cases a widow is left to pick up the pieces, not knowing where to start. Meanwhile, her young son or daughter may have to take the reins a little sooner than planned - without the guidance of their mentor. Bills still have to be paid, cattle still have to be fed, the farm must live on.

A farm accident - whether fatal or causing serious trauma - can leave awful, potentially lifelong, consequences. But the main thing each family needs is support. On Sunday June 26, Embrace FARM (Farming Accidents - Remembered and Missed) - a nationwide bereavement support group, will hold its third annual mass to remember those lost and seriously injured on farms all over Ireland.

Embrace FARM was set up by Brian Rohan and his wife Norma, a farming family from Shanahoe, Co Laois in 2014. Brian's father, Liam, lost his life after suffering a serious head injury while fixing the rake on the back of a tractor in 2012. He was placed on life support but didn't recover.

"Our farm was one of the safest farms we knew of until dad's accident, he was a careful man. It can happen in the blink of an eye," said Brian. "Opening up and talking to people is a huge step. There's a lot to be gained from talking to people who know exactly what you've been through," he said.

Hundreds are expected to attend the service in Abbeyleix, Co Laois. Sean Finan, Macra na Feirme National president, attended the mass last year and will be present again later this month.

"Embrace FARM are doing huge work and the mass is another way of raising the awareness of farm safety. It really brings home the devastating consequences families can suffer," he said.

Mr Finan warns that families should be very conscious and cautious in carrying out their day-to-day faming activities, especially during the country's current spell of good weather.

"We don't have the sun for too long so we feel like we have to make use of it but sometimes that puts people under additional pressure and stress to get things done. That's when accidents can occur so it's all the more important to be safety conscious," he said.

With school holidays also on the horizon, Mr Finan urges parents to be aware that children are a high risk category on farms, particularly during their summer break.

Email: farming@independent.ie

Macra na Feirme Club of the Year

As the deadline for Macra na Feirme Club of the Year applications approaches at speed, reigning champions, Donoughmore, Co Cork, have offered some perils of wisdom to all clubs before the battle commences.

The Club of the Year competition is designed to encourage clubs to be dynamic and active, rewarding achievements and contributions at both a local and national level. The title is considered the highest accolade a club can achieve. Counties/regions can put forward one entry each with the group then shortlisted down to 14 clubs.

Sean Wallace, former Donoughmore club secretary and current national secretary, says a focus on planning since the start of the year is very important  including goals, calendar and financial planning. Structure is key, you must show that youre not just lurching from one competition to another, he said. Sean says winning has been a great honour for the club which has also experienced a huge boost in young membership figures. Each member put in serious effort to participate in our club, it wasnt all about winning competitions, our community involvement and volunteer work was very strong. The closing date for applications is June 30.
Although I absolutely and without reservation agree with Dr Munjed Farid al Qutob's assertion that the late and much lamented Muhammad Ali "was simply the greatest of all time" (Letters, June 7) I cannot help but observe how the contemporary western world lacks an Islamic leader with the same courage and gravitas.

Ali was the greatest - not simply as arguably the greatest heavyweight of all-time, but as a civil rights leader who stood shoulder to shoulder with Dr Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela.

Like both of these men of integrity, grace and courage, Ali was prepared to sacrifice everything for a principle of equality that was not merely misunderstood, but violently rejected by the white political establishment.

As far as I am aware, not a single leader of the West's diverse Muslim community has had the courage to stand as tall in the face of such adversity as Ali did against racial injustice, and condemn the barbaric and murderous actions of homegrown jihadis.

When this is queried, the justification for such inaction is that they are too scared of the consequences from radicals within their own community. Or, when there is limited criticism, it is contextualised in a far-from-subtle critique of western policies in the Middle East.

Ali opposed injustice in what was arguably the most racist and politically volatile era in modern history, and he rejected the established social framework by demanding with grace and intelligence an equal place for African-Americans - despite the threat not just to his career, but his life, as xenophobic and racist organisations like the Ku Klux Klan put out their version of a fatwa on this magnificent human being.

Therefore, there could be no better way of honouring this wonderful example of courage, leadership and self-sacrifice than if a Muslim statesman, sporting icon or thespian did as Ali did - stand up and, without equivocation, condemn the horrendous actions of a so-called Islamic caliphate that does not speak for the ordinary Muslim citizens of the west, who just want to co-exist in peace with their gentile neighbours.

But sadly, they have no spokesman of Ali's calibre to speak for them.

Dr Kevin McCarthy

Kinsale, Co. Cork

Water row can be solved with trust

The water and waste provision arteries in this country are rotting. They could be revived for three euros a week, and we can't find a way forward.

The obstacles are that the charges will increase, and we pay for water already through general taxation. However, not addressing the water issue will probably individually cost us more in the long term through lost tourism, lost industry and the hit to 'brand Ireland'.

Last Sunday on the Marian Finucane Show, Seamus Mallon said that water charges have become inextricably linked with the banking fiasco that we're paying so heavily for.

He also, by the by, mentioned how he couldn't wait to leave an international match between Northern Ireland and England in Belfast because of the behaviour of some fans.

Another contributor on that show pointed out how he is happy now to just follow Ipswich Town, because of the behaviour of some English fans.

The banking crisis would appear to have had the same impact on our sense of country. Best to live locally and prudentially, because of what happened nationally during the banking crisis.

Guaranteed fiscal and financial rectitude and a well-run water company that won't hold the country to ransom is required to help restore confidence at a national level.

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Brexit arguments leave me cold

As the European Referendum fast approaches, I can garner little enthusiasm to vote either way.

The 'Remain' campaign offers little more than patronising scare tactics, while the 'Leave' campaign disappointingly fails to promise a return to pound, inch and gallon Imperial measures - or pound, shilling and penny currency.

I feel that my ballot paper may well end up being spoiled.

John Eoin Douglas

Edinburgh, Scotland

Parents want change in schooling

Education Minister Richard Bruton's commitment to accelerating progress to provide choice for parents in primary education is welcome (Irish Independent, June 6), and he is right to explore different avenues to address the growing demand for change.

However, continuing to promote the flawed and unpopular Community National School model over others is, at best, misguided - and, at worst, a further waste of public money.

Devised by Mary Hanafin in 2007, this model relies on separating children of different faith backgrounds and attempting to provide religious instruction for all.

Even if this weren't divisive and impractical, it clearly does not address the actual demand for change, which comes from parents who want their children educated together in inclusive schools.

In surveys conducted by the Department of Education in 2012/2013, parents around the country expressed an overwhelming preference for the Educate Together equality-based school model; this model was preferred in 25 out of the 28 areas where the need for change was established.

In the three areas where new primary schools were announced for 2016, only 70 children were registered for Community National Schools - compared with 1,173 children for Educate Together schools. What parents want is not in question. What is required now is a properly funded programme to bring all the education partners together to make change happen.

Emer Nowlan

Chief Operating Officer

Educate Together

It's Trump's to lose, Hillary

Hillary Clinton has become the first woman to lead the charge for the White House on behalf of one of the two great parties in the US.

That is a wonderful feat. However, she needs to concentrate all her focus on the considerable obstacle in her path to power that is Donald Trump.

Ms Clinton has been depicted as stand-offish, haughty and elitist.

Unfair, perhaps, but she must show herself to be otherwise.

The paradox is that the deeply divisive Mr Trump has managed to unite the disaffected and the disenchanted, and he now has the kind of momentum that suggests Ms Clinton has it all to do.

That Mr Trump has come so far is remarkable. Much of what he says is playing on fears and will fuel alienation and resentment. But he beats a drum that many poorer Americans and those left out of the loop can follow. Unless Ms Clinton can develop charisma and a common touch, it is Trump's to lose.

Ed Toal

Galway city
Hugh Hefner's quest to find a new owner of the Playboy mansion ready to let him continue living there appears to have found the perfect buyer - his next-door neighbour.

Daren Metropoulos, a billionaire private equity banker, has signed a deal to buy the six-acre property (right) in Los Angeles' exclusive Holmby Hills neighbourhood for a "nine digit" sum, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Mr Hefner (90) put the 29-room mansion - legendary for its hedonistic parties and 'bunny girls' - on the market in January, valuing it at US$200 million.

He added the unusual proviso that the buyer would have to let him live there for the rest of his life - and leave the famous Hefner bedroom, long subject of great mystique, untouched until after his death.

Mr Metropoulos, who bought the house next door to it from Mr Hefner in 2009, is believed to have agreed to the conditions.

He said his goal was to preserve the architectural heritage of a property that was built in 1927, rather than continue the storied tradition of celebrity-spangled soirees for which it has been known since Mr Hefner purchased it for just over $1 million 45 years ago.

"The heritage of this property transcends its celebrity. To have the opportunity to serve as its steward would be a true privilege," Mr Metropoulos said.

He has not revealed the buying price. Analysts believed Mr Hefner's original asking price was excessive in view of his special conditions, which some thought would put off prospective purchasers.

The mansion - which guests enter after introducing themselves through an intercom system embedded in a rock at the front gate - is said to be in a state of disrepair, with out-dated decor.

Mr Metropoulos, former co-chief executive of the Pabst Brewing Company, plans to eventually unite the mansion and its grounds with the house next door into one 7.3 acre property.

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The mansion has been at the centre of allegations against Bill Cosby after model Chloe Goins (26) alleged she was sexually assaulted by him at one of Mr Hefner's parties in 2008.

Ms Goins last month took out a civil case that named Mr Hefner as a co-defendant, saying he "encouraged" and "aided" the alleged incident by inviting Mr Cosby to the party.
Soaking up the sun in the Phoenix Park was Claudia Doyle from Castleknock. Pic Steve Humphreys

We're in for the warmest day yet - but make the most of it, as Ireland's sunny spell is coming to an end.

Temperatures could hit as high as 25 degrees today and we can expect some sunshine along the way too, according to Met Eireann.

Forecaster John Eagleton told Independent.ie that temperatures on the charts are reading 24 degrees, but they could reach 25 today.

The rest of the week will be good news for those students trying to dodge stuffy exam centres (but maybe not so much for those who got used to our temporary Mediterranean climate) as temperatures are set to drop.

Expand Close Four year old Lola Murphy pictured with her one year old niece Mila Murphy [both from Dublin] as they play on the wet sand after the tide went out on Dublin's Dollymount strand. Picture: Frank Mc Grath / Facebook

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"It's a bit misty and foggy this morning, but it looks like the sunshine will slowly get going," Mr Eagleton said.

"Tomorrow will be a good day too, we'll be down a degree in temperature.

UV Solar Index for Wednesday:

High in all areas; very high in parts of Munster  Met Eireann (@MetEireann) June 8, 2016

Pollen Count for Wednesday:

High in Munster and Connacht; Moderate in Ulster and Leinster.

And for Thursday:

High in all areas  Met Eireann (@MetEireann) June 8, 2016

"The temperatures will return to more normal levels after tomorrow, but they will still be good.

"We can expect temperatures from between 16-20 degrees for the rest of the week."

Expand Close People enjoying the sunshine on Dublin's Dollymount Strand.Picture : Frank Mc Grath / Facebook

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A humid night this evening will give way to another warm day tomorrow with good sunshine and highs of 20 to 23 degrees.

However, Friday will be a cloudy day with scattered outbreaks of showery rain. Maximum temperatures will drop back to around 16 to 19 degrees.

There will be outbreaks of showery rain on both Saturday and Sunday. Both days are expected to be cloudy, but Saturday is expected to brighten with good sunshine developing throughout the day.

And a preview to next week? The country can expect sunshine and showers, with highest temperatures of 15 to 18 degrees.
The northern city of Aleppo has seen a rise in violence over the past few days

Air strikes on rebel-held districts of Syria's contested city of Aleppo, including one that struck near a hospital, have killed 15 civilians and wounded many others, as fighting in the country's largest city intensified once again, opposition activists said.

The northern city has seen an uptick in violence in the last two days, with government forces pounding rebel-held eastern parts of the city with air strikes while rebels are shelling western, government-held districts.

The activists said one of Wednesday's strikes hit near the Bayan hospital in the rebel-held Shaar neighbourhood, killing 10 people. Videos uploaded on the internet by activists show massive destruction, fires and thick black smoke billowing from buildings.

Wounded people are seen being loaded into ambulances. A body covered in thick grey dust is lying face down on a street littered with debris.

The Independent Doctors Association, which describes itself as a cross-border Syrian humanitarian organisation providing health care to the province and the city of Aleppo, said on its Twitter account that an air strike hit a children's hospital it runs, destroying one floor.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based opposition monitoring group, said 10 civilians were killed in Wednesday's attack, including children. It said the air strike hit a motorcycle repair shop in a square near the hospital. Five other civilians were killed in strikes that hit nearby districts, bringing the death toll to 15.

The Local Coordination Committees, an activist-run network, and volunteer first responders said the air strikes resulted in multiple casualties.

Hospitals and medical facilities have been regularly targeted in Syria's civil war, now in its sixth year. Since the start of the conflict in 2011, nearly 740 doctors and staff have been killed in more than 360 attacks on hospitals in Syria, according to Physicians for Human Rights.

Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym, MSF, says at least 100 staff members, patients and caretakers were killed, and at least 130 were wounded, in aerial bombing and shelling attacks on more than 80 MSF-supported and run health structures in 2015 and early 2016.

On April 27, an air strike widely believed to have been carried out by the Syrian government destroyed the al-Quds hospital in Aleppo, killing a paediatrician and dozens of colleagues, patients and other civilians.

Aleppo, once Syria's thriving commercial centre, has been divided and subject to a war of attrition between government and opposition forces since the summer of 2012.

North of Aleppo, rebels broke an Islamic State siege on their stronghold of Marea, reopening the road linking the town to the Turkish border, activists said.

The Observatory said IS withdrew from several villages near Marea, redeploying fighters to the area west of the IS-held town of Manbij, where the extremists are trying to fend off an advance by Kurdish-led and US-backed forces.
Singer Christina Aguilera performs onstage during the "Hillary Clinton: She's With Us" concert at The Greek Theatre in LA yesterday.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, left, reacts as she takes the stage at a rally with the news that her nomination is virtually in the bag.

It was never going to be easy and it wasn't but, barring catastrophe, Hillary Clinton has gone where no woman has gone before and become the first woman to be the presidential nominee of a major US political party.

Last night Democrats in six states were still to make their choices but it was reported that she had secured the number of pledged delegates and super delegates required to claim the Democratic nomination over rival Bernie Sanders.

The news ended a contest that ran longer than Clinton - or anyone else - anticipated. Her priority now must be to find a way to unite her party after an acrimonious campaign.

Understandably, the former Secretary of State said that she wouldn't declare outright victory before voters cast ballots and caucused in California, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

In a voice betraying more than a little emotion, she said: "According to the news, we are on the brink of an historic, historic, unprecedented moment," at a rally in Long Beach, California. "But we still have work to do, don't we? We have six elections tomorrow and we're going to fight hard for every single vote, especially right here in California."

For his part, the redoubtable Sanders indicated he's not going anywhere and will still fight on through to the July nominating convention in the hopes of winning over superdelegates, the more than 700 party officials, members of Congress, and others who aren't bound by the results of Ms Clinton, who herself conceded the Democratic Party's nomination to President Barack Obama exactly eight years ago.

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Clinton added to her delegate total with victories over the weekend in the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. She began Monday 23 delegates shy of the 2,383 she needed. By day's end, an updated survey of superdelegates who hadn't previously announced their allegiance showed she had crossed the threshold.

Even before the count confirming Ms Clinton's achievement had been released, the 68-year-old and her staff were making note of the milestone.

Responding to a question, Ms Clinton said at an event in Compton that her supporters "are passionate, they are committed, they have voted for me in great numbers across our country for many reasons.

"But among those reasons is their belief that having a woman president will make a great statement, a historic statement about what kind of country we are, what we stand for. It's really emotional."

For her staff, the import of the moment was beginning to settle in, according to spokesman Nick Merrill. "It's a really, really big deal and we're going to treat it as such," he said.

Ms Clinton has already engaged the general election battle against presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.

But Mr Sanders's continued fight for the nomination has stirred concerns about whether and how Ms Clinton can bring his backers into her fold and turn out Democratic voters in battleground states such as Pennsylvania and Ohio in November.

A self-described democratic socialist whose unexpected durability and magnetism with young and independent voters forced Ms Clinton's platform to the left, Sanders (74) may yet win California - a state Ms Clinton won handily in the final stage of her losing campaign in 2008.

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While a loss in California won't change the outcome, it might nevertheless put a drag on Ms Clinton's attempts to rally the party and begin the presidential campaign on an upbeat note. The state's importance to Ms Clinton was clear from her decision to rearrange her schedule to spend much of the last week there as polls showed Mr Sanders closing what had been a 10 percentage point lead.

President Obama, who has been officially neutral in the Democratic race, may be ready to give his endorsement to Ms Clinton as soon as this week, according to a person familiar with the president's thinking.

The timing and venue for the endorsement hasn't been set, but Mr Obama is appearing at Democratic fundraisers tonight.

Ms Clinton has garnered over three million more votes than Mr Sanders and has won 29 primaries or caucuses, compared with 21 won by her opponent. In the delegate race, she has 291 more pledged delegates and 523 more superdelegates than Mr Sanders, a bigger margin than Barack Obama had in 2008.

Jonell McLain (70), of Ventura, California, a Sanders supporter, predicted a "divisive and incredibly painful" election this year while praising Mr Sanders for pushing Clinton to adopt more liberal stances.

"This campaign is rallying people and showing that we're ready for something more extreme," Ms McLain said. "I've never heard that - and I was around in the '60s."

Carlos Valdez (46) of Long Beach said he started out as a Clinton supporter, later gravitating to Mr Sanders, but will be there for Ms Clinton in November.

"I am a Democrat," Mr Valdez said. "I'm not going to be someone who supports Bernie and then says I'm going to toss my vote away."

Ms Clinton's team showed it had learned lessons from Mr Obama's upstart campaign, building a grassroots network, keeping the lid on infighting that caused her so many problems last time around and competing in every state, no matter whether it was winnable or not.

When things got tough, when conservatives were ganging up on her or when Mr Sanders was threatening to engulf her with sheer momentum, Ms Clinton rose to the occasion with a string of bravura performances.

And this time around she has been more relaxed about playing the "women's card". Although in recent weeks her campaign has played down the historic nature of her candidacy, it has not stopped her meeting mothers of gun victims or keeping up her demands for fair pay for women.

She still faces questions about her use of a private email server when she was at the State Department. And, for such a seasoned operator, she remains absurdly nervous of journalists.

Many believe that the tough campaign may have smoothed her edges and made her a stronger candidate.

She has shown herself to be strong on policy and international diplomacy and you can be sure these are at least two flanks she will have identified in concentrating all her fire on Donald Trump.
A father who lunged at the convicted killer of his daughter in a courtroom did it because the murderer smirked at him, he has explained Van Terry said he wanted Michael Madison - who killed his daughter, Shirellda Terry, 18, in Cleveland in 2013 - after he appeared to taunt him at the hearing.

Mr Terry maintained that his actions were the right thing to do, local broadcaster Fox 8 reported.

"He looked at me and smiled," Mr Terry told the broadcaster. "I thought that was so disrespectful."

Mr Terry had been reading out a statement in court after Madison was sentenced to death for three murders, including that of his daughter, and of Angela Deskins, 38, and Shetisha Sheely, 28. It was the first death sentence the presiding judge had ever passed, according to local media.

The family was present throughout the trial, which displayed evidence against Madison and went into graphic detail about the nature of his crimes.

"I was thinking how he mutilated my child, cut my child, Mr Terry said. You [Madison] 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."

Madison allegedly smirked during Mr Terrys heartfelt speech to the court about the loss of his child.

"I guess we're supposed to, in our hearts, forgive this clown, who has touched our families, taken my child, Mr Terry had said, immediately before rushing at the killer.

Sonya Richardson, Mr Terrys sister, spoke in defence of his actions.

"He was upset. He's telling you that he lost his baby, that's a slice of his heaven, and (Madison) is sitting over there smiling," she told Cleveland.com. "It's like, enough."

Video footage showed Mr Terry rushing towards Madison and attempting to attack him, but courtroom deputies intervene and hold him back.

Prosecutors are reviewing the footage to decide if Mr Terry will be charged with an offence. Mr Terry has accepted the possibility of charges and maintained his actions were correct.
Scientists are examining whether a special bubbly drink could help fight cancer.

Experts are looking to develop a drink packed with oxygen microbubbles to make cancer treatments more potent.

Some tumours can adapt to low oxygen conditions, making them harder to treat with drugs. As tumours grow, the blood vessels delivering essential nutrients become increasingly weak, which means that cancer treatments can struggle to penetrate the tumour.

Scientists from Cancer Research UK are looking at new ways to deliver extra oxygen to the site of a tumour, which would then allow radiotherapy and chemotherapy to work the way they are intended to.

They are investigating how oxygen bubbles transport from the stomach to pancreatic tumours and exploring whether this could be done by giving patients a bubbly drink.

"We're especially excited about the potential this bubbly drink could have for hard to treat cancers like pancreatic cancer, where survival rates are low and better treatments are urgently needed," said Professor Eleanor Stride, Cancer Research UK scientist at the University of Oxford.

"We've had success in the lab in mice, so we're now looking at how to scale this up for patients."

Dr Iain Foulkes, executive director for research funding at Cancer Research UK, said: "We're investing in pioneering ways to improve survival for patients.

"Prof Stride and her team are thinking outside the box, and this is just the sort of innovation we want to spark through our Pioneer Awards scheme. By being bold we aim to make a difference."
Papua New Guinea's Prime Minister Peter O'Neill pauses before making an address to the Lowy Institute in Sydney November 29, 2012. REUTERS/Tim Wimborne/File Photo

An injured man assisted by others at the University of Papua New Guinea in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, June 8, 2016. Noel Anjok/Social Media Handout via REUTERS

Police have shot students protesting against Papua New Guinea's prime minister in the South Pacific nation's capital of Port Moresby.

Australia's foreign minister Julie Bishop said she had been told by Australia's embassy in Port Moresby of the violence as hundreds of students prepared to march from the University of PNG to Parliament.

"I know that students have been shot, but we're still trying to determine whether there have been deaths and how many have been injured," Ms Bishop told reporters.

"We call on all sides to be calm and to de-escalate the tension and certainly call on all sides to respect the peaceful and lawful right to protest."

The students have been demanding for weeks that Prime Minister Peter O'Neill resign because of alleged corruption and mismanagement.

Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that a politician told Parliament that four students had been killed and seven wounded.

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Gary Juffa spoke to students after the shooting and was told "one of the students got killed instantly and others are in serious and critical conditions," his personal assistant Joe Duhube told AP.

There were also complaints of other forms of police brutality against the students at a police roadblock erected outside the university.

Waliagai Olewale, a reporter at the local National Broadcasting Corporation, said armed police in 20 vehicles clashed with hundreds of students. Most of the students were eventually chased back on to the campus late in the morning, she said.

She could not confirm that anyone was shot.

"There was a lot of force that was used on students," she told AP. "Students were pushed and shoved, they were beaten up, there were gunshots."

Student Gerald Peni told ABC that police "fired shots directly at the crowd".

He said: "They fired tear gas. I was right in front and many of the students, they fell, they got injured."

Police spokesman Domonic Kakas said he could not immediately comment and would issue a statement later on Wednesday.
A passenger is assisted from a police rescue boat at a pier in Phuket, Thailand (AP)

Two speedboats packed with 62 tourists crashed have off the coast of southern Thailand, leaving at least two dead and more than 20 injured.

Wednesday's crash is the third incident in two weeks involving boats that shuttle holidaymakers to Thailand's resort islands. The fatalities were identified as Chinese.

The collision involved two boats that were "filled to capacity" with mostly Chinese and Korean tourists on a morning trip from the popular island of Phuket to smaller islands nearby, the Phuket City Hall said in a statement.

Police said they were investigating how the two boats crashed in broad daylight but suspected that speed was a factor.

"It had to be that they were going too fast, that's why there was an accident," said Lieutenant Colonel Prasert Srikhunrat, deputy superintendent of Phuket's marine police. He said there was light rain, which decreased visibility but he did not believe weather was entirely to blame.

"Luckily everyone was wearing life vests, or the number of fatalities would have been higher," he said.

One of the boats was carrying 26 passengers and the other had 36 people on board, including the two who died, he said. They were identified as a Chinese man and woman.

Marine police boats rescued people, many from the water, in an operation that took about 90 minutes, he said.

The larger of the two boats sunk and the other boat was towed to shore, where paramedics treated the injured and carried some away on stretchers.

Tourism is a key source of revenue for Thailand, which received nearly 30 million foreign visitors in 2015.

Boat, tour bus crashes and other accidents involving tourists have become common, as the numbers of visitors increase annually in Thailand.

On Sunday, a speedboat near the resort island of Koh Samet crashed into an anchored boat, injuring 30 people on board, according to Thai news reports.

In late May, another speedboat carrying 32 tourists capsized in rough waters off Koh Samui, leaving four tourists dead. Two victims were from Britain and the others killed were from Germany and Hong Kong.

In February, two Russian tourists were badly injured while scuba diving off Phi Phi island in Krabi province, when a speedboat's propeller severed one of the men's legs and cut deep gashes into the other man's leg.

A 52-year-old French woman died after being struck by a boat while swimming in waters reserved for snorkellers near an island off Krabi province.
Students in the South Pacific nation have been demanding for weeks that Prime Minister Peter O'Neill resign

Police in Papua New Guinea fired shots to quell a student protest demanding the prime minister's resignation, government officials have said.

They reported several injuries but denied reports that as many as four people were killed.

Students in the South Pacific nation have been demanding for weeks that Prime Minister Peter O'Neill resign because of alleged corruption and mismanagement.

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said she had been advised by the Australian embassy that police shot students in Port Moresby, the capital, as hundreds prepared to march from the University of Papua New Guinea to Parliament.

"I know that students have been shot, but we're still trying to determine whether there have been deaths and how many have been injured," Ms Bishop told reporters. "We call on all sides to be calm and to de-escalate the tension and certainly call on all sides to respect the peaceful and lawful right to protest."

Australian Broadcasting Corp reported that a Papua New Guinea politician told Parliament that four students had been killed and seven wounded.

Joe Duhube, personal assistant to Gary Juffa, told the Associated Press that the politician spoke to students after the shooting and was told "one of the students got killed instantly and others are in (a) serious and critical condition".

Papua New Guinea Police Commissioner Gari Baki, however, said no deaths had been reported. In a statement, he said about nine students were receiving medical treatment at Port Moresby General Hospital for a number of injuries.

Prime Minister Mr O'Neill issued a statement saying he was told that a small group of students became violent, threw rocks at police and "provoked a response that came in the form of tear gas and warning shots".

Five people were treated at the hospital and were in a stable condition, with the circumstances that led to their injuries still being investigated, Mr O'Neill said.

The hospital declined to comment.

Staycey Yalo, a journalism student at the university, said police did not fire warning shots - they fired directly at the students. She said she and the other protesters encountered a line of police officers blocking them when they tried to march to Parliament. The police demanded they hand over the student president. When the protesters said no, an argument broke out, she said.

"They threw tear gas and amidst the smoke, they started shooting directly at the students," Ms Yalo told the AP by telephone. "That's when we all ran."

Police in vehicles began chasing after the protesters, with officers firing from their cars at fleeing students, she said. While she was running, a student running alongside her tried to jump over a fence to escape an approaching police car. An officer came up behind the girl and bashed her with his gun, knocking her to the ground, where he began kicking her, Ms Yalo said.

"A lot of students, they got hurt - they got really hurt badly," she said.

The incident caused unrest throughout the area; Ms Yalo said she could still hear gunshots going off outside the house where she was hiding hours after the clash ended.

Waliagai Olewale, a reporter at the local National Broadcasting Corp, said armed police in 20 vehicles clashed with hundreds of students, most of whom were eventually chased back on to the campus late in the morning.

She could not confirm that anyone was shot.

"There was a lot of force that was used on students," she told the AP. "Students were pushed and shoved. They were beaten up. There were gunshots."

She said National Broadcasting Corp reporter Rose Amos lodged an official complaint, saying she had been assaulted by police while reporting the clash.

"She was physically assaulted, she was punched in the stomach, thrown to the ground by police," Ms Olewale said.
Forensic experts (L) and firefighters stand beside a Turkish police bus which was targeted in a bomb attack in a central Istanbul district, Turkey, June 7, 2016

Forensic experts (L) and firefighters stand beside a Turkish police bus which was targeted in a bomb attack in a central Istanbul district, Turkey, June 7, 2016

A man sweeps up shattered glass at his damaged shop caused by an explosion in Istanbul, Tuesday, June 7, 2016. A bomb attack targeting a bus carrying riot police during rush hour traffic in Istanbul on Tuesday has killed number of people and wounded dozens others, the city's governor said

People stand outside of a pastry shop near the site where a Turkish police bus was targeted in a bomb attack in a central Istanbul district, Turkey, June 7, 2016

A police officer stands guard near the site where a Turkish police bus was targeted in a bomb attack in a central Istanbul district. Photo: Reuters

Turkish security officials and firefighters work at the explosion site after a bus carrying riot police official was struck by a bomb in Istanbul. Photo: AP

A rush-hour car bomb ripped through central Istanbul yesterday, killing 11 people and wounding up to 36 more in one of the worst terrorist attacks on the city for nearly a decade.

The explosion appeared to target a shuttle bus carrying riot police as it passed through a busy junction in Beyazit, close to the Grand Bazaar.

The death toll from terrorist attacks across Turkey has passed 100 this year alone.

Although the deadliest have been linked to Isil, a string have also been claimed by militants from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which regularly targets security personnel in its civil war with the government.

Yesterday's blast mangled the police bus and several nearby cars.

It also shattered windows at a 16th-century Ottoman mosque, Sehzadebasi, and forced the cancellation of exams at the nearby Istanbul University.

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Hours after the explosion, police detained four suspects reported to have hired the car used in the bombing.

The reports made no mention of the suspects' possible affiliation. The authorities imposed a news blackout.

President Recep Tayip Erdogan suggested that the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) was behind the attack and pledged to continue Turkey's fight against terrorism. But there was no early claim of responsibility.

John Bass, the US ambassador to Turkey, condemned the "heinous attack", saying his country continued to "stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Turkey in the fight against terrorism".

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Since the start of the year, Turkey has been hit by a sequence of attacks that have caused tourism to plummet.

Two separate blasts in Ankara claimed by the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons - a radical splinter group of the PKK - earlier this year claimed dozens of lives.

Last month, at least eight people, including soldiers. were wounded by a remotely detonated car bomb aimed at a military vehicle in Istanbul that was claimed by the PKK. ( Daily Telegraph, London)
Iraqi forces load a truck with rockets to take to the front line in Fallujah (AP)

Humvees on the edge of the Shuhada neighbourhood in Islamic State-held Fallujah, Iraq, just before Iraqi special forces pushed into the district (AP)

Iraq's elite counter-terrorism forces have pushed deeper into Islamic State-held Fallujah, more than two weeks after the operation to retake the city from the militant group began, a senior military official said.

After securing the southern edge of the city Sunday, Iraqi special forces have entered the Shuhada neighbourhood, Major General Hadi Zayid Kassar, deputy commander of the counter-terrorism forces in Fallujah, said.

The operation to retake Fallujah is expected to be one of the most difficult yet: The city in western Iraq's Anbar province is symbolically important to the militant group and has been a bastion of support for anti-government militants since the 2003 US-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein.

Artillery and rocket fire cleared the way, and a column of black Humvees was seen moving in between the low-rise buildings of Shuhada, a southern neighbourhood. After Iraqi forces began their advance, a quick succession of coalition air strikes followed, filling the sky with dark grey smoke.

Just before the push, Lieutenant General Abdel Wahab al-Saadi drove to the edge of the territory that Iraqi forces control.

Surrounding buildings have been shredded by artillery fire and the dirt roads running through the mostly agricultural neighbourhood have been churned by Iraqi troops' heavily armoured vehicles - an indication of the ferocity of the fighting.

The main roads to and from the front line are marked with craters from air strikes and roadside bombs, with defensive trenches dug by both IS and Iraqi forces.

Different Iraqi forces are taking part in the fight for Fallujah, but only Iraq's counter-terrorism troops are actually entering the city. Paramilitary troops, made up mainly of Shiite militias, have been given the task of pushing the militants from the outskirts and tightening the siege.

"We expect to face more resistance, especially because we are the only forces entering the city," said General Haider Fadel, one of the commanders of the counter-terrorism forces.

"The Daesh are concentrating all their forces in this direction," Gen Fadel said, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.

Major General Gary Volesky, the US commander in Iraq, defended the performance of Iraqi forces in the operation, saying they were playing a larger role than the Shiite militias in leading the isolation of Fallujah.

"The Iraqi security forces have not stalled," Maj Gen Volesky said. "They are continuing to move, they got the isolation done pretty rapidly."

Fallujah is one of the last IS strongholds in Iraq. The Sunni militant group has controlled the city, located about 40 miles west of Baghdad, for more than two years.

Iraqi forces have faced stiff resistance from IS in the fight for Fallujah. Extensive use of tunnels, well-trained snipers and roadside bombs slowed the initial push into the city.

After an IS blitz across Iraq in summer 2014, the military has slowly won back territory from the militants. But the group still controls patches in Iraq's north and west, as well as the second-largest city of Mosul.
Men sit in front of their damaged shops near the scene of Tuesday's car bomb attack on a police bus, in Istanbul, Turkey, June 8, 2016. REUTERS/Osman Orsal

A building is seen covered and decorated with a Turkish flag after Tuesday's car bomb attack on a police bus, in Istanbul, Turkey, June 8, 2016. REUTERS/Osman Orsal

A man walks past by a damaged shop near the scene of Tuesday's car bomb attack on a police bus, in Istanbul, Turkey, June 8, 2016. REUTERS/Osman Orsal

A man sits in front of a damaged shop near the scene of Tuesday's car bomb attack on a police bus, in Istanbul, Turkey, June 8, 2016. REUTERS/Osman Orsal

A suicide car bombing targeting a police headquarters near the border with Syria has killed a police officer and two other people, Turkey's prime minister said.

Binali Yildirim told reporters in Istanbul on Wednesday that the attack was carried out by the outlawed Kurdish rebel group, Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK. Some 30 other people were wounded.

Mr Yildirim said concrete barriers and other security measures in place at the police headquarters in the town of Midyat, in Mardin province, had prevented a greater loss of life.

The explosion occurred on a main street, lined with cafeterias, shops and banks.

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Television images from the scene showed thick smoke rising from the site of the attack, which seemed to have destroyed the facade of a building.

Dogan said the attack was a suicide car bombing carried out with a van laden with a half-ton of explosives. The van exploded after slamming into protective concrete blocks placed around the headquarters, the agency reported.

The attack came a day after a car bomb hit a police vehicle in Istanbul, killing 11 people during the morning rush hour and took place as funerals for the victims were under way. No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

Turkey has been hit by a series of attack in the past year. Rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, have targeted police and military personnel since July, when a fragile peace process between the rebels and the government collapsed.

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The Islamic State group has also been blamed for a series of deadly bombings in Turkey, which is part of the US-led coalition against IS.

Mardin, where government forces are battling Kurkish militants, has endured similar attacks in the past months.

In May, three people were killed in a car bombing by Kurdish rebels against a gendarmerie station in Midyat.

In April, a soldier was killed and six others were wounded in a car bomb attack against their outpost in Mardin.
People console each other near the scene of a shooting in Tel Aviv (AP)

Three Israelis have been killed after two Palestinian gunmen opened fire near a popular open-air market in central Tel Aviv.

The two men were detained after the incident at the Sarona market, which left at least five others injured, four of them critically.

Tel Aviv district police commander Moshe Edri added that one of the detained attackers was being treated for a gunshot wound.

Police had initially said there might be a third attacker, but this has now been ruled out.

Tel Aviv's Ichilov Hospital said four of the wounded Israelis are in a critical condition.

Meital Sassi told Channel 10 TV she was out with her family celebrating her son's birthday at the market when she heard shots and "immediately understood it was a terror attack".

"We ran like lighting with the baby and the stroller," she said. "I yelled at people who didn't understand what was happening to run."

The Ynet news website showed CCTV footage of civilians running into a nearby restaurant to take cover.

Shlomi Hajaj, director of the market, told Channel 10 that security guards at the entrance "prevented the attackers from entering the facility, averting a bigger disaster as the compound was packed with people."

Channel 10 cited witnesses as saying the two attackers were dressed in suits and ties and spent time in a nearby restaurant, sitting at the bar, before the attack.

It showed footage of police forensic teams dressed in white suits examining items in restaurants at the scene.

Police said the two gunmen were members of the same family from the Palestinian village of Yatta, near the West Bank town of Hebron, which has been a flashpoint for violence in recent months.

Over the last eight months Palestinian attacks, mostly stabbings, have killed 31 Israelis and two Americans. About 200 Palestinians have been killed during that time, most identified as attackers by Israel.
SHARE Poll Who will you vote for in the SC House District 5 race? Neal Collins Rick Tate vote View Results Neal Collins: 31% Rick Tate: 69% Total Responses: 16

By Ron Barnett, rbarnett@greenvillenews.com

The two candidates in the Republican primary for the South Carolina House of Representatives District 5 seat agree that roads is the No. 1 issue facing the state. Where they part ways is on what needs to be done to fix the problem.

Rep. Neal Collins, the first-term incumbent in the seat representing the Easley area, says an increase in the "gas user fee" is part of the solution, which he believes could be offset by cuts in the state income tax.

Challenger Rick Tate argues that the only problem is the governance of state Department of Transportation and that past proposals to lower income taxes while raising the gas tax wouldn't help those least able to afford to spend more at the pumps.

Collins, a lawyer with degrees from Furman and the University of South Carolina School of Law, agrees that the DOT needs to be reformed, and he supports the restructuring plan passed by the General Assembly that gives the governor the authority to appoint the agency's commissioners. The legislation also lays the financial groundwork for $4 billion worth of highway and bridge improvements.

Collins points to a recent audit of the DOT, and an investigation by the House Oversight Committee, both of which show "no fraud or gross financial mismanagement" within the agency. But the audit did show "that there was no clear line of authority within DOT."

Collins said still need to come up with a long-term funding strategy for roads.

"A dedicated source of revenue for roads should be the Legislature's primary goal next year," he said.

The only option "that makes conservative sense" is an increase in the gas tax, Collins said, which he refers to as a gas user fee. South Carolina's gas tax is significantly lower than North Carolina's and Georgia's, he said.

But, noting that an increase at the pumps would hurt those on fixed and low incomes the most, he advocates a rebate for seniors, and a cut in the income tax rate from 7 percent to 6 or 6.5 percent, which he says "can be achieved without breaking the state's budget, which is forecasted to receive surpluses for the near future."

Tate, who had a 40-year career in a family transportation business, first as a driver, then owner of a small transportation and logistics company and later as a driver supervisor, doesn't buy the idea that more money is the answer.

"Our problem is not revenue. It is the boards and commissions that control SC DOT spending," he said. "It should be noted that many, including our governor prior to her re-election, believe current SC DOT funding is sufficient if proper priorities are followed."

Tate is critical of the roads bill that failed last year which would have raised the gas tax by 10 cents a gallon over three years while bringing the income tax down by 2 percent over 10 years.

He says most people on the low end of the economic spectrum don't pay income taxes anyway, so income tax cuts wouldn't offset the additional money they would have had to pay to fill up their tanks.

"Also, consider those 2/10 of 1 percent tax cuts would be spread over 10 years, with no guarantee future Legislatures would allow those cuts to continue for the full 10 years," Tate said. "You can be sure the full gas tax increase would go into effect. To call this 'revenue neutral' scheme a conservative plan is misleading at best."

Tate believes raising the gas tax without reforming DOT "will only fund the same misdirected spending priorities."

"My position all along has been to streamline accountability by eliminating the controlling boards and making the SCDOT part of the governor's cabinet so we can have a direct line of responsibility for our roads," he said
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By Ray Chandler

Federal agents have arrested a North Carolina man in Oconee County on a charge of wire fraud.

The man, Alan Peter D'Arcy, is accused of being involved in a scheme promising potential investors payoffs as high as $100 million from investments involving the United Nations and international charity efforts such as Haitian relief.

D'Arcy was arrested by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents at a house in Salem on Monday in the culmination of a federal sting operation aimed at Ponzi schemes, according to an affidavit by FBI special agent Paul Jacobs.

D'Arcy was released on $25,000 bail. As a condition of his bail, he had to surrender his passport.

He is 73 years old and originally from Gloucester, Mass., according to a Facebook page linked to a Web page advertising one of his businesses, World Trade Investments, which was involved in the case in which D'Arcy was charged. On the page he also wrote that he has lived in Ireland and Switzerland before settling in western North Carolina.

A source with the U.S. Attorney's Office in Columbia said D'Arcy lives in the Murphy, N.C., area.

One of the business numbers used by FBI agents to contact D'Arcy in the course of the sting is traceable to an office of International Management Associates in Murphy, with IMA being another company with which D'Arcy is listed as chief executive officer. IMA has also operated with a Reno, Nevada, address.

An elderly man answering a call placed to the IMA office in Murphy on Wednesday afternoon would not identify himself as D'Arcy and terminated the call when asked about federal charges.

According to the affidavit by Jacobs, the sting is part of an investigation that has been going nine years.

From December 2009 through February, according to Jacobs, the task force received unsolicited e-mails allegedly from a representative of World Trade Investments outlining "questionable investments."

On Feb. 10, an FBI informant was told to contact D'Arcy about pursuing the investments and given a phone number that is the number of the IMA office in Murphy.

When the informant contacted D'Arcy, according to Jacobs, D'Arcy said that he was associated with the United Nations and could obtain "self-liquidating grants" through a variety of methods. The next day, the informant was sent a packet of information on the investments on the letterhead of Grand Strategy, Ltd., which listed D'Arcy as the company's director.

A part of the information offered an investment through the United Nations by which investors could place $50 million in the Haitian earthquake relief program and earn 50 percent per month for 10 months.

Among the claims made by D'Arcy in conversations and e-mails over the next few weeks, according to Jacobs, was that he preferred investments of $100 million, that he had completed transactions worth as much as $200 million and that there was a new grant program available to investors that would return a $200 million grant in 15 days on an investment of $100 million.

Jacobs said D'Arcy claimed the program was available only through connections with the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the United Nations.

On March 29, according to Jacobs, D'Arcy and another associated, identified in court documents as Irwin Kaye, took part in a conference call with the FBI informant during which Kaye said the initial information on the investments had come from him.

Kaye told the informant that he worked with the United Nations on medium-term notes investing and promised the informant returns of from $35 million to $50 million per week on a $100 million investment.

All these conversations were recorded, according to Jacobs.

On Monday, two FBI special agents met with D'Arcy at the house in Salem posing as representatives of a charity the informant had told D'Arcy would be interested in investing with him.

According to Jacobs, D'Arcy repeated the claims of the high investment yields and his associations before his arrest.

This is the second time in recent years that the FBI has used a home in Salem, on Lake Keowee, as a meeting site to close a sting operation.
SHARE Donald Joslyn Larry Martin Rex Rice Allan Quinn Poll Who will you vote for in the SC Senate District 2 race? Larry Martin Allan Quinn Rex Rice Don Joslyn vote View Results Larry Martin: 28% Allan Quinn: 17% Rex Rice: 44% Don Joslyn: 11% Total Responses: 36

By Kirk Brown of the Independent Mail

State Sen. Larry Martin is being challenged in next week's Republican primary by a former legislator and two first-time candidates portraying themselves as political outsiders.

Rex Rice, an Easley resident who served in the State House of Representatives for 16 years, and Army veterans Allan Quinn of Easley and Don Joslyn of Pickens are seeking to prevent Martin from winning a seventh term in the Senate. The winner of the GOP primary is not expected to face any opposition in the November general election for the seat that represents Pickens County.

The costly race has been spiced with acrimonious comments on social media that have included allegations of candidates deleting derogatory Facebook posts.

Martin has collected nearly $149,000 in campaign contributions for his re-election bid, according to his latest state financial disclosure report. Rice has the second largest campaign war chest with $53,175 that includes $39,000 in loans and $7,000 that he has personally contributed. Quinn has contributed $21,000 of his own money to his campaign and Joslyn had contributed $6,505 in personal funds to go along with $2,130 in campaign donations.

Martin, who is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has touted his role in passing legislation intended to thwart the opening of a landfill in Pickens County that would have accepted coal ash. He also played a key role in an overhaul of the state's domestic violence law that increased penalties and included provisions prohibiting many offenders from possessing firearms.

Martin, 58, said he has worked to strengthen the state's ethics laws, though this legislation has not yet won passage. He supported a recently approved bill to reform the state Department of Transportation that also will set the stage for $4 billion worth of highway and bridge projects.

His opponents say that it is time for a change in Senate District 2.

Rice, 59, said he is a fiscally conservative small-business owner who is familiar with the legislative process.

He was soundly defeated by Martin in the 2012 general election. Rice ran as a petition candidate in that election after he and scores of other challengers across the state were removed from primary ballots for failing to properly submit a financial ethics form.

Joslyn, who served in Afghanistan in 2007-2008, owns a tanning salon in Liberty. He said he has knocked on the doors of 4,000 voters in Pickens County as part of his campaign to bring a fresh conservative voice to the state Senate.

Joslyn, 33, said he conducted a telephone poll of 1,298 voters in the district last week that shows he is leading the race. Martin, Quinn and Rice have discounted the validity of his survey.

According to court records, Joslyn pleaded guilty in 2012 to a malicious property damage charge. Joslyn said he and his cousin slashed the tires on vehicles belonging to man who had been harassing Joslyn's wife. Joslyn said the incident happened after sheriff's deputies refused to act on complaints that he had filed against the man. Joslyn said he paid court-ordered restitution.

Quinn, 67, said Joslyn's criminal record should concern voters.

"We don't need that kind of temperament in Columbia," Quinn said.

Quinn, who served for a decade in the Army and worked at the Oconee Nuclear Station for 31 years, said he is running to bring better paying jobs to Pickens County.

Quinn and Joslyn both said they are receiving support from residents who are upset that Martin voted last year to remove the Confederate flag from the Statehouse grounds.

Follow Kirk Brown on Twitter @KirkBrown_AIM
PHOTOS BY KATIE MCLEAN/INDEPENDENT MAIL A.J. Nicholas of Catawba (center) works with fellow Palmetto Boys State participants to come up with an official county chant at Anderson University.

SHARE Clay Faircloth (left) and Davonte Perry work on filling out their voter registrations forms for the Palmetto Boys State elections. A.J. Nicholas of Catawba (center) works with fellow Boys State participants to come up with an official county chant. Clay Faircloth (left) and Davonte Perry work on filling out their voter registrations forms for the Boys State elections.

By Mike Eads of the Independent Mail

Young men from across South Carolina have taken over the Anderson University campus this week for the annual Palmetto Boys State.

The energy was evident Tuesday morning as more than 1,000 roared into the Henderson Auditorium for a briefing about how county government works. The "citizens" are lumped together into different "cities" for the week, and each new amalgamation was busy trying to drown out the others with good-natured cheering and bravado. In fact, the program started 15 minutes late because the cities were too loud.

"They're becoming great friends, and they didn't know each other two days ago. That's crazy," said Connor Shea, a Crescent High School and Boys State alumnus who is back as a counselor this year. "There is something about Boys State; it's more than a regular camp. The citizens I talk to from last year are my brothers now."

The students learn how local and state government works. They make mock runs for party nominations and election to offices ranging from county coroner to governor. There is also physical training in the afternoons, off-campus tours and a nightly newscast that is written, shot and produced by participants. And it's lights out every night by 11.

Many come to burnish their leadership skills, or because they've heard good reviews from older boys.

"They not only teach you politics, they teach physical activity, they teach you leadership. ... They take you and what you want to do and build you into something stronger than the person you came here as," said Palmetto High School senior-to-be Austin Burgess, whose dad, Rockey, is running for state senate while serving on Williamston Town Council.

"I came because my brother Garrett came here last year, and he felt like he learned a lot from it," said Garner Powell, who will be a senior at Seneca High School. "I like it because we're like a ministate that is self-governed by the boys, which I think is pretty cool."

The different factions devise their own banners, logos and songs, and they go everywhere together. Palmetto Boys State graduates of all ages serve as staffers, offering encouragement, know-how and gentle nudges to the teens from time to time about staying on point and making the most of the weeklong experience.

"These students are a lot more plugged in than we were obviously," said 1991 alumnus Doug Brune, who took the week off from his storage business to help out. "I love watching the process for these kids. I remember what I felt like when I showed up and when I left  there were so many new ideas and opinions, and friendships, that came from my week."

Executive Director Stephen Lewis and staffer Clark Merritt  also alumni  each said Anderson University has been a great host. The event moved there in 2011 after several other stops, including The Citadel and the University of South Carolina, since the inaugural Palmetto Boys State in 1940.

"We've got 200 more boys here than we did my year (also 2011)," said Merritt, a graduate of Wren High School who is active in the land and timber businesses. "Anderson University has gotten used to us, and the staff is really helpful."

Notable Boys State alumni include former Gov. Dick Riley, U.S. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, Greenville Mayor Knox White and Anderson Mayor Terence Roberts, who attended Boys State at the Citadel in 1977.

"It opens your eyes to what it takes in a city or a state to run a government," said Roberts, a Westside High School graduate. "When I'm at meetings with other councils or mayors, I see a lot of people who have gone to Boys and Girls states."

Would Roberts recommend Boys State to a young man today?

"Yes, no doubt about it," he said.

Boys State runs through Saturday on the Anderson University campus. Anyone interested in donating scholarship dollars for young men who want the annual event should visit www.palmettoboysstate.com to learn more.

Follow Michael Eads on Twitter @MikeEads_AIM
LAUREN PETRACCA/The Greenville News Gov. Nikki Haley signs an abortion bill at Hidden Treasure Christian School in Taylors on Wednesday, June 8, 2016.

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By Amanda Coyne, The Greenville News

TAYLORS  While surrounded by children, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley conducted a signing ceremony on Wednesday for a recently-passed law that bans abortions at 20 weeks.

Bill sponsor state Rep. Wendy Nanney call the new law just the first step in the effort to chip away and eventually overturn abortion rights in South Carolina.

"We are at 20 weeks and we're going to keep pushing," Nanney said at the ceremony held at Hidden Treasure Christian School, a religious school for children with intellectual and physical disabilities.

The law bans all abortions at 20 weeks or later and makes no exceptions for rape or incest. The only case in which an abortion can occur past 19 weeks in South Carolina is when the fetus will die or the health of the mother is threatened. Doctors who violate this law could face jail.

The law, called the S.C. Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, is based on the claim that fetuses can feel pain as early as 20 weeks. That claim is a "complicated and controversial topic in science" that has yet to be definitively proven or disproven, according to FactCheck.org, a non-partisan research group run by the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania.

Critics of the law have said that many abortions that take place after 19 weeks concern serious health risks for mothers and unborn children. The ban does not allow abortions in the case of non-lethal fetal abnormalities.

"A 20-week abortion ban would impact only a few South Carolina women, often women whose wanted pregnancies ... face serious complications," Planned Parenthood South Atlantic said in a statement. On average, fewer than 30 abortions past 20 weeks occur in South Carolina each year, according to the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control.

The South Carolina Democratic Party opposed the bill, but some Democrats voted for it, including Rep. Laurie Slade Funderburk and Sen. Vincent Sheheen, both Kershaw County Democrats. The party took particular issue with the bill's authors not consulting gynecologists' and obstetricians' groups.

Anti-abortion advocates plan on continuing the push to limit access to the procedure in South Carolina, with the ultimate goal of overturning Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that affirmed the legal right to abortion access in the U.S.
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The war of words continued this week between Pickens County and Tri-County Tech officials over funding for a new $42.6 million Student Success Center on the college's Pendleton campus.

A Pickens County spokeswoman responded Monday to recent suggestions by Tri-County Technical College officials that county residents may be charged higher tuition to help raise that county's $6.75 million share of the college's proposed $42.6 million Student Success Center.

"A surcharge for Pickens County students is a possible option if the Pickens County Council decides not to fund the Student Success Center," Tri-County Tech spokeswoman Rebecca Eidson told The Greenville News last month.

Lauren Gilstrap, special projects coordinator for Pickens County, issued a statement Monday claiming that Tri-County officials haven't provided her council with site plans and specifications for the center; furthermore, " (Pickens) Council members have expressed concern that the counties are expected to pay for the new building which is a state responsibility. Counties are responsible for maintenance and operations. The failure by the state to fulfill its obligations should not mandate the county cover that cost.

"We again request that Tri-County Tech come forward with actual building plans and specifications to include total costs per square foot, so the county may be justified in authorizing the expenditure of millions of dollars of taxpayers' funds."

Eidson countered Gilstrap's statement with one of her own Tuesday.

"Tri-County Technical College has discussed the need for a new Student Success Center in meetings with the Pickens County Council for the past decade," Eidson wrote.

Eidson said the Pickens council was given cost estimates, a projected timeline, space usage and other information about the proposed center at a meeting on Oct. 12, 2015. That was followed, she said, by a letter of support for the project a week later from the council.

According to Gilstrap, that letter informed Tri-County President Ronnie Booth that the council would have to formally vote on the $6.75 million request when it took up its 2016-17 fiscal year budget.

Complicating matters in the interim, conservative activists have lobbied the Pickens council to not spend the money  they insist the state constitution requires the General Assembly to fund education, not local governments.

And Gilstrap claimed that Booth failed to provide necessary information on the project when he made his annual budget pitch to the Pickens council two weeks ago.

Eidson rejected that claim, too.

"On May 25, 2016, Tri-County Technical College presented its annual budget request to the Pickens County Council," Eidson stated. "Only three council members attended. No questions were asked about the Student Success Center project. Questions were asked about deferred maintenance needs of Pendleton Campus facilities "

" We are confident that we have responded to and provided all of the information requested by Pickens County. We have not received any written requests, and we have responded to every verbal request. We also have repeatedly conveyed our willingness, both verbally and in writing, to provide whatever additional information is needed."

Anderson and Oconee counties have committed to help Tri-County Tech with the center's cost; however, Oconee County officials insist that work starts first on a joint Tri-County Tech-School District of Oconee County career center near Walhalla.

Tri County Tech will chip in $15 million. Oconee County already has agreed to pay $6.75 million after the aforementioned stipulation is met, and Anderson County is committed to paying twice that, or $13.5 million.

Ron Barnett of the Greenville News and Mike Eads on the Anderson Independent Mail contributed to this report.
Ilayathalapathy Vijay's 60th film is progressing on a rapid pace. The first schedule has been completed in Binny Mills Chennai. Two songs including Vijay's intro song in the film and a few important scenes were canned in the first schedule.

The 'Vijay 60' team is currently busy with the second schedule of shoot in Hyderabad. This schedule will reportedly go on till the 25th of June. A wedding song featuring the lead pair Vijay and Keerthy Suresh will be shot in this schedule and also a few crucial scenes between Vijay and Aparna Vinod the second heroine of the film.

After finishing the Hyderabad schedule, sources say that the Vijay 60 team will catch the flight to Switzerland for the third schedule of the shoot. Details of what will be shot in this abroad schedule will be known soon.

'Vijay 60' is being directed by Bharathan of 'Azhagiya Tamil Magan' fame. The film is being produced by the prestigious Vijaya Productions banner.
Prevent Unauthorized Transactions in your demat / trading account Update your Mobile Number/ email Id with your stock broker / Depository Participant. Receive information of your transactions directly from Exchanges on your mobile / email at the end of day and alerts on your registered mobile for all debits and other important transactions in your demat account directly from NSDL/ CDSL on the same day." - Issued in the interest of investors.

KYC is one time exercise while dealing in securities markets - once KYC is done through a SEBI registered intermediary (broker, DP, Mutual Fund etc.), you need not undergo the same process again when you approach another intermediary.

No need to issue cheques by investors while subscribing to IPO. Just write the bank account number and sign in the application form to authorise your bank to make payment in case of allotment. No worries for refund as the money remains in investor's account."

www.indiainfoline.com is part of the IIFL Group, a leading financial services player and a diversified NBFC. The site provides comprehensive and real time information on Indian corporates, sectors, financial markets and economy. On the site we feature industry and political leaders, entrepreneurs, and trend setters. The research, personal finance and market tutorial sections are widely followed by students, academia, corporates and investors among others.
Helpshift, the company revolutionizing the customer support experience on mobile devices, today announced it closed a $23 Million Series B with participation from new investors, Microsoft Ventures, Salesforce Ventures and all previously existing investors, including Intel Capital, Nexus Venture Partners, True Ventures and Visionnaire Venturesbringing the companys total capital raised to $36.2 Million.Our continued growth is a direct reflection of a capital-intensive support industry thats ready for change. Consumers are tired of waiting for support agents to get back to them, and companies are tired of staffing expensive support teams to answer common, or even predictable, problems in the first place. People want immediate help, wherever they are, especially when using mobile applications, saidThis is the year we champion a new model of support, one thats better for both consumers, as well as the companies serving them.Since its inception in 2012, Helpshift has continually pushed the market forward, being the first to offer a fully native mobile support experience. The company has since expanded its offering, making it easy to help customers on whatever platform they happen to be on, in their exact moment of need.Some of the customers benefiting from radically improved customer experience and agent efficiency across their teams thanks to Helpshift include: Zynga, VirginMedia, Microsoft, WesternUnion, Flipboard, Shyp, Luxe, WordPress and thousands of other industry leading brands, startups, and developers.Helpshift has been a great partner for Microsoft and our investment today represents our confidence in their messaging-based approach to customer service, as we hold a shared value of providing the seamless experience customers want, said Nagraj Kashyap, corporate vice president, Microsoft Ventures.Businesses everywhere are moving away from email and embracing intuitive in-app support as the future. The tech industry saw this just one month back when Uber announced they had rolled out an easy to use in-app customer support model to deliver what they called service at the push of a button. At Helpshift, we saw this years ago. Well continue to see many more companies make the change towards better, faster, in-app customer support. Our new financing will help fuel our continued expansion across teams in R&D, sales and marketing. Were humbled by the confidence our investors, customers, and industry influencers have in us to build on this strong momentum, continued Tripathy.
The southwest monsoon hits Kerala, IMD said.The southwest monsoon has furthered advanced into some parts of south Arabian Sea, Maldives, Comorin area and some parts of southwest Bay of Bengal, as per IMD.Conditions continue to remain favourable for the onset of southwest monsoon over Kerala in next 48 hours, marking the start of rainy season in the country, as stated by the department yesterday.
SBI has over 10 million rural customers with a loan book of more than Rs. 1.25 lac crore as on March 2016. It serves them through a branch network of around 11,000 RUSU branches, 20,000 ATMs and around 58,000 Business Correspondents. The Bank has hired management consulting firm, The Boston Consulting Group to support this project which also facilitated the development of this innovative product.

State Bank of India (SBI), countrys largest commercial bank has signed a MoU with Jain Farm Fresh Foods Limited (a subsidiary of Jain Irrigation Systems Limited). The new tie-up will help farmers associated with Jain Farm Fresh Foods Limited to avail finance against receivables due from the company.This new product is an innovative offering that uses corporates ecosystem data to digitally enable lending solutions to customers. Farmers past performance data with the associated anchor company will be used to assess eligibility and enable loan sanction. A proprietary digital tool has been developed by SBI to facilitate this centralized electronic sanctioning. This solution, unlike traditional agri-lending products moves away from lending based on the farmers assets, land holding and financial history. Instead it uses proprietary historical performance data and information from public domain to assess farmer's eligibility and credit worthiness to sanction the loan.Speaking on the occasion, Rajnish Kumar, MD -National Banking Group, SBI said, "We are pioneering the combined potential of the rural economy, disruptive digital innovation, and leveraging the strength of corporate partnerships. The Government is also taking many steps for reviving the farm sector  New crop insurance scheme, promotion of irrigation facilities, KisanSuvidha app, electronic Mandi portal etc. All of these will help revive agriculture sector and give a boost to GDP. Our corporate customers will see great value in this program and will look to strengthen their ecosystem"."The product is truly pioneering as it provides credit to farmers to make investments in modern agricultural technologies like mechanization, irrigation, etc. resulting in higher productivity and subsequently higher farm income. For the bank the product is a disruptive industry offering as it relies on minimal documentation and liquid assets as security. This significantly improves customer experience and helps reduce the time involved in sanctioning." he added.Speaking on the occasion, K. M. Trivedi, CGM -Rural Business, SBI said "The farmer financing against corporate's receivables product is an innovative product as now we can extend credit to all farmers associated with an anchor without relying on traditional financial sources of information. More importantly, the solution provides quick and easy credit access to farmers, thereby reducing reliance on informal money lending channels. With access to capital, farmers will be in a position to invest in the upcoming cultivation cycle resulting in opportunity to earn additional income. Additionally the digital process has helped effectively leverage the ecosystem data to facilitate assessment. The usage of technology reduces human intervention; especially for a segment that was inundated with high cost to serve, customer turnaround time and manual processes.SBI is looking to strengthen the 'Farm-to-Fork' program and increase agricultural lending through corporate partnerships. The affiliation and comfort from the anchor corporate will increase the risk mitigation for loans given to various stakeholders. It plans to expand its product suite across sectors to offer customized solutions to the corporate players and their associated farmers and vendors. Recently, SBI has also signed MoUs with NIF Private Limited (Namaste Dairy), PepsiCo India Holdings Pvt. Ltd., Siddhivinayak Agri Processing Pvt. Ltd. and Origo Commodities for ecosystem financing in the agri-value chain of the corproatesSBI has been a pioneer in rural lending and financial inclusion and with the largest rural portfolio and customer base, it is at the forefront in implementing various financial inclusion programs and serving their financing requirements. In recent times, the Bank has been working with corporates to develop risk mitigated, value chain financing solutions that can cater to all stakeholders  starting from the farmer to the distribution channel partners. Today, the Bank has taken yet another giant leap in this space with the launch of a new product for financing farmers against receivables of corporate.
John Wesley Boyd, Jr., lives off the land raising cows and growing soybeans and corn on 400 acres he owns in rural Baskerville, Virginia.

He works alongside his father, John Wesley Boyd, Sr., 75, who farms 117 acres nearby that he inherited from his own father. Together theyve faced drought, fluctuating crop prices and encroaching development. Farming isnt an easy life, Boyd, Jr. said, but its one that he enjoys and hopes to pass down to his own children.

Unless, he said, his family is forced to sell the farm to pay the estate tax upon his death.

People work hard to get something and make it grow, said Boyd, 50. Then, when they want to pass it on to their families, they owe the government so much in estate tax that the family has to sell the business to pay it. Its not right.

Boyd, founder and president of the National Black Farmers Association, is among a group of small- and medium-sized business owners who are lobbying for the repeal of the estate tax, which federally is levied on transferrable assets beyond $5.45 million  double that for married couples. The U.S. Senate soon will consider legislation to rescind the 40-percent federal estate tax. The House of Representatives voted to end it last year.

The estate tax, sometimes called the death tax, has been widely discussed since the loss of musician Prince Rogers Nelson, aka Prince, 57, who died without a will on April 21, at his Paisley Park Studio complex in Chanhassen, Minnesota. Prince, who died of an opioid overdose, was unmarried, had no children and was preceded in death by his parents.

Under Minnesota law, his sister and five half-siblings will inherit his assets, which are estimated to be worth up to $300 million. Estate planners believe that Princes fortune may shrink in half because he departed without directing his assets into charitable donations, trusts or other tax shelters.

Business owners who oppose the tax say it burdens heirs with generating cash when most of the decedents assets are tied up in their operations. The federal tax is due nine months after the death, but probate attorneys say the IRS will let heirs pay over several years.

Fifteen states  including Minnesota  and Washington, D.C., also assess estate taxes, and seven states levy inheritance taxes, according to Kiplinger.com. The website said several states have increased their exemptions in recent years, including Maine, thus reducing the number of people subject to estate tax. Tennessee dropped its tax this year.

But Richard Phillips, a senior policy analyst for Citizens for Tax Justice, said the tax only affects 2 percent of the wealthiest Americans. He challenged claims that the estate tax threatens small businesses.

The estate tax is a crucial tool for curbing the worrisome growth in wealth inequality over the past couple decades, Phillips said via email. Rather than hurting small business, the estate tax helps ensure that we have the public resources that allow such businesses to flourish.

The House passed the Death Tax Repeal Act of 2015 that April 16, 240-179. Congressmen Sanford D. Bishop, Jr. (D-Georgia) and Kevin Brady (R-Texas) championed this bill.

The Death Tax represents all that is unfair and unjust about the tax structure in America because it undermines the life work and life savings of Americans who want only to pass on to their children and their grandchildren the fruits of their labor and the realization of their American Dream, Bishop told Urban News Service via email.

The first estate tax was levied in 1797, to bolster military services in response to a perceived French threat, according to IRS.gov. It re-emerged in 1862, to help fund the Civil War and returned in 1898, to finance the Spanish-American War. It always was repealed. Todays tax was passed in 1916  100 years ago  a year before America entered World War I. It has remained ever since.

John Boyd, Jr.s assets, like those of many farmers, are tied up in his land and crops, he said. He and his wife Kara, 46, have traveled to Washington, D.C., to lobby for estate-tax repeal. He said the tax is always a hot topic at the National Black Farmers Associations annual conventions.

The Boyds gained a foothold in the middle class because of land ownership, John, Jr. said. John, Sr.  known as The Boss  inherited his acreage from his father, Thomas Boyd, who purchased a large parcel when land ownership eluded many Blacks.

Upon Thomas Boyds death, the property was divided among his 15 children. John Sr., the youngest child, and his brother, Benjamin (who lives in New York) are their generations last surviving siblings.

Land is the most powerful thing that we can possess, John Boyd, Jr. said. Eliminating this tax would directly help a lot of farmers keep their land  That would help families now and for generations to come.
For many years the Soviet era Mig-21 was the Indian Air Forces premier fighter. The first supersonic jet of the Air Force the Mig-21 was as feared by the enemy as is was loved by the pilots who flew the formidable plane.

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The tail delta wing design, slim bullet-like fuselage and a powerful engine, gave it a top speed of close to Mach 2 (twice the speed of sound). It played a role in the 1971 war and even during the Kargil conflict. And when the Pakistan Navy Atlantique violated the Indian airspace in 1999, it was a Mig-21 of the 45 Squadron that let an R-60MK air-to-air missile fly off the rails.

And though it got a bad rep as the Flying Coffin because of the number of accidents that the type was involved in, a lot of the times it was down to pilot error and a lot of times poor maintenance. But during the peak of its operational life, the Mig-21 was the one that most Indian Air Force fighter pilots wanted to fly.

IAF

One of the pilots who flew the 21 was the former Chief of Air Staff, NAK Browne, also called Charlie Browne. As a Fl. Lt. with the 4 Squadron in Bareilly, the former Chief had a close shave. In an article in IAF's Aerospace Safety magazine, Browne said that after a training mission that they won, he and his No 2 were heading back to base. As he lined up the aircraft on approach, he felt the engine speed drop. Instinctively he throttled up to gain airspeed, but the revs soon dropped again. Once more he fed her some throttle. By now, Browne was concentrating on getting his approach correct to make the landing and made sure everything was in order  correct air speed, a slightly overshooting perspective and enough space to roll out. As he reduced the throttle to check his speed, he heard a pop. And then, silence.

The engine was dead. When it came to a dead stick landing (landing without engine power) on the Mig-21, it was considered better to bail out instead. The small wings meant that it needed a high landing speed to generate enough lift. But without the engine, it was as good as a brick. So the choice for Browne was clear. Eject.

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Then, the C-1118 (the tail number of the Mig 21 he was piloting) did something that made him change his mind. The nose dropped down steeply to allow him to see the roof tops of the village and the runway ahead. Browne picked up the nose, nursed the aircraft and stretched the glide. The Mig was taking him home.

Undercarriage of the aircraft nudged the fence of the airbase, which buckled under the weight and the Mig glided towards the runway. Browne touched down near the halfway mark and came to a stop on the left lane near the 8-to-go marker. Browne reckoned it was a new short landing record on the Mig-21. After coming to a stop, he radioed the ATC about the flame out. Emergency vehicles made it to his plane and he gratefully tapped the cockpit railing of the C-1118, thanking it for saving his life.

After the incident, investigations revealed a crack in the pipeline which led to a major fleet wide modification.

BCCL

Years later, Brownes son Omar was completing his MOFT (Mig Operational Flying Training) syllabus on the Mig-21. The air chief asked him after the first solo  How was it? His immediate reply was Its too fast. That invariably was the response of a number of fighter pilots who had flown the Mig. In Brownes case, there were a number of things that saw him make it back in one piece. He was on a curved approach, his speed was around 380 km/h and the nose of the particular variant of the Mig-21 that he was flying  the T-77 (now decommissioned) was lighter than the others. All these factors worked in his favour. And obviously his flying skills and the trust he showed in the plane together contributed to the safe landing.

In a few years, all types of the '21' still in active service will be retired. But for those who flew it, it will always be special.
1. The shooting for film director Mohit Suri's 'Half Girlfriend', which stars actors Arjun Kapoor and Shraddha Kapoor began today

Madhav Jha #halfgirlfriend first look !!! A photo posted by Arjun Kapoor (@arjunkapoor) on Jun 7, 2016 at 11:13pm PDT

Co-produced by Chetan Bhagat , 'Half Girlfriend' is an adaptation of the book. Chetan took to Twitter to share Arjun Kapoor's first look in the film: "Hi Guys, meet Madhav Jha. 'Half Girlfriend' starts shoot today in Delhi. ATB Mohit Suri , Arjun Kapoor, Shraddha Kapoor."

His smile is the most precious thing ever <3 #RanbirKapoor #Ranbir #Bollywood A photo posted by Ranbir Kapoor Universe (@ranbirkapooruniverse) on Jun 8, 2016 at 5:30am PDT

Ranbir is miffed with rumours that are linking him to Kangana Ranaut. Afer #nowranbirkangana became a top trend on Twitter, a source close to Ranbir said he might give an official statement if rumors don't stop.

3. Deepika Padukone has signed an endorsement deal worth 8 Crore!

@deepikapadukone  this dress it sooo cute! #style #dress #deepikapadukone #trenchcoat #beautiful A photo posted by Cultural Couture  (@cultural_couture) on Jun 8, 2016 at 4:58am PDT

After continuous successful years at the box-office and a rocking Hollywood stint, a report claims that Deepika has signed an endorsement deal for whopping fee of 8 crore rupees for a four day shoot.

4. Kabir Khan and Farhan Akhtar heavily criticized 'Udta Punjab' censorship and Censor board chief Nihalani!

Kabir Khan said: "Now here, they seem to say by changing 'Udta Punjab' to 'Udta Timbuktu', the film is going to change. I don't understand the logic behind this kind of decision. How is this depicting any community or state in the negative way? Farhan too criticized officials of the censor board. He tweeted"Power is the most dangerous addiction of all & someone in the CBFC seems to be tripping hard on Lassi in the Sky with Diamonds. #UdtaPunjab."

5. Filmmakers unite and show support to #UdtaPunjab and Anurag Kashyap, seek apology from Pahlaj Nihalani

@shahidkapoor @aliaabhatt @anuragkashyap72 @MaheshNBhatt @EkmainaurEktu7 at IFTDA's press meet #UdtaPunjab A photo posted by rutuja aware (@rutuja_aware) on Jun 8, 2016 at 4:43am PDT

The Indian Films and Television Directors Association held a press conference where the cast of Udta Punjab and film-directors criticized censor board chief Pahlaj Nihalani. Openly asked him to apologize after he accused Anurag Kashyap of taking money from the AAP to make 'Udta Punjab'.
Recently, the Twitter and Pinterest accounts of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg were hacked. These accounts were hacked by group called OurMine Team. This is just one of the major cyber attacks that surfaced. Here is a list of 5 major cyber attacks that happened recently which left many running for cyber cover:

Reuters

Cybersecurity leader Symantec recently revealed that more than 2,500 Twitter accounts have been compromised and are tweeting links to adult dating and sex websites. The attackers changed the profile photo and the basic information of the accounts to promote adult sites. The breach affected a number of high-profile accounts including ones belonging to the band Chromeo, a journalist working for The Telegraph, stand-up comedian Azeem Banatwala, Houston Texans wide receiver Cecil Shorts III and the late New York Times reporter David Carr.

2. 117 million LinkedIn users exposed

Reuters

Last month, LinkedIn confirmed a breach that happened in 2012, which led to more than 100 million of its users' passwords being compromised. In an email sent out to all its members, LinkedIn admitted that the massive data breach in 2012 may result in millions of passwords being leaked to the internet. The data breach involved cyber theft of email addresses, hashed passwords and LinkedIn member IDs (an internal identifier LinkedIn assigns to each member profile) from 2012.

3. IRCTC 'hack'

fitnhit

India's largest e-commerce website IRCTC came in the news recently when the reports surfaced of the website being hacked. Data of around 10 million customers was feared to have been stolen from the server of the e-ticketing portal. However, IRCTC denied reports of the hack and issued an official statement for the same. But a Bengaluru-based cyber-security startup, Fallible, provided details on how exactly the data leak can easily happen on the IRCTC website.

4. Flipkart CEO Binny Bansal's email 'hack'

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CEO of India's biggest e-commerce website Flipkart Binny Bansal's official email account was hacked and two mails were sent from it to the company's CFO asking to transfer $80,000. It was later found that the account was not hacked but spoofed. A spoofed email does not originate from the real source but from a different source falsifying the name and address with an ulterior motive.

5. SWIFT tech lapse

Reuters

The theft of $81 million from the Bangladesh's central bank found that the international banking payments network SWIFT committed a number of mistakes in connecting a local network, which led to the hack and since then investigators are said to have identified breaches at as many as 12 other banks. The SWIFT network which allows banks to process billions of dollars in transfers each day is considered the backbone of international banking. After this, SWIFT said it plans to launch a new security programme as it fights to rebuild its reputation.
Weather forecasting is serious business for India, which has seen successive crops fail due to poor rainfall. Unlike occasional scant rainfall, India's crop need the monsoons - it's the lifeblood for farmers in the country of 1.3 billion people.

BCCL

Which is why India's getting rid of a 1920'a statistical method introduced under British colonial rule, instead buying a $60 million new supercomputer to improve how accurately we predict rain.

The new system, based on a U.S. model tweaked for India, requires immense computing power to generate three-dimensional models to help predict how the monsoon is likely to develop. Better forecasting, experts say, can enhance farm output by nearly 15 % because farmers are better aware about when to sow, irrigate or apply fertilizer to crops and if rains fail plan state-wide measures.

BCCL

This would be a major boon for a country already either the world's biggest or second-biggest producer and consumer of rice, wheat, sugar and cotton. "If everything goes well, by 2017 we'll make this dynamical model operational by replacing the statistical model," said M Rajeevan, the top scientist in the ministry of earth sciences, which oversees the weather office on a 30-acre campus in the heart of New Delhi.

BCCL

The June-September rains are relied on to replenish reservoirs, recharge aquifers and for half of all farmland that does not have irrigation.

Today, about 5,000 IMD employees gather data, obtained from radar, observatories, ships, sensors and satellites, for the weather office, where staff peer at computer screens flickering with charts, graphs and multi-coloured maps of India.

In 2015, the IMD accurately forecast a second straight drought year, in contrast to predictions of bountiful rains by Skymet, India's only private forecaster. But the weather office failed to foresee the worst drought in nearly four decades in 2009 and, as this year's monsoon starts, farmers hope its forecast of above-average rains will be right.

BCCL

Because of India's size, one national forecast is of little help to farmers spread across diverse climatic zones.
All India Radio, India's national public radio broadcaster is celebrating its 80th anniversary today. Also known as Akashvani. which means 'Voice from the Sky', AIR is one of the leading and oldest radio networks in the world. It's a division of Prasar Bharti and is headquartered at Akashvani Bhavan in New Delhi.

Let's look at some lesser known facts about India's most loved radio station.

1. The radio station was launched on this day in 1936 when Indian State Broadcasting Service became All India Radio.

AIR/Twitter

2. It was Sir Lionel Fielden who coined the term 'All India Radio' on June 8, 1936.

The Hindu Archives

3. AIR's first ever bulletin was broadcast on January 19, 1936.

www.hramakrishnan.com

4. The first national music programme on AIR was broadcast on July 20, 1952.

5. Vividh Bharti Services were inaugurated on October 3, 1957.

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6. During his India visit in 1959, Che Guevera recorded an exclusive interview on AIR with K.P. Bhanumathy.

Om Thanvi/The Hindu

7. The first ever FM service was started on July 23, 1977, in Madras, now known as Chennai.

8. The popularity of the radio station only assumed greater heights with time. Now, PM Modi's 'Mann Ki Baat' also features on AIR.

Zee Media Bureau

Happy birthday, AIR! Hope you keep entertaining us for years to come.
Last few days were pretty tough for Priyanka Chopra since she lost her grandmother. The 94-year-old passed away in Mumbai on Friday, and Priyanka, her mother Madhu, brother Sidharth flew to Kottayam to attend her funeral. PC's maternal grandmother Madhu Jyotsana Akhauri (Mary John), is a Malayali from Kottayam.

Her grandmother had expressed a desired to be buried at the St John's Attamangalam Church in her hometown, Kumarakom but the church authorities blatantly denied permission for the funeral. Church's reasoning of denying permission was because she had had married a Hindu.

A spokesperson for the church told media:

"She had broken ties with the church post her marriage to a Hindu, and she lived as a Hindu. One is automatically disowned by the church under such circumstances. She could have re-joined the church while alive. But once a person is dead, we cannot accept the body for burial."

The funeral was then conducted at St Thomas Jacobite Church at Ponkunnam.
Two senior citizens fall prey to crimes like murder, dacoity and robbery every three days in Karnataka, a statistic that shatters the benign elder-friendly image the state otherwise showcases.

Even more alarming is the fact that Bengaluru, that once flaunted the tag of Pensioners' Paradise, tops the state in crimes against the elderly, underlining the fact that the city is anything but safe for its seniors.

Reuters

With urban agglomerations proliferating across the state, Karnataka is grappling with the issue of security of its elderly. And with socio-economic factors increasingly pushing them into isolation, they are becoming all the more vulnerable, say police officers.

Murder of senior citizens accounted for nearly 8% of the total murders reported in the state in 2014 (124 out of 1,636).

According to Census 2011, the elderly comprise about 8.4% of Karnataka's population of 61 million.

Since last month, four senior citizens have been murdered in three separate incidents in Bengaluru. All four were living alone.

A couple staying in a building in Fraser Town was killed by an electri cian and his friend who were seeking loan from them. The couple's son was away in the US.

In the second instance, an elderly woman who had come to take meditation classes in Bengaluru was killed in her home. Her killers are yet to be identified. In the third case, an elderly widow was allegedly killed by here relatives for gain; her techie son was staying separately.

bccl/ representative image

"In most cases, the culprit is someone known to the senior citizen.It's very difficult to prevent such murders," said a senior police officer.

"Criminals keep an eye on senior citizens for a long time and only then strike. Constant presence of other people around them can act as a deterrent," he added.

Often, a combination of reasons pushes senior citizens to live on their own. Sometimes, their children could be out of the country or even staying in the same city but separately because they want to stay close to their workplace. "Some of these reasons are impossible to address," added the police officer.

Police claim though beat patrol officers are asked to keep tabs on senior citizens in their limits it proves to be too difficult a task. "We try to encourage people to visit their elderly neighbours often and policemen themselves are making an attempt. However, the fact remains that an elderly couple or citizen make for an easy target," the officer said.
In an unusual turn of events, the ministry of environment and forests "withdrew" a statement by minister Prakash Javadekar that had slammed as "not correct" a study released by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology which said life expectancy in Delhi and other cities was decreasing due to pollution.

PTI

The minister had further said the study's release when PM Narendra Modi was in the US seemed motivated.

The Minister had said:

"The study by IITM claiming life expectancy in Delhi has reduced by six years because of air pollution is not correct as it is not based on real data, but only an extrapolation."

He said the Central Pollution Control Board would give a detailed response but dwelled on the timing of the study's release.

"Moreover, the timing of the release of the study seems to be motivated as it has been done when the Prime Minister is on a visit to the US," he had said.

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The minister, who felt the study was creating sensationalism, said the government was working hard to ensure measures were taken to tackle pollution in Delhi and the National Capital Region in collaboration with the governments of Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, UP and Punjab.

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After Censor Board chief Pahlaj Nihalani spoke in defense of his decision of demanding 89 cuts on Udta Punjab, it has left the film fraternity and makers furious.

This is what Nihalani told media:

I have heard that so I said it: Pahlaj Nihalani on allegation that Anurag Kashyap took money from AAP #UdtaPunjab pic.twitter.com/yyIqSQCoLR  ANI (@ANI_news) June 8, 2016

Movie's cast, Indian Film and Television Director's Association addresses media #UdtaPunjab controversy and here is what they said about the whole #UdtaPunjab controversy! Here is what they said:

1. You need to allow people to hold mirror to society; freedom of expression is important: Zoya Akhtar

2. We can't turn into a Saudi Arabia where there is opulence but no free thought in society: Mahesh Bhatt

3. Efforts are being made by some people to make India like Saudi Arabia. I stand with Anurag Kashyap: Mahesh Bhatt

4. Censor board is behaving like a school principal: Sudhir Mishra

5. We all need to support the message this film is sending: Shahid Kapoor

6. Demand that Pahlaj Nihalani apologize for this statement(Anurag Kashyap taking money from AAP),insult to entire film industry: Ashok Pandit

7. Films we make are based on what happens in society, we don't imagine or create: Rahul Dholakia, Director

8. Asking filmmakers to remove Punjab from Udta Punjab is an attack on our creative freedom : Satish Kaushik

9. "Anything that attacks the freedom of speech and expression should be questioned"- Imtiaz Ali

10. "Censor board can certify not censor films" - Zoya Akhtar

Here are more details:

We all need to support the message this film is sending: Shahid Kapoor #UdtaPunjab pic.twitter.com/KKgNS8jW6j  ANI (@ANI_news) June 8, 2016





Films we make are based on what happens in society, we don't imagine or create: Rahul Dholakia, Director pic.twitter.com/iwztxZVIoe  ANI (@ANI_news) June 8, 2016
For the first time, under the impetus of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the French Space Agency (CNES), space agencies of more than 60 countries agreed to engage their satellites, to coordinate their methods and their data to monitor human-induced greenhouse gas emissions.

galaxymonitor

The COP21 climate conference held in Paris last December acted as a wake-up call in this context. Without satellites, the reality of global warming would not have been recognised and the subsequent historic agreement at the United Nations headquarters in New York on April 22, 2016 would not have been signed. Out of the 50 essential climate variables being monitored today, 26 - including rising sea level, sea ice extent and greenhouse gas concentrations in all layers of the atmosphere - can be measured only from space.

The key to effectively implementing the Paris Agreement lies in the ability to verify that nations are fulfilling their commitments to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Only satellites can do that. Invited to New Delhi by ISRO and CNES on April 3, 2016, the worlds space agencies decided to establish an independent, international system to centralise data from their Earth-observing satellites through the New Delhi Declaration that officially came into effect on May 16, 2016.

climate.nasa

The goal now will be to inter-calibrate these satellite data so that they can be combined and compared over time. In other words, it is to make the transition to closely coordinated and easily accessible big space data.

"It is overwhelming to see the unilateral support of all space agencies to use space inputs for monitoring climate change, said ISRO Chairman Shri A.S. Kiran Kumar. Earth observation satellites provide a vital means of obtaining measurements of the climate system from a global perspective. ISRO is committed for the continuity of earth observation data, through the thematic series of satellites, with improvements en-route, to meet contemporary as well as future needs. ISRO is also engaging with CNES, JAXA and NASA for realising joint missions for global climate observation with advanced instruments.

i.kinja

This is a historic event that reaches far beyond the space sector and is a perfect example of the kind of success that can only be achieved through international cooperation said CNES President Mr. Jean-Yves Le Gall. With this consensus among space agencies from more than 60 nations, including the worlds leading space powers, the international space community and scientists now have the tools they need to put their talent, intelligence and optimism to work for the good of humankind and our planet.
Controversial VHP leader Sadhvi Prachi who is infamous for her hate speeches against religious minorities is at it again.

PTI

Speaking at Roorkee, the controversial VHP leader said the after making India, Congress-free, the next mission was to make the country free of Muslims.

Now that we have achieved the mission of making a Congress-free India, it is time to make India Muslim-free. We are working on that, Sadhvi Prachi said.

Prachi who had in the past called for boycott of Shahrukh and Aamir Khan's films said she was happy that the two previous movies of Shahrukh flopped and expressed confidence that Aamir's upcoming film 'Dangal' will meet the same fate.

PTI

She also claimed that if controversial BJP MP from UP, Yogi Adityananth is projected as the CM candidate for the state polls next year the party will win more than 300 seats. BJP chief amit Shah had on Tuesday said that the party won't have a CM candidate in UP.

Prachi, a firebrand VHP leader has always been in the news for inciting hatred towards Muslims. In the past she had made bizarre demands like those opposed to Yoga should be sent to Pakistan, revoking of voting rights of those having more than two children and CBI probe in Muslim educational institutions for anti-national activities. She had also justified the Dadri mob-lynching saying that "beef eaters deserve it".
The members of the Missile Technology Control Regime, a key anti-proliferation grouping, have agreed to admit India, diplomats said, in a win for Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he meets President Barack Obama in Washington on Tuesday .

Reuters

The diplomats, with direct knowledge of the matter said a deadline for the members of the 34-nation group to object to India's admission had expired on Monday. Under this so-called 'silent procedure', India's admission follows automatically.

The major breakthrough comes days after India announced that it is subscribing to 'The Hague Code of Conduct' against ballistic missile proliferation, which is considered to be complementary to the missile technology control regime ( MTCR ).

India had applied for its membership last year.

Reuters

But it was facing strong opposition from a few member countries of the MTCR where decisions are based on consensus.

The Obama administration has strongly backed India's membership into MTCR and three other export control regime  Australia Group, Nuclear Suppliers Group and the Wassenaar Arrangement.

Established in April 1987, the voluntary MTCR aims to limit the spread of ballistic missiles and other unmanned delivery systems that could be used for chemical, biological, and nuclear attacks.

The MTCR regime urges its 34 members, which include most of the world's key missile manufacturers, to restrict their exports of missiles and related technologies capable of carrying a 500-kilogram payload at least 300 kilometers or delivering any type of weapon of mass destruction.

Reutere

Since 2008 India has been one of the five countries that are unilateral adherents to the MTCR.

After MTCR's announcement, India and the US are expected to fast-track their discussion on sale of Predator series of unmanned aircraft for the Indian military.

The Predator drone, which recently eliminated the Taliban leader in Afghanistan, is the preferred tool of the CIA.

Membership into MTCR is a huge boost for India's ability to procure this capability.
Anupama Shenoy, a 2010-batch police officer in Karnataka who 'resigned' a couple of days ago launched an attack on the government and state Labour minister P.T. Parameshwar through a series of Facebook posts.

First she posted a photo on Facebook which reads When injustice becomes law, rebellion becomes duty.

Subsequently she asked the Minister on Facebook as to when he would resign. Her next post threatened to expose him if he did not resign by evening.

Her post  CD Beke?... Audio Beke?...  (Do you want a CD or a audio tape?) with a hashtag #ParameshiPremaPrasanga.

Facebook

This had also given rise to speculations that her account was hacked, as Shenoy remained untraceable.

Shenoy was also in the forefront of cracking down on liquor and sand mafia in her jurisdiction. She had 'angered' the government almost two months ago after she put Labour minister P.T. Parameshwar's call on hold, which ended up her being transferred.

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Later, Nayak was caught on camera, bragging about having her transferred for it.

Karnataaka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said he had heard about the resignation, but was unaware of the details.

The minister also rejected reports that he had pressurised her to resign.

I have not put pressure on her. I dont know what made her resign. Her senior officers, the Superintendent of Police or the Inspector-General of Police, will handle the issue, he said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday applauded Indians calling them politically-empowered.

While addressing the joint meeting of US Congress in Washington DC, the Indian Prime Minister said, "India's people are already politically-empowered. I want them to be economically-empowered too by 2022, the 75th anniversary of Independence."

PMO India

Narendra Modi is the fifth Indian Prime Minister to address a joint meeting of Congress, and the first since 2005.

Watch the full speech here:

And, here is the mains points from the entire speech by Modi where he touched upon a number of bilateral and subjects of mutual interests between both India and the United States.

PMO India

#1 We thank you for being there when the partnership was needed the most. India will never forget when US showed solidarity as terrorists attacked Mumbai in 2008.

#2 Although terrorism's shadow is spreading across the world, it is incubated in India's neighbourhood.

#3 For my government, the Constitution is its real holy book. And in that holy book, freedom of faith, speech... equality of all citizens... are enshrined as fundamental rights.

#4 India's people are already politically-empowered. I want them to be economically-empowered too by 2022 - the 75th anniversary of Independence.

#5 India lives as one, India grows as one, India celebrates as one.

#6 President Obama and I have agreed that India as a permanent member of the UN Security Council has to be an intrinsic part of this century's new reality.

#7 We trade more with US than any other nation.

#8 Three million Indian Americans are among your best CEOs, academics, astronauts, scientists, economists, doctors, even spelling bee champions.

#9 SIRI (Apple's virtual assistance) tells us that India's ancient heritage of Yoga has over 30 million practitioners in the US. It is estimated that more Americans bend for yoga than to throw a curve ball. And, no Mr. Speaker, we have not yet claimed intellectual property rights on Yoga.

#10 Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement has changed the very colours of leaves of our relationship.
Reuters

The members of the Missile Technology Control Regime, a key anti-proliferation grouping, have agreed to admit India, diplomats said, in a win for Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he meets President Barack Obama in Washington on Tuesday .

The diplomats, with direct knowledge of the matter said a deadline for the members of the 34-nation group to object to India's admission had expired on Monday. Under this so-called 'silent procedure', India's admission follows automatically.

The major breakthrough comes days after India announced that it is subscribing to 'The Hague Code of Conduct' against ballistic missile proliferation, which is considered to be complementary to the missile technology control regime ( MTCR ). Read more details

Here are more interesting stories from the day:

1. Get Ready For No Trains From July 11 As 13 Million Railway Employees Go On Strike Over Salaries

Reuters

The National Federation of Indian Railwaymen (NFIR) will join the nation-wide indefinite strike of central trade unions on July 11.

J G Mahurkar, general secretary of Western Railway Mazdoor Sangh (WRMS) and vice president of NFIR said this here on Wednesday while addressing a gathering of track maintainers (gangman).

We are not happy with the report of seventh pay commission because the minimum pay of Rs 18,000 and fitment formula of 2.55 is not acceptable to NFIR" he said. Read more here

2. Environment Ministry Denies That Delhi's Air Removes 6 Years From Your Life, Later Does A U-Turn

PTI

In an unusual turn of events, the ministry of environment and forests "withdrew" a statement by minister Prakash Javadekar that had slammed as "not correct" a study released by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology which said life expectancy in Delhi and other cities was decreasing due to pollution.

The minister had further said the study's release when PM Narendra Modi was in the US seemed motivated. Read details here

3. Bullet Train Project Hits First Snag, Maharashtra Government Opposes Construction Of Mumbai Station

YouTube/ Representative Image

The Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train project, the first of its kind in India has hit its first roadblock. And that too from a 'friend', the Maharashtra government.

The Devendra Fadnavis government has opposed the railways constructing one of the most crucial links in the corridor- the Mumbai station. Read more details

4. American Firm Westinghouse To Build 6 Reactors In India, Will Increase Power Generation By Four Times By 2030

Reuters

The Nuclear Power Corporation of India and US firm Westinghouse have agreed to begin engineering and site design work immediately for six nuclear power plant reactors in India and conclude contractual arrangements by June 2017, the White House said on Tuesday.

Culminating a decade of partnership on civil nuclear issues, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Barack Obama during their White House meeting "welcomed" the start of preparatory work on site in India for six reactors to be built by Westinghouse, officials said. Read more details

5. The Spots Are Fading From Indian Jungles, Where Are Our Leopards?

wikimedia

How many Indians even know that the Indian Cheetah was hunted to extinction? Sadly there is no time or interest.

Yes, the fastest land animal used to sprint over the arid grasslands of Rajasthan and Gujarat bringing down nimble Blackbuck and Chinkara (Indian Gazelle ).But even the blinding speed of the Cheetah could not save its clan from trigger happy maharajas. Ironically the word Cheetah is derived from a Sanskrit word meaning the spotted one !! For people who do not understand the meaning of man-made extinction, it means putting a full stop to billions of years of nature's work. Read more details
Draped in the national flag and laid to rest with a salute befitting a hero, America's last surviving 9/11 rescue dog bid farewell to the world. The 16-year-old Bretagne (pronounced 'Brittany') was walked inside the Fairfield Animal Hospital in Texas by her owner Denise Corliss to be put to sleep.

The decision to euthanise Bretagne was a difficult one, but old age had slowed the Golden Retriever's pace considerably.

The World Trade Center attacks

Freshly graduated from Disaster City - the world's largest search and rescue training center in Texas - both Bretagne and Denise were deployed to New York when the terror attacks rocked the Twin Towers.

They worked 12 hours a day for a fortnight at Ground Zero, searching for survivors in the debris of the world's worst terror attack. Bretagne worked hard but failed to find even a single breathing soul.

TEEX

However, Bretagne did something else. She became a listener; a comforter to the several firefighters and rescuers who were working hard to find lost ones. They'd pet Bretagne and share stories of the missing with Denise.

"Dogs can be so comforting, so it makes sense to me now," she says. "I just didn't anticipate that, then," said Denise as reported by CNN.

Hurricanes and more

A certified FEMA disaster search dog, Bretagne also lent her service to other disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita. At one time, the dog stopped at the edge of a dangling staircase but call it instinct or good sense, the Retriever turned around and walked back to safety.

TEEX

"Pushy" Bretagne

And that's how Denise had her for life. Bretagne didn't back down when she squeezed her way out of a kennel she shared with 8 other puppies - only to greet Denise. Bretagne was "persistent" and that's what made her such a successful rescue dog.

Mentor to kids

Bretagne left Texas Task Force 1 in 2009 and joined the local fire department. She retired a few years later but continued to lend her services. Denise said that Bretagne visited elementary schools to comfort kids with autism who were "intimidated or uncomfortable reading out loud to their classmates, have an opportunity to develop reading skills by reading to her."

AP

Dedication to the dedicated

Bretagne has a cobblestone dedicated in her name by the National September 11 Memorial and Museum. "I've had several canine partners. But Bretagne is that one dog for me," said Denise in the Bark Box video.

Rest in peace, Bretagne.
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Three members of the Federal Executive Council are currently indisposed, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Babachir Lawal, revealed on Wednesday.

Aside President Muhammadu Buhari, who traveled to London on Monday in commencement of his 10-days vacation during which he would also see Ear, Nose and Throat specialists for a persistent ear infection, majority of Nigerians were in the dark as to the health condition of the FEC members until today.

Lawal, who made the disclosure while saying the opening prayer at the beginning of a FEC meeting presided over by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo at the Council Chamber of the Presidential Villa, Abuja, mentioned the indisposed ministers as Aisha Alhassan (Women Affairs), Adamu Adamu (Education) and Ibrahim Jibril (Minister of State for Environment).

The SGF in his prayer, which came shortly after Osinbajo directed the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, to offer Islamic prayer, asked God to be with President Buhari, who he said was on medical vacation.

He then proceeded to ask God to also heal the aforementioned ministers, starting with Alhassan, who he said is recuperating in US after a surgery and Adamu, who he said is down with back pain.

It was not until he concluded his prayer that the SGF was reminded that he did not ask God to heal Jibril.

Mr. Lawal quickly added Jibrils name to his list of sick cabinet members but failed to disclose the nature of the junior ministers ailment.
The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Babachir David Lawal, Wednesday, at the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting disclosed that President Muhammadu Buhari is sick and on medical vacation to London.

However, President Buhari is not the only one who is ill. Lawal revealed that three other ministers are also ill.

According to the SGF, the Minister of Women Affairs, Aisha Alhassan popularly known as Mama Taraba, had been down but now recuperating from surgery in the US.

He added that the other two ministers that are ill are the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu and Minister of State for Environment, Ibrahim Jibril. He did not say whether they were also flown abroad for treatment.

President Buhari is away in London on vacation during which he will see doctors in the British city for a recurring ear problem. He has been criticized for seeking treatment abroad just months after speaking against such.
Former President of the West African Bar Association (WABA) and human rights activist, Femi Falana (SAN), has supported President Muhammadu Buharis decision to see Ear, Nose and Throat (E.N.T) specialists during his vacation in London.

The president on Monday began a 10-day vacation in London during which he will see E.N.T specialists for what the Presidency said was a persistent ear infection.

The decision to see specialists in a foreign country did not go down well with some Nigerians, especially the immediate past national president of the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) and Vice President, Commonwealth Medical Association, Osahon Enabulele, who described it as a national shame.

According to Enabulele, there were enough qualified E.N.T specialists in the country that could have attended to Buharis ailment instead of seeking treatment abroad.

But Mr. Falana said there was nothing wrong in the presidents medical trip abroad, stressing that rather than condemnation, he (Buhari) should be commended for being honest and doing the right thing  handing over to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to act in his absence  before traveling on vacation.

The senior lawyer argued that Mr. Buhari is entitled to a month annual leave as president and he has taken the appropriate action by asking for leave and handing over to the vice president as required by law unlike a governor, who abandoned his duty post in solidarity with striking workers without handover (sic) to his deputy, in veiled remark directed at Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State.

Mr. Falana added that if I were the president, I would take a month because he is entitled to one month leave in a year.

Speaking further, the rights activist said it is normal for the president to take leave of absence, recalling that even General (Ibrahim) Babangida, as a young man and military president, went away for over a month. It is not unusual because he is not a stone. You can appreciate President Buhari for being honest about it.

Falana added that anybody can fall sick but the most important thing for somebody like him to do is hand over to his deputy so that the nation or state will not suffer, which he has done. Thats all!
Governors Nasir El-Rufai and Mohammed Abdullahi of Kaduna and Bauchi States respectively, have called for the open trial of culprits in the murder of an Igbo trader at the Kofar Wambai market in Kano, Bridget Agbahime.

Mrs. Agbahime, 74, was killed by an irate mob at the market last week over false allegations that she blasphemed against Prophet Mohammed.

The police confirmed that two suspects were arrested in connection with the heinous crime and would be charged to court soon.

Speaking at a meeting with the leadership of Ohanaeze Ndigbo led by the President-General, Gary Igariwey in Owerri, the Imo State capital on Tuesday, the governors insisted that those behind the crime must be brought to book to serve as deterrent to others.

SEE ALSO: Police Say Trader in Kano Was Not Beheaded

National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, was also at the meeting.

El-Rufai said the Northern state governors condemned the murder, adding that we will not accept a situation where people, Christians or Muslims, hide under religion to commit crime. If someone insults God, he/she should be left for God to judge. I have advised the Kano State Governor to publicly deal with those involved to deter others.

I thank Ohanaeze for choosing the path of peace and unity. People are now using religion as a tool to divide and even defraud people. That necessitated the introduction of a religion bill in Kaduna so that people can be stopped from using divisive languages in the name of religion.

SEE ALSO: President Buhari Condemns killing of Trader In Kano

The Kaduna governor explained that the menace of herdsmen had become a national crisis, adding that they (herdsmen) equally attacked Fulani communities.

It is a problem that is affecting the whole nation. It is not a case of Fulani invading other tribes but a criminal activity that must be nipped in the bud.

In pure Fulani communities, the herdsmen are equally attacking them in numbers, doing all kinds of ugly things like kidnapping, armed robbery, rape and so on, Governor El-Rufai stated.

He commended Okorocha for his vision, achievements and Nigerianess.

In the same vein, Abubakar said: The killing of Mrs. Agbaheme was an evil act. I have liaised with the Kano State Governor and he assured that arrests have been made and culprits will face the full weight of the law.

Chief Oyegun noted that the country has to face its challenges squarely, just as he lauded the leadership of the pan-Igbo organization for their maturity in handling sensitive issues.

In his response, Igariwey said Ohanaeze was satisfied with Kano states handling of the matter, even as he cautioned against inciting statements from leaders.

He also lauded the goodwill demonstrated by governors El-Rufai and Abdullahi.

The host Governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, said the murder of Mrs. Agbahime had nothing to do with tribe or religion, stressing that what is criminal is criminal, and must be treated as specified by law.

With what the governors said, it could now be understood that the Kano incident was not an attack against Ndigbo, but a case of crime. Seventy per cent of Nigerias problems could be adjudged to have arisen from lack of communication. It is also pertinent for us to know that the wonderful bridge that connects the Igbo to the North is not faulty. The bridge is as strong as it has ever been. The Igbos must fortify this bridge for both economic and political reasons, Okorocha stressed.
The Federal Government has commenced the planting of 2,000 cashew seedlings to kick start the 2016 cashew planting season and Cashew Expansion Programme in Ife, Osun State, Nigeria.

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Audu Ogbeh, who flagged off the programme in Ogudu Village in Ile-Ife, Osun State said the government is determined to build the future of Nigeria by reviving cashew farming to make it earn more foreign exchange.

He assured that the government will roll out two million cashew seedlings annually to sustain the programme.

Mr Ogbeh re-affirmed the readiness of the Buhariled administration to improve the lives of Nigerians through agriculture.

He assured that a cocoa and banana plantation programme will also be unveiled very soon.

Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, while speaking blamed the nations ailing economy on the total abandonment of agriculture, stressing that agriculture remains the largest employer of labour in the world.
The Ijaw National Congress, INC, has given the Niger Delta Avengers knocks over the bombing of pipelines and oil installations.

The National President of the Congress, Barrister Boma Obuoforibo, who spoke in Port Harcourt, Rivers State on Tuesday, condemned the resurgence of militancy in the Niger Delta, stressing that destruction of oil installations was counterproductive.

Barr. Obuoforibo, therefore, urged the perpetrators to stop the bombing, appealing to the federal government to restructure the amnesty programme for better impact on the people and the community as to assuage the plight of the region.

He said, The Ijaw Ethnic Nationality pledges its support to the Federal Government of Nigeria led by President Muhammadu Buhari. We are non-partisan and we will support any popularly elected Government. We condemn the present resurgence of bombing of pipelines and oil installations in the Niger Delta as this ultimately is counterproductive to the Niger Delta and the Nigerian nation.
The Kano State Police Command on Tuesday said that suspected kidnappers abducted and slaughtered one 11-year-old boy in Kano.

The Public Relations Officer of the state police command, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Magaji Musa Majia, said on Tuesday that the boy, identified as Musa Salisu, was sent on an errand by his father within the Naibawa quarters of the city at about 2pm on Monday and failed to return home as and when due.

The police spokesman, however, said that two suspects had been arrested in connection with the abduction of Musa, who he said was a Primary six pupil.

Musas uncle, Abubakar Kafinta, told our correspondent that the family became apprehensive when the deceased did not come back home three hours after he was sent on an errand.

He said, It was not immediately clear that the boy was abducted, until three hours later when an unidentified source phoned the family members about the unfortunate development.

He explained that the abductors demanded N500,000.00 ransom, to secure the boys release or else they will take his life.

According to Kafinta, the matter was promptly reported to the police, while concerted efforts were been made to meet their demand.

Kafinta, who was in tears added, We contacted them (the abductors) through the same line they used to call us this morning (Tuesday) for a deal only to learn that the boy has been slaughtered.

The abductors further gave us a detailed description of where they deposited his corpse at a spot on Eastern Bypass, Kano.

Kafinta added that the boy had been buried according to Islamic rites.

Source: Punch
A fresh round of crisis in brewing in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, following the formal handover of the party to the Ahmed Makarfi-led caretaker committee on Tuesday in Abuja.

The embattled national chairman of the party, Ali Modu Sheriff, who Makarfi replaced as interim national chairman, described the handover as a charade.

Our correspondent reports that the handover notes were delivered by Prince Uche Secondus, who was Sheriffs deputy.

Makarfis assumption of office at the national secretariat of the PDP yesterday followed his endorsement by the partys Board of Trustees (BoT), Governors Forum, National Caucus and some members of Sheriffs dissolved National Working Committee (NWC) at a late night meeting on Monday at the Ondo State Governors Lodge in Abuja.

Reacting to the development, the former PDP chairman said the caretaker committee was illegal, null and void.

Sheriff, in a statement issued yesterday by his Special Adviser on Media, Inuwa Bwala, said he did not authorise Secondus to handover to Makarfi.

He, therefore, called on loyal party members and the general public to disregard the so-called handover of the PDP to some people.

The statement noted that the matter was still in court and that Sheriff remained the national chairman.

The statement reads in full: Our attention has been drawn to the activities at the National secretariat of the PDP to the effect that some individuals masquerading as leaders have handed over to Ahmed Mohammed Makarki under a contraption called caretaker committee.

We state as a matter of fact that going by proceedings still pending in the courts to the effect that Senator Ali Sheriff remains the National Chairman, whatever transpired was null, void and of no effect whatsoever.

Sheriff has not mandated anybody, nor was his authority obtained by Uche Secondus, who has been parading himself as acting on behalf of the National Chairman.

While we await the verdicts of the courts, we wish to state that Senator Ali Modu Sheriff is and remains the National Chairman of the party, until otherwise declared by the courts.

We allowed the charade to go on at the secretariat without any form of challenge in strict obedience to careful pronouncement on the matter, but we must also state that there is no gathering of groups or individuals, however powerful, such groups or individuals may be, that can be said to take precedence over the law.

For the avoidance of doubts, we state categorically that what took place at the PDP secretariat on Tuesday June 7, 2016 was a total disregard to court orders. And an extension of the impunity for which the party has been accused of and which has taken the party to where it is today.

The public should disregard all the actions and pronouncements, Mr. Bwala said.

Speaking in the same vein, the erstwhile National Secretary of the party, Prof Wale Oladipo, said the caretaker committee remained illegal and lacked powers to run the affairs of the party.

In a statement he issued in Lagos, yesterday, Oladipo described the caretaker committee as a group of lawbreakers.

It was very wrong for the committee to take over PDPs headquarters (also known as Wadata House). Sheriff is out of the country and will be back tomorrow (today). The law breakers are in Wadata deceiving themselves. The law will take its course in the next one week, he assured.
Nigerians have been advised to stop worrying themselves over the current socio-economic and security challenges confronting the country.

The General Superintendent of the Deeper Life Bible Church, Pastor Williams Kumuyi, gave the advice yesterday in Warri, Delta State ahead of his one-day bible study programme in the city.

According to the popular cleric, who celebrated his 75 birthday on Monday, Nigeria would soon overcome and become better.

Pastor Kumuyi, however, called for dialogue between the federal government and Niger Delta stakeholders with a view to ending the renewed militancy in the region.

He also said all hands must be on the deck to work for Nigerias progress and fight against its division.

He said: We should not worry ourselves too much on the issue. We should rather think of how we can move the country forward because too much talk about restructuring does not mean Nigeria will break up.

The solution is that we should begin to dialogue. Stakeholders should reason together and see the way forward, instead of accusing one another. What we are interested in is how to solve the problem. What are the expectations of both sides so that we can move forward?

Kumuyi noted that comments by Nigerians on the economic situation were normal, adding that they were indications that the country deserved better than the realities on the ground.

The reason people are commenting is because Nigeria deserves to be better. The economy has been low, but we are getting out of it. With prayers, I know we will get better, he said.
The Nigerian Security Civil Defence Corps has warned Muslims in Borno to be vigilant and wary of beggars around Mosques during the fasting month of Ramadan to prevent attacks from Boko Haram members.

This was made known by Borno states NSCDC Commandant, Ibrahim Abdullahi, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Maiduguri.

Abdullahi stated that people in tattered clothes, trying to beg in Mosques should be properly scrutinized because Boko Haram members have been trying to use every type of ploy to penetrate gatherings to perpetrate havoc. Any Mosque you go, there are always regular destitute who normally come around and beg; we are not referring to those ones but any new face seen around should be sent away immediately. Security is collective responsibility of all; the public must assist the security agencies to fish out evil perpetrators in the society.

He however noted that, the corps has drafted its men to provide maximum vigilance and step-up watch in every Mosque during Ramadan and beyond.

The corps has also drafted its men to preaching centres in Sokoto state
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday conducted special prayers for the good health of President Muhammadu Buhari, pleading with God to grant him speedy recovery.

The president had on Monday travelled abroad for a 10-day rest during which he will seek medical attention for a recurring ear-infection.

Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, who offered the prayers for President Buhari at a ceremony for the official takeover of the running of the party by the National Caretaker Committee appointed at the May 21, 2016 national convention in Port Harcourt.

Let me quickly remind all of us that our president is at present not feeling well and has been flown abroad for treatment. So, I will like to invite you to rise, let us say one minute of prayer for his quick recovery.

Speaking to party members, Ekweremadu said: Our dear party men and women, this is a new day and a great day for our party. What we are witnessing today is a PDP with a new spirit: spirit of togetherness, love. We are going to give this new spirit a new body.

We must apologise for certain institutions and aspects of our national life. We are worried and sorry about the dwindling fortunes of our currency. But we want to assure our currency that by 2019, you will be strong again. Our economy, by the time we left in 2015 was the strongest in Africa. Today we sympathise with that economy. But we want to assure our economy that you will be strong again not only in Africa but in the whole world.
Three security operatives were injured yesterday when suspected Boko Haram insurgents attacked Kanamma, the local government headquarters of Yunusari in Yobe State.

The insurgents reportedly stormed the local government headquarters on four motorcycles, each carrying three armed men.

They shot sporadically and everyone scampered for safety, said a resident, who fled to neighbouring Niger Republic.

They burgled soft drinks shops and loaded them onto two vehicles they seized from security operatives and fled, he added.

Confirming the attack, the Yobe Police Command spokesperson, Toyin Gbadegesin, said three security men were injured during the encounter while two were still missing.

No human casualty was recorded. But three security men were injured while two others got missing. Its difficult to ascertain the security personnel involved because theres no mobile network in the area, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Gbadegesin said.
When someone uncovers a vulnerability in an organization's network, the ethical action is to notify them of the problem and provide the necessary information to help them address the issues. The wrong thing to do is demand some kind of a payment before disclosing any details.

Yet IBM X-Force researchers have investigated more than 30 incidents over the past year where attackers did exactly that. These intruders broke into enterprise networks, stole files or collected information, then sent a message to the victim organization offering to reveal the website vulnerabilities they exploited for a set fee. It's not a nominal amount, either, as the attackers have demanded payments in excess of $30,000.

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"This is all being done under the disguise of pretending to be a good guy when, in reality, it is pure extortion on the black hat scale," wrote John Kuhn, a senior threat researcher at IBM Security.

Bug poaching, as it's called by IBM X-Force, is a type of ransomware attack, but instead of malware holding the data hostage, the attackers want a payout before they do anything damaging. The difference is the veneer of respectability these attackers are hiding under.

The email message sent to the organization contains proof of the intrusion, typically a link to some other site hosting the stolen files, but doesn't explicitly threaten to sell the data or attack the organization again. The "or else" scenario where the attackers may do something malicious if the payment doesn't come through is implied.

The attackers may even claim to be one of the good guys, making statements such as, "Please rest assured that the data is safe with me. It was extracted for proof only. Honestly, I do this job for a living, not for fun."

Not a public service

A typical bug-poaching incident begins simply enough, with an attacker finding and exploiting vulnerabilities on the organization's website. SQL injection was the most prevalent method, though attackers may also be using off-the-shelf penetration testing tools. Once in, the attacker grabs sensitive data from the network and stores the information on a remote server. The email message -- an extortion demand at this point -- demands a payment if the organization wants to know how the attacker got in and stole the data.

Since the attacker didn't try to sell the data or damage any systems during the intrusion, he can pretend to be a white hat trying to do the organization a favor. However, stealing, even with supposedly good intentions, is black hat behavior.

"Regardless of their rationale, this is data theft and extortion," Kuhn said.

Muddying bug bounty efforts

These poachers are also not doing white hat researchers any favors, as reporting vulnerabilities is already difficult. There have been many reports of researchers threatened with legal action after they disclosed software vulnerabilities and website flaws to the affected organization. The FBI recently raided the home of a security researcher who notified a dental-industry software company that private patient data was stored on a publicly accessible server. There is enough distrust between white hats and enterprises that there is no need to complicate the relationship further.

The attempt to wrangle payment for vulnerabilities also harms the security industry's recent efforts to get enterprises to establish bug bounty programs. A formal bug bounty program invites researchers to look for vulnerabilities -- within specified parameters -- and offers rewards for finding them.

While ride-sharing company Uber and automaker Tesla recently set up bug bounty programs, many organizations still resist, fearing that these programs could be abused by extortionists.

Consider the recent debacle when a security researcher publicly posted information about vulnerabilities in FireEye's security appliances because the company wouldn't pay him for reporting the flaws. FireEye doesn't have a bug bounty program, and the researcher wanted compensation for his work. The standoff benefited no one and instead widened the gulf of mistrust between enterprises and security researchers.

Can't trust thieves

Despite the poachers' claims that they aren't being malicious, the victim organization has to proceed the same as any other network intrusion and data breach. The victim can't count on attacker to protect the stolen data, and someone else could potentially find it. There is no guarantee that attackers won't just dump the data or sell it, even if the organization made the payment.

"To put it mildly, trusting unknown parties to secure sensitive corporate data -- particularly those who breached an organization's security measures without permission -- is not a security best practice," Kuhn wrote.

Victims of bug poaching attacks should gather all the information they have, including the email demands and logs from affected servers, and hand them over to law enforcement. Complying with the payment demand is problematic because it rewards criminal behavior. There's the possibility the attacker will not disclose all the issues and hold back a flaw or two for future attempts. Paying also sets a precedent, as other adversaries can follow suit with their own extortion demands.

IBM X-Force warned that while bug poaching may seem less threatening, they pose a serious threat to organizations. It's easy to see a time where the bug poachers can escalate their operations to something on the scale of the Poseidon Group, the audacious Brazilian criminal outfit unmasked by Kaspersky Lab earlier this year. The Poseidon Group used malware to infiltrate enterprise networks and steal information, then posed as security consultants the organization could hire to fix the issues in the networks.

Incident response and forensics are key

Instead of paying extortion demands, organizations should rely on their own forensics investigation to uncover the attack and identify the vulnerability. Incident response teams should respond to a poaching attacks similar to how they would a suspected data breach. Having detailed logs on web servers and other parts of the network would help with the investigation.

Utilizing a defense-in-depth strategy would help protect enterprises from bug poaching. Run vulnerability scans on public websites, as well as internal and external systems, on a regular basis. There should be no reason to have SQL injection flaws in websites in 2016. Test and audit all Web application code before production. Finding and fixing SQL injection flaws alone slash the number of website attacks drastically. Penetration testing can help uncover Web application vulnerabilities, and having SIEM technology and other network monitoring tools would reduce the amount of time needed for a forensics investigation.

None of the cases investigated by IBM used significant zero-day vulnerabilities, but rather used easily preventable methods.

"While bug poaching demands may not feel as severe as sophisticated attacks that expose your data to carding forums or pasting sites, you should treat them equally as seriously," Kuhn wrote. Make no mistake, what these actors are doing does not fall under public service. They aren't the good guys.
The Apache Software Foundation recently released its 28-page annual report for its 2015-2016 year, but here's the TL;DR in one word: amazing.

What started as a simple HTTP server supported by a handful of developers in 1995 has become an army of 3,425 ASF committers and 5,922 Apache code contributors building 291 top-level projects.

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Of course, during this same time, open source in general has grown exponentially. But the ASF has seen particularly impressive growth as it propels big data forward with dozens of popular projects, along with dev tools and more general fare. The reason, as board member Jim Jagielski explained in an interview, is the ASF's emphasis on neutral, community-focused development.

Not bad for an organization that costs less than $1 million to run each year -- especially compared to other open source foundations that put the needs of corporate interests above those of the developer community.

First, the data

By any metric, the ASF's growth in 2015 is impressive:

20 new Apache Top-Level Projects (TLPs)

A record 55 podlings under development in the Apache Incubator, plus 39 initiatives in the Apache Labs

743 repositories managed

33 percent increase in signed Individual Contributor License Agreements (CLAs)

3,425 ASF Committers and 5,922 Apache code contributors (a 21 percent year-over-year increase) added nearly 20 million lines of code, with an average 18,000 code commits per month

315,533,038 lines of code changed (65 percent year-over-year increase)

Apache services ran 24/7/365 at near 100 percent uptime on an annual budget of less than $5,000 per project

Viewed in terms of code, it looks like this:

This is even more impressive when you consider how little money the ASF needs to operate. In its most recent fiscal year, the ASF required $874,000 to run, with much of its budget paid for by sponsors. The ASF has seven Platinum sponsors (Cloudera, Facebook, Google, LeaseWeb, Microsoft, Pivotal, and Yahoo) and eight Gold sponsors (ARM, Bloomberg, Comcast, Hewlett-Packard, Hortonworks, IBM, ODPi, and PhoenixNAP), not to mention a host of smaller ones.

But unlike other open source organizations, the strength of the ASF is its independence from corporate interests, as Jagielski told me in an interview. This independence has created a safe haven for a burgeoning open source developer population:

The Switzerland of open source

When I asked Jagielski to identify the primary reasons for the ASF's growth, he made it clear that neutrality matters:

The ASF's growth emphasizes the need, and the acknowledgement of the need, for a neutral, community-focused environment where everyone can work on, and contribute to, a project, without a pay-to-play governance model. In an ecosystem where companies are jockeying for positions of control over open source projects, the ASF provides a safe space where it is the community itself which has, and always will have, control over its own destiny.

Of course, some ASF projects are dominated by a single commercial entity. For example, though Cassandra was initially developed by Facebook, DataStax now accounts for nearly all of its ongoing development.

When I asked Jagielski about this phenomenon, he stressed that even though some projects have a large, singular corporate association,' the ASF in general and the PMC [project management committee] take extreme care in ensuring that the influence and control rests on the shoulders of the individuals within the community, and not on the wants or needs of any companies.

His comments are backed up by the ASF's governing principles:

A PMC's actions within their Apache project community and management of their project must be in the interest of that consensus and consistent with the ASF's mission of producing software for the public good.

There are also certain expectations of diversity within a PMC; the board may apply extra scrutiny to PMCs with low diversity (that is, PMCs that are dominated by individuals with a common employer). Similarly, the ASF does not allow corporations to participate directly in Apache project management or other governance activities at the ASF, only individuals.

This requirement that "Apache projects ... govern themselves independently of undue commercial influence" may not always live up to its ideal, but it's telling that the ideal exists. In my experience ASF projects tend to live up to it, particularly as the projects attain a higher profile. Hadoop, for example, has broad participation that prevents any particular company from controlling its destiny (despite a years-long PR war over who contributed most).

This same ideal isn't necessarily followed by all open source foundations, a fact called out by Simon Phipps. Far too many foundations are simply facades for corporations that want incoming code but don't want to share that code freely.

This isn't surprising. After all, open source has become big business. As Jake Flomenberg, an Accel partner styles it, "There is a massive shift going on in the ways technology is bought. Open source has gone from the exception to the rule." Fortunately, that "rule" keeps getting support from the ASF, an organization that shepherds more and more of the industry's most critical projects.
Google's monthly security update for Android this month was heavy on vulnerabilities in third-party components. The diversity of Android devices means Google has to stay on top of vulnerabilities in various chip-set and other hardware drivers.

Unlike Apple, Google doesn't control all the elements in the Android ecosystem, so keeping Android secure becomes a supply chain problem. Google has to depend on chip-set partners to improve their testing process before contributing code to Android and to promptly submit patches to fix vulnerabilities.

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Of course, Google can keep releasing security updates, but so long as carriers and manufacturers control the update process for the vast majority of devices, very few users reap the security benefits.

Of the 40 vulnerabilities fixed in June's Android Security Bulletin, half were in third-party code, across multiple Qualcomm components, the Broadcom Wi-Fi driver, the Nvidia Camera driver, and the MediaTek power management driver. Critical and high-severity vulnerabilities were fixed in Qualcomm drivers for video, sound, GPU, Wi-Fi, and camera, affecting Nexus 5, Nexus 5X, Nexus 6 and Nexus 6P, and Nexus 7 devices. The Broadcom fix impacts Nexus 5, Nexus 6 and Nexus 6P, Nexus 7, Nexus 9, Nexus Player, and Pixel C devices. The escalation-of-privilege flaw in the Nvidia Camera driver exists in Nexus 9 and the MediaTek bug is found only in Android One.

For the past few months, Google has been quietly patching flaws in third-party drivers from Qualcomm, Nvidia, MediaTek, Broadcom, and Texas Instruments. Since January, Google has addressed 22 vulnerabilities in Qualcomm drivers alone. For the most part, they were critical or high-severity elevation of privilege flaws, although there were a handful of information disclosure bugs of moderate severity. The escalation-of-privileges flaws in Qualcomm that were fixed in this month's release could allow malicious applications to execute code and brick the targeted device, or give those applications local access to elevated capabilities they shouldn't have.

Recently, researchers from Duo Labs disclosed details of a flaw in Qualcomm's Secure Execution Environment related to the Android Mediaserver component. The bug, which was patched in January's monthly update, affected all versions of Android including the latest Marshmallow. Affected hardware included Qualcomm Snapdragon series chip sets found in Samsung's Galaxy S5 and S6, Motorola's Droid Turbo, and Google's Nexus phones. Duo Labs estimated that about 60 percent of Android devices are vulnerable, but it's difficult to tell how many devices have received the update.

The 27 percent of Android devices considered too old to receive any monthly updates would be permanently vulnerable, Duo said.

FireEye disclosed another Qualcomm flaw last month, which was brought into Android in 2011 when Qualcomm contributed an API for the network_manager system service to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). While a patch is available, it's another fix that non-Nexus owners have yet to see land on their devices.

The Android security model can't keep going like this for much longer. The Stagefright flaw disclosed nearly a year ago was extremely serious, as it could be used to attack anyone remotely simply by knowing the phone number. That was supposed to be a wakeup call, with manufacturers pledging to provide regular updates. That hasn't worked out well the past year. It's luck so far that there hasn't been any real attacks targeting Stagefright yet.

So far, the third-party issues require a malicious app to trigger the vulnerabilities, but considering 1 in 200 phones have a potentially harmful application, that scenario is not so far-fetched. It's looking more and more likely that the update situation on Android devices will not improve until there is an actual widespread attack against the hordes of unpatched users.
Western states propose deal over beleaguered Rio Grande AP - Tue Oct 25, 10:07PM CDT New Mexico's attorney general says the state has reached a proposed settlement with Texas and Colorado in a yearslong battle over management of one of the longest rivers in North America $SPX : 3,859.11 (+1.63%) $DOWI : 31,836.74 (+1.07%) $IUXX : 11,669.99 (+2.10%)

Cattle Fade on Tuesday Barchart - Tue Oct 25, 4:42PM CDT Live cattle futures stalled the rally on Tuesday with the front months having pulled back 17 to 82 cents. October, which expires next Monday, saw a 7 cent gain to $151.67. The weekly FCE auction saw no... LEV22 : 151.675s (+0.05%) LEZ22 : 153.300s (-0.54%) LEG23 : 156.700s (-0.18%) GFV22 : 176.600s (+0.53%) GFX22 : 177.925s (-0.68%)

Hogs Firm Up for Close Barchart - Tue Oct 25, 4:42PM CDT Lean hog futures bounced back in the afternoon to close the day +$1 off the lows and 5 to 52 cents in the black. The Feb contract remains a $2.25 premium to spot December. The USDA National Average Base... HEZ22 : 88.450s (+0.60%) HEJ23 : 93.950s (+0.05%) KMZ22 : 97.525s (-0.23%)

Cotton Futures Bounce Back Barchart - Tue Oct 25, 4:42PM CDT Turnaround Tuesday action pushed cotton futures back up by 78 to 234 points. December printed a wide 304 point range on the day, from -8 points to +296. The Cotlook A index was 175 points stronger on... CTZ22 : 78.45 (-0.03%) CTH23 : 78.22 (+0.36%) CTK23 : 77.27 (+0.14%)
We've written a lot lately about Goldman Sachs alumni who've turned to philanthropy. There are a bunch of them, and among the "Goldman givers" who really stands out is Robert Kaplan.

Once vice chairman of the fabled (and controversial) Wall Street firm, Kaplan returned to Harvard Business School, his alma mater, last decade and became senior associate dean and professor of management practice. At Harvard, Kaplan was involved in mentoring student ventures like Prize4Life, whose mission is to accelerate discovery of a cure and treatments for ALS.

Related: Goldman Givers: Seven Things To Know About Donors from Goldman Sachs

In 2015, Robert Kaplan left Harvard to take on yet another role in his post-Goldman Sachs career: president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. Still, he's remained focused on fostering young leaders. Kaplan is the author of two books on leadership: What to Ask the Person in the Mirror: Critical Questions for Becoming a More Effective Leader and Reaching Your Potential, and What Youre Really Meant to Do: A Road Map for Reaching Your Unique Potential.

More importantly, for our purposes here, Kaplan is co-chair of Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation (DRK), an outfit founded by venture capitalists William Draper III and Robin Richards Donohoe in 2002. In 2010, the pair partnered with Kaplan and a group of 14 others to scale up operations. DRK chooses a few select high-impact startup nonprofits each year, giving them funds to develop a model and show their promise.

We've written about DRK before, explaining its early-state focus:

By getting involved early, its possible to have a large influence on the direction a new nonprofit is taking, and this is when DRKs assistance can have the most impact... Funding from DRK is what might be called smart money in the startup world. The support the foundation offers is very hands-on and useful. In fact, DRK expressly eschews a model of funding that involves providing money and checking in periodically.

Not only does DRK provide funds, but Kaplan and others provide mentorship, even taking a board seat for three years. One DRK startup is Watsi, "the first global crowdfunding platform for healthcare, enabling anyone to directly fund low-cost, high-impact medical care for people in need."

Related: This Venture Funder Likes to Get In Early

Kaplan explains that, at its best, DRK is actually a "leadership development learning organization." This might explain how Kaplan waded into venture philanthropy in the first place, a purview often more associated with those in the tech sector, and came to see his work with DRK as an extension of some of the work he did at Harvard.

Kaplan moves his own philanthropy through the Robert S. Kaplan Foundation, an under-the-radar vehicle. Recent 990s, though, show steady support of DRK, with Kaplan giving $3.5 million to the outfit in the three most recent fiscal years reported. Through his foundation, Kaplan has also given recent grants to Social Finance, "a nonprofit dedicated to mobilizing capital to drive social progress," and Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC), which encourages "inner-city revitalization." He's also supported outfits that work on a global level, including Clinton Health Access Initiative, which tackles HIV/AIDS in the developing world, and The Global Fairness Initiative, which "promotes a more equitable, sustainable approach to economic development for the worlds working poor by advancing fair wages, equal access to markets, and balanced public policy to generate opportunity and end the cycle of poverty."

Kaplan also serves as chair of Project ALS, and was friends with theater producer and Project ALS founder Jenifer Estess, who passed away from the disease. Kaplan has steadily supported the outfit. Tax records also reveal past support of Prize4Life, the outfit Kaplan mentored at Harvard.

Kaplan is only in his late 50s, and still very much engaged in business but in a recent year his foundation gave away around $2.4 million. His philanthropy, particularly his work with DRK, should be watched carefully. For a complete look at this funder's philanthropy, read our profile of Robert Kaplan below.

Related:
Even before her primary victories yesterday, Hillary Clinton had locked up the Democratic nomination for president. Historic? You bet. For the first time ever, a woman will be a major partys nominee for President of the United States. But the nomination of Clinton may also be a historic event for philanthropy.

As we've noted before, if Clinton wins the White House, she'll enter office with more understanding of philanthropy and nonprofits than any president in history. But of equal or greater significance may be the new attention her presidency could bring to gender equity within philanthropy, making it a priority like never before.

Related: What Might a Clinton Presidency Mean for Philanthropy and Nonprofits?

Clinton has been attuned to nonprofit work on gender and family issues for some 45 years. Marian Wright Edelman, the founder of the Children's Defense Fund, was an early mentor. Clinton served as board chair of that organization for six years, from 1986 to 1992, giving her a first-hand understanding of nonprofit management and fundraising. From 1987 to 1991, she was the first chair of the American Bar Association's Commission on Women in the Profession, which was created to combat gender bias in the legal profession.

As First Lady, Clinton attended the historic U.N. Women's Conference in 1995 in Beijing, where she articulated the importance of gender equity in terms that are familiar now, but were cutting-edge then. The most famous phrase from that speech was womens rights are human rights," but Clinton also said:

What we are learning around the world is that if women are healthy and educated, their families will flourish. If women are free from violence, their families will flourish. If women have a chance to work and earn as full and equal partners in society, their families will flourish. And when families flourish, communities and nations do as well.

Later, as Secretary of State, Clinton appointed the first-ever ambassador at large for global womens issues at the State Department; helped create the U.S. National Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security; and re-oriented U.S. global health policy to embrace a focus on gender equity, giving new attention to robust maternal and infant health services.

More recently, the Clinton Foundation has cultivated the terrain of womens empowerment. It kicked things up a notch in 2013 when it announced its No Ceilings Initiative, and produced one of the most comprehensive data reviews of the status of women in the world. Among other things, the Clinton Foundation grasps the significance of womens empowerment in addressing climate change.

Related:

Its networking prowess, while criticized for going beyond the bounds of ethics at times, has also facilitated communication and collaboration among a range of power players on women's equity. Among them are not only top foundations like Gates and Rockefeller, but corporations like Goldman Sachs, Google, and Wal-Mart, all of which are corporate supporters of womens empowerment. The foundation also works on LGBT rights, bringing together corporations like MasterCard and Barclays Bank to collaborate on extending equity with other diversity and inclusion movements.

Related:Also on the Clinton Foundation's Agenda: Getting Business Behind LGBT Equality

The Obama administration has broken new ground in creating major collaborations between government, philanthropy and business, most notably with My Brother's Keeper. Clinton is well positioned to expand on this record, given her own background in orchestrating cross-sector initiatives.

There is no shortage of possibilities for new public-private efforts related to gender equity. Gender lens impact investing, financial inclusion for women, STEM education for girlsall could attract White House attention under a Clinton presidency.

So whats not to like? There is little question about whether the public wants more transparency about philanthropy, and the Clinton Foundation would be the obvious place to start. As we pointed out in an earlier post, "The biggest problem is that these partnerships offer an avenue for private donors to curry favor with public officials, with money flowing in non-transparent ways with motives that are hard to pinpoint."

The last thing we want to see is that kind of opacity in the White House.

But our hunch has been that, as president, Clinton could favor overdue reforms to philanthropy and the nonprofit sector, starting with more transparency in philanthropic giving. After all, she now knows all too well the pitfalls of shrouding philanthropy in secrecy.

As we've said before, if Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation learn anything from weathering all the questions raised by the press recently, it should be "that the philanthropic sector needs to embrace more sunshine at a moment when all elites are distrusted."
My Self Storage, a new facility that recently opened in Gonzalez, La., celebrated its grand opening by hosting a ribbon-cutting ceremony on May 25. Facility owners Al and Joel Robert and manager Fay Smithhart were joined at the event by family and friends. City officials and chamber ambassadors also attended, including mayor Barney Arceneaux, council member Neil Bourque, council member David Guitreau, ascension chamber of commerce CEO and president Sherrie Despino, and ascension parish assessor Mert Smiley.

The facility at 1603 N. Airline Highway is on the corner of Burnside Avenue. It comprises 63,000 square feet of storage space in more than 400 climate-controlled units. The business is open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Property amenities include an 18-wheeler loading dock, keypad entry and video cameras. The site also offers online billpay, moving and packing supplies, and free use of the facility moving truck for new rentals.
Jim York, owner of Dillingham Blvd. Self Storage in Honolulu, is among a group of entrepreneurs whose businesses could be negatively impacted by a rail project planned by the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation (HART). Although construction along Dillingham Boulevard wont begin until next year at the earliest, business owners are bracing for the worst based on previous construction phases along the rail route. Some struggling business owners along the route have blamed construction for lost foot traffic and revenue, according to the source.

York is among a group of business owners working to facilitate communication with HART so local business operators are informed about progress and potential impacts, the source reported. Yorks self-storage facility will host a June 14 meeting arranged by HART to discuss the project with business owners and hear their concerns. About 350 local businesses have been invited.

York told the source its important for business operators to understand the full extent of what the rail project entails, including the necessity to rework utility lines. They have to move, for instance, the waterline to be able to do the electrical, he told the source.

Among the discussion topics is the possibility of closing portions of Dillingham Boulevard at night to lessen the impact of construction on traffic during the day. HART officials believe such a move would cut construction time by 20 percent, the source reported.

Among the concerned business owners is Joey Suehisa, who co-owns Violets Grill. A previous Dillingham closure for renovation cost the 60-year-old restaurant more than 50 percent of its business, he told the source.

Flamingo Restaurant in the Pearl City area of Honolulu is among the local businesses that have closed as a result of the rail project, the source reported.

Dillingham Blvd. Self Storage is about 10 minutes from downtown and across from Honolulu Community College. The facility at 935 Dillingham Blvd. features a business center, a covered area for loading and unloading, individual door alarms, keypad entry, and video cameras. Services include 24-hour access, kayak storage, moving-truck rentals, and the sale of moving and packing supplies.
Morgan Stanley repeats in second place; UBS leaps into the top three.

No sales force provides better service to asset managers that invest in emerging Europe, the Middle East and Africa than Bank of America Merrill Lynch, which extends its winning streak on Institutional Investors Emerging EMEA Sales Team to a fourth year.

Why BofA Merrill? Thats a relatively easy question to answer, quips one buy-side backer. It is the combination of very good research  both at the top-down, macro level and the bottom-up, company or sector level  as well as the daily inputs about particular news or reports or even trading.

This portfolio manager praises Sam Calder for his responsiveness whenever I ask some hard questions  or even some easy ones.

Unless instructed otherwise, we keep confidential the identities of survey participants and their firms to ensure their continuing cooperation.

We particularly like Sean Johnstone, who heads [technology, media and telecommunications] specialist sales, affirms another satisfied client. Sean is very driven, knows the companies well and has great insight into his clients thinking and positioning. Unlike other salespeople, he can depart from only reciting the analyst view to give a rounded view that encompasses positioning, sentiment, fundamentals and so on, and deliver tradable action.

Morgan Stanley lands in second place for a second straight year. The sales team at Morgan Stanley always provides a consistently high level of service and takes care to make sure that they leverage the work of their first-class research team, reports Matthew Hickman, a senior analyst on the emerging-markets team at American Century Investments.

I particularly appreciate Morgan Stanleys South Africa team and the daily report that they send out, attests another investor. It provides a focused overview of the main events and developments in South Africa and neighboring countries and at companies operating there. I find it very thoughtful and interesting.

Tatiana Volochkovich, who advises on Russian stocks, was named TIM Groups top equity research salesperson for Europe in 2015  her trade recommendations beat the local market by 8.36 percentage points, on average. With a track record like that, its not surprising that multiple clients step up to sing her praises.

Tatiana Volochkovich possesses a rare skill for a salesperson. Being a former research analyst, she can put together smart thematic summaries on various market-relevant subjects, observes one ally. Morgan Stanley does not offer big investor conferences but instead provides thematic field trips  macro, TMT or retailing and e-commerce  where they show us their great access to public as well as private corporate clients.

I really appreciate Morgan Stanleys sales team, especially Tatiana Volochkovichs, says another. First, they cover daily events in brief, adding sales and trading teams flavor to dry research notes. Second, they help with additional support such as dividend tracking and the sales teams top picks, which can differ from the research teams. Third, they arrange meetings with companies and analysts, which I find very helpful in my investment process.

Adds a third fan: Morgan Stanley sales supports us very well. Tatiana Volochkovich has her own reasonable views and promotes good ideas on the Russian equity market overall.

Other survey respondents also single out specific individuals for special commendation. Among the comments we hear:

 Ian Doyle stands head and shoulders above his peers for his ability to distill vast amounts of research reports into what is most relevant to our portfolios in a timely manner.

 David Sohnen is helpful in an undercovered area. He brings his own buy-side experience to bear when fleshing out long and short ideas.

UBS leaps two places from No. 5 to finish in the top three for the first time since this ranking was introduced, in 2012.

Leonid Kouperschmidt does a great job of keeping us aware of company meetings and conferences that are relevant to us, notes one loyalist. We particularly like UBSs annual Russia Corporate Day in Boston and their South Africa [event] in New York.

Elliot Blake is fantastic  super responsive and helpful, cheers another. Plus, their research is well written.

II asks participants in the broader Emerging EMEA Research Team survey to tell us which firms provide the best sales support to asset managers that invest in the region. This year we received responses from more than 500 buy-side analysts and money managers at some 320 institutions that manage an estimated $300 billion in emerging EMEA equities. Roughly 79 percent of the people who cast votes in the research team survey, representing 86 percent of the participating buy-side institutions, answered our question about the best sales teams.

For information about how we compiled this ranking, click on Methodology.
In the wake of the release of the so-called Panama Papers, businesses have dreaded suffering from such data breaches that expose their most confidential information. Cyber security insurance, however, offers a way for companies to offset the financial losses following such a disastrous data leak.The Panama Papers were compiled from data stolen from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca. It was suspected that the data breach was made possible due to a failure of the firm to update its outdated software on the web server.Certain individuals and companies from across the globe were identified by the Papers for their creation of offshore accounts that allow for tax evasion shenanigans. In Canada, the Canada Revenue Agency recently sought a court order to secure information from the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) on a select number of its clients who have connections to the controversial law firm in Panama. Notably, the RBC and/or its affiliates have registered 429 offshore companies through Mossack Fonseca.Data breaches like Mossack Fonsecas Panama Papers leak can be very costly to businessor could even outright force them into bankruptcy. The costs to plug any weaknesses in a data system can be significant, depending on how severe the leak was. Businesses may also have to spend to repair their damaged reputations, and respond to lawsuits from clients or consumers who have been affected by the breach. Data leaks can also lead to loss of business, costing companies their profits.Cyber insurance is one method to cover for such losses. According to an article on Mondaq, cyber insurance should cover for investigation and remediation of the breach, business interruption, notification expenses, public relations and network security.The same article advises that while cyber insurance can cover for some of the financial risks associated with data breaches, a business will be well served by a strong information security and risk management policy. A proper data breach response plan is also highly recommended, in order to mitigate the damage caused by the leak.The article reminds that for those businesses that suffered a leak that creates a "real risk of significant harm," they should notify the Privacy Commissioner of Canada of the breach.
As changing weather patterns continue to cause catastrophic events such as flooding, it should come as no surprise that the climate change narrative is widely accepted among insurers.Insurers are among the front line, and the industry has said that people who debate the effect of climate change, well, there seem to be very few of those people in the industry, says Leonard Sharman, senior communications consultant at The Cooperators.For decades, it has been on insurers radar screens, and the industry has taken action to address it in a lot of ways, and its a complex and monumental challenge.However, despite the widespread acknowledgement among the industry, insurers often face road blocks at the municipal level says Sharman, as cities and towns are retroactively coping with decades-old planning decisions.It hits our bottom line and we take it seriously, he says. That might be a little different than with municipalities with land use planning, drainage planning. Theyre doing it differently than they were 20, 30 years ago, for sure  but they cant go back in time. The consequences of past decisions are what we need to live with.You can change an insurance policy, but you cant undo land use from decades ago.He adds that disaster related payments have doubled every five to 10 years over the past two decades with no slowdown in sight  a reality insurers are working to connect with government on. However, Sharman adds that the current process of reacting with financial aid to disasters wont be enough to mitigate true damage.Disaster assistance is sort of back-loaded. It provides compensation after an event like Fort McMurray or the Alberta flooding, he says.The insurance industry would generally like to see more investment in the front end.
The decades-long debate over public versus private-sector underwriting of statutory insurance schemes may have reached a tipping point.The South Australian Compulsory Third Party (CTP) scheme will move from a government monopoly to competitive underwriting on 1 July 2016.This is the first time such a transition has happened in Australia for over 25 years. The logic, benefits and speed and ease of that transition clearly demonstrates it should not be the last.The benefits of introducing competitive underwriting for non-catastrophic injuries are substantial and widespread.Competition means customers are able to choose their insurer. If their experience with an insurer is poor, they are able to respond by taking their business elsewhere.Insurers will work hard to attract and retain customers, and make every effort to protect their reputation with the community.These competitive-market dynamics translate into lower prices, better products and improved customer service.This has been demonstrated by the introduction of competition in the ACTs CTP market.When Suncorp entered in 2014, ACT motorists had never experienced a CTP price cut. Now they have had several.Suncorps GIO brand has reduced the price for private passenger vehicles three times in the ACT, for a combined total premium cut of $40.30.Importantly, the improved customer service that a competitive market brings extends to claims management.This means injured people can experience a faster rehabilitation, which helps them, their family and their employer.The productivity improvements of a faster return-to-work following an accident extend beyond the individual and accumulate to have a positive effect on the economy as a whole.In 2014, Suncorp commissioned PwC to model the macro-economic impact of transitioning publicly-underwritten statutory schemes to competitive underwriting, and the results where remarkable.PwC found that, principally due to more efficient use of capital and faster return-to-work rates, such a transition would signicantly increase Gross State Product (GSP), productivity, employment and government revenue.Over a 10-year period, transitioning the South Australian CTP has the potential to increase GSP by $308m and government revenue by $67m.If the New South Wales Workers Compensation scheme were to transition to competitive underwriting, PwC calculates the potential GSP uplift to be $3,067m and the increased tax revenue to be $615m over 10 years.State governments that act as statutory insurance underwriters have large amounts of capital tied up in these schemes.A transition to competitive underwriting releases this capital, allowing it to be invested in the core business of government.The South Australian Government has been able to release over $1.3bn by ending their CTP underwriting monopoly.They also collected an additional $260m in licence fees from insurers for initial market-share allocation.Ending their monopoly on underwriting CTP insurance is certainly assisting the South Australian Governments budget position. This opportunity is available to many other Australian jurisdictions.Australias state and territory governments currently underwrite the majority of the nations Workers Compensation and CTP schemes  a combined annual premium of over $10bn.Public underwriting of these schemes presents an inherent conict of interest because the government is the regulator of the scheme, and they are operating the insurance business that is being regulated.A lack of oversight by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority ( APRA ) means publicly-underwritten schemes can fall into decit as governments respond to electoral pressure to reduce premiums and increase benets to unsustainable levels.This occurred in the NSW CTP scheme in the 1980s and more recently in the NSW Workers Compensation scheme when it recorded a deficit of $4.1bn in 2011, resulting in controversial benefit reform by the NSW Government in 2012.In the private sector, however, insurers are required to remain fully funded, meaning they must maintain sufficient reserves to pay all future claims so that injured people can be condent they will receive their full entitlements.Australias personal injury insurance landscape represents a significant micro-economic reform opportunity that can increase productivity, provide customer choice and increase the speed of rehabilitation for injured people.Workers Compensation insurance  where the vast majority of premiums continue to be underwritten by governments  has particular signicance for insurance brokers due to the higher levels of involvement brokers have in competitive schemes.Greater engagement between brokers, employers and insurers in the area of Workers Compensation can improve operational risk management, making workplaces safer and more productive.Transitioning the South Australian CTP scheme to competitive underwriting is an important milestone.As the community benets of this reform begin to  ow, more schemes may follow.
Source: Impact Forecasting 2015 Annual Global Climate and Catastrophe Report

Natural disasters across Australia and the rest of the world grabbed headlines throughout 2015. With earthquakes in Nepal and Afghanistan taking thousands of lives, and storms and cyclones costing billions of dollars across Australia, its hard to believe that 2015 was a down year for disaster damage.Impact Forecasting, the catastrophe model development team at Aon Benfield, recently released their Annual Global Climate and Catastrophe Report, which showed that insured losses from natural disasters in 2015 were down 31% on historical averages, but this must not lead to complacency.The number of disasters across the world rose as 300 separate events hit over the calendar year. A huge gap still remains between economic loss and insured loss, showing that the industry still has a long way to go when it comes to protecting the world from these nightmare scenarios.Total number of wildfires that burned in the United States in 2015Approximate total number of fatalities across the globe from extreme weather eventsTotal economic losses caused by natural disasters globallyGlobal losses from natural disasters were down 30% on the 15-year average of $175 billionThe total number of disasters across the globe hit 300 for the first time since 2010. Australia saw its fair share of natural disasters, as global numbers climbed from five-year lows in 2014Both insured losses and overall economic losses continue to trend downwards following extreme highs in 2011, but the gap between both figures remains a reminder of the value of insurance and the global opportunities that existWhile it may have been a down year for natural disasters in terms of economic losses overall, several disasters still tore through global communities, including some major events across the Asia-Pacific region.The turn of the year has already cost Australian insurers more than $500m. Could the start of 2016 continue to be as damaging to insurers as the beginning of 2015?Australia suffered a terrible start to the year as, over the first four months, disasters caused billions of dollars in economic losses
Children with disabilities could soon be catching Uber to school under a radical proposal that plans to develop a smart market to replace the decades-old specialist school bus system in Tasmania and Victoria, reported The Australian.Through a $600,000 trial, the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and the University of Melbournes Centre for Market Design (CMD), with the support of the federal and Victorian treasuries, are trying to develop Uber as a school transport system for disabled children in Tasmania and Victoria.The proposed smart market for student transport is for replacing the specialist bus system, which the Melbourne University brief argues, does not give families and their children choice and control.An outline of the plan obtained by The Australian reveals that a lab test of the new market will be ready by the end of the year with live pilots planned for next year. During the live pilots, families would specify their user requirements online. Companies, then, would bid for those accounts after nominating the bare minimum they would need to be paid to remain viable, said The Australian report.In addition to the existing bus companies, there is potential to involve community transport providers, non-emergency medical transport, taxis, and share-ride or carpooling options in the smart market for student transport, the brief states.Chris Lowe, executive director of Bus Association Victoria, called the idea nonsense, saying that: In our view, it is fantastically irresponsible of the agency to give CMD hundreds of thousands of dollars to try and create a market for the carriage of children with a disability to and from their special school in a way other than the special school bus.This opinion is shared by Kerry Moore, mother of a 14-year-old-boy with Fragile X syndrome, in an interview with The Australian: These are very vulnerable children, some who cant communicate and some who are very sick, and they need supervision by trained professionals not by any old cab driver. They are just trying to get to their special schools, not teenagers catching an Uber to get to the movies.A spokesperson for the Victorian government said: We will continue to advocate on behalf of Victorians with disabilities and await the outcome of the National Disability Insurance Agencys trial and model for future disability transport services.
John Yurconic Agency, an independent agency based in Allentown, Pennsylvania, announced that it has acquired Hazleton Insurance Center in Hazleton, Pennsylvania. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Founded in 1969, John Yurconic Agency offers a wide range of insurance products including auto, homeowners, motorcycles, business, workers compensation, medical malpractice, life, health, disability and bonds. The agency has approximately 64 staff members and 11 offices in the greater Lehigh Valley region.

Hazleton Insurance Center was formed in 1971 with the merger of two local agencies, M.J. Laputka & Sons and Benjamin & Markman.

Both John Yurconic Agency and Hazleton Insurance Center are independent agency partners of Keystone Insurers Group, an agency network based in Northumberland, Pennsylvania.

Hazleton Insurance Center and its four staff members will continue to serve clients from their Hazleton location as a new John Yurconic Agency branch office.

Topics Mergers & Acquisitions Pennsylvania
A Philadelphia woman filed a lawsuit seeking to have the city replace all lead service pipes running into homes from water mains and pay for a lead medical monitoring program.

The lawsuit, filed on June 2 by Eleni Delopoulos, alleged the city put her family and thousands of Philadelphians at a significantly greater risk for lead poisoning, Philly.com reported.

The city has been aware of high lead levels in tap water for years and didnt warn residents, according to the lawsuit. It also accuses the city of rigging water test results to produce a woefully inaccurate picture of lead contamination.

A spokesman for Mayor Jim Kenney said the city was aware of the litigation but has no comment.

City water officials have said homeowners are responsible for service lines that run into their homes. The citys 3,000-mile water distribution system doesnt have any lead and treated drinking water is virtually lead-free, water officials say. But lead service lines were commonly installed until 1950 and those pipes can still dissolve lead into drinking water.

Delopoulos, 37, a Shakespearean actress, recently moved to west Philadelphia from New York and contacted a law firm after the city dug up the street in front of her home to replace the water mains. Her toddler was playing in a pile of dirt when a city worker warned her that the soil was contaminated with lead, said Elizabeth Fegan, an attorney for Delopoulos.

Lead poisoning has been shown to affect IQ, the ability to pay attention and academic achievement. It can also damage brains, kidneys and red blood cell production. Young children and pregnant women are considered the most vulnerable.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Lawsuits
When a directors and officers (D&O) claim is declined, it can be catastrophic for an insured, forcing the company to deal with the financial costs of a claim or loss entirely on its own, according to a report published by Marsh.

As a result, insureds must be careful not to do anything that could undermine the protection that the policy is intended, said the report titled Professional and Management Liability Insurance Claims: Common Pitfalls for Unwary Policyholders.

Such unwary policyholders can find themselves in difficulties if they fail to take certain steps prescribed by the policy, either at all, or in a manner compliant with the policy wording,

While the report focuses on UK issues, Marsh said the problem of declined claims has global relevance, as does the obligation to cooperate with insurers, which is likely to apply equally to other types of insurance.

Fortunately, the report said, less than 1 percent of financial lines claims made by Marsh UK clients were declined by insurers between 2011 and 2015, which shows that such declinatures are very rare.

The report highlighted the key themes that recur in most declined claims.

The largest proportion of declined claims results from a failure to notify in accordance with policy requirements or time-frames, or at all, said the report, noting that this accounts for 39 percent of declinatures among Marshs UK clients. This is a very important consideration for insurers and an obligation that they take very seriously.

In addition, almost one-third of declined claims relate to the triggering of cover and obtaining insurers consent to settlements and non-disclosures, while policy exclusions account for 31 percent of claim declinations.

Insureds should engage their insurers early on in the event of a claim, as they can provide valuable assistance in minimizing the financial loss, as well as the reputational damage, that liability claims can bring, Marsh emphasized.

Avoiding Policy Pitfalls

Organizations should review the terms and conditions of their policy wordings as soon they are received, not simply when a claim is first made, or worse, once it has developed or settled, said Robert Lewis, claims leader, UK Risk Management Practice, Marsh.

The Marsh report provided pointers to help insured avoid policy pitfalls including the following:

Examine the policy wording to identify the policy trigger.

Notify your insurers of any claim or circumstance within the correct time period and in the correct manner.

Seek insurers consent before instructing counsel, incurring defense or mitigation costs, admitting liability, or settling any third-party claims.

Cooperate with reasonable requests from insurers for information regarding the claim.

Pay particular attending to conditions precedent in a notification provision.

Upward Trend in Notifications

Marsh said that D&O claim notifications from its UK clients have risen steadily over the past decade and remain four times higher than pre-financial crisis levels.

Between 2005 and 2007, Marsh recorded an average of 200-300 D&O liability insurance claim notifications. With the onset of the financial crisis, claim notifications rose by 75 percent to nearly 500 in 2008, before peaking at 1,685 claim notifications in 2012.

Since 2013, Marsh has received an average of approximately 1,300 D&O claim notifications annually in the UK.

The increasing volume and complexity of regulatory activity in the UK and the European Union is a major driver of this upward claims notification trend, explained Lewis. There is also an increasing level of cross border co-operation among regulators and a shift towards class or collective actions across EU member states.

Source: Marsh

Topics Carriers Trends Claims
Chubb has launched a comprehensive single property and liability package insurance policy for middle market businesses in the UK and Ireland.

MasterPackage is designed to meet the needs of UKI business with domestic and/or international operations and a turnover of 2 million-500 million ($2.9 million-$726.2 million).

Chubb said the product responds to feedback received from its national and regional broker panels who requested comprehensive, warranty-free cover in a single, easy-to-navigate policy document.

MasterPackage includes a range of new extensions with meaningful limits for risks, such as data breach and cyber attacks (100,000, crisis response (100,000), loss of attraction (100,000), and unspecified locations (100,000), Chubb added.

Other key benefits include:

Cover for five priority risk areas, namely property damage, business interruption, terrorism, employers liability and public and product liability.

Additional cover for the Chubb basket risks which include event cancellation, marine cargo, abduction and extortion, commercial employee fidelity and impairment of computer services.

Increased limits for undamaged tenants improvements and betterments (250,000), property stored (250,000) and reinstatement to match (50,000).

Cover for customer goods as standard.

Cover for claims preparation costs (50,000 for any one claim, 100,000 for any one period of insurance).

Insurance Act compliant policy.

Flexibility to tailor terms and conditions as well as limits to meet specific client needs.

MasterPackage exemplifies our focus on clarity, transparency and simplicity as well as our commitment to listen carefully and adapt our products to the feedback we get from our brokers and clients, said Alex Forrest, Package Manager, UK and Ireland for Chubb.

Our new, warranty and condition precedent-free policy provides our clients with the comprehensive cover they demand and deserve while eliminating the jargon they so often find frustrating and time-consuming, he added.

Source: Chubb

Topics Commercial Lines Business Insurance Chubb
The chair of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee has proposed getting rid of much of the regulation put in place after the financial crisis, unveiling a plan on Tuesday that ignited fierce debate in the presidential election but is expected to flame out in Washington.

In a sweeping speech at the Economic Club of New York, Republican Representative Jeb Hensarling, from Texas, laid out his ideas on weakening the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law just as polls opened in six states holding presidential primaries.

Hensarling also met on Tuesday with Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee who has called for dismantling the massive reform law.

Trumps campaign declined to comment on Hensarlings plan. The lawmaker told Fox Business Network on Tuesday he would not describe the blow-by-blow of his meeting with Trump but said they had common ground on Dodd-Frank.

Meanwhile, the Democrats likely nominee, Hillary Clinton, sought to tie the real-estate tycoon to Hensarlings proposal.

Clinton strongly opposes Chairman Hensarling and Donald Trumps efforts to gut critical reforms put in place to protect the public after the financial crisis, said her adviser Gary Gensler, who headed the Commodity Futures Trading Commission when Dodd-Frank was passed.

While Republicans attempt to roll back measures that protect consumers and curb excessive risk-taking on Wall Street, Hillary Clinton will fight to defend Dodd-Frank and go beyond it, with tough new rules, stronger enforcement and more accountability.

Hensarlings plan would allow banks to choose between complying with Dodd-Frank or meeting much tougher capital requirements.

It would also throw out the Volcker Rule that restricts banks from making speculative investments and eliminate the authority of the Financial Stability Oversight Council consisting of regulatory agencies heads to designate firms as systemically important, also known as too big to fail. That label triggers requirements to hold more capital and abide by stricter regulations.

In essence, Hensarling said his plan involved far more loss-absorbing capital and far less federal control.

It would also maintain the laws section on derivatives and keep the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau created by Dodd-Frank, albeit with a changed structure.

Im only replacing 89.7 percent of Dodd-Frank, Hensarling joked.

Few expect the plan, previewed in a video last week, to become law soon. While it could pass the Republican-controlled Congress, it would then have to be signed by President Barack Obama, who also signed Dodd-Frank into law.

On Tuesday White House spokesman Josh Earnest said reforms enacted after the crisis essentially guarantee that taxpayers will not be on the hook for bailing out big banks if their risky bets go south.

But Obama leaves office in January and those vying to replace him, including Senator Bernie Sanders running as a Democrat, have distinct views on regulation and Wall Street.

Those on the left who gave us Dodd-Frank believe in the principle that human nature is self-destructive and that people  except themselves, of course  are fundamentally ignorant, Hensarling said, demonstrating the political charge of his ideas.

Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, a Democrat mentioned as a possible vice presidential pick, shot back that Republicans seek to make life easier for mega bankers and tougher for ordinary Americans.

Senator Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat who is a firebrand for stronger regulation, said while most Republicans in Congress are debating not whether to run away from Trump  but how far and how fast  Congressman Hensarling is sprinting toward Trump Tower.

Trump has given few clues to how he would take apart Dodd-Frank and what he might put in its place.

Heres something we both agree with, and that is Dodd-Frank is impeding economic growth, Hensarling told Fox Business. I think he well received the message. I think he was interested in the policy.

Clinton has proposed breaking up large banks that take excessive risk, charging institutions a risk fee, taxing high-frequency trading, and creating more oversight of shadow banking.

The most liberal candidate, Sanders has gone further and suggested reinstating the Glass-Steagall law that once separated commercial and investment banking.

James Ballentine, head of congressional relations at American Bankers Association, the industrys lead trade group, said both parties agree that parts of Dodd-Frank just arent working.

Any law that generates more than 24,000 pages of proposed and final rules will inevitably include problems that should be fixed, he said in a statement.

(Writing and additional reporting by Lisa Lambert in Washington; Additional reporting by Emily Stephenson in Washington and Luciana Lopez in New York; Editing by James Dalgleish)

Topics Legislation Washington Politics
The Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS) has selected four universities to receive the 2016 CAS University Award, an honor created to recognize schools doing exemplary work in preparing students for a career in the property/casualty insurance industry. The schools honored in the programs inaugural year include Illinois State University, University of California, Santa Barbara, University of Connecticut, and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The CAS encourages universities to expose their students to opportunities in the property/casualty insurance industry. According to CAS, historically at the university level actuarial students awareness of the property/casualty industry at had been limited; however, with the growth in interest of actuarial careers, as well as the increasing demand for the skills of credentialed property/casualty actuaries, schools have had success incorporating property/casualty curriculum into their programs.

The selection process for the first CAS University Award Program considered nominations of 24 schools throughout North America, Asia and Australia. Schools shared the ways they are exposing their students to the property/casualty insurance industry in the areas of curriculum, research, industry engagement and innovation.

Winners of the 2016 CAS University Award Program were determined by a panel of judges from companies across the property/casualty insurance industry.

The selection process was a challenge because there are so many schools doing really exciting work to prepare our future members, said Chris Coleianne, a fellow of the CAS who chaired the CAS University Award Program.

The four winning schools will be recognized at the 2016 CAS Annual Meeting, taking place November 13-16, 2016 in Orlando.

The CAS plans to conduct its University Award Program annually.

Topics Property Casualty Property Market Education Universities Casualty
U.S. authorities are conducting a review of Chinas Fosun Groups acquisition in November 2015 of Bermuda-based insurer Ironshore.

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), part of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, regularly conducts company reviews after sale to a foreign investor, said Kevin H. Kelley, CEO of Ironshore, in a June 6 letter to employees.

CFIUS evaluates national security issues in connection with foreign investments and acquisitions in the U.S., said Kelley.

Of particular interest to CFIUS is an Ironshore professional liability product designed for federal agency employees, which Ironshore sells via a subsidiary called Wright USA.

There is speculation that CFIUS is concerned about who has access to this list of federal employees, following the hack last year of employee records held at the Office of Personnel Management.

However, as the Wright business accounts for less than 0.5 percent of Ironshores total annual premium, sources indicate that Fosun would be willing to sell the subsidiary to alleviate any CFIUS concerns.

CFIUS has been known to review companies as diverse as hog farmers, light-bulb manufacturers and hotel groups. The usual process is to file for a CFIUS review before a foreign investor purchases a U.S. company, especially if it is in an industry that presents obvious national security issues.

As a matter of law, Ironshore is not permitted to reveal details of its CFIUS review, but Kelley sent a letter to employees when news of the review leaked in a Chinese business publication.

In the letter, Kelley explained that the process is a civil regulatory one which does not involve any allegations of wrongdoing. Fosun and Ironshore voluntarily filed with CFIUS and have been cooperating fully, he said.

Kelley told Ironshore employees that the CFIUS process is constructive. We welcome any initiative that increases public confidence and reassures regulators that Ironshore will continue to operate independently and strictly protect policyholder information.

Were working toward a favorable outcome of the CFIUS review, said a company source.

Topics Mergers & Acquisitions USA
A small community in Louisiana disbanded its troubled police force more than a year ago, but the town hasnt shaken a scandal that fueled the departments collapse and ousted its elected police chief.

A federal judge ruled on June 5 that former Sorrento Police Chief Earl Theriot violated the civil rights of a woman who accused him of sexually assaulting her in his office while she was drunk and he was on duty.

At the end of a daylong trial for the womans civil lawsuit, U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick put off a decision on whether Theriot owes the woman any monetary damages. And she didnt immediately rule from the bench on whether the town is liable for the womans claims against it.

But the judge concluded that the woman was legally incapable of consenting to sex with Theriot given how drunk she was at the time of their Nov. 1, 2013, encounter inside the towns police station.

In 2014, Theriot was sentenced to two years of probation after he pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his sexual encounter with the woman. The plea deal for the criminal case required him to resign from his post in Sorrento, where sheriffs deputies now patrol the town of roughly 1,500 residents.

Theriot, the towns police chief for 12 years, knew or should have known of the womans inability to consent and failed to meet his obligation to protect and serve, Dick said after hearing testimony without a jury. Dick didnt say when she would issue a written ruling on damages and the towns liability.

The 44-year-old woman said Theriot, 68, forced her to perform sexual acts in his office after he found her drunk in public. Theriots attorneys claimed the woman initiated the unconsummated sexual encounter to save herself from jail.

The woman testified that the encounter left her in a state of shock and fear.

Did you do it because you wanted to? asked her attorney, Tregg Wilson.

No, she said, reaching for a tissue to wipe away her tears. I did what he told me to.

Sorrentos police force was plagued by other allegations of officer misconduct before residents voted in November 2014 to abolish the department.

The town fired an officer who shocked a college student with a stun gun in 2009 to demonstrate how the device worked; it also fired an officer whose patrol cars tracking device showed it exceeding 75 mph more than 700 times in two months, The Advocate newspaper has reported.

Mayor Mike Lambert, who took office in 2013, said the towns police department spiraled out of control under Theriot and became one hell of a mess. The six-officer department was dogged by so many lawsuits and other problems that an insurance company dropped its coverage, Lambert said.

The people of Sorrento were scared of the police department, Lambert said in an interview. We had to make some drastic changes.

A court filing that accompanied Theriots guilty plea in the criminal case said he had inappropriate sexual contact with the woman on Nov. 1, 2013. His accuser claims Theriot detained her, forced her to perform sexual acts and physically restrained her after she called for help.

On the night before she crossed paths with Theriot, the woman went out drinking with friends. One of them dropped her off at a gas station, where she fell asleep.

The next day, Theriot responded to a 911 call and found the intoxicated woman in the gas stations parking lot. He placed her in the front seat of his police vehicle  without handcuffs  and briefly stopped in front of her home before driving her to the police station.

Thats where their accounts diverge.

The woman claims Theriot used the threat of jail to coerce her into having sex. She also accused Theriot of taking off her belt and restraining her with it.

Theriots lawyers deny that he restrained the woman. In a court filing, they claim the woman has inexplicably changed her story after originally telling the FBI that she initiated the sexual contact.

Theriot took the stand during Mondays trial but refused to answer questions from the womans attorney. He asserted his right against self-incrimination in response to all 10 questions posed by the lawyer.

Theriot and his accuser both declined to comment on the judges ruling Monday.

The Associated Press typically doesnt identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault. The woman said the encounter made her feel ashamed and suicidal.

Related:

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Legislation Louisiana Law Enforcement
To its owner, a pet dog may be priceless  and even though Georgias highest court didnt go quite that far Monday, it did say that under some circumstances, an owner whose pet is hurt or dies at the hands of another may seek to recoup more than its fair market value.

The state Supreme Court ruled Monday that when a pet is injured or killed by someone elses negligence, the owners may also try to collect costs incurred trying to save the animal.

The unanimous Georgia Supreme Court opinion written by Chief Justice Hugh Thompson acknowledges the case deals with a subject near and dear to the heart of many a Georgian in that it involves the untimely death of a beloved family pet, and how to measure damages when the pet is hurt or killed because of negligence.

Under Georgia law, Thompson wrote, the owners cant seek damages based on the sentimental value of the animal to its owner. He said the unique human-animal bond, while cherished, is beyond legal measure.

But he also cited a 19th century Georgia Supreme Court opinion involving the injury or death of animal. It says that if an animal is injured through negligence and dies as a result of those injuries, the owner can seek the animals market value, plus interest and expenses incurred by the owner in an effort to cure the animal.

Robert and Elizabeth Monyak sued the Barking Hound Village kennel in Atlanta and its manager, claiming negligence, fraud, and deceit in the death of their dog Lola.

The Monyaks boarded their two dogs  Lola, an 8 1/2-year-old dachshund mix, and Callie, a 13-year-old mixed Labrador retriever  at Barking Hound Village for 10 days in May 2012. The Monyaks say kennel staff gave Lola medication intended for Callie, which they say caused kidney failure that led to her death nine months later.

The kennel looks forward to proving to the lower court that it didnt cause any harm or damage and remains passionate and strongly committed to the quality care of all dogs, spokeswoman Liz Lapidus said in an email.

The Monyaks are seeking to recover damages, including more than $67,000 to treat Lola.

Robert Monyak said hes very pleased with the high courts decision, adding that he believes the court reached a just and fair conclusion.

The courts opinion elaborates on what may be used to determine market value, saying we see no reason why opinion evidence, both qualitative and quantitative, of an animals particular attributes  e.g. breed, age, training, temperament, and use  should be any less admissible than similar evidence offered in describing the value of other types of personal property.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Georgia
Those involved in a West Virginia University fracking project are praising its success after the first year.

The Exponent Telegram reports WVU began the Marcellus Shale Energy Environmental Laboratory project last June.

The study is meant to give a look at the hydraulic fracking process over five years.

Those involved in the project say it has put West Virginia and the school at the cutting edge of research.

Brian Anderson, professor of chemical engineering and director of the WVU Energy Institute, says two production wells were drilled last fall, along with a scientific observation well.

Everything went swimmingly. Of course, some of the schedules were changed with the rain last June, but it was really a huge success during the stimulation drilling in the early part of the test, Anderson said.

Anderson says he has spoken about the impact of the project in China, and that delegations from Colombia and Mexico have visited regarding the project.

It puts us in a unique position to lead in this globally, he said.

Charlie Burd, executive director of the Independent Oil and Gas Association of West Virginia, said thats exactly where the state should be.

We should be at the cutting edge, we should be at the forefront, because the largest natural gas reserves in the world lie under Monongalia County, combined with Marcellus and Utica, he said. Hundreds of years of natural gas supply lies there. It is only appropriate that this would be the place such information would be garnered.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Trends Education Virginia Universities
Greenpath Insurance will now be known as Aspire General Insurance Co., the firm announced.

The brand change is a reflection of Aspires new direction and leadership.

The firm has undergone major changes over the last year, and the rebranding is one of many of those changes since Byron Storms was named president & chief executive officer in 2015.

The company is now solely focused on nonstandard auto, and the insurance is only sold through brokers in California.

Aspire is a general agency, insurance carrier and claims management company.

Topics California
A Eugene, Ore. woman who sued her adopted parents after disclosing that her father sexually abused her has agreed to settle the civil case.

The Register-Guard reports that according to documents filed in Lane County Circuit Court last week the case has been settled, though details of the agreement are confidential.

The victim sued her adopted father, Rick Jackson, in January, one month after he was arrested on child sexual abuse charges. The 61-year-old insurance agent and former church pastor pleaded guilty in April and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Before his arrest, Jackson ran a Farmers office.

After his arrest, the victims father divorced his wife and transferred his then-ex-wife his interest in real estate properties with a combined value of about $1.5 million.

The victim claimed the property transfer was done to defraud her.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Lawsuits Agencies Oregon
San Diego, CA, June 8, 2016 American Claims Management Inc. (ACM) has been selected as the third party claims administrator for the International Tourist Program of National Unity Insurance Company. The contract, effective April 1, 2016, involves roughly 2,000 new personal auto and commercial trucking claims annually.

Citing ACMs success in handling claims for two other National Unity programs, their selection was based on ACMs customized service and aggressive claims handling, said ACMs president of property & casualty, Dhara Patel.

Headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, National Unity is the leader in insuring vehicles traveling from Mexico to the United States. The company owns more than 60 percent of this niche market, with more than 24 years of uninterrupted service.

Securing a third party administrator that could manage a high volume of both commercial trucking and personal auto claims with a superior customer service reputation was a key concern of National Unity. ACMs hard line approach in claims handling, incorporating a special investigative unit and advanced expertise in subrogation and salvage, were also primary considerations.

Within three months of taking over claims handling for National Unity in California and Georgia, ACM was able to close out more than 60 percent of the inventory, said Patel. We are delighted to have the opportunity to work with National Unity in yet another program, to produce the same successes.

Since 1988, American Claims Management has been a nationwide third party claims administrator specializing in both commercial and personal lines. By offering professional expertise in claims administration, ACM is committed to providing superior claims services and innovative solutions. For more information, please visit www.ACMclaims.com. ACM is a subsidiary of Arrowhead General Insurance Agency Inc.

Media Contact:

Jeffrey Dalessandro

ACM Director of Business Development

JDalessandro@ACMclaims.com

Topics Claims
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Two-factor authentication (2FA) is a security measure that requires two separate forms of identification in order to access something. The first factor is typically a password while the second can be a code sent to the users phone or tablet or biometrics using their fingerprint, face, or retina 2FA combines two of the following: something you know (password), something you are (your fingerprint, face, or retina), and something you have (a phone or tablet).
What Are Carbon Credits?

Carbon credits, also known as carbon offsets, are permits that allow the owner to emit a certain amount of carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases. One credit permits the emission of one ton of carbon dioxide or the equivalent in other greenhouse gases.

The carbon credit is half of a so-called "cap-and-trade" program. Companies that pollute are awarded credits that allow them to continue to pollute up to a certain limit, which is reduced periodically. Meanwhile, the company may sell any unneeded credits to another company that needs them. Private companies are thus doubly incentivized to reduce greenhouse emissions. First, they must spend money on extra credits if their emissions exceed the cap. Second, they can make money by reducing their emissions and selling their excess allowances.

Proponents of the carbon credit system say that it leads to measurable, verifiable emission reductions from certified climate action projects, and that these projects reduce, remove or avoid greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.



Key Takeaways Carbon credits were devised as a mechanism to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Companies get a set number of credits, which decline over time, and they can sell any excess to another company.

Carbon credits create a monetary incentive for companies to reduce their carbon emissions. Those that cannot easily reduce emissions can still operate, at a higher financial cost.

Carbon credits are based on the "cap-and-trade" model that was used to reduce sulfur pollution in the 1990s.



Negotiators at the Glasgow COP26 climate change summit in November 2021 agreed to create a global carbon credit offset trading market.



How Do Carbon Credits Work?

The ultimate goal of carbon credits is to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. As noted, a carbon credit represents the right to emit greenhouse gases equivalent to one ton of carbon dioxide. According to the Environmental Defense Fund, that is the equivalent of a 2,400-mile drive in terms of carbon dioxide emissions.

Companies or nations are allotted a certain number of credits and may trade them to help balance total worldwide emissions. "Since carbon dioxide is the principal greenhouse gas," the United Nations notes, "people speak simply of trading in carbon."

The intention is to reduce the number of credits over time, thus incentivizing companies to find innovative ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

US Carbon Credits Today

Cap-and-trade programs remain controversial in the U.S. However, 11 states have adopted such market-based approaches to the reduction of greenhouse gases, according to the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions. Of these, 10 are Northeast states that banded together to jointly attack the problem through a program known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI).

California's Cap-and-Trade Program

The state of California initiated its own cap-and-trade program in 2013. The rules apply to the state's large electric power plants, industrial plants, and fuel distributors. The state claims that its program is the fourth largest in the world after those of the European Union, South Korea, and the Chinese province of Guangdong.

The cap-and-trade system is sometimes described as a market system. That is, it creates an exchange value for emissions. Its proponents argue that a cap-and-trade program offers an incentive for companies to invest in cleaner technologies in order to avoid buying permits that will increase in cost every year.

The US Clean Air Act

The United States has been regulating airborne emissions since the passage of the U.S. Clean Air Act of 1990, which is credited as the world's first cap-and-trade program (although it called the caps "allowances").

The program is credited by the Environmental Defense Fund for substantially reducing emissions of sulfur dioxide from coal-fired power plants, the cause of the notorious "acid rain" of the 1980s.

The Inflation Reduction Act

The most recent development expected to affect the carbon credit market is the Inflation Reduction Act, a landmark bill signed into law on August 16, 2022, that aims to reduce the deficit, fight inflation, and reduce carbon emissions.

The legislation is very focused on cleaning up the environment and includes a provision to reward high-emitting companies that store their greenhouse gases underground or use them to build other products. The rewards come in the form of significantly expanded tax credits, which have increased to $85 from $50 for each metric ton of captured carbon stored underground and to $60 from $35 for each ton of captured carbon that is used in other manufacturing processes or for oil recovery.

It is hoped that these more generous credits will convince investors to make a bigger effort at capturing carbon. Previously, the tax incentive, known as 45Q, was accused of only paying enough to make easy carbon capture projects worth pursuing.

Worldwide Carbon Credit Initiatives

The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) developed a carbon credit proposal to reduce worldwide carbon emissions in a 1997 agreement known as the Kyoto Protocol. The agreement set binding emission reduction targets for the countries that signed it. Another agreement, known as the Marrakesh Accords, spelled out the rules for how the system would work.

The Kyoto Protocol divided countries into industrialized and developing economies. Industrialized countries, collectively called Annex 1, operated in their own emissions trading market. If a country emitted less than its target amount of hydrocarbons, it could sell its surplus credits to countries that did not achieve its Kyoto level goals, through an Emission Reduction Purchase Agreement (ERPA).

The separate Clean Development Mechanism for developing countries issued carbon credits called a Certified Emission Reduction (CER). A developing nation could receive these credits for supporting sustainable development initiatives. The trading of CERs took place in a separate market.

The first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol ended in 2012. The U.S. had already dropped out in 2001.

The Paris Climate Agreement

The Kyoto protocol was revised in 2012 in an agreement known as the Doha Amendment, which was ratified as of October 2020, with 147 member nations having "deposited their instrument of acceptance."

More than 190 nations signed on to the Paris Agreement of 2015, which also sets emission standards and allows for emissions trading. The U.S. dropped out in 2017, but subsequently rejoined the agreement in January 2020 under President Joe Biden.

The Paris Agreement, also known as the Paris Climate Accord, is an agreement among the leaders of more than 180 countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and limit the global temperature increase to below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 F) above preindustrial levels by the year 2100.

The Glasgow COP26 Climate Change Summit

Negotiators at the summit in November 2021 inked a deal that saw nearly 200 countries implement Article 6 of the 2015 Paris Agreement, allowing nations to work toward their climate targets by buying offset credits that represent emission reductions by other countries. The hope is that the agreement encourages governments to invest in initiatives and technology that protects forests and build renewable energy technology infrastructure to combat climate change.

For instance, Brazil's chief negotiator at the summit, Leonardo Cleaver de Athayde, flagged that the forest-rich South American country planned to be a major trader of carbon credits. "It should spur investment and the development of projects that could deliver significant emissions reductions," he told Reuters.

Several other provisions in the accord include zero tax on bilateral trades of offsets between countries and canceling 2% of total credits, aimed at reducing overall global emissions. Additionally, 5% of revenues generated from offsets will be placed in an adaptation fund for developing countries to help fight climate change. Negotiators also agreed to carry over offsets registered since 2013, allowing 320 million credits to enter the new market.



Why Should the Levels of Carbon and Greenhouse Gases in the Atmosphere Be Reduced? Scientists at the IPCC have shown that increased levels of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere are warming the planet. This creates extreme weather changes around the world. Currently, carbon dioxide is the main GHG, and is created by burning fossil fuelscoal, oil and gas. By reducing the amount of carbon dioxide we emit, we may avoid doing further damage to our climate.

How Much Does a Carbon Credit Cost? Carbon credits have different prices, depending on the location and market where they are traded. In 2019, the average price for carbon credits was $4.33 per ton. This figure spiked to as much as $5.60 per ton in 2020 before settling to an average of $4.73 in the first eight months of the following year.

Where Can You Buy Carbon Credits? There are several private companies that offer carbon offsets to companies or individuals seeking to reduce their net carbon footprint. These offsets represent investments or contributions to forestry or other projects with a negative carbon footprint. Buyers can also purchase tradable credits on a carbon exchange such as New York-based Xpansive CBL or Singapore's AirCarbon Exchange.

How Large Is the Carbon Credit Market? Estimates of the size of the carbon credit market vary wildly, due to the different regulations in each market and other geographical distinctions. The voluntary carbon market, consisting largely of companies that buy carbon offsets for CSR reasons, had an estimated value of $1 billion in 2021, according to some figures. The market for compliance credits, related to regulatory carbon caps, is substantially larger, with estimates ranging as high as $272 billion for the year 2020.

The Bottom Line

Carbon credits were devised as a mechanism to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by creating a market in which companies can trade in emissions permits. Under the system, companies get a set number of carbon credits, which decline over time. They can sell any excess to another company.

Carbon credits create a monetary incentive for companies to reduce their carbon emissions. Those that cannot easily reduce emissions can still operate, at a higher financial cost. Proponents of the carbon credit system say that it leads to measurable, verifiable emission reductions.
Financial statement manipulation is a type of accounting fraud that remains an ongoing problem in corporate America. Although the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has taken many steps to mitigate this type of corporate malfeasance, the structure of management incentives, the enormous latitude afforded by the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), and the ever-present conflict of interest between the independent auditor and the corporate client continues to provide the perfect environment for such activity.

Due to these factors, investors who purchase individual stocks or bonds must be aware of the issues, warning signs, and the tools that are at their disposal in order to mitigate the adverse implications of these problems.

Key Takeaways The manipulation of financial statements to commit fraud against investors or skirt regulation is a real and ongoing problem, costing billions of dollars each year.  

 Managers may also "cook the books" in order to qualify for certain executive compensation that relies on certain financial performance metrics being met.

Because generally accepted accounting standards can be flexible and open for interpretation by a company's management, fudging numbers can be difficult to detect.

2:26 How Financial Statements Are Manipulated

Reasons Behind Financial Statement Manipulation

There are three primary reasons why management manipulates financial statements. First, in many cases, the compensation of corporate executives is directly tied to the financial performance of the company. As a result, they have a direct incentive to paint a rosy picture of the company's financial condition in order to meet established performance expectations and bolster their personal compensation.

Second, it is a relatively easy thing to do. The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), which sets the GAAP standards, provides a significant amount of latitude and interpretation in accounting provisions and methods. For better or worse, these GAAP standards afford a significant amount of flexibility, making it feasible for corporate management to paint a particular picture of the financial condition of the company.

Third, it is unlikely that financial manipulation will be detected by investors due to the relationship between the independent auditor and the corporate client. In the U.S., the Big Four accounting firms and a host of smaller regional accounting firms dominate the corporate auditing environment. While these entities are touted as independent auditors, the firms have a direct conflict of interest because they are compensated, often quite significantly, by the very companies that they audit. As a result, the auditors could be tempted to bend the accounting rules to portray the financial condition of the company in a manner that will keep the client happyand keep its business.

How Financial Statements Are Manipulated

There are two general approaches to manipulating financial statements. The first is to exaggerate current period earnings on the income statement by artificially inflating revenue and gains, or by deflating current period expenses. This approach makes the financial condition of the company look better than it actually is in order to meet established expectations.

The second approach requires the exact opposite tactic, which is to minimize current period earnings on the income statement by deflating revenue or by inflating current period expenses. It may seem counterintuitive to make the financial condition of a company look worse than it actually is, but there are many reasons to do so: to dissuade potential acquirers; getting all of the bad news "out of the way" so that the company will look stronger going forward; dumping the grim numbers into a period when the poor performance can be attributed to the current macroeconomic environment; or to postpone good financial information to a future period when it is more likely to be recognized.

Specific Ways to Manipulate Financial Statements

When it comes to manipulation, there are a host of accounting techniques that are at a company's disposal. Financial Shenanigans (2018) by Howard Schilit outlines seven primary ways in which corporate management manipulates the financial statements of a company.

Recording Revenue Prematurely or of Questionable Quality Recording revenue prior to completing all services Recording revenue prior to product shipment Recording revenue for products that are not required to be purchased Recording Fictitious Revenue Recording revenue for sales that did not take place Recording investment income as revenue Recording proceeds received through a loan as revenue Increasing Income with One-Time Gains Increasing profits by selling assets and recording the proceeds as revenue Increasing profits by classifying investment income or gains as revenue Shifting Current Expenses to an Earlier or Later Period Amortizing costs too slowly Changing accounting standards to foster manipulation Capitalizing normal operating costs in order to reduce expenses by moving them from the income statement to the balance sheet Failing to write down or write off impaired assets Failing to Record or Improperly Reducing Liabilities Failing to record expenses and liabilities when future services remain Changing accounting assumptions to foster manipulation Shifting Current Revenue to a Later Period Creating a rainy day reserve as a revenue source to bolster future performance Holding back revenue Shifting Future Expenses to the Current Period as a Special Charge Accelerating expenses into the current period Changing accounting standards to foster manipulation, particularly through provisions for depreciation, amortization, and depletion  

While most of these techniques pertain to the manipulation of the income statement, there are also many techniques available to manipulate the balance sheet, as well as the statement of cash flows. Moreover, even the semantics of the management discussion and analysis section of the financials can be manipulated by softening the action language used by corporate executives from "will" to "might," "probably" to "possibly," and "therefore" to "maybe." Taken collectively, investors should understand these issues and nuances and remain on guard when assessing a company's financial condition.

Financial Manipulation via Corporate Merger or Acquisition

Another form of financial manipulation may happen during the merger or acquisition process. One classic approach occurs when management tries to whip up support for a merger or acquisition based primarily on the improvement in the estimated earnings per share of the combined companies. Let's look at the table below in order to understand how this type of manipulation takes place.
The Asia Pacific accounted for 8.4% of the world's oil production in 2020. The region was led by China and India, China being the world's fifth-largest oil-producing nation. In recent years, Asia's share of world oil production has been on a slow but steady decline, though Asia accounts for 77% of world oil demand growth through 2025, meaning that its reliance on oil imports will increase to 81% by 2025.

This is primarily a consequence of flat regional oil production during a period of rising overall global output. However, demand continues unabated, as the Asia Pacific region consumes most of the world's oil, roughly 38% in 2020, primarily driven by China's demand.

Key Takeaways The biggest oil producers in Asia are China, India, and Indonesia.

China accounts for more than half of the total production in Asia and imports additional oil to meet domestic demand.

Malaysia and Thailand are also among the largest oil producers in Asia.

India is the third-largest oil-consuming country, after the U.S. and China.

Demand remains strong, with the Asia Pacific consuming 38% of the world's oil production.

1. China

Asian oil output was 7.4 million barrels per day (BPD) in 2020. While a number of countries in the region have discovered large new reserves, others face declining production from aging oil fields. Consequently, analysts expect production trends to continue for the region as a whole.

China is the biggest oil producer in the region by a substantial margin, accounting for 5 million barrels of oil per day. It is responsible for slightly more than half of Asia's total production and announced in 2019 that it would increase capital investment in oil production by 20%. China hopes to increase its output to become more energy independent, as the country imported over 10 million barrels per day in 2019 to meet domestic demand.

The oil industry in China is led by several of the largest energy companies in the world: China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation, known as Sinopec; China National Offshore Oil Corporation, or CNOOC; and PetroChina. These three companies produce the majority of the country's total annual production.

2. India

India produced 771,000 barrels per day in 2020. While production growth has steadied in recent years, oil consumption in India continues to grow by leaps and bounds. India ranks as the third-largest oil consumer in the world after the U.S. and China.

Oil production in India is dominated by the state-owned enterprise, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, which accounted for roughly 71% of domestic production. Cairn Oil & Gas, Vedanta Limited, the Indian subsidiary of the British oil and gas company, Cairn Energy PLC, is the second-largest contributor to India's oil market, producing 24% of India's domestic crude oil.

3. Indonesia

Indonesia comes in behind India with the production of about 743,000 barrels per day in 2020. In the 1990s up until 2000, when production was at a high, Indonesia produced between 1.5 million and 1.7 million barrels per day.

Since that period, however, production has followed a nearly unbroken downward trend to the current level. In 2009, the combination of declining production in aging oil fields along with rising domestic demand compelled Indonesia to exit the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), of which it had been a member since 1962. It rejoined only to leave again in 2016.

PT Chevron Pacific Indonesia, a subsidiary of the American energy giant Chevron Corporation, and PT Pertamina are two of the largest oil producers in Indonesia. Foreign oil companies including Total SA, ConocoPhillips, and CNOOC are also significant producers in the region.

4. Malaysia

Malaysia produced 596,000 barrels of oil per day in 2020, most of which was extracted from offshore fields. Over the past decade, production has been fairly steady with a slight downward trend since 2016. As the oil and gas sector is an important part of Malaysia's economic growth, the government has concentrated on increasing hydrocarbon production.

88.4 Million The number of barrels of oil produced each day globally in 2020.

Petroliam Nasional Berhad, also known as Petronas, is Malaysia's state-owned energy corporation. It controls all oil and gas resources in the country and is responsible for the development of those assets. International integrated oil and gas companies, such as ExxonMobil Corporation, Murphy Oil Corporation, and Royal Dutch Shell PLC, are involved with Petronas in oil production activities in Malaysia.



5. Thailand

Oil production in Thailand in 2020 was 418,000 barrels per day. Thailand must import large quantities of oil to meet growing domestic demand as domestic crude oil reserves are declining. There has been little investment in upstream activities due to political crises, flooding, and difficulty in passing revisions to the Petroleum Act.

Chevron is the main oil producer in Thailand. It operates Thailand's largest oil field, Benjamas, and has investments in many other important production sites in the country. Thailand's state-owned oil company, PTT Exploration and Production, is the country's second-largest oil producer. Other international companies involved in oil production in Thailand include Coastal Energy Company and Salamander Energy PLC.

Which Country in Asia Produces the Most Oil? In Asia, China produces the most oil. In 2020, the country produced 4.93 million barrels per day. The country after China that produced the most oil in Asia was India.

What Countries Are the Biggest Oil Producers? In 2020, the biggest oil producers and the amount of oil they produced are the United States (18.60 million barrels per day), Saudi Arabia (10.82), Russia (10.50), Canada (5.26), and China (5.93).
The annual impact of leaving the EU on the UK after 15 years (difference from being in the EU) EEA Negotiated bilateral agreement WTO GDP level  central -3.8% -6.2% -7.5% GDP level -3.4% to -4.3% -4.6% to -7.8% -5.4% to -9.5% GDP per capita  central* -1,100 -1,800 -2,100 GDP per capita* -1,000 to -1,200 -1,300 to -2,200 -1,500 to -2,700 GPD per household  central* -2,600 -4,300 -5,200 GDP per household* -2,400 to -2,900 -3,200 to -5,400 -3,700 to -6,600 Net impact on receipts -20 billion -36 billion -45 billion

*Expressed in terms of 2015 GDP in 2015 prices, rounded to the nearest 100

Adapted from HM Treasury analysis: the long-term economic impact of EU membership and the alternatives, April 2016.

Leave supporters discounted such economic projections under the label "Project Fear." A pro-Brexit outfit associated with the U.K. Independence Party, which was founded to oppose EU membership, responded by saying that the Treasury's "worst-case scenario of 4,300 per household is a bargain-basement price for the restoration of national independence and safe, secure borders."

Although Leavers stressed issues of national pride, safety, and sovereignty, they also mustered economic arguments. For example, Boris Johnson said on the eve of the vote, "EU politicians would be banging down the door for a trade deal" the day after the vote, in light of their "commercial interests." Labor Leave, the pro-Brexit Labour group, co-authored a report with a group of economists in September 2017 that forecasted a 7% boost to annual GDP, with the largest gains going to the lowest earners.

Vote Leave, the official pro-Brexit campaign, topped the "Why Vote Leave" page on its website with the claim that the U.K. could save 350 million per week: "We can spend our money on our priorities like the NHS [National Health Service], schools, and housing."

In May 2016, the U.K. Statistics Authority, an independent public body, said the figure was gross rather than net, which was "misleading and undermines trust in official statistics." A mid-June poll by Ipsos MORI, however, found that 47% of the country believed the claim. The day after the referendum, Nigel Farage, who co-founded UKIP and led it until that November, disavowed the figure and said that he was not closely associated with Vote Leave. May also declined to confirm Vote Leave's NHS promises since taking office.

Brexit Economic Response

Though Britain officially left the EU, 2020 was a transition and implementation period. Trade and customs continued during that time, so there wasn't much on a day-to-day basis that seemed different to U.K. residents. Even so, the decision to leave the EU had an effect on Britain's economy.

The country's GDP growth slowed down to around 1.4% in 2018 from 1.9% in both 2017 and 2016 as business investment slumped. The IMF predicted that the country's economy would grow at 1.3% in 2019 and 1.4% in 2020. The Bank of England cut its growth forecast for 2019 to 1.2%, the lowest since the financial crisis.

The U.K. unemployment rate hit a 44-year low at 3.9% in the three months to January 2019. Experts attribute this to employers preferring to retain workers instead of investing in new major projects.

In 2018, the pound clawed back the losses it suffered after the Brexit vote but reacted negatively as the likelihood of a no-deal Brexit increased. The currency could rally if a soft Brexit deal is passed or Brexit is delayed.

While the fall in the value of the pound helped exporters, the higher price of imports was passed onto consumers and had a significant impact on the annual inflation rate. CPI inflation hit 3.1% in the 12 months leading up to November 2017, a near six-year high that well exceeded the Bank of England's 2% target. Inflation eventually began to fall in 2018 with the decline in oil and gas prices and was at 1.8% in January 2019.

A July 2017 report by the House of Lords cited evidence that U.K. businesses would have to raise wages to attract native-born workers following Brexit, which is "likely to lead to higher prices for consumers."

International trade was expected to fall due to Brexit, even with the possibility of a raft of free trade deals. Dr. Monique Ebell, former associate research director at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, forecasted a -22% reduction in total U.K. goods and services trade if EU membership was replaced by a free trade agreement.

Other free trade agreements were not predicted to pick up the slack. In fact, Ebell saw a pact with the BRIICS (Brazil, Russia, India, Indonesia, China, and South Africa) boosting total trade by 2.2% while a pact with the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand was expected to do slightly better, at 2.6%.

"The single market is a very deep and comprehensive trade agreement aimed at reducing non-tariff barriers," Ebell wrote in January 2017, "while most non-EU [free trade agreements] seem to be quite ineffective at reducing the non-tariff barriers that are important for services trade."

June 2017 General Election

On April 18, May called for a snap election to be held on June 8, despite previous promises not to hold one until 2020. Polling at the time suggested May would expand on her slim Parliamentary majority of 330 seats (there are 650 seats in the Commons). Labor gained rapidly in the polls, however, aided by an embarrassing Tory flip-flop on a proposal for estates to fund end-of-life care.

The Conservatives lost their majority, winning 318 seats to Labor's 262. The Scottish National Party won 35, with other parties taking 35. The resulting hung Parliament cast doubts on May's mandate to negotiate Brexit and led the leaders of Labor and the Liberal Democrats to call on May to resign.

Speaking in front of the prime minister's residence at 10 Downing Street, May batted away calls for her to leave her post, saying, "It is clear that only the Conservative and Unionist Party"the Tories' official name"has the legitimacy and ability to provide that certainty by commanding a majority in the House of Commons." The Conservatives struck a deal with the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland, which won 10 seats, to form a coalition. The party is little known outside of Northern Ireland, judging by a wave of curious Google searches that caused the DUP's site to crash.

May presented the election as a chance for the Conservatives to solidify their mandate and strengthen their negotiating position with Brussels. But this backfired.

"The election served to diffuse, not concentrate political power, especially with regards to Brexit," wrote Sky News political correspondent Lewis Goodall. "Ever since election night, Brussels hasn't just been dealing with Number 10 but in effect, the House of Commons too."

In the wake of the election, many expected the government's Brexit position to soften, and they were right. May released a Brexit white paper in July 2018 that mentioned an "association agreement" and a free-trade area for goods with the EU. David Davis resigned as Brexit secretary and Boris Johnson resigned as Foreign Secretary in protest.

But the election also increased the possibility of a no-deal Brexit. The Financial Times predicted that the result made May more vulnerable to pressure from Euroskeptics and her coalition partners. We saw this play out with the Irish backstop tussle.

With her position weakened, May struggled to unite her party behind her deal and keep control of Brexit.

Scotland's Independence Referendum

Politicians in Scotland pushed for a second independence referendum in the wake of the Brexit vote, but the results of the June 8, 2017 election cast a pall over their efforts. The Scottish National Party lost 21 seats in the Westminster Parliament, and on June 27, 2017, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said her government at Holyrood would "reset" its timetable on independence to focus on delivering a "soft Brexit."

Not one Scottish local area voted to leave the EU, according to the U.K.'s Electoral Commission, though Moray came close at 49.9%. The country as a whole rejected the referendum by 62.0% to 38.0%. But because Scotland only contains 8.4% of the U.K.'s population, its vote to Remain (along with that of Northern Ireland, which accounts for just 2.9% of the U.K.'s population) was vastly outweighed by support for Brexit in England and Wales.

Scotland joined England and Wales to form Great Britain in 1707, and the relationship has been tumultuous at times. The SNP, which was founded in the 1930s, had just six of 650 seats in Westminster in 2010. The following year, however, it formed a majority government in the devolved Scottish Parliament at Holyrood, partly owing to its promise to hold a referendum on Scottish independence.

2014 Scottish Independence Referendum

That referendum, held in 2014, saw the pro-independence side lose with 44.7% of the vote; turnout was 84.6%. Far from putting the independence issue to rest, though, the vote fired up nationalist support. The SNP won 56 of 59 Scottish seats at Westminster the following year, overtaking the Lib Dems to become the third-largest party in the U.K. overall. Britain's electoral map suddenly showed a glaring divide between England and Wales, which was dominated by Tory blue with the occasional patch of Labour red, and all-yellow Scotland.

When Britain voted to leave the EU, Scotland fulminated. A combination of rising nationalism and strong support for Europe led almost immediately to calls for a new independence referendum. When the Supreme Court ruled on Nov. 3, 2017, that devolved national assemblies such as Scotland's parliament cannot veto Brexit, the demands grew louder.

On March 13 that year, Sturgeon called for a second referendum to be held in the autumn of 2018 or spring of 2019. Holyrood backed her by a vote of 69 to 59 on March 28, the day before May's government triggered Article 50.

Sturgeon's preferred timing was significant since the two-year countdown initiated by Article 50 ended in the spring of 2019 when the politics surrounding Brexit could be particularly volatile.

What Would Independence Look Like?

Scotland's economic situation also raised questions about its hypothetical future as an independent country. The crash in the oil price has dealt a blow to government finances. In May 2014, it forecast 20152016 tax receipts from North Sea drilling of 3.4 billion to 9 billion but collected 60 million, less than 1% of the forecasts' midpoint.

In reality, these figures were hypothetical, since Scotland's finances are not fully devolved, but the estimates were based on the country's geographical share of North Sea drilling, so they illustrate what it might expect as an independent nation.

The debate over what currency an independent Scotland would use was revived. Former SNP leader Alex Salmond, who was Scotland's First Minister until Nov. 2014, told The Financial Times that the country could abandon the pound and introduce its own currency, allowing it to float freely or pegging it to sterling. He ruled out joining the euro, but others contended that it would be required for Scotland to join the EU. Another possibility would be to use the pound, which would mean forfeiting control over monetary policy.

Upsides for Some

On the other hand, a weak currency that floats on global markets can be a boon to U.K. producers who export goods. Industries that rely heavily on exports could actually see some benefit.

In 2015, the top 10 exports from the U.K. were (in USD):

Machines, engines, pumps: US$63.9 billion (13.9% of total exports) Gems, precious metals: $53 billion (11.5%) Vehicles: $50.7 billion (11%) Pharmaceuticals: $36 billion (7.8%) Oil: $33.2 billion (7.2%) Electronic equipment: $29 billion (6.3%) Aircraft, spacecraft: $18.9 billion (4.1%) Medical and technical equipment: $18.4 billion (4%) Organic chemicals: $14 billion (3%) Plastics: $11.8 billion (2.6%)

Some sectors were prepared to benefit from the exit. Multinationals listed on the FTSE 100 saw earnings rise as a result of a soft pound. A weak currency was also a boon to the tourism, energy, and service industries.

In May 2016, the State Bank of India (SBIN.NS), India's largest commercial bank, suggested that Brexit would benefit India economically. While leaving the Eurozone meant that the U.K. no longer had unfettered access to Europe's single market, it would allow for more focus on trade with India. India would also have more wiggle room if the U.K. was no longer under European trade rules and regulations.

UK-EU Trade After Brexit

May advocated a "hard" Brexit. By that, she meant that Britain should leave the EU's single market and customs union, then negotiate a trade deal to govern their future relationship. These negotiations would have been conducted during a transition period once a divorce deal was ratified.

The Conservatives' poor showing in the June 2017 snap election called popular support for a hard Brexit into question. Many in the press speculated that the government could take a softer line. The Brexit White Paper released in July 2018 revealed plans for a softer Brexit. It was too soft for many MPs belonging to her party and too audacious for the EU.

The White Paper said the government planned to leave the EU single market and customs union. However, it proposed the creation of a free trade area for goods which would "avoid the need for customs and regulatory checks at the border and mean that businesses would not need to complete costly customs declarations. And it would enable products to only undergo one set of approvals and authorizations in either market, before being sold in both." This meant the U.K. would follow EU single market rules when it comes to goods.

The White Paper acknowledged that a borderless customs arrangement with the EUone that allowed the U.K. to negotiate free trade agreements with third countrieswas "broader in scope than any other that exists between the EU and a third country."

The government was correct that there was no example of this kind of relationship in Europe today. The four broad precedents that existed were the EU's relationship with Norway, Switzerland, Canada, and WTO members.

The Norway Model: Join the EEA

The first option was for the U.K. to join Norway, Iceland, and Lichtenstein in the European Economic Area (EEA), which provides access to the EU's single market for most goods and services (agriculture and fisheries are excluded). At the same time, the EEA is outside the customs union, so Britain could have entered into trade deals with non-EU countries.

But the arrangement was hardly a win-win. The U.K. would be bound by some EU laws while losing its ability to influence those laws through the country's European Council and European Parliament voting rights. In September 2017, May called this arrangement an unacceptable "loss of democratic control."

David Davis expressed interest in the Norway model in response to a question he received at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington. "It's something we've thought about but it's not at the top of our list." He was referring specifically to the European Free Trade Association, which like the EEA offers access to the single market, but not the customs union.

EFTA was once a large organization, but most of its members left to join the EU. Today, it comprises Norway, Iceland, Lichtenstein, and Switzerland; all but Switzerland are also members of the EEA.

The Switzerland Model

Switzerland's relationship with the EU, which is governed by around 20 major bilateral pacts with the bloc, is broadly similar to the EEA arrangement. Along with these three, Switzerland is a member of the European Free Trade Association. Switzerland helped set up the EEA, but its people rejected membership in a 1992 referendum.

The country allows the free movement of people and is a member of the passport-free Schengen Area. It is subject to many single market rules, without having much say in making them. It is outside the customs union, allowing it to negotiate free trade agreements with third countries; usually, but not always, it has negotiated alongside the EEA countries. Switzerland has access to the single market for goods (with the exception of agriculture), but not services (with the exception of insurance). It pays a modest amount into the EU's budget.

Brexit supporters who wanted to "take back control" wouldn't have embraced the concessions the Swiss made on immigration, budget payments, and single market rules. The EU would probably not have wanted a relationship modeled on the Swiss example, either: Switzerland's membership in EFTA but not the EEA, Schengen but not the EU, is a messy product of the complex history of European integration andwhat elsea referendum.

The Canada Model: A Free Trade Agreement

A third option was to negotiate a free trade agreement with the EU along the lines of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, a pact the EU finalized but didn't fully ratify with Canada. The most obvious problem with this approach is that the U.K. had only two years from the triggering of Article 50 to negotiate such a deal. The EU refused to discuss a future trading relationship until December of that year at the earliest.

To give a sense of how tight that timetable is, CETA negotiations began in 2009 and concluded in 2014. But just over half of the EU's 28 national parliaments actually ratified the deal. Persuading the rest could take years. Even subnational legislatures can stand in the way of a deal: the Walloon regional parliament, which represents fewer than four million mainly French-speaking Belgians, single-handedly blocked CETA for a few days in 2016.

In order to extend the two-year deadline for leaving the EU, Britain needed unanimous approval from the EU. Several U.K. politicians, including Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond, stressed the need for a transitional deal of a few years so that (among other reasons) Britain could negotiate EU and third-country trade deals. But this notion was met with resistance from hard-line Brexiteers.

Problems with a CETA-Style Agreement

In some ways, comparing Britain's situation to Canada's is misleading. Canada already enjoys free trade with the U.S. through the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which was built on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). This means that a trade deal with the EU was not as crucial as it is for the U.K. Canada's and Britain's economies are also very different: CETA does not include financial services, one of Britain's biggest exports to the EU.

Speaking in Florence in Sept. 2017, May said the U.K. and EU "can do so much better" than a CETA-style trade agreement, since they were beginning from the "unprecedented position" of sharing a body of rules and regulations. She did not elaborate on what "much better" looked like, besides calling on both parties to be "creative as well as practical."

Monique Ebell, formerly of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research stressed that even with an agreement in place, non-tariff barriers were likely to be a significant drag on Britain's trade with the EU. She expected total U.K. foreign tradenot just flows to and from the EUunder an EU-U.K. trade pact. She reasoned that free-trade deals do not generally handle services trade well. Services are a major component of Britain's international trade; the country enjoys a trade surplus in that segment, which is not the case for goods.

Free trade deals also struggle to rein in non-tariff barriers. Admittedly Britain and the EU started from a unified regulatory scheme, but divergences would only multiply post-Brexit.

WTO: Go It Alone

You want out? You're out. If Britain and the EU weren't able to come to an agreement about their relationship, they would have had to revert to WTO terms. But this default solution wouldn't have been straightforward either. Since Britain is currently a WTO member through the EU, it will have to split tariff schedules with the bloc and divvy out liabilities arising from ongoing trade disputes. This work has already begun.

Trading with the EU on WTO terms was the "no-deal" scenario the Conservative government presented as an acceptable fallback, though most observers see this as a negotiating tactic. In July 2017, U.K. Secretary of State for International Trade Liam Fox said, "People talk about the WTO as if it would be the end of the world. But they forget that is how they currently trade with the United States, with China, with Japan, with India, with the Gulf, and our trading relationship is strong and healthy."

But for certain industries, the EU's external tariff would have hit hard: Britain exports 77% of the cars it manufactures, and 58% of these go to Europe. The EU levies 10% tariffs on imported cars. Monique Ebell of the NIESR estimated that leaving the EU single market would reduce overall U.K. goods and services tradenot just that with the EUby 2230%.

Nor would the U.K. only be giving up its trade arrangements with the EU: under any of the scenarios above, it would probably have lost the trade agreements the bloc struck with 63 third countries, as well as progress in negotiating other deals. Replacing these and adding new ones would have been an uncertain prospect. In a September 2017 interview with Politico, Trade Secretary Liam Fox said his office, which was formed in July 2016, turned away some third countries looking to negotiate free trade deals because it lacked the capacity to negotiate.

Fox wanted to roll the terms of existing EU trade deals over into new agreements, but some countries were unwilling to give Britain (66 million people, $2.6 trillion GDP) the same terms as the EU (excluding Britain, around 440 million people, $13.9 trillion GDP).

Negotiations with third countries are technically not allowed while Britain remains an EU member, but even so informal talks have begun, particularly with the U.S.

Impact on the U.S.

Companies in the U.S. across a wide variety of sectors have made large investments in the U.K. over many years. In fact, American corporations have derived 9% of global foreign affiliate profit from the United Kingdom since 2000. In 2014 alone, U.S. companies invested a total of $588 billion into Britain. The U.S. also hires a lot of Brits, making U.S. companies one of the U.K.'s largest job markets. The output of U.S. affiliates in the United Kingdom was $153 billion in 2013. The United Kingdom plays a vital role in corporate America's global infrastructure from assets under management (AUM), international sales, and research and development (R&D) advancements.

American companies have viewed Britain as a strategic gateway to other countries in the European Union. Brexit will jeopardize the affiliate earnings and stock prices of many companies strategically aligned with the United Kingdom, which may see them reconsider their operations with U.K. and European Union members.

American companies and investors that have exposure to European banks and credit markets may be affected by credit risk. European banks may have to replace $123 billion in securities depending on how the exit unfolds. Furthermore, U.K. debt may not be included in European banks' emergency cash reserves, creating liquidity problems. European asset-backed securities have been in decline since 2007. This decline is likely to intensify now that Britain has chosen to leave.

Who's Next to Leave the EU?

Political wrangling over Europe is not limited to Britain. Most EU members have strong euroskeptic movements that, while they have so far struggled to win power at the national level, heavily influence the tenor of national politics. In a few countries, there is a chance that such movements could secure referendums on EU membership.

In May 2016, global research firm IPSOS released a report showing that a majority of respondents in Italy and France believe their countries should hold a referendum on EU membership.

Italy

The fragile Italian banking sector has driven a wedge between the EU and the Italian government, which provided bailout funds to save mom-and-pop bondholders from being "bailed-in," as EU rules stipulate. The government abandoned its 2019 budget when the EU threatened it with sanctions. It lowered its planned budget deficit from 2.5% of GDP to 2.04%.

Matteo Salvini, the far-right head of Italy's Northern League and the country's deputy prime minister, called for a referendum on EU membership hours after the Brexit vote, saying, "This vote was a slap in the face for all those who say that Europe is their own business and Italians don't have to meddle with that."

The Northern League has an ally in the populist Five Star Movement, whose founder, former comedian Beppe Grillo, called for a referendum on Italy's membership in the eurothough not the EU. The two parties formed a coalition government in 2018 and made Giuseppe Conte prime minister. Conte ruled out the possibility of "Italexit" in 2018 during the budget standoff.

France

Marine Le Pen, the leader of France's euroskeptic National Front, hailed the Brexit vote as a win for nationalism and sovereignty across Europe: "Like a lot of French people, I'm very happy that the U.K. people held on and made the right choice. What we thought was impossible yesterday has now become possible." She lost the French presidential election to Emmanuel Macron in May 2017, gaining just 33.9% of votes.

Macron has warned that the demand for "Frexit" will grow if the EU does not see reforms. According to a February 2019 IFOP poll, 40% of French citizens want the country to leave the EU. Frexit is also one of the demands of the yellow vest protesters.

When Did Britain Officially Leave the European Union? Britain officially left the EU on Jan. 31, 2020, at 11 p.m. GMT. The move came after a referendum voted in favor of Brexit on June 23, 2016.

What Were the Reasons Behind Brexit? There were many reasons why Britain voted to leave the European Union. But some of the main issues behind Brexit included a rise in nationalism, immigration, political autonomy, and the economy. The Leave side garnered almost 52% of the votes while the Remain side received about 48% of the vote.

How Many Countries Are Part of the EU Post-Brexit? Britain's departure from the European Union left 27 member states. They are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden,

The Bottom Line

The European Union was established in November 1993 with the Maastricht Treaty. The original members included Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Fifteen other countries would gain membership in the union. Rising nationalist sentiment, coupled with concerns over the economy and British sovereignty led the majority of voters in the U.K. to leave the EU. Britain left the union at the end of January 2020 in what is commonly called Brexit. But the move didn't come without challenges. It required two years of negotiating a deal and a year-long transition period before everything became final.
President Joe Biden has a unique and challenging task: Managing the nation's economic recovery after a global pandemic that caused unemployment to surge to levels not seen since the Great Depression. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts global growth will be 2.7% in 2023. That's down from a rate of 6.0% in 2021. Some of the reasons for the slowdown include ongoing issues stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and a slowdown in China's economy.

Joe Biden was inaugurated as President of the United States on Jan. 20, 2021.

The economic agendas of the candidates were even more important during the 2020 election than usual. After all, Franklin D. Roosevelt beat Herbert Hoover by a landslide in the 1932 presidential election because he promised "a new deal for the American people."

President Joe Biden attacked former president Donald Trump's handling of the coronavirus efforts and released a seven-point plan of his own, which included:

A nationwide mask mandate

More testing

Ramping up personal protective equipment production

Establishing a renewable fund for state and local governments

Investing $25 billion in a vaccine manufacturing and distribution plan

Fixing the country's relationship with the World Health Organization (WHO)

Before being elected, Biden also called for the next government stimulus and relief package to be larger than $2 trillion and said it should include much more aid for states and come with a higher degree of oversight. The American Rescue Plan was signed into law by President Biden on March 11, 2021, and cost $1.9 trillion, making it one of the largest economic rescue plans in U.S. history.

Trump signed four bills designed to offer relief to the American economy. The first bill, the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act, was signed on March 6, 2020, and allocated $8.3 billion to fund various efforts. The Families First Coronavirus Response Act was signed on March 18. On March 27, 2020, Trump signed the $2.2 trillion CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) Act. The fourth package, nicknamed Phase 3.5, was signed on April 24, 2020 and basically refunds programs created in the CARES Act with $484 billion.

Here we compare the economic policies of former President Trump and President Joe Biden. Trump provided few details for his plans for the economy during his second term outside of his 2021 budget proposal, released in February 2020 before the pandemic's impact was fully known, and a second-term agenda with general goals and priorities.

Infrastructure

Key Takeaways Both Trump and Biden wanted infrastructure bills worth more than $1 trillion.

Republicans did not want infrastructure spending in coronavirus stimulus bills; Democrats do.

Biden's plan focused on climate change as well.

Trump

Trump, who campaigned on the promise of rebuilding America, sought an infrastructure bill. There appeared to be bipartisan support for such a bill. He claimed he wanted a big and bold $2 trillion plan, as part of the next congressional coronavirus relief package.

When asked how the U.S. would fund another massive package, he cited the low borrowing rates. He did not provide details of his plan. His agenda mentioned winning the 5G race and establishing a national high-speed wireless internet network.

Biden

Joe Biden released a 10-year, $1.3 trillion infrastructure plan as part of his election campaign. He said his plan will move the U.S. to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions and create jobs to expand the middle class. Some of the facets of the plan were:

$400 billion for a new federal program for clean energy research and innovation

$100 billion to modernize schools

$50 billion on repairing roads, bridges, and highways in his first year in office

$20 billion on rural broadband infrastructure

$10 billion for transit projects that serve high-poverty areas with limited transportation options

He said his plan will be paid for by "reversing the excesses of the Trump tax cuts for corporations; reducing incentives for tax havens, evasion, and outsourcing; ensuring corporations pay their fair share; closing other loopholes in our tax code that reward wealth, not work; and ending subsidies for fossil fuels."

Taxes

Key Takeaways Trump wanted to extend the 2017 tax overhaul for individuals.

Biden planned to roll back tax cuts and apply a payroll tax to those making more than $400,000.

75% of Biden's tax hike will be borne by the top 1%.

Trump

In the February 2020 budget proposal, the Trump administration assumed the individual income tax provisions included in the massive Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) and set to expire in 2025 would be extended. Between 2025 and 2030, these tax cuts would cost the federal government $1.5 trillion, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

The budget also proposed repealing renewable energy tax credits, offering tax credits for then-education secretary Betsy DeVos' Education Freedom Scholarship program, and raising the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) budget by about $15 billion over a decade.

Trump's agenda mentioned Made in America tax credits for companies and expanding the Opportunity Zones program to boost investment in economically distressed communities. The former president also called for permanent payroll tax cuts.

Biden

Throughout his campaign, Biden promised that he would limit any tax hikes to people earning above $400,000, and remains committed to his pledge that individuals making under that figure won't have their taxes increased.

Biden proposed to raise the top income tax rate back to 39.6% from 37% and the top corporate income tax rate to 28% from 21%. His plans also included taxing capital gains and dividends at ordinary rates for those with annual incomes of more than $1 million and imposing a 15% minimum tax on the book income of large companies. The tax rate on profits earned by foreign subsidiaries of U.S. firms would be doubled to 21%.

According to the Tax Policy Center, Biden's tax proposals could increase revenue by $4 trillion between 2021 and 2030. It is estimated that 93% of the tax increases would be borne by taxpayers in the top 20% of households by income. The top 1% of households would pay three-quarters of the tax hike.

Health Care

Key Takeaways Trump's budget proposed spending cuts to Medicare and Medicaid.

Biden is opposed to Medicare for All but wants to create a public option.

Biden wanted to lower the Medicare eligibility age to 60.

Trump

In the 2021 budget proposal, the Trump administration proposed deep health care spending cuts over the next decade, especially to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act ($1 trillion over ten years) and Medicare ($756 billion over ten years). It requested $94.5 billion for the Department of Health and Human Services, a 10% decrease from the 2020 enacted level.

His agenda, however, mentioned protecting Social Security and Medicare besides lowering health care insurance premiums and ending surprise billing. Trump repeatedly promised to bring down drug prices, without significant results.

Biden

Biden didn't miss an opportunity to mention he was next to former President Obama when the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed into law and vowed to protect and expand it. He said he would eliminate the 400% income cap on tax credit eligibility and lower the limit on the cost of coverage to 8.5% of income.

Instead of the Medicare for All plan suggested by his progressive rivals, Biden said he wanted to create a similar public health insurance option. He also wanted to lower the eligibility age for Medicare to 60 from 65.

More than an estimated 97% of Americans are covered under this plan, which is expected to cost $750 billion over a decade. It will be paid for through revenue from his capital gains reform. The cost estimation, however, was provided by the campaign in 2020, before expanding Medicare access to younger people was suggested.

Trade

Key Takeaways Trump didn't dial back the China trade war rhetoric during his presidency.

U.S. trade deficit fell for the first time in six years in 2019.

Biden wanted a coalition with international allies to pressure China.

Trump

The trade war with China was the centerpiece of Trump's trade policy during his first term. He promised to put America first in all dealings with countries and penalize those the U.S. has a high trade deficit with or he believed are unfairly taxing American companies overseas.

Angering Beijing while the overburdened U.S. health care system depends on China for medical supplies was a risk. in2018, Chinese medical supplies accounted for 48% of all personal protective equipment imports in the U.S.

The U.S. monthly international trade deficit was $39.9 billion in February 2020, the lowest since September 2016. Contributing to this was the impact of COVID-19 on Chinese manufacturing. On an annual basis, the deficit fell for the first time in six years in 2019 to $616.8 billion.

Biden

As he described in his article for Foreign Affairs titled "Why America Must Lead Again," Biden plans to help America's position in the global economy by investing at home in innovation and the middle classes first.

He promised to do this before entering any new trade agreements. He also said the best way to confront China on intellectual property and technology transfers is by forming a coalition with allies and partners, not through unilateral tariffs.

Jobs and Wages

Key Takeaways For both Trump and Biden, creating jobs through infrastructure investments should be a priority.

Trump planned to continue the "Buy American, Hire American" immigration agenda.

Biden wanted to raise the minimum wage to $15, but Trump was against it.

Trump

The U.S. economy created 6.6 million jobs during the first three years after Trump took office. This was good but not particularly impressive when we look at Labor Department data and consider the state of the economy when he took office. While economic immigration programs became stricter under his tenure, he stopped short of big rule changes like revoking the right of spouses of H-1B visa holders to work.

Millions of jobs were erased amid the COVID-19 crisis and may take a while to return. Trump's idea to spur job creation was through a $2 trillion infrastructure bill. He floated the idea of the government buying four or five years' worth of plane tickets to help the industry with cash. He also put a freeze on new green cards to protect American workers, asking his administration to review guest worker programs. The freeze was initially in place for 60 days until June 2020 and was later extended until Dec. 31, 2020.

Trump also wanted to boost manufacturing in the U.S. and aimed to bring back one million manufacturing jobs from China. He recommended:

No federal contracts for companies that outsource to the country

Tax credits for companies that bring jobs back to the U.S.

100% expensing deductions for essential industries that return manufacturing to the U.S.

Trump said in the past he would like to see some increase in the federal minimum wage but would prefer to leave it up to states. The left-leaning Economic Policy Institute said the National Labor Relations Board under Trump "advanced an anti-worker, anti-union, corporate agenda that has undermined workers ability to form unions and engage in collective bargaining."

Biden

Biden said he wanted to create millions of middle-class jobs through his infrastructure plan. The plan involved building renewable energy infrastructure, anchor institutions, and climate resiliency industries. It included increasing funding for such programs as the New Markets Tax Credit, the Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI), and the Economic Development Administration, an agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce.

His plan to help the manufacturing sector included quadrupling funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership and providing tax credits for communities that experienced mass layoffs or the closure of a major government institution.

Biden also wanted to increase the federal minimum wage to $15 and believes labor leaders should be involved in new trade deal negotiations. Due to the health crisis, he proposed getting all 50 states to adopt short-time compensation programs that are fully and permanently funded by the federal government.

The plan also included reforms to the temporary visa programs to make sure the government is not disincentivizing recruiting workers from the U.S. Plus, he planned to increase employment-based green cards to 140,000 each year.

Climate Change

Key Takeaways Trump believes climate change is a hoax.

Biden wanted net-zero emissions by 2050not soon enough, say critics.

Trump pulled America out of the Paris climate agreement, while Biden rejoined.

Trump

Trump doesn't believe in climate change and is a strong supporter of the fossil fuels industry. As president, he rolled back environmental rules, planned to lease millions of acres of public land for drilling, and began the long process to exit the Paris climate agreement. His agenda vaguely mentioned cleaning up our planet's oceans and maintaining access to clean air and drinking water.

Biden

Climate change is mentioned in many of his plans, especially infrastructure and trade. But critics say his plan wasn't ambitious enough.

The requirements for his proposed plan include federal spending of $2 trillion over his first term in an attempt to put the U.S. on the path to achieving a 100% clean energy economy with net-zero emissions no later than 2050. Biden said it will be paid for by reversing Trump-era corporate tax cuts and ending subsidies for fossil fuels among other things.

Here's some of what's in it:

Rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement, make climate change part of foreign policy, enact trade negotiations, and demand a worldwide ban on fossil fuel subsidies

A carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035

Upgrade and modernize U.S. buildings and infrastructure

Zero-emissions public transportation options for all cities by 2030

$400 billion investment in climate innovation and research

Tax incentives and credits

500,000 new EV public charging outlets and use federal procurement to increase demand for American-made, American-sourced clean vehicles

Methane pollution limits

No ban on fracking, but he does plan to ban new permits for oil and gas drilling on federal land and offshore

Student Debt

Key Takeaways Trump wanted to scrap loan subsidies and forgiveness for public service.

Trump planned to create a single income-driven repayment program.

Biden proposed forgiving student debt for poorer grads.

Trump

The Trump administration's 2021 budget proposal requested $66.6 billion for the Department of Education, a $5.6 billion or 7.8% decrease from 2020. It proposed eliminating the Public Service Loan Forgiveness and subsidized loan programs.

Trump also intended to replace the four income-driven repayment programs with a single one that capped monthly payments at 12.5%. It forgave undergraduate loans after 15 years instead of 20 years and raised the period for graduate loan repayment to 30 years from 25 years.

Biden

Joe Biden made his student debt plan more generous. This included the immediate cancelation of a minimum of $10,000 of student debt per person, as was originally suggested by Senator Elizabeth Warren.

Biden proposed forgiving all undergraduate, tuition-related federal student debt for low-income and middle-class individuals (earning up to $125,000) who attended public colleges and universities, private historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), and private, underfunded minority-serving institutions. This will be funded by repealing the high-income "excess business losses" tax cut in the CARES Act.

As of August 2022, the following changes were enacted by the Biden administration;
Switzerland remains high atop the list of preferred tax havens due to its low taxation of foreign corporations and individuals. Although Switzerland is no longer a place to "hide" money due to pressure from the United States and the European Union (EU), it still offers the wealthy some benefits for living and keeping their money there.

Key Takeaways The European nation of Switzerland is considered to be an international tax haven due to low tax levels and privacy laws.

This image, however, may be overstated since only very wealthy individuals or corporations can afford to buy their way out of normal taxes.

Furthermore, the country's once heralded privacy laws have been weakened through pressure by the EU and US.

Taxation: The Big Draw

Contrary to popular opinion, Switzerland does not allow foreign individuals to live and bank in its borders tax-free. However, wealthy individuals can pay a low, lump-sum option on the money they bank inside the country, and the government considers their taxes paid. To simplify matters, the government bases the amount of tax foreigners owe on seven times their monthly rent. The country also taxes households, rather than individuals, and this simplifies, and sometimes lowers, taxation for wealthy couples.

For the wealthy, this level of low taxation is viewed as an unparalleled benefit of living in Switzerland. It is important to note that these tax benefits are not available to individuals who relocate to Switzerland for employment purposes.

Foreign corporations have plenty of reasons to set up offices in Switzerland. The national government offers significant tax breaks to companies that hold 10% shares of other corporations. Specifically, the government reduces the amount of taxes a corporation owes on profit based on the number of shares it owns. As such, shell corporations often set up operations in Switzerland to take advantage of low or no taxation.

Financial Privacy on Thin Ice

Swiss financial institutions have a deeply rooted history in holding the secrets of the wealthy, dating back to the French kings in the early 18th century. Further, Swiss banks held up under pressure from activist groups and nation-states to reveal the secrets of accounts created by members of the Nazi regime during World War II. However, in response to the global financial crisis of 2008, Swiss banks have caved to pressure from the United States and the European Union to reveal financial secrets of wealthy account holders.

Switzerland is a signatory to the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, commonly known as FATCA, which obligates Swiss banks to reveal information about U.S. account holders or face penalties. The country signed a similar agreement with the European Union, effectively ending privacy for EU Swiss bank account holders. In spite of these radical changes, Switzerland maintains a top three position on the Financial Secrecy Index in 2020.
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BREA, Calif. - October 19, 2022 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Mullen Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ: MULN), an emerging electric vehicle ("EV") manufacturer, announces the US Bankruptcy Court approval on Oct. 13th, 2022 of its acquisition of electric vehicle company ELMS's (Electric Last Mile Solutions) assets in an all cash purchase.

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Breaking EV Stock News: Mullen (NASDAQ: MULN) Announces the I-GO, New Urban Commercial Electric Delivery Vehicle Available Now for European Markets

BREA, Calif. - October 24, 2022 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Mullen Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ: MULN), an emerging electric vehicle ("EV") manufacturer, announces today it has secured exclusive sales, distribution and branding rights to the new compact urban delivery electric vehicle, the I-GO, which is fully EU Standard homologated and certified for sale in select European Markets.

Top EV Stock News - Investor Idea

EV Stocks Driving Higher: (NASDAQ: $MULN) (NASDAQ: $TSLA) (NYSE: $NIO) (NYSE: $F)

Vancouver, Delta, BC - October 20, 2022 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Investorideas.com, a leading investor news resource covering EV and automotive stocks releases a special report featuring Mullen Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ: MULN), covering the continued growth of the EV market as government policy and infrastructure plans sync up with consumer and investor interest in the EV space.

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Breaking AI Stock News: FatBrain (OTCQB: LZGI) Acquires Confidential Computing Platform ZeroTrust to Protect Data Privacy and Accelerate Innovation for Millions of Growth Businesses

NEW YORK, NY - October 19, 2022 (Investorideas.com Newswire) FatBrain AI (LZG International, Inc.) (OTCQB: LZGI), the leader in powerful and easy-to-use artificial intelligence (AI) solutions for star enterprises of tomorrow, has acquired the confidential computing and privacy intellectual property (IP) plus software assets of Zero2A PTE LTD ("ZeroTrust Platform"), a software company based in Singapore.

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There are many things to do when in Singapore such as utilising its location to take short vacations to neighbouring countries in South East Asia, a feat made easier with budget airlines. Yet, while in Singapore itself, there is no greater activity than The Great Singapore Sale (GSS) which occurs yearly in this shop-till-you-drop hub.

Every year Singapore plays host to shopaholics as it launches the GSS  a two month shopping bonanza that started on the 3rd June this year and ends on the 14th of August. With discounts of up to 90% on certain goods and services, and large SALE! banners lining the streets, it wouldnt be difficult to imagine that that is the national flag! There is one downside to all this shopping madness, the ability to sieve through the list of options to find something that is suitable and perfect for you  a daunting task one might say.

Here we have collated a list of very crucial apps to have on your iOS device to help you survive the GSS this year. But, before starting on this journey you need to pay homage to where it all begin  The Great Singapore Sale website.

This website, lists out all the basic attractions, events and special deals for tourists that can help you get accommodation packages, event promotion deals and more. Of these, you would want to start with the accommodation part first so as to store your shopping securely each time you go out to add more to that collection.

Accommodation

Accommodation in Singapore can be a pricy affair with not only business travellers, but hoards of tourists rushing in and thus finding a decent room at a cheap price might not always be the case when using the GSS website as mentioned above. To not only beat the hassle of booking through a hotel, but also to gain a culturally immersive experience and get to know the city intimately from a local perspective, the first apps you need are Airbnb and Couchsurfing. Both these apps are available for free at the Apps Store and are safe to use in a cosmopolitan city like Singapore.

Both these apps are available for the iPhone as well as the iPad, however, Airbnb has gone a step further and developed a version of their app for the Apple Watch, where it allows you to reply as well as check-out listings.









Download: Airbnb and Couchsurfing

Once some semblance of accommodation has been arranged for your stay in Singapore, you would want to save time and dive head first into the shopping, but wait, dont do that until you have first found out how to get there. For this endeavour, a host of transport apps are available for you to utilise.

Transport

When it comes to transport, the government of Singapore has not only done an excellent job at it, but this tiny island nation has had its transport solutions and ideas copied by many other countries  thats just how good public transport here is.

The rail lines are all interconnected and serve as the easiest and fastest form of transportation through the nation with bus services acting as a support. To navigate the massive rail network is a very easy task, given that all signage is in english (thanks to our colloquial masters) and there is an app that can help you move about and direct you from place to place  MyTransport Singapore.

Not only does it display an interactive MRT (train service in Singapore) map that one can use to navigate from location to location, but also helps display nearby bus stops and associated bus service routes. Though it does have other services that are more geared to the locals, it is an excellent transport app that tourists can utilise as well. The app is also available for iPad users.





Another option for travelling through the city is to use Citymapper. This app not only has a comprehensive travel guide and bus route listing, but also allows you to save the routes for later usage. This is an excellent way for you to pre-plan the trips and shopping routes.





If buses and trains are not bourgeoise enough an option for you to consider when travelling through Singapore or for the days you have excess shopping, you can always use Uber or the local option  Grab. These apps are designed to beat the taxi queues and allow you to do a booking for no fee whatsoever unlike the apps by the taxi companies in Singapore which charge you a booking fee for each cab you call. Grab also has the option of Grab Economy  a mid-priced pre-fixed pricing option in the event you are afraid of taxi drivers showing you more of the city than you care to explore.







Download: MyTransport Singapore, Citymapper, Uber and Grab

Once you have your transport arranged, there is little that is stopping you from reaching your ultimate goal  shopping at The Great Singapore Sale! To achieve this in the most organised and systematic manner there are a host of apps that are available depending on your preferred method of shopping.

Shopping!

As you finally head out to your main activity, you should know that there are a plethora of applications that can help you navigate more than just Orchard Road. They bring you access to exclusives, deals and show you other malls which might be closer to your location as a way to allow you to avoid the hustle and bustle and still come out on-top.

Shopping Centres and Malls

The first of these apps that you might wish to download is SG Malls Directory. IT allows you to bring up information regarding different shopping centres in Singapore and shows you the accessibility of the mall by public transport. It also has a link tot he website and can direct you to the place using your default map application. It also highlights if the mall has a movie theatre so those who might want to catch that blockbuster flick after a day of shopping can easily plan to do so.





Another nifty app  Pocket Malls Singapore goes a step further and includes a in-mall map for some shopping centres and makes it easier to navigate within. The map is powered by Google Maps and thus you would need that app pre-installed to utilise this feature.





Download: SG Malls Directory and Pocket Malls SG

Online Retailers

For those who like to compare online prices and find cheaper or better deals, there are the tripartite apps that provide this service in Singapore  Zalora, Carousell and Shopee SG. These apps connect you to the world of online retailers as well as locals who are selling products  some of which are not available at retailers.

Zalora is good in that it connects you with local and regional designers as well as giving you the ability to purchase named brands that tie-in with them. So if you are looking at taking back something unique and not found in global brands that fill the retail space in shops, this is most definitely the best way to go.





Carousell and Shopee SG on the other hand have more individuals who are retailing as opposed to brands and shops. Though this may seem sub-par, they are chock-a-bloc full of excellent deals for pre-loved and inspired fashion. Shopee SG also has a delivery option where your purchases are sent to you for free, while Carousell lets you bargain with retailers to enjoy even more discounts and saving  try bargaining at Armani or Zara and see if that works?







Download: Zalora, Carousell and Shopee SG

After shopping takes a toll on your body, it would be time to refuel yourself before embarking on round 2. Given that Singapore experiences a lot of tourists and travellers within this melting-pot society, it directly translates to the abundance of food opportunities available. To tap into this, you can try using the various apps dedicated to bringing you closer to food or vice-versa.

Food, Glorious Food!

Singapore has no defined cuisine, with the major races being Chinese, Malay and Indian, there is a variety of cuisine that can satisfy anyones desire. With fusion foods and combinations that are available nowhere else on earth, it is safe to say you will enjoy the local fare just as much (or more) as you enjoy your shopping. With options galore, you can have every meal outside and never have to repeat a restaurant or cuisine for the entirety of your stay.

Food Reviews

The first app you would download for this endeavour would be SoShiok, which gives you a laundry list of eateries, their associated reviews and guides to finding the best meals in town. Created by the leading press holding company, this app not only has good reviews but connects you with local food bloggers who regularly update the reviews of locations and keep the operators on their toes. The critics will be able to give you insights on not only where to eat but also how best to enjoy your food  like eating prata should be done with hands for that authentic feel. Best of all, it has recipes so that your friends back home can enjoy the local fare as you whip it up in your kitchen!





Download: SoShiok

Dining-Out

After having decided on a cuisine, you can try using HungryGoWhere and Chope (also available for the Apple Watch) to help you find locations where you can enjoy your local meal. Both these apps not only have a tie-in with restaurants but also have a reward programme for users that offer discounts for your dining. Furthermore, they have special offers and access to deals that are happening in conjunction with events, such as the Vegetarian Week event where restaurants prepare a special one-off menu.







For a more traditional and easy to use dining out option, you can download eatigo, which gives a pre-fixed discount based on the reservation timing. These discounts vary in their offering and can go as high as 50% for certain quiet hours. (Do take not that in Singapore, the first sitting is at 7:30 pm and second sitting occurs at 9:30 pm)





Download: HungryGoWhere, Chope and eatigo

Dining-In

The two best apps for having food delivered right to your doorstep, be it your hotel or homestay, for those lazy nights are UberEATS and Deliveroo. While UberEATS is relatively new and has yet to cover the entirety of Singapore, Deliveroo has been around long enough to have a good base of options available. Both apps are similar in nature and tie-in with the many restaurants that are available in Singapore to bring you the best food, hot and fresh, so you dont have to step-out. Both inform you when the driver has picked up your order and allow you to watch his progress as he brings the food closer to you.







Download: UberEATS and Deliveroo

Shopping might be the main activity for your vacation, but when you are done, and there is no more space to fill your luggage, then that is the time to kick back and try out some of the more cultural activities that are abundant in Singapore.

Attractions and Self-Guided Activities

To indulge in all things Singapore, be it the museums or parks or nature reserves, Pangea Guides Singapore has them all covered. This app is an all-in-one hub for those looking to see the less crowded side of the bustling city. The app also gives you access to emergency numbers, currency conversion rates and allows you to set reminders for activities you have planned. With a simple user interface, and easy to navigate options, this app does a wonderful job for even the least tech-savvy person.





Download: Pangea Guides Singapore

Finally, when you are done with all the museums and all the shopping and it is time to head home, dont forget to download the best departure app that gives you access to the important information at the airport.

Departure

The only pre-departure app you need to assist with your tax refunds and to guide you through the airport would be iChangi. Given that Changi International Airport covers an immense area and has 3 interlinked terminals each with their last min shopping opportunities, this app is essential in navigating through the same. So hopefully you dont get lost buying that present you almost forgot for your wife, though we do sincerely hope, you brought her for the shopping to begin with.





Download: iChangi

Well, that about concludes the list of apps you would require when shopping in Singapore during The Great Singapore Sale period. I do hope you have a blast during your shopping trip here, be it with family or a loved one; there will always be something that Singapore has to offer.

If in your course of the stay, you come across any other apps that you believe are worthy of mention, do let us know in the comments below, if not, Happy Holidays!

[P.S. If someone you know is still on Android and wants to know what apps to download for their trip to Singapore, they can check out our article on Android Beat  The Best Android Apps for The Great Singapore Sale
The premier of the Canadian province of New Brunswick has been criticized for his bizarre appointment of a Minister for Celtic Affairs.

Brian Gallant shuffled his cabinet on Monday evening, appointing Lisa Harris in the dual role of Minister of Seniors and Long-term Care, and Minister responsible for Celtic Affairs.

Critics have dubbed the portfolio creation as bizarre and laughable, however, with some saying that the Liberal premier is pandering to the wishes of the monolingual New Brunswick community angry at provincial bilingual requirements, and it is not, as Gallant claims, an attempt to support the Irish, Scottish, and Welsh festivals in the province.

Its a nice way for us to have a co-ordinated approach to the investments that we make in that realm, Gallant said.

Many festivals are supported by the government, whether its the Irish festival in the Miramichi or whether its Scottish festivals that happen in many communities.

A minister for Celtic affairs is an interesting idea, which @BathurstBrian has suggested a few times before. #nbpoli https://t.co/O1QdDQAOK9  Brian Gallant (@BrianGallantNB) June 2, 2016

Green Party Leader David Coon has accused Gallant of attempting to placate those who oppose bilingualism and duality in New Brunswick, the only constitutionally bilingual (EnglishFrench) province in Canada, while political scientist Mario Levesque told CBC Canada, "If he thinks that the people of New Brunswick and anglophones in particular are that naive to buy that hook, line and sinker he's way off base."

Read more: The only official Gaeltacht outside of Ireland is in Ontario (VIDEOS)

Coon believes the pressure placed on the government regarding requirements to hire bilingual staff and supply separate French and English school buses is the basis of the decision.

I think theyre trying to send a message that somehow theyre promoting at least one part of the anglophone side, he said. It would have been fair to have in the department, perhaps a culture section for Celtic Affairs with someone with that responsibility, but actually to appoint a minister of Celtic Affairs seems unnecessary.

The only explanation I can think of is that the government has been sensitive to claims that it is too pro-French language, too pro-Acadian [Francophone] and it is doing this in some way to try to correct the balance. I dont think thats going to impress anybody, commented Tom Bateman, who teaches political science at St. Thomas University in Fredericton.

I dont think this will do anything to mollify peoples other concerns about language in the province.

Those with ties to Celtic culture, however, have welcomed the move, stating that it will bode well for the future of many festivals celebrating different Celtic heritage throughout the province.

Steven Tweedie, the past president of the Greater Moncton Scottish Association and chair of the Moncton Highland Games, believes its high time those of Irish, Scottish, and Welsh descent were no longer landed in the same category as the English, also claiming that as much as half of the Brunswick population has Scottish, Irish or Welsh backgrounds.

"Celtic peoples in the past have always been lumped in with English  but that doesn't cut it when it comes to our heritage," he said.

"There are a lot of things that go on that tend to make some of us feel that we've been forgotten about and I think this provides the opportunity to bring those things back to the spotlight."

Tweedie is hopeful, in particular, that the addition of a Celtic portfolio will see a rise in support given to New Brunswick Celtic Festivals such as the Highland Games.

"The prominence of these events seems to be dropping off, he continued, and we need to recognize the number of people that share a Celtic background and ensure that people don't forget that heritage."

Delighted these wonderful Highland Dancers performed at Swearing-In Ceremony.#MiramichiBayNeguac pic.twitter.com/goYccZWKwj  Lisa Harris (@MLALisaHarris) June 8, 2016

Although the creation of a Celtic portfolio could be seen to cover the promotion of Celtic languages, if any, in the province, Levesque has argued that the new minister represents a monolingual portion of the population who are not in danger of losing a part of their culture through a loss of their language in the same way that French-speakers in the area do, he claims.

"The thing is, whenever you appoint a minister for a designated population, it's usually a minority population," he explained

"Anglophones are not under threat of their culture or anything else right now so it's quite the opposite, so from that perspective this is totally off."

The political scientist suggests it would have been more beneficial for Gallant to create a portfolio for immigration. This call has been echoed by Alex LeBlanc, executive director of the New Brunswick Multicultural Council, as New Brunswick continues to seek out immigrants to boost its shrinking population.

Quebec, Nova Scotia and Ontario have all done that. It could be a strong signal for New Brunswickers and for the federal government that we take those issues seriously, he said.

The province of New Brunswick is Canada's only officially bilingual province with Anglophones making up around two-thirds of the population. The French-speaking community is highly represented, however, making up the majority of the remaining third while 33.2 per cent of the population claim to speak both languages.

Tensions surrounding the province's bilingual policy have been a constant presence, however, with some Anglophones claiming that the preservation of a French-language public services and fair representation in public sector employment is inefficient and not worthwhile.

The argument in New Brunswick echoes the claims of those opposed to the support of the Irish language in Ireland, where supporters of Irish often clash with those who do not see its benefits.

Read more: Twitter storm as company suggest Irish girl change her name to English
An Irish woman who was buried alive during a time of the Great Hunger in the 18th century gave grave robbers the shock of their lives when she woke up during the robbery.

Margorie MCall was born in 1705 in Lurgan, County Armagh. As an adult, she took ill and was pronounced dead. She was buried in the Shankill Graveyard.

"Margorie McCall was reputed to have lived once but buried twice, as it says on her grave stone, historian Jim Conway told Independent.ie.

"This is the grave I have been asked many questions about, as there are a lot of people who are skeptical about the truth  whether the story is myth or not.

"I believe the story to be true based on my research."

He described how Marjorie was woken from her slumber by grave robbers.

"Shortly after she was buried the grave robbers came to retrieve the ring," he said, referring to a valuable ring that McCall was supposedly wearing.

"They dug up the grave and tried to get the ring from her finger." As they cut her finger they drwe blood and woke the "dead" woman. The robbers fled.

"She was reported to live in Church Place, Lurgan and returned home with a knock at the door. Her husband opened the door to find Margorie standing in front of him," he continued.

The story goes that "Margorie went on to have more children before dying in her old age and [was] buried in the same spot."

"Her headstone now reads Margorie McCall  Lived Once, Buried Twice."

Read more: Montreals Irish fight for memorial to the 6,000 famine immigrants who died of typhus
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Almost 120,000 students have begun their Leaving and Junior Cert exams.

Both grades sat English Paper 1 this morning.

Junior Cert students are sitting the second English paper this afternoon while Home Economics is up on the Leaving Cert.

Full-time second-level teacher Luke Saunders, founder of Studyclix.ie, the website that breaks down Junior and Leaving Certificate exam questions by topic, gives his expert opinion on todays English papers.

Leaving Cert English Paper 1

Todays higher level English paper didnt have any major surprises and most students would have been happy with it.

For the first time ever within a leaving cert paper students were asked to write a blog post, a sign that examiners are moving with the times.

Higher level students were asked to write a blog post for an online campaign that opposed public expenditure on space exploration while ordinary level students were asked to imagine they were tourists and to write a travel blog based on their experiences and views on Ireland.

At Higher level, the Composition section offered a variety of discursive titles and short stories.

Other options for the composition included:

to write an essay on the three greatest achievements in human history

to write a short story that centres around two characters and a car journey

to write a speech, that can be serious or amusing, in which you describe what you see as the essential elements of the Irish character

to write a speech forwarding the motion that young people should travel and see the World before joining the workforce or furthering their education

"At Ordinary level, the Composition section offered a wide variety of titles with some unusual options:

Writing a personal essay about the pleasures of lifes lazy days must have seemed cruelly ironic for students who have been studying seven days a week for months.

"Possibly influenced by the popularity of the The Martian and Star Wars movies ordinary level students were required to imagine that it is the year 3016 and you are living in a city on Mars. Write three diary entries in which you describe the world you live, giving details of your daily life and your hopes for the future.

Junior Cert English Paper 1 (H+O+F)

"Again, as with the Leaving Cert English papers it was clear the examiners were keen to make this years junior cert papers feel contemporary to the digital generation.

The higher level junior cert English paper featured an article that examined the popularity of Emoji in modern communication and one question even asked students what are the advantages of using emoji in private text and emails?

This must have felt ironic to English teachers out there who often blame text speak as major cause for our teens literacy and spelling deficiencies.

The media studies question at higher level again followed this contemporary trend by asking students to consider what type of news consumer they are after looking at a graphic of people consuming news on a phone, tablet and newspaper."
Two speedboats packed with 62 tourists have collided off the coast of southern Thailand, leaving at least two dead and more than 20 injured, police said.

The crash is the third incident in two weeks involving boats that shuttle holidaymakers to Thailand's resort islands. The fatalities were identified as Chinese.

The collision involved a boat carrying 36 passengers and another with 26 travelling near the popular island of Phuket, said Lieutenant Colonel Prasert Srikhunrat, deputy superintendent of Phuket's marine police.

He said most of the passengers were Chinese tourists, including the two who died. He did not immediately have more details about other nationalities or the cause of the crash.

Tourism is a key source of revenue for Thailand, which received nearly 30 million foreign visitors in 2015.

Boat and tour bus crashes and other accidents involving tourists have become common.

On Sunday, a speedboat near the resort island of Koh Samet crashed into an anchored boat, injuring 30 people on board, according to Thai news reports.

In late May, another speedboat carrying 32 tourists capsized in rough waters off Koh Samui, leaving three tourists dead. The victims were from Britain, Germany and Hong Kong.

In February, two Russian tourists were badly injured while scuba diving off Phi Phi island in Krabi province, when a speedboat's propeller severed one of the men's legs and cut deep gashes into the other man's leg.

A 52-year-old French woman died after being struck by a boat while swimming in waters reserved for snorkellers near an island off Krabi province.
The 38-year-old oenologist quit a job running two Bordelais chateaus to create a crowd-funding website, called Wine-Funding, which lets anyone buy a stake in wine domains that are just starting, being renovated, or expanding.

While 1,000 would normally buy you a few bottles of fine wine from some of Frances best-known regions, like Bordeaux, it wont get you a seat at the shareholder table of its most renowned chateaus.

Mr Debures website provides access to smaller producers: The biggest fundraiser is for 1m to renovate a 42-acre property that makes Lussac-Saint-Emilion red.

Small- and medium-sized wine producers are under-funded, in an industry that requires heavy investments, Mr Debure said.

Wine needs financing to keep facilities modern and to bulk up exports. Crowd-funding can fix that, as well as reconnect producers with wine aficionados, he said.

Mr Debures platform opened for pledges last month and is planning to accept projects from other countries, including Italy and South Africa.

While it is focused on investors, it also lets consumers lend winemakers smaller amounts, to be reimbursed later in bottles of the finished product, as part of a bond-like product.

The business follows in the footsteps of UK-based Naked-Wines. The customer-funded wine site, which had sales of 100m (127m) in the last fiscal year, ending in March, was taken over by Majestic Wine last year for 70m.

France is the worlds second-biggest wine producer in volume, after it fell behind Italy last year, according to the International Organisation of Vine and Wine, followed by Spain, the US, and Argentina.

Investing in small- and medium-sized enterprises offers a 50% tax deduction to people with net taxable assets over 1.3m in France. The deadline to declare asset wealth is mid-June.
It was a great opportunity to hear the investment propositions offered by these businesses and it underlined the dynamism and ambition evident in the sector.

Indigenous Irish-led companies have the odds stacked against them when striving to succeed.

They originate off a relatively small island economy and set out to compete usually against enormous competitors.

In the food industry, this challenge is even more pronounced.

Food companies around the world and in the major economies are large scale and financially strong.

Customers, in the form of retailers or industrial buyers, also expect highly efficient supply lines, and at a low cost.

It is in this environment that the set of companies we met last week have gone and generated success and equity value over an extended period.

Even in the last two years progress has been made.

Of the nine companies  Glanbia, Valeo, Kerry, Greencore, Fyffes, Total Produce, Aryzta, Origin Enterprises and Applegreen  eight are listed on the Dublin and London Stock Exchanges while one  Valeo - has remained private.

The eight quoted companies have added 30% to their combined market value in that 24-month period.

Currently, they are valued at almost 26bn and represent a formidable set of businesses.

The profiled group operates over a wide range of products, services and geographic markets.

You will find here the largest agronomy services company in the UK which has recently expanded into Poland, Ukraine and Romania.

The largest supplier of sandwiches in the UK was there  its building a material presence in the US food-to-go sector.

The largest manufacturer of American-style cheese in America was there, and its fast becoming the largest performance nutrition company on the globe.

The largest operator of forecourt retailers in Ireland and the UK was present too.

The worlds premier taste and nutrition company participated. Other products represented included biscuits, bakery goods, fresh-produce distribution and sourcing.

While this set of companies is by definition remarkably diverse, they have one strong common denominator:

The ambition and energy to drive forward and build greater scale and more equity value.

Those plans are envisaged through a combination of internal organic investment and external acquisition led growth.

Each has a plan tailored to its own business model and markets to facilitate such expansion.

Europe and North America are central to all nine companies although a number of them are also invested in developing economies across Asia and Latin America, in particular.

Both of these regions are expected to witness growth by the Irish food industry in the next number of years.

Based on the information shared at this event it would be reasonable to anticipate a series of announcements by all of these management teams in the coming months as they plot another round of development.

They must do so as they face a large range of uncertainties.

Commodity markets are exhibiting unprecedented levels of volatility.

Foreign exchange markets are fluid, exacerbated by the upcoming Brexit referendum.

Valuations of target companies are high, and some economies, particularly in emerging markets, are struggling.

Through all of these challenges, the nine companies are confidently setting out to make their mark.

Undoubtedly some will struggle and may even fail, but that is the nature of liberal markets and risk-taking entrepreneurship.

We need these examples to show that Ireland should not be considered solely as an incubator of companies that, once proven successful, are snatched by international conglomerates.

While that is a legitimate means of creating wealth, the fostering of international winners from an Irish base has far greater long-term benefits for the nation and its risk- taking entrepreneurial culture.

Joe Gill is director of corporate broking at Goodbody Stockbrokers. His views are personal.
Women are being subjected to extraordinary and barbaric acts of violence every day in this country, said CEO Sharon OHalloran last night in the wake of the jailing of a man who attacked his girlfriend with sugar-laced boiling water.

This low level of reporting means that thousands of women are living with a serious threat to their lives, in silence and alone.

Victim Tara Byrd warned women yesterday to end relationships with violent and possessive men as her former partner, Michael Lynch, was jailed for two and half years  a sentence she regards as too lenient.

If they feel any man is controlling them or being paranoid, get away from them, it will only get worse, she said as watched Lynch being led away to prison.

Rape Crisis Network Ireland praised her courage for speaking out.

We see the levels of control, intimidation, and entitlement that this man held over Tara Byrd, said Cliona Saidlear of RCNI. We commend Taras statement warning about controlling behaviour in relationships.

Ms Byrd, of Old Youghal Rd in Cork City, received third-degree burns after Lynch poured boiling water and sugar on her left leg. She had to have a skin graft as a result of her injuries.

She gave the jury at Cork Circuit Criminal Court a harrowing account of her ordeal which began after he became jealous of a mutual male friend.

He put the sugar in the kettle and boiled it. He said if I screamed he would hit me over the head with an iron bar, she recalled, adding that Lynch refused to call an ambulance which left her in agony all night.

Safe Ireland said more resources are needed to combat this kind of crime.

Safe Ireland wants to make Ireland the safest country in the world for women and children, said Ms OHalloran.

This can be done, but not without serious leadership and the resources required to meet womens needs when they are brave enough to speak out.

Court: 8
The papers completed by students during 2.5-hour exam being taken next Wednesday morning will be scanned by the State Examinations Commission. It will then share the digital versions with examiners around the country, to be marked on their own computers.

The move to use practices already adopted in Northern Ireland, Britain, and elsewhere is being piloted as part of the commissions efforts to make greater use of technology in delivery of exams.

The commission is satisfied from international research into the technology and the result of a pre-pilot trial conducted by the commission in 2014 that online marking is as accurate and reliable as traditional marking and provides enhanced standards of marking assurance and control, said a spokesman.

After the exams were marked two years ago, 2,500 higher-level Junior Certificate maths and French scripts were re-marked at the commission and at home by 30 senior examiners in the two subjects. The procedure is seen as a way to increase efficiency, with a focus on the reformed Junior Cycle in which final written exams will be set for the first time in English from next year.

There is potential to save money on postage of written exam papers to supervising examiners, and also in the money paid for examiners to bring them to post offices and have them sent back during the marking process.

The biggest distance exams are travelling this year is to Malta, where dozens of students from Libya will sit papers in the Leaving Certificate.

The political and security situation in Libya has seen students from the International School of the Martyrs in Tripoli being offered the option to take the exams in Malta instead since 2012. While 23 male and 15 female students are entered with the commission this year, it is not certain yet how many will travel to Malta this week.
Growth of 9.6% was experienced last month and underlines an upward trend in the airports fortunes. Year to date passenger numbers at Irelands biggest and busiest international airport outside Dublin are up 8.4%.

Growth is projected to continue into the autumn as Cork Airport benefits from additional traffic on new summer services including Dusseldorf with Aer Lingus; Madrid with Iberia Express; and Leeds and Southampton with Aer Lingus Regional among new summer services this year.

Airport managing director Niall MacCarthy said he is delighted with the growth for May and the year to date.

They confirm weve had 65,000 additional passengers so far in 2016 versus the same period last year, said Mr McCarthy.

Based on anticipated bookings and capacity looking ahead, we are forecasting total passenger numbers of 2.25, people travelling through Cork Airport this year. This will be an increase of 8% over 2015 numbers.

Passenger numbers are up across all markets, with a 15.5% increase on routes to and from southern Europe; London routes are up 10.2%, UK provincial routes are up 5.0% and northern European routes up 2.2%.

Kevin Cullinane, head of Cork Airport communications, said: Its visibly busier. We have more new routes this summer than last, greater frequencies and passengers are voting with their feet to fly from Munsters friendliest and most connected international airport.

We see it every morning from 4am once the overnighting aircraft get ready to depart.

Our first departure is at 6am and it is noticeably busier through the early morning wave of departures.

Were seeing more flights and more passengers. These are positive indicators of a very busy summer season ahead at Cork Airport.

The upward trend is good news considering CityJet announced it would cancel its Cork-London City Airport flights from June 26. This was a blow, especially as the route had only been operating for eight months.

CityJets chief executive, Pat Byrne, said the demand for the 18 flights a week service was just not there in sufficient volume and at a sustainable price.

He said before the launch all indications suggested strong support from business and holidaymakers, but this did not materialise.
That person is asking the report of the Commission of Investigation into the death of Ronan MacLochlainn be amended before it is passed to the minister for justice and subsequently made public.

Established in August 2014 and intended to take just six months, the inquiry has already taken three times longer than expected and is running at more than double the cost originally estimated.

The latest delay comes after the draft report was circulated to witnesses and others identified in the report for comment. Some amendments were made on foot of comments received but one individual has now taken exception to the amended document.

An application was made to the High Court under Section 35 of the Commissions of Investigation Act which allows for requests to be made for changes to draft reports for reasons relating to failure to observe fair procedures. The case is due before the High Court next week.

The commission is investigating the death in May 1998 of Mr MacLochlainn, who was shot dead by gardai in Ashford, Co Wicklow, following an attempted armed robbery. It was prompted by a case taken by Mr MacLochlainns partner, Grainne Nic Gibb, to the European Court of Human Rights, where she argued the State had failed to carry out an effective investigation into his death.

The 27-year-old father of three from Ballymun, Dublin, was one of a six-man gang who to tried to rob a security van carrying over 250,000 by blocking it on narrow bends outside Ashford village.

Gardai on surveillance duty intercepted and the gang tried to flee, with Mr MacLochlainn hijacking a passing car from an elderly couple in an escape attempt.

It was initially claimed he was killed in a shoot-out but gardai later retracted their statement when it emerged the robbers had not fired any shots.

Mr MacLochlainns inquest opened in August 1998 but was subject to delays as criminal prosecutions were pending against his accomplices who were subsequently jailed for terms of up to eight years each. It was subsequently adjourned.

The garda who fired the fatal shot was himself shot dead in a friendly fire incident during another armed robbery three years later.

The inquest only had hearings in 2009, ending with a verdict of death by misadventure. Ms Nic Gibb argued the hearings were flawed by the failure to hear vital testimony and she went to the European Court of Human Rights seeking an independent inquiry.

In her fourth interim report submitted last month to the minister for justice, commission chair, barrister Mary Rose Gearty, said the commission had made every effort to ensure compliance with its May 31 deadline  its fourth deadline after a series of time extensions  and the High Court case was the only outstanding matter.

She asked for the deadline to be further extended to one month from the date of completion of the court proceedings but could give no estimate of when that would be, noting the possibility the applicant or the commission may seek to appeal any order. The commission heard from more than 100 witnesses over 48 days .
Bursting onto the stage with their trademark devil-may-care attitude, the group flung straight into a toe-tappingly-good rendition of The Boys are Back.

The start of another great @LATMofficial season in Cork boi :) :) pic.twitter.com/Y4HRaQUoJT

Within the first few mosh- inducing beats, the crowd was hooked. Even at that early stage they could tell they were in for a treat. And why wouldnt they be? Dropkick Murphys are known for their loud, high-octane shows  perfect to open this years Live at the Marquee festival.

Bassist and vocalist Ken Casey wasnt long in telling the crowd whats what, encouraging them to get the pit going and yelling were gonna make this the best night of your lives!

Dropkick Murphys on stage now for the first @LATMofficial gig of the year! See tomorrow's @irishexaminer for more! pic.twitter.com/Ml3jXCpilg  Kelly O'Brien (@Kellingtondawg) June 7, 2016

Veterans of the live music scene, the American-based band has been gigging together since the 1990s.

Over the next quarter of a century, Dropkick Murphys would release seven more albums, amassing an impressive discography by any standards.

Not every album got a look in last night, but the band made a good effort to cover both old and new material, much to the crowds delight.

I love the Dropkick Murphys, theyre a great band, said Jenny Morgan from Dungarvan, Waterford.

I heard they were playing this year and I had to go see them. I know its a bit obvious, but Shipping Up To Boston is my favourite song, like, ever.

Canadian Candace Brandaver, meanwhile, said she hadnt known the band before the gig, but was definitely a fan now.

Im touring Ireland with my friends and my husband, Jarrod. He knows I like punk music so he got us all tickets! she said.

Fellow Canadians Shelley and Jason Matthews said they were having a great time at the gig, and in Ireland in general.

While Dropkick Murphys were undoubtedly the main attraction of the night, a special nod has to go to support act Stiff Little Fingers.

The Belfast-based punk band produced an incredibly tight set and undoubtedly collected a few more fans among the audience members revelling in the return of the Big Top last night.

I came for Stiff Little Fingers. Ive been a fan since 1979, said PJ Flanagan from Ennis, Clare.

I saw them in Dublin in the 80s and it was crazy. The whole crowd went nuts. It was great to see them again, though the crowd is definitely older this time!

Friends John Brennan and Steve Cronin from Cobh, Cork, said the veteran rockers were the highlight of last night for them.

We loved them growing up. We were in a cover band and we would play their songs and everything, said Steve.

They were great tonight, they really were.

Arts: 14
Neil Fitzgerald, a week after he was released from prison, threatened the gangster in Dublins south inner city.

It is one of at least three strong lines of inquiry being followed over Fitzgeralds murder in a rural area outside Tallaght, Dublin last Saturday.

Gardai are investigating if the gun attack was linked to the Crumlin-Drimnagh feud which claimed up to 16 lives between 2000 and 2012.

Fitzgerald was a senior figure in the gang headed by jailed boss Brian Rattigan and was a target of the rival Gavin gang. The 36-year-old was released from prison a fortnight ago after serving a sentence for pointing a loaded firearm at three gardai.

It is understood a week after being freed he bumped into a notorious criminal from the rival gang and threatened him.

Gardai are investigating a second strong line of inquiry. In June 2008, Fitzgerald was involved in the slashing of a member of the Gavin gang at a music festival.

Gardai are also examining a third strong line of inquiry surrounding reports of an internal Rattigan dispute, that he threatened a younger member of the gang. One source said Fitzgerald had enemies all over the place.

Fitzgerald was living in the Blessington area of Co Wicklow since his release. He was shot six times at close range. He was found at Hills Lane, Crooksling, early on Saturday.

Gardai later arrested two people, a man and a woman, on suspicion of withholding information.

The pair were associates of the deceased and had been with him earlier in the day.
As a result, his lawyers say, subsequent court rulings based on that decision were flawed or invalid.

He wants a five-judge Supreme Court to revisit a decision it made in 2008 declaring certain of his assets, and those of his family, came from the proceeds of crime.

The family is also appealing a 2011 High Court decision which forfeited to the State certain of his assets and those of his family.

The property included an equestrian centre in Enfield, Co Meath, which Gilligan had bought and developed before he spent 17 years in prison for drug trafficking. Other property owned by his former wife Geraldine, daughter Tracey and son Darren, was also found to be the proceeds of crime.

The Gilligans claimed the properties were bought from legitimate earnings. In 2011, the late Mr Justice Kevin Feeney found their explanations incredible and improbable in a High Court judgment.

All four members of the family were in the Supreme Court for a two-day hearing of their appeal in which they are seeking to overturn the previous proceeds of crime orders.

They are represented by three queens counsel from London. They were previously granted free legal aid for the appeal.

They are also bringing a challenge claiming their constitutional and European Convention rights have been breached.

The Criminal Assets Bureau, which obtained the orders and has since sold off the Enfield equestrian centre, disputes they have any right to bring a further appeal.

Michael Bromley-Martin, presenting the case for all the Gilligans in appealing the 2011 High Court decision, said in 1996 the family never got the opportunity, as provided for under Section 3 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 1996, to challenge the basis on which CAB applied to freeze the assets.

This meant that all subsequent court decisions were not valid. The late Mr Justice Feeney, whose 2011 ruling they were appealing, had ruled that his hands were tied due to the 2008 Supreme Court decision, counsel said.

However, it was their case the invalidity of the original freezing orders gave effect to injustice, he said.

That effect was the Gilligans were deprived of property they lawfully owned and possessed without having had a trial of the proceeds of crime issue, he said.

John Hardy, presenting the case for the Supreme Court to revisit the 2008 decision, said it did meet the exceptional circumstances test for such a revisit.

Asked by Mr Justice William McKechnie was he saying that the 2008 decision by the Supreme Court was self-contradictory and inherently inconsistent, Mr Hardy said yes.

Counsel said it was necessary for the matter to be clarified so that citizens may know what is lawful and what is not.

Ben OFloinn, for CAB, said this extraordinary application had something of an Alice through the looking glass feel to it.

The hearing continues.
The gap in funding could lead to cuts in services or money being taken from other departments.

The Irish Examiner understands the Department of Health and Department of Justice will require additional funding.

The estimates process and spending ceilings for departments for 2016 were originally debated last December but then discussion froze during the election period.

Government sources say the Cabinet is expected to hear that health will be up to 450m over budget. Health Minister Simon Harris a said last week the HSE was 120m over budget for the first three months of the year.

Under strict new EU rules, the Government cannot plug the gap with a supplementary budget. Instead, the gap may have to be filled by rerouting funds from elsewhere or from other departments.

Meanwhile, the Government is expected to release its legislation programme for the coming weeks today, including 11 bills that will be prioritised. Three cabinet subcommittees will be set up to deal with the economy, infrastructure, and the Irish language.

Elsewhere, the Government looks set to accept a Fianna Fail private motion this week calling for action to address rising motor insurance costs. Fianna Fail wants a task force set up and say motorists have seen their premiums rise by a third in the last year.

Fine Gael Finance Minister Michael Noonan is expected to tell the Cabinet the motion from opposition counterpart Michael McGrath does not contradict government policy and should be allowed to pass.

The motion, which will be voted on tomorrow and has the backing of Sinn Fein, also wants a national claims register established to keep track of where insurance costs are spiking and why.
John Halligan, minister of state for training and skills, said the move must happen amid continuing criticism of the Governments failure to adequately tackle the homelessness crisis.

Speaking yesterday as the Oireachtas housing committee continued to draw up a plan to address the issue, Mr Halligan  who is not a member of the cross-party group  told RTE Radio the problem has to be resolved.
For more than 56,500 people, it marks the beginning of the Leaving Certificate which starts this morning with the first of two papers in English.

The same subject is the opening exam for most of the 60,652 entered for the Junior Certificate. English & Communication is timetabled for this mornings Leaving Certificate Applied which has 2,811 students this year.

Institute of Guidance Counsellors president Betty McLaughlin said the beginning of the exams is a very stressful time for students and parents, but they should try to remember that their whole lives do not depend on the outcome.

While the State examinations are an important milestone in a young persons life, they are not the only one. Exams and results neither define nor detract from the wonderful young people they are, and the great citizens they will become, she said.

Final preparations for Wilson and Luis Halligan before their exams at Colaiste an Spioraid Naoimh Bishopstown, Cork.

Education Minister Richard Bruton suggests Leaving Certificate students should remember there are many opportunities to them later: As well as routes to further and higher education, there are alternative pathways to rewarding careers.

For example, work continues on developing high-quality apprenticeships in a number of sectors.

The exams continue until June 24 for some Leaving Certificate students  the day after the final Junior Certificate exams.

The Leaving Certificate Applied concludes a little earlier, on tomorrow week, June 16.

Boxes with exams papers at a distribution centre.

Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) president Maire Ni Chiarba said the most important thing now is for exam candidates to stay calm and focused during the period of their exams.

Its normal to feel some level of anxiety. Try to keep things in perspective.

You are sitting exams; that is all they are, she advised students. Nobody expects any more of you than your best effort.

Look after yourself. Eat well, exercise and get plenty of rest.

All of this will help you maintain your energy and wellbeing over the coming weeks, she said.
Just under a fifth of all claims paid out by Irish Life were for mental health problems last year.

However, a comparison of claims made between 2005-2009 and 2010-2015 shows mental health related problems fell slightly from 22% to 19%.

The data analysis also reveals a significant decrease in cancer claims from 19% to 14% over the last decade.

However, claims by men for mental health problems increased from 18% in the years from 2005 to 2009 to 21% in 2010 and 2015, while claims by women decreased from 25% to 18% over the same period.

Back pain, musculoskeletal complaints, and cancer were the second highest for claims paid, with 14% of people claiming in respect of each of these conditions.

Injuries accounted for just under one in ten (9%) claims paid while cardiac conditions and nervous system complaints accounted for 4%.

Irish Life paid out more than 53m to more than 3,000 customers under its plans last year and the average age of people making claims was 49 for men and 45 for women. The average payment was just under 20,000.

It said the decrease in cancer claims was due to more people surviving the illness, benefitting from income protection and going back to work.

Meanwhile, Mental Health Reform, the national coalition for mental health, says Irelands readmission rate for people in severe mental distress was too high

Almost 13,100 people with serious mental health issues were admitted to hospital last year, but two-thirds (66%) were readmitted within the year, RTE radio reported yesterday.

However, just under a third of vacancies remained unfilled for clinical nurse specialists who are responsible for patients presenting with suicidal ideation or self-harm.

Director of Mental Health Reform, Shari McDaid, said the high readmission rate could be reduced with fully developed community-based services, as was recommended in A Vision for Change 10 years ago.

Ten years on, it is simply not good enough that no community mental health team provides 24-hour cover, forcing people in severe mental health distress to attend a hospital ED, said Dr McDaid.

Each catchment area should also have the facility of a crisis house to offer temporary low support accommodation, if appropriate, she said.

Mental Health Reform wants Minister for Health Simon Harris to restore the 12m in diverted funding to mental health as a matter of priority and for the Health Services Executive to find a way the money can be spent this year on mental health services and supports.
The nurses, members of the Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA), voted 87% in favour of industrial action up to strikes, and the union board will meet tomorrow to decide on the timetable and form of action.

The PNA, which represents 5,000 nurses across the country, has accused the HSE of an inadequate response to address the issues of recruitment and retention of nurses throughout the mental health services.

The unions general secretary designate, Peter Hughes, said the level of support from psychiatric nurses for industrial action reflected the utter frustration at the growing understaffing at both acute and community levels, and the inability of the HSE to bring forward a realistic plan to address the crisis in the short and long term.

Nurses are not prepared to stand by and watch the demand for acute and community mental health services growing while knowing that this demand cannot be met with the current levels of understaffing with up to 600 nursing vacancies currently and a further 400 to arise from forecasted retirement, said Mr Hughes.

This situation is simply unsustainable, and staff have been left struggling to maintain acute and community services with no prospect of investing in the development of urgently needed new services.

The union leader said the PNA met with Health Minister Simon Harris last week and set out what, he said, were clear proposals to address both the immediate staffing shortages throughout the services and also plan for the growing demand for newly qualified psychiatric nurses looming over the coming years.

We need to see a comprehensive plan from the HSE that will include measures to retain existing staff in our services and significantly grow the number of student training places for psychiatric nursing, said Mr Hughes.

The HSE has said it is has engaged with the PNA to try to resolve the issues which have been identified by the union.
The board says the proposed underperformance policy is compatible with good HR practice. However, it recommended its introduction be delayed until January 1, 2017 to coincide with the first year of a revised performance rating system across the civil service.

The CSAB says it believes the manner of the policys introduction is equally important to gain maximum support from the countrys 36,000 civil servants. The board examined the issue after Department of Public Expenditure and Reform officials and the Civil Service General Council Staff Panel (CSGCSP) failed to reach agreement in talks which began last September.

The CSGCSP, which has representatives from four of the biggest civil service trade unions, opposed the departments plans to strengthen the linkage between underperformance and discipline. It expressed concern that a revised performance rating system, whose first results will be known at the end of 2016, is untested. They believe that more civil servants would be deemed unsatisfactory under a new two-point rating scale.

However, department officials say the new underperformance policy will give a clear process for management and staff who have not improved after warnings.

The need to strengthen measures to take more effective and decisive actions to tackle poor performance, including dismissal, was identified in the Civil Service Renewal Plan launched in October 2014. Between 2010 and 2014 less than 1% of staff were rated as unsatisfactory under the performance management system used within the civil service.

A review of the system in 2010 concluded that: The award of too many high ratings and too few low ratings is the established practice.

The new policy is designed to improve existing underperformance arrangements, providing greater transparency with processes built on principles of natural justice and closely reflects good HR practice in other sectors.

They outlined how the policy would seek to address underperformance through informal procedures in the first instance. Failing that a performance improvement plan would be activated which would provide for at least five progress meetings with affected staff with warnings issued in a progressive manner.

The department says the full protections of the disciplinary code will be offered to employees. It claims the policy is robust because its rehabilitative element, combined with an 18-month timeframe, allows for appeals against negative findings.

Officials stressed that they do not envisage any individual who is medically unfit coming within the scope of the policy. However, if performance remains unsatisfactory at the conclusion of the performance improvement plan, a disciplinary meeting will be held where actions up to and including dismissal can be taken.

Civil servants will not receive warnings out of the blue and individuals will be made aware of any issues  and the consequences if there is no improvement in their performance in a timely fashion.

While civil service unions said they are not opposed to an underperformance policy, they do not agree with the status of warnings being proposed by the department.
Limerick-born Fr Mortimer Stanley, 82, from Ballybunion, Co Kerry, denied a string of indecent assaults said to have been committed in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, between 1977 and 2002.

The prosecution alleged that the priest targeted most of the complainants, aged under 11, in his presbytery at St Vincent de Paul RC Church in Norden, when he would sit them on his knee.
Emmanuel Gbadebo Alabi is the subject of the inquiry, which began yesterday at the Medical Council headquarters in Dublin 4.

Dr Emmanuel faces allegations of poor professional performance and professional misconduct in relation to his time at Mayo General Hospital.

Dr Emmanuel, who is based in Cork but trained in Belarus, was hired on a two-month contract as a Senior House Officer at the Mayo hospital from January-February 2009. This was his first clinical position in Ireland.

It is alleged that on or around January 29, 2009, Dr Emmanuel failed to bring a report regarding a chest X-ray examination carried out on patient Evelyn McGinn on 26 January to the attention of his supervisors.

It is also alleged that on or around January 29, 2009, Dr Emmanuel initialled the X-ray report in circumstances where he knew or ought to have known it required further consideration by his supervisors.

The inquiry heard that Ms McGinn passed away from cancer in November 2010.

In December 2008, around the time of her 50th birthday, Ms McGinn attended Mayo General Hospital complaining of post-menopausal bleeding and feeling unwell.

In January 2009, it was decided that an investigative hysteroscopy should be carried out.

On January 26, Ms McGinn was admitted to hospital for a chest X-ray, as a precaution before her surgery, scheduled for the following day. The surgery took place and she was discharged.

Ms McGinn returned to hospital a year later, in March 2010, feeling unwell, and was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer.

Leonie Kilroy, Ms McGinns sister, told the inquiry that her sister suffered from a great deal of pain during the final months of her life  so much so that the palliative care she received was unable to relieve her suffering.

Ms Kilroy said she believed her sister suffered greatly because she didnt get a proper diagnosis when she was in hospital in January 2009.

The X-ray report recommended that Ms McGinn should be referred to a respiratory physician, the inquiry heard.

Ms Kilroy said there were a number of discrepancies on the X-ray report, including the date on it.

Following Ms McGinns death, her siblings requested access to her medical records. After reviewing these, the family raised concerns with the hospital in October 2011 and Ms Kilroy later made a complaint to the Medical Council.

Ronan Ryan, consultant radiologist at Mayo General Hospital, told the inquiry he interpreted the chest X-ray that was taken of Ms McGinn. Dr Ryan said he found no issues with her heart or lungs, although he did raise queries about the possibility of sarcoidosis, a multi-system inflammatory disorder. Because of this, he suggested a referral to a respiratory physician.

Ulrich Bartels, head of the obstetrics and gynaecological department at Mayo, told the inquiry the hospital offered Dr Emmanuel only a two-month locum contract, instead of the usual six-month contract, because they had no clinical references for him.

At the end of the two months, Dr Emmanuels contract was not renewed.

We did not see sufficient progress in his clinical abilities, Dr Bartels said.

The inquiry continues today.
Unused land banks across Dublin, Cork, Limerick, and Athlone, Co Westmeath, are also being targeted for development to help build thousands of mixed purpose housing units.

The emergency measures are outlined in an interview given by Mr Coveney to the Irish Examiner. Mr Coveney also, for the first time, signals that water charges may be suspended for longer than nine months and that flexibility on this has been sought from Brussels.

He also speaks candidly about his desire to reshape the publics perception of Fine Gael.

The minister is betting his political career on solving the housing emergency and thinks he may just have two or maybe three years, the time he expects the minority government to last.

I need to find ways of facilitating the building of significantly more houses than are being planned or delivered as soon as possible, said Mr Coveney.

Simon Coveney

He is giving serious consideration as to whether planning for large developments could be fast-tracked by going straight to Bord Pleanala instead of through a local authority first.

More properties could be built if developers could move quicker and at a cheaper price.

The question is, do we try to speed up the existing process or do we try to change the process and say we do have a housing emergency in certain parts of the country, we should allow developments go straight to Bord Pleanala for consideration.

Large developments of 250 units plus could go through planning within just six months as opposed to years, he says. However, a robust public consultation process would still be obligatory.

Other options being worked on include a significant fund for local authorities to build bridges, roads, or facilities for utilities.

The infrastructure fund would facilitate housing developments and therefore lower costs for developers.

We will encourage local authorities to compete for that fund on the basis of a project by project approach. The best ideas get the money. It will be time- limited and use it or lose it.

Special powers to buy up unused sites owned by semi-state companies, such as Irish Rail, are also under consideration.

Mr Coveney said there were unused sites in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, and Athlone where thousands of units could be built. One of the sites includes Irish Rail land at Horgans Quay in Cork.

Horgans Quay

We need to be talking to state companies like Irish Rail with a view to ensuring that those landbanks are used where they are needed most, which is for housing, a combination of social housing and private housing.

While a low-cost model would be preferable to buy up the lands, Irish Rail and others have an obligation to get commercial value for their assets. This would have to be overcome.

The minister has also signalled that the planned nine-month suspension of water charges could be for longer.

Speaking in the wake of Brussels last week saying Ireland would not be exempt from water charges, Mr Coveney said: If Ireland decides to just abolish water charges in the Dail, I think the commission will have a real problem with that.

What Im hoping, and I think will be the case, is that the commission will give us some flexibility in terms of the nine-month suspension, in order to allow Ireland go through the review process and the experts.

While speculation continues over who might succeed Enda Kenny as Fine Gael leader, Mr Coveney would not discuss the issue and said it was not on his mind. However, he said he wanted to change the image of Fine Gael, and that it was unfair the party was called arrogant or that it did not care for the poor.
Nicole Ryan devised the campaign in memory of her brother, Alex, in the hope that no other family will go through the agony her family experienced following his death in Cork City earlier this year.

I know I cant make people stop taking drugs, but if people see this campaign, it might just change some peoples minds about taking these drugs, Nicole said.

She launched the campaign in Cork yesterday with presenter Vogue Williams who is filming a new series for RTE.

Ms Williams also confirmed she has scrapped plans to take an LSD-style legal high as part of an experiment for the first episode which focuses on recreational drugs.

Alex Ryan, aged 18, from Liscahane in Millstreet, was one of six people who was rushed to Cork University Hospital (CUH) last January after consuming a potent hallucinogenic stimulant at a house party in the Greenmount area of Cork City. While five were discharged from CUH, Alex remained in critical condition for several days until his life support was turned off.

Alex Ryan

Gardai and medical experts believed the group had ingested the drug 2C-B after receiving initial reports from some of the party-goers.

However, the results of toxicology tests which became available some days later confirmed they had consumed 25I-NBOMe, or N-bomb  a synthetic derivative of the 2C family of drugs.

Medical experts warn that 25I-NBOMe is highly dangerous, particularly when taken in powder form, as it was at the house party.

The incident prompted the HSE to issue public warnings about the dangers of the 2C family of psychedelic designer drugs  whose street names include N-bomb, Smiles, Solaris, 25-I, INB-Meo, and Cimbi-5  which can be sold in liquid, powder, and tablet form.

The drug was also linked to the hospitalisations of six UCD students in May 2014. The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, which highlighted the dangers of 25I-NBOMe in a risk assessment in 2014, has also linked the drug to four deaths.

Since Alexs death, Nicole has been campaigning for increased awareness of the dangers posed by synthetic drugs which were banned five years ago, and of the dangers posed by so-called legal highs sold from head shops.

She said there have been poster campaigns in pubs and nightclubs warning of the dangers of abuse of alcohol, and drugs like cocaine and heroin. But she said there has been little awareness of or education about dangers posed by synthetic drugs and legal highs. Its an issue thats kind of gone under the radar, she said.

In the posters, Nicole uses a simple but powerful message to explain what happened to Alex: People are going to make their own decisions, we cant make them stop, but if we educate them on the dangers, then at least they can make informed decisions.

The posters will be distributed across Cork City in the coming weeks but Nicole said she hopes to extend it nationwide.

The campaign launch was filmed as part of Ms Williamss new four-part Edge of Oblivion series for RTE. The first one-hour documentary will examine the synthetic drugs scene in Ireland, five years on from the Governments introduction of a blanket ban. Statistics show that Irish 16 to 24-year-olds are amongst the biggest consumers of new psychoactive substances in Europe.

She will also meet crusading young transgender people dealing with transgender equality; she will examine the growing problem of over-exercise and orthorexic eating disorders; and in the fourth and final episode, she will shine a light on the real-world impact of online bullying, grooming, phishing, and scamming.

She will meet cyber-victims whove been trolled to the point of suicidal depression, and cyber-campaigner Alicia Kozakiewicz, 27, who at the age of just 13 sneaked out of her home in Pittsburgh to meet a man she had been chatting to online.

She was kidnapped and raped, and was saved by police just minutes before her kidnapper planned to murder her.
Judge Gerard OBrien said the accused had limited appreciation of the seriousness of events until very late in the day.

The judge said: He showed no remorse of substance until very late in the day.

He has no insight into the effect on the victim.

As for the victim, Judge OBrien said she has experienced sleepless nights, breakdowns, nightmares, a fear of leaving home, and remained extremely traumatised.

The judge said the higher courts had allowed for the fact that the cultural background of the accused could mitigate certain offences but not so with reference to crimes such as deliberate sexual violence.

Alice Fawsett, defending, said the accused had gathered 10,000 to compensate the victim, and had spent the past month in custody on the charge.

She said: I am instructed to say he is very sorry for what happened to her.

Detective Garda Caroline Keogh had previously testified at Cork Circuit Criminal Court the 16-year-old Cork girl became hysterical after she was dragged unconscious in a state of undress from a car after the sex attack and left on the side of the street.

The accused, now aged 21, pleaded guilty to a charge of sexually assaulting the 16-year-old girl when he was aged 19.

Detective Garda Keogh outlined the background to the attack which occurred on April 29, 2014.

The victim was the former girlfriend of the accused at the time of the crime, but they had arranged to meet and go for a spin in his car.

There was a second man in the car also.

They drove around from lunchtime on that date into the afternoon, travelling out to a garage a few miles outside Cork City and back again.

She went home for her tea, and they arranged by text for her to go out again in the car at 6pm.

The accused picked her up. They again drove around and went back out to the garage and down a laneway, Det Keogh said.

They pulled into a field. (The accused) got out of the car and got a coke bottle with alcohol and got into the back of the car with (the injured party).

He told her to drink the bottle or he would kill her or he would leave her there and drive back, the detective said.

The then 19-year-old man sexually assaulted the 16-year-old when she was extremely drunk.

She was unable to stay awake and she was getting sick.

He took off her clothes except for her top and he took off his clothes except for his shirt.

He tried to have sex with her. She kept falling over.

She was extremely intoxicated.

He tried on numerous occasions to have sex with her. She passed out. The other male in the car also sexually assaulted her, Det Garda Keogh said.

The second male had since fled and gardai had been unable to locate him, the court heard.

They drove to a couple of other locations in Cork.

At around 8pm, he pulled her out of the car on to the footpath (not far from where she lives). She was unconscious.

He took her shoes and various items of her clothing and threw them on top of her, the officer said.

A number of people soon came to the assistance of the victim who regained consciousness and became hysterical.

The defendants car was clearly identified on CCTV and he was later identified.

He admitted in the course of interview that he tried to have sex with her but denied forcing her.

Consent could not arise as an issue in legal terms as the victim was deemed to be a child at 16.

She had been in a relationship for a short period previous to this incident.

The injured party prepared a victim impact statement to be handed to the judge, but she did not want it read out in court.

Ms Fawsett said there was drink present but the accused did not bring the alcohol, and he was not the one who gave the victim the drink.
The Wicklow man pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to four counts of rape, one count of threatening to kill and one count of sexual assault, between June 20, 2013, and December 31, 2014.

Anne Rowland, prosecuting, said that the first victim had speech and language difficulties and some developmental issues.

The mother of the young boy went to a garda station on July 8, 2014, when a friend of her sons came to her and told her he had been raped.

The sexual offences occurred when both boys were playing in a field. The accused said he didnt speak to the victim during the offence He said if he told anyone he would kill him.

The accused voluntarily came to the garda station on August 18, 2014, with his mother, where he made full admissions to raping the boy on two occasions.

In her victim impact statement, the mother of the boy said she first noticed there was something wrong when her son started taking extra showers and washing himself in an unnatural manner in 2013. He said he had been raped twice by the accused and wanted to clean himself. A permanent scar has been left on her son.

The second victim was a girl with Down Syndrome. On April 5, 2015, her mother was helping her shower when her daughter said the accused had kissed her. She said he had put his tongue in her mouth and she did not like it, said counsel.

The girls parents said in their victim impact statement that their daughters loving nature had been snapped away from her. She is self-harming now a lot and has a total distrust of the male sex. Our hearts have been ripped apart.

Brendan Grehan, defending, said his client was 15 when he began offending. He has since attempted to take his own life. His parents disowned him when he made full admissions.

Counsel told the court he was instructed to apologise unreservedly to the court for his clients behaviour.

Justice McCarthy sentenced the defendant to three years for the offences on each victim to run consecutively and ordered he undergoes five years post-release supervision and undertake sexual offenders therapeutic courses.
The National Employment Rights Authority (Nere) also criticised certain job sectors for low levels of compliance with employment regulations and also revealed that the amount of unpaid wages it helped to recover in 2015 was up 40% compared to the same period in the previous year, despite fewer inspection cases being completed.

The lowest levels of compliance were found in the hair and beauty, transport, and food and drink sectors, with issues highlighted in the latter sector in particular, as there was compliance in just 35% of the 565 completed inspection visits, resulting in 283,237 recovered in unpaid wages.

Almost half the completed inspections in the wholesale and retail sector were compliant, with more than 255,000 recovered in unpaid wages.

A total of 86 prosecutions were brought with almost 100,000 in fines handed down. There were also 67 enforcement cases where Nera were called in to enforce awards made by the Labour Court or the Employment Appeals Tribunal, resulting in 48,879 in arrears being paid.

In what is effectively its last annual report, Nera said that between January and the end of September last year it carried out 3,535 workplace inspections and recovered almost 900,000 in unpaid wages.

The review, published earlier this month, covers the last nine months of Neras existence as a separate office within the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and ahead of the launch last October of the Workplace Relations Commission.

Neras information officers dealt with more than 1,200 calls a week in the first nine months of last year, a weekly average increase of around 200 calls. In the same period, around 3,500 inspections and compliance visits were carried out, around half of which were unannounced.

In the foreword to the report, Padraig Dooley, Nera deputy director, said: It is disappointing to note that certain sectors continue to have low compliance rates. The percentage of cases prosecuted rose in the period to 2.4% compared with 1.5% in the previous year.

Employees and ex-employees accounted for 74% of the callers to the bodys customer service unit, which provided information to 48,654 people, a number which was up 12% on the previous year. Around 18% of those contacting the customer service line were employers.

Of the contacts made, 28% were related to employment permits, more than the number of contacts for any other issue. Working hours accounted for 16% of contacts and another 13% of contacts were related to terms of employment, while 11% of people contacting the customer service unit wanted information on redundancy. Payment of wages represented a 10th of queries, while unfair dismissal and complaints both accounted for 6% of contacts made.

There was a small decrease in the number of complaints registered by Nera last year, at 604 in total.

As for employment permits, 274 breaches of legislation were detected, down from 600 in the whole of 2014.
Peter Aiken, Live at the Marquee promoter

Ive genuinely enjoyed so many of the gigs, from Bob Dylan and Neil Young right through to the pop acts. The big surprise for me were Biffy Clyro two years ago  they were so good. Also, the first ever Marquee gig, Brian Wilson in 2005, was also a bit special. When he launched into God Only Knows, I remember the crowd going absolutely mad and I thought to myself, I could be onto something here.

Steven Grainger (Stevie G), DJ

We ended up booking these DJs that were associates of Kanye Wests to play The Pavilion for an after-party when he played the Marquee. The day of the gig, his Irish representatives called and said, Kanye might come down to your club tonight, how do you feel about that?

I was told that five black SUVs would pull up and that he would be in the fifth one. I went to the fifth car and sure enough this tiny little guy pops out surrounded by these huge dudes. We brought him in the side entrance and although there was a rumour going around, he was surrounded by his entourage and in this cordoned-off area and no-one could see him. Then at around 1am, Kanye jumped onto the stage and did two tracks. A guy that had been tweeting worst night ever was tweeting best night of my life, this is unbelievable about two seconds later.

Kanye West in 2006

John Creedon, broadcaster

I really think Peter Aiken should be acknowledged somehow for bringing the Marquee to Cork. Cork was in many ways a backwater for big gigs but over the last decade or more, all the heavy-hitters have played Cork. The Reverend Al Green was the Soulmaster supreme. Id had him on the radio show that day and he had such an amazing backstory involving shootings and court cases. There he was, in his 70s, and he was just the grooviest mover youve ever seen. It was a really soulful gig with a great brass section, but when I saw him do the splits on stage I thought to myself, Reverend?! You see more Reverends at the chip shop at closing time.

Al Green in 2010

Maria Rolston, journalist

In 2007 I ended up on stage dancing with the Flaming Lips in the Marquee. We went backstage before the show started and they didnt give us any direction on what to do, but I was dressed as an alien with a green mask and a purple and silver body suit. Wayne Coyne came out in this giant bubble and rolled out onto the audience. It was really amazing, even now thinking about it I get tingles. It was nearly 4,000 people, and a little intimidating but thankfully I had this alien mask on so no-one could see me and we just did all this crazy dancing. There was so much energy from the crowd, especially for the Yeah Yeah Yeah Song and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots.

Mike McGrath Bryan, journalist

Slayer and Mastodon in 2007 was my first big gig in Cork. I was a big metaller as a teenager and the rite of passage was always to go to a big show. We were doing our Leaving Cert at the time; youre just at that point when youre trying to decide what you want to do with your life. Guitarist Jeff Hanneman was still with them and it was good to see the original line-up of a band that gave so much history in terms of metal. Mastodon were supporting and it was a band whose star was very much in the ascendant and they stole the show; Slayer felt like they were going through the motions.

Ashley Keating, The Frank and Walters

We played the Marquee in 2005, but I go down as a punter to a few things every year; its part of the summer now at this stage. Its the atmosphere that makes it; normally the weather is good and stopping off for a beer on the way down is great. Its kind of that festival feel but you can go home afterwards. A bizarre one for me was Status Quo last year because I wouldnt be a fan at all, but a buddy had tickets so we went down and it was absolutely amazing. When something comes out of leftfield and blows you away, thats great.

Deirdre OShaughnessy, radio presenter

The Frames 25th anniversary gig last year was brilliant. Ive seen them live a good few times at this stage and theres always an electric atmosphere. They were so happy to be back together and the fans were too. You could see that the age-group at the gig was a lot of people texting the babysitter, but it felt like everyone was back in college. I would have been a huge fan in my college days and they used to play Limerick a lot but I hadnt seen them in Cork before so it was great to see them in The Marquee.

Kilian Pettit, radio presenter

The Prodigy felt like a tribal gathering, and the light show was great. There was this big cauldron down at one end of the arena with a mass of sweaty bodies rubbing off each other. There was a full spectrum of fans, from really young people to people who had been into them since the early 90s, and yet it didnt seem like an odd split; everyone was getting into it in their own way.

The sound of the bass rumbling was phenomenal. It sounded like you were at the gateway to hell and everyone was dancing their way through.

Des ODriscoll, journalist

As a venue, I was worried the Marquee wouldnt suit a quiet act like Antony and the Johnsons, but they absolutely blew me away in 2007.

Antony himself was such an endearing presence and with a full band and string section, he produced some truly gorgeous moments  I still get shivers at the thought of it. His cover of Beyonces Crazy In Love shouldnt have worked, but it did; and most of that I Am a Bird Now album was so so good.

John Legend was also incredible last year, and wouldve been worth it for his backing band alone  funk and soul heaven!

My one dud there was Kanyes first visit in 2006. Some great music, but too stop-start, and his ego got in the way of the performance. Id made the choice that year between him and Roger Waters and totally backed the wrong horse. At least when Kanye returned in 2009, he was supposedly much better.

Roger Waters at the Marquee in 2006

Joe Dermody, journalist

When Peter Aiken was the guest interviewee in the Red Chair at a Smarter Egg business talk earlier this year in Ballincollig, he recounted meeting Roger Waters some years ago backstage at a show in New York.

Waters was enthusing about his 2006 Marquee appearance, saying it was one of the enjoyable shows he had done in years.

The ex-Pink Floyd frontman was right. He absolutely rocked. It was a night that started well. Everybody was wowed by the big league professionalism, awesome musicianship, incredible vocals, and the huge wraparound sound with stacks of speakers up behind the main bank of seats.

The sound was epic, matched by the giant screens with high-art visuals.

Then an outage of some sort meant Waters had to reboot all of his computers. During the forced interval, the crowd huddled outside the tent, wondering could Waters & Co pick up where they left off? And then some!

On their return, original Floyd drummer Nick Mason joined the band to play the entire of Dark Side of the Moon from start to finish.

The quality of the show was just incredible.

Anyone who ever complained about the sound quality in Marquee had nothing but good things to say about Roger Waters. Arguably, in terms of audio, Sting was another flawless night.

For me, another standout was the way The Coronas opened their show with their 6m silhouettes cast onto a giant white sheet.

A bit low budget next to Roger Waters, but just as impressive; well, almost.
Laura Bates is the founder of the Everyday Sexism Project, a website which logs womens experiences of everyday sexism in order to illustrate that sexism is alive and well (everydaysexism.com) and she has just written her second book, Girl Up.

Although I didnt know it, Girl Up is the book that I have been waiting for. It is a manifesto, an instruction book, and a call to arms for our girls and young women. But it is also vital reading for parents of teenagers especially girls.

However, be warned, this book will make you angry, because Laura knows what she is talking about when it comes to the sexist bullshit that girls have to put up with today. Girl Up is a wake-up call to recognise the normalisation of sexism which renders it invisible and insidious. But the books brilliance lies in the fact that Bates also offers practical tools that girls can use effectively to counter the said bullshit.

Laura was in Ireland recently on her book tour and, having read the book, I was very keen to have a word with her.

I began by asking her about female role models  something that I have often thought seem to be in short supply today. In the chapter Dont be Shy, Aim High, Laura lists lots of examples of kickass women, most of whom I hadnt heard of, except for Malala Yousafzai, who is also the only one my teenage daughters had heard of. So are we short of positive female role models?

I think that if we are, its not the fault of women and girls not being out there doing stuff; its more the fault of what gets covered in the media says Laura. I do think that the media still highlights women based on their looks in a depressing two dimensional way.

Bates goes on to recount seeing a spread in a newspaper just before the last Olympics where male athletes were photographed in the heat of action and were asked about their chosen sport. The female athletes were put in ball gowns and asked about pre-race beauty regimes. So even when we have incredible role models, the media has a tendency to reduce them to their looks, which is so frustrating. There are lots of role models out there for young women and I hope I will introduce them to more through this book.

One of the greatest bars to gender equality must be the appalling lack of womens voices and womens stories on our broadcast media. Latest research in Ireland showed that 72% of the voices we hear on air are male. And even when panels include women, they get far less time than the men. So, I was interested to read that Laura says women are trained not to use our voices and note that she makes that an active statement  not that we arent being trained to use our voices but that we are trained NOT to.

So how do we change that? Should public speaking be mandatory in all girls schools? I think it would help because when girls do get involved in debating, especially on the university circuit, they are certainly outnumbered.

Laura tells me about an Everyday Sexism entry from a girl who was studying A Level politics and on a debating team with two boys. During a competition that she had prepared really hard for, while she was in the middle of delivering her speech, her teacher interrupted and asked the boys are you going to let the woman do all the talking?

So I think we send the message that these arenas, whether politics or student debating, are a mans world. We teach girls that it is acceptable to be compliant, quiet, gentle, sweet, kind, and persuasive, and we teach boys that its impressive and manly for them to be strong and aggressive.

Laura also finds the argument that more women in politics would get rid of the Punch-and-Judy style of politics very maddening.

She says she understands where the argument comes from and certainly understands the desire to get away from that kind of politics, but also baulks at the suggestion that women are naturally conciliatory and have a softer style.

She says: I think there are probably men who would be great at that style but who are dissuaded out of arguing and debating in that way because they get the message too that its not manly and therefore not the thing to do.

Girl Up explores so many of the issues facing our girls today, from body confidence to porn to social media. What, I wonder, is the single biggest challenge facing our girls?

Laura is very clear that all of these issues are related, intrinsically linked. They are all part of the problem of sexism. However, she does say the normalisation of sexism against women is the most dangerous thing of all.

Normalisation of online porn suggesting that its normal for women to be crying and hurting during sex, the normalisation of a media sending a message that its OK to ask a girl what she was wearing when she was raped. The normalisation of reducing our female politicians to their breasts and their clothes. The normalisation of all of these things is so that we dont stop to think about them.

She continues: I think its really true of body image as well. Girls dont sit there thinking, I am my body; I need to be really thin because the world will judge me on my thinness. Its so normalised that the conversation is internalised. They just completely believe it because we present them with this from such a young age.

Girl Up is a timely, well written, funny, straight-talking, practical guide for girls today.

My copy is now with my daughters but I am glad that I read it too because sometimes even an old feminist like me misses some of the insidious ways in which the world undermines both me and my daughters. Laura Bates has shone a bright light for all of us.

SOME OTHER FEMINIST BOOKS TO READ:
Children sleeping in cars; spiralling rents; a stalled construction industry; restricted mortgage lending; evictions and over a 100 families becoming homeless a month.

This is modern Ireland and a deep rooted housing emergency has now gripped the country. Solving it or even just easing the crisis is no easy task. There are families crying out for affordable rents or house-buying schemes but also so-called nervous landlords who want tax cuts or financial incentives to build. The Government doesnt have a bottomless money pit to throw cash at the problem. Nonetheless, intervention is necessary. It will need to be done with surgical precision, quickly and with the support of groups dealing with the housing shortage.

Simon Coveney, the new housing minister, is betting his political future on tackling the crisis. It could damage him if he fails, he admits, but he wanted the job.

In a lengthy interview with the Irish Examiner, Mr Coveney, seen as a potential future leader of Fine Gael, talks about ways to tackle the emergency, about supporting growth in the house building sector and about trying to end homelessness.

Fast-tracking planning permission for large developments, a special local authorities fund to build facilities and purchasing unused land banks are some of the options being considered.

The 43-year-old politician also, for the first time, flags that the agreed nine-month suspension of water charges may be extended out further.

Mr Coveney also reveals his hope of changing the image of Fine Gael as he refutes claims the party is arrogant.

One of the reasons I asked for this job is, I think this Government is likely to last two, maybe three, years, and I think with focus on priority we can do a lot to improve the current housing situation in that period of time. I want to be the person who has the leadership doing that.

The Programme for Government pledges to build 25,000 housing units a year by 2020. In truth, admits the minister, the amount will need to be higher, possibly up to 35,000, to make up for the deficit over the last decade.

Building close to 25,000 in two years time is possible, he says.

I need to find ways of facilitating the building of significantly more houses than are being planned or delivered as soon as possible.

One such method being worked on by his department would involve allowing developers by-pass certain planning permission stages, so large scale numbers of new units, of both private and social housing, could be built.

Instead of planning for developments of 250 units or more going before a local authority, they would be fast-tracked directly to An Bord Pleanala.

Such a speedier approach to big builds though would not ignore citizens rights or objections.

In terms of emergency response, what were weighing up is should we look at planning decisions for developments above a certain size? Should we look at facilitating those going directly to Bord Pleanala, for example, or should we insist on going through the full local authority planning system first, because they will all be appealed to An Bord Pleanala anyway?

Planning for a typically large development can last anywhere between 18 months to two years with a local authority. This includes addressing issues such as design, density, amenities, road access and engineering problems.

Instead, the timescale could be significantly reduced if a project went straight to An Bord Pleanala.

The time difference is massive, insists Mr Coveney. The question is, do we try to speed up the existing process or do we try to change the process and say we do have a housing emergency in certain parts of the country, we should allow developments go straight to Bord Pleanala for consideration?

Developments could instead pass through planning in just six months as opposed to two and a half years, he says, but also adds: We have to make sure if we change anything that we still have a very robust planning process, a public consultation process. We cant simply bypass peoples rights.

Advancing big builds straight to An Bord Pleanala could require changes to strategic infrastructure rules, which fast-track the construction of special projects, or fresh legislation.

The other big issue delaying house building is the cost, as well as how they are financed.

Mr Coveney is examining a use or it lose it fund for local authorities, who would compete for cash to build facilities that would ease the cost of constructing homes.

City councils would open up sites by building bridges, roads, water or electricity link ups and thereby reduce costs for developers.

The minister says it would be a considerable fund and his department is in talks with the Department of Public Expenditure about it.

We will encourage local authorities to compete for that fund on the basis of a project-by-project approach. The best ideas get the money. It will be time limited and use it or lose it, explains the minister.

The logic for this fund is supported by startling housing statistics which exemplify the dearth of housing construction under way in Dublin, for example.

Currently, there is planning permission for 27,000 houses but there is in fact enough zoned land around Dublin for some 88,000 units. Nonetheless, only 4,400 units are currently in construction. The cost of building is the reason for the huge differences.

Another option which could speed up housing development is to use unused land banks, in particular those owned by semi-state companies, such as Irish Rail.

Mr Coveney says: If you look at an organisation like Irish Rail, they have a lot of strategic land banks in urban centres in Dublin, in Athlone, in Limerick, but particularly in Cork.

The minister is keen to have development begin on one of Corks great underdeveloped sites, over the River Lee and key to any dockland renewal ambitions. The Horgans Quay site has been the focus of redevelopment ambitions for over two decades.

This and adjacent sites are clearly not going to be used for rail purposes in the future, says the minister.

But semi-states are required to make a commercial profit on their land sales, which means that some new arrangement is needed if sites like Horgans Quay can be bought and used by another arm of the state for housing.

Mr Coveney adds: We need to be talking to state companies like Irish Rail with a view to ensuring that those land banks are used where they are needed most, which is for housing, a combination of social housing and private housing.

What I dont think we should allow is different state bodies just doing their own thing... we should certainly look at buying it [Horgans Quay].

The four Dublin local authorities also have significant underused land banks, says the minister. A low-cost purchase model could facilitate their use, he explains, and not just for housing.

It would involve commercial opportunity, education, leisure, sport, residential, and mixed developments from apartments to affordable housing, to rent and lease options, to social housing.

Using these land banks could help build thousands upon thousands of homes, says the minister, in a similar way to how the former Irish Glass Bottle site will be developed in Dublin.

Mr Coveney also says the Government is examining speeding up the introduction of the vacant site levy for developers  due to come into effect in 2019. Bringing it in sooner to force developers to move on empty sites will depend on the legal advice the Government gets, he says.

Some people who own these land banks have no intention of building at all, theyre simply waiting for it to appreciate in value and be sold on.

Another part of the ministers remit is overseeing the thorny issue of water charges, which Brussels last week said must be paid by Ireland. Mr Coveney said he had spoken to the EU Environment Commissioner Karmenu Vella last week in detail about Irelands plan for charges.

The minister indicates that the nine-month suspension of charges could be far longer.

What Im hoping, and I think will be the case, is that the commission will give us some flexibility in terms of the nine-month suspension, in order to allow Ireland go through the review process and the experts.

This admission comes ahead of the Government setting up an expert commission later this month to set out the future for water charges in Ireland.

I explained the reasoning behind the nine-month suspension. I think he [the commissioner] understands that reasoning, but as regards how the commission responds to that, well have to wait and see.

If Ireland decides to just abolish water charges in the Dail, I think the commission will have a real problem with that.

Mr Coveney is viewed as a future leader of Fine Gael but he refuses to divulge what his intentions are, saying only that the leadership is not on his mind currently.

Moving close the end of his second decade in politics, he says a bigger focus will be his attempt to reshape the publics perception of Fine Gael.

He rejects assertions by some, including one independent junior minister, that Fine Gael ministers are arrogant.

Politically, why I wanted this brief, apart from getting houses built for people, is because I want to change the perception of Fine Gael. Im very serious about that.

I find it both frustrating and inaccurate that the view of many people of Fine Gael is that we dont care about poor people, that we [dont] connect emotionally with working class communities, that were not doing community-led projects and so on. Thats simply not true.
Next Saturday, London will be alive with cries of God Save the Queen as the longest-reigning British monarch celebrates her official birthday. She was born on April 21, but monarchs may have two birthdays as they have two bodies  a body politic and a body natural. The body natural dies, but the body politic is inviolable, hence the cry at the death of the monarch of the King is dead, long live the King. Political succession passes seamlessly, though the natural bodies die.

Ireland will be on a London stage next Saturday night as her majestys realms are en fete. The bodies, natural and politic, of Roger Casement will be exhumed in The Place, the hub of contemporary dance in London, by Irish choreographer Fearghus O Conchuir. The premier of the dance performance Butterflies and Bones is part of the Casement Project, one of the Arts Councils 16 commissions for 2016. The phenomenally political nature of Casements own body, successively hanged in Pentonville Gaol in 1916 and reinterred amidst the pomp of a State funeral in Glasnevin Cemetery in 1965, was in effect a double denial. Contesting narratives required his body, first on the gallows and then on a catafalque provided by the State, be dishonoured in different ways. In London, his homosexual body was blackguarded. Fifty years later in Dublin it was whitewashed. It is not just the bodies of kings that are contested; the politicisation of the body is a recurring Irish motif.

Butterflies and Bones is the deposition of Casements natural body, from the body politic, first one state and then another created for him. Through dance, in sweat and sinew, a sense of the true man will be recomposed. There is a limit to words and dance as an art form powerfully surpasses it. As O Conchuir remarked, we know through Casement that where bodies go and what they do is political. That was true of his journey as a champion of human rights in the Congo more than 100 years ago.

Roger Casement

It is true in the Mediterranean today. The States naval vessels continue work once the preserve of Irish foreign missionaries. They bring relief to the distressed there, ease our conscience here, where conspicuously we are unforthcoming in making room for outsiders. Charity is best performed away from home. Bodies are best washed up elsewhere.

Casement, diplomat, knight, and patriot was always, perhaps especially, an outsider among the powerful. The treatment of his physical body twice over is evidence of that. It is artists again who seek a unifying truth about the reality of our bodily lives. Reputations are enacted or written but the body, if it occasionally conforms when clothed, is frequently unamenable to the values posited on to it, from outside our natural life-force.

Tomorrow morning in Dublins Project Arts Centre the National Campaign for the Arts hosts What Next? a public meeting for the arts community. Shunted and side-lined, artists in Ireland are at the bottom of the European League for Government investment in Culture and the Arts. The Council of Europe data shows that in 2012 Ireland spent just 0.11% of GDP on the Arts and Culture, compared to a European average of 0.6% of GDP. What that means is misery among an arts community who comprise some of the most extraordinarily talented, committed people in the country.

One hundred years after the Rising, for his part in which Casement was hanged, it means a republic where encounters with art are doled out piecemeal at home, but occasionally served up more generously for special occasions abroad. It is truly good that Irish artists are occasionally supported in bringing their work abroad. It is a continuum and a counter point to celebration in London next weekend that, in dance, Casement is recused from State memorialising. But it is the State that routinely, cynically exploits artists to present a hinterland of culture, where little exists except commodification.

The commodification of art and of dead bodies alike play their part in desensitising our imagination, the one place we have, to live freely beyond boundaries.

It is not a coincidence that Project Arts Centre is an essential support, as producer, for next Saturdays production. Founded 50 years ago in 1965, the year of Casements State funeral, it was a movement of imagination, challenging the lack of it. Its first outing included a reading by Edna OBrien of her banned book The Country Girls. The separation of the body politic from the body natural is a continuing theme. The enactment of art, the nurture of artists, the years of trial and experiment by a man from the Ring Gaeltacht like O Conchuir and the talented dancers who perform his work, is a synthesis of many talents and arts forms besides their own. It is a cultural ecosystem which in Ireland is parched to the point of exhaustion. The recent diminution of the arts portfolio in government, is further demoralisation, yet again.

The interdependence and the fragility of the ecosystem supporting Irish artists is well exampled by Butterflies and Bones. Besides Projects support, Dance Ireland has played an essential nurturing role for dance over 30 years, bringing it from the edge of cultural awareness as an art form, to the centre of the states programme of commemoration. It, too, is an essential support for O Conchuirs work this weekend. The bigger picture is that essential arts resource organisations such as Dance Ireland are key to fostering artists and providing essential supports without which there will be ever fewer landmark events to celebrate. Lack of support for the arts is an impoverishment of the Irish imagination. It is the dumbing down that enables conniving silences be sustained. People who care about stopping that will be in Project tomorrow.

The metaphorical whitewashing of Casements body in plain sight of hundreds of thousands of people in 1965 repeated in pomp his burial in quicklime in 1916. Last Friday in the British Library a symposium, part of the same Casement project, heard an account of his exhumation written by Sean Ronan a department of Foreign Affairs official. It began at 4.50am and was only finished by noon.

Bits of bones were picked from wet soil. Memorialising is a fetish for honouring what has been dishonoured after the event.

There is an Irish tradition of relics. They were carefully stratified, into first class, being parts of the body; second class is an item used on the body; and third class, being anything touched by the revered person concerned. Casements belongings were destroyed, so unlike the scapulars of saints, relics could not proliferate. From the funeral of ODonovan Rossa to the reburial of Kevin Barry in 2001 and of Thomas Kent in 2015 the political liturgy of the dead, is a recurring motif of our memorialising. Uniquely, it is art that allows us a way through the facade of history in the contest for who owns memory.
The scourge of firetrap homes has broken out in the south-east.

A village just over 15km from the seaside resort of Tramore, Co Waterford, is the latest location of a housing estate that is officially a danger to life.

In recent years, there have been high-profile developments, such as Longboat Quay in Dublin, Millfield Manor in Kildare, and Riverwalk Court in Co Meath, exposed as being deficient in fire prevention.

Now, the village of Kill near Tramore is grappling with the problems that continue to seep out as a sour legacy from the days of the Celtic Tiger.

There are many similarities between those other developments and what has befallen the owners and residents of Ceol Na Mara in Kill, but above all else, the human emotions are identical.

One resident of the estate, who doesnt want to be identified because of tensions over the problem, put it thus: Weve been left high and dry. We who bought our homes in good faith, thinking they were in proper order, have been told were on our own. Something is very wrong.

The sentiments are echoed by local Sinn Fein councillor Declan Clune.

Declan Clune

Its another hangover from the Celtic Tiger, he says. Loose regulation again, more houses slapped up, poor oversight, and people left with no comeback. These people simply dont have the money.

The money in question is what it will cost to fix the problems, estimated to be around 15,000 per home for each owner.

The 15,000 is needed to pay for remedial work to make the homes safe, but must be considered in conjunction with the negative equity, inflated mortgage repayments, and the loss of value due to the discovery of the fire safety and other deficiencies.

In another echo of what has occurred elsewhere, there is a two-tiered approach to the problem. Homeowners are on their own, while those in the public housing element will have their homes rectified with public money.

The narrative of how the problems came to light follows a path that has been beaten in recent years.

Ceol Na Mara was completed in 2008 by Cork-based firm, Bowen Construction.

The estate consisted of 54 two-storey and bungalow semi-detached homes. It was built using timber frame rather than masonry, a construction method that grew hugely in popularity during the boom years of frantic building.

The homes sold for between 185,000 and 310,000. By the time the crash occurred, the development company still had not managed to sell all the properties. When Bowen went bust in 2011, Nama took possession of these 19 homes.

Within two years, Waterford-based housing agency Respond stepped in to purchase the 19 vacant homes. The Irish Examiner understands that a deal was struck to buy the properties for around 50,000, just over a quarter of what they were valued at when the estate was built five years earlier.

Before taking possession of the homes, Respond did a detailed examination and out popped some dark secrets. There were deficiencies in heating and energy rating, but most crucially in relation to fire safety.

In essence, the houses were unsafe for habitation.

Respond informed Waterford City and County Council, which owns five of the properties in the estate. These were purchased under Part V of the Planning Act 2000, which made provision for a percentage of new developments to be handed over for social and affordable housing.

The council took possession of these homes in 2008, yet it was not until contacted by Respond five years later that the local authority realised there was a problem. It commissioned a consultants report into the homes in public ownership. The result confirmed the problems identified by the Respond survey.

The problems that were discovered were similar to those that have dogged other timber frame estates which were shown to have been deficient.

Among these issues were:

Attic party wall  plasterboard not properly jointed reducing integrity of party wall (between separate dwellings);

Cavity barriers, where provided, were not fixed properly or loosely fitted, causing sagging and gaps;

Cavity closers missing to top of external walls;

Fire stop missing at top of party wall between cavity closer and roof felt.

The council realised that immediate action would have to be taken. Last March, it called a meeting of the owners and residents. They were informed of the problems, but the private owners were told that it was up to themselves to have the issues rectified.

We were asked to a meeting in the community centre, an owner told the Irish Examiner.

We were told it would be 4,000 each for an engineer to go into our attics and put a camera down and it will cost another 10,00 each to get things done. And theres also a problem with the chimneys that will have to be fixed.

They said residents were provided with a number of smoke alarms as extra protection: They gave us one for each bedroom and one for the attic and another for the sitting room. Depending on how big your home, you got four or five of these.

The council confirmed to the Irish Examiner that it has also offered the services of a technical officer to the residents association to help with issues of technical and/or regulatory nature.

Remedial work has got underway in the five council-owned houses and the 19 being purchased by Respond. The remaining 30 owner/residents have to deal with the issue themselves. The problem is exacerbated as most of the properties are semi-detached, requiring neighbours to both agree to the work and funding.

As with most of the other cases where these issues have arisen, the development company involved no longer exists. The council says it will make some efforts to seek restitution for its properties from anybody connected with the company. It also confirmed that there is no provision to financially assist the private homeowners.

A spokeswoman for Respond said the agency does not have a contract with the original developer.

Respond only has a contractual relationship with Nama vis-a-vis this property and cannot attempt to recoup costs from the original developer. That would be a matter for Nama, said the spokeswoman.

Bowen Construction, which was once the sixth largest housebuilder in the state, went into receivership in 2011.

The only option open to the owners is to legally pursue some of the construction professionals who were engaged to sign off or approve the original works. That is an arduous and usually unsuccessful route, but the owners feel they have no option.

Who was supposed to be keeping an eye on this when it was built, a resident told the Irish Examiner.

We all trusted that we were buying homes that were safe and properly built.

Not for the first time, the trust was misplaced. Regulation of the construction industry was handed over to the business itself in 1990, and  even with changes since some of the problems from the Celtic Tiger were exposed  largely remains so.

Minster for Housing Simon Coveney recently confirmed this position when answering a parliamentary question from Waterford TD David Cullinane about Ceol na Mara.

Simon Coveney

Compliance with the building regulations is first and foremost the responsibility of the owners, designers and builders of the building concerned, he said. As minister, I have no function in assessing, checking or testing compliance, or otherwise, of specific works or development.

That was a stark admission. The State has no function in testing compliance of building regulations. What if the state abdicated testing compliance with financial institutions, or, more pertinently, compliance with road safety laws? How would that be received?

Mr Cullinane described the reply as extraordinary. It demonstrates that little has changed since scandal after scandal has emerged regarding poor building standards, he said.

Some homes were not built to the standards required

- Michael Clifford

Ceol Na Mara is a timber frame construction. This method of building grew in popularity during the years of the building boom.

Timber frame construction is attractive from environmental and energy conservation perspectives. From a builders point of view, it is also clean and has quick construction times.

Apart from Ceol Na Mara, major fire safety deficiencies in timber frame homes have been discovered in Millfield Manor in Newbridge, Riverwalk Court in Ratoath, and an unidentified estate in Fingal, which was uncovered by the local authority in 2012, according to documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

In Millfield Manor, a fire in March 2015 razed a terrace of six houses in less than half an hour, when, according to design criteria, such an eventuality should have taken three hours.

The frames are prefabricated off-site, then installed by the developer. Crucially, a high degree of precision is required in installing the frames. The allowable room for error is much smaller than in masonry.

Two issues arise in relation to timber frame construction during the boom years. In the first instance, who was operating with a high degree of precision when buildings were being thrown up in jig time in order to move quickly onto the next project and turn the next fast buck.

Apart from that, the amount of expertise in this specialised field in this country does not appear to have been present on the building sites.

A report commissioned by the government in 2003 into timber-frame development noted these problems. It pointed out that the fire protection of timber structures can be compromised if not detailed correctly and not constructed in accordance with the details and product manufacturers instructions.

The same report also found instances of defects of site which are attributed to a lack of knowledge and experience of erectors and tradespeople in timber frame.

None of this is to suggest that there is a problem with all timber frame developments. Some firms specialise in timber frame construction and operate to a high degree of precision. Others have been vigilant of the higher degree of expertise required in installation.

However, there are undoubtedly a number of cases where timber frame developments were not built to the standard required. And in all likelihood, there are more out there with secrets hidden behind the walls.
YOU can see the moving sign in neon from the gate of the Diavata refugee camp in the industrial hinterland of Greeces second city, Thessaloniki.

The letters flash by first in English, then in Arabic: It is against European Law to abuse animals and incurs a penalty.

Its not till later that massive irony hits me that the only sign in a camp housing thousands of refugees in tents is an instruction not to mistreat animals.

This camp took part of the influx of 16,000 refugees when the temporary Idomeni camp at the Macedonian border was cleared a couple of weeks ago.

Most of these Thessaloniki camps are closed to outsiders. This one has admitted them in the past but today its gate has shut too.

Its for our own safety, says the army. This morning an aid worker was threatened with a knife. My Syrian contact says he wants to see friends and the army tells him to meet them under the trees at the fence.

Its 32 degrees and theres already two groups sheltering from their boiling UNHCR tents.

Ahmed, aged 46, from Aleppo, has health problems and they told him hed get an apartment but it hasnt happened.

He hands us his records. He has cancer of the intestine. The Medicins sans Frontieres doctor writes that he cant read the reports Ahmed got done on his journey because they are in Turkish.

He pulls up his shirt and injects himself in the gut with something  antibiotic, steroid, pain killer? Its hard not to look away.

There are two breast-feeding mothers: one is Doha from Deralzour, who has an eight-month-old baby, the youngest of her eight children. Her husbands second wife has just given birth to her first baby and they are in hospital.

Doha from Deralzour with youngest of her eight children who is eight months old

She cant cope with life in this camp which the UNHCR describes as sub-standard and says make-shift Idomeni was better because it was open and people came out to help.

The mosquitoes are driving them crazy and they have already killed one snake.

A second, younger woman is breast-feeding a seven-month-old baby and is very thin. Her husband says she needs to eat to feed the baby but she has a stomach disorder and cant eat the food.

By this point Im surrounded by children, touching my clothes, my shoes, my earrings, as if I am a thing of beauty because I come from the real world.

Twelve-year-olds Noor and Menan learned some English in Syria and here they are learning Greek.

Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, Macedonia, is how Menan describes her time in Idomeni.

Along come Nahla, aged 10, and Ara, aged 7, who are cousins. Ara draws a picture on my notebook of what she is thinking, thinking and it is a picture of a house with a little girl inside sitting at a desk.

Ara (age 7) at the gate of the Diamata camp.

That is all she wants, this little girl. A home.

I will never see you again, Ara, but I will never lose your drawing and I will never forget your dream.

Its so hard to say goodbye to my new refugee friends because they dont know when, where, or if, they will be resettled.

It breaks my heart that I may never be able to repay the hospitality they have shown me.

Back in Athens, at Skaramagas, the best and the last open camp, the relative cool of evening has brought out hundreds of children enjoying games organised by volunteers and, as usual, theres a tea party going taking place on the terrace carpenter Ahmad made from United Nations HCR sacks and wooden pallets.

Nahla, age 10: The conditions at the camp are extremely difficult for young and old alike.

These Syrians are among new friends too but they might as well be family because of what they have been through.

Its too painful to think about friends and family left in Syria.

Mustafa, aged 27, from Aleppo, a medical student, formerly had 26 close friends and 25 of them are now dead.

The last one of them is in Syria, and has just witnessed his brother being shot dead. He was threatened with death if he tried to take the body.

Why am I still alive? he asks and his Greek friend tells him he must survive for the sake of those who didnt.

I think he will.

In my week in refugee camps I met people with such strong survival skills that they wont only survive, theyll thrive. But some of the less robust will never recover.

As Im saying my final goodbyes a little boy grabs me and bursts out crying. He has neither mother nor father in the camp and is in the care of a female relative who beats him. He has bite marks on his arm.

Mamma, Mamma! he shouts as I drive away feeling like a delinquent mother but unsure where to report the abuse of a child for whom no country accepts responsibility.

READ MORE: Meet Khadija, Theena and Sara. They fled the horrors of war in Syria
Bashar Assads speech, in front of the newly-elected parliament, came as government forces pushed ahead in their offensive in the northern province of Raqqa, the de facto capital of IS and the seat of its self-proclaimed caliphate.

Government forces have also almost encircled rebel-held neighbourhoods in Aleppo, Syrias largest city.
Speaking at the scene of the blast, in the Beyazit district, Istanbul governor, Vasip Sahin, said the dead included seven police officers and four civilians. Three of the wounded were in serious condition.

The bomb was placed inside a car and detonated as the police vehicle passed by. There was no immediate claim of responsibility and Sahin would not comment on the possible identity of the attackers.

The attack was the fourth major bombing in Istanbul this year, with two of them targeting tourists and the others hitting security forces. The spike in violence has led to a sharp dip in tourism, a mainstay of the Turkish economy.

The police bus was flipped over by the blast, which also damaged buildings, including a closed hotel, whose entrance appeared gutted.

Windows were blown out. The blast also shattered windows at a famous, 16th-century Ottoman mosque, Sehzadebasi, wrecked several cars and forced the cancellation of exams at nearby Istanbul University.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited some of the wounded at Istanbuls Haseki hospital, where two people were undergoing surgery.

These (attacks) are being carried out against people whose duty it is to ensure the security of our people.

"These cannot be pardoned or forgiven. We shall continue our fight against terrorists fearlessly and tirelessly, until the end, he told reporters outside the hospital.

Several groups have issues with the Turkish government. Rebels of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, have targeted police and military personnel since July, when a fragile peace process between the rebels and the government collapsed.

The Islamic State group has also been blamed for a series of deadly bombings in Turkey, which is part of the US-led coalition against IS.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim promised a full investigation.

Our security and forensic units will carefully, and diligently, trace evidence and shed light on those who perpetrated this vile attack, he said.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu condemned the attack, which occurred on the second day of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.

They are cold-heartedly exploding bombs on a Ramadan day, Cavusoglu said. Authorities imposed a news blackout, preventing media from reporting details of the investigation.

US ambassador to Turkey, John Bass, condemned the heinous attack, saying his country continues to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Turkey in the fight against terrorism.
Vote Leave said a hastily-arranged press conference by the prime minister betrayed panic in the Remain camp and suggested he was too chicken to take on opponents directly.

In a joint statement, Michael Gove and Boris Johnson said the public deserve the chance to hear these issues debated face-to-face between the prime minister and a spokesman for Vote Leave so they can judge for themselves which is the safer choice.
The 34 teenagers were plucked from a hazardous stretch of the coast often beset by falling rocks after getting lost during a walk on Monday night, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency said.

The hiking party from the Ahavas Yisroel Community Centre in London, which included two adults, raised the alarm with Kent Police at around 9pm after becoming disorientated as they followed a coastal path between St Margarets Bay and Dover Harbour.
The discovery yesterday is the latest in a growing scandal surrounding the Buddhist temple, which was a popular tourist attraction that charged admission for visitors to take photos with the tigers and walk them on leashes.

Last week, authorities removed more than 137 tigers from the temple grounds and also found 40 dead tiger cubs in a freezer and 20 more preserved in jars.

Acting on a tip, police raided a home yesterday about 45km from the temple in Kanchanaburi province in western Thailand and found four live tigers and a dozen empty cages, said police colonel Montri Pancharoen, deputy commander of the Crime Suppression Division, which oversaw the raid.

Investigators believe the house served as a slaughterhouse, he said.

We believe it was used by the Tiger Temple to hold live tigers before slaughtering them for their skins, meat and bones to be exported outside the country, or sent to restaurants in Thailand that serve tiger meat to tour groups, he said.

The house had a work area with a large chopping board and a variety of knives he said.

Police detained two caretakers at the facility who claimed the tigers were the private property of the homes owner, said the colonel. Police were searching for the owner who was not there during the raid.

The Tiger Temple is just a starting point, or a supplier, he said. We have information that the Tiger Temple is not the only place that supplies tigers to illegal smugglers.

Animal rights activists have long accused the temple of mistreating its tigers. The government suspects the monks have been involved in illegal breeding and trafficking of the animals.
Asia As Modi Meets Obama, Activists Call for Talks on Human Trafficking

US President Barack Obama should press the visiting prime minister of India to strengthen his countrys anti-trafficking laws, human rights campaigners say.

NEW DELHI  US President Barack Obama should press the visiting prime minister of India to strengthen his countrys anti-trafficking laws and deliver justice to victims, human rights campaigners said on Tuesday.

Obama was due to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the White House on Tuesday to discuss economic growth, climate change, clean energy and defence cooperation.

However, activists called on Obama to use Modis fourth visit to the United States since becoming prime minister in 2014 to focus on Indias anti-slavery record.

India has the most slaves in the world with more than 18 million people trapped in debt bondage, forced into marriage, sold to brothels or born into servitude, according to the 2016 Global Slavery Index.

More people are enslaved in India than in any other country in the world, with millions of Indian men, women, and children trapped in debt bondage and forced to perform strenuous work, said Amy Sobel of the Washington-based Human Rights First pressure group.

Prime Minister Modis trip to the United States is an opportunity for President Obama to raise concerns over Indias progress in combating modern slavery while ensuring that the US-India relationship is grounded in respect for human dignity and fundamental rights.

Forty percent of the worlds estimated 45.8 million slaves are in India, although the scourge exists in all 167 nations surveyed in last months Global Slavery Index, according to researchers behind the list.

The US State Departments 2015 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report shows that Indias primary trafficking problem is forced labor.

Often trapped in debt, victims including women and children are forced to work in brick kilns, rice mills, agriculture, embroidery factories, and other industries to pay off what they owe to their traffickers.

The TIP report ranks India as a Tier 2 country which means the government has not fully complied with US standards but is making significant efforts to meet those standards.

Last week a senior US lawmaker raised concerns over Indias human rights record, noting that the 2015 TIP report indicated that Indian officials at various levels of government were complicit in human trafficking.

The government did not report investigations, prosecutions or convictions of government officials complicit in human trafficking offences, said Senator Ben Cardin, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, during a speech in New Delhi.

Indian officials, however, have pointed to a slew of initiatives taken by Modis government over the last two years which they said was proof that New Delhi was taking the issue seriously.

These include the introduction of a new anti-trafficking law, an online platform to find missing children and increased focus on the rehabilitation of victims of slavery.

Last week India unveiled a draft of its first comprehensive anti-human trafficking law, which provides for more shelters, a rehabilitation fund, fast-track courts to ensure speedy trials and a federal investigative agency to boost convictions.
Burma Govt Invites UWSA, MNDAA to the Peace Table

The United Wa State Army (UWSA) and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) have agreed to talk to the Burma governments peace negotiators.

RANGOON  The United Wa State Army (UWSA), Burmas largest and most powerful ethnic armed group, and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) have agreed to talk to the Burma governments peace negotiators.

By the end of the week, the two groups will meet with a preparation subcommittee for what is being billed as the 21st Century Panglong Conference, Hla Maung Shwe, secretary of the governments peace negotiation team, told The Irrawaddy.

Dr. Tin Myo Win himself sent a letter [of invitation to the UWSA and MNDAA], Hla Maung Shwe said, referring to the Burma governments chief peace negotiator.

They received the letter and welcomed it. They want to meet. We have not yet decided on a time or venue because were still considering weather conditions and transportation. But it is very likely that the meeting will take place within a couple of days, Hla Maung Shwe said.

The governments peace negotiation team will supposedly invite the UWSA and MNDAA to the conference at the meeting and discuss their demands, according to Hla Maung Shwe.

First, well meet with them. Then, well explain to them [our goals]. Our committee is responsible for making sure they attend the conference. We will know [the final outcome] after our discussions. I think they may be interested in the new landscape under the current government, Hla Maung Shwe said.

The UWSA and MNDAA did not sign the so-called nationwide ceasefire agreement (NCA) with former President Thein Seins government last October. The UWSA has said before that it did not need to sign the NCA because the truce it signed with the military regime 26 years ago has not collapsed.

Military analysts believe that the UWSA, estimated to have over 30,000 troops, might once again push for autonomy, taking advantage of the governments invitation for ceasefire.

Meanwhile, the MNDAA signed a preliminary truce with Thein Seins government on Sept. 7, 2011, and the two sides have, in the past, held peace talks at the national level. The MNDAA split from the Communist Party of Burma (CPB) on June 30, 1989, and it was one of the first groups to sign a ceasefire with the Burma Army. The military regime designated Shan States Mongla region as the MNDAAs base (Special Region 4), delegating to the armed group a degree of control over some areas in eastern Shan State.

The conference subcommittee also met the United Nationalities Federal Councils (UNFC) Delegation for Political Negotiation (DPN), comprised of 13 members drawn from various non-state ethnic armed groups who opted out of signing the NCA, last week.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko
Burma New Members Appointed to Burmas Investment Commission

The Myanmar Investment Commission has been reshuffled to include 11 new members, the Presidents Office says.

RANGOON  The Myanmar Investment Commission (MIC) was reshuffled on Tuesday to include 11 new members, the Presidents Office announced on Wednesday.

Kyaw Win, Minister of National Planning and Finance, was appointed chairman, and Than Myint, Minister of Commerce, was appointed vice chairman.

Among the other members of the reconstituted MIC are Attorney General Tun Tun Oo and permanent secretaries from the commerce, national planning and finance, and resources and environmental conservation ministries. There is also one new member from the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI).

Aung Naing Oo, former secretary of the MIC, has been selected again for a similar post.

Since April, more than 100 investment proposals, for both foreign and local projects, have been awaiting approval due to the stalled reform of the MIC.

We could only approve proposals once the MIC was reconstituted, Aung Naing Oo said.

But Maung Maung Lay, vice president of the UMFCCI, said that this reshuffled MIC seems similar to its previous iterationBurmas Minister of National Planning and Finance has once again been selected for the chairman positionand he questioned whether the new MIC members would be able to avoid making the same mistakes as their predecessors.

There should be more experts on the MIC, and I expected there to be greater representation from the private sector, but Ive only seen one, from the UMFCCI, he said.

The MIC played a key role in making small amendments to the Foreign Investment and Citizens Investment laws. A draft law which would merge the two and include new references to responsible business is currently on its fifth version, but has not yet been submitted to Parliament.
Burma Shan and Kachin Armed Groups Hold Pre-Panglong Consultation

Three ethnic armed organizations express support for Suu Kyis 21st Century Panglong Conference at a meeting in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

CHIANG MAI, Thailand  To prepare for the upcoming 21st Century Panglong Conference, the leaders of ethnic Shan and Kachin armed groups held a Consultation on Panglong in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai on June 7-8.

The conference was proposed by Burmas State Counselor Aung Suu Kyi as a means of forging peace with Burmas disparate ethnic armed groups.

The original Panglong agreement in 1947, on which Suu Kyi has styled her peace initiative, was signed between her father Aung Sanrepresenting the soon-to-be independent government of Burma, dominated by ethnic Burmansand leaders from Shan, Kachin and Chin minority groups. It envisaged full autonomy in internal administration for Burmas ethnic minority frontier regions.

Still today, a deal on federalism is widely considered a necessary condition for a successful peace agreement.

The Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS) and the Shan State Progressive Party (SSPP) were present at the June 7-8 consultation, led respectively by Gen NBan La, Lt-Gen Yawd Serk and Gen Sai Htoo.

Although the consultation was intended to comprise the ethnic descendants of the original Panglong signatories, leaders from the Chin National Front (CNF) were absentalthough they consented in advance to abide by the outcome of the meeting.

Gen NBan La of the KIO said in his closing remarks that, As the original signatories of Panglong [in 1947], weShan, Kachin and Chinhave to take responsibility for leading this [peace] process.

We agreed that we would work with the other ethnicities and try to create a common voice at the [governments] upcoming [peace] conference, NBan La added.

Lt-Col Sai Meng of the RCSS, who was also present, told reporters that the leaders had agreed to support and participate in the 21st-Century Panglong Conference.

We also believe that the new Panglong will honor the spirit of the 1947 Panglong, and preserve its essence, Sai Meng said.

KIO Vice Chairman Gen Gun Maw told reporters that his group would consult with our people before participating in the peace conference, which they hope to help make into a success.

The June 7-8 Panglong consultation was urgently called following a meeting between RCSS and KIO leaders the previous week.

However, despite these clear signals of support for the governments peace initiative, the armed group leaders would still need to hold discussions with other members of the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC), an influential alliance of ethnic armed groups, which currently includes the KIO and the SSPP but not the RCSS or the CNF.

One urgent topic for discussion would be whether the UNFCs Delegation for Political Negotiation (DPN) would be ready to join the governments review meeting on the framework for political dialogue on Thursday, to which they were invited last week.

Gen Sai Htoo of the SSPP told The Irrawaddy that members of the DPN needed to discuss the matter before deciding whether they would attend.
Burma Western Union Launches Outbound Transfers

Privates banks in Burma will allow outbound money transfers through global transfer companies, offering a secure channel to send remittances abroad.

RANGOON  Private banks in Burma will allow outbound money transfers through Western Union and MoneyGram starting this month, banking industry officials said.

Earlier this week, US-based Western Union introduced international money transfers from Burma in partnership with nine banks: Kanbawza, Ayeyarwaddy, Myanma Apex, United Amara, Yoma, Co-operative (CB), Myanmar Oriental, World Treasure and First Private Bank.

Patricia Riingen, senior vice president of Western Union in Southeast Asia, said nine banks with almost 800 branches around the country will provide the foreign transfer service in Burma.

Starting this week, remittances sent from Burma will also be allowed at up to US$3,000 per person through Western Union.

Western Union, one of the worlds leading global money transfer services, has more than 500,000 branches in over 200 countries. Western Unions inbound transfer service to Burma began in 2013.

Zaw Lin Htut, chief executive officer of the Myanmar Payment Union (MPU) said he welcomed the new launch because many expatriates living in Burma as well as Burmese citizens living abroad would be happy that remittances would be easier to send.

In the past, students parents couldnt remit money to their children through legal channels and instead found informal channels, Zaw Lin Htut said, adding, Through informal channels, if senders faced mistatement or problems, they couldnt claim their money back. Now it is legal and easy to transfer money. This is good news.

MoneyGram, another money transfer service, will also allow remittances from Burma through their partner banks this month, said Soe Thein, executive director of the Asian Green Development Bank, adding that the remittance maximum would be similar to the one set by Western Union.

MoneyGrams international money transfer service opened in Burma in 2013 in partnership with three banks: Asia Green Development Bank, Myanmar Citizens Bank and the Tun Foundation Bank.
Commentary Ethnic Alliance Risks Irrelevance If It Skips Panglong

The United Nationalities Federal Council has been invited to the upcoming nationwide peace talks, but concerns over inclusion may keep it on the sidelines.

New faces were seen at a meeting between the Burmese governments peace delegation and ethnic armed groups in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand last week, raising expectations for the upcoming peace process.

At the meeting, Dr. Tin Myo Win, the trusted personal physician of Aung San Suu Kyi, Burmas state counselor, led the government delegation and urged ethnic leaders to discuss the issues at hand frankly and brotherly, like family members.

The governments top peace envoy said, Think of us as if we are brothers. Dont feel sorry or bad, but talk with us frankly. We will also respond in the same way. Lets try to build trust through brotherly conversation.

Tin Myo Win met with ethnic groups who both signed and did not sign the nationwide ceasefire agreement (NCA) with Burmas previous government. The NCA, made official in October of last year, has been criticized for excluding several ethnic armed organizations.

Tin Myo Win said ethnic minorities and the majority ethnic Burmans are like brothers and sisters living in the same country, and sometimes family members who live in the same house dont get along and dont talk to each other.

But now we all have to think of peace. We have to live together and build trust and understanding in order to establish a federal union and a peaceful developed country. These are our duties, said Tin Myo Win.

He invited ethnic representatives from an alliance of ethnic armed groups, the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC)made up of NCA non-signatoriesto attend an agenda-setting meeting so that they could decide whether to participate in the upcoming 21st Century Panglong Conference. The original Panglong Conference was convened by Gen Aung San in 1947 and resulted in an inter-ethnic peace pact that collapsed after the 1962 military coup.

A grouping of UNFC leaders, known as the Delegation for Political Negotiation (DPN), said they will respond to Tin Myo Wins invitation later. No major decision was made at the meeting, but a general statement was released asking how the new government will include all ethnic armed groups in the peace process, particularly those who were excluded by the previous government from signing the NCA.

Observers expect that the UNFC will likely consider participating in the 21st Century Panglong Conference and may also sign the NCA in due course, lest they risk losing influence by opting out. The ethnic bloc is reportedly happier to deal with a civilian-led delegation rather the previous governments peace mission led by former Presidents Office minister Aung Min.

Some believe the organizations power is already on the wane. The UNFC used to be comprised of 14 ethnic armed groups, but has since been trimmed down to nine.

Two of the UNFC members, the Taang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and the ethnic Kokang army known as Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), have tried to pull out of the bloc, which would weaken the organizations military strength.

The UNFC also expelled two members, the Pa-O National Liberation Organization (PNLO) and the Chin National Front (CNF), for signing the NCA in Oct. 2015. One of its most powerful members, the Karen National Union (KNU), pulled out in 2014 citing the alliances ineffectuality.

Most of the remaining UNFC members are now more active as political organizations than as armed groups, except its chair, the Kachin Independence Organization/Army (KIO), which, claims to retain up to 20,000 fighters.

Gen Gun Maw of the KIO said at the meeting that the UNFC members have not heard from State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi on the details of the 21st Century Panglong Conference and have relied on the media to receive news and information on the event.

So far, we have formed our own opinions [on the 21st Century Panglong Conference] based on news and information from the media. We hope to hear a clearer explanation at the meeting [with Tin Myo Win], said Gun Maw.

According to sources within the ethnic armed groups, Tin Myo Win could not answer all of the questions posed by Gun Maw at the meeting and said he had to report back to Suu Kyi for clarification.

The UNFC leader said he was willing to cooperate with the new delegation, but will be prudent and cautious about potentially signing the NCA. Some observers predict that the UNFC may join the Panglong-style conference without signing the ceasefire agreement.

The UNFC will miss a significant opportunity if they opt out of the conference, which is expected to start in late July, said the observers.

Tin Myo Win said that he invited the ethnic armed groups who are non-NCA signatories to join the conference to let them to speak for themselves.

There will be opportunities for them if they come and participate in the conference, said Tin Myo Win.

The people elected us [NLD] to achieve development, safety and peace and improve livelihoods. We cant realize these goals if we dont first achieve peace. We will only reach a solution after negotiating with our brothers and sisters [the ethnic leaders], he said.
Editorial Myitsone Dam Resumption Would Prove Suu Kyis Downfall

China should grasp that green-lighting the multi-billion dollar dam project in Burma would cost Aung San Suu Kyi her claims to leadership.

On Saturday, some 40 residents of the Kachin State capital Myitkyina staged a brief protest in front of the Palm Spring Resort. They were demanding a permanent halt to the Chinese-funded Myitsone dam and hydropower project in Kachin State.

The contentious project is sited 26 miles north of Myitkyina, and just downstream from the confluence that forms Burmas Irrawaddy River.

At the luxury hotel, a meeting was being held between Chinese Ambassador Hong Liang, Chinese investor China Power Investment (CPI) and chairman of the Kachin State Democracy Party (KSDP) Tu Ja. They discussed the resumption of the 6,000-megawatt US$3.6-billion Myitsone Dam, which is being pursued earnestly by China.

The demonstration was small and brief but reflected widespread public opinion in Burma. It is popularly assumed that the current government, which enjoys a huge mandate after the National League for Democracys (NLD) landslide win in the November election, would not resume the dam project but instead place it under review, along with other controversial mega development projects in Burma. It is about time that they did.

The former president Thein Sein boldly suspended the Myitsone Dam project in his first year of office, in 2011, in the face of sustained opposition both in Kachin State and across Burma. The risk of environmental degradation was the chief purported reason.

Thein Seins decision not only reflected public opinion but also sent a signal to the West that Burma was no longer in the pocket of China. Western governments welcomed the move.

However, many more Chinese-funded projects were waiting in the pipeline, several of which were allowed to proceed under the Thein Sein governmentwith no soliciting of public opinion, transparency or accountability. But the Burmese public had grown used to seeing generals, and former generals, selling off the countrys resources to China.

Now everything falls on the shoulders of the new government. If the NLD government decides to resume the Myitsone Dam, the Burmese people will demand that they leave office. China should understand this.

The truth is that many within the NLDincluding the large number elected to Parliament in Novemberdo not wish for the Myitsone dam or many other controversial projects to proceed. Many were veteran political activists who had grown concerned over the environmental, economic and social impacts of Chinese-backed giant infrastructure projects in Burma.

However, the decision rests with senior leadershipparticularly Aung San Suu Kyi, Burmas foreign minister, state counselor and head of the ruling NLD. But even her own party members appear not to know how she will proceed. Suu Kyi keeps everyone guessing.

The Myitsone dam is not even the biggest of the Chinese-backed projects planned for Burma. It is dwarfed in size by a proposed US$20 billion railway line linking Chinas southwestern Yunnan Province with a deep-water seaport being built off the coast of Burmas Arakan State. This would give China direct access to the Bay of Bengala key Chinese strategic goal.

The Chinese government was hoping that, with the election of a new government in Burma, the multi-billion dollar Myitsone dam would finally be given the green light to resume. The Chinese were betting on Suu Kyi, who was invited to Beijing to meet with President Xi Jinping a few months before the November general election. It was not known what they discussed.

A week after the NLD governmentde facto led by Suu Kyiwas sworn into office in Burma at the end of March, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi paid Suu Kyi a surprise visit. On meeting with reporters, Suu Kyi said she didnt discuss the Myitsone Dam project with the Chinese foreign minister because I havent become familiar enough with the details of the contract.

Turning to diplomatic niceties at a joint press conference, Suu Kyi in her role as foreign minister said: The social and economic relationship between our two countries is very important, since we are neighbors.

Our governments policy is for friendly cooperation with the whole world, and I hope neighboring countries will join hands with us in working for peace and human development, Suu Kyi said.

She is correct. We need to maintain friendly relations with Chinaas we should with all our neighbors, whether we like them or not. At the same time, Burma needs neighbors and investors who act constructively and responsibly towards it.

The Chinese at home, including the Myitsone Dams investors in CPI, and Ambassador Hong Liang should know that resuming the project would seriously tarnish Suu Kyis claims for moral and political leadership in Burma, and may even prompt a revolt among her own party members in the NLD.

It is time for Burmas government to review the Myitsone Dam and many other Chinese-backed projects that pose serious harm to the environment and the public at largeharm that could take generations to reverse.
Editorial President Htin Kyaw: Missing in Action

Regular and focused messaging has so far been missing from President Htin Kyaws government, which needs to set out its policies and broader aims.

The National League for Democracy (NLD)which weathered over two decades in opposition to military dictatorship, with the death and imprisonment of scores of its membersassumed power at the end of March, after a landslide win in the November general election.

Ever since, the Burmese people and the international community have been eager for clarity and detail on the NLDs intended policiesits roadmap for deepening, or recalibrating, the political and economic reforms launched under the previous administration.

Htin Kyaw, Burmas new president, gave a notably short speech during his inauguration. In the course of three minutes, he delivered broad-brush promises to the nation: Our new government will implement national reconciliation, deliver peace throughout the country, develop a constitution that could pave the way towards a democratic union, and enhance living standards.

This is not enough. The Burmese public deserves to know more about the intended policies of President Htin Kyaws new government.

Htin Kyaw is a man of reputed good character, but he is missing in action. Executive power (besides what has been retained by the military) is in the hands of Burmas charismatic de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was declared State Counselor in April, a position which gives her broad access to parliament and all branches of government.

Due to the 2008 constitution, Suu Kyi cannot become president, because her sons are British citizens and therefore owe allegiance to a foreign power, but everyone in Burma knows she holds the keys to government decision-making. This represents a serious institutional flaw, since President Htin Kyaw is allotted supreme executive power under the constitution.

There is no question about Suu Kyis popularity, and her ability and capacity to lead, but she needs a team of competent managers to lead a country that has been ruined under a corrupt and repressive military dictatorship. These competent managers should have sufficient powers to deliver policy in line with a coherent vision of the countrys future.

More importantly, they need to keep the public informed and engage stakeholders regarding the governments plans and objectives. Regular and focused messaging has so far been missing from Htin Kyaw and Suu Kyis government.

In every democracy, governments must communicate and coordinate with key constituencies, stakeholders and the publicusing a variety of channels and media platformsin order to strengthen its policies and objectives. There must be a constant flow of information to complement a coherent action plan. Government leaders and ministers should demonstrate that they understand, and wish to coordinate, with the public in order to achieve their aims.

This is known as strategic communication. As in the State of the Union address delivered annually by US presidents, President Htin Kyaw needs to speak to the Burmese public about the governments mission and its vision for the country.
Burma Burma Army, Arakan Army Soldiers Clash Again in Arakan State

A Burma Army battalion and Arakan Army soldiers engage in another clash near Arakan States Rathedaung Township, local sources say.

A Burma Army battalion and Arakan Army (AA) soldiers fought for around half an hour on Sunday afternoon near Rathedaung Townships Kharu Chaung and Rakaung Chaung villages in Arakan State, but no casualties from either side were reported.

Wai Hun Aung of the Wunlark Development Foundation said that it took upward of an hour for the fighting to fully cease but that it was not as serious as previous incidents of conflict.

He said that the residents of the villages 200 households had already fled because of previous skirmishes between Burma Army and AA troops.

The Arakan State government and local civil society organizations recently collaborated to secure emergency response and humanitarian assistance for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Rathedaung Townships villages, having built 17 temporary tents in Rakaung Chaung, 30 in Pae Thadu, 64 in Rayso Chaung and 20 in Kyauktan. Five primary schools were also built.

More than 2,000 villagers are sheltered in temporary camps in Kyauktaw, Ponnagyun, Rathedaung and Mrauk-U townships in Arakan State.

AA Col Nyo Twan Awng confirmed the fighting on Sunday, noting that this particular area is especially prone to conflict since both sides operate in the vicinity. Recently, fighting broke out unexpectedly when the two armed groups were discovered to be patrolling the same territory.

Last week, President Htin Kyaws chief peace negotiator Tin Myo Win convened a delegation to re-start negotiations with non-signatories of the 2015s nationwide ceasefire agreement (NCA), reportedly including the AA, the Taang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), who were previously excluded from NCA talks.

These three armed organizations are working with the government to set a date and venue for a meeting. Col Nyo Twan Aung said that a greeting of sorts between the two sides could happen within a week.

A greeting is better than no meetingits like something is better than nothing, the AA colonel explained, adding that details of the encounter would be revealed in due course.

Col Nyo Twan Aung also criticized Burmas previous government for failing to achieve peace in a country long plagued by civil war.

Peace was at the top of the agenda, and it was a very popular goal in Burma. But despite several government attempts, peace was never realized, because their [government officials] dishonesty prevented them from reaching this goal, he said.
Commentary Embattled Ethnic Armed Groups Cast Doubt on Suu Kyis Peace Drive

The Burma Armys refusal to halt its offensive campaigns has fueled skepticism and undermined the trust required for peace with ethnic armed groups.

The varying approaches of State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi and commander-in-chief Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing towards the peace process do not inspire confidence in its speedy resolution. But equally worrisome is the growing doubt over Suu Kyis mooted 21st Century Panglong Conference displayed by key ethnic armed groups that have come under considerable attack from the Burma Army in the last six months.

Suu Kyi has signaled her desire to include all of Burmas ethnic armed groups in the looming peace talks, but troops serving under Min Aung Hlaing have conducted intensifying campaigns against ethnic armed groups that refused to signor were excluded from signingthe Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) in October last year.

The NCA was signed by eight ethnic armed organizations, who represent only a minority of such groups in Burma, and do not include many of the most well-armed and influential.

One such non-signatory is the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), the second largest ethnic armed group in Burma, operating from Kachin State near the Chinese border. The KIA has publicly expressed doubt over Suu Kyis planned 21st Century Panglong Conference.

The political wing of the KIA is the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), which engaged in sporadic bilateral talks with the government after a 17-year ceasefire broke down in 2011. These talks eventually floundered, providing no relief to the 100,000-plus people displaced by the conflict between the KIA and the Burma Army in Kachin and northern Shan states.

The 21st Century Panglong Conference seeks to draw all of Burmas ethnic armed groupsboth those inside and outside of the NCAinto a political deal to resolve half a century of armed insurgency fueled by ethnic minority grievances. It is so named in reference to the 1947 Panglong Agreement signed between Suu Kyis father Aung San and leaders representing some of Burmas ethnic minorities, prior to Burmas independence from Britain in 1948.

Daung Khar, who heads the KIOs Technical Advisory Team based in the Kachin State capital of Myitkyina, told The Irrawaddy: We have lost trust with the government and the army and we doubt their motives. He noted that the National League for Democracy (NLD)-led government had kept quiet after the Burma Armys recent assaults on the KIA in northern Burma.

We did not gain our ethnic rights from the first Panglong agreement. We have doubts whether we would gain them from this second Panglong, Daung Khar said.

Daung Khar contended that Burma is effectively still ruled by the military, which he said had successfully retained its influence and power despite the transition of executive power. As long as this lasts, the prospects of obtaining our political goals [of federalism and self-determination for the Kachin people within the Union of Burma] remain dim.

Recent clashes between the Burma Army and the KIA have made for a very difficult working environment, in terms of building the trust necessary to resolving the conflict, Daung Khar continued.

Whoever formally leads this countryDaw Suu [Aung San Suu Kyi] or any other personwe are no longer interested. Politics in Burma cannot move forward..

The Shan State Army-North (SSA-N), whose political wing is the Shan State Progress Party (SSPP), has also publicly expressed doubts over Suu Kyis 21st Century Panglong Conference. The Burma Army has waged a prolonged offensive campaign against the SSA-Ns core positions since the NCA signing last year, which the SSA-N refused to take part in.

Last week, the SSA-N lost a temporary base in Noung Ma village, in northern Shan States Hsipaw Township, after clashes with the Burma Army.

We have suspicions that the Burma Army is trying to destroy the second Panglong conference, the SSPP/SSA-N said in a statement issued last week.

This is the time for trust-building between ethnic armed groups and the Burma Army, but the recent activity of the Burma Armylaunching strong military offensives against Kachin, Palaung (Taang) and Shan armed groups, after the NLD assumed formal control of the governmentsuggest that Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing is intent on destroying the necessary conditions for trust.

On a May 19 meeting in Naypyidaw, Min Aung Hlaing told a Chinese special envoy that all ethnic armed groups must abide by the peace principles of the Tatmadaw (as the Burma Army is known), and stick to their designated areas to avoid clashes, so that peace can be achieved through the current political system, according to a post on the army commander-in-chiefs Facebook page from the same day.

Min Aung Hlaings words suggest no softening on his core position: that peace should be achieved on the Burma Armys terms.

He has also reiterated that three ethnic armed groups engaged in current or recent conflict with the Burma Army, and who were excluded from signing the NCAthe Taang National Liberation Army, the Myanmar Nationalities Democratic Alliance Army and the Arakan Armyshould disarm before joining formal peace talks with the government.

This is a condition that these three armed groupswho are closely allied, and whose participation in the peace process is crucial to quelling ongoing fighting in the west and north-east of the countryare unlikely to ever accept.

[Min Aung Hlaings] words just fuel civil war in the country and we condemn him for it, said a statement released jointly by the three groups.
Burma Former Spokesman Slams Critics for Trivial Coffee Shop Controversy

Ex-President Thein Seins former spokesperson slams his old bosss critics for focusing too much on what, to him, is a trivial coffee shop controversy.

RANGOON  Ex-President Thein Seins former spokesperson slammed his old bosss critics for focusing too much on what, to him, is a trivial coffee shop controversy.

While he is no longer an official mouthpiece for the government, Ye Htut, who was formerly information minister, on Thursday voluntarily defended the heated ownership of a new coffee shop in Naypyidaw, Golden Farm, rumored to be owned by Burmas former head of state.

Ye Htut said that even if the coffee shop belongs to Thein Sein, it is a matter that has not warranted the vitriol it has received, given that other people in the country, particularly some senior military officials, have for decades made their riches by conducting business under their childrens names, securing government tenders and engaging in land grabs.

Criticizing U Thein Seins ownership of a coffee shop is like chasing rabbits instead of hunting elephants, Ye Htut said during a sideline interview at a press conference in Naypyidaw held to discuss the recent implication that Thein Sein has misused funds.

The former spokesmans comments came after pictures of the coffee shop were widely circulated among Burmese Facebook users, many of who claimed that it was owned by Thein Sein because of its location in a compound where Burmas ex-president owns a private farm.

Ye Htut believes that Thein Sein has faced more personal attacks since he stepped down from the presidency in March and once again assumed chairmanship of the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), citing the coffee shop controversy as an example.

Throughout [Thein Seins] careerfrom regional commander [in the military] to secretary of the former military regime to prime minister to presidenthis three children have never carried out business by using their fathers power. Despite his clean record, news like this is spreading about him. I think this is political assassination against him, Ye Htut said.

A source close to Thein Sein said the coffee shop is run by a local confectionary chain located on the former Presidents land.
Burma Mandalay Journalist Sentenced on Police Assault Charges

A Mandalay-based journalist working for BBC News was sentenced on police assault charges to three months in prison with hard labor.

RANGOON A Mandalay-based journalist working for the BBCs Burmese language news service was sentenced on police assault charges to three months imprisonment with hard labor by Mandalays Chanmyathazi Township court on Monday.

Forty-year-old reporter Nay Myo Lin was charged with Article 332 of Burmas Penal Code, which covers voluntarily causing hurt to deter [a] public servant from his duty, and carries a punishment of up to three years in prison or a fine.

The initial complaint was filed by Lance Corporal Ba Maw over an alleged altercation between the policeman and the journalist during a demonstration last year. The 2015 protest was held by several dozen Mandalay-based students and activists demanding the release of those arrested in the Letpadan crackdown, in which students were imprisoned in Pegu Division for demonstrating against Burmas controversial National Education Law.

According to a claim made by police, authorities tried to stop protesters on motorbikes and caused several drivers to fall. Nay Myo Lin was among those who were caught up in the accident, after which he allegedly hit one of the officers.

Defense lawyer Thein Than Oo told The Irrawaddy that the jail term was an unexpected punishment as the court could have chosen to impose a monetary penalty instead.

Three months imprisonment is too much, he said. He was caught up in a complicated collision and supposedly hit an officer [by] accident.

The lawyer said that the reporter has the right to lodge an appeal against the conviction, and that he will act on Nay Myo Lins behalf after hearing from the family.

Nay Myo Lin is the husband of Zarni Mann, a Mandalay-based reporter for The Irrawaddy.
Burma Suu Kyi to Meet With Migrant Workers During Thailand Visit

Aung San Suu Kyi will meet with Burmese migrant workers during her visit to Thailand in late June, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

RANGOON  Burma State Counselor and Foreign Affairs Minister Aung San Suu Kyi will meet with Burmese migrant workers in Thailand during her visit to the country in late June, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Kyaw Zeya, a director-general from the foreign affairs ministry, told The Irrawaddy on Monday that specific itineraries have yet to be finalized; the two countries officials are still hashing out the details for the three-day visit scheduled from June 23 to 25. Suu Kyi will reportedly visit the fishing town of Mahachai in Samut Sakhon, which is home to a large Burmese migrant worker community.

In promoting mutual relations and cooperation between our two countries, Burmese migrant worker issues also play an important role, Kyaw Zeya said.

She will go and meet them in order to hear their experiences and the difficulties they are facing, he added, regarding Suu Kyis trip.

Kyaw Zeya also said that Suu Kyi has plans to visit Thailands refugee camps, but he was unable to confirm further details. Zaw Htay, the President Offices spokesperson, declined to comment on whether President Htin Kyaw would join Suu Kyi on the trip.

A Thailand-based migrant workers rights activist, Andy Hall, told The Irrawaddy on Monday that the visit would be a dual opportunity for Suu Kyi to tackle the issue of migrant worker exploitation in Thailand and to keep a promise she made during a visit to Mahachai in 2012.

Suu Kyis 2012 trip to Thailand was her first outside of Burma after being released from house arrest, under which she was first placed in 1989. During this visit, she vowed to help Burmese migrant workers once she was in a position to do so.

This time, she would go back to Mahachai. [I think] she wants to keep her promise to the migrant community, Andy Hall said. I think Suu Kyi will be trying to push the Thai government to give more training [to migrant workers] to increase [their] skills so that they can come back home to [Burma] and help build the countrys economy.

Sein Htay, president of the Migrant Worker Rights Network (MWRN), said that Burmese migrant workers in Thailand believe that Suu Kyi will take the issue of migrant worker exploitation seriously, given her powerful position in Burma.

Burmese migrant workers hope that she will help to improve legal protections for them, something that needs to be addressed urgently, he said.

Sein Htay also emphasized the importance of skills training and the need for access to education and healthcare for migrant workers and their children, and how these issues need to be worked into long-term plans between the two countries.

According to MWRNs estimation, there are some 3 million Burmese migrant workers in Thailand.
Burma Sweden Lends Women of Burma Its Support

The Swedish government is offering women in Burma its support in furthering gender equality and protecting them from violence over the next four years.

STOCKHOLM, Sweden  The Swedish government says women in Burma can count on its support in furthering gender equality and protecting them from violence over the next four years.

Under Swedens recently adopted National Action Plan for 2016-20, Burma has been identified as one of 12 specially prioritized conflict or post-conflict countries struggling to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and subsequent resolutions on Women, Peace and Security.

With Burma home to the worlds longest-running ongoing armed conflict, Burmese women have suffered sexual violence and other forms of abuse in conflict-affected areas for decades. In the countrys ongoing peace process, women have largely been excluded from participation, and womens rights advocates say the few women who are officially involved in negotiations are not accorded the same voice as their male counterparts.

The action plan adopted earlier this month is mainly focused on strengthening womens participation in the countrys peace process and state-building, and protecting them from harm. Efforts will be underpinned by the crux of the UN Security Council Resolution 1325: Passed in 2000, it highlights the important role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts, peace negotiations, peace-building, peacekeeping, humanitarian response and in post-conflict reconstruction and stresses the importance of their equal participation and full involvement in all efforts for the maintenance and promotion of peace and security.

The structure of the action plan emphasizes approaching issues of Women, Peace and Security from a gendered perspective.

We have decided to prioritize the works in focused countries, Disa Kammars Larsson from Kvinna till Kvinna, a Swedish foundation focused on peace and gender equality that was involved in drawing up and implementing the action plan, told The Irrawaddy.

She said that unlike Swedens previous two National Action Plans, the 2016-20 iteration has much stronger political ownership, with the inclusion of the Swedish Foreign Ministry in implementation of the plan allowing it the opportunity to better wield influence with Burma and the other targeted countries with respect to womens rights.

It clearly included political dialogue; that if Swedish diplomats and ministers visit to the focus countries, he or she has a responsibility to raise this issue and the Swedish Embassy in the country has the responsibility to report back to Sweden annually on the situation.

The National Action Plan would require regular consultation with womens rights defenders on the ground in Burma, she added.

Thandar Oo, a womens rights and peace activist from Shan State, urged the international community to support womens advocates working at the grassroots level to enhance these activists capacity to increase womens participation in all realms of society.

Under the action plan, Burma is joined by Afghanistan in Asia; Iraq, Palestine and Syria in the Middle East; Colombia in Latin America; the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Mali and Somalia in Africa; and Bosnia-Herzegovina and Ukraine in Europe, as priority nations.
Burma Women Fear Ban on Working as Foreign Maids Puts Them at Risk

With few economic opportunities at home, the number of women leaving Burma for jobs abroad as maids has fueled calls for the ban on such work to be lifted.

FALAM, Chin State  Van Biak had only been away from her family in Leilet in northwest Burma for two weeks, but her mother was in tears as they embraced on the veranda.

Biak and her older sister Van Hnem left to find work as maids in Singapore with few job opportunities in their remote village in Chin State, the poorest region of Burma where 73 percent of the population lives below the poverty line.

Biak and Hnem were aware of the risks. Another maid from Leilet has been working in Saudi Arabia for six years without pay or hope of returnand this was not an isolated case.

A number of high profile cases of worker abuse prompted the government in September 2014 to put a temporary ban on women going abroad to find work as maids.

But with few economic opportunities at home, the number of women leaving to get jobs abroad as domestic workers has not abated and more do so illegally, prompting calls for the newly appointed government of Aung San Suu Kyi to lift the ban.

Im ready to work hard and face difficulties abroad in order to help my family, said Biak, who, at age 15, was too young to get a passport and so returned home.

Hnem, who is 18, made it to Singapore with six other girls from Leilet, lured by the chance to make up to US$370 a month compared to Burmas minimum wage of about US$67.

I am so scared they will be used as slave labour, said her mother, a fear echoed by all parents whose daughters are now working abroad illegally.

For the ban has not only failed to stop women from Burma going abroad to work, but it has led to a black market that puts the women at greater risk of exploitation and slavery, according to the Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (HOME), set up to protect migrant workers rights in Singapore.

In Debt for the Job

Since the ban was implemented, the fee paid by workers to secure a job abroad has increased in order to facilitate the bribes required to circumvent the ban. Workers do not start to see any money themselves until this debt is paid off.

Moreover, since these workers often leave their country as a tourist, they are not protected by labour or migration laws.

Jolovan Wham, executive director of HOME, said the number of Burma maids in Singapore grew 50 percent between 2013 and 2015 with over 30,000 there now, which was evidence that the ban was not effective.

Unfortunately, a lot of Singaporean employers request [Burma] maids because they are more affordable and generally more compliant, Wham told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Sian Men Mawi legally worked as a maid in Singapore before moving to China, lured by the promise of a lucrative employment contract. She arrived in Guangzhou on a tourist visa.

Sian Men, 26, said she was enslaved by her agent who locked a number of Burmese girls in separate houses and rotated them through different jobs, holding their wages and never letting them pay off their debts.

We didnt know the agent would exploit another human being like that, Sian Men said from her mothers home in the Chin village of Zawgnte.

Sian Men managed to escape and returned to Burma by bus, evading the police who manned checkpoints along the route.

We get into difficulty because of the agents but we cant do anything about it because we dont have legal passports or work permits. We have to do what the agency says, she said.

The Thomson Reuters Foundation managed to get hold of Melody, Sian Mens agent in Guangzhou, who admitted to enforcing a six month debt bondage period but denied exploiting her employees.

If their employer is unhappy then I have to replace them [before they pay off their bondage debts], she said repeatedly, without giving her full name.

The Myanmar Overseas Employment Agencies Federation (MOEAF) said it has become harder for the authorities to police the movement of domestic workers across Burmas borders because large employment agencies have been replaced by individual traffickers, often from within the victims social circles.

It is particularly difficult to track the trafficking of girls from Chin and [Karen] state because their church is often involved, said Win Tun, vice chairman of MOEAF.

There were 130 official cases of trafficking in Burma last year, with a total of 641 victims. Chin State was the only region of Burma not to have recorded any official cases.

The Anti-Trafficking in Persons Police Division does not have a branch in Chin State. The Thomson Reuters Foundation contacted the nearest office on Kalaymyo, Sagaing Region, but they were unable to comment on the presence of trafficking in their neighboring state.

In 2015, MOEAF signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with 12 employment agencies in Hong Kong who agreed to treat Burmese staff according to the federations employment standards and it wants to see similar deals in other countries.

These agreements would make it less dangerous for girls because we can ensure their labor rights are protected in their host countries, hold information about who is abroad and offer assistance to anyone that gets into trouble, said Win Tun.

But the last government didnt want to know anything about them.

MOEAF have met with members of the new government twice since it took over in April. The Department for Labour declined to comment to the Thomson Reuters Foundation but a parliamentary committee is now considering whether to lift the ban.

We are just waiting for permission from the new government, we are ready to sign MOUs with countries we know will offer good salaries and working conditions including Singapore, Hong Kong, Macau and Japan, said Win Tun.

But until they do, campaigners fear thousands of women in Chin Stateand across Burmawill continue to seek employment as domestic workers through illegal channels, putting themselves at risk of slavery, trafficking and exploitation.

When I am the right age, I will go again, said Biak.
Wednesday, June 8th, 2016 (9:07 am) - Score 1,004

Cisco has today published its 11th annual 2016 Visual Networking Index (VNI) forecast, which predicts that world Internet traffic will grow from 72,521 PetaBytes per month in 2015 to 194,374 PB in 2020. Meanwhile average fixed broadband speeds in the UK will double from 24.7Mbps in 2015 to 51.3Mbps in 2020 (roughly level with the global average).

We should point out that the current global figure of 72,521 PetaBytes (monthly) for all types of Internet traffic breaks down to 58,539 PB for consumer traffic and 13,982 PB for business. Similarly fixed line Internet connections continue to dominate the picture (49,494 PB), while Managed IP networks gobbled 19,342 PB and Mobile held just 3,685 PB.

However Mobile data traffic is growing at 53% per year (CAGR) and will be almost level with Managed IP traffic come 2020 (30,564 PB monthly), although by then fixed line connections will still dominate (130,758 PB). In the UK, the average Internet user is expected to generate 93.9 GigaBytes of Internet traffic per month in 2020 (5.6 GB on mobile data), which is up from 40 GB in 2015 (0.96 GB on mobile data).

Just to put all of these big figures into some perspective, a humble 8Mbps (Megabits per second) broadband line can also be converted to read as 1 MBps (MegaBytes per second) and it then takes around 1000 MegaBytes to equal a GigaByte. After that it goes a little like this..

1000 GigaBytes = 1 TeraByte

1000 TeraBytes = 1 PetaByte

1000 PetaBytes = 1 ExaByte

1000 ExaBytes = 1 ZettaByte

By 2020 Smartphones are predicted to generate 30% of total IP traffic, while the PCs (desktop / laptop computers) total IP traffic contribution will fall to 29%. Similarly 78% of all traffic is expected to flow over a WiFi or Mobile link by 2020 (this includes your home wireless router), which compares with 2015 when wired devices accounted for a slim majority of IP traffic at 52%.

As predicted last year the results mean that annual global IP traffic should surpass the ZettaByte (1000 ExaBytes) threshold this year (1.1ZB per year or 88.7EB) and it will hit the dizzy heights of 2.3ZB per year in 2020. But it will come as no huge surprise to find that video content (YouTube, Netflix etc.) will account for 82% of all consumer Internet traffic by 2020, up from 70% in 2015.

The report also includes predictions for broadband speed, although the predictions should be taken with a pinch of salt and Ciscos results are also subject to the usual issues of network availability vs adoption (i.e. people may be able to take a faster connection, but they might choose to retain a slower service to save money etc.) and other caveats (e.g. the impact of slow WiFi or network congestion etc.).

At present Cisco claims that the global average fixed line broadband speed is 24.7Mbps (Megabits per second) and they predict that this will rise to 47.7Mbps by 2020, which is almost a mirror for the United Kingdom where the current speed is also stated to be 24.7Mbps and this is predicted to hit 51.3Mbps by 2020.

Interestingly Cisco predicts that 81% of fixed broadband connections in the UK will be faster than 10Mbps by 2020 (up from 62% today), which is of course the same year where the Government intends to introduce their new 10Mbps Universal Service Obligation (USO). However Ciscos report is based on predictions from current usage trends and will not yet be able to account for the USO.

The results for Mobile Broadband connectivity are less informative, although Cisco claims that the UKs average mobile speed should grow 3-fold to hit 18Mbps in 2020. By comparison the global average mobile speed will grow by the same amount, but it will only reach 7Mbps by 2020.

As we said above, its important to take Ciscos report with a huge pinch of salt because their future predictions, especially those that go past the +2 year mark, can end up being quite wide of the mark.
Wednesday, June 8th, 2016 (5:40 pm) - Score 2,910

Cable operator Virgin Media has revealed that some 45,000 homes and businesses in Chester (Cheshire, England) and 24,000 in Wrexham (North Wales) will be among the next to gain access to their up to 300Mbps broadband and TV bundles, which is part of their on-going 3bn Project Lightning network expansion.

Virgins expansion aims to make their predominantly urban cable and fibre optic network available to 60-65% of the United Kingdom / 17 million premises by 2019 (here), which is up from around 45% in 2014. Most of the 4 million extra premises will be reached by their hybrid-fibre and coax DOCSIS network, although over 1 million of those should get a pure fibre optic FTTP connection.

The announcement today confirms that Virgins deployment into both Chester and Wrexham, which is due to complete by the end of 2017, will be done using the superior Fibre-to-the-Premise (FTTP) technology via Radio Frequency over Glass (RFoG) in order to retain compatibility with their wider DOCSIS cable network.

Interestingly the expansion into Wrexham has only been possible because of Virgin Medias planned move into Chester, which makes it easier to connect nearby locations. As a bonus Wrexham will become the first town in North Wales to receive such large FTTP coverage, with other existing deployments from BT tending to be at a smaller scale (note: BT recently announced a plan to add 2 million FTTP premises, so this may change).

Ian Lucas, MP for Wrexham, said: I am absolutely delighted at Virgin Medias announcement of their investment in an entirely new broadband network in Wrexham. It is a huge vote of confidence in Wrexham and its future. This is a private sector investment of enormous significance. It will further increase Wrexhams appeal as a location for business and is a massive boost for jobs and growth. Both businesses and individual consumers will benefit. When I put forward the case for Virgin Broadband and Project Lightning to come to Wrexham in a Select Committee hearing to its Chief Executive, Tom Mockridge, at the end of last year, I was confident Wrexham had an excellent case for this investment in its future. I am very grateful indeed that Virgin Media has shared my enthusiasm and have worked so well with Lee Robinson and his Economic Development Team at Wrexham Council to make this happen.

Chris Matheson, MP for the City of Chester, said: Im very happy to hear that tens of thousands of homes and businesses in and around Chester will soon have access to the fastest broadband. I have been pushing hard to improve super-fast broadband connectivity across Chester so it is great to see this investment in our citys future.

Apparently the roll-out in Chester is due to begin during early 2017 and the first areas to benefit will be Blacon and Huntington. Likewise Virgin expect to begin the Wrexham deployment towards the end of this year and the first areas to benefit will be in the Acton Park area, following by the Wrexham Industrial Estate, Wrexham Technology Park and also the villages of Llay, Rossett, Coedpoeth and Gwersyllt as well as Wrexham town centre.

As usual Virgin Media will also attempt to focus their roll-out on the areas that show most demand. Locals can register their interest by visiting http://virginmedia.com/cablemystreet .
2016 Business Communications: Changing the Way We Work

For a long time, one of the dramas in the smartphone market was whether a third major operating system (OS) would catch on to pose a real threat to the Apple iOS/Google Android duopoly. Its pretty much settled that those two main players are dominant, and niche players BlackBerry and Windows Phone, as well as a few lower-profile OSes, would hang around the fringes but pose no significant threat.

The next act in the drama may be which hardware companies exit the stage. Making a respectable amount of devices may no longer be enough. Gartner is expressing doubts that smartphone manufacturers that lack a strong software ecosystem or produce a huge amount of devices will be viable over the long haul, according to PCWorld. The status of HTC, BlackBerry and Microsoft as device makers may be up in the air.

The segment is in transition, but the market is expected to grow. If some players exit the manufacturing market, others may join, or current players may grow stronger.

Last month, Microsoft said it would lay off 1,850 workers and take a charge of about $950 million on the hardware side of its smartphone business, according to The Wall Street Journal. The strategy is to entice IT managers to use Windows 10 to lock down and control devices on their networks. The approach, which an analyst called the companys last play in an effort to transition from a PC to mobile company, doesnt have much of a device angle to it. It remains to be seen if physical devices are an afterthought to the new strategy  or no thought at all.

While the market is transitioning, well have no shortage of physical devices. BlackBerry, changing from a software- to a hardware-centric company, in particular, still promises to introduce interesting devices. Indeed, a highlight for the past couple of years is the success of the Android-powered Priv.

Other changes include Google aiming for a 2017 launch of what could be the wave of the future, Project Ara. CNET featured a deep dive into the project, with insight from lead engineer Rafa Camargo:

Camargo is the lead engineer on Project Ara, Googles attempt to build a smartphone that lets you swap out its parts like Lego blocks  just by popping them on and off. Slide in a couple of speaker modules if youre throwing a party, insert an additional battery if youll be out on the town or even slot in exotic modules like glucometers (for diabetics) or sensors to measure air quality. While weve recently seen LG attempt to build a modular smartphone with the G5, these Ara snap-on concepts are the kind of features youd never find on a normal phone built for mass-market adoption.

The smartphone sector of the physical device market is changing, but it is far too early  at least a couple of years, in all likelihood  to get an accurate read on how the new landscape will look.

Carl Weinschenk covers telecom for IT Business Edge. He writes about wireless technology, disaster recovery/business continuity, cellular services, the Internet of Things, machine-to-machine communications and other emerging technologies and platforms. He also covers net neutrality and related regulatory issues. Weinschenk has written about the phone companies, cable operators and related companies for decades and is senior editor of Broadband Technology Report. He can be reached at [email protected] and via twitter at @DailyMusicBrk.
Sales of Nissan's Qashqai, from Japanese automaker Nissan Korea were banned by the environment ministry of South Korea on Tuesday due to alleged emissions fabrication. The ministry banned sales of the Qashqai SUV model in the area.

The environment ministry also ordered Nissan Korea to recall all 814 units of Qashqai vehicles that were sold between November and May 11 upon learning that these vehicles used a defeat device during emissions testing, according to Xinhua news agency as per Financial Express.

According to the investigation, the Japanese car company used a defeat device to decrease the amount of nitrogen oxide released during the emissions test. The device, also known as exhaust gas re-circulation, is made to stop emissions when the engine heats up to more than 35 degrees Celsius, thereby affecting the emissions test.

The allegation was denied by the Nissan during a hearing that was held on May 26. The Japanese automaker said that the device function was not made to obscure emissions testing but to protect car engines from the effects of overheating. The ministry then replied that 35 degrees temperature is suited for general driving conditions.

Global Times reports that the alleged emissions fabrication was based after the emissions scandal that transpired in 2015 involving the German carmaker, Volkswagen. The ministry imposed Nissan with $286,000 in fines for the alleged emissions scandal, while Nissan's head, Takehiko Kikuchi, received a criminal lawsuit from the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office.

Details of the emissions scandal was reported by Arirang News, which stated that numbers of Qashqai SUV owners in Korea are about to file a class-action lawsuit to the Japanese auto giant.
Following last year's debut of the BlackBerry PRIV - the first Android BlackBerry phone - CEO John Chen confirmed that the company will create two new Android-based smartphones, the Hamburg and Rome, in 2016.

According to 9to5Google, the BlackBerry PRIV is a good device but a tough sell due to its high price tag. While BlackBerry estimated sales of 850,000 units in Q4 of 2015, it was only able to sell around 600,000 in total. Know Your Mobile reports that when it came out, the PRIV was quite a big deal. It was the first BlackBerry device to run on Google's Android and it made itself a niche inside the Android space.

The PRIV is a pretty decent handset, but BlackBerry realized it could be improved in quite a few ways. Chen has said in interviews that the flagship BlackBerry phone was relatively well-received, however the sales are not so great since the device is aiming for the premium segment in terms of pricing and specs.

The core demographic for BlackBerry's PRIV is made up by businesses looking to buy in bulk for their employees. In this context, a device positioned in the mid-range segment could have achieved better sales figures.

The website 51blackberry.com has also published leaked images and details of the two handsets codenamed the Hamburg and Rome, based on Chinese sources. It appears the Rome will come with a physical QWERTY keyboard, while the Hamburg will be a touch-only handset.

The new BlackBerry Android handsets planned for this year are unlikely to be top-range phones. GFXBench has published a new set of benchmarks claimed to be from the upcoming BlackBerry Hamburg.

According to this, the upcoming Hamburg device will feature a 1080p 5.2in display and will be powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processor working at 1.5GHz. It will also come with an Adreno 405 GPU, 16GB of storage and 3GB of RAM. The device will feature a 12MP primary camera and an 8MP secondary camera and will run on the Android version 6.0.1.

The sources also suggest that the Hamburg will be launched in the second half of 2016 and will cost $400. For the Rome there is no information on the specs, release bracket or price.
The Australian IPO market is a hive of activity, delivering strong gains in May after a big increase in gains of 39.4% in April, according to a new report from mobile app provider for IPOs, OnMarket BookBuilds (OMB).

OnMarket says that returns from companies listing on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) through Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) hit 9.4% in May after the big gains of April.

And, over the 2016 year-to-date, the average return from the 25 companies which had listed on the ASX as at 31 May was 24.7%, compared to just 1.6% from the S&P/ASX 200.

Ben Bucknell, chief executive of OnMarket BookBuilds (OMB), the creator of the world first app giving investors free and fair access to IPOs, said the data highlights the impressive returns IPOs are delivering to investors this year.

The OnMarket April-May IPO Report 2016 reveals healthy IPO activity during those two months, after a strong start to the year. All up, 25 companies had listed on the ASX by 31 May, and while that was the same number as last year, the returns for the year to 31 May 2016, were higher at 24.7% compared to gains of 11.2% for the same period in 2015.

This reflects a very healthy 2016 Australian IPO market and adds to the impressive IPO performance in 2015, when the average return on the 93 companies that listed on the ASX was 23%, Bucknell said.

He said IPO returns during May were boosted by technology company Afterpay Holdings, which had soared 49.5% over the month.

Bucknell also reports that Shark Mitigation Systems was another strong performer, returning 7.5% to 31 May after a 12 May listing, and chicken producer Tegel Group held its ground during May after listing at $1.55 and raising $299 million.

In another example of heightened activity in May, Bucknell says technology company WiseTech had jumped 30.5% by 31 May after listing on 1 April, while another strong performer has been the biggest IPO on the ASX this year  the $1.3 billion plumbing manufacturer Reliance Worldwide Corporation, whose stock was up 25.2% as at 31 May following a 25 April listing.

Australias IPO market now offers good exposure to a broad range of companies, with more technology and finance companies listing these days, taking over from the resources sector which dominated 10 years ago, as the chart below shows.
Apple has been shunted to second behind Google in the rankings for the top 100 most valuable brands in the world this year released on Wednesday by WPP and Milward Brown.

The two giants of the Internet and technology world swapped positions. Google jumped back to the number 1 spot from 2nd last year with a brand value for 2016 of US$229.1 billion while Apple  number 1 in 2015  relinquished its position to Google, with a drop in brand value to US$228.4 billion.

Googles climb back to the top of the rankings represented an increase of 32% in brand value  its best ever  with Apple down by 8%.

Elspeth Cheung, global brandZ valuation director at Millward Brown, says Google has thrived thanks to continual innovation, increased revenue from advertising, and growth in its cloud business.

By contrast, Cheung says Apple tends to follow a trend of bi-annual surges of innovation along with keeping this pipeline secret. This, combined with the lost momentum in sales for the Apple Watch as well as the lack of a new market-defining handset, is reflected in the 2016 valuation for last years no.1.

These latest brand value rankings for this year reveal that for the second consecutive year, Facebook was the technology brand that rose the fastest in the BrandZ Top 100, growing 44% to US$102.6 billion, a value that Cheung says pushed the social network into the top 10 for the first time.

This was thanks to adding new features such as Friends Day, Disaster Alert and live video broadcast to its community platform, as well as attracting new publisher content. It is also proving highly successfully in monetising the move to mobile, attracting significant spend via its mobile ad platforms.

But, on a not so positive note, overall its been a less than triumphant year for the tech sector.

The WWP/Milward Brown report reveals that after 2015s 24% rise in total value for the Top 20 tech brands, 2016 has seen just a 6% rise.

According to Cheung, as a rule, hardware companies have performed less well with new areas such as wearables, watches and the Internet of Things (IoT) yet to deliver either financial or brand benefits.

But, one company that Cheung notes has defied the hardware-service divide is Huawei, the low-cost smartphone manufacturer, which first entered the tech Top 20 last year. It has shown 22% growth to US$18.7 billion following its emergence as the leading Chinese smartphone maker in China, and becoming a key rival for Apple in the rest of the world.

This market leadership also allows Huawei to strengthen its premium position by raising prices.

Another success story revealed in the report, that Cheung says is indicative of future trends, is streaming TV service Netflix, which has been listed in the tech Top 20 for the first time with a brand value of US$9.2 billion.

Cheung also stresses that the consumer perception that the B2B brands are less innovative  even if that isnt always the case  has seen the proportion of total value in the technology Top 20 that is contributed by B2B brands decline from 56% in 2006 to just 26% in this years listing.

There is a clear imperative for tech brands to showcase their innovation pipeline both in order to convince consumers that they are working hard to change their consumers lives but also to allow investors to anticipate future growth more accurately. With complex supply chains, secrecy is no longer possible and Google has benefitted from its corporate restructure which allows it to better showcase the innovations beyond its core search business, Cheung said.
Amazon.com is to invest US$3 billion in India, in addition to a $2 billion investment the online retailer announced in 2014.

The new investment was announced on Tuesday by CEO Jeff Bezos at a meeting between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and U.S. industry, hosted in Washington by the U.S.-India Business Council.

We have already created some 45,000 jobs in India and continue to see huge potential in the Indian economy, Bezos said.

A company spokeswoman would not, however, provide details on how the company plans to spend the money in the country.

Indias online retail market is booming and a number of local companies, including large traditional business powerhouses like the Tata Group, have set up online retail sales.

A report released recently by Google and A.T. Kearney has projected that online retailing will contribute as much as 25 percent of the total organized retail sales by 2020 and will reach $60 billion in gross merchandising value by then.

Amazon is up against established online retail startups such as Flipkart and Snapdeal, which have proven to be quick to adapt to Indian conditions and consumer demands, and have also been able to raise cash so far to compete with Amazon in a market where heavy discounting is prevalent. The entry of established companies into online retail could prove to be another big challenge for the U.S. retailer.

In line with Indian rules governing foreign ownership of retail companies, Amazon does not sell directly in India but operates as a marketplace for vendors. The company has 21 fulfillment centers providing 5 million cubic feet of storage space. Under a new program called Seller Flex, introduced in India, some sellers need not send inventory to Amazon but instead stock it at their own facilities. Amazon configures the site as a fulfillment center in its network to receive and fulfill customer orders.

The company has tried a number of strategies in India to popularize its Marketplace platform. It ran a program called Amazon Chai Cart that used three-wheeled mobile carts to do the rounds of the business districts of cities, serve tea, water and lemon juice to small business owners and teach them about selling online.

In a period of four months, the team traveled 15,280 km across 31 cities, served 37,200 cups of tea and engaged with over 10,000 sellers, Bezos said in a letter to shareholders in April.

The company found that although sellers were keen on getting online, they felt that the process was complex, tedious and time consuming. So was born Amazon Tatkal, a program offering launch services such as registration, imaging and cataloguing services, as well as basic seller training, to get small businesses online in less than an hour.

The company, which launched its marketplace three years ago in India, now claims to sell over 55 million products from 85,000 sellers, the majority of whom are traditional Indian retailers.
Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) shut down a Columbus, Ohio, pilot of its CurrentC mobile payment service this week.

The company said on its website that it has "not determined the future timing of CurrentC" although some analysts have said for a while they doubted the service would continue due to pressure from Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and others.

In an emailed statement, an MCX spokesman said, "We removed CurrentC from the app stores to coincide with the scheduled end of our Columbus, Ohio beta at the end of June. We've not announced future timelines or plans around the app but we're looking forward to analyzing and learning from the data we gleaned throughout the beta."

On its website, CurrentC added: "We want to say a special thank you to everyone who participated in our CurrentC Beta test" in Columbus, Ohio. "We will be concluding our Beta on June 28. Please stay tuned for new information on CurrentC as our future plans evolve."

On a separate website, MCX still lists 63 companies including Target and Walmart as merchants that accepted CurrentC, which relied on the free CurrentC smartphone app. The idea was to centralize merchant loyalty rewards and payment accounts, and automatically apply coupons and promotions to use at checkout with the various merchants.

But CurrentC in its latest form in the pilot was not seen as a full competitor to Apple Pay, Samsung Pay or others that pair a virtual credit or debit card with an NFC or magnetic technology payment to a payment terminal in a store. Late last year, Walmart set up its own related service with Walmart Pay.

While there has been growth in mobile payments since 2014, it has been slower than first expected.

The U.S. Federal Reserve found last year that 75% of the 2,137 people it surveyed didnt use mobile payments because they found it easier to use cash or a credit or debit card. Accenture said last year that mobile payment use was flat, growing just 1% over 2014, based on a survey of 4,000 smartphone users in North America.

Jordan McKee, an analyst at 451 Research, said that MCX is "quickly nearing" its end. He said competition between MCX members like Target and Walmart was "innovation stifling." He also said there was "collective paranoia over data-sharing" that ensured CurrentC would never make it past beta.

Primarily, he said, the merchants have all been obsessed with circumventing the fees they must pay to card providers for each transaction and entirely lost sight of how they would add value for customers. . . The bottom line is that it's very unlikely the consortium will ever evolve into anything meaningful for consumers."
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Links to our top local news stories of the day, Monday through Saturday.
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And so it begins, the free outdoor music concert on the Milwaukee River gets going tonight. For a complete line-up of bands for River Rhythms tonight and beyond click here.

The Denim Park Music Series also launches tonight with Vitrolum Republic from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Denim Park is located at 1551 N. Water St., across the street from the freshly opened Fresh Thyme Farmers Market, which might be a nice place to grab nibbles for the evening. Or, if you'd rather take in your music in a wonderful old theater, consider this event.

Steny's is hosting Sierra Nevada, which will have six brews from the collaborative Beer Camp on tap, starting at 4 p.m. More details from our resident mistress of beer, Kathy Flanigan.

If adventure and fortune hunting with Tyrone Power in a house museum is more your thing, consider a screening of "Son of Fury" this evening. Details and ticket prices from our film editor Chris Foran right here.
Sheriff David A. Clarke, Jr. (right) and Rep. Bob Gannon (R-Slinger) are criticizing Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and other top officials for their handling of crime.

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Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke, Jr., joined two suburban Republican legislators Wednesday in criticizing Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and other top officials for their handling of crime.

He also ripped the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's coverage of Tuesday's statement issued by Rep. Janel Brandtjen (R-Menomonee Falls). Clarke claimed the coverage "cues up race politics."

Brandtjen accused Barrett of failing to take control of crime that had spilled into the suburbs. Brandtjen's statement came in the wake of a high-profile Milwaukee carjacking that ended with a chase into Washington County and the arrest of five juveniles.

"The truth is, the Milwaukee political class has no answers for the entrenched poverty that is now a lifestyle, the high unemployment where people cant find meaningful work because Mayor Tom Barrett has poured all his political capital into a trolley that runs in a small circle instead of attracting business that can employ people," Clarke wrote in a news release that was posted on his official website.

State Rep. Bob Gannon (R-Slinger) also issued a statement Wednesday, thanking Brandtjen for speaking out on the crime issue.

"While some legislators are busy addressing this crime epidemic by singing group love songs, wearing colorful t-shirts, and marching around in a useless circle, legislators like you are speaking out and demanding action to stop this violence," Gannon wrote of Brandtjen.

Gannon defended Brandtjen from criticism leveled at her by Democratic lawmakers from Milwaukee, state Rep. Mandela Barnes and state Sen. Lena Taylor.

Barnes accused Brandtjen of engaging in "dog whistle" politics to stir up racial animus. Taylor said if Brandtjen wanted to stop violence she should "spend her time authoring legislation to end violence, not writing press releases to incite it.

Gannon wrote that Barnes "believes that only black people can criticize violent criminals if those criminals happen to be black. This is balderdash, as crime knows no boundaries of race."

He said of Taylor's comment: "If defending oneself from armed criminals is vigilantism, then Im all for it."

Clarke criticized Barnes and Taylor and said: "The liberal strategy is that when you cannot articulate an intelligent response and you are losing an argument, throw down the race card in hopes that white conservatives will flee like their hair is on fire."
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Wisconsin's No. 2 Democratic official is picking a fight with the world's largest newsgathering organization.

Peddling a conspiracy theory, state Rep. David Bowen -- vice chairman of the Wisconsin Democratic Party -- accused The Associated Press on his Facebook page of leaning on superdelegates to get them to back former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the race to be the Democratic Party nominee.

Bowen is a superdelegate supporting Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is challenging Clinton. On Monday night, before Tuesday's primary vote in six states, AP ran a story saying Clinton had locked up enough delegates and superdelegates to secure the Democratic nomination.

"Just confirmed AP was calling around to Super delegates all over the country to pressure them to endorse Hillary," Bowen said in his post. "When enough of them gave in, they called it.

"Hillary could have at least denounced it so the 400 superdelegates who came out to support you before anyone else even voted doesn't matter more than the votes of all the people."

Doug Glass, regional news editor for the AP, said his staff has been in regular contact with superdelegates to see who was supporting which Democratic candidate.

"There was never, ever pressure for people to commit to Candidate X or Y," said Glass, who oversees news in Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota. "That kind of reporting is not done by AP."

A spokesman for the state Republican Party said the kerfuffle indicated the Democrats are not unified behind one presidential candidate. "Thats because Washington Democrats and party bosses pushed the grassroots aside to coronate Hillary Clinton," said Pat Garrett of the Wisconsin GOP.

Bowen, a Milwaukee Democrat, took down the post on Tuesday.

But he then replaced it with something equally harsh and accusatory.

"If I was a Republican that ran the Associated Press I'd put out that premature Nomination Announcement to get Democrats fighting each other & discouraged from voting too. Well played... (Disclaimer: it's not Hillary's fault)," Bowen wrote.

Several people responded by accusing the high-ranking Democratic official of using his post to spread bogus information.

Even former Democratic Party Chairman Mike Tate weighed in, saying the AP was simply reporting the news with its Clinton story. "Unfortunate timing but they reported the news," Tate wrote.

Bowen countered by saying his post was "pro-Hillary," adding, "It's not her fault. It's the AP's."

Reached Wednesday, Bowen said he wasn't suggesting that AP reporters were pressuring superdelegates in putting together their tally of Clinton delegates -- even though his first Facebook post said exactly that.

Bowen said he took down the post because he didn't want to see Democrats fighting with Democrats over the nomination process.

But he said he was still upset that the AP was contacting superdelegates to put together a story before the polls closed in California and other states on Tuesday. He said the move "lacked journalistic integrity" and that he saw no advantage to doing that story.

"It didn't sit well with me," Bowen said.

His remarks represented a harsher version of Sanders' criticism of the AP.

They started hounding superdelegates, Sanders told NBCs Lester Holt in an interview on Tuesday. The night before the largest primary, biggest primary in the whole process.

He added, I was really disappointed in what the AP did.

But AP Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll said it was doing what it is supposed to do.

"By Monday evening, 571 superdelegates had told us unequivocally that they intend to vote for Clinton at the convention," Carroll said in a statement. "Adding that number to the delegates awarded to Clinton in primary and caucus voting to date gave her the number needed to be the presumptive nominee."

"That is news," she continued, "and reporting the news is what we do."
Ashley has agreed to pay a $1.75 million fine to resolve a long list of citations for safety issues and to carry out a number of safety measures at its factories. Credit: Betsy Bloom

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Wisconsin-based Ashley Furniture Industries Inc. has agreed to pay a $1.75 million fine to resolve a long list of citations for safety issues, the U.S. Labor Department said Wednesday.

Ashley also has agreed to carry out a number of safety measures at its factories, to periodically audit them to identify machine hazards, and to submit status reports to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration over the next two years.

The large fine and settlement follow a series of inspections that began in July 2014, when a worker at Ashley's huge factory in the western Wisconsin city of Arcadia lost three fingers while operating a woodworking machine without required safety mechanisms in place, OSHA said.

The agency said that over three and a half years, employees at the plant experienced more than 1,000 work-related injuries requiring treatment by someone other than the injured person.

In issuing the first set of citations, Labor Secretary Thomas Perez said Ashley had "created a culture that values production and profit over worker safety."

Ashley strongly disputed that characterization, and the allegations. The company at one point called OSHA's proposed penalties "grossly inappropriate and overzealous."

On Wednesday, Ashley issued a statement saying it had entered the settlement agreement voluntarily and had built "a productive relationship with OSHA."

"Safety is a key value and something that we at Ashley take very seriously," the statement said. "In the last five years we have spent over $67 million on modern manufacturing equipment and safety initiatives with the goal of improving the working environment for our employees."

The company said the results of the settlement agreement would "go beyond simple compliance with the OSHA standards and include tools to proactively correct issues and create a model safety system."

Ashley is the largest furniture-maker in the United States, and a major economic force in western Wisconsin. The company has been a huge success in an industry that has been racked by overseas competition, particularly from China.

About 4,500 people work for Ashley in Wisconsin, most of them at its Arcadia plant. Ashley also operates a factory in nearby Whitehall.

The settlement resolves OSHA citations at those plants, and at two factories in Mississippi.

Ashley has jousted with government agencies in the past, particularly the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, and company Chairman Ron Wanek has been outspoken in criticizing what he views as excessive government regulation.
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Madison  Hyde Expedition LLC, an Elm Grove start-up company that is developing a sleek, patented life jacket, took the top prize in the Wisconsin Governor's Business Plan Contest on Wednesday.

As the largest such contest in the state, the competition is key to identifying high-potential start-ups that might help boost Wisconsin's lackluster performance in forming new businesses.

Hyde, which raised more than $67,000 in a Kickstarter campaign last year, is planning to release its first product this summer. The thin life jacket  which Hyde co-founder Pat Hughes wore under his suit jacket while presenting his plan at the Wisconsin Entrepreneurs' Conference  is designed so that users pull a ripcord to puncture a CO2 canister, causing the gas to inflate a built-in bladder that makes the life jacket buoyant.

Wisconsin's slipping performance in national rankings for business formations, employment and other measures was a key topic at the conference.

Erik Iverson, who will take over as head of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, or WARF, in July, discussed: "mission investing," considering a group's mission as well as return on investment; finding more creative ways to commercialize university research; and having WARF better promote research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and on UW System campuses.

 Evan Absher from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation discussed Wisconsin's decline, and Milwaukee's more dramatic decline, in its most recent entrepreneurial growth report. He also pointed out that the state does better in the foundation's report covering more established small businesses.

Patrick Quick, a UW-Madison graduate and Silicon Valley financier, discussed during a keynote address how Wisconsin is well-positioned  with a lower cost of living, less employee turnover, top universities and many big manufacturing companies  to breed more start-ups. Quick said he planned to continue investing here.

Hyde, which also won in the advanced manufacturing category, will share $150,000 worth of cash and service prizes with three other start-ups. Polco, a Madison company with a polling platform for cities and other government bodies, won in the information technology category; Lynx Biosciences, a Madison company that is developing testing technologies for multiple myeloma and other blood cancers, won in the life sciences category; and Complete Phytochemical Solutions LLC, a Cambridge plant chemistry consultant to product ingredient-makers and others, won in the business services category.
A large mural, which would be created by a group of artists including Washington, D.C.-based muralist Cita Sadeli, is being proposed for the Historic Third Ward. The photo shows a depiction of the mural. Credit: Tom Daykin

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A colorful mural that would cover at least one wall of a large Historic Third Ward building could be too bold and too bright for that neighborhood's Architectural Review Board.

A group represented by Katie Mullen, an artist and co-owner of BlackPaint Studios, a Milwaukee brand design business, is proposing the mural for the east side of a building at 302 N. Jackson St.

That is the back side of the building, facing a parking lot and N. Van Buren St. A portion of the mural could also wrap around part of the building's south end, facing E. Buffalo St.

The preliminary design shows a woman with long hair, gazing upward, with a multicolored background. The mural would fill all four stories of the building, which is owned by Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin Inc.

Mullen and her fellow artists, including Washington, D.C.-based muralist Cita Sadeli, hope to paint the art from July 8 through Aug. 12. But their proposal faced opposition at the review board's Wednesday meeting.

Board members said the mural would help define the Third Ward and perhaps detract from the neighborhood's atmosphere of historic former industrial buildings that have been redeveloped as housing, offices and other commercial space.

Alderman Robert Bauman, who chairs the board, said the female figure's scale is "overwhelming." He and other board members also cited the bold, bright colors.

Responded Mullen, "It's my opinion that Milwaukee doesn't have enough bold, bright colors."

Some said they were open to the idea of the building having a mural.

"I like the idea of something on the back of that building," said James Piwoni, an architect and board member.

Mullen said she plans to revise the proposed design before the board's next meeting on June 22. But she expressed reluctance about straying from the proposal's main vision.

"As an artist, we're sensitive about our (expletive)," said Mullen.

"Sorry," she added, with a laugh.

Facebook: facebook.com/JSBusiness

Twitter: twitter.com/TomDaykin
No verdict reached after first few hours of deliberations in Darrell Brooks trial

Jurors began deliberating in the trial of Darrell Brooks Jr., accused in the 2021 Waukesha Christmas Parade attack that killed six and injured dozens more.
Za'layia Jenkins, 9, was shot by a stray bullet on May 5 while inside her home in the 1500 block of W. Meinecke Ave. A reward for information leading to suspects has risen to $65,000. Credit: Family photo

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A Milwaukee attorney doubled his reward offer Wednesday for information leading to suspects in the fatal shooting of 9-year-old Za'layia Jenkins.

Michael Hupy boosted his contribution from $25,000 to $50,000  bringing the total reward in the case to $65,000, which includes $15,000 offered by the FBI.

Za'layia was watching TV last month when she was struck by stray gunfire. Police say two groups armed with rifles and handguns were responsible for the bullets that tore through her home near W. Meinecke Ave. and N. 15th St. May 5.

Officers recovered more than 40 shell casings. The Hi-Mount Community School student clung to life for nearly two weeks before she was pronounced dead on May 16  one day before her 10th birthday.

On May 26, the same day as her funeral, Milwaukee police announced they were talking with a "person of interest" in the case. The "person of interest"  a 25-year-old man  has since been released. Authorities continue to investigate and ask the public for assistance, a Milwaukee police spokesman said Wednesday.

This is the third time Hupy has offered rewards in incidents involving children shot in homes struck by stray bullets  the first two for Laylah Petersen and Alfredo Bautista. Laylah, 5, was shot and killed while sitting on her grandfather's lap. Ten-year-old Alfredo survived his wounds.

"We cannot tolerate a society where small children are shot to death by bullets coming through outer walls of their homes and no one comes forward to bring justice to the family and protect the community," Hupy said Wednesday in a news release.

"Please come forward and help reduce crime in Milwaukee," he added. "Someone knows something."

Reward offered

A $65,000 reward is being offered for information leading to an arrest and conviction in this case. Anyone with information is asked to call Milwaukee police at (414) 935-7360 or 1-800-CALL-FBI (225-5324).
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In a move that city and school officials say has never been done before, the City of Madison agreed this week to lend almost $9.3 million to the Madison School District while the city keeps its tax incremental financing district in downtown open until the early 2020s.

Madison finance director David Schmiedicke called the deal a "new idea" that allows the district to receive the revenue from the TIF district upfront.

One of the unique parts of this deal, Schmiedicke said, is if the school doesn't receive enough revenue from the TIF district to pay back the loan, the city will cover the difference. That guarantees the school almost $9.3 million but leaves open the possibility of pocketing any additional funds from the TIF surplus.

Cities typically use TIF districts to help finance new office parks, industrial centers and other commercial developments.

The new property taxes generated by the developments pay for items such as environmental cleanups, parking structures and new streets and sewer lines. Once those city funds are paid off, the new property taxes then also begin to flow to school districts and other local governments.

The deal between the city and the Madison School District amounts to a cash advance before the TIF debt is paid off. Otherwise, it often takes several years for a TIF debt to be paid off and a school district to receive the development's new property tax revenue.

The assistant director of the Wisconsin League of Municipalities, Curt Witynski, said he had never seen this before. He said Madison seems motivated to address the financial concerns of the district. It is too early to tell whether this deal could be something replicated by municipalities all over the state, but he said it's possible.

"It seems like a win-win to me," Witynski said. "Every community is unique, and TIF districts are unique to their community."

Both parties have been in talks over this deal for more than a year. The Madison School District notified the city that the TIF was constraining its budget. In response, the city constructed this resolution.

"This agreement marks another major step forward in cooperation between the city and school district toward improving the educational outcomes for all Madison children and building a city tax base that supports their education," Mayor Paul Soglin said in a statement.

Mike Barry, assistant superintendent of business services for the district, said the revenue limits on Wisconsin schools made this arrangement more attractive to the city and the school district. He said the city is acting with good intentions.

"The budget was shrinking and needed additional support that could be addressed with a one-time source of funds," Barry said. "It has appealing aspects to both sides. It allows the city to extend the TIF as long as they do right by the school."

The city is confident it can cover the amount promised to the school district. The TIF district, known as TID No. 25, supports the Judge Doyle Square redevelopment in downtown Madison. As of Dec. 31, the TIF had a surplus of more than $19 million and is projected to have a $55 million surplus when it ends in 2024.

The Judge Doyle Square is a two-block area in downtown Madison. It is the site of the Madison Municipal Building and a parking garage.

Because TID No. 25 is a downtown location, resulting in a larger surplus, Barry is unsure if this deal could be replicated in other Wisconsin municipalities.

The tentative deal still needs school board and city council approval.
Bystanders and grieving friends of a victim quickly gather near an area secured by Milwaukee Police Department officers after a shooting left one person dead near N. 19th St. and Capitol Drive in April. Credit: Rick Wood

Rep. Janel Brandtjen (R-Menomonee Falls) said that she would push for cuts in state aid to Milwaukee if Mayor Tom Barrett fails to reduce the city's crime problem, but let me tell you what I heard.

What I  and a lot of other people  heard was "I don't care about the crime problem in Milwaukee as long as it stays in Milwaukee, but when young people there start crossing the city line and start committing crimes in my town, now we have a problem."

This is one of the main reasons we can never solve crime issues. Too many of us like to look at crime as just an inner city or "urban" issue. I can't tell you how many emails and letters I get from across the state in which white people ask me "Why do black people in Milwaukee...." Or they suggest that Milwaukee is a drag on the state.

I'm convinced that my hometown is viewed as an eyesore to most living outside of Milwaukee, so when Brandtjen suggested that taking money away from Milwaukee is the best way for the city to solve its crime issues, it just fits with the narrative that many already believe.

There has been a spike in violent crime in Milwaukee over the past couple of years. In a recent column, I also suggested that the city needs more police to deal with reckless drivers and carjackings that seem like everyday occurrences.

In the first five months of 2016, Milwaukee has seen a 767% increase in juvenile arrests for carjacking compared with 2014.

If Brandtjen is so concerned about Milwaukee's crime stats, where was her outspoken passion when 9-year-old Za'layia Jenkins was shot inside a home near 15th St. and Meinecke Ave. on the evening of May 5?

The case was high profile enough.

Brandtjen didn't make a statement about withholding funds as a punishment/sanction due to Milwaukee's crime until a Milwaukee carjacking ended with a chase into Washington County and five juveniles were arrested  four 15-year-olds and a 17-year-old.

She said Washington County homeowners were held hostage in their homes on June 2 by the actions of five young criminals from Milwaukee and that families were forced to unlock their gun cabinets and "instruct their loved ones to shoot to kill."

Why would Brandtjen think less funding for Milwaukee to fight crime is the right answer?

Gov. Scott Walker said cutting funding to Milwaukee is not the answer and Barrett's office issued a chart that showed how state aid to Milwaukee has declined while the police budget has climbed.

You know what else has climbed in Milwaukee? Poverty, black male unemployment and hopelessness while our minimum wage of $7.25 an hour hasn't been increased since 2009 when a federal mandate raised the minimum wage across the nation.

Before that, Wisconsin hadn't had an increase since the last federal mandate seven years prior.

I would be the first to tell you that I'm disappointed in the leadership of Milwaukee when it comes to addressing crime. We appear to be more reactionary instead of proactive on crime.

This is not all the fault of leadership, though. Too many families have lost control of their households and the kids are committing grown-up crimes and getting slaps on the wrist.

For some youth, the punishment must be harsher. In the case that got Brandtjen worked up, Milwaukee police attempted to stop a stolen van with five youths. The driver fled at speeds in excess of 100 mph. The alleged driver Donte Johnson, 17, also reportedly drove on the wrong side of the road and nearly struck a squad car head-on.

Johnson faces charges of fleeing or eluding an officer, first-degree recklessly endangering safety and bail jumping.

His alleged reckless driving and the alleged actions of the other teenagers could have killed someone, and they all should be punished.

But punishing a city with one of the highest poverty rates in the nation by withholding funding is not the answer.

One answer is intervention by investing in programs such as Running Rebels and Violence Free Zones, which have been proven to turn around the lives of kids on whom society has given up. Another is more state aid, not less state aid.

Meanwhile, our city's leadership needs to come up with realistic solutions to the city's crime problem  not because it's crossing over the borders, but because it's the right thing to do and because all of Milwaukee residents deserve to live in safe neighborhoods.

If our current city leaders can't get the job done or they continue to use the same old tactics that are not working, then maybe they need to step down and make way for new blood before more blood is spilled on our streets.

James E. Causey is a Journal Sentinel columnist and blogger. Email james.causey@jrn.com. Facebook: fb.me/jamescausey.12 Twitter: jecausey
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No rubber stamp on law license

A June 5 article on an attorney losing his license for two years may have created the misimpression that, after 24 months, the miscreant could automatically resume practicing and, possibly, prey upon another unsuspecting employer or the public ("Attorney who took $458,000 loses license for two years").

As a former president of the Milwaukee Bar and a 20-year volunteer in the attorney disciplinary system, I believe it important that readers appreciate the full extent of the sanction imposed. Any suspension to practice law for six months or more requires the sanctioned individual to meet stringent standards, follow an elaborate procedure and obtain Supreme Court approval to resume practicing.

As the suspension approaches its conclusion, the individual must petition the Supreme Court for reinstatement, maintaining that, during the suspension, the individual adhered to detailed restrictions on his (or her) activities and is fit to practice once again. The Office of Lawyer Regulation will then investigate the applicant and the claims made. The court will appoint a special referee to hold a public hearing, taking testimony and examining evidence, on the applicant's fitness (or lack of it) to practice. The Supreme Court will examine the referee's report and, possibly, hear arguments on behalf of the Office of Lawyer Regulation and the applicant. Only after all that will the Supreme Court act on the suspended attorney's application to resume practicing.

The process has proven to be anything but a rubber stamp; many suspended attorneys never receive the necessary approval. Thus, the individual who stole almost a half-million dollars will not return to practicing law without fully meeting the requirements imposed by law and proving his fitness to do so.

Donald J. Christl

Glendale



Ban nuclear weapons

Jay Ambrose drops the usual slanders ("utopian," "naive") on the movement to abolish nuclear weapons ("Hiroshima: The real and the Obama ideal," Crossroads, June 5).

We abolitionists thank him for another chance to set the record straight. Abolitionists are the true realists.

Ambrose gets off to a fast start by crediting the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki with saving millions of lives. But that's speculation, not reality. As usual with people who offer that counterfactual story as fact, Ambrose doesn't mention Russia's entry into the Pacific war on the same day as the bombing of Nagasaki. Irrelevant? Or inconvenient for Americans who like our atomic attacks portrayed as something merciful?

Ambrose continues, "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."

That's a false choice. While he gives lip service to lofty ideals, he doesn't seem to have any use for them, apparently not knowing that the best of "practical, down-to-earth plans" are best precisely because they advance a lofty goal.

Realists work for nuclear abolition not as a lofty ideal, but as a necessity. Why? Because if, as we're all taught, all men are created equal, then today's small nuclear club won't last. Eventually it will be nukes for all or nukes for none. Surely Ambrose, with his "realist" view of human behavior, would agree that a nukes-for-all world ends in nuclear holocaust.

What is truly naive? The belief that every lesser weapon may fail as a deterrent, but nuclear deterrence is infallible.

Chuck Baynton

Whitefish Bay



Legalize marijuana

This is in response to Ernst-Ulrich Franzen's column of June 6 ("How will we pay for roads?" Opinions).

He asks: "How will we pay for our roads?" and "What's the answer for those crumbling roads and potholes and deteriorating bridges all around us?"

He might want to check with the state of Colorado, as it is swimming in money these days. I'll bet it has no problem whatsoever paying for road repairs, or any other issues that need fixing.

Wisconsin should wake up from its fuddy-duddy slumber and start looking forward to the future. The answer is plain as day: legalize recreational marijuana. Problem solved!

Audrey Yanke

Waukesha
Paul Ryan speaks during a news conference in Washington on Tuesday about his agenda to relieve poverty in America. At left is Bishop Shirley Holloway, director of the House of Help City of Hope. Credit: Associated Press

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House Speaker Paul Ryan announced that he will release a Republican congressional agenda of six policy papers, and he released the first one, focusing on poverty, this week. The agenda will be titled "A Better Way " with a "vision for A Confident America."

Ryan's premise that he has repeatedly stated is that "the safety net has failed."

In fact, Ryan's premise of "failure" is wrong. He'd at least partially privatize Social Security, which has reduced seniors' poverty from the 44% it would be to just 9%, according to the Center for American Progress. It is the most successful social program in American history.

He'd radically cut food stamps, now called SNAP, which have stopped hunger for 46 million Americans and allowed them to find jobs. He'd reverse the successful Clinton welfare reform that, despite liberal protestations at the time, enhanced the program with work requirements while allowing poor families to survive; and in sum, would carry out the long-standing Republican dream of ending Roosevelt's New Deal legacy that gave people hope and ended the Great Depression.

He talks about "opportunities" against poverty, but the only opportunities he'll provide are for big businesses and the super rich, hoping that tax breaks for the rich will become jobs for everyone. The Congressional Budget Office and Library of Congress say that tax breaks for the wealthy only give a fifth of the bang for our buck as direct jobs programs. While Republicans regularly ask, "Where are the jobs?", Congress has failed to pass President Barack Obama's American Jobs Act that would have added a million jobs and reduced unemployment by a full percent.

It is a myth that adding money to the wealthy through tax cuts stimulates jobs and grows the economy. Trickle-down economics has not worked since Herbert Hoover tried it.

On June 2, Ryan tweeted that he will vote for Trump; Ryan said he is "confident" Trump "will help turn the House GOP agenda into laws." Time will tell.

Ryan's previous budgets, notably his so-called "Path to Prosperity" put the writing on the wall.

Both parties' presumptive presidential nominees have stated that they will not cut Social Security. Ryan has made no such pledge and included cuts and privatization in his past plans.

Ryan's "Path to Prosperity" also contained $40 billion in food stamp cuts. Carol Olander, then-director of SNAP Research and Analysis at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service said in 2012 that food stamps reduced poverty by 8% in one year alone (2009), and called it a "myth" that the program "abused" tax dollars given that "95% of federal spending" goes "directly to low-income participants in the form of benefits."

Ryan's agenda calls for most anti-poverty spending to be transferred into "State Flexibility Funds," meaning block grants. Block grants have routinely become smaller over time. They are just another way for Republicans to get rid of government programs. Richard Kogan, senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, found that out of 11 major block grant programs, eight shrank significantly since 2001.

The Republican position also eliminates Obamacare, which has given health insurance to 20 million who previously could not get covered.

At a speech at Georgetown on March 27, Ryan was asked about student debt and had no concrete plan. He replied with "opportunity" for students by an "agenda project."

Interestingly, Ryan leaves out that the Obama administration already has achieved many of the agenda's objectives regarding economic growth. Unemployment at 4.7% reported June 3 is less than half the rate it was at the time of the crash Obama inherited in 2008, reversing 800,000 per month job losses then.

Ryan warned the Georgetown audience, "You will be the first generation less well off." If government takes away health care, Social Security, food and jobs, that's exactly what will happen.

Ryan is wrong; the safety net has not failed, but if his agenda passes, it most certainly will.

Robert Weiner was a spokesman in the Clinton White House, spokesman for the U.S. House Government Operations Committee, and chief of staff of the House Aging Committee. William Kim is economic policy analyst at Robert Weiner Associates and Solutions for Change.
Mike Gallagher (left) and state Sen. Frank Lasee are Republicans facing off in the August primary for the 8th Congressional District seat. Credit: handout photo

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A Republican who lost two past bids for Congress in northeast Wisconsin is playing a part  albeit an informal one  in a closely watched GOP primary there.

John Gard, the influential lobbyist and former state Assembly speaker, and a close friend of Gard have worked on behalf of GOP primary candidate and former Marine Mike Gallagher and against his opponent, state Sen. Frank Lasee (R-De Pere), whose legislative stances on unions conflict with those of Gard's union client.

Gard lobbied on behalf of heavy equipment operators and in favor of the so-called prevailing wage, a system of minimum pay for workers on state construction projects that was sharply scaled back under a proposal by Lasee.

Since then, Gard has served briefly as a spokesman for the Gallagher campaign and helped give advice and raise money in the 8th Congressional District race. A close friend of Gard's also has joined a pro-Gallagher super PAC.

But Gard said that has nothing to do with why he's helping Gallagher, a young former Marine whose family has been close to Gard and his wife for decades.

"I'm not anti-Frank; I'm pro-Mike," Gard said of Gallagher, comparing him to a young Paul Ryan. "He's a lot better candidate than I was and I think he has a tremendous opportunity to be a leader not just in Wisconsin but for the nation over time."

Republican incumbent Reid Ribble is not seeking re-election.

Lasee is a senator and former assemblyman. Gallagher, a first-time candidate, is a specialist in intelligence and national security who served two tours of duty in Iraq, reached the rank of captain, and then worked as a staffer for U.S. Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tennessee) on the Committee on Foreign Relations and as an adviser to Gov. Scott Walker's unsuccessful presidential campaign.

Midwest Growth PAC, formed on May 19, says on its website that it is "supporting Mike Gallagher for Congress." Its treasurer is listed as Bruce Barrette, a retired dentist who is a longtime friend and contributor since 1993 to Gard's past campaigns for the Assembly and Congress.

Gard said he's not involved in the super PAC and that he didn't ask Barrette to get involved in the group or discuss it with him.

"We're very good friends," Gard said of Barrette. "I just haven't talked to him in a while."

Barrette didn't respond to phone calls requesting comment. He resigned in 2006 from a state dentistry board after the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported he led that board in voting for a proposal seen as favoring a national dentistry group for which Barrette also served as a director.

A Midwest Growth statement said the group "welcomes any and all supporters" who oppose the Democratic candidate in the race, Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson.

Gard, who lost 8th District bids in the Democratic wave years of 2006 and 2008, said he had encouraged associates to give to Gallagher's campaign but had not asked clients at the Operating Engineers Local 139 to do so.

"I wouldn't put them in that position," Gard said.

The union's business manager, Terry McGowan, said Gard has asked him to meet with Gallagher and that he's willing to do so. McGowan said his union hasn't decided whether to endorse in the election and noted that at least one union has already backed Nelson.

McGowan said he would consider talking with Lasee if the GOP lawmaker reaches out to him but said wryly that he didn't think that was likely. Lasee has instead touted his key role in pushing through the partial prevailing wage repeal that was vehemently opposed by the Operating Engineers.

That debate  and Gard's role in it  divided some Republicans.

Jared Bombaci, Gallagher's campaign manager and another former Marine, said Gallagher opposed the prevailing wage but welcomed Gard's support.

"In the end, this is going to be a major race and a challenging race," he said.

In a statement, Lasee's campaign manager, Adam Gibbs, said that Gallagher's time in Washington, D.C., and ties to Gard raised questions.

"We are seeing classic insider politics coming from someone professing to be an outsider to the process," Gibbs said.

But Gallagher still needs to build his name recognition among voters. To do it, he launched a television ad this week in the Green Bay market along with a radio ad, for a total air buy this week valued at more than $60,000 by one source.

"We definitely want to get Mike's positive message out there as much as possible," Bombaci said.
Federal authorities are investigating a range of potential crimes at Lincoln Hills School for Boys, including second-degree sexual assault, physical child abuse, child neglect, abuse of prisoners, and intimidation of victims and witnesses. Credit: Mark Hoffman

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Madison  A 17-year-old at the state's juvenile prison is accused of attacking eight staff members over the past year and told an investigator last month he would continue doing so until he is transferred to an adult institution.

Austin C. Lashbrook of Eau Claire faces eight felony charges in five cases in Lincoln County for incidents that occurred at Lincoln Hills School, a secure facility in the Northwoods that is under criminal investigation for its treatment of prisoners.

The charges against Lashbrook highlight the challenges Lincoln Hills workers face as they try to manage a population that includes violent individuals while dealing with a chronic worker shortage and media scrutiny over how the prison has operated.

"If ACL is allowed to have contact with staff at Lincoln Hills, he has expressed to me that his intentions are to continue assaulting staff until he gets to stay in (the) Lincoln County jail," sheriff's Sgt. Investigator Randy Ruleau wrote in a report last month. "Staff I spoke with say ACL is the instigator of other youths and is responsible for several counts of damage to rooms rendering them unusable or in need of repair. Staff at Lincoln Hills have said ACL generates 90% of their paperwork, batteries and riots that occur. I would ask the district attorney to consider whatever means possible to keep ACL in (the) Lincoln County jail or another facility to prevent further staff assaults."

Lashbrook remains at Lincoln Hills School because the state must keep him in a youth facility while he serves his juvenile sentence.

Lashbrook told Ruleau he wanted to leave Lincoln Hills because he didn't feel safe, but the sergeant wrote in his report there was no evidence that Lashbrook was in any danger.

"ACL stated he will take the first steps to attack someone first so he is not the one getting hurt first," Ruleau wrote.

Lincoln Hills workers have long complained they have to contend with violent offenders and volatile situations at a time when they are short-handed. The Department of Corrections last month announced it was boosting pay in hopes of recruiting more workers, but for now staff must often work multiple 16-hour shifts a week.

Workers familiar with the incidents involving Lashbrook said staff members were on edge over potential future assaults.

"It's not a good situation," said one. "They're just waiting for the next one and they know it."

"He's made it known he's going to assault staff whenever he can," said another.

Details about Lashbrook's cases come as the FBI continues its probe into child neglect, prisoner abuse, excessive use of pepper spray, destruction of public records and other crimes. The U.S. Department of Justice is also looking into whether there has been a pattern of abuses of civil rights at Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake School, which together house about 200 juveniles on a shared campus 30 miles north of Wausau.

In an interview with a detective in November, Lashbrook said he did not know why he sometimes gets angry at staff.

"There's a minute, like, I'm calm, then the next minute I just flip the switch and I'm just like  I'm done with this (expletive)," he told the detective.

Lashbrook's attorney, Tina Abernethy-Mays, did not respond to requests for comment. His mother did not return phone calls.

Lincoln County District Attorney Don Dunphy declined to comment because he said he did not want to sway potential jurors with any public statements about Lashbrook's cases.

Tristan Cook, a spokesman for the Department of Corrections, said those convicted of crimes as juveniles must be held in a youth facility. Seventeen-year-olds who are convicted as adults can be held in adult institutions, but that is not typically the department's practice, he said.

That means if Lashbrook were convicted of the adult charges he faces, he could be moved to another institution if corrections officials wanted. Lashbrook turns 18 in January.

Cook said the agency has the authority to keep inmates in restraints, make them wear spit masks or put them in restrictive housing to protect staff. Many of Lashbrook's alleged assaults have taken place in a restrictive housing unit.

"The safety and security of staff and youth is DOC's top priority," Cook said in a statement. "Threats or violence by youth toward other staff or youth is not tolerated."

Court records describe five incidents in which Lashbrook is accused of attacking Lincoln Hills staff:

 He faces a felony charge of battery by prisoner for allegedly punching a staff member in the head in July as the staff member was locking a door to a caged area outside.

 For an October incident, Lashbrook is charged with assault by prisoner and attempted battery by prisoner, both felonies. In that incident, staff came to his room because he was trying to break his bed, and Lashbrook is accused of spitting on the neck of one of them and attempting to cause bodily harm to another.

 He faces another felony battery by prisoner charge for allegedly rushing a staff member and throwing punches at his head and torso in March.

 In April, he was charged with two felony counts of battery by prisoner. He is accused of charging out of his room when a staff member opened the door to give him medication, punching one worker in the jaw and striking another in the forehead.

 Last month, he allegedly charged two staff members when they came into his room to deliver a snack. He is charged with two felony counts of battery by prisoner for hitting one of them in the head at least three times and hitting the other one with his legs as he was being restrained.

Lashbrook was 16 and 17 when the incidents occurred, but in all instances was charged as an adult. If convicted of all counts, he could face more than 40 years in prison.

He has entered not guilty pleas to some charges and has not yet had to make a plea for others. He has hearings scheduled in the cases this month.
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Maan News Agency |  

BETHLEHEM (Maan)  An EU high representative said during a UN Security Council briefing on Monday that the prospective of a viable two-state solution was getting beyond reach, according to the UN News Center.

The possibility of a secure state of Israel and a viable state of Palestine living side by side is fading away, European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini said during the briefing. And together with the perspective of the two states, peace would also get beyond reach.

Commenting on the continuing conflicts that have erupted across the Middle East, Mogherini said regional security concerns should push everyone to renew our efforts towards ending the [Israeli-Palestinian] conflict.

Mogherini emphasized that disagreements and conflicts around Jerusalems holy sites had the potential to inflame political instability in the region, while articulating her hopes of political recommendations that were expected to be put forth by international representatives participating in the French initiative as they prepare for a multilateral peace conference to be held by the end of the year.

However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has consistently rejected the proposed peace initiative, instead voicing his support for direct talks with Palestinians and reviving the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, which would establish an independent Palestinian state on 1967 lines and with East Jerusalem as its capital.

A number of Palestinian activists have criticized the two-state solution as unsustainable and unlikely to bring durable peace, proposing instead a binational state with equal rights for Israelis and Palestinians.

The binational state  termed the one-state solution  has increasingly gained support among Palestinians, activist groups, and intellectuals purporting it as the most reasonable way of upholding Palestinian human rights and their internationally recognized right to return to lands they were expelled from during and after the establishment of Israel in 1948.

Via Maan News Agency



SABC Digital News: EU foreign policy chief calls for revived Israel-Palestine peace talks
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By Abbas Djavadi | ( RFE/RL ) |  

For years, former Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglus policy of zero problems with neighboring countries was a flagship concept of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

A few years ago when a wave of protests inside Turkey started against the government and the Arab Spring began in the Middle East and northern Africa, everything went wrong. Ankara started to have problems and even serious conflict with almost all neighboring and regional countries as well as with big powers.

Today, there is almost no country of immediate interest for Ankara that Turkey has no problems with.

But that zero problems policy worked for some time. And it worked quite fine

As of 2002, when the AKP came to power, the EU and accession talks were still top of Turkeys foreign policy agenda. The still new Islamic-conservative government of Erdogan was increasingly considered both in Washington and European capitals as a model to act as a bridge between Western democracies and the Muslim world of the Middle East.

There was a thaw in Ankaras relations with Armenia and Greece. With respect to the Cyprus issue, unlike the previous, rather obstructive, approach of the northern Turkish Cypriot government, Ankara was leaning more toward EU policies aimed at the ultimate unification of the divided island.

Boost Trade With Everybody

Ties with Bashar al-Assads government in Syria were very good and even Erdogan himself had established a decent personal relationship with Assad.

With Georgia and Iran there were no major problems. Turkey even offered to mediate between Iran and the United States on the dispute over Tehrans nuclear program.

Russia had become a close friend and the increasingly cordial relations between the two maritime neighbors occasionally raised eyebrows among Turkeys NATO allies.

Relations with Iraq were a little more complicated because a Shia government was sitting in Baghdad while the Turkish government consisted of devout Sunni Muslims. Also, a semi-independent Kurdish regional government was acting in a quite sovereign way across the Turkish-Iraqi border. While both Turkey and the northern Iraqi Kurdish government were interested in increased trade and investment, Ankara was still careful enough not to undermine the central Iraqi government in Baghdad.

Ankara gave every indication that the Erdogan administration was simply not interested in causing problems or interfering in other countries affairs.

Boost trade with everybody seemed to be the mantra of the Turkish government under the moderate Islamists of the AKP.

When speaking about all the countries he visited, Erdogan himself mainly cited increased volumes of trade with those nations and talked about major growth in business and investment involving these partners.

This continued until sometime around 2013 and then everything started to fall apart.

What Went Wrong?

Yes, something went wrong, but we cannot say what exactly.

Interestingly, however, everything started in 2013 when a group of rogue prosecutors revealed a bribery scandal and abuse of power by the AKP, involving some ministers and relatives of government officials.

Erdogan and other AKP leaders rejected the allegations although they were later reiterated by American prosecutors investigating the case of an Iranian-Turkish gold trader who was accused of breaching U.S. sanctions on Iran and bribing Turkish officials.

Erdogan reacted swiftly, in his favored role as a victim.

He accused the exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen of heading an international plot and parallel state that was intent on overthrowing the AKP government. His rhetoric against internal opposition and foreign countries  especially Western governments  became much sharper.

Everybody outside of the government and his AKP party was now being viewed as part of this plot. All allegations of wrongdoing were denied by Erdogan and the ruling AKP. And soon all prosecutors investigating the allegations were arrested themselves and the defendants were quietly acquitted.

Arab Spring

The period 2012-13 was also the time of the so-called Arab Spring movements, which erupted in Syria, Egypt, and Tunisia.

Erdogan clearly sided with the Islamic opposition movements in these countries who were trying to lead demonstrations for civil and human rights in Arab lands.

Erdogan strongly supported individual Islamic groups campaigns against their governments  regimes that the Turkish leader had been on good terms with for so long. However, very much to Erdogans dismay, the groups he backed so strongly did not succeed in Syria and they also failed in Egypt after the pro-Islamic government they established there proved to be short-lived.

Erdogan started to actively support, even with money and arms, rebel groups against neighboring governments, including Syria and Iraq. His support did not exclude backing radical, armed Islamist groups.

The increasing confrontation with Syria and Russia on the one hand and the Sunni-Shia confrontation in Iraq on the other, pushed Erdogan toward a more aggressive, sectarian, and pro-Sunni policy and rhetoric. This new, assertive approach alienated Turkey, both from its own Alevi minority as well as Shia Iran and also brought Ankara closer to its old, wealthy allies in Saudi Arabia.

Western Concerns

At the same time, Western countries became increasingly concerned about Turkeys more radical and aggressive approach to human rights and press freedoms. They were also worried about how Erdogan began concentrating legislative and judicial powers in the hands of the government and taking a more controlling attitude toward the media and business.

Eventually, the West became openly critical of Ankara  and of Erdogans penchant for an oriental style of authoritarian, one-man rule, in particular.

All those years of not interfering in other countries internal affairs and preferring a friendship and trade first policy went up in smoke in just a short space of time.

Of all those neighbors and countries who were friendly in the past, one remains even closer to Turkey today than at any time previously: Saudi Arabia.

Otherwise, from Washington to Berlin and Moscow, from Tehran to Baghdad and Damascus, you can hardly find a government in Turkeys immediate neighborhood and beyond that has zero problems with Ankara.

Recently, when he was asked about long-time EU applicant Turkeys chances of joining the bloc, British Prime Minister David Cameron said that the country would probably not be ready to join until the year 3000 based on its current rate of progress.

This gave Erdogan the perfect opportunity to react and accuse Western countries of plots. However, the Turkish president added a new element to his Western plot when he claimed a day later that the West was jealous of Turkey and of our dams, bridges, and metros.

Via RFE/RL

Copyright (c) 2016. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.



Related video added by Juan Cole:

Euronews:  A year so far of serial attacks on Turkey attributed to the outlawed PKK and so-called Islamic State
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By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) |  

Hillary Clinton gave a victory speech Tuesday night positioning herself as the logical conclusion of the first womens rights meeting at Seneca Falls in 1848. Along the way, other milestones have included women gaining the right to vote, in 1919 and the first woman elected to the Senate, in 1932.

But the US was late. Australia, Denmark and Iceland preceded us in granting the vote to women in national, parliamentary elections. The republic of Azerbaijan, a Muslim-majority country, granted the franchise to women in 1918.

Women gained the vote in the Muslim-majority Republic of Turkey in 1934, well before they did in France (1945).

Women in British India, including the eighth of the population comprising Muslim women, gained the right to vote in 1935, though of course the ultimate power lay with the appointed British viceroy until 1947. Still, the legislatures in British India in this period were hardly powerless and the elections were consequential. British India had about 300 million people then, so Muslims were some 75 million, though of course not all were voting age. Still, Muslim women in India were as regards suffrage ahead of women in many European countries.

Not only did the US lag behind some other countries, including a Muslim country like Azerbaijan, in granting women the vote, but it has lagged behind in electing a woman head of state.

Here are 11 Muslim women who served as prime minister or president of their countries. In some instances they were head of state, in others, head of government. Many were commander in chief of the armed forces. So its nice that a major US party now seems likely to put forward a woman as standard bearer. But there isnt any doubt that the US has lagged behind the rest of the world on gender equality in politics (Scandinavia typically has a bigger proportion of women in its legislatures than we have in Congress and some Muslim countries, such as Tunisia and Pakistan, have a form of quota for womens seats in parliament). The US, where pundits often wax supercilious toward the Muslim world, assuming women everywhere there are of low status, is actually behind some parts of the Muslim world on this measure.

Benazir Bhutto, Prime Minister of Pakistan, 1988  1990; 1993  1996

Khaleda Zia, Prime Minister of Bangladesh, 1991  1996; 2001  2006

Tansu Ciller of Turkey, prime minister 1993-1996

Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister of Bangladesh, 1996  2001; 2009  Present

Megawati Sukarnoputri, President of Indonesia, 2001-2004

Mame Madior Boye, Prime Minister of Senegal, 2001-2002

Atifete Jahjaga, President of Kosovo, 2011-present

Roza Otunbayeva, President of Kyrgyzstan, 2010-2011

Cisse Mariam Kaidama Sidibe, prime minister of Mali 2011-2012

Aminata Toure, Prime Minister of Senegal, 2013-2014

Ameena Gurib-Fakim, President of Mauritius, 2015  Present

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Related video:

ABC News: Hillary Clinton FULL Speech: Ready to Move Forward, Unite Party
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - June 8, 2016) - New Oroperu Resources Inc. (the "Company" or "New Oroperu") (TSX VENTURE:ORO) is pleased to report that Barrick has made the 2016 payment to maintain its option on the Tres Cruces project.

The Tres Cruces property, 100% owned by New Oroperu, is under an Option to Purchase Agreement with a Peruvian subsidiary of Barrick Gold Corp., Minera Barrick Misquichilca S.A. ("Barrick"). Maintaining the option requires an annual payment of US$250,000, subject to 30% withholding for Peruvian tax. Under the terms of the Agreement all exploration expenditures deemed necessary by Barrick to make a production decision will be paid by Barrick at no cost to the Company. Following a production decision, which must be made on or before December 31, 2020, the Company would retain a 30% fully financed interest subject to certain payback provisions, a 2% royalty interest, and receive a US$1,000,000 advance royalty payment.

The Tres Cruces project is located about 10 km south of Barrick's Lagunas Norte gold deposit, where production started in June 2005. On February 22, 2016, Barrick announced the results of a prefeasibility study on a plan to extend the life of Lagunas Norte by mining the refractory material below the oxide ore body in the current open pit. The refractory material cannot be economically processed using heap leaching due to low recoveries. This study, described in a Barrick National Instrument 43-101 Technical Report dated March 21, 2016, contemplates the installation of a new grinding-flotation-autoclave and carbon-in-leach processing circuit to treat the refractory material below the current open pit. The study notes that the addition of a refractory processing facility could also unlock other potential refractory mineralization sources in the region surrounding Lagunas Norte, which are not included in the scope of the study.

Prior metallurgical testwork on Tres Cruces mineralization described in the Company's National Instrument 43-101 Technical Report by Peter A. Lacroix, described below, indicates good gold recoveries in sulphidic mineralization using a CIL flotation process. There is a minor component of oxide mineralization in the Tres Cruces deposit and it is assumed, in the report, that this oxide component would be treated with the sulphides.

K. Wayne Livingstone, President, says "We believe the potential addition of a grinding-flotation-autoclave and carbon-in leach processing circuit to extend the life of Barrick's Lagunas Norte mine could enhance the development opportunity for Tres Cruces because of the proximal advantages to and synergies with Barrick's operations. We look forward to Barrick expanding and defining further Tres Cruces resources and ultimately making a production decision."

New Oroperu has a National Instrument 43-101 entitled "Technical Report on the Tres Cruces Project, North Central Peru" dated September 28, 2012 by Peter A. Lacroix, P.Eng. of Lacroix and Associated, which updated mineral resource estimates for the Tres Cruces project based on all available information to that date. According to the report, the Tres Cruces mineral resource is estimated to contain 2.6 million ounces of gold at a 0.6 g/t Au cut-off in the measured and indicated category. A complete copy of the report is available at www.sedar.com or through the Company's website at www.oroperu.com.

The Tres Cruces deposit has several mineralized zones which are not fully defined. The Southwest Extension zone and the Southwest zone display shallow better grade mineralization which also contain oxidized components in their upper part. There is also deep mineralization indicated in several holes. These deeper high grade targets have not been completely drill tested and some holes have bottomed in mineralization.

Drill Hole RTC 255, previously reported in our News Release, dated March 4, 2008, is an example of a well mineralized hole which bottomed in mineralization. It averages 228.0 m. grading 2.95 g/t Au with a shallow component from 37.0 m. - 62.0 m. (25.0 m.) grading 3.37 g/t Au and a deeper component with higher grade, 197.0 m. - 210.0 m. (13.0 m.) grading 16.17 g/t Au with 67.7 g/t Ag. Drill hole DTC 278 (Twin) has a deep mineralized interval 235.0 m. - 261.0 m. (16.0 m.) grading 5.05 g/t Au with 84.2 g/t Ag. Not all deep holes measuring the deposit were assayed for Ag. Silver (Ag) reports as a recovered product in the metallurgical test work as reported in the New Oroperu Technical Report.

The Company looks forward to future developments on the Tres Cruces project with Barrick.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

K. Wayne Livingstone, President

Notes:

Forward-looking statements: This news release includes certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (collectively "forward-looking statements")." Forward-looking statements include predictions, projections and forecasts and are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "seek", "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "forecast", "expect", "potential", "project", "target", "schedule", budget" and "intend" and statements that an event or result "may", "will", "should", "could" or "might" occur or be achieved and other similar expressions and includes the negatives thereof. All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding the expected. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Forward-looking statements are based on a number of material factors and assumptions. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from Company's expectations include actual exploration results, changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, results of future resource estimates, future metal prices, availability of capital and financing on acceptable terms, general economic, market or business conditions, uninsured risks, regulatory changes, defects in title, availability of personnel, materials and equipment on a timely basis, accidents or equipment breakdowns, delays in receiving government approvals, unanticipated environmental impacts on operations and costs to remedy same, and other exploration or other risks detailed herein and from time to time in the filings made by the Company with securities regulators. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause such actions, events or results to differ materially from those anticipated. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate and accordingly readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
VANCOUVER, June 8, 2016 /CNW/ - Nevsun Resources Ltd. (TSX:NSU) (NYSE MKT:NSU) (the "Company" or "Nevsun") today dismissed baseless criticisms from two dissident shareholders for Reservoir Minerals Inc. ("Reservoir") (TSXV Venture: RMC). Nevsun also cautioned that Reservoir could lose the Timok copper and gold project in Serbia under the terms of an alternative financing proposal from one of the losing bidders.

Nevsun reminded Reservoir shareholders of the premium value of the Arrangement Agreement (the "Arrangement") it has entered into with Reservoir and urged Reservoir shareholders to vote for the Arrangement. Nevsun also cautioned that Reservoir's shares are currently trading at a premium linked to the Arrangement and the price might decline sharply if the Arrangement is rejected.

"Nevsun believes there is significant risk to Reservoir under the proposed alternative financing, including the risk of a loan default that could cost Reservoir its entire interest in Timok," said Cliff Davis, President and CEO of Nevsun. "Moreover, the dissident shareholders may have questionable motivations in criticizing the transaction due to their potential interest in offtake contracts."

Continued Mr. Davis, "Reservoir shareholders should be guided by the unanimous support of Reservoir's board for the Arrangement, and a supporting fairness opinion from Reservoir's financial adviser on the consideration to be received by Reservoir shareholders. The compelling value and rationale for this transaction is underscored by the recommendations from both ISS Proxy Advisory Services and Glass, Lewis & Co., two leading independent proxy advisory firms, that Reservoir shareholders vote FOR the arrangement. Clearly the transaction with Nevsun is an excellent outcome for Reservoir and its shareholders."

The dissident shareholders, risk of a loan default, and proposed equity dilution

The criticism of the Arrangement involves Jing Bao (Asia) Ltd. ("Jing Bao") and Shandong Xiangguang Group Co., Ltd ("XGC"). In April they were involved as part of a syndicate with an alternative financing proposal with Reservoir, which Reservoir's board rejected in favour of the Arrangement with Nevsun.

Now, with the support of Jing Bao, XGC has proposed a new, non-binding financing to Reservoir. Proposed terms include a US$50 million loan, secured by Reservoir's interest in Timok as well as other Reservoir assets. XGC could obtain full ownership of Reservoir's interest in Timok if Reservoir were to default on the loan, which is a significant risk since Reservoir has no current operations that would allow it to service the loan or repay it when it comes due.

Proposed terms also include a dilutive US$80 million issue of Reservoir equity at just C$8 per share. That's a significant discount to Reservoir's closing share price of C$8.76 yesterday (June 7, 2016) and an even greater discount to the price of C$9.40 at which Nevsun recently financed Reservoir.

Moreover, in the event that the Nevsun Arrangement is rejected, there is a risk that XGC might withdraw its offer or substitute terms that are even more onerous to Reservoir. In contrast, the binding terms of the Nevsun Arrangement provide Reservoir shareholders with premium value and increased long-term exposure to the Timok project.

Questionable and self-interested offtake motivations

Nevsun believes the criticism of the Arrangement may be self-serving since the dissident shareholders might be interested in signing offtake contracts to purchase Timok's output. For example, on its own website Jing Bao states that it is "especially interested in off takes" and that it is "most interested in the right to purchase a percentage of the commodity at a low fixed price over the life of the mine in exchange for upfront payments."1

Nevsun has the demonstrated expertise to move the Timok project into production  it is not clear how Reservoir shareholders would benefit from such a deal as Jing Bao prefers. Reservoir shareholders have reason to question Jing Bao's motivations in attempting to hinder the premium transaction with Nevsun.

Reference: 1 http://www.jingbao.asia/aboutE.html.

XGC smelter provides no advantage

Similarly, it is incorrect to ascribe value to synergies involving the Chinese smelter operator XGC. Once Timok is in production, Nevsun will arrange for smelting on the best available terms from the world's many smelter operators. Nevsun and Reservoir due diligence showed there are competitive markets for Timok products. It would not be in Reservoir's interest for Timok to become captive to XGC, for either Direct Ship Ore "DSO" or copper concentrates.

Jing Bao admits its estimates and calculations are unsubstantiated "beliefs" and "should not be relied upon"

Jing Bao's statements of value to Reservoir shareholders are unsubstantiated and include outright errors that should not be relied upon. Jing Bao itself acknowledges this in its disclaimer, which reads in part: "Jing Bao's expectations as to the value of Reservoir or Nevsun are not based on work conducted by valuation, financial or mining experts. Each only constitute a statement of our beliefs and should not be relied upon".

Nevsun Arrangement is the result of a rigorous process

In November 2015 the Reservoir Board of Directors contacted approximately 25 parties during a rigorous strategic process to consider potential strategic partners for the Timok project, and in March 2016 the Reservoir Board engaged independent financial advisors to assist in evaluating strategic alternatives.

The Reservoir Board and its advisors considered a number of options, including the April financing proposal from a syndicate involving Jing Bao and XGC, and the Reservoir Board unanimously agreed that the Arrangement with Nevsun was the preferred alternative. The Reservoir Board also received a fairness opinion from its independent financial advisor that the consideration to be received by the Reservoir Shareholders pursuant to the Arrangement is fair, from a financial point of view, to the Reservoir Shareholders.

Nevsun's strong balance sheet and cash generation to fund Timok's potential

Following the completion of the Arrangement the pro-forma company will have US$300 million in cash to fund the development of Timok, as well as ongoing cash flow generated by Nevsun's 60%-owned Bisha mine, a high grade mine which generated US$120 million of operating cash flow in 2015.

As part of its evaluation of alternatives, Reservoir and its advisors conducted extensive due diligence on Nevsun and its operations, including legal, financial, political risk, and technical analyses. Both the Non-Executive Chairman of the Reservoir Board and the CEO of Reservoir visited the Bisha mine site and met with Eritrean government officials. The Reservoir Board concluded that Nevsun has the proven mine development expertise and balance sheet to move the Timok project forward.

TIME IS SHORT  VOTE YOUR PROXY NOW TO RECEIVE PREMIUM VALUE AND UPSIDE

If you have any questions or need assistance with voting, please contact D.F. King, the proxy solicitation agent, by telephone at 1-866-822-1237 (North American Toll Free) or 1-201-806-7301 (Collect Outside North America); or by email at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

About Nevsun Resources Ltd.

Nevsun Resources Ltd. is the 60% owner of the high grade Bisha Mine in Eritrea. Bisha has 9 years of reserve life, generating revenue from both copper and zinc concentrates containing gold and silver by-products. Nevsun has a strong balance sheet with no debt and pays a peer leading quarterly dividend. Nevsun is well positioned to grow shareholder value through exploration at Bisha and acquisition of additional mining assets.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation, and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (collectively referred to as "forward-looking information"). The use of any of the words "expect", "potential", "target", "anticipate", "continue", "estimate", "objective", "may", "will", "project", "should", "believe", "plans", "intends" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking information or statements. More particularly and without limitation, this news release contains forward-looking statements and information concerning: the previously announced combination of Nevsun and Reservoir, the alternative transactions that Reservoir may or may not have at its disposal, the proposed terms of such alternatives and the potential outcomes that may arise from such alternatives. Since forward-looking information addresses future events and conditions, by its very nature it involves inherent risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond Nevsun's and Reservoir's control. These include, but are not limited to, the risk that the Arrangement may not close when planned or at all or on the terms and conditions set forth in the Arrangement Agreement; and the failure to obtain the necessary shareholder and court approvals, if applicable, required in order to proceed with the Arrangement, as well as all the possible outcomes involving both Jing Bao and XGC proposals to Reservoir referred to in this release. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. Further information concerning risks and uncertainties associated with these forward-looking statements and Nevsun's business can be found in Nevsun's Annual Information Form for the year ended December 31, 2015, which is available on Nevsun's website (www.nevsun.com), filed under Nevsun's profile on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) and on EDGAR (www.sec.gov) under cover of Form 40-F. Actual results, performance or achievement could differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, these forward-looking statements and, accordingly, no assurance can be given that any of the events anticipated by the forward-looking statements will transpire or occur, or if any of them do so, what benefits may be derived there from. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on this information.

Neither TSX nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

NEVSUN RESOURCES LTD.

"Cliff T. Davis"

Cliff T. Davis

President & Chief Executive Officer

SOURCE Nevsun Resources Ltd.
[JURIST] The European Court of Justice [official website] ruled [judgment; press release, PDF] Tuesday that non-EU immigrants who illegally enter the Schengen area across an internal border should not be jailed solely on that basis. They can, however, be returned first through a time allowing for voluntary return and then through forced removal measures. The forced removal measures are to be conducted in the least coercive manner possible, and these procedures must be utilized before imprisonment.

The rights of migrant populations has emerged as one of the most significant humanitarian issue around the world, as millions seek asylum from conflict nations. In March the Court of Justice ruled that Germany may place residence conditions [JURIST report] on refugees. In February the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said that new measures put in place by many European countries are too restrictive and place undue hardships [JURIST report] on refugees and asylum-seekers. Also in February Amnesty International warned Austria that they are violating human rights through their daily cap on asylum applications [JURIST report]. In January Danish lawmakers approved a controversial bill that will allow Danish authorities to seize assets [JURIST report] from immigrants seeking asylum in order to cover their expenses.
Google, Facebook, Yahoo [corporate websites] and various rights groups expressed opposition [letter, PDF] Monday to legislation that extends categories of Internet records that the government can collect without court approval through the National Security Letters [ACLU backgrounder]. These expanded powers would allow the FBI [official website] to get a variety of new information [PCWorld report] such as IP addresses, routing and transmission information, session data, browsing history, e-mail metadata, location information, and log in times and dates. The first piece of legislation opposed is the Intelligence Authorization Act [bill, PDF]. This bill is supposed to expand warrant less government surveillance. The bill would allow any FBI field office to demand e-mail records without a court order. The other piece of legislation is a proposed amendment [amendment, PDF] to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act [DOJ report], which would extend the list of available information the government can seek to include information such as account numbers, login history and bank account information.

Technology continues to raise important privacy questions. In April Microsoft sued [JURIST report] the Department of Justice regarding the privacy of their customers e-mails. Also that month the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled [JURIST report] that obtaining phone location records without a warrant was not a violation of the Fourth Amendment. Last November the US Supreme Court rejected a case [JURIST report] to determine whether it is necessary to obtain a search warrant when law enforcement requests access to cell phone location data. In October California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law [JURIST report] the California Electronic Communications Act (CECA), a law that many are touting as a substantial step forward for digital privacy and protecting users rights. The law, which was approved alongside more than 10 other bills, bars any states law enforcement agency or other investigative entity from requesting sensitive metadata from persons or businesses without a warrant. Also in October the European Court of Justice ruled [JURIST report] that EU user data transferred to the US by various technology companies is not sufficiently protected.
[JURIST] UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad Al Hussein [official profile] urged [text] the Iraqi government to take immediate measures to ensure that those fleeing the city of Fallujah are treated in strict accordance with international human rights and international humanitarian laws. Zeid cited credible reports that fleeing migrants have suffered physical abuse at the hands of armed groups operating in support of the Iraqi security forces. These groups have reportedly been separating migrants by gender, detaining men for security checks, which largely amount to physical abuse for the sake of forced confessions. Zeid ended his remarks stating that while the Iraqi government has a legitimate interests in making vetting migrants to ensure that they do not impose security risks, such vetting should take place through the appropriate laws and in a transparent manner.

The Islamic State (IS) [JURIST backgrounder], which controls Fallujah, has caused increasing international alarm over its human rights abuses [JURIST report] since its insurgence into Syria and Iraq in 2013. In December UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned [JURIST report] rights violations against the of children in Iraq by the IS insurgents. In September members of Iraqs Yazidi community met with the International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda in The Hague and urged [JURIST report] the court to open a genocide investigation in Northern Iraq. The US Holocaust Memorial Museum voiced support [JURIST report] for the Yazidi communitys efforts in November.
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Entertainment / Music

by Thobekile Zhou

Popular all female acappella ensemble, Nobuntu has lined up a series of nationwide tours to launch their second album-Ekhaya.The group is fresh from a Canadian tour.Bulawayo, Harare and Victoria Falls will host the launch respectively.The Bulawayo launch is set for June 11, Harare (18) and Victoria Falls on the 25th.One of the group members, Thandeka Moyo said their album is about celebrating being Zimbabwean and African."Our New album, Ekhaya is an experience of what it means to be Zimbabwean and above all, African. Ekhaya highlights the importance of being proud of who you are, where one comes from, their tradition, norms and culture. There is no place like home, Ekhaya is home," said Moyo."We look forward to the support from all the three places we will be performing in this June." It is an exciting journey and always humbling when you continuously receive so much love from home," added Joyline Sibanda.Their second album, Ekhaya launched on online stores in March prior to having the singles available on local radio stations.The first album Thina, got the ensemble nominated for a Zimbabwe International Women Award (Best Musician Category) which were held in London, United Kingdom.
News / Africa

by Staff Reporter

THE angry parents of a girl (5) who was raped at school want answers about how the horrific incident happened right under teachers' noses. And they also want the older boys who did it jailed.Daily Sun reported that the Grade R pupil from the Dennilton area in Limpopo, was allegedly raped by three boys in the tall grass behind old toilets at a primary school last Wednesday.The girl's mum (33) said: "My son told me that something happened to his sister at school, but she did not want to talk about it. I thought she might have been bullied, but later realised she was not herself and walked as if it hurt."The mum said when she bathed her daughter later that evening, she could see her private parts were painful. The mum checked her panties and found bloodstains."I rushed her to the hospital and the doctors confirmed she had been penetrated."The mum reported the matter to the cops. The child then revealed she was raped by three boys. The girl's dad (40) said he was shocked that this happened right under the teachers' noses. He said the principal denied that the rape happened on the school premises, but then allegedly set the grass behind the toilets alight.Dr Naledzani Rasila, spokesman for the Limpopo Education Department, said: "We condemn this incident and will ensure that the law takes its course." Colonel Ronel Otto confirmed the incident and said the suspects are boys aged eight, nine and 10."They have been placed under the guidance of social workers as they are minors."
The cast of "Train to Busan" talked about how they got to star in the movie.

"Train to Busan" is a blockbuster about a group of people on the KTX train struggling for survival while an unprecedented natural disaster hits Korea. "Train to Busan" started off with a lot of attention as the director had come up with a new element for this movie and the scenario was outstanding. The cast is also made up of the greatest actors and actresses.

Gong Yoo stated the reasons he chose "Train to Busan": "This new element for the movie will create synergy and it's something you have never seen in Korea before". Gong Yoo has starred in various movies from "The Crucible" and "The Suspect". He claimed he felt the success of the movie just by looking at the scenario.

Jeong Yu-mi, Ma Dong-seok and Choi Woo-sik mentioned the movie's intensity and appealing characters as their reason for starring in the movie. Jeong Yu-mi said, "I loved the scenario and how intense it sounded". Choi Woo-sik mentioned the turning point of the movie and Ma Dong-seok said, "I fell for characters that are full of humanity. This action is different from the other action movies I've done".

Lastly, the cast has never ending faith in the director Yeon Sang-ho. Ahn So-hee said, "Director Yeon Sang-ho is a good reason enough to star in "Train to Busan". Kim Ee-seong said, "He has a stance and he is perfect in his direction". Kim Soo-an said, "The director told me to do what I liked to do and he monitors me thoroughly".

Source: HanCinema
News / Africa

by Staff Reporter

Around 20 families of prisoners executed by the state have expressed a strong wish to at least have access to their executed family members' graves.Mmegi reported that although this may sound culturally and emotionally sound, their wish may to some extent be considered a breach of the law that governs Botswana's secretive execution process.Botswana Institute of Rehabilitation and Reintergration of Offenders (BIRRO), who are playing the facilitation role, has sent a letter dated May 31, 2016 to President Ian Khama calling him to look into the issue, Mmegi can reveal. The BIRRO director, Mothei Sejakgomo confirmed the letter leaked to Mmegi but could not discuss the contents of the letter as it is for the President and not the media.Pressed further Sejakgomo confirmed that several families have asked them to facilitate the process for them to at least see their executed relatives' graves for closure.The letter, also copied to the Attorney General and Commissioner of Prisons says: "As BIRRO we will feel more blessed if His Excellency can use his power to arrange for those who lost their loved ones through the death penalty to be allowed to see the graves of their sons, daughters, fathers, mothers among others."It further says: "We believe that this will be an important initiative as we are looking forward to Botswana golden jubilee." Sejakgomo argued that this decision will bring closure to the families. It made much emphasis on the importance of such an undertaking giving more reference to Botswana's culture and giving their last respect to the dead as ancestors."It will be a greater move forward for both the government and the victims and it will also assure them that their beloved ones are indeed in their rightful place of rest. In this way they will give up and help in building and taking Botswana a step forward," the letter continues. According to the correspondence this move is crucial in the sense that those who lost their loved ones will make peace with this heartbreaking situation and understand that their loved ones are no more.The letter further requested Khama to pardon the prisoners serving life sentences who have already served over 20 years. They want the same to be extended to prisoners held at the President's pleasure.The highly divisive and secretive execution process traditionally excludes the families from being part of the process and keeps them in the dark until the execution has taken place.Customarily the lawyers and the prisoner's family are neither informed of the decision on clemency nor of the imminence of the execution. According to the Prisons Act, "no person other than the minister, a prison officer, the medical officer or other medical practitioner in his place, a minister of religion or other person authorised by the Commissioner shall have access to a prisoner under sentence of death provided that such prisoner may, subject to any reasonable conditions the Commissioner may impose, be visited by his legal advisers and such of his relatives and friends as he may". However in practice the family and the lawyer are never informed or allowed to see the prisoner before his execution.Alice Mogwe, the director of Ditshwanelo said on Friday March 31, 2006, the day before the execution of Modisane Ping, she accompanied his mother to visit him. The prison authorities denied them access to the prisoner and asked his mother to return on Monday as it was not possible for her to see him at the time.Mogwe said at that time however, the officers they met knewvery well of the death warrant and failed to tell his mother that he would be no more the following day. Ping's family, Mogwe and his lawyer Tiro Mothusi eventually heard about the execution of Ping over the radio.The International Federation for Human Rights back then remarked that the failure to inform the family of the date of execution and the refusal to give the family access to the prisoner may result in inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment for both the prisoner and his/her family which is not authorised to see the grave, the burial being held inside the prison. The Office of the President could not respond to Mmegi enquiries at the time of going to press.A renowed and highly experienced counsellor, Ntombi Setshwaelo is of the view that it neither makes sense nor serves any purpose for the bereaved and further punish those who are already lifeless by holding them hostage in their graves.Setshwaelo said the issue is sensitive and needs to be looked at from both sides."Before airing my views on the matter, please allow me to declare my heartfelt sorrow for the relatives and friends who have tragically lost their loved ones through the murderous acts of the malefactors who lie in these graves. Also, like most of us, I tend to react with antagonistic feelings towards the perpetrators who, not only brutally rob others of their precious lives, but cause deep inner pain and lifetime scars for the bereaved family and friends left behind," she said.She continued that her heart goes out to those closely related to the executed felons because, much as they themselves are innocent, cannot escape suffering unbearable shame, disgrace, guilt and stigma brought upon them by the evil deeds committed by one of their very own."I'm referring here to the mothers, fathers, children, siblings, grandparents and blood relatives of the dishonourable family member," Setshwaelo stated.According to Setshwaelo, it should also not be forgotten that these kinsfolk, while themselves repulsed by their rogue relatives' actions could, naturally, not help grieving the loss of one they had loved and expected the best from."Surely then, they deserve to be regarded and treated with empathy and kindness by us as compassionate fellow human beings, which includes those tasked with the responsibility of making decisions on this particular matter, otherwise they also will suffer a slow excruciating death psychologically, emotionally, spiritually and even physically, through stress related ailments," she said.In considering the matter, therefore, Setshwaelo advises that the relevant authorities could do well to realise that first, it neither makes sense nor serves any purpose to further punish those who are already lifeless by holding them hostage in their graves, so to speak."Of more concern though, is punishment of the blameless who, it would seem, are being persecuted for the heinous crimes they themselves neither condone nor had any control over or any say or hand in it," she said.She concluded by saying this issue is a test on us as a society, given our beliefs in the ethos of botho that are echoed by the call on us by Vision 2016 - to be a compassionate and caring nation.
The Plum Creek Massacre story is told on an Oregon-California Trails Association sign across Phelps County Road 748 from the mass grave and on a Phelps County Historical Society sign at the Plum Creek Cemetery 1 miles west.

On the morning of Aug. 8, 1864, a war party of Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians attacked 12 wagons of a Denver-bound freight wagon train, killing 13 men and taking captive Nancy Jane Morton of Sidney, Iowa, and a boy, Danny Marble of Council Bluffs.

The attack was in full view of several east-bound freight trains and a small detachment of 7th Iowa Cavalry soldiers who were stopped at the Thomas Ranch, 1 miles west of the burial site.

From a telegraph station at the ranch, Lt. Joseph Bone sent a frantic message for help to Fort Kearny, Send company of men here quick as God can send them one hundred Indians in sight firing on ox train.

The troops didnt arrive until 10 that night.

The victims were buried the following morning; 11 bodies were placed in a common grave in a northwest Phelps County field now owned by archaeologist Steve Holen. He said the other two men may have been in the front of the wagon train and buried where they fell.

Meanwhile, Danny Marble and three other youths captured along the Little Blue River were purchased in early September 1864 by Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle. He released them in northwestern Kansas to a 1st Colorado Calvary officer.

Danny contracted typhoid fever and died Nov. 8 in Denver before he could be returned to his mother.

A wounded Nancy Morton remained a captive until about Jan. 18, 1865, when she was ransomed by traders sent to the upper Powder River country of Wyoming by Maj. John Wood of the 7th Iowa Cavalry. She passed the Plum Creek mass gravesite on her way to her fathers Sidney, Iowa, home.

She later remarried and lived until 1912.

Mortons manuscripts about her captivity were acquired from her granddaughter by local historian Clyde Wallace and are preserved by the Dawson County Historical Society.

Plum Creek Cemetery

Plum Creek Cemetery north of roads 738 and B was created in the 1930s and is cared for by the Phelps County Historical Society and Nebraska Prairie Museum.

There is a sign identifying the nearby locations to the north of the Plum Creek military post and Daniel Freemans second store, built in 1864.

One of the two headstones in the cemetery was found by a local family on their property. The name is Sarepta Gore Fly, who had died during an eastbound trip along the Oregon Train in 1865.

In August 1963, the grave of an unknown 1-year-old child who died in 1885 or 1886 was moved to the cemetery from a farm pasture southwest of Loomis.

The site has two early 1930s stone monuments. One recognizes victims of the Plum Creek Massacre and the other is dedicated to those daring pioneers, heralds of modern communication, transportation and civilization.
SCOTTSBLUFF  No matter where you go in the world, you will find each community has a group of artists and artisans.

They capture our stories, as individuals and as a collective. Their work is a reflection of our lives, our history, our values and our progress.

LeTisha and Gene Smith have opened a new venue to show and sell local and regional artwork. American West Gallery, located at 11 E. 27th St., Scottsbluff, is open for business.

The gallery is a cooperative gallery of artists and artisans from the Panhandle. They currently have work from 10 artists and artisans and hope to find more. The gallery features fine art, unique handmade gifts and home decor.

The gallery currently has works by JeanAnn Curry-Hess, Jo Haslow, Randall May and LeTisha Smith. They also have creations by LaVica Andre, Lorraine Berry, Nancy Peterson, Rebecca Steinmetz and Janice Stuckert.

This is the third gallery the Smiths have owned. The first gallery was in a 4,000-square-foot opera house in Saratoga, Wyo.

Saratoga is a gated community and they really support the arts there. At the time, there were three galleries there and we were all doing well, LeTisha Smith said.

They did a lot with antiques at the Saratoga gallery as well.

Their next shop was a little gallery in Deadwood, S.D.

It was mostly my work, but we had a few other artists and I taught classes, LeTisha Smith said.

The bitter cold and snow-laden winters had taken their toll and the Smiths decided it was time to look for milder temperatures. They found a little house in Morrill and left South Dakota for Nebraska in December 2013.

They werent planning to open another gallery.

I kept doing shows and then I would have to bring it (her art) home and put it back in the closet, LeTisha Smith said.

They decided that there was a need for a gallery like theirs in the Panhandle.

There are a lot of good artists in this area, Letisha Smith said.

Gene lends his 56 years of experience in antiques to the gallery, offering a collection of primitive and fine antiques. Prior to meeting Letisha, he worked at the Whitney Western Art Museum in Cody, Wyoming.

When I married Tish, I didnt even know she could paint, Gene said.

He came home from work one day and LeTisha was doing a watercolor of a diesel engine.

I told her, Thats really good and she said, What would you know about it, Gene said.

He explained to her the he had lectured on Frederic Sackrider Remington and other western artists for three years at Whitney.

Ive been pushing her ever since, Gene Smtih said.

One favorite of LeTishas works lovingly called Reality is a portrait of a little boy holding a dead pheasant. Hes covered in snow and crying.

Grandpa told him, Cmon Ill take you pheasant hunting. Then he got the snow up to his chest and blood on his coat, Gene said.

LeTisha Smith said its interesting to see how people react to that painting. Women dont like it and men think its hilarious. Women feel bad for the little boy. For men, it brings back memories from when they first went with grandpa.

The American West Gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. For more information, visit its website online at www.americanwestgallery.us.
NEBRASKA CITY -- A Nebraska City man set fire to a house he owns Friday because he didn't want his 29-year-old son living there any longer, according to an investigator for the Nebraska Fire Marshal's Office.

Rex D. Peterson Sr., 54, was charged Monday in Otoe County Court with first-degree arson, a felony punishable by up to 50 years in prison. Peterson posted 10 percent of $200,000 bail and was released from jail.

The Nebraska City Fire Department responded to a call about 4 p.m. Friday. Firefighters discovered flames coming from the first and second story of the home.

Nebraska State Fire Marshal's Office investigator Adam Matzner said in an arrest affidavit that he interviewed Peterson, who lives nearby, after the fire was extinguished and was told that the man started the fire because he didn't want his son, Rex D. Peterson II, living at the residence any longer.

Matzner states in the affidavit that the father immediately confessed to pouring gasoline throughout the house, then igniting paper towels which ignited the gasoline, causing a fire within the dwelling.

The affidavit doesn't say why the father wanted his son out of the home, and attempts to reach either man for comment were unsuccessful. John Voelker, a Nebraska City attorney retained by the elder Peterson, declined to comment.

The investigator said the son and his girlfriend were at home when the fire began but escaped without injury.
YORK  Kendell G. Holthus, 56, of York died Friday, March 28, 2014, in York.

Services will be at 3 p.m. Wednesday at York City Auditorium with the Revs. Allen Bergstrazer and Jeff Ehlers officiating. Burial will be at Greenwood Cemetery near York.

Visitation will be from 1-9 p.m. today and from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday at Metz Mortuary in York. The family will be present from 6-8 p.m. Tuesday at Faith Lutheran Church in York.

He was born Aug. 30, 1957, in Lexington to C.G. Kelly and Virginia (Holen) Holthus.

On Feb. 17, 2001, he married Amy Ahrens in Edwards, Colo.



Survivors include his wife and daughters of York; his parents of York; sisters, Kris Holoch and her husband, Greg, of York and Beth Godbout and her husband, John, of Paradise Valley, Ariz.; brother, Tom Holthus and his wife, Marcy, of La Jolla, Calif.; parents-in-law, Lyle and Linda Ahrens of Gibbon; sister-in-law, Suzanne Caldwalder and her husband, Scott, of Minden; many nieces, nephews and a host of friends; and a special family friend, Dana Grenfell of York.

Kendell graduated from York High School in 1975 then attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Nebraska Wesleyan University. After college, he owned and operated a farm in Sherman County for 12 years. In 1994, Kendell returned to York and joined his familys business at Cornerstone Bank as a commercial and agricultural loan officer. He served as executive vice president at the time of his death and was a member of the banks board of directors, executive committee and senior loan committee.

To his union with Amy three daughters were born: Lilly, 12, Baylie, 10, and Tatum, 8.

Kendell was a graduate of the American Bankers Associations Commercial Lending School, the Kansas and Nebraska Bankers Associations Advanced School of Banking and the Graduate School of Banking at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He was a graduate of the Nebraska LEAD program and Class II of the Nebraska Bankers Associations Leadership Program. He also was a past chairman of the Nebraska Bankers Association and had served for several years on the Concordia Foundation Board.

Kendell served on the York County Ag Society, York Municipal Airport Authority and the York Community Builders. He was a member of the York Rotary Club, past president of the United Way, York Public Schools and York Country Club. He was also past executive director of Faith Lutheran Church where he was an active member.

Kendell enjoyed boating with friends, piloting his plane, and attending his daughters school activities and sporting events. Kendell loved spending time with his family and taking care of Amy and his girls.

He was preceded in death by his grandparents.

Memorials are suggested to the York Community Foundation for scholarships for students going into the banking or medical field. Memorials also may be directed to the donors choice.

Visit www.metzmortuary.com to leave condolences for the family.
News / Africa

by Staff Reporter

WHEN night falls, the thugs start terrorising residents.But the two armed men who have been robbing them are not looking for anything fancy.They only want food!Daily Sun reported that the grocery thugs take bread, tomatoes, mealie-meal, meat and anything else that can fill their hungry stomachs.The men pounced on about 20 shacks in Angelo squatter camp in Boksburg, Ekurhuleni on Thursday.They went to one shack to steal a bag of mealie meal, then to another where they found bread and tomatoes.And so it went on.Angry residents said if the police don't arrest the thieves, they will take the law into their own hands."We suspect the thugs doing this are nyaope addicts. A normal thug would never go around robbing people of food," said a resident.People are now on high alert."Food is very expensive. We're not going to let anyone to just come and take it like that," said another resident."People are hungry. Government must create jobs because it's hunger that's driving people to do this."People are going to eat each other in the near future if something is not done now."Bessy Nkomo said she has to raise money to buy another bag of mealie-meal.Another resident said: "I have children and they're hungry because someone stole their food. The thugs even demanded my cigarettes."Some residents said they opened cases but had little hope the police would nab the suspects.
News / Local

by Stephen Jakes

Binga ward councilor Themba Munkombwe has petition Matabeleland North Provincial Administrator Lathiso Dlamini over the alleged clandestine op3eration of the Chief Executive officer Joshua Muzamba whom he accused of mismanagement of funds.In a later dated April 21 this year Munkombwe said his primary objectives was to express an opinion on the adequacy and effectiveness operations of Binga Rural District Council."It has just been unfortunate to employ Joshua Muzamba as substantive CEO because council employed someone dismmised from previous employment for serious misconduct acts and bad reputation that has become detrimental and compromised the integrity of Binga Rural District Council, "Munkombwe wrote."The council has ghost workers Sylvia Chuma who is paid via lawyers due to her private employment contract with Joshua Muzamba. The CEO is recruiting council staff without procedures."He said Joshua Muzamba has come to loot within Binga RDC instead of bringing development," Munkombwe wrote."Muzamba is threatening and intimidating Binga councillors that he has powers to do whatever in the pretext that he is central committee member of Zanu PF. According to RDC acts section 157 (1) the President may in the interest of the inhabitants of a council area, may suspend any councillor from exercising any of his functions," he wrote. "Section 27 (2) of the constitution of Zimbabwe, specifies that an Independent Tribunal is the one which removes a councillor if he or she has an inability to perform the functions of his or her office due to gross incompetence gross misconduct, conviction of an offence involving dishonesty, corruption or abuse of office and wilful violation of the law."He wrote that however sections 68 and 69 of the constitution of Zimbabwe specify respectively that an alleged or accused person have a right to administrative justice and a right to a fair hearing."Therefore as a policy maker at local government level, i have proved Muzanmba to be compromising and totally incompetent to his job title within Binga RDC," he wrote.Dlamini was yet to respond to the letter.
News / Local

by Stephen Jakes

Heal Zimbabwe Trust has reported that the Tsholotsho community is working hard to resolve the water conflict problems bedeviling the area."Water remains a precious resource that is vital to peace and development. Tsholotsho is a semi-arid region which receives minimal rainfall and this greatly affects water reservoirs such as boreholes and dams which end up drying up before rainy season," said the trust."In most cases, people end up competing or sharing water sources with livestock as water sources fast dry up. The few functional boreholes in the various wards are old and not always reliable through the dry spells. When they do break down due to overuse and demand, community members have to contribute money for the repair."The trust said given the harsh economic environment that has seen rural communities being the most affected, some community members fail to make contributions towards the repair of the boreholes."When this happens, most community members accuse those who would have failed to pay contributions as having contributed to the breakdown of the borehole. In some cases, defaulters are even threatened that they will be denied access to water. This has thus created conflict around water sources," said the trust."It is against such a background that Isolezwe peace club that operates in Tsholotsho ward 1 carried out a conflict mapping exercises in the month of May. During the conflict mapping exercise, they identified water being the major problem that was fueling most conflicts in the area since the few boreholes in the area were not meeting the community's water demands. The peace club also identified key stakeholders whom they should engage in order to resolve the conflict."The trust said to engage stakeholders, the peace club identified a collaborative neutral platform as an activity that would rally the community together in preparation for the community dialogue that was going to be convened by Traditional leaders in the area."The nhimbe would also enhance social cohesion and promote peace and encourage community members to live peacefully. The peace club members organized their fellow community members to embark on road maintenance. They selected the road that connects Samahuru clinic and Sadaka clinic. Shrubs had blocked the road made it difficult for vehicles to transport medicals to Samahuru clinic and Sadoka clinic," said the trust.
News / National

by Stephen Jakes

The Harare Residents Trust (HRT) has said Harare Mayor Bernard Manyenyeni's suspension by Acting Local government minister Jonathon Moyo on Tuesday was purely political motivated just to victimise him and there was nothing to do with the law in the process.The trust said it believes in the rule of law, and the true spirit and letter of the Constitution and all its subsidiary legislation have to be respected with compromise, by the Government of Zimbabwe and all those who represent the Government at all levels."The Mayor of Harare Councillor Bernard Manyenyeni was being politically victimised, and the issue of his suspension has nothing to do with the laws of Zimbabwe but have everything to do with the delayed alignment of local government laws to the Constitution by the Government, as represented by the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing," said the trust."The Constitution, Section 278 (2) specifically indicates that there has to be an Act of Parliament that must provide for the removal or suspension of a Mayor/ Chairperson/Co9uncillor of a local authority."The trust said the law says, an Act of Parliament must provide for the establishment of an independent tribunal to exercise the function of removing from office mayors, chairpersons and councillors, but any such removal must only be on the grounds of inability to perform the functions of their office due to mental or physical incapacity; gross incompetence; gross misconduct; conviction of an offence involving dishonesty, corruption or abuse of office; or wilful violation of the law, including a local authority by-law."A mayor, chairperson or councillor of a local authority does not vacate his or her seat except in accordance with this section. The HRT argues that the Independent Tribunal has not yet been established, and there is no provision in both the Constitution or the Urban Councils Act that gives the Minister of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing to suspend or re-suspend a Mayor/Chairperson/Councillor without the authority of the Constitution which requires that this be done by an Independent Tribunal," said the trust."In terms of the Urban Councils Act, which has been used on Mayor Ben Manyenyeni, his suspension was for 45 days, and now that the 45 days had lapsed with no sight of the Act of Parliament which allows for the establishment of the Independent Tribunal. This means that Mayor Manyenyeni should be officially back in office at Town House. The Mayor is in the HRT view supposed to report to work. The delays by the Minister to process the alignment of the local government laws should not be an excuse to abuse the Harare City Council."The trust further states that the Government has no right to abuse the law, and residents denounce such bully behaviour from the Minister of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing who is abusing his political powers, instead of respecting the Constitution of Zimbabwe."He is not above the law, and should not be above the law," said the trust.
News / National

by Zvamaida Murwira

Parliamentarians have been urged to be wary of non-governmental-organisations who in their bid to discredit local polls, will never appreciate the country's electoral system.Legislators noted that some NGOs like the Election Resource Centre would "perpetually" condemn Zimbabwe's electoral system despite improvements that would have been registered.This was said by some legislators while making contributions to a portfolio committee report on Justice and Legal affairs chaired by Harare West MP Ms Jessie Majome (MDC-T), on Zimbabwe Electoral Commission's preparedness to hold by-elections.The committee appeared to have accepted evidence given to it by the ERC.In her report, Ms Majome said ERC had described the 2013 harmonised elections on special voting as chaotic and that media access was not equally distributed among contesting political parties.Bikita West MP Dr Munyaradzi Kereke (Zanu-PF), said there were some organisations like ERC that would never appreciate anything from Government as they seek to please their Western benefactors."My contribution to that is, we (need to) look at some entities. We need to take note that some organisations come with a pre-conceived mindset. They will forever say the playing field was not even. The assertion that the electoral field was uneven is like chasing a mirage. In any election, there is a winner and a loser," said Dr Kereke.He reprimanded the committee for making an allegation that Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa who oversees the Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs had scuttled its work when he did not come to give evidence.Ms Majome had earlier on said that the committee did not agree with VP Mnangagwa's assertions communicated to them through the administration of Parliament that issues they wanted him to address were sub-judice.Buhera West MP Oliver Mandipaka (Zanu-PF), said NGOs and losing political parties would always complain if strong parties distribute goods to the electorate as they would make allegations of vote buying."We need to be wary of certain organisations that say our elections are not credible. There are organisations that will remain adamant," said Mandipaka.Chegutu MP Dexter Nduna (Zanu-PF) echoed the same sentiments.He however called for the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to register those people previously regarded as aliens, saying most of them have never been to any other country other than Zimbabwe."These people will be told to first renounce their foreign citizenship. In my constituency, there are many. I want to make a clarion call for the Executive to register them without any questions," said Nduna.Kadoma Central MP Fani Phiri (Zanu-PF) advocated the banishment of the use of the word "alien" saying it was derogatory.
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The coincidences are impressive.

The coincidences are impressive.

Dr Michael Conway, a native of Limerick who studied medicine at Oxford University, found his way to Kilkenny in the late 90s to take up a post at St Lukes Hospital.

While here, he purchased a historic city-centre house without knowing at the time that it would combine some of the passions in his life.

Not only did the building  now called the Hole in the Wall  remind him of Oxford, it also echoed a style of paintings he created years before ever seeing the place. And it turns out the same building was home to the Royal College of Physicians three centuries ago.

Anglo-Irish relations

Raised in a Catholic family in Limerick, Dr Conway spent two years at University College Oxford after having committed sin by attending Trinity College Dublin.

As it happens, his time in Oxford from 1979-81 was at the peak of the IRA campaign in England.

I went there thinking they wouldnt want me, but I ended up being accepted like a son, he recalls.

He ran a dining society, where students met for black-tie dinners in the college, and ended up setting up a St Jamess Gate Society as well, with the aim of fostering Anglo-Irish relations.

A lot of those Oxbridge types went on to be influential in the Blair government, and here I was showing aspects of Irish society, promoting Irish cheese, Irish produce, St Patricks Day breakfasts, he says. Its like as if it was the start of the peace process.

Snake venom as treatment

Dr Conway moved back to Limerick afterwards but was then invited to return to Oxford, where he spent the next 11 years training in John Radcliffe Hospital.

There, he worked on pioneering research in the area of treatments for heart-attack patients, including an ace inhibitor that comes from the venom of a Brazilian snake and which is now a standard treatment.

We did the biggest ever trial with 58,000-plus patients worldwide, which was no simple task. It was stressful at the time, just trying to determine what the safe dose would be to give to 58,000 people.

After spending the next few years back in Ireland as a lecturer in clinical pharmacology and therapeutics at Trinity College Dublin, and then working as a consultant in London Chest Hospital, he decided to return here long-term.

I was very keen to come back  its like a salmon wanting to come back to its spawning grounds, the Irish wanting to come home, he says.

And so he found himself working at St Lukes Hospital. I came back then and got stuck into getting the cardiac services for Carlow/ Kilkenny sorted; we built the coronary care unit that is one of the best in the world, he says.

Powerhouse

But all along the way, Dr Conway has kept up that link with Oxford, including the hosting of a medical conference and introducing to Kilkenny the Dawn Choral, an Oxford tradition that he began here at 5:55 on 5-5-5 (May 5, 2005).

Seeing the house that is now the Hole in the Wall off Kilkennys High Street, he was likewise subconsciously linking a building with the kind in Oxford with its Tudor features, and set off to build a little bit of Oxford in Kilkenny.

I was saying to myself, This is Oxford of the 1600s. This is a city that should have a whole group of colleges and should be an academic powerhouse, he recalls.

When he started to research the history of the building, he started in Rothe House, looking through documents and searching bookstores for references to it.

Early on, he came across the Personal Recollections of Sir Jonah Barrington, which included a section on Kilkenny and a section on the Hole in the Wall. It was a very weird thing, because I have never seen that book on the shelf since, he notes.

What is now the Hole in the Wall was originally the inner house of a mansion built in 1582 by Martin Archer, part of a very powerful merchant family with at least 8,000 acres.

The story then is that unfortunately they linked up with the Confederacy of Kilkenny and they were very prominent in it and as a result (when Cromwell invaded) they ended up being sent to hell or Connacht or to hell or Barbados, Dr Conway says.

When Catholic King Charles II took the English throne, however, he gave it to the Duke of Ormonde, who had supported him in the previous troubled years, and a college was set up with a dozen professors from France teaching Greek, French, Hebrew, philosophy, rhetoric, grammar and the like.

Subsequently, Dr Conway, says: James II came over and wanted to set up the Royal College of St Canice, but six months later he lost the Battle of the Boyne and the Battle of Aughrim.

And so the victors came to Kilkenny and wiped out anything that Jamess supporters had established, including the university. So for 300 years there has been no indigenous university  and now it has to happen.

Once again, he is doing his part, having just hosted University Month in the venue in September.

Music

The building also fits in with another one of Dr Conways interests: music.

In the past year and a half, the Hole and the Wall has hosted gigs by the likes of Juliet Turner, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Donal Dineen, Don Mescall and Liam O Maonlai  and funnily enough, it isnt his first venture into concert promotion. He was also the promoter behind Rock Fest, which brought Diamond Head and other heavy-metal acts to Kilmanaghs Ballykeeffe Amphitheatre  an experience that he says was like running away with the circus.

In recent months, the venue has also created an opportunity for discovering and giving a platform to emerging talent.

One of those is Steve Reilly, and the most extraordinary has been Ciara McCollan, who basically brought Edith Piaf to life here in the Hole in the Wall and has now gone to Florence to learn to be a painter, Dr Conway says.

His aim is also to try to draw in different types of audiences, with lectures on Lady Desart, James Joyce and the history of Ireland in one hour.

If anything drives me, it is the passion to see Kilkenny become what is should be, which is an academic medieval campus, addressing aspects of the arts, the creativity that would get people employed in Hollywood, that would attract academics to come and live here, Dr Conway says.

This city has something special to offer. It is Oxford waiting to be created in the South East of Ireland.
News / National

by Auxilia Katongomara

Pupils lost consciousness and two of them were rushed to hospital after they inhaled bromine gas in an Advanced Level laboratory at St Bernard's High school in Bulawayo's Old Pumula suburb.There was panic at the Catholic-run school among pupils and teachers and an ambulance had to be called.Sources said some pupils started having breathing problems while others complained of dizziness. Two of them were rushed to the hospital and later discharged.A teacher at the school said a pupil accidentally spilled the bromine liquid which immediately changed into gaseous form."Pupils were moving lab chemicals and equipment to a new lab that has been constructed when one was accidentally hit by a door resulting in the spillage. Everything around that area became yellow causing panic and all the pupils were quickly removed from the lab," said the teacher who cannot be named for ethical reasons.The teacher said some pupils immediately began experiencing breathing problems, asthma attacks and some lost consciousness.The school's head only identified as Ndlovu confirmed the incident but declined to give details."I'm not allowed to talk to the press but what I can say is that we've sent a report to the district offices and they've been here," said Ndlovu.Bulawayo provincial education director, Dan Moyo said no pupil had been hospitalised after the mishap."The pupils were moving chemicals and equipment to a new laboratory when one hit a door and the bromine liquid spilled on the floor resulting in a hazy smoke," said Moyo.He said the pupils we immediately cleared from the laboratory and the affected pupils rushed to hospital for examination.School sources claimed that some pupils choked on the gas and some fainted.Immediate signs and symptoms of inhaling bromine gas are coughing, breathing problems, and headaches. Irritation of mucous membranes, dizziness and having watery eyes are other symptoms.Effects of inhaling bromine are long-term lung problems.In March this year, a teacher died at Mandwandwe High School in Bulawayo's Nkulumane suburb after allegedly inhaling poisonous fumes at the school's science laboratory.After the science teacher's death, the school was forced to close its science laboratories.The school faced accusations of not following recommended procedures and standards for chemical storage.Trust Ncube died after complaining of chest pains and reporting breathing difficulties reportedly from a leakage in the lab.
SHARE Lyla Vigil recalls her childhood while standing on the bank the Skokomish River where she lived and played as a child. A Skokomish couple stand outside their summer house made of reed mats in this 1912 photo by Edward S. Curtis. During the early 1900s, Curtis photographed Northwest Native Americans in traditional settings. Lyla Gouley Vigil recalls her childhood while standing on the steps of the foundation of her home as a youth. Today, the foundation, overgrown with vegetation, is all that is left of the home on the Skokomish River.

First of four parts

By Christopher Dunagan

Lila Gouley awoke in her darkened bedroom. Lying quietly, she stared at the dim light spilling in from the dining room, where her parents were talking in low voices about the rising waters.

Pulling back the covers, the 13-year-old stepped to the floor. Icy water gripped her foot, sending a chill through her body.

Once again, floodwaters had come to the Skokomish Reservation and to the Gouley household.

Lila waded into the living room, knowing it was time for her family to leave this house along River Road.

That was more than 50 years ago, but Lila remembers it well. The waters came up suddenly through the floorboards of the Gouley home, probably the result of heavy rains, melting snow and a release of water through Tacoma's Cushman Dam.

"I was surprised, but not too surprised," recalled Lila, who now goes by her married name, Lila Vigil. "The river often came up rather suddenly."

Today, the Skokomish River is the most frequently-flooded river in the state. It is often mentioned during emergency flood warnings. And it's where news reporters go to see water flowing over highways with an occasional salmon flopping its way across the road.

Over the years, the floods have taken an extreme toll on the people of the Skokomish Valley, wrecking homes, damaging property, disrupting lives and ruining some of the most productive farmland in the Hood Canal region.

While multimillion-dollar studies attempt to explain the mysterious behavior of the Skokomish, experts seem to agree on the root cause of the flooding: a riverbed so clogged with gravel that water rushing out of the Olympic Mountains cannot be contained.

Troubles in Hood Canal, including low-oxygen conditions that have killed untold sea life, are well publicized. But according to many experts, Hood Canal cannot be nursed back to health without addressing the problems in the Skokomish  by far the largest river system in the canal.

The Skokomish Reservation lies near the mouth of the river and takes the brunt of the floodwaters. It has been tough for everyone living along the river  for tribal members like Lila's family as well as other residents.

"We usually waited until water got to the third step on our porch," Lila recalled. "Then Mom would say it was time to leave the house."

Her father would pull the rowboat up to the steps and move the children to dry land. Sometimes they stayed with friends, other times at the local parsonage. Even when water didn't get into the house, the building could be surrounded by water on a bright morning after a storm.

"Dad worked at the Simpson plywood mill," Lila said, "and one year he embarked on a big project to raise the house."

Her father, Alex Gouley Sr., installed a new foundation, which helped for a time. But, as the years went by, the floodwaters continued to rise.

"After our folks died, my bachelor brother lived there," she said.

Each year Alex Gouley Jr. would leave the house when the floodwaters arrived, until one year the rushing waters tilted the house off its foundation. Eventually, all the houses lining River Road were abandoned and later destroyed, as the area has become a permanent marsh.

TREATY SIGNED

Before the arrival of white settlers, Native Americans living around Hood Canal shared many customs and cultural values. Known as the Twana people, they organized in close-knit groups, staying in winter villages at the mouths of the major rivers. During warmer periods, the groups traveled about to hunt and fish, while socializing with other Twana clans.

Historian William Elmendorff, author of two books on the Twana people, was able to identify nine such groups, each associated with a single river, except for the people of the Skokomish River. As an indication of the river's bounty, the Skokomish lived in not one but six winter villages  not including a group near Vance Creek, one of the major tributaries.

The word Skokomish, in their native language, means "people of the river."

In January 1855, Isaac Stevens, governor of the Washington Territory, gathered together about 1,200 indigenous peoples from around Hood Canal as well as farther north. A piece of paper called for moving all the Twana to a 3,840-acre reservation (later increased to 5,213 acres) at the mouth of the Skokomish River.

Che-lan-the-tat, a Skokomish elder, was one of several natives whose words were recorded at the time.

"I wish to speak my mind as to selling the land," he said. "Great Chief! What shall we eat if we do so? Our only food is berries, deer and salmon. Where then shall we find these? I don't want to sign away all my land; take half of it, and let us keep the rest.

"I am afraid that I shall become destitute and perish for want of food," he continued. "I don't like the place you have chosen for us to live on. I am not ready to sign the paper."

Government agents kept up the pressure. If the Twana retained half their land, they would be required to stay there and could not move about to their traditional areas, they said.

"Have you not already been driven from your burial grounds," Stevens was quoted as saying. "The Great Father wants to put you where you cannot be driven away. The Great Father, besides giving you a home, will give you a school, protect you in taking fish, break up your land, give you clothes and seeds. Was this good or not? I want an answer."

In the end, the tribal leaders signed the treaty.

Some of the natives never moved to the Skokomish Reservation. As more settlers arrived, some did take up residence there, but others did their best to blend into the community. Over time, the traditional homesites, hunting and fishing grounds, and spiritual refuges became occupied by newcomers.

In 1874, the reservation was divided into allotments, providing tribal members their own property to do with as they wished. Many of the best lands along Hood Canal were sold to non-Indian individuals and corporations. Today, only about half the original reservation is owned by the tribe or its members.

DAMS' IMPACT FELT

In the 1920s, the city of Tacoma built a pair of dams  the Cushman Dam Project  on the North Fork of the Skokomish River. At the time, the project was acclaimed as an engineering marvel. The lower dam captured the entire flow from the North Fork and directed it through pipes straight down the mountainside and into a power plant at the bottom, maximizing electrical generation. Water going through the plant was dumped straight into Hood Canal.

Meanwhile, the meandering North Fork, with its rich runs of salmon and steelhead, was essentially "dewatered" and forgotten by Tacoma. Skokomish tribal members sued to block the project, but their legal claims were not recognized. In fact, the city successfully condemned lands owned by tribal members to erect high-voltage power lines across the reservation.

The project made no provisions for fish ladders or salmon enhancement until the George Adams fish hatchery was built 30 years later.

"Cushman had a severely detrimental impact on the salmon runs, not only on the quantity but also the quality of the fishery," Skokomish Tribal Chairman Joseph Pavel said.

The Skokomish River, once fished year round by tribal members, was suddenly diminished by the loss of the North Fork. Some salmon, including sockeye, could no longer survive without access to a mountain lake that existed before the dams were built.

"The natural Lake Cushman was a significant cultural site," Pavel said. "The dams inundated spiritual sites and had an immediate impact of the fish runs and the elk herds."

Cutting off flows coming into the main stem of the Skokomish from the North Fork led to a buildup of sediment where the river enters Hood Canal, experts say.

During the 1930s, Marcus Nalley, founder of Nalley Foods, purchased Indian allotments to acquire hundreds of acres  including what is now called Nalley Island. He built dikes at the mouth of the Skokomish River to turn the tidelands into farmland. Dikes, it was learned later, prevented the mixing of fresh and salt waters. Biologists have shown that Nalley Island once supported a rich network of plants and animals, including prime habitat for juvenile salmon.

AGREEMENT A STEP TOWARD RESTORATION

Within the last few years, the Skokomish Tribe has participated in restoration efforts, and it has made two decisions that could lead to profound changes for the Skokomish people. The first had to do with the Cushman Dam Project.

Since 1974, when the project came up for renewal of its federal license, the tribe has been battling to get Tacoma and natural resource agencies to recognize the damage caused by the dams and to begin an effort at restoration. In a separate, but related action, the tribe filed a lawsuit claiming $5.8 billion in damages.

For years, the tribe and the city battled before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and in the federal courts. Eventually, both sides came to realize that, despite millions or even billions on the line, the outcome was a crapshoot for both sides.

Nobody knew what the U.S. Supreme Court might decide. So they began in earnest to negotiate a settlement.

The agreement, signed Jan. 12 of this year, will provide the tribe $12.5 million plus an ongoing 7.25 percent of the value of electricity from the lower Cushman dam. The deal also will give the tribe ownership of 1,400 acres of land that were part of the original reservation  including the 500-acre Nalley Island and Saltwater Park on Hood Canal. Individual tribal owners with property under the power lines will share another $1.6 million.

The agreement also includes money for restoration including upstream and downstream fish passage, hatchery projects and wildlife enhancement, as well as studies to figure out how to put the pieces back together. The agreement also includes funding for recreation enhancement, road improvements and enforcement.

Tacoma is on the hook if the federal government does not support the effort financially. U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Belfair, says he will seek congressional appropriations to share in the cost of ecosystem restoration.

Tribal Chairman Pavel said persistence by the tribe finally paid off.

"Tacoma has finally recognized the impacts on our people ... and stepped forward to do something about it," he said during the signing ceremonies. "The impact to the tribe can never be undone, but this agreement represents an opportunity to begin the healing process to the environment that tribe depends upon for its survival."

SEEKING HIGHER GROUND

The other major decision made by the Skokomish Tribe is not to wait for the river to be restored to find housing for its people. Much of the original reservation floods frequently. Other lands along highways 101 and 106 are considered important for future commercial ventures.

"Historically, housing opportunities were limited," Pavel said. "Houses along the river have been abandoned. I would say the reservation is nearly developed to capacity."

Some buildings on the reservation are on higher ground and avoid floods.

The tribe last year acquired 30 acres of land on high ground above Potlatch State Park in a three-way trade involving the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission and the privately owned Minerva Beach Resort. In the deal, the tribe also acquired 34 acres of public tidelands about a mile southeast of Potlatch State Park.

In exchange, the tribe agreed to pay for the acquisition of 11-acre Minerva Beach RV Resort, adjacent to Potlatch State Park, and transfer ownership to the state parks commission.

The tribal property is expected to support some 140 homes, with about 30 to 40 built in each phase over 20 years.

If things go well, housing construction could be under way this spring, said Tom Strong, deputy tribal manager. Work originally was scheduled for last summer, but the development was reconfigured to allow low-income subsidized homes to be built alongside those for "moderate-income" as well as higher income tribal members.

The goal is not to create a low-income housing project, String said, but to offer housing for everyone who wants to live on the reservation. A "home-buyer-training program" will help tribal members learn to manage home mortgages in today's world of finance.

"We have anywhere from 50 to 100 people on a waiting list," Strong said. "If you want my perspective, I'd say the vast majority of tribal members would like to live on the reservation. If there were opportunities for them, I think they would come back."

The Skokomish Tribe employs about 125 people, not including those who work at the tribal casino. Some tribal members are self-employed as fishers, shellfish harvesters and craftsmen. A marina proposed by the tribe could bring additional jobs.

The river remains the focus of tribal life, as it has forever, Strong said. Restoring the river  if it can be done  is critically important even if it takes 25 years or more.

"If we restore capacity to the river, it will be years before the high groundwater starts to recede," Strong said. "We've just started to discuss where we go from here. But one thing is for sure: This is our home. We don't really have another place to go."

For a discussion about water-related issues, check out the blog Watching Our Water Ways at kitsapsun.com.
Volunteer radio operators participate in an earthquake and tsunami readiness drill Tuesday, at Camp Murray. Their role is to help bridge the gaps for emergency officials if internet and phone services are severed after a megaquake.

SHARE Representatives of various agencies and local governments work on the floor of the state Emergency Operations Center during a drill on a simulated earthquake and tsunami Tuesday at Camp Murray. State EOC supervisor Chris Utzinger reads messages about the latest details on a simulated tsunami during an earthquake and tsunami readiness drill Tuesday at Camp Murray. Members of the National Guard listen as state EOC supervisor Chris Utzinger reads messages about the latest details on a simulated tsunami during an earthquake and tsunami readiness drill Tuesday at Camp Murray.

CAMP MURRAY  A 9.0-magnitude earthquake has struck 95 miles off the coast of Oregon, triggering a tsunami and destroying buildings, roads and disrupting communications.

That's the scenario that Kitsap County agencies, Navy commands and others will be addressing in a multiday drill to rehearse how the region would deal with a dual natural disaster that could kill thousands, cut off coastal communities and collapse phone and internet service.

Maj. Gen. Bret Daugherty, commander of the Washington National Guard, said that when the Cascadia Subduction Zone  a 600-mile-long fault just off the coast that runs from Northern California to British Columbia  ruptures, "it will result in a catastrophe like nothing we have ever seen."

"It's expected to be the worst natural disaster ever in the United States," he said. "So we're taking this week very, very seriously, and we're pulling in every possible resource so that when the quake actually hits we're assured that we are all on the same page in our response efforts."

Federal officials say about 20,000 people will be involved in the four-day drill, called Cascadia Rising, representing various federal agencies, the military and state and local emergency response managers from Washington, Oregon and Idaho, Native American tribes and emergency management officials in British Columbia.

One main goal of the exercise is to test how well they will work together to minimize loss of life and damages when a mega-quake unleashes a tsunami.

More than 8 million people live in the zone, which contains the most heavily populated areas of the Pacific Northwest, including Seattle and Portland, Oregon. Things that officials will be testing include the ability to communicate without the internet or phone or cell service; practicing ways of delivering services in emergency conditions and National Guard search and rescue, decontamination and evacuation abilities.

At just past 8 a.m., employees of the state's Emergency Management System dropped under their desk for the estimated 5 minutes of shaking, said Lit Dudley, the exercise and training section manager for the division at the Washington Military Department.

More than 100 people from roughly a dozen agencies were stationed at computers throughout the emergency center Camp Murray, as state Emergency Operations Center (EOC) supervisor Chris Utzinger stood in the middle of the room to read off most recent messages related to the simulated tsunami that followed the earthquake.

Officials will be running off the assumption that there will be mass casualties, including 1,100 killed by the earthquake, 13,000 killed by the tsunami and 24,000 injured.

Kitsap County's EOC is staging a two-day drill Tuesday and Wednesday. Representatives from local governments, fire departments, local police, public utilities, the military and local businesses are taking part, according to a news release. Volunteers will represent families affected by the earthquake.

The exercise simulates the likely communication blackout that would occur as a result of the earthquake. Other issues could include infrastructure breakdowns, breakage of gas lines, fires and oil spills, Department of Emergency Management public information officer Dave Rasmussen said.

The EOC is in communication with other counties and will receive information that continually changes and updates the hypothetical situation. Rasmussen urged community members to have an emergency plan and supplies prepared in the case of a natural disaster.

Harrison Medical Center in Bremerton and Silverdale will be coordinating with Naval Hospital Bremerton to conduct earthquake drills Thursday. Harrison will be running its standard earthquake procedures, including mass casualty procedures, in which the least injured patients would be transferred to Naval Hospital. Also, hospital officials will be assessing their facilities.

The simulation also presumes structural damage, so Harrison will be working with Kitsap County Department of Health to examine how to fix the hospital in the event of damage.

Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility exercised disaster response plans Monday, testing its command-and-control functions, performing damage assessments and practicing internal communications with its workforce. It also reacted to simulated building damage and rendered aid to fellow workers with simulated injuries.

The exercise provided an opportunity for PSNS to improve its emergency planning and coordinate with regional neighbors.

"One thing we learned from the Nisqually earthquake is that people immediately want to call their loved ones to make sure they are OK," said Mary Anne Mascianica, PSNS spokeswoman. "Once Nisqually's shaking stopped, and people were evacuated from buildings and dry docks, workers whipped out their cellphones to call, along with the multitude of people in the county, which brought the cellphone service down very quickly.

"For this training exercise the shipyard simulated we'd lost both cell and landline phone service, testing how well we could communicate internally with the workforce and externally with our exercise partners. It was challenging, and we learned some good lessons on how to improve how we communicate. I consider that one of the excellent outcomes of the exercise."

At Naval Base Kitsap's EOC at Bangor, installation management team (IMT) members go through extensive training in a variety of scenarios. Cascadia Rising is a prime opportunity to hone their skills.

During the exercise, the EOC was provided with scenarios and updates of new information. Then IMT members and support staff in various base locations figured out how best to meet the ever-evolving challenges. In the scenario, not all IMT members could make it to the EOC. The commanding officer, for example, was stuck in Bremerton in a building that sustained damage and several roads had issues.

Other incidents included partial collapse of a barracks, third-floor collapse in the building of a major tenant, damaged roads and ruptured lines.

Over the next several days, IMT members will engage in "real-time" action. On Monday they will fast forward to seven days after the disaster. On Tuesday the scenario will be 14 days post-earthquake.

At Naval Magazine Indian Island, the exercise focuses on loading and off-loading of ships in unimproved areas where ports are unavailable or damaged, called JLOTS. The scenario is that the Port of Tacoma is severely damaged by an earthquake and tsunami, making normal port operations impossible for immediate relief operations.

The state requests assistance from FEMA with getting fuel, food, equipment and other critical supplies to Tacoma. When that occurs, FEMA relies on the Department of Defense to provide critical capabilities such as port management, fuel transportation, storage and delivery, and cargo transport and handling. The transportation command, Navy and other military services' key transportation capabilities provide the infrastructure, equipment and personnel to get fuel, food and equipment where it is needed quickly while recovery and reconstruction operations commence.

One of the primary goals of JLOTS in conjunction with the national level Cascadia Rising training exercise is to train and test a whole community approach to complex disaster-relief operations, while working as a joint team to provide humanitarian aid. During JLOTS, Naval Magazine Indian Island will have a tent community for approximately 600 military personnel, that will include a galley, a medical facility, showers and an tactical command center.

"No one can accurately predict when a disaster like a major earthquake will occur, but we can all be prepared for them. Partnering with federal agencies like FEMA, the Coast Guard and the Army, as well as with state and local emergency management offices during exercises like JLOTS and Cascadia Rising is the best way to be prepared and to protect our communities," said Rear Adm. Jeff Ruth, commander of Navy Region Northwest.
SHARE The intrepid traveler and would-be revolutionary leader takes stock of the situation outside of a cafe and bike rnetal shop. A band of pirates is spotted off the starboard bow, looking to cause a little anarchy of their own. As seen from above, Ambergris Caye. Belize  a seemingly perfect spot for a revolution. The revolutionarys better half, wife Susane, disapproving of the lack of coup.

Working hard in my law office in Gig Harbor, I let my mind wander about my next big career. After thorough review, I concluded that a job as a benign dictator of a small Central American country seemed like my best next opportunity!After all, I am completely fluent in English and Spanish, an experienced lawyer, my wifes family has key connections in Guatemala, and I am of an age at which I can command respect  either through age, my legal skills, my humor, or if all else fails, by hiring mercenary soldiers.I also know the United States keeps some jets in Tucson  to supply my new fledgling air force  that later I could return to the U.S. government after negotiating an aid package!I could tell by my thought pattern that I was onto something big. An additional thought is that my duties in a smaller country would not be many and I could write ads to promote tourism! With the possible career change in mind, my wife and I made plans to check out the possibilities.In my research I became fascinated by Belize. Good location, varied topography, English language (many people speak Spanish also), scuba diving and fishing! On the other hand, with my wifes connections in Guatemala (generations of lawyers  sorry), I thought maybe it would be easier to take over in that country.I did not make my plans generally known. I only let it be known that my wife and I would fly our bright red 1947 Bonanza from Tacoma to Central America  ostensibly to celebrate my birthday by snorkeling or scuba diving.Getting the plane to Central America from Tacoma took superior planning worthy of a dictator wannabe. First we had to fly to Arizona. The skill test included fog in Tacoma, bad coastal weather, a long flight over the Rockies to Arizona at high altitude with dangerous 1,000-foot downdrafts and a serious carbon monoxide leak through the heating system into the cabin. Our oxygen masks that we wore due to our high altitude might have saved our lives.With ATC (air traffic control) clearing our way into Scottsdale and the fire department waiting for us, our secret mission was not very secret from the start. Our aircraft, the only none turbine on the line, and the only one that was red  all the others were white, increased our notoriety. Landmark Aviation did a good job at fixing the problem at reasonable cost.My hope after our initial notoriety was to make a surreptitious flight to Central America. It was impossible. A USA airline passenger information manifest had to be filed, the Mexican APIS manifest had to be filed, an international flight plan was required along with a discrete transponder code, aircraft documents, insurance card, pilots license and medical, blah blah: we were identified.My cover was that I was a travel writer trying to promote Mexico and Central America. Using my cover I was not over scrutinized by south of the border officials as long as my briefcase I carried had all of the required documents including an infinite number of General Declarations. When all failed, I resorted to telling the officials I was an aging hippie on a quest to find nirvana  and everyone told me where to find it. They forgot about my threat as a possible revolutionary.Another threat to my plans was travel south of the border. Except for the coasts, Mexico is ALL mountains. Big mountains. At 18,000 feet over Chihuahua, skimming the top of a snow storm in our normally aspirated (carburetored) Bonanza, I considered giving up my political ambitions.Finally we returned to the coast and flew to Guaymas to meet my old friend Rev. Manuel Cruz of the Church of God. A direct flight from Tucson to Guaymas would have taken us 1.5 hours. It took us 4 hours to get there. We had a GREAT steak dinner at El Oeste Steak House restaurant with Manuel and his wife, Mary. We were garnering prayer support. I was beginning to feel I needed the help of the armies of heaven just to get to Central America.The international airport in Belize City closes completely at 6 p.m. We arrived at 5:30 p.m. a day later than our one day only landing permit allowed (it took a full extra day in Tucson to get everything ready for the flights  government stuff). We arrived JUST as every employee was walking toward the doors with their stuff. We were not welcomed. They were very angry and treated us horribly and took forever to clear us into the country.Our last hope of getting lost and off the grid failed and when we finally did get through the maze of irritated customs and immigration authorities the taxis had all left.Fortunately a security guard at the then deserted airport had a cell phone and finally a taxi came. My first job as revolutionary dictator of any country will be to fire and put into dungeons all the rude customs and immigration authorities.Belize City is OK. If you want to know more, Google it. Oh yeah, in the city stay at the Best Western. Its the best downtown place, but not on the water. The Black Orchid resort on the river outside of town was superb. Big river, crocks, good food, nice big room, nice people.It seemed scary but wasnt. It would make a great dictators retreat. I was beginning to think that I had found my future life. The pool was nice, few bugs. We found the resort on our cell phone Wi-Fi connection through Expedia.For our third night in Belize we returned to the airport and flew out to the Cayes  the off-shore islands. Our mistake was to return to the airport: we should have taken the boat.The Belize City airport was still impossible and difficult to get all the approvals, etc. etc. needed to go. It was so bad that later I called Jim Parker, owner of Caribbean Sky Adventures, who confirmed that Belize had an attitude issue.The 20-minute flight to Ambergris Caye was over the shallow Caribbean waters in our 95-degree cabin. My mind turned to air-conditioning. All the younger folk in Belize City told us to go to Caye Caulker, NOT San Pedro on Ambergris. Good advice.We inspected San Pedro from the air and went over to Caye Caulker (located next to Leonardo DiCapprios private island). There was a four passenger Tropic Air Cessna 172 airliner on the tarmac, we parked our Bonanza next to it. Two-plane airport. The young guy at Tropic said to leave the plane and no one would mess with it. We left it for a couple of nights and no one messed with it. I thought fear and respect for our mission was spreading.
Dori Leckner of the Kitsap County Parks and Recreation Department measures the circumference of a figured maple tree that was cut down early Monday on county property near the Fairgrounds. Thieves were trying to steal the valuable wood, which can be used to make musical instruments. (CAROLYN J. YASCHUR | KITSAP SUN)

SHARE Dori Leckner of the Kitsap County Parks and Recreation Department assesses the damage done to two figured maple trees that were cut down early Monday on park property near the Fairgrounds. Thieves were trying to steal the valuable wood, which can be used to make musical instruments. (CAROLYN J. YASCHUR | KITSAP SUN) The wood from figured maple trees is valuable for its distinct tiger-stripe pattern. (CAROLYN J. YASCHUR | KITSAP SUN) The magnificent pattern found in figured maple can be seen in this block milled at Whale Bay Wood Products near Quilcene. (Kitsap Sun file photo by James Branaman)

By Christopher Dunagan

Tree-cutting thieves laid waste to numerous large, aging maple trees on public property this week  presumably to cash in on valuable "figured" maple used to make musical instruments.

Law enforcement caught two men allegedly involved in separate incidents of theft at the Kitsap County Fairgrounds in Central Kitsap and within the Bremerton watershed near Gorst.

Because of the value of the rare maples, both men were charged with felonies.

They are Mark Douglas McCoy, 42, who was arrested during an incident early Monday morning at the fairgrounds, and Donny Raymond Seamans, 48, who was arrested in a separate incident Tuesday evening within the Bremerton watershed.

Two old maples, one nearly four feet across, were cut down at the fairgrounds. County parks officials have valued the figured maple wood at $25,000.

"I am sick over the loss of those trees," said Chip Faver, director of Kitsap County Parks and Recreation. "This is something stolen from our entire community, and it's something we can't replace in 100 years. This is not a petty crime like somebody stealing a TV set. The entire community should be genuinely angry about this."

Meanwhile, in recent days, between 20 and 30 old maple trees have been removed from the Bremerton watershed, according to Bremerton Public Works Director Phil Williams. The trees are valued at more than $10,000, according to preliminary estimates.

"These are beautiful mature maple trees that provide shade to Anderson Creek," Williams said. "They (the thieves) just whacked them down into the creek. As a manager of publicly owned assets, the thought that some idiot can walk in somehow think that this is OK makes me angry."

Whether this week's incidents mark the beginning of a new rash of maple thefts in Kitsap County is hard to say, because similar incidents have occurred over the past few years, according to Deputy Scott Wilson, spokesman for the Kitsap County Sheriff's Office.

Tom French, who buys figured maple for the export market, said he has observed what appears to be an increase in stolen maples.

"Since last winter, it has been terrible," said French, who refuses to buy suspect wood, including small blocks of maple. "I have stopped taking blocks. Usually, I make the land owner come in before I will buy the wood."

French said he is now basing his business on entire maple logs, often purchased from logging contractors.

"We don't think thieves are going to go to the trouble of bringing in whole logs," he said.

The value of the rare figured maple lies in an unusual growth pattern that creates the illusion of depth in a flat board. The effect is so powerful that musicians often pay high prices for guitars and fiddles made from the enchanting wood.

Big leaf maples in Western Washington may contain the rare pattern in only a couple of feet of the tree, if at all. The figure may be on only one side of the trunk or go deep inside the tree. Thieves frequently slice a maple into sections in search of the rare wood, leaving much of the tree in small pieces on the ground.

Law enforcement officials encourage anyone who lives in or near forested areas to watch out for unusual activity, especially at night. Reports from neighbors are often how thieves are caught.

It was the sound of a chain saw at 3 a.m. Monday near the Kitsap County Fairgrounds that prompted a call to 911. When a sheriff's deputy arrived, the chain saw was turned off and the deputy heard at least two people scrambling through the brush, according to reports filed with Kitsap County Superior Court. Two vehicles were parked nearby.

As the first deputy continued to search for the suspects, a second deputy spotted McCoy, covered in sawdust, as he tried to drive away in one of the vehicles.

Several deputies joined the search in the woods but were unable to find another suspect, though they did recover several tools used to cut up the maple trees.

McCoy was charged Tuesday with attempted first-degree theft. He remains in the Kitsap County jail on $5,000 bail.

Thefts in the Bremerton watershed were discovered when a Bremerton police officer went into the restricted forest to check on a pump at a city well, according to reports filed with the court. The officer noticed a wheelbarrow loaded with wood and a stack of freshly cut wood nearby. A little later, the officer stopped a truck moving through the area.

The driver, identified as Seamans, told the officer that he knew he was not supposed to be in the watershed, but he was just trying to make some money, according to reports. He also had three pieces of maple in the back of his truck.

Later at the jail, Seamans reportedly told the officer that he had cut down one tree on Tuesday and three others last month. He said he had nothing to do with numerous other maples recently cut down in that area.

Seamans was charged Wednesday with attempted first-degree theft. He remains in the Kitsap County jail on $9,000 bail.

In an effort to salvage something from the maples cut from the fairgrounds, Faver is exploring the idea of having local artisans and woodworkers create special items. Such items could be auctioned off to benefit Kitsap County parks. Anyone willing to participate or offer ideas is asked to call (360) 337-5365.
By Josh Farley of the Kitsap Sun

BREMERTON  Uber, the popular ride-sharing service found in more than 460 cities around the world, has cut off Bremerton.

Company officials blame the city's regulatory framework for ride-shares, including that drivers must obtain a $75 business license to operate in Bremerton.

"Regulations were passed a few months back that make it very difficult, if not impossible, for ride-share services to thrive there," said Michael Amodeo, an Uber spokesman.

City Attorney Roger Lubovich counters that the city does not include ride-share services like Uber, Lyft and others in its regulations for taxicabs. But like anyone else doing business in Bremerton, Uber's independent contractors are subject to a $75 business license.

"It meets the definition of a business," he said, noting that many other jurisdictions require business licenses as well.

In Tacoma, for example, Uber instructs drivers to obtain a city business license at $90 per year if the driver is making more than $12,000 a year.

The stance Uber is taking in Bremerton is not unheard of throughout its global coverage area. When the City Council of Austin, Texas, passed requirements to perform fingerprint background checks on Uber and Lyft drivers, the companies left the city, following an unsuccessful campaign to overturn the decision.

Uber's drivers, like other ride-share services, can be hailed through an app on a smartphone. Uber requires drivers to undergo a background check and pass a vehicle inspection, among other standards. Passengers also can rate drivers, and drivers can even rate passengers, as part of an overall starred-rating system.

Two years ago, Bremerton overhauled its regulatory code for local taxi drivers, following a spate of incidents in which some drivers were found to lack proper licensing and insurance. Some dangerous conditions were uncovered as well, including a 17-year-old driver who had packed a cab with eight intoxicated passengers, including two in the trunk.

Bremerton had initially included ride-sharing services in its new regulations, to include running background and vehicle checks and giving the police chief authority to ban taxi drivers. But Lubovich noted that in recent months, the city eliminated ride-sharing from those regulations altogether. He's perplexed by what Uber says are onerous regulations.

Uber spokesman Amodeo said that a number of cities around the country have passed "modern ride-sharing regulations," the heart of which he defined as the idea "one member of the community should be free to give another member of the community a ride across town," he said. Even a $75 yearly requirement, the company contends, could put a crimp in the flexibility that drivers  which includes those supplementing fixed incomes and stay-at-home moms  can operate.

Lyft, another ride-share service with drivers here, does not appear to have followed suit in blacking out Bremerton residents from pickups.

Some local drivers have noticed that Uber has blacked out Bremerton, leaving them frustrated they cannot get fares here. Because of the city's zigzagging borders, that means someone living in Rocky Point or Navy Yard City  both outside Bremerton's boundaries  can call for an Uber, while those inside cannot.

Amodeo said Uber is willing to discuss the matter with Bremerton officials.

"We would welcome a conversation with the city," he said.
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Kathleen Bailey

Kathleen Bailey

Poulsbo, WA

Aug. 22, 1948 to May 31, 2016

Kathleen Bailey (Johnson), our beloved wife, mother, daughter, sister and nana left us way too soon, surrounded by her family, after a very brief battle with pulmonary fibrosis. She is survived by her husband of 46 years, Walt Bailey; mother, Margaret Johnson; children, Bonnie Corbin (Christopher), Michelle Witkoski (Jerry), Kevin Bailey (Lindsay);and 8 grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her father, G. Roger Johnson.

Kathi was born in Canandaigua, NY, lived in many states before settling in Northern Virginia, where she graduated from Annandale High school in 1967, and attended business school. She married Walt Bailey on June 6, 1970. Kathi moved to Washington with her husband and children in 1987 and enjoyed living near her parents and sisters. She was employed by the Doctors Clinic as a medical transcriptionist in the 90s.

Kathi was a selfless person that was always thinking of others. She was a loving, supportive wife and mother and adored her grandchildren. She enjoyed family time, the Olympic Mountains, Northern Virginia, her pets, watching the Redskins, cooking, and was an avid reader. She will be dearly missed by all of us. A celebration of life will take place Wednesday, June 15 at 1:00 at Stone Chapel in Poulsbo. Please visit Kathis online memorial at Stone Chapel Poulsbo Mortuary. We would love to hear your memories.

Kathleen Bailey

Poulsbo, WA

Aug. 22, 1948

to May 31, 2016

Kathleen Bailey (Johnson), our beloved wife, mother, daughter, sister and nana left us way too soon, surrounded by her family, after a very brief battle with pulmonary fibrosis. She is survived by her husband of 46 years, Walt Bailey; mother, Margaret Johnson; her sisters, Diana Jackson (Steve), Dolores Rinner (Ed); children, Bonnie Corbin (Christopher), Michelle Witkoski (Jerry), Kevin Bailey (Lindsay); and 8 grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her father, G. Roger Johnson. Kathi was born in Canandaigua, NY, lived in many states before settling in Northern Virginia, where she graduated from Annandale High school in 1967, and attended business school. She married Walt Bailey on June 6, 1970. Kathi moved to Washington with her husband and children in 1987 and enjoyed living near her parents and sisters. She was employed by the Doctors Clinic as a medical transcriptionist in the 90s. Kathi was a selfless person that was always thinking of others. She was a loving, supportive wife and mother and adored her grandchildren. She enjoyed family time, the Olympic Mountains, Northern Virginia, her pets, watching the Redskins, cooking, and was an avid reader. She will be dearly missed by all of us. A celebration of life will take place Wednesday, June 15 at 1:00 at Stone Chapel in Poulsbo. Please visit Kathis online memorial at Stone Chapel Poulsbo Mortuary. We would love to hear your memories.
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Dave Dahlke, Port Orchard

Skepticism shouldn't be silenced

In a Discover magazine article in 2011 retired volcanologist Terrence Gerlach stated, "A lot of climate skeptics claim that volcanoes emit more CO2 than humans do. They never give any numbers, but the fact is you will never be able to find the volcanic gas scientist that will agree to that".

But in a 2013 article in "Live Science" Robin Wylie, who is a doctoral candidate in volcanology, stated that in 1992 it was thought CO2 emitted by volcanoes was something like 100 million tons a year. Around the year 2000 this figure was close to 200 million tons a year and in 2013 a team from the Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology led by Mike Burton, put the estimate at 600 million tons a year. I can only imagine that with the amount of recent volcanic eruptions this latest estimate has been considerably eclipsed.

Of course, any factual information provided by a skeptic of human-caused global warming will be met with derision and name calling. Why else have 16 state Attorney Generals banded together to bring fraud charges again fossil fuel companies for downplaying what are considered dangers of global warming?

The danger here is not what fossil fuel companies thought about the source of so-called human caused global warming, but the slippery slope of criminalizing the thought process. Who will be the next victim of charges for holding adverse opinions? No doubt, sooner or later it could affect each of us in some way.
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Michael Nicosia, Port Orchard

Sowell's just uninformed about socialism

Once again we read rhetoric that has been around for over a hundred years from a right-wing conservative. (Thomas Sowell, "Socialism for the uninformed" by Thomas Sowell, June 4)

Sowell argues that "facts are seldom allowed to contaminate the vision of the left." Yet he omits a whole range of facts that might jeopardize his argument.

He does not mention that here in America we have the evidence of "socialism" in Medicare, Social Security, unemployment insurance, workers compensation, public education, libraries, police and fire. All are a successful part of our economy.

He does not mention Germany, which is among the most successful economy in the world. Workers rights are supported and encouraged. Unions are represented on boards of directors in many companies. People are paid high wages and have access to affordable and decent housing. Health care and an education are readily available without bankrupting citizens. Germans share in the nation's prosperity in a very robust hybrid of capitalism and socialism.

Sowell is an apologist for America's brand of capitalism, which is not working for a large number of ordinary Americans. The middle class is disappearing. Wages keep going down. Workers have few rights. Unions are being eliminated. Benefits, profit sharing, pension plans only go to the top execs, along with obscene compensation packages. The tax code is written by wealthy interests and riddled with loopholes.

There are many more "facts" like this that Mr. Sowell certainly knows but refuses to acknowledge.
The Washington Post reports:

Bangladesh has been in the grips of a hideous spate of assassinations and attacks on secularist intellectuals, academics and non-Muslims and others in the crosshairs of Islamist militants. The latest killing took place on Sunday, when the wife of an anti-terrorism police officer was brutally stabbed to death and shot by unidentified assailants in the port city of Chittagong. On the same day, a Christian grocer was butchered in a village in the north of the countrya media wing linked to the Islamic State took credit, though its still unclear what actual tactical abilities the extremist organization based in Syria and Iraq has in South Asia.

Yes Islamic militants are killing people just because they dont believe in Islam and write of the values of secularism.

But they are of course not to blame. Who is?

One senior official, though, suggested the root of the problem lay far away. Bangladesh has become the target of an international conspiracy. And a foreign intelligence agency has joined the conspiracy, Asaduzzaman Khan, the countrys home minister, said on Monday. He went on and referenced an earlier meeting between an opposition parliamentarian and an Israeli government adviser in neighboring India. The gesture to link any domestic woe to a foreign plot, especially one with the imprint of American or Israeli meddling, is a common trope in South Asian politics. An Israeli government spokesman deemed Khans remarks utter drivel when they were put to him by the BBC.

Blame Israel!

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Politico reports:

BuzzFeed has pulled out of an advertising agreement with the Republican National Committee over objections to Donald Trumps rhetoric. The buy was for $1.3 million, a source close to BuzzFeed told POLITICO. The source said that the main consideration was the sites employees  that BuzzFeed could not countenance having employees make ads, or working at the company and having our site promoting things, that limit our freedom and make it harder for them to live their lives.

Their specific objections:

The tone and substance of his campaign are unique in the history of modern US politics. Trump advocates banning Muslims from traveling to the United States, hes threatened to limit the free press, and made offensive statements toward women, immigrants, descendants of immigrants, and foreign nationals. Earlier today Buzzfeed informed the RNC that we would not accept Trump for President ads and that we would be terminating our agreement with them. The Trump campaign is directly opposed to the freedoms of our employees in the United States and around the world and in some cases, such as his proposed ban on international travel for Muslims, would make it impossible for our employees to do their jobs.

And now he claims an American born Judge cant be trusted to do their job fairly because their parents were born in Mexico.

We certainly dont like to turn away revenue that funds all the important work we do across the company. However, in some cases we must make business exceptions: we dont run cigarette ads because they are hazardous to our health, and we wont accept Trump ads for the exact same reason.

Ouch.

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News / National

by Felex Share

Permanent secretaries yesterday expressed outrage over the behaviour of the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) to ambush them and accuse them of alleged crimes committed by officials in parastatals and state-owned enterprises under their purview.Some of the affidavits, signed by chief investigations officer Servious Kufandada, cited the permanent secretaries as accused persons even when most of the cases said to be under investigation belong to their respective parastatals.It also emerged yesterday that while the ZACC officials had rushed to the media to inform them of all the "investigations" they were carrying out, the investigators were yet to visit some of those entities.Permanent secretaries said to have been issued with search and seizure warrants include Ambassador Grace Mutandiro (Lands and Resettlement), Munesu Munodawafa (Transport and Infrastructure Development), George Mlilo (Local Government, Public Works and National Housing), Willard Manungo (Finance and Economic Development), Evelyn Ndlovu (Small and Medium Enterprises and Co-operative Development) and Sam Kundishora (Information, Communication Technology and Courier Services).The government, through the Information, Media and Broadcasting Services secretary George Charamba, has rapped the ZACC officials for impugning government systems in their efforts to probe the alleged crimes.The alleged crimes range from fraud to disregard of tender procedures.Charamba said the government did not condone corruption, and added that ZACC, as a constitutional body should not behave like a 'rattlesnake' and investigate cases first before making noise in the media.Munodawafa yesterday said while they had co-operated with ZACC officials who visited the ministry offices, their approach was "antagonising".ZACC is seeking evidence with regards to payments done from the Number Plate Fund since 2009.Said Munodawafa: "They're looking for information starting from 2009, but the impression created is that I'm the person involved. What's worrisome is that while to them I appear as an accused person, I joined this ministry in July 2012. They came yesterday (Monday) but I'm told they came on Friday and there was nobody senior in the ministry."They refused to talk to the acting secretary, which leaves a lot of questions. We gave them access to the fund which they're looking for."The anti-corruption commission, from what has been gathered to date, seems to be working on weak evidence.Ambassador Mutandiro said she joined the Lands and Rural Resettlement Ministry last year and was disturbed to read in the papers that she was under probe in a matter that began more than two decades ago."Nobody has come here or asked for any information from me, and I'm surprised at what this is all about," she said."I was not in the ministry and only became permanent secretary last year. When all this happened, I was ambassador in Vienna and I don't know anything. If they had said they want to come and investigate the issue of these farms (Caledonia and Odar), it would have been in order but then to mention my name as if I'm a criminal is wrong. Nobody has served me with any paper up to now. This is why I'm so upset."Kundishora said five ZACC officials had ambushed him yet the matter they intended to investigate had nothing to do with him."They came, but their approach isn't good at all," he said."You'll only comply because you're a senior civil servant, but they came unannounced as if I'm hiding or refusing with something. It's not bad to carry out an assignment as assigned from a higher office, but I think it's always better to at least alert people through the normal systems."Their approach gave us an impression that they knew something already and wanted to ambush us. The way it's being done isn't good, and after all, on the issues they wanted to ask me, I'm not the central point on them. They should have approached those parastatals before coming here to seek my opinion. It's good to investigate corruption but the approach has to be civil."Said Mlilo: "I don't know what they're talking about. No one came to my ministry and I actually want to sue them because I'm disturbed by this. These are accusations, which don't say where we went wrong. You can't just soil my name like that."The timing of the probe has also been questioned as the leading ZACC investigating officer Kufandada has a tainted past as he stands accused of working with opposition political parties during the run up to the 2013 elections.It is also believed that the anti-corruption officials are being pushed by some politicians to cause chaos in government.
News / National

by Staff reporter

BANKERS and industry have recommended the adoption of the South African rand as the major transacting currency to reduce concentration of risk associated with heavy reliance on the United States dollar currently accounting for 95 percent of all transactions.This comes as the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has moved in to expedite cash importation by banks after including cash imports under the priority one (High) category of foreign exchange payments.In separate presentations before the portfolio committee on Finance and Economic Development on Monday, representatives from the Bankers Association of Zimbabwe and the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries, said the adoption of the rand would be one of the measures needed to address the cash challenges the country is facing."It's recommended that the South African rand be used as the major transacting currency.This reduces concentration of risk associated with heavy reliance on USD transactions (that account for 95 percent of all transactions up from 60 percent in 2010)," BAZ president Charity Jinya said."In 2015, Zimbabwe lost $1,8 billion to externalisation. It is further recommended the US dollar be reserved to make offshore payments and local electronic payments only," she said.South Africa is Zimbabwe's largest trading partner with export to that country representing 78 percent of total exports.Imports from SA represent 22 percent of total imports in March 2016, according to statistics from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe."We have recommended that let us use the rand as the transacting currency. It does not have the same attractiveness as the US dollar," said Jinya.Zimbabwe lost $1,8 billion to externalisation in 2015 while the informal sector employs roughly 80 percent of labour and is worth over $7 billion, predominantly consisting of vendors, farmers and small scale traders who are reliant on cheap imports.This has the effect of undermining local production resulting in Zimbabwean products failing to compete in the region. But adoption of the rand could mean that the cheap imports become irrelevant as local producers would also adjust cost structures to regional levels.Also, cheap imports will not find market as prices will be at par with local goods."It will take away the incentive where we are having some of these products particularly some of the fast moving consumer goods which are landing at ridiculous prices are doing so for the purposes of securing the US dollar," CZI vice president Sifelani Jabangwe said.To promote efficient utilisation of foreign exchange and to re-orient import demand towards productive uses, the Reserve Bank and the Business Council, represented by the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries, the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce and the Bankers Association of Zimbabwe came up with foreign exchange priority list to guide banks in the distribution of foreign currency."In order to expedite importation of cash by the banks to liquefy the economy, such importations shall be considered under priority one (High) of the priority list for foreign payments guidelines," RBZ director (foreign exchange) Moris Mpofu said in a circular to banks.Given the size of the informal sector, the bankers association is of the view that measures need to be put in place to formalise this sector.According to the World Bank statistics, current banking penetration in Zimbabwe is 17,3 percent of adult population banking and only seven percent of the bottom 40 percent of adults in relation to income earned possesses a bank account. The bottom 40 in terms of income generating capacity is predominantly the informal sector."The circulation of bond notes alongside the South African rand will force informal sector participants to open bank accounts.This will result in an increase in deposits in the formal banking sector," said Jinya.Other recommendations moved by bankers include putting stringent measures in place to deal with smuggling of cash over the borders so as to limit leakages.The swift and fast transaction to a cashless society is recommended by encouraging the use of plastic money.This can be achieved by creating an enabling environment which will culminate in reducing the cost of transacting in plastic money.
News / National

by Staff reporter

THREE tsikamutandas were arrested in Gweru's Central Business District (CBD) yesterday after they were found with a puff adder while on their way to a "cleansing ceremony" in Shurugwi.Travellers, traders and touts first ran for dear life when the snake was discovered by police in a bag at around 9.30AM.They later trickled back to get a glimpse of the venomous snake.Midlands police spokesperson Inspector Joel Goko said police asked to search bags that were in possession of the men from Sanyati in Gokwe North.The snake was found in one of the bags.The police spokesperson said a fourth suspect, who is the suspected ring leader of the tsikamutandas and identified only as Sekuru Munyaradzi, managed to escape from the scene.The snake was taken away by Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Management rangers.Insp Goko said the four were on their way to Shurugwi for witch-hunting exercises in unnamed villages."We arrested Tinei Ndanga, 25, Tapiwa Pfunye, 32, and Vengesai Gomera who were found in possession of a live snake in one of their bags. The trio was at Shurugwi turn off opposite Cathedral Hall when police on patrol approached them and asked to search their bags," he said."Two suspects bolted away from the scene and were arrested after they were chased by the police. On opening their bags, the police discovered the live snake  a puff adder and immediately arrested them."When The Chronicle visited the scene at around 10AM, police officers were having trouble controlling the crowd that had gathered to catch a glimpse of the snake.The three suspects said the snake belonged to Sekuru Munyaradzi, their leader who fled when police started searching the bags."The snake belongs to our group leader Sekuru Munyaradzi who is a traditional healer. He ran away when he saw the police searching our bags. He just asked me to carry the bag and he never told me that there was a snake inside," said Gomera."We were on our way from Gokwe to Shurugwi to perform witch hunting exercises where Sekuru had been invited."The discovery of the snake raised suspicions that it was going to be planted at targeted homesteads to accuse villagers of being "witches".The tsikamundas demand payment for their cleansing ceremonies.
Natalie Labriola interviews Laddie Neil, left, Alice Ann Barge, Nancy Lee Pitts and Mary Neiderhauser about the group getting free VIP tickets into Bonnaroo Music and Art Festival on Saturday June 13, 2015.

(Photo: Shelley Mays/The Tennessean)

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By Jessica Bliss, USA TODAY NETWORK, The Tennessean

Prepare to sprout wings, Bonnagrannies!

Yes, it's true, Middle Tennessee's hippest grandmas will return to Bonnaroo this year.

And this time, their trip will be sponsored by an energy drink they had never heard of.

"We didnt even know what Red Bull was," says 91-year-old Nancy Lee Pitts, one of the four Middle Tennessee women  all over the age of 86  who are known as the Bonnagrannies.

But be assured, they know the energy drink well now.

This past weekend, just days before the annual four-day music festival, the ladies met with Red Bull representatives to talk about their trip to Manchester, shoot some video and experience the energy drink together.

Continue reading at The Tennessean, a News Sentinel partner.
Greg Johnson, News Sentinel columnist.

As Sevier County schoolkids celebrate summer, administrators and elected officials rejoice over news from Nashville.

Shortchanged by a change in a 2007 revamp of the Basic Education Program funding formula in 2007, Sevier County Schools got a bit of a budget bump for the next fiscal year.

"All of us, Reps. (Dale) Carr and (Andrew) Farmer, Sen. (Steve) Southerland, (Sevier County) Mayor Larry Waters and Director (of Sevier County Schools Jack) Parton, have worked together for a good number of years to explain how the (BEP) change in 2007 adversely affected Sevier County," state Sen. Doug Overbey, R-Maryville, said in a phone interview

Sevier County received a $1.3 million increase in state funding due to an expanded overall budget. Another $1.8 million was allocated from another portion of the state budget.

The BEP formula was not altered, which could lead to more shortchanging down the road.

"When the state (in 2007) saw how much (state) income came from Sevier County tax revenue, Sevier County was put in its own sort of category," Carr said. "But the amount of money we send in comes from outside sources. Unlike other counties, we do not have a rich per capita income."

The BEP formula is based on sales tax receipts and property tax assessment. With its tourism economy, Sevier County remits huge amounts of sales tax revenue per resident to the state.

Property tax income, likewise, is higher than might be expected in a mostly rural county.

"There's something unique about every county," Overbey said. "Sevier County is about 95,000 in population but on some nights there can be 200,000 (including tourists) in the county."

Tax collections belie the county's actual ability to pay for schools.

"Many Sevier folks work in the service industry," Overbey said. "The (2007) change to only look at sales tax and property tax without looking at per capita income didn't take into account the true circumstances in Sevier County."

The 2007 change to BEP increased funding for Tennessee's four major metro counties, all of which collect major amounts of sales tax.

Carr is working to put Sevier County in a "category similar to the four big metro counties" that would ensure more equitable funding for Sevier.

"We continued to knock on the door and press the case," Overbey said. "We were heard, but this year we were able to get it done. We're just happy for Sevier County."
The VA's William C. Tallent Outpatient Clinic is seen in an undated photo. An inspector general's report concludes the Knoxville VA Outpatient Clinic failed to provide veterans with access to some mental health specialists and services that are required under federal law. (NEWS SENTINEL ARCHIVE)

SHARE U.S. Rep. John J. Duncan Jr.

By Michael Collins of the Knoxville News Sentinel

WASHINGTON  The veterans' outpatient clinic in Knoxville failed for years to provide patients with access to some mental health specialists and services mandated by the federal government, a new government report concludes.

The William C. Tallent Outpatient Clinic delayed providing specialized "peer" support services for mentally ill veterans, failed to immediately follow up on patients discharged from a post-traumatic stress disorder group, and postponed offering required outreach services to incarcerated veterans, according to the inspector general's office of the U.S. Veterans Affairs Department.

The clinic didn't begin offering the peer support services until June 2013, the report said, even though the VA has required that such individual or group counseling be available at all of its medical centers and large outpatient clinics since 2008.

The clinic didn't make outreach services available to incarcerated veterans until August 2014, even though the VA has mandated them since 2009.

The report, released Tuesday, concludes an investigation of the facility that began nearly two years ago. Government inspectors reviewed the clinic's records and interviewed its managers and administrative staff during a two-day visit to the facility in March 2015.

All concerns cited in the report have been addressed, said Dan Snyder, acting director of the Mountain Home VA Healthcare System. The Knoxville clinic is one of nine operated by the system.

"I don't think the report is real timely," Snyder said. "The things in that (report) that were true are not true today."

The Knoxville clinic now has two specialists providing peer support services, which are designed to help veterans develop skills to manage their recovery, improve their quality of life, support their personal goals and achieve independence, Snyder said.

Another specialist at the clinic is responsible for offering direct outreach, assessment and case management for incarcerated veterans in Knox County and surrounding counties, he said.

The report noted various reasons for the delays in hiring the specialists. Snyder said providing services has remained a challenge for the Knoxville clinic, which has an enrollment of 18,000 patients and is the largest and fastest-growing of the system's nine clinics.

"This is a larger situation that we consistently try to address with Knoxville," he said. "We have a very large veteran population in Knoxville, with a large percentage of them using the clinic in Knoxville."

Knoxville patients often have to travel to the Mountain Home VA Medical Center near Johnson City for care, Snyder said, but some limited specialty services are available in Knoxville. Yet, "it has been a struggle to find space for people to work out of in Knoxville," Snyder said.

The investigation into the Knoxville clinic began in August 2014 at the request of Tennessee's two U.S. senators, Republicans Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker, and U.S. Rep. John J. Duncan Jr., a Knoxville Republican.

Duncan said he wrote to the inspector general at the request of the Knoxville Regional Veterans' Mental Health Council, which had raised concerns about the lack of services at the clinic.

Because of VA patient care scandals and treatment delays in other parts of the country, and some delays locally, Duncan said he also convened a meeting with about 30 leaders of veterans groups from East Tennessee and forwarded their concerns, ideas and suggestions.

"I hear mostly good things about the VA (clinic) in Knoxville, and if there is an individual problem, we quickly try to work it out as soon as possible," Duncan said.

Alexander said he expects the VA to take seriously the recommendations to improve mental health services and outreach to veterans at the Knoxville clinic.

"But I am disappointed it took two years to release the report," he said.

Corker's office said it intends to carefully review the report and remains actively involved in congressional oversight of the VA "to ensure our veterans receive the care they deserve."

The report said inspectors were unable to substantiate some allegations against the Knoxville clinic, including one that the clinic often took three to five days to release to detention facility staff the list of medications for incarcerated veterans.
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The Obed Wild and Scenic River park is giving preschool children a chance to do something they might not typically get to do  go fishing.

The Obed River, which stretches along the Cumberland Plateau, is maintained by the National Park Service. On Friday, preschoolers are invited to the park's visitor center at 208 N. Maiden St. in Wartburg, Tenn., to learn about the various types of fish that call the Obed home.

The children in attendance will spin a color-coded wheel, with each color representing a separate fish. When the wheel lands on a fish, park rangers will teach the children about it. Then, the children can take makeshift bamboo fishing poles and fish for plastic versions of the fish in the visitor center's fountain.

"Prior to the fish program, we had a preschool reading program," said Joe Zagorsky, an Obed Wild and Scenic River park ranger. "We wanted to do something different other than just read kids' books to kids. We wanted to get them a little bit more active.

"A lot of little kids don't really get a chance to fish, so this is kind of like a little indoor opportunity to get a taste of what fishing is like."

The event is scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. The event is free and wheelchair-accessible.

No reservations are required.

The Saturday after the event is Free Fishing Day in Tennessee. Anyone of any age is permitted to fish without a license in the state's public waters, agency-owned and operated lakes, and state parks.

Children ages 15 and younger can continue to fish for free for one week following Free Fishing Day.

For more information on the Obed's preschool kids program, call the park at 423-346-6294.
Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn. (AP Photo/Erik Schelzig, File)

The speculation that Tennessee's Republican Sen. Bob Corker is on the short list for vice president on the Republican ticket with Donald Trump makes me wonder about something that has intrigued me for years. What is it about our state that produces people who jump to the national stage?

There are a lot of states in our Union that have never produced a president. But we've had three. There are 16 states that are more populous than Tennessee. But look at modern times. Tennessee's Sen. Estes Kefauver was on the Democratic ticket with Adlai Stevenson in 1956. Sen. Albert Gore Sr. was said to be on the short list for vice president in 1960. His son, Al Gore Jr., was vice president and came within a hairsbreadth of being president. Sen. Howard Baker and Sen. Lamar Alexander were both serious and credible candidates for president. Sen. Fred Thompson also ran, sorta.

They even tried to draft Middle Tennessee lawyer and National Review writer David French as an independent candidate to thwart Trump. Really? He finally said no.

Is there something in the water?

For Corker to leave his Senate seat there are some huge assumptions that have to be made. Trump picks him. Trump wins. If Trump doesn't pick him, but wins, will Corker be secretary of state? A lot of dominoes have to fall, but Corker is certainly in the national conversation.

Corker's term isn't up until 2018. If he joins the Trump administration in January of 2017 it will be up to Gov. Bill Haslam to appoint an interim senator until the November 2018 election.. Remember that when Al Gore Jr. became VP, Gov. Ned McWherter appointed his deputy, Harlan Mathews, as a caretaker, taking McWherter out of showing favoritism toward Gore's eventual successor in 1994. It may have been a mistake because Republican Thompson came along to capture the open seat. What if Democratic Rep. Jim Cooper, his opponent, had been an incumbent senator?

So would Haslam name a caretaker? Maybe, if he plans to run for the seat himself when he leaves the governor's office. Maybe he appoints his friend and Economic and Community Development Commissioner Randy Boyd. Perhaps he would appoint Rep. Diane Black, which would take her out of the next gubernatorial race, helping clear the field for Boyd, Or, same scenario, appoint House Speaker Beth Harwell, who is believed to be gearing up for the governor's race. Harwell would thus be the first female Speaker of the House and the first female U.S. senator from Tennessee. What if Haslam appoints Boyd, who runs for governor as a Senate incumbent, while Haslam runs for the Senate seat in 2018?

All of this is just fodder for political junkies, in case you were wondering what we are talking about these days. Does Corker have a serious shot in the next administration? The investigation into the Chattanooga shopping center company in which Corker is an investor is not good, though Corker says that will serve to vet him. On the other hand, Trump's VP screener is A.B. Culvahouse, an East Tennessee lawyer and Baker protege, who should know Corker very well.

So maybe we will have a real estate developer ticket for the Republicans.
News / National

by Staff reporter

The main opposition MDC-T says the circus happening at Harare's Town House - which saw mayor Bernard Manyenyeni suspended by government hardly 24 hours after lifting an earlier debarment over reportedly frivolous accusations - was part of a wider Zanu-PF plot to take over control of the capital city and parcel out land to ruling party members ahead of the 2018 elections.The MDC-T warned that, if unstopped, Zanu-PF commissar Saviour Kasukuwere, who is also Local Government minister, would roll out similar smash-and-grab programmes in all councils under MDC-T control to destabilize the opposition party and enable Zanu-PF to win back all urban seats.Manyenyeni was yesterday sent packing again; hardly a day after Moyo lifted an earlier suspension imposed by Kasukuwere.This time, the government accused Manyenyeni of failing to cause an audit of council's business units.
By Lee Hyo-sik

Cheil Worldwide, Samsung Group's in-house advertising agency has opened its 52nd overseas office in Jedda, Saudi Arabia, as part of efforts to bolster its presence in the rapidly-growing Middle Eastern market.

It already set up a presence in the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Turkey to serve the growing number of Korean and non-Korean companies doing business in the region.

According to the company, the advertising market in the Middle East reached $4.6 billion in 2015 and is projected to expand at a double-digit rate this year. The market outlook is bright, given the region's relatively young population and the rapid spread of Internet connections and smartphones, it said.

"We decided to set up an office in Saudi Arabia to strengthen our business capabilities in the Middle East. The region has huge growth potential for advertising agencies," a company official said. "Besides builders, cosmetics, electronics and other consumer goods manufacturers here are eager to make inroads into the Middle East, which will increase corporate advertising demand."

Cheil Worldwide also plans to open an office in Iran as a large number of Korean companies look to enter the resource-rich nation.

"After the United States and other Western economies lifted sanctions on the Middle Eastern nation in January, domestic businesses have rushed to capitalize on lucrative opportunities," the official said. "This Iran boom will in turn provide huge business opportunities for advertising agencies like us."
News / National

by Staff reporter

Heartfelt International Ministries founder Tavonga Vutabwashe has come out guns blazing accusing government officials of oppressing Zimbabweans but handling foreigners with velvet gloves.During one his sermons at the weekend that has gone viral because of its boldness and rare combative mood from a man of the cloth Vutabwashe argued that government ministers are behind the untold suffering of locals.In his scathing sermon, Vutabwashe reaches that president Robert Mugabe is surrounded by ungodly people who are unfit to lead the country.
Korea is ramping up efforts to help local construction companies tap deeper into the Central and South American market as they suffer from sinking orders from the Middle East thanks to low oil prices, officials said Wednesday.



To that end, Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Kang Ho-in plans to attend the inauguration of the Panama Canal's $5.25 billion expansion slated for June 26 as a special envoy of President Park Geun-hye, a ministry official said.



"Minister Kang will play his role as the special envoy and meet with senior officials from Central and South American countries in a bid to help South Korean builders clinch orders from them," he said.



In Panama, Kang will hold talks with the minister of the Panama Public Works Authority, the president of Panama's state transmission company ETESA and the head of the Panama Canal Authority to discuss ways to boost bilateral cooperation.



The minister is also considering visits to two additional countries in the region, the official said, without naming them.



The efforts are in line with the ministry's recent move to set up a task force on new construction markets such as Central and South America, North America, Africa and Europe.



The establishment of the ministry task force came amid slumping construction orders from the Middle East in the wake of sliding crude prices.



South Korean builders won $11.3 billion worth of overseas orders in the first quarter of 2016, down 15 percent from a year earlier, according to the International Contractors Association of Korea (ICAK).



Kuwait was the sole Middle Eastern country that ranked among the top 10 nations in terms of orders granted to South Korean builders, with Asian, Latin American and North American countries rounding out the list.



The tally shows that South Korea's efforts to diversify its overseas construction market have borne fruit, according to some industry watchers.



In February, POSCO Engineering & Construction, the building arm of South Korea's top steelmaker POSCO, bagged a $650-million contract to build a combined cycle power plant and a gas terminal in Panama.



Others struck a cautious note, saying the outlook for the Latin American construction market is not so bright, as most countries in the region are faced with unstable political and economic situations, including a motion to impeach the president of Brazil and Venezuela's worst economic crisis in history. (Yonhap)




An Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines container ship arrives at the Busan Port with 4,550 containers on Feb. 22. /Yonhap



By Lee Jin-a

Korean shipyards have reached preliminary deals with Iranian shipping and oil companies for orders estimated at $2.4 billion, the Wall Street Journal said Tuesday.

Hyundai Mipo Dockyard, a subsidiary of Hyundai Heavy Industries, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) for up to 10 petroleum-product tankers and six bulk carriers, sources said.

The tankers cost about $30 million each, while the bulk carriers are about $20 million apiece, a source said.

Hyundai Heavy is competing with China's Dalian Shipbuilding Industry to sign a deal for six 14,500-container ships with IRISL.

Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME), another major Korean shipbuilder, is negotiating with Iranian Offshore Oil Company (IOOC) for orders for at least five jack-up rigs worth about $205 million each.

"The yards are making slots available to the Iranians starting in 2018 and 2019," a source said. "The Iranians are trying to make the 20 percent down payments through oil state-to-state deals to finalize the orders."

IRISL is a major Iranian shipping company that operates about 115 oceangoing vessels, with a total capacity of 3.3 million deadweight tons. IOOC is a subsidiary of state oil giant National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), which has a third share of Iranian oil exports.
Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance risk adviser Cho Don-myeong, left, poses with his mother Lee Jeom-nam, a risk consultant, in this file photo. / Courtesy of Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance



By Yoon Ja-young

How many Koreans would be glad if their son or daughter followed in their footsteps? Only those who take pride in what they do would advise their children to choose the same career path. There are several such cases at Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance, the country's biggest non-life insurance company.

Lee Jeom-nam, a risk consultant at Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance (Samsung Fire), is one of them.

She admits she didn't expect her second son, Cho Don-myeong, to join Samsung Fire as a risk adviser. "I could see that my son had made a firm resolution to himself. I decided to trust him," she said, adding that it made her take more pride in herself.

"I have been doing this job for the past 20 years," she said. "I was proud to see that I was a positive role model for my son."

Lee has been building up a successful career in insurance sales, winning numerous awards for customer satisfaction over her two decades there.

Since she has already built a huge pool of clients, some might think she would hand over some of her customers to her son. But she has never done that. Instead, she gives her son thorough advice about insurance sales, from A to Z. "I hope he can build up his own expertise piece by piece," she said.

The insurer has a job inheritance system, where the customers and insurance policies of excellent consultants are taken over by their children when they retire.

"I want to see my name included in the list of customer satisfaction awardees next year, together with my mother," Cho said. "Just like my mom who has always been trusted by customers, I will continue doing the best for the financial planning of my customers."
Strategy and Finance Minister Yoo Il-ho, secon from left, announces plans for corporate restructuring and a recapitalization fund for state-run banks after a meeting held at the Government Complex in Seoul, Wednesday. Also seen are Financial Services Commission Chairman Yim Jong-yong, left, and Trade, Industry and Energy Minister Joo Hyung-hwan, third from left. / Korea Times photo by Hong In-kee



Central bank's W10 trillion loans will be guaranteed by KCGF

By Yoon Ja-young

The government and the central bank will jointly create an 11 trillion won recapitalization fund to support state-run banks that will lead the restructuring of ailing shippers and shipbuilders. The troubled companies will go through rigorous self-rescue programs while the state-run banks  their main creditors  will also share the burden by cutting wages and slashing their workforce.

The government announced the plans for corporate restructuring and recapitalization of state-run banks, Wednesday, after weeks of discussion.

The announcement comes as the country's leading shipbuilding companies and shipping companies have been sitting on snowballing debt in the aftermath of the global financial crisis and economic slowdown. While the Korea Development Bank (KDB) and Korea Export-Import Bank (Eximbank) are to lead the restructuring, their financial health has already been deteriorating.

The Bank of International Settlements (BIS) ratio, which gauges banks' adequate capital amount, for KDB stood at 14.6 percent as of March, while that of Eximbank was 9.9 percent.

These banks' BIS ratio is expected to fall sharply in the process of debt rescheduling of the ailing shipbuilders and shipping companies.

The government estimated that between 5 trillion won and 8 trillion won would be needed to keep the capital requirement ratio of KDB at around 13 percent and that of Eximbank at 10.5 percent, when considering the application of the BASEL III international guidelines for banks.

"The state-run banks are a funding source for industries. When their financial health deteriorates, it will put the financial market at risk," said Financial Services Commission Chairman Yim Jong-yong.

To support the Eximbank raising its BIS ratio to 10.5 percent, the government will directly inject the government's stake in other state-owned enterprises, worth 1 trillion won.





BOK loans to be guaranteed by government

Most of the contribution, however, will come from the Bank of Korea (BOK).

The central bank will lend 10 trillion won to the fund which will be managed by the Korea Asset Management Corp., while the Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) will lend 1 trillion won.

With the money, the fund will purchase Contingent Convertible Bonds of KDB and Eximbank, to help the banks raise their BIS ratio.

The government previously demanded the BOK use its exclusive right to print money to directly invest in the state-run banks, but it refused to do so.

Instead, it agreed to indirectly fund the state-run banks by providing money in the form of loans.

The central bank has also demanded that repayment of the loan should be guaranteed by the government. The administration agreed saying the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund will be the guarantor.

The government also ordered an overhaul at the two state-run banks, noting that they were responsible for poor management at the shipbuilders and shippers as their main creditors. This includes cutting salaries of the banks' executives by 5 percent this year, while employees should return their pay increase for this year.

KDB will slash its work force by 10 percent and Eximbank by 5 percent by 2021.

As the restructuring of shipbuilders and shippers is feared to lead to massive unemployment, the government is preparing measures to support those losing jobs and help them find new work.

"The restructuring will be accelerated thorough self-rescue plans and strict sharing of the burden," said Strategy and Finance Minister Yoo Il-ho.

"Pain for those involved will inevitably follow, but we will do our best so that the restructuring will lead to job creation and become an engine for growth," he added.

The government also approved 10.3 trillion won worth self-rescue plans prepared by Hyundai Heavy Industries, Samsung Heavy Industries and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering. They include the selling off of assets, layoffs and business restructuring.
By Kim Jae-won



Mirae Asset Global Investments clinched a deal earlier this month to buy Hyatt Regency Waikiki Beach Resort & Spa for $780 million from U.S. asset manager Blackstone Group, sources familiar with the deal said Wednesday.



The Seoul-based asset manager reached an agreement to acquire leasehold interest in the 1,230-room twin-tower hotel on the main Hawaiian island of Oahu, according to industry sources close to the matter. Mirae Asset is paying about $634,000 per room, one of the most expensive deals on a per-room-key basis.



The deal came a year after Mirae Asset bought the 540-room Fairmont Orchid Hotel on the island of Hawaii for $220 million. If the deal is successful, Hyatt Regency Waikiki will be the seventh hotel invested in by Mirae Asset since it acquired Sydney's Four Seasons Hotel for 340 million Australian dollars in 2013.



Sources said that Mirae Asset plans to pay $380 million through its affiliates and fund investors while drawing the remaining $400 million from bank loans. The asset manger believes that the 40-story hotel will pay off, considering its luxury spa facilities and easy access to shopping malls and the airport. Hyatt Group will continue to manage the hotel even after the deal is closed.



Market watchers say that Mirae has increased its investments in luxury hotels, anticipating demand by Chinese tourists for top-class accommodations. Observers say that businesses catering to Chinese tourists have potential to grow as only 4 percent of the country's population, or some 60 million people, has passports.



If the level goes up to that of advanced countries, about 20 percent, the value of luxury hotels will increase too, they estimate. According to the China Daily, the nation's English newspaper, the number of overseas trips by Chinese tourists is estimated to increase to 200 million in 2020, up from 120 million in 2015.



Hyatt Regency Waikiki was built in 1976 for $100 million by celebrated developer Christopher Hemmeter, introducing the concept of the opulent mega-resort in Hawaii.



Mirae Asset is a financial services firm based in Seoul, whose business portfolio ranges from asset management to brokerage to life insurance. It was founded by chairman Park Hyeon-joo in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s.



Since then, the firm's funds have gained a reputation for big returns for investors, drawing tens of trillions of won in investments. Earlier this year, the firm bought Daewoo Securities from the Korea Development Bank, seeking to merge it with its own brokerage house.




Lee U-fan's "Point"





By Yun Suh-young



The prosecution indicted a gallery operator who had allegedly forged artist Lee U-fan's works, the Supreme Prosecutors' Office said Wednesday.

The 66-year-old gallery operator is charged with forging and selling three artworks by Lee, including a copy of "From Point" and making 1.3 billion won ($1.1 million) off the sales.

The gallery owner, identified by the surname Hyeon, had been running a gallery in Dongdaemun, northeastern Seoul. In 2011, he allegedly received a suggestion from an antiques dealer trading between Japan and Korea who offered to pay 50 percent of the profit for selling a forged Lee U-fan piece if Hyeon could produce it.

Prosecutors say Hyeon then decided to team up with a Western-style painter and received canvases and an easel from the antique dealer.

In 2012, Hyeon and his partner allegedly produced two pieces similar to "From Point" and one piece similar to "From Line" series, putting Lee's signature in the pieces.

Prosecutors say the works were then sold to one person through two gallery operators in Seoul's Insa-dong and Busan later that year.

The police began their investigation last year after receiving reports that the forgeries had been traded between several galleries in Insa-dong for billions of won between 2012 and 2013.

Hyeon who had fled to Japan was arrested and taken into custody last month. The antiques dealer is still under investigation.

Police are continuing their questioning Hyeon and the painter who said they also produced 50 other counterfeit works.
By Choi Sung-jin



Workers engaged in "emotional labor" but who have low autonomy in their jobs can feel like committing suicide up to 4.6 times more than other workers, research shows.



According to the study by a Yonsei University team led by Professor Yun Jin-ha, the suicidal impulse felt by workers assigned jobs requiring high emotional consumption but with low autonomy was 4.6 times stronger than felt by others in the case of men, and 2.78 times higher among women.



The research was based on the analysis of 1,995 workers engaged in service and sales work over the past year, focusing on relationships between their suicidal impulse, the level of emotional consumption and job autonomy.



"Emotional labor" refers to work people have to do regardless of their emotional state or what they feel, mainly jobs receiving and serving customers. Job autonomy is the level of self-regulating discretion in performing one's duty. If workers are allowed to adjust the ways of serving customers according to their judgment of situations, for instance, they have high job autonomy.



According to the study, the suicidal impulse felt by workers with high emotional consumption was 2.07 times higher among men and 1.97 times higher among women. When low job autonomy was included, the gap rose to 4.6 times and 2.78 times among men and women, respectively.



On the other hand, the gap in suicidal impulse felt by workers with high emotional consumption and high job autonomy narrowed to 1.93 times and 1.6 times, respectively.



"Among the same groups of workers engaged in emotional labor, the level of job autonomy reduced their suicidal impulses," Professor Yun said. "This shows employers need to allow greater job autonomy for emotional workers to help improve their mental health and reduce suicides."




By Jun Ji-hye



The Marine Corps will join a defense exercise on the nation's easternmost islets of Dokdo for the first time in five years, according to the Ministry of National Defense.



The two-day drill began Wednesday and involves the marines, Navy and maritime police.



This is the first time since 2011 that the Corps has participated in the exercise that mainly deals with a possible Japanese invasion of the islets.



The drill may provoke protests from Japan, which has made persistent sovereignty claims on the islets.



"Some 10 naval vessels, P-3 maritime surveillance aircraft and Lynx antisubmarine helicopters, along with Marine Corps personnel, have been mobilized for the maneuvers in the East Sea," said a ministry official on the condition of anonymity.



The drill took place based on a scenario, under which outside forces were making an illicit attempt to land on Dokdo.



Seoul has carried out the exercise twice a year since 1986, as Tokyo has continued to make claims to Dokdo in its state-approved school textbooks and various government documents, including a diplomatic white paper.



In response to protests from Tokyo about the Dokdo defense drills, Seoul has said that such claims are the equivalent to Japan's denial of Korea's independence from its 1910-45 colonial rule, as Seoul reclaimed sovereignty over all its territories  including Dokdo and many other islands around the Korean Peninsula  upon independence.



In its 2014 Defense White Paper, the Ministry of National Defense claimed that Japan's territorial claim to Dokdo was an obstacle that disrupts efforts by the two countries to foster future-oriented relations.



The paper stated that Seoul will "strictly cope with Tokyo's outrageous assertions" over its easternmost islets.



Meanwhile, a team comprising some 600 personnel from the Navy and Marine Corps has been carrying out an anti-terrorism drill in the West Sea since Sunday.



The drill, which will take place until June 11, has been conducted based on a scenario that terrorists invaded an area near a port in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province.



The main mission of the team was to protect important national facilities, such as a gas processing facility, and suppress terrorism there, according to officials.




By Jun Ji-hye



The government said Wednesday that North Korea could carry out another nuclear test at any time.



"We are closely monitoring any movement at its test site," said Ministry of Unification spokesman Jeong Joon-hee, referring to a report by Reuters that Pyongyang has begun reprocessing spent fuel to produce plutonium used for nuclear weapons.



"South Korea and the United States are closely cooperating," Jeong said.



Reuters quoted an unidentified senior U.S. State Department official, Tuesday, who said: "They take the spent fuel from the 5 megawatt reactor at Yongbyon and let it cool and then take it to the reprocessing facility, and that's where they've obtained the plutonium for their previous nuclear tests. So they are repeating that process."



The graphite-moderated reactor has been the source of weapons-grade plutonium for the North.



Jeong refused to confirm whether the report was true.



But he noted that it was "a well-known fact" that the North has continued reprocessing to secure additional plutonium.



The Ministry of National Defense also said the isolated state is believed to be technically ready to carry out a fifth nuclear test at any time, if its leadership decides to do so.



The North conducted its fourth nuclear test on Jan. 6, which led the United Nations Security Council to impose the harshest sanctions yet on Pyongyang in March.



A defense ministry official said, "The military is keeping close tabs on the North," adding that there have been no suspicious movements at the Yongbyon nuclear facility.



Reuters's report came a day after International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Yukiya Amano said at a news conference in Vienna that there have been signs, including satellite imagery, showing that the Kim Jong-un regime could be running the reprocessing plant.



Earlier this year, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper also said in a worldwide threat assessment that the North had restarted its 5-megawatt reactor and has since run it long enough to harvest plutonium.



The reactor produced the weapons-grade plutonium that the regime used in its first three nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013.



The reactor is capable of producing spent fuel rods that, if reprocessed, could give the regime enough plutonium to make one to two nuclear bombs a year, according to experts.



The North shut down the 5 megawatt reactor in 2007 following an agreement at the six-party talks, involving the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia, which was aimed at denuclearizing the North. The talks have been stalled since 2008.



Pyongyang officially declared the restarting of the reactor in 2013 when it adopted a policy of developing nuclear weapons in tandem with boosting its economy.




By Choi Sung-jin



The nation's permissible levels of fine dust and ultrafine particles are double those the World Health Organization recommends, according to a study.



The allowable levels, or environmental standards, serve as the criteria for making related policies and issuing alarms. If the criteria are unduly high, it weakens the public's attention of fine dust, threatening people's health and making it difficult to come up with appropriate countermeasures.



Also, the concentration of fine dust is high not just in Seoul and its vicinity but in provincial areas. Unlike China that has made plans taking regional differences into account, the nation's attention is concentrated in the capital.



According to a study on fine dust by Hyun Jun-won, a researcher at the Korea Legislation Research Institute, Korea's environmental standards on fine dust, or PM 10 (particulate matter of 10 micro-millimeters), and ultrafine particles, or PM 2.5 (2.5 micro-millimeters), are looser than those of industrial countries such as the countries of Europe, Australia and Japan.



For instance, Korea's environmental standards on find dust stipulate that it does not exceed 100 micro-grams (ug) per cubic meter during a 24-hour average level, and not 50 ug in the case of ultrafine dust. The annual average limit is 50 ug for fine dust and 25 ug for ultrafine dust. The WHO standards, however, are exactly half Korea's, with 50 ug for fine dust, and 25 ug for ultrafine dust on a 24-hour average level. The gap even widens in the annual average limit of ultrafine dust, which the U.N. agency has set at 10 ug, only 40 percent of Korea's.



"Environmental standards should aim at levels that can protect the public's health and make them feel comfortable," said Hyun. "Unless Koreans are particularly good at withstanding fine dust contamination, the nation's environmental criteria should respect global standards."



Pointing out that weak environmental standards lead to weak policymaking, Hyun said one of the reasons the nation does not have strong countermeasures is the low criteria. He said Germany, Britain and the European Union maintain permissible levels of fine dust similar to those of the WHO.



Another problem is the lack of fine dust policy by local autonomous bodies, he said. Noting that the contamination levels of North Chungcheong, Gangwon and North Jeolla provinces have exceeded the government-set limit and those of Gyeongsang provinces and Busan are approaching it, the expert emphasized the need to introduce a pollutant-load management system.



"The central government should relegate the controlling authority to heads of provincial and municipal governments where fine dust pollution is serious, allowing them to set up and implement countermeasures, taking their respective characteristics into account," Hyun said.



Meanwhile, the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space and Administration drew Koreans' attention by unveiling simulation images after observing fine dust over the Korean Peninsula. NASA's research team observed atmospheric conditions on the peninsula by mobilizing three aircraft, five satellites, two research ships and 290 scientists from 15 countries on May 2.



After flying 3,000 kilometers for eight hours, and checking 15 times a day, the team concluded air pollution on this peninsula has reached a dangerous level.



"Since we launched this project, we have seen clear skies free from fine dust only on the day after a rain," said Alex Tang, a researcher. "We'd never thought it would be this bad."



Louisa Emmons, another researcher, said: "On a considerable number of days when smog and various pollutants occur, they seemed to be produced within the country. Particularly serious are secondary pollutants, which are produced from primary pollutants, such as harmful gases from power stations and diesel cars, through chemical reactions in the air."



The environment ministry recently announced countermeasures against fine dust, only to invite criticism, from experts and ordinary people alike, that the government seemed to be unaware of the seriousness of the matter.




News / National

by Felex Share

ZANU-PF yesterday described as "mischief makers" members and affiliate organisations who are stoking the succession debate in the private media at a time President Robert Mugabe has asserted that he will continue leading the country and the revolutionary party at the pleasure of the electorate.The revolutionary party's spokesperson, Simon Khaya Moyo, said President Mugabe's statement during the One Million Man March last month should guide all progressive Zanu-PF cadres.Some party members and war veterans have of late been granting interviews to the private media discussing succession."Zanu-PF is fully aware of some mischief makers on the succession issue," Khaya Moyo said."Unless some people suffer from malignant myopia, the position of the party on this misguided matter rests with the pronouncement made by the President and First Secretary of the party Robert Mugabe at the One Million Man March held on May 25, 2016 in Harare."The hundreds of thousands of people who attended the spectacular event organised by the Youth League got the message from the President loud and clear. The party is therefore alarmed by the uncalled for debate from some misguided quarters on a matter that's closed and sealed."Khaya Moyo also had no kind words for the private media.He said: "The private media who are spearheading this unwarranted and sinister agenda must stop this dangerous effort once and for all. The party, Zanu-PF has always called on all patriotic Zimbabweans to expend their energies on the implementation of Zim-Asset as a way to achieve the total economic emancipation of our people. Enough is enough."During the One Million Man March, President Mugabe said he was there to stay and would not be pushed out through calls by opposition political parties and their Western backers.He said he drew his mandate from the party membership and to that end, he would only step down if the revolutionary party says so."Where should I go? I belong to my people," President Mugabe said."My people say stay here'. I'm not a Briton, I don't like it. I'm not American, I'm not a Yankee. I told (former British Prime Minister Tony) Blair to keep his England so that I can keep my Zimbabwe. So what?"President Mugabe said he belonged to Zimbabwe and was put in his position by Zanu-PF adding that only the two had a right to ask him to step down."I belong to Zimbabwe. So, they say I must go. The outsiders, why do they want Mugabe to stand down, to resign, to retire?"The people are the ones who will say, you can step down. Is the MDC feeling sorry for me that they want me to rest? Or are they afraid of me? Are they afraid of Mugabe, so tell the papers that Mugabe says go hang! Hang yourself. Anyway we're united. I'm at the service of the people. If the people say I should go, I go. But as long as I feel I can serve the people and I can do my best as I've done in the past, I'll do my best and when time comes I go. I'm not going anywhere," said President Mugabe.
Rep. Kim Chong-in, right, the interim leader of the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea, meets with Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) Chairman Gen. Lee Sun-jin, center, and JCS Vice Chairman Um Hyun-seong, left, during a visit to the JCS headquarters in Yongsan, Seoul, Wednesday. / Yonhap



Frequent visits to military bases are to revamp image



By Kim Hyo-jin



The leaders of the opposition parties are increasing visits to military bases and meetings with security officials in an apparent bid to show their commitment to national security.



This is also viewed as part of their efforts to expand their support among conservative voters ahead of the 2017 presidential election.



Rep. Kim Chong-in, the interim leader of the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea (MPK), visited the headquarters of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), Wednesday _ the first visit to the JCS by an opposition leader.



Meanwhile, Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo, co-chairman of the second-largest opposition People's Party, will visit residences of military officers in Seoul and the surrounding areas today, said party officials.



These visits reflect the parties' efforts to appeal to conservative voters, according to political watchers.



With the race for the 2017 presidential election looming, their efforts to poach supporters from across the political spectrum will be stepped up and attempts to change their image will be further strengthened, they said.



Kim met with JCS Chairman Gen. Lee Sun-jin and discussed the current security environment on the Korean Peninsula during the 35-minute visit.



"I checked on our actual security situation during a series of visits to military organizations, considering that June is the month of remembrance to honor those who died for the country and their spirit," Kim told reporters after the meeting.



Kim has put much effort toward highlighting the image of the party as competent in security matters since the April 13 general election.



Last week, Kim met with soldiers during his visit to the 2nd Division of the Marine Corps in Gimpo, near the border with North Korea, amid heightened inter-Korean tensions. Also, he met with persons of national merit on his visit to the Central Veterans Hospital in Seoul and urged the government to improve medical services provided to them.



Kim will continue visiting military-related organizations and seeking ways to improve their conditions throughout June, a party official said.



Ahn, the leader of the People's Party, is also taking similar steps.



He will visit military posts, seeking to overhaul the level of welfare for soldiers, according to the party.



"There was internal sentiment that we need to work on improving soldiers' living conditions to boost their morale, which was negatively impacted by the current corruption scandals between the military and the defense industry," a party official said.



The visit was arranged to differentiate its approach to security issues from that of the main opposition party, he added.



Shin Yul, a professor of Myongji University, said the opposition parties' stances are in sync with the changing political orientation of the public.



"Overall society is now becoming more conservative," he said, contending that this shift often occurs when the economy is sluggish. "The opposition parties appear to have read the changing trends and are responding in kind."



He added: "they are obviously wooing the center-right voters, which is critical to expanding their base of support."
By Kang Seung-woo



The Navy has publicly described the survivors of North Korea's torpedo attack on the frigate Cheonan in 2010 as heroes.



Internally, however, they are being treated as defeated sailors who were undisciplined and did not even know why their ship was sinking at the time of the attack, according to some survivors, Wednesday.



On March 26, 2010, the naval ship, carrying 104 sailors, was sunken by a North Korean torpedo near the Northern Limit Line in the Yellow Sea, resulting in the deaths of 46.



At the time, the ship was participating in the ROK-U.S. joint military exercise _ Key Resolve.



Since then, the government has held a ceremony to remember the fallen soldiers and the Navy has extensively publicized their sacrifice, naming them "unsung heroes."



After salving the wreckage of the Cheonan from the sea bed, the Navy has put it on display at the 2nd Fleet Command in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province to pay tribute to them.



However, sources and the survivors disclosed the Navy's double-dealing with them.



"Among ranking Navy officers, there were some who thought that the Cheonan sinking was a dishonor for the South Korean Navy because our naval capabilities are superior to those of the North Korean Navy," said a retired Navy officer on condition of anonymity.



"In addition, an officer of the Naval Education and Training Command made an inappropriate comment that seemed to blame the sinking on a lack of discipline among sailors aboard the Cheonan."



Several survivors also said there was such a negative view of the sinking in the Navy.



"The Navy's education materials in 2014 for those who would serve at the Cheonghae Unit for an anti-piracy mission off the coast of Somalia stated the sinking took place as the sailors were negligent in their vigilance," said Jeong Joo-hyun, a retired Chief Petty Officer who was aboard the frigate, in an interview with broadcaster SBS.



Frustrated by the internal assessment, he sought an honorable discharge in June, 2015, scrapping his plan to serve with the Cheonhae Unit.



However, the Navy said the education materials and negative comments were made based on the education officer's private opinion and not the Navy's official position on the incident.



Meanwhile, many survivors said they were troubled with the negative view toward them, according to a poll last year by a veterans' group.



The survey that interviewed 22 survivors from the Cheonan found that 16 were suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) due to the sentiment that they were defeated.



In addition, 10 survivors thought about committing suicide, with five attempting to hurt themselves.




By Kang Seung-woo

Kim Jae-won

President Park Geun-hye appointed Kim Jae-won, a former Saenuri Party lawmaker, as her new senior secretary for political affairs, Wednesday.

Park also replaced two other senior secretaries and three vice ministers.

Kim will replace Hyun Ki-hwan, who was named to the post only 11 months ago. Kim served as a special presidential advisor for public relations from February to October 2015.

The political affairs secretary serves as a mediator between the government and the National Assembly.

The appointment of her close aide to the post is seen as President Park's decision to help the Saenuri Party recover from losses in the April 13 general election and focus on state affairs during her remaining term in office. The ruling party won 122 parliamentary seats in the election, demoting it to the second-largest party behind the Minjoo Party of Korea with 123 seats.

In addition, the appointment came as those who are loyal to Park have an increasingly bigger say within the Saenuri Party.

In the wake of the Saenuri Party's defeat in the general election, there has been speculation that the senior presidential secretary for political affairs and the presidential chief of staff would be replaced. Hyun had expressed his willingness to step down on several occasions.

Park named her new chief of staff, Lee Won-jong, last month.

"I have a heavy heart as I could not fully support President Park," Hyun told reporters.

She also named Hyun Dae-won, a professor in the Department pf Communication at Sogang University, as her senior secretary for future strategy, while tapping Kim Yong-seung, vice president of the Catholic University of Korea, as the new chief presidential secretary for education and cultural affairs.

Park named three new vice ministers for unification, environment and agriculture.

Kim Hyung-suk, presidential secretary for unification affairs, was appointed the vice minister of the unification ministry, while Lee Joon-won, a senior official in charge of food industry policy at the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, was promoted to the position of vice farm minister.

Park also promoted Lee Jung-sub, senior official in charge of environmental policy at the Ministry of Environment, to vice minister.
From left, floor leaders of the Saenuri Party, Chung Jin-suk; Park Jie-won of the People's Party; and Woo Sang-ho of the Minjoo Party of Korea pose after they reached an agreement on how to form the new parliament at the National Assembly, Wednesday. / Yonhap



By Kim Hyo-jin

The rival parties agreed Wednesday that the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea (MPK) will appoint the new speaker of the National Assembly.

They also came to a consensus on details for the formation of the new parliament including picking who will head the 18 Assembly committees.

Floor and vice floor leaders of the three parties  the ruling Saenuri Party, the minor opposition People's Party and the MPK  sat together at the National Assembly one day after passing the statutory deadline.

"The MPK will fill the speaker post and the Saenuri Party and the People's Party will designate vice speakers, respectively," the parties vice floor leaders said during a press briefing after the deal was struck.

They added that the election of the speaker and vice speakers would be held at 2 p.m. today.

Of the entire 18 Assembly committees, they agreed to have the Saenuri Party and the MPK take eight chairmanships each, and the minor opposition People's Party, two.

The negotiations have been stalled over a week as the ruling and main opposition parties wrangled over the ownership of the speaker post.

While the MPK insisted on the right to take the post as the largest party of the new Assembly, the Saenuri Party did not budge, arguing that the seat belongs to the ruling party.

Rep. Suh Chung-won, an eight-term lawmaker of the Saenuri Party who has been cited as a potential candidate for speaker, helped break the deadlock in negotiations after he called on the party to yield the post to the opposition and officially drop the chairmanship bid.

Mindful of worsening public criticism, he urged the negotiators not to delay the opening of the Assembly anymore and "look at the bigger picture."

The ruling party handed over the post to the MPK and, in turn, secured the head posts of the much-wanted steering, legislation and judiciary committees.

It also took the chairs of the finance, national policy, administration, science, intelligence and defense committees.

Meanwhile, the MPK took the chairs of budget and accounts, labor, foreign affairs, welfare, transport, agriculture, gender equality and ethics committees. The second-largest opposition People's Party secured the education and trade committees.

The parties also agreed to hold the opening ceremony of the 20th National Assembly on June 13, and later that day, to elect chairpersons of the Assembly committees.

The agreement came nine days after the 20th National Assembly was officially inaugurated, May 31.

Although belated, it would bring the fastest opening of the Assembly in about three decades since the revision to the Constitution in 1987.

The openings of the 13th to 19th Assembly were delayed on average by 51.2 days due to a tug-of-war between rival parties on how to distribute key posts.

In the 14th Assembly, which set the latest record, it took 125 days until its actual opening.
Incheon's fishery inspection boat No. 214 will be sent to the northern sea area of Yeonpyeong Island to prevent illegal fishing by Chinese fishermen. / Yonhap



South Korea has lodged a formal protest with Beijing demanding it address the growing issue of illegal fishing by Chinese fishermen in South Korean waters, a Seoul official said Wednesday.

The protest was delivered through diplomatic channels in the wake of the recent capture of Chinese fishing boats by South Korean fishermen near the inter-Korean border in the Yellow Sea, the official said on the condition of anonymity.

"We have persistently urged the Chinese side to draw up countermeasures to the illegal fishing activities," the official. "We delivered the protest again and demanded countermeasures."

Chinese officials said they have been cracking down on such activity but face difficulties. Still, they said they would keep working to tackle the issue, according to the South Korean official.

The two countries have held regular talks involving officials from the foreign ministries, maritime law enforcement and fishery authorities.












The epicenter of the quake. / Courtesy of the Korea Administration of Meteorology



A 3.1-magnitude earthquake struck North Korea early Monday, South Korea's state weather agency said.

The quake was detected at 5:17 a.m. Monday in an area some 21km east of Songlim, North Hwanghae Province, which lies just north of the border. An official with the Korea Meteorological Administration said no major damage is expected.

The quake is not believed to be the result of a nuclear test as the affected area is away from the North's Punggye-ri underground nuclear test site in the country's northeast. (Yonhap)












South Korea said Wednesday it is closely monitoring North Korea's nuclear activities amid reports the communist country has begun reprocessing spent nuclear fuel to produce plutonium, which can be used to make nuclear weapons.

"The government is watching the relevant movements closely with serious concern," Jeong Joon-hee, spokesman of Seoul's Unification Ministry, said during a regular press briefing.

He was referring to a report by Reuters on Tuesday that quoted a senior U.S. State Department official.

"They take the spent fuel from the 5 megawatt reactor at Yongbyon and let it cool and then take it to the reprocessing facility, and that's where they've obtained the plutonium for their previous nuclear tests. So they are repeating that process," Reuters quoted the unidentified official as saying.

"That's what they're doing," the U.S. official said on condition of anonymity, according to Reuters.












A group of South Korean businessmen asked the government Wednesday to approve their visit to the now-shuttered joint industrial park in North Korea to check their factories.



Thirty businessmen made the request to visit the Kaesong Industrial Complex in the North's border city of the same name next Monday, an association representing the 124 local companies that have operations in the joint park said.



It said the businessmen wanted to check their facilities ahead of the summer rainy season.



On Feb. 10, South Korea shut down the factory zone, some 50 kilometers northwest of Seoul, in response to the North's fourth nuclear test and long-range rocket launch early this year.



"To minimize losses, we submitted the application to visit North Korea to check machines at the zone and help map out a plan to keep facilities intact," the group said in a a statement.



The South Korean firms have claimed that they have suffered more than 815 billion won (US$701.4 million) in losses from the shutdown, adding that a set of the government's supportive measures are not enough to cover their damage.



But Seoul's unification ministry is not likely to approve their plan to visit the North as it has made it clear that the companies' bid is not appropriate.



A ministry official said Tuesday that it is not proper for the firms to seek to visit North Korea as the international community has slapped tougher sanctions against the North over its nuke and missile provocations.



South Korean nationals need Seoul's approval as well as the North's consent for a trip to the communist nation. The two Koreas still remain technically at war since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.



The industrial complex, which opened in 2004, served as a major revenue source for the cash-strapped North, while South Korea has benefited from cheap but skilled North Korean labor.



But Seoul ended the last remaining symbol of inter-Korean reconciliation over concerns that the money generated from the complex might bankroll North Korea's nuclear and missile programs.



In March, North Korea countered that it will nullify all cross-border agreements on economic cooperation arrangements and liquidate South Korean assets in retaliation for Seoul's move to impose unilateral sanctions.



South Korea unveiled a set of punitive actions including banning the entry of vessels that have made a port call in the North and blacklisting key North Korean officials and entities. (Yonhap)




North Korea's key ruling party official, Choe Thae-bok, met with Laotian President Bounnhang Vorachith in Vientiane earlier in the week, to further expand bilateral ties, the North's state-run media said Wednesday.

According to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) picked up in Seoul, Choe led the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) delegation and held talks with key Laotian officials on Tuesday.

The media outlet said Choe, who is WPK vice chairman, met Bounnhang Vorachith, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP) and the Southeast Asian country's president.

The North Korea delegation arrived in Vientiane on Monday after visiting Vietnam for talks with its communist party's officials.

During the meeting in the capital, Choe congratulated Bounnhang upon his election as the president of Laos, wishing the party and people success in their struggle to implement recent decisions made at the Laotian communist party congress.

He expressed the unchanging WPK stance to invariably strengthen the traditional relations of friendship and cooperation with the Lao party and people, the KCNA said.

The report added that the Laotian president extended warm congratulations to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un upon his election as chairman of the WPK at the recent 7th party congress.

The latest trip is seen as part of North Korea's diplomatic overture to break up tougher international sanctions imposed on it as punishment for its January nuclear test and long-range rocket launch in the following month.

Ri Su-yong, a vice chairman of the ruling Workers' Party, made a rare visit to China last week in an apparent bid to improve strained ties with Beijing following Pyongyang's nuclear tests.

North Korea's ceremonial head of state, Kim Yong-nam, also visited Equatorial Guinea last month to attend the inauguration ceremony of the president of the African country. (Yonhap)
North Korea has summoned dozens of workers from Kuwait for staging a mass strike in protest of their working conditions, a U.S.-based media outlet said Wednesday.

According to Radio Free Asia, dozens of North Korean construction workers in Kuwait went on strike in December after their North Korean employer offered to pay them with checks cashable in the North instead of wages.

"As people began to disobey orders and desert their workplaces, North Korean authorities belatedly took steps to tackle the issue," RFA said. "On May 17, they quickly summoned dozens of North Korean workers who had caused problems by resuming Air Koryo flights between Pyongyang and Kuwait, which had been halted on Feb. 23."

In March, some North Korean laborers demanded they be paid properly when their employer urged them to earn more money to send to the Pyongyang regime ahead of a large congress of the North's ruling Workers' Party in May, RFA added.

North Korea is known to earn foreign currency by sending tens of thousands of workers abroad to countries such as China and Russia and parts of the Middle East.

Seoul's Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, said North Korea appears to be checking on the situation of its overseas workers.

"We think the strikes and various actions of North Korean workers abroad could be the result of sanctions on the country," ministry spokesman Jeong Joon-hee said during a regular press briefing.

The North Korean regime is thought to be feeling the pressure of U.N. and other sanctions that were imposed on the country after its fourth nuclear test in January and long-range rocket launch in February.

In April, 13 North Korean employees of a Pyongyang-run restaurant in China escaped their workplace and defected to South Korea. Seoul officials said the rare mass defection showed that the U.N. sanctions were having an effect. (Yonhap)
News / National

by Thobekile Zhou

The British government has warned its citizens planning to travel to Zimbabwe that they might face a squeeze in accessing money.UK said Zimbabwe's economy was "increasingly fragile."In a travel advisory, the UK government urged its citizens to have enough US dollar notes."Almost all transactions are conducted in US dollars," it said."Zimbabwe is currently experiencing a shortage of cash. It is not currently possible to make cash withdrawals using an international bank card,"."Credit and debit cards are increasing in circulation but you should check in advance if a restaurant or hotel will accept them,".Zimbabwe is facing critical shortage of bank notes.Panic withdrawals have been fuelled by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe's announcement of the impending introduction of local bond notes in October which many Zimbabweans fear signal the return of a loathed local currency.
North Korea's former vice marshal Ri Yong-ho was reportedly purged for mobilizing troops without Kim Jong-un's permission. / Yonhap



By Kim Da-hee

North Korea's former vice marshal Ri Yong-ho was possibly purged for mobilizing troops without leader Kim Jong-un's permission, Japanese broadcaster NHK has reported.

The report was at odds with the North's public announcement in 2012 that the former army chief was relieved of duties due to an unspecified illness.

NHK said it had obtained a USB that contained 12,000 pages of confidential documents about the North Korean leadership in 2014. The USB came from a North Korean trading company executive who was affiliated with the Korean People's Army. After analyzing the documents, the broadcaster found they strongly condemned Ri.

Part of the papers stated: "Some troops were under pressure from orders of the counter-revolutionary bastard' Ri, who defied the ideology of our supreme leader Kim Jong-un." The documents said Ri and the troops' hesitant move under Ri's order caused "a great harm to the People's Army."
By Na Jeong-ju

Politics editor

China appears to have a new game plan for North Korea.

As the six-party talks remain dormant, China is now trying to persuade the United States to sign a peace treaty with North Korea so the latter can choose the path toward denuclearization.

China is promoting this idea among South Korean politicians as well. During a recent meeting with the interim leader of South Korea's main opposition party, China's top envoy Qiu Guohong said denuclearizing North Korea and a peace treaty between Pyongyang and Washington can be negotiated jointly.

Qiu described the idea as being "wise," reaffirming his stance that dialogue is the best way to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue.

China's theory looks charming, but can never be implemented. Rather, North Korea can abuse the peace treaty talks to buy time to develop nuclear weapons as they have done in the six-party talks.

After Pyongyang withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 2003, Beijing proposed the six-party talks to find a peaceful resolution to the crisis over the North's nuclear program. However, the six-party talks failed  North Korea claims it is now a nuclear weapons state, and is still continuing nuclear tests.

What concerns us is that China is actually repeating North Korea's long-held demand.

Pyongyang has called for the U.S. to come to the table for a peace treaty and withdraw its troops from South Korea. It says it can abandon its nuclear program only if these conditions are met.

Signing a peace treaty with North Korea is an unrealistic idea  and is even deceptive  when the U.N. sanctions on Pyongyang are being carried out around the world.

The latest sanctions were the result of a new U.N. resolution, jointly drafted by the U.S. and China following the North's fourth nuclear test early this year. China promised to strictly implement the sanctions and join efforts to limit the progress of North Korea's nuclear and missile programs.

However, as its rivalry with Washington intensifies, Beijing is increasingly taking advantage of the Kim Jong-un regime to protect its own interests in Asia.

The peace treaty proposal should be understood in this regard.

ChinaNorth Korea relations have declined markedly over the past few years due mainly to the North's nuclear development. However, Pyongyang is strategically important for Beijing. The allies will never turn away from each other, despite the soured relations.

Although less intense and frequent than in the past, top-level contact between the two countries has continued.

Since Kim Jong-un took power, North Korea has carried out two nuclear tests, in February 2013 and in February 2016. In between, North Korea's top military official Choe Ryong-hae showed up in China twice. On the Chinese side, Vice Chairman of the National People's Congress Li Jianguo, Vice President Li Yuanchao and Politburo Standing Committee member Liu Yunshan visited North Korea during the period.

Most recently, Ri Su-yong, vice chairman of the powerful Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party, visited China as the North Korean leader's special envoy. Chinese President Xi Jinping gave a warm welcome to Ri with rare favorable comments about the traditional ties between the two countries. Xi met a senior North Korean official for the first time since he met Choe Ryong-hae in May 2013.

This raised rampant speculation that Xi may invite the North Korean leader to Beijing for a meeting. If this meeting is realized, it will prove China's two-faced approach toward North Korea.

China's proposal for a peace treaty shows it will act in the best interests of North Korea, as long as it benefits its own interests as well.

So it will be interesting to see whether the U.S., which may be fully aware of this, will risk its relations with China to handle North Korea. The U.S. will have to act before it is too late.
By Ngaire Woods

OXFORD  Across the world, populists are attracting votes with their promises to protect ordinary people from the harsh realities of globalization. The democratic establishment, they assert, cannot be trusted to fulfill this purpose, as it is too busy protecting the wealthy  a habit that globalization has only intensified.

For decades, globalization promised to bring benefits to all. On an international scale, it facilitated the rise of the Asian tigers and the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), produced rapid growth across Africa, and facilitated the boom in developed countries through 2007. It also created new opportunities and augmented growth within countries. But since the 2008 crash, many rich countries have been locked into austerity; the Asian economies have been slowing; the BRICS' progress has been stalling; and many African countries have fallen back into debt.

All of this has contributed to rising inequality, which is now fueling discontent. Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman calculate that in the United States, the wealth gap is already wider than at any time since the Great Depression, with the richest 1% of households now holding almost half the country's wealth.

In the United Kingdom, the Office for National Statistics reports that in the period from 2012 to 2014, the wealthiest 10% of households owned 45% of total aggregate household wealth. Since July 2010, the top decile's wealth has increased three times faster than that of the bottom 50% of the population.

In Nigeria, astonishing economic growth , averaging 7% per year since 2000, may well have reduced poverty in the southwest of the country; but in the northeast (where the extremist group Boko Haram is most active), shocking levels of wealth inequality and poverty have emerged. Similar trends are apparent from China to Egypt to Greece

Alongside inequality, declining public trust fuels the revolt against globalization and democracy. Across the developed and developing worlds, many suspect that the rich are getting richer because they are not held to the same rules as everyone else.

It's not hard to see why. As the global economy slows, breaches of trust by those at the top become more apparent. In the United Kingdom, Amazon, Starbucks, and Google attracted public outrage in 2013 for using loopholes to pay almost no tax, prompting the UK government to lead a G8 tax announcement aimed at reducing tax evasion and avoidance. In 2015, an audit of the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation revealed that about $20 billion in revenue was never remitted to the authorities under the previous administration.

And the problem appears to be systemic. This year, the Panama Papers exposed how the global rich create secretive offshore companies, permitting them to avoid financial scrutiny and taxation. And the world's largest banks have faced unprecedented fines in recent years for brazen violations of the law.

But, despite the negative publicity generated by such cases, the public has seen virtually no one held to account. Almost a decade after the global financial crisis of 2008, only one bank executive has gone to prison. Many bankers instead followed a path similar to Fred Goodwin, the head of Britain's Royal Bank of Scotland, who racked up 24.1 billion ($34.2 billion) in losses, then resigned with a huge pension. Ordinary people  like the father of three who was imprisoned in the UK in September 2015 for accumulating 500,000 in gambling debts  do not enjoy such impunity.

All of this helps explain why anti-establishment movements are gaining momentum around the world. These movements share a sense of disenfranchisement  a sense that the "establishment" is failing to give ordinary citizens a "fair shake." They point to election results "bought" by special interests, and to arcane legal and regulatory frameworks that seem rigged to benefit the rich, such as banking regulations that only large institutions can navigate and investment treaties negotiated in secret.

Governments have permitted globalization  and peripatetic wealth-holders  to outpace them. Globalization requires regulation and management. It requires responsible business leaders. And it requires deep and effective global cooperation. When governments failed to cooperate in the 1930s, globalization came to a crashing halt.

It took a series of careful, highly managed efforts after World War II to open up the world economy and permit globalization to take off again. Still, while many countries liberalized trade, capital controls ensured that "hot money" could not race in and out of their economies. Meanwhile, governments invested the returns on growth in high-quality education, health care, and welfare systems that benefited the many. As the business of government grew, so did the resources put into it.

By the 1970s, wealthy countries' leaders in both government and business had become complacent. They took on faith the promise of self-equilibrating, self-restraining markets that would deliver continued growth. By the time this new orthodoxy spread to the leveraged financial sector, the world was on a crash course. Unfortunately, many governments had already lost the capacity to manage the forces they had unleashed, and business leaders had lost their sense of responsibility for the welfare of the societies within which they were flourishing.

In 2016, we are re-learning that, politically, globalization needs to be managed not just to permit the winners to win, but also to ensure that they do not cheat or neglect their responsibilities to their societies. There is no place for corrupt politicians pandering to corrupt business leaders.

Restoring confidence will be difficult. Business leaders will need to secure a "license to operate" from society at large, and contribute visibly to sustaining the conditions that support their prosperity. They can start by paying their taxes.

Governments will need to distance themselves from the companies that fail to do their part. Moreover, they must overhaul their own operations, to prove their impartiality. Robust regulation will require significant investment in government capacity and the legal services that support it.

Finally, global cooperation will be crucial. Globalization cannot be undone. But with a strong, shared commitment, it can be managed.

Ngaire Woods is Dean of the Blavatnik School of Government and Director of the Global Economic Governance Program at the University of Oxford. Copyright belongs to Project Syndicate.
Swiss voters rejected the introduction of universal basic income in a national referendum, but that may give new life to this old but novel idea that is set to gain more relevancy as we accept the flaws of our national system and overcome the norms we take for granted.



The vote was three to one, turning down the proposal put on the ballot by a petition signed by more than 100,000 citizens for the monthly payment of 2,500 Swiss francs, or about 3 million won, for every adult and a fourth of that for each child. The funds would be raised by reorganizing the welfare system.



This resounding no-vote was apparently affected partially by a government campaign to the effect that if this system is adopted, it would invite unwanted "economic refugees" from outside and bring the country down.



The bigger barrier is, however, our belief that work as we know it is sacred. It is as if people are born to work. This concept, entrenched as if it is DNA in the human brain, can be challenged on at least two points.



First, automation. Most jobs we know of and do are forecast soon to disappear, taken up by robots and super artificial intelligence. Remember AlphaGo, the artificial "go" player that beat the world's best player with ease. Imagine that an army of people and a room of supercomputers that enlivened AI are compressed into a device the size of your palm, as 70 years ago ENIAC was on a turbocharged evolutionary path to be shrunk down to the size of your smartphone. Or think that thousands of android robots work 24/7 all year at a car factory. We cannot compete with them and we will become redundant as the jobs we know and now have disappear.



As Thomas Paine understood, in suggesting a similar idea in 1795, something like universal basic income would help people free themselves from being cogs in the wheel and allow them to do things that can put their creative energies to best use. For those who believe in the tendency of a person to become lazy and naughty when left to his or her own devices, think again. The traditional concept of work  living to work  is being rung out and the new one  playing is working  is becoming accepted. It would mean a better quality of life for all.



Also noteworthy are the limitations shown by the dynamics of our economy today  lack of growth, deflationary warnings, growing inequality and, yes, a dearth of jobs  that have frustrated all efforts at finding a remedy, making one justifiably wonder whether our economy as it is has come to the end of its useful life. Looking at all of this from the perspective of history, we realize that changes can take place rapidly  the first industrial revolution began some 250 years ago with the advent of the steam engine. Now, we are in the fourth generation of that revolution with robots.



Of course, detractors are right about their concerns that universal basic income will shake our way of life to its foundations. But this should not be taken as a reason to pigeonhole this idea and forget about it. Rather, it is worth paying attention to the pilot programs in the Netherlands and elsewhere and learn from them for later use.




Deadline for Assembly formation must be mandatory



Despite the public's ardent longing for cooperative governance since the April 13 general election, the 20th National Assembly has continued the dishonorable tradition of failing to form the parliament in time.



The ruling and opposition parties convened the 20th Assembly's first extraordinary session, Tuesday, to meet the legal deadline for the formation of the legislature. But they failed to reach agreement over which parties should fill the positions of the speaker and chairmanships of key standing committees.



Since a constitutional revision in 1987, not a single Assembly has met the parliamentary deadline, and it took as many as 125 days for the 14th legislature to finish its parliamentary formation in 1988.



The ruling Saenuri Party and the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea (MPK) were particularly at odds over Assembly speaker and chairmanships of the parliamentary steering, judiciary and budget committees.



The Saenuri Party said it should appoint the speaker, alleging that the post has customarily been taken by the ruling party so far with very few exceptions. The MPK, which emerged as the largest party in the April polls, countered that the No. 1 party in terms of the number of lawmakers must have priority in picking the speaker.



Fortunately, the deadlock was broken Wednesday as Rep. Chung Jin-suk, the governing party's floor leader, said his party would yield the Assembly speaker post to the opposition party. Later on Wednesday, the rival parties agreed on details of the parliamentary formation.



Nonetheless, the Saenuri Party should be blamed for causing the parliament to be crippled, oblivious to its demotion as the second-largest party and shirking its tremendous responsibility as the ruling party. However, the MPK can't avoid criticism, either, for having tried to win excessive gains, relying on its slim superiority in the number of legislators.



It's long overdue for the two main parties to finish forming the new parliament and perform their proper duties. Delaying the formation of the legislature is an act of reneging on the will of the people who want the new Assembly to function properly to improve people's livelihoods. In fact, nearly 100 bills, which have already been submitted to the parliament, are stuck without undergoing deliberation, and it's impossible for government officials to brief lawmakers on major pending issues, including corporate restructuring in the shipbuilding and shipping industries.



All this raises the need to fundamentally resolve the habitually belated formation of the legislature that has lasted for nearly three decades. Therefore, the National Assembly Act needs to be revised in such a way as to oblige the main parties to reach a consensus within a certain time limit instead of purely relying on the parties' voluntary agreement.



In preparation for the delayed formation of the parliament, it will also be necessary to adopt a provision enabling a lawmaker with most consecutive terms from the largest party to serve as the acting speaker until the new Assembly speaker is elected.




1st Lt. Jeong Ji-eun of the Army's 30th Mechanized Infantry Division

By Yi Whan-woo

A female Army officer has passed the combat skills test administered by the U.S. Army.

The South Korean military said 1st Lt. Jeong Ji-eun of the 30th Mechanized Infantry Division was awarded an Expert Infantryman Badge (EIB) after passing the U.S. Army's tests on physical fitness, land navigation, use of weapons, forced foot march and other capabilities needed for ground combat.

Jeong became the first South Korean woman to receive an EIB, the military said.

This year, some 630 personnel, including 50 South Koreans, participated in the EIB test co-organized by the U.S. and South Korean military at Camp Casey in Dongducheon, Gyeonggi Province.

Twenty-one South Koreans received EIBs in the training held from May 8 to 26. Jeong was the only female.

Jeong, 26, also passed the South Korean infantry's own test in November 2015. It benchmarked the EIB test.

Only 13 to 15 percent of applicants pass the annual EIB test, according to the military.

She reportedly performed 200 push-ups and sit-ups, each, and ran seven kilometers uphill every day in preparation for the EIB test.

Jeong's achievement is especially noteworthy because the EIB test demands the same requirements of both men and women.

Jeong, a platoon leader, said the South Korean infantry test helped her "a lot" in preparing for the EIB test.

"I kept telling myself that I can do it' and it led me to perform well," she said.

To earn an EIB, a soldier must endure a rigorous physical fitness test, including push-ups and sit-ups, and demonstrate skills in land navigation during the day and night without failing once, before going on to the next level.

A soldier is then required to use the assigned weapons proficiently, complete a 12-mile hike in full combat gear in three hours, perform first aid and show other skills necessary for survival.

Only infantry personnel are eligible to participate in both the EIB test and South Korea's equivalent test.

The U.S. military officially opened the door for women on ground combat jobs beginning in January and there were no female participants from the U.S. side this year, according to the South Korean military.

In November 2015, Jeong was the only woman among the four successful candidates who took the South Korean infantry test. A total of 85 soldiers took the test then.
Moon Chung-in, a professor of political science, delivers a last lecture at Yonsei University in Seoul, Tuesday.

/ Yonhap



By Kim Ji-soo

Perhaps only someone of Professor Moon Chung-in's stature can deliver a lecture entitled "Why I've Failed as a Professor." On Tuesday, the 65-year-old political science professor at Yonsei University in Seoul and political brain during the Kim Dae-jung and the Roh Moo-hyun administrations shared his thoughts in his last class.

"Looking back, I realize that I have no big project in which I put in four to five years of research and study," Moon said.

He thinks he could have produced two projects on the developmental nation theory and on national security in the third world.

Moon, however, said that in his eyes he failed to select and focus; he did not say no to the many requests to write papers or give lectures, and consequently, much of his work was in response to such requests than on his own initiative. He cited that he may have stuck to the scholarly passion of his younger days rather than shift to working on inter-Koreans relations and the South Korea-United States alliance after he returned to Korea to Yonsei University in 1994 from United States. "It was in demand, it was easier and I became a generalist who moved away from my studies in my younger days," Moon said.

Back in Seoul, Moon became politically active; he was the only civilian to partake in both the first inter-Korean summit between the late President Kim Dae-jung and the late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in 2000 and the summit between the late President Roh Moo-hyun and the late Kim Jong-il in 2007. Moon also served as chairman of the Presidential Committee on Northeast Asian Cooperation Initiative and was deeply involved in the foreign affairs and security policies of the Roh administration. In his last lecture, Moon said the Roh administration also offered him the job of chief of National Intelligence Service. Moon turned it down.

When asked about inter-Korean relations and unification during the question and answer session, Moon said a systematic mechanism would work better than a policy created by a political administration. He criticized the current administration's failure to define "unification," when it promotes unification as a bonanza. He said policies such as the inter-Korean policies of the Kim Dae-jung (1998-2003) and Roh Moo-hyun (2003-2008) administrations should not be dismissed; rather, the kernels of truths in such policies should be sought by the current and future administrations.

"I think as a professor, one has three roles  to research, to educate and to serve," Moon said. "The best allocation of energy among the three roles is 50, 40 and 10 percent. But in my case, I spent about 30 percent on research, 20 on educating and 40 on service," he said.

Moon said his activeness in politics was never for fame. "We should worry about our reputation but never pursue fame," he said.

It was somewhat unusual to hear an otherwise confident professor admit perceived shortfalls of his academic career. But after a while, it became clear that such an admission might be his way of posing questions about issues that he wanted his students to ponder. "I do not know what it is that I know and how deeply I know it," he said.

Moon will continue to teach as an honorary special professor for five years more at Yonsei University's Songdo campus.
By Yoon Sung-won



CJ HelloVision (CJH) has been under investigation for allegedly evading taxes, according to the police, Wednesday.



The police said the nation's largest provider of cable broadcasting and budget mobile services has been suspected not only of tax evasion but also of fraudulent accounting, as the company's regional branches are alleged to have falsified reports to exaggerate expenses.



As CJH is accused of dodging 10 billion won to 20 billion won in taxes, the company faces serious damage to its reputation.



Meanwhile, the allegations against CGH are expected to have an adverse impact on the government's ongoing review of SK Telecom's merger proposal with CJH, as authorities look into the fairness and financial capabilities of the merged companies.



Last November, SK submitted its proposal to the government to obtain approval of a merger of CJH with its unit SK Broadband. The proposal, however, is still pending and is being reviewed by the Fair Trade Commission (FTC), with the next steps in the process including Korea Communication Commission's review and final approval by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning.



Should the tax evasion allegations turn out to be true, CJH's corporate value will go down, escalating financial risk for SK and undermining the credibility of SK's merger proposal.



The antitrust agency's review process, which has already been ongoing for the last six months, may last longer if the FTC decides to wait for the police investigation to be concluded.



SK Telecom said it became aware of irregularities when it reached the agreement for the merger deal with CJH.



"When we were discussing the merger last year, we heard from CJH that there were questionable acts by some employees such as exaggeration of achievements but that the company had taken action to stop that," the telecom company said. "As CJH dealt with this it internally, we understood that it was not a grave issue so we went ahead and pushed for the contract based on that understanding."



On the contrary, those who oppose the merger between SK and CJH argued that the government should reject the plan because the numbers on paper don't add up.



The alleged irregularities are also likely to fuel the case for CJH's minority shareholders who have claimed for financial damages and filed a lawsuit to nullify the merger.



The small shareholders have argued that the price of the merger has been set unfairly. Following the results of the police investigation, the shareholders of SK Telecom may also request a resetting of the merger price after a reevaluation of CJH, as the company has been suspected of inflating its value for favorable conditions for the merger.



As the police push ahead with the investigation of CJH, SK Telecom has also been pressed to reconsider the merger to protect its shareholders.



"Following the police investigation, SK may cancel the merger deal with CJH," an industry source said. "If SK does not take action, its shareholders may question the integrity of its executives and accuse them of dereliction of duty for the damages SK Broadband could incur because of this scandal."



SK Telecom holds 100 percent of SK Broadband shares as its holding company.




/Courtesy of Twitter



By Lee Han-soo

A U.S. Army Reserve officer has been crowned Miss USA 2016, achieving an unprecedented feat in the contest's 64-year history.

Deshauna Barber, 26, is an IT analyst from the nation's capital.

Barber, who was crowned Sunday, became a favorite with the public after mounting a strong defense of women in combat roles.

"As a woman in the United States Army, I think it was an amazing job by our government to allow women to integrate into every branch of the military," she said. "We are just as tough as men. As a commander of my unit, I'm powerful, I am dedicated and it is important that we recognize that gender does not limit us in the United States."

Barber won the pageant from first runner-up Chelsea Hardin, Miss Hawaii, and will now represent the U.S. in the 2016 Miss Universe pageant.

Barber, who works as an IT analyst in the U.S. Department of Commerce, hopes to use her Miss USA status to highlight the health issues of combat veterans.
Opinion / Blogs

"ECSTASY"



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"Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going." -Jim Ryun



"People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing".Dale Carnegie

- On today's topic the writer will deal with the "ecstasy" both in Ancient Israel and in Zimbabwean context.- The word ecstasy is known by many students, but the challenge is on how to explain it .Today the author hopes that after reading this article ,you will be able to teach your friends as well.- Different definitions about ecstasy have been brought forward by different authors. Ecstasy is an abnormal behavior of an individual as a result of being possessed by supernatural force "this cannot be denied "One will understand that this kind of behavior was associated with the Israelites .- J Lindblom cited by Ewbank says there are two types of ecstasy "absorption and concentration ecstasy"~Absorption ecstasy is whereby an individual prophesy ecstatically after being induced by music .This is true in the case of sons of prophets of Samuel who prophesied ecstatically after being induced by music. This is recorded in 1 Samuel 10:10 .In Zimbabwean context ,this normally happens in "African Apostolic Churches". The white garment church is believed that they experience absorption ecstasy after singing .ZCC can be added ,dancing and singing cannot be separated with them after some time ,they will prophesy ecstatically."Zviratidzo Zvevapostori" can be added as well. It is said that after singing and dancing ,some they walk on fire. This is far from being normal.~Concentration ecstasy is whereby an individual prophecy ecstatically after concentrating on a certain object. Amos in Amos 7 is an enough evidence to justify this .In Zimbabwean society this is commonly found in white garment churches ,they usually carry rods. Some have suggested that the major purpose of the object is to concentrate ,as a result they will prophesy ecstatically(Note this should be treated with grain of salt).- As much as it can be said that Israelites prophesied ecstatically after concentrating or after being induced (concentration and absorption ecstasy) one should consider the view that they are some who prophesied ecstatically after being possessed by the spirit of God. The story of the seventy elders which is recorded in Numbers 11:20-26 is known by everyone ( some authors have named this type of ecstasy as contagious ).But the point in this case is that they prophesied ecstatically after being possessed by the spirit of God.- Elijah is recorded to have ran and overtaked the chariot of Ahab before the entrance of Jezreeel ,this is abnormal. He might have prophesied ecstatically after being possessed by the spirit of God (Remember the hand of the lord touched him 1st Kings 18:45-46).This might be ecstasy even though scholars like Dr Constable doubt this.N.B There are so many examples which can be added~Isaiah 20:3~Jeremiah 27~1st Samuel 19:20-24+263777896159 (WhatsApp)Witness Dingani (Facebook page)
Opinion / Columnist

Msipa backs Mnangagwa succeeding Mugabe - what happened to one-man-one-vote. By Wilbert Mukori"THE late former army commander, Solomon Mujuru, reportedly suggested Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa - then State Security minister - should succeed President Robert Mugabe as the next Zanu PF leader, a former ruling party politburo member has claimed," reported Newsday."Former Midlands governor Cephas Msipa yesterday said in 1983 Mujuru had suggested Mnangagwa's name to him as a potential successor, although this was no longer relevant, as this was said before the 1987 Unity Accord.""He (Mujuru) told me something similar to what war veterans are saying today. So you have to understand what Chris (Mutsvangwa, the war veterans' chairman) is saying today is in that context," Msipa continued.What is at issue here is that leaders must be elected by the people in a free, fair and credible election and Zanu PF's failure to hold such elections is at the very heart of the country's economic meltdown and political chaos. The solution is to slam down hard all those seeking to perpetuate this failed one-party cum one-man dictatorship and thus end the system a.s.a.p. in favour of a healthy and democratic system of government in which every Zimbabwean has a meaningful free, fair and credible one-man-one-vote.The Genesis of Zimbabwe's present economic and political mess can be traced by to the country's Black Nationalist leaders' failure to appreciate the critical importance of securing all Zimbabweans' right to a meaningful free, fair and credible vote not only as a fundamental human right but also as the foundation of good, just and accountable government. Zimbabwe's leaders only paid lip-service to freedom, liberty, fair distribution of the nation's wealth, etc.; they had their beady eyes on securing absolute power for themselves and the unfettered access to the nation's wealth to feed their insatiable greed.South Africa's Black Nationalist leaders, in contrast, gave the matter of what kind of post-apartheid did they want the serious consideration the matter demanded as can be seen from the 1955 Freedom Charter, the Bible of SA's fight for independence."The People Shall Govern!Every man and woman shall have the right to vote for and to stand as a candidate for all bodies which make laws;All people shall be entitled to take part in the administration of the country;The rights of the people shall be the same, regardless of race, colour or sex;All bodies of minority rule, advisory boards, councils and authorities shall be replaced by democratic organs of self-government."Boldly states the very opening section of the Freedom Charter.SA has held a number of elections since its first post-apartheid 1994 elections and no one has ever complained of any of them was rigged. Every man and woman, regardless of race or colour, had a meaningful free, fair credible one-vote. No one had more than one-vote much less a veto. Sadly the same cannot be said of Zimbabwe's elections, all of them including the first 1980 elections were rigged.Zimbabwe wasted nearly $100 million and God knows how many MPs man-hours writing a new 68 page constitution which the MDC leaders insisted was a democratic constitution, it is "an MDC child" Tsvangirai said. They assured the nation it will finally deliver the free and fair elections the nation had yarned for since independence. It did no such thing!The new 2013 constitution was in fact too weak and feeble to deliver free and fair elections and by noon of voting day, 31 July 2013, Tsvangirai acknowledged that Mugabe had indeed "rigged the elections". The MDC leader had been warned that as long as the elections are held without implementing the 2008 GPA democratic reforms first, the elections will never be free and fair.Whilst Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies have enjoyed 36 years of absolute political power, the fruit of rigging elections; the nation has paid a heavy price as mismanagement, corruption and lawlessness have thrived under the dictatorship. The country is facing serious economic meltdown and, with both Zanu PF and the opposition fighting and subdividing like amoebas, political chaos. The situation is socially and politically unsustainable; it is causing untold human misery, many lives are being lost unnecessarily and it now threatens national and regional stability.With human lives and national survival at stake, one had hoped that the penny would have finally dropped and Zanu PF grandees like Cephas Msipa would now finally see the error of their failure to secure good, just and accountable government by safe guarding everyone's freedoms and basic rights including the right to free and fair electionsWisdom comes with age! Sadly this is clearly not the case with these Zanu PF grandees like Cephas Msipa, worse still Robert Mugabe himself; they are still devoid of common sense and as myopic as ever! They are no different from the brainwashed Chris Mutsvangwa who still believe that war veterans are "stockholders of Zimbabwe" and thus have a veto on who the country's president should be.The only way to end Zimbabwe's economic meltdown and political chaos is by clearing the political deck of the failed Zanu PF dictatorship by implementing all the democratic reforms necessary for free and fair elections.The nation should have never allowed Zanu PF nationalists to impose the de facto one-party cum one-man dictatorship we have lived under since independence, it was a big mistake and the nation has paid dearly for it. If anyone in Zanu PF thinks they can still impose the dictatorship on the nation, they are wrong; the system has failed the nation and it must and will be scrapped without further ado!
Opinion / Columnist

MDC-T leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, was once described by one political observer as someone who often opens his mouth while his mind is tightly shut.To his supporters, this sounded rather like a harsh and unwarranted assessment yet, interestingly, Tsvangirai continues to expose himself in similar fashion as someone who has a narrow appreciation of important national issues.When commenting on the looming introduction of bond notes and other monetary measures from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, Tsvangirai reportedly told the Dailynews on 7 June 2016 that, "Zimbabweans will resist the bond notes and if they are not acceptable locally, what about to foreigners? It doesn't work, there is no economy that can be run on bond notes."This is a typical open mouth, closed mind' scenario.It is a rushed response that sounds uneducated and full of spite.Like a respectful national politician he is expected to be, Tsvangirai should have researched on the topic before availing his insipid thoughts or ignorance to the media, for it is common knowledge that most Zimbabweans, including the concerned stakeholders such as the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) and the Bankers Association of Zimbabwe (BAZ) have publicly backed the introduction of bond notes and other measures to plug the leakage of foreign currency from the country.A simple research or a perusal of publicly available RBZ literature would have awakened Tsvangirai to the fact that bond notes by their nature will only be used locally and never to be circulated outside the country.This simple fact would have stopped him from making embarrassing and uninformed claims that foreigners would reject the bond notes.On what basis, and in what capacity, would foreigners reject the use of bond notes in Zimbabwe?The use of bond notes has nothing to do with foreigners, whether they accept them or not is out of question.If my kindergarten child knows that bond notes are for local use only, doesn't this shame the ridiculous prediction by Tsvangirai that foreigners would snub the use of bond notes?Who would have thought that a leader of a national opposition party would be so clueless on such a rudimentary economic issues?It shows that the MDC-T leader is not paying attention to national issues but is only hooked on trivial opposition sideshows.He opposes matters for the sake of opposing them, not for the sake of proffering alternatives or seeking to salvage the economy from the sanctions-induced economic morass.In his utterances, Tsvangirai fails to see the bigger picture on the monetary front but only focuses on bond notes.Maybe we could take this opportunity to school Tsvangirai on the benefits accruing from the recent RBZ monetary interventions.Maybe it will be helpful to highlight the challenges that precipitated the intervention by the RBZ to enable the MDC-T leader to appreciate their benefits.The country is gripped by stifling cash shortages, unmatched externalization of foreign currency and a distorted financial system that worships cash transactions.This is what the RBZ came to clean up.So far, the measures instituted by the RBZ had managed to inculcate a culture of using plastic money by consumers.Now the country is morphing into a cashless society in which most transactions are conducted via a plethora of electronic platforms thus eliminating an unnecessarily huge demand for cash.Already, many traders and retailers have inserted point of sale points, allowing customers to access services without the hassle of looking for cash.In line with the latest developments, efforts are also being made to reduce bank charges to easy the electronic transfers.Already Steward Bank has slashed its charges on RTGS transactions by 50%, with the rest of the banking sector expected to follow suit soon.The measures introduced by the Reserve Bank have also opened up the market to the use of other currencies other than the US dollar.Other currencies have of late been sidelined in preference of the US dollar.Major import transactions have been conducted using the US currency, with the importation of used Japanese vehicles being a glaring and hemorrhaging example.The new monetary measures put in place by the RBZ have curtailed the use of the US dollar in by directing all importers to use the currency of the source country.Now anyone who wishes import a used vehicle is required to use the currency of the source country instead of the widely used US dollar.This would ease the pressure on the demand for the US currency and partially resolve the liquidity challenges.With this in mind, it is foolhardy for uninformed politicians like Tsvangirai to feign to be economist who can predict doom on the country.Tsvangirai should just shut up rather than foul our ears with his uneducated economic guesses.-------------gwinz.mutongi
Opinion / Columnist

The headlines in certain tabloids tell a big story of how some journalists have thrown the ethics of their profession in pursuit of partisan politics.A reader can hardly draw a line between a story written by a professional journalist and the one originated from a Headquarter of a political party. There are more political activists than reporters in most of the newsrooms. Some of the scribes have shamelessly assumed new roles of being foot soldiers of certain political parties.Political activism in the newsroom is being practised at the expense of the captive readers who are daily fed with trivialities. While the media has a watchdog role over the political powers, that role must be exercised responsibly. Constructive criticism from the media is needed for checks and balance in the whole political matrix. However, that criticism must not be sensationalized to an extent that it scares away potential investors and cause alarm and despondency within the public.There are lots of developmental issues that should be accorded more space and airtime in the media. These important issues are, unfortunately relegated to the peripheries in preference of sensationalized political narratives.For instance, Adma organized an agricultural show last Friday, just outside Harare where agricultural mechanized equipment was exhibited and sold. With the threat of food insecurity that the country is facing due to climatic conditions, the show could not have come at a better time.That event needed first class media coverage. Thanks to the ZBC crew which gave it a fair coverage. The Newsday crew was also available. They spent the larger part of the day visiting different stands, eating and interviewing company representatives manning stands, including this writer. We all anticipated a big story from this event, for it was surely of national interest.The agricultural show had nothing adverse on President Mugabe despite being dominated by whites. I suppose it was a great disappointment to the Newsday reporter who went back to the newsroom to look up for other stories that are compatible with their political editorial policy. He browsed the facebook where he fortunately' bumped into some vomits by one disgruntled former Zanu-PF Mashonaland Central provincial youth chairperson.The expelled former chairman said that President Mugabe was reluctant to choose a successor because he feared that he (successor) would turn against him and send him to jail. This story became the paper's front page article with a sensational headline Mugabe family scared.' The agricultural show story was relegated to the fringe. It was used as a filler story, dumped at a very invisible corner of the paper. That's how far polarization has taken our media to.Although I might appear like I am teaching the editor on how to place his stories, that story did not deserve a front page space for many reasons. Tsenengamu is not a credible source deserving attention from a whole newspaper worth its salt. All what he uttered are motivated by nothing else but frustration. In all his senses, how can he say President Mugabe is not naming a successor because he fears that the chosen successor would turn against him and persecute him? What crime did he ever commit that deserves persecution? That's hogwash at its worst form.The Zanu-PF constitution does not require President Mugabe to name his successor. Tsenengamu must know this better. The successor will come from the people. Even President Mugabe himself is serving at the pleasure of the people. By pushing President Mugabe to name his successor, detractors are trying to force him to violate his party constitution. They will be the same people will turn and say here is a dictator. In shona they say anyangira yaona.Zanu-PF constitution is very clear on succession. There will be no chaos in the party and government as the diviners of doom are prophesying. Again, the succession issue is not in any way a threat to investment. We have had a number of investments coming into the country and some of them are at an advanced stage. Genuine investors will continue to flow in despite attempts by detractors to paint a gloomy picture of the country.President Mugabe has often said if people tell him to retire, he would gladly do so. These are the people who gave him the mandate to rule in 2013. The same people gave him the blessing in 2014 to stand as the Zanu-PF candidate in the 2018 polls. Therefore, it is a sheer waste of time and resources to talk about succession issue in Zanu-PF.What is interesting is that the opposition is the one with the loudest voice on this issue. They cry more than the bereaved. Even President Mugabe himself was perplexed by the opposition's empathy.'"Vanhu vanguka ndovangati aah chiregai. Ko MDC itsitsi here dzekunzwira VaMugabe kuti vaneta kana kutya VaMugabe? Kutya VaMugabe," said the President in his address to the multitudes who thronged the Robert Mugabe Square during the recent million-man march organized by the Youths League to reaffirm their support for the revolutionary leader.Indeed the MDC-T and all opposition parties including their benefactors in the west are dead scared of President Mugabe. They know that with him at the helm of Zanu-PF, winning an election would remain a dream that will never come true. Even Morgan Tsvangirai himself is not lost to this reality. While addressing journalists at his party's headquarters early February, Tsvangirai indicated that he had lost hope of winning against President Mugabe. "We all know that instead of fighting for succession, let us wait until he dies," said Tsvangirai.Indeed, it is chasing wind for one to entertain hopes of winning against the tried and tested leader. Heed Mr Tsvangirai's advice. Wait until the man dies but only God knows who die first.----------John Sigauke
Opinion / Columnist

Zimbabweans have been made to believe that the scourge of sanctions imposed in the country by the western countries more than a decade ago were behind the demise of the Zimbabwean economy yet corruption was silently abetting them. Corruption which was hitherto not talked about with only bigwigs in government talking about sanctions as behind causing economic problems now has manifested itself as the main monster in the demise of our economy. Talking about sanctions as behind the economic demise of Zimbabwe is no longer admissible to the public but corruption is now on everyone`s lips.Although sanctions played their part in destroying the economic development of Zimbabwe but the issue of corruption in the country has taken over and everyone is quite aware that corruption has become a cancer which needs everyone to fight it. Now it should be the prerogative of every Zimbabwean to get a stance against corruption so that the country is rid of such vice. Ordinary Zimbabweans cannot suffer just because some bigwigs in the public service are untouchables. Those people have been fleecing the economy hiding behind sanctions and now that sanctions have been overtaken by corruption in causing the economic doldrums there is need for the government to deal decisively with those economic saboteurs.The report in The Sunday Mail of 5 June 2016 that government was now in the major anti-corruption blitz targeting ministries, parastatals, Harare city Council and some House Cooperatives could not have come at a better time considering that Zimbabwe is facing financial crisis caused by the same bigwigs in government. The government needs to be serious on this initiative of bringing to book those who would be caught on the wrong side of the law. Zimbabweans have not enjoyed the sweat of their work because they have been reeling under sanctions with corruption abetting the demise of the economic development here. Now that the government has now taken steps to curb corruption in the public offices as well as some parastatals there is need for the same government to act expeditiously on that route taken. Talking about corruption without action against it is not helpful to the economy.Zimbabwe is in dire need of foreign direct investment which could make the economic turnaround of this country viable but such a move cannot be possible if a country is full of corrupt individuals who always see the coming of any investor in the country as an opportunity for both top public and private sector officials to fatten their wallets. There have been hope that some mega deals which Zimbabweans were made to believe that they would turn around the economic fortunes of Zimbabwe would help but since then nothing has materialised. Bar and public talks over why such deals have not materialised were that bureaucracy coupled with corrupt tendencies by those handling such deals have curtailed everything resulting in them frozen with no explanation.Now it is incumbent upon the government to institute laws which empower every citizen to police each other on issues to deal with corruption as a necessary measure to get rid of it in the country. In many times, public officials have been seen on the wrong side of the law trying to illegally enrich themselves through corrupt means but no arrests have been made to some bigwigs in government. The same bigwigs in government have been preaching that the demise of the economy was due to sanctions forgetting that even corruption has played havoc to the economic development of Zimbabwe. For that reason the government should descent heavily on those found to be corrupt so that the country is corrupt free.Zimbabwe should emulate our all-weather friend China in her many efforts of eradicating corruption within her ranks. China deal decisively with corrupt officials within government without favour and as a result the Chinese government has managed to make its economy to flourish well. That Asian giant has a zero tolerance on corruption so Zimbabwe should do likewise as a means to make sure that the country becomes corruption free. It should be known that there is no crime in emulating what our all weatherly friend is doing in eradicating corruption.As a means to show that China has zero tolerance in corruption, in 20014, the Chinese authorities seized some assets worth at least fourteen and half billion United States of America dollars (US$14, 5 Billion) from more than three hundred (300) relatives and close associates of one, a retired domestic security Tsar, Zhou Yongkang, who was reportedly at the centre of China`s biggest corruption scandals. The seizure of such assets by the Chinese government from Zhou Yongkang`s close associates because of his corrupt activities could be taken as a lesson here. Zimbabweans need such route be taken by the Zimbabwean government go wards those bigwigs who are corrupt. Talking about corruption without action taken against the culprits is no longer acceptable as it has become monotonous.In fact, the Chinese government has laws which make one to be sentenced to capital punishment if he/she is convicted of corruption despite his/her political standing in society. China has come up with no scared cows' policy when it comes to dealing with corruption so Zimbabwe should do the same. Coming up with laws that deal decisively against corruption by the Zimbabwean government would also help in luring investors to come here. China makes sure that corruption investigations are carried out on everyone regardless of the status of such an individual in society. The issue of some individuals being said to be untouchables in the Chinese government or parastatals is not there when it comes to the investigations of corruption among them.Actually, China has been active in curbing corruption by targeting even high profile people in society showing the world that she has a zero tolerance to corruption. In 2013, Bo Xilai, who was one of the top politicians in that country, was sentenced to life in prison on bribery charges, fifteen (15) years for embezzlement of funds and seven years for abuse of power, leaving him with nothing but to face a jail as his new home until death. Surprisingly incessant talk by government officials in the country denouncing corruption has yielded nothing. Zimbabwe has never brought to book any top government official found to be corrupt as if the country is safe on that field.Now that the government through the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission has started the ball rolling by investigating corrupt activities in various ministries, parastatals as well as in the Harare City Council and some Housing Cooperatives people are eagerly waiting to see where the operation would end. It would not be proper for the operation to end without any major shake-ups or arrests in those targeted sectors as a lot is in the public domain that has been happening. People are aware of some bigwigs who within months in government have turned millionaires at the time when the economy is not performing well. So the government should be serious on that front so that Zimbabwe becomes corrupt free like what the Chinese government is boasting about today.-------------Hanyani Matitemba
Opinion / Columnist

Every right thinking African should be worried about the violence unfolding in our sister country, Mozambique, at the instigation of RENAMO led by Alfonzo Dhlakama.RENAMO has caused untold suffering to hundreds of thousand innocent people in Mozambique and neighbouring countries including Zimbabwe, twenty years ago, before a peace agreement was reached with the ruling FLERIMO.Dhlakama participated in democratic elections several times but failed to win the presidency of that country. Peace brought hope of stability and economic growth, not only to Mozambique but to Southern Africa as a whole. A lot foreign direct investment poured in that country resulting in Mozambique recording one fastest economic growth in Africa. However, after realising that he could not win the presidency through democratic means, Dhlakama is now resorting to banditry again in order to take power by force. As I write this article people are being killed, maimed and displaced in their thousands in Mozambique, hence many citizens of that country are now refugees in neighbouring countries including Malawi and Zimbabwe.At the peak of Mozambique's civil war, at the instigation of Apartheid South African sponsored RENAMO, thousands of Zimbabweans, who stayed close to the country's border with Mozambique, were brutally killed, maimed or displaced from their homes. In addition, Zimbabwe's defence budget was strained to the limit as the country defended its citizens as well as trade routes and the oil pipeline in Mozambique.-------------Chadzimura Mhute
The SLFP does not condone the continuation of the Emergency Regulations (The Public Security Ordinance) more than a day necessary

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Opinion / Columnist

Tapiwa Maware <tmaware28@gmail.com

Smuggling has become an albatross around the country's economy as leakages of goods in and out of the country on our borders and illegal points of entry has impacted negatively on our efforts to resuscitate our economy which is under siege. It is high time we turn up the heat and make smugglers feel they have no-where to hide.Smuggling is but one vice that has prejudiced the country of billions of dollars, money which could have made a difference for our socio-economic development. An assorted goods have been smuggled from cigarettes to the much needed minerals like gold, diamonds etc. Officer commanding Bulilima-Mangwe Chief Superintendent, Gideon Zulu was reported saying gold smuggling activities were rife at the Plumtree border with a total of 64 kilogrammes of gold being intercepted at the border in less than five months while being smuggled into Botswana.A small scale miner admitted "it does not make sense that I sell gold worth $10 000 to RBZ and I cannot access that money. It is better to channel another portion to the black market so that I can get hard cash to cover other operational costs at the mine". This was revealed after reports emerged that small scale miners were smuggling gold into the Mozambican black market. Last year, Fidelity Printers and Refineries acting chief executive officer Mr Fradreck Kunaka acknowledged that an estimated 200 kgs of gold were being smuggled out of the country, against a monthly average of 600kgs gold deliveries by small scale miners. This is just but confirming the war we have at our doorstep.Smugglers have proved to be daring individuals going to great length risking lives by using undesignated and landmine-infested routes, or cross crocodile-infested rivers in order to beat the system. Whilst for those who want to tempt their fate have gone as far as concealing contraband in various parts of their vehicles or even bodies to in a bid to circumvent duty payment and border controls. The status quo cannot be left unchecked as the monies the state has lost is astronomical.The magnitude of smuggling, can only be understood in terms of numbers and figures with the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) CEO, Mr Christopher Mugaga attesting to an astounding fact that the country is losing US$1,5 billion, a figure that is more than one third of the 2016 national budget of US$4 billion. This staggering figure should jolt all stakeholders into action to stem the unabated haemorrhaging of our economy.It is heartening to note that all is not lost in the country's bid to deal with this iniquity as reports in the past weeks and months have seen arrests of the culprits who remorseless bankrupt the country's coffers to their own ends.Early this year, a Chinese businessman Li Yuchang (55) was nabbed for trying to smuggle US$ 32 000 at Harare International Airport. Recently, two Rwandese were arrested at Harare international airport recently attempting to smuggle $87 400. This is against a background of serious cash shortages and central bank imposing cash limits to stem the externalization of cash. Reports are that the Rwandese are the kingpins of the commuter sector in the country where they are culprits who do not bank their daily takings. Is it not time that we implement the Indigenization and Economic Policy to the letter as this sector and the retail and wholesale sector which have heavy concentration of foreigners are reserved sectors for Zimbabwean entrepreneurs?The police have also doing a sterling job as an 18 tonnes haulage truck which was filled to the beam with smuggled second-hand clothes was recently impounded. A few months ago, a smuggling syndicate was busted at Harare international airport which included officials from ZIMRA, Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (CAAZ), the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) and the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) for trying to smuggle 29 bags of cellphones. All this does not point to laxity on the part of law enforcement agents as some have alleged, but a determined drive to deal with the corrosive vice.ZIMRA should also be commended in investing in hi-tech scanners at all border post to detect contraband and anti-smuggling units at these border post should go a long way in curbing these subversive activities. So much has been accomplished as reports of intercepted consignments of various goods from scrap metal to cigarettes have been reported. One report actually indicated that the smuggling unit at the Beitbridge Border post discovered a consignment of cigarettes cleverly concealed inside two five litre tins of oil. Smuggling has been termed "relatively sophisticated industry" hence units that burst these syndicates need also to be up to date with tactics and routines of these organised crimes.Minister of Industry and Commerce, Mike Bimha recently acknowledged the need for cooperation among stakeholders and use of technology, "We decided to come together as an inter-ministerial committee that includes Home Affairs, Industry, Environment and the Mines ministry and we have involved experts," he said."We came up with a broad framework and we have managed to secure funding."We now have the funding to procure equipment and drones that will hover around the border."This is the kind of cooperation that is need for the country to beat smuggling to cinders. If various stakeholders work together we can win this war. Notwithstanding the fact that we have some bad apples amongst our officials some of whom of part of syndicates that have prejudiced the nation of revenue. Government should not have mercy on these lechers and condemn them to life behind bars and all their ill-gained wealth forfeited to the state. The anti-corruption body should also up its game to weed out these oddities who are bent on condemning the country to penury.Every Zimbabwean is a stakeholder in the fight against smuggling as information availed to law enforcing agents has gone a long way in curbing the vice. Many smugglers have been caught as a result of whistleblowing by ordinary Zimbabweans. A man was arrested in 2015 trying to smuggle about 50 kg of gold through Plumtree was a result of information provided by ordinary people who are pained by the malevolent bleeding of our economy.Hence, revival of the economy is every Zimbabwean's business. If we stem all the loopholes that have been used to bleed the economy, then we will be putting one brick to the re-building of our economy and country. As much as we are glad smugglers are being apprehended so much need to be done as smuggling is still big business with smugglers proving to be egotistical individuals without the interests of the nation at heart, at a time when the country needs every Zimbabwean to be patriotic for us to revive our economy.
PRESS RELEASE

Grushko: NATO Lives in Surrealistic Reality

June 7, 2016 (EIRNS)Alexander Grushko, Russias ambassador to NATO, said in an interview on Rossiya 24 television yesterday, that the idea of a Russian threat to NATO is

"a myth which gives a possibility to pursue the policy that NATO pursues, and at the same time to solve other tasks of strategic nature."

Grushko said this myth is used as an external factor to substantiate that

"NATO is seen as an additional band to fix unity of the West... All these games of NATOs fearfulness, they must end sooner or later, as it is difficult to live all the time in the smoke of an ideological campaign built on nothing."

Grushko was speaking as giant NATO exercises are underway in both the Baltic region and in Poland.

"What we are seeing today in the Baltic states, as a matter of fact, is nothing but attempts towards force development with the hostile policy pursued by NATO in the recent time. I would not say that it is a direct threat for Russia but, nevertheless, it obviously creates serious risks as we see an absolutely new military reality forming along our border,"

he said. He called statements out of Warsaw that Russia is preparing to invade Poland, absurd.

"Recently the [NATO] secretary general visited Poland, and during these visits the Polish side was making statements that now Russia knows that an attack against Poland is an attack against NATO, which is completely absurd, as they are discussing the problem that does not exist,"

he said. "There are no plans to attack Poland."

The problem is that NATOs warnings of a non-existent Russian threat can materialize into actions. "The policy [of NATO] lives in surrealistic reality, and the most dangerous thing is that it now starts taking shape of military planning and military preparations carried out on territories along our borders,"

Grushko said. He said NATOs decisions that are now materialized as exercises could soon acquire a more dangerous nature.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, during a joint press conference yesterday in Moscow with Finnish Foreign Minister Timo Soini, reiterated that Russia will take measures in response to the NATO military build-up.

"We do not hide our negative attitude to the movement of NATOs military infrastructure towards our borders, to dragging new states into the military activity of the block,"

Lavrov said.
A planned film about 13th century Persian poet Rumi has some admirers of the Islamic theologian seeing red after the screenwriter and producer behind the movie said they'd like to cast Leonardo DiCaprio in the lead role.

In an interview in the Guardian, screenwriter David Franzoni and producer Stephen Joel Brown revealed their dream casting choice for the movie, with DiCaprio as Rumi. They also suggested that Robert Downey Jr. should play Shams Tabrizi, Rumi's spiritual mentor.

Although the film is purely theoretical at this point, many Rumi fans expressed outrage about the casting ideas, noting that neither Rumi nor Shams was white. The film industry has been criticized in recent years for "whitewashing," casting white actors in nonwhite roles.

See the most-read stories in Entertainment this hour >>

Though Rumi's exact birthplace is disputed by scholars, most agree he was born in either present-day Afghanistan or Tajikistan to parents of Persian descent. Shams was from Tabriz, a city that's presently in northwestern Iran.

On Twitter, several users blasted the idea that DiCaprio or Downey would be appropriate choices to play Rumi and Shams, some using the hashtag #RumiWasntWhite:

https://twitter.com/MazMHussain/status/740360634727071745

https://twitter.com/Fahad/status/740520529724071939

https://twitter.com/ByYourLogic/status/740299391693643776

https://twitter.com/AayeshaJ/status/740233363974393860

https://twitter.com/NilamAtodaria/status/739949969889763328

At Buzzfeed, Aisha Gani wrote, "If the Rumi movie gets made and stars white actors, it would hardly be a first for a film about a revered Middle Eastern figure."

She points to the movies "Exodus: Gods and Kings," "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" and "Gods of Egypt," all of which featured white actors portraying Middle Eastern roles.

No final casting decisions have been made for the Rumi movie, which, producers hope, will start filming next year.

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Opinion / Columnist

It would be an oversimplification for a rather complex issue to say that the churches should rise and condemn evil for what it is in order to eradicate the problems bedeviling the country. Cleric Ancelimo Magaya, of the National Agreement Platform has urged the government to initiate national dialogue to find a lasting solution to the problems facing the country. Heart-Felt International Ministries (HIM) founder, Tavonga Vutabwashe is also accusing government officials of oppressing Zimbabweans but handling foreigners with velvet gloves.Addressing a Press conference in Harare recently, Magaya urged the government to take seriously issues to do with civil servants' salaries and put to an end house demolitions and illegal parceling out of stands by the so-called land barons. He urged the government to restore the dignity of those in the state security sector, war veterans and pensioners.It is prudent that the church leaders should plead with the politicians to consider the welfare of ordinary men, women and children. They should also maintain the view that there is more to unite the different political actors than to divide them. Thus they should preach unity in all parties and not to promote factionalism.We know that the church leaders have by all means tried to interrogate the political, economic and social problems that are rocking the country and have tried to proffer some solutions. The little known cleric Magaya has also joined the bandwagon of church leaders who have joined civil society to demand that elections should only be held when the country has been sufficiently de-militarized.Clerics like Magaya should be able to read the signs of the times and avoid aligning themselves with partisan political agendas. The so-called man of cloth is criticizing the First Lady Dr Grace Mugabe for donating food and other goods alleging that they are being distributed on party lines. The First Lady invited all the people to join her as the mother of the nation when she was donating the food and goods.Magaya has gone a step further by urging the people to rise against the legitimately elected government over civil servants' salaries and the demolitions of the illegal structures. We need to remind the so-called top cleric to stop inciting the peace loving people of this country. In fact the man should be reminded that it is illegal to be legal in a society of illegality.The cleric has also called the government to restore dignity to members of the security sector, pensioners and war veterans. In this endeavour the cleric should not interfere in the running of the government but concentrate on writing positive pastoral letters. The man of the pulpit should stick to the word of God.The net effect of biased clerics like Magaya has been to divide the church into two broad groups; those in favour of President Robert Mugabe and those opposed to him. Progressive Christians and the like minded people should stick to the word of God and leave politics to the politicians.Recently Heart-Felt International Ministries (HIM) founder Tavonga Vutahwashe has come out guns blazing accusing government officials of oppressing Zimbabweans but handling foreigners with velvet gloves. Vutahwashe went on arguing that ministers are behind the untold suffering of locals and all the economic misfortunes the country is facing.In his scathing sermons, Vutahwashe preaches that President Robert Mugabe is surrounded by ungodly people who are unfit to lead the country. He claims that the ZANU PF regime has perpetuated the stereo-type that foreigners are superior to locals as it gives them preferential treatment especially the Chinese.The clergyman proffers that the current cash crisis can be traced back to the ZANU PF all weather friends the Chinese, who he accuses of siphoning the greenback to their motherland. In this endeavour the man of the cloth is promoting racism as he is against the Chinese and then this becomes a fascinating paradox.In the current political discourse it has emerged that traditional churches in the likes of Roman Catholic, Methodists Anglicans etc have been concentrating on the word of God instead of criticizing government policies like the newly emerging little known churches. Of late these little known churches are being led by people of dubious religious credentials as they are preaching hate sermons.-------------Stewart Murewa
Seeking to tamp down the uproar over his bigoted attack on the federal judge hearing two lawsuits against Trump University in California, Donald Trump on Tuesday issued a statement purporting to lay out his substantive complaints about the judges rulings.

Referring to U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, an Indiana-born jurist of Mexican descent, Trump stated: I do not feel that ones heritage makes them incapable of being impartial, but, based on the rulings that I have received in the Trump University civil case, I feel justified in questioning whether I am receiving a fair trial.

He refers to unfair and mistaken rulings in this case, ascribing them at least in part to the Judges reported associations with certain professional organizations, as a result of which questions were raised regarding the Obama appointed Judges impartiality. (Raised by Trump, that is.) The two components of this charge, therefore, are that (1) Judge Curiels rulings have been unfair and mistaken, and (2) theyre the result of Curiels ethnic resentment of Trumps hostility to Mexican immigrants.

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I do not feel that ones heritage makes them incapable of being impartial, but ... I feel justified in questioning whether I am receiving a fair trial.  Donald Trump

The statement also offers several defenses of Trump University, a series of real estate investment seminars that the plaintiffs, along with New York Atty. Gen. Eric Schneiderman, allege were worthless frauds. Helaine Olen of Slate has an excellent rundown of the bluster, semitruths, and outright smoke of these defenses.

But lets examine the core issue underlying Trumps attack on Curiel: Has the judge made unfair and mistaken rulings that disadvantaged Trump and Trump University? (I have had ruling after ruling after ruling thats been bad rulings, OK? Trump told CNNs Jake Tapper last week.)

Several experienced trial lawyers have taken a look at the record, and their conclusion is: No. Not only has Curiel adhered closely to the applicable law in every particular, but many of his rulings have been highly advantageous to Trump and the, er, university.

Nor has Curiel refrained from criticizing the plaintiffs lawyers on occasion. In a February 2014 order in the class-action lawsuit brought by former Trump University student Tarla Makaeff and others, Curiel disdained them for having woven a quilt made up of causes of action from all fifty states in an effort to sweep in the broadest possible class of victims ostensibly harmed in 14 categories of shoddy business practices. He slapped them down, narrowing the causes of action to only five categories and limiting them to only California, Florida and New York.

As Philadelphia plaintiffs lawyer Max Kennerly observed, the ruling fulfilled one of the key goals of a defendant in a class-action  narrowing the class certification. It could only be considered a huge victory for Trump.

Kennerly, along with Ken White, a Los Angeles lawyer who blogs at Popehat.com, has taken an especially deep dive into the record of both cases. Kevin Drum, a non-lawyer, also offers a typically cogent look at the cases, citing White and Kennerly.

Kennerly reported that Trump also notched a win last September on class-certification issues, although the judge did give plaintiffs a victory on the issue of how much the former Trump University enrollees should recover if they won their case. The question turned on whether the courses they took were completely worthless or had some residual value, even if theyd been misled into thinking that Trump himself was intimately involved in developing the curriculum and hand-picking instructors. In passing, Curiel observed that although a trial court might eventually find that the Trump University programs possessed value, restitution should turn on the fact that the customers probably wouldnt have bought the programs at all if they knew in advance that Trumps role was marginal, if even that. If they win, he ruled, they should get all their money back. The fraud in the selling, not the value of the thing sold, is what entitles consumers in this case to full refunds, he ruled.

But as Kennerly explained, this ruling wasnt out of left field. It was a straightforward application of precedent set down by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which applies in Curiels courtroom.

Trump has tried to make much of the withdrawal of Makaeff as a plaintiff in one of the class-action lawsuits. Once the plaintiffs lawyers realized how disastrous a witness she was, Trump said in his statement Tuesday, they asked to have her removed from the case. Over my lawyers objections, the judge granted the plaintiffs motion, but allowed the case to continue.

Thats not what happened. Trump may be feeling his pique because Makaeff figuratively bloodied his nose before departing from the case: She beat him when he sued her for defamation, winning recovery of nearly $800,000 in legal fees and court costs. On the other hand, she had sought more than $1.3 million. In February, Makaeff asked to withdraw because she had been put through the wringer by Trump, whose counter-suit left her fearing bankruptcy. She was experiencing health problems and could not match, or even scratch, Trumps pulpit, she said in her motion, adding that for years, Trump has tried his case in the press through a website and taunting media quotes.

Curiel let her go, but specifically ruled that Trump wouldnt be disadvantaged by her departure because other plaintiffs remained on board.

Trump has made much of Curiels refusal to dismiss the lawsuits on summary judgment. White and Kennerly have made short work of this argument, as did Curiel in the Makaeff case.

White explained that summary judgment isnt about whether one sides evidence is stronger than the other  its about whether one side has no evidence at all, in which case judgment should be entered for the other. Here, the plaintiffs offered evidence which, if believed, would show that Trump was responsible for false statements and the students relied on those statements, White wrote. He placed it well within the range of normal federal judicial decisions on summary judgment.

Curiel hasnt ruled yet on Trumps motion for summary judgment on the second case. A hearing on that motion is scheduled until July 18.

Put it all together and Trumps complaints are the routine grousing of a litigant who has lost a few and won a few, and wants to whine only about the rulings hes lost. His bootstrapping of a bigoted ethnic attack on the judge is what matters, and even his Republican colleagues are running from that in horror.

Judge Curiel is doing his job like a normal judge, issuing rulings consistent with the case law, Kennerly concluded. But you already knew that.

Keep up to date with Michael Hiltzik. Follow @hiltzikm on Twitter, see his Facebook page, or email michael.hiltzik@latimes.com

Return to Michael Hiltziks blog.
For the first time in 20 years, Disney officials have submitted plans to the city of Anaheim to build a new luxury hotel.

The project, which would be the fourth hotel at the Disneyland resort, is slated for a 10-acre parking lot on the west end of Disneys property. The proposed hotel would take advantage of a city incentive program that allows any four-star or four-diamond hotel to keep 70% of the bed taxes for 20 years. The tax represents 15% of the nightly rate.

The new 700-room hotel would be designed by Walt Disney Imagineering, the same designers and engineers who come up with Disneylands attractions, with construction slated to begin in 2018. The project should be completed by 2021, Disney officials said.

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We are excited about our proposal to build the first Disneyland Resort hotel in nearly 20 years, park spokeswoman Suzi Brown said. This new flagship hotel would create thousands of jobs and benefit Anaheim with more than $750 million in additional tax revenue over the next four decades, while helping the city reach its stated goal of attracting more high-end visitors.

The park already has two four-diamond hotels, the Disneyland Hotel and the Grand Californian Hotel and Spa. The Paradise Pier hotel is rated a three-diamond hotel by the AAA.

For the record:

June 8, 10:43 a.m.: An earlier version of this story called one of the resort hotels the California Grand Hotel and Spa. It is the Grand Californian Hotel and Spa.

It has been nearly 20 years since Disney broke ground on the California Grand Hotel and Spa. The other two hotels were bought by Disney and either renamed or renovated later.

Despite the Anaheim incentive program, Disney estimates that the hotel will generate more than $150 million in bed taxes and property and sales taxes for the city over 20 years and $750 million in bed taxes over 40 years.

A theme for the hotel has yet to be announced, but the amenities will include a rooftop terrace, a rooftop restaurant, two pools and a water play area.

Although the project would remove 10 acres of parking, Disney officials noted that they had previously announced plans for a 5,000-space parking structure and transit center as part of a $2-billion investment in the park over the next 10 years.

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hugo.martin@latimes.com

For more travel and tourism news, follow Hugo Martin on Twitter: @hugomartin
Airbnbs annual tech conference, OpenAir, has traditionally focused on engineering challenges: how to grow a platform, how to use big data, how to better match people looking for short-term lodging with those who have rooms for rent.

This year, the conference focused on a different challenge for the company and the tech industry: diversity and inclusion.

These represent new areas of focus for a company that has long received mixed reactions, from travelers who love it as an alternative to hotels, regulators and residents who want to reign it in because of its effect on local housing stock, and now customers who accuse it of doing too little to curb racism on its platform.

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The San Francisco company attempted to address the latter Wednesday at OpenAir. Its 2016 conference agenda gave weight to the tech worlds present public relations crisis, with panels on building an inclusive company, mitigating bias in hiring and managing and nurturing trust.

Panelists included Ellen Pao, an entrepreneur whose high-profile gender discrimination lawsuit against venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers made her the face of the movement against Silicon Valleys homogeneity; Stephanie Lampkin, chief executive of job matching app Blendoor; and Hedy Lee, a sociology professor from the University of Washington.

This is a huge issue for us, [and one] were really, really focused on, Airbnb chief executive Brian Chesky said. We have zero tolerance for any amount of discrimination or racism on our platform and we take swift action the moment we hear about it.

See the most-read stories this hour >>

Chesky told the audience at OpenAir that the company will look into the design of its website to make sure it encourages inclusiveness.

It might seem strange for a company facing accusations that its hosts have canceled reservations due to the race of guests  and one whose workforce is less than 3% black  to draw so much attention to a problem it hasnt come close to solving.

But in doing so, analysts say, Airbnb may be able to diversify its workforce and improve its image with customers.

By hosting a conference about the tech worlds failure to cultivate diversity within companies, Airbnb probably will attract an audience of industry types who are passionate about the problem. Those are the candidates Airbnb wants to meet.

Theres such high demand for talent in the tech industry, theres an arms race for who can offer the best work environment and the best benefits, and increasing diversity could help with that, said strategist Scott Ehlert of branding agency Siegel+Gale.

Just in organizing the conference, Airbnb has shown that its thinking about the issue, said Neeru Paharia, an assistant professor at Georgetowns McDonough School of Business.

It humanizes the brand, Paharia said. Airbnb has some liabilities, especially with the recent news about the percentage of people who accept or deny bookings from minorities. Thats definitely a liability which could be overcome to some degree by having an event like this.

Though Airbnb welcomed discussion of its diversity shortcomings, there was little conversation at the conference about another issue of contention for the company: gentrification.

Airbnb has been accused of causing displacement in cities across the country, as landlords could stand to earn more by turning rentals into hotels. That the conference failed to discuss Airbnbs effect on cities such as San Francisco makes it a bit myopic, Ehlert said.

What are the macro impacts on African American neighborhoods in San Francisco? Who is getting squeezed out of the city? Ehlert said. Skipping over those macros rings a little tone deaf.

Also absent at the event was any discussion about a Monday vote by San Franciscos board of supervisors that would allow regulators to fine short-term rental websites that host listings that arent registered with the city.

Technology companies such as Airbnb are increasingly having to find a balance between fighting regulation that could stifle their business models, and currying favor with the public. Despite regulatory action in San Francisco and other cities, Airbnb has still managed to cultivate one of the warmer, fuzzier public images in tech, thanks to the narrative it has spun about sharing and discovery and being a boon for tourism.

Using its annual conference to examine one of its biggest troubles wont hurt that effort, Ehlert said.

Among its more concrete initiatives pertaining to diversity, the company launched earlier in the week a six-month paid work program for people from underrepresented backgrounds seeking a transition to a career in tech. It also announced that all proceeds from its conference will go to Code2040, a nonprofit that creates awareness and opportunities for black and Latino coders.

These are hard problems, but were not going to stop until we have solutions, said Mike Curtis, Airbnbs vice president of engineering. But you also need to know one company cant solve this problem alone, so were hoping part of today can be us having a discussion.

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Meryl Streep won her third Academy Award in 2012 for portraying former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher. On Monday, the actress channeled another conservative poltician, dressing up as Donald Trump and lampooning the Republican presidential candidates blustery persona at a gala celebration for New Yorks Public Theater.

But before Trump supporters hurl accusations of liberal-Hollywood-strikes-again, they may want to revisit Streeps performance as a corrupt politician in 2004s The Manchurian Candidate, which some have interpreted to be a not-so-subtle parody of Hillary Clinton.

Streep appeared on stage Monday at the Delacorte Theater in New York in full Trump-ian drag -- unruly hairpiece, tanning booth complexion and a business suit with an extra long red tie. She also appeared to wear a fat suit under her costume.

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In videos of the gala that have surfaced online, Streep is shown with her Mamma Mia! co-star Christine Baranski singing a humorous duet for the appreciative crowd. The number came at the end of the evening and was from the musical Kiss Me, Kate, according to reports from the New York Times, New York Post and others.

Streep has publicly shown her support for Hillary Clinton, including paying tribute to her in 2012 at the Women in the World conference.

Last year, the Democratic presidential candidate said on the talk show Live with Kelly and Michael that she would like Streep to play her in a movie.

Some might argue that she already has: Streep played an ambitious and ethically compromised senator in the 2004 remake of The Manchurian Candidate. Some critics have interpreted her performance as a veiled portrayal of Clinton, who at the time of the movies release was a U.S. senator from New York.

The actress has gone on the record denying that her performance in the thriller is modeled on Clinton. There is a rumor that Paramount asked to tone down scenes that were too much like Hillary Clinton, she said in 2004.

Streep added that her performance is so far from Hilary Clinton. This isnt paranoia, this is called misinformation.

Streep has had a long history with the Public, having performed the classics with the venerated company before she broke into movies.

Her chameleonic abilities have enabled to play a number of real-life characters including Julia Child (Julie & Julia), Lindy Chamberlain (A Cry in the Dark) and writer Isak Dinesen (Out of Africa).

david.ng@latimes.com
Meryl Streep won her third Academy Award in 2012 for portraying former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher. This week, the actress channeled another conservative poltician, dressing up as Donald Trump and lampooning the Republican presidential candidates blustery persona at a gala celebration for New Yorks Public Theater.

But before Trump supporters hurl accusations of liberal-Hollywood-strikes-again, they may want to revisit Streeps performance as a corrupt politician in 2004s The Manchurian Candidate, which some have interpreted to be a not-so-subtle parody of Hillary Clinton.

Streep appeared on stage Monday at the Delacorte Theater in New York in full Trump-ian drag  unruly hairpiece, tanning booth complexion and a business suit with an extra long red tie. She also appeared to wear a fat suit under her costume.

Advertisement

In videos of the gala that have surfaced online, Streep is shown with her Mamma Mia! costar Christine Baranski singing a humorous duet for the appreciative crowd. The number came at the end of the evening and was from the musical Kiss Me, Kate, according to reports from the New York Times, New York Post and others.

Streep has publicly shown her support for Clinton, including paying tribute to her in 2012 at the Women in the World conference.

Last year, the Democratic presidential candidate said on the talk show Live With Kelly and Michael that she would like Streep to play her in a movie.

See the most-read stories in Entertainment this hour >>

Some might argue that she already has: Streep played an ambitious and ethically compromised senator in the 2004 remake of The Manchurian Candidate. Some critics have interpreted her performance as a veiled portrayal of Clinton, who at the time of the movies release was a U.S. senator from New York.

The actress has gone on the record denying that her performance in the thriller is modeled on Clinton. There is a rumor that Paramount asked to tone down scenes that were too much like Hillary Clinton, she said in 2004.

Streep added that her performance is so far from Hillary Clinton. This isnt paranoia, this is called misinformation.

Streep has had a long history with the Public, having performed the classics with the venerated company before she broke into movies.

Her chameleonic abilities have enabled her to play a number of real-life characters including Julia Child (Julie & Julia), Lindy Chamberlain (A Cry in the Dark) and writer Isak Dinesen (Out of Africa).

david.ng@latimes.com

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Swedish choreographer Mats Ek shocked the dance world when he announced in January that he would be retiring his repertoire of works from the world stage. The news means Southern California audiences rare chance to see Eks choreography in motion will be all that much more special when the Royal Swedish Ballet visits Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa this weekend with the West Coast debut of Juliet and Romeo.

Thats not a typo. Eks unconventional interpretation of Shakespeare puts Juliets story in the forefront.

The tragedy still pivots on the star-crossed lovers ill-fated affair, but the contemporary ballet emphasizes Juliet, says Royal Swedish Ballet Artistic Director Johannes Ohman.

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Shes sweet, but shes also very, very strong, Ohman says of this Juliet, describing her as a teenage force caught between her passion for Romeo and her familys expectation for her to marry Paris.

Ek believes that his dramatization of Juliets conflict with her father, Lord Capulet, over her refusal to marry Paris is more along the lines of what Shakespeare had in mind when he first penned the play.

If you read the text you will see that he threatens her life, Ek says. He says, I wish you were never born. And if you dont obey, dont ever show yourself here. I will consider you not my daughter. So that is a death sentence already.

And a reason to rebel. Choreographing Juliet and Romeo in the wake of the Arab Spring, Ek also drew parallels between the lovers fervor for each other and the fearlessness of Arab youth, such as the self-immolation of 26-year-old Mohamed Bouazizi, whose death in a Tunisian square set waves of political protests into motion across the Middle East and North Africa.

So I made the connection with this young love of Romeo and Juliet, but also to the price of its own extinction, says Ek, who chose to use an industrial set design and gangs of dancers patrolling the stage on Segways to delve into the Capulets and Montagues strife.

Ek made an even more unorthodox choice in music, trading Prokofiev for Tchaikovsky. Prokofievs score, the traditional accompaniment for many ballets, was almost too familiar for Ek. It described the the story step by step, scene by scene, he says. To find my own way into it, I needed another music.  It was easier for me to start from scratch.

Juliet and Romeo not only marks the return of the Royal Swedish Ballet to the Orange County performing arts center after 17 years, but also a singular opportunity for Southern California audiences to see Eks work, which is often performed in Europe but rarely presented in the U.S., Segerstrom Executive Vice President Judy Morr says. The rarity of the upcoming run has been heightened by Eks decision, announced in January, to create no more new works and to withdraw existing ones from the world stage as their licenses with dance companies expire.

My only regret is that its the first time, Morr says of Eks work at Segerstrom.

Ek, 71, says the retirement of his repertoire is not a definitive end to his choreographic career  more of a pause that leaves him open to taking on life as it unfolds.

Its not said in my head that I will never come back. If the urge is too strong, I will hopefully have the chance to do things again, he says.

But for now, he likes the idea of not being tied down to a schedule. Its similar to the philosophy he applies to dance, likening the art forms ephemeral quality to writing in water.

You cant put it into the library and take out the book and read it again, two years later or five or 10 or a hundred years later, Ek says. When the curtains closed, its vanished.

Yet lingering in the choreographers mind is one image from Juliet and Romeo, inspired by Dutch Renaissance painter Pieter Bruegel the Elders Landscape With the Fall of Icarus. In the right-hand corner of the painting, Icarus, just fallen from the sky, kicks up his legs out of the sea. Doomed to drown in the oceans depths, he frantically fights to survive. Meanwhile, the world goes on spinning, as a peasant plows a field, a fisherman angles for his daily catch and a ship sails on. From the artworks illustration of a young life cut short, Ek created the ballets final scenes.

Im using this image at the end of Juliet and Romeo, as a picture of death, yes, but something maybe still can come out of it, Ek says. Life goes on. And the Earth still exists. Its a wonderful irony and something beautiful, hopeful about it.

------------

Juliet and Romeo

Where: Segerstrom Center for the Arts, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

When: 7:30 p.m. Friday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday

Tickets: $29-$159

Info: (714) 556-2787, www.scfta.org

Follow The Times arts team @culturemonster.
Amber Heards friend iO Tillett Wright, who was identified by the actress in court documents as the person who called 911 on the night Heard says Johnny Depp attacked her, is naming no names but telling what is unmistakably her account of her friends relationship.

I called 911 because she never would, Wright wrote in an essay published Wednesday by Refinery 29. Because every time it happened, her first thought was about protecting him. Because every time it happened, the sweet, loving man we all cared for so much would come back with apologies, profuse, swearing up and down that he understood how bad what he had done was, and swearing never to do it again.

We all loved him, said the artist and MTV cohost, but especially, especially her, and she wanted to believe that the behavior wasnt going to last.

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Wright also alleged additional incidents of domestic violence between the couple, whom she doesnt identify in her essay, including one in December: She described an all-out assault and she woke up with her pillow covered in blood, Heards friend said. I know this because I went to their house. I saw the pillow with my own eyes. I saw the busted lip and the clumps of hair on the floor.

He, Wright said, was like a brother and is a person who came to my rescue in my darkest hour, who I have credited with saving my own life, who I lived with for a year by his invitation while I healed and worked. I knew him to be soft and gentle, with a temper and a dark side, but a golden heart. I didnt want to believe it either, until I saw the wreckage.

Heard, 30, filed for divorce from Depp, 52  whom she married in February 2015  on May 23. Four days later, she was granted a temporary restraining order after she alleged physical abuse by her estranged husband, specifically an attack on May 21.

Depps response to the restraining order request, filed by his attorney, Laura A. Wasser, asserted that Heard is attempting to secure a premature financial resolution by alleging abuse. It states that Heards petition appears to be in response to the negative media attention she received earlier that week.

Wright spoke out on social media Monday in defense of Heard in response to a secondhand report in which a concierge at the couples New York City apartment building said hed seen no bruises on the actress face the day after the alleged May 21 attack.

How much evidence does a woman need to present?! She has photos, texts, witnesses, and filed a restraining order, Wright wrote in a series of tweets that appears to have earned her a chunk of social-media hate. But no  a neighbor asked a doorman and talked to TMZ and THAT is headline news and serves as evidence?! Dear neighbor  SHAME ON YOU.

She continued: This culture of victim blaming makes me sick. Im a witness. Im here. Im standing up. I cant take any more of this witch hunt. I was on the ... phone when he hit her. I HEARD HER SCREAM. I will testify. Here and in court. Under oath. WHAT ELSE DOES A WOMAN NEED?

Wrights Wednesday essay stands in stark contrast to the May 29 piece written by comedian Doug Stanhope in support of his friend Depp, which was published by The Wrap. In it, the comedian characterized the actors marriage as an awful, abusive relationship and said Depp told him before May 21 that Heard had threatened to lie publicly to get him to agree to her divorce terms.

Last Friday, Heard sued Stanhope for defamation, TMZ reported.

Attorneys and publicists for Depp and Heard either would not comment or did not respond to The Times queries regarding Wrights essay.

Times staff writer Libby Hill contributed to this report.

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Amber Heard and Johnny Depps court declarations regarding allegations of domestic violence

Follow Christie DZurilla on Twitter @theCDZ.
Rachel Comey comes to Melrose Place

The indie/arts-and-crafts-flavored New York City-based Rachel Comey label has picked Melrose Place as the location of its first standalone store on the West Coast, which opened June 1.

The 2,600-square-foot space reflects the vibe of Comeys clothes thanks to terra cotta-colored floors, poured concrete walls, wraparound wicker benches and exposed-wood ceiling beams. (Comey and her partner, Sean Carmody, worked with Los Angeles-based architect Linda Taalman, Brooklyn-based architect Elizabeth Roberts and San Francisco-based interior designer Charles de Lisle on the project.)

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While local stockists such as Tenoversix, Opening Ceremony and Mohawk General Store have long carried a selection of Comeys wares, the new space showcases the full range including ready-to-wear, denim, accessories and footwear, including some fabrications and colorways that can be found only here and at Comeys other standalone store, which opened in New York in 2014.

Rachel Comey Los Angeles, 8432 Melrose Place, www.rachelcomey.com.

General Pants Co. opens first U.S. store on La Brea Avenue

Australia-based multi-brand retailer General Pants Co., which has 53 boutiques in its home country, opened its first U.S. store this month on a fashion-heavy stretch of La Brea Avenue.

The 4,009-square-foot space, which officially opened June 2, has a spare industrial vibe thanks to concrete floors, exposed brick walls and metal girders, a swirling wall of graffiti, and surf films projected continuously against white curtains hanging toward the back of the room. The shelves and racks are stocked with mens and womens offerings from a handful of younger-skewing Aussie brands that are either new to the L.A. market or havent previously been widely available in brick-and-mortar stores here. These include denim brands Ksubi and Neuw, surf/skate brands Insight and Arvust, streetwear labels Zanerobe and Spencer Project and womens label Alice in the Eve, which is available exclusively through the boutique.

The store, dubbed the Local 132 by General Pants Co., will function as more than a straight-up retail space, according to design director Pip Edwards. Were calling it the Local because thats how we Australians refer to our local pub  the neighborhood place you go to hang out. Edwards added that the space would also serve as a wholesale showroom and VIP services office for many of the brands on the shelves and host occasional music- and art-focused events and parties. It will also serve as a beachhead of sorts for further U.S. expansion because General Pants Co. already has plans in the works to open its second U.S. store  in New York City  in September.

The Local 132 by General Pants Co., 132 S. La Brea Ave., www.localgpc.com.

For more musings on all things fashion and style, follow me @ARTschorn.
Actress Theresa Saldana, known for movies including Raging Bull and nominated for a Golden Globe for her work on TVs The Commish, has died after an illness, according to a family member. She was 61.

Although a prominent actress, Saldana was perhaps best known for surviving a knife attack by a disturbed fan outside her West Hollywood apartment in 1982 in which she was stabbed 10 times. The attack was among the earliest to bring attention to celebrity stalking and the fine line between being a fan and dangerous fanaticism.

Saldana played herself in a 1984 TV movie, Victims for Victims: The Theresa Saldana Story. The movie was nominated for one prime-time Emmy Award. Saldana also founded the advocacy group Victims for Victims, which fought for anti-stalking laws. She also published a memoir, Beyond Survival, in 1987.

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On playing herself and re-creating the near-fatal attack, Saldana told The Times in 1984, I hope it stands as an example, not just to victims of crime but to others who have been through a tragedy, that you can get through almost anything.

If a girl can get through being butchered almost to death, if one can do that, then almost anything is surmountable. There is something about almost dying that gives you great strength  if you do survive, and if you do fight back.

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Aug. 20, 1954, Saldana first gained attention for her role in Robert Zemeckis Beatle-mania-themed 1978 film I Wanna Hold Your Hand. In 1980 she also appeared in Defiance alongside Jan-Michael Vincent and in Brian De Palmas Home Movies.

But it was her role in Martin Scorseses 1980 film Raging Bull that really seemed to signal her emergence. In the film, frequently cited as among the best of the 1980s and ranked in the top five on the American Film Institutes list of the Greatest American Films of All Time, she played the wife of Joe Pescis character, brother to Robert De Niros boxer Jake La Motta.

After the 1982 attack, she worked mostly in episodic television, with roles on such quintessentially 80s-era shows as T.J. Hooker, Cagney & Lacey, Simon & Simon, Matlock, Hunter, Falcon Crest and MacGyver.

Saldana was nominated for a Golden Globe in 1994 for her role on The Commish, where she played the wife of the title character, a police commissioner played by Michael Chiklis.

On Twitter on Tuesday, Chiklis posted a message that said, Painful to hear the news of Theresas passing. My family & I extend our love, condolences & support to her family in their time of grieving.

It was on the morning of March 15, 1982, that Saldana, then 27, was stabbed outside her apartment in West Hollywood. Her Scottish-born attacker, Arthur R. Jackson, had attempted to reach her via agents in both New York and Los Angeles, eventually finding her whereabouts from a family member in New York and representing himself as someone working for Scorsese.

A passing Sparkletts water truck driver, Jeff Fenn, subdued Jackson until police and paramedics arrived.

------------

FOR THE RECORD

11:30 p.m.: A previous version of this article said the Sparkletts water truck drivers name was Jeff Finn. It is Jeff Fenn.

------------

Jackson was convicted of attempted murder and held in California state prison until being released in 1996 and deported to the U.K., where he was committed in 1997 to a psychiatric institution after pleading guilty to killing a man 30 years earlier. Jackson died in 2004.

Saldana is survived by her husband, Phil Peters, and a daughter.

Times staff writer Matt Hamilton contributed to this report.

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It sounds quite amazing, perplexing and alarming for the Zimbabwe Liberators Platform (ZLP) to accuse President Robert Mugabe of abusing former freedom fighters, alienating them from other citizens, abusing and dumping them to save his political interests and running down the country's economy. In another startling development the former Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) combatants are seeking an urgent meeting with President Mugabe over several grievances, including the seized ZAPU properties.ZLP Secretary-general Wilson Nharingo recently said that President Mugabe had eroded the liberation war values and the country was virtually under siege from ZANU PF forces of destruction. The war veteran leader and his clique of supporters seem to be out of touch with reality. They are few malcontents who are selfish and lack the national vision. This group should not just shout for the sake of it as we know that they are seeking relevance that have been expelled from the mainstream war veteran association due to their megalomania.It is now a known fact that ZLP members are a bunch of power hungry war veterans who are after looting and self aggrandizement. Proper and patriotic war veterans should hail the President for providing funds for demobilization, Zim $50 000 gratuities and the monthly pensions allowances. In addition to these their children's fees are catered for by the government. Moreover others who were injured during the armed struggle were paid disability allowances.The government has always applied the quota system in allocating services be they stands, farms, houses, projects, mines and many more. These have been done and continue to be applied in honor of war veterans for the wonderful job they did in liberating this country. In view of this it would be insane to allude that President Mugabe has dumped the war veterans.It is beyond doubt that many people in Africa if not the world envy for the leadership qualities of His Excellence President Mugabe. The efforts by war veterans to blame his decision making on economic matters are both importune and unfortunate, and leads us to the conclusion that this clique of freedom fighters are lightweights on issues of economic importance.It seems that they believe that Zimbabwe's economic woes, past and current should be solely be laid at the door of one man and his party. This is also the mentality of the MDC supporters who are in a desperate mode to raise their political profiles. Woe to you brood of vipers for you want to destroy totally the economy of the country.Most regime change believers allege that the economic problems bedeviling the country started when the war veterans were paid their gratuities .In this case it would be a fascinating paradox for the war veterans to say that President Mugabe has dumped them. In fact the opposite is true that the government is trying by all means and resources available to improve the welfare of war veterans.We should all rally behind the President for trying to improve the lives of the former freedom fighters for those who had brains are doing well in life. We should also take into cognizance that beyond war veterans are the masses who also need a piece from the same cake. Therefore in their demands war veterans should think of others not to be selfish and consider the state of the economy, otherwise they might be referred to as inconsiderate. In fact the war veterans should appreciate what President Mugabe and the government have done and still continue to be doing.Recently all the war veterans in Zimbabwe called for a meeting with their patron who is President Mugabe and presented all their grievances of which some of them were addressed promptly and others to be resolved later. To our surprise there is now the former war fighters split from the Zimbabwe National War Veterans' Association (ZNLWVA) in April to launch their own welfare organisation, ZPRA.The ZPRA Secretary-General Petros Sibanda is alleging that the ex-combatants are bitter at the government's failure to address their grievances. For instance there is discrimination between ZPRA and ZANLA war fighters. For example, once a ZPRA member retires from the army, they sink into poverty, whereas Zanla fighters are seconded to head government departments. The war veterans are also calling for the handover of PF zapu properties that included farms and buildings in Harare and Bulawayo.Sibanda is calling for an urgent meeting with President Mugabe as the ZPRA members have many issues to be addressed, be they economic, social and political. We as the patriotic and the like minded citizens of this country of ours which is reeling under difficult economic conditions we say that more than enough grievances has already been presented to the President and he promised to met them next year.All in all it would be valid to say that all the war veterans' grievances have been presented and they are being dealt with. Therefore it would be prudent to deal with other problems from other members of the society rather than to deal with a single quarter of the society only.-----------stewart murewa
The public already holds drug manufacturers in low esteem  and now theyve got more fuel for their opinion. Federal Judge Beth Labson Freeman of San Jose last week found that Merck & Co. lied to a business partner and to the court itself. Freeman threw out a patent infringement judgment Merck had won against Gilead Sciences, and overturned a $200-million jury award.

This was a big deal, involving one of the most profitable drugs on the market today  Foster City, Calif.-based Gileads blockbuster Sovaldi treatment for the hepatitis C virus  and the worlds fourth-largest drug company Merck.

Mercks misconduct includes...misusing Pharmassets confidential information..., and lying under oath at deposition and trial.  Federal Judge Beth Labson Freeman

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Its also an enormous black eye for Merck, whose activities the judge said consisted of systematic and outrageous deception in conjunction with unethical business practices and litigation misconduct.

But the case does more than raise questions about the integrity of a huge corporation. Its a window into the extent to which the nations overworked patent inspectors can be misled by applicants backed by big corporate war chests in pursuit of billions of dollars in potential profits.

Legal experts have wrestled with that issue for years. Catching fraud or other forms of cheating in the patent process is unlikely given the practical limits of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, T. Leigh Anenson and Gideon Mark of the University of Maryland wrote in a 2013 law review article.

Often, courts have punished applicants who obtain patents through cheating by leaving the patents in place, but making them unenforceable by the wrongdoer.

Thats what Judge Freeman did  she barred Merck from collecting a dime from Gilead for the two patents it supposedly infringed. People have referred to unenforceability as the atomic bomb of patent lit, says patent expert Jacob Sherkow of New York Law School.

Merck itself alluded to the value of a strong patent system in announcing its court victory in March, when it spoke sanctimoniously about how the jury verdict upholds patent protections that are essential to the development of new medical treatments. A spokesman for the company reiterated the point last week in commenting on Judge Freemans ruling. But Merck insisted that the hepatitis C drugs at the heart of the case required many years of research and significant investment by Merck and its partners.

Freemans ruling has given Gilead the upper hand, for now, in trying to settle the dispute with Merck, which plans to appeal.

The evidence examined by Freeman strongly suggests that Merck flagrantly manipulated the patent process to gain unfair advantage.

Sovaldi and its related Gilead product, Harvoni, have been huge moneymakers for Gilead, bringing the company more than $20 billion in sales since the first drug was introduced in 2013. Theres no mystery why, since the drugs almost invariably cure hepatitis C with minimal side effects  a big improvement over previous treatments. The drugs are so effective that Gileads stratospheric pricing for them has become Exhibit A in the national controversy over the cost of drugs.

The case began in 2013, when Merck claimed that its patents covered Sovaldi and demanded royalties and license fees from Gilead. Gilead refused, and sued to declare Mercks patents invalid. The trial jury rebuffed that argument and ordered Gilead to pay Merck $200 million, plus future royalties  far less than the $2 billion that Merck had sought.

That would have been the single largest patent damages award in U.S. history, Sherkow says. Across the biotech industry, opinion was that Gilead got off easy.

But Gilead really drew blood when it accused Merck of coming to the patent battle with unclean hands.

Its claims stemmed from Mercks interactions with Pharmasset, the New Jersey biotech firm that had invented Sovaldi and was acquired by Gilead in 2011 for $11 billion. Gileads story left Judge Freeman appalled.

She described the companys behavior as systematic and outrageous deception in conjunction with unethical business practices and litigation misconduct. That conduct included lying to Pharmasset, misusing Pharmassets confidential information, breaching confidentiality and firewall agreements, and lying under oath at deposition and trial.

Much of the judges ire was directed at retired Merck patent attorney Phillippe Durette, who was working on patents for antiviral drugs during a period when Merck was trying to reach its own deal with Pharmasset.

Merck signed a nondisclosure agreement, or NDA, with Pharmasset, pledging not to use the latters secret information for any purpose other than to decide whether to pursue the relationship. Pharmasset turned over information including the structure of a key formulation to a single Merck scientist who was to be firewalled  that is, he couldnt discuss it with anyone in Mercks own drug development loop.

That worked until a March 2004 conference call between Merck and Pharmasset officials aimed at advancing a possible deal. Pharmasset was willing to reveal details of its formulas on the call, because it was led to believe everyone on the call would be subject to the confidentiality agreement. But the participants included Durette, who wasnt firewalled and was in a position to turn what he heard into a potential goldmine for Merck.

According to Freeman, thats what happened. Durette, who she said shouldnt have been allowed on the call in the first place, should immediately have been excluded from Mercks existing hepatitis C drug development program. Instead, he rewrote Mercks earlier patent claims so that they would apply to Pharmassets upcoming release of its hepatitis-C drug. In 2011, Merck even threatened Pharmasset with a patent lawsuit over the drug.

What irked the judge even more, she ruled, is that Durette lied. In a deposition, he repeatedly denied having been on the call. He recanted at trial only after he was confronted with notes taken by a Pharmasset employee during the call, proving that he had participated. At that point, he pleaded a faulty memory.

Freeman didnt buy it. It is overwhelmingly clear..., she ruled, that Dr. Durette sought at every turn to create the false impression that Mercks conduct was aboveboard. She blamed Merck, which she said sponsored and encouraged his conduct, then sought to minimize its importance by attributing the fiasco to the failed memory of a retired employee.

Adding to the temerity of the big drugmaker, it originally sued Gilead for $2 billion before having to settle for $200 million. Now, pending appeal, it wont get even that much for its patent claims, and its reputation for integrity will carry a value of less than zero.

Keep up to date with Michael Hiltzik. Follow @hiltzikm on Twitter, see his Facebook page, or email michael.hiltzik@latimes.com.

Return to Michael Hiltziks blog.

UPDATES:

4:03 p.m., June 9: This article was updated with additional details.
Under scrutiny for failing to report private meetings with developers, California Coastal Commission Chairman Steve Kinsey announced Wednesday that he will not vote on the proposed Newport Banning Ranch project.

The law is very clear. Ex-partes must be filed within a seven-day period, Kinsey said at the start of the commissions monthly meeting. So I have made the decision. I will recuse myself.

Slated to go before the commission this year, the Banning Ranch proposal to build nearly 900 homes and a hotel on an Orange County oil field is one of the largest coastal projects in years. The developers and their agents have repeatedly met with commission members to discuss the proposal -- meetings that commissioners are required to promptly report as so-called ex-parte communications.

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The Times has reported that Kinsey failed to do that on two occasions last year. He didnt disclose a November meeting with members of the Banning Ranch team and didnt report a December tour of the project site until May, after The Times questioned him about the visit.

Under the Coastal Act, if commissioners dont promptly file ex-parte disclosure forms, they are not supposed to participate in any deliberations or votes on the matter -- and doing so could invite legal challenges to the commissions actions.

Kinsey noted that in explaining his decision to recuse himself. There are real risks to this commission for those who dont pay attention to that law, he said.

The panel has been in the spotlight ever since it fired Executive Director Charles Lester in February, sparking a public outcry and claims by critics that commissioners are pushing the agency to be more receptive to construction projects.

In another development, Commissioner Martha McClure lost her bid Tuesday to retain her seat on the Del Norte County Board of Supervisors.

That means McClure, who was appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown and voted to fire Lester, will have to leave the commission early next year.

The Coastal Commission is one of only a few state boards, commissions and agencies allowed by the Legislature to have ex-partes, which are private verbal or written communications between a commissioner and an interested party that could influence a decision.

A Times review of ex-parte records found that most participants are development interests and their agents, but the ranks include environmentalists, government officials and members of the general public.

The state Senate last month approved legislation that would ban the communications. The commission voted 6 to 5 to support the bill, with Kinsey among those endorsing the measure.

In his remarks Wednesday, Kinsey specifically referred to the Nov. 4 meeting that he and commissioner Dayna Bochco had with three Banning Ranch representatives. Bochco disclosed the session two days later but Kinsey did not.

It was brought to the attention of myself and the public that in November I had neglected to file an ex-parte on the matter regarding Newport Banning Ranch. Shame on me, he said, adding that he was disappointed in himself.

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In December, Kinsey also spent several hours touring Banning Ranch with members of the development team. A few weeks later he emailed staff Deputy Director Sherilyn Sarb, disputing the staffs environmental assessments of the site, which commission ecologists had concluded harbored a great deal of sensitive habitat that should be off limits to development.

But Kinsey didnt file an ex-parte form detailing the tour until The Times questioned him about his email, which was obtained through the Public Records Act. He described the failure to promptly disclose the visit as an oversight during the busy holiday season.

bettina.boxall@latimes.com

Twitter: @boxall

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In the latest backlash to a series of legislative scandals, early election returns Tuesday showed California voters approving a ballot measure that would allow the state Assembly and Senate to suspend members without pay for misconduct.

The ballot measure would allow the Assembly and Senate to suspend a member of its house without pay based on a two-thirds vote of that house. Only a vote by the Assembly would be needed to suspend an assemblymember, and the same would be true in the Senate.

James Mayer, president and CEO of California Forward, a government accountability group, welcomed the support as a leading proponent of Proposition 50, which was placed on the ballot by the Legislature as an amendment to the state Constitution.

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It puts the Senate and the Assembly in a better place to respond to another ethical problem should it arise, Mayer said.

The measures opponents included Sen. Joel Anderson (R-San Diego), who said he was disappointed by the early returns.

People thought they were voting for this to penalize legislators when they are actually giving them more power, Anderson said after the results began coming in.

He is worried the new authority can be used to punish dissenting lawmakers.

The measure stemmed from the 2014 federal indictment of Democratic Sens. Leland Yee of San Francisco and Ronald Calderon of Montebello in separate bribery cases and the felony conviction of Democratic Sen. Roderick Wright on charges of lying about living in his district.

Calderon was suspended for accepting bribes from an undercover FBI agent posing as a film executive seeking tax credits, and from the owner of a medical firm in exchange for action on legislation involving workers compensation.

The Senate voted to suspend the three legislators, but they continued to draw their salaries until they left office because the state Constitution does not allow withholding pay from lawmakers on suspension.

Calderon and Yee each received $63,000 in pay during the eight months they were on suspension, which sparked public outrage and the call for changes to the law.

Opponents of the ballot measure said suspensions deprive residents of representation in the Legislature, so lawmakers should instead permanently expel those engaging in misconduct.

Republican blogger Jon Fleischman also opposed the measure as meaningless.

When you realize [the senators] werent willing to remove a legislator, Sen. Rod Wright, even after a jury found him guilty of multiple criminal felonies, you realize this is a joke, Fleischman said.

Supporters of the measure say Andersons concerns that the majority party might use the suspensions without pay to punish dissenters were addressed by having the constitutional amendment require a two-thirds vote of the house to suspend a member without pay rather than a simple majority, which was the standard before.

It is rare for other states to suspend legislators, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, which tracks state laws and policies. The group said its records indicate only Florida and Pennsylvania have done so.

patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com

Follow @mcgreevy99 on Twitter

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Moving specialists: An article in the June 4 Hot Property section about moving specialists who cater to the rich and famous misspelled Laura Carrillos last name as Carillo. It also said a feng shui expert may advise putting a water feature in the center of the home to attract career success. It should have said the front-center of the home.

School security: In the June 6 California section, an article about charter schools resisting an L.A. Unified School District weapons-search policy referred to two loaded guns found on students at Alliance Tennenbaum Family Technology Charter High School. The school involved was PUC Early College Academy for Leaders and Scholars.

If you believe that we have made an error, or you have questions about The Times journalistic standards and practices, you may contact Deirdre Edgar, readers representative, by email at readers.representative@latimes.com, by phone at (877) 554-4000, by fax at (213) 237-3535 or by mail at 202 W. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90012. The readers representative office is online at latimes.com/ readersrep.
State water regulators Tuesday dismissed a record $1.5-million fine against a Northern California irrigation district accused of diverting water last year in violation of a drought order.

The action is the latest twist in the states attempts to assert control over water diversions by agricultural districts that hold some of the oldest water rights in California.

The State Water Resources Control Board alleged that the Byron-Bethany Irrigation District in Northern California ignored curtailment orders and took water that it was not entitled to under Californias priority system of water rights.

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With the drought slashing flows in the watersheds of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, the board last summer told districts with rights dating back to 1903 to halt diversions, thereby preserving supplies for districts with more senior rights.

Byron-Bethany, which has a 1914 right to withdraw from the southern end of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, continued its diversions for two weeks after the curtailment order was posted, according to the board.

The agencys enforcement order proposed a $1.5-million fine, which Byron-Bethany protested, arguing that the water board did not have authority over its rights.

After reviewing the states case at a March hearing, board officers found weaknesses in the complicated water analysis used to determine the curtailment and recommended dismissal.

The board voted Tuesday to drop the case, while affirming its authority to stop illegal diversions. The board plans to hold a workshop later this year to discuss ways of strengthening its calculations of water availability during a drought.

The board also dismissed an enforcement order  which did not include a fine  against the West Side Irrigation District of Tracy.

bettina.boxall@latimes.com

Twitter: @boxall
Its a town where people dont meet your gaze, first names are taboo, and piles of shoes greet you at the doorway. Lifelong friends get in nasty fights over who pays the check, and strangers wont think twice before asking prying questions about your age or marital status. Here, sometimes yes means no and no means yes.

Trying to make sense of it? Forget it, rookie  its Koreatown.

About two dozen officers and detectives with the Los Angeles Police Department sat with quizzical looks on a recent Thursday at the Korean Cultural Center in the Mid-Wilshire area, as Professor Chan-Hie Kim walked them through Korean customs and cultural nuances that can befuddle outsiders.

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Policing a city as diverse as Los Angeles means navigating cultural differences and linguistic hurdles in interacting with victims, witnesses or neighborhood regulars on the beat. In recent years, a volunteer group of Korean Americans and the Korean Cultural Center has been putting on classes for law enforcement to demystify Koreans and their singularities.

Tony Garcia, center, an officer with the Los Angeles Police Departments Olympic Division, uses chopsticks to eat bibimbap during a Korean cultural workshop for law enforcement. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times )

We are the protectors of the things they brought over here and built up.  Commander Blake Chow, LAPD

The knowledge you get today will just make your job easier, Commander Blake Chow of the LAPDs west bureau told the cops, none of whom were attending the daylong seminar voluntarily, having been assigned by the training coordinators in their respective divisions.

Chow recounted how as a patrol officer, he witnessed the burning and looting that devastated Koreatown during the 1992 riots. As a new officer with barely a year on the job, unfamiliar with the Korean immigrant community, he didnt understand just how much work and sacrifice had gone into the businesses that were being destroyed, he told the officers.

We are the protectors of the things they brought over here and built up, he said, adding: They love the police, trust me.

Over the course of the day, the police got a taste of Korean food, fumbling with chopsticks to shovel bibimbap into their mouths  the dish is normally eaten with a spoon  got their tongues in a twist learning a phrase or two, and even sang a little karaoke at the South Korean governments nifty tourism center next door.

Chef Clara Kong smiles as she wraps up a brief primer on Korean food for LAPD officers attending a daylong seminar on Korean culture at the Korean Cultural Center. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times )

They listened to lectures spanning the millennia of history on the Korean Peninsula leading up to the waves of immigration to Southern California, and discussed topics affecting life in Koreatown such as domestic violence, alcohol and mental health.

They also learned that staring directly into someones eyes is considered impolite, meaning an averted gaze doesnt indicate deceit or evasiveness, and that people mostly address each other by title and last name. Because shoes are kept off indoors and stored by the front door, the presence of many pairs of shoes doesnt necessarily mean a lot of people are inside the home.

And theres the tricky matter of how negative questions are answered in the Korean language  in Korean, You didnt do it? would be answered, Yes, I didnt do it, or No, I did do it.

If a Korean says later, I meant no, please understand, Chan-Hie Kim, a professor emeritus at the Claremont School of Theology, told the officers.

Hosted by the center but staffed and funded by volunteers, the Korean-American Cultural Experience for law enforcement has acculturated more than 1,300 LAPD officers since its inception in 2008. Recently, it has expanded to include personnel from the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department and officers from smaller police forces around the county.

Jason Lee, 68, one of the programs organizers, said he remembered the acute feeling of powerlessness during the riots, watching the city in flames from his import-export business in a high-rise building near LAX. Until then, he and his fellow immigrants from South Korea had all kept their heads down, focusing only on making a living and building up their budding enterprises.

We had things we wanted to say to politicians and to the larger American society, but we had no one we could turn to...  Jason Lee, Goodwill Cooperation Service volunteer

But in 1992, as he looked out onto his friends and acquaintances businesses being burnt to the ground, he realized how invisible they were in the citys civic landscape. He wondered if more help would have come if Korean immigrants had been more engaged with the community around them, and the citys leaders better acquainted with the builders of Koreatown.

We had things we wanted to say to politicians and to the larger American society, but we had no one we could turn to, Lee said. I realized, we need to make ourselves better-known.

In 1997, his volunteer group, the Goodwill Cooperation Service, started organizing trips to South Korea for various Angelenos  motley groups of teachers, social workers, political aides and police officials  hoping to bridge the cultural chasm and help the city understand its growing Korean American population. A decade later, based on the relationships with LAPD brass formed through those trips, they launched the cultural seminars for line officers to broaden their reach.

So what are officers impressions of Koreans? UCLA lecturer Jennifer Jung-Kim asked the room, starting the days second session: Distinctive Korean Cultural Values and Behavior.

Smart. Proud. Private, the officers yelled out.

Carry a lot of cash, someone said, drawing upon something professor Chan-Hie Kim mentioned earlier in the morning, to chuckles from the room.

Jung-Kim told the officers that because of the sometimes brutal actions of the military police under the authoritarian regime in the 1960s and 1970s and the colonial police under Japanese rule in the early 20th century, older Korean Americans may be fearful or suspicious of police. She also tried to dispel common stereotypes, explaining that Korean women, who may be perceived as quiet and submissive, actually hold the purse strings in most Korean households, and cautioning that the model-minority myth depicting all Asians as well-adjusted and successful can ignore and trivialize individual efforts, differences or problems.

Case in point, she said: Her own son isnt doing so great in math.

Believe me, Id be thrilled if my kid got even a 90 in math, she said.

LAPD Officer Antonio Manzano is interviewed by SBS International reporter Jae Rin Lee during a break in a daylong seminar on Korean culture at the Korean Cultural Center. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times )

Tony Garcia, a field training officer who has worked at the LAPD Olympic division since it first opened in 2009, said he had often encountered Koreans who were reluctant to call the police or get involved in other peoples business. He described being called out to a Koreatown home where neighbors reported commotion. They arrived to find a wife crying, bruises on her face and arms, but she told officers nothing had happened, he said. Garcia and his partner had no choice but to leave.

Its rare that the people involved call the police, he said. Once you get Koreans to open up, though, they make good witnesses, Garcia said: Either they tell the truth, or they dont say anything.

The days lessons, he said, would help me talk to people, build a little rapport.

Connie Chung Joe, executive director of Korean American Family Services, a nonprofit that provides domestic violence counseling and mental health services, gave the officers some insight into why Koreans may be more reluctant than others to report violence within the family.

More than 70% of the Koreans in the county are foreign-born, and more than half of Korean households are linguistically isolated, meaning no one 14 years old or older in the home speaks English fluently, she said. Victims are reluctant to come forward because they are concerned about the social stigmas attached with divorce and arrest, and fear theyll hurt their childrens future prospects by making their family problems known, she said.

You dont air your dirty laundry in the Korean community, Chung Joe said.

After the classes wrapped up in the late afternoon, the officers posed for a group photo  a must at most Koreatown events  and each went his or her own way, holding a certificate of completion and a colorful Korean fan as a souvenir.

Its like the police is investing in the Korean community, Lee said of the seminar. Perhaps theyll act just a little bit different the next time they encounter a Korean person.

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victoria.kim@latimes.com

Follow me on Twitter @vicjkim
Police in San Jose on Tuesday identified the four teenagers arrested last week during a rally for Donald Trumps presidential campaign.

Three teenagers were each booked on a felony count of assault with a deadly weapon: Ahmed Abdirahman, 19; Robert Trillo, 18; and Antonio Fernandez, 19, according to the San Jose Police Department.

A fourth man, Michael Kitaigorodsky, 19, was booked on a misdemeanor count of refusal to disperse, police said.

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Police did not release details about what weapons were allegedly used by the men. All four were booked into the Santa Clara County Jail.

As the campaign intensified in California ahead of Tuesdays primary election, Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, has drawn large crowds that often turned boisterous and violent.

Dozens were arrested during demonstrations in Costa Mesa and Anaheim. Protesters in Burlingame temporarily blocked the real estate developer from entering a hotel for a speech.

But the situation in San Jose last Thursday was more extreme.

Anti-Trump demonstrators targeted the candidates supporters as they left the rally. About a dozen people were hit, some car windows were broken, and at least one woman was struck by a raw egg. Some Trump hats were torched after they were snatched from the candidates supporters.

Its unclear what role each of the men arrested allegedly had in the violence.

In a statement, San Jose police said other people have been identified in connection with the violent demonstrations.

We need any person who was a victim of a crime, or can provide valuable witness information, to come forward so we can complete our investigations and bring charges as appropriate, police said in a statement.

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A former Stanford University swimmer who was sentenced to six months in jail for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman behind a dumpster on campus has blamed a party culture and risk-taking behavior for his actions.

In a letter he penned to Santa Clara Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky, Brock Turner wrote that he was shattered by the party culture and risk-taking behavior that I briefly experienced in my four months at school.

Turner said he came from a small town in Ohio and never experienced partying that involved alcohol. But when he started attending Stanford, Turner wrote, he began drinking to relieve the stress of school and competitive swimming.

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The swim team set no limits on partying or drinking and I saw the guys take full advantage of these circumstances, while I was shown to do the same, he wrote. I witnessed countless times the guys that I looked up to go to parties, meet girls and take the girl that they had just met back with them.

Describing himself as an inexperienced drinker and party-goer, Turner said he looked up to members of his swim team. On Jan. 17, 2015, the night of the sexual assault, Turner said he drank five beers, two swigs of Fireball whiskey and bounced from one party to another.

I want to demolish the assumption that drinking and partying are what make up a college lifestyle, he wrote. I made a mistake, I drank too much, and my decisions hurt someone. But I never meant to intentionally hurt [the victim]. My poor decision making and excessive drinking hurt someone that night and I wish I could just take it all back.

Turner vowed to change peoples attitudes towards the culture surrounded by binge drinking and sexual promiscuity that protrudes through what people think is at the core of being a college student.

See the most-read stories this hour >>

A jury convicted Turner in March for sexually assaulting the woman, and he was facing a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.

At the time, prosecutors asked Persky to sentence him to a six-year prison term for the three felony counts he was found guilty of: assault with the intent to commit rape of an unconscious person, sexual penetration of an unconscious person and sexual penetration of an intoxicated person.

When Persky instead sentenced Turner last week to six months in county jail and three years probation, the decision sparked outrage. Critics argued the sentence was too lenient and launched a campaign to recall Persky from the bench.

Turners victim read a 12-page letter in open court, called the more lenient sentence a soft timeout, a mockery of the seriousness of the assaults. She said Turner had failed to show responsibility.

She wrote:

Unfortunately, after reading the defendants statement, I am severely disappointed and feel that he has failed to exhibit sincere remorse or responsibility for his conduct. I fully respected his right to a trial, but even after twelve jurors unanimously convicted him guilty of three felonies, all he has admitted to doing is ingesting alcohol. Someone who cannot take full accountability for his actions does not deserve a mitigating sentence. It is deeply offensive that he would try and dilute rape with a suggestion of promiscuity. By definition rape is the absence of promiscuity, rape is the absence of consent, and it perturbs me deeply that he cant even see that distinction.

For breaking news in California, follow VeronicaRochaLA on Twitter.

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U.S. Rep. Janice Hahn (D-San Pedro) was forced into a runoff in her bid for a seat on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, falling a few points short of the 50% threshold to win the office outright against runner-up Steve Napolitano.

With 100% of precincts reporting Wednesday morning, Hahn outpolled Napolitano in the District 4 race, 47% to 37%.

In a second county contest, Kathryn Barger, chief of staff to the current supervisor, secured a runoff spot for the District 5 seat with 30% of votes cast.

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Darrell Park, a former White House Office of Management and Budget staffer, moved into second place in later returns and finished 417 votes ahead of the third-place finisher, state Sen. Bob Huff, each with about 15% of the vote.

The results are unofficial until late mail-in and provisional ballots are counted.

This years election represents the second phase of a major shift on the Board of Supervisors brought on by term limits approved by voters in 2002.

Departing supervisors Don Knabe and Michael D. Antonovich have been on the board for decades. Knabe was first elected in 1996 and Antonovich in 1980. They are the only two Republicans on the officially nonpartisan five-member board.

Eight candidates were on the ballot in the race to replace Antonovich: Barger, Huff, Park, Los Angeles City Councilman Mitch Englander, prosecutor Elan Carr, former Glendale Mayor Ara Najarian, Palmdale-area real estate investor Raj Pal Kahlon and Altadena Town Council member Billy Malone.

Park, Kahlon and Malone are Democrats. The other five are Republicans.

.@JaniceHahn dances into her #CAPrimary party in Norwalk. She's currently at 49.58%, Napolitano at 39.69% pic.twitter.com/vPdASkwcsU  Maya Lin Sugarman (@mayasugarman) June 8, 2016

Englander and Barger had led the pack in fundraising, each raising more than $1 million through their campaign committees and also receiving substantial support from independent expenditure committees. Unions representing county firefighters and sheriffs deputies put $1.2 million into an outside committee set up by the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor to back Bargers bid.

At Bargers election night party at a restaurant in Pasadena with Antonovich and a crowd of supporters, Barger noted the importance of faith-based groups in the Antelope Valley and the nonprofit communities in Santa Clarita and the San Gabriel Valley in supporting her campaign. She also acknowledged the boost her campaign got from labor.

They know that my word is good, Barger said about getting the endorsement of the labor federation. If I dont agree, Ill give you the reasons why I dont, but I will always listen and in areas where compromises can be made, I will.

Park said he does not expect the vote tally to be finalized until later in the week, but said he was encouraged by the results.

It goes to show you, in this cynical time in our politics, everyone thinks its only big money that matters, and its not true, he said.

Park, who runs a start-up called Better Than We Found It and advises green energy companies, raised about $200,000, hundreds of thousands less than the Republicans in the race. He said he thought the fact that he was a Democrat and endorsed by the county Democratic Party gave him a boost in the district, where registered Democrats now outnumber Republicans, 41% to 30%.

We didnt have to come up with a message that makes us into something we arent, he said.

Huff, who had held a slim edge for second place in early returns, said Tuesday night he thought his record of working across party lines in Sacramento had helped him compete with better-funded opponents.

Theres something to love and hate about my record, because its so public, he said.

Huff noted Wednesday morning that there were still thousands of votes to be counted, including mail-in ballots sent on election day.

Its close, and well just stay tuned, he said.

Englander, who had been expected by many to make the runoff, finished fifth with about 12% of the vote.

As his supporters watched the results roll in at the Angeles National Golf Club in Sunland, Englander said the county election and other local races had been overshadowed by the presidential contest.

In the race to replace Knabe, Hahn, a former Los Angeles city councilwoman and daughter of longtime former county Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, was widely considered the favorite, with some predicting she would win outright Tuesday.

She faced off against Napolitano, a Knabe aide and former Manhattan Beach city councilman, and Whittier school board member Ralph Pacheco. Napolitano is a Republican; Pacheco is a Democrat.

Napolitano now will face Hahn in November. He and Hahn each raised more than $1 million as well  Napolitano by putting in more than $760,000 of his own money and Hahn through substantial support from both public and private-sector unions.

With early returns showing her in the lead, Hahn said she would be honored and humbled to serve in a post that her father held for decades.

Ive always felt that Im going to win this, she said Tuesday night. Its either tonight or its going to be in November.

Napolitano said he was pleased with the momentum his campaign had gained despite beginning with much lower name recognition than Hahn.

We just did an old-school campaign, reaching people and talking about the issues and about records, he said.

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Times staff writer Emily Alpert Reyes and Times Community News reporter Arin Mikailian contributed to this report.

abby.sewell@latimes.com

Twitter: @sewella

david.zahniser@latimes.com

Twitter: @davidzahniser

alice.walton@latimes.com

Twitter: @thecitymaven

UPDATES:

8:56 a.m.: This article was updated with comment from District 5 candidate Bob Huff.

8:29 a.m.: This article was updated with revised vote tabulations and comment from District 5 candidate Darrell Park.

8:03 a.m., June 8: This article was updated with final returns.

12:50 a.m.: This article was updated with later election returns.

11:35 p.m.: This article was updated with later election returns and additional reaction.

This article was originally published at 9:52 p.m., June 7
Deadly violence rocked a Koreatown parking garage on Tuesday when a man fatally shot another man who had stabbed and injured a woman during a dispute, according to a preliminary investigation by police.

Officers were called to the 600 block of South Berendo Street shortly before 5:30 p.m. on reports that someone was assaulting another person with a firearm, according to Officer Tony Im, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department.

Following a preliminary investigation, officers believe that a man and woman were having a verbal argument in a parking garage of an apartment building. The man stabbed the woman and injured her, Im said.

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The womans boyfriend then interrupted the attack and shot at the man, LAPD Sgt. Kevin Gruner said.

See the most-read stories this hour >> 

The man was pronounced dead. His name was not released pending notification of family.

The woman was taken to a hospital. Her condition is unknown, Im said.

The womans boyfriend was taken into custody, and his name was not released. Its unclear if he was formally placed under arrest.

This story will be updated as more information becomes available.

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Opinion / Columnist

The struggle is far from over! Rather we are still in the tunnel and light is still far from sight. No solution in sight! Realisation of children's rights is still a pipe dream given the extent of atrocities being committed against children in African countries that are experiencing conflicts and crises. This is an apt description of the situation of children's rights in many African societies.As a favoured African and proud Zimbabwean, a Social Worker for that matter, I am greatly excited to have the opportunity to share my thoughts and cross-pollinate ideas on the situation of children in Africa today. I am bound by my passion to serve children, see children enjoying their rights to the fullest, protecting children to enhance their social, emotional, physical and cognitive development and above all to prepare the future leaders to be responsible in adulthood. I am extremely humbled to share my views on the contemporary challenges of the African child in the midst of plenty.On Thursday 16 June 2016, Zimbabwe will join the rest of the continent in commemorating the Day of the African Child, whose theme is, "Conflict and Crisis in Africa: Protecting All Children's Rights."To begin with, I wish to acknowledge my reservations with the theme for the Day of the African Child commemorations. The theme in my view portrays Africa as a continent in conflict and crisis. It portrays a sad picture of African countries entrenched in conflicts and crisis. In my view, the theme perpetuates the iniquitous view of Africa as a dark continent. It does paint a picture of the whole continent in Mfecane, "time of trouble." It portrays Africa as a continent not fit for children. Above all it is not in touch with the African discourse of child rights with responsibilities.To me, many African countries have shown great commitment at least by signing and ratifying the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the African Charter on the Welfare and Rights of the Child. I am sure only one country in Africa is still to ratify the UNCRC, that is, South Sudan. It shows great commitment to the letter and spirit of ensuring children have access to and enjoy their rights. However, I need to point out that if the spirit of signing and ratifying the conventions was the same spirit that is put into action in implementing the provisions of the conventions, Africa could be way ahead of many continents in the world. However, reality on the ground points to an undesirable and unimaginable ignominy. We are only good in ratifying conventions and protocols. More often than not, those conventions and protocols gather dust on the shelves without being implemented. Perhaps, it is because we lack resources to fulfil the obligations enshrined in the conventions. I must of course acknowledge that this view must not be an umbrella view to African countries. Some countries have recorded great strides in ensuring that children have access to and enjoy their rights within the limits of the resources available to them. Countries like South Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya, among others have made great strides in ensuring that children have access to and enjoy their rights.Conflicts in some few African countries has become perennial and the order of the day. It has become fashionable to have some African countries in conflicts. It is now in the blood stream of many to live and to wage war in their own countries. It is has become fashionable for some African leaders to preside over wars and civil unrest in their countries. In the midst of conflicts who bears the brunt of suffering? It is innocent children who bears the brunt of suffering due to conflicts and crisis. Children are raped, maimed, tortured and even conscripted into armies for wars that they do not understand. Child soldier phenomenon is a cause for concern. Blatant violation of children's rights is the order of the day. Parents are killed in the presence of children resulting in emotional torture. Conflicts are resulting in loss of property and cultural identity in case of children being forced to seek international protection as refugees. Basic rights of children are undermined. Children drop out of school due to conflicts and crisis. Right to education is undermined much to the perpetuation of underdevelopment of the continent. There is loss of life. Conflicts result in violation of children's rights to life and survival, development, right to food, right to participation and related rights are grossly violated in conflicts. Violation of children's rights is a crime against humanity. Children's rights are sacred. This is the situation of children in Mali, Somalia, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central Africa Republic, South Sudan and other countries in the continent where there are conflicts and crisis. The situation of children leaves a lot to be desired. Children's rights are being abused daily. Children are paying the prize for being vulnerable.It is important to pose hard and penetrating questions on conflicts in Africa.What are the conflicts for? Why having these never ending conflicts? Who is benefiting from these conflicts? Why fighting first and negotiate later? Why sacrificing the lives of innocent children? Why our children? What crime did our children commit?A cursory audit and helicopter assessment on conflicts in Africa paints a sordid and gory picture. Taking a balance sheet of the situation of children in African countries with conflicts and in crisis leaves us with a deficit. A deficit of lack of love for our children. A deficit of adherence to our children's rights. We are not doing enough for our children.I see some African countries majoring in the minors. I see selfish African leaders who are good at defending and fulfilling their selfish interests at the expense of children's rights. I see African leaders celebrating ratifying conventions and protocols but failing to live to the letter and spirit of the protocols and conventions.We need to move beyond just signing and ratifying children's conventions. Let us go beyond showing commitment to the children's rights. We need to convert the commitment into action. We need to go beyond rhetoric. Let us protect children's rights in their totality. Children are our future and they are the vanguard of our countries. Let us invest in our future.For sustainable development to be achieved and sustained, African countries must wean themselves from conflicts and wars. Africa protect your children's rights in totality. Do away with murder, rape and torture. Do away with impunity on abuse of children's rights. Fight for children's rights in totality. Stop this lip service to the welfare of children. Let us leap from war and conflicts to peace and fulfilment of children's rights. Above all, let us preach the gospel of responsibility to our children. I am of the view that children's rights can be sustainable if there is emphasis on responsibilities as well.It must also be emphasised that in all actions whether in conflicts and crisis or in peace times, the best interests of the children must be of paramount importance. All actions all the time must be in tandem with the need to ensure that the best interest of the child is given priorities. All we need is Africa fit for children.Conflicts are anti children's rights and well being. Children's rights are sacrosanct and any attempt to undermine them is a crime against humanity.In the final analysis, a certain writer once wrote, "we do not inherit the earth from our parents, we borrow it from our children", so Governments and responsible parties should make the earth, Africa specifically, a better place to live in.-----------Johanne Mhlanga is a Social Worker and writes in his personal capacity. He can be contacted at johannemhlanga82@gmail.com or 0776 308 483.
Given my last name, maybe I shouldnt be writing this column.

Why not?

Because its about Donald Trump.

And maybe Im biased because, well, quien sabe?

The Republican presidential candidate has sent his own party leaders into fits, yet again, for what they called Trumps racist comments about a San Diego judge named Gonzalo Curiel.

According to Trump, Curiel cant be fair in presiding over a lawsuit against Trump University by people who say the Donald ripped them off.

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His signature achievement has been to make crudeness, ignorance and hatred a formula for political success at the highest level.

He is a Mexican, Trump said of Curiel on CNN. We are building a wall between here and Mexico.

If Curiel has a conflict of interest, what about me? Can a columnist named Lopez be fair to a presidential candidate who has alienated legions of Latinos?

To answer, I think we have to consider another question first.

Am I a Mexican?

Im pretty sure Im not. My grandparents on one side came from Spain, Im told, although I never asked to see their birth certificates.

But I should be declared an honorary Mexican for all the times readers have told me to go back to Mexico.

Then again, Judge Curiel is not a Mexican, either. He was born in Indiana. That makes him a U.S. citizen of Mexican heritage, boys and girls.

Only in Trumps world is he a Mexican, which is like saying Trump is a Scot, or a German.

If he becomes president, how do we know whose side hes on?

And by the way, while Trump was selling T-bones and luxury condos in preparation for leading the free world, Curiel was a federal prosecutor who went after Mexican drug cartels and had to live in hiding for a while because of an assassination plot against him.

Imagine the advances well make in race relations under President Trump, a man whose idea of detente with the Latino community is to pose on Cinco de Mayo with a taco bowl from the Trump Tower Grill.

I love Hispanics! he tweeted.

Was that just for me, because Im Hispanic but not Latino?

By the way, its not just Latinos  and Muslims, and women, and the disabled  who think theres something not right about how Trumps mind works and how his tongue flaps.

On Friday in Redding, the presumptive GOP nominee (is that as hard to read as it is to write?) was praising a black supporter who had kicked a protester three months ago in Arizona. Then the candidate spotted a black man in the audience.

Look at my African American over here, Trump shouted. Look at him. Are you the greatest?

Its probably not a wise idea for a white candidate to sound like hes about to auction off a black supporter, but this is where we are.

Im intrigued by the question, Are you the greatest?

What does that mean?

Greatest person in Redding? Greatest athlete? Greatest African American who ever lived?

Hard to say.

What we havent heard from Trump at this late stage of the election cycle is a coherent domestic policy or foreign policy or economic policy.

Rather, his signature achievement has been to make crudeness, ignorance and hatred a formula for political success at the highest level. Fifty-two years after some of Americas greatest statesmen signed the Civil Rights Act, Trump brays contempt for the very notion of civility.

Millions of people went to the polls Tuesday in California, one of the most diverse places on earth, to participate in the democratic process. The weather was lovely, the turnout was expected to be decent for a primary, and the presumptive Republican nominee for president of the United States of America was in the news for adding another Archie Bunker moment to his highlight reel.

But you know what?

I dont blame him.

Trump is just being Trump, doing what works.

Sixteen other Republicans wanted the nomination, but they didnt have a chance.

He grabbed a head start when he said Mexico was sending rapists and drug dealers across the border, he picked up speed with a promise to build a wall and to send Muslims back where they came from, and soon he broke from the pack.

Trump figured out the campaign math and nobody was better at division.

You can argue that his provocations in a dangerous world make all of us less safe, but it doesnt matter.

You can argue that his trade proposals would accomplish the opposite of their intent, but it doesnt matter.

He is ascendant because people are buying the act, which plays to our worst rather than our best instincts.

Defend the size of your manhood on national TV?

You bet.

Turn policy debates into towel-snapping contests?

He was the best.

Toss red meat to knuckle-draggers?

Three cheers.

Hillary Clinton is not without her own failings and flaws. But she doesnt have members of her own party apologizing for things a grownup candidate shouldnt think or say.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, who for months couldnt bring himself to support Trump, on principle, finally loosened his grip on principle and gave in.

Now hes got huevos rancheros on his face.

See more of our top stories on Facebook >>

Claiming a person cant do their job because of their race is sort of like the textbook definition of a racist comment, Ryan said. I think that should absolutely be disavowed. Its unacceptable.

So did he cut the cord, claim theres no place in the GOP for bigots, or at least demand an apology?

Three strikes there.

But do I believe Hillary Clinton is the answer? Ryan went on. No, I do not.

Of course not. In the year the GOP wanted to make peace with Latino voters, better to stick with the guy youve just accused of racism.

I have to remind you, though, to consider my judgment with a grain of salt.

My name is common south of the border.

And Trump wants to build a wall.

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Two men who attempted to rob a marijuana dispensary in Walnut Park on Tuesday night are in critical condition after the business owner pulled out a gun and shot them, authorities said.

Just before 11 p.m., the men walked into the dispensary in the 2400 block of Florence Avenue and at least one of them had a gun, said Sgt. Angela Kepley of the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department Century station.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Department Crime Lab investigators gather bags of evidence at a pot dispensary in Walnut Park where one of the store owners shot and critically wounded two men attempting to rob the store. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times )

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The owner told KCBS-TV that he saw the men with assault rifles on a security camera and armed himself.

The man was uninjured and the two would-be robbers are listed in critical condition, Kepley said. The men will be taken into custody if theyre released from the hospital, she said. The investigation is ongoing.

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Two abandoned oil wells located in the front yards of homes in Echo Park will be permanently sealed after officials learned recently that they were leaking small amounts of natural gas.

State and city officials announced Wednesday that the wells  dubbed orphan wells because there are no responsible operators  would be sealed in a process that will take four to six weeks.

The safety of our neighborhoods is my top priority, Mayor Eric Garcetti said in a statement. These two deserted oil wells must be permanently sealed to protect the residents.

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Although the wells pose no immediate danger, they are very old, near homes, and will continue to deteriorate without intervention, California Department of Conservation and city officials said in a statement.

City and state officials will go door to door in the neighborhood and hold a forum to discuss the work before it begins. Vehicle access and parking in the immediate neighborhood will be restricted during the project.

We understand the work will inconvenience the community and are working hard to reduce those impacts and get everything finished as quickly as possible, said David Bunn, director of the state Department of Conservation.

The two orphan wells, located on Firmin Street, are part of the Los Angeles City Oil Field, which sparked Southern Californias oil boom more than 120 years ago.

When the wells were initially developed, there were no statewide regulations for permanently sealing them once production ended, according to the Department of Conservation. It was common practice to bury such wells and build over them.

One of the wells was covered with a concrete slab and buried long ago, but was dug up more recently by the homeowner. The other is topped by a two-foot steel wellhead and has been classified as orphaned for a decade, according to the department. Both of them are estimated to be 1,000 to 1,500 feet deep.

Testing done on the wells in April showed negligible readings for methane and hydrogen sulfide at the surface, according to officials. However, there was a noticeable rotten egg smell, which is associated with hydrogen sulfide.

The departments Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources issued remediation orders to the last known operators of the wells in 2012 and 2015, but responsible parties could not be located.

State law requires oil well owners to properly seal wells after use, but since 1977, the division has had to plug more than 1,350 orphan wells at a cost of more than $27 million, according to the department.

The division is authorized to spend up to $1 million a year on orphan well remediation, and the department has a proposal in the 2016-17 budget pending to increase funding by an additional $1 million.

Many Los Angeles neighborhoods are built atop former oil fields. The state Conservation Department maintains a website where users can find and check the status of abandoned wells.

If a resident believes they have an old oil or gas well on their property, they can email us and we can dispatch an engineer to check, Bunn said. With the limited funding we have to address orphan wells, we prioritize sites that are leaking or are close to residential or environmentally sensitive areas.

brittny.mejia@latimes.com

Follow me @brittny_mejia on Twitter
Two Los Angeles activists who were facing possible jail time for their roles in a downtown protest against police shootings that blocked a Metro rail line last year were sentenced to probation Wednesday morning.

Anthony Johnson, 58, and William Bannister, 44, were convicted of disorderly conduct and trespassing on a railway during a 2015 protest days after the police-involved killings of Freddie Gray in Baltimore and Walter Scott in South Carolina.

Despite a city prosecutors call for them to serve time, Superior Court Judge Lynne Hobbs sentenced both men to two years probation. Both must also perform community labor, Hobbs ruled.

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The men said they were wrongly convicted and blamed their arrests on the L.A. Police Departments misinterpretation of a permit the group had for the 2015 protest.

Im not a criminal, despite what the jury decided, Bannister said before he was sentenced. Im John Q. everybody else, who just wants to see something different.

 Anthony Johnson and William Bannister were sentenced to two years probation for their roles in a 2015 Los Angeles protest against police shootings that was deemed unlawful. City prosecutors had sought jail time for each.

Deputy City Atty. Jennifer Waxler, who prosecuted the case, and a spokesman for the city attorneys office declined to comment on the sentences.

The two men were among dozens arrested across the country on April 14, 2015, when people took to the streets in California and other states to protest a spate of police-involved killings of black men.

Charlie Keunang, a homeless man, was killed by police in March 2015 after struggling with several officers in a videotaped shooting on L.A.s skid row that drew national outrage. One month later, video emerged of North Charleston, S.C., police Officer Michael Slager fatally shooting Scott in the back as he appeared to be running away.

Two days before the L.A. protest, Gray had died in Baltimore, touching off ugly demonstrations that evolved into riots across that city.

Fourteen people were arrested after demonstrators staged a die-in and lay on the Metro Blue Line tracks, blocking rush-hour traffic near Washington Boulevard, police said.

One of those arrested was a juvenile; the status of that case was unclear.

Three other defendants were convicted of blocking the tracks and disorderly conduct and were sentenced to two years probation and community labor or service, according to Rob Wilcox, a spokesman for the city attorneys office.

Charges were dropped against three additional defendants after a jury acquitted them on disorderly conduct charges and could not reach verdicts on trespassing charges, Wilcox said. Five others pleaded no contest.

Ultimately, none of the defendants were sentenced to jail as a result of the arrests, Wilcox said.

More than two dozen people showed up in support of Bannister and Johnson. Many of them jeered Waxler as she tried to argue that Johnsons previous arrests for unlawful protest were grounds for sentencing him to jail time for the 2015 incident.

Johnson, who had no prior convictions, told the judge he believed the charges were merely an attempt to squelch protests against perceived police brutality across the city.

There was a necessity for anyone who cares about humanity to shine a spotlight on these murders, Johnson said of the protests. This is about the police continuing to hurt people, and people needing to stand up.

Follow @JamesQueallyLAT for crime and police news in California.

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Two graduate students who said they witnessed Stanford University swimmer Brock Turner sexually assaulting a woman on campus have spoken out this week amid outrage over the Ohio natives six-month jail sentence.

Swedish doctoral students Carl-Fredrik Arndt and Peter Jonsson  key witnesses in the case  were riding their bicycles through campus in January 2015 when they saw Turner on top of a woman on the ground behind a dumpster, Arndt told the Swedish news outlet Expressen on Tuesday.

They quickly could tell something was wrong, Arndt said. The woman was not moving, but Turner was aggressively thrusting his hips into her, the graduate students told authorities.

She was unconscious, the entire time, Arndt told CBS News. I checked her and she didnt move at all.

Brock Turner, shown in a January 2015 booking photo released by the Santa Clara County Sheriffs Office. (Associated Press) (Test)

The graduate students asked Turner what he was doing, but he began running, Arndt said.

The guy stood up, then we saw she wasnt moving still, Arndt said. So we called him out on it. And the guy ran away. My friend Peter chased after him.

Jonsson ran after Turner and stopped him, and the two men restrained him, called the police and held the undergraduate down until police arrived, Arndt told Expressen.

The graduate students did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Times.

Jonsson wrote on Facebook on Tuesday that he would not publicly comment on the trial or its outcome but thanked everyone, friends and strangers, for all the encouragement and support over the last days and months.

A jury in March convicted Turner on three felony counts: assault with the intent to commit rape of an unconscious person; sexual penetration of an unconscious person; and sexual penetration of an intoxicated person.

Turner faced a maximum penalty of 14 years in state prison, and prosecutors asked a judge to sentence him to a six-year prison term.

Last week, Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky sentenced him to six months in county jail and three years of probation, stating that a harsher penalty would have a severe impact on 20-year-old Turner. The judges decision has sparked outrage and a campaign to oust Persky from the bench.

Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky drew criticism for sentencing former Stanford University swimmer Brock Turner to six months in jail. (Jason Doiy/The Recorder via AP ) (Jason Doiy/The Recorder via AP )

In court, the unidentified victim read a 12-page, single-spaced letter that went viral after she gave it to the media. She said she was re-victimized during the trial by Turners claim that she had consented.

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, she wrote. And that distorted me, damaged me, almost broke me.

The woman called Turners sentence a soft time-out, a mockery of the seriousness of the assaults.

Turners father said in a letter to the judge that his son should not pay such a steep price  for 20 minutes of action out of his 20 plus years of life. The fathers choice of words was met with harsh criticism, and he later issued a statement that his comments were misinterpreted.

Despite criticism of the sentence, any effort to unseat the judge will be extremely difficult, legal experts said.

Some legal experts said the sentence was unusually light.

It is very unusual to have six months and probation in a case like this. The assault with intent to commit rape usually carries a prison sentence, said Dmitry Gorin, a former L.A. County sex crimes prosecutor. His background and no [criminal] record were a major factor. I cannot think of a similar local case where a defendant convicted by a jury of such a violent crime avoided prison.

Join the conversation on Facebook >>

MORE ON THE STANFORD CASE

Stanford rape case: How can Brock Turner accept responsibility for his actions if his father excuses them?

Stanford sex offender's friends and relatives wrote to persuade judge to keep him out of prison

Father of former Stanford swimmer reportedly refers to sexual assault as '20 minutes of action'

hailey.branson@latimes.com

Twitter: @haileybranson

UPDATES:

7:30 a.m. Updated with comments about light sentence.
The six-month sentence given to a former Stanford University swimmer after he was convicted of sexual assault is unusually low for such a case, legal experts said, but will probably stand despite widespread criticism.

Santa Clara County prosecutors had asked that Brock Turner be sentenced to six years in prison for the January 2015 attack on a woman. But Judge Aaron Persky chose to sentence Turner, 20, to six months in jail and three years probation while requiring him to register as a sex offender for life.

The sentence, which came after Turner was convicted of three sexual assault charges, has generated outrage in some quarters, especially after an emotional letter written by the victim was made public last week.

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It is very unusual to have six months and probation in a case like this. The assault with intent to commit rape usually carries a prison sentence, said Dmitry Gorin, a former L.A. County sex crimes prosecutor. His background and no [criminal] record were a major factor. I cannot think of a similar local case where a defendant convicted by a jury of such a violent crime avoided prison.

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Turner faced up 14 years in prison after his conviction in March on three felony counts: Assault with intent to commit rape of an intoxicated person, sexual penetration of an intoxicated person with a foreign object and sexual penetration of an unconscious person with a foreign object.

Those convictions alone should send him to prison, said Steve Cooley, Los Angeles Countys former district attorney. Its an extraordinary sentence. Hell spend just 90 days in the county jail after being convicted on three sexual assault charges.

The standard sentence for those crimes is six years, he said.

That is what Id expect him to receive, Cooley said.

Prosecutors, he said, have the right to appeal the sentencing decision, but a reversal by an appeals court on the grounds of abuse of discretion is rare.

The judge and probation officials noted Turners youth and lack of a prior criminal history in going with the six-month sentence. According to a probation report released Monday, officials recommended a moderate jail sentence because he had no criminal history and because his intoxication level  about 0.13% blood-alcohol concentration  reduced the seriousness of the crime.

The judge said that a stiffer sentence would have a severe impact on Turner. I think he will not be a danger to others, the judge said.

Turner was able to avoid prison in part because two of five original charges filed against him were dropped at a preliminary hearing.

Those two charges were the most serious: rape of an intoxicated person and rape of an unconscious person. Deputy Dist. Atty. Alaleh Kianerci said the rape charges were filed based on the police report but after received the results of DNA testing on the rape kit prosecutors opted to drop those charges. More details about the DNA testing were not available.

Turner was arrested after two graduate students found him on top of a half-naked unconscious woman Jan. 18. They chased him and held him until police arrived.

Anger over Turners sentencing escalated after Stanford University School of Law professor Michele Dauber released excerpts online of a letter Turners father penned to the court.

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Dan A. Turner wrote that his sons and familys lives had been completely altered because of the verdict. That is a steep price to pay for 20 minutes of action out of his 20 plus years of life, he wrote.

In an emotional 12-page statement originally published on BuzzFeed, the rape victim detailed her psychological trauma.

She called the probation officers recommendation of a year or less in county jail a soft time-out, a mockery of the seriousness of his assaults, and of the consequences of the pain I have been forced to endure.

The furor spurred a recall effort this week against the judge. But any effort to unseat the judge will be extremely difficult, according to experts.

Judges are rarely recalled from office in California. Most who do leave office are removed following an investigation by the state Commission on Judicial Performance with a hearing on an issue of serious abuse, according to Loyola Law professor Laurie Levenson.

Judges almost never get recalled even when people are upset about a sentence, Levenson said Tuesday.

Gorin said Orange Countys bench has, in recent years, been the place where activists have targeted judges for their sentencing decisions.

An effort to recall Orange County Superior Court Judge M. Marc Kelly for sentencing a child molester to 10 years instead of 25 years to life failed this year. Nancy Wieben Stock, a now-retired Orange County judge, weathered an unsuccessful recall effort in the 1990s after she awarded O.J. Simpson custody of his two children after he was acquitted of killing his wife and the childrens mother, Nicole Brown Simpson.

Persky is one of 25 judges who are running unopposed in Santa Clara County this election year. Because Persky and the others face no opposition, their names wont appear on Tuesdays California primary election ballots. They probably wont appear on the November general election ballot either.

MORE ON THE STANFORD CASE

Stanford rape case: How can Brock Turner accept responsibility for his actions if his father excuses them?

Stanford sex offenders friends and relatives wrote to persuade judge to keep him out of prison

Father of former Stanford swimmer reportedly refers to sexual assault as 20 minutes of action

veronica.rocha@latimes.com

richard.winton@latimes.com
Police announced Tuesday that they have arrested two teenagers suspected of vandalizing police cars during a protest that turned violent after Donald Trumps April 28 campaign stop in Costa Mesa.

Authorities did not release the suspects names, saying only that they are male minors who live in Costa Mesa. One was arrested last week, the other about three weeks earlier, said Costa Mesa police Sgt. Matt Grimmond.

According to Grimmond, one of the teens is suspected of vandalizing a police cruiser by kicking in its door. Authorities allege the other was seen writing on a different police car with a blue marker.

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Police are still looking for other suspects in the vandalism of a total of six police cars, Grimmond said.

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1 / 28 An anti-Trump demonstrator lies at the intersection of Fair Drive and Fairview Road near the Pacific Amphitheatre, where the candidate made his first appearance of his California campaign. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) 2 / 28 Protesters try to overturn a police car at the Donald Trump rally in Costa Mesa. (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times) 3 / 28 Chaos on the streets outside the rally. (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times) 4 / 28 Protesters outside the rally. (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times) 5 / 28 Protesters in the streets. (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times) 6 / 28 Police try to quell a protest against Donald Trump on the streets outside the Orange County Fairgrounds. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) 7 / 28 Presidential candidate Donald Trump waves to the crowd during a rally at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 8 / 28 Protesters outside the Donald Trump rally. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) 9 / 28 Law enforcement authorities line the street where protesters had gathered. (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times) 10 / 28 Anti-Trump protesters take over an intersection near the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) 11 / 28 A protester waves a flag before a phalanx of police officers in riot gear. (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times) 12 / 28 A protester and law enforcement officers amid the raucous scene. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) 13 / 28 Guadalupe Verdugo in front of a police line outside the Orange County Fairgrounds. (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times) 14 / 28 A protestor, second from right, is escorted out of the amphitheatre before a rally at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 15 / 28 A wall of police and sheriffs deputies opposite demonstrators in Costa Mesa. (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times) 16 / 28 Donald Trump with supporters at the rally. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 17 / 28 Donald Trump greets supporters at the rally. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 18 / 28 Donald Trump onstage in Costa Mesa. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 19 / 28 Donald Trump speaks at the rally. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 20 / 28 A Trump supporter yells build that wall before the start of a rally at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 21 / 28 A protester clings to a traffic signal at the intersection of Fairview Road and Fair Drive, which was taken over by anti-Trump demonstrators. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) 22 / 28 Orange County sheriffs deputies separate protesters from supporters at Donald Trumps rally in Costa Mesa. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) 23 / 28 A protester outside the Donald Trump rally in Costa Mesa. (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times) 24 / 28 A Trump supporter at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 25 / 28 Trump supporters grab signs before a rally at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 26 / 28 Esvin Rivers waves a flag as he waits in line to attend the rally. (Barbara Davidson/ Los Angeles Times) 27 / 28 Sheriffs deputies patrol between the rival groups at the Trump rally. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) 28 / 28 A Trump supporter, right, confronts a protester outside the event. (Barbara Davidson/ Los Angeles Times)

On Tuesday, investigators released photos of a male jumping on the dented roof of a police car. He was wearing black pants, a white shirt, a black hat with green under the bill, gray shoes and a gray shirt over his mouth.

Authorities asked that anyone who knows the suspects identity contact detectives at (714) 754-5198.

The arrests announced Tuesday came in the wake of Trumps rally at the OC Fair & Event Centers Pacific Amphitheatre. According to Costa Mesa police, more than 30,000 people descended on the area in hopes of attending the free rally or to protest outside. The amphitheater seats 8,500, and many supporters of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee could not get in.

After the rally, crowds flooded nearby streets and some demonstrators threw rocks, smashed car windows and tried to flip a police car.

In addition to the six damaged police vehicles, four civilian motorists reported damage to their cars, but police said they have no leads in those cases.

Police said they also are investigating two assault cases related to the protests.

In one incident, a Costa Mesa police officer wearing a helmet was hit on the head with a thrown rock. In the other, a civilian was hit on the head, police said.

The Costa Mesa Police Department continues to vigorously pursue investigative leads to identify and hold the responsible parties accountable for their involvement in the activities which occurred after the Trump rally in Costa Mesa, police said in a statement.

The Orange County Sheriffs Department is investigating another assault report and a case of reckless driving, according to Costa Mesa police.

Seventeen people were arrested the night of the rally on suspicion of unlawful assembly, police said. In May, the Orange County district attorneys office announced it had charged one of them with a felony count of vandalism and a misdemeanor count of inciting a riot.

Prosecutors allege that Luis Fernando Alarcon, 19, of Anaheim threw a rock or a roof tile at a California Highway Patrol cruiser. Alarcon has pleaded not guilty.

--

Jeremiah Dobruck, jeremiah.dobruck2@latimes.com

Twitter: @jeremiahdobruck

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Unemployed and fighting to stay clean, Jayne Fuentes had few options when a judge offered her a particularly unappealing choice  go to jail or spend her days on a work crew.

Her crime? Being too poor to pay the fines and court costs that came with a drug conviction and several theft charges.

But when I was done with the work crew, I still owed $2,700 on another debt, says Fuentes, 48. I could have ended up in jail again.

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Instead, the threat of being back behind bars or assigned to another work detail vanished last week when a lawsuit filed by Fuentes and two others ended with an agreement to abolish a local practice of locking up people who cant pay their fines and have little hope of doing so.

Similar pay-or-stay practices are used by cities and counties across the country, tactics the American Civil Liberties Union is working to end, says spokesperson Doug Honig. He cites recent settlements or decisions in Biloxi, Miss., Colorado Springs, Colo., and the Detroit suburb of Eastpointe, Mich.

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The Colorado lawsuit revealed 800 cases of people jailed for inability to pay minor violations. Most were homeless and cited for panhandling or sleeping in a park. The federal government has also been active in pursuing such practices, most notably forcing Ferguson, Mo., to discontinue its lucrative pay-or-stay policy that fell hardest on minorities.

Across the country, said ACLU staff attorney Nusrat Choudhury, counties and cities seeking revenue are using jail and forced labor to coerce poor people to pay fines and fees they cannot afford. The recent court victories will help ensure that peoples freedom no longer rests on their financial circumstances.

In Fuentes community, Richland, Wash., which hugs the Columbia River in Benton County, local officials had not been bashful about jailing indigent district court defendants to help generate government revenue. One survey of Benton County Jail showed there were an average 88 prisoners a day serving time for fines they couldnt pay  about 28% of the jail population.

Last fall, after Fuentes lawsuit was filed with the backing of the local ACLU chapter and Terrell Marshall Law Group of Seattle, Benton County commissioners wondered whether there were any other ways to get the poor to pay up.

Cant [the county] go after their welfare or anything? asked Commissioner Jerome Delvin.

Commissioners surrendered shortly afterward and ended what the suit called a modern-day debtors prison policy, potentially costing the county several million dollars in lost revenue. The ACLU pushed ahead with the suit to get the countys concessions in writing, including an agreement to no longer punish those too poor to pay.

In Benton County, during one 6 1/2-month period, 320 inmates were found to be serving time because they were unable to pay fines, according to the lawsuit. They owed an average of $2,670 each. One person owed $17,000, which could take up to 345 days of jail time to pay off.

Whether the defendants picked jail or a work crew, the county stood to profit, the ACLU said. The cities where defendants were originally charged paid the county $70 a day for each jail cell occupied by a prisoner sitting out his or her fine. At the same time, defendants on work crews were doing landscaping, janitorial jobs and other substantial duties the county would have had to pay for, the ACLU said.

In Benton County and elsewhere, the ACLU won its legal challenges by pointing to a U.S. Supreme Court precedent that defendants cant be jailed simply for being poor. Ability-to-pay hearings must be held, payment plans should be established if necessary, and any sentences should involve noncustody punishment such as community service, attorneys successfully argued.

It seemed to make more sense that I get a paying job and pay on the debt, and do public service.  Jayne Fuentes, jailed for inability to pay fines

Fuentes, the lead plaintiff in the Washington case, was a drug abuser convicted of three minor thefts and had amassed $3,000 in court fees, including restitution and payment for a public defender.

She agreed to a payment plan but  being either incarcerated, unemployed or homeless  failed to keep up.

See the most-read stories this hour >>

Fuentes ended up doing a year in prison on felony drug charges, while the district court debt continued to grow as interest was added on. When she was released in 2013, she was brought back to court and agreed to work off as much debt as she could.

It seemed to make more sense that I get a paying job and pay on the debt, and do public service, Fuentes said. She said she was able to pay down her debt at a rate of $80 a day by doing groundskeeping and litter patrol, better than the $50 a day she would earn in credit by sitting in jail.

Fuentes work-crew credits wiped out several thousand dollars she owed. But shes not sure how shell pay the remaining $2,700. Shes on a $65-a-month payment plan, and doesnt like to think how long repayment might take.

I owe it; Im responsible, says Fuentes, who is single, lives with two roommates, and has been drug-free for several years, she says. She now makes about $10 an hour at a fast-food restaurant and was able to buy an older used car and auto insurance. But her income covers only the bare essentials.

She and two other defendants did get a settlement fee from the county  $1,000 each. That will ease the load, she says.

This wasnt about trying to get out of paying my fines, Fuentes said. If I had to go back to jail Id lose my car, my house  everything I worked for. Maybe now I have a chance.

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The title pretty much captures the challenge: Preparing for the Unimaginable.

Its the name of a new handbook crafted to help police departments prepare for, and recover from, what the National Alliance on Mental Illness calls mass casualty events.

In this era of mass shootings, the guide offers sobering recommendations on how to safeguard the mental health of police officers and others who must rush to scenes of carnage. The table of contents includes headings such as Tips for helping officers to heal and Assign a mental health incident commander.

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The guide, released in late May, also contains intimate, first-person accounts of law enforcement officers who describe how they and colleagues struggled to overcome traumatic events. They recount nightmares, cold sweats, feelings of helplessness.

One night, it hit me: This job is not for me, wrote Sgt. Mark DiBona, a deputy sheriff in central Florida.

DiBona, who had already been feeling stressed at work, one night tried to resuscitate a baby who wasnt breathing. The boy died, and DiBona was overwhelmed by guilt, convinced he could have done more to save the child.

After the funeral, he couldnt shake the memory of the little body in his arms and relived other awful images from his career  bloody crashes, victims of sexual abuse, friends who died in the line of duty.

Im falling really fast, he wrote of that troubling time. I tried to fight the thoughts, but I felt like I was drowning. I attempted suicide twice that night.

Two days after the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., a pair of Newtown police officers tend a makeshift memorial at St. Rose of Lima Church. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times )

The National Alliance on Mental Illness developed the guide at the request of the U.S. Department of Justice and Michael Kehoe, then chief of police in Newtown, Conn., site of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.

Along with the letters by law enforcement personnel is an extraordinary account by Kehoes wife, Lori Kehoe. Unflinching and at times painful to read, the letter recounts how she and her husband weathered the tragedy that claimed the lives of 20 first-graders and six adults, and how the couple finally began to heal.

Here are excerpts from her letter:

On the first day of the shooting, Dec. 14, 2012:

I did not expect Mike to come home that night. After all, they had cots at the police department; they had uniforms and showers. When he did arrive home at midnight, he talked and talked until he passed out in the middle of a sentence. At 6:00 a.m., he was out the door.

I offered to answer phones or e-mail. His answer was, No, I got it covered. I offered to make him breakfast, and the answer  which became a common phrase in our home  was, No, I got it covered.

It was rare that he needed me for anything. This became the schedule: 6:00 a.m. to midnight.

On fears for the officers:

Each night it was necessary for Mike to decompress, and I saw it as my job to be available and to listen and do whatever he needed. He would continue to literally fall asleep talking. When Mike started yelling in his sleep, I could tell he was reliving the incident. This schedule lasted for about four months, and it became extremely isolating.

Mike does not get upset. He is always cool, calm, and collected. He doesnt bounce off the walls. A few weeks after the shooting, he came home and was pacing and absolutely agitated beyond agitated. He was concerned about his officers committing suicide.

He expressed his concerns, and we came up with options for him to execute the next day. I was always the sounding board, bringing whatever common sense I could muster to the table.

On not knowing where to turn for help:

Those were the days when I would wonder, whom do you call for answers? After all, isnt there always someone to call for help in life? When you got a flat tire, you call your dad. If your cake wont rise, you call your mom.

I realized there is no one to call when 20 children get blown away in your town. Youre watching your partner struggle with all these questions and no answers.

The Sandy Hook shooting left former Newtown, Conn., police Chief Michael Kehoe feeling a need to be in control, his wife Lori Kehoe wrote. (Matt Rourke / Associated Press )

On her husbands changing behavior:

He was suddenly in control of everything. All of a sudden, he was telling me what to do and when. It was bizarre from a man who never gave orders at home. Then I realized he needed to be in control, to maintain order. He was spending his days making rapid-fire decisions continuously for weeks on end.

Finally in August (nine months after the shooting), Mike came home and said, I got to something on my desk today that was on my desk before Dec. 14. I thought to myself, Its August, and the trauma is finally over.

On how the shooting affected her:

A year after the shooting, I was mentally and emotionally not functioning, almost to the point of not getting out of bed. And even though Im a nurse, I didnt know about trauma  I didnt know what trauma could do to a person or that there was such a thing as PTSD by association.

I was so angry. I was mad at everyone and everything. I was depressed beyond belief, alone, and isolated.

Lori Kehoe eventually received treatment at a trauma center in California and wrote about the experience:

They taught me that the trauma actually changes your brain  you can see it on an MRI. In addition to five full days of intervention and counseling, they did a physical treatment on me called eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR). Its designed to reduce the emotion that goes with the thoughts about the traumatic experience. It was extremely effective.

The treatment was necessary, and it changed my life. I absolutely came back a new woman, and I got better and better after treatment. Today, were good.

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Opinion / Columnist

The MDC unequivocally applauds the recent initiative taken by various churches in Zimbabwe in their quest to find a lasting solution to the Zimbabwe political and socio-economic crisis. We take cognisence of the bold move taken by these gallant men and women of the cloth in joining a growing chorus from across the nation for an urgent solution to the crisis facing Zimbabwe.The MDC welcomes the convergence of ideas from the diverse backgrounds of various groupings which defines the broader spectrum of the Zimbabwean populace. Our philosophy is premised on the understanding that politics is a vocation which refers to the activities and efforts to create, maintain and expand space for the growth and fulfillment of people's aspirations and the church is no exception in this endeavor.The intervention by the churches could not have come at a better time, when the country's economy and governance system has virtually collapsed leading to untold suffering of the majority of people. As shepherd of these suffering people in Christ, it is appropriate that the church should superintend over the physical, intellectual, social and economic well being of the same people.We call upon the church to step up their efforts in ensuring that the people of Zimbabwe are afforded their right to a decent, enjoyable and prosperous life in a dignified and more peaceful environment.For the past 36 years, the people of Zimbabwe have been denied thisGod given privilege under the abusive and insipidly corrupt Zanu-PF regime. The church in Zimbabwe must be emboldened by the fact that no one has a right to shut out other people from collaborating with God in making the world a better, more just and more peaceful place. We look forward to a broader and more inclusive endeavor in the quest for a lasting solution to the Zimbabwean crisis.As the MDC we call for the immediate resignation of President Mugabe and his entire corrupt cabinet to pave way for fresh elections which should be monitored by the United Nations with the active participation of both the AU and SADC.
Hillary Clinton is set to make history as the first woman to be a presidential nominee for a major U.S. political party and potentially becoming the countrys first female commander in chief.

But the glass ceiling to a nations top office was long ago shattered in several countries around the world, including some with nascent democracies.

The fact that these countries have democracies that are less established may make it easier for someone outside of the conventional political norms to get elected, said Dan Schnur, director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California. The United States has had two centuries to develop old-boy networks, the results of which are walls that are less easy to scale. New democracies have had less time to build such walls.

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India has had the longest stretches with a woman in power, according to the Pew Research Center. Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and later President Pratibha Patil served a combined 21 of the last 51 years. In Europe, the Nordic countries stand out in terms of electing women to their nations top political office, according to Pew data, barring Sweden, where a woman has never headed the government.

There are currently 18 female world leaders, including 12 heads of government and 11 elected heads of state, according to the United Nations (some leaders are both, and figurehead monarchs are not included).

Heres a look at some of the past and present female leaders:

Indira Gandhi, prime minister of India, 1966-1984

Indira Gandhi was Indias third prime minister and so far the first and only woman elected to the post. The daughter of Indias first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, she served for three consecutive terms between 1966 and 1977, and another term from 1980 until she was assassinated by her bodyguards in 1984.

She is credited with implementing progressive agricultural programs that helped improve he lives of the countrys poor and for signing the Shimla peace agreement with Pakistan, which provided for the resolution of disputes between the two nations through peaceful means.

But she was seen by some as authoritarian, and her administration was tainted by widespread corruption, according to historians.

Golda Meir, prime minister of Israel, 1969-74

Golda Meir in 1973 as she arrives for talks with President Nixon. (Bob Daugherty / Associated Press )

A founder of the state of Israel and the nations fourth prime minister, Golda Meir was considered by her countrymen to be the original Iron Lady.

Praised for her dedication to her country, Meir tried to push for peace in the Middle East through words over weapons, though her efforts were curtailed by the outbreak of the Arab-Israeli war on Oct. 6, 1973, also known as the Yom Kippur War.

Being a woman in the nations top job was of little consequence to Meir, according to the encyclopedia of the Jewish Womens Archive.

Just as some Jews choose not to be Jewish-identified because they think they have the option to behave as if peoplehood doesnt matter, Golda Meir chose not to be woman-identified and behaved as if gender doesnt matter, the encyclopedia says.

Meir remained a revered political figure until her death on Dec. 8, 1978.

Margaret Thatcher, prime minister of Britain, 1979-90

Margaret Thatcher was the first and  so far  only female prime minister of Britain and regarded by many as the countrys most important peacetime leader of the 20th century. Nicknamed the Iron Lady, she reshaped the political and economic landscape of Britain through conservative free-market policies that came to be known as Thatcherism.

The Oxford University-educated daughter of a shopkeeper and leader of Britains Conservative Party, she was loved and loathed. Her supporters praised her tough, no-nonsense style. Her critics slammed her as being uncompromising and a polarizing force.

In 1982, Thatcher led Britain to war  and ultimate victory  with Argentina over the Falkland Islands, causing her popularity to soar. She stood up to the Irish Republican Army, whose attempt on her life in 1984 failed to intimidate her.

Thatcher died at age 87 on April 8, 2013, from complications of a stroke.

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FOR THE RECORD

June 8, 2:50 p.m.: A previous version of this article misstated the date of Margaret Thatchers death as April 9, 2013. She died on April 8.

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Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, president of Liberia, 2006 to present

The diminutive and bespectacled Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf came to power as Africas first elected female head of state in 2006. Similar to Thatcher and Meir, she is nicknamed the Iron Lady for her no-nonsense ferocity. An ambitious economist, her tenure in office has focused on tackling corruption, rebuilding the countrys infrastructure following years of civil strife and reducing the staggering unemployment rate.

A former finance minister who studied in the United States, her success at securing international assistance and foreign investment led to Liberias debt being erased by the end of 2010.

In 2011, she was one of three recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize for efforts to promote and support the rights of women.

Angela Merkel, chancellor of Germany, 2005 to present

Angela Merkel (Christof Stache / AFP/Getty Images )

A trained physicist, Angela Merkel became Germanys first female chancellor in 2005, emerging as one of the key leaders of the European Union. Her popularity propelled her to a second term in 2009.

Merkels style of government has been characterized by pragmatism, although critics have decried her approach as the absence of a clear stance and ideology, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Merkel was awarded the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011 and Time magazine named her Person of the Year in 2015, citing her leadership on issues such as the Syrian migrant crisis.

Dilma Rousseff, president of Brazil, 2011 until her suspension, May 2016

Dilma Rousseff (Eraldo Peres / Associated Press )

Dilma Rousseff, Brazils first female president, came to power in 2011 promising to create jobs, eradicate poverty, bolster the economy and bring about political reform. Her popularity soared and she was reelected in 2014.

But Rousseffs government became deeply unpopular and beset by accusations of corruption and scandals, including claims of billions of dollars stolen from the states oil coffers and a range of political shenanigans.

Rousseff has not been personally accused of any corruption or criminal offense, but the Brazilian Congress impeached her in May and she faces trial on charges that she shifted funds to cover holes in the national budget.

Park Geun-hye, president of South Korea, 2013 to present

Park Geun-hye (Eric Piermont / AFP/Getty Images )

Park Geun-hye is South Koreas first female leader. The daughter of former President Park Chung-hee, who governed South Korea for almost 20 years, she defeated a liberal human rights lawyer to win the countrys top job in 2013.

During her election campaign she promised to be president for the people, and pledged to revitalize the countrys economy and reduce household debt while ensuring national security in face of an often aggressive North Korea.

Never wed, Park has often said that she is married to her nation, according to information published on biography.com.

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If convicted criminals were sentenced by public poll, or a weighted average of outrage expressed on social media and radio talk shows, Stanford student and star swimmer Brock Allen Turner would be looking at more than just six months in jail and three years on probation for his 2015 sexual assault of an unconscious woman. He would do additional time for the offensive statement of his father that even six months was a steep price for 20 minutes of action, and a little more in the name of all the other campus assailants who have benefited from a variety of privileges  race, class, wealth, good looks, popularity. And perhaps even more for the statement by Santa Clara Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky, rather alarming when taken out of context, that a prison sentence would have a severe impact on him.

Yes, a state prison sentence certainly would have a severe impact on Turner, and thats the point. It would be punishment for a shocking and serious crime. If even the actual sentence of six months in county jail were indeed a steep price, it is important to remember that thousands of California inmates are where they are for actions that took place in even less than 20 minutes  the thrust of a knife in the heat of an argument, the squeeze of a trigger in a flash of anger, the unarmed assault on someone too frightened, too weak or too incapacitated to defend herself. Crimes are punished to protect the public, but also to keep a societys moral balance. Or to put it another way, to provide justice. There is, and there must be, some element of retribution for serious crime. On that question, from this vantage point, six months for Turner seems like far too little.

But of course, justice in any individual case isnt put to a public vote. The electorate, the Twitterverse, the mob, newspaper editorial pages  none would be any better, and all would likely be much worse, at tailoring an emotion-free, just and balanced sentence than an imperfect but trained and experienced judge with the evidence and the probation report before him.

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For too long, well-publicized cases like Turners sent a fearful and angry nation in the opposite direction, removing much of the judges traditional discretion. The resulting system, much of which remains in place today, locked up too many people for too long while giving merely the illusion of being unbiased. Many states and the federal government are in the midst of a broad reevaluation of the criminal justice system and are returning some discretion to judges. Thats a healthy move, and it should not be derailed by our perception that one high-profile sentence let one perpetrator off too easily.

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The final thing I want to ask is this: Is Donald Trump a racist? The question came at me this time from a Polish journalist, but his interest was not unique. My biography of Trump came out just as he began his campaign for president, and ever since my home has become a one-stop shop for journalists from around the world seeking to explain the man to readers and viewers. So many TV crews have visited that I can pre-arrange my furniture to suit their camera angles. Somehow I am never prepared for the racism question, even though everyone asks it.

The challenge lies in evaluating something unseen  a mans heart. My own sense of fairness makes me reluctant to do this, even as Trump attacks the integrity of a federal judge because he is Mexican and shouts out, Look at my African American over here at a rally. It is possible, however, to examine Trumps record  stretching back decades  and see big problems.

In the current campaign Trump has unforgettably demonized Mexican immigrants as rapists and murderers. He has mocked Asian businesspeople and the disabled. And, of course, hes proposed barring Muslims from entering the United States. He also personally distributed, via Twitter, blatantly false crime statistics, suggesting, among other things, that black Americans are responsible for 81% of white deaths due to murder. Trumps statistical accuracy was off by a factor of five, but if he was trying to incite racial animus, he hit the target squarely.

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Years before this campaign, Trump made himself the leader of the so-called birther movement, alleging that Barack Obama was foreign-born making his presidency illegitimate. Trump pursued this craziness long after others abandoned it. Then he doubled down, demanding Obama release his college transcripts. The word is, according to what Ive read, that he was a terrible student when he went to Occidental, said Trump. Then he gets to Columbia. He then gets to Harvard. how do you get into Harvard if youre not a good student? No credible source ever suggested that Obama, who became president of the Harvard Law Review, lacked academic ability. But with a vague attribution  according to what Ive read  Trump managed to dog-whistle affirmative action resentments.

Before he was a birther, Trump questioned the identity of American Indians testifying before Congress about tribal casinos in 1993, saying, They dont look like Indians to me. In 1989 he used the unproved charges against five black and Latino teens in the tragic Central Park jogger case to publish an ad in four newspapers calling for New York to reinstate the death penalty.

If youre spending this much time and effort insisting your guy is not a bigot, that might be because he is one.

In 1974, when Richard Nixons Justice Department charged Trump Management Corp. with discriminating against black applicants for apartments, Trump cried reverse discrimination. The notorious Roy Cohn, no stranger to bigotry, sued the government for $100 million on Trumps behalf. The suit went nowhere, but it did establish a 28-year-old Trump as an outspoken opponent of efforts to level the playing field on behalf of racial minorities. From that point forward, he would consistently defend the type of privilege he enjoyed  the advantages born of race, gender, class and wealth.

Trumps rhetoric in the current campaign shocks the foreign journalists who come to visit me. They have heard him indulge in his anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim rants and, worse, heard the cheers of thousand at his campaign events. They seem a little heartbroken that this is happening in a country  and to a country -- that has long inspired the world with its diversity and unity.

For his part, Trump knows hes playing with fire. On CNN last March he insisted that hes the least racist person youll ever meet. But what does that mean coming from him? On Face The Nation Sunday, Trump dismissed any American tradition against judging people based on family heritage, saying, Im not talking about tradition, Im talking about common sense, OK? The next day he told surrogates on a conference call to continue the attacks on federal Judge Gonzalo Curiel (a hater) and go after reporters too. The people asking the questions  those are the racists. Its reverse discrimination all over again.

Some high-profile Republicans, most notably House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), repudiated Trumps recent comments as textbook racism. But plenty of others dont seem to acknowledge the obvious: If youre spending this much time and effort insisting your guy is not a bigot, that might be because he is one.

If Trump doesnt possesses a racist heart, he certainly has a cramped and frightened one. Time and again he has advocated retreat in the struggle for wider opportunity and equality, retreat to some time, perhaps in his imagination, when America was great for certain people to the exclusion of others.

Michael DAntonio is the author of the biography The Truth About Trump.

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As she claimed ownership of the Democratic presidential nomination on Tuesday evening, Hillary Clinton knew she had to appeal to supporters of Bernie Sanders, the insurgent progressive whose campaign attracted millions of young voters.

In her brief, and uncharacteristically lyrical speech, Clinton therefore praised Sanders, who had still shown no sign of conceding that his long-shot effort to claw the nomination from her had failed.

She talked in general terms about principles that Democrats in both bitterly feuding camps presumably believe in: greater economic equality, a higher minimum wage and getting unaccountable money out of politics.

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Sen. Sanders, his campaign and the vigorous debate that weve had about how to raise income, reduce inequality and increase upward mobility have been very good for the Democratic Party and for America, she said, waving a giant olive branch at her still-unreconciled rival.

Clinton doesnt only need to pacify the liberal wing of her party, she needs to find a way to bring skeptical independent and moderate voters to her side.

Clinton also spent considerable time reminding voters of the one factor that she and her campaign may consider their ace in the hole: The presumptive Republican nominee.

Donald Trump is temperamentally unfit to be president, she said. Trumps slogan, Make America great again, is code for lets take America backward, she charged.

In any major speech, the things that are left out are often as important as the sentiments that were included. Clinton didnt mention her husband, former President Bill Clinton, although he was onstage. She didnt mention President Obama, who named her secretary of state, although shes counting on him for help in the campaign too.

Perhaps most important, she wasnt triumphalist. She didnt mention the raw electoral numbers that her campaign aides have been brandishing, increasingly fiercely, over the past few weeks; the fact that on Monday, the Associated Press declared that she had enough delegates to win the nomination; or that, on Tuesday, she won a majority of pledged delegates chosen through primaries and caucuses even before the California results were in; or the fact that she was on track to win some three million more voters than Sanders over the course of an unexpectedly difficult primary campaign.

Nor did she make any demand that Sanders drop out of the race, not even a gentle hint.

It was as if the entire Clinton campaign had suddenly noticed that they had finally crossed the finish line, and could, for once, be generous to their defeated opponent  even though, in private, there is still little or no mutual affection between the two camps.

As recently as Tuesday afternoon, prominent Clinton supporters including Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) were openly expressing annoyance at Sanderss resistance to dropping out. But other Democratic elders, including President Obama and Vice President Biden, urged Clinton and her aides to give Sanders the space he needed to recognize that his movement was sputtering to an end.

Obama called both candidates on Tuesday. He congratulated Clinton on securing the nomination, and congratulated Sanders on his campaign. Obama will meet with Sanders on Thursday, a White House statement said.

Over the last few weeks, the Sanders team has been slowly coming to terms with the implacable arithmetic of the race: Clintons lead  among both pledged delegates and unelected superdelegates  was too large to overcome. Still, theyve said that they need time to reach a consensus that their cause is hopeless  and, as a practical matter, to help their enthusiastic supporters think about transferring their allegiance to the nominee theyve been fighting.

One test for Clinton, then, was whether she would make that process easier or harder for the Sanders camp  whether she would demand a concession speech, or criticize the senator for hesitating, as some of her aides had already done.

In the end, she chose to be gracious  if mostly by omission.

Plenty of hard work still lies ahead, of course. Sanders and his followers have a list of demands for changes in the party rules and platform that they intend to press at the convention in Philadelphia next month.

And Clinton doesnt only need to pacify the liberal wing of her party, she needs to find a way to bring skeptical independent and moderate voters to her side as well.

Her most vigorous rhetoric came as she reminded voters that shes not Donald Trump, whom she said wants to win by stoking fear and rubbing salt in wounds.

We are better than this, she said. We wont let this happen in America.

From the perspective of history, the most important thing that happened on Tuesday was that a woman claimed the presidential nomination for the first time in American history  and, to be sure, Clinton marked that landmark, too.

But only for a moment.

Underneath the rhetoric, the rest of her speech was brisk, practical and politically targeted  not unlike the candidate herself.

doyle.mcmanus@latimes.com

Twitter: @DoyleMcManus

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As of Thursday, any cogent, terminally ill adult living along the entire Pacific Coast of the United States  from the Canadian border to the Mexican  can legally ask for lethal drugs to take her or his own life. California now joins Oregon and Washington, along with Vermont and Montana, in a right to die  the versions and restrictions, like the names, vary for each state. It wasnt California voters who passed the End-of-Life Option Act, but the state Legislature; Brittany Maynard, a young California woman with terminal brain cancer, made a video appeal in support of the bill. She said she was forced to move to Oregon to die legally with a doctors assistance. Californias law is modeled on Oregons, which has been on the books for nearly 20 years, and Dr. Katrina Hedberg, the state health officer and epidemiologist at the public health division, explains how it has worked there.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THIS INTERVIEW ON THE PATT MORRISON ASKS PODCAST>>

Lets look first at the nature of the law, what Oregons law requires of patients and of physicians.

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It laid out several sorts of categories or criteria for patients who would be qualified or eligible to participate. They had to be an adult, so 18 years of age or older, and a resident of the state of Oregon and be diagnosed with a terminal illness with six months or less to live.

Now, they also had to be able to make and communicate a healthcare decision. So the process is that they could make a request of a physician

And there had to be a second physician or a consulting physician who agreed with the diagnosis and the prognosis, as well as the patients ability to make and communicate healthcare decisions.

So the patient needed to have two oral requests separated by 15 days as well as a written request. And the written request had to be witnessed by two people, one of whom could not have a vested interest, so a family member who was going to inherit, for example. So those are the strict criteria that were laid out in the statute itself.

What sort of diseases are you finding in the patients who decide to take their own lives in taking advantage of the Oregon law?

Because the law specifies that a patient has to have six months or less to live, the majority of patients are those who have a disease that has a sort of a downward spiral, if you will, or a prognosis thats relatively short.

And the diseases that fall into this category are often cancers as well as diseases like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrigs disease, as well as HIV infection. So those have been diseases that we have seen for folks who have participated in this act.

How many have taken advantage of this law in the 19 years its been in effect?

Since the beginning, there have been a total of 991 patients who have taken the medications in order to hasten death. Now it turns out that there are a larger number of patients whove actually requested a prescription; thats over a thousand, or its around 1,200. So it looks like, of all the patients who get a prescription -- somewhere between two-thirds and three-quarters of them -- take the medication.

There are a number of patients who get the prescriptions but end up not taking the medication, but die of their underlying disease.

Why is that? Has anyone looked at that reason?

When a patient is diagnosed with the disease, a life-threatening disease, obviously there are a number of conversations that go into it, including what are the different treatment options, et cetera. At a certain point the conversation may move on to, theres no cure or its not treatable, and what are the different aspects or elements that are available, including things like being on palliative care or on hospice care.

Now, in our reporting system, physicians are required to report to us all of the steps up to the point the prescription is written, and then they report to us after the patient died, through the death certificate.

We then ask physicians, Did the patient take the medication or not? But the act does not specify what needs to happen between the time a prescription is written and the time of death. I do know that again through anecdotes that

For some people, the physicians say the patient wants to be able to have choices and options. They want to know its there.

I would have expected people over 85 who are facing fatal illnesses to be represented in greater numbers among those who take advantage of this law. Instead, theres a much larger percentage in, for example, the 18 to 64 age group  and thats certainly a big age range.

I think a couple of things happen as we get older. One, certainly, is we know that  its not true for everybody, but with a lot of people  they start to have some cognitive impairment, dementia, even if its not full-blown Alzheimers. But they may have increasing difficulty in making health care decisions. So I think thats one thing, that we see higher rates of participation in younger, although the average is 70, so thats relatively old. But the rates of participation are higher and younger.

Another is I do think that the older people, [it] may just the social norms, what they grew up with may not be as likely to choose this. They may also view more that their physicians should make the choices for them et cetera. So I do think that theres something about a changing social norm that might allow younger people [to] have more freedom, if you will, or feel more like they could ask this of their healthcare providers than older people.

What are some of the demographics of people who do take advantage of this law in terms of race, education and income? You noticed some big differences.

What weve seen in our data is folks with a higher educational levels; at least, almost half of all participants have had a college graduate degree or higher. Theyve graduated college. Only a fraction of them had less than a high school degree, and about 25% or 26% percent were high school grads. So 75% have had some college and/or graduate degree.

Weve also seen that the vast majority, 97% of people who participated, have been white. Oregon is a pretty homogeneous state, but we actually are becoming more diverse, more similar to California. And our state right now I think is about 80% white, and we have maybe 15% Hispanic or Latino and then we have 3% African American or American Indian.

And basically, the vast, vast majority of people whove participated are either white or Asian. Weve seen very few Latinos, Hispanics and/or African Americans or American Indians participate.

Has there been any gender difference?

No, actually not. Its pretty much 50-50 participation between the two sexes.

What often gets raised as a concern is that people will choose to die because they dont want to be a burden to their families. You wrote several years ago about concerns about inadequate pain control and pain management as one of the reasons, and that concern about becoming a burden on caregivers.

One thing is, the law itself writes what all the steps up to the point a prescription is written but really does not address what happens between the writing of the prescription and the time of death. So a number of the concerns that arise do have to do with what happens during that time period. Are the patients being adequately cared for? Do they have access to adequate pain control?

We know that there are very good pain medications out there, but there are side effects with them as well. When we had interviewed some families early on -- this was a number of years ago -- the family member reports that yes, pain can be controlled, but at the expense if you will or the cost that the patient is kind of out of it, or theyre woozy or theyre sleeping all the time, that having their pain controlled also meant that they lost the ability to participate in activities that made their life meaningful.

When people express concerns about being a burden, I understand that. When we had interviewed family members, however, many of them basically said, But youre not a burden -- youre our loved one and we want to take care of you.

I sort of use the analogy here that when my kids were young -- theyre now both in their 20s, but when they were young, if youd asked me, Is having a child or a baby or a newborn a burden? Youd say, Well, yeah, they keep me up all night, but I wouldnt change it for the world. So just because someone is asking the person themselves, they might be worried about it. But when we asked family members, in fact, they really did want to take care of their loved ones throughout the dying process. So part of this of course is what is perceived by the patients themselves compared to what the family members are actually experiencing.

And at least when we interviewed the family members, it was just the opposite: they really did not want their loved ones to die -- to die at all, much less die a hastened death.

You write in one of your papers about even the terminology as a matter of dispute because of the connotations. Proponents prefer the term physician aid-in-dying, or hastened death, or death with dignity. Opponents prefer physician-assisted suicide. Have you seen any changes, any agreement, on any one set of terms or words that people use?

The statute itself basically says that this should not be considered suicide. So we use the term death with dignity because that is what the statute was titled and that is what it is called. But youre right that the semantics around hastened death or aid in dying are different from the opponents, who continue to use the term physician-assisted suicide.

You may not want to answer this, and I understand perfectly, but the question is whether this law has had an effect in your family  a discussion about advance directives and things that may not have come up before.

I dont mind, actually, answering that question because my parents are old  my mother is 90 and my father is 96. Luckily they both are completely cognitively intact, theyre very active, they live independently, they live at home and theyre very intellectually engaged.

But we actually have not had any conversations specific to this act, although they have asked me about my role, and they certainly know I have been quoted in the media a fair amount. But they do want to have discussions about advance directives, and what does that mean, and they do want discussions about whether EMTs should come to the house, how aggressive should care be, since neither one of them has a terminal illness at this point. 

And so we have had some of those conversations. Luckily, we have many other things to talk about as well, so its not a major conversation at Thanksgiving! But it certainly is there, because I do want to honor their wishes. My father being 96, I hope he lives another 20 years, but then he will absolutely be the oldest person on Earth!

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As Californias aid-in-dying law takes effect, a top Oregon health officer describes how terminally ill Oregonians use that states longstanding death with dignity law.

Find the full archive of "Patt Morrison Asks" podcasts here or search for "Patt Morrison Asks" on iTunes.

For a transcript of this interview, click here.

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On Tuesday, I attended a ceremony here in Washington, D.C., at which my alma mater, Allegheny College in Pennsylvania, awarded its Prize for Civility in Public Life to Vice President Joe Biden and Arizona Sen. John McCain. This is the fifth year in which the prize has been bestowed on public figures from both the left and the right who argue passionately but respectfully for their beliefs.

In their remarks, the honorees deplored the lack of civility in contemporary politics and paid tribute to one another. It was an edifying and sometimes poignant object lesson in bipartisan comity, one that Im glad the college students in the audience were able to observe up close and personal.

McCain, a Republican, recalled how respectfully then-Sen. Biden, a Democrat, treated him on foreign trips when McCain served as the Navys liaison to the Senate and carried Bidens bags.

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Speaking (surprise!) at greater length, Biden reminded the audience of how McCain civilly corrected a woman at a campaign rally in 2008 who suggested that Barack Obama wasnt an American. McCain shot back: No, maam, hes a decent family man, [a] citizen who I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues. And thats what this campaign is all about.

But as McCain and Biden spoke, I couldnt help thinking of He Who Must Not Be Named at this event, and I dont mean Lord Voldemort.

When it comes to coarsening public discourse, Donald Trump is in a class by himself: Lyin Ted, Crooked Hillary, Little Marco. If the Bizarro World awarded a prize for civility in public life, Trump would win, hands down.

Yet neither McCain nor Biden targeted Trump in their remarks. McCain, who is seeking reelection, has endorsed Trump, despite the fact that Trump questioned the former Vietnam POWs heroism. (I like people who werent captured, Trump said.) Knowing this, Biden wasnt about to embarrass his co-awardee by taking on Trump.

But if Trump was absent in name, his malign presence hovered over the award ceremony. Its hard to imagine that the students who listened to Biden and McCain extol civility and mutual respect didnt visualize the candidate who is the living antithesis of those qualities.

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MORE OPINION

As Californias death with dignity law takes effect, what can we learn from Oregons experience with assisted suicide?

Bernie Sanders supporters have to face the facts: Hillary Clinton has won

Bad news for Trump? Up to one-third of Tuesdays GOP votes went to people who had already quit
As Hillary Clinton basks in the glow of solid wins in Tuesdays primaries  she trounced Bernie Sanders in New Jersey and here in California and they split the other four  a curious thing has happened on the Republican side. Donald Trump, who apparently dislikes anything that he cant see in a mirror, won only two-thirds to three-quarters of the vote in four of his five primaries Tuesday. And thats after everybody else quit.

Its not quite like losing an election to a dead candidate (looking at you, John Ashcroft), but its pretty remarkable nonetheless. In four states with Republican primaries on Tuesday, a quarter to a third of Republican voters favored people who are no longer running over the guy who has already clinched the party nomination. That doesnt bode well for the GOP in the fall.

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In California, John Kasich picked up 11% of the vote, and Ted Cruz got 9%, with Trump  running against suspended campaigns of those former rivals  winning 75% of the vote. It was similar in Montana, but Trump fared even worse in New Mexico (71%) and South Dakota (67%). In Manhattan-adjacent New Jersey, where Trump has the support of governor, and former rival, Chris Christie, Trump managed 80% of the vote. Montana and South Dakota are solid Republican states, and New Mexico has gone Democratic in recent presidential elections, though three of the last five governors were Republicans  including the current one, Susana Martinez, with whom Trump has been feuding. And while New Jersey Republicans may be more embracing of Trump, no Republican presidential candidate has won the state since the first Bush election in 1988.

Republicans  both elected officials and rank-and-file voters  havent lined up behind Trump yet, and they may not.

At the same time, Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk, who earlier had endorsed Trump, announced he no longer does.

After much consideration, I have concluded that Donald Trump has not demonstrated the temperament necessary to assume the greatest office in the world, Kirk said, citing Trumps ethnically offensive comments about a federal judges impartiality and his earlier mockery of a journalists physical disability.

Kirk himself uses a wheelchair after suffering a stroke in 2012, though that didnt stop him from endorsing Trump in March, five months after Trump mocked the physical disability of New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski, who suffers from a joint condition that limits use of his arms. The difference now is that Kirk is facing a stiff challenge from U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq war veteran who lost her legs when the helicopter she was piloting was shot down. And Illinois, Clintons home state, is expected to go strongly for her in the presidential race. In other words, in a tight down-ticket race, a fellow Republican views Trump as toxic.

So what does Trumps less-than-stellar showing in his uncontested primaries mean? Its further evidence that Republicans  both elected officials and rank-and-file voters  havent lined up behind Trump yet, and they may not, given Trumps inability to muzzle his bizarre and offensive attitudes.

And its worth noting that much of the criticism of Trump by leading Republican figures is focused on the damage he is doing to his November chances rather than disavowing him for his vile beliefs he espouses.

Although we remain an ethnically, racially and economically divided nation, this election cycle has been remarkable for its demographic diversity. Two serious contenders for the Republican nomination were the sons of Cuban immigrants, and on the Democratic side, a woman is poised to win the nomination  a first  over a credible challenge by a Jewish democratic socialist who enjoyed the most electoral success by someone from that slice of the political spectrum since Eugene V. Debs a century ago.

Looking ahead to November, the national electorate will have a choice between cracking the ultimate glass ceiling, or voting for a rich Archie Bunker. This is where the Sanders supporters come in. To oppose or not vote for Clinton because, in essence, shes not Sanders would leave open a door open for the election of a demagogue who stands against everything progressives are for, and whose success could destroy the very things the left holds dear.

And thats a fight that needs to be waged.

Scott.Martelle@LATimes.com

Follow my posts and re-tweets at @smartelle on Twitter

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To the editor: I find the characterizations by Dr. Neil Wenger, head of UCLAs Health Ethics Center, regarding Californias new end-of-life law to be disingenuous and unfortunate. (As Californias End of Life act goes into effect, some doctors question where to draw the line, June 6)

First, doctors have hastened death for many years. They have knowingly prescribed lethal doses of morphine for those in hospice or abided by requests to pull the plug for patients on life support. Second, the prescriptions allowed by this act are not poisons. If Wenger and other physicians dont want to write such prescriptions, that is their right, but they shouldnt denigrate those who will do so.

I have late-stage terminal bone marrow cancer and will soon take advantage of this new law. I feel fortunate it is taking effect when I need it to shorten the time I am in physical pain and to reduce the mental pain of losing quality of life  as I define that term.

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I could easily end my life in ways that would be quite messy and unpleasant for others. But this humane law will allow me to die in a peaceful and dignified manner at a time and place of my choosing and in the company of people I care about.

Bob Stone, Los Angeles

..

To the editor: Ethical physicians have every reason to be uneasy regarding this law, as it violates medical ethics by allowing physicians in a caring, healing profession to help kill their patients.

The article states that patients with less than six months to live may request the lethal drugs from their doctors. A six-month terminal prognosis is a joke among medical professionals. There is no way an accurate diagnosis can be made that far in advance, and prognostic error is widespread. Some patients have lived for years after being told this.

The immense pressure and depression after this risky diagnosis could lead patients to do something they normally wouldnt even consider.

Germaine Wensley, Playa del Rey

The writer, a registered nurse, is vice president of the antiabortion group California Nurses for Ethical Standards.

..

To the editor: Dr. Wenger misinterprets the Hippocratic Oath that mentions not administering poison when asked but says nothing about killing the patient. Food to the allergic person can be construed as poison. We must always treat the patient in need.

The oath also mentions it is against abortion. Some medical schools have stopped administering it as outdated. Our culture has changed dramatically since the Greeks defined Western civilization.

With our dysfunctional healthcare system, the less fortunate among us with terminal illness or a helpless neuromuscular disease can now opt out of their misery. They should be able to do this in spite of physicians living in the past who are unwilling to participate in the complete care of their patients.

Jerome P. Helman, MD, Venice

..

To the editor: Near the end of her life, my sisters metastatic breast cancer had moved into her lungs and her brain. When she fell into a coma at home, the paramedics transported her to a local hospice.

I stayed with her the entire time and watched as the hospice nurses came into the room every few hours and injected her with morphine. I asked one of them how she knew whether or not my sister was in pain since she was in a coma. We just know, she said.

My sister died two days later. The basic signs of morphine toxicity were evident: bluish skin discoloration and increasingly shallow breathing that eventually stopped.

The little secret is that hospice nurses and physicians have been helping terminal patients move more quickly toward death for decades. Medical aid in dying is a reality, and appealing to a 2,500-year-old oath that has been significantly modified over the years is not a valid argument.

Eric Stroud, Los Angeles

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Defiant Bernie Sanders: Next Tuesday we continue the fight

A defiant Bernie Sanders said Tuesday night that he will take his campaign to next weeks presidential primary in Washington, D.C., and then on to the Democratic National Convention.

Next Tuesday we continue the fight, Sanders told a large crowd of cheering supporters gathered in Santa Monica. We are going to fight hard to win the primary in Washington, D.C., and then we take our fight for social, economic, racial and environmental justice to Philadelphia.

Sanders spoke hours after Hillary Clinton claimed the Democratic nomination after victories in New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota gave her the delegates she needs to secure the nomination on the first ballot at next months convention.

Clinton was also beating Sanders in early returns in California. The Vermont senator campaigned vigorously in California in recent weeks and repeatedly said he thought he could win.

Sanders did not mention that Clinton secured the nomination, but did say that he spoke with the former secretary of State Tuesday evening and congratulated her on her state victories. That led the crowd to erupt in boos.

Sanders, who has faced mounting pressure to drop out of the race amid calls for Democratic party unity, said he was committed to stopping presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump from taking the White House.

We cannot allow the right wing to control our government, he said. We will not allow Donald Trump to become president of the United States.

But he said his movements goal is larger than defeating Trump: It is transforming our country, he said.

I am pretty good at arithmetic and I know that right in front of us is a very, very steep fight, he said, but we will continue to fight for every vote and delegate.

Sanders repeatedly described his campaign as a movement that was larger than one man.

When the crowd chanted his name, Sanders responded: But you all know it is more than Bernie. It is all of us together. It is what this movement is about  millions of people from coast to coast standing up and looking around them and knowing that we can do much better as a nation.

California had not been called by the time Sanders spoke. Clinton held a strong lead in early returns, but Sanders said he suspected that the gap would significantly diminish.

He said campaigning across California has been one of the most moving moments of my life.

Sanders heads home to Vermont on Wednesday. On Thursday he will meet with President Obama and host a rally in Washington.
CYBERSPACE  Penthouse Pet Kendra Sunderland will be using her adult celebrity status to donate to the Feed the Children Organization. She will be using Snapchat as her platform to raise funds.

If anyone wants my Snapchat, all they have to do is donate $30 to FeedtheChildren.org and email me the receipt to [email protected], says Sunderland. My snapchat is filled with photos of me, my kittens, and me cooking. Its a lot of fun, and worth the money for a great cause. Once I get your receipt, I will send you my snapchat user name, and the fun can begin!

Previous fundraising projects Sunderland has orchestrated include 24-hour cam shows for various charities, including breast cancer and malaria, as well as Valentines Day care packages for troops.
He's in a unique situation, because someone who came out of nowhere and did as well as he did might say, 'Well, I'll win next time.' But because of his age it's not likely he'll be a candidate next time. So he's got to figure out what he wants to do to continue to make an impact.
Hillary Clinton won a commanding victory over Bernie Sanders in the California primary because she meticulously targeted voters, ventured outside of traditional Democratic strongholds, and sharpened her focus on the stakes of a Donald Trump presidency.

Ultimately, the Clinton campaigns methodical effort beat the undeniable enthusiasm among Sanders supporters, who turned out by the thousands every time he held a rally in the state.

You can have a lot of excitement and a compelling message and inspire people, but if they dont show up to vote, it doesnt matter, said Rose Kapolczynski, a longtime advisor to Sen. Barbara Boxer. Kapolczynski supports Clinton but is not affiliated with her campaign. Sanders did have very impressive rallies all over the state, but were those people turning around and calling their neighbors and taking action to get other people to vote for Sanders?

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Clinton is leading Sanders by 13 percentage points, but the margin is expected to narrow once the remaining ballots from Tuesdays primary are counted.

Los Angeles City Councilman Gil Cedillo, a Sanders supporter who stumped with him, blames the loss on a lack of campaign organization, problems at polling places, and a media that failed to cover Sanders and named Clinton the presumptive nominee on the eve of the election, or what he called rank voter suppression.

Those three factors are significant in not allowing the Sanders movement to be realized in the electoral count, he said.

In the days leading up to the primary, some polls showed the race tightening. On election day, Sanders supporters did turn out.

Large numbers of Californians cast ballots by mail, starting a month before election day. At the time, Sanders was coming off a string of East Coast losses and was working hard to win in Indiana, West Virginia and Oregon to change the narrative of the race and to boost fundraising, said Ben Tulchin, Sanders San Francisco-based pollster.

They were successful in those states, but it came at a cost. Clintons California campaign used that time to aggressively target people likely to vote by mail, who already skew toward Clinton because they tend to be older and frequent voters. Clinton banked a large lead among these voters before polls showed a tightening race in California.

There was a massive effort starting weeks before people even received their ballots, a really sophisticated vote chase where we had gone through and figured out who were our voters and we really relentlessly pursued them, said Ace Smith, a senior advisor to Clintons California effort. We had a list and we checked it twice. Actually way more than twice.

 Hillary Clinton speech highlights

The campaign also aggressively focused on demographics that have traditionally supported Clinton  minorities and women. They advertised and were able to call voters in six languages in addition to English. Women-to-women phone banks were held every Wednesday. In the final four days of the campaign, volunteers made more than 2 million calls to voters.

Of particular interest were African Americans, who have a long relationship with Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, but who had abandoned her to support then-Sen. Barack Obama during the 2008 primary. Elected officials, faith leaders and celebrities such as Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar campaigned on Clintons behalf in places like South Los Angeles.

The focus on the early vote and the focus on diversity I think is really a big piece of how and why we won, said Buffy Wicks, Clintons state director.

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The final piece was Clinton and her husband barnstorming the state, holding dozens of events in the days before the primary. These events took place not only in places one would expect, such as the Westside and San Francisco, but also places such as El Centro, Antioch and Perris, a lot of places that have not been touched by a presidential campaign, Smith said.

The appearances appeared to work  for example, Clinton leads Sanders by 37 points in Imperial County, where El Centro is located. She also beat Sanders in the most liberal parts of the state, such as San Francisco and Alameda counties, areas that Sanders needed to win to make the race competitive.

Last Thursday, Clinton kicked off a five-day tour with a speech in San Diego, where she laid out what she believes are the consequences of a Donald Trump presidency. Many Democratic operatives called it one of the most notable moments of her candidacy. She gave the speech as Trump was saying a judge could not fairly oversee a trial against Trumps now-defunct real estate school because the judges heritage was Mexican.

The intersection of those two events just crystallized this race for an awful lot of people across the nation, said Chris Lehane, a Clinton supporter who is not affiliated with her campaign but had worked for Bill Clinton. California, we were the state that happened to be voting in that moment.

Sanders supporters point to the large number of newly registered voters as proof of their campaigns vibrancy, but its unclear what segment of those voters were Sanders supporters. Other new registrants on the Democratic side were motivated to vote against Trump.

Sanders campaign argues that it lost a couple of points because of confusion among voters who registered as having no party preference. These voters, who tend to favor Sanders, are allowed to cast ballots in a Democratic primary in the state, but must know to ask for the Democratic ballot. A lawsuit arguing this point was filed by Sanders supporters against the state, but it was rejected.

Overall, Tulchin says, he was proud that the campaign, which once trailed Clinton by 63 percentage points in California, made up significant ground.

We werent able to completely close the deal. We had limited resources to work with in California and its a big, expensive state, he said. We gave it our best shot.

seema.mehta@latimes.com

For the latest on national and California politics, follow @LATSeema on Twitter.

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Buoyed by Hillary Clintons clinching of the nomination and her double-digit victory in the California primary, Democrats jump-started efforts to close ranks behind her Wednesday for a five-month campaign to prevent Donald Trump from reaching the White House.

Their biggest challenge was how to approach the candidacy of her primary opponent, Bernie Sanders. For Democrats to marshal all of their resources against Trump, Clinton needs a united front, one that eludes her until the Vermont senator drops out.

Clinton stayed off the campaign trail Wednesday after delivering a triumphant and at times emotional victory speech in Brooklyn, N.Y., the night before, where she alluded to her own defeat in the Democratic primary eight years earlier. In a series of media interviews, she said she was eager to bring Sanders backers on board, particular younger voters.

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Anyone who supported Bernie Sanders who thinks we should raise the minimum wage, who thinks that we should have universal healthcare coverage, who thinks that the wealthy have not paid their fair share would certainly not find that Donald Trumps views are in line with theirs, she said on ABC.

Her campaign, meanwhile, instructed top allies to avoid opining publicly on what Sanders should do next, to give him space to decide himself.

Asked whether they had asked for or expected Sanders to concede, Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook said it was too early for such a request.

This is an important period for Sen. Sanders to, first of all, probably get some sleep, but second of all to step back and assess where they are, Mook said in an interview Wednesday. I think he needs some time to thank his supporters and get the lay of the land and make decisions about how he wants to move forward.

Ultimately, though, he predicted that Sanders would work with Clinton to help defeat Trump.

We have a lot of work to do and a lot of outreach to do to unify the party, Mook said. But both our campaign and Sen. Sanders and his campaign are completely committed to making sure that the White House remains in Democratic hands this fall.

The White House said Wednesday that while President Obama considered Clinton to be the partys nominee, he would wait to endorse her until after he met with Sanders on Thursday, an encounter scheduled at the senators request.

Appearing on The Tonight Show during a fundraising visit to New York, Obama told host Jimmy Fallon for an episode to air Thursday that the contested primary was healthy and made Clinton a better candidate.

My hope is over the next couple weeks were able to pull things together, he said.

Top Democratic congressional leaders said they were confident Sanders would unite behind Clinton.

Were on a path to unity, said Sen. Charles E. Schumer of New York. The Democratic Party will shortly be unified for two reasons: One, we know what would happen if there were a President Trump. And two, we know the good things that would happen  getting middle-class incomes moving, bringing America together  if theres President Clinton.

Some of Sanders top allies expressed confidence he would act in the interests of the party even as they sought to preempt efforts by Democratic leaders to push him aside before he was ready to exit the race on his terms.

The reality is unattainable at some point, Rep. Raul M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.), a Sanders backer, told the Washington Post. You deal with that. Bernie is going to deal with this much more rapidly than you think.

Sanders, for now at least, is pressing ahead with plans to compete in the final primary battle of the year, next week in the District of Columbia. But his remarks Tuesday in Santa Monica indicated his campaign is about issues as much as about his own shot at the presidency.

Our fight is to transform this country and to understand that we are in this together, he said, to understand that all of what we believe is what the majority of the American people believe and to understand that the struggle continues.

While far short of locking arms to sing Kumbaya, the relative Democratic harmony represented welcome progress just weeks after the unrest at a state convention in Nevada prompted some of the sharpest intraparty sparring of the campaign, and heightened concern that it would carry into the convention in Philadelphia.

It also stood in stark contrast to Republicans who are openly pleading with their presumptive nominee to soften his tone, or in some cases turning their back on his candidacy altogether.

Mook predicted that Democrats would distinguish themselves for voters from a Republican Party thats really contorting itself to try to align with a candidate who has not only managed to offend virtually everyone in this country but whose temperament is so erratic its hard to stand behind him.

Despite nervous moments and some self-inflicted struggles, Clinton emerges from the Democratic nomination fight in a stronger position than even Obama was in 2008. She won 13 of the final 19 contests, including four of six on Tuesday, giving her a pledged delegate advantage of more than 300  three times what Obama enjoyed.

Steve Schale, a Democratic strategist who served in key roles in both Obama campaigns in the swing state of Florida, recalled how in 2008 the then-Illinois senator had to work overtime in the weeks after Clintons concession to repair relationships with her top donors and supporters in the state.

How we approached it eight years ago was ensuring that folks who had supported Hillary Clinton knew that our success was based on their involvement, he said.

Democrats are eager to quickly turn to the fight against Trump. Clinton already has announced plans to campaign next week in two November battlegrounds, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Sanders will make his own decision on his own timeline, predicted Stephanie Schriock, president of the Emilys List fundraising group, which endorsed Clinton.

This is a time where not just Democrats, but independents and moderate Republicans  Republicans with common sense  have to come together, because the stakes are so incredibly high, she said.

Times staff writers Lisa Mascaro in Washington and Christi Parsons in New York contributed to this report.

michael.memoli@latimes.com

For more campaign coverage, follow @mikememoli on Twitter.

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UPDATES:

4:53 p.m.: This story was updated with comments from President Obama.

3:03 p.m.: This story was updated with new details and comments throughout.

This article was originally published at 7:51 a.m.
The trajectory the presidential contest took over the last week could be seen from the tone and content of the speeches that Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton gave Tuesday night  to Trumps detriment.

Trump insisted that his partys voters could trust him to not let them down: He had to offer that reassurance after the division he sowed by his repeated race-based attacks on the judge hearing a case brought against him by former students at the now-dormant Trump University.

Trump delivered lengthy criticisms of Clinton and her husband Bills dealings, red meat to conservatives animated by disdain for the duo, but issues that do not appear top of mind for many voters.

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And he repeatedly used the term America First to define his domestic and international priorities  a term that duplicates the name of an isolationist and in some cases anti-Semitic group active before World War II.

Clinton heralded her unofficial standing as the first woman to be the nominee of a major political party, describing that victory as part of a continuum of achievements for the country that she said were under threat from Trump.

She placed herself and her loyalists on turf defined by values that could also be occupied by supporters of Bernie Sanders, her Democratic rival, and Republican candidates defeated by Trump.

She signaled a campaign theme of inclusion and acceptance that seemed in direct opposition to the tone set by the presumptive Republican nominee.

The twin speeches represented a remarkable shift.

 A mashup of Hillary Clintons, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trumps speeches.

Only recently Trump appeared to be consolidating support in his party far faster than the brawling early primary season would have suggested. After his last opponent, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, dropped out in early May, Republicans who had been critical of Trump began moving en masse to back him.

At the same time, Clinton was having a hard time tamping down the challenge posed by the Vermont senator.

This week, their circumstances reversed.

Trump has wasted time that might have been spent building new relationships with Republicans, including donors, and reaching out to the economically disenfranchised who are a key target in the fall.

He campaigned in California and other heavily Democratic states instead of laying the groundwork for a siege of Novembers likely contested states. And worse than that, he has alienated old and new allies.

House Speaker Paul Ryan had barely endorsed Trump before he was in front of cameras decrying Trumps attacks on federal Judge Gonzalo Curiel, an Indiana-born jurist Trump described as Mexican because of his ancestry.

TRAIL GUIDE: All the latest news on the 2016 presidential campaign 

On Tuesday, Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk, one of a group of Republicans facing tough reelection fights in November, said he would not support the New York businessman as nominee. Kirk said Trump does not possess the temperament of a president.

That is why much of Trumps nationally televised speech was aimed at shoring up his standing among fellow Republicans rather than expanding his reach to the voters he will need if he is to defeat Clinton in November.

Much of his pitch was a restated version of his typical speech, with the controversial asides and insults stripped out. That had the odd effect of making Trump seem captive to a master other than himself.

He used a TelePrompter, uncomfortably so. In a glaring change, he did not mention the wall he has vowed to construct on the Mexican border. Yet the more muted Trump lacked the kind of fire that won him the nomination.

I understand the responsibility of carrying the mantle and I will never, ever let you down  too much work, too many people, blood, sweat and tears, he said. Im never going to let you down. I will make you proud of your party and our movement, and thats what it is, is a movement.

He made a pitch for those who had cast ballots for others  notably, Sanders supporters, even using one of the senators favorite words when he called the Democratic delegate system rigged.

Why would politicians want to change a system thats totally rigged in order to keep them in power? he asked, taking up a Sanders theme.

That would seem to be a profitable angle for Trump to pursue, since it dovetails with much of the anger present in the electorate this year. But he skipped ahead to criticize the Clintons instead.

He said that in a speech probably Monday of next weekwere going to be discussing all of the things that have taken place with the Clintons. He suggested that it would include acts of collusion between Hillary Clintons role as secretary of State and the receipt of money by the Clinton familys foundation.

But people who care about that sort of Clinton history are probably already inclined to vote against her in November. And by using his speech to flog the issue, Trump used time that might have been spent on more promising avenues with voters on the fence.

In the end, he said little to persuade those he has alienated this campaign cyclewomen, Latinos, Muslims, for startersto give him another chance.

See the most-read stories this hour >>

Clinton has not yet dispensed fully with the challenge posed by Sanders, who made that clear Tuesday night when he said he would take his campaign to the Washington D.C. primary next week and on to the convention in Philadelphia in July.

But there were whiffs of conciliation: The senator told his crowd that Clinton had graciously called him earlier that evening, he skipped his usual criticisms of her, and he made a tentative effort to quell the boos that arose at the mention of her name.

He also planned to meet Thursday with President Obama, a meeting that seems part of a process to draw the Democratic Party together for the fall.

And so Clintons speech Tuesday was aimed not at her own partybeyond a call to unity with Sanders supportersbut at the broader pool of voters who can ensure her victory in November.

This has been a hard-fought, deeply felt campaign, she said. But whether you supported me or Sen. Sanders, or one of the Republicans, we all need to keep working toward a better, fairer, stronger America.

Hillary Clinton celebrates on Tuesday night. (AFP/Getty Images)

All of those groupsindeed, all but Trump and his core supporters, she suggestedhave a stake in defeating the Republican.

Our children and grandchildren will look back at this time, and the choices we are about to make, the goals we will strive for, the principles we will live by, she said. And we need to make sure that they can be proud of us.

Clintons speech was not nearly as critical of Trump as her foreign policy address last week, which seemed to energize her campaign heading into the California primary. She repeated her criticism of him as temperamentally unfit to be president.

But if she leavened her Trump criticism with an optimistic assessment of the country and its possibilities, she also did not mince words.

We believe that we are stronger together, and the stakes in this election are high, and the choice is clear, she said.

When he says Lets Make America Great Again, that is code for Lets Take America Backwards. Back to a time when opportunity and dignity were reserved for some, not all, promising his supporters an economy he cannot re-create.

When candidates are on the cusp of seizing the nomination, they often are torn between the remaining primary fight and the looming general election. That has been Clintons struggle in recent weeks as she attempted to simultaneously dispatch Sanders and take on Trump. Tuesdays results effectively ended the primary season for her, giving her only one target.

After stumbling on his path to the general election, Trump is now back in that predicament, fighting against Clinton while still trying to shore up Republican support.

That kind of campaign can be draining and distracting. If anyone knows that it is Clinton, who now, to her delight, finds that problem at least in her rear view mirror.

cathleen.decker@latimes.com

Twitter: @cathleendecker. For more on politics, go to latimes.com/decker and subscribe to the free daily newsletter.

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Obama: I am worried about the Republican Party

Asked during a taping of The Tonight Show whether he thought Republicans were happy with their presidential nominee, President Obama had a quick answer.

We are, he said to immediate laughter.

I dont know how theyre feeling.

But while Obama and fellow Democrats are feeling more confident about the general-election matchup shaping up between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, Obama said that what is good politics for Democrats in the short term isnt necessarily good for the country.

I am worried about the Republican Party, he told host Jimmy Fallon in the interview, which will air in full Thursday.

Democracy works; this country works when you have two parties that are serious and trying to solve problems.

Obama said the public should want a Republican nominee to be somebody who could do the job if they win  implying he does not think Trump could. And Obama said he views Trumps rise as an outgrowth of the GOPs tactics during his presidency.

I havent been enjoying over the last seven years, watching some of the things that have happened in the Republican Party, he said. Whats happened in that party, culminating in this current nomination, I think is not actually good for the country as a whole. Its not something Democrats should wish for.

In the interview, Obama also discussed the Democratic race, praising Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton while expressing confidence the party will unite for the general election.

My hope is, is that over the next couple of weeks, were able to pull things together, he said.
AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDSVerotel, a payment facilitator based in Amsterdam, today debuted new order pages with a flat design that allows customers of merchants to focus on one single aspect: completing the transaction.

The new design is responsive and works on every type of device, including laptops, tablets and mobile phones. In carefully executed A/B tests, the new order pages showed an average 11 percent conversion increase for the merchant.

The reasons for the higher conversions are obvious, said Alex Foster, account specialist at Verotel. The new design is easier and clearer. The large Pay button invites customers to complete the transaction and move on quickly to the purchased content. It is clear that since most merchants do not ship any physical goods, there is no need for physical address fields. We know that other payment processors use the physical address for credit card holder verification, but Verotel uses other methods to verify the cardholders real identity. With fewer fields to be completed, users leave less personal information and can complete transactions faster.

Another feature that increases conversion is Verotels unique technology, storing references to card information in a browser. The option to remember a card is enabled by default and a reference to the card information will be stored encrypted in the cardholders browser. The next time cardholders visit any order page hosted by Verotel, their card information is automatically filled out, helping to complete the transaction even faster.

Building on this technology, Verotel is now working on a new zero order-page feature: Verotel One-Click. Verotel One-Click is an extension of the Verotel Flexpay API. Verotel One-Click allows VOD, Webcam and VR merchants to offer an instant purchasewith one single clickdirectly from a members web-interface. Any existing member can simply click on the button to purchase additional content, or refill its credits. The purchase will be processed instantly and without a redirect to a payment page. Verotel One-Click will be available beginning July 1.

For more information, visit Verotel.com.
In a year when interest groups spent a record amount of money in legislative elections, California voters were sorting through an array of candidates to determine whom they want to represent them in the Capitol.

Many of the campaigns have hinged on what kind of Democrat is the best fit for each district, a question that has taken on increased prominence as the Republican Party continues to fade in the state.

Independent expenditures by oil companies, education advocates, unions and other groups reached nearly $29 million during the primary, according to the nonpartisan Target Book, which tracks California elections. The total far outstripped the $16.7 million in spending two years ago.

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In several races, outside groups spent much more money than the candidates themselves.

Democrats are two seats short of a two-thirds supermajority in the Assembly and one seat short in the Senate. If they cross that threshold, they can approve new taxes and fees without Republican votes.

It was too early to tell Tuesday night whether Democrats have a solid chance at supermajorities in Novembers general election. But even if they achieve that goal, the primary has been a reminder of divisions with the party.

In some battles among Democrats, education advocates funded by wealthy donors faced off with Californias most powerful teachers union. In other races, oil companies and environmentalists were at odds.

The states open primary system allows the top two finishers to advance to the general election, regardless of their political party. With Democrats expected to take both slots in some races, this springs battles will likely play out again in the fall.

Among the 20 state Senate contests, nine seats are open because the incumbent is not running for reelection because of term limits or a decision to seek higher office.

A few state Senate contests stand out, including the battle in the 15th Senate District where Sen. Jim Beall (D- San Jose) looks to be in a runoff contest with challenger Assemblywoman Nora Campos (D-San Jose) in a primary field that also included Republicans Chuck Page and Anthony Macias.

Beall, supported by environmentalist Tom Steyer and labor groups, was leading in early returns to decide who will be in the November runoff, followed by Campos, who has been backed by oil companies.

In the 25th Senate District, a field of six candidates was seeking to fill the seat being vacated by Sen. Carol Liu (D-La Canada Flintridge).

Five Democrats were splitting that partys vote, putting the sole Republican, Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich, in the lead with early returns. Trailing in second place was former Democratic Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, followed by educator Katherine Perez-Estolano, small-business owner Chris Chahinian, businessman Teddy Choi, and criminal justice educator Phlunte Riddle.

Another crowded field, with six candidates, is competing in the 27th Senate District, where incumbent Sen. Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills) is prevented from seeking reelection by term limits.

Businessman Steve Fazio, the only Republican in the race, was the leader in early returns, followed by Democrat and lawyer Janice Kamenir-Reznik, and then Democrat Henry Stern, a senior policy adviser to Pavley.

There have been several fiercely contested Assembly races.

Assemblywoman Cheryl Brown (D-San Bernardino) was leading in the early returns in the 47th Assembly District. Shes being challenged by a fellow Democrat, Eloise Reyes, in a race that has become a proxy war in the battle over climate change legislation.

Brown has been backed by companies such as Chevron, Valero and Tesoro after opposing legislation that would have reduced oil use for transportation. Reyes has the support of labor groups that have dubbed Brown Chevron Cheryl.

With a third candidate in the race, Republican Aissa Sanchez, lagging in third place, the stage was set for an intraparty rematch in November.

Further north, Cecilia Aguiar-Curry was edging out fellow Democrat Dan Wolk in the 14th Assembly District. Aguiar-Curry, the mayor of Winters, has benefited from outside spending by business groups and education advocates, while Wolk, the Davis mayor, has received some support from teachers and unions. Charlie Schaupp, a Republican, had the most votes in the district.

Meanwhile, former Democratic Assemblyman Raul Bocanegra was making headway in his campaign to retake his seat in the 39th Assembly District. He lost his seat two years ago in an upset defeat to Patty Lopez (D-San Fernando).

Early returns showed Bocanegra with the most votes in the field, and Lopez trailing behind in second place.

chris.megerian@latimes.com, patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com

Twitter: @chrismegerian, @mcgreevy99

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Voter voices: The primary has been over for some time

Akida Kissane-Long,58, supports HRC. 'I need to know that who we elect has the resume & experience to win in Nov.' pic.twitter.com/Sx9KX6ic2s  Kurtis Lee (@kurtisalee) June 7, 2016

At the Inglewood Community Church, nestled next to a smog check and auto repair center, several dozen voters came to cast ballots on Tuesday morning.

Akida Kissane-Long, 58, who is the principal at Florence Griffith Joyner Elementary, said that her vote for Hillary Clinton centered on the candidate she believed could beat presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump this fall.

The primary has been over for some time, Kissane-Long said. Hillary is the nominee, now lets beat Trump. ... I need to know that who we elect has the resume and experience to win in November.

Kissane-Long, who said she is a staunch liberal, said that for the party to unite, Bernie Sanders must exit the race. She suggested that Clinton might consider him as her running mate.

Why not? Hes passionate and loved by the most progressives, said Kissane-Long.

Kissane-Long said that for Clinton to win the support of some of Sanders younger, more liberal, backers she must become more passionate when talking about issues like education and criminal justice reform.

People have to really believe her and she has trouble with that, because of the issues with her emails and whatnot, Kissane-Long said. In the end though, I think people will look at her experience in government and just really feel secure in voting for her.

Matthew Minor, 30, another HRC supporter. 'I'm confident HRC will be be able to uphold the president's legacy.' pic.twitter.com/PPGp6rbIm0  Kurtis Lee (@kurtisalee) June 7, 2016

Matthew Minor, 30, a human resources recruiter from Inglewood, said that Clinton is best fit to continue the legacy of President Obama. White House aides have said Obama could endorse Clinton as early as Wednesday.

[Obama] beat her last time and now its her time, Minor said. For me its about comfort and confidence. Im confident Hillary will be able to uphold the presidents legacy.

Minor was not deterred by polling in California that showed Clintons lead evaporating.

Even if she doesnt win here, its not a big deal.  She has the delegates and now all Democrats should support her.

Adilene Gloria, 26, backs Sanders. 'It's a trust thing for me, I can trust that what Bernie says is genuine.' pic.twitter.com/JbhmTUNo2y  Kurtis Lee (@kurtisalee) June 7, 2016

But some like Adilene Gloria, 26, who does administrative work in Inglewood, do not agree.

Its a trust thing for me, I can trust that what Bernie says is genuine, she said.

Noting Clintons reluctance to provide transcripts of speeches shes given to Wall Street firms, Gloria added, Its hard to trust someone who wont even release transcripts from speeches she gives.

Gloria said may consider writing in Sanders name in the general election if hes not the nominee, but that she would also consider Clinton.

Theres a long ways until the November election, but I need to feel some trust with her.  Im not feeling that now, she said.

Al Myers, a Bernie Sanders supporter, on a HRC/Trump Nov. contest. 'I will not vote for the lesser of two evils.' pic.twitter.com/ye99bmT5A3  Kurtis Lee (@kurtisalee) June 7, 2016

Al Myers, 59, has voted in every election for past two decades but may consider sitting this one out.

I will not vote for the lesser of two evils, I dont care for Clinton or Trump, said Myers, who voted for Sanders on Tuesday.

Myers said his disdain for Clinton goes back decades to when former President Bill Clinton signed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act in 1994.

They hurt black people, Myers said of the Clintons support for the federal law.

Myers said he believed Clinton was just another politician.

Sure, shes backed off her support of that bill, but shell say anything to get elected. Im not down with that  shes just too political, another politician, he said.
Im Christina Bellantoni, and as we predicted, they are still counting votes in Los Angeles County.

Welcome to your California primary results edition of Essential Politics.

We knew it would be a long night, and when we finished with print deadline in The Times newsroom after midnight, we had both dramatic uncertainties and fascinating examples of how the top-two primary system can scramble expectations. (See Wednesdays front page.)

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First, the presidential race, which will conclude five months from today when were all back at the polls.

The end of the primaries is only the beginning of the work we need to do, Hillary Clinton said in Brooklyn as she acknowledged making history.

Donald Trump, for his part, looked to November after a tough day with Republican leaders denouncing some of his recent statements about the judge in the Trump University case.

He, of course, won the California primary. But Ohio Gov. John Kasich was pulling at least 11% of the vote.

Clinton made clear she was ready for a gender battle with Trump. While were on the topic, our Electoral College map is up: give it a spin!

Bernie Sanders was trailing Clinton by 14 points in California with nearly three-quarters reporting. After winning at least one state earlier in the night, Sanders at first sounded conciliatory in his remarks to adoring fans in Santa Monica, but the Vermont senator made clear he intends to campaign through D.C.s primary next week. In between then and now, Sanders will sit down with President Obama (at his request) to continue a conversation about the significant issues the senator has raised during the campaign.

Sanders won the rural, northern part of California while Clinton was performing strong in Southern California.

What we do know is there likely will be millions of ballots left uncounted statewide, given California for the first time allowed people whose ballot was postmarked by Election Day to vote. It could be the end of the week before we have a clear idea of the actual vote total.

We surfaced every moment, large and small, and dozens of voters, animals, tattoos and hay bales on our Essential Politics primary live blog. You can also check out the story on our Snapchat: latimespolitics.

For more on the race as it develops, keep an eye on Trail Guide and follow @latimespolitics.

TWO WOMEN, TWO DEMOCRATS, ONE SHOWDOWN

Pull out your history books and youll discover that until the early 20th century, it was state legislatures and not voters that elected members of the U.S. Senate. Since that time -- 1914 to be exact in California -- a Republican has appeared on the general election ballot for the Senate.

That streak ends in November.

On Tuesday, voters sent Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris and Orange County Rep. Loretta Sanchez -- two Democrats -- to the general election. As John Myers reports, whats been a quiet race so far could quickly intensify. And Republicans will be a key target, most notably for Sanchez.

Meantime, the same-party result left Paul Mitchell, one of Californias most often quoted political analysts, having to make good on a wager hed made: He would run naked around the state Capitol if two Democrats advanced in the Senate race. Decide for yourself if he actually did it.

THE BEST OF THE ELECTION DAY LIVE BLOG

California voters showed up at the polls Tuesday with gusto, despite learning the night before that Clinton had clinched the Democratic Partys nomination.

Hundreds of Californians complained of voting problems, including broken machines, polling sites that opened late and incomplete voter rolls. Some voters in downtown Los Angeles were still in line to cast ballots an hour after polls closed.

Only in L.A.? Photographer Jay Clendenin captured a shot of a turtle with an I voted sticker in Beverly Hills.

Candidate bales hay on Election Day, loses race.

Sanders rubbed elbows with stars on Hollywoods Walk of Fame in a last-minute campaign push, and continued his tour through L.A. with a visit to a farmers market in Silver Lake.

Ordinary voters werent the only ones taking selfies at the polls. Celebrities did, too.

L.A. County elections chief Dean Logan jumped into the Twitter fray to personally resolve voter issues at the ballot box.

One Republican voter in Atwater Village tried to obtain a Democratic ballot, saying he wouldnt vote for [Trump] for dogcatcher.

A Congressional race in Santa Barbara was just slightly less exciting than the opening of a new Dunkin Donuts.

CONGRESSIONAL SURPRISES

There were several surprises Tuesday night in congressional races were watching. Sarah Wire has the details, and well have more on Essential Politics as contests are called throughout the day.

STATE LEGISLATIVE RACES

Oil companies, education advocates, unions and other activist groups spent a record amount to influence campaigns for the California Legislature in this years primary. Heres a look at who earned a spot on the general election ballot in November.

TODAYS ESSENTIALS

-- Meet the four people arrested after Trumps rally in San Jose turned violent.

-- Janice Hahn, Kathryn Barger lead supervisor races in Los Angeles.

-- What do you think of Trump? Readers can weigh in with our quick survey.

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California voters made history on Tuesday in the race for the U.S. Senate, sending two Democrats to a November runoff and denying a Republican a spot on the fall ballot for the first time since the states first direct election of senators in 1914.

State Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris won the largest share of the vote and the title of winner in the primary. By the end of the night, Harris led Orange County Rep. Loretta Sanchez by more than 800,000 votes, a margin of 23 percentage points.

Under Californias relatively new top-two primary rules, the two Democratic women will square off on Nov. 8  a contest that pits Harris strength as the party favorite against Sanchezs potential appeal to Republicans, unaffiliated voters and Latinos.

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Our unity is our strength. Our diversity is our power, Harris told a boisterous crowd at the Delancey Street Foundation clubhouse in San Francisco on election night. We understand that we have so many challenges as a country and we are prepared to lead.

The fact that no Republican could muster enough statewide support to advance to the general election could be a reflection of how an ever-shrinking GOP suffered when its voters were scattered among a large field of relatively unknown candidates.

If there had been a particular candidate who had been the anointed one, they would have had a better chance at getting that second spot, said Kimberly Nalder, a political science professor at Cal State Sacramento.

Members of the U.S. Senate were appointed by state legislatures until the early 20th century. Since that time, a Republican has always appeared on the general election ballot in California.

That streak ended on Tuesday night, the third election held under the rules of the top-two primary, in which voters choose a candidate regardless of political party.

Sanchez, who mingled with supporters gathered at an Anaheim brewpub, celebrated her second-place standing.

Weve looked at the numbers. We know were going to be there, she told the crowd.

Republicans continue to lose ground in voter registration to Democrats and have failed to win a single statewide election for a decade.

The Republican field was led by a small crop of experienced political players, none with any experience holding elected office.

Duf Sundheim, a former chairman of the California Republican Party, was in third place as returns came in, with a cluster of three Republicans  attorney Phil Wyman, former state GOP Chairman Tom Del Beccaro and businessman Greg Conlon  following behind.

As a first-time candidate, you run into the challenge of being recognized, Sundheim said in a phone interview Tuesday night.

In all, 34 candidates were on the primary ballot in the race to replace retiring Sen. Barbara Boxer. The four-term Democrat announced in January 2015 that she would not run for reelection, sparking an early frenzy of interest among prominent Democrats in seeking the seat. Boxer and fellow California Sen. Dianne Feinstein have been in office since 1992.

Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Orange), a candidate for the U.S. Senate, casts her ballot on June 7. (Ken Steinhardt/The Orange County Register via AP )

But it was Harris, 51, who pounced first by declaring her candidacy five days after Boxers announcement. Her decision may have frozen out others who were rumored to be considering the race. No other prominent Democrats stepped up until Sanchez, 56, launched her Senate bid four months later in May 2015.

At first blush, the Senate race had the markings of a highly visible and hotly contested campaign.

People were excited about all of the possibilities, Nalder said. But it never happened.

Part of that may have been the intoxicating nature of the presidential primary battle. Voters heard little or nothing about the Senate race as Sanchez tended to her duties in Congress and Harris to hers as attorney general.

Even so, Harris consistently maintained the appearance of the front-runner, raising $10.3 million for her campaign through the first five months of 2016. A career prosecutor who was once presumed to have an eye on a race for governor in 2018, she overwhelmingly won the endorsement of the California Democratic Party at its state convention in February.

Harris lives in Los Angeles with her husband, attorney Douglas Emhoff, but ended election day in San Francisco, the launching pad for her career in politics. She served seven years as the citys district attorney before being elected attorney general in 2010. Harris has since touted her role in the national settlement with banks on wrongful foreclosures during the economic crisis and efforts at fighting gang crime that has flowed across the border with Mexico.

That impressed some voters Tuesday, like Patty Tucker in the Yolo County town of Woodland.

I think shes accomplished a lot in a short time, Tucker said, who is retired. Shes tough and smart.

Sanchez, a onetime financial advisor who unseated former Rep. Robert Dornan in an upset race in 1996, touts her foreign policy experience serving in the House. She voted against the invasion of Iraq and the adoption of the Patriot Act in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, both of which she attempted to remind voters during two televised Senate debates this spring.

Greg Gillett, a 38-year-old attorney in San Luis Obispo, said Tuesday that he voted for Sanchez because he trusted her judgment after her years on Capitol Hill and her overt support for veterans.

Sanchez also talked at length about her Southern California roots as the daughter of Mexican immigrants and her experience on federal immigration issues.

But even while being named one of the most influential women in Congress by CQ Roll Call in 2015, Sanchez has been criticized for what many have called a string of missteps in the public eye. Last year, she said in an interview that as many as 20% of Muslims support the establishment of a strict Islamic state.

Her Senate campaign has reported raising almost $2.3 million this year, although much of that cash was already on hand from her long congressional career.

Either woman, should she be elected in November to replace Boxer, would make history in bringing diversity to the Senate  Sanchez as a prominent Latina, Harris as the daughter of parents who immigrated from Jamaica and India.

Neither made much mention of the other in campaign events across California or in the two debates. And it may not be a factor in the months to come as Harris seeks to maximize her support from liberal Democrats and Sanchez seeks crossover support.

Sanchez will have the opportunity, at least, to attract business interests, Republicans and independents, Nalder said.

Harris acknowledged on Tuesday night that the race is far from over.

We have five more months and we have a lot of work to do, she told supporters.

And part of that work is reaching out to voters who seemed to know very little about the women when casting a primary election ballot.

Bradley Davidson, a 28-year-old National Guardsman from Sacramento, voted for Sen. Bernie Sanders in the Democratic presidential primary but struggled to pick a Senate candidate while taking Snapchats in the voting booth.

I was Googling the candidates, Davidson said.

Times staff writers Phil Willon in San Francisco, Christine Mai-Duc in Anaheim, Liam Dillon in Sacramento and Ileana Najarro in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

john.myers@latimes.com

Follow @johnmyers on Twitter, sign up for our daily Essential Politics newsletter and listen to the weekly California Politics Podcast

ALSO:

10 things you need to know about Californias U.S. Senate primary

Voter registration hits an all-time high for the June 7 statewide primary

Updates on California politics

UPDATES:

12:16 a.m.: This story was updated with new figures as results were counted.

It was originally published at 9:22 p.m.
California voters faced a tough time at the polls Tuesday, with many voters saying they have encountered broken machines, polling sites that opened late and incomplete voter rolls, particularly in Los Angeles County.

The result? Instead of a quick in-and-out vote, many California voters were handed the dreaded pink provisional ballot  which takes longer to fill out, longer for election officials to verify and which tends to leave voters wondering whether their votes will be counted.

This years presidential primary race has already been one of the most bitter in recent memory. Before Tuesdays vote, Bernie Sanders supporters accused the media of depressing Democratic turnout by calling the nomination for Hillary Clinton before polls opened in California.

Those feelings havent gotten any less raw Tuesday as hundreds of Californians complained of voting problems to the national nonpartisan voter hotline run by the Lawyers Committee For Civil Rights Under Law.

https://twitter.com/LJSilverman1/status/740240936194691072

Its difficult to get a sense for how widespread the problems are or how they compare to recent elections. But experts said the culprit for Tuesdays voting problems seems to be a confluence of factors  old voting machines, a competitive election that has drawn new voters, plus complex state voting laws that can be hard for poll volunteers and voters to follow.

Presidential primary elections in California are the hardest elections of all.  This election reminds me of 2008 in that regard, said Kim Alexander, president of the nonpartisan California Voter Foundation. Our voter registration deadline is 15 days before election day, and that gives all the counties, and especially L.A. County, very little time to get their polling place rosters updated with all the voters.

When Sanders supporter Brandon Silverman, 29, showed up at his polling station in Echo Park at 8:15 a.m., he said poll workers immediately handed him a provisional ballot, explaining that their machine wasnt working yet. The full list of voters names for the precincts also seemed to be missing.

Silverman, an assistant television editor, quickly called a Sanders voter hotline and L.A. County voting officials. About 45 minutes later, the problems seemed to be resolved and he was able to cast a regular ballot, he said. But the chaos shook his confidence in the fairness of the electoral process a little, especially after hearing other precincts and states struggle with voting problems this year.

RELATED: Clinton claims milestone as first female major-party nominee, wins California primary >>

I tend to agree with most of the Bernie supporters who are disappointed in the medias handling of the superdelegate counts, but I tend to shy away from the people saying its stolen or rigged, Silverman said. Id like to not think the worst, but at a certain point you think, is it a coincidence?

In Bell, Albert Grey showed up at his polling site Tuesday morning to find that the vote-counting machine seemed to be jammed, and there didnt seem to be a supervisor on site. So he left without voting.

FOR THE RECORD

June 9, 1:51 p.m.: This article makes reference to vote-counting machines. They are vote-scanning machines and check for ballot errors.

I still have my ballot, Im going to go back, see if the machine is working, and if it is, Im going to vote, Grey said.

On social media, many California voters reported showing up to their polling sites only to find that their names were not listed on the voting rolls, leaving them to cast a provisional ballot.

Sanders supporter Jonathan Daniel Brown accused Democrats of purging votes when he discovered he was not on the voting rolls at his polling station despite being registered.

https://twitter.com/JonathanDBrown/status/740237570571804679

Brown, an actor, refused to take a provisional ballot, and his complaints drew the attention of Los Angeles County Registrar-County Clerk Dean Logan, who intervened. Eventually, Brown said he was allowed to cast a regular ballot  though not before Brown said a poll worker called the police on him.

https://twitter.com/JonathanDBrown/status/740273838009647104

Los Angeles Countys 4,700 polling locations have to handle rosters for 4.9-million voters. The process can be complicated as many of the voters on those rosters can register or switch their party preferences up to 15 days before the election.

In an interview with The Times, Logan said there were some instances where supplemental rosters of new voters didnt seem to make it to the polls on time, and so voters have gotten frustrated with having to take provisional ballots.

Theres no doubt theres an emotional element to this, Logan said, alluding to the passions around the presidential campaign. It is very unusual in California that we have candidates for president who are here the day before an election.

Although some voters hesitate to take provisional ballots because they arent counted immediately, about 85 to 90% of provisional ballots are typically found to be legitimate and are counted toward the final, official vote, Logan said.

We look at every one of those ballots, Logan said. If a ballot is legitimate, he said, Then that ballot does get counted.

https://twitter.com/sarah_sprague/status/740303811269398530

Writer Allison Bloom, 41, took her kids with her when she went to vote at the Kahal Joseph Congregation synagogue in Westwood on Tuesday morning.

I wanted to show them what voting means, Bloom said. But when she arrived, she said workers couldnt boot up the vote-counting machine. Bloom left behind her ballot, with a worker promising it would be counted.

Bloom said her kids asked, Is this what its always like?

It was just chaos, Bloom said. It was kind of an unfortunate first experience at the polls for them.

matt.pearce@latimes.com

Follow @mattdpearce on Twitter

ALSO

Analysis: A general election focused on gender looms as Hillary Clinton becomes the first woman nominee of a major party

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Live California primary updates
Buried 6 feet beneath volcanic rock on the Indonesian island of Flores, scientists have found the fossilized remains of a petite hominin that lived 700,000 years ago.

The discovery, described Wednesday in two papers in Nature, consists of just six tiny teeth and a fragment of a small lower jawbone. Still, the international research team says it is enough to suggest that the fossils belonged to a direct ancestor of the strange and diminutive human relative Homo floresiensis, also known as the Hobbit.

The new find could help scientists unravel the mysterious origins of this enigmatic human species that was isolated on a small island between Asia and Australia for at least 1 million years.

The world was first introduced to Homo floresiensis in 2004, when an international team of researchers announced the discovery of a never-before-seen hominin that had been found in the Liang Bua cave on Flores.

The fossil record suggests that these ancient human relatives lived between 100,000 and 50,000 years ago. Adults stood just 3 feet tall  the height of an average 4-year old modern-day child. Their brains were roughly one-third the size of our own, or about the size of a chimpanzees brain.

Because of their miniature size, researchers nicknamed these unusual hominins the Hobbits.

Fossils from at least three hominin specimens unearthed in Indonesia. (Kinez Riza)

In the intervening years, two competing views of the Hobbits origins emerged. One hypothesis posits that Homo floresiensis descended from the large-bodied hominin Homo erectus that lived between 1.89 million and 143,000 years ago.

Scientists say it is possible that Homo erectus may have arrived on Flores from Java, perhaps after being washed out to sea by a tsunami. Over time, this species began to shrink on its new island home  a relatively common phenomenon known as island dwarfism.

Lots of animals that end up on islands get smaller for a variety of reasons like limited food sources, or because there are no large predators to stay big for, said Karen Baab, a paleoanthropologist at Midwestern University in Glendale, Ariz., who was not involved in the study. We even see it in modern humans in certain environments that are home to pygmy populations.

The other hypothesis states that Hobbits descended from smaller and more ancient hominins like Australopithecus africanus or Homo habilis that were already diminutive at the time they reached the island.

See the most-read stories in Science this hour 

Both theories have challenges. One might accept that Homo erectus grew smaller in stature by two-thirds over time. After all, a smaller body is easier to feed. But for some scientists, it is hard to believe that it made evolutionary sense for its brain to shrink by half. Losing brain power doesnt seem like a likely evolutionary development.

On the other hand, if you buy that Homo floresiensis was descended from Australopithecus or Homo habilis, then you have to explain how either of these species made their way to Indonesia when their remains have never been found outside of Africa.

There are issues with both scenarios in my opinion, Baab said.

Other researchers are convinced that the Hobbit fossils belonged to anatomically modern humans who suffered from some type of disorder that was responsible for their extreme dwarfism. Both microcephaly and Down syndrome have been proposed.

Experts say the newly discovered fossils could clear up some of these controversies.

The seven specimens described in the paper were found in an ancient stream bed about 40 miles from Liang Bua at a site called Mata Menge.

An aerial image view of Mata Menge seen in October 2015. (Kinez Riza) (Test)

Digging at Mata Menge is not easy. The fossils are embedded in solid rock, not sediments. To uncover them, researchers spent years chipping away at stone in unrelenting heat.

A total of 30,000 fossils were unearthed over the course of the excavations led by Gerrit van den Bergh of the University of Wollongong in New South Wales, Australia; Adam Brunn of Griffith University in Queensland, Australia; and Iwan Kurniawan of the Geological Museum in Bandung, Indonesia. They included the remains of stegodons  a small extinct elephant relative  Komodo dragons, giant rats and water birds.

The team also found many examples of simple stone tools similar to those discovered near Liang Bua, but the physical evidence of the hominins themselves proved elusive.

It wasnt until 2014, 20 years after the work at Mata Menge began, that researchers recognized a molar belonging to a hominin in a layer of sandstone dated to 700,000 years ago.

A few days later the group unearthed a mandible fragment  the lower piece of a jawbone  in the same layer. A handful of other teeth followed.

The specimens were sent for analysis to Yousuke Kaifu, a biological anthropologist and ancient-hominin tooth specialist from the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo.

Kaifu was shocked at the size of the fossils. The mandible was so tiny that at first he thought it must belong to a juvenile. However, after subjecting it to a high-resolution CT scan he discovered that a wisdom tooth had erupted from it, meaning it definitely belonged to an adult.

A close examination of the number and placement of cusps or bumps on the individual teeth revealed that they were very similar, although not identical, to teeth that had been discovered at Liang Bua. They were also, unexpectedly, up to 28% smaller than the teeth from Liang Bua.

That was a surprise, Van den Bergh said. Mata Menge is more than half a million years older than Liang Bua. We thought we would find something bigger  something closer to the initial founder population.

Kaifu also did a statistical analysis that showed that the Mata Menge teeth were more similar to Homo erectus teeth than to teeth from Australopithicus or Homo habilis.

I then realized the significance of the new findings, Kaifu said. There were tiny Hobbit-like hominins as early as 700,000 years ago on Flores and the fossils are consistent with the hypothesis that Homo floresiensis originated from the early Asian Homo erectus.

The origins of the species known as 'the hobbit' -- a human relative only a little over a meter tall -- have been debated ever since its discovery in 2004. Now new fossils may reveal the ancestors of this strange species and help us to understand its history. (Nature Video)

And so now, a more definitive story of the origin of the Hobbit can be told. The earliest known evidence of stone tools on Flores dates back to 1 million years ago, suggesting that hominins arrived on the island around that time. If these first colonizers were indeed Homo erectus, then it seems that they rapidly evolved a small stature within 300,000 years of their arrival  a shorter time span than was previously thought.

It is certainly much faster than I would have envisaged but nothing surprises me about this island anymore, said Kira Westaway, a geochronologist at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, who was not involved in the work.

While there is still much more to learn about the origins of Homo floresiensis, the authors say the study should at least dispel the idea that the more complete Hobbit skeleton from Liang Bua represents a diseased modern human.

Modern humans do not show up in the fossil record until 200,000 years ago  hundreds of thousands of years after the Mata Menge fossils were deposited.

We can now say that Homo floresiensis does indeed represent a distinct branch of archaic hominins that appear to have lived in isolation on Flores for at least 1 million years, Van den Bergh said.

He added that the origin story of the Hobbit suggests that human evolution is not always as straightforward as we might imagine.

Fossil evidence from the continents generally implies that the human body and brain size gradually increased over time, but that evolutionary pattern may not have been the best strategy for hominins that wound up on islands.

The case on Flores tells us that the evolution of our genus is not necessarily uni-directional, Van den Bergh said. Human diversity could have been far greater than we ever realized.

deborah.netburn@latimes.com

Do you love science? I do! Follow me @DeborahNetburn and "like" Los Angeles Times Science & Health on Facebook.

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Police arrested a man Tuesday whom they suspect was walking around a Costa Mesa neighborhood trying to burglarize cars, according to authorities.

Residents in the 700 block of West 18th Street called police around 5:45 a.m. to say they had seen someone going car to car checking door handles to see if they were unlocked, Costa Mesa police Sgt. Mike Manson said.

Residents watched as the man got inside at least one car, Manson said.

Officers arrived and quickly located the man. According to police, he had a pack of cigarettes taken from the car he reportedly had entered and admitted he had been trying to burglarize cars.

Officers arrested Oscar Velazquez, 20, of Costa Mesa on suspicion of vehicle burglary and vehicle tampering.

Manson said investigators are trying to determine whether he is connected to any other car burglaries in the area.
In what could signal the start of a heated campaign in the California Assemblys 74th District, Democratic challenger Karina Onofre captured nearly 3,000 more votes during Tuesdays primary election than incumbent Assemblyman Matthew Harper, a Republican and former mayor of Huntington Beach.

Onofre, an Irvine resident, received 34,114 votes, or 42.4%, to Harpers 31,233, according to county registrar results Wednesday afternoon, with all 284 precincts reporting.

Under California law, as the top two vote-getters, both advance to the Nov. 8 general election.

Republican candidate Katherine Daigle came in third, with 15,115 votes, or 18.8%.

The 74th District includes a portion of Huntington Beach, as well as the cities of Newport Beach and Costa Mesa.

Join the conversation on Facebook >>

Harper was first elected to the Assembly two years ago on a platform that included repeal of a climate change law on the grounds that it imposes unfair fees on greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide and methane.

Onofre, who changed her party affiliation from Republican to Democrat in 2014, challenged Harper for the 74th seat that year but failed to advance to the November election. She came in fourth in a field of five candidates.

In 2012, she ran unsuccessfully for Santa Ana City Council.

In a Facebook post early Wednesday, Onofre thanked God and her supporters for her strong showing.

God bless all of you for coming out to vote, she wrote. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. Now lets get ready for victory in November. Whos in?

Harper said Tuesday night that he expected a strong Democratic turnout because the 74th includes the UC Irvine campus. He also noted that presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, senator from Vermont, had stirred Democratic support in general.

On Wednesday morning, he noted that the registrar still had an estimated 245,000 ballots left to count, which could even out the difference between Onofre and him.

Harper added that once voters know the differences between the two candidates, I think Ill be able to consolidate support among Republicans and be able to reach out to decline-to-states and reasonable Democrats who can appreciate someone whos more middle of the road.

Assemblyman Travis Allen (R-Huntington Beach) of the 72nd District held a commanding lead Tuesday against his closest challenger, Lenore Albert-Sheridan, a Democrat. The 72nd includes Huntington Beach, Fountain Valley and Seal Beach.

Allen got 35,062 votes to Albert-Sheridans 20,067. Both advance to the November general election.

State Sen. John Moorlach (R-Costa Mesa) and U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Costa Mesa), whose respective districts also include Huntington Beach, also had strong leads after Tuesdays election.

Moorlach, a former county supervisor and treasurer-tax collector, will face Democrat Ari Grayson in November.

Rohrabacher, first elected to Congress in 1988, will face Democrat Sue Savary of Newport Beach.

--

Bradley Zint, bradley.zint@latimes.com

Twitter: @BradleyZint
The creation, preservation and celebration of Armenian arts and literature is a family affair for the Yeretzians.

In 1977, family patriarch Harout Yeretzian and his brother founded a Los Angeles-based magazine, Abril, which served the burgeoning Armenian community and covered everything from local issues to the cultural, political and economic affairs of their homeland.

The magazine, which took its name from the Armenian word for to live, spawned a print shop, and then a bookstore, Abril Books, which has been in business for nearly 40 years.

Miniature artwork by Aram Vartanov, seen through a magnifying glass, is being displayed at Roslin Art Gallery, 415 E. Broadway, in Glendale on Saturday, November 21, 2015. (Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)

Harout Yeretzians wife, Seeroon, also sought to share and celebrate her Armenian heritage with the local community.

In 1995, she founded Roslin Art Gallery, named after Toros Roslin, a prominent Armenian manuscript illuminator during the High Middle Ages. For years, the gallery has served as an artistic enclave in Glendale, showcasing the works of over 100 Armenian artists, including Seeroon Yeretzians own celebrated illuminations and ornately illustrated Armenian letters.

The bookstore and art gallery have long stood as cultural pillars for Armenians in Glendale and beyond, and on Saturday, the Yeretzians celebrated a milestone for one and a union for both. Family, friends and supporters helped to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Roslin Art Gallery and the grand opening of its new location next door to Abril Books.

Its a move that has long been on the familys mind and was finally made possible by the Yeretzians son, Arno, who took over the bookstore after his father died five years ago.

I think there was always that idea to join them, Arno Yeretzian said. Its amazing because both of the places are very important for Armenians and Glendale, in terms of culture.

Liza Manoyan of Montebello points out that artists, like Vachag Tersarkissian, use Armenian biblical manuscripts as inspiration for artwork displayed at Roslin Art Gallery, 415 E. Broadway, in Glendale on Saturday, November 21, 2015. (Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)

About three years ago, Seeroon Yeretzian was diagnosed with amyotrophic sclerosis, or ALS and also known as Lou Gehrigs disease. The disease has crippled her movement, leaving the once prolific artist unable to do what she loves.

I cant draw or paint or sing anymore, Seeron Yeretzian said, using a device that tracks her eye movement to write and give her a voice. But I am writing three books with my eyes on a Super Dynavox device. Though Im 64, I have lived 200 years by working day and night.

Seeron Yeretzian said she was happy to celebrate the anniversary and grand opening, especially with her son and because shes an artist and bookworm. The memory of her husband, too, wasnt far from her on Saturday.

My husband was the only [person] who encouraged me to study art, she said.

The Yeretzians said in bringing the bookstore and gallery closer together they hope to create a cultural center for Armenian Americans, especially for the youth.

When a young person comes here, theyre so happy to find it. There are still people pout there who dont know about us, Arno Yeretzian said. A cultural center like this is lacking and thats what Im trying to do.

--

Brian Park, brian.park@latimes.com

Twitter: @TheBrianPark
Longtime Los Angeles County Board of Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich came out on top in the race for the seat for the 25th District state Senate Tuesday night.

Antonovich, the lone Republican in the bid, received 57,749 votes, or roughly 39%, according to election results.

Coming in second was former Democratic Assemblyman Anthony Portantino with 40,901 votes, or about 28%.

Antonovich and Portantino will face-off against each other in the general election in November as they vie for the seat.

FULL COVERAGE: June 2016 primary election >>

Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Glendale) had been in the race, but opted to drop out in December.

For the last 35 years, Antonovich has held the seat for the countys 5th District, but term limits approved by voters in 2002 freed up the position for the first time since 1980.

Prior to serving on the county board, Antonovich was elected to the Los Angeles Community College Board of Trustees and the California State Assembly, where he served three terms.

Portantino served as an Assembly member for the 44th District from 2006 to 2012. He is known for authoring AB 144, which made it illegal to open-carry an unloaded firearm in public.

Portantino is a Visiting Fellow at the University of Southern California, where he has taught leadership.

--

Anthony Clark Carpio, anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com

Twitter: @acocarpio

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The Fountain Valley City Council on Tuesday adopted a new budget that includes tighter restrictions on maintenance as the city continues to face financial challenges, officials said.

In banking on increased property taxes and transient occupancy taxes from city hotels, the 2016-17 budget anticipates a 1.97% increase in revenues compared with last year, according to a staff report.

But the city will still need to use $1.7 million of its general fund reserve to help balance the budget, the report says, after facing increased costs, state takeaways and the elimination several years ago of Californias redevelopment agencies, which gave local governments the ability to capture a greater share of property taxes.

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The new budget does not provide for an increase in Police Department staffing, upgraded security cameras or park maintenance, although street and facility maintenance is included. Long-term challenges like the citys structural deficit and adjustments to salaries to reflect an increasing minimum wage are also not included.

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FOR THE RECORD

11:13 a.m.: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the new budget would not provide for an increase in Fire Department staffing. The new budget will not provide for Police Department staffing.

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Rehabilitation of the water reservoir at Cordata Park will rely on about $18.6 million from bonds, the citys Measure M sales tax measure, gas tax revenue and a $1-million federal grant, according to the staff report.

City Manager Bob Hall said residents are likely to feel the cutbacks.

Fountain Valley welcomes community input on how to proceed with city services and help increase city revenue. A public workshop is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in council chambers, 10200 Slater Ave., to discuss a 20-year fiscal sustainability plan.
For La Canada Elementary School sixth-grader Gabriel Gottheim, spelling difficult words  even ones hes never seen before  is as easy as P-I-E.

That fact became apparent last week when Gabriel took top prize at the Los Angeles County Elementary Spelling Bee, beating out 24 other competitors whod earned top prizes in their own school district bees for a chance to compete at the county level.

The line between first and second place was immediately demarcated when Gabriel not only spelled the word dropped by San Gabriel Unified fourth-grader Ryan Yan, but correctly pinned down memorabilia to cinch a win.

NEWSLETTER: Stay up to date with whats going on in the 818 >>

The first hour of the March 30 competition was moderately difficult, but as the crowd of competitors thinned out toward the final round the words got a bit trickier.

As soon as I saw the spelling master pick up a new packet of words, I knew things were going to escalate, the 11-year-old recalled.

To help himself stay focused, Gabriel asked for definitions on unfamiliar words that might provide helpful clues. For example, when he heard the definition of sabbatical, he suspected that it had something to do with Sabbath and, therefore, likely contained two Bs.

If I recognize a root in the word, that helps me figure out how its spelled, he said.

Now, with a county win under his belt, Gabriel will get chance to represent La Canada at the California State Elementary Spelling Bee, which takes place April 23 in Stockton.

He is the third La Canada Unified student to have obtained such an honor since the contest began in 2006  Paradise Canyon Elementary sixth-grader Zhi-He Low netted a first-place win in both the first and second years of the county competition, while Palm Crest Elementary fifth-grader Solenn Matuska took top honors in 2012.

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La Canada Elementary School Principal Emily Blaney said she was pleased at Gabriels victory.

Its great for our school, but its so great for the district, Blaney said. Seeing La Canada Unified pop up for the fourth time  its pretty incredible.

Blaney asked the sixth-grade winner if he might consider temporarily lending his county spelling bee trophy to the library, so it could be used in a display to help inspire other students to reach similar heights. With assurances it would come to no harm, the champion agreed.

To prepare for battle that looms ahead, Gabriel plans to ramp up his daily dictionary dives with spelling partner and father Josh Gottheim, who has a keen sense of which words his son already knows and which might be completely new. That strategy has seemed to work well so far.

We spent 15 minutes a day after the school spelling bee with a dictionary, said a proud Josh Gottheim. Id pick [words] just a bit beyond his comfort zone  maybe college words, but not grad student level.

Beyond good old-fashioned preparation, Gabriel offered one piece of advice to others who hope to one day take the spelling world by storm:

Stay calm, he said.

--

Sara Cardine, sara.cardine@latimes.com

Twitter: @SaraCardine

--

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The newest weapon in the fight against wildlife poaching and illegal logging doesnt rely solely on boots or bullets, but on a computer software application driven by artificial intelligence.

Called Protection Assistant for Wildlife Security, or PAWS, the app uses algorithms  similar to the mathematical models used to power computer games  to devise strategies for defeating those who seek to destroy nature.

Thousands of animals are illegally slaughtered each year for their ivory, skin and bones for use in traditional medicines and feeding black market demand, while others meet their death at the hands of illicit trophy hunters, in what the World Wildlife Fund refers to as a global poaching crisis.

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Last year alone, around 30,000 elephants and a record 1,338 rhinos were killed in Africa, while tens of thousands of other animals were poached and trafficked, feeding an illegal wildlife trade that is increasingly being driven by international organized crime, the international conservation group said in a recent statement.

A Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) ranger stands in between piles of elephant tusks before they were set ablaze during an ivory burning event at the Nairobi National Park in Nairobi, Kenya, 30 April 2016. (DAI KUROKAWA / EPA )

Developed in 2013 and still in the test phase, the PAWS software analyzes data on terrain, topography, routes most frequently used by animals and paths traveled by poachers, said Milind Tambe, a computer scientist and professor of industrial systems engineering at USC who developed the technology with his doctoral students, including Fei Fang and Thanh Nguyen.

The Army Research Office and the National Science Foundation funded the research.

NEWSLETTER: Get the days top headlines from Times Editor Davan Maharaj >>

We can do pattern recognition, essentially building a model and predicting poachers activity based on their past actions, Tambe said. We can build up predictions of where poachers may strike. Then that allows us to generate patrol strategies that would be effective against those types of poachers. 

For example, the system can generate random patrol routes for rangers in order to keep potential poachers guessing about the whereabouts of the wardens.

The technology has been tested in Malaysia and Uganda, where it was successfully loaded onto handheld GPS devices that teams of rangers could use on the ground.

An example of snares used by poachers to trap wildlife in Ugandas Murchison Falls National Park. (Milind Tambe / University of Southern California )

Patrols will be launched in Queen Elizabeth National Park in western Uganda in the coming months. Uganda is home to some of the worlds most threatened ecosystems. Andrew Plumptre, director of the Albertine Rift Program for the Wildlife Conservation Society in Uganda, said he was eager to see the app put to the test.

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FOR THE RECORD

10:19 a.m.: An earlier version of this article misspelled Andrew Plumptres name as Plumtre.

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Plumptre said ranger patrols comprise the greatest portion of the Uganda Wildlife Authoritys budget for all of its parks and wildlife reserves, and recent studies show an average of 42% of households around two of Ugandas key elephant strongholds admitted to hunting in the parks in the past year.

While many of the hunters do so out of a desperate need for money to pay for essentials such as healthcare or school fees, there are regular poachers who can earn significant amounts of money from the hunting, Plumtre said in an email.

Making the patrolling more efficient and effective could greatly improve funding for other activities that are also needed, such as removal of invasive plants, and programs with the local communities, he added.

Stuffed Sumatran tigers, ivory and other wildlife trophies seized during recent raids are set on fire by Indonesian officials in Banda Aceh on May 23, 2016. (CHAIDEER MAHYUDDIN / AFP / Getty Images )

In Malaysia, where Tambe and his researchers teamed with the wild cats conservation group Panthera to test guided patrols using the artificial intelligence technology, the program yielded positive outcomes.

A research paper authored by the USC team, Panthera and other researchers noted that PAWs was able to guide rangers toward poaching hot spots by suggesting feasible and detailed routes. The technology also proved beneficial at finding good ridgelines that are taken by animals and humans and easier for the rangers the follow, according to the report.

Having the software do the work could potentially reduce the burden of patrol planning, the researchers found.

A rhinoceros that had its horn cut off by poachers recovers at a ranch in South Africa. (Mujahid Safodien/Getty Images )

But they also found limitations. For example, one of the routes PAWS suggested for rangers on foot patrol in Uganda traversed a body of water, forcing the wardens to walk along the waters edge and slowing them down. Extreme changes in elevations on routes suggested by the software could stop patrols in their tracks. The technology was unable to provide detailed patrol routes in large conservation areas, and questions remain about maintaining and upgrading the software, Tambe said.

Sean Willmore, president of the International Ranger Federation that includes 71 member associations on six continents, said that while technology is important in the fight to protect wildlife, it is not the silver bullet. He said more should be done to support the basic needs of rangers.

I dont want to dismiss the technology, but it is pointless if we dont have rangers who are trained and rangers who can use that technology, Willmore said. He also stressed rangers need for basic field equipment, such as wet weather gear and mosquito nets.

In addition, technology can do little to predict how poachers might react when discovered by rangers, Willmore said, and encounters with poachers can prove lethal. According to ranger federation statistics, an estimated 100 rangers are killed on the job each year. Around 70% of them were murdered by poachers who are eager to protect a business that generates around $19 billion a year in profits, Willmore said. Others succumb to other work-related hazards such as drowning, sickness from tropical diseases and animal encounters.

PAWS researchers said promoting the technology was not intended to overshadow the practical needs of rangers.

Were building a decision aide, Tambe said. We are saying to the rangers here is a tool that may effectively help you. I believe that artificial intelligence, if properly understood, can be used for the social good.

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ann.simmons@latimes.com
India has long been the worlds biggest moviemaker. Its official censors, too, are proving increasingly prolific.

The national censor board this week said that a big-budget Bollywood film about a gritty, often-overlooked subject  the drug menace in the northern state of Punjab  painted the state in a bad light. The board reportedly has ordered the makers of Udta Punjab (Flying Punjab) to make dozens of cuts and remove all references to the state, including from the title.

Our only concern is the entire movie is completely based on Punjab, Pahlaj Nihalani, the chief of the Central Board of Film Certification, told Indias Economic Times on Wednesday. All the characters are negative. It will hurt the whole community.

Indias filmmaking community has rallied in support of the movie. For months, Bollywoods leading lights have criticized the censor board  charged with determining movies suitability for audiences  for behaving like moral police by demanding that salty language, sexuality, gay themes and politically sensitive topics be cut from films.

See the most-read stories this hour >>

Much of the vitriol has been directed at Nihalani, who was appointed censor board chief after Prime Minister Narendra Modis conservative Bharatiya Janata Party won national elections in 2014. Nihalani, a successful film producer in the 1990s, was known to be an admirer of Modis, having made a campaign song for the Indian leader.

In the latest case, critics accuse Nihalani of bowing to pressure from a Punjab political party, Akali Dal, which runs the state in alliance with Modis BJP. The party leadership reportedly objected to the content and title of Udta Punjab, which highlights the governments failure to stop rampant drug abuse in the state bordering Pakistan.

Analysts say Akali Dal is worried about a potential blockbuster film highlighting the seamier side of Punjab being released nine months before state assembly elections are scheduled. The movie is due out June 17 and stars Shahid Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor, two Bollywood A-listers.

The films director, Anurag Kashyap, said at a news conference Wednesday that the producers were told to remove all 94 references to the word Punjab in the film. Kashyap filed suit challenging the boards decision and said he still hoped to release the film on schedule without any cuts. A hearing was scheduled in Mumbai on Thursday.

In tweets, Kashyap described Nihalani as a dictatorial man and an oligarch.

https://twitter.com/anuragkashyap72/status/740069384325058560

I always wondered what it felt like to live in North Korea, Kashyap tweeted. Now I dont even need to catch a plane. Nihalani responded by accusing Kashyap of taking money from a rival political party.

Filmmaker Ashoke Pandit, a censor board member who has been at odds with Nihalani, said he was hampering the credibility of the board.

This is the Talibanization of the industry, Pandit said in an interview.

Bollywood actors Shahid Kapoor, right, and Alia Bhatt arrive for a news conference organized by the Indian Film and Television Directors Assn. in Mumbai on June 8, 2016. (AFP/Getty Images) (Test)

For decades, Indias censor board routinely struck sexual content and blue language from films while giving a pass to wanton violence and mistreatment of women. But under Nihalani, the cuts ordered to films  particularly foreign releases that Indians can easily download in their original form  have led to charges that the censors are perpetuating a nanny state.

This year, the American sci-fi film Deadpool was shown in India after censors demanded that references to male and female genitalia be removed and a lovemaking scene shortened.

Spectre, the latest James Bond film, had a lengthy kissing scene heavily trimmed. Explaining the order, Nihalani prompted mockery when he said such a long kiss means you want to do sex in your house with your door open. And show to people the way you are doing sex.

The word lesbian was ordered removed from one Indian film, and another, Aligarh, about a gay professor, was given an A rating  Indias equivalent of an R  because of its theme. The filmmakers were furious and accused the censor board of behaving like a homophobic society.

Everybody in the film industry is aghast, Pandit said, calling the censor boards conservative bent a constant distraction for the writer or director.

In January, the Indian government formed a committee to help restore credibility to the censor board. Among its recommendations, the committee said the board should be allowed to grant audience ratings only and not determine content except in rare circumstances. The recommendations have yet to be adopted.

Supporters of Udta Punjab said the film would create awareness of a serious social problem. Pandit argued the film should be granted a tax exemption, saying its subject matter is in the interest of the country.

https://twitter.com/SirJadeja/status/739878512782409728

Watching a film is a voluntary thing, said filmmaker Sudhir Mishra. Let the audience be the judge. If we are mature enough to vote, surely we are mature enough to watch all kinds of films.

shashank.bengali@latimes.com

Parth M.N. is a special correspondent.

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A former CIA agent said Wednesday she will be extradited to Italy to serve a prison sentence for her part in the U.S. extraordinary renditions program after Portugals Constitutional Court rejected her final appeal.

Sabrina de Sousa told the Associated Press she is waiting to be told when she will be taken to Italy, where she was convicted in absentia and has a four-year sentence to serve.

Since her October arrest in Lisbon on a European arrest warrant, De Sousa has lost her extradition fight at a lower Lisbon court and her appeal of that decision to the Portuguese Supreme Court.

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De Sousa was among 26 Americans convicted in the kidnapping of terror suspect Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, from a Milan street on Feb. 17, 2003. She insists that she wasnt involved in the abduction.

The Constitutional Court said in a ruling posted on its website late Tuesday that De Sousas appeal was rejected.

Under Portuguese legal procedure, the Constitutional Court now sends its decision back to the lower court. That court then informs the police, who set in motion the extradition process in conjunction with Italian authorities.

De Sousa said in an email to the AP that she had no idea when she might be sent to Italy.

Her Italian lawyer has previously said he is hopeful of obtaining clemency from Italys head of state in the case, which has also implicated Italys secret services and proved embarrassing to successive Italian governments. President Sergio Mattarella has granted clemency to other defendants convicted in the case.

De Sousa said she sent a letter to Pope Francis on Wednesday, through the Vaticans embassy in Lisbon, urging him to speak out against the extraordinary renditions used by the CIA after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The pontiff has already condemned the practice, in a 2014 speech.

De Sousa, who has U.S. and Portuguese citizenship and was working in Italy under diplomatic cover, argues that she was never officially informed of the Italian court conviction and couldnt use confidential U.S. government information to defend herself.

I was never notified nor was I allowed to defend myself because of secrecy obligations, she wrote in the letter to the pope. The absence of due process and the imposition of various versions of state secrets are obstacles that prevent the many unanswered questions about the premise and justification for Abu Omars rendition.

The rendition program, under which terror suspects were kidnapped and transferred to centers where they were interrogated and tortured, was part of the anti-terrorism strategy of the U.S. administration following the attacks. President Obama ended the program years later.

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Two gunmen opened fire at an upscale Tel Aviv shopping mall a block away from Israels military headquarters Wednesday evening, killing at least four people, authorities said.

Police said the shooting was a terrorist attack and described the suspects as Palestinian cousins from an area near the West Bank city of Hebron.

The violence rattled Israelis who had begun to return to a sense of normality after a decrease in the wave of stabbings by Palestinians in the West Bank and in Israeli cities that began in September.

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It was a disturbing scene as we know all too well, said Yisrael Korvitz, a paramedic who said he treated a woman with critical gunshot wounds to the shoulder and leg while two other victims lay not far away.

The shooting occurred at Max Brenner, a chocolates restaurant located in the Sarona Market shopping complex and luxury apartment tower. Police said that they arrested one of the shooters and that a second attacker was hospitalized after being shot. Some witnesses said the gunmen had been at the restaurant before the attack started.

Two young men came, in two suits, like businessmen or lawyers. I took their order, said Yousef Jabaren, a barman who worked at the restaurant. Then, after a couple of minutes, the shooting started.

Though police said they believed that there were no more attackers, two hours after the shooting police helicopters with searchlights continued to circle overhead, and law enforcement announced they would deploy added personnel around the city on Thursday.

Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai said it was a difficult night for the city.

But we will continue..., he said. Terrorism wont defeat us.

Over the last eight months, Palestinian attacks, mostly stabbings, have killed 31 Israelis and two Americans, the Associated Press reported. About 200 Palestinians reportedly have been killed during that time, most identified as attackers by Israel.

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Mitnick is a special correspondent.

UPDATES:

3:26 p.m.: This article has been updated throughout with Times reporting.

1:30 p.m.: This article has been updated with a report that the gunmen were detained and with more details about the attack.

12:43 p.m.: This article has been updated with reports that three people were killed in the attack.

This article was originally published at 12:29 p.m.
A Kurdish rebel suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden vehicle outside a police headquarters near Turkeys border with Syria on Wednesday, killing at least three people and wounding about 30 others, officials said.

The attack in the town of Midyat, in Mardin province, came amid a surge in violence in the country and a day after a car bomb hit a police vehicle in Istanbul, killing 11 people during the morning rush hour. It took place as funerals for the Istanbul victims were underway.

Speaking in Istanbul, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the victims of the attack were a police officer and two civilians. It was not clear if the toll included the suicide bomber.

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In televised remarks, Yildirim said the attack was carried out by the outlawed rebel Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK. He said concrete barriers and other security measures in place at the police headquarters had prevented a greater loss of life.

Those who carried out the attack are [members of] the murderous PKK organization, Yildirim told reporters after visiting survivors of the Istanbul attack in a hospital.

News reports said the assailant rammed the vehicle into protective concrete blocks surrounding the towns main police station, located on a street lined with cafes, shops and businesses. Television images from the scene showed thick smoke rising from the site of the attack, which destroyed the front of the police headquarters building and blew out windows of nearby buildings.

The private Dogan news agency said the vehicle was laden with a half-ton of explosives.

As with previous terror attacks, authorities on Wednesday imposed a media gag order, barring the broadcast and publication of graphic images from the aftermath of the Midyat attack and the reporting of details of the police investigation.

Turkey has been hit by a series of attacks in the past year. PKK rebels have targeted police and military personnel since July, when a fragile peace process between the rebels and the government collapsed. The Islamic State group has also been blamed for a series of deadly bombings in Turkey, which is part of the U.S.-led coalition against the militant group.

PKK has waged a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state in a conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives. The group is considered a terror organization by Turkey and its allies.

The state-run Anadolu Agency, quoting unnamed security forces, said Turkish warplanes carried out airstrikes against PKK targets in northern Iraq and in Turkeys mainly Kurdish south-eastern province of Diyarbakir on Wednesday. Turkish planes have been regularly conducting cross-border aerial operations against the PKK since last summer.

The agency also said that 22 PKK militants were killed in previous strikes in northern Iraq on Sunday.

An estimated 500 Turkish security personnel have been killed while fighting with the Kurdish rebels since July 2015, according to the military, which claims to have killed 4,900 PKK militants in Turkey and northern Iraq.

Mardin province, where government forces are battling Kurkish militants, has endured similar attacks in the past months. In May, three people were killed in a car bombing by Kurdish rebels against a police station in Midyat. A soldier was killed and six others were wounded in a car bomb attack against a military outpost in April.

Last week, the military announced that it had ended a large-scale operation to flush out Kurdish militants from the nearby Syrian border town of Nusaybin, also in Mardin.
Mexicos ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party was headed toward a crushing setback in local elections, according to nearly complete vote tallies released Tuesday, raising questions about its ability to retain the presidency in two years.

Known as the PRI, the party came into the elections Sunday holding nine of the 12 governor seats that were up for grabs. It is set to come away with only five of those seats, the results showed.

Its chief rival, the conservative National Action Party, or PAN, appears to have won the governors offices in the other seven states, including three in a strategic alliance with the left-leaning Democratic Revolution Party, according to the near-complete returns.

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The results  from states that are home to slightly less than one-third of the Mexican population  await final certification by Mexicos National Electoral Institute.

Significantly, the count showed the PRI losing the two most closely watched governors races  in the violence-racked gulf states of Veracruz and Tamaulipas. The PRI had never lost either of those states.

The results were widely viewed as a broad rejection of the PRI at a time when polls show that its standard-bearer, President Enrique Pena Nieto, is suffering from low approval ratings because of a sluggish economy and widespread discontent with violence and corruption.

The local voters clearly said enough with the bad state governments characterized by  abuse of power, insecurity, and, above all, corruption, wrote Leo Zuckermann in a column in Excelsior newspaper. What we are witnessing is magnificent: I would characterize it as a second transition of Mexican democracy, that of the local governments.

The PRI, which emerged from the tumult of the Mexican Revolution in the early 20th century, ruled the country for decades until it began to suffer defeats in local elections and then lost the presidency in 2000 to the PAN.

Pena Nieto won back the presidency for the PRI in 2012. But observers said Sundays results do not bode well for the PRI in the presidential balloting scheduled for 2018.

The PRI will arrive weak to 2018, Enrique Krauze, a political analyst, wrote in El Universal newspaper, accusing the party of acting with indifference toward corruption and violence.

However, others pointed out that Sundays elections largely reflected the realities in certain states, and may not be direct harbingers for the 2018 presidential voting.

This does not guarantee what is going to happen in 2018 because these are local elections that have a logic distinct to national elections, Jose Antonio Crespo, a political analyst, said in a telephone interview.

Even after Sundays setbacks, the PRI remains the major political force in the national legislature and holds governors seats in at least 16 of the countrys 31 states and the federal district of Mexico City, far more than any other party. And the PRI retains an unrivaled electoral machine capable of bringing out the vote, sometimes in exchange for gifts, cash or jobs.

On Monday, in the aftermath of the vote, Pena Nieto issued a statement saying that those who compete in democracy know that they can win or lose. While some are euphoric today, others are sad or in reflection.

The opposition PAN, which has been suffering from internal divisions, declared that it was back and on track to regaining the presidency in 2018.

This is a historic victory, the partys president, Ricardo Anaya, told a radio interviewer, noting that the PAN had never won more than three governors seats in a single election. I am convinced we are proceeding firmly in 2018 to [win] the presidency of the republic.

The backlash against an entrenched PRI leadership was most dramatic in Veracruz, an oil-rich state of 8 million people.

The current PRI governor, Javier Duarte, became a symbol of official impunity in a state where deadly violence linked to drug trafficking and gangs went unchecked and critics alleged rampant corruption.

Veracruzs apparent governor-elect, Miguel Angel Yunes Linares of the PAN-led coalition, pledged during his campaign to seek criminal charges against Duarte and his associates. He also accused the ruling party of launching a dirty war to diminish his candidacy.

With almost 97% of the vote in Veracruz counted, Yunes Linares had won 34.4% of the vote compared to 30.5% for his PRI rival, Hector Yunes Landa, who is also his cousin. Landas opponents had accused him of making a secret deal not to investigate Duarte if elected.

Cuitlahuac Garcia, the gubernatorial candidate for the relatively new National Regeneration Movement, known as Morena, was holding 26% of the vote.

While not winning any states, Morena hopefuls did well in a number of local elections, including in Mexico City, where voters chose members of an assembly to write a new local constitution.

Analysts said Morenas showing could boost the partys leader, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a former Mexico City mayor who has twice lost the race for president. He has indicated his intention to run for president again in 2018 as the vanguard of the left.

Discontent with violence and corruption was also evident in Tamaulipas, the northern border state that is a stronghold for drug trafficking. Two of its former governors have been indicted in the United States on money-laundering charges and are fugitives from U.S. law enforcement.

With 95% of the ballots counted in Tamaulipas, the PAN candidate, Francisco Javier Garcia Cabeza de Vaca, a federal senator, had won 50.1% of the vote. His rival, Baltazar Hinojosa of the PRI, trailed with 36%.

Times staff writer McDonnell reported from Panama City and special correspondent Sanchez from Mexico City.
There are only three Latinos in the U.S. Senate, and the most senior of them all took Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to task for remarks against ethnic minorities.

Menendez: Trump's Remarks Are "Downright Dangerous"

On late Tuesday morning, Menendez addressed the U.S. Senate, acknowledging his status as the senior Latino in the legislative chamber, and spoke about the dark path Trump and the Republican Party is heading. According to Menendez, Trump is leading the U.S. towards a dangerous place as a result of racist rants. He also compared Trump to tyrants and dictators who have used discrimination towards ethnic and religious minorities to increase their power.

Speaking about Trump's comments about Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who's presiding the alleged Trump University fraud case and the businessman accused him of being impartial due to being "Mexican" -- when in fact he was born in Indiana from Mexican parents -- Menendez said Trump's remarks are an attack on the country's independent judiciary.

Menendez said lashing out simply because someone isn't getting their preferred way, "as Donald Trump seems to do often," is "remarkably childish, thin-skinned, surprisingly egocentric."

"Apparently, in Mr. Trump's mind, if he loses, it must be someone else's fault. It's him! It's them! It's those people! He isn't American! He doesn't have a birth certificate! He's a Muslim! It's all of them. He's a Mexican judge and I want to build a wall, so he's being unfair to me! "That attitude may be childish and pathetic in a schoolyard bully, but in an American president, in a commander in chief, it's downright dangerous."

The New Jersey Democrat is his fellow policymakers have not gone far enough to distance themselves away from Trump's comments.

"Many of my colleagues must recognize - as do I -- that a federal judge born in Indiana with a Mexican family background is not a Mexican judge but an American judge -- just as a United States senator like this one, raised in New Jersey with a Cuban family background, is a United States senator," Menendez said. "And to imply otherwise -- to ask that Judge Curiel recuse himself from a case because of where his parents were born -- is, on its face, racist."

The Democrat is that anyone who does not stand up against intolerance and hatred would only encourage such bigotry, which would divide the country.

"Today we are all Judge Gonzalo Curiel, and today we stand together as one nation, indivisible, no matter how hard someone tries to divide us. I repeat: The road to some of the darkest moments in history have been paved with the rants of petty demagogues against ethnic minorities for centuries, and Donald Trump is echoing those same racist rants, threatening to take this nation to a dangerous place. Let's, all of us, speak out before it's too late."

Trump Backing Away from Curiel Remarks?

By late afternoon, Trump issued a statement further clarifying his remarks about Curiel. He acknowledged that he has friends and employees that are either Mexican or of Hispanic descent.

"It is unfortunate that my comments have been misconstrued as a categorical attack against people of Mexican heritage," Trump said. "I am friends with and employ thousands of people of Mexican and Hispanic descent. The American justice system relies on fair and impartial judges. All judges should be held to that standard. I do not feel that one's heritage makes them incapable of being impartial, but, based on the rulings that I have received in the Trump University civil case, I feel justified in questioning whether I am receiving a fair trial."

Trump continued question Curiel's impartiality due to the judge's association with specific organizations. He concluded that he intends not to comment further on the matter and believes he'll win the case.

__

For the latest updates, follow Latin Post's Michael Oleaga on Twitter: @EditorMikeO or contact via email: m.oleaga@latinpost.com.
No matter what way it turns out, the U.S. Senate race in California stands to make history.

The Associated Press is reporting California Attorney General Kamala Harris and U.S. Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Calif., both fellow democrats and minorities, have emerged as the potential successors to Sen. Barbara Boxer's, D-Calif., seat -- completely shutting out the Republican field.

California's First Statewide Election Between Fellow Dems

The election will also be California's first statewide contest between two Democratic candidates, pitting Harris, the 51-year-old daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants from San Francisco, against Sanchez, a 56-year-old Latina from Orange County.

The California system sends the top two vote-getters onto the general election, regardless of party affiliation.

Harris earned her way into general election season by bagging 40 percent of the June 7 election in a crowded field of candidates that saw Sanchez finish second at 17 percent with nearly half of all precincts reporting.

"We are clear of purpose," Harris told spirited supporters at a rally after polls had closed. "Our unity is our strength, and our diversity is our power."

Harris later stressed she planned to hit the campaign trial running early the next morning by meeting voters across the Oakland area.

Meanwhile, Sanchez assured her supporters that despite all the predictions of naysayers, "we are going to win this U.S. Senate seat because we are going up and down the state of California and asking every voter in every place to come out and vote for us."

Gov. Jerry Brown Throws Support Behind Harris

To make good on her victory guarantee, Sanchez will have to overcome the strong support Harris enjoys among liberal Bay area voters. She also boasts the endorsement of California Gov. Jerry Brown.

On the flip side, Sanchez has the support of the party's traditionally conservative crowd from Orange County. Both candidates hold similar policy positions on issues ranging from a call for an increase in the minimum wage to a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

A November win by Sanchez would make her the first Latina elected to the U.S. Senate. Catherine Cortez Masto, the Democrat running for U.S. Senate in Nevada to replace Sen. Harry Reid, could also take the honor of being the first Latina in the Senate.
Samsung To Debut 2 Bendable Smartphones in 2017, Says Report

Trending News: Bendable Smartphones Are Here (Almost)

Why Is This Important?

Because you'd literally be able to whip your phone out.

Long Story Short

Samsung is reportedly plotting to unveil two bendable phones as early as February 2017, according to sources that spoke to Bloomberg. The bendable phones would be 5 inches, but flip open to a tablet-sized 8 inches.

Long Story

Those who missed the tactile of flipping open their phone rejoice! Bendable phones are coming.

Samsung has been working on its organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screens and are reportedly confident that they can put the technology out in a couple of working smartphones by early 2017, according to Bloomberg.

Samsung might have bendable, foldable smartphones ready for 2017 https://t.co/LHDZ48shU4 pic.twitter.com/yCJeg39Lue  Engadget (@engadget) June 7, 2016

This product could be a game-changer if Samsung successfully comes up with a user interface suitable for bendable screens, said Lee Seung Woo, an analyst at IBK Securities Co. in South Korea where Samsung is based, to Bloomberg. Next year is a probable scenario. Their biggest obstacle was related to making transparent plastics and making them durable, which seems resolved by now.

We don't know what the phones will be called, just that they won't be under the Galaxy S name.

If you think having a phone you could flip open to read on and then flip back in your pocket before you miss your stop on the subway is a good idea, but are committed to iPhones, you might not have to wait too long. Samsung has reportedly been in talks with Apple to sell its OLED screen technology to Apple.

But wait what? Apple buying from its adversary, absurd!

Nope, not really. Apple bought hardware from Samsung for years, it just slowed down in 2011 when both companies kept on suing each other.

But perhaps a bigger question is will Apple even bring this on? It doesn't seem like something Apple would do, or rather, the Apple of Steve Jobs. Apple has always been critical of multi-purposing its tech, like those computers that switch into tablets or phablets. But hey, they did eventually come out with an iPhone Plus.

Own The Conversation

Ask The Big Question

Has anyone even asked to be able to bend their smartphone in the first place?

Disrupt Your Feed

Smartphone companies are really reaching to try and make their phones seem different.

Drop This Fact

Samsung could release the bendable phones as early as February at the Mobile World Congress in gorgeous Barcelona.
Almost 18 years after Adel Malek was gunned down in his Allentown store, his daughter finally faced the man who killed him.

"People still remember what you have taken away from us. John Edinger, you have taken the sunshine out of our lives," Tout Malek wrote to her father's killer.

On Wednesday, the 44-year-old Edinger pleaded guilty in Lehigh County Court to third-degree murder in the July 1998 shooting of Malek at his business, the Apotheca Store on Union Street.

As part of the plea deal, Edinger, of Emmaus, was sentenced to 20 to 40 years in prison.

Tout Malek said Edinger had 17 years of freedom, while her family mourned the loss of a loving, generous man from Egypt who worked seven days a week and would help anyone who needed it.

Adel Malek served in the Army and worked as a pharmacist before opening his own business; Tout Malek called her father her hero.

"John Edinger, your true judgment is in God's hands after all," Tout Malek wrote in a victim impact statement. She was in court Wednesday and wept as her letter was read aloud by a victim coordinator with the district attorney's office.

Adel Malek's wife was not in court; First Assistant District Attorney Steve Luksa said the criminal case was reopening an old wound for the family.

Edinger apologized to Malek's family.

"My intentions were never to hurt anyone like this," he said. "I struggled for 17 years with this."

Edinger said he wanted to provide closure to Malek's family, as well as himself. As he was led back to jail, Edinger began crying as he faced Malek's daughter sitting in the courtroom audience.

It was a friend of Edinger's that helped reopen the cold case last year and led to his arrest.

Alejandro Fernandez Tavera, who goes by Alex Fernandez, was facing deportation last summer to the Dominican Republic when he told prosecutors Edinger confessed to the 1998 shooting.

Investigators then interviewed Edinger in Emmaus, where he confessed to the murder.

Edinger, who was addicted to heroin and alcohol at the time of the shooting, told detectives he went to the store with a loaded .22-caliber handgun. Edinger claimed Malek accused him of stealing from the store, and stabbed him before Edinger opened fire.

Malek was shot in the leg, in his side, his lower abdomen and on the back of his left shoulder, Luksa said.

"You may not have robbed Mr. Malek of his money, but you robbed him of his life," Judge Robert Steinberg said.

The judge said Malek was beloved by his family and the community, and "I don't think a jury would have had any trouble convicting you."

Speaking to Malek's daughter, Steinberg said her father would not want her life destroyed by his death, but would want her to live a life that would make him proud.

"You have a legacy...a legacy you can continue," the judge said. "I hope you will."

Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Trash trucks will soon be hitting the streets in South Bethlehem at 5 a.m. but haulers must abide by a 6 a.m. start time in the rest of the city.

A private trash hauler makes a stop Friday in the 1100 block of Main Street in Bethlehem. (lehighvalleylive.com file photo)

Bethlehem City Council voted 6-0 Tuesday night in favor of scaling back a proposal to start citywide garbage pickup at 5 a.m., choosing to restrict it only to South Side neighborhoods currently in the midst of a pilot zoned trash collection program.

Councilman Bryan Callahan, who supported a citywide 5 a.m. start, was absent from the meeting. Council did not discuss the change.

Mayor Bob Donchez's administration is streamlining all of the city's various trash regulations into one ordinance and proposed the citywide 5 a.m. garbage start time. Donchez proposed a 5 a.m. start time for the South Bethlehem pilot program but that was rejected by council last year.

The city's independent trash haulers support the change, calling it a safety concern. Trucks clog major arteries in the South Side during rush hour and cars passing the trucks present safety hazards.

There have been five accidents involving garbage trucks in the last year, Kristen Wenrich, city health director, said last month. Only four haulers have been cited since 2008 for starting before 6 a.m.

The Bethlehem Area School District supports an earlier start time because buses get delayed by trash trucks.

Council President J. William Reynolds has said he thinks a citywide earlier start time should be considered once the South Bethlehem pilot program wraps up and the city decides if it wants to switch to overall zoned collections.

Sara K. Satullo may be reached at ssatullo@lehighvalleylive.com.com. Follow her on Twitter @sarasatullo. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
A group of Bethlehem residents are legally challenging the $17.5 million financing for a controversial South Bethlehem parking garage.

The proposed 626-space parking garage at New Street and Graham Place is shown in this courtesy rendering. (Courtesy of Bethlehem Parking Authority)

The seven residents implored Bethlehem City Council for months to not agree to back the Bethlehem Parking Authority's bonds for the 626-space parking garage at New Street and Graham Place.

They raised concerns that it is not financially self-sustaining, called it out-of-scale with the neighborhood and worried about its traffic impact. In the end, council backed the garage, and construction is slated to begin soon.

The residents have petitioned the state Department of Community and Economic Development to invalidate the city's application to back the parking authority's bonds. The residents are: Al Wurth, Samuel Nazario, Peter Crownfield, Dana Grubb, Joe Hilliard, Breena Holland and William Seixas.

Bethlehem Mayor Bob Donchez said that parking authority attorney Jim Broughal and the authority's bond counsel are handling the situation. He declined further comment.

The city's application to back the bonds says the debt is "self liquidating," meaning it will be paid from parking rents, rates or charges, the petitioners said in a news release.

"It just seemed that almost nobody in city government was looking out for the rest of us, the citizens and businesses and other parkers, who will be paying the bills for 30 years for the garage and for the subsidized users who will park there," said Holland, a resident and Lehigh University professor who heads the South Side Initiative. "That's not 'self-liquidating' debt; it's community liquidating debt!"

But the opponents note that the garage is not self-sustaining. It will be supported by systemwide parking revenues and necessitates future parking rate hikes.

The complainants argue that means it won't be paid for only by users of the New Street parking deck.

"By committing to debt that relies on these increases, the city is effectively binding future mayors and members of city council to the increases in parking rates and fines," Wurth said.

They argue in the agreement the city wrongly asserts that it is acting in the public interest by backing bonds that help solve a parking shortage. They point to a parking study that found a surplus of parking in all of South Bethlehem, just not within 300 feet of Dennis Benner's new building at Third and New streets.

Petitioner Crownfield said "the garage plan was not based on actual parking needs or any 'shortfall' of parking in the area and is designed to subsidize profits for a single developer."

Bethlehem officials refused to comprehensively study actual parking demand and it's clear the garage alone won't repay the debt, he said.

"We want the state to review the legality of creating this huge debt that residents and others will have to pay," Crownfield said.

The opponents note they are not trying to stop the construction of Benner's approved $20 million, six-story building at South New and Third streets, which they support. Lehigh University and St. Luke's University Health Network will anchor the project.

The opponents recognize the building will need parking but they don't think that justifies the demand or cost of a garage that will affect parkers all over the city.

"Given the blatant disregard for these and other concerns about the New Street parking garage, our only option is to challenge the bond on legal grounds," resident Grubb said.

Sara K. Satullo may be reached at ssatullo@lehighvalleylive.com.com. Follow her on Twitter @sarasatullo. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
A Bethlehem man is accused of repeatedly prank-calling 911 in Bethlehem and New Jersey with fake emergencies.

Michael Noel Pellot, 35, allegedly called Bethlehem's 911 center 12 times between July 31, 2014 and Feb. 29, 2016.

In all the calls, Pellot claimed emergencies in the 1300 block or 1400 block of Fritz Drive -- from fires, to police officers being shot, to hostage situations, police said. But there were no emergencies, and crews responded to find nothing out of the ordinary, police said.

The calls were made on cellphones, and police linked the phones to Pellot.

Last month, Bethlehem investigators learned Pellot was under investigation by New Jersey State Police for allegedly making a similar 911 call in Hunterdon County.

In that instance, Pellot used the same phone to call 911 and claim an off-duty NYPD officer was shot on Interstate 78. Pellot was arrested last month in New Jersey in that case, and is free on $100,000 bail.

On Wednesday, Pellot was arrested in the Bethlehem cases. He is charged with 12 counts each of making false alarms to public safety agencies; illegal communications with 911 systems; and false reports to law enforcement.

Pellot, who lives in Bethlehem public housing, is also accused of lying about his income. Police said Pellot filled out forms claiming he had no income, when police say he was a driver for a trucking company since December 2014.

Pellot was charged with theft by deception and making false statements to authorities.

In both cases, Pellot was sent to Northampton County Prison in lieu of $15,000 bail.

In a news release, police Chief Mark DiLuzio said authorities are still calculating the cost of the emergency responses in Bethlehem and New Jersey.

"The cost is estimated in the thousands of dollars for just emergency response times alone," the chief said.

Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Warren County Sheriff candidates 2016

Three Republicans ran for Warren County sheriff in 2016. They are, from left, Charlie Makatura, Jim Simonetti and Jim McDonald. (Courtesy, file photos)

UPDATE: New challenger enters Warren County sheriff's race

There will be a new sheriff in Warren County.

Retired Washington Township police Chief James McDonald won the Republican primary for the position, according to unofficial results Tuesday night.

The three-way race was close with a separation of about 1,000 votes. With 88 of 89 precincts reporting at 10:30 p.m., McDonald had 4,405 votes. Jim Simonetti was close behind with 4,186, and Charlie Makatura had 3,419.

"Jim McDonald would like to thank everyone who supported him and who put their trust in him and he vows to earn the trust and support of all of Warren County," his campaign posted on Facebook shortly after the results were announced.

Barring an independent filing to run or a write-in campaign ahead of the November general election, McDonald is poised to assume the sheriff title from David Gallant, who did not seek re-election. No Democrat declared candidacy.

Jim McDonald would like to thank everyone who supported him and who put their trust in him and he vows to earn the trust... Posted by Jim McDonald for Warren County Sheriff on Tuesday, June 7, 2016

McDonald's win comes three years after a close loss to Gallant after the 2013 Republican primary.

"I believe that I am the right man for the job," McDonald said when he announced his candidacy, touting three decades of experience in law enforcement.

The other candidates also ran on their law enforcement backgrounds.

Simonetti -- no relation to former Sheriff Sal Simonetti -- said that curbing the rise of illegal drug use in rural municipalities would be a top priority. The Frelinghuysen Township resident is the police chief in Roxbury Township, Morris County.

Makatura, a Belvidere councilman, pledged to reduce turnover among sheriff's officers, equip department vehicles to assist in road enforcement and establish a single countywide record management system. The Belvidere High School and Centenary College graduate spent his law enforcement career with the New Jersey State Police.

Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @type2supernovak. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Warren County Sheriff's Office

The race for Warren County sheriff will be contested in the general election after all. Joseph DeWitt will run as an independent against Republican nominee Jim McDonald. (Steve Novak | For lehighvalleylive.com)

Jim McDonald knows it isn't over yet.

James McDonald (Courtesy photo)

The retired Washington Township police chief on Tuesday won the Republican nomination in a three-way race for the Warren County sheriff post, but will face an independent challenger for the November general election.

Joseph DeWitt, an Independence Township resident and former police officer there, said he is in the process of launching his campaign.

"It's going to be a race," DeWitt said. "I expect to be a tireless campaigner."

McDonald on Wednesday acknowledged the challenge: "I haven't won the sheriff's seat yet," he said. "I'm going to work hard to do that."

McDonald won the Republican primary on Tuesday with 4,478 votes, according to unofficial results from the county. Jim Simonetti garnered 4,261 votes, and Charlie Makatura got 3,472.

"They ran a very good campaign. I had to work for this one," McDonald said. "Third time's the charm," he quipped, noting his two previous failed campaigns.

DeWitt said he was not enthused by any of the Republican candidates, which led him to run on his own. He said his Army military police background -- including 32 years in active and reserve service and two tours in Iraq -- has prepared him for the sheriff's role.

"I set my campaign strategy on being a different kind of person," he said, "being a good steward of the people's money, and letting the people know I work for the people, the people don't work for me."

DeWitt also worked as an Independence Township police officer for 33 years. He sued the township last year, alleging age discrimination when he was terminated in 2014 at age 65. The lawsuit has not yet been resolved, he said.

McDonald said he plans to continue on a platform of community outreach, particularly to senior citizens. He said he knocked on some 3,000 doors during the primary campaign.

"If you're in an elected position ... people should know who you are," McDonald said.

Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @type2supernovak. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
A Laois councillor has called on the HSE's chief executive over Portlaoise hospital to resign if she is changing her mind on saving the A&E.

Cllr Padraig Fleming is one of three Laois county councillors on the regional health forum, who months ago were personally reassured of the future of Portlaoise's emergency dept, by Dr Susan O'Reilly.

Yesterday, Monday May 30 during an intense council debate over a letter sent by Laois GPs predicting the closure of the A&E, he called on Dr O'Reilly to resign if it is true.

I'd be shockingly disappointed if even a third of what's coming out is true. We met Dr O'Reilly after a health forum meeting and she said she planned a whole bunch of A&E services, with maybe 5 percent of high level surgery lost. Nobody has a problem with that. If she has changed her mind now to promises made to us, I will be calling on her to resign. If she is closing the A&E she shouldn't be in the job, Cllr Fleming said.

Cllr Willie Aird is also on the forum, but wants to hold fire until the report is public.

We don't know what she actually plans. She is a very elegant lady, I don't believe she would tell lies, we should give her the benefit of the doubt. I asked her who is the boss and she said the Minister, Portlaoise has got huge investment and a facelift, all staff want is assurance, hopefully all this is rubbish talk, he said, adding Portlaoise is in a comfort zone.

We have a senior cabinet minister, and Sean Fleming is supporting Fine Gael. If anything happens in the hospital, Fianna Fail can pull the government down, he said.

Fine Gael Cllr John King, the third rep on the forum, disbelieves the Laois GPs.

I believe in Susan O'Reilly, he said.

However, Laois County Council's Cathaoirleach Cllr Catherine Fitzgerald, who had raised the matter at the meeting, has her doubts.

I feel if GPs write to me, it's important. If GPs are worried, I'm worried. I know several of them. They are very genuine and they represent all communities in Laois, and so do we. My fear is for the paediatrics and maternity, we should try and get answers, she said.

Cllr Jerry Lodge predicted many adverse affects.

Trolley numbers in adjacent hospitals are staggeringly high, can they accept Laois patients? There's already a problem attracting GPs to Laois, this can only make it worse, he said, proposing a meeting with Health Minister Simon Harris.

The council will ask Dr O'Reilly to attend their June meeting, and Minister Harris for a meeting.
Last night I spent an hour of my life I wont get back listening to two men who, respectively, dont much like and loathe the EU, take questions separately from an ITV audience.

It was every bit as dire as you would expect and then some. Watching Cameron head up the case for Remain is a bit like watching that kid (who would have been me at my school) with no hand-eye co-ordination being forced to captain the netball team. Except, of course, that nobody forced Cameron into that position. He chose to pander to the right wing of his party and UKIP.

What was worrying is that the worm thing on the Times Red Box website was mainly pro Farage, but I did wonder if that was because the sort of demographic who would be using it would be more predisposed to Leave. Matt Chorleys email this morning confirms that, saying that 80% of those using it were pro Brexit to start with.

The problem is that he sounds half-hearted in his arguments for the EU. There is no positivity, nothing in his demeanour or his words to inspire people to vote his way.

During the Scottish referendum, for all he increased the Yes vote every time he opened his mouth, he did at least appear sincere about wanting the UK to stay together. Dont, he said, vote Yes to hammer the f-ing Tories. He seemed genuinely worried, at least until the result was declared and then he was quick to put party before country and pointscore on English Votes for English Laws.

Last night, Cameron did a lot of Leaves job for them, legitimising their anti-immigration lines rather than spelling out the many positives of immigration. The whole programme centred round the economy and immigration. That was it. Nothing on human rights, nothing on workers rights. The latter is the one argument that Ive found can switch people. Very few people actually think that the Tories would preserve their hard-won employment rights, particularly if they move substantially to the right post Brexit.

My main conclusion from watching the debate last night was Wheres Paddy when you need him?

In the last two weeks of campaigning we need to hear a lot less from the PM and the Chancellor and a lot more from the likes of Paddy, Tim, Shirley, Yvette Cooper, Caroline Lucas and Nicola Sturgeon. They are all capable of making the case to remain in a way that means something to people.

Oh, and as I said before, we should just have Alex Cole-Hamiltons debut speech to the Scottish Parliament on repeat.

If David Cameron cant find some mojo and get out there and make a positive case for the EU, he should take a back seat and let those who can influence the key sections of the electorate take the spotlight.

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
I have been a committed European Unionist for over 35 years and could once quote the Treaty of Rome as a party piece until the invitations dried up. This referendum is critical to all of us and I have been robust in criticising those aspects of the Remain campaign that I feel undermine the credibility of the real arguments. It was Brexit that kicked off with misleading numbers and daft claims. They were ridiculed quite rightly and we should not follow their lead. The referendum will be won on the credibility of our arguments, which must be Brexit-proof. I accept it is tedious to see someone like me criticising those who have tried to put forward constructive points. So Im setting out my own view of the major Brexit-proof points I believe we should be promoting on the doorstep, with friends, family and colleagues.

According to the CBI, the economic benefits of EU membership amount to 4,000 net per family.

According to the CBI our net contribution is 116 per person: we get 8 back for every 1 we put in.

Migration from outside the EU is higher than from inside. We can control non-EU migration but are not doing so. Thats our fault, not the EUs. Under the deal struck by Cameron EU migrants do not get benefits until they have contributed.

Agriculture is dependent on EU migrants who form 65% of the workforce and our NHS is reliant on EU professionals from dentists to neurologists. EU migrants contribute hugely to our society not only by providing essential services but by paying taxes. But we can and must grow our own expertise through more apprenticeships and access to bursaries and scholarships.

We can all choose to live, work, start a business, retire or just buy a home anywhere in the 28 member states. We get the same access to healthcare and other state services as locals.

We are protected by two borders, a recently strengthened EU outer border that includes 600 Italian and 40 French patrol boats, and our own inner border that would need huge investment to bring up to scratch. We benefit from the huge French, Italian, Greek and other EU resources, protecting us as well as their own citizens.

If we leave, the financial centre of Europe will move from London to Frankfurt. No-one can predict the exact consequences but it wont be in our favour in terms of taxes and jobs.

If we leave the EU we will survive; were British after all. There wont be a war, air fares wont go up, beach sewage wont return, but we will all be worse off according to the Treasury and CBI. We will lose influence globally once we are excluded from EU decision making.

There are some advantages to Leaving, though. We can do away with those mandatory 20 minute breaks every 6 hours for nurses, making the NHS much more efficient. We can choose to get rid of other namby-pamby obstacles to maximum productivity like maternity leave. We can return to 1 being 20 shillings each of 12 pennies, and 1 ton being 20 cwt of 8 stones of 14 lb of 16 oz. Only by leaving can we ban the confusing decimal and metric systems. And we can free our businesses from European restrictions on profiteering so they can make up lost revenue by raising prices for British customers.

Please criticise, even ridicule, every comment is helpful.

* Stevan Rose first joined the Liberal Party in 1980. Having flirted with the SDP and then New Labour, he switched voting allegiance back to the Lib Dems after Iraq and re-joined the party in 2014.
LIMERICKS upcoming Pride festival will showcase a city that is truly open and accepting, using the theme #UnitedColoursofLimerick as its rallying cry.

The 2016 festival, taking place from July 11  17, with the centrepiece being a parade taking place in the city on Saturday, July 16, was launched in the George Boutique Hotel this Tuesday night.

Lisa Daly, chairperson for Pride, said there was a fantastic line-up with something for everyone.

We want to welcome everyone to join us in celebrating LGBTI culture in Limerick and show Limerick for the truly open and accepting city that she is, said Ms Daly.

She said Pride 2016 would build on the success and positive energy of previous years, promoting community spirit, community engagement and celebration.

In the last year, the Irish LGBTI community has received resounding support from the wider Irish community in their support of equal rights and marriage equality so this will be reflected in this years Pride Parade.

We will celebrate our freedom and the opportunity we have been given as a community to develop the concept of the family unit within our community, she added.

Richard Lynch, PRO for the festival, said there would always be a need for Pride as long as others in the global LGBTI community are not as fortunate as us in terms of equal rights.

We must fight for our brothers and sisters throughout the world and take a stand for human rights for all, he said.

Thats why our theme this year is #UnitedColoursofLimerick. We want Pride to be an inclusive, open and integrated event welcoming all people regardless of their sexual or gender orientation, religion or race.

This year we aim to put the T back into LGBTI, with a focus specifically on advancing the rights and equality of trans people and their families, he added.

Broden Giambrone, CEO of Transgender Equality Network Ireland (TENI), will be grand marshall for the parade, and, while he noted that the passage of the marriage referendum was an incredible moment, he warned: Our community still faces homophobic and transphobic bullying in our schools, discrimination in the workplace and violence on the streets.

We need to do more. Trans, bi and intersex people remain invisible and we must not leave anyone behind. This years theme  #UnitedColoursofLimerick  is about inclusion and diversity. Its about working together to ensure we can all enjoy equality.

Mayor of Limerick, Cllr Liam Galvin, said that City Hall would be in rainbow colours for the week of Limerick LGBTI Pride to join the community in celebrating the theme.

The Mr and Mrs Gay Limerick will take place before the festival, on July 2 at the Pery Hotel, while the official Pride launch will kick off festivities on July 11 at Strokers Gay Bar on William Street in the city.

A Pride Wedding show, an Open Mic night, a Mezz Ladies night, the Twas the night before Pride event and more will all take place over the week, while the Hunt Museum will host PrideFest 2016 after the Parade on July 16, with an after-party in Dolans.

There will also be an educational aspect to the festival, with support meetings taking place for youth, adult and trans groups, while there will also be free drop in HIV testing at GOSHH on Davis Street.

See LimerickPride.ie for more.
PARENTS in Westbury have laid the blame for the sudden closure of the Tic Toc nursery on company representative Peter Keogh.

While a staff sit-in at the facility is expected to end today, parents were yesterday left counting the cost of not having anywhere to send their children on the first day back after the Bank Holiday weekend.

In a letter to Mr Keogh, parent Michelle Keyes asked: How would you deal with an employee ringing you to say they wont be into the office until they find alternative suitable employment for their child because their creche has closed without any notice leaving lots of parents anxiously competing for the limited number of places available in nearby creches and childminders?

Another parent has revealed he was yesterday forced to cancel an important business meeting due to a lack of childcare, while another says it is an emotional upheaval to have to change the nursery her children are at.

Fianna Fail TD Willie ODea says there have been calls to have a community creche opened among the affected workers and parents  but he conceded this was unlikely.

Staff are expected to leave the facility at some point today, once redundancy payments, plus holiday pay and salary in lieu of notice paid hit their bank accounts.

Mr ODea confirmed himself and Siptu chairman Frank McDonnell have been in talks with the Department of Social Protection to ensure the 17 former childcare staff get quick access to welfare.

Carraig Midhe-based businessman Martin ORegan, who had two children at Tic Toc said: I was to meet with some representatives of Tourism Ireland in Dublin today. It was a big opportunity, as I have been trying to meet with them for the last year. But I have had to cancel it.

Sarah Kieran, a lecturer at UL, said she has stepped in to care for the child of another couple who otherwise would have had to miss work.

I viewed the women in Tic Toc as helping me rear my children and to have that just pulled out from me overnight is a big shock, she said.

Mr Keogh acknowledged it was a difficult situation for all concerned and said the liquidator had met with staff and agreed to resolve all matters.
May 2, 2021, 10 PM

Members of the American Philatelic Society have elected Mick Zais as the next APS president.

By Michael Baadke

Mick Zais of Columbia, S.C., has been elected president of the American Philatelic Society.

APS members also voted in a new board of vice presidents and all new APS directors-at-large in voting that concluded June 4.

Zais, a retired brigadier general in the United States Army and former South Carolina state superintendent of schools, defeated Ken Nilsestuen, a career CPA and former auction house owner from Akron, Ohio, who has served as the APS treasurer since 2013.

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Zais won 2,016 votes (51.7 percent) and Nilsestuen received 1,882 votes (48.2 percent).

Members mailed in 3,961 ballots in the election, of which 3,951 were deemed valid. The voting, which concluded on the final day of World Stamp Show NY-2016, was down about 16 percent from the last general elections in 2013.

Newly elected as the societys board of vice presidents are Patricia (Trish) Kaufmann of Lincoln, Del., Jeff Shapiro of Fayville, Mass., and Robert Zeigler of Indianapolis, Ind. The team gathered 2,220 votes (56.9 percent) to top the trio of John Barwis of Holland, Mich., Alex Haimann of St. Louis, Mo., and Yamil Kouri of Lexington, Mass., who received 1,676 votes (43 percent).

Haimann and Kouri are incumbents who were elected to the board of vice presidents with Zais in 2013.

In their campaign material, the newly elected team of vice presidents stressed addressing the APS debt load, funding and completing the American Philatelic Research Library project, working closely with the APRL board in unified purpose, and providing open communication with staff, both boards, and the membership.

The position of APS secretary will be filled by Stephen Schumann of Hayward, Calif., who defeated Mark Butterline of Maynard, Mass., by a vote of 2,151 (55.9 percent) to 1,698 (44.1 percent).

Bruce Marsden of Short Hills, N.J., was elected as APS treasurer, with 2,306 votes (59.8 percent). His opponent in the election was Edwin Andrews of Chapel Hill, N.C., who received 1,549 votes (40.2 percent).

Five candidates ran for four director-at-large positions. Elected to those four positions were Peter McCann of University Park, Fla., with 3,049 votes; Mark Schwartz of Philadelphia, Pa., with 2,748 votes; Rich Drews of Palatine, Ill., with 2,724 votes; and Michael Bloom of Portland, Ore., with 2,627 votes. Gordon Eubanks of Pebble Beach, Calif., the final candidate for director-at-large, received 2,583 votes. Others received eight votes.

Current APS President Stephen Reinhard, who opted not to run for re-election, will assume the board position of immediate past president that is currently occupied by former APS President Wade Saadi.

None of the four current directors-at-large  Nicholas Lombardi, Kristin Patterson, W. Danforth Walker and Steve Zwillinger  were candidates for election as APS directors.

Patterson and Zwillinger were, however, both candidates for the two APS member-elected seats on the board of the American Philatelic Research Library. Zwillinger ran as an incumbent; he is currently serving on both the APS board of directors and the APRL board of trustees.

Zwillinger, of Silver Spring, Md., was re-elected to the APRL board with 2,915 votes, and Patterson, of San Jose, Calif., was elected with 2,777 votes. Former APS Vice President Mark Banchik of Great Neck, N.Y., also ran and received 1,322 votes.

A third open position on the APRL board was elected by founders, patrons and fellows of the library, who chose Hugh Lawrence of Encinitas, Calif.

According to the APS, individuals are elected for three-year terms, may serve no more than two consecutive terms in the same position, and with the exception of the president may serve on the board in an elected capacity for no more than three terms in any 12-year period.

Nominations are made by APS chapters, or by petition, signed by at least 10 APS members who are not members of a nominating or seconding chapter, or by a combination of 10 chapters and such seconding endorsements.

On Aug. 6, the new officers and board members will be installed during the general meeting at APS Stampshow 2016, in Portland, Ore., at the Oregon Convention Center.

The terms of the new APS board members will expire in 2019.
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Two rising McCallie seniors will spend this summer traveling and working to help others thanks to two fellowships awarded at the end of the school year.

Day student Chris Duncan was selected to receive the 2016 Jeff Ligon Memorial Fellowship while boarding student Victor Cheng was awarded the Joe Restaino Scholarship.

The Ligon and Restaino awards provide funding and support for a rising sophomore or junior day and boarding student, respectively, to enhance their educational and spiritual growth through a travel program during the summer following their selection for the award.

The Jeff Ligon Memorial Fellowship is named in honor of Jeff Ligon '86. Dr. Ligon won the Grayson Medal at McCallie, graduated from Vanderbilt and practiced medicine in Chattanooga. He passed away Feb. 1, 2012, after a battle with cancer. Dr. Ligons son, Foster, is a rising junior at McCallie.

The Joe Restaino Scholarship honors the memory of 2008 graduate boarding student Joe Restaino, who was diagnosed with osteosarcoma while at McCallie. Despite his illness, Mr. Restaino graduated McCallie with high honors as a member of the Cum Laude Society and earned the Campbell Award. While attending the University of Pennsylvania, his cancer returned. He traveled and experienced life while undergoing treatment before passing away in January 2010.

Chris, a rising junior, will use the Ligon Fellowship funding to participate in a mission trip to Uganda under the direction of Lookout Mountain Presbyterian Church. While in Uganda, Chris and his fellow missionaries will work at local orphanages and schools on character and spiritual training, as well as with a hygiene program at local schools in that part of the world. Chris has worked to help pay for a portion of the trip not covered by the Ligon Fellowship, so those funds can be maximized for himself and others.

Victor  a senior from Guangzhou, China, near Hong Kong  will use money from the Restaino Scholarship to travel to the Maoxian region of China in the Sichuan Province more than 1,000 miles from his hometown. There, Victor and other high school students will work to help preserve the regional Qiang language and culture. The Qiang language has no writing system, so Victor and his group will make audio recordings of the most common words to preserve the language. They will also document local music and dance on audio and video to preserve the Qiang culture. Finally, Victor and his group will work to provide efficient cooking stoves to people in that region to reduce smoke and other pollution.
A hidden hoard of silver coins buried more than 2,000 years ago was recently discovered tucked inside a rock crevice, during an excavation in Modi'in, Israel, southeast of Tel Aviv.

The Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA) described the cache of 16 coins in a statement released yesterday (June 7), dating them to 126 B.C. The site where the coins were found is thought to be an ancient agricultural estate that belonged to a Jewish family.

Called shekels and half-shekels, the coins in the remarkable collection appeared to have been deliberately selected, with each of the nine consecutive years between 135 B.C. and 126 B.C. represented by one or two coins, Donald Tzvi Ariel, head of the Coin Department at the IAA, said in the statement. [Cache of Ancient Silver Coins Found in Israel (Photos)]

"It seems that some thought went into collecting the coins, and it is possible that the person who buried the cache was a coin collector," Ariel suggested. "He acted in just the same way as stamp and coin collectors manage collections today."

The 16 shekels and half-shekels were stamped with the images of King Antiochus VII and his brother Demetrius II, and were minted in the Phoenician port city of Tyre, according to Avraham Tendler, director of the excavation on behalf of the IAA.

However, Tendler proposed that the coins may have been hoarded and hidden purely for their face value, rather than their collectability.

"The cache that we found is compelling evidence that one of the members of the estate who had saved his income for months needed to leave the house for some unknown reason," Tendler said in the statement. "He buried his money in the hope of coming back and collecting it, but was apparently unfortunate and never returned." [Excavation Finds Silver Coins From Over 2000 Years Ago | Video]

Rebel, rebel

Other evidence found at the site hinted that the estate's inhabitants took part in the first Jewish rebellion against the Romans in A.D. 66, Tendler said. The coins that they found from this period were stamped with messages that showed support of the revolt: the slogan "Freedom of Zion" and "Year Two" to mark the rebellion's second year.

Tendler said that the archaeologists found that rooms close to the outer wall of the building had been fortified with stone blocks, and a network of secret refuges were dug into the bedrock under the estate house floors.

"These refuge complexes were connected by means of tunnels between water cisterns, storage pits and hidden rooms," Tendler said in the statement. "In one of the adjacent excavation areas a miqwe (a ritual bath; also spelled mikvah) of impressive beauty was exposed; when we excavated deeper in the bath we discovered an opening inside it that led to an extensive hiding refuge." Inside were artifacts dated to the later uprising, led by Simon bar Kokhba in A.D. 132.

"It seems that local residents did not give up hope of gaining their independence from Rome, and they were well-prepared to fight the enemy during the Bar Kokhba uprising," Tendler said.

Though the dig site is designated for the construction of a new residential neighborhood, an archeological park will house the remains of the ancient estate and its artifacts, the IAA said.

Original article on Live Science.
The newfound hobbit ancestors would have been even smaller than the hobbits (reconstruction by Atelier Elisabeth Daynes, shown here), which stood at about 3 feet (0.9 meters) tall.

Ancestors of the mysterious extinct human lineage nicknamed "hobbits" may have been discovered, a new study finds.

The newfound individuals may have been even littler than the hobbits, and date much further back in time (from some 700,000 years ago), scientists added. This suggests these ancestors may have shrunk rapidly after reaching the islands where the hobbits lived, the scientists said. Those islands include Flores, where the hobbit remains were originally found.

"These are priceless treasures that provide the first real insight into the evolutionary history of the mysterious 'hobbits' of Flores," said Adam Brumm, an archaeologist at Griffith University in Nathan, Australia, and co-lead author of one of two studies on the new finding published in the June 9 issue of the journal Nature.[See Images of Homo floresiensis, the Hobbit]

Finding hobbits

A reconstruction of Homo floresiensis by Atelier Elisabeth Daynes. (Image credit: Kinez Riza)

In 2003, scientists unearthed fossils in Liang Bua cave on the Indonesian island of Flores that belonged to an unknown hominin, a close relative of modern humans, that lived between 60,000 and 100,000 years ago. Scientists have suggested that this hominin was a unique branch of the human lineagenamed Homo floresiensis. Its diminutive 3-foot (1 meter) stature earned this hominin the nickname of the "hobbit," after the tiny folk in J.R.R. Tolkien's book of the same name.

Scientists have proposed that H. floresiensis evolved from a group of Homo erectus, an extinct human species that is the earliest undisputed ancestor of modern humans. Scientists also proposed that this population shrank in size either shortly before or after reaching Flores. Another possibility is that H. floresiensis evolved from even more primitive hominins with more ape-like skeletons and smaller brains, such as the extinct human species Homo habilis or even the prehuman Australopithecus species. Researchers have argued that if the hobbit did have such ancient origins, this would reveal that hominins left Africa much earlier than previously thought.

The new discovery  which includes seven fossils that date back a half-million years earlier than those of H. floresiensis  points to the H. erectus link, the researchers noted.

Before modern humans arrived

The new fossils were uncovered in 2014 at a site known as Mata Menge within the So'a Basin in central Flores, about 46 miles (74 kilometers) east-southeast of Liang Bua. The researchers have been conducting excavations in this region for more than 20 years. [See Images of the Mata Menge Excavation and Hobbit Ancestor]

An aerial view of the Mata Menge site on the island of Flores. (Image credit: Kinez Riza)

"The temperatures in the So'a Basin can be extremely hot and very humid," said Gerrit van den Bergh, a paleontologist and geologist at the University of Wollongong in Australia and co-lead author of both studies. "You take one step and you are soaked with sweat. To reach the site, it takes thousands of steps. Not much you can do about it, just bring enough water and try to slow down a bit compared to what you are used to."

The remains were unearthed from the bed of an ancient stream that was covered, sealed and preserved by an ancient volcanic mudflow. Analysis of the sandstone in which the specimens were found suggested that these hominins lived in hot, dry, savannah-like grasslands interspersed with wetlands.

A fragment of the lower jaw from an adult hobbit ancestor. (Image credit: Kinez Riza)

The fossils include an adult jaw fragment and six teeth from at least three individuals, including two tiny "milk teeth" from separate infants. The researchers found that these remains are at least 700,000 years old, dating to a time "when there were no modern humans on the planet," Yousuke Kaifu, a paleoanthropologist at Japan's National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo and co-lead author of one of the two studies, told Live Science. (Previous research has suggested that modern humans arose in Africa about 200,000 years ago.)

Island dwarfism

The researchers said the shape and age of the fossils suggest that these newfound hominins could be ancestors of H. floresiensis. "All the fossils are indisputably hominin, and they appear to be remarkably similar to those of Homo floresiensis," Kaifu said in a statement.

Intriguingly, the recently unearthed Mata Menge fossils are significantly smaller than the previously discovered Liang Bua remains. For instance, the Mata Menge jaw fragment, which came from the lower jaw of an adult, is 20 percent smaller than the smallest H. floresiensis lower jaw from Liang Bua.

"What is truly unexpected is that the size of the finds indicates that Homo floresiensis had already obtained its small size by at least 700,000 years ago," Kaifu said in the statement.

That these hobbits' ancestors were tiny suggests "the very small size that is characteristic of H. floresiensis may have evolved over a very short period of time," said Aida Gomez-Robles, a paleoanthropologist at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., who did not take part in this research.

Island life can radically change an organisms size. For instance, the dwarf dinosaur, Magyarosaurus dacus, which lived in what is now Transylvania, was about the size of a horse and weighed some 230 pounds (103 kg). (Image credit: Mihai Dumbrava, liliensternus.deviantart.com.)

Radical changes in size are common when animals are trapped on islands. For instance, the extinct dog-size giant rats of East Timor are an example of island gigantism, while dwarf mammoths and dwarf dinosaurs are cases of island dwarfism.

"To date, Flores is the only island in the world where we have fossil evidence for a human lineage evolving in isolation and adapting to an insular environment over a period of almost 1 million years," van den Bergh told Live Science. "That is the main reason why Homo floresiensis is so different from any other human lineage from Africa, Europe or mainland Asia."

Separate hobbit species

Some researchers have argued that the Liang Bua hominins were not a distinct human species, but were in fact modern humans with a birth disorder or a debilitating illness. However, "it now appears the hobbit lineage was established on this remote Indonesian island at least hundreds of millennia before the evolution of our species in Africa," Brumm told Live Science. [Image Gallery: 3-Year-Old Human Ancestor Revealed]

"The finding and description of H. florensiensis more than 10 years ago was very surprising because it is such an unusual hominin species, which made some people reluctant to accept its validity," Gomez-Robles said. "The importance of the findings described in these new papers is that they demonstrate that the origin of H. floresiensis is very old, which confirms that this is a totally valid species with old evolutionary roots."

Alongside the Mata Menge fossils, the scientists found stone tools that were markedly similar to artifacts found with the Liang Bua hobbits. The researchers also noted that previous research unearthed stone tools on Flores that were at least 1 million years old, suggesting that hobbits and their ancestors lived on the island for at least that long.

The researchers noted these fossils are less ape-like than Australopithecus and H. habilis, suggesting that H. floresiensis is a dwarfed descendent of H. erectus, van den Bergh said.

"The Mata Menge fossils are intermediate in shape between Homo erectus and Homo floresiensis from Liang Bua," van den Bergh said.

It remains uncertain whether the ancestors of hobbits evolved miniature body proportions before or after they landed on Flores.

Future research will seek to uncover more hominin fossils from Mata Menge and from older sites nearby in the So'a Basin, which are about 1 million years old, the researchers said. Such work could help solve the mystery of the lineage to which the Mata Menge fossils belongs.

"We want to see other skeletal parts to know more about these 700,000-years-old hobbit-like hominins," Kaifu told Live Science.

"We would also like to know more about how these creatures survived for almost a million years on a potentially dangerous island, where active volcanoes every now and then create catastrophic eruptions, van den Bergh said.

The researchers expect their chances of finding more bits from these hobbit ancestors are high, as the hominin fossils all came from the same layer of sandstone at Mata Menge. "This means that if we continue excavating this layer further, the likelihood of finding more human fossils is enormous," van den Bergh said.

Original article on Live Science.
This barbeled dragonfish is a small bioluminescent deep-sea fish with a long protrusion attached to its chin  a barbel  tipped with a light-producing organ called a photophore. It also has large photophores on its body for camouflage, and below its eyes for prey illumination and  potentially  communication.

In depths of the ocean where light can't penetrate, there are fish that generate their own eerie glow  shining spotlights on their prey, flashing warning signs to deter predators, or trading signals within their own species.

And since the first of these creatures lit up the seas about 150 million years ago, the ability to produce light  known as bioluminescence  evolved across fish species far more often than scientists suspected, according to a new study.

Researchers analyzed lineages of glowing fishes, tracing them back to their origins in the early Cretaceous period (145.5 million to 65.5 million years ago). They found that bioluminescence emerged 29 times in marine fish across 14 clades  groups that diverged from a single shared ancestor. [See Images of the Amazing Glowing Fish That Light Up Oceans]

And there are likely many more instances of evolving bioluminescence radiating throughout the entire tree of life, study co-author John Sparks told Live Science.

Sparks, a curator of ichthyology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, explained that before the study, bioluminescence was thought to have evolved just 40 times across all known species  so discovering 29 instances in fish alone is a very big deal.

"Bioluminescence is so bizarre, for it just to evolve once is amazing," Sparks said. "But to show that it's evolved all these times independently just among marine fishes is almost shocking."

A preserved specimen of a blue lanternfish (Tarletonbeania) with bioluminescent photophores along the sides of its body. (Image credit: Matt Davis)

Shining on

And fishes are known to use light in a variety of ways, according to study co-author Leo Smith, an assistant curator at the University of Kansas Biodiversity Institute.

Deep-sea hatchetfishes and dragonfishes use light-producing organs called photophores on their bellies for camouflage; the photophore patterns on their bellies mimic light streaming down from the surface and render the fishes effectively invisible to predators that might be looking up. These types of photophores typically appear earliest in a lineage, Sparks said.

Photophores along the sides of fishes' faces, such as dragonfish, are used to communicate within their own species, Sparks said, and tend to first appear further along the family tree, so more recently than other photophores.

Bioluminescence can also help fish catch their prey. Illuminated net devils have long, flexible appendages on their heads called barbels that are tipped with a photophore, which they use to lure smaller fish into their waiting jaws, Smith said.

For bioluminescent fish that communicate with light signals, the arrangement of their light organs varies from species to species  but what each species' signals might look like and what flashing patterns they might use are still unknown, Sparks said.

"We're currently developing camera technology that can capture those patterns in life," he told Live Science. "They need to be very fast to work in low light and see how those unique signals are firing. Cameras can't do that yet, but we're working on it."

The researchers also discovered that once bioluminescence appeared in a lineage, diversification along that lineage into more species soon followed. And groups that used bioluminescence to communicate were particularly diverse and species-rich.

If a lineage of fishes developed unique bioluminescent signals for mate recognition, that ability tended to accompany a radiation of unique species, "like colors and ornamentation in birds being tied to high diversity," Smith told Live Science in an email.

A midshipman fish (Porichthys) emits light from photophores on its belly. Its common name was inspired by the photophores' neat rows, which recall a naval uniform's buttons. (Image credit: Matt Davis)

A bright future

What's next? The team will investigate bioluminescence on a genetic level, according to Sparks, to understand how bioluminescent fish evolved to catalyze the chemical that gives them their glow.

"There's this whole system, and we don't know where it comes from," Sparks said. "There are still tons of questions  that's what makes this so interesting."

And the questions apply to more animals than just fishes, Smith added, as scientists begin to identify the number of times bioluminescence evolved independently across the animal kingdom.

"Once all the biodiversity scientists do this, we can begin to ask about the role of bioluminescence and explore the impact of its evolution on animals," Smith said.

The findings were published online today (June 8) in the journal PLOS ONE.

Original article on Live Science.
Female Firsts

(Image credit: Joseph Sohm | Shutterstock.com)

Hillary Clinton made history on June 7 when she became the first woman to claim the presidential nomination of a major political party in the U.S.

To note this historic achievement, Live Science has rounded up some of the famous "firsts" for women in science, technology and medicine.

Read on to learn about seven other history-making women.

Valentina Tereshkova

The first woman in space. (Image credit: Public domain)

Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space when she piloted the Soviet mission Vostok 6 on June 16, 1963.

Tereshkova's mission lasted three days, during which she performed various tests on herself to collect data on how the female body reacted to spaceflight.

Sally Ride, who flew on the Challenger space shuttle in 1983, was the first American woman in space.

Marie Curie

(Image credit: Public Domain)

Chemist and physicist Marie Curie claims several firsts: In 1903, Curie became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, which was awarded to her for her physics research on radiation. Curie shared the prize with her husband, Pierre Curie, and French physicist Henri Becquerel.

Then, in 1911, Curie won her second Nobel Prize  this time, for her work in chemistry. Curie had discovered two elements: radium and polonium.

Curie is the only woman to have ever won two Nobel Prizes, as well as the only person to have ever won the prize in two different fields. [Marie Curie: Facts & Biography]

Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell

(Image credit: Public domain)

Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman to earn an M.D. from a medical school in the United States.

Before Blackwell applied to medical school, several physicians told her that such an education was not available to women. She applied to over a dozen schools, and was accepted to Geneva Medical College in New York after the faculty voted on it. Blackwell graduated in 1849 and went on to practice obstetrics and gynecology.

Blackwell's younger sister, Emily, followed in her footsteps, earning her M.D. from Western Reserve University's medical school in Ohio in 1854.

Jacqueline Cochran

(Image credit: Public domain)

In 1953, Jacqueline Cochran became the first woman to break the sound barrier when she piloted an F-86 Sabre jet to speeds that exceeded Mach 1 (the speed of sound, which is 761.2 mph, or 1,225 km/h). Eleven years later, Cochran doubled her speed, flying a jet at Mach 2 in 1964.

Cochran learned to fly planes while she was working as a cosmetics saleswoman.

In addition to flying faster than the speed of sound, Cochran set a number of other records in her lifetime, including altitude and distance records. [Image Gallery: Breaking the Sound Barrier]

Ellen Swallow Richards

(Image credit: Library of Congress)

Ellen Swallow Richards was the first woman admitted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In 1870, when Richards was admitted, the school noted that "her admission did not establish a precedent for the general admission of females," according to MIT's library archives.

Richards studied chemistry and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1873.

Two years after graduating, Richards helped to establish a laboratory at the school dedicated to educating women in chemistry. The Women's Laboratory was opened in 1876, and Richards held the position of instructor in chemistry and mineralogy.

Dana Ulery

(Image credit: Dlu776 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0) )

Dana Ulery became the first female engineer at NASA when she started working at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, in 1961.

Ulery studied computer science, and worked to develop algorithms for NASA's Deep Space Network while at JPL. The Deep Space Network uses antennas around the world to communicate with spacecraft.

Later, she went on to work at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory, where she was one of the first female managers.

Amelia Earhart

Amelia Earhart was flying a Lockheed Electra airplane when she disappeared in 1937. (Image credit: Purdue University)

Amelia Earhart was the first woman, and second person overall, to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She took off on May 20, 1932, from Newfoundland and landed 15 hours later, in Ireland. (She originally planned to fly to Paris, but due to bad weather, she decided to cut the flight short.)

Earhart went on to set seven women's speed and distance aviation records.

Earhart disappeared in 1937 during an attempt to fly around the world. The unsolved mystery of her disappearance continues to intrigue people today.

Originally published on Live Science.
Fertility-focused apps and websites that aim to figure out which days a woman is most likely to conceive may not be very accurate, according to a new study.

Researchers analyzed more than 50 popular websites and smartphone apps that offer to predict a woman's "fertility window," or the days during a woman's menstrual cycle when she can become pregnant.

They found that the fertility windows predicted by the apps and websites varied widely, and that many of these windows included days after ovulation, when the chances that sexual intercourse will result in pregnancy are close to zero.

"Websites and electronic apps used by the general public to predict fertile windows are generally inaccurate," the researchers, from Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City, wrote in the July issue of the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology. "Because there is no rigorous screening process in effect to vet these websites and apps, we recommend caution in their use to assist with fertility," they said. [Conception Misconceptions: 7 Fertility Myths Debunked]

However, other experts not involved in the study said the fertility windows predicted by these websites and apps could still be helpful for couples trying to conceive.

The study included the top 20 fertility websites found using a Google search, and the 33 most popular fertility apps in the Google Play store and the Apple App Store. The researchers compared the fertility window predicted by each website and app with the "gold standard" method of predicting a fertility window, determined by research. The gold-standard method assumes that a woman's most fertile days include the day of ovulation (when the egg is released from the ovary), and the five days leading up to ovulation.

The researchers created a hypothetical case of a woman who had a 28-day menstrual cycle that started on the first day of the month. (The first day of the menstrual cycle is the first day of a woman's period.) In this case, the woman's date of ovulation would be the 15th of the month, and her actual window of fertility would be from the 10th of the month to the 15th.

The study found that most websites and apps (80 to 87 percent) correctly predicted the day of ovulation as the 15th. In addition, all of the websites and apps predicted at least some of the days that were within the true fertility window.

However, the predicted fertility windows varied widely  from four days to 12 days  and about 75 percent of the websites and apps included days after ovulation in the window.

Just one website and three apps precisely predicted the correct fertility window. (The study did not specify which site and apps these were.)

Granted, most websites and apps differed from the precise fertility window by just a few days. But suggesting a fertility window that is even a few days too early or too late "may lead to patients having intercourse in patterns that will not maximize their chances of conceiving," the researchers said.

Dr. Wendy Vitek, an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Rochester Medical Center who was not involved in the study, noted that the day a woman actually ovulates can vary from cycle to cycle. The apps might be taking this into account  Vitek noted that all of the websites and apps predicted a fertility window that started before the expected day of ovulation.

These windows "are acceptable given the variation in ovulation, so I think this information could help a couple be more informed about timing [of intercourse]," Vitek said.

The general recommendation for couples trying to become pregnant is to have intercourse every two to three days after the woman's period ends  "which should ensure that there is always sperm available [in the reproductive tract] and eliminates the chance of missing the fertile window," Vitek said.

For people who want to try a fertility tracking app, Vitek said that apps that encourage tracking and recording changes in cervical mucus, in addition to tracking cycles, "may be most helpful." (Changes in cervical mucus are a reliable marker of ovulation, she said.)

If a couple doesn't become pregnant after six to 12 months of trying, they should speak with their doctor for guidance, Vitek said.

It's not clear whether using these apps can actually affect couple's chances of conceiving, so more research is needed to determine this, the researchers said.

Original article on Live Science.
On Monday night, a contract was signed by the Whitfield County School System to allow Dalton State to build an observatory on property at Beaverdale Elementary. The observatory will be just off Ga. Highway 2, an ideal place because its away from much light pollution, said Dr. Randall Griffus, dean of the School of Science, Technology, and Mathematics.

The observatory will house a 24-inch, reflecting telescope, made possible by a $300,000 grant from the Mashburn Charitable Trust. It could constructed and in place by the end of the year, Dr. Griffus said.

Dr. Griffus and Dr. Samantha Blair, assistant professor of physics and astronomy, have looked at several different locations in Whitfield County for the observatory. Plans were to construct it in the Westside Community adjacent to the old Westside landfill but had to be discontinued due to problems with methane released as materials decompose, Dr. Griffus said.

The location at Beaverdale will allow astronomy students to take photographs and view objects in deep space, Dr. Griffus said. A local astronomy society has helped us measure light pollution and it is very low, meaning more visibility.

Images will be sent from the observatory back to campus for research, eliminating the need for students to actually visit the observatory. This will allow more opportunities for student research in the areas of other galaxies, nebulas, asteroids, supernovas, and possibly planets outside of this solar system, Blair said.

In recent months, Dalton State has received telescope donations to help expand the astronomy program. An 8-inch Celestron reflecting telescope was donated anomymously, and the Strain Family Charitable Foundation donated an 8-inch refracting telescope.

With the addition of the observatory and newly acquired telescopes, the astronomy classes at Dalton State will become lab sciences.
West Yorkshire angler Andy Burnett landed the top prize of 1,000 in the second annual Lough Ree International Coarse Angling Festival held over the bank holiday weekend.

Andy, who is a big fan of the hot water stretch in Lanesboro and netted a catch of 33kg of fish over the three days, heaped praise on the festival organisers.

A the presentation of prizes in the Yacht Bar, Lanesboro, on Monday evening, he said the Lough Ree Angling Hub committee had put Lanesboro firmly back on the worldwide fishing map.

Sponsored by Bord na Mona, the second annual festival, staged at sun-kissed venues along the Shannon at Lanesboro and Clonahee Lake, was officially opened on Saturday by Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment (with responsibility for Inland Fisheries) Mr Denis Naughten TD and the newly crowned Longford Rose of Tralee, Caroline Doyle.

Minister Naughten described the angling venues as stunning.

Chairman of the Lough Ree Angling Hub, Hugh Keane remarked, "We are delighted with the response from anglers all over the UK and Ireland. The anglers stayed here, dined here and celebrated in Lanesboro over the weekend. We are most certainly on the way back!"

Festival Director Philip Gordon said the event could not take place without the support of Inland Fisheries Ireland staff.

See Pages 64 & 66 for more photos from the festival.
Though it is just two years old, St Mels Brewing Company is making an impression all over Ireland, particularly in Kerry, where the brewery recently scooped a top prize at the Killarney Beerfest.

Having come second in the Dark Ale category at the annual Beer Awards last year with their Brown Ale, the local business was delighted to take home gold this year with their Springbock in the Lager category.

To get a gold medal already, in our first two years its amazing, said Brand Ambassador Eamonn Tynan.

Run by local men Liam Hanlon (a well known master brewer) and Eoin Tynan, the company has enjoyed great success since it was established in 2014.

One of its unique selling points, other than their popular craft beers, is that it remains at its heart a local business. Liam, Eoin and Eamonn all hail from the area and they also make use of local ingredients where possible, including elderflowers grown by David and Martina Burns.

Weve a great working relationship with the Burns, Eamonn explained, before adding that that positive relationship extended to other craft brewers in Ireland.

Theres fantastic co-operation between the craft brewers - theres no sense of competition between us, he explained. Theres a lot of camaraderie between the craft brewers and its great.

Thanking all their loyal customers and the Local Enterprise Office for their support, Eamonn added that the company are now operating at full capacity at their premises at the Longford Community Enterprise Centre on the Ballinalee Road, and as such are looking into their options for the future.

From developing recipes at Eamonns own small brew house, to gold-medal winners looking towards further expansion, its been a whirlwind two years, but things show no signs of slowing down with the St Mels Brewing Company continuing to grow to meet customers demands.

However, regardless of their success, their local roots will remain of utmost importance, as Eamonn laughed; Well sell it nationally and keep it local!

For more on St Mels Brewing Company, or to keep up to date with the latest products, like their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/stmelsbrewing, follow @StMelsBrewing on Twitter or visit the website: www.stmelsbrewing.com.
Capital Region: Troy Rehabilitation and Improvement Program

Finger Lakes: Greater Rochester Housing Partnership

Hudson Valley: RUPCO, PathStone and Rural Development Advisory Council

Long Island: Long Island Housing Partnership and CDC Long Island

New York City: Center for New York City Neighborhoods, NHS and Restored Homes HDFC

The NRP builds on the success of the Governors program announced last year designating industry best practices for banks and mortgage companies with a portfolio of abandoned properties. Under the terms of the program, abandoned and vacant properties are also being reported by banks and mortgage companies for inclusion in a state registry under the New York State Department of Financial Services. The New York State Department of Financial Services can then work with local officials to track and address these issues with the bank or mortgage company servicing the loan.



Grants to Support Existing Vulnerable Homeowners Repair, Improve and Remain in Their Homes:

Governor Cuomo also announced $27 million in available state and federal funding to provide resources to repair and improve homes belonging to the elderly, Veterans, Medicaid recipients, people with disabilities, and low-income families and individuals. The funds are provided through a variety of programs administered by New York State Home and Community Renewal.



Grant awards per program are as follows:

$15 million in NYS Community Development Block Grant funding for housing rehabilitation, homeownership, manufactured housing replacement, well and septic replacement, and lateral connection assistance for low- and middle-income income individuals and families.

$6 million in Access to Home for Veterans funding for permanent accessibility modifications to existing owner-occupied or rental dwelling units occupied by low-income veterans with disabilities.

$1 million in Access to Home Program grant funding for permanent accessibility modifications to existing owner-occupied or rental dwelling units occupied by low-income persons with disabilities.

$1 million in Access to Home for Medicaid Recipients Program funding for permanent accessibility modifications to existing owner-occupied or rental dwelling units occupied by persons with disabilities that also receive Medicaid assistance.

$3.9 million in RESTORE Program grant funds to cover the cost of emergency repairs in homes owned by low- income elderly persons.

Grant applications to assist existing homeowners will be available starting on June 27th. For more information and to apply, please visit here



Congressman Charles B. Rangel said: I applaud the announcement today of new funds to address the continuing blight of abandoned properties in our neighborhoods. Increasing the supply of quality affordable housing remains our top priority. I thank Governor Cuomo for his partnership in this initiative, which will also assist local families with needed home repairs and renovations and improve our local economy.

Congresswoman Louise Slaughter said: Zombie homes often become a blight on our neighborhoods and a major health and safety concern. Thats why Ive been working to protect Rochester communities and reverse the national epidemic of abandoned homes. Im pleased that this funding will help renovate vacant and abandoned properties and help more homeowners stay in their homes.

Congressman Eliot Engel, Senior Member of the House of Energy and Commerce Committee said: "Zombie properties have become a significant issue in areas of my district. These often unkempt plots of land devalue the homes surrounding them and can stifle community development. I applaud Governor Cuomo for making a significant financial commitment to tackle this issue head on, and I look forward to seeing these dollars at work in our neighborhoods.

Congresswoman Nita M. Lowey said: Affordable homeownership is a key part of the American dream. Thats why federal investments that make programs like the NYS Homes and Community Renewals Neighborhood Revitalization Program, which Ive worked to provide through the Congressional spending bills, are essential. So called zombie properties are a blight on our communities, and these investments will help homeowners repair and renovate so that they can stay in their homes.

Congressman Paul Tonko said: "Too many people are still in great need of affordable housing throughout the Capital Region, and neighbor management must be approached in a more innovative fashion. Thankfully, the NRP is building on the progress weve made so far. Young, first-time homebuyers will also have a greater reason to reinvest in our communities by purchasing and revitalizing distressed properties. I am pleased the Governor has made this announcement, and I look forward to working with his office on a federal level to ensure communities throughout New York continue to receive this important funding."

Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney said: My neighbors in Middletown, and throughout the Hudson Valley, struggle to bear the burden of abandoned zombie homes which are often unsafe and are a drain on our local economies. Working together with Governor Cuomo we can help hard-working New Yorkers buy their own homes while cleaning-up abandoned and dangerous properties and spurring local development.

Congressman Lee Zeldin said: It's important that we act to help struggling families, especially those on Long Island where the cost of living is so high. The expansion of funding to repair zombie properties and increase affordable housing on Long Island is a critical initiative. I am proud to support efforts that provide families with access to safe and affordable housing.

Congressman Dan Donovan said: As Staten Island and South Brooklyn continue their recovery, we must have an eye toward the long-term growth and sustainability of these neighborhoods. Abandoned properties are an inconvenience to neighbors, but also an obstacle to reviving the communities that Sandy devastated. The problem must be addressed, and I thank Governor Cuomo for making this issue a priority.



Senate Democratic Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said: Preserving and strengthening neighborhoods throughout New York State is a longstanding priority that Governor Cuomo and I share. The Neighborhood Revitalization Program is another way for New Yorkers to achieve the American Dream of home ownership. Communities are reinvigorated by homes that again are occupied and the additional tax revenues help ease the burden on struggling local governments. This is an excellent program on many levels.



Senate Housing, Construction and Community Development Committee Chair Betty Little said: Home ownership remains a dream for many. For others, who already own a home but live on a limited income, keeping it habitable is a constant source of financial and mental stress. Thats why I am pleased my legislative colleagues and I could collaborate with Governor Cuomo to respond on two fronts. First, and most visibly, by taking on the scourge of zombie properties in the communities where they are prevalent and creating homeownership opportunity in place of blight. Second, and equally important, making available millions in funds to help current homeowners repair, improve and stay in their homes. The peace of mind that these grants will provide is invaluable.



Homes and Community Renewal Commissioner James S. Rubin said: Governor Cuomos goal is to see that people have the opportunity to buy and own a home in the neighborhood of their choice that they can afford over the long-term. We all are deeply aware of the distress, both physical and from a human perspective that these Zombie properties confer on these communities. Thats why this Administration has created the Neighborhood Revitalization Program to reinvest directly in these hundreds of buildings in the neighborhoods across the state that have been hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis. Through NRP, we are working closely with nonprofits and municipalities to provide renovation and mortgage financing for qualified prospective homebuyers who will help restore these homes and make them their own. Thanks to Governor Cuomo, we are rebuilding communities and putting a stop to encroaching blight.



Maria T. Vullo, Financial Services Acting Superintendent said: Governor Cuomo and HCR are taking necessary action to provide New Yorkers a helping hand to transform zombie properties into affordable homes and breathe new life into communities across the Empire State. This action successfully builds upon the best practices that DFS developed in coordination with the majority of banks and mortgage companies doing business in New York to ensure that vacant and abandoned properties are safe and properly maintained.



This new round of resources builds on the $59 million that municipalities and not-for-profit organizations are currently eligible for to construct, rehabilitate and improve owner-occupied homes. Applications are due July 8th. More information can be found here.



The NPR and new grants are part of Governor Cuomos unprecedented commitment to affordable housing and community renewal, which includes $20 billion in the 2016-17 state budget for comprehensive statewide housing and homelessness action plans. Over the next five years, the $10 billion housing initiative will create and preserve 100,000 affordable housing units across the State, and the $10 billion homelessness action plan will create 6,000 new supportive housing beds, 1,000 emergency beds, and a variety of expanded homelessness services.



For more details about the Neighborhood Revitalization Program, please visit: www.sonyma.org or call 1-800-382-4663.
The City Council on Tuesday night approved an eight-story multi-use development at the southwest corner of Third Street and Central Avenue despite opposition from the nearby Lincoln Park historic black neighborhood.

Tiffany Rankins said Lincoln Park residents are concerned that with the new development and others that may come that residents "will be priced out of their homes."

She said Lincoln Park had already lost "our Olympic-sized swimming pool and ball fields where Jackie Robinson played."

Ms. Rankins said, "I am worried that the historical significance of the neighborhood is being ignored."

She said the project would "set a precedent for further development."

Ms. Rankins said Lincoln Park residents need some help in the form of housing vouchers or a tax freeze. Another idea was setting up an historical overlay.



Travis Fuller of Belle Investment said a meeting had been held with Lincoln Park residents and it was agreed to erect a marker denoting its history.

Ken Defoor, property owner, said the development would benefit the neighborhood. He said it would improve the safety of the area and "remove homeless people" from the site.

Mr. Defoor said he understands the Lincoln Park loyalties, noting that he had tried to buy the whole neighborhood a few years ago "and I could not get a person to consider a contract."

Councilman Yusuf Hakeem said Lincoln Park "is of great value to our community, but I think the good outweighs the bad on this project."

Chairman Moses Freeman said he grew up playing ball, visiting the zoo, and going on picnics at Lincoln Park. It said, "It is very troubling to me to see this neighborhood threatened as it has been."

He said the city has been seeking to buy the remainder of the park property and has a handshake agreement.

On the rest of the neighborhood, he said one liability is that 60 percent of the residents are renters and not home owners.


Local News, Press Releases

By Long Island News & PR Published: June 08 2016

Lt. Ned Davis, a native of Long Island, New York, conducts preflight checks of an MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopter assigned to the Blackjacks of Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 21.

Long Island, NY - June 7, 2016 - Lt. Ned Davis, a native of Long Island, New York, conducts preflight checks of an MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopter assigned to the Blackjacks of Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 21 during an alert 60 medical evacuation drill on the flight deck of hospital ship USNS Mercy (T-AH 19). During and alert 60 medical evacuation drill, essential flight deck personnel have 60 minutes to have the aircraft ready to launch. Deployed in support of Pacific Partnership 2016, Mercy is scheduled to visit Timor Leste, the Republic of the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia. Medical, engineering and various other personnel embarked aboard Mercy will work side-by-side with partner nation counterparts, exchanging ideas, building best practices and relationships to ensure preparedness should disaster strike.

"Why Being There Matters"

On our planet, more than 70 percent of which is covered by water, being there means having the ability to act from the sea. The Navy is uniquely positioned to be there; the world's oceans give the Navy the power to protect America's interests anywhere, and at any time. Your Navy protects and defends America on the world's oceans. Navy ships, submarines, aircraft and, most importantly, tens of thousands of America's finest young men and women are deployed around the world doing just that. They are there now. They will be there when we are sleeping tonight. They will be there every Saturday, Sunday and holiday this year. They are there around the clock, far from our shores, defending America at all times.
Local News, Crime, Press Releases

By Long Island News & PR Published: June 08 2016

Suffolk County Police Homicide Squad detectives have arrested a woman after she stabbed a man to death in Coram last night.

Ada Robinson, 60, has been arrested and charged with Manslaughter for the stabbing death of 55-year-old Ralph Anthony in Coram.

Coram, NY - June 8, 2016 - Suffolk County Police Homicide Squad detectives have arrested a woman after she stabbed a man to death in Coram last night.

Sixth Precinct patrol officers responded to a 911 call at 346 Middle Country Road, Coram last night at 7:28 p.m. Upon arrival, officers discovered Ralph Anthony, 55, had been stabbed. Anthony, who was undomiciled, was transported via Coram Fire Department Ambulance to Brookhaven Memorial Hospital Medical Center in East Patchogue where he was pronounced dead from his injuries.

Ada Robinson, 60, who is undomiciled, was arrested at the scene and has been charged with Manslaughter 1st Degree. She will be held at the Fourth Precinct and is scheduled to be arraigned today at First District Court in Central Islip.

The investigation is continuing. Detectives are asking anyone with information about this incident to contact the Homicide Squad at 631-852-6392. All calls will be kept confidential.
Looking to stay up to date about all of the news stories and local headlines that are important to Long Islanders? We've rounded up the top coverage for all of the important topics from multiple sources around Long Island, so you can be sure you've got the most recent update on the top stories for Long Island. Have an idea for a news story? Email us at news@longisland.com

Columnists Press Releases
Senator Bob Corker on Tuesday released the following statement after top United Nations (U.N.) whistleblower Anders Kompass resigned in protest over the U.N.s failure to hold senior officials accountable for allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) by peacekeeping forces and efforts to silence those who revealed them.

This resignation appears to be a damning indictment of the leadership at the United Nations that has failed to end the horrific sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeepers and protect those who report wrongdoing, Senator Corker said. The so-called 'zero-tolerance' policy has provided cover for a culture of impunity where allegations are swept under the rug and whistleblowers are intimidated to stop them from revealing the truth. The U.S. must use its influence as the largest contributor to peacekeeping to restore accountability and oversight of missions that are supposed to be about protecting vulnerable populations and restoring stability during conflict.

Mr. Kompasss former deputy, Miranda Brown, testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at a hearing on April 13, in which Senator Corker expressed disgust over continued reports of SEA and the failure of the U.N. to provide accountability.

If I heard right now that a U.N. peacekeeping mission was going to North Chattanooga today, which is where my wife is, I would be on the first plane out of here to go home and protect her, Senator Corker said at the April 13 hearing. I am disgusted by the actions of U.N. peacekeepers that American taxpayers are paying for, and I hope that somehow well figure out a way to reel this in.

At an earlier hearing on Dec. 9, 2015, Senator Corker questioned U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power about the U.N. strategy to effectively address and prevent SEA. The 2017 State Department authorization bill passed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in April included provisions to encourage U.S. leadership at the U.N. to end SEA and protect whistleblowers.
Zuppa Di Mare brimming over with an assortment of shell fish, scallops, shrimp in a tomato broth - photo by Charles Siskin

I rarely go up to Atlanta anymore. There is really no need to as most of Atlanta comes to the beach. Thats true for Chattanoogans as well. However Ive made the trek twice recently. Once at the invitation of my two youngest granddaughters who requested my presence while their parents were out-of-the-country and several weekends ago when my oldest granddaughter graduated from high school.week

Its nice to be wanted by your grandchildren more so when they are suddenly teenagers. Well the 11 year old thinks she is a teenager and it is definitely not my place to tell her otherwise.



I should note that while I couldnt be present for all three graduations, (one from grammar school and another from middle school all in the same week as the high school event) we did have a family celebration at an exceptional restaurant just across from the Infinite Energy Center in Gwinnett where the high school graduation took place.

My youngest daughter made a reservation at a restaurant called, Lucianos. Really? an Italian restaurant in the hinterlands of Atlanta where I thought it was Olive Gardenland. However, much to my surprise and delight, I might add, we had a veritable feast.



To begin with the restaurant itself was totally first class with a professional staff of young people (arent they all young at my age?) that saw to it that we were pampered as were the many other diners who were celebrating family occasions as well.



We opted to not have wine or even beer at this celebration so we toasted with, in my case, water with the perquisite lemon. Does that yell palate cleanser or scream boring? Wrong it says, Designated Driver!



Baskets of warm bread were brought out and we did not get little saucers of olive oil. Instead we received an outstanding sundried tomato dip. Never thought of that but it was quite tasty and Mary, my drama queen grandchild (wonder whose genes she inherited?) and I shared the bread. I ate the crust and she ate the middle. Thats what I call grandparenting!

Trying to order lighter fare my son-in-law ordered a Cobb Salad. It arrived looking like a buffet platter for two easily. The salad was artfully presented with mucho slices of grilled chicken breasts overlapped as was the slices of egg and avocados. There was thinly sliced prosciutto and slices of pancetta(so much pork it screamed Oink!) plus sliced tomatoes and nestled somewhere at the bottom of the bowl was a bed of crisp romaine. Thankfully the blue cheese dressing had the decency to come in a separate bowl most likely too embarrassed to appear otherwise. Well wouldnt you be?

My wife had the Zuppa Di Mare that included the catch of the day which were thick chunks of what I decided was Mahi Mahi plus mussels, clams, calamari, shrimp, scallops (the usual Zuppa suspects) all in a very tasty tomato broth. In San Francisco where I have had this soup on many occasions at my favorite seafood restaurant, Tadich in the financial district, they call it Cioppini.



One of my daughters and I opted to order two kinds of pizza, Salsiccia with a tomato sauce base, onions, Italian sausage and gorgonzola and a vegetarian with Mozzarella,spinach, mushrooms, peppers and sundried tomatoes. Their pizzas come on flat bread which is another variation of thin crust pizza.



What I didnt have that is an excuse to drive back up next time I visit with my older daughter, who only lives a few miles away, is the Potato Chips fried to order, tossed with truffle oil and parmigiano reggiano with a garlic aioli for dipping. That sounds like something swoonable that will take my cholesterol level to new heights.



Prior to that on my Best by Request visit with the grandchildren, I convinced my long time Chattanooga friends, John and his awesome wife of half a century, Lee, to come to Atlanta and have a reunion since it had been some time since we had visited and also to have lunch with me while I had a window of opportunity. We met at the Shops of Buckhead, the Atlanta version of Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills.



Since Lee had taught French and spoke it fluently, I chose, at my daughters suggestion, Le Bilboquet which is totally French right down to the Zinc Bar at the front of the restaurant. Because it was still chilly in late March, we decided to sit inside although outside would be perfect on a warmer day but not those sweltering Atlanta summer day.



I would not hesitate to say that for me Le Bilboquet is a Special Occasion restaurant even for lunch. While the food was well presented and tasty, my portion of calamari salad was small and my $17 glass of white wine- if thats not reminiscent of Paris- was not extraordinary. (West of there at Trader Joes I can get 2 decent bottles of white wine plus change for that price).



John had the Croque Madame which is your basic ham and Swiss but as opposed to the better known Croque Monsieur this sucker has a fried egg on top.



I will go back to the shopping center again of course but this time Ill hit the Shake Shack the New York import that is known for its burgers and milkshakes. Also for the shopping experience with famous name stores like Hermes but many of which I have never heard of, however I know my bride is familiar.



Okay I did buy some hot looking glass frames at Warby-Parker the well known on-line eye wear company that has opened what might be one of their first retail stores. Now that was a super shopping experience for me and their frames are really cool. That is what my middle granddaughter said and if anyone knows cool its that 14-year old.



As for me I know that Atlanta is always evolving so each trip always brings new experiences plus an opportunity to visit with the family when they are not coming down to the Gulf which continues itself to evolve as well along my stretch of beach highway.



ZUPPA DI MARE aka CIOPPINI



What you will need for the tomato base:



1 can of a good brand of crushed tomatoes

2 cloves fresh garlic crushed

Olive oil

Salt and Pepper to taste

A serious pinch of crushed red pepper flakes (none if you dont want it spicy instead offer it at the table)

 to a whole cup of white wine or honestly I like a dry red and serve either with the meal

Seafood Options:



Shrimp peeled and deveined

Scallops, mussels and calamari rings (currently none available at Whole Foods)

A thick fish like mahi mahi or a lighter fish if you must

If you want to impress a small lobster tail would be a serious WOW factor

Prep:



Sautee the garlic in olive oil till it turns golden then put in your tomatoes and let the mix simmer for up to 10 minutes

Add you wine at that point and let the mixture reduce a bit but remain soupy

Add your seafood starting with the thickest then next add the shell fish and finish up with shrimp, scallops and calamari

Careful not to overcook any of the last three items as rubbery is not good!

Cook the lobster separate if you choose to add

To Serve:



Get out your best tureen and ladle the Zuppa into it and garnish with chopped parsley for added color and serve with thick slices of French of Sourdough bread to dip in the sauce

A toast:



Raise that glass of wine and say, per la buona salute (to your good health)

Then like all good hosts finish with mangiare (eat!)

Ciao
Robert Perry, 53, of Hamilton County, died on Tuesday at Lake Junior, a small impoundment near Chickamauga Dam. Mr. Perry and a friend had set out kayaking shortly after 5 p.m. The two left the shore, paddling in different directions, but when the friend looked back, he found Mr. Perrys kayak turned and no sign of him. The friend searched the area and quickly called 911.

Chattanooga firefighters and police were the first to arrive on the scene. Officers with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) and Tennessee Valley Authority arrived a short time later. Battalion Chief Rick Boatwright called for water rescue assistance, bringing in the Hamilton County Special Tactics and Rescue Service (STARS) and Hamilton County Sheriff's Department (HCSO). Perrys body was recovered around 8 p.m. in six and a half feet of water near the location of the kayak. Mr. Perry, pronounced dead at the scene, was not wearing a personal floatation device. Family members were notified and Mr. Perrys body was transported by Hamilton County EMS to the Hamilton County Medical Examiners Office, where the cause of death will be confirmed.
Iraqi Shiite militia commander and strongman Abu Azrael, or father of the Angel of Death, taped a message from Fallujah addressed to both the enemies and friends of Iran. The clip was posted by an Iranian hardline and pro-Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) media outlet on June 4.

His bandana bears the inscription, 313 Ansar al Hojja. Ansar al Hojja is a group formed by Iraqi Shiites in June 2014 following the Islamic States takeover of nearly one third of Iraq. The number 313 alludes to Shiite traditions that when the Mahdi first arrives, he will only have 313 supporters. An IRGC fighter embedded with Iraqi forces near Fallujah also donned the same bandana.

Beaming with smile, Abu Azrael addresses the camera:

Lets piss these losers off a little bit [lit. press the tired ones a little bit] Iran, Iran. By God, youve killed us with [talking about] Iran. Now, if the vehicles didnt come from Iran, youd sit down. May God recompense them.

Lets press them a little bit[Switches to Farsi] I am the killer of DAISH [pejorative for the Islamic State] for the Imam of the Age Mahdi (blessings upon him).

May God Bless Mohammad and the Family of Mohammad, and hasten their deliverance and curse their enemies.

Build up the honor of Fatima al-Zahra and bless Muhammad and the Family of Mohammad.

May God Bless Mohammad and the Family of Mohammad, and hasten their deliverance and curse their enemies.

O Lord, hasten deliverance to your vicar and make us his champions, his army and his aids, by Mohammad and the Family of Mohammad.

Bless Mohammad and the Family of Mohammad.

May God Bless Mohammad and the Family of Mohammad, and hasten their deliverance and curse their enemies.

My salutations. Keep on talking, as you wish.

Abu Azrael is a commander in the Iranian-backed Imam Ali Brigade, which is part of the Popular Mobilization Forces. Also known as Rambo, the black-bearded, sword-wielding fighter became a celebrity after the incursion of Islamic State. Some have described him as the embodiment of the retribution many Iraqis want against brutal jihadists who seized swathes of their country. According to Agence Press France, part of Abu Azraels celebrity appeal is his weapons: photos of him resting an axe on his shoulder or holding a sword are widely shared on social media. He gained notoriety after footage of him hacking the burned body of an Islamic State fighter went viral last year.

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While other Al Qaedas branches around the world receive the most attention, like in Syria or Yemen, the global jihadist group has been continuously active throughout West Africa as well. Since the beginning of the year, at least 101 attacks throughout the region have been attributed to al Qaeda, according to data compiled by The Long War Journal.

Most of these attacks have occurred in Mali, where al Qaeda has waged a low-level insurgency since 2013 after a French intervention began to oust the jihadists from the north. Of the assaults in Mali, the overwhelming majority have occurred in the north, with at least 36 occurring in the Kidal Region. Ansar Dine, a Tuareg front for al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), is the main jihadist force operating in Kidal. In its most recent attack, Ansar Dine claimed credit IED and mortar attacks on French forces near Abeibara last week.

Most attacks in Mali continue come in the form of IEDs or landmines, with the majority of those occurring in Kidal.

In other regions of northern Mali, both AQIM and AQIMs Katibat al Murabitoon, led by Mokhtar Belmokhtar, have claimed several strikes in Gao and Timbuktu Regions. In Gao, at least 19 attacks have occurred with another 18 in Timbuktu. Al Murabitoons most recent was a coordinated suicide assault on the UNs base in Gao. The assault began with a suicide bombing by a local Malian fighter, while three others, identified by AQIM as two locals and one foreigner, then breached the perimeter killing three people. A Chinese peacekeeper was also killed in the initial suicide bombing.

AQIMs Sahara Emirate is the main jihadist group that operates in the Timbuktu region. Since February, at least three ambushes have occurred between Timbuktu and Goundam. Two targeted Malian troops, which left at least four dead. The third targeted an Orange mobile network truck and left the civilian driver dead. Further south in the region, a suspected AQIM IED blast left two soldiers, including a Malian colonel, dead near Gossi. AQIM was also responsible for an attack near the Mauritanian border, leaving three soldiers dead in late February.

The southern half of Mali, which is generally considered to be the safer part of the country, has also seen its fair share of jihadist assaults so far this year. At least 19 have occurred in the southern half with most being concentrated in the Mopti and Segou Regions, however the capital of Bamako and the Sikasso Region have each seen one attack. In March, several AQIM gunmen attempted unsuccessfully to storm the hotel Nord Sud in Bamako, the headquarters of the European Union training mission in Mali.

Ansar Dines southern branch, Katibat Macina  which is a largely ethnic Fulani group  is the force behind most strikes in southern Mali. Ansar Dine has claimed several attacks near the Mauritanian border since January. Additionally, the group claimed an assault on a police station in the southern town of Ke Macina in March. Last month, the katibat released its first video in which it highlighted one of its most major incursions since its inception last year. The low quality video shows the Macina fighters celebrating after last Junes attack in the southern city of Nara near the Mauritanian border. [See LWJ report, Ansar Dines branch in southern Mali releases first video.]

Outside of Mali, five assaults have been perpetrated in Burkina Faso to the south. This includes the Splendid Hotel raid in Burkina Fasos capital of Ouagadougou in January. AQIMs Al Murabitoon claimed the assault that killed nearly 30 people before a joint Burkinabe-French special forces raid ended the siege. Almost simultaneously, AQIM kidnapped an Australian couple near the Burkinabe town of Baraboule and targeted a police station near Tin Akoff. The jihadist group would later release the woman hostage. Three Burkinabe policemen were killed in an assault on a police station near Oudalan on May 31.

In Niger, a police station and a gendarmerie post have been targeted since March. Three gendarmes were killed on March 17 near Dolbel, while a policeman was killed near Tahoua. On May 20, AQIM claimed firing Grad rockets on a French-owned mine near Arlit. However, Nigerien authorities have disputed this claim. Arlit was previously hit by a suicide assault in 2013 by Mokhtar Belmokhtars Al Muaqioon Biddam, or the Those Who Sign in Blood Brigade, a precursor to Al Murabitoon.

One raid has occurred in the Ivory Coast. In March, Al Murabitoon targeted a popular beach resort in the southern Ivory Coast town of Grand Bassam, killing at least 14 civilians and two soldiers according to local media.

Despite a French-led counterterrorism mission and a United Nations peacekeeping force, Al Qaeda still retains the ability to operate openly in Mali. And unlike previous years, Al Qaeda has been able to strike throughout West Africa. The frequent attacks are expected to continue. Since the UN mandate began in 2013, at least 80 peacekeepers and six other employees have been killed in Mali, making it the deadliest UN peacekeeping force in the world.

With over 100 attacks recorded halfway through the year, Al Qaedas operational capacity in Mali and the wider West African region appears to have remained intact and is expanding. The rate in which these assaults have occurred is also unlikely to slow down, which may make 2016 one of the deadliest years for Mali since 2012.

Caleb Weiss is a research analyst at FDD's Long War Journal and a senior analyst at the Bridgeway Foundation, where he focuses on the spread of the Islamic State in Central Africa.

Are you a dedicated reader of FDD's Long War Journal? Has our research benefitted you or your team over the years? Support our independent reporting and analysis today by considering a one-time or monthly donation. Thanks for reading! You can make a tax-deductible donation here.
The Islamic State claims to have executed 489 martyrdom operations in Iraq, Syria and Libya during the first five months of 2016. The figure comes from monthly data published by Amaq News Agency, a propaganda arm of the so-called caliphate that releases infographics summarizing the groups suicide attacks.

Amaqs most recent infographic (seen on the right) indicates that the jihadists executed 119 martyrdom operations in the month of May alone. If Amaqs figures are accurate, then the Islamic State is launching suicide attacks at a historically high rate.

Earlier this month, for example, the State Department reported that there were 726 suicide attacks executed by all perpetrators around the globe in 2015. Therefore, all terrorist groups, including the Islamic State, carried out an average of 61 suicide bombings per month in 2015. The Islamic State nearly doubled that rate in May and has exceeded it by more than 20 attacks each month this year, according to Amaqs infographics.

The data referenced by Foggy Bottom are compiled by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), which maintains an unclassified event database compiled from information in open-source reports of terrorist attacks.

According to STARTs data, 2015 witnessed a record number of suicide bombings. But 2016 is currently on pace to eclipse that high-water mark.

While Amaqs claims are difficult to independently verify, the statistics are reasonable given the scale of the Islamic States fighting. Abu Bakr al Baghdadis men routinely claim credit for simultaneous suicide bombings. The organization is taking on multiple adversaries in every country where it operates, making the use of suicide bombings (one of the jihadists most effective tactics) an especially important tool. For instance, the State Department noted that [o]n average, suicide attacks in 2015 were 4.6 times as lethal as non-suicide attacks.

A recent video from Al Hayat, another one of the Islamic States mouthpieces, trumpeted this caliphate vs. the world mentality. In The Religion of Kufr Is One, Al Hayat made it clear that Baghdadis enterprise is at war with virtually everyone else. The subtitle of the video, The Islamic State and its methodology dealing with all apostate parties and nations of disbelief, underscored the degree to which this is the groups deliberate strategy.

The Islamic States prolific use of martyrs probably highlights both its strength and weakness. On the one hand, there are likely more people, predominately young men, willing to die for the jihadists cause today than ever. (It should also be noted that adolescents and even children have been used in suicide attacks.) On the other hand, most of the organizations suicide attackers are being dispatched in areas where the caliphate is being challenged, including locations that were once under its control.

The Long War Journal assesses that Islamic State is being forced to deploy many of its martyrs because its territorial claims are being rolled back in Iraq, Syria and even Libya.

The Long War Journal has tallied the figures provided on Amaqs infographics from January through May of 2016. The English-language versions of these infographics can be seen below.

The following observations have been culled from Amaqs statistics.

Most of the Islamic States martyrdom operations, 303 of the 489 claimed (62 percent), have been carried out inside Iraq. Approximately half of these (152 of 303) have been launched in Anbar province, where the jihadists are engaged in fierce battles with Iraqi government forces and Iranian-backed Shiite militias for months. Salahuddin (52 suicide attacks), Nineveh (40), Baghdad (32), and Kirkuk (17) are the next most frequently targeted areas.

The Islamic State launched 175 suicide attacks in Syria (36 percent of the total) during the first five months of the year. Aleppo province (59) was hit most frequently, followed by Hasakah (33), Deir Ezzor (25), Homs (20) and Raqqa (14) provinces. Raqqa is, of course, the de facto capital of the Islamic State. Amaqs data indicate that 12 of the 14 suicide attacks there this year were carried out in February.

The remaining 11 martyrdom operations took place in Libya. Interestingly, Amaq claimed only one suicide attack in Libya from January through April. But the infographic for May shows 10 such bombings. Nine of the 10 have been executed in and around Sirte, the groups central base of operations in Libya. The Islamic States presence in Sirte has been under assault from multiple directions for weeks, with the jihadists losing their grip on some of the neighboring towns and key facilities. Thus, the group is likely attempting to stymie its rivals advances with the deployment of its suicide bombers.

Iraqi forces are the most frequent target of the Islamic States martyrdom operations, as they were hit 279 times from January through May. Bashar al Assads regime is the second most frequent target, with the Islamic States suicide bombers striking the Syrian governments forces on 89 occasions. The remaining bombings struck Kurdish units (54), the Syrian opposition (31 times), the Peshmerga (25), Fajr Libya (10) and General Khalifa Haftars fighters in Libya (1).

Vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (VBIEDs) are used more often than individual bombers strapped with explosives, according to Amaq. The infographics count 301 VBIEDs used in suicide attacks (62 percent of the total) as compared to 184 bombings using explosive belts, jackets and vests. The remaining four are listed as dual operations.

Assuming Amaqs data are accurate, then the Islamic States martyrdom machine is setting a record pace for suicide operations.

For illustrative purposes, The Long War Journal has compared Amaqs claims to data reported in the State Departments annual Country Reports on Terrorism from 2005 through 2015. The data for 2005 through 2011 come from the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), while the data from 2012 through 2015 were accumulated by START. The methodology for tracking terrorist attacks has evolved over time and this brief summary does not account for those changes.

As seen in the chart above, the data compiled by NCTC and START indicate that all terrorist organizations around the globe  including the Islamic State, al Qaeda and its regional branches, the Taliban, the Islamic State in West Africa (formerly known as Boko Haram), as well as other jihadi and non-jihadi terrorists  carried out an average of approximately 61 suicide attacks per month in 2015. In no prior year did this figure ever exceed 50. From 2009 through 2012, there were less than 30 suicide attacks per month globally.

The Islamic State claims that its fighters have executed nearly 98 martyrdom operations per month thus far in 2016. That is 37 more suicide attacks per month than all terrorist organizations combined in 2015.

It is worth mentioning again that there were more suicide bombings in 2015, 726 in all, than any previous year, according to NCTCs and STARTs statistics. Before that, 2014 witnessed an all-time high of 575 suicide bombings. Therefore, the trend line has been increasing in recent years. At its current pace (it is far from certain that the Islamic State can maintain it), the Islamic State would execute more than 1,100 suicide attacks this year just in Iraq, Syria and Libya. Amaqs figures do not include suicide attacks carried out elsewhere.

To add more perspective to the Islamic States current martyrdom operations, consider data published by the Washington Post in 2008. According to the Post, there were just 54 suicide attacks in all of 2001, when al Qaedas martyrs launched the most devastating terrorist hijackings in history. Although the overwhelming majority of the Islamic States suicide assaults are launched primarily in war zones in the Middle East, with comparatively few in the West (Paris and Brussels), Baghdadis martyrs exceed this figure every month.

Whereas suicide bombings were relatively rare in 2001, they are now a common occurrence, especially in war zones such as Iraq and Syria.

Amaqs English-language infographics on martyrdom operations from January through May 2016:

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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As if rape were not already the most heinous of all crimes, our nation is now reeling after a totally outrageous letter from a rapists father and an even more outlandish sentence from a California Superior Court judge have plunged the compassionate among us into unimaginable despair. I mean it. This is a catastrophe so twisted the great macabre genius, writer Stephen King, couldnt begin to make up such a sickening scenario.

On a January night in 2015, Stanford swimming star Brock Turner, age 20, was discovered raping an unconscious female behind a dumpster on the Palo Alto campus. Oh, he fiendishly assaulted the woman alright, as witnesses freely asserted after physically holding Turner at the scene until the police arrived. Last week Santa Clara County Judge Aaron Persky sentenced the perpetrator to six months in prison with three years of parole. Oh, and with good behavior hell net just a mere three months behind bars. Thats 90 days for a capital crime.

That was last week. This week over 240,000 people  and counting --- have signed a petition demanding Judge Perskys removal from the bench. Also, over five million (and counting) have read a 7,244 word statement the victim read in the courtroom (on the website BuzzFeed), this just before sentencing, that revealed, among a litany of other horrors and disgraces, Brocks record swimming times were actually included in the newspapers account of the assault.

Moreover, CNN anchor Ashleigh Banfield spent the better part of an hour on Monday actually reading the victims statement word-for-word on the air. The anguished letter included such as this 

* * *

You said (in your testimony that you) want to show people that one night of drinking can ruin a life. A life, one life, yours, you forgot about mine. Let me rephrase for you, I want to show people that one night of drinking can ruin two lives. You and me. You are the cause, I am the effect. You have dragged me through this hell with you, dipped me back into that night again and again.

You knocked down both our towers, I collapsed at the same time you did. If you think I was spared, came out unscathed, that today I ride off into sunset, while you suffer the greatest blow, you are mistaken. Nobody wins. We have all been devastated, we have all been trying to find some meaning in all of this suffering.

Your damage was concrete; stripped of titles, degrees, enrollment. My damage was internal, unseen, I carry it with me. You took away my worth, my privacy, my energy, my time, my safety, my intimacy, my confidence, my own voice, until today.

* * *

Sometime before Judge Persky  allegedly a Stanford alumnus  listened to the victim read her statement and then handed down his joke of a sentence, citing there is less moral culpability attached to the defendant  who is intoxicated, the swimmers father wrote a plea, asking the judge for leniency.

On Sunday  three days ago  Stanford law professor Michele Dauber posted what Dan Turner had written to the judge on her Twitter account and it went viral faster than a Titan rocket into the hemisphere. People were incensed on an international scale.

But as untold millions have been infuriated by the fathers appeal, a person identified as Alexandra Ozeri fixed the letter on Twitter so as you read the fathers letter to the judge, her clarifications are shown in bold face. And you know what is about 20 times faster than a Titan rocket? Alexandras version of Dan Turners letter has gone ultra-viral and its speed is only now mounting:

* * *

WHAT BROCK TURNERS DAD WROTE TO JUDGE PERSKY

As it stands now, Brocks life has been deeply altered forever by the events (raping an unconscious woman) of Jan 17th and 18th. He will never be his happy go lucky self with that easy going personality and welcoming smile that was there the whole time he was raping a young woman thinking he wouldnt get caught.

His every waking minute is consumed with not taking responsibility for the rape he committed. You can see this in his face, the way he walks, the fact that he took the girl he raped to trial and blamed it on her, his weakened voice, his lack of appetite.

Brock always enjoyed certain types of food before he raped someone and is a very good cook himself. I was always excited to buy him a big rib eye steak to grill, but it just wasnt the same after he raped an innocent young woman. I had to make sure to hide some of my favourite pretzels or chips because I knew they wouldnt be around long after Brock walked in from swim practice, but these cute details dont have anything to do with the rape he committed. Now he barely consumes any foods and eats only to exist because he screwed his own life and many other lives up by raping someone.

The verdicts have broken and shattered him and our family in so many ways, because our son is now a rapist. His life will never be the one that he dreamed about and worked so hard to achieve, the one where he gets to rape a beautiful strong human being and then go back to his swim meet.

This is a steep price to pay for 20 minutes of action i.e. raping someone out of his 20 plus years of life. This isnt like the three second rule for food, rape still counts no matter how many seconds it lasts. This is rape.

The fact that he now has to register as a sexual offender for the rest of his life forever alters where he can live, visit, work, rape, and how he will be able to interact with people who dont want to be raped and organisations who dont want their employees to be raped.

What I know as his father is that incarceration is not the punishment for Brock, but a longer punishment meant for a rapist. He has no prior criminal history (aside from this rape) and has never been violent to anyone (except for the rape) including his actions (and you know what that means  rape) on the night of Jan 17th 2015. Bringing up the fact that this was only his first rape is like bringing up that its somebodys first murder or first terror attack, so its still a crime.

Brock can do so many positive things as a contributor to society, but instead he chose to rape someone, and is totally committed to educating other college students about the dangers of alcohol consumption and sexual promiscuity, which is irrelevant because he should be talking about how he shouldnt have raped someone.

By having people like Brock educate others on college campuses is how society can begin to break the cycle of drinking and its unfortunate results and get misinformation from a rapist with a light sentence.

Probation is the best answer for Brock in this situation and allows him to give back to society in an unjust and seriously creepy way.

Very respectfully and ignorantly,

Dan A. (father of a rapist) Turner.

* * *

Finally, there is this. At the end of the victims statement, the girl who was raped -- someones precious daughter  stood her tallest in the courtroom and said, To girls everywhere, I am with you. On nights when you feel alone, I am with you. When people doubt you or dismiss you, I am with you. I fought every day for you. So never stop fighting, I believe you.

As the author Anne Lamott once wrote, Lighthouses dont go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining. Although I cant save every boat, I hope that by speaking today, you absorbed a small amount of light, a small knowing that you cant be silenced, a small satisfaction that justice was served, a small assurance that we are getting somewhere, and a big, big knowing that you are important, unquestionably, you are untouchable, you are beautiful, you are to be valued, respected, undeniably, every minute of every day, you are powerful and nobody can take that away from you. To girls everywhere, I am with you. Thank you.

So help me, I cannot recall any rape case that is a greater atrocity.

royexum@aolo.com
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.
21-Day Journey through Central Asia & the Five 'Stans

Join a modern-day caravan on this epic 21-day journey to five of these exotic countries  Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. Highlights include: seeing a traditional Kazakh musical performance, visiting a silk master's workshop, observing one of the oldest Korans in the world, dining with locals, exploring the blue-tiled monuments of Samarkand, viewing one of the world's largest collections of Russian avant-garde art, and visiting an array of UNESCO-listed sites. Slated for September 19-October 9, 2016, the tour starts at $7,795. For more information, visitDays 1-4: Almaty, Lake Issyk-Kul, BishkekBegin the tour in Almaty, the largest city in Kazakhstan, driving to the majestic Tien Shan mountain range. Cross into Kyrgyzstan and spend a night at beautiful alpine Lake Issyk-Kul before exploring Bishkek.Days 5-7: Osh, Fergana, Margilan, Rishtan, KhujandFly to the lush Fergana Valley, divided among three of the five Stans. Ascend to UNESCO-listed Sulaiman-Too Sacred Mountain, one of the holiest Islamic sites in Central Asia, rising from the outskirts of Osh, where you meet with a group of locals. In the Uzbek portion of the valley, visit Margilan and Rishtan, villages specializing in silks and ceramics. Cross the border into Tajikistan for an overnight in historic Khujand.Days 8-16: Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva, NukusJourney overland to Tashkent and admire one of the oldest Korans in the world. Explore the blue-tiled monuments of Samarkand, Tamerlane's UNESCO-listed Ak Saray Palace in Shakhrisabze, the interlocking brickwork of Bukhara and the winding alleys of Khiva. Drive through the Kyzyl Kum (Red Sands) desert to the astonishing Savitsky Museum of avant-garde Russian art in remote Nukus, capital of Karakalpakstan, for an overnight.Days 17-21: Kunya Urgench, Tashauz, Ashkabad, Nisa, MervIn Turkmenistan, explore three UNESCO Sites - the ruins of Khorezm's Kunya Urgench, the Parthian city of Nisa and mythical Merv. In the modern capital of Ashkabad, discover the white marble monuments, so plentiful that they were awarded a Guinness World Record in 2013.
Cambridge's Only Public Tour of MIT Launches

On the public tour of MIT, Tourists and locals will learn about the recent tech boom in the area as well as MIT's history and culture while visiting the main MIT campus, tour inside several buildings and experience the surrounding Kendall Square area in the 70-minute walking tour.Led by current MIT students, Trademark Tours' public tour of MIT is scripted to be theatrical, funny and entertaining. While enjoying majestic views of MIT's legendary buildings overlooking the Boston skyline and Charles River, guests will learn about the history and culture of MIT, while learning about famous MIT alumni who are changing the world. Guests can expect to visit the primary sights at MIT including The Stata Center, The Great Dome, The Green Building, Lobby 7, The incredible Alchemist Statue as well as Facebook, Google and Microsoft Headquarters in Kendall Square.We created this public tour of MIT in response to market demand. Over the last decade, in the wake of the tech boom, the profile of MIT and Kendall Square has experienced a renaissance of sorts, says Daniel Andrew, CEO of Trademark Tours. More than ever, the phones in our office are ringing with guests eager to learn about the breakthroughs in technology radiating out of this prestigious corner of the scientific universe. We've been running fascinating MIT tours for private groups for over five years and decided that now is the time to bring this experience to the general public.Trademark Tours' public tour of MIT will run weekends through the end of August at 11:30, 12:30 and 1:30. Tickets are $12 per adult and $10.50 for children and seniors when purchased online at:or can be purchased at the start of the tour. The tour meets outside the Kendall Square Subway Station at the Old Town Trolley Kiosk across the street from the MIT COOP (300 Main Street, Cambridge MA 02142)More info:
The Ritz-Carlton, Budapest Debuts Farm-to-Table Dining

Deak St. Kitchen, introduced in the recently opened Ritz-Carlton, Budapest, showcases the best of local ingredients, dishes and produce, alongside one of the citys best selections of indigenous wines.Known for its diversity, Hungarian food truly represents the history of the country. Whether that be the hearty, peasant food of the nomads, the influence of Italians and the Turkish in the 15th & 16th centuries or the later, sophisticated palate of the Austro-Hungarian empire, todays dishes present a rich, distinct style.Working with local suppliers, Deak St. Kitchen focuses on seasonal, national produce, ensuring guests enjoy the finest, authentic ingredients available. Continuing the farm-to-table movement, the restaurant grill serves the finest selection of meat and fish, which are offered alongside more traditional Hungarian dishes, including braised beef cheek, spatzle egg noodles, and paprika-marinated chicken.Renowned specialist Hungarian ingredients are used throughout the menu, many of which add local flair and interest to more familiar dishes. Among these, mushrooms from the forests of the Bakony Hills, most often seen in the cooking of the Central Transdanubian region, are sauteed and served as a side dish, while Gomolya cheese, traditionally made by the shepherds in the Alfold and Transylvania, is grilled and used to finish top-grade burgers. Partly because the country is landlocked, pork has been a mainstay ingredient in Hungary for centuries and the Mangalica pig, with its 200-year-old domestic history, plays an intrinsic part of these dishes. Served as both chops and bacon in Deak St. Kitchen, the Mangalica pork is revered for its succulently marbled meat and distinct, flavorsome taste.With over twenty wine regions, Hungarys wine industry has increasingly diversified in recent years. Whilst many are familiar with Tokaj and its sumptuously sweet Tokaji Aszu, other regions are carving inroads into the international wine market. Deak St. Kitchen offers an unparalleled glimpse into the plentiful varieties, with almost 100 bottles of Hungarian wine available to enjoy, and a fifth of these also being served by the glass.To delight both local and international guests alike, a sensory wine flight has been introduced in the bar of Deak St. Kitchen, giving a unique opportunity to sample seven wines, each representing one of the key regions of Hungarian wine production. Whether its a bright Sauvignon Blanc from Etyek with its nutrient-rich limestone, or an Olaszrizling from Hungarys smallest wine region, Somlo, produced on a single volcanic hill of basalt rock, the hand-picked selection showcases the breadth and quality of Hungarian wines to its fullest. For those whose interest is further piqued to explore the local wine industry, The Ritz-Carlton, Budapests dedicated concierge team can arrange private tours and visits to some of the citys neighbouring vineyards situated up in the cool Buda Hills, a potentially chilled respite to the summer heat.The Ritz-Carlton, Budapest opened in April 2016, bringing contemporary luxury to Hungary as the brands entree into one of Europes most alluring cities. Housed within an iconic historic building on Elizabeth Square in the heart of the city's cultural and shopping district, the luxury hotel features 200 elegantly appointed rooms and suites, along with an exclusive Club Level, two restaurants, and a soon-to-open Ritz-Carlton Spa.Visit website:
This Saturday the National Park Service (NPS) and Outdoor Chattanooga are helping people discover the history and recreational opportunities at the Lookout Mountain Battlefield in honor of the NPS Centennial. This year marks 100 years of stewardship of America's national parks and engaging communities through recreation.

On Saturday, Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park and Outdoor Chattanooga invite people to try hiking, mountain biking, and rock climbing on Lookout Mountain. Guides will also provide interpretation of park resources and explain regulations protecting the land.

All activities on Saturday begin at Cravens House (Cravens Terrace Road, Lookout Mountain, Tn. 37350). Parking is available, but carpooling is encouraged.

Outdoor Recreation Options:

Rock climbing: Hike to Sunset Rock to try rock climbing. Equipment and guide staff provided. Register for 9 a.m., 12 p.m., or 3 p.m. at Cravens House. Open to all.

Mountain biking: Ranger-led, 5-mile rides on Upper Truck Trail at 9 a.m., 12 p.m., and 3 p.m.. Bicycles and helmets are available.

Hiking: Ranger-led hikes at 9 a.m., 12 p.m., and 3 p.m.

For more information about the bikes or rock climbing, call Outdoor Chattanooga (423-643-6888) or NPS (423-752-5213). Visit www.nps.gov/chch to learn about more Centennial Celebrations around Chattanooga.
Governor Bill Haslam and Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation Commissioner Bob Martineau announced the winners of the 2016 Governors Environmental Stewardship Awards on Wednesday. EPB and green|spaces were named recipients. The awards recognize exceptional voluntary actions that improve or protect the environment and natural resources with projects or initiatives not required by law or regulation.

The quality of our air, land and water is essential for public health and the marketability of our state, Governor Haslam said. I thank all of the winners for their individual contributions to keeping Tennessee a beautiful state to live, work and visit.

It is important that we pause to recognize the people and organizations that work so hard to protect our environment while teaching others about sustainability, Commissioner Martineau said. These winning efforts will help pave the way for future ideas on how we can further protect our natural resources.

The 2016 Governors Environmental Stewardship Award recipients are:

 Belmont University  Davidson County

 Tennessee Clean Fuels Coalition

 green|spaces  Hamilton County

 Emmett Elementary School  Sullivan County

 EPB  Hamilton County

 The Jackson Walk  Madison County

 Sevier Solid Waste, Inc.  Sevier County

 Tennessee Environmental Council  Natural Heritage

 Sharp Transport, Inc.  Lawrence County

 Music City Center  Davidson County

 Lipscomb Academy Elementary  Davidson County

A panel of 24 agricultural, conservation, forestry, environmental and academic professionals judged more than 85 nominations and selected this years award recipients based on criteria including on-the-ground achievement, innovation and public education. The winners will be recognized for their achievements and positive impact on the states natural resources in an awards ceremony to be held in Nashville on June 15. The Robert Sparks Walker Lifetime Achievement Award will be announced at a luncheon on June 15.

A full description of the winning efforts and award categories are included in the attached document.
Two long-time supporters of the Tennessee Valley Corridor were presented the organizations top award at the TVCs National Summit held June 1-2 on the campus of Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville, Tn.

Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) Federal Co-Chair Earl Gohl and Chattanooga attorney J. Wayne Cropp were honored with the Corridor Champion Award in recognition of their leadership to enhance the TVCs national visibility, high-tech economic development, and collaborative efforts within the five-state region.

Wayne Cropp chaired the TVC first two Summits in 1995 and 1996 in Oak Ridge and Chattanooga and has been an active leader since, said Board Chair Steve Cope from Tullahoma. He has been a true champion for our regions efforts to promote its federal missions and to leverage those investments for high tech economic development.

The ARC has collaborated with the TVC for many years, but its support reached new levels during Earl Gohls term as federal co-chairman, said Mr. Cope. His focus on entrepreneurship and the importance of our community colleges fits well with the mission and emphasis of the TVCs efforts in the 10 congressional districts we serve  all of which are within the ARCs area of responsibility.

Mr. Cropp is an attorney with the Baker Donelson law firms Chattanooga office with a focus on public policy, economic development and environmental law. He is a recognized author and lecturer on air quality, climate change law and brownfield redevelopment.

The ARC has supported the TVCs Community College Consortium  an effort to connect the regions 30-plus community colleges with federal government organizations and other institutions throughout the region. Gohl has served as Federal Co-Chair since his appointment by President Obama in 2009.

Past Corridor Champion Award winners include Senator Lamar Alexander, Congressman Chuck Fleischmann, the Tennessee Valley Authority, The University of Tennessee and Oak Ridges Y-12 National Security Complex.

Since the first TVC Summit was held in Oak Ridge in 1995, the TVC has helped link the science and technology assets in the Tennessee Valley into a nationally recognized regional economic development effort. The mission of the TVC is to sustain the regions existing federal missions, to compete for new missions, and to leverage public/private relationships for high-quality job growth.

The Tennessee Valley Corridor includes 10 congressional districts in East and Middle Tennessee, North Alabama, Western North Carolina, Southwest Virginia and Eastern Kentucky. The TVCs mission is to sustain existing federal missions in the Valley, to compete for new missions and to leverage those investments for private sector job growth. Over the past 20 years, TVC Summits have been held in the Tri Cities, Oak Ridge, Huntsville, Chattanooga, Asheville, Nashville, Murfreesboro, Washington, D.C. and Somerset, Kentucky.


U.S. agents searched the offices of a California-based wood importer this week as part of a broadening government crackdown on imports of illegally harvested timber, according to a previously unreported federal search warrant seen by Reuters.

The Department of Homeland Security agents are probing whether privately held Global Plywood & Lumber Inc violated U.S. and Peruvian law by importing wood that officials say was taken from the Amazon without proper permits, according to the warrant filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California in San Diego on Monday and executed on Tuesday.

No charges have been brought against the company. A Homeland Security spokesman in Houston said the investigation was ongoing.

Kenneth Peabody, Global Plywood manager, declined to comment on the warrant, the latest sign of increased U.S. efforts to curb logging of rare forest species.

In February, wood flooring giant Lumber Liquidators Inc agreed to pay more than $13 million in criminal fines and forfeitures to resolve a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into the import of wood illegally logged in far eastern Russia, home to many endangered species.

The Justice Department called that the largest financial penalty for timber trafficking under the Lacey Act, a conservation law passed in 1990 and amended in 2008 to ban commerce in certain plants and plant products, including those made from illegally logged woods.

Global Plywood began importing wood products from Peru in 2007 and started receiving shipments from Peruvian exporting firm Inversiones La Oroza in 2010, according to an affidavit filed with the search warrant.

A 2010 investigation by the Peruvian Forest Service found La Oroza had been cutting down cedar illegally and revoked the company's logging concession, according to the affidavit, which said there was probable cause to believe both companies violated the Lacey Act.

Between 2012 and 2015, Global Plywood imported more than 9,700 cubic meters of wood from La Oroza worth more than $3.6 million, the affidavit said.

La Oroza did not immediately respond to calls and emails to offices in Peru requesting comment.

Losing the Forest

Peru's Amazonian tropical forest is second in size to Brazil's. The country loses approximately 1,100 square miles of forest per year, and an estimated 80 percent of logging in Peru is illegal according to the World Bank. A 2006 report by the bank said the illegal trade in the country generated between $44.5 million and $72 million annually.

The profit motive is large. A single Peruvian mahogany tree can be sold for more than $11,000 on the U.S. lumber market, according to a study by the Environmental Investigation Agency, or EIA, a London-based nonprofit.

Partly as a result of the 2009 U.S.-Peru free trade agreement, Peru enacted tougher laws and created specialized agencies to fight illegal harvesting, according to the EIA's Julia Urrunaga. Companies must submit an application to the Peruvian government that identifies the location, volume and type of wood harvested each year.

A 2012 EIA study said exporters can sidestep Peruvian regulations by routinely falsifying documents and permits. The study found more than 100 timber shipments to the United States between January 2008 and May 2010 contained illegally logged trees, 35 percent of all shipments leaving Peru during that time.

The investigation of Global Plywood began when Peruvian Customs and Forest Service officials in September contacted U.S. authorities about a massive shipment of wood aboard a vessel en route to the Port of Houston, the affidavit said. Peruvian authorities found that more than 90 percent of the wood aboard a ship named Yacu Kallpa, which mostly contained wood from La Oroza en route to Global Plywood, had been harvested illegally in Peru.

In November, U.S. Customs and Border Protection blocked its importation to the United States. That move, along with additional seizures of timber by officials in Peru, set off street protests by supporters of the lumber industry in logging towns. Demonstrators carried coffins symbolically emblazoned with the names of forestry inspectors.

The shipment, containing some 3.8 million pounds of wood, is languishing in the Port of Houston, according to a Homeland Security spokesman in Texas.





(Reporting by Mica Rosenberg; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Amy Stevens; Editing by David Gregorio)
Following a cooperation sealed between Alphatron Marine and Green Award Foundation at Posidonia in Athens, Greece, Alphatron Marine will reward Green Award certified ships with a discount of 10 percent that applies to a range of products and services for both seagoing and inland navigation ships.

Green Award certificate implies that a ships performance is of such high standards of safety and quality that the ship qualifies for the Green Award requirements. Ships certified by Green Award are sustainable, environmentally-friendly and they maintain and enhance best practices of the shipping industry.

Alphatron Marine, who delivers fully integrated navigation and communication bridge equipment to shipyards and ship-owners , said it supports the idea of better and safer shipping and, therefore, offers a special discount to ships participating in the Green Award program.

Green Awards Chairman Capt Dimitrios Mattheou and Alphatron Marines CEO Luuk Vroombout met at Posidonia in Athens to affirm their cooperation. Vroombout received a Green Award plaque from the hands of Captain Mattheou marking the occasion of Alphatron Marine officially becoming a Green Award incentive provider.

All Green Award certified (deepsea and inland) ships are entitled to a 10 percent discount on products and services such as JRC and Alphatron Marine hardware and labor, AlphaEye remote support (three-year contract), VSAT airtime (one-, two- or three-year contract), maintenance contract (three-year contract) and service tariff (labor and travel). There are also special discounts available for inland navigation barges on AlphaFuelControl and for deepsea vessels on Annual Radio Survey and Annual Performance Test for VDR. These discounts are only valid when services, delivery or support are carried out by the Alphatron Marine Center of Excellence in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

Green Awards Chairman Mattheou embraced Alphatron Marines decision to join the Green Award scheme. Green Award supports implementation of Corporate Social Responsibility principles, Mattheou said. We encourage safety and environmental awareness. Alphatron Marine products and services help to improve and maintain safe and efficient operations resulting in a win-win situation for the industry, people and the environment. We are pleased to have them joining the scheme.

The pollution and health impact of shipping is becoming more important every day, especially since it is the backbone of the global economy said Vroombout, co-founder and CEO of Alphatron Marine. Several issues must be addressed together to make the industry greener.

Vroombout continued, Together with the Green Award Foundation, Alphatron Marine is pleased to offer such incentive program to ship owners that choose for building and maintaining environmentally responsible vessels. We feel these green initiatives are key for the continued health of our planet, today but also in 20 years.
The probable cause of the 2015 collision of the Conti Peridot and the Carla Maersk in the Houston Ship Channel was the inability of the pilot on the Conti Peridot to respond appropriately to hydrodynamic forces after meeting another vessel during restricted visibility, and his lack of communication with other vessels about this handling difficulty controlling his vessel, said the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) during a public meeting on Tuesday.

Contributing to the circumstances that resulted in the collision was the inadequate bridge resource management between the master and the pilot on the Conti Peridot. The collision of the 623-foot long, bulk cargo carrier Conti Peridot, with the 600-foot long tanker Carla Maersk, resulted in the release of approximately 88,200 gallons of methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) into the waters of the Houston Ship Channel on March 9, 2015.

No ships sank and no lives were lost in this collision, but the release of more than 88,000 gallons of MTBE into the waterway, which resulted in the surrounding communities sheltering in place immediately following the release of the hazardous materials, underscores the severity of this accident, said NTSB Chairman Christopher Hart. The Houston Ship Channel also supports one of our nations busiest seaports, hosting more than 60 ship and 350 barge movements each day. Accidents that disrupt navigation of this vital waterway can have significant impacts, not only to our environment, but also to our economy. Effective bridge resource management can make the difference between a near-miss and a tragic accident, and this is particularly true in the narrow and congested Houston Ship Channel.

The NTSB identified three safety issues in the accident including insufficient pilot communications, inadequate bridge resource management, and the lack of predetermined ship movement strategies during restricted visibility in the Houston Ship Channel.

The NTSB issued three new safety recommendations to Bremer Bereederungsgesellschaft mbH & Co., (the operating company of the Conti Peridot), the Houston Pilots Association and the Lone Star Harbor Safety Committee, based upon the findings of the investigation.
South Korea's government and central bank will create an 11 trillion won ($9.50 billion) fund to support two state-run banks most exposed to the country's struggling shipping and shipbuilding firms.

"Our key industries like shipping and shipbuilding are being aggressively caught up by countries like China and management conditions have worsened due to weak global trade," Finance Minister Yoo Il-ho said in a speech announcing the corporate restructuring plans on Wednesday.

South Korea expects a 20 percent drop in major shipbuilders' capacity and a 30 percent drop in their workforce by 2018 from 2015, after the restructuring process.

The two state-run banks to be capitalised are Korea Development Bank (KDB) and the Export-Import Bank of Korea (KEXIM).

Following the announcement, the International Monetary Fund said it supported Korea's corporate reforms and urged the government to implement additional fiscal stimulus and the central bank to ease monetary policy.

The Bank of Korea will lend a maximum 10 trillion won for the state-bank fund via a conduit bank, the Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK), and that fund will later purchase contingent convertible bonds (CoCos) from the two state-banks.

Contingent convertible bonds are hybrid assets that can be switched by the borrower from bonds into shares if a pre-set trigger is reached.

The rest of the capital for the state-bank fund will be provided by loans from Korea Asset Management Corporation (KAMCO), a state-backed distressed assets bank, which will also be in charge of setting up the actual fund.

The fund is expected to be operational by end-2017.

Separately, the government plans to transfer 1 trillion won worth of assets to KEXIM by September, which will be reflected in next year's budget.

The central bank will also consider direct capital injections into KEXIM in the future, if needed.

South Korean markets were unmoved by the announcement as the measures were widely expected.

Shippers, Shipbuilders' Efforts

South Korea's top three shipbuilders have also come up with plans to weather the difficult market conditions, which they see lasting for the next two to three years.

The world's three largest shipbuilders, Hyundai Heavy Industries, Samsung Heavy Industries and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, have submitted additional plans to sell up to 4.8 trillion won in combined assets and find 3.6 trillion won through cost cuts, the government said in a statement.

Daewoo Shipbuilding plans to sell up to 1.6 trillion won in assets including 14 subsidiaries and raise 1.9 trillion won in cost cuts, the government said, while Samsung Heavy said in a separate statement it plans to sell shares to raise funds, without elaborating.

Hyundai Heavy said in a statement it will sell shares in Hyundai Motor and construction materials maker KCC Corp among other assets and spin-off businesses.

The restructuring and financial support of the sector comes amid wider scrutiny of the management of the industry.

On Wednesday, prosecutors raided the offices of Daewoo Shipbuilding to investigate charges against two former chief executive officers for allegedly mismanaging company operations, a company spokesman said.

Daewoo, which reported a 3.3 trillion won record net loss in 2015, is cooperating with the investigation, the spokesman said. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office declined to comment on an ongoing investigation.

The government will also support South Korea's second-largest shipper, Hyundai Merchant Marine, in its attempt to enter into a shipping alliance, while a creditor bank-led restructuring is ongoing at the country's largest shipper Hanjin Shipping Co Ltd.



($1 = 1,157.7700 won)



(By Christine Kim and Joyce Lee; Additional reporting by Se Young Lee; Editing by Eric Meijer and Sam Holmes)
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)
New Asia-North Europe network from 2M carriers puts emphasis on reliability and faster transit times. Is this the template the other alliances will copy?

2M carriers Maersk Line and MSC last week announced details of a new Asia-North Europe network that will come into effect in the third quarter peak season.

The changes are subtle with the number of ships and services staying the same and maintaining the same branding, but the port rotations of each loop will be altered and with fewer port calls transit times will be reduced.

According to Maersks customer brochure the changes are being made to the network to ensure it is better equipped to deal with contingencies, thereby mitigating interruptions to your global supply chain.

One of the benefits trumpeted a couple of weeks ago by the member lines of THE Alliance that shippers can look forward to next year was very attractive transit times and it seems that the 2M carriers have decided to take up the challenge and speed things up ahead of their new rivals.

Rather than increasing the operating speed of vessels  an unattractive cost proposition in light of bunker prices doubling in recent months  the 2M carriers have decided to reduce the number of ports served.

Inevitably this means that they will lose some direct connections but the pay-off is that transit times in surviving corridors can be reduced as more time is spent at sea.
Braemar Shipping Services Group PLC is pleased to announce that Sheila McClain, Executive Vice President of Braemar Engineering, has been appointed Braemar Engineering's new Managing Director. Sheila will continue to be based in Houston, Texas and will assume management responsibility for global operations with effect from 8 June 2016. In conjunction with her management team, Sheila will continue to develop and promote Braemar Engineerings expertise specialising in marine, offshore and land-based LNG projects, dynamic positioning and engineering consultancy.



Geoff Green, who has held the title of Managing Director for the past 15 years, will remain within Braemar Engineering as Chairman and non-executive board member, performing a key role as Senior Technical Advisor on several of Braemar Engineerings major ongoing projects such as the revolutionary FSP (Flat Panel Semi-Membrane Prismatic) LNG containment system, which is now entering the construction phase.



James Kidwell, CEO of Braemar Shipping Services Group PLC, says: This move reflects the extremely high level of confidence we have in Sheila and her global management team. Given the rapid progress within specialist projects, this reorganisation will allow Sheila to concentrate on the management and growth of the business and enable Geoff to focus on driving projects such as FSP forward at this exciting stage in Braemars development.




The launch this week of Prumo Logistica's $3.7 billion Port of Acu, the largest in Latin America, marked the revival of a Brazilian logistics hub many thought doomed when the empire of its former billionaire owner collapsed.

Acu's more than 25 km (15.5 miles) of docks, piers and breakwaters is a much-needed step towards narrowing a crippling infrastructure gap in Latin America's largest economy.

The Manhattan-sized industrial complex northeast of Rio de Janeiro, which officially opened on Tuesday, however, remains a far cry from the plans drafted by Eike Batista before his $60 billion EBX industrial empire disappeared almost overnight in 2013.

While Batista envisioned a thriving hub of shipyards, steel mills and electric-car factories, much of the giant complex remains a quiet expanse of bird-flocked dunes and swamp.

Batista ceded control of Acu three years ago to Washington, D.C.-based EIG Energy Partners in exchange for a promise to invest $562 million in the unfinished port.

"Acu is doing well because the port was based on solid ideas," said Jose Magela, CEO of Prumo, which is 74 percent owned by EIG.

So far, Acu has been most attractive for oil-related ventures. About 240 km (150 miles) northeast of Rio, it sits aside waters responsible for 80 percent of Brazil's oil output. The petroleum industry accounts for more than a tenth of the nation's gross domestic product.

On Tuesday, Prumo opened Brazil's first independent crude-oil terminal in partnership with Germany's Oiltanking GmbH.

It can transfer up to 1.2 million barrels a day from shuttle tankers loaded at offshore fields to long-haul vessels. Royal Dutch Shell Plc has a contract to transfer as much as 300,000 barrels a day of its growing Brazilian output at the terminal, Prumo said.

A new maritime diesel terminal run by Britain's BP Plc just sold its first fuel for ships working in adjacent deepwater fields. Prumo's general cargo docks exports bauxite for Brazilian industrial conglomerate Votorantim Participacoes SA.

Louisiana-based ship and oil service company Edison Chouest expects to complete its largest offshore oil supply base outside the United States at Acu in 2017.

For Brazil's government, struggling with its biggest recession in decades, the port is a lifeline. More than a decade of government-led infrastructure spending has failed to make exports competitive.

It is counting on private investment to revive an oil industry, struggling with low prices. State-controlled oil giant Petrobras is crippled by debt and corruption.

"The government has signaled a new phase of private sector interaction," Transportation Minister Mauricio Quintella said. "Everyone knows the budget restrictions that Brazil faces."

Among the nearly 200 government officials, investors, politicians and executives flown in for the ceremony, one person was notably absent: Batista.

Asked if an invitation was extended to Batista, who lost Brazil's largest personal fortune when project delays and overreach saddled his sprawling empire with debt, Prumo executives shrugged. "I don't know," CEO Magela said.

Batista was banned from running public companies for five years by the CVM markets regulator last year for conflicts of interest at his oil company OGX.

Eucherio Rodrigues, who was briefly chief financial officer of Batista's shipbuilding unit OSX after its bankruptcy filing, said the tycoon's absence was unfair.

"Acu was a great idea and will be a great port, but Eike's timing was poor and he made many mistakes," Rodrigues said.





($1 = 3.387 Brazilian reais)



(Reporting by Jeb Blount Editing by W Simon)
Iran said on Wednesday it had stopped exports of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to Japan, but there were other customers available to buy the Islamic republic's LPG, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported.

The report did not give a reason but difficulties for shippers in obtaining insurance have continued to hamper Iranian LPG exports despite the lifting of international sanctions.

"Our LPG exports to Japan have stopped ... At the present, insurance issues and supplying of LPG carriers have been almost resolved," Mehr quoted the head of the Association of Petrochemical Industry Corporations (APIC) Ahmad Mahdavi as saying.

"There are no limitations for the exports of the LPG in the post-sanction era ... a myriad of customers are calling for Iran's LPG to the extent that the demand exceeds the supply."

Mahdavi did not elaborate.

"One major obstacle facing LPG exports has been supplying of ships ... Since the removal of sanctions, some buyers of Iran's LPG have managed to receive the product through their own LPG carriers," he said.

Iran's years of economic isolation ended when crippling international sanctions were lifted in January after an agreement was reached ending a dispute over Iran's nuclear programme. International companies, including Japanese ones, have expressed interest and readiness to boost trade with Iran.

Some international shipping companies have remained reluctant to handle Iranian exports because of remaining U.S. restrictions on Tehran that prohibit trade in U.S. dollars or the involvement of U.S. firms, including banks and reinsurers.

Japan lifted sanctions on Iran in January.





(Writing by Parisa Hafezi; editing by Adrian Croft)
1830 - The sloop of war USS Vincennes becomes the first US Navy warship to circle the globe when she returns to New York. She departs on Sept. 3, 1826, rounds Cape Horn and cruises the Pacific protecting American merchantmen and whalers until June 1829.



1880 - Congress authorizes the Office of Judge Advocate General. Vice Adm. Nanette M. Derenzi currently serves as the 42nd Judge Advocate General of the Navy.



1937 - Capt. Julius F. Hellweg commands the Navy detachment that observes a total eclipse of the sun.



1943 - TBF aircraft from USS Bogue (ACV 9) damage German submarine (U 758) west by south of the Canary Islands



1943 - USS Finback (SS 230) attacks a Japanese convoy and sinks auxiliary minelayer Kahoku Maru about 100 miles north of Palau.



1945 - Hospital Apprentice 1st Class Fred F. Lester serves with an assault rifle platoon attached to the First Battalion, Twenty-Second Marines, Sixth Marine Division, against the Japanese on Okinawa Shima. Spotting a wounded Marine beyond front lines, he crawls to him, despite being hit twice by enemy gun fire, and pulls him to safety. Refusing medical treatment for his fatal injuries, Lester guides squad members in providing medical treatment on the rescued Marine, and to others, before dying shortly thereafter. For his "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity" on this occasion, he is posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.



1959 - The Navy and the Post Office deliver the first official missile mail when USS Barbero (SS-317) fires a Regulus I missile with 3,000 letters 100 miles east of Jacksonville, Fla., to Mayport, Fla.



1996 - USS Cole (DDG 67) is commissioned at Port Everglade, Fla. The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer is named after Medal of Honor recipient Marine Sgt. Darrell S. Cole, a machine-gunner killed in action during action on Iwo Jima Feb. 19, 1945. The destroyers first homeport is Naval Station Norfolk, Va.



1996 - USS Oak Hill (LSD 51) is commissioned. The Harpers Ferry-class dock landing ship is homeported at Little Creek, Va. Oak Hill is the second named to honor the home of President James Monroe, where he penned the Monroe Doctrine.





(Source: Naval History and Heritage Command, Communication and Outreach Division)
Indonesian Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti has said Jakarta was ready to sink 30 foreign-flagged vessels caught fishing illegally in Indonesian waters, following a schedule being arranged by the authorities, says the Straits Times.

"Indonesia will not compromise with, and will be very tough in taking action against and in arresting foreign vessels caught fishing illegally in Indonesian waters. The violation committed by the 30 vessels is illegal fishing," she said.

Susi also revealed that the Indonesian Navy's Western Fleet had arrested three Vietnamese-flagged vessels for illegal fishing in Indonesian territory, in the latest incident of its kind.

The minister explained that the practice of sinking foreign vessels caught poaching was also followed by other countries.

Indonesia has repatriated 27 Cambodian victims of human trafficking who were employed on board vessels accused of fishing illegally in the archipelagos waters off Borneo island.

Malfa Asdi, chief of West Kalimantan provinces immigration office, was quoted by kompas.com as saying Tuesday, those deported are the crew and they were victims [of human trafficking]."

Under Indonesias strict policy against illegal fishing, the government sinks boats found guilty of violations and has repatriated hundreds of crew -- mostly from Myanmar and Cambodia -- forced to work in slave-like conditions over the past year.
Lightering operations were completed Tuesday, as the U.S. Coast Guard continues to monitor and respond to the motor vessel Roger Blough, Tuesday, after the vessel ran aground May 27 on Gros Cap Reef in Whitefish Bay in Lake Superior.

The cargo on board the Roger Blough was successfully offloaded onto two vessels, the Philip R. Clarke and Arthur M. Anderson. Each of the receiving vessels have departed the Waiska Bay anchorage to deliver the iron ore to its intended destination.

A detailed damage assessment of the Blough will be conducted once favorable weather conditions are met. Results from the assessment will determine the extent of repairs and mode of transit to its final destination.

The Waiska Bay anchorage area remains closed to all vessels not part of the operation.
The Navy is bringing warrant officers back to Naval Oceanography in 2018 after a 28-year hiatus.



In late March, the Navy Personnel Command released the message, NAVADMIN 079/16, reestablishing the program and at the same time disestablishing the Oceanography Limited Duty Officer (LDO) Program.



"In order to meet the increasing demand for officers with specific technical meteorology and oceanography knowledge, skills and abilities, the Secretary of the Navy has approved the establishment of the Oceanography Chief Warrant Officer (CWO) Designator," the message said.



The first warrant officer candidates will be selected by the fiscal year 2018 board.



"The Navy wants to retain the technical expertise of the senior enlisted aerographer's mates and to give Sailors opportunities to pursue their interests in the technical aspects of our work," said Cmdr. Christi Montgomery, oceanography officer community manager.



Montgomery said there are no commissioning programs available that provide advancement opportunities to allow continued focus on technical expertise within the community. Senior enlisted Sailors increasingly gain administration and policy responsibilities, while the technical aspects of their specialties are de-emphasized. LDOs with seniority are increasingly focused on officer/leadership responsibilities and less on the technical aspects of the job.



The revival of the CWO program also came partially out of necessity. The LDO/CWO Officer Sustainability Initiative, approved in 2010 and implemented in 2012, forced the information warfare LDO communities to become "off-ramp" communities, removing their control grade billets -- lieutenant commander and above -- and thus forcing those officers to either retire when eligible or laterally transfer into the IWC restricted line sister community, such as 1800 for oceanography.



In addition, the OSI lowered the time-in-service eligibility requirement for LDO. Projections revealed the LDO community would be composed largely of first class petty officers, who have been advancing at 100 percent, and the LDO program would essentially become a junior officer accession source for the oceanography community.



"This future scenario was not an optimal solution either for the oceanography wardroom or the aerographer's mate rating," Montgomery said.



But the new program isn't quite the same as the one discontinued 28 years ago. The former community CWOs were aerographer CWOs and focused on meteorology support, originally during World War II.



"The original aerographer CWO community was created prior to the establishment, in 1975 of a single designator (18XX) which combined meteorologists and oceanographers/geophysicists," said Montgomery. "The new CWO community name is 'Oceanography CWO.' This matches the community name for 1,800 officers and supports our community's expanded role in supporting the fleet in ocean-centric warfare areas. It does not, however, imply that the new CWOs will be solely supporting oceanography mission areas. The proposed assignments for the new community span the same mission sets as our current officer and enlisted billet assignments."



The fiscal year 2018 In-service Procurement Board will select the first oceanography CWOs for a FY 2018 commission. Application deadline to Navy Personnel Command likely will be Oct. 1. To be eligible for the program, Sailors must have 14-20 years of service with waivers up to 22 years of service for master chief petty officers only. Applicants must be E-7 (select) or above and must have previously qualified as aerographer's mate forecasters (NEC 7412).



Montgomery said plans at this point call for approximately three CWO selections per cycle. The number of accessions will allow the program to grow slowly and allow the numbers to adjust as the program develops, but the phasing plan and billet locations have not yet been released. The proposed community structure ensures promotion opportunity up to CWO5.



The LDO/CWO community managers have submitted a proposal for LDO and CWO statutory promotion by competitive category by FY 2020. If approved, oceanography CWOs will compete for promotion at statutory boards with only Information Warfare Community warrant officers. Oceanography LDOs compete with all LDOs in the Navy for promotion. Oceanography detailers will assign oceanography CWOs.



How the existing LDOs fit into this new program has not been determined. BUPERS-3 is exploring the possibility for LDOs who do not yet have a permanent commission or are under a probationary officer status (O-1 to O-3) to revert to CWO if they desire to do so. Montgomery said there is currently nothing in law or policy to prevent this opportunity, but more work remains to ensure that all risks are mitigated and policy makers' concerns are assuaged.



In the meantime, the oceanography community will be able to take advantage of a higher level of technical expertise and will be able to retain that capability longer.



"This is a very positive change for the [Navy Meteorology and Oceanography Community] (METOC)," Montgomery said. "We want to keep the best technical leaders in our force in order to advance our support to the rapidly expanding naval mission set and platform base."



The METOC community is, with intelligence, information professionals, cryptologists, as well as cyber and space, a part of the Navy's Information Warfare Community, which is led by the Navy's newest type command, Naval Information Forces (NAVIFOR). NAVIFOR's mission is to support operational commanders ashore and afloat by providing combat-ready information warfare forces, which are forward deployable, fully trained, properly manned and capably equipped.


DNV GL has honoured three engineers for their scientific research with the DNV GL Award for Young Professionals. Presented by DNV GL  Maritime CEO Knut rbeck-Nilssen at the Posidonia trade fair, the award is designed to find innovative ideas for increasing safety, efficiency and sustainability in shipping. As well as seeking out the best new research, the award aims to support young professionals in the maritime field. Overall, 24 people took part in the competition.



Young professionals are a driving force in developing innovative solutions to the challenges shipping faces today and in the future. This award was created to honour the brightest among tomorrows industry experts and it is very interesting to learn more about this years winning projects, says Knut rbeck-Nilssen, CEO DNV GL  Maritime, who presented the awards to the winners in a ceremony at Posidonia.



The prize in the category Safer and 1,000 Euros went to Aleksei Alekseev, a participant in the Erasmus Mundus Masters programme in Advanced Ship Design, which is jointly conducted by the universities of Rostock, Liege and Nantes. Alekseev won the award for his master thesis Numerical Simulation of Ice Ridge Breaking, which created a tool capable of simulating the behaviour of vessels operating in ridge ice. The tool could also be expanded to model ships in various other fragmented ice formations. Alekseev employs the discrete element method technique, where a multitude of individual, unconnected ice blocks can be simulated along with the water to derive pile-ups, forces on the vessel and the required thrust. Simulation tools such as the one developed by Alekseev enable technical experts to predict the performance of ships and offshore structures in ice. Such forecasts can play a valuable role in enhancing the safety of arctic operations.



Isa Durans paper Total cost of ownership, won the award in the category Smarter and 1,000 Euros. Duran received his Masters degree in 2014 from the Danish Technical University (DTU), where he has continued to work as a research assistant. His thesis describes a synthesis software, which can assess an assets life-cycle costs at the design stage. In shipping, interest in life-cycle management and life-cycle cost considerations has grown considerably over the past few years. Durans work combines a multitude of approaches and software in a coherent life-cycle design tool. It extends ship design approaches to include life-cycle cost estimates, looking at specific routes and weather statistics on these routes. The software combines classical naval architects approaches for calm-water power prediction with new modules for in-service fuel consumption, construction and operational costs. Notably the tool is not only a demonstrator for ship operators, but is also intended to be used as a teaching tool at DTU.



The award in the category Greener and 1,000 Euros went to Victor Bolbot for his thesis Optimization of Ships Bow for Added Resistance in Waves. His work demonstrates a key trend in ship design, namely the consideration of realistic operational profiles and realistic ambient conditions. Bolbot combines simple design estimates for calm-water resistance with a semi-empirical approach for the added resistance in waves. He shows that moderate changes in the bow can lead to lower EEDI values. The optimization also favors a straight vertical bow rather than the currently popular bulbous bow designs. This is confirmed by more sophisticated CFD analyses and is also in line with DNV GLs recent findings from its Green Dolphin project for future bulk carriers. The work combines current software tools with classical naval architectural estimates, to find a good trade-off between time, cost and accuracy. The thesis is a valuable contribution to more energy efficient shipping.



The submissions for next years DNV GL Award for Young Professionals can be submitted between 1 January and 31 March 2017. The range of topics includes shipbuilding and design as well as vessel operation and marine technology. The theme is Safer, Smarter, Greener. Entries will be judged by their quality, complexity and impact on society. All papers must be written in English and must not be more than three years old. The jury will announce the winners in May 2017.


Refineries from India to the United States are backing away from buying Nigerian oil amid heightened uncertainty about deliveries as the country squares up to militants in the restive Delta region.

Their reluctance to buy is limiting the prices Nigeria can get for its oil even as there is less of it - another hit to the finances of a country battling its worst economic crisis in decades.

A group calling itself the Niger Delta Avengers has staged a number of attacks on oil installations belonging to Shell , ENI and Chevron, pushing output in what is usually Africa's largest crude exporter down past 20-year lows last month.

Some oil facilities have clawed back output, but the Avenger attacks have continued and the group has vowed to bring Nigerian production to "zero".

"Not everybody wants to be caught up in that, so they will avoid it," said Olivier Jakob, managing director of PetroMatrix in Switzerland. "The refineries will walk away from it."

India's HPCL was forced last month to cancel a vessel it chartered to carry 2 million barrels of West African crude due to the Qua Iboe force majeure.

India's state-run Indian Oil Corp. Ltd - a major buyer of Nigerian grades over the past year - has stated in its recent tenders that it would not take grades under force majeure. Qua Iboe remained off the list in its latest tender, according to a document seen by Reuters, an extremely unusual development in its requests for sweet crude.

Indonesia's Pertamina, another frequent buyer, also chose not to buy Nigerian grades in its recent tenders, favouring Congolese Coco, Angolan Girassol and Saharan Blend from Algeria instead.

Traders said Pertamina had shifted its preferences since the violence and uncertainty escalated, although Daniel Purba, senior vice president of ISC Pertamina, told Reuters by text message that Pertamina is "monitoring" Nigeria, but "currently it's still not affecting crude purchasing."

Four of Nigeria's oil grades - including the largest stream, Qua Iboe - have been under force majeure in the past month - a legal clause that allows companies to cancel or delay deliveries due to unforeseen circumstances.

ExxonMobil, which declared force majeure on Qua Iboe in May due to an accident, lifted the declaration last week, but the unpredictability is too much for some buyers.

The reduced demand means Nigeria is not benefiting as much as others from a rebound in Brent crude prices, which is partly driven by its own oil outages.

Even refineries on the U.S. East Coast, which have been on a buying spree for Nigerian crude in recent months that averaged 240,000 barrels per day (bpd) in April and May, according to Reuters shipping data, are starting to turn away.

"When you plan your crude run months in advance and commit buying cargo, you need to be comfortable that the cargo will be there when you go to lift," one U.S. east coast oil trader said.

As a result, differentials to dated Brent for Qua Iboe, Bonny Light and other grades are under downward pressure. There are several unsold cargoes for June loading, even with more than half a million barrels of production missing.

The Nigerian government set up a team this week to launch dialogue with the Avengers, but the group, via their Twitter feed, rejected the offer to talk and blew up another Chevron well.

"The nature of the recently re-emerged militancy in the Niger Delta suggests it is here to stay for the foreseeable future," said Elizabeth Donnelley, assistant head of the Africa programme at Chatham House, a London-based think tank.





(By Libby George; Additional reporting by Jarrett Renshaw, Nidhi Verma, Wilda Asmarini and Florence Tan; Editing by Susan Fenton)
Northside Neighborhood House announced the grand opening of its North Hamilton County Office and Thrift Store at 9358 Dayton Pike in Soddy Daisy. Grand opening festivities will include popcorn, face painting, special discounts and a chance to win a years worth of clothing.





Our stores offer quality clothing and household items at affordable prices, which can make a big difference to families who live on a fixed income. We are so excited to open the NNHs third thrift store in this community, said Rachel Gammon, CEO of the NNH.Our stores offer quality clothing and household items at affordable prices, which can make a big difference to families who live on a fixed income.





In addition to the thrift store, the new space will also feature a private office for Direct Assistance appointments (help with utility bills and prescriptions) and a Community Room with a Computer Lab and space for partner organizations such as Chattanooga Human Services to see clients in need of services like rent assistance.





We have seen a great demand for basic needs assistance in North Hamilton County over the past several years, said Ms. Gammon. Many of these community members dont have the means to travel to our North Chattanooga office so we worked to develop a plan that would bridge this gap in services. We are thrilled to also be bringing more resources to the community through some great collaborative partnerships.





In April 2014, the NNH started seeing clients at a temporary North Hamilton County site on the campus of Dallas Bay Baptist. While the space served the agency well during the first phase of expansion into the North Hamilton community, the new office provides more space to provide more services to neighbors in need.





The Thrift Store will be open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m.-3 p.m . The store is closed on Sundays.




Another ocean freight executive has been indicted for participation in a long-running conspiracy to restrain trade in international ocean shipments of roll-on, roll-off cargo to and from the Port of Baltimore and elsewhere in the United States, the Department of Justice announced Tuesday.

A grand jury in the District of Maryland returned the indictment. Mauricio Javier Garrido Garcia (Garrido), an executive of Compania Sudamericana de Vapores S.A. (CSAV) and resident of Chile, is charged with allocating customers and routes, rigging bids and fixing prices for international ocean shipments of roll-on, roll-off cargo, including cars, trucks and construction and agriculture equipment. Garrido is accused of participating in the conspiracy from as early as 2000 until at least September 2012.

The charge is the result of an ongoing federal antitrust investigation into price fixing, bid rigging and other anticompetitive conduct in the international roll-on, roll-off ocean shipping industry, which is being conducted by the Antitrust Divisions Washington Criminal I Section and the FBIs Baltimore Division, with assistance from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office of Internal Affairs, Washington Field Office/Special Investigations Unit.

Garrido is the eighth executive to be charged in the investigation to date. Four individuals have already pleaded guilty and been sentenced to prison and three others have been indicted but remain fugitives from justice. CSAV and two other companies have also pleaded guilty and paid over $136 million in criminal fines.

This long-running conspiracy restrained trade in one of the main channels of international commerce  the oceans, said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Renata B. Hesse, head of the Department of Justices Antitrust Division. Todays indictment further demonstrates the divisions commitment to holding accountable ocean-shipping executives who participated in this scheme.

These charges brought today, and for the prior seven executives charged, outline a deceptive scheme to destabilize competition in the marketplace, said Special Agent in Charge Kevin Perkins of the FBIs Baltimore Division. Those who engage in this type of criminal activity with the intent on corrupting our economy will be identified and brought to justice. To ensure we dont erode the publics trust in the competitive bidding process, the FBI will continue to work with the Antitrust Division to ensure the integrity of competition across all industries.
Iran has placed orders worth around $2.4 billion with South Korean shipyards for the construction of ships to carry Irans oil and petrochemical products, The Wall Street Journal says.

The orders have been placed by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) and the oil producer Iranian Offshore Oil Company (IOOC).

The Korean companies involved in the case are Hyundai Mipo Dockyard, which is a subsidiary of shipbuilding giant Hyundai Heavy Industries Group, as well as Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Company.

It has signed a memorandum of understanding with Hyundai Mipo Dockyard, a subsidiary of shipbuilding company Hyundai Heavy Industries Group, for as many as 10 petroleum-product tankers and at least six so-called handysize bulk carriers.

Product tankers cost about $30 million each and handysize bulkers about $20 million apiece. IRISL also is in talks with Hyundai Heavy for as many as six, 14,500-container ships.

Chinas Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Company is also in talks with IRISL over new ship orders, the Journal has quoted people close to the case as saying.

The agreements are part of Irans efforts to make a comeback in global shipping after the lifting of international sanctions earlier this year, but completing the orders will depend on financing that the Iranians have not yet secured, the paper said.

Separately, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co (DSME) is reported to be in advanced talks to sign an MoU for at least five jack-up rigs worth at around USD 205 million each.

The post-sanction cooperation between the two nations has also seen DSME sign a business agreement on operation and technology instruction with the Iranian government for Iran Shipbuilding & Offshore Industries Complex Co. (ISOICO).

IRISL is a major Iranian shipping company that operates about 115 oceangoing vessels, with a total capacity of 3.3 million deadweight tons. IOOC is a subsidiary of state oil giant National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), which has a third share of Iranian oil exports.
InterMoor said it has completed the final tensioning and chain cutting operations on the FPSO Turritella for the Shell Stones project, located in the Walker Ridge protraction area in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM).

The FPSO Turritella will connect to subsea infrastructure located beneath approximately 9,500 ft (2,896 m) of water, breaking the existing water depth record for an oil and gas production facility. This ultra-deepwater project marks the first FPSO for Shell in the GoM, and the second FPSO in the GoM.

Having arrived in January 2016, the Turritella is a disconnectable turret moored FPSO with nine mooring lines consisting of chain and polyester, arrayed in three bundles of three. The mooring lines were attached to a dis-connectable Buoyant Turret Mooring (BTM) buoy in field, awaiting the FPSOs arrival. Each mooring leg has an in-line mooring connector (ILMC) tensioning system, located approximately 900 ft below the surface, which was pre-tensioned after connection to the BTM. Once the Turritella arrived, and the BTM was recovered by the FPSO. InterMoors work scope consisted of chain final tension adjustments through the ILMC system, subsequent cut and removal of excess chain, and riser pull-in rope stretching and transfer to the FPSO.

InterMoor, an Acteon company, used the Seacor Keith Cowan anchor-handling vessel (AHV) to perform the first phase of the operations and later moved to a larger construction vessel already on charter and on standby.

Tom Fulton, global president, InterMoor, said, InterMoor supported this FPSOs mooring needs by utilizing a cost-effective and Jones Act compliant anchor handling vessel, whereas competitors would typically resort to a large construction vessel.

We were able to successfully provide full project management and engineering, including: design, procedures, procurement, dock support, offshore equipment and personnel for all phases. Our team also designed installation aids and fabricated them in our Morgan City facility, in Louisiana.

Acteon sister companies worked alongside InterMoor on the project, with UTEC providing the positioning survey for the AHV, and Mirage custom-designing and fabricating the diamond wire cutting saw and clamping system.

InterMoor also provided the following services for the Turritella installation:

Provision of Tow Masters on-board the FPSO.

BTM buoy clump weight rigging removal.

Dock and equipment support to Shell contracted heading control tugs.

FPSO heading control steering lines design, procurement and offshore installation

Dive-Support Vessel mooring design, procurement and offshore support for hook-up and disconnection.
Workers at Elengy's three liquified natural gas (LNG) terminals in France have voted to stage two 24-hour strikes on Thursday and next Tuesday as part of nationwide protests against a labour reform bill, a CGT union official said on Wednesday.

The strikes will halt unloading of LNG tankers and reduce production of gas for the grid to minimum levels, the official told Reuters.

A previous stoppage last month had already disrupted activity at the terminals before unloading operations resumed last Friday, the official said.



(Reporting by Valerie Parent, writing by Gus Trompiz, editing by Sybille de La Hamaide)
The Tsakos Group of Companies has selected DNV GL to assist in preparing a cybersecurity management system for its fleet and onshore facilities  the first such management system developed by a shipping company in cooperation with DNV GLs Advisory Services.

The Greek shipping organization will implement a comprehensive system of safeguards and procedures to protect their assets from cyber risks. DNV GL is the first classification society to put this kind of cybersecurity service into practice.

We wanted to assure our charterers and customers that our systems would be adequately protected from cyber risks by implementing the highest standards of cybersecurity on board our vessels and on shore. DNV GLs proactive attitude in addressing such newly arising industry challenges, its clear vision and commitment to the highest standards assists us in achieving this, says Sokratis Dimakopoulos, Deputy Managing Director of Tsakos Columbia Shipmanagement (TCM), the ship management arm of the Tsakos Group.

The partnership between TCM and DNV GL has been very fruitful, and we look forward to enhancing this cooperation in the future, says Knut rbeck-Nilssen, CEO of DNV GL  Maritime.

DNV GL is committed to help customers manage cybersecurity risks and advance the competitiveness of their assets. Managing risks related to cyber safety and security requires a systemic integrated approach that understands and covers all layers of asset management and their interconnections, from infrastructure technology and software, to human-system interaction, data management and company-wise policy and preparedness, he added.

Recently published guidelines on marine cybersecurity by the Round Table of international shipping associations had called upon shipping companies to further enhance the security of their IT systems.

One of their key recommendations was for shipping companies to develop a cybersecurity management system to ensure that they not only have a broad overview of the cyber and information security risks which may occur during their assets lifecycles, but also maintain sustainable and resilient procedures to protect vessels and their systems against cyber threats.

Tsakos has been working with DNV GL to create an information security management system which will provide a comprehensive framework for assessing cyber vulnerabilities and implementing the necessary measures for mitigating risks and responding to potential system breaches. We follow a pragmatic approach based on a thorough risk and gap analysis. The resilience of the resulting procedures and management system will then be verified through penetration testing carried out by the DNV GL Group company Marine Cybernetics, explains Nikolaos Kakalis, Manager of DNV GL Maritime R&D and Advisory in Greece.

On board vessels, the navigational equipment and systems like the Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS), control and automation systems, as well as communication networks are considered of high vulnerability to potential cyber threats, making them, along with the user awareness, key focus areas in the development of cybersecurity management systems.

To further enhance the preparedness of our company for dealing with potential cybersecurity threats effectively, we are planning to take the next step and apply for certification to the information security management systems (ISO 27001) standard, adds Nikolaos Palaiologos, the IT Manager of TCM.

To achieve compliance with the ISO 27001 standard, companies need to demonstrate a process-driven approach for establishing, implementing, operating, monitoring, reviewing, maintaining, and improving their information security management system. TCM will be one of the first shipmanagement companies worldwide to apply for certification to ISO 27001.
Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Response Element Marines from 3rd Marine Division, CBRN defense platoon, Headquarters Battalion, III Marine Expeditionary Force, tested their operational capabilities during exercise Habu Sentinel 16 at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, from May 30 to June 8, 2016.



As the annual capstone exercise for the divisions response element, this event encompasses multiple objectives specific to CBRN response and validates unit standard operating procedures in an unfamiliar training environment.



Habu Sentinal is a 3rd Marine Division CBRN exercise specifically tailored to the CBRN response element, which is a small 15-man team within the platoon that is tasked with handling events that are beyond the scope and scale of traditional CBRN capabilities . . . [including] support of combat operations and humanitarian and disaster relief efforts, said Chief Warrant Officer Christopher Joy, CBRN defense officer with 3rd MarDiv. The CBRN response element this year has been reinforced with members of the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing . . . and when we came to Iwakuni, we incorporated the Marine Aircraft Group 12 CBRN Marines as well.



The initial stages of the exercise reintroduced Marines to the assessment and consequence management equipment, hazardous material operations and CBRN response element mission sets that range from combat operations to installation support.



Provided to each major subordinate command for their platoons to utilize, the Marine Air Ground Task Force ACM set provides the division with enhanced CBRN proficiencies above those available to subordinate units, including CBRN technical rescue and the necessary response capabilities to support national military strategy for countering weapons of mass destruction and other contingency operations.



Although MAG-12 does not have an ACM set, as CBRN Marines, they are required to know how to utilize and employ this equipment; so we folded them into the unit and theyve been training with us, said Joy. ACM equipment goes beyond your traditional mission orientated protective posture gear thats associated with CBRN defense. This gear is for areas where the gas mask doesnt work, the MOPP suit doesnt provide adequate protection, and the equipment isnt sufficient to detect the hazards in the air.



Hazardous materials operations were conducted throughout the exercise to give present units an opportunity to employ the ACM set while conducting reconnaissance in simulated battlefields suspected of having CBRN threats.



First we conducted a radiological monitor survey mission where we obtained background readings in a Tomodachi-like scenario, said Michael Cox, installation CBRN protection officer at MCAS Iwakuni. The Marines learned what capabilities they had, how to plan their mission, how to execute their mission and . . . we got real world information back to use in our all hazards threat assessment.



Marines operated at the stations Disaster Village and utilized the tower to descend as if entering an underground bunker suspected of containing chemical weapons. Members of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force also observed this entire evolution to acquire knowledge of their tactics, procedures and technical abilities.



We observed their gear and training and learned a lot from them, said JGSDF Maj. Keisuke Eguchi, officer in charge of the Nuclear, Biological, Chemical unit with the 13th Brigade in Kaita, Hiroshima. Our anti-chemical training that we have conducted focuses on how to deal with mass casualties in huge areas. However, this training showed us how to conduct a mission in a dangerous location, with a small group of personnel and in a difficult area to enter . . . We want to adopt these things into our training in the future.



Units later responded to a simulated hard landing crash site involving a static display Japanese Shin Meiwa PS-1 aircraft located near the stations harbor. In the scenario, the plane reportedly flew through a haze of radioactive clouds and is carrying contaminated casualties from the combat area.



This scenario allowed III MEF personnel to provide CBRN response, emergency security measures, casualty assistance, hazard mitigation, and also illustrated MCAS Iwakunis strategic location in the Pacific theater as a staging area for forces during contingency operations.



The end result behind all of this cross training between the installation, the division and the MAW is they understand our requirements, we understand their capabilities and how they can fit them into our installation protection management program, said Cox.



Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 152, stationed at MCAS Iwakuni, assisted in scenarios as well by providing a taxiway combat off-load. Pallets suspected of radiological contamination slid from the cargo bay of a KC-130J onto the taxiway where CBRN Marines were staged nearby in order to respond swiftly and effectively.



We found the contamination and decontaminated the cargo as necessary, said Sgt. David Gale, CBRN response element team leader with 3rd MarDiv. That scenario specifically was something that happened during the Tomadachi event . . . and definitely helped us practice for possible real-world situations, so its good training.



At exercise conclusion, coordinators included multiple CBRN threats to ensure Marines were tested on a variety of subject matter specific to CBRN response and mitigation.



Marines responded to a simulated call from infantrymen clearing a structure where they came into contact with a list of laboratories containing chemical weapons such as ricin and botulism.



We changed it up a little bit this last scenario to supporting an infantry unit on the ground during an engagement, said Chief Warrant Officer Jonathan B. Davis, CBRN officer in charge with MAG-12. All throughout the week we worked through different scenarios, including missions that support WMD sites on the peninsula, support of the installation and support of airfield operations.



As situations ranged from simple issues to complex threats, CBRN personnel gained experience, knowledge and broader perspectives that could be applied in operations world-wide. Additionally, exercises such as Habu Sentinel allow individuals from other units to cross-pollinate information and create a synergistic approach to combating CBRN threats.



Ive learned how to work with different teams, which is pretty refreshing, said Cpl. Chelsea Roy, rigging team leader with 3rd MarDiv. We learned how others operate and got better ideas of how to do things in the CBRN community . . . its a pretty awesome opportunity.



Habu Sentinal 16 is the third iteration of this exercise and is expected to become more complex with new training locations and new participating allies from the region.



It has been a fantastic learning experience for us and a great way for operational forces to support the installation, said Joy. If something were to happen, we would need to be able to plug in with the tenant organizations here and the host nation emergency responders, and thats what were proving to be effective while were here.



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Marines with Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 314, and Marine All-Weather Fighter Attack Squadron 242, from Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, traveled to Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, to participate in exercise Red Flag-Alaska 16-2, June 2-17, 2016.



The exercise provides a realistic training environment and allows commanders to train for full spectrum engagements, ranging from individual skills of the pilots to complex, large-scale joint engagements.



Red Flag-Alaska is a large force exercise where we train with U.S. Air Force and U.S. Army units, said U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Col. Gregory A. McGuire, commanding officer of VMFA-314. We also have some coalition forces here, the Republic of Singapore Air Force and the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force, so its a big combined, joint, coalition exercise to work together with a very large number of aircraft to get to know each other; sharing tactics, techniques and procedures on how we would work together if we were called upon to serve in a big, kinetic fight.



Red Flag-Alaska takes place inside the Joint Pacific Alaska Range Complex, which is the largest instrumented air, ground and electronic combat training range in the world.



The range complex provides more than 67,000 square miles of airspace, including one conventional bombing range and two tactical bombing ranges containing 510 different types of targets and 45 threat simulators, both manned and unmanned. This capability supplies enough room and support for Red Flag-Alaska 16-2 to host a large amount of aircraft participation.



The first Monday event is going to bring in the neighborhood of 70-plus aircraft airborne at one time, said McGuire. It is a lot of detailed planning and detailed organization between the elements, but its a great training opportunity for the squadron.



The pilots will deal with issues such as language barriers and new aircraft in the sky as allies or playing as the enemy during the exercise.



We just got here and did our coordination today, said Capt. Steve Parks, pilot with VMFA-314. It sounds like a great chance to work with the other units that are out here like the Japan Air Self-Defense Force and, of course, the U.S. Air Force, who is hosting the exercise.



Training in a large scale exercise like Red Flag-Alaska 16-2 is a stepping stone for the pilots and maintenance crews of both squadrons to be more experienced and knowledgeable in large-scale combat operations. This allows the squadrons to be more effective in combat and reduces the risk of casualties.



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Two Months Ago, theThe Only Thing That Grows Is Debt

Two months ago, there was a referendum in Holland about an association agreement between the EU and Ukraine. A relatively new Dutch law states that with an X amount of signatures a referendum can be forced by anyone. Before, during and -especially- after the vote, its importance was -and is actively being- pooh-poohed by both the Dutch government and the EU. That in itself paints the issue better than anything else. Both the call and the subsequent support for the referendum stem from resistance against exactly that attitude.

The Dutch voted No to the EU/Ukraine agreement. It was with a turnout not much above the validity threshold, but a large majority of those who did vote agreed they want no part of the deal. This puts Dutch PM Rutte in an awkward position, he cant be seen ignoring the population. Well, at least not openly. The EU cant validate the agreement, and with Holland still holding the chair of the Union until July 1, a meeting on the topic has been pushed forward until the last weekend of June. With Rutte still in charge, but only just, and with the June 23 UK Brexit vote decided.

Brussels is frantically looking for a way to push through the agreement despite the Dutch vote, and likely some sort of bland compromise will be presented, which Ruttes spin doctors will put into words that he can -with a straight face- claim honor the vote while at the same time executing what that same vote specifically spoke out against.

The EU will claim that since 27 other nations did ratify the agreement, the 67% of the 32% of Dutch voters who bothered to show up should not be able to block it. As they conveniently fail to mention that nobody in the other 27 countries had a chance to vote on the issue. Just imagine a Brexit-like vote in all 28 EU nations on June 23. Brussels knows very well what that would mean. Theres nothing it finds scarier than people having an active say in their lives.

All this is a mere introduction for what is a western world wide trend that hardly anybody is able to interpret correctly. It what seems to many to be a sudden development, votes like the Dutch one are events where people vote down incumbents and elites. But these are not political occurrences, or at least politics doesnt explain them.

In the US, theres Trump and Bernie Sanders. In Britain, the Brexit referendum shows a people that are inclined not to vote FOR something, but AGAINST current political powers. In Italy, a Five-Star candidate is set to become mayor of Rome, something two Podemos affiliated -former- activists have already achieved in Barcelona and Madrid.

All across Europe, traditional parties are at record lows in the polls. As is evident when it comes to Brexit, but what when you look closer is a common theme, anything incumbents say can and will be used against them. (A major part of this is that the propaganda power of traditional media is fast coming undone.)

The collapse of the system doesnt mean people swing to the right, as is often claimed, though that is one option. It means people swing outside of the established channels, and whoever can credibly claim to be on that outside has a shot at sympathy, votes, power, be they left or right. Whatever else it is they may have in common, first and foremost theyre anti-establishment.

To understand the reason all this is happening, we must turn our heads and face economics. Or rather, the collapse of the economy. Especially in the western world  the formerly rich world-, there is no such thing as separate political and economic systems anymore (if there ever were). There is more truth in Hazel Hendersons quote than we should like: economics [..] has always been nothing more than politics in disguise.

What we have is a politico-economic system, with the former media establishment clinging to (or inside?!) its body like some sort of embedded parasite. A diseased triumvirate.

With the economy in irreversible collapse, the politico part of the Siamese twin/triplet can no longer hold. That is what is happening. That is why all traditional political parties are either already out or soon will be. Because they, more than anything else, stand for the economic system that people see crumbling before their eyes. They represent that system, they are it, they cant survive without it.

Of course the triumvirate tries as hard as it can to keep the illusion alive that sometime soon growth will return, but in reality this is not just another recession in some cycle of recessions. Or, at the very minimum this is a very long term cycle, Kondratieff style, . And even that sounds optimistic. The system is broken, irreparably. A new system will have to appear, eventually. But

Associations like the EU, and perhaps even the US, with all the supranational and global entities they have given birth to, NATO, IMF, World Bank, you name them, depend for their existence on an economy that grows. The entire drive towards globalization does, as do any and all drives toward centralization. But the economy has collapsed. So all this will of necessity go into reverse, even if there are very powerful forces that will resist such a development.

Despite what the media try to tell you, as do the close to 100% manipulated economic data emanating from various -tightly controlled- sources, the economy is not growing, and it hasnt for years; the only thing that grows is debt. And you cant borrow growth.

You can argue in fascinating philosophical debates about when this started, arguments can be made for Nixons 1971 abolishment of the -last vestiges of- the gold standard anywhere up to Clintons 1998 repeal of Glass-Steagall, or anything in between -or even after.

It doesnt matter much anymore, the specifics are already gathering dust as research material for historians. The single best thing to do for all of us not in positions of politico/economic power is to recognize the irreversible collapse of the system. Since we all grew up in it and have never known anything else, that is hard enough in itself. But we dont have all that much time to lose anymore.

The whole shebang is broke. This can easily be displayed in a US nominal debt vs nominal GDP graph:

Thats really all you need to know. Thats what broke the shebang. It is easy. And even if a bit more of the surplus debt had been allowed to go towards the common man, it wouldnt have made much difference. Weve replaced growth with debt, because that is the only way to keep the -illusion of- the politico-economic system going, and thereby the only way for the incumbent powers to cling on to that power.

And that is where the danger lies. Its not just that the vast majority of westerners will become much poorer than they are now, they will be forced to face powers-that-be that face the threat of seeing their powers -both political and economic- slip sliding away and themselves heading towards some sort of Marie-Antoinette model.

The elites-that-be are not going to take that lying down. They will cling to their statuses for -literally- dear life. That right there is the biggest threat we all face (including them). It would be wise to recognize all these things for what they really are, not for what all these people try to make you believe they are. Dead seriously: playtime is over. The elites-that-be are ready and willing to ritually sacrifice you and your children. Because its the only way they can cling on to their positions. And their own very lives.

It may take a long time still for people to understand the above, but its also possible that markets crash tomorrow morning and bring the facades of Jericho down with them. Waiting for that to happen is not your best option.

By Raul Ilargi Meijer

Website: http://theautomaticearth.com (provides unique analysis of economics, finance, politics and social dynamics in the context of Complexity Theory) 2016 Copyright Raul I Meijer - All Rights Reserved Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors.

Raul Ilargi Meijer Archive

 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.




A minister who made a request for a Planned Unit Development for a controversial "Tiny Home" community at Ooltewah for low-income individuals on Wednesday asked that it be officially withdrawn.

The County Commission will deal with the issue next Wednesday at a regular session.



Barry Kidwell, United Methodist minister to those in the inner city, said the group, Mustard Seed Ministries, had not adequately conveyed to nearby residents what the program was about.

He said the ministry will regroup and determine whether to seek another PUD at the site or to find another location.

Rev. Kidwell noted that the staff of the Regional Planning Agency had approved the request, though the Planning Commission recommended against it after a large number of citizens were in opposition.

He said he had seen a similar program in Wichita, Kan., that brought former gang members and others who were down and out to a farm program for two years.

The plan, he said, was to build 10 small houses, then another 10, then a final 12. He said the rent would be $250 to $300 per month.

Dean Moorhouse called it spot zoning and said it would bring felons and gang members to Ooltewah. He said it was less than a quarter mile from two schools.

He said Snow Hill Road is a dangerous road and there were not nearby services or grocery stores for the inhabitants of the tiny homes.

Tammy Cotter, who lives across the street, said prostitutes were among the group slated for the plot.

She said she wanted to continue to enjoy her property with her grandchildren "without having to look over our shoulders."


COS Business Products and Interiors is celebrating its 75th anniversary in Chattanooga by giving back to the community. The local family-owned and managed business is launching a campaign in the dozens of communities it serves by launching a food drive, dubbed Food Trucks for Food Bank.On Wednesday, COS truck drivers will deliver around 350 boxes, or food bins, to be placed inside businesses to collect non-perishable food items over the next six weeks. At the conclusion of the campaign, the boxes will be picked up by COS and taken to collection stations to be sorted and delivered, never leaving the counties where the food was originally donated, thus benefiting the citizens of that particular community.The food drive will benefit the Chattanooga Area Food Bank and its surrounding agency partners.The campaign will wrap up on August 5 with a family workday and cook out for COS employees. Those who wish to contribute monetarily to the fundraiser can do so by donating online at: www.chattfoodbank.org/donate When I heard how far $1 can go when it comes to feeding the hungry, I knew this was an opportunity for COS and its customers to make a positive impact in our communities. Were excited to put our resources into this campaign and hope it goes a long way in fighting hunger throughout North Georgia and Southeast Tennessee, said Skip Ireland, president of COS.COS is celebrating its 75th anniversary throughout 2016 by leading various efforts to benefit nonprofit organizations in the Chattanooga, Southeast Tennessee and North Georgia areas.
With a group of 20 church and community members, CrossPoint Pastor Carl Keith hopes to take the Christian Gospel to a deprived corner of the world.

Keith and his fellow workers from Ridgeways CrossPoint Church look to fulfill the Great Commission found in Matthew 28:16-20 with a mission trip to Cienguilla, Peru in July. Approximately one hour outside of popular tourist destination Lima, Cieneguilla has not yet experienced urbanization. According to Keith, the province has neither cars nor running water, adding that most residents live in a shanty, which is basically four walls and a tin roof.

Working with Mike Kennedy, a missionary supported by CrossPoint Church, the group from Ridgeway will interact with New Life Childrens Home, an orphanage in Cieneguilla. New Life Childrens Home works with adoption agencies to place children in Christian homes; meanwhile, the organization provides a safe living environment where children can grow both physically and spiritually.

On this trip we will be able to spread the message of Jesus to many who are lost. We will be helping at an orphanage, distributing Bibles, providing food and blankets to those in need, as well as helping with building projects, Kay Newcomb, a member of CrossPoint Church, posted on Facebook.

Additionally, the group will participate in evangelism outreach, will volunteer at soup kitchens, and will take supplies to holding tanks.

Holding tanks are where children who are totally abandoned are placed, Keith said.

Some children in holding tanks have been abused; others have been thrown away in the trash, and some are pregnant at a young age. Eventually, a judge places the children in a childrens home or institution.

We are going to feed them and take them rice, Keith said.

CrossPoint Church is seeking both physical and monetary donations leading up to their July 8 mission trip.

Things like light flip flops, small tubes of toothpaste, tooth brushes, and small toys travel well, Keith said. And individually wrapped candy. Candy always draws a crowd. Then we can minister to the crowd and preach the Gospel.

Since the group must travel light, they will buy some items that do not pack well  like blankets and food  when they arrive in Peru. They will then hand out the donated and purchased items to those in need, on the streets, and in the orphanage.

CrossPoint Church is also asking for Bible Sponsors. Using money raised through donations, the church will buy Bibles to give to Peruvians. Donors may honor or memorialize a loved one by placing his or her name on an insert that the church will place in a Bible.

God has blessed me in so many ways and I hope to spread His love to others not only on this trip, but in my everyday life, Newcomb said.

For more information about the upcoming mission trip or to make a physical or monetary donation to CrossPoint Church, email Pastor Carl Keith at carl@crosspoint4u.org.
Tax season may be over, but that doesnt mean con artists wont keep trying to get your money. Over the last month, local residents have repeatedly been targeted by people pretending to be with the Internal Revenue Service.

Weve been contacted by a few people indicating they were contacted by someone via telephone or email claiming to be with the Internal Revenue Service, IRS, and suggesting or demanding that immediate payment be made, Martinsville Police Chief Sean Dunn said. In at least one instance, the requested payment was to pay with a wire transfer and another instance involved sending it with iTunes gift cards. This is a scam.

Dunn advised residents to hang up the phone, not to even listen to what the scammers are saying.

If you have any concerns, you should contact whoever completed your taxes or the local police department, Dunn said. Please do not send money to someone in these circumstances. This is a scam and you will likely not be able to get your money back.

Dunn noted that the IRS has a Tax Scam / Consumer Alert web page, www.irs.gov/uac/tax-scams-consumer-alerts that offers information on scams and advice.

According to a May 27 IRS news release, one recent scam involved bogus phone calls from IRS impersonators demanding payment for a non-existent tax, the Federal Student Tax. The IRS impersonators try to convince people to wire money immediately to the scammer, and if the victim does not do so quickly enough, the scammer threatens to report the student to the police.

Scammers frequently masquerade as being from the IRS, a tax company and sometimes even from a state revenue department.

Some of the tactics of scammers seen this year are: soliciting W-2 information from payroll and human resources professionals, verifying tax return information over the phone, pretending to be from the tax preparation industry, and demanding immediate tax payment for taxes owed on an iTunes gift card.

The IRS will never: 1) call to demand immediate payment over the phone, nor will the agency call about taxes owed without first having mailed you a bill; 2) demand that you pay taxes without giving you the opportunity to question or appeal the amount the IRS says you owe; 3) require you to use a specific payment method for your taxes, such as a prepaid debit card; 4) ask for credit or debit card numbers over the phone; or 5) threaten to immediately bring in local police or other law-enforcement groups to have you arrested for not paying.

If you get a phone call from someone claiming to be from the IRS and asking for money and you dont owe taxes, heres what to do: 1) Dont give out any information. Hang up immediately. Contact the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) to report the call. Use the IRS Impersonation Scam Reporting web page (https://www.treasury.gov/tigta/contact_report_scam.shtml) or call 800-366-4484. 4) Report it to the Federal Trade Commission by visiting FTC.gov and clicking on File a Consumer Complaint. Add IRS Telephone Scam in the notes. 5) If you think you might owe taxes, call the IRS directly at 1-800-829-1040.

When asked if the Henry County Sheriffs Office has received any recent reports of tax scam, Capt. D.W. Davis said: This has been an ongoing scam for several years. We have not had anyone fall victim to it recently.
A Ridgeway man faces multiple charges following an incident Monday in Martinsville.

According to a news release from the Martinsville Police Department, officers from the Martinsville Police Department responded to the 1200 block of Fayette Street early Monday morning in reference to someone allegedly stealing a motor vehicle. Officers arrived to find a 2010 Toyota Corolla over an embankment in front of a residence, and the driver had fled the area. Evidence found at the scene led to the development of a suspect who is wanted from the State of New York, the release added.

Delante Stephen Cole, 18, of Richwood Circle, Ridgeway, was arrested and charged with grand larceny, theft of a credit card, and being a fugitive from justice in New York State for failure to appear on a grand larceny charge. He is being held without bond in Martinsville City Jail.

"This was excellent work by the responding patrol officers and the criminal investigator who quickly identified our suspect and apprehended this fugitive from justice from New York. This was a true team effort on the part of our officers to stop what was becoming a crime spree," said Martinsville Police Chief Sean Dunn.

The investigation into the case will continue, the release said, as it is believed that other victims have not yet been identified and additional charges may result. Anyone having information is encouraged to contact Sgt. Richard Ratcliffe at (276) 403-5335 or Crime Stoppers at (276) 632-7463.
A Danville man entered an Alford plea to two counts of robbery Tuesday in Henry County Circuit Court in connection with an armed robbery at Dodges Store on Virginia Avenue in Bassett on Oct. 8, 2015.

In an Alford plea, a defendant maintains his innocence but admits the prosecution likely could prove the charge.

Judge David V. Williams told the defendant, Timothy Jimmy Anderson, that the plea would have the same effect as a guilty plea. Williams ordered that Anderson be evaluated by the Department of Corrections to determine if he would be eligible for the youthful offenders program, and Williams scheduled sentencing for Aug. 31 at 2 p.m.

The commonwealths attorneys office nolle prossed (discontinued prosecution of) a charge of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.

According to the commonwealths summary of evidence, in the early morning of Oct. 8, 2015, two female employees were working at Dodges Store, a convenience store, and a customer was in the store buying a cup of coffee. Two men came in the store wearing dark clothing and masks. One was carrying a long gun, one was carrying a handgun, and both were yelling, "Get on the ground!" and "Yall give me the money out of the safe!"

The female employee who was closest to the safe was confronted by the man with the long gun, with the gun pointed in her face. After opening the safe, she tossed the contents on the counter. She tried several times to open her cash drawer but was unable to do so because she was nervous with the gun pointed in her face,

The other female employee was cleaning a fryer when the robbers came in. When she turned around, the man with the revolver was pointing his gun at her chest. She opened a cash drawer and gave him the money out of it.

The customer got on the floor when the robbers came in. He pulled the pants leg up on one man and observed that the robber was African-American, When the robbers ran out, the customer got in his car and followed their car, which he thought was a Saturn or a Toyota. He called 911 and talked to a dispatcher as he followed the car, pulling off the road when law enforcement officers got behind it on Parkway in the Carver section of Henry County.

Sheriffs and police officers chased the Saturn and other deputies unsuccessfully attempted to stop the car using spike strips. When the car was on Cameron Road, someone inside threw a Halloween-style mask out of the car.

The car eventually stopped on Chestnut Knob Road. The driver and a passenger jumped out and ran, and a third person, who was in the back seat, jumped over into the front seat and was captured there. Officers found a black back with money, a .22 semiautomatic handgun and a .22 rifle inside the car. The car tags came back to Darrell Thomas.

Darrell Antre Thomas, of Danville, was the person who was apprehended.

Thomas pleaded guilty Feb. 11 in Henry County Circuit Court to two counts of robbery and one count of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, and a presentence report was ordered. He is scheduled to appear in Circuit Court at 2 p.m. today.

Thomas testified against Anderson at a preliminary hearing in December in Henry County General District Court. Thomas, who said he had gone to Tunstall High School with Anderson, testified that on Oct. 7 he picked up Anderson in Danville, and they drove to meet someone he referred to as "B" in Henry County. Thomas said he had drunk a Four Loko (an alcoholic beverage) and was under the influence. Thomas testified he had a handgun and Anderson had a rifle.

Thomas testified that "B" was familiar with the Dodge Store but didnt want to go in because the people there would know him. "B waited in the car while Thomas and Anderson went in.

Thomas was wearing a Halloween skeleton mask and carrying a pistol, and he believed Anderson had a bandanna over his face and was carrying a rifle, Thomas testified. Anderson went in first and went to the woman by the safe, and Thomas went to the other woman, Thomas testified. He added they put the money in a black tool bag that he had dumped the tools out of, and they ran out of the store.

Thomas testified he got in the back seat of the car, Anderson jumped in the front seat, and "B" drove off. Thomas testified they were followed by another car and that Thomas threw the mask out of the car he was in. When the car stopped, Thomas was unable to get out of the back doors and was caught before he could get out of the car, he testified.

Also, in Circuit Court on Tuesday:

At a bond hearing, bail was denied for Thomas Leon Whited, 41, of 250 Austin Drive, Martinsville, who is charged with aggravated malicious wounding and robbery of Brandon Lester of 65 Hailey Street, Collinsville, on March 3, 2016. The wounding allegedly resulted from a machete attack.

Derrick Antonio Hunt of 640 Hobson Road, Apt. 2, Martinsville, who was charged with robbery, pleaded no contest to an amended charge of grand larceny from a person and was sentenced to seven years in prison, with two years to serve and five years suspended on condition of three years of probation, 10 years of good behavior, and payment of restitution of $7,015 with interest jointly and severally with a co-defendant. Hunt, who also was charged with malicious wounding, pleaded no contest to an amended charge of misdemeanor assault and battery, and was sentenced to 12 months suspended for 12 months on the same conditions. A plea of no contest has the same effect as a guilty plea.

The commonwealths attorneys office nolle prossed these charges against Hunt: possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, use of a firearm in committing felony and misdemeanor identity theft.

According to a criminal complaint, Chance Combs of Ridgeway said that on Nov. 14, 2012, two men robbed him of $240 and shot him several times. During the investigation, Combs and two eyewitnesses identified Hunt as one of the men.

Endy Marie Ingram, 52, of 904 Meadow Lane, Martinsville, pleaded guilty to one count of endanger the life of a child, a presentencing report was ordered, and sentencing was set Aug. 17 at 2 p.m. The commonwealths attorneys office nolle prossed two other counts of endanger the life of a child against Ingram.

A criminal complaint alleges that on Dec. 23, 2015, Deputy R.M. Turner of the Henry County Sheriffs Office responded to a call about three children being left in a vehicle at Walmart. Upon arrival, Turner came in contact with three children sitting alone in a Honda Civic. Endy Marie Ingram then came outside and said it was her car and that she left the children for only 15 minutes. The children ranged in age from 2 to 7. Images from Walmart indicated that Ingram was inside the store about 75 minutes.
The dog days of summer are upon us, and the SPCA of Martinsville-Henry County needs some help.

Nicole Harris, executive director, said that even though the local SPCA was "really blessed" with a Petco grant of $80,000 earlier in the fiscal year, community donations to the animal care facility dropped.

"I think it created a falsehood that there was tons of income," Harris said. "The grant was scheduled and strictly outlined for spay and neuters."

Harris said that due to limited community knowledge of the guidelines of the grant, she feels that the public "fell under a false pretense that there was no need for funding."

Also, due to state regulations, the SPCA had to convert a small retail space into a wellness service area.

"We cant do wellness services on Tuesday and be an SPCA on Wednesday," Harris said.

The project not only took revenue away from the SPCA, but it also cost upward of $12,000 to complete basic remodeling.

Mary Compson, who works at the SPCA, said that there had been a rise in population at the no-kill shelter over the past five years.

"Just in 2014 to 2015 the numbers rose from 2,700 to 3,400," Compson said.

However, due to limited funding, the shelter was unable to make upgrades during the intake process.

Thanks to a recent private donation of $10,000 and a separate private donation of cages, a new area was converted to house more animals. Still, the SPCA spent $8,000 on the area that was not sponsored.

The SPCA does more in the community than provide care for dogs and cats without homes. They also offer help to families who would like to own pets, but do not know how to properly go about the process.

"We dont want responsible pet ownership to be a luxury when animals offer such great companionship," Compson said.

The SPCA strives to raise awareness of animal safety in the area. High school students recently translated post-surgical spay and neuter procedures for those in the community who speak Spanish as their first-language. Also, with the temperatures rising, the animal care center urges individuals to take their pets health into consideration.

Harris said that many pet owners treat their pets like their parents treated pets. Sometimes, the example works out well; other times, pet owners need a little guidance. In some cases, people have taken in animals during the frigid winter months and do not have provisions in place to house the animals in the warmer months.

"We want to intercede on a friendly, non-judgmental level. By tweaking people up one notch, it will affect the next generation. Eventually, we want a society that [properly cares for animals] without being prompted," Harris said.

The SPCA offers a judgment and guilt free animal surrender program. Compson said that oftentimes, when a loved one dies, the family has to not only deal with the grief associated with the passing, but also with the care of the loved ones pet that they were not expecting.

However, operating a facility that cares for thousands of animals each year is not an inexpensive task.

"On average, it costs about $400 to intake an animal," Harris said.

The executive director said that the facility must ensure that a new intake is up to date on vaccinations, has been spayed or neutered, and has a microchip implanted upon arrival.

"General housing for one animal costs $20 a day. After food, lights, electricity, staff paychecks, and everything else, it costs about $2,300  $2,400 to operate on a daily basis," Harris said. "It all comes with prices."

"The needs are increasing, but the help is decreasing," Compson said. "Beyond the front desk, a lot of people dont know whats going on in the back."

Harris said that the SPCA of Martinsville-Henry County receives pleas from high-kill shelters, and that the facility accommodates all that it can.

"When one of us gets hit, we network with each other," Harris said.

The SPCA of Martinsville-Henry County asks for donations of new or used dog houses, tarps, poles, and rope to help individuals who do not have these necessary items for their dogs. In addition, the shelter needs canned kitten food, Purina kitten food, canned pate cat food, chicken baby food and paper towels. In general, the SPCA is searching for volunteers and foster pet parents. Also, financial donations are needed and appreciated.

"What we do is for the betterment of our animals," Harris said.

To make a donation, visit the SPCA of Martinsville-Henry County at 132 Joseph Martin Highway in Martinsville or call the shelter at (276) 638-7297.
Illinois Senator Mark Kirk Takes Back His Trump Endorsement

By Mae Rice in News on Jun 7, 2016 9:40PM



U.S. Senator Mark Kirk (photo via Facebook)

Republican U.S. Senator Mark Kirk issued a statement Tuesday reversing his endorsement of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. In the statement, published in full below, Kirk said that "Donald Trump has not demonstrated the temperament necessary to assume the greatest office in the world."

By way of rationale, Kirk cited the overall less-than-inclusive (read: virulently racist and misogynistic) rhetoric of the Trump campaign. He also called out Trump's recent decision to question whether a Hispanic judge could fairly preside over a legal case against Trump University. (That's Trump's shady erstwhile real estate school.)

Trump argued that U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, a Mexican-American man who grew up in Indiana, could not judge the case fairly because Trump wants to seal off the U.S.-Mexico border with a wall. (He has also said of Mexican immigrants coming to the U.S., "Theyre bringing drugs. Theyre bringing crime. Theyre rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.)

Here's Kirk's full statement:

I have spent my life building bridges and tearing down barriers-not building walls. Thats why I find Donald Trumps belief that an American-born judge of Mexican descent is incapable of fairly presiding over his case is not only dead wrong, it is un-American. As the Presidential campaign progressed, I was hoping the rhetoric would tone down and reflect a campaign that was inclusive, thoughtful and principled. While I oppose the Democratic nominee, Donald Trumps latest statements, in context with past attacks on Hispanics, women and the disabled like me, make it certain that I cannot and will not support my partys nominee for President regardless of the political impact on my candidacy or the Republican Party. It is absolutely essential that we are guided by a commander-in-chief with a responsible and proper temperament, discretion and judgment. Our President must be fit to command the most powerful military the world has ever seen, including an arsenal of thousands of nuclear weapons. After much consideration, I have concluded that Donald Trump has not demonstrated the temperament necessary to assume the greatest office in the world.

Kirk isn't the first to denounce Trump's comments about Curiel. Trump's comments been called racist by people from presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton to U.S. House Speaker and Republican Paul Ryan. Kirk didn't go quite that farperhaps because he and Trump have a similar stylebut he did retract his support of Trump's candidacy.

Kirk's retraction comes after his Democratic challenger for his Senate seat, U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth, called him "complicit" in Trump's hateful campaign for staying silent about Trump's comments on Judge Curiel, according to the Tribune. In fact, the URL of Kirk's statement reads, Trumpishly, "Duckworth ducks the truth."

Kirk also recently tweeted:
The knowledge-dependent Massachusetts economy may soon run out of college-educated workers to staff its new and growing industries, according to a report issued this week by the the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education.

The report predicts that by 2025, the state's community colleges, state universities and campuses of the University of Massachusetts will fall short of producing their share of graduates with degrees in the state's much-needed fields of study by a minimum of 55,000 to 65,000 people.

Massachusetts has more adult degree-holders than any other state with 51.5 percent of adults ages 25 to 54 possessing a four-year degree or better. But Massachusetts is projected to end the decade with fewer working age college-educated residents than it began with unless the rate of degree production improves, the study said.

The report estimates that 660,000 college-educated workers plan to retire in the next five years.

At the same time, there will be fewer high school seniors in Massachusetts, and those seniors will be more likely to come from communities and populations - such as blacks and Latinos - that have poorer college graduation rates and systemic barriers between them and a college degree.

Numbers included in the report show white women have the highest chance of completing a degree either at a college, university or a community college. They are followed by white men.

But women represent just 15 percent of all those enrolled in computer science majors and 22 percent of the graduates.

The New England Economic Partnership has forecast that by 2018, Massachusetts' economic growth rate would drop by half, from 3 percent to 1.5 percent, precisely because the state will not produce enough college-educated workers to fill jobs in high-demand industries.

Steps need to be taken now, the study states, to reverse trends showing that fewer black and Latino young people - the state's fastest growing demographics - are able to complete two- and four-year degrees.

In the report, economist Michael Goodman says there is a direct correlation between Springfield's persistently high unemployment rate and the fact that only about 20 percent of the population over the age of 25 has a bachelor's degree or better. The city's 7.2 percent unemployment for April is the lowest in nine years, but even with the improvement, that 7.2 percent is still the seventh-highest unemployment rate in the state.

Goodman is director of the Public Policy Center at UMass Dartmouth and an editor at the MassBenchmarks economic journal.

Employers told consultants working on Springfield FutureCity 2026, the city's economic development plan, that they are already having a hard time finding the skilled workers they need. They listed generation transition, the process of replacing soon-to-retire baby boomers in the workforce.

And soon, it won't just be Springfield that has the problem, Goodman said in the report:

"If we cannot continue to provide the skilled workers that our growing employers demand, they will look elsewhere and the state economy and its working families will be the poorer for it."

Solutions laid out in the report:

There are more local success stories outlined in the report. For example, Holyoke Community College has nearly doubled the number of dual enrollment students it serves in the past two years with new relationships at Chicopee Comprehensive High School and at the Paulo Freire Social Justice Charter School in Holyoke.

Holyoke Community College also boasts a Gateway to College program for high school dropouts with the highest graduation rates of any Gateway program in the U.S. Since fall 2010, 171 students have earned their high school diplomas by taking college classes at HCC, according to the report.

But the state's challenge, the report said, is to scale up programs that might be working in one city and get them going statewide so they can have a bigger impact.

University of Massachusetts Amherst spokesman Ed Blaguszewski said his campus' relationships with community colleges including Holyoke Community College are key. UMass aligns programs at community colleges with its Amherst campus.

Many students are talented enough to succeed at a four-year school, but need a little more polishing at the community college level, or they may need to save some money.

"We find that students who succeed at community college do very well here," Blaguszewski said.

The study calls for colleges and universities to expand capacity in high-tech subjects or nursing.

Blaguszewski said UMass is answering this call with the College of Information and Computer Science created in 2015. The university created its center for Data Science within the new college.
dolly_parton.jpg

Dolly Parton

(Photo courtesy of Tanglewood Music Center)

Don't underestimate Dolly.

She might seem like a cartoon character to some people.

But beneath the big hair, the makeup and the rhinestones, there's a savvy businesswoman who owns her own record company and a spot-on songwriter who earned her place at the top.

The numbers speak for themselves - 25 No .1 songs, 41 Top Ten albums, 100 million songs sold worldwide and 46 Grammy nominations.

But you can't put a number on the amount of devotion fans have for the 5-foot tall, 70-year-old performer. Mention Dolly Parton and most people's faces light right up. She even has her own theme park named Dollywood.

And yet, you'd never know Parton is such a huge star when you're talking to her. On the telephone, during a recent interview, Parton sounded down to earth and sweet as apple pie as she talked about "Pure and Simple," the name of her latest album as well as her current live tour, which includes a performance at Tanglewood on June 17 to open the summer season there in Lenox.

The album "Pure and Simple" features several, new love songs written by Parton, who has been a gifted songwriter for decades. Asked whether she starts with the music or the lyrics when writing new material, Parton said, "It happens both ways sometimes. Sometimes, I get a good melody and I'll be humming along and think, 'Oh, that's a good tune' and then I'll start putting words to it. Sometimes, I'll have some good lines and I'll think something is a good title or I'll come up with some good lines and I'll think, 'Oh, I need to put a good tune to that. And then sometimes, they both come at the same time."

"I've been writing all my life and I've just done it differently at different times," Parton said. She added she's especially proud of certain songs she wrote over the years that weren't especially big hits like, "Down From Dover."

But it's also interesting to learn how Parton came up with the ideas for some of her best-known songs, including her 1973 hit single,"Jolene," in which the narrator pleads with a woman named Jolene to please not take her man "just because you can."

In a 2008 interview with NPR, Parton recalled how the title of the song came from a young girl who asked Parton for her autograph after one of her regular, television concerts in the 1960s.

"One night, I was on stage, and there was this beautiful little girl -- she was probably 8 years old at the time," Parton told NPR. "And she had this beautiful red hair, this beautiful skin, these beautiful green eyes, and she was looking up at me, holding, you know, for an autograph. I said, 'Well, you're the prettiest little thing I ever saw. So what is your name?' And she said, 'Jolene.' And I said, 'Jolene. Jolene. Jolene. Jolene.' I said, 'That is pretty. That sounds like a song. I'm going to write a song about that.'"

The other inspiration for this haunting song was a beautiful, 6-foot-tall, red-headed bank teller who used to flirt with Parton's husband, Carl Thomas Dean, who Parton has been married to since 1966.

On the surface, the song sounds simple. But it's the power of Parton's lyrics and the way she creates such a vivid picture of a desperate woman using so few words that makes "Jolene" so timeless. That's probably why so many musicians - from The White Stripes to Whitney Houston - have recorded "Jolene" and many of Parton's other songs decades later. Less is almost always more.

"I love telling stories and painting pictures," Parton said during her recent interview, adding that her new cd "has a lot of good lines and I had a good time writing it. I think I came up with some really nice lines in some of those songs. I seemed to be in a very inspired mood. I just love to paint pictures with songs."

But Parton isn't content to just be a great songwriter who records her songs in a studio. She loves performing her creations live on stage for her devoted fans around the world.

"In the studio, you're always having to think about making sure you get the right sound," Parton said. "But when you're on stage, when you're performing live, then you really feel like it's all done now, it's all created and you can see how people like it and you can actually perform it."

That's why she said she was so excited to embark on a large-scale, North American tour, something she hasn't done in many years. She added she decided to do the "Pure and Simple" tour mainly because her fans asked for it, especially after the popularity of her 2014 Blue Smoke world tour and last year's television movie, "The Coat of Many Colors," based on Parton's beloved 1971 song.

"Everything seems to be going really good right now," Parton said. "There was a little buzz going on with 'The Coat of Many Colors' and the success of our 'Blue Smoke' cd and our tour through Europe and it got a lot of attention here too so a lot of the promoters and a lot of the fans said, 'why don't you do it here?' and I said ok, if you want me to, I will."

On the tour, Parton will perform several songs off her new album and tell stories about life growing up in Tennessee. She added that she knows that many people come to hear her sing her best-known songs and she never disappoints them. She loves singing songs like "Jolene," "I Will Always Love You," "Two Doors Down," "Here You Come Again" and "Islands In the Stream."

"You always have to do the things your fans demand," Parton said, but added, "It's really hard to know what to pick to get the dynamics that you need for the show. But I work real hard trying to give it my best."

And even though Parton has performed her hits live many times, she said the songs aren't frozen in time. "They take on different meanings at different times because you're singing them to different people," Parton said. "And there's a whole lot of younger, new people getting turned on and tuned into my music so that's all good."

Dolly's tour began recently in Greensboro, North Carolina. Asked if she planned to cancel her show in North Carolina like other performers, including Bruce Springsteen, due to the controversy surrounding the state's new rules restricting transsexuals' access to public bathrooms, Parton said, "I have no plans to cancel the show. I think I'd serve better from the stage and do what we do." Parton added, "I think everybody should be treated great and with respect. I don't see any need to be cancelling shows. I can address that from the stage and say whatever I need to in that format."

Parton's current tour features her and three other musicians - Richard Dennison, Tom Rutledge and Kent Wells. "It's pretty much scaled down," Parton said about the current tour. "We don't have a lot of loud music and we don't have a bunch of videos going on in the background. So it's pretty much just us."

Throughout the interview, Parton sounded bright and sparkling in response to each question. She seemed especially amused when asked about the secret to her youthful stage presence. Her response? "A good doctor, good lighting and good makeup - and a good attitude."

But don't let Dolly's charm fool you. She still has big dreams and big plans for the future. "I do hope to see my life story some day as a musical on Broadway," she said. She'd also love to have her own cosmetic line.

And if the past is any indication, odds are all these things will come true. Because whatever Dolly wants, she always seems to get in her own, charming, determined, aw-shucks kind of way.

Dolly Parton will perform June 17 at 7 p.m. at Tanglewood in Lenox. She will also perform June 21 at the Wang Theatre in Boston.
World Oceans Day, celebrated on June 8, is a day to "honor, help protect, and conserve the world's oceans," according to The Ocean Project.

The holiday started in 1992 but became official by the United Nations in 2008. This year's theme is "Healthy oceans, healthy planet" with an emphasis to stop plastic pollution.

Eight million tons of plastic end up in the ocean each year, according to a study in the journal Science. Researchers at the University of Georgia estimate that by 2025, the annual output of plastic into the world's oceans will be around 155 million metric tons, according to TIME.

In February and March, whales were found dead with plastic in their stomaches.

"Animals inadvertently consume plastic and plastic waste which causes them to suffer and at worst, causes them to starve with full stomachs," Schleswig-Holstein environment Minister Robert Habeck told the Daily Mail.

Various events are set up around the world today, including in Massachusetts. People are welcome to join the New Bedford Whaling Museum's high school apprenticeship program for a World's Oceans Day beach cleanup on June 8 at 3:45 p.m.

If you are unable to attend an event, The Ocean Project encourages people to think about the importance of the ocean, change a daily habit or learn something new about the ocean and the animals that live in it.
The Chicagoist will be launching later but in the meantime please enjoy our archives.
BOSTON  When a good friend of mine who lives in Boston casually mentioned the Scooper Bowl and asked if I was going, I was embarrassed to say I had never heard of this heavenly event where endless ice cream eating supports a good cause.

I've been writing my weekly ice cream column Inside Scoop for four years and not once had I been to this event which has been a tradition in Boston since 1983.

Yesterday I hopped in the car with my brother and went to check out the Jimmy Fund's Scooper Bowl 2016 and it was everything I dreamed of and more.

The ice cream festival came about as a fun way to raise money for cancer research and care at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Every year ice cream companies from across the country donate ice cream and their time for this event.

Here's how it works  There is an entrance fee of $15 for adults and $10 for children between the ages of 3 and 9. All of the proceeds from the entrance fees go to the Jimmy Fund. Once you pay the fee you can enjoy as much ice cream as you want until you literally can't have another bite.

The website for the event mentioned a few well-known ice cream brands that would be featured this year, from Ben & Jerry's to Western Massachusetts favorite, Friendly's, but I was unprepared for the plethora of delectable ice cream choices before me.

My brother and I created a game plan. We would each select a different flavor at each station and go back for another round if there was something we just had to have more of, or another flavor we were intrigued by.

However before we got to eating we were able to hear from Larry Lucchino, the former president and CEO of the Boston Red Sox and chairman of the Jimmy Fund.

"(Dana-Farber) is a local institution and part of the heart and soul of Boston," said Lucchino, who received treatment at the facility more than 20 years ago. He added that since its inception the Scooper Bowl has raised $5 million for cancer research and care.

Also present was Christian Lopez, a young boy who recently completed cancer treatment at Dana-Farber and thanked the Jimmy Fund for making him feel like a normal kid.

"They make you feel like you don't even have cancer. It's special because everybody there cares about you. There are no words to explain how they treated me," he said flanked by his parents.

Once Christian and Lucchino officially cut the red ribbon to get the three-day ice cream party started, it was time to make the rounds.

A quick reminder, for just $15, all of which goes to the fund, you will get to eat as much ice cram as you want from brands including Edy's, Breyers, Yuengling's, Yasso Frozen Greek Yogurt, Friendly's, Walgreens Good & Delish, Hood and Baskin Robbins.

All of the companies offered various flavors in small paper cups, each with a scoop of ice cream, but Yasso offered a full bar of their frozen Greek yogurt treats.

I'm not going to review all of the flavors we tried, but here are a few highlights:

We only got one bar at the Yasso station, because Greek Yogurt in ice cream form seems like it would be yuck. My brother chose mint chocolate chip and we were both pleasantly surprised by how good it was. No, Greek yogurt is not the same as full fat ice cream, but for those looking for a slightly healthier option, this bar was really good. The yogurt was creamy, the mint flavor was strong and the chocolate chips added a nice texture to the mix.

I have reviewed various flavors of Yeungling's ice cream and have always been pretty impressed with the brand. They were offering a few flavors at the event, including cherry vanilla chunk. I loved everything about this ice cream, from the creamy cherry and vanilla ice cream to the large chunks of cherry and chocolate in the mix.

I was thrilled to see that Ben & Jerry's was offering its new Empower Mint flavor which was launched as part of the brand's Democracy Is In Your Hands campaign, a yearlong effort to bring attention to voting rights issues across the country. This peppermint ice cream is mixed with fudge brownie pieces and fudge swirls. Every bite was phenomenal. The ice cream was creamy, the fudge was silky and the brownie pieces were plentiful and sweet. I haven't been able to find this flavor at my local grocery store, so I would say that was the most exciting offering of the day for me.

My brother was brave enough to try Hood's Maple French Toast ice cream which features French toast flavored ice cream with a maple syrup flavored swirl and maple syrup candy pieces. This one was overly sweet for us, but it definitely tasted like French toast in frozen form.

A shout out to my local favorite Friendly's for offering Hunka Chunka PB Fudge as an option. Those who read my column know how big of a fan I am of this vanilla ice cream mixed with peanut butter, fudge and crushed peanut butter cups.
Eataly Debuts Its Crispy, Roman-Style Pizza

By Chicagoist_Guest in Food on Jun 8, 2016 5:33PM



One of the new pizzas. Photo courtesy of Eataly Chicago.



By Leigh Kunkel

While its a universally accepted fact that everyone loves pizza, not everyone can agree on what kind they prefer. And until now, Eataly Chicago has only offered one option: Neopolitan style. But no more! Beginning Wednesday, Eataly is launching their new pizza alla pala, a Roman-style pizza thats served on a wooden pala (paddle).

In addition to being oblong (the Neopolitan pizzas that Eataly already serves are round), the new pizzas are cooked in an electric oven rather than a wood-burning one, making the crust golden and crispy on the outside and light and fluffy inside. Think more of a flatbread, which has a consistent thickness all the way through, than a pizza, which often has a raised crust and a flatter center. The dough itself is also different; it has a much higher water content, making it stickier and denser before its baked, and creating a more bread-like consistency.



Photo courtesy of Eataly Chicago.

Another deviation from the Neopolitan pizzas that people may be more familiar with is how the toppings are added: while some, like the Quattro Formaggi, are baked with all the ingredients on top, others, including the Tricolore, which has prosciutto, mozzarella, cherry tomatoes, and arugula, are topped after the crust is baked, leaving the ingredients fresh and crisp. Standouts from the new menu include the Parmigiana, with thinly sliced eggplant and mozzarella, and the Eggs n Bacon, which even our Italian host agreed was excellent, if very American.

Some might argue that Chicago doesnt need any more pizza, but when that pizza comes topped with stracciatella, which is freshly pulled mozzarella soaked in cream, who are we to complain?

The new menu is belowthe pizza alla pala cost between $16 and $22.

Piazza Summer 06.08.16
Father Murdered Infant Son, Then Called 911 For Help, Prosecutors Say

By Mae Rice in News on Jun 8, 2016 4:04PM



Brandon Holman, 34 (Chicago Police Department)

A man has been accused of killing his son, then calling 911 for medical assistance with an unresponsive child, according to county prosecutors.

After calling 911, the man then allegedly met paramedics on his porch while holding his long-dead baby in his arms, the Tribune reports that prosecutors said at a Tuesday hearing. The two-month-old boy was already cold, and rigor mortis had set in, by the time paramedics took him away.

Brandon Holman, 34, was charged with two felony counts of murder in the death of his son, Bryson Holman. The night Holman's son died was the first night the child had spent in sole custody of his father.

Holman called authorities to his Ashburn home in the 3200 block of West 83rd Place at about noon on Saturday, police said. His son was taken to the hospital and pronounced dead. An autopsy of the baby revealed bruising around his neck, arms and abdomen, as well as several broken ribs; the Sun-Times reports the child died of multiple abuse-related injuries. Prosecutors said Holman gave authorities six or more accounts of how his son was injured, the Tribune reported. Holman said Bryson might have choked to death on his own vomit; Holman also said he might have dropped Bryson and then accidentally smothered him.

The night before the boy's death, Holman took the boy and his mother out to dinner, according to prosecutors. Then Holman, who is married to another woman and has several children (including an infant) with her, took Bryson home to his parents' house, where he had been sleeping on an air mattress. He didn't tell anyone the boy was staying with him. Before the boy went home with Holman, he showed no signs of injury, the boy's mother and other people who knew the boy told detectives.

Holman has been ordered held on $1 million bail. His next court date is June 24, according to the Tribune.
When June Bullshoe Tatseys father told other members of the Blackfeet tribe that he wanted his four daughters to become teachers, they laughed. It was the 1930s, during the Great Depression, and American Indians faced discrimination applying for the few available jobs. Public school teachers in the Blackfeet Indian Reservations main town of Browning were white. Native people simply did not become teachers.

By Miriam Hall

Full Story: http://www.slate.com/articles/life/tomorrows_test/2016/06/the_blackfeet_tribe_needs_more_teachers_so_it_s_letting_them_train_without.html
Over the weekend, hackers stole Mark Zuckerbergs password to break into his official Twitter and Pinterest accounts.

Research has found that people  even Facebooks CEO!  reuse passwords 31 percent of the time.

by Rajiv Gupta

Full Story: http://www.recode.net/2016/6/7/11868648/stolen-password-cybercrime-hackers-mark-zuckerberg-bangladesh-bank-security
Our job is to accept nature on natures terms. But to do that, we need more educational programs that can teach people just what that means. The National Park Service needs more rangers out in the park and interacting with visitors, teaching them about this place called Yellowstone that I love so much.

By Deby Dixon

Full Story: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/animalia/wp/2016/06/07/i-saw-the-baby-bison-that-tourists-tried-to-rescue-heres-what-you-dont-know-about-the-story/?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories-2_animalia-bison-1200pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory
Some Aldermen Want To Make Attacking A Cop A Hate Crime In Chicago

By aaroncynic in News on Jun 8, 2016 3:25PM



By Aaron Cynic/Chicagoist

Currently, Chicagos hate crime law applies to individuals targeted based on their race, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, disability, prior military status, ancestry or age. On Monday, Alderman Ed Burke introduced a bill that would add past or current employment as a law enforcement officer, firefighter, or emergency medical services personnel to the list, reports ABC7.

Each day police officers and firefighters put their lives on the line to ensure our well-being and security, Burke said in a press release. It is the goal of this ordinance to give prosecutors and judges every tool to punish those who interfere with, or threaten or physically assault, our public safety personnel.

The ordinance, published by Aldertrack, would also increase fines for those convicted of attacking first responders and would add a six-month jail sentence. Existing Illinois law already classifies the assault of a police officer as a class 4 felony, which could come with a 3 year prison term and 25 year prison sentence. The ordinance also comes with companion resolution which encourages Springfield lawmakers to create similar legislation for the state.

Chicagos ordinance is similar to a law in Louisiana which passed last month dubbed the blue lives matter bill. Lawmakers in Tennessee are also considering passing blue lives matter legislation. According to the Washington Post, no other state has given police officers and other public safety employees protected status, but at least 37 other states have additional penalties for assaulting a police officer.

This ordinance will provide added protection to first responders who risk their lives in service to others while also adding consequences for those who feel compelled to attack them in the performance of their duty, said Thomas Ryan, President of Chicago Firefighters Union Local 2.

But while the police and other public safety officers are cheering Burkes proposal, other groups say its a distraction at best, and could have negative effects on groups working for police reform at worst.

Existing laws appropriately penalize acts of violence against a police officer or other first responder. This proposed ordinance is a distraction from the conversation we need in Chicago about fundamentally reforming the policing system, which has failed the people of the City, Karen Sheley, Director of the Police Practices Project at the ACLU of Illinois wrote in an email to Chicagoist.

Alan Mills, Executive Director of the Uptown Peoples Law Center, said the ordinance is more of a symbol. "This is a symbolic act by Burke, completely in line with his 40-plus year record of defending police officers' even in the face of rampant misconduct, because in reality, the state charge is already a class 4 felony, & any municipal ordinance won't affect that, said Mills. The only effect this will have is to give the city the ability to charge someone with an ordinance violation (which is less than a misdemeanor) for cases that the state decides not to prosecute but the city wishes to. That would be an extremely unusual circumstance."

Though the number of officers fatally shot in the line of duty has dropped significantly since the 1970s, the sentiment that police are somehow under attack has risen dramatically in the wake of national protests surrounding the shootings of people of color. Last year, Mayor Rahm Emanuel famously said that the Ferguson effectthe idea that police are supposedly not engaging people because of being called out for bad behavior was making police fetal.

Its that symbolismthat somehow demanding accountability of police who have killed numerous people of color with little or no repercussions and demonstrating over it could be perceived as a hate crimethat has some activists worried.

This is an attempt to intimidate the movement for community control of the police by suggesting that protests against police crimes are hate crimes, said Ted Pearson of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression in an interview with Chicagoist. The intention is to suggest police are somehow being victimized by rhetoric and agitation against police crimes/for police accountability and they need this law to protect them.

Pearson also noted that many of the cosponsors on the bill are former officers themselves, such as Ald. Willie Cochran. CAARPR has been pushing for an elected civilian police accountability boardsomething that would go much further than some of Emanuels proposed reformsand Pearson says theyve received a large amount of support from Cochrans ward.

Do we really need this bill? Is there any evidence? asked Pearson. Why do we need this if its not for intimidating the movement?

CAARPR is planning a demonstration at City Hall on June 22, the same day the Council will discuss Emanuels proposed reforms.

People in the communities that live under a virtual police state are demanding real community control, said Frank Chapman, a field organizer with the group.
Le Board of Racing Stewards du MTC Sports and Leisure Limited, compose de S. de Chalain (Chair), J. Keevy, P. Kalleechurn et A. Rousset, a rendu public le Racing Stewards Report de la sixieme journee hippique de 2021.

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Ashit Gungah a repondu a deux questions a lAssemblee National lors de la seance des questions aux ministres avant la suite des debats sur le Budget 2019-2020.

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Teen Accused Of Pointing A Gun At A Man On Oak Street Beach

By Rachel Cromidas in News on Jun 8, 2016 4:57PM



Maurio Young, CPD handout

A teenager has been accused of attempting to shoot someone at Oak Street Beach Monday evening.

Maurio Young, 18, of suburban South Holland, was arguing with a 22-year-old man at the beach Monday evening when he allegedly pointed the gun at the man's face and pulled the trigger, police told Chicagoist. But the gun didn't fire, despite having live rounds.

Police officers who saw the altercation interviewed the victim, who identified Young, and then arrested Young shortly after 9 p.m. During a patdown police found A .25-caliber Beretta in Young's pocket, and Young was charged with one felony count of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and one felony count of possession a firearm without a valid firearm owner's identification card, according to police.

Young was arraigned on his charges at the Cook County Criminal Courthouse Tuesday and ordered held on a $75,000 bail, the Tribune reports.

Summer violence has been an increasing concern for local law enforcement, with the city facing higher shooting rates than it has seen in years. The Chicago Police Department has been deploying more officers to patrol the beaches, according to the Tribune, and the department plans to send a "summer mobile patrol unit" of bike cops and other officers on foot, horses, Segways and ATVs to patrol parks and beaches this year.
3 Delicious Negronis To Make At Home During Negroni Week

By Chicagoist_Guest in Food on Jun 8, 2016 4:22PM



The Negroni at Gilt Bar. Photo by Stan Ptitsin.

By Leigh Kunkel

You probably already know that its Negroni Week, that wonderful week when people drink Negronis for charity (and, well, because theyre delicious), but maybe you wanted to learn a bit more about this classic cocktail. Maybe you even want to make one for yourself. Were here to help.

According to Negroni expert Gary Regan in his book The Negroni: Drinking to La Dolce Vita, in 1919, Count Camillo Negroni asked a bartender in Florence to replace the soda water in his Americano, usually made with Campari, sweet vermouth, and a splash of soda, with gin. Apparently the Count had acquired a taste for strong liquor while working as a rodeo clown in the United States (no, seriously,) and the relatively light Americano wasnt cutting it for him anymore. And thus the Negroni we know, with equal parts gin, Campari, and sweet vermouth, was born.

There are plenty of places in the city with classic Negronis on their list, including Gilt Bar, which will be featuring the drink in support of Heshima Kenya, a group that provides support to the refugee community in Nairobi, Kenya. If you want to make your own, heres how:

Classic Negroni



1 oz gin

1 oz Campari

1 oz sweet vermouth

Orange peel garnish

Add all three ingredients to a rocks glass with ice. Stir gently and garnish with an orange peel.

The Negroni also leaves plenty of room for interpretation, including Band of Bohemias cherry-accented version, which takes the original and adds another layer of flavor with the addition of cherry bark-vanilla bitters. Try out their version and support Un86d, which provides aid to hospitality professionals in the event of a crisis or medical emergency. Then whip up your own at home and impress your friends.



The Band of Bohemia Negroni. Photo courtesy of Band of Bohemia.

Band of Bohemia Negroni

1 oz Fords gin

1 oz Campari

1 oz Carpano Antica vermouth

2 dashes cherry bark-vanilla bitters

Add all ingredients to a mixing glass filled with ice. Stir and strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with a lemon peel.

And if you want to go really crazy on the Negroni variations, try out the Tony Negroni from the Heavy Feather, which is a less bitter, but equally tasty, version of the original. Think youre ready for an advanced negroni class? Try your hand at this recipe.



The Tony Negroni. Photo by Leigh Kunkel.

Tony Negroni

.75 oz Old Tom gin

.75 oz Letherbee gin

.25 oz Campari

.25 oz creme de noyaux

.75 oz Cocci di Torino

Lemon peel for garnish

Add all ingredients to a mixing glass filled with ice. Stir and strain into a martini glass and garnish with a lemon peel.
The love between Italian painter Amedeo Modigliani and his French lover and muse Jeanne Hebuterne is all about devotion and tragedy.

Amedeo Modigliani's Jeanne Hebuterne (au foulard). [Photo provided to China Daily]

Despite a 14-year age gap, they were together for three years during which Hebuterne modeled for Modigliani's many portraits, mothered his daughter, and committed suicide  while heavily pregnant  one day after his death.

Jeanne Hebuterne with Scarf, a portrait to be auctioned in London on June 21, pays tribute to the poignant relationship.

In the painting, Hebuterne is portrayed in the signature female form featuring geometric simplification and elongated neck that distinguishes Modigliani's output. The usual almond vacant eyes in Modigliani's other female portraits are replaced in this piece with a piercing blue pair.

The painting has been in a private collection since 1986 and is expected to fetch more than $40 million, according to a news release of its auctioneer, Sotheby's.

The painting will appear in an evening sale of impressionism and modern art. There is also a Picasso portrait of his lover Fernande Olivier, titled Femme Assise (sitting woman).

The current auction record for Modigliani is Reclining Nude which was sold to Chinese collector couple Liu Yiqian and Wang Wei for $170 million, at Christie's New York sale last November.
Almost 80 years ago, Chinese writer Lin Yutang wrote in his book The Importance of Living, that: "The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials," a line which resonates with British writer Greg McKeown, as both of them advocate a life of focus.

British writer Greg McKeown was in Beijing to promote his book Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less. [Photo provided to China Daily]

McKeown is a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, a columnist for Harvard Business Review, a public speaker and the CEO of his company, which provides leadership training for companies such as Apple, Google and Facebook.

Asked to describe himself in one word, McKeown says he's an "essentialist", and all that he does is to share "essentialism", a term he coined, which he says refers to a systematic discipline for discerning what is essential in people's work and lives, and then eliminating everything that is not, so that people can focus on things that really matter.

In late May, McKeown was in Beijing to promote his book Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, which was published in 2014 in the United States, and then translated and published in China in April.

The book was the result of a question"Why is it that otherwise successful people and companies don't break through to the next level?" McKeown tells China Daily.

McKeown says the question was on his mind since he left England to study communications in the US, and also as he co-authored an earlier book Multiplier, in which he analyzed more than 150 leaders to find out how the best leaders make everyone around them smarter.

"The right focus leads to success, which leads to options and opportunities, which undermine the very thing that led to success in the first place," says McKeown.

"Success has become a catalyst for failure, because it makes people fall into 'the indisciplined pursuit of more'."

Instead of the commonly accepted wisdom that if one works hard enough, you can have it all, his philosophy of essentialism proposes that the pursuit of "less but better".

In his book, McKeown juxtaposes the mindsets of non-essentialists and essentialists through charts, encouraging people to shift their thinking from "I have to" to "I choose to", from "It's all important" to "only a few things really matter", and from "how can I fit it all in" to "what are the trade-offs?"

Using examples of successful companies and personal anecdotes, the book shows three stagesexplore, eliminate and executeto live out the essentialist way of life.

McKeown says he can't forget how seven years ago when his daughter was about to be born, he was asked to attend a meeting with a client.

"To my shame, while my wife lay in hospital with our hours-old baby, I went to the meeting," says McKeown in the book.

Follow China.org.cn on Twitter and Facebook to join the conversation.
by Tanya Gazdik , June 7, 2016

Yelp helps save desperate people from horrible situations, including a dentist at his first day of work, a class led by a less-than-limber yogi and a trashy tropical hotel hosting an inexplicable mattress fire.

A new ad campaign tells consumers theres always a better option on Yelp, which has whatever you need, whenever you need it. The effort, from Reid Sheehan Latimer+Crew, San Francisco, highlights the local business review services expansion across multiple verticals and its increasing mobile focus.

Creative brings to life Yelps humor, showing consumers who need help in a range of situations, says Brian Osborn, vice president of consumer marketing for Yelp.

The campaign includes national TV and social and features Ben Sinclair, star of the upcoming HBO comedy series High Maintenance.

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We needed an actor who effortlessly projected the Yelp brand attributes of funny, useful, and cool, Osborn tells Marketing Daily. Ben does this perfectly; it's easy to imagine him as the person his friends go to when they need a recommendation on...anything. Which is what Yelp is all about.

The 15- and 30-second executions are intended to make people actively seek out the service when looking for a better business.

The campaign is designed to build awareness of Yelp and show its relevance in consumers' everyday lives, which helps drive usage in categories beyond restaurant reviews, Osborn says. RSL+C realized that the success of the advertising would be hinged on our ability to make an emotional connection when showcasing these broader services from Yelp. We felt there was a difference between just being informed and adopting the brand into your life.

The campaign is targeted at urban, mobile-centric consumers who seek credible information about small businesses, enjoy sharing their opinions, and are looking for a variety of choices.

Video executions on digital and social channels will drive awareness with viewers on mobile and capture eyeballs missed by TV. In addition, the work aims to expand awareness of Yelps services beyond restaurant reviews to a tool that can help consumers in a variety of categories.

The work is an extension of Yelps humorous We Know Just The Place campaign, also created by RSL+Crew and starring Sinclair, which launched nationwide on air and online last September.

This round marks an expansion for the campaign into social and digital efforts, Osborn says. Preroll and paid placements on social channels all play a larger roll, with the creative specifically tailored by our agency for these growing media platforms (in addition to television). We also lit way more mattresses on fire this time around.




The vast tracts of mangrove forest in the Beibu Gulf of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region have been almost erased by the immense construction of marine reclamation lands and industrial plants.

The rapid deforestation of the mangrove woods has posed a grim threat to the eco-environment in the once pollutant-free coastal lands.

The sharp decline of the mangroves and marine species -- two important signs gauging regional ecological conditions -- indicates devastation resulting from the sprawling industrial bases.

"The land was previously covered with thick foliage. Now, only a few mangroves are still here," said Huang, a fisherman in Beihai City of Guangxi.

"Although saplings have been planted, they'll only be full-grown after a considerable number of years. Also, some may die young."

As a veteran fisherman, Huang knows exactly how beneficial it was for the environment when the mangrove trees stood as green walls abating the howling typhoons.

For the past decade, those trees, prone to devastating lumbering, have been replaced by manmade lands, aquaculture pools and tourist spots. The ruthless industrialization has almost eliminated the coverage of the trees among which only a few have survived, not to mention those currently dying or covered with sparse foliage.

The Beibu Gulf in Guangxi has more than once been affected by the stunning attacks of sphaeroma, a marine parasite which is detrimental to trees.

Last September, a parasitic disaster swept through the mangroves, leaving hundreds of hectares of trees withered during the disaster. The local farmers had no choice but to burn the dead trees, including those more than 10 years old.

"Those disasters are globally rare," said Fan Hangqing, director of the Mangrove Woods Research Center of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Mangrove trees generally grow in several regions and provinces in China, such as Guangxi, Hainan, Guangdong, Fujian and Taiwan, and the size of the woods were especially huge in the Beibu Gulf of Guangxi. Currently, the coverage of mangrove trees in the Beibu Gulf has diminished by over 0.7 percent each year.

The deforestation and pest disasters inflicting damage on the environmental conditions in the Beibu Gulf probably stand as testimony to the severe industrial pollution from cities like Beihai and Qinzhou where the sewage has been released towards the estuaries of the Beibu Gulf.

"Severe pollution has been caused and the air is replete with suffocating smells emitting from neighboring pigsties and the dark swages are directly released from factories into the sea," said A Hua, an environmental protection volunteer in Beihai City.

An official report on the environmental conditions of the coastal area issued in Guangxi has shown that the sea water near the shore has been severely contaminated by the pollutants majorly consisting of inorganic nitrogen, petroleum related substances and reactive phosphate. The water quality in some parts of the area has been downgraded to Class Four, the second lowest level of a measurement categorizing the water quality from best to worst.

An anonymous official in Guangxi revealed that the environment has been damaged since the region launched several big industrial projects, such as steel, paper and petroleum manufacturing, after the establishment of the Beibu Gulf Economic Zone, which has contributed to land reclamation measures.

From 2000 to 2007, Beihai, Fangchenggang and Qinzhou reclaimed 962 hectares of land from the sea area. However, during the following five years  2008-2012  the land reclamation soared to a total of 5,108 hectares in the same cities.

Along the undulating tree belts, several bulldozers were rumbling at the construction sites.

Simply because mangrove trees can hardly yield any profitable economic returns, they have been cut down to make place for the development of more profitable industries, said Fan.

Ocean areas near the Beibu Gulf receive 400-million-ton household wastewater as well as 100-million-ton industrial sewage each year.

"The inland sources of pollutants as well as the direct release of sewage can result in the eutrophication of sea water, reflected by the outburst of algae, red tides and the prevalent parasitic disaster," said A Li, a veteran volunteer engaged in the protection of oceanic ecological systems.

"The remnants of fodder, excretion, disinfectants and poisonous chemicals inside the sewage have caused great damage to the mangrove trees and fish species near the shore," A Li continued.

The deteriorating environmental conditions in the Beibu Gulf have drawn numerous concerns from the experts who proposed the timely restoration of the ecological system in the region.

"Urban construction should not take up the land covered by mangrove trees. If it really needs to, people involved in the project should plant new trees in accordance with the regulations issued by the local oceanic and forestry administrations to ensure the conservancy of the woods in a stable size," Fan said.

The experts also encouraged subsidies for small aquaculture businesses so that the owners are able to install facilities to reduce the pollutants of the sewage before it is discharged. They also recommended the use of methane gas and organic fertilizers to reduce the pollution caused by the excretion of poultry and livestock and proposed laws to regulate the sewage release from manufacturing bases.
by June 7, 2016

The highly coveted millennials. The next wave of influencers. The ones who will define luxury, style, culture and even politics. No generation has a more sophisticated or developed sense of storytelling and film making. Theyve grown up with editing software at their fingertips, 1080p HD video cameras on their phones and high-production value everything.

And they can sense a marketer that is trying too hard from a mile away. That word authenticity is overused for a reason: it matters. And as this population of consumers interacts with brands, they engage with the ones that are genuine.

Millennials are quickly abandoning traditional media channels in favor of a multitude of online and social options. Traditional media viewing by older millennials  the ones with the buying power  has dropped by nearly 23% in five years and continues to decline roughly 7% a year, according to Nielsen's Q4 2015 Total Audience Report.

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As media strategies become more fragmented and more digital, the need for compelling branded content is growing. And the brands, particularly those in the luxury world, that pay special respect to this discerning viewer will receive the same in return. Long-form content has become the bridge between brand level communications and showroom shopping, whatever that showroom looks like. It is the point along the continuum when buyers are seeking information, and looking for rational justification to make an emotional purchase.

And for many companies courting the millennial age group, developing a strong brand online has moved from a peripheral part of a communication strategy to the central component that informs all the others.

Edward Russo, a brand research consultant, has followed millennial media trends across the United States for the last five years. These are tech-savvy consumers that want to be engaged with the brand through social media and content that is artful, and curated for their habits and lifestyle.

We need to give these buyers an immersive and visceral experience. And draw them into a story that is worth their two, three, even five minutes. We need to entertain, engage, enlighten. And in the process let the narrative be honest and meaningful.

Luxury is cool. But to a lot of 27 year olds who are beginning to gain some traction and earning potential, egalitarianism is cool as well. So luxury must be defined on their terms. Craftsmanship, beauty, substance. Authenticity  not status.

This is why a 1982 Mercedes-Benz 240d that is made out of heavy steel and screams of a time when longevity mattered is sometimes more desirable than its sparkling new equivalent. And why a millennial buyer will drop $300 on a pair of chain-stitched, raw selvedge Tellason jeans. The fabric is made in Greensboro, N.C. The jeans are hand-cut and sewn in San Francisco. As real as it gets.

This is an awesome generation. They embrace the beautiful and emotional. Their standards are high, their attention span is short but their desire for new content voracious. A digital content strategy must be an ever-evolving and living organism that is fresh and constantly refreshed. For lovers of great film and brands of great substance, there has never been a better opportunity or a more engaged customer.
by Steve McClellan @mp_mcclellan, June 7, 2016

While the big agency holding companies are pretty much uniform in their denouncements of the ANA-K2 study, at least one agency is disappointed with the 4As prioritizing the holding companies in the formation of its own transparency principles and with the groups inability to work better with the ANA to find common ground on the issue.

The agency is Empower MediaMarketing, the Cincinnati-based media agency, which today indicated that it has suspended its membership in the 4As indefinitely over the transparency issue.

In a letter to clients, posted on its Web site, Empower CEO Jim Price also noted his disappointment with the ANA reports reliance on anonymity.

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In principle, while we agree with the 4As transparency statement and we are in compliance, we have been disappointed in the 4As prioritizing holding companies in developing these principles and their inability to work with the ANA, Price wrote.

"In addition, were disappointed the names of people and the agencies who have violated clients trust were not released at this time. Its an unfair blanket allegation on those who have always done whats in the best interest of their clients, like Empower."

Price that effective today, Empower has decided to suspend its membership with the 4As until they further identify who is in violation and how they plan to take action. Its not in the best interest of our clients and Empower to be associated with agencies who have clearly dishonored clients trust.

Price added that the agency will evaluate options once the 4As has responded and the violators have been identified.

In the interim, we want to say again (like we have in all 31 years), we welcome audits at any time, Price wrote. Kickbacks, rebates and lack of transparency have never been, and will never, be a concern during your partnership with Empower.

The 4As issued this response: We are disappointed in Mr. Price's decision. The 4As is, and has been, working on solutions regarding Transparency for all our Members. We too are disappointed that the ANA has painted the entire industry with the same negative brush as we made clear in our statement earlier today. The 4As works on behalf of hundreds of agencies of all shapes and sizes, across the U.S. on all kinds of industry issues. We expect all our Members to operate by the transparency principles we issued earlier this year created by a task force that included both holding company and independent agency perspectives.
by Laurie Sullivan @lauriesullivan, June 8, 2016

Google took Apple's title as the world's most valuable brand in Millward Brown's BrandZ Top 100 Global 2016 survey, with Google increasing by 32% in brand value and Apple declining 8% in 2015.

Amazon led all brands in the growth of its value with 59%, followed by Starbucks at 49% and Facebook at 44% to round out the Top 5.

This year's ranking shows that the BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands are collectively worth nearly $3.4 trillion, up 133% since the report first launched in 2006.

Google came in with a brand value globally of $229,198 million, up 32%, followed by Apple with $228,460 million -- down 8%. Microsoft came in at No. 3 with $121,824 million, up 5%; AT&T came in at $107,387 million, up 20%; and Facebook came in at $102,551 million, up 44%.

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It's not clear whether Apple's disagreement with the FBI on privacy caused the company to lose favor among consumers, but the report does mention that "the tensions between the absolute protection of private information and legitimate needs to share it, was most clearly dramatized by the conflict between Apple and the U.S. government. Apple argued that inviolate encryption was necessary to protect its brand, as well as customers private data. The FBI recognized those needs but asserted that they were outweighed by law enforcements responsibility to protect public safety.

All of the North American brands rose in value except for Apple and IBM. Both declined, indicating how the pressures facing the technology category affect both business-to-consumer and business-to business brands.

Six of the 14 product categories included in the 2016 ranking declined in value compared with only two last year. One category remained flat. Of the seven categories that increased in value, only two grew by more than 10%. Apparel led by 14%; and fast food, 11%.

Two newcomers to the BrandZ Global Top 100 also grew substantially in value: JD.com, Chinas second-largest e-commerce brand, rose 37%, and the business-to-business technology brand Adobe increased 41%.

North America drove the largest proportion of brand value, about 69%, followed by Asia. The North America Top 10 brands increased 10 percent in value, while the Asia Top 10 declined 8%.
by Steve McClellan @mp_mcclellan, June 7, 2016

Erin Johnson, chief communications officer at JWT, has urged the New York Judge hearing her harassment and retaliation lawsuit against the agency and former CEO Gustavo Martinez not to toss the suit. The defendants  including the agency, Martinez and holding company WPP  filed a motion to dismiss the case last month.

Although defendants are fully familiar with the law governing motions to dismiss, they urge the Court to make factual findings  such that jokes about rape, and comments about African Americans being strange characters with a penchant to steal and act inappropriately, are not offensive as a matter of law, Johnsons latest brief, filed yesterday, stated.

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Johnsons filing also dismissed defendants contention that she did not endure a hostile work environment. WPP and JWT claimed in its motion to dismiss that Johnson sent a text message to Martinez shortly before filing suit that noted that she had decided to reject a job offer from another company, because I am loyal to you and what you are doing. She added: I felt like we had a good year together. So I hope I wasnt wrong to stay. Lol.

Defendants argued that the note helped to dispel the notion of a hostile work environment and that virtually nothing supporting such claims occurred during the nine-month period between when JWT Chief Talent Officer Laura Agostini said she was addressing Johnsons complaints about comments made by Martinez during an agency meeting in Miami and when Johnson filed her suit.

Johnson didnt address the text message directly in her rebuttal but did argue that the law didnt require her to note every instance that might indicate a hostile work environment.

What the defendants cannot explain in their tailor-made scenario substituting for facts: What was Agostini 'addressing' if there was nothing wrong with Martinezs comments? Johnson asked rhetorically in her filing.

The rebuttal filing also suggested that the declarations of 16 senior JWT executives attesting that they were not offended by Martinezs Miami remarks were somewhat farcical and clearly written by counsel.
by Laurie Sullivan @lauriesullivan, June 8, 2016

Wyndham Hotel Group partnered with global branding firm Siegel+Gale to undergo a brand transformation. The company will upgrade technologies, amenities, programs, marketing campaigns and partnerships for all 16 brands.

Lisa Checchio, VP of brand marketing at Wyndham Hotel Group, declined to put a price tag on the huge undertaking, but said the "substantial investment" in the 8,000 hotels project ranges from Wyndham Grand to Days Inn.

"More people are traveling than ever before, and it's being fueled by a growing middle class and Millennial traveler," Checchio said. "We positioned Travel Lodge, for example, as a base camp for adventure."

Travel and tourism is expected to rise from $7.1 trillion to $11 trillion during the next decade as the global middle class more than doubles from 2 billion to 4.9 billion, according to Wyndham.

Findings from research that began 18 months ago reveal that 50% of the Travel Lodges in the U.S. are located outside a national park. Wyndham partnered with the National Parks Association touting a simple tagline of "Go" in display banners online and in trade publications.

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The survey results by Siegel+Gale will drive how Wyndham redefines what Checchio calls "brand promises."

"This is a good opportunity to bring personality to economy and mid-scale hotels," Checchio said.

The survey compiles insights from 5,000 travelers, as well as franchise owners and employees, to analyze more than 50 custom attributes. There are key decision drivers -- decor and technology to food and beverage -- that reveal why guests choose hotels and accommodations.

Daniel Golden, senior director of strategy at Siegel+Gale, said results provide an "outside-in" view, showing that guests don't view the hospitality category similar to the way industry insiders view it.

The data also helps Wyndham hone its search strategy and redesign its Web site for each brand, set to launch in early July. The sites will become more experiential with storytelling and less about transactional efforts.

Wyndham will work with agencies such as Navigant Marketing in Miami; PI&C Marketing, and CY&N in New York; Giants & Gentlemen in Toronto; and Brigade in Massachusetts.

Siegel+Gale also worked with Wyndham on positioning the hotel brands.

Checchio calls the Wyndham Rewards program the "blue thread that ties all the brands together."
by Thom Forbes @tforbes, June 8, 2016

In less time than it takes store-bought soda pop to go flat in the pantry, Keurig Green Mountain yesterday said it was discontinuing the first generation of its pricey Kold carbonation device and is offering early adapters a full refund of the purchase price.

The company viewed the Kold system as a pioneering innovation, Suzanne DuLong, Keurig's VP of global corporate communications says, but consumers had a different perception, reports the Burlington Free Press Dan D'Ambrosio. They told us they would like it to be smaller and faster, and provide a more compelling value, she says.

Indeed, many consumers balked at the price of the machine, which initially cost $369. The pods also were pricey, costing $1.25 to make an 8-ounce drink, writes Mike Esterl for the Wall Street Journal. It recently slashed the price of the machines to as little as $199 and the pods to 50 cents, but to no avail, he reports.

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Launched at a media event in Manhattan last September after six years of forethought, there we skeptics from the start, we reported at the time.

The machine was too big, loud, inconvenient and unreliable, according to customer reviews, which could be brutal, writes Hayley Peterson for Business Insider.

This thing is an absolute monster, one customer wrote on Keurig's Web site. I already struggle with counter space. It's huge and very deep, Peterson reports. Another complained, There is a constant buzzing sound when plugged in (think soda vending machine) that annoys my husband, but I don't really notice it.

The company had high hopes, for Kold, recalls the Associated Press, suggesting they could eventually be bigger than its coffee brewers, which it said at the time were in about 17% of U.S. households. Keurig acknowledged that what they learned from the Kold rollout would be incorporated into future beverages makers.

There were, apparently, qualities worth redeeming.

When The Verge's Jamieson Cox tested the machine at CES this year, he said the flavor of the Keurig-produced Coke was pretty good, but that apparently wasn't enough to make up for the fact that no one really wanted it, writesThe Verges Lizzie Plaugic.

The WSJs Esterl points out that Kolds fizz-out could give a boost to SodaStream International, which last month said North American sales had begun to stabilize after two years of steep declines as it recasts itself as a maker of sparkling water in the wake of consumers distaste for sugary sodas.

SodaStreams shares popped about 3% yesterday following Keurigs announcement, CNBCs Christine Wang reports, but ended the day relatively unchanged. It also recently announced the launch of a home brewing system called the Beer Bar, Fortunes Benjamin Snyder reports, starting in Germany.

Keurig says 130 workers would lose their jobs, 108 of them at company headquarters in Waterbury, Vt. The company was acquired by Luxembourg-based JAB Holding Co. for $13.9 billion earlier this year. Brian Kelley, the former Coca-Cola Co. executive who was CEO at the rollout, was named vice chairman of the board in March. Bob Gamgort, who had been CEO of Parsippany, N.J.-based Pinnacle Foods, replaced him. JAB Beech, a subsidiary of JAB Holding, most recently bought controlling interest in Krispy Kreme.

The Kold line was developed with Coca-Cola, reportsVermont Business Magazine, and offered brands such as Coca-Cola, Dr Pepper and Snapple along with zero-calorie flavored seltzers, ice teas others. But when Coke sold its large stake in Keurig as part of the sale of Keurig to JAB in March of this year, the Kold line soon followed it out the door, it observes.

We are grateful to all of our consumers who have supported our company in the innovation of single-serve beverages, spokeswoman DuLong writes Bloombergs Craig Giammona in an email. Reimagining how beverages can be created, personalized and enjoyed will continue to guide Keurig's strategy into the future.
by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, June 8, 2016

CBS is billing its new political series BrainDead as a comic thriller, but the first two episodes are neither comic nor thrilling.

This is a summer scripted series premiering Monday (June 13) from the co-creators of The Good Wife, Robert and Michelle King.

It is supposed to be a satire (I think) of brain-dead Washington. The show's thesis seems to be that everyone in the Washington power structure is nuts -- which is not exactly a point of view we have not heard before.

To drive the point home (with a proverbial sledgehammer), the episodes have long titles such as the title of Episode One, which is: The Insanity Principle: How Extremism in Politics is Threatening Democracy in the 21st Century. The episode itself does little, if anything, to support this title's claim.

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Instead, the show introduces a plague from outer space to explain the insane behavior of Washington politicos. Originating in a meteor that landed in Russia and then ended up in a laboratory at the Smithsonian Institution, this plague takes the form of ant-like creatures that slip into their victims brains via the ear canal.

These victims emerge from this experience with their personalities altered so that they all feel happy all the time. They then conspire to infect all those who are not yet infected. Sound familiar? Yes, it does. You might even want to re-title this show Invasion of the Ant-like Body Snatchers on the Potomac.

How dysfunctional is the federal government in BrainDead? Well, this whole ant plague starts when the outer-space insects escape from the Smithsonian during a government shutdown caused by a budget deadlock between Republicans and Democrats in the Senate. Basically, when the government shuts down, the Smithsonian staffers all abruptly leave the lab, and in so doing, neglect to close and secure the crate the meteor came in.

I know -- sounds interesting on paper, right? In actual execution, though, not so much. At the center of the BrainDead story line is a young woman named Laurel (played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead, seen in the photo above), an idealistic filmmaker who is unable to earn a living making documentaries. So she takes a job in the Washington office of her brother, who is a powerful democratic senator (Danny Pino).

She soon finds herself at the center of the Senates wrangling over the budget, while also stumbling upon evidence that something strange is taking over the minds of everyone she meets -- from constituents to Senate staffers.

The problem with BrainDead -- at least in the first two episodes I watched -- is that the show's setting doesn't seem to resemble the real Washington at all, despite all the exterior shots of the Capitol dome.

At times, the show seems desperate to appear current. In scene after scene, clips play on TV screens in the background of Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump making campaign speeches, some of them relatively recent. This is supposed to establish BrainDead as timely -- connecting its fictional proceedings with the reality of the current campaign season. But the gambit doesn't really work.

Moreover, you get the feeling time after time that the show favors the Democratic point of view over the Republican. Big surprise, right? Yes, the writers of the show are blaming the government shutdown, and the resultant (but temporary) unemployment of thousands of government employees, on the Democrats in the show. Yet you can't help thinking that, somehow, the Republicans are to blame for maneuvering the Democrats into causing the shutdown.

It doesn't help that when we first meet the show's principal Republican senator (played by Tony Shalhoub), he's lying on his back on an office sofa awaiting the arrival of a masseuse. He is later described pejoratively by someone else as a drunk and southern. How do you like that, southern CBS affiliates?

BrainDead premieres Monday night (June 13) at 10 Eastern on CBS.
by P.J. Bednarski , Staff Writer @pjbtweet, June 8, 2016

A story in the Los Angeles Times details how aggressively Hulu is working the product integration side business, focusing on an episode of its version of The Mindy Project in which Mindy goes off to a conference at her alma mater driving a sporty Lexus RX crossover.

As the Times notes, thats a good placement because Kalings character, Dr. Mindy Lahiri, is brand-obsessed.

Product placement, or its near look-alike, product integration, has been around for a long time but has gotten more sexy as its become a lot more possible for viewers to skip messages.

Once avoiding commercials was your own business; with the Internet, it became fashionable to ask if you wanted to see the ad youre being served. Not at all surprisingly, most people do not, a fact that, nearly weekly, some new piece of research confirms. All that confirmation has a way of turning research into dogma, backed up by measuring and monitoring.

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So now ads get placed into dramas or comedies, seamlessly, they like to say. Most time its not quite that transparent. So what? If you see an obvious integration, youre likely to say to yourself, oh, I see Blavits Cola paid to be mentioned/seen/consumed and while that ruins the sleight-of-hand thing, it is still a way for Blavits Cola to advertise itself. I don't think Blavit's cares much.

The Times story centers on Hulu because it is the sort-of odd duck in the OTT universe that is still commercial-driven. So its efforts at product integration are, I guess, intended to be more artful. And yet, you have to wonder. If not for Lexus, would Dr. Lahiri be taking a road trip to her alma mater? Or if she would, would the original vision of that episode have included some portion of the show that takes place in the car?

Its more likely the Lexus came first and the idea for the episode followed.

Still, charming, Im sure.

Producers and writers say theyre ever vigilant to make sure product integration doesnt intrude on their art. I almost believe it. But Mindys devotion to brands could be so handy for any number of potential sponsors. Im sure the sales staff wishes every series should have somebody like that to be the commercial catcher.

The fact is, its not that awful unless viewers begin to think it is, and really the evidence seems to be that just the opposite is true. The newest breed of media personalities are influencers, paid off by brands even before they can vote and admired by millions, in large part, because theyve become powerful brand ambassadors. To them, The Mindy Project is just an extension of Red Bull channels and stadiums named after everything from banks to mortgage companies to Websites that sell surplus merchandise. And theyre right. Trying to disguise product integration, in short, has become a waste of time and energy. Thats show business.

pj@mediapost.com
by Jess Nelson , June 8, 2016

After unanimously passing the House of Representatives, the Email Privacy Act has stalled in the Senate as politicians and digital organizations debate an amendment that would expand law enforcement's access to email records.

The Email Privacy Act (H.R. 699) aims to close a loophole in the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), and align the law with technology advances over the past 30 years.

Electronic communications providers, such as Google or Facebook, can currently be forced to turn over any communication more than 180 days old with a subpoena, per the ECPAs regulations.

The 1986 act was originally passed at a time when technology companies did not keep extensive records, but the rise of cloud storage has made the 180-day policy antiquated. The Email Privacy Act would require a warrant to be obtained as opposed to a subpoena, which would require proof of probable cause and would be more difficult to obtain.

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Law enforcement can still access a customers contact and payment information, however, with only a subpoena.

Led by Representatives Kevin Yoder (R-Kan.) and Jared Polis (D-Colo.), the Email Privacy Act was unanimously approved by both the House Judiciary Committee and the House of Representatives  setting the stage for a Senate vote.

The two-year old bill finally had its day at the Capitol, but further movement has been stymied by a carve-out requested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas) suggested an amendment that would allow the FBI to obtain email records without a warrant in terrorism or intelligence-related cases. The amendment would expand the National Security Letter (NSL) statue, an administrative subpoena issued by the United States federal government that does not require a judges approval.

In a strong showing against the suggested amendment, more than 30 technology companies and political organizations signed a letter in opposition to the expansion of NSL use.

The civil liberties and human rights concerns associated with such an expansion are compounded by the governments history of abusing NSL authorities, states the letter. In the past ten years, the FBI has issued over 300,000 NSLs, a vast majority of which included gag orders that prevented companies from disclosing that they received a request for information.

Letter co-signers included leading organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch, alongside technology companies including Google, Facebook and Yahoo.
by Tobi Elkin @tobielkin, June 8, 2016

AOL on Wednesday announced a partnership with Rogers Media to create a private marketplace for programmatic TV. The goal is to enable advertisers to access linear TV audiences with transparency and control through data and automation.

The partnership will enable advertisers and agencies to implement targeted, data-driven, audience buying. It will also enable them to derive consumer-focused analytics and insights for dynamic campaign optimization across Rogers Medias complete portfolio. AOL said that custom data segments will also be available for purchase programmatically in 2017.

We are excited to partner with Rogers Media, a television powerhouse in Canada, to enable programmatic across their TV portfolio," Dan Ackerman, AOL's SVP, programmatic TV, told Real-Time Daily via email. "Globally, advertisers and networks want to be able to bring the data-driven automation and intelligence of programmatic and digital ad-buying to linear television. Our platform, ONE by AOL: TV, offers a unique and powerful approach to activating data and technology for improved TV ad performance and ROI. We are pleased to expand its global footprint even further with this partnership."

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In 2015, AOL partnered with Multi Channel Network to pilot an integrated programmatic private marketplace in Australia. In 2016, AOL launched ONE by AOL, self-service programmatic TV buying in the U.S. and a partnership with Univision.
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Customs officials have intercepted a batch of lethal bacteria in the southern metropolis of Shenzhen, local authorities said Tuesday.

A total of 280 containers filled with Listeria monocytogenes, a foodborne pathogenic bacterium that could lead to death, were discovered on a passenger intending to enter Shenzhen of Guangdong Province last week, according to customs staff.

The passenger said he was unaware of what was in the bottles and that he was entrusted by another person to take the bottles in.

The case has been transferred to local quarantine authorities.
Long-term marijuana use disrupts the brains normal reward processes, which may lead to dependence on the drug, according to a new study.

Share on Pinterest Long-term marijuana use may alter the brains natural reward processes, triggering dependence on the drug.

Researchers found that individuals who were long-term marijuana users had increased activity in certain areas of the brain associated with reward when presented with marijuana-associated cues, compared with when they were presented with fruit-associated cues.

Study co-author Dr. Francesca Filbey, of the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences at the University of Texas at Dallas, and colleagues publish their findings in the journal Human Brain Mapping.

Though marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug in America, with around 22.2 million users in the past month, an increasing number of states are legalizing its use for recreational or medical purposes.

However, despite this increase in marijuana legalization, Dr. Filbey and colleagues note that there is limited information on how the drug might lead to problematic use.

While only a small number of studies have investigated how marijuana use impacts the neural circuits of the brain to trigger cravings for the drug, some of these studies have suggested that the mesocorticolimbic reward system is involved.

This system incorporates several brain regions that release dopamine  a neurotransmitter that regulates the reward and pleasure centers  in response to certain cues.
In the midst of all the apparent tumult, intense emotion, and occasional reckless behavior characterizing the teenage years, the brain is, in fact, evolving and developing the neural circuits needed to keep emotions in check. Research in the June 8, 2016 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience describes how the ability to control emotions moves from one brain area to another as teens mature into adults, offering an opportunity to understand how disorders related to emotional control emerge.

"Our study opens the way for a better understanding of the neurobiology behind adolescent behavior in emotionally arousing situations," said study author Anna Tyborowska of Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands. "The findings could also have important clinical implications [as] many psychiatric disorders emerge during adolescence and are characterized by problems with emotional action control."

Previous research links the spike in sensation-seeking and impulsive behavior during adolescence to the delayed maturation of the prefrontal cortex, a region of the brain involved in reasoning, planning, and decision-making. Study authors Inge Volman, Ivan Toni, and Karin Roelofs previously demonstrated the importance of the anterior prefrontal cortex in emotional control in adults. However, it has not been clear whether and how the delayed development of the prefrontal cortex affects emotional control during adolescence.

To address this question, the researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure brain activity in 47 healthy 14-year-old adolescents while they evaluated the emotional expressions of happy and angry faces. Sometimes, the teens were instructed to push a joystick toward happy faces and away from angry faces, a natural, instinctive response. Other times, they had to push the joystick toward angry faces and away from happy faces, an unnatural response requiring more emotional self-control.

The researchers also measured the adolescents' testosterone levels to gauge their pubertal maturation. Adolescents with high testosterone levels, or a greater level of maturity, showed stronger activity in the anterior prefrontal cortex during actions requiring more emotional self-control. Individuals with low testosterone levels had more activity in the amygdala and the pulvinar nucleus of the thalamus, subcortical brain regions known to play a key role in emotional processing.

Participants completed the task equally well regardless of testosterone level, suggesting both brain circuits support emotional control. However, the researchers indicate real-world scenarios may prove more challenging to subjects with an underdeveloped prefrontal cortex.

"This is one of the few studies that looks at how puberty stage is associated with brain development in young people who are all the same chronological age," said neuroscientist Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, who studies adolescent development at University College London and was not involved in the study. She said the results add to our understanding of typical behavior and how the brain changes in adolescence.

The results may also help us understand how emotional control can go awry during development. It's possible that the failure of the prefrontal cortex to integrate properly into the emotional control circuit could contribute to the emergence of affective disorders in adolescence.
An investigational immunotherapy drug being tested in the treatment of a rare form of skin cancer known as Merkel cell carcinoma has been found to be well tolerated with a clinical benefit seen in up to 42 percent of patients who failed prior treatment and were observed for at least six months. That's according to research from a Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey physician scientist and colleagues across the globe that is being presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting being held in Chicago this week. The study is believed to be the largest trial to date investigating the programmed death-1 receptor ligand (PD-L1) in this form of cancer.

Immunotherapies harness the body's natural defenders, T-cells, in fighting a disease like cancer. T-cells can be looked at as a car that crashes into cancer cells. PD-L1 is a brake on the car that prevents it from crashing. The immunotherapy drug avelumab examined in this study allows that brake to be released, allowing T-cells to do their job in attacking the disease - in this case, Merkel cell carcinoma.

Merkel cell carcinoma is a sun exposure-related form of skin cancer that is more aggressive than melanoma affecting 1,500 people each year in the United States and according to the National Cancer Institute, the number of cases diagnosed each year is on the rise. The five-year survival rate for this disease is approximately 60 percent and is only 20 percent for those with disease that has spread to other parts of the body (metastatic). "Chemotherapy and radiation are not associated with long-term, overall survival, and this form of cancer is uniformly fatal, especially for those with metastatic disease. With that, there is clearly an unmet need for treatment options in this population," says the study's lead investigator Howard L. Kaufman, MD, FACS, associate director for clinical science and chief surgical officer at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey. Dr. Kaufman and colleagues examined patients with metastatic disease.

The study enrolled 88 patients, whose metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma progressed after receiving first or second line chemotherapy. Participants received a 10 mg/kg dose of avelumab every two weeks. Participants were followed for a median of 10 months. Investigators found 32 percent of patients achieved a complete or partial response (eight complete, 20 partial) and another 10 percent (nine patients) achieved stable disease. The findings also showed tumor responses to be rapid, with 22 of 28 patients (78.6 percent) responding to avelumab within seven weeks of starting therapy. A durable response was shown with 23 of 28 patients (82.1 percent) still responding at the time of analysis. Treatment-related adverse events were low grade (Grade 1 or 2) and seen in 62 patients (70.5 percent). The most common was fatigue (23.9 percent). Grade 3 adverse events were seen in four patients (4.5 percent) and included two cases of a reduction in lymphocytes in the blood and three cases of laboratory abnormalities relating to increased liver enzymes, blood cholesterol and blood creatine kinase. There were no Grade 4 adverse events or death related to treatment.

"The typical patient with metastatic Merkel cell is a male in his mid-70s and often with co-morbid disease. A lot of patients in this population are unable to tolerate chemotherapy. Those who are may not see a response for up to three months, and side effects are likely. Our study shows the response to avelumab is not only durable for some patients but also rapid, which translates into a manageable quality of life for them," says Kaufman. "Yes, it may be a minor inconvenience to undergo an infusion for the treatment, but we're seeing patients leaving the clinic feeling well and heading out to normal activities like shopping or dinner - not something we often see after chemotherapy is administered. The safety profile is remarkable. Side effects are easily managed and consistent with anti-PD-L1 antibodies in other tumor types," notes Kaufman. The team did report Grade 1 or 2 infusion reactions to avelumab in 17 percent of patients, but Kaufman notes that this was controlled, and in many cases could be prevented with pre-infusion medications.

Carrie Best of Ohio is believed to be the first patient globally to take avelumab as part of a clinical trial for Merkel cell carcinoma. A school psychologist with a young son, Best was diagnosed in her late 40s with an advanced form of disease in 2014 and was told by her community oncologist that her odds of recovery were "less than one percent." She researched her disease and met the criteria for the avelumab study led locally by Kaufman at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey. "After enduring various treatments including chemotherapy and a clinical trial leaving me physically and mentally exhausted, I wasn't sure what to expect with an investigational therapy," notes Best. "While on avelumab, I was able to get around easier, ride my bike and go to the park with my little boy. I started feeling relatively 'normal.' Six weeks after my first treatment, Dr. Kaufman told me my scans were clear and there was no evidence of disease. It was probably the most defining and powerful moment in my life, especially as I realized the improved quality of life I was afforded while receiving treatment. It was amazing to me that while I was in my most desperate hour, I was able to continue with the things most important to me - being a wife and an active participant in my child's life, working in a job I love and being productive. I am truly grateful that other patients with advanced stage disease may have an opportunity to experience similar outcomes."

"A decade ago we might have one patient in my clinic with this type of advanced disease responding to treatment. Today, we have an opportunity for many more patients to respond with 'T-cell checkpoint inhibitor' drugs," notes Kaufman. "This study shows meaningful results and adds to emerging data showing promise with immunotherapy drugs in other forms of cancer."

The trial was sponsored by Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany and is part of an alliance between Merck KGaA and Pfizer, Inc.
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Burchinal's co-authors included Martha Zaslow of Child Trends and Louisa Tarullo of Mathematica Policy Research. Their team also found that children appeared to benefit from a larger "dose" of center-based child care."Children showed larger gains in academic skills when they attended more than one year of Head Start, had fewer absences, and spent more time in reading and math instruction," Burchinal said. "Early childhood education is widely accepted as an effective way to improve opportunities for all children, and this finding about Head Start supports the growing trend of two years of publicly funded preschool for children from low-income homes."Burchinal explained that unlike most of the Head Start classrooms in her study, some programs do not meet a threshold of quality, offer a second year, or provide sufficient time in math and reading instruction to enable children to make academic gains."The lowest quality programs are going to have to change a lot in order for us to likely see the kind of improvement in language and academic skills that provide the foundation for succeeding in school," Burchinal said. "Children in our study showed the largest gains when teachers interacted with children frequently in engaging activities that were designed to teach those language and academic skills deliberately."Burchinal explained that if lower-quality preschool classrooms do not improve children's reading and language skills, this could inform the conceptualization and design of publicly funded programs, as well as efforts to improve existing learning opportunities for children. Shifting the field's current focus from overall quality and instead zeroing in on content may be more effective in promoting children's academic learning."At present, our field focuses on broader classroom quality and teacher-child interactions," she said. "Our study found that only small gains in language and literacy outcomes were associated with higher quality interactions between teachers and children, but large gains were associated with high quality instruction in those areas. Having a sensitive caregiver is really important for young children, but it probably isn't sufficient alone for promoting academic skills. There has to be content and an intentional approach to instruction."Source: Eurekalert
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Facts about Assisted Reproductive Technologies

Worldwide an increasing number of childless couples depend on assisted reproductive technologies to conceive.

ART was first used in the U.S in 1981

In Singapore in 2013, 6000 cycles of IVF were conducted, 1000 cycles more than in 2012.

In India,

5500 cycles of IVF-ICSI in 2000



21,500 cycles of IVF-ICSI in 2006



110,000 cycles of IVF-ICSI in 2011



The numbers in India are increasing at a remarkable rate

Success rate in the U.S

Women 35 years or younger - 41-43%



Women between 35 to 37 years - 33-36%



Women between 38-40 years - 23-27%



Women over 40 years - 13-18%

An ICMR report on ART states that the success rate of ART is not more than 30%

Highlights of the Findings of the Study

The study shows that all cells in the developing embryo are not identical as was believed earlier.

Cells in an embryo are differentiated and carry out different roles as they develop.

There was a difference in binding of certain proteins in the different cells to their target genes.

In depth understanding of the growth and development of embryos will aid in better success rates in ART.

Embryos were previously determined if they were good enough for implantation based on morphology and growth properties, imaging techniques such as these would aid in better understanding of growth of the embryos. This could lead to rejection of embryos with growth disabilities or genetic malformations.

Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART)

https://www.nichd.nih.gov/health/topics/infertility/conditioninfo/Pages/art.aspx Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART)

http://www.cdc.gov/art/index.html Assisted Reproductive Technologies

http://www.sart.org/sart_assisted_reproductive_technologies/ Assisted Reproductive Technology

https://www.asrm.org/uploadedFiles/ASRM_Content/Resources/Patient_Resources/Fact_Sheets_and_Info_Booklets/ART.pdf Assisted reproductive technology in India: A 3 year retrospective data analysis

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3963305/ In Vitro Fertilization: IVF

http://americanpregnancy.org/infertility/in-vitro-fertilization/

This method of assisted reproductive technique is for women with excess mucus plug in the cervix, men with low sperm count or poor motility of the sperms. The sperms are collected from the male and then inserted into the uterus of the female.Women are provided with hormone treatment to increase the production of eggs to improve chances of fertilization . The eggs are then retrieved from the woman and fertilized with the sperms collected from the male under laboratory conditions. Growing embryos that are 'healthy' are then inserted into the uterus of the woman.When the sperm count of the male is very low or if only a single sperm is available, even with motility problems, it is used to fertilize the egg from the woman by placing the sperm head in the cytoplasm of the egg.The new imaging technology designed by researchers from A*Star ICMB aids in viewing real time images of the growing mouse embryos without disturbing their growth, dispelling theories that existed about their development."Most laboratories conduct studies on embryonic cells via invasive methods which do not keep the embryo alive. Our lab is the only one in the world imaging single cells in live mammalian embryos at the quantitative level, which allows us to observe every cell within an embryo at every stage of its development. Our findings as a result of this advanced technique have put forth a new paradigm of knowledge that would encourage more detailed microscopic analysis for future assisted reproduction procedures" said Dr Nicolas Plachta, Senior Principal Investigator of IMCB.The significance of this study can be far reaching in India as it could improve success rates of these assisted fertility techniques. Couples who do not have children face a lot of stigma in India and fertility treatments are very expensive. Repeating cycles and medications can take a toll on the mental as well as physical health of the individual. A better understanding of the growth and development process of the embryos will reflect positively on such infertility treatment options.Source: Medindia
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Children born at the 41st week were found to score somewhat better on tests given at third through eighth grade -- enough to move some of them to a higher level on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.The shift in cognitive outcomes is approximately the equivalent of 10 extra points on each section of the SAT, said David Figlio, Ph.D., director of the Northwestern University Institute for Policy Research and lead author of the study. Late-term infants were also 2.1 percent more likely to be classified as having a physical disability that requires special classroom accommodation. These physical disabilities most commonly include speech pathologies as well as sensory disorders and orthopedic conditions, and can include children being homebound or hospitalized."These results are modest, but still meaningful," Figlio said. "While late-term gestation is associated with somewhat higher rates for physical problems, it's also associated with better cognitive outcomes."The children of women with low education levels -- defined as not having completed high school -- demonstrated the largest advantage of spending another week in the womb. Compared with children born full term, children born to low-education mothers at 41 weeks are 7.6 percent more likely to be gifted and 4.2 percent less likely to have poor cognitive outcomes. The differences in physical disability rates -- 5.1 percent higher than children born at 40 weeks -- are also larger for the low-education group.These children, Roth said, may have benefited from the extra week of uninterrupted brain maturation.The researchers drew their results from 1.5 million Florida birth records between 1994 and 2002. They linked birth certificate information to public school records from 1998 to 2013. The linking was able to locate 80 percent of infants born in Florida hospitals to students in Florida schools."Florida is an appropriate state to conduct this kind of research," Roth said. "Both the Florida Departments of Education and Health have been strong supporters of long-term follow-up of early life events."Roth said that though many events that occur between birth and entrance into school affect children's cognitive performance, the study sample was large enough to illustrate the clear connection between weeks of gestation and school test scores and assignment to exceptional student education classes."Did parents separate? Did the kids move around a lot? Did a relative win the lottery?" Roth said. "There's so much that goes on unobserved that could be contributing to these trends -- but because this data set is so large, positive and negative events that affect these outcomes basically cancel each other out."The researchers say the study is not intended to be used for medical decision-making, but simply to provide additional information to physicians and families who are considering whether to induce delivery at full term or wait another week until late term.Source: Eurekalert
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"We demonstrated that certain oxaboroles, selected from a large library produced by collaborating chemists, had potent activity both against cultured malaria parasites, and in an animal model of malaria," said Philip Rosenthal, of the University of California, San Francisco.Additionally, the researchers gained insight into the mechanism of action of the compounds, knowledge that could be important for refining new antimalarial drugs based on oxaboroles, said Rosenthal."New antimalarial drugs, ideally directed against novel targets, are greatly needed," he added. As for the resistance to oxaboroles that developed in the lab, Rosenthal said that it did not mean that resistance would develop under clinical conditions too.He added that in malaria, as in the case of other dangerous diseases, such as HIV infection and tuberculosis, usually more than one drug is given to patients, which makes it much harder for the pathogen to develop resistance. Although the research is an important first step, the investigators noted in their paper that developing antimalarials is particularly challenging.Oxaboroles appear promising on all counts. Among other things, safety of the general class has been demonstrated even in human trials of class members, though for purposes other than as antimalarials.Oxaboroles are also not difficult to synthesize, which would make them relatively inexpensive. Nonetheless, no drug is ever a sure bet at this stage of development, and in the best case, a number of years will pass between the present, and approval of a new drug for malaria. But the potential prize is mitigation of untold misery.This study has been published inSource: ANI
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California began newborn screening for CF in July 2007. To address the challenges of screening in such an ethnically diverse state, a three-step model was adopted that includes CFTR DNA sequencing in order to explore the full range of the CF spectrum and help scientists to understand the various mutations and their clinical significance. The three genotype groups created for this study were: those with two CF-causing mutations; those with one mutation of varying clinic consequences (VCC) and those with one mutation of unknown liability (Unknown)."Our study focused on children who have one CF-causing mutation and a second of varying or unknown clinical consequences, and followed them over time to see which mutations eventually resulted in disease symptoms and those that resulted in no disease," said first author Danieli B. Salinas, MD, of CHLA's Division of Pulmonology.While most infants with VCC and unknown CFTR mutations do not meet diagnostic criteria for CF, a small proportion do.The results of the cohort study showed that about 5 percent of VCC and 11 percent of Unknown developed CF. Children carrying Unknown mutations were determined to be at risk, while other mutations were benign."It is vital to determine and identify these mutations, because if we know the specific genetic mutation that causes the disease, we can possibly correct it," said Salinas. She added that nine different mutations, or about 4 percent of the population with CF, can be treated with a drug called Kalydeco, while another drug, Orkambi, effectively treats about 70 percent of CF patients - each by targeting a specific, known genetic mutation. "If we know early, we can make a significant difference in the life of a child with CF."On the other hand, if parents know that the mutation has been found to be benign, meaning the infant has been screened with a positive genetic profile for CF, but not the disease, it saves them considerable worry, and they know their baby no longer has to be seen for follow-up tests, Salinas added.Source: Newswise
The fall in the number of students taking the gaokao will force some colleges and universities to find novel recruitment methods if they want to enroll enough students, education experts have warned.

Students wait to enter Beijing No. 2 Middle School, a venue for the national college entrance examination, on the morning of June 7, the first day of the two-day exam. [Photo by Chen Boyuan / China.org.cn]

The annual national college entrance exam began on Tuesday, with 9.4 million students taking it nationwide, 20,000 fewer than last year.

At least 13 of China's 34 municipalities, provinces and regions saw a fall in the number of students registering for the exam this year.

In Beijing, Liaoning and Jiangsu provinces, the numbers have fallen to new lows, according to an annual survey on the gaokao and enrollment released by education portal eol.cn.

The gaokao is considered the most important exam in China, as only a small proportion of the students can be enrolled at top universities each year.

Chen Zhiwen, editor-in-chief of eol.cn, said the fall in numbers is not good news for some lesser-known colleges and universities.

"Fewer students taking the gaokao mean it will be more difficult for these colleges and universities to recruit enough students," Chen said.

He believes the fall is due to the shrinking population of college-age students and more Chinese students wanting to study overseas.

The eol.cn report, citing population authorities, said 25 million people were born in China in 1990, leading to a peak in the number of gaokao takers in 2008.

After 1990, the number of newborns fell  reflected from 2009 to 2013, when gaokao takers declined for five consecutive years. The fall in numbers ended in 2014 and they have stabilized at about 9.4 million since then.

However, an increasing number of Chinese students are heading overseas to study. Last year, more than 520,000 Chinese went abroad to study  the largest number ever.

Chen believes that under such circumstances, the student recruitment issue facing some colleges and universities will continue.

Xiong Bingqi, vice-president of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, said one solution is to cultivate the characteristics and strengths of these educational institutions.
On May 21, 2016, a U.S. drone strike killed Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansoor in Ahmad Wal in the Nushki district of Pakistan's Baluchistan province. Although Baluchistan, and especially the capital of Quetta, has been a safe haven for the leaders of the Pakistan-backed Afghan Taliban since they were displaced from Afghanistan following the post-9/11 U.S. military invasion, the United States had never before carried out drone strikes there.

The drone strike in Baluchistan left Pakistanis - especially the pro-jihad and pro-military Islamist leaders - worried that the country's sovereignty had been violated. On June 5, the Difa-e-Pakistan Council (DPC, or the Defense of Pakistan Council), organized a rally in Islamabad culminating in the city's Abpara area, which is the site of the headquarters for the Pakistani military's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Directorate. The ISI has been known for creating and nurturing jihadi groups in order to fight against Afghanistan and India for the past few decades. The venue of the DPC rally in Abpara indicates that its leader had the support of ISI.

The conference featured speeches attacking the U.S., India and Israel. The DPC mainly includes pro-jihad and pro-ISI leaders and clerics with deep roots in jihadi groups. Among those who spoke at the Abpara rally were: DPC chairman Maulana Samiul Haq, who is known as the father of jihad in Pakistan; Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, the founder of terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba and now chief of its charity arm Jamaatud Dawa; Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed, politician and chief of Awami Muslim League party; Allama Muhammad Ahmad Ludhianvi, the leader of Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (new name of outlawed anti-Shi'ite terror group Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan); Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil, a veteran jihadi leader and chief of Ansarul Ummah; Hafiz Abdur Rehman Makki, a veteran jihadi leader of Lashkar-e-Taiba and now a central leader of Jamaatud Dawa, and several others.

The next morning, Pakistan's Urdu dailies prominently featured reports on the DPC conference on their front pages. Following are excerpts from an article in Roznama Express, an Urdu daily in mass circulation, titled: "Defense of Pakistan Conference: American Drone Strike Is A Declaration Of War Against Pakistan, The Army Chief Should Fulfil His Responsibility":



Defense of Pakistan Council leaders at the rally in Islamabad, June 5, 2016

"Islamabad (Special Report): Vowing to continue its movement against the drone strikes, even during and after Ramadan [starting June 7], the Defense of Pakistan Council has said that American drone aircraft have reached airports in India and missiles are being set up [to target Pakistan]. If India provides aid to America and Israel to launch drone strikes on Pakistan's nuclear program or anywhere else, then no city in India will remain safe.

"The Army chief [General Raheel Sharif] and the Air chief [Sohail Aman] should fulfil their responsibilities and the drones entering Pakistani boundaries should be shot down. If India and America can talk of attacking Pakistan, then we too have the right to defend Pakistan. Here on Sunday [June 5], at the end of the rally at Abpara [that started] in Faizabad, Defense of Pakistan Council chairman Maulana Samiul Haq said that [we] have to struggle to extricate the country from the shackles of the enemies; the country faces dangers at its ideological and geographical boundaries.

"[Samiul Haq said that] 'some forces are trying to make the country secular and liberal; that attacks are being carried out on the borders and the rulers do nothing; that the country's security and the defense of its Islamic character is the shared responsibility of all; and that the movement will continue even during the Ramadan with full force - with big gatherings being held on June 12 in Lahore, on June 19 in Faisalabad and on June 20 in Gujranwala.'



Pakistanis turned out in large numbers to attend the DPC rally despite summer heat

"Professor Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, the emir of Jamaatud Dawa Pakistan, said that 'the U.S. drone strike [that killed Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansoor] was a rehearsal and declaration of war against Pakistan; the worrying point is that today American drones have reached Indian airports and missiles are being set up; if a drone takes off from bases in India and attacks Pakistan's atomic program or any other place, then we too have so many drones that your [India's] every town will be attacked.

"'This is the second difficult time since the Fall of East Pakistan [which became Bangladesh in 1971] but remember that this is not the Pakistan of 1971; rather this is a country with nuclear [power] and jihadi spirit which defeated Russia and now America [in post/911 Afghanistan]; the drones entering the Pakistani boundaries be shot down; if [U.S. President Barack] Obama talks of drone attacks, then we too say it with seriousness that we will defend this country.'

"Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed, the chief of Awami Muslim League, said that 'America stopped [me] at the airport twice and it seems now that it will also seize [my] passport; three suicide attacks have taken place on me but I am still out in the open for the rights of people; the rulers have their everything [i.e. assets] abroad but I have to live and die here; such a difficult time never came in the nation's history since the Fall of Dhaka [i.e. secession of East Pakistan in 1971]; the Defense of Pakistan Council should bring together political parties.'

"Sardar Atiq Ahmed Khan, the chief of Muslim Conference [party] and former Prime Minister of [Pakistani-controlled] Azad Kashmir, said that external conspiracies against Pakistan are growing. Allama Muhammad Ahmed Ludhianvi, the chief of Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat [a religious and terrorist group known for systematically killing Pakistani Shi'ites], said that thousands of people gathering [for this conference] despite the extreme heat is proof that the nation stands shoulder to shoulder with the Defense of Pakistan Council.

"Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil, the chief of Ansarullah Ummah, said that after creating unrest in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa [province], America now wants to create unrest in Baluchistan by carrying out drone attacks there. 'The drone attack [that killed Mullah Mansoor] is an attack on Pakistan's integrity; Pakistan's people and military are on the same page [even though the government may not]'..."

Source: Roznama Express (Pakistan), June 6, 2016.
In recent weeks, Iran's ideological camp has stepped up its threats against pragmatic camp leader and Expediency Council chairman Hashemi Rafsanjani. The threats have included calls for prosecuting him - as it is, relatives of his are frequently imprisoned - and for defining him as a deviant, a traitor, and an accessory to, and torch-bearer today of, what the ideological camp terms "the 2009 fitna," that is, the civil unrest following the presidential elections. It will be recalled that the leaders of this movement - former prime minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi and his wife, and former Majlis speaker Mehdi Karroubi - have been under house arrest since 2011.

When discussing Rafsanjani, ideological camp members' statements are harsh, even violent.[1] This tone attests to the escalation in the regime's antipathy towards the man considered to be the leader of the move towards openness vis-a-vis the U.S. and the West, which brought about the JCPOA - in contrast to the position of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who considers the U.S. to be an enemy that Iran must not come to terms with it. It should be mentioned that the ideological camp considers the JCPOA a tool used by the pragmatic camp and by the U.S. to remove it from power.

Rafsanjani is perceived by the ideological camp as an existential threat to its regime and as constantly undermining the foundation of its control of the country's institutions.[2] The current struggle between the ideological and pragmatic camps, and particularly the personal struggle between these camps' respective leaders, has been ongoing for at least three years, and is currently at a high point (see MEMRI Inquiry & Analysis No. 1137, The Power Struggle Between Khamenei And His Camp And Rafsanjani And His Camp - Part XIV, January 21, 2015, and MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 5794, The Rafsanjani-Khamenei Struggle Escalates Into Open, Direct Confrontation, July 13, 2014).

Recently, Rafsanjani's daughter Faezeh Hashemi was photographed meeting with a Baha'i activist with whom she had previously shared a prison cell. The meeting between the two women prompted the ideological camp to take immediate legal measures against Rafsanjani himself. The regime considers Bahaism to be a deviant and illegitimate cult, and its practitioners are persecuted and are denied civil and religious rights. It also considers Baha'is to be collaborators with Israel and the U.S. Although Rafsanjani distanced himself from his daughter's actions, the ideological camp still considers them valid proof of his own treason.[3]

Due to the tremendous pressure on him, and the threats against him,[4] it appears that Rafsanjani had to relinquish his candidacy for head of the Assembly of Experts, even though he won the general elections for the assembly in February 2016.[5]

Even after his rival, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, was chosen to head the assembly, the attacks on Rafsanjani did not stop. The Tasnim news agency, which is affiliated with the IRGC, published an article predicting the death of Rafsanjani, describing him as the pawn of the British and of the BBC. It added that since he was not chosen assembly head and can no longer serve the British, they no longer need him, and he would be more useful to them dead.[6]

In light of these developments, MEMRI assesses that the Iranian regime may no longer stop at harassing Rafsanjani's relatives and associates,[7] and that there is a possibility that it will now move to harming Rafsanjani directly.

Following are threatening comments and actual threats made against Rafsanjani in recent days:

IRGC Commander Threatens Rafsanjani

On May 24, 2016, at a cadet graduation ceremony attended by Supreme Leader Khamenei, Mohammad Ali Jafari, commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), said: "Thanks to the Islamic Revolution and the awakening of mankind, monotheistic beliefs have spread in the region and in the world in this new age, and the garbage dump of Western culture has been set on the path of assured destruction. Nevertheless, some in the country who think a certain way are stealing glances at foreigners and speaking [highly] of the rotting values of Western cultures, in comparison with Iran's noble religious values and culture.

"These [people] should know that the religious public in Iran, which is revolutionary and which nurtures martyrs, will not tolerate these thoughts, or those who have them, in Iran's politics and culture. They must know that if they persist in their deviant path, they will meet with the same catastrophe as did those who preceded them in deviating from the straight path of the leader [Khamenei] and the Imam [Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini] and who remain infamous in the memory of the Iranian nation.

"The IRGC and the Basij accompany the spirit of revolution and values of the great Iranian nation, and will never allow some of the infiltration camps that are influenced by the West, that can be found within the apparatuses of the regime, to carry out deceptions or to force their foolish view on, and tarnish, the blessed life of the Islamic Revolution."[8]

Kayhan Editorial: "The Baha'i And The New Infiltrators"

The May 18, 2016 editorial of the daily Kayhan, titled "The Baha'i and the New Infiltrators," stated: "Ms. What's-her-name [Rafsanjani's daughter] travels with ease to America and England. While a BBC Persia reporter encounters visa problems with America, this lady does not. A few days before the election, she travels to America. Why? Do not assume the worst. Maybe she simply craved a McDonald's sandwich.

"In July 2012, she pops over to England, saying that she is going to the Olympic Games, but her lawyer says that she went to visit her son, who was studying there... Something happens and her brother also arrives in London, remaining for several years on the pretext of visiting a certain university. Later, there come reports that he was involved in stepping up the sanctions [on Iran] as fuel for the green fitna...

"After her recent visit with one of the leaders of the Zionist-Baha'i channel, Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani expressed - in three lines, no more - that Faezeh had made a mistake and must rectify it. She said that she had made no mistake, and that she had no regrets... [and Rafsanjani] distanced himself from the Baha'i cult... [that is] crooked and colonialist and that joined the leaders of the fitna in a collective project...

"Is it now time for you [addressing Rafsanjani] to renounce Baha'ism... or is it time for you to renounce those who are an organic part of the Baha'i [i.e. your daughter]... They [the Baha'i] denied [the existence of] the Mahdi [the Hidden Imam]... and, in London, they operated a computer room for the Green Movement...

"What should be done about a camp lacking in all cultural, political, and economic honor, which engages in forming [spy] rings and [political] parties, and in amassing capital? ...

"We are currently in all-out cultural, political, and economic war with the historic enemies of the Iranian nation... The enemy came to the arena without fear... We must understand what operation is being planned by the enemy, and come to the arena without delay and without pleasantries."[9]

Basij Commander Attacks Rafsanjani

On May 16, 2016, Basij commander Mohammad Reza Naqdi said: "Infiltration elements [meaning Rafsanjani] are amassing a fortune and creating [socioeconomic] classes, increasing poverty, and then pop up to express concern for the poor. These people are behind the unnecessary large-scale imports, and when [Iranian] companies go bankrupt and when national production grinds to a halt, they say we must facilitate relations with the foreigners and compromise with America so that our problems will be solved.

"They meet with Sunnis [referring to Rafsanjani's past good relations with the Saudis] and create many expectations for them, and then approach a camp that does not believe in Sunni-Shi'ite unity and collaborates with it against the regime.

"This group of infiltration elements sits down with the Baha'i at the expense of Islam, while at the same time asking, 'What has the [Islamic] Revolution done for Islam?' ...

"This group calls Basij members extremists because they zealously defended Islam or because they shouted their criticism. Yet it recognizes America as good despite its evil, interprets its crimes favorably, and says that we must compromise and make friends with [the Americans].

"This group of infiltration elements is attempting to blur the difference between truth and lies, and to present someone else as the main enemy. For example, it has a plan to paint Saudi Arabia as the main enemy, while compromising with America and maintaining relations with it."[10]

Judiciary Spokesman And Prosecutor General Criticizes Rafsanjani's Daughter

On May 18, 2016, Judiciary spokesman and prosecutor-general Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje'i said: "Faezeh Hashemi's meeting with a member of the Baha'i cult is an ugly and condemnable act. We will deal with her in accordance with the law. As per my understanding, many people, including senior clerics and other known figures, have condemned this act. Even uglier was that her father spoke about this but that she did not apologize."[11]

Assembly Of Experts Member And Tehran Friday Prayer Leader Criticizes Rafsanjani's Daughter

In an interview with the Tasnim news agency, which is close to the IRGC, Assembly of Experts member and Tehran Friday prayer leader Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami said: "In fact, Baha'i is not a religion, but an espionage party. The world of arrogance has completely supported this espionage cult, and still does. A fatwa by all the ayatollahs regarding Baha'ism is clear and unequivocal - [according to this fatwa,] it is a deviant cult that is outside the Shi'a and must be treated as foreign.

"Recently, a certain political figure met one of the leaders of this cult. We must condemn any behavior that will cause a break in the barrier against relations with this devious cult. In the Islamic regime [of Iran], no one must bring about the revival of this hated cult, neither on the pretext of human rights or on any other [pretext]. Certainly, meeting with a member of this cult is complete deviation and cannot be acknowledged as just a mistake."[12]

Endnotes:
A number of scams have surfaced as the opening day for the Shanghai Disney Resort nears.

Media reports in the city said a fake website mimicking the resort hotel site had ranked among the top search results.

But when a reporter called the website number to reserve a room, she was asked for her credit card details, including the three-digit security number, and her mobile phone and ID numbers, according to kankannews.com.

Experts warned consumers not to reveal such key information as the security number.

The Shanghai park, the first Disney theme park on the Chinese mainland and the third in Asia after Tokyo and Hong Kong, is due to open on June 16.

In the past two months, at least 200 people claiming they could provide job opportunities at the park have been exposed by police.

In April, police arrested three suspected gang leaders alleged to have conned more than 3 million yuan (US$460,000) out of 30-plus victims by promising them jobs at the Shanghai Disneyland park.

A taxi driver surnamed Li was the first to report the scam to police.

He said he saw a recruitment advertisement and dialed the number. He was promised a managerial position at the park, quit his job and paid 13,000 yuan as a fee, but the job turned out to be a cleaner's position.

After discovering that his colleagues had found jobs at the park by sending their CVs direct to Disney and not paying any fees, he reported the case to police.

Mi Yangjun, a police information officer, said one of the suspects, surnamed Xu, who once worked for an employment agency, told police she believed she could make big money by pretending to offer job opportunities at Disneyland.

In May, a wealth investment product promising an annual yield of 10 percent was issued by Shanghai Guozhou Financial Information Service Co, which said the funds would be used to develop and operate the Shanghai Disney Resort.

However, the product was withdrawn by the local financial market watchdog due to false advertising.
One of the largest glaciers at the source of Yangtze River is retreating at an alarming pace, scientists warned on Tuesday.

The Jianggudiru Glacier on Geladaindong Mountain has shrunk 34 meters over the past six years, said Pu Jianchen, a researcher with the Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The glacier started to shrink slowly in the 1970s, but reversed the trend and expanded between 1989 and 1994 before retreating more quickly from 1995, said Pu.

Yang Xin, president of the Green River Environmental Protection Association, said the glacier retreated two meters a year in the 1980s and 1990s but about six meters a year over the past few years. "This is direct evidence of global climate change," he said.

Pu said the retreat of glaciers could add waterflow in the short term but could reduce waterflow and eventually dry up a river in the long term.

Members of the scientific expedition team called on the public to cut emissions of greenhouse gases to limit climate change.

Meanwhile, the scientists said they have taken photos of endangered snow leopards at unprecedented altitudes.

The pictures were captured by infrared cameras they placed on the glacier at an altitude of over 5,500 meters last October.

Snow leopards, one of China's Class A protected animals, are usually found in the Himalayas in central and south Asia at altitudes between 3,000 and 5,500 meters.

The animal has rarely been seen in the wild over the last century due to loss of habitat and poaching. It is estimated that less than 10,000 snow leopards live in the wild worldwide, with about 2,500 to 3,500 in China.
Editor's Note: Many people around China are anticipating the upcoming Dragon Boat Festival, which falls on Thursday this year, to chill out a bit by indulging in a short getaway. The three-day holiday is not long, but still, if you plan well and know exactly what you want from a trip, a fulfilling getaway is achievable. Since it is early summer, what you have in mind must be somewhere cool and special. Here we recommend a wide selection of destinations, hoping at least one of them will suit your discerning taste.

1. Huanglong, Sichuan

Located in the southern part of the Minshan Mountain range, Huanglong is a scenic and historic area in northwestern Sichuan, extending over an area of 700 square kilometers (70,000 hectares). This area is known for its colorful pools created by calcite deposits, especially in Huanglonggou (Yellow Dragon Gully), as well as for its diversity in forest ecosystems, snow-capped peaks, waterfalls and hotsprings. Huanglong is also home to many endangered species, including the Giant Panda and the Sichuan Golden Snub-nosed Monkey.[China.org.cn]
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday denounced the latest bombing attack in Istanbul, vowing continued battle against terrorism.

Municipal workers clean the damages caused to a hotel and the road by a bomb in the Vezneciler district of Istanbul on June 7, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

"This terror attack is against humanity, there is no way to forgive these attacks," the president said after visiting some of the wounded in hospital, adding that "we will continue our struggle against terrorism tirelessly until the end."

Seven police officers and four civilians were killed and 36 others injured in the morning rush hour, when a parked car exploded as a riot police shuttle bus passed by in the neighborhood of Vezneciler in Istanbul's Fatih district.

Three of the wounded are "in critical condition," Governor Vasip Sahin said.

Erdogan said two people were undergoing surgery in the hospital where he visited.

The deadly attack came one day after Turkey entered the holy month of Ramadan, a time when Muslims in the country practice fasting.

"Terror can happen anytime anywhere, we should be prepared," Erdogan said, pledging all the precautions to "minimize" the threat of terrorism.

Press reports said the buildings of several universities, the Istanbul municipality headquarters and Ottoman-era mosques were damaged in the explosion, while the final exams in Istanbul University were postponed.

Police have boosted the security measures across the city and were conducting searches at the metro stations, the reports said.

The security situation in Turkey has deteriorated in recent months, with Istanbul, the national capital of Ankara and other cities having been hit by a number of bombing attacks.

In Istanbul, two suicide bombing attacks killed 12 Germans and four foreigners respectively in January and March.
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Yemen's foreign minister said Tuesday that his internationally recognized government has received 54 child prisoners who had been captured by Saudi Arabia in order to free them.

Abdul Malik al-Mikhlafi, head negotiator of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi's government delegation in Kuwait, tweeted through his official twitter account that "the Yemeni government appreciates that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the coalition released the Yemeni children and handed them over to the Yemeni government."

"The children, whom the Houthis used during the war, are aged between eight and 17-years-old. They will be released along with those released in Marib," al-Mikhlafi said, referring to six child prisoners who were already released by the Yemeni government earlier in the province of Marib northeast of the Houthi-held capital city Sanaa.

He said that "the children released highlights the government's rejection of the Houthi's use of children in wars and the government's commitment to international laws."

On Monday, the UN envoy to the Yemeni conflict, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, who is in charge of the ongoing peace talks between Hadi's Saudi-backed government and the Iranian-allied Shiite Houthi group, said that all Yemeni warring parties have agreed to the unconditional release of child soldiers.

There was no immediate response from the Houthis.

However, last week, Hadi's government as well as the Houthis submitted lists of approximately 7,000 prisoner-release requests, including political detainees, to UN mediators.

Government officials accused the Houthis and former President Ali Abdullah Saleh's party of detaining over 4,000 prisoners, mostly politicians and activists.

The UN's latest report accused both the Yemeni warring parties of using child soldiers and UNICEF reported that 900 children were killed whilst 1,300 were wounded during the 2015 conflict.

The Iran-allied Shiite Houthi group supported by forces loyal to Saleh advanced from their stronghold in the far north of the province of Saada, storming through the capital Sanaa and other cities in September 2014, dissolving the Saudi-backed government along with President Hadi based on combating "corruption" allegations.

The Saudi-led air force coalition intervened in March 2015, vowing to reinstate Hadi to power and reclaim Sanaa.

So far, Hadi and his government are still in exile in the Saudi capital city of Riyadh.

The civil war has escalated since then, leaving over 6,000 dead so far in ground battles and airstrikes, half of whom are civilians.

The ongoing conflict has also forcibly displaced over 2.4 million people from Yemen.

The warring parties have now been in talks in Kuwait since April under the UN's auspices to end over one year of war.

Last month, delegates from both sides agreed in Kuwait to a considerable prisoner exchange before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

However, the process failed, and so far only child soldiers have been released by the government.

The government demands that Houthis and Saleh's delegates comply with the UN's Security Council Resolution 2216, which orders their withdrawal from the capital city of Sanaa and their complete disarmament in order to end the war.

The demand has so far been rejected by the Houthis as well as Saleh.
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Street protests in the past weeks have become the hallmark of Kenya's opposition leaders' push for radical reforms in the electoral process, putting the east African nation at a perilous political and economic path, analysts told Xinhua on Tuesday.

Since early April, weekly street demonstrations in the Kenyan capital Nairobi and several towns in the western part of the country have dominated headlines, sending disturbing signals to local and foreign investors, international partners and ordinary citizens.

The opposition Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) has organized these protests, citing the government's reluctance to engage key stakeholders to fast-track an overhaul of the electoral body, which supervises next year's general elections.

According to CORD's principals, ex-Prime Minister Raila Odinga, former Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka and former foreign affairs minister Moses Wetangula, overhauling the current structure of the electoral body to include appointment of new commissioners is an imperative to avoid a repeat of 2007-08 post-poll chaos next year.

Experts who spoke to Xinhua agreed the current stand-off, pitting the ruling coalition against their opposition rivals over disbandment of the electoral body, bodes ill for Kenya's stability and economic growth.

Joshua Kivuva, a political scientist at the University of Nairobi, said that given the rising political temperatures in Kenya, the government and opposition had no choice but to commence dialogue on how to resolve stalemate over electoral reforms.

"Each party in the current dispute over how to reform our electoral machine has legitimate concerns that should be listened to avoid unending paralysis," Kivuva told Xinhua in an interview.

"While I do not support violent protests in our cities, it is incumbent upon the government and opposition to find a middle ground and appoint new commissioners to the electoral body," he added.

The CORD has time and again expressed dissatisfaction with the institutional structure of the electoral body alongside unethical conduct of some of its commissioners.

Since revelations emerged two years ago that several electoral commissioners took bribes from a British firm during procurement of biometric voter register, the opposition has intensified pressure on them to vacate office.

The opposition chiefs alleged the commissioners could have tampered with the March 2013 general elections in favor of the incumbent administration led by President Uhuru Kenyatta.

Two months have almost lapsed since the street protests commenced, and despite a brief lull occasioned by a casual encounter between Kenyatta, his Deputy William Ruto and opposition chiefs, the stalemate has once again hit a crescendo.

After the brief encounter, both the government and opposition gave differing narratives on what was agreed upon.

President Kenyatta and his deputy trashed claims that a deal was struck with the opposition to form a 10-member committee to look into institutional reforms at the electoral body.

The opposition, on the other hand, insisted a deal was struck and gave the ruling coalition a one-week ultimatum to sit with them on a table of dialogue, failure to which protests would resume.

Street protests resumed on Monday upon expiry of this ultimatum, and opposition chiefs vowed not to relent until their demands were met.

According to Kivuva and a host of experts who spoke to Xinhua, the street protests, while legitimate, may not offer durable solution to institutional deficiencies in Kenya's electoral body.

"As a country, we have made great strides in expansion of democratic space, liberties and civil rights for the last two decades. We must therefore desist from actions that would erode these gains. Dialogue rather than confrontations is only way to end the current stalemate over electoral reforms," Kivuva remarked.

He lauded a bipartisan initiative launched by lawmakers from both sides of the political divide a fortnight ago to spearhead reforms in the electoral process.

Barrack Muluka, a political commentator, said on the national television that the current anti-electoral body street protests had not reached a level where they would precipitate a civil strife.

"What is abundantly clear as for now is that our opposition is flexing its political muscle to pass a critical message to their rivals in the ruling coalition. We cannot conclude there is total breakdown of law and order because of these protests," said Muluka.

Nevertheless, he warned that hard-line positions adopted by the government and opposition over the disbandment of the electoral body before next year polls bode ill for Kenya's stability, cohesion and growth.
 Flash

The governing left-wing alliance in Venezuela, known as the Great Patriotic Pole, denounced a "U.S. re-colonization plan" in Latin America on Monday.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro (C) delivers a speech during a rally in Caracas, Venezuela, on June 1, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

"Faced with this growing interference, we will not hand over our resources or our nation. Fascism will never come to Venezuela," ruling Socialist Party official Blanca Eekhout said at a press conference.

The alliance has been vociferous in its criticisms of Luis Almagro, secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS), for his stance against Venezuela.

Almagro last week called for an urgent meeting of the organization's permanent council to debate the political situation in Venezuela and suggested the bloc's Inter-American Democratic Charter be applied to Caracas.

If this is approved in a meeting, which is set to take place on June 10-20, Venezuela could be suspended from the OAS.

Eekhout said the left-wing parties had come together to "prevent" an eventual "intervention" in the South American nation, and referred to the fall of left-wing governments in Argentina and Brazil as an example.

Also on Monday, the Venezuelan government condemned the U.S. State Department for "defamatory statements" made in its 2015 terrorism report.

In its Country Reports on Terrorism 2015 released on June 2, the U.S. State Department accused Venezuela of having the right environment for terrorist groups to flourish.

The groups listed included the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and the National Liberation Army, which have waged a guerrilla warfare in Colombia for decades while allegedly operating from bases within Venezuela.

The U.S. report also accused Venezuela of helping sympathizers of the Basque group ETA and the Lebanese Islamic group Hezbollah.

The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry said on Monday that "the United States has no mandate to evaluate sovereign states on any matter, including terrorism."

"Venezuela condemns all forms of terrorism, including state-sponsored terrorism, and reaffirms that Venezuela is free of this scourge," said the ministry in a press release.
Snyder's office says the governor vetoed the bill Monday because the loss in funding might hurt the DEQ's ability to process permits.

The bill would have reduced permit fees for private boat harbors to $10 annually. Under the bill, the fees would be waived if harbor owners let members of the public dock boats during storms.

Snyder says in his veto letter that he supports the intent of the legislation -- to make sure permit fees are reasonable. Snyder says he looks forward to working with the DEQ and Republican Sen. Tom Casperson on the issue.
UPPER THUMB  What you see as junk, they see as dollar signs. So gather up your antiques and collectibles, theyll be picking at the end of the month.

An associate with one of the History channels popular television shows American Pickers contacted the Tribune last week regarding some filming and picking in the Upper Thumb.

This week, the Tribune learned hosts Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz will begin filming in Michigan near the end of the month, with the Upper Thumb being a projected stop along the way. The show has already received many responses from collectors and treasure hoarders throughout the state. The duo visited Michigan once before while filming season two in 2010.

The show follows Wolfe and Fritz as they travel various states to buy or pick various items for resale, for other clients or for their own personal collections.

Were looking for amazing things buried in peoples garages and barns, the duo says in the programs opening credits.

Due to its popularity, and to avoid interruptions, producers tend to not release the location and timeline of where filming will take place.

The series is currently on its 15th season, but footage filmed in the Thumb would be used for the new season, which is scheduled to air this fall. The show will not consider visits to retail shops or flea markets.

Collectors looking to be considered for the show should provide a name, phone number, location and description of their collection with photos to: americanpickers@cineflix.com or by calling 855-old-rust.
The U.S. Senate on Tuesday agreed to strike a legislative provision that would have created a pilot program to privatize some military commissary stores.

The upper chamber voted 70-28 in favor of an amendment from Sens. Jim Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma, and Barbara Mikulski, a Democrat from Maryland, to remove the privatization language from its version of the fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA.

Before the vote, the senators pressed their colleagues to support the amendment to give the Defense Department more time to assess the effects and costs of the change. They cited a recent Pentagon report that concluded the program would hurt the purchasing power of military families and veterans.

"This report raises a red flag that privatizing a handful of commissaries, as the NDAA's current language would do, will hurt the purchasing power to achieve cost savings for military families and veterans," Inhofe said. "It will also impact the commissary and exchange workforce, which is made up, in large part, of military family members."

The study cautions lawmakers against making any changes until officials can give them a clearer picture of what privatization means. The NDAA had included a provision allowing for limited privatization of several stores.

Commissaries are required by law to sell goods at cost plus a 5-percent surcharge. Commissary operating costs are covered by an annual taxpayer subsidy of more than $1 billion.

According to the Pentagon report, the Defense Commissary Agency must operate stores where service members live, even if doing so isn't economically beneficial for the outlets. More than two-thirds of commissaries serve military populations living in locations that are not profitable for private-sector grocers.

The commissary system is also a factor in retention, according to the Pentagon, which found that the commissary benefit "encourages people to re-enlist, preserving a well-trained, dedicated military." That translates into savings in the cost of training or retraining the majority of the force every few years.

The limited privatization language included the defense bill was framed last year when some lawmakers sought to move five commissaries into the private sector on a two-year trial basis. The language has met resistance from military and veterans advocates.

Mikulski called commissaries the military's "most popular earned benefit." The Pentagon report already indicates that privatizing the system would be "penny wise and pound foolish," she said.

"It would mean increasing costs, reducing benefits and slashing jobs that veterans and military families rely on," Mikulski said.

The system of 240-plus commissaries across the U.S. and at American bases around the world is, of course, not the only government-funded system that some believe should be privatized. The other is the multi-billion-dollar Veterans Health Administration, with its network of hospitals and clinics across the U.S. and territories.

Scandals involving long wait times for care and manipulation of appointment systems, among other incidents, have prompted some to advocate allowing veterans the option of going to outside providers for care. Officials and others warn that would be the end of the coordinated care long provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

President Barack Obama, in remarks June 1 in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he addressed graduates of the Air Force Academy, said "the notion of dismantling the VA system would be a mistake." A big part of the VA's problem has been getting people into the system, he said.

"Once they are in," he said, "they are extremely satisfied and the quality of care is very high."

-- Bryant Jordan can be reached at Bryant.jordan@military.com. Follow him on Twitter at@BryantJordan.
Two South Carolina Air National Guard F-16 fighter jets crashed Tuesday night in Georgia, officials said in a statement.

The South Carolina Air National Guard said in a statement that the pilots of the single-seat aircraft ejected safely after a mid-air collision during routine night-flying operations in Jefferson County, Georgia. Officials said there were no injuries reported on the ground.

The two jets were assigned to the 169th Fighter Wing. The pilots weren't immediately identified.

Officials said an initial safety board has been activated and the U.S. Air Force plans to conduct a safety investigation.

The latest incident comes on the heels of two crashes by military jets last week.

A pilot of a U.S. Air Force Thunderbird crashed following a flyover for graduating cadets at the Air Force Academy. The pilot safely ejected and was uninjured.

Capt. Jeff Kuss, 32, was killed when his F/A-18 jet crashed just after takeoff while he was practicing for an air show outside Nashville. The Blue Angels have canceled upcoming performances.

-- Fox News' Lucas Tomlinson and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Police in New York were searching for a former Navy SEAL and Afghan war veteran Tuesday after he skipped bail on a 2015 arrest on assault and other charges, the LI Herald reported. Nathanael Lalo Roberti, 33, was arrested during an April 2015 altercation in Long Beach, N.Y. and faced charges of assault, strangulation, unlawful imprisonment and criminal possession of a weapon. He was released on $1,000 bail but failed to appear at a recent court date at Nassau County Criminal Court. Roberti repeatedly threatened police officers who responded to the dispute at the time, but authorities would not comment further on the incident. Police made the initial announcement Monday that they were searching for Roberti, Long Beach Patch reported. Roberti has brown hair, brown eyes and a tattoo sleeve on his left arm, police told the paper. Authorities stressed that the public use caution if approaching Roberti, who is 6-foot-2 and weighs 230 pounds. While overseas in 2005, Roberti participated in a major rescue mission in Afghanistan, the Herald reported. He was later awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal. Roberti wrote in 2014 that he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. In 2013, he recounted to NPR that he had trouble adjusting to civilian life in the United States. I pulled a knife on four individuals, thats why I ended up in front of a judge, he told the outlet. Wed come back from these deployments, and I just felt like, I cannot relate to anybody in the United States. Roberti is also the founder LALO Tactical, a California-based footwear company, Patch reported. Anyone with information on Roberti and his whereabouts are asked to call the Long Beach, N.Y. Police Department at (516) 431-1800. Beside New York, he previously lived in California and Virginia, police said. Long Beach is located on Long Island, about 30 miles east of New York City.
Shutting down all U.S. military commissaries is the only way for the system to operate without any cost to taxpayers, according to a new Defense Department report -- a move officials say they don't want to do.

"We have concluded that budget neutrality could not be reached through store closures unless the commissary system is shut down completely," states the report on cost savings at the Defense Commissary Agency.

The study was ordered by Congress last year and released this week.

"The Department determined that such changes would undermine the commissary benefit and reduce exchange system patronage, significantly diminishing resale benefits to service members, retirees, their families and the military services," Peter Levin, acting undersecretary of defense for defense personnel and readiness, wrote in a letter to lawmakers submitted with the report.

"As a result, the Department has rejected these alternatives," he wrote.

What the agency and the exchanges can do without impacting the military's Morale, Welfare and Recreation funds or customer service is reduce their reliance on federal funding by about $2 billion over five years, or about $300 million per year starting in 2019, the report states.

The could happen by raising the prices on some products while working with manufacturers to the lower the price of others -- programs that are already in the works. But savings through those measures falls $1.5 billion short of the desired cut in 2019 alone, the report notes, and requires Congress to make permanent the price changes previously allowed as a test measure.

Lawmakers have sought for several years to eliminate the commissary system's reliance on $1.4 billion in annual funding from Congress.

Because goods at the commissary are currently, by law, sold at cost plus a 5 percent surcharge, there is no sales revenue in the system to cover operation costs. Income from the surcharge covers the cost of buildings and infrastructure maintenance, while the annual government funding pays for other overhead including employee salaries and the cost of shipping food and goods worldwide.

Lawmakers have proposed a variety of cost slashing plans including eliminating the taxpayer subsidy, raising prices at commissaries to cover operation costs, combining the commissary and exchange systems and privatizing commissaries through contracts with civilian grocers.

Of those options, the only semi-viable solution could be privatization -- but research and past attempts, such as a 1983 pilot at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, showed that even that could fail and comes with a variety of major pitfalls, the report states.

"The conclusion generally reached by the past debates and studies was that privatization  was not an effective method of reducing the Department's budget for several reasons," it states. "Nonetheless, the debate continues."

For the new study, officials reached out to officials at 10 private companies to look at how privatization could work today. Of those, three agreed to a discussion through a set of standardized questions. Each company suggested a different form of privatization, officials wrote, including only privatizing stores near their existing locations and leasing the commissaries on bases.

As a result of their research, officials are conducting further outreach to the grocery industry through a request for information that could help further hash-out a privatization path, officials wrote in the report. That request closes July 15.

--Amy Bushatz can be reached at amy.bushatz@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @amybushatz.
Officials with U.S. Pacific Command concluded the two Chinese J-10 jets that intercepted an Air Force RC-135 spy plane during a routine patrol over the East China Sea were flying unsafely and improperly, but not being intentionally provocative.

In a statement released Wednesday by the command, officials said the Defense Department planned to address the problem with Chinese authorities using appropriate diplomatic and military channels.

The intercept, officials said, was unsafe because one of the Chinese jets approached the American aircraft at an excessive rate of speed.

"Initial assessment is that this seems to be a case of improper airmanship, as no other provocative or unsafe maneuvers occurred," they said in a news release.

A spokesman for the command, Cmdr. David Benham, told Military.com that the speed with which the J-10 had closed on the RC-135 had not been determined.

"We're still reviewing the details of the incident," he said. "Generally speaking, when assessing the intercept, we evaluate factors such as distance, closure, weather, maneuvering and visibility."

The release cited the chief of Pacific Command, Navy Adm. Harry Harris, who emphasized that unsafe intercepts by Chinese aircraft were a rare occurrence, and that most recent U.S.-Chinese maritime interactions "had been conducted safely and professionally."

But this intercept maneuver comes less than a month after a May 19 incident in which two Chinese J-11 aircraft conducted an unsafe intercept of an American EP-3 reconnaissance plane over the South China Sea. In that incident, the Chinese planes came within 50 feet of the American aircraft, according to media reports.

This most recent incident comes as U.S. and Chinese officials exchange stern words over the contested South China Sea.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter said last week at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore that China risked building a "Great Wall of self-isolation" if it continued to alienate neighbors with aggressive sovereignty claims and militarization activities in the region.

China fired back on Monday, when Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying

accused "certain countries" of conducting a "negative publicity campaign" regarding Chinese activity in the South China Sea.

"By sensationalizing the so-called tensions in the South China Sea, and driving wedges between countries in the region, they are trying to justify their political and military involvement in the South China Sea issue," Hua said. "That is what they really want."

--Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck.
The congregation of St. Pauls Lutheran Church (1100 Ninth St., Menomonie) welcomes the arrival of its new pastor. Aaron Schulz will soon join Pastor Brett Voigt.

Schulz is a 2016 graduate of the Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary in Mequon. He grew up in West Bend and attended Kettle Moraine Lutheran High School in Jackson. His wife, Alissa, grew up in Hortonville and attended Fox Valley Lutheran in Appleton.

While still in high school, they met at Camp Phillip in Wautoma doing some volunteer work with Jesus Cares Ministries. Schulz is a graduate of Martin Luther College and Alissa earned her special education degree at UW-Eau Claire. Before his graduation from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, they spent a summer in Farmington, N.M. doing some multi-cultural ministry. They also spent Schulz's vicar year in Mt. Pleasant, Mich.

In addition to welcoming Aaron and Alissa, along with their two boys, Amos and Isaiah, a special service for Schulz's ordination and installation is planned for Sunday, June 19 at 3 p.m. Members of the community are invited to join with St. Paul's congregation for this special welcome.
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Currency fluctuations combined with restrictions on US dollar exchange rates are causing headaches for Myanmars commercial lenders, who have asked to be exempt from the restrictions.





Myanmars banks and money changers are only allowed to exchange US dollars within a narrow band  0.8 percent above or below the daily Central Bank reference rate.

The Central Bank sets its daily reference rate based mainly on demand at its daily dollar auctions, and also looks at rates in the informal market and the exchange rates that result from banks financing exports and imports through their Nostro accounts.

But banks complain that the reference rate often fails to reflect market reality, and that when this happens clients turn to the informal market for currency exchange and commercial lenders lose out.

Even though informal money changers are technically bound by the same trading band, it is often flouted.

The banks cant compete and lose business, said chair of the Foreign Exchange Market Committee U Mya Than.

The kyats frequent fluctuations coupled with this restriction also create problems for the interbank foreign exchange market, he added.





It would be more convenient if banks were able to trade beyond the current [band], he said, adding that it would lead to more currency transactions between banks and their customers, rather than the less secure informal market.

Commercial banks trade US dollars between themselves electronically using their Nostro accounts. They use these same accounts to provide import and export financing, and report the resulting exchange rate to the Central Bank.

But lenders often resort to reporting false exchange rates when the 0.8pc band becomes problematic, U Mya Than said. The Central Bank has realised what the banks are doing, which is why it is considering the policy change request, he added.

U Mya Than would not comment on the exact proposals, but said that some banks had asked for a new trading range wider than 1pc on either side of the reference rate.

U Win Thaw, director general and head of the Central Banks Foreign Exchange Management Department, said he had submitted the request to Central Bank deputy governor U Set Aung.

Although freeing banks from the 0.8pc trading band is on the table, money changers would definitely not be exempt from the existing rules, U Win Thaw said. If all parties were free to trade outside the band the Central Bank would be concerned about market disorder, he added.

But even allowing the commercial banks freedom from the 0.8pc band could lead to more currency speculation, which the Central Bank would be unable to control while its foreign reserves are low, said U Mya Than.

The World Banks recent economic monitor published in May estimated foreign reserves at 2.9 months of import cover as of November 2015.

If the policy was changed the Central Bank would also have to issue new regulations to prevent excess speculation, said U Win Thaw.

But as foreign banks have started to participate in the interbank foreign exchange market, it makes sense for the policy trading band to be relaxed and competition encouraged, he said.

The foreign exchange committee, of which U Mya Than is chair, was recently restructured to include state and international banks for the first time.
A tribunal tasked with investigating allegations of a US$100 million gems heist that implicated senior members of the former administration has come to a conclusion, but will not be sharing its findings with the public.





The Ministry of Mines finalised its report yesterday, according to tribunal head U Win Htein. We will send the report directly to the ministry [of natural resources and environmental conservation], he said. He declined to provide further comment about whether allegations of misuse and embezzlement had been substantiated.

The probe was launched at the end of May after the Gems and Jewellery Entrepeneurs Association alleged an account containing 93 million euros ($104 million) was reportedly left with just over 7 million euros ($8 million) when the current administration took over at the end of March.

U Kyaw Kyaw Oo, an executive member of the association, said last week at a press conference in Yangon that former president U Thein Sein had taken 7 million euros ($8 million) and former minister U Soe Thein 5 million euros ($5.6 million). He told The Myanmar Times he had learned of the officials involvement through sources close to the former administration, and he expected more names to emerge in connection with the missing funds. The presidents former spokesperson and the ex-minister of mines have denied allegations of misuse, and claimed the money in question went into development and arts projects.

U Kyaw Kyaw Oo said yesterday that an apology from the former government officials will not be acceptable, and vowed to sue them if the tribunals report does not recommend an adequate course of reprimand.

He said the association will meet in Nay Pyi Taw today over the issue, and decide how best to proceed. We need a new investigation committee that can properly handle this issue, he said.

U Kyaw Kyaw Oo said the entrepreneurs association will continue to await results from the tribunal and if they are still not published by next month will revert to Thura U Shwe Manns Assessment of Legal Affairs and Special Cases Commission and also submit a lawsuit.

The report must mention evidence backed up by facts, he said.





The Union Solidarity and Development Party released a statement last week that they will sue U Kyaw Kyaw Oo and two media outlets, The Myanmar Herald News Journal and Messenger News Journal, for defaming the party chair. USDP spokesperson Daw Win Maw Htun declined to comment yesterday as she said she had no authority to speak about the allegations.
MADISON  In the weeks since the tragic passing of visionary musician Prince, many speculate his death may have been linked to drug abuse. We now know his death resulted from an overdose of the opiate medication Fentanyl.

Princes hits were all over the radio when I was in my 20s and 30s. He was a truly gifted artist, and he will be missed by many fans. Out of his death, his fans and everyone noting his passing should take away two very important lessons.

First, we as a society must work harder to reduce the stigma that surrounds substance addiction. As people speculated about the cause of Princes death, what judgments were they forming, perhaps even just subconsciously? Did they think he must be weak or of low moral character?

Too often, society attaches labels such as those to people who are suffering from addiction. The truth is that addiction is a disease. We would not view people with leukemia or diabetes as deserving to suffer or die because they have the misfortune of being struck with a disease. What do we think, though, when we hear a news story about a person who died from a drug overdose?

About 10 percent of Americans suffer from substance addiction. Addiction knows no socio-economic, gender, geographic or racial boundaries. For many people struggling with addiction and their families, it is kept secret because they fear the judgments they will face from others. As a result, they dont seek help when they should.

Prince seemed to have some quirks that go with being a celebrity, but I have never seen anything that suggests he was weak or a person of bad character. It is time to start looking at others who struggle with addiction compassionately and supportively. The odds are high that someone you care about suffers from this disease, and perhaps that person hasnt sought help and is afraid of what you will think. It is time to change that.

Second, I hope the passing of this music legend teaches us that no one is immune to the dangers that come with the abuse of prescription painkillers. They are highly addictive and can be deadly when abused. As a multi-millionaire, Prince had resources far beyond anything available to most of us. He could have afforded the best treatment available. Still, it took his life.

This is probably not the first time opiates caused Prince serious health dangers. He had cancelled a concert due to a health concern prior to his fatal overdose. I dont know whether that was opiate-related, but Fentanyl is an extraordinarily strong opiate. It is many times more powerful than heroin that can be purchased on the street.

Data shows most people do not start off abusing the strongest painkiller. More likely, Prince progressed to abusing such a strong drug after his body built up a higher tolerance for less potent prescription medications. Here is a frightening fact: 80 percent of those who abuse heroin started by abusing prescription pain pills such as Oxycontin, Percoset or Vicodin. Once their tolerance builds, they seek ever higher doses or more powerful opiates. They become helplessly trapped.

Opiates took Princes life despite his virtually unlimited resources and network of supporters. If it can happen to him, it can happen to any of us. Once addicted, the power of these drugs can be stronger than even the fear of death. And far too often, addiction comes quickly.

As a society, we need to make treatment more readily available to those who are addicted. We absolutely need to lock up those who prey on our society by trafficking deadly drugs, especially to young people, but we will not incarcerate our way out of this public health crisis.

Ultimately, our best chance to stem the nationwide opiate and heroin crisis is prevention.

We must alter our view of opiates. More people now die in Wisconsin from drug overdoses than car crashes. Prescription opiates, not heroin, are the top killer in our state. In fact, more die from prescription painkillers than from heroin and cocaine combined.

Opiates are appropriately prescribed in some circumstances, but they must only be used in exactly the way they are prescribed by a doctor.

About 70 percent of the time, when a person begins abusing opiates, they do not get them from a doctor. They acquire them improperly from a family member or a friend. So we all have a role in solving this epidemic by securely storing painkillers in our homes and by properly disposing them.

I was sad to learn about Princes death. I am even more saddened, though, about the 850 or so of my fellow citizens in our state who die from drug overdoses every year.

Lets not let any of them die in vain. Lets do something to put an end to this tragic public health crisis. Please go to doseofrealitywi.gov to learn more about how we can make our state safer and healthier.
Authorities plan to shut down a notorious market where exotic animal parts are sold openly, an official said yesterday, as Southeast Asia struggles to stem a billion-dollar wildlife trade fuelled by Chinese demand.





Mong La, a lawless border town located in territory controlled by the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army in Shan State, is a hotbed for buying and selling endangered species. Products such as elephant tusks and tiger wine are freely traded, largely to Chinese tourists.

It is part of the golden triangle of Myanmar, Laos and Thailand, where illegal activity  including drug, wildlife and people trafficking  proliferates.

We are planning to close the market. But without [cooperation from] local people and local police, we wont be successful, U Kyaw San Naing, the director of Myanmars conservation ministry, told AFP.

He said previous governments had allowed the trade to flourish, making it hard to quickly shutter the lucrative zone.

The ministry plans an education campaign to teach people about the value of protecting Myanmars wildlife and natural resources.

It concerns [locals] livelihoods, so it will be difficult to close the market urgently. But to kill an elephant for two tusks is not the right way, U Kyaw San Naing said.





Southeast Asia is a biodiversity hotspot, but weak governance, endemic corruption and porous borders across the region have allowed an illegal wildlife trade to boom.

Many of the products are funnelled to China, where there is a high demand for exotic pets, traditional medicines and luxury fashion products.

WWF-Myanmar yesterday welcomed the news that steps were being taken to shutter Mong La.

It is an important step toward addressing the illegal wildlife trade in Myanmar and the Golden Triangle, and WWF will continue to work with the Myanmar government and other conservation organisations to ensure that further steps are taken to tackle wildlife crime, said country director Christy Williams.

With additional reporting by The Myanmar Times
Myanmar is now legally bound to help rid the seas of pirate fishing vessels.





The first global treaty on the issue  which 29 countries, including Myanmar, have committed to  went into effect on June 5.

The Port State Measures Agreement could have far-reaching effects around the region.

All countries involved in the pact are required to implement measures for detecting and stopping illegal catches.

Foreign fishing vessels wanting to enter port will need to request permission in advance while detailed information is gathered on their identities, activities and the fish they have onboard.

Landings can only occur at specially designated ports equipped for effective inspections.

The new controls are especially relevant for Myanmar, as the number of fish in its seas has plummeted in recent decades.

Research data released in February by the Norwegian government and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) showed that fish stocks in some Myanmar marine zones had declined by up to 80 percent during the past 30 to 40 years.





Experts have said illegal fishing is partly to blame for this drop  with reports of crude methods like cyanide poisoning being used in Myanmar waters.

FAO director general Jose Graziano da Silva called the new treaty the dawn of a new era in the effort to combat illegal fishing.

By denying unscrupulous fishers safe haven and access to markets, [the treaty] will drive the seafood industry toward greater sustainability and have significant ripple effects throughout the entire fisheries supply chain.

Let no port  be known and targeted by [illegal] fishing operators as a shelter for non-compliance, he said.

Each year illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing is responsible for annual catches of up to 26 million tonnes, with a value of up to US$23 billion.

The World Wildlife Fund welcomed the June 5 event as a huge step to curb this trend.

It claims the treaty will play a vital role in reducing the number of ports where illegal products can be unloaded.

Illegally caught seafood endangers marine ecosystems, hurts law-abiding fishermen, and penalises governments, retailers and consumers who play by the rules, said WWF spokesperson Michele Kuruc.

By implementing [the treaty], governments are sending criminals a warning that they are not welcome.

Other countries in the region that have agreed to the treaty include Thailand, Sri Lanka, South Korea and Australia. However, big players Japan and China remain notably absent.
A directive from the Union government to reduce the use of betel will not lead to the closure of betel nut stands in Mandalay, according to the citys development committee.





The committee announced that it would fine shops that did not follow rules and regulations, but said efforts to reduce betel consumption have been limited due to the large number of people who chew the substance in Myanmars second-largest city.

A notice letter warning against chewing betel and recklessly spitting its red juice was sent to all ministries and the mayors of Yangon and Mandalay last month. Spitting the juice makes places look dirty, and chewing betel can cause cancer in the mouth, buccal cavity, gums, throat and tongue, the letter said.

We have started to restrict chewing betel in offices, but we have no plan to close down betel stalls, said U Soe Tint Aung, head of Mandalay City Development Committees cleaning department. We have to plan something for them if we were to suspend the stalls. Also, betel chewers should not be spitting everywhere.

A volunteer from a civil society group working on the issue said that closing down betel nut shops would negatively affect businesses and consumers.

Selling betel is a business and consumers have rights, so it is not a good idea to suspend betel stalls. But it is really bad when people spit betel all around public areas. We offer plastic cups at K500 for spitting betel. When our next order of 500 cups arrive, we will hand out more, said Ko One from the group.

He added that families living off betel sales will face difficulties if they have to close down their shops. State media has reported that initiatives would be developed to substitute the business of betel nut selling with other vocations.





A recent Ministry of Health and World Health Organization survey showed that 62 percent of men and 24pc of women in Myanmar use smokeless tobacco products such as betel. This is one of the largest rates of consumption across Southeast Asia.

Translation by Khant Lin Oo
Starting in December, Myanmar and Singapore citizens will no longer need a visa to travel between the two countries.





The visa exemption scheme was negotiated during a meeting between State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in Nay Pyi Taw yesterday.

The 30-day visa-free travel agreement will take effect on December 1.

Normally, ASEAN countries agree to a 14-day visa exemption, so 30 days is good for the relationship between the two countries and it could support the tourism industry and business as well, said Daw Aye Aye Soe, deputy director general of the Department of Consular and Legal Affairs.

Mr Lee met first with President U Htin Kyaw yesterday for a half-hour after a welcome by the honour guard in front of the presidential palace.

In the following afternoon meeting, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and Mr Lee also discussed tax agreements between the two countries, the extension of direct Singapore Airline flights to big cities in Myanmar and the opening of a Myanmar-Singapore hospitality and vocational training school.

Not only would these agreements be good for the tourism industry, it would also improve Myanmars international standing, said Daw Sabei Aung, managing director of Nature Dreams Travel and Tours.

The 30-day visa-free program will improve the relationship between the two countries. Outbound tours to Singapore will increase and then later many Singaporean investment companies will enter Myanmar. Im very satisfied with the visa-free program for our countrys future potential, she said.





Myanmar has been implementing visa exemption agreements with fellow ASEAN members since 2009 when it signed an agreement with Laos. The agreements were all ideally supposed to be in place by 2014 when Myanmar chaired ASEAN.

Myanmar had already signed visa-exemption MoUs with Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Indonesia, Brunei and the Philippines.

Immigration long remained a concern for Singapore. No agreement has yet been signed with Malaysia for the same reason.
After dealing a blow to its biggest political rival in last years election and becoming the ruling party, the National League for Democracy is now preparing to hold internal elections, the partys secretariat announced yesterday.





Spokesperson U Nyan Win said the partys focus for the coming five years was to build internal consolidation and unification. We still have some dissidents inside our party, but we have our discipline committees, he said.

The party was criticised as being authoritarian during the election period when it issued an order banning all candidates from speaking to the media and dismissed members who did not comply. Party chair Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has often been accused by MPs from her own party of imposing too many rules in parliament.

The internal elections come as many party members have assumed new responsibilities, such as serving in parliament or taking up civil servant roles, while others have been expelled or are for other reasons unable to carry out their duties, according to the statement. A nationwide internal election to fill vacant seats within the partys central committees in townships, districts, and states and regions will start on June 15. Legislators can keep their positions in the partys executive committees if they want to, the statement said.

The state or regional executive committees will first have their elections. Next the election of district-level executive committee members will be held followed by township elections and, lastly, the ward or village committees.

The number of members of the partys executive committees varies in accordance with the membership strength of each branch.

In Yangon, the number of executive committee members is 15 for all three levels  township, district and regional.





NLD members qualify as candidates if they have served the party for least one year for the ward or village level, two years for the township level, and three and five years for district and regional levels respectively.

People who have been expelled from the party, individuals who have faced discipline under the partys rules, ex-members, those who helped other parties or individual contestants campaigns, and those involved in other associations executive committees are not eligible.

U Nyan Win said the party has no plan to elect a new chair, a position that is filled by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Her various Union-level ministerial positions constitutionally bar her from participating in party activities but allow her to remain a member.

The party will instead be led by a secretariat formed in February that consists of central executive committee members, including U Nyan Win, U Win Htein, lower house Speaker U Win Myint, U Zaw Myint Maung and U Han Thar Myint.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will remain party chair. The secretariat of the central executive committee will take the partys top responsibilities, U Nyan Win said.

The state counsellor and two other NLD members who have been appointed to the countrys executive and judicial branches, will keep their seats in the partys powerful central executive committee but will not be involved in its activities, U Nyan Win said.

The internal elections are scheduled to finish by August 14 and will be supervised by central executive committees.
The prime minister of Singapore Lee Hsien Loong yesterday urged State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to act as a leader of joint ASEAN meetings with other countries, especially during the G20 summit. The latest role will add yet another responsibility onto the 70-year-old leaders very full mandate running the National League for Democracy, heading the Presidents Office, serving as foreign minister and assuming the role created for her as state counsellor.





U Zaw Htay, the spokesperson for the Presidents Office, yesterday confirmed the request.

ASEAN is very small but the group has to attend joint meetings with other major countries. And also ASEAN needs to attend the G20 meeting. The prime minister said that all of the international countries leaders know her [Daw Aung San Suu Kyi] well, so he would like her to such joint meetings, U Zaw Htaw said.

He added that she was asked to be the voice of the ASEAN on the international stage.

According to U Zaw Htay, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi responded in the affirmative and said she will do what she can to mediate collaborations between the ASEAN and the international community.

Translation by Thiri Min Htun
The government revealed plans yesterday to build 180,000 affordable housing units throughout Myanmar. U Min Htain, director general of the Department of Urban Housing and Development, made the announcement at a press conference held at the Ministry of Construction in Nay Pyi Taw.





Union Minister for Construction U Win Khaing said work has already started on affordable housing units in Nay Pyi Taw, and will begin in Yangon Region in September toward the end of monsoon season.

In Yangon we will first focus on construction of drains and roadways, U Win Khaing said. The affordable housing projects will include playgrounds, car parking and public areas where people can socialise.

Newspaper ads will be run inviting tenders from developers for the projects in Yangon Region, with the area dedicated to affordable housing totalling 232 acres, he said.

The projects will be built in areas like Dagon Myo Thit and Hlaing Tharyar townships, he said, adding, There are difficulties finding land to build affordable housing.

U Win Khaing said he has taken it upon himself to draw up the design of the buildings, adding that the ministry will try to keep the costs of construction to a minimum.

The Ministry of Construction will establish a model norm for costs and time, and after that the affordable housing will be built on 232 acres of land, he said.

U Kyaw Lin, permanent secretary for the Ministry of Construction, said plans are being made to help get the right people into the new units.





Inviting applications and drawing lots isnt the best way to make sure the apartments are occupied by those who really require affordable housing. We need to draft new policies and regulations, including paying for the units through an installment system, he said.

According to research by the Department of Urban and Housing Development, Yangon has a population of nearly 5.21 million, and requires 75,000 to 100,000 new apartments a year just to keep up with population growth, a figure that neither the government nor the private sector have come close to meeting. That estimate does not include low-cost housing for poorer residents, with some suggestion at least 2 million unofficial residents live in shanty towns across the city, unable to afford formal houses.

The new government has pledged to deal with the shanty town issue not with the bulldozer and police-accompanied eviction of the previous administration but through providing adequate housing options and vocational training. However, the Yangon chief minister has issued a ban against any new squatters and has made good on promises to knock down new unofficial structures that crop overnight in industrial hubs like Hlaing Tharyar township.

Translation by Thiri Min Htun
The news that Ma Ba Tha is opening a private high school on the outskirts of Yangon somewhat troubles me.





I am a Buddhist myself; however, monks getting closely involved in the education system to build childrens morals and their devotion to be Buddhists, in my opinion, feels too much like pushing an agenda of protecting race and religion.

I am not against teaching religion as part of an education curriculum. But religious teaching could, and in my opinion should, still be done in monasteries, as currently practised in Myanmar culture, where young boys are expected to be novices. Alternately, the Committee for the Protection of Nationality and Religion  as Ma Ba Tha is formally called in English  can offer courses on the essence of Buddhism during school holidays for example. They could even open Sunday schools like in the West.

I believe moral education begins at home. It is not the responsibility of an institution or a specific religious group to impart morality. Families, especially parents, have an important role to play here. Schools can fine-tune these moral values, but it is parents who, as childrens role models, have direct influence on their childs character.

Sadly, in Myanmar many parents resort to harsh behaviour, using abusive language and becoming extremely emotional rather than disciplining a child with an informed opinion. The consequences of this behaviour, if repeated regularly and if the child is surrounded in an environment that encourages the parents harsh disciplining, will have a negative impact on the childs character. If the same harsh disciplining is also practised by teachers who are considered by society to be important figureheads and role models for students, then religious education by monks aiming to impart morality will not serve any purpose. An upbringing that only offers lip-service to upholding values and discipline will not work. The solution lies in role models who can demonstrate through the practice of moral behaviour.

Monks in our country will always retain a big influence on society, especially among marginalised and vulnerable groups of people. But pushing a certain agenda of morality by allowing a specific  and highly controversial  religious entity to inundate the education system will not raise childrens values. It will instead take a heavy toll on racial segregation.

Even if Ma Ba Tha monks only concentrate on lessons that discuss Buddhism without making any reference to other religions, I question what these role models, have to offer children from other religious backgrounds attending the school. The schools where Ma Ba Tha plans to offer their teaching may include young ethnic minorities such as Karen, Chin or Kachin students whose upbringing may be versed in Christianity. What about them?





Again, I am not against including religion in education. In fact, the curriculum should include a place to discuss and teach students about religions in an unbiased and academically correct way. Including basic religious facts in education will help decrease the amount of religious misunderstandings and religiously motivated hate crimes. If educators encourage students to understand and respect different belief systems, it will help prevent these hate crimes from taking place. It will also help students become better and more informed global citizens who are able to recognise the strength in diversity.

We all need to remember that Myanmar students will encounter different types of people throughout their lives, and not necessarily monks only, so they will need to know how to interact with other religious beliefs, cultures and values and not be judgemental about them.

Religious education, generally speaking, can teach children valuable ways of thinking that can help them throughout their lives. But lets not turn Myanmars students into religious extremists.

Khaing Tun is an independent consultant and interpreter in Nay Pyi Taw.
[June 08, 2016] ArthritisPower Preliminary Results to Be Presented at Annual European Congress of Rheumatology (EULAR 2016) in London

CreakyJoints, the go-to source for more than 100,000 arthritis patients and their families world-wide who are seeking education, support, advocacy and patient-centered research, today announces that preliminary results stemming from the development and launch of the ArthritisPower research registry will be presented at the Annual European Congress of Rheumatology (EULAR 2016) in London. Specifically, at the People with Arthritis and Rheumatism in Europe (PARE) sub-meeting on June 10, an oral presentation will report findings from a study titled, "Rheumatoid Arthritis Patient Characteristics and Willingness to Participate in Research Among Members of the CreakyJoints Arthritis Patient Community: Results from a Patient Survey." Also on June 10, a poster in the Education category titled, "Patients' Prioritization of Patient-Centered Education and Research Topics in Rheumatic Disease," will be presented. "At its core, patient-centered care brings together patient and physician perspectives when developing treatment strategies. Historically, the rheumatology patient community has not had measurable and actionable means to help determine what researchers investigate to better understand arthritis. Now we do," said W. Benjamin Nowell, Ph.D., Director of Patient-Centered Research at CreakyJoints and lead author of both studies. He is also a Principal Investigator of ArthritisPower. "As demonstrated by these studies, people living with arthritis are willing to participate in research and have concrete ideas about the questions that need to be answered in order for them to make informed and personalized healthcare decisions with their doctor." Arthritis Community Open to Research Participation In collaboration with the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and supported by the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), CreakyJoints created ArthritisPower, the first ever patient-led, patient-centered research registry for arthritis. As part of its development, CreakyJoints surveyed its membership to better understand how arthritis patients prefer to learn about research opportunities, who they most trust to invite their participation in studies, and their level of interest in study participation. As described in the PARE presentation, results show that while most patients, 93 percent, have never participated in arthritis research, they would be interested in participating, particularly if the opportunity was presented by their own doctor. A sample of 970 registered CreakyJoints members who identified as rheumatoid arthritis patients completed a survey on willingness to participate in research in 2014-2015. Most patients (68 percent) had never taken part in research, yet nearly all respondents (93 percent) would be somewhat (27 percent) or very interested (66 percent) in research participation if they were invited by their physician. Similarly, patients would be wiling to participate if they were invited by a medical school/hospital (87 percent), non-profit organization (79 percent), or the government (73 percent). More than half of all respondents expressed interest in working with a drug company (63 percent), but there was somewhat lower interest in working with a private company (50 percent) or insurance company (46 percent).



Prioritizing Research Topics In a separate study aiming to better understand the arthritis community's research priorities, CreakyJoints members were asked to identify and rank their most pressing education and research concerns. As reported in the poster presentation, among the individual items rated as "Extremely Important" by a majority of patients were: How arthritis affects more than just your joints (86 percent), What are the signs that the medication is not working (84 percent), Importance of knowing about how the disease will progress even if the news is bad (83 percent), among others.

The two-phase study included virtual focus groups followed by on online survey. In the first phase 47 CreakyJoints members participated in six nominal groups held in June and July, 2015. Each group generated a set of education topics in their own words and then rank-ordered their relative importance. Based on this qualitative work, a survey was created and, in the second phase, deployed more widely to the CreakyJoints membership. Items on the survey were topics expressed by patients in the nominal groups. Among the 400 survey participants, the mean (SD) age was 55 (11.5) years with 86 percent women and 82 percent white. Participant health conditions included a range of rheumatologic conditions (not mutually exclusive): rheumatoid arthritis (74 percent), osteoarthritis (45 percent), fibromyalgia (26 percent), osteoporosis (18 percent), psoriatic arthritis (8 percent), lupus (5 percent) and ankylosing spondylitis (5 percent). "Understanding the education needs of patients will allow us to better influence future research, particularly as we engage with institutions and scientists interested in working with ArthritisPower infrastructure and data," said Jeffrey Curtis, MD, MS, MPH, William J. Koopman Endowed Professor in Rheumatology and Immunology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Division of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology, a Principal Investigator of ArthritisPower and a study co-author. "Certainly, identifying and studying new treatment options should remain a key component of scientific engagement, but this study reiterates that quality of life measures as well as concerns about disease progression and treatment are high priority topics for the arthritis community." About ArthritisPower Created by CreakyJoints in collaboration with the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and supported by a multi-year, multi-million dollar investment by the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), ArthritisPower is the first ever patient-led, patient-centered research registry for arthritis, bone, and inflammatory skin conditions. ArthritisPower is part of PCORnet, the National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network, a large, highly representative, national network for conducting clinical outcomes research. The ArthritisPower mobile and desktop application allows patients to track, measure, and share their symptoms and treatments outcomes while simultaneously participating in arthritis research via informed consent. ArthritisPower Patient Governors serve as gatekeepers for researchers seeking to access registry data or solicit the community to participate in unique, voluntary studies. Patient Governors also help to prioritize research requests and will help to disseminate research findings to members of CreakyJoints, the go-to source for more than 100,000 arthritis patients and their families world-wide who are seeking education, support, advocacy and patient-centered research. To learn more about the ArthritisPower Research Network, visit www.ArthritisPower.org About CreakyJoints CreakyJoints, now in its 17th year, has evolved into the go-to source for more than 100,000 arthritis patients and their families world-wide who are seeking education, support, advocacy and patient-centered research. Co-founded in 1999 by arthritis patient Seth Ginsberg and social entrepreneur Louis Tharp, CreakyJoints is part of the Global Healthy Living Foundation, www.ghlf.org whose mission is to improve the quality of life for people with chronic illness. For more information and to become a member (for free), visit www.CreakyJoints.org. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160608005210/en/

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Geneva (AFP) - Eritrea's government is guilty of committing crimes against humanity since independence a quarter-century ago with up to 400,000 people "enslaved", and should face international justice, a UN probe said Wednesday.

The United Nations Commission of Inquiry (COI) on human rights said the government of President Isaias Afwerki, in power since 1991, was guilty of systematic enslavement, forcible conscription and other abuses.

"We probably think that there are three to four hundred thousand people who have been enslaved," chief investigator Mike Smith told journalists in Geneva.

According to the United Nations, around 5,000 Eritreans risk their lives each month to flee the nation where forcible army conscription can last decades.

"Very few Eritreans are ever released from their military service obligations," Smith said.

Refugees from the repressive Red Sea state have in recent years made up one of the largest contingents of people risking the dangerous journey to seek a new life in Europe.

Eritrean presidential advisor Yemane Gebreab immediately rejected the COI's findings as "incredible and really laughable".

"The COI's case against Eritrea is legally indefensible," he told reporters in Geneva, accusing UN investigators of being biased and using shoddy methodology.

Since it was established in June 2014, the COI has interviewed more than 800 Eritrean exiles.

Following its report in June, the commission was flooded with 45,000 written responses, mostly in support of Eritrea's government.

- 'Widespread abuses' -

Smith said those letters appeared to be the product of an organised campaign by Asmara.

Overall, the COI concluded that "crimes against humanity have been committed in a widespread and systematic manner in Eritrean detention facilities, military training camps and other locations across the country over the past 25 years".

"Particular individuals, including officials at the highest levels of state, the ruling party  the People's Front for Democracy and Justice  and commanding officers bear responsibility for crimes against humanity," it said.

The UN published testimony from several alleged victims, whose names were withheld for fear of reprisal.

One man, who said he escaped from prison in 2015, told the COI that his testicles had retracted after suffering repeated beatings in detention.

- International Criminal Court -

He said this abuse was sparked by a March 2014 request to be released from national service on grounds that only "big bosses" were benefiting from his work, which led to his arrest.

"I was placed in shackles and detained in a cell alone for eight months. I was repeatedly beaten and tortured," he was quoted as saying.

"Each time two people held me down and two others beat me with stakes and rubbers. They submerged my head in a deep container with dirty water. They beat me on my testicles many times...I have no testicles now, they disappeared", the witness further said.

The 1991 split between Ethiopia and Eritrea followed a three-decade independence war, which saw Eritrean rebels battling far better-equipped Ethiopian troops backed first by Washington and then by the Soviet Union.

Smith said Isaias presided over a state of more than six million people with no functioning democratic institutions.

"This has created a governance and rule of law vacuum, resulting in a climate of impunity for crimes against humanity," he said.

He said there was no chance that Eritrea's judicial system could bring the perpetrators to justice through a legitimate trial and called for the perpetrators to be brought before the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

"What we are asking for is the Security Council to contemplate targeted responses" against individuals responsible for rights abuse, he said, without naming any potential suspects.

Eritrea has repeatedly denied UN investigators access to the country.

The country ranks below North Korea as the worst in the world for press freedom, according to Reporters Without Borders.

With an annual per capita gross national income of $480, Eritrea is one of the world's poorest nations, according to the World Bank.
Ndoum

08.06.2016 LISTEN

" Our attention has been drawn to comments made by the Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom, founder and leader of Progressive People's Party (PPP) when addressing some students at UCC last week on the New Komenda Sugar Factory which he sarcastically questioned the whereabouts of the raw materials since to him, there was no sugarcane plantations owned by the Factory"

But the Central Regional Communication Officer of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr. Kwesi Dawood has challenged Dr. Paa Kwesi Ndoum to return factory's land he has encroached upon to be used to produce raw materials to feed the sugar factory.

Addressing staff of Shesheeshew company Limited at Agona Swedru, Mr. Kwesi Dawood angrily asked "How can the Komenda Sugar Factory company which is 100% owned by the Government of Ghana commence the cultivation of its own sugarcane when the likes of Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom have encroached on the Factory's Lands meant for plantations? Yes! More than half of the land the 2012 PPP flagbearer is being developed for Ndoum University is Government acquired land for the Komenda Sugar Factory of which the old Factory built by Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah cultivated sugarcane on that very land to feed the factory. I state on authority that because that plot is for the Sugar Factory, Dr Ndoum's application to the lands Commission for regularisation of the aquisition of that land was halted and same had been communicated to him long ago. Many progressive citizens are surprised that he is still developing some structures on the land in question when the Lands Commission has already informed him of their inability to process his application for regularisation? If the PPP founder who has been talking about corruption and respect for institutions is noted for this, will you be surprised when he chastises Government for not starting a sugarcane plantation for the factory before it's commissioning when the same person has acquired a large tract of the land meant for the plantations?"

The Communication Office continued "There wouldn't have been the need to respond to this retrograde statement from him because the good people of Central Region and KEEA particularly, were not expecting that pessimistic behavior from him especially since he claims to have the well being of our people at heart and it angers some to the core especially when he as a Former Minister of the NPP government of 2001-2008 and an MP of that area for a term of office couldn't fulfill his promise of revamping the factory? What happened to the many sugarcane farmers at Anyinase and Nsadwer who he tasked to grow sugarcane? What was his response when the NPP government refused a direct request from Nananom of the area to reactivate the factory?

Under the Visionary leadership of President John Mahama, The New Komenda Sugar Factory has commenced operations now relying on outgrowers and sugarcane farmers from 100km radius of the factory's premises to supply sugarcane aside the factory's own plantations which will commence soon.

Meanwhile, out growers in and around KEEA have began serious business as management of the factory has contracted them to supply their produce as more and more people are cultivating the sugarcane because of its ready market and better pricing. A tonne of the sugarcane bought at the factory is now 80cedis as against the 45cedis offered by akpeteshie distillers"

On the claim by the Minority Spokesperson on Trade and Industry that sought to suggest that there was no need for the FACTORY to have been revamped because it is located in a coastal community, Mr Kwesi Dawood thanked him for that information and responded that he will bring it to the notice of coastal dwellers whiles maintaining that the new Komenda Sugar Factory is farther away from the sea than the one built by Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah.

"The factory is going to contribute its quota in restructuring the economy, reduce the Nation's expenditure on Sugar importation, create employment for our teeming unemployed citizens (skilled and unskilled ;direct and indirect) , significantly reduce rural-urban migration, gives meaning to adding value to our raw materials which is vital for our industrial boom and will go a long way to reduce pressure on foreign exchange resulting from imports, assist university students in their research or industrial attachments; among other benefits which makes the factory very dear to hearts of Nananom and people of Ghana so any attempt to run it down, pooh-pooh it etc under the disguised of criticism especially from persons who did not wish to see it functioning again will attract our wrath', he added.
UN slaps Vietnam for abuse of Christian woman 08 June, 2016 by Staff , |

HO CHI MINH CITY (Christian Examiner)  The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has called on Vietnam to cease the persecution of a Christian activist whose husband has been imprisoned for his faith since 2011, Catholic News Asia has reported.

According to the report, activist Tran Thi Hong, who frequently attempts to communicate with foreign governments to press for the release of her husband, has repeatedly been arrested and tortured.

"We are concerned that the repeated arrests and the continuing detention of Ms. Tran resulted from her peaceful human rights work and exercise of her fundamental rights, which constitutes arbitrary detention," UN representatives said in a statement calling for her unconditional release June 2.

The UN's Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Heiner Bielefeldt, and the Special Rapporteur on Torture, Juan E. Mendez, also urged the Vietnamese authorities to put an end to all persecution and harassment against religious leaders, human rights advocates and their families.

Tran has been in and out of prison since her initial arrest April 14. She has been told since that she must "cooperate" with the government, which in Vietnamese terms means "submit."

Vietnam's constitution supposedly guarantees religious freedom, but the communist country extends religious protections only so far as belief doesn't threaten the cohesion of society or the power of the government.

In most cases, Christian groups  both Catholic and those affiliated with free church traditions  are seen as a threat by the government. They are also persecuted by the non-religious and Buddhist segments of society.

Tran's husband is director of the Vietnam-U.S. Lutheran Alliance Church, which the government considers subversive. He has not been allowed to see his family since he was imprisoned five years ago.

The UN leaders said Vietnam should "immediately and unconditionally release Pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh and Ms. Tran Thi Hong, as well as all persons detained for their legitimate activities in the defense of human rights."

"The Vietnamese government has the obligation to respect the right of religious communities to organize themselves as independent communities and to appoint their own leaders," Bielefeldt said.

"Viet Nam should release Pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh and Ms. Tran Thi Hong, as well as all persons detained for their legitimate activities in the defense of human rights."
President John Dramani Mahama

08.06.2016 LISTEN

Human beings are very funny indeed. Not quite long ago, for instance, the Parliamentary Majority Leader, Mr. Alban Bagbin, went down on all two knees and managed to induce Mr. Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, the Parliamentary Minority Leader, and the latters deputy, Mr. Dominic Nitiwul, to follow him to his Nadowli Constituency, in the Upper-West Region, to vigorously campaign for the man popularly known as the Parliamentary Methuselah.

I am still racking up my mind and trying to figure out precisely what motivated Messrs. Mensah-Bonsu and Nitiwul to hit the campaign trail for their political adversary across the aisle, knowing full well that their own main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) had fielded a candidate who was determined to unseat the putatively jaded Mr. Bagbin in order to infuse our increasingly lethargic national assembly with fresh and creative minds.

What I also vividly remember, to my utter horror, of course, was to hear these two NPP parliamentary top-dogs plead earnestly for Mr. Bagbin to be retained in the august House, because the jaded political hack had some experience that would significantly detract from the quality of the day-to-day proceedings of the House were he to be afforded the boot.

I am still trying to figure out what quality of parliamentary proceedings or culture these two gentlemen were talking about. It clearly appears that shared class interests and cronyism, in the playbooks of Messrs. Mensah-Bonsu and Nitiwul, supersede those of their party and the people who sent them to our national assembly to represent their interests and aspirations.

Well, as fate would have it, Messrs. Mensah-Bonsu and Nitiwul managed to successfully help Mr. Bagbin dodge the bullet discharged by his NDC parliamentary primary opponent. And now, as with all such cases, the Majority Leader has become so smug with his own self-importance that he has decided to bat for the man who, not very long ago, Mr. Bagbin publicly described as narcissistic, inaccessible, haughty and too single-minded for him to continue to support at the helm of our national affairs. I am here, of course, referring to President John Dramani Mahama.

Now, his internal arch-nemesis of yesteryear would have Ghanaians believe that Little Dramani is so humble in demeanor and deportment as to make the late Asomdwoehene (King-of-Peace) seem like the congenitally and pathologically unruly Chairman Jerry John Rawlings.

Well, the Nadowli Methuselah did not mention any names, but the allusion was all-too-glaring and unmistakable for the target to have been inscrutably shrouded in clouds of speculation. The problem that Mr. Bagbin has in carrying this bad joke, though, is that it simply does not gibe with what Ghanaians already know about the Chief Resident of the Flagstaff House.

Which is why Mr. Bagbins prediction of a one-touch victory for Little Dramani on November 7 can only be taken with wistful humor. This is the prediction of the utterly desperate hoping for a pat on the back from the politically bumbling Bole-Bamboi petty chieftain. This joke does not gibe with reality because not quite a while ago, the Dumsorhene (King-of-Darkness or erratic power supply) warned Ghanaian citizens to steer clear of any urge or temptation to criticize him for his dismal administrative performance.

He would go on to say that about the only Ghanaians qualified to criticize his job performance were former President John Agyekum-Kufuor and Chairman Jerry John Rawlings. And this is the man that Mr. Bagbin would have Ghanaians heartily laud, or even celebrate, for being exceptionally humble. Needless to say, if President Mahama does not epitomize the very height of arrogance, I dont know who else does. For Mr. Bagbin, though, it is crystal clear that the definition of humility is from the perspective of a narcissist.

In other words, it well appears that the Nadowli Methuselah has fallen madly in love with Mr. Mahama because the latter has made him begin to have confidence in himself once again. The President listens to my criticism with great humility, Mr. Bagbin was widely quoted by the media the other day. And this is all well and good.

Still, what is even more significant to ask here is this: At the end of the day, how many jobs would such canine humility have created for the average degreed unemployed Ghanaian citizen? Which is why I often prefer to go back to my friend Sergeant Abongo Frafra for my ready choice of ripostes. Na humility Ghanaians for chop for supper, Mr. Bagbin?

*Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs
For three days and three nights the youth wing of the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) staged a hunger strike opposite the US Embassy in Monrovia, Liberia. The group carried out the strike to protect corruption in Liberia in wake of the Global Witness report of brbery in Liberia. The strike started on June 1 to June 3, 2016. CDC is the largest opposition party in Liberia.

The Global Witness report alleged that Sable Mining Company, a British firm, gave Varney Sherman of Sherman and Sherman Law Firm US$9500,000 to bribe some government officials, including Alex Tyler, Speaker of the House of Representative, the former minister of Lands and Mines and the previous chairman of the National Investment Commission to help change the Liberian procurement and concessions law to favor Sable Mining, which was not a registered company in Liberia, to mine the Wologizi iron ore concession in Liberia.

According to Global Witness, the bribery scheme started in 2010. Sable Mining wanted to win the mining concession contract for Wologizi iron ore, after the companys investors under a different business name, had lost a previous contract bid in Liberia. Sable hired Varney Sherman of Sherman and Sherman Law Firm to help them in this effort. Sherman advised Sable that in order to achieve this, the countrys procurement and concessions law should be changed in favor of Sable. This process entailed bribing key government officials to approve the change. The report stated that Sable gave Sherman the US$950,000 to carry out the bribery.

Sherman is said to have given, for example, US$75,000 to the speaker, US$50,000 to Morris Saytumah, Minister of State for Finance, Economic and Legal Affairs, and US$50,000 to Richard Tolbert, Chairman of National Investment Commission. Saytumah is now a senator and Tolbert is retired from the government. Sherman is the chairman of the ruling Unity Party, a seasoned and well connected lawyer in Liberia.

Global Witness also alleged that Sherman gave $250.000 each to Big Boy 1 and Big Boy 2, faked names which the report said Sherman gave to hide the real names of the individuals in the government who received the amount. Global Witness said Sherman mentioned those faked names in a spreadsheet prepared by him or his law firm giving account of the money to the company in an email. Sherman, in addition to his position as party chair, is now also senator from Grand Cape Mount County in Liberia following the 2014 special senatorial election.

The senator and the speaker were arrested late May this year and are on bail. But they would not for the sake of professional ethnics, recluse themselves in the legislature while the case is pending. The lower court has subpoenaed the bank records of the accused, but Sherman legal team has appealed to the Supreme Court against the subpoena. Moreover, the house has recently appointed a committee under the leadership of the speaker to investigate the corruption/bribery saga, an indication of the accused serving also as the judge. Meanwhile, the CDC party is said to have asked its legislative partisans to protect sitting in chamber under Tyler gavel.

The action by the house to investigate is in addition to the Special Task Force appointed by the president to investigate and prosecute those allegedly involved. The Task Force is headed by the Minister of State Fonati Kofa, who is an ex-convict in America when he was residing there. Before his appointment as a minister, he was the chairman of the Liberty Party, another opposition party in Liberia.

Opponents to Kofas appointment to head the task Force maintain that he lacks the moral ground to lead the team and that the case should have been given to the Liberian Anti Corruption Commission (LACC), a statutory body or to an independent prosecutor not appointed by the president. They argue that as a presidential appointee, he would be unable to strongly investigate the presidency if the president is found to be involved in the bribery. The speaker too holds the latter view and he and Sherman have refused to appear before the Task Force. The speaker has indicated that the president approved changing the procurement and concessions law.

However, others supported the appointment and praised the president for taking a bold step on corruption. To them the president is tired of corruption and the failure of established agencies to successfully prosecute. Despite Koffas past problem, they say that he is a good and competent lawyer and is not afraid to take legal actions. But last Thursday, June 3, Minister Kofa announced at a press conference that the case has been turned over to the justice ministry and that the Task Force will now play a supportive role in the matter.

Many Liberians are disappointed regarding the announcement. They view that the case will die in the justice ministry, pointing out that the newly appointed Justice Minister, Frederick Cherue, is a very close friend of Sherman, who recommended him to the post. The concern of conflict of interest was raised at the conference, but the minister played down on the issue.

Another concern is that Solicitor General Betty Blamoh of the justice ministry was a lawyer at the Sherman and Sherman Law Firm. She is said to have worked on the Sable deal during her work with the firm. Accordingly, Varney Sherman provided her with her first job as a lawyer. Will she and the minister recluse themselves?

Global Witness is a well known and credible international advocacy entity. If the state loses this case, it would hurt the president. Although her term will expire January 2018 and she is not eligible for reelection, failure to successfully prosecute the case would affect her legacy and her international image.

Back to the hunger strike.

The hunger strike called for government officials indicted to recluse themselves from their official positions while the case is pending. The group also asked that the US Embassy not to grant those accused travel visa or entry authorization to America during the case and for the US government to freeze any asset or bank account in the US of those indicted until conclusion of the case; and to take a firm position on corruption in Liberia, considering US historical role in the country. Corruption also hampers development and causes poverty in Liberia, as some observers have pointed out.

On the last day of the hunger strike, Joe Chamberlain, Political Affairs Officer of the US Embassy, walked in the rain to receive the group two-page position statement. He thanked the CDC youths for their peaceful, orderly, and well mannered assembly. He informed that the groups recommendations or positions would be forwarded to Washington for consideration for implementation.

He said. I applaud you for this. As I said, I will report this back to Washington  to the extent that your recommendations to us fit with our policies and procedures, we will see about implementing them.

He also advised that corruption must be fought everywhere from the bottom level of Liberians to the top.

Among those interviewed by the media at the demonstration included market women. An old woman when asked why she risked her health or life to participate in the hunger strike expressed of corruption and poverty in Liberia. Other women spoke of their conditions, including the inability to pay their children school fees and other impacts of corruption in the country. To all the demonstrators, the hunger strike was worthy. They achieve their goal to physically bring the plight of the people to the doorsteps of the embassy of the most powerful nation of the world.

Why did the strikers take the demonstration to the embassy and not to the Liberian legislature?

Corruption has been around in Liberia for a longtime. The president first called it enemy number one and recently a vampire. Former Auditor General John Morlu has stated that the Sirleaf government is the most corrupt administration in Liberian history. In all cases of corruption in the government, only one official has been prosecuted and jailed. Most accused have gone scout free. The LACC and the Justice Ministry have been ineffective in prosecuting corruption cases.

The government receives most of its revenues from international entities, including the US government or agencies. International partners have played an important role and are influential in Liberia. Although as a virtue of sovereignty, a foreign country cannot interfere in Liberian domestic affairs, Liberia listens to the US. Besides financial dependency, Liberia looks up to the US for the government professional manpower. Most Liberians in the Diasporas are in the US and many Liberian born US citizens are said to be working in the government. Because some domestic approaches seemed unworkable, some observers think that involving international entity in national issue would be an effective strategy.

Does hunger strike work?

Lets look at the CDC hunger strike analytically. Some Liberians view the exercise useless, a waste of time. Well, this approach is relatively foreign in Liberia, but it is very effective in the Western World, i.e. in the US.

In the past some Liberians have gone on hunger strike for a cause. In June 2001, over 50 Liberian youths of the West African Youth Network for Peace staged a hunger strike in front of the Guinea Embassy in Monrovia, Liberia to protect the fighting at the Liberian, Guinean and Sierra Leonean borders. Moreover, In August 2013, Editor Rodney Sieh of the Frontpage Africa newspaper staged a hunger strike during his imprisonment for failure to pay a US $1.6 million label sue filed by Chris Toe, former Minister of Agriculture. Sieh had reported on corruption, which was said to have involved the minister. Regarding the CDC hunger strike, however, Sieh questioned its purpose on a radio talk show.

Though undertaking hunger strike is a health risk, some civil and human rights advocates have used it successfully. It is a personal and physical sacrifice to bring to attention a national concern. People listen when that is done. It is like making a personal sacrifice of what is dear to us, such as food and water. When we ask God for help in an important matter, we fast and often God hears and answers. Though in the CDC case, the exercise is hunger strike, like fasting, they carry a common purpose of making a personal and physical sacrifice, which often gets the intended result. However, one should be cognizant of the society and environment where the hunger strike is to be conducted, as some institutions and individuals may see such exercise as nonsense.

The political affairs officer of the embassy came out and met with the group. He would not have come out had the group acted disorderly, shouting and disturbing public peace and security. He came because the embassy realized that the group made a physical sacrifice of staying in front of the embassy for three days and nights without food and water; they stayed in the rain and sun and did not disappear or get discouraged. That was determination; that was sacrifice. The embassy watched them for those three days and its representative met with them at the end of the strike. What he told them was important, that their recommendations would be considered by Washington for implementation. Their message received an audience. That was an achievement.

Because of security concern, US embassies around the world are security conscious, especially since 911. The embassy knew of the planning of the hunger strike, because the event was announced days ahead. The embassy would have used its power and influence to disallow the occasion, if it felt the exercise would create a security problem. The embassy would have also discouraged the event if it did not believe in the event purpose.

Why did the political affairs officer and not the ambassador meet with the group?

A political affairs officer, sometime called political officer, in an embassy is not a small potato. He or she is very important. He/she can act in place of the ambassador. In some embassies a political officer carries the rank of first secretary, deputy ambassador or minister-counselor. A political officers duties include analyzing the political conditions of the host country and preparing a weekly or monthly report for the ambassador for submission to the state department or foreign ministry of the home country. He/she is the ambassadors eyes and ears and advises the embassy on political affairs. Because ambassadors are busy and are personal representatives of the home president, some ambassadors can send their report or communication directly to the president. With the input of the foreign minister/secretary of state and sometimes other aids, the ambassadors reports set the basis for the countrys foreign policy or view toward the host country. Hence when the political affairs officer told the group that Washington would consider implementing their recommendations, the country team, I mean the key staff of the embassy has already discussed the corruption issue in Liberia and has formulated a view, which will be discussed at the higher level at home for an official position. The US Assistant Secretary for African Affairs, Ambassador Linda Greenfield, recently visited Liberia and made some statements on corruption. Her observations on situation during her visit would be considered. The CDC groups exercise would add weight to the embassy view of the seriousness of the average Liberian regarding corruption in Liberia. Before an official position is publically known, it would take some time, involving diplomatic communication or discussion with the Liberian president and possibly with other important international partners regarding Liberia.

Note: The author is a Liberian national visiting Liberia. He is a graduate of Georgetown University, School of Foreign Service. He resides in the US.
President John Dramani Mahama

08.06.2016 LISTEN

If you want to know how really reigns Ghana (Prez. John Dramani Mahama is it not by evidence) and that Ghana does not need any Loan or AID money, read and follow the court case as follows: High Court of Justice, Human Rights 2, Writ of Summon, Suit No HRCM/2/2016, signed 15. April 2016 by Chief Justice Mrs. Georgina T. Wood and you will be surprised and shocked. Ministers are scared even the Chief of Staff.

Amended Statement of Claim Pursuant to Order of Court dated 18th March 2016

Paragraph 9

 Messrs. Kwame and Frank claimed and warned the Rent control officer that Mr. Ibrahim Mahama, brother of President John Dramani Mahama and Mr. Yao Donkor, Director of National Security and Mr. Kudalor, the Police Boss had given the order to them to impede their freedom of movement (Plaintiffs) and that they shall be arrested and detained by the police. The Rent Control officer answered and said Plaintiffs cannot be arrested in her Court Room and stated further that the matter before her is a civil matter but they challenged her saying that Plaintiffs would be arrested.

Comment: Plaintiffs got arrested and put into Prison for one week unlawfully June 2015, subsequently released as no evidence was produced, so the court complaint was filed against 1. The Inspector General of Police and 2. Attorney General as Defendants.

Paragraph 18

1st Plaintiff would further contend at the hearing that he is a judgement creditor to the tune of GBP 3.741 billion British Pounds Sterling from the United Kingdom government and finding it difficult to execute the named U.K. judgement; his unlawful arrest therefore has the potential of destroying his credibility internationally as the United States Government under the than President G.W. Bush was a party to the claim.

Many more cases can be reported. The President had requested when talking about his brother only to do so face-to-face with nobody around. (Every Goliath has his David).

Author: Dipl.-Pol. Karl-Heinz Heerde, Sakumono Estate, Block D10, Aprt.9, Tema West, Ghana, phone +233(0)265078287, [email protected] , 08.06.2016
IT law or cyber law or internet law, is evolving in giant steps. On its way, it has many challenges to meet and a lot of burdens to cope with. Being a part of international law, it is though specific in its nature, mode of implementation and protection. While the classic international law deals with classic state territories, state jurisdictions, with a clear distinction between national laws, the IT law is uncertain about the state jurisdiction, earthbound borders, rules and proceedings regarding any dispute arising on internet.

However, with a fast development of information technology, the number of legal contracts and businesses on internet rises, requiring the fast response by legal order in terms of regulating and protecting it.

From the time internet emerged, each entity operating on internet provided for its own rules. With the IT becoming more complex and demanding so were the rules. We therefore say that internet is self-regulated, with no visible interference by state, apart from criminal activities control.

Some authors even call the internet private legal order where stateless justice [1] apply. Justice usually needs a state, which is a supreme authority, having the monopoly of violence, or the legitimate use of physical force. But speaking in internet terms, self-regulation has evolved, with the state interferece being mainly excluded.

The form of entering into online contracts gets simplified, mainly requiring just a mouse click by 'I agree' or 'I accept'. The quantity of such legal interactions increases. It is often simpler and more convenient to purchase goods via internet, e-commerce blumishes. Parallely to Single Market, the European Commission, the Junker's Commission, has started to boost a Digital Single Market in 2015, which would provide growth of digital economy. It's aim is to provide the EU citizens equal online access to goods and services, making a parallel world to a conventional or a non-digital one. The Commission has just, on 25 May 2016, presented a package of measures in that regard with the objectives of advancing EU data protection rules, reform of telecoms rules, copyright, simplyfying consumer rules for online purchases, providing the same online content and services regardless of EU country, etc.

However, what happens if a dispute arises from an online legal interaction. Which court is in charge? In which state? Under what fees?

The law has always provided for a procedural protection of obligations entered into by various types of contracts. The usual protection belongs to courts. Court proceedings may sometimes be time-consuming, barry expensive fees, and are usually non-voluntary for at least one party to the proceedings. That usually brings the use of multi-level proceedings, recourse to remedies and ends in compulsory enforcement proceedings.

With the development of trade, especially of trade which crossed the state borders, there emerged a system of solving disputes before a non-judicial bodies, arbitration. Arbitration became a convenient way of solving disputes arising from contracts that involve a cross border element. The very important segment, which was not present in conventional court proceedings, is voluntarity of parties which agree even prior to any dispute that might arise, about an arbitration body which would be in charge, in case a dispute happens. The arbitration become institutionalised, like the Paris ICC Arbitration, New York International Arbitration Center, etc.. However, many forms remain non-institutionalised, which include impartial experts in the area of dispute, who with the help of parties, and implementing various forms of mediation and arbitration, aim to resolve the issue. This way of settling cases became very well accepted, as the parties voluntarily agree to arbitration rules and therefore enforcement of any such decision becomes more acceptable to parties and usually deprived of a compulsory element. So not many arbitration awards face compulsory enforcement by courts, which is otherwise provided by the New York Convention [2] .

However, with the emergence of online trade, there also came a question of solving any such dispute that might arise from online trade, whether the subject of such trade are goods or services. It is more natural for parties who enter into their contract online, to solve the dispute online.

In February 2016 the European Commission has launched an Online Dispute Resolution Platform (ODR) [3] in order to provide for the structured and institutionalized recourse to resolving legal disputes arising on internet. It is designed to bring together the alternative dispute resolution (ADR) entities by member states, which fulfill certain quality conditions, provided in the Directive on consumer ADR. [4]

The European Parliament and the Council of the EU have adopted two key documents in respect of online dispute resolution (2013), i.e. the Directive on alternative dispute resolution for consumer disputes and Regulation on online dispute resolution for consumer disputes. [5]

The parties to the proceedings are a consumer, being a natural person, acting for purposes which are outside his trade, business, craft or profession, and resident in the Union, and a trader, a natural or legal person, privately or publicly owned acting for purposes relating to his trade, business, craft or profession.

The fees of the proceedings are supposed to be minimal or none. The length of proceedings should not exceed 90 days. Comparing to court proceedings, which are often lengthy and costly, this makes a good alternative.

Each trader is obliged to make visible the link to ODR platform, informing and enabling thus the consumers to initiate the proceedings in case of dispute.

The online dispute proceedings are to be led by key principles [6] that ADR must fulfil including expertise, independence and impartiality, transparency including listing of ADR entities, natural persons in charge of ADR, the average length of ADR procedure, the legal effect of the outcome of ADR procedure including penalties for non-compliance, the enforceability of the ADR decision, if relevant. ADR proceedings must be effective, available and accessible with duration of up to 90 days except in highly complex disputes.

But the question which arises after every dispute is solved, is the enforcement of its outcome.

While the EU has just recently put forward the ODR platform, creating common principles of procedure for alternative dispute resolution entities joining the platform, there are already some good examples of self-regulated dispute resolution bodies. Some of the most succesful models include Pay Pal, CyberSettle, and Domain dispute resolution-UDRP.

CyberSettle, the world's first online claim settlement company which was launched in late 90's and pattented in 2001, invented the 'double-blind bid' dispute resolution process, which includes two parties each making three offers and three demands in dispute resolution, in separate 'blind' submissions. The CyberSettle automatically choses the closest middle solution. PayPal profiled a system of chargeback, upon the complaint by the customer to his credit card issuer, in case, for example, of not receiving the ordered goods. PayPal holds the funds until the issue is resolved. UDRP (Uniform Domain-Name Resolution Policy) was designed to protect Trademarks from registering the same or similar domain names by non-owners of Trademarks, or cybersquatting.

The common ingredient of these success stories is that the above ODR bodies themselfes provided for an efficient system of enforcement, i.e. the self-enforcement. The self-enforcement is considered to be the simplest and best way of enforcing a decision arising from an online dispute. Self-enforcement is possible with the support of technology.

Another good incentive for enforcement is a trust the trader enjoys in the digital market. The impairment of the trust in the trader, would automatically scale down his position in the digital market. If a trader holds a Trustmark, as a guarantee of his quality, losing it for not complying with an online dispute resolution decision, would put him in a disadvantaged position, and would certainly make him obey the decision.

Moreover, disclosure of list of traders not complying with ADR/ODR decision might be detrimental to their reputation, which speaking of online traders, plays very important role in geting trust from the consumers in digital market. Furthermore, social networking on internet enable the information to spread fast, which as a result may lead to a drop of trader rating.

The trust is, speaking of online business, of utmost importance. Digital market is more sensitive and depending upon acceptance by the public then regular market. It responds quicker and any flaw is easily transmitted via internet. It lacks the physical assesment and therefore it is more reliable on written information. The market rules will certainly define that it is better for a trader to comply with the ODR decision, then to get an unfavourable reputation. E-commerce and e-business relies significantly on trust that it has built towards the custommers. A custommer is much more careful when entering an online shopping site then entering a real shopping mall.

It is still early to have a case-law resulting from running of the ODR platform, as it has just been released in February 2016. However the move by the European Commission to bring the self-regulation and self-enforcement under certain unified rules, shall certainly bring results. The platform is currently applicable in EU member states, except for Croatia, Luxemburg, Poland, Romania and Spain. The remaining 23 member states reported to the Commission a wide list of ADR bodies, which may operate under different names, ombudsman, mediator, arbitrator, etc. This is a huge step in moving from the conventional court system, in cases that originated in online interactions. That gives another unified form to the online legal order that has been creating spontaneously and hectically from the time the internet spread as a tool. The European Commission, representing the key governing functions of the EU, made a move towards bringing online system of running businses, especially B2C, more secure and more convenient for the consumers.

The enforcement of ADR decision should therefore not be uncertainty of online dispute resolution proceedings. In that regard, it should be stressed that a milestone judgment of the European Court of Human Rights, Hornsby v. Greece (1997), provided that it would be 'illusory of a Contracting State's domestic legal system allowed a final, binding judicial decision to remain inoperative to the detriment of one party'. Accordingly, all procedural guarantees would be purposeless without protecting for the implementation of the result of the proceedings.

Although the ODR proceedings are not judicial proceedings, often being left without state control, ammounting thus to stateless justice as referred to above, it would be unimaginable that the decision ending the online dispute resolution, remains with no effect in praxis. It would make the whole concept of online dispute resolution useless and deprived of its advantages, such as availability, fast resolution, small or no fees, and would eventually bring parties to the court, with all the shorcomings when online disputes are at stake, such as long proceedings, high fees, time-consuming, duty of appearing of parties in person, but with a certain enforcement. Accordingly, in order for the online dispute resolution to endure and evolve, as a breakthrough in IT law, the enforcement of its outcome, must not be compromised.

8 June 2016

doc. dr Jasna Cosabic

professor of IT law and EU law at Banja Luka College,

Bosnia and Herzegovina

[email protected]
08.06.2016 LISTEN

Bright Addae was admitted to KNUST on August 15th, 2008 to pursue a 4 year degree course; however, it took him 8 years to complete KNUST. The question is: what happened?

Bright Addae was admitted to KNUST as an innocent promising child full of great potentials. He was the hope of the family. Expectations were very high that one day the promising son will salvage the whole family from poverty through the knowledge and skills gained from his university education. Unfortunately, when Bright Addae got to KNUST, the tables turned. The promising and brilliant child was hooked up by the devil. Of course, who else do I blame apart from the devil? Bright became an agent of all kinds of diabolic deeds in KNUST. He became a professional drunkard, an occult, a fornicator, a thief, gambler and a smoker. He was among the traditional leaders of one of the male halls in KNUST.

Bright stole many phones and laptops, and that seemed to be his daily work. But as the saying goes, every day for a thief one day for the owner, on one faithful day at Indence Hall around 2am in 2010, Bright was caught after stealing a laptop. He was beaten mercilessly and was eventually withdrawn from KNUST. However, that didn't end his evil needs. He proceeded into the streets of Kumasi and committed all manner of flagitious acts that were beyond the imagination of man. He became hopeless, rejected and a social outcast. No one approached him so as to advise him. He slept on the streets of Kumasi for a number of months without bathing and brushing his teeth.

On 3rd November 2012, Bright had a revolution of life when he was approached by Pastor Michael Adu Twum of Deeper Life Bible Church on the streets of Bantama. Pastor Michael preached to Bright and took him to his house. For the first time, he experienced true love and affection. He was taken to Church and he willingly accepted Christ. Through prayers and the miraculous works of God, Bright was admitted to KNUST again in 2014 to continue his program. By the grace of God, he successfully finished his four year degree study. The one-time thief, drunkard, fornicator, gambler and smoker has changed. He is now an astute preacher of the gospel.

There are a number of people like Bright who are in their prisons, who probably need just counseling and advice to change from their bad deeds. There are a number of students like Bright who were dismissed from our elementary schools and universities, who committed minor offenses out of frustration and poverty, and needed counseling to change their lives. Bright wasnt born a thief but financial constrains and peer influence propelled him into such deviate life.

The other day, a third year Chemistry student was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for snatching a bag from a female student. Nana Yaw had no gun or bomb on him but yet was given 10yrs imprisonment and the bag he snatched contained only an I phone and GHC300. Very pathetic

In our part of the world, heroes are regarded as Our heroes and the criminals are regarded as their criminal. We easily judge people than we make efforts to change them. We prefer to gossip and talk about them to advising them to change. It is high time we ended this attitude. No one was born a thief or a prostitute; unbearable conditions often times propel people into such unpropitious acts.

Our religious bodies have a role to play. Miracles have been performed, prophesies have been said; it is time to hit the streets and make pragmatic impact. The religious bodies must go to the streets and restore hope in the hopeless, the broken hearted and the social outcast.

Mob justice must be discouraged from burning people alive for committing minor crimes on the streets. We burn them out of emotions, forgetting that these people may not have any idea about the items that were once stolen from us. We must learn to act with our senses rather than emotions. It doesnt take laws to create a great society; it takes men of good conscience and hearts to create a great society. Lets care for one another.

Be slow to judge, and don't gossip about people. In one way or the other, we all commit sins in some way every day, and we have no moral right to judge others of their actions. The best thing we can do is to pray, advice and counsel people when we see them living deviate lives. God willing, Bright will graduate from KNUST in July and we extend our unexaggerated gratitude to the Almighty God, Pastor Michael Adu Twum, the school authority especially the office of the Dean of Students and the Guidance and Counseling unit for their roles played to help him pursue his course. We have a long way to go, but certainly, we shall get there. God bless you.

*We are not children of a lesser god.*

*Ntenhene Felix*

([email protected])

Visit: ntenhene.wordpress.com and read more of my articles
By Maame Agyeiwaa Agyei

([email protected])

Five persons who were arraigned yesterday for defrauding a Denmark national of his USD$166,000 under the pretense of giving him gold, have been remanded by an Accra Circuit Court.

Karim Yahaya, Rahim Yahaya, Desmond Agyei Asamoah, Jacinta Konadu and Vanessa Twumasi, all residents of Kumasi, pleaded not guilty to all 10 charges leveled against them. The charges include conspiracy to commit crime, abetment of crime, defrauding by false pretense, money laundering and forgery of other documents.

Karim Yahaya had disguised and presented himself to the complainant as a female, Rose Gary  a foreigner resident in Ghana  who had inherited gold from her deceased parents.

Prosecuting, Chief Superintendent Duuti Tuaruka told the court that the accused used cunning means to extort various sums of money on different occasions from Poul Muller, in order to give him the precious mineral.

However, on March 6, this year, Poul Muller was left stranded at the Kotoka International Airport in Accra, when he arrived to meet his supposed girlfriend for the gold, and the accused persons were nowhere to be found. The court, presided over by Aboagye Tandoh, remanded them into lawful custody to reappear on June 14, 2016.

Facts

The prosecutor said the complainant, Poul Muller, is a consultant and a Denmark national, whilst the accused persons, Karim Yahaya and Rahim Yahaya, are unemployed; Desmond Agyei Asamoah, a security man; Jacinta Konadu, a seamstress and Vanessa Twumasi, a student.

He said during the month of August 2015, the first accused person sent mail to the complainant, posed as a white lady by name Rose Gary, and informed the complainant that he was a nursing student at the Neuman Private University in Kumasi.

Karim Yahaya and Vanessa Twumasi communicated on skype with the complainant in order to confirm that he, Karim, was a lady. The complainant upon that developed love for him.

According to Chief Superintendent Tuaruka, in October 2015, Karim forged Ghana Police Service official documents to the effect that he was involved in an accident and needed to pay a fine to the court.

Based on that, he collected an amount of US$8,000 through Western Union money transfer from the complainant. Karim went on further to pose as a white lady, forged Ghana Health Service documents, and with them collected an amount of US$8,000 from the complainant.

Again, in January 2016, Karim and Vanessa spoke to the complainant and informed him of an inheritance of gold left behind by Karims late parents, which was in the custody of the Kosa Security and Safe Keeping  a company based in Kumasi.

Desmond Asamoah, third accused, who then posed as a lawyer, sent a confirmation to the complainant that the said gold was in the safe hands of Kosa Security. Thereupon, Karim sent to the complainant an Ecobank account number 0143014450595401 and 0143014447213602 in the names of Desmond and Jacinta Konadu respectively, for an amount of US$75,000 to be paid in for the payment of the court charges, Ghana Customs charges, and transfer of ownership of the inheritance into the names of the said Rose Gary for shipment to the complainant.

The accused persons, in their quest of convincing the complainant, forged and sent him the Registrar General's Department certificate to commence business, Ghana Bar Association certificate of membership, Ministry of Interior certificate of membership and Ghana Health Service official receipt.

In February 2016, the complainant paid US$20,000 and US$55,000 into the two accounts. Desmond and Jacinta quickly withdrew the amounts from their accounts and handed them over to Karim.

Karim then gave them GH10,500 and GH6,500 respectively as their share of the booty, and thereafter, passed on part of the proceeds to Rahim Yahaya, who quickly used same to purchase one Sanyoung van, with registration number AW 1546-12, at a cost of GH27,000, two TD vans with registration numbers CR343-09 and GS3872-Z, at the cost of GH23,000 each, one Toyota Corolla, two flat screen televisions at the cost of GH9,000, and three mobile phones.

Karim also mentioned that he gave out an amount of GH12,000 to one Alhassan Aishatu to purchase a piece of land.

Chief Superintendent Tuaruka explained that in March 2016, the complainant was invited by the accused persons to Ghana to meet Karim, and also receive the gold. He arrived in Ghana on March 6, 2016, only to be stranded at the Kotoka International Airport, where a Good Samaritan accompanied him to lodge a complaint at the police station.

He said on the 2nd of May, 2016, Desmond and Jacinta Konadu were arrested from their hideout in Kumasi. Four days later, Rahim Yahaya was also arrested when he attempted to meet Jacinta to collect an amount of US$800 paid by the complainant into Jacintas account. Rahim then led the police to arrest Karim and Vanessa.

During investigations, an amount of GH41,020 was retrieved from the accused persons and handed over to the complainant. The vehicles were also impounded for investigation.

The accused persons admitted the offences in their cautioned statements, and after police investigations, were charged with the various offences.
08.06.2016 LISTEN

Until the 1990s, armed robbery cases were not common in Ghana, but with the advent of the internet and the proliferation of modern gadgets for communication, coupled with the high unemployment rate, the crime is on the ascendency in the country.

It has become hackneyed nowadays to see mostly the youth taking up arms to rob and kill their victims. Over the past two weeks, Kumasi alone has recorded three gruesome murders emanating from armed robbery. In some of the cases, the victims do not even challenge their attackers yet they are shot like animals in the presence of their families.

The police have been doing their best to stop this social canker, but the day an armed robber is arrested, other young men will be planning attack. It is as a result of this that the Police Administration has persistently been appealing to the public to give them information that would enable them to track and arrest armed robbers, before they even strike.

Apart from this appeal, the police service has gone further to institute a reward scheme for the public, a sort of motivation to help them gather adequate information about these social miscreants. Ghanaians have so far responded to this civic duty by volunteering information to the police, which has enabled them to make some high profile arrests.

In all the parades the police had organized when suspected armed robbers are arrested, public spirited individuals had gone to help in identifying some of the suspects. Unfortunately, the process the police have been using in identifying these suspected armed robbers leaves much to be desired.

Yesterday, Joy FM reported that a lady who had gone to identify a suspect during a parade organized by the police was attacked in the full glare of the police by another suspect. This episode clearly could have been avoided if the Police Administration had adopted the modern way of conducting identification parades.

In the developed world, members of the public who patronize such parades to help the police identify criminals are not seen by the suspects. A special screen is erected betwixt the two parties and whilst the public can easily see the suspects, the latter cannot see those helping the police to identify them.

But here in Ghana, members of the public go with their bare faces to identify the suspected criminals. In case the identified suspects are freed by the courts because the police could not gather enough evidence to prosecute them, those who identified them would become their number one target for attack and possible elimination.

This is very bad and the Police Administration ought to have known better. If the modern method we had earlier alluded to had been used, there was no way the suspect could have attacked the lady. If the suspect can attack the lady even in the presence of the police, what will happen then should the same suspect be set free by the court?

If the police do not have the modern accoutrements to conduct identification parades, then at least, members of the public who volunteer to assist them (police) must be hooded to hide their identities from the suspects. The methods the police are using, if not changed immediately, will in future discourage people from assisting them in fighting against crime in the country, especially armed robbery.

Armed robbers today have the impunity of shooting to kill armed police men. If this is happening, what will be the fate of the unarmed civilian? Mr. John Kudalor and his men have the duty to protect the identity of people who assist them in fighting crime and he must be seen to be adhering to this without further delay.
N'Djamena (AFP) - Some 2,000 troops from regional military powerhouse Chad headed to neighbouring Niger on Wednesday, where Boko Haram insurgents inflicted heavy losses in the town of Bosso last week, a military source said.

The "heavily armed" soldiers will "search everywhere for Boko Haram," added the source. The UN says some 50,000 people have fled Bosso after the attacks in Niger's troubled southeast.

The attacks began Friday against a military post in Bosso in Niger's Diffa region, killing 26 soldiers including two from neighbouring Nigeria.

A total of 55 insurgents from the Nigeria-based Islamist group were killed and "many" injured, according to authorities.

"An estimated 50,000 people or so fled," UN refugee agency (UNHCR) spokesman Adrian Edwards told reporters on Tuesday.
08.06.2016 LISTEN

The Donald Trump theatrics concerto has inspired a Bernie Sanders arms swinging Symphony. Together they have dumped America into a Valley of Sinking Sand with Decision 2016.

The two presidential aspirants in Election 2016 have thrown America into a spiritual, moral, political and cultural dilemma. They have not only raised discordant sounds disturbing the political and economic establishment, they are also disturbing sensitivities with the cultural, religious and racial order in the nation. But perhaps, the most serious aspect of the Donald Trump-Bernie Sanders Concerto-Symphony sounds is that they have attracted rebels, defiants and deviants on one hand and on the other angry, disaffected, disappointed and frustrated folks groping in the darkness of life challenges seeking answers.

Further, the Bernie Sanders symphonic sounds are swinging to and fro between unclear revolutionary ideologues and violent contention, ambush and stampede against the Democratic Party Establishment. Again, though Donald Trump theatrics concerto movements are moving towards bridges of promise and possibilities of money and power to break into and attract support from the Republican Party Establishment, the waters are not clear, the air is still foul and offensive, the promises seem vague and uncertain. Nevertheless, we cannot easily dismiss the attraction of money, office and power.

For the moment, the attraction of opportunity to ventilate disaffection, frustration and oppression may still win more adherents and sympathies at the national level. Similarly, visionaries seeking footing and space may be tempted to pitch their tents among the angry crowd for opportunity to offer some light and hope and thereby obtain some space and followers.

It is this anti-establishment sentiments and revolution fervor lacking in substance and direction that are throwing America in a spiritual, political and moral dilemma. The crowds of rebellion, defiance and deviance, mixed with the disappointed, frustrated and oppressed will need a higher voice from above coupled with a soothing re-assuring sound to break the chasm and deliver the nation from collapse of the spiritual and moral values and the sound political and social leadership that have helped to build and sustain cohesion out of a nation of many peoples, cultures and races. Democracy of confused, disappointed, frustrated and demoralized peoples without sound social, spiritual moral values and courageous leaders cannot but be a sad spectacle for America.

We are more than persuaded that the higher voice that can silence the riotous discordant sounds is THE VOICE of GOD from above. And the soothing sound from below should be a sound of peace and unity proposing clear vision around a coherent peoples rallying leadership. In this regard one will pray for a leadership affirming sound righteous and faithful values and respect for both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. Further, this is not the time for a Third Party that is yet to build sound, stable and secure national stature. Nevertheless, with God all things are possible.

To be sure, American politics and lifestyle stand strongly and critically in need of spiritual and moral values to maintain a cohesive and compact nation out of the strong competition-oriented internal diversities coupled with complexities with international relations and world order for America of the global village. For this reason, America must purge herself from the politics and culture of TEARING DOWN and DESTRUCTION of PEOPLES and FAMILIES, HOMES and ENTITIES in the pursuit of money, success and power. One cannot build a cohesive and united nation of diverse peoples and cultures with divisive and destructive pretensions. Here, Bernie Sanders OPEN THE GATES SHOUTS are pregnant with violence, instability and uncertainty with violence, undermining the stability and standing of the very Democratic Party Establishment for whose accreditation and support he is seeking. To create and force a violent platform for grand public consumption and adoption is chauvinistic to say the least. Riots and violence at election primaries is a signal of unstable, riotous and divided nation.

The Donald Trump attacks on the Clintons is historically counter-productive. This is primarily because God does not side with such negativity and self-righteousness in a nation which has God on her nameplate. Once upon a time, we were led by the Spirit of God to call Americas attention to the fact that she is standing in The Valley of Decision.

The time has come for America to RETURN TO GOD and her spiritual roots and heritage of Christian values and the worship of the only One and Living God, the knowledge of Him in affairs of nation as a whole. Without controversy, this is the spiritual foundation upon which the founding fathers agreeing together launched the Republic. The motto IN GOD WE TRUST is the centrepiece of Americas national confession and honour of her Covenant with God the Creator as nation and people. With HOPE of STANDING and GLORY as Nation and People of God, Americas boast of permanent standing, security and integrity as nation is secured forever unto eternity

The Donald Trump-Bernie Sanders rebellion and revolution musical pieces cannot but indicate America in the Valley of Sinking Sand in the Year of Decision.

There is hope. God bless America!

[email protected]

June 8, 2016
The Civil Society Platform on Oil and Gas had said it is opposed to attempts by government to privatize the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).

President Mahama had earlier insisted that government had no plans of privatizing the state owned company, but he somewhat made a u-turn when he defended governments attempt to privatize the company at the opening ceremony of the 2016 edition of African ICT and Mobile expo, MOBEX .

The President explained that the move is necessary to make the company more efficient.

Defending his claim with examples, President Mahama explained that government had to similarly deregulate the telecommunication network, Ghana Telecom [now Vodafone Ghana] years ago, because it was not working.

Those were some of the chimeras that were pulled out of the box because we were going to privatize and allow private participation. Today, I can see a similar development of the inefficient downstream distribution system on the electricity and power front. We are trying to do reforms and they are being drawn out.

People may argue that Electricity is so important that it must be monopolized by the state. Why are you allowing private sector in; but we have had this system for years, and it's not working. If it's not working, we fix it.You fix a situation by taking risks. It is a risk we took when we deregulated telecommunications. If you are not ready to take risks then the world is not ready to make progress,said the President.

But the civil society platform in a sharp rebuttal emphasized that the type of privatization that hands over the management, and sometimes the assets of public companies to private entities often referred to as 'strategic investors', have never ever worked in this country.

We agree with the President when he suggests that we must fix ECG's problems, but we find it a bit strange, that he attempts to equate fixing the problem with privatization. Our understanding of fixing the problem with ECG is doing what Mr. Kwame Awuah Darko has done with the Bulk Oil Storage and Transport (BOST) and what he is currently doing with the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), but not the easy option of privatization, the group added.

Details of the statement are below

PRESS STATEMENT

Civil Society Platform on Oil and Gas Disagrees with President on Justification for ECG Privatisation

Accra-June 08, 2016 -The attention of the Civil Society Platform on Oil and Gas (CSPOG) has been drawn to President Mahama's unyielding defence of his government's decision to place the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) under a concession, in which defence the President was reported to have argued that the move is necessary to make the company more efficient.

The President is again, reported to have argued that the government has had to similarly deregulate the telecommunication sector, and the Post and Telecommunications corporation (P&T) years ago because it was not working; suggesting that, just like P&T was converted to Ghana Telecom, and later privatized to Vodafone there will be long term benefits if the private sector is allowed to operate in key sectors of the economy. The President further made the point that ECG is not working efficiently and that it has to be fixed.

The facts as the Civil Society Platform on Oil and Gas finds them do not support the President's argument. There is clearly an inherent confusion in the comparison between liberalisation of an entire industry, with the privatisation of a state enterprise. If what is being proposed for the electricity distribution sub-sector was liberalisation, in which case other players would be licensed to compete with ECG, then the Civil Society Platform on Oil and Gas will have no qualms in supporting such plans, as there is evidence to support the assumption that competition under proper regulation could result in efficiency and lower costs to consumers. But this is unfortunately not the case. Besides, the President seems to have conveniently overlooked the fact that, before Ghana Telecom was sold to Vodafone, we had tried Telenor of Norway, and Telecom Malaysia both of which failed.

Our checks have also revealed that Vodafone which the President gleefully cites as a success story is after all, not as successful as he would want us to believe. Ghana Telecom, now Vodafone, is in fact struggling to survive competition, and barely able to break even.

We want to emphasise that, the type of privatisation that hands over the management, and sometimes the assets of public companies to private entities often referred to as 'strategic investors', have NEVER EVER worked in this country. We can cite Ghana Airways under Speedwing Ltd. of U.K.; Aqua-Vitends Rand in the water sector, and several other divested state enterprises that have seen the transfer of ownership to foreign interests in the name of Private Sector Participation (PSP), and have failed.

We agree with the President when he suggests that we must fix ECG's problems, but we find it a bit strange, that he attempts to equate fixing the problem with privatisation. Our understanding of fixing the problem with ECG is doing what Mr Kwame Awuah Darko has done with the Bulk Oil Storage and Transport (BOST) and what he is currently doing with the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), but not the easy option of privatisation.

Obsession

It used to beat our imagination as to why successive governments have been obsessed with the type of PSP that involves foreign private sector entities, until the Hon. P.C. Appiah Ofori came out to reveal that money had changed hands in the Vodafone transaction, and that he was left out because he was absent from Parliament on the day the 'booty' was shared.

Indeed, Hon. P.C. Appiah Ofori's revelation betrayed the greed and wanton deceit that drive this particular type of privatisation agenda.

Evidence of PSPs that have worked

The former MP's disclosure put the obsession with this type of privatisation involving foreign private companies, into its proper perspective. Otherwise, if the government is genuinely in search of a model of privatisation that works for Ghana, it does not have to look very far.

At the time when government felt the need to introduce efficiency into the operations of GOIL, it offloaded majority of its stake in the company on the Ghana Stock Exchange. What that did for GOIL and Ghana for that matter, was that, it brought in new investment capital, improved corporate accountability, made the company more efficient, and brought vibrancy to Ghana's stock market. Today, GOIL is a market leader.

Again, at a time when as a result of government's interference in the affairs of Ghana Commercial Bank, the bank almost collapsed, a decision was taken by the then New Patriotic Party government to offload seventy percent of government's stake in the bank to a strategic investor. It took a huge public campaign, led by the Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC) to persuade government to rather offload its stake on the Ghanaian stock exchange. It is revealing to note here, that, Ghana Commercial Bank was able to raise more capital than it needed. Today the bank is the toast of Ghanaian banking entrepreneurship, poised to venture into the rest of Africa, and so has had to rebrand itself as GCB Bank.

We can again, cite the State Insurance Corporation (SIC) and several others that have been floated on the Ghanaian bourse and are doing very well. We can even cite the Bulk Oil Storage and Transport (BOST) and the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), which did not have to undergo privatisation and yet are being turned around by a Ghanaian.

Having considered the facts, as we have come to know them, we do not think the decision to privatise ECG was well thought through. Indeed documents we have seen suggest that the whole agenda is being pushed by American interests. The unprecedented increases in electricity tariffs, which have been further compounded by the over thirty percent taxes imposed on consumers, are nothing but part of government's commitment to the Americans to bring tariffs to attractive levels before handing over to the foreign investor.

Compatriots, we have shown examples of privatisations that have worked in this country, and we challenge President Mahama and his government to show us examples of their idolised model of privatisation that has ever been successful in the history of this country. We know they won't find any, and so the justification to reconsider the path they are about to set ECG on.

(Dr Steve Manteaw)

Steering Committee Chairman



By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
08.06.2016 LISTEN

By Emmanuel Akli

Somewhere in 2013, the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) organized a news conference in Accra to announce to the public, the decision to establish the Defence Industrial Holding Company (DIHOC), a limited liability venture, as the engine to drive the growth of the Ghanaian economy.

According to GAF, under the DIHOC, ten industries, which would greatly impact on the country's socio-economic development and growth, had been selected for consideration.

These are the garment industry, footwear industry, pharmaceutical industry, agriculture and agro-processing industry, electrical and electronic engineering (with an initial interest in computer assembling plant, solar energy industry and mining of silica for the ICT industry), mechanical engineering, civil engineering, ship building industry, printing and publishing industry, as well as ammunition and explosive ordinance devices industry.

In addition, support in construction and civil works, medical outreach programmes, production of essential pharmaceutical drugs, as well as production of basic military hardware, clothing and other military gear for the security sector have been identified as strategic national needs, hence the involvement of the GAF in the rejuvenation of the Kumasi Shoe Factory.

GAF argued that to effectively manage human security challenges confronting the country today, it was important that the Ghana Armed Forces became more proactive in some aspects of the national socio-economic environment and remain focused in its desire to contribute towards national development.

Conspicuously missing from the list of this strategic plan, however, was the setting up of a bank by Burma Camp. Though establishment of a bank is not part of the strategic plan announced to the public, the Military High Command has decided to venture into the sector, by setting up a bank called Service Integrity Saving and Loans Company.

The Bank of Ghana had already consented to the request and granted all the necessary permits for the bank to start operations. Both civilian workers and serving personnel of the GAF are, however, not happy with the way the bank is being foisted on them by the Chief of Defence Staff and his team.

Available information to The Chronicle indicates that the military leadership had published in its internal newsletter, an order directed at all workers of the Forces to pick forms from the new bank and register with it. Workers (both civilians and soldiers) who fail to comply with June 24, 2016, deadline it has set, would not be paid.

In a nutshell, the workers are being forced to transfer their accounts with the various banks to the new GAF bank, for the transaction of their banking businesses. The Chronicle is informed that because of the 'do before complain' theory in the Armed Forces, all the serving soldiers have been compelled to obey the instruction, in order not to fall victim to any military disciplinary measures.

Some of the civilian workers, however, told The Chronicle that the autocratic measures that have been adopted by the military High Command was unacceptable in the current democratic dispensation that Ghana is enjoying.

According to them, the military did not get them involved in the process of establishing the bank. The workers further told The Chronicle that if their employers had done the necessary consultations, the two parties would have agreed as to whether every employee should automatically become a customer of the new bank or not.

They noted that some of them had taken huge loans from their banks with a promise to channel their monthly income through them (banks) to retire the loans. With the threat to suspend their salaries if they did not open accounts with the new Armed Forces Bank, the workers are wondering how they are going to honour the pledge of channelling their salaries through the banks.

My dear brother, we are going to breach the contract we have with our banks and you know the consequence of breaching such contracts, one of the workers told this reporter.

Some of the soldiers who spoke on condition of anonymity, like their civilian counterparts, were also not happy with the directive from their leaders, even though they admitted that they have no option than to obey the orders to open accounts with the new bank.

According to them, with the adjustment in their salaries, they now qualify to take loans in excess of GHc20, 000 from their banks to start their building projects. They contended that the new Armed Forces bank would never give them loans as the traditional banks have been doing for them, hence their objection to the setting up of the bank.

When contacted, the Public Affairs Director of the GAF, Lt Col Quashie admitted to The Chronicle that his outfit had indeed established a bank with approval from the Central Bank. According to him, a team had been set up to go round all the military commands to explain the modalities to both the military personnel and the civilian workers.

Lt Col Quashie contended that those the team had already met understood the concept for establishing the bank. He claimed those the team was yet to meet are the people who are going public with certain information, which ought to have remained in the Service as internal secret.

Lt Col Quashie said if the team finally meet the complaining workers, they would understand and appreciate the decision that had been taken on their behalf by their leaders. When asked whether it was a normal practice for the Armed Forces to set up a bank, he said the society, of which GAF is part, is constantly changing and that they (GAF) also needed to change.

He, however, pointed out that they are not changing for the sake of change but actually contributing to solving the high unemployment rate in the country. Those who are going to be employed are not only soldiers but the civilians as well', he argued.

The Armed Forces Public Affairs Manager also told The Chronicle that the military have the way of communicating and that both soldiers and the civilian workers understand them. The comment was based on the question posed to him by this reporter that they have 'ordered' their employees to join the new bank against their wishes.

As indicated earlier, GAF is gradually venturing into non-core areas of their mandate to protect the land, air and sea borders of the country.

The construction of bailey bridges and roads by the Field Engineer Regiment (now the 48 & 49 Engineer Regiment), Medical Outreach programmes by staff of the 37 Military Hospital, support for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the establishment of communication offices in Ghana's Foreign Missions abroad by the Signal Corps, and Disaster Relief Operations by various units of the Army, Navy and Air Force, are some of the socio-economic activities the Armed Forces has been engaged in over the years.

All these activities, except the establishment of the foreign communication offices, have been reactive to events taking place in the country. However, to effectively manage human security challenges confronting the country today, it is important that the Ghana Armed Forces become more proactive in some aspects of the national socio-economic environment and remain focused in its desire to contribute towards national development.

This will be in accordance with effective and efficient management of the social, socio-economic and human security needs of the country.

This is the prime reason the Ghana Armed Forces is going into business and we are convinced that it is the direction to go as we strive to step up our efforts to support the Government to meet the objectives of the Millennium Development Goals as well as provide a more stable and conducive environment for private business to thrive.

Skepticism aside, we think that there is a begging need for this initiative and new direction by the Ghana Armed Forces; if nothing at all to meet our own requirements as a means of shoring up state funding to the Ghana Armed Forces and overcoming challenges in delivery of badly needed support to the military,

GAF argued in the 2013 news conference which was referenced earlier in this story.
08.06.2016 LISTEN

Surprises are the best, which is why everyone loves themespecially Nigerian women! Little bits of surprises tell the person that they are worth a little bit of planning and show that you care. The surprise does not have to mark a holiday or her birthday, it also It doesnt have to be too big or expensive as Nigerian women are not essentially materialistic. It should come from the heart.

If you are in Nigeria or you are currently married to a Nigerian wife, Jovago.com, Africas largest hotel booking portal shares a few ideas to help you surprise the love of your life and not break the bank.

Give her a just because gift

You live with her, you know what she likes and most of all, you must have heard her expressed a desire for a particular thing that she is unable to get for herself. Get her a gift out of the blues! It could be the thing she wanted or just something you know she needs, like a new pair of sunglasses she has not yet picked up since breaking her last pair, or something you know she will enjoy like ice cream cake from cold stone creamery. Nigerian women like to know that their husband listens to them and think about them when they are apart. Buying her something on your own, for no particular reason proves that.

Bring her Lunch at work

No need to feel alarmed, you do not necessarily have to cook the lunch. You can just stop by her favorite restaurant and buy her favorite food or get something she has been craving for a while. It all will take very little time to execute and deliver. You can decide to also move you break time so that you can take you lunch break with her. It may be a small surprise, but it would make a difference in her day. She will surely love the opportunity to post a picture of such a romantic deed by her husband on Instagram or upload the story on Snapchat.

Give her public praise

Nigerian women generally like to be acclaimed and appreciated publicly. Just as sending lunch to her workplace will build her self-esteem and help her see you in a softer light. Praising her in public, like getting a radio station to dedicate a song to her or posting a love letter on her Facebook wall will do the same, especially when she hears others commending your actions or repeating your words back to her.

Plan a weekend getaway

You can never go wrong with a weekend get-away. Even if you cannot afford to take her to a 5-star hotel, if you are in Lagos or Abuja, or one of the exotic destinations within the country like Tinapa or Obudu resorts, the mere fact that you thought to spend alone time with her is enough to get her heart flipping. You can book a budget hotel, a low maintenance way to experience the benefits of time away without emptying your bank account. The key thing is to lavish her with a romantic evening and a leisurely breakfast and let someone else do all the chores for those days. If want to add more fun to the getaway, you could decide to camp together on a rock at Ogun state or Jos or go on a long weekend road trip together. She will be thrilled by the prospect.

Buy her a ticket to Nigeria

This surprise only works if you do not live in Nigeria. Every Nigerian wife will not forgo any opportunity to visit her home country if she is living abroad. Nigerian women generally love family and the idea of going home, so giving her a ticket to go where her heart is, ensure that she falls in love with you all over again, giving you the all the keys to her heart. Even better is buying a ticket for yourself as well, so that you can accompany her, cutting out any secret fear she might have that the ticket is a trick to push her away from you for a while.

Get her favorite Nigerian celebrity to call her

This will not only surprise her but will thrill her as well. Track down her favourite Nigerian celebrity and make an arrangement for them to either call her or pay her a surprise visit. While some celebrities will require a small fee to take part in the surprise scheme, some would gladly do it as a favour. Ensure the message the celebrity sends to her reveals that the call was your idea, that way she knows that you would go out of your way to put a smile on her face.
08.06.2016 LISTEN

By Ken Sackey,GNA

Accra, June 7, GNA - The challenge of livestock migrating from one country to another in search of pasture leading to the destruction of farms and livelihoods, has engaged the attention of ECOWAS Heads of State at their recent meeting in Dakar, Senegal.

The Heads of State expressed concern over the escalating number of conflicts related to nomadic practice- referred to as transhumance, which may constitute a new threat to regional security in several member states, particularly, in Ivory Coast, Ghana and Nigeria.

The 49th Ordinary Summit of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) convened in Senegal on June 4, 2016.

The ECOWAS leaders commended the national initiatives aimed at addressing transhumance issues and welcomed the establishment of a Ministerial Task Force for lasting solutions.

According to a communiquA issued at the end of the Summit, the Heads of State and Government instructed the Commission to convene a sub-regional meeting to share experiences on the transhumance issues and assist the Member States in creating awareness on the issue.

They urged the Commission to set up a working group comprising relevant directorates in order to exchange with Member States' Ministries of Livestock, Agriculture, Environment, Interior and Defence to put forward recommendations aiming at finding a lasting solution to the problem.

At the meeting, which was attended by President John Mahama, the Authority urged all Member States, scheduled to hold elections this year, namely, Ghana, Cape Verde, and The Gambia, 'to create a propitious environment for the conduct of peaceful, free and transparent elections.'

The Heads of State invited the Commission to deploy in these three countries, pre-election technical missions to assess together with all stakeholders, the preparations for the elections, in addition to the election observation missions, which would pave the way for the arrival of the ECOWAS observation missions.

The Authority reiterated its total commitment to the on-going integration process as a collective response to the region's development challenges and undertook to continue its determined efforts in political, economic as well as institutional areas, to address all challenges to the deepening of the process.

The summit called on Member States to take ownership of and to implement, all Protocols and Community Acts and, in particular, the Community Levy Protocols, in order to fast-track the integration process.

The Authority urged States to persevere in their efforts to build more resilient economies, particularly, through the pursuit of structural reforms, sound macroeconomic policies and the diversification of their economies, to ensure compliance with the road map for the adoption of the single currency.

In order to expedite the implementation of Community programmes, the Summit decided to convene a high-level Conference on innovative financing and a Donors' Roundtable for the funding of the Community Development Programme (CDP) in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, before the end of 2016.

Within this framework, the Authority has directed the Commission to take the necessary measures, in close collaboration with the Ivorian authorities, to ensure that the two events were successfully conducted.

The Authority welcomed the lifting of the embargo on arms and on other related materials imposed against Ivory Coast owing, among other things, to the successful implementation of disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration programmes and security reforms in the country.

The Summit adopted the ECOWAS Political Framework for Security Sector Reform and Governance and directed the Commission to take advantage of the expertise and experience available in Member States of the region, particularly in Ivory Coast and Liberia, which have successfully carried out security sector reforms.

GNA
The Ghana Youth Environmental Movement (GYEM), together with its key allies, has asked the countrys Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reject the clean coal myth preached by proponents of coal power plant.

The Volta River Authority (VRA) and Shenzhen Energy Group are pushing to get a 700MW coal plant up and running by April 2017.

The groups, including the Ghana Youth Climate Coalition (GYCC), Green Africa Youth Organization (GAYO-Ghana) and Hipsters of Nature, believe any investment in coal will rather result in devastating environmental challenges, because coal is considered a major contributor to global warming.

In a petition to commemorate World Environment Day, the Movement stated that an attempt to establish a coal plant will give the impetus to importing coal pollution into Ghana.

Designation of a technology as a 'clean coal' technology does not imply that it reduces emissions to zero or near zero. For this reason, the term clean coal is misleading, said a statement. No clean coal technology, sufficient to cut emissions from current generators by up to 50 per cent, is economically viable at industrial scale or expected to become viable within the next five years.

The groups have urged the EPA and the Ministries responsible for Energy, Power Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation to put the interest of people and the environment first in all decision-making concerning the coal fired power plant project.

The coal power project is intended to contribute to addressing the power generation shortfall in Ghana to meet domestic and industrial demands.

But the Ghana Youth Environmental Movement wants Ghana to follow the global path of a transition from dirty energy to clean energy and rather invest in renewable energy to push forward the dictates of the Paris climate agreement.

GYEM will continue to urge the EPA to be firm on its mandate and responsibility to protect the environment without compromising on the health of the people of Ghana and the integrity of our ecosystems, it stated.

Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh
During a stop over visit on his way from Turkey, HE Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, Vice President of the Republic of Ghana met with a cross section of Ghanaians living in the United Kingdom and interacted with them on a number of pertinent issues. Prominent among them were the Ghanaian economy, governments social interventions and the upcoming November elections.

At a colourful event held on Monday 30th of May 2016 at Highgate Hill in North London, the outreach program brought together Ghanaians living in London, Sheffield, Luton, Milton Kynes and Hull. Mr. Kofi Kwakye, Chairman of NDC UK/Ireland chapter and his team of executives were at the event to support the Vice President. Setting the tone, Mr Kofi Kwakye thanked the Vice President, and his entourage for the opportunity to interact with them. After introducing his co executives, Mr Kwakye informed the outreach team that the NDC UK and Ireland Chapter has grown from strength to strength with the inauguration of five new branches to support the work of the chapter.

Vice President Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur and his entourage comprising the NDC General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, Hon. Kofi Attoh, the Director of International Relations, and the Ghana High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Mr. Victor Smith then took turns to address the gathering.

High Commissioner Emmanuel Victor Smith thanked all for attending and highlighted the achievements of the government. He spoke about the upcoming elections, stressing that the achievements of the Mahama administration was glaring and encouraged Ghanaians in the diaspora to educate all on the sterling performance of the government. He entreated all present to work hard towards renewing the mandate of the NDC government, stressing that the Green Book contained most of the achievements of the NDC and should therefore serve as a guide during their outreach programs.

When it was his turn to address the gathering, Hon Kofi Attoh spoke about the developments going on in Ghana and pointed out that they placed the NDC in a better position to win the next election. He praised NDC UK and Ireland Chapter members who came to Ghana to help with the outreach program as well as those who came to assist in the monitoring of the limited registration exercise in Ghana. Hon Attoh called on NDC members in the diaspora to come to Ghana and help the party during the general elections.

General Secretary of the NDC, Hon Asiedu Nketiah talked about peace during this electioneering period and said as Ghanaians, we needed to do everything to maintain the peace and eschew all acts of violence . He said since Ghanaians gave the NDC party the mandate in 2012, they (Ghanaians) will also ask us to account for whatever we do hence the NDC as a political party must stay away from violence. He praised the good work being done by the government which culminated in the publication of the green book . He chided the main opposition in Ghana for being disingenuous by querying the authenticity of the projects enumerated in the green book as photoshopped and artist impressions. The NDC General Secretary observed that no country at war could develop and advised the opposition to desist from war mongering.

The Vice President HE Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur was the last to speak. He thanked everybody for taking time out of their busy schedule to be present to hear him. He pointed out that the NDC is well known for their outreach programs and cited the 1995 version which was held to elicit the views of Ghanaians after the launch of the VAT. He said in line with this tradition, the NDC is reaching out even more to enable it better understand the peoples needs and attend to them.

Vice President Amissah-Arthur said due to the social interventions of the NDC government especially in the area of education, school enrolments had increased to 97 percent with female literacy rate close to 80 percent. He said government remained committed to the FCUBE programme and would continue to ensure that all children of school going age were enrolled in school by expanding on infrastructure in the educational sector.

Touching on the economy, Vice President Amissah-Arthur said the government had chalked some success in macro economic management and was now focusing on micro economic policies. He stressed that since a change of government always meant a change in priority, there was the need for political continuity and stability to consolidate development. He reiterated that stability brings about investment and it ensures both a sustained focus and a constancy in plan. Vice President Amissah-Arthur emphasised that this was the first time in the history of Ghanas democracy that a sitting government had been committed to an IMF programme before general elections and lauded the current NDC administration for the brave move.

On elections and electioneering, Vice President Amissah-Arthur said since 1995, the NDC party had embarked on a second outreach programme to listen to party members, help resolve disputes within the ranks of the party and allay their anxieties. He intimated that undecided voters were an important constituency to winning the elections and so every effort should be made to educate and court them to ensure victory.

Within the context of the insidious effects of opposition propaganda even on some of the NDC members, the Vice President pointed out that Ghana was doing better than most African and other developing countries and it was important to maintain our focus by transforming lives and sustaining the momentum.

Also present at the ceremony was a former GFA Chairman, Nana Brew Butler, Aide to the Vice President Mr. James Agyenim-Boateng, and Madam Beatrice Aheto who accompanied the Vice President.

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08.06.2016 LISTEN

I have been compelled to put this piece together because push has come to shove. And also because the Upper East Regional Chairman of NDC has just rubbed salt in the wounds of the people of the Seven communities east of the Kassena-Nankana administrative areas (Namely Kandiga, Mirigu, Sirigu, Nabango, Natugnia, Manyoro and Yua  not in any particular order).

On the morning of 31st May, 2016, some of us woke up to the news that the Upper East Regional Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Alhaji Mumuni Bolnaba (Hope I had the name right) was on a local radio station (i.e. Word Fm-88.3MHz) reacting to a press conference organised by United Kassena/Nankana East (UKANAEAST) on the above mentioned road contract awarded to him in 2011. To make a long story short, he called the people behind the press conference USELESS PEOPLE. By extension, UKANAEAST and the people behind it are USELESS.

On the 7th of June, 2016, another local radio station (i.e. A1 Radio  101.1MHz) played the recorded voice of Alhaji Bolnaba and got him on air to react to his useless people comment and you could palpable feel the host of the programme trying hard to tell the NDC regional Chairman that those comments were inappropriate. But to my surprise and many others who called into the programme, the Alhaji didnt only decline a retraction and an opportunity to apologise; he actually repeated his words and maintained that the people who organised the press conference were, in his words USELESS PEOPLE. He sought to erroneously justify his comments by naming one member of his party and a citizen of the area as the brain behind the press conference.

To set the records straight, let Bolnaba know that I am a proud citizen of the area and an active member of UKANAEAST and I am not useless likewise the many accomplished members of the group. If he cares to know two of the contestants who are in the race for the NDC primaries for Paga/Chiana Constituency are members of the group and cannot be said to be useless. We have only decided to live above partisan politics and seek development for the area. We have only decided to come together as one people with a common destiny to struggle for what is rightfully ours. The truth is that the section of the road that Alhaji Bolnaba is supposed to work on has long delayed.

This delay has resulted in loss of lives and others maimed for life because of his unprofessional diversions. I remember giving a lift to one of our sisters who works with Navrongo Health Research Centre (NHRC) and her story was nothing but harrowing. She is a victim and if not for a certain smart medical doctor in Tamale teaching hospital, she would have been history or mentally disoriented for her whole life as she recounted to me as I drove her to Bolga Yikene. She crashed into one of the uncovered culverts. So as concerned citizens of the area, if we call for you or any other person connected to the road project to expedite work, it is in our rights to do so and you dare not describe us in such unpalatable terms.

Let Bolnaba also understand that we did not award him the contract and our social contract is not with him and we decide who to contact before venting out our frustrations over a five year old long delayed road project. And so if we did not come to him, it does not mean we did not complain to those who matter. I was one of the forceful voices on our WhatsApp platform for this press conference and I have no regret for my stance. I take serious exception to the comments of the Upper East Regional Chairman of NDC and those who matter must call him to order.

One interesting aspect of all this conversation is that, checks with some consultants in the region indicate that most projects that Alhaji Mumuni Bolnaba (and his firm, Bolnaba Construction Company Limited) is handling in the region has stalled. Apart from the above mentioned road project, mention is also made of a project in Bolgatanga Polytechnic, Zorko Senior High School and another in either Bawku Secondary School or the Technical School and many others which have escaped my vexed brain as at the time of writing this piece.

All these contracts, I am reliably informed are under the NDC Upper East Regional Chairman and have stalled whilst other contractors who were awarded similar projects in some of those areas have completed just like the case of my village road mentioned above. The road was awarded to him and one other contractor. The other contractor completed his side long time ago albeit the fact that it has already started developing dug outs. Information in the grapevine is that, the last time a Regional Minister dared to question the actions of this contractor cum Upper East NDC Regional Chairman, he lost his post. A fine gentleman who, I am told, would have been one of the best Regional Ministers, if not the best the region would have had. And that is what we call POLITICS in Ghana. If you refuse or dont know how to play to the selfish terms of so called party gurus like Alhaji Bolnaba, you will lose your position despite whatever good intentions you have for the people.

And this brings me to a matter I have been pondering over for a very long time. It is a matter we need to take a second look at if we are serious about development in this country. It is a matter which, as a local government actor, I have observed and felt its negative effects on development at the local level. It is even a matter that has effects on the fortunes of political parties that are in government.

It is about PARTY CONTRACTORS! Party members especially executives and particularly party chairmen will so much power on government appointees at the regional and district levels so much so that much of the time they decide what goes on in the district or region. Being in the Local Government system for close to eight years now, if anybody tells me or you that it is not true, tell him/her to say that to the marines. I think it is time we clearly define the relationship between ruling governments and their party structures.

One of the challenges of our current dispensation is that, appointees at the regional and district levels use majority of their time in office doing partisan politics and little time doing what their offices expect of them. Not any appointees fault though, they are normally forced by party apparatchiks to do so else they are reported and they get the sack. I agree it is a leadership problem too. Leadership at all levels! This is one of the causes of institutional inertia which manifests itself as the fire fighting approach to governance we see every day in this country.

The shoddy works we see all over is partly due to this party contractor phenomenon because hardly can the terms of contracts be enforced by those concerned. Like my community road project it was to be completed in nine calendar months and now it is taking five years- a clear breach of the contract terms! I know of delayed payments to contractors for work done but also remember that public institutions do not make advance payments as per our financial laws except what is called Advanced Mobilisation.

You are only paid or reimbursed for work done and capacity of the contractor matters a lot. In this Alhaji Mumuni Bolnaba case, that is what I see. Greed is a factor too. As greedy as we have become, what is becoming clearer is that Alhaji Mumuni Bolnaba has used his position as the Regional Chairman of a party in power to bulldoze his way into so many contracts that has effectively diminished his capacity to effectively deliver on any of the projects. Greed has pushed him to bite more than he can chew. Simple! In any case, if delayed payment was the cause of these stalled projects by Bolnaba Construction Company limited, dont you think this press conference was part of efforts to put pressure on those who are delaying his payment to pay him so that he can get back to work? Why the loose talk?

Alhaji Mumuni Bolnaba also sought to conclude that the group that organised the press conference are NDC members and he knows them after his so called investigations. Fallacious statement to make! And I doubt his ability to do any meaningful investigations and if this is the kind of investigation he does for NDC in the Upper East Region, then NDC is naked in the region.

Truth is, the group is above political parties and there are serious NPP and other political party members on the whatsApp platform alone; not to talk of the numerous other citizens of the area who are not on the platform but members of UKANAEAST. In any case, which one is in the interest of Alhaji Bolnaba as the regional chairman of NDC? A completed road which he can boldly use to campaign to garner more votes for his party or the death traps he created on several portions of the road that is killing and maiming people? And these are the people who would go telling everybody that matter in their parties that we are winning, the ground is solid, I am working hard for the party, we worked to bring you to power etc just because their selfish ends are being served. We really have a long way to go as a country.

I cannot conclude this piece without touching on the most important thing that matter most to us in the seven communities  completion of the road project! In the interview with Word FM, the man says I will complete the project next month. That was on 31st May, 2016. Fast forward to 7th June, 2016 on A1 Radios Day Break Upper East show, he tells the host that I will complete the road before the election. Which is which? Doesnt this mean the man is not even sure of when he will complete the road project? Your guess is as good as mine! I end here trusting that the National Executive Committee of UKANAEAST would take the necessary action to exact the needed apology from this man.

Charles A. Akurugu

[email protected]
Police in the Brong Ahafo Region have vowed to smoke out the killers of one of its officers on the Kwame Danso  Atebubu road in the region.

Thirty year old Constable, Frank Adu, is believed to have been shot dead by suspected robbers while he was escorting a commercial bus on Tuesday.

The Police including residents, have since blamed the incident on the bad nature of the road.

Speaking to Citi News, the Public Relations Officer of the Brong Ahafo Regional Police Command, ASP Christopher Tawiah, said the Police will leave no stone unturned in their investigations.

The public should be assured that the Police will not relent in their efforts to arrest these perpetrators because what they have done is very serious. As I speak with you, we are adopting a new strategy to get them arrested immediately.

He also called on the public to volunteer information to help them arrest the culprits .

We also need information from their hideouts so that we can locate and arrest them. We know they are living in homes, they are born by people, they are not born by trees and we believe that the public will listen to us and deliver the necessary information to us to enable us arrest them.

7 suspects arrested

Meanwhile the Brong Ahafo Regional Police Command has served notice that it has arrested seven suspected robbers from Yeji and Kwame Danso.

The seven, Haruna Abdulai, Sekyere Abraham, Akwasi Sunkwa , Ibrahim Hamidu, Hairu Mohammed, Mohammed Awal and Awudu Laar Ahmed, were apprehended on Wednesday dawn following a tip off.

However, the police say the arrest is not linked to the killing of an officer on Tuesday.



By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana

Follow @AlloteyGodwin
Niamey (AFP) - The first contingent of Chadian soldiers arrived in the Niger town of Bosso Wednesday ahead of a planned offensive against Boko Haram after the Islamists staged a deadly attack there, a local security source told AFP.

"The first Chadian soldiers have already arrived in Bosso on board around 30 heavily-armed all-terrain vehicles," the source said. Another military source earlier said some 2,000 Chadian troops were expected to be deployed to Bosso for the offensive.
Accra, June 8, GNA - Religious leaders from various Christian denominations have launched a campaign to 'cry out' to political commentators to tolerate opposing views and work for a peaceful Election 2016.

The Reverend Joseph Osabutey, Minister in charge of the Bethel Methodist Church, Nungua, appealed to churches to promote peaceful election through constant engagement with politicians who are members of their churches.

'The church is a reputable institution and has high influence on many and it can be used as a tool to promote peace,' Rev Osabutey told the Ghana News Agency on the; 'Role of the Church towards a Peaceful General Election'.

He advised the electorates as well as politicians to adhere to electoral rules and play the electoral game in the general interest of the nation.

Rev. Osabutey said to ensure peace the church and the media had to work hand in hand to create awareness adding; 'we have a role to play before, during and after to ensure that the elections are conducted in a peaceful, transparent, free and fair manner for acceptable results'.

Rev. Robert Samuel Aggrey, the Head Pastor of the Foursquare Gospel Church International, urged religious leaders not to use the pulpit to preach for or against any political party or presidential candidate.

He said Christians must consider the elections as a civic responsibility and a call to duty and 'we must all participate in electoral activities and preach the message of peace and unity'.

Mr Moses Ansong, the Presiding Elder of the Church of Pentecost, Shalom Assembly, Winneba, appealed to Christians to refrain from partisan politics.

He said Christ came for peace and salvation and thus Christians must depict similar attitudes and not to allow partisan politics to segregate the nation; 'we should bear in mind that we are one in Christ.'

'Yes each individual and politician have the right to free expression but Ghanaians must begin to abhore politics of insults we need to voice our views and messages in an objective and respectful manner,' he said.

Rev. Christopher Felix Tenkorang of the Victory Centre Assemblies of God Church, urged religious leaders to educate their members on the electoral rules while praying and interceding on the country for a peaceful election.

Prophet Constance Osika, the Founder of Wonder Chapel International, Dome-Parakuo, said tolerance of divergent views was a key ingredient to maintaining the peace being enjoyed by the country.

Rev. Eugene Anim in charge of the Family Life Assemblies of God Church, advised churches to liaise with the National Commission for Civic Education and the Electoral Commission to organise seminars for their congregation on the dos and don'ts of the election.

He called on Ghanaians to receive the results in good faith and remain agents of peace and unity.

'Even though Ghana had remained an oasis of peace in a relatively troubled sub-region, that accolade could only be maintained if Ghanaians make positive overtures to sustain and improve the status quo,' he said.

GNA
By Lydia Asamoah, GNA

Abidjan, June 7, GNA - First Lady Lordina Mahama, has reiterated the need to give children the care and attention that would enable them grow into responsible and useful adults.

'As a mother, when it comes to children and their education and health, I am very passionate and concerned. They are our future leaders. We must give them all the care and attention to grow into responsible adults,' she said.

Mrs Mahama who stated this in Abidjan recently during the state visit by President John Dramani Mahama, said the development of countries in the Sub-Sahara, depends on the health of people, and that begins with each family.

'We have to improve the general well-being of vulnerable populations especially children and women,' she said.

As part of the visit, Mrs Mahama joined her Ivoirian counterpart, Mrs Dominique Ouattara, at a ceremony, to donate assorted items to the General Hospital of Yopougon in Abidjan.

Among the items were office desk and chairs, computers, wheelchairs, baby cots and carriers, ward partition stands, diapers, made in Ghana Chocolate; rice grown and packed in Ghana; drinks and hospital clothing.

The two First Ladies later toured the maternity and paediatric wards of the hospital to interact with the children and women on admission as they shared words of comfort with mothers and their children on admission.

'To you the mothers of the sick children here, I have only one message for you. Do not lose hope. Your children will be well, and would soon be back to their playful selves and return to school,' Mrs Mahama said.

She commended Mrs Quattara for her passion to bring hope to the poor and needy, as well as the medical officers and other personnel of the hospital for their hard work.

Mrs Mahama indicated that on her part, her organisation, the Lordina Foundation, has been supporting health facilities in rural communities in Ghana to provide good service delivery to women and children.

"I share the same passion and over the years, I have dedicated myself to helping to lift up the poor and vulnerable in my country. Just like you, Madam Ouattara, I support many needy students, and provide comfort to thousands of orphans".

"With support of MedShare USA, we have supported facilities with vital medical supplies and equipment, to supplement government's efforts," she noted.

She entreated the people to take their health very seriously by visiting the hospital or health centre, not only when they were sick. They should also go for regular checkups, and do what the health officials tell them to enable them stay healthy and alive.

Mrs Mahama expressed her commitment towards the improvement of healthcare delivery systems and also to ensure a reduction and elimination of maternal and infant deaths.

GNA
By Josephine Nyarkoh, GNA

Kumasi, June 08, GNA - The government has hailed the Christian Health Association of Ghana (CHAG) for the significant contribution it was making to efforts at bringing quality healthcare to the people.

Deputy Health Minister, Dr. Victor Bampoe, said it had been playing vital role in the health delivery system-accounting for about 35 percent of the nation's health facilities.

CHAG operates 290 hospitals and clinics spread across the country, many of these established in difficult-to-reach deprived rural communities.

Dr. Bampoe gave the commendation at the opening of the 48th annual conference of the Association, underway in Kumasi.

The four-day meeting is being held under the theme "Financial sustainabililty of CHAG at all levels: How do we do things differently".

It is providing the platform to discuss ways to keep their operations going amid dwindling international donor support.

Dr. Bampoe urged the Association to insist on high professional standards to assure patients of quality care.

"They must adhere to the Patients Charter - be client-focused and dedicated to the job of saving lives".

He pledged the government's resolve to strenghten the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to make it beneficial to more people.

Dr. Peter Kwame Yeboah, Executive Director of CHAG, said they remained committed to working hard and making sacrifices to heal the sick.

Their dedicated frontline health professionals were out in the remotest and neglected parts of the nation to attend to the health needs of the people.

The Reverend Dr. Fred Degbey, former General Secretary of the Christian Council of Ghana, urged the Association to explore other sources of funding to complement what they were getting from both the government and donors.

GNA
Nairobi (AFP) - The newly-reconciled leaders of South Sudan have called for a South Africa-style truth commission to heal the scars of a gruesome war in the world's youngest nation.

President Salva Kiir and the newly-appointed vice president, Riek Machar, a former foe, said in a joint piece in The New York Times they were committed to ensuring South Sudan never again goes through a civil war.

"Bringing South Sudan together can be truly guaranteed only through one route: an organised peace and reconciliation process with international backing," they wrote on Tuesday.

"We intend to create a national truth and reconciliation commission modelled on those of South Africa and Northern Ireland," they said, ruling out punitive action for past misdeeds.

"Disciplinary justice -- even if delivered under international law -- would destabilise efforts to unite our nation by keeping alive anger and hatred among the people of South Sudan," they said.

After gaining independence from Sudan in 2011, South Sudan erupted into civil war in December 2013, when Kiir accused Machar of plotting a coup and sacked him as vice president.

That set off a cycle of retaliatory killings that split the poverty-stricken, landlocked country along ethnic lines.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than two million have been driven from their homes.

The conflict has been characterised by horrific rights abuses, including gang rapes, the wholesale burning of villages and cannibalism.

The United States is pushing for the rapid creation of a special court backed by the African Union to try war crimes suspects.

In Washington, the State Department said there may also be a role for a truth and reconciliation commission, but warned that both leaders had signed up for a true court.

"We're disappointed," spokesman Mark Toner said.

"We firmly support the African Union's efforts to establish this hybrid court, which is called for by the peace agreement which was signed by President Kiir and First Vice President Machar in August 2015," he added.

"And we expect the parties to fulfill their responsibilities."

The creation of the hybrid court and a separate truth and reconciliation commission was a key provision of a peace accord signed by Machar and Kiir in August last year.

But that failed to stop the fighting. In February, Kiir named Machar as his vice-president once again and Machar entered the capital Juba in May, finally paving the way for a unity government.

Kiir and Machar said the truth and reconciliation commission would have sweeping powers and be able to investigate everybody from "the poorest farmer to the most powerful politician".

"Those who tell the truth about what they saw or did would be granted amnesty from prosecution - even if they did not express remorse," they said.

The two leaders said the conflict had left "South Sudan with one of the highest levels of military spending by gross domestic product in the world."

To add to its woes, South Sudan's oil production virtually ground to a halt during the civil war after Kiir dismissed Machar as his vice president in December 2013.
you are here:
June 08, 2016

U.S. Election Thread 2016-04 - Premature Presumptive

The Associated Press yesterday declared Hillary Clinton to be the "presumptive" Democratic nominee for the presidential election based on alleged pledges of anonymous super-delegates.

This was a quite unprecedented interference in still ongoing and upcoming primaries on a day when no new public vote count was available.

Bernie Sanders said he will continue to campaign up to the convention. His hope is that either the FBI will indict Hillary Clinton for using an unsecured private email server for classified state business, or that some other Clinton scandal will make it most likely that she would lose a vote against Trump. In both cases some super-delegates may change their vote and the convention might vote for Sanders as nominee.

The FBI is under Obama's control and there no doubt that he wants Clinton as candidate to continue his right-leaning policies. But the FBI tends to be leaking quite a bit and someone with access to the case may want to speak to some enterprising reporters.

Sanders requested a meeting with Obama which will happen on Thursday. Obama will offer him a bad deal which would be akin to a total capitulation. Sanders will look for a way to sneak at least some of his preferred policies into the party agenda. He will demand some significant price for endorsing Clinton and will probably wait to do so up to the last minute.

People around the world will wonder what democracy is all about when a race for a presidency ends up as a contest between the two most disliked people in the field who are both proxies for the more or less same small social segment.

The "Not Hillary" voices will not die down. A seemingly racist Trump with otherwise unpredictable policies may be less damaging to the world than an unreconstructed neolibcon Clinton.

Posted by b on June 8, 2016 at 5:44 UTC | Permalink

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Star UK equity investor Neil Woodford is considering launching a second income fund targeting a higher yield of 4.5%. The 9 billion Woodford Equity Income fund currently yields 3.96.

Woodford has sent a letter to private investors and intermediaries to gauge appetite for the proposed fund, which may call to investors minds his former fund Invesco Perpetual High Income. High Income has 11.6 billion under management and run by Mark Barnett, currently yielding 3.6%. Under Woodfords stewardship the fund yielded as much as 8%.

The proposed new fund would offer a consistently higher yield than the CF Woodford Equity Income Fund. It is anticipated that at least 85% of the assets within the portfolio will be dividend paying and as such, the fund will invest in quoted companies only, the letter reads.

This differs from Woodford Equity Income, which invests up to 20% in unlisted companies and has returned 21% to investors since launch in June 2014. This compares to 7.4% for the Morningstar UK Equity Income category.

The new fund would have the ability to hold stocks listed outside of the UK.

Although the higher yield would be achieved by investing primarily in UK-listed companies, we envisage that the fund would have no geographic constraints, giving Neil Woodford and his team the flexibility to invest to invest anywhere in the world where they identify a suitable investment opportunity, the letter continues.

This global element will come as no surprise to close followers of Woodford, who earlier this year spoke about the increasing difficulties in finding high-quality income-paying UK stocks.

The economy looks awful. We face a very difficult future, he said in April. Finding value and retaining a robust filter is harder than ever  fund management is a much more difficult job now than it has been in the past.

Woodford would be following several other UK equity managers who are utilising their ability to look outside of the UK for income opportunities.

Morningstar fund analyst Peter Brunt said that while Woodford had made good use of the 20% non-UK listed flexibility that the Investment Association UK Equity Income sector allows, including US tobacco and European pharma names in the past, his expertise is first and foremost in UK-listed companies.

Opening up the investment universe to globally-listed companies is good in terms of dividend yield diversification, but would present a different challenge in terms of research and portfolio construction, Brunt continued.

The prohibition of unquoted stocks would also be welcomed by investors who want to benefit from Neils investment skills but prefer full transparency and the highest levels of liquidity in a portfolio.

A Reaction to Recent Reclassifications?

Craig Newman, chief executive, Woodford Investment Management confirmed the news saying: Were currently speaking to private investors, intermediaries and platforms to glean views and appetite for a new equity fund targeting a higher income.

The success of Woodford Equity Income paves the way for a higher income fund. Year to date the fund has recorded inflows of 738 million  while the Morningstar UK equity income category has seen outflows of 99 million.

Despite this success Woodford has recently been threatened with the boot from the IA UK Equity Income sector as the funds yield for 2015 calendar year was 3.4%. Over the same period the FTSE All-Share yielded 3.7%.

If he was jettisoned from the sector, he would join a list including funds from Rathbones, Invesco Perpetual, Schroder and Henderson. There is some suggestion that the proposed new fund is a reaction to the stringent IA rules.
Canadian mortgage finance company MCAP Corp. would aim to raise approximately $275 million in an initial public offering as soon as July, anonymous insider sources said.As reported by Bloomberg and published in GulfNews.com, MCAP has already filed the necessary paperwork for an IPO with Canadian regulators on May, including a preliminary prospectus outlining its goal of listing its shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange.The May filings also showed that MCAP has tapped the services of Bank of Montreal and the Royal Bank of Canada in leading the sale.MCAP currently has $55 billion of mortgages under administration, and if the reported IPO pushes through, it would be the second to break the $100-million barrier in raised funds in 2016, after Mainstreet Health Investments $124-million IPO earlier this year.MCAP officials have yet to comment on the reported development as of press time.The company, which operates mainly in the prime single-family residential mortgage sector, is seeking to generate over $90 billion of mortgages under administration by 2020. Origination and renewals remain strong, with (respectively) $14.3 billion and $4 billion last year.
Recent revisions to the Notices of Assessment (NOA) issued by the Canada Revenue Agency have exposed the forms to greater risk of mortgage fraud instead of making the documents easier to use, according to the countrys foremost mortgage professionals organization.In a letter addressed to Minister of National Revenue Diane Lebouthillier, the Canada Mortgage Brokers Association (CMBA) said that a significant portion of its membership is not too confident of the latest version of the NOA.We understand these new forms were introduced to make them simpler, less cluttered and better understood by the public, and more specifically, the individual tax payers who receive them. In our view, the new format of the NOA achieves these desired goals, and they are in fact, simpler and easier to read, CMBA executive director Samantha Gale wrote in the letter.However, the new form appears to have been overly simplified, in that many of the features of the NOA which make them harder to replicate or manipulate have been removed, making them an easily deployed tool for the perpetration of mortgage fraud, Gale explained.The CMBA noted that exposure to fraud has been one of the industrys longest-running concerns, and that these risk factors erode the Canadian publics confidence in mortgage professionals, industry regulators, private lenders, and financial institutions.NOAs are used to verify employment income in the mortgage application process by both lenders and mortgage default insurers, including the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). Fraudsters will often alter or create NOAs in order to qualify borrowers for mortgages for which they would otherwise not be approved, Gale stated.To address these loopholes, the CMBA petitioned Lebouthillier to consider additional safeguards to the documents.We recommend that  the new form be amended to contain identifying information relating to the tax payer, such as their name and social insurance number, Gale wrote. We recommend that the NOA be amended to add security features, such as the colour of the page coloured blue fading to white.The CMBA letter emphasized the ease of duplicating the existing version of the NOA, which incorporates the widely-used Helvetica as its primary font.We recommend that the NOA be amended to be written in a font which is not easily accessed by members of the public, Gale said.
Changes to Freddie and Fannie Coming Up; Free Webinars on Wide Range of Topics

In reviewing Fannie MORA and Freddie CORE reviews it's clear that seller/servicers continue to struggle with establishing and implementing an internal audit program. Mortgage Quality Management and Research, LLC (MQMR) works with lenders to complete three key components: 1. Initial risk assessment of the seller/servicer's organization as a whole, 2. An internal audit charter (policy and procedure and acceptance by the Board of Directors), and 3. Minimum 12-month calendar for performing ongoing audits of various departments, functions, and processes. Implementing these three activities is difficult to manage internally without having to hire a cadre of individuals with broad and deep subject matter expertise in areas such as compliance, originations, operations, quality control, vendor management, servicing, IT, HR, and many more. MQMR's internal audit division has been assisting seller/servicers in meeting their internal audit requirements whether fully outsourced, or supplementing the existing program that is in place. For more information on internal audit programs contact Britt Haven (818-940-1200 x104). MQMR will be attending the upcoming ABA Regulatory Compliance Conference in San Diego and the Mortgage Bankers Association of Florida Conference in Delray Beach, FL if you'd like to meet in person.

Isaac Boltansky with Compass Point Research & Trading reports, "There have been three notable GSE shareholder developments recently. On May 31 a number of trade and consumer groups sent a letter [see a few paragraphs down] to FHFA Director Mel Watt stating that they are 'deeply concerned' by the ongoing reduction in the GSE capital buffers mandated by the Third Preferred Stock Purchase Agreement (PSPA). The letter - which was signed by a group including CMLA, CRL, and NAACP - calls on Director Watt to 'suspend GSE dividend payments to Treasury, and require the GSEs to develop and implement capital restoration plans so they have enough capital to safely manage their business and to support America's housing finance system.'

"Second, on June 1 a group of 32 House Democrats sent a letter to FHFA Director Watt and Treasury Secretary Lew expressing their 'concern' with the capital buffer reduction at the heart of the Third PSPA and urges a reassessment of the arrangement. Although we do not believe administrative action altering the Third PSPA is imminent, these letters support our view that the policy conversation in D.C. is steadily moving toward a consideration of GSE capital retention.

"Third, on June 2 a multidistrict litigation panel denied the U.S. government's request to consolidate four GSE shareholder cases in a D.C. federal court. We view this development as a procedural positive for GSE shareholders as it lessens the downside risk of the upcoming Court of Appeals decision by preserving numerous alternative legal avenues and prevents the worrisome potential of Judge Lamberth hearing a consolidated set of cases. A decision in the Court of Appeals case is expected by August."

So yes, a joint letter from a collection of trade associations, such as the CMLA and CHLA, representing small lenders and affordable lending advocacy groups to FHFA Director Mel Watt. The letter urged Director Watt to order a suspension of the dividends that Fannie and Freddie are paying on the senior preferred stock held by the U.S. Treasury in order to permit the GSEs to rebuild their capital. "Our organizations are deeply concerned that under the Preferred Stock Purchase Agreements with the Treasury Department, the capital buffers of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be completely eliminated by the end of 2017. This course of action is likely to destabilize the housing economy, undermine efforts to make housing finance more accessible and affordable, and drive up the costs of homeownership... Accordingly, we urge you to suspend GSE dividend payments to Treasury, and require the GSEs to develop and implement capital restoration plans so they have enough capital to safely manage their business and to support America's housing finance system."

Fannie Mae announced plans to release historical data in July on a portion of the company's loans modified due to delinquency (700,000 loans modified between 2010 and 2015). This data release provides the market with greater ability to analyze the performance of modified loans in support of the previously announced re-performing loans securitization program. "The market for Agency RPL securities is relatively new, and we are providing this information so that the industry can get an in-depth view of the underlying loan performance," said Bob Ives, Head of Retained Portfolio Asset Management, Fannie Mae. "This historical data release should allow for a greater understanding of these loans and enable better modeling which in turn should foster greater liquidity for these securities."

And Fannie recently announced a new business-to-business integration platform. This platform enables a standardized connection to Fannie Mae's technology applications, offering direct integrators and technology solution providers a simple, efficient, and reliable integration. The first service available on the platform will enable direct integration for submitting the Uniform Closing Dataset (UCD). A new UCD collection service will also launch in September 2016 to collect UCD files through a web-based user interface, providing a simple and streamlined delivery experience.

With all this going on, who needs rate volatility? Fortunately, after Friday's employment data fireworks, effectively removing a Fed rate increase this month from the table, it has been quiet. In fact, Tuesday, aside from a little intra-coupon and intra-security shifting, not much happened - although the price of oil is sliding higher. So I won't waste your time. At the close, the 10-year note was about .125 in price better (yield 1.71%) and agency MBS prices were a shade better.

Today we've already had last week's mortgage application stats from the MBA (up over 9% with refis +7% and purchase apps +12%). Ahead of us is the JOLTS April job opening numbers, and then a $20 billion 10-year note auction. Do you feel like tying up your money for 10 years and earning 1.71% the whole time? This morning the 10-year is at 1.72% with agency MBS prices nearly unchanged.



Training and Events

On Wednesday, June 15th at 1:00 PM EST, learn everything you need to know about LO Compensation, MSAs, and RESPA in a free webinar presented by XINNIX, The Mortgage Academy.The webinar will feature the mortgage regulation expert, Mitch Kider, Managing Partner of Weiner Brodsky Kider PC. This live webinar is complimentary, but registration is required. Click here to learn more and register.

Alight and the California MBA are inviting CFOs and senior finance executives to a networking event at the Ritz Carlton Laguna Niguel in Dana Point on June 23rd. This event kicks off the newly-formed CFO & Senior Finance Working Group that Alight and the California MBA collaborated on to elevate CFOs and their teams. Participants in this invitation-only group will share best practices, collaborate to find solutions for shared problems and challenges, and provide a unique and confidential sounding board for fellow members. This purpose-driven, content-rich working group is the first of its kind and will work to significantly raise awareness of the absolute criticality of CFOs and their teams in the successful, forward-thinking mortgage banking firm. To get your personal invitation to the event at the Ritz, contact Sandee McCready (415.813.1842).

The California MBA is presenting a webinar on...appropriately, earthquakes. The webinar, set for June 9, was developed under a collaboration between Blackstone Consulting LLC and AEI Consultants.

The New Mexico Mortgage Lenders Association's June 9th Luncheon is still available for registration.

Plaza Home Mortgage is offering a free webinar on Monday, June 13th in which you will be able to watch the tactical and information-rich webinar for how to effectively source, train, and assimilate Millennials into your business, so you can also begin to freshen up your sales team. (Interested in more Plaza webinars? Click here to view its June Calendar.)

Registration is now open for The Mortgage Collaborative's Summer Lender Member Conference, which will take place August 21-23 at the Four Seasons Hotel & Resort in Denver, CO. The conference will feature a powerful agenda filled with presentations from top industry leaders, relevant educational breakout tracks, and a series of peer-to peer networking sessions and events. For more information, contact Rich Swerbinsky.



Jobs and Announcements

Strategic Compliance Partners, LLC is seeking an experienced national sales consultant to meet the demand of its rapidly expanding business. SCP is a leader in mortgage compliance consulting, offering financial institutions full-service outsourced, attorney-driven, compliance management at an affordable fixed price. The consultant will enjoy unrestricted, uncapped sales potential, a generous compensation and benefits package and will work remotely from anywhere with the support of a collaborative, innovative team, and should have a successful sales track-record and relationships in the mortgage industry, a strong understanding of financial compliance, perform well in an entrepreneurial setting and possess a passion for new concepts that improve the businesses and lives of those we serve. Contact Annie Hager.

In lender operations job news, Ditech is expanding in Ft. Washington, PA, St. Louis, MO and downtown Jacksonville, Florida areas. Ditech, "one of the largest lenders is in the industry is looking for Processors, Closers, Underwriters, and Call Center Loan Officers (both incoming and outgoing - we provide the leads!) to join our fast growing team. Ditech is building a world-class culture that promotes, diversity, career growth and leadership development. In short, Ditech is ready to take the industry in a new direction. Please reach out to our Recruiter Carmen Mohan for more information on opportunities or go ahead and apply today at www.ditech.com and the team will be in touch!"

AmeriHome Mortgage LLC is pleased to announce Amanda Lewis is its Account Executive for the North Central Region (Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, Montana, Wyoming, North and South Dakota). Amanda has been with AmeriHome Mortgage, a top 5 national correspondent lender, for almost a year focusing on building lasting client relationships with her deep knowledge and commitment to outstanding service. AmeriHome's rapid growth and overall customer satisfaction is the result of management's consist pricing, industry leading service levels and focus on true partnerships. For more information on setting up a relationship, please contact Amanda directly or call AmeriHome (888.469.0810).

In wholesale job news, Impac Mortgage Corp. Wholesale Division is ready to expand its team of Account Executives & Sales Managers. "If you want to offer a full line of products, from Govies to non-QM, be supported by exceptional underwriters, and be a part of a company that just celebrated 20 years in the industry, it could be a good fit. If you work smart, and know which details make all the difference to your clients, it could be a great fit. Where are you? MN, IL, TX, WI? The Carolinas? Georgia, New York/New Jersey, Florida? West Coast, Right Coast or in between, we'd like to hear from you. And, Todd Kesterson is all ears if you want to bring in your entire team, or have a great idea to pitch. And, word on the street is they'll be making some interesting non-QM product announcements soon."

On the retail side, Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation has appointed Paul Fein, a seasoned leader in the mortgage industry, to serve as Vice President of Business Development for the Mid-Atlantic Region. Fein will work to establish a presence and grow retail mortgage production for Fairway throughout the region. "I chose to come to Fairway because of the philosophy that drives their sales team and is engrained in the company's culture," says Fein. "It is my goal to establish new branches that reflect Fairway's core values of respect, humility and a commitment to serve." Fein, along with the Fairway team, will work to hire branch managers and loan officers who are passionate about providing others with the dream of home ownership. New branches are planned to be established throughout New Jersey, New York, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Maryland. "Fairway is ready to grow and welcome new members to the family," says Kimberly Grim, Vice President of Fairway's Mid-Atlantic Region. "It is our hope that with Fein's expertise, we will be able to accomplish this."
Remember low doc loans? Something similar is back

A community mortgage lender in New York has launched a product which may stir memories of the low doc loans of the past, where borrowers needed little documentation in order to secure a loan.



CNBC reports that Quontic Banks offer is for lite doc loans which requires two months bank statements and proof of employment; or self-employed profit and loss accounts for a year. Borrowers can apply for 5-year ARMs with rates from 5 per cent.



The reputation of stated income loans, often marketed as low doc or no doc was tainted following the financial crisis. However, Quontics product comes with safeguards including a requirement for a 40 per cent downpayment and is only available for owner-occupiers, not investors.



Home purchase sentiment at new high

Sentiment among house buyers reached an all-time high in May according to Fannie Mae. Its Home Purchase Sentiment Index reached 85.3, rebounding from an 18-month low two months earlier.



The net share of consumers reporting that their income was significantly higher than it was 12 months ago increased 7 percentage points; net share of consumers expecting home prices to increase in the next 12 months was up 5 percentage points; and the net share of those who expect mortgage rates to go down in the next 12 months was up 3 percentage points.



However, the Good Time to Buy figure fell 1 per cent in May to an all-time low.



Profits improve for independent mortgage banks

Independent mortgage banks and the mortgage subsidiaries of chartered banks reported better profits in the first quarter of 2016 compared to the end of 2015. However, the Mortgage Bankers Association says that year-over-year profits were lower.



Each loan originated in the first 3 months of 2016 generated a net gain of $825 up from $423 in the last quarter of 2015. The first quarter of 2015 generated $1,447 per loan though.


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While some called a Round Rock high school student's senior prank legendary, authorities are calling it criminal.

Scott Fickey, 17, was arrested last Thursday and charged with two counts of assault to a public servant after he drove his Honda dirt bike through a Stony Point High School hallway with a GoPro camera attached to his safety helmet, and crashed.

According to an arrest affidavit, Jeffrey Strickland, an assistant principal at the high school, stepped in front of the student and the motorcycle. Fickey then attempted to get around Strickland by accelerating but he lost control of the bike, causing it to skid out from under him.

The skidding motorcycle then struck a teacher, causing an injuring to her arm, the affidavit said. The assistant principal told police he also sustained injuries from the stunt  scratches to his arm and thumb as he prevented Fickey from running away.

Twitter user, @CyRod22, caught Fickey's stunt on camera. The video shows Fickey speeding through the hallway on his red dirt bike, whizzing past students. What the video doesn't capture is what garnered the charges against the teen after he lost control of the bike and allegedly injured two employees of the school.

Another Twitter user, @HunterJehl6, called Fickey "a legend" for his potentially criminal stunt.

Fickey is facing two third degree felony charges in the senior prank.

MMedina@mySA.com
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas, the states largest insurer, asked for rate hikes well into the 50 percentages for next year for three of its plans. Its the only carrier to offer coverage in all 254 Texas counties, but even if the Texas Department of Insurance approves the increases, it will not have a significant impact on Midland County.

Fewer than 4,000 people enroll through the federal health care exchange, according to numbers released in January by Enroll America. Of that 4,000, 19.6 percent (772) were 55 to 64; 19.1 percent (756) were 45-54; 17.4 percent (686) were 26-34 and 16.6 percent (656) were 17 or younger.

For those in the state of Texas, BCBS is seeking increases of 57, 58 or 59 percent of current policy prices. In a statement, the company said that 603,000 Texans buying policies through the federal exchange will be affected. Increases for employer-sponsored group policies are not yet known.

I dont know how people would be able to afford it, said Stephen Bowerman, chief financial officer for Midland Memorial Hospital. It would get to the point of being worth it to just pay the penalty of not having health insurance. We obviously keep our eye on that.

Deductibles for many providers already range between $1,500 and $5,000 for many plans both individual and through work. Unless a patient is in a traffic wreck or has cancer, high deductibles often mean a patient pays for all health care costs out-of-pocket for the year, according to Bowerman.

The issue for the hospital is, its like (the patients) are a self-paid patient, if they havent met their deductible, Bowerman said. Youve got to accrue that much in services before your insurance kicks in and its like you dont have insurance if youre not a high utilizer.

The University of Texas of the Permian Basin offers insurance to students through the state-funded UT system. The state insures itself but its provider is Blue Cross and Blue Shiel, meaning that BCBS handles claims but does not dictate premium increases; the state does.

Students and employees enrolled in UTs health insurance will see increased premiums this coming year, according to UTPB spokeswoman Travis Woodward.

We dont know yet what those increases will be,she said. There are factors that come and mitigate it for our employees so we dont know what its going to mean for our employees, either.

The fiscal year begins Sept. 1. It has not yet been finalized how much more a student will need to pay for health premiums, Woodward said.

Increased premiums also spell problems for those who slip through a coverage gap, or those who make too much to qualify for regular Medicaid and too little for private insurance. Texas did not expand Medicaid as encouraged by the Affordable Care Act; estimates put 1 million Texans eligible for expanded Medicaid coverage.

The state struck an agreement with Centers for Federal Medicare and Medicaid Services in May to reimburse hospitals caring for uninsured Texans. The extension will last 15 months after the five-year 1115 Medicaid Transformation Waiver expires in September 2017. It will reimburse $3.1 billion the first 12 months and a pro-rated amount the last three.

The states uninsured rate dropped to 19 percent last year but still remained about 7 percent higher than the national average, according to U.S. Census data.

Follow Cassie on Twitter at @Cassie_Burton51
Crude futures settled above the $50 level for the first time since July, perhaps offering a little breathing room for producers battered by prices that fell into the $20s in February.

The price of West Texas Intermediate has climbed about 90 percent since falling to $26.21 on the New York Mercantile Exchange in February, bringing a posted price of $22.75 a barrel.

$50 a barrel is more than twice as good as $25 a barrel, said Tim Dunn, chief executive officer of CrownQuest Operating.

Every penny helps, said Tommy Taylor, director of oil and gas development at Fasken Oil and Ranch.

Taylor said his company is looking at increasing activity in South Texas a little, but were really looking at 2017 to increase activity in both the Permian Basin and South Texas.

Were really focused on next year, assuming prices stay firm, he said.

I certainly think $50 will help a lot of companies sustain some activity, and a lot of companies are talking about picking up their activity in the back part of the year, Dunn said. But I doubt many, if any, companies are ready to make any commitments that dont allow them the flexibility to adjust if prices slump again.

Denzil West, president of Reliance Energy, said the higher prices are encouraging but he and other executives at his company remain skeptical prices will continue above $50 a barrel. Still, he said, long-term, were on a good trend.

West said his company is looking at putting a drilling rig back to work pretty quick and the higher prices allow for some hedging opportunities.

Well remain very nimble in case there s a pullback, he said. But this is very encouraging.

There are a few ifs as to whether or not oil prices remain firm, Taylor said, listing oil inventories that continue to remain high and supply disruptions that could be short-lived.

And the rebound in prices may be too little too late for some, he said. Were still seeing companies file bankruptcy, so $50 oil probably wont help them, he said.

On the other hand, Taylor said domestic oil production is beginning to decline, offering support to price levels.

Bloomberg reported Tuesday that crude stockpiles at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for WTI and the biggest U.S. oil-storage hub, probably declined by 700,000 barrels last week, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey. Nationwide inventories dropped by 1.37 million barrels to 535.7 million through May 27, according to the EIA.

I knew the production decline was coming, but it took longer than I thought it would, Taylor said.

The current correction has also taken longer than he expected, or the industry hoped, he said. There were those who hoped for a quick recovery, as was seen in 2009-2010, rather than a prolonged downturn like the one that began in 1986.

Who would have expected 405 rigs nationwide? Taylor said.
Security incident being investigated

Midland Memorial Hospital and Premier Physicians announced Tuesday they are investigating a security incident involving patients personal information. The hospital and Premier Physicians are providing notice to individuals who may have been affected by the incident and offering free credit monitoring and identity protection services to those patients whose Social Security numbers were included in the records.

It was discovered on April 8 that Dr. Mario M. Gross, who previously had privileges at the hospital and was formerly employed by Premier Physicians, left patient information at a private residence, causing the information to be accessible to members of the public, according to press releases from MMH and Premier Physicians. Upon learning of the situation, hospital and Premier Physicians representatives promptly secured the patient records and initiated investigations to determine the specific patients who were affected and the personal information that was contained in those records.

It is believed that the patient records may have contained patients first and last names, home addresses and certain health information, including dates of birth, account numbers/medical record unit numbers, diagnoses, medications, procedures and physicians notes. The records may have also contained some patients Social Security numbers as well as Medicare and/or Medicaid numbers.

There is no evidence that this information has been used inappropriately.

More information for impacted patients is available at www.midland-memorial.com/securityupd and www.yourpremierphysicians.com. Impacted patients with questions may call 1-844-305-8390 or 844-305-8391, 7 a.m. - 4 p.m. CST, Monday-Friday.

Veterans can get free dental care

Aspen Dental offices across the country will be offering free dental care to veterans 9 a.m.-3 p.m. June 25.

The Midland office is at 4400 N. Midland Drive, Suite 702. To make an appointment, call 242-7426.

MMH events

Opioid Abuse, 12:15-1:15 p.m., June 15, Midland Memorial Hospital Conference Rooms C & D. For more information, contact Rebecca Pontaski at 221-1625 or rebecca.pontaski@midland-memorial.com

Advance Care Planning Training (Part II of II), 1:30-2:30 p.m., Midland Memorial Hospital. For more information, contact Collette Underwood or collette.underwood@midland-memorial.com

Diabetes Support Group, 6:30-7:30 p.m., Midland County Library Centennial Branch, 2503 W. Loop 250. For more information, contact Megan Casselman at 221-3045 or megan.casselman@midland-memorial.com

Support groups this week

-- Caregiver support, noon today, HospiceMidland 911 W. Texas Ave., 682-2855.

 Chronic fatigue fibro-myalgia syndromes support group meets noon Thursday at Rays of Hope Grief Centre; 520-3500.

-- Walk with a Doc Program, 9:30 a.m. Saturday, Midland College Fine Arts building. Before the walk a medical specialist, gives a five - to 10-minute lecture.

-- ODESSA  Tourettes syndrome support group, 2 p.m. Sunday, Neuroscience Institute, 3610 22nd St.; Pam Weaks, 806-438-6601, pzweaks@yahoo.com, or Rene Howell, 806-549-7788.

-- Midland Memorial Hospitals Better Breathing Club meets 11:30 a.m. Tuesday at Midland Memorial Hospital Scharbauer Tower meeting room. Don at 221-4864 or Joanna at 682-4229.

Weekly support groups

-- TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly) 5:30-7:30 p.m. Thursdays, Christian Church of Midland, 2609 Neely Ave. 694-8643.

-- Overeaters Anonymous; 7-8 p.m. Tuesdays and 3-4 p.m. Sundays; B&J Plaza, 206 N. Midkiff Road, Suite 1-D; 553-1031.

 survivors of sexual abuse; interactive Bible study to help deal with the consequences of sexual abuse meets Tuesdays. Child care available; House of Hope, 570-5935.

-- Peer to Peer support group for veterans, active duty, guard, reserves and their families, 6 p.m. Tuesdays, Permian Basin Community Center, 401 E. Illinois Ave., Suite 403; Wil Hoggard, 213-5342, william.hoggard@wtcmhmr.org.

-- PDAP meetings:

7-8 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays: Parents group and younger group (12-17), 1208 W. Wall St.; college group (18-26), 2503 W. Ohio Ave.; older group (27 and over), First Presbyterian Church

11:30-1:30 p.m. Wednesdays: older group, 1208 W. Wall St., includes lunch

* * *

Alcoholics Anonymous  hotline 580-7868.

 Serenity Group, 8 p.m. daily, 3101 N. A St., Building C; 685-3100.

 710 Group, 7 a.m., noon and 8 p.m. Wednesdays, 710 Ohio Ave.; 682-8162.

 Alpha Omega, 8 p.m Tuesdays and 11 a.m. Saturdays and Sundays, 311 S. Pecos St.

--12-Step Group of Alcoholics Anonymous, 7:30 p.m. Mondays and Tuesdays, 10 a.m. Saturdays; 206 N. Midkiff Road; 697-0272.

Narcotics Anonymous  hotline 582-2926.

 Laundry Group, 8 p.m. daily and noon Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, 104 N. Marshall St.

 Xodus Group, 5:30 p.m. Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, 7 a.m. and 8:30 p.m. Wednesdays and 8:30 p.m. Saturdays, 206 N. Midkiff Road.

-- CODA Group, 12-step program for relationships, 7 p.m. Thursdays, 206 N. Midkiff Road; 697-0272.

-- La Hacienda Alumni, support group for former patients, 7 p.m. Thursdays, 206 N. Midkiff Road; 697-0272.

***

MMH payment options

Midland Memorial Hospital recognizes that our community is facing challenging financial times. Resources are tight and families are having to make important decisions about what to spend money on now and what has to wait.

Realizing health care can be expensive and the increasing deductibles make it hard to manage, the hospital has adjusted its payment procedures. We want to make sure you receive the care you need, when you need it. To find out about the new options now offered to better accommodate your payment needs, call 221-4705.

Source: Midland Memorial Hospital

***

How sick are you?

Midland Memorial Hospital offers a a nurse triage program 68-NURSE.

The program is designed to help people determine whether their health situation warrants a trip to the emergency room. Midland residents can call the line by dialing 686-8773.

The program is free and available 24 hours a day-365 days a year. Local nurses are available to help you determine the best place to receive care for your situation. 68-NURSE can help you save time and money by directing you to the most appropriate healthcare option, whether its a neighborhood clinic, urgent care center, emergency room  or just staying home.

* * *

The Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services has a toll-free number residents can call to obtain information on services for the disabled or long-term care.

For more information, call 855-937-2372.

* * *

Contact your Hospital District representative

Midland Memorial Hospital

400 Rosalind Redfern Grover Parkway, Midland, TX 79701

Phone: 221-1111

Website: www.midland-memorial.com

President Russell Meyers 221-1584

Directors -- District 1: Dwain Tomlin, District 2: Dorothea Logan, District 3: Tommy Lent, District 4: Cressinda Hyatt, District 5: Alison King, District 6: Joe Kiowski, District 7: Jeffrey Beard
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"If it requires removing all cabinet ...
Volunteer For The Road Users Charge Pilot Program View Photos

Sonora, CA  Rural drivers are among those that state transportation officials hope to recruit for a pilot program seeking a road maintenance funding alternative.

In fact, at the top of its agenda, the Tuolumne County Transportation Council (TCTC) will on Wednesday host a presentation on that topic by the California Transportation Commission (CTC). In addition to providing an overview of the states transportation funding woes, CTC Deputy Director Mitch Weiss will roll out plans for a field trial that will explore possible ways that road charge use fees might possibly be implemented in place of the California gas tax.

The reason why this is so important is because there is a funding backlog of road maintenance of about $58 million today  and that number is growing quickly, explains TCTC Executive Director Darin Grossi. Likewise, the state highway system is anticipating a need of $57 billion over the next ten years  and new revenues to cover the cost of maintenance. Locally, Grossi says that CTC was forced to cut nearly $2 million from the Tuolumne County Regional Transportation Improvement Program (RTIP), and this years county road maintenance budget is facing a similar revenue decrease.

Fuel-efficiency Fouls Current Funding Model

As Grossi points out, increasingly more fuel-efficient vehicles, combined with more electric vehicles on the state highway system are creating more vehicle miles traveled on roads. Yet, transportation agencies are capturing less funding to cover maintenance costs, let alone the expansion of the transportation system.

With the state legislatures approval of SB 1077 last year, CTC was given the greenlight to test what a road user charge might look like and how it would function. Part of that process is finding about 7,500 different volunteers around the state to monitor their driving in ruralurbanand suburban areasto see how the system would work, Grossi states.

Grossi adds that he plans to volunteer as a driver and hopes others in the area, from local officials to those interested in following the process, will also sign up. It wont cost anybody anything. It is to test the system so the legislators can gain confidence that, if they convert to this new revenue system that there wont be any lost revenue to the state  but there wont be any increases to the consumer, either. Location-based GPS devices are not required, he emphasizes, and individual data will be privacy-protected.

Wednesdays meeting begins at 3 p.m. in the Tuolumne County Board of Supervisors meeting chamber (2 S. Green St.). As earlier mentioned, the discussion will be among the first orders of business. For more background on the CTC program, click here.
An longtime Orlando home for children and adults with disabilities may not have to close after all -- but some changes will have to be made.

State officials toured Orlando's Russell Home for Atypical Children

Russell Home will need to turn facility into 2 seperate addresses

The group says the state approves of the plan

State officials toured Orlando's Russell Home for Atypical Children as part of the review of the home's license application. The state had threatened to shut down the 67-year-old facility if they did not obtain a license, meaning the children and adults diagnosed with a range of physical and mental disabilities could be taken from their home.

We took them on a tour to meet our wonderful children and to see where we live, said Betty Turner, administrator at the Russell Home.

In the last few decades, the state has changed the way it regulates special care, and the private non-profit doesn't fall into a typical category, especially since they have both child and adult care that can last a lifetime.

In an attempt to save the Russell Home, the owners applied for a group license through the Agency for Persons with Disabilities. With little notice, the state-run organization made their first site visit.

We were the only news crew there as officials with the Agency for Persons with Disabilities toured the home.

First impression was a very committed and caring staff, said Tom Rankin, the deputy director for operations at APD.

APD has more than 1,500 licensed homes throughout Florida and in order for the Russell Home to become one of them, they must meet a list of requirements.

Requirements that surround care that ensures that people are safe and thriving, Rankin said.

Our main goal was just to not to move any of our children or adults here," Turner said. "So hopefully, were not gonna have to do that.

Yet right now, the Russell Home is considered over capacity to qualify for a group home license. A group home is limited to 15 people, and Russell Home has 25 residents, plus daycare.

But the Russell Home says they have come up with a solution that the state supports.

Weve worked through the details with them, Rankin said.

The Russell Home will turn their facility into two separate addresses and apply for two licenses.

I think were gonna be able to work right through their application, Rankin said.

For now the Russell Home will continue to operate as usual while the state reviews their application to become licensed.

We've got to be here," Turner said. "We've got to be here for the kids.

The Russell Home continues to undergo construction for a large expansion. The facility said if state officials approve their application, they will first operate with licenses on a month-to-month basis. The state will require the Russell Home to prove that construction is moving along and on track to be complete by October.
Overall crime is down in Flagler County, but violent crime is up in many categories.

Flagler County crime up in rape, aggravated assault, burglaries and stolen vehicles in 2015

The county had one murder in 2015

Accord the state, murder, rape, aggravated assault and motor vehicle theft up in 2015

According to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's Uniform Crime Report, the rates of rape, aggravated assault, burglaries and stolen vehicles all increase in 2015. There was also one murder in the county, up from zero in 2014.

Flagler Countys sheriff says his deputies have managed to keep the crime rate low for a long time. And despite increases in key categories, the overall crime rate is still down .6 percent.

Sheriff Jim Manfre says part of the problem is population growth.

"As you grow, the community, you have the more people. There are younger people coming to the community, crime goes up," said Manfre.

Manfre said the countys population has grown by about 10 percent in the last four years.

The sheriff said whenever they start to see a spike in crime in specific areas, they flood the zones with patrols.

Manfre said to help cut down on at least the burglaries, residents need to lock up cars and homes and be vigilant about reporting anything you see wrong.

The sheriff said they monitor crime reports weekly.

Statewide, crime is also up in several categories, although overall crime is down 1.6 percent.

In 2015, the crime rates rose in the following categories:

Murder: 5.7 percent

Rape: 6.1 percent

Fondling: 2.0 percent

Aggravated Assault: 3.9 percent

Motor vehicle Theft: 12.4 percent

The report also breaks down domestic violence-related crime by category. Overall, domestic violence-related crime is up .5 percent.

The crime rate is down in robbery, burglary and larceny.
The Orlando-area Walmart that was robbed at gunpoint early Wednesday morning was evacuated several hours later because of a bomb threat, Orange County deputies said.

Roderick Houser and Malcolm Shabazz, both 24, have been arrested in connection with the robbery, according to the Orange County Sheriff's Office.

2 masked men entered Walmart with guns and demanded money

The store was evacuated while investigators searched for the suspects

Suspects were taken into custody later Wednesday morning, deputies said

Store evacuated a second time because of a bomb threat



The robbery happened just before 1 a.m. at the Walmart located at 8990 Turkey Lake Road.



According to deputies, two masked men entered the store with handguns and demanded money from the cash registers.

The suspects received an undisclosed amount of money and fled the store.

No injuries have been reported.

The store was then evacuated again just before 11 a.m. because of a bomb threat.The scene was eventually cleared after 1 p.m.



Authorities have not said if the two incidents are related.
The mother who drove a van carrying her kids into the ocean in Daytona Beach will stay in jail.

Ebony Wilkerson was arrested last week after authorities say she violated terms of release

Wilkerson was at mental facility but reportedly stopped taking medication

In 2014, Wilkerson drove her van into the ocean with her kids inside

Ebony Wilkerson was arrested last week for violating the terms of her release.

On Wednesday, Judge Leah Case ruled she be conditionally released to Lake Wales Medical Center so long as she took her medication under supervision. However, last month, Wilkerson may have violated those conditions when she admitted she stopped taking her meds and tried to leave the mental health facility.

Lake Wales police officers say she tried leaving the facility three times. The third time, she was found walking along a busy Lake Wales highway, they said.



She immediately just ran into oncoming traffic, going westbound. A semi and a car had to both slam on brakes to avoid hitting her, Lake Wales Police Officer Jacob Lang testified.

She was Baker Acted a final time and taken to University Medical Center, where she was taken into custody and eventually transfered to Volusia County.

Prosecutors and the judge questioned Wilkersons health care supervisors, who testified Wilkerson was permitted to self-medicate without supervision in April and in May. But most of her medications were found intact, which visibly upset Case.



Wilkersons husband, who has custody of their four children, says a hearing last month denying Wilkerson vistiation rights to see her children may have led to this latest incident.



If they were a little bit more lenient where she could have had some the of contact last week, Im pretty sure this might have not have happened, Luftol Ronjon said.

Wilkersons lawyer was granted a continuance after arguing he needed more time to review all the information surrounding this case.

In 2014, Wilkerson drove her van, with her children inside, into the Atlantic Ocean in Daytona Beach. Lifeguards and bystanders pulled her three children out of the van, after Wilkerson, who was pregnant at the time, walked away as the vehicle began to submerge.

Wilkerson pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity on three charges of child neglect and endangerment.
Quick-thinking young people averted a tragedy Friday when they saved a toddler from drowning in a community pool.

And it was all caught on surveillance video.

3-year-old girl rescued from drowning in Titusville pool

Girl was pulled from pool by 7-year-old cousin

18-year-old recent high school grad performed CPR

The video from the Timber Trace Apartments pool in Titusville shows a 3-year-old girl in the shallow end beginning to struggle. Moments later, she goes under.

Police say the young girl was submerged for two minutes. The child's cousin, a 7-year-old boy, noticed her floating underneath the water.

Someone called 911.

Breanna Moseley, 18, was visiting her mother who lives at the apartment complex. She said she was getting her siblings ready for a swim on a hot day when she saw the young child pulled from the water.

"I heard some kids freaking out, so I turned around, and they were holding a little child, and she was just limp and not moving," Moseley said.

By instinct, she sprang into action.

"I saw she wasn't breathing, gave her mouth-to-mouth, chest compressions, until she coughed up all the water," Moseley said.

The child was flown to Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children in Orlando and is recovering well.

"The actions of two courageous young people saved this young girl's life," said Amy Matthews of the Titusville Police Department.

Moseley, who graduated from Titusville High three weeks ago, had taken CPR classes during school. Despite that, she thought she would panic if she were put in a situation like this.

Her reward: The child is OK and her mother grateful.

"It made me realize I did a pretty awesome thing," Moseley said with a smile.

The Florida Department of Children and Families is investigating, as the child was at the pool without proper supervision.


AUSTIN - The Texas Bankers Association applauds Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarlings efforts to bring meaningful regulatory relief to community banks through the Financial Choice Act. Community banks have been overregulated since the Dodd-Frank Act was passed in 2010.

The organization notes that Texas, which has a very healthy banking system, has lost 143 banks since the enactment of Dodd-Frank. Throughout the U.S., the number has reached 1,639. Just last week, the FDIC reported that in the first quarter of 2016, while only one bank failed, 58 institutions agreed to be acquired in merger transactions. Just three new banks were chartered since 2010, which has been the consistent pattern since the enactment of the Dodd-Frank Act.
Stuck between a rock and a hard place, right now cotton farmers will just take whatever they can get. However, local producers are hoping this is just the first step in an effort to keep area cotton farms afloat.

On Monday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced their plans to assist America's cotton farmers by providing $300 million in federal aid.

Over the past several years, cotton producers have been struggling to survive as they face deep foreign subsidies, low cotton prices, high production costs and the exclusion of cotton assistance in the 2014 Farm Bill.

"The Cotton Ginning Cost Share program will offer meaningful, timely and targeted assistance to cotton growers to help with their anticipated ginning costs and to facilitate marketing," United States Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said in a news release.

Lawmakers stripped most federal subsidies for cotton farmers in the 2014 Farm Bill - a move reportedly made to appease Brazil in trade talks.

The new aid is categorized as "marketing assistance" and provides 40 percent of a farmer's ginning costs in a one-time payment based on their 2015 acreage reported to the Farm Service Agency.

For Texas farmers, this means payout would come out to $36.97 per acre.

Texas is the nation's leading cotton producer.

After the announcement, industry leaders commended the USDA's move to assist farmers.

"We greatly appreciate U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and the USDA for listening to the concerns of cotton producers and coming up with a viable short-term solution that will help us face some of our challenges," PCG President Johnie Reed, a cotton producer from Kress, said.

"We had hoped for some flexibility in the payment limit, but we are grateful for the assistance, because our producers certainly need it."

And local farmers have needed it. Over the past few years, farmers have found themselves in a constant gamble come harvest time. With the new help, farmers at least can have better peace of mind as they roll the dice. But for many local farmers, they hope this is just the beginning of pushing the odds in their favor.

"I personally feel, honestly, anything will help. But, I feel like this should be a first step," said Hale County farmer Mark True.

True said that leaving cotton out of the 2014 farm bill has put a strain on local farmers.

"One of the things this does is try to remove some of that inequity that occurred during that process," True continued.

But rising production costs and low commodity prices will lessen the impact of the new cotton aid.

"I believe the figure for the region is $36.97 cents per acre," True said. "In my case, on about 200 acres, that's roughly $7,300. Even with this payment, my cost of production is going to probably exceed what I can sell my crop for."

True stressed his appreciation for any help, but noted that many farmers have been in dire conditions for quite some time and this shouldn't be the final step in assistance for cotton farmers.

"We are just in a set of circumstances now that our margins are so very close," True said. "We've already seen a tremendous number of producers go out of business this year and several more that may be on the bubble."

Until then, farmers can only wait and continue their efforts to reduce production costs.

True noted farmers are adopting new technologies and practices in the field to do so. He added that the recent blessing of rain has helped tremendously.

One major factor that could help cotton farmers is a swing in the trend of buying and using cotton.

The growth of cotton purchases in items like clothing and oil would help raise the price of cotton to a better margin. But time will tell if consumer trends will shift toward the fiber.

"We recognize that this is a program for the near term, and we remain committed to working with Congress and others in trying to establish cottonseed as an 'other oilseed' under Title I of the 2014 Farm Bill, which would provide long-term stability for our industry," added Reed.

The program has the same eligibility requirements as were used for the 2014 Cotton Transition Assistance Program, including a $40,000 per producer payment limit, requirement to be actively engaged in farming, meet conservation compliance and a $900,000 adjusted gross income limit.

Farmers can sign up at their local Farm Service Agency offices between June 20 and Aug. 5, with payments expected to start going out in July.
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After incidents of racial discrimination by hosts that led to online protests, Airbnb tackled its challenges with racism and diversity head-on at its annual technical conference Wednesday.

We have zero tolerance for any racism or intolerance on our platform and will take swift action if we hear of it, CEO and co-founder Brian Chesky told 800 employees, developers and others at San Franciscos City View at Metreon, the site of the third annual OpenAir conference. The company will spend months on a top-to-bottom revamp of its service, seeking to prevent discrimination, he said.

Airbnbs peer-to-peer model, in which hosts and guests connect through its website or app to book unconventional lodging, has come under fire for allowing hosts to discriminate against minority guests. Some black guests have complained that hosts rejected their attempts to book lodging, but accepted them if they reapplied using a white persons photo, for instance.

The incidents have given rise to the hashtag #AirbnbWhileBlack. A Harvard Business School study also found a higher rejection rate for guests whose names sounded African American. Airbnb has responded by swiftly banning some hosts, such as one who used racist language in rejecting a guest from Nigeria.

I myself have personally engaged with a number of people who have been discriminated against on our platform, Chesky said.

While Cheskys appearance on stage was brief, several speakers addressed the theme of improving inclusion.

David King, Airbnbs new director of diversity and belonging, said hell lead an in-depth review of the entire community focused on discrimination, and release results in September. The company will offer trainings on unconscious bias.

King led a panel discussion on Building an Inclusive Company with Leslie Miley, Slacks director of engineering, and Ellen Pao, co-founder of Project Include.

All agreed that addressing intolerance must start with top executives and be built into companies from the get-go. Both Miley and Pao gave examples of their own negative experiences.

At Reddit, where Pao was previously CEO, a culture of anonymity and emphasis on growth enabled notoriously vile remarks by malicious users, Pao said. Pao, who last year unsuccessfully sued former employer Kleiner Perkins for gender discrimination, said she was heartened by the thousands of messages of support she received during the landmark trial.

Miley, previously Twitters director of engineering, said that experience taught him that battling discrimination starts by building inclusive work teams.

The reason Twitter was so bad at handling abuse (was because) the people who designed and built Twitter never suffered abuse, he said.

Airbnb Vice President of Engineering Mike Curtis also addressed inclusion in his remarks. Our goal is to create a world where anyone can belong anywhere, he said. We take it seriously, and were taking action.

Curtis also unveiled new features designed to facilitate business travel and group trips.

A tool called collaborative wish lists allows people to plan trips together, discuss and vote on preferred accommodations.

About 50,000 companies have used Airbnb for business travel, Curtis said. To help that segment, which grew threefold in the first quarter of the year, he said, Airbnb will now allow employees to book trips for co-workers.

As well, when multiple people visit an Airbnb residence, the hosts reviews will apply to all the guests, not just the primary one, allowing them to build their reputations on the platform, Curtis said.

Airbnb has tried to address potential discrimination with an optional instant book feature whereby hosts automatically accept guest bookings.

While it didnt discuss other steps it might take, a panel on Measuring Trust at Airbnb where co-founder Joe Gebbia spoke offered some hints on how the companys guest and host reviews could counteract peoples biases.

Without trust, our company would be worth nothing, said Gebbia.

Airbnb worked with Stanford data scientists to study 9,000 of its users and find out what inspired greater trust of those users whose profiles showed many differences from their own.

It found that highly positive reviews from other Airbnb users helped people overcome what some psychology researchers call birds of a feather syndrome to feel more comfortable with strangers.

That translates into more guest-host matches.

High-reputation hosts are attractive to a wider breadth of guests, and higher-reputation guests match with a higher diversity of hosts, said Alok Gupta, Airbnb data science manager.

Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: csaid@sfchronicle.com Twitter: csaid
SEYMOUR  A new restaurant has taken over the former Lake House Bar & Grill property on Roosevelt Drive.

Jennifer Recker, co-owner and manager of the Stones Throw Restaurant, said the business had its soft opening recently in order to prepare the staff for the upcoming busy summer season. An official, grand opening is planned.

The riverside restaurants menu and feel will be familiar to those people who have visited the former Stone House Restaurant in Guilford. Peter Hamme, longtime owner of the Stone House, is also co-owner and chef of the new establishment, at 377 Roosevelt Drive.

Its American cuisine with an emphasis on local seafood and everything is made from scratch, Recker said, adding that the owners are looking to showcase the offerings of local farmers.

Hamme, who sold the Stone House property last year, recently purchased the 2,600-square-foot Lake House building, which sits on 0.41 acres, for $850,000. The riverside property has an outdoor patio, boat launch and docks.

Recker said its location played a key role in the partnerships decision to fix up the building and open a new establishment there.

Fred Messore, the towns economic development director and senior vice president at Colonial Properties, represented Hamme in the sale of the property. He said after deciding to sell the Stone House, Hamme was looking for a new venture.

Messore said Hamme and his team renovated the entire building, including the kitchen and bar. Were very excited a good, new qualified operating is coming in, he said, adding that the restaurant will also be open year-round, unlike its predecessor.

First Selectman Kurt Miller said it was great to see successful business owners interested in investing in Seymour.

People from outside Seymour are starting to recognize the value of being here, he said. Its a beautiful spot. Its going to be very nice for that area.

ktorres@hearstmediact.com; 203-330-6227
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced on Wednesday 20 projects in towns and cities across Connecticut, including Westport, Danbury and New Canaan, will receive nearly $11 million in funding under a competitive grant program that will support transit-oriented development and responsible growth, targeted at boosting economic activity and creating jobs.

The grants are administered by the Office of Policy and Management and rely on a combination of funding from the Responsible Growth Incentive Fund and the Transit-Oriented Development and Pre-development Fund.

Investing in transportation is critical, Malloy said in a statement announcing the award. Transportation and the future of our economy are fundamentally linked. Our focus is on not only improving overall quality of life for residents in these areas, but also encouraging economic development by making our towns and cities more accessible. These grants will help us take another step towards making our state more competitive.

In Danbury, the state has awarded $225,000 to conduct research on land use and transportation conditions in the downtown are, and issue recommendations to further transit-oriented development, responsible growth and infill development as part of the Downtown Transit-Oriented Development Planning Study. The study will also focus on analyzing existing transportation modes of ridership and provide recommendations that promote intermodal coordination and co-location of transit services.

In Westport, $440,000 will fund a detailed master plan of the Saugatuck station area, including an existing-conditions analysis, public outreach, district planning, identification of partnerships and preliminary design. The plan is focused on improving the Saugatuck area in a manner that will benefit local residents, new residents, commuters and businesses.

The New Canaan downtown pedestrian loop and Weed Street sidewalk connection will benefit from $150,000 to construct sidewalks and crosswalks along a portion of Weed Street between Elm Street and Irwin Park. The proposed walkway is within a half-mile from the train station and downtown. The walkway aims to enhance pedestrian access to the train station and decrease the demand for motor vehicles.

In addition, the Northwest Hills Council of Government was awarded $26,250 to study alternative routes for a seven-mile segment of the HouBike Trail, which currently runs along Route 7 between Kent and the Cornwall Bridge. The study will focus on re-routing the trail off of Route 7 to improve connectivity and accommodate a broader user group including casual riders, walkers and families with children.

Also, the Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments was awarded $110,000 for the Naugatuck River Greenway Study to establish an official route for the final 10.9-mile segment of the Naugatuck River Greenway, between Thomaston and Bogue Road in Torrington.

By promoting transportation alternatives, the projects will decrease emissions and road congestion in high traffic areas, OPM Secretary Ben Barnes said. This is the type of critical funding that we must continue to invest in our towns and cities.
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Animal Kingdom, a lurid, pulsating and more than a little disturbing new summer drama, gives Ellen Barkin one of the juiciest roles of her career.

She plays Janine Smurf Cody, the corrupt and coddling matriarch of a Southern California crime clan, who, in the words of executive producer Jonathan Lisco, has an emotionally incestuous relationship with her four very interesting alpha boys who drip with a kind of sexual danger.

Barkin fully embraces what she described as an intriguing take on twisted motherhood.

When I was younger, you never came across a dark mother in a movie or a television show, she said at a recent press session. Were all kind of very used to the idea of the perfect mother and lets all be great mothers and that pressure. Lets see what happens if you divert it a little and if its a more complicated character.

On the sunnier side, the 10-part series offers viewers everything a summer show should: beaches, bikinis, hunky guys, sex, action and lots of beer and tequila. Animal Kingdom bows with a two-episode premiere at 8 p.m. Tuesday (June 14) on TNT.

Judging by the first three episodes, the series is one of the better TV adaptations of a movie. M*A*S*H was perhaps the best, followed by too many bad ones to count.

More Information Small screen, big series hits Lest we forget, there have been some winning TV series based on movies. Eight of the best: "Fargo" (2014 - ) Borrowing the name and darkly comic feel of the Coen Brothers' wintry crime hit, showrunner Noah Hawley then proceeded to make the FX anthology series his own little masterpiece, attracting loads of critical acclaim for seasons one and two and creating much anticipation for the third. "M*A*S*H" (1972-83) Television's best war-set comedy, this wildly popular CBS half-hour followed the bleaker and racier 1970 Robert Altman movie. It picked up oodles of awards, earned gargantuan ratings and turned Hawkeye Pierce, Trapper John and "Hot Lips" Houlihan into household names. "Friday Night Lights" (2006-2011) The Texas high school football flick starring Billy Bob Thornton was handily eclipsed by the homier NBC and DirecTV drama, thanks to compelling portrayals by Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton and charismatic young co-stars such as Taylor Kitsch. "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (1997-2003) The goofy big-screen "Buffy" - about a Valley cheerleader who finds her calling is slaying vampires - didn't do much for the career of Kristy Swanson, but the darker-toned television spinoff was a stellar launch pad for Sarah Michelle Gellar, co-stars such as David Boreanaz and Alyson Hannigan, and, of course, creator Joss Whedon, who succeeded at reshaping his original script into a cult TV super-hit. "Alice" (1976-1985) CBS' half-hour comedy, based on Martin Scorsese's 1974 film, "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore," which scored Ellen Burstyn an Oscar, made a TV star out of Linda Lavin, who put her own spin on the widow role. But it was Polly Holliday's Flo who uttered the catchphrase heard in diners 'round the world: "Kiss my grits!" "Parenthood" (2010-2015) Right after the 1989 hit motion picture starring Steve Martin, NBC tried to recapture its success with a television series that, despite a strong cast that included Leo DiCaprio, flopped miserably. In 2010, however, executive producer Jason Katims followed up his "Friday Night Lights" success with a modern take on the family saga, starring Craig T. Nelson, Peter Krause and Lauren Graham, that earned both fan devotion and critical praise. "In the Heat of the Night" (1988-1995) It took two decades for television to tackle the racially charged 1967 best picture winner starring Rod Steiger and Sidney Poitier, but it finally found two actors with the heft to re-create sparring police chief Bill Gillespie and detective Virgil Tibbs: Carroll O'Connor and Howard Rollins. The drama, set in a small Southern town, drew a faithful audience for both its NBC and CBS runs. "The Odd Couple" (1970-1975) The ABC series based on Neil Simon's blockbuster comedy about mismatched roomies (Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon) also was a TV crowd-pleaser. The small-screen version drew praise for stars Jack Klugman and Tony Randall, not to mention substantial ratings. CBS revived the Oscar and Felix characters for a second TV shot in 2015, and that Matthew Perry-Thomas Lennon sitcom has been renewed for a third season. See More Collapse

This drama is based on the 2010 Australian film Animal Kingdom, which earned all kinds of critical acclaim and awards, including a supporting actress Oscar nod for Jacki Weaver as Smurf.

Co-executive producer John Wells (ER and The West Wing) and partner Lisco (Southland) were taken with the film but said they felt the story and the people who populate it could be developed further.

As riveting as the movie is, we believe it only scratched the surface on how deep we can drill down on these characters, and Smurfs a good example, Lisco told TV critics gathered at a TNT press session. In the movie, he said, You learn some things about Smurf. You learn that shes capable of great menace and some emotional cruelty, but also capable of great love.

But it never really answers the question whether or not her capacity for cruelty or her capacity for love is the scarier component of her character, he added, and I know that thats something we want to explore in the course of the series, and I think thats a rather bottomless pit when you have an actress like Ellen Barkin playing the role.

Her co-stars bring interesting layers to Smurfs sons and grandson as well. Standouts are Scott Speedman (Felicity) as Barry Baz Brown, the older adopted son, who though not related to Smurf by blood is considered her chief lieutenant and most stable force in the family.

Also memorable is Shawn Hatosy (Dexter), who plays anything but a stable force. Fresh out of prison, Andrew Pope Cody is emotionally volatile and sneaky as all get out. His mere presence threatens the fabric of Smurfs animal kingdom of a family.

Finally, young British actor Finn Cole (Peaky Blinders) turns in a sensitive portrayal as 17-year-old Joshua J Cody. Hes taken in by Smurf when his mom  her estranged daughter  dies of a heroin overdose, leaving him alone and vulnerable to what this unusual family has to offer. In some ways, his reactions to this dangerous yet somehow seductive family mirror those of the viewer.

Although the gritty criminal activities that keep Smurf and her sons in relative luxury are featured prominently, Wells wanted the main focus to be on the family and its dysfunctionality. Its not a heist-a-week story, he said. Its about the tension that exists within the family and the competition for the place that you serve. Its really about that basic sort of sibling rivalry about when the mother or the matriarch in the family is able to use her affections and her attentions in such a way as to continue the tension between the children, the grown children . . . who does she favor and not favor at what moment.

Its scenery also removes it from the Melbourne-set movie: Oceanside, California, which is, Wells said, a very interesting world and place because its on the ocean and yet it is very much a working-class neighborhood.

The dramas greatest allure, however, is Barkin as Smurf. Every scene that has her in it is mesmerizing. Shes steely and sensual with a squint like Popeye and a body like Venus. Shes certainly nothing like any grandma Ive ever met.

Such mothers  and grandmothers  who are hard and menacing yet devoted to a fault have been a growing trend in TV these days. Examples include Vera Farmigas Norma Bates in Bates Motel, Katey Sagals Gemma Teller Morrow in Sons of Anarchy and Jean Smarts Floyd Gerhardt in Fargo.

I think if television is looking to attract actresses, Barkin said, youre certainly going to have a better time doing it (with roles like these) than you are with someone whos sitting there and knitting socks for her grandchildren.

Buck fizzles

When will TV give up on a do-over of Uncle Buck?

The 1989 movie about a slacker of an uncle charged with taking care of his brothers three kids was a funny and engaging big-screen trifle thanks to the magical combo of actor John Candy and director John Hughes.

A year later, CBS attempted to recapture the magic for television, substituting Kevin Meaney for the one-of-a-kind Candy. Lacking the wonderful wit of Hughes and lovable slob appeal of Candy, the TV comedy barely made it through a season.

Now, ABC banks on Buck again with the results bowing at 8 p.m. Tuesday. This time, it features an African-American cast thats led by Mike Epps (Survivors Remorse).

While Epps as the gambling, drinking and altogether errant uncle injects a dollop of charm into the series, the weakness of the material and the blandness of his co-stars win out, making Buck a two-time television loser.

Jeanne Jakles column appears Wednesdays and Sundays in mySA, and she blogs at Jakles Jacuzzi on mySA.com. Email her at jjakle@express-news.net.
Albany

As supporters of medical marijuana plan an 11th-hour push on Wednesday for legislation that would expand the state's fledgling program, companies operating cannabis retail outlets in Albany County say business is starting to pick up.

Claiming the current state program is not helping enough patients, legislators, medical marijuana companies, medical professionals and patient advocates are scheduled to push for laws aimed to increase access to cannabis-based medicines.

Proposals would allow nurse practitioners and physician assistants as well as doctors to certify patients for medical marijuana.

The legislation would also add chronic pain to the list of 10 conditions eligible for treatment with the drug permit and the production of more brands of medical marijuana for children with intractable epilepsy.

The proposals are a response to complaints about the program's sluggish launch.

"We are still getting a lot of complaints from patients unable to find doctors, having trouble getting to a dispensary that has the product they need, and  most of all  being able to afford the medicine once they access it," said Julie Netherland of the Drug Policy Alliance, an advocacy group.

Patients may not obtain the drug without certification from a doctor. Statewide, fewer than 600 doctors have registered, certifying more than 4,000 patients.

The cost of the product, which is not covered by health insurance, is also a barrier.

A pharmacist at Warren County-based Etain Health said in March that patients were spending $300-$800 a month for medications.

Until recently, officials at companies selling medical marijuana in the Albany area were also expressing frustration at the lack of business.

That is starting to change, representatives of Etain and PharmaCannis said.

"Especially in the last month or so, we're feeling that we're starting to get over the hump," said Megan Veselov, general manager of the PharmaCannis dispensary in Guilderland.

It's no longer just curiosity seekers who stop by the shop, Veselov said, but regular customers.

"I think that people are finding doctors," she said.

At the beginning of June, Etain opened its Albany shop an extra day each week  to three days  to accommodate a growing number of customers, said Hillary Peckham, the company's chief operating officer. About 10-30 people shop at the dispensary each day it's open, Peckham said.

Most rewarding to her are the repeat customers, who have felt relief from symptoms of cancer or neurological disorders.

Still, the reality is that three days a week is sufficient to serve customers in the Capital Region, she said.

"We have a long way to go, but it definitely helps," Peckham said of the recent rise in business.

chughes@timesunion.com  518-454-5417  @hughesclaire
Albany

Saying he's tired of playing "a nightmarish game of Whac-A-Mole," Gov. Andrew Cuomo's Saratoga-based special advisor to the oversight board of the New York Racing Association is stepping down.

"This is not what I signed up for," said John Hendrickson.

A onetime aide to former Alaska Gov. Walter Hickel and husband of Vanderbilt heiress Marylou Whitney, Hendrickson was appointed by Cuomo four years ago as a non-voting advisor to the special board of directors put in place when the state assumed control of NYRA. At the time, NYRA was hobbled by debt and a scandal over wagering payouts.

Hendrickson, who with Whitney runs a racing stable in Saratoga, advised the state-controlled board on how to protect and enhance the experience at the storied track.

But Hendrickson said he now believes the governor and his administration don't care much about the industry. "There appears to be a general dislike for racing," Hendrickson said.

While he considers himself and Cuomo to be "friends for life ... I just can't do my job if no one is listening."

Recently, the administration is apparently dug in over how much video lottery terminal revenue should be going to the Saratoga track, as well as the other NYRA franchises at Aqueduct and Belmont. VLTs, which are located in harness track "racinos" across the state, have long helped subsidize thoroughbred racing.

The resignation is notable on the local and statewide level.

From the local standpoint, it could aggravate suspicions held by members of the Saratoga Springs racing community about whether the state is doing all it can to maintain the track's success. Statewide, it signals that efforts to return NYRA to private control are not going well.

The special state-appointed board was supposed to revert to private not-for-profit hands in 2015, but that was delayed for a year.

Concerned Citizens for Saratoga Springs, which includes Hendrickson and other community leaders, in May put out a release opposing what was said to be Cuomo's plan to hold back some of the VLT money that now goes to the tracks, and impose oversight conditions on a "re-privatized" NYRA board.

Amid additional debates including how many appointments to the new board the governor will have, it appears likely that the reprivatization of NYRA might be delayed for yet another year.

Under a proposal being considered in the Assembly and Senate, Cuomo would appoint two of the 15 members of a new NYRA board. The governor's plan, however, is said to call for five appointments. And the governor wants to reduce from $60 million to $44 million the amount of VLT revenue that now goes to track improvements.

Hendrickson and other track supporters say there should be no reductions. Those funds, they say, represent payments from the state to NYRA, which gave up its rights to the real estate under the three tracks almost a decade ago.

"We thank Mr. Hendrickson for his service and wish him well," said Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi. "The governor and the Legislature saved NYRA from yet another bankruptcy in 2012 and installed a board and management team that, by every metric, has been a success. We seek to continue this progress."

Lawmakers, who would have to approve any plan for NYRA's future, is slated to wrap up the 2016 session after June 16.

rkarlin@timesunion.com  518-454-5758  @RickKarlinTU
A makeshift weapon fell out of an inmate's pants at the Washington Correctional Facility, the county district attorney said.

Devian J. Fletcher, 21, pleaded guilty to attempted promotion of prison contraband and is due to be sentenced July 8, District Attorney J. Anthony Jordan said.
Ballston Republican Jim Fischer, who unsuccessfully challenged Democratic Rep. Paul Tonko in 2014, is tossing his hat in the race to replace Assemblyman Jim Tedsico, who is running for state Senate.

Fischer's bid would set up a September primary between him and Mary Beth Walsh, a fellow Ballston Republican who has the backing of both the Saratoga County GOP and Glenville Republicans and the Saratoga County Independence Party.

"Particularly this year, people are looking for an outsider," Fischer told the Times Union. "They're not looking for somebody who has kind of played the inside political game. ... People are looking for somebody who is ready to go in with a fresh perspective, a fresh voice, fight for conservative principles and (will) be ready to shake things up a little bit."

Fischer lauded Tedisco's willingness to buck the establishment to advocate for such conservative principles and the 112th Assembly District, which covers about half of Saratoga County and a chunk of Schenectady County.

Fischer's willingness to go through a September primary is rooted in his 10 percentage point loss of the Saratoga County GOP nomination last month. He also pointed to decent showings in 2014 in individual towns in the 112th district that overlap with the 20th Congressional District.

Though he ultimately lost to Tonko by 46,000 votes districtwide, in Saratoga County, the gap was a tighter 2,313. Fischer won the towns of Ballston and Charlton and was competitive in Clifton Park, Halfmoon and Malta. Tonko beat him out by about 600 votes in Clifton Park, about 230 in Halfmoon and 100 in Malta.

In addition to Fischer and Walsh, who has not formally announced her bid, Democrat Michael Godlewski is seeking the seat.

After decades in the Assembly, Tedisco is running for the 49th State Senate District seat that will be vacated at the end of the year by retiring Republican Sen. Hugh Farley.

mhamilton@timesunion.com  518-454-5449  @matt_hamilton10
Washington

The federal government is facing a difficult battle convicting the makers and sellers of synthetic drugs because the increasingly lethal products are marketed as "not for human consumption," Albany-based U.S. Attorney Richard Hartunian told a Senate panel Tuesday.

"That prong  proving 'intended for human consumption'  makes it challenging for us to particularly work our way up the supply chain because, as the suppliers become more insulated from the folks who are actually doing the dealing, it becomes challenging to develop evidence," Hartunian told the Senate Judiciary Committee on a visit to the nation's capital.

Hartunian testified during a committee hearing titled, "Deadly Synthetic Drugs: The Need to Stay Ahead of the Poison Peddlers."

Synthetic drugs range from fake pot sold in head shops to powerful synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, considered even more deadly than heroin, itself the cause of a nationwide epidemic.

Hartunian said federal prosecutors have been aided by the Synthetic Drug Abuse Prevention Act in 2012, which permanently classified 26 synthetic substances into Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, including synthetic cannabinoids (fake pot), cathinones (bath salts), and phenethylamines (which includes MDMA or Ecstasy).

Synthetic drug makers, who law enforcement officials say are often based in China, have gotten around efforts to outlaw their products by altering chemical make-ups to show the substances are technically legal. That's in addition to "not intended for human consumption" labeling, lawmakers said.

"They use that as a defense in court and they say, 'Well, it's not intended for human consumption so you can't prosecute us for that,'" Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat and former prosecutor. "I know how the loopholes become not little loopholes. They're basically a hole that you can run a truck through full of synthetic drugs."

Still, Hartunian testified he would rather see the government classify more synthetics as controlled substances than have to rely on the 1986 Controlled Substances Analogue Enforcement Act, which outlawed the selling of substances that are substantially similar to the most dangerous drugs. Prosecuting a case under the 1986 law brings a need to prove the synthetic drugs  which Hartunian said can be marketed as "plant food," "glass cleaner," "tree mulch," or "metal corrosion inhibitor"  are being sold for human consumption.

"I think it's clear that the more chemical substances that we schedule, the easier it is for us to do our jobs," Hartunian said. "That clearly makes it easier for prosecutors to  in a more straight-forward way  present cases in court, establish that the chemical compound is something that is on a controlled substance schedule and proceed without questions about its chemical composition and its effect. When we run across synthetics that are unscheduled, we have to deal with the challenges of the (1986 law). We have to prove these elements beyond a reasonable doubt. That can be challenging."

Hartunian told the committee that prosecutions of synthetic drugs are "relatively new" in his 32-county Northern District, which stretches from Albany to the Canadian border and encompasses Binghamton, Utica and Syracuse.

But synthetics have wreaked havoc, according to statistics that Hartunian provided to the panel from the Upstate New York Poison Center. He said it showed "an alarming trend in the Northern District of New York" in which reported hospital cases involving synthetic cannabinoids (fake pot) increased from 123 in 2014 to 509 last year. That included six deaths in Onondaga County and 19 overdoses in one day in April 2015 in Syracuse, which Hartunian said is called "Spike Nation," based off a name for one brand of the phony weed.

"In my district, opioid related deaths in Onondaga County increased by 140% over the last 5 years, and the heroin overdose mortality rate has gone from 8% to 170% above the national average," Hartunian testified.

He remained optimistic.

"As we're doing more cases, I think we're learning more, we're gaining more experience, we're seeing how the courts are interpreting the evidence that we are offering and that is all very instructive so I think this is going to be an ongoing process," Hartunian said.

rgavin@timesunion.com  434-2403
Albany

The state Senate on Wednesday is expected to take up several high-profile confirmations of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's nominees to head state agencies. Some have been in "acting commissioner" status for months.

With just five days left in the legislative session, there is pressure to confirm these top bureaucrats.

And while nominations aren't brought to the Senate unless there is agreement to confirm them, a few are coming amid an unusual level of turmoil and debates over policies, some of which have angered the Senate's narrow Republican majority.

For instance, when members of the Senate labor committee interviewed Acting Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon on Tuesday, Republican members asked her pointed questions on topics about a lawsuit the state Civil Liberties Union has filed seeking to help farm workers form unions. Cuomo supports the lawsuit, though Reardon told lawmakers she wouldn't comment because of the ongoing litigation.

She's among several top-tier provisional agency heads who are up for confirmation, including Acting Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Basil Seggos and Acting Department of Financial Services Superintendent Maria Vullo.

Seggos' nomination was moved forward by the Senate environmental committee on Tuesday, though he faced questions about water contamination in Hoosick Falls. His department as well as the state Department of Health has been criticized for what critics say is a slow response to the PFOA crisis in Rensselaer County.

Though Vullo isn't being actively opposed by the health insurance industry, its represetatives voiced their opposition to what they argue is the state's policy of suppressing needed rate increases. And the insurers, through the state Health Plan Association, are still wondering why DFS let the failed Obamacare insurance co-op, Health Republic, stay open for so long despite signs it wasn't financially viable. When Health Republic was abruptly shut down last fall, thousands of people were temporarily left without health insurance.

Other state agencies are operating with acting commissioners, including the Office of Children and Family Services; the Office for People With Developmental Disabilities; and the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, which this week faced a scathing report on the numerous lapses that enabled the escape of two prisoners from Clinton Correctional Facility last summer.

The state Department of Motor Vehicles is being run by a deputy commissioner, while the Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities, has one of its five seats unfilled. And one of the PSC's members, Pat Acampora, saw her term expire last year but continues to serve.

Additionally, Cuomo on Tuesday nominated Lt. Col. George Beach as the next superintendent of the New York State Police. He is set to replace Joseph D'Amico, who in April announced plans to retire.

A search committee led by former New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly recommended Beach, who is a 33-year State Police veteran.

rkarlin@timesunion.com  518-454-5758  @RickKarlinTU
SARATOGA SPRINGS  The City Council on Tuesday passed a law that bans people from sitting or lying on sidewalks in Saratoga Springs. The vote was 4 to 1, with the no vote cast by Mayor Joanne Yepsen, who said it was too harsh.

More than a dozen city residents and concerned citizens spoke against the ordinance, some asking City Council to table the vote. Public Safety Commissioner Chris Mathiesen reminded those in attendance that the ordinance is about public safety and not targeting specific groups of people.

"This has to do with not tripping on people," Mathiesen said during the public hearing while city resident Patty Riggi was speaking.

"We have a bigger problem," Riggi said later, noting issues of heroin and opioid use. "Regardless of what they say, they're aiming for the homeless."

The city has seen increases in aggressive panhandlers, who some say deter patrons from coming to the restaurants and boutiques.

Saratoga Springs resident Kim Palermo cautioned the council, saying how the city responds to issues of homelessness will be judged "very harshly."

"We are Saratoga Springs, New York, and we can do better than this," Palermo said. "This is a pivotal moment for us. We have to decide what kind of town we want to be. Do we want to be humanists?"

The ordinance outlines that a warning would be issued first, but if the offending person continues to sit or lie on the sidewalk, a fine could be issued. Initially the cost would be $50 to $100, but repeat offenders could face a misdemeanor charge, a fine of $400 to $500, community service, imprisonment, or both a fine and imprisonment, according to the ordinance.

Mayor Joanne Yepsen took issue with the possibility people could be charged with a misdemeanor.

"I think the police do need some tools to work with this issue," she said. "I think charging somebody with a crime for their second offense for sitting on a sidewalk is a bit much."

Yepsen asked Mathiesen whether he'd consider adjusting the penalties. He responded by saying he hopes it wouldn't rise to the need to fine someone, and pointed to the portion of the ordinance that requires warning an offender first.

A few individuals spoke in favor of the ordinance, describing their own experiences of aggressive panhandlers asking for money and getting belligerent if they received nothing.

"I support this 100 percent," resident David Bronner said. He often walks Broadway in the city, and described people aggressively asking for money. "It's about safety and civility."

Melanie Trimble, director of the New York Civil Liberties Union Capital Region Chapter, said the homeless could be targeted by the ordinance.

"Courts have long recognized the importance of public streets and sidewalks as forums for free speech and peaceable assembly, and this ordinance would infringe on those fundamental rights," Trimble said. "Homelessness is a tragedy, not a crime."

Police Chief Greg Veitch previously reassured the public that the homeless wouldn't be targets for aggressive law enforcement.

Public Works Commissioner Skip Scirocco, who voted in favor, said it would be a good tool for law enforcement.

"I don't believe this targets anyone in particular," Scirocco said. "Like any other ordinance the city has, I don't think we would write an ordinance that targets a specific group."

afries@timesunion.com  518-454-5353  @mandy_fries
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Central High School administrators used manipulated test scores to gain incentive pay and pilfered thousands more from student funds while trumpeting the school as a success, which ultimately backfired on Wednesday when an ex-principal was sentenced to prison and a former math teacher was given probation.

Patricia Lambert, 62, was taken into custody immediately following a two-hour hearing in which Judge Thad Heartfield sentenced her to three years and four months in federal prison for stealing $500,000 from Central's booster club and student activities funds between 2007 and 2012, when she served as principal.

Former math teacher Victoria Steward, 33, was sentenced to three years' probation for her role in standardized test cheating scandal in which teachers routinely changed students' answers or provided them with answers ahead of time, according to Wednesday's testimony.

School officials were motivated to cheat, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Batte said, and they were awarded more than $96,000 for high test scores from 2007 to 2012.

Students were given "a house of cards," instead of the educational foundation the school system is designed to produce, Batte said.

Meanwhile, their principal pocketed years' worth of lunch money by setting up unauthorized candy sales on campus

and turned the booster club's money into her own special investment fund to funnel dollars toward family members and expensive trips.

Lambert, who sobbed for much of Wednesday's hearing - and sometimes loudly - said in court she initially pleaded her innocence last year because she truly believed it. Her guilty plea in December, she said, was "to avoid unwarranted additional charges."

Lambert said she always tried to do what was right, but called her methods "questionable" and attributed some mishaps to working within "a flawed system."

Alphonso Anderson, Lambert's Houston-based attorney, asked Heartfield to consider alternative punishments to the 40-month prison cap agreed to in an earlier plea agreement - house arrest, confinement to a halfway house, or perhaps split sentences with a combination of the three options.

Anderson cited Lambert's contributions as an educator, even suggesting she tour Beaumont ISD campuses to warn others about the dangers of making similar decisions.

Heartfield shot down those ideas, he said, because it would send the wrong message to the schools and community.

"Perhaps she could be called upon to teach someone in the penitentiary," Heartfield said.

'Mafia queen'

Others have been convicted of stealing more from BISD than Lambert.

Former chief financial officer Devin McCraney, 37, and Sharika Allison, 46, the district's former comptroller, are serving prison sentences after pleading guilty to federal conspiracy and embezzlement charges related to the theft of more than $4 million from BISD.

But McCraney and Allison mostly stole from behind the scenes, while Lambert was the face of the district for Central's success, Batte said.

Some teachers were afraid to challenge Lambert's actions, according to Batte, whom he said teachers nicknamed "Mafia Queen."

Lambert rose through the ranks quickly at BISD. She was hired as a teacher in June 2002 and was promoted to assistant principal at Vincent Middle School by that August. She became principal at French Middle School in July 2004 before she was reassigned to the same position at Central two years later, according to court records.

Until Lambert got there, Central's booster club money was handled by parents. The fund was not subject to her bosses' oversight like the student activities fund, so she moved revenue from there to the booster club account to shell the conspiracy, prosecutors said.

Money was raised through concession sales, $5 student transcript fees and inflated tuition payments for dual credit programs at Lamar Institute of Technology.

"It was obvious (our education) didn't matter to them," said Mariah Jones, a 2010 Central graduate who admitted to cheating on standardized test from grades 9 to 11.

Jones graduated with honors and performed exceptionally on the state's exams, she testified Wednesday.

But when Jones enrolled at LIT, she couldn't keep up with her peers, especially in math. Jones said her SAT scores were low and she was not prepared for college, a stark contrast from her academic success at Central.

"I really felt like we were all just numbers to them," she said. "They just wanted (high) test scores."

'No excuse'

Steward's statement to Heartfield was far different from the one Lambert offered just minutes earlier.

The former math teacher, who recruited at least five other teachers to change students' answers after they turned in the exams, said she did not want to mention how the criminal prosecution has impacted her family to avoid diminishing the effect her actions had on students.

"I got myself here," Steward said. "There's no excuse, no explanation."

Sentencing Steward would be more challenging than Lambert, Assistant U.S. Attorney Chris Tortorice said.

Steward, who now lives in Louisiana, operated at Lambert's direction, according to prosecutors.

Tortorice asked Heartfield to sentence Steward to six months in prison because she was the captain in the cheating conspiracy.

Heartfield, however, said probation would set a cloud over Steward's head and that she would follow Lambert to prison with the slightest violation.

Steward was the first to voluntarily plead guilty last fall, her attorney said, setting up the "domino effect" of Lambert's guilty plea.

It helped avoid lengthy trials, but also spared them stiffer penalties, Heartfield acknowledged.

"(Lambert's) already been given a substantial break," Heartfield said. "If anything, (40 months in prison) may not be enough."

BScott@BeaumontEnterprise.com Twitter.com/BrandonKScott
One of the most culturally significant cities in the Lone Star state, San Antonio has been the site for plenty of historical firsts, but a public university is not among them.

For almost 100 years, the only public provider of higher education was the University of Texas in Austin.
When a 21-year-old South Texas man responded to a Craigslist ad last month, he thought he was talking to a girl named Carmen.

Edinburg native Luke Leiva, 21, responded to an ad from what he thought was a 12-year-old girl that read "home from school today, bored af," last month according to media reports. Instead, Leiva began talking to a federal agent with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement posing as girl named "Carmen."
The operators of a high-rise apartment complex in Castle Hills have settled most of the lawsuit claims stemming from a deadly fire there in 2014 that killed five seniors, displaced countless others and led to a change in state safety law.

Entrada Management Services Inc., Bellamar Texas LLC and the Wedgwood Senior Apartments on Blanco Road that they managed struck a confidential settlement recently with more than 60 survivors of the Dec. 28, 2014 blaze at the complex, according to lawyers and court documents.
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As the Texas Mexican Mafia held a junta  a gang board meeting  in San Antonio three years ago, one outcast was strangled with a video-game system power cord, then stabbed repeatedly in front of 40 members.

The brutal Feb. 23, 2013 killing of Jose Joe Black Figueroa was just another way the San Antonio-based gang took care of business. It was one of four slayings that a gang leader, Raymond S. Tellez, a TMM general from 2010 to 2013, admitted Tuesday that he had a role in.

Tellez quietly pleaded guilty to a federal racketeering conspiracy charge, admitting he was part of the mesa (board) that directed the gangs operations outside prison. He faces up to life in prison when hes sentenced later this year.

The plea is a piece of a larger investigation of the Texas Mexican Mafia by the FBI, San Antonio police, Texas Department of Public Safety and others.

Tellez was nabbed in 2013 by SAPD gang officers who found cocaine, heroin, marijuana and a gun in his home and a safe with more drugs and $26,632 buried underneath the residence. His plea agreement details what he or others since then have told investigators about the gangs extortion, drug dealing and violence and described four killings of gang members who fell out of favor.

Figueroa, for instance, was punished because he had been representing himself as the acting TMM general in Hondo and other area cities, and because he sold drugs to, and associated with, ex-TMM members, according to the plea documents.

Two members were picked to kill Figueroa, and when the cord from an X-Box failed to do so, a TMM captain stabbed him in the neck several times with a kitchen knife. His body was wrapped in trash bags and dumped by a dirt road. It was found about a week later, on March 2, 2013, the documents state.

Tellez, also known as Indio or Yeska, was standing next to the captain, according to the paperwork. Other slayings connected to Tellez include Jose Anthony Bravo, shot in the face outside his Bexar County home on Nov. 27, 2011; Vincent Chacon, 29, shot and killed July 7, 2012, in an alley off of Colorado Street; and Adam Sinner Trevino, 27, who found shot to death Nov. 15, 2012, in a residential street north of Poteet.

The plea documents said Bravo was killed for the unauthorized collection of the dime  a 10-percent street tax  from a drug dealer who was already on the books with the TMM, and for associating with an ex-TMM member.

Chacon, according to the documents, was shot several times by a gang prospect seeking to become a full member. Tellez then walked up to Chacon and fired a single shot at him, the documents state.

An unidentified ranking TMM member told the FBI that Trevino was killed because he was on drugs and failed to pay money he owed to a TMM general, now deceased, and for associating with a rival gang, the Orejones, the plea documents said. Tellez was Trevinos padrino, his sponsor in joining the gang, the plea deal said.

Tellez was standing next to the ranking member when the prior TMM general gave this (kill) order, so it looked like Tellez authorized it, the plea documents said.

gcontreras@express-news.net

Twitter: @gmaninfedland
A 58-year-old Odessa man has been arrested after allegedly sexually molesting two of his relatives for several years, according to media reports.

Jose Melendez Mendoza was arrested Monday for the alleged continuous sexual abuse of a child, a first-degree felony, and a second charge of indecency with a child, a second-degree felony. He was being held at Ector County Detention Center on bonds totaling $75,000 as of Tuesday, according to the Odessa American.
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A 22-year-old Utah man is in custody after police say he stole a Porsche worth more than $1 million, according to police records.

RELATED: Janis Joplin's iconic Porsche sold for WAY more than auctioneers expected

Francisco Gonzalez-Velasquez, 22, broke into the Porsche of Salt Lake dealership Sunday, located the keys to a 2015 Porsche 918 Spyder, a car worth $1.6 million, and drove it off the lot according to police records. Officers found Gonzalez-Velasquez driving the car hours later near 300 S. State Street and pulled him over.

RELATED: Police: Drunken car thief crashes in parking lot

He was booked into jail Tuesday for possession of a stolen vehicle and burglary, according to police records.

RELATED: These 55 cars for sale at Pebble Beach are worth more than your house

kbradshaw@express-news.net

Twitter: @kbrad5
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UPDATE:

Between 7 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., free parking will be provided at West Campus Baptist Church, 5203 Old Pearsall Road, a walk-in parking spot one fifth of a mile from Pearsall Park. Parking and shuttles to Pearsall will be available at Divine Providence Catholic Church, 5667 Old Pearsall Road, and Indian Creek Elementary, 5830 Old Pearsall Road.

Original story continues:

A newly expanded Pearsall Park on the Southwest Side is about ready welcome visitors. Theyll be able to splash, skate, view art, live out their Ninja Warrior fantasies or even  yes  ride a zip line.

The expansion, which was built on top of a former landfill, is set to open Saturday.

Ill probably take my niece there, said Victoria Gomez, who was at the parks already-open dog park and lives nearby. It looks like a really cool playground.

Primarily funded through the 2012-2017 City Bond Program, it will offer the citys largest splash pads and skate parks, an event stage, playground, a fitness challenge zone, sitting areas and a zip line, among other amenities.

RELATED: San Antonio's River Walk named one of the '10 Parks that Changed America' by PBS

Councilman Rey Saldana, who has spearheaded the project, said the park represents a complete transformation for the former trash site.

I have been working on this with the community for the last five years, Saldana said. In fact, when I came on to the council in 2011, somebody told me about a great big part of my district that was 300 acres that was a former landfill. It was, for all intents and purposes, a place to dump.

This represents a complete transformation, he said. While Im excited for the park and what you can climb and physically touch and see, Im more excited about the significance that this means to the people in that community, that the city is ready to make an impact, in their community, in their neighborhood.

The $8.1 million project received $7.5 million from the bond program, which also funded $278,000 for its public art.

RELATED: Where to find amazing public art in San Antonio

We had to actually go through a lot of convincing to make sure we had the money specifically designated to this park, Saldana said. In most cases you might see that spread through 15 parks. We said we wanted to have a lot of impact in one.

The park also features two pieces created by Seattle artist Buster Simpson. Titled Wickiup Overlook and Wickiup Encampment, they were inspired by the structures associated with Native Americans in the Southwest. Simpson said they are meant to be interactive and a gathering place for people in the community, inviting them up to a 360-degree view that includes San Antonios downtown skyline.

It has to be something that is appealing the first time and then upon repeated visits, maybe, they will realize something else about the piece, about the idea behind the piece, Buster said.

RELATED: Classic photos of Woodlawn Lake capture the character of San Antonio life

Another new aspect of the park is its fitness challenge zone, which includes an area with traveling rings like those seen on American Ninja Warrior  and that zip line, which Saldana tested Monday morning.

He said the idea for the zip line came from a local middle school student who had seen one on a trip out of town.

These kids had wild ideas, Saldana said.

Around 2,000 people are expected at the grand opening Saturday, including those participating in the citys Fit Pass 5K Dash.

edearman@express-news.net
Donald Trumps private fundraiser in San Antonio next week lists donation levels from $500 for young professionals to $250,000 per couple, according to an invitation obtained by the Express-News.

Location of the luncheon event on June 17 remains unannounced except to donors, according to the invitation from Trump Victory, the presumptive GOP presidential nominees joint fundraising committee.
North East Independent School District officials confirmed Wednesday that the two girls involved in a fatal accident caused by former NASA astronaut James Halsell Jr. were enrolled in NEISD schools prior to their deaths.

Jayla Latrice Parler, 13, had finished 6th grade at White Middle School, Niomi Deona James, 11, had just finished 5th grade at Camelot Elementary School according to NEISD spokesperson Aubrey Chancellor.

No other details on the two children killed in the crash were immediately available.

RELATED: Ex-astronaut charged with murder in car wreck that killed 2

Halsell faces two murder charges for his role in the accident that occurred in Alabama on Monday according to authorities. Police said the said alcohol and speed may have been factors in the crash.

The Tuscaloosa News reported that court documents showed troopers said they found an empty package of sleeping pills and an empty wine bottle in a motel room where Halsell had stayed before the crash.

Troopers said a vehicle driven by Halsell collided about 2:50 a.m. with a Ford Fiesta in which James and Parler were riding. The girls were thrown from the car and died. Neither was wearing a seat belt.

The girls' father, Pernell James, 37, had driven to Texas to pick them up at their mother's home in Houston for a summer-long visit to Alabama, said Dennis Stripling, mayor of the town of Brent.

"It's very tragic, a sad thing that has happened," Stripling said. "They were like 20 minutes from home when this accident happened."

The father was expected to be released from a hospital Tuesday. A woman in his car, Shontel Latriva Cutts, 25, was listed in fair condition.

The crash happened in a remote, wooded area on the edge of Tuscaloosa County with no highway lampposts. A set of swerving skid marks could be seen, along with a patch of blackened pavement and grass on the tree-lined shoulder of the highway.

Halsell, who told officers he was driving to Louisiana to pick up his son, did not remember the wreck, documents said.

Halsell's vehicle rear-ended the car carrying the children, documents showed, pushing the vehicle across a lane and causing it to flip.

"Halsell's speech was slurred, eyes were dilated, clothes disheveled and he was unstable on his feet and smelled of alcohol," the trooper wrote in a court deposition, according to the newspaper.

Halsell graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1978 and later finished first in his class at test-pilot school. He wanted to go to space so much he applied for every NASA astronaut class from 1978 to 1990, when he was accepted.

An online biography by NASA said Halsell went to work in the aerospace industry in 2006 after a career that included five shuttle flights starting in 1994. He spent more than 1,250 hours in space, serving as commander on three shuttle missions and pilot on two others.

RELATED: NASA releases stunning new image of Earth taken from lunar orbit

He also led NASA's return-to-flight planning team after space shuttle Columbia disintegrated during re-entry in 2003.

In Brent, the mayor said City Hall is collecting monetary donations to help the girls' family with funeral expenses and other needs.

Associated Press reporters JAY REEVES and PHILLIP LUCAS contributed to this report.
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Controversial decals displaying crosses have been removed from a Texas sheriff's department vehicles following an agreement reached this week between the county and those advocating the separation of church and state.

Greg Hudson, attorney for Brewster County, told mySA.com on Wednesday that the issue of Latin cross stickers on patrol vehicle windshields was "resolved internally" during a commissioners court meeting on May 27 and have since been removed.

"It was a business decision to settle the case because it had already been resolved internally," Hudson said in regards to a consent decree signed by Brewster County and plaintiffs, two residents and the Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF.)

RELATED: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott backs crosses on police cars

The attorney said Sheriff Ronny Dodson was "not trying to promote religion, but give comfort to deputies" in Alpine, a town of about 6,000 residents on the Texas-Mexico border.

Sam Grover, with FFRF, told mySA.com litigation began in December 2015. The Wisconsin-based organization worked with two complainants to file a letter to the department asking for the decal's removal, arguing a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment and the Texas Constitution, he said.

Grover and Hudson said the consent decree has been signed by each party and is awaiting approval Pecos District Court.

RELATED: Gov. Abbott, Texas AG weigh in as Orange relocates nativity

When formalized, Brewster County will pay $21,970 for attorneys fees, $400 for costs and $1 to each of the three plaintiffs in recognition that their constitutional rights had been violated, according to consent decree stipulations.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott's office backed Brewster County in February, saying "The Constitution demands respect for religious expression rather than hostility towards it and Governor Abbott fully supports Sheriff Dodsons decision to allow his deputies to display the cross on their patrol vehicles, according to a previous report.

RELATED: Woman known for conspiracy posts loses Texas education race

On Wednesday, Grover said FFRF does not criticize the religious practices of residents in Brewster County or anywhere, but does not agree with government taking a stance on religious issues.

"The government cannot take a stand on matters of religion," Grover said. "When the government puts religious symbols on their property, it sends a message of preference."

mmendoza@mysa.com

Twitter: @MaddySkye
Bexar County Sheriff's Office

SAN ANTONIO  Police arrested a man on Tuesday suspected of maliciously sending nude photographs of his wife to her daughter in January.

Carlos Gutierrez, 46, has been charged with unlawful disclosure of intimate visual material, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.
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A 22-year-old Allen, Texas man allegedly beat his girlfriends dog so severely in May that the animal had to be euthanized, according to the SPCA.

Michael John Ennis was arrested and booked Tuesday into the Collin County Jail on a felony charge of animal cruelty to a non-livestock animal via torture. His bond was set at $25,000, according to online jail records.

RELATED: South Texas cop arrested after unattended police dog dies in cruiser

On May 20, Ennis allegedly beat a 3-year-old male Terrier mix named Roberto at his girlfriends home in Farmers Branch, a suburb of Dallas. The dogs injuries were so severe that the dog was ultimately put down the same night, according to a news release issued by the SPCA of Texas.

Officials performed a necropsy on May 23 to determine the dogs cause of death. The veterinarian learned the dog had suffered a fractured left eye socket, with the dogs left eye bulging out as a result of the alleged trauma. The dog also suffered bruising on the left side of his head and the right side of his body. Officials also ran X-rays, which showed the dog have several broken ribs, the news release said.

RELATED: North Texas emergency crews discover torched cat surrounded by ritualistic articles in cemetery

The SPCA and the Dallas County District Attorneys Office got involved in the impending investigation. They found probable cause to arrest Ennis on the animal cruelty charge following the results of the necropsy. The warrant for his arrested was obtained on June 2.

The SPCA reports that animal cruelty is an early warning sign of violent tendencies that can be acted out against people.

"There is a well-documented link between animal cruelty and human violence." said SPCA of Texas President James Bias. "Bringing these individuals to justice will help stop the cycle of abuse."

RELATED: North Texas man accused of lighting dog on fire with gasoline

If Ennis is convicted of the felony charge, he could face up to two years in prison.

[h/t Dallas Morning News]

twhite@mysa.com

Twitter: @tylerlwhite
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A convenience store clerk is in critical condition after fighting back against one of two hooded robbers Tuesday afternoon in the North Side.

San Antonio Police Department Sgt. Elias Tobias said two men in their 20s wearing black hoodies were armed as they attempted to rob a Diamond Food Mart at about 4:30 p.m. in the 2300 block of Vance Jackson.

"They bum-rushed the store and told all the customers to get on the ground," Tobias said. "One of em went behind the counter and hit the clerk with his weapon."

The clerk who was struck began fighting back, Tobias said, attempting to stop the robber behind the counter.

As the struggle continued, the gunman fired four shots at the clerk, Tobias said. Police could not immediately tell how many times he was struck.

Emergency personnel took the clerk to University Hospital in critical condition, police said.

Another customer who witnessed the incident was shot in the leg, but is in stable condition, Tobias said.

After the incident, investigators said one suspect fled out the front door, and the other exited at the back of the store.

The gunmen left without any money, Tobias said.

He added that there was another robbery further north of the store with suspects matching the same description.

Passers-by outside said gunshots are often heard at night in the area, but not during the day.

Several family members could be seen embracing one another in tears as police examined the scene.
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A Florida dad sold his sons 1998 Ford Explorer after reportedly catching him smoking marijuana in the vehicle with friends, according to media reports.

Allan Gieger Jr. of Jacksonville, Florida, posted an ad about a week ago for the SUV on Craigslist, with an asking price of $1,500. He even offered a $250 discount to any interested buyers who live in the same area of town as him, just so his son could see the vehicle driving around town, according to CNN.

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Gieger said he got tired of his son being disrespectful by smoking pot in the car and not respecting his parents. The vehicle reportedly sold in about two hours, CNN reports.

He thinks it's cool to drive around with his friends smokin dope and acting all thug and especially not showing me and my wife the respect that we deserve, the Craigslist ad said.

The vehicle has new tires on it, which the son reportedly didnt pay for, and it has some issues with the drivers seat. It also needs some new parts, but other than that its good to go, Gieger said in the ad.

RELATED: Texas mom who went viral for Chewbacca mask receives free toys from Kohls as thanks

The concerned father told CNN he bought the vehicle for his son on his 16th birthday.

This was a vehicle to finish school in, get a decent job and get a head start on life but he chose to throw it all away because his friends would rather have an influence on him more than me!

The father said people from across the country have messaged him on Craigslist not to purchase the vehicle, but to show support for Giegers brand of discipline.

Gieger said since selling the vehicle, his son has started to clean up his act.

RELATED: Meet Mya the Pomsky, the Pomeranian-husky mix taking over the internet

"It's been an eye-opening experience," Gieger said in an interview with CNN. "He's started talking to me about helping him reach his new set of goals."

The father told WJXT in Jacksonville that if his son gets a job and saves $1,000, then hell match that amount of money and help his son purchase another car.

twhite@mysa.com

Twitter: @tylerlwhite
The Monday column by Elaine Ayala (Chancellor can still fix netiqutte breach, Metro) was a well presented call for my response to the use of my cell phone during our recent Palo Alto College graduation.

She is correct, as have been the others who have strongly criticized my action. I do own it, it was inconsiderate, and I apologize for being disrespectful. Saying anything more would appear to be a rationalization or justification, which is not my intent.

I appreciate those who brought this to our collective attention because this represents a much larger issue today. Faculty are challenged with students in class being more attentive to their phones or computers than engaging in active learning. Organizations struggle with proper use of phones during meetings, and all of us feel overwhelmed by the influx of messages, emails and calls, and the constant fear that by not staying on top of everything, we will quickly become overwhelmed by the mass of media assaulting us and miss something important.

We read stories of individuals being so attentive to their phones that they literally walk into traffic, and, of course, all of us older than 40 shake our heads over our children and their friends sitting next to each other and texting rather than talking. Communication is changing, and this issue will become more difficult for us to resolve as wearables and implants push the technology even further and we become, unfortunately, more cocooned from one another.

As a leader, especially one in the public sector, I am always being watched, and I should have acted accordingly. Leaders also must always be willing to grow in order to continuously improve for the sake of their organization and their responsibilities. This has been an important learning moment for me, and Id like others to benefit from my experience and avoid a similar mistake.

Fundamentally, Ms. Ayala is correct in that the traditional and basic elements of courtesy should always and actively be pursued.

Second, considering the moment and the purpose of that moment, in this case the graduation ceremony celebrating the degrees and certificates earned by our students through diligence and hard work, should guide us as to the proper level of attention and use of our phones.

Third, being a leader, at all levels  and we at the Alamo Colleges are actively preparing our employees and students throughout the college system to become A leader in every chair  means that proper behavior is not just for those sitting in front, but for everyone.

Therefore, every leader must appreciate the responsibility to maintain the highest standard of behavior, even if actions seem at the moment minor and without consequence. The message here is that there are consequences in all of our actions, regardless of the position we may hold in the organization. The foundation of good manners is still applicable, increasingly so in our complex world.

Thus, my wifes admonition over the years to put that darn thing away rings amazingly true. This is the real message here: Just put the phone away. You have my promise to do so.

Bruce Leslie is chancellor of the Alamo Colleges.
The age of autarky is again upon us.

Britain, in two weeks, will vote on whether to leave the European Union, that great postwar project to promote both peace and prosperity.

No matter that economists have almost uniformly warned that a possible Brexit would devastate the British economy, with an estimated cost of approximately $6,000 per British household. Disregard news that markets are already freaking out about the consequences for the pound and the overall financial sector; that high-skilled talent has become skittish about moving to the British isles, whose relationship to the E.U. in a post-Brexit world is as yet unknown; and that foreign clients have begun suspending or delaying contracts with British companies.

Who cares that these small islands, so dependent on the continent for both what they consume and where they send their exports, are putting so much economic activity at risk?

Many Brits want to withdraw, to show theyre separate and politically self-determined and not really into all this expensive pan-ethnic, pan-European unity rubbish. So withdraw they might.

Financially self-defeating as it may seem, the British are hardly alone in their flirtation with economic, political and cultural separatism.

Other EU exit portmanteaus  Grexit, Itexit, Spexit  speckle the headlines. Within Spain, Catalonians have once again been agitating for independence. Secessionists in the Flanders region of Belgium have reawakened.

Farther east, Russia has engaged in its own jingoistic displays of economic separatism, bulldozing tons of foreign foods and shutting off access to additional imports.

Likewise China, once seen as moving toward greater economic and cultural openness, has lately taken a more nationalist, xenophobic and protectionist approach.

And of course here at home in the United States, all three of our remaining major-party presidential candidates  Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton  have embraced anti-trade talk.

Of the three, Trump has offered the most isolationist, nationalistic vision, themed America First. To Trump, trade and diplomacy are never Pareto-improving  that is, making everyone better off without making anyone worse off  but always zero-sum. He not only laughs off the dire consequences of a trade war, he also actively stokes xenophobia at home and advocates large-scale disengagement from our allies abroad.

In a way, these international developments  or at least their near-simultaneity  are a bit surprising.

We live in an age of unprecedented globalization. First mass media and then social media exposed us to the ideas, products and languages of our most far-flung counterparts around the world. Advances in finance, technology and logistics have facilitated more trade, and trade in a richer variety of goods and services, than at any time in human history.

And yet  either despite these advances in globalization or perhaps because of them  countries, regions and peoples worldwide are suddenly, synchronously retreating from one another and turning inward. Around the world, citizens are ignoring the improvements in living standards that have resulted from centuries of exchanges of ideas, products and customs, and are instead clamoring for more seclusion.

Weve seen similar embraces of economic and intellectual autarky in the past. Theyve generally ended badly.

North Korea for decades has practiced Juche, typically translated as self-reliance. In practice it means sealing oneself off from the rest of the world economically and culturally, and it has led to starvation and poverty.

Earlier precedents for deliberate pursuit of autarky include Burma under its military junta, as well as a host of mid-20th-century dictatorial leaders (Spain under Franco, Italy under Mussolini, Germany under Hitler, China and its Cultural Revolution under Mao).

Each time, autarky has been presented as an antidote for some combination of economic malaise and ethnic unrest. Each time, countries have conflated isolationism with independence, and splintering with self-determination.

Economic self-sufficiency is just so easy to buy in to  until you realize how much it costs.

crampell@washpost.com
The worst part about U.S. Rep. Filemon Velas crude language aimed at presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump was that it completely overshadowed a powerful statement.

Trumps racist comments about Mexicans are infuriating and inexcusable. His racist attacks on U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is presiding over fraud lawsuits against Trump University, merit universal condemnation. The insulting and derogatory language Trump has used about women, Mexicans, Muslims and others is unbecoming of this nation and the presidency.

It is a troubling embarrassment that Trump is a candidate from a major political party.

Velas open letter could have been a powerful rebuttal to Trump.

Vela is the son of a federal judge, a congressional representative along the U.S.-Mexico border, and a man with a deep and proud American family history. As he writes, Before you dismiss me as just another Mexican, let me point out that my great-great-grandfather came to this country in 1857, well before your own grandfather.

Unfortunately, Vela then stoops to the kind of crude language that we all have come to expect from Trump, and in so doing, completely overshadows his point.

Passions are high right now. We get it. And Trumps rhetoric inspires much understandable anger. We get that, too.

Be angry. But also be poised. The best way to show you are above Trump is not to stoop to his level.

That applies to all of us, but as a member of Congress, Velas bar is even higher. He has a duty to maintain civility, even in the face of hostility. Instead, he contributed to the kind of coarse dialogue that only fuels Trump.

Be better than that.
Re: All of the city was Father Bernals parish, Cary Clack, Other Views, June 1:

Thank you for this tribute to a unique Catholic priest who was revered and appreciated by many, even those who had never met him. His graciousness and kindness were known in parishes, on Catholic Television of San Antonio and at many venues throughout the city. His presence graced those seeking their true paths.

Father What-a-Waste was a wry, flippant and cynical nickname for Father Bernal, and one that I, as a quasi-fan of satire, understood for about one minute for its fleeting humor, then cast aside. That nickname is unfortunate.

We as human beings in the image of a Creator should cease the constant chasing after sensual images and quiet within ourselves the quest for what we perceive as the only pleasurable way. We are creatures put here for more than just enjoyment of life. What Father Eddie Bernal sought and acquired was not transient. It was real. Not waste. Not on your life!

Father Bernal was a source of strength to many souls. Lets drop the satirical mockery and remember him in the right way  a holy man seeking and finding God, and willing to share and love his fellow human beings.

Thank you, Cary Clack, for your column.

Joan Seifert

Trump a trifling

Nowadays, it seems that Donald Trump is not only being repeatedly thumped but also rapidly being exposed as being trumpery (showy but worthless).

Al Walsh, Del Rio

A dangerous path

I see several parallels with 2016 America and post-World War I Germany. After signing the Treaty of Versailles, the German people became very disgruntled with their leaders. This soon turned to anger. This anger, coupled with economic and social frustration, opened the door for the Nazi Party.

America is experiencing this same frustration and anger. Our leaders push things on us, such as the LGBT bathroom issue, and then our president uses extortion to force us to submit.

So along comes Donald Trump, who is as dirty as they come. He answers question in general terms only and denies facts about his business practices. Anyone with half a brain can see through this, but the support for him grows.

Hitler capitalized on anger and frustration in post-war Germany. Trump is doing the same. It is sad that we cannot see through the anger. We have been hypnotized into ignoring facts and acting on emotions.

Trump rallies, much like Hitler rallies, end up in brawls and bedlam. If we let our emotions overrule our intellect, we will be heading down a very dangerous path, much like the path that Germany suffered when angry voters embraced the Nazi Party.

Steve Ochoa

Forget the PGA

Re: Trump-owned course will lose its PGA event, Business, June 2:

For the PGA to move its tournament to Mexico, aside from the loss of jobs, is a slap in the face of the USA. Another big business trying to dictate to us consumers. Personally, I will not be watching and I will not be purchasing its advertised goods, and I hope others will follow.

Also, for the sake of their principles and their safety, I hope that many pros will have something better to do over that weekend.

B.L. Craighead

Thats enough!

Re: Anti-Trump protesters, Ruben Navarrette, Friday:

What do you suppose the reaction would be if a group of Anglos showed up at the Plaza de Armas or the Zocalo in Mexico City waving American flags and burning the Mexican bandera.

Anger is rising on both sides, and its time to put a stop to this before there is more blood on the streets.

Ya basta!

Earl W. Brannon

Resolution elusive

There will be no satisfactory conclusion to the bathroom wars. When man attempts to change what God has created, chaos ensues.

Kenneth S. Brunsman, Kerrville

Lack of reason

Sometimes, I wonder about the logic of our reigning GOP leaders. Why is gun control unnecessary, because the bad guys are going to get guns anyway, and yet gender-based bathroom laws are going to deter sexual predators which, as far as I know, are nearly always committed by creepy men?

I wish that either Dan Patrick of Ken Paxton could straighten me out, but that would take the ability to reason.

Carl Lloyd

Sour notes

Re: Wolff asks for symphony support at annual address, Metro, May 21:

San Antonio has a very good symphony that invites attendance.

Most who attend have the financial means to do it. Others do not. Yet it is ironic that the symphony relies on taxpayer funding to operate.

As a taxpayer who supports the symphony, I realize this is unrealistic. Most of our taxpayers either choose not to attend or cannot afford to do so. It is this 99 percent or so who subsidize the operation.

It seems to me that those attending should pay increased ticket prices, as these are the ones who desire to be entertained. Taxpayers should not have to subsidize the symphony other than for maintenance and repair to the building.

Henry C. Holder

Evangelical better

Re: Political preaching, Your Turn, June 1:

Accusing Mayor Ivy Taylor of political preaching, the letter writer indicates she wants people to protect themselves from her evangelical zeal. Evangelical refers to the Gospel of Jesus, which teaches us to love our neighbor and live in peace. We need more of this.

I think we need to be protected from a godless society that fails to motivate people to live in peace. Would all this violence that we are experiencing in this country be happening if we were evangelical?

Rev. Joseph Rasky, SM
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STAMFORD  A city teen accused of killing a man last year outside of the downtown McDonalds will not pursue an insanity defense and appears headed to stand trial for murder unless he accepts a plea agreement by the end of the month.

Senior States Attorney Paul Ferencek has offered a plea deal to Marquest Hall, 16, who has been charged as an adult with murder in the stabbing death of Antonio Muralles, 52, outside the Bedford Street fast-food restaurant on March 11, 2015.

The defense will accept or reject the offer at the next court appearance on June 29.

Ferencek and defense attorney Ryan ONeill declined to discuss the details of the offer following a brief court appearance on Wednesday, but a judge will question Hall about his decision regarding the deal when he appears in court later this month.

Halls legal team has ruled out an insanity defense or one that would involve Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

We decided not to pursue that direction and the reason being is that he is not presenting with any mental disease or defect that would have caused him to engage in conduct without his ability to control it," O'Neill said. And that is effectively what the affirmative defense of a mental disease or defect would be looking at or seeking to prove.

ONeill said the best option for Hall would be to make the prosecution prove every element of a murder charge in front of a jury. A trial date has not yet been set.

They would also have to prove that he was intending to actually kill him and not cause some other sort of result, ONeill said. Not trying to protect himself or just hurt the victim, but that he actually intended to cause his death and we intend to vigorously oppose any of the states efforts to prove any of those elements beyond a reasonable doubt.

Witnesses told police the 5-foot-4, 140-pound Hall appeared to be looking for a fight moments before the fatal stabbing, according to his arrest warrant.

The then-15-year-old Hall was seen waving a folding knife outside the McDonalds while rapping, Whos gonna be the first n----- to get poked up, his arrest warrant said.

While exiting the restaurant, police said Muralles inadvertently bumped into Hall and may have spilled coffee on him.

According to police, witnesses said an infuriated Hall spat in Muralles face and asked him, Do you want to die now?

Another witness said Muralles lunged at Hall, before the teen pulled the knife and plunged it into the mans chest, cutting an inch-long hole into one of the ventricles in his heart, police said.

Muralles, an immigrant from Guatemala, staggered to the northeast corner of Bedford and Broad streets and collapsed.

A firefighter discovered Muralles lying on the street and he was taken to Stamford Hospital where he died four hours later.

But ONeill said Wednesday his client has a different account of what happened that night.

We strongly believe that Marquest has very viable defenses and that a very different side of this story will come out at trial," he said. We view this very differently than the initial (police) reports on this incident have been.

jnickerson@scni.com;
1 Oil attacks: Nigerian militants said they blew up another Chevron oil well Wednesday in a rejection of the governments offer of peace talks. The bombing comes a day after the government ordered the military to halt attacks in the oil-producing south and urged the militants to halt the bombings to allow a dialogue. But the Niger Delta Avengers said they will not negotiate. Its the fourth attack in as many weeks on a Chevron facility. The Avengers also have blown up installations of Dutch-British Shell and Italys Agip, halving Nigerias production to about 1.2 million barrels a day. The militants have told all international oil companies to leave the oil-producing Niger Delta and say they want a greater share of Nigerias oil wealth for local communities. Oil provides 80 percent of government revenue, while pollution from production has destroyed farmlands and fishing grounds.

2 Honor killing: A woman in Pakistan burned her 17-year-old daughter alive on Wednesday to punish her for marrying against the familys wishes, the latest in a series of so-called honor killings that claim the lives of nearly 1,000 women every year in the conservative Muslim country. Police say Zeenat Rafiqs mother, Parveen, tied her to a cot and drenched her with kerosene before lighting her on fire. Neighbors in the working-class neighborhood in the eastern city of Lahore came running when they heard the screams, but family members kept them from entering the house. Police arrested the mother soon thereafter. Hundreds of women are killed every year in Pakistan  often by their own family members  for violating the countrys conservative norms regarding love and marriage. Sex outside of marriage is seen by conservative Pakistanis as a stain on the honor of the womans entire family, one that can only be removed by killing her.
It was in the 1970s  50 years ago  that then US Agriculture Secretary, Earl Butz is to have said Before we go back to organic agriculture in this country, somebody must decide which 50 million Americans we are going to let starve or go hungry. There may be more delicate ways of phrasing the issue, but the question is a real one: how are we going to feed all the people of the world? Is the industrial model, with its emphasis on inputs, the only way, or is there a different model?

John Reganold and Jonathan Wachter, researchers at the Washington State University have recently done a review of studies comparing the efficacy of organic and conventional agriculture world wide. The results of that study has just been published in the journal Nature Plants. They looked at hundreds of studies, and they conclude that organic agriculture should have a significant role in feeding the world. They come to this conclusion from several perspectives:

Organic agriculture frequently results in higher yields in drought years. This is because soil organic matter is consistently higher in organic cropping systems than in conventional systems, which results in higher water holding capacity.

Overall, organic farms tend to store more soil carbon, have better soil quality, and reduce soil erosion.

Organic agriculture creates less soil and water pollution, and lower greenhouse gas emissions.

Its more energy efficient because it does not rely on synthetic fertilizers or pesticides.

Organic agriculture is associated with greater biodiversity of plants, animals, insects and microbes as well as genetic diversity. This biodiversity increases the services that nature provides like pollination and improves the ability of farming systems to adapt to changing conditions.

Conventional agriculture depends on the availability of select seed, fertilizers and pest control chemicals. In many parts of the world, the supply of these inputs is notoriously unreliable and in all parts of the world the prospect of supply disruption looms.

Reganold and Wachter suggest that no single type of farming can feed the world. Rather, whats needed is a balance of systems, a blend of organic and other innovative farming systems, including agroforestry, integrated farming, conservation agriculture, mixed crop/livestock and still undiscovered systems.

However for organic agriculture to thrive, greater investment in government funded research will be needed. In the last 50 years, agricultural research has shifted significantly from government funded research to industry funded research. The agricultural supply industry is, of course, interested in selling its product, so industry funded research is focused on how to increase productivity using its product. There is value in such research, but it needs to be balanced with research into increasing productivity by lowering inputs. Such research is dependant on government funding.

This information will be of interest to farmers who are reviewing their own farming practice in terms of sustainability, but it should also be of interest to consumers, the people who make food choices every day. The way we spend their food dollar supports one food system or another.

An interesting graph comparing conventional and organic production can be seen at setimanitoba.org.
The city is weighing whether to make businesses provide two weeks advance notice of schedules, among other considerations.

SEATTLE  Seattle has convened two working groups to tackle whether or not the city should draft schedule regulations for businesses, the Seattle Times reports. Workers at convenience stores and restaurants, among other businesses, often have schedules that change from week to week. NACS reported on the challenges of just-in-time scheduling in the November 2015 issue of NACS Magazine.

Seattle Mayor Ed Murray, along with some councilmembers, are looking into a scheduling law. The working groups are considering the following:

14-day advance notice of shifts

At least 11 hours break between shifts, but employees could skip that voluntarily

60 minutes of extra predictability pay when the company switches a workers posted shift

Up to four hours pay for employees scheduled shifts that are either canceled or reduced to less than four hours, with less than a days notice

Offers of more hours over those scheduled given first to current part-time employees before adding new workers.

Some business representatives have suggested more limited measures, including:

Seven days advance notice of shifts

10 hours rest between scheduled work

60 minutes of extra predictability pay only for employer-initiated changes to posted shifts.

Both worker and employer groups are meeting separately to hammer out what such a scheduling law would be palatable for them. But some companies arent happy at all with the idea of a scheduling law. I now am questioning if you are trying to help people or just penalize businesses for being in business, wrote retired Starbucks President Howard Behar in an email to councilmembers. I am disgusted with this city government.

San Francisco approved a scheduling law in 2014. Currently, Chicago, Emeryville, Calif., and Washington, D.C., are also looking into scheduling regulations.

NACS covered scheduling and a host of other labor issues you should be aware of in our April magazine cover story, Labor Pains.
CHICAGO  Violent crime, such as robbery, rape and homicide, has been inching up in many large U.S. cities this year, but law enforcement hasnt found a trend or concrete reason, the Associated Press reports.

Its being reported on at local levels, but in my view, its not getting the attention at the national level it deserves, said James Comey, director of the FBI. I dont know what the answer is, but holy cow, do we have a problem.

Since a peak in the U.S. crime rate during the 1990s, Americans have enjoyed a relatively peaceful time. However, last year, law enforcement noticed a jump in violent crime that continues to risebut not in all major cities. For example, Los Angeles and Chicago have had more homicides lately, but Oakland, Calif., and Miami have not. Chicago especially has had a particularly harrowing few months, with a 50% increase in shootings.

Some speculate that gangs have contributed to the increase in homicide, rape and robbery, while others point to drug problems as the gateway to violent crime. While the bump is troubling, its nowhere near as high as the early 1990s, when there were roughly 25,000 homicides annually, according to Darrell Stephens, executive director of the Major Cities Chiefs Association.

Whatever the cause, national law enforcement personnel are concerned about the spurt of violent crime lately. Sometimes people say to me, well, the increases are off of historic lows. How does that many of us feel any better? Comey said. A whole lot more people are dying this year than last year, and last year than the year before. And I dont know why for sure.

Make sure you're operating a business where your employees and customers feel safe from robbery and violent crimes by implementing a thoughtful security and safety program in your store.
Lambert here: AI seems to be having a moment.

By Masayuki Morikawa, Vice President, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI). Originally published at VoxEU.

The substitution of human labour by artificial intelligence and robots is a keenly debated topic. Some claim that a substantial share of jobs is at risk, while others argue that computers and robots will lead to product innovations and hence to unimaginable new occupations. This column uses a survey of Japanese firms to examine the impact of AI-related technologies on business and employment. Overall, firms expect a positive impact on business but a negative impact on employment. Firms with a highly skilled workforce, however, have a more optimistic view than firms with lower skilled employees.

Since the second half of the 1990s, productivity growth has accelerated in the US due to the Information Technology (IT) Revolution. However, the productivity effects of traditional types of IT were exhausted by mid-2000 (e.g. Fernald 2015). Today, the impacts of artificial intelligence (AI) and roboticsreferred to as the Fourth Industrial Revolutionon the future economy and society is attracting attention, and many speculative arguments have arisen regarding the possible effects of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. In particular, the substitution of human labour by AI and robots is being hotly discussed.

The Japanese government has begun efforts to develop and diffuse AI and robotics technologies. The Robot Revolution Initiative Council was established in 2014 and has published a report, New Robot Strategy, which includes a five-year action plan to realise the robot revolution. The Artificial Intelligence Research Center was established in the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) in 2015 to promote development of AI-related innovations. The Japan Revitalization Strategy 2016, which is the core growth strategy of Abenomics, places the Fourth Industrial Revolution at the top of the growth policy agenda.

The Impact of AI and Robotics on Employment

There have been numerous studies on the complementarity/substitutability of IT and the skills of workers. Earlier studies have presented evidence based on the skill-biased nature of IT that indicate skilled labour and IT are complementary, but that unskilled labour and IT are substitutes. More recent studies have shown that IT substitutes for routine tasks conducted by middle-skilled workers, which results in the polarisation of the labour market. Although the discussion about the impact of AI and robotics on employment is a natural extension of the studies on the relationship between IT and labour, quantitative evidence on this issue has been scarce.

The estimation by Frey and Osborne (2013) of the number of jobs at risk to be replaced by future computerisation, including advances in machine learning and mobile robotics, has attracted attention of the media and policy practitioners. According to their study, roughly 47% of total US employment is at risk from computerisation.

On the other hand, Mokyr et al. (2015) survey the historical lessons learned since the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th century and argue that computers and robots will create new products and services and that these product innovations will result in unimaginable new occupations. However, we cannot deny the possibility that the impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution is different from the past innovations.

Evidence from a Firm Survey

Against this background, we designed and conducted an original survey of Japanese firms to investigate the impact of AI and robotics (see Morikawa 2016 for details). Specifically, in late 2015, we distributed the Survey of Corporate Management and Economic Policy to a variety of firms operating in both the manufacturing and service industries and obtained more than 3,000 responses. The survey inquiry was wide-ranging, but in this column we focus on the questions about the possible impact of AI and robotics on business and employment. Special attention is paid to the relationship between the skills of human resources and AI-related technologies.

Responses regarding the impact of the development and diffusion of AI and robotics on future business were generally positive  positive responses (27.5%) far surpassed negative responses (1.3%).1 In contrast, the perception of the impact of AI and robotics on employment is negative  21.8% of firms responded that the development and diffusion of new technologies will decrease the number of employees, and the share of firms expecting positive effects on their employment is notably small (3.7%).2

Lessons learned from the IT Revolution are that firms with relatively low-skilled employees are likely to be affected negatively by the new industrial revolution, and those with highly skilled employees tend to reap benefits. To analyse this technology-skill complementarity in the context of AI, we compare the relationship between firms perceptions of the impact of AI and robotics and the education levels of their employees (see Figure).

Figure 1 Firms views on the impact of AI-related technologies and employee skill levels

Source: Calculated from the Survey of Corporate Management and Economic Policy (RIETI).

Firms expecting positive effects of AI and robotics on their business have significantly higher ratios of university graduates and employees with postgraduate degrees. Conversely, the ratio of highly educated employees is lower among firms that anticipate a negative impact of AI and robotics on their employment. This technology-skill complementarity is confirmed by formal estimations controlling for other covariates including firm size and industry.

According to a previous study, the return to postgraduate education in Japan already exceeds 10% (Morikawa 2015). The diffusion of AI and robots may further raise the return to higher education unless changes in the education system catch up with the technological progress. In order to accelerate the development and diffusion of AI-related technologies and, at the same time, maintain employment opportunities, it is necessary to upgrade human capital, such as increasing the number of people with postgraduate education.

Editors note: The main research on which this column is based appeared as a Discussion Paper of the Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI) of Japan.

References

Fernald, J.G. (2015), Productivity and Potential Output before, during, and after the Great Recession, in NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2014, edited by J.A. Parker, and M. Woodford. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 151.

Frey, C.B., and M.A. Osborne (2013), The Future of Employment: How Susceptible Are Jobs to Computerisation? mimeograph, Oxford Martin School.

Mokyr, J., C. Vickers, and N.L. Ziebarth (2015), The History of Technological Anxiety and the Future of Economic Growth: Is This Time Different? Journal of Economic Perspectives 29, 3150.

Morikawa, M. (2015), Postgraduate Education and Labor Market Outcomes: An Empirical Analysis Using Micro Data from Japan, Industrial Relations 54, 499520.

Morikawa, M. (2016), The Effects of AI and Robotics on Business and Employment: Evidence from a Survey on Japanese Firms, RIETI Discussion Paper, 16-E-066.

Endnotes

[1] 71.3% of the firms responded as neither positive nor negative.

[2] 28.6% of the firms expect no impact of AI and robotics on their employment and 45.8% of firms responded as dont have any idea.
Yves here. I hate to be more strict that usual, but I ask that you read the entire post before commenting, since I know some of you will be inclined to react to the headline (which came from the Institute for New Economic Thinking and I didnt have any bright ideas as to how to tweak it).

The problem is that the proper headline of this piece would be Can Morality Stop Bankers From Stealing? And these days, that sounds like the answer Maine natives allegedly give when asked for directions: You cant get there from here. It seems impossible to go from the openly corrupt world in which we live now to one that values reputation, probity, and fair dealing.

Yet dramatic swings in values can happen in a generation, or even less. The conservative 1950s in the US were followed by the 1960s. The libertinism of France on the eve of the revolution led, after the upheavals of the revolution proper, to an era of circumspection under Napoleon and the Restoration (this may also have had to do with the rise of the bourgeoisie, since the casual sex of the Parisian aristocracy was in no small measure due to the fact that most marriages were arranged. The implicit deal seemed to be as long as you procreated and didnt embarrass your spouse, it was routine for both men and women to have many lovers). And as I often joke, when I was on Wall Street (the early 1980s), it was criminal only at the margins.

The Sanders campaign has already had an impact, in that it has made socialism, or at least social democracy, popular among the young. Its apparently cool for kids in high school to call themselves socialists, and I know parents roughly my age who are haute technocrats who lament that their college age kids are pinkos. Long-standing high unemployment levels among the young will do that sort of thing.

It is also important to recall that the shift in social norms to our current weird idea that markets are more important than communities or social relationships did not just happen. As I recounted in ECONNED, extreme conservatives started working in the 1960s to roll back the New Deal. Their ideas were codified in the Powell Memorandum in 1971, which envisaged an open-ended, long-term campaign, backed by ample corporate funding, to make society at large more business-friendly and cut social programs. One of its core elements was the funding of think tanks to give right-wing programs a veneer of intellectual legitimacy. Another initiative that came out of this campaign was the law and economics movement, which has succeeded in undermining the fundamental idea of jurisprudence of equity and has indoctrinated lawyers and jurists to regard economic efficiency, aka expediency, as paramount.

Although I cannot prove it, I suspect the demonization of the impractical liberal arts education comes out of this movement. Liberal arts, contrary to the attacks often made of them, are analytical, but the analysis is qualitative, not quantitative. And the idea that economics is somehow by contrast rigorous, as readers know all too well, is spurious. As Deidre McCloskey and other economists have pointed out, mathed-up economic arguments, which are viewed as more sound than verbal presentations, in fact routinely put the key parts of the argument in a narrative, and use formulas only for fairly trivial parts of the exposition. And thats before you get to the fact that taking economics leads students to become less altruistic (being trained to see people as atomized actors might have something to do with that result).

But the first step, as this article indicates, is to start calling things by their proper names. And there is now much less inhibition about calling out predatory conduct and using words like fraud, stealing, and corruption. And yes, its hard to talk about getting bankers to behave in a more upstanding manner when we have Presidential contenders that are sorely wanting in that category.

By Lynn Parramore, a senior research analyst at the Institute for New Economic Thinking. Originally published at the Institute for New Economic Thinking website

Does the question of morality have a place in the realm of banking and regulation? That it feels awkward to even raise the issue is convenient for bankers who engage in reckless and harmful activities every day without fear of punishment.

Ed Kane, Professor of Finance at Boston College, believes its vital to discuss moral questions, in plain English, without abstractions. Following his own advice, he is blunt in characterizing some of the behavior in the banking industry in recent years: Theft is a forced taking of other peoples resources, he says. Thats whats going on here. Kane urges a deep inquiry into our culture to understand why bankers so commonly get away with crimes in the United States.

In 2007, just before the housing bubble burst, Goldman Sachs chief Lloyd Blankfein wrote to a colleague to discuss how the bank could deal with toxic mortgages  

cats and dogs as he called them  on the books. Blankfeins bank went on to sell the toxic junk to unwitting investors who were told they were sound, while taking short positions on the very same securities. As the Financial Crisis Inquiry Report noted, one structured finance expert compared Goldmans practices to buying fire insurance on someones house and then committing arson.

Still, Blankfein and his fellow bankers later pocketed billions of dollars from the American people in the form of a bailout. They profited at the expense of their clients and society. Nobody went to jail.

In Kanes view, the word should  used in the moral sense  needs to be reinserted into the vocabulary of bankers. Todays executives may spend a lot of time considering the question, Could we get away with it? but there is little focus on the question, Is it right to do it?

In a new paper for the Institute for New Economic Thinking, 

Ethics vs. Ethos in US and UK Megabanking Kane argues that when bankers make reckless and harmful choices while counting on unlimited taxpayer support to bail them out, they are plainly stealing. He calls it theft by safety net. Through the safety net, Kane explains, big banks demand that the public provide protection and relief from distress. They put great pressure on the government, which acts as a middleman in the robbery, just as in a protection racket. As Kane puts it, the government then, by dint of its authority, takes the money from hapless taxpayers.

Why is this not considered a crime? Because, says Kane, politicians nearly everywhere are bought off by bankers. Plain and simple. The regulators who might intervene are more worried about their careers and hopping through the revolving door between government and the industry.

In Kanes view, pernicious cultural norms within banks and regulatory agencies have crowded out fundamental moral principles. Regulators in both the U.S. and the U.K. are fully aware that the reckless pursuit of profits is one of the main reasons for the expanding scale and frequency of financial crises over the last 50 years, but they tend to approach the issue differently.

Kane sees things as much worse in the U.S., where, he observes, authorities are stuck on the idea of toughening corporate-level rules: capital and liquidity requirements, corporate fines, periodic stress tests, and so-called living wills. Thats not enough, says Kane. The British have done this, but they have also supplemented corporate restraints and punishments by defining a new crime called reckless misconduct leading to the insolvency of a bank.

Besides that, Kane notes, it has been long been illegal in the U.K. for an individual director to allow a corporation to issue new debt if he or she knew or should have known that the firm was insolvent. In the U.S., Dodd-Frank Act allows a limited clawback of stock-based bonuses in the wake of a bank failure, but it does not make individual bankers criminally responsible for actions that they should have known were reckless. Prosecutors typically settle lawsuits and bankers find ways to put taxpayers on the hook.

In the U.S., Kane argues, the DunningKruger effect  a cognitive bias named for two Cornell researchers in which people cant recognize their own weaknesses  compounds the problem. If you dont recognize your inability to make sense of things using an ethical code, for example, then how can you overcome the shortcoming? Part of the problem is that ethical codes have to be taught and practiced. College education in the U.S. has been much more watered down, observes Kane. In the U.K., people still have some training in philosophy that helps them to see the ethical implications of their actions.

Philosophy for financiers? Yes, says Kane. When I present these ideas in Europe, I get much more enthusiastic reception than in the U.S., where people have this relativistic view of ethics. He argues that in America, there is a common perception that whatever feels good at the moment must be okay and that this kind of thinking justifies nearly any behavior. Kant is still a force in modern philosophy, says Kane, and he tries to develop an objective, non-theological reason for not hurting other people. Hurting others to please yourself, says Kane, is the essence of theft. Its a problem caused in part by ethical blindness.

The regulators in the U.S. just dont see things ethically, notes Kane. They see that they have tools, and they can do things with them to help them weather a crisis. They use the tools to put taxpayers in the hole. Even worse, this behavior worsens booms and busts and misallocations of resources that leave a lot of people unemployed when the bubble breaks. Ive looked regulators in the eye and they tell me they just dont get it  they dont see the transfer of value to fat cats that bailouts entail through an ethical lens. They view it through the norms of their employer.

A code of ethics, says Kane, is what connects us. Acting in ones self interest may be the mantra of capitalism. But the self is not an autonomous unit; it is connected to other selves, as Kant emphasized: Kant says that you cant escape that connection, says Kane. Think of a couple in love. The other persons happiness is part of their own. On the other hand, narcissistic individuals dont see themselves as connected. They do whatever makes them feel good in the moment and are unconcerned about the fallout. That, says Kane, is a dangerous way of thinking and at odds with thousands of years of thinking about how to approach morality. All religions deal with that in not terribly different ways. It cant be right to make yourself happy by hurting someone else.

As Kane sees it, holding accountable the individual, rather than the corporation, is hugely important to dealing with crimes in the banking industry. Individuals are the ones who act recklessly, he points out. Banks dont act recklessly. The punishment of the individual is not a matter or revenge of retribution, it is about deterrence.

Kane believes changes are needed in the culture of banks and regulatory agencies, but of course by the time people enter jobs in those institutions, they are already well into adulthood and their ethical frameworks have already taken shape. Is it too late?

It really gets down to our family structure, says Kane. Many children are not being disciplined. Theyre not learning about their obligations to other people. Theyre learning only about the obligations of other people to them. When they sense that their parents are lying and cheating, well, its seen simply as a betrayal.

The educational system in the U.S. doesnt help. The thing that our schools teach better than anything else is how to copy. Who to copy from. How to get away with it, says Kane. Getting stu

dents to think about ethics is about more than simply adding an ethics course to the curriculum. Its about changing the incentives: What people teach in ethics is the history of ethical theory. They dont teach operative ethics.

Kane believes that students need to be taken through numerous real life scenarios in which they can apply ethical principles. In business schools, students get bombarded with case studies in which they look at a company, identify a problem such as poor sales, and try to figure out how to solve it. But, he argues, they need to go through well-designed ethical case studies. When your bank holds toxic mortgages, what should you do? What would Kants model suggest that you do? What does the Golden Rule indicate as a course of action?

According to Kane, no amount of policy tweaks or added regulatory staff can solve this basic problem of ethics and cultural norms. There is no way around the necessity of inculcating an ethical perspective on the choices we make.
By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

Readers, Ill add to this as the evening progresses, but here are some election topics for conversation starters. Voting readers, Im interested in your experiences at the polls, no matter your state, or whether your experience is good or bad.

I should say that I have no sense of the electorate at all. The body language of both campaigns is opaque to me, no internal polls have leaked, and the press is impossibly tendentious, except possibly for anecdote. Also, the networks decided to do no exit polling, oddly, or not, although there is an (unattested) independent effort. So if you, readers, have any vetted (albeit unorthodox) tracking sources, please add them in comments.

The Evenings Primaries

From Vox, reduced to a table. Hoping I got the time-zone arithmetic right!

State Closing Time Delegates Type California 11PM EST/8PM PST 475 Primary Montana 10PM EST/8PM MST 21 Primary New Jersey 8PM EST 126 Primary New Mexico 9PM EST/7PM MST 34 Primary North Dakota 9PM EST/7PM MST (start) 18 Caucus South Dakota 9PM EST/7PM MST 20 Primary

There will be many champagne corks popping in HillaryLand whenever she can be said to have truly clinched in the pledged + superdelegate count. This is premature triumphalism, albeit carefully engineered, since Clinton cant truly be said to have clinched until the superdelegates actually vote, for the same reason, on the Democrat side of the aisle, that Trump cant truly be said to have clinched, given that Mark Kirk of Illinois has taken back his endorsement.

Heres one live blog: NBC. Another: TruthDigest. A third: The Wall Street Journal. A fourth: The Guardian.

AP Election Fixing Followup

Skepticism  let me be honest, and call it blistering outrage  in regard to APs scoop on Clinton clinching the Democrat nomination focuses on two issues: The timing, and the anonymous sourcing.

On the timing: To repeat, theres no story here. The party decides is a well-known axiom, and that the party in the form of the Democrat nomenklatura overwhelmingly favors Clinton simply isnt news. The only news here is the dateline of the story: Election Eve. Why not round up the delegates before, or after, an election? A question that answers itself, when asked.

A staff member from Congress just sent me this. Yesterday Alan Fram from @AP was "rounding up superdelegates" pic.twitter.com/rofinV550a  Shaun King (@ShaunKing) June 7, 2016

On the sourcing: The superdelegates rounded up are not named. This is a violation of APs Style Guide:

.@AP breaks its own @APStylebook rules, declares Clinton victory with unexplained anonymous superdelegate sources. pic.twitter.com/tfEbQkm5ju  Travis Mannon (@TravisMannon) June 7, 2016

So whats the point of a professional news-gathering organization having a Style Guide if they dont adhere to it? (And how many other instances of AP election coverage didnt adhere to it?

Heres APs pushback on Twitter:

How did AP conclude Clinton had enough delegates and superdelegates? We counted. @AP https://t.co/nQIGxcGQFy  Kathleen Carroll (@kathleenatap) June 7, 2016

The ranks of the tone police are far too full for me to consider joining, but Im not alone in regarding Carrolls we counted as unhelpful.

Voter Suppression and Election Fraud

Greg Palast, whos been covering this beat for years:

There are a mind-blowing 4.2 million voters in California registered NPP  and they share a love for sunshine and Bernie Sanders. According to the reliable Golden State poll, among NPP voters, Sen. Sanders whoops Sec. Hillary Clinton by a stunning 40 percentage points. On the other team, registered Democrats prefer Clinton by a YUGE 30 points. NPPs can vote in the Democratic primary, so, the California primary comes down to a fight between Ds and NPPs. And theres the rub. In some counties like Los Angeles, its not easy for an NPP to claim their right vote in the Democratic primary  and in other counties, nearly impossible. Example: In Santa Rosa County, if you dont say the magic words, I want a Democratic crossover ballot, you are automatically given a ballot without the presidential race. And ready for this, if an NPP voter asks the poll worker, How do I get to vote in the Democratic party primary, they are instructed to say that, NPP voters cant get Democratic ballots. They are ordered not to breathe a word that the voter can get a crossover ballot that includes the presidential race. Im not kidding. This is from the official Election Officer Training Manual page 49: A No Party Preference voter will need to request a crossover ballot from the Roster Index Officer. (Do not offer them a crossover ballot if they do not ask). Theyre not kidding. Poll worker Jeff Lewis filed a description of the training in an official declaration to a federal court: Someone raised their hand and asked a follow-up question: So, what if someone gets a nonpartisan ballot, notices it doesnt have the presidential candidates on it, and asks you where they are? The answer poll workers are instructed to give: Sorry, NPP ballots dont have presidential candidates on them. Thats correct: even when people ask questions of that nature, obviously intending to vote with a party. This affidavit, and several even more horrifying, come from Election Justice USA, a non-partisan watchdog, hoping to get injunctions to stop this nonsense. Hear my talk with the groups spokesman, Paul Thomas, on a special edition of the The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: Elections Crime Bulletin, which I host with Dennis Bernstein on the Pacifica Radio Network.  Subscribe to this weekly podcast and download my Election Guide Comic Steal Back Your Vote for FREE. Let me throw in another complication. Nearly half of Californians vote by mail, ballots sent to your home automatically. Most NPP voters dont realize that, to vote in the Democratic primary today, they must bring in their NPP ballot with the envelope, and say these magic words: I want to surrender my ballot in return for a Democratic crossover ballot. Got that memorized? Because if you dont, if you say the wrong syllables, in some counties, you will be denied a Democratic presidential ballot.

Obviously something for the Sanders forces to set right at the convention. #Messy

On the bright side, it seems that Los Angeles election officials are responsive to tweets.

* * *

Each section is divided by a graphic. Oldest section is first. Sections, however, have newest snippet first.

9:00PM Looking for early tea leaves to read in California? Watch turnout: Sanders says heavy traffic would bode well for him, especially among young voters. And watch how the two candidates fare in areas that are predominantly Hispanic and African American, two groups that have given Clinton a lot of love in past primaries. A sign of potential trouble for #feelthebern: Theres been no sign of a surge in young voters in early vote-by-mail returns, despite a jump in registration of young people [AP. Sorry].

8:51PM

No exit polls tonight. Expect slower projections unless margins are huge.  Lee Miringoff (@LeeMiringoff) June 8, 2016

8:44PM Clinton campaign switches from campaign posters to flags: The flags are a notable change from the blue campaign signs that have so far decorated her rallies, a symbol of a transition between the contest winding down and the one looming ahead [Guardian].

8:28PM Polls are closed in New Jersey and NBC News projects both the Dem and GOP races are too early to call [NBC].

8:24PM In her speech tonight, Mrs. Clinton plans to assert that she is the partys presumptive nominee and will address the historic nature of becoming the first female nominee of a major party. She will also contrast her efforts to break down barriers with those of Mr. Trump, according to a campaign official, and plans to congratulate Mr. Sanders and his backers, as she aims to win them over to her campaign [Wall Street Journal].

10:03PM The Clinton camp has just sent a fundraising email announcing together we secured the Democratic nomination, Reuters reports [Guardian]. Even I am amazed at the effrontery. What are the delegates and superdelegates? Chopped liver?

9:55PM Sanders projected to win North Dakota [Guardian]. Clinton leads New Mexico, up seven points with 22% reporting. She also appears out front in South Dakota.

9:47PM, Brooklyn Navy Yard: Crowd briefly chanting Sanders quit!

9:33PM Live feed of Clinton speech at Brooklyn Navy Yard [Guardian].

9:28PM

Tonight, we can say with pride that, in America, there is no barrier too great and no ceiling too high to break. pic.twitter.com/7vbGPJe543  Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 8, 2016

9:11PM Clinton projected to win New Jersey [Guardian]. Champagne flowing through the gutters of Brooklyn

10:25PM Speech starts. Tonights victory Seneca Falls Getting unaccountable money out of politics Unity is better than division, empowerment is better than resent, bridges are better than walls. Donald Trump tempermentally unfit to be President. This is a laundry list interspersed with anti-Trump zingers. This election is different. It really is about who we are as a nation. We are better than this. My mother taught me never to back down from a bully. On the day my mother was born, Congress was finally passing the Nineteenth Amendment. [Browser crash; speech ends]. Correcting: My browser problems were so bad that I could have missed this on Sanders:

I want to congratulate Senator Sanders for the extraordinary campaign he has run. He has spent his long career in public service fighting for progressive causes and let there be no mistake. Senator Sanders, his campaign and the vigorous debate that we had have been very good for the Democratic party and for America.

Did others hear this? (Just to make sure the Guardian wanst quoting a transcript?) Thanks!

Adding: One thing Ive already admired about Clinton is her persistence and resilience, which shes certainly demonstrated in this campaign. And I can see why some supporters might feel its time. But Im not sure, as a speech, this was any better than her opening speech on Roosevelt Island, except perhaps in its brevity.

10:20PM Obama is still holding off an endorsement out of respect for voters casting ballots Tuesday but could finally make public comment within hours  with attention focusing on his first Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon appearance Thursday [Daily Mail].

10:18PM Star Spangled banner just concluded; presumably Clinton will start shortly, Live feed of Clinton speech at Brooklyn Navy Yard [Guardian]. Feed going in and out. Flags waving, shes shaking hands, now at the podium.

10:07PM Im sure shes going to talk to Bernie soon and begin the process of bringing the two campaigns together to honor what hes achieved but also to be able to appeal to his voters, John Podesta said on MSNBC Tuesday night. [The Hill]. But also. Shouldnt that be and also?

2:35AM Readers, I have to turn in. I was monitoring Google News for word on Sanders speech this evening (or rather morning) from some major media outlet, and  hold onto your hats, here, folks  Google never showed anything. I finally filtered the news [clears throat] on Past Hour, and this showed up from Bustle. The full transcript, The Transcript Of Bernie Sanders California Speech Is A Rousing & Defiant Call To Action, has this:

But we understand that our mission is more than just defeating Trump, it is transforming our country. The vast majority of the American people know that it is not acceptable that the top tenth of 1 percent owns as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent; were going to change that. And when millions of Americans are working longer hours for lower wages, we will not allow 57 percent of all new income to go to the top 1 percent. And we will end a corrupt campaign finance system. Democracy is not about billionaires buying elections. And we will end a broken criminal justice system. And we will break up the major banks on Wall Street. And we will join the rest of the industrialized world and guarantee health care to all people as a right. And we will bring about real immigration reform and a path toward citizenship. And we will tell the billionaire class and corporate America that they will start paying their fair share of taxes. And what we understand, and what every one of us has always understood, is that real change never occurs from the top on down, always from the bottom on up. That is the history of America, whether it is the creation of the trade union movement, the civil rights movement, the womens movement, the gay movement. And that is what OUR movement is about. But you all know it is more than Bernie. It is all of us together. It is what this movement is about. Is millions of people from coast to coast standing up and looking around them and knowing that we can do much, much better as a nation. That whether Wall Street likes it, whether corporate America likes it, whether wealthy campaign contributors like it, whether the corporate media likes it, we, together, together we know what our job is. And that is to bring the American people together to create a government that works for us, not the 1 percent. Next Tuesday, we continue the fight in the last primary in Washington, D.C. We are going, we are going, we are going to fight hard, we are going to fight hard to win the primary in Washington, D.C. And then we take our fight for social, economic, racial, and environmental justice to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania!

So Id love to be a fly on the wall when Sanders meets with Obama.

Adding, since I had verbiage I could search on, I also found quotes from the speech in The Hill and The Telegraph but the full transcript was nowhere, certainly not from AP [clears throat]. Of course, real reporters need their beauty rest. No doubt theyll publish the transcript tomorrow.

2:24AM 37.9% counted: Clinton, 59.6%; Sanders 39.4%7.

2:12AM 36.7% counted: Clinton, 60.0%; Sanders 39.0%.

1:46AM Live results: 33.0% counted, Clinton 60.4%; Sanders 38.5%.

1:08AM Live results: 20% counted, Clinton 61.7%; Sanders 37.2% [Los Angeles Times]. Sanders doing well in rural North, East. Polls had shown the race tightening: Clinton is at 47.7 percent to Sanders 45.7 percent [WHNT]. If, at the end of the night, this discrepancy holds, it will be unfortunate that there were no exit polls to explain.

1:07AM A small group of voters in downtown Los Angeles had to wait an hour to vote after polls closed Tuesday when their polling station ran out of Democratic ballots [Los Angeles Times]. More Democrat voter suppression.

12:21AM Obama statement: In addition, at Senator Sanders request, the President and Senator Sanders will meet at the White House on Thursday to continue their conversation about the significant issues at stake in this election that matter most to Americas working families. The President looks forward to continuing the conversation with Senator Sanders about how to build on the extraordinary work he has done to engage millions of Democratic voters, and to build on that enthusiasm in the weeks and months ahead. [Guardian].

11:02PM And now waiting for California
New reports: There is little to fear from nanoparticles in food (Nanowerk News) Nanomaterials, and especially nanoparticles, have been on some peoples worry list for at least a decade.

The definition of a nanomaterial is rather loose, just specifying that it must have at least one dimension of 100 nanometres or less. This means that the material could be a sheet, fibre, wire or a particle.

For nanoparticles in particular, all three dimensions are likely to be tiny. This means they will often be about 100 times smaller than the particles in air pollution, which range in size from 10 micrometres (PM10) down to 2.5 micrometres (PM2.5).

The substances that make up the nanoparticles  most often the oxides of zinc, silicon and titanium  and are generally not regarded as toxic. But the particles are so small that their behaviour can be quite different from what we see on a large scale.

We know that nanoparticles in sunscreens and cosmetics can penetrate the skin, and this raises questions about what they can do in the body. Nanosilver is also used as a disinfectant, such as when it is included in clothing items like socks.

In terms of food, nanoparticles can be present at levels of a few percent, often mixed with larger particles. Some foods have silicon dioxide (silica) as an anti-clumping agent to keep mixtures free-flowing, while others have titanium dioxide to confer extra whiteness.

You may recall the news item from March last year about the use of titanium dioxide in the frosting of donuts. The application was withdrawn in the face of consumer resistance.

The use of nanosilver in food is restricted but there may be residues on fruit and vegetables that have been disinfected by washing with suspensions of nanosilver.

While there is no sign that nanomaterials are used in food packaging in Australia or New Zealand, they are being used overseas. Some applications are adding nanoparticles of clay to make packaging more robust, or adding nanosilver as a disinfectant.

Some future developments could involve nanoparticles that act as indicators, by changing colour for instance, if the contents deteriorate in quality over time.

Small risks

Keeping an eye on our food is the bi-national government agency Food Standards Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ), which has just released two long-awaited reports on the safety of nanoparticles in food, one on additives (pdf) and one on packaging (pdf).

The reports were commissioned in 2015 and were written by one of Australias leading toxicologists, Dr Roger Drew, and his colleague Tarah Hagen.

Both reports were based on comprehensive surveys of the scientific literature and relevant patents.

The upshot of both reports is that the most common nanoscale materials likely to be present in food or food packaging  silicon dioxide, titanium dioxide and metallic silver  do not pose significant health risks.

In terms of food, many common foods already contain natural nanoparticles, but FSNAZ was specifically interested in engineered or manufactured nanoparticles and their effects.

In terms of packaging, studies where nanomaterials are used in packaging have shown that nanomaterials can migrate from the packaging into the food therein.

Ingested nanoparticles can, and do, get into the body in places where bulk materials cannot, but there is no evidence that mere size is responsible for the effects observed in laboratory studies.

Any impact is caused by soluble materials or colloids, such as gels, that are formed by interaction of the nanomaterials with aggressive components, such as food acids or body fluids.

Soluble materials bring the elements  silicon, titanium and silver  into contact with vital systems. The case of silver is especially interesting since silver is not bioactive until the metal is converted to silver ions, which is when it becomes harmful.

However, the authors noted that there have been few studies of the effects of nanoparticles on large populations of people. That said, nanomaterials have been used for many years, and there has been no evidence of harm.

Also, in order to make an accurate risk assessment, you need to look at both hazard (in this case, toxicity) and exposure. So a substance that is highly toxic might still be low risk if exposure is typically very low.

There have been few regulatory studies on nanoparticles in which hazard and exposure have been considered together, so its difficult to provide a comprehensive risk assessment.

What it means for us

Its understandable that many people are wary of a new technology that has unknown effects on health.

However, these reports should reassure us that the scientific and empirical evidence to date suggests nanoparticles in food or food packaging pose low risk.

That doesnt mean there isnt more work to be done to learn more about nanoparticles and their biological effects. However, given the expense of mounting large-scale studies, and the likelihood that they will also find no significant health effects, the cost may not be justified.
World-first pinpointing of atoms at work for quantum computers (Nanowerk News) Scientists can now identify the exact location of a single atom in a silicon crystal, a discovery that is key for greater accuracy in tomorrow's silicon based quantum computers.

It's now possible to track and see individual phosphorus atoms in a silicon crystal allowing confirmation of quantum computing capability, but which also has use in nano detection devices.

Quantum computing has the potential for enormous processing power in the future. Current laptops have transistors that use a binary code, an on-or-off state (bits). But tomorrow's quantum computers will use quantum bits 'qubits', which have multiple states.

Professor Lloyd Hollenberg at the University of Melbourne and Deputy Director of the Centre for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology led an international investigation on the fundamental building blocks of silicon based solid-state quantum processors.

An STM image showing the atomic level detail of the electron wave function of a sub-surface phosphorus dopant. Through highly precise matching with theoretical calculations the exact lattice site position and depth of the dopant can be determined. (Image: University of Melbourne)

His collaborators Professor Sven Rogge and Centre Director Professor Michelle Simmons at the University of New South Wales, obtained atomic-resolution images from a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) allowing the team to precisely pinpoint the location of atoms in the silicon crystal lattice.

'The atomic microscope images are remarkable and sensitive enough to show the tendrils of an electron wave function protruding from the silicon surface. The theory is now visible, this is a world first,' said Professor Hollenberg.

Lead author of the paper recently published in Nature Nanotechnology, Dr Muhammad Usman from the University of Melbourne said: 'The images showed a dazzling array of symmetries that seemed to defy explanation, but when the quantum state environment is taken into account, suddenly the images made perfect sense.'

The teams from University of Melbourne, UNSW and Purdue University USA are part of the world-leading research at the Centre focused on the demonstration of the fundamental building blocks of a silicon-based solid-state quantum processor.
Chico's headquarters in Fort Myers. (Jakob Schiller/File photo)

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By Laura Layden of the Naples Daily News

An activist investor is urging shareholders in Chico's FAS Inc. to "stop, look and listen" before voting on two new directors the retailer has offered up for election to its board.

Barington Capital Group LP has proposed two competing directors and wants shareholders to wait until they receive its proxy ballot with its candidates on it before casting their votes.

Chico's has already sent out its proxy with its candidates on it and has recommended that shareholders "not endorse any Barington nominee."

Proxy voting allows shareholders to vote when they can't attend a meeting. The new directors will be elected at the Fort Myers-based retailer's annual meeting July 21.

In a letter to shareholders dated June 7, Barington encourages them to wait for and review its blue proxy card and its solicitation materials before voting.

In all capital letters, Barington asks shareholders not to return the white proxy card or voting instruction form they received from Chico's and not to allow Chico's to take their votes by phone before they receive the investor group's information.

Barington advises shareholders who have already voted for the retailers' nominees that they can revoke their decision by filling out its later-dated card.

Chico's did not respond publicly to Barington's letter.

Barington  with a more than 1.5 percent stake in Chico's  has invested in the retailer since December 2013.

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 said it has proposed its own directors because it feels the retailer's "vast value potential is not being realized and to ensure that stockholder interests are appropriately represented in the Chico's boardroom."

With Chico's stock down more than 30 percent over the past year, Barington said the company has "significantly underperformed its peers and the market as a whole over the past one-, three-, five- and ten-year periods."

Chico's has argued that it is executing on a new strategic plan under new CEO Shelley Broader that will "usher in a new era of profitable growth and value creation" for its investors.

Chico's has nominated two independent candidates to the board, Bonnie Brooks and Bill Simon, saying they were chosen for their skills and expertise.

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.

The candidates were found after a search by Chico's, which is looking to strengthen its board.

The retailer operates more than 1,500 stores in the U.S. and Canada and sells is merchandise through franchises in Mexico. It has three brands: Its namesake Chico's, White House/Black Market and Soma.

Shares closed at $11.52 on Tuesday, up 15 cents, on the New York Stock Exchange.
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Q: My SBA lender says I need a written business plan. Can you provide guidance how I should proceed?

A: The real value of creating a business plan is not in having the finished product in hand; rather, the value lies in researching and thinking about your business in a systematic way. The act of planning helps you to think things through thoroughly. Study and research if you are not sure of the facts, and look at your ideas critically. It takes time now, but avoids costly, perhaps disastrous, mistakes later.

While there are websites that offer to design a plan for you, it is not recommended. This should be your plan and not conceived by someone who does not know you or share your vision for the business.

The plan serves two purposes: a written document that provides a step-by-step plan for the growth and development of your company, and it demonstrates to a potential lender, investor or partner that you have anticipated the requirements for success.

The key components of a good business plan consist of an executive summary, general company description, products and services, marketing plan, startup expenses and financial plan.

The executive summary lists the owners and their areas of responsibility. The company description includes your mission statement. Products and services describes what you intend to sell and how you will deliver the product or service. The marketing plan describes your competitive advantages and how you intend to capture your audience. Startup expenses are those cash outlays necessary to open your doors the first day of operation. Your financial plan anticipates projected income and monthly expenses for the first and subsequent two to three years.

SCORE volunteers can assist you in the development of your business plan and work with you on a continuing basis to help keep you focused on the mission.

SCORE provides a link to an outline for startup and established businesses. Also, Excel spreadsheets to calculate startup expenses and 12-month cash flow. Log on to http://tinyurl.com/hesk37a to access these and other forms to help you understand what is needed to operate a successful business.

It typically takes several weeks to complete a good plan. Most of that time is spent in research and re-thinking your ideas and assumptions. But then, that's the value of the process. So make time to do the job properly. Those who do, never regret the effort. And finally, be sure to keep detailed notes on your sources of information and on the assumptions underlying your financial data.

Gray Poehler is a volunteer with SCORE Naples. Their counselors can assist and offer advice concerning management issues facing your small business. Counseling is provided FREE of charge to all U.S. citizens and legal aliens. If you would like to register for counseling or have a question, please call 239-430-0081 or fill out the form at http://naples.score.org/mentors. A counselor will contact you within 48 hours. Please include your name, email address and a contact phone number
In this file photo, Michael Phillips enters the courtroom Tuesday, April 5, 2016 at the Hardee County courthouse in Wauchula, Fla. Michael Phillips, 51, appeared in court concerning his involvement as the driver of a semi-truck that plowed into a Toyota Corolla on Dec. 30, 2011, killing Jennifer Jenkins, 35, and her childhood friend, Kathleen O'Callaghan, 34, both of Naples. (Corey Perrine/Staff)

Brent Batten Columnist SHARE Jennifer E. Jenkins, 35, of Naples, was killed in a crash early Dec. 30, 2011, in Hardee County. Also killed was Kathleen M. O'Callaghan, 34, of Naples, who was a passenger in Jenkins' car. (Submitted photo) Kathleen M. O'Callaghan, 34, of Naples, was killed Dec. 30, 2011, in a truck-car crash in Hardee County. She was a passenger in a car Jennifer E. Jenkins, 35, of Naples, was driving. Jenkins was also killed. (Submitted photo) In this file photo, apparent skid marks are shown on State Road 64 near Blue Jay Road Tuesday, April 5, 2016 in Wauchula, Fla. Michael Phillips, 51, appeared in court concerning his involvement as the driver of a semi-truck that plowed into a Toyota Corolla on Dec. 30, 2011, killing Jennifer Jenkins, 35, and her childhood friend, Kathleen O'Callaghan, 34, both of Naples. Jenkins and O'Callaghan were driving east on State Road 64 heading to Orlando for a friend's birthday party. (Corey Perrine/Staff) In this file photo, Naples resident Sharon Mahar's daughter, Jennifer Jenkins, and her friend, Kathleen O'Callaghan, were killed in a December 2011 crash in Hardee County. It took Florida Highway Patrol five months to finish their investigation and to arrest truck driver Michael Phillips, who they say was high on methamphetamine. Phillips' criminal case is still pending. (David Albers/Staff)

On paper, it looked good.

The families of Kathleen O'Callaghan and Jennifer Jenkins were buoyed in April when a judge laid out a timetable leading up to a trial for the man accused of driving a Kenworth truck into their car, killing them on a rural highway in Central Florida.

But the deadlines are proving soft, diminishing hopes that the case will come to trial in October as envisioned, and the emotionally draining trips to the Hardee County courthouse keep happening.

There were three of them in May alone, a two-hour drive through the same part of the state the two young women from Naples were on when they died on Dec. 30, 2011.

Each trip ended in frustration. The case is not much further along than it was in April, when years of delays finally pushed Assistant State Attorney David Ward to seek a court order mandating a timetable and Circuit Court Judge Marcus Ezelle agreed to put it in place.

Michael Phillips, 51, stands accused of two counts of DUI manslaughter in the crash. It took 10 months before the Florida Highway Patrol charged Phillips, even though he was still at the horrific scene when officers first arrived.

He was free on just $20,000 bond when he absconded, delaying the case for another six months while authorities tracked him down.

RELATED:

Defense attorney Kelley Collier has been slow to get the necessary reports to his expert witness, Dr. Stefan Rose of Palm City. At one point, the computer disks were sent to the wrong address. On another occasion, the information wasn't complete, Collier told Ezelle in April.

According to the April timetable, Collier was to have requested all the reports he needs from the University of Florida toxicology lab by May 5. The request wasn't made by then, according to Ward and Carol O'Callaghan, Kathleen's sister and one of the half-dozen or so family members who make the trip to Wauchula for every hearing, every conference, every status check to show the judge, the defense and the prosecutors that the young victims will not be forgotten.

Collier didn't show up at a May 17 conference that was originally set to make sure he had the information he said he needed.

So that conference was rescheduled to May 31. "Defense counsel actually showed up but once again has done absolutely nothing, and had no apology or explanation for why he did not show up last time. However, he now 'plans' to request discovery from the UF lab. You may recall this request was to have been made by defense counsel by May 5 (our first trip up this month)," Carol O'Callaghan wrote in a Facebook blog she's maintained to keep family and friends apprised of progress, such as it is.

Collier did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Collier told the court he will make his requests for documents and meet the July 12 deadline for all the parties to have evaluated the information received.

O'Callaghan along with Jennifer Jenkins' husband Dan, her mother Sharon Mahar and others plan on making the trip again on July 12, for what Ward says will be a key hearing in the process.

Even though Collier has missed deadlines, he could conceivably still be where he needs to be by then, Ward said. "They technically can comply if they get on their horse and make this happen. The challenge will be holding them to the judge's order," he said.

Ward said his correspondence with Rose suggests the request for information from UF will be voluminous. In addition to lab results, Rose indicated he will want documents such as the repair records of the equipment used to do the tests and the personnel records of the lab employees who did the work.

The implementation of a timeline has meant more trips to Wauchula for the Naples families of the victims. O'Callaghan is OK with that. "If it's going to move things along we'd rather go up there more often," she said. Still, she said, "It's a day off work for all of us. We've used essentially two years' worth of vacation."

Jennifer Jenkins, 35, and her childhood friend Kathleen, who was 34, were on their way to Orlando for holiday gatherings with friends when the truck Phillips was driving crossed the centerline of State Road 64 just before 6 p.m. and slammed into their car.

Dan Jenkins was following in another vehicle, with the couple's 4-month-old daughter as a passenger. They took two cars so they'd have the flexibility to visit different friends during the trip, family members said.

Dan Jenkins' Ford Escape rolled over trying to avoid the crash but neither he nor the infant was seriously injured.

Phillips was combative with rescue personnel at the scene and blood tests showed he had methamphetamine and a form of Valium in his system.

After the July hearing, the next deadline is Sept. 6, when all pretrial depositions are to be completed. If that happens _ and Carol O'Callaghan is not optimistic _ a trial could take place in October, nearly five years after the crash.

Collier, Ezelle and Ward all say the protracted nature of the case is unusual. Carol O'Callaghan hopes that is true. "I would hate to think anyone else is having to go through this," she said.

(Connect with Brent Batten at brent.batten@naplesnews.com, on Twitter@NDN_BrentBatten and at facebook.com/ndnbrentbatten)
Jazlyn Curry, Madison Craumer. Ethan Kennerly, Madasen Langevin, Emily Tartera and Zach Tartera gather after school to hone their flag line skills at East Naples Middle. Submitted photo

SHARE The drumline performs at a sixth grade awards night at East Naples Middle School. Joe Landon/Citizen Correspondent East Naples Middle School drumline members Spencer Chery, Sam Dorsett, Halmer Castro-Davila, Gianni Guirola and Sergio Morancy rehearse during their lunch hour. Joe Landon/Citizen Correspondent

By Joe Landon, Citizen Correspondent

"It's just as important for middle school students to learn about themselves as it is to learn traditional academic content."

That's the philosophy espoused by East Naples Middle School Principal Darren Burkett.

"We empower our students to shine by providing them a variety of opportunities and the arts are a great avenue for this endeavor," Burkett stressed.

The arts are alive and well at East Naples, with the school being home to the only middle school drumline and flag line in the Collier County public school district. And both are flourishing, having just completed a second year of practicing and performing.

The school's band director, Adren Hance, led the charge with the drumline. He recalls that the idea came from a conversation he'd had last year with a group of eighth-grade percussionists.

"Some had training in marching technique having participated in a church drumline. I asked if they'd like to start a drumline at the school and received an enthusiastic 'yes' as their response," Hance said.

Drums were purchased and the students took it from there by beginning to meet daily during lunch using the scant 15 minutes, after eating, to practice.

Hance calls this a student-run program. "Each student must be a member in good standing in our band, but outside of that, they're on their own, writing their own cadences and rehearsing themselves. I merely facilitate," Hance said.

The current members, five seventh graders, got hooked on drumline after watching last year's group in action. They've performed for their peers during lunch at school as well as at a sixth-grade awards ceremony, a book fair at Barnes and Noble and most notably prior to a meeting of the Collier County School Board last December.

Hance believes the drumline represents the best of what real education has to offer. "The students are more than engaged in their work; they're committed, passionate and proud about achieving at the highest level. All of this while having fun and leading each other with their own creative group."

The flag line, or "guard" as program leader Michelle Benton calls it, is a weekly offering of the after school program. Benton, a math teacher, enjoyed her involvement in flag line and guard in high school and college.

"I started this program so kids could learn foundational skills in order to tryout with confidence in high school since the skills are not taught prior to tryouts," Benton said. "Our students get a head start, and one of my current students, Madasen Langevin, provides a good example having recently been accepted into the guard at Lely High School."

Benton has added dance to her offering since some high schools offer a dance line in addition to a flag line. "That's why the term 'guard' instead of 'flag line' may be used at the high school level," Benton said.

The East Naples Middle School (ENMS) flag line has 20 students. They have performed at the Welcome In New Gators event in which elementary school fifth graders visit and tour the school. They've also performed at parent night events and during the school's talent show.

Benton sees flag line as a way to deepen students' school involvement and pride. "We also instill a work ethic of perseverance. This is something that starts with extreme difficulty but ends with confidence and skills," she said.

There's a strong high school connection with the middle school flag line. Benton is a guard instructor at Golden Gate High School and has invited her students from there to work with her middle school ones. Three other high schools have either donated or lent items to ENMS.

Burkett has even met with the principals of the three high schools East Naples students may attend to let them know about his school's focus on the arts including these two programs and their highly successful theatre arts class, again the only one of its kind in the school district.

"All three give students a chance to use their creativity and talents," Burkett said. "We believe the arts provide a unique way for students to meld personal interest, cognitive development and affective skills." The end result, students who shine thanks to their participation in the arts.
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By Ashley Collins, Staff

Every day, people from all walks of life use technology to make their lives easier.

However, many don't realize the numerous career opportunities available that help create the next tech sensation.

Officials with Hodges University are working to change that misconception via AspireIT Programming Technology Summer Camp, a national program aiming to expose girls to coding, game and app development, team building skills and robotics.

"It's a global problem. Eighteen percent of the workforce in technology is women. So we're looking at ways to integrate more women in the technological workforce," said Tracey Lanham, professor and program chair of the computer information technology programs at Hodges' Fisher School of Technology.

Job seekers with computing skills are in demand, with 1.1 million jobs available nationally, according to the National Center for Women & Information Technology.

The national organization sponsors the summer camp, exposing K-12 girls across the country to technology.

This year's theme, "Making a difference  Girls, Technology and Social Change," focuses on using programming to promote social change, according to a press release from Hodges University.

The Hodges four-day camp is available to girls in grades 6-12 in Lee and Collier counties. In the past, the local program only served grades 6-8.

Lanham said it was essential to expand the program to more girls.

"Every girl deserves a chance. As they get into middle and high school, most of the times they haven't been exposed to technology for career aspirations and they're turned off before they're given a chance," Lanham said.

The camp costs $20. The registration fee includes lunch and a program participant kit with a bag, parental information and additional resources provided by the national organization.

Space is available for anyone who's interested, Lanham said.

The Lee County AspireIT camp will take place on June 17, 18, 24 and 25 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the H building, room H219 at the school's Fort Myers campus, located at 4501 Colonial Boulevard.

In Collier County, camp will be held inside the Gaynor building at the school's Naples campus, located at 2655 Northbrooke Drive. Camp days are July 22, 23, 29 and 30 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

For more information, contact Lanham at tlanham@hodges.edu or (239) 938-7779. Registration is available online for Lee County at bit.ly/1Wx4xJo and Collier County at bit.ly/1ZdDIYx.

"(The girls are) here to learn and have fun and build friendships... It brings a lot of different girls from a lot of different places together," Lanham said.
SHARE Joe Alusma scored big with some free weights at Bargain Box's annual shopping spree for local graduating seniors. Mollie Page/Special to the Citizen Bargain Box store manager Sandy Goldstein helps student Aranza Lopez during the shopping spree. Mollie Page/Special to the Citizen Andrea Gamboa, Evelyn Diaz and Jessica Meza found plenty of stylish outfits for college at the shopping spree. Mollie Page/Special to the Citizen All 12 seniors pose with the items they collected with for free as part of Bargain Box's annual shopping spree. Mollie Page/Special to the Citizen

By Jason Slavin, Citizen Contributor

With the school year wrapping up this week, many graduating seniors may find themselves fraught with anxiety over the impending life changes they will encounter in the coming months.

But for 12 lucky seniors from Golden Gate High School and Lorenzo Walker Technical High School, Bargain Box Thrift Store's annual senior shopping spree was a welcomed distraction.

Every year, Bargain Box Thrift Store, the oldest thrift store in Naples and a mission of Naples United Church of Christ, hosts the spree for a handful of graduates in recognition of their civic contributions and academic achievements.

"Each one of these students has worked hard to reach this major milestone in their lives," said Sandy Goldstein, Bargain Box's store manager. "This is just our way of congratulating them on this achievement."

The rules are simple; each student can collect up to $50 worth of whatever they wish from any of the store's departments. Many of the students were eager to find items that would be helpful as they enter into their lives' next adventure.

First through the door was Joe Alusma, who quickly gravitated toward the bookshelves lining the back wall of the store. After quickly scanning hundreds of books, Alusma located an old medical encyclopedia that included pictures of the body's muscle groups. A fitness fanatic, Alusma intends to study exercise science at Florida Gulf Coast University so this rare find was "almost too perfect," as he put it.

Estrellita "Star" Diaz, who will be attending the Culinary Institute of New York, gravitated toward Bargain Box's housewares department, looking for unique items to add to her collection of cooking utensils. In her spare time, Diaz works at Crave Culinaire and is a protege of Chef Brian Roland.

Jessica Meza, Claudia Mezerene and Andrea Gamboa, all soon-to-be nursing students, were more focused on clothing items they could wear when not in scrubs.

At the end of the two-hour event all of the students left with admiration from the kind folks at Bargain Box, and bags of great finds for what is certain to be some bright futures.

The students are part of the Grace Place AP Leadership program, which provide ACT preparation, college aid, applications, scholarships and tutoring. Attending this year's senior shopping spree event were graduates: Aranza Lopez, Joe Alusma, Andrea Gamboa, Evelyn Diaz, Lesley Cruz, Estrellita Diaz, Oscar Diaz, Jennifer Velez, Jessica Meza, Chelsey Martineau, Claudia Mezerene and Cindy Gonzalez. This was the fourth year the Bargain Box partnered with Grace Place to offer this opportunity to its interns.

In addition to annual funding support, Naples United Church of Christ also supports Grace Place weekly by donating to its food bank, and several church members volunteer for its many youth education programs.

All revenue generated from sales at Bargain Box Thrift Store go to more than 50 local charities. For information on donating gently used items or volunteering at Bargain Box, visit them at 153 Tenth Street South between 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Discover more at www.BargainBoxNaples.com.
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By Terri Schlichenmeyer

"I Almost Forgot about You"

By Terry McMillan

c. 2016, Crown

$27, $36 Canada; 358 pages

In every love life, there's always "the one that got away."

He got away because you were both too young, too scared, too broke, or too different. Things were said that couldn't be unsaid, done that shouldn't have been done. It just didn't work out then, but now? In the new novel, "I Almost Forgot about You" by Terry McMillan, he'll never get away twice.

It should have been an ordinary run-of-the-mill Monday.

That's the way it started for optometrist Georgia Young: New prescriptions, return clients, follow-ups, and one new Monday-morning patient who  big surprise!  turned out to be the daughter of a man Georgia dated in college and had fallen for. She never told the guy she loved him, though, and she never would  because he was dead.

Shaken to the core, Georgia began to think about all the men she'd slept with, and the ones she'd fallen in love with. How would life have changed if she'd stayed with any one of them? She'd been divorced twice; would that number have been higher or lower? Would she have more than her two daughters, live somewhere other than San Francisco; travel, cook for two?

At nearly 55 years old, she figured she'd never find love again, but she at least needed closure. With the urging of her BFF, Wanda, Georgia made a list of the men she'd once loved, and she promised herself she'd find them  not because she wanted to rekindle anything, but because she had so many questions for them and for herself.

Finding her ex-husbands was easy. Michael happened to be moving back to California, and Niles was out of jail for his white-collar crime; both were happy and had moved on with their lives. Georgia was even able to stop hating them.

But Abraham wouldn't be easy to find. Neither would Lance. There were two Jameses, two Harolds, Thomas, Horace, and others, and one white guy that Wanda remembered, and added to the list. Georgia knew she'd never find them all, especially since she had a business, a busy family, and a life to live.

Still, they were all men she'd remember forever. But would they remember her?

Show of hands: Who hasn't spent girlfriend-time talking about boyfriends? Probably nobody, so "I Almost Forgot about You" is a comfortably familiar story.

That's not to say that it's same-old, though. Like she did in many of her other novels, author Terry McMillan gives readers a cast of strong-minded, smart women who lean on other strong-minded, smart women. In this book, however, we see a few more bruises from living, rather than from relationships: Georgia and her friends are looking toward retirement, a little less stress, and no more drama. Even so, they get drama anyhow, and you'll be glad for it.

Definitely, this is a novel for anyone who's lost a love and wondered, "What if  ?" It's a book you'll want to share with your BFFs. "I Almost Forgot about You" is a book you shouldn't let get away.

"Quiet Power: The Secret Strengths of Introverts"

By Susan Cain, with Gregory Mone and Erica Moroz

c. 2016, Dial Books for Young Readers

$17.99, $23.99 Canada; 273 pages

Shhhhhhh.

It seems that a lot of kids need to hear that, but "hush" is never something you need to be told twice. You're naturally a kid who's kind of quiet, one who rarely raises a hand in class or makes a fuss about anything. Sure, you do all right in school, but you'd just as soon stick to the sidelines and Susan Cain says that's OK. It's who you are, and in her new book "Quiet Power" (with Gregory Mone and Erica Moroz), she says that you're not alone.

As an author, speaker and law school graduate, you might be surprised that Susan Cain admits to being someone who once hated big parties, spotlights, and public speaking. Yes, Cain's an introvert; so is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Beyonce, Emma Watson, and Steve Wozniak, creator of Apple computers.

Though it's "one of the most researched personality traits," being an introvert is more than just a matter of personality. Studies show that introverts are more reactive in noisy settings, are more sensitive to taste, and need quieter backgrounds when concentrating. Schools, therefore, are generally "not environments for introverts' nervous systems" but there are ways to cope there, as well as at home, in social situations, and pretty much everywhere, if you're an introvert.

At school, Cain says that it's important to prepare. In class, gather your courage and be the first to speak before conversations veer too off-topic. If you find yourself in a group project, find "the right role," which may be note-taker or researcher. Remember that you can be a leader; Eleanor Roosevelt didn't have to shout to be heard.

Socially, just be yourself. Remember that friends support you, and mean girls don't always fit that description. Attend parties with someone you know, but "arrange an out" when you need it. Know how to properly use social media, and be prepared to turn it off when it's time for a break.

And finally, understand what you need, and don't be afraid to get it. Find a "restorative niche," pair with an extrovert you trust, discover a creative outlet you enjoy, and "don't let fear be a thief." Push yourself to do things you never thought possible because with practice, they will be!

In a world filled with noise and speed, does your 12-to-17-year-old prefer to sit out the chaos? It might help to understand why, and "Quiet Power" explains.

Using some of the same points she made in her adult best-seller, "Quiet," author Susan Cain (with Gregory Mone and Erica Moroz) brings this subject to a group that arguably has the most need for this book: Adolescents, who often feel "weird" in their differences. Cain, however, uses relatable anecdotes and examples to show readers that introversion and introspection aren't odd at all, that those traits are desirable, in fact.

For teens who need the reassurance of those words, this modern, comprehensive book is worth consulting again and again. It offers great advice for kids and parents, both. From one introvert to another, "Quiet Power" can only help, I'm shhhhhhh-ure.

The Bookworm is Terri Schlichenmeyer. She has been reading since she was 3 years old and never goes anywhere without a book. Terri lives on a hill in Wisconsin with two dogs and 11,000 books.
DEAR HELAINE AND JOE: I was wondering if you could provide any information on this mug. It is 5 inches tall and I would like to know where it was made, how old it is and its value.

Thank you.

? F.E.K., Chicago

DEAR F.E.K.: The simple mark on the bottom ? the initials 'J.P.' over an 'L.' with the word 'France' underneath ? tells most of the story of this hand-painted mug. However, the rest of the story is told by a mark that is not there.

The 'L.' refers to Limoges, a city in central France. Deposits of the materials necessary for making porcelain were found near there in 1768. A doctor's wife found a deposit of white earth near the village of St. Yrieix and it turned out to be kaolin, which along with feldspar are the ingredients for making fine, Chinese-style hard-paste porcelain.

A porcelain-making industry around Limoges became important in the 19th century. Eventually, many firms made porcelain in Limoges, and one of them was the company belonging to Jean Pouyat, who signed pieces made in his factory with 'J.P.' over an 'L.'

The Pouyat family had a tin-glazed-earthenware factory in St. Yrieix when the kaolin was discovered and Jean Pouyat's grandfather owned a kaolin mine there. Jean's father, Francois, ran a porcelain factory in Paris from the early 1800s to around 1840, and Jean established his own porcelain factory in Limoges in 1842.

Jean Pouyat died just a few years later, in 1849, and the business passed to his sons. In 1911, the Jean Pouyat Co. merged with William Guerin and Co. and, after the end of World War I, both companies became part of Bawo and Dotter. The Jean Pouyat marks were used until 1932, when Bawo and Dotter went out of business.

Jean Pouyat was a major exporter of porcelain wares to the United States and sent over both decorated and undecorated wares called 'blanks.' The 'blanks' were used extensively by American decorating studios such as Pickard and by amateur china painters.

The 'J.P.'-over-'L' mark found on this mug is the designation Pouyat used on its undecorated white wares. The mark used on decorated wares was 'J Pouyat Limoges' inside a wreath or 'J.P' over L.' with a second mark. That is missing on the mug belonging to F.E.K.

The mug in today's question was painted by an amateur china painter sometime between 1891 and 1932. We think a circa-1910 date for this piece is probably about right.

This particular mug is nicely painted and is far above average. Originally, the mug was probably part of a set that consisted of six to eight mugs plus a tall tankard pitcher. Such sets were popular during the first quarter of the 20th century.

As for the insurance-replacement value, collectors tend to prefer pieces that are either decorated in the factory or by a professional company. This piece, however, is nicely done and should be valued in the $50-to-$75 range.

Helaine Fendelman and Joe Rosson are the authors of 'Price It Yourself' (HarperResource; $19.95). Contact them at Treasures in Your Attic, P.O. Box 27540, Knoxville, TN 37927. E-mail them at treasures@knology.net.
SHARE Christopher Michael Moran (Credit: LCSO)

By Michael Braun and Ben Brasch, The News-Press

Veronica Young collapsed in her Rochester, N.Y. home when she learned early Monday morning that her long-time friend had been gunned down in Cape Coral.

On Wednesday, Cape Coral police made public the name of her friend, 26-year-old , the clerk killed behind the counter of the Circle K on Cape Coral Parkway where he worked. Police also said Jeremy C. Taylor, 54, was the motorcyclist shot and killed on .

, 31, is accused of shooting Taylor and then driving to the Circle K where he is accused of shooting Strickland, police said. Four minutes later, Moran was stopped by police, and after a violent confrontation, he was shot and killed. Maria A. Rodriguez, 32, and Christopher Moran, Jr., 14 months old, passengers in Moran's Mazda, were also hurt. Their conditions are unknown. The Cape police news release said they were both hospitalized.

Young's friendship with Strickland spawned during adolescence, and said they stayed in touch even after graduation and the hundreds of miles between Rochester and Cape Coral.

Strickland moved to the Cape several months ago to be closer to family, including his mother.

He helped Young get through rough break-ups, financial struggles and just deal with life while growing up with a bit of levity, she said.

"He was always there for me no matter what the situation was," she said. "We just had so much fun together. He became part of my family. He is my family."

Young and other relatives plan to attend Strickland's funeral later in the week.

Young visited Strickland last February. The two hit the beaches, saw the matinees and wrestled some alligators.

"He is probably the most trustworthy and funn(iest) dude that I have ever met," said Young. "He doesn't fight with people. He did whatever you asked. I love him so much ... Weve cried so much that it is ridiculous."

Relatives of Strickland were driving to Fort Myers from Pennsylvania on Wednesday and were hesitant to talk about him.

Diana Strickland, Sean's half-sister, said his mother, who lives in Cape Coral, wanted more time to grieve for her son.

"Right now his mom is trying to keep it together," she said.

She said her half-brother was originally from Philadelphia.

"He has a lot of friends who are remembering him right now. He will be terribly missed, as you can imagine," she said.

Those close to the other victim, Taylor, have declined to comment to The News-Press. It appears that most of his family lives in the United Kingdom.

As for Moran, court documents paint a tumultuous family life.

Moran's stepfather Stanton Medoff filed a domestic violence injunction against him in May 2008. Medoff and Moran's mother, 52-year-old Mary Medoff, were married in Massachusetts in 1990 and divorced in Lee County in 2009.

Medoff claimed that Moran came to the Cape Coral restaurant where he worked and "told me to get out or I'll kill you ... He was accompanied by his mother. They both were high, agitated and under the influence," Medoff wrote. Medoff said he called Cape police.

In the court document, Medoff claimed that Moran had stolen money and computer equipment from the restaurant in the past.

The next day, Medoff alleged that Moran rammed into the rear of his van, causing neck and back injuries, and tried to smash his window with a bat while Medoff was inside.

A week later: "I believe he accompanied his mother to my residence in Fort Myers and (ransacked) the home, stealing jewelry, clothing, cash, checkbooks, furniture, spare keys ... Christopher calls me to inform me you're dead and we'll get you, often," Medoff wrote.

Medoff claimed that Moran had problems with drugs, alcohol and took medication for mental health issues, according to documents.

In that injunction process, Moran signed a court document in May 2008 claiming that he didn't have any firearms.

The injunction was dismissed a couple weeks later because of insufficient evidence.

A man who answered a phone listed to Medoff on Wednesday declined to talk.

In 2015, Moran and his live-in fiance Rodriguez filed a domestic injunction against Moran's mother, who has not been available for comment since the shootings.

In the filing, Moran claims that his mother tried to harm him or those around him and "threatened to conceal, kidnap or harm (his) child."

The 14-month-old boy is in the custody of the Florida Department of Children and Families.

Christopher Moran alleged that on Nov. 16 the bickering and arguing that had been escalating for three months finally came to a head when Mary Medoff didn't feed baby Christopher while the couple was at the doctor's office, according to documents.

"She threatened to kill Maria and Christopher," Moran wrote. He went on to say in the document that she threatened "she would be breaking in the back door and come into our home while we were sleeping and kill all three of us."

Moran confronted his mother when he noticed that some medications for Christopher and Maria were missing, according to documents. The documents state his mother replied: "I took it. What are you going to do about it?"

Medoff lived an apartment away from the couple at the time.

A couple days later, Moran claims that his mother called and demanded $500 or else she would file a "bogus" claim against them with Department of Children and Families, according to documents. Four days later DCF showed up at their home.

A judge denied the petition Nov. 24.

Todd Clausen  of the Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester, New York  contributed to this report.
SHARE Jamison Ford. (CCSO)

By Alexi C. Cardona and Annika Hammerschlag of the Naples Daily News

A 27-year-old Naples man faces charges of fleeing from law enforcement after Collier County sheriff's deputies say he led them on a high-speed chase early Tuesday, smashing into mailboxes and parked cars on his way.

Officials responded to a call around 1 a.m. about a tow truck driver breaking into and stealing a vehicle from Jerry's Towing on Terrace Avenue in East Naples.

A deputy tried to pull over the driver, Jamison Ford, near the intersection of Shadowlawn Drive and Davis Boulevard for driving without headlights, but Ford didn't stop.

According to reports, he led deputies on a nine-mile chase through East Naples and drove 70 mph in 45 mph zones.

Deputies used stop sticks to slow the truck when it reached the intersection of County Barn Road and Davis Boulevard. The truck's tires started falling off, but Ford continued east on Davis Boulevard and drove south on Santa Barbara Boulevard. He drove through Naples Manor, a residential area near Lely High School, on bare rims.

A sharp turn onto Warren Street in Naples Manor caused the vehicle on the truck bed to fall from the truck onto its roof, though it remained attached to the truck.

The tow truck drove laps through the residential neighborhood, dragging the vehicle with it, hitting mailboxes and parked cars along the side of the road.

Deputies were finally able to put an end to the chase at the intersection of Martin Street and Carolina Avenue by crashing a patrol car into the truck to steer it off course.

Ford tried to keep driving, but gave up and stepped out of the truck. He asked deputies why they were stopping him and struck a sheriff's office K9, according to an arrest report.

Deputies believed he was driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Ford refused to have blood drawn for testing.

He was taken to Naples Jail Center and faces charges of fleeing and eluding, DUI, causing harm to a police animal, leaving the scene of an accident resulting in property damage and resisting law enforcement. The sheriff's office is investigating whether the vehicle on the tow truck bed was stolen.
Arlene Desmore, 62, hugs third-grader Jordan Mendoza as she says goodbye to her class on the last day of school at Village Oaks Elementary in Immokalee on Tuesday. Desmore is retiring after 40 years of being an elementary school teacher. "My last year and everyone is going on to the fourth grade," she says. "That's wonderful." (Dorothy Edwards/Staff)

SHARE Arlene Desmore, 62, says goodbye to her third-grade students on the last day of school at Village Oaks Elementary in Immokalee on Tuesday. Desmore is retiring after 40 years of being an elementary school teacher. "My last year and everyone is going on to the fourth grade," she says. "That's wonderful." (Dorothy Edwards/Staff) Arlene Desmore, 62, hugs third-grader Jaylah Garcia as she says goodbye to her class on the last day of school at Village Oaks Elementary in Immokalee on Tuesday. Desmore is retiring after 40 years of being an elementary school teacher. "My last year and everyone is going on to the fourth grade," she says. "That's wonderful." (Dorothy Edwards/Staff) Arlene Desmore, 62, closes her eyes as the buses leave after saying goodbye to her third-grade students on the last day of school at Village Oaks Elementary in Immokalee on Tuesday. Desmore is retiring after 40 years of being an elementary school teacher. "My last year and everyone is going on to the fourth grade," she says. "That's wonderful." (Dorothy Edwards/Staff) Arlene Desmore, 62, hugs third-grader Lousemitha Seraphin as she says goodbye to her class on the last day of school at Village Oaks Elementary in Immokalee on Tuesday. Desmore is retiring after 40 years of being an elementary school teacher. "My last year and everyone is going on to the fourth grade," she says. "That's wonderful." (Dorothy Edwards/Staff) Related Photos Photos: Collier County last day of school

By Melhor Leonor of the Naples Daily News

There's chatter about summer plans. There are tears. There are small hands sticking out of the windows of the school bus waving goodbye. After her students stride out, there's the empty, quiet classroom waiting to be packed up, names stuck on desks that must be peeled off.

She's done it 39 times before  and Tuesday, Arlene Desmore marked one last, last day of school.

Desmore's feelings about the end of her last school year are a web of tangled emotions, she said, circling her hands over her chest: "I'm so mixed up inside. I'm happy and I'm sad. Mostly I'm happy to see them grow and go on."

In the commotion that followed the ringing of the last bell at Village Oaks Elementary in Immokalee  tears, hugs, an explanation of retirement  one student summed up the conflicting emotions.

"I wanted school to end, but I didn't want Mrs. Desmore to leave," said Jordan Mendoza, 9.

After the last two students hugged her goodbye and boarded the bus, Desmore said there is much to be happy about.

In Florida, third-grade is a critical year for reading proficiency  students must pass the state's standardized English test to move onto the fourth grade.

"I told them at the beginning of the year, 'Third grade is a hard year, but if you work hard, you can do it,'" Desmore said. "This year, everybody in my class made it. It's my last year, and every child is going onto the fourth grade."

---

To teach for 40 years in the same community, Desmore said, is to teach the children of former students.

Her whole career has played out in Immokalee, first at Highlands Elementary, where she taught for 13 years, and then at Village Oaks.

The Florida State University alumna was employed by Collier County Public Schools in 1976.

"They put me in the fifth grade, and I'm just a quiet, shy little girl here. These were tough fifth-graders.

"So I had to learn to be assertive. A lot of it was trial and error. Learning to be assertive but also kind and gentle.

"If you're too strong, you lose them. If you're too loose, you lose them, too. It's a balance."

Desmore found her niche with the third grade over a decade later when she helped open Village Oaks Elementary in 1987.

Hundreds of students and many years later, Desmore gave some words of advice to new teachers.

"Be flexible. Get used to change because things change," Desmore said. "Be flexible, with the system and the children."

She also said connecting with parents has been an important part of her job, even in a community where language barriers are the norm.

"Even if they don't speak English, they support their children's education. If you can make that connection, and it's hard sometimes, they'll be more supportive of what you're trying to do."

---

Desmore was born in Immokalee and said her connection to the community has been an asset.

"I grew up much like these kids, in a farming community," she said, adding that her father worked as a lumberjack for a mill near Immokalee.

She attended Bethune Elementary, an all-black school, until desegregation began as she was rising up to her high school years.

Desmore was apprehensive about attending Immokalee High, which at the time was an all-white school.

"But I remember my mother saying, 'You have to learn to live with other people. That's the way the world is changing.'"

At the school, like other schools desegregating at the time, the reception was mixed. Desmore remembers an environment that was hostile, where teachers needed to adjust as well as students. In teaching a population that is as racially and culturally diverse as that of Village Oaks, Desmore said she carried with her a strong belief in treating children equitably.

"If you talk to any of them, they know Mrs. Desmore is fair. I treat everybody the same."

---

In explaining Desmore's retirement to her students Tuesday, a school administrator likened it to an endless summer  one that will kick off with bits of sadness.

"When I'm by myself and I'm thinking about it, it's scary," she said. "That next (school) year when August rolls around, I won't be coming back."

Desmore said her retirement plans will have to adapt to an unexpected reality: Her husband, Edward  whom she called Stan  died in March.

"We had all these plans, all the things we were going to do. We had trips planned. People are saying, 'You should still go.' But it's just not the same. Right now I don't know. I'm not going to get sad. I'll plan as I go."

There is no rush: Forty years of the hustle and bustle of her elementary school classroom will be followed by a welcome pause.

"I need some time to just sit and stare. I need to sit outside in my backyard, watch the birds, watch my flowers grow," she said.

"I'm looking forward to things like that."
FILE -- Water rushes through the gates on the Caloosahatchee River on in February 2016 at the Franklin locks in Olga. Discharges from Lake Okeechobee are fouling downstream estuaries at the height of tourist season. (Eric Staats/Staff)

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By Arek Sarkissian of the Naples Daily News

TALLAHASSEE  State Sen. Lizbeth Benacquisto sent a letter to the South Florida Water Management District on Tuesday that called for more options in preventing Lake Okeechobee freshwater from being discharged into the Caloosahatchee River.

In the letter addressed to district Director Pete Antonacci, Benacquisto, R-Fort Myers, said the state agency's governing board should consider "storage opportunities" to the south and north of the lake. The governing board will meet Thursday in Fort Myers to identify water storage areas north of the lake.

"Rather than wait to commence the process, SFWMD should act concurrently with both regions to identify storage opportunities to the south as well as north of the lake," Benacquisto wrote. "By expediting the process we can reduce the time our estuaries are strained and work rapidly toward long-term solutions."

Benacquisto's call to action is supported by roughly $4 billion over the next 20 years that state lawmakers approved earlier this year in the Legacy Florida program. There's specific language in the law signed by Gov. Rick Scott in April that earmarks money to buy land that can take Lake Okeechobee water.

Incoming Senate President Joe Negron, R-Stuart, said another option is to deepen reservoirs on 120,000 acres the state already owns south of Lake Okeechobee.

"Thanks to Legacy Florida, we have financial means to make that happen," Negron said.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers uses the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie rivers to control the level of Lake Okeechobee, which was left bloated by historic rainfall in January. The antiquated flood relief system that includes the Caloosahatchee also inundates delicate estuaries along its banks that survive on a balance of salt water from the Gulf of Mexico. Scott in February asked the corps to use a network of canals to draw some of the lake water south to two conservation areas north of Everglades National Park, but those areas were flooded, too. The solution provided some help, but the 90-day period the corps allowed the water to flow into the conservation areas expired in May, said John Campbell, a corps spokesman.

Campbell said heavy rainfall at the end of May led the corps to increase flows into the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie rivers. The target flow for the Caloosahatchee on Wednesday remained at 4,000 cubic feet per second. The target flow for the St. Lucie remained at 1,800 cubic feet per second. Campbell said the corps will determine if the heavy rains from Tropical Storm Colin, which hammered the state earlier this week, will cause Lake Okeechobee to rise again.

"A lot of that water fell north of Orlando, which is good, but there was substantial rainfall south of Orlando as well," Campbell said. "It will take a couple days for us to see how it will affect the lake level."

Benacquisto said immediate solutions are required.

"Our community simply cannot wait years to begin the planning process to find additional storage while our ecosystem continues to suffer," Benacquisto said. "We need action now and the people of Southwest Florida deserve answers."

Contact Daily News reporter Arek Sarkissian at 850-559-7620
A sea turtle nest sits marked off on the beach behind a Port Royal home on Wednesday, May 4, 2016, in Naples. (David Albers/Staff)

By Eric Staats of the Naples Daily News

Tropical Storm Colin took a swipe at the beach and the young sea turtle nesting season in Collier County, monitors reported Tuesday.

Preliminary figures show at least 79, or 25 percent, of the county's 322 turtle nests laid so far this year were washed away by waves kicked up by Colin. Another 58 nests were flooded but are still intact. Nesting season officially began May 1.

Flooded nests could still hatch, turtle monitoring program coordinator Maura Kraus said. That depends on how long water was on top of the nest, how developed the embryos were and how well the sand drained the water from the nest.

The full effect of Colin won't be known until late August. If the nests hatch, monitors will look for unhatched eggs or dead embryos. If they don't hatch, monitors have to wait 80 days to dig up the nests and see how many hatchlings died.

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Many of the county's turtle nests, such as on Keewaydin Island or Cape Romano, have not been checked yet because seas were still too rough or beaches still were covered with water Tuesday, Kraus said.

Naples Harbormaster Roger Jacobsen said the Gulf of Mexico at high tide Tuesday was pushing against the dunes south of the Naples Pier, between 18th Avenue South and 32nd Avenue South, south of the Naples Pier, and in the North Lake Drive.

"The beaches didn't do great," he said.

Colin's passage coincided with unusually high tides that are expected to return to normal starting Wednesday and will reveal more about how the beach fared, Jacobsen said.

Despite stormy seas, turtles continued to come ashore overnight Monday, leaving six new nests on Naples beach and four new nests on Park Shore for monitors to find Tuesday.

"These turtles are relentless," Kraus said.
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By Maryann Batlle of the Naples Daily News

Estero and Lee County are still figuring out which of them should care for roads in the village, which formed more than a year ago.

For the council the long negotiations with Lee County on this issue center on money: How much is Estero willing to pay to take over control of its public streets? How much should Estero pay if Lee County maintains the public roads instead?

At a workshop Wednesday, Councilor Bill Ribble said Estero lacks the money on its own to handle every project pitched by village residents.

The council's goal is to keep village "taxes where they are"  low, Ribble said.

"Everybody has a wishlist. Everybody has a different dream and vision," Ribble said. "I'm not about to spend money that we don't have."

Click here to read social media archive of the workshop

But the council is willing to escalate talks with Lee County for the best possible deal.

Mayor Nick Batos suggested moving beyond Commissioner Larry Kiker, whose district includes Estero, letting all county commissioners consider Estero's arguments "and seeing if their reaction is any different," Batos said.

Much of Estero's roads are in gated communities in private ownership, which cuts down on taxpayer cost.

Public roads that run through Estero include high-traffic streets of regional importance such as Estero Parkway, Corkscrew Road, Ben Hill Griffin Parkway and a section of U.S. 41. They are all under the purview of either the Florida Department of Transportation or Lee County.

Those roads can be transferred to Estero only by mutual agreement, according to a June 1 memo to Village Attorney Burt Saunders.

Lee County and Estero have been trying to find "mutual agreement" for months. In April, Village Manager Steve Sarkozy sent Kiker a letter with three funding requests:

A traffic light at Corkscrew Road and Bella Terra at a cost of about $300,000.

Completion of a 5-foot-wide sidewalk grid on Estero Parkway at a cost of about $2.1 million.

Resurfacing of Estero Parkway from Three Oaks Parkway to U.S. 41 at a cost of about $600,000.

In a letter dated Monday, County Manager Roger Desjarlais wrote that the county has set aside $843,305 in a budget that is set for adoption in September. The sum is half the $1.69 million Lee County estimates it will cost to fill in sidewalk gaps along Estero Parkway.

Cameratta Companies will pay for traffic lights at Corkscrew Road and Bella Terra Boulevard, according to Desjarlais' letter. Cameratta Companies is building a 1,325-home gated community on Corkscrew Road, about 6 miles east of Interstate 75.

Lee County offered no funding to resurface Estero Parkway. The road doesn't need it, Desjarlais' letter states.

Vice Mayor Howard Levitan balked at Desjarlais' comments about Estero Parkway pavement conditions.

"That's a joke," Levitan said.
By Joseph Cranney of the Naples Daily News

At least one Naples City Councilman, along with residents of the River Park neighborhood, wants to know whos behind the out-of-state fund that owns the neighborhood site where a 7-Eleven is planned.

But an agent for the fund wont disclose the ownership, and unlike other cases where property owners sign their name on development applications, the council last month approved 7-Elevens petition that didnt have a listed owner.

City Councilman Doug Finlay said neighborhood residents deserve to know the real property owner.

"When you have local ownership, you might have someone who is going to be a little bit more responsive to the neighborhood, rather than someone who is out of the state or in some type of fund," Finlay said.

After Finlay, who voted against the project, asked for a more detailed disclosure of ownership during a May 18 hearing, the council was told the property is owned by a New York-based fund, but the investors of the fund were not identified.

"The current owner of the parcel is Axonic Residential Assets Fund II, a New York based fund, which I operate," Jonathan Shechtman, who identifies himself as portfolio manager for Axonic Capital, wrote to the council in a May 31 email.

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Axonic Capital is an investment adviser firm that claims $2.6 billion in assets and lists a Park Avenue address in Manhattan, according to the firm's website.

Securities and Exchange Commission records show Axonic Residential Assets Fund II is a hedge fund with 32 undisclosed beneficial owners and about $94.7 million in gross assets. The fund's minimum investment is $1 million, records show.

Shechtman denied those figures, which were noted in a June 2 SEC filing, but declined to discuss specifics.

"I cannot disclose any more info," he said.

The property where the 7-Eleven will sit, at a little less than one acre, was bought for $1,275,000 in 2014, records show.

Vice-Mayor Linda Penniman, who also voted no to the project, said 7-Eleven's petition should have disclosed the ownership. She said petitions "should come to us complete and whole and transparent."

Residents said they're also concerned about other neighborhood properties that were recently purchased by a secretive buyer.

"They're in the business to buy property and flip it," said Curtis Williams, who lives on Fifth Avenue North. "They don't have any consideration for our neighborhood. They're out to make money."

Willie Anthony, who lives in the neighborhood on 14th Street, said the council shouldn't have voted to approve the 7-Eleven without the disclosure of ownership.

"They took their position to authorize it, and the owner  they don't know who it is," Anthony said. "I can't get my mind around it."

Anthony has long been an advocate for the mostly black River Park neighborhood, which has a median income of about $22,600, according to census estimates.

River Park residents will meet Wednesday to concerns about the 7-Eleven project with John Passidomo, the convenience store's lawyer in Naples. Officials from 7-Eleven are also invited to the meeting.

The 7-Eleven gas station, which will be built at the corner of Fifth Avenue North & Goodlette-Frank Road, was approved by a 4-3 vote after the company agreed to reduce the number of planned gas pumps from six to four.

Nine residents spoke against the project during public comment, voicing a concern that an increase in traffic at the intersection will be a safety hazard for children who walk to school and other pedestrians.

Before Finlay voted no to the project, he said the property owner has a "responsibility" to maintain a relationship with the neighborhood.

Shechtman signed the development application, but didn't disclose the property owner.

"There needs to be a name, somebody associated with who owns this, or who is a principal of this, and I can't find that," Finlay said during the May hearing.

Passidomo, who argued 7-Eleven's petition at the meeting, said the property was "under contract" to be sold to 7-Eleven and the sale should be completed by the end of the year.

In the meantime, 7-Eleven agreed to provide the name of a property contact who will act as a liaison to the community. The company also agreed to install a neighborhood entrance sign and pay for a portion of a sidewalk project the city is planning for the neighborhood later this year.

Councilman Sam Saad said he's "more comfortable" when he knows who the property owner is so he can directly voice concerns if necessary. He said he was comfortable voting yes on this project because the council requested conditions after hearing feedback from the residents.

"I took my concerns directly from staff, from police, then also from the community," Saad said. "The reduction in the number of pumps, the signage, the crosswalk, came from the community."
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By Arek Sarkissian of the Naples Daily News

TALLAHASSEE  A lawyer for a Fort Pierce man who was convicted of openly carrying a handgun in public insists Florida should have no regulations that restrict people from carrying weapons throughout the state.

Jacksonville attorney Eric Friday told the Florida Supreme Court on Wednesday that client Dale Norman was exercising his Second Amendment right to protect himself as he walked along a Fort Pierce street in 2012.

He was arrested on suspicion of a violation of a state ban against openly carrying weapons in public and was subsequently convicted in St. Lucie County Circuit Court.

Friday, who is also the attorney for gun rights group Florida Carry, told the high court the Second Amendment and U.S. Supreme Court case law allows law-abiding people to carry a weapon without any regulation.

"If you're legally allowed to own firearms then you're legally allowed to carry them," Friday told the court.

The state's only gun control is its concealed weapon permit program.

Florida Assistant Attorney General Heidi Bettendorf told the court that program was within the Second Amendment and that it is supported by case law from the U.S. Supreme Court.

There are also provisions in state law that permit people to openly carry a weapon without license if they face an immediate threat.

"The state agrees to the right to carry outside the home, but there's nothing wrong with the concealed carry program," Bettendorf said.

Friday said the state's application process to receive a concealed weapon permit was the same constitutional violation as requiring journalists to apply for licenses, too.

The rights of journalists are protected by the First Amendment, and the profession requires no license.

"This court would never stand for a training class and a fee and a 180-day wait for someone to get a license to carry a camera and be a photojournalist," Friday said.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Jorge Labarga dismissed Friday's comparison.

"Yes, but I don't think journalists with cameras kill people, do you?" Labarga said.

Florida is one of four states that ban people from openly carrying guns in public.

There was a bid by state lawmakers during this year's legislative session that would have abolished the ban, but that plan died in the Senate.

A House version of the bill passed with a full chamber vote, but the Senate version was denied a committee hearing by Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, R-Miami.

At the time, Diaz de la Portilla said the law did not promote safety for the state, and Senate bill sponsor Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, was unwilling to agree to any amendments that would have weakened it.

The state Supreme Court agreed to hear Norman's case in October, breathing new life into the push by gun rights groups such as Florida Carry and the NRA to expand the rights of Florida gun owners.

Friday expects the high court to come back with a decision in the next three to six months.

Contact Daily News reporter Arek Sarkissian at 850-559-7620.
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E. Louise Taylor, Naples

Extreme games

Bob Harden's diatribe ("Extremists?") in a letter assailing Collier County Public Schools reminds us that we Americans now live in a climate where perception seems to be mistaken for truth, to wit, the presumptive Republican nominee for president.

Harden refers to the Florida DOE Sunshine State Youth Readers Program for students in grades 3-8 as the "elimination of literary classics." According to the website, the purpose of the program is "to encourage students to read independently for pleasure and to read books that are on, above, and below their reading level in order to improve their reading fluency. Books are selected for their wide appeal, literary value, varied genres, curriculum connections, and/or multicultural representation."

Books are available in public and school libraries, and are intended to offer choice. Hardly nefarious.

The letter goes on to state that "the level of Islamic content in our textbooks has increased" and that both "pornography" and "political indoctrination" occupy roles in educational materials and in our classrooms, and must be stopped. This is just plain silly. He offers nothing as evidence.

Finally, "CCPS is censoring what families put in their child's lunch (sic) and what children can eat." A random sampling of lunch boxes on any campus will reveal Oreos, gummy bears, Cheetos, and baggies of Lucky Charms, a virtual cornucopia of foods not sanctioned by Blue Zones types. Choice is not limited, sir.

These histrionics are intended to cultivate public perception that Collier schools are a bastion of depravity with too much choice of what to read and not enough choice of what to eat. Perception is not truth.
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Lynne Owens, Bonita Springs and Richboro, Pa.

United we stand?

I caught a news story, televised May 17, about a Lee County high school revising its school handbook/policy code to excuse students from reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, placing hand over heart, and even standing during the vow.

I was disappointed in this development, to say the least.

United we should stand  literally  to honor and respect our national pledge.

Now, most younger American citizens have not been required to participate in singing the Star Spangled Banner or reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. Understandably, they would, no doubt, need prompting with lyrics and/or verbiage. But to ignore this tradition altogether is, in my opinion, a grave error in judgment.

When we have the opportunity to live in "the land of the free and the home of the brave," when we should be grateful that generations of soldiers have given their lives to maintain our liberties, should we not respectfully stand for 20 seconds during a reading of the Pledge of Allegiance?
SHARE Michael A. MacDowell is the managing director of the Calvin K. Kazanjian Economics Foundation. He lives in Estero.

By Michael A. Macdowell, Estero Managing director Calvin K. Kazanjian Foundation

Besides the Aston Martin DB5 that James Bond drove, what else do you remember about the movie Goldfinger?

In the movie, the infamous villain Auric Goldfinger was scheming to enter Fort Knox in order to add to the value of his already abundant gold supply. But rather than steal the gold, he planned to blow it up. Why? Because if he managed to do so, the value of his gold would increase substantially.

The movie is a good lesson in economics. The greater the scarcity of goods, the higher its value and the more it is prized. Apparently this fact has not been learned by Uhuru Kenyatta, the president of Kenya. In a recent nationally reported media event, he set fire to 105 tons of elephant tusks along with a ton of rhino horns valued at a $150 million. He did so in order to "make a dramatic statement against the trade in ivory and other products from endangered species." He is quoted as saying, "The time has come to take a clear stand . . . that ivory is worthless unless it is on our elephants."

The statement, as well-intentioned as it is, is not true. Ivory, particularly in Asia, is worth a great deal and that's why poachers have continued to slaughter elephants for their tusks despite international agreements to ban ivory trade. By burning the ivory taken from 8,000 slaughtered elephants, Kenyatta was actually increasing the value of all remaining ivory. Kenya's actions will only raise its price in international markets, giving poachers further incentives for pachyderm hunting.

The same holds true for the horns of 343 rhinos that were also destroyed by Kenyatta on the same day. Unlike the ivory tusks of an elephant, the horns of a rhino regenerate. Still most poachers harvest rhino horns by killing the animals. Rhino horn powder is sold on the black market for enormous sums.

In 1973, Africa had 1.3 million elephants. Today, only 500,000 remain. The rhino is an even more endangered species. At the turn of last century, there were a half-million rhinos of various species in Africa and Asia. By 1970, only 70,000 were alive. The rapid population decline is due mostly to poaching.

Dramatic events such as burning ivory and horns in Kenya raise public ire, but do little to solve the problem. Rather than burning elephant tusks and rhino horns, would it not have been better to use the millions of dollars from the sale of the already harvested ivory and rhino horns to pay former poachers and others to protect the remaining animals rather than killing them?

Some African countries adhere to such a policy. South Africa and Zimbabwe believe that the 1990 international ban on ivory trade has served only to limit the supply of legally traded ivory, thereby enhancing its value and encouraging poaching. These countries, where a majority of African elephants live, claim to be able to control poaching and engage in sustainable levels of elephant harvesting.

There is no single answer to the uncontrolled, horrific slaughter of endangered species, but exacerbating the problem by further restricting the supply of already scarce and highly-priced commodities isn't one of them.

Paying individuals and communities to protect elephants and rhinos can work. So can a collateral effort to educate Africans not only to the emotional and aesthetic value of endangered species, but to their economic value when they are alive and well.

In other developing countries, significant gains have been made in protecting endangered flora and fauna through this kind of educational effort. For instance, in Costa Rica, a well-orchestrated grassroots program has educated individuals and communities about the economic advantages of environmental tourism if endangered species are protected by the people themselves. As a result, the flourishing flora and fauna of Costa Rica helped raise tourism revenue far above that of coffee exports, the country's former largest source of income. In Africa, tourism revenue can far exceed income from poaching animals.

Bond was able to thwart Goldfinger's gutsy plan. For the sake of elephants, rhinos and many other endangered species, let us hope that clearer heads prevail, and that African governments don't engage in public displays that only encourage poaching.

_ MacDowell is president emeritus of Misericordia University and managing director of the Calvin K. Kazanjian Foundation.
Over 150 students from schools in Tipperary, Limerick, Laois, Kilkenny and Waterford displayed their scientific work at the 2016 SciFest in LITs Thurles recently.

St. Annes Secondary School students Katie Kinane and Ali Ryan had great success recently winning the Science Foundation of Ireland Best Project Award for their project Mechanics of Pencil Holding in ECCE Children [Early Childhood Care and Education]. The girls investigated how children in pre-schools in Tipperary town and surrounding area hold their pencil and whether with intervention pencil holding technique could be improved. This project was originally entered in the BT Young Scientist Competition in January where the girls were highly commended for their work. Since then the girls have researched the pencil holding technique in teenagers and adults and found a significant difference in technique in those over and under 18 years of age. Nearly 40% of those surveyed had incorrect pencil holding technique, which is linked to hand wiring difficulties and hand muscle strain. All of those with incorrect technique were under 18 allowing the students to further query as to whether less emphasis is now being placed on the technique with the introduction of items such as smart phones, tablets and emphasis on same.

Ali and Katie will now go on to compete at a national final in November 2016 that is held in Dublin.

SciFest is an all-inclusive, all-island science initiative that fosters active, collaborative and inquiry-based learning among second-level students. SciFest is funded primarily by Science Foundation Ireland, Intel and Boston Scientific.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg welcomed Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili to NATO Headquarters on Wednesday (8 June 2016) for talks on the Alliances partnership with Georgia and ongoing reform efforts. During a joint press conference with President Margvelashvili, Mr. Stoltenberg praised Georgia for its contributions to Euro-Atlantic security and its strong commitment to NATO.

The Secretary General thanked Georgia for its role in Allied operations, noting that Georgian troops have been standing shoulder to shoulder with NATO for many years. He highlighted that Georgia is the third-largest contributor to NATOs Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan, and welcomed Georgias impressive defence reforms.

Mr. Stoltenberg also underscored NATOs commitment to Georgias security: Over the past two years, we have put in place a Substantial NATO-Georgia package of support to strengthen Georgias defence capabilities and implementation is well on track. He noted that the NATO-Georgia Joint Training and Evaluation Centre in Tbilisi is up and running and joint exercises have started. He added that 30 NATO experts are supporting Georgias ongoing defence reforms. At the Warsaw Summit next month, we will further strengthen our package of support for Georgia, said Mr. Stoltenberg.

During their talks, the Secretary General and President Margvelashvili discussed Georgias progress in consolidating its democratic institutions, and ongoing efforts to strengthen rule of law and the independence of the judiciary. Mr. Stoltenberg welcomed Georgias continuing reform efforts and highlighted that NATO will continue to support Georgia in moving closer to the Alliance.
When doctors can only stand by and watch

The story behind Charlotte's Web

High-CBD cannabis oil will save lives

(NaturalNews) In America alone, 3 million people are affected by epilepsy and seizures, and every year brings about 200,000 additional cases. According to a study published in 2013, premature death is eleven times more common among epilepsy patients or even greater if a mental disorder is also diagnosed. In some cases, modern medicine can pinpoint the cause of the seizures and even correct it.But this is not always the case. When Nicole and Ernie Nunez brought their few-days-old daughter, Amylea, to the hospital in New Mexico, no one could identify the source of her seizures. As her parents grew desperate with the idleness of her doctors, they decided to look for an alternative cure . What they found was the high-CBD cannabis oil called Charlotte's Web , which may have saved their daughter's life When Amylea was born in December, her parents were absolutely thrilled to bring her home. Only a few hours later, however, everything went wrong as Amylea suffered her first seizure. Her parents rushed her to the hospital, but the doctors were unable to pinpoint the source. Desperate with the situation, Nicole and Ernie Nunez took Amylea to the Children's Hospital in Aurora, Colorado, where she has already spent the first two months of her life.The situation was no better here than in New Mexico, however. As doctors tried all kinds of medications on young Amylea, she continued to suffer from seizures. While her mother spent all of her time by her side, Ernie ran back and forth between the hospital and their home in Albuquerque. The medication prescribed to Amylea was known to be especially taxing on her frail two-month-old liver, so her parents were determined to find a better treatment.It seemed that, at this point, doctors could do nothing more than stand helplessly and watch Amylea's condition worsen. It was up to Nicole to do the research and come up with an alternative.Once Nicole started looking for natural remedies for epilepsy, she came across the cannabis oil known as Charlotte's Web . This miraculous strain of cannabis was named after an American girl who suffered from Dravet syndrome as a baby. Her name was Charlotte Figi, and she too was experiencing severe epilepsy like Amylea. By the time she was three, Charlotte was seriously disabled. In spite of treatment, she was experiencing approximately 300 seizures every week.Her parents looked beyond conventional medicine and found a strain of marijuana that could be used for treatment. They began immediately and saw vast improvement. With a regular regimen using the high-CBD cannabis extract, Charlotte was finally able to engage in normal childhood activities. Now, she only experienced about four seizures a month.Nicole Nunez saw hope in Charlotte's story and immediately proposed this alternative treatment to Amylea's doctors. For weeks, they refused to proceed with the treatment. Earlier in February, however, the doctors finally agreed to Nicole's solution and the parents began treating their daughter with Charlotte's Web. After only two doses, both Amylea's parents and her doctors could notice the difference. The oil had worked.Amylea was the first and youngest patient to ever receive this treatment at the hospital. She is now part of a case study that will analyze the effectiveness and possible future use of Charlotte's Web in the treatment of infants suffering from epilepsy. Meanwhile, the Realm of Caring Foundation was organized by a group of growers called the Stanley Brothers. They provide access to a cheaper hybrid strain between medical cannabis and hemp that has demonstrated the same low-THC, high-CBD content.If nothing else, Amylea's story is a glimmer of hope for those infants struggling with epilepsy and the ineffectiveness of conventional medicine.
Bretagne, the last known Sept. 11, 2001 canine hero, has recently passed away.

According to reports, the golden retriever--whose name is pronounced "Brittany"--had kidney failure resulting to various complications. In an interview, her owner, Cy-Fair volunteer firefighter Denise Corliss, recalled how her last night with Bretagne went.

"She was really anxious last night and she just wanted to be with me. So I laid down with her, right next to her. When she could feel me, she could settle down and go to sleep. I slept with her like that all night," Corliss told TODAY on Monday.

The 16-year-old golden retriever, as stated in a statement from the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service, was euthanized on Monday at a veterinary clinic in Fairfield Animal Hospital in Cypress, Texas.

Representatives from Texas Task Force 1, the Cy-Fair Volunteer Fire Department and other agencies gave her a special send-off, paying respect by saluting the ailing dog, as she entered the clinic with her owner.

Bretagne's body was draped in an American flag as she departed from the building. She will be sent to Texas A&M University where veterinarians could evaluate how the Ground Zero affected her body, NY Daily News reported.



Bretagne was also part of the search team that responded to Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Ivan and other disasters. She retired from active duty at age 9 but remained as ambassador for search and rescue dogs in retirement.

According to ABC News, Bretagne was nominated for a Hero Dog Award from the American Humane Association in 2014.

On Sept. 11, 2001, thousands of lives were lost after a series of terrorist attacks were launched by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaida in the United States. During one of America's most ill-fated times, at least 300 search dogs lent their helping paws to search for possible survivors.



Amid the debris and rubble, these hero canines devoted their time to use their sniffing power to save lives.
A new study conducted by researchers from Japan revealed that the presence of strong infrared emissions in extraordinary supernovae might explain the origin of this type of supernovae, which are brighter than the normal ones.

The study, published in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan, suggests that dense gas surrounding a pre-supernovae-explosion star system might explain how extraordinary supernovae were formed and why is it brighter than normal supernovae.

Previously, researchers have been debating the origins of extraordinary supernovae. They are divided into two popular scenarios, both involving a binary system. The first scenario, called accretion, is composed of one white dwarf and one normal star orbiting around each other. On the other hand, the second scenario, dubbed as merger, involves two white dwarfs orbiting each other.

For the study, researchers observed the 'extraordinary supernovae' candidate SN 2012dn using 11 telescopes in Japan through OISTER (Optical and Infrared Synergetic Telescopes for Education and Research) for 150 days after its initial observation.

According to their press release, the researchers discovered the presence of a strong infrared emission from the object, which cannot be usually seen in a typical supernova. Further analysis of the infrared emissions revealed that material ejected recently from the progenitor system is the one responsible for the emission.

Their findings strongly support the accretion scenario. According to the researchers, materials escape from the potential gravity of the system during the transfer of gas from the normal star onto the surface of the white dwarf. These materials surround pre-supernovae-explosion star system, forming a dense gas.

Understanding the origin of extraordinary supernovae and Type Ia ("One-A") supernovae are very significant in studying the origins of the universe. Type Ia supernovae have been widely used as reference because the physics governing their evolution ensures that they all change from a stable state to an explosion at almost exactly the same point in their evolution. However, other studies involving Type Ia supernovae were contaminated by the extraordinary supernovae, skewing the calibration.

Researchers are now planning to determine if the accretion scenario may also apply in the formation of Type Ia supernovae.


Marijuana use doesn't seem to have a big impact on one's physical health even after years of heavy use, study says.

It has, however, one negative health effect, and that is on the teeth.

The study, which was published in JAMA Psychiatry, analyzed data from 1,037 participants from New Zealand. The researchers followed the participants from birth until the age of 38, and looked at whether marijuana use from age 18 to 38 had an impact on indicators of physical health, such as lung function, glucose control, blood pressure, systemic inflammation, waist circumference, HDL cholesterol, triglycerides and body mass index (BMI).

Researchers discovered that those who used marijuana over the last 20 years only reported teeth problems.

At age 38, those who smoked pot had worse periodontal health that those who did not, and no other health problems seemed to surface.

"We don't want people to think, 'Hey, marijuana can't hurt me,' because other studies on this same sample of New Zealanders have shown that marijuana use is associated with increased risk of psychotic illness, IQ decline and downward socioeconomic mobility," Madeline Meier, lead author of the study and assistant professor of psychology at Arizona State University, said in a report published in ZME Science.

However, tobacco use was linked to many physical health problems, such as worse lung function, more inflammation and poor metabolic health.

According to the researchers, the study cannot prove whether marijuana causes gum or periodontal disease. But physicians could still warn their patients that cannabis use may "put them at risk for tooth loss."

The study, however, did not explain why pot was linked to poor dental health. "Our analyses show that this association was not explained by tobacco smoking, alcohol abuse or less tooth brushing and flossing," Meier said.

The researchers also found that marijuana use over time was linked to lower BMI, smaller waist circumference and better HDL cholesterol, which suggests that cannabis may have an effect on a person's metabolism.

"There are definitely health risks associated with heavy marijuana use, but there just aren't as many as we previously thought," Dr. Kevin Hill, marijuana addiction expert and assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, said in a statement published in Time.

"The answers with marijuana aren't exactly what we would have expected them to be, and this is a great example. You need to be willing to change your mind on these issues," Hill added.
How far can human experiments go?

In a recent attempt to address organ donor shortage, researchers from California have been conducting experiments that involve growing human organs inside pigs.

For the research, they put together human stem cells and the DNA of pigs to create a human-pig embryo. Called a "chimeric" embryo, the result will produce a normal-looking pig, but will have a pancreas with human cells. The procedure was conducted using a gene-editing technique called Crispr, The Guardian noted.

The Crispr technique, as explained by Medicalxpress, involves the removal of the genetic portion of a pig embryo that encodes for a normal pig pancreas. This will be replaced with human stem cells. As a result, the embryo will develop to a normal pig, but with pancreas exactly similar to those of humans

For the initial experiment, they have already successfully cultivated chimeric embryos for 28 days before being terminating them for further observation of the tissues.

The experiment had not been well-received by different animal welfare groups, arguing that it is unethical and that the research could lead to gruesome organ farms.

"Reports of this gruesome experiment, to harvest organs grown inside a pig to transplant into a human body, reads like something out of the dystopian science fiction novel 'Never Let Me Go,' but with animals instead of people," Katy Taylor, director of science at Cruelty Free International, formerly the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV), told Daily Mail UK.

"We are completely opposed to the use of animals to obtain organs for human transplantation," she said, adding that the procedure has been attempted thousands of times, but has failed due to safety issues, differences in species and organ rejection.

Authorities also fear that the process, without knowing its full implications, may cause abnormality to the pig. For example, the presence of human cells might affect the pig's brain.

In 2014, researchers from the National Institutes of Health successfully transplanted a pig's heart into a baboon, leading to questions whether it is really possible to do the same between pigs and humans.

Fox News made mention that pigs have always been valuable in the field of research. Despite physical differences, many of the pig's biological systems are very similar to our ours.

Dr. Michael Swindle, retired veterinary researcher and author of "Swine in the Laboratory" told the news site in an interview: "They have a number of anatomic and physiologic similarities to humans in different systems. They are what's known as a translational research model, so if [something] works in the pig, then it has a high possibility of working in the human."
As California's right-to-die law goes into effect Thursday, a Berkeley-based doctor will open one of the first practices in the state that specializes in end-of-life options.

"I think it's an important right for the patient to have at the end of their life to control the way they die," says Dr. Lonny Shavelson.

The new law will allow terminally ill patients who meet certain criteria to ask their doctor for a prescription for life-ending medication. But in the event the patient's doctor declines to participate, Shavelson will step in. He already has several appointments with patients to evaluate their situations.

"This needs to be a well thought out, carefully planned," he says. "It's not something you call on Tuesday and say, 'Doctor, I'm suffering,' and on Wednesday we give you a prescription."

The Legislature passed Senate Bill 128 after the widely publicized case of 29-year-old Brittany Maynard, an East Bay woman who had a terminal brain tumor and had to move to Oregon to legally end her life. Shavelson, who has written a book on the issue, says it's about time patients have the option to end their suffering.

Maynard's husband, Dan Diaz, is grateful terminally ill Californians will now have the option to die on their own terms.

"I think Brittany would feel a great sense of pride we were able to accomplish what we did," Diaz says. "In this day of modern medicine, a person shouldn't feel they should have to suffer like that their final few days on this green earth."

Says Shavelson: "If this is done well, it is a good way to provide one more option to patients who are dying."
The critics who predicted the California primary election would be confusing, specifically for those No Party Preference voters, were right on point.

Throughout the state, from Los Angles to San Jose to Antioch, countless voters complained of inept poll workers, many of whom did not know the proper information or protocol.

The problem, for some, seemed even more intense in Silicon Valley.

Dave Vargas, who was voting at registrar headquarters on Berger Drive in San Jose, said he didnt get a ballot with the presidential nominees on it. He didnt realize he could have requested a crossover ballot.

I was really hoping to vote for Hillary Clinton, Vargas said.

He returned to the polling booth hoping to find a way to resolve the issue to no avail.

While many other counties in California instructed poll workers to present all NPP voters with menu cards to choose their ballots, Santa Clara County did not. No party preference means in a presidential primary, such a voter can vote Democrat, Green Party or Libertarian, but not Republican.

The Santa Clara County poll worker instruction manual instructs election workers not to offer voters a crossover ballot if they do not ask. [[382302591, C]]

Our Elections Officers do not automatically offer partisan ballots to NPP voters, the Registrar of Voters said in a released statement. We wish to limit any appearance of partisanship or partisan discussion by our Elections Officers.

Santa Clara County registrar officials countered that they put in a lot of work to make sure people were adequately informed about voting rules and any changes. They said the county sent detailed voter information to residents months in advance and even used their social media platforms to remind and inform voters of specific rules.

However, other than a post card sent to registered voters, one tweet and two Facebook posts published on May 28 that specifically addresses the crossover ballot, an NBC Bay Area review found the registrars office in Santa Clara County did little else to inform voters on the proper protocol on how to request a crossover ballot.

A federal lawsuit filed in San Francisco by an Oakland firm, alleged that this exact scenario would play out. A judge, however, on June 1 had dismissed the claims, saying essentially everything would work out.

And by the end of Tuesday night, and into the wee hours of Wednesday morning, the election process, despite frustrations and confusions, did result in two winners.

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were both elected the nominees of their Democratic and Republican parties, respectively.[[382302591, C]]
Katherine Bonenti will share her story with anyone who will listen. She leans toward you a bit to engage you. She conveys latent anger with perfect diction. She waits to watch your jaw drop.

The retired nonprofit executive's mission is to tell every Californian that neither dentists nor doctors are required to carry malpractice insurance.

"You can't drive a car without liability insurance," she explains. "But you can practice medicine."

MOUTHFUL OF MALPRACTICE

Bonenti discovered that her dentist didn't have liability insurance the painful way: after seeking a second opinion about continual aching in her mouth.

She says that dentist -- as well as at least two others in subsequent visits -- were astonished at what they found in exams and X-rays. They blamed her longtime dentist.

"This needs to be redone, and this needs to redone, and so on and so forth," she recalled them saying.

Bonenti said one dentist at the University of the Pacific Dugoni School of Dentistry described the work in her mouth as so shoddy that he would have guessed it was the product of a dentist in a third-world country or eastern Europe, not San Francisco. Several dentists told her that fixing her mouth would cost tens of thousands of dollars, she said.

So Bonenti, who lives on a fixed income in Larkspur, decided to sue her dentist of 37 years.

THE SUIT

As malpractice lawsuits go, Bonenti's complaint looks similar to those we have seen before. A patient raises accusations, lays out damages, and asks for an award to fix them. The provider responds. Allegations bounce back and forth in filings overs months or years.

What made this case different was that the defendant, Dr. Bassem Moussa, did not muster a defense at all. The case was filed in June of 2015. But records show he did not respond at all.

And then, Moussa died.

An obituarty from SFGate posted on Legacy.com says he died Jan. 8. "After a long battle with an atypical brain tumor, Bassem Moussa passed peacefully in his sleep at home," the obituary read.

Bonenti was dumbfounded when she learned Moussa was dead. But her attorney said they should proceed with the suit.

So they did.

And they won.

On March 3, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Joseph M. Quinn issued a default judgment of $137,415.

But really, Bonenti lost.

GOING BARE

Even if Moussa didn't have any assets -- which Bonenti claims his family told her attorney -- his malpractice insurance would be obligated to pay the award. That's what Bonenti's attorney assured her. An insurer was on the hook.

Like many consumers, even Bonenti's lawyer assumed the dentist was required to carry liability insurance. He was wrong.

She is due $137,415. She will get $0.

"Nothing," she said gently, followed by silence. This is when the listener's jaw drops.

Bonenti uses a phrase for doctors' and dentists' ability to practice without malpractice insurance: going bare. Bonenti says consumers cannot just presume, the way she and her attorney did, that their health care provider has insurance that will cover their expenses in the event of malpractice.

She now tells friends, family, neighbors and even strangers to speak up when they are in the exam room.

"Ask," she says forcefully.

UNCOMMON COVERAGE

We surveyed the 50 states to see how California law compares to the rest of the United States. We found a patchwork.

In calling every dental board or its equivalent around the country, 10 states told us malpractice insurance is required; 32 states said they do not. The remaining eight never got back to us.

Some states, like Mississippi, told us that they require proof of coverage when a dentist first applies for a license. But the State Dental Board of Examiners was quick to point out that its staff does not require proof of coverage to practice or renew a license.

New Mexico is another state that requires proof of liability coverage only for initial licensure.

Bonenti believes the law should change. She feels malpractice coverage should be universal. And she has begun to put pressure on lawmakers to do just that.

Short of requiring medical professionals to carry insurance, Bonenti argues that those who are "going bare" should be required to tell their patients up front.

"It should be very transparent," she said. "If doctors don't want to have insurance, patients should be notified going into the office."
Bay Area voters showed up in big numbers Tuesday, but some of them had a complaint about their ballots - namely party affiliation confusion.

About 20 percent of the voters at an Antioch polling station told the precinct captain that the party affiliation indication on their ballot said "N.P.P." - meaning no party preference. Many of those said it's the first time they've seen it on their ballots.

Voter Kym Kelley and her husband, Tony, were confused when they saw the label on Tony's sample ballot.

"Hes always been a Democrat," Kym Kelley said. "We havent moved; he hasnt changed anything to do with his status.

No party preference means in a presidential primary, such a voter can vote Democrat, Green Party or Libertarian, but not Republican.

The Contra Costa County elections officials say they're getting a lot of complaints about the ballot label, and there may be a reason it's happening.

"Oftentimes if they re-registered online and they dont check a box to indicate a party preference, they default to no party preference, said elections chief Joseph Canciamilla.

Kym Kelley said her husband didn't make any changes to his voter registration.
California voters on Tuesday gave state lawmakers the ability to suspend their colleagues' pay along with their voting power when legislators are accused of wrongdoing while in office.

It was the lone, statewide ballot measure in the primary and was proposed by lawmakers who asked voters to give them greater latitude to judge their peers' qualifications.

Voters agreed, with 77 percent favoring the measure.

Proposition 50 will allow legislators to suspend their colleagues' privileges in the state Senate or Assembly.

Lawmakers sought the change after suspending Democratic Sens. Leland Yee, Ron Calderon and Rod Wright as they faced felony accusations in 2014, when all three faced criminal charges but had not yet been convicted. A state law prohibiting lawmakers' pay from being reduced meant the three Democrats continued receiving paychecks while on suspension.

The proposal will permit harsher punishment, but also makes it more difficult to pull off.

The 40-person Senate or 80-person Assembly currently can suspend a member with pay with a simple majority of votes. Proposition 50 raises the voting threshold to two-thirds to suspend a member without pay.

David A. Carrillo, executive director of UC Berkeley Law's California Constitution Center, said increasing the number of lawmakers that must agree to the suspension would be ``making it harder for the Legislature to apply this kind of self-discipline.''

"Proposition 50 is actually a reduction of the Legislature's existing power to discipline its ranks," Carrillo said in an email.

Only one senator voted against the 2014 suspensions.

Sen. Joel Anderson, R-Alpine, said he opposed the suspensions because empty seats in the statehouse result in taxation without representation.

He argued Proposition 50 is an ineffective political maneuver that cannot correct lawmakers' rare criminal behavior.

"This is another slick, hide-the-pea maneuver," Anderson said.
If graduation season is time to celebrate hard work and possibilities, Jomari Fernandezs path to college showcases his unique determination and independence.

Last month, the 18-year-old from Pittsburg found himself without a ride to an important scholarship interview in Walnut Creek. So he hopped on his bike and pedaled to BART, arriving sweaty and out of breath.

His drive so impressed the panel of interviewers with the Diablo Valley Assistance League, that they awarded him the $5,000 scholarship, which will go toward his tuition at Sacramento State.

Many people might assume the scrappy move was typical of young people who struggle to plan in advance. But Fernandez isnt a flakey teenager.

His mother is a home healthcare aide, doesnt have a car, and works two jobs to support him and his three younger siblings. Usually he doesnt even dare ask her or his step-father for rides because they work so much. He also asked his friends, but they wanted gas money and he had none.

Every penny counts at his house, so hes applied for thousands of dollars in need- and merit-based scholarships.

Even though it was a long essay, and I have lots of AP classes and it was close to the due date, I did it, he said. He was excited but nervous to be chosen for the panel interview.

On the morning of the interview, Fernandez gave himself plenty of time. He did a Google search for the address and sketched a map on a piece of paper because he doesnt have a smartphone. Then he biked from his school to the Pittsburg-Bay Point BART station, rode to Walnut Creek, and got terribly lost trying to find the delivery address.

It was a hard ride because the Ygnacio Valley Road part was hilly. I was really sweaty and it was hecka hot, he said.

He arrived dripping sweat in a tank top with his bike in tow and found the other students dressed up in their Sunday best.

I was surprised because the boys were dressed professional and the girls were pretty in dresses and makeup. I didnt know we were supposed to dress up. I was wearing a white tank top, he said, sheepishly.

It was Fernandezs first interview and he was nervous. English is his second language. He moved to Pittsburg from the Philippines less than four years ago.

I couldnt speak, complete straight sentences in English, he said. I think they felt pity for me.

The panel asked him many questions, including what his biggest regret in high school is.

I said, Being rude to my mom. Because she needs to work every day and every night to provide for our needs and I wanted some time with her, he said. She gets mad at me because sometimes Im lazy.

Fernandez grew up in a poor neighborhood outside of Manila. When he was little, his mother moved to the U.S. to work and to escape his father, a taxi driver who drank away his wages. His grandmother raised him until his mother had enough money to sponsor her children in 2012.

He knew moving to California was a great opportunity, but he was sad to leave his school because he had a good chance of being valedictorian.

His mother didnt come to the College-Bound Awards Ceremony at Pittsburg High School because she had to work.

And when shes not at work, she needs to rest. I understand because she only sleeps four hours a day, he said. I feel sad that she cant come, but I keep it to myself because I dont want her to feel bad about it.

Shed would never say it out loud, but Fernandez knows his mother is proud of him. Sometimes he overhears her talking to his grandfather on the phone all the way from the Philippines. He grins just thinking about it.

I dont really care about the awards, I just want to make my mom happy, he said. Im giving the best of my ability so someday Ill be able to help her.

That drive impressed the judges enough to award him the scholarship. Fernandez will study civil engineering at Sacramento State in September.
A defiant Bernie Sanders stood in front of a packed crowd in California Tuesday night and promised to continue his fight for the Democratic presidential nomination despite almost overwhelming odds.

"If this campaign has proven anything, it has proven that millions of Americans who love this country are prepared to stand up and fight to make this country a much better place," he said at the rally in Santa Monica. "Thank you all. The struggle continues."

Sanders spoke hours after Hillary Clinton claimed an historic victory, the first woman to be named the presumptive nominee of a major political party. The Associated Press made the declaration before California, New Jersey and four other states voted Tuesday.

Sanders said he would compete in next weeks Democratic primary in Washington, D.C., the final contest, and pledged to bring his message of economic, racial and environmental justice to July's nominating convention. He said he wanted to use the momentum of the campaign to affect political change in America.

Still, he is coming under increasing pressure to withdraw so that Democrats can focus on Republican Donald Trump. Clinton was projected the winner of the biggest prizes of the night, California and New Jersey, as well as New Mexico and South Dakota, and had the majority of pledged delegates, according to NBC News. Sanders took North Dakota and Montana.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California endorsed Clinton Tuesday morning, and The Associated Press reported that President Barack Obama was readying his formal support too.

He is in New York on Wednesday to address a Democratic National Committee fundraiser and to tape an appearance on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" to air Thursday night, the AP noted.

The White House announced that Obama would meet with Sanders on Thursday at the senator's request.

"The President looks forward to continuing the conversation with Senator Sanders about how to build on the extraordinary work he has done to engage millions of Democratic voters, and to build on that enthusiasm in the weeks and months ahead," the statement said.

But Sanders has not backed away from trying to persuade superdelegates who have committed to Clinton to switch their support to him.

"Our goal is to get as many delegates as we possibly can and to make the case to superdelegates that I believe the evidence is fairly strong that I am the strongest candidate," Sanders said to reporters in California on Monday.

Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute of Public Opinion, said that there was no indication Sanders would be able to convince superdelegates to switch allegiances.

"So there's not really a pathway for him at this point, a realistic one I should say," he said.

Clinton crossed the 2,383-delegate threshold needed to clinch the Democratic nomination Monday, and she frequently notes that she has accrued three million more votes in primaries and caucuses than Sanders.

Sanders told NBC News that he was upset about the timing of The AP's announcement and concerned about how it surveyed superdelegates about their commitments.

"They got on the phone as I understand it, and started hounding superdelegates to tell them in an anonymous way who they were voting for. The night before the largest primary, biggest primary in the whole process, they make this announcement," he said. "So I was really disappointed in what The AP did."

David Brady, a professor of political science at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, said that both Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton had long campaigned for Democrats and raised money for them. Sanders is an independent.

"He's never done anything for the Democratic party," he said. "This is his moment in the sun."

And his backers would be unlikely to vote for Trump, Brady said.

In a speech in New York Tuesday night, Trump appealed directly to those voting for Sanders.

"To all of those Bernie Sanders supporters who have been left out in the cold by a rigged system of superdelegates, we welcome you with open arms," he said.

He also went after Clinton, accusing her and her husband of selling access, favors and government contracts for hundreds of millions of dollars, attacking the former secretary of state's foreign policy record and appealing directly to Sanders' supporters.

Clinton made her first speech as presumptive nominee at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, introduced by a video focusing on barriers broken, from the suffragettes who gathered for a women's rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848 to her candidacy.

"Thanks to you, we've reached a milestone -- the first time in our nation's history that a woman will be a major party's nominee," she said. "Tonight's victory is not about one person. It belongs to generations of women and men who struggled and sacrificed and made this moment possible."

She took the fight to Trump, saying he was temperamentally unfit to be president, a man who would take the United States backwards.

"When Donald Trump says a distinguished jurist born in Indiana can't do his job because of his Mexican heritage or he mocks a reporter with disabilities or calls women pigs, it goes against everything we stand for," she said. "Because we want an America where everyone is treated with respect."

She congratulated Sanders on an extraordinary campaign that had been good for the Democratic party and the United States and urged her audience to remember what united them as they looked to the battle ahead.

In his speech Tuesday, Sanders congratulated Clinton as well.

David McCuan, a professor of politics at Sonoma State University, called California the Disneyland of politics, more sizzle than steak, as Clinton sewed up the nomination.

But Sanders' goal is broader than the presidential race: He wants to remake the Democratic party and move it to the left, McCuan said. And he is preparing for future elections in 2018 and beyond, when both parties will be facing rapid demographic shifts, McCuan said.

"Part of the reason he's been here is about building a farm team up and down the ballot, McCuan said.

Sanders hinted at that Tuesday. One of the lines that received the loudest, longest cheers was almost a statement of intent in which Sanders looked beyond the 2016 election: "We understand that our mission is more than just defeating Trump, it is transforming our country."

NBC's Asher Klein contributed to this report.
A Florida woman was charged Wednesday with stringing along a Minnesota couple who planned to adopt her baby  seven months after she miscarried, NBC News reported.

Carrie Cutler, 31, who miscarried last August, took more than $13,000 from Todd and Alyssa Holmstrom to cover rent, food and medical expenses, the Pinellas County Sheriffs Office said.

She sent messages to the couple telling them she was having a girl and that the baby was "fine."

When the couple traveled to Tampa for the birth, Cutler told them the doctors miscalculated her delivery date. The Holmstroms didnt suspect Cutler wasn't pregnant because she is heavyset.

Police arrested Cutler after a three-month investigation. She does not have an attorney.
The California judge criticized for handing down what many saw as a too-light sentence to a former Stanford student convicted of sexual assault has received threats against him and his family, NBC News reported.

Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky on Thursday sentenced 20-year-old Brock Turner to six months in prison and three years' probation for raping an unconscious woman outside a frat party last year. He will also have to register as a sex offender for life.

Since the sentence and the resulting furor online and elsewhere, "more than a handful" of anonymous callers have phoned court staff with insulting or threatening messages, said Gary Goodman, a deputy public defender with the county.

"A lot of them are extremely rude and are just horrible and horrific ... I hope you die and your family gets raped, things of that nature," Goodman said. "You've got to be out of your mind to talk that way."
Sen. Mark Kirk is mulling his options on who to back in Novembers presidential election after he made it clear Tuesday he would not support presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

According to the Kirk campaign, the senator is considering former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency David Petraeus and former Secretary of State Colin Powell. Both choices would be write-in options because neither are running for president.

Petraeus, a retired four-star Army general, resigned from his post as the CIAs Director in 2012 following a scandal stemming from an extramarital affair with Paula Broadwell, the principal author of his biography.

In 2015, Petraeus pled guilty in federal court to a charge of unauthorized removal and retention of classified information for providing classified information to Broadwell. He was sentenced to two years probation plus a fine of $100,000 in April of 2015.

Powell, who is also a retired four-star Army general, served as Secretary of State during George W. Bushs first-term in office as president. He served in that capacity during the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and the subsequent invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

The choices make sense, given Kirks military experience. The senator served in the United States Naval Reserve, retiring in 2013 after attaining the rank of Commander.

Kirks decision not to back Trump comes on the heels of the billionaires statements about the heritage of a Hispanic judge presiding over civil fraud lawsuits against his beleaguered Trump University. In a Tuesday statement, Kirk called the comments un-American.

As the Presidential campaign progressed, I was hoping the rhetoric would tone down and reflect a campaign that was inclusive, thoughtful and principled, Kirk said in a statement. While I oppose the Democratic nominee, Donald Trump's latest statements, in context with past attacks on Hispanics, women and the disabled like me, make it certain that I cannot and will not support my party's nominee for President regardless of the political impact on my candidacy or the Republican Party.

Trump has argued his comments were "misconstrued."
Richard Maslowski has a problem. He says his car was stolen March 22nd, and police cant find it.

On its face that may not seem to be such a large problem. After all, thousands of cars are stolen every year, and with Chicagos skyrocketing violence, police certainly have many priorities which one could argue run higher than locating pilfered automobiles.

Problem is, other city employees have found Maslowksis car, a candy apple red Honda Del Sol. City parking aides have managed to find it five times and have issued parking tickets each time.

Five tickets. And Maslowski keeps getting the notices.

They dont check on license plates, he said. So I get tickets to go along with my stolen car.

Whats worse, all five of the tickets were written at the same address on Chicagos near northwest side. Maslowski says after getting the notices, he called to find out if police had finally located his missing car.

They put me on hold, and then they came back and said, no, the car is still listed as stolen.

To add insult to injury, each of the notices carries photos of his car. In a different place than where it should be.

Looks as good as it did when it was parked in my parking space, he said.

Maslowskis daughter Kristin Stockwell thought the whole matter was so absurd she checked out the address where the car had been spotted, to no avail, then visited the 14th district police station, to ask why police couldnt find the car if the parking aides knew where it kept showing up.

We cant help you, because we dont know how they work their system, she says the police explained. Its asinine! Its ridiculous!

The Police Department did not respond to a request for comment. A Department of Revenue spokesman likewise did not respond to a request for information on why the handheld computers used by parking aides do not show a car as stolen when its license plate is entered. Her only response, in fact, was to correct a reporter that the employees writing the tickets are not meter maids---They are parking enforcement aides.

Fair enough. But Stockwell wanted to know why those parking aides couldnt be told to be on the lookout for her fathers car, since theyve apparently already found it five times.

They said we cant do that, she said. Its been found five times. Five times!

So, more than two months after his car vanished, Maslowski is still without transportation, and says he grows more and more frustrated as he sees places the city wants to spend its money, like a new museum on the lakefront.

Im not worried about Star Wars, he said. They could have found my car. I dont have one!
On Wednesday afternoon, Chicago Cubs outfielder Albert Almora, Jr. will make his first career start in a Major League game, but even back in 2013 he had a premonition of how special this team could potentially be.

In an interview with Comcast SportsNet Chicago, Almora discussed what it would be like to make his way up to the Cubs roster, and he had a very specific vision of how his time in the Windy City would be remembered.

Its something that you look forward to when you wake up, like, Man, Im gonna be part of something great, he told the website. Its something that makes me work harder and harder every day just to know that one day, Im gonna have that ring on my finger and its gonna be history.

The Cubs obviously have not put rings on their fingers yet, but theyre well on their way to becoming a dominant franchise in the league. They currently hold an eight and a half game lead in the NL Central, and according to FanGraphs, the Cubs (who have the leagues best record at 40-17), have a 99.7 percent chance of making the postseason this year.

As for Almora, he made his MLB debut on Tuesday night, grounding out to third base in a pinch-hit appearance, but Wednesday will make his first career start. He will bat sixth and play left field for the Cubs, who will be looking to take a series win against the Phillies.
For the first time since Drew Petersons infamous outburst during his 2013 murder sentencing hearing, those who were not in the courtroom that day can hear the dramatic words uttered by the former suburban police officer.

Tapes from the highly publicized hearing were released Tuesday, weeks after they were played during Petersons murder-for-hire trial. The two-and-a-half hours of audio also include undercover recordings considered crucial to the latest case against Peterson, who was found guilty last week of trying to hire a hit man to kill the prosecutor who put him behind bars.

The notorious outburst began as Peterson screamed I did not kill Kathleen, just minutes before he was sentenced to 38 years in prison for the 2004 drowning death of his third wife, Kathleen Savio.

In the audio, Savios sister, Susan Doman, shouts back, Yes you did, you liar before the judge ordered sheriffs deputies to remove her from the courtroom.

Many have read about the courtroom eruption, but few have heard it.

In the long statement on his innocence three years ago, Peterson blamed Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow for what he described as an obsessive investigation. In tears at times, Peterson told the court he was being sentenced to the Department of Corrections to die.

"I think the only thing left to make this case more true to form would be cruel and unusual punishment," he said. "I don't think anybody would care, because nobody cares. I can't believe I spent 32 years protecting the constitution that allowed this to happen to me."

Glasgow, at the time, thought little of Peterson's statement but said the emotional outburst exposed the real Drew Peterson -- the one capable of murder.

"We all got an opportunity to see a psychopath," Glasgow said in 2013. "When he got up on the stand and that shrill, kind of feminine screech that he didn't kill Kathy, that's the guy that killed Kathy. You got a glimpse into his soul."

Peterson was found guilty in 2012 of murdering Savio. Her death was initially ruled an accident, after neighbors found the 40-year-old aspiring nurse's body in a dry bathtub at home. It was the disappearance of Petersons fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, in 2007, that prompted authorities to take another look at Savio's death and eventually reclassify it as a homicide. Drew Peterson is also a suspect in the disappearance of Stacy Peterson -- who was 23-years-old when she vanished -- but he hasn't been charged in her case.

Last week, jurors deliberated for less than an hour before finding 62-year-old Peterson guilty of plotting to kill Glasgow.

According to wiretapped conversations played in court, Peterson was planning an alcohol-fueled prison celebration after arranging for another inmate's uncle to kill the prosecutor.

"You know this (expletive) gonna be all over the news," the informant, Antonio Smith, says in the recordings. "This is about to be huge."

"But the first thing they will identify him as the guy that got me," Peterson responds. "That's what he's known for, the guy that prosecuted Drew Peterson."

Peterson's court-appointed public defender has dismissed the secret recordings of his client arranging for the hit with informant Antonio "Beast" Smith as exaggerated prison boasts. The lawyer also attacked the informant's credibility.

The recordings show that Peterson also discussed selling drugs in Mexico if he gets out of prison, as well as his fears that Glasgow would also charge him in the death of Stacy Peterson.
Just moments after a man announced a $15 million lawsuit against the city of Chicago in a 2014 police shooting, he was arrested on suspicion of murder.

Dominiq Greer, 25, was taken into custody Wednesday shortly after a news conference announcing his lawsuit. Police said he was arrested on a warrant for first-degree murder stemming from a fatal shooting in the city's Washington Park neighborhood on May 27.

In that shooting, a 22-year-old man was killed in an apartment in the 5600 block of South Wabash. The man, identified as Kevin Larry, was pronounced dead at the scene and a criminal investigation indicated Greer was the shooter, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. Further details on the shooting weren't immediately known, but charges were pending, authorities said.

Shortly before his arrest, Greer alleged police used excessive force when they shot him numerous times during a foot pursuit on the Fourth of July in 2014.

According to his attorneys, Greer was walking in the 7400 block of South Princeton Avenue when officers pulled up in a marked vehicle and Greer ran into an alley. The officers followed Greer and ultimately shot him seven times.

"When they tried to grab me, I ran. I feared for my life, so I kept running," Greer said during the news conference. "When I got in the alley that's when I heard gunshots."

Greer admitted he was carrying a handgun at the time of the chase but denied officers' claims the gun discharged during the pursuit. He said he threw the weapon away just before police opened fire.

"They said I turned around and aimed a gun, but I never turned around or nothing," Greer said. "They ain't got no gunshot residue or nothing on me. They said the gun discharged. I never heard the gun discharge, I heard their gun discharge."

Greer claims he was shot three times, then shot another four times while he was on the ground.

Surveillance footage of the incident was released by Greer's lawyers Wednesday.

The more-than-two-minute video, which has no audio, shows Greer running in an alley and appearing to throw an object. He then falls to the ground before shots are fired by someone outside of the camera's view. Greer gets up and falls again in an unlit area as police approach him with weapons drawn.

The video's release comes days after city officials released hundreds of videos, police reports and other evidence from investigations into allegations of excessive force by police. However, Greer's shooting was not among the evidence released.

"In full transparency and disclosure it should have been released," said Greer's attorney, Eugene Hollander. "Why shouldn't the public know about that?"

The city declined to comment on Greer's suit, saying it had not yet been served.

Greer's attorney declined to comment on his recent arrest.
A convicted sex offender accused of trying to take a picture of a 12-year-old boy urinating in a Wrigley Field bathroom Saturday had video recordings of what appears to be other minors using the restroom at the ballpark that afternoon, Cook County prosecutors said.

The faces of the males using the urinal trough and stalls can be seen in several of the files and at least four of those seen in the videos appear to be under the age of 18, Assistant States Attorney Marilyn Salas-Wail told Judge Maria Kuriakos Ciesil on Tuesday.

The 12-year-old boy, whose father caught Nichols Gregor, was not seen on the recordings that were apparently taken from 1:45 p.m. to 3:35 p.m. on Saturday, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting.

The boy and his father went to the bathroom as they and the rest of the family called it a day in the 8th inning, Salas-Wail said.

The father was washing his hands and standing about four-to-five feet away from his son when he noticed Gregor holding a black object that was the size of an iPhone case in his right hand, Salas-Wail said.

Gregor, 37, was so close to the boy at the trough, he rubbed shoulders with the minor as he held the black object and a black bag that was pointed toward the boys groin, Salas-Wail said.

When the boys father confronted Gregor, he tried to leave, Salas-Wail said.

What are you doing? the dad asked Gregor, according to a police report.

Nothing, Gregor said as he fumbled with his belongings and tried to walk away.

Stop. I know you did something, the dad said.

I didnt take any pictures, Gregor insisted, according to the police report.

The father of the boy grabbed onto Gregors backpack and held him down with the help of another individual, Salas-Wail said.

Police eventually arrived and officers found that Gregor had a cellphone, digital recorder and two cameras, Salas-Wail said.

One of the small handheld cameras had multiple videos from Wrigley Field depicting the ballparks concourse just outside the mens bathroom or inside the mens bathroom, Salas-Wail said.

Gregor, of Villa Park, can allegedly be seen in the videos adjusting the camera.

Gregor has been charged with two counts of unauthorized video taping and one count of video taping in a public place, all felony sex offenses.

Nicholas Gregor pleaded guilty in 2011 to possessing child pornography and illegal taping of minors and was sentenced to six months in jail, according to the Illinois Sex Offender registry.

He was arrested for filming a 14-year-old boy in a bathroom in St. Charles in 2010.

After his arrest, police found hundreds of videos of child pornography on Gregors home computer in Lombard, DuPage County prosecutors said at his trial. Salas-Wail on Tuesday said Gregor would get some footage by pointing his camera on boys genitals at a recreational center.

Kuriakos Ciesil called Gregor a predator before ordering him held without bond.
Lakeland police have launched an investigation at Lake Hunter, Florida, where an alligator was seen with a man's body in its mouth.

Lakeland police spokesman Gary Gross said officers were able to retrieve the body, and said a trapper was called to capture the 8-foot reptile.

According to NBC affiliate WFLA, someone at Florida Presbyterian Homes called 911 to report the incident Tuesday afternoon.

It wasn't known whether the alligator killed the man or simply found the body. Gross said a medical examiner will have to determine the cause of death.

Lakeland police have not released the identity of the man.

Florida Presbyterian Homes is a senior living community located in Lakeland, which is halfway between Tampa and Orlando in Polk County.

Last week, two fishermen discovered alligators eating a dead man in a South Florida canal.
A standoff that began when police attempted to serve a warrant to a homicide suspect Tuesday in northwest Dallas ended with the man taken to a Dallas hospital.

Members of the North Texas Fugitive Task Force were serving a warrant at about 4:30 p.m. at the Walnut Inn, on the 2600 block of Walnut Hill Lane. As they approached the suspect's room, the officers heard gunshots fired from inside the room, police said.[[382159611,R]]

The officers retreated and called for SWAT units to respond, police said.

Nobody was injured by the gunfire.

Police blocked traffic from traveling along Walnut Hill Lane at Shady Trail as a precaution while they attempted to communicate with the man inside.

[NATL] Top News Photos: Pope Visits Japan, and More

Officers fired tear gas inside the man's motel room just before 7:30 p.m., and he soon surrendered. He was taken to a hospital for treatment from exposure to the tear gas and did not appear to be shot, police said.

The suspect was identified as Benjamin Strauch, 27.

Fort Worth police said he was wanted in connection with a homicide on May 30 in the 2200 block of Evans Avenue.
What to Know Jellyfish larvae, known as "sea lice," have been stinging swimmers in the Florida Panhandle.

The almost invisible lice leave behind a rash or bumps on the skin. The rash is often called "ocean itch'' and lasts from hours to days.

Swimmers at a Florida Panhandle beach are dealing with painful rashes from stinging jellyfish larvae, more commonly known as "sea lice."

Sea lice are almost invisible to the naked eye, but they leave an unmistakable sting, the Panama City News Herald reports. They've been reported along Walton County's Santa Rosa Beach this week.

Scott Jackson, a sea grant extension agent in nearby Bay County, said some scientists have compared the larvae to specks of pepper. They typically float harmlessly in the water, but sometimes they get trapped inside swimsuits. That's when they sting.

Jackson said they leave behind a rash or bumps on the skin. The rash is often called "ocean itch" and lasts from a couple hours to several days.
A Hawaii yoga instructor has been charged with second-degree murder in the death of her twin sister after police said she intentionally plunged the car she was driving off a cliff, NBC News reported.

Alexandria Duval, 37, pleaded not guilty Monday in the fatal May 29 crash in Maui. She was critically injured. Her sister, Anastasia Duval, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Witnesses told investigators they saw the women fighting inside the vehicle moments before the fall.

Alexandria Duval was arrested Friday, following her discharge from the hospital. She was ordered held without bail Monday. A preliminary hearing was set for Wednesday.

Her defense attorney, Todd Eddins, told reporters that she was not trying to harm herself or "the person she most loved and was closest to in the world."
Branford police are investigating a possible threat concern that appeared on a social media website on Tuesday, police said.

Police said they are working with Branford school officials to investigate a threat concerning the Walsh Intermediate School.

"At this point, there is no credible information to substantiate the threat," Captain Geoffrey Morgan said. "However, the investigation is ongoing."

As of Tuesday night, police said there were no plans for extra patrols on campus "unless the investigation discloses that that is warranted."
A Connecticut court has overturned the conviction of a man serving life in prison for the 1996 rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl whose body was never found.

The state Appellate Court on Monday ordered a new trial for George Leniart, saying the trial judge improperly excluded key evidence including a videotaped interview of a prosecution witness and expert testimony on the reliability of jailhouse informants.

Police said Leniart sexually assaulted and killed April Dawn Pennington, of Montville, in May 1996. Authorities said the girl snuck out of her house to meet with another teenager, Patrick "PJ" Allain and Leniart, who was 30 at the time.

They drove to a secluded area in Ledyard to drink alcohol and smoke marijuana when Leniart grew paranoid.

"He said he needed a body. He said he was in a cult and wanted a body for the altar," Allain testifed, according to the Norwich Bulletin. "I know if I didn't cooperate he was going to hurt me and hurt April.

Pennington's body was never found after that night.

Leniart was arrested in 2008 while serving a prison sentence for raping a 13-year-old girl. Authorities said he told other inmates he reaped and killed Pennington.
People visiting their loved ones at a West Meadows Cemetery in Newington are outraged as to why some of their memorabilia was found laying outside in the back of the cemeterys operations building.

Some want to know why the cemetery is removing the items.

Patty Fink said she noticed some items were missing from her fathers grave during Memorial Day weekend and in the last three years shes been visiting her father nothing has ever been touched.

"I thought it had been stolen. I didnt think that they took it. I came today to report things stolen from his grave, said Fink, of Southington.

The items were taken from gravesites and placed outside in the back of the operations building at the cemetery, along with dozens of angels, flowers and wreaths.

While not all memorabilia was removed, it's unclear why some items remain.

While, Fink said cemetery officials never made her aware that items were going to be removed from gravesites, a sign posted at the cemetery stated cemetery clean up begins Mar. 15 and to remove decorations.

Fink said no matter the reason, it shouldnt be up to the cemetery to remove memorabilia that are so personal.

If they only called me, I would have come and removed this, said Fink who collected a wreath, but was still missing a flower pot.

Im hurt, Im very, very hurt its very personal and I mean its an invasion, this is a memoriam to my father and its not right.

Cemetery workers told Fink she could pick up her removed belongings from behind the cemeterys operations building.

Cemetery maintenance crews told NBC Connecticut off-camera the items were removed because it was hard to mow around them.

"It appears there was a breakdown in communication between the cemetery operations and the families buried there," said Newington Mayor Roy Zartarian.

"We are working to address the issue to improve the communication and the council will be looking at the ordinance governing what may be placed on graves and at what point during the year."

NBC Connecticut reached out to cemetery administrators and Newingtons superintendent of parks and recreation multiple times.
The four members of the pop super group ABBA performed together over the weekend for the first time in decades, according to Swedish media.

Sweden's Expressen newspaper reported the performance took place at a private party in downtown Stockholm.

It was a rare joint appearance for Agnetha Faltskog, Benny Andersson, Bjorn Ulvaeus and Anni-Frid Lyngstad  whose first initials form the letters of the band's name, NBC News reported.

The music group disbanded in 1982 and last performed publicly four years later. Andersson said that in 2000 the group turned down a $1 billion offer to tour.
Two Texas State Senators led by Lt. Governor Dan Patrick sent a letter Tuesday to President Barack Obama and the Texas Congressional delegation urging for coordination at the local, state and federal level to combat the Zika virus in Texas.

Patrick, along with the Senate Chair of the Health and Human Services Committee, Charles Schwertner, and the Senate Chair of the Finance Committee, Jane Nelson are leading the charge in a proactive fight against Zika in Texas.

The state is doing its part in the Zika campaign, Patrick said, but Texas needs more resources to fight the virus.

"Texas is taking the necessary steps to combat this potentially devastating public health threat but we also need federal funds sooner rather than later, before it's too late. I am calling upon the federal government to break the gridlock and act quickly to address this growing public health issue," Lt. Governor Patrick said in a statement Tuesday.

The recent onslaught of floods, paired with Texas's geography, puts the state at a particularly high risk for the transmission of the Zika virus as it moves into Mosquito season.
Mesquite joined 51 Texas cities in becoming a comprehensive smoke-free city Monday night.

The Mesquite City Council passed an ordinance that prohibits smoking in all indoor places of employment. Effective immediately, the new policy will ban smoking in many public places as well.

According to the ordinance, it will be illegal to smoke in airports, bars, classrooms, grocery stores, hotels, playgrounds, and restroom facilities, just to name a few.

The Mesquite City Council said they also hope to eliminate secondhand smoke exposure in the workplace and beyond.

Almost every major city in Texas has become comprehensively smoke-free. Fort Worth, however, is one city that still hasnt passed a nonsmoking ordinance.

Smoke Free Texas is hoping for Fort Worth to become the next smoke free city. Billy Bobs, the worlds largest honky tonk, located in the heart of Cowtown, banned smoking after customers demanded the change.

According to the American Nonsmokers Rights Foundation, 32 states are smoke free in non-hospitality workplaces. Texas is not one of them, but Smoke Free Texas is fighting for the Lone Star State to limit the smoke and change the future. For now, Mesquite is contributing to that change.
Dallas police are searching for the person who stole a parked vehicle left running Wednesday morning with two sleeping children inside. [[382203801,C]]

A woman and a co-worker went inside the Fox Fuel gas station on the 10100 Harry Hines Boulevard to buy food at about 1:30 a.m. The gas station clerk said the woman left her car running with her grandchildren  7-year-old twins  asleep in the back.

The clerk said someone drove away in the woman's car while the children were inside. The woman's co-worker, who was asleep in another vehicle, awoke and began following the stolen vehicle.

Dallas police said the person who stole the woman's car noticed the co-worker following and slammed on the brakes, causing a crash on Interstate 30 near Hampton Road. The thief then rammed the co-worker's vehicle until the stolen vehicle rolled over.

Police said the thief then ran from the vehicle and has not yet been located.

The two children in the vehicle were transported to Children's Medical Center of Dallas, according to police. Both were in car seats during the incident and were in good condition and released.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Authorities initially reported that two people were in custody for the theft of the vehicle. Police have since amended the report.
Dallas County leaders debated tax rate cuts Tuesday with one voicing strong resistance to the reduction crusade launched by the countys top elected official.

Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said taxpayers deserve a break with property values expected to rise more than 12 percent.

Our middle class didnt get a 10 percent pay increase, and so they cant afford a 10 percent tax increase. And so, I would like for us all to work together to lower the tax rates, Jenkins said.

His plan calls for reducing the tax rate to cap the effective increase at 7.5 percent. Jenkins wants Dallas County cities and school districts to follow his suggestion. The Dallas City Council will discuss budget issues Wednesday.

Even with rising values, Dallas city officials still forecast a $19 million shortfall in their October 1 budget with many problems pending at Dallas City Hall.

The Democratic County Judge has a strong ally in Republican County Commissioner Mike Cantrell.

That doesnt happen very often, Im extremely excited, Cantrell said.

Cantrell wants an even larger rate reduction to raise only as much revenue as property taxes currently bring in.

"I think we can still do that. I believe we can cut things in government, Cantrell said. You can have less employees making more money, doing the same kind of job. So, I think theres some opportunity for shrinking government down a little bit."

Democratic Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price strongly opposed the rate reduction talk Tuesday.

Price said Dallas County government scrimped through tight times with a very low tax rate and the new revenue is a chance for needed improvements.

"Weve got to move forward with the needs of Dallas County, infrastructure needs and delayed needs that weve got. Weve been frugal," Price said.

Renovating Dallas County Records Building

An example of Dallas County deferral according to Price is the County Records Building complex. Portions of the building are more than 100 years old.

Renovation plans presented Tuesday will completely gut the existing structure to reconfigure the interior into more usable, modern offices.

County Commissioners would move into the complex from their current offices at the former Texas School Book Depository. Some offices have already left the Records Building for temporary space and others are packing now.

A decaying center of Dallas County government is about to be gutted for a long overdue renovation. Parts of the Dallas County Records Building complex are more than 100 years old.

Most public functions like Probate Courts and the County Clerk will be housed at the Renaissance Tower Building in Downtown Dallas for the next few years.

Commissioners said Tuesday they want to reduce the projected renovation cost of $138 million.

We need to get these county buildings up to code and functioning and we cant afford to pay rents for an opulent glass tower for too long, Jenkins said.

Price said more deferred problems could be addressed if tax rates are not reduced.

Dallas County has been responsible, weve been frugal, and theres no reason for us to suffer now, Price said.

Citizens will have chances to tell elected officials what they want before local government votes on future tax rates later this year.

The final Dallas County tax roll is due July 25 after pending appraisal appeals have been settled.
Fair Park marks a milestone this week when the city of Dallas celebrates 80 years since the Texas Centennial introduced the world to Dallas in 1936 and the majestic Art Deco buildings opened to the public.

"That is the year America discovered Dallas," Dallas Parks & Recreation Director Willis Winter said. "No other city in America has an asset like Fair Park."

The city will host a series of free events to encourage the public to explore the grounds, including a concert by the Dallas Symphony, firework shows and kid zones.

To celebrate Fair Parks 80th anniversary, Fletchers corny dog stand will be open Friday and Saturday.

The State Fair of Texas will open the Midway for games and, for the first time, offer free rides on the Texas Star and Texas Tower. Even Fletcher's will sell their corny dogs to visitors Friday and Saturday.

"We need to keep Fair Park relevant and vibrant and continue to reflect on its history and importance in the development of our city," said Winter.

[[382210261,C]]

The celebration comes as city leaders weigh the future of Fair Park. Critics have long argued the space is underutilized during the 11 months the State Fair of Texas is not in operation.

This month members of the city's park board are reviewing plans to turn its 277 acres over to a non-profit under the control of the Fair Park Texas Foundation. Proposed plans include adding more greenspace and attractions to make the park a year-round attraction. The non-profit would use millions in public funds and fundraising dollars to transform the grounds and maintain the historic structures.

The park board is reviewing plans this summer and, if approved, the proposal could go before the city council in August.

This week's celebration will include an area where the public can submit their own visions for Fair Park's future.

Willis, who wrote a book on the history and significance of Fair Park, said the park deserves to be celebrated and enjoyed for future generations.

"I truly believe this is one of the best public spaces in America," he said.

Online: Fair Park 80th Anniversary Celebration
Beginning Wednesday, military veterans and their loved ones can seek free counseling and related services at a first-of-its-kind clinic in North Texas.

The Steven A. Cohen Military Family Clinic at Metrocare in Addison "provides personalized, confidential and evidence-based mental health care to veterans and their families at no cost," according to its documents.

"Going from a war zone in service time to civilian life, these are very different things," Metrocare Services CEO Dr. John Burruss said. "It's very hard on the families."

Services are available to any person who has served in the U.S. Armed Forces, including the National Guard and Reserves, regardless of role or discharge status, and their family members.

"They all can get help when they need it. they all can get help in transition and get help when they have an actual diagnosable condition that we can really help them with," Burruss said. "We want to help all the veterans."

The staff at the clinic, named on behalf of billionaire hedge fund manager Steven A. Cohen, aims to supplement the work being done by the Department of Veterans Affairs, according to Burruss.

According to clinic staff, the primary focus of the clinic is on soldiers who have served in post-9/11 conflicts.

There are two other Cohen Clinics in the United States -- in New York and in San Antonio -- and the plan is to open many more in the near future.

Jonathan Hill, the Outreach Director of the Addison clinic, served several years in the military. He told NBC DFW that he personally struggled with finding new purpose during the transition to civilian life. Working with other veterans, however, brought him joy.

"I enjoyed it so much. I embraced them like they're my own family and I love them dearly," he said. "I will continue to do that. It's my calling."



Online: Cohen Veterans Network
A homeless woman and her daughter are just days away from a room of their own.

Kari Huber, 39, and Brianna, 5, will be the first to move into a new interim housing program at the Presbyterian Night Shelter in Fort Worth.

The Morris Foundation Women and Children's Center is "an innovative tool in the fight to end homelessness for women and children in Tarrant County," according to a news release.

The new facility for women and children features 40 private suites, up from 12. With the new center, capacity for women and children will grow from 30 families to 40; and the number of single women served will increase form 130 to 156.

Huber enrolled in the shelter's Women with Children program back in February after a journey " through four states and multiple shelters, including living in an abandoned Fort Worth building last fall.

When she moves in the new building next Monday, this will be the first time that Kari & Brianna will have a room of their own," spokeswoman Julie Hatch Fairley said in the news release sent to NBC 5.

Women in the interim housing program will be required to take part in an internship or vocational program, counseling, education and life skills training. The average stay in the program is expected to be from three to six months.
There is new and troubling information about rape on college campuses. A Washington Post report looking at federal crime statistics shows that 100 colleges and universities recorded at least 10 reports of rape on their main campuses in 2014, the last time that information became available.

This follows two major sex assault scandals  first, at Stanford University, where a former swimmer was sentenced to just six months in prison for sexually assaulting a woman in an alley on campus while she was unconscious; second, at Baylor University, where several employees recently lost their jobs over allegations they failed to protect sexual assault victims on their campus.

From the campus of Texas Christian University it's easy to look to nearby Baylor and far away Stanford and feel grateful their scandals aren't happening here.

"It really makes me sad for them, and I wish that something could have been done before it got to the point that it did," said TCU student Ashley Sumrall.

But sexual assault can happen anywhere, especially on college campuses.

"When you mix alcohol, partying and drugs," said TCU student Caroline Pulliam.

Counselors at the Women's Center of Tarrant County say there's only one way to fight it.

"For students to be educated, professors and administrators, because that's what's going to change the culture," said Katharine Collier-Esser, coordinator of research and training for the Womens Center.

The Women's Center works with area universities, like TCU, providing training to students in the classroom and to Title IX officers who take reports of sexual assaults.

At TCU, incoming freshmen take mandatory sexual assault training before they ever make it on campus. They get alerts of any on-campus security threats and can take safety classes from campus police.

But students say it comes down to them to make sexual assault unacceptable, make sure victims aren't blamed and encourage them to speak out.

"Feeling like they're able to come forward and able to tell their story, they won't be judged and they'll automatically be believed," said Pulliam. "This is our school, we're the students, we're the ones that have the most power to stop it."

NBC 5 checked in with other area campuses Tuesday, including Southern Methodist University, University of North Texas and University of Texas at Arlington, and administrators said they're offering ongoing training there as well.

The Women's Center says along with training on how not to become a victim, it's important to train on how not to become an offender, by teaching about respect and understanding boundaries.
A family is grieving the loss of a retired Dallas police officer.

Robert Crider, 57, of Farmersville, was killed in a head-on crash in Collin County Sunday.

He was driving home on Highway 78, a road where five people have died in crashes in just the past three months.

The man who authorities believe caused Sunday's crash, 28-year-old Anastacio Rosas, also died in the collision.

As the investigation began into the cause of the crash, so did the search for Crider's dog, who was in his car at the time but ran off after the crash.

A picture of "Penny," a 3-year-old Vizsla, was posted online by a family friend and shared hundreds of times on social media.

Penny was spotted Tuesday. Robert Crider Sr., the victim's father, said Penny had returned to the site of the crash.

"In the Crider family, it's not four people living together in the same house, it's a family, and a dog becomes part of your family," Robert Crider Sr. said.

The Department of Public Safety said Rosas crossed into oncoming traffic and hit Robert Crider's Cadillac head-on.

Robert Crider's girlfriend, who was in the car, remains hospitalized.

Nevada, Texas, firefighter Peter Hacking and his two small children died in a wreck not far away on Highway 78 in March.

"It hits so close to home for us. Peter and Grayson and Ellie lost their lives on this road. Another family lost their family members on this road. It's particularly frustrating for those purposes," Nevada Fire Department spokesperson Amy Cortez said.

Construction on Highway 78 is a concern for many residents who use it everyday.

The stretch of road where Robert Crider died was recently resurfaced, but the center lines were not added until Monday, a day after the crash.

The Texas Department of Transportation said wet weather kept its crews from painting them on sooner.

Investigators are still working to determine what caused Rosas to cross into the oncoming lane.
Iran said Tuesday it would not grant visas to three U.S. congressmen opposed to its recent nuclear deal with world powers, calling their request to monitor the accord a "publicity stunt."

The three Republican lawmakers  Reps. Frank LoBiondo of New Jersey, Mike Pompeo of Kansas and Lee Zeldin of New York  all voted against the deal in the House and are part of a GOP backlash against the pact negotiated by Democratic President Barack Obama's administration. The accord limited Iran's ability to enrich uranium in exchange for the lifting of crippling economic sanctions.

In a letter released Tuesday in Tehran, Iran's Foreign Ministry refused the request over "the completely inappropriate way you have demanded to visit Iran and interfere in what is of no relevance to (your) official functions.'"

"Despite what you seem to presume, (members) of the U.S. Congress do not get to dictate the policies of other countries," the letter read.

In a statement, LoBiondo said it was "deeply disappointing, though not surprising" that Iran denied "our legitimate request with insults and deflections."

Pompeo said in a statement he still wanted Iran to grant him a visa, even though the country continues to "act as a rogue and hostile nation."

The congressmen say they asked for visas in February to observe Iran's parliamentary elections, see "American hostages" and visit three nuclear facilities.

Iran's semi-official ISNA news agency said the lawmakers hoped to receive a military briefing about the brief detention of 10 U.S. Navy sailors in January who entered Iranian waters off Farsi Island in the Persian Gulf.
Hillary Clinton supporters in North Texas say the presumptive Democratic nominee has a shot at winning the longtime red Lone Star State in the November presidential election.

"I think it's possible," said Mary Clare Fabishak, with the group Metrocrest Democrats.

Texas hasn't voted for a Democrat in 40 years, not since Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter beat incumbent President Gerald Ford in 1976.

"The Republicans are shifting at some levels, and I think many of them will find that Trump is unsupportable," said Fabishak.

In a recent interview with New York Magazine, Clinton said, "if black and Latino voters come out and vote, we could win Texas."

"That's what we're trying to do, get more and more people involved," said Democratic activist Melody Vincent, of Denton County.

"I fully expect this to be turning at least purple come November," said Kathleen Jensen, of Highland Park.

At several watch parties in Dallas County Tuesday night, Democrats celebrated Clinton becoming the first woman in American history projected to win a major party's presidential nomination.

"I have waited my entire life for this," said Rachel Baker Ford, of Garland.

"For me, personally, it means equal pay for women and many of the other things that we have been striving for," said Laura Irvin, of Dallas.

State Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, a Clinton superdelegate, thinks Hillary Clinton could win the Lone Star State.

"I think that Texas could go blue, yes. But realistically it gets down to the turnout. And if we get the turnout that I know that we should be able to get, then we will see some surprises in these elections," said West.

West expects a big effort at the Democratic State Convention in San Antonio, which starts June 16.

"If we continue to have Trump say the things that he's saying, spewing the venom that he is spewing, then not only Democrats but independents and some Republicans are going to have to take a good hard look at as to whether or not they'll actually vote for him. I didn't say support him publically, but actually vote for him," West said.

Republicans have won the state by double digits in every presidential election since 1980, except for two  when Bill Clinton was on the ballot.

Mark Montgomery, chairman of the Dallas County Republican Party, says he and other party leaders are confident Texas will remain red.

"In the past few years, the Texas Democratic Party has made tremendous strides in building a modern, data-driven state political party. We are now leading efforts across the state to build the permanent infrastructure necessary to win," said Tariq Thowfeek, communications director for the Texas Democratic Party.

NBC 5's Julie Fine contributed to this report.
Richmond police said they have arrested a man they say stole a WWI-era cannon outside the Veteran's Memorial Hall.

Lt. Felix Tan said officers took Dezi Adsuara, 44, of Vallejo into custody on Tuesday night, after detectives said they had "compelling evidence" against him. They had been looking for him since the cannon was stolen on May 11, a story first reported by NBC Bay Area.

Adsuara also goes by Roland Joseph Garcia, police said.

The cannon was returned a day after NBC Bay Area aired the story of the stolen cannon by a man who bought the ancient piece and called police to say he saw the story on the news, and realized he had unwittingly bought the stolen merchandise.

Surveillance video at the scene of the crime shows two people in a truck pulling into the lot, cutting the cannon's chain and towing the one-ton brass and iron weapon away. The theft took place in under a minute. Police said that only one suspect sold the cannon, and if he talks, police may get the identity of the second.

Anyone with information should call Richmond Police Property Crimes Detective T. Kaiser at (510) 672-0764.
A tree-climbing, 200-pound bear with a taste for suburban amenities in La Canada visited a YMCA, took a dip in at least two backyard pools, and kept concerned neighbors and authorities waiting while she snoozed on a tree branch, before finally scampering down and disappearing back into the wilderness Wednesday evening as personnel with bean bag rounds and tranquilizer darts held their fire.

It turned out the 3-year-old female black bear is a repeat offender. The red tag on her right ear had been affixed two weeks ago after she staged another tree sit-in in Pasadena, being brought down in that case with a tranquilizer dart, according to California Fish and Wildlife officials.

The bear had been transported to Mt. Lukens -- elevation 5,066 feet -- in the San Gabriel mountains, said Fish and Wildlife Lt. Marty Wall, but made her way into a La Canada residential neighborhood Wednesday morning.

Sheriff's deputies responded to a reported 10 a.m. sighting of the bear in the back of a home in the 4600 block of Palm Drive, which required crossing busy Foothill Boulevard to reach the destination. The bear, dripping with pool water, walked onto another property in the community about 15 miles north of downtown Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department reported several 911 calls about the bear. Department of Fish and Wildlife officers tracked her to the 1700 block of Lila Lane, where she waded into the shallow end of another pool. She traveled alone.

Authorities learned from their first encounter with her that she had not given birth to any cubs.

At one point, she headed up the driveway of the YMCA on Foothill Boulevard, startling a class for seniors who could see her through their window. Then she headed back north into residential neighborhoods with deputies in pursuit.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BGZxRvcy7SO

In all, the bear covered at least two miles traveling through La Canada Flintridge.

It appeared the bear was headed to an undeveloped canyon and ravine area which leads back into the Angeles Forest. Wall surmised it was likely the route she had taken into La Canada. But then she stopped on Jarvis Avenue, a cul-de-sac, and climbed one of its trees, just a hundred yards from the canyon.

Given the closeness, Wall decided it would be best not to try to take down the bear with a tranquilizer dart, as done in Pasadena, but instead to wait her out. Deputies armed with less lethal bean-bag shotguns kept watch for her descent, prepared to urge her away from the neighborhood and into the canyon, rather than into the neighborhood.

Tranquilizing has its own risks, with the drug requiring as much as 15 minutes to take effect, according to Fish and Wildlife's Andrew Hughan.

"Tranquilizing doesn't work like in the movies," Hughan said. "Then, you have a frightened, scared animal with teeth and claws."

Neighbors gathered to watch their ursine visitor, most approving of the "wait it out" plan, and expressing hope she would take the nearby shortcut back to return to the wilderness.

"I certainly hope they don't hurt the bear," resident Megan Browne said. "We're in her neighborhood. We can wait."

Treed bears often wait until the sun begins to set. On Jarvis Avenue, it was just before 5:30 p.m. when the napping bear began stirring, moving halfway down the tree, pausing, and then coming the rest of the way down around 6 p.m.

She looked at the Fish and Wildlife Lt. and the deputies, then headed toward the canyon and disappeared into its foliage, Wall said.

Sightings are not unusual in foothill communities along the 210 Freeway adjacent to Southern California mountain ranges, especially on trash days when easy snacks are readily available in unsecured trash bins.

"The 210 is pretty much bear central," Hughan said. "We want that bear to go back into open space or habitat."

He said the helicopters overhead likely scared the bear and delayed her quitting the tree.

There are signs that California's black bear population is on the rise in recent years, including sightings in areas where they were not reported 50 years ago, such as the Central Coast and Southern California mountain ranges, according to the department. Between 25,000 and 35,000 black bears roam 52,000 square miles in California.
In the race for best Bernie Sanders look-alike, Jeff Jones rallied support Tuesday with a surprise Election Day visit to Aroma restaurant in Studio City.

Wide-eyed customers lined up outside on Tujunga Avenue snapped photos with Jones, a Southern California musician who bears a strong likeness to the Vermont Senator and Democratic presidential candidate. He even had custom sweatshirts made to avoid confusion and misguided handshakes from Sanders supporters and "Curb Your Enthusiasm" fans.

One shirt reads, "I am Not Bernie," with a Sanders logo on the back. Another has "I'm not Larry David Either" in large print.

But Jones, with glasses and a tuft of white hair to rival those of Sanders and the "Seinfeld" producer, was wearing a rumpled suit and tie Tuesday, fooling some into believing the real Bernie Sanders was making a last-minute campaign stop just hours before polls closed on California primary day.

One customer asked, "What are the chances on voting day to see the man you're voting for?"

"It's like the center of the universe just shifted over to where we're having coffee," said another.

"Did he escape his handlers?" asked another customer.

As for Jones' political learnings, he cast his vote for Sanders in the election, won by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The decision marked a big change for Jones, who was a registered Republican until this election when dissatisfation with his GOP choices led him to change affiliation.

NBC4's Tommy Bravo contributed to this report.
After two men robbed a group of hikers using a gun and a metal pipe on a popular Mt. Rubidoux trail in Riverside, police were searching for the two thieves Tuesday evening.

Riverside police detectives said four people were hiking Monday night when two men approached the group. One of the men brandished a handgun, while another clutched an 18-inch metal pipe, demanding the hikers cellphones.

The robbers ran when they heard other hikers coming down the path, the victims told police.

Other hikers on the trail Tuesday night said they were shocked, and they had felt safe until the robbery Monday night.

"That is scary to me. This is a really safe place and we love coming here," Erika Moreno said. "We escaped from San Bernardino because it's more dangerous over there  now hearing that makes us think twice about coming here."

Teresa Padilla, who was hiking on the trail Wednesday morning, said she carries stun gun for protection.

"Don't target me because you're going to get 7.5 million volts to the butt," Padilla said.

There was no description available of the men.
Los Angeles fire officials are hoping to roll out a new program aimed at a portion of 911 "superusers" who accounted for about 2,000 emergency calls last year alone, KPCC reports.

Of the top 40 superusers  or people who excessively made 911 calls  60 percent identified as alcoholics, Los Angeles Fire Department Medical Director and physician Marc Eckstein told NBC4's media partner KPCC.

"These people aren't getting the help that they need because they typically get work up in the emergency department, they sober up, and then they leave," Eckstein told KPCC. "They're not getting into detox. They're not getting housed, and our paramedics are getting tied up, and the ERs are already overcrowded."

The LAFD has proposed a pilot program called the SOBER Unit, which would send a van staffed by an emergency responder  like a firefighter or a paramedic  and a community outreach worker to check on the superuser. If the caller does not need to go to the hospital, they would be offered services at a county sober center set to open in Skid Row this year.

"When ambulances are responding to these individuals  sometimes the same individual two times a day, taking the same patient to an ER twice in one day  that ambulance is not available to respond to the rest of the community," Eckstein said.

Read more from KPCC
Lots of people make travel plans around the beginning of June, right when summer is still stretching ahead in its lazy-days-y, lusciously long way.

But here's a pro tip from a current hit series on television: If you're planning to time travel, say, instead of spending a weekend at the beach, it is best to do so in incredibly ornate, down-to-the-detail style.

"Outlander" is the show we reference for that tip, a series that takes place in both 1940s Scotland as well as the Scotland and France of the middle of the 18th century. And its clothes, and accessories, and set pieces? They're some of the most sumptuous on television, with elaborate corsets, breeches, and wigs pitching in to paint the larger, richer picture.

That picture will be on full, fashion-forward  er, backwards  view at The Paley Center for Media this summer when "The Artistry of Outlander" goes on multi-month display.

The exhibit, which is rife with frocks and interesting items from the Starz and Sony Pictures Television series, opens on Wednesday, June 8.

How big is the display? It will spread out on not just one but two floors of the Beverly Hills television museum. Not quite as big as a moor, but still impressive.

How free is it to see the display? As free as the wind rippling through some Scottish heather. No admission is required.

Is it open every day of the week? Well, no. Time travel may frequently allow a person to land at whatever minute on whatever day they desire, but "The Artistry of Outlander" is on view Wednesdays through Sundays from noon to 5 o'clock.

If you're a fan, you likely already know who to applaud when it comes to much of the show's textured look, but here's a ribbon- and pearl-bedecked shout-out to costume designer Terry Dresbach and production designer Jon Gary Steele.

Those are vital roles in bringing the world of the past into eye-popping, minutia-marvelous reality, and both artists rise to the occasion on "Outlander."

There are multimedia parts to the exhibit, and interactive areas, too, as well as some large-scale photographs.

True, some "Outlander" costumes did make a stop at The Grove in 2015, but it was only the briefest of sojourns. "The Artistry of Outlander" is open through Aug. 14, 2016, giving the public over two months of luxe lookie-loo-ing.

Which means that even if you're super-overscheduled with your own travels through time at the moment, you can probably still find a day to visit.

That is, if you haven't already, even before it makes its official debut. Such is one of the benefits of time travel. Time travelers can sneak peeks at future costume exhibits before the opening day has arrived.
Outraged parents gathered Tuesday outside Main Street Elementary in South Los Angeles to demand action against speeding cars and lack of crossing guards in surrounding intersections.

Parents and community members from the South LA area gathered this afternoon in front of the school, calling on the City to take action about speeding in the area. They say there are four campuses in the community that need help, with hundreds of students, parents, and elderly residents using the crosswalks each day.

Protesters are calling for anything that will help to provide more safety, from speed bumps to flashing lights to more crosswalks.

Martha Sanchez, organizer of the protest, said despite multiple requests to the Los Angeles Police Department to provide crossing guards, no one has ever showed up.

Currently, there is only one crossing guard serving in the area of the elementary school.

"They never show up. They just say, 'If there is no blood, we can wait,'" she said.

The LAPD did, however, show up at the protest Tuesday. Officer Cesar Guitron with LAPD Central Traffic said he has witnessed cars going "way over" 30 mph. He said the area is on his radar now and he will be back.

In addition, the city's Department of Transportation sent an engineer to hear from the community. Though the engineer said he would come back to meet with the community, the protesters said they've heard promises before.

After grandmother and community activist Luz Damian witnessed a hit-and-run not far from the elementary school campus, she decided to join the fight against speeding traffic. She said this behavior is putting the children's safety at risk, and is convinced that it is only a matter of time before someone is killed.

"We need safety measures for pedestrians, and drivers using our streets as freeways," she said. "I'm condemned to stay in home in rush hour because they [drivers] don't respect my right to cross the streets."

For now, protesters say their demands for action will only get louder until something changes.

"We're not willing to wait until a child is hurt. The city needs to take action now to protect our children," elementary school parent Maria Tapia said.
The man who nursed an injured owl back to health received a huge welcome hug from the giant bird when the two were reunited on Saturday.

Douglas Pojecky, known to his peers as "the bird whisperer," is president and lead rescuer at the Wild at Heart Rescue center in Mississippi, where GiGi the great horned owl was brought after she was hit by a car.

Missy Dubuisson, the center's founder and director, said the accident left the owl fighting for her life, with a concussion and severe head trauma. GiGi had also been struggling with a crop infection and fungal infection in her lungs.

[NATL] Unbelievable Animal Stories: Dog Befriends Abandoned Baby Giraffe

When Pojeky went to visit his patient, the owl spread both wings wide and threw them around him. GiGi settled into Pojeky's arms with a look of serenity on her face.

"Nothing these birds of prey do any more surprises me," the center posted on its Facebook page. "I have learned to accept the fact that it's just going to happen, and to have the camera ready at all times. These moments must be captured and frozen in time."

GiGi has since been released back to the wild. [[382267411, C]]
What to Know Police are currently investigating an officer involved shooting in Hollywood early Wednesday morning.

A man who allegedly killed his wife was injured in an officer-involved shooting in Hollywood early Wednesday morning, authorities said.

The incident started when a man called 911 shortly after 3 a.m. and informed the dispatcher he had shot and killed his wife and would harm anyone who came to the house, located near 72nd Avenue between Arthur Street and Garfield Street.

Police arrived and the man barricaded himself inside before eventually coming out.

"He came out acting erratically; a confrontation ensued at which time he was shot by officers," said Hollywood Police Chief Thomas Sanchez. "This is one of the most dangerous calls that police officers respond to."

The suspect was taken to Memorial Regional Hospital in stable condition. His name wasn't released. None of the officers were injured.

Authorities said they're investigating the incident as a possible suicide by cop attempt.

"The officers seemed rather shook up but they're doing OK," Broward County Police Benevolent Association President Jeff Marano said.

Crews also responded to put out a small fire at the home. Police are investigating if it was started by the suspect in an attempt to burn down the residence.

Police entered the house and found the deceased woman. Police haven't released her name.
A former probation officer with the Florida Department of Corrections who had been charged with sexual battery has now seen those charges dropped.

50-year-old Zachary Thomas Bailey of Fort Lauderdale was arrested March on charges that he assaulted one of the parolees that he was in charge of. The woman claimed Bailey had prevented her from leaving and touched her genitals during one visit, while forcing himself on her and assaulting the victim during a second visit.

The victim recorded the incident on camera, which was turned over as evidence. Bailey was fired from FDOC after nearly 20 years working for the agency.
What to Know A triple shooting overnight in South Miami left one man dead and sent to others to the hospital.

Miami-Dade Police say that shots were fired around 1:30 AM near the intersection of SW 68th Street and 59th Place.

A triple shooting overnight in South Miami left one man dead and sent two others to the hospital.

Miami-Dade Police said a man opened fire on a group of people around 1:30 a.m. Wednesday near the intersection of Southwest 68th Street and 59th Place before fleeing on foot.

The victim was identified by his family as 32-year-old Larry Edwards.

The two other victims were transported to Kendall Regional Medical Center; one in critical condition and the other in stable condition.

Officers continue to search for a suspect.
Two truck drivers were arrested Tuesday following a protest in downtown Tallahassee. The protests spilled over into Medley, leading to traffic problems throughout the evening.

The Florida Highway Patrol said it monitored the CDL911 convoy's planned routes for Tuesday.

During the convoy, FHP said two drivers were arrested in Leon County for resisting arrest without violence: Javier Figueroa and Magdiel Millar.

Figueroa was arrested by FHP for blocking an intersection and Millar was arrested by Leon County Sheriff's deputies for impeding the arrest of Figueroa.

Following the arrests, Miami truck drivers protested on Okeechobee Road, west of the Palmetto Expressway Tuesday evening. The scene was causing a traffic mess on Okeechobee northbound between the Palmetto and 103rd Street.

FHP tried to clear the protesters from the roadway to allow traffic through the area, but they refused to leave. The truckers agreed to stand in the median but Okeechobee remained closed Tuesday night. Traffic appeared to be back to normal Wednesday morning.

One man was arrested for battery on a police officer, FHP said. He was later identified as Luis E. Calderon Martinez.

Martinez was being held on $10,000 bond Wednesday, Miami-Dade jail records showed. It was unclear if he's hired an attorney.

The protests come amid what the drivers are calling unfair labor practices. They claim low pay and high fees.
Lillian Hellman's 1939 groundbreaking play "The Little Foxes" will return to Broadway next spring in a revival for the Manhattan Theatre Club led by three-time Oscar nominee Laura Linney and two-time Emmy winner Cynthia Nixon.

David Sullivan ("Sylvia") will direct the play, about Regina Hubbard Giddens and sister-in-law Birdie Hubbard -- two members of a powerful aristocratic Southern family in the 1900s who come to heads while trying to strike the deal of their lives.

Linney and Nixon will alternate the lead roles throughout the run, in repertory, appearing opposite each other at each performance. A schedule of roles, as well as additional casting, will be announced soon.

Previews of the limited engagement production begin begin March 29, with an opening set for April 19 at MTC's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre.

Sullivan has previously directed Linney and Nixon at MTC. He worked with Linney in 2010's "Times Stands Still" and 2004's "Sight Unseen." Nixon worked with Sullivan in 2006's "Rabbit Hole," for which she earned a Tony Award.

It'll be the first revival of "The Little Foxes" in 20 years. Stockard Channing and Frances Conroy previously lead a production for Lincoln Center in 1997. The play was made into a 1941 film starring Bette Davis.

Tickets for MTC's 2016-2017 season are now available for subscribers. Single tickets will be sold at a later date. For more information, visit www.manhattantheatreclub.com.
An electrician for the city Department of Education was handcuffed and briefly jailed for carrying a tool he uses to do his job, the I-Team has learned.

Walt Seager was carrying a folding utility knife when he was arrested two years ago under the gravity knife provision of the state's criminal possession of a weapon law. The law criminalizes carrying any blade that can be deployed with the the force of gravity or the application of centrifugal force."



The electrician uses the folding knife to strip wire.

"There is no common sense to it. It just seems to be black and white. If you have it youre guilty," Seager said.

While the criminal case was pending for more than a month, Seager was not allowed to work on school electrical systems. Instead he was suspended with pay, leaving taxpayers to foot the bill.

I had to be put in what they call the rubber room because youre arrested, which sounds like Im carrying a bazooka or a gun," Seager said.

After a judge dismissed the charge and sealed the case, Seager sued New York City for false arrest and won a $10,000 settlement. As part of the payout, the city admitted no wrongdoing.

Seager is not the first electrician to be arrested for carrying a folding utility knife used to strip wire.

Last June, the I-Team revealed how Bernard Perez, an electrician from Brooklyn, was arrested after an NYPD officer pulled him over and found a folding knife in his car. Perez also sued the city, claiming the arresting officer could not open the knife with one hand even though he made approximately 15 efforts over the course of several minutes. Perezs criminal case was dismissed. He was awarded a $57,000 settlement after he sued the city. The city admitted no wrongdoing.

Last week, the New York Assembly passed a bill that would change the definition of a gravity knife so common folding knives would not be considered illegal. A companion bill is waiting for a vote in the New York Senate, but Majority Leader John Flanagan, a Republican, has not indicated whether he will allow it to go to a vote.

Despite the Seager and Perez cases, Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance has voiced opposition to the idea of decriminalizing folding knives. Vances office has proposed letting the definition of an illegal knife stand, but creating an affirmative defense in court if a criminal defendant happens to be a tradesperson arrested for carrying a folding knife to or from work.

We disagree with attempts to decriminalize a category of dangerous weapons, particularly at a time when there has been an uptick in slashings citywide, said Joan Vollero, a spokeswoman for Vance.

The NYPD has been battling a double-digit rise in stabbings and slashings in recent months, but the Manhattan district attorney's office could provide no statistical evidence that folding knives have been used in most of the crimes.

Certainly there is no evidence of any correlation between violence and common folding knives, said Martin LaFalce, a public defender with Manhattans Legal Aid Society. "That logic would justify arresting chefs for possessing kitchen knives.

In recent months, the NYPD has reported crimes committed with pocket knives, box cutters, kitchen knives and even a slashing with a screwdriver.
The leader of a powerful city union who allegedly accepted lavish gifts, exotic trips and cold hard cash in exchange for the investment of pension funds was arrested by the FBI on corruption charges in an ongoing investigation focusing on the NYPD and City Hall.

Norman Seabrook, president of the Correction Officers' Benevolent Association for the past 21 years, was arrested at his Bronx home early Wednesday morning and charged with honest services fraud and conspiracy.

Investigators allege Seabrook took kickbacks in connection with his unions pension fund investments.

Seabrook allegedly received $60,000 in payoffs and in exchange directed a total of $20 million in the union's retirement funds to the Platinum Investment fund, according to court documents.

The former head of the fund, Murray Huberfeld, was also arrested and charged with honest services fraud and conspiracy Wednesday morning. His bond was set at $1 million to be secured by $500,000 in property and co-signed by two financially responsible individuals.



Seabrook and Huberfeld have both denied wrongdoing.

Seabrook was introduced to Huberfeld on Dec. 13, 2013 by a man sources familiar with the case identify as Jonah Rechnitz, a borough park fundraiser for Mayor de Blasio. Sources say Rechnitz secretly pleaded guilty and is now cooperating with federal investigators. Rechnitz allegedly introduced the two after Seabrook complained he was not getting bribe money for investing the correction officers union funds, the complaint states.

A bribe-for-investment deal between Seabrook and Huberfeld was brokered by Rechnitz in late December 2013, the sources say. Seabrook allegedly agreed to receive two percent of the profit Platinum stood to gain off the union's investment. Seabrook was told he would be paid between $100,000 and $150,000 annually.

After multi-million dollar investments into Platinum, Seabrook complained to the Rechnitz witness that he had not received the kickback money he was promised for the investment.

Rechnitz then agreed to pay Seabrook $60,000 on behalf of Platinum.

On Dec. 11, 2014, Seabrook met Rechnitz near Ferragamo, his favorite luxury goods store in Manhattan. Rechnitz handed Seabrook a Ferragamo bag stuffed with $60,000, the complaint states.

It wasn't the first time Rechnitz offered Seabrook lavish gifts, according to the complaint.

In late 2013, Rechnitz, Seabrook, and an unnamed NYPD officer traveled to the Dominican Republic twice. Rechnitz paid for the airfare on both trips, the complaint states.

Ironically, it was on one of the trips to the Dominican Republic that Rechnitz first learned Seabrook wanted to receive bribes for investing his union's funds, according to the complaint.

After a night of drinking, Seabrook complained about his work investing the union's funds and told Rechnitz that it was time "Norman Seabrook got paid," the complaint states.

Rechnitz set up the meeting between Seabrook and Huberfeld soon after they returned from the Dominican Republic, according to court documents.

"[Seabrook] made decisions about how to invest correction officers retirement moneybased not on what was good for his union members, but based on what was good for Norman Seabrook," U.S. Attorny Preet Bharara said at a press conference Wednesday. "For a Ferragamo bag filled with $60,000 in cash, Seabrook allegedly sold himself and his duty to safeguard the retirement funds of his fellow correction officers."

Seabrooks attorney, Paul Shechtman, said, Norman Seabrook has spent his life fighting for correction officers. One should not expect him to stop fighting now.

Alan Levine, attorney for Jonah Rechnitz, had no comment.

The arrests come as federal authorities investigate allegations that NYPD officers engaged in a cash-for-favors scheme, and as Mayor de Blasios campaign fundraising is under scrutiny. The mayor insists his fundraising followed all laws.

"If proven true, these allegations are disgusting because it means he stole money from his own members," Mayor de Blasio said about Seabrook's arrest Wednesday.

De Blasio also said he was not worried that it may signal further troubles in the corruption probe focused on City Hall.

"What he did involves his own union and his own pension fund...if proven this is incredibly troubling," de Blasio said.
A Long Island Republican who received an "A" rating from the National Rifle Association in 2012 for his support of gun rights won't say where he stands on the issue of knives.

New York Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan, who represents Smithtown, is deciding whether to allow state senators to vote on Senate bill 6483A, a proposed law that would decriminalize most small folding knives. Flanagan declined to answer questions from the I-Team about his position on the bill.

When asked whether Flanagan supports the right to carry a pocket knife, his spokesman, Scott Reif, also declined to answer the question.

Listen, I mean thats a bill thats going to be discussed along with hundreds of other bills that were looking at in the [Senate] session, Reif said.

The NRA supports decriminalizing pocket knives on self-defense grounds.

"The changes offered in [the bill] provide law-abiding New Yorkers with greater protection when it comes to their limited self-defense options, wrote Lars Dalseide, an NRA spokesman.

If Flanagan does not allow a vote on the knife bill before June 16, the end of the legislative session, he may risk a lowering of his NRA rating, an important benchmark for many Republican voters. Flanagan is already under fire from gun rights supporters for his vote in favor of New Yorks SAFE Act gun control legislation.

Currently, New Yorks gravity knife law bans blades that can be deployed by the force of gravity or the application of centrifugal force." But critics say that gives too much power to a police officer who may have the skill to open a pocket knife with one hand using the flick of his or her wrist.

"People are going to jail based upon whether a police officers flick of the wrist leads to one movement or another of a folding knife. Thats just inherently wrong," said Assembly Member Dan Quart (D-Manhattan), who sponsored the companion bill that passed in the State Assembly.

Quart's legislation would legalize a pocket knife as long as it has some "bias toward closure," meaning the blade does not freely swing out from the handle.

Last June, the I-Team reported that the bill had been stalled in the state Senate for several years, and that the main roadblock had been Republican Sen. Michael Nozzolio, another ardent supporter of the Second Amendment.



Last year, the I-Team revealed how minor weapons arrests, mostly for knives, have landed more than 80,000 New Yorkers in criminal court over the last decade, but there are only about 18 convictions for every 100 arrests.
Students at one New York City school were barred from bringing bottles of water and other drinks on campus after officials said they got word of plans for an end-of-the-year prank involving bottles.

School administrators said the ban on bottles at Abraham Lincoln High School on Coney Island was instituted on Friday after they learned of plans to stage a large water fight or some other senior prank involving baby oil.

The ban is expected to remain in place until state Regents Exams begin next week.

Students at the school told NBC 4 New York that theyve been suffering in the heat inside a school without air conditioning since the ban was instituted.

Several added that they had to buy drinks at school vending machines or use water fountains.

Like, we have no energy, said student Hajar Abbassi. We are thirsty.

School officials admitted Tuesday that the school has no modern air conditioning, but they said they are using fans to keep students cool.

They also said they notified parents and guardians of the ban last week by phone and text messages. They also added that there had been no water fights as of Tuesday.
Authorities in South Carolina say the case of a New York teen who disappeared during a 2009 spring break trip to Myrtle Beach is officially considered a homicide.

The FBI announced Wednesday it's offering a $25,000 award for information on Brittanee Drexel.

The Rochester woman was 17 years old when she was last seen leaving a hotel on Ocean Boulevard in Myrtle Beach in April 2009.

South Carolina Special Agent in Charge David Thomas says Drexel was likely held against her will and killed in the McClellanville area. He says the announcement comes after talking to Drexel's family about what had been considered a missing-person investigation.

Drexel's cellphone transmitted its last known signal the day after she disappeared near the South Santee River, between McClellanville and Georgetown.
Stunned residents in a Manhattan neighborhood say an SUV's driver managed to flee police after crashing into a police car and other parked cars, slamming into a taxi and hurtling onto the sidewalk.

Cellphone video taken by a neighbor captured the wild ride on Henshaw Street in Inwood Monday. Panicked bystanders watch and scream as the driver backs down the street and slams into a police car that had been pursuing the vehicle.

"We thought it was a movie," said the man who filmed the rampage, who asked only to be identified as Manny. "A straight-up movie scene."

"It was insane," said another witness, Eddie Moronta. "There were car pieces everywhere, side mirrors, headlights everywhere."

Police said the chase began in the area of Broadway and 173rd Street in Washington Heights, when officers tried to stop a 2003 Land Rover after it made an illegal right turn onto Wadsworth. The SUV fled, heading into Inwood and going the wrong way down Henshaw Street, which is a one-way street.

Video shows the SUV pausing briefly after crashing into the NYPD patrol car, and officers run to the vehicle and begin smashing the windows. They pull their guns out, demanding the driver stop and get out.

But the driver takes off again, crashing into a taxi. The SUV reverses wildly down the street, taking out parts of several parked cars along the way. The driver then takes off again, speeding up the street and smashing more cars along the way.

Bystanders on the street scream "Shoot him!" to the officers, the video shows.

"He's putting lives in danger, bro," Manny could be heard in the video saying to an officer running past him.

He later shouts at another officer, "Did you really let him get away from you?"

The officer responds in the video, "We don't shoot people out here, bro. You know how that works."

"You could have shot the tires," Manny says.

"That's only in movies, bro. You shoot a tire, that bullet pops back up," says the officer.

Witnesses gather in shock after the SUV speeds away.

"Did they get the plates? They can't go that far, the car, the way it is," one woman says in the video.

"They had the guns in his face and he still kept going," Manny told the woman.

Orlando Fernandez was one of the owners of the damaged cars. He said Tuesday he was angry after finding his new SUV, with only 200 miles on it, smashed.

"If I saw the guy, I don't know what I'd do," he said.

"He didn't care, he had no regard or remorse for anyone," Manny told NBC 4 New York Tuesday. "He almost killed that cab driver. He just kept going."

After fleeing Henshaw Street, the driver ditched the SUV and ran away, according to police. Officers found him near Riverside Drive and 177th Street and arrested him on a slew of charges, including reckless endangerment, aggravated unlicensed operation, leaving the scene of an accident, resisting arrest and criminal possession of a controlled substance.

The 35-year-old driver is from Hamilton Heights, police say.

Police said there was at least one other person in the car, but it's not clear if they're facing charges.
A newly-proposed high-voltage line expected to carry power through a several central New Jersey towns is drawing heavy resistance from homeowners.

More than 1,400 people have voiced their opposition in a Change.org petition to a proposed Jersey Central Power & Light Company line that would run through five Monmouth County towns on poles more than 140 feet tall.

Several other residents said they planned to attend a hearing Tuesday night on the 230,000 volt transmission line, which would run along the North Jersey Coast Line from Aberdeen to Middletown and would cost $75 million.

These high voltage lines are DANGEROUS! Please fight back, the petitioners said on Change.org.

The utility said that the line, which would run over more than 300 homes, would help improve electric service for more than 250,000 residents in the county area and that the line is safe to live near.

Infrastructure is necessary to deliver the services that people need, said Ron Moreno, a JCP&L spokesman. And this is part of infrastructure.

But several families said they are concerned about the line. Tara McGrath of Middletown said she was worried about electric and magnetic fields that could affect her children.

As parents, how could we allow this to happen?, she said. How could we let our children be guinea pigs for future cancer research? We wont allow it.

Steve Lunanova of Red Bank said he was worried his property value would fall because of the power line.

No one wants to live under a power line, he said.

According to the Asbury Park Press, the project must be approved by the state Board of Public Utilities before it can be built. The utility would also have to obtain permits from the state Department of Environmental Protection.
More than 40 of the 276 dogs rescued from a hoarding family's home in New Jersey will be available for adoption this weekend.

St. Huberts Animal Welfare Center, which has been looking after 141 of the dogs that were rescued from the Howell home last week, is inviting potential adopters to visit their Madison and North Branch campuses to meet the dogs and puppies anytime this week.

St. Huberts is so grateful for the outpouring of support for the wonderful dogs and puppies that have come into our care from the case in Howell, said Heather Cammisa, President & CEO of St. Huberts Animal Welfare Center.

Adoption counselors will help match interested potential owners with the dogs rescued from Howell, as well as other pets that will be up for adoption.

Donations are also accepted to help with the care of the animals, the shelter says.

Officials say the Howell couple who hoarded the dogs will face charges.
A 32-year-old New Jersey woman reported missing along with her 5-year-old daughter earlier this week have been found, authorities said Wednesday.



It wasn't clear where Cecilia Manzueta and her child were located, but authorities had been searching for them since Friday, when the girl's father called police. The duo had last been seen at a Holiday Inn in Newark.



They were found in good condition Tuesday evening, authorities said.



Prosecutors say their disappearance seems to have stemmed from a domestic disagreement between the girl's parents.



It wasn't clear if Manzueta was expected to face charges.
Five officers were injured when an unmarked police car involved in a pursuit smashed into an NYPD cruiser in Brooklyn, police said.

The unmarked cop car was racing to help officers chasing a suspect on foot when it collided with the NYPD cruiser at the intersection of Sutter Avenue and Thomas S. Boyland Street in Brownsville on Wednesday morning.

A yellow taxi cab was also hit by the unmarked car.

The FDNY received a call about the collision shortly before 2 a.m.

Five officers suffered minor injuries. Three of them were taken to Kings County Hospital. The two others were taken to Jamaica Hospital. No civilians were injured.

Police were still at the scene investigating at 4:30 a.m. The intersection was shut down and flares were lit up across the roadway.
At least two self-defense schools in New York City said that theyve noticed an increase in interest this year amid reports of slashings and stabbings in the five boroughs.

The owners of the Krav Maga Institute and JKD NYC both said theyve seen more students seeking martial arts and self-defense classes this year, part of which they attributed to increases in stabbings and slashings.

Through the end of May, there had been 1,796 such instances of the violent crimes in the city, according to the New York Post, up from 1,623 through the same point in 2015. Most recently, a man was slashed after a fight at a Duane Reade Wednesday morning. And on Sunday, a woman in a wheelchair was slashed in an apparently random attack in East Harlem.

Krav Maga Institute owner Patrick Lockton said Tuesday that they had to cap memberships for the year early. He said he couldnt attribute all of the extra students to the reports of slashings because not everyone wants to share their reasons for taking self-defense classes. But he said that there was increased interest  particularly from women  after a spate of slashings on the subway earlier this year.

"Some (were) impulsive, others let it sink in before coming to us," he said. "Those tend to be the most committed students."

Lockton said that many students who come to the class may have been victims of violence and were still suffering the effects. One student had recently been robbed on the way home from the subway in Brooklyn, while another took lessons after being bullied and beaten up on the way home from school.

"I think most people still come to us to boost self-confidence, to meet people, to vent stress, socialize, get fit and lose weight, but a good and increasing portion also come to us as a result of a perceived need to learn an effective self-defense system," Lockton said.

JKD NYC owner Chris Moran said hes also seen more students this year. He also said not all of the increase could be attributed to perceived threats, but some people who have come in have sought to protect themselves.

"Its a logical decision," he said. "Theyre hearing about these things and also want to get a great workout. Its a two-in-one with a possible lifesaving benefit."

In March, NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton announced that the department began breaking down slashings and stabbings into categories to learn more about the crimes.

When the announcement was made, slashings were up 20 percent for the year. According to the figures reported in the Post, slashings were only up 10 percent when compared to 2015.

At the time, Bratton said most slashings could be attributed to domestic violence or instances of violence at illegal nightclubs, rather than random attacks.

Still, Lockton and Moran both said that there were tactics New Yorkers could use to stay safe, including:
Republican Donald Trump says his attacks on the judge handling the Trump University case have been "misconstrued."

Trump said in a lengthy statement Tuesday afternoon that "it is unfortunate" his comments "have been misconstrued as a categorical attack against people of Mexican heritage."

Trump has complained repeatedly that federal Judge Gonzalo Curiel is biased against him and cited his Mexican heritage. Curiel was born in the U.S.

His comments have sparked a backlash among members of the Republican Party, with House Speaker Paul Ryan saying Tuesday that they are "the textbook definition of racist comments." Republican Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois said Trump's comments are un-American and he cannot support the presumptive presidential nominee.

Trump said in his statement, "I do not feel that one's heritage makes them incapable of being impartial," but said that he feels justified to question whether he is receiving a fair trial based on the ruling.

Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., the only black Republican senator, called Trump's comments on the judge "racially toxic" yet said, "He needs to get onto the general election and we need to win."

"From what I know about Trump, he's not a racist. But he does make a lot of outrageous statements. And I think he ought to tone it down a little bit," said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, while calling on the media to give Trump "leeway" for what he called a "mistake."
James Corden has hit his highest note yet.

The man synonymous with Carpool Karaoke took on the Big Apple for a Tony-themed segment of the beloved late-night sketch. As he navigated the bustling streets of Times Square with Lin-Manuel Miranda, the Tony-winning creator and star of the sold-out "Hamilton," Corden's past and present collided in an all-too-perfect way.

While he may be this year's Tony host and the current musical conductor of the Carpool series, the 37-year-old British native is a 2012 Tony Award winner himself and starred in the silver screen adaptation of the Sondheim musical, "Into the Woods." So, who better to sing along with Broadway's most celebrated stars, like six-time Tony winner Audra McDonald, than this guy?

It was a magical moment as he and Miranda performed a rendition of "Hamilton's" opening act, "Alexander Hamilton." The group, which grew with "She Loves Me's" Jane Krakowski and "Fully Committed's" Jesse Tyler Ferguson, continued belting theater's most memorized songs, including Jersey Boys' "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You" and the timeless Rent classic, "Seasons of Love."

Hamilton Nominated for 16 Tony Awards: Everything You Need to Know About This History-Making Broadway Show

In between bouts of singing, Corden squeezed in the occasional pressing question. For Krawkoski and Ferguson--who also star on television in addition to their current stage commitments--the late-night host wanted to know which they prefer: "theater or money?"

"I'm literally paying someone to allow me to do theater this summer," the "Modern Family" actor quipped back. "There's nothing like live theater."

As can only be expected of Broadway stars, this round of carpool karaoke came to a close with a dramatic performance of "Les Miserables'" "One Day More"--five-part harmony and all.

Now that's a Tony-worthy performance.

Stars on Stage: Broadway &Beyond
Police say a 3-year-old Pennsylvania boy was injured when he was hit by an SUV as he crossed a street in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

Media outlets report that Rehoboth Beach Police say the boy was walking in a crosswalk with his father and 6-year-old brother at an intersection on Tuesday when he was knocked to the ground by a Jeep Limited preparing to turn left.

Police say the 3-year-old was taken to Beebe Healthcare with non-life threatening injuries. His father and older brother were not struck.

Police say the driver of the SUV, 62-year-old Donna Summy, of Harrisonburg, Virginia, was issued a traffic citation for failing to yield the right of way to a pedestrian in a crosswalk and no proof of insurance.
About 150 emergency responders and numerous fire trucks will take part in a large-scale emergency training exercise Saturday along the Schuylkill River in King of Prussia, Montgomery County officials said.

The training will take place at the Abrams rail yard and include smoke generated by a machine and firefighters spraying foam, all part of a simulated derailment of a train carrying Bakken crude oil.

Both the smoke and the foam will be non-toxic, county officials said in a release Tuesday. Boats operating on the Schuylkill River will also be part of the operation.

The county said North Henderson Road at Beidler Road and Beidler Road at Abrams Road in Upper Merion will be closed during the exercise.

Officials said they hoped residents in the King of Prussia and Port Indian sections would not be alarmed by the commotion.

Preparations will begin at 7 a.m. with the exercise to start at 8 a.m. and go on until 12 p.m. The area be clear of the area by 1 p.m.
A string of severe storms moved into the Philadelphia area as expected midday Wednesday, leaving trains stuck, power out and trees down.

The storms packed downpours, lightning and strong winds up to 60 mph in some places. Hail hit in some areas, including parts of Montgomery and Bucks counties.

A time-lapse from the NBC10 Aquacam shows Wednesdays severe storms rolling through downtown Philadelphia.

About 1:30 p.m., SEPTA officials said the system's Chestnut Hill West and Trenton Regional Rail Lines were suspended until further notice due to downed wires. Officials said Trenton service was expected to resume about 3:30 p.m. but that some inbound trains would likely be canceled.

Chestnut Hill West service may not return until 4 p.m., SEPTA officials said, due to the extent of the damage affecting that line.

The same downed wires, which are located near the North Philadelphia station, halted three Amtrak trains earlier in the day at the height of the storms.

"Expect overcrowded conditions and delays until further notice," SEPTA officials said in a statement. They said Regional Rail tickets will be accepted on Market-Frankford trains and connecting bus routes, which can serve as alternates for passengers until Regional Rail is restored.

In Warrington, a viewer reported lots of lightning and heavy rain. Viewers in Middletown, Delaware reported downed trees and power lines, causing outages in the area. In Northeast Philly's Somerton neighborhood, there were reports of hail falling. Meteorologist Sheena Parveen said most of the hail that fell with the storm was about pea-sized, but that some areas may have seen slightly bigger hail.

Parveen said once the storms moved out of the area in the afternoon, she couldn't rule out a chance of a spotty shower or two in some places, but that she expected rush hour to be dry.

The storms knocked down power lines along SEPTA's Chestnut Hill West and Trenton Regional Rail tracks, halting service.

The downed power lines also stopped at least three Amtrak trains. The trains were back running by about 1:15 p.m., but were still moving slowly and with major delays. Wilmington, Delaware-bound Passenger Ken Boulden told NBC10 that his train headed south from New York stopped in North Philadelphia.

"All of a sudden everything went dark," said Boulden.

A conductor came around and said that train appeared to have been struck by lightning, but that there was no fire, said Boulden. Boulden and other passengers then waited on the train as the conductor said a diesel engine could be brought in to rescue them.

Two other Amtrak trains also were impacted by the downed wire not lightning, said Amtrak spokesman Craig Schultz.

Amtrak held all other Northeast Corridor trains at Philadelphia and New York Penn Station until the power problem is resolved, said Schultz.

The storms knocked out power to more than 62,000 PECO customers -- mostly in Chester and Delaware counties -- and about 8,000 Atlantic City Electric customers -- mostly in Camden County. PSE&G reported about 19,500 customers without power.

By 3:30 p.m., PECO's outage numbers decreased, with roughly 34,000 customers still affected. AC Electric and PSE&G's numbers remained about the same.

Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey reported that it lost power in the storms, but that all its outdoor rides had already been shut down at the time. One indoor ride was unloaded. Park officials said everyone there is safe.

The storms also delayed the start of the Phillies planned 1:05 game against the Chicago Cubs to about 1:20 p.m., when players took the field. The tarp could be seen blowing off the field as the brunt of the storms hit.

The National Weather Service suggested people move to interior rooms on the lowest floor of their homes as the storms hit.
The fanfare of Comic Con could soon be commemorated with a museum at Balboa Park.

The San Diego Hall of Champions on Wednesday announced that talks are under way with Comic Con International to allocate space at the Balboa Park museum for San Diegos iconic popular arts festival.

In a statement from the Hall of Champions, officials said Comic Con has been seeking a way to continue the festivals legacy and provide a year-round fan experience. The museum space would help fulfill both goals.

Comic-Con has been working with the Hall Of Champions as part of our continuing exploration of how best to ensure Comic-Cons legacy, Comic Con spokesman David Glanzer said in a statement. At this time we are in talks and while no decision has been made we are thrilled with the direction of those discussions.

Held in July ever year at the San Diego Convention Center, Comic Con is thought to be one of the largest conventions of its kind in the world. Its also a boon for San Diegos tourism every summer.

No specifics on the museum's size or a possible opening were immediately revealed.
San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer won the June Primary, receiving more than 50-percent of the vote to avoid a runoff election in November.

The Republican mayor received more than 60 percent of the early votes counted Tuesday, despite facing two challengers

Faulconer defended off heated attacks from Democrat Lifeguard Sgt. Ed Harris and former state Assemblywoman Lori Saldana, a Democrat turned independent.

Faulconer needed 51 percent of the vote to avoid a run-off and secure a second term.

Members of the mayor's staff at a U.S. Grant election party reacted to the early returns with cheer, but not much surprise.

After no Democrats appeared willing to challenge the mayor late last year, two candidates emerged for a late and low budget Spring campaign to take aim.

Harris and Saldana criticized Faulconer's handling of homeless issues, public safety and Chargers stadium proposals.

A fiscal conservative, Faulconer supports a stadium plan that includes public subsidies for a new stadium in Mission Valley.

Often regarded as a rising star in the state's Republican Party partly because of his a low-key and likable demeanor, Faulconer has moderate views on the environment and immigration. His success has at least some of his supporters eyeballing the governor's seat for him, though Faulconer has dismissed those ambitions.

The two-term City Council member highlighted fiscally conservative policies at City Hall between 2006 and 2013, serving part of that time as chair of the audit committee. He was then elected in a special runoff in 2014 after embattled mayor Bob Filner resigned amid a string of sexual harassment charges.
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...
San Diego County voters who have learned of the Associated Press calling the Democratic Presidential primary race for Hillary Clinton on Monday seemed somewhat unruffled at the prospect that it might affect turnout at the polls.

The uproar over APs controversial decision, quickly followed by NBC News and a host of other media outlets, has gone seismic in journalistic as well as political circles.

Critics are saying it's an irresponsible -- and possibly calculated -- move that could influence voter turnout.

The AP says the call was based on a count of super-delegates whose preference for Clinton put her "over the top".

I have a problem with it because a lot of times it can be biased and intentionally misleading, College-area resident Arleathea McAllister told NBC 7 in an interview Tuesday. So that would be my concern -- why are they taking that position early on? Is it to discourage voters? What side of the fence are they on?"

There are no metrics to establish how many Sanders supporters, or even Clinton partisans don't cast ballots because of AP's reporting  which drew speculation about strategic leaks from delegates who spoke with AP.

But if certain super-delegates thought planting a story to get Clinton the label of "presumptive nominee" would lock up Super Tuesday wins, top political observers say Sanders voters could surge to the polls in a backlash while complacency among Clinton voters could take hold.

In any case, Sanders voters at the Registrar's office on Tuesday pointed out that they're quite used to voting in Presidential primaries that'll have marginal impact on the outcome.

We've chosen, as people, to get out and vote because we do know that our vote counts -- and we will come out and vote, said Mission Bay Elisse Moore. I don't think we're going to be dissuaded."

Added North Park resident Cassie MacFarlane: "Honestly, voting is just so important that regardless of whether you think your person is winning or not, you should still get here and put your vote in because we want for everybody's vote to count."

An inspiring bit of perspective was offered by Claudia Tripp, a first-time voter who emigrated to the U.S. from Mexico City.

"No matter what people say, or the news, or a neighbor's opinion, she told NBC 7, I choose to believe in the vote and the people. And that's why I decided to come and vote.

Claudia and her husband Hugo drove from Oceanside to the Registrar of Voters' office in Kearny Mesa to cast their first ballots  marking the oval for Sanders at the top of the ticket -- as naturalized Americans.

Other Sanders voters pounded the same theme about the fellow Bernie supporters: There's a lot of emotion going on with this election, noted Paradise Hills resident Ben Sanchez, and I think they will vote."

As MSNBC political analyst Jonathan Alter pointed out on Twitter Tuesday, in four Presidential election cycles from 1976 to 2008, Democrats voted for "mathematical losers" in late primaries "to send a message".
A San Diego-based legal association is demanding presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump take back comments they consider racist in nature.

Trump has complained repeatedly about U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel who is handling the Trump University class-action lawsuit filed in San Diego.

"His persistent attacks on Judge Curiel are not only racist, but they provide an ominous portent of how Trump would use the power of the presidency to intimidate federal judges, San Diego La Raza Lawyers Association (SDLRLA) President Luis O. Osuna said in a written statement released Wednesday.

In his appearance in the San Diego Convention Center, Trump spent more than 10 minutes complaining about Curiel.

I have a judge who is a hater of Donald Trump, a hater, Trump said.

He told thousands of supporters that the judge was biased against him, citing his Mexican heritage. Curiel was born in the U.S.

On Tuesday, top Republican leaders and donors denounced as racist and troubling his comments about a federal judge's ethnicity.

Soon after, in a lengthy statement, Trump said "it is unfortunate" his comments "have been misconstrued as a categorical attack against people of Mexican heritage."

Trump said in his statement, "I do not feel that one's heritage makes them incapable of being impartial," but said that he feels justified to question whether he is receiving a fair trial based on the ruling.

"Trumps repeated accusations of Judge Curiel display an utter lack of understanding for the role we play as attorneys and judges sworn to follow the law and uphold the constitution," Osuna said.

"Such wielding of executive power poses a threat to all Americans, as it is an independent judiciary and a respect of the separation of powers mandated by the constitution that secures our civil liberties and freedom," he said.

Read Osuna's complete statement here.

Curiel is a member of SDLRLA, an organization with 300 members ranging from attorneys to judges to law students and other professionals.

Contrary to what Trump has stated, we are not affiliated with the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), Osuna said. However the association does provide a link to NCLR on its website along with other community groups that serve the Latino community.

Osuna called on bar associations across the U.S. to demand Trump retract his comments.
Two Swedish students are being hailed as heroes for tackling a former Stanford swimmer convicted of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman.

Biking across the Stanford University campus after midnight on Jan. 18, 2015, Carl-Fredrik Arndt and Peter Jonsson found 19-year-old Brock Turner lying on top of a woman behind a dumpster, NBC News reported.

The Swedish duo realized the girl was motionless and confronted Turner, who wheeled around and ran, Arndt told NBC News in an interview.

"We saw she wasn't moving at all, so talked to him briefly, then he started running away," Arndt recalled.

Johsson pursued Turner and grabbed him while Arndt rushed to the victim's side. The graduate students were able to subdue Turner until police arrived.

"I think it happened on instinct for us," Arndt told NBC News. "I never thought about it twice and I'm glad I did it."

Turner was sentenced to six months in prison on Thursday, a punishment many decried as too lenient. A petition seeking to remove Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky from the case has garnered more than 566,000 signatures, and the judge has received anonymous threats, NBC News reported.

The victim  who addressed Turner directly in a powerful 12-page letter read in court  said she's indebted to the men she called her heroes.

"Most importantly, thank you to the two men who saved me, who I have yet to meet. I sleep with two bicycles that I drew taped above my bed to remind myself there are heroes in this story. That we are looking out for one another. To have known all of these people, to have felt their protection and love, is something I will never forget," she wrote.

They didnt think twice about jumping into action and now they are earning the title of hero. Biking across the Stanford University campus after midnight on Jan. 18, 2015, Carl-Fredrik Arndt and Peter Jonsson rolled up on Brock Turner lying on top of a woman next to a dumpster. The Swedish duo didnt realize the gravity of the situation until...
San Diego voters made their support for a minimum wage increase very clear when they went to the ballot box Tuesday.

Proposition I was approved by 63 percent of voters, clearing the way for an immediate increase to the citys minimum wage.

The proposition not only raises the minimum wage to $10.50 but also gives workers five days of paid sick leave.

In January, the minimum wage will be boosted to $11.50 an hour.

The state also approved a similar hike to $15 an hour minimum wage.

But that will take effect much more gradually.

For instance, the state's rate wouldn't reach San Diego's wage until three years from now.

Business leaders argue this increase would pass more costs onto customers.

"It increases all my labor costs too, and in turn that means I have to increase my prices," said Trong Dinh, owner of The District.

"Some businesses, they going to suffer on the number of people they hire because now you need to pay more, and some of the people are going to lose their jobs over that," 7 Cafe owner Javier Jimenez said.

But supporters say it will actually help the local economy.

The San Diego Registrar of Voters is still counting absentee ballots. Once all ballots have been counted and the races are verified, the minimum wage increase will take effect.
Police closed its case into questionable spending by employees at a famous Maryland cemetery without charging anyone.

In April, the News4 I-Team reported how former employees found receipts dating from 2007 until 2013 showing Mount Olivet Cemetery's superintendent and deputy superintendent used the cemetery's tax-exempt credit cards on purchases for home improvement projects at their private homes, including a new roof, a new fence and thousands of dollars of appliances.

After the series of reports, several lot owners filed complaints with the Frederick Police Department for the alleged misuse of the credit cards.

According to the police report obtained by the News4 I-Team, Superintendent Ron Pearcey admitted he and the assistant superintendent, Rick Reeder, did use the credit cards to make personal purchases. In the report, Pearcey also said the cemeterys board of directors conducted an investigation on the misuse of a cemetery credit card by Mr. Pearcey and Mr. Reeder, and that the board decided both parties would be reprimanded.

According to the report, Pearcey and the cemetery's attorney, Dan Loftus, told police the two men were directed to reimburse the money to the cemetery and paid the taxes owed to the state.

Loftus told police that no member of the board wanted to file a police report and that they were satisfied with the outcome of their investigation and did not want any police involvement.

An investigation into the matter was conducted by the local police department," the Frederick County States Attorney told the I-Team. "After conferring with the detective regarding that investigation, the state does not anticipate criminal charges being filed.

According to the police report, the county decided not to pursue any charges due to the cemetery being a private entity.

The cemeterys lawyer released the following statement to the News4 I-Team:

"We have read the police report regarding the allegations made by the two former disgruntled at-will employees. The case is closed.

As stated in an earlier statement, the Board of Directors ("Board") took those allegations seriously. The Board investigated and addressed them last year in the Spring of 2015. After the investigation, the Board took prompt and appropriate action. The cemetery has done nothing wrong or illegal.

And again, Mt. Olivet Cemetery, as a private entity, does not wish to discuss its actions publicly. Mt. Olivet Cemetery is moving forward.

With respect to all personnel issues, it is the Board's practice to treat them as private and confidential.

And the Board hopes that its position can be appreciated."

Reported by Tisha Thompson, produced by Rick Yarborough, and shot and edited by Steve Jones.
What to Know Alexandria Police received 911 calls about a shooting in the 1000 block of Montgomery Street about 12:35 p.m.

Man in his late 20s shot multiple times was taken to a hospital and died.

Public schools were on lock-in status for about an hour.

A man was shot and killed in Alexandria, Virginia, Wednesday afternoon, police said.

Pierre Clark, 28, was shot multiple times in the 1000 block of Montgomery Street about 12:35 p.m., Alexandria Police Deputy Chief David Huchler said. A woman told News4 she heard about six shots.

Clark was taken to a hospital where he died.

Police believe the shooter left the area, Huchler said. Police do not believe there is a threat to the public.

All Alexandria City Public Schools were placed on lock-in for about an hour. If a threat is identified outside a school, all school doors are locked, but classes continue as normal. No one is allowed to leave or enter the school during a lock-in.

Police are working on a description of the shooter.

It is the third homicide in Alexandria this year.

On Friday, residents packed a local rec center gym to voice their concerns about the recent violence to police.

Alexandria Police Chief Earl Cook said investigators are making progress in the case, but called on anyone who may have been a witness to contact police.
A man has been charged with killing his daughter and son-in-law during a confrontation inside a Northern Virginia home Wednesday afternoon.

Several children were inside the home in the 3400 block of Beverly Drive in Annandale when the victims were shot. None of the children was injured.

Fairfax County police said an argument began between the suspect, 67-year-old Hiep Van Le, and his son-in-law, 45-year-old Dang Ngo.

Le's daughter, 40-year-old Sophia Le, got involved when the argument escalated, police said.

The suspect took out a gun and shot both Ngo and Sophia Le, police said.

Another family member in the home called 911 shortly before 1:30 p.m. and may have been chased by the gunman while on the phone the dispatcher.

Ngo was found dead outside the home, Fairfax County police said.

When SWAT officers entered the home, they found Sophia Le critically hurt. She was taken to a hospital, where she died.

Hiep Van Le was found in the home and taken into custody. Le has been charged with two counts of second-degree murder.

Both Le and the victims lived at the home.

Police said two young girls and a teenage boy were in the home at the time.

Neighbors were told to stay in their homes for more than an hour as police cordoned off the neighborhood.
The chairman of Donald Trump's campaign in Virginia is causing controversy with a Facebook post from this weekend.

Corey Stewart, who is also the chairman of the Prince William Board of Supervisors and plans to run for Virginia governor in 2017, posted his response to an NBC News article about Trump supporters who were attacked at a campaign rally in San Jose, California. Some Trump supporters were punched and spat on. One woman had water bottles and eggs thrown at her.

In his response, Stewart said, "When I am governor, thugs like these will be apprehended" and that if the attackers were illegal they should be kicked out of the country.

He didn't back down in an interview with News4's David Culver.

The people who attacked those Trump supporters need to be punished, they need to be identified and to the extent that any of them are illegal immigrants they need to be removed from the country," Stewart said.

"We are turning a blind eye to illegal immigrants who are committing crimes in this country and who are being released by the federal government instead of being deported," Stewart said.

Theyre coming into our communities, theyre raping, theyre killing theyre assaulting, theyre committing crimes, theyre being apprehended and released by the federal government, Stewart said.

The Facebook post had been shared almost 70 times and generated about 50 comments. In it, Stewart says, "Time to put our foot down. These hoodlums attacked Trump supporters because they don't like our views. These Trump supporters could have been you or your family."

The Facebook post generated stories in the Richmond Times-Dispatch and InsideNova.com. And it generated a backlash as well.

State Sen. Scott Surovell, a Democrat, responded: Chairman Stewarts comments, I think, are really irresponsible.

Surovell said he represents more than 100,000 PWC residents. Of the immigrants whom he represents, he said, "theyre good, law-abiding people."
What to Know Schmuhl testified that he did not remember attacking his wife's former boss, only waking up in the hospital afterward.

Schmuhl listed over a dozen medications he was taking at the time of the attack and said he suffered from severe back pain.

Prosecutors pointed out a host of inconsistencies in Schmuhl's claims about his pain to suggest he exaggerated his ailments.

The man charged in the savage attack on his wifes former boss testified in court today that he did not remember the attack.

Andrew Schmuhl, a former military lawyer, said he suffered from back pain and was heavily medicated at the time. He said he only remembered waking up in the hospital.

Schmuhl and his wife, Alecia, were both charged in the attack of Leo Fisher and Sue Duncan in their McLean, Virginia, home Nov. 9, 2014. The Schmuhls allegedly tased, stabbed and shot the couple a few weeks after Fisher fired Schmuhls wife from his law firm.

Schmuhls lawyers concede Schmuhl took part in the stabbing but are making the case he was heavily medicated and arguing the attack was Schmuhls wifes plan. They had Schmuhl take to the stand to describe his medical state and the drugs he was taking.

Schmuhl told jurors he was suffering from chronic back pain, high blood pressure, persistent insomnia, constipation and sweats the summer before the attack. He said he spent hours a day in the bathtub to relieve the pain.

My life was miserable, Schmuhl said.

Schmuhl listed over a dozen prescription drugs he was taking at the time of the attack, and he said his wife frequently gave him the medication.

Schmuhl said the last thing he remembered before the attack was driving with his wife to Shenandoah National Park, then getting sick in a gas station or restaurant.

He said after that, he remembers waking up in the hospital, handcuffed to the bed.

In a series of questions from the prosecution, Schmuhl answered "no" to remembering any details of the attack.

The prosecution pointed out a host of inconsistencies in Schmuhls claims about his pain, questioning Schmuhls credibility and suggesting he exaggerated his ailments.

The prosecution also noted discrepancies in Schmuhls claims about the source of his back pain, since Schmuhl blamed running in one account and physical therapy in another. They also cited Schmuhls participation in an all-day kickball tournament, since it contrasted with his claims of chronic pain. They also showed a photo of him re-roofing his house.

Prosecutors contend the Schmuhls carefully planned the attack, driving together to buy a Taser and prepaid cellphones two days before, but Andrew Schmuhl testified he doesn't remember that, either. His own cellphone was found left behind in his Springfield home.

Late Tuesday Schmuhl's lawyers told the judge they want to use an "unconsciousness defense," which would permit them to take testimony from an expert about how Schmuhl's medications could have affected him. Earlier in the trial, the judge turned down their request to use what's known as an involuntary intoxication defense. He'll rule on this latest request Wednesday morning.

Schmuhl and his wife were each charged with two counts of abduction and two counts of malicious wounding. Alecia Schmuhl faces trial in the fall.
A 91-year-old World War II Navy veteran  who had been homeless for part of her life  was laid to rest Tuesday among an unexpected crowd.

Though Serina Vine had no known living relatives, and attendance was sparse early in her funeral ceremony, word had spread on social media about the woman who used to work in radio intelligence and spoke three languages, the Free Lance-Star reported.

Crowds of bikers and retired and active service members  who didnt know Vine  showed up to her service. By the end of the funeral, about 200 people had gathered at Quantico National Cemetery, the Free Lance-Star said.

"We serve together, so therefore we should not die alone, said retired Marine William Jones, of Spotsylvania County. Jones was quoting Army Maj. Jaspen Boothe, an advocate for homeless women veterans, who spoke at the funeral.

Jones had helped organize the funeral, the Free Lance-Star reported. But he had expected to be among only four attending.

At age 20, Vine joined the U.S. Navy, after her father had served in World War I, according to her obituary. She served in the radio intelligence division from November 26, 1944 to August 7, 1946.

Upon returning from her tour of service, Vine attended the University of California-Berkeley, where she graduated with a degree in General Studies.

Later in life, her health deteriorated and she moved into the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in D.C. She lived there for 20 years, until her death on May 21, 2016. She had no children and was never married.

The hundreds of attendees at the funeral came to express their condolences and offer respect to the fallen veteran.

A few did have a connection to Vine. Martin Fuller, a field examiner from the VA Medical Center, told the Free Lance-Star that Vine was a very caring and lovely person who never gave anybody a hard time.

All photos: Dave Ellis / The Free Lance-Star
A man has been charged after a fight in Ocean City led to the death of another man.

Darren Beattie, 21, is charged with manslaughter in the death of 31-year-old Ryan Shupert of Baltimore County, Ocean City Police said.

Investigators say early on May 29, Shupert and a friend were involved in a fight with four other men around 2:30 a.m. Sunday at 136th Street and Coastal Highway, police said. Shupert was injured, and died two days later at a local hospital.

In the aftermath of the fight, police said they were looking for the four men suspected in the assault.

Beattie, of Sparrows Point, Maryland, turned himself Tuesday morning, authorities said.

It wasn't immediately clear whether Beattie has a lawyer.
A paralyzed man who blinked to identify the man who shot him helped convict the gunman in Prince George's County on Tuesday.

Jurors saw videotaped testimony of Melvin Pate, who could not speak after he was shot in November 2010. Paralyzed from the chest down, he blinked from his hospital bed at a photo of his shooter in a photo lineup, prosecutors said.

Jermaine Hailes was convicted with shooting Pate during a drug related-robbery. The gunshot could have killed Pate immediately, but it left him quadriplegic instead.

Once he was conscious, police wanted his help identifying who shot him. With a halo screwed into his skull to stabilize his spine, he could not speak, but he could blink.

"He was able to make an identification of Mr. Hales by blinking during a photo lineup that police showed him while he was in the hospital," John Erzen, spokesman for the Prince George's County State's Attorney's Office said.

"They told the victim to blink once hard if he recognized someone in the photos he was shown. So, it wasnt the involuntary blink that we all do. It was truly a closing of his eyes and opening them and you could see the tears coming from the side of his eyes as he identified the man who was his killer," said prosecutor Christine Murphy.

Pate died two years later.

There were years of hearings and appeals about whether the video of him blinking would be admissible in court.

"The judge ruled that Pate was competent when he gave the photo ID, and the manner it was done was legal and would be admissible," Erzen said.

This marks the first time in Maryland history that a homicide victim's identification of their attacker is admissible in court.

"Im just glad its over with. My son can rest in peace now," said the victim's mother, Felicia Pate. "My son had no chance at all. They can go see their son. I cant see mine. Mine is at home in a box."

A man who said he planned the robbery with Hailes identified him in court Wednesday as the shooter. He said he did not want to appear in court, because he was afraid.

"What are you afraid of?" a prosecutor asked.

"Life after testimony and my well-being," the man replied.
A former teacher at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School has been arrested after police say he took inappropriate photos of three female students while they were in his classroom.

Todd Scriber, 38, of Gaithersburg, Maryland, has been charged with three counts of sexual abuse of a minor, Montgomery County police said.

Police said the photos Scriber took emphasized "various areas of the female anatomy" and the photos were taken without the students' permission.

A 14-year-old girl reported to police on Oct. 5, 2015 she was taking an exam in Scriber's classroom after school. When she approached Scriber to ask a question about the test, she noticed he was holding a cell phone and appeared to be taking photos underneath her skirt, she told police.

The girl said she jumped back and distanced herself from Scriber. When she finished the exam she went home and told her family about the incident, police said. Her report launched an investigation into Scriber, police said.

On Oct. 6, 2015, a detective talked to Scriber about the incident and Scriber agreed to allow the detective to look at photos on his cell phone.

The detective came across photos of girls who appeared to be in a classroom and showed specific areas of the girls' bodies. When Scriber realized the detective was viewing those photos, he tried to grab the phone, police said.

Police said the detective seized the phone and obtained a search warrant to search the phone for more evidence.

Police identified three students in the photos, including two 17-year-old girls and one 16-year-old girl.

Police obtained a warrant for Scriber's arrest and said he turned himself in on Wednesday.

In a letter sent home to parents, the principal of Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School said Montgomery County Public Schools immediately placed Scriber on leave in October 2015 and he is no longer working for the school system.

Read below for the full letter from Principal Donna Redmond Jones:

"I am writing to inform you that Todd Scriber, a former teacher at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School (B-CC), has been arrested on three counts of sexual abuse of a minor. According to the Montgomery County Police Department, the charges stem from Mr. Scribers use of his cell phone to take photographs of female B-CC students, without their permission or knowledge, in his classroom during class time.

"Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) has fully cooperated with the Montgomery County Police Department and the Montgomery County States Attorneys Office on this matter. Pursuant to our memorandum of understanding with these agencies and MCPS policies and regulations, the Special Victims Investigations Division of the Montgomery County Police Department restricted us from sharing any details broadly with the community to avoid prejudicing the ongoing investigation.

"We immediately placed Mr. Scriber on leave after being made aware of the allegations in October 2015, and he is no longer employed with MCPS.

"I know that our community finds the allegations in the charging document as disturbing as I do. The charges represent a serious breach of trust, responsibility, integrity and the law. We expect and require our employees to be held to a high standard of character, and these allegations certainly violate that. Please know that we take the safety and security of our students seriously, and we work every day to ensure that we maintain a safe learning environment for our students. If you have additional questions, please contact me at 240-740-0407. Also, if you or your child has any information that may be helpful to the investigation, I ask that you call the Special Victims Investigations Division of the Montgomery County Police Department at 240-773-5400."
Four men have been shot at the intersection of North Capitol Street and New York Avenue NW Wednesday afternoon and an officer on a bike was struck by a car near the scene, police say.

D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier said a gunman at first opened fire on one man, shooting him multiple times before shooting three additional men outside the Big Ben liquor store on New York Ave. The suspect then ran away and is still at large, Lanier said.

Police released the following surveillance photo of the suspect:

A bike officer was struck by a car while trying to cross North Capitol St. to respond to the shooting, Lanier said. He is in good condition and is expected to be OK, Lanier said.

The men who were shot have been taken to a hospital and are expected to survive, Lanier said.

Police believe the shooting was not random.

A suspect is still at large after four men were shot at the intersection of North Capitol Street and New York Avenue NW Wednesday afternoon, police say. A bike officer was also injured while riding to the scene. News4s Darcy Spencer reports.

Traffic was backed up on North Capitol and New York Ave. as police investigated the crime scene. Some roads were blocked in the area, but have since reopened.

Editor's Note: The original version of this story incorrectly reported the shooting happened in Northeast.
A suspect was arrested after an all-night manhunt after a Stafford, Virginia sheriff's deputy was shot while responding to a breaking-and-entering call.

Authorities got a call around 11 p.m. Tuesday about someone breaking into a house in the 100 block of Windsor Ridge Court. The 911 call came from someone who was inside the home at the time of the break-in.

When sheriff's deputies arrived, a suspect fired multiple shots, striking a deputy sheriff four times, in the hip, thigh, arm and upper chest.

"The body armor protected his upper chest and saved his life," said M.C. Morris-Moncure of the Stafford Sheriff's Office.

The sheriff's office said Wednesday evening the deputy underwent surgery for about four hours and is expected to fully recover.

His name has not been released.

The suspect, 18-year-old Joshua Anthony Sumter, was arrested about 5:45 a.m. at the Thomas Jefferson townhomes off Route 1, about a mile from the shooting scene.

Before his arrest, authorities said Sumter was considered armed and dangerous.

He is facing a charge of attempted capital murder. More charges could be coming.

Authorities said Sumter and the person or people inside the house knew each other. The investigation is continuing.
Three Clarksburg High School juniors were killed when their pickup truck crashed on a dark, winding road in Montgomery County late Tuesday.

The three boys were headed south in the 25300 block of Burnt Hill Road in Damascus when their 1989 Ford F-250 left the road and struck a tree as they approached Kingstead Road, according to a preliminary investigation.

Montgomery County Police responded to the scene shortly after 11:35 p.m.

The driver and a passenger were pronounced dead at the scene. Police identified the driver as 17-year-old Jacob Tyler Dennis, of Boyds, and the passenger as 18-year-old Patrick Andrew Shifflett, of Laytonsville.

Another passenger was taken to Suburban Hospital, where he died. Police identified him as 17-year-old Cary Mauri'ce Greene, of Clarksburg.

Montgomery County Police confirmed the three were students at Clarksburg High School. The boys were juniors at the school, News4's Kristin Wright reports.

Police said Dennis recently received his provisional drivers license in March.

Greene had hoped to go to Towson University, said his mother, Danielle Greene.

"Cary was a great kid. He played football for Clarksburg High School and he was so excited about it," Danielle Greene said. "He enjoyed working out. He was just happy.... He was caring, generous, and genuinely cared about and loved his friends and family."

Clarksburg High School was closed Wednesday because the school's off-site graduation ceremony was held Wednesday morning. The school's last day of classes is June 17.

"They had so much life ahead of them and so many opportunities, but things happen so fast," said classmate Fathima Khan. "You can never take life for granted or anything."

Clarksburg High School Principal Steve Whiting said the three friends seemed to be at the center of all school activities.

"They exemplify what Clarksburg's about and it is that strong community, closeness. Very tight friendship group, but they're friends with everybody," Whiting said.

"My boyfriend speaks so good about Jacob Dennis, and so many people are talking about how inspirational Patrick was, and Cary has always been a really warm-hearted person," said student Taya Wims.

The cause of the crash is unknown. Police continue to investigate.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Collision Reconstruction Unit at 240-773-6620; callers may remain anonymous.

At the start of the school year, another Clarksburg High School student was killed after he was struck by a train. John Martin DeReggi, 16, died in September.
An undercover operation revealed much more than car washes and window tinting going on at an auto shop in northwest Washington, according to police.

Discount Auto Sounds in the 5400 block of Georgia Avenue NW was a fencing operation, dealing in stolen goods, according to police.

For two months, undercover police went in to exchange stolen items for guns, cash and drugs, police said.

Maryland State Police, who cooperated with the Metropolitan Police Department in the investigation, executed a search warrant in Maryland Monday and arrested 39-year-old Tom Van Huynh, police said. State police seized three handguns, an AK-47, some prescription pain killers and $26,000 in cash, police said. They also found a Honda Civic with police equipment and fraudulent credentials.

D.C. police executed a separate search warrant and found electronics and documents connected to the case, police said.

A man News4 talked to at the store Tuesday said he didnt know anything about it.

Huynh is being charged with felony trafficking stolen property, distribution of heroin and receiving stolen property, pending extradition to D.C.
Without any warning, swimmer Maria Korcsmaros suddenly felt the painful sensation of "piercing teeth" as a shark clamped down on the right side of her body, she recalled as she spoke to reporters in her hospital room, her husband standing close by.

The 52-year-old fitness trainer and triathlete on Tuesday described the frightful ordeal nine days ago when she was swim training several hundred feet off Corona del Mar State Beach.

"I pretty much knew it was a shark, 'cause there's nothing else that could have bit me that big," she said. "It just felt like piercing teeth. And I was like, 'Oh, my God. I think that was a shark.'"

Based on the bite marks and the spacing of the teeth, it was a white shark 9-10 feet long, said a shark authority who also met with Korcsmaros Tuesday.

Korcsmaros remembered that when she started swimming her laps along the buoy line, she had noticed a lifeguard boat.

"I didn't really think about anything other than getting out of there. And so my first instinct was to tread water and to get attention. And because I knew the boat was there, I figured that was my best bet," she said.

Korcsmaros was scooped onto the deck and one of her rescuers asked her to help with staunching the flow from her right arm until a tourniquet could be applied.

"He said...'you gotta hold onto this right arm...because that's your worst part,''' she recalled.

Still, she had no time to think about dying. She worried about her husband on the beach with their 16-year-old son.

"I kept saying, 'My husband's on the beach. You gotta find him,'" she said.

Korcsmaros was remarkably calm when she arrived at the hospital in critical condition after suffering what appeared to be a shark bite that stretched from her shoulder to her pelvic area, one of her doctors said at a briefing last week.

During the day Wednesday, Korcsmaros also shared her account with marine biology professor Chris Lowe, director of the SharkLab at California State University Long Beach. Later, after nine days of hospitalization at the Orange County Global Medical Center, she was discharged and able to return home.

Lowe saw evidence of two bite patterns, indicating that after the initial bite, the shark readjusted its grip before letting go. Lowe concluded it was likely an "investigative" or even "defensive" action by the shark, rather than a predatory ambush, which usually involves the shark violently bumping or even launching its prey, which Korcsmaros did not experience.

Lowe described the shark as a juvenile, 4-6 years old, likely still learning its way around, but large enough to pose a mortal threat. Most sharks birthed in the waters off Southern California head south during their first winter, and it is more common to find pups than juveniles, said Lowe, who believes the warmer coastal waters the past El Nino year have affected the usual pattern.

At least one white shark was sighted Tuesday off Sunset Beach, some 15 miles north of Corona del Mar. Whether it may have been the same shark that attacked Kocsmaros was something Lowe said could not be determined.

At this point, Lowe does not see reason to modify the standard lifeguard protocol to reopen a beach if 24 hours have elapsed without a further sighting of a larger shark. But he said open water swimmers should stay in groups rather than swimming alone. Among other reasons, he said sharks are less likely to approach several swimmers in close proximity.

"It's always better to be in groups," Lowe said.

Kocsmaros usually joins members of her Tri La Vie team for a group swim Sundays at Corona del Mar. But the day of the incident, she had gone on a trip to La Jolla with her husband and teen son. When they reached Corona del Mar the team had finished its swim, but she still wanted to get in her workout, so she went out alone as her husband watched from shore.

Korcsmaros was taken to Orange County Global, formerly Western Medical Center, in Santa Ana where her arm wounds and injuries required extensive surgery. In addition, Kocsmaros suffered two broken ribs, a lesion on her lung, damage to her liver, and a fractured pelvis. She still feels some discomfort breathing, and concerns remain about the recovery of the tricep muscle in her right arm.

But she has recovered enough to be discharged late Tuesday.

"My goal the next couple of weeks is to get more mobile and to get walking," said Korcsmaros, who will celebrate her 53rd birthday later this month.

Undeterred, she plans to resume training as soon as possible and before year end hopes to again race in a triathlon  though, with the swim leg in a lake or bay, not the open ocean.

She was asked to think back to that frightful moment in the water, and to try to pin down what it took to survive.

"I think deep inside," she said, "all of us have inner strength."
A Michigan teen has filed a federal lawsuit against a police officer who fined her for refusing to submit to a Breathalyzer test, NBC News reported.

Casey Guthrie, 17, who was a passenger in a car with other seniors, was fined $100 last month. She said she refused to take the test because the detective didnt have a warrant.

The honor student also is challenging the constitutionality of a Michigan law that makes it an infraction for anyone under the age of 21 to refuse a police officers request to take a Breathalyzer test  and doesnt require the officer to produce a warrant.

Guthrie's lawyer told NBC News the law violates her Fourth Amendment rights to be free from unreasonable searches. Township Supervisor Brian Loftus, and the officer, Detective Kenneth Pelland of Gross Isle Township, didnt immediately respond to the lawsuit.
Thousands of civilians fled a northern Syrian town Wednesday in anticipation of a final push by U.S.-backed forces to liberate it from Islamic State rule, as airstrikes pounded rebel-held districts in Aleppo, killing 15 civilians and damaging three hospitals, opposition activists and a U.N. agency said.

The Syrian Democratic Forces have all but encircled Manbij, a key waypoint on an ISIS supply line between the Turkish border and the extremist group's de facto capital, Raqqa, according to an SDF adviser.

Nasser Haj Mansour said the ISIS group was allowing families to flee the town to nearby Jarablus and al-Bab. Some civilians fled to liberated villages and to the advancing forces, the adviser told the AP by messaging service from his position near the front line. He estimated some 15,000 civilians had fled.

The SDF have retaken some 70 villages and farms from ISIS militants in their campaign, which is now entering its tenth day, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The Kurdish-led force, which also includes Arab fighters, has advanced under the cover of U.S.-led airstrikes, and the U.S. has embedded 300 Special Forces troops with it, though Washington says they are there in an advisory capacity.

Haj Mansour said ISIS militants were fighting to keep every village. "This is not something we have seen before. They are not leaving any positions," he said. The Observatory, which relies on a network of local activists, said 82 fighters and 25 civilians were killed in the first week of fighting.

The campaign for Manbij has proven politically fraught for the predominantly Kurdish SDF, which is viewed with suspicion by Turkey over its links to Kurdish rebels, and Syrian opposition factions, which suspect it has colluded with the Syrian government. The SDF has said Manbij natives would fight the final campaign for the predominantly Arab town in an apparent bid to allay such fears.

The UN's children's agency UNICEF meanwhile said a hospital it supported along with two others in rebel-held parts of Aleppo came under attack Wednesday, as fighting in Syria's largest city intensified once again.

"The Al Hakim hospital, a UNICEF supported facility, is one of the few that still provide pediatric services" in the eastern parts of the divided city, said Peter Salama, the agency's regional director. "Everyone must question their humanity when babies have to be taken out of incubators because of attacks on hospitals," he added.

The Independent Doctors Association, which describes itself as a cross-border Syrian humanitarian organization providing health care to Aleppo, said on its Twitter account that an airstrike hit the children's hospital, which it runs, destroying one floor.

U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner condemned the hospital attacks in comments to reporters Wednesday. "The fact that the regime is once again targeting medical facilities is unconscionable and should be strongly condemned," he said.

Just seven hospitals are functional in the city's rebel-held quarters, serving 350,000 residents, according to Physicians for Human Rights. The group quoted Al Hakim's director as saying staff had feared the hospital would eventually be struck.

"Today is that day," said the director, who would not reveal his real name out of safety concerns. "The nurses were running to the basement carrying the babies."

Over the past two days, government forces have pounded rebel-held eastern parts of the city with airstrikes while rebels are shelling western, government-held districts.

Activists said one of Wednesday's strikes hit near the Bayan hospital in the rebel-held Shaar neighborhood.

Videos uploaded on the internet by activists show massive destruction, fires and thick black smoke billowing from buildings. Wounded people are seen being loaded into ambulances. A body covered in thick gray dust is lying face down on a street littered with debris. The videos appeared authentic and correspond to AP reporting.

The Observatory said 10 civilians were killed in the strike, including children. It said the airstrike hit a motorcycle repair shop in a square near the hospital. Five other civilians were killed in strikes that hit nearby districts. The Local Coordination Committees, an activist-run network, and volunteer first responders also said the airstrikes resulted in multiple casualties.

Hospitals and medical facilities have been regularly targeted in Syria's civil war, now in its sixth year. Since the start of the conflict in 2011, nearly 740 doctors and staff have been killed in more than 360 attacks on hospitals in Syria, according to Physicians for Human Rights.

Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym, MSF, says 23 MSF-supported medical staff were killed and 58 wounded in aerial bombing and shelling attacks on 63 MSF-supported and run health structures in 2015. It says 12 facilities were completely destroyed.

On April 27, an airstrike widely believed to have been carried out by the Syrian government destroyed the al-Quds hospital in Aleppo, killing a pediatrician and dozens of colleagues, patients and other civilians.

Aleppo, once Syria's thriving commercial center, has been divided and subject to a war of attrition between government and opposition forces since the summer of 2012.

North of Aleppo, rebels broke an Islamic State siege on their stronghold of Marea, reopening the road linking the town to the Turkish border, activists said. The Observatory said IS withdrew from several villages near Marea, redeploying fighters to Manbij.

Associated Press writer Matt Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
Authorities have identified a Mount Vernon woman who was killed when her sport utility vehicle crossed the center line and hit a pickup truck head-on in Maine.

Kennebec County Sheriff Ryan Reardon says 22-year-old Courtlyn Donato's car collided with the truck just before 1 p.m. Tuesday near the intersection of U.S. Route 202 and Pelton Hill Road in Manchester.

Donato died after she was taken to the hospital. Three others were treated at the hospital for minor injuries and released.

Investigators say they don't believe drugs or alcohol are factors in the crash. The cause remains under investigation.
Vermont State Police have arrested a man they say was under the influence when he crashed in West Charleston last month, killing two passengers and injuring another.

Police responded to the crash around 4:40 p.m. on May 29.

They say Joshua Cole lost control of the vehicle after exiting a sharp corner and went off the road on Vermont Route 105 and crashed into a tree.

All three passengers were thrown from the vehicle. No one was wearing a seat belt.

Esperanza Robles, 29, of Derby Line, and Ryan Coulter, 26, of Newport, were killed in the crash.

Amanda Letourneau, 27, of East Charleston, sustained serious head and leg injuries.

Cole sustained head injuries in the crash.

He was charged with two counts of DUI with death resulting, involuntary manslaughter, and other related charges.

Bail was set at $50,000. He will be arraigned Wednesday in Newport City at Orleans District Court.
A man charged with breaking into a mosque in Methuen, Massachusetts, and stealing a donation box, two computers and other electronics was arrested after he was robbed at gunpoint by two other men.

William Ortiz, 38, of Methuen, is charged with breaking and entering during the nighttime to commit a felony and larceny of property over $250.

Methuen Police said they were called to the Selimiye Mosque on Oakland Avenue on June 3 for a reported breaking and entering. The imam told detectives that someone had broken in either late Thursday night or early Friday morning and stolen several items, including the donation box, a computer, a laptop, a network router and a video camera.

Later that same day, detectives were called to an address on Railroad Street for a report of an armed robbery. Upon arrival they learned that two men had robbed Ortiz after watching him in the parking lot trying to pull money out of the metal donation box he had stolen using a coat hanger.

After interviewing Ortiz, police arrested him. They were able to recover the stolen property and return it to the mosque. Police said they believe that drug money might have been the motive behind the burglary.

Also arrested for the armed robbery of Ortiz were Josue Marrero, 29, and Julio Medina Pimental, 32, both of Lawrence. They are charged with unlawful possession of a firearm, unlawful possession of ammunition, receiving stolen property over $250, trafficking in heroin and armed robbery. Marrero also had multiple outstanding warrants. Police also located more than 54 grams of heroin and a stolen, loaded handgun.
A Vermont woman was arrested on a DUI citation as police tried to track down home invasion suspects in Arlington Tuesday night.

State police say 39-year-old Brandi Merrow of Arlington has been cited with driving under the influence and providing false information to a police officer.

Troopers were responding to a report of a home invasion on East Arlington Road around 11 p.m., but were told that the suspects had fled the scene while they were on the way, according to police.

Eventually troopers found a vehicle believed to be involved in the home invasion, and four people were detained on the scene. Although state police say the troopers were unable to develop probable case for charges against the suspects, Merrow was arrested and charged with DUI and providing false information.

She was later released with a citation to appear in Bennington County Superior Court on June 27.

The investigation is ongoing.
Microsoft kicked off the Spark Summit in San Francisco with news of "an extensive commitment for Spark to power Microsoft's big data and analytics offerings, including Cortana Intelligence Suite, Power BI and Microsoft R Server."

Spark started as an open source project at the University of California, Berkeley AMPLab in 2009 and was given to the Apache Foundation in 2012. A company to further Spark development was formed called DataBricks.

Spark is a significant accelerator for Hadoop, the primary software used in big data analytics, because it does all of the work in memory. Hadoop ran primarily as a disk-based batch process, using a framework called MapReduce to execute a batch process, often overnight. You got your insight the next day. Thats why despite big datas promise of real-time analytics, it often couldn't deliver.

+ Also on Network World: IT wants (but struggles) to operationalize big data +

Spark runs in memory and can speed up Hadoop by up to 100 times its traditional speed, thus making good on the promise of real-time analytics.

Microsoft launched Spark for Azure HDInsight as a public preview last July. As of now, the final version is available today as "a fully managed Spark service from Hortonworks that has been hardened for the enterprise and made simpler for you to use," according to the blog announcement for the news.

Other big data announcements

In addition to the Azure HDInsight news, there were a number of other big data-related announcements at the show and in the blog as well:

R Server for HDInsight in the cloud powered by Spark, previously announced as public preview. R Server for HDInsight will be generally available in the summer. This will make Spark available both on premises and in the cloud. Code can be moved from on premises to the cloud with a few clicks.

R Server for Hadoop on premises now powered by Spark. R Server for Hadoop will support both Microsoft R and native Spark execution frameworks available in June. Combining R Server with Spark gives users the ability to run R functions over thousands of Spark nodes, letting you train your models on data 1000 times larger and 100 times faster than was possible with open source R and nearly two times faster than Sparks own MLLib.

Power BI support for Spark Streaming, previously announced with Power BI General Availability. Spark support in Power BI is now expanded with new support for Spark Streaming scenarios. This allows you to publish real-time events from Spark Streaming directly into one of the fastest-growing visualization tools in the market today.
With 200 to 300 microcontrollers and microprocessors in the typical automobile, cars are already pretty smart. And Googles and Teslas continued development, as well as auto manufacturers R&D investments in preparation of autonomous cars, indicate cars are about to get much smarter.

That increased intelligence means vehicles will have more silicon devices that are more integrated, with more densely packed circuitry. Functional modules, such as control systems, infotainment, and autonomous steering and braking, multiply the number of chips per car that semiconductor manufacturers can sell into each car.

To fill the gap between the connectivity capabilities of todays cars and the complex connectivity in next-generation cars, Qualcomm today announced its Connected Car Reference Platform intended for the car industry to use to build prototypes of the next-generation connected car. Every category from economy to luxury car will be much smarter than the connected luxury car of today, creating a big opportunity for Qualcomm to supply semiconductors to automakers and suppliers.

Connected cars require faster, more-complex connectivity

Connectivity becomes more complex as infotainment experiences become richer and cars become semi-autonomous cars like the Tesla S or fully autonomous like Googles vehicle. Frank Fitzek, chief of Germanys 5G Lab, explained to me in February how autonomous cars will need ultra-low-latency, fast 5G network connectivity.

Connected car network speeds will have to get faster because consumer expectations for connectivity in the autonomous era will be the same in a car as at home. Passengers will connect mobile devices with one another and infotainment systems to collaboratively work, play games, cast streamed music and video to car stereos and displays, as well as communicate with the world beyond the car interior.

+ Also on Network World: BMWs vision for a world of connected cars +

If this sounds futuristic, go rent or borrow a 2016 model luxury car from Audi, Honda, or Mercedes or a Tesla S and you will experience excellent connectivity and smartphone integration. Connectivity and options in the next generation will be substantially better.

Autonomous steering and collision avoidance features were not announced. Onboard specialized processors, in addition to the capabilities announced today, will be necessary for autonomous driving. Its not difficult to imagine that Qualcomm will apply its machine learning SDK, announced just a few weeks ago, and the Snapdragon 820 processor to meet those needs.

Collision avoidance, though, requires a lot of communications with onboard car sensors and camerasand with a local cloud of Wi-Fi and VX2. VX2, sometimes referred to as vehicle-to-everything, incorporates V2I (Vehicle to Infrastructure), V2V (Vehicle to Vehicle), V2P (Vehicle to Pedestrian), V2D (Vehicle to Device) and V2G (Vehicle to Grid). Much of the collision avoidance systems will operate using a local cloud, but safely coordinating cars in heavy traffic travelling at 70 mph or on the Autobahn at 120 mph will require ultra-low latency, fast 5G.

Features of the Connected Car Reference Platform

Qualcomm described the following features of the Connected Car Reference Platform in its release:

Scalability: Using a common framework that scales from a basic telematics control unit (TCU) up to a highly integrated wireless gateway, connecting multiple electronic control units (ECUs) within the car and supporting critical functions, such as over-the-air software upgrades and data collection and analytics.

Using a common framework that scales from a basic telematics control unit (TCU) up to a highly integrated wireless gateway, connecting multiple electronic control units (ECUs) within the car and supporting critical functions, such as over-the-air software upgrades and data collection and analytics. Future-proofing: Allowing the vehicles connectivity hardware and software to be upgraded through its life cycle, providing automakers with a migration path from Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) to hybrid/cellular V2X and from 4G LTE to 5G.

Allowing the vehicles connectivity hardware and software to be upgraded through its life cycle, providing automakers with a migration path from Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) to hybrid/cellular V2X and from 4G LTE to 5G. Wireless coexistence: Managing concurrent operation of multiple wireless technologies using the same spectrum frequencies, such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Bluetooth Low Energy.

Managing concurrent operation of multiple wireless technologies using the same spectrum frequencies, such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Bluetooth Low Energy. OEM and third-party applications support: Providing a secure framework for the development and execution of custom applications.

There are a few interesting points about those features. Qualcomm is attempting to solve a difficult problem for automakers: over-the-air software updates. Updating software on a mission-critical system such as an autonomous car is a much harder problem than updating a smartphone because it has to be completely secure and work every time without reducing safety. But Qualcomm has to solve this problem anyway to accelerate shipments not only to the car market but to the IoT market, where it hopes to sell tens of billions of chips.

Keeping up with connectivity improvements

One of the inconsistencies between building cars and building smartphones is the average car has a 12-year useful life, and a smartphone has just a couple of years. Smartphone connectivity improves with each design iteration, posing the problem that its network speeds will almost always be faster than what is installed in the car. Unless the car network is future-proofed, consumers will rely on their phones network rather than the cars. Qualcomm said there will be a migration from older networks to newer, perhaps offering an upgrade to car network connectivity every two years to match the improvements in smartphones.

Qualcomm is approaching a unified communications system to address infotainment, navigation, autonomous steering and braking, and control systems connected to the control area network (CAN). Autonomous steering and braking, navigation, and control systems must be connected, but automakers have resisted combining the CAN bus with infotainment systems because it increases the attack surface that could be exploited by a criminal hacker. Qualcomm claims their design is secure, but it can expect to be asked by safety engineers to prove it.

Qualcomm says it expects to ship the Connected Car Reference Platform to automakers, tier 1 auto suppliers and developers late this year.
With the Surface 4/Surface Book doing very well and grabbing more and more market share, Microsoft isnt saying much about the next generation of its tablet/notebook products. However, a leak from China may have some clues.

All thats known is that the next generation of Surface products was pushed back to early 2017. A leak to Indian publication Mobipicker.com says one reason for the delay is because Microsoft wanted to use the latest processor from Intel, code-named Kaby Lake. Kaby Lake is expected in the third quarter, which would make shipping by years end pretty tough. So, Microsoft simply pushed Surface 5 into next year rather than rushing it.

Kaby Lake represents a departure for Intel. For a decade, it was governed by a tick/tock model, where the tock part was a whole new microarchitecture, and the tick was a shrink of the manufacturing process. The shrink usually meant better power efficiency but not much for performance, since it was the same architecture.

+ More on Network World: Surface Books get major driver updates +

However, Intel ran into the laws of physics and found it harder to shrink the manufacturing process every other year and added a second tock to the process. Kaby Lake is basically Skylake, the new microarchitecture introduced last year currently on the market, at the same 14nm manufacturing process but with some efficiency tweaks, particularly around power.

Kaby Lake will still be 14nm, but it will have a more System-On-a-Chip (SOC) design, which is more power efficient, plus it will consume less power and support 4k displays and the Thunderbolt 3 interface. These changes will benefit tablet and ultralight portables such as Surface.

Mobipicker believes 4k resolution will be an extra option for people who want to pay for it, and incredibly it will sport the new Nvidia Pascal or AMD Polaris GPUs, both of which are amazingly powerful GPUs for desktops. If they can get Kaby Lake and Pascal into a tablet and not have it reduced to molten slag in 10 minutes, it will be a remarkable feat of engineering.

Of course, it will cost you: starting at $899 for the Core i5 variant and going to $1,599 for the top-end Core i7 Extreme variant.

The OS of choice is said to be Windows 10 Redstone 2. Redstone 1 is the Anniversary Update planned for this summer, which is also when the free period to download Windows 10 ends. Redstone 2 was pushed back to early 2017 to coincide with the new hardware launch. WinBeta speculates that Redstone 2 will contain features that were cut from Redstone because they couldnt complete them in time for release. But what those features are is unknown.
Tyre fire causes large plume of smoke seen from Thatcham

FIREFIGHTERS were called to a blaze in Colthrop Lane last night (Tuesday) after a tyre pile had apparently been set on fire.

At around 7.30pm eye witnesses reported a pall of thick black smoke which hung over homes in Colthrop drifting towards Thatcham.

Two fire engines from Newbury accessed the site just south of the River Kennet via the gated bridge at Kennetholme Quarry owned by Grundon.

On arrival crews discovered the tyres well alight with eight firefighters battling the blaze.

They remained on site for approximately two hours before the flames were eventually extinguished.

Seventeen-year-old Alexandra Covell was walking along the canal towpath around 7.45pm when she saw flames coming from the disused quarry.

Miss Covell said: "I was just walking past and saw flames and smoke in a building across the field so I rang the fire brigade."

According to firecrews a family of rabbits had made a warren nearby but did not survive the blaze.

Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue say that arson is suspected and the investigation has now been passed onto Thames Valley Police.

Police have been mounting regular patrols near the old mill site following a number of incidents involving youths at a derelict home in the adjoining woodland.

PICTURE CREDIT: Newbury Firestation
Who is The Daily News Athlete of the Week? Here are the 7 nominees.

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Columnist

Tom Kacich is a columnist and the author of Tom's Mailbag at The News-Gazette. His column appears Sundays. His email is tkacich@news-gazette.com, and you can follow him on Twitter (@tkacich).
The amount a heart 'bleeds' following a heart attack can predict the severity of future heart failure, according to research presented today at the British Cardiovascular Conference, in Manchester.

Bleeding, or bruising in the heart, affects over 40 per cent of people who suffer from a heart attack. The researchers have now found that this injury is associated with a higher risk of developing heart failure in the months following a heart attack.

There are 188,000 hospital episodes attributed to heart attack in the UK each year: that's one around every three minutes. But although around 7 out of 10 people now survive a heart attack, many are left with heart failure.

The British Heart Foundation-funded study found that bleeding was linked to a 2.6 times greater risk of adverse remodelling, where the heart muscle changes shape, which is a precursor to heart failure. It is also linked to a six times greater risk of either death or heart failure following a heart attack.

The researchers also validated a test for use at the time of heart attack treatment to rule-in or rule-out heart muscle bleeding, and the likelihood of survival free of heart failure. This information would be useful to doctors to identify patients who are at risk of adverse outcome for more intensive treatment. The findings will pave the way to find new treatments to prevent bleeding following a heart attack and the subsequent onset of heart failure.

MRI imaging, a non-invasive scan, can be used after a heart attack to monitor heart muscle bleeding, which happens in phases. The first phase is in the 12 hours following a heart attack, and the second takes place within 2 to 3 days. This provides a window of opportunity to introduce treatments to prevent the second phase of bleeding, which could reduce or prevent the later onset of heart failure.

Over half a million people in the UK are living with heart failure. The most common cause of heart failure is a heart attack, which causes irreparable damage to the heart and leads to heart failure. The condition can leave people disabled with a poor quality of life, unable to do simple everyday tasks such as climb the stairs or go to the shops.

Professor Colin Berry, from the University of Glasgow, who led the study said:

"This research has provided us with a new understanding of heart muscle injury and how it develops. We can now focus our research on developing new treatments to reduce the level of this injury following a heart attack.

"The study has also presented a new way of identifying those at a higher risk of heart failure before the condition develops. This knowledge can be used to identify those most in need of interventions and monitoring earlier."

Professor Jeremy Pearson, Associate Medical Director at the British Heart Foundation, which funded the research, said:

"Heart failure is an incurable condition which is associated with a reduced quality of life and a lower life expectancy. This exciting research has found a new characteristic related to heart attacks which could be used to treat people following a heart attack, to cut their risk of developing heart failure.

"The British Heart Foundation is committed to funding research to cure heart failure, but this study represents a promising new opportunity to develop new treatments to prevent the onset of heart failure and reduce the burden of the disease."
By Lucy Piper

A high cerebral microbleed count increases an individual's risk of cognitive deterioration and dementia, study results indicate.

A high count, calculated to be above four, "may represent a proxy for diffuse vascular and neurodegenerative brain damage, which predisposes to progressive cognitive deterioration", the team reports in JAMA Neurology.

They note that multiple microbleeds affected cognition in all domains, with lobar microbleeds associated with a decline in distinct cognitive domains when compared with microbleeds in other locations.

The prevalence of microbleeds, as detected using magnetic resonance imaging, was 15.3% among 3257 participants of The Rotterdam Study aged an average of 59.6 years who had baseline and follow-up MRI scans available. Lobar microbleeds (with or without cerebellar microbleeds) were detected in 10.9% of participants and deep or infratentorial microbleeds (with or without lobar microbleeds) in 3.8%.

A single microbleed alone was not significantly associated with a decline in cognition; it was at a cutoff of four microbleeds when the researchers saw patients performing significantly worse on a battery of neuropsychological tests 5.9 years later.

The tests included the Mini-Mental State Examination, Letter Digit Substitution Task, World Fluency Test, Stroop Test, 15-word Verbal Learning Test.

Multiple lobar microbleeds were specifically associated with significant declines in executive functions, information processing and memory function, whereas multiple microbleeds in other regions were significantly associated with a decline in information processing and motor speed.

The researchers comment that the cognitive effects are consistent with the predominant location of the microbleeds, but they point out that participants with deep or infratentorial microbleeds often had higher microbleed counts and more mixed microbleed locations.

"Hence, microbleed count per topographic brain region may be more informative than the categorizations per presumed underlying vasculopathy in assessing cognitive deterioration", study researcher M Arfan Ikram (Erasmus MC, University Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands) and team write.

Among 4841 participants available for assessment of dementia during a mean follow-up of 4.8 years, 72 participants developed dementia, 53 of whom had Alzheimer dementia.

The risk of developing dementia doubled among people with any microbleeds, compared with those with none, after taking into account age and gender, and increased 1.80-fold and 2.39-fold for those with lobar and deep or infratentorial microbleeds, respectively. Similar increases in risk were seen for Alzheimer dementia.

However, significant associations with dementia remained only for any and infratentorial microbleeds when lacunes, intracranial volume and white matter lesion volume were taken into account and there were no significant associations when apolipoprotein 4 allele status and common cardiovascular risk factors were considered.

In a related editorial, Philip Gorelick (Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, Grand Rapids, USA) and Muhammad Farooq (Mercy Health Hauenstein Neurosciences, Grand Rapids, Michigan) discuss the challenge cerebral microbleeds pose in terms of treatment.

The heightened risk of bleeding makes affected patients poor candidates for antithrombotic therapy, they point out. They recommend that physicians adopt a practical approach when administering these medications to patients with cerebral microbleeds and weigh up the benefits and risks.

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.
A drug, more commonly used in the treatment of angina, could be the focus of a new strategy in fighting the fatal fungal infection cryptococcosis.

Researchers from the University of Birmingham found that the compound fendiline hydrochloride could be used to stimulate a patient's own white blood cells to fight the disease more effectively, instead of trying to use drugs that directly kill the fungus itself.

The findings, published in the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents, propose a role for calcium-channel blockers such as fendiline hydrochloride as potential inhibitors to the survival of Cryptococcus neoformans, the pathogen which causes cryptococcosis, and represent a promising strategy for future anticryptococcal drug design and therapy.

Professor Robin May, from the University of Birmingham, explained, "Fungi are intrinsically more difficult to target than bacteria, because they are much more closely related, evolutionarily, to humans. Finding an essential pathway in a fungus that you could inhibit, which doesn't exist in humans, is very difficult. Therefore the approach of stimulating your own immune system to kill the fungus, instead of killing it directly through treatment, is potentially more powerful."

In order to cause disease, Cryptococcus neoformans hides inside the patient's own white blood cells, making it particularly difficult to treat. In the Birmingham Drug Discovery facility, the team screened 1,200 off-patent, FDA-approved, drugs to identify candidates that might be redeployed to fight cryptococcosis by triggering the white blood cells to recognise that they are infected and to kill the fungus hiding inside them.

After initial screening, 19 of those compounds in the Prestwick Chemical Library of FDA-approved small molecules showed promise for significantly reducing intracellular growth of the pathogen.

Secondary screening and host cell toxicity assays ruled out many of these molecules, but highlighted fendiline hydrochloride, more commonly used in the treatment of angina and chest pain, as a potential candidate for the development of future anticryptococcal therapies.

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Professor May said, "Although calcium channel blockers have not previously been identified as a potential anticryptococcal agent, their ability to work in this way makes sense. We have previously shown that Cryptococcus perturbs calcium signalling when living inside human cells, probably in order to trick the cell into not killing it. Consequently, it's possible that fendiline hydrochloride works by overcoming this perturbation and restoring normal calcium dynamics, helping the host to kill the fungus.

Cryptococcosis neoformans poses a major threat to immunocompromised patients and is a leading killer of HIV patients worldwide.

HIV/AIDS patients are particularly prone to cryptococcal infections, with an estimated overwhelming disease burden of about one million cases of cryptococcal meningitis per year. The highest incidence of cryptococcal meningitis related deaths in HIV-positive patients occurs in sub-Saharan Africa with an associated mortality of 70%.

The infection process begins with inhalation of infectious agents (spores or dessicated yeasts) resulting in a primary pulmonary infection, which can further disseminate to the central nervous system causing meningitis.

Cryptococci are particularly difficult to treat with antifungal agents due to their ability to manipulate and exist within the host's immune response.

Dr Rebecca Hall, also from the University of Birmingham, added, "Considering the poor status of current anticryptococcal drugs, new treatment options for cryptococcosis are much needed."

"Though the relatively high dose of fendiline hydrochloride required renders it unfit for clinical deployment against cryptococcosis in itself, our study presents an opportunity to approach treatment of this much neglected disease in a new way."

Source: University of Birmingham
A clinical team on Mayo Clinic's Florida campus is the first to offer four patients with long-term fecal incontinence a new and potentially long-lasting treatment  a small band of interlinked magnetic titanium beads on a titanium string that successfully mimics the function of the anal sphincter.

At this point, Mayo Clinic is the only medical center that has surgically implanted this device, known as the Fenix Continence Restoration System. In December 2015, the system received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval under a humanitarian device exemption, which requires approval for patient use by a hospital's Institutional Review Board (IRB). The IRB at Mayo Clinic is the first and, as yet, the only center to approve use of the device.

The issue of fecal incontinence, or accidental bowel leakage, is not unusual. It can affect more than 20 percent of women over 45, says Paul Pettit, M.D., a female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery specialist at Mayo Clinic. "The condition can be debilitating due to social isolation, depression, loss of self-esteem and self-confidence.

"If a patient does not improve through use of less invasive techniques, our only option has been a colostomy," says Dr. Pettit, who performed the four surgeries. "This device now offers a new option that restores function, and we are happy to be able to offer it."

The operation itself lasts about 45 minutes and requires an overnight hospital stay.

Most patients with fecal incontinence  a syndrome that involves unintentional loss of solid or liquid stool  are women, and often the cause is childbirth, when the muscles and nerves near the anus are damaged, Dr. Pettit says.

When the system is implanted, the string of magnetic titanium beads is placed around the anal canal in the closed position. Increased intra-abdominal pressure opens the beads to allow for passage of stool. The magnets then spontaneously close.

The device works immediately after surgery and does not require any activation by the patient or adjustments by a physician, according to the manufacturer, Torax Medical Inc., in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Researchers have built a model to investigate the metastasis of cancer by examining the metabolism of breast epithelial cells and look at the role of signaling. This research, published in PLOS Computational Biology, may contribute to the development of cell specific anti-cancer interventions.

Scientists, led by Ottar Rolfssonat the University of Iceland, have built a mathematical model to examine the metabolism of breast epithelium -- as the majority of breast cancers originate from these cells. The model specifically looks at the process of epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) which is an important event during development and cancer metastasis.

One of the key metabolic alterations that takes place during EMT is that of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) which is a pathway that regulates growth, survival, proliferation, and differentiation in mammalian cells. EFGR signaling often affects metabolic rate in tumor cells and controls their progression -- the dysregulation of signaling pathways during this process is therefore a hallmark of metastasis.

The scientists' model looks at the EGFR signaling cascade to investigate crosstalk between EFGR signaling and EMT in cell culture models of human breast epithelium. The model was then used to obtain a list of potential signaling and metabolic targets of EMT.

These targets may aid in the understanding of the molecular mechanisms that underlie EMT and cancer metastasis. The results also show how the metabolic signposts of cancer cell growth and EMT can be predicted based on the transcriptome analysis of EGFR signaling genes alone (where current methods are inconsistent) -- thus supporting the idea of cell specific anti-cancer interventions.
Skin cancer screenings performed by primary care physicians (PCPs) during routine office visits improve the detection of potentially deadly melanomas and find them in earlier stages, according to new research from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

The results will be presented today at the 52nd annual American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting in Chicago.

"Our findings suggest that PCP screening is an effective way to improve early detection of melanoma, which could potentially save lives," said lead author Laura Ferris, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor, Department of Dermatology, Pitt School of Medicine and member of the Melanoma Program, University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute.

Rates of melanoma, the most dangerous form of skin cancer, are on the rise, and skin cancer screenings are one of the most important steps for early detection and treatment, said Dr. Ferris. Typically, patients receive skin checks by setting up an appointment with a dermatologist.

The goal of the new UPMC screening initiative, which was modeled after a promising German program, was to improve the detection of melanomas by making it easier for patients to get screened during routine office visits with their PCPs, explained Dr. Ferris.

PCPs completed training on how to recognize melanomas and were asked to offer annual screening during office visits to all patients aged 35 and older. In 2014, during the first year of the program, 15 percent of the 333,788 eligible UPMC patients were screened in this fashion.

On average, the melanomas detected in the group who received a screening at a primary care visit were nearly twice as thin as those detected in the group that was not screened by a PCP. Thinner melanomas have a better prognosis than thicker ones that are more advanced, so the new findings suggest PCP screening is able to find melanomas at an earlier, more treatable stage, said Dr. Ferris.

In addition, only 5 percent of people in the screening group had especially worrisome melanomas that were thicker than 1 millimeter--which are more likely to metastasize and require a biopsy of a nearby lymph node -- while 20 percent of the unscreened group did.

"The PCP screenings prevented a lot of people from needing more aggressive therapy. Additionally, we did not see a high rate of false positive biopsies, in which no skin cancer was present, nor did we see a high rate of unnecessary dermatology referrals or skin surgeries, all of which suggest that the program did not simply drive up health care costs needlessly," Dr. Ferris said.

Another important finding was that nearly half of the screened patients were men, who are more likely to get and die from melanoma than women but have been underrepresented in other skin cancer screenings published to date. "It's exciting that our approach improves detection in this especially vulnerable population," said Dr. Ferris.
Sydney: Star Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal entered the second round of women's singles with a comfortable victory but P V Sindhu suffered an upset defeat in the opening round to crash out of the USD 750,000 Australian Open Super Series badminton tournament here today.

In men's singles, India's Kidambi Srikanth and Sameer Verma made the second round with contrasting victories, but it was curtains for qualifier R M V Gurusaidutt as he failed to cross the first round hurdle.

Saina, who had won the Australian Open title in 2014, hardly broke a sweat in her opening round game as she outplayed Joy Lai of Australia with a dominating 21-10 21-14 win in just 29 minutes.

The seventh seeded Indian will clash with Malaysia's Jin Wei Goh in the second round.

However, World No. 10 Sindhu was stunned by South Korea's Kim Hyo Min, ranked 40th in the world, 15-21 19-21 after a 55-minute battle.

But youngster Tanvi Lad registered a come-from-behind win 18-21 21-14 21-11 over qualifier Tiffany Ho of Australia in 52 minutes to enter round two of the tournament.

She will next take on fourth-seeded Wang Yihan.

Srikanth, ranked 12th, posted an easy 21-16 21-12 win over World No.11 NG Ka Long Angus of Hong Kong in a match that lasted 32 minutes, while Sameer had to sweat it out before prevailing over Indonesia's Ihsan Maulana Mustofa 22-20 15-21 21-15 in a 53-minute contest.

Gurusaidutt, who qualified to the main draw after winning both his qualifying matches yesterday, fought hard before going down 19-21 21-12 15-21 to world no. 14 Hu Yun of Hong Kong.

Srikanth will next face Indonesia's Sony Dwi Kuncoro, while Sameer will take on the winner of match between Anthony Sinisuka Ginting and Chou Tien-chen.
Patna: Under fire from all quarters, Bihar School Examination Board Chairman Professor Lalkeshwar Singh resigned on Wednesday after videos surfaced of two board toppers being clueless of their subjects. The state Crime investigation Department is probing the matter.



Earlier in the day, the centre superintendent of GI college, one of the exam centres, has been arrested.



An FIR has been registered against three toppers of the Bihar school boards and three others on a complaint filed by the state education department for alleged irregularities in the exams, police said.



The FIR was registered on the complaint by the Director, Secondary Education, late Monday night. It also includes unnamed officials of BSEB, Nomani said.



Those who have been named in the FIR are: management of Vishun Rai College, Hajipur; Centre Superintendent of GA Inter College, Hajipur, where the exam was conducted, Centre Superintendent of Balak High School, Rajendra Nagar, Patna, where copies were evaluated and marks alloted, the DSP said.



Besides, the names of Intermediate Arts topper Ruby Rai, Science toppers Saurabh Shrestha and Rahul Kumar have also been included in the FIR.







They have been booked under relevant sections of IPC including section 420 (cheating), 465 (forgery), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record) and 120B (criminal conspiracy).



Bihar Education Minister Ashok Choudhary also confirmed the registration of the FIR for allegedly committing irregularities in the 10+2 exam of Arts and Science streams.



"The government, prima facie, found there are some irregularities and hence, the FIR has been registered in the case. Follow up action will take place. DGP will tell about further action," Choudhary said.



(With additional information from PTI)
New Delhi: Seeking more teeth to check call drops, the regulator Trai has asked government to amend law to allow it to impose penalty of up to Rs 10 crore on mobile operators and jail term of up to two years on their executives for any violation of regulatory framework.



This follows a Supreme Court judgement quashing the Trai order that asked telecom operators to compensate subscribers for call drops.



The regulator has suggested to the Department of Telecom amendments in various provisions in the Trai Act, 1997, with a view to be an "effective sector regulator".



"If a service provider violates any direction, order or regulations made under this Act or terms and condition of licence, service provider to be liable for penalty which may extend to 10 crore rupees," Trai said in its communication to the Department of Telecom (DoT).



Trai had put in place a new set of rules mandating telecom operators to pay Re 1 for each dropped call, subject to maximum Rs 3 per day, but the order was quashed by the apex court after companies appealed against it.



The regulator said that after a detailed examination of the judgement it has concluded the need for seeking greater clarity in protecting interest of consumers, grievance redressal and enforcement of its regulations and orders.



"In order to be an effective sector regulator Trai needs to be statutorily empowered to enforce its direction, orders, regulations as well as terms and conditions of licence issued to service providers through imposition of penalties for contravention of such regulations directions etc," Trai said.



The regulator has proposed amendment in Section 29 of the Trai Act 1997 which is about penalty for contravention of its direction and also sought introduction of three new sub-sections 29 A, 29 B and 29 C.



Trai wants the amended section 29 to have provision for imprisonment and fine both for violators.



"Section 29 may be substituted with... If a person violates direction of the authority, such personnel shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may be extended to two years and shall be liable to fine which may be extended to Rs 15 lakh," Trai said.



In case the violation continues there should be provision of additional fine that can be extended to Rs 15 lakh for every day till the time default continues, it said.



At present, Trai can impose fine of up to Rs 2 lakh for a violation and in case default continues penalty of Rs 2 lakh can be imposed till the time of breach of rules.



At present, disputes between consumers and telecom operators are not taken up by consumer courts as a Supreme Court judgement of 2009 had barred seeking any such relief under the Consumer Protection Act, saying a special remedy is provided under the Indian Telegraph Act.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday addressed a joint meeting of US Congress. His address comes a day after Modi met US President Barack Obama and business leaders. The Prime Minister said US is an indispensable partner to India and the both should work together to convert ideals into practical cooperation.



Here is the full speech:



Mr. Speaker,

Mr. Vice President,

Distinguished Members of the US Congress

Ladies and Gentlemen.



I am deeply honoured by the invitation to address this Joint Meeting of the U.S. Congress.



Thank you, Mr. Speaker for opening the doors of this magnificent Capitol.



This temple of democracy has encouraged and empowered other democracies the world over.



It manifests the spirit of this great nation, which in Abraham Lincoln's words, "was conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."



In granting me this opportunity, you have honoured the world's largest democracy and its 1.25 billion people.



As a representative of world's largest democracy, it is indeed a privilege to speak to the leaders of its oldest.



Mr. Speaker,



Two days ago, I began my visit by going to the Arlington National Cemetery-the final resting place of many brave soldiers of this great land.



I honoured their courage and sacrifice for the ideals of freedom and democracy.



It was also the seventy-second Anniversary of the D-Day.



On that day, thousands from this great country fought on the remote shores of a land that they did not know to protect the torch of liberty.



They sacrificed their lives so that the world lives in freedom.



I applaudIndia applauds, the great sacrifices of the men and women from 'The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave' in service of mankind.



India knows what this means because our soldiers too have fallen in distant battlefields for the same ideals.



That is why the threads of freedom and liberty form a strong bond between our two democracies.



Mr. Speaker,



Our nations may have been shaped by differing histories, cultures, and faiths.



Yet,our belief in democracy for our nations and liberty for our countrymen is common.



The idea that all citizens are created equal may be a central pillar of the American constitution.



But, our founding fathers too shared the same belief and sought individual liberty for every citizen of India.



There were many who doubted India when, as a newly independent nation, were posed our faith in democracy.



Indeed, wagers were made on our failure.



But, the people of India did not waver.



Our founders created a modern nation with freedom, democracy, and equality as the essence of its soul.



And, in doing so, they ensured that we continued to celebrate our age old diversity.



Today:



 across its streets and institutions;

 in its villages and cities;

 anchoredin equal respect for all faiths;and

 inthe melodyof hundreds of its languages and dialects.



India lives as one; India grows as one; India celebrates as one.



Mr. Speaker,



Modern India is in its 70th year.



For my government,theConstitution is its real holy book.



And, in that holy book, freedom of faith,speech and franchise, and equality of all citizens, regardless of background, are enshrined as fundamental rights.



800 million of my countrymen may exercise the freedom of franchise once every five years.



But, all the 1.25 billion of our citizens have freedom from fear, which they exercise every moment of their lives.



Distinguished Members,



Engagement between our democracies has been visible in the manner in which our thinkers impacted one another, and shaped the course of our societies.



Thoreau's idea of civil disobedience influenced our political thoughts.



And, similarly the call by the great sage of India Swami Vivekananda to embracehumanity was most famously delivered in Chicago.



Gandhi's non-violence inspired the heroism of Martin Luther King.



Today, a mere distance of 3 miles separates the Martin Luther King memorial at Tidal Basin from the statue of Gandhi at Massachusetts Avenue.



This proximity of their memorials in Washington mirrors the closeness of ideals and values they believed in.



The genius of Dr. BR Ambedkar was nurtured in the years he spent at the Columbia University a century ago.



The impact of the US constitution on him was reflected in his drafting of the Indian constitution some three decades later.



Our independence was ignited by the same idealism that fuelled your struggle for freedom.



No wonder then that former Prime Minister of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee called India and the U.S. 'natural allies'.



No wonder that the shared ideals and common philosophy of freedom shaped the bedrock of our ties.



No wonder then, that President Obama has called our ties the defining partnership of the 21st century.



Mr. Speaker,



More than fifteen years ago, Prime Minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee stood here and gave a call to step out of the 'shadow of hesitation'of the past.



The pages of our friendship since then tell a remarkable story.



Today, our relationship has overcome the hesitations of history.

Comfort, candour and convergence define our conversations.



Through the cycle of elections and transitions of Administrations the intensity of our engagements has only grown.



And, in this exciting journey, the US Congress has acted as its compass.



You helped us turn barriers into bridges of partnership.



In the fall of 2008, when the Congress passed the India-U.S. Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement, it changed the very colours of leaves of our relationship.



We thank you for being there when the partnership needed you the most.



You have also stood by us in times of sorrow.



India will never forget the solidarity shown by the U.S. Congress when terrorists from across our border attacked Mumbai in November of 2008.



And for this, we are grateful.



Mr. Speaker,



I am informed that the working of the U.S. Congress is harmonious.



I am also told that you are well-known for your bipartisanship.



Well, you are not alone.



Time and again, I have also witnessed a similar spirit in the Indian Parliament, especially in our Upper House.



So, as you can see, we have many shared practices.



Mr. Speaker,



As this country knows well, every journey has its pioneers.



Very early on, they shaped a development partnership even when the meeting ground was more limited.



The genius of Norman Borlaug brought the Green Revolution and food security to India.



The excellence of the American Universities nurtured Institutes of Technology and Management in India.



And, I could go on.



Fast forward to today. The embrace of our partnership extends to the entirety of human endeavour-from the depths of the oceans to the vastness of the space.



Our S&T collaboration continues to helps us in cracking the age-old problems in the fields of public health, education, food, and agriculture.



Ties of commerce and investment are flourishing.



We trade more with the U.S. than with any other nation.



And, the flow of goods, services and capital between us generates jobs in both our societies.



As in trade, so in defence.



India exercises with the United States more than we do with any other partner.



Defence purchases have moved from almost zero to ten billion dollars in less than a decade.



Our cooperation also secures our cities and citizens from terrorists, and protects our critical infrastructure from cyber threats.



Civil Nuclear Cooperation, as I told President Obama yesterday, is a reality.



Mr. Speaker,



Our people to people links are strong; and there is close cultural connect between our societies.



SIRI tells us that India's ancient heritage of Yoga has over 30 million practitioners in the U.S..



It is estimated that more Americans bend for yoga than to throw a curve ball.



And, no Mr. Speaker, we have not yet claimed intellectual property right on Yoga.



Connecting our two nations is also a unique and dynamic bridge of three million Indian Americans.

Today, they are among your best CEOs; academics; astronauts; scientists; economists; doctors; even spelling bee champions.

They are your strength. They are also the pride of India. They symbolize the best of both our societies.

Mr. Speaker,



My understanding of your great country began long before I entered public office.



Long before assuming office, I travelled coast to coast, covering 29 States of America.



I realized then that the real strength of the U.S. was in the dreams of its people and the boldness of their ambitions.



Today, Mr. Speaker, a similar spirit animates India.



Our 800 million youth, especially, are particularly impatient.



India is undergoing a profound social and economic change.



A billion of its citizens are already politically empowered.



My dream is to economically empower them through many social and economic transformations.



And, do so by 2022, the seventy-fifth anniversary of India's independence.



My to-do list is long and ambitious. But you will understand.



It includes:



 A vibrant rural economy with robust farm sector;

 A roof over each head and electricity to all households;

 To skill millions of our youth;

 Build 100 smart cities;

 Have a broad band for a billion, and connect our villages to the digital world;

 And create a twenty-first century rail, road and port infrastructure.



These are not just aspirations; they are goals to be reached in a finite time-frame.



And, to be achieved with alight carbon foot print, with greater emphasis on renewables.



Mr. Speaker,



In every sector of India's forward march, I see the U.S. as an indispensable partner.



Many of you also believe that a stronger and prosperous India is in America's strategic interest.



Let us work together to convert shared ideals into practical cooperation.



There can be no doubt that in advancing this relationship, both nations stand to gain in great measure.



As the US businesses search for new areas of economic growth, markets for their goods, a pool of skilled resources, and global locations to produce and manufacture, India could be their ideal partner.



India's strong economy, and growth rate of 7.6% per annum,is creating new opportunities for our mutual prosperity.



Transformative American technologies in India and growing investment by Indian companies in the United States both have a positive impact on the lives of our citizens.



Today, for their global research and development centres, India is the destination of choice for the U.S. companies.



Looking eastward from India, across the Pacific, the innovation strength of our two countries comes together in California.



Here, the innovative genius of America and India's intellectual creativity are working to shape new industries of the future.



Mr. Speaker,



The 21st century has brought with it great opportunities.



But, it also comes with its own set of challenges.



Inter-dependence is increasing.



But, while some parts of the world are islands of growing economic prosperity; other are mired in conflicts.



In Asia, the absence of an agreed security architecture creates uncertainty.



Threats of terror are expanding, and new challenges are emerging in cyber and outer-space.



And, global institutions conceived in 20th century, seem unable to cope with new challenges or take on new responsibilities.



In this world full of multiple transitions and economic opportunities; growing uncertainties and political complexities; existing threats and new challenges; our engagement can make a difference by promoting:



 Cooperation not dominance;

 Connectivity not isolation;

 Respect for Global Commons;

 inclusive not exclusive mechanisms; and above all

 adherence to international rules and norms.



India is already assuming her responsibilities in securing the Indian Ocean region.



A strong India-U.S. partnership can anchor peace, prosperity and stability from Asia to Africa and from Indian Ocean to the Pacific.



It can also help ensure security of the sea lanes of commerce and freedom of navigation on seas.



But, the effectiveness of our cooperation would increase if international institutions framed with the mindset of the 20th century were to reflect the realities of today.



President Obama and I have agreed that India as a permanent member of the U.N Security Council,has to be an intrinsic part of this century's new reality.



Mr. Speaker,



Before arriving in Washington D.C., I had visited Herat in Western Afghanistan to inaugurate Afghan-India Friendship Dam, a 42 MW hydro-electric project built with Indian assistance.



I was also there on the Christmas day last year to dedicate to that proud nation its Parliament, a testimony to our democratic ties.



Afghans naturally recognize that the sacrifices of American have helped create a better life.



But, your contribution in keeping the region safe and secure is deeply appreciated even beyond.



India too has made an enormous contribution and sacrifices to support our friendship with Afghan people.



A commitment to rebuild a peaceful,and stable and prosperous Afghanistan our shared objective.



Yet, Distinguished Members,not just in Afghanistan, but elsewhere in South Asia, and globally, terrorism remains the biggest threat.



In the territory stretching from West of India's border to Africa, it may go by different names, from Laskhar-e-Taiba, to Taliban to ISIS.



But,its philosophy is common: of hate, murder and violence.



Although it's shadow is spreading across the world, it is incubated in India's neighbourhood.



I commend the members of the U.S. Congress for sending a clear message to those who preach and practice terrorism for political gains.



Refusing to reward them is the first step towards holding them accountable for their actions.



The fight against terrorism has to be fought at many levels.



And, the traditional tools of military, intelligence or diplomacy alone would not be able to win this fight.



Mr. Speaker,



We have both lost civilians and soldiers in combating it.



The need of the hour is for us to deepen our security cooperation.



And, base it on a policy:



 that isolates those who harbour, support and sponsor terrorists;

 that does not distinguish between "good" and "bad" terrorists; and

 that delinks religion from terrorism.



Also, for us to succeed, those who believe in humanity must come together to fight for it as one, and speak against this menace in one voice.



Terrorism must be delegitimized.



Mr. Speaker,



The benefits of our partnership extend not just to the nations and regions that need it most.



On our own, and by combining our capacities,we are also responding to other global challenges including when disaster strikes and where humanitarian relief is needed.



Far from our shores, we evacuated thousands from Yemen, Indians, Americans and others.



Nearer home, we were the first responders during Nepal's earthquake, in the Maldives water crisis and most recently during landslide in Sri Lanka.



We are also one of the largest contributors of troops to UN Peace Keeping Operations.



Often,India and the U.S. have combined their strengths in science, technology and innovation to help fight hunger, poverty, diseases and illiteracy in different parts of the world.



The success of our partnership is also opening up new opportunities for learning, security and development from Asia to Africa.



And, the protection of environment and caring for the planet is central to our shared vision of a just world.



For us in India, to live in harmony with mother earth is part of our ancient belief.



And, to take from nature only what is most essential is part of our civilizational ethos.



Our partnership, therefore, aims to balance responsibilities with capabilities.



And, it also focuses on new ways to increase the availability and use of renewable energy.



A strong U.S. support for our initiative to form an International Solar Alliance is one such effort.



We are working together not just for a better future for ourselves, but for the whole world.



This has also been the goal of our efforts in G-20, East Asia Summit and Climate Change summits.



Mr. Speaker and Distinguished Members



As we deepen our partnership, there would be times when we would have differing perspectives.

But, since our interests and concerns converge, the autonomy in decision making and diversity in our perspectives can only add value to our partnership.



So, as we embark on a new journey, and seek new goals, let us focus not just on matters routine but transformational ideas.



Ideas which can focus:



 Not just on creating wealth but also creating value for our societies;

 Not just on immediate gains but also long term benefits;

 Not just on sharing best practices but also shaping partnerships; and

 Not just on building a bright future for our peoples, but in being a bridge to a more united, humane and prosperous world.





And,important for the success of this journey would be a need to view it with new eyes and new sensitivities.



When we do this, we will realise the full promise of this extraordinary relationship.



Mr. Speaker,



My final thoughts and words would reiterate that our relationship is primed for a momentous future.



The constraints of the past are behind us and foundations of the future are firmly in place.



In the lines of Walt Whitman,



"The Orchestra have sufficiently tuned their instruments, the baton has given the signal."



And to that, if I might add, there is a new symphony in play.



Thank you Mr. Speaker and Distinguished members for this honour.



Thank you very much.
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the joint meeting of the US congress on Wednesday and it send ripples and applause in the US Congress with equal measure.Below are some quotes that received a strong applause and standing ovation from the US Congressmen.It is estimated that more Americans bend for Yoga than to throw a curve ball.And, No Mr. Speaker, We have not yet claimed intellectual property right on YogaSIRI tells us that India's ancient heritage of Yoga has over 30 million practitioners in the USAI am informed that the working of the U.S. Congress is harmonious.I am also told that you are well-known for your bipartisanship. Well, you are not alone.Time and again, I have also witnessed a similar spirit in the Indian Parliament, especially in our Upper House.So, as you can see, we have many shared practicesToday, (Indian Americans) are among your best CEOs; academics; astronauts; scientists; economists; doctors; even spelling bee champions.India lives as one,India grows as one and India celebrates as oneIndia will never forget the solidarity shown by US Congress when terrorists from across our border attacked Mumbai in 2008Those who believe in humanity must come together as one & speak against this menace in one voice. Terrorism must be delegitimizedBut philosophy of terrorism is common, of hate, murder and violenceTerrorism incubated in India's neighbourhood,commend US Cong for sending clear message to those who preach terror for political gainsThe genius of Baba Saheb Ambedkar was nurtured in the years he spent at the Columbia University a century agoFormer PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee called India and the US, 'natural allies'Mahatma Gandhi's non violence inspired Martin Luther King's heroism
Pakistan has the expertise, manpower, infrastructure and the ability to supply NSG controlled items, goods and services for a full range of nuclear applications for peaceful uses," Tasnim Aslam, head of the UN Desk in the foreign ministry, conveyed to the gathered members.



India's membership of the NSG was "not merited until the country meets the group's standards" - of which inking the NPT is a major criteria, a New York Times (NYT) editorial has said.

Both India and Pakistan have applied to become members of the exclusive club.



On Tuesday, Aziz told Pakistan's Senate that the country was lobbying "effectively and pro-actively" in all member countries of the NSG to curb India's efforts to join the club.



We have alienated Iran and Afghanistan and the two countries are now improving their economic ties with India," he said.

A day after India received the US's backing for Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) membership, Pakistan stepped up its diplomatic outreach among members of the cartel and warned that country-specific exemptions could negatively impact strategic stability in South Asia.Pakistan foreign ministry's UN Desk on Wednesday held a briefing in Islamabad for diplomatic missions of NSG member-countries to put forward its arguments.Adding to its diplomatic leverage, the Prime Minister's Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz telephoned a few foreign ministers, including from Russia, New Zealand and South Korea to seek backing for Pakistan's membership of the group.She urged the diplomats to adopt an "objective and non-discriminatory criteria" for membership of non-NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty) states to the 48-member NSG.The group's members have to sign the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty but India has refused to do so, Aslam said, adding that it is tantamount to New Delhi not accepting "legally binding commitments to pursue disarmament negotiations, halt the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons and not test nuclear weapons".Aziz on Wednesday telephoned Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully, and South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se, to highlight Pakistan's credentials for NSG membership with a view to seek their support.On Tuesday, US President Barack Obama announced that his country is backing India's bid to join the club.China, which is backing Pakistan's bid, could also insist, as a condition for supporting India's membership, that Islamabad be allowed to join the cartel.The NSG is a 48-nation club dedicated to curbing nuclear arms proliferation by controlling the export and re-transfer of materials that could foster nuclear weapons development.He told the Senate that Pakistan's "efforts towards non-discriminatory approach will pay off".Aziz was responding to concerns expressed by Pakistani lawmakers over the "growing collusion between India and the US" and apprehension that the NSG member states would positively consider India's request to join it.Pakistan Muslim League-Q Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed, chairman of the Senate Defence Committee, said that Pakistan's diplomacy had "failed" and that if India became a member of the NSG, it would be able to block Pakistan's entry into the group.Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently visited Afghanistan and Iran, which are immediate neighbours to Pakistan."This is our diplomatic failure. The Indians are encircling us from all sides. Even our immediate neighbours, like Afghanistan and Iran, have gone to India. It's a result of our failed diplomacy and traditionally passive foreign policy," Sayed added.Besides efforts to counter Indian designs through military means, Sayed called for "cohesion" within the country, saying that India should not be in a position to take advantage of the situation inside Pakistan.
Coimbatore: The government has termed as "malicious" and "incorrect" a recent report which said that pollution levels in India were so high that they could shorten one's life span by a couple of years.



"The report is malicious and incorrect, especially coming as it does on the eve of the Prime Minister's visit to the US," Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said.



"The report has been extrapolated and not based on exact data or ground study," he said, adding, both the print and television media were highlighting the "negative" report to put down the Narendra Modi government.



"The Central Pollution Control Board is issuing a detailed response to the accusation made regarding the high levels of pollution in the country," he said.



"Yes, there is pollution, including in many cities in Europe and the US as well. Targeting India in this fashion is incorrect," he said, adding that the government would respond appropriately.



A study conducted by IITM scientists in collaboration with the National Centre for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Colorado titled 'Premature Mortalities due to PM 2.5 (finer particulate matter) and Ozone Exposure in India', found that life expectancy in Delhi has reduced by six years because of air pollution while Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra are likely to account for the highest number of premature deaths.



Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) is an autonomous body under the Ministry of Earth Sciences. Earlier addressing a session organised by the local chapter of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Javadekar said there is a need to build up public opinion to usher in bold tax reforms.


Jaipur: Inspired by the Swachch Bharat Abhiyaan, a tribal has sold off his goat and mortgaged the ornaments of his wife to complete the construction of a toilet in his house in Rajasthan's Dungarpur district.



A daily wager, Kanti Lal Rot, who lives with his mother, wife, children and widow of his brother, in a thatched house along Dungarpur-Ratanpur road was inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Swachch Bharat Abhiyaan (Clean India Mission) after he was informed about the campaign by local activists.



The activists convinced him to construct a toilet in his house.



He was told that he will get Rs 4000 each from the centre, the state government and from the municipality if he constructs a toilet in his house following which he started to construct the toilet.



"He started digging work all by himself and constructed a structure with the help of some labourers after he got the first instalment. The amount he got was spent in construction work. When he had no money to pay labourers, he sold one of his five goats for Rs 5000 and mortgaged silver ornaments of his wife and made the payment," KK Gupta, Vice Chairman of Municipality Dungarpur said.



Gupta visited the family on Wednesday after he came to know that he had to sell his goat to make the payment for toilet construction to labourers and praised him.



He also gave him Rs 4000 to get back the mortgaged ornaments and felicitated him.
Mathura: In the aftermath of the Mathura violence, forensic teams and bomb disposal squads have recovered a US-made rocket launcher from Jawahar Bagh during search operations.



Twenty people, including two police officers, were killed during clash between members of Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi and police on June 2. Clashes broke out in the city when police tried to evict illegal occupants from Jawahar Bagh on Allahabad High Court orders.



The rioters were heavily armed with automatic weapons and grenades. Police also recovered several country-made weapons and rifles.



"We have recovered a launcher which is made in USA. We will see the details first. It is under our custody," Mathura SSP Bablu Kumar said.



On Tuesday, Uttar Pradesh ordered judicial probe into the violence. The probe will be conducted by a retired judge of Allahabad High Court and the inquiry committee has been asked to submit its report within two months.








India will be the 35th nation to join the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) which oversees the prevention of proliferation of missile and UAV technology.



India becoming a member of MTCR is expected to pave the way for increased defence trade and technology transfer between India and the US. India has already shown keen interest in purchasing armed drones from the US.



Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Barack Obama in their meeting on Tuesday discussed defence cooperation including the 'Make in India' initiative and sharing of military technology.



The move that will facilitate India buy high-end missile technology and shape its engagement with the global non proliferation community, will also have an impact on its membership in the Nuclear Suppliers Group.



But, the process for entry into the NSG remains an independent one.



"These are reinforcing, if your credentials are good in one. China is not a member of the MTCR. Aligning ourselves into international practice on non proliferation has been a long-standing goal of our diplomacy," Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar said.



According to sources, Indias main strategy is to isolate China which is playing a pivotal role in denying Indias entry into the nuclear club.



The Indo-US joint statement released soon after the meeting spoke of Obama welcoming India's application to join the NSG and re-affirmed that India is ready for the membership.



The US has also called out to other NSG participating nations to support India's application.



All eyes are on Vienna, where on June 9 India's application to the NSG will come up in a pre-plenary meeting. India, meanwhile, is trying its best to build a consensus in its favour.




Mumbai: Bollywood has come out strongly in support of 'Udta Punjab' and has demanded an apology from Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) chairman Pahlaj Nihalani for alleging that the film's co-producer Anurag Kashyap took money to show Punjab in bad light by highlighting the drug problem.



The actors and filmmakers addressed a press conference in Mumbai on Wednesday and condemned the Censor Board for asking for the deletion of any reference to Punjab in 'Udta Punjab' -- an upcoming film on the drug issue of the state.



Soon after the 'Udta Punjab' makers moved the Bombay High Court seeking a copy of the Censor Board decision, the film world lashed out at Nihalani and his vicious, malicious ways.



Top Bollywood directors Mahesh Bhatt, Imtiaz Ali, Satish Kaushik, Sudhir Mishra and Ramesh Taurani along with 'Udta Punjab' actors Shahid Kapoor and Alia Bhatt tore into Nihalani's defence for ordering cuts in the film.







Nihalani had earlier on Wednesday alleged that Kashyap may have taken money from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to show Punjab in bad light through his film Udta Punjab. Following the Censor Boards decision to ask the makers for 89 cuts in the movie to get a release certificate, Anurag had condemned Nihalani for being an "oligarch" as head of the CBFC.



Ashoke Pandit, another CBFC member, slammed Nihalani for making such an "insulting remark". While addressing the press conference, he said, We condemn the statements made by Pahlaj Nihalani. The comments he made on Anurag taking money from political party is an insult to all the filmmakers and we need an immediate apology.



Mahesh Bhatt also lashed out at Nihalani. He said what the Udta Punjab cast is facing right now is not an industry problem but the problem of our country. I feel that we should all stand up and articulate against the censor board. They are stopping us from expressing ourselves, he rued.



I feel ashamed defending myself, Kashyap stated when asked for his reaction to Nihalanis recent statement.



It is unfortunate that we have to justify our integrity and honesty as filmmakers. Censor Board has got a bullying attitude and they are resorting to lies to defend it. Have films become so bad that every film has to go to the tribunal? Audience has the right to except a movie -- Censor Board cant impose their view. It is the fight to save our freedom of expression. The audience has a right to reject films, the censor board should not be the judge of that. We have been reduced to a government approved stamp for every step we take.
Mumbai: Amid the controversy surrounding Anurag Kashyap's 'Udta Punjab', actor Kay Kay Menon has said there should not be any censorship on a film.



Makers of 'Udta Punjab', which deals with the issue of substance abuse in the Northern state, are said to have been asked by the Revising Committee of the Censor Board to remove all references to Punjab and to make 89 cuts.



When asked about it, Menon told reporters here, "I don't like censorship. I don't understand the logic behind it. At the age of 18 you can vote, so you can take the decision of electing a Government at that age, which is far greater decision that watching a film."



The actor was speaking at the trailer launch of his upcoming film, 'San Pachattar' 75'.



The 'Haider' star said censorship should be done away with or at least new criteria should be formed to tackle the issue instead of banning a film.



"I don't know what's the logic behind this. It's foolish. I think it should be done away with. If you want some kind of criteria, of course you can have ratings and elementary stuff which can be stopped at the exhibition stage.



"For example if kids shouldn't watch it, then as far as exhibitor goes, do not allow kids to watch. But because of that you shouldn't control a film, you shouldn't ban it... For me censorship makes no sense," Kay Kay added.



In the early 2000s, Kay Kay starred as a wicked rock musician in Kashyap's debut movie, 'Paanch', which struggled with censorship and has remained unreleased.



Another Kashyap film, in which the actor featured was 'Black Friday' which, too, had to wait many years for a release date.



Asked if the Censor Board has not evolved over the years, the 49-year-old actor said, "Let me not comment further than what I said. But kuch cheezein kabhi sudharti nahi (some things never improve)."



Menon has also appeared in the 'Dev D' helmer's 'Gulaal' and 'Bombay Velvet'.


Patna: Files related to the over Rs 900-crore fodder scam have disappeared from the Bihar Animal Husbandry Department. An FIR has been lodged at Patna Sachiwalya police station in connection with the missing files.



Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo and former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad has been convicted and sentenced to jail in one of the fordder scam cases. He is also disqualified from contesting any election following the conviction.



The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) targeted Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for the missing files.



"Nitish Kumar should tell how and why is he protecting Lalu Prasad. The files have gone missing and that is affecting the future of Bihar," said BJP Bankipur MLA Nitin Naveen.



Nitish's Janata Dal United is in power in Bihar in alliance with RJD and Congress.







A special CBI court in Ranchi had convicted Prasad and 44 others in the case relating to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 37.70 crore from Chaibasa treasury in 1994-95 in the fodder scam.



He was later granted bail by the Supreme Court in December the same year.



Several other politicians and bureaucrats are accused in the scam.
A contractor in Kerala, who built the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Development Studies, has sent a legal notice to Congress president Sonia Gandhi and a few other Congress leaders for non payment of dues. The contractor Heather Constructions managing director Rajeev also filed a Rs 50 lakh recovery suit against Sonia.The other leaders who have been named in the legal notice include Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Development Studies Chairman Ramesh Chennithala, former Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy and Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president VM Sudheeran.According to party insiders the dues were not cleared because of an intra party feud in the Kerala unit of the Congress.According to Rajeev, his company was given the contract to construct the institute in Thiruvananthapuram but the dues were not cleared.Now, KPCC says it has no money for the project which was cleared by former state unit president Chennithala during his tenure.But the current KPCC chief says the party does not have the money and there is no need for the institute.Sonia, who had inaugurated the institute in October 2005, had asked KPCC to settle the dues after the company sent a legal notice. But there company claims that it did not receive any money.
India is the 35th member of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR). The regime, established in 1987, oversees the prevention of proliferation of missile and UAV technology.



India becoming a member of MTCR is expected to pave the way for increased defence trade and technology transfer between India and the US. India has already shown keen interest in purchasing armed drones from the US.



Know all about the MTCR:



1. What is the MTCR?



The Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) is an informal political understanding among states that seek to limit the proliferation of missiles and missile technology.



2. When was the MTCR established?



The regime was formed in 1987 by the G-7 industrialised countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the United States).



3. Who belongs to the MTCR?



There are currently 34 countries that are members (Partners) of the MTCR: Argentina (1993); Australia (1990); Austria (1991); Belgium (1990); Brazil (1995); Bulgaria (2004); Canada (1987); Czech Republic (1998); Denmark (1990); Finland (1991); France (1987); Germany (1987); Greece 1992); Hungary (1993); Iceland (1993); Ireland (1992); Italy (1987); Japan (1987); Luxemburg (1990); Netherlands (1990); New Zealand (1991); Norway (1990); Poland (1998); Portugal (1992); Republic of Korea (2001); Russian Federation (1995); South Africa (1995); Spain (1990); Sweden (1991); Switzerland (1992); Turkey (1997); Ukraine (1998); United Kingdom (1987); United States of America (1987). The date in brackets represents the initial year of membership.



4. What is the purpose of the MTCR?



The MTCR was initiated by like-minded countries to address the increasing proliferation of nuclear weapons by addressing the most destabilising delivery system for such weapons. In 1992, the MTCR's original focus on missiles for nuclear weapons delivery was extended to a focus on the proliferation of missiles for the delivery of all types of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), i.e., nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.



Such proliferation has been identified as a threat to international peace and security. One way to counter this threat is to maintain vigilance over the transfer of missile equipment, material, and related technologies usable for systems capable of delivering WMD.



5. What is the relationship between the MTCR and the UN?



While there is no formal linkage, the activities of the MTCR are consistent with the UN's non-proliferation and export control efforts. For example, applying the MTCR Guidelines and Annex on a national basis helps countries to meet their export control obligations under UN Security Council Resolution 1540.



6. Is the MTCR a treaty?



No. The MTCR is not a treaty and does not impose any legally binding obligations on Partners (members). Rather, it is an informal political understanding among states that seek to limit the proliferation of missiles and missile technology.



7. What are the main objectives of the MTCR?



The MTCR seeks to limit the risks of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) by controlling exports of goods and technologies that could make a contribution to delivery systems (other than manned aircraft) for such weapons. In this context, the Regime places particular focus on rockets and unmanned aerial vehicles capable of delivering a payload of at least 500 kg to a range of at least 300 km and on equipment, software, and technology for such systems.



8. How does the MTCR achieve its objectives?



Export Controls: The Regime rests on adherence to common export policy (the Guidelines) applied to an integral common list of items (the MTCR Equipment, Software, and Technology Annex.)



Meetings MTCR: Partners regularly exchange information about relevant missile non-proliferation issues in the context of the Regime's overall aims.



Dialogue and Outreach: The MTCR Chair and MTCR Partners undertake outreach activities to non-partners in order to keep them informed about the group's activities and to provide practical assistance regarding efforts to prevent the proliferation of WMD delivery systems.



9. What are the MTCR Guidelines?



The MTCR Guidelines are the common export control policy adhered to by the MTCR Partners, and to which all countries are encouraged to adhere unilaterally. The Guidelines define the purpose of the MTCR and provide the overall structure and rules to guide the member countries and those adhering unilaterally to the Guidelines.



10. What is the MTCR Annex?



The MTCR Annex is the Regime's list of controlled items including virtually all key equipment, materials, software, and technology needed for missile development, production, and operation - that are controlled by MTCR Partners and adherents. The Annex is divided into two parts: Category I and Category II items.



11. How are Annex items controlled?



Consistent with the MTCR Guidelines, MTCR Partners and adherents are to implement license authorization requirements prior to export of items listed in the MTCR Annex.



12. Are there provisions to control non-Annex items?



In 2003, MTCR Partners amended the guidelines to require all partners to have catch-all export controls. These controls form the basis for controlling the export of items not included on a control list when they may be intended for use in connection with delivery systems for WMD other than manned aircraft.



Additionally, consistent with the guidelines, partners are to exercise particular restraint in consideration of any items on the Annex or of any missiles (whether or not on the Annex) if the exporting government judges that they are intended to be used for WMD delivery  and such exports are to be subject to a strong presumption of denial.



13. What is the difference between MTCR Category I and Category II Items?



Category I items include complete rocket and unmanned aerial vehicle systems (including ballistic missiles, space launch vehicles, sounding rockets, cruise missiles, target drones, and reconnaissance drones), capable of delivering a payload of at least 500 kg to a range of at least 300 km, their major complete subsystems (such as rocket stages, engines, guidance sets, and re-entry vehicles), and related software and technology, as well as specially designed production facilities for these items.



Pursuant to the MTCR Guidelines, exports of Category I items are subject to an unconditional strong presumption of denial regardless of the purpose of the export and are licensed for export only on rare occasions. Additionally, exports of production facilities for Category I items are prohibited absolutely.



Category II items include other less-sensitive and dual-use missile related components, as well as other complete missile systems capable of a range of at least 300 km, regardless of payload. Their export is subject to licensing requirements taking into consideration the non-proliferation factors specified in the MTCR Guidelines.



Exports judged by the exporting country to be intended for use in WMD delivery are to be subjected to a strong presumption of denial.



14. Are exports to Partners treated differently than exports to non Partners?



The MTCR Guidelines do not distinguish between exports to Partners and exports to non-Partners. Moreover, the MTCR Partners have explicitly affirmed that membership in the Regime provides no entitlement to obtain technology from another Partner and no obligation to supply it.



Partners are expected to exercise appropriate accountability and restraint in trade among Partners, just as they would in trade between Partners and non-Partners. Partners are bound by a no-undercut policy to consult each other before considering exporting an item on the list that has been notified as denied by another Partner pursuant to the MTCR Guidelines.



15. Are the MTCR's Guidelines binding?



No  the MTCR is not a treaty and does not impose any legally binding obligations on Partners. The only activity prohibited absolutely by the Guidelines, to which all 34 Partner countries voluntarily subscribe, is the export of production facilities for Category I MTCR Annex items.



16. What obligations do Partners have?



There are no legally binding obligations imposed on MTCR Partners. However, Partners are expected to act responsibly and practice restraint with regard to exports of items that could contribute to the proliferation of missiles capable of delivering WMD and to abide by all consensus decisions of the Regime.



They set the standard for responsible non-proliferation behaviour and help shape the international missile non-proliferation effort while conducting their missile non-proliferation policies in a manner consistent with the Regime's overall goals and activities.



Partners also are expected to control all exports of equipment and technology controlled on the MTCR Annex according to the stipulations of the MTCR Guidelines.



17. How are export decisions taken?



Export licensing decisions are made by individual countries according to their national export control laws and regulations, and not as group. However, Partners regularly exchange information on relevant licensing matters in order to ensure consistency with the Regimes overall non-proliferation goals.



18. How is compliance enforced?



Each individual Partner implements the MTCR Guidelines and Annex in accordance with national legislation and practice and on the basis of sovereign national discretion. The MTCR has no regime-wide compliance or verification provisions. When questions arise, Partners consult bilaterally to promote a common understanding of the issue.



19. What benefits do Partners get by becoming members of the MTCR?



Partners can play an active role in curbing the global missile non-proliferation threat. MTCR Partners participate in decision-making on the orientation and future of the MTCR, thereby setting the international standard for responsible missile non-proliferation behaviour and helping to guide the international missile non-proliferation effort.



Partners also benefit from discussions and exchanges of information on licensing, interdiction, best practices, and cooperate to impede specific shipments of concern with regards to missile proliferation.



20. Can a country adhere to the Guidelines without joining the MTCR?



The MTCR Partners encourage all countries to observe the Guidelines as a contribution to international peace and security. Countries can apply the Guidelines on a national basis without being obligated to join the Regime.



21. Does the MTCR have an observer status?



No. However, Regime members encourage all countries to adhere unilaterally to the MTCR Guidelines and Annex.



22. When and how often do the MTCR Partners meet?



The MTCR s main meeting is the annual policy-level Plenary meeting, held to discuss and take decisions on all relevant Regime issues. Three Regime sub-groups hold meetings in conjunction with the annual Plenary - the Information Exchange (IE), the Licensing and Enforcement Experts Meeting (LEEM), and the Technical Experts Meetings (TEM). Additionally, there are periodic Reinforced Point of Contact (RPOC) and Monthly Point of Contact (POC) meetings.



23. Is there a central administrative body for the MTCR?



The MTCR has no formal secretariat. France serves as the Regimes Point of Contact (POC). The POC receives and distributes all Regime documents. The POC also participates in outreach activities and hosts intersessional meetings.



24. What is the Reinforced Point of Contact (RPOC) Meeting?



The RPOC is the MTCRs intersessional policy-level meeting. It is hosted by France and is normally held in Paris in April or May. RPOC meetings are used primarily to follow up on issues from the previous Plenary and plan for the next Plenary.



25. What is a Point of Contact (POC) Meeting?



POC meetings facilitate the exchange of information among Partners. They are regularly held in Paris, hosted by the French MTCR POC, and include the participation of Embassy Representatives of MTCR countries.



26. Who is the MTCR Chair? How are they chosen?



The MTCR Chairmanship rotates on an ad hoc basis. Normally the country that hosts the Plenary then serves as Chair for the ensuing year.



27. How are decisions made in the MTCR?



All MTCR decisions including decisions on membership require a consensus decision by all current Regime members.



28. How often does the MTCR meet with non-members?



The MTCR Partners engage in a robust outreach program to promote the Regimes goals and encourage broad support for its activities. The Regime also uses its outreach efforts to encourage countries to unilaterally adhere to the MTCR Guidelines. In 2009, following the MTCR RPOC meeting, the Partners held a Technical Outreach Meeting (TOM) for non-Partners to make them aware of the changes to the MTCR Annex that had taken place at the 2007 and 2008 plenaries and to explain how these changes would affect licensing reviews. Fifteen non-MTCR countries participated in the TOM.



(Sources: Missile Technology Control Regime Website)


Dhaka: Hundreds of protesters on tried to lay a siege to the Pakistani High Commission here, demanding its closure as they alleged that Pakistan was hatching a conspiracy against Bangladesh over the 1971 war crimes trial.



Witnesses said that police in armed gears intercepted the protesters at the entry point of the capital's diplomatic zone in Gulshan area as they moved towards the Pakistani mission.



Left-leaning Workers Party of Bangladesh, a coalition partner of the ruling Awami League, had organised the protest, which was joined by activists of Awami League student's front.



"They are trying to hatch a conspiracy... the mission must be shut down," Workers Party general secretary Fazle Hossain Badsha told the protesters at the rally.



The march was held against Pakistan awarding the 'Nishan-e Pakistan' - its highest civilian honour - to the executed war criminal and Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) chief Motiur Rahman Nizami.



Pakistan's harsh protest against the trial and execution of top 1971 war crimes convicts mostly from the fundamentalist JeI has angered Bangladesh, which has accused Pakistan of interfering in its internal affairs.



Despite a coalition partner organising the rally, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was restrained in her comments at a press meet. She said Bangladesh will not sever diplomatic ties with Pakistan because of its support to the war criminals.



"Let Pakistan say what it prefers, diplomatic relations would be there... but their statement also made it clear that the war criminals acted as the agents of Pakistan and involved with the genocide with Pakistani Army," she said.



"Now those people who still have some sympathy for Pakistan may reconsider their affection for that country," she said.



Bangladesh last month summoned Pakistan's envoy twice after Bangladesh High Commissioner in Islamabad was summoned there amid a continuing row over the execution of Nizami.



Pakistan foreign office had last month issued a statement saying Islamabad was "deeply saddened" over Nizami's execution.



The Pakistani national assembly in a simultaneous move had passed a resolution condemning the execution recalling that he was a former lawmaker and minister in the past BNP-led four-party government with Jamaat being its crucial ally.




While hiking along Otter Creek one day, I came upon a cache of small white shells that had been carefully opened.

A park ranger told me a raccoon had likely been dining on the freshwater mussels.

These seemingly simple creatures are ecologically important because they filter and clean water. One mussel can filter 12 to 24 gallons of water per day.

They provide food for fish, reptiles, birds and mammals.

When Europeans first arrived on this continent, mussels were thick enough to hold a riverbed together.

Most surprisingly, they have complex life cycles and skills you wouldnt expect to find in a blob-like mollusk.

Wildlife biologist Brian Watson is a self-described mussel lover who studies and monitors these animals for the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.

During a class he taught for the Central Virginia Master Naturalists this spring, I was impressed with his knowledge and passion for these endangered creatures.

The U. S., and particularly the Southeast, boasts the most freshwater mussels in the world. Sadly, apart from freshwater snails, they are the most endangered of all species. Three-quarters of mussels have already gone extinct.

Their crashing numbers are a result of pollution and sedimentation, which literally suffocates them. Its like being locked in a room full of smoke, Watson said.

Because mussels are sensitive to pollution and heavy metals, they have been used to increase the standards for wastewater discharge. Even with low levels of PCBs, they dont spawn.

When not disturbed by man, mussels are long-lived; some species can live more than 100 years. In Virginia, most species survive 15 to 40 years. Their shells tell their age by creating growth lines, similar to the rings in trees.

Males release sperm and females siphon it in. Developing young hang out in the females gills until the larvae are ready to be released.

Many species rely on fish for their survival. They latch onto a fish for several weeks or even overwinter. They parasitically suck blood from their host, while getting a ride to a new location.

Some mussels are host-specific and need to lure the right fish before releasing young larvae. They have a variety of techniques, including mimicking other creatures.

These blind invertebrates can somehow make themselves look like crayfish or create a packet that looks like aquatic insect larvae. Wow!

Not all larvae attach to fish; some just get released en masse and hope for the best as they flow through a stream or rock gently in a lake.

To try to help restore mussels, the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries is breeding native mussels in Marion. State biologists release 30,000 to 50,000 mussels a year.

Believe it or not, they can tag a mussel and locate it with a metal detector to monitor a species progress.

We can all help protect these unique animals by preventing erosion, reducing storm-water runoff, using chemicals and fertilizers wisely and maintaining septic systems.

Of course, all those practices are good for a variety of species, including humans.
Shortly after being named county administrator of Spotsylvania County, Kimball Payne met with a local developer.

Speaking of the incident nearly 30 years laterin his office in Lynchburg City Hall, Payne said he was unsure whether the meeting ended on its own accord or whether he ended the meeting himself. But he well remembers hearing about a particular comment the developer made later.

I guess he thinks hes pretty hot stuff now that hes county administrator.

It was a moment in which Payne said he realized he needed to change his behavior if that was the impression he gave.

Basically, dont take yourself so seriously, he said.

Payne has served as Lynchburgs city manager for the last 15 years. He is set to retire June 30.

I hope what Ive been able to get across is, lets find the humor of what we do and lets enjoy what were doing, Payne said. If were miserable and we cant laugh about what were doing, were taking ourselves too seriously, or were really in a huge crisis that we need to fix.

Payne assumed his current position in 2001, replacing former city manager Charles Church. He was familiar with Lynchburg, having called the city home for several years as a child. His leadership has drawn praise from several community leaders, who note, among other accomplishments, a surge in downtown development and a steady hand on the wheel.

Paynes arrival in 2001 coincided with City Councils adoption of the Downtown & Riverfront Master Plan, which committed $1 million for 20 years for redevelopment efforts for the then-languishing downtown.

Lynchburgs Economic Development Director Marjette Upshur said downtown now contains nearly 800 residential loft units, and the private sector has invested nearly $60 million in the redevelopment of downtown buildings since 2011. The assessed value of commercial property has doubled since 2004.

One of those commercial properties is the Bluffwalk Center, a $20 million project that redeveloped once-dilapidated buildings now home to the Craddock Terry Hotel, Waterstone Pizza and Shoemakers restaurant. City leaders, including Payne, viewed the project as a key piece of downtown redevelopment, and the city took out a $3.2 million loan to support it.

The hotel opened in 2007, when activity downtown was just beginning to pick up. While it struggled early on  the city had to step in and make several loan payments  the project eventually found more firm financial footing and repaid $1.76 million to the city in 2013.

A citys unique attributes are visible in its historic core, said Hal Craddock, a managing partner of Bluffwalk Center LP, and Payne has been a great promoter of the downtown renaissance.

We built the Bluffwalk Center, and Kim went out of the way to support the development and make that happen, Craddock said.

Paynes time as city manager also coincided with the rapid growth of Liberty University, including the contentious rezoning of the former Ericsson plant, the creation of a voting precinct at the Vines Center, campus access points to the Wards Road shopping corridor and other issues.

Back in the early days when the relationship between Liberty University and the city was sort of rough at times, Payne was the voice of reason and the peacemaker, Liberty President Jerry Falwell Jr. said.

And I came to respect him a lot over the years because of his even temperament and his way of bringing the parties together when they couldnt find a common ground, Falwell said.

I dont think theres another city or county in Virginia that has such a well-oiled machine that makes it easy for new buildings to go up and for growth to occur, Falwell said. Every time I get the chance I publicly thank Kim for creating that machine.

Payne said one of the biggest challenges facing Lynchburg involves its infrastructure. The city currently is involved in what will be a years-long effort to replace aging waterlines in the downtown area. The recession hit Lynchburg later and not quite as hard, and while it has taken the city longer to recover, we didnt lose a lot of value in our property like other places did, he said.

When Clarence Beard died in police custody in 2006  a death that sparked community outrage  Payne, along with then-mayor Joan Foster, initiated the Community Dialogue on Race and Racism in 2008.

Among the seven members of City Council, Foster is the longest serving with nearly 14 years.

Integrity is Paynes priority, she said.

His thing is, hell never lie to you, no matter how hard the truth may be, she said. I can always go to him and say, do you know about this? and hell say, yes, this what I know, or no, Ill find out. He doesnt tell you what you want to hear. He tells you the truth.

Whatever you were to call him about, Payne had a handle on it, Foster said.

To me that just takes a brilliant mind, as complicated and complex as our city is; this city manager knows everything that is going on or turns to his resources to get the answers.

With Paynes retirement weeks away, Deputy City Manager Bonnie Svrcek was appointed last month by City Council to replace Payne. Svrcek will assume the reins of the city manager position July 1.

When Payne was interviewing for a job with the city, Svrcek and another deputy city manager were asked to take the candidates on a tour. Payne rose as a preferred candidate owing to his passion and love for the city, she recalled.

Svrcek said Payne has not only taught her to look more at the big picture and how things connect, but softer skills as well, such being more empathetic and compassionate.

He trusts his staff to do their job and to do the right thing on behalf of the city, Svrcek said.

We have just had such an incredible work partnership that I am going to sorely miss him, she said.

Bert Dodson served on Lynchburg City Council when Payne was hired. As the president and CEO of his own company, Dodson said he has an appreciation for good organizational and presentational skills. Payne would have been successful in a larger city or running a large company, but chose to stay in Lynchburg, he said.

Hes a real leader, and Im so happy he stuck around, said Dodson, an at-large representative on City Council for 12 years who stepped down in 2010. Theres no doubt in my mind that he could have gone to a bigger city with a bigger paycheck.

Post-retirement, Payne may not stray too far. There have been some informal discussions with City Council about Payne being involved in the conclusion of the contract for the $18 million Midtown Connector project, which continues despite a completion date originally set for November 2014.

Payne plans to give a keynote address to a professional development conference in August, during which he will plans to speak about his career. The title of the talk will be, what I think Ive learned.

One piece of wisdom, and one in which he learned from his wife, is listen and try to understand whats going on before you leap into action.

There are times when things warrant a quick response, Payne said.

But much of what we do, we can take the time and really understand the situation and listen to others and collaborate to make decisions and work together. I think it goes back to my saying that I think is going to be a big part of my speech, which is dont take yourself so seriously.
BEDFORD  A relative of the man charged in the 1975 disappearance of Sheila and Katherine Lyon has been found guilty of perjury but will not have to serve jail time.

Leslie Joseph Engleking Sr., who admitted he lied to a grand jury, was given a five-year suspended sentence Tuesday in Bedford County Circuit Court. He'll be on probation for one year and now carries a felony conviction.

Engleking, 69, was arrested Aug. 7 after testifying before a multi-jurisdictional grand jury in the case of the Lyon sisters, who vanished from a Wheaton, Maryland, shopping mall 41 years ago.

Lloyd Lee Michael Welch Jr., 58, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder in connection with the girls' disappearance. Bedford County Sheriffs officials have said they suspect Welch, who has family ties in Thaxton, came to the area in March 1975 to dispose of the sisters bodies.

Engleking is the brother-in-law of Lloyd Welch's uncle, Richard Welch. He testified twice before a grand jury and was asked questions about his knowledge of Richard Welch and conversations with Richard Welch's wife, Patricia Jean Welch, who is Engleking's sister.

Engleking has admitted making false statements during his testimony, something he said he did in an effort to protect his sisters, and out of anger against investigators in Maryland, who he said have mistreated his family.

In February, he pleaded no contest to one count of perjury.

Engleking took the stand at his sentencing Tuesday and told Judge James Updike he regretted his actions from August.

"I'd do it very differently," Engleking said. "I'd be more cooperative.

"I regret doing it."

He said he has met with prosecutors and investigators since his grand jury appearances and told them everything he knew.

A father of eight children, Engleking said he suffers from a heart condition and had his first heart attack at 42 and his second at 45, and he now has six stents implanted. He said he's completely deaf in one ear and only has partial hearing in the other. A prison sentence, he told Updike, would probably close his flagging Alexandria plumbing business.

Prosecutors on Tuesday nevertheless sought an active sentence. Bedford County Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Wes Nance asked Updike to give Engleking 90 days in jail with suspended penitentiary time.

"We believe it is ... very important that Mr. Engleking be held accountable for his actions," Nance said. "He must understand the sobriety and the intensity of the necessity of truth before a grand jury."

In delivering his sentence, Updike said he would follow the judicial guidelines in the case  probation without incarceration.

Patricia Jean Welch, also accused of lying to the grand jury, is slated to be tried on a perjury charge in August.

Arrested alongside Engleking in August were Amy Ann Welch Johnson, of Anne Arundel County, Maryland, and Gladys Mae Stangee of Bedford. Stangee also is Richard Welch's sister. Johnson is Richard Welch's granddaughter. The two women were charged with misdemeanor obstruction of justice and in November were found guilty of the offense in Bedford General District Court. Both are appealing their convictions in circuit court but no date has been set in those cases.

Lloyd Lee Welch Jr. is scheduled to go to trial on his two murder charges on Oct. 18.
A domestic situation turned deadly Tuesday night in Culpeper County, resulting in two fatalities.

Shortly before 9 p.m., a 51-year-old female fled her home in the 13000 block of Gray Street  just west of the town of Culpeper off of Sperryville Pike  after getting into an argument and being threatened at gunpoint by her estranged husband, Willis N. Walker Jr., 49, of Culpeper, according to Virginia State Police. The woman ran to a neighbors house for refuge and Walker followed her.

Police say he forced his way inside at gunpoint and then shot and killed the 74-year-old male resident. Walker then searched the neighbors house for his estranged wife, whom he found and violently assaulted, according to state police.

A second adult female, aged 70, who was hiding inside the house at the time, called 911 and the Culpeper County Sheriffs Office responded to the residence.

When deputies arrived on scene, Walker came outside armed with a shotgun and began threatening the deputies, according to state police. He refused to comply with their repeated commands to put down his weapon, and began walking towards the deputies threatening them with the shotgun, at which time one of the deputies fired at Walker, state police said.

Walker died at the scene. His remains have been transported to the Office of the Medical Examiner in Manassas for examination and autopsy.

Walkers estranged wife was transported to the UVA Culpeper Hospital for treatment of non-life threatening injuries.

The 70-year-old female who called 911 was not injured in the incident. At this time, State Police are still in the process of notifying the deceased males next of kin.

No deputies were injured in the incident.

At the request of Culpeper County Sheriff Scott H. Jenkins, the Virginia State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigations Culpeper Field Office is investigating both fatal shootings. The investigations remain ongoing at this time.
CHATHAM  Gregory Lumber Inc.  a large, family-run sawmill in Java that has been in operation for almost 30 years  is in the midst of an expansion that will increase its production by 50 percent.

Todd Haymore, the states secretary of agriculture and forestry, announced the expansion Wednesday at Olde Dominion Agricultural Complex in Chatham.

Haymore said the expansion will add three new jobs to the companys current roster of about 45 full-time workers  but stressed that the economic impact of the project will benefit the community in other ways.

Gregory will invest $3 million in construction and equipment to add an automated lumber sorting system to the sawmill, which will increase the value of the business  and the amount of local taxes the company pays, Haymore said.

It also has the potential to add jobs elsewhere, Haymore said, noting that a 50-percent increase in production means more truckers will be needed to haul the product on to its next stop  and that while those truckers would not be paid by the lumber company, the companies ordering the lumber would be paying more workers to transport the wood.

Also important in the deal, Haymore said, is Gregorys commitment to purchasing almost $8 million in local and state timber over the next three years  about 75 percent of the timber needed to supply the companys expansion.

Haymore said the three new jobs may not sound like a lot  though he noted they would be important to the three job hunters that get them, and said every new job is a win.

Three is better than zero, Haymore said.

But the lasting effect of the project in trickle down economics means workers needed to supply the additional timber and truck it in and out of the sawmill, Haymore said.

Haymore said Gov. Terry McAuliffe approved a $50,000 grant from the Agriculture and Forestry Industries Development Fund to support the project, with Pittsylvania County matching the grant.

Matt Rowe, director of economic development for Pittsylvania County, said the local match will not come out of the countys general fund, but through a series of rebates on the increase in taxes the company will pay over the next five years.

All of those elements  adding jobs, capital investment, a commitment to buying locally and matching cash or in-kind grants from the locality  are necessary to qualify for AFID funding, Haymore said.

John Gregory, owner of Gregory Lumber, was clearly anxious to get back to work  he wore the only overalls in a room full of men wearing business suits at the announcement  and drew some laughs from the crowd when he commented that he was far more comfortable at his sawmill than he was at a podium.

Gregory talked about a lifelong fascination with wood and buying the companys first sawmill with his brother. The family worked hard and were so proud of the first load of lumber they shipped out, all of them smiling so broadly for a photo in front of that first shipment you could hardly see the lumber for the smiles, he said.

However, a terse note from their first customer  scrawled on a scrap of paper  erased those smiles.

It said, If this is the best you can do, dont come back, Gregory said. It ignited a fire in me  I wanted to be the best.

Twenty-nine years later, the lumber company works with big timber, creating  among other wood products  heavy-duty beams for railroad and building construction, quality pine lumber, mulch and sawdust, Gregory said. There is even a family business up the road that makes Gregorys Hickory Smoke Bits for barbequing on a commercial or backyard scale.

Gregory thanked the state and local leaders in the room, telling them, Well make you proud.
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Curry Duck cooks

Four teams competed for bragging rights for having the best tasting curry duck, the largest lime and the best decorated tent.

Points were awarded for preparationp, aroma, presentation, hygiene, d?cor , uniform, largest support and Taste 50. Several teams came well-prepared with uniforms which revealed their names; there was the No Conduck Crew, Corn Duck Yourself, Duck Ranis and Nantos River Lime.

In the end Nantos River Lime was adjudge with the Best Tasting Duck making it a double as they won the title last year.

No Conduct Crew won Best Decorated Tent and Largest Support and this gave them the overall first prize of $1,000 and a trophy.

Corn Duck Yourself came in second ($600 plus a hamper), Duck Rani third ($400 plus a hamper) and Nantos River Lime fourth.

There was also tassa drumming and an East Indian dancer during the lime. Both Bertrand Goodridge of the Tunapuna Carnival Committee and Neil Beharrysingh of Moonlighting saw the event as a success and said it will continue for as long as possible.

Tucos president Lutalo Masimba made a special appearance at the function and handed out some of the prizes.
Activist complains about PCA director

Activist Phillip Edward Alexander said Wests reported admission in a radio interview yesterday morning that he had visited a police station to inquire about a relative who had been arrested for a firearm offence brought the office of the PCA director into disrepute. The PCA is a police watchdog. He said West should be removed and the matter should be examined by the integrity watchdog. The activist said the matter should be brought to the attention of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (which has no investigatory powers). Under the law, the director is not appointed at the Presidents discretion but on the joint advice of the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition. However, Section 12 of the Police Complaints Authority Act states, The President, acting in his discretion, may revoke the appointment of a person as director or deputy director where he is satisfied that the person (a) has, without reasonable excuse, failed to carry out his prescribed duties for a continuous period of three months; (b) is unable to discharge the functions of his office, whether arising from infirmity of mind or body or any other cause, or for misbehaviour; or (c) has become a person who would be disqualified for appointment.
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Washington:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today discussed the challenges posed by extremism with US President Barack Obama and the two leaders underlined the need to ensure the participation of civil society and minority communities to address the issue, officials said.

The Prime Minister and the President had a very extensive and thoughtful conversation about the rise of extremism and the need for all countries to work together to address this challenge, a senior administration official said.

The two leaders also underlined the need to ensure that the civil society and the minority communities are fully participating in addressing the issue, the official said.

However, there was no specific discussion on human rights issues and religious freedom on India, officials said. No, I do not believe the subject came up today in the discussions, Indian Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar said.

Meanwhile, Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission held a hearing to examine the current state of human rights in India, challenges to fundamental freedom and opportunities for advancement.

Testifying before the Commission, several experts expressed their concern over the human rights condition in India.

In a related development, a bipartisan group of 18 House members led by Representatives Trent Franks and Betty McCollu wrote to the House Speaker Paul Ryan urging him to prioritize religious freedom in India during his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, especially in light of ongoing violence and harassment against religious minorities, including Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, and Sikhs.

Modi is scheduled to address a joint session of the US Congress today. We respectfully request that during your meetings with the Prime Minister, the shared value of the fundamental right of religious freedom will be a priority in your conversation.

Religious minority communities including Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, and Sikhs have endured ongoing

violence and harassment for decades in India, and continue to live in a climate where known perpetrators commit violence with impunity, the Members of Congress wrote.

It is in the best interest of the US and India to reaffirm religious freedom as a shared value in this growing partnership, and ensure that conversation concerning justice and accountability for such horrific acts of violence continues, the letter said. In the letter, the lawmakers cite several specific examples of violent attacks that have killed or displaced religious minorities.

Human rights groups in India have investigated and traced these attacks to specific groups, but a current climate of impunity exists in India around such attacks and many victims never receive justice, they said.

As we consider the shared values of the US and India, due attention to the fundamental human right of religious freedom is of the utmost importance, Franks said.

Religious minority communities in India have endured incidents of harassment, discrimination, intimidation and violent attacks for decades, often with little hope for justice.

It is my sincere hope that every person in India will experience true freedom of faith, regardless of religion, he said. The important relationship between India and the US is based on our shared democratic values. Religious minorities in India Muslims, Christians, Buddhists and Sikhs deserve the freedom to live out their faith without fear, McCollum said.

The Congressmen who signed on the letter were Chris Smith, Juan Vargas, Andr Carson, Keith Ellison, Patrick Meehan, Keith Rothfus, Randy Weber, Dan Kildee, Mike Honda, John Conyers Jr, John Garamendi, Robert Aderholt, Anna Eshoo, Joe Pitts, Barbara Lee, and David Valadao.

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New Delhi:

Spinning a new twist in the Mathura violence, UP disposal squad found a US-made rocket launcher from the Jawahar Bagh area. The weapon was found during the search of 280 acres of government land, which was encroached by Swadheen Bharat Vidhik Satyagrahi outfit.

Mathura SSP Bablu Kumar said, "We have recovered equipment (from Jawahar Bagh) which says "Launcher, Made in USA". He further said that officials are verifying the details.

Last week, the members of the obscure cult had attacked the police personnel when it reached to evict the encroachers from the Jawahar Bagh park on a court order, during which Mathura witnessed massive violence. SP (City) Mukul Dwivedi and SHO (Farah) Santosh Yadav and 29 others died in the attack. On Tuesday, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav ordered a judicial probe into the Jawahar Bagh violence in Mathura.

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Istanbul:

Turkish police detained four people in a hunt for the perpetrators in connection with the car bombing attack in central Istanbul today that killed seven police and four civilians, state media said.

The third deadly attack in Turkeys biggest city in six months targeted a bus transporting anti-riot police in Beyazit district, close to many of the citys top tourist sites, Istanbul governor Vasip Sahin said on Turkish television.

Thirty-six people were wounded, three of them seriously, he added. The four suspects were taken to police headquarters in Istanbul for interrogation, state-run Anatolia agency said, without providing further information.

There was no early claim of responsibility, but President Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggested the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) was behind the attack.

For the PKK to target major cities such as Istanbul is nothing new, he said after visiting the injured at an Istanbul hospital.

We will fight against terrorists relentlessly to the end. In a statement from his office later, Erdogan also vowed the culprits would pay the price for the blood they shed.

Kurdish militants have repeatedly targeted Turkeys security forces, but Islamic State (IS) jihadists have also staged attacks around the country, including in Istanbul, in the past year.

Reports said the explosion took place close to Vezneciler metro station, within walking distance of some of the citys main tourist sites including the Grand Bazaar and Suleymaniye Mosque.

The blast reduced the police vehicle to mangled wreckage and windows in nearby shops were shattered. Reports said that shots were heard afterwards.

The attack occurred outside the upscale Celal Aga Konagi Hotel, a converted Ottoman mansion that is favoured by foreign tourists.

The 16th-century Sehzade Mosqueconsidered one of the greatest masterpieces of Ottoman architect Mimar Sinanwas also damaged by the force of the explosion. Television footage showed its windows blown out and debris littering the floor.

Loudspeakers on mosques warned people to vacate the area, after which a controlled explosion was carried out on a suspect vehicle.

Erdogan, who flew back to Ankara later in the day, chaired a security summit at the presidential palace, with several ministers as well as the top army general and spy chief.

French President Francois Hollande condemned the attack as an intolerable act of violence that should strengthen common resolve to fight terrorism.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Berlin was on the side of Turkey in the fight against terrorism and NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg also expressed solidarity.

US Ambassador to Ankara John Bass said in a Twitter message: Such senseless violence could never be rationalised by any cause. The United States will continue to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Turkey in the fight against terrorism, Bass said. EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini also reaffirmed support.

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Mumbai:

Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, one of the producers of Udta Punjab, has criticised the government, saying it was wrong to politically colour his fight with Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) over censorship issue.

FYI I have fought the UPA more on censorship issues than the NDA. But you know what, there was no Nihalani then, the director-producer tweeted.

The Gangs of Wasseypur helmer slammed the alleged paid trolls projecting him as an agent of Congress and AAP. And its pathetic that the party supported and paid trolls are trying to make me look like an agent of congress or AAP, he wrote.

Kashyap said he had been working closely with Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore before the controversy.

Where as I have been working closely with this ministry and the MOS Mr Rathore on the censorship issues. And I have all our texts and messages saved so if the govt is trying to make there (sic) incompetence look good then theyve picked a wrong person & stop taking out list of cuts made for television of my adult films to show as censored portions of my film to prove a non-existing point.

Upset with the censor board committees recommendations, Kashyap had tweeted yesterday, I always wondered what it felt like to live in North Korea. Ab to plane pakadney ki bhi zaroorat nahin.

To which Rathore had said, Do you think you are living in North Korea? We can have a vote here, it is a democracy. The Udta Punjab storm started after the board purportedly raised certain objections regarding references to Punjab and asked the makers were asked by the revising committee and to make 89 cuts.

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New Delhi :

With a view to provide a ready reckoner to foreign investors, the Commerce and Industry Ministry today came out with an updated compendium incorporating all policy changes effected over the last one year.



For the purposes of FDI policy in private security agencies, it has defined the terms private security agencies, private security and armoured car service. These terms will have the same meaning as provided under Private Security Agencies (Regulation) (PSAR) Act, 2005, the 109-page compendium said.



Also, the ministry has again retained the previous UPA regimes decision allowing foreign retailers to open multi-brand stores with 51 per cent ownership in its consolidated FDI policy. The BJP-led NDA government, which came to power in May 2014, has not made any changes to this policy. However, the BJP had opposed foreign investment in multi-brand retail sector in its election manifesto.



The new compendium, which came into effect from yesterday, mentions all existing FDI policy decisions, as also the changes made over the last one year.



These include changes in the foreign direct investment norms in over a dozen sectors including pensions, insurance, asset reconstruction company, e-commerce guidelines, single-brand retail, plantation segment and broadcasting.



The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), which is under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, is the nodal agency on FDI policy. It compiles all policies related to Indias FDI regime into a single document to make it simple and easy for investors to understand.



Investors would otherwise have to go through various press notes issued by the industry department and RBI regulations to understand the policy. The government updates the policy every year. FDI in India grew by 29 per cent to USD 40 billion in 2015-16 as against USD 30.93 billion in the previous fiscal.

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Sydney :

Star Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal entered the second round of womens singles with a comfortable victory but P V Sindhu suffered an upset defeat in the opening round to crash out of the USD 750,000 Australian Open Super Series badminton tournament here today.



In mens singles, Indias Kidambi Srikanth and Sameer Verma made the second round with contrasting victories, but it was curtains for qualifier R M V Gurusaidutt as he failed to cross the first round hurdle.



Saina, who had won the Australian Open title in 2014, hardly broke a sweat in her opening round game as she outplayed Joy Lai of Australia with a dominating 21-10 21-14 win in just 29 minutes.



The seventh seeded Indian will clash with Malaysias Jin Wei Goh in the second round. However, World No. 10 Sindhu was stunned by South Koreas Kim Hyo Min, ranked 40th in the world, 15-21 19-21 after a 55-minute battle.



But youngster Tanvi Lad registered a come-from-behind win 18-21 21-14 21-11 over qualifier Tiffany Ho of Australia in 52 minutes to enter round two of the tournament. She will next take on fourth-seeded Wang Yihan.



Srikanth, ranked 12th, posted an easy 21-16 21-12 win over World No.11 NG Ka Long Angus of Hong Kong in a match that lasted 32 minutes, while Sameer had to sweat it out before prevailing over Indonesias Ihsan Maulana Mustofa 22-20 15-21 21-15 in a 53-minute contest.



Gurusaidutt, who qualified to the main draw after winning both his qualifying matches yesterday, fought hard before going down 19-21 21-12 15-21 to world no. 14 Hu Yun of Hong Kong. Srikanth will next face Indonesias Sony Dwi Kuncoro, while Sameer will take on the winner of match between Anthony Sinisuka Ginting and Chou Tien-chen.
Mumbai:

Filmmakers Kabir Khan, Farhan Akhtar, Gauri Shinde and actress Kalki Koechlin have joined the growing number of Bollywood celebrities, who have slammed the censor board for demanding cuts in Udta Punjab.



The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) has purportedly raised certain objections to the Shahid Kapoor-Kareena Kapoor starrer regarding references to the problem of substance abuse in Punjab, following which the movie may have to go through some changes.



The board has also demanded the removal of Punjab from the title of the Abhishek Chaubey-directed movie. Khan said changing the name of a film is not logical. Citing his own example, the director said censor board had asked him to make alterations in the title of Bajrangi Bhaijaan and wanted him to retain either Bajrangi or Bhaijaan, which he felt was ridiculous.



Now here, they seem to say by changing Udta Punjab to Udta Timbuktu, the film is going to change. I dont understand the logic behind this kind of decision. How is this depicting any community or state in the negative way, Khan said.



Are we saying the drug problem does not exist?... We all know till what extent the drug problem exists in Punjab. I was shooting last year in the border areas of Punjab for Bajrangi Bhaijaan and everybody was talking about it. We saw people, families who were suffering from this problem and it is a film trying to highlight and focus on it. How is it going to negatively portray people? he added.



Akhtar criticised officials of the censor board, writing, Power is the most dangerous addiction of all & someone in the CBFC seems to be tripping hard on Lassi in the Sky with Diamonds. #UdtaPunjab.



English Vinglish helmer Shinde said, When you tear out a mans tongue, you are not proving him a liar, youre only telling the world that you fear what he might say. #UdtaPunjab.



Kalki said in the case of Udta Punjab, censorship is trying to limit a very realistic point of view. I dont blame even the censor board. Its an ancient system that hasnt changed for very long time. These days there is internet people know everything. But censorship tries to limit peoples point of views and specially in this case, it is limiting a very realistic point of view, Kalki told PTI.



Alia Bhatt, who also stars in the film, posted Nobel Peace Prize winner from Pakistan Malala Yousufzais quote, which read, We realise the importance of our voices only when we are silenced.

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Beijing:

Thirty-two people in east Chinas Zhejiang Province have been sentenced to prison terms of up to 13 years for trafficking endangered animals, including pangolins and bears, to the tune of USD 15 million.



They were found guilty of trafficking 100 million yuans (USD 15 million) worth of wildlife, including pangolins, bears claws and salamanders, in 10 provinces and cities, the Yongjia County Peoples Court said yesterday.



At a court hearing, the main culprit surnamed Kan, was given a prison term of 13 years and fined 130,000 yuan. Four were sentenced to over 10 years in prison and Kans wife was given six years in prison. The rest were sentenced to suspended prison terms of between four months and three years, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.



More than 10 of the defendants were owners of restaurants and clubs who bought the animal parts and processed them as food, the court said.



Local police uncovered the case last year as they seized more than 1,500 wild animals in a raid. Pangolins, which are under second-class state protection in China, are often smuggled because their meat is considered a delicacy and their scales are believed to be effective in treating skin and other diseases.



Under Chinas Criminal Law, those who illegally catch, kill, buy or sell endangered wild animals on the states protection list may face over 10 years in prison plus fines.

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Washington:

After meeting US President Barack Obama at White House, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is all set to address US Congress on Wednesday. Indian American living in US have registered their excitement for the event.



A huge number of Modi fans were left disappointed after they fail to get themselves a ticket tickets of the visitor's gallery for the event.



Several Indian Americans are also flying to Washington DC to listen to PM Narendra Modi in person.



"It's a dream come true," Chicago-based Bharat Barai said.



"I am sure after listening to him, people of this country and Congressmen would realise the importance Modi attaches to the India-US relationship," he said.



"This is a speech, which I would like to watch in person. I do not want to miss it," said M R Rangaswami, a Silicon Valley-based successful investor and entrepreneur, who is flying from California to attend Modi's event at the Capitol Hill.



Rangaswami, the founder of Indiaspora, is among the lucky few who have managed to get a ticket to the visitors' gallery of the House Chambers, which has limited number of seats.



Congressional sources told PTI that lawmakers are having a tough time in declining requests for a ticket to the joint address by Modi.



In fact, most of the Congressmen have been allocated one ticket each.



Given the great demand for tickets, Congressional sources said at one point of time, there was consideration for erecting a huge tent for Indian-Americans to watch the speech live. But the idea was shelved because of Congress' protocol.



The speech would be telecast nationwide live on C-Span, a cable and satellite television network.



"The invitation (to the Prime Minister) itself shows the status of the relationship and how far we have come," Swadesh Chatterjee, an eminent Indian-American, said.



Chatterjee, who played a key role in reviving the India-US relationship after the Pokhran nuclear tests, vividly remembers how he and many other Indian-Americans had to lobby for months in the Congress to invite the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to address a joint session of the Congress on September 14, 2000.



"And this time, we had no role to play. Congressmen themselves wrote to the Speaker (of the House of

Representatives) to invite Modi to address the joint session of the Congress. And it took no time for Speaker (Paul) Ryan to invite India's Prime Minister," said North Carolina-based Chatterjee.



(With PTI Inputs)

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Mumbai:

Coming out in support of Udta Punjab, which is embroiled in a major controversy over censorship, filmmakers Mahesh Bhatt, Mukesh Bhatt and Anurag Kashyap today alleged the board was intentionally delaying its clearance.



The board has reportedly asked the makers to remove the word Punjab from the title and the story while also allegedly asking for 89 cuts, something that has not gone down well with the makers, who have now moved the Mumbai High Court against it.



Mahesh Bhatt said it was a shame that a movie which holds a mirror and shames the Indian society about the drug menace is being strangulated.



This is not the industrys problem at all, this is the problem of this country, he said.



A person who is a roadblock and not a facilitator should be removed. That is something intolerable, unaccepted to film fraternity and we want him out. His move is malicious and vicious. He lies, delays the process and will bully the person, his brother, Mukesh, President, the Film and Producers Guild of India, said.



I appeal to the Ministry to remove Pahlaj Nihalani, the film industry does not want him.



Filmmaker Zoya Akhtar said burying ones head in the sand will not make the problems disappear.



You cant certify something as adult and then give 89 cuts. We are in constant denial of what is going on in the society. Its like it does not exist. There is no drug problem, there is no marital rape, there is no racism? Its just ridiculous, she said.



Films producer Anurag Kashyap, who is the face of the fight against the censor board, said they will try their best to release the film without cuts and on its scheduled release of June 17.



Censor board has got a bullying attitude and they are resorting to lies... Its unfortunate that we have to justify our honesty at every stage. At every stage, we need a government approved stamp... I will try my best to release Udta Punjab without cuts and on time, Kashyap said at the press conference.



The Shahid Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Diljit Dosanjh starrer movie delves into how the youth in Punjab have succumbed to drugs.



Backed by the Indian Film & Television Directors Association, the press conference was attended by producers and directors like Zoya Akhtar, Imtiaz Ali, Mukesh Bhatt, Mahesh Bhatt, Ekta Kapoor, Aanand L Rai, Madhu Mantena, Sudhir Mishra, Ashoke Pandit, Reema Kagti and Ramesh Taurani among others besides the team of Udta Punjab.

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Kolkata:

As the censorship row surrounding Udta Punjab intensifies, Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan today said he is not aware of the issue but feels creativity should not be killed.



Big B is the latest celebrity to make a comment on the ongoing tussle between the makers of Udta Punjab and the censor board.



Though the 73-year-old actor has not taken any side in the debate, Bachchan said, I am not aware of the issue, but would like to say that dont try to kill creativity.



The National Award-winner was speaking here at a promotional event of his upcoming film Te3n Filmmakers can approach tribunal and courts, only problem is censoring comes near the release of a film, Bachchan further said.



Other industry bigwigs like Karan Johar, Aanand L Rai, Kabir Khan and Mahesh Bhatt have been more forthcoming in slamming the censor board for raising objections on the Shahid Kapoor-Kareena Kapoor starrer, which deals with the problem of substance abuse in Punjab.



Many leading filmmakers today lent support to Udta Punjab cast and producers at a press meet, criticising the boards actions and sharing their opinion on freedom of expression.

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New Delhi :

One more person was arrested today in connection with the kidney racket being busted at Apollo Hospital here last week, taking the total number of arrests in the case to ten. The tenth accused, Bhanu Pratap, was arrested from Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh. He was identified as one of the donors associated with the racket, a senior police official said.



Kingpin of the racket, Rajkumar Rao, who is believed to be associated with similar rackets in Nepal, Sri Lanka and Indonesia, was arrested in West Bengal yesterday. Three donors, including two women, were also arrested in the case.



Rao was under police scanner for operating similar rackets in Jalandhar, Coimbatore and Hyderabad. He was identified with the interrogation of the middlemen in the racket and teams were rushed to several states to track him down.



Police had also arrested a couple Umesh and Nilu from Kanpur, and Mamta alias Maumita, wife of one of the five accused was nabbed last week.



Umesh and Nilu told police that they had sold their kidneys for Rs 4 lakh and Rs 3 lakh respectively as they were in urgent need of money for their minor sons leg surgery. They were in contact with a tout of the racket, Satya Prakash, who was arrested along with four others as police busted the racket last week.



Maumita, wife of another tout Devashish Moulik, had led police to make the arrests in connection with the racket. The police said that they will also question the ten doctors of Apollo Hospitals internal assessment committee for transplant surgeries.



Under the scanner for the kidney racket, Indraprastha Apollo hospital has constituted a three-member inquiry committee to study the existing system for giving approval for transplant of an organ in the hospital.



The police has short-listed the names of three senior doctors from the hospitals in-house assessment committee for verifying documents related to transplants. The doctors are likely to be questioned first as they had cleared the papers in connection with the surgeries under the scanner.



The investigators have also come across names of two senior nephrologists in connection with the racket. It is suspected that a few kidney transplants which were facilitated by the racketeers were done by the doctor concerned in Apollo Hospital.



Police has so far come across five cases of kidney transplants conducted in the city through this racket and during interrogation, the accused disclosed that about 10-15 more transplants had been done at Jalandhar and Coimbatore in the past two years.



Delhi government has also set up a five-member panel to investigate the kidney racket and asked it to submit its report within 15 days.

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Washington:

With Pakistan obviously in mind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said terrorism is being incubated in Indias neighbourhood and pressed for action without making any distinction against groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba, Taliban and ISIS who share the same philosophy of hate, murder and killings.



In his address to the joint sitting of US Congress here, he said terrorism has to be fought with one voice as he commended the American Parliament for sending out a clear message by refusing to reward those who preach and practice terrorism for political gains, an apparent reference to the blocking of sale of 8 F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan.



In the course of his 45-minute speech, he covered all major aspects of the growing relationship between India and the US, particularly strategic ties and civil nuclear cooperation, and emphasised that the two countries should leave constraints of the past behind as the foundations of the future are firmly in place.



Dressed in trademark white kurta pyjama and grey-coloured half-jacket, Modi was warmly received by the American lawmakers who interrupted his address more than 40 times to cheer him, a few times by standing. When his predecessor Manmohan Singh addressed the US Congress in 2005, his speech was applauded 33 times, according to Sanjay Baru, who was the Media Adviser to the then Prime Minister.

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COLUMBUS  A 24-year-old Columbus woman who admitted using a 12-inch kitchen knife to stab her husband during a drunken argument while four children slept in their apartment was sentenced to prison Monday in district court.

Platte County District Judge Robert Steinke sentenced Nada Vanderpool to one to three years in prison for her conviction of second-degree assault in connection with the 1:30 a.m. Feb. 26 stabbing of 26-year-old James Vanderpool.

You have issues that need to be addressed, Mrs. Vanderpool, said Steinke after reading off a list of conditions the defendant must comply with during 12 months of post-release supervision following her prison term.

You need to take these probation orders very seriously, Steinke told the defendant.

The judge gave Vanderpool credit for 102 days already served in the county jail.

She pleaded no contest to the reduced assault charge after reaching an agreement with the prosecution.

The city woman, who has been in custody since the night of the incident, was initially facing first-degree domestic assault and use of a weapon to commit a felony charges, felonies that could have resulted in up to 70 years in prison.

The reduced assault charge carried a maximum penalty of three years in prison, 18 months of post-release supervision and a $10,000 fine.

In earlier court hearings, County Attorney Carl Hart described the stab wound to James Vanderpools arm during the fight in the couples 27th Street apartment building as life-threatening.

The prosecutor said the victims life was basically saved when a neighbor of the couple used a ligature to slow the flow of blood from the wound to the vascular tissue of the victims left arm.

James Vanderpool was rushed to Columbus Community Hospital for treatment before being transferred by helicopter to the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha after the stabbing incident. He recovered from his injuries.

Court documents described a bloody scene at the Columbian Village apartments at 27th Street and 37th Avenue, where the couple lived in a three-bedroom apartment with their two children and two of her children from a previous relationship.

The apartment showed signs of a struggle, a knife and blood throughout the living room and kitchen areas, Columbus Police Investigator Jaymee Levander wrote in her statement supporting the city woman's arrest.

Nada Vanderpool admitted she stabbed her husband after an argument in the residence, Levander wrote in her statement.
Detention Center

The inmate count at the Platte County Detention Facility Tuesday was 66, with 38 from Platte County and 28 from out of county.

Police

May 26

11:39 a.m. - In a parking lot at 2915 33rd Ave., an unknown vehicle struck a parked vehicle owned by Gilmore Leasing Company, 2915 33rd Ave., and left the scene.

May 27

7:47 a.m. - At Centennial Park, James Bruno, 37, Omaha, was jailed for sex assault-use of an electronic communication device.

June 2

11:38 a.m. - At 1668 20th Ave., Keila Mauricio, 27, 1921 17th St., was cited for dog at-large and destruction of property by a dog.

4:53 p.m. - In the 2300 block of 23rd Street, Trisha Howell, 36, 1711 17th St., was cited for driving under the influence of alcohol with a child under 16 and refusal of a chemical test.

June 4

1:13 a.m. - In the 3800 block of Adamy Street, a vehicle driven by Feliciano Moran, 27, 4110 16th St., struck a parked vehicle owned by Monica Garcia, 2064 Guenther Drive.

11:50 a.m. - At the intersection of Eighth Street and 26th Avenue, traffic accident. Drivers were Catherine Arndt, 75, 2860 31st Ave., and Edward Barta, 38, 1464 28th Ave.

11:51 a.m. - In a parking lot at 818 E. 23rd St., traffic accident. Drivers were Robert Peterson, 81, Osceola, and Shannon Mueller, 43, 2222 21st St.

Sheriff

June 3

5:55 a.m.  Traffic violation west of Cornlea on the Highway 91 spur, Kimberly Sueper of Lindsay cited for speeding.

7:40 a.m.  Criminal mischief at the intersection of 223rd Street and 340th Avenue, no loss amount.

2:38 p.m.  Traffic violation at the intersection of Sixth Street and 32nd Avenue, Felicia Case of Columbus cited for expired registration and expired operators license.

2:57 p.m.  Fraud at the sheriffs office, $820 loss.

4:11 p.m.  Traffic violation at the intersection of East 14th Avenue and East Eighth Street, Shayne Niedringhaus of Monroe cited for no valid registration.

June 4

9:42 a.m.  Criminal mischief at 211 Walnut St. in Lindsay, $200 damage to vehicle.

10:25 a.m.  Wanted person at 6057 56th St., No. 519, William Staverman of Columbus jailed on a Platte County warrant.

3:09 p.m.  Traffic violation in the 300 block of East 24th Street, Brito Yasmani of Florida cited for no proof of insurance.

7:54 p.m.  Theft from a building at 958 10th Ave. in Duncan, no loss amount.

June 5

8:15 a.m.  Theft of gasoline at Klub 81 in Humphrey, $18.44 loss.

8:51 a.m.  Traffic violation at the intersection of Howard Boulevard and 23rd Street, Timothy Hanson of Lincoln cited for speeding.

4:26 p.m.  Traffic violation at the Shell Creek Bridge on Highway 81, Pomee Johnson of Nashville, Tennessee, was cited for speeding.

5:06 p.m.  Traffic violation at mile marker 135 on Highway 81, Evelin Flores of Grand Island cited for speeding.

5:46 p.m.  Traffic violation at mile marker 146 on Highway 91, Patrick Neesen of Norfolk cited for speeding.

June 6

11:03 a.m. - Criminal mischief at Behlen Mfg. Co. on U.S. Highway 30, stationary display sign damaged, $750 loss.

Fire

June 3

11:52 am.  Ambulance intercept with Leigh Rescue 12 miles north of Columbus on Monastery Road, medical.

3:54 p.m.  In the 1700 block of 31st Avenue, medical.

June 4

12:46 a.m.  Alarm activated at 2657 40th Ave.

10:35 a.m.  At the intersection of 37th Avenue and 31st Street, medical.

11:20 a.m.  Alarm activated in the 2200 block of 33rd Avenue.

11:43 p.m.  On Lake Point Drive, medical.

June 6

2:26 a.m.  In the 800 block of Becton Street, medical.

12:26 p.m. - On Driftwood Drive, medical.

4:07 p.m. - In the 3600 block of 16th Street, medical.

8:25 p.m. - Accident at the intersection of East 23rd Street and East 14th Avenue, one patient transported.
COLUMBUS  The Nebraska Board of Education's rejection last week of a resolution critical of the Obama administration's guidance on transgender students has school districts adrift on the issue.

If our state department (of education) would provide some guidelines, that would help, said Aaron Plas, who takes over as superintendent at Lakeview Community Schools next month.

Neither Lakeview nor Columbus Public Schools has a policy in place regarding transgender students' restroom use, but officials with both districts said they are looking into the issue.

Superintendent Troy Loeffelholz said CPS is developing a policy on transgender students, but districts are stuck in the middle, between the federal guidance and opposition to the recommendations by Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts and Attorney General Doug Peterson.

Were kind of caught between a rock and a hard place, said Loeffelholz.

Loeffelholz said he supports allowing school districts to address transgender students on a case-by-case basis.

In drawing up CPS policy, Loeffelholz is consulting documents provided by the School Leaders Risk Management Association (SLRMA).

Theyve been putting out transgender policies over the past four or five years, Loeffelholz said. Its been a topic of discussion on the East Coast and is now moving to the Midwest, and theyve been putting out guidance on what transgender policies should look like.

One of SLRMAs checklists includes setting the parameters on where and under what activities the policy would be applicable and notes on interpretations of Title IX toward transgender students.

CPS is also working with the Nebraska Council of School Administrators.

Outgoing Lakeview Superintendent Russ Freeman said in an email: The board and administration will be reviewing the information that is given out to be able to make an informed decision that will be the best for all students.

Were at the fact-gathering stage, Plas said. Were definitely wanting to treat all kids fairly and to make sure all kids feel respected and safe.
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Familiarity seems to breed contempt for Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, whose public approval at home and national stature are trending in opposite directions.

He may be the toast of Democrats nationwide for his support of gun control reform, LGBT rights and his willingness to accept Syrian refugees, but a new state poll shows Malloy to be one of the most unpopular governors in the history of Connecticut.

Malloys approval rating sank to 24 percent  his lowest since taking office in 2011  in the Quinnipiac University survey released Wednesday.

The negative marks for Malloy follow bitter negotiations over how to close a $1 billion budget deficit and the controversial decision to lay off as many as 2,000 state employees. It also coincides with relentless criticism of the states business climate under Malloy, including the loss of General Electrics headquarters to Boston.

Malloys detractors seized on the polls results, saying the second-term incumbent is counting on a gig in a Hillary Clinton administration to rescue him from the mess.

I think hes trying to get out of Dodge as quickly as he can, said state Sen. Toni Boucher, R-Wilton.

Malloys office referred questions on the poll to the state Democratic Party, which said the governor is not poll-driven.

They will go up and down, said Leigh Appleby, a spokesman for the Connecticut Democrats. But the truth of the matter is that Gov. Malloy has an exceptionally difficult job. During tough fiscal times, he has made the hard  often painful  choices necessary to create jobs and put Connecticuts economy on the right track, and we applaud the governor for thinking long-term and doing the right thing for the future of our state.

Malloy has campaigned for Clinton in New Hampshire, Iowa, Massachusetts and Connecticut. He is also the head of the Democratic Governors Association and will serve as platform committee co-chairman at the Democratic National Convention in July.

Last month in Boston, he received the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for welcoming Syrian refugees to Connecticut, a decision that put him at odds with some of his Republican counterparts, including Indianas governor, Mike Pence. From New Mexico to Georgia, Malloy has also been invited to be the headliner at Democratic fundraising events.

I think many people around the country admire the principled stands he has taken on a whole host of issues, from guns to gay rights and whole bunch of other things, said Roy Occhiogrosso, a longtime confidante of Malloy. The people outside of Connecticut who have gotten to know him are not people who are feeling the effects of the difficult decisions that he is making every day.

Occhiogrosso compared Malloy to a doctor who must prescribe painful treatments to a sick patient.

Rather than doing what is politically expedient, hes doing whats necessary, Occhiogrosso said. He is paying a political price for it. I think it speaks to the character of the man that hes doing it anyway, most of it revolving around difficult decisions that need to be made to get the states fiscal house in order.

Only convicted felon and former Gov. John G. Rowland fared worse in a Quinnipiac poll, with 69 percent of respondents giving him a negative rating in February 2004, compared to 68 percent for Malloy. Rowlands dismal numbers came at the start of the six-month legislative investigation that forced his resignation that July and the first of his felony convictions that December.

Voters feel Connecticuts economy is going down the drain and they are sending Gov. Dannel Malloys approval ratings right down the same drain, said Douglas Schwartz, director of the Hamden-based poll. Even Democrats disapprove of the way he is doing his job.

neil.vigdor@scni.com; 203-625-4436; http://twitter.com/gettinviggy
Profit growth, major acquisitions and high-profile clients are all ways to measure a CEOs value. But what about less quantifiable factors, such as how employees perceive the boss?

Glassdoor has released its annual list of the Highest Rated CEOs at large American companies, compiled based on anonymous employee reviews from throughout the past year. The reviews include employees opinions on the pros and cons of working for their employer, advice to management, sentiments regarding their CEOs leadership and ratings of overall satisfaction with their employer.

Related: Why More Than Half of Your Employees Are Looking for a New Job

All CEOs of large U.S. companies -- with 1,000 employees or more -- included on the top-50 list have an approval rating of 92 percent or more among workers who reviewed them. Here are the top 10 CEOs whose employees had the nicest things to say about working with them:

1. Bob Bechek, Bain & Company

2. Scott Scherr, Ultimate Software

3. Dominic Barton, McKinsey & Company

4. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook

5. Jeff Weiner, LinkedIn

6. Marc Benioff, Salesforce

7. Sundar Pichai, Google

8. Tim Cook, Apple

9. Joseph R. Sivewright, Nestle Purina PetCare

10. Jim Whitehurst, Red Hat

Consultancy CEOs Bechek and Barton made the top three this year. Bechek replaces Larry Page of Google, who achieved the top honor last year. This year, his successor, Sundar Pichai, made number seven. Bain & Company was also ranked number two on Glassdoors Best Places to Work list for 2015 and 2016, and the firm hit number one in 2014.

Scherr, at number two, improved upon his 2015 ranking of five, while Barton reclaimed the number-three spot he held in 2013. They beat out Zuckerberg, who retains the number-four slot for the second year running, though he ranked number one on the list in 2013.

A major development this year is the inclusion of women in the ranking. Last year, no women made the top 50, but In-N-Out Burgers Lynsi Snyder landed at 17, ahead of Staffmarks Lesa Francis at 28, Enterprise Holdings Pamela Nicholson at 31 and Deloittes Cathy Engelbert at 42.

Related: The Top 10 Companies to Work for in 2016

Nestle Purina PetCares Sivewright, who ranked at nine, is new to the top CEOs list, though his company has made the top 10 on Glassdoors Best Places to Work list for the past three years. NBCUniversals Stephen Burke, at 39, and Lululemons Laurent Potdevin, at 47, are also new to the CEO ranking.

In conjunction with the results above, Glassdoor has published lists of large Canadian, British, French, German and Dutch companies. It also has enumerated the top CEOs of small and medium companies (with 1,000 employees or less). Visit the Glassdoor site to toggle between the various lists and learn what the executives employees had to say about them.

Related:

These CEOs -- Including Some of Your Favorites -- Are the Most Highly Reviewed by Their Employees

Characteristics Of A Daring Leadership (Part-II)

How Successful CEOs Make the Jump From Industry to Industry



Copyright 2016 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved
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NEWTOWN  Although it has been nearly 30 years since Regina Brown disappeared, local police still hope to crack a case that has puzzled everyone who knew her.

Since last week, Newtown police have been searching the area around Whippoorwill Hill Road, a dead-end street off Route 6 where the 35-year-old flight attendant lived before she vanished in 1987.

We are actively investigating it, Police Chief James Viadero said Wednesday, though he declined to discuss details or to say what led authorities to revisit the case.

Any time we receive information, we investigate it, Viadero added. Were looking to see if we can bear some fruit in this investigation.

Viadero said officers and dogs have combed the area several times in the past few days. He hinted police might have new methods or technology that could help find new clues.

Brown, a mother of three young children, left behind a lifetime collection of personal items and an uncashed check for $1,000.

More Information TIMELINE March 26, 1987: Regina Brown last seen at LaGuardia Airport in New York City March 27, 1987: Newtown police receive barking dog complaint from Brown's neighbor April 2, 1987: Linda Van Horn receives call from Texas, checks Brown's house April 6, 1987: Brown's car found in New York City May 7, 1987: State police search Newtown house of Regina and Willis Brown Sept. 28, 1987: Brown divorce/custody trial begins in Danbury Superior Court March 21, 1988: Margaret Brown, Willis Brown's stepmother, commits suicide in Albany, N.Y. April 22, 1988: Judge Howard Moraghan awards custody of children to Regina Brown's parents March 6, 1989: Map of possible burial site found in Margaret Brown's effects Sept. 27-28, 1989: Police search Block Island for Regina Brown's body 1995: Regina Brown declared dead 2008: Newtown police begin cold case investigation See More Collapse

She was last seen on March 26, 1987, placing her youngest daughter and the familys live-in babysitter on a plane at LaGuardia Airport. They were to join her other two children at her parents home in Texas.

At the time, Brown reportedly had given up hope of saving her marriage to Willis Brown, who was living in an apartment in Queens, N.Y.

A few days after Browns disappearance, her family was contacted by American Airlines after she missed two flights she was assigned to work. The family called Linda Van Horn, the womans longtime friend and neighbor, who went to Browns home with other neighbors but found it empty except for the family dog and many personal items.

Newtown police searched the home, but found no signs of a struggle or any evidence a crime had been committed.

Willis Brown, then a 52-year-old senior pilot for American Airlines, was never charged or declared a suspect.

The Browns had a turbulent five-year marriage marked by violence, unsubstantiated allegations of promiscuity and drug use, said Van Horn, who now lives in Texas. Even though Regina Brown had obtained a court order barring her husband from her home, she continued to let Willis visit the children, Van Horn said.

In September 1987, Willis Brown filed divorce papers and sought custody of the three children, whose paternity he had previously denied. A judge awarded custody to Regina Browns parents instead.

Willis Brown, who is believed to live in Texas, could not be reached for comment.

Van Horn, who testified against Willis Brown in the custody trial, was surprised to hear that police are again investigating the case. She said her friend was a really good mother.

I would hope that someday they find Regina so that she can be given back to her family, and the perpetrator is tried and goes to jail, she said. We should all be held accountable for crimes.

Although Regina Browns body has never been found, probate officials declared her dead in 1995.

Her case was one of three disappearances reported in Newtown in the 1980s. Months earlier, a Pan Am stewardess named Helle Crafts had gone missing. Crafts husband, Richard, then a pilot with Eastern Air Lines, was charged with killing her and trying to conceal the murder by dismembering her body with a chainsaw and running the pieces through a woodchipper.

Another Newtown woman, Elizabeth Heath, disappeared three years before Brown. Her husband, John, insisted for years that she had run away in the middle of the night. He was convicted of the murder in 2013, three years after the new owner of his property unearthed the skeletal remains of the woman while renovating a kitchen in the barn.

noliveira@newstimes.com, 203-731-3411, @olivnelson
COLUMBUS  A study authorized Monday night will help city officials decide how to proceed with planned public safety improvements.

Columbus City Council members voted 8-0 to pay Prochaska & Associates up to $150,000 to complete a feasibility study that looks at long-term options for the police and fire departments, including the possibility of constructing a shared public safety facility.

The Omaha-based design consultant will work with city officials to determine both departments needs before outlining potential plans moving forward. These options include a collocated public safety building for fire, police and 911 dispatch operations, separate buildings for the police and fire departments or a new main fire station with renovations to the existing downtown police station.

The study will also look at potential locations and costs for each option.

We want to see whats going to give us the best product and cost us the least amount of money for that, Mayor Mike Moser said Tuesday.

The study, to be billed on an hourly basis, will be followed by a contract for design services before a contractor is hired to complete the preferred project. There is no time frame for the feasibility work to be completed by Prochaska & Associates, which was selected from nine firms that submitted proposals for the study.

The downtown fire station is located in a decades-old building that has deteriorated over the years. The former city auditorium has a leaky roof, aging windows and structural issues.

At the nearby police station, uninsulated windows allow snow and water to enter offices, worn-out carpet is held together by duct tape and the paint hasnt changed since the city purchased the former bank building more than 20 years ago.

Police Chief William Gumm said there is also a need for an improved communications space, secure parking area and other upgrades.

Standards for police and fire buildings have changed, Gumm said Tuesday.

Both departments also need more space for personnel and storage.

Weve got people stacked on people in operations, Gumm said, noting that four sergeants share an office.

The feasibility study will help city officials determine whether the police station should be renovated or whether a new building is needed.

A study previously completed by Columbus-based RVW Inc. put the cost of building a joint fire/police station at $16.32 million for a 72,000-square-foot facility.

City officials have looked at property near Columbus Municipal Airport for the standalone building and also considered renovating a portion of the former Wal-Mart building at 3620 23rd St., which would cost about $650,000 less, according to the RVW study.

Prochaska & Associates will review the RVW study as part of its work.

Revenue from the half-percent local sales tax Columbus residents voted to extend in May will be used to finance the public safety improvements. Voters also must approve a bond issue for the project to move forward.
OTTAWA, June 8, 2016 /CNW/ - Assembly of First Nations (AFN) National Chief Perry Bellegarde said today that the report by Human Rights Watch, "Make It Safe: Canada's Obligation to End the First Nations Water Crisis", is another urgent call for immediate action to close the gap in living conditions between First Nations and others in Canada. "Having access to acceptable water is a human right and something most Canadians take for granted," said National Chief Bellegarde. "It's time to end boil water advisories in this country once and for all."

The Human Rights Watch report again points to the urgent need for Canada to work with First Nations to develop a comprehensive strategy to improve First Nations drinking water and living conditions. The report said there are 133 drinking water advisories in First Nations communities, which indicate that the water is not safe to drink. Most are concentrated in Ontario. These drinking water advisories - some in place for decades - represent the worst examples of systemic water and wastewater challenges facing First Nations. Long-term water advisories are rare in non-Indigenous communities in Canada.

The Federal Government vowed to end boil-water advisories on reserves within 5 years in its 2016 Budget. "This is an essential step in improving the lives and health of First Nations children and their families. What's needed now is a plan that is developed with First Nations, to deliver on this promise to our people."

National Chief Perry Bellegarde added: "There are many First Nations communities struggling with water and wastewater facilities that are aging and over capacity, and some communities that do not even have systems. We will be monitoring progress on the Federal Government's commitments to address the backlog and eliminate the drinking water advisories as set out in the budget. The federal government must work with First Nations in partnership as set out in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples "Make It Safe: Canada's Obligation to End the First Nations Water Crisis" documents the impacts of serious and prolonged drinking water and sanitation problems in First Nations communities. The report assesses why there are problems with safe water and sanitation on reserves, including a lack of binding water quality regulations, erratic and insufficient funding, faulty or sub-standard infrastructure, and degraded source waters. The federal government's own audits over two decades show a pattern of overpromising and underperforming on water and sanitation for reserves.

The report is available at: https://www.hrw.org/node/290522/

The AFN is the national organization representing First Nations citizens in Canada. Follow AFN on Twitter @AFN_Comms, @AFN_Updates.

SOURCE Assembly of First Nations

For further information: Alain Garon AFN Bilingual Communications Officer 613-241-6789, ext 382; 613-292-0857 or [email protected]
OTTAWA, June 8, 2016 /CNW/ - Assembly of First Nations (AFN) National Chief Perry Bellegarde today commended Stanley Barkman from Sachigo Lake First Nation, ON for his walk from Sioux Lookout, ON to Fort McMurray, AB to raise money for evacuees affected by the fire.

"On behalf of the AFN National Executive, I commend Stanley Barkman for his dedication, compassion and initiative in supporting those affected by the fire situation in Alberta," said AFN National Chief Perry Bellegarde. "I lift him up and fully support Mr. Barkman's efforts to bring badly needed support and attention to those in need."

Stanley Barkman is walking 2,080 kilometers from Sioux Lookout (ON) to Fort McMurray (AB). For more information on his efforts, including donation information, please visit: https://www.gofundme.com/Walk4FortMcMurray

The Assembly of First Nation is the national organization representing First Nation citizens in Canada. Follow #AFN on Twitter @AFN_Comms, @AFN_Updates.

SOURCE Assembly of First Nations

For further information: Alain Garon, AFN Bilingual Communications Officer, 613-241-6789, ext 382; 613-292-0857 or [email protected]
GATINEAU, QC, June 8, 2016 /CNW/ - Canada has officially ratified an international treaty that seeks to eliminate child labour and ensure children do not leave school to join the workforce full time.

The Honorable MaryAnn Mihychuk, Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour, announced today in Geneva the Government of Canada's ratification of the International Labour Organization's Minimum Age Convention, 1973.

The Convention requires ratifying member states to set a minimum age for employment of at least 15 years and to prohibit hazardous work for young workers under the age of 18, unless specific measures are put in place.

Ratifying Convention 138 (as it is also known) is part of the Government of Canada's plan to strengthen Canada's place in the world and rebuild our international influence. Last month, Minister Mihychuk attended a G7 meeting for ministers of education in Japan where she pursued opportunities for Canadian leadership in education, training, apprenticeships and skills development.

Ratifying Convention 138 is not expected to negatively impact Canadian businesses and operations such as family farms, or part-time work by Canadian teens working at babysitting, camp counselling or other similar jobs.

The Convention will come into force 12 months from today, in June 2017.

Quotes

"Ratifying Convention 138 sends a clear message about Canada's interests and values. We stand together with countries around the world denouncing child labour, exploitation and abuse. Canadian leadership can have a positive influence in the world, and ratifying Convention 138 is the right thing to do."

 The Honourable MaryAnn Mihychuk, Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour

"Putting an end to child labour is one aspect of Canada's overall approach to human rights and social justice, and part of Canada's longstanding effort to improve the lives of children and youth. International Labour Organization Convention 138 on minimum age for employment is one of the most effective international instruments for encouraging an end to child labour, which deprives children of their childhood, potential and dignity. Ratifying Convention 138 sends a strong message on behalf of all Canadians that children belong in school, and not in the workplace."

 The Honorable Stephane Dion, Minister of Foreign Affairs

"I am particularly pleased to welcome Canada among the States party to Convention No. 138, which commits to set a minimum age for admission to work or employment. This represents another positive development in the country's continued efforts towards the full respect of fundamental rights at work."

 Guy Ryder, Director-General, International Labour Organization and Secretary-General of the International Labour Conference

"We applaud the Canadian government for ratifying Convention 138. Protecting children from hazardous work and eliminating child labour have been long-standing priorities for Canada's unions. We believe it is important to give young people every opportunity to develop skills that will benefit them as they enter the workforce and the ratification of Convention 138 helps do just that. We look forward to continuing to work with the Honourable MaryAnn Mihychuk, Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour, to improve the lives of all Canadians."

 Hassan Yussuff, President, Canadian Labour Congress

Quick Facts

Convention 138 is one of eight fundamental conventions of the International Labour Organization (ILO) that are considered core to promoting decent work.

Canada joins 168 countries around the world that have also ratified Convention 138.

joins 168 countries around the world that have also ratified Convention 138. The ILO is a specialized agency of the United Nations that sets international labour standards, encourages decent employment opportunities, enhances social protection and strengthens dialogue on work-related issues. Canada is one of the 187 member states of the ILO.

is one of the 187 member states of the ILO. International labour standards take the form of conventions and protocols, which are legally binding international treaties subject to ratification by member states, and recommendations, which provide non-binding guidance. They influence labour laws and practices in ILO member states and contribute to improved labour and employment conditions for workers globally.

Associated Links

Minimum Age Convention, 1973

Labour Program

International Labour Organization

Follow us on Twitter

SOURCE Employment and Social Development Canada

For further information: John O'Leary, Director of Communications, Office of the Honourable MaryAnn Mihychuk, P.C., M.P., Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour, 819-654-5611; Media Relations Office, Employment and Social Development Canada, 819-994-5559, [email protected]
/CNW Telbec/ - The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) is proud to announce that one of its former executives, Dr. David Kendall , has been appointed to chair the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UN COPUOS) for the next two years. This is the first time that a Canadian will chair the Committee.

LONGUEUIL, QC, June 8, 2016 Dr. Kendall has nearly 40 years of experience in the space sector. He joined the CSA upon its creation in 1989 and held various positions, beginning as a research scientist before becoming Director General of the Space Science directorate in 2004. Until 2014, Dr. Kendall was Senior Executive Advisor to the President. His knowledge and experience will be incredibly valuable as he takes on the role of Chair. He will continue to build upon the reputation that Canada has earned within the Committee through its leadership in key initiatives such as Global Health and Space Weather, as well as the mitigation of Space Debris.

Dr. Kendall's educational experiences include a Bachelor of Science in Physics (Honours) from Swansea University (United Kingdom), as well as a Master of Science in Atmospheric Physics, and a PhD in Atmospheric Physics, both from University of Calgary. Dr. Kendall, who joined the Canadian delegation to COPUOS in 2008, has also been a longstanding faculty member of the International Space University.

Canada is a founding member of the UN COPUOS, and our continued participation is ensured through the coordinated efforts of Global Affairs Canada and the Canadian Space Agency. Through consultation with other government departments, the Canadian delegation represents our national interests and policy positions at the COPUOS and its subcommittee sessions.

Quotes

"I am very pleased and proud to assume the Chairmanship of the Committee. My chief objective will be to help the Committee advance measures that will assure the long-term sustainability of outer space activities for the benefit of all nations and especially for future generations. For more than half a century, space has played a major role in the development of Canada and it is essential that we preserve our capacity to access and use space to continue supporting our society."

David Kendall, Chair, UN COPUOS (2016-17)

Links

United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space

Twitter: @csa_asc

Follow us on Social Media

Website: http://asc-csa.gc.ca

SOURCE Canadian Space Agency

For further information: Canadian Space Agency, Media Relations Office, Telephone: 450-926-4370
Company Reports Fourth Consecutive Quarter of Positive System Sales and Same Restaurant Sales Growth,

and Continued Growth in Operating EBITDA of 12%

MONTREAL, June 8, 2016 /CNW Telbec/ - Imvescor Restaurant Group Inc. ("IRG" or the "Company") (TSX: IRG), a leading franchisor of restaurants operating 226 locations in Eastern Canada, reported financial results today for the 13 weeks ended May 1, 2016 ("Q2 2016"). This press release should be read in conjunction with the Company's management discussion and analysis and financial statements for Q2 2016 which are available on the Company's website at www.imvescor.ca/investor-relations and have been posted on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

"The second quarter of fiscal 2016 was again demonstrative of the initial success of our strategic plan as we saw our fourth consecutive quarter of positive year-over-year growth in System Sales and Same Restaurant Sales at 3.6% and 1.2%, both of which were significant improvements over the same quarter of last year," said Frank Hennessey, President and Chief Executive Officer of Imvescor Restaurant Group Inc. "Importantly, we achieved this growth in the context of 3% fewer operating weeks, due to planned restaurant closures as part of the Restaurant Rejuvenation Plan. Our continued top-line growth, combined with our ongoing focus on costs contributed to a 12% year-over-year increase in operating EBITDA."

"With each quarter, we are making further progress on the strengthening of each of the four pillars that will underpin our long-term success  Quality of Food, Quality of Service, Value and Ambiance. We have now completed renovations of 17 restaurants to date, including our first Mike's location during the second quarter, with 25 more planned for fiscal 2016. We continue to be very encouraged by the improved operating results at these restaurants post-renovation. Such results continue to drive participation in the Restaurant Rejuvenation Program by franchisees."

Q2 2016 Financial and Operational Highlights

(All comparable figures are to second quarter 2015 ("Q2 2015") unless otherwise specified.

System Sales grew 3.6%;

Same Restaurant Sales (SRS) grew 1.2%, an improvement of 1.4 percentage points compared with Q2 2015;

Revenue increased 24% versus Q2 2015 mainly from the Company temporarily taking over the operations of the manufacturer of certain Trattoria di Mikes licensed retail products;

EBITDA of $4.1 million was an increase of 7% versus Q2 2015;

was an increase of 7% versus Q2 2015; Operating EBITDA increased 12% to $4.3 million in Q2 2016 versus $3.8 million in Q2 2015;

in Q2 2016 versus in Q2 2015; Operating expenses increased 31% versus Q2 2015 due mainly to the Company temporarily taking over the operations of the manufacturer of certain Trattoria di Mikes licensed retail products;

Net earnings of $2.7 million increased 5% versus Q2 2015.

Highlights Subsequent to Quarter End

On May 6, 2016, the Company purchased for cancellation 1,500 common shares under its previously announced normal course issuer bid.

Q2 2016 Selected Financial Data







(in thousands of dollars, where applicable) Q2 YTD















May 1, 2016 April 26, 2015 % May 1, 2016 April 26, 2015 % Number of weeks 13 13

27 26























System Sales (i) $ 93,154 $ 89,913 3.6% $ 192,969 $ 179,229 7.7% SRS (i) 1.2% -0.2% 1.4% 2.1% -0.5% 2.6% Number of restaurant operating weeks 2,896 2,972 -2.6% 6,049 5,965 1.4% Number of restaurants 226 229 -1.3% 226 229 -1.3% Number of Company-owned restaurants 4 4 0.0% 4 4 0.0%













Revenue 14,032 11,312 24.0% 28,459 22,374 27.2% Operating expenses 10,170 7,792 30.5% 20,736 16,215 27.9% Results from operating activities 3,862 3,520 9.7% 7,723 6,159 25.4% EBITDA (i) 4,053 3,778 7.3% 8,112 6,701 21.1% EBITDA as a percentage of revenue 28.9% 33.4% -4.5% 28.5% 29.9% -1.4% Operating EBITDA (i) 4,319 3,844 12.4% 8,573 7,097 20.8% Operating EBITDA as a percentage of revenue 30.8% 34.0% -3.2% 30.1% 31.7% -1.6% Net earnings and comprehensive income 2,680 2,550 5.1% 5,330 4,126 29.2% Net earnings as a percentage of revenue 19.1% 22.5% -3.4% 18.7% 18.4% 0.3%













EPS:













Basic 0.05 0.05 0.0% 0.10 0.09 11.1%

Diluted 0.04 0.05 -20.0% 0.09 0.08 12.5%













Free cash flow 2,037 248 721.4% 5,605 3,823 46.6% Free cash flow as a percentage of revenue 14.5% 2.2% 12.3% 19.7% 17.1% 2.6% Dividends paid 2,499 1,947 28.4% 2,499 2,876 -13.1%























(in thousands of dollars, where applicable)















Q2 2016 As at May 1, 2016 Fiscal 2015 As at October 25, 2015 %













Cash





508 3,624 -86.0% Working capital excluding gift cards liability





(956) 962 -199.4% Total debt, including current portion





4,162 11,798 -64.7% Net debt to Operating EBITDA (i)





0.21 0.78 -73.1%

(i) System Sales, SRS, EBITDA, Operating EBITDA, Free cash flow, and net debt to Operating EBITDA are non-IFRS measures. Refer to the "Non-IFRS Measures and Financial Metrics" section of this press release for the definitions.

Dividend Declaration

Pursuant to its previously announced dividend policy, the board of directors of the Company (the "Board") today declared a dividend of $0.0225 per common share. The quarterly cash dividend will be paid on July 6, 2016 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on June 22, 2016.

The declaration and payment of any future dividend remains at the discretion of the Board and will depend on the Company's current and anticipated cash requirements and surplus, capital expenditures requirements, regulatory restrictions, financial results, future prospects, current and future contractual restrictions, such as restrictions under credit or other arrangements, the satisfaction of solvency tests imposed by the Canada Business Corporations Act for the declaration of dividends and other factors deemed relevant by the Board. Any dividend policy established by the Board, including the Company's current dividend policy can be changed at any time and is not binding on the Company. There can be no guarantee that the Company will maintain its current dividend policy or any dividend policy or that any dividend will be declared or paid.

Conference Call Details

Frank Hennessey, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Tania M. Clarke, Chief Financial Officer will host a conference call to discuss Q2 2016 results at 8:30 am E.S.T on Wednesday, June 8, 2016. To access the conference call by telephone, dial 1-888-231-8191 (Toll-Free), 514-807-9895 (Montreal) or 647-427-7450 (Toronto).

A live audio webcast of the conference call will be available at www.imvescor.ca/investor-relations/. A recording of the conference call will be archived for replay by telephone until Wednesday, June 15, 2016 at midnight. To access the archived conference call, dial 1-855-859-2056 (Toll-Free), 514-807-9274 (Montreal) or 416-849-0833 (Toronto) and enter the reservation number 6427554.

About Imvescor Restaurant Group Inc. Imvescor Restaurant Group Inc. is a dynamic and innovative organization in the family and casual dining restaurant industry. The Company is a franchise and licensing business that operates restaurants in Eastern Canada under four banners: Pizza Delight, operating primarily in Atlantic Canada, in the family/mid-scale segment, Trattoria di Mikes and Scores, operating primarily in Quebec in the family and casual dining segments and the take-out and delivery segments, and Baton Rouge, operating in Quebec, Ontario and Nova Scotia in the casual dining segment. The Company also licenses to third parties the right to manufacture and sell prepared food products under the Pizza Delight, Trattoria di Mikes, Scores and Baton Rouge brands and, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Groupe Commensal Inc., manufactures and sells vegetarian branded food products in grocery stores and retail outlets under the Commensal brand.

Non-IFRS Measures and Financial Metrics: The information contained in this press release includes some figures that are not performance measures consistent with International Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS"). Because they do not have a standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS, they may not be comparable with similar measures presented by other issuers.

"EBITDA" is defined as earnings or loss before interest income, interest expense, depreciation and amortization and income tax expense.

"Operating EBITDA" is defined as EBITDA adjusted for the following items; impairment or impairment reversal of non-current assets, impairment or impairment reversal of Imvescor rights, gain or losses on sale of property, plant and equipment, change in onerous contract provisions, costs of special committee, shareholder proposal costs, impairment of goodwill, bargain purchase gains, reorganization costs, restaurant rejuvenation plan, gain or loss on derivative financial liability and earnings or loss from discontinued operations. The definition of Operating EBITDA can change from time to time to account for unusual items or items not considered to be consistent with the Company's normal recurring operations.

The Company uses EBITDA and Operating EBITDA because those measures enable management to assess the Company's operational performance and are financial indicators of the Company's ability to service and incur debt. Those measures should not be considered by an investor as an alternative to earnings, an indicator of operating performance or cash flows, or as a measure of liquidity. Refer to the Reconciliations of Non-IFRS Measures section of this MD&A for more details.

"System Sales" is the aggregate sales achieved by all "Pizza Delight", "Trattoria di Mikes", "Scores" and "Baton Rouge" restaurants, whether they are company-owned restaurants or franchises. This performance measure indicates the Company's overall growth and reflects the direct impact of the restaurant openings and closures.

"Same Restaurant Sales" or "SRS" is a metric used in the restaurant industry to compare sales earned in established locations over a certain period of time, such as a fiscal quarter, for the current period against sales in the same period in the previous year. SRS growth helps explain what portion of sales growth can be attributed to growth in established locations. The Company defines SRS as sales generated by stores that have been open for at least one year compared to the sales from the same group of restaurants in the comparable period. The Company believes this is a meaningful measure of operating performance.

"Free cash flow" is defined as cash from operating activities less cash used in the purchases of property, plant and equipment and intangible assets.

"Net debt to Operating EBITDA" is calculated as long-term debt, including the current portion, less cash, divided by Operating EBITDA for the last four fiscal quarters.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including but not limited to, IRG's business objectives, estimates, outlook, strategies and priorities and all other statements other than statements of historical facts. Forward-looking statements may include estimates, intentions, plans, expectations, opinions, forecasts, projections, guidance or other statements that are not statements of fact. Forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "may", "should", "would", "will", "expect", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "predict", "potential, "targeting", "intend", "could", "might", "continue", "outlook" or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. All such forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the "safe harbour" provisions of applicable securities laws.

Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors outside of IRG's control. A number of factors could cause the actual results of IRG to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to: risks associated with quality control, food borne illnesses and health concerns, adverse changes to economic conditions, the Company's ability to retain certain key personnel, the Company's ability to respond to various competitive factors affecting its operations, franchise development and growth of the retail licensing opportunities, changes in consumer preferences, the Company's retail products dependence on the strength of the Company's restaurant brands, the protection of the Company's intellectual property, the success of the restaurant rejuvenation plan, the Company's dependence on royalty stream, the Company's reliance on suppliers and availability and quality of raw materials, changes in the Company's relationships with its franchisees, the Company's ability to open new restaurants, the closure of restaurants, the impact of an increase in Company-owned restaurants, the Company's ability to renew leases and limit lease exposure, the risks associated with negative publicity and its impact on the Company's reputation, compliance with regulations governing confidentiality of guest information, potential litigation and other complaints, compliance with government regulations, the Company's dependence on third parties, changes in laws concerning employees, changes in the Company's relationships with its employees, the Company's ability to ensure workplace safety, risks associated with franchise regulations, compliance with regulations governing alcoholic beverages, environmental risks and regulations, public safety issues, the Company's dependence on technology, risks of underreporting of sales by franchisees, inherent risks associated with internal control over financing reporting, the indebtedness of the Company and the restrictive covenants to which it is subject, the impact of sales tax upon System Sales, the risk associated with the Company's dividend policy, the impact of seasonality and other factors on quarterly operating results, the risk of uninsured losses, changes in commodity prices and other factors referenced in the Company's Annual Information Form and the Company's other continuous disclosure filings which are available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. These factors are not intended to represent a complete list of the factors that could affect IRG but should, however, be considered carefully.

Further, although the forward-looking statements contained herein are based on information currently available to IRG's management and on the current assumptions, intentions, plans, expectations, estimates, opinions, forecasts, projections and other assumptions made by IRG's management in light of its experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments (such as IRG's future growth, results of operations, performance and opportunities as well as the future of the economic environment in which it operates), as well as other factors that IRG's management believes are appropriate and reasonable in the circumstances and on the date of this press release, there can be no assurance that such assumptions, intentions, plans, expectations, estimates, opinions, forecasts, projections and other assumptions will prove to be correct or that actual results will not differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements are provided herein for the purpose of giving information about IRG's current strategic priorities, expectations and plans, thereby allowing investors and others to get a better understanding of IRGI's business outlook and operating environment. Readers are cautioned, however, that such information may not be appropriate for other purposes and should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements contained in this press release. IRG assumes no obligation to update or revise such forward-looking statements to reflect new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. Except as otherwise indicated, forward-looking statements do not reflect the potential impact of any non-recurring or other special items or of any transactions that may be announced or that may occur after the date of this press release. The financial impact of these transactions and non-recurring and other special items can be complex and depends on the facts particular to each of them. IRG therefore cannot describe the expected impact in a meaningful way or in the same way it presents known risks affecting the business. IRG's forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement.

Our brands:





Pizza Delight: www.pizzadelight.com Scores: www.scores.ca



Trattoria di Mikes: www.mikes.ca Baton Rouge: www.batonrouge.ca

SOURCE Imvescor Restaurant Group Inc.

For further information: Imvescor: 514.341.5544, http://www.imvescor.ca; Investor Relations: [email protected], Frank Hennessey, President and Chief Executive Officer, Tania M. Clarke, Chief Financial Officer; Media Relations: ACJ Communication - Daniel Granger 514.840.7990
MONTREAL, June 2, 2016 /CNW Telbec/ - Transat A.T. Inc., one of the largest integrated tourism companies in the world and Canada's holiday travel leader will release its second quarter 2016 (ended April 30) results on June 9. Jean-Marc Eustache, Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer and Denis Petrin, Vice-President, Finance and Administration and Chief Financial Officer, invite financial analysts to take part in a conference call the same day. Business reporters are welcome to attend the conference call in listen-only mode.

Thursday, June 9 at 10:00 A.M.

Dial 1-800-926-9801

Name of conference: Transat

Webcast on www.transat.com

The archived call will be available at 416-626-4100 or 1-800-558-5253 access code 21806235, until July 8, 2016.

SOURCE Transat A.T. Inc.

For further information: Michel Lemay, (514) 987-1660, ext. 4523
TORONTO, June 8, 2016 /CNW/ - You are invited to a very special afternoon event organized by the Canada-Africa Chamber of Business, the University of the Witwatersrand, the Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship at Ryerson University, and Canada's leading media development organization Journalists for Human Rights (JHR): The official Canadian launch of the Future of Journalism Lab.

Meet top Canadian and African journalists as they upend traditional narratives about Africa and discuss opportunities for the future of journalism, entrepreneurship and tech innovation within the African media ecosystem.

When: Wednesday, June 29, 3:30  5pm

Where: Goodmans LLP, 333 Bay Street, Suite 3400, Toronto, ON

To attend, you must register with the Canada-Africa Chamber of Business. Register here!

Event Details:

The afternoon features a panel celebrating The Future of Journalism in Africa, the official launch of a spectacular new partnership between JHR, the Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship, and the University of the Witwatersrand.

For this panel, the Chamber is delighted to be welcoming Professor Barry Dwolatzy, the visionary mind behind the new Digital Innovation Zone at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, Sean Mullin, Executive Director of the Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship , Rachel Pulfer, Executive Director of Journalists for Human Rights, Freddy Mata Matundu, country director for JHR/DRCongo and, participating by Skype, Liberian newspaper editor and media entrepreneur Rodney Sieh of FrontPageAfrica. You will also have the chance to meet top Canadian journalists on the Africa beat from the Globe and Mail, National Post, Toronto Star and Bloomberg, among others.

"There is an absolute need to change the narrative on Africa in the media from 'Oh, that's Africa' to 'Wow, this is Africa!'", says Bruce Shapiro, President of the Canada-Africa Chamber of Business. "Doing this is an enormously complex and, at times, dangerous process. The Canada-Africa Chamber of Business (formerly the Canada-Southern Africa Chamber of Business) with its new mandate wants to be a part of this important process and are honoured to be working with JHR to bring this about."

Across the world, the media is struggling to adapt to this new digital age. Yet African entrepreneurs have already figured out how to distribute news through SMS text message, generate maps of security emergencies as they break, and set up subscriber-pay systems through mobile phone networks.

"African media entrepreneurs have bootstrapped extraordinarily powerful newspapers from websites," says Rachel Pulfer, Executive Director of Journalists for Human Rights. "They've worked with SMS networks to track stories and deliver news through text message. And they are at the forefront of lease-financing through mobile phone networks. This project seeks to harness the energy of Africa's Silicon Savannah towards a powerful goal: sustaining high quality journalism. We are delighted to support it and encourage all those concerned about the future of media worldwide to come out and hear what African educators and journalists have to offer."

To attend, please register with the Canada-Africa Chamber of Business. Register here! The event is $50 for Chamber members and JHR affiliates, and $75 for non-Chamber-members. This price includes cocktails. To attend the cocktail party only, it is $20 for members and JHR affiliates and $30 for non-members.

Following the cocktails all guests are warmly invited to drinks on the patio at The Metropolitan, 20 Victoria Street http://patios.blogto.com/patio/metropolitan/ (Kindly note that food and drinks for the patio networking are the responsibility of individuals).

Background

The Future of Journalism Lab is an incubator and accelerator for media entrepreneurs, based in Africa. It brings together innovative media entrepreneurs from across the continent and around the world to solve the question plaguing media worldwide - how to better support their businesses financially - and produce quality journalism at the same time. The panel event celebrates the official Canadian launch of this project.

Distinguished guests include:

Professor Barry Dwolatzky of the Johannesburg Centre of Software Engineering (JCSE) at the University of the Witwatersrand. Professor Dwolatzy's vision is to build a Digital Innovation Zone within the emerging technology hub in the Tshimologong Precinct (http://tshimologong.joburg/) in Johannesburg. This project brings innovative designers, programmers, developers and engineers together across disciplines to share experiences and develop new businesses. The burgeoning brain hub has attracted both private and public interest and support from around the world.

Rodney D. Sieh, editor of FrontPage Africa, is one such entrepreneur. He will be joining the panel via Skype/video from Liberia to discuss how he developed the newspaper through reaching out to the American diaspora, generating sponsorship and advertising revenue in US dollars to sustain quality reporting back home.

Freddy Mata Matundu, country director for JHR in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, will also weigh in on strategies Congolese media entrepreneurs have deployed to launch media enterprises including a vocational journalism training school in Bukavu sustained through private financing.

Sean Mullin, Executive Director of the Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship and Rachel Pulfer, Executive Director of Journalists for Human Rights will introduce the Future of Journalism Lab - a project to be hosted by the Witwatersrand Digital Innovation Zone.

Our thanks to CNW Group for sponsoring this announcement.

SOURCE Journalists for Human Rights (JHR)

For further information: Media Inquiries: Sarah Pollock, Development Manager, Journalists for Human Rights, Tel: 416-413-0240, E-mail: [email protected]
LINCOLN  Gov. Pete Ricketts said Tuesday he has approved new local roads and bridge standards that will provide more construction and repair flexibility, resulting in efficiency and cost-savings while protecting safety requirements.

Ricketts said the standards will "give counties and cities more flexibility so they can design solutions (that) fit the problem, do the work and stretch our dollars."

"We'll get more bang for the buck," the governor said during a Capitol news conference.

Infrastructure is a key element in Nebraska's economy, Ricketts said, and "one of the focuses of my administration."

Nebraska Department of Roads Director Kyle Schneweis described the new standards as "smart and responsible" as well as practical.

"They simply streamline design approaches," he said, providing flexibility and encouraging a culture of innovation.

The changes represent "a right-sizing of regulations," Schneweis said.

Roger Figard, chairman of the Board of Public Roads Classifications and Standards, said the changes will protect safety standards while resulting in less government and "more work" on local roads.

"It's a big win for local government," said Hall County Engineer Steve Rhiele of Grand Island.

The result will be "common-sense, practical, cost-saving decisions," he said.

As an example, Rhiele cited roads in his county that have fewer than 50 vehicles of traffic per day that should be assessed with practical standards.

Answering a few questions on other topics, Ricketts said he has not studied the details of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's dispute with Judge Gonzalo Curiel, a federal judge who is overseeing a lawsuit against Trump alleging fraud associated with the defunct Trump University.

Trump has questioned Curiel's impartiality and described the Indiana-born judge as "a Mexican."

"I hold the judiciary with respect," Ricketts said. "I am not advising Mr. Trump in his campaign."

Ricketts deflected a question about the use of restrooms at the College World Series in Omaha.

The governor said he opposes President Barack Obama's declaration that restrooms should be accessible to people based on their gender identification.

The NCAA requires its host sites to be free from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
General Sani Abacha, born on September 20, 1943, was Nigerias military head of state from November 17, 1993 to June 8, 1998 when he died ...

General Sani Abacha, born on September 20, 1943, was Nigerias military head of state from November 17, 1993 to June 8, 1998 when he died suddenly. It is exactly 18 years since he died, but how much of his history do you still remember?1. A Kanuri originally from Borno State, General Sani Abacha was born and brought up in Kano state, which he made his home.2. He married a Shuwa Arab, Maryam, also from Borno state, in 1965 and they had six boys and three girls. The first child, Ibrahim, died in a plane crash in 1996.3. The last of their children was born in Aso Rock in 1994 when Abacha was 50 and his wife 47. The boy was named Mustapha, supposedly after Abachas chief security officer, Hamza al Mustapha.4. Abacha was the first and only military head of state who never skipped a rank to become a full-star general.5. Abacha announced the coup that brought an end to the government of President Shehu Shagari on December 31, 1983, and brought Major-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari to power.6. After Buhari was overthrown in a palace on August 27, 1985, it was Abacha that announced the chief of army staff, Major-Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, as the new military president and commander-in-chief of the armed forces in an evening broadcast (the coup speech was read by Brigadier Joshua Nimyel Dogonyaro).7. On appointment as chief of army staff in 1985, he caused a stir when he said the issue of second in command to Babangida had not been resolved, even though Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe, as chief of general staff, was understood to be holding the position. It was later resolved in favour of Ukiwe.8. Abacha was commissioned 2nd lieutenant in 1963 after he had attended the Mons Defence Officers Cadet Training College in Aldershot, England.9. He was believed to have participated fully in the July 1966 countercoup, which led to the death of the head of state, Major-Gen. Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, and subsequently resulted in the civil war.10. Officially, he did not overthrow the interim national government in 1993. The head of government, Chief Ernest Shonekan, resigned and Abacha, being the secretary of defence and the most senior member of government, took over. Unofficially, it was a bloodless coup.11. He was known as a man of few words and deadly actions and he demonstrated this as head of state with one of the most brutal regimes Nigeria has ever had. There was massive crackdown on the media, civil rights groups and pro-democracy campaigns.12. Two of the most important recommendations of the 1995 constitutional conference he set up are: 13% derivation for oil-producing areas and six geo-political zones.13. He never held a non-military appointment in his career until he became minister of defence in 1990 (later re-designated secretary of defence in 1993). He was a Lt. Gen then.14. His supporters describe him as a good economic manager and that he stabilised exchange rate at N22/$1 but the unofficial rate was N80/$1. This created colossal rent-seeking, with many chosen associates buying at the official rate and reselling at four times the rate in the black market.15. It was under Abacha that Nigeria became a perpetual importer of petroleum products, as all the refineries packed up. However, 17 years after his death, Nigeria is still heavily dependent on fuel imports.16. An unforgettable phenomenon under Abacha was the importation of foul fuel which had an offensive odour and damaged car engines.17. He was instrumental to the restoration of peace and democracy in Sierra Leone and Liberia after years of civil wars.18. He increased fuel price just once in his four-and-a-half years in office and set up the Petroleum (Special) Trust Fund, which was widely acknowledged to have performed well in infrastructural development and intervention programmes in education, health and water.19. His wife set up what is now known as the National Hospital, Abuja. It was originally named National Hospital for Women and Children before it was upgraded into what is intended to be Nigerias no. 1 public hospital.20. His death is shrouded in mystery: the most popular version is that he died in the midst of Indian prostitutes flown in from Dubai but the official version is that he died of heart attack. A more likely story is that he was eliminated to end the political crisis in Nigeria.
Buhari did not go to London for treatment but to rest. The Presidency on Tuesday said President Muhammadu Buhari did not violate an...

Buhari did not go to London for treatment but to rest.

The Presidency on Tuesday said President Muhammadu Buhari did not violate any rule in the treatment of his ear infection because he was treated by Nigerian medical experts in the country.The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, stated this in an interview with our newsmen.He was reacting to reports making the rounds that by traveling to London, Buhari violated the Federal Governments rule that says that government officials will not be paid for foreign medical treatment, unless the case cannot be treated in Nigeria.Adesina referred to the statement he issued on Sunday about the Presidents 10-day vacation.He explained that Buhari did not go to London for treatment but to rest.He said the President had been treated in Nigeria and would only seize the opportunity of his trip to carry out further evaluation.Adesina said, You can check the statement we issued on Sunday again. The President did not go to London for treatment.We made it clear in that statement that he had been treated in Nigeria here.The medical experts here only told him that since he will be in London, he can seize that opportunity for evaluation.The President has not broken any rule.The statement issued on Sunday read, President Buhari will take 10 days off and travel to London from Monday June 6th, to rest.During the holiday, the President will see an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist for a persistent ear infection.The President was examined by his Personal Physician and an E.N.T Specialist in Abuja and was treated.Both Nigerian doctors recommended further evaluation purely as a precaution.
The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Alhaji Muhammad Bello, has reportedly turned down food items donated by the Dangote F...

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Alhaji Muhammad Bello, has reportedly turned down food items donated by the Dangote Foundation for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) in Abuja.The Foundation, according to reports, had taken the gift items, including sugar, salt, spaghetti, rice, and wheat meal worth millions of naira to the ministers office yesterday but was bluntly rejected by him.All entreaties to make him realise that the items are meant for distribution to the needy like those in the IDP camps fell on deaf ears as Bello was said to have stated that he was not hungry and didnt solicit for any donations.In a swift reaction, however, the Special Adviser to the FCT Minister on Media, Mr. Abubakar Sani, said there was no truth in the report that the FCT Administration (FCTA) rejected the purported gift from Dangote Foundation to the IDPs.According to Sani, FCTA is not aware of any donations and therefore, not in the position to neither reject nor accept the said gift items.I asked who saw the said gifts and the answer was no one did, he said.In the same vein, the Director of Public Relations, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Abuja Office, Mr. Ishaya Chonoko, also said that the agency was not aware of such donations.Chonoko said: If the normal procedure was followed, we should be aware of such donations, but as far as we are concerned, no donations of such was made, at least to the best of our knowledge.The Foundation owned by the richest man in Africa, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, as part of its mandate to give especially in the holy month of Ramadan for the indigent and the vulnerable in the society, has the tradition of donating money and food materials to the less privileged and victims of other disasters across the country.The Ramadan supplies are delivered to the 36 states, including the FCT yearly and the governors assign a contact person to receive the items which are delivered in trucks on behalf of the governor before distribution to the identified beneficiaries by the state government, an official of the Foundation who did not want to be named said.Sources close to the Foundation in Lagos insisted that the FCT Minister did reject the donation to the surprise of the representatives of the Foundation even when it was explained to him that it was for the less privileged.Informed sources at the ministers office indicated that the letter for the donation came while the minister was having a meeting with his directors and they all corroborated the fact that the donation was an annual gift from Dangote Foundation for the less privileged but he would not listen to any explanation as he insisted the food items be returned.Some residents of the FCT expressed dismay at the action of the minister as they condemned his disposition to the plights of the IDPs who the items were meant for and were actually on the lookout for it having been informed earlier that the foundation would soon put smiles on their faces.Callers at the FCT Secretariat at Area 11, it was gathered, were said to be very displeased on hearing of the ministers rejection of the items, which they believed would have made the IDPs in the Abuja camp feel the good side of Ramadan.According to them, the reason behind the ministers rejection of the food items cannot be justified because those in the IDPs camp are hungry and some of them are dying because government could not cater for all their needs.A Dangote Foundation source confirmed that as at the time of filing this report, about 31 states had already taken deliveries of their items and some had started the distribution. It was learnt that 106 trucks of food items are on their way to Maiduguri, the Borno State capital in fulfilment of Dangotes promise to make this Ramadan fulfilling for the IDPs in the states.The latest donation of food items was coming shortly after the Foundation donated N2 billion for the rehabilitation of the IDPs in various camps in Borno State.The source said the Dangote Foundation had in the past supported victims of disasters with monetary and food items.Food items were donated to the victims of post 2011 elections violence in some parts of the north, while victims of flood disaster across the country were also helped with various food items and other relief materials.According to him, the Foundation also took its charity abroad when in 2015, donated $1 million to support the government of Nepal to rehabilitate the victims of two devastating earth quakes that ravaged the country that year in quick succession.The Foundation also donated $500,000 to the government of the Republic of Niger to support victims of meningitis outbreak in the country.
The Federal Government on Wednesday said its recent appeal to banks not to sack workers was based on the conviction that by the time the ...

The Federal Government on Wednesday said its recent appeal to banks not to sack workers was based on the conviction that by the time the economy picks up, the banks would need the workers again.The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udo Udoma, said this while answering questions after briefing State House correspondents of the outcome of the Federal Executive Council meeting presided over by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo.Udoma was joined at the briefing by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.He said the government was convinced that the economy would still pick up and the banks would need the workers again.He said, With regards to the plea to the private sector (not to sack workers), it is because we know that by the time the economy picks up, they will need those people again.We know the economy is going to pick up and we are confident about that. That is because of our plan, the plan was conceived because we knew that this was the trajectory we will move into.I will give you an indication of some of those things in the plan. For agriculture for instance, we plan to be self sufficient in rice within a certain number of years, in wheat within a certain number of years.Indeed the Vice-President has just set up a task force headed by the governor of Kebbi State to realise that. So we are implementing the plan one by one.We have a plan to move this country up 20 places in the ease of doing business, we are working on that.We want to stimulate the private sector because we know that even the spending by government alone will not be sufficient, we also need to have policies that will encourage the private sector.The minister faulted the speculated impending sack of workers in para-military organisations, saying that it is the position of the present administration that it would not retrench workers.
Ravi Naik, a former minister in India, has asked his countrys authorities to impose a ban on Nigerians.

Ravi Naik, a former minister in India, has asked his countrys authorities to impose a ban on Nigerians.According to The Times of India, Naik made this statement while speaking to reporters.The Central government should ban Nigerians, he reportedly said at a press conference.Referring to Nigerians as negroes, the politician accused them of causing trouble everywhere.Even the Aam Aami Party leaders had a fight with Nigerians in Bengaluru, he said.They create problems everywhere We do not want Nigerian tourists.He accused some Nigerians in Goa, a state in the Asian country, of masquerading as students, demanding a probe into their activities.Kiran Kandolkar, Goa spokesman, has demanded an apology from Naik over the controversial statement.Ravi Naik should tender an apology. The statements made by Naik are insulting and uncalled for, he told reporters on Tuesday.India is one of the countries which President Muhammadu Buhari has visited since he came to power.During the trip, the Nigerian leader met with the countrys prime minister and other top government officials.Both countries also pledged to strengthen their bilateral relationship.Buhari also met with the Nigerian community there and assured them of his governments commitment to their well-being.Though Nigerians are used to being criticised all over the world, disparaging remarks like that of Naik is not a common occurrence.
A federal high court in Abuja has granted Azibaola Roberts, cousin of former President Goodluck Jonathan, and his wife, Stella, bail in ...

A federal high court in Abuja has granted Azibaola Roberts, cousin of former President Goodluck Jonathan, and his wife, Stella, bail in the sum of N500m.The court also ordered them to provide two sureties who must own landed property in Abuja.On Tuesday, Nnamdi Dimgba, the judge, had remanded Azibaola in Kuje prison pending the determination of his bail application.But on Wednesday, he ruled that Azibaola was entitled to bail because he had not been proved guilty.The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had arraigned Azibaola and his wife on alleged diversion of $40m through One Plus Holdings; a company the accused allegedly owns.The accused persons had pleaded not guilty to charges when they were read to them.Following their plea, Aliyu Ali, the prosecution counsel, had asked the court to commence trial, and that the accused be remanded in prison custody.Chris Uche, the defence counsel, however, told the court that there was a pending application for bail, and he urged the court to grant his request.He claimed that the accused person had been in the custody of the EFCC despite an order of a high court granting him bail- which he said was flagrantly disobeyed by the commission.But the court while granting the couple bail, ruled that they would be in prison until the bail conditions were met.
Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has stated that Red Devils new signing Eric Bailly has the potential to become one of the best in the world.The 22-year-old has joined from Villarreal in a deal worth around 30 million and has signed a four-year contract with the option of a further two seasons.Bailly, who has made only 35 La Liga appearances, is Mourinhos first signing as United manager and the Portuguese believes the Ivory Coast international can develop into a star."Eric is a young central defender with great natural talent, Mourinho told the clubs official website.He has progressed well to date and has the potential to become one of the best around."We look forward to working with him to help nurture that raw talent and fulfil his potential. Eric is at the right club to continue his development."
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Monday and Tuesday arrested former ministers and key leaders of the Peoples Democratic Pa...

The arrests, it was learnt, were part of investigations into the $115m (N23bn) allegedly disbursed by a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, during the build-up to the 2015 presidential election.This is just as Senator Saidu Kumo, who is the Special Adviser, Political Matters, to the embattled PDP Chairman, Ali Modu Sheriff; and a former PDP Chairman in Gombe State, Paloma Nuhu, returned N2m each from their share of the money.Some of those arrested include: a former Minister of Power, Mohammed Wakil (Borno); a former Minister of Science and Technology, Alhaji Abdu Bulama (Yobe); and the PDP chairman, Mr. Joel Madaki (Adamawa). The accountant of the Gombe State Government House, Mr. Mohammed Balbaya, was also arrested for the Diezani bribe.Explaining the reason for the arrests, a reliable source at the EFCC told our correspondent that the suspects handled N450m each for their respective states.The source said the PDP chairman in Adamawa State was arrested for receiving N450m. The chairman, Madaki, was said to have told investigators that the money was handed over to the then acting Governor Bala Ngilari.The detective said, The PDP chairman in Adamawa has shifted the burden of explaining how the sum of N450m campaign funds sent to the state were distributed by the former acting governor of the state, Ngilari.In a statement he wrote and signed at the EFCC office in Gombe, the PDP chair said he, in conjunction with a former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Hassan Adamu, a signatory to the document, authorised the release of the money by the officials of Fidelity bank in Yola.Madaki, however, said he immediately gave the money to the former acting governor of the state for disbursement to the beneficiaries as envisaged by the donor, adding I did not know how Ngilari distributed the money.The source revealed that Adamu had been invited to explain his own side of the story on June 16. It was also learnt that Ngilari might soon be invited by the anti-graft agency.Regarding the sharing of the fund in Gombe State, the EFCC source said the accountant of the Gombe State Government House, Mr. Mohammed Balbaya, was arrested and interrogated.The detective said, Balbaya was interrogated for his role in the N338m campaign funds sent to Gombe. He told investigators that he collected the sum in cash from an official of Fidelity Bank in the state based on the directive of Senator Kumo.He said that he contacted the Permanent Secretary and Principal Private Secretary to the governor of the state, Dr.Sani Jauro, who directed him to share the money to the beneficiaries. He denied deriving personal benefit from the process. However, he had not shown who the beneficiaries were and the amount individual or group collected from him.Senator Kumo and the state former PDP chairman, Paloma Nuhu, have through bank drafts refunded N2m each which they claimed to be their personal benefits from the funds. The said amount came from the sum of N106m both signed and collected from Fidelity Bank for their state. However, Senator Kumo could not account for the balance of N106m.In Borno and Yobe states, the funds were allegedly coordinated by ex-ministers Wakil and Bulama respectively.A source at the anti-graft agency quoted Bulama as saying that he collected N450m from the Director of Finance, Goodluck Jonathan Campaign Organisation, Senator Nenadi Usman, for use in funding the PDP presidential election in the state.Former Minister of Finance Nenadi Usman called and informed me to go and collect money in Fidelity Bank. A five-man committee was set up to coordinate the campaign activities in Yobe State, and we received N450m.The money was disbursed based on a template we received from Abuja and we shared it among the three senatorial zones in the state.The Borno State Coordinator, Wakil also confirmed he received N450m, according to the EFCC source.I received a call from Nenadi Usman, former Minister of Finance, that N450m was sent to Fidelity Bank and a template for how the disbursement of the funds will be conducted.
The General Superintendent of the Deeper Life Bible Church, Pastor William Kumuyi, has called on Nigerians not to panic because of the cur...

The General Superintendent of the Deeper Life Bible Church, Pastor William Kumuyi, has called on Nigerians not to panic because of the current socio-economic and security challenges, assuring that the nation would soon overcome the woes and become better.The popular cleric spoke yesterday in Warri, Delta State, ahead of his one-day bible study programme, calling on the Federal Government to dialogue with Niger Delta stakeholders to end renewed militancy in the region.While pointing out that the need for the nations restructuring should not lead to its division, he said all hands must be on deck to work for Nigerias progress and fight against its division.According to him, We should not worry ourselves too much on the issue. We should rather think of how we can move the country forward because too much talk about restructuring does not mean Nigeria will break up.The solution is that we should begin to dialogue. Stakeholders should reason together and see the way forward, instead of accusing one another. What we are interested in is how to solve the problem. What are the expectations of both sides so that we can move forward?Kumuyi said comments by Nigerians on the economic situation were normal, adding that they were indications that the country deserved better than the realities on the ground.The reason people are commenting is because Nigeria deserves to be better. The economy has been low, but we are getting out of it. With prayers, I know we will get better, he stated.
The Nigerian Navy said it has arrested a militant kingpin, who is described as the coordinator of the recent attacks on the facilities of...

The Nigerian Navy said it has arrested a militant kingpin, who is described as the coordinator of the recent attacks on the facilities of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and oil giant, Chevron, in Delta State.Briefing journalists while parading the suspects at the Naval Base, Warri, on Tuesday, Commander, Nigerian Navy Ship Delta, Comm. Riami Muhammed, said his men also arrested another militant leader who allegedly spearheaded last weeks attack on the SPDCs 48-inch crude pipeline in Forcados.The militants leader, whose name was not disclosed for security reasons, was said to illegally operate about 35 abandoned oil well heads and crude oil pipelines in Okpoko and Obodo creeks in the Warri South-West Local Government Area of Delta State.Mohammed said the suspects were arrested in collaboration with other security agencies, arguing that the arrest would reduce attacks by the Niger Delta militants.It was not clear if the arrested suspects could be members of the new militant group, the Niger Delta Avengers.The commander added, After several weeks of persistent efforts, the Nigerian Navy, in collaboration with other security agencies, has arrested the main coordinator of the attacks on the NNPC and the Chevron oil and gas facilities that we have witnessed since May 4, 2016, with the attack on the Chevron Okan Valve platform, offshore Escravos.You are aware of the recent series of attacks on oil and gas facilities in the Niger Delta and in Delta State, for which some groups or persons have claimed responsibilities. The Nigerian Navy and other security agencies have been doing their best to curtail these attacks.He noted that his men were not just after members of the Niger Delta Avengers but everyone suspected to be responsible for the recent attacks on oil facilities in the region.
Lulu Mnguni, South African high commissioner to Nigeria, has announced his governments decision to commence the issuance of 5-year visas...

Lulu Mnguni, South African high commissioner to Nigeria, has announced his governments decision to commence the issuance of 5-year visas to Nigerian professionals, business people and other frequent fliers.Speaking with NAN in Lagos on Wednesday, Munguni said his government was now prepared to eliminate the difficulties usually faced by Nigerians when seeking South African visas.The diplomat also said his government was moving away from having political diplomacy to more of economic diplomacy with Nigeria.There has been growing concerns from both Nigeria and South Africa on the issue of visas. There have been complaints by Nigerians on how they are treated when seeking visas, he said.Our president has indicated that Nigeria and South Africa need to intervene by making it easier for our nationals to have visas to our two countries.We came to an agreement that business people and frequent fliers between South Africa and Nigeria will qualify for long-term visas of two, three, and five years. We have totally moved from political diplomacy to economic diplomacy. And to promote this new economic diplomacy, there needs to be a smooth movement of people between our two countries.Mnguni said he had made a proposal to his government for the recruitment of more staff, so as to be able to promptly attend to the demand of Nigerians for visas to South Africa.According to him, Nigeria and South Africas inability to promote people-to-people relationships is responsible for the uninformed tension between them.He said it was imperative for both countries to unplug some of the irritants that have undermined their cohesion.We need a friendship that resides with our people. Nigeria and South Africa need to criticise each other in a constructive way, he said.We need to look at how we can unplug some of the irritants that have undermined our cohesion.South Africa is one of the leading destinations for Nigerians who travel abroad. As at 2013, there were over 250,000 Nigerians residing in the country.
Niger Delta Avengers, NDA, Tuesday night, said the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger-Delta, MEND, is obsolete urged the public t...

Niger Delta Avengers, NDA, Tuesday night, said the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger-Delta, MEND, is obsolete urged the public to discountenance statements from the group. Spokesperson of the group, Brig Gen Mudoch Agbinibo in a statement, said: We appeal to the general public and all sane minds on the activities of Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) to disregard all purported statements and misplaced threat emanating from disbanded criminal elements like the so-called MEND.It said the criminal elements in the outmoded group were political sidekicks and desperations from Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo state, Mr. Timipre Silva and their political paymasters to hold their political party to the jugular of the affairs of the Niger Delta Region. Avengers claimed: Our struggle is focused on the liberation of the People of Niger Delta from decades of divisive rule and exclusion.We are watching keenly their regretful efforts at rebranding and regrouping criminal elements in the region for their short political gains and territories.The NDA is unperturbed, we have mandate that is clearly a departure of those old tactics of the defunct so-called MEND that was indulged in kidnapping, hostage taking, sea piracy, illegal oil bunkering, bank robberies and social crimes the likes of Boyloafs, Ateke Toms, were associated to in their days in the name of struggle. The wind of change in the Niger Delta struggle has come; we are young, smart, and focused Niger Deltans.Our mandate is to liberate the Niger Delta people; we do not run after pipeline contracts, it said.
Rotimi Amaechi, minister of transportation, has revealed that the vision of the ministry under his watch is to evolve a world class trans...

Rotimi Amaechi, minister of transportation, has revealed that the vision of the ministry under his watch is to evolve a world class transport system.Speaking at an event in Lagos on Tuesday, Amaechi said to achieve this, the federal government will need to invest hugely in the sector.Our vision at the federal ministry of transportation is to evolve a world class transport system in Nigeria and to position it as a hub in West and Central Africa, he said.In achieving our mission which is to establish a safe, efficient, affordable and seamless intermodal transport system with global best practices while creating an enabling environment for public private partnership.Transport infrastructure development remains a major tool for achieving the aspirations of government at all levels.The federal government will invest hugely on transportation. We will continue to make policies that will improve our mass transportation system.Amaechi blamed the problem of mass transportation on poor governance, promising that the current administration will make a difference.He fixed a two-year time frame for the conclusion of some key railway projects, explaining the strategy that would be used to achieve the goals.The problem of mass transportation is poor governance; the challenges of the Nigerian transport sector are not too different from what other major infrastructures have witnessed, especially abandonment by successive governments, he said.By the grace of God we will complete the Lagos/Ibadan rail project in two and half years. In two and half years, we will also try to complete the Port Harcourt to Calabar rail. We are encouraging dry ports that will encourage the transportation of goods and services.In order to address the issues which the topic evokes, our focus will be three fold; first, we attempt some overview of the value of transportation in a developing country like Nigeria especially what a viable transport system adds to the economic advancement of nations.Secondly, we reflect on the transportation system the country has had, its impact on people and the challenges to the nations workforce especially the routinely migrating population and thirdly, we focus on the current paradigm shift in federal government operation of the transportation sector especially the ongoing reform in formulation of policy and implementation of projects that would ameliorate the challenges of the migrating workforce.
Nigerias Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, says past leaders of countries bordering the Lake Chad Basin foresaw the crisis in the r...

Nigerias Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, says past leaders of countries bordering the Lake Chad Basin foresaw the crisis in the region when they established a development commission in 1964. Osinbajo said this in Abuja on Wednesday while opening the Ministerial meeting on protection in the Lake Chad Basin during the three-day regional dialogue on the Lake Chad Basin.He, however, stated that the legacy is being threatened by humanitarian and ecological challenges. The people of the Lake Chad region face problems of existential proportions, loss of lives, livelihoods, malnutrition, out of school children.The protection issues are complex, varied and numerous. But it is for such a time as this that the visionary leaders of Niger, Cameroon, Chad and Nigeria established the Lake Chad Basin Commission in 1964.Those pioneers expected that working together as brothers in the commission, the ecological, commercial and social lives of the Lake Chad basin stood a much better chance of survival.They expected, even then, that there would be challenges, but they knew that the most daunting challenges are conquered by men and not spirits.And they trusted in the creativity and hard work and the unbending will of their descendants to preserve the legacy that they left behind. That legacy is facing the most important threat today. The question is whether the twin challenges  the humanitarian and the ecological  will defeat the will, creativity and patriotism of this generation of leaders of the Lake Chad commission.If this were to happen, then in a few short years, the commission would probably, only exist on paper.God forbid. Osinbajo said the Lake Chad Basin had always been a place of great hope and expectation for the peoples survival, but in spite of the shrinking of the lake, Boko Haram terrorists had created humanitarian crisis needing urgent international attention.In the last seven years or so, the ecological disaster has itself been overshadowed by a major humanitarian crisis in the region. Hundreds of thousands of refugees and internally displaced persons, fleeing the scourge of mindless mass murders, maiming and destruction of Boko Haram, giving rise to a humanitarian and protection problem of enormous proportions in Nigeria and the Cameroons, Chad and Republic of Niger.It is estimated that in Nigeria alone about 1.8 million people are displaced and hundreds of thousands of IDPs and host communities are living in areas, which are inaccessible to humanitarian actors due to insecurity, he said Osinbajo stated that the situation was not better in Cameroon, Chad or the Republic of Niger, which also have sizable IDP populations. He said their problem was further compounded by the large influx of Nigerian refugees into the neighbouring countries with the attendant protection and human rights issues arising therefrom.He, however, expressed gratitude to Cameroon, Chad and Niger for receiving and hosting Nigerian refugees in their respective countries, saying that such open-handedness clearly demonstrated the oneness of countries in the region. Osinbajo declared that the Federal Government will make necessary arrangements for the return of those, who fled to neighbouring countries as soon as modalities for that exercise is jointly agreed by all.The acting President said the international response to the crisis in the region was weak. According to him, it is for that reason that the regional dialogue is apt and timely.But if as it is, the expectation and hope of the millions, who have entrusted power into our hands will rise to the occasion, rally ourselves, friendly nations and compatriots in the development community, this looming darkness will only be the precursor to a glorious new dawn.We simply cannot afford to fail; the outcome of this conference will be an important building block. In the creative solutions to all the protection issues and the humanitarian issues that have already arisen we hope that this conference will not only answer these problems but plan for the future.
The Kaduna State government has strongly condemned the criminal attack on a citizen, Francis Emmanuel, who was assaulted in Kakuri-Kaduna...

The Kaduna State government has strongly condemned the criminal attack on a citizen, Francis Emmanuel, who was assaulted in Kakuri-Kaduna Tuesday, directing the police to arrest the perpetrators of the attack.A statement from the Special Assistance to the governor on media and publicity, Samuel Aruwan noted that the government warned that there was no room for religious violence and criminality in the state.The statement said, The state governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, Wednesday led a team of senior government officials, including the Deputy Governor, Architect Barnabas Yusuf Bala, to visit Francis who is recuperating at the St. Geralds Hospital.The governor comforted the victim and promised that the government will not allow any criminal to hide under any religious guise or to use religion as justification for violating the right of any citizen.The government will not allow anyone to get away with any crime using his or her faith as an excuse. There is no compulsion in religion. It is a free country, and that means no imposition of faith or religious practices on anyone.We sympathize with our fellow citizen, Francis Emmanuel. We have assured him that we will not allow anybody to violate his right, or that of any other citizen. The Kaduna State Government is resolute in its stand that all criminals, including those who try to hide under Christianity or Islam, will be tackled and prosecuted.We have been given faith to live our lives in obedience to the Almighty, and to let that obedience manifest in our kindness to others, the honesty of our conduct and the consistency of our hard work. Care and compassion for others is one of the noblest ways of demonstrating love for God.We implore everyone to do their duty to uphold peace and security in Kaduna State. We should not allow differences in faith to be a barrier to harmony or a cause for conflict. Nobody can impose the tenet of his faith on another person. The decision to observe any religious activity is the prerogative of the individual.Let us all remain vigilant and report any suspicious activity to the security agencies.
Apart from the Nigerian President who is currently recuperating following an ear infection, three other cabinet ministers are also ill and...

Aisha Al-Hassan

Lawal disclosed this while saying the opening prayer at the beginning of a meeting of the Federal Executive Council presided over by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo at the Council Chamber of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.Buhari is currently in London on a 10-day vacation during which he is scheduled to see Ear, Nose and Throat doctors in relation to what the Presidency described as his persistent ear infection.On his arrival at the venue of the meeting, Osinbajo had asked the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, to offer Islamic prayer while he asked Lawal to say the Christian prayer.Mohammed simply asked God to grant the cabinet members wisdom as they make national decisions at the meeting.When it was the SGFs turn to offer prayer, he asked God to be with the President who he said was on medical vacation.He then proceeded to name ministers who he said were indisposed and asked God to heal them.Lawal started with the Minister of Women Affairs, Mrs. Aisha Alhassan, who he said is recuperating in US after a surgery.He also prayed for the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, who he said is down with back pain.Shortly after he concluded his prayer, the SGF was reminded that he did not mention the Minister of State for Environment, Ibrahim Jibril.Lawal quickly added Jibrils name to his list of sick cabinet members.He however did not disclose the nature of Jibrils sickness.Buhari had left Abuja for London on Monday after the Presidency confirmed that he had been battling with persistent ear infection.The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, had issued a statement saying, President Buhari will take 10 days off and travel to London from Monday June 6th, to rest.During the holiday, the President will see an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist for a persistent ear infection.The President was examined by his Personal Physician and an E.N.T Specialist in Abuja and was treated.Both Nigerian doctors recommended further evaluation purely as a precaution.Buhari had since written to the National Assembly intimating the lawmakers of his medical vacation.He then informed them that Osinbajo would be performing the duties of the President according to the constitution while he is away.
Security was on Tuesday beefed up at the Presidential Villa, Abuja apparently as a result of threats made by the Niger Delta militants o...

Security was on Tuesday beefed up at the Presidential Villa, Abuja apparently as a result of threats made by the Niger Delta militants on Monday to bomb some selected national formations including the seat of power, the National Assembly and the Central Bank of Nigeria.The militants had in a statement urged occupants of the government premises to leave as it resumes a full-blown war against the Nigerian government.But it was observed that a number of riot policemen were deployed in the two main gates into the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Tuesday.The policemen complemented the efforts of soldiers and officials of the Department of State Services who always mount security surveillance the gates.The affected gates were the ones leading to the Presidential Villa from the Fire Service Office and the Supreme Court complex.The riot policemen were stationed a few metres away from the spot occupied by the DSS operatives and the soldiers.After the policemen had carried out their checks on vehicles entering the Presidential Villa, the DSS officials as well as the soldiers would also carry out their duties too.The militants under the aegis of the Joint Niger Delta Liberation Force had threatened to destroy any vital government institution built with oil and gas resources from the Niger Delta region.In a statement issued on behalf of the militant group in Warri by General Akotebe Darikoro (Commander, General Duties), General Torunanaowei Latei (Creeks Network Coordinator), General Agbakakuro Owei-Tauro (Expert, Pipelines Bleeding) and General Pulokiri Ebiladei (Intelligence Bureau) of the JNDLFs Joint Revolutionary Council, the militants also threatened to attack national assets in cities, such as Lagos, Abuja and Kaduna in the days ahead.Although the specific date which the group would commence its operation was not stated in the release, they however warned residents and employees of such buildings to vacate so as not to fall victims of the attacks.The statement added that the group would fire missiles simultaneously in the night to enable every Nigerians to see their movements.The militants said this was to show their seriousness about actualising the nations breakable prospect, as predicted by the United States of America.Other points also marked for attack by the militant group include the Defence Headquarters, the Department of State Services Headquarters, Police Headquarters, the NNPC Towers, Supreme Court/Appeal Court and Agip Headquarters, Abuja.Some others are Shell Headquarters, Lagos; Chevron Headquarters, Lagos; Exxon Mobil, Lagos; NLNG, Lagos; and Abuja offices; Kaduna refinery; and all military formations in the country.
The senate has summoned Chris Ngige, minister of labour and employment, over his threat to withdraw the license of any bank that retrenche...

The senate has summoned Chris Ngige, minister of labour and employment, over his threat to withdraw the license of any bank that retrenches its staff.Rafiu Ibrahim, chairman senate committee on banking, insurance and other financial institutions, hinted the decision of the senate in a point of order he raised on the matter on the floor of the senate on Wednesday.The minister of labour made a statement threatening banks to stop retrenchment of staff. Banking being a very sensitive industry, any misguided statement can have a throwback on the industry; it can create a run on the banks, he said.As the chairman of the senate committee on banking and finance, we want to invite the minister, the central bank and the banks to know if they are talking about retrenchment and what will happen.We want to know the basis of the directive and the basis of the threat.Senate President Bukola Saraki only reacted cursorily to Ibrahims statement since he came under 43- which has to do with personal explanation.They will come and meet before your committee isnt it? So, it is just for our information, he said.
There is palpable tension in Alor and Oraukwu communities in Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra State as about 15 Fulani herd...

There is palpable tension in Alor and Oraukwu communities in Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra State as about 15 Fulani herdsmen armed with AK47 rifles, machetes and daggers stormed Agbo village yesterday.The residents of Agbo, Okebunoye and Umunambu villages in Alor community; and its neighbouring Ohokwu village, have deserted their homes for fear of being attacked at night by the armed herdsmen who reportedly stormed Alor by 4:30pm.This is coming barely 12 days after about 50 poisonous bows and arrows were intercepted from two suspected Fulani herdsmen at Ubana farmland in Dim-Ubana village.When Daily Sun visited the area, several residential buildings were locked while the police, and other security agencies were patrolling to ensure tight security. Some residents said they have sought refuge in neighbouring communities.The traditional ruler of Alor, Igwe MacAnthony Elibe Okonkwo, told Daily Sun that the Fulani herdsmen stormed their community in a Toyota bus and went into the bush.His words: Yesterday, around 4:30pm, information came from the residents of Agbo village in Alor, the boundary between Ohokwu village, Oraukwu and Alor that heavily armed Fulani herdsmen, numbering about 10 or so stormed our community. According to the residents who were working in their farms, the armed Fulani arrived in a Toyota bus and started going into the bush while the bus drove away. They were armed with AK47 rifles, machetes and daggers.As a result, the people of Agbo, Okebunoye and Umunambu villages deserted their homes for fear of being attacked at night by the herdsmen. So, I immediately alerted the DPO and the state Police Commissioner who sent in a team of policemen. I also informed other security agencies who arrived in droves. The state police command spokesman, Ali Okechukwu, said he was yet to be briefed on the development, promising to get update our reporter. However, a DSS official who preferred anonymity confirmed the development.
CHAPPELL  A Deuel County sheriff's deputy who was shot four times while serving arrest warrants is fighting to regain his county-provided health insurance.

Hutchinson was injured Dec. 3 while trying to arrest a suspect in Big Springs. Authorities said the suspect came out of his home and shot Hutchinson.

County commissioners took no action Tuesday on a request from Deputy Mike Hutchinson for the county to pay for his health insurance while he continues to recover from his injuries. According to the Nebraska Association of County Officials, which provides the county's group health plan, Hutchinson's "reduction in hours of employment" triggered the termination of his coverage on May 31.

"I'm really disappointed in guys I believed in," Hutchinson said. "I made a commitment to them and to the people of Deuel County and they didn't stand by their commitment to me. They treated me like a hero, yet now I'm being penalized because I did my job. I was injured in the line of duty."

Hutchinson's attorney, Randy Fair, encouraged officials to provide health insurance for Hutchinson and his wife until the deputy can return to work by either paying for temporary group coverage or coverage through the federal marketplace.

According to Fair and Hutchinson, Deuel County Attorney Joel Jay said he did not know whether the commissioners would be able to do anything about the matter.

"I know there can be concerns about legal obligations or contractual obligations to provide it, but sometimes you have to do what's right," Fair said. "He's still an employee. He'd work if he could. When you've been shot four times, it's a long road to recovery."

Commissioners are set to consider the issue June 21.
The federal government plans to pour $125 million into the fight against a mysterious disease that has ravaged corals in Florida and much of the Caribbean, and now poses a dire threat to the treasured reefs off the Louisiana and Texas coasts.
WASHINGTON (AP)  The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol has issued a subpoena to Donald Trump. The nine-member panel sent a letter to the former president's lawyers on Friday, demanding his testimony under oath by mid-November and outlining a series of corresponding documents. The decision by lawmakers to exercise their subpoena power comes a week after the committee made its final case against the former president, who they say is the "central cause" of the multi-part effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election. It remains unclear how Trump and his legal team will respond to the subpoena, if at all.